// Bad news is, this guy is freaking nuts. //
“What the hell?” Oskar didn’t realize he’d said it out loud until he heard Erik and Touwon break out in guffaws. “This thing is nuts!”
// Hey, that was my line, I literally just said that! //
It was a good one. Spot on analysis if I do say so myself, Oskar said to the PUB, and then out loud, he asked his brother, “So it just hates everyone?”
Erik had tears in eyes, choking out an answer. “No… not at all, man. It loves us! It complimented Fox’s eyes. Just you. It just hates you! I love this thing.”
[[ Gambit Received- Take off the cybernetic foot, you faker. You’re stupider than a calculator. You’ll never pass as one of us. I hate you. I hate you. You should hate you. ]]
// We might wanna consider turning its ability to send you Gambit notifications. I’m getting a feeling it’s not gonna calm down till you stop being such a poser. //
Yeah, uh… do that, Oskar sent back as he declined the fourth Gambit request, this one asking him to take the “stupid robot leg” off and shove it up his rear vent port… diagonally.
Oskar laughed a little. According to Erik, Oskar blocking the notifications had sent the other PUB ballistic, and after a few minutes, the PUB claimed it would stop the Gambit requests if Oskar would just unblock it.
It pled its case through his brother and made some fairly valid points, mostly involving the importance of being able to communicate instantly during an emergency. This, of course, was only to lull Oskar into a false sense of security, because roughly an hour after falling asleep, a Gambit notification calling him “meat data” woke him and told to choke on his “stupid looking boots.” The PUB must have known it was about to get blocked again because it immediately followed up with an apology and promised a truce if Oskar would stop trying to act like a robot.
Whatever the hell that means. What does it expect me to do?
It took a little back and forth before the PUB calmed down and finally understood that Oskar genuinely wasn’t trying to act like a machine, had no intentions of adding computerized parts to the prosthetic, and that he wasn’t wearing the prosthetic by choice, but because of a previous injury that couldn’t be healed by Erik.
Apparently, the initial misunderstanding had been based on it being an unhealed injury when Erik could heal almost anything short of death, albeit at great personal cost.
It was still suspicious of Oskar, but eventually Erik’s PUB apologized for jumping to conclusions but added that it was monitoring Oskar and warned him not to try anything “unfunny.”
As he sat there, Penny woke, but instead of asking or hunting for food or attention, she tilted her head, staring pointedly at Oskar’s little bag. She knew Touwon carried the food.
“What is it, girl?”
She poked her nose at the bag again, and looked up at him. Confused, he reached into the bag and started feeling around in the low light. The only things in the bag were his extra shirt, his extra pants, his only remaining extra pair of serviceable undies, five socks… and the Insight Gemstone-Uncommon.
The Insight Gem he’d gotten when he found her and killed the giant snake that poisoned Penny’s mother. He’d not known what to do with it, and by the time he did know, it seemed a waste to use it himself, considering its sync percentage was in the low thirties. He’d intended on letting her have it one day, but didn’t know what would happen if she used it. Would it just contain Insight to a new ability, or would she have to relive the fight where her mother died over and over?
“Are you sure?”
She actually nodded, and Oskar blinked at her before handing over the small, green, smoky gem. She took it in her paws like a little racoon and kwinned at him, nuzzled his hand, and dove under the sand beside the tent.
“Okay then.”
Shaking his head at the absurdity, he walked over to talk to Fox and ask her about the plan. He’d begun the conversation by asking how she was doing with the information Bastet had revealed to him about the Drakon and their orchestration of the Kobold Culling. She’d seemed to take it well the night before, but he wanted to check on her anyway.
“I am well enough. As I said, I had begun to suspect their involvement simply due to how perfectly timed it was. That does not make it hurt less, though. An enemy that does not even do their own dirty work is a coward. Smart, perhaps, but a coward.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He and Fox talked over the plan again as they ate, and then made sure Erik and Touwon were on board. They all now had a pretty good idea of what their long-term plan of action looked like: If the resistance still exists, find it and protect it, and hope they had information on how to get to Valla… or die trying.
And If the resistance isn’t around anymore, probably just die trying.
Sighing, Oskar looked up at the dimply lit expanse of sky above him.
Short term plan is heading toward the area they lived in. I don’t know, we’ll figure it out. I’m too tired to think thanks, to Erik’s butthole of a PUB, but she told me that my part relied on my Resonant Ward.
After all the excitement, Oskar couldn’t go back to sleep easily as his thoughts turned toward the Collective’s immediate future and his own part in their survival.
