Now, Southern California
“Ah… is this the infamous ‘Plane-arium’?”
“Huh?” Rayna’s head swung around. “Damn you, old brother! Can you not sneak up on me?”
A raised brow. “Hrrmmm… you didn’t sense me? Good to note.”
“What do you want?” she blinked. “Did you just say ‘plane-arium’?”
“I recently developed a bone disease that makes it impossible to pronounce the ‘T’,” Cal pouted.
“Ha ha… your dad-lameness continues to progress,” she waved a hand dismissively.
“So, what’s all this?” he gestured toward the small group of teens reenacting the solar system a dozen feet above the ranger’s main training grounds. He recognized a few faces, including Prim as what appeared to be one of Neptune’s moons judging by her positioning in relation to the rest.
“Academy rivalry got a bit out of hand. It’s just a little lesson in not acting like idiots. Kayl’s idea.”
The Ranger Colonel was indeed off to the side hurling water balloons at the slowly orbiting teens. “This is what happens when you fuck around! You find out!” she jeered.
He also noticed the Furies lobbying water balloons at Prim.
“We’re very disappointed in you, young lady,” Jayde tutted.
The girl’s long blond hair clung to her face in wet clumps.
“I think this is child abuse,” he whispered to his sister. Thoughts of the crucible were fresh in his mind even though several weeks had passed since he had dropped off some of the collared enslaved with Ms. Teacher so that she could begin her research.
“Some people wanted to use fruit and vegetables. Some wanted those old dodgeballs. I put my foot down. This seemed a good compromise. This is what they get for turning a simple food fight into a brawl. We are now down one cafeteria. Which leaves us with zero,” Rayna said.
“Okay… then why are they up there too? They aren’t junior rangers,” he gestured toward Venus and Mercury, also known as Ambrose and Rai.
“C’mon, guys! Not in the ear!” Rai pleaded.
“Bad luck for them. Normally, they’d get crap duty like graveyard watch over at the hills or manning the help desk at one of our kiosks. They ignored a retreat order. Almost got themselves and the rest of their squad killed down in San Diego. Sergeant Mouthy wanted five minutes alone with them. The timing worked out so, I decided that this was better for everyone involved.”
The woman in question hurled a water balloon at Ambrose’s face with all her might, followed by a second into Rai’s face. “You lucky shits! Disobey my orders again and it’ll be my fist if the zombie hippos don’t get you first!” she stomped away.
“Hippos… second most dangerous land animal in the world,” Cal nodded in agreement. “How long are you going to keep them up there? It’s kind of nippy out here. They’ll catch a cold.”
“Yeah, okay, Mom,” Rayna rolled her eyes. “It’s supposed to be a punishment. Getting a cold is the least of their concerns when they’ve already got my disappointment and disapproval.”
“Spoken like Mom. You tell them how much you’ve sacrificed for them yet? How many hours you spent in labor?”
“Whatever?” she scoffed. “How’s little ‘Super Dinosaurman’?”
“We vetoed that name,” he sighed.
“You really dropped the ball with the whole ‘I’ll let him pick his own name, doesn’t that seem the most fair’,” she laughed.
“Turns out that for all the stupid names that parents give their kids… kids are even worse at it. Who could’ve foreseen such an unexpected development?” he sighed. “Maybe we’ll call him ‘Rayn’ or ‘Rayna2’ or since he likes dinosaurs, ‘Raynasaurus Rex’.”
“Rayna Lizard King… that’s dumb, even for you. The first one would be an honor,” she nodded solemnly.
“Or maybe ‘Nil’ after Nila, though she hates that one.”
“Yeah, cause it literally means ‘nothing’,” she stared at him as though he had just sprouted a second head.
“Nah, it means ‘Zero’, plenty of cool comic and anime characters call themselves that.”
“Please don’t name him after fictional pop culture characters.”
“Yeah, it’s tough. Might have to put together a brainstorming committee. Would you be interested?”
“Yes,” she said flatly, “I absolutely don’t have more important things to worry about.”
“What about “Alin’? It sounds like a real Earthian name?”
“Stop trying to make ‘Earthian’ happen,” she shook her head. “For someone that’s supposed to be smart you come up with dumb ideas. I know some of it is on purpose to get a laugh, but then sometimes I wonder if I’m wrong. And you can’t just reverse names people already have. It’s a stupid way to go about it.”
