Summoner #3: The Final Showdown E-Book

Kristoffer J. Andersen

• Herausgeber: Tellerup
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: Summoner
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 231

Beschreibung

After their last battle with the summoners, Pelle, Julie, and Villads decided never to play anything ever again. Not even Parcheesi or tic-tac-toe. With the exception of computer games, of course. Because the summoners don't play computer games. Or do they? Will Pelle, Julie, and Villads be safe if they stick to computer games? Can they … of course they won't be safe! If they were safe, the story would have ended in book 2, right? And you wouldn't be reading book 3 now, would you? The summoners launch another attack. It's gonna be wild, it's gonna be epic. In fact, this may be the best book you've ever read! Relax, I said maybe, didn't I? And you do have to read something, don't you? Otherwise your teacher's just gonna force you to read something really lame about the biodiversity in the reproduction cycle of organic potatoes, and come on - do you really wanna do that?

Leseprobe

The Final Showdown

by

Kristoffer J. Andersen

Summoner

volume 3

Chapter 1

Pelle was sitting in his dad’s car looking out of the window.

Outside people in large winter coats were swarming around in front of a huge grey building. Big advertising signs and columns announced that this was Europe’s largest computer fair. Everything in games, programs, hardware, and equipment.

Pelle was wildly excited. Six months had passed since they’d had their head-to-head with the last summoner, and he hadn’t played a single board game, miniature wargame, or card game since then. Only computer games.

Neither had Julie and Villads, who were also going to the fair. Fortunately, the summoners didn’t play computer games.

In a sense, everything was as it should be.

And in a sense it wasn’t.

Julie had taken Pelle’s hand when they’d left the Epic Battle tournament last summer. And for a millisecond, Pelle had felt like the happiest boy in the world. Until he saw that she was holding Villads’ hand, too.

Girls were a total mystery to Pelle.

At times it seemed like he and Julie were just friends. But then Julie would start behaving like she was into him. The way she smiled at him. The way she grazed his hand. All the pecks on the cheek and the hugs.

On those occasions, Pelle was dead certain that she was into him. That one day, they’d become more than just friends. But then a second later, she did the same to Villads.

Was that normal? Did girls just do stuff like that without meaning anything by it?

“Are you bored?” his dad asked.

“Hmmm,” Pelle mumbled.

It was freezing cold outside, so they’d decided to stay in the car, while they waited for Villads and Julie.

“Why don’t we play a game of tic-tac-toe?” His dad’s eyes were alight with excitement.

Pelle raised an eyebrow. “Well, we don’t have a tic-tac-toe game, do we?”

“No, we don’t, do we?” His dad looked even more excited. “But check this out!” He breathed on the car window and looked like a guy who’d just pulled off the world’s greatest magic trick when it steamed up. “Ta-daaa!”

Pelle sighed.

His dad drew a tic-tac-toe game grid in the middle of the dew. “Clever, huh? I used to play games like this all the time with my little brother when I was your age. But then again, we didn’t have iPads and all that back then.”

Pelle looked out of the window indifferently.

“I’ll start.” His dad drew a cross in the middle. “Your turn, Pelle.”

“I don’t play board games,” Pelle said without looking at his dad.

“Why are you acting so silly, Pelle?” His dad grimaced. “Are you too old for this? Is that it?”

Pelle didn’t respond. He didn’t actually think the summoners could suck him into a game of tic-tac-toe, but still. Pelle was resolved not to play any board games.

A blond girl in white leggings and a black down jacket approached the entrance. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her eyes were blue, and her little smile simply melted Pelle’s brain.

“That’s Julie.” Pelle fumbled with the door handle, managed to fling the door open, and stumbled out of the car. Then he composed himself, stood up straight, and strolled casually towards her.

Fortunately, she hadn’t seen his awkward exit.

“Pelle!” She exclaimed as her whole face lit up. “It’s so great to see you.” She grabbed Pelle by the arms and pulled him close. Then she kissed him on the cheek, pushed him a bit back, and stared straight into his eyes.

They were only a few centimeters apart now, and she was still holding on to him.

Pelle’s heart did a somersault. She had to be into him.

