Stage 3: Timed Mission Arc 4.3

  +660 XP, Quest Timed Missions Suck, 3 of 8 members evaded.

  I'm as prepared as I can get. I dismiss the notification as Burnscar's timer finally runs out. As soon as it does, Mannequin removes the turbine vent off the shed roof he's standing on. His armored body parts disconnect from each other, except thick cables that join the pieces, and slips them one by one into the slaughter shed though the shaft. He even takes the time to replace the vent, screws and all, after slipping inside. It's horror-movie like, or it would be if I weren't watching him via free camera. He completely bypassed the noise traps I had set up around the entrances. So it's his turn, and they're still playing by Jack's rules, or appearing to be. I shouldn't trust that though.

  Shatterbird is hovering above the two buildings, wearing a big coat. It's snowing and very dark outside but I can see glints of light reflecting off the giant glass spear hovering next to her. It's longer than she is tall. I thought she'd bring something bigger; guess there isn't enough glass around in the middle of the forest. She's probably pissed I removed all the windows and other glass I found here.

  I move my camera to follow Mannequin as he reforms himself and silently swings through the chained hooks hanging from the ceiling. Not a single clink or creak is heard. How the fuck is he so stealthy? Sound suppression tinker device, just that good, or both? He slowly lowers himself to the floor and disables my sound traps. I had no time to make a damage trap, which probably wouldn't have even scratched his paint.

  Mannequin finds the blood drops, and tattered bits of clothing, and follows them to the freezer. He again, somehow, soundlessly opens the heavy freezer door a mere 4 inches and spills himself inside as my camera follows. I watch Chela scream and dart through her portal; Mannequin drops all pretenses of stealth and charges at her through the giant freezer room. The scattered debris on the floor proves to be no hindrance to him at all.

  Come on do it, you fucking robot. Mannequin gracefully leaps over the fallen shelves and runs right at the portal, then screeches to a sudden halt as the portal shuts, only slicing through a single finger blade, instead of cutting him in half. Fuck, time for plan B. "Inventory crowbar" I whisper as I drop my free camera and burst out of my hiding place, I run up and body slam the freezer door shut. I slide the crowbar into place, wedging the latch and locks shut. I hear a massive thud from the other side and the door shakes, but holds firmly closed.

  "Ha! Fuck you, ya tin can!" I glance at Mannequin's quest timer, just over six minutes in and we have him trapped. There are two new notifications.

  Your Stealth skill has increased by 1

  Your Strategy skill has increased by 1

  Nice, but not the defeat messages I was hoping for. I run over to the shed door and peek out. A quick toggle of my free camera and I see that Shatterbird has moved, hovering high over the office where the other end of the portal was, where Chela is now. Chela glances at me through the empty window and I give her the thumbs up and point at the sky. She makes a gesture and a blue flash of light comes from below her as we planned. Chela quietly slips out the door and holds her hand aloft, but stays under the roof eaves. Shatterbird repositions herself; she's definitely tracking her still.

  My own mini map shows Mannequin has walked a circuit along the walls inside the freezer and has come back to the door which was the only way in. All the other members of the S9 are off my map or still far away.

  Chela carefully pokes her head out from under the roof eaves while looking up. The orange glow of the secondary portal appears above Shatterbird and opens a second later. The heavy desk and all the other items we piled on top of it fall through the portal in the office and plummet down. This time, she just moves out of the way, ignoring it completely without even looking up as the furniture crashes into the roof of the office. I open the shed door wide as Chela runs in, and close it just as the glass spear impacts it.

  <"Fuck, she moved. You had her dead to rights too!"> I curse.

  <"Don't ever use me as bait again!"> Chela yells at me.

  <"Well it worked!">

  "Fuck Jack's game! I'm going to kill both of you!" I hear Shatterbird scream from outside. No slurring this time.

  <"What did she say?"> Chela asks

  I shake my head. <"That she's going to kill us.">

  <"What do we do now?">

  I don't have an answer, and my thoughts are interrupted by a heavy slam hitting the outside shed door again. It shakes me as I still have it braced shut. We push another shelf in front of the door as it gets slammed a few more times and then Shatterbird stops trying to break it down.

  My mini map shows Mannequin hasn't moved from his spot by the door in the freezer, and Shatterbird is hovering over the roof of the slaughter shed.

