“Cowards like you, weaponizing lies, taking people’s insecurity and fear and making it currency. You are exhausting.” -The Fifteenth Doctor; Dr. Who, Lucky Day-
_____
The air in the mayor’s office would have felt stifling if it weren’t so damn cold. James was starting to wonder if maybe he should’ve doubled up on the magic shirts. When this was all over, he was going to use his paladin privilege to get several purple orbs that made him less cold all the time. He never used his paladin privilege anyway, and this was a great first test of the waters for how it felt.
James sat in the surprisingly comfortable chair across from the man’s desk, giving a pleasant smile as he let the scowl that wasn’t really for him wash past. Spire was lurking in the room’s corner, invisible, and someone was currently pointing a weapon at him from somewhere. He doubted it was a sniper looking through the windows at the rear of the office; if there was one advantage that this era of brutalist architecture had, it was ruining lines of sight from potential assassins. The thought kept he small smile in place on his face, though it didn’t help with the actual question of who was preparing to shoot him.
”So you’re here for a renegotiation.” The mayor said, less trying to hide his scorn now.
”Renegotiation?” James asked casually, making the word sound less like a question and more like he was merely curious. Yet another trick JP and Nate had drilled into him; open your mouth, make it look and sound like you were preparing to monologue, and an overeager opponent would cut you off before they had composed themself.
It annoyed him that it worked, because he could clearly see all the times in his past now where JP had done that to him. But it did work. “Please. No need to play dumb. A man like you shows up for a meeting that wasn’t scheduled until earlier today at which point it had been scheduled all week? I know who you represent, you don’t need to pretend. Now, I’ve kept my end of the deal, but I’m not blind to how dangerous your people are, and I’m willing to hear you out. What do you want? More surveillance access? More favors from the force? I’d offer more money but the tithe you already get is so high you may as well run the operation yourself.”
Well that was a lot to digest. James didn’t let his smile slip as he glanced up at the wall over the new mayor’s head. There were a few spots where he could tell there used to be framed pictures, not yet covered by the new arrival to the office with his own memories. “Don’t worry so much.” He said smoothly. “I’m not here to extort you. This isn’t even a veiled threat of a reminder of our deal, either.”
The words committed to nothing, but bought space, and prompted the mayor to talk again. “What, then? Doubt you’re here for a polite checkup.”
James had, the whole time, been trying to rapidly assemble a place to take a stab of a guess from on what he could safely say that would let him lead this conversation farther, without blowing the game. By this point, he’d started to clearly figure that the mayor had made a deal with someone for control of one of the dungeons; and it likely wasn’t the dungeon residents themselves. The shadow he’d seen skulking around earlier pointed to that. But he couldn’t be sure that the mayor’s side of this hidden conflict was the same as the police. What he could safely start with was something that would sound like mocking sarcasm.
People hated that, and it masked another probe for information. “We could do a polite checkup, if you want. So tell me,” James affected a joking tone of a cartoon therapist, “how satisfied are you with your masterful plan? One to ten, for the records.”
Silverson went still for a second, only his eyebrows furrowing upward, to the point that James worried he’d said something that had tipped the mayor off. Then, instead of a panic response, he heard a snort of laughter from the slim man. “So some of you do have a sense of humor. That’s almost reassuring.” He rolled his eyes. “Let’s call it an ongoing success. Though if you’ve got a trick to get officers to stop complaining about the inconvenience, I’d love to hear it.”
”Dissention in the ranks, eh?” James’ let his grin get a little mean.
”Nothing like that.” The mayor’s snap response was suddenly back to being guarded, any hint of rapport gone. He must have seen something in James’ look that made him worried, because he kept going. “Some of them think the process is too slow, and someone gave them a rumor about the faster way. Keeping them from damaging the merchandise is… well, it’s my problem. Not enough of them to be a problem either, everyone else is adapting quite well. And the clients… well! You’ll get your part of the payments, believe me.”
”I would expect nothing less.” James had decided to just channel his inner supervillain. It was, concerningly, working kind of well so far. “Trust is the foundation of any good business relationship.”
”Right. Right, yes…” The mayor trailed off. “Is… is there a problem?” His voice dipped, the smooth charismatic vibrancy he’d been affecting vanishing as he leaned forward nervously.
James caught the way the man glanced down as he shifted forward. Something under the desk he was trying to avoid kicking, maybe. Possibly someone, since no one had actually stopped aiming at James. “A problem. Hm.” James stalled.
A few things fit in place if he made slight leaps in logic. The mayor was likely distributing dungeontech equipment to the police, and from the sounds of things, to other government agencies too, which was… surprisingly egalitarian. Almost Order-y. Of course, he was also selling it, which was probably why Tylor and Jubilance had assumed the ongoing takeover of their home city had involved some of the bigger corporations that operated here.
The big question was who he thought James represented. Probably one of the two groups monitoring the dungeons, but which one, and why? Committing to as little as possible was the important thing, but James did have to say something to keep this meeting from standing out too much. It was least likely that he thought James was one of the shadows, which meant that there was one semi-safe line of discussion.
”There’s something on the loose in your business district.” James said, taking a gamble, and finding himself rewarded for the risk when mayor Silverson tensed so hard it seemed like he was about to snap one of the arms off his office chair. He pressed on, using vague language. “Normally, this wouldn’t be your problem. But.”
”…but any problems with the merchandise is on my head, I know, I know.” The mayor’s voice rose as he shot to his feet, pacing behind the desk. “Damn. Damn. You’re sure?”
