The Misfits Take Manhattan

“Dinner’s on you, Jenny,” Kimberly said, clapping her on the back.

“First, we have to get out of here,” Keith said, rolling his shoulders. John noticed the room they exited looked almost exactly like the one they had entered. No, not almost, exactly.

“How do those mirrors work?” John asked as they walked through an exit path.

“Different places rooted at the exact same place in space-time, incredibly expensive to create, but it allows for instantaneous transport and lasts as long as the mirrors are intact. It’s the primary method for transport between Kingdoms,” Neve answered as they walked out of the Waite New York building, and John felt the change in the air as they exited a barrier.

Reentering (10s)

They walked right into Times Square, and John was stunned and awed by the lights. There are so many people here! I guess it makes the most sense to let people out here, hardly anyone would notice with this giant crowd!

As they exited the barrier, John felt his mana return to him quickly, his bar shooting up to full. “Speaking of dinner, I’m pretty hungry,” John voiced, arm around Jenny.

“Do you even need to eat? Don’t your powers take care of that for you?” Jenny asked, glancing sidelong at him. The crowd had swept their group up and deposited them on a street corner.

In response, John shrugged, though he did whisper, “Should we really talk so openly about this stuff? There’s a billion people here!”

“Exactly,” Jenny whispered back; “There’s a billion people here; nobody listens to anybody else. And anybody who did would think we were crazy anyways.”

“She’s right, New York is one of the most obviously Abyssal places, with several factions and guilds locating their main American headquarters here, yet no one of the mundane population suspects a thing,” Neve explained. John nodded, That makes sense. More likely to be discovered in a small town where people have time to listen in on strangers’ conversations.

“Alright, I’ll book a flight for Springfield; you guys find us somewhere to eat,” Keith said, pulling out his phone. “We’ll be back by about midnight tonight if we leave in three hours.”

John pulled up his stat sheet to check the time and noticed that he had a few popups waiting for him.

Achievement Unlocked: Teleports Behind You
Use teleportation magic for the first time. That was either incredibly lucky or a waste of money. Choose a reward.

• +1 Level in Gamer’s Luck

or

• $25,000

John immediately chose the money. Gamer’s Luck was nice, but it seemed like it only worked when it wanted to. Compared to instantly receiving enough money to buy some nice equipment off the auction, it was a no-brainer.

Achievement Unlocked: Avariceless
Face a veritable treasure trove worth exponentially more than you and turn it down. Are you stupid or content? Choose a reward:

• +2 Intellect

or

• +2 Charisma

This decision was much harder, especially because he really was stupid. He hadn’t even thought of looking through the Hoarder’s items because he was so happy to have David back. I already have Intellect at twenty five though, so I’ll go with Charisma.

“Alright, let’s get dinner, because I actually am hungry,” Jenny said, elbowing John.

“Alright, we’ll split up and meet at the Fateweaver station in two hours, alright?” Keith asked, putting away his phone.

“Sounds good to me. Don’t worry, Johnny, I know this city like the back of my hand,” Jenny said, dragging him away from the rest of the group… and to a McRonalds.

“We’re in a city with thousands of restaurant options, and you choose here?” John asked when they sat down to eat.

“Well, I lived in Manhattan for a few years. When you’re here for as long as I was, it all starts to blend together,” Jenny replied surprisingly coherently through a mouthful of nuggets.

“Besides,” Jenny continued, swallowing, “I don’t maintain this perfect figure by eating healthy. I eat trash, then balance it out through running around a bunch.”

She paused speech to eat another nugget, then continued, “I don’t wanna hear it from you anyways. Up until this week you probably sat at your computer all day eating Cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew. You have no room to judge!”

That was… semi-true, so John had no response to it. “Fair enough.”

“I still like ya though,” Jenny said, kissing him on the cheek. “Alright, we have a few hours, and I wanna see Madison Square Garden again before we leave. Let’s go, go, go!” Jenny urged suddenly after finishing her food. Flinging the tray’s contents into the trash with surprising grace, she sprinted out the door. John sat there, awe-struck, for a few moments before running after her.

