CHAPTER 28: To the Elves
When Adam walked into the entry waiting room of the police station, Adam’s group quickly moved to him with surprise. Everyone stayed silent waiting for him to speak. Abbey wrapped her arm around him while he looked to Lucas.
“How did you get out so quickly?” asked Lucas.
“They were being mind controlled. An invader. It took a bit for me to break the memory during the interrogation, but somehow it was linked to all the police. Since breaking the mind control on the detective, no one seems to have any feelings towards me.”
“Is this to get back at you for stopping the goblins?” asked Randall.
“I think it has a few parts. They want the control crystal, which means it is more useful than we expected, Elias. Getting it figured out is a top priority. They might have also been trying to take me out of play or wanted me to become a criminal by fighting the police. If I lacked the skills to break the mind control, then I would have been screwed. Or maybe she wanted me out of the way for whatever the elves are doing.”
“Are we going after the elves?” asked Brandon. “Elves are supposed to be good guys.”
Adam looked over the group, meeting all their eyes. “We are going after the elves alongside the police. Frankly they’ll get wiped out without us, and it gives us a chance to get ahold of another rift.”
Several people looked crestfallen. “We are taking order from the cops now?” Joseph asked with venom.
“No. We work as our group. Don’t put yourselves in danger for the police. Do what you can within the limit of your abilities. I will be in the lead. If the police won’t follow, then they get what’s coming to them.”
Tom, Randall, and Joseph smiled at that. “Whew! Good to know you aren’t rigid about law and justice.”
“These invasions changed the laws. The world doesn’t know it yet, but we’re going to hit the laws of the jungle. Strength above all.”
“And you are the strongest, boss!” Tom exclaimed proudly.
Just then someone pushed through the rest and stood right in front of Adam.
“What are you talking about?” demanded Emily. “We need to go home and call mom. Acting all high and mighty after being arrested at school. What did you even do?”
Heat pulsed through Adam unintentionally. The anger wasn’t her specifically, but the knowledge that she could get hurt, that he wasn’t enough to protect her and do what needed to be done. Red tinted his skin as he looked at her. Everyone else took a step back at the expression on Adam’s face.
“Why are you here?” he snarled, unable to stop the angry from coming out.
“Of course I’m here! Why shouldn’t I want to make sure you are ok? And this is how you treat me?” she yelled.
“You can’t come with us, even if you call mom. I won’t allow you to go into this kind of danger,” he growled. “Carlos. Take her home and keep her there, even if you need to use force.”
“Wha…but…” words failed Emily as Adam’s red hand slowly reached for her, controlling his strength as much as he could so as not to hurt her in his furious state. The coolness was barely keeping his mind manageable, while thoughts of her getting hurt or killed flowed through his head. Then his hand came up against a different person.
“You can’t talk to your sister like that,” the boy said. Adam failed to recognize him and his mind blanked out at the surprise and uncertainty. Inside his river was telling him to go through the boy to get to Emily. Instead, he turned his head and looked blankly at Lucas.
“Friend of your sister,” Lucas shrugged.
“I’m William,” he insisted. “What gives you the right to boss her around?”
Adam’s eyes met William’s, and all the fury that had been building found a target. A tremor shook William and his mouth started opening and closing.
“Well, William,” Adam said, get slightly closer. There wasn’t a significant height difference, yet Adam’s presence made William cower even further downward. “If I let Emily come with us, do you think you can protect her?”
“F-f-from w-what?” he stammered, his words barely a squeak as Adam brought his mouth to William’s ear.
“From me,” Adam whispered. Heat steamed from his mouth as he spoke, and William would have fallen had Adam not caught him by the back of his neck and lifted him into the air. “If anything happens to Emily and you aren’t either dead or incapacitated, then your family will have one less mouth to feed. From now on, your name is Meat Shield. Got it?”
William frantically nodded as best he could, with Adam’s grip on his neck. Then a gentle touch on Adam’s arm caused him to turn. Abbey was trying to sooth him. Her gentle touch reminded him of what was really happening. “We’ll all protect her. We work together.”
He took a deep breath while thinking of the group. When he let it out the air steamed from the released heat. They would survive. They would protect each other. His body started to cool and the heat stopped pulsing.
Instead of dropping William, with one arm he cautiously handed him to Lucas. Hands under William’s arms lowered him onto the floor while also keeping him from falling. Tom put his arm around William.
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“Welcome to shit creek, Meat Shield. Better find a paddle,” Tom laughed, causing William to shiver more.
Emily’s eyes were bulging as she watched all this. “How did you do that? That was inhuman. I thought you lacked a class,” she gasped.
“If you come then make sure you are always behind things. No coming into the fight. Everyone else is a higher level and you are at zero.” Emily glared at Adam but did not say anything, so he turned to the rest of the group, “If you want out, then now is the time. Otherwise, grab the gear. We are taking police vans to get there.”
A small and shaking hand raised from a girl Adam did not know. “I w-want out,” she whispered causing everyone to stare at her. Slowly her hand dropped, and she turned away.
***
The ride was bumpy as Adam strapped on a vest of police body armor. He had already removed his shirt. “Can’t afford to lose all my clothes,” he had muttered to a chorus of laughs. A clear faced helmet went on next, with his garden center gloved finishing his outfit.
Two police vans filled with riot gear and his group were heading to the location of the fighting, followed by Lucas’s pickup, hauling anyone who had not fit in the vans. Adam was not sure how Det. Baker had managed it, but it would make things easier, especially the gear.
