Chapter 43: Halloween

The thirty skeletons that march out are the first problem. Bullets, as it turns out, kinda suck against things that lack everything except bones. We open fire and it's not until we thoroughly blast apart a skeleton's spine that it stops moving. Blow its legs off and it scrapes forward with arms. Shoot off the skull and it swings blindly forward. Shoot off the arms and it just tries to ram you.

I'm about to do some magic when Diaz swings her axe and completely demolishes one skeleton, then another. She just swings and smashes like the damn Knight she is and it's kinda amazing. Within a minute she's crushed our foes and she stands slightly scraped up but not really injured. Grant goes over to her and casts some spell by typing it out and having the computer voice say the spell name for him. Interesting that it works.

“Mend thy flesh, that you may still fight” is the first invocation that I've seen. As it is cast Grant hovers his hand over her scrapes and they seal up. It's not especially fast and seems short range.

Invocations use Faith Points and Memory dictates their recovery. The invocation seems to last as long as the recitation of its name, which means Grant immediately has a cheat mode. He slides down the voice module's speed and tries it again. This time the voice speaks at a distorted half speed but the spell still works. Now Grant has plenty of time to heal Diaz up completely.

“Incredible!” says Gwen L'Ronge. “I did not expect zat to work, much less your manipulation to be effective. Well done, monsieur Grant.” The big man blushes, which is a sight.

“Alright, so let's-” I say only to be interrupted by Henry's shotgun tearing into a wolfman. Three more jump out of the festive fall decorated section and Jose snipes two while Gwen shoots the third in the eye, killing it.

There's nowhere to take cover in the section of dungeon that stands between three departments. There's just tile on the floor and skeletons scattered about. I make a decision. We can't move into electronics while monsters come from behind. “We're clearing out seasonal. Gallup, Diaz, on point. Gwen, Grant, with Diaz. You guys take the left side. Amarillo, Gallup with me. Watch your fire lines in there. We don't know the layout and the aisles aren't bullet proof.”

Each member of fireteam Lupus Rex gives me a “Roger!” and we move in.

The Halloween section includes hanging black sheets, fake spiderwebs and aisles of costumes. I fling a knife into a spider with a leg span the size of a beach ball. Okay, so the spiderwebs aren't fake. Good to know.

A group of sexy, shirtless but also faceless male firefighters and cops round the corner and I hear a voice come from each. “Where is my mask?” They're already wearing the appropriate hats for their costumes.

Fuuuuck this shit. I finally switch off the safety on my MK 16 SCAR L and fire rounds into the non-humans. Their bodies just absorb the bullets like... Plastic mannequins. I hear Jose charge up a lightning shot and it hits the firefighter and arcs to the two cops. They don't seem particularly injured. Time to scan and see if I get a hint.

Unmasked Mannequin. It's missing something. If only you had that something. That would be helpful, no?

Possible Loot: Various costume parts

Fuck me. Again we were supposed to get an item from the beauty department to solve the problem in the seasonal department? Shit. Well, it's plastic, right? Plastic melts.

I don't want to set the whole room on fire so I just cast Fire Bat a few times and hand off the weapons to Jose and Henry. For myself I pull out a Burning Blade. To do that I make like I'm drawing a sword from my hip and a translucent orange longsword appears in my hand. Inside the edge seems to be orange flames that are constantly in motion, ready to singe and scorch.

Jose, Henry and I slam our weapons into the lineup of Village People rejects and we see plastic melt and the dress up dolls drop. We clash with another two mannequins. I chop off the weird faceless heads while Jose and Henry bash in their chests.

“It's super effective,” Jose says, holding up his flame tipped bat.

From across the all hallows eve extravaganza I hear excited grunting and a “Hah-Hiyah!” from Diaz. She's probably fine.

“The big skeleton is gone,” Henry ominously says. I prepare myself for a giant skeleton boss battle by hovering one of my knives in front of me as I advance and turn an aisle.

I see what's down the aisle, turn back and point at Henry Gallup accusingly. “You just HAD to say it, didn't you? Now there's a dozen of them.”

“Oh sweet Lincoln, no,” Henry says. “Not Freddy Kruegers!”

“No, it's worse,” I say seriously. “Sexy nurses.”

