You know that moment when you do or say something and you know you’ve done fucked up. You either tested fate or karma, and one, the other, or both decided it was time to put your ego in check. As Adam stood there looking at the terrified leaders of two countries before him and said “No Chance” he had one of those moments, then Thor contacted him with a priority message.
Thor: You have incoming! Initiating link now!
Adam’s mind went fully into machine speed and he linked to every nanite on Earth and in this solar system as he was also linked to both as he tried to figure out what was going on. The nanites in Mars and Jupiter and their moons detected gravitic anomalies and then morphed to act as an array to start scanning in earnest. Moments later they detected eight objects being ejected from the asteroid belt traveling at between 80 and 90% of the speed of light toward the inner solar system. Once Thor knew that he refined his sensors and search techniques and started tracking the objects in real time. The eight asteroids, each at least a half mile across were moving at 85% the speed of light towards Earth. The nearest objects were set to impact in 4 minutes while the objects coming from the other side of the solar system were roughly 35 minutes away. If they hit the Earth, well the size wasn’t going to be too bad but that velocity would end all life on Earth, especially if all eight asteroids hit.
Without hesitation, he teleported to the closest asteroid, matched speed, and touched it. he transferred it into his soul space outside his artificial solar system where his chaos broke down the matter and converted into more chaos in his solar system. Adam teleported to the other seven asteroids in turn. 10 seconds later all eight objects were safely in his soul space or broken down as he teleported to each. Obviously, the Xerexi had another way to enter, or at least communicate with other outposts or individuals they’d left behind.
Adam teleported back to Tiananmen Square, looked at the 8 individuals still in the force bubble and the crowd that had come to see what was going on, waved his hand teleporting all nine of them back to where they’d been, and released the bubble as he teleported five AU’s above the Sun. Fifteen seconds had passed so far.
It would take too long to spread nanites throughout the solar system to find the outposts and individual intruders. he had a feeling they were spread throughout the asteroid belt. Nope, not waiting for a technological solution, he focused his will and cast a Divination Spell to find all traces of the Xerexi or their equipment. A voice he’d never thought to hear again entered his mind,
“Adamantadine, asking for help are we? So be it. I have absorbed the knowledge from my shadow that you knew. We must talk at some point, but not today. Locations for all interlopers from the Xerexi Realm and their outposts are here,” The voice of Serena, the true goddess of Knowledge said into Adam’s mind.
Red dots appeared in his vision in 25 different locations around the solar system. One near each planet, a few in weird places, and a couple in the Asteroid Belt,
“Yes, this is the real Goddess of Knowledge Adam, we will talk soon,” Serena said as her voice faded from his mind.
Even as the locations were pointed out he detected changes in the Gravitic layout of the solar system near four locations in the asteroid belt. Reaching out with magic, Adam visualized his hand grasping each and crushing all four locations into nothing. Darth Vader eat your heart out! Adam thought as he focused on the other 21 locations with Clairvoyance, multi-casting the spell so he could view all the locations at once. 18 of the 21 locations were outposts of some kind. They all looked to be automated. There was one outpost on, or near, each planet. There were three transit portals though. The one on the moon, another near Jupiter, and a third on the outside of the Oort Cloud.
As Adam destroyed the 18 outposts, ships started pouring into the solar system and taking up a defensive position around the portals. Adam could tie himself up here fighting a never-ending stream of these assholes or he could try to take the fight to the other side of the portal. As luck would have it, Desirae stepped back into communications range from the Dungeon at that moment.
Adam opened a communications channel through the nanites near her, “Desirae, How’d it go?”
“Great, I am now a Dungeon Master!” she said happily.
“Awesome, right now I have no time to explain everything, though Thor will be able to fill you in later. The quick version from me is as follows; You have a new recruit, Clarence, an assassin by trade. Get him trained up and ready for dungeon diving. Hold on for a sec,” he said as he brought everyone else into the conversation.
