by Daniel Ruth
"He was lost in a fight with some eldritch abomination and a wizard. In addition to losing him, the battle almost killed a team member and caused massive property damage to some irreplaceable national monuments."
I winced and did my best to ignore that. It was a very biased view of the fight. "Diego is hard to kill. Pardon me for not trusting this information without a bit more evidence."
"I didn't say he was dead," Patriot clarified. "He was carried through a portal during the fight. A wizard came through and prevented us from following."
"Would you have been able to follow," I asked curiously. "There are restrictions on the dimensional barriers. Beings over a certain power level are constrained from passing through."
"We noticed this with the captured demons, before they escaped," the hero acknowledged. "No one on the team that tried has had any issues, except Diego. Well until he was captured."
"You were able to capture demons," I asked in surprise. "Why don't they simply teleport away?"
"Yes. That was an issue. The first batch did that as soon as they regained consciousness. We found a chemical cocktail that keeps them unable to focus enough to teleport."
"That worked?" I asked suspiciously. Demons had decent regeneration. It was difficult to keep them subdued by such means. Their endurance was also significant. The reason they were willing to tear off their own limbs in the adhesion spell was not simply that they were stupid. They would regrow those limbs in a matter of days. Most chemicals would be brushed off. "What did you do? Submerge them in radioactive waste?" That would be horribly inefficient but it would likely work as long as they were exposed to it.
He was silent for a moment. "I can't say. It did take a bit of experimentation. The ones that escaped apparently warned the others about us and they have been much harder to find since them.
At this point, I heard the now familiar roar as another floating vehicle sped towards us. It was unmanned and had a logo painted on the side. This symbol matched the small icon on Patriot's chest. I also noted that there was a small plate with a serial number. Two hundred fifty-six. That was a decent budget for a private group.
“Hop in,” Patriot said as he jumped into the cockpit. Apparently, he was too cool for the door. I hopped in as well. It had a windshield and a retractable top that was presently pulled back so it didn’t require any acrobatics. “We’ll get you registered and a place for you to stay.”
“Sounds good. Have you been able to find the demon's homeworld? I’ve been keeping an eye out for it as I go. It would be good to be able to plan a counterattack before the invasion.”
The floater swerved wildly in the air. Annoyed, I glanced over at the driver to find him staring at me with his mouth agape. Looking ahead of us I shouted, “Eyes on the road!” Patriot regained hold of his senses again and the car bucked again as he gunned the engine in order to avoid another billboard on top of a building.
“What invasion?” the hero asked tensely.
“You don’t know?” I asked incredulously. “What exactly have these captured demons of yours been telling you if you don’t even know that?”
"It's extremely hard to get information from them," he replied uncomfortably as he weaved in between the buildings. "They're not very intelligent. When they find an opportunity to escape, they take it no matter how slim a chance it is. Then when they get cornered, they seem to become suicidal."
I stared at him. "Are you aware that when demons 'die' they merely go back to their own plane and reform? You've been supplying the enemy with information all this time."
"Is that possible?" Patriot exclaimed as the car quivered under his guidance. "Wouldn't they just flood the area with numbers?"
"What did you just see? Hundreds of little demons." I pointed out. "However, it's not as bad as it sounds. When they return, they take time to coalesce their physical body. I don't know the details but I suspect it's like larvae. Very vulnerable and weak but..."
"Capable of supplying intel," the man finished as his grip tightened on the wheel.
"Pretty much," I nodded.
"Tell me about this invasion."
"There's a demon lord named Vatapi..." I started before pausing with a grimace. "Wait a minute. If I tell you now, I'm going to be repeating myself twenty times. Can you get together anyone that cares that the demons are planning a second invasion? I can go over it once and for all."
"Second invasion?"
"What did you think the thing was where the ley lines erupted and the portals opened up everywhere? God shuffling the planets and playing a losing hand?"
