As the power of a level-up rolled through Stephen’s body, an image was superimposed onto his mind. Stephen, years younger, sitting on the grass as his father worked, his hands tight around a shovel as it stabbed into the dirt with a rhythmic thud.

Stephen shook his head. “Not now!“

The system hummed. “I was going to speed up your perception of time to show you that one, but there’s a chance it might distract you from coming fights, so I’ll save it for later in the spirit of fairness.“

“Thank you for your mercy,” Stephen thought with an eye roll.

He turned to Del to find her climbing to her feet. Her shoulder still looked rough, heavy scabs that made him wince, lining her skin. But she was moving the arm and didn’t look like she was about to bleed out any more. “Everyone all right?“ He asked. His friends nodded, and Vern’s crew turned to face him.

“We’re fine, but we’re missing someone. Where is Vince?“ Carla asked.

Stephen blinked at her. “I thought you guys knew where he was.“

Vern rubbed his chin, his eyes full of worry. “We did. He went off to fight the mini-boss attached to Fletcher’s. The captain was his own thing. We know he won since this event ended. But we should’ve seen him by now.“

Carla fiddled with her phone. “I’m trying to get a hold of him, but he’s not –“ she cut off as her call went through. She blinked, and then her face drained of color.

“We’re on the way.“ Carla said and then turned and started running for the door.

“Some of the bozos who voted to start the event early are chasing him. He said there’s at least 4 of them, but there might be more.“

Vern and Vanessa ran to follow Carla, and after exchanging some quick glances, Stephen and the others pounded after them. Vern gave them a grateful look as they caught up. Markus grinned. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to let something happen to our new friends. He’ll be fine.“

Vern nodded and firmed his jaw. “Thank you. I know he won’t actually die, but –“

But that doesn’t actually make it easier.“

“Not much.”

They tore out of the Captain Cook hot on Carla’s heels. “Did he say where he is?“ Micheal asked.

Carla nodded. “He said he was sprinting towards the PAC.”

Micheal pursed his lips and then glanced at Stephen. “Carriage driver?“

Stephen nodded. “Carriage driver.“

Micheal turned to Carla as they ran. “Alright, this is easy. All you guys need to do is intend to save me. You don’t have to actually do it, it’s the intent that’s the important part, but you have mean it.“

Carla stared at him. “Okay…”

Steven focused on Micheal, gathering his focus and letting his body run on autopilot.

“Everyone let Micheal get in front of you,” Margie called.

Carla looked dubious, but she still fell into step behind Micheal.

Stephen focused and brought a shield into motion a few feet behind Micheal’s shoulder blades. Then he shoved it, letting his Augment rip it forward straight at Micheal's spines.

~<>~<>~

Jordan had kept up a steady stream of grumbling for the last 30 minutes. At this point, it was as much a way to keep himself centered as to express his displeasure at the fucking System.

A Skill box hovered in the corner of his vision, silver edges with a gray whip wrapped around a forearm in its center.

Under different circumstances, Jordan would’ve been ecstatic to get the Skill. It materialized a whip that could stretch much further than its size suggested, and at his command, it could contract like a snake, pulling him along like a budget Spider-Man.

But since a crab the size of a St. Bernard was currently attempting to get into the train with Jordan, the last thing he wanted to do was bring it closer to him.

Event! Trains, Eldritch Horrors, And Crabs. Objective: survive the onslaught until the boss is revealed. Then, defeat the boss or survive it to complete the event.

Jordan’s treacherous skill had teleported him directly into the middle of the train yard at the downtown Port and into an Event in progress.

The event timer ticked down on the other side of his vision. Ten minutes; if he could make it another 10 minutes, the boss would show up. Give him a few more minutes after that, and he’d be home free.

He could try to run, but there was a horde of scaled fishmen, octopus-like monsters, and the aforementioned crabs outside. Besides, the Events did give rewards. If he was already in the middle of one, he could at least try to get it.

The crab outside the train snipped its claws at Jordan in a menacing manner, and he felt his stomach drop. Those things could snip his arm right off.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Come on, Jordan, don’t be afraid! The Hunters were much scarier than crabs!

Well, that was true. It didn’t make the sight of a giant crab or any other monster less scary. It seemed fighting worse monsters did not impress upon his cowardice that these crabs were beneath him.

Rick, an older man with sun-tanned skin and dark brown eyes, shouted before hurling a fireball out the train window. The man’s Class seemed shockingly normal to Jordan. He was basically just a fire mage. He’d thrown a few fireballs as well as chucked some sort of flaming rope out at one point as well.

“Why couldn’t you’ve given me a Class like that! That thing looks sane.”

“Sanity is such a dubious concept. What might be insane to one is rational to another. Besides, your Class has far greater potential for interesting data.“

Jordan muttered louder at the System before striking out with the whip at a crab getting too close for comfort. The crustacean screeched, and Jordan willed the whip to release instead of constricting.

Two groups were on the train, but they had thankfully agreed to a truce for this Event. The System might make the Event easier if the number of participants went down, but there was no guarantee, so people were playing nice.

Jordan kept whipping crabs, who snipped angrily at him in return.

Some of the nastier monsters started charging his train car, and Jordan activated wizard's gambit.

