Thermia’s and El’s distant and distorted voices woke Ekio. She looked at Thermia’s mouth and read the words hurry on her lips. She allowed herself to be removed off Cadivus, rolling on to her back. The other two women carried Cadivus to the table Thermia had been strapped to previously.
“Is this gonna work?” El asked.
“Yes. I don’t know, but it will work!” Thermia said, crying as she strapped Cadivus into the table. “I-It has to! Is it still intact?”
“Somehow. I just need to change a few things that they tried to fix.” She swapped some wiring around and set some dials on the panel. “There!” She looked at Thermia. “I hope this works.” Thermia nodded.
El pulled the switch, and the machine went to work. Ekio looked over and realized Yorin was still strapped to the connecting table. The machine glowed as the women stepped away. Yorin’s body shriveled up, and Cadivus’s wounds on his chest closed. Sparks shot out of the control panel, catching flames as the power passed through. El nodded, assuring them it was fine. They all waited until the machine fully turned off. The fire sizzled the wiring before dying out in a flare. They stared at Cadivus’s body and watched for signs of life.
Ekio limped over to them, observing the closed wound on his chest.
“Is he alive?” Ekio asked with hope in her voice.
“I don’t know,” Thermia said as she approached his body. “Cadivus…wake up…”
His body lay there motionless.
She pounded on his chest. “Wake up dammit! We need to go home!” She kept pounding on his chest until El walked up behind her and grabbed her wrist, hugging her from behind.
“I’m sorry,” El said. “It was a long shot.”
Tears poured from her eyes.
Ekio walked up and grabbed his hand.
“Wait.” She grabbed onto his wrist. “He has a pulse…”
The women unstrapped him from the machine and laid him on the ground, surrounding his body.
Cadivus opened his eyes and gazed up at the three women.
“Am I dead? Are there foursomes in the afterlife?”
The women all sighed in unison.
“I guess he’s fine…” El said as she stood to go check on Hunter.
Thermia hugged him tight, and he groaned in pain. He tapped her arm to reassure her.
“I don’t know what you did, but good work, sis.” As she released him, he looked toward Ekio. “I know you don’t want a turn to hug me but—”
Ekio hugged him.
“Gross!” Thermia shouted. She threw a cloth over him.
Ekio stopped hugging him, confused.
“What?” Ekio asked. Thermia pointed toward the tent he was now pitching under the cloth. She turned her head back toward him in disgust.
“Well at least we know it still works,” he said, raising his eyebrows.
She shook her head and stood.
Cadivus shrugged and asked for some clothing, realizing he was still naked from the lava. El walked over to them with Hunter hanging around her as she helped him walk.
“Howdy. You get all em?” he asked.
Ekio nodded, looking at Alpha’s corpse.
“Yeah, that’s all of them.”
He followed her gaze and grimaced.
“Dang miss. That from you?” She nodded again and looked away. “Remind me never to cross ya…”
Cadivus got some clothes from other bodies in the room, morbid but necessary. The group collected. Hunter gave Ekio his last healing tonic, and she was shocked to feel its results, commenting it was a lot like her medicine from back home. They soon stood in front of the vault, with one code remaining.
“Any ideas?” Hunter asked.
“He said the code was 1234,” Thermia said.
“Nobody is dumb enough to have that as a code.”
“Well, it’s easy to remember,” Cadivus said. “Try it!”
Hunter looked at him and shook his head. El put the final number in and to his surprise, the door opened. They all smiled and walked inside–to a surprisingly bare room. Only a few items remained, and the reason soon became obvious. A hole had been blown out the back of it, stones in a pile around its burnt surfaces.
“Well, that explains the noise from earlier…” El said.
“Ugh,” Hunter said. “This place was hit while we were fighting? What are the chances of that…”
“Better than the chances of finding clean underwear here.” Cadivus said.
The few remaining items were on the stone shelves that ran along the walls. Several chests with a few coins each were here as well.
“All right, how do we divvy up the loot? I think we should go by kills, personally.” Cadivus said.
“Just take what you can use effectively,” Hunter said, eyeing a revolver that was like his but was white and gold.
“I can help you guys decide,” El said. “I know these items. I brought them here to trade.”
