Now, American Southwest
“Only five rooms,” Jimenez said.
The twitchy woman seemed relieved at that from what Hayden could tell.
She didn’t see it the same way.
They needed to be tested. Challenged. Otherwise they wouldn’t develop their abilities to their full potential.
And they needed to be at their best when they made found the eternal church’s main base of operations.
Cal had been reticent about what he expected to find there, but she could read between the lines.
A threat that concerned even him was something that she needed to be at her best to stand a chance against.
“I can almost smell the decades of cheap booze and cheaper hookers soaked into this place,” Dayana said.
“Got that right,” Shrewed grunted.
“What is your danger sense at, Jimenez?” Marci said.
“Three-ish.”
Hayden suppressed a sigh. She wondered if each of them could just take a room and be done with it.
Well… maybe not Jimenez.
“What kind of monsters do you think are in there?” Jimenez said.
“Don’t know, gremlins were the starter ones back home, but this is the first time I’ve been in a different state than California since the beginning,” Marci said.
“It was the same in SoCal,” Shrewed said. “You guys from these parts?” he regarded Hayden.
“Texas had gremlins, but I’ve seen other things in other towns,” Dayana said. “Hayden?”
“We’re supposed to be learning to fight together, so let’s treat this like a really serious thing, despite the three on the danger scale,” Hayden said.
“Rooms look tiny. Gonna be a tight fit. I’m thinking Marci goes first since she’s got that huge shield,” Shrewed said.
“I can taunt,” Marci said.
“Same… I’ll follow right behind you and take whatever’s on the right,” Shrewed said.
“I can shoot whatever’s on the left, where Marci is,” Jimenez volunteered.
Hayden eyed the woman’s crossbow. “You can probably save your alchemical stuff for the boss and secret boss.”
“I know.”
“Then, I’ll cover Shrewed’s side of the room,” Hayden said.
“I don’t think I’ll need to get in close, so I’ll just pick up whatever you two miss,” Dayana drew her Colt .45’s.
“Two-fisted shooting, huh?” Shrewed eyed her skeptically.
“I don’t shoot them at the same time. It just gives me 16 rounds before I have to reload,” Dayana frowned.
“That’s the problem with the 1911’s. You’re better off looting a pig pen and getting a Glock or something. 17 rounds in the mag, you get more with one pistol than you do with two. Hell, pick up two of them and you’ve got 34 shots.”
“I like the weight, feel and reliability,” Dayana said stiffly.
“Far be it for me to question someone else’s swag,” Shrewed said as he put his steel helmet on. “Let’s do this! Haven’t fought a real monster in way too long.”
The stocky man’s feral grin was visible through the narrow T-shaped opening in his helmet.
He was the most heavily armored of the bunch. His torso was protected by a chain shirt that fell almost to his knees. Over that was a plate, front and back. Pauldrons covered his shoulders. Thick, spiky bracers enclosed his arms. More metal extended to cover the back of his gloved hands with smaller spiky protrusions. Steel greaves around his lower legs completed the ensemble.
He pulled a trench knife out of the sheaths on each side of his waist. One he held in a standard grip and the other in an ice-pick grip. The spiked knuckle guards looked more dangerous than the short, stabbing blade.
“I’m ready when you are,” Marci already had her shield and spear ready.
Hayden nodded at the only woman taller than her in the group. “You lead the way.”
Marci strode to the door and kicked it open. She stepped inside and was greeted by a handful of pale white humanoid monsters.
Black beady eyes, sharp teeth and claws in a smaller than human average package.
Disgustingly naked.
Not a gremlin.
Something else just as awful to behold.
Marci didn’t bother with Skills, perhaps sensing the lack of true threat.
She simple stepped in and speared the closest monster in the chest.
Shrewed, true to his word, was just behind her. Stepping to the right and meeting a leaping monster with a punch followed by a downward stab that plunged his knife blade into the top of its head.
The loud bang of Dayana’s pistol blew the head off one, while Jimenez’s bolt took another in the chest.
They were nice enough to save one for Hayden. She considered using her all metal taser, but decided not to waste the cartridge since she wasn’t going to be getting anymore on this Quest. Instead she struck it dead with her thin chain and a few thousand volts of electricity.
“That was… disappointingly easy. Sorry, but I don’t think we’ll learn much from this,” Shrewed grunted.
“It’s practice,” Hayden said.
“Same thing in the next room?”
She nodded at Marci.
The next four rooms went much the same way.
Dead monsters in seconds.
They gathered in the parking lot in front of the rooms and prepared for what came next.
