Miguel Phelps was a good guy. One of the Good GuysTM, actually. He was a webmaster, and specifically his job was to monitor the communications of kids to try to catch child predators. So far he’d helped lock up eight.

He was also an amateur astronomer, which is why when he’d seen the Astronomy Kid’s video on his website he’d been able to take it down before anyone had shared it. He was pretty sure that nobody had noticed it, he knew that there was a pretty wide scrape out for everyone who had seen one of those obelisks in person, but so far nothing in that area.

His cousin, on the other hand, was a first responder. He didn’t know much about what had happened to his cousin, except that he had arrived at one of the crash sites, or landing sites, and had fallen unconscious shortly after. The communications blackout was in place, and although he’d made several efforts to pierce it, so far he’d heard nothing.

Which didn’t mean that Miguel was helpless. As an experienced webmaster with insider knowledge on how law enforcement works, he had been quite busy setting up a network for the survivors of the obelisks. He knew that many of them had gotten through the net, and he was hoping to help them. If they needed it. If they wanted it.

If he wasn’t making up nightmare situations in his head.

He was coding another website with the still photo he’d taken from the Astronomy Kid’s video when the phone rang. It took him a moment to figure out which phone, because like a drug dealer he had nine of them laying on a nearby table. Different numbers given out in different messages to different people. He couldn’t keep it all straight in his head.

“Who is this?” he asked when he picked up the phone.

“Um, you asked me to call?” a nervous voice on the other line answered.

“Oh, Astronomy Kid. Good, I was hoping you’d see my messages. I want to start off by saying that I’m on your side,” Miguel said.

“You don’t even have any idea what’s going on, do you?” the kid asked.

“Something is happening that’s above my pay grade, that’s true. But innocent people like you are being caught in the middle of it. I want to try to protect those people. Even if it means breaking the law,” Miguel admitted.

The kid was silent for a moment. “Your cousin should be fine. According to the system, everyone is expected to survive the integration. I can’t make any promises about the government, but the thing that knocked him out isn’t dangerous.”

Miguel nodded. “I know he’s awake. I also know that he’s in a quarantine unit. I’m not an emergency contact, and he hasn’t asked to speak with me, so I’m in the dark beyond that.”

“Your cousin, or anyone who has come into contact with him or the others who were there when the Core Stone fell from the sky, you should try to interact with them in person. I’m not entirely certain how the system spreads. It’s like … proximity, I think? Maybe that’s the right word? For me, I feel it jump at about fifteen feet. Closer is better, but it needs to be at least that close to activate.”

Miguel found a pen and started taking notes. “So you’re aware of it when the disease spreads? Do you think there’s any way to stop it?”

“I don’t think we want to stop it, Webmaster. I think that it’s a gift from the Titan Erandius. I think he’s trying to save our species,” the kid answered. “Here’s what I know so far.”

And the kid began to go on about magic, dungeons, and systems. Miguel held his skepticism back and took down notes faithfully. He knew that he ought to report the kid once they hung up, but instead he asked a few probing questions.

“So, once the dungeons opens, you and your friends…”

“If they follow me, then we’re going to try to challenge one,” the kid answered immediately. “According to my familiar, there’s a bunch of benefits for doing so. Like being able to establish a Guild, and accessing the system shop, and a bunch of other factors. And levels, obviously. We don’t get levels for killing other humans, I asked that. Nor any indigenous life. Only Monsters, which will spawn in the dungeons. And if we don’t start clearing dungeons, then eventually the monsters will spawn on the surface as well. I don’t think that’s a good idea, so I want to keep it from happening in my home.”

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Miguel continued taking notes.

“Erandius, you talked to him?” the Webmaster asked. “Do you think you can contact him again?”

“It’s more like my familiar butt dialed him and he picked up the phone before adding me to his blocked list,” the kid said. “He’s busy, I’m lucky that he took the time to explain what he did. But he’s the reason I know that we have three days before the dungeons open.”

“Tell me more about your familiar,” Phelps said.

“Well, he’s a real pain in the butt, for starters. But he’s contractually obligated to help me, and I think that among his people promises are a very big deal,” the kid said. “Look, I’m going to hang up now. I just … I wanted someone out there to know some of the things that I’ve figured out, and I think you’re in a better position to spread them than I am. Good luck, Webmaster.”

“Good luck, Runekeeper,” Miguel said, and the line cut out.

He continued taking notes, and then he sighed.

He began designing a new website, for which he was either about to become famous, or loose all of his credibility, or, perhaps, wind up in a black-ops site. Fortunately, if it was the final option, then he was fairly certain he’d find out pretty soon.

Every hour that passed was another hour that the newly awakened system had to spread. And Miguel knew the power of being an early adopter.

~~~~~~~~~

Hanging up on the webmaster, Eli felt much better. He wasn’t certain how, but he knew that the webmaster had a much better chance of getting the knowledge he’d uncovered out into the world than a regular fifteen year old kid ever could.

Well, he supposed he could re-summon Gabri and have the pixie dance on youtube or something, but he doubted that anyone would believe that the video was real. Ditto on any attempts to do magic on his part.

So instead he’d just tell the truth to an adult, like a responsible young man, and hope that the adult could handle things from there.

Which is what he planned to do once more when his teacher let him into the club headquarters, AKA the science classroom, where there were astronomy charts decorating the walls. The teacher had unlocked the classroom for them when Eli had arranged for an ‘emergency meeting.’ The other teens in the club were already in attendance, and Eli felt it as the system focused on each of them and then made the jump from him to one of them. The other four had already been infected, he realized.

The system was spreading rapidly. He doubted he could have stopped it from hitting everyone in the city at this point. And from there, the state, and from there the country, and from there the world.

At least, if the Webmaster was right and there were others like him.

The kids were talking about the news with the excited voices of excited teenagers talking about exciting things. They were focused on the object in orbit and the landings of the obelisks, glossing over the illness.

He sighed. If he didn’t know what he knew, he’d be a little more concerned about the period of unconsciousness that was caused by the system’s integration. Fortunately, he’d had it confirmed that the system analyzed the situation for threats, and it wouldn’t knock out a driver who was operating a vehicle or anything like that. In fact, except in the cases of the patient zeros like him, most of those newly initiated into the system wouldn’t have their system kick in until the next time they slept.

The system wasn’t in any hurry, it was confident that it would reach everyone in the end.

But Eli’s own plans called for a more proactive approach. So, pulling out the Toga from his backpack, he asked the group “Hey guys, wanna see a magic trick?”

Then he summoned Gabri, who arrived in all of his glory.

“Bow before me, mortals, for I am the mighty—”

“Why is it naked? Oh my god, is it supposed to be that small or is it like, cold out or something?” one of the girls asked.

And that effectively cut through the impossibility of what had just happened as Gabri dressed indignantly and Eli began to explain for the second time in two hours what had just happened.

In the corner, their teacher sat quietly, listening to every word. Because they affected him just as much; his presence had been a calculated part of the teen’s plans.

He was normally a skeptic, but while seeing the manifestation of a ‘familiar’ before his very eyes made him question his sanity, he knew that he was either dreaming or the kid was on to something. So he listened carefully as Eli explained his plan.