CHAPTER TWO: FORGED

It took me a moment to realize that the screaming headache between my ears was, in fact, Sonoro using his powers to blast falling rocks away from me and not my body being crushed to death.

I patted myself down and found that, apart from being pretty badly bruised, I was actually fine. I hadn’t fallen that far after all. I looked up at the gaping hole that had opened up to see four sets of concerned eyes staring down at me.

“I’ll come get you, Z, but I dunno how we’ll get all the way back up,” Sonoro warned, looking annoyed at the situation. He’d be able to blast the ground with his power to cushion his fall -- and thinking about it he might have cushioned mine too -- but he was right, I didn’t think he’d be able to blast us both upwards again.

I waved, and brushed dirt from my clothes. “I’m fine,” I said truthfully. “Finish your battle, OK? I’ll figure something out, there’s a couple of paths.”

“We’ll finish up this thing with the guy,” Lady Luck said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. “It won’t take more than a minute, and then we’ll find you. Stay safe.”

“It will too take more than a minute!” I heard the Lich yell over.

“Sorry, yeah, where were we?” Primer said, and the four of them jogged back over to the battlefield.

I sighed heavily -- this had been a really weird day -- and concentrated on looking around the little pocket of the lower catacombs I’d found myself in. My spine tingling had increased to the point that I felt it like a buzz in my entire body, especially my very core, and my heartbeat pounded hard in my ears. I didn’t know what to do … how to bring it to the surface, so instead I just figured I’d let it be. Like letting an egg hatch.

I traced my hand against the rock down here, much more dry than it was up there, and the air felt dusty instead of damp. I coughed into the crook of my elbow, and looked over in the direction of a strange sound.

In the low light streaming from above, illuminating swirling rock dust, I noticed just a couple of minions that had survived the fall through Fissure’s trap. I bet he was one of the mayor’s least favorite supers by far, by the way, with all the destruction and damage he’d caused -- especially before he’d been able to team up with Elle.

The two medium-sized bone minions creaked as they stretched up to their full height, and then wandered towards me, probably fulfilling their last command from the Lich -- to wound, at the very least. Maybe worse.

I looked around desperately for something I could use as an improvised weapon, but saw nothing.

And then … I felt it.

Rippling from the center of my being, the most incredible feeling of urgency, correctness, pure energy that I had ever felt. I had experienced nothing like it. Panicking briefly, I looked around to see if there was any way I could call Primer down here without damaging him. Would he need to get down here fast to absorb anything to make sure no one around got hurt? To make sure I didn’t get hurt?

I couldn’t hold it in any longer. My power was longing for me to let it out. It was like holding my breath, right at the end when your lungs are screaming and burning, and I had to suck in a breath. I had to let it out.

When I did, a burst of energy curled through me, and my eyes felt white hot.

A screen appeared in front of me. The interface. Every super had one, and from what they described, it looked basically the same. Gray and transparent with white floating text. No one knew where they came from, if they had been programmed, and if so, by someone on Earth or somewhere else? Or was the explanation something we weren’t even currently equipped to comprehend?

All I knew was that around thirty years ago, at the same time, out of nowhere, a huge number of people got superpowers at once. They all got access to their own personalized interface that nobody else could see, and from there they could control their powers.

I blinked a couple of times to stave off the light glowing in my vision so I could read the text -- eager to see what it was I was able to do before the half-broken bone minions managed to reach me.

Congratulations, Zander Reid!

You have gained a power! Welcome to the system.

Your class has been determined. Your strengths, skills, and limitations have been set.

Please use your power responsibly.

Accept/Deny

“Is that it?” I muttered, swiping through the air at it madly before I remembered that I’d never seen anyone do that before. When a super used their interface it usually just involved a lot of rapid eye movement. I swallowed, and tried again. This time just looking at the word ‘Accept’ until it dissolved.

Then another screen appeared in its place. I was running out of time -- they would reach me soon.

To begin to use your power, touch a large solid inorganic object with your palm.

I stared at that for a second longer than I needed to, fascinated by what was happening to me right now. It was really just … talking me through it? What the hell was this, and why was it happening? For the first time in a long time I found myself seriously questioning the motivation and the reason behind the cataclysm. But either I would learn the answer, or I wouldn’t.

