Chapter 15:
Ben tugged on one of his new wrist bracers as he and Katie landed. He was still getting used to the new gear, having only gotten them about 2 hours ago. They, along with some straps for just above his boots, dozens of higher quality quartz, some emergency healing injectors, and a new battle axe were what he ended up buying from the Exchange.
Originally he hadn’t been planning on buying so much. Mainly just a couple of gems and the bracers. Maybe even another battle axe as well, though of much lower quality.
Even then he would have had to borrow money from Katie, having not told his aunt about anything yet, but an Incursion or two would have let him pay her back rather quickly. Now though, with the competition and Katie’s insistence, he was far less frugal. Considering how much that Quantum Lab thing actually was worth, Ben didn’t feel too bad about having to borrow the money from his friend. Since if he won, he’d have repaid her way more than what he spent by an absurd amount.
Tinker tech was expensive. Tinker tech made to help Tinkers build better and faster was even more so. It was honestly still mind-boggling to Ben how much Shield Maiden was willing to wager on this. Though was it because she was just that rich or did she actually value getting Katie’s help as an assistant that much?
“So, you nervous?” Katie asked, leaning forward from beside him to look at him. She had a small smirk on her face. Behind her and to the side, five Bugbot Carriers scuttle after them as they made it to the meeting point in front of the IHA building by the front statue. The four extra Bugbots had flown from Katie’s lab as they tested things in a nearby Super gym. “Think you can beat the kid?”
Ben shrugged at that. “Not sure. It’s not like we know how good he is. At the very least, I think I can do pretty well. Just being able to use my gems without—”
His words were cut off as in front of the IHA statue purple light appeared. The light moved in a swirling pattern and formed an oval that hovered just an inch off the ground. It was large enough to allow three people to walk through shoulder to shoulder. Inside of the swirling purple light, another place could be seen. It was… An empty parking lot.
“Alright, everyone! Vortex’s portal is up!” Pyro Protector called out from next to the portal as he gestured at it. He was wearing his typical red and orange outfit that was kinda like what a firefighter wore but a lot sleeker in design. The outer jacket wasn’t as large as a real firefighter jacket and underneath he had a padded undersuit typical to Super costumes. He must have been the supervising A-Rank from the League for this incursion. “Let’s get a move on. Everyone registered for the 1 PM Incursion in East Cascade go on through single file. Don’t want to keep the Bosslady waiting now.”
Ben perked up at that and couldn’t help but look around for the iconic purple and black figure. Of course, even as he did he knew it was unlikely that she was actually here. Vortex could make portals anywhere she wanted in the entire city. She was likely either patrolling and doing this remotely or doing it from her office or something. Still, he couldn’t help but want to see her. While she wasn’t his favorite Hero in the city—that was Indomitable—she was still a S-Rank and the strongest in the city too.
“Come on, enough gawking,” Katie said, patting him on the shoulder before moving forward to join the queue for the portal. “Time to go.”
“Alright,” Ben said, moving to follow her.
He gave one last quick look around but didn’t see Vortex anywhere. After only a minute, everyone in front of them had entered the portal and it was their turn.
Katie went first, stepping into the portal as if it were nothing, her Bugbots following behind after her in a line. Ben, on the other hand, hesitated for just a moment as he stared at the glowing purple portal. He could see Katie on the other side already stepping out of the way, her form looking just a bit wavy as the light got bent by the portal.
It was a little unnerving but also awe-inspiring. That they could just go from Haven all the way to East Cascade in a single step. Something that he’d heard about, and knew could be done but had been so removed from his life up until now that it almost didn’t seem real. But now he was a Super and things would probably only get weirder.
“You alright, kid?” Pyro Protector asked from the side.
Ben jolted at that and realized he was probably holding up the line. “Ugh. Yeah. Sorry.”
“It’s alright,” The man said, waving him off. “Portals gonna be up for another ten anyway. And we're almost done. No one's gonna blame a newbie for being a bit overwhelmed with this type of stuff. And in case you're worried or anything, don’t be. Walking through one of Vortex’s portals is no different than just taking a step through a door.”