“Did you trip?” said a voice behind them. “You looked really funny just there!”

Julie let go of Pelle and he turned around.

He saw Villads standing there in his long black coat that went almost all the way down to his ankles. His other clothes were black as well, and his black lock of hair hung down on his forehead.

“Trip?” Pelle asked confused.

Villads shrugged. “It just looked like you tripped, when you stepped out of the car.” He winked at Pelle.

“Villads!” Julie gave Villads the same treatment as Pelle.

Was that how she greeted everybody? Was that even allowed?

Pelle thought all this kissing and hugging was a very girlfriend-like way of greeting a person.

“Wanna go inside?” Julie asked when she was done hugging Villads. “I’m so excited!” Then she headed towards the entrance.

Pelle and Villads followed her in silence.

Pelle’s phone beeped.

Dad: Well, goodbye then. I only yelled at you twelve times. ;-)

The building was jam-packed with people. It was worse than Tivoli Gardens on a hot summer’s day. All that was missing was the screaming children, the dust rising from the gravel, and the smell of popcorn. But for a happy gamer this place was a treasure trove of interesting stuff to look at.

Pelle was quick to forget that he’d been jealous of Villads, and moments later, they were having a whale of a time testing new joysticks, controllers, and mice. One of the new mice had fourteen programmable buttons, three mouse wheels, and a trigger bar that adjusted its sensitivity to the player using it.

They also checked out all the newest games, listened to talks about the future of gaming, and collected a whole plastic bag each full of demos, key chains, sweets, posters, pens, cardboard thingies, and other merchandise.

On a big stage, they saw a demonstration of what tomorrow’s graphics cards and screens could do, which was pretty impressive. The resolution was better than reality, as Villads put it, which made Julie laugh uncontrollably.

As if that was funny.

Afterwards, they spent a couple of hours checking out the latest consoles that hadn’t been officially launched yet. They even tested singing garbage cans, artificial animals, androids, electronic waiters, and other robots.

Everything was so awesome that they forgot all about spending the cash they’d brought for food and sodas.

When the day was nearly over, they’d made it to the end of the last exhibition hall, where an elegant woman in a navy-blue blazer with a matching skirt, dark hair, and sparkling blue eyes had taken position in front of a big screen.

“What’s that?” Julie stopped and grabbed Pelle by the arm.

Her touch sent a pleasant warmth coursing through Pelle’s body.

“That’s the latest thing in VR,” Villads said. “Wanna go check it out?”

“YEAH!” Julie grabbed both of them by the hand and pulled them over to the big screens.

Pelle just wished that she’d never let go of his hand again.

At the same time, he wished that she’d stop running around holding hands with Villads, too. After all, they were just starting to have fun.

Why did she have to ruin it by holding hands with Villads?

The elegant woman with the dark hair and the sparkling blue eyes looked at the crowd.

“Hello everybody,” she said. “My name is Jenny Nielsen.”

“Yeah, we know. It’s right there on her name tag,” Villads said.

Only now did Pelle notice the white nametag on her chest with the words ‘Jenny Nielsen’ printed in blue.

Julie leaned very close to Villads and whispered: “Well spotted.”

Pelle scowled grumpily.

“I’m so happy to see that so many of you here today,” Jenny said. “What is VR? Do you know?”

Villads raised his voice. “Virtual Reality.”

Showoff!

Pelle scowled at him. He knew that, too, but he didn’t go around shouting about it.

Jenny nodded like an amiable schoolteacher. “Yes, that’s right. But what does that mean?”

“It’s a computer-controlled environment that gives the user the impression of actually being in it,” Villads said. “Usually it’s a visual experience, which means that you can only see it. But haptic technology allows you to stimulate the sense of touch, too.”

Okay, Pelle didn’t know that part. Julie and Jenny looked impressed as well.

“Usually, you have to wear a pair of VR goggles,” Villads continued. “Our eyes actually see two different images, which is how we’re able to see the world as three-dimensional or 3D.” He placed a hand in front of one eye. “It’s pretty easy to verify that by looking with one eye at a time.”

Pelle covered one eye discretely. Then he moved his hand to cover the other one.

Villads was right. You did actually see two different images.