“I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but I hope the bosses are a little bit tougher,” Shrewed said.
“What do you think?” Dayana turned to Hayden. “One big thing or one big thing accompanied by a bunch of these little— whatever they are.”
“They look like ghouls, but a lot smaller and weaker. Not that I’ve ever seen an actual ghoul. I mean a real one. Not a fictional one,” Jimenez said.
“I have,” Shrewed said. “We’ve got an undead thing going on in San Diego. I’ve seen a few of those game books and I’d say the real ghouls look pretty much like those. These tiny things are close, but not quite the same.”
“I’d like to know more about this undead issue,” Marci said.
“Sure, if you tell me about how your thing in the Philippines went. The guys that went aren’t talking much about it,” Shrewed said.
“Fair trade of information. After this,” Marci nodded.
Hayden stared at the spires notice hovering in front of her eyes.
She knew that the others saw the same thing if in slightly different forms as filtered through an individual’s perceptions and thoughts.
“Everyone ready for the boss?”
Dayana loaded a fresh magazine.
“One second,” Jimenez hurried as she dipped the tips of several bolts into a variety of bottles. The contents of each bottle was a different color and looked gooey. The twitchy woman drew her crossbow’s string back, but didn’t load a bolt. “I’m ready.”
“Alright,” Hayden eyed the words. “Yes,” she accepted the boss fight.
The others echoed.
The countdown began.
“Keep my distance until we know what we’re up against?” Dayana whispered.
“Yeah,” Hayden nodded.
“Silent Shots.”
When the timer hit zero all hell broke loose at the dingy motel.
The small ghoul-like monsters burst out of each motel room.
The neon light of the sign cast a garish light over the two dozen monsters.
“Taunts!” she called out.
Marci stepped toward the rush and banged her shield. “C’mon!”
The monsters focused on her.
“A lot of little ones it is,” Shrewed stepped toward another thick knot of the snarling things. “Over here!” he stowed one trench knife and drew a large-bodied pistol.
“And he had something to say about my choices,” Dayana snorted. “Compensating much?” she called out.
As if to answer, Shrewed’s Desert Eagle rang like thunder in the cool night desert air.
Dayana fired with soft pops as she circled to Marci’s left.
“Fire in the hole!” Jimenez sent a bolt flying into the thick mass of monsters behind the ones just reaching Marci.
The bright explosion had Hayden blinking away white spots.
“A warning next time,” she said.
“Sorry, explosive gel,” Jimenez said.
The shooters emptied their magazines.
Shrewed punched and stabbed the ones that got close to him.
Marci sent handfuls flying with her shield bashes, while sticking others with her spear like little piglets.
Hayden stayed close to Jimenez.
The twitchy woman hadn’t loosed another bolt. It seemed that she was thinking the same thing.
Where was the boss?
A loud sky-shaking roar announced it’s appearance.
Such was the way of things.
Hayden wasn’t surprised. She had cleared enough places to expect a certain standard unfolding of the process.
The boss, perhaps unsurprisingly, was a much larger version of the pale white humanoid monsters.
It looked to be a bit taller than her, but a lot wider and with more muscles.
“Got another explosive bolt?”
“I can make one, but I think I should save the gel for when we really need it.”
“Your danger sense isn’t going crazy, is it?”
Jimenez nodded. “At about a five. You know, I think I lost perspective after so many events in which it was staying over ten.”
The twitchy woman sounded downright calm as the large ghoul-like monster leapt down from the motel roof and charged.
Jimenez aimed and sent a bolt into the monster’s chest.
A thick purple goop suddenly engulfed most of its chest.
It swiped with a clawed hand only for it to get stuck.
“All yours,” Jimenez grinned.
The monster kept charging.
Hayden shot it with her taser right in the face.
Thousands of volts sent it to the ground, twitching even as its face smoked and blackened as she cooked it.
Several seconds later the spires informed them that they had defeated the boss and asked them if they wished to face the true boss to claim the motel.
“Yes,” they replied.
Hayden pulled the others closer to her as they prepared for the final challenge.
Dayana vanished with a nod.
The countdown hit zero.
The boss monsters corpse suddenly began to writhe.
“Oh… seven,” Jimenez whispered.
“This is going to be one of the more disgusting things to stain my memory,” Shrewed grunted.
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Hayden found herself in agreement.
The corpse flopped around until it settled on its front when its back suddenly exploded in a spray of gore.
“Yup,” Shrewed nodded sagely.
Another ghoul-like humanoid stood in the scattered blood and guts of the boss monster.
Its pale white skin was drenched in blood and adorned with entrails and organs.
