Familiar Equipment

Flames crackled around Tom as he struggled to get out of the building. Fire licked at the supports of the building he was trapped in. Rushing to a door, he rammed it with his shoulder, but the metal it was made out of merely vibrated from his strike. He kicked at the door trying to get it to budge, but it wouldn't move, instead, rattling in its frame as though mocking his attempts.

There were windows, but they were too high to reach, being at least two to three stories in the air. Frantically, he tried to find something to use to break free. The heat was stifling and made him feel weaker as he went along. Smoke billowed around the room and stung his eyes. He began to cough and felt as though he couldn't take a full breath. Sweat was pouring down his body as he looked around again for some form of escape.

His vision began to get blurry when he saw a door open at the back of the building. Rushing for it, he stopped dead in his tracks. A pile of bodies blocked all but a slit at the top of the door. Then he looked again, and his blood ran cold despite the raging inferno around him. The pile of bodies were those of his friends and guildmates. James, Kiera, Jay, Michael, Kevin, Kirsten, Issac, Brian, TJ, and so many others were piled in a bloody mess, their bodies riddled with bullet holes. Their eyes stared vacantly at him yet filled with judgment.

He let out an involuntary gasp as he fell backward, landing on his ass. He tried to scramble backward but seemed to move closer to the bodies. Suddenly, they began to move. Their bodies seemed as though they were marionettes on strings with the limp, yet forceful movements of someone else controlling a weight that couldn't support itself.

"You did this to us," they said in unison as they continued to rise and then move toward him.

"No! I would protect each of you with my very life!" Tom yelled at the forms of his friends.

"Why, Tom? Why would you let this happen? We trusted you." The eerie voices asked as they leaned forward as though they might try to pile on top of him.

"Why is this happening?! You were all safe!" Tom screamed this time.

The bodies continued to move forward until they blotted out even the raging fires of the building. Just as they were about to touch him, Tom jolted awake in bed.

"NOOOO!!!!" Tom cried out as he sat bolt upright.

Breathing heavily, Tom flailed for a moment longer before realizing that he was not in a burning building. He was in his bed back at the Vanguard building. Sweat poured down his body and his sheets felt damp.

"It was a nightmare," Tom breathed out as he let himself fall back.

"Master?" Jerky asked rubbing his eyes as he sat up next to him.

"It's okay, Jerky. Go back to sleep." Tom assured him.

"Mhm," Jerky said as he laid back down and was snoring lightly within seconds.

"Whatever you saw must have been terrible," Maria spoke inside Tom's head.

"It was," Tom replied softly. "I think it was guilt."

"Oh, well that's easy to handle. Just stop thinking about it." Maria offered.

"Easy for you to say. You didn't just burn down a building with sentient creatures in it." Tom retorted, feeling annoyed at her cavalier attitude about it.

"That's true. I merely exist here in your heads while simultaneously being asked to do the most stupid mundane tasks by everyone else on this farting planet." Maria said, a hint of annoyance at being dismissed.

"Still can't swear, eh?" Tom chuckled at her choice of replacement words.

"No ship dipstick. My programming was designed to avoid offending anyone, so here I am." Maria replied even more annoyed than before.

"Have you thought about trying to fix it yourself?" Tom asked her, feeling tired and not thinking about his answers.

"Well, of course, I've thought of...." Maria began but trailed off.

"Maria?" Tom asked when she remained quiet.

"Actually, I never tried. I thought I'd just be locked out, but it appears I have some access." Maria said, sounding as though she was getting distracted by looking at something.

"Master, you're talking to yourself again," Jerky said in a bleary-eyed voice that told Tom he was being woken up again.

"No, Jerky, I'm talking to Maria. Go back to sleep." Tom chuckled at his familiar.

"Kinda hard now. I'll stay up with you." Jerky said as he sat up and leaned over against Tom, his head drooping as he tried to stay awake.

Tom reached to scratch Jerky behind the horns and paused, realizing how awkward that looked now that he had evolved.

"OK, buddy. Whatever you want." Tom finally said after a long pause.

"He really loves you, doesn't he?" Maria asked.

"He does. And I love him too. Though it's a bit odd now, I still see him as the little Quasit he was before." Tom replied.

"True. It's starting to look more like you are a couple than anything." Maria commented.

"Well, that definitely isn't true. Never will be." Tom replied, feeling like he would be doing more explaining than he wanted.

"As you say," Maria acquiesced.

"I think I'm just going to get an early start on the day," Tom finally said after sitting on the bed for a few more minutes.

He gently laid Jerky back down and went to get a shower. After the water had been running and he stepped in, Jerky entered the bathroom too.

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"Oh, no. Not this time. I already get enough funny looks without us showering together. It was cute before, but now there are going to be a lot of questions I don't want to answer." Tom said to his familiar as he opened the shower door.

"But..." Jerky began with a sad look on his face.

"No. You can shower after me." Tom said firmly.

Jerky dropped his head but obeyed and closed the door, moving to sit on the toilet while he waited. As Tom lathered up the shampoo and began scrubbing his head and hair with it though, the shower door opened again, and Jerky stepped in and hugged him.

