I slept until almost noon. It was a broken sleep, furtive and restless. Dream and nightmares, people I’d failed in places none of us had wanted to be. When I finally fully woke, I was happy to get out of bed, scarf down some coffee and eggs, then head my way over to see what was going on with Doug.

Doug.

Doug was, to me, the perfect name for a sorcerer. The Great And Mighty Doug. Doug the Mysterious. Every way you turned it was pure gold.

Too bad he was also an apparent shopaholic with an unquenchable thirst for spending my money.

I found him in a corner apartment, surrounded by scrolls, some sticks with odd symbols carved into them, drifting aromatic smoke, and several dismembered dolls. Several button eyes stared up at me, half torn out of their little heads.

“Doug?”

Oh, and he was naked, seated in the middle of a ritual circle of some kind. He’d drawn the whole thing in transparent candle wax, I found out later. It was damn near impossible to tell where the thing ended and what sort of symbols Doug had scrawled onto the laminate flooring. Good news was that I had no intention of getting close to him anyway.

“Doug!”

His eyes snapped open and a lazy smile played out over his face. Jesus, now I had to worry about catching a contact high in order to speak to him. He turned to face me, only to have an afterimage of his face turn towards me a half second later.

“Okay, you’ve been at this for two days.” I said. “What is two days of sorcery worth?”

His mouth dropped open and a mixture of didgeridoo and electro music emerged. The lack of a beat made the whole thing very weird. I put up with it for a few bars, but there was no melody, just a jazzy concoction of new and old, and it didn’t sound good enough to put on the internet and sell for money.

“Okay, all right, enough. Come on,” I told him. “You can’t just have been sitting around doing drugs and spending my money for two straight days, right?”

Glassy eyes and a witless smile were the only response I got.

“Look, compadre, either you get some sorcery done, or I’m putting you on scouting detail, got it? Nobody gets a free ride here. I’ve been in like eight fights so far, and all you’ve done is a whole bunch of peyote.”

He blinked with glacial slowness, and began to nod.

“Because I promise nobody’s going to be very nice with you while you’re outside, scoping out people who all have knives and guns and cybernetic faces. You got me, Doug?”

He even spoke like he’d swapped bodies with a sloth. “I got you.”

He waved his hands and a ray of sparkles shot from his fingers and into the astonished O of my mouth, down my gullet to settle uncomfortably in my stomach.

“What the hell, Doug?!” I yelled, glaring. Then it hit me like a brick from a collapsing three-century-old mud brick tower.

Quest received – Twice Crossed

Magical investigation suggests that the Brass Crosses might be planning a major play on the seat of power. Investigate their district and find out what they are up to. Investigate the arcade . . . you’ll know it when you see it.

Objective: Find out what the Brass Crosses are up to.

Reward: Gain a legendary level-up card to be used when wanted.

A level up card? Legendary?! I stared at the man who cocked his head, winked, then immediately forgot I existed.

He pissed me off so much. I chuckled, imagining what my fists would do to him if he weren’t so damn useful, and I headed back down to the crafters.

Nolan Locke stink was in my nose well before I could even see him. He emerged from a side office, wild-eyed, breaking into a big smile. He was practically vibrating with whatever nervous energy was driving him.

“Boss man! What brings you back?”

“You got anything disguise-ish? I’m headed into enemy territory and don’t want to be immediately spotted as me.”

“I got just what you need.”

“Good. After you give it to me, you’re grabbing a shower and some sleep, got me?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He nodded absently, and I followed him into another room. Somehow a bunch of metal cabinets had appeared, along with a couple banks of lockers. The stuff inside wasn’t labeled or categorized in any way I could figure, but Nolan seemed to know it by heart. He tapped at a couple of metal doors, rummaged through a locker, and soon came out with a mask.

It was metallic slate gray, in the shape of a lower half of a face, but a demon face. It sported twin curving fangs that stuck out to either side. Also, it only covered my mouth and nose. I was about to say something when a second part of the mask appeared, a full-on samurai helmet. After I put them on, Nolan had me look in a mirror.

Street Samurai Mask

Damage reduction: 30 physical, 15 energy

Provides +3 damage resistance to the head, and +15 to Disguise checks based on visual identification.

‘Engage in combat fully determined to die and you will be alive; wish to survive in the battle and you will surely meet death.’

It was a clever piece of work, no lies. And it wasn’t the only bit. He had a trench coat painted over with tiger stripes.

Tiger’s Trench

Damage reduction: 115 physical, 150 energy

+5 to Disguise checks based on visual identification. +10 on Sneak in a nighttime or jungle environment.

‘The Tiger lies low not from fear, but for aim.’

