Jarrett paced back and forth in the cramped apartment living room. His metal bat, slung over his shoulders, reflected the candle’s flickering light.
“How is he, Vic? Is he going to be okay?”
Victor knelt, hunched over Miguel, who lay motionless on the room’s floor. Blood-soaked towels littered the area, along with discarded wrappers from superhero-themed children's bandages and an open bottle of cheap vodka.
“Calm down, Jarrett, and stop pacing. The sound might attract whatever's out there.”
Jarrett grunted and took a seat near Miguel’s feet. He looked at the pile next to Miguel; metal armor, a sword, and a huge mound of black ribbons.
“I'm just worried, man… and confused. What the fuck is all that?!” he said in hushed exclamation, pointing a finger at the pile.
“I don't really know, Jarrett, but I really need to focus on this.”
Victor and Jarrett had carefully removed the armor from their unconscious friend, then spent the last 45 minutes carefully unwrapping tightly bound ribbons from Miguel's body. A few ribbon ends moved back and forth of their own volition, watching the two work. The ribbons clung and held firmly, making Victor resort to cutting some of the fabric with scissors, only to find that they'd reconnect moments later. After getting over the initial shock of the instantaneous repair and the autonomously moving end pieces, they finally finished peeling Miguel free.
Some of Miguel's body still bled, but other wounds were thickly scabbed over or had stopped bleeding altogether. Now, nearly every inch of his flesh had caped crusaders or men of steel staunchly holding back blood, with duct tape-wrapped towel clippings taking care of the more egregious injuries.
Kathy’s voice sounded from the phone near Miguel’s head, “okay, now that you’ve cleaned and bandaged his wounds, check his breathing and his heart rate. Make sure he's stable. We don’t know how much blood he's lost, but based on the pictures you sent me, I'd assume a lot.”
Kathy, having been trained in basic first aid for work, directed Victor every step of the way.
Victor leaned over Miguel’s face, ear to his mouth, then pulled back. Next, he placed two fingers on Miguel's throat and looked at the digital watch on his left wrist. After a minute, he looked back up.
“I think he's stable, Kat. His breathing is a little shallow but even, and his heart rate is fine.”
The three took a collective sigh of relief. Victor sat back in the bare living room and Jarrett set his bat on the single, small couch. The burly boy then grabbed the bottle of vodka used to clean Miguel's wounds and took a large swig.
“Okay, then just keep a close eye on him. Let me know if anything changes,” she replied in an exhausted voice.
“Vic, can I try my parents again? Sorry Kathy, I know you want to stay on the line but my phone died a few minutes ago,” Jarrett apologized.
“I need to check in with my grandma, anyways,” Victor added before continuing, “but we’ll call you right back after, Kathy.”
The line was silent for a few seconds, before she added, “yeah, of course. Make sure your families are okay.”
Jarrett and Victor looked up at each other.
“We’ll call right back, Kathy, we promise.” Jarrett reassured her.
“Okay, yeah I know. Sorry guys, go ahead, I'll be fine. It's just really creepy out here in the forest is all, but I haven't actually seen anything dangerous so far. It sounds like it's a lot worse over there.”
“No problem at all, we’ll talk to you in a minute, Kat.” said Victor in a sympathetic tone. After brief goodbyes, he reached over and ended the call.
“Maybe we should go up to her trailer after all, Vic. She's really scared and it sounds like it might actually be safer there.”
“I'd agree, but the alerts all said to stay indoors. Maybe if there weren't.. things outside.. I'd say let's go for it, but I don't know, Jarrett.”
“Miguel made it all the way here from campus on foot,” Jarrett retorted, sloshing the liquid in the bottle as he gestured.
“Yeah, but…” Victor motioned towards the magical mound of misfit menagerie.
They both studied the equipment for a while, then Jarrett took another sip.
“You don't think that's?...” he trailed off, looking for Victor’s input.
Victor shook his head. “Absolutely not.” he said firmly, but didn't sound entirely convinced of his own words.
“But, I mean… Vic, it's like, them to a ‘T,’ man…” Jarrett went to take another drink, but realized the bottle was empty.
“It doesn't make any sense, Jarrett.” he said, sternly.
“Okay, but how does any of this make any fucking sense, man?” Jarrett rebutted with a tip of his bottle.
