An Unwelcome Surprise

Wordlessly, Jenny pointed to the bottomless hole that had replaced the building they escaped. Keith sprinted to the edge, peering over the side as John, temporarily done throwing up, went to her side to comfort her.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to get it back,” John said resolutely hugging her. A sad smile crossed Jenny’s face as her eyes filled with tears. As a jumble of emotions ran through her, she kissed him. Though surprised, he eagerly reciprocate the gesture.

“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Her heart felt too heavy, as if it would burst right through her chest. Despite it, she giggled a little through her tears, “You taste horrible.”

Neve followed Keith to the edge of the pit, picking a stone up and dropping it over the side. After a minute, the pit remained silent. “I’d estimate in anywhere from three-hundred to a thousand meters deep. How such a building was built over such an expansive drop is beyond me, but the relatively low intensity of explosions leads me to believe that this hole existed far before this building did.”

“I’m going in,” Keith replied, stretching his arms and legs.

“Chances of survival, even for somebody like you, are slim to none, Keith. There are likely… things down there. Not the corpses of robots we’ve been facing, but actual abyssal entities,” Neve responded, tossing another stone down. Her inner ears, long ago replaced with more advanced technological implants, still detected no sound, save for her friends’ breathing. Friends? I hardly know two of these people. And the one I do know...

Neve spared a sidelong glance at Keith, and the insurmountable resolve on his face dissuaded her from further argument. He’s really grown up since his brother died. Where did the old Keith go? The man who wanted to travel the world, free of any obligations, any people? An incessant voice buzzed in her head, and it went on unbidden, Probably the same place as the old Neve, with all her biological imperfections. How long is it before I replace my heart and mind?

While Neve was ravaged by internal conflict, Keith was ready to dive in. “Wait! Even in your steel form, a fall like that would seriously injure you! Please, at least scale it!”

“We’re going to get your bass back.” The only thing John knew about it was that it belonged to her mother, beyond that he had no idea of its importance. I don’t even know if her mom’s still alive, John mused to himself as he watched Neve and Keith argue. He had no way of knowing that Jenny didn’t know whether her Mom was alive either. The intense nausea that preceded throwing up washed over him again, and he excused himself as he went back to it, mumbling, “After I fix this concussion.” With the adrenaline in his system wearing off, the symptoms worsened tenfold. A sense of dizziness and vertigo overcame him, and all he could do was prevent himself from falling by leaning against a wall.

“Keith,” Jenny called, disrupting his argument with Neve, “John has a concussion. We need a regenerative potion.”

Great, another problem, Keith thought as he looked at the boy throwing up, leaning against a building wall. “A regenerative potion won’t heal his brain instantly, at least not the ones I have on hand. The only ones I have that would cure him so quickly are back at my apartment.”

“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to keep John company in case any more enemies come, I’ll call Kimberly and ask her to bring a potion for him which he will pay for,” Keith demanded, sparing a glare at John. “You and Neve will descend that crater and find your bass.” Neve looked like she was going to object, so Keith quickly added, “And I will pay her triple her normal rate.” At that, Neve turned contemplative for a moment.

“Alright, Jenny, if we’re going to do this, we need to do it right,” Neve started as Jenny downed a potion from Keith. “I’ll use this,” Neve continued, taking a device that looked like a drill but with a hole instead of a bit out of her bag, “to excavate a path for us downward. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. If we encounter any resistance, we come back. Your bass isn’t going anywhere, and we can wait for Keith if we need to.”

“Fine,” Jenny kept her response short. She didn’t really like Neve, but Neve was helping them.

“Alright, stay close,” Neve commanded, and Jenny watched in surprise as the tablet in her right hand shrunk down to the size of a smartphone, mounting on her robotic arm easily. After, she plugged the excavation device into a port on the tablet. With a thought from Neve, a beam issued out of the device and carved a path easily through the stone for them.

“Good luck,” Keith said as he turned to John; “As for you, sit down, and be quiet. Throw up if you need to, but try not to move much. You’ll only make things worse for yourself.”

“My quest screen is all messed up now,” John said, idly looking at it. He had failed the half-hour optional objective, but what interested him was the “kill all enemies” objective. Until the building had exploded, it said that there were seventy-five enemies in the barrier. Now, it revealed nothing.

Barrier Quest: Abandoned Cityscape
Defeat all enemies: ?/? Remaining (Ongoing)
Rewards: 400 experience, $500
Defeat the bosses: 2/2 remaining (Ongoing)
Rewards: First Kill bonuses (Triple Experience, Double Cash, Guaranteed Epic)
Find the diamond cipher. (Completed)
Rewards: Cryptology 101
Defeat all enemies without using any outside weapons. (Ongoing)
Rewards: 2 skill points, 2 stat points, unique armor piece
Conquer the barrier in 30 minutes or less. (failed)
Rewards: 600 experience, $700

“How?” Keith asked, waiting for Kimberly to pick up the phone. David appeared on John’s shoulder, looking at him worriedly. Up until now, John’s thoughts had been a mess of angst and sadness, and he was afraid to come out. Now that his Master’s hurt was mostly limited to physical, he was eager to appear.

John scratched David idly under his chin before replying, “Before, it said that there were seventy-five enemies in the barrier. Now there are question marks. I had it down to two or three, not including the bosses too.”

“That’s not very reassuring,” Keith replied as Kimberly picked up. “I need you to come to where I am, bring one of the top quality regeneration potions. I know, I know. Great. See you soon honey.”

