~~~Stanley~~~

Nate was screaming something, but Stanley ignored him to focus all of his attention on Zeke. More specifically, on the undead souls surrounding the healer.

You won't take him! You won't even touch him! Stanley not only let the rage fuel him, but he pushed it further. Higher.

The snowy ground blurred past faster than even his E-grade eyes could track, with only the barest hints of green appearing through the white when he passed into the purified zone.

He didn't pay it any mind. All he could see were the rotten souls coming closer by the moment. At least a dozen of the rotten fucks.

Stanley felt his rage peak as reality thinned out around him. He felt the fragility of everything his mind touched, and it felt as if the barest brush of his power could unmake anything it touched. As if a mere touch could shatter the world. As if a mere thought could force reality to conform to his any desire.

It wasn't enough.

He wanted more. Demanded more. He needed the storm.

So he pushed the fires of his rage outside himself. Until the heat vanished and only the ice remained.

Yes.

Everything felt simultaneously louder and quieter. A frenzied calm. A screaming silence.

No one he'd brought along for this trip was enjoying the new storm experience, and while he felt a little bad for the kids getting bombarded by his angry soul, he didn’t feel bad enough to stop. Sure, it wasn't pleasant, but they would survive this. In the grand scheme, it was a small price to pay for protecting Zeke. And no price at all for the extermination of the undead.

The fury of his mind reached his targets. He touched them. Felt them. Fragile things that didn't belong in his reality.

He no longer cared about their regeneration. Or about their fake immortality. The storm would unmake everything that they...

Caffeine jumped into his lap, his head rising to fill Stanley's vision, his big brown eyes pleading as strongly as his soul.

That expression... Stanley hesitated. Why? Why would Caffeine want to stop him? Caffeine hated the undead... didn't he? But then... why?

STOP

It was a compromise. For Caffeine, and for the slim chance that his rage was wrong. As it had been before. Caffeine had more than earned the right to make this call. So Stanley let him call the shot this time.

Zeke was okay when Stanley arrived overhead. He was afraid... but not enough, and not of the undead. He stood with arms outstretched as he looked up and away from the undead at his back.

As he looked up toward Stanley.

Eve stood beside him and faced the opposite direction, her attention very much on the undead. As she should be... Only the undead weren't skeletons; in fact, they looked human.

Stanley wasn't buying it. He'd seen their kind before. That fuck who'd helped the first skeleton chase him down. The fuck who'd hounded him and refused to die...

Then he looked closer and noticed they truly weren't the same as the undead... more akin to the corrupted monsters in some lairs... Nate, you absolute fuck!

There was also no sign of any soul strings he remembered from the skeletons... they weren't actually undead!

They probably weren't even hostile, given Zeke's reaction... Rather, the opposite. Their souls felt terrified. Albeit a bit frozen by his power.

Stanley managed not to drop anyone too hard as the rage drained out of him in an odd mix of relief and regret.

Relief because it wasn't the invaders coming to wipe them out. It wasn't more skeletons that might flay his soul open again. It wasn't more of those monsters that still haunted his nightmares. It wasn't the creatures that, despite all his eagerness, he still didn't know if he could actually beat them.

But there was also regret because it wasn't the invaders. Because if it had been, and he'd been strong enough to take them, he might be free of this place. Because he wanted to destroy those fucks!

Buff Gained: [Purifying Light]

Zeke's aura was active, and Stanley eyed the corrupted humans as that final oddity occurred to him... They weren't burning.

"They aren't our enemies," Zeke said. "You can let them go. Please?"

Stanley let go. It was getting harder to hold them all frozen the longer it went on. "How do you..." The screaming interrupted him as the whole group of rotten souls lit up with dozens of spells and abilities. "Fucking stop it!"

Another short blast of his power sent a stutter through them and disrupted the panic for a second.

Then one of them reacted badly, and their panic turned to hostility. He shouldn't have...

Caffeine finally moved from Stanley's lap, and he appeared for a single second, looming thirty feet over everyone as he growled.

Everything went real quiet after that.

"Fuck you, Nate!" Stanley exploded into the silence, directing his completely justified anger at Nate. "You absolute fucking moron!"

"I tried to warn you not to freak..."

"You fucking made me freak out! I thought it was an attack!"

"Yeah, that was my bad," Nate said, holding up his hands and shrugging. "Thanks for not killing anyone?" He smiled. "And look, you found more survivors!"

