“Come on, let’s start clearing a path. It looks like there are, or at least were, people inside!” I yelled to the crowd of survivors that we’d managed to collect. Pulling up my chat window, I quickly sent a message to Corey. I wanted the kids here, in case we found their mother, but also to help me figure out what to do in case we didn’t find anyone.
>Dave: Corey, I want you to head back to the bus and guide it here. Have them stay out of sight, though.
>Corey: If I encounter any orcs, I assume you want me to handle that?
>Dave: Yes.
>Corey: Understood.
The further Corey flew from me, the bigger the mana drain grew. I didn’t think they had to go far enough for it to be a real problem, but that was something to test once we were back in Alaska. For now, I switched off my other mana orbs to decrease the drain as much as possible.
“Dave, over here,” Elody’s voice called from across the remains of the parking lot. Cement chunks and giant potholes had replaced the well-maintained entryway there had once been.
“What’s up?” I asked, dashing over to her, hoping she’d found some sign of life.
“There are humans alive underground in there. And I don’t believe there are any living orcs,” She answered my question with a kind knowing smile.
“Found an entrance!” Grant yelled from behind several cars. Elody and I quickly made our way to him, spotting just what he had found. They had set up a series of cars as a makeshift tunnel, keeping the outermost entirely covered by enough scrap that it just looked like another pile of rubble. It wasn’t a strong defense, as I had seen an orc rip straight through my wall, but it likely worked on the stupider members, especially when they were too busy hunting much easier prey.
“Grant, I want you to come with me inside to scope out the place first. I’ll leave the rest of my group out here to guard everyone else. Sound good?” I asked the soldier, doubting he was going to argue but hoping he’d point out glaring issues with my plan. I needed Connie to keep the disguises up out here, so taking any of my people seemed risky, and Grant could help with any actual politicians we encountered.
“Got it. Georges, stick with the rest of Dave’s unit,” Grant ordered one of his men, who yelled back an affirmative.
With that out of the way, I climbed into the first of the car doors, squeezing myself across several uncomfortable car seats and slowly making my way through the cramped tunnel, with Grant behind me, sounding like he was somehow having an easier time of it, despite being a larger man than I was. How did a shifter to the shin still manage to hurt so much? After several horrible minutes of contorting my body in ways it never bent on a good day, I pulled myself out of the final door into a small, dimly lit room. Neither my back or my knees would have allowed that cramped crawl before my trip to the Spiral.
I looked up to see two people holding guns pointed directly at me. “Woah, I come in peace, don’t shoot!” I yelled the moment I saw them.
“Don’t move!” one of the men said angrily.
“What the hell is going on?” Grant asked, appearing behind me.
“I said don’t move!” the man yelled again.
“Hey, hey, we aren’t, just everyone, calm down, please?” I asked, trying to force my presence into action again, not feeling any twinge this time. I wasn’t sure how well my body could handle a bullet, but I knew Grant’s couldn’t.
“Bob, it’s alright, just calm down. They look pretty human, hell that guy looks to be a soldier. Let’s just take them downstairs and see what they say,” the second man said to the one who had been yelling at us.
“Fine. Is there anyone else coming behind you?” Bob asked angrily.
“No, but we do have a lot of people out there, and the orcs should mostly be gone from the immediate area,” I said. There was no way cleaning up the cities was going to go nearly as fast as Mel had hoped for. Had he just not realized how dense our major urban centers were?
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“How did you manage that? No, never mind, just follow me,” the second man started to question us before changing his mind for whatever reason. Likely, he just didn’t believe my claim, which was entirely fair. It probably sounded insane if you hadn’t actually seen what I could do. He opened the door and led us through a series of barely lit halls, down several flights of stairs, until hitting a floor that was much brighter than the rest. Whatever power conservation efforts they were doing above must have been suspended as you entered their critical areas.
“Stay in here,” the man said, opening a small office door. I internally debated for a moment on how long I was willing to wait. With far more important things to do elsewhere, the answer was not long at all. Maybe it was the pain in my shin or possibly the far too hostile treatment we’d received. In the end, it didn’t really matter which, but I had no intention of sitting in a small room until they decided to talk to me.