  <"Simon! Danger! We have to get out of here!">

  I glance up as I hear the tearing of metal, snow falls down through a hole, the turbine vent that Mannequin crawled through earlier is ripped off. "Fuck."

  <"No, the Freezer!"> Chela yells.

  I glance over to the freezer. What the fuck? A slim protrusion of metal has snaked out of the door and on the end of it is a spinning saw blade, steadily cutting its way through the latch, and it wasn't making a single damn sound or spark.

  <"Double Fuck, Portal, window, same way we removed the glass earlier.">

  <"We can't fit through that!"> Chela yells.

  <"Doesn't matter, you just need to see through it, and tag the ground outside."> I shout back as Chela gestures and a blue oval appears on its side. I hold out my hands, she steps into my clasped palms and climbs up onto the portal. She reaches down and helps me up until we're both standing on the closed portal. I clasp my palms together again and lift her up to the tiny empty window so she can look out.

  <"Got it"> Chela says from above me.

  I watch as Shatterbird's glass spear lowers itself though the vent hole. It reorients itself to point right at Chela. <"Open…Fuck!!"> I scream as the portal we're standing on drops out from under me. I fall through, ending up horizontally on my backs in the snow. Chela lands right on top of me. Just as suddenly, she jerks her legs to her chest and rolls off.

  -84 HP (12 Resisted), Critical hit!

  "MOTHER FUCKER!" I scream as I take Shatterbird's giant glass spear right in the fucking knee. The familiar tinkling sound occurs, and the portal closes; cleanly cutting right through the glass spear. Then the sheared half that tried to take my leg off starts to spin.

  <"Sorry, I couldn't warn you in time"> Chela says as she runs off.

  "Oh, no you don't!" I grab the spinning column of pointed glass and wince as I discover it's covered with sharp ridges, but my resistances stop additional HP damage despite it slicing up my hands. "Inventory…Fuck!"

  -16 HP (12 resisted)

  The thing starts spinning faster and stabs me in the arm as I try to wrestle with it, unable to get it to intersect my inventory window as I fight against Shatterbird's control of the thing.

  -4 HP (12 resisted)

  "Inventory glass shard!" My third attempt at intersecting it and it finally sucks into my pocket dimension.

  <"SIMON RUN!!">

  I hear Chela yell and scramble to my feet. Thank you Avatar, despite my knee looking like crap, I run toward Chela who’s already made it into the tree line. Shatterbird is high in the air again, what is left of the glass spear is hurtling towards me like a missile.

  <"GROUND, NOW!">

  I dive down into the snow and blue light reflects off it. The spear shatters against the portal shield. I roll over and watch the shield wink back out, but all the small shattered pieces of glass start floating into the air again and coalesce once more. I try to grab some and inventory them but it's too fucking slow, they get ripped out of my hands. Again no damage due to resistances, but I think she's figured out that small cuts don't do shit to me. I get up and run, following Chela into the forest once again. I look back once more as I enter the tree line. I see movement off in the distance and double check my mini-map. Mannequin is coming around the corner of the slaughter shed.

  ****?

  We run through the dark forest. It's fight or flight time because my stupid power starts playing music again. What is it this time? Some because it's Mannequin's turn? This shit just gives my position away, not that they don't already know where we are.

  Visibility is complete shit, it's the middle of the night, and it's snowing. Wait, is that sleet? The portal hops Chela makes are short. The weather's getting worse, and some light dirty fog is in the air. I hack and spit again; it feels like I've been inhaling grit. Chela coughs and clears her throat as well; I catch her as she stumbles again. Our brief rest earlier wasn't long enough and she's getting exhausted again. I glance at my mini-map; Mannequin is steadily catching up to us.

  "Ahhhhh!" Chela screams as she trips and tumbles during our mad dash though the forest. I immediately move to help her up,

  <"My ankle!"> She yells

  <"We have to keep going"> I put her arm around my shoulder and keep moving her forward. I glance at my mini-map again, he's getting closer. I look back in Mannequin's direction, but I don't see anything. There is an unexpected flash of lightning and I see movement, but then it's dark again. With my cheats, my night vision only goes out so far. He's still quickly moving closer on the mini-map. Shatterbird is just as near. <"They're coming. We need a portal again.">

  <"It's so dark…">

  <"Try to use the lightning, if it happens again."> I clear my gritty throat, what the fuck is that? There's notifications pending but I can't spare a second to look at them. No convenient lightning. <"I'll point the flashlight that way." I say as I get Chela's attention. I pull the flashlight out of my inventory and shine it. A blue oval opens in the distance, and I hear a loud crack, and the flashlight turns off. "Shit." A quick observe tells me its inner circuitry has been destroyed; fucking Shatterbird. I inventory it immediately. I glance back toward where my map says Mannequin is located, as Chela opens her portal. There's another flash of lightning overhead as she goes through. I quickly follow.