Victor had no response. He opened, then closed his mouth a few times. He rubbed his temples, fixed his glasses, then said, “Call your parents, Jarrett, then I'll check in with my Grandma and we can call Kathy back. We can decide where to go from there.”
Jarrett nodded, grabbed the phone, then headed into the other room.
Victor moved to the couch, setting the baseball bat upright against the wall and out of the way.
He leaned far back into the couch and stared up, letting his eyes unfocus. Jarrett made good points. The items and weapons were probably the ones Michael used in their game. How, though? His initial thoughts were a combination of really good cosplay and Miguel losing his mind in the worldwide panic. He saw the sword, though, whirl out from Miguel's back, and saw the black ribbons moving on their own.
He looked over to his friend passed out on the floor. His chest rose and fell softly, making hardly a sound.
Victor met Miguel during the second semester of their sophomore year in high school. Miguel had just moved into town, freshly emancipated from the foster system a year prior, and settled on Elk Grove after finishing his freshman year in Sacramento. Victor recalled seeing the new kid, but didn't think much of it. Miguel was soft-spoken, mild-mannered, and stayed largely out of the way. He remembered thinking the hundreds of pins on his backpack were pretty cool, and his backpack being a Trader J’s bag with leather shoulder straps attached was a… choice… but beyond the amused interest at his obvious quirkiness, they never interacted.
That was until Kathy dragged him to Victor’s house one day after school, exclaiming he was their new MM.
That soft-spoken and mild-tempered loner suddenly became an energetic and Shakespearean performer their first session the following day.
The rest was mythical history. In under a month, the three were inseparable. Victor tried to get Jarrett to play, even before Miguel took over from Veronica as MM after she graduated, but he was focused entirely on football.
Miguel becomes an entirely different person once you get to know him, thought Victor. He smiled at his sleeping friend. Wetness encroached on his vision, and he removed his glasses to dab his eyes.
He was so, so thankful he was alive. Victor wasn't really the sentimental type. He preferred technology, software, and electronics to people and emotions… but the few people he did care for, his friends and Grandma…
Jarrett returned to the room just as Victor finished cleaning the finger smudges from his glasses.
Jarrett had a downtrodden look about him as he handed Victor the phone.
“Still no answer?”
He shook his head no, then sat down by Miguel’s side.
“They have that really fancy panic room, Jarrett, I'm sure they're inside and safe.”
Jarrett was quiet for a long while.
“Why wouldn't they answer their phones though, Vic? I even called the emergency satellite cell they keep in the room…”
Victor wanted to console Jarrett, but he didn't know how. There were no two people better equipped for some crazy scenario like this than Jarrett's parents, so if they weren't answering their phones…
That's not constructive, he chastised himself. This was the sort of thing Kathy was good at, not him. Even Miguel would probably know what to say. He knew he should try anyway.
“They're fine, Jarrett. I don't know why they aren't answering their phones, but Paul and Linda are two of the strongest people I've ever met. They're fine and probably just as worried about you.”
Jarrett gave a short nod, but said nothing else.
Terrible pep talk, Victor, and easy for you to say when you know your family is okay, Victor thought to himself.
He unlocked his phone. 15% battery remaining. Victor thumbed to the contacts list, and pressed the call button on his grandma's name.
The phone rang for half a second before a voice answered on the other end.
“Victor? Is that you, baby?” he heard his grandmother say in her warm, southern accent.
“It's me Grama, how're things over there?”
“Oh it’s fine. Just fine, baby. How are you and Jarrett? Did he get a hold of his parents? Did Miguel ever call y'all back? How about Kathy, is she still doing okay up there?”
A million questions, like always. He smiled warmly. She was always like this. Never concerned for herself. Only thinking of other people. Victor didn't know where he'd be in life without her.
“Jarrett and I are fine. Still waiting to hear from his parents,” Jarrett rustled at the mention, “but Miguel’s actually here now, Grama. He’s pretty banged up, but resting now. Kathy is still up by the dam and okay.”
“Miguel's there? Oh, I'm so glad, baby. I was so worried about him. Make sure he eats something when he wakes up. That boy was always too skinny. Too, too skinny. Tell Jarrett I'll let him know if his parents show up at the shelter, baby. I'll call right away.”
“Okay Grama, I love you. I'll call back in an hour. Stay safe.”
“I love you too, baby.”
