Karl was sitting atop a large rock, staring off into space as he thought hard, when he heard a throat clearing behind him.
“Karl.”
“Hello Chenelle,” he answered without turning around.
“Karl, you're old enough to know the difference between blame and responsibility.”
“In this case I think both apply,” he muttered.
“Then it applies to all of us. You're not a dictator, Karl, and we don't expect you to be a perfect general. You asked us for input and none of us advised more caution, not even Jo. We all took the ogres too lightly. Brood if you must, but you know what's most important now.”
Karl sighed and nodded. “Learning from it so that it doesn't happen again.”
“To make it less likely, at least. You can't control everything, Karl.”
“Believe me, I know.”
“I wonder. Karl, you have pulled together a good group. Good enough that we would survive even if one of us dies. The world won't end if you fail, so stop acting as if it will. We're not all made of glass. We're mortal. You have the urge to protect and that is admirable, but keep some perspective.” He felt her hand land firmly on his shoulder. “Don't forget you still have a job to do, to help with morale, so get off that rock as soon as you can. And Karl?”
He turned towards her. “Y—?” He was cut off by a kiss. Stunned, he found himself returning it for a second before gathering his wits and breaking away. “Chen...!”
“This is how I tell someone I care about them,” Chen threw back, sounding a bit angry at his embarrassment and prudishness. “Deal with it.” She turned and stalked off. Christine was watching them from across the clearing.
Every time I think I've got a handle on how she acts... Karl rubbed his face for a long moment, took a deep breath, and stood up.
She is a really good kisser, damn it.
* *
Christine brought back a deer before night fully fell, and they made a campfire some distance from the cocoon. With luck the ogres had kept away all the other predators, and they might have a short time of relative peace before getting into territory disputes with monsters. Nobody was counting on luck, though.
Karl cast Guardian Angel on the cocoon; the spell took, as it had with the giant hawk egg. Murray Williams was lying near the saplings, casting growth spells on them from time to time. Barbara Williams kept watch over Tabitha for the early part of the night. Doug and Chenelle had moved a ways off for privacy. Christine had the first watch.
Alain was skittish and had made a tiny personal palisade with sharpened sticks before turning in. The young man looked like a porcupine in a robe, not that Karl blamed him in the slightest. Alain had commented, “a mage is usually built on a simple philosophy: Anyone can kill me in five seconds, but I can kill anyone in four—if I'm ready. I won't be ready if I'm asleep.”
Karl tried to rest, but he heard faint noises that kept him awake. She's doing that deliberately, he sulked, as Chenelle's distant cries of passion occasionally reached his ears. Apparently he managed to nod off eventually, because suddenly Christine was shaking him awake.
He blinked a few times. Christine's expression was hard to read in the firelight, but Karl got the feeling something was on her mind. He nodded to her and sat up, looking around. Doug and Chenelle were sleeping nearby. Tabitha was curled up on the ground near the cocoon. The Williamses both snored, apparently.
“One threat an hour ago, just a lone wolf,” she whispered. Karl saw that there was another carcass strung up in addition to the deer.
“I'll be careful.”
“Sir Karl...may I have another Guardian Angel spell?”
“Of course.” They grasped hands firmly as he prayed. “God and System, please watch over this person and protect them from harm.”
“Amen,” the ranger murmured. “Thank you.” She hesitated a moment, then turned away and found a spot to sleep in the open.
Karl disciplined himself to be very alert for this watch. Seconds would count if anything happened. Which made it all the more annoying an hour later when he came back to his pack after a short patrol to find a book he hadn't brought sitting on top. He picked it up. Tactics, published by the US Marine Corps. He nodded and set it back down.
“I'm on watch right now, but thank you, Terry.” He looked around, and eventually she let him find her perched on a branch. He walked over. “I thought you weren't coming back until morning.”
“As if I could sleep safe and sound while you and my parents and everyone else just hung out in the open all night. I felt skittish and paranoid the whole way back here.” Her eyes kept moving, looking for threats behind him as they talked.
“Endurance okay?”
Terry nodded. “They'll be on the road at first light, Paul promised. You okay, old man?”
“I've been better. I've been trying to come up with different plans in case of varshath, or a land crab swarm, or a giant bear, or God forbid a third ogre, or anything else that might come by.”
“Wake Tabitha for a swarm. Otherwise let her sleep.”
“That was my thought.”
“...I'm sorry, Sir Karl.” He looked a question at her. “I saw the piles of rocks and it didn't even occur to me that they might be ammo. I fucked up.”
“No you didn't. You mentioned the rocks. I've been kicking myself for not figuring it out in time.” He sighed. “How about we skip the part where we both try to blame ourselves more and just do our best to watch for any other threats?”
“Sounds wise. I knew we kept you around for a reason.”
“Brat.”
“Dinosaur.”
