Kaleb sighed and glanced over and Roy. Giving the boy a curious look Kaleb asked. “How did you find me, anyway?”
Roy smiled wide and pulled a necklace from his under his shirt. “Paid a witch in Under-Town for a locator spell.”
The silver and gold necklace disintegrated in Roy’s hand as he spoke. Kaleb thought he could see a bright glow of Mana as the necklace turned to dust and blew away. Hank walked over still huffing from his angry rant. Luckily he avoided the cloud of dust that came from Roy’s necklace.
“How did you pay for that?” Hank asked pointedly.
Roy shuffled his feet awkwardly. “I… uh, traded it for an Ifrit spike. She said it was good alchemic material.”
Kaleb nodded understandingly as Hank blew out a breath. “Well, we still have plenty of bones left. So that’s fine.” Kaleb said.
Hank wiped a hand over his face as Bob handed him a cup of water from his shack. Once he finished drinking, he poked Roy harshly in the chest. “What the hell were you thinking?!”
“I thought the K-Tech, or the HLO did something to the Doc! I tried going to his house but there were people watching his house. When they spotted me they followed me so I ran.”
“And you didn’t think to run back home?!” Hank barked.
Roy shook his head. “Lead whoever they were back to you and mom? Not going to happen. So I tried to find the Doc.”
Hank looked like he wanted to argue more, but he saw Roy’s point. Two Gun took the opportunity to say. “Gentlemen, do you mind if we have this conversation back at the hangar? it ain’t exactly cool out today.”
Abby and Claire both nodded their heads in agreement, but Kaleb just shrugged his shoulders. Hank glanced between them all before he nodded and waved toward Kaleb’s car. He placed a hand on Roy’s shoulder and lead him to the car. Kaleb moved over to Bob and thanked his gate guard for helping and then got into his car.
As Kaleb turned the car around, Abby asked from the back seat. “Now what do we do today?”
Kaleb sighed. “Well, it turns out that we can still legally work in Austin as long as we fill out the right paperwork. We’ll get paid by contract, so money will probably be tight for a while. But, I figure if we also register as a Super Group we will draw in some decent work.”
“Do we have the money for that?” Claire asked.
“I think we do. Although it will be a large chunk of our money and I think we are a member short.” Kaleb said.
“So more paperwork and some headhunting.” Two Gun said. “Can’t we count Farrah as a member or even Roy or Daivor?”
Kaleb shrugged and turned to look at Roy and Hank who were crammed into the front seat with him. Both men shrugged their shoulders unsure. Looking into the backseat Kaleb saw that Two Gun had seen the gesture and was back to thinking about the problem. Kaleb parked his car outside the hangar and said.
“For now, we should just carefully build up contacts with other NPCs. People who can help us once we get off the ground. Make sure they are in this local area because that will be where I recommend we work for now. Then if we grow larger, we can cover larger areas of Austin.”
Hank nodded his head as they all got out of the car. “Smart this area is a little anti-HLO since the Hunter’s Association used to be based out here. They have a few bands of Hunters in the area but nothing big. Trevino Park in the west and Long Park in the north are both known hunting spots for magical creatures.”
“There’s also a junkyard a couple of miles to the south.” Roy said taking his bag from the car. “We can purchase some stuff from there. You know, doc, instead of running to Under-Town every time we need scrap.”
Kaleb slapped his head. “I forgot your dad worked with a bunch of junkyards.”
Roy shook his head, but Abby spoke up. “But K-Tech has to have better stuff, right?”
Kaleb glanced back at his car wondering if the device in his tape deck could hear them. Instead, he just nodded and moved over to where Farrah and Daivor were working, near the back of the hangar. Halfway to them Hank gripped Roy’s arm and forcefully dragged him into the nearby office. Claire and the others smirked as Roy looked at them pitifully.
Kaleb moved to where Daivor was working on something, Farrah standing nearby watching. The Gnome was cutting down several long metal pieces and placing them on the table. Kaleb guessed that Daivor was getting pieces for a frame cut up and ready. A frame for what, he didn’t know. So he turned to ask Farrah.
“Apparently you have the pieces for an old fashion computer, but not a case. So Daivor offered to build one. Plus, we can use the radio dish you found for a D-Net hook-up. We’ll have to hack our way onto the D-Net since we don’t have access but it should be fine. Few people use it anymore, anyway.” Farrah explained.
Kaleb frowned. “I was hoping to keep things somewhat legitimate.”
“He says after coming home after a night of stealing junk.” Two Gun muttered.
Kaleb shrugged and smiled. “Yeah, but we will have to do things the right way if we want to file the paperwork for being a group of independent Supers. I imagine the HLO will use its influence to make our life difficult.”
“You mean your life.” Claire said.
Kaleb looked at her surprised until Claire clarified smirking. “I mean, what if your name isn’t on any of the paperwork? We may have left the HLO, but we were still in good standing with them.”
“It might work.” Kaleb said looking at the others.
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Farrah nodded. “It’s a good idea, but I’d recommend using D34d-I or Mass. They have had the least amount of interaction with you. The others came in to register with you.”
Two Gun clapped his hands in agreement as Abby walked up to Farrah and marveled. “The level of sophistication on these NPCs is amazing.”
Kaleb glanced at Farrah who was maintaining a straight face as Claire and Two Gun nodded. He didn’t think Farrah could react while they were discussing game mechanics. He almost wanted to see how long she could stay like that, but he signed an NDA. So instead he smiled at Farrah and asked.
“Do you know anything about this area?”
Farrah gave him a grateful look before she responded. “A little. The SPPD didn’t do much out here because the Hunter’s Association had a good grasp on things. When the HLO outbid them for the contract, they would assign random people out here to deal with monster incursions from the parks.”
