Lazaro’s face relaxed just by a fraction, “The same as you. Money, freedom, power.”

“Sure, that’s reasonable,” Gus said with his smug smile and took a sip of his water. “Unfortunately, you won’t get that here. Especially if you inconvenience me any more than you already have.”

“We can take all of that and more, puto,” Lazaro said. He slammed his palm on the grass table, but the soft surface didn’t produce the effect he had probably been hoping for.

It wasn’t lost on Gus either as he raised an eyebrow, “Please, I know you’re not that stupid. Let’s not play this game.”

Lazaro took a sip of his water. Rick could see that his movements were more stiff than Gus’. It was a minor detail, but it told Rick that he was nervous and uncomfortable. And if Rick could see it, Gus sure as hell could.

“We have a lot of women and children with us. We just want a place in this world. One where we don’t have to hide and do things out of desperation,” Lazaro explained.

“That will be up to you. Whether you want it to be a reality or a pipe dream,” Gus said. “The way I see it, you have a few options. The first is - flee. Pack your things up and get out of town. I don’t care where you go, as long as it’s far from here and you don’t cause any trouble. The second option is - to die. Stay and fight and we’ll wipe you out within the hour,” Gus didn’t wait for Lazaro to interject. “The final option would be to work for me.”

Lazaro nearly spit out his water, “Work for you? No.”

“You don’t want to hear me out?”

The Inkbender shook his head, “People like you just take and take until there’s nothing left. What happens when we aren’t useful to you anymore?”

Gus chuckled, flashing his abnormally white teeth, “And you’re not the same?”

Lazaro resumed his frown.

“Look, we got off to a rough start. I’m assuming you’ve heard what happened to the East Coast?” Gus asked.

Lazaro nodded.

“Good. Then you know that I’m not the worst person out there. What happens if they come here and we’re squabbling like children?”

The Inkbender shifted in his seat, “They would have hit us already if they planned on coming here. What do you know about the people behind it anyway?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Gus said. “We don’t think they’re from here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember the System Alert that we all received when the shop opened? Part of it said, ‘One Earth year until System Portal is activated’.”

Lazaro’s frown grew deeper, “Yeah, I remember. You think this pendejo used some kind of portal from another planet? Aliens and shit? How could they get here before the portal opened?” He rattled the questions off.

“I would guess that not everyone in the multiverse plays by the rules. We don’t do we?” Gus asked with a knowing smile.

“Is this all just a guess or do you have any proof?” Lazaro asked.

“It started as a speculation, but when we took over the Air Force base, an engineer used the System Shop to tinker with them until they were able to take flight. They work better than before if you can believe that,” Gus said proudly as if he figured it out himself. “After that, we were able to find other larger settlements and open communication with some leaders of other small factions like our own.”

Gus fished out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Lazaro. “There’s a map of some of the settlements we found. The East Coast wasn’t isolated. Every city with a large political foothold was nuked off the planet. This is worldwide, not just in the United States. It was clearly an organized effort. As if someone knew this System bullshit would happen.,” Gus paused, letting Lazaro take in the information.

“It could be that some people were informed beforehand. Not necessarily aliens,” Lazaro suggested.

“Informed by who?” Gus asked. “I agree that there may be people from Earth involved, but if they were informed by someone, the information had to have come from a being already part of this multiverse.”

Rick had been listening intently the entire time. Could it have been Adam? He asked himself.

“Does anybody know who these people, or aliens, are?” Lazaro asked.

“There isn’t too much to go off of. The first thing we know is that these agents use some sort of mental magic,” Gus said.

“And how do we fight that?”

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“There are things in the shop that shield your mind, although they are wildly expensive. We also have a few elite members of the Eagle Empire that can provide protection in various methods. What we need to do is pool our resources together. This infighting is absurd,” Gus said.

Even Rick began to be swayed by Gus. What he said made a lot of sense. But, why kidnap his parents in the first place? What was this guy’s ultimate goal? Thankfully, Lazaro had a similar train of thought.

“So if we fight them and win, then what?” Lazaro asked.

“Then we’re heroes. And I will have led the heroes into battle to save us all,” Gus said, leaning back, clasping his hands together and resting them on his pot belly.

“Right, and what’s your plan after the whole world thinks you’re some kind of hero?”

Gus flashed his teeth, “Earth would need a leader, wouldn’t it?”

Lazaro shook his head and tsked, “I don’t know gabacho. Sounds like more of the same to me.”

Gus put out his hand, “Fight for me. Work for me. Help me rebuild this world better than before. Your past will have no meaning as we look to the future. The people of Earth need to band together. We could become the most important men in history.”

Rick didn’t miss his choice of words. Everything was for Gus. Never ‘with’.