Fire leaped from his raised hand and blasted for a two-headed fish creature with jaws bigger than Jordan‘s head. The fire hit the creature and condensed, compacting into a ball before ricocheting off into the nearby horde. The Skill kept going, bouncing and searing as it went.

Well, alright then, sometimes his luck was actually in his favor.

As soon as Jordan had the thought, the air to his right shimmered and then burst with golden confetti. A woman landed next to him with a thump, her hands on her hips and her legs spread shoulder width apart as she examined the surroundings with a bright smile.

“Oh, God, not you!“

The woman beamed at him, her dark eyes lighting up. “Jordi! How have you been! I haven’t seen you since the Contest.“

Jordan backed away from her and looked for something to put between them. “The Contest where you hounded me for an hour and a half nonstop!“

She grinned wider. “That was the prompt. There’s no hard feelings!“

He glared at her. “You kept chasing me for another hour and a half after it was over!“

“Just one tap wasn’t enough. I had to get three. It’s a lucky number, you know. I thought the System might give me something extra. It didn’t, in case you were wondering, but it was a lot of fun.“

Jordan felt a headache coming on. The mad woman had chased him like a bubbly terminator, and he’d been convinced she was out to kill him until the third time, she bumped him on the shoulder and just left.

“I think you took 10 years off my life with that stunt.“

Her eyes widened, and her dark brows climbed into her hairline. “You don’t have many of those left, I’m sorry.“

“Oh, come on! I’m 25!“

Rick growled at the two of them as he rushed by. “Would you two knock it off and help!“

They turned to see a crab the size of a minivan charging for the train. “Shit,” Jordan said at the same time the woman hopped and clapped her hands. “Oh, this is gonna be fun!”

~<>~<>~

As the shield sailed for Micheal’s spine, blue light snapped into place along his feet, and his speed surged. At the same time everyone following the man received a burst of speed as their own feet were suddenly clad in blue.

Steven dismissed the shield, but the blue light didn’t immediately fade. It hung for a second or two before deactivating. And before that could happen, Stephen drove a second shield at Micheal. Their speed ramped as Stephen summoned and dismissed the shields over and over.

They practically flew down the streets, the sights zipping by far faster than normal.

This trick wasn’t exactly easy. Stephen had to summon the shield close enough to Micheal that he was in legitimate danger of getting hit but not so close as to actually hit him. And he had to do it over and over again without stopping. Even worse, it drained far more energy than usual since he was technically attacking someone, not defending.

But despite that, the technique was worth it. Groups shouted at them as they passed, people locked in fights with strange monsters or other humans. Some people tried to take pot shots at them, but Stephen split his focus to defend them while keeping their ‘carriage’ in motion.

Downtown was a mess. People fought with monsters out of fairy tales, with strange creatures Stephen had never seen before, and the environment itself in some cases. As they turned a corner and blasted past a restaurant, Stephen saw a group playing hopscotch with a group of snowmen. He wasn’t sure what that was about and didn’t have the time to ask.

By the time they approached the pack, Stephen had seen enough bizarre sites to make him question reality, more so than he already did at this point.

They came up behind the tall building, approaching the park behind it.

Carla hadn’t said Vince was inside the PAC, just that he was coming near it. So Stephen was unsure what their next move was. Or at least, he was until an explosion tore apart the air. Red light bloomed several stories up, and Stephen sighed as Micheal immediately turned and angled towards the sound. “I really wish running towards the biggest sign of danger wasn’t almost certainly where we have to go.“

Del chuckled darkly. “With our luck? It is 100% where we need to go.

The backside of the PAC led into a small park with short hills dotted with young spruce. It had paths laid through it, and since it was winter, the center had been turned into a small ice rink with a large bull’s-eye drawn onto it for people to play games with.

Now, Vince was sliding across that bull’s-eye on his knees, a brilliant green arrow drawn back to his cheek as five figures chased him.

Stephen didn’t waste time. With Micheal’s Skill, they reached the group at a speed closer to a horse than a human, and has the figures turned to look at them, Stephen stopped the carriage and slammed a shield into the nearest man’s face. He went down onto the ice, and then Buford was there, biting down on his neck.

Things got real hectic, real fast.

The figures spun towards Stephen‘s group as Vanessa let out a cry and a flash of light. Since she was at the back of the group, they were spared the flash, but the bozos weren’t. Skills flared, blasts of energy, a strange ball that seemed to contort and warble as it approached, and one man who began to sink into the ground.

Shields slapped the projectiles away, or them all together, their aim horrible, thanks to Vanessa. Margie swapped Buford and Noodle rapidly, bouncing them between the men before they could orient themselves.

Vince fired arrows into the crowd while Vern raised both hands and sent out a cone of purple light.

It was chaos, arrows, shields, and dogs flying through the air in a brilliant cacophony.

The other group didn’t stand a chance. Within seconds of the fight starting, they vanished in pillars of Aurora-colored light.

Vince rested his back against the hill he’d slid next to. He let his bow sag to the ice. He nodded to them. “Thanks. Thought I was done for.”

“Well, what now?“ Micheal asked.

That prompted everyone to check their maps at the same time, which revealed a big fat timer over the PAC.

Margie pursed her lips and shrugged. “I’ve always been a fan of the arts. What do y’all say?“

Carla grinned. “Let’s go see a play.“