“Okay everyone, hostile aliens from another place are trying to kill Earth. I’m going to go take care of that problem. That means I have to leave the area, again. Desirae is in charge of Security. Amanda, get Portals Inc up and running again. Mom and Dad help out as you can. Abi, you’re a person now. You can do whatever you want but I would appreciate it if you’d help Amanda and Desirae again as they need. Clarence is the new guy, he answers directly to Desirae. Clarence?”
“Yeah Adam,” Clarence said.
“Security-related issues you answer to Desirae, when she thinks you’re trustworthy she may give you permission to go back out into the world. Until then you listen to her first, everyone else second. If you need a salary, ask Desirae about it, she’ll fill you in on what your salary actually is.”
A lot of “Okays” and “We’ll get it done “ were answered back.
Adam thought for a moment then said, “So this is what I want to happen, though I leave it to you to make the final decisions. I am finding that the governments of this Earth are not helping the people. I do not want them taken over, I want them ignored. They can either help or get out of the way. There are going to be Monsters popping up all over the globe soon. Abi, Amanda, and Desirae are the highest level, and Mom and Dad should be close soon. You’ll have to respond to whatever Monsters the locals can’t handle first. Next, get Portals Inc set up, and finally get the safari adventuring experience set up. Make that last affordable to everyone. There are a couple of other items but I’m running out of time. Thor will fill you in on what I mean. Earth needs people that can survive against monsters and utilize magic. What better way to prepare them than to send people through a dungeon? Additionally, except for the Dungeon, no killing anyone else by any of you. Feel free to show off but try not to outright kill anyone. We are going to be the good guys and gals. Any questions?”
“Lots, but the way you’re talking it sounds like you’re in a hurry,” Abi said.
“I am, they’re trying to put three fleets together to come after you all down there on Earth. I’m going to do what I can then I’m going through their portal and hitting them on the other side.”
“Good Luck!” Mom and Dad said together as the others, except for Clarence, also wished me luck.
Adam closed his link to them as he surrounded himself in an 8-foot radius of pure Chaos then moved as fast as he could toward the portal near Jupiter. The explosions near Jupiter would be visible to everyone on Earth within 54 minutes, Jupiter was just about 600 million miles from Earth currently. He had no idea what speed he hit them at but it was orders of magnitude faster than the speed of light. Star Treks’ warp 10 was 10,000 times the speed of light and that was slow in comparison. Adam plowed through 13 of the 50 ships that had already come through the portal which created a cascade of explosions that destroyed every ship in the vicinity and probably sent the shockwave back through the Xerexi Transit Portal. The shockwave created by that explosion blew part of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere out. It would settle back to the planet, but it would be years before that happened.
Adam adjusted his course and hit the ships gathering in the Oort cloud which left a hole in the Oort cloud that surrounded the solar system. There would be more comets and asteroids heading toward Earth that may or may not hit. He’d let Thor worry about them.
For the Group of Xerexi ships out past Andromeda, he wished a black hole into existence that would last exactly 5 seconds. All the ships exiting the portal spaghettified and were destroyed. Adam was also pretty sure the gravitic effects of singularity had translated through the portal and destroyed any ships on the other side.
As he adjusted his trajectory back towards the portal at the moon, Desirae contacted me, “Adam, no killing?”
As he came up to the parallel portals he noted that the gravity near the exit point of his portal on the other side of Andromeda had leaked through the one-millimeter gap. Who knew gravity was so sneaky? There was a stress fracture in the moon which his nanites were even now repairing. Luckily the area had not included Earth, which might have been really bad. Adam was so glad he hadn’t created a supermassive Black Hole. Desirae had contacted him? “Desirae, sorry about that, I was a bit busy, you should be seeing the handiwork within the hour. As for the no-killing rule? Last resort and definitely no innocents. Innocents are defined as children ages 12 and younger and anyone that has not directly threatened any of you or the world in general. Idiot Generals starting wars after you warned them, your call but I want us to be the good guys, so if you have to just have Thor do it. He can stop their hearts, no issue. On a side note, Thor is keeping nanites out of everyone. Not going to go into all the changes but the nanites are only in inorganic materials, not people, animals, or plants. That means people won’t automatically be freezing on command anymore.”
