The next morning the team and Ragnar were all present in Baboa’s office. Everyone except Baboa, Yarraballah and James had headaches. After the party last night they had headed back to the hanger where the Serenity was housed and slept on board. Their host had laid out a breakfast spread in the office complete with pastries and tea. The Mitchells pulled out a flask of coffee and poured everyone a cup, Baboa looked interested but dubious until Yarraballah urged him on enthusiastically.
They all sat around a low table right at the front and top of the huge vehicle, a large plate of glass separated them from the desert wasteland and they could see the incredibly potent magic on it to protect them from the dangerous atmosphere outside.
“Now Mitchells, Yarra has told me you are headed to Stonewall in quite a hurry, he said no more than that but you are in luck! We had no destination in mind when you came aboard and it is no trouble to me at all to swing near the town before we ramble again. But I would be keen to know how it is you came to this point, you are a unique team from what I understand.”
James was in the best condition, since his Omnivorscent power got to bronze rank it allowed him to turn all poisons and toxins into health, mana and stamina. As he didn’t drink above his rank he had ‘metabolised’ the alcohol almost as soon as it hit his system and he was actually better off for it.
“Well we’ve been in this universe now for just over a year…”
Baboa interrupted almost straight away. “Sorry James, clarify what you mean by this universe?”
“Oh, did you not know? We’re outworlders, we kind of got snatched by a magical accident and brought here.”
“A year ago? All bronze rankers of substantial skill? And Theodore you are two stars already?” Yarraballah said.
“Urgh, yeh, I was a three star at iron rank, only had a few months out of the academy to get it. And please call me Teddy.”
“What academy? I am not aware of an academy down in the Greenstone area?” Baboa asked.
James picked up the narrative again seeing how much Teddy was struggling just following the conversation and grasping his coffee mug. “The Remore academy Greenstone Annex, it’s really there for the fancy students to come down from Vitesse and the like to come and cut their teeth on some low rank monsters but they run a program for Greenstone adventurers to teach them. We got roped in by Hero to have spaces almost as soon as we turned up on this planet.”
“Wait, what? Hero is involved? Does this have something to do with you Ragnar?”
“No no no, well maybe. My god prompted me to go forth in his name and adventure this way so maybe his intent was that we meet, but really fate may have guided my feet and axe wherever there were foe and food!”
“So Hero got us the spaces, the annex program is around a year, we all graduated and started adventuring. We’ve been busy and were quite successful in doing a lot of contracts and got promoted, then they needed a team to do this job and we were a good fit. The trouble is the local aristocracy from Greenstone also wanted it so we had to hide it from them. Oh, and theres some continent spanning organisation of bio-mechanical monster meddlers that are chasing us for our cargo as well which meant crossing the wasteland was a perfect opportunity to throw them off.” James sat back and sipped his coffee, quite happy with his succinct summation.
Baboa looked a little bit stunned, Yarraballah winced slightly as Baboa turned to him. “A continent-spanning bio-mechanical-monster-meddling organisation? The Confederacy are back?”
“Baboa, we don’t share this detail down…”
“You are still blinkering the younger adventurers? This is why I never threw in with your people Yarra, they have every right to know!”
“There are a multitude of threats in the world that sharing their knowledge would do more harm than good, the society is only looking to stop a panic.”
“They have been chased into one of the most inhospitable locations on this continent! And you don’t think they deserve to know?!” They felt the anger coming off Baboa now. “Yarra my old friend I will not ask for your forgiveness for what comes next, you are a guest aboard and remain as such but you know my position on the society.”
They saw Yarraballah chewing his cheek as he stewed on Baboa’s words, he waved a had in submission and got up to go look out the window. All thought of hangover had disappeared in the adventurers as they watched the gold rankers argue.
[Why does it feel like mummy and daddy are arguing about something we’re too young to know?] Teddy said on the interface.
[Yeh and I think daddy just won and mummy isn’t happy.] James replied.
[And why is Ballah the mummy?] Lucy asked.
[Well typically the daddy is the reckless one and you get a bit of a DGAF attitude off Baboa?] Teddy explained.
[Plus that’s definitely more of a dad-bod he’s got going on there.] Kyra chipped in.
