As I enter, I see the surprisingly mundane interior. I look around and see numbers on the side that indicate which cars I’m at, and it seems I enter between 14 and 15 cars. I enter car 14 and see a small walkway in the center and rows of seats on both sides, 2 on each side to be specific, some which have tables to do something while the train moves. But I do know there's more, as from the advertisement: there's some other amenities like a bar, game room, and some other stuff that I forgot as they were uninterested.

  I look at my phone to see where my seat is supposed to be, until I hear my handler say something. “Before you sit down, you might want to get your supply box. It’s stuff that will be useful for your mission.”

  “Supply box?” I replied, “I thought you already gave me everything I would need?”

  She clarifies, “We give you everything that you could reasonably carry without making you suspicious.”

  I suppose that makes sense, but couldn’t help but ask, “How the hell did you stash equipment here? Also, what happens if someone found it and stole all of the items?”

  “It's public transport, even if the tickets are stupidly expensive and there's some more security measures than most places. It wasn’t hard to get a ticket and smuggle some things for you. And we made sure to hide it somewhere where even maintenance wouldn’t be able to find it.”

  “Is that why you told me to get a screwdriver?” I reached into my jacket pocket to take out said screwdriver.

  “Yes. Now hurry along and get those items before the train departs. It’s in the bathroom on the 9th car .”

  I continue along until I reach and head down the aisle until I arrive at the car 9’s bathroom. I see that it’s unoccupied and open the door and head inside. Immediately as I enter, I am surprised by the pleasant smell inside, it smells like lovely lavender.

  “It’s inside the ventilation above the toilet.” Her comment snaps me out of my light confusion.

  I look up and see the ventilation she’s talking about. After making sure the toilet can handle my weight, I climb up, and start unscrewing.

  As I get to work, Elisa says, “In the vent, there's a duffel bag filled with a lot of useful toys to help in both the search, and extraction of the briefcase: First, there's a tracker that also acts like a camera and mic, so you can see and eavesdrop on conversations that might reveal who’s our enemy. Second, there's a vial of enchanted sleeping powder, so even Storyborn with high resistance will still be about to be affected. Third, a grappling hook, just in case you fall out of the train. Fourth, a device that beeps every time someone within 10 feet lies to you. And lastly, and my personal favorite, a revolver that-”

  “It’s gone.”

  It takes some time before Elisa responds with worried confusion, “W-what do you mean?”

  “The duffel bag is empty.” To be specific, a slightly small duffel bag that is unzipped with nothing inside.

  “Like… nothing at all?” It seems that she’s taking this news pretty hard. It was probably her idea where to hide the bag, or at least she vouched for that idea. “Was the vent skewed in?”

  “Yes, it was”, it was screwed in like any other vent. “Was this information leaked somehow?”

  I could hear the faint sounds of keyboard clicking, as she says, “I don’t think it’s that. Because of how busy we’ve been, we placed the supply drop a couple of minutes after the mission began. Well, they might have known if they were able to hack into our systems…”

  I finished her train of thought, “But that’s basically impossible without you noticing it.” Elisa’s tale is of a hacker from a table-top rpg game, so all of her abilities are about hacking and technology. As long as she’s in the building, she has complete control over that network. She also has an ability to contact any communication equipment even if they are offline. “And I doubt whoever stole this was a random person, as it was very hidden. Since this train is or at least will be populated with storyborn, it’s likely it was one of them who stole it.”

  “That or we are just that unlucky.” Elisa joked

  I couldn’t help but agree with her. Life simply didn’t want me to find the gear. I begin to wash my hands cause I touched a toilet, and as I do, I see my reflection. My appearance is not too noteworthy, just a white ass dude with blond hair that’s slightly combed to the side, but some stubborn strands of hair stick out. I also have a 5 o’clock shadow as I decided that I would look better with a beard. I honestly look like a distant cousin of Brad Pitt, I’m half convinced that’s the only reason I have the ladybug tale. I’m currently wearing an off green button up jacket with blue jeans. Not the most stylish outfits that I would have worn, but it works for the mission.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Looking at my reflection, the first thing that came to my mind is, ‘is that really me?’ But I guess that just happens when people grow older, regrets just keep piling up. “I honestly have no idea why I’m here to stop potential terrorists." I didn’t mean to say that part out loud, but that just happens.

  Before Elisa could respond to my self-deprication, a person, who is probably the conductor, starts to say something in multiple languages through the speakers. As he gets to the English part, he says “Please go to your seat as we depart in 5 minutes.”

  Elisa says, “You heard the conductor, I heard that the Astral Express goes very fast, so you should probably take a seat so you won't fall down like an idiot.”

