7/15

  Pathbreakers HQ

  11:30 AM

  The bigger-on-the-inside HQ building now has a third floor and a basement. Those are occupied by new Dracosys-moderated facilities. We've got a forge, workshops, bar, system store, and restaurant.

  The forge is just a regular blacksmith forge, but items made using Dracosys abilities are more likely to have better abilities and stats placed on them. We're getting the Smith from Austin, Arushi. She was apparently pretty badass even before the Dracosys, and made some props for Game Of Thrones. That's on the 3rd floor and now a little smoke stack is on the roof.

  The workshops (also on the 3rd floor) are just empty grey work tables with stools to sit on. Do some sort of work there using Dracosys stuff, get bonuses. Quins has been making some new elemental arrows over there and Mercy has been working on a new costume.

  The bar and restaurant are combined into one area in the basement. It's a lovely, dark wood bar with those green banker's lamps at the tables. I make omelets in the back, and have accomplished making two perfect omelets so far! The kitchen gives bonus chances to make perfect food. The bar and restaurant give duration bonuses for eating Dracosys stuff. We're at a rank 1 bar right now, which doubles food bonus durations. The mighty Denver Omelet now gives +5 Toughness for eight hours instead of four (the default duration). Which still isn't really enough time to eat, hop on a plane and then go fight things, but hey, I'm sure if we're at restaurant rank 5 or so it'll be a big boon.

  Jose broke the Skull Master Flash mission into parts for various logistics reasons. The first part, “Find the true name of Skull Master Flash,” is being handled by Henry's team. They're way more well-rounded than the other two teams. Henry has the personal skills, Eddie Sloan has contacts among criminals, Andrew Wilhelm has tech support handled and Viktor Kovalchuk has espionage experience. Oh, and Florence the Druid can talk to animals and plants. Which feels like it's pretty useful.

  I should look into Druid if that's the kind of shenanigans you can get into. Man, I would be great to talk to- Oh right Biscuits can already talk. Never mind.

  DIAMOND, the government Dracosys intelligence network, spread the word that the new “Season Of The Scourge” involves diseases. Basically any monster has a chance to be a Scourge carrier. And their physical attacks with claws, teeth, etc, have a chance to inflict Scourge.

  Scourge. You will die within 24 hours of contracting this disease. Over those 24 hours your body will be wracked with increasing pain and detrimental effects. Killing any monster of your tier or higher will reset the timer. Killing a human will remove this disease.

  It's a brutal fate. Apparently even Dracosys spells and abilities that normally remove curses and diseases don't work on it.

  We have a new option in our menus, too.

  Season Of The Scourge

  This season ends in 94 days. Bonuses will be awarded based on objectives cleared.

  Bonus Objectives:

  Get infected by Scourge: 1 pt

  Get cured of Scourge: 3 pts

  Kill someone infected by Scourge: 3 pts

  Become a Scourge Spreader: 5 pts

  Spread Scourge to 10 people: 10 pts (repeatable)

  Find and kill a Scourge Spreader: 3 pts

  Find and destroy a Scourge Source: 5 pts

  Gain the class “Scourge”: 10 pts

  It's a really dickish list, favoring things that will actively kill other humans. But also, ehhh what's up with that Scourge class?

  Secret classes and subclasses are hidden until you meet their prerequisites.

  Thanks for nothing, system voice!

  Eagle Team is out doing Skull Master Flash tracking, and Phoenix Team is doing a ruin in Alabama. Something about ancient Native American burial grounds. They're probably fine.

  -----

  I head to the 1st floor after making yet another run-of-the-mill Denver omelet. Odysseus Grant is showing Ivy Black how to shoot better at the rifle range. “I'm sick of making omelets,” I shout over the rifle fire.

  “Just make something else!” cries Ivy over the B-B-BLAP of a three round burst. “Please, for the love of Judas Priest, make something else!” Ivy is wearing a black leather jacket that's got spikes on the shoulders. Without a helmet she's got a neon green faux hawk going on, which is pretty sick. She's about average in both height and weight, but has a crap load of tattoos basically everywhere but her face.

  Odysseus Grant moves his hand off her shoulder, where it had been lingering, and looks away when he sees that I noticed. The man is 6’ 4” and blushing like a school girl. So he's got a thing for Ivy? Good for him. Since he upped his Charisma his facial scars now look like he fought a katana-wielding ninja and won, rather than before, where he looked like he fought a Ninja blender and lost. He coughs, then says, “there's some stuff going around about the new classes and how you can trick the system into giving you new recipes, have you tried it yet?”

  “Naw, it requires you to actually be good at creating something first, then you can get lucky and get the Dracosys enhancement for it. I'm... really only good at making omelets.”

