The Grue snarled as Alex held it in place with her shield. She grimaced back at it. “Any time now!”
Joanna lunged in from the side, her sword plunging into the Grue’s flank. It gave a choking gasp as she wrenched the blade back and forth, and Alex felt the strength go out of it. It fell back to the cracked pavement, and Joanna yanked her blade free before swinging it down in a coup de grâce.
[Melee–Shield has advanced to level 3!]
Alex sighed in relief, working her shoulder a little. “You finished now?”
The Adept gave her a mildly disgruntled nod, and Alex sighed in relief. Both Audrey and her had completed the main Quest fairly quickly; the Squire’s apparent heavy blows tended to finish the Grue fast, and Alex usually reached the enemy far sooner than the others. Getting Joanna to catch up had required them to hold back a little, but it would be worth it to see her teammate level as well.
Clara was another story, however.
The poor Acolyte just seemed incapable of getting a shot on target. She’d nearly hit Alex another two times, and Joanna had spent another two minutes ranting at her after another shot nearly took the Adept’s head off. Clara’s aim had not gotten better after that, and Alex was running out of ways that she could use to give her teammate the opening.
She looked back and watched as Clara struggled to load the crossbow again, and frowned a little. There had to be some way…
Her mind went back to some of her mother’s attempts to teach her how to use ranged weaponry before they’d both given up on it. “Hey, Clara, do you want to come up front with me for a bit? It looks like most of these things are wandering around by themselves, so it shouldn’t be too risky.”
Joanna snorted, but Clara seemed to be deliberately ignoring the Adept. “I-if you say so Alex.”
Alex gave her an encouraging nod, and they set off down the street again. She spoke quietly, trying not to let Joanna overhear her. “The next time we see one, don’t shoot immediately. Go down on one knee, and try to breathe out before you fire.”
Clara gave her a sidelong look. “I did get some training with the Group.”
“For Porter style weapons, right?” She saw the taller girl wince and nod. “So they probably didn’t give you a lot of ranged training, cause they expected you to be up front. You’re going to have to learn as you go along.”
The Acolyte sighed. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect…”
“Don’t worry about it. Just try not to jump the gun.” Alex waited until Clara nodded, and then started searching for any signs of Grue ahead. Aside from the first two, all of the Grue had been alone. Hopefully that meant there weren’t any really large groups hanging around, but wishful thinking wasn’t a guarantee, as her father occasionally said.
Her search paid off a moment later, as she saw some movement inside a wrecked trailer up ahead. It was parked outside a normal, graffitied home, one where the garage door was half-torn down. She nudged Clara, who jumped a little, and then pointed. The Acolyte gave her a panicked look, and Alex made a calming gesture.
She glanced back and saw the other two girls readying their weapons. They seemed to relax a little when Alex gave them a similar wait-and-see gesture. Then she stepped forward and looked at Clara. Her heart was beating hard, but she kept her voice low. “Get ready.”
Clara nodded and dropped to one knee. She sighted along the weapon; the crossbow shook slightly as she drew in a few hitching breaths. Alex waited until she calmed down a bit more, and then stepped a little off to the side. A few steps would put her in front of the Acolyte if she needed to intervene, but she didn’t want to make the girl fire early.
Then she clashed her axe against her shield, banging it like a drum. “Hey! Come on out!”
The Grue inside the trailer went still for a moment. Then it tore its way out of the vehicle, kicking open the door and howling. Alex crouched, ready to sprint in if Clara missed her shot, but the Acolyte didn’t shoot. “Clara, now’s the time.”
Clara didn’t answer. The Grue started to run at her, its clawed feet clacking against the pavement. Alex tried to judge the distance, feeling herself grow tense. Was the Acolyte completely frozen? “Clara?”
The Acolyte still didn’t respond. Ahead, the Grue started a snarling howl and raised its spear to strike. Alex crouched a little lower, her shield coming up. If Clara didn’t—
She heard the crossbow snap, and the bolt streaked out in a blur she barely saw. It took the thing right in the throat; the howl cut off like someone had hit an off switch. The Grue’s charge stopped mid-stride. It went from a wild sprint to a headlong sprawl; the spear fell from its nerveless grip. Alex watched in stunned awe as it slid part of the remaining distance to where Clara was still crouched.
It didn’t rise again. A moment later, it burst into flame, and Clara sprang back with a yelp.
Alex couldn’t help it. She burst into laughter and bumped her fist against the Acolyte’s shoulder. “Good shot! Get reloaded and we can find another one.”