There wasn’t much in its features to differentiate from the other white ghoul-like monsters aside from its body being gaunt, almost desiccated in appearance.
It moved in the blink of an eye and covered the ground between it and Shrewed before anyone could react.
The stocky man brought his arms up reflexively.
Sparks flew as the true boss’ claws cut into his bracers.
“Intercept.”
Marci covered the distance in a blur. Her body moved faster than she could’ve otherwise on her own.
She stabbed her spear into the monster’s side.
It screeched and slashed out, cutting through the haft of her spear.
“Shield Slam!” Marci grunted and sent the monster flying a dozen feet.
Shrewed chased after it. “Face-breaker Punch!”
Spiked knuckles shattered the left side of the monster’s face and sent sharp teeth flying.
Hayden aimed her taser, but Shrewed got in her way as he hunted for another shot.
A mistake.
The monster slashed out and caught him in the bicep. At a spot that wasn’t protected by chainmail. The padded fabric of his sleeve was tough, but nothing compared to supernatural strength and sharp claws.
Shrewed suddenly toppled over like a puppet without strings.
The monster reached down to rip his throat out when Marci crashed into it with her shield for the second time.
It responded by pulling her off-balance and slashing her gloved hand.
Just like Shrewed, Marci toppled to the ground, unmoving.
Jimenez fired a bolt at the opening.
The monster caught it in one hand and snapped the composite shaft.
Hayden was a beat slower with her taser.
The monster dodged out of the way.
Instinct or intelligence?
It didn’t matter, did it?
The monster charged her and Jimenez.
The latter was still reloading, while the former knew that she didn’t have time to reload a new cartridge.
Hayden lashed out with her electrified chain.
The monster dodged again going underneath the arc.
It was within steps of Hayden when she heard Dayana’s voice.
“Flicker Movement.”
Hayden backpedaled and dragged Jimenez along with her as Dayana intercepted the monster.
It was like watching a series of still photos mixed in with video in fast forward.
The monster was almost a blur in Hayden’s eyes as it flailed around.
Despite its speed it couldn’t quite land a touch on Dayana.
Each time Dayana appeared it was in a pose of simultaneously avoiding a slash, while firing both guns.
The bright flashes of orange were accompanied by the smaller eruptions of sickly red blood.
Seconds felt like an eternity to Hayden.
Dayana’s Skill was on a timer.
She knew from countless hours of practice and combat together how much longer.
She dashed forward whirling her chain.
Dayana’s guns clicked on empty just as her Skill ended.
Exposed.
The monster raised a clawed-hand to end the dark-skinned young woman.
A frozen moment in time.
The chain struck like a serpent, coiling around the upraised arm.
A predatory grin crossed Hayden’s face as she sent electricity into the monster.
Its body seized up.
White flesh smoked and blackened.
The true boss monster hit the ground a charred and cooked mess.
“Nice!” Dayana shot her a grin.
“You okay?”
Dayana nodded.
Jimenez rushed over to the deathly still Marci.
Hayden followed.
“She’s still breathing,” Jimenez pronounced after a handful of seconds.
Hayden exhaled. “What about—”
Jimenez had already moved over to Shrewed. “Same, breathing, but… they’re blinking, but not moving their eyes. I think they’ve been paralyzed. Breathing and blinking are automatic.”
“That thing barely cut them,” Hayden said.
“Magic or poison,” Dayana said.
“Yes,” Jimenez replied. She took out a small glass bottle from the small pack at her waist. There was a slight glow to the green gel. “Santi based this on the healing spell.”
“Which speeds up the body’s natural healing processes. You think it’ll be enough to get that thing’s poison to run out?” Hayden frowned. “It could also just speed it up to the point that they die from their heart stopping.”
“I don’t think it works that way. Ghouls in fiction are said to have a paralyzing touch,” Jimenez said.
“Figures. They’ve rather take their victims intact to preserve that sweet, sweet meat,” Dayana shrugged.
“It will work,” Jimenez said.
The twitchy woman didn’t waste anymore time as she smeared a small bit of the green gel over the cuts on Marci’s hand and Shrewed’s arm.
“And now we wait,” Dayana murmured.
“I’m claiming this place in our names,” Hayden said. She didn’t want to think about the two of them dying, so she focused on something she could do.
The spires notification hovered in her vision as soon as she focused on it.
The motel was theirs along with five figures in Universal Points to be divided five ways… hopefully.
She looked across the darkened two lane highway at the diner next to the gas station.
The only thing she could make out were flashes of light from the interior.
The other team was fighting too.
