Chapter 44: Prizes For Winners
We scour the Halloween section for loot and usable items. The various costumed mannequins drop clothes that have small stat bonuses but aren't better than ballistic body armor so we take what we can without using much. We all hoover up a good deal of Sacagaweas and promise to have a hell of a lunch after we're done here.
Henry Gallup finds a Sheriff's Badge that's not too bad.
Gen-u-wine Sheriff Badge. This brass star indicates to crooks that you're the law in this town. +3 Strength, Dexterity and Luck.
Diaz grabs a firefighter helmet and jacket, which she throws on over her body armor. Good thing it's all men's XL.
Firefighter Helmet. You can see through fire and smoke when the visor is down.
Firefighter Jacket, Black and Yellow. Increases your fire resistance to 75%. When using fire equipment to attack you deal 20% more damage. Your attacks can now strike and destroy fire.
We try out the “destroying fire” part and sure enough, she can friggin cleave her axe into my Flame Thrower to destroy part of the stream.
The best prizes come from the three big baddies though, and I keep them for myself.
Costume Contest, Third Prize. Grants one power of the attached costume to the person wearing said costume. You can't wear more than one of these.
Costume Contest, Second Prize. Grants two powers of the attached costume to the person wearing said costume. You can't wear more than one of these.
Costume Contest, First Prize. Grants three powers of the attached costume to the person wearing said costume. You can't wear more than one of these.
So, if I'm reading that right, you couldn't wear two Third Prizes, but could wear a First, Second and Third prize all at once. Is that right, system computer voice?
This system cannot confirm nor deny ability stacking theories.
Ha, whatever. I think about my girlfriend. Mercy does cosplay, usually Destiny 2 but some other anime ones as well. In fact, I learned about that from the internet. A Kotaku article called “Two Big Reasons Destiny Cosplay Is Awesome” featured Mercy with a large amount of cleavage, portraying the character Mara Sov. I saw the woman in it was going by the handle “white hat warlock” and asked my coworker Mercy if it was actually her.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Now that I think about it, it was after seeing her in that outfit that I started getting that feeling in my stomach and then started going to dinner on not dates with her and holy crap how long have I been in love with her?
Anyways, I'll give the prizes to Mercy and see if she can get super space magic powers or whatever from her costumes.
I have to get Grant to heal us up to conserve health recovery snacks. It takes about half an hour for him to heal, recharge his Faith points enough to heal the next person, and then heal again.
After a bit, we've all recovered and we look to the next hurdle, the Electronics department. I ask, “okay, who's got any magical damage attacks?”
Diaz, Gwen, Grant and Jose raise their hands.
I go down the line. “Jose, you have anything besides electricity?” He looks away guiltily and I move on. “Grant, what do you have?”
He types while holding the cell phone equipped arm up, palm forward. The voice says “Oh light, sear the unclean and vanquish the forbidden!” As the invocation casts a beam of yellow light that's more laser than flashlight shoots from his hand, out about 30 feet before dissipating.
“Okay, that's a maybe on that working on electricity elementals. Next. Gwen? You got more cool magic card tricks?”
“Yes, ze Magician card can perform minor earth, fire, water or wind attacks, but ze timing of these cards is unreliable as of yet.”
I nod. “Agent Diaz?”
She looks at my empty hand. “Make another fire sword. Give it to me. Done.” I shrug and make another Burning Blade and fork it over. I go ahead and make one for Henry as well and Diaz gives him the helpful pointer “You attack with the pointy end.”
I gather the troops and for the first time, I actually use my Minimap technique. A small replica of the floor we're on appears in my hand. I show the team the route through the electronics department maze and where the monsters were.
Henry asks, “how do you think the monsters have adapted since your last fights?”
Both Jose and I say “ranged attacks” at the same time. He nods to let me explain.
“I beat most of the Watt Elementals by essentially throwing water at them from a distance.”
Odysseus's digital voice comes out, “I don't know, what elementals?”
I shake my head. I'm not doing that bit again. “If they had even a short range zap attack, we'd never have escaped here alive. Attack as far back as possible. As for the electro-lich, maybe he's got better armor than Fast and Furious dvds? Like printers or metal cased laptops?”
Jose nods at that conjecture. “That thing had plenty of firepower, it just couldn't take much damage.”
“Right,” I say. “His attacks take time to charge, so hit him hard and fast. And if you see any TVs with spiraling patterns, shoot them.”
“Even if it's a 97 inch LG OLED 4K TV?” asks Diaz, with a look of sadness in her eyes.
“The real ones are in boxes,” Jose reassures her. “We'll be on the lookout for one for ya.”