  The big man says, “I can teach you some stuff. Easy stuff, too. Quesadillas, enchiladas, honey salmon, garlic bread, Mac and cheese, calzones, and chili. Can't forget chili.”

  “Yeah, O-D's chili is badass,” Ivy says, prompting him for a fist bump, which he delivers on.

  “That would be great, actually,” I say. “I get weirded out from recipe websites when they spend 3 pages on how yummy the cook's aunties made a dish.”

  “Bro, I hear that,” Ivy agrees. “Yummy is a word that no adult should say or even type.”

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Odysseus, sorry, apparently it's O-D now, gives me a list and I prepare for a grocery run. I head upstairs to the third floor, looking for Mercy, but run into Brian on the 2nd floor.

  “Jun, I need something else to do.” Brian looks unnecessarily exasperated.

  “I thought you were on website duty.”

  Brian sighs. “I am. I was. But I'll tell you a secret. Most IT people bullshit on how much maintenance a website needs. Usually it's set it and forget it, unless you're adding new features. Your website doesn't need more features.” He looks genuinely down.

  “Can you teach me how to bake? I got a cooking class but I suck.”

  His eyebrows scrunch together as he tries to accept my question. “I guess. Fucking weird request at a mercenary company, but okay.”

  “Hey, we're an adventurer's guild now, thank you very much.” I am indignant. ”We're not for hire by random warlords and don't do secret government ops.”

  Brian raises one eyebrow at my contention. “You literally did a secret government op last week.”

  I raise my hands in defiance. “It was only kind of secret! The UN knew about it!” I lower my hands when he starts to laugh. “Anyway, give me a grocery list, I'm going to buy stuff.”

  A few minutes later I'm on the 3rd floor and seriously only 30 feet from Mercy when Quins stops me.

  “Mate. We need to talk.” He looks uncharacteristically serious.

  “Uh, okay.”

  “Looks like I'm in a bit of a pickle. You know how I said my lady was stepping out on me, yeah? Right, so she was and we ended things un-amicably. But then the place I'm staying at now, right? It's full of single moms, yeah? So word gets round that ‘ol Quins is on the market and I've got three kitties scratching at me door like they're in heat! I'm bleeding out of my mind with wot to do about ‘em!”

  I give him a second to take a breath. I flatly say, “you're too popular with the ladies.”

  “Yeah, mate, too popular! I'm a one woman bloke! I can't be dealing with bent feelings and fem-in-ine wiles!” He's genuinely exasperated.

  I put my hand on his shoulder, look him in the eye, and confidently say, “ask Jose because I have no fucking idea how to deal with women either.”

  He nod his head to acknowledge my idea. “Fair enough.”

  I move past him to Mercy, who's hard at work on a new costume. She got the Crafter class and is working towards the Tailor class. The new costume is Psi Dragon Ren, which is mostly sleek medieval armor. The wings and tail are taking some time to make.

  Also of note is that a lot more people have costume powers now. Turns out multiple classes give you that subclass option, not just Witch. And all you have to do is be wearing a costume when you unlock your subclass. We learned this because Japan friggin loves cosplay. Also the Philippines. They have a guy in a 12 foot Optimus Prime costume stomping monsters over there.

  “Mer-cee,” I say like a ghost haunting her. “I'm here to take you to the groOOocery store.” I say the last part in an especially spooky voice because she hates going to the grocery store.

  Her long hair is currently bright purple and in one big braid down her back. That's part of the Psi Dragon Ren outfit. Also part of my reward because I have a thing for characters with purple hair. Purple hair says “I'm feminine but also powerful” which is just so... Yeeeeaaaah.

  “Nope!” she says without looking up at me. Biscuits is on her work table, curled up in a ball. Biscuits opens one eye, sees that it's just me, then goes back to sleep. Traitor.

  “Come on, I've got a huge list from everyone who wants to teach me to cook more stuff. I need your help picking out bell peppers.”

  “I'm very busy, as you can see.” She's currently knitting some black leather into the frame of a steel wing. A nice thing about being a super person is that you can wear armor and costumes that would normally be too heavy for long term wear. She's getting Arushi our smith to make real metal armor plating for this costume.

  “Alright, I was going to stop at Taco Cabana and get a frozen margarita on the way but if you don't want-”

  She playfully scowls at me. “Frozen margaritas are my weakness, and you know it.”

  We head out and get reasonably priced tacos and frozen margs. I'm in my typical skinny jeans and nerd shirt (it's Destiny 2 today) and she's in hot pink overalls, because what else would she wear while in a workshop?

  Next we're walking around our former Get!, gathering food stuffs. Flour, Rotel, ground meats, powdered sugar, cake mixes, etc.

