Then
“Look, let’s just stick to the plan. We’ll clear the small buildings first then see if we even need to go through the ones my brothers are clearing. This is a good thing. We get to save our ammo for the boss fights.”
Demi glared at Cal for several long seconds before finally nodding curtly. She jabbed a finger at the group of modular classrooms to their right. “You said you can tell if there are monsters inside.”
“Give me a second.” Cal took a deep breath and braced himself for some pain. It was difficult to call on his telepathy, but he pushed through the pain with a grunt. “One gremlin in each classroom.”
“We’ll take care of them,” Nila said with an eye on Cal.
“Yeah, just hang tight,” Cal said.
“No,” Demi said. “We can’t rely on you for the heavy lifting. That’s obvious. We need to get our own points,” she sighed.
Demi quickly divided the adults into three person teams to tackle the classrooms. Someone big and strong with a riot shield to serve as the front line tank and two others to add to the bashing, slashing or stabbing of the gremlin. Keisha served as the former for her team, while Ron and Rebekah the latter for theirs. Most were ex-athletes, ex-military or first responders.
Cal didn’t know enough about the rest to put names to faces.
“What about us? We know how to do this,” Gene said.
“No. You stay,” Demi glared.
The teens had actual classes, but they were too young and Demi wasn’t willing to risk them when it wasn’t strictly necessary. It was this sort of mindset that left others like them, ones with classes and skills, out of the raid.
Cal was about fifty-fifty on it. On the one hand they had useful spells and abilities for the quest. On the other hand they skewed very young. A lot of them were minors or barely adults. Aside from the four stowaways there were only a handful of them in the team. Some were eighteen and some actually got parental permission. Some had tried to argue that their experiences playing games that mirrored their new reality somehow gave them the upper hand.
Cal had added his dissenting voice to that argument. The spires’ stupid apocalypse might’ve resembled those games, but having monsters trying to tear your face off in reality was not in anyway comparative. He had first hand experience on that point.
“They’ll jump out of the shadows! Use your lanterns to create a space of light, don’t just charged in!” Cal yelled after the separate teams.
Gene shot Cal a pleading look.
Cal stared at the teen flatly. He didn’t have time to coddle the young punk.
“Keep watch,” Nila told the younger team members. She moved over to stand next to Cal, but kept her eyes scanning the darkness beyond the reach of their lanterns. “Are you okay?”
“Nope,” Cal said with a wan smile turned wince. “It only hurts when I think.”
“Can you do this?”
“What about you? You’re less than a week from a concussion.”
“I already told you,” Nila sighed. “Doctor checked it out. My head’s fine. Even had an MRI. Didn’t break anything, bruises are mostly gone. Besides, you got wrecked way worse by your gremlin alpha.”
Cal narrowed his eyes at Nila.
“What? Isn’t that what you nerds call it.” Nila nodded toward the teens. “Those guys kept saying it when they killed mutant squirrels when I had to babysit them on those patrols. Although they were pronouncing it in a weird way.”
“My brain ache just got worst,” Cal rubbed his eyes with his free hand, “rekt,” he said finally.
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“It’s a gaming term for being utterly destroyed, ruined.”
“Huh, well it still fits.” Nila nodded sagely. “You did get rekt’d compared to me.”
Cal groaned.
A loud scream interrupted whatever he was going to stay. He started to move when a strong hand clamped down on his arm and pulled him back.
“I’ll go. You need to save your strength for later and watch over the kiddies,” Nila said.
Cal didn’t take his eyes off her as she ran toward the classrooms.
“We can hel—”
“Shhh.” Cal cut Gene off.
Cal didn’t listen to Nila. He stretched his telepathy out to locate the source of the scream. He detected horror and panic from the people. He got the impression that it was from something that had already transpired, not something currently happening. The lack of any gremlin presence confirmed it for him. Something bad happened, but the threat had passed.
He let out a long breath. He noticed the hurt look on Gene’s face.
“Save your magic and skills for later when we really need it,” Cal said.
Gene nodded hesitantly.