She couldn’t envision anything other than success for them since they had Nila.
“This is the worse,” Shrewed slurred.
The weight lifted off Hayden’s shoulders.
“What are you feeling?” she approached the supine man.
“Nothing… these… just… ghouls… San Diego…”
“I think he’s saying that the monsters here are similar to the ones he was talking about earlier,” Dayana added unhelpfully.
“The healing goo looks like it’s working,” Hayden patted the man’s pauldron, “just let it work.”
“Is… fine…” Marci slurred as Jimenez rolled her over onto her back with a grunt.
“Do you have any idea how long until they’re back to normal?”
“Sorry, Hayden, but I don’t,” Jimenez shrugged.
“We might lose out on our shot at the gas station,” Dayana said.
“Doesn’t matter. Our lives come first. Besides, we can reshuffle the teams. The other team might take injuries too.”
----------------------------------------
Nila clubbed the pasty white monster, popping its head like a melon before taking a step back to observe her team in action.
Jayde was strange for a Mage.
Armored, she fought on the front line.
Punching a hole in a monster’s chest with a stone spike that flew through to clip a second monster in the shoulder.
Perhaps, Jayde wasn’t so strange. Next to her, Amber cleaved through a monster’s chest with a conjured sword of the same color as her name. Another monster slashed at her side, but was rebuffed by the translucent amber mage armor resembling knightly plate covering her body.
Trevor stove that monster’s head with a small rock. “All skill baby! Don’t even need to use Skills,” he scoffed.
Lauren or Monsignor, Nila was inclined to refer to the woman as the latter from her familiarity with the rangers she had developed since moving down to Southern California, wore a padded priest’s cassock in black with a chain hauberk layered on top, split at her legs to align with the fabric. Her black pants were covered by riot gear thigh protection and steel greaves over the lower legs. Steel gauntlets and bracers protected her arms while the open-faced steel helm protected her head.
The woman stayed on the defensive, standing protectively in front of Trevor.
She jabbed the sharp point of her triangular shield into a monster’s chest before crushing its head into its body with a downward stroke of her flanged mace.
“I lost the true boss!” Amber’s voice was high and tight.
Nila hadn’t.
The small thing was crouched near the ceiling on top of one of the diner’s long light fixtures.
It leapt.
Nila hurled her baseball bat-like club and clipped it out of the sky.
“Found it!” Trevor hurled a stone that the true boss caught in one, tiny, clawed hand.
It leered a sharp-toothed smile in his direction as it crushed the stone into powder.
“Uh… it’s very strong,” Trevor said.
Nila dashed forward at the same time that the monster leapt again.
She punched it in the chest even as it slashed across her faceplate.
Threnosh make proved superior to supernatural monster claws.
She sent it flying over the front counter of the diner and into the kitchen.
“Damn it,” she muttered.
That was an amateurish mistake.
She could hear it scuttling around back there, but it didn’t reemerge.
Amber cut the last ghoul-like monster down.
“Let’s get the ghoulie!” Jayde grinned like a hungry leopard.
Nila suppressed a sigh.
Much too aggressive.
“Wait—”
Jayde was already leaping over the counter.
The true boss monster jumped out from the order window.
Jayde snapped out a jab, but had been taken completely by surprise. She neglected to punch with a spell.
Nila cursed silently as a loud crack echoed through the dimly-lit diner.
Jayde swallowed a shout as she raised her unbroken arm to block the ghoulie’s attempt to sink its teeth into her face.
“Heater!”
Bright light flared as a baseball with flames trailing burned itself into the monster’s face.
Nila had already been in motion and she pulled Jayde back over the counter like a small sack of potatoes.
The monster snarled as it leapt.
“Magic Missile.”
Amber-colored orbs the size of marbles streaked around her and struck the monster.
She heard a soft prayer begin and end in one breath with two words.
“Smite Evil.”
Monsignor’s whisper was clear thanks to her helmet’s auditory enhancements.
A bright ray of yellow-white light descended from the ceiling like sunlight.
For a moment, night turned to day.
Nila’s faceplate darkened automatically to preserve her vision.
She was the only that was able to watch as the monster burned.
She took up her club and finished it off with a half dozen tile-shattering strikes.
“I’m claiming this place in all of our names,” she said as the notification scrolled in her vision while the voice spoke in her ears.
“A little help?” Jayde waved her broken hand toward Monsignor. “I can heal, but you’re a lot better than me at it and I think I’ve got a lot of little broken bones, which will be a bitch to set properly.”
“My prayer will take care of all of that. However, it’ll take time… the rest of the night and into the early morning,” Monsignor said.
