[New Quest: Peer at the Leviathan.]
* Ask your mother about the HDF.
* Reward: Prototype teleportation device.
Albert waited outside, standing in the cold air of the night while his grandfather and his mother talked inside. He could not hear what they were saying, nor did he find himself wanting to, despite his burning curiosity. He was still recovering from the latest twist in his life, the grand reveal where he found out that apparently not only his mother but also his grandfather were not who he thought they were. None of the two had said anything to him about their lives, Lloyd only saying that he would take care of Sam before she went ballistic and rushing to the car to go to the diner first. But Albert was not stupid, and could piece things together.
From time to time, he saw his mother’s gaze scan the outside of the diner through the glazed-over windows. He knew that she could not see more than the silhouette of his body against the backlight of night city, of its street lamps and occasional cars passing by, all bathed in the eerie light of the full moon, shining through pristine crystal clear air. But he could see her, thanks to clever manipulations of [Perception] that also allowed him to focus on something else other than panic at the incoming talk.
It was when he felt the device power down, signaling that he could approach without his brain exploding or something equally bad happening, that he knew his time was up. He slowly approached the door, which opened with the usual ding of the bells people still hung at the doors sometimes, and scanned the room. At the far end of the room, across many tables but close to an emergency exit door, sat his mother. She was staring at him, legs crossed tight, wearing a strange dark uniform that ended in a miniskirt and long black pants. He had never seen her wear such things, but instead of looking provocative they looked sleek and dangerous, like she was a panther wearing bulletproof armor for her deadly dance.
His grandpa was facing her, but as Albert shyly paced through the diner the man turned and twisted on his seat, giving Albert a good look and a nod before turning back to look at his daughter.
Albert walked on eggshells and shards of glass until he stood next to the two sitting people. There was no chair for him at the table.
“Well, this is not what I would call family time.” Lloyd said, cracking a smile. “Come on, boy, take a chair and sit.”
All the while Mother stared without uttering a word.
The chair slid on the floor with a pained whine, the wood scraping against the uneven tiles. Then Albert climbed onto the chair, perching on it in the most uncomfortable way possible, already feeling blood flow being cut from his right leg. As he adjusted his seat, his mother finally opened her mouth to speak.
“He does look like him,” she said with a sigh. “Also acts like him.”
Lloyd shrugged. “That’s because it is him.”
“Then why the fuck does he have magic? What did you do with him?”
“I did nothing.” Lloyd said. “Magic’s none of my doing.”
Samantha scoffed. “Then who?”
Lloyd shrugged. “You know. He’s right here, you could ask him?”
It was then that Albert’s mother turned her gaze upon him. He felt the full pressure of her eyes, those twin beads of darkness staring at him through her thin glasses. She regarded him, for a moment, scanning him from head to toe and settling on his face. He struggled to maintain eye contact.
“Explain.” Her voice was arctic.
“It all began a few weeks ago, I think.” Albert said. “I woke up one day, and there was this strange text hovering right before my eyes. Now, before you can say anything, I immediately knew what that text was… I just thought it would be impossible! But no, it was real. It was a System.”
“A System?” Samantha asked, looking once at Lloyd and finding him fiddling with cutlery. “You knew about this, father?”
He nodded. “Let him keep going.”
“A system is… like a video game.” Albert said, words picking up pace and confidence the more he spoke. “It gives me stuff to do and when I complete the tasks it gives me rewards. It also helps me keep track of the skills – skills are the magic spells – and helps me figure out how to gain new ones or how to improve the ones I have. But you know what the strangest thing is?” Albert ended the sentence speaking enthusiastically, almost if forgetting the tense situation he was in and sharing his discoveries. “The guy who speaks to me in the skill videos… he looks like me! It’s like an alternate version of me or something!”
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Samantha was at a loss for words. “Albert…”
“See, Sam?” Lloyd cut in. “It really is him. A spy or something wouldn’t be this dumb, getting all excited to spill all their secrets now, would they?”
“…no, they wouldn’t.”
Suddenly Samantha Cromwell sounded exhausted. Gone was the stern and immovable force of a woman that was the head of the BSA. In her place was an exasperated mother who was trying to come to terms with the biggest form of post-teenage rebellion she had ever encountered. Not even a rebellion, she was forced to admit, more like how things went. She could honestly not see a way for Albert to come clean to her before this point in time without similarly bad consequences. She could see why he was procrastinating.