Cal realized that being a dick to them would probably put the teens into the wrong head space. It might push them into stupid risks. They needed to be guided properly if he wanted them to survive the night.
“Shit,” Cal muttered under his breath. He just realized that he was the only one in position to watch over the teens. His brothers were off doing their own thing. Nila already had her hands full with her role. The others were going to be hard pressed to fulfill their roles. Even making it through alive was going to be difficult.
Nila jogged back to his relief. She made straight for Demi. After a few words, Demi hurried to the classrooms at a brisk walk. Cal sensed the concern in everyone’s thoughts.
“What happened?”
Nila shook her head as she approached him. She waited until she could speak into his ear. “We’ve got a death. It’s Neal. Gremlin got him in the face and neck…”
Cal couldn’t put a face to the name.
Nila looked pale, paler than normal. “It’s… looks… really bad.” She shook her head. “What do we do with the body?” She glanced at the teens, who were alternatively watching the darkness at the edge of their lantern light and looking back and forth between Cal, Nila and the classrooms.
“I don’t even— let Officer Lawrence handle it.” Cal felt an invisible weight on his shoulders. “I can’t…”
“Not your fault,” Nila said.
Cal nodded. He didn’t believe her. He could’ve cleared those rooms by himself, but then Demi was right. He couldn’t be always holding their hands.
Right?
Silence, overbearing silence was the only answer.
----------------------------------------
“C’mon man, let’s go,” Eron said and took off running toward the nearest three-story high school building.
“Wait, what—?” Remy was caught off guard.
He looked back to the rest of the raid team a group of human-sized gremlins were attacking from the left. As one the gremlins were shoved forcefully by an invisible force that knocked them to the ground. That would be Cal’s telekinesis. The raid team fell on the monsters. Bludgeoning and hammering them while Cal kept them from getting up quickly enough to defend themselves.
Remy bit back a curse. He took off after Eron. His older brother had the raid team covered. For some reason his younger brother was heading for the building on his own, contrary to their plan. He couldn’t just let Eron go by himself. He sprinted after his brother. The chains around his wrists and other random metal objects hanging from his belt and in his pack noisily rattled as he ran.
Eron was standing by the building’s double doors when Remy caught up.
“Took you long enough.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Remy snapped. “This isn’t part of the plan.”
“The plan kind of sucked.” Eron rolled his eyes. “This is better.”
Remy stared at Eron in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about?!”
“You and me clearing these buildings. Save everyone’s lives at least until the boss fights, but if we can aggro most of that then there’s still a chance.”
Remy frowned. He understood what Eron was getting at. Limit the number of monsters that the other people had to fight. The only problem was that meant they and presumably Cal would have to take on most of the work. And Cal wasn’t doing so good. Neither was he, Remy had to admit. He was extremely tired. It was hard to describe. He felt like he had just ran through a spartan race every day for the past five days. This was despite that fact that he had done nothing but sleep and rest since that fight with the gremlin alpha.
“Fine.”
“Great,” Eron grinned. “We each take one classroom at a time. Should be five or so gremlins in each. No problem for either of us.”
Remy sighed and nodded. As Eron pulled the double doors open.
“I’ll take the left side,” Eron said as he pulled a road flare out of his belt pack and ignited it. He pulled the classroom door open and strode confidently into the dark interior.
Remy didn’t say anything, he took the oil lantern from his belt and set in on the floor in front of the classroom door on the right. He pulled his machete from its sheath and focused. He did his best to ignore the snarling coming from the other room.
The door frame was metal. Easy for his magnetic power. He had barely scratched the surface of it. As far as he could tell he had a measure of control over the Earth’s magnetic field. He could also create smaller, weaker, independent versions.
This is what he did to send the door flying into the classroom.
Remy pulled a handful of nails, screws, nuts and bolts from one of his several belt pouches. He nudged the lantern with his foot. It slid upright into the room under his magnetic power. The sudden light revealed two gremlins standing in the shadows. They were caught off guard.
Remy magnetically accelerated the metal bits in his hand right into the gremlins. The cloud of shrapnel struck the monsters at high speed. He reversed the magnetic field and moved it near the heavily injured monsters. He pulled the metal embedded in their bodies along with the field right toward him. He stepped into the room and stopped them right in front of him. They were too hurt to do anything as he slashed each in turn with his machete.
