“Hell of a speech, lad.” Sheila said over her shoulder as she pulled their group out of the zoo’s main gate and back onto the main streets. It was just the three of them, seeing as Kurt, Michael, and Smith had all stayed behind to clean up, and Lily had already left. “An’ they all promised to join then?”
“Everyone who showed up. The whole theater’s worth.” Ryan confirmed. “A fair number are going to be bringing their families by the base tomorrow to bring them in as well. So, we’ll need to be ready for that.”
The dark dwarf slapped the dash of her new vehicle and let out a whooping cheer.
“I take that to mean you have jobs lined up and waiting?” Ryan asked with a grin at her enthusiasm, already knowing the answer.
“Aye, you can bet I do. Depending on their power, they’ll either be workin’ on the new plant, shorin’ up our defenses, or joinin’ the repair crews. Assuming you give ‘em to me that is.”
“Anyone with a non-combat power or skill set is all yours. Same for any combat-types who have had enough of it for now.” Ryan explained, breaking down the majority of the power sets he had seen so far into two groups. “Utility types who want to fight have a few options, but since most of them would involve getting new powers, I want them to earn that right first. Unless they fit into a specific team somewhere.”
“Makes sense.” Sheila said, taking the onramp to the highway as she headed towards their base in the first. “We still doin’ the ops teams, then?”
“Yep, and we’re going to expand them.” Ryan pulled a list of names of those who had combat powers that he had written down earlier out of his bag and handed it over to Lucas, who started skimming it over. The editor adjusted his tie, loosened it, and then just pulled the whole thing off. He leaned back in his seat. Ahh… so much better without the tie.
“By this time next week, I want our ops teams ready to at least defend the town in some kind of organized fashion if the Patriot shows up pissed off that we cut his supply of slaves.” Ryan continued, looking out one of the hardened windows towards the treeline. “After that we’ll work on expanding.”
“Captain Stone reported back an hour ago.” Lucas said, without looking up from the list of names. “He’s headed back to base, too. Whatever he found out, he wants to meet to discuss it tonight.”
Ryan nodded, mentally writing off tonight as another one in which he likely wouldn’t be getting any sleep. Stifling a yawn at the very thought, he pulled up his power.
Would you like to remove the need for sleep with no ill effects? Cost: 590 points per day of sleep skipped. Yes, or no?
By the time his yawn had finished, Ryan already felt the exhaustion leaving him entirely. His energy capacity dropped, but he could refill it at one of the solar stations when they arrived. He still wondered if there would be any long term consequences for skipping out on actual rest, but so far there had been none.
I’ll give it one more day, then get some actual sleep. Ryan promised himself, and the thought brightened his mood. He leaned forward in his seat and tapped Sheila’s headrest.
“Any chance I could drive the rest of the way?”
“Not unless you want to try an’ pry this out of me hands.” The dark dwarf shot back, clearly in good spirits as she drove Wolfenstein 3.0’s massive wheels over the hood of another car, crumpling it like a beer can on frat night. “This lil beauty an' I are in love. That’s the second Pinto she's crushed for me in as many minutes. Oooh, look! A Dodge! Poorly named, that one.”
Sheila cackled with dark, gleeful laughter as she flattened yet another abandoned vehice. Lucas chuckled as the big wolf readjusted his seatbelt, and Ryan slid back in his seat with a resigned grin of his own.
“Fair enough, had to ask." Then, because he couldn't help himself, the editor added. "You know we're supposed to be rebuilding Arborville, right? Not turning it into a scrapyard?"
"Oh, hush. Like you couldn't twist that thing back into its rightful way with a tap an' a wink. Let an old woman have her fun."
Ryan shook his head at her, but then his freshly rejuvenated mind latched onto an idea. If they were going to be remodeling the town anyway, why not do it from the bottom up? If he could give several crews a power to disassemble structures safely – even just wood and metal – then give a few more crews a power to build with those materials more quickly… the editor pulled up his power, frowning in concentration. After a few silent minutes of playing with hypotheticals, Ryan managed to come up with a complimentary set of cost-effective individual powers.
Superpower:
Structured Disassembly (Limited): Grants the capability to quickly and efficiently disassemble material objects into their component pieces in an orderly fashion decided by the user. User must remain in contact with the object and visualize the desired deconstruction process or goal. Energy requirements are based on target mass, materials, and strength of target bonds. Power is further limited to wood, metal, and plastic building composites.
Estimated cost to add power to an individual: 27,000 points.
