THE ONE CALLED J

Chapter 40

Dave didn't know how much more of the old woman he could bear, he tried his best not to say anything as the old woman kept rambling about her family, how they left her and she was stuck with a granddaughter who played games all day, and couldn't even cook. Dave had kept nodding his head to everything she said and prayed in his heart that this woman would eventually shut the f**k up.

"Babushka!" Dave heard a feminine voice behind him, he looked in the direction of the voice. A pretty teenage girl was walking towards him but what intrigued him more about her was the color of her hair; White. Max was the only person he had seen with natural white hair. "I am so sorry," the girl continues.

"But you didn't offend me," Dave answers.

"She's not talking to you!!" He heard the old woman shout.

He looked down as he scratched the back of his head.

"I am sorry," Dave says. "Didn't you see there."

"This is my granddaughter," the old man smiles brightly as she points at the white-haired girl. "Her name is Zenaida."

"That's a lovely name," Dave answers.

"You play games?" Zenaida asks but before Dave could reply, the old man tapped Zenaida on her back aggressively.  

"You don't say that to the nice young man, he will think all my grandchildren are like you," the old woman mutters to her granddaughter before turning back at Dave.

With a sweet smile, she speaks. "Thanks again for the help, I hope to see you later."

"Same," Dave answers her. The woman turns her daughter around as both of them walked briskly away, the woman kept talking, Dave was a good lip reader, he could see that the woman was scolding her daughter.

Moments later, Joshua and Max come out of the game store, Joshua looked agitated while Max on the other hand wore a look of indifference.

"Hope no one else has anything they wanna get," Joshua took in deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down. "Cause we are going to survey all of the public areas in Russia, and I won't tolerate any more stops."

"Sure, man," Dave answers as he walks over to the opposite side of the car.

"Yeah," Max mutters as he opens the car door. "You don't need to cry about it."

Joshua tried his best not to get annoyed by Max's last remark as he got into the vehicle, he turned the ignition and in moments, the vehicle drove off.

Max sighs as he puts on his console, he wanted to play GTA V but he remembered what Zenaida had told him so he clicked the fantasy raiders icon instead.

"The i***t boy has clicked the game," the old woman smirks evilly. She and her granddaughter were sitting on a bench. "You did well, girl."

"Were you able to place your markers on the two Primordials?" She asks.

"What do you take me for?" The old man laughs mildly. "I touched the blonde fool on his feet while he hopped over me and his counterpart, was an idiotic f**k, he came to me, he made it all too easy."

A pink entourage had materialized from the old woman, it was a skinny humanoid entourage with four small eyes and a big nose. It has lean arms with comically large feet.  The entourage vanished and reappeared inside the video game Max was playing.

Max was amazed as the interface of the game began to run, there was a backstory of demons, dragons, monsters, and evil fiends who had come to plague the lands but it was the destiny of a magical knight to stop them.

The game began.

Max loved his avatar in the game, the avatar could use several spells, had cool swordsmanship skills, and was proficient in every weapon.

His avatar was in an open field, he was fighting off several goblins from invading a small village.

"Max!" Joshua was annoyed. "Turn down the volume of that game, you giving me a headache."

"Sure, no need to cry about it," Max answered him as he reduced the volume.

Joshua suddenly felt lighter. Out of impulsion, he found himself floating outwards from his body. 

"What the hell?!" Joshua was shocked as he could see his body sitting on the driver's seat while he was floating in the atmosphere.  He looked to his right and saw Dave's body. "Am I dead?" Joshua said to himself.

"Not exactly," came Dave's voice behind him, Joshua quickly jumped away in fear but he quickly regained his composure as he looked back at the Dave he saw on the chair while looking at some sort of holographic representation of Dave. "I have died before so I know what it feels to be dead, checked the vitals of our body, they are still functional. "It's probably an entourage attack. From the nature, I suppose long-range."

"And who do you think could have gotten both of us?"

"Isn't the answer obvious?" Dave says. "It's the old woman, she must have found a way to touch you while you went past her and me, I went to her as a sacrificial lamb for the slaughter."

"Had enough of this crap!" Joshua says as he looks in Max's direction. Max was engrossed in his video game while Hendrickson who was right beside him was looking at the game.  "Max!! Henry!!!" Joshua kept shouting at the top of his voice. "Look over here."

"They can't hear you," Dave sighs. "Our consciousnesses have been separated from our bodies so we don't possess the perks our body gives us."

From the video game that Max was playing, the old woman's entourage emerges to face Joshua and Dave.

"Really?!" Joshua sighs disappointedly as he looked at what he was forced to deal with. "Is this really what's giving me a problem?"

"It will appear that way," Dave had a cautious look on his face. "I tried to summon my entourage, it's not coming out. It must be because we are separated from our souls which still lies in our body."

