Silvertroll

Battle of the Supermarket

I stand in the fruit section wearing the AR glasses, feeling like a jerk. I've seen kids of all ages doing the same and my condemnation of them has been consistent for years.

"I look like an idiot."

"You're now deep inside Silvertroll's territory, keep looking," says Arlan from the comfort and dignity of the back of the van. Arlan and Conner have set up a base of operations, sitting on milk crates and wearing headsets, tapping into laptops resting on a large wooden cable reel.

"For what?" I ask.

"For anything unusual."

I look around and the only thing unusual is me.

"Found something," says Connor.

Swinging around I nearly knock over a stack of chocolate bars. "Where?" I start walking, dodging robotic shopping trolleys, searching each aisle. I stop in the frozen foods section and see Connor's demon loitering near a fridge. A diamond-shaped icon hovers above the ice cream freezer. "What's that?"

"That is a waypoint?" says Arlan.

"Am I supposed to know what that means? What do I do with it?"

Connor's demon jumps on a trolley, catching a ride toward the Caveman. "Ya gotta fight the sentinel."

"Defeating the sentinel gives you access to information locked inside the waypoint," adds Arlan.

The demon avatar explodes in a puff.

"Shit," I say. "What happened?"

"The sentinel just wiped Connor."

"Where is it?" I move my head left and right, searching, careful not to knock the AR glasses off my face.

I see it.

A quicksilver gargoyle thing stands on top of a rack of shelves, its six arms tossing fireballs at me. I take a step back. "What do I do?"

"Get back. You can't fight it without a weapon."

I retreat to the cereal aisle. "Where do I get one?"

"There should be a DSG store nearby."

I know where it is, having shopped there ages ago. "Are they still a thing?" I ask as I take off the goggles and make my way out of the supermarket. I head to the opposite end of the arcade. The Digital Star Gaming sign is unmissable, so I enter and walk up to the young dweeb of a clerk staring awkwardly at me.

"I need a weapon," I tell her, realising how bad that sounds.

She doesn't flinch. Looking at the AR glasses in my hand she asks, "What type?"

"Biggest one you have."

The clerk walks to the Hellscape pavilion, stacked with an assortment of toy weaponry, some medieval, some futuristic, and picks a largish rifle. "Anything else?"

"Get upgrades." I hear Arlan say.

"Can I get upgrades?" I ask the girl.

"Um, yeah. Which upgrade?"

"I want all of them."

The clerk is astonished at first then picks a large packet from the shelf, "The Ultrapac?"

"Yeah, why not."

I can hear Arlan say, "Holy shit."

The five hundred dollars price tag stings me bad, but I pay and return to the battlefield. I wear the goggles, and march in, armed with the Hellscape toy, stalking the aisles, unnerving the other shoppers. "Five hundred bucks for this shit. I'm in the wrong line of work."