Kitty found her voice a few seconds later and hauled it out from its hiding place behind her pounding heart. It had to be a player: NPC's usually announced their presence by initiating a new quest by just being in the same region as you.

"Who are you?"

"Please..." The man's voice was as unsteady as his gaze. "Do you have a health potion?" Black eyes peered out from dark, sunken eye sockets amid a sweat-slick face.

"I, uh... ja. Ja. Hold on."

Kitty opened her inventory, keeping it to the side of her vision to make sure she didn't lose sight of the stranger. He didn't look strong enough to stand, let alone leap up and slice her open with a hidden weapon, but she hadn't gotten this close to the boss-level of Chimera without applying a tad of caution to every situation.

She located a vial of health potion, the smallest she had in her inventory, and dropped it on the cave floor where it glowed red. The man reached for it but his hand fell short by more than a meter.

Kitty sidled closer, picked up the potion, and dropped it again. This time it landed within the man's reach. And promptly vanished. A second later the man heaved himself up, sickly face gone and eyes sparkling with a grim light. He lifted a hand.

"Excre—" Kitty's words cut off as the cave went black.

Torch gone, she swept out with her sword, but it sliced through empty air; the man was gone. Kitty spun around, sword again slashing. It struck a few dust motes who's only crime had been dancing on a ray of light piercing through a crack in the roof.

"Irrumator," Kitty breathed, inching forward with sword held at the ready. The crunch of her steel-toed boots on the cave floor was too loud, but the sound of her barely contained breathing seemed louder.

She sneaked out of the cave, eyes wild as they searched the shoreline. But it was as empty now as when she'd stepped inside the cave. A shiver brushed her shoulders and she swung around, but the cave mouth remained devoid of strange, lurking men. Had it been an NPC? She doubted it. Helping or hindering an NPC meant her quest log would have updated.

Kitty hurried away from the cave, frowning. No longer upset by the obese kraken, the sea had calmed slightly. The waves were still topped with foam, but crashed with rhythmic certainty onto the sand. It might even have been a peaceful sound, had it not been for the occasional shriek from a passing harpy flying overhead.

She opened The Game's chat console. Although a new message alert would have indicated if Will had replied, Kitty was still disappointed to find no new messages.

BAD_KITTY_69: PLS TELL ME UR OK

Still no response.

Kitty closed the chat console and sank onto the sand with a sigh. She watched the breaking waves for a few minutes before rummaging around in her inventory and discovering an apple. She bit into it, tasting nothing, and watched her health bar creep higher. Then she ate a loaf of bread, a wedge of cheese and, in desperation, three mugs of mead. She hated using up health potions. Now, with her health few points away from full, she rose. Straightening her shoulders, Kitty headed down the shore. It wobbled slightly, compliments of the weak mead she'd quaffed.

"Don't be frightened," a voice behind her suggested.

Kitty's sword struck the man's raised arm. He seemed non-plussed by this, his only acknowledgment of the blow a slight twitch in his left eyebrow. Back on planet earth, intense panic tightened Kitty's throat. Her sword wavered threateningly in the space between them. She eventually managed to rip free a question from the confines of her chest.

"How did you—"

"Teleportation scroll." The man stepped out of reach of her sword, eying her warily. "I hadn't had time to put back my armour yet, and that sword of yours looks rather pointy when you're on the receiving end, mate."

Kitty kept the sword raised, dragging it from side to side in case the man decided to leap at her. But he merely stood, one hand massaging the arm she'd struck, staring at her.

"And you are?" Kitty snapped.

"Lucy," the man replied.

"Lucy?" Kitty frowned. The voice coming from the player's avatar was most definitely male. It didn't matter what race, alliance, creed, gang, or species you chose on entering The Game; you always retained your natural eye colour and your own voice. Perhaps it was The Game's way of keeping it real... who knew?

"Lucy," the man confirmed.

"Kitty," she said, after a few seconds of waiting for him to ask for her name. "You alone?"

"You didn't see all my friends standing around in that cave with me?"

Kitty's sword dipped. "What happened?"

