Chapter 93
Intervention
What the hell? Leo stared back at the crowd of faces in the cramped office, having no idea what to say. “I've been trying to save the world.”
There was an explosion in the distance.
Future Man 10/16: Shank. Please tell me Lydia's okay!
Shank 66: Lydia's fine. They put her to work in the kitchen to help out. Your friend Jason's fine, too. They have him pulling guard duty with Angie.
Leo breathed an audible sigh of relief.
“I think I speak for everyone here in saying I was hoping you were either insane or mistaken, with your end-of-the-world predictions,” Gretchen responded. “But now we know you're not. We also know you're not mentally challenged. But you've done more stupid things to put your life in danger in the past month than most people do in a lifetime.”
“I needed the implant rewards and the Demon Tears,” Leo said.
“The first day you got back, you picked a fight with a boy twice your size, who had a knife,” Shank said. “As one of the people investigating you for the agency, I saw the drone footage.”
“He started it,” Leo responded.
“You could have reported that early bloomer Afflicted to Trent,” Shank said, “or the police. Instead, you killed it, on your own, in full view of government drones. What about that isn't insane, suicidal, and stupid?”
“I needed the implant rewards and Demon Tears,” Leo responded again. “Why are you badgering me about this now? Shouldn't we be focusing on saving the world?”
“You told me you had Paladin/Epic, Leo,” Mr. Osmond said. “Which is impressive. So why did you choose Guardian/Common?”
“Guardian/Uncommon,” Leo responded. “And yes, I have a good reason for doing that.”
Mr. Osmond leaned forward, glaring at Leo. “You'd better explain it to us, because it seems like you're being a fucking idiot!”
Leo glared back. “I figured out how the School's Out programmers intended for players to win the game. And I've figured out how the human race survives.”
“How?” Mr. Osmond asked.
Leo stood up, facing his audience. “I can't tell you everything, and the answer isn't what any of us wanted to hear. But, I can tell you this. There is no win for the six players in School's Out, just as there is no win for the hundred thousand approximate implant wearers.”
“Significantly less than that now,” Mr. Osmond responded.
“Exactly,” Leo said. “There is no win for that number of implant wearers. So in both situations, our only option is to change the game board until a possible win appears. There was never a way to stop the Change from happening. There is no kryptonite or major weakness in the Bosses for us to exploit, and nobody is more pissed off about this than I am.” Leo paused and took a breath. “But I can tell you this. You need to do what you should have been doing ever since you got your implants. Activate the implant replication feature and tell your implant to replicate itself continually. This will slightly reduce your implant's functions, but it's a small price to pay. A High-Level Boss needs decades to reproduce, but any of us can create another implant wearer in 30 days.”
“I didn't know that feature existed,” Frank said.
“And it takes only one of your High-Level Bosses seconds to kill an implant wearer.” Mr. Osmond said. “I'm not liking this brilliant plan of yours.”
“You're much smarter than I am, Mr. Osmond. I look forward to hearing your better ideas.”
“Everybody, please calm down,” Gretchen said. “Leo. A big part of this meeting is to say we understand you've gone through all kinds of hell in your previous life, and while years of therapy are needed for you to get over this, we don't have years, or a therapist. You need to suck it up, get over your trauma, and quit doing stupid shit to get yourself killed. We are here for you, Leo. If you need someone to talk to, my door is always open.”
Leo sat down again. He didn't agree with Gretchen, but suspected she also wasn't completely wrong.
“What's the story with Mr. Al? That crazy drug addict you had us rescue?” Mr. Osmond asked. “Where does he fit into this?”
“I thought I told you,” Leo responded. “Thirty years in the future, an Assassin told me a story. He and a few friends somehow snuck up on a High-Level Boss and injected it with a huge amount of hallucinogenic substances. We're talking enough to kill an entire city. Their plan seemed to work. This giant tentacled being started twitching and hopping up and down in its own little world. They believed the High-Level Boss thought it was a rabbit. The Assassin and his friends were quietly cheering when five minutes later, the injection wore off, and the Boss began to recover. They had two more syringes with the same dose of hallucinogen, and they immediately used them. Those doses did absolutely nothing, and as you can imagine, when the High-Level Boss fully recovered, it was not happy. The Assassin was lucky to get away with his life. The Assassin's companions were not so lucky.”
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
“Not much of a weakness,” Mr. Osmond responded.
“True,” Leo agreed. “But a team of implant wearers can do a lot of damage in five minutes. Most drugs and poisons don't do much to a High-Level Boss, but if you can give it something its system doesn't know how to handle, you can take it out of commission for a short time. And sometimes a short time is all you need. That's why I told you to get Mr. Al. If anyone can make, or get their hands on, something that can mess up a High-Level Boss, it would be him. I already messaged Mr. Al about this, and he's happy to help. And it goes without saying you should give him the hits of serpent jelly my sister scored for you guys.”