They watched in companionable silence for a bit, then Terry yawned hugely. “Must be...nice...having a big Constitution. I've been walking for hours in stealth mode. I'm beat. Since we're stuck here, don't wake me unless there's coffee.” With that Terry somehow managed to curl up on the branch and was soon fast asleep, to judge by the tiny little whistling snores he heard.
Must be nice having an insanely high Agility score. Seriously, even in her sleep?
* *
Karl woke Doug for third watch, and somehow managed to sleep a bit himself. When he woke on Thursday morning, it was to the sound of quiet conversation and the smell of cooked meat, which made his mouth water.
“Good morning, Sir Karl,” Barbara greeted him in between bites. “Do you know where my daughter is?” Karl nodded and pointed at the correct tree. Barbara chewed and swallowed. “Thank you. Everybody got care packages during the night so we assumed she was around.”
“She said not to wake her unless there's coffee. It must have been very tiring, to stealth continuously for five hours or so, there and back.”
“The idea scares me witless, but I'm trying to get used to the idea of her being more capable than the rest of us. It isn't easy. She's still my little girl.” She tore off another bite with her teeth and kept talking. “That attitude, though. I knew the teen years would be rough, but it's even worse when they have superpowers.”
Karl nodded in sympathy and looked around. Christine had a new bow and was inspecting it. Murray was puttering with what looked like bags of fertilizer, and when he squinted he also saw a big bottle of vitamins and a tub of protein powder. Karl shook his head. Terry must have grabbed anything she could think of that might help.
“That's one night down,” Doug commented as he took a skewer and passed another to Karl unasked. After finishing her skewer, Barbara spoke with her husband, then carefully moved over to Tabitha, who still seemed to be asleep, and watched over her closely.
A couple of hours later, voices called out in greeting, but it turned out to be Jack and Dwayne from the Lazy Circle Safe Zone. Jack shook hands with Karl while Dwayne chatted briefly with Doug and then started unloading lumber from inventory.
“We got Terry's message through the Shop newspaper,” Jack explained. “Bun-bun pulled a wagon as close as she could but the road's still a ways off, so we're going to ferry supplies in by hand.”
“Thank you.”
Jack shook his head, staring at the cocoon. “That's a hell of a pickle you're in. We wanted to help you as soon as possible. I know your own people will be along but you never know what will happen these days.”
“You're a good neighbor, Jack.”
“I think you did us quite the favor here yesterday, looks like. Tell me about the thing that did this.”
Karl recounted the fight, answering Jack's questions. When he finished, Jack looked thoughtful. Karl mentally braced for a possible scathing criticism of his leadership.
“Karl,” he said finally, “you are the luckiest sonovabitch I've ever met.”
“Can't argue with that.”
“You should have had at least two casualties from that, maybe more. Your group used not one, not two, but three different ways of cheating death in that fight! Just how many tricks have you got up your sleeve, anyway?”
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“Just barely enough I think, and the jury's still out on the last one.” The two men stared thoughtfully at Tabitha and the cocoon.
“Say, K—Sir Karl, do you happen to have that fancy tablet thing with you?”
“Yes.” Karl summoned it from inventory where he had it stashed at the moment.
“Can I look at the Earth feed for a bit?”
“Certainly.” Karl took a minute to call it up, poking hesitantly at the controls, then handed it over. While Jack fiddled with it, he watched Doug and Dwayne arguing about how to build a Safe Zone building.
“Now this looks interesting. Have you seen these?”
Karl turned his attention back to Jack and the pad. “That looks like Tabitha and Jo's feed, but there are a lot more entries now. Wait...did they split them into separate feeds?” That was potentially alarming.
“Only in spots. But I'm curious about the earliest ones; looks like they've added more from...is that the date? I can't read this thing...well, anyway...” Jack started the first one up. “Goddamn soundtrack...whatever.” He kept playing it, music and all, and Karl leaned closer to see as well.
* *
The first video showed a very different Jo from the one Karl knew. Lounging in an overstuffed easy chair, she was reading her phone. She was dressed in torn jeans and a band T-shirt, with long hair, a few facial piercings, and dark makeup. How far back do these recordings go? Karl wondered in alarm. He got his answer a moment later. The soundtrack played an ominous little fanfare, and Jo dropped her phone. Her wide eyes started tracking back and forth.
“Holy shit...holy shit...uh, done. Close? Exit? Close window. Open window...Shit. Shit shit shit. Close window.” Jo stared off into space for a full minute; you could almost see the wheels turning slowly but surely. The background music kept it from being as boring as it would have been otherwise.
The recording segued into a montage with inspirational soundtrack: Jo staring into the bathroom mirror, then taking scissors and chopping her hair ragged and short. Removing her piercings. Washing off her makeup. Marching out her front door.
