“Just to make it clear, you want us to go to a dungeon you know might be more difficult than it should be, all because doing so would help you prove that a few Guilds are deliberately providing false information for some reason. Is that correct?” Lauren asked, almost staring Miss Walker down.
No one could ever think to accuse this girl of being a wallflower. She really has no fear, huh?
“That is exactly what I’m saying. We project this dungeon to be around the mid H-rank, rather than a beginner-level one as they report. But if I or anyone with real authority goes to take a look, we’ll undermine the entire operation.” The masked woman replied, keeping a calm tone despite the situation.
Ever since she had explained to the rest of Team 0 what would be happening and their part of it, the tension had been high in the room. It wasn’t so much that they didn’t want to be involved - they all had a sense of justice, and they wouldn’t have joined the AA had they liked the way Guild operated - but deliberately putting themselves in danger in an already unpredictable place like a dungeon was not an easy decision to make.
“And you knew about this?” Lauren turned to look at James, trying to pierce him with her gaze.
He just shrugged “She told me yesterday. You should have seen the news this morning. A couple of arrests, an apology, and then back to business as usual. If we don’t catch them redhanded, they’ll never stop.”
Of course, he had been sworn to silence on the exact details of the operation. Already giving this much information to rookies was stretching Miss Walker’s mandate, but she couldn’t send them off without saying anything.
“I understand that.” Daniel interjected “But why does it have to be us? I’m sure the AA has enough resources to send an elite team disguised as team 0. That way, we wouldn’t need to be put in any more danger than our profession naturally includes.”
It was a reasonable point and something he had thought about himself. Unfortunately, the Guilds didn’t get to where they were by leaving such wide gaps in their traps. “All elite teams are currently engaged in important missions, and the very few remaining high rankers in the building are constantly monitored. If we step foot outside, they’ll know.” Miss Walker answered, squashing that line of questioning.
Already, the AA had given them more resources than James had expected them to be capable of. There simply wasn’t anything left for them to give without stretching themselves too thin on significant causes.
Despite how much it annoys me, the AA still plays an important role. They directly monitor the most dangerous dungeons, which cannot be left alone for even a moment, and considering the mess south of the border, they are still very much needed. If any of those things breaks containment, it could mean disaster for the whole United States.
In the end, there simply were no two ways about it. Miss Walker had made it clear that this was a voluntary mission and would not affect their standing, but if they did not take it, it would mean losing an essential piece of the plan they were laying.
The higher ups were busy dealing with the aftermath of their ‘raid’, calming the waters enough that the Guilds would feel safe in acting again, and that would require showing that Team 0 was not cloistered inside the building.
“The only thing I don’t get is why even go through all this trouble if this dungeon might not even have been tampered with. And even if it has, if we find proof of it, it might not lead to anything for a long ass time.” As always, Lauren was unafraid to say what was on her mind.
James, however, was keeping an eye on the two silent members. Ezekiel and Maria had been very quiet since Miss Walker revealed the plot to destroy the Dawn Initiative. Something was going on with those two, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint where they would fall.
“I want to make sure that something is not being misunderstood here.” Miss Walker said, getting everyone’s attention. “I’m not sending you off to die in a ditch somewhere. Montauk’s marine dungeon is well within your capabilities, even if its data were tampered with. I’m only asking you to do this because I know you can.”
Lauren sat back, taking in their teacher’s words. It was true that they had performed better than expected after all. And a mid H-rank dungeon would mean more levels for them if they could clear it. It would accelerate their growth and the risks associated weren’t as great as they first appeared.
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Finally, Ezekiel broke his silence. “I’m in. I don’t really get how proving that they gave us faulty information again is going to give you the leeway to do anything real to them, but I trust you, Miss Walker. If you say we can do it, then we can do it.”
“I agree.” Maria concurred “I don’t like the idea of basically being used as bait, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I knowingly let this kind of behavior go on without consequences. We might be able to deal with it, but many others are not.”
Miss Walker seemed particularly touched by their show of support, and James was almost certain her eyes had misted for a moment, before she had restored control over her emotions.
Seeing that she was outvoted, Lauren huffed “It’s not that I like the Guilds more than any of you. I just wanted to make sure we were not about to be sent off like sacrificial lambs.”
Finally, James understood what she had been angling at. Since the ‘scandal’ of the Crocodile Dungeon had not been enough to do anything, at least in Lauren’s eyes - she just did not know of everything that had happened behind the scenes, after all - she was afraid that the AA might be deliberately sending them to get maimed or killed, to have a much stronger case.