Clara stared down at the fire, still blinking. Then she looked at Alex and grinned. “I did it!” Then she looked back at where Joanna and Audrey were standing. The Adept rolled her eyes, but the Squire laughed along with her. Then Clara was resetting the crossbow again, her face set in a suddenly determined expression. When she had reloaded, Alex started off down the street again, leading them on their hunt.
It only took another half hour for Clara to score her second kill, this time picking off a Grue that had been trying to ambush them from the side. Alex gotten her shield up, and Clara simply leaned out and put a bolt into its side.
She hadn’t had the chance to congratulate her, though, because another two Grue had come howling in from the opposite side. Alex had to rush to help Audrey as the small girl had tried to fend off the closest of them. An axe stroke felled it, and a couple more kept it down. Joanna had taken the last one, deflecting the spear thrust and then putting her own counterthrust right on target.
When they came to a stop, all breathing hard, Alex checked her Screen.
[Main Quest Completed]
[Melee–Axe has advanced to level 3!]
[Melee–Shield has advanced to level 4!]
[Hidden Quest Discovered! Destroy two additional Grue Soldiers.]
Alex glanced over at Joanna, who looked like she was reading a similar set of messages. “Did you get that same Hidden Quest?”
The Adept shrugged. “Two more? I already got one, and so did you. Six more to go?”
Audrey wiped a little sweat from her forehead, grinning. “I’m up for it if you are. How long have we been out here, anyway? An hour?”
Clara squinted up at the grey clouds that continued to dominate the sky. “Hard to say. Maybe two or so. Does time even work the same here?”
Alex nodded. “It does. How long did the Group want us in here? I doubt they were saying we should hang around all day.”
“Nothing like that, no.” Joanna held up the map they’d given her. “We were supposed to patrol the town and complete our Quests if possible. They didn’t say anything about how long we should take.”
“Then let’s get it done.” Alex grinned. “Better now than later.”
Around two hours later, they finally returned to the portal.
It had taken some time to hunt down the remaining Grue for the secondary Quest, especially when they needed to make sure that Clara was able to get her shots off. By the time they made it back to the area with the portal, the clouds overhead were growing dark. As much as Alex wanted to keep hunting and maybe uncover the third Hidden Quest, she didn’t want it enough to continue to fight without sunlight.
The portal seemed just as unnerving as before, with the energy continuing to swirl and twist, almost like a sideways whirlpool of magic. There was no sign of the other Surveyors that the Group had sent. Alex wondered if they had finished their own Quests that much faster. Still, the extra Experience from the Hidden Quest would make an enormous difference.
She nodded to the rest of the Surveyors and stepped through the portal. The world around her evaporated into a wall of light.
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Once again, Alex found herself in the white void. Her Screen activated a moment later, filling the space in front of her with text.
[Mission Report]
[Successful Return! +20 Experience]
[Main Quest Completed! +40 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +40 Experience]
[Hidden Quest Undiscovered.]
Alex grinned as she looked over the Report. She’d known the second Quest was worth the effort. Now her entire group was going to hit level one on their first day out as Surveyors. That would probably make something of a mark on her new employers.
More importantly, the Report continued, showing her Skill increases.
[Melee–Axe increased from 0 to 4!]
[Melee–Shield increased from 0 to 4!]
[You have reached level 1 as a Page!]
[+2 Speed gained. +1 Free Attribute awarded.]
Alex’s grin went wider. She assigned the Free Attribute to Strength immediately. It would make her attacks stronger and let her defend against stronger hits. The additional Speed was going to make it that much easier to move and dodge as well. Next time the Group sent her through the portal, she was going to be that much more of a force to be reckoned with.
Then she dismissed the Screen and the light surrounding her brightened for a moment. She flinched and shielded her eyes—
And suddenly she was back on Earth, the real one this time. Liliana was there, a fixed expression of patience on her face, and the rest of her team was on the platform in front of the portal as well.
“Well hello! We were starting to get concerned.”
Joanna stepped forward and handed over the map, with the patrol route marked out clearly on it. “We killed sixteen Grue Soldiers, team sergeant, and all of us reached level one. We’ve also collected all sixteen remnant crystals.”
Liliana clapped her hands and smiled. “Oh, excellent! That is twice as many as expected.” Then she paused, looking down at the tablet in her hands. “Shall I get you all registered, then? Joanna, it looks like you took Melee–Sword as your main Skill. Any others?”