Victor ended the call.
“She says she’ll keep an eye out for your parents at the home.” Victor said, looking over at Jarrett using the top of his bat to nudge the ribbons.
“Okay.” Jarrett said simply.
Victor’s grandma lived at a retirement community in his hometown, Elk Grove. She'd moved in as soon as Victor moved out, using her pension and social security to pay for the room. The facility was top-notch. Recently renovated, it gained a large portion of city funding by building an evacuation bunker beneath one of its buildings that could house ¼ of the cities population, albeit uncomfortably. Victor never would have guessed they'd have to actually use the thing, and so soon after construction. Life sometimes worked in odd coincidences.
His grandma, living in the facility, was among the first to be safely sheltered - it was part of the deal with the city, in fact, that the elderly were the first to be sheltered.
When all of this first started, the city council pushed the metaphorical panic button fairly early. It ruffled some feathers, particularly the police chief’s, but turned out to be the right call. A lot of lives were probably saved over what the chief called a, “gross misuse of power and a terrible overreaction by a group of people that don't have the qualifications to properly assess threats.”
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The United States government seemed to completely disagree with his assessment.
Victor wouldn't be surprised if he was asked to retire when, or more than likely IF, this all calmed down.
He looked at his phone again. 10% battery remaining.
“My phone’s getting low. Let’s call Kathy and tell her we’ll add her to the hourly rotation to save battery.”
“You know she's got that solar battery backup, Vic.” Jarrett suggested.
Victor frowned. “Maybe, Jarrett. I still think we should stay indoors, but I do agree: all of us being up by the dam would probably be safer.”
He dialed Kathy.
*****
Miguel’s head swam with incoherent thoughts and jumbled images. He was getting rather tired of ending up in this state.
“Try her again, Vic.” he heard a familiar voice saying with urgency.
“We’ve tried six times now and my phone’s at 5%.” another voice he recognized replied.
“Then we’re going up there, Vic, and we can charge our phones in the car.”
“It's too dangerous, Jarrett! I'm worried about her, too, but we have Miguel to look after here and I don't think we should move him.”
“Your grandma's safe and so are you, so of COURSE you don't want to leave.” the voice replied in a slight slur.
“That's not fair, Jarrett, and I think the vodka's getting to you. You need to sit down and drink some water.”
“Don't touch me, Vic. I'll go by myself. You can stay and watch Miguel and just sit here in the dark waiting. I'll go get Kathy and then I'll go get my parents.”
Miguel heard keys jingle and then something bump into the wall.
“Damnit, Jarrett, you're too drunk and not thinking clearly. What happened to staying at Kathy’s trailer, huh? Now you're going to drive three hours south during all of this?? Please just sit down.”
“I'm fine, Vic. I'm going regardless.”
Miguel groaned, his whole body sore, and the two voices stopped.
Miguel slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry and he had a hard time adjusting to the flickering light.
He felt a presence rush to his side, “Miguel! Hold on, don't move too much. You're hurt.”
Victor gently placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him steady. Miguel attempted to sit up, his hands pushing upward to support his weight, but a sharp pain in his right hand caused him to fall back down.
“F-fuck…” he mumbled.
Victor’s eyes slightly widened in surprise, “since when do you cuss, Miguel?”
“Since I was almost killed, crushed and eaten several fucking times tonight,” he replied with a smile before coughing, “can I get some water, Vic?”
Victor nodded his head vigorously, then fumbled a glass of water, spilling a bit on the carpet. He helped Miguel slowly sip from the edge of the glass.
Jarrett walked over on shaky legs and sat down beside the two, using his bat for balance during the transition.
“Hey, Miguel. I'm glad you're awake, man.” he said through a toothy grin.
“Hi, Jarrett. I’m glad you're both safe.”
“Miguel… are those Michael’s items from Of Myth?” he pointed to the gear, getting straight to the point..
Victor scowled, “we can ask him about that later, Jarrett, he’s barely conscious.”
Jarrett gave Victor a flat look.
“It's fine, Vic. Yeah, it's kind of a long story…. But you're right. It's the same stuff.”
Miguel, with the help of both Victor and Jarrett, got into a sitting position on the solo couch, then told them of the night’s events, with Victor and Jarrett filling him in on some of what they'd seen that night as well.