“The goggles show two different images,” Villads said. “One for the left eye and one for the right. That’s how the computer generates a 3D-image.”

“Very impressive.” Jenny nodded.

“Amazing!” Julie squeezed Villads’ hand.

Pelle glanced enviously at his hand.

“But how do we see?” Jenny asked. “Do you know?”

Villads shrugged. “Light hits a surface and gets reflected into the eye. Then the signal is transferred via the optic nerve to the brain, which forms the image we see.”

Jenny nodded. “Exactly. The same goes for smell, taste, sound, and touch. All our senses perceive our surroundings and convey them to the brain.” She paused. “But what if you could stimulate the brain directly? In that case you wouldn’t need goggles, gloves, a haptic suit, or indeed anything else. You’d get the full experience simply by wearing a helmet!” Jenny picked up a helmet with a lot of wires and electrodes. “Picture yourselves reading a book. A good book. Now imagine that you could actually experience everything you were imagining in your mind in real time.”

“That would be crazy cool.” Julie’s eyes were beaming. “I love to read.”

“That’s exactly what our helmet does!” Jenny said. “The BWE helmet. Brain Wave Enhancer. Would any of you like to try it?”

Chapter 2

Everybody wanted to try on the helmet, and it didn’t take them long to organize a long line. The BWE helmet was hooked up to a big screen, which meant that everybody could see a 2D image of what the person wearing the helmet was experiencing.

The first girl in the line was a little girl, who appeared to be only about eight years old. The very moment she put on the helmet the big screen turned on. But it didn’t display anything.

“Aaw,” Julie whispered disappointed. “The screen just went dark.”

“What do you see?” Jenny asked.

“Nothing,” the girl said. “It’s just dark in here.”

Jenny nodded. “The BWE helmet relies on your imagination to work. If you don’t concentrate on picturing anything, you won’t be able to see anything. You could say that your imagination acts as your graphics card. The better it is, the better the graphics you see will be. Try to picture a cat.”

The screen turned white and a primitive line drawing of a cat appeared on it.

“Man, that’s an ugly cat,” Villads said. “It kinda looks like Pelle.”

“She’s eight.” Julie slapped his shoulder with the back of her hand.

“Nice,” Jenny said. “Can you color it in?”

Black color filled in the cat. But it still looked like something an eight-year-old could’ve drawn in a coloring book. Several parts of it were still white, and the color crossed the lines several times.

“Very nice,” Jenny said. “Can you make it move?”

The cat meowed, sat down, and licked its paw.

“Aaaw, it’s so cute,” Julie said.

The little girl had the worst imagination, but what the others came up with wasn’t much better. All the graphics projected on the screen were pretty primitive, except for one very realistic-looking image of a grandma and a photorealistic bird flying around on a blue sky background. Some of it looked like the cartoons on the children’s channels. Other bits looked like quite poor computer graphics. It didn’t look impressive compared to everything else they’d seen at the fair.

After about fifteen minutes, it was Pelle’s turn. He stepped into the area in front of the big screen and had the helmet with all the electrodes placed on his head.

Just like that, everything went dark and he felt the little suction cups inside the helmet attach themselves to his skull.

“Can you hear me?” said Jenny’s voice in his ear.

Pelle nodded. Then it occurred to him that she might not be able to see it and he said: “Yes.”

“Alright,” Jenny said. “The helmet hampers your ability to hear and blocks your vision completely. That makes it easier for the helmet to interact with the neurons that control your senses...” She hesitated and laughed a bit. “Yes, I know, that was a bit too technical. It just means that the helmet works better if you’re not seeing or hearing anything from the outside.”

Pelle looked around in the darkness, and just then, it turned grey. He was standing on an endless grey surface under a grey sky.

He looked down at himself. His clothes were the same. Very cool that he could see himself. He raised his hand slowly and opened and closed it.

“Try to picture a house,” Jenny said.

Pelle concentrated and a mighty skyscraper shot out of the ground. This was one of the buildings in the new GTA. It looked like exactly like the one in the game and was, in Pelle’s own humble opinion, one of the best rendered images displayed on the screen up to that point.

