Trystin knew his power set didn’t really suit his crossbow. His powers were setup with the expectation of someone doing close quarters combat. He had the making to be a tank or brawler type combatant. His problem was, he didn’t want to get hurt. He assumed that he had gained the abilities due to his desire to protect the people around him, but he didn’t grow up in a world were physically protecting people was a normal necessity. He had made a small name for himself at school for not letting bullies have free reign over the less confrontational kids, which is something his mom was very proud of, but he had only ever gotten in one fight. Not that it was really much of a fight, some douche bag was picking on a freshman for being small. It ended up escalating to the to poor guy, who he later found out was named Michael, being pushed around when he tossed an insult back the much larger boys’ way. Trystin had stepped in and pulled Michael away from the bully. Apparently, he didn’t like that very much and threw a punch at Trystin for the sin of protecting someone. It didn’t take long for the big man to be on his back, restrained until the teachers could get there. Trystin didn’t want to fight or hurt anyone, not even that big asshole. The principle didn’t care though, he got suspended for three days anyways due to the “No Tolerance” rule for fighting.
Trystin had picked the Karma strand mostly just because it sounded interesting. He had always been interested in Buddhism, not because he had any actual religious beliefs, but because they were just an interesting set of beliefs that he wanted to know more about. That interest naturally resulted in him reading about it online quite a bit, and also taught him a lot about the ideas behind the Karma system.
Trystin walked at the back of the group he had decided to join in a last-minute panic. He liked Tanner, he reminded him of his history teacher. His teacher had been a soldier before, and he was very proud of his service and spent a lot of time comparing historical wars to modern day. Something in the way Tanner carried himself, it was the unwavering confidence that seemed so natural and trustworthy. The more he thought about the man though, the more he was a little scared of him. He couldn’t help but think “What kind of monster comes into a place like this and can so easily face down monsters and take on leadership without even stuttering.” He knew that the people around him felt just as scared as he did, but Tanner seemed almost… excited? Like it was just some interesting problem to solve. Not that he felt like the man’s words were disingenuous, just the opposite in fact. He knew with some level of certainty that he truly did care, but he could tell he also enjoyed thrill of all this.
As the team walked along, Trystin watched Tanner. His head was on a swivel, it was like he was homing in on something that was out there. Similar to watching a hacker in an FPS snap on to players he shouldn’t be able to see. He also took note of Austin. He walked leisurely next to Tanner, not paying much attention to his surroundings. They also had the occasional movements like they were having a conversation but he couldn’t see or hear them speaking. In the end, he was happy he had joined but still scared of what could be out there, he mostly just tried not to focus on what macabre scene they might stumble upon.
_ _ _ _
Sarah walked just behind Tanner and Austin. She knew the two had been friends before they all showed up here, they never tried to hide it but she knew some secrets loomed on the surface of the pair. Occasionally she would glace back and check on the kid that had joined them, she could see the fear in his body language and his walk. It reminded her of soldiers she had seen on the field, after she and her old team had come into rescue. He reminded her of the ones that survived while their friends didn’t. They always carried heartbreak, fear, and shame in their steps. Sarah was trained to help people survive and overcome the initial shock and panic of a fire fight, but what Trystin was going through was something for a trained psychologist to help with, not her. Her skill set stopped once the shooting was done and everyone was either stable or dead.
She knew her lack of action to talk to the poor kid wasn’t doing him any favors, but she also had no idea what to do for him. It was so outside her comfort zone. She had decided earlier to just give him some space and let him cope in his own way so she didn’t just fuck him up more. After a few minutes of reassuring herself about her decision, she refocused on Tanner.
“Are you going to tell me about your profession or are you still stalling?”
“Oh, sorry. Obviously, a lot of stuff happened and I kinda forgot. Austin and I were just catching up on what we each other’s team saw while out scouting. What did you want to know exactly?”
“No you weren’t.”
“Ugh, No I wasn’t what?”
“You guys weren’t talking.”
“Oh! Yea I forgot to tell you. We can communicate telepathically. Its not really that strong because the distance is pretty short, but it comes in handy and we’ve already gotten pretty used to it. I actually forgot we were doing it.”
“Yea, I didn’t forget. I miss his sexy voice but he seems to prefer this.”
“Dude, seriously?
“Yea, you’ve got a sexy voice. It isn’t my fault.”
“You’re sure you’re not gay? It isn’t a problem; id just like to know so I don’t pee in front of you.”
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“GUYS! Can we focus here for a second? What the fuck do you mean you can communicate telepathically? What happened with your profession? Why didn’t you get to pick? What powers did you get? Why do you seem so fucking powerful? And why when you speak do I get some inner desire to trust you?”
Tanner stopped walking and turned to face her. Austin Stopping a few steps after him.