James had heard that tone before. The man was lying about his shock, but James had almost missed that little detail amid the storm of sudden anger he was keeping off his face. Because he had his own much more real shock when it became more clear that merchandise didn’t mean dungeontech, it meant dungeon life.
”Quite sure.” He said instead, examining his fingernails with a bored expression. “Shouldn’t be too serious, I’m sure I’ll never hear about it again.” He raised an eyebrow at the mayor.
”Absolutely.” The mayor said with a slavish nod. “Nothing to worry about. I’ll make sure of it.” He nodded again, a desperate look in his eyes as he stopped in his pacing to shoot James a glance. “Ah. Do the rest of your people…?”
Giving a casual shrug, James turned his attention to a fancy metal pen on the desk. Slowly leaning forward to pick it up and rotate it in his fingers with an almost idle dismissiveness, he gave an answer that he hoped would keep this meeting from turning into a brawl. “I’m solving a problem before it’s a problem. It’s considered secondary by the others for the moment. Ideally, by the time it isn’t, it won’t be a concern at all. That would be best for both of us, don’t you think?”
The man instantly realized he was being offered a polite lifeline. ”Oh, absolutely.” He nodded again. “I’ll need to make some calls. Get this handled right away. Is there anything else you need? Not to rush you out of my office, but, if you want me to get on this…”
”Of course.” James stood smoothly, taking a step to his right so the flat wooden plane of the desk’s side fully blocked him from sight of whatever was underneath the desk. He didn’t need to hide his smile in this persona, so he allowed himself to feel a little smug as the bead drawn on him was blocked. Definitely someone under the desk. “I’ll be going now. Have a good evening, mister Silverson.”
”Ah. Yes, yes. And you…” The city’s mayor trailed off as he waited for James to give a name, but James was already letting himself out of the office with a casual wave over his shoulder.
Through the skulljack, his tone and mood were completely different. “Spire, status?”
”Eight minutes of invisibility left. He’s making a call now. I believe I will be Move Personing out the window, so a catch would be appreciated.”
”Christ. Yeah, sure.” James didn’t look forward to grabbing two hundred pounds of falling camraconda, but with his own Move Person cast he could safely reduce the fall speed by a lot. He started walking with long steps in a way that took advantage of his height to not look like he was in a hurry. He needed to figure out what window he needed to stand under behind the building, fast. “Any updates?”
Spire’s mental voice was a little more alive than her out loud synthetic one, in a reverse of James’ own. The camraconda, still invisible inside the office, kept him apprised. “He is speaking loudly to who I believe is a high ranking member of the police about an escape, and the importance of reporting. He is lying.” Spire’s blunt appraisal was tinged with curiosity. “He is switching to a different phone. Personal. Kept hidden. Odd.”
”Is everyone in this town a double agent?” James muttered to himself, getting an odd look from a passing clerk. He gave a cheerful smile and ducked his head. “Hey. Evening. Don’t mind me, just being weird.” He waved as he passed, heading for the stairs.
”It appears so.” Spire said. “He is speaking of your visit, and the importance of keeping a low profile. Giving a description of you. Ah. He has said that you are an informational weak link.”
”Really?”
”No, I am paraphrasing. I believe it is time for me to go.” Spire sent over their link. “He is procuring a coat and weapon. He is leaving the office. I do not think he is tracking you specifically, but if it comes to a fight, his handgun is a .45.”
”Noted.” James nodded to the lobby officers as he strode past, heading out the front door and out from under the cover of the concrete rectangular baffling on the building’s edifice. “Almost in position, give me a minute.”
It took him a little more than a minute, but there was no pressure. Spire still didn’t want to linger in the office once her invisibility charges ran out, because there was no way to tell if the place was monitored, and who or whatever was under the desk, it still hadn’t left. Avoiding her own discovery was more important than learning what that was for the moment.
The camraconda popped into view a split second after she blinked herself through the window, James spotting her form against the dark sky just in time to grab her with his own Move Person and stick her a much safer distance from the ground. He still nearly buckled under the weight of the large camraconda as he caught her in his arms, lowering her to the ground and brushing off his coat. “Welp. If that counts as a teleport they can track, we’ll find out soon.”
”We will not. Because we will be leaving.” Spire-Cast-Behind told him. “Call Alanna. We should regroup with the others, and prepare to follow Zhu’s lead if he isn’t back by then.”
”Yes boss.” James saluted. He said it like a joke, but the camraconda taking the lead actually made him feel a steady confidence about this whole operation. “Apparently they’re having dinner. We’ll meet back at the hotel. You wanna grab something on the way?”
”No.” Spire said. Then looked down at the ground with her boxy head as if assessing her own feelings. “Yes. But we should not delay. Or we could tell them to meet us at a restaurant. But I do not have Canadian money, or the ability to blend in.”
James winced. “Yeah, that sucks. This place needs more food carts. I can grab some takeout for you or something?” The two of them started heading toward a side street, James mapping out a route to a rendezvous with his girlfriend and her temporary lackeys that wouldn’t have too many people on it, while he and Spire discussed the best way to feed her in a city that she wasn’t technically supposed to reveal herself in.
Before, it had been because they were trying to assess the situation without anyone knowing they were there. Now, it was because this place was shaping up to be yet another multi-sided battleground, and they were just stumbling into the middle of it.
Which was perfect. Diving into the center of other people’s problems was more or less James’ whole thing, and he was getting good at it.
The only way he could be more in his element would be if it stopped snowing. Which it did not.
_____
“This girl is engaged.” Was what Alanna told James as they met back up in the hotel lobby.
