["Is this it?"] Les asked with a series of mechanical clicks that rattled the water cannon's canister. Herbert would've narrowed his eyes if he could diminutive building on the displays hooked up to his canister. Stalls and trucks flowed from the parking lot of the blocky building beneath them.
["I guess. It's just as lackluster as everything else here."] Herbert tapped out with Thermal Ionomancer while they watched a squad of similarly dressed people as the defense team they ran into. What did they call themselves again? Frost crystallized as he tapped into Icewraith Metamorphosis for a brief moment before he remembered. That's right. They called themselves the Voluntary Farbrook Defense, which implied a few interesting things. ["Do you think Farbrook is the country or the name of this village?"]
Silence for a few seconds while Romulus scanned whatever systems he had in place.
["This village is called Farbrook. They have a rudimentary electric grid and a smattering of tech that doesn't seem to use enchantments much at all. Hm, strange. They have a decent amount of technology, but I'm not picking up anything like the Internet. A lot of phones and radio waves everywhere."]
["Oh well. Should we head on down?"] Herbert asked before Les's sudden descent sloshed him around in the canister. Concrete crumbled to dust despite their smooth landing. Herbert streamed out of the canister's storage with a hiss as he snapped back into his flesh and blood form as the primitive humans glanced over. "Hello, Farbrook!"
Metal clicked with a squeal as people raised pistols and rifles at them. Meanwhile, various powers activated all around as people boosted themselves, summoned weapons, or held their powers charged to fire.
They were almost as cute as the stray kitten he and Maeve had found abandoned in an old farm after one of Dad's weekly rains. It had been a scraggly beast that flailed at them with a feisty viciousness. He almost snorted at the mental image."
"Eli? Is that you?" asked a small girl a year or two younger than Herbert. She kept her dark hair loose over her shoulders, which he noted with faint disapproval, considering she wore a combat uniform like almost everyone else. She rushed to hug him before he held his hands out to stop her.
"No. I'm not Eli." Herbert sighed as he got the feeling that he'd be repeating himself a lot, depending on how long they'd stay here. He really hoped the spawn out there were stronger than the trash he saved some of their people from. What was the point of being marooned in another dimension if he didn't get to enjoy it a little?
"Roman?" She turned to Les, who still wore his full suit of armor. Herbert would've made a lot of money on the bet that Les probably had his eye on all his sensors and was ready to fire at anyone who did more than threaten. They might be weak, but it would be foolish to take chances.
"My name is Romulus. Can we speak to someone in charge, please?"
"Mom!" She called out as an older woman worn down by more signs of age than anyone Herbert had ever seen.
"How can we help you two?" asked the older woman before she leaned down to whisper, as if they didn't have body enhancement powers. "Kady, have one of your clones call for Rick and Adelaide, please. Discreetly."
Herbert frowned as he registered the names of his parents.
This mess of a town didn't make a bit of sense if they were here. They were far too strong to leave a village like this a shithole. Mom went around helping teach kids how to run LR-0 dungeons safely, so they didn't get themselves killed if a spawn appeared somewhere it shouldn't. Meanwhile, Dad ran several dungeons of his own since assisting with the Midwest's weather management was fairly easy as long as the other Meteormancers did their job.
"Who are we to you two?" Les asked as his faceshield retracted. "We ran into a group of people to the West who also insisted we were 'Eli' and 'Roman'. Who are they?"
Wind currents rose as the clouds shifted above them. Herbert glanced up as he sensed flickers of plasma approach. A moment later, a column of lightning crashed to reveal an older man with flecks of gray in his hair and traces of stubble shadowing his jaw. Dark gray eyes that mirrored his own stared back at him as the man rushed with a slight limp toward him with his arms outstretched.
"I'm not Eli." Herbert said in a sharp, but gentle tone as he held his hands out to stop him. He really hoped Dad's lookalike didn't run into him. He didn't want to break any of his bones.
Rick narrowed his eyes as vibrant sparks of electricity flashed in the air around him before he calmed. Its power felt weak, but that flicker of irritation and distrust put Herbert at ease that maybe this dimension wasn't so different after all. His eyes darted as he studied Herbert and then Romulus before something seemed to break in his, as his expression twisted.
Herbert glanced up nervously expecting to see dark clouds creep across the sky, but the weather didn't change with the break in this Rick's composure. Strange. Mom said that when both times she'd given birth Dad had been so happy that when he cried it rained in the tri-state area for twenty minutes before he managed to stop it. Could this Rick not control the weather?