"Exactly," the entourage answers them with a wicked glint in each of his eyes. "This is the end of your journey, I shall destroy your very consciousness and take your bodies to Madame, it's all that is needed for the ritual."

"And how do you expect to do that," Joshua returns a cruel smile to the entourage before him. "In case you haven't noticed, I have got a temper and I make no effort to quell it."

"You wouldn't need to," the entourage chuckles cruelly as it stretches his two arms, it entangles around Joshua and Dave's necks.

The two struggle to free themselves but it was impossible. The last thing they saw was the wicked grin on the entourage's face before they were dragged off into the video game Max was playing.

Joshua and Dave found themselves falling from the skies. They passed through several clouds that Joshua unfortunately just kept bumping into.  Dave on the other hand was very lucky as he didn't collide with a single cloud. Eventually, they fall to the ground. They were on an open field, Joshua lands on his balls, he yelled in pain as his face twists into discomfort while Dave rolled on the ground to break the impact as he got to his feet.

"Where the f**k are we?"

"You are inside Fantasy Raiders, it's the name of my ability." Came a voice that appeared to reverberate around the entire area. Dave and Joshua look up, they could see the face of the entourage which had absorbed them in the game in the sky, it had a devious grin on its face as it continued speaking. "It traps the consciousness of anyone that I have placed my marker on in a virtual world."

"That's just great," Joshua says sarcastically.

"If you die here or the game is turned off from the real world, your consciousness will be shattered into nothingness."

"You should apply for the job of a Marketer," Joshua keeps talking sarcastically. "You have a knack for making people happy."

"Really," the entourage in the skies now had red on its cheeks. "Do you mean it?"

Joshua was about to make a snarky comment but Dave stretched his arm to Joshua's mouth preventing him from further jeopardizing them. "Of course he does, every word that comes out of the J's mouth is true."

"Aww," the entourage began to blush uncontrollably.

"So would you mind telling us how we can get out of here?" Dave ends with his most charming smile.

"What are you doing?" Joshua mutters to him as he looks dismissively in Dave's direction.

"I am trying to charm her," Dave tells him. "You can't relate."

"Are you trying to charm me," there was a giggle followed after. "Stop it, while you are really cute with those green emerald eyes and dazzling eyes..."

"That's how you charm a lady," Dave whispers to Joshua. "Not everything requires punching your way out."

"...I love money more and bounty prize is too much to pass up just to be with the dreamiest guy I have ever seen."

"Bastard!!!!" Joshua was aggravated as he deemed himself the dreamiest. 

"Now, to finish you guys off as soon as possible, I will be sending a few hobgoblins your way."

"Hobgoblins?" Joshua was shocked. "What the hell is that?"

"I see you never played games or watched fantasy animations," Dave sighs.

"With a foster-dad like mine," Joshua laughs. "I doubt anyone can attain that feat."

"You will wish you did," Dave tells him. "Hobgoblins aren't exactly friendly."

"I deal with unfriendly all the time," Joshua puts on his most demeaning smile.

"Then you are in luck, they look like how you would be if you were an animated character."

Large figures dropped from the sky. Each of them had crouched but they began to stand back to their full height. They were roughly ten-foot-tall, had sharp long pointed ears, there was hair around the sides of their ears, a mean look, and green skin. They were goblins!!!

"Dave," Joshua had a frustrated look on his face as he looks at Dave who smiles at him.

"You said these guys look like an animated version of me?"

"Yep."

"Fuck...!!!" Joshua was about to complete his words but one of the goblins jumped towards Joshua's position, it was about to squash him to the ground but Dave had jumped and pushed Joshua out of harm's way just in time.

"When I said they are not friendly," Dave says as he stretches an arm for Joshua to hold. "I mean not friendly."

"I see that," Joshua grins as he accepts the arm and gets to his feet. "How about we show these dumbasses the difference between the J and mindless species."

"You forgot to add me there."

"I said mindless species," Joshua has an evil grin as he ran towards the hobgoblin which has nearly squashed him earlier.

"J is a dickhead," Dave smiles to himself as he follows J's lead.

"Dumbass!" Joshua shouts in the direction of the hobgoblin. It looks at him with a disapproving glare. "Wasn't talking to you," Joshua says as he motions to a meaner-looking hobgoblin in the opposite direction. "I am talking to you, b***h!!"

The two hobgoblins gritted their teeth as they dashed after Joshua, Joshua stopped in a particular spot as he put on his most demeaning smile. "Are you two just gonna keep running like pussyos or are you c**k sucking dumbasses gonna do some squashing!!!!"

As the two hobgoblins heard that, they jumped towards Joshua.  Joshua grinned as he slid away in time averting the danger. The two hobgoblins collided with one another as their heads knocked against the other vehemently. The impact was so strong one of them spat out his tooth.

The tooth fell and landed at Joshua's feet.

"I have an idea," Joshua ends with a maniacal smile.