The rest of the flight was mostly silent, though I think the man muttered to himself. I believe it was curses but it was hard to tell. The floater was far faster than my haphazard flying and I saw two large skyscrapers approaching quickly. Although small by Arc standards they were the tallest I had seen yet in the city. I had an excellent view of the headless statue from this angle.
"We lease the top floor of the building," he said with evident pride. "Largest building in the state."
"There's two of them," I said mildly. Did the other one not count?
"Ours is six feet taller. They are called the twin towers."
"Oh. Nice." I wondered if they could fit another floor in the six feet? That would probably be too small. Maybe a crawlspace?
"Do they have towers like this where you come from?"
My birth home was a post-apocalyptic earth analog. Most of the old cities were rubble. Or demon-infested and rubble. Jeremy's world was filled with towers that dwarfed these two. I'd never heard of this one so they couldn't have been too famous.
"Not really," I said noncommittedly.
"The top floor was leased to us in perpetuity since 2001 when Starman saved them," I grunted in mechanical acknowledgment. It seemed expected.
There was a small landing pad on the top. We hovered over it for a moment and settled down. Almost immediately we were lowered down as the landing platform descended below the roof. Patriot looked at me sideways, then sighed in disappointment.
"You never told me your name."
"Neither did you," I pointed out. I only knew it because I had seen him before. In fact, except for his name Diego didn't really talk much about him. "They call me the Professor."
"That... seems descriptive," he responded politely. I hadn't really liked the moniker at first. I still didn't. But I had gotten used to it. "I'm Patriot. The leader of our team."
"Which team is that?"
"The Defenders!"
I paused, that wasn't what Diego had told me. "That sounds familiar..."
"We bought the rights!" he exclaimed protectively. "No one can say otherwise!"
I looked at him mildly in confusion. "Right. Good job."
We got out of the floater and passed a storage warehouse. It was full of over twenty floaters identical to the one we had just left. Off to the side, an automated robotic arm was steadily assembling the skeleton of a vehicle that looked remarkedly like the other twenty.
After going through some sensors and flashing lights surrounding the exit door we moved through a long hallway and into something resembling a break room.
"Please wait here," he said, pointing to the couch. There was also an entertainment system on the wall, a dining table off to the side with a minibar and sink. "I'll have someone bring you some coffee while I gather the team."
"Can you get me something to eat too? Not Chinese food. I just had that before I got here."
"They have Chinese food through the portal?"
"The demon lord liked earth analogs," I replied with a shrug.
As he walked away, I made to sit down but paused. A wave of my hand and the room was Cleaned. It was already tidy so it only took one casting. Sitting, I pulled out the Slow spell tome and began to study it.
A few minutes later I heard footsteps. Glancing up, I saw a woman. She obviously wasn't a baseline human judging from her spotted fur, subtle snout and cat ears. She had a tray with a teapot
, cup and a bowl of chips. She was wearing a two-piece bathing suit. It looked odd with the fur.
I blinked. I knew the leopard pack was bold but I could have sworn that the local hero teams were having conflicts with them. Even if they weren't, this seemed a bit much.
"Thanks," I said as I took the tray. "Could you order me a pizza? Thanks!"
A few moments later I heard a cough. Looking up I saw the cat lady was still there looking at me expectantly. Furrowing my brow, I gave her my attention. Maybe she wanted a tip. She did kind of look like one of the waiters that served me when I went out with Jeremy.
I stuck my hand in my bag. I almost pulled out the local currency before I remembered that I was supposed to be new here. Switching targets, I pulled out a few gold coins. "Here. Keep the change."
I picked up my book again and started to read it. A minute later she was still standing there.
"Do you need something?" I asked. If she stood there any longer, I would find a phone and order the pizza myself.
"My name is Dash," she paused. After a long moment, she continued. "The Patriot told me to gather the information to get you registered as a visiting alien."