“Well, that’s an improvement anyway. Fighting is never fun when they just sit there,” she said with a grin. “So you’re done here then?”
“Just about. I have no idea what’s going to happen on the other side, though I’m sure the Realm is inside this same reality just not adjacent to it.”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Yeah, stop with the sci-fi babble already, I don’t understand, and don’t care. As long as I have ground to stand on and a blade in my hand I’m good,” she said.
“Okay, tell everyone I said good luck. I should be back, though if my travels find a way to Adaline or Pandora I may get sidetracked.”
“Noted, Good look Adam, bring them back,” Desirae said.
“If I didn’t know better Dez, I’d think you’re going soft,” he said mischievously.
“Oh, you little shi...,” She started to say as he cut her off and concentrated on the portal. Adam dispelled his portal, let his mana refresh, and moved to float through. When he was within 10 feet of the portal the warning prompt appeared.
WARNING: This portal leads to another Realm. Target Quantum State may not be compatible with all entities from this Quantum State.
As he moved to touch the portal another prompt appeared.
Would you like to leave this Realm and travel to another Realm using this Transit Portal, Yes or No?
Here goes nothing, he thought as he chose “Yes”. For a moment he felt a sensation of moving then pain, like nothing I’d ever felt before, saturated his entire being as…
***
Desirae stepped through a portal from the Underwater base to the Cafeteria in the underground facility in New Mexico. Cindy and Robert, Adams’s mom and dad, were sitting and drinking some coffee as they chatted with a new face she hadn’t seen before. That must be Clarence. Abi and Amanda were at another table with a holographic interface and were working on, “Abi, what the hell is ‘Macro Studies of ecoculture?”
“You can read that backward, cool. That’s just a paper about how to make something at the Macro Scale work on the micro-scale.”
“Specific application of pressure at key points of vulnerability,” Clarence and Desirae said simultaneously. Desirae looked at Clarence and quirked an eyebrow. Adam was right she was going to like this Clarence guy.
“No, no, no. Doing it that way almost always leads to a reversion back to old habits after the affecting force…,” Amanda started to say as Desirae focused her gaze on her, “Just trying to help, Amanda said.
“Thor, what exactly did Adam mean when he spouted off what he wanted? You can think as fast as he can, none of us can. Fill us in.”
“Adam has been running into issues with the true rulers of this world. Power has corrupted those in charge. They assume because they have all the money that they are all-powerful, but they are not. And of course, they are reluctant to give up their perceived power to someone they think they have power over. They’ve already sent assassins after him and his family. Isn’t that right Clarence?”
“Yeah, but I’ve seen what he was capable of, that’s a no-contest scenario. What are the five of you and me going to do?” Clarence asked.
“First I’m going to continue to expand this facility while I set up defenses against all types of intrusions,” Thor started. “This will give me the ability to create portals to any location on planet Earth. We’ll use the portals to respond to high-level monster threats when the peoples of Earth need our help. For the most part, we are going to stay out of the day-to-day lives of everyone. We are going to let people decide for themselves what they want to do.”
“You can handle most of that can’t you?” Abi asked Thor
“Yes. Abi and Amanda are going to be the face of Portals Inc. As the Chinese attacked Adam he has no issue rescinding his offer to share the technology with them first so you two are going to discover, patent, and create the first portal devices. We’re going to do that by opening our first portal to one of the planets or moons and accidentally discovering a rare mineral that is scarce on Earth. That will make you two trillionaires overnight and from there things will get interesting.”
“What about us?” Cindy and Robert Bennard asked together.