Pelle looked at its smooth 3D-surface. Jenny had said that the only limit to what he could see was his own imagination, right? As he squinted, the smooth surface of the building started changing and took on all the texture of a real building. Pelle smiled.

“Impressive,” Jenny said. “Can you make another one?”

Pelle raised his hands with his palms turned upwards. New buildings shot out of the ground all around him. Less than ten seconds later, he found himself standing in the city from GTA.

“Nice!” Pelle smiled to himself.

“Very nice,” Jenny said.

Pelle walked down the street in the city. This was pretty cool.

“Hey, hold it right there,” Jenny said.

Pelle felt a hand on his chest, but couldn’t see anything. It had to be Jenny doing it in the real world.

“We don’t have an enclosed area,” she said, “so please don’t walk around. You might bump into something in the real world.”

“Oh, right.” Pelle smiled goofily. Fortunately, nobody could see his face. “Do you have a chair?”

“Of course.”

Jenny placed a chair behind Pelle and was lowered him cautiously into it.

Pelle took a deep breath, extended his arms in front of him, and focused. A second later, he was sitting in a red sports car with the sunroof opened. His hands rested on a leather-covered steering wheel, and a digital dashboard lit up. He stepped softly on the speeder and the car rolled forward.

COOL!

“Very impressive, Pelle. Can you add some sound?”

Sound? Of course! Why didn’t he think to turn the sound on?

The very moment the thought occurred to him, the engine came alive with a growl.

Pelle stepped on the gas and turned the steering wheel. The car roared down the street and squealed as it turned and skidded out.

“And sme...” Before Jenny could finish her sentence, the air was filled with the stench of high octane gas and burnt rubber.

“Yee-haaaw!” Pelle yelled. He floored the speeder and pressed a button he hoped would turn on the radio.

”I’m on the highway to hell,” a voice growled out of surround sound system. “On the highway to hell.”

Very appropriate. Pelle smiled.

Just then, everything turned dark.

“That was very nicely done,” Jenny said as she took the helmet off his head. “I’m very impressed.”

Pelle was let out of the area at the opposite side of where the line had formed.

He looked back at Villads and Julie, who were still standing in line.

Julie waved excitedly at him. Obviously, she was impressed. But then again, compared to that indistinct cat Pelle had done a pretty good job.

For a second, he considered winking at her, but left it at the thought. It just seemed like a silly thing to do.

Meanwhile, the helmet had been put on Villads’ head, and before Jenny could say a word, an impressive science fiction city shot out of the ground.

The city in itself wasn’t much better than Pelle’s, although Villads’ buildings were a bit more creative and varied. But all the rest of it was.

The city was simply teeming with life. The streets were packed with aliens, human beings, and exotic animals, above them, the airspace was full of flying cars, busses, and trains, and even higher up, breathtaking spaceships could be seen orbiting the planet.

Not to mention the sounds. Each single thing had its own distinctive sound that mixed with all the other sound to form a perfect soundscape.

Pelle glanced at Julie. She didn’t look even the tiniest bit impressed by Pelle anymore. All her attention was directed at Villads.

Her eyes were alight with admiration, and she’d practically dropped her jaw on the floor. So had Jenny.

Just then, Villads stepped onto a flying skateboard – a hoverboard – and hovered up through the city at an impressive speed.

Showoff.

Pelle scowled at him. He made it all the way up to a spaceship, climbed aboard, and then flew across a solar system complete with planets, moons, and stars.

When at last Jenny turned off the helmet, Pelle felt so embarrassed that he wanted to dig a hole and bury himself.

The entire hall applauded when Villads left the stage, and Julie smiled, waved, and raised both thumbs at him.

Pelle sighed.

Of course, Villads had to better than him. He was always better than Pelle. At least Pelle had managed to do something pretty cool, too. And Julie had praised him for it.

Julie stepped over to Jenny, who placed the helmet on her head. Just then, a fantasy forest exploded onto the screen.

Elves, gnomes, ogres, fauns, centaurs, and a lot more creatures swarmed around, while a dragon materialized itself between Julie’s legs. It batted its wings, and Julie rose up above the forest, where a fantastical landscape with cities, mountains, sapphire blue oceans, and endless forests stretched as far as the eye could see.

