The first step was finding our friends.
Well, almost the first step: those brisket ends were fucking calling me. After that, we found John and brought him over to the kill zone. He was reluctant, and we practically had to force him to take the knife, but the ValuCo workers were friendly and encouraging. He’d be in good hands.
We tracked down Davi and TAF as they exited the frozen goods section.
“Zephyr!” I called. “Glad you’re doing better.”
She shook her head in bewilderment. “I don’t know ‘y I ‘as so sick. So hot. No one else ‘as.”
Bolero nodded, easily parsing his friend’s labored speech. “We had her lay down on some ice cream tubs to bring her body heat down, and I kept pumping heals into her every so often. She started feeling better a little bit ago, but we waited a while to be sure. I think it was just… heatstroke? Maybe she had it worse than the rest of us because she can’t sweat anymore.”
“She can’t sweat?” I asked.
Zephyr shrugged. “Ih I can, I not.”
“Her shirt was bone-dry when we got here,” Bolero said. “I was practically swimming in my own sweat, and she was so overheated… She should have been at least as bad. We’re lucky this freezer is so big. It should stay cool for a long time.”
Davi nodded. “The rest of us were helping the workers push food around while we waited. They’re trying to put all the frozen stuff in one big stack so it can insulate itself. Basically make it into a huge block of ice.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. I pulled a box of yogurt popsicles off of a stack next to me and started handing them out. “It won’t be a solid block because of the air in the packaging, but it’ll still stay frozen for a while. Maybe long enough for us all to eat it. It seems like they have that in hand, though… you guys up for another adventure?”
TAF glanced at each other.
“Maybe later,” Avalanche said. “Even if she’s been magically healed, I think Zephyr should rest for a while.”
Davi frowned at me. “What kind of adventure?”
“Vince and I want to see if we can get one of the trucks working,” Byron said. “We’ll never get anywhere by walking.”
“You want to leave this?!” Davi asked. She spun as she spoke, her hands spreading to indicate the massive bounty of ValuCo.
Byron hesitated. “It’s more like… I want to be able to leave if we decide to. If we can get a semi rolling, it’s not like we’d be leaving empty-handed.”
“I need to get back to my family,” I said.
Davi’s face fell, a shadow of my concern passing across it. “Oh man… Poor little Cassie.”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” I said, perhaps a little too forcefully. “Meghan will keep the kids safe. But I need to get back as fast as I can.”
Davi stared at me, her doubt clear. Instead of saying anything else to me, she turned to Byron. “What’s got a fire under your butt? You don’t have family in Huntsville, do you?”
He shook his head. “A girlfriend… but I have family in Texas. Maybe we can check on them if we head south before we head east. Plus I… I just don’t trust this Maffiyir crap.”
“What do you mean?” Davi asked.
“Well, they’re giving us a chance to earn points and get new abilities. To level up. Not every game I’ve played lets you level up, but when you do…” Byron trailed off.
“It’s because your enemies get stronger,” Davi finished, eyebrows raising in realization.
Byron nodded. “Maybe the spacedogs can earn points too, or maybe the guys running this are going to send something bigger and meaner at us… but either way, we’re not gonna be squishing bitty little rodents forever. I want to level up. Get more points, get more abilities. If we can.”
“And we've got to pick the right abilities,” Kurtis said from behind me.
I turned to see him walking up behind me, carrying a pen and notebook. “Kurt! We were just going to come looking for you. Where’ve you been?”
“Talking. I haven’t found anyone who can get my eye working again, but I’ve learned some things. You know the percentage after your ability in your Interface?”
“Where it says 100%?” I asked.
Kurt raised an eyebrow. “Does it? It did when you had one ability, but now that you have two, it should say at least 108%. I haven’t seen anyone with two abilities with less than that.”
“Uhhh… I guess I haven’t checked.”
I pulled it up.
Vincenzo Moretti
Novelty: 53
Abilities:
Powerful Blow (116.7%)
Biological Augment: Sprinter (116.7%)
Points: 340
Money: 33
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Blueprints:
Intrusion Alarm (30 money)
Reinforced Wall (10 money)
Small Heater (20 money)
Spike Trap (20 money)
“Huh, yeah. Both of my abilities are at 117ish. That’s… weird.”
“Both are around 108% for me,” Davi said. “Why is mine less than yours, Vince?”
“I’m at… 175?” Byron said, surprised.
I frowned. “I guess taking two fire mage abilities did have some benefit?”
“Maybe,” Byron said doubtfully. “I mean, I have bigger numbers, but I’ve got no clue what they mean.”
Kurt snapped his fingers, pointing at Byron. “Let’s find out! Most of the people here have just their first ability, with the exception of the ones who’ve been using the kill trap. The only abilities I’ve found at different percentages so far have been Healing Touch and Powerful Blow, so I haven’t really been able to test. But there’s another woman who followed us from the airport and has Fire Bolt. Follow me! You can help us test if the percentages relate to the power of the ability.”
“I can see why Healing Touch would be tough to test, but we could run one with Powerful Blow,” I said.
