Kaleb leaned the cat-woman on her side as he pulled off the last vestiges of her armor. Underneath she was wearing black jeans and a black shirt. How inventive. Kaleb thought sarcastically as he noticed the black of her shirt and pants was the same color of her fur. I wonder what her favorite color is. Kaleb shook his head as he moved away from her body and laid the armor out on the ground.
Like his own armor, they sectioned the K-Tech armor into several parts. A chest piece, shoulder and forearm pieces, and armor for the upper thighs. The metal was thin, machine made, and very tough. The long scratch marks the group’s claws had made didn’t fully penetrate the armor at all, leaving only large gouges in the metal. They padded the interior of the armor save for a small section in one forearm.
That piece had two strips of thin technology ran down the length of the forearm. Kaleb examined the piece of armor and found a touch display along the top. A quick test of some functions and Kaleb found that the armor monitored the health of the wearer. It also contained a small digital map of the area… and a radio.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Kaleb said as he moved back to the cat-lady’s head and searched for an earpiece.
Vlad seemed to rouse at Kaleb’s tone, but he soon settled back into his stupor. Kaleb quickly found a small black earpiece fitted into the cat-woman’s ear. Holding it up to his own ear, Kaleb could hear the sounds of two people chattering on the line.
“Where’s the captain?”
“Fuck! I don’t know. She’s not on comms.”
“Shit! It looks like the acid ate through your armor.”
“No shit!”
“But, looks like we got most off. We just need to get back to the lift and get reinforcements. Can you walk?”
“I think so. But I think we are okay. The last of those fuckers took off when Contar went nuts with his heat vision.”
“Poor bastard.”
“Okay. I’m ready. Lets ge-” “Shit! Did you hear that?”
“I don’t hear a thing.”
“It was a–INCOMING! It’s a Perinadon!”
Kaleb heard a loud thudding noise over the earpiece and the sounds of an energy weapon firing. Kaleb moved the comm away from his ear and breathed a sigh of relief. It sounded like they were on a squad wide channel only. Kaleb pocketed the earpiece and went back to looking over the armor. He found a mic embedded in the chest armor and what looked to be several tracking devices embedded in the armor's lining.
Once he finished he looked up to see Daivor floating nearby looking over the armor. “Not bad work. Metal’s non-terrestrial, so I can’t really judge its qualities, But it stopped the claws pretty effectively.”
“And my guns. It seemed to soak up the energy from both of my weapons.” Kaleb said.
“I saw. Think you should kill the power on it in case they can track the armor?” Daivor asked.
“I already found a couple of trackers.”
Daivor rubbed his beard. “Yeah, but better safe than sorry. You should send a surge of Mana through it to kill any trackers you missed and pull the plug on whatever is powering the minicomputer.”
Kaleb just nodded as he did what the Gnome advised. He focused about 30 points of Mana through the separate armor pieces and pulled the small, slim, battery-like power supply that was in the forearm piece. Nearby Kaleb heard movement and glanced up to see Vlad shaking his head and standing.
“Is that gibberish the mini-elf talking?” Vlad asked with his regular voice.
“ELF!” Daivor yelled angrily.
“Gnome.” Kaleb corrected as he nodded. “You should cut down the time on that blood-drunkenness or whatever that is.”
Vlad nodded and stretched. “Mmmmm, yeah. But I figured power and speed would be more helpful in the early game. Plus the more powerful the enemy, the longer it lasts. She gave me like 250 points, dude! That is more than I’ve gotten from any single normal NPC.”
“Grats.” Kaleb said doing his best to pick the pieces of armor. “Any idea how long she’ll be out?”
“Depends on how willful she is. But once she gets up, it will wipe the last hour of her memory.” Vlad explained.
“That’s helpful.” Kaleb said.
Vlad smiled. “One of the many ways the vampire is a mysterious predator of the night. I can increase the length of the memory loss with points, but I never saw the need.”
Kaleb glanced down at the cat-woman before he started walking back to the dumpster truck. “Huh, get that stupor thing fixed, and you’d make a great thief. Break in, drink a little blood, steal some shit, and no one will remember you were there.”
Vlad followed Kaleb giving Daivor a wide berth as the Gnome was still staring daggers at the pale man. Vlad seemed to think on Kaleb’s words for a few steps before he shook his head.
“Nah, the strength and the speed are what I wanted. Plus the mythos of the vampires has always interested me. But I should spend some points on the blood stupor. That shit’s gonna get me in trouble.”