  <"The trees; he's in the trees, swinging through them like a fucking monkey.">

  We scramble away from the open portal as Mannequin lands on the ground a mere dozen feet away from the opposite end. He sharply twitches his head several times and puts one hand over a non-existent ear as he runs up to the portal, tapping the finger blades of his other hand against his ceramic torso. He stops short even as we keep moving away while I'm half carrying Chela.

  <"He won't go through. Close it. Chela, close it!"> I say as I watch Mannequin go around the thing and head toward us the long way.

  <"You should leave me; they're just tracking me now, right? It's why I was bait…"> Chela says as she closes her portal.

  <"No"> I say as I pick her up, and attempt to jog through the trees. Her ankle is twisted.

  <"I'm still slowing you down">

  <"Don't care."> Carrying her isn't tiring enough for my stamina to noticeably drain, but she's right. Doing so slows me down, especially uphill though rough forested terrain. And I don't want to accidently bash her feet or head into a tree again.

  Fuck, 12 more minutes till Mannequin's time is up. "Stats" no more points to spend. <"Can you make another portal yet?"

  <"Not… while… I'm bouncing… all over… Set me down"> Chela says, lethargy in her voice.

  I set her down. Fuck, I guess carrying her while running isn't good for keeping a steady line of sight. I look at my mini-map again. They're getting too close. <"Chela…">

  <"I know…">

  No convenient lightning flash illuminates anything. Chela only manages to open a portal some thirty to fifty meters away. Shatterbird immediately angles towards the far end. Mannequin isn't bothering with stealth anymore. I can see the trees swaying, hear the branches creaking and watch as the piles of snow fall off them to the ground as he rapidly advances. <"We gotta go, now!"> The portal opens and I move toward her as she struggles to stand. Her legs collapse under her as we tumble through. I help her to her feet but then she shoves me away.

  <"They're here…"> she says in a horse whisper, as a giant glass spear impales the ground where I was standing a second ago.

  "Inventory" I grab the glass spear as Shatterbird attempts to lift it back out of the ground, sharp edges be damned. I watch in horror though as Mannequin reaches the other side of the portal and fires five finger blades out of his outstretched hand through the open portal. Chela twists her body, reacting pre-cognitively with whatever her danger sense does as, one, two, three, four sail past inches from her, then her ankle gives out and she falters.

  The fifth blade erupts from the front of her right shoulder, the end of it opens up in a grapple and hooks into her flesh as Mannequin retracts them all, pulling Chela back through the portal.

  "Noooo! Fuck!" I yell as I still grapple with the fucking glass spear. Shatterbird starts spinning it again, but I finally manage to get the fucker into my inventory windows even as it was lifting me a foot off the ground. I try diving through the portal, as Mannequin picks Chela up as she screams and turns around, but the portal closes.

  ****?

  I run after them. I run faster than when I was running away from Hatchet face earlier in the night. I run faster than I've ever run before. Fuck me, this is illogical. I don't care, run faster. You can save yourself, they can't track you. I don't care, how many times has she saved me tonight? You can't catch up, Mannequin is faster. Doesn't matter, as long as my mini-map….

  -40 HP (12 Resisted)

  Ow… fuck. I run straight into a floating glass caltrop. Shatterbird immediately starts to move it, but I grab it. More precious seconds are lost as I maneuver the thing into my inventory. Does she just have these floating out here?

  "I'm going to find you and skin you alive, little boy" I hear Shatterbird cackling from above the tree tops.

  Is she too afraid to come down to ground level? I turn stealth on and move the fuck away from where I was and lean against a tree. A few seconds later several more glass caltrops fly through where I was standing when I ran into it. Then they zip along the ground for a while along the path I walked at chest height. They stop before they reach me and she spreads them out again.

  What is she doing? She's got to be running out of glass right? That giant spear was the main thing she was flying around with and I got most of it. There were five caltrops she floated in and spread out, there may be more I haven't seen. The notification pulses keep nagging at me, the number has increased again.