Ben hadn’t been worried about that but smiled at the man nonetheless. “Thanks. See you on the other side.“
The man chuckled at that and nodded. “See ya, kid.”
And with that, Ben turned back to the portal and stepped through.
As Pyro Protector had said, he didn’t feel anything at all. Despite moving what was probably miles in a single instant, it was really no different than walking through a door. The parking lot they were now in was even getting about the same amount of sunlight as in front of the IHA building so barely anything changed.
The only difference that he could perceive was the noise. It was less noticeable while he was close to the portal. But as he walked over to Katie, it became more and more apparent. Despite there being several dozens of people around, forming small groups in the empty lot, it was a lot quieter here than back at Central Square. With the whole sector having been evacuated, the amount of noise you would normally hear in a busy city was muted. They weren’t too far from the sector walls since he could see them, but being over three stories high and quite dense, they still blocked off most of the noise from the other side.
It made the empty parking lot of the car dealership they were at a lot more ominous than it would otherwise be.
Ben tried to not dwell on that as he took in their surroundings.
The lot of the dealership was empty of cars but Ben could see that there were still some inside the showroom. All the cars out in the lot must have been evacuated earlier in the day. The same was true for the other dealership he could see beyond a concrete barrier, and the plaza on the other side was completely devoid of cars as well. People getting their own cars out with almost half a day's notice wasn’t that bad, but it must have been a pain in the ass for the dealerships.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Well, regardless of how annoying it might have been, all the cars were thankfully gone, giving the heroes a lot of space to work with. The rest of the sector would be like this as well, with most things that could be moved being moved away. That of course meant the people as well. Once the Reinforcement System was up, this whole part of the city would hopefully be a worry-free battleground for them to take care of the monsters.
Unless of course there were people like Ben. Or like Ben had been. People who wanted to try and earn access to the System. They could have stayed instead of evacuating or tried to sneak in while the evacuations were happening. It was something Ben had considered, but the legal repercussions and dangers involved had always kept him from doing so. After all, if an incursion was big enough to be picked up by the city’s sensor grid, then the dangers involved were much greater.
Combined with having to avoid notice by the Heroes involved and it was just far more trouble than it was worth. At least for Ben.
Yet even then, despite avoiding all that, he’d almost died…
“Ah, there you two are,” a now familiar voice said, breaking Ben from his darkening thoughts. It was Shield Maiden and she was walking over from the portal. They were some of the last through it seemed as Pyro Protector came through as well before the portal vanished. “I hope you're ready, Swarm. While I’m sure Legacy is a fine fighter, I fully expect Voltic to win. And that means starting today you will be my minion—I mean assistant. And I will have a lot of work for you.”
Behind Shield was Voltic Surge, the B-Rank girl who had been with her earlier, and two more guys. One of the guys was the other B-Rank from earlier, though this other one was new. He was a D-Ranker. Must have been here for the Incursion too instead of as an escort.
“You know what they say about counting your eggs, Shield,” Katie said with a scoff as she crossed her arms. “I hope you're ready to shell out more cash for another QL3 cause your current one is mine…”
Ben tuned Katie and Shield’s posturing out and instead nodded at Voltic who walked up to him.
The boy was wearing a padded tight-fitting suit. It was blue and yellow and to go with it he had a visored helmet with the same color scheme and a utility belt. Attached to the belt was a little shield similar to what Shield Maiden wore on her wrists, except its central orb was yellow instead of blue. Several more things were on the belt that Ben couldn’t quite make out, but his most noticeable piece of equipment was on his back. From the glimpse he’d gotten of it when he’d met Voltic for the first time, it had looked like a gun.
All combined together, the outfit would have been very impressive. Very professional looking and what he would expect from a full-time hero. The things that ruined that image were the fact that Voltic only came up to the center of Ben’s chest and his voice when he spoke.
“Do you think they ever get tired of that?” Voltic asked, nodding his head at the still-bickering duo. His voice was still high like a kid's, and what made it worse was he was trying to make his voice sound deeper.
Ben did his best to ignore that. It wasn’t polite to just judge him by his age or his voice. And it wouldn’t be good to underestimate him either. Younger or not, he had been a Super longer than Ben and his power was probably pretty strong if he could join the Radiant Guardians as an E-Rank.