Henry immediately pushes past me to see the slutty medical assistants only for a syringe the size of a fire extinguisher to be stabbed into him, right above his collar bone. Blood, so much blood, begins to fill the syringe and I pull him back and thrust around the corner with my sword. The syringe rips out of his clavicle with a loud slurping sound. Jose goes wide left, gets a firing line and takes rifle shots into mannequin nurses. The bullets only slow down the nurses but that's alright. I pull Henry back around the corner and down the aisle as he collapses, holding his neck wound.

I pull out a bag of Ruffles and rip it open. “Eat these,” I say, and turn back to the dozens of sexy nurses. They're all mannequins, but with very low cut tops revealing plastic cleavage. The white outfits also have miniskirts, cut high enough to be scandalous on an actual human. Each one has a different, yet always giant, medical implement. The one with the rib spreader is most worrying, I think. Maybe the bone saw. Whatever, time to magic these inhuman bitches up.

I cast Flame Shield on my floating knife and it becomes surrounded by a flat aura of orange flames. The shield is only about two feet across but that's plenty. I tilt the shield on its side and try to go Captain America and fling the fiery knife shield at the first nurse. It sets her slightly on fire and bounces back.

Alright, second idea. I pose my empty hand as if I'm holding something and cast Molotov. A flame shaped like a bottle appears in my hand. It turns out that I'm not immune to my own flames and it's fucking hot. I immediately chuck the not-really-improvised explosive and it impacts. Flames spread out over the front four sexy nurses, causing them to stumble and fall. The dozen behind start to climb over their dying, burning comrades. I need a bigger boom.

I pose as if I'm about to pitch a baseball and shout “Explosive Mote!” A ball sized orb of flame appears in my hand, which is also hot, ow. I give my best knuckleball into the center of the group of dolls and when it makes contact it detonates with a 10 foot radius of scorching heat and orange fire. The dolls close to the explosion are blown apart and the rest catch very on fire and collapse after seconds of manic flailing.

“You good?” I hear Diaz call to our side.

“Yup! ” I give her back.

I turn back to check on Henry Gallup. He's halfway through the Ruffles and the bleeding has stopped but he looks pale. Which for a black guy is really saying something. He looks like he's about to fall asleep. “Hey Henry, Henry, stay with us, man.”

He startles back to fully awake. “Yes, Corporal Han. I'm here.” His arms are limp so I start to feed him the rest of the Ruffles. Jose is watching our backs.

“Grant!” I yell. “Got anything for blood loss?”

A minute later Grant finds us and he has his cell say “Blood, return to whence you came. River of life, become life again.” As the invocation reads out the blood on Gallup's armor and shirt actually recedes back into his body. The blood in the syringe is still missing but this looks like it's helping.

I pat Grant on the back. “Thanks, I'll switch with you. Jose, you and Grant watch over Gallup. Diaz, L'Ronge and I are taking the rest down.” They nod and I head to the west side of the Halloween section. Using my radar function it's pretty easy to find my team. I really need to remember to use it more often.

I spot just three unknown dots on the radar left. I make it over to Gwen and Diaz. “I've got three bogeys on the north side and HOLY CRAP!” Diaz is surrounded by dozens of hacked apart mannequins. Her armor, shield and weapon are coated with golden flames. As I talk the flames extinguish. She had to have taken down almost 50 of the plastic men, all dressed like various copyrighted characters from television, film and video games. I scan one and see that regardless of their costume, they all register as Unmasked Mannequins.

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Some of them seem to have dropped costume parts. We'll definitely want to loot everything here later, but we need to clear the zone first. “Right, so anyways, three more hostiles, north, you guys ready?”

The two women nod. Gwen reloads her rifle and Diaz eyes my flame sword. I shrug and hand it to her. She holsters the axe and grips it in front of her like it's a legendary weapon. Which, I mean it is a magic flaming sword, so I guess kinda? “It'll disappear in about 8 minutes so don't get too attached.” She nods and takes a few practice swings with it.

We move to the north side and the thing I'm worried about is that two of the dots are twice as big as the third. We hit a corner of an aisle and I take a peek. Fuck, I know these monsters. They're store brand knock offs of famous video game baddies. We had these costumes in the store last year at Halloween, around the time when I started at the Get!.

