I laughed. “Who? Me? Why would I want a bunch of starter instruments?” I asked her in a cocky voice.
Iris snorted. “You’re starting to sound like Chad.”
“I’d better dial it back then. But to answer your question, I figured we would get your Juno-60 fixed up, possibly some new keys. No, definitely some new keys. Yes, we’re going on a shopping spree.”
Iris snorted. “This money is going to burn a hole in your pocket, isn’t it?”
“I’m going to stay balanced about it. And I’ve already decided to sell the property in EverLife anyway. What do we want with the Steeple?”
She considered this for a moment, her eyes indicating to me that she was researching Proxima Galaxy housing prices over iNet. “You aren’t wrong there.”
I turned and looked at Iris, smiling at her. I now sat with a pillow behind my head, leaning against the backboard. “I’m serious about splitting this money. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Chase…”
“Let’s just get it all taken care of, and make it work. Why not? What’s the point of having this much money? It’s more than I could ever spend, well, unless I went on a rare instrument shopping spree. But I don’t plan to do that. I do need to upgrade a few things, obviously, and I’ll probably get a new place to live.”
“Awww, you’re leaving Alex?” Iris asked with a snicker. “But he’s such a staple in your life.”
“Actually, he could probably come with me,” I said with a shrug. “The next place I get will definitely be bigger.”
“Maybe we could move in together,” Iris said, the words leaving her lips before she could really think them through. This was apparent in the way that she cleared her throat and looked away from me, now staring out at the city again.
“I think that would be awesome.”
Iris went to the window and took a seat before it, her legs crossed under her body.
I watched her for a moment, using iNet to dim the lights so that we could enjoy the view. Red and blue lights flashed across the room as an aeros firetruck sped by, its siren droning on for a moment as it lowered somewhere near Forty-Third Street.
A message asked me if I would like to lower the blinds, showing me a graphic on how I would go about doing that manually, if I wanted. We probably wouldn’t lower the blinds; it wasn’t like we were planning to get busy or anything tonight.
Well, I wasn’t.
Not that I would push back if it happened, but the thought hadn’t really crossed my mind.
I could see the reflection of the sun on a building adjacent to ours, the orange orb with hints of pink in it reflecting off the mirrored glass. It reminded me of the light that moved down the Steeple, the seven colors that related to the chakra system, unlocked by music.
What were the odds?
“This is awesome,” Iris said as I joined her.
“It is.”
“What a day.”
“And our day has just started,” I reminded her.
“I hope you like what I’ve done with the dojo…”
“I’m sure I will.”
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The famous Brian Eno Proxima tone played, letting me know that the login process had begun. I was strapped in now, my belly full of sushi, the NV Visor on my head, haptic gloves on my hands. Even cooler, the bed itself was rigged for Proxima haptic response, allowing for an even more immersive experience.
As soon as my form started to take shape, the Alpha Duo stats flashed, along with Aya and Lady C.’s quick glance skill sheets:
But I was too distracted by what I saw before me to really pay much attention to our stats, and I flat-out ignored the flashing banking information.
I didn’t care about the money any longer, and we had some serious real estate as a possible retirement plan.
I really wasn’t worried.
But I was impressed by what Iris had put together. The layout was similar to what it had been before: the entrance, followed by the main dojo, followed by the field with two cabins for the Huntresses, followed by the meadow.
The only thing different was that everything Iris had chosen had a sleek, modern feel to it. Not that we were really going for a medieval feel earlier, but it had sort of had one, even with the renovations we had made on the main dojo.
But not anymore.
The main dojo looked like it was styled after the Guggenheim, and even the two cabins were designed in a way that was avant-garde, sleek, cylindrical.
“Do you like it?” Iris asked, a smile beaming across her face.
I noticed a new building adjacent to the cabins. I hadn’t seen it before, the building’s black paint making it blend in with the darkened sky, the Proxima Borealis above us and the Steeple in the distance, its top currently blue.
“I love it,” I said as I turned to the new building. “And damn, was that some good sushi at the hotel. Did I already say that?”
“You did.”
“He’s not even going to say ‘hi,’ is he?” Aya asked.
The Thulean stood next to Iris now, her hat pulled down so it covered one of her eyes. True to form, she was striking a cool pose, her left hip jutting out to the side, her buster sword hanging off to the right.
“He’s just looking around the place,” Lady C. said. She was on the other side of Iris in her armor, both swords sheathed at her sides. The Metican approached me casually, and when she was just a few feet away, she ran forward and jumped into my arms, taking me off guard and bringing me to the ground.
“Attack!” Aya shouted, also dog-piling on top of me.
“Hey!” I started to say as a few of the mythcrea appeared.
There was Fujin, Magnus, Ophelia, Sun Wukong—some of our first captures. All were watching me struggle to get the Huntresses off me while Iris laughed, her cat, Garfield, now perched on her shoulder.
Some of our mythcrea were missing, but I did see the newest one we had captured, the one that had gotten us kicked out of the Mood Fabrics store.
Brigantia had an uncertain look on her face, something totally justified by the fact that we had just arrived and were already horsing around.
“Get off me,” I said as I pushed Aya aside. She slapped me in the face.
