The Rescue Team

“I don’t like it,” Red huffed with her arms crossed and her body barring John from stepping into the black SUV. Behind them, Reginald quietly talked with a houseservant while patiently waiting for the two to finish their business.

“I have to go, I have to save her,” John replied with a touch of irritation. Red would not convince him otherwise; he was resolute.

“I refuse to play a part in a gamble that puts you at such a huge risk; there has to be another way!” his girlfriend replied, grabbing his arm and pulling him close. “What if you get caught?”

“I’ll just warp out,” John reassured her. “I’ll be fine.” He said it with as much confidence as he could muster, but in truth he wasn’t so certain. He’d never tried warping to or from Gaia’s barrier while he was in danger, but if his gaming experience had taught him anything, it was that such a function was probably disabled. He neglected to mention this, however; there was no need to worry Red further.

“Yeah. Don’t get your knickers in a twist, Red,” Saccharine added in from her perch atop John’s head. “The two of us are veterans when it comes to infiltratration ops.”

“You snuck into the manor once and got puke all over my hood in the process!” Red replied unhappily. “I haven’t forgiven you for that, by the way.”

“I’ll make it up to you when I get back,” John promised.

Red glowered but otherwise held her tongue, realising there was no point to pressing the issue. As much as it pained her to hear, he was right.

Behind them, Reginald quietly stepped forward and opened the driver’s door of the SUV. “Master Newman,” the butler voiced in an apologetic tone as he interrupted their conversation. “It is best we depart now,” he said before stepping inside the vehicle.

Red let out a frustrated growl. “I don’t like it,” she repeated.
“I know,” John replied, affectionately planting a kiss on her forehead and pulling her into a tight hug.

“We’ll be fine,” Saccha yawned and stretched her thin arms. “Have a little faith, sister.”

John combed his fingers through her long, golden-blonde hair. “By tomorrow this will all be over. Let’s just spend the day together, yeah? No dungeons, no grinding, no quests, just you and me.”

“I’d like that,” Red sighed, pushing her head into his chest.

“Love you.”

“I love you too,” she replied, emphasising the sentiment with a long kiss on the lips before reluctantly stepping out of his way. “...Just be safe — okay?” she requested as he climbed into the backseat of the SUV, Saccharine taking a seat in his lap. “It would break my heart to see you hurt.”

“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” John gave her the best reassuring smile he could muster, before closing the door.

“Everything well, Master Newman?” the butler asked, glancing at him through the rearview mirror.

“Just nervous,” John let out a heavy sigh and fastened the buckle on his seatbelt. “Let’s go.”

“Of course, sir,” the butler replied calmly as he rolled the SUV into motion.

There were no words passed between them as they drove to the edge of town. There wasn’t really anything to say. John simply stared out at the darkened streets of Springfield or gently scratched Saccharine’s caramel hair. At first she glared at him with her beady, marble-like eyes for a moment, but John simply poked his tongue out at her and persisted. Eventually she settled down and, while she wouldn’t be caught dead admitting it, even came to enjoy it.

Finally they arrived in a small caravan park just a few miles past the edge of the forest. The entire lot had been converted into an Order encampment, with camper vans loaded with the Order’s arms and equipment in preparation for the coming ****.

Reginald parked towards the edge of the lot, where a small group of college-aged campers watched the Order activity with shared looks of bemusement and mockery. Said looks turned to curiosity, however, as they watched John step out of the SUV, Saccha hidden in the breast pocket of his jacket.

“Who’s that one, then? He can’t be Order, right?” one of the few men in the group of mostly women asked.

“Nah, doesn’t have the ‘sanctimonious knight of chastity’ look about him,” another replied.

After thanking Reginald, John gave the group a closer appraisal now that he was outside of the SUV. Ordinary college students they clearly were not. Some sharpened arrows that looked like they could puncture brick while others were busy strapping on pieces of light armor over camo clothing or testing the draw of their impressive arsenal of bows. John concluded that they were the Hunters of Artemis Moira had asked for help and the people he was currently looking for.

“Hey there,” John greeted with a small wave of his hand as he stepped towards them. “I’m looking for a Miranda, I was told I’d be…” he didn’t finish as a girl appeared from the corner of his vision and pressed him against a nearby tree.

“You must be the stud that’s pulled the stick out of Princess Chastity, hmm?” she hummed, eyes appraising him from an uncomfortably close distance.

