Roy
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He's rude.
Yeah, little bit. But you heard what he was saying about other dungeons. Having someone as friendly as you probably wasn't something he expected.
I know, but still. I don't like him.
Well we are stuck with him. He's got more info on dungeons than either of us, and he knows what's after him. That's useful.
I looked at Tyler and Dave. They were deep into some conversation and did not notice me walking up.
"...And that's when the CIA, in cooperation with the lizard liege assassinated Kennedy" Oh this is not good.
"Hey Tyler!" I injected myself into the conversation. I've heard him when he gets going. It is a trip. It has to be 10 times worse when you are actually primed to believe him.
"Yes boss." He said turning to me. He looked a little disappointed I had interrupted his college level lecture on conspiracies.
"I need you to keep an eye on Buddy, real name Verdandi, while I talk to Dave. What weapons do you want?" That aught to distract him.
".50 BMG rifle, 660 grain rounds with tungsten heads, 2 full spare mags, a Ka-bar and my Kevlar battle vest with pouches and my grenades." That did not take him a second to come up with. He was just ready to go with that.
"Nola, you got that?"
I put it on the other side of the car for him. No need to freak out Dave any more than he already is.
"Good plan. Ty, the stuff is on the other side of the car. Get it and go over to Buddy. Oh, Nola! Throw in 2 healing potions. One for each of em."
Tyler almost skipped away to the other side of the car. Like a kid at Christmas when it came to military hardware. I have no idea how he plans to use a .50 at close range, but I hope he doesn't use it at all.
"So, Dave." I took a moment to suck in a breath and let out a cope laugh "There's a few things we need to talk about."
"Demons are real and we live in hell" He said back in a monotone response. Oh boy, Tyler did a number on you.
"So, Tyler is a lot. And he isn't exactly an expert on the situation. Just someone who... I thought could roll with it easier than most. I mean he believed everything he told you before he met the alien." I said gesturing over my shoulder and Verdandi
I got a pleading look in response. I'm really unhappy that Ty broke my lawyer.
"What...what is really real then?" Dave asked
"We don't know a lot. But here's the basics. Nola is a dungeon core, what that is doesn't matter. She can process matter into other matter. I was using her for recycling. We can turn garbage into anything and change the world. It's cool. The dog man over there is called Verdandi, he's an alien. He's been in a coma so we don't know much about him. He was freaked out about being in a new place and attacked when I opened the doors. They were all linked. Something attacked budd... Verdandi before he came to earth, we are getting ready for it. Maybe its whatever organization Tyler was talking about, maybe its just some competing faction from Verdandi's world."
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"What about the worm.? That thing looks like a movie monster. That can't be real."
"It is real, but it's magic. You are gonna have to accept that as a thing going forward. There's a lot of magic going on." Dave was sweaty. Maybe I could show a benevolent magic and calm him down a bit more.
"I'm gonna show you something. Nola? Can you please make an ice pack, cold, and a big glass of water for Dave please."
A literal silver platter rose out of the ground next to Dave with some ice packs and a glass of water. It was a lot slower than normal, I think Nola was also trying not to freak him out. Good plan Nola
Dave grabbed the water and took a long shallow sip from the glass. "Everything I believed in. No, everything I've ever done, it all seems so...."
"All that still matters. All that is still true. We're just adding some extras to the top of it." I hope that sounds re assuring.
"Can I ask some questions?" Dave said while putting the glass back on the tray. He took one of the ice packs and put it on the top of his head, going back for a second that he kept held in his hands. he kneaded it nervously.
"Absolutely, that's what I am here for" I said my smile getting a little bigger
"You are the one that stole everything from that yard aren't you?" Ouch, bad pivot there. Ok, we can deal with this.
"Yes. Full disclosure it was an accident. I intended to put everything back, but the core wasn't strong enough at that time. It is now. We are gonna put it all back soon."
Dave started to put his lawyer face back on at that "And the business issue you were having, that Melvin character you told me about, he was just a lie you made up to get me here?"
I wish
"No, unfortunately that was real. Under different circumstances I would have not told you about any of the weird stuff until after you had dealt with that one." I said. Dealing with Melvin is on the top of my to-do list actually. I want him out of my life as soon as possible. "I really need to get him out of our hair before he becomes a bigger problem."
"You can't just put it all back. You'll get Harry in trouble if you do that." Dave said, likely to himself based on his body language
"Harry?" I asked in response
"The yard you robbed. That's the owner. If you put everything back the feds will look at him for insurance fraud, conspiracy and any number of other things. We also have to get the other two innocent men out of prison." Yes. That's exactly what we need to do.
"And your machine..."
Really, you too Dave? I was hoping to like you
Not now. We will tell him later
"... it can really make matter. Like the water bottle and the ice packs? That's not a trick?" Everyone always comes back to that. Come on Dave you've seen the alien and the graboid, believe in magic
"As long as matter comes in, yes. Hence the dump idea" I said, gesturing around us.
Dave put the ice packs down and stood up. "I am going back to my firm. I am going to tell all my other clients I will be dropping them. I have a feeling you are about to monopolize my time. When I get back here you are going to tell me every detail about every crime you have committed, are currently committing, or are planning to commit. We are going to come up with a legal strategy on how to keep this" he gestured around with exasperation "Business... from imploding." He made a move towards his car and stopped.
"And I want a body armor set like Tyler. Gun too. Something smaller and more forgiving than the monster he's holding. Survival gear." Nola pushed out what he asked for immediately. The gun she picked for Dave looked Sci-Fi. I kinda want one too.
"Are you ok?" I asked as he loaded his new equipment into his car.
"No. But I have a task. I can work with that and get through this that way." He threw the last of the equipment in his back seat and asked for a tarp. We gave him one
"I'm going to be back tomorrow. I expect you All to be ready to talk legal strategy." He slammed the car door a little bit too hard. "I'm gonna go home and pet my dog, kiss my wife, and try to forgive you for bringing me into this. I would have been happier not knowing."
There's no good way to respond to someone saying that to you. So I just nodded.
Nola got the door open as Dave accelerated till his car fish tailed out of the lot. I walked up and closed the door behind him. We were not ready to open for business again.