The sergeant spent some time documenting their progress, with glowing smiles for both Audrey and Joanna. When she got to Clara, however, her expression grew grave. “You took Acolyte, not Porter? I don’t believe that was the plan, Ms. Williams.”
Clara winced a little. “I’m sorry, team sergeant.”
“Well, we can discuss it later.” Liliana shook her head and finished taking down the details, then she turned to Alex, and a slight frown crossed her lips. “An…axe and shield, Ms. Morrison? That is…not standard armament for a Page.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. She held Liliana’s gaze for a moment. “Yes, team sergeant, but it seems to have worked well enough for my team.”
The team sergeant stared back at her for a moment. Then she abruptly shrugged and plastered on the same megawatt smile again. “I’m glad to hear it! Thanks again for joining our team here at Golden Swallow Surveys. Now, if we could all deposit the crystals in the container over there, I think we can call it a day. Don’t forget! You have an extended weekend of leave after today, so feel free to head home and visit family.”
Joanna led the way back to where a metal crate waited on the pavement. She dropped the crystals they’d all collected inside.
Then they waved her onto the bus that would take her back to the dorms, and her first day as a Surveyor was done.
It took her about an hour to get home—her real home, not the subsidized dorms that the Group offered to E rank Surveyors. By the time she arrived in her neighborhood, it was nearly dinner time.
The bus dropped her only a block from her parents’ house, and she used the short walk to try to get used to her newly acquired abilities. Each point of difference was supposed to be a five percent increase in the related Skills and abilities, which meant her new level made her just fast enough to keep throwing herself off as she walked. Still, she was getting used to the feeling of whipping through a world at a faster pace.
Her family home was not a large one, just half of a duplex in a relatively safe neighborhood. She saw her father’s work truck in the driveway, which meant he wasn’t currently on duty. Alex was halfway sure that he’d arranged to be home tonight; he’d been worried since she had first announced her intention to be a Surveyor. It was hard for her to say which had been greater, her mother’s pride or his fear.
Maybe the fact that she’d managed to come home from her first Survey unscathed would smooth things over. She certainly hoped so.
Alex walked up the narrow, paved driveway, her official Golden Swallow boots seeming like they were stomping on the asphalt. She veered off onto the stone walkway that led to the front door, pausing just before she stepped up on the landing. It had been about a week since she’d been home, and she wasn’t entirely sure what would be waiting for her.
Then she sucked in a breath, squared her shoulders, and knocked.
She barely had the chance to hit the door twice when it was flung open. Her father’s anxious face dissolved into sudden relief, and Speed boost or not, she was in his arms before she realized it. He very nearly seemed to squeeze the breath out of her, his rough features unseen as he lifted her off her feet. “You’re home! You’re safe.”
Alex made a slight squeaking sound as her ribs protested the treatment, and Eric set her back on her feet immediately. He took a moment to study her. “It went well? You did everything they told you? None of the…things touched you?”
“After you and Mom drilling me for months? Come on, Dad.” She put a hand on his shoulder and pushed, as if to shake him. Eric Morrison was an absolute brick of a man, though, nearly a foot taller than her and at least two feet broader through the shoulders. A lifetime of physical fitness obsessions combined with the rigor of his profession had made it so that she might as well have pushed the house wall.
He broke into a smile, and swept her up into a second, slightly less aggressive hug. Slightly. “Okay. Okay. You’re going to need to come in and tell us all about it.” As he stood back a second time, he pulled her through the doorway and—gently, for him—propelled Alex towards the kitchen, where she could smell dinner already waiting.
Alex quietly braced herself, walking through the hall of her home. The place seemed different, now that she’d been through the portal. Had the hallway always been so short? Why was it all so familiar, and yet so strange?
Then she walked into the dining room, and her mother was standing beside her chair, waiting for her.
The former Surveyor was slightly taller than her daughter, even if she wasn’t nearly as tall as her husband. She’d been mildly famous, once, among the Surveyors at least. She’d been a Regulation agent, someone meant to watch the other Surveyors and keep them inside the law, no matter which worlds they were on. It wasn’t a popular profession—the so-called Crimson Blade had made plenty of enemies by keeping her fellow super-powered comrades in line—but her mother had made it all the way to B rank, becoming one of the most powerful Surveyors out there.
Then her enemies had caught up to her, just as they’d always worried about. Muriel had warned Alex that the same thing would probably happen to her too, no matter how good she got at the job. It was just a matter of time and luck.
