New Boss, Who Dis?

After the team entered the garage, James stopped and turned to them, "We all know who's in charge here, right?"

"Sure, sure we do," Jay said.

"It's me,"

"Oh, no, of course you are. Yeah, you." Jay smiled at him.

James stared at him for a moment, eyes shifting back and forth between the vehicle and Jay. His mind struggled between believing what he said and what his face told him he meant.

"Okay, good...ummm...I guess we should..."

"Yeah, we should go,"

The team piled into the GS2, and they were about to take off when someone tapped James on the shoulder.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Susie said to him.

"Fine, hurry up and go. Anyone else need to go? Speak now or forever hold your pee," James replied, looking into the back seats to see if anyone was raising a hand instead of saying something.

Frank, who was large enough that he looked like someone had stuffed a basketball player into a Volkswagen beetle, had his hand half raised, looking embarrassed.

"Just go. I don't want to stop every ten miles for a pit stop."

Frank clambered out of the vehicle clumsily and then ran into the building. When they had both finished and climbed back into the vehicle, Jay took off, beginning their journey. They drove in silence for a long while, each one feeling awkward about being on a new team with people they didn't really know, except for Jay and James.

Finally, James had to break the ice, "So, how many people have you each killed?"

Everyone in the back seat stared at him with wide eyes.

"What? It's a legitimate question now," James tried to defend himself.

"So, you really are like they say. Good to know," Susie said.

"What? What do you mean, like they say?" James asked.

"Awkward, crude, and prone to saying anything that crosses your mind regardless of if it's appropriate for the situation," Susie replied.

"You get used to it. He's just one of those no filter people. At least you always know what you're getting with James," Jay chuckled.

"I do not," James said.

"He's a bit of an idiot, but he means well. Regardless of how many things he messes up," Jay continued.

"I'm right here!" James exclaimed.

"I can totally see that. Your aura is very free," Lacey said, smiling brightly at him.

"My what?" James asked.

"It's a happy color. It makes trusting you very easy," Lacey said.

"Listen here, you hippy-dippy free spirit..." James began.

"I don't know that I'd go that far. Might be a good way to get shot," Jay interrupted.

"Seriously? How is anyone supposed to think of me as the leader with you all talking about me like this?" James asked.

"Petulant is a word that comes to mind," Susie added.

"I'm pretty sure if I knew what that word meant, I'd be even more mad than I already am," James said, turning back around and pouting.

"I'm enjoying this so much," Jay began laughing.

"Yeah, yeah. Yuck it up, ya boob. We'll see whose laughing when we return with a win." James turned toward the window and crossed his arms.

Continuing their drive, Jay came to a halt when they hit I-35 and had to get out because there was a pile of cars blocking the road.

"This was so much easier when we had more people," Jay said, looking at the cars in the way.

"I can handle it," Frank said as he moved forward and put his hands on one of the vehicles.

With what appeared to be little effort on his part, Frank began pushing. Multiple cars began to move as groaning and scraping sounds emitted from the points where they were touching.

"How many points did you put in Strength again?" James asked.

"Ummm..." Frank said as he paused, and his eyes glazed over looking at his stat sheet.

"A hundred and twenty," Frank smiled back at James.

"Holy hell, man!" James' eyes bugged out. "Did you put points in any other stat?"

"Constitution," Frank replied. "Oh, and Endurance."

"So, I guess you don't know any spells then?" Jay asked.

"Iron," Frank said, picking up a car trapped between two others and tossing it to the side.

"Iron?" Jay replied, confused by the name.

"I can show you," Frank said.

He took a step back from the cars, and a cast iron skillet appeared in his hand.

"I CAST IRON!" Frank yelled as he swung the pan with all his considerable strength and smashed it into the rear fender of another vehicle.

The small SUV spun to the side, struck a guardrail, and then flipped over the barrier. Everyone stood open-mouthed at the display.

"Hehehe....my man!" James said, moving to high-five Frank.

"You would think that's funny. But I think he believes that's a real spell." Jay said.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"It is a real spell. You saw what it could do," Frank replied.

"I take back my high-five," James said.

"Aww," Frank pouted.

"You two should get along great. I bet your IQs are close to the same," Susie added.

"You know, I think you're just trying to be mean," James glared at Susie.

"Oh, you can understand," Susie replied.

"Look, I try not to use too many swear words around kids, but you're making it really fucking hard," James said.

"That's what she said," Jay replied.

After the road had been cleared and James had been taunted by everyone there except Lacey, the team loaded back up in the vehicle and continued their journey. They had to stop and move vehicles seven more times in the more populated city areas before they were able to drive a good distance by simply weaving around vehicles in the way.

Frank continued to use his "spell" to remove vehicles from the road, and occasionally, Mark had to help with his own spell to break up the bigger collisions.

"Just blast it," James said.

"Fireball!" Frank cheered.

"You realize if I use that, it could damage the road, right?" Mark asked.

"I don't think we're too worried about that at this point," Jay replied. "We aren't on a bridge, so it should be okay."

