Alice Explains

I also text Tina, letting her know I'm back, of course, and head out for some more hunting on the property with her… which goes well enough: I get my level up notice soon enough, and she runs out of spell points and heads home (I stave off questions with “I need to talk to Alice first”).

I go through the paperwork, and for the regular Freelancer side I pick up some skills numbers boosting (migrating skills from Intelligence and Wisdom to my best statistic: Charisma), a hex from the Shaman that I intend solely for covering a requirement (The Secret Hex from the Shaman). And the feat it lets me get: Secret of Magical Discipline. It lets me spend a spell slot and at least a full-round action to cast any spell of that level or lower from any list… once a day. It is actually very good, but it comes into it's own next level when I get something from a robot.

On the Monsterkin side, I mostly boost numbers, getting my Charisma to my saves and armor class, a little boost to my Spheres casting, and Greater Lifesense. Now, Greater Lifesense I figure it will be useful for hunting, as it lets me ‘see’ any living creature perfectly… out to a range of five miles. It still requires line of effect to work, but that's at least one square foot of opening per five foot by five foot segment of a barrier. I won't be seeing inside people's houses or cars that way (unless they have windows open), but I'll find all the animals.

For my Sphere talents, I decide to focus on Warp today: Distant Teleport, Ranged Warp, Unwilling Teleport, and Unseeing Teleport (and yes, I keep Destruction). These I can change out daily, so no big deal (my shadow storage is a permanent side effect of keeping my Spheres caster level up). But it will let me teleport at Long range, and not need to touch someone to send them away… and of course, I keep the basic Destruction sphere as a necessity if there's anyone nasty around. The rest is just incrementally advancing numbers: Hit points, saves, BAB, skill ranks, and such. I pick my Vancian spells, but at this point they don't matter: I'm only going to be casting them directly when they're an Immediate action or less, which is rare with first level spells. There are some, though, which I take.

Then I sit down to rest up for the day. I watch some TubeFlix on Alice's account (I make a second profile, of course), recall my summons and have them continue cleaning, and just veg out. Yes, there's a reason: Eight hours of restful calm… it'll be a bit longer until I can reassign my Mythic and we can set up the pantheon, but not too bad.

Which is about when Alice gets home, a look of concern on her face, “What's up, sweetie?”

Rip it off… “We're standing over a fallout shelter that had a meltdown?”

Alice blinks a few times, “That's classified.” She pauses, “...but yes. Don't tell anyone I told you. The program itself is still running and classified, they can't get the budget to do the cleanup properly while keeping it quiet, and so the place needs a custodian who can run off anyone who might try to get through the door.” She shakes her head, “Not that anyone could, that thing is sealed tight. I essentially inherited the position from my aunt.”

“‘A complicated family matter that I can't legally discuss,’ is how you phrased it.” I nod, “Not deceiving, but not giving out information.”

“How do you know about it?” She looks askance at me.

“Found a back entrance, explored the place,” I shrug.

“There's a second, and they missed it?” She curses, “That means I'll need to…”

“No, it was sealed well,” I shrug, and Warp across the room, “And still is, for most people. They'd have to fill the thing with concrete to keep someone like me out, and it's huge.”

Alice frowns, “How big are we talking?”

“The full size of the property,” I chuckle, shaking my head, “it's a farm… a terrarium, really… fit to feed roughly a thousand people for generations, from some radioactive decay lights in the ceiling. Besides the melted generator, there are two spares, a full fabrication workshop, a library, and beds for about two hundred. It's civilization in a bottle… if you don't mind being stuck in the fifties.” I shake my head, “Must have been crazy expensive to make. What did they tell you about it?”

“The boss was short on detail, he just said ‘A fallout shelter’,” Alice considers, “but it is at least that, clearly.” She pauses, “Any evidence that…” her phone rings, and I recognize the tune from a movie… a villain's theme. “I need to take this…” she shakes her head and walks into the other room.

My ears aren't quite as good now… but I can still hear her side of it.

“Yes sir.”

“Yes sir.”

“Should be, sir, double checking now…” I listen to Alice go to the basement, “Confirmed; the door is still sealed, sir.”

“My on-boarding paperwork only listed the one entrance, sir. I was interviewing my houseguest when you called, sir.”

“I will include that in my questions.”

“A full report, yes sir. I'll start on it after I complete the interview with my houseguest. It should be ready by morning, sir.”

“Yes sir.”

“Yes sir.”

She hangs up and breathes a sigh, as she walks in, “Okay, so…” she starts ticking things off on her fingers, starting with her thumb, “One, how'd you tip them off?” She adds a pointer, “Two, I need to see the entrance you used. She adds her middle finger, “Three, I need to know what classified documents, if any, you saw.” She takes a deep breath, cringes, and adds, “and four: They're going to send a couple goons to interview you tomorrow at five. Please cooperate.”

I nod, “A phone wasstill active, I picked it up broefly; Sure. No problem. I wasn't exactly curious about paperwork old enough to collect social security, so none; amd sure, that will give us time to establish the pantheon, at least.”

She smiles… and we go to bed, and yes, we do get everyone together and get it all set up….