"Do you know if my son is alive?" Rick asked in a haunted voice as who he assumed was Kady's mom patted his shoulder.
"Eli?" Herbert asked while Rick nodded with a careful expression of cultivated hope. Herbert glanced at Les while he used Thermal Ionomancer to pulse out a message in his suit. ["Do you think he even is? Did our coming here somehow kill these people that look like us?"]
["I doubt it, but who knows? It's not like dimensional travel is that understood."]
"Well, is he?" Static crackled as Rick clenched his fists at his side.
"I don't know." Herbert admitted with a wince as all the hope drained out of Rick's face. "But the System told us when we came here that we entered a new dimension. Maybe he's in another one too? Could even be where we come from."
"That would make sense." Les said calmly while he looked at the crowd of people who still had their pathetic guns and powers aimed at them. "Can you tell your people to stand down, please?"
"If you're not Eli or Roman, I'm not sure we can trust you." Kady's mom said matter-of-factly as she stepped beside Rick.
"Fair enough." Herbert shrugged as he ignored the washed out copy of his dad. "What's even happening here?"
"What isn't happening?" She chuckled darkly. "Government has mostly abandoned us in favor of amassing near D.C. and that surrounding zone. Sometimes they'll send a little aid in an attempt to recruit anyone who's gotten a good power. Monsters are everywhere out here along the coast. Last we heard they spread pretty far to the east. Whenever we can get someone close enough to connect to the Internet, we'll hear about new monstrous species popping up worldwide. So you'll understand if we're a bit cautious about strangers."
"But Mom, they're not strangers!" Kady insisted as she stepped closer to them. Herbert didn't like the way she looked at him. "They're practically Eli and Roman!"
"Excuse me?" Rick said in a frigid tone as he turned to glare at her. Electricity crackled up and down his body with far more intensity than it had before.
"Well, they're the next best thing! Your son was really strong, Mr. Newton."
Before anyone could answer, arctic winds flurried on snow-laden gales as a woman flew alongside a silver armored figure whose flight lacked the grace of her companion. Herbert's eyes widened as he looked at an exact copy of his mother. Silver armor vanished like a second skin from the shockingly young girl beside her who had bright blonde hair and green eyes. She looked a bit like Maeve, except for the eyes.
"It's not him." Rick said softly as he pulled both ladies into a hug.
"Who is he then?" asked the girl with a hard stare, as if she were trying to peel the truth out of him.
"His name is Herbert, and he's from... he's from another dimension, okay?" Rick patted the girl's shoulder before he frowned at the Adelaide lookalike of this fucked up world. "Where's Lyra? Is she back at the house?"
"Yeah. She didn't want Lana to use her gravity powers on her. I tried to give her a flight power again from one of the harpies I killed on patrol, but she still refuses to take a flight power.” Adelaide sighed with a grimace. "Plus… Ava is over."
"Wait, Mo—" Herbert stopped at the wince of Eli's family once he spoke and the mistake he almost made. Adelaide just looked and sounded so much like his mom, it was insane. "Sorry. You seem like you have most of the powers that my mom from my dimension does, so do you not have a demiplane house?"
"... A what?" Adelaide asked with a wide-eyed blink as tears pricked at her eyes after his fuck up of basically calling her mom. Rick squeezed her closer in his embrace while Lana stepped forward as she grew taller on a platform of silver that appeared so quickly and easily it must have been slotted into a Will stat.
"You sound like him. Look like him. Almost talk like him, but you're really not him, are you?" Lana tilted her head as her eyes flitted up and down his face. "Are you strong like him?"
"Lana." Both of her parents said with the same exasperation he'd heard from his own parents multiple times while he'd grown up. Herbert smiled as Body of Water and Mind of Icewraith flexed with a thrill as he studied the adamant green of her gaze.
"By the fucking Savior, there's two of them now." Les dropped down beside them as he absorbed his armor back into himself with his Apparatus Vault. "I understand back home, but how did you guys raise a battle maniac here?
"That depends," Herbert said as he finally answered her. "Can you heal?"
"I don’t get hurt, but my boyfriend is a healer. Can you heal?" Lana said as silver flowed across her skin as everyone inhaled sharply.
“Sort of, but I don’t get hurt either.” Herbert’s smile widened as he enhanced the water in his body while conjuring a thick pair of ice gauntlets with studded knuckles using Arctic Armory. Mind of Icewraith sharpened his mind at the contact of ice. He lifted his hands on either side of his head as he squatted in preparation to—
“Nope! We’re not doing this.” Adelaide said as she shouldered her way in between them. “Why don’t you go tell Lyra what’s going on?”
