Chapter 52
Camaraderie
(Darcy Renolds)
Darcy practically vibrated with excitement as the muscle car purred its way down the road. Honestly, before today, Darcy had no clue about basketball, why so many people watched it, or even how it could be entertaining.
But after tonight, of watching Misha, no, not just Misha but the whole team physically push and impose themselves on a taller and stronger team was impressive.
The most impressive person of course was Misha, not just because she was a little biased, but the way she seemed to facilitate the entire game. The way she seemed to singlehandedly break the will of each opponent.
All it took was for her to be locked up against the enemy once, during a crossover, a screen, or any of the other terms Darcy had learned in preparation for tonight. Then after that, the fight in their opponent’s eyes died, as a sort of hollow look forced its way to the surface.
By halftime the team was up by twenty, but Coach Green would not let her girls lighten up their approach. Not until the fourth quarter. By then both teams had agreed to have a continually running clock, but that concession only covered the fact of how badly the home team lost their opener by.
“That was amazing, you two were flying out there.” Darcy said excitedly, bouncing around in her seat. She had the entire backseat to herself, opting to let the taller J-Sweep to stretch out her legs in the passenger seat.
“It was pretty fun.” J-Sweep said, with a thick smile filling her lips.
Misha for her part just slightly smiled and nodded, as her eyes faced forward, focusing on the road.
“You don’t seem to happy with the win?” Darcy asked to Misha.
“Oh, her. That’s her excited face.” J-Sweep said, throwing a thumb in Misha’s direction.
“That is?”
“Yeah, girl is a stone-cold killer.” J-Sweep said.
Errt.
At that moment the car skidded across lanes of traffic, taking away the mental image that Darcy had of her free and effortless ride. Suddenly her mind told her that she was in fact moving in a giant metal device that was whipping through the open fields at insane speeds.
Speeds that were able to be exceeded due to the glaring lack of drivers on the roads, even now a few weeks later after the solar flare that seemed to reset the whole world.
“Whoa there, you okay?” J-Sweep asked, after Misha quickly regained control of the vehicle and once again the smooth ride that Darcy had grown accustomed to was suddenly back on track.
“Yeah, sorry about that, thought I saw a stray dog on the road.” Misha responded.
With that J-Sweep paused and smelled the air, literally lifted her head out the window and gave a slight sniff, before returning.
“We should be good now.” J-Sweep replied.
The whole chain of events from the start until now was so incongruous that Darcy almost wondered what exactly caused this to happen. First there was the sudden swerving by Misha, then the seemingly animalistic sniffing of J-Sweep.
Yet, as Darcy’s mind raced, a set of piercing green eyes locked onto hers from the rearview mirror. Seeing those eyes, Darcy’s breath held as she felt her chest tighten.
“Let’s listen to some music.” Misha said.
“Oh, good idea. I’ve got the perfect road playlist.” J-Sweep said, pulling out her iPad and synching it to the car’s stereo. “There we go.”
And just as Darcy began to have her thoughts once more, the thoughts about asking Misha why she suddenly swerved, she found that her words and thoughts were drowned out as the musical genius of Hasty came blasting over the speakers.
“Oh yeah, you might have gotten my heart.” J-Sweep screeched loudly, her voice sounding terrible, only being able to barely be picked up as music thanks to the echoing chorus of the speakers.
Still J-Sweep’s smile was infectious, as soon Darcy found herself singing along from the back seat.
Only then did she see Misha relax and let out a genuine smile as she saw J-Sweep and Darcy singing along in her car.
Taking a breath, Darcy realized that sometimes the journey was just as much fun as the destination. With that, Darcy smiled brightly and sang along to every Hasty song that came on, knowing that there was no way she could sing any worse than J-Sweep.
***
(Misha Tulley)
By the time the trio had made it to their hotel room in Pittsburgh, Misha finally felt normal. The reason why it took her so long to finally feel normal was the fact that today was her first day reaping not one but three Tier 2 Warriors, and a Tier 1 Warrior. This increase netted her a total of 2.8 Attribute points to award and spread out. With this Misha increased her Strength and Stamina by 0.2 each, with the rest going to Agility and Dexterity.