"Got bit by the kraken, mate." Lucy pointed his chin toward the sea. With his thick Australian accent, he seemed sorely out of place on Chimera's rocky grey shore. "Managed to get into the cave. Thing was too big to get inside. By the time that monstrosity had retreated, I'd used up everything: health potions, food, regeneration scrolls. And my health was too low for me to carry armour or weapons. If you hadn't come along when you did..."

"Then you'd have died, come back to life, and could've carried on playing." Kitty sheathed her sword with a rattle and stabbed a finger at the player. "Now you owe me a health potion, mate."

She turned on her heel and strode down the beach. The sound of footsteps caught up to her a few minutes later. Why was he following her?

"I heard fighting," Lucy said. "And the kraken's gone. Did you defeat it?"

"Something like that," Kitty said with a shrug.

"That's impressive. What level are you?"

She glanced at him, hand still on her sword hilt. "So you can't get player info either, then?"

"Not since the second glitch. How many lives you got left?"

Kitty cocked her head at him. "Who's asking?"

Instead of answering, he asked: "What's your handle?"

"BAD_KITTY_69," Kitty said.

"Stats aren't displaying on your profile either," Lucy murmured. "You have a few lives left at least?"

Kitty opened her chat console without slowing down. A new friend request had been added to her rather empty console. She snorted, swinging around to face him, and walked backwards over the sand.

"LUCY_FUR_666?"

The man's face remained impassive. "Yeah?"

"Not bad," Kitty admitted, accepting his friend request and closing the console.

Her eyes roved over his dark clothing. He wore a broad-rimmed hat and a black pair of trousers, narrow, with dark boots. His jacket looked like leather, a dark brown, and he had two empty belts slung over his hips.

"You supposed to be an assassin or something?"

Lucy looked down at himself. He stopped walking. Kitty came to a halt too, eyes narrowing as the man shook his head and lifted an arm in front of him.

A tremor shook him.

His avatar rippled into a cloud of green and white pixels before snapping back into shape. When he'd settled, he no longer wore foreign clothing. Bright steel armour encircled him, ridges of shining blue metal joining his limbs to a presumptuously moulded torso with more muscles than were strictly required on any biped.

"My avatar must have glitched out. That stuff was all still from Helical."

Kitty gaped at him. "You're from Helical?"

He hefted an enormous shield that briefly reflected the white-specked waves behind her before it disappeared into his inventory.

Lucy faced her with a clang. "Last thing I remember, I was sitting in the Rusted Mug saloon..." his voice trailed away. His eyes were hidden in the shadow of his armour's sharp visor.

"So you've got just as far to go as us, then. To get to the Arena?"

Lucy glanced over his shoulder at her, eyes still hidden.

"That's a long way from here," Lucy said.

"Not really." Kitty opened her inventory and drew out a tightly-rolled scrap of parchment. It appeared in her hands, unrolled, and she glanced over it again. "It says the nearest exit is just past that." Kitty pointed to the distant bank of clouds.

Lucy didn't turn to look where.

"Can I see it?" His voice was slightly echoey from inside the suit of armour.

"You didn't get one?" Kitty flourished the scroll at him before making it disappear inside her inventory.

"I was in Helical," Lucy said. "Maybe yours is different."

Kitty shrugged and stepped closer. A gust of wind tugged at her, whipping the long strip of cloth that draped her own, appropriately inadequate, armour. Hers gleamed dully, a much lower level than what she assumed Lucy's bright steel plates amounted to.

She dropped the parchment on the ground and Lucy picked it up, holding it up as if he was about to make a decree. For an instant, the parchment flickered a pale blue.

"Hey—"

Lucy dropped it on the floor. "Nope, same as mine."

She grabbed the parchment up, opening it and giving it a quick scan.

"What did you do to it?"

"Nothing." Lucy held out a hand, closing and opening his fingers. They flickered too, just for a second. "Guess my avatar's still glitching out."

Kitty took an involuntary step back.

"She'll be all right," Lucy said, lifting a hand. "Just need to get out of this rift."

"Rift?" Kitty let out a soft snort. "More like this game. Me and Will—" Kitty stopped. "Excrementi!"

She spun around, but Lucy caught her arm. Kitty jerked it free with a scowl.

"You're not alone?" With his face hidden from view, all she had to go on was his voice: and she couldn't tell a thing from his deadpan tone.

"No, I'm not alone, you creep," Kitty said. "And I have to go."

