7/21

  Hollywood Sign Dungeon, 4th studio lot.

  11:00 AM

  “Well, it definitely means I'm on to something,” I tell Jose. “If the Admins are getting involved to stop me from my crazy scheme, it means I'm doing something right. And I can control when I actually use that last level up, so I'm in a good position to fight whatever they throw at me.”

  I can hear Jose contemplating it. “I have a hunch, and we might as well test it. Get back here before you use the level up. I have a battlefield in mind.”

  “Gotcha, boss,” I say, giving a verbal salute to my best buddy. We're using satellite phones. Those penetrate dungeons, unlike regular cell phones. Also, there's something kinda cool about using a phone the size of a brick. Feels substantial.

  I fill in the team.

  Quins seems disappointed in the news. “So we don't know wot's coming, or from where, but we know it'll come for you, mate? And here I thought ol’ bossman Amarillo was a smooth talker.”

  “We can fight as a whole guild, theoretically,” Mercy says, helping.

  “And use the heavy weapons,” Odysseus says, with a gleam in his eyes.

  “Yeah, okay, good idea,” I tell him. He never got to ride in a tank, despite being an Army Ranger. He really wants to ride in that tank I bought. I briefly think about how we have to get permission to drive it on streets, and how much of a hassle it is using a tank without breaking a shit ton of laws.

  “They're probably gonna send something specifically designed to kill you, dude.” Ivy has a point. They can probably see me and how I fight, and could prepare something special for me.

  I nod. “We've got time to prepare, though not a ton. The sooner I can cure Scourge the better, for everyone.”

  Mercy, always thinking ahead, says, “I've been thinking about it, and I think that we should go to New York City once you get the power. That way people can fly in to get treated.

  “Right. People from across the world might want me to treat them. I'll have to be accessible. Shit, this might be a bigger problem than the monster.”

  After that we talk for a while about the logistics of being the only person in the world who can cure an incurable disease. It's going to take the government, possibly the United Nations, to get people to me so I can save as many as I can.

  It's daunting, but also exciting. This time I'm breaking the system to help myself, sure. But the potential for good is pretty sky high.

  I briefly think about what that means for my team. They probably won't take on anything without me, to be honest. Mercy will be with me, and I don't think Quins, Odysseus and Ivy should try to tackle anything on their own. No offense.

  If, like people have hypothesized, the Season of the Scourge works like a video game season, then the Scourge disease should shut down or at least not spread after the season ends. That would be ideal. If Scourge is just a constant, ongoing problem forever, well... Humanity is fucked.

  -----

  We spend some time fighting monsters, then go back to the much more frustrating task of assembling flat pack furniture for the airship. On the ship there are four regular people in regular clothes and one guy in full magical armor so he doesn't infect the four regular people. We all have Allen wrenches. I paid for extra Allen wrenches.

  I talk to Odysseus in one of the bedrooms as we slap together a 4x2 cube storage system called the Ingmif.

  “Odysseus, how's, uh, things?” I ask, very smoothly.

  Odysseus shakes his head as he looks over simple looking instructions that actually require extreme attention to detail. “I don't want to talk about it.”

  “Talk about what?” I ask, not knowing which horrible problem we're facing that he doesn't want to face.

  “You got your Wisdom up, figure it out.”

  I think about it. Odysseus has no problem talking about tactics, strategy and combat. So probably something personal. “You haven't shaved your head in a few days. Your hair is coming in and it looks patchy and bad and you don't want to talk about it.”

  He looks at me and scowls. “Asshole. No, I mean I don't want to talk about Ivy. I know it's not happening. I know I have these feelings just because I'm lonely. I know and I don't need whatever help you think you can give me.”

  “You're lonely?” I ask.

  “Yeah.”

  We don't look at each other. We're manly Rangers. We don't admit we have feelings or try to support each other.

  Well, we used to be that. Now we're Pathbreakers.

  I look at my comrade. Odysseus. The big guy with the scars across his face that now look faint and are hard to notice. And when you do notice he looks badass. He left the Rangers and decided to become an EMT.

  “Why did you want to become an EMT?” I ask.

  He turns his Allen wrench. “I got sick of killing and wanted to try helping. Still serve for the greater good, you know.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “No, I don't know. I didn't enlist for the greater good. I...” I trail off not wanting to admit it. “I just wanted to kill terrorists.”