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This much growth in such a limited amount of time caused slight problems. First, it almost felt like Misha’s skin was on fire as her body began to expand and contrast to meet the changes. This in itself would have been fine as her mind was more than capable of separating the pains of the body from those of the mind.
However, Misha also discovered yet another hidden secret of the Reaper System. Namely she found out what happens when a Reaper who has a stolen Ability ends up being able to harvest that same ability from someone else.
Basically, the Reaper has an option, discard the first harvested Ability for half the value. Or there was a second option, where she could double the intensity of the stolen Ability.
Naturally, Misha chose the latter, which caused problems.
Mainly the issue came with the neural endings in her mind, as the Ability she stole originally, Danger Sense, was one that helped detect slight biometric changes in the environment around her. These biometric changes could alert a wielder of the Ability Danger Sense to the perceived threats that might be hidden around them in everyday life. This is similar to the ability to know when someone is glaring angrily at your back, but far more detailed as not just being able to identify who was angry, but who had ulterior motives that would adversely affect the owner.
The impact of such an Ability was not lost on Misha, which was why rather than discarding the first Danger Sense, replacing it and getting one additional point that could be used at purchasing Reaper related Abilities, she chose instead to double down, thereby improving the quality of her Danger Sense, making her have Heightened Danger Sense.
The only problem was that the application of Heightened Danger Sense meant that her mind, or rather the vessels that fed directly into her mind became inflamed as they were forcefully torn apart and ripped wide, to make way for newer nerve endings that fed to the eyes and other senses, heightening her awareness of her immediate surroundings, while also increasing her affinity with Electricity of her Psycher class, a combination that Misha was certain the Bakshee creators of her class were not aware of. That or maybe this was a fail safe to keep Psychers from infiltrating their ranks, as at one point Misha thought she was going to die.
It didn’t help that at that exact moment, J-Sweep said, “Yeah, girl is a stone-cold killer,” while gesturing to Misha.
That caused her mind to blink out for a moment as she tried to understand how J-Sweep knew. Secondly, why would she choose that of all moments to call her out on the act. Then only after a second of focusing her thoughts away from the burning pain in her mind and body, did she realize that it wasn’t in directed at her actually being a murder, but an idiom about her playing style.
With that she made a quick excuse, straightened up, and then relied on her Psycher abilities to drive the vehicle, which oddly enough allowed her to focus her mind away from the differing pains her body was feeling.
During this time, Misha also disengaged the brakes and accelerator, which turned out to be a good thing as her legs chose those moments to spasm tight, sticking out in an unbreakable hold over her muscles, before they released. Had the accelerator and brakes been engaged at that time, there was no telling what would have happened to the three of them.
It was stupid, and this was the last time Misha would drive after reaping from so many powerful warriors, at least that was what she told herself as she smiled and tried to mildly pay attention to the conversations going on around her, while her body was changing.
Only once they were midway through Ohio before her body started to lessen its spasms. Then by the time they reached the Pennsylvania border, her mind too also stopped burning. Only then could she relax enough to see the changes that had happened to her during her trip so far.
Tier -II
Alternate-1: Speed and Accuracy Build.
Ability Bonus: Double Growth Rate.
Improved Harvesting (2)
Harvested Slot: Danger Sense (3) -> Heightened Danger Sense (6)
Physical Characteristics:
Strength: 15.0 -> 15.2 / 16.9
Dexterity: 20.3 -> 21.7 / 25
Agility: 20.3 -> 21.7 / 25
Stamina: 15.0 -> 15.2/ 16.9
It wasn’t over, as Misha still had a long way to go to reach the end of Tier III, but she was a lot closer to reaching the next stage of evolution.
Then as they entered the bright lights of Pittsburgh, a smile grew on everyone’s face. A smile that for the first time all night, Misha did not have to fake. For all around her were awakened Bakshee of all different types, roaming the streets out in broad daylight. Being here, in a big city, Misha knew that her options for people that were available to be harvested from were infinitely higher than those available to her in Jackson West Virginia. Seeing everyone out and about, Misha couldn’t wait for her next harvesting, though she knew she would need a nap first before any future changes could occur, but still she was here and ready for what this city held for her.