“No. Take me to whoever is in charge. I want to talk to them right now,” I said firmly. This wasn’t a request.
“Sir, I’m going to need you to wait in here. Someone will be with you as soon as possible,” the man replied, much more forcefully than before.
“Not going to happen,” I replied before turning my next words into a shout. “My name is Dave Imogen. I’m here to find Laura Imogen. I also want to talk to whoever is in charge, and I want to do it now. I don’t have time to waste here with how many people need my help!” That had set off the beehive worth of activity as the man with me drew his gun, and several more armed men appeared from other doors.
“Wait, stop. Dammit, Dave, is that really you?” My stomach nearly dropped to the floor as a woman’s voice I very much recognized called from behind one of the groups of men.
“Oh good, you’re alive,” I sputtered out the words, my loud, take-charge persona drying up the moment I heard her.
“How the hell did you even get here?” She yelled, pushing her way through the men in front of her, an angry, surprised scowl on her incredibly beautiful face. I did my best to push those feelings down. There was no going back there. I had to deal with the reality of the world as it was now.
“I’ll explain that later. The kids are safe. I have them with me.” I said, assuming that was the most important thing I could tell her at the moment. Looking around at all the men still pointing their guns at me, it was possible I could have done this better. Grant, for his part, was standing perfectly still by my side, not looking one bit rattled.
“No, you’ll explain it now. You wanted our attention, and now you have it. As of right now, the former attorney general is acting president of the United States. President Roberts, this is my ex-husband, who somehow, and completely unbelievably, has managed to fight his way in here,” Laura said, staring at me with those intense eyes of hers, but unlike so often in the past, there was no sign of mirth, just frustration. I couldn’t look away.
“Sir, it’s true. I’ve seen Dave and the people with him fight the orcs. They were able to utilize some of their own powers against them,” Grant said, defending me.
“Look, I don’t want to start a fight here. I came to find my ex-wife, hoping she was alive. Somehow, we ended up with a giant group of people in desperate need of someone to lead them. I’m going to continue to clean out the orcs from the city as best I can and then move on to some other places,” I said, trying to cut to the heart of the matter. Getting stuck here explaining myself endlessly to bureaucrats wasn’t something I was willing to do, even if Laura was one of them. No, especially if she was.
With an incredible sense of timing that made me yet again consider Rabyn’s fate theory, a chat window from Corey popped into view.
>Corey: Dave, I’ve returned with the bus.
>Dave: That was nearly perfect timing, thank you. I’ll try to get Laura up there.
>Corey: Understood. I will inform your family she is alive.
“Whether you want to start a fight or not, you’ve certainly made an ass of yourself, Mr. Imogen,” an older man said. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place the face.
“Yeah, I don’t care. Who the hell are you anyway?” I asked, annoyed at the tone.
“Were you not even listening to Laura?” He asked back. Oh, so he was the president.
“I was. But at the moment, I don’t really care. As I said more things to do, besides I’m the emperor of the Empire of Dave anyway, not really sure you have any authority over me. Laura, can you please join me topside? The kids are waiting. Grant, up to you on what you want to do here,” I said, looking from my ex-wife to the soldier while trying to ignore the bubbling-up regret of declaring myself emperor. The man had made me angry, but I would have preferred keeping that quiet for now.
“Left my men up there, and while I do recognize your authority, sir, we need to start taking back control of the city. Dave has made that possible,” Grant said, sounding unsure of himself.
“Fine, we can deal with whatever problems and new issues your ex-husband has caused later. Laura, go see your kids. Holt, take a squad of men and go with the sergeant here. I want a full report of orc activity,” President Roberts ordered.
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Paragon classes represent a rarely used class combination in the modern Spiral dynamics, but it was often popular in the previous centuries. Paragon classes were a good way to boost a species’ innate abilities even faster than just normal attribute gains before finding a path to multiclass into another classpath of their choice, but as that often produced very unique builds, the factions preferred those basic units that followed their exact specifications.
Classes Volume 1 by Zolinjar