Chapter 67

The Setup

  I should have known something was off. Things had been going too smoothly. My release from being detained for weeks, just so happened to coincide with Jess’ release from her weekend formation. Her recent spout of watching an automated vehicle crash into and kill a fellow cadet causing her to get her own vehicle the week prior.

  Then there was the fact that we had a pleasant conversation on the way out. The fact that Jess had reminded me of the fact that Mave too might be grieving. The fact that after I made a few calls and connections, I found I was near the area where Melissa had purchased a brand-new house. A house that just so happened to house Mave and a lot of Melissa’s fellow friends who had also migrated with her. Friends who might need some financial support.

  I wasn’t quite certain how much was left for Mave and the others, but I know I got a check with a lot of zeros added to them. While there was also a payment from the automated ride share, that was not enough to explain the payment I received. Or maybe it was, I was still a billionaire. Or at least I was, before the whole purchasing a mechanoid battle suit. Huh, now that I think about it, the title of shoot me now green was an accurate name for that suit.

  The color also apparently made it hard to differentiate the contaminated portions, from the just terribly painted portions. Still a claim had been filed and anywhere between five to four hundred business days from now I will get a verdict. Yep, totally holding my breath on this one.

  So, while I might not have that much money, I did learn a lot. The amount I have is more than enough to help make sure basic things are taken care of at least, like food for the girls and other necessities. I assume the house is paid outright, but one can never tell. I made a note to check on that as well.

  I knew something was off, when I saw a familiar looking vehicle in the fully protected clear parking garage. Yep, I knew I was in the fancy section of town when a clear military grade parking garage sat out for visitors to park their vehicles in a secured hanger. Basically, one of the easiest ways to show affluence, provide protection in a clear way. Thus, the use of clear plastic pieces for the garage. I didn’t get it myself, why not just have dark walls prevent anyone from seeing who was visiting you, thus protect whoever came to visit you, versus this way. The way where you said to the world, hey bet you can’t steal this vehicle, even though you want to. Come on world, just try.

  Shaking my head at the blatant sign of affluence, I almost miss the moment I recognize the vehicle. Well not the vehicle, but the sticker vehicle’s window, one that denoted the rank of General. Instantly a part of me felt a prickly sense of military fear coming back to me, but after a quick breath and a realization that I was indeed out of the military, I relaxed and continued with my original plan.

  What was the plan? Something about checking in on Mave and the others. I also wanted to see if Mave could help me with my Precognition training. I know she trained my mentor, General Sharma.

  Ding dong.

  Only after I ring the archaic sounding door chime do I remember who the vehicle belongs to, and why it looked so familiar. Then almost as if on cue, General Sharma answers the door. She answers the door to Mave’s house, then proceeds to speak in an overly loud and cheerful voice. The tone alone sets my warning bells off.

  “Hello there. Come on in. Come on in.”

  I open my mouth to speak, but she continues with her same overly cheerful tone of voice.

  “Fancy seeing you in this part of town Cadet Goldman, I mean just Kyle now? Right?” General Sharma said, shaking my hand, then she used that to grab me and pull me into the house. I could resist, but I am so distracted by her cheery tone, that I miss my chance to struggle. Instead, I am stumbling forward into the house.

  I was fine, if a little distracted. My head turned to watch the general, until I was fully inside. Then I looked forward to seeing a giant puss filled body of blackened tendrils before me. There was a Prolaxian Infiltrator right in front of me. Seeing the monster, I felt a wave of panic fill me.

  Badump, badump.

  My heartbeat wildly. These were always bad news. Last one took two mechanoid units to destroy. The only other one I managed to kill before that took an entire action force of Endarian soldiers. This one, well from what I could tell there was just me and the general. Worse, it looked like the General knew about this, somehow. Was she working with the PI?

  I turn to look at her, and that is when she hits me again with that overly enthusiastic false cheer.

  “Now come on, greet your host. She won’t bite, hard.” Sharma said.

  “Right, hello.” I said, trying to give a gentle wave, to keep my distance and avoid the whole idea of touching this monster. I know that the moment I touch the beast a chain reaction will start. First my Revelation Sight will go from passive to active, then I will be forced to defend myself from this monster’s attacks. Attacks that I will be unable to dodge as I will be held by the monster.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Almost as if sensing my hesitation, I feel the general grab me from behind and all but push me forward.

  “Now none of that. Greet her properly, like I taught you.” Sharma said admonishingly.

  “Right.” I manage as I am stumbling forward hand out. I am going to try to go with this, to make this into a rolling fall of some kind, but the PI is too quick.

  Almost as if on reflex the PI reaches out to wrap its tentacled appendage around my hand. That is when I feel the wave of energy swell up from inside me. Revelation Sight had become active.

  “What?” Was all the hissing monster before me managed, to get out. Before its false skin began to burn and melt away. She was seemingly frozen in place, coiling in on itself, as if being struck by pain.

  The monster then turned its gaze from me, to the general then, it let out two words that I couldn’t help but agree with, when describing the general at this very moment. “You bitch.”

  Call it a miracle or what have you, but with those two words I felt a deep connection to the monster that was now squeezing my hand in a vice like grip. I wanted to see if I could use this as some form of rallying point, a whole, we have a common enemy, it is not me, it’s the general and awkward social situations. You know anything to draw attention away from me.

  “Don’t just stand there, do something.” General Sharma said, as she pulled out a laser pistol and began firing directly into the beast. With the sound of support fire nearby, fire that was somehow bypassing the shields. Maybe this one didn’t have shielding? Or maybe the general did something to prevent the shields from taking hold. This monster did seem to be suffering from something, if its already hunched and writhing form was to be believed.