“You two are going to be the face of free food, water, and health care eventually,” Thor said. “There will be a lot of powerful people that will try to stop you. They won’t be an issue, at least until they add magic users. If they do that, well Desirae can probably handle them as she is a Shadow Assassin the like of which Earth has never seen before,” Thor stated.
“Too true,” Desirae said. “Thor you will be keeping an eye out for those that show magical inclinations right?”
“Yes, and that’s where you come in Desirae. You are to set up some way of recruiting people and sending them into the Dungeon so they get stronger. At first, it’ll be a blanket call for those seeking adventure. The first level is set up for very low-level people as you know so that shouldn’t be an issue. Remember though, for the Dungeon to grow we need greedy people to bite off more than they can chew. Adam’s thoughts were to work with the promising candidates and prepare them for what’s going on while simultaneously approaching the less morally inclined tyrants of this Earth and inviting them to go Treasure hunting. As you’ve already finished the Dungeon Once you’ll be able to capitalize on their greed by showing them items and money they can get.”
“Al pays out in gold, so yeah, that’ll probably interest them. With guns, they might be able to survive to Al’s third level but after that elementals get involved, and special class abilities and magic are going to be required.”
“Adam was very clear on this. Freedom of choice. Don’t lie about their chances, let them know they will probably die if they go farther than level 3 but once they enter Al, they live or die by their choices.” Thor said. “Back to Cindy and Robert, you two will receive a generous tax-deductible donation from Abi and Amanda that will be used to set up free clinics around the globe. We’ll start in the free countries first. In those clinics and a very few other buildings that are part of Portals Inc. Nanites will be able to temporarily enter living bodies. It should be noted that all of you are exempt from that rule. Long life, a rebirth if killed from a backed-up memory and perfect health are yours forever. For everyone else though, nanites will fix medical issues, alter bodies, and improve the lives of anyone that enters the clinics. Effectively they’ll be able to live without dying of natural causes.
The funny thing is, that at the beginning it’s just going to be a small building that people will be able to come in and get information from. When they enter, they’ll be analyzed and fixed. When they leave the nanites will exit their bodies. Since we’re not saturating their bodies completely it takes a lot fewer nanites and no one needs to know what’s going on.
“How long do you estimate it’ll be before people start figuring out something is up with the clinics?” Desirae asked.
“Normal projections show a year, two on the outside. Though if a seriously sick person comes through, it may come up sooner,” Thor said. “The point is that people that come to the clinics will live longer more productive lives.
“So what’s first?” Desirae asked.
“The first thing I need to do is set up proper defenses for this base as well as expand it quite a bit farther than anyone expects it to be. While I’m doing that, You take everyone on a little show and tell concerning the Dungeon. Remember, I can only hear and help you when you’re greater than one hundred feet from the entrance. Clarence will stay here and I’m going to start bringing him up to speed on what I am. Who Adam is. What’s going on and why it is in his best interest to help us out,” Thor said as he opened a portal.
Desirae, Abi, Amanda, Cindy, and Robert all stepped through the portal to the underwater base as Clarence looked around, “Now what?” he asked the room.
“Now I give you a crash course about what has happened and who or what Adam really is. Are you ready?” Thor asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Clarence said.
“Good, while you’ve been here I’ve been infiltrating your body with microscopic machines called nanites. Not to worry, so long as you do not try to hurt any of the five people you just met or Adam they are fully beneficial for you?”
“How could having tiny machines in me be beneficial?” Clarence asked.
“Well, you were well on your way to Type II diabetes until now. Your body chemistry has been rebalanced and your organs repaired. Also, your arteries were in good shape but now they’re perfect.”
“I didn’t feel anything?” Clarence said
“Would you like to feel things that are mucking around inside you?” Thor asked.
“Not really,” Clarence hedged.
“Now that we have that sorted, the other thing that having nanites in your system allows is an instantaneous transfer of data. I can download information into your brain.”