Superpower:
Structured Assembly (Limited): Grants the capability to quickly and efficiently assemble material objects into a known design. User must touch each individual piece to be added, visualize the desired construction process, and remain within close proximity to the build. Energy requirements are based on target mass, materials, and strength of desired bonds. Power is further limited to wood, metal, and plastic building composites.
Estimated cost to add power to an individual: 23,000 points.
That ought to work. Ryan thought to himself with satisfaction. If they need something else, we can always adjust the range of materials. It's expensive, but at least the cost is manageable as far as powers go.
It was starting to get easier for Ryan to figure out how much it might cost him to give someone else a new power. There was a certain logic to it, and the more restrictions he added, or the less he tried to break what he supposed were the "old" laws of physics, the cheaper the power normally was. Touch based powers were the pinnacle of that, and anything that went the other way typically came with an exorbitant cost. If it could take effect on something at a distance, the power's cost went up exponentially the further out you went.
After mulling over a few other potential changes to the new powers he had just thought up and reviewing the cost changes, Ryan decided to just leave them as is. Then he shared his surely brilliant idea of making supercharged construction/deconstruction crews with Lucas and Sheila, along with his thoughts on how the powers ought to work and his reasoning behind the restrictions.
When the dark dwarf picked her jaw up off her lap, she immediately began making suggestions that Ryan hadn't considered.
"Can ye make it so that whatever was used to bond materials together isn't lost? To extract the nuts, nails, an' bolts without breakin' 'em? That'd be half a power on its own. Even if ye can't, bein' able to just dissolve the glue or what have ye without tearing things the wrong way would save more time than ye might think."
"I can see what that will cos–" Ryan began, but Sheila bowled right over him. Her agile mind already spinning out new possibilities as her mouth struggled to catch up to her excitement.
"What about adjusting welds? Can you have a power that just melds the weld back into the metal? What if the structure is reinforced with concrete? Can you extract that or do you need to be able to break down the concrete, too? Can you revert it? Just turn the whole slab back to–”
“Alright, alright, enough!” Ryan protested with a laugh, holding up his hands in mock surrender as the vehicle lurched forward, Sheila scarcely even paying attention as Wolfenstein ran over a pickup truck. “I’ll go over the specifics of what you need later, just watch the road! We don’t need to be testing the rollcage if you barrel us over the edge.”
Sheila’s excitement slowed down only the barest hint as she re-adjusted course back to the only relatively cleared lane. She spent the rest of the drive back peppering him with questions on power costs and what they could feasibly accomplish with a purpose-built construction or deconstruction power. Ryan had to push back several times due to energy cost requirements, but the dark dwarf scarcely seemed to notice. She only wanted to know if she could get it as well – a question to which the editor readily agreed.
Might need to look into designing a purpose-built power for all the departments. Give everyone a common base to work from. Ryan thought as they pulled back up to the base’s cleared grass ‘parking lot’. It would make cooperation a lot easier, especially when we start to expand out. Then we could come up with a training plan that incorporates it…
Ryan lost himself in thought as he exited the vehicle and headed in. Their base, the now-infamous ‘Ground Zero’, had seen extensive renovations in the last few days. In fact, thanks to a few sleepless nights, it was no longer a hole in the ground.
Now they had a single story, concrete-reinforced building with bank-vault style doors that served as both an armed checkpoint and the primary entrance.
To their hole in the ground.
Definitely different.
"Evenin' Jake." Ryan called as the heavy steel door rolled open.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Good evening, Mr. Richards." Rumbled the massive, humanoid-shaped set of boulders that was Jake Granitol.
"Any trouble tonight?"
"No, sir. The forest has been quiet since the zookeeper came by the other night."
"Ah, yeah. Kurt mentioned he'd taken care of our wolf problem." Ryan said as he headed down the stairs into the base proper. "I'm sure I'll be back up later, let me know if you need anything when I swing back around."
"Of course, Mr. Richards."
Not long ago, Jake had been serving his role of entry checkpoint security when he had died helping defend Ground Zero from a small army of mercenaries before Ryan, Lucas, and the rest had made it back to help. The stone man's valiant last stand, alongside the security team led by Captain Stone who had also given his life that night, had been critical to ensuring many of their people had time to make it into the shelter. Without them, many more would have died. Most of them kids.
After being brought back from the dead, the already polite Jake had started treating Ryan like he was the mob boss leading a prestigious crime family: with lots of respect, and fierce loyalty. It hadn't hurt that Ground Zero's first line defender had been given top priority by the editor when it came to receiving new upgrades.