Remy was still figuring out what he could do with his power. Pushing and pulling metal was his strong point and he could also create a whirling cloud of metal with him at the center. Fine control was a work in progress.
Another gremlin jumped at him from the shadows. He wasn’t quite as physically capable as either of his brothers, but he was still superhumanly strong and quick.
The gremlin was surprised to suddenly find itself impaled on Remy’s machete.
The last two rushed him from the far end of the classroom.
Remy sent the chain wrapped around his left arm to strike one in the face. He made the chain rigid like a spear. The gremlin lost a few teeth as the chain went into its mouth.
The gremlin on the right moved in an erratic zigzag pattern.
Remy whipped the chain to strike it across its side. The blow flipped it over to land on the floor, hard. He was on it in two blinks of an eye.
One stab and it was done.
Remy did the same with the remaining gremlin. He took a deep breath to compose himself before he retrieved his lantern and quickly went to the next classroom. From the sounds of it, Eron was already several classrooms ahead of him. He needed to work faster if he wanted to keep up.
----------------------------------------
Eron punched through a gremlin’s head. He kept his mouth shut. He had finally learned his lesson. The blood splattered across his face, but didn’t get in his mouth.
Another gremlin clawed through his leather jacket and shirt, but barely scratched his skin. He turned and dropped a downward elbow on top of its head. The monster instantly died from a vertebrae broken in several places.
Stronger and tougher than everyone else. That’s what Eron was. Every day, little by little, he grew more powerful. Somehow the light of the sun fueled him. It made him a physical paragon, like his class said. He was still waiting, hopefully, on the heat vision and flight.
A gremlin jumped down from the shadows on the ceiling. Eron moved out of the way and punted it across the room. It cratered the wall when it hit. The monster remained still.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
This classroom was clear. Eron ran to the next. He wreaked the same havoc on the gremlins in that one, before moving on to the next and then the next.
He was alone on the second floor of the third major building on the high school campus. Remy had fallen behind and was still on the first floor clearing his own side.
Eron took his time with the last two classrooms. He didn’t want to get too far ahead, so that he could help out his brother if necessary. However, he was getting a little impatient. Truthfully he could’ve been done had he not waited, but it was important to spread out the Universal Point gains. He didn’t want to be a points hog.
He was very eager to get to the boss fights. This was the last major building. Once he and Remy were done they could move on to the rest of the minor buildings and structures if the main part of the raid team hadn’t already taken care of them.
Eron didn’t communicate this plan to Cal, but he was confident that his brother would figure it out. Although, Cal wasn’t exactly operating at a hundred percent.
Another gremlin, Eron backhanded it to oblivion. He resolved to avoid face punching. It worked great, but it left him with a hand covered in monster blood and brain. Very gross, the grossest thing ever, aside from monster blood in your mouth. The thought made him shiver.
Two gremlins. One kick and one measured punch to the chest. Death by crushed ribs and bone shards into its heart.
Eron exited the last classroom on the left side, just as Remy entered the second level. He could see his brother by the lantern in his hand. It looked like Remy was breathing hard.
“Hurry it up, man,” Eron yelled.
Remy shot him a rude gesture.
Eron laughed. “We have one more floor then you can rest. I’ll take care of any small buildings that Cal and the rest of the team didn’t take handle. Then we can finally deal with the bosses.”
Remy rolled his eyes and went to the end of the hallway to begin clearing the classrooms on the right side.
Eron snorted and climbed the stairs to the third and final level. He decided that he wasn’t going to wait for his brother. Remy was looking pretty tired anyways. Better to clear it quickly, so that Remy could rest and recover for the real fights.
----------------------------------------
Four gremlin alphas appeared out of the gloom. One at each corner of the large, grassy central commons that was bordered by the large classroom buildings.
They had prepared the area well. Oil and gas lanterns were scattered around the grassy areas and concrete footpaths to provide as much light coverage as possible. They had even brought one diesel-powered light tower, which the entire raid team was gathered under. The bright light providing a sense of safety, perhaps illusory, but needed.