“Um… excuse me?” John blinked in the face of the bronzed beauty that had him pinned.

“You got that wrong, Cyn,” another girl sniggered. “He’s putting the stick in her.”

The girl whose name was evidently Cyn chuckled in response before her eyes turned back to John. She was a very pretty girl, with moss green eyes, long auburn hair, and accentuating her curved and toned body with short-cut clothes that hugged her tightly. John hoped his erection wasn’t as obvious as it felt, but he didn’t dare look down to check.

“I guess you are kinda cute,” the huntress continued.

“And you’re hot, so… dinner next week, then?” John managed after swallowing his initial surprise.

The girl looked taken aback for a moment while her fellows burst into a small fit of laughter. “The hell are you doing hanging out with the Order, man? You’d have a lot more fun with us!”

“What’s your name?” Cynthia asked curiously.

“John.”

“Cynthia,” she replied, taking a step back before offering him her hand. “But everyone just calls me Cyn.”

“Nice to meet you,” John replied as he returned the handshake.

“Well, Johnny,” Cyn continued, pulling him away from the rest of the Hunters to speak with him. “By the sounds of things, we’re stuck together for the night.”

“I was told I would be working with Miranda?”

“Right, that would be my mom,” Cyn replied. “Infiltration team is you, me, and her.”

“And me!” Saccharine chimed as she stuck her cute head out from John’s breast pocket, causing Cynthia to step back in surprise.

“Oh my god, aren’t you adorable?!” the huntress squealed, rushing forward to tickle the fae’s cheeks.

“Fuck off! I don’t know you! Don’t touch meeeee!” the fae cried back, trying to vainly push Cynthia’s finger away with her small hands.

After several minutes of gushing over Saccharine, the huntress finally calmed down enough to speak to John. “Is this fae a familiar of yours? What’s her name?”

“Saccha, and kind of, I guess?”

“I prefer fuckbuddy,” the fae harrumphed before taking shelter in his breast pocket once again, for fear of another **** of tickling from the huntress. John resolved to have a chat with the fae later about her habit of oversharing their relationship with people they’d just met.

“You definitely don’t belong with the Order, buddy,” the huntress responded with her brows knit in an amused expression.

“Not a fan of them, I take it?” John surmised based on the drop in the girl’s tone whenever she mentioned them.

“Nope.”

“So why are you helping, then?”

“‘Cause I was asked to, ‘cause someone’s in danger, ‘cause there’s something strong to hunt,” the young huntress shrugged. “Take your pick.”

“Well… thanks.”

“No problem,” Cyn replied, running a finger down the shaft of an arrow. “But I gotta ask: you don’t seem like the religious type… and definitely not the type to keep it in your pants, how come you’re working for the Order?”

It was John’s turn to shrug. “Moira was the first Abyssal person I met and has been helping me ever since. Sure, the Order can be a bit pretentious, but their heart seems like it’s in the right place.”

“Eh, to each their own, I guess,” Cynthia said with a small sigh. “Shame though. You look like you could make a good hunter.”

“If my slightly pale complexion and nerdy look wasn’t a giveaway, I was never one for the outdoors,” John replied wryly, causing the huntress to chuckle.

“Hey! Don’t let John fool you!” He just wants to stick his dick in Moira!” Saccharine called from inside his pocket, causing Cyn to roar with laughter.

“Zip it, you,” John sighed, lightly flicking where he imagined the fae’s head to be.

“Now that is an ambitious goal,” the huntress chuckled, pressing her hands against her stomach in a vain attempt to hold back her own laughter.

“What’s going on here?” a silvery voice asked.

John looked up to see a milf in every sense of the word swaying towards them, alongside a strong looking man. He figured that the milf was Miranda, given she was an older, curvier version of Cynthia. She wasn’t shy about her looks either, her cat-like strutting causing her nicely rounded ass and thighs to strain against the fabric of her tight camos. She was armed with vicious-looking compound bows and a quiver of arrows that looked like they were meant to stop a charging rhinoceros. The man, on the other hand, showed a little more wear. He was lean and muscular but showed some signs of aging in his brown hair and around his eyes. Unlike most of the hunters John had seen, the man wasn’t armed with a bow like the rest, though John saw several knives strapped to the belt and more satchels and pouches covered his body than anyone rightly needed.

They clearly weren’t people to fuck with.