Kurt sent me a withering glance. “Uh, confounding variables much? Everyone has different strength, some people have better striking techniques… How would we know what came from the ability?”
“Uh, ask them not to use their strength? Just tap something lightly and activate Powerful Blow?”
“Oh.” Kurt shook his head. “Can you do that? I guess that might work. Maybe. It still seems messier, but I guess we could try to check that too.”
“Actually, I assumed you could, but… I’m not sure. Give me a second.” I stared at the popsicle wrapper in my hand, trying to activate Powerful Blow.
The plastic wrapper remained stubbornly still.
I had to use my other hand to poke it while activating the ability before anything happened, the wrapper shooting off of my hand for a few feet before drifting slowly to the ground as the air slowed it.
“Hmm. It works, but I agree Fire Bolt will be easier to test. We’d have to set up some kind of testing environment for Powerful Blow, to make sure everyone was poking things in the same way and in the same direction.”
“Among other things,” Kurt said. “Does it always work the same for the same person? Does it change if you use two fingers instead of one? Does it change if you use your foot? Is the force related to your musculature at all?”
“That’s fair,” I said. “It mimics human capability. Fire Bolt doesn’t, so it should be less variable from person to person. Unless we have hidden stats? High Intelligence classically leads to stronger spells, and Byron’s not an idiot.”
“Aw, Vince,” Byron said. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me all week!”
Kurtis and I ignored him.
“I thought about hidden stats,” Kurt said. “I don’t think they’re a thing? As far as I could tell, everyone’s first ability clocks in at 100% whatever-it-is, and has identical effects. Like, there were two people with Knockback, and both of them affected an identical area with… near-identical effects.”
“Near-identical?” I asked.
Kurt shifted uncomfortably. “They did some testing yesterday, so they filled me in. There was a chalk circle on the ground in the middle of a bunch of clothing they’d been knocking around. Everyone told me the effects were identical, but with non-standard testing apparatus, it would be really hard to notice small differences. Cargo pants aren’t very aerodynamic at the best of times.”
We all nodded solemnly.
“Lots of room for experimental error,” Byron said.
When we reached the woman from the airport who’d taken Fire Bolt, it wasn’t difficult for Kurt to sweet-talk her into running an experiment. Finding good targets wasn’t hard either: there were wooden pallets everywhere, and no one minded us damaging a couple in the name of science.
Byron and the woman stood side by side, each targeting a separate pallet with five Fire Bolts. Then we moved up to inspect what they’d done.
“Byron’s blast radius is definitely bigger,” I said, spreading my hand across the charred section of wood to measure it. I turned to the woman. “What was your percentage? 125?”
“Yeah,” she said. “And his was… 175%, right?”
“Right,” Byron confirmed. “You don’t think the burned section is bigger because my pallet caught on fire?”
“Nah, we got it put out pretty quick. It was mostly burning in the center, and the smoke went upward. I’m measuring the charred area from side to side.”
“The impact crater seems deeper, too,” Kurt said, squinting at a measuring tape he’d dug up from somewhere. “Not by a ton - maybe three quarters of an inch as opposed to half an inch - but I’m consistently getting higher numbers on Byron’s.”
“Unless this pallet is made of softer wood,” I suggested.
It was an easy enough supposition to test. The woman was still present, peering with interest at the different impact craters. She was willing to return to the chalked line with Byron and fire one more missile at “his” pallet while he did the reverse. The results didn’t change.
“So… Bigger numbers make you stronger,” Byron said. “But what makes bigger numbers?”
“More abilities, for one,” Kurt said. “Everyone with more abilities has at least a little higher numbers.”
“That can’t be the only thing,” Davi said. “I’m only at 108% and Byron’s at 175%! I don’t get it. He took two fire mage abilities, but I took two tanking abilities.”
“One of them is kind of a magic tanking ability?” I said. “Maybe that’s a different class. Or maybe this system doesn’t use classes. My numbers are almost as low, and they’re both fighting abilities.”
“Sprinter and Powerful Blow?” Davi asked, nonplussed. “Sprinter seems more like a messenger ability or something. I know you said footwork’s part of fighting but…”
“It’s almost all of fighting!”
“Guess the aliens don’t agree,” she said.
“Or there’s something else at play,” Kurt said. “We need more data. I’m going to go stand by the door and poll the people coming from the airport as they enter.”
“Okay,” I said. “Byron and I were talking before you showed up - we want to try to get a semi running. Do you know much about car engines?”
Kurt frowned. “A little. Not a ton. More of a plane guy.”
I chuckled. “Aren’t we all?”
“For sure,” Kurt smiled, then seemed to realize something. “Well… kinda. You should go find John, ask him for help.”
“Oh yeah?”
“John. He’s got a ‘67 Chevy Corvette he takes to classic car shows. It was a near-junker when he bought it and he fixed it up himself. He was showing me pictures on the flight here. So many pictures.” Kurt sounded little haunted.
Byron tapped his mouth thoughtfully. “Wonder how many more points he’s gotten?”