The first big one is a yellow and green spikey turtle monster that, yes, seems to be breathing fire. The regular sized one is a big green rectangle with an unhappy face on it. I know those things usually get angry and explode. That's bad. The worst, however, is definitely the last one. It's big, about three times as wide as a person. The costume is called “diving drill man” but we all know what it's supposed to be. The creature has a rivet gun in its left hand and a massive spiral drill on its right. I scan each in their hopes of clues.

King Fire Turtle. Breathes fire, weak to plumbers.

Possible Loot: Star, Mushroom, Flower, Costume Contest Prize (variable)

Creepy Rectangle. Not strong, very explosive personality.

Possible Loot: Cube, Pickaxe, Costume Contest Prize (variable)

Big Papa. A monstrous diving accident caused this man to be trapped in ancient equipment. It can take more punishment than you'd think. Also, HAS A GIANT DRILL.

Possible Loot: Plasmid, Costume Contest Prize (variable)

I pull back around the aisle just as King Fire Turtle looks in my direction. I say to Gwen and Diaz, “three video game bad guys. Real versions, not mannequins. King Fire Lizard, Creepy Rectangle and Big Papa. I think we take out Creepy and he'll explode and kill the other two.”

They nod and Diaz pulls me back as Fire Lizard claws slash straight through the aisle next to me. “New plan, just fight,” I say, and Gwen backs up while firing her target rifle at the lizard. The small caliber bullets don't seem to be making a dent in it. The King Lizard roars and its big head rounds the corner and stares at us. I can see flames ignite in its mouth. I flip a knife in front of us and cast Flame Shield on it and Diaz's ballistic shield.

Flame Shield

Summon a shield of fire, or add a flame enchantment to an existing shield.

Range: touch

Cost: 10 Arcana Points for 10 minutes

Proficiency: 6%

The knife ignites with the flat shield of flame again and Diaz's shield glows orange. We huddle behind both as a gout of red flames comes from the King Lizard. It's not as concentrated as my Flame Thrower but easily three times as wide. Flames crash into our shields like waves.

The flames stop and in that second I turn to see Gwen. She's 30 feet back, having sprinted away. Good. I turn back to the lizard and Diaz has dropped my fire sword in favor of her fire axe. One was designed for firefighters, one for fire users. She's making the right call. With the same motion as drawing the axe from her back she uses an overhead chop to bury the blade into King Lizard's right arm. Green blood comes forth.

I raise my SCAR and open fire on ol’ fire breath. The high velocity bullets of my assault rifle punch into the creature's left shoulder as I carefully avoid hitting Diaz. I go to strafe around it but it spins 180 degrees, swinging its spiked shell around at us. Bullets bounce off the shell and its spikes rake across Diaz's arms. That's when Mr Creepy comes in.

The big green rectangle looks unhappy, as always, but upon seeing our melee, gets enraged. It starts to flash red. “Pull back!” I yell but I know that if the explosion from the game is anywhere close to this thing's destructive power, we're all fucked.

From behind me I hear Gwen say “I play Temperance from ze field!” The small crystals that were surrounding her for the last hour and a half leave her, combine into a tarot card in front of the Creepy, and the card sinks into the rectangle. The red flashing gets faster as we try to run, then we hear a loud explosion. The boom isn't quite as harsh as I'm expecting, but the shockwave still drives me and Diaz to the ground and blows King Lizard in half. The lizard's shell is standing there attached to the legs with the chest, head and arms missing. There's so, so much green blood. Wait, is that blood made of flat 2D pixels? It is. What a neat touch.

We're in the clear, but of course Big Papa has yet to show up for the party and wouldn't you know it, he likes to arrive late. The big, old fashioned diving suit, topped with brass helmet, rounds the corner. Its two foot wide drill is already whirring at frightening speed. It stomps closer to where Diaz and I are sprawled on the floor when I hear the charge and then electric snap of one of Jose's lightning bolt shots. The bolt stuns the creature and Jose, Gwen and I dump bullets into it. Diaz grabs the previously dropped Burning Blade and chucks it straight into the creature's belly which opens up and murky, black water begins to drain out.