Two Gun asked. “So the HLO already holds the contract for out here?”
Farrah nodded. “They did for a time, but a lot of the old HA members culled the parks themselves. Once they bought the contract back, they retired out here and they now take care of things themselves.”
Abby sighed and threw up her hands. “So we still can’t get the contract!” she shouted annoyed.
Kaleb scratched his jaw. “Maybe we can, all we have to do is let the community know that giving us the contract will piss off the HLO. Besides dealing with a bunch of retired Supers has got to be better than dealing with the HLO.”
The others all nodded their heads in agreement and Kaleb asked Farrah another question. “Think you can find D43d-I and Mass I forgot to write them letters the first time.”
Farrah smiled. “I noticed, so I asked Chip to find them and explain the things from your letter.”
“So where are they?” Two Gun asked.
Claire shrugged. “Maybe they didn’t want to come.”
“Or maybe they aren’t logged in.” Abby added.
“At least they know.” Kaleb said. “And D43d-I can handle all the paperwork. Which leaves me to work on getting Farrah setup to run over-watch for us.”
Two Gun nodded in understanding. “Then we get to go gallivanting off in this heat checking out the area and meeting the locals.”
Abby patted his shoulder consolingly. “Don’t worry, our first stop can be that bar that is a couple streets north of here. Bars always have good info.”
“Only in some games, darling.” Claire said. “Here, they may just be houses of drunken frivolity.”
Two Gun clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Both are good. So let’s get to it. Professor, Ma’am, we will be going.”
Kaleb smiled as he watched Abby and Two Gun hurrying toward the red hover car followed by Claire who was shaking her head at the pair. Farrah shook her own head before turning to watch Daivor magically cut another length of skinny metal. Seeing the Gnome Kaleb was reminded that he urgently needed to learn Summoning Magic.
“Is Jar-Lock here?” Kaleb asked.
“No, he hasn’t logged in yet.” Farrah said absently.
“Do you know where he put his books?”
Farrah turned to him curious. “In his room. Why?”
“I really need to learn Summoning Magic. Otherwise Daivor will stay a Level 2 Builder Gnome.” Kaleb said as he moved toward the stairs.
He spared a glance toward the office and saw and Hank and Roy smiling and talking. Apparently whatever they had to talk about wasn’t as dire as the rest of them had thought. Then again, they might have finished talking about the heavy stuff. Either way Kaleb was happy to have his assistant back. The boy would be a welcome helper.
Kaleb descended to the second floor and checked the rooms. Almost every room had a few items placed in them. But when he found Jar-lock’s room he found an almost fully furnished room. Kaleb almost wanted to curse the Mage’s dimensional magic. Kaleb guessed that Jar-lock had brought a lot of stuff from home with his magic. Kaleb moved to one of the many shelves and looked for a book on summoning.
Kaleb was engrossed in the various titles when a sudden booming voice startled him. “WHO DARES ENTER MY ALMIGHTY SANCTUM!”
Kaleb jumped up and reached for his gun while turning toward the voice. As he turned, he stared into the grinning face of Jar-lock. Motes of light were still cascading off the large man showing that he had only just logged in. Kaleb exhaled loudly and shook his head at Jar-lock’s antics.
“Funny, jackass. Where’s your book on Summoning?”
Jar-lock’s chuckling echoed deep into his chest and he kept smiling as he walked over to another shelf and pulled out a book. Kaleb took it gratefully and then left the room followed by a beaming Jar-lock.
“Almighty Sanctum, my ass.” Kaleb grumbled as he climbed the stairs.
“If you had been a cat, I would still be trying to pry you off the ceiling.” Jar-lock chuckled from behind him.
Kaleb ignored the man and marched over toward Farrah and Daivor. He found Hank and Roy watching the Gnome with interest. Daivor was welding the pieces of the frame together using a magical flame from his finger. Somehow the Gnome had conjured a tiny pair of goggles and he was staring straight at his work as the others hovered nearby. Kaleb thought the Gnome looked annoyed at all the attention he was getting.
“Hey, Professor.” Hank said pulling his eyes away. “I think I will head home and let the missus know what’s been going on. Roy has elected to stay but the same old rules still apply: No Super work until he is 18.”
Kaleb nodded. “That’s fair. I don’t know how long the paperwork will take, anyway. Until then he can make himself useful here.”
Kaleb glanced around at the assorted junk Daivor and Farrah had dragged off the dump truck. Roy looked around at it too an odd mix of excitement and horror on his face. Kaleb thought Roy knew what his first job would be. Hank asked Roy to drive him to the gate so he could get a taxi and Jar-lock and Kaleb turned back to Daivor and Farrah.
“Ok so the first step is…” Kaleb trailed off as he flipped through his book.
“The Familiar contract.” Jar-lock hopefully provided.
Kaleb nodded agreeably. “Which we have already, so the next step…”
Jar-lock shook his head. “Is to charge your link with Mana.”
“Yes… our link.” Kaleb gave Jar-lock a pleading look.
The large mage sighed and took the book back from Kaleb. Flipping through a few pages, Jar-lock eventually found the one he wanted and read from its pages. “Once you have established the link between Master and Familiar, the Master must send a pulse of his power through the link.”
Closing the book Jar-lock added. “So all you need to do is use your Mana Vision or Astral Eyes to see the link then charge it with your power.”
Kaleb nodded along and placed his hands on his hips. When Jar-lock finished explaining Kaleb asked. “Mana Vision, yeah. How do I do that?”
Jar-lock sighed and placed a large hand on Kaleb’s shoulders. “Ok, seems like you need the beginners Intro to Magic crash course.”
Kaleb gulped as Jar-lock steered him toward the office and laughed. “Magic School is in.”