Another sequence: Jo arguing with a sales clerk. Leaving a shop with bags from several different stores under her arm. Laying out materials. Crafting her sword, shield and armor. The clip ended with her armored up, making a dramatic pose in front of her mirror and nodding to herself.
“Damn, I'd watch that movie, if we weren't already living it. That girl didn't waste a minute, did she?” Jack said admiringly. He started up the next clip.
The new soundtrack built quiet tension, and showed a sign reading Donovan Care Center before Jo marched past it, heading for a large brick building. Her armor had been Systemized already into the form Karl knew. A timer counted down in one corner of the screen.
When she reached the lobby an orderly told her, “Hey! You can't come in here like that!”
“Fine. I'll wait.” Jo took several steps back from the orderly and stood there, arms crossed and glaring. “But do me one favor.”
“What?”
“Take out your keys, and put them on the counter.”
“What? No!”
“I won't come near. I just want to make sure you can see them in plain view when the counter reaches zero. You'll need them. So. On the counter. Quickly now.”
“What's going to happen? Do you know?”
“Have you chosen your weapon and armor?”
“My what?”
“Jesus H Christ.” Jo looked around, backed up against a bare wall, hefted her shield and drew her sword. Her breathing grew fast and heavy.
“What are you doing? What's going to happen?”
“Keys. Counter. Now.”
“What's going to happen?!”
Jo gave no reply. The orderly hesitantly pulled out his keys, and then backed against a wall with them in his hand. The counter reached zero.
There were several flashes of light, and then goblins appeared scattered across the room. They looked around as if confused, poked at chairs and the water cooler, then caught sight of Jo and hissed. Weapons and armor appeared on them and they charged at her.
Jo didn't hesitate. She lunged at one as they approached and skewered it in the belly as it barreled into the point. The goblin failed to come off the end of the sword afterwards, however. “Oh shit!” She ended up dragging it backwards with her as she attempted to dislodge it, taking hits from the goblins as she did so. Her armor clanged repeatedly as it protected her. Just as she managed to yank her sword free, the orderly screamed. Distant screams echoed from elsewhere in the building.
“Damn it!” Jo slammed her shield hard into one goblin and then dropped it, switching to a two-handed grip, and took down another goblin with one overhead swing. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a blood spattered goblin standing up, holding the orderly's keys. “What? NO! Give me those!”
She bowled over another goblin in her haste to get to the counter. The goblin squeaked in fear, flailed a moment, then threw the keys across the room. That didn't save it; Jo stabbed it, yanking her sword back quickly at the end of the strike so that it wouldn't get stuck. Then she was struck by a single Mana Dart. “OW!”
Karl guessed she had to be low on hit points by now still being first level, and wondered how she was going to survive the rest of the fight. The view tracked the keys as they were tossed two more times, ending up with the mage.
Jo played it smart, though. She used the small doorway leading behind the counter to restrict the goblins' movements so that only one of them could come at her at a time, plus the goblin mage. When there was only one goblin fighter left in front of her, she retreated low behind the counter so the mage couldn't target her and finished the last fighter off on her knees. That brings back memories, Karl thought, recalling his fight in his garage. She's doing much better than I did!
“Hit points, hit points, hit points...!” The view raced dizzyingly over shelves as Jo searched, focusing on a first aid kit. She grabbed it, then dropped it in order to charge the goblin mage that was trying to escape. She managed to interrupt its next cast and kill it, then scrambled frantically on the floor until she found the keys and a scroll. “YES! I—!” She paused. “I need hit points,” she told herself in a quiet, serious tone. Back to the first aid kit. Then the scene jumped slightly.
A door unlocked, revealing Jo with a bandage on her left hand, ready for more fighting. Then the scene jumped to another door. This time when it opened she sported a bandage on her scalp, and muttered, “both points into Strength. No, I'm not choosing yet.”
And then another door, built differently, rattled as it unlocked and swung open, revealing Tabitha in a white medical gown, cowering in a corner, bloody, with a goblin axe in one hand and a mostly shredded pillow in the other. A white sheet lay tangled on the floor, and one unarmed goblin stood facing her, trying to shake its foot free of the fabric.
“HEY!” Jo slid across the room, ending up directly between them. She passed her shield back to Tabitha, then killed the goblin with a pair of two-handed strikes. Silence fell.
Slowly, tears in her eyes, Tabitha reached out to Jo, and the two embraced gently. “Hey, hey, hey...” Jo murmured. Tabitha looked questioningly at her. “I promised I would come for you. I will always come for you.”
After a few seconds of them staring at each other in silence, Jo smiled, tears in her own eyes as she choked up a bit, adding, “This is True Love. Think this happens every day?”
Tabitha laughed through her tears and cupped Jo's face in her own. Her mouth worked a few times before she said quietly, “Love you.”