James and Spire were sitting on the lower floor of the hotel, in a repeating pattern of lounge chairs and fake potted plants, enjoying how utterly abandoned the space was. It was probably a place that got rented out for business conventions or something, but there wasn’t really anything going on right now that would have the hotel in heavy use. So aside from the occasional staff member walking by with a vacuum or toolbox and not noticing Spire anyway, there hadn’t been anyone bothering them.
It was nice in a way. Here in the heart of a city that was busy, that was packed with people even with the weather and the season, they had this quiet little spot where they could sit in the open and not worry about things. At least, unless there was someone on the hotel staff informing on Spire’s presence. Or James’ presence. But the hostility deflection ability on the leveler earrings should handle that.
”That’s what you think is most important?” James asked as Alanna slid gracefully into one of the red leather lounge chairs on the other side of the low coffee table. It was amusing how all the furniture could be the same as a cozy apartment, but all the open space around them, the constant ding of the elevator, and the gap that let them look upward into the lobby, all made this feel colder and less personal. “How boring was your day?”
”No, wait.” Spire-Cast-Behind stopped James’ banter and focused on Jubilance as she and Tylor dragged chairs over from some kind of tall workspace counter that appeared to exist entirely for people who needed to charge their laptops. “We did not know that. Is your partner deceased? You have my sympathy.”
Jubilance frowned, shaking her head. “What? No, he’s fine. I mean, he’s still up here. Haven’t checked on him, but he should be fine. No connection to any of this, yeah?”
The aperture of Spire’s lens irisied shut and then open again, repeating the process a couple times as she blinked rapidly at the new human. “You did not tell him.” She said with a perplexed certainty.
”Yeah, no duh.” Jubilance laughed bitterly. “What, would you tell someone about all this, just because… actually you don’t need to answer this question, you’re an exception, sorry, I forgot.” She shook her head at Spire and pointed to James instead. “Would you tell someone about magic just because you were dating them?”
”…I… I mean…” James slowly raised a hand to extend a finger toward Alanna.
”You two are dating?” Jubilance asked, eyebrows up.
Tylor sighed and stopped despondently picking at the takeout container full of cold fries that he’d brought along. Still chewing, he gave them an apologetic look. “She slept through your whole thing in the car, remember?”
”Also, if we wanna be fair,” Alanna opted into the conversation with a grin, “you told Anesh first.”
”I’m also dating Anesh!” He checked his tone, stopping himself from yelling as he threw his hands up. It would have been nice if their hotel rooms had more places to sit, James figured, so they could do this comfortably upstairs instead of out here. Even if out here was kind of okay. “The point Spire’s going for, I think, is that it’s sort of… weird?… to us, to not tell someone close to you about dungeon stuff. Unless there’s an antimeme problem.” James admitted. “Which I guess is why Sarah never told me…”
Alanna stretched out a long leg, tapping James’ foot with her own boot. “You’re not dating Sarah.”
”Well.” He gave her a look, and she laughed back at him.
Jubilance just rolled her eyes at them. “Look, everyone hides stuff from their boyfriends. And I was right, because if I didn’t, then he’d probably be dead anyway.” She said it more defensive than bitter.
Alanna and James shared a grimace as they met eyes across the coffee table. “Do I hide stuff?” Alanna muttered in his direction. “I don’t think I hide stuff.”
”I overshare and you can read my mind anyway.” James quietly murmured back.
”Oh fuck you two.” Jubilance snorted. “You’re telling me you never want to go through each other’s phones? Do some snooping? See what the other one really has to hide?” She challenged.
James felt like this was getting a little off track, but he shrugged and humored her. “I mean, no? Alanna, do you wanna look through my phone?”
”Not really. Like, what am I gonna even find? Screenshots of tumblr posts you laughed at, and your grindr account? Third app that has an abrupt-R-ending?”
”The third app is called humblr, and it’s for people roasting me so I don’t get a big ego.” James said with a smug nod. “Anyway yeah no that’s super fucked up actually.” He openly challenged Jubilance. “Just fucking tell people stuff. It’s so much easier. Now, before she murders me with her glare, let’s compare notes.”
”Right.” Tylor shifted his chair forward, blocking Jubilance’s overt anger. “Both the dungeons are being watched. Different people too. Sorry. But both of the buildings are empty. If we want to, we could get in. Getting out would be the hard part, but… you guys have teleporters.”
”Never teleport out of time dilation.” James, Alanna, and Spire all said at the same time with almost exactly the same grim memory. For Spire especially, literally the first time she’d ever teleported anywhere, and the first time she’d seen the sky, had been marked by powerful nausea and a migraine capable of killing a yak.
Jubilance took that in stride. “Sure. But we can get in, right? I mean, I’m in no rush, but we could if we needed to just call in a hundred knights, secure the Canada Post building, shoot anyone that gets close, and declare ourselves in charge.”
”Two problems.” James raised his fingers in a V, before flicking one of them with his other hand. “One. Don’t shoot random people. Two, and more strategic, we have no clues as to the force size we would be facing if we did that.” He ticked off an invisible finger. “Three, while the Order strives to be a good steward to the dungeons under our purview, they aren’t really places to own or conquer. At most, we control the area around them and don’t advertise access. Or, if a dungeon is actively evil, we try to find ways to stop it or limit its harmful actions.” James thought for a second, and then added, “Four, if we do treat dungeons as places to own, then the native sophonts have the most right to them, so there’s that, but I guess four-point-one, the native sophonts might actually be the people we’d be fighting, so we loop back around to don’t shoot random people.”