“Why didn't you mention this earlier?” Mr. Osmond asked.
“I did mention it to The Professor, but I didn't want them to find out. It's an easy weakness for a High-Level Boss to prevent or correct if they know about it.”
“Thank you for sharing that with us, Leo,” Gretchen said. “Every bit helps. I speak for everyone here when I say we're terrified. And we'd appreciate anything else you remember that might keep us alive. In addition, we want to make it clear you do not get to run off and get yourself killed. You are to stay behind the other fighters and use your Augment and Healing skills to support them. Furthermore, our makeshift hospital desperately needs your healing skills. We have several healers, but you're the only one we know of with a group healing ability.”
Leo nodded. “Fine. I'll do that. I didn't mean to scare everyone earlier. I thought I could help.” He checked his stat sheet. He'd gotten quite a few Demon Tears from the previous fight, and he'd have to decide what to do with them.
“Good.” Gretchen smiled. “Next question. When are these High-Level Bosses going to show up looking for Leo? And what are we going to do when this happens?”
***
The large electric car moved quietly down Main Street, the electric engine quiet enough to avoid most Afflicted attention and fast enough to outrun the few who noticed.
“I'd just like to say, again, that this may not be one of your better ideas,” Jason said from the back seat of their borrowed electric car. “And I distinctly remember we're supposed to be on guard duty.”
“This is my best idea ever, Loverboy,” Angie said from the passenger's seat of the car, a large broadsword on her lap. “We get to take out a High-Level Boss. All by ourselves. We'll get more Demon Tears than we'll know what to do with.”
“If we don't take this thing out, now, it'll be a lot harder to kill later, and more people will die,” Charlotte said. Leo had told them about High-Level Bosses needing more time to get accustomed to their new abilities.
“While I agree with our course of action, I wonder if it might be wise to wait for reinforcements,” Liam said from the driver's seat.
“It might be too late by then,” Angie said.
“What happened to your sister, Jessi?” Jason asked.
Angie's cheerful facade broke, and she started crying. “Jessie changed. I told her not to take that stuff, but she never listened. Turned out she went to a bunch of Bio-Blessed parties, where big shots and gangsters hand out Bio-Blessed to pretty, underage girls. I should have killed her when she changed, but I couldn't. I locked her in a closet and left her there.”
“Sorry. My brother changed, too,” Jason said, reaching out and putting a hand on Angie's shoulder. “He tried to kill us with chainsaws.”
Liam turned off Main Street and continued for several blocks before pulling to the side of the road. It was easy to tell a battle had taken place here. The roots of a large tree could be seen poking out of a nearby house as if the tree had been pulled from the ground and thrown. The wreck of a car next to the tree looked like it had bounced off the asphalt several times before reaching its current destination, and there was a frightening red stain coming from underneath it.
“According to the team that got their asses kicked,” Liam said, “this Boss was floating over that elementary school. And now it's gone. Too bad, I know I was looking forward to getting killed—I mean, destroying this High-Level Boss.”
“It's still there,” Charlotte said. “It's using some kind of stealth camouflage. If you look carefully, you can barely see it still floating above the school. They didn't say how big it was, maybe thirty feet across. Shit.”
“Any chance we could go back for Leo?” Liam asked. “He's actually dealt with these things.”
“Leo's confined to the stadium, and he'd call us idiots and tell us not to do this,” Angie said.
“Any chance he might be right?” Liam asked.
“Anyone know why we took Mr. Al with us?” Jason asked, looking over at the man who was doing something with a case filled with bags of unlabeled, unidentifiable powders and glass test tubes containing equally unidentifiable fluids.
“If we have to run, we're leaving him behind to get eaten,” Angie said, glaring at the man.
“I have a very specialized skill set,” Mr. Al said, speaking for the first time since he'd joined them. “And you're welcome for saving your asses by the way. Leo explained everything to me this morning.” He pulled two large test tubes protected by several layers of plastic baggies. “Do not touch these tubes with your bare skin. If these tubes break, do not inhale the vapor and run like hell.” He handed the baggies and tubes to Charlotte. “Get these inside that thing.” He pointed at the floating monster.
“Will they poison it?” Charlotte asked.
“For a short time, yes. Those vials should slow the monster down so you can kill it,” Mr. Al responded. “I'll wait for you guys in the car.” He seemed to lose interest after that and stared off into space.
“Okay.” Angie scratched the stump of her left forearm. “My arm itches! Anyway. Here's the plan. Jason's our sniper. He finds a good place and covers us. Charlotte will sneak up on the Boss and get Mr. Al's stuff inside it somehow. Once it's drugged and distracted, Liam is going to fly me above the monster and drop me on top of it so I can kill it. Go, team.”
“Well, this plan seems foolproof. Let's get started.” With a sigh, Liam pushed the button that unlocked the car doors.