I wrinkled my nose. I didn't like the term alien. "I was born on Earth. Just not this one."
"I'm afraid that is how we define aliens," she said politely.
"Ah. I see." My eyes slid towards the teapot and the tiny bowl of snacks. "Can we order a pizza first?"
"Fine," she sighed and walked towards the minibar. A moment later she was on the phone ordering the pizza with practiced ease. "Now please tell me your date of birth."
"January 31, 2202," I replied as I poured tea.
"That’s in the future," she said flatly.
"Time in the various dimensions isn't linear," I explained as I started to snack. "Earth analogs are notoriously difficult to target. Any sets of analogs really. It would be almost impossible to target an analog so close that its time was in lockstep with yours. It's already amazing that Vatapi was able to locate at least two analogs as close as we have." One of her ears twitched. "I can only assume that there is something he finds valuable in this analog."
"What are you talking about," she asked, bewildered. "Who's Vatapi?"
"Now that I think about it," I said thoughtfully. "In order to set up the permanent portals, the dimensions must at least have the same temporal rate. Otherwise, no amount of skill, let alone energy would allow you to chain them together with the way he did."
I nodded to myself. He must have searched a long time for a set of dimensions that met that criteria.
"Right. Birthplace?"
"Vancouver. Iowa."
"Vancouver isn't in Iowa," she said with a growl.
"Well, yours isn't," I shrugged. "Since I am an 'alien' you're lucky we can speak the same language, let alone have cities in the same geographical regions."
"Fine. Occupation?"
"I do a little bit of alchemy, wards, circles, spells. Research mostly."
"I... see." She seemed a bit flustered. "What's your name, anyway?"
"Professor."
"Isn't that an occupation?"
"I've been told it's in vogue to have a hero name. I kind of got stuck with this one. Not sure why."
She was staring at me again. Rather than wasting time waiting for her have an original thought, I pulled my book out and started to read again.
"Where did that come from?"
"My pocket."
"You’re a stage magician?"
Now it was my turn to look at her. "Did Patriot say anything to you except 'register him'."
"No."
"Okay, tell you what," I started as I grabbed some more chips. "Drop off the forms and I'll fill them out. You can review them and if you still think there's anything that is an issue, we can make stuff up."
"You can't lie on these!"
"Well, apparently you can't tell the truth either. We'll figure something out."
"I'll get Patriot and see what he wants to be done," she said while smoothing the longer fur on her head. She turned and with a slight visual blur, ran out of the room. Not nearly as fast as Starman but supernaturally fast. Certainly, faster than me. Maybe she was a were-cheetah, not a wereleopard.
Chapter 21
I didn't get very far through the spell tome. Mostly the introduction. Never the less the more I read, the more I liked it. It was an advanced spell, meaning even once I learned it would take a while to cast. Therefore, it would be useless in combat unless I stored it inside something with the Imbue spell. It was a fairly common tactic with casters.
Still, Imbue was a pretty cool spell as long as you avoided its critical mass. Its one drawback that kept random hobos off the street from becoming instant arch mages was that each storage device had a resonance. Just energy storage didn't do much but if you stored spells then the devices would resonate if you had too many too close. I hadn't ever really experienced it yet but the spell description had warned about it and how to tell if it was nearing.
"Yo, pizza's here," a voice interrupted my thoughts. It wasn't Dash this time. It was some teenage boy dressed as the character Fonzie from that series Jeremy tried to make me watch once. Once.
"Thanks," I nodded to him as I grabbed it. He pulled it away as I reached out. I started to glare at him as he took my food away. I restrained myself, barely, since I was a guest. "What?"
"No tip?" he asked with a grin.
"Didn't Dash pay for this?" I gave her the money in gold. Did they want blood?
"She did," the greaser kid nodded. "She doesn't tip either."