Spire hissed softly to draw attention to herself. “As well, we have no tactical goals to accomplish with the dungeons. Their magic is not needed at the moment, and there is no crisis inside of them that we know of. Though I have a question.”
”What’s up?” James shifted to face the camraconda.
”Why are they being watched?” Spire asked.
Tylor gave a shrug. “Because someone wants them to themselves? It’s not that weird, right? You guys are the weird ones - and I guess we are now too - because you just give away the power when you have the opportunity. But a lot of people are going to want that power for themselves.”
”Yeah, sure, we’ve experienced Utah.” Alanna said. “But that sort of just amplifies Spire’s point. How do you secure a dungeon entrance?”
Spire had an answer way too fast for James’ comfort. “Dungeons tend to keep themselves secret. Information about them spreads slowly. If you know that there isn’t a group like ours using it, you empty the host structure, then watch the known entrances for a month, and eliminate any competition. Then you can safely use the space without interference.”
”…you think they’re picking off delvers?” Jubilance asked. “What am I saying. Of course they are. They probably found us that way, huh? They wouldn’t even need to ambush us near the dungeon, just tail us home. God, that would help wouldn’t it? Pick off other delvers we make contact with. That’s probably how they found the smuggler guy, right?”
”Seems likely.” Tylor said. “The only question then is who’s doing the eliminating. Alanna said you learned something weird?” He asked James.
James nodded, drumming his fingers on the padded arm of the chair. ”Yeah. The mayor is selling access to dungeon life. Maybe people, maybe not, I can’t be sure.”
Spire gave a short burst of a hiss. “Also he is betraying the people he is working with.” She added. “Somehow. The nature of the double cross is obfuscated. Selling to two parties? Unknown.”
“He’s also doing so with the permission of an outside group, possibly government, but more likely people like us only evil.” James continued, trying to not sound as exhausted as he felt all of a sudden. “He mistook me for one of their agents. Oh, a lot of government employees here, including emergency responders, are going to have magic. He’s not just selling, he’s distributing to his people. Which is a weird direction for things to go.”
”You fucking do that too!” Jubilance leaned forward on her taller chair with an incredulous stare and a hammering of her hands onto her knees.
”Yeah, and you already established that we’re weird.” Alanna countered. “People hoarding power don’t typically give it away. And he is giving it away, even if he’s also making money. Actually that’s… very on brand for us. What are you thinking?”
”That I really hope he’s not evil.” James sighed. “Because I would love to make him a rogue. He lied to me at least twice, but about things that I don’t have details on. He’s charming, looks like he works out, and he knows the value of magic. It would just depend on if he’s a cultural fit.”
”Sorry, hi, hey.” Tylor raised a hand. “Uh… isn’t he one of the people that took over this city? He probably had our friends murdered. What the fuck are you doing?”
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
”First off, he was legally elected.” James countered. “Also we still don’t know. Though I’ll admit it doesn’t look good for him, and like I said…”
”We expect conflict.” Spire finished.
”Right. So we know between our operations that there’s a minimum of three groups in play. The mayor and his people, the people he ‘reports’ to, and the third group you spotted watching the second dungeon.” James tried to relax back into the seat and found he couldn’t untense. “Also a potential fourth group, in the form of whoever was stalking those cops. Oh, that’s where Zhu is, by the way. Also stalking cops. But politely.”
Jubilance raised her eyebrows. ”Really?” Her voice hadn’t really lost any of the sarcastic bite.
”No. He’s probably not being polite. It’ll be fine, he actually can find his way back to Alanna or me anytime.” James let out a long breath. “So, team. What do we do with this intel?”
The group sat quietly for a moment, mulling it over. Tylor and Jubilance wanted to be on the attack right away, but neither of them said it out loud. Alanna could feel it from them, though, along with a darker guilt from Tylor about something that he wasn’t telling them. She shot James a skulljack message about it, letting him know that they’d need to deal with that sooner rather than later, and her partner pinged back acknowledgment.
Spire’s own thoughts were biased, she knew, but she actually was planning to press for going into the first, and still unnamed, dungeon. Making contact with the as-yet-mostly-unseen shadows would be critical if they were going to figure out the true landscape of this social environment. But she hesitated, wanting to know what Zhu had found before she opened that particular conversation up.
And James… well James was already out of patience. This was not his paladin specialty, which was why he was actually going to more formally turn over command to Spire later tonight. He was good at being a problem; being fired into a situation and told to fuck things up for someone else, and surviving the aftermath too. He was also an amazing explorer, and had a love of dungeons and their magic that made him exceptional at finding new and weird uses for things. But he wasn’t a calm and calculating rogue. Spire was better for this than him, for now. He was sure there would be chaos he could thrive in eventually. For now, he was also waiting for Zhu.
The silence was broken by Alanna, cutting through the complex and layered emotions of each member of their forward group. “We can make a decision when Zhu’s back.” She said. “For now, downtime. Rest, catch up on emails, whatever. If Zhu isn’t back in a couple hours, James and I will go deal with that.”
”Violently, I assume.” Spire suggested, then let out a long breath. “I require food. No, not that.” She twisted away as Tylor offered her his cold fries. “Though thank you. Technically. I am going to the room to eat what was brought with us, even though local food seems untainted.”
”I’d like some social isolation too.” James said, standing up with a groan as his bones protested. “Meet back here in a few hours? Say, ten PM?”
”Sounds good. Gives us time to hit the hotel bar.” Tylor said. “Hey, this is on the Order’s tab, right? Do we get a per diem?”
”…don’t bankrupt us, but don’t worry about it.” James said, sure he’d regret that later.