Chapter 3

“Your city was just absolutely amazing!” Julie said with eyes aglow with excitement.

They’d taken a seat at one of the many cafés at the fair.

Pelle and Villads had bought a slice of pizza and a cola each, whereas Julie had bought a raspberry-sea-buckthorn-smoothie and a pasta salad.

Pelle had never even heard of sea-buckthorn, but naturally Villads was quick to compliment her on her choice.

They were sitting at a small table with four chairs. Julie and Villads sat opposite each other, and neither of one of them had spared Pelle a single glance since they sat down.

“My city?” Villads said. “What about yours? That dragon!” He shook his head. “It was mind-blowing. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Julie smiled shyly. “What about your spaceships? I mean ... I’ve seen Hollywood blockbusters with less elaborate spaceships than yours.” She flung out her arms. “They were so creative ... and realistic.”

Pelle took a bite of his pizza.

It was barely lukewarm and tasted like it’d been sitting in a glass display case since that morning. Which it probably had.

“Um...” Julie looked at Pelle as if she’s just spotted him. For a brief moment, he saw something in her eyes that resembled a guilty conscience. “Your city was very nice, too, Pelle.”

“Thanks.” Pelle smiled widely. She’d sounded like she didn’t mean it all, but the way Pelle saw it, you had to take any compliment you could get. “I...”

“Did you get any sensations in your world, too?” Villads asked.

“Yes!” Julie nodded enthusiastically. “When the dragon spewed fire, I swear I felt a gust of hot air hit my face.”

“Exactly!” Villads said. “I felt the wind in my hair, when I flew up above the city on my hoverboard.”

And just like that, they were gone again.

Pelle had a look of despair on his face as he took a sip of his cola.

He hadn’t sensed a damn thing. But he’d felt the air.

“I’m...” Pelle started, but Villads and Julie didn’t even turn their heads, “...just gonna go to the restroom.”

He let out a sigh as he left the table.

Julie and Villads didn’t even seem to notice.

Great.

Naturally, all the lines outside the restrooms were super long.

Pelle was just about to give up, when he found a restroom door that was obstructed by an ad sign.

Was the restroom closed? Or had the sign been placed there by mistake?

Pelle squeezed his body between the wall and the sign. He could just about fit through the crack.

At least, the restroom was unlocked and completely empty.

When Pelle had finished his business and stared washing his hands, a man appeared behind him. He was big, bald, and sporting a giant beard. A Star Wars T-shirt was draped over his gigantic belly and concealed his washed-out jeans, which were so long and hanging down on his pair of worn-out sneakers, that he couldn’t help stepping on them.

Pelle let out a gasp.

That was the summoner they’d played against in the Epic Battle tournament!

“Kasper!” Pelle spun around.

The restroom was completely empty. But ... he’d just ... Pelle shook his head and turned back around to wash his hands.

There he was again.

Kasper was standing right behind Pelle.

In the mirror, anyway.

Pelle turned his head again, but Kasper wasn’t in the restroom. Only in the mirror.

“Kasper?” Pelle stared at him.

“Pelle?” Kasper looked surprised at him. “You can see me?”

“Yes,” Pelle said. “What do you want from me? Didn’t we agree to have no more business with each other?”

“I don’t want anything from you,” Kasper said. “Not right now, anyway. You weren’t supposed to be able to see me. I’m just testing some equipment.” He touched the top of his wide black bracelet, which had a mirror on it. Then his reflection flickered and disappeared.

Kasper was gone.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if they made games for those helmets?” Julie said, when Pelle came back to the table.

“Kasper!” Pelle dropped down on his chair. “I just saw Kasper! The guy from Epic Battle.”

“Seriously!?” Villads said.

“Yes!” Pelle nodded. “In the restroom. I...”

“No!” Villads looked angrily at him. “I mean: Seriously? You’re really gonna lie about something like that just because you’re not the center of attention right now?”

Pelle looked surprised at Villads. “No. I...”

“Look at me,” Villads said in a mocking voice. “I’m Pelle. Julie hasn’t looked at me for twenty seconds, so now I’m gonna lie about seeing Kasper.”