“Speaking of ideas… I really came here because I wanted to touch base concerning the enslaved people I brought back.”
Rayna sighed. “We tried to follow Galadriel’s instructions, but our magic users just aren’t remotely near her level. And so we had to fall back on the good old medically induced coma. You said that if they were awake they’d go crazy doing anything to escape and get back to this slave kingdom,” her face twisted like she just smelled open, stagnant sewer water in the heat of summer. “We can keep them like that for awhile, but it can’t be healthy for them. I don’t know why you didn’t just make that elf lady wizard take care of them all.”
“She flatly refused to take more than 10. The other 40 are my responsibility.”
“Ours.”
“Yeah, that… thank you, most generous sister with too much on her plate.”
“Yet, you keep putting brussels sprouts on it.”
“Look, when I’m around I’ll make sure to reinforce the whole coma thing. Keep them in a pleasant dream state.”
“You’re going to Mexico,” she pouted.
“Not until after the new year.”
“Oh good then you’ll be around for a month.”
“Closer to two.”
“Great! Then you can help me out!”
“Whatever you want.”
“Soccer mom duties.”
He raised a brow.
“You can transport rangers to and from the undead front. Oh, we also want to expand our wyvern and drake program. You can grab some more eggs. Help with the aerial combat training. We’re thinking of starting a breeding program. Help with training in general. The academy could use you as a sparring partner. Nila told me about Crucible thing. Sounds like child abuse, but those kids leveled up. I figure you can, like, push the academy kids to brink and maybe that’ll help them get a few levels. Might even work with full Rangers. Nothing like a life or death challenge to gain levels. And the landsharks have been increasing in numbers. You can take care of that. Mom’s been bugging me about the guy I’m dating.”
He held up a hand. “I can help with most of that. But what do you want me to do about Mom? She’s still in Manila with Dad.”
“She sends a spires message everyday,” she grabbed his shoulder. “Don’t you see? I only check once a week. There’s over two hours of Mom messages waiting for me every time and for some stupid reason the messaging system tells the sender if I’ve watched a message in its entirety, even if I’ve fast forwarded. She knows, Cal! Mom knows! And she lets me know!” her shoulders slumped. “And then Dad will send a message. You have to do that older brother thing.”
“What thing?”
“Fix it!”
He patted her on the head. “Heavy is the crown… maybe you can take a few days. Fly over th—”
“No!” she hissed.
“Okay,” he held up a real hand. “I’ll message her. As for the rest… no problem, minus the child abuse and fighting your rangers to the point that they think they’re going to die. I’ll train with them, but like a normal person. I need to wait on Ms. Teacher’s findings in any case.”
“You got a preliminary plan? Invading a kingdom and freeing thousands of slaves isn’t something you just do on a whim. You got to have a plan for before, during and after. The after being the most important part. You can’t just go in, blow everything up and be all ‘mission accomplished’ like some kind of butthole.”
He looked at his sister with puppy-dog eyes.
“Well, obviously any freed person that wants to can move here,” she rolled her eyes.
“You’re the best… around… nothing’s ever gonna keep you down…”
“And you made it lame… shoo, I’ve got a solar system to concentrate on.”
A ranger hurled something red at Ganymede.
The tomato swerved away and curved back in an arc to slam into the ranger’s face.
“Ranger Dillon, you dick!” Rayna roared. “Up you go.” She put the young man into orbit at the very outer edge of the model solar system.
The young ranger protested.
“You know the rules! Water balloons only!”
“Which one is he supposed to be?” Cal said.
“Don’t know,” she shrugged, “asteroid? Comet? Whatever.”
“He can be the Gah Lak Tus swarm.”
“What’s that?” she feigned incomprehension. “I don’t speak dork.”
“Mogo?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t take the dork elective in college. Please go away now,” she shooed him.
He watched Kayl, the Furies and every other ranger currently in attendance eagerly line up to pelt Ranger Dillon. The young ranger’s thoughts were filled with deep, heartfelt regret.
----------------------------------------
Now, Mexico
The year was 2033.
The place?
Mexico City.
The temperature in January?
A nice, comfortable 69°.
“Nature really did heal,” Cal idly remarked.
“That’s not funny,” Nila said.
“What?”
“Billions of people died.”
“I know that. I’m just remarking on a factual thing. People died, which was terrible and I’m not minimizing that. Survivors suffered, yet the environment is doing better.”