  While she's chucking cans of beans into the cart, I tell Mercy, “I like fighting alongside you but I also like doing mundane stuff with you too.”

  She smiles without looking at me. “I know you do.” I can hear a near eye-roll in her voice.

  “What?” I ask.

  “You always do that,” she says.

  “I do what?”

  “You always tell me how much you like me when we're shopping. That's why I hate shopping with you.” I'm not detecting any actual dislike from her, so I have to get to the bottom of that statement.

  “And it's bad because...”

  “Because,” she turns and looks me in the eye with those big brown eyes and I feel myself melt a little. “When you say stuff like that it makes me feel like...” She steps in close to me and whispers the rest into my ear.

  “We don't work here anymore,” I say.

  “So?” She tilts her head as she wraps her arms around my neck.

  I grab her by the waist and prop her up on the cart handles. The canned goods keep the cart on four wheels and I pull her mouth down to mine. I kiss her fervently. Her hands slide through my hair. My hands slide down her waist to cup her round, full-

  The voice of a very old man interrupts us. “Excuse me but I need ma beans.”

  I nearly jump away, still heady from that kiss.

  The old coot slowly, and I mean slowly reaches for a three bean mix. “They keep me regular. For pooping. Can't be too lax with your toilet schedule.” He places the beans in his cart. It is full of high fiber cereal and vegetables. The man takes his business seriously. “Sorry to interrupt. But you know I don't have long left in this ol’ world, so I can't waste it watching some young ‘uns make babies in the canned goods aisle.”

  “We weren't... ” I start to say, but really, I'm not sure exactly how far I was going to go just then so I let it drop.

  The old man laughs, then wheezes, then coughs. “Oh. My Margie and I got up to some wild business back in our day. ‘Specially when I was running dope across the border back in the 60s. We'd smoke up and get wild in the Sears changing room. Ahhh. Good times.”

  He totters away, pushing his cart at less than one mile per hour, and Mercy and I burst into laughter. We move on to the frozen department.

  I reach for the door to the frozen pie crusts, and Mercy backs into the door, preventing its opening. And getting deep into my personal space in the process. I'm just inches from her again.

  “Pay the toll,” she says, and prompts me for another kiss. I oblige, this time pressing her against the cool freezer door.

  “You know he's an asshole, right?” It's Natalie's voice. She still works at the Get!. Seems she wasn't inclined to become a soldier of fortune with the Ninja skills she got when the Dracosys initialized.

  Again I break away from a kiss. “The what now?” I ask.

  “You remember what you did? In here? Well, I remember.” She looks at Mercy. “He pushed me down, basically threatened my life. He should be in jail for that.” She still holds a well-earned grudge for that. I tried to apologize but it didn't go well.

  Mercy's warmth suddenly turns as cold as the freezer she's against. “That happened to me, too. When I was younger. That guy didn't get away with it though.” She's looking straight at Natalie now. Mercy's gaze has that determination that I've seen in her before. “It's awful, and I'm so sorry, but punishing Jun won't fix the hurt.”

  There's a moment of silence between the two women. Both hurt by men. Both still wounded by that hurt. I know Mercy's hurt. She finally told me recently. I know her perspective now. She had to get stronger. She had to feel like she was strong enough to fight off anyone. And I know her perspective on my attack on Natalie. I told her about it and she decided that it was wrong, but understandable. Sometimes you can do something awful and have all the right intentions.

  “If it helps you can kick Jun in the nuts,” Mercy offers.

  “The what now?” I ask.

  “Okay,” Natalie accepts.

  “Oh, Jun is really tough now, so don't hold back,” Mercy helpfully explains.

  I look at my girlfriend. She has a face that says accept the situation. I look at Natalie. She has a face that says oh boy I can't wait to kick him in the balls. I look at my reflection in the freezer door. I have a face that says aw shit I have to accept this, don't I?

  I step away from the freezer door, spread my feet apart, and look away from my impending doom.

  So, here's a fun fact. Toughness decreases damage, and pain that you take. Due to certain abilities, my effective Toughness is around 300. Which is 30 times tougher than a normal human. That means I'm taking 30 times less damage, and feeling 30 times less pain. However, a kick to the nuts by a justifiably angry woman who is specifically told to kick you as hard as possible, and who is, if you recall, a ninja, still FUCKING HURTS LIKE HELL.

  -----

  “So, what did you learn today?” Mercy asks as she drives us back to HQ.

  I give my analysis while keeping the bag of frozen peas on my junk. “In this fascinating scenario, we have thus proved that the pain response to injuries to reproductive organs far outweighs the actual damage, which is negligible. This information is to be stored away for use upon monsters with reproductive organs.”

  “And?” asks Mercy.

  “Don't hit girls.”

  She pats me on the shoulder. “There it is. Good boy.”