”Mind if I hang out with you?” Alanna asked, a complex back and forth between herself and James taking place digitally as they made a rough plan for trying to get their allies to open up.
Jubilance just shrugged. “Sure, why not. Got any good gossip about the other knights?”
”Shockingly, yes.” Alanna stood up to ruffle James’ hair, giving him a reassuring smile and getting one back in return, the simple gesture sharing almost as much as all their secret text messages put together. “Go nap. I’ll kick you awake later.” She told him.
”Sure, sure. Alright, Spire, you’re the smart one, where the hell are the elevators? I’ve already forgotten.”
The camraconda was, fortunately, actually the smart one, and had a map of the hotel she’d made herself open through her skulljack the whole time.
_____
“I’ll be right in. I’m gonna grab a candy from the weird little vending machine zone.” James told Spire as he hip checked the door’s lock, the keycard in his wallet eliciting a green light and letting the camraconda pop their room open.
”We have candy at home.” Spire told him, using leverage and her own head rather than the mechanical arms she was wearing to open the heavy door. “Though I suppose we are assuming the food here is safe.”
James shrugged, rapidly losing energy even through his Sewer boost as he felt like he was able to wind down for the first time all day. “The candy at home is all dungeon stuff.” He said. “I kinda just want the horrible wretched fake peanut butter that Officium Mundi just doesn’t make.” He held the inconveniently hefty door so it didn’t crunch into her tail, before splitting off down the hotel’s hallway.
The place was very clean in a very boring way. Smooth green carpet with tan edgings gave a little psychological nudge toward walking in the middle and not next to the recessed doors for the myriad compact single bed rooms. The wall regularly studded with laundry chutes and fire extinguishers was a constant reminder that this was a business, and not a home designed for comfort or even for clients. This was a place meant to be in and out of in a detached way, for everyone involved.
In theory, James appreciated how impersonal it was. No social anxiety needed, just check in, go to your room, maybe see one or two other people on the elevator, and then vanish into your secure space where you could pass out and wait until more interesting stuff happened outside.
In practice though, he was finding that it was uncomfortable in a lot of small ways. Too cold, too bland, too dimly lit. There was a little alcove at the intersection of another hallway that had the ever-present ice dispenser and a handful of vending machines in it, and instead of thinking of it as a neat communal area, James just felt like it was depressingly capitalist that he had to pay three bucks for a Butterfinger.
“Holy shit I’m morose today.” He muttered as he watched the vending machine’s inner mechanisms spin. The soft thunk of his candy falling matched by a similar noise out in the hallway, which stopped him from stooping down to grab his treat. “Hm?” James murmured, turning his head.
Sticking that same head out the doorway of the alcove, he looked up and down the hall. On his left, the intersection, and just past it there was a door to a stairwell and a big rectangular floor to ceiling window guaranteed to give someone vertigo if they took in the view. On his right, just the empty hall back to the room. No one around, though.
”I’m getting paranoid.” James tried to joke to himself, all of a sudden acutely aware of the fact that he was alone.
It was such a weird thing to notice, but it stood out. He hadn’t been alone for a long time. Either there was someone else in the apartment with him, or he had Zhu along in his thoughts, or at his most isolated in the Lair’s offices he still had a potted plant ever-ready to start a friendly fight. Being this much by himself, and noticing, made the hair on his neck stand up, and it made him hesitate to stoop down to the vending machine’s plastic flap even though logically he knew that Alanna was downstairs and Spire was maybe two hundred feet away.
He still did though. He wasn’t leaving without his snack.
As soon as James stepped out into the hall, flipping the candy bar over in his hand like a batton, he knew with a grim certainty that he should not have been trying to fight off the feeling of something being wrong. He knew this because someone shot him.
The gunshot was muffled by the carpet and the acoustics of the walls, which meant it was merely incredibly loud rather than completely deafening. It struck him in the chest, the bullet not one either of his shield bracers were set for, and probably could have killed him outright if not for the safety charm from Kiki that he was wearing on his belt. The charm burst apart in silver fragments with a musical chime, to regenerate later, and left James only startled and off guard, instead of just dead.
The second gunshot hit him in the cheek and took out another charm, before he could finish his startled shout. “What in the-?!” James had more or less caught up to the fact that he was being ambushed, and tried to twist to throw himself back into the vending machine zone, which was when bullets three and four hit his flank and brought him down to one charm left. What was supposed to be his last resort backup already drained away for at least a week or so.
He lost his grip on his candy as he hit the floor and pulled himself forward, bullets tearing into the wall and carpet as his attacker missed his legs. At least a couple shots went wide and he heard them hit the glass on the window down the hall too. James couldn’t even see who was shooting at him, which felt deeply unfair. He crawled forward, arms easily letting him slide across the dirty linoleum floor in here, and pulled himself into a crouch. Sticking his head back out for just a second, and trying not to flinch as another gunshot hit over his head, James fired off both of the absorbed red orbs he had down the hall, just to see if any of them worked on whoever was shooting.
He ducked back before his eyes could focus on the figure that was firing on him, two pieces of information richer. They were between one and two hundred and thirty centimeters tall, and their ideal diet was mostly industrial gemstones and radiation.
”Great.” James heard himself say. His hand moved to where his gun wasn’t, because he’d been going through this whole thing unarmed and his weapons were all either in the hotel room or in the van downstairs. He also wasn’t supposed to be ambushed by their rooms because they were supposed to show up in the hotel’s system as being in different rooms, so this seems really unfair to him.
There was a burst of motion around the edge of the wall, and then from his crouch James was looking up at exactly what he’d expected to see. A shadow.
