4) Taking Flight
Manifest's power allowed him to “Fold space” which gave him a way to move himself and others around, and store things in what he called his “Inventory”
This included hundreds of pounds of water, sand, rocks, compressed air, and something he called slime to use offensively. As well as things like an ambulance worth of medical gear, cement barriers for cover, and even parachutes.
Since my inclusion in his team, it also now included corpses. Just not human corpses.
I glared at him as best I could with the corpses body as he explained “I’m sorry Mort. But it’s illegal to just carry a corpse around and I don’t often have access to a dead body that’s up for grabs. This is the best I could find and afford to replace every day."
I made the corpse quack to show my displease. And then tilted its head at Shimmer.
She shrugged. “He thought you could go in and scout for us. Then email me what you saw when you went back to your body.” The Transporter 4 grinned at me as he nodded. “No one expects a duck.”
I had the corpse look down at the ground and sigh. It was a stupid plan. But a duck was more expendable than a teenage superhero, and I had a half hour before my friends showed up for board game night. Once I got this done I was so going to settle Catan.
As it turned out, as awkward as it was with no hands and weighing in at three pounds, a Brute 3 duck was more than capable of opening a door that very may well have been locked.
I knew how super strong waterfowl got things done.
The super teens had observed an independent illusion of Fable’s called Mary Sue getting kidnapped around where another girl had fought off an attempt at kidnapping her.
Inside the old church the kidnappers had taken the summons, I found a full on black mass complete with a goat skull mounted in the middle of a red spray painted pentagram behind an altar surrounded by a few dozen people in black robes. All looking at a bald tweeker looking guy with a filthy beard who was begging the dark lord to accept their sacrifice before stabbing the empty altar.
Well, that was a bit more than I expected.
The crowd gasped at the empty altar, so I made my way down the central aisle to see what the fuss was about. The eyes of the cultists slowly began to turn towards me before someone asked. "Why is there a duck here? Don’t tell me he’s the messenger from the Dark lord?”
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Well. Why not? It took a bit out of me, but I was able to flap up on top of the altar. Quack at the completely confused high priest guy. Then let loose with what was left in the duck's bowels.
Right on their altar, before letting out one of those mocking sounding duck laughs.
They didn’t take it well. I had to take to the air and I managed to take one and a half circuits of the room before someone took me down in a flying tackle off of a folding chair and then I opened my eyes in my kitchen a little too late to get my pizza rolls out of the oven.
They wern’t burned, but they had split open on the edges and half the filling had spilled out. They would still taste great, but I would have to gather up the gooey bits with a fork when I moved them onto a plate. They would just stick to a spatula.
With the oven still open I sent Shimmer a report.
To: [email protected]
RE: We need you tonight
[Cultists. They sacrificed Fable’s illusion to the "Dark Lord” and took down Pei-king. I couldn’t save him. Also. I couldn’t see the illusion. Either the dead or ducks are immune to Fable’s illusions.]
I finished my dinner off and greeted Matt before I sensed another corpse and left him in charge while I hit the can. Heh. Working with Team Royal while on my throne.
The new body’s heart had failed him. Most of the cultists were cowering in the corner while a cramped looking T-Rex in dinosaur form glared down at them. Baldy, the cult leader, was zip tied and off to one side with a horrified look on his face as I stood the cultist’s corpse up and looked around for some context as to why Shimmer had called me here again.
Fable bowed to me. “Your humble servant welcomes you Astgeroth. I plead with you to punish this foul one who falsely claimed to serve your eternal darkness.”
Shimmer rolled her eyes and crossed her arms while projecting a feeling of displeasure.
I guess I should play along. Turning to the bald guy, I had the corpse glare at him as it spoke in a gurgling voice. "Pretender…" I paused while something spilled out of the dead man's mouth and down the chin. "Your soul is forfeit for your false teaching… Confess, and you may yet live out the rest of your worthless life before you fall into the pit…”
Then I gave Fable a questioning look, but the guy lost it before she could come up with anything else to say. “I’m sorry, I’m just a Mind 1, I needed to keep upping the stakes to keep these idiots giving me money. It wasn’t even a real girl, she just vanished when I stabbed her. Please, I didn’t know any of this was real…”
I resisted the urge to quack at him. Instead, I raised the corpse's brow as I turned to Shimmer. "Is that it? I got people over. And this guy is starting to revive, you might want Manifest to get him to a hospital when he kicks me out.”
Fable raised her hands up as she bowed again. “Praise Astgeroth. All praise his favor as he departs.”
I rolled the guy's eyes at her and laid the cultist's now breathing body on the ground as his feeling of confusion began to turn into panic. [You are getting a second chance moron, stay away from people in dark robes.] Then I went back home and finish my pizza rolls before our token vegetarian showed up.
As usual, I focused too much on getting roads instead of cities, and my numbers never came up enough even with a six, and an eight. Betty won and crowed about it, which I admit left me in even more of a foul mood.
I got a full report on the whole thing later that night. As well as a question about how I was going to collect my share of the reward money awarded by the Concentric City Department of Public Works for dealing with a rogue mind bender.
RE: The Cultist Crisis.
[WE GET PAID? Is this off the books or do I have to pay taxes on it?]
RE: The Cultist Crisis.
[YOU PAY TAXES?]