Chapter 39: Breaking And Reentering

We all arrive at the Get!. We are armed and armored. The two police officers on duty stand outside the chain link fencing that now surrounds the entrance to the building. We approach, introduce ourselves, explain, and get past them without too much trouble.

We get inside the gates and I stare up at the building that held us prisoner for almost 24 hours. The tan concrete, big box, strip center exterior looks like it was pulled like taffy or soft clay. The walls seem thin in multiple places. There's exposed wiring and duct work. The Get! logo is distorted and now looks like a malicious command instead of an excited instruction.

I turn and look over my team. Both Jose and I are wearing the operational camouflage pattern (gray, brown and green) IOTV (Improved Outer Tactical Vest), sans the shoulder and groin guards, plus matching helmet and black combat boots. I'm wearing my eyepatch again. Jose has his fingerless sniping gloves as well as the pink cat collar bracelet. Odysseus has the same outfit and armor but he's wearing the shoulder and groin guards. We all have light backpacks full of various supplies.

Henry Gallup has the same IOTV with groin and shoulder guards, but his outfit is all Navy tactical dark blue camo. Agent Madeline Diaz is wearing the same, but in solid FBI dark blue. Her armor also says FBI on the front and back. Just like she said, she also has a black rectangular ballistic shield, plus a yellow and red fire axe on her back.

Gwen L'Ronge is wearing just a lightweight, blue Canadian police vest, but she's also got a black backpack full of tech with her. Under the armor she seems to be wearing just a regular cream colored button down shirt and black slacks. The rest of us have camo shirts and pants to match our armors but she looks like she's going to the office later.

I stand in front of the team and get down to business. “Okay, so you four don't have classes yet, right?” They nod or give yes sirs. “Once you're inside the Dracosys will stun you until you pick a class.”

“Grant, go for Acolyte or Cleric if you can. Something that says it uses Memory or Wisdom and grants chants or invocations. That might give you healing.”

He nods and taps on the cell he has strapped to his forearm. It says, “Got it.”

I turn to the next person in line. “Agent Diaz, take anything that says it uses Strength. I don't care what, but you should leverage your talents.” She nods and gives me one of her trademark yups.

“Henry-”

“Advisor, Politician, Representative, Senator,” he recites. “Or something that uses Charisma. I read the dossier.” This time I nod in acknowledgement.

“Gwen...” I stop myself and then say the truth. “I have no idea what would be best for you but I think you probably don't need my advice anyway.”

“Thank you, I do not.” She says it matter of factly, without any insult.

I continue. “Jose and I will stand guard until you guys are clear. Once that happens, I'll take this first room down. Gwen's data suggests that you just need to participate in the fight to get credit for it, not necessarily kill anything. So when I pull the bugs, shoot a bit but don't worry too much about kills.”

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Jose raises an eyebrow at me and asks “you've got it? All five thousand of them?”

I draw one of my three knives, the M3 Mongoose. It begins to float in the air and spin. “Yeah, I've got it.”

Jose and I walk through the sliding doors first. The corn field is still taking up most of the first floor. I can't even see the ice wall from here. The buzzing of flies is mixed in with another sound this time. A chittering. That's foreboding.

The others enter and immediately four of my team go stiff while in motion. The effect is bizarre. They're frozen mid-step as they cross the threshold of the Get!. Henry comes out first.

“Politician,” he says, then closes his eyes to check his new menu.

Odysseus comes to and taps out, “Just Acolyte,” then similarly returns to the menus.

I look around. There's a blue line around the rubber mat that covers the floor around the entrance. “Jose,” I say, and point at it.

“Safe room lines.” Jose agrees. “That would keep monsters in.”

“So we're actually safe right here and can let people get a class safely,” I note that for future use. I could bring Mercy here, even. She'd love a spell casting class.

Diaz comes out of the class selection stupor. “I'm a friggin Knight,” she says. She's got a big ass grin on her face. She closes her eyes for a second, then opens them up and her shield begins to slightly glow with golden light. This ripped badass looks like a kid with a new toy all of a sudden.

Gwen almost falls over as she recovers, then talks as she goes into her menus. “I am now an Oracle. I use Geist points. I had not heard about these yet. My abilities are called harrows. Fascinating.” She suddenly looks at me, holds a hand up and an indigo colored tarot card appears between her fingers. She taps it against her armor and it fades away but leaves behind a sparkling blue crystal dust coating on her armor. “This should grant me some additional protection.”

I nod and turn to the corn field. I draw all three knives I brought and throw them into the air only for them to come to a halt about 15 feet up. Then each one begins to fly in a different direction, tip first. When they're all in different corners of the floor I snap my fingers and we see Ping circles emit from each knife. The buzzing of insects becomes deafening. I call the knives to the center of the store and thousands of insects, enraged by the Ping, follow them.

When the knives gather together they float in formation, points forward. Then I snap again for another Ping wave and the flies are absolutely outraged. They attempt to collide into my blades, which I call back over to me. As they fly the tip of each begins to glow with a red sheen that gets brighter over the course of the five seconds it takes for them to return.

I scan a fly quickly.

Stinging Syrup Fly. These guys have stingers now! This makes them mildly dangerous alone, but absolutely terrifying in swarms. The current size of this swarm is 4999, which is thoroughly deadly.

Possible Loot: None

The knives get to me and I turn their points at the massive swarm that now is heading right for us. My team opens fire on the swarm and I delay just long enough for everyone to get a shot or two off before triggering my attack: a charged triple Flame Thrower.

Three long thin cones of flame erupt from my knives and incinerate the approaching swarm. I push flames out of the three blade tips and the overwhelming, sickly sweet smell of fried insect fills the floor. Three seconds of flame, five seconds of flames, ten seconds of flames and then the bugs are dead.

There's a circular hole in the corn field in front of us, the edge of which is outlined with burning corn stalks. Thousands of crispy bug bodies lay before us, but the path is clear.

I flip my hand and my knives return to their sheathes on my chest armor. I turn back to my team and see absolutely shocked faces.

Except for Jose. He's shaking his head in annoyance. He says, “this is why Brian hates when you multiclass.”