-56 HP!
“Harder? Harder!” she shouted, giving me a punch to the gut.
90 HP!
Lady C. continued to laugh as she tickled me, accidentally kneeing me in the groin.
-245 HP! Critical hit!
“Fuccckkk…” I whispered as the two Huntresses finally let up.
“Come on,” Iris said as she helped me to my feet.
“She kneed me in the…”
“I saw. You two need to play nice with Chase,” she said.
“But Chase doesn’t play nice with us,” said Aya, pouting. “He gets a fancy hotel in New York and he doesn’t even invite us to check it out!”
“How did you know I got a hotel?”
“You mentioned it to Iris. And something else called sushi.” Aya turned to her cabin with a playful huff. “Anyway. You know where to find me.”
“I’m sure you’ll show us the place at some point,” said Lady C. “And I’m sorry for tickling you. I just felt like playing around.” She stood in front of me now, cute as the first day that I met her, back when I first opened the app and discovered the Metican sitting on the ground and reading a book.
And now I was a millionaire?
What a turn of events.
“Why don’t I give you a tour?” Iris asked as she led me over to the black building.
She opened the door and I peeked inside to see some amplifiers, random instruments, a PA system and a small stage. Her cat hopped off her shoulder and found a nook in the corner of the room to cuddle up.
“This is awesome,” I told her as I took in the space, noticing how she had arranged instruments on the walls.
“You like it?”
“And we can add a recording studio in here as well
, right?” I asked her. “I mean, I’m just thinking out loud here, but why wouldn’t we be able to record music inside the Proxima Galaxy?”
“I’m sure we can,” she said as Lady C. also stepped inside.
“Are you going to play me a song now, Chase?” Lady C. asked, dropping her hand on my shoulder.
“I was wondering when you two would appear.” Dalton the ink shadow rose out of the ground, a big grin on his face. His form wavered for a moment, and as it did, I could see the old man inside his translucent body. “We have a gig tonight, you know that, right?”
“In Kingdom Sana, I know. That’s why we’re here.”
“It should be why we are there,” he told me in his smoky voice.
The door kicked open, and Spew Gorge the goblin walked in with a small black suitcase. “Fick me, I heard we were going to Kingdom Sana tonight, so I figured we could stop at some point in Kingdom Ignis and visit my fickin’…” The goblin spat. “My fickin’ relative. Yeah. Fick. Why am I the only one that’s packed?”
The goblin had a different hairstyle now, braided on the sides, with strands of turquoise in it. I wondered for a moment how he knew we were planning to stay overnight in Kingdom Sana, but I figured he had probably heard it from Aya, or possibly Lady C.
“Musicians travel light,” said Dalton. “At least the good ones.”
It was much easier to move gear in the Proxima Galaxy; I was aware that I could simply access it through my inventory list.
But old habits were hard to bury, so I equipped my bass, the one made of blond wood that we’d picked up at Dirty Dave’s Musical Instrument Emporium, and started putting it in its case.
“Who else is coming with us?” Iris asked as she packed up her ukulele.
“Me, you, the fickin’ ink shadow, the Thulean—she’s a bully, but I don’t let it get to me—the Metican. I think that’s it.”
“I will be going as well,” one of the amplifiers said, scaring the holy shit out of Spew Gorge.
“Fick!” he screamed, pulling out a jagged dagger and dropping his luggage.
“Relax, goblin,” the amplifier said as she began to morph into the dark-skinned shifter known as Altsoba.
“Fick,” Spew Gorge mumbled as he got some money out of his pocket and handed it to her. “That’s pretty ficked up of you!”
“What’s this about?” I asked.
Altsoba shrugged. “We made a bet and the goblin lost.”
Spew Gorge grunted. “The goblin has a fickin’ name. Why is this so hard for people?”
“What kind of bet?” I asked as I finished packing my bass. It disappeared instantly, straight to my list. Damn, I wished I could do that in the real world.
“I bet him that I could scare him,” she said, her head now cocked in the goblin’s direction. “He didn’t believe me, and now we’re here.”
“Disguising yourself as a fickin’ speaker. Fick! That’s dirty.”
I smiled at the two of them. “Okay, so to recap, we’re going to Kingdom Sana now. Spew Gorge, Lady C., Iris, me, Dalton, Aya and Altsoba are all coming, right?”
“Enough with the roll call,” Dalton said. “We’ve got to get to this gig, ya dig? I want to make sure the room is right, you know, get a read on it.”
“We’ll get there in time,” Iris assured the ink shadow. “But there’s another thing or two I need to show Chase before we go. Everyone meet outside the practice room in about ten minutes. That should be enough time.”
“I really need to get packed,” Lady C. said.
“Need any help?” Spew Gorge asked her.
“Sure, Spew, you can help me.”
The two left, followed by Altsoba, who I assumed was going to join Aya. Dalton shrugged after everyone was gone.
“Nothing to pack?” Iris asked.
“I already told you I travel light. Heh. What you see is what you get with me, honey.” The man made of dark, with just a hint of human form inside, spun, his arms out, tendrils of shadow fading away. “See you in ten.”
