CHAPTER 35: The Base
“Boss, boss! You’re never going to believe what’s happening!” Ed exclaimed as he ignored everyone else and rushed to Adam’s side. He put his laptop down in front of Adam and started showing him graphs, tables, and emails.
“Uh, can you summarize?” Adam asked cautiously, seeing his excitement.
“It’s our website. At Tom’s insistence we put in a way to donate, and we are getting a huge response.” Ed pointed to different parts of the graph. “So far, we have over 10,000 people donating $10, 5,000 donating around $50 each. Then we’ve gotten some larger donations. The chief of police donated $100,000. The deputy chief donated $70,000. The mayor’s office has pledged $200,000 but wants to give it directly to us. Probably for a photo op. Several local businesses donated thousands each. This is a lot of money!”
“Sweet!” smiled Tom. “We can get some serious stuff with this kind of cash.”
“We’ll need to spend it as quickly as possible,” said Adam. Ron nodded in agreement.
“Why is that, son?” asked his dad.
“Two things that invading armies always do is cripple communications and then supply lines. If travel and shipping get cut off then there won’t be any point to money. We should use the money while it has value to get all kinds of supplies we might need. If we buy up all the preserved food in the grocery stores they might even ship more sooner so our region is better supplied.”
“Do you think things will get that bad?” asked Zachary.
“It’ll probably be much worse, and we don’t have time to prepare.” Adam gave him a knowing look. “Ok, Ed. What else do you have?”
“Well, along with all the donations, we are getting tons of emails. There are thank-you letters, testimonials we’ll display, including from the police chief and people we saved. Lots of requests to join. Many saying they are going to drive here from other states to join or learn from us. There are a few craftsmen who mocked our gear and said they’d come help us make better.
“We also have local shops and a few larger store chains sending us logo ideas on product samples. Several clothing distributers and a few military equipment companies want to sponsor us, since our videos are going to get us tons of looks. They want to be a part of it.”
“Good,” said Adam. “Maybe I won’t run out of clothing.” His mother gawked at him. “Why do you think I was fighting shirtless on the news. Anything I wear gets destroyed when I fight.”
Ed and Tom laughed and nodded in agreement, with Tom throwing in a catcall.
“Anyway, mom, I might need your help with all the preparation too. In fact, it sounds like we’ll need lots of people in the short term.”
“Some of my friends could probably be available to help,” she said.
“There are most likely some police officer’s spouses willing to contribute too. Either volunteer or for temporary pay. They’ll appreciate superheroes looking out for their police,” added Jordan Lane. “I’ll try to get a list of those interested tomorrow.”
“This is all great, however we need some office and storage space for all this,” interrupted his dad. “Getting that on short notice will be a challenge.”
“Not really,” said Adam.
“Why? Do you have office space already,” his dad asked sarcastically.
“Kind of.”
“And storage space?”
“More than you’d expect.”
“Should we show them?” asked Tom mischievously.
“Might be fun,” smiled Adam.
“Brittney will need to be there. She’ll want to say it,” said Ed. “And then complain when no one gets it.” The three boys shared a chuckle.
“Ok, now I’m curious,” said his dad.
“Is it legal?” asked Ron.
“Probably,” answered Adam. “Or maybe. Actually, no idea. I’m confident there has never been a legal case about it yet. Let’s just go.”
***
Ron’s car pulled up to the front of the goblin warehouse. Nothing about it looked unusual. Adam got out of the passenger side, with Zachary and Jordan exiting the back seat. Zachary shivered while remembering the location. Five more cars pulled up behind them, since the whole group wanted to come, including Adam’s parents and sister.
“I know you don’t own this warehouse,” said Ron.
“Is it possible not to own a building while owning the space inside?” Adam asked as he led them to the entrance.
“Of course that isn’t possible.” Ron sounded hesitant. Eying the black opening in front of them.
Brittney rushed up to Adam’s side, bouncing on her feet. “Elias, let us in!” she shouted as loudly as she could.
The black opaque space in front of them flickered for less than a second and then Adam pushed Ron through. Brittney squealed and rushed in. Jordan and Zachary followed. Adam let his parents go in before he entered himself, the rest of the group entering more casually.
Those new to the space were looking around stunned. The bluish gray sky, the weird colored grass and land, the muted sounds.
“What is this place?” gasped Ron.
