Chapter 318. Dog and Pony Show.
The next morning, I headed back to base and met the new unit I would be training with. By now, the training curriculum was well sorted, and I was able to quickly get to work. Meeting the new units, I was surprised that not all were military this time. I was working with a platoon of Marines, but there were also a dozen law enforcement personnel, four paramedics, and a score of civilians.
Many of these weren’t necessarily here for combat training, that would be the focus of the Marines and law enforcement, the others were here just to learn how to interact with system enhanced people and the various powers they might run into once integration occurred. My time was split between hard combat training, room clearing, and weapons discussions, while also essentially giving lectures on what I knew of the system.
It seemed strange to be the instructor, since I was still relatively new to all this. Still, I had the experience of being in dozens of worlds and had faced an incredible array of odd situations. Elliot was still assisting, and that let us divide and conquer at times to keep the training flowing. Elliot’s flashy fire magic was a big hit with the Marines, but my minions seemed to win over the civilians.
The Marines and law enforcement personnel soon learned to hate my minions as they went through various combat scenarios. They were unprepared for the odd magic, abilities, and outright power many of my minions possessed. Our training exercises got rough a few times, but other than the normal injuries you’d expect from this type of training, everyone was fine.
About three days into training, Agent Lopez turned up at the end of the day and pulled me and Elliot aside to talk.
“I wanted to get both of you together to go over some changes. Tomorrow night, the President and most of the other world leaders, will be making an announcement. They’ll explain what the system is and the pending integration we’re going to go through. Since we expect there might be some turmoil, we’d like to bring all the summoned beings and their families here on post, that way, we can keep you safe and avoid any issues you might have as things go public,” Lopez explained.
“Why do we have to move. Just because the announcement is made, nobody knows who the summoned beings are,” Elliot argued, and I actually agreed with him.
“That brings up the next thing I wanted to talk to you about. The president has requested some summoned beings to appear during the announcement to demonstrate their powers. I suggested you two as part of that demonstration, since you’re both experienced, and you have very different sets of system abilities.
“If you decline to join the dog and pony show, of course you can remain off post, but if you agree to help with the demonstration, you can expect a lot of public attention which would make it necessary to stay on post,” Agent Lopez explained.
“Do we get paid? My time is valuable,” Elliot asked.
“Shut up, Elliot, unless you’ve been foolish with your summoning rewards, you probably have more money than 95% of the country,” I chastised. It was good to question what Lopez was offering, but Elliot was drifting back into just being an annoying teen.
“You can get paid, but I don’t think dollars will be all that important soon. You’re better off keeping your system coins on hand to be honest,” Lopez said.
“I don’t even want to think about the financial implications of the integration. I’m just glad it’s not something you expect me to deal with. If you think it’ll help with the announcement, I’d be glad to join the demonstration. What exactly did you have in mind?” I asked.
“Are you in, Elliot?” Lopez asked.
“Sure, why not. I’ll probably get a movie deal once Hollywood sees what I can do,” Elliot said.
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“Maybe, but movie production is about to change quite a bit. As far as what is being requested of the demonstration, we wanted you to show off your various fire spells, Elliot,” Lopez said.
“Will people even believe it? Won’t they just think its CGI or some nonsense?” I asked.
“A sizeable minority probably will, and I have no doubt all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories will crop up after the announcement. We’re not doing this to convince the fringe, we’re doing this to prepare the vast majority of our people and get their buy in for the things that need to change,” Lopez said.
“I take it you want me to summon minions to show people about the other creatures and threats that are out there?” I asked.
“Exactly, and to show some of the variety in classes that people can acquire. We’re going to showcase both combat related classes like most summoned beings possess, as well as some of the ones focused on a profession or direct support. You both have the Fail Weapons spell, right?” Lopez asked.
“Yes,” we both replied.
“Great, we’ll also have you use them on several firearms, computers, and the like. We need to show people that technology isn’t going to save them, though I should mention that our scientists have some interesting ideas to change our power grid, and other infrastructure over to a mana-based system quickly after integration,” Lopez said.
“Where is the demonstration going to happen?” I asked, wondering if a long airline flight was in my immediate future.
“Your portion will be broadcast from here, on base. We want to show how our first responders are already preparing. Several news teams will arrive, and some independent experts to confirm that what the people are seeing is real. It’ll all take place tomorrow evening at 5pm,” Lopez said.
“We’ll be here, and ready to go,” I replied.
“Great, I’ve arranged movers to have your stuff brought over. There is some on post housing that’s clear, so you won’t have to live in the barracks or anything like that. Elliot, your family will be brought over as well. Rico, I know you have a sister, and we’ll arrange some security for her and her family,” Lopez said.
“Thanks, do you think that’s necessary?” I asked.
“No, but it is a reasonable precaution. The press will sniff out everything about your background and I don’t want anyone to hassle your relatives. There’s a special protection order for summoned beings that the president will sign into law tonight. It’ll help us keep the paparazzi and stalkers away,” Lopez explained.
“Thanks for that, is there anything else you needed from us tonight? I’d like to get dinner and then pack up if you’ve got movers coming,” I asked.
“That’s it, and thank you again for all your help,” Agent Lopez said, making a point to shake both of our hands. He was always so cool and collected, but I could see that even he was nervous when he talked about tomorrow’s announcement.
For the first time in too long, I thought about my sister. We’d never been that close, especially once we left home and went about our lives. Still, I didn’t want to see any harm happen to her or her family. Maybe this whole situation would bring us closer together. Her husband was a nice enough guy, but I’d only met him a couple of times at family holidays and at their wedding.
The last time we’d spoken, back in December, they were planning to start a family. For all I knew, I might be an uncle soon. Thoughts of being the cool uncle with superpowers made me smile. Yeah, reconnecting with my family was probably something I needed to make an effort to do.
Melvin sent me images of food as we drove off post. To nobody’s surprise, he wanted tacos again. I headed to the hole in the wall place that Julio had gotten me hooked on and bought a family pack of tacos and burritos. Melvin liked their super spicy sauce, but I was more of a mild salsa guy, so I had to get both, and some extra chips.
Eating with Melvin while he was in armor form was strange. He would gather most of his mass in one place, usually on my leg. I’d drop a taco onto the gelatinous lump, and he eagerly start dissolving the food. I was full after two tacos and half a burrito, but Melvin finished off the rest with no problem.
Packing up wasn’t too hard, I didn’t have all that much, just enough furniture to fill up a tiny one-bedroom apartment. My clothes fit in a single, large duffel bag that I’d snagged from the base, and other than a pair of backpacks, that was all I needed for my personal items.
The movers arrived later, around 9pm, and they worked quickly and efficiently. I don’t know where Agent Lopez had found movers that worked all night, but we were packed and back on post in just a couple of hours. A corporal was waiting at the gate to guide me to my new digs.
To my surprise, it was a small, two-bedroom house. Though it was much more than I needed, it was nice to not share apartment walls with anyone else. The movers unpacked as efficiently as they had packed, and just after midnight, I was officially moved in. After a shower, I headed to bed. The big show was tomorrow, and I still needed to work with my new training group before Elliot and I were pulled away for the announcement stuff.
Instead of waking up early to get ready for my busy day, the system decided it was time for me to be called again.
You are Summoned!