“Dumb?” Albert asked dumbly. There he was, her son.
“Yeah,” she said. A hint of the military woman reappeared. “You have been quite dumb with how you handled this. In this case it ended up being a good thing: it made it obvious it’s you but… I wouldn’t send you to negotiate important deals, that’s for sure.”
“I’m offended,” Albert said, looking down but with a smile.
They shared a chuckle together, the tension defusing.
“I’m still mad at you.” Samantha said. “Spill everything. I mean, everything. Don’t leave the tiniest detail out, you hear?”
Albert complied. He took his time to walk his mother through all that happened to him since his discovery of the system. Lloyd too heard some things for the first time: from the way the system seemed to respond to Albert, to the quest rewards, to teleportation, to the catalyst event that led them all here in this diner in the middle of the night.
“What were you thinking!” Sam yelled. “Recording a video on your friend’s phone? Blowing up a fucking café? Are you nuts? Do you want to get killed, or worse? They do worse stuff at the Quadrangle to people like you than killing them, you know?”
“The Quadrangle?” Albert asked.
“…shit.” She deflated.
Lloyd cleared his voice.
“Shut up dad.”
“You fucked up this time, Sam. Besides, it’s only fair that you also explain.”
“What about national—”
“National bullshit. He’s your son.”
“I know!”
“What’s the Quadrangle?” Albert asked again.
“I guess we should—” Lloyd said.
“Come clean about everything?” She asked.
“It’s the least we can do.” Her father said.
“Fine.” She took a deep breath, steadying her shaky nerves. Was this how Albert felt when he thought about coming clean to her? “Sweetie, son, your mother is not who you think she is.”
Albert cocked his head.
“She is your mother. You are not adopted.” Lloyd said, bawling with laughter. “Sam, what the hell, you suck at this. Worse than even him! Let me. Albert, your mom is not a shitty accountant who for some reason has to work the night shift. Accountants don’t do that, even thought you probably thought they did up until now. No, she was – is – the head of the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, the military branch behind uh… keeping uh… shit. Keeping magic at bay and hidden, I’d say? Although I reckon these days they are more like trying to avoid the destruction of Earth from what I gather, watching the news. You know Tryte, the place we went to avoid disaster? It was the BSA.”
“You went to Tryte? With my son!” Samantha roared.
Lloyd threw his hands up. “He came to me. He rewound time and, guess what, you fuckers had failed to account for the aftermath of sending in two nukes to wipe the aliens out.”
Samantha inhaled. “We were sabotaged.”
“Still. If it wasn’t for Albert here, we’d all be dead. Thank him.”
“I—”
“Thank him.” Lloyd said. “I’m not joking here, am I?”
“…thank you sweetie. You saved us, and me from a lot of trouble.”
Albert felt like something just happened he could not quite put his finger on. “You’re… welcome?”
After a quick exchange of information, they were up to speed for the time being. A more in-depth talk was surely needed as soon as possible, but the presence of the photograph of Marc being held by PsyOps in a CARF cell in both Albert’s and Sam’s phone suggested some need for alacrity. Albert was informed of all the other two thought he needed to know: about the Quadrangle and the CARF, about the two rogue operatives and about some minutiae that might come in handy later.
“You confirm that this is that same man you encountered at Tryte.” Sam asked, once again not as his mother but as the head of the BSA.
Albert nodded.
“And you confirm that the wounds were inflicted by you.”
Albert nodded again.
“And you can resist his mind tricks.”
“Perhaps. A bit. My [Mental Fortress] is only at level three.”
“Okay, I’ll need to wrap my head about this concept of levels…” Samantha said. “Let’s assume that you can only resist mental suggestions, and even then only for a short time.” She sighed, turning to Lloyd. “I hate to say this, but if we want to fix this shithole of a situation, we are going to need to use him.”
Lloyd shrugged. “Never been against it.”
“I noticed.” Samantha said, words more caustic than acid.
“What, you disagree? We need to train him to the real world now that he has magic—”
“Later. We’ll talk about it later. Now—”
Albert held up a finger. “One thing first. I have a quest I think I might want to complete now, rather than later. Tell me, what is the HDF? And what was the alignment cutter you tried to unleash on this planet?”