Brittney stretched her arms out as wide as possible and shouted without an echo, “it’s bigger on the inside.”
Jordan laughed. “Never thought I’d be in a Tardis.”
Pumping her fist, Brittney exclaimed, “finally someone gets the reference.”
“I don’t understand,” said Adam’s dad. “What is this place?”
“The [System] called it a Dimensional Convergence Rift. The invaders use them to set up their bases. This was the goblins’ base. See that wall and castle in the distance? We had to fight thousands of goblins in there to take it,” said Adam.
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“Thousands? That many?” asked his mom, even more shocked.
“Yes, mother-in-law,” said Andrea, earning her a pursed lips stare. “There were a lot. While we fought tons, it’s safe to say my darling took on more by himself then the rest of us combined.”
“The higher-level ones too,” added Lucas.
“You don’t think you should have told the authorities about this? Let them inspect and figure it out?” Ron asked in a scolding way. Adam stared back with a flat expression.
“You were mind-controlled. If I gave this to you that would be the same as giving it to the invader lady who controlled you.”
Ron face palmed, having forgotten that. “Ok, I see your point.”
“Anyway, this will be our base and there is plenty of space to set up storage areas. Since there isn’t weather in this place, if food is preserved it can be stacked anywhere and doesn’t need a building. The space is pretty large. It can be an emergency shelter if we need to evacuate people. Brandon and Elias are working on learning what the control crystal can do.”
“Crystal? Ah! That was what you supposedly stole. I can see why you assume the beautiful lady was an invader,” exclaimed Ron. “This also explains the elf hideout. It’s a greenhouse that we can’t see inside of. While its big for a greenhouse, it shouldn’t be enough to hold a whole military force. But if it’s this large or more, then we have no idea how many we’re facing. This’ll alter our raid plans.”
The rest of the group was already walking towards the castle. When they all arrived there, they went straight to the throne room. Adam was surprised that there wasn’t any blood or corpses anywhere to be seen.
“Boss, it’s amazing,” Brandon rushed over as soon as he walked in. “Come look at what we discovered.”
The room, which had been dimly lit with flicking torches, was now bright, with light pouring down from the ceiling and covering the entirety of the space. The rough gray stone walls and floor had been replaced with a soothing tan color that was smooth looking. Instead of a throne, there was a desk made of stone with a monitor screen floating above it. The brown pillar was next to the desk, as if it were a computer tower.
“How did you change the room?” he asked, marveling at it.
“That’s what we want to show you.” Brandon took him over to where Elias sat at the desk. Ron, Jordan, and his dad followed along, while everyone else went to explore.
“Watch this,” said Elias as he lifted a cube of stone. Pressing the screen a few times, the cube shook for a minute and then became a sphere of the same mass. A few more taps of the screen and it became a pyramid. Still more taps turned it into a spikey ball.
“Wow!” exclaimed Jordan. “How is it doing that?!”
Elias looked at Jordan, who he hadn’t been introduced to, and then turned to Adam.
“This is Jordan Lane, from the police. He is an IT tech and will be working with us. Jordan, this is Elias and Brandon,” Adam introduced them.
“Hi,” said Elias indifferently, who took that as approval to continue. “This space is malleable. Materials in it can be changed as long as they have the same basic structure. It’s so advanced that coal to diamonds and lead to gold are a thing here. However, once the materials are changed, they can’t leave this space without disintegrating. We ran a few tests on it. That means we can’t create items in here for general use, but if we brought in enough practical materials, we could shape them into buildings, tools for crafting, and customize them to an extreme. We can create advanced tools to make equipment and then take that equipment out, as long as the stuff wasn’t altered by this device, only worked on in a normal fashion.”
“Wow. That IS incredible,” said Adam. “No wonder that woman invader wanted this space.”
“Really we’ve only scratched the surface,” said Brandon. “We found communication channels where invaders can talk with each other or release public messages. None of the languages look familiar. The menus change to English when we look at them, but whatever is being said through the comm channels are not being translated. Just that it looks like there are a lot of them out there.
“We also found videos and pictures, all of them from when we were fighting in here. We were able to watch your fight with the chief and his two assistants from any angle. It looked like the chief shared a clear picture of you and your fight with the shadow goblin before you killed him. That’s probably how the invaders knew to send the police after you. Anything that’s in this space can be watched at any time, from any angle. Watch.”