"How unAmerican," I said flatly. He was immune to sarcasm and simply nodded and smiled. I thought briefly about crushing him like a bug, but the inconveniences of doing that would be annoying. I flipped him a tiny gold coin. He looked at it, unimpressed, but handed me the pizza.
I promptly sat down and started eating. He was still looking at me after I had finished the first piece. "Buy your own." The coin had to be worth at least fifty dollars. Why was he still here?
"No, I'm not hungry," the teen said with a grin. "I wanted to warn you. I think you need to be careful. I see demons in your future. You need to watch out for the box."
I looked at him in renewed interest. Maybe he was psychic. Not that I was worried too much. I am too and I know personally how unreliable premonitions are. I could have an authentic vision of the future and I still wouldn't trust it much more than a magic eight ball. Aside from that, there was a demon invasion coming. Demons were in everyone's future.
"Box. Thanks," I said with a bit more warmth. I still thought his warning was useless. He tried so that was worth something. A gold coin apparently. "I'll keep a lookout. You a hero here?"
"You kidding?" he said with a wave. "This place gives me the feeling of the coming apocalypse. I'm an independent. Also, the pizza delivery guy. I would have told them to send someone else but I saw that I had to come."
"Oh, sorry to hear that," I commiserated. He was obviously untrained if he was letting his visions steer him by the nose.
"Gotta go," he said suavely as he turned to leave. "Only death and destruction if I stay, you know?"
"Got it," I nodded. "Thanks!" Poor guy. If I had time maybe I would stop by his pizza parlor and teach him how to suppress the visions.
I finished off the pizza feeling disappointed. Honestly, it felt I had paid several hundred dollars for a few slices. It was decent but it wasn't that good.
"Professor," I heard a familiar voice call out. Patriot stepped through the doorway. "I gathered what members I could. There were a few who were away. Most of us will be there. You can tell us about this invasion."
He led me through a few winding corridors. The hallways had rather obvious cameras in the corners and conspicuous shiny lenses that may have either been more sensors or lasers. I got an ominous feelings from glancing at them so I had my doubts.
After two security checkpoints where I walked through a standalone doorframe and a
guard stared fixedly at the static that showed up on his screen, we finally got to a conference room. The table had enough seats for ten, however, only five were filled.
Starman sat farthest from me and at the end of the table. He was ignoring me and examining the ten screens on the wall, each showing a crisis of some sort. Dash sat to the left side, absently tapping a case in front of her. Another woman with a red mask and a cape sat on the opposite side of the table from her filling in a crossword puzzle. A few seats down from me a small male child was seated, swinging his feet impatiently.
Diego had talked a bit about his team. The red-caped woman was Mage. Despite her name, she didn't wield magic. She was a very strong telekinetic. From the descriptions Diego gave me I may be able to match her for a short time, however, while I would eventually run out of energy, she wouldn't. It was a decent power. No other psionic abilities but a single strong skill. It was actually rather rare.
The child was Match. He had a twin sister named Set. They could copy any single power they saw. I was unclear on what this meant. Diego didn't seem to know if this meant he could copy a wizard and his entire spell repertoire or only a single spell. The general ability of a psionic or a single psionic talent. Humans with superpowers were fairly common here. Although I met a few in Arc that had powers granted by Vatapi or the Álfar and I could do the same with a bit of inscription or alchemy, random powers out of the blue were not something I was familiar with.
Frankly, the only one Diego hadn't mentioned was Dash. I had originally thought she was the maid. After she ordered my food I was leaning towards secretary. She did have super speed though, so maybe she was simply new.
"Thanks for coming so late," Patriot acknowledged as he sat down in between Dash and Starman. "Everyone, this is the Professor. He is like Diego, from another dimension. He came here looking for our lost friend."
"Professor?" The scarlet-clad woman asked looking up from her puzzle. "That a hero moniker? What are his powers."
"Let's introduce ourselves first," Patriot said apologetically. "This is Starman, Mage, Match, and Dash. He appears to be a magic user of some kind."