I turned and jogged to reach the large flat rock wall, and pressed my palm hard against it, having absolutely no idea what would happen.

A large square appeared, colorless and translucent in such a way that I was fairly sure I’d be the only one able to see it. I tossed a glance over my shoulder at the bones and muttered ‘Come on’ to the interface. What next?

What the hell was my power?

The interface was transferred to the rock wall, and this time it was saying something different. I shifted from foot to foot. I really didn’t feel like getting impaled by that sharpened pelvis bone one of them was using as an arm.

What if that shit ended up in my obituary?

Zander Reid

Alias: Not set

Class: Summoner

Medium: Forge

Level: 1

OK

I clicked ‘OK’ and watched as the screen faded and then another came up in its place.

This one had a list of words like ‘human’, ‘alien’, ‘shifter’, ‘beast’... This was crazy. I could summon any one of those? I skimmed through them, heart pounding. I glanced over my shoulder and noticed the bone minions unfreeze from their place and continue to lurch.

So when I was using this rock face menu, time stopped? I allowed myself a deep breath of relief and turned back to it. I was able to take my time to get used to my powers, at least for a little while. There might have been a limit on the time freeze.

Beside the words on the screen were numbers. Points. They ranged from 10 to 10,000, and it looked like whatever these things were going to be, this was their cost. I clicked on one of the highest points on the board: Draconic. 10,000 points.

It came up with a creation screen. Human shape silhouettes twirling in slow 360. I could change between male and female, and the different silhouettes had different stats that I could show and hide and compare. I found myself getting pretty excited. I decided on a big, hulking Draconic dude and checked his stats one more time.

Name: An’dronix

Alias: Sky Eater

STR: ?

DEX: ?

INT: ?

WIS: ?

CON: ?

CHA: ?

Loyalty: 0

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The initial stats appeared in a dropdown and I frowned; it wasn’t exactly helpful. Seeing no reason not to, and figuring that this brutish Draconic guy was gonna be pretty helpful in this combat, I clicked ‘Accept’, but it was grayed out and didn’t listen to me. I clicked it again, and then frowned. I must not have had enough points … which seemed obvious. I searched around the interface until I saw a little box in the top corner.

Points: 100

One hundred.

I blew air into my cheeks and then out of my mouth. That was … not much. I exited the Draconic section entirely because that was way off, and scrolled back up. And up. And all the way back up to the lowest point score.

Human. 100 points.

Again a screen with rotating 360 human figures came up. I looked at the males and noted their stats, this time actually able to see them instead of question marks -- I guess the dragon people were just far too strong for me to even see what they were capable of. I was disappointed, but also excited. There was a hell of a way for me to go -- this power was going to be fun as fuck to grow in.

I looked over my shoulder just to check, and sure enough, the bone minions instantly unfroze and rattled another step towards me, so I turned away again. Great -- they would be loud enough that even if they did start moving I’d be able to hear them. I had a little more time to choose what to do.

I switched to the women to see if any of their stats leapt out at me, and one of the rotating figures caught my eye.

She was short, but didn’t look young if her silhouette was anything to go by. She had a prominent chest, small waist, and a great butt. A human woman, yes, but her stats really weren’t bad. The thing that really caught my eye was the Loyalty stat. It was already at 8, whereas the others usually ranged from 1-3, from what I’d seen. I was starting to feel relieved that I hadn’t picked that dragon guy, I didn’t know how 0 loyalty would have played out.

But this girl? I stared at her stats for a moment longer.

Name: Mia

Alias: Sweetheart

STR: 10

DEX: 13

INT: 9

WIS: 7

CON: 10

CHA: 13

Loyalty: 8

The girl right next to her on the screen, for example -- taller, more slender and boyish looking in her figure -- had much lower stats in all but Int and Wis, which were both 14. Her loyalty was 2. I tapped on the word Loyalty to see if it would define it, and a little string of new words popped up.

Loyalty shows how likely your summoned pet is to obey you.

It also directly influences how much you can advance your pet’s skills and attributes with points.