“It’s a bad example for… him,” she nodded surreptitiously toward the little guy in his booster seat.
“Mom, I’m Super Dinosaurman,” he said reproachfully.
She sighed.
This is your fault, she thought.
Sorry… which is why we need to get ‘Alin’ to stick before it gets even harder.”
We are not naming him with my name, but just backwards. Why not ‘Lac’ then? Or ‘Nimlac’?
Because those are obviously not Earthian-sounding names. This isn’t a fantasy world.
“Dad, I’m Super Dinosaurman!”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Yeah… and that’s an awesome code name, but you know that’s different from a real name, right?”
“No. is name,” the little guy tapped a pudgy hand to his chest.
A grease-covered hand on his formerly clean white shirt.
Great save…
“You’ll understand one day.” Cal cleaned the little guy’s hand with a napkin. “So, Nila, how do you like the food? Authentic Mexican food for the first time ever. Since the SoCal stuff is technically a different thing.”
There was a broad array of antojitos spread out on the table.
The waiter had looked at them oddly when they had ordered.
The odd looks spread to the other diners as Cal and Nila proceeded to eat everything without showing any signs of slowing down.
The little guy loved the birria tacos. Unfortunately, the lack of fine motor control in his child hands meant that he spilled as much of the sauce that he got on the taco with each dip.
“It’s great,” she sighed. “I always wanted to travel here, but…”
“What’s wrong? We haven’t had to fight anyone or anything. The roving gangs aren’t roving and they’re surprisingly decent overall. I don’t speak from first hand knowledge but from the looks of things it’s much more safe and peaceful in this entire region than it was back in the old days.”
That wasn’t entirely accurate.
The city itself wasn’t the violent, lawless hellhole that the ignorant believed it to be. Like any major city there had been good parts, bad parts and everything in between.
Now however?
It was mostly good.
Granted, like every other place it had been drastically depopulated.
The locals’ main worries now came from monsters, mutant animals and bad actors in other areas.
The areas not under the protection of the individual that Ms. Teacher had apparently sent Cal here to meet.
His only problem was that he couldn’t find the man or woman in question.
Which was unexpected.
He had scanned the entire city, every small settlement they had passed on the way down and entire swaths of land miles around.
Asking around hadn’t yielded much information beyond confirmation that there was a protector and that if they were nice then they were free to spend their gold and silver to enjoy their vacation.
“Everyone’s so nice,” he mused.
“It helps that there’s no language barrier. Everyone can be comfortable speaking their own language. It puts people on equal footing,” Nila said.
“I’m enjoying the peaceful family time, but it’s been a few days and we did come here for multiple reasons. I need to find this mysterious protector.”
The people in the restaurant tried to play it cool but he picked up some concern at his words. He had already scanned the surface of their thoughts and no one knew anything in regards to their protector’s identity only that his arrival was always heralded by a sudden downpour and the crack of thunder and lightning.
Reddish-pink lightning.
“I mean I just want to talk. Ask some questions about collars. Maybe get some help,” he continued.
“Well, we’ve had our fill of food and the local attractions. Why not try something more historical?” Nila said.
“Go on…”
“Rain storms. Reminds me of Tlaloc.”
“Right, Aztec god of rain and other stuff.”
“Why not visit Aztec pyramids? Teotihuacán has the Pyramid of the Sun. Chichén Itzá. Palenque. There’s a bunch. We could learn more at a museum. This protector could be based out of one of those places. It’d be thematic.”
“They also make perfect lairs for eldritch evil and cults. Or they’re probably encounter challenges and spawn zones.”
“Maybe the ones not in the areas the protector is supposed to watch over.”
“So? We start with the closest ones?”
“Yup.”
They finished their meal and headed out.
A quick stop at the National Museum of Archaeology in the city yielded maps and brochures for the most notable ancient sites in the country.
Their initial assessment proved correct.
The archaeological sites that fell with the protected areas had been either completely claimed by Tlaloc or were encounter challenges that groups were actually in the process of using.
It was different at Chichén Itzá out in the Yucatan Peninsula.
That was a spawn zone.
Cal took an hour to clear it back down into an encounter challenge while Nila and the little guy waited in the RV. A fair amount of universal points was his only tangible reward.
Much of the peninsula was devoid of human life.
Monsters and mutant animals had overrun it.