Mentally, Misha thought to herself that if she played her cards right, she might be able to harvest from her first Ruler class individual.
“What do you want to do?” J-Sweep asked, as the trio pulled up to the hotel.
“I say we check in first, get our stuff to the room, then head out and at least eat.” Darcy stated.
“I like that plan.” J-Sweep added, turning to Misha.
Misha feeling the tingles on the back of her neck of her now Heightened Danger Sense, was aware that not one but two sets of eyes were focused on her. Feeling the change, Misha smiled then stated, “yeah sounds like a plan, though I will need to borrow a phone once we get to the room, to make a call back home.”
By the time the trio was in the room Darcy used the restroom to freshen up, J-Sweep took the moment to go out and get ice from the machine outside, all while Misha held Darcy’s phone and smiled maliciously to herself.
***
(Shaman Bruce Jacobs)
Bruce’s phone rang, showing an unknown number. Seeing the call, Bruce hit end and let the phone go to voice mail. Then thinking that the episode was done, Bruce relaxed going back to his work, only to be warned a half minute later that there was a new voice message.
Seeing the message, Bruce logged in, and saw his phone pulse slightly but returned to normal the next second.
Pausing he stared at the phone for a second, only to realize he likely saw something when he blinked. Focusing away from the oddity, Bruce went to click on the message and before he even had to enter his password the message came to life.
There on the other end of the phone was a voice he had not heard in ten years.
Hearing the voice from the other end, Bruce could only look on in horror at the phone that had gone black from unuse.
“Hello Bruce.”
The voice called out from the other end of the line. A male voice that sounded so much like him, that Bruce felt his breathing increasing as he realized who it was.
“He, hello?” Bruce replied.
“Your seat’s ready.”
Hearing the voice, Bruce’s hair went on end as they often sat next to each other at baseball games. That was their thing, they were inseparable as kids, always going to places together. For a time he was even closer to him, than he was his own brother.
“Seat, what seat?”
“Why, your seat in Hell Bruce. It’s here, waiting for you…”
SHATTER!
At that, Bruce dropped his phone, causing it to break into multiple pieces. Yet, despite its broken and shattered state, the phone still managed to complete the rest of the message.
“Don’t worry, can’t wait to see you soon.”
Darkness.
Then just like that, the message ended and the phone that was now in shattered pieces on the floor went completely dark.
Bruce stared at the broken floor in shock for a moment. Then looking around, he found himself wondering if it had all been real.
“No, no. It couldn’t be real. That couldn’t have been…” Bruce trailed off, not wanting to finish the name of his once friend. A friend he had sacrificed to become a shaman. A friend that he had to sacrifice due to inviting him to the pack, only for him to turn his back on the offer.
Hearing the voice, so many conflicting emotions came to Bruce, that he felt tears welling up. Overcome with grief and emotions, he sat down at his computer, only to have a picture reminder pop up.
On this day 25 years ago!
Then to his horror it Bruce and Jacob sitting on the bench watching a basketball game going on before them.
Bruce knew it well, that was the picture his father took of them from the stands. At the time it had been one of Bruce’s favorite pictures, him there on the bench with his best friend, while his brother ran up and down the court.
Then he saw the text that had been digitally imposed on the image. Just two words, but seeing them, Bruce couldn’t help but feel his heart pound as he felt like his heart was about to pound its way out of his chest.
There on the screen, were the two words that he remembered adding and sending to his brother as a joke. The words were in reference to what Abraham had said that day, when he promised to lead the team to a championship, only to lose the final game by two. The words were meant as a joke, but now they seemed to have a more ominous ring to them as he read them after hearing his former best friend’s call from beyond the grave.
There in bright colors pasted in such a way to see everyone, Bruce and Jacob, Abraham with the ball, the final shot clock winding down as Abraham had a chance to make the game winning shot. Then there at the top right corner were the words, Still Waiting.