Lazaro stared at the hand and then up at Gus, “At least until we get rid of those monsters.”

Gus’ smile deepened, creasing his tanned cheeks, “That sounds like a great idea, Lazaro.”

The two men shook hands and for the next hour, they talked about plans to put some structure in place. The Cartel was even offered to have their base of operations be out of one of the larger hotels in the area, unobstructed by the Eagle Empire. Gus even promised to put up a defensive array for them and foot the bill.

When they were done speaking, Gus dismissed Lazaro to relay their meeting details to anyone on a need-to-know basis.

As Lazaro put his hand on the door, he paused. He then quickly shot his hand to his hip and pulled out a handgun. As he whirled around, the fingernails on his hand ripped off, forcing him to drop the gun. The nails rotated in the air in front of Lazaro’s face.

Lazaro winced and looked at Gus, “So it’s not just wood, is it? Can you manipulate anything?”

Gus seemed unbothered by Lazaro’s assassination attempt, “Do you want to find out?”

Lazaro gave a small grin and nodded in respect, “Not firsthand, no.” He took out a Healing Huff and repaired the damaged hand as he left the dungeon.

— — —

Rick had thought the sudden attack would surely lead to Lazaro’s death, but Gus’ actions put a piece of the puzzle together for him. He remembered Jimmy saying it was ‘dead’ wood that Gus had used at the battle. Then, he used Lazaro’s fingernails against him. Combine that with Identify telling him that Gus was a ‘Death Novice’, he guessed that Gus could control anything that was once made of a living organism. “Ah, so some kind of necromancer,” Rick said aloud.

“Well, now that the riff-raff is gone, I can finally speak to you,” Gus said, startling Rick.

Did he hear me? He stayed silent to see if it was just a coincidence or if the man had heard him.

“From what I understand, your unlucky soul is in here controlling all of this. Although, I envy you in a way. I would give anything for immortality,” Gus said, draining the last of his water.

Without thinking, Rick refilled it, earning a smug smile from Gus. Okay, he didn’t actually hear me.

“I’ve had Jimmy bugged for the last few days and learned a lot about you. Your friend doesn’t shut up about you, really. Always trying to sell some poor bastard on coming in here to get carved up,” Gus casually admitted to infiltrating their area. “But I digress. Let me tell you - you’re going to love having me on your side.”

That part surprised Rick. “Ri-i-i-ght. Can’t wait.”

“Before I go any further, I’d like to apologize to you about your parents. They’re still very interesting to me,” Gus said.

Rick didn’t miss the not-so-veiled threat. He knew that Gus wouldn’t hesitate to use his parents against him in the future. Rage filled Rick’s mind at the thought and the dungeon rumbled.

Gus held up a finger and waged it back and forth, “Before you do anything stupid, please know that if I don’t leave here in one piece, everyone in the area will die.”

Rick calmed himself, “I fucking hate this guy.” Deep down, he knew that Gus might be their only hope for whoever was behind the nuclear attacks. Rick also knew that he’d need to get the word out to his parents to stay far away from here.

Gus had been the only person to mobilize so many people and gather as many resources as he did in just a couple of weeks. Jimmy and himself couldn’t manage that, even with Rick being able to reproduce whatever he wanted. Gus might be the biggest asshole Rick knew, but you couldn’t knock the man’s work ethic. Still, he feared what the world would look like under Gus’ control.

The Death Mage Country Club bastard sat in silence and continued once he was sure that Rick wasn’t attempting to kill him. “As I was saying — You will love having me on your side. Not only will I feed your dungeon with people, I will feed you with a plethora of resources that you haven’t even thought of yet,” Gus said with confidence.

That first part, Rick wasn’t so sure he was comfortable with. If Gus was planning on forcing people in here, then Rick would just spit them back out. The second part? Rick craved more resources for his Registry. That was a welcome promise to him.

“Hell, this could be the premier place to preserve our history. Your existence is a treasure and should be treated as such,” Gus said with the recognizable glint of greed sparkling in his eyes.

Rick and Jimmy had shared that same look often. Rick also liked the idea of preserving Earth’s history. One of his favorite things about running a pawn shop was that he got to see odd antique pieces and learn the history behind them.

“Of course, I understand that you need something to keep the engine running and I’ll make sure you get what you need,” Gus said. “I already have a fleet of dump trucks waiting to provide you with plenty of that delicious trash,” he chuckled. “Of course, I’ll need your help to keep those fueled up.”

Rick let Gus ramble on for a while, promising him anything and everything he could possibly want. He was clearly buttering him up.

“Now – This all doesn’t come for free, of course,” Gus said. “I’ll only need a few things from you, which you should be able to easily manage on your end.”