  Chela and Mannequin are still on my mini-map, they're heading in the direction of Jack's icon. How can I get her back? Is it even possible? I can't do shit until I take care of Shatterbird. What the fuck is she doing? I switch to my free camera and keep an eye on the nearest caltrop; it's still just floating there. Is she waiting for me to run into one again? There aren't enough of them. She couldn't possibly cover all the area she'd need to. It suddenly darts off again, but not towards my body. Shatterbird's icon on the mini-map also moves, heading towards the same vector. I follow the caltrop with my free camera.

  I hear a sick screaming as the caltrops converge and slice open a deer that was wandering nearby. Shatterbird descends to the ground as it wails in its death throes, then with a gesture the glass caltrop precisely slices its throat. I tag her with Observe before she ascends and spreads the caltrops out again. Why did she do that? Can she see in the dark?

  Lots of injury debuffs, her arm is still in some kind of tinker-tech sling and her jaw is still partially bandaged. No night vision stuff mentioned anywhere. Doesn't actually have a flight power, and her glass jewelry and gun are missing. She can't see well and is still freezing her ass off in this storm even with that giant hooded coat. Chela must be freezing. Fuck freezing, she got stabbed in the back through the shoulder, she's probably bleeding badly. I have to figure out how to end this quickly and get her back.

  "Notifications" I subvocalize.

  Alan Gramme has gone from stranger to annoyance

  You are suffering from the status effect 'Minor Lung Irritation'

  Balluri Ababil has gone from annoyance to enemy

  For performing a repeated action you may gain the 'Power Dash' skill.

  What the fuck is 'Lung Irritation' and 'Power Dash'? "Status Effects, Skills, Observe, Observe"

  Fucking Shatterbird; "Observe". That's not dirty fog. "Inventory Sand---" Wait. She could detect them. Will she detect them disappearing? But if she could, she should have come over here already. Does it being inside me make a difference? Sand in the air, maybe she knows when it gets disturbed. Isn't the snowstorm already disturbing a lot of it? Maybe she just sees large movements at ground level? I bet she thought the deer was me.

  I hit yes. I could've fucking used that a lot earlier. Now stop hoarding the rest of your shit. Skill points; pump +6 Damage Resistance (Physical). All the pains I'm still feeling suddenly reduce.

  You have unlocked the feature 'That didn't hurt' for Damage Resistance (Physical)

  "Observe" +25% Pain Reduction? Good. "Perks" What do I have available?

  Extra Creative: Bonuses to Artistry and Crafting

  Night Owl: See in low light conditions and reduces penalties of sleep based fatigue

  Hardly Hungry: Reduce need for sustenance

  Versatile: +5 skill slots

  Instant Boost: +3 stat points

  Skilled Up: +5 skill points

  Quick Items: Retrieve and place items in inventory instantly w/out using the window (Level 20)

  Strong Back: Increase your carry weight (10 STR)

  Perfect Ambidexterity: Dual wield tools, melee weapons or guns for an extra attack or action (10 AGI)

  Metabolic Health: Improved HP gain from foods, no longer restricted by hunger state (CON 25)

  Fast Study: Increased speed of reading, research, design, and other studious mental tasks (INT 25)

  Oooh, Shiny!: Items of interest or potential loot literally shine and sparkle to you (PER 10)

  Mana Boost: MP regen rate increased by 25% (WIS 10)

  Eye Candy: Increase your Allure (10 CHA)

  Better Loot: Your luck leads you to where they stash the good stuff (10 LUC)

  Most aren't immediately useful. What will help me take out Shatterbird and rescue Chela? Strong Back could have helped in carrying her, but maybe not more than 3 more STR points. I can carry her now anyway; its movement speed that's the problem. If my earlier bump to AGI didn't make enough difference, I doubt another +3 will either. But, I've been fucked over, injured, and restrained several times by not being able to maneuver my inventory window fast enough. Getting rid of that crutch will be very useful especially in grabbing any glass that bitch will use against me.

  I select Quick Items and close out my screens. Now, how to trick Shatterbird?