They all looked at her in disbelief.
“Wait. You're the reason that guy had all those items?” Thermia asked.
El nodded and averted her gaze.
“Yeah…When you're in the guild, you do what you're told.” She handed Hunter the white-and-gold revolver. “Hunter, yours is obvious. It’s a revolver that doesn’t need bullets. Instead, it uses your stamina to fire projectiles.”
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“Interesting. Bullets are hard to come by, after all.” He took aim, noting it was very light. He then looked over the fine details and felt a sense of guilt for letting his service revolver look so rundown. He placed the gun in a large pouch. “Seems strange that someone would leave it behind…”
She handed Cadivus a short chain, three feet in length. She draped it over his hands.
“Cool…now I can lock up a bike…”
She frowned.
“It’s a growing chain. If it heats up, it grows longer. The hotter it is, the longer it gets.”
“Just like me!”
Everyone sighed.
“Well…I don’t know if you saw the last fight I was in, but heated chains tend to break apart when using them as a weapon.”
“Not this one,” El said. “It’s enchanted to be indestructible. Go ahead and try it out!”
He frowned and wrapped the chain around his arm.
“Maybe later. I’m really tired right now.” He turned to Hunter. “That excuse works for men too, right?”
Confused, Hunter shrugged.
She laughed, grabbed a ring from her pocket, and handed it to Ekio.
Ekio took the ring, wondering if it was as powerful as the absorption ring Alpha had used. It fit perfectly on her finger.
“What does this one do?”
“Put it on your finger and say shield.” she said, taking a step back and motioning for the others to do the same. All followed her lead, except Cadivus who walked over to look at the ring’s design.
Ekio made a fist and examined it. “Shield…”
The ring transformed into a shield half the size of her body. The expansion hit his forehead, causing him to stumble backward. He grimaced and rubbed his forehead as everyone else chuckled.
“Serves you right for being nosey.”
“There’s a good chance that ring comes from your home region, Ekio.” El said.
She observed its markings, and her eyes went wide as she recognized an ancient text she had read as a child. She caressed the shield, following the markings with her fingers and feeling a sense of home.
“With practice you can change the size of it. Smaller shields absorb more impact. Larger shields cover more area but offer less absorption. You can turn it back to a ring by—”
“Ring…” she said. It transformed back to its original form.
“Good…”
Thermia stood on the outside of the group, feeling left out. But she put on her best fake smile. “Cool stuff guys!”
El turned and pointed at her.
“Don’t think I forgot about you, mistress.” She handed her a wooden brush with red gems embedded into it. She took the brush and ran her fingers along the bristles, noting they were in perfect condition. She used it on her own hair.
“When you’re brushing someone’s hair with this brush, they are forced to tell the truth.”
Thermia smiled.
“Does the dumb slut expect me to believe that?” Thermia said out loud. She covered her mouth, dropping the brush to the ground.
El laughed, picked it up for her, and handed it back.
“Thanks…I…I like your shoes.” She glanced at the brush, before going back to working on her split ends while she covered her mouth tight. Her muffled voice still tried to speak through her hand.
“Wait,” Cadivus said. “What about the other cool items that guy had? Let’s split those bad boys up!”
El frowned and wagged her finger.
“No can do. Those have to go back to the guild. If I go there without them, I’m a dead woman.”
He sighed and put a hand on his chin.
“Are you seriously thinking about taking them from me?”
He made an exaggerated shocked face and looked around the room.
“What?! I would never. I was just thinking about something else, something less punchy and kicky.”
“Can we keep these at least?” Thermia said as she placed tinted glasses on her face. They were too big for her, but she held them in place with her hand as she gazed at the group. A pink hue outlined their bodies, except for El, and text appeared underneath each of them. Hunter had sight written below him, and Ekio had wind. Yet Cadivus had two lines of text underneath him.
“Why do these call you a siphon?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “The other guy said the same thing. It’s a lame mystery.”
“Can I see the glasses?” Hunter asked.
She handed them over.
He placed them on his face and gained a puzzled look.