“Fine.” Lana rolled her eyes before gravity twisted beneath her releasing her from the planet’s grasp. Herbert idly wondered if their planet was also called Earth?
“Are you two staying or leaving?” Kady’s mom asked as she crossed her arms. Herbert glanced at Les with a raised eyebrow. They shrugged in sync. “If they stay will you two vouch for them or not?”
“Of course we will. You may not be our son, but you’re still family.” Adelaide smiled with a warmth that reminded him of his own mom. He found himself smiling back while he made a note to himself to spend more time with his parents when he got back. Practice for the Tri-Delve Cup had chewed up so much of his time when he wasn’t hanging out with Hazel.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“I don’t know… I don’t want to impose.” Les stepped forward as he frowned. “Our top priority is to find our way back home, right?”
“Right.” Herbert nodded even though he glanced around at the ragtag group of people armed with primitive weapons and the street that was in mild disarray. Raw excitement tingled up his spine at the omnipresent edge of danger. Back home, the world had been thrown in turmoil by new species of spawn being created by warring states and communities as people fought to control their territories. Not to mention how the System created spawn of its own with the advent of dungeons.
"You can stay with us or we'll find an empty house for you." Rick nodded with a small smile at them.
["What do you think?"] Herbert pinged with a pulse of Thermal Ionomancy.
["Let's see if we can get a place of our own while we figure things out."]
"We'll take an empty house, if that's okay?" Herbert said, ignoring the slight wince on both Adelaide and Rick's faces, while Kady's mom nodded.
"Sure. You have some options here near HQ, or there's some abandoned housing closer to the combat zone. I don't recommend this, but you both seem capable, so if you wanted to we could find an empty plot of land somewhere and I could build you a house pretty easily."
["Build a house of our own?"] Herbert sent to Les, who nodded a second later.
"We'll choose the last one. I'll need a lot of space for a workshop depending on the limitations of your power build." Les commented with a slightly maniacal grin at the thought of having a space for all of his crafting needs.
"I'm fine with whatever, but I'd like a nice kitchen space if possible."
"That's easy enough. You'll have to provide for your own utilities or contribute to Farbrook if you want anything like electricity or water." Kady's mom said as four walls started to rise around them on the sidewalk. "Are you coming with Addy, Rick?"
They looked at each other for a moment before they slumped into each other.
"No. We'll give you some space. Come find us if you want to talk or do anything tomorrow. Victoria should be able to lead you to our house or you'll find us here." Adelaide said before she and Rick nodded their farewells, then lifted into the air before flying away.
"I'll keep working then." Kady sighed as she stepped out of the walls with a studying look over her shoulder at Herbert before the walls closed in around them. A flat roof grew over the top, cutting out the view of the night sky above. Something shuddered and warped around them as Herbert felt his blood pool down into his feet.
"What do you think of this land?" Victoria said as the walls crumbled into dust. A gentle sloping plain extended for at least multiple acres with overgrown grass that swayed in the wind. Rusted metal barrels were stacked next to partially destroyed junker cars. He shot out a breeze with Winter's Tempest as he trailed his awareness along with it until it faded on the stretch of a ruined highway and wasted gravel roads around them.
Herbert looked at the uneven plot with a frown. This was the best they could do?
"Isn't it kind of... trash?" Herbert said gently in the hope of not offending her.
"Absolutely." Victoria shrugged. "But free is free and this is hardly a challenge. If you want it, I'll get started."
"We'll take it." Les scrunched his brow at Herbert as if he'd been a dick, but Herbert thought it was a fair question.
"Great." Victoria nodded as all the dirt bubbled in a massive withering as all the weeds shriveled and died. Dips and holes vanished as mounds were squashed until it was perfectly uniform. Pressure firmed the plot of land as it solidified under her administration. "What kind of house do you want? Smaller is better since it'll be more durable, but basements will be easy."
"How about a general living room and dining room combo with a bathroom and sort of garage above ground? Then two bedrooms, the kitchen, and a wide open space in the basement?" Les said as the junker cars stripped themselves down to base parts and materials before they streamed toward him before vanishing as he shoved them into Apparatus Vault.
"I can make that work. It'll probably be a bit ugly, though."
One second the plot was empty, and then a squat brick house existed. Windows carved their way through the wall as sheets of glass slotted themselves in the gaps. A doorway popped into the front of the house while a garage hewed itself out of another block of house that appeared. Roofing tiles bristled on top of the sloped roof as they scratched into reality. Victoria started walking as a sidewalk appeared beneath her.