We keep shooting but the Big Papa gets up and aims its rivet gun over mine and Diaz's heads towards Jose and Gwen. He fires large metal rounds at them and I hear a grunt and a scream. I turn and see them both dropped to the ground, both wounded. They'll live as long as we kill this thing now. Time to get desperate.

The wound in its belly is full of dark, shadowy water, right? I Shadow Stab from inside its own guts, trying to poke holes from the inside out. I release my SCAR, make sure all three knives are out, then using each one, plus both hands, I perform Shadow Stab five times at once. The Papa looks like a giant porcupine is inside the monster and wants to get out, but the Stabs don't puncture the thick suit material.

The Big boy drives its drill towards Diaz who blocks with her shield. The golden glow around it brightens and I hear a cracking sound as whatever protection she has on it is about to shatter. I go for another five times stab and this time I get three holes. Black water shoots from the holes like a leaking water balloon. Still not enough to stop the guy.

Jose lets fly another lightning shot and this one strikes right into one of the open water wounds. The whole inside of the monster lights up with electricity and it's stunned again. That's when Diaz pushes back against the drill, knocking it away. Then, from her back, she delivers a mighty kick to the Burning Blade that's somehow still in the monster's gut. The blade spins and cuts a wide gash in the diving suit. Gallons of icky water falls out, finally followed by a large black and gold squid. It tries to squirm away but I fling all three knives into it to pin it, then Diaz reaches over and chops it in half with an axe swing.

Finally on my radar I see that we're the only ones left in the area and I call it out. “Okay, we're clear.” I collapse onto my back for a minute. That was a damn fight. That was a goddamn good fight. That was a team, a squad working together. “Fuck yeah!” I say, finally getting up. The others look at me like I'm mad, but I don't care.

That was real. That was an intense fight, but also... I think that was closer to me being at my best. I think that these new powers, they're probably more me than a rifle is. Especially what I can do with the Telekinetic Psychic and Armed Magus powers. Combining those to do remote spells feels fucking incredible. I don't think that I've ever come this close before to using 100% of what I'm capable of.

This feels like everything I've done so far, everything I am, has all been leading here. All my nerd shit gives me skills and knowledge and instincts on how to use magic and fight monsters. All my military training gives me reaction times, how to move, how to fight, how to be in the combat soldier mindset. This is beginning to be who I really am. Who I was always supposed to be. And that feels... Amazing.

Dossier AT-1043, Arman Tolombre

Arman Tolombre grew up in the bad part of Paris, France. Yes, there is a bad part of Paris. He grew up with gutter trash and alcoholics. Prostitutes and drug dealers. He grew up to be a thief, a crook and a thug.

All of that changed on his 16th birthday when he got picked up for petty crimes and put in with the adult crooks for the night. The police thought he'd learn a tough lesson about knowing your place. Instead, the next day they found a jail cell full of dead adults and one blood covered teen.

Nobody could actually tell how he killed the men, other than “with some kind of weapon,” though none was within reach. How had that kid killed 8 grown men with a weapon that must have been long and bladed? Nobody knew. And since nobody knew how it happened, they had to let him go. And that proved to be a mistake the world would regret.

Arman Tolombre left his name behind and took the name “Haunted,” or Hante, in his native tongue.

Hante began work as a bouncer, then a hired thug, then as a hit man. By 27 he was linked to 44 deaths, most mysterious and unexplained. By 40 he had become one of France's most powerful underworld actors. Now at 43, he is something much more terrifying: a Dragoon.

Hante entered the Paris Catacombs Dungeon three days after the world changed. No one had yet escaped the dungeon, which has entrances across the city. When he left the dungeon two days later he was accompanied by a swarm of blue and black ghosts. He used these specters to tear through an entire city block in minutes, killing at least 400 people. Afterwards he disappeared in the chaos and is now one of the most wanted men in the world.

Arman Tolombre

Alias: Hante or Haunted

Age: 43

Height: 5 foot 3 inches

Build: slender

Skin: pale white

Hair: none

Tatoos: bones and skeletons are tattooed up and down his arms.

Wears two small gold hoop earrings in his right ear.

Usually in business suits, but never wears a tie.

Class: Occultist