“Much better than a goblin shield,” Brittney said as she hefted a riot shield that was two thirds of her height. “With my [Harden Shield] skill this should work really well. It’s a little too flexible for a good [Shield Bash].”
Det. Baker was in this van with him, watching as he put the protective gear on. His eyes slid to the machetes that Adam, Brittney, Abbey, Randall, and Nick had fastened to their belts.
“I do need to ask that you not kill them,” he said to Adam. “We are police and I can’t have you killing them openly, like in those goblin videos.”
All eyes went to Det. Baker with shock.
“I’m not willing to endanger anyone against invaders. The rules don’t apply to them,” Adam said as he stared at Det. Baker.
“Is there no way to use non-lethal force?”
Adam reached down and picked up two batons, tucking them into his belt. “I will try, but if I can’t subdue them then deadly force will be used. Besides, don’t you guys shoot to kill when in danger? They have hostages.”
Det. Baker sighed. “Yeah, if it looks like they are going to kill the hostages then do what you need to stop them. Just, right now you are wearing police equipment. It needs to look like you are following our rules.”
Adam just shrugged without commitment. “If I can.”
***
The scene was worse than Adam expected. They were on an often-populated two-way street where people usually shopped. Parking spaces were sideways against the curbs. The shops were all two story, light brown brick or block construction with display windows showing the inside. Thin alleys, about three feet wide separated each of the buildings.
In front of one shop were three police cars where four policemen huddled without touching the cars, sitting about two feet back from them. One of the cars had the side glass blown in, while all three had large dents in the doors facing the closer shops. At the center of the dents were a thin wooden twig. Fluids were leaking from two of the car engines.
That was hardly all the mayhem though. Towards the other side of the street was an ambulance turned on its side. Through the front windshield they could see two paramedics still inside, standing up while not trying to climb out of the vehicle. The bottom rear door was flung open from the impact with medical equipment, bottles, and bags thrown all around it.
A few parked cars on the road were also smashed from the sides with those twigs in them, glass shattered all over. Since it was still morning, few people had been shopping, but those who had been were mostly inside buildings, far from the front windows and doors, as far as Adam could tell. A few bodies were littered on the street, including two dogs with leashes still attached. The bodied has green raised veins on them, showing that the deaths had been from more than the twigs that were piercing their bodies.
Two buildings were on fire, with a third soon to catch. The third building had the most people in it, but a car with blown tired had rammed through the front wall, spilling liquid that would probably ignite soon.
A fire truck had driven down the road, clearly to help, and four firemen were hiding behind the front, one with a tourniquet on his leg and blood flowing out from where a twig had punched into it. The veins on his face were slightly raised and turning green. A hose reached from the truck towards a hydrant but was useless now with more twigs punched through it, nailing it to the street. The fire engine also hid a cameraman man with a shoulder mounted camera, trying to record the scene without exposing himself, next to what seemed to be a reporter.
Sirens, screaming, and shouting were making it hard to hear as Det. Baker got out of the van. Before Det. Baker had gotten to his feet, Adam lunged forward and his forearm thrust in front of Det. Baker’s head. He winced as one of those twigs jabbed into his arm, and immediately pulled Baker back into the van.
“What was that?!” Det. Baker shouted in surprise. “That was as fast as a bullet!”
Adam inspected the twig in his arm. It had stopped halfway through and as he felt around it there seemed that a barb that had formed as soon as it had punctured his arm. The veins around the twig were a very dim shade of green.
Abbey gasped and rushed over, but Adam stalled her.
“I think it’s an arrow, coming from the flower shop. It changed shape after penetration, and definitely released poison,” he calmly explained.
“How did you know it was coming?” Det. Baker gasped, adrenaline clearly spiked. Adam just shrugged in reply and turned to Abbey.
“Do we have anything for poison?”
“[Reduce Poison] is the best I can do. I got it at level 5,” Abbey explained. “Do you need me to use it?”
“No, save the mana for others. I need to see how strong it is. I’m going to pull the arrow out though, see what kind of damage that does.”
He grasped the twig tightly and yanked. The barb only pricked his skin from the inside while the shaft ripped directly off. His skin was too tough for the whole barb to come out. Abbey and the detective winced as they saw his blood flowing, light green. It hurt, but he had felt much worse. Pulling out his machete he cut his forearm and pried the barb out. A bit too much of his insides came out with it. Det. Baker looked sick from watching but Abbey lightly touched it and a few red flashes helped it seal back up.
While flexing the hand to make sure it worked fine, Adam gave some orders. “Baker, get the vans to pull up to overlap the other police cars so there is no direct line from that shop. Brittney and Randall, once there take two shields each to cover your whole body and take Abbey and Ed to anyone who needs the poison dispelled. Make a shield wall and huddle together. I saw two police and one fireman needing help. Once you finish go to that police car and wait for me. Nick, go to the other van and tell them to bring all the gear behind the police cars. Stay low and out of line of sight. Detective, get an explanation from the other police and make sure no more emergency vehicles come into range.”
Everyone nodded and started grabbing the gear, except Det. Baker. “What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I need to get to Lucas and keep them out of range.”
With that, Adam grabbed one riot shield in his left arm to use and held two more on his right. He was glad there were so many. Before getting back out of the van he motioned to the pickup to stop and then did a “get low” gesture. Lucas nodded and spoke to those in the back seat, and they all got low. Well, except Emily who Alissa and Meat Shield pulled down with a lot of complaining.