‘Damn,’ John thought as he glanced over their Observe sheets. He hadn’t met many people whose power he couldn’t determine. They must be pretty powerful, then.

“Hey, Mom — just making a friend,” Cyn grinned in reply as she draped her arm across John’s shoulders.

“Friend, hmm?” the foxy mother hummed as she brought her finger to the side of her lip. “You must be John, I take it?”

“That’s right, ma’am,” John replied unable to prevent his eyes dropping below her face as she stepped closer.

“Hey, eyes are a little low there, buddy,” the man chuckled in response. His grin was friendly enough, but John didn’t miss the way his hand wavered closely to a bowie knife strapped to his belt.

“Uh, sorry,” John replied sheepishly.

“Ignore him, hon,” Miranda chuckled and lightly swatted her boyfriend’s ass. “He’s just playing with you. Anyway, my name’s Miranda, and my partner here is Arnold. It’s good to get a face to the name I’ve been hearing so much about.”

Good things, John hoped as he rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, likewise,” he said. “By the looks of things, I’m in capable hands.”

“We know these woods like a camgirl knows her toys,” Cynthia said proudly, earning her a swat to the back of the head from her mother.

“That’s enough from you,” she scolded before turning to John. “I hope Cynthia hasn’t been a bother; she’s normally quite a handful.”

“Nah, just some light hearted attempts at recruitment,” John replied with a shrug. “But I’m a sword and sorcery kind of guy..”

“That’s a pity; there aren’t enough young, handsome men in the camp between us girls,” Miranda winked suggestively, causing John to blush again. “Though, I must say, you seem a little light on gear. Are you sure you’re prepped for tonight?” Miranda wondered.

“Don’t worry, I’ll summon my gear when I need it,” John replied.

“Oh, I see,” Miranda nodded. “You can teleport too, I heard, so you use spatial magic, huh? Impressive.”

“I guess that’s one part of it,” John replied with a slight smile as he opened the party window. “It’ll be easier if I just show you.”

Moments later he sent through the party invites to Cynthia and her mother. The former leapt back as the screen appeared in front of her while the latter immediately took a swing at hers.

“Relax,” John chuckled. “What you’re seeing-”

“Asshole. A bit of warning would have been nice!” Cynthia breathed, clutching her chest and feeling her heart race before reading the screen. “A… party invite? What is this? A video game?”

“That’s right.”

“You have video game powers?!” Cynthia looked at him in disbelief before letting out an animated laugh. “Man, you are such a nerd.”

“Guilty as charged,” John grinned.

Miranda frowned while accepting her own invitation, causing the HUD to appear in her vision. “How curious…” she hummed.

“What are you seeing?” Arnold frowned. John hadn’t added him to the party since he would be part of the main **** **** rather than John’s rescue team.

“It’s a status screen,” John answered for them after being interrupted the first time. “They can see the condition of people in the party. If any of us take a hit, you’ll see the corresponding HP bar lower — that’s the red one. The other is mana.”

“You have strange powers, John, but this seems really useful,” Miranda said, poking curiously at the visual data. To Arnold and anybody else who happened to look, she would have appeared to be interacting with air.

“Yeah, well, everything this week has been strange to me,” John said as he eyed the time. “Anyway, shouldn’t we head to our post soon?” The sooner they were in position for the rescue operation, the better, right?

“You’re right,” Miranda agreed with a single clap of her hands. “We all know our part in tonight’s battleplan, so I say we ought to get a headstart on our little hike in the woods.”

“Alright then,” Cynthia’s father said, kissing his partner and daughter once each. “Stay safe and good luck to you all.”

“That goes for you too, honey,” Miranda replied, returning the kiss.

“Seeya, Dad,” Cyn waved in return. “I’d say some shit like ‘may your aim be true’ or something, but I know you won’t miss.”

John waited patiently for the family of three to finish their farewells. They were a goofy bunch, playfully energetic and a bit crass with each other, but still very much a supportive unit. To John, it was just another reminder of what he was fighting for. He’d be kidding himself if he said he wasn’t nervous. He was delving into enemy territory with two strangers to rescue his mother from the clutches of a homicidal werewolf, how could he not be? But it was just as much about freeing Red’s family from the scourge that was Vulpis as it was liberating Brenda.

John took a deep breath and tried to let out his tension with a heavy sigh, before following Cynthia and Miranda into the forest. ‘But this week has seriously made the thought of school seem like a relaxing cruise in the Bahamas.’