Caffeine's giant impersonation must have worked, or maybe it was the growl. Either way, the corrupted humans were all standing very still while the pug greeted Zeke as if they'd been apart for a year...

Stanley turned away from Nate before he did something mean and went to the not quite humans instead. He knew Caffeine had only warned them off from fighting with that growl. It hadn't been actual hostility. So they still lived. "What the fuck are you people?"

"Wha... what am I?" The not quite human looked a little dazed. "What the hell are you!? What the hell is that dog!?" Yeah, he seemed pretty normal.

"Bernard," Nate said, striding over. "Meet Stanley. Stanley, Bernard."

Stanley eyed Bernard silently while the man did the same in return. At least he wasn't shouting anymore.

"They're not undead," Nate said with a glance toward Zeke and the obvious golden aura. "Only adapted in that direction. They can help us. Not only here but also with searching for more survivors... since they can roam through the miasma without issue."

"I don't trust them," Stanley said. "But... it's your life on the line."

Nate nodded, happy. Too happy.

"You better be damn fucking sure about this!" Stanley growled at him. "I don't want to waste my time helping this place if we're just going to hand it over to the invaders."

"I'm sure," Nate said, then dropped his voice. "Almost positive."

Stanley took a deep breath as he prepared to explain gently how sure and almost were not actually the same thing. Not even close.

He hesitated when Caffeine finally left Zeke to approach the... newcomers.

The pug stopped a foot away and leaned forward warily for a sniff, as if worried they would move suddenly... Basically, the same way he treated drifting plastic bags. Or tree stumps in the dark. Or rocks. Or moving water.

Luckily for them, none of them so much as twitched as the pug finally reached their feet and started checking each of them out with a more thorough sniffing. It was only when Caffeine pawed at one of their legs with a whine that Stanley let out his breath.

The man looked entirely unhappy to have the pug pawing at him, but he didn't protest. Smart.

"Do you have some food on you?" Stanley asked, though he wasn't sure if he wanted to know what they considered food.

"Just some stuff..." The man looked at Bernard, who nodded, before he pulled off a backpack.

"I'm assuming we will still be able to resupply here?" Bernard asked while looking between Nate and Stanley.

"Of course," Nate said. "We have plenty of food, so don't worry about feeding the pug."

"The beast lord, you mean?"

Nate smiled. "He's a teddy bear. Stay on his good side and he will be your best friend."

"And if we don't?"

"If you can't get along with a friendly dog that only wants snacks..." Nate's voice lost its pleasant tone. "Look, just be nice to Caffeine or I won't be able to protect you from Stanley. I won't want to either! If you actually manage to piss off Caffeine... Well, then no one can save you."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The supposed food coming out of the backpack looked... fine. Stanley took a piece and sniffed it before popping it in his mouth. It tasted like meat. Some kind of meat. It wasn't rotten, either.

Bernard moved closer, and Stanley twitched away at the feel of his soul approaching. None of their souls were particularly hostile... at least, nothing beyond a normal amount of wariness. Most importantly, they didn't have that blind hunger, which so many of their kind usually did.

Stanley tried to ignore them as he watched Caffeine abandon the search for snacks and run back to the newly rescued humans. Primarily, to a child who had only just started crying. Zeke went with him, and Eve followed.

The kids all seemed far more frightened than they should have been... They were safe now. So what if the trip was more exciting than they'd expected? He'd saved their fucking lives!

Fuck! Stanley flew away rather than deal with their fear.

None of the so-called adapted were all that powerful. Nothing Nate and his old team couldn't handle if they needed to. Plus, Caffeine had basically signed off on them.

Still, he didn't go far, only enough so they couldn't feel his soul. Then he sat in the sky and watched. Or listened more accurately. Since he used Soul Awareness to keep tabs on what happened. Which was... a lot of nothing.

The kids calmed down quickly under Caffeine's attention, and it felt like the adults rapidly realized the massive improvement in their situation from only this morning. It likely didn't take much—a touch of Zeke's light and a hearty meal eaten in peace. What more could they ask for?

It was a different story for the adapted humans. They didn't enjoy Zeke's power. Not that it looked to be actively hurting them; it was only unpleasant. A kind of empty feeling... not hunger per se, but... a lack.

That feeling lingered in them until they finally withdrew beyond the green zone, heading south. Then they all perked up. It was fucking creepy! They liked the miasma...