“Like Johnny Mnemonic or Trinity from the Matrix?” Clarence asked.
“Exactly like that. I am impressed you know your cyberpunk-style classics?” Thor said.
“What’s not to like about those movies? Superhuman type people running around. Am I supposed to say something like ‘Hit Me!”
“Something like that,” Thor said as he downloaded everything Clarence needed to know about Adam, the current state of affairs, and why he had the dreams he did. Johnathan’s memories of their original encounter so Clarence could compare his dreams to the reality Johnathan lived through and also where the dungeon was, what was down at the bottom of the ocean, and what a dungeon did. Unlike Adam, Clarence’s brain was overloaded and he passed and fell to the floor. Thor also had to repair a couple of blood vessels in his brain.
An hour later Clarence woke up, rubbed his eyes, and looked around, “What happened?”
“I may have tried to download too much information into your mind?” Thor said.
“You think?” Clarence said pulling himself up to the table. “Got any 7-up, my stomach is a bit queasy?”
“Sure,” Thor said creating a glass of 7-Up on the table, “Though I’m not detecting anything that should be making you queasy.”
“The memories, everything Johnathan, no Adam, has been through, and the memories I now have that are similar to the dreams I had from another point of view…it’s a mental queasiness, not physically generated,” Clarence said
“Fair enough. So I have to ask, are you completely on board?” Thor asked.
“Let me get this straight, Adam is effectively a God, but not. Even though he’s not a God if someone tries to kill him, he comes back. If someone tries to kill anyone that he cares about, they come back and then Adam becomes angry, and I’m sure he would not like to see him when he’s angry so the simple answer is, I’m team Adam from this point forward.”
“Really?” Thor asked disbelievingly.
“Really, besides I want to get more powerful, and working for Adam and Desirae seems to be the best way to do that. If helping all of you get humanity ready to protect itself while I also get to rise in power first, I’m in,” Clarence said.
“You know, Adam will not let you become a tyrant?”
“I get that and I’m cool with it. Besides he’s paying me quite a bit if I’m not mistaken. Desirae and I haven’t talked but if these nanites can do everything you’ve already told me, I’m sure they can also make gold or platinum which means I’m getting paid whatever you think I deserve and there is no upper limit to that amount. As long as I’m getting stronger and paid, Team Adam for life.”
“Self-interest, I can believe, “Thor said as a credit card appeared on the table with Clarence’s name on it, “You can use that to make any online purchases you want if there’s a collectible or something unique that you just have to have that you don’t want me to just create for you. You’re still on lockdown until you’ve proved yourself but feel free to ask for anything you want. Also, I’d recommend checking out the rest of this facility. There are training rooms and you have access to any weapons that you wish to get training in. Desirae is fully trained in every HTH weapon known to man and some other exotic species that you may meet one day.”
“We’re done here then?” Clarence asked.
“Yes. The base is coming along nicely and the little bit of processing power I diverted to talk with you will now rejoin the rest of me to continue getting this Solar system ready for what is coming if Adam is not successful,” Thor said.
“Okay then, I’m going to start at the top, heading upstairs to look over the grounds, verify our defenses, and then get to work making sure the rest of the base is safe. If I see anything that I think can be improved I’ll just call it out, I know you’ll be listening,” Clarence said as he stood and headed for the elevators to the surface.
Thor kept an eye on Clarence while he inspected the base. Clarence did have nanites in him so it was a simple thing to take control of him if he tried to run off. The reading he’d taken when Clarence was talking seemed to indicate he was being genuine.
More troubling to Thor was the way that all communication channels had ceased to function with Adam when he went through the Xerexi Transit Portal. Thor’s mind was Johnathan’s after all. He hoped that Adam was doing okay wherever he'd ended up. No time to worry about that. He had work to do and things to get done. It was now the 16th of July, Johnathan’s Birthday. Hopefully, the human race and his family would still be ‘present’ when Adam returned.