The flowing crowd paid little attention to the two lovebirds as they ran through the city. Eventually, the crowd thinned out when they took a few turns through a couple sidestreets.

“Jenny… please… no more running…” John gasped weakly, despite Gamer’s Body eliminating most of his exhaustion. Not all of it though, and as they sprinted through the city, his Endurance quickly began to wane. He hardly noticed as the mountains of steel and glass turned into brick apartments and co-ops.

“This is… not Madison Square Garden,” John guessed with some confidence. That was supposedly a concert hall, and these were definitely residences.

“No, it’s not,” Jenny said, sitting down on some steps outside a surprisingly nice apartment building. She stretched and yawned in spite of the energetic activity they had just done. “Wanted to give you a break from running.”

“I used to live there,” Jenny explained, pointing behind herself. “I wanted to see it again, I guess.”

John could tell from her tone that she was starting to draw into herself, just as she had this morning. This morning! That felt like weeks ago…

“Do you miss it?” he asked, sitting down next to her.

“It was home,” Jenny said absently, gliding her hand over the railing; “When I was young, we travelled a lot, on tour for Mom or Dad’s band,” Jenny explained, pulling her legs toward herself, nearly in the fetal position. She put her head on John’s shoulder and blew a drawn out sigh. “I don’t miss the building though, no. Springfield is way better. The house is bigger, everything is cheaper, and I play in one of the best Abyssal nightclubs in the world every week. It’s just…”

She trailed off, and something suddenly clicked for John. She was staying with him for now and didn’t talk about her family a lot. He had gleaned that her Dad was sick and never home, but she didn’t talk about her mom at all. It was entirely possible that she was living alone. That’s not that odd. We’re over eighteen. Still, to not even have the option… A big house would only twist that loneliness wound more. Money can’t buy family.

His hand snaked down to hers, and he realized she was silently crying. He pulled her closer, and his other hand went on her shoulder. “Lonely?”

Silently, she nodded, waiting a moment to be able to speak clearly again. “Yeah. Lonely.”

“At least you aren’t anymore,” John replied.

She looked up at him, and he noticed that she was smiling, despite still having tears on her face. “You suck!” she said with mock anger.

“I suck!?!?” John asked, drawing back as if gravely offended, eyes bugging out.

“You suck! Here I am, trying to be sad, being all emotional all the time, and you say just the right thing, and then boom, I’m happy again.” She blew her hair out of her face and punched him in the arm. “Your Charisma is way too low for you to be so good at this.”

“I’m not gonna go inside,” Jenny said, walking down the stairs, “and I do actually want to see Madison Square Garden, so this detour is over!” With that, she took off again, as if their chat had never happened. Slightly refreshed, though not on par with her Endurance, he took off after her.

“This is it,” Jenny said, stopping in front of a giant, mostly glass building. After all the running they had done, even she was slightly out of breath.

“Wow,” John said, staring up at the immaculate concert hall. It glittered and shone in the daylight, and it’s stout construction made it stand out from the skyscrapers surrounding it.

“This is the one touristy thing that I’ll admit is great,” Jenny said with fake resignation; “It’s so cool! When I lived here, I always thought that I was going to play here one day…”

“You still can,” John reassured.

“Nah, my music has way too much magic in it, even when I don’t want it to,” she replied, not taking her eyes off the concert hall, “but I like the Inferno way better. Mom and Dad played for normal people, I play for actual monsters, how cool is that?”

“You probably have the coolest job ever,” John admitted, looking away from the building and at her in the full moonlight. “When were you planning on taking me into the… Inferno anyway?”

“My next show!” she suddenly said, looking at him intensely; “You’re going to be at the front of the crowd, cheering me on!”

He couldn’t deny such a request from his hot, rockstar, redheaded girlfriend, so he didn’t. “Totally! As long as I don’t get murdered by a dragon in the process.”

“I can’t promise that,” Jenny responded, walking toward the majestic concert hall. John followed her, and that’s when he felt it. The barrier. The concert barrier.

“Well,” he began, as he noticed Jenny had sensed the barrier too.