The front door swung open on its own accord, revealing the barren space. Walls sprang up inside of it while plush carpet matted the interior while plaster coated the walls of the living room. Couches and recliners smudged their way into the living room along with some empty bookshelves and an entertainment stand.
An arched doorway bisected part of the room as a table with six chairs appeared in the dining room.
Victoria walked further into the dining room as bathroom tile encroached on the corner before walls cut it off with a door of its own that opened. A sink with a mirror grew from the floor and wall while sparkling porcelain popped out of the ground like a mushroom toilet. An empty bathtub-shower combo finished the bathroom off while Victoria stared off into space for a second before a linen closet appeared.
"Downstairs time." Space bent around them as they appeared in the massive basement already sectioned off into a second living room and dining room. A kitchen with gleaming countertops of burnished marble tile meshed into the cavity where an oven would go. Another sink appeared at the same time cabinets and cupboards burst out of the wall.
"Do you want gas or electric for the stove?" Victoria glanced at them while they ogled at the massively growing house.
Romulus nudged Herbert with his elbow.
"Electric, please." It appeared in its nook before he finished speaking.
"Walk-in pantry?" Victoria gestured toward the wall which hollowed itself out while wooden shelves grew out of the floor and walls once Herbert nodded. "Excellent. Bathroom and the laundry room over here with the bedrooms or next to the workshop?"
"Workshop." Herbert and Les said unanimously. They trailed behind her like ducklings while two identical bedrooms appeared close to the kitchen along with a bathroom in-between their rooms. Space bent around them as she disappeared with Les as they started working on his apparently industrial sized workshop.
Herbert wandered as he rubbed his hand over the countertops in the kitchen before he walked into his bedroom to test the perfect plushness of the bed. A desk and office chair in the corner opposite the dresser and closet on the other side of the room. By the time he walked back out, they appeared in the downstairs living room with the workshop already completed.
"Well, that's that." Victoria brushed her hands together with a wide smile. "Time for the welcome spiel. You have plumbing, insulation, and electrical done, but you'll have to go into town for any technology. I can't make anything like a TV, but appliances are fair game. I set you up for both gas and electric heating so you can use whichever. You don't have to pay rent or anything like that. Just let us know if you're going to stay or leave. If you want to be hooked up to the electricity or get anything like that, you'll need to come by tomorrow to have Jeff and Angie set you up. We stopped using money and stuff like that and go by a merit system. If you contribute, you'll get the basic necessities. Otherwise, you need to do more to get points which will be tallied up and can be used like money. Or you could do direct trades."
"Thank you." They chorused.
"Oh yeah, you'll need a fence, then I'll get out of your hair." She vanished.
"What do you think? Real spatial power, or is it linked?" Herbert asked while he started to move upstairs before he noticed there wasn't a staircase. A moment later, part of the ceiling receded as stairs ascended the wall.
"Obviously linked." Les rolled his eyes while led the way into his workshop. "Here, check it out."
Herbert chuckled at his friend's over-the-top enthusiasm before he stopped at the sight of the massive space filled with workbenches, shelves, girders, and lifts for every kind of equipment he could ever want to build. Various power suits were already suspended on frames from a simple exosuit to the mechanized Terror rigged with enough weaponry and enchantments that APD had required Romulus to include a lock enchantment that'd prevent most features from being used unless there was a legitimate threat.
Les held his hand out on one of the lifts as he summoned the shitty car he'd gotten then modified until he affectionately called it Turbo. It was a glutton for fuel, but despite its horrific mottled paint job it had enough enchantments to survive a round or two from a tank. Les had gotten offers of $20k and up from enchantment and car enthusiasts for it. Apparently, it had a sophisticated enough system to drive itself, make orders at fast food restaurants, and schedule appointments if synced to a mobile device.
Another car with a much sleeker paint job and multiple navigational and traversal enchantments appeared on the other lift. It could drive in any conditions on any terrain while combining old and new cutting edge technology perfectly with a dedicated suite of enchantments.
On and on he went.
Pistols, revolvers, rifles, machine guns. All of them enchanted for perfect balancing, accuracy, and to prevent jamming, which was a bit overkill considering Romulus's Techno Will. Not to mention his ammunition that was also enchanted to cause potent amounts of damage on impact.
Next were an array of knives and swords that he summoned out of his Enchanter's Armament. Most were enchanted for precision, sharpness, and self-repair so that any microscopic damage to the razor-sharp blade would be fixed in short order. The worst were soniblades that converted any kinetic energy into intense focused vibrations. A simple nick would rupture organs from the shockwave.