  He looks up at me. “Did they kill someone?”

  “My mom. She was on a plane on 9/11.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Yeah.”

  He goes back to the Allen wrench.

  “You joined up to serve your country?” I ask.

  He nods. “And to escape Oklahoma. Not a ton of ways out of Oklahoma.”

  The Army was full of guys and gals who were just trying to escape shitty towns and states. People who were willing to risk their lives for a better life. Or at least a slightly better paid life. Of course that's a pretty common theme throughout world history, and armies of all types, so I figure we're in good company.

  We work for a few minutes. We stand the big Ingmif rectangle up on its end so we can tighten the cam locks.

  “I'm not as dumb as I used to be.” I say. “I can at least listen.”

  He sighs. “Okay.” He tightens one of the many, many cam locks. “My divorce really wrecked me. It happened just as my last tour was ending. I thought I was coming home. I ended up coming back to a shitty apartment and alimony.”

  I didn't interrupt.

  “So I learned that I had neglected my wife, being overseas so much. Sure. Unavoidable. She had enough. That was fair, I guess.” His face scrunched up like he didn't agree with his own words.

  “But now I'm in my 40s, no wife, no kids, not even a dog. I have money now, and thanks for that by the way, but I'm still... Overseas, so to speak. I'm still not available most of the time.”

  And he wouldn't have the availability problem with someone he worked alongside. So his crush on Ivy was less about her than the possibility of someone, anyone, being in his life.

  “Odysseus.” I say his name seriously. He looks up at me. “You're fired. Go find something else to do, and someone to do it with.”

  He looks shocked. Then he laughs. “You can't fire me. Only Jose can fire me, and he knows my worth to the team.” Odysseus shakes his head and goes back to the storage cubes.

  And I just stand there. How can I help the world if I can't even help my friend?

  “I'll be back,” I say, and leave to find Mercy.

  -----

  I find her in the kitchen, working alone on a microwave stand. The ye olde pirate ship didn't have a proper place for a microwave. Total oversight.

  “Mercy, I need your help.”

  “Righty tighty, lefty loosey,” she says to me.

  I glare at her, then remember that she can't see my glare because I'm still in a goddamn magical helmet to keep my Scourge germs to myself.

  “What do you do to help someone who's lonely? Also someone who can't forge a meaningful relationship because they're constantly away on work trips. Also someone who definitely isn't Odysseus.”

  “If he just wants a girlfriend, doesn't Quins have too many?”

  -----

  “Quins,” I start. “You still have too many ladies?”

  He's currently hanging off the side of the airship by rope, painting it blue with a roller. “Yeah mate, and boy are they a handful. Why just before we left, Sherri asked me to fix her sink and when I got to her room she was not looking for me to fix her sink.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “She wanted me to check her pipes.”

  “Yeah, I got it.”

  “She wanted me to plumb her depths.”

  “I get the picture.”

  “She wanted hardcore, aggressive sex.”

  “Thanks for that, so anyways that's a yes on too many single ladies at your apartment complex.”

  “Yeah, mate, all single moms ready to mingle... Moms.”

  “And they're okay with you being gone a lot?”

  “Well,” Quins considers his various situations. “I have not, as of yet, sealed any deals with any of them, because I am a gentleman. But they all know my particular business situation, yeah. These are ladies with kids and jobs and they aren't looking for everythin’ from me. They just want somethin’ from me.”

  “Okay, cool. I'm gonna tell Odysseus to move into your complex. And then you have a party at your place. And then, you know... Uh, whatever happens at parties?”

  “Sorry, gonna stop you there, Jun, good sir. Have you never been to a party?”

  I look off to the side, being totally normal. “Well of course, just not like a dating party.”

  “A dating party?” Quins says with incredulity in his voice and a wide smile breaking across his face.

  Shit, that is not the term!

  -----

  After a hasty retreat, I go back to Odysseus and tell him he needs to move into a shitty apartment complex full of single moms.

  “That's just...” He shakes his head in disbelief at my probably stupid plan. Then he looks up, as if asking God why he sent me to cheer the big guy up. He looks down at his hands, probably questioning my ability to do things like a normal person. He tilts his head left and then right, actually considering my idea.

  Finally, he shrugs. “Fuck it, sure, why not.”