“That was a lot shorter of a story than I thought it would be,” Miguel said after a brief explanation. It took maybe 15 minutes total, with Miguel shortening and summarizing the major points.
Jarrett sat across the room, against the wall, a look of incomprehension clear by his expression. Victor, despite his warning to Jarrett earlier, now paced in the room, a skeptical frown on his shaking head.
“There's no way,” he kept saying, “there's absolutely no way.”
Jarrett held his bat in the center, twisting it in his hands in a nervous fidget.
“So you can give us… powers?.... Like in Of Myth?...” he timidly queried.
Victor shot him a stern scowl, but didn't add anything. He rubbed his eyes and cleaned his glasses instead.
Miguel shrugged, “maybe? I don't know, Jarrett. I'm about as lost as you guys are. You probably know more about what's going on around the world than I do. These powers? I don't know. I really don't know…”
“Some magical alien that just so happened to appear in your room where some evil magicians just so happened to be conducting a magical ritual to take her powers, just SO HAPPENED to hit you with the magic causing her to transfer her powers to you, which, by the way, JUST SO HAPPENED to take the form of a board game we play because she read your books and notes?!?!” Victor almost shouted in exasperation.
“SHHH, Vic. Now you're being way too loud, man.” Jarrett interjected.
“Sorry. Sorry.” he plopped down on the ground, “it just…. It just does NOT make any sense.” he added, running his fingers through his short cropped hair.
“I know it doesn't. Believe me. I really do. I'm half-convinced I'm in a mental institution right now or something, Vic, but it all feels real. This doesn't seem like some weird dream. I've had plenty of those.” Miguel sighed, the pain causing the sigh to abruptly cut short.
“Don't push yourself, Miguel,” Jarrett said, getting up to sit by him, “do you need some more water?”
Miguel shook his head, “no, I'm fine. Thanks.”
They all sat stewing in contemplation and silence for several long minutes.
Jarrett cleared his throat, “assuming we’re not all crazy… have you tried, uhh… god it feels silly to say, but have you tried,” he cleared his throat again, “uhm, leveling up or whatever? You said that you gained a few levels killing those things while you ran over here, right?”
Jarrett’s face was slightly red with embarrassment. Miguel blinked, then added, “no, not yet. I set the boxes to stop automatically appearing because they were getting in the way.”
With a thought, Miguel willed the notifications to return.
Pink light appeared in the small apartment living room, and Jarrett and Victor jumped with surprise.
“Holy fucking, fuck, man! That's insane!! Why is it pink, though?” Jarrett gasped.
Victor tried to form words, but tightly shut his mouth and just observed.
“You can see it? I guess I thought it would be invisible to other people. That's how it works in stories and stuff,” Miguel pondered aloud, “I'm not really sure why it's pink, but all the other magical stuff I've seen tonight has been blue. I'm not really sure the difference.”
Jarrett shrugged, having nothing to add.
Miguel refocused on the pink box.
Level Up!
You have gained 2 Levels in the class Myth Maker!
He thought continue.
You are now a Level 2 Myth Maker. Due to insufficient Fortitude and/or Mana acclimation, 1 Level of Myth Maker will be postponed until prerequisite changes have been met. Additional Experience Points gained will be reserved for your next Level(s).
Estimated time remaining until next Level Up:
59 days 3 hours 20 minutes 17 seconds
You have 2 unassigned Stat Points.
“It says that-” Miguel started, but Jarrett moved closer to him and hovered over his shoulder.
“Yeah, I can see it… Woah that's so cool, man! It looks like VR!” Jarrett gawked while reading the notification.
Victor moved to stand on Miguel’s other side, "what's all this about "Mana acclimation," though?"
Miguel shrugged, not having any more knowledge than Victor.
“Well what are you waiting for, man? Assign the stats!” Jarrett exclaimed, the smell of alcohol hitting Miguel's face.
Miguel wrinkled his nose at the offensive odor, then continued.
Assign two points to Fortitude, he thought. Miguel found that the intent was more important than any specific words when directing the pink boxes.
And as expected, the box updated.
Fortitude raised from 2 to 4.
Estimated time remaining until next Level Up:
29 days 3 hours 48 minutes 42 seconds
A pink hue enveloped Miguel, briefly, then disappeared.