  With my hand being gripped so tightly, I immediately used my actual newest power Physical Attribute Increase fortunately this was a magic spell, meaning I could still open with a Psionic attack as well. I went with an old favorite, Pyrokinesis-X.

  Within seconds, the two green puss filled sacs the beast had for eyes were up and burning away, even the green vapors were being used to rapidly increase the torrent of heat being generated.

  Alarms!

  At the start of a fire, in such a prominent house, emergency alarms blared, along with a fire suppressant system.

  Shhh.

  Instantly jets of cooling gels were fired, covering everything and everyone. This did two things, first it helped to protect me and the general from the heat of my flames. While also causing the surface tension on the PI to be affected by rapidly changing temperatures. Heat, cold, heat, then cold. The more liquid suppressant was fired, the hotter I created the flames. Honestly this was a top-of-the-line fire suppression system, and it was nothing for the raging inferno that I could create. Still, I used the foam as a chance to shift the focus of the fire. Rather than the face, I then went for the back of the head, then the right side of the torso. On and on we played our games of giant flames being chased by cooling gels.

  With my physical attributes all increased, I no longer had to worry about the grip, or subsequent tugging being performed by the PI. Instead, I was able to stand my ground. I had no doubt that a lot of my success was due to how weak the monster seemed to be. Even now the monster had one of its appendages trying desperately to dig into its chest, no doubt to remove some foreign substance. Still, this was good, as I was relatively certain I was going to make it through this fight unscathed. Yeah, I likely broke a few hand bones in the initial attack and muscle squeeze from being held by the monster, but I was doing okay. The General made sure to fire only when an opening was present. Somehow, she even snuck past us to enter the grand living room, from there she moved about and fired slicing shot after shot.

  Everything was going smoothly. Too smoothly. That should have been my first warning.

  “GRRAHH!”

  The monster screamed. With that, the monster began to twitch and pulse violently. Within a second, the monster that had been at regular size began to expand rapidly. I equated this to it going into its final form, or a rage form. The last one did something similar, but I was in the safety of my own mechanoid space suit at that time, so I got to miss a few of these.

  “Die!” The monster hissed with is acid breath. Then flung parts of itself at Sharma and then me.

  Dang it, that is my line! I thought, but my thoughts were quickly derailed as I felt a black coiling mound of rot crash into me and begin tearing away and into my body.

  Hiss!

  Everywhere the black sludge landed burned. The pain was so much that I let go of my grip. This of course was the monster’s purpose.

  Wham!

  In its new size, its strength and amount of leverage it could produce was off the charts. I was sent flying into the wall. With that, the monster broke past me and tried to make its way further into its lair.

  I knew this was not something we wanted, letting the monster loose into its own lair, then having to chase said monster through its lair was a no-win situation. There were no telling what items it had set up for just such contingencies. So, I did the only thing I could think of.

  I switched from Pyrokinesis-X and went with the more tried and true Telekinesis-X. At the same time, I used this as a chance to remove the mass of black sludge from both me and the general. I could feel parts of my skin peel away with the tearing away of the substance, but that was better than the alternative. The substance was so corrosive that it felt like it would burn away through my skin if given the chance.

  I pushed the writhing monster into a tight little ball at first. Then I held it there. To my shock, the cooling liquid seemed to be doing something, as parts of its skin that were exposed to the fire-suppressing liquid began to cool almost immediately. Then with enough time the skin exposed to the air and liquid began to break and shatter.

  It was a long process. One that required me to slam the monster against the various pools of fire suppressing liquids. While I didn’t necessarily need to slam the monster so hard, it was sort of cathartic.

  Just when it looked like everything was taken care of, wham!

  The front door was slammed open. Firefighters who had no doubt been summoned to the house due to the emergency services of the fire suppressant system came to find myself and the general bleeding wildly, covered in fire suppressant goo, while I held a black wiggling ball of monster that was in its final death throes.

  Honestly the rescue team just stared at us for a few moments. As for me I was too tired to think, fortunately the General took charge of the situation.

  “Don’t you have axes or something that you can use against that thing?” Sharma demanded.

  “Right.”

  With that a few of the fire fighters left to get hand tools. From there it was a straight slug fest. The fighters would chip away dried out and flaking patches of skin, that I would then roll into the remaining liquid. Only to have the fighters chop and chip away at the monstrous creature. The monster managed to fire off more of its corrosive spit, that ended up taking out two different fire fighters. I grabbed as much of the liquid as I could from them, but they had to strip right there and then immediately leave the area. Only suffering minor burns from their efforts.

  During this time Sharma hobbled over to me, letting the passive effects of my healing aura wash over her. Seeing her state, I cast Physical Attribute Boost on her, to make sure she had more Endurance and other vitals. Then I also cast Heal on her as well. I was tired, but at this point the end was easily within sight.

  Finally, after thirty more minutes of this, the monster finally stopped twitching. For good measures, the fighters brought in more canisters of the suppressant gel and liberally coated the remnants of the monster with their flame retardant gel. I also want to point out that the two injured firefighters, who saw me casting healing while also dealing with the monster came to be near me. My passive aura healing their injuries before the emergency services could arrive.

  After some coaxing by the general I also Healed myself as well. Everything was done, I felt like I could go home, but then the general said the words that caused a chill to run down my back.

  “What about the girls trapped in the panic room?”