“Shit! That means we’ll be out of the next fight. Forget it. Just help me wrap this up.”
“Please heal her,” Nila said.
“What? No!” Jayde whined.
“You’re not fighting with one hand. There’s no reason to risk it. We’ll touch base with the other team and go from there.”
Monsignor knelt down next to the complaining Jayde. “Shush… Lay on Hands,” she began to pray.
A soft glow surrounded the woman’s hands as she placed them over Jayde’s broken one.
Nila exited the diner and jogged across the road to the other team.
She threw a quick wave at the bus a short distance away.
The headlights blinded her from her two precious guys inside, but she could imagine them watching.
The other team was gathered around two bodies on the ground and her heart skipped for a moment until she caught their words.
Paralyzed, but not dead.
It sounded temporary.
“Ours didn’t have a paralytic touch,” Nila said. “Fast, vicious and strong. Broke Jayde’s hand, but Monsignor is healing her. Unfortunately, that means the both of them are out for the rest of the night.”
“Ha! Sucks for her,” Dayana said.
“We’re down two. Marci and Shrewed are only regaining movement in their fingers and toes,” Hayden said.
“Let’s combine teams to tackle the last two places.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Hayden said.
“Jayde and Monsignor can’t move so let’s move them into the diner.”
Nila bent over and lifted the stocky Shrewed over one shoulder with all the ease of a mother picking up a child.
Jimenez lifted Marci from under her arms, while Hayden picked up the woman’s long legs.
----------------------------------------
The toddler burbled a string of almost words.
Cal eyed the little guy.
He had to admit that he had screwed the whole adoption thing up.
They had kept the little guy for around six months. Had seen him through his estimated first birthday.
The dude was basically his and Nila’s kid at this point.
He was of two minds about it.
Positive and negative.
All from the little guy’s perspective since that was the most important one.
What he thought or wanted was secondary.
The little guy repeated the almost words. This time with more urgency.
Cal noticed that the little guy was pointing a chubby finger out the bus’ windshield.
The headlights illuminated Nila and the others as they crossed the road and went into the diner.
“Don’t worry. They’re fine. No one got killed. Just paralyzed… temporarily.”
The gibberish became clearer the more he paid attention to it.
“A cow?”
…
“Oh… you can see that?”
Out in the desert, many hundreds of yards away in the darkness, was one of those weird headless moose monsters.
He had marked it with his mind’s eye and had subtly influenced it to keep its distance from the little rest stop stretch of the highway.
“It’s not a cow, but close enough. Your words are getting very good!”
The toddler laughed and did a happy little wiggle as he stood on Cal’s lap and slapped the steering wheel in excitement.
“Good eye… not humanly possible, but okay… what do you think about your name?” he changed the subject. “Am I being stupid by not giving you a name? Would you think it’s cooler that you can pick your own name when your old enough to understand? Or would it be weird and you’d be all bitter about it in ten to fifteen years?”
The toddler replied with words that sounded like actual words.
Something about juice.
“Peach, orange, or strawberry?”
The toddler replied with something that sound like ‘yes’.
Cal reached to the back of the bus with his telekinesis.
He filled a sippy cup with equal parts of the three flavors before floating it into the toddler’s grasping fingers.
Something like ‘thank you’ was the reply.
“You’re welcome,” he smiled. “So well-mannered… I have no idea who you’re getting that from.”
He watched as two teams turned into one minus the injured and otherwise occupied headed for the gas station.
“I really hope they don’t accidentally blow the place up. That kind of damage won’t reset before tomorrow morning. Nah, Nila won’t let that happen. Those ghoul things are almost the same as the ones in San Diego. I wonder if there’s a connection. Types and sub-types. That sort of thing,” he shrugged. “I need to visit the spire. Luckily, there’s one only a quarter mile away from here. I think I’ll go after they’ve claimed the rest of the buildings and we can move the bus into the motel parking lot. That should keep you guys safe from all the terrible things out there roaming around in the desert. Would you like to try driving?”
Cal saw them all with his mind’s eye.
The giant headless moose monster was just one and it wasn’t the worst of them.
“That cow!” the toddler pointed.
“Yes! You said ‘cow’, but it isn’t really! I have no idea what it’s called!” he paused a moment. “Let’s not tell anyone how high my voice just got.”
Peals of laughter filled the bus.
“You know… I just realized that this much sugar, this close to bed time, was probably the wrong move,” he regarded the toddler with scrutiny, “was that the plan all along?”
“Like juice!”
“That you do,” he nodded proudly.