It wasn’t what he expected from when Tylor and Jubilance called them shadow people. It was only vaguely humanoid at all. It also looked like the overlapping core of a layered shadow on a summer day; light and dark all at once, but made physical. There was a solidity to it, even as it didn’t look like it was really an object. The part of it that was vaguely human was that it was taller than it was wide, though wavy in shape, and it did have legs of some kind. Or at least, it sounded that way as it ran; rapid thuds on the floor signaling an approach. There was a thin skein of paler shadow around it that almost looked like clothing; a veil that hid a lot of its core from the neck down
James didn’t want to say it had tentacles exactly, but it certainly did have a lot of splits in its body that made it seem like its limbs were flexible stalks growing out of its bloblike shape. Either that or it had three or four long mouths. Or both, maybe. Either way, the effect of seeing the thing up close was that it put him in mind of a leafy root vegetable. With the smoothed middle section maybe being it’s ‘head’ and everything above that being extra limbs.
It was also wearing a belt with a holster, and it seemed to have no trouble handling a firearm.
James didn’t get a chance to get a word out before it was aiming that gun at him. Hitting the floor with his shoulder, James flung himself into a roll that put him underneath the bulky adversary. Its legs weren’t just legs, he realized too late. The creature wasn’t symmetrical, but the quartet of limbs it was using to move around were also flexible and had fine manipulator capability. It could certainly drop it’s handgun and catch it in one of the lower limbs, shoving the pale veil of shadow aside and leveling it at James as he tried to get into a blind spot.
He didn’t give it the chance, both hands now close enough to scythe together; one caught the gun’s grip, the other caught the wrist of the targeting limb. He hadn’t wanted to rely on it being solid, but with both hands in place he had enough leverage to yank it off balance, even as it pulled the trigger and really deafened him when the shot went off into the floor.
Ignoring the buzzing in his ears, James hauled himself to his feet, bracing his shoulder underneath the shadow form and heaving upward. He was rewarded with about a foot of distance as it was a weighty creature, slamming it into the wall and shattering the closest light fixture. It had been a smooth circle of opaque white glass with a radiant bulb inside, and now it was mostly shattered glass getting in James’ hair. The light, either when he’d shoved his opponent into it or now that it was gone, didn’t seem to do anything to change the shadow, so it was reasonable to assume that they weren’t so flimsy as to be damaged by light itself.
”W-wait!” James held out a hand as he got some distance, the pistol he’d come away with held in his other as he flicked the safety on and threw it under a vending machine. “St-“
He didn’t get far into his plea before he was grabbed by the shadow. Bodily picked up and slammed into the wall as it twisted itself around, and James had to suddenly realize that the main body wasn’t so much a body as it was more limb, just compacted and held together until needed maybe. The arm that had hit him ended in a kind of smooth puddle of shadows that was already stretching and rearranging to form gripping fingers.
Unwilling to let that happen, James started hammering it with elbow strikes, and after the fifth hit he heard a startled howl of pain from the creature, coming from at least one of the upper growths he hadn’t been able to guess at being arms or mouths. Unfortunately, hurting it didn’t make it just let him go; it made it throw him. And despite his bizarre purple modification for controlling his movement in the air, James had nowhere near enough to stop from slamming into the carpet and rolling over his own ass to land in a heap.
”I know what you are!” The shadow’s voice was shockingly normal after the opening assault. Though James couldn’t hear clearly over the ringing in his ears, it just sounded like slightly staticky words; nothing at all like how many infomorphs spoke in ways that evoked concepts for example. “Die!”
”No thanks!” James got his arms up in time to knock aside the charging blow from the shadow as it rushed him. A quick cast of Pave took one of its legs out from under it, and James lunged upward with a sweeping kick that helped leverage it into the wall next to the stairwell door.
That door opened a moment after, and the two people on the other side froze as they watched the shadow monster grab the hanging fire extinguisher and try to slam it into James’ head with a howl of rage. One of them screamed too, but James didn’t have time to think about that, he was busy.
”I’m not-“ he missed a brushing block and got hit by the edge of the heavy metal tube, his neck certain to bruise from that. He used a Move Person and a Pave to buy himself space, landing on his feet in a badly cornered spot at the very end of the hotel’s hall. Continuing with a slightly choked voice, he pointed at the shadow. “I’m not your enemy!” James gasped out.
The shadow facing him rushed at him again, its unfurling limbs to the side leaving no room for escape unless James wanted to teleport past. Which he could, that was definitely an option. But he’d used a lot of absorbed orbs today, and more than a few just now, so he was hoping to get out of this without having to push it. So James braced and quickly slipped into a fighting stance, ready to slam the thing against the big window and then roll away.
It threw the fire extinguisher first. And James tilted to the side, letting it slam into the window with a crack of already protesting glass being hit by a heavy metal object. He set a shield bracer for punch, hoping that would work, but when the shadow just bulldozed past his guard with its heavier body weight that apparently didn’t count, and James found himself lifted off the ground with his back slammed against the same window that the fire extinguisher had just met.
”You took everything from me!” The shadow yelled into James’ face as he reflexively struggled against the pin.
James was pretty sure he had a half dozen ways out of this. But he was also sure, after that sentence, that he legitimately was not the enemy that the shadow thought he was. “I…” he brought hand off the main trunk of the limb that had splattered against the glass to hold him in place like some kind of sticky black putty, and used it to pry the smaller protrusion off his throat with force. “I am not your enemy.” He gasped out. “Please let me go.”