“I feel you should know what is going on, what do you know so far?”
Lucy, now alert and engaged to on the explanation. “We first ran into an isolated incident in the desert outside Greenstone. A solitary scientist looking man who was obviously running biomechanical experiments on some Rock Wryms, including a Matriarch. He was exhausted and maybe slightly crazy. Not knowing what to think of it we took him into custody and turned him into the adventure society in Greenstone.” She turned to Ragnar. “Where the church of Hero took a keen interest in making sure we were kept in the loop during his interrogation. The next we saw of these people were wen they attacked the adventure society docks when our cargo was due to land and the attack was repelled, the cargo was a few days delayed so they missed it. We then scooped it up offshore and headed out towards here, after we made contact to give a situation report at a village called Yorsh we were ambushed by a swarm of these mechanically enhanced monsters, proving that they were still chasing us. We ran hard and haven’t been caught since, we planned to run straight across lake Shawnahakswee as we didn’t see any warning signs on the approach.”
She broke off as Baboa looked over to Yarraballah. “Someone messing with your duty Yarra?”
The gold ranker didn’t turn round from where he was looking out the window with his arms crossed behind his back. “Before I picked up our young friends Firenze came to see me to tell me about them, he said that he found evidence that someone had been interfering with he road signs in order to do them harm.”
“That would be some harm… I don’t know if we would even be safe here in the wasteland if the Bahamut were to… anyway, please continue.”
“Well that about sums it up, Firenze passed us on to Yarraballah and here we are.”
“From memory the Stonewall contract is transporting overcharged resonance energy. That would be highly useful to the Confederacy.” Baboa glanced over to Yarraballah who was unmoving. “The Confederacy are an organisation unhappy with the status quo. A dissatisfied people who are not happy that essence users of the world have an advantage over non-essence users.”
“But the crazy man in the desert was bronze rank? We struggled to subdue him as we were only iron rank.”
Baboa threw up his hands. “Well of course they’re hypocrites, they’re the bad guys. They are trying to fashion a way to make monsters do their bidding to overthrow the current system.”
“But, but that’s ridiculous?!” James said. “A world war? Using monster slaves?”
“The artifice to control the monsters is a tricky science. They have been working underground for years. Your adventure society digs them out root and stem whenever they find them. But the movement hasn’t disappeared and they have been getting more successful over the years. If they got their hands on a material as powerful as you are carrying then they might be able to attempt to control something as powerful as high gold possibly diamond.”
“Well thats a little terrifying.” Kyra said.
“Indeed. So I wish you the best of luck!”
“Uh, wouldn’t you want to help stop that?”
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“Been there, done that, helped people. I now have the wisdom to know the best people to tackle this are the society, but I have no interest in being one of them and they won’t have me without being one of them which I will not do.”
“Oh, so I guess not your problem then?”
“You are not the first to think of me as selfish, I have done my part, made sacrifices, lived a dangerous life in protection of others. It is my choosing to sit here and enjoy my spoils and you cannot make me feel bad for that.” Baboa said, completely at ease reclined in his seat. “But I will help you because I like you and I find you… entertaining.” He smiled. “And that is what I’m after in this world. We will be at the nearest side of the wasteland to Stonewall by tomorrow morning, your time with us shall be short but it was memorable. I have some magical engineers on board that keep my rolling city moving, I have an idea for them to help you with your wonderful craft in the hanger. They took a good look at it.” He held his hands up defensively when Teddy bristled. “From a distance and non-invasive, they recognised the magic signature of fourth stage crystal and got very excited. You should speak to them as early as possible to rest and work with them while you are here, they are quite gifted.”
The Mitchells stewed on his words for a moment. It didn’t seem right that someone with so much power and so much knowledge should just sit there and do nothing, did that make him the bad guy? Did it make him neutral?
[We can’t judge him. I mean we definitely can and we all are, but we’re judging him with the wrong mindset. We’re thinking in earth terms with our thirty-ish-odd minds. How old is he? He’s insinuated that he’s pretty damn old, we don’t know the life he’s led except he’s amassed all this. What has he had to do in the past? He might have given a few lifetimes away to protect others, longevity of life could be a trap and torture for someone who believes they have to be the hero in every story.] It may be because she had done the extra mental health modules at the annex aimed at healers, or her more caring nature than the others. But Kyra had broken all of their chains of thought at how Baboa was talking his way out of this.