It was a subtle, yet noticeable feeling. Miguel felt… slightly better, physically. His wounds hurt a little less, and he felt less tired. Not 100%, but like the stat implied, about twice as okay as before. It was an odd feeling. Like having a cold one second, only to have your meds instantly kick in the next. The cold was still there, but it was noticeably better.
Jarrett was smiling like a kid on Christmas. Victor had a deeply concerned look on his face.
Suddenly, Jarrett’s face went stoney and he looked at Miguel with a serious air about him. Something Miguel wasn't used to seeing on Jarrett.
“Listen, Miguel, Kathy hasn't answered the last ten or so times we've tried to call her, and my parents haven't answered all night… things are bad out there, man, like really REALLY bad, but YOU made it all the way here by yourself and killed literal fucking MONSTERS, man. Can you give me a class or whatever? Or maybe I can use that stuff?” he pointed at the pile of items.
Miguel needed less than a second to decide.
“It says it's Soulbound, like in the game. We can try, but I think that might mean it will only work for me. As for the class… I mean, yeah why not? We can at least test it out, then go check on Kathy and your parents.”
Miguel wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline talking or his real feelings, but the look on Jarrett’s face… The concern, the determination… There was really only one answer to give.
“Sweet, man, thanks!” he drunkenly slapped Miguel on the back, causing Miguel to wince in pain, “shit. Sorry, man.”
“Don't… worry.. about it…” Miguel struggled to get out.
“I'm going full Righteous Holy Knight, for sure.” Jarrett said with a squeeze of his bat and a furrow of his brow.
“Are you two serious?!” the bravado was cut short by Victor, now actually yelling.
The two froze, then looked towards Victor.
“Do you want to die?? Is this a GAME?? There's people DYING out there, literally DYING, and you're talking about going out into all of this… with power that, for all we know, could kill you!”
“Vic, I doubt it's going to kill us, man, like it saved Migue-”
“But you don't KNOW, Jarrett. You don't know. We don't know anything. Not a damn THING about what's going on.”
Miguel, softly, interjected just as Jarrett was about to respond, “I know, Vic. We don't know what's going on. We don't know where this power came from, really, or why there's monsters and suddenly people popping up all over the world, but we do know some things… We know Kathy hasn't answered her phone. We know Jarrett’s parents haven't either, and I know I want to go help them.”
Victor stared at Miguel, floored by the response.
“So what, we just have you touch us, grant us powers and go outside and fight our way to the dam?”
“Fuck’n yeah, we do.” said the drunken Jarrett.
“No,” Miguel said, raising his uninjured hand in a placating gesture to calm the building tension, “we safely and quietly get to the dam. We’ll be as careful as we possibly can be. I didn't WANT to fight anything, Vic. It just happened, and I sure as shit don't want it to happen again.”
“And what if it happens again, Miguel? It doesn't matter what we want or don't want to happen.” he crossed his arms and said.
“Then we’ll deal with it, together. That's all we can do, Vic.”
Victor shook his head, started to respond, stopped, shook his head again, then deflated in defeat.
“Fine, Miguel. Fine. But we do this safely. No ‘guns blazing,’ Jarrett. This ISN'T one of Miguel’s campaigns. You can't get away with that shit in real life.”
Jarrett shrugged and nodded, “sure, man, I don't want to fight if we don't have to. But come on, Vic, magical powers, man. I'm freaking out about the world ending and my parents and Kathy, man, but magical fucking powers sure sound like the solution to all this.”
“You're drunk, Jarrett. You always get like this when you're drunk.” Victor grumbled in response.
“There was no way I was doing this sober, man.” he grinned, then went serious again, “do it, Miguel. We’ve already wasted enough time.”
Miguel nodded his head, “okay. You're sure? I don’t really know what I'm doing, Jarrett, so only if you're positive.”
The look of determination om Jarrett's face was confirmation enough.
Miguel placed his uninjured hand on Jarrett’s shoulder, then thought Milestone.
Magenta light washed out the room. A static buzz sizzled the air, and Jarrett was pretty sure he tasted the sound of his fifth birthday party for a brief moment.
Player Character Sheet Generation Complete.
You have gained The Myth Maker’s Blessing!
You have gained the Title, Player!
Please choose a class:
* Mage
* Knight
* Warrior
* Hunter
* Priest
Jarrett’s face lit up with a pink glow. He couldn't help but crack a slight smile, as he said, “Knight.”