After napping off our first session Sally and Megan drew me into another impromptu impassioned "treatment". They had been inflamed by my work on Dakota. I suppose that made it my duty, to see to their "cure". They in turn took care of my growing "problem". We collapsed into a sweaty heap afterward and had slept deeply. Hopefully, our riotous noise didn't keep anyone else up. Heh.

When we all got moving the next morning, I had a few ideas I wanted to run by them. A few thoughts on how to knock out one of my quests before we headed back to New Lordaeron. Specifically, the reclaiming of our first outpost. Between the new War Pylons' cloaking fields and cannons, we should be able to sneak a few buildings in right under Arasaka's nose. No muss, no fuss. Then I'd gain a new Hero to add to the roster. My hope was that they would have a set of skills conducive to help me take care of the long list of other quests. Between Megan, Sally, Raynor and myself, we should be able to handle most issues, but we needed a real badass to make absolutely sure that any fight ended in our favor.

As much as my Paladin class had helped me to bulk up physically, I was nowhere near ready for the front line. I required more training and a restructuring of my role in combat. Right now, I was mostly pigeonholed into a supporting role. Fixing damage, cleaning up afterward, and increasing the abilities of my team. While there was nothing shameful in that, being the medic still didn't sit well with me. Not sure why, but I wanted to be the one in the lead. I wanted to be the one to protect the ladies and my people. I don't think I had a hero complex, but at that moment I wasn't sure what my motivations were. Except perhaps a fear of being left behind.

However, my time in the city with the Probes had taught me that I'm not that guy. It drilled that fact in deep. But I had a feeling that with the help of the Great Tree System I could become that guy, and so much more. All it would take is time and experience.

Speaking of roles, Raynor and Sally filled the same job in a fight. Ranged overwatch. Though with his Power Armor Raynor serving up close mayhem wasn't too much of a problem. I'd have to talk the ladies into getting fitted for power armor. Then I'd finish the designs for mine as well.

When I ran the my idea by everyone, I got a surprising array of responses. Raynor thought it best for him and Amanda to head back to New Lordaeron. Amanda thought it was a great idea, so long as we were slow and careful. Sally and Megan threatened to cut off my balls, if I tried not to take them. Alright, I had no problems with any of those stances. Except the cutting off my balls part, I needed those.

A few hours later, we were sitting in the Mackinaw about half a mile from the ridge line surrounding the old cyberware plant. Rick, Mort and Glen had detached from the vehicle, already scouting the immediate area for trouble. Buzz and Jitters had returned along with my van back to New Lordaeron.

The working plan was that the girls and I would be on overwatch, while Mort and Glen would sneak with Rick to place the first War Pylon. The Sentry's shield ability should be able to protect the Pylon long enough to finish forming if they were spotted. Though if everything went well, Rick's abilities would never be needed. Unfortunately, I was stuck watching the rear again. Heh.

Strangely enough, no Arasaka employee was visible anywhere near the plant, but the remains of their efforts to sterilize the area were. Which served as a grim reminder of how quickly things could go wrong. I took up the task of watching the desert and pretended that I didn't want to watch Sally squeeze off a few rounds just to observe the effect on her "assets". There was something fascinating to me about a woman with a big gun. Ugh, what am I, a fucking teenager? Focus up moron. Silly jokes about anatomy can come later.

I've noticed that events seemed to repeat, if you don't make significant changes between cycles. What people consider asymmetric or abnormal professions, with exciting jobs such as merc work, still developed into routines. "This job" looked a lot like "that job" from five years ago. That would bother some people, but me, I liked routine. I enjoyed having a nicely organized plan. Everything according to a schedule. Sally did not, She was constantly trying to "Shake things up". Starting fights and arguments with anyone out of boredom. A real shit stirrer as my Dad would have said. She was your best friend. Right up until there was nothing else to do, and then she'd punch you in the nose, just to break up the quiet.

Where Sally's motives were an effort to keep thing interesting, Megan was a person that loved chaos for its own sake. On the surface, she seemed organized and well put together, but underneath that image, she sought out trouble. She delighted in impish behavior, moving things out of their proper places, dropping uncomfortable facts at the worst possible time. She was always poking her nose into every little tidbit of info, just so she'd have ammunition to fuck with you more. It was one of the biggest reasons why these two women came as a set. Other folks had a hard time dealing with all their messes. I was still figuring out how we fit together, but I was learning to dig their quirks. As long as they didn't point that shit at me.