Shrugging, Mark cast a spell at the pile-up on the road. The vehicles did explode, but they didn't move far.

"That's it?" James asked.

"Hmmm...It seems that fireball is more effective at burning damage than concussive. Can you concentrate on a concussive spell instead?" Jay asked.

"I do have one that I've been practicing. Bohdan showed me a few things about creating a new spell with intention, and Belik was teaching me about focusing on the makeup of other spells to create one as well," Mark replied, thinking deeply about how best to perform the action.

"Just do what you can," Jay said, reassuring him.

Mark equipped a wooden staff with a red jewel on the end suspended in a ring of metal and closed his eyes to focus.

"Ooooooo, what's that?" James asked.

"It's a flame elementalist staff. It's used as an arcane focus for spells," Mark replied without opening his eyes. "Now shut up so I can concentrate."

Taking a few deep breaths, Mark focused on his intention and began to form the new spell. He waved the staff in the air as he did, and a light in the staff began to glow. The glow of the gem began to turn into a light beam that followed his staff through the motions like the tail of a comet.

"Concussive Blast!" Mark called out in a firm command as he pointed his staff at the mess of vehicles.

The light in his staff pulsed brightly once as the spell activated. A mote of firey energy appeared about twenty feet in front of him and began to shrink in on itself.

"Uh, oh," Mark said before the explosion occurred.

"What do you mean..." James began before everything went white.

As the fiery light in front of them shrank, it suddenly exploded outward with enough force to blow the entire party backward. Mark was writhing on the ground, screaming in pain, when James finally came to, and Lacey was rushing over to heal him.

"What the hell happened?" James asked.

"Apparently, our wizard has bad depth perception," Susie replied, struggling to her feet.

Frank was still lying on the ground. He had struck the door of a car, as evidenced by the huge dent in the metal over where he lay.

"Come back to us, Mark," Lacey was yelling at Mark's body as he suddenly went still.

"Dammit!" Jay exclaimed as he got up and stumbled over to Mark as quickly as he could.

Suddenly, as Jay was about to kneel near him to see if he needed CPR, Mark gasped from the healing magic Lacey was pouring into him. Then he began screaming again from the pain. James walked over and kicked Mark in the head. The man fell silent as his head wrenched to the side.

"What did you do that for?" Lacey asked, worry showing on her face as she continued to pour healing magic into him.

"He shouldn't suffer while you heal him. I just knocked him out."

"Oh...Actually, that's helpful. Thank you," Lacey said as she recovered from the shock of the moments before.

"Don't mention it. He had it coming anyway," James replied as he walked off to the side to sit down. "My ears won't stop ringing."

"Lacey will heal us when she's done. Just rest for now," Jay said as he took a seat as well.

A lot of the skin from the front half of Mark's body was gone, so the healing took a lot longer than expected. Finally, he was whole again, and Lacey sat back from her duty to rest for a moment as well.

"Well, the path is clear," Jay said.

"Yeah, that's what we all took from this. How about we have a bunch of misfits on a team meant to deal with a monster?" James asked.

"Hey," Susie said resentfully.

"Oh hush, you. You know I'm right. A guy who put too many points in strength, a wizard who forgot to cast the spell away from himself, a hippy healer, a pint-sized know-it-all, and a ninja with an attitude."

"You forgot moron obsessed with shooting people in the..."

"That...is a perfectly valid attack strategy to distract your opponent," James interrupted Jay before he could finish.

Lacey finished healing the others a short time later, and they all got on the road again, headed North. Frank had come to and helped to place Mark in the trunk of the vehicle to rest for now. More of the same happened as they drove on, still being slowed by clearing a path on the freeway.

"We really should get a team to clear this for us," James said.

"Not a bad idea," Jay said, pulling his pendant from inside his clothes and holding it to speak into it. "Tom, can you hear me?"

A moment later, he heard Tom's voice: "Jay, it's good to hear from you. How's it going out there?"

"So far so good," Jay lied. "Listen, buddy. Can you have Brian look at what it would take to have a team begin clearing the freeways as far away from the base as they are comfortable going? This is pretty slow going having to stop and move vehicles from wrecks."

"Sure thing. I'll have him add it to his list. Not sure I can promise when it'll happen, but it’s definitely a good idea to be thinking about," Tom replied.

"Thanks, man. That was really it. Just testing out this new communication device and figured I'd mention an idea we had."

"It's a good thought, for sure. And I'm glad the devices are working. I gotta let you go for now, but if you need anything, call us."

"Roger that. Over and out." Jay put the orb back inside his clothes to hide it from view as he finished talking.

As they continued to drive, James noticed something in the distance.

"What is that?" James asked as he pointed to a shadow off in the distance.

Jay squinted as he tried to see what James was pointing at. He noticed the same thing and felt a dark mood come over him. "We've seen something like that before. Remember that tower the goblins had on our way back from the Grand Canyon?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Pretty sure that's the same thing. And it looks like it's moving."