  I agreed. I went to my assigned seat, which is in car 8, and take a seat. As I sit down, I noticed that there are quite a few empty seats. Before I could question it, I felt a strange energy flow throughout the train, and the conductor's voice flowed throughout the train, “Please take a seat as we will be disembarking shortly.” Just like with the security guard, he wasn’t speaking in English, but I could understand what he was saying. Immediately after he made the announcement, the train starts to move slowly, then rapidly gaining speed. It only takes the train about 5 or 6 seconds for it to reach its top speed. Despite going 100+ MPG, I didn’t feel any sort of G-force. The only indication we were going that fast is from looking out the window, and even that wasn’t good because we are underground.

  And I observe outside, the sensation suddenly changes from the familiar tunnels of an underground train, to something very surreal. I see earth, the whole planet. I look around and see stars that fill the barren canvas of outer space, as well as a couple of planets from our solar system off in the distance like mars or jupiter, as well as the sun the blaze in the center. I will not lie, as I see the strange scenery outside this window, I am in awe. In so much awe, that I didn't realize that this is outside my window, until right now.

  I begin to mumble to myself, “I really hope this glass is magically reinforced.”

  My handler thought I was talking to her, so she answers, “It should be, as you're on a magical train that uses black holes to make shortcuts to move the train to space, then goes to another black hole to another location.”

  “It’s a wormhole, if it was really a black hole, I would be a long piece of spaghetti along with everyone in this train. But that doesn't really reassure me. What happens if some crazy antagonist with space powers tries to take over and makes a hole. Everyone would be sucked into outer space."

  She reassured me, “You don’t need to worry, there's a small atmosphere around the train as well as its own gravity. So if someone gets spartan kicked off the train, they can get back on with some effort. And I highly doubt anyone would have the balls to try to attack this train.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because of the space dragon that guards it.”

  Just as I heard that, my view from the sun is blocked by a big object, or rather a creature. It is a western style dragon I see in media, except its skin, or rather scales, are a light blue with sparkles all around it, as if a toddler dumped an entire container of glitter. Its wings are an orange-yellow color and seem to slightly move around, mimicking the surface of the sun, and its eyes seem to look like a blackhole, as it seems that light bends around it.

  I couldn’t help but stare at the dragon in both astonishment, and a bit of confusion. After all, how the hell did they tame a space dragon, and why would they use the creature as a glorified guard? And what would happen if it decided to attack us? Despite her attempts to reassure me, the space dragon only causes more worries in my mind, but I know that none of my worries are important, so I focused on the mission.

  I remember walking into the station, where there was a place to put suitcases on the train, like in an airport, so I asked how big the briefcase was. She said it was around briefcase size,which in retrospect was obvious. But more importantly, too important to hand it to someone else. So it’s probably the walkways between train cars as I saw some smaller bags there while walking to the bathroom. An announcement immediately came on that basically says it’s now safe to walk, so I stand and walk towards the front of the train to start my search.

  As I enter the inbetween of car 7 and 8, I see among many ordinary bags, a brown suitcase with a blue dragon sticker on the handle, as well as a tag. I describe the briefcase to Elisa and say “God damn, that was quick. Alright, even though the objective is to make sure The “String Cutters” don’t get the macguffin, I think you should take it and exit the train.” I hear her type more on her keyboard. “Your next stop in Russia, Moscow. We can get you a ride with some extra backup, just in case they try to follow you to take the case back.”

  If this was a normal mission, if such a thing existed, I would immediately agree with her plan. But I know it would be impossible. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

  “Why’s that? Is it because they could somehow find our supply drop?”

  I went back to car 8 and sat down on one of the many empty seats. “No, even though it is something I should look out for. It’s just that I don’t think I can exit the train.”

  She asks, “Is it because of the story resonance?”

  I stare out into outer space. “Yep, I think if I try to exit the train before the end of the story, something will happen to make sure I’m back by the time the train starts to move. So it would be pointless to get the briefcase out right now.”

  I could hear her sigh, but she seems to understand that my theory might be correct. “Ok so my plan is a no go. Hey, does it look like the briefcase was checked in?”

  Although I’m unsure why that information is important, I answer, “Yes, it has a tag.”

  “Great, then a passenger must have checked it in, so they're inside the train. Since it’s clearly important, try to keep a lookout as they might try to check up on it to see if it’s still there.”

  That is a good plan, much better than just sitting here and waiting for something suspicious to happen. “Alright, I’ll be on the lookout.”

  Even though it is a good plan, I wonder if it would even work, cause why wouldn’t they just keep it with them at all times since it’s so important. But it did not take long for me to see who the holders of the briefcase are.