And to top it all off, he had a pair of old pump sneakers. I raised an eyebrow at these until I saw their stats.

Sneakers of Balance

Damage reduction: 30 physical, 10 energy

+5 Agility

Along with the coat and armor, but most especially the bright sneakers of balance, I looked like a completely different person. Also, the coat was too small… in the past two days I’d bulked up to a truly amazing degree. I made a mental note to throw the coat into the Seams Perfect to get it resized.

“So?”

“Love it,” I said. However, the mask wasn’t quite right. “Any chance we can get this done up in whatever trendy cyberpunk colors are right now?”

“That’ll give me a chance to try out the new colorizer.”

The colorizer was a makeshift box-slash-3D printer that had been overhauled by the crafters among my people. Several masking attachments sprang up over different portions, and it covered the mask in spray paint. It switched up shield thingers, sprayed again, and a minute later I had myself a metallic black mask with neon blue and neon pink highlights. Nolan provided the wardrobe as well, a baggy hoodie and some bulky cargo pants to hide the short blade down my back.

“Practice grabbing it out a few times,” Nolan instructed. I did. It was a little awkward the first few times, and then very awkward after we put the hoodie on overtop the sheath, but in a flash he had a thing rigged up to lift the back of the sweatshirt if I said the word ‘draw’..

After that, there was no hiding the plasma blaster. I wore a strap that allowed it to dangle down front, the world’s biggest, dumbest looking, most lethal necklace.

Approaching the griefers, I had to remove the mask to avoid being attacked. I explained that Eric was out on a fact-finding mission, and I was about to do the same. They nodded, and accepted the news that they were on security detail until I got back.

From there, I brought up the menu and gave a couple of commands to the crafter crews to adjust the amount they were pumping out. Instead, I wanted them to level up to better quality stuff. This meant more time spent on research and less on making. I’d need power packs for my plasma blaster, especially if I was going to head back to Heso Market and pay the damn thing off with Hina Owari gunning for me.

I chuckled. Things here could get real interesting in an awful hurry.

“Actually…” I pulled up my phone and called the griefers. In three rings I had Sug on the line. His face appeared on the four inch screen, so I mentally threw the face up onto the wall in front of me. I was delighted to see this work. “Question for you. Who took the leader job?”

“That was me,” Ice said.

“Congratulations, Sergeant,” I told him. “You all picked out your cards?”

"Affirmative. Tactical Stratagem, and some other commons and uncommons.”

"Good to hear. I never asked you all your classes, by the way.” I laughed. It wasn’t actually such a strange way to think about the world, coming from the military. We all had our MOS. Classes were just that, but for everyone.

“I got Tactical Genius. Gives me people lots of plusses when they’re fighting a squad under my command.”

I blew a raspberry. “Maybe that’s something you should have told me before?”

“We’re all getting used to the new system, Poombah.” I could hear the humorous lilt riding through his voice. “But yeah, I absolutely should have.”

“Damn glad you took it, whatever your reasons. What bonuses are you now getting from this class?”

He rattled them off, but I found a blinking part of my menu explaining it in game terms as he described them. Ice had +2 Intelligence as a class bonus, a +3 pool to each ability that he could assign to any member of his squad, perception as a class bonus, increased chance to level up Strategy and Tactics skills, and +10% XPs to himself and all under his immediate command, and an upgraded tactical minimap showing what any of his squadmates and subordinates had a bead on.

He was limited to two squad members per level, but at level 5 he was already well open for more soldiers. I’d have to put some thought into who to add to the squad.

“So the game system says here that you have access to prestige classes later that dramatically expand your command radius and number. Are you up to being a general if or when the time comes?”

He laughed. “Just don’t call me sir. I work for a living. But yeah, I’m up for whatever it takes.”

I smiled.

“What about you, poombah? What class are you?”

I paused. “Let’s not make a big deal about what I am. I think what I am now is a lot different than what my class intended me to be. And the fewer people who know all the specifics, the better. Not being a dick, just want you to know that talk about me and what I can do is probably best left off the radar.”

“Whatever you say, Poombah. We’re in it to win it. And I’m behind you one-hundred percent.”

The faith in those words momentarily left me at a loss. So much death and destruction lay behind me. So many failures. So much contempt when I came back.

All of these people had me up like some sort of saint. And I wasn’t sure I could meet their expectations.

Legendary card and full up swear jar be damned.

“Good to know,” I said, careful to hide the quavers from within. “Okay, I’m out.”

I ended the call and I looked up at the ceiling, clenching my fists, think of the new quest in my docket and how it all might be interconnected.

“Yeah buddy,” I muttered. “Let’s go do this thing.”