It seemed Miss Walker had gotten it too, because she stood up and walked over to Lauren. The girl looked at her defiantly, evidently expecting a rebuke. Instead, the masked woman bowed her head “I’m sorry, Lauren. It was not my intention to give you that impression. I promise you I’ll never deliberately put your lives at risk.”
Lauren stared for a moment before she groaned “Alright, alright, there is no need for all this theatre. We’ll go, kick some ass, and help you deal with the guilds too. Happy now?”
Miss Walker eye-smiled “Delighted.”
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The trip to the Hamptons could have been made by taking the train, but all members of Team 0 had agreed that since they had a driver at their disposal, they should make use of him.
Thus, one sunny Friday morning, James was waiting at his street corner for Mr. Robinson to pick him up, bag with his suit at his side.
After the Golden Sun’s guild offer, everyone who lived on Brighton 7th Street had known of his status as an Awakener. There was little he could have done to hide it, as the brightly shining men who flew off had been an unambiguous indication that a Guild member had come to visit him.
That, however, didn’t mean he liked to flaunt it. James didn’t feel like it made him any less or more important than anyone else. He knew how people treated Awakeners - a mix of awe, fear and trepidation that was getting annoying quickly. He wanted to avoid constantly reminding his neighbors of what he was.
“Looking good, James. Your shoulders are finally filling in. You look just like your father.”
One person James could have done with having a bit more trepidation at approaching him was Mrs Johnson. The woman was approaching seventy and had been a widow for more than a decade, having lost her husband and son during the early days of the Apocalypse. The pity he felt for her ended there, however, as she would not want it.
He’d known her all his life, and while he had some fond memories of her, he’d appreciate it if she didn’t feel entitled to feel him up every time she saw him.
Staying as still as a statue, James tried to get it over with as soon as possible. He would be the last one to get picked up, and if his teammates saw him getting molested by an old woman, he’d never hear the end of it.
“Thank you, Mrs Johnson. How are you doing today?”
“Oh, just good baby. Better now that I saw you. Where are you going with that heavy bag?” She asked, snooping for some gossip.
At least she hasn’t directly asked me if it’s for the AA. This woman knows too much about everyone.
“Just some work-related stuff, Mrs Johnson. A car should be coming to pick me up soon.” He answered, avoiding giving any detail.
“Oh, that sounds lovely. Good luck with your work then, and be careful out there. You never know.”
Used to her ominous goodbyes, James just smiled, feeling as if he was back at Home Depot trying to shrug off an annoying customer.
Seeing that he wouldn’t give her anything, she finally left, not before copping another feel of his arms and giggling to herself.
A couple of minutes later, Mr Robinson’s black van arrived and James felt very grateful that he had managed to avoid the embarrassment. He’d need to keep his head in the game.
He greeted the older man and jumped in the back. “Morning everyone.”
“Good morning.” They all replied, and he sat down next to Ezekiel, who lived not far from him.
A stack of paper was soon passed over and he skimmed it, noticing that it was a more in-depth analysis of the dungeon they were about to tackle.
“What’s going on? I thought we already had the briefing yesterday?” James asked while his eyes went over the lines, trying to see if there was anything important he had missed before.
Immediately, it became clear that someone must have done a proper exploration of the dungeon to gather that much information, because the entire cave layout they were supposed to delve into was already there, alongside an explanation of all the creatures they would have to deal with.
“Miss Walker turned up at my house this morning to drop these. She said they managed to get some more info, but wouldn’t elaborate when asked.” Lauren replied.
“seaweed? Like carnivorous seaweed or monster seaweed?” James asked, still taken in by the information. Then, he registered what she said and turned to give her a look.
The Rogue sighed “Yeah, I know she must have gone there last night to make sure there wasn’t anything crazy because of me. You don’t need to look at me like that. I made sure to thank her.”
“Good.” Rumbled Daniel, also busy skimming the papers “We’ll have to rethink our strategy a bit, because I have no idea how we’ll deal damage to the monster seaweed. I’d imagine that fire magic wouldn’t work either, would it?”
Maria shook her head, looking resigned. “Every dungeon we go to must be somewhere with a lot of water. Damp, dark caves. Never a sunny field for me to burn.”
James blinked before deciding to ignore whatever it was she meant. Reading further in the papers, he came across an interesting line “Well, we knew it was crabs, but giant blue crabs… Do you think they’ll be as tasty as regular ones?”
A groan was the only answer, and James chuckled to himself. He’d taste one, even if he had to bring it back home to boil.