Muriel Morrison’s right arm was missing partway below the shoulder. Her left eye was gone, too, though the scars around where it had been were not as gruesome as they could have been. Apparently, a superior health potion had fixed the damage well enough for her to make it home. So the story went, anyway.
Her mother’s remaining eye was locked onto Alex, however, taking in the uniform she wore and the weapons on her back. That single brown eye absorbed all the information in a single blink of an instant. Even though she seemed to approve, there was a ghost of worry that lingered in her expression.
Then she smiled, the expression pulled a little off center by the scar tissue on her face. “Welcome home.”
Alex stepped forward and gave her mother a hug. She felt her mother’s arm come up and around, squeezing her back—carefully, for different reasons than her father—and then stepped back. “I’m a Surveyor now.”
“A Page?” When Alex nodded, Muriel continued. “You still went with the axe and shield, though. I almost expected them to ask you not to.”
“They didn’t ask, officially, and I didn’t tell them my plans.” Alex grinned a little. “I think my team sergeant might be unhappy about it. She seemed a little put off.”
Muriel snorted. “Well, the companies tend to like to meddle. Blue Rider was a lot more lax about that kind of thing, but the way things went down…” She gestured for Alex to sit, and sat back in her own chair. Eric tried to lumber unobtrusively around the table to take his own seat. “Did you see anyone unusual hanging around?”
“No, not that I could tell.” Alex shrugged. “In fact, they don’t seem to have a clue so far. You and Dad did good work.”
“As if we ever don’t.” Her mother shook her head ruefully. “Keep an eye out for anyone getting too curious or asking odd questions. Just because they haven’t found out yet doesn’t mean we can afford to get sloppy. You deserve the chance to do this, but it’s running a hard risk for all of us.”
Alex thought back to Stephen, the boy who’d been so friendly. “I’ll be careful.”
Eric chuckled, a sound like a distant roll of thunder. “Yeah, uh huh. If anything, that’s our family motto, isn’t it? Just a pack of cautious people around this table.”
Muriel gave him a fond smile and a light slap across a bicep the size of Alex’s head. “Enough about that. I want to hear about your Survey. Did they send you in alone, or with a team? Were there any D or C ranks there, watching you? What kind of opposition did you find on the other side?”
The food had grown a little cold by the time Alex finished answering her parents’ questions, but none of them seemed to mind as they finally tucked into it at last. After hours of hard work on patrol, and weeks of dorm food in the cafeteria, Alex felt like she’d been given a feast with mashed potatoes, breaded chicken, and a whole helping of buttered corn. All three of them dug into the meal with a vengeance, with the pace of people who typically found their time together rushed by one kind of emergency or another.
As the final bites of deliciousness vanished, Alex heard her mother sigh. “I’m not sure what to make of this Golden Swallow Group, Alex. I still wish that I could have escorted you in on your first day myself.”
Eric gave her a sharp look. “You know why that can’t happen, love.”
Muriel sighed. “Yes, I know.” Everyone knew higher ranked Surveyors increased the difficulty of enemies around the portal; it was as if their opponents were drawn to the challenge. Sending in a B rank, even a heavily wounded one, would have increased the danger of the mission by a large factor.
It would also have made Alex’s attempt at remaining anonymous and unnoticed a little more impossible, of course. The last thing she wanted was to start her career as a Surveyor with some kind of marketing blitz that would expose all of them and put her family back into danger.
She still gave her mother a smile. “Practicing with you was preparation enough, Mom. I think I managed to get through the whole thing without a scratch thanks to your help—and me and my team all made level one on the first mission!”
Muriel sat back in her chair, her eye wide with approval. “Well how about that.” She glanced at her husband. “It turns out that our daughter might be a chip off the old block after all. Axe notwithstanding.”
Alex rolled her eyes. Her mother had been extolling the virtues of the sword for months now, trying to encourage her to follow a similar path. She had no intention of doing so. “I chose what works for me. Besides, you’ve seen what I can do with it.”
“And her mother’s not the only one who taught her things, huh?” Eric grinned. “You have to clear any buildings or anything? I bet that axe’ll come in handy then.”
“Not this time, but maybe soon.” Alex shoveled the last of the potatoes in and chewed for a bit. It was like a bite of heaven. “We’ll have to see when I get called up next. How often did you get missions, Mom? Once a week?”
Muriel’s expression took on a faraway look, as if she was staring back into her past. “I suppose so. It depended on how active the portals were getting, and where the other Surveyors were having trouble.” Then she shook her head. “They won’t be sending you into an overactive breach, though. I’m betting you’ll have a few days before they need you to go in again.”