“They arrested you.” Kaleb reminded Vlad.
“Yeah. But the first tier is 100 points. It seemed like a pain in the ass. I figured I could just get a good group to watch my back after I fed.” Vlad explained.
“A good group? Of players playing villains in a super hero game?” Kaleb asked as he walked around a pile of junk and saw the dumpster truck.
“Sure, when you say it like that it sounds crazy.” Vlad laughed.
Kaleb just shook his head and picked up his speed. Once at the truck in threw in the black armor pieces and looked around. A few of the Phreaks were laying dead in the dirt. Someone burned a few Phreaks beyond recognition, others had weird branch like stakes sticking out of their bodies, and others were just plain shot. Vlad glanced around the battlefield before he sniffed and shook his head.
“Doesn’t look like they left any alive.”
“Hoping for a snack?” Kaleb asked as he examined a nearby pile.
Vlad laughed again. “I just bought an ability that allows me to smell prey. I wanted to test it out. All I got was you. The Gnome doesn’t even count as a juice box.”
Daivor puffed on his pipe angrily. “Just you try it, jackass.”
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Kaleb snickered before he looked back up at Daivor. “Did you find anything useful? I got the mechanical arms we saw.”
Daivor shrugged his shoulders and pointed with his pipe. “I wanted to grab more repulsors and there is a large pile off in that direction.”
Kaleb nodded. “Why don’t you lead Vlad to where they are and I’ll stay here and deal the armor from the other K-Tech guys.”
Daivor begrudgingly nodded but Vlad complain. “Why do I have to follow the flying lawn decoration?”
“Because you are the one with the strength and speed. Just follow him to the pile he leads you to and grab as many repulsors as you can carry.”
“What’s a repulsor?” Vlad asked.
“Blue disk thing. On the bottom of Daivor’s chariot.” Kaleb said as Daivor leaned his chariot back showing off the repulsor on the underside.
Vlad looked at the small device before he shrugged his shoulders and waved a hand at Daivor. “Well after you, you floating chimney.”
Daivor just blew another large puff of smoke and flew off. Vlad flitted away after the small flying Gnome. Kaleb went back to digging through a nearby junk pile and kept an ear out for any surprises. It was a few minutes of quiet digging before he heard footsteps approaching. Looking up, he saw Shaggy and the rhino-men walking toward him. Ren and the other rhino-man were carrying the bodies of the four other troops.
“They dead?” Kaleb asked standing up and brushing dirt off his knees.
“The ones the Phreaks killed, yes. But the other two were just knocked out. Although Ren and Tinsel might have broken a few bones.” Shaggy said dropping a pair of energy rifles on the ground.
Kaleb flinched as the guns hit the ground. “That’s a good way to set off a weapon, and Tinsel?”
“Yeah!” Said the second rhino in a deep loud voice, sounding a little angry.
Kaleb nodded his head. “Okay then. So I will strip these guys if y’all want to get back to loading the truck.”
“You that lonely, dude?” Shaggy asked chuckling.
“What?” Kaleb asked before his mind caught up with the joke. “No, damn it! Stripping them of their armor. Where’s Slink.”
Ren snorted. “Dumb ass took one of those energy blasts to the face. He is probably wandering through Deathville right now.”
Kaleb sent a pulse of his magic through the armor of one of the dead troopers as he asked. “Deathville?”
Shaggy put one rifle to his shoulder and stared down the sights. “You don’t read the forums much, do you?”
Kaleb shook his head as he removed the armors power supply. “Not really. I like to discover the world while I’m in it. Forums can contain too many spoilers.”
Shaggy pulled the trigger on the rifle and three tiny green balls flew out of the barrel in rapid succession. The junk pile he was aiming at had a perfect hole burned deep into it. “I’m keeping this. Deathville is what players are calling the world where non-HLO players go when they die.”
“It’s a pain in the ass.” Said Ren as he stopped helping Tinsel load the truck. “It’s this weird black and white city with its own NPCs. But none of your powers or equipment will work right while you are there. You have to find your way out and sometimes that's easy and sometimes it's freaking stupid.”
Shaggy nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, my first trip there I had to chase down this ghost-wraith-thing. Once I caught it I found myself in an alley in Downtown Austin. Shit was weird.”
Kaleb threw the set of armor into the back of the truck and started work on another trooper. “Your first time there? Was there a second?”
“Yes! And it made just as much sense.” Shaggy said using the rifle's strap to sling it around his shoulder. “I was ready to look for the ghost-thing again but this time I appeared in a locked windowless room. I had to find a way out. Took me hours.”