Julie looked unhappily back and forth between them.

”I’m sorry,” said a voice behind Pelle. “Mind if I interrupt you for a moment?”

“PLEASE DO!” Julie smiled relieved at someone behind Pelle.

Pelle turned around. It was Jenny. She looked at them and flashed a big smile.

“We’ve made a game for the BWE helmets,” Jenny said. “Would you care to play it with me?”

“Yes, please!” Julie leapt up, despite the fact that she’d only taken two bites of her pasta salad. “Together. All three of us! You gonna show it on the big screen?”

“No.” Jenny shook her head. “Nobody’s seen it yet.” She smiled at them. “But you really impressed me when you tested the helmet. In fact, you’re the best test subjects we’ve had so far. So we were wondering if you’d be interested in participating in a sequence of tests of the helmets?”

“Definitely!” Julie was practically raring to go.

“Pelle, too?” Villads asked. “Or just me and Julie?”

Pelle felt a jolt go through his body. Were Julie and Villads about to go off and test all kinds of cool stuff without him?

He felt his legs start to go limp. They couldn’t do that to him.

“Pelle, too,” Jenny said. “All three of you did really great.”

“But don’t you have to go look for that guy Kasper?” Villads asked. “Maybe Julie and I ought to just play it by ourselves?”

“Maybe ... I was wrong,” Pelle said.

He most definitely wasn’t wrong. But he didn’t want Julie and Villads to go off and play a cool BWE game without him. If Villads thought he could get away with that, he had another thing coming.

“Okay.” Villads shrugged and then smiled at Pelle. “Well, that’s great! I’m glad Pelle gets to join us.”

Jenny pulled a black smartphone out of her pocket. “I’m so happy that you’re up for this. If you’ll just give me your contact details, I’ll send you all the relevant information. I hope to be able to start the test sequence as soon as next week.”

Chapter 4

Fortunately, when Jenny left, Pelle was invited back into the conversation, and as they headed out to the parking lot, they talked excitedly about all the potential uses of this new BWE technology. Once it was made available to the gaming industry, normal VR would feel like using a primitive phone app compared to the immersive experience you’d have in a BWE game.

Pelle was still a bit worried about his sighting of Kasper. But Villads, and perhaps even Julie, had been unwilling to believe that he was telling the truth. Besides, Kasper had already told them that summoners didn’t play computer games, so presumably they were still safe there.

Julie was the first to be picked up by her mom, and for a moment, Pelle and Villads just stood in silence as they waited for their parents to turn up.

“Wanna play some Nightstorm soon?” Villads asked.

Pelle lit up.

Villads was still Pelle’s best friend, when he wasn’t being an ass to him - which was only when they were both hanging out with Julie. When it was just the two of them, he was always super nice to Pelle.

“Totally!” Nightstorm was the latest first person shooter game. It was totally awesome, but Julie hated it, so they only played it when she wasn’t around. “When?”

Villads shrugged. “All days are good for me, except Tuesday.”

“Monday?” Pelle looked inquiringly at Villads.

“Cool.” Villads swept his lock of hair off his forehead.

Moments later, Villads’ dad turned up to pick him up.

Pelle looked pensively at him as they drove away. These days, it seemed like they had more fun whenever Julie wasn’t around.

But it wasn’t Julie’s fault. She was amazing.

It was mostly because Villads was an asshole, when both of them hung out with her.

Or maybe he wasn’t? Maybe it was just Pelle, who was just super jealous because he ... Well, he was crazy about Julie. He could no longer deny that fact.

Did that mean that he’d also have more fun with Julie if Villads wasn’t around?

After all, there was nothing wrong with seeing your friends one-on-one from time to time.

Pelle made a quick decision and called Julie on his phone.

“Hi, Pelle,” she said. “Have you had any word from BWE?”

“Um ... no,” Pelle said. “I...” He swallowed a lump and pulled himself together. “I just wanted to ask if you wanted to meet up.”

“Always,” Julie said. “When?”

“Tuesday?” Pelle asked.

“Tuesday?” Julie asked.

“Yeah,” Pelle said. “Are you free?”

“Maybe,” Julie said. “What did you have in mind?”