“Hopefully,” Ben said, looking back over at the two as they continued to faux politely insult each other. Then he turned his attention to the clock he’d put into his System HUD and saw that there were still more than twenty minutes until the incursion actually started. Well… might as well make some conversation. “So… Ugh… You see any interesting movies lately?”
Voltic Surge perked up at that and nodded. “Oh, actually yeah. Have you seen—”
“Alright, listen up everyone!” Pyro Protector called out, interrupting Voltic. “And I do mean everyone. I don’t care if you’ve done this dozens of times before, pay attention. So basic rules first: If you’re an E Rank and got escorts, stick by them. If not, make sure you're always in sight of one of our volunteer supervisors.”
Pyro gestured to his right, where a group of seven other Heroes were. Two of them waved to the crowd while one of them was setting up a canopy and some other equipment. Ben didn’t recognize any of them, but they were all B-Ranks. Most seemed to be independents, but a couple had guild tags in their displayed names and one was also from the Cascade League as well.
“They are here to watch over you all, but their main job is to prevent the monsters from getting out of control,” Pyro protector said. “Make things easier on them by not straying too far from them if you don’t have someone watching your back. If you get hurt, come back to this location or call for help.”
“Finally, the most important part. To the west of here is Eastlake Medical Center. That’s one of the largest hospitals in West Cascade. An extra contingent of Heroes is already over there on the off chance anything somehow breaches the walls. There’s very little chance of that happening with an E-Rank Incursion, but do not lead any monsters in that direction regardless. We do not take chances with hospitals. Now, any questions?”
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The Incursion didn’t happen right at 2 like Ben had been expecting. It seemed that the time listed for the Incursions was just meant to indicate that after the listed time an Incursion was imminent. So in the end, it was 2:17 when the Incursion finally happened.
Unlike with the Incursion that Ben had encountered, it happened all at once.
There was a strange feeling in the air. One that Ben couldn’t really describe, but if pressed he would have called it a vibration. One that he didn’t feel on his skin or in the air, but… with something like a sixth sense.
Then, several dozen feet to the right of where he and Voltic along with the rest of their group had been waiting, an Incursion portal appeared. It was far larger than the one he’d seen before, almost as big as a house. It was also far more violent. Where the one he’d seen before seemed to ripple the air gently, this one distorted the area around it erratically and harshly.
It also wasn’t the only one. Just within sight of the parking lot they’d arrived in, there were two more portals like this. The one closest to them was the largest but the others were at least half the size of this one.
Nothing else seemed to happen for a long moment, as the portals continued to distort the air and space around them. Then something finally came through and it was very familiar. It was another one of those split-mouth badger things. It was about the same size as the one he fought before, probably tall enough to reach the middle of Ben’s chest on all fours.
Ben had taken a moment to look at the Bestiary at the IHA and, apparently, they’d been named Splitter Jackals. They’d only started appearing since the S-Rank Incursion, and they were named because of that freaky laughing thing they did. That laugh was also apparently a very low-power sonic attack that could cause disorientation.
From behind the Splitter Jackal, another form emerged from the portal. It was another one, just as large. And then another one came out. And another one. And another.
Ben unslung his new axe from his back in preparation. It was a bit of a clumsy move, given how heavy the axe was compared to his old one. The axe blade was almost double the size of his old one too, making it far too large to be used practically by a normal person. But once he started using one of the crystals strapped to his right bracer to apply force upwards to it, it became much easier to handle. With his axe in his hands, he watched the monsters continue to make their way out and he swallowed.
He’d been a bit excited about this before, to finally get to use his powers for what they were meant to do. To push his powers to their limits and get stronger. But now that it was time, a tiny bit of nerves worked their way back into him. At the same time, he couldn’t help but remember the feeling of something ripping into his sides.
“You ready?” Voltic Surge asked from his side. The boy had a grin on his face. “Cause I’m not planning on losing this!”
Ben forced a smile and nodded. “Yeah. And neither am I. Good luck.”
With that, the two of them got to work and charged the monsters closest to them, even as more and more monsters started to spew out of the portal.