The shadow’s eyes, or at least, the horizontal oval bands of subdued color that dotted the front of its amorphous body that James assumed were eyes, widened and brightened at him. “Liar.” It declared in its static tinged voice, one of its limbs pulling far back to then launch forward at James’ head.
His bracer didn’t trigger as he jerked out of the way, so it clearly didn’t count as a punch. Though he hated the setting, he was paying attention enough to set the bracer to automatic and hope that he could at least get a name for what this counted as that everyone else could use. “I’m serious.” James said, the fingers on his right hand starting to scream in pained protest as he fought against the leverage of the appendage that was trying to get back to choking him against the window.
”Liar!” The shadow repeated, throwing another strike. James tried to shove himself out of position, but his struggle didn’t work as well that time, and he felt the heavy blow impact his ribs.
”I just got here!” James told it, mentally getting ready to unleash the rest of his Velocity in the form of Paves to break free, and then go get Spire. Actually he should have done that from moment one; a mental command to his skulljack told Spire and Alanna he was getting his ass kicked before he had to refocus. “I cannot possibly have done anything, I have been in this city for less than twelve hours!” James yelled as his hand gave out and the shadow shoved him back with renewed aggression.
But then it paused. Seeming to consider what he’d said. “Maybe.” It spoke, its long side limb pulling back to hit him again. James checked his shield bracer; it was apparently a pseudopod impact, so that was fine at least. He’d use the probably moment of shock after the shield went up to break free, he figured. The shadow held him tighter as it paused, staring carefully at him. “Maybe not.” It rattled out with obvious live anger.
“Look, we-“ The badly thought out comment about getting off on the wrong pseudopod never made it out of James’ mouth. The shadow lashed forward with startling speed, the long length of its tendril limb having enough space to move that it definitely triggered the shield bracer.
The golden dome of light lines didn’t seem to surprise it at all though, and James felt his stomach sink as the grip around him tightened to a crushing pressure that had no hesitation in it. “That is what I thought.” The shadow snarled. “Fine. Block this, gatekeeper!”
Being jerked through the air wasn’t enough to hurt James, really, but being slammed through the already weakened window, thick and deadly sharp glass shards coming with him, was enough to shatter the last of Kiki’s charms. He was pretty sure he hit it pretty good with at least one of his Pave casts, but then James was in open air, and with awkward momentum that meant he was spinning head over heels.
He should be afraid. He was usually afraid of heights. But right now, he wasn’t actually ‘high up’, he was already falling, so the worst had come to pass. Instead, the one thought that stuck in his brain was a lot more grim than just his appointment with the ground.
The attention his shield bracers had gotten earlier wasn’t because they were generically magical.
It was because someone here, the shadows here, recognized them. Specifically, those bracers, and their abilities.
They recognized Status Quo gear.
And James had a good five seconds of airtime to contemplate that nightmare scenario.
He didn’t though. A rapid cast of Move Person tried to pull him through one of the lower windows, but the tumbling view of the ground, horizon, sky, and hotel made him miss. He found himself farther out from the hotel, and about fifty feet higher up in the air, which meant he had even more time to fuck this up.
He was vaguely aware he was yelling wordlessly as he fell, air tugging at his clothes and hair, his ponytail whipped around his face like a clinging mesh. He was also aware that his attempt to use Bones Of Flashing Metal to drain his velocity wasn’t even close to enough to stop him accelerating toward the ground. Though it did probably mean his knees weren’t about to explode. He also briefly saw a flash of orange rising up over a nearby building, so Zhu might catch him if he was fast enough. Though he wouldn’t be, James could do that math on the fly at least.
Again, the slight purple orb boost to his aerial maneuverability did fuck all when faced with an actual situation where it should matter. James was getting tired of orbs like that. He was buying a wingsuit when he survived this.
Spreading his arms and slowing his tumble, James saw the street approaching fast. He had maybe a couple seconds left, but at least that made it easier to not mistime his last ditch effort.
Mountain Of The Self started draining Breath from him so fast that it would straight up kill him if he held it up for more than a couple seconds. He was one of maybe a handful of people who even had the capacity to use it for more than a second at all, and for once, the fact that he fell twice as fast as most people from his much less convenient purple orb meant that he didn’t have to do math or guess at the timing.
The spell didn’t feel like anything except cold. His impact on the metal pole of a streetlight also didn’t feel like anything, but the civil pillar, slightly dented by a generation of minor traffic mishaps, certainly didn’t survive the encounter and folded instantly. James’ form kept going, his angle of descent unchanged as he continued into the street and through the back of a semi truck trailer. The truck, full of thousands of bottles of soda neatly packaged for delivery to convenience and grocery stores throughout the city, also failed to resist the James-shaped projectile. Metal screamed and tore away, cardboard and plastic were ripped apart, and his vision was obstructed by both the dusty explosion of the tires on the other side of the truck that he crushed and popped as well as the spray of several hundred gallons of sticky beverage.
Compared to that, the actual result of hitting the street and rolling like a ragdoll until he impacted the parking garage on the other side of the wide city street caused only minimal collateral damage in the process.
Mountain Of The Self, and James breathlessly sent a semi-prayer of thanks to the Climb for this, didn’t stop you from being slowed. So at least he wasn’t buried a half mile inside the planet.
James pulled himself to his feet, assisted by a random passerby who had dropped his umbrella to run over after the apparent truck crash. “Holy fucking hell man! You okay?” The bystander asked as James took the offered help and got out of the spreading brown pool of motor oil and Pepsi that was mixing with the slushy fallen snow on the ground. The truck looking like its side was almost organic in how the long metal rectangle had been ripped away; a flap of crumpled silver skin bleeding dark liquid from inside.