How much I could advance them? Upgrade them, I assumed. That was awesome -- it looked like I wasn’t only buying them with points, I could buy them and make them stronger and stronger. That meant that I wasn’t just going to be inevitably waiting around until I could get a Draconic … pet? That sounded terrible when they were clearly people.

I just wished that I could easily see how much the loyalty score affected how upgradable they were; that would influence my purchasing decision, after all.

Just as soon as I thought it, the Loyalty section changed.

Loyalty: 8 (+3 attributes)

So it looked like I could make changes to my tables -- it was my interface and mine alone, after all. I assumed that meant that I could potentially add up to 3 points to all of this girl’s attributes. I looked at the second girl, with 2 loyalty, and saw I could only add 1 to all of her attributes, so it looked like loyalty was definitely important.

I wondered if the Lich had loyalty stats for his bone minions or if they were just automatically 100% loyal to him.

But I’d have the advantage of being able to get actual smart, powerful people to help me out, it looked like. I wouldn’t have to actually control them, if their loyalty determined how much they followed my orders.

I made my decision, and I tried to pretend that it wasn’t because I was pretty captivated by her petite, curvaceous form, and the automatic high loyalty. And the implications that came with having a girl with the alias Sweetheart appear beside me so willing to do what I said. No -- it was also that her starting stats were already pretty close to the highest I’d seen in my price range.

I clicked Accept, hoping she would come with a weapon or something. Wasn’t the intention of the entire power that she would fight on my behalf? I’d have to hope, otherwise it was just two of us that would be screwed instead of only me.

The silhouette blinked white a couple of times, as if the system itself was excited I’d picked it, and then it grew, stopped rotating when it faced me, and began to slowly walk out of the rock face.

When the tips of her toes broke past the stone, they became soft pink flesh instead. Then came the rest of the foot, then a shapely calf, a knee. Her foot padded silently on the floor of the cavern, her toes curling in response to stepping on a bunch of broken rock, and then the rest of her followed.

She was completely naked.

The peaks of her breasts drifted through the stone wall, her toned stomach, wide hips and …wow, her neatly trimmed--

“Wh-- where am I?”

I pulled in a breath in surprise and looked up at her eyes, heavy with sleepiness for a moment, and then wide with confusion. Fear flashed in her bright blue eyes and she wildly looked left and right, backing up to press against the rock, one arm shielding her nipples. Her short dark hair, layered to be longer in front, whipped around as she jerked her head to see past me.

I hadn’t expected this. This panic. But it made sense if I was a Summoner instead of a Creator. I’d pulled her from somewhere else. Some kind of life.

“Hey, it’s OK,” I assured her, and then glanced over my shoulder. I swallowed, the effort to not look at her completely perfect naked body almost overwhelming me. “It’s OK. I’m Zander. I, uh, I brought you here from wherever you were. To … Earth? California. Um … I’m sorry, I’m not sure where you’re from.”

She finally stopped glancing around and locked her eyes on mine. Then her wide, pretty eyes began to sparkle with unshed tears and she took two long steps toward me and threw her arms around my neck, lifting her feet off the ground for a second. I gasped, instinctively grabbing her waist to steady her until she hopped back onto the floor. “Um…” I started.

“I’m back on Earth? For real? For how long?” She wasn’t even trying to conceal her body anymore, she was so excited, but I still forced myself to look straight into her eyes.

“Oh, I don’t know.” I looked over my shoulder. “Listen, you mind if we talk a little later? I have a lot I want to talk to you about.” Like what? I wondered. Like what it was going to be like now that I’d summoned her -- would she want to go back to where she came from eventually? Would she have to go back? Would she … live with me forever? I had no clue how this particular power was going to work.

She was looking in the same direction at the unfrozen bone minions approaching us, about fifteen feet away, slowed by having to scramble over the boulders and fallen broken rock. She nodded.

“Well, I’m Mia,” she said, and held out her hand. I smiled and shook it, lingering at the warm feeling of her small hands. Fuck … she was really gorgeous. She had huge eyes, thick dark eyelashes even without the aid of any makeup, and pink soft-looking lips. She had a really faint, almost unnoticeable, dusting of freckles on the tops of her cheeks and on her nose, and her short haircut made her look even cuter.

