Sam paced his breaths as he rappelled down the chopper. The noise from the aircraft couldn’t cloud the myriad of new fears he had thought up on the way to this point.
Yoko, a fellow Regalia Wielder landed beside him and the three boxes the DSF agents threw down. Now that their lives were out of danger— for now at least— Sam bothered enough to be curious about her. She had a way about her, how she carried herself, her powers, the hint of Japanese that came through in her accent.
He wanted to know what it’s been like for her, but her face was scrunched up tighter than foil paper and when it wasn’t she seemed as sad and quiet as Sam thought himself to be. Sam could understand where both anger and melancholy could come from in this situation, her first encounter with the Doom Suppression Force was arguably worse than his, only cushioned by the fact that he, a fellow Regalia Wielder was here.
Is it really? Sam wondered as the DSF agents removed the straps that kept him on the rope. What help was his presence to her? He thought about it from her perspective— which wasn’t hard— and quickly felt the presence of another clueless person wouldn’t soften the blow that they would be fighting monsters for as long as they were in Manila. For as long as Doom Towers existed.
Once Sam and Yoko were free of the straps, Alex came by and instructed them, “Have a go at those crates, see if those Nuclei are any use, recharge your batteries whatever. Just prepare and be fast about it, aerial disruption and backup can only keep the Belua away for so long.”
She didn’t wait for a response and marched away to a corner of the small clearing we’d landed in. The ground here had been razed entirely when the Doom Tower fell and only dirt and ants crawled underfoot. The periphery of the clearing was dotted with clusters of blackened, supernatural trees that had their roots engulfed in an ever burning black flame.
Sam tried not to notice the environment too much or think of how many people lost their lives when the crater they landed in was created. He found Yoko already digging into the boxes with a dour but mildly intrigued look on her features as she inspected the colourful, craggy shaped nuclei of the Belua the DSF had harvested.
Sam wore a smile, succeeding in summoning one was a feat of its own as he approached, “Hey.” He picked a Nuclei and juggled it. It was the size of a tennis ball and a bit cooler in temperature than the last he absorbed with its low green hue.
“Hey.” Yoko answered, her voice struggled to escape.
They’d broken the ice while the DSF navigated the small hell that was the unkind jungle of blackened trees and Sam had felt he made a good enough impression to come out with it.
“These are great.” Yoko spoke first instead, the Nuclei rolled around in her hand before subliming into gas that filtered into her glasses. Caught off guard entirely she flailed at the smoke.
“Whoa, chill, you’re right. It is good.” Sam said, hands held out in caution but Yoko caught herself, the gas had dissipated entirely before she had a chance to wave any away. “So…how much did you get?”
“What? Regalia Points? Just fifty, a common grade.” She picked up another one from the box, “My ‘battery or whatever’ hasn’t recharged any though. How does that work?”
Sam stopped chuckling at Yoko’s jab at Alex, confused, “What you’re asking me?”
“You were going to ask me, weren’t you?” Yoko shifted her weight and folded her arms. “Besides, you’ve been at this longer. You’re all buddied up with the people forcing us into this.”
Her tone was stained with a wide range of emotion and inflection Sam couldn’t get a read on her— that last bit felt especially packed. Still, he wore a smile, “I think we were all invited at the same time, no one got a head start.”
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She gave me a meaningful look and hushed, “So…a hundred of us?”
“Yeah, that’s what it said too.” Sam’s whispered back, “You haven’t met any of the others have you?”
“No, you’re the first but better question, who are those guys really?”
“The Belua? Oh they’re mon-”
“Not them, your friends. Sergeant Alex or whatever, who are the DSF what are the Towers and why…why did we…why did I- just, why?” Yoko went from an angry hush back to miserable in but a few words of reflection.
Sam frowned and patted her shoulder, “I don’t like to think about it either, at least not too deeply. Having your life threatened by monsters twice and coming out on top will do that. But the DSF?” he shrugged, “I don’t know as much as you think I do but I do know they’re the good guys, they want to protect us, protect everyone.”