“You…have two.” He squinted at the fuzzy bit of text that appeared next to siphon. “Trigger effect: love.” He turned his eyes to the corner of the room, deep in thought. “You can take the powers of people…That’s quite rare…”
“What?” Cadivus said. “Holy hell. That’s news to me…Sounds a bit overpowering, doesn’t it?” He put his hand out toward Hunter and tried to take his ability. He concentrated hard, his hand shaking. But nothing happened. “How the heck do you activate something like that? Also, is it permanent or temporary?”
“You’re asking that after you tried to steal my powers?”
He raised his eyebrows and mouthed “Sorry.”
“It’s also got a trigger condition. It can only be someone you love. So, it’s useless against an enemy.”
He swiped the air in disapproval.
“Also, I’ve read about this type of power. It’s only supposed to be temporary. Unless…”
The whole group looked at Hunter, urging him to continue, except for Ekio who looked away.
“They die…” she muttered.
They all looked at Cadivus with sympathy. He held a blank expression as he took all the information in. He tilted his head and took a deep breath.
“Well, I really lucked out on the not remembering thing! Now, let’s go team! Time to celebrate! There’s plenty of booze in this town!” He turned toward the hole in the wall and whistled a merry tune.
“Cadivus!” Thermia yelled.
He stopped and turned around, looking puzzled.
“We’re all here for you.”
He smiled.
“Thank you! I didn’t expect to see you again, you know…” He stared at the group. “I hope we can share our adventures until our dying days! Now, give me a hug!”
Cadivus placed his arms out and walked toward the group. Ekio sighed as he drew close, but he walked past her and toward El, who smirked at her. Yet he passed her as well, causing Ekio to give her a revenge smirk. Thermia closed her eyes and smiled, holding her arms out as wide as she could possibly stretch them, but his hand to her face pushed her out of the way.
He instead wrapped his arms around Bradley, hugging him tight. “This feels right,” he whispered.
Bradley handed him the journal he promised him.
“Journal bros always come through!” he said. “I got out of there when the fighting started. And I already told some important people in town what happened, so you’re all welcome to move freely throughout the town!”
Cadivus examined the journal, noting it was a beautiful leather-bound one. He placed a hand on Bradley’s shoulder and smiled.
“Wait. They aren’t hostile out there?” Hunter asked.
Bradley shook his head and laughed.
“Of course not! You just saved them a ton of money each month. Not to mention the fact that the whole walking-around-in-perpetual-fear-for-stepping-out-of-line thing is gone.” He laughed nervously.
“See? First mission, and we’re already heroes!” Cadivus said. “At this rate, we’ll be the most famous vigilantes the world has ever seen in mere months!”
Cadivus and Bradley walked out into the city. Loud music played, and people drank in the streets. Carts full of sausages sat at each corner.
“Is the redhead single?” Bradley whispered to him.
Cadivus smiled.
“She has a dick.” He turned around to wave at her, and she waved back, adjusting her short shorts.
“Don’t they all…” Bradley said.
He and Cadivus laughed loudly.
With the tinted glasses on top of her head, Thermia walked over to examine the blasted hole in the wall. On the outside, she found large scorch marks and some round objects with rope sticking out of them on the ground.
“What are these?” she asked as she showed them to the others.
El and Hunter held out their arms, pleading with her to be careful.
“Those are explosives…” El said as she walked up to examine them. “They tore that wall down, so please be careful. However, it seems these are well made fused bombs. I’d recommend tossing them in a bag and saving them for a rainy day.”
Hunter walked over and opened a pouch for Thermia to drop them into.
“In here darlin’”
Thermia began to place it inside, but pulled her hand back.
“No. Give me the bag, and I’ll carry them. You're always smoking those things. It's safer with me.”
“I’ll take em if you want!” Cadivus said.
“No!” everyone said at once.
Cadivus felt attacked, but then remembered his previous actions, and felt it was the right call. “You blow up one time, and they never let you forget it.” he said before continuing a private conversation with Bradley.
“I got it,” she said. “Trust me.”
Hunter nodded and handed her the bag.
Though it was a victory for certain, an immediate sense of danger and unease knowing they were on her back weighed on her. Yet she had made too much a stink about it to go back on her words now. She pushed those feelings of doubt into her dark place and joined the others as they left the vault.