Finally was his current project: the Mechabow.
It was a fucking dumb name, but Romulus had spent months creating the high powered mechanized bow with a draw weight that a hydraulic lift would struggle with. That was before the dynamic enchantment that increased the draw weight and bow size proportional to who wielded it... to start. It also had force amplifiers and energy conversion just on the bow to further maximize the power along with an aim assist. Next, the string was enchanted to slap a quick enchantment on any arrow nocked onto it to make them frictionless and durable enough to survive the impact until they lodged into the target.
Afterward the arrow would shatter to lacerate whoever got hit. Any arrow or shrapnel lodged in an enemy will help guide the wielder to shoot them again or to track them down.
Still, the Mechabow had more.
If no arrow was nocked, it'd create a kinetic construct that could be shaped to do as much damage as a regular arrow or unleashed in a massive, devastating pulse. Or it had the option to telekinetically pull any objects (including debris, people, or spawn) before launching them.
Herbert almost though Romulus was done until he pulled out a quiver full of fucking javelins fletched like arrows. He had no idea what was on those.
"I knew you were preparing for the Tri-Delve Cup, but Savior-dammit, that's... a lot."
"We have to win." Les sighed before he slumped. "Or at least we had to. Guess it doesn't really matter if we don't make it back home. But yeah, I'm prepared for regular spawn, field and regular bosses, and other competitors."
"Nora is going to be pissed when we're gone." Herbert chuckled while he wandered over to one of the soniblade short swords. Its smooth grip snuggled in the palm of his hand while it reshaped itself to fit like it had been made for him. He flicked it out in a casual cut and smiled as the slash made the blade purr. "Do you think this would work with ice?"
"Hm." Les hummed while he set the four quivers stuffed full of javelins aside, then walked over. He took the short sword out of Herbert's hand to study it. "It would probably be fine, but I could adapt its enchantments better so it wouldn't shatter any ice you build up."
"What level is Enchanter's Armament?"
"Evo-2, level nine." Les ran his finger across the flat of the blade, leaving behind a smear of crackling energy as he removed the sonic part of the enchantment.
"Oh shit. Thermal Ionomancer is the same level." Herbert grinned while he created a mote of neutral plasma that sparked on his fingertip.
"That would work. It'd convert both straight up kinetic energy and potential to thermal or vice versa. How's that?" Les asked while he held the blade out for Herbert to anoint it with plasma. Instead of answering, he touched the flat of the blade and pushed with Thermal Ionomancer into the waiting gap of the enchantment framework until it reached capacity.
Herbert weighed it in his hands with a beaming smile as he activated Thermal Ionomancer to make it glow with cyan power so cold it left a writhing mist in its wake. Then he inverted the thermal plasma on his next swing and smiled as the enchantment kept it in his hand, even as the blade howled through the air.
"Nice."
"Thanks. Now, let's set up a generator, some solar panels, a converter for your plasma, and some ways to get water. I'm fine helping out if they need it, but I'd rather be self-sufficient."
"Alright." Herbert sighed as he coated the blade with hoarfrost and snow using Winter's Tempest until it was cold enough he could plop it into Arctic Armory. Normally, he used the power to create weapons and armor out of ice, but he could store them, too. It was just difficult since a lot of metal didn't like the kind of temperature he needed his equipment to operate at. "Isn't some of that a bit much, though? We could do a lot of that with enchantments."
"Sure, we could, but it's better to be redundant. I'd rather have fallbacks for each point of failure." Les explained while parts flooded out of his Apparatus Vault as they assembled themselves into a makeshift generator. Herbert hoped Victoria's power let her set the wiring up to snuff or Les would probably burn the house down. "Start filling these batteries with a plasma charge. Then we'll make a tank that you can fill up with snow or ice before melting it. I'll have to think about some solutions for creating water... I could dream it up, but dream water and food aren't very healthy long term. Hmm."
Herbert tuned his friend out while he grabbed blocky battery after blocky battery before he charged them with Thermal Plasma. Small enchantments would keep them at capacity until they were in use. When he finally finished, Les pulled out a general converter that'd run on the use of any powers in its vicinity.
He held back his sigh while he planned to scout for any dungeons in the morning. There were probably a couple out there full of fodder for Herbert to break under his might. Maybe he'd invite Adelaide and Rick along to get a feel for them. Back home, his parents were forces of nature and he was curious whether that was true here.
Maybe he'd invite Lana and that other sibling they mentioned.
You could tell a lot about a family by how they bonded over a blood bath.