The lights didn’t bother the gremlin alphas much. Their black, beady eyes squinted up at the lights, but they didn’t show any signs of discomfort, like the human-sized ones were known for. Nor did their pale skin sizzle like the tiny gremlins’ that had appeared nearly everywhere that terrible first night several, long months ago.
No one dared to move as the gremlin alphas simply stood and stared at them.
“Right, so I’ll take that one.” Eron pointed to the closest gremlin alpha. “Any objections to that plan?” He pointedly looked at Demi.
The police officer glared right back before shaking her head brusquely.
“I guess I’ve got that one over there,” Remy’s voice shook slightly as he pointed at the gremlin alpha the furthest distance away. “I’ll need the space. I don’t want to hit any of you guys.”
“That leaves two,” Demi said.
Her voice was steady, but Cal could feel the fear emanating from her thoughts. The entire group was terrified. It was only fair. No one could be expected to face off with ten-foot tall gremlin alphas and their claws and many, many sharp teeth without pissing themselves. It said a lot for them and the horrors they’d already experienced that no one had done that yet. Not even the kids.
“We’ll take them together,” Cal said. He tried to project confidence, strength and certainty that he wasn’t feeling. “Ranged shooters. You’ll get first crack. I’ll hold them in place when they start moving. Aim for the eyes.”
“Take your time. Don’t rush your shots. We have to make every one count.” Demi raised her assault rifle to her shoulder.
As she spoke a handful of human-sized gremlins materialized out of the shadows behind each gremlin alpha. Five a piece. An escort or adds for the bosses.
“Well… shit,” Eron said. “That doesn’t seem fair. Although that much extra isn’t bad. Hey, Rem, good thing we cleared out the big buildings. Who knows how many more adds there might’ve been?”
Remy ignored his brother. He dug into the pouch at his side and pulled out a handful of sharp and blunt metal objects. He already had a bunch in his other hand ready to go.
“Is this right?” Demi said to Cal without taking her eyes off her gun sight and her target. “Is this how these bosses are supposed to work?”
“A lot of that was guesswork,” Cal said. The pain in his head was growing. “But potential adds as far as weaker level monsters was one of the things we discussed. So… I think this still falls under our theories.”
“Cal, I can tank one of the alpha’s for a little,” Nila said.
He was about to object when a familiar chime sounded in his ears. In everyone's’ ears.
Congratulations!
You have received a Quest.
Defeat the Bosses: Gremlin Alpha x4.
Success Parameters: Defeat all monsters.
Failure Parameters: Flee or Die.
Reward: 50000 Universal Points.
Will you accept?
“Oh… thank God.” Cal breathed a sigh of relief.
Heads snapped in his direction.
“This is the boss fight. I was thinking it might’ve been a mini-boss fight.”
“Fuck me, that would’ve been brutal,” Gene said. At the uncomprehending looks from several of the adults, he explained. “It means that after this fight, we’d still have to fight the actual boss monster.”
“It says I got to accept. What happens if I don’t?” Keisha said.
Cal shrugged. “No idea. You might be able to leave or not. You probably wouldn’t get any of the rewards.”
“If anyone wants out this might be your last chance,” Eron said.
“No one is leaving!” Demi snapped. “It’s too dangerous. We don’t know if there are more monsters waiting out there.”
Some of the raid members looked like they were giving it serious thought. Cal agreed with Demi. He tried to project a feeling of calm to the others with his telepathy. It sent several stabs of pain into his brain. He deserved that for the attempt, despite his intentions he knew it was wrong to use his power that way.
“She’s right,” Cal said with a wince. “You might make it back safely. Or not. But if we fail here than we can guarantee that there won’t be any safe spaces anywhere near here. The gremlins have shown that they’ll spread out if left unchecked. This is our only chance to put an end to that and protect our families.”
His words had several people nodding along. Whether it was what he had said or the effects of his telepathic attempt, he didn’t know and he was guilty to realize that he didn’t much care. The situation was becoming overwhelming.