God help anyone who tries to force their way through him now. Ryan mused as he made his way to the base elevator towards the meeting room. Dude's power set is almost as nasty as Lucas's.
This late at night, most everyone who had chosen to live underground instead of in their homes was fast asleep. Silence surrounded the editor's thoughts as he hoped the base's new defenses would stand up to their latest round of foes.
Or better yet, go unused. If we can take the fight to them, then we can keep Ground Zero and Arborville off the battle map. Ryan wasn't convinced that was possible, but the idea was nice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Alright, Captain. Report. What do you have for me?” Ryan asked, once all of his key players were in the room.
John Stone, Captain of Arborville’s new security forces division, brought his right hand up for a relaxed salute. Ryan had never required or even asked for it, but like Jake, John seemed to be more comfortable showing him greater respect since returning to the living.
“What that deranged bastard told you was correct.” John said, using the term the old soldier preferred for their dearly departed former mayor. “This ‘Patriot’ guy is the final word of authority for every town nearby that would speak to us.”
Ryan nodded, not terribly surprised though admittedly a little disappointed. He had hoped more towns nearby would have fought off this guy’s influence. Beside him, Lucas, the editor’s best friend and battle-scarred special operations lead, leaned forward in his chair. The big wolfman’s recently enlarged musculature causing his seat to squeak in protest at even that small movement.
“His representatives rule either directly or indirectly as ‘advisors’ to whomever is in charge.” John continued, adding dismissive, one-handed air quotes on the word ‘advisors’. “Whatever they call themselves, it amounts to the same damn thing. All local police departments we could contact have also recently had their members either fall in line or get removed, and any resistance put up by their respective citizens has long since been silenced. By all accounts this guy moved smarter, and faster, than our own little tyrant ever did. And the larger towns that put up a real fight against him, he visited personally. Rumor is, one of those towns is now a crater.”
Sheila’s knuckles tightened at those words, and the dark dwarf leading Arborville’s defensive construction efforts started flipping through the various papers arrayed in front of her. Most were sketches or detailed plans that she had brought with her to get Ryan’s support to build, and the editor suspected she was now already beginning to revise her own presentation after this.
“We were able to make contact with at least one underground effort.” John announced, moving right along and drawing Ryan’s attention back to him. “They don’t have an official name or anything, but they did reveal that there have been significant whitewashing campaigns after the fact to change the narrative on what’s occurred for the rest of the population. Murders, disappearances, and rounding up of ‘troublemakers’ have all been swept under the rug. Anyone who asks too many questions ends up the same way, but few to none are doing that.”
The old soldier let out a long, frustrated sigh.
“Not that I can entirely blame them. The folk in the towns we visited were all just trying to put themselves back together. Wrightsville, Milledgeville, Kite, Gordon, hell, even Dublin. Now that the fighting has all but stopped, the Patriot has reportedly moved on to whatever remains of either Florida or South Carolina to subjugate them as well.” John ran a hand through his beard and frowned, looking off into the distance through the wall. “We’re not entirely sure where he is, either. Nor what his powers are. There were too many conflicting stories. He’s either got a dozen powers, a hundred, or people just couldn’t make sense of what they saw. Whatever he does do when he arrives though, the man does it quick – I’ll give him that. Does it quick enough folks just end up playing along rather than risking their families over a challenge they don’t feel like they can win.”
“The people you met with, they didn’t have any information at all on his powers?” Carrie asked, looking up from the laptop she had been aggressively taking notes on. From the faces of the others around the room, it was clear she wasn’t the only one thinking that same question. “I assume at least some were there when he showed up. Are they unwilling to talk? Don’t trust us not to end up being double agents looking to snitch, or something?”
“No, they were willing to share.” John confirmed, shaking his head as if to get a bad taste out of his mouth. “And none of ‘em even thought about asking us if we were working for him.”
“Then…”
“All the rumors we have on his powers come from the aftermath he leaves behind. From what the scene looks like after he’s already left a fight. Or from people I’m pretty sure were lying, or inflating the truth. The one consistent theme we saw from those who claim to actually have been around when he arrived is this: they can’t remember what he did.” John clarified. “Nobody can. There’s no footage, either. No recordings. That’s one of the few things we heard consistently about whenever he rolls through. Technology just stops working for a while, he shows up, and then he leaves. Tech starts working again right after.”
“It can’t be all technology.” Sheila scoffed, though the dwarf woman looked troubled and didn’t even look up from the papers scattered in front of her. “It might just be radio signals, or a comms blackout. Like what happened to us.”
