VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne

The next morning Lucy split off from Valerie, with the reason that she had some ’personal’ shopping to do and that she wouldn’t take too long.

So to pass the time, Valerie wandered into the nearest coffee shop.

Inhaling the scent, she was reminded of the day of the Beta Test. Her little coffee date with Percy. This wasn’t the same coffee shop, nor was it even the same franchise. But even still, she could look at the tables and imagine the two of them laughing together as they talked about their experiences in the ’game’.

She really hoped that she would get to see Percy again. It had been far too long since she had seen that idiot, and she had quite a few things to tell him. Important things. Things that were burning in her chest and growing hotter every day that she had to hold it in.

With the understanding that she might be losing her feelings, and might one day lose all of them, it was something that Valerie suddenly felt a pressing time limit on, even if she did not actually know the true countdown if it existed at all.

She smiled warmly at the barista as soon as she got to the front of the cue, and gave her order. Not a synth-roast slop, but a coffee with true organic beans, the perfect mix of milk and sugar, and a dashing of a chocolate dusting on top.

Her absolute favourite, especially after that day.

As she gave her order, the barista frowned deeply at Valerie, before her eyes widened in shock.

"Oh don’t worry," Valerie started to say as she looked at the Barista’s wide eyes with a smile, "I can afford..."

Her words trailed off as she noticed something. The reflection in the Barista’s wide, horrified and trembling eyes, as she started in terror over Valerie’s shoulder.

KRRASSH!

The glass window of the coffee shop exploded into a hail of jagged glass daggers, as an SUV similar to their Brick, smashed through it.

The Suv constantly rolled on its side, crushing everything in its path as it demolished the chairs and tables littering the coffee shop before smashing into the counter and flattening it against the far wall. All in a single second.

Ear piercing screams cut through the air, as people gawked at the aftermath of the unlikely crash. Some patrons groaned or cried in pain, their legs mangled from where the SUV had rolled over them, or their bodies turned into pincushions by the shards of glass that had flown at them like the arrows of an enemy army.

Those were the lucky ones. Some had been reduced to a simple red smear on the ground, and a few littered parts. Both mechanical, and organic.

Some of these screams were because of this bloody aftermath, while a few others were directed at what caused the crash, as many others fled in desperation at such a sight.

The SUV, crumpled and half buried in the wall that used to be home to the brewing machine, shifted and wriggled as something moved beneath it. It shifted, bucking once, twice and then finally moving on the third as it pushed backwards through the rubble a few feet like a door on its hinge.

Just enough for Valerie to stagger out from behind it, leaving behind a semi-circular indentation from where it had smashed into and wrapped around her last minute magnetic shield.

Blood trickled down her arm and dripped from the tip of her fingers, creating red rivers from the shards of glass that were embedded in her skin, but Valerie paid them no heed.

Instead she narrowed her eyes and glared out of the broken window, at the source of the terrified screams and the stampede of horrified civilians that stirred up.

Valerie whipped her head around to the barista, who was kneeling on the floor and shaking like a leaf as her eyes stared blankly ahead of her. Her life had flashed before her eyes, and she still couldn’t recover from such a horrifying event.

Not until Valerie grabbed her by the shoulders and forced the terrified girl to look into her eyes, which started to glow softly.

"Calm down, get these people the help they need and get yourself to safety. Once you are safe, then you can continue with whatever freak out you are having."

The fear immediately left the barista’s face, as she turned eerily calm, before she nodded and clambered to her feet and began to help the injured with the collected mannerisms of an experienced paramedic.

Meanwhile, Valerie reached into her pocket, and the shadow contained within, and pulled out a black strap choker with a singular gemstone in the middle of it.

She quickly made sure no one was looking at her before putting it on. Her appearance shimmered, her facial structure turning into a mishmash of some of her favourite game characters, whilst her hair became flaming red and trimmed differently.

It was impossible to escape the feeling in the pit of her stomach that things were not going to be simple. After all, SUV’s generally down fly through shops on their sides, nor do they have giant hand-prints in the metal body either.

Slamming her cane down, which had taken on the appearance of a classic wizard staff to avoid recognition, a gust of wind whipped around Valerie’s frail body before it scooped her off of her feet and shot her out of the coffee shop’s shattered window.

Further down the street, Valerie landed on a cushion of air that formed with the wave of her ’staff’ before another gust lifted her off of her feet again, sending her flying over the stampede of terrified civilians. She leap-frogged like this three more times, before she finally got a good look at what was causing all of the chaos.

A 15 foot tall, muscle-bound giant with pitch black eyes, roared defiantly as he was peppered with gunfire from police. The bullets pinged helplessly off of his deep purple skin, as they did nothing to harm him and only served to further piss him off.

The Giant’s meaty hand grabbed a pair of nearby cars, lifting them each like they were toys, before smashing them down like a rampaging toddler. Car smashed against the ground, shattering the road into dust, sometimes with a police officer in between them.

At least, sometimes they were the mechanical, fully robotic officers. But not all the time.