Stanley watched them head further south until even the light of their souls shrank out of sight. Was there a chance they worked for the invaders? What if Caffeine couldn't tell? He'd never expected to find half undead... What if Caffeine couldn't actually tell whose side they were on?

He wasn't too worried, despite the uncertainty. It wasn't like they were going to report back that they'd found Zeke or the other survivors. The invaders already knew where Zeke was.

Or were they trying to get eyes on Stanley? Should he have hidden his soul better? Did they not know what happened in the battle? Did they not know about his wounded soul? What if they were scouting for another attack?

Damn it! Stanley flew down to grab Caffeine and then flew after the departing spies. Maybe spies. He didn't know yet. But he would find out...

He stayed high, kept his Soul Shield on, and avoided using Soul Sight in case they might feel it. He wanted them to think they'd gotten away with whatever they were planning. Besides, it wasn't hard to follow them with only his passive sense. Despite blending fairly well with the wandering undead, their emotions betrayed them as something else.

Of course, the invaders had emotions too...

They traveled further than he'd expected, and each additional mile only made him more certain they were traitors running home to their masters.

Until they arrived at an old supercenter turned human encampment... where a lot of uncorrupted humans lurked within. Sure, there were a handful of corrupted people on the roof and patrolling the area, but hundreds more pure humans filled the interior. Pure human weaklings...

Stanley listened to their souls as people reunited with loved ones, and as the sight of fresh food filled stupid hearts with hope and joy. So... maybe they were sleeper agents? Or were they hiding the undead inside? Because who would think to look there? What if they'd struck a deal?

He wrapped his soul shield thick to hide any trace of his presence as he descended upon them, fully aware that this could all be an elaborate trap just for him... That possibility was enough to stoke his rage, but Stanley went with a different tactic this time.

Instead of using anger, he went in the opposite direction and removed all emotion from the equation by engaging Still Mind.

Part of his reasoning was that it would be easier to conceal himself while not generating a wrath-storm... and he wanted the extra cognitive speed that came from the ability. If it was a trap, he'd see it coming faster, ideally before they knew he was there.

Rather than risk entering what he knew was another lair structure, Stanley moved to just above the flat roof and then sent his accelerated mind down into the building.

He could feel each soul's location and used the first crawling second to spread his touch over the entire interior. He used the next second to confirm he was touching every one of those souls with his mind. Some corrupted, but no undead.

Not that he could tell.

Then he shoved literally everything in the building that wasn't one of those people.

Well, not really a shove. A nudge. Enough to see if anything pushed back. Enough to see if anything resisted his power. Anything without a soul. Or anything hiding its soul...

Nothing stood out.

Though one of the roof lookouts had spotted him and was opening her mouth...

Stop

Stanley shoved harder while also reaching beneath the floor below, searching for tunnels or hidden cubbies.

Still nothing.

He stopped another guard, only this time he felt Bernard notice. Did they have some kind of linking magic? It appeared so, as more and more of the corrupted humans reacted despite not having a line of sight on him or the stopped people...

A vortex of wind spun to life around Bernard, and it carried him to the roof through a skylight that Stanley had not expected to open...

Stop

It wasn't enough. They were all coming now. He would need to disable the entire force if he wanted more time to search. Perhaps by dismembering? That should work, and it might even betray them if they were hiding that immortality magic from his detection somehow.

He could cauterize the stumps to avoid killing them, and Zeke could fix them up later if he was wrong.

C...

So, of course, Caffeine canceled his Still Mind.

Damn it, Caff! Stanley let go of Bernard first, waiting to see what he would do but also wanting to see how he'd react to the visit. Maybe his guilt would point towards...

"You!" Bernard didn't act guilty in the slightest. Only angry.

"Everyone, stand down! False alarm." He called off the others after a glance at Caffeine. So... he was smart?

A bunch of his people still gathered on the roof as Bernard glared at Stanley. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to see if you were working for the invaders." Still no guilt... only more anger. Maybe he was masking it with...

"Nate said you were a paranoid bastard," Bernard muttered, then threw up his hands. "You know what? Just come inside and see for yourself!"

It was probably a trap. They wanted him stuck inside the lair... so he flew inside anyway. They would never expect that.

The inside looked different from what he'd expected after his mental touch-scan. It was a kind of tent city slash sprawling apartment complex. In some places, they'd built all the way to the high ceiling, while other areas looked more like cubicles from above.