They killed their way to Tulum seeking the ruins at the location.
Another spawn zone awaited them.
Cal cleared it quickly and they decided to take a break on the beach.
Landsharks immediately came charging out of the water.
Cal broke them with a thought and hurled the bodies far out into the ocean, past where the currents would take them back to the shore.
A thought sent the rest of the monsters and mutant animals in the immediate area scurrying away from the presence of a greater predator.
“How bout we spend the rest of the day enjoying the beach? Look how nice the sand and water look,” he said.
“Can we make sandcastle?” the little guy said.
“Yes, we can!” Nila smiled. “Are you sure those bodies won’t come back?” she whispered to Cal. “I don’t want him swimming in corpse-y water.”
“They’re like a mile out.”
“Okay, then we’re changing into our swimsuits.”
“I’ll claim one of the hotels so we can get some fancy snacks and drinks. I’ve already sent every dangerous thing in the area running, so you don’t have to worry. I’ll keep an eye on things anyways and let you know if there’s an emergency,” he tapped his temple.
“Hurry up and join us.”
Several hours later as the sun set the little family gathered around the fire pit. Piles of skewered meat and vegetables stacked high on multiple trays beside them.
Cold drinks in hand, Cal watched the sunset.
“So pretty,” Nila said.
The warm yellows and oranges slowly gave way to reds and cool purples.
He looked at her. “Absolutely.”
The little guy drooled as he slept on her chest while the two reclined on the beach chair.
“So, Palenque tomorrow?”
“Sure,” Nila yawned.
“You’re tired? You haven’t exactly done much today. What happened to that superhuman stamina?”
Nila snorted. “It’s more draining sitting around in the RV while you’re fighting. More tense for me and I can’t expend that energy.”
“Playing on the beach?”
“Keeping up with a 2 year old is tough,” she smiled. Tired, but content.
The kebabs rose into the air and hovered over the fire.
Cal leaned back into his chair.
Powers did make things easier.
It would’ve been perfect if he didn’t need them to fight.
“So, ‘Alin’?” she mused. “It’s better than ‘Nil’.”
They discussed the name and others as they ate and drank at their leisure.
Night descended in full.
“I love staring up at the stars,” Nila said.
Cal agreed even as he sent out a powerful telepathic blade to slice the psyche of a nameless horror slowly sneaking up on them from the jungle.
No interruptions.
Not this night.
Time slowly ticked away.
The fire dwindled along with the food and drink.
Cal kept it alive by floating more wood into the pit.
“I wouldn’t mind this lasting forever,” he said dreamily.
That was when a bright reddish flash from the east briefly lit up the darkness.
The crack of thunder followed several seconds later.
“Huh?”
“I guess I should get changed and get the little guy to a safe spot. I’m not getting into a fight in a bikini,” Nila rose.
“Don’t worry. There won’t be a fight. This Tlaloc guy is a protector. We’ll just chat and be buddies.”
“That’s not how that works. I’ve read more than enough of your nerd comics to know that,” Nila cradled the little guy protectively as she sprinted back to their hotel room where her armor and weapons waited.
The rain fell a moment later.
----------------------------------------
Cal sprinted through the jungle.
When the undergrowth became too dense he took the treetops leaping from branch to branch until he reached the edge of a clearing.
The rain had strengthened pouring in thick sheets of stinging drops.
The thick canopy kept him somewhat dry.
He wanted to keep things as close to the vest as possible so he had refrained from using his powers beyond keeping a mental eye on his surroundings, on his family a few miles back at the hotel, and a feathery touch on the approaching man’s thoughts.
He sat on the thick tree branch and waited.
A thick bolt of red-pink lightning crackled down from the sky.
That was right.
He had sped up his perceptions.
The lightning came down from high up in the sky.
Not like actual lightning that sorta does both with the visible part coming up from the ground to meet the path of invisible negative energy from the clouds.
A giant, yoked specimen of a man appeared in the center of a wide circles of scorched grass and earth in the clearing. Dark skin the color of bronze glistened beneath the rain. He planted an enormous axe of obsidian like a flag at his side then crossed arms with biceps as thick as Cal’s thighs across a chest that was as broad as one and a half Cals.
“Everyone’s so fucking huge,” Cal grumbled.
The man wasn’t only huge, he was also ripped. He glared out to the tree line, dark eyes scanning down over an aquiline nose. Long, coarse, thick black hair was plastered to his wide forehead. That broad-featured face carried all the promise of the violent storm raging overhead.