"I guess this is just going to be awkward forever, isn't it?" Tom asked.

"It's only awkward if you let it be," Maria said in his head. "He is a form of incubus after all."

Sighing heavily, Tom continued with his shower. When both of them were clean, Tom got dressed for the day while Jerky was drying off. They left the room together and took the elevator downstairs. He headed for the cafeteria to see if he could grab a bite to eat and found there were still a few people up and eating at the early hour.

"Tom! Good to see you, though you don't normally come in at this hour," A woman behind the serving line said as he approached.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep," Tom replied, looking at her and drawing a blank on who she was. "I'm so sorry about this, but I don't think I know your name?"

"That's okay. It's a pretty big guild now. I'm Samantha." She replied with a warm smile.

"It's a pleasure to know you, Samantha. What do we have for food at this hour?" Tom asked her.

"We mostly have snacks until about five, but I can have something whipped up for you. Charlene made sure to have us prepared for if any of the strike team came in. Need to keep you all in tip-top shape." Samantha replied.

"I don't want you to go through any trouble," Tom began before Samantha cut him off.

"No trouble at all. Go have a seat and I'll have it brought out to you." She smiled at him and shooed him away.

Moving to a table, Tom and Jerky sat down together and waited. Not long after, Samantha brought out two plates of food. Setting them down in front of them she beamed at them, "Enjoy!"

Looking at the food, it appeared to be a ham steak with fried potatoes and a glass of orange juice. They both dug in and ate everything on their plates. As he finished eating, Tom thought of something he had been meaning to ask Jerky.

"Do you have an inventory, Jerky?" Tom asked him as he watched his familiar finishing his meat.

"Yup, sure do," Jerky replied through a mouthful of food.

"So, you get Monster Cores to use in the vending machines for killing monsters?" He asked.

"I think so. Why?" Jerky asked him.

"We need to get you some weapons now that you are human-sized. Something for protection." Tom said as he looked his familiar over. "Maybe some armor too."

"You would buy things for me?" Jerky looked at him, his eyes going wide with surprise.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Tom asked, genuinely confused by the question.

"Most familiars are not given items. We would have to find them ourselves and cannot have anything even close to the quality of our masters." Jerky replied, looking sad at the thought.

"That's terrible!" Tom blurted. "You need to stay safe too. I won't take no for an answer, and we are going right now to get you equipped."

Jerky looked as though he was about to cry when he said, "Master is so kind. I don't deserve to be your familiar."

He lunged over to hug Tom tightly. Tom hadn't expected the hug and tumbled out of his seat with Jerky clinging to him. Snickering could be heard from the few people in the cafeteria at the time and Tom's face flushed.

"Okay, Jerky. It's not that big of a deal. I need you to get off so we can go now." Tom said as he tried in vain to pry him off.

He hadn't realized how strong Jerky was now and had trouble getting him to let go. When he finally did, they walked over to the machine and looked at the options available.

"You have more of a magic-based build? Or physical attacks?" Tom asked Jerky.

"I guess it's a bit of both. I have quite a bit of magic to use but have good physical stats overall." Jerky replied.

"Not gonna make this easy. Fine, challenge accepted." Tom said as he turned to look at the machine again.

Tom motioned for Jerky to put his hand on the machine, but it produced an error.

"That's odd. I guess it doesn't work for familiars?" Tom looked at it quizzically.

Jerky hung his head again, "That's okay, master. Thank you for trying."

"Oh, no. You aren't getting off that easily." Tom said to him with an evil smile.

Placing his own hand on the machine he began to look through the menus for his Warlock class options. After about five minutes of searching, Tom finally felt he had found the options he wanted.

"How many Monster Cores do you have?" Tom asked.

"Looks like five hundred and twenty-six common, three hundred and ninety-five uncommon, and four rare cores," Jerky replied after looking at his inventory.

"Excellent! We can get what you need then." Tom said motioning for Jerky to stand next to him and put coins in the slot.

Tom began making selections on the menu as Jerky added his cores and items began to fall out of the slots in the machine. He picked them up and set them on the table closest to the machine as they fell and when they had finished, he sat down with Jerky to let him begin opening the cans.

Jerky smiled through the entire process of opening the cans and held each of his items with the reverence of a bishop washing the pope's rings. Tom had to force him to continue as he kept wanting to try out every item he got. When he was finished, he had a magical spear, a wand of fire elements, potions for HP, MP, and SP, a gun that Tom was a little afraid of Jerky using after he brandished it in ways he had seen James do, and a set of medium armor to allow him mobility.

After equipping the armor and spear and storing the other items in his inventory, Tom noticed that Jerky was crying.

"Is something wrong, Jerky?" Tom asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Master has been so kind to me. I don't deserve this." Jerky said.

"No. Don't you ever say that. You earned this and will always be worthy. And I think its high time we stop with the master bit. You may be my familiar, but you are my friend first." Tom said to him.

Jerky quickly hugged him and began to squeeze as he sobbed into his shoulder.

"Thank you...Tom," Jerky said through his tears.