“Maybe he has someone who can affect electrical fields?” Lily suggested, speaking up for the first time from her seat next to the editor. “Roberts, the guy who got us back on the internet before the connection died, said there were lots of posts about people who could do stuff like that.”
“Did he learn anything else about them?” Ryan asked, looking over at her. “Or find out anything we don’t already know about this Patriot guy?”
Lily shook her head. “He had the same problem Captain Stone had. Too many rumors. Said it was hard to find information verified from more than one source. A lot of people posted sure, but they only did so once. Then their accounts just… stopped. Almost all the sites we knew of from before the Trigger are down, though now the most popular ones all redirect to this giant forum called ‘World Web’ someone built. Roberts sounded impressed by it, but we lost connection again before he could figure out where it was actually hosted from.”
Ryan nodded, remembering the relatively excitable and happily pudgy network engineer he had met with for the first time yesterday. Ten seconds into their conversation, Roberts had gone far above the editor’s understanding of how the internet worked while discussing ways to regain access to it. Ultimately, the only thing take-away Ryan had pulled from that conversation was that if he managed to produce enough cabling and other equipment the man needed, then Roberts should be able to get Arborville back online again. The editor had been satisfied with that.
Get the specialists what they need, let them work their magic, and don’t look too deep into the magic box for answers. Ryan thought, before wondering if calling a computer a ‘magic box’ even as a joke made him the technological equivalent of a neanderthal.
John cleared his throat, and the room’s attention returned back to the captain.
“As I was sayin’... Whatever it is we think this guy’s got behind him power and manpower-wise, I suggest we plan as if he’s got more.” The old soldier said seriously, meeting each of their eyes in turn. “There are undoubtedly more cards he’s holdin’ in reserve that we’re just not aware of yet. The world’s got more than we know, and I can promise you it does because I saw at least a few different races while we were out that I haven’t seen around here.”
There was a general nodding heads around the room at that, and John met Ryan’s eyes, giving him a curt nod to indicate his report was done. Which was perfect timing actually as in the editor’s opinion it was time to move on before they got mired down any further on the subject.
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today. Only so many ways to say “big bad supervillain is a big bad threat”.
“Always a good idea. My nerves appreciate it when I’m not underestimating my enemies.” Ryan said aloud with a nod and a wry grin, before gesturing towards Sheila as she continued to scatter her notes about. “How about you? What do you have for us? Something that can withstand a guy who just strolls in and claims entire towns with his magnanimous presence, I hope?”
Though he had meant that statement as nothing more than a wry joke to lighten the mood, everyone present knew it wasn’t one. They really did need their own ace in the hole when it came to defense. But, how were you supposed to plan for something if you didn’t know what it actually was?
“A floating castle, maybe?” Ryan prompted when the dwarf engineer didn’t respond right away.
“Better. Now where is– ah-hah!” Sheila grunted, finally finding the drawing she was looking for and unfurling the poster-sized paper in a single heave. Lily, Carrie, and Ryan helped her smooth it out and weigh it down. “This here be our way forward.”
Everyone leaned in expectantly, and even their captain of security raised his eyebrows as he took it in.
“A mountain!” Sheila announced proudly. The rest of the table stared at her. But before anyone could protest, the dwarf kept going. “It solves all of our problems.”
Sheila beamed down at her map as if it were her life’s dream come true. A few around the table looked at one another, before Ryan asked the obvious question.
“... How?” The editor reached over and tapped the map, which had a giant circle ringing around the town and a mountain-esque shape sketched atop it. “And what’s with the circle?”
“Huh? Oh. Well that’s the beauty of it. The mountain is the circle.” Seeing the obvious confusion on their faces, the dwarf continued. “Any kind of walls or castle we build up will be great– but they’ll just be another target. It won’t stop a man who can walk all over everyone else. But with this.”
Sheila gestured at her drawings again, pushing a few diagrams over here and there so that they matched up with different segments ‘below’ the mountain itself. “We can just hollow it out and–”
“An entire mountain?” Lily asked dubiously, though the biologist seemed excited by the prospect. “How are we–”
Lily’s question was interrupted by a radio handset buzzing to life in the middle of the table. Everyone stopped talking, looking with varying degrees of puzzlement at the device. There weren’t many awake right now who should have one, and those who did knew they were all in a meeting. John picked the radio up, clearly intending to ask what was going on, but Jake Granitol’s voice came through a second later and beat him to it.
“Mr. Richards, a representative claiming to be from the Patriot, is here to see you.”
Stunned silence followed that pronouncement, before their door guard continued.
“Would you like me to have him come back another time, or crush him here?”