Once Dalton was gone, Iris and I left the new practice room, Iris heading toward the recently remodeled dojo. “I wanted to make sure that no one ever attacked our dojo again, so I splurged a little. Of course, this was before I knew that we were pretty much rich, but it’s still worth it, and it should definitely protect the place.”
“You know,” I said as we passed the dojo, “I was thinking a bit more about our fusion center. We haven’t really used that much, but I was wondering if there was an add-on…”
“What kind of add-on?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
“A duplicator of sorts.”
“Go on…”
“Show me your thing first, and then I will tell you my idea.”
“I have a feeling of where you’re going with this…”
We circled around the dojo, past a small sitting area with a circular garden surrounding it. Translucent butterflies dipped in and out of the garden, their wings fluttering.
“I added this too,” she said, “a place for the mythcrea to relax outside.”
“It’s awesome.”
“And the other side has a fire pit.” Iris nodded up at the guard tower. It had two parts to it, a top part for observation and a bottom part for what I assumed was check-in.
Mitchell, one of the trolls that we’d captured in Brooklyn, approached us. I could see his counterpart, Schnoogles, working his way down the ladder of the guard tower.
“How goes it?” I asked the troll, who had already started scratching his ass.
“Thinking about painting the guard tower,” Mitchell said with a grunt.
“By all means,” I told him.
He looked up at his counterpart. “Schnoogles has taken a liking to the top of the tower. I think he likes to fiddle with himself up there.”
“Fiddle?”
Mitchell made the gesture for jacking off. I looked to Iris, who had already started to laugh.
“I mean, I guess that is as good of a place as any,” I said, watching as Schnoogles jumped to the ground rather than take the last four rungs of the ladder. He adjusted his britches, smoothed his hand over his long matted hair, and joined us.
“Alpha,” the second troll said.
“Gentlemen, I have a plan for both of you, or at least one of you, something more fun than watching the paint dry on a wall.”
Mitchell looked at me suspiciously for a moment. “More fun than watching paint dry, huh?”
“That’s right, and I’ll tell you more about it later.”
“Come with me,” Iris said, nodding to the ladder that Schnoogles had just come from. “It’ll make more sense from up here.”
“I was just up there…” Schnoogles grumbled.
“You don’t have to come,” she said over her shoulder.
I saw exactly what Iris was so excited to show me once we made it to the top. I could also see that Schnoogles had been spending way too much time up here, all sorts of discarded food, clothing, and Troll Holes magazines scattered about the place.
I didn’t know exactly what Troll Holes was, but I wasn’t going to pick up one of the magazines to find out.
“I will tell him to clean it up,” Iris said, a disgusted look on her face.
“No, trolls will be trolls,” I said, returning my focus to the giant, semi-transparent serpent that was now wrapped around the perimeter of our dojo.
“Anyway, I give you our world serpent,” Iris said. “In Norse mythology it is known as a Jormungandr.”
“So basically a giant snake that runs the perimeter of our wall, huh?” I nodded, impressed by the sleeping beast. “I like it.”
“And it is impossible to attack our dojo while the snake is active. Now, we don’t want to actually have a snake as wide as a city bus wrapped around the place, which is why it’s semitransparent. It only becomes tangible if an enemy approaches.”
“And it goes all the way back to the meadow?” I asked.
“It circles our e
ntire space, and if we ever add more space, it will circle that part as well.”
The serpent was thicker than a city bus, and as I stared out at it, I saw it had two huge yellow eyes that were staring back at me. Its forked tongue flitted out of its mouth as it looked at me curiously.
“I love it,” I told her. “Definitely creepy, but I love it.”
“I’m glad you like it,” Iris said. “Now what is this idea that you seem so excited to tell me about?”
“You can tell?” I asked, running my hand through my hair.
“I know you pretty well,” she said.
“That’s right,” I told her.
“You have that look on your face like you have just come up with a seriously cool riff and you’re dying to show me.”
“Okay, here it is.” I explained my troll idea to Iris; she started to laugh almost immediately. “What? It’s not a good idea?”
“To be clear: you want to see if we can add something to the fusion center that duplicates mythcrea. You then want to duplicate Mitchell or Schnoogles, and have the clones, as a troll army, constantly attack William’s dojo.”
“Around-the-clock troll assault. The trolls will never stop,” I told her with a big shit-eating grin plastered across my face.
“What if he gets a world serpent?”
“There are ways around it,” I told her. “There have to be.”
“I suppose you could just continue sending trolls. Eventually, it would be overwhelming.”
“Exactly.”
Iris snorted. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.”
“Why not? That guy was an asshole, and I really don’t have time to keep dealing with his crap. So we just create a troll army, and wherever William goes, or whatever he does, there is the army.”
“Somehow, I don’t think Kingdom Lume authorities are going to like this idea.”
“Probably not, but you know who will like it even less?”
“Who?”
“William.”
“Okay, we’ll see about upgrading our fusion center, later.” Iris moved to the railing again, gazing back toward our dojo’s field. “But for now, we need to scoot. It looks like Dalton and the others are waiting on us now. We should hurry.”
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Monster Hunt NYC 3 Page 4