“Well, that’s a lot to answer at once. Let me try. Getting us to focus in both super easy and hard. We are always focused but they rarely let me be serious. One of the powers I got bound Austin to me and if we are close to each other, we can speak to each other in our heads. That’s all it appears to do though so I’m not sure it’s all that powerful. I’m not sure why I didn’t get to pick, the MAP just gave me one called human resources and then gave me a bunch of error messages saying something about how I refused to accept something so small so it upgraded me to Minor Lord of Earth. As I said before, I got that power that lets us talk and another to issue quests but I haven’t used it yet. Was that everything?”
“I have so many more questions now, but no. Why do you seem so strong? When you speak, I feel like my mind is being influenced to trust you.”
“Oh yea, when the MAP bugged out it gave me a few achievements that gave me a bunch of stats.”
“How high are your stats? I’m guess that speaking thing is your charisma? It’s got to be in the twenty’s, right? That’s why you feel so strong?”
Tanner and Austin looked at each other for a second. She watched Austin shrug and Tanner turned back to her.
“My Charisma is at 71”
“Jesus Christ! That’s not just a bunch of stats, that’s not far from all my aspect stats combined! Is that the only stat high like that?”
“15, 16, 43, 31, 8, 22, 16, 36, 26, 71 in that order. Please try to keep it to yourself though. I don’t know how people will feel about it yet.”
“Okay… I guess I feel a little bit better about following you out here. If you don’t trust the others, why are you trusting me?”
“I’ve got to start trusting someone, it isn’t just me and Austin out here. You two joining us to go find those lost people without knowing seems like a good reason to trust you. Plus, how you handled the Ahmed situation, I was impressed. He might have died if you weren’t there.”
“Its hard to know if he would have survived anyways, but thank you. I just resorted to my old life and did what I could.”
“You did your best to potentially save someone that you don’t know, in a dangerous environment, not knowing what else might be coming. It doesn’t get much more trustworthy.”
Sarah turned to look at Trystin who had also stopped a few yards back. She looked him up and down.
“What about you? Can he trust you too?”
“Ye… Yes… I want you do better. I want to get stronger and protect people. I have a lot to learn and a lot of fear to get past, but this is my chance to prove myself. I need to show myself that I can be the man I want to. Once I’ve proved it to myself, ill do my best to prove it to you too.”
“I trust you, you’re already stronger than you give yourself credit for.” Tanner said while walking in his direction. “You’ve got a strong heart, don’t disvalue yourself because of your fear. Honestly, you’re probably the sanest one of the four of us. We should probably be more afraid.”
Tanner reached a hand out in his direction. “Now let’s go kill some rats.”
They shook hands, giving Trystin a shiver down his spine. He felt like his estranged dad had just told him he loved him. He could feel the emotions rising to the surface but he squashed them, refocusing himself on his goal. He jogged to catch up to Tanner and Austin so he could walk beside them.
“Maybe you can try talking out loud?”
“Yea, it’s probably becoming a bad habit.”
_ _ _ _
Austin walked alongside Tanner and Trystin as they talked. Trystin had apparently decided now was the time to get the trauma of his past and recent events off his chest. Tanner listened attentively while occasionally mentioning to Austin through their like to glance in a certain direction so he could deter the rats that had been following them. They had proven to have become pack animals that hunted in ambushing parties. The same stories had come from all the other teams, they all mirrored Austins own experience. Once a party stopped to take a break or became particularly distracted, they would strike.
Tanner had been talking with Austin for a while detailing the plan of attack with him once the time came. Eventually they had been interrupted by Sarah who had been itching for a while to get to the bottom of whatever was going on with his friend. He had no reason to not trust her, but Austin wasn’t nearly as giving as Tanner was. He wasn’t the kind of guy to just walk away from all those people, but he also wouldn’t have gone on this adventure if Tanner hadn’t asked him.
As they continued walking, Austin casually observed the trees and the cutout they walked. The variation of plant life was both astounding and suspiciously lacking. The forest contained every kind of tree one could imagine, even trees that he knew didn’t belong in this climate, while at the same time it was completely lacking in any other plant life besides the occasional vine hanging from a tree and the same grass they walked on. He also noticed that the ground was even, not just as you would expect from your typical suburban backyard but flawlessly flat. There was no signs of roots or holes when animals had burrowed. No indication of erosion or even small rock clusters on the path or in the forest. His distraction was cut short when Tanner spoke to him through the link.
“There's the end of the path, start slowing down so you can attack from range. I’m going to try and warn the others that we are setting a trap for the rats. If I can’t get the message across, their protection is paramount. Don’t let them get hurt like the others.”
“And what about when you get swarmed?”
“I should be able to handle it, obviously you can try and get some kills but don’t leave the others out to dry. I'll be distracted and there’s no way to know if they will have a secondary ambush. Just like we can’t know if they can understand us.”
“Alright, just give me a heads up.”