Yoko scoffed, “Shitty job of that so far. Look, we shouldn’t be here if we don’t want to, do you want to be? And before you answer,” Sam shut his mouth, “Ask yourself if they would let you go if you wanted to leave. And if you know the answer, why are we still here?”
Sam shook his head at her, he had figured this part out by now at least so maybe he was ahead after all. “I think they’re more afraid of us than we are of them and for good reason too. We have superpowers Yoko, they don’t, no one else aside from the hundred of us invited to this thing have this kind of unrestrained power. We’re just as threatening as the Belua if you think about it so if you’re asking if the DSF would let me go, the answer is yes. They can’t afford to fight us and Belua but neither can we.”
Yoko rolled her eyes, “You sound like a villain but…yeah, but I don’t want to be a fugitive. I just want my life.”
“But with powers? And the world ending?”
“You just said there’s others like us.”
“And they aren’t here. We are. Look, Yoko, I’m not trying to appeal to your altruistic side, I’m trying to tell you it doesn’t matter if you’re free to live as you please. As long as there are Doom Towers there will be monsters and they will look for us and kill us.”
She snorted, “Catch twenty-two, fight the war or fight the war. You’re so resigned to fight monsters you’re even willing to go into the thing that brought them here? What are you?”
The more she spoke the more he heard himself. Sam wondered how he could give Yoko what Alex had given him, the realization that everything can be alright if they just didn’t stop fighting. How could he communicate the freedom he felt in owning up to the power of his Regalia, to being one of a hundred people that could be considered living weapons, superheroes. How could he sum up his newfound fighting spirit?
“I’m a Regalia Wielder and so are you, Yoko, whether you like it or not you’ve been granted unimaginable power, the kind that the world still doesn’t understand or know about. And you’re going to help because when or if the world burns down, there will be no one left to stand behind between you and the monsters out for our hides.”
Yoko was visibly stunned. Her mouth hung open and she blinked rapidly at him as she stuttered, “Uh, uhm…yeah, no you’re right.” She laughed awkwardly, “I just didn’t want to be the first one in line.”
Sam’s smile grew, “How do you think I felt?”
“Hey! Get over here you two.” Alex hollered all of a sudden. Sam and Yoko shared a look, inhaled and exhaled before head for her. Sam lingered and let Yoko go on ahead while he snatched up ten Nuclei of various sizes and temperatures.
They overflowed in his hands as he picked his pocket for his Regalia. He affirmed to the ten prompts that popped up—
[Do you wish to absorb 1 Uncommon Belua Nucleus for a 200 Regalia Points?]
[Do you wish to absorb 1 Common Belua Nucleus for a 50 Regalia Points?]
[Do you wish to absorb 1 Common Belua Nucleus for a 50 Regalia Points?]
[Do you wish to absorb 1 Uncommon Belua Nucleus for a 257 Regalia Points?]
…
—the Nuclei dissolved to gas and was fully absorbed by his Regalia by the time he caught up to Yoko. He’d gotten a mix bag of Common and Uncommon Nuclei this time, but as he counted it was mostly Common.
[Available RGP— 2094]
Sam put his phone away as he and Yoko stood over Alex and her subordinate who were hunched over something. He manoeuvred to have a look but Alex was already standing up with an old timey phone complete with the curly wires.
She offered it out to them immediately, “Call out a number, someone you love, trust, miss. Family, friend, work? Just make the that final call because…” Alex’s eyes carried up at the Doom Tower oppressing them with its height. Its peak caught in an ever thunderous storm. “We don’t know what to expect in there so we expect the worst and the worst, it requires we do this. So call someone.”
Sam stared wide eyed at the phone, it only now occurred to him that perhaps he would be truly leaving this world as he knew in his gut and perhaps he would not return. That his ex, mother and little brother might never see him and he might never see them again.
Who do I call?