Throughout all of this the gremlins didn’t move from their spots. They merely watched. The hunger and malice in them was palpable. Cal didn’t need his telepathy to notice that much.
“I think they’re waiting for us to accept the Quest,” Eron said. “So, make sure you’re ready before accepting. Don’t take too long though, we don’t know if there’s an invisible timer that’ll default you to accept if you don’t make a choice.”
“Alright, people,” Demi took back control, “raise your hand once you’ve accepted it. Like, Cruces said, make it quick.”
One by one hands went up.
Cal shared a lingering look with Nila before she too raised her hand.
Both Eron and Remy raised their hands and immediately started walking toward the gremlin alphas that they had picked out earlier.
Cal waited until he and Demi where the only ones left. He raised his hand.
Demi’s face was grim as she followed suit.
As one the gremlins roared into the night sky and charged at the raid team.
Seventeen people that carried the hopes of thousands more yelled back with all the courage they could muster.
----------------------------------------
Now
It was almost too easy. Power armor that had self-repair capability were unique. There were only a handful in the entire Threnosh world and Caretaker had the top two at their disposal.
Shira was a blur as they killed invasive organisms. Any lucky strikes the organisms landed on their power armor were just as quickly repaired.
Adjudicator was a tank. They were slower than Shira and the organisms had much more success in clawing deep gouges in their thick armor. It didn’t matter. Their tendrils drained the life from the organisms as fuel for their power armor to slowly fix itself.
The second and last major cluster of organisms was on the ninth sublevel of the research facility. Unlike the cluster of the first sublevel, this one wasn’t spread out. Sublevel nine was a lot smaller. The level contained the power source for the facility. The lift platform opened up to a large space. With the rest of the level built around it as the central point.
By the time Caretaker climbed down the lift shaft the invasive organisms were dried out husks in several piles scattered all over the place.
“Shira, Adjudicator. Are you combat effective?”
Shira looked fine. Their power armor was practically spotless. All damage had repaired itself and any organism blood had been quickly absorbed.
Adjudicator’s power armor had several ugly looking tears and rents that were no longer repairing themselves since the Threnosh didn’t have any more organisms to drain.
Both Threnosh gave the affirmative.
“Proceed to the last sublevel. Dralig, Volkharion, Frequency, remain here and secure this sublevel. Volkharion, keep your drones on patrol. I want our path back to remain clear. If we missed any organisms, the three of you have the authorization to dispatch them as you see fit.”
Caretaker dropped down the lift shaft to the final sublevel and found themselves staring at the thick metal door that they had first seen through Volkharion’s scout drone’s camera.
Its entire surface was covered in scratches from the organisms' claws.
Caretaker didn’t waste any time. He approached the door’s control console. It too was cut and torn. They pulled the ruined surface screen off and located the emergency access port beneath.
They took their PID and attached the physical cable to the port. Wireless syncing was impossible without power running to the console.
They entered the access codes and the immense door’s internal locking mechanism unlatched with audible clicks that echoed in the stillness.
“Shira, open it. Adjudicator, be ready, we do not know what is inside.” Caretaker stepped back from the console and readied their recoilless rifle.
Shira dug their claws into the enormous door and pulled. It protested and strained against Shira, but slowly it gave way and started to slide open.
Caretaker kept their rifle pointed where their predictive algorithm directed. The flickering red emergency lights provide scant illumination into the blackness of the chamber beyond the door.
“Stop.”
Shira released the door. It stayed in place with the opening big enough to fit two of the Threnosh side by side.
Caretaker gestured to Shira. The black-clad Threnosh slipped into the chamber and blended almost seamlessly into the darkness.
“Stay here and secure our exit,” Caretaker said to Adjudicator. They stowed their rifle, drew their sword and activated their energy shield. The flickering red lights provided enough of a look into the chamber for them to recognize that the interior was filled with work stations, which meant that close combat was the call.
Caretaker switched to low-light vision. This cast everything in tones of white, gray and black. They carefully maneuvered their way around the workstations and entered the next chamber. More workstations. All of them held standard-looking terminals. It was impossible to tell what the researchers were doing down here without power.