Some common areas stood out. Including the kitchen and adjoining dining tables. They even had showers with running water in the back…

All in all, it looked very much like Nate's base... only with some corrupted guards instead of Zeke. "How are you feeding them?"

Bernard hovered beside him, held up by a swirling wind beneath his feet. "We didn't trade away some of our humanity for nothing. We did it for the greater good. Something you might not understand."

Stanley bristled and glared at the man, opening his mouth to... Caffeine bounded from his lap to land among the children in the dining area with one smooth leap. Unlike last time, they weren't afraid, and there were more than a few cries of "Puppy!"

It also just so happened that the cook had received the chicken they’d brought back and started cooking it. They hadn't brought it in alive, which meant they must have a way to keep it from rotting outside... Which explained why they weren't starving.

"Why don't you guys join up with Nate?" Sure, they'd need to construct more housing for this many extra people, but it wouldn't be that hard... Or maybe Nate would move his own base?

"We are joining him," Bernard said, interrupting Stanley’s musings. "You'd know that if you hadn't stormed off to sulk before. Or was that all an act so you could slink after us down here?"

He met Stanley's glare without flinching. "Yes. I saw you up there. You aren't as subtle as you think."

The guy had some kind of wind magic—at least, that was Stanley's best guess. Did it mean he could feel the air that far away? Or did he just have really good eyes? "I didn't trust you then and I still don't."

Bernard folded his arms while eyeing Stanley up and down. "None of mine are traitors to humanity. If anyone is suspect, it's you."

"Seriously?" Stanley growled. "Me? I killed two of them!"

"I've felt the power you're throwing around," Bernard said, glaring right back. "So why haven't you wiped the rest out already? Why are we still dealing with this miasma?"

"You..." Stanley resisted the urge to push the guy through one of his own lair walls. Barely. "They're fucking hiding!"

"Well, isn't that convenient?"

Rage shifted toward bafflement. "Are you... what are you doing? Do you want me to kill you?"

"Hmph!" Bernard unfolded his arms and took a step closer. "Nate has his little theories... but I think he's going about this all wrong."

"I'm sure you've got it all figured out?"

"He's too young. Too inexperienced. He thinks we can't survive without the glow stick. But would you look at that?" He spread his arms out wide. "Here we are... surviving!"

"Yeah. You're doing soo great!" Stanley said. "Tell me again, how many invaders have you killed? Oh, right, none! Because you're just surviving! While I'm out there fighting them!"

"I think you mean you're running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Like a petulant child. But don't worry; I have plenty of ideas for how to get everyone back on track. You included."

Stanley wasn't sure what was happening anymore. Was Bernard going to help whip the idiots into fighting shape? That sounded great, but did he have some special ability to help a psionic? "How are you going to help me?"

"By cutting off your free ride," Bernard said, then smiled at whatever he saw on Stanley's face. "Like I said, Nate is wrong. He thinks he needs you more than you need him. A misconception I don't share."

"I... don't know what to say?" He really didn't. Was this guy crazy? Like... what was his name? Felix?

"You don't need to say anything. Yet. But it wouldn't hurt to start thinking about what role you want to have in the future. Either just another grunt following orders or the officer handing out those orders."

What!? Stanley tilted his head in confusion. "You know I can kill you, right? With a thought. But you somehow think I'll just... what, obey you?"

"I think you'll find that I don't respond to threats. Especially empty ones."

Stanley's eye twitched, and he seriously considered removing one of the guy's legs. Or both of them. Would he still try to give orders while crawling around on stumps?

"You can't kill me." Bernard continued talking like an idiot, oblivious to the amusing thoughts dancing through Stanley's head. "Because you can't survive alone... I know how much food you need."

He seemed rather confused about a lot of things. Like basic reality. "You do, do you?"

"I understand that you've been through some things and that you've been allowed to do as you please for a while now. That's going to change, but it doesn't have to be unpleasant or confrontational. In fact, I suspect you will find comfort in some structure."

"Oookay." Stanley decided not to kill the guy. Or to take off his legs. "Just let me know when you're ready with my orders."

On the one hand, Bernard might actually help Nate whip the slackers into shape. On the other hand, Stanley was curious to see what the plan actually was. Plus, it would be more fun to crush him later, once he thought he'd won. "Oh, do you want my help with the move?"

"Yes, Nate mentioned your assistance. Report back here at dawn tomorrow, and we should be ready to go."

"Sure..." This was going to be fun. Or at least interesting. Or maybe just annoying.