In moments like these, they put all of that aside and did their jobs with resolute focus. Because their preferred behaviors could get them killed, especially out here in the Badlands. They had learned to block out their impulses, just as I was now having to learn that same lesson. Here I was again, fighting boredom, while somehow feeling stressed out. My mind was running a million miles an hour while my eyes scanned the scrublands attempting not to miss the slightest detail. Nothing moved, even the usual shimmer in the air from the hot breezes were missing. Something about that bothered me.

I started concentrating even harder on my task, I couldn't quite put my finger on it but something was wrong. 'I can't see anything, but something's off.' I messaged the ladies. I pulled my pistol and scanned around the area, fruitlessly. Still nothing, but that feeling wasn't going away. Fuck it, I cast an Entangle, changing the standard shape of the spell so that a small wall of grasping vines rose out of the baked ground. I repeated the process a few times, quickly we had a solid living wall protecting us from anything that might be in the desert.

My suspicion was that there was an asshole using some form of optical camouflage creeping up on us. Next I cast Growth on the walls I had surrounded us with, the masses of vegetation erupted into giant edifices of plant life. Every branch was reaching out and probing the area all in the drive to gather prey.

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"Ahhhh! What the fuck is this shit?" The voice came from off to my right and I hustled over to get a look at our peeping tom. The vines of the entangling walls instinctively knew to avoid grabbing me, though they did rub against me a few times. What was that about? Getting to know me? When I caught sight of our voyeur, he was hanging upside down and cursing up a storm. It looked so stupid that I couldn't help but start laughing my head off.

"Hey! You rusting Gonk get this thing off me. Stop fucking laughing and let me out, you fucking scopmuncher." His gear covered his whole body, including his face. All black and obviously high-end.

"Yeah, I don't think so slick. You can stay right there until we're done." Speaking of. 'How are we doing ladies?' I sent.

'Almost finished.' Megan returned. I ducked back around the leafy wall for a few more minutes. There was no sense in standing out in the open.

I felt the changes in the environment as the Pylon finished. Haha, now it didn't matter. I let my spells go and while the giant shrubs remained, they'd lost their animated qualities. Which meant that ol' lookie-loo could stay right where he was. Hmm. Maybe we should take him with us, when we headed back, dig into him for any info from his employer. Nah, that'd probably end up being more hassle than it was worth.

Since no one could see or hear us any longer, I rejoined the girls. I ordered Mort and Glen to layout a Forge, a Cybernetics Core and Robotics Facility. That should be enough to count as an Outpost. I'll also queue up a few Sentries before we leave.

We cuddled in the shade of the bushes, while the rest of the buildings were forming. Half and hour later, I received 3000 CPoints and a Hero Token.

I had a damned good feeling about this token.

Once we made it back to New Lordaeron, the ladies ran off to see if my pet Bath House project was finished. I'd based the design off my, admittedly limited, studies of Roman, Turkish and Japanese style baths. The process was simple, clean yourself off in the showers, then you could choose your temperature of pool to relax in. There were ten pools ranging from just shy of boiling to just shy of freezing. I liked to take a dunk in the coldest pool at the end to really shock my system, but most folks would just act like a normal person and proceed straight to drying off. We had built giant air dryers, if you didn't like towels, though we had plenty of those as well. We left it all up to personal preference. The best part was that the Moon Well water had all kinds of health benefits, like making one's skin super smooth and silky to the touch. The regenerative properties alone where worth the effort to visit daily.

What was I doing again? Oh right my new tokens. First let's try the Adjutant so that maybe I would no longer have to deal with any of the day to day operations. Or at least I could stop feeling bad when I ran off to take care of other problems.

[ Do you wish to use Adjutant token? Y/N ]

"Yes."