She was on the edge of the shoreline, her feet slapping on the mushy sand as she scanned ahead for something, anything, that would provide a clue to her next move. Maybe if she could find a boat. Or she could build a raft. There were planks and things further inland. Maybe there was a helpful NPC around the next corner who would send her on a quest that would land her exactly where Will had been whipped away to. Where had he gone?

"You try texting him?"

Kitty lost her footing and tumbled to the sand. An armoured glove clanked over her arm and hoisted her up. She jerked her arm free again.

"You think I'm a complete moron?" Kitty snapped. "He's not replying."

"What happened?"

"I... we were..." Kitty stuck her hands on her hips, exhaling loudly as she twisted away from Lucy, her eyes taking in nothing despite their furious scan. "I made a mistake. The spell I used to get rid of the kraken kind of got rid of Will too. All I know, he's somewhere in that direction." She waved vaguely toward the bank of clouds.

"Happy coincidence then. That's exactly where—" Lucy began.

"Look, Lucy," Kitty cut in. "No offense or anything, but—"

"You don't need my help?"

Kitty's mouth worked for a few seconds before she produced words.

"No, I actually don't—"

Lucy took a step closer to her. "Do you know what's waiting for you behind those clouds?" The suit of armour shook its head. "Any idea at all?"

"What are you talking about?"

Lucy stepped closer. "You think the kraken was the boss?"

"What? Of course." Her hand flew up. "It had like a gazillion hit points and—"

"You're wrong. Dead wrong, most likely."

Kitty reeled back. "And how would you know?"

"I completed this rift hours ago before moving on to Helical," Lucy said, speaking slowly. "That means I've already beaten the boss."

"I thought the kraken had you trapped in a cave?" Kitty snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.

Lucy's armoured glove clanged over his visor. He drew it away a few seconds later.

"I've been here before," Lucy said, speaking in short, abrupt sentences. "I beat the boss. I moved onto Helical. Then The Game glitched—" he sighed irritably "—again, and I arrived back here weak as. I couldn't equip any of my weapons or armour, and that, mate, is how the kraken got me."

"Should've said that in the first place," Kitty said, but under her breath. "So who's the boss then?"

Lucy's helmet disappeared. His dark eyes gleamed at her from beneath a slash of black hair. He probably hadn't been able to choose how his avatar looked, not if he ended up in this rift due to a glitch, but his eyes would be the same here as his body back on earth.

"What's your quest log say?" Lucy asked.

"My—" Kitty broke off, opening her quest log. "Blah-blah-princess..." she murmured. "Blah-blah-imprisoned—"

"So where's the princess then?" Lucy's arm swept the empty beach. "I don't see her. And I would know. I've seen her before."

"Spoiler alert!" Kitty drew her mouth to the side.

"Tell you what." Lucy's helmet reappeared, along with a different sword. This one was a double-handed blade that dwarfed Kitty's.

"I'll help you get through that—" his sword gleamed nastily as he twisted his hand and gestured toward the distant bank of spurning clouds. They circled the sea like a collar, rendering everything a few meters past the surf-line invisible. "We find your partner, then we all three head on over to the Arena." He turned back to her. "Sound good?" he prompted.

"I can do it myself," she said quietly, fervently wishing her voice didn't sound so weak.

Lucy drove the point of his sword into the sand and stretched out his hand.

"Do we have a deal?"

Kitty furrowed her brow. "Whatever. But I want my health potion back."

Lucy whipped away his hand and lifted his sword. "I'll give you the next one I find. I used all of mine, remember?"

She nodded, running her gaze over the blasted shore.

Lucy's sword stabbed the distant clouds again. "That's where the princess lives. All we need to do is get there, off the princess, and I reckon we'll find your other half right there, safe and sound."

"Your plan is flawed," Kitty said. "I left my boat in my other metal bikini."

Lucy glanced at her over his shoulder, expression hidden by the helmet.

"No worries," he said. "I never leave home without one."

Kitty frowned at him. "What? A metal bikini?"

"A boat," Lucy corrected, but she could detect the slightest touch of mirth in his voice.

. . .

Music: 

Tomb Raider (2013): Alone - Jason Graves (Turning Point Trailer Music)