  Simon's Character Sheet:

  Name: Simon Clarence Anderson

  Gender: Male

  Age: 15

  Race: Human (Parahuman)

  Class: Teenage Runaway / Rogue

  Faction: None

  Money: $5.16

  Title: Gentleman Thief

  Level: 21 (24.44%)

  XP: 41002

  Primary Attributes

  STR: 16 (-1.00) 15.00 (0.00%)

  AGI: 15 (-2.00) 13.00 (0.00%)

  CON: 55 (-4.00) 51.00 (13.59%)

  INT: 30 (-1.00) 29.00 (0.00%)

  PER: 12 (-1.00) 11.00 (31.37%)

  WIS: 22 (-1.00) 21.00 (33.07%)

  CHA: 14 (+0.00) 14.00 (0.00%)

  LUC: 15 (+0.00) 15.00 (74.73%)

  Unspent Points: 0

  Secondary Attributes

  Health Pool: 950/2442

  Stamina Pool: 1435/1435

  Mana Pool: 7710/7875

  Stress Pool: 451/520

  Attack: 16.50

  Speed: 2.93

  Dodge: 16.26

  Armor: 0.40

  Carry: 150.00

  Allure: 3 (-0.50) 2.5

  Status Effects

  Teenage Acne: ALU -0.50

  Alluring Charm*: ALU +1.00

  Fractured Ribs: STR -1.00 AGI -1.50 CON -3.00

  Bruised Organs x4: AGI -0.50 CON -1.00

  Mild Concussion: INT -1.00 PER -1.00 WIS -1.00

  Visage of a Wuss: ALU -1.00

  Skills

  Max Slots: 61

  Free Skill Slots: 18

  Artistry: 10 (85.89%)

  Athletics: 13 (7.79%)

  Basic Academics: 9 (0.00%)

  Computers: 10 (11.23%)

  Crafting (Stone & Pottery): 10 (5.67%)

  Create Mana Golem: 12 (18.03%)

  Damage Resistance (Corrosive): 2 (37.07%)

  Damage Resistance (Electrical): 3 (24.35%)

  Damage Resistance (Fire & Heat): 4 (0.75%)

  Damage Resistance (Physical): 12 (0.00%)

  Damage Resistance (Sonic & Concussive): 1 (0.00%)

  Disable Device: 12 (7.45%)

  Disease Resistance: 7 (44.66%)

  Disguise: 4 (25.98%)

  Drug & Poison Resistance: 20 (18.65%)

  Empathy: 13 (8.15%)

  Firearms: 1 (0.00%)

  Gamer's Body: MAX (0.00%)

  Gamer's Interface: MAX (0.00%)

  Gamer's Mind: MAX (0.00%)

  Language-English: MAX (0.00%)

  Language-Spanish: MAX (0.00%)

  Mathematics: 4 (0.00%)

  Medicine: 3 (4.53%)

  Meditation: 12 (48.91%)

  Melee Weapons: 4 (31.06%)

  Null Resistance: 12 (29.76%)

  Observe: 23 (20.05%)

  Parahuman Lore: 11 (4.65%)

  Power Dash: 1 (0.00%)

  Power Strike: 10 (8.19%)

  Programming: 10 (0.54%)

  Psychology: 5 (12.61%)

  Science (Biology): 1 (53.22%)

  Science (Chemistry): 1 (0.00%)

  Science (Earth): 1 (0.00%)

  Speech: 11 (0.83%)

  Stealth: 13 (3.05%)

  Strategy: 6 (0.00%)

  Thievery: 11 (12.42%)

  Unarmed Combat: 5 (6.20%)

  Vehicle Operations: 3 (0.00%)

  Video Games: 26 (16.74%)

  Unspent Skill Points: 0

  Perks

  Free Perk Slots: 0

  Gaia's Blessing: Mana Pool and Mana Skill access

  Gaia's Attunement: Elemental Affinity access

  Light Sleeper: Need only 5 hours to get fully rested

  Mana Reserve: Bonus MP per level increased by 25%

  XP Whore: +10% Level XP

  Fast Recovery: x4 HP and Stamina regeneration speed (Free at 50 CON)

  Toughness: Bonus HP per level increased by 50%

  Quick Items: Retrieve and place items in inventory instantly w/out using the window

  Flaws

  Selective Amnesia: We had to make room for stuff in your head

  A Bit of a Troll: Sometimes you just can't help yourself

  Unnatural Curiosity: Can't always resist the urge to find stuff out

  You still look like a Wuss: Even with a few extra muscles, you still look like a wuss.

  Affinities

  Earth: 6

  Water: 1

  Plant: 1

  Lightning: 3

  Fire: 3