“Love you too.” Jo took a deep breath. “Okay. I think I've cleared a path to the exit, but we've got some planning to do. Have you looked at your interface thing?” Tabitha nodded. “Well I've been busy so I've got to—oh my God you're hurt!”
In her haste to react, Jo dumped her entire inventory on the floor. She does that, Karl recalled. The first aid kit and mage scroll hit the floor. Tabitha picked up the scroll and unrolled it while Jo fumbled with the kit. “I don't know how fast hit points come back. You should be fine in a while, I hope, but just in case I want to bandage you. You haven't had a chance to level yet and...uh...” Jo trailed off as she realized that Tabitha wasn't listening. She proceeded to gently bandage Tabitha's foot while the small redhead continued to stare at the scroll, concentrating furiously. The clip skipped ahead.
“Tabby, we should go. I've got stuff for you in the lobby.” Looking frustrated, Tabitha nodded and the scroll vanished into her inventory. She stared at her empty hands in shock. “Yeah, we can do that now. Come on. Stay behind me.”
They walked down the corridor. The mage scroll appeared and disappeared in Tabitha's hand over and over. She took the keys and unlocked some of the doors as they went. When they passed a closet, Tabitha opened it, and proceeded to vanish various medical supplies into her inventory, hefting the rubbing alcohol for a moment. The clip jumped again. Now she was scooping things out of a break room cabinet.
Another jump. Jo was fighting a pair of hobgoblins and getting her armor rung like a bell repeatedly. Tabitha poured alcohol over a third and used a sputtering lighter to set the hobgoblin aflame. She reached in barehanded to shove the hobgoblin, grimly taking burns to make sure it suffered worse. When it fell to the ground, Tabitha declared, “I like fire.” Staring off into space, she stood stock still, then doubled over, clutching her head.
Yet another hobgoblin appeared around a corner, and Jo interposed herself before finishing the enemies off. When the last one fell, Jo watched Tabitha for a moment. “Tabby? You okay?” Then she stared into space, eyes flickering, and called out, “Protector! Yes! Ugh!” and proceeded to fall down, her eyes closed as she winced.
Yeah, getting class knowledge burned into your brain is a rough few seconds even when you're not low on hit points, Karl sympathized.
A set of eight goblins rounded the corner next. Tabitha stood up first. When the monsters charged towards Jo, she unleashed a Flamethrower spell and swept it over the enemies, making them cry out and fall. “You leave her ALONE!” Tabitha yelled in mounting fury. Jo got to her knees, then jumped to her feet to block with her shield, protecting Tabitha from the survivors' attacks.
At the next lull in fighting, Tabitha looked at Jo and calmly said, “ding.”
“Me too. Mage?”
“Pyromancer.” She held up two fingers.
“Protector. Halfway to third.” Jo glanced around. “Let's get you out of here.”
The clip jumped back to the sign outside the building, which was now on fire, showing Tabitha (now in sweats and sneakers) and Jo running past with backpacks to triumphant music. The clip ended there.
Jack and Karl stared at it in silence for a few moments. Finally Jack said, “I have questions.”
“...yeah.” Then Karl shrugged. “She's one of our heavy hitters and has saved us more than once. Even if that weren't true, whatever demons are in her past can stay there, as far as I'm concerned. I just hope Tabitha can function on her own for a while.”
“Hmm...What's this one at the end?” Jack indicated a clip with an unfamiliar marking. When he tapped it, a still image of Jo's cocoon appeared, oriented so that Tabitha was not in view. Around the edge were several blocks of alien text. “Why isn't this translating? Everything else is in English.” Every so often one of the symbols changed. Jack tapped one but nothing happened.
Karl felt dread. “I can think of two possibilities.” He stared at the image.
“Well? What is it? Alien love poetry? Medical stats?”
“Okay, two more possibilities. Frankly I like yours a lot better. The first option I thought of, is that this is a betting pool.”
“What?”
“I think the aliens might be betting on what form Jo takes when she comes out of the cocoon.”
Jack paused. “Well, we already knew that they're sons of bitches watching us for entertainment. Betting seems like a natural extension of that.” Karl didn't say anything. “What's the other one you thought of?”
Karl grimaced and put off answering for a few more seconds. Finally he said quietly, “it could be a poll.”
“You mean, asking the viewers what they think will happen?”
“Or worse. They might be voting on what's going to happen to her.”
“Mother of—do not mention that to that poor girl.”
“Agreed. I don't know what we can do to encourage a good outcome. I'll check with Murray, see if there's anything more we can try. As if guarding the cocoon for two more days wasn't hard enough.”
“I might be able to help with that part. I'll see if Wendy and Dwayne are willing to come patrol around this spot with Thunder and Turtle. If they keep circling, they should encounter any incoming hostiles well before they get here.”
“I'd be very grateful, Jack. We can't match your speed.”
“That's what we're for. Sometimes, Karl, the cavalry really does come over the hill in time.”