“Zander,” I said, noticing that my voice was low and soft, as if instinctively I didn’t want to scare her off.

“If you’re a Summoner,” she said, “mind summoning me my stuff?”

Hmm -- I wasn’t ready to admit that I had no idea how it worked, or if I could, but I could use a few more seconds to think, and that came with using the ‘forge’. But when I returned to the rock wall, the interface had disappeared and a vaguely human shaped chunk had been cut out of it.

I knew about this -- Summoners generally had to replace mass with mass if they were bringing something to Earth. That meant that Mia was not pulled from this planet. But the way she’d lit up it seemed like she was maybe from Earth originally.

I hopped a step to the right to get to the untouched intact rock wall and pressed my palm against it, concentrating for a second on creating another interface, or forge, as the system had called it. It rattled off my stats again and I clicked OK, glancing behind myself to check the time freezing thing wasn’t just a fluke. Sure enough, Mia and the minions unfroze as soon as I looked away from the screen.

I looked back, seeing that same interface, but now there was a tab I could switch to that said ‘Pets’. The term really bothered me on almost a fundamental level, because they were real people, it seemed like. Not like bone minions or anything else, but real people I was pulling from some other dimension or reality. I wondered what I would call it instead if I could, and settled on ‘army’ as the least offensive thing I could think of quickly. Sure enough, the word changed instantly.

There was only one row in ‘Army’, which made it clear that what I had was not an army at all. It just said ‘Mia’ and had a profile shot of her face beside it. It also told me that she was a Human, and had a little blank space beside it that I wondered about -- would it be filled with something else if she got stronger or got a specialization, or was it reserved for stronger pets? I mean, people.

I clicked on her and saw the table I’d seen before, but now it wasn’t view only.

It was customizable. Amazingly, deliciously customizable. Almost everything about her was upgradable, and I wanted to just spend hours poring over it, maybe making notes and scribbling down ideas, but she had asked if I could try to find her some stuff. She needed a weapon, and -- as much as I would have enjoyed leaving this part out for a while longer -- some clothes.

There, under Equipment.

I could tap on different parts of her body and equip her with basic clothing or armor, whatever I could afford. I glanced up at the Points section again, and saw it was lightly flashing, so I clicked on that.

You have summoned your first creature!

Reward: 30 points

It navigated me back to the equipment tab where I’d been before, and I looked through the best armor I could afford. It wasn’t great, just slightly padded chest pieces and leggings. The most basic clothing was listed as 0 points, but gave no bonuses to defense. I selected that for now, and had more fun than I’d admit just dressing her avatar in a short black skirt -- for maximum maneuverability of course -- and a tight black tank top. I didn’t know much in the way of fashion; I could ask her how she wanted to be dressed later. This was easier than having to go buy her clothes in a store, but the selection was really basic at the 0 points tier.

Once satisfied, I glanced over my shoulder. Mia, now dressed in real life, looked down at her body with slight surprise, and was just about to turn her lips upward into a smile when I turned back to the screen.

Weapon was more important. She has really high Dexterity, it looked like, which probably meant that if she had a fighting style at all, it was based around being quick. I looked through all the weapon types, feeling totally overwhelmed by the information.

I just want a dagger, or something, that I can afford, I thought, and the interface quickly faded into something more organized, a selection of daggers that I could sort into their length size or via their points cost. A small thought later and I had willed away every weapon that cost more than 30 points, because they were just going to confuse me. What I had left was a selection of five daggers sorted from smallest to largest. I looked at the largest, wondering how it was still classified as a dagger -- it was slightly serrated and looked thick, like Mia’s small hand wouldn’t even be able to close around it. I swallowed at the image of her delicate fingers closing tight around the hilt…

I decided to just go ahead and spend all 30 points on the largest dagger available. Sure, I didn’t know yet how to gain these points, but I also had no upcoming expenses. Mia could fight for me right now and that was all I needed. It would be dumb to skimp right now and then die. I would live to improve my power, add to my army, gain the respect of my peers.

And maybe one day soon I’d be powerful enough to actually make waves in this boring ass seaside city.