Meanwhile, Neve and Jenny progressed slowly into the crater. “So far so good. I predict a seventy-percent chance of us encountering subterranean life, almost certainly hostile.”

“How do you make those predictions so fast anyway?” Jenny asked, following Neve closely, alert for any sounds, straining to look into the dark. She felt helpless without her bass. Without Keith. Without John. That she was with somebody she didn’t particularly like and that could easily beat her gave her no comfort.

“I’m constantly feeding information into the tablet. Both it and I process this data; it sends the data back to my supercomputer to be analyzed. Usually, I’m correct in my initial mental calculation, but it’s nice to be sure,” Neve replied, noticing that they hit a plateau within the structure of the pit.

“How long does that take?” Jenny asked, slightly annoyed that Neve had sort of dodged her question, though she didn’t really care for the logistics of it all anyway.

“Less than a second,” Neve replied as Jenny walked into her; “We’ve hit a plateau. Though we’ve been devoid of sunlight for quite a while, if we walk further in, it will be completely dark. If this area is truly uninhabited, your bass shouldn’t be any further in.”

As she spoke, a creature sprinted toward them. Despite the roughness of its running, it made no noise. It was a pale yellow and spindly, with long crooked limbs. It had multiple arms and legs, though which ones were which was impossible to tell. It hissed as it approached them, plump torso riddled with scars and scabs. Neve intercepted it with a punch, a fleshy smack echoing through the cave. “Get behind me!” Neve yelled as the creature stared at them, apparently unfazed by Neve’s punch. It cocked its head in front of them, limbs twisting mindlessly. After a moment, Neve realized the red and black object strapped to its back was Jenny’s bass.

In a trance, Jenny whispered, “Return to me.” Her eyes glowed dully as the bass tugged against its straps, runes appearing along the left-hand side. The creature spared one of its arms to wrap around the bass and its body several times, and Jenny snapped out of her trance. It lunged at Neve, and she took a half-step back in preparation to punch it, but it wrapped itself around her arm, tearing at what connected it to her body ravenously. “Get my bass!” Jenny yelled as she kicked the thing, and Neve tried to shake it off her arm.

Neve suddenly wished she had taken one of the robots down with them, regardless of how much it would slow their progress. She had overestimated her abilities. Again. It succeeded in its endeavor and snapped the arm off of her body, making Neve cry out in pain. It scurried up the path she had created toward Keith and John as she stood, shocked.

The creature leapt through the entrance and into the sunlight, where John immediately used Spy on it. He was met with nothing more than a name.

The Hoarder

Keith steeled himself for an impact as The Hoarder barreled toward him, but instead, it rolled to the side at the last moment. He jabbed at it, but it was too fast for Keith to hit. “Is that Jenny’s bass?” John asked as it ripped a pouch off of Keith’s torso.

“And Neve’s arm!” Keith replied as he grabbed onto its ankle before it could escape him. He grapple with it, trying to get any of their items back. “Shoot it!” John used the last of his mana in one shot of Mana Bolt, but the only result was the creature turning and hissing at him. It broke free of Keith’s grasp and jumped toward John.

David took flight as the creature landed on John, but it was too little, too late. The Hoarder plucked David out of the air with its teeth before opening a portal with its hands, tearing reality itself.

David cannot be dismissed between Kingdoms.

The message appeared in front of John as he tried to dismiss his pet, but The Hoarder was already through its portal… and the portal wasn’t closing. “David…” John whispered, shocked to the core.

Surprisingly, Jenny appeared out of the hole first. She looked around at them before sprinting after the receding form of The Hoarder. Neve followed, noticeably disheveled and missing her arm.

“What is going on?” Keith yelled, but instead of replying, Neve followed Jenny through the portal. Keith got a phone call, and he sighed in annoyance as he picked up. “Yeah, we’re in the barrier. It’s a short walk down.”

Neve followed after Jenny, slightly slowed by the disorientation from the loss of her arm. Together, they followed the creature across several portals, all in a linear path. At the last moment, it escaped behind a giant door, which locked behind it. Neither of them paid attention to the description above it. “We’re going to need to wait for Keith to bust this open.”

“So, lad, you’ve not built a tolerance to potions and elixirs yet, which means you will probably feel some side effects from this one, given how powerful it is,” Keith explained, not taking his eyes off of the portal, watching it like a hawk for any change.

“Keith, it took David,” John said, totally ignoring Keith’s statement. He stood up on wobbly legs.

“I know. We’ll get him back. We’ll get everything that thing took back,” Keith replied, not taking his eyes off the portal. “Kimberly will be here any second; we’ll fix you up good as new and take that thing down.”

Neve took out her backup tablet and began taking pictures of the door, analyzing it. “I don’t know if even Keith would be able to **** this thing open.”

“I’m sure he will,” Jenny replied, deep in thought. Since they had stopped, she had been wondering about what happened in the cave. “Return to me,” she whispered again, but nothing happened.

“What was that?” Neve asked, putting her tablet back into her bag. She rubbed the shoulder where her arm used to be longingly as Jenny rested against the door with her bass case.

“My lucky pick!” Jenny said, opening her case; “I bet I can bust this door open with it!”

“Doubtful. My readings indicate that its soundproof and incredibly dense,” Neve replied, her mind running a mile a second to think of different ways to get the door open.

“That’s not how music magic works. The destructive properties don’t just disappear because something is soundproof,” Jenny replied, setting her pick against the door. “Get back,” Jenny said, retreating with Neve a few meters. The explosion rang out, but the door remained staunch.

“You were saying?” Neve asked sarcastically, glancing sidelong at Jenny.