Elias tapped the screen and it got larger then began showing one group walking down halls. A few more taps changed the picture to them looking at the screen from behind. Elias moved his hand and the image flipped around to show them from the front. Then he waved and the screen showed the wave.
Jordan was breathing heavily, then turned to Ron. “Detective, tell the captain I quit and am joining the Sentinel Army.”
“No. Don’t be an idiot. You can work with them but to get the most out of the rift you still need to do your job. Just think, you could use police contacts to get more materials into this space for use with that interface,” Ron explained.
“Elias, can you get rid of the weird lack of echo?” asked Adam.
“No. I can change the sky, making it look like night or day or clouds or a storm, but the weather and environment doesn’t really change. Temperature for the whole area can be altered though.”
“Great job, so far. Is there more to research on it?”
“Oh yes. Lots. But without knowing alien languages it’ll all be trial and error.”
“Don’t hold your breath but I’ll check with nearby university faculty to see if anyone has experience translating unknown languages,” said Ron. “Great job here, boys.”
“Anyway, we’re raiding the elves in two days, so make sure you guys get enough food and rest,” Adam told them. Before he had time to tell Ron about the bodies they found, his dad put a hand on his shoulder.
“Son, I’m extremely proud of you. In the last week you’ve done more amazing things than I have my entire life. I promise I’ll work as hard as I can to support you and your group. I’d rather not see you put into harm’s way, but you have a real chance here to help a lot of people. I’ll make sure you have all the support you can get.”
“Thanks, dad,” Adam said with a smile and hugged his dad. When they separated Brandon was sniffling.
“What’s wrong,” his dad asked Brandon.
Adam answered instead when Brandon couldn’t get the words out. “Apparently everyone but me, Tom, Nick, Carlos, Lamar and Brittney have sucky parents and homes. Thanks for giving me a good home, dad.”
His dad beamed. “You’re welcome, Adam.”
***
The next 24 hours were full of boring busyness.
Adam met Mr. Rhodes and reviewed the documents from the police while registering as a business. The big area they needed to add to the contract with the police was related to looting. Surprising to Adam was that this was Mr. Rhodes idea. He had listened to his kids playing RPGs and MMOs for years and knew what issues looting could cause, so he proposed a formula that would reward the Sentinel Army with a percentage of loot value based on combined levels of participating groups. This way if the Sentinels were carrying the police they would get the majority of the loot. Due to Adam not having a class, which did cause Mr. Rhodes to stumble, they decided Adam would be equal to the highest-level person plus 15 levels. They also put in a clause that Dimensional Convergence Rifts would go to the Sentinel Army if they were over 50% of the levels.
Mr. Rhodes wasn’t sure the police would go for it, but Adam was confident. The police needed him, giving Adam all the leverage for now. Just to get caught up to the Sentinels, the police would need to do a lot of leveling, and the necessary killing was outside of their training and mindset.
All the business documents were set up as well, except for organizational structures that they reviewed with Adam’s parents and selected people for. The documents also included employee contracts, non-disclosure agreements, and volunteer waivers since it was a dangerous business even though so many people wanted to join it.
The next day his mom helped him with all the banking. They set up accounts, got temporary debit and credit cards that he would let some in his group use in the short term, and they set up all the management apps. Mr. Rhodes had also introduced him to an accounting friend who was able to review what Adam was doing that day, since they weren’t in the middle of tax season.
Ron wasn’t available at all, instead helping coordinate the raid. Jordan Lane came by the second half of the day, providing a list of police spouses and other volunteers to help gather necessary items, as well as making sure all the money was transferring from the police accounts into the new Sentinel Army accounts. Then Jordan worked with Ed to improve the website and manage the donation accounts, making calls with the donation software company to let them know the amounts had been reviewed and authorized by law enforcement. Once that was done, Jordan excitedly rushed to the warehouse to continue working with Elias and Brandon.
There was even a short visit to the school, where lawyers tried to force Adam to sign documents relinquishing fault to the wrongful arrest so that Adam wouldn’t be able to sue. Their strong-arm tactics failed when, unknown to them, Adam created a connection and filled them with terror. The agreement was changed to a $120,000 settlement in exchange for the rights to file a lawsuit. The money and agreement would take a while to come through, so Adam didn’t expect to see the money before the aliens tore everything down, but he still left the meeting laughing wickedly, earning him a scolding look from his mom. No one strong arms Adam, except maybe his mom.