”I am very annoyed.” James said as he let go of the man’s support, drawing on Endurance to keep himself going after that massive expenditure of Breath, his lungs screaming at him as he took deep steady gulps of air. “Thanks.” He brushed off the further attempt to help and also to get him to sit down, instead walking around the rear of the truck he’d just destroyed and past the sparking base of the streetlight that he’d similarly taken out on the way down that was blocking the street. Cars were already coming to a stop, and traffic was stacking up as no one could see a clear way around the wreckage. A crowd was forming, various people wandering out of businesses or the hotel itself to see what the show was. Sirens followed not too long after, just as James made it to the front doors of the hotel and pushed his way into the lobby.
Jubilance caught sight of him just before she ran into the stairwell, and called up to the other two ahead of her. “He’s not dead!” James heard her say.
”Hi. Sorry.” He waved, with the kind of casual lack of embarrassment that came from the aftermath of a fight and also oxygen deprivation, to the wide eyed woman behind the counter. “Oh. I’m dripping. Great. That might need a mop.” He was trailing a line of spilled soda behind him, and also he realized he was probably feeling cold because his shirt had exploded into an orb. Again.
The next thing he knew, Alanna was wrapping him in a bear hug. “I’m going to fucking kill whoever did this to you.” She said, ignoring the bit of glass stuck to James that was trying to slice her skin open.
”Please don’t. Also we need to get up there before the cops show up. Spire should have them. Or she needs our help. Elevator, Alanna elevator.” James wheezed out a laugh as he directed her. “I will not do the stairs. Not right now.”
”Yeah, sure buddy, come on.” Alanna ignored the sticky coating on his coat and skin, and jerked a thumb at Tylor. “You two take the stairs. Both sides. Don’t rush, don’t approach if you see it, just cover and call if it tries to escape that way. Got it?”
”Police?” Tylor’s single snap word was a question of tactics, not legality.
”Don’t try to stall them. Just get out of the way and pretend you’re normal.” Alanna commanded. “Go. We’ll see you upstairs.”
The orange line of Zhu’s approach slid through the hotel’s doors and caught up to James just an instant before the elevator doors closed, and Alanna breathed a slight sigh of relief as he arrived. Feather blooming out across James’ side, avoiding the bruised areas, Zhu flicked away about two cups of lingering soda into the elevator’s interior as he manifested. “You know, if you’d waited a minute, you could have done that with at least one wing on.”
”I’m too normal to be a Final Fantasy boss fight.” James said, voice shaking. “Hi.”
”Hi. Holy shit, you’re doing bad.” Zhu’s main eye turned up to Alanna. “He’s in shock.”
”He got defenestrated.” Alanna said, her jaw clenched. “And I don’t fucking care if it’s a mistake, I’m going to punch someone.”
”Please don’t.” James voice sounded far away to his own ears. “I do need to sit down though.” He added as the elevator dinged open on the tenth floor. There were more than a few people out of their rooms in the hallway, apparently watching the spectacle that was a camraconda doing her job. “Oh good, Spire has it under control. Hi Spire.”
Alanna fumbled her own room key out, and shoved James inside their private space. “Zhu, take care of him.” She said, turning to the frozen shadow that was halfway out of some weird little corner room near the end of the hall, the dusky form illuminated from behind by the bright glow of vending machines, a handgun most of the way to being reholstered. “Good job Spire.”
”Thank you. That is a complete lie. I was too slow.” Spire said as she kept her camera gaze focused. “I can do this all day. But I would prefer not to. What now?”
”Now…” Alanna scowled. “Now I don’t want to do this in the open.” She said. “Everyone! Show’s over! Back inside please, there’s some dangerous chemicals in the air!” The lie was obvious and stupid, but it still got most people to leave, and the couple that didn’t probably wouldn’t stop staring anyway. “You.” She growled, pointing at the shadow, stalking toward it and snatching the handgun away, checking the safety and magazine before adding it to her own belt. “In there. Now.” She pointed at the room that was technically Tylor and Jubilance’s.
A quick nod to Spire and the shadow was allowed to move again. It immediately tried to backhand Alanna, and she just let it. The blow was weak, and it seemed like it hurt the shadow more than her. Then her fist drove into its midsection and her other hand wrapped around one of the thicker parts of its upper form, just below where many of its mouths or tentacles or whatever grew from. Holding it tightly, Alanna choke-slammed the being back against the wall. Hard. “You just threw my boyfriend down a ten floor drop.” Alanna growled. “And he still asked me to play nice. Get in the fucking room.”
She loosened her grip. The shadow stared at her with the little loops of color on its body trembling like WinAmp visualizers. “I did what-“ It’s static voice went silent as Alanna’s own eyes widened in fury.
The shadow got in the fucking room.
”Spire.” Alanna said. “Keep James safe, don’t open the door for the cops.”
”I am not a fool. Will you need help?” Spire asked.
”No, but call Tylor and Joy and let them know to go wait in the bar.”
Spire nodded, moving to grab the hotel room door with her mouth. “Understood. Good luck. Be safe.”
”Yeah.” Alanna took a deep breath. She needed to not be angry for this part. Which was going to be very difficult. But she was a professional. She’d been through worse on Response, though it was usually aimed at her and not the guy she loved. So this felt different. She would have liked more time to prepare for this conversation. Like, any time.
James would probably love this shit, once he was more alert. The problem had just walked into him, and that was what he thought was funniest and most effective. Alanna held a slightly different opinion. But she still got into the second hotel room just before the elevator let a pack of hastily moving local law enforcement out.
Time for her own conversation.
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