“Thank you Baboa.” Lucy said. “Teddy and I would be very appreciative to learn anything more we can about upgrading the Serenity. Never turn away someone else’s experience.”
The team and Ragnar made their way to the door and started to go through it and turned back to see Yarraballah hadn’t moved.
“You lot go on ahead, I’m going to catch up with Baboa some more.”
The team left them to it, making their way through the huge vehicle back to the Serenity to find these engineers.
Yarraballah turned to see Baboa looking at him expectantly.
“Well? You’re going to scold me for telling them that which they should know?”
Yarraballah smiled and opened his arms wide.
“You did wonderfully old friend.” Baboa was taken off guard and looked confused. “Firenze and I spoke, we have our hands tied and don’t want to kick that particular nest, but they need to know what they’re fighting. Now they know that does is open to them and the society will have to tell them the rest. It was a dangerous ploy bringing them to you but I hope you’ll forgive me friend.”
“Forgive you? I could kiss you! This has been an excellent visit. I must admit I feel slightly used, but it’s a feeling I’ve not felt in a long time and is welcome all the same! This is most entertaining, even to watch from the outside. What’s your next step?”
“I will leave them to go on to Stonewall by themselves, they should have enough lead to be safe. I need to check in with the society to say I have been successfully relieved at the lake anyway and I will tell them all that has happened. You can probably expect a representative to come and remind you of your position and privilege and what can you can and can’t say to lower ranks of you want to remain on good terms with the adventure society yah-da yah-da yah.” He rolled his wrist in an ongoing fashion.
“You cannot tell them that you already told me off?” Baboa grumbled.
“Oh no, I was worried the safety of the bronze rankers around the unpredictable Baboa! I was powerless to stop you out here in the middle of the wasteland.”
“Never took you for a coward Yarra.”
“Oh it keeps me on everyone’s good side, I neither want to or even can, scold you. But the adventure society would want me to at least try.”
“Well congratulations, you and Firenze managed to get everything you want, now, let’s talk about some more of what I want from you Yarra.”
………..
The team and Ragnar made the long way through the city-vehicle. There were people everywhere, multiple dining halls, training rooms, music rooms, a spa and even what sounded like a casino as they went past.
“For someone who is independent of any country or organisation Baboa pretty much has his own nation state here.” Teddy said.
“I wonder if it works like that, you get powerful enough, have a desire for something like this in a bit of land no one else wants then claim your own sovereignty.” Lucy replied.
They came to the end of a wide corridor. Doors closed behind them and the wall in front of them disappeared upwards as the platform they were on descended. The Serenity has been moved to a larger hanger with other guests vehicles. There was a plethora of means of conveyance. Some of the guests were milling about, checking their vehicles over during the long journey. The Serenity had drawn quite a crowd. There were adventurers checking it out with envy and engineers talking excitedly to each other. Everyone was keeping a respectful distance and they found out why as the platform reached the floor and they stepped forward.
“Are yous the Mitchells aye?” An engineer with an array of goggles on his head asked.
“That’s us.” Teddy answered, Ragnar gave a little cough. “And friend.”
“Good, I’ve been sat here for a while. The boss put some extra protection around your wagon. You wanting me to take it down?”
“Err yes please.” Lucy said stepping forward until he put a hand up. “What kind of protection?”
He took the pencil from behind his ear and threw it backwards, it hit an invisible wall and disintegrated.
“I’d like to upgrade that to a definitely yes.”
They moved forward with the engineer and he disabled the protections, this somehow summoned more of the engineers who were all talking excitedly. Kyra hadn’t done any work on the Serenity and didn’t have a perception power that allowed her to see magic so she saw the vehicle differently to the rest of the team, she has spent long enough aboard to truly appreciate how amazing it was, how versatile and how powerful it is. She didn’t really understand however, why they were so excited as they crowded the vehicle.
“Uhuh, excuse me please. Who made this vehicle?” The lead engineer with all the goggles asked.