He looked chiseled out of stone. Like the statues and carvings Cal had seen plenty of during the day.
“I’ll give you one warning!” the man’s voice boomed like thunder.
No accent.
The slight, uncanny valley feeling when the listener was really paying attention.
Something to do with how the order of a noun and a verb in a sentence differed across the various languages.
The universal translation system at work.
“Leave! You have till the sun rises!”
Cal leapt down to the ground and slowly emerged from the shadows with his hands open and held wide. “Just want to talk.”
“You have till sunrise,” the man repeated.
“How are you breaking the slave collars without breaking the people’s brains?” he decided to get right to his most pressing question.
“What are you talking about, little man?” dark eyes narrowed.
Cal held off from scanning deeper into the man’s thoughts.
There was something like great age in that look.
The bone-weary feel of a long life lived through tough, grueling work. Completely incongruous with the towering form a man in the prime of life.
“You’re their ‘protector’, they call you Tlaloc or do you call yourself that? You’ve set hundreds free with the twist of a wrist. Removed the slave class? How?”
“You want them back?” the man bared perfect, white teeth in a feral snarl. “They’re under my protection. You’ll never have them again!” the man, this Tlaloc pointed.
Cal cursed.
Nila was right.
He threw himself into the muddy ground to avoid the bolt of red-pink lightning.
The axe that was almost as tall as him came next.
He rolled to the side in a shower of grass and mud.
The obsidian blade trembled the earth as it sank deep.
Too close.
Time to use his full powers?
Tlaloc held a hand toward the axe.
The giant man shot forward like a cannonball.
Almost too fast for Cal to follow with his normal vision.
In a second the man grabbed his axe, ripped it free from the earth, whirled it overhead and slashed exactly where Cal had been.
The god of rain didn’t want to talk?
That was fine.
The man had Eron-like strength?
Less fine.
The rain carried an enervating effect?
That was a problem.
Cal put up a telekinetic shield to outline his body and keep the rain from touching his skin. He instantly felt refreshed. The fatigue had crept up on him like an insidious snake.
The axe descended again.
He caught the blade in his hand millimeters from his bare palm.
He had to bolster his physical strength with mental power to stop and hold the axe in place.
Taut cords of muscles bulged visibly in Tlaloc’s bare torso. He tried to pull the axe back and failed. He added his other hand to the handle.
Cal held it in place.
“Let’s not do this, yeah? I’m not one of those slaver scum. I’m here because I need to destroy their kingdom and find a way to forever ruin those collars. Otherwise some piece of garbage will just try again in the future,” he said. “We’re on the same side on this.”
“I’m not falling for your lies!” Tlaloc unleashed a lightning covered punch into Cal’s face.
Tlaloc was much faster than he looked.
Cal tumbled across the mud. Telekinetic shield kept him uninjured.
The axe descended.
He shunted it to one side and moved forward with a telekinetically-empowered punch.
Tlaloc flew right into it. Took it in the throat.
A momentary look of surprise on the man’s face turned into anger.
Cal ducked and weaved around around two wide, looping punches ending up behind.
Like dodging swinging tree trunks.
He dug hooks into Tlaloc’s lower back. Right in the kidneys.
Like punching an anvil.
Cal flowed up the man’s back grabbed his head and swung him up into the air like one of those crazy strong man events with them trying to throw a keg over a high bar.
A dozen feet.
A hundred.
A thousand.
Tlaloc spun like a frisbee until he crashed somewhere in the distant jungle.
Cal regarded the huge, obsidian axe.
The blade was almost as big as his entire torso.
He carefully grabbed the handle.
“Ow!”
One of the jagged edges actually cut through the protections of both his shield and his superhumanly tough skin.
“That’s some magic bullshit,” he muttered.
He grabbed it with telekinesis and sent it flying in the opposite direction from Tlaloc.
“Let’s see if that’s the source of your power,” he said.
It seemed like a reasonable assumption without digging deeper into the man’s thoughts.
Cal wasn’t yet at the point that he’d be willing to go that far against someone that he wanted on his side.
He didn’t want to chance burning that bridge.
Back at the hotel several miles away Nila stood in her armor making sure to keep the little guy covered. She gazed out the window as it rattled in its frame. “It’s raining sideways,” she muttered.