They moved into the next chamber and were confronted with another closed door. They went through the same process to attach their PID to the access port. This time the code didn’t work. Curious.
Caretaker took their sword and stabbed it into the edge of the door, where the locks were located. The monomolecular edge bit into the metallic surface. They pushed it nearly to the hilt with some effort, but the surface might as well have been soft flesh. Their spire exoskeleton’s motors whined with effort as they pushed the sword down through the mechanisms locking the door in place.
Caretaker sheathed their sword and pushed at the door to slide it open. The door protested with a squeal, but recent upgrades to their spire exoskeleton had increased the level of their physical strength augmentation enough that it slowly gave way.
A bright, blue glow lit up the darkness and Caretaker was forced to switch back to standard vision.
Opening the door revealed something. Caretaker didn’t know what they discovered.
The room itself was filled with dozens of different instruments. They appeared to be a mix of containment and recording instruments. But it wasn’t those things that drew Caretaker’s eyes.
The blue glow was coming from the object in the center of the room.
It was perhaps half again as large as a Threnosh’s head. It was roughly spherical in shape, but appeared to be made of a crystalline substance with a rough surface filled with irregular pockmarks and small, jagged protuberances.
Affixed to its surface were several wires that ran down the narrow, metallic pedestal it was set on to the instruments along the outer edges of the circular room.
Caretaker felt the object calling to them. They took a step toward it when their predictive algorithm gave them a sudden warning. In one smooth motion, they pulled the sword from its sheath and spun around with a sweeping slash. Just as quickly as it gave the warning, the predictive algorithm told them to stop immediately.
The blade stopped inches from the side of Shira’s head.
“Apologies,” Caretakers said as they sheathed the sword.
“Unnecessary. I saw that you were stopping your strike. If you did not I would have easily avoided it,” Shira said flatly.
Caretaker saw the teasing hint in Shira’s eyes visible behind the lenses of their helmet’s fearsome face mask. “Your trueskin’s ability to hide in the darkness has grown immensely.”
“Yes. The upgrade was a worthwhile purchase.”
“I assume that you have searched the rest of the chamber.”
Shira nodded. “I too found something,” their eyes drifted to the glowing blue object behind Caretaker, “though not as interesting as your discovery.”
“Survivors?”
“Yes. Four total. Researchers and assistants. I left them with Adjudicator.”
“Good,” Caretaker considered the object in the center of the room. “I believe that this is what attracted the organisms.”
“Likely,” Shira agreed. “The evidence points to that conclusion. This creates an issue that needs to be addressed.”
Caretaker nodded. “What do we do with it?”
“It is probable that it will continue to attract organisms. With the path to it now clear they will be able to reach it without difficulty unless a guard is posted and the settlement defense force has already proved that it is incapable. It is certain that organisms cannot be allowed to reach it.”
“I concur. Though we do not know why the organisms wanted to reach the object, it is only prudent to prevent such an event from transpiring. There is only one logical course of action. We must take it and keep it safe for now.”
“Agreed,” Shira said quickly.
“Take the survivors back to the staging area. Send Volkharion and Frequency to me.”
“The settlement administrators will see the survivors and will ask questions. It was very important to them that we did not spend too much time lingering here.”
“Tell them that we are being certain that there are no more survivors.”
Shira nodded and slipped back into the darkness of the next chamber. Caretaker had their eyes on Shira the entire time, but they would’ve been hard pressed to say when the black-clad Threnosh actually disappeared from their vision.
Caretaker had two tasks to accomplish. One, figure out how to transport the glowing blue object without it being detected. Two, get Volkharion and Frequency to go through the workstations and extract as much information as possible. They were certain that whatever the research facility had discovered about the blue object was locked away in its database.
But before Caretaker could get started a chime sounded in their ear holes, while text appeared in their vision.
Task Completed.
Clear Research Facility 287632.
Success Parameters: Destroyed Invasive Organisms.
Failure Parameter: None.
Reward: 25000 Universal Points.
Bonus Task Completed.
Rescue Survivors.
5 / 5
Reward: Reputation gained.