“We did.” Teddy said indicating himself and Lucy.
“Err really? We thought this resembled some of the Craftsman’s work down south but we weren’t sure.”
“Well we made it with him so that’s probably why you think it’s his work.”
“But the Craftsman doesn’t take apprentices! Many have tried over the years, including more than a few who work on board here. They would sacrifice a lot to work with fourth stage crystal.”
“Dunno what to tell you. He taught us how to build this and maintain and adapt it.”
“Oh really? Would you be willing to entertain some ideas from some of the team?”
The conversation devolved into top level geekery of engineering, Teddy explained to them the differences between theirs and a normal ‘off the shelf’ model from Charlie. James, Kyra and Ragnar soon got bored of listening to Teddy and Lucy excitedly talk through magical interchange theory and efficiencies in thrust compared to similar types of vehicles. Teddy and Lucy didn’t even notice as the others slinked away.
They found their way back to the sound of the casino. They had a few varieties of cards around the tables. One table has a group of humans and elves that seemed to be placing bets on what colour a crystal on the table would turn next. There was a member of staff on the door who stopped them.
“Hold up a second if yeh don’t mind and want to come in.”
“What if I do mind and still want to come in?” James asked in a friendly tone.
The man’s back suddenly bristled with spines. “Then we’ve got a problem.”
James raised his hand placating the man. “No problems here, just curious.”
“Right then, if there’s no problems, a few questions. Three humans?” One nod two shakes. “One human two outworlders then. All adventurers?” Three nods. “Hands up for perception powers.” James and Ragnar held up hands. “Anyone got precognition or time based powers?” Three shakes. “All right, you two get these.” He handed James and Ragnar a blue coloured flower with a clasp.
“And the two boys get a flower but none for the only lady?” Kyra teased.
“It’s to tell the tables they’ve got perception powers. Your new here, they’ll not be able to play at certain tables, yous all here as guests of Baboa, so we don’t want to collar no one so they can have some fun. If the tables reckon yous cheatin then they’ll ask your essences, if there’s any doubt they’ll give you another flower and you can’t play that game no more. Any problems with that they call me over and you don’t get to play no more at all. Any questions?”
“I think that’s pretty clear.” James said looking at the others.
“Still upset I don’t get a flower.” Kyra pouted.
“Sorry miss, did I just overheard that it’s your birthday?” The door man smoothly whipped out a yellow and pink flower. “Hear, this’ll let ‘em know it’s your special day.”
“Oh! Thankyou, it’s beautiful.” She said pinning it on.
“Ok you’re free to go in. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you two boys are huge, like Leonid huge, don’t cause no trouble, don’t let anyone else cause trouble on you. Go have fun.”
They made their way in and walked the floor, they lost a few coins here and there on tables that caught their fancy but didn’t get sucked in to anything. James ended up with a second flower after passing a long table with a walled track running the length with six tiny birds at one end, they looked like featherless eagle chicks, James had made sure they were being looked after well, which they were, before the croupier noticed and handed him a flower straight away. They ended up playing cards at one of the tables. They had no idea how long they played for, the coins spent seemed to be fairly balanced against what they won, food and drink was brought to them with James keeping a clear head while the others dug in with gusto to both. They attracted a crowd who came and played and it wasn’t until they got a tap on the shoulder that snapped them out of their fun.
“Scuse me see, you’re brother, wife, sister-in-law. Would like you to head back to the hanger, you’re ready to depart.” A member of staff said.
“Huh?” A drunk Kyra said back to him. “I don’t have a brother.”
“I’m your brother Kyra, well brother-in-law.”
She looked at him blearily in confusion. “But you’re here, why do you want me in the hanger? What time is it?”
“I don’t think the time is the problem K, we’ve been in here over a day.” James said gently helping her up. He put a shoulder under a drunk Ragnar as he only needed a hand under Kyra’s arm to keep her steady, she was too busy clinging onto the dozens of flowers she had managed to talk people out of during their stay to be much help to James in walking.
They made their way back to the hanger on the descending platform again. When the Serenity came into view Kyra staggered forwards against the rail to better see the changes.
“Wow, it really is a firefly class now.” James said.