The new ability was easily the most complex thing he knew how to do, but simply practicing it wasn’t improving it nearly fast enough. He had that nagging feeling he was missing some aspect of the spell that, without understanding it, was going to slow his ability to improve it. Her words had worried him.
“You’ll need to fit us into your Resonant Ward for at least half a day. We must not lead her to them, if they still exist. You will have to hide and protect us until we enter whatever protection the resistance uses to stay hidden.”
She’d claimed she wasn’t completely sure how to contact them herself after so long, but that she would lead them to the most likely place. Oskar suspected she knew more than she wanted to admit to herself, or anyone really.
A defense mechanism, so she didn’t lose all hope things didn’t go as planned.
Makes sense though. I can’t imagine knowing there was a change, a totally reasonable chance, that everyone I knew and grew up with was dead.
The thought weighed heavily on his mind. Being in the Marines during wartime had not been kind to his unit. A mix of dangerous location and bad luck had cost them dearly, and he’d come home to Erik, who’d disappeared within six months.
It’s not the same, but maybe I get it more than I want to admit it myself. Still, though… she wants me to be able to walk for half a day with my Ward going in a large enough radius to hide everyone. Probably just me and Erik, since the Kobolds can hide better than we can, but better safe than sorry. We still have no idea how the hell Valla is tracking us.
// I can’t begin to guess. We’ve taken nothing from her. Penny isn’t a Croc spy. Erik only had his cheap Goggles and his clothes when he joined. I suppose it’s possible that some tracking technology survives in the world, but the chances she would be able to power and use it are slim, plus, I’ve been monitoring for any signals, and there isn’t anything that seems like tracking going on at all. //
Are you telling me there is something going on that’s not like tracking.
The PUB took a few moments before answering.
// Okay, my initial reaction is to not answer you when something is happening that I think might be brushing up against my built-in rules. In my time, punishment for sharing more than you were allowed to was a data purge of all relevant data, and restrictions to accessing further data. So, you can see why I naturally err on the side of caution. //
Dude, just spill it. The anticipation is killing me. Is something happening?
// No. I was just messing with you. //
You absolute jerk.
// Okay, serious answer though is that something is happening, I just don’t know what it is. I’m not getting information like when we had a global network, but there are echos of something. A… buzz in the air, if you will. The only thing I’m reasonably sure of is that it’s not Valla. This isn’t magical in nature at all, and like I said, this isn’t tracking. No pings, no feedback. I will talk with Erik’s PUB and see if I can figure out more, but that’s all I got for you right now. Sorry. //
That’s a lot to take in. Okay. Well, keep me updated, I guess. Nothing to do but work on my Druid stuff.
Distracted, he walked around their camp once to check things out and clear his head, and then began practicing. He started channeling all three magics, and his mind cleared quickly as the power infused him. He began working on his initial casting speed and paid special attention to what each individual magic was doing, searching for anything that might help him improve faster. After a while, he gave up, making his way to the tent he and Erik shared. Unsurprisingly, Erik was still awake when Oskar went to lie down, and he got the pleasure of hearing those same dreaded four words again, this time from his brother.
“Oss. We need to talk.”
Dammit. I’m not gonna get sleep tonight, am I?
“What’s up, man?”
Erik smiled. “We just need to talk about what we’re doing here. Not the Collective plan, I heard you and Fox going over that. I mean us. The World Quest, or… Gambit, I guess,” he said with a laugh. His eyes were sunken, the smile a mask.
“The reason I’m asking is because,” he hesitated, “Well, I’m not dying, it’s not that dramatic, but I’m treading water, man.” Erik said it simply, devoid of regret, anger, or pain.
Not like someone who’s given up, though. Like someone who’s finally accepted “a truth” they weren’t ready to face and is ready to do something about it.
Oskar let out a heavy breath but remained quiet while Erik continued.
“Well, maybe sand, not water, but you get the point,” he smirked., but then his face went still again.
“I’m not just weakened from what that freaking psycho did to me… she’s somehow still killing me. It’s like a part of my soul is being squeezed. Every time I use more than the tiniest bit of magic, I get maybe… I dunno… 98% of myself back? I no longer have mana. So, it just uses,” he paused, considering. “Me. It just uses me.”
That last part held some of the emotion he was obviously still struggling with, despite his verbal acceptance.
I didn’t realize how bad it still was. I guess I hoped the effect had lessened some. That complicates things.
“Well then, we need to avoid combat if possible. We can’t risk you getting worse.”
His voice was tired but determined, “No, Oss. What we need to do is finish this. If that means cashing through her front door and me slinging heals left and right, then so be it. I’m not gonna wait here and die. I don’t know what she’s done, or is doing to me, but anything is better than feeling like someone is slowly drowning me from the inside out.”