Tinsel kept working, oblivious to their conversation as Ren moved closer and mumbled. “There’s a rumor on the boards that AGE is using old psychological tests as puzzles for the death world. It’s really weird.”
Kaleb mulled that over in his mind for a while as he worked. It was interesting for sure, but he had no plans on visiting Deathville anytime soon. Ren and Tinsel shifted pieces of junk into the dumpster truck and Shaggy played guard with his new energy rifle. Kaleb removed all the armor and communication gear from the K-Tech security team, save for one melted thigh piece. Afterward he grabbed anything interesting from nearby piles he could find until Vlad and Daivor returned.
The vampire had a grumpy look on his face as Daivor flew around just over his head. But Vlad was carrying a good number of repulsors, each a different size. After he had dropped off what he was carrying into the truck, Vlad moved to Kaleb and whispered.
“Your damn Gnome is picky as hell. I couldn’t just grab any old thingy, noooo. I had to grab the ones he specifically pointed out.” Vlad complain.
Kaleb just shrugged his shoulders. “Eh, I trust him. If he wanted you to grab certain parts and pieces, it was probably for a good reason.”
“No.” Daivor said from nearby blowing out another smoke ring. “I was just fucking with him.”
Kaleb did his best to not burst out laughing at Daivor’s admission. Luckily Shaggy saved him, the werewolf moved over to Vlad and threw an arm around his shoulder. He forcibly steered the vampire over to the second rifle that was still on the dirt floor of the junkyard.
“Me and the others decided that since you won the bet, you can take this energy rifle.” Shaggy said proudly.
Vlad adopted his weird accent again and asked. “Vhy vould I vant a peasant veapon such as this?”
“Well, Slink’s dead, Ren doesn’t have 50 credits on him, Tinsel said he is not paying, and I’m not covering for everyone else. It was 250 credits, the rifle is worth way more than that, just take the equipment and call it good, Vamps.” Shaggy explained.
Vlad shook his head. “Just give me the money. The lizard can have the veapon.”
Shaggy frowned, but Kaleb shook his head, saying. “Don’t underestimate the value of a good ranged weapon. Some things can’t be done with just your fist or in your case claws. This is already turning out to be a good haul for me, anyway. Take it and consider it a bonus. You all can settle your bet later.”
Vlad seemed to ponder it for a few seconds before he bent over and picked up the weapon. But as soon as he picked it up he walked it over to Kaleb.
“Fix it up for me?” Vlad said smiling.
Kaleb study the short rifle. It would be a good way to see how K-Tech made their guns. Kaleb reached out and took the rifle slinging it over his shoulder. “Sure, I can look at it. I’ll hand it off the next time I’m in Under-Town.”
“You getting chummy with more criminals, professor?” Shaggy grinned still playing with his own rifle.
“Helping my clan. We kicked the Faceless out of the north and we’re setting up shop.” Kaleb bragged.
“Oh, so you already have your own little empire, huh?” Shaggy grinned.
Kaleb shook his head. “Nope, that’s all the Brute Clan. I’m just helping.”
Kaleb explained about his misadventures with the Brute Clan and what they had gone through. Vlad listened politely, but Ren and Tinsel kept mindlessly working, and Shaggy pretended to not be listening, but Kaleb was sure the werewolf had his ears open. It didn’t take that much longer for them to fill the back of the truck as they worked and chatted. Daivor and Kaleb even found several decent looking pieces of equipment. Kaleb was sure he could do a lot with the stuff that he found.
“Ve good to go, doc?” Vlad asked as they moved around the truck.
Kaleb nodded rapidly. “Yeah, I don’t want to push it with the crazy cat-lady about to wake up at any moment.”
Ren and Tinsel wordlessly got onto the sides of the truck while Shaggy, Vlad and Kaleb got in the cab. Vlad powered up the truck, and they hovered slightly higher. The vampire grimaced as he struggled with the wheel while turning the truck. Even Kaleb could feel how heavy they were now.
“Ve are not light, that’s for sure.” Vlad said as they made their way to the exit.
Kaleb and Shaggy just nodded as they kept their eyes out the window for any threats. Luckily the ride out was a smooth one. We only lost two. Kaleb thought as they made their way into the dark tunnel. Vlad tapped the steering wheel of the truck for a few seconds before he suddenly stopped and turned to Kaleb and Shaggy.
“I have to ask.” Vlad said dropping his accent again. “That fucking rhino’s name is Tinsel?”