[ You have Obtained the Adjutant, Jaina Proudmoore ]

[ Note: Adjutants can access the Company Store, and may spent any points you have granted them access to. Addendum; this Adjutant is also a Hero, they are a potent Archmage. To prevent abuse of the token system Adjutants are not allowed to fight except in defense of themselves or your Main Base. ]

"Hello My Lord." Said the Lady that had just popped into existence. She was tall and blonde, wearing fancy robes in blues and whites with golden trim. Between her clothes and her carriage, and her posture everything about her spoke of nobility. I had a sense that this was someone used to getting their way. Her staff was a work of art with a large blue gem shaped almost like a spear's blade and point. Mana flowed and swirled around her, but her mana was different. There was something more constrained about it than the mana I used, more structured maybe. It felt like the ocean and the rain, also rivers and lakes. However, a deep feeling of coldness permeated it as if her mana was trying to drain all the heat from the environment and it was just enough for regular people to notice the chill.

"Lady Proudmoore. Welcome to New Lordaeron." What was coming out of my mouth? "This is a humble place for now, but we are growing rapidly." Did my back just straighten? Was I putting on airs? What the...

"New Lordaeron? Are we still on Azeroth then?" She was looking around taking it all in. To her credit, no disdain crossed her features. There was, instead, a sense of protectiveness about her.

"No, this is Earth." I gave her the a brief run down of this version's of Earth's history and major events, as I guided her around the town and the Valley. Then I explained my part in all of this, as well as my current goals, limited though they were. I introduced her to Raynor and Amanda, who it seemed were enjoying each other's company over dinner. Nolan, Guzman and Marshall Dughan were the next to be met. Dughan even went down on a knee to greet her, ever the proper knight. Their conversation if you can call it that, showed they had a lot of shared knowledge, though some events differed great between their versions of Azeroth. So they came from similar background? That was very Interesting.

Finally, we ran into Megan and Sally who were just coming out of the Bath House. I took my leave of them while they were chatting in that way women have, that switches subjects way too fast for me to keep up with. That should be fine, right? They seemed to be getting along famously. I had other business to attend to.

I flipped the Hero token out. Yes, I could feel that this one was special. Here we go.

[ Do you wish to use Hero token? Y/N ]

"Yes."

[ You have Obtained the Hero, John Wick ]

My brain stopped dead. John Wick, THE John Wick. Perhaps the most gloriously badass movie assassin, ever. Holy. Fucking. Shit! That's it boys, we can go home now, because Mr. Wick will handle it.

Dayum!

There he was in all his dark brooding glory. Impeccable suit and all. I could immediately tell that this wasn't the Wick of the movies I was familiar with. He was younger for one thing, maybe in his late thirties. Somehow he was gaunter, harder, and grimmer looking that any version of Mr. Wick that I'd ever seen before. Yet he was still unmistakably the same deadly man. Calm down, fool you'll get us killed.

"Mr. Wick, thank you for joining us." I held out my hand to shake, trying not to think of all the ways he could kill me. He shook my hand and I could feel all the callouses of endless training and hard work. Yeesh, made me feel like I needed to hit the gym more, and that was after my Paladin upgrade.

"Yeah." That's it. A man of few words, Mr. Wick was. He scanned the area and probably had instantly plotted how everyone nearby would die if that was his mission.

It might have been more comfortable to stand next to Thanatos himself, because Death was never supposed to be a man. Yet here he was, reeking of all the folks he had slain. He even had a torrent of shadowy mana surging around him, it carried a feeling of precise, cold, and calculated killing. He was perfect for our needs. Once we geared him up, we merely had to point out a target and that was it. No more target.

I gave him the same spiel as Jaina, but I could tell he didn't really care. Make no mistake, he absorbed the information, so that it could be used to better eliminate targets. But he wasn't concerned over the politics of the Corpos or the squabbling of the Gangs. He had no loyalties to anyone but me. Suddenly, I understood Gandalf's statements about the one ring a little better. This was indeed a power too great and terrible. Yet, unlike others, I was going to fucking use it.

If it wasn't for the need to check back in with the ladies, I would have already been in the Forge with him right then, getting him armed and armored.

Most of my people, hardly reacted to Mr. Wick's presence. In fact, only Raynor really understood what Mr. Wick was. And Jim was not a happy camper about the assassin joining our forces.

"Hoss, that's not a man. That's a gun that walks."

Yeah, my gun.