Rip in the Fabric of Spacetime (Eli and Sam)
The sound of rubberized spacesuit soles on the metal floors of the Ship was the only thing accompanying Eli on his insomniac nighttime wandering (well, it was ‘nighttime’ despite being in space because most of the Saints were asleep, though he guessed their hackers probably had a similarly messed up schedule to his, but for a different reason). The lights were a dimmer blue in the rarely traversed corridors than in the main rooms, melding his forlorn circuits through them into a vague haze.
It wasn’t until his last few steps had been on tile, not steel, and his hand had brushed against a sudden shelf, that Eli snapped out of his stupor. He stopped, blinking. He was in the dark corner of a small store. The scowling masked face on issue #57 of ‘The Dark Paladin’ stared at him. He took a few steps forward and peeked around the shelf: more comic books and boxes of action figures and other geeky memorabilia.
There was the sound of sweeping and another figure appeared, a man in his late 30s by the looks of it. He started when he noticed Eli standing there and raised his voice.
“Whoa, hey, man, the hell are you creeping around there for? We closed ten minutes ago, get out!”
Eli started stuttering something back, but the employee’s tone was insistent and social anxiety momentarily overrode his confusion, so Eli scurried out the front door mumbling apologies. The door was locked behind him.
He was standing on the dusky curb of an inner city street.
‘Am I asleep or did I somehow completely blank out on getting inside the Simulation?’
Eli pinched his nostrils shut between index finger and thumb, but when he definitely wasn’t still breathing after a few seconds, he concluded this wasn’t a lucid dream. Crap, so Simulation then. He really shouldn’t be in here if he’s in such a bad state that he’s starting to get memory blanks.
He tried to summon the map to find the nearest Gateway, but no HUD appeared. Strange. Guess he had to do it the old-fashioned way and climb a tall vantage point to get his bearings, just like in those popular yet increasingly formulaic Ubihard games.
The Boss jumped to climb up the wall... and smacked his cheek into the weathered bricks barely a foot higher than usual.
“Seriously, who turned off the super powers again...?” he grumbled, rubbing his face, then called out, “Matt...? Kinzie?”
No response. What the hell?
Realizing the closest Gateway might actually be in the comics store he’d just come out of, he started banging at the front door. “Hey, hey let me in! Listen, I need to get in!”