[Diving]
— Ancalagon —
“Stay tuned, viewers. Lady and a cutthroat executive of Lowfyr’s Hoard… That should make for quite the show,” I said, addressing the stream. “I can’t say I was expecting such a development, but it is fitting for the Second Dive’s PvP.”
‘Oh, that’s a terrifying partnership in the making.’
‘Anyone else properly sca-roused of Medusa? I’d say she could do… things to me… but I don’t think a woman like that would give me the time of day unless she was playing me like a fiddle. Which… could also be fun.’
‘Think Lady will play nice with Saeder-Krupp? Think they’ll play nice with her?’
‘I don’t know which side of that partnership I’d be more scared to encounter in the Zone. They do kind of fit together well, though.’
‘It’s not a bad alliance. Not like Lady is at odds with Saeder-Krupp like the Hoard is. The megacorp can give them resources and support, and I think Lady cares most about winning the Dive, so she might just take advantage.’
‘She’s got something to prove. SK can use that.’
‘I wonder what the pay will be… I think I’m most interested in watching the negotiations play out there. Lady is somewhat used to that level of politics and business as the PRT ENE Director.’
‘Somehow, I feel like she’ll still be out of her element against Medusa.’
‘So… Lady (+Miss Militia and Magical Girl Vista) and SK vs. The Hoard and Undersiders, with Reasonable Ghouls for muscle? Yeah, that should be fun.’
‘There’s the Guild and Renraku to third-party, too. And I wouldn’t count out New Wave just yet, either. They’ve found allies in the Zone with the Ghost Rats, after all. It’s interesting to see which factions each of the parties ends up running with.’
‘It’s natural, really. If you want any hope of surviving in the Zone, I think you need allies. Otherwise, it’ll eat you up and spit you back out.’
‘I mean, Hookwolf’s party is doing fine on their own so far.’
“Hmph, if by ‘fine’ you mean neck deep in an Invae nest, I suppose they are,” Calamitas commented in reply to chat. “But as dangerous and disgusting as the Invae are, they’re also the simplest of the Zone’s threats. All you must think of when dealing with them is exterminating the pests to the last.”
“Surprisingly, Hookwolf’s party has somewhat impressed me,” Jenevelle agreed. “He is a horrid beast of a man, but all reasonable souls are needed in the fight against the Invae. Still, they’ve had the most straightforward Dive so far, only having to worry about ripping and tearing. We’ll see if the nazis continue to impress once they have to deal with actual people.”
‘Yeah, I’m not holding my breath.’
As my fellow hosts entertained the stream, I took a moment to turn to the Second Dive’s most recent eliminations. Dauntless was mostly content, it seemed, happy to have given his life holding the line for his party.
He stood with his back straight, the spirit of a hero visible in his posture. Fitting for one partnered with a totem like Theseus. He’d done his duty. Now, he could do it no longer. It was as simple as that for him.
Shadow Stalker, on the other hand, was much less content. She was still itching for a fight, even after throwing herself straight to her Dungeon death. Her blood was still pumping after being extracted from the Dive. Her Jaguar totem raged at the failure to survive, its core law, and fed Shadow Stalker’s heightened emotions.
“Fuck!” She swore. “Again! Run it back! I won’t go out like that! I’m a survivor!”
“Easy, Shadow Stalker,” Dauntless soothed her. “Our adventure is over for now. Nothing we can do about that. Take this time to step back, consolidate, and go back in having learned something.”
“’Tis good advice,” I chuckled. “And worry not, your adventure was not for nothing. You have grown, both of you. Furthermore, your spirits are satisfied with your partnership; I can sense it. Yes, even your Jaguar, Shadow Stalker.”
“She doesn’t feel satisfied right now…” Shadow Stalker grumbled. “I don’t feel satisfied, either.”
“Yes, death tends to do that; its endings are rarely better than continuing on, for they are ends… in the end,” I said, smirking slightly.
“Ha-fucking-ha,” Shadow Stalker snapped at me.
I ignored her clear frustration, “Still, before you fell, you gave a very good showing, surviving the Jaguar’s test of the wild and taking several of your eventual killers with you. If you need proof of the growth you’ve grasped, all you must do is look at your updated adventurer card.”
She did, practically scrambling for the card once she remembered the Dungeon also provided tangible evidence of growth. Dauntless checked his in a much calmer manner.
“Huh,” Dauntless paused as experience burst as golden motes of confetti over his card; all of that growth was invested into his soul — my Authority growing his Nature and connection to Spirit.
He shuddered, the kind of blissful stretch of self that unwound tension unrealized until that point, “That’s… That’s one hell of a feeling. I think I could get used to it.”
Shadow Stalker shuddered just the same, stressing, “I think I could get addicted to it.”
“There are worse things to be addicted to, I suppose,” Dauntless muttered.
Both Dauntless and Shadow Stalker gained three levels from the cut-short adventure, along with greatly deepening their connections to their totem spirits.
“Three…?” Shadow Stalker muttered to herself. “Dammit, that’s the same as…”
The class portion of my adventurer system wasn’t seeing much use in the Second Dive; Spirits were taking precedence, understandable considering the Dive was pulled straight from their native Age, where they were strongest. But that didn’t mean the classes had up and disappeared. They were still seeing growth.
Dauntless had chosen the Fighter class, and now, leveled up, he set himself down the Champion archetype path. As solid and heroic as he was, I did consider him somewhat boring. Shadow Stalker, with all her many flaws and with so much to prove, was rather more interesting.
That interest was helped by the unique class she now chose for herself, opting to use her growth to switch from the path of the Rogue.
NAME: Shadow Stalker
SPECIALIZATION: Rogue -> Blood Hunter, Lycan
LEVEL: 2 -> 5
ADVENTURING RANK: F -> E
STATS
STR: 1.01 -> 1.10
DEX: 1.10 -> 1.25
END: 1.20 -> 1.25
INT: 0.75 -> 0.80
WIS: 0.40 -> 0.65
CHA: 0.60 -> 0.61
ESSENCE: 0.50 -> 0.75
ABILITIES
Shard: Phantom
Hunter’s Bane
Blood Maledict
Fighting Style: Archery
Crimson Rite of the Dead
Heightened Senses
Hybrid Transformation
SPIRITS
Jaguar: Acknowledged
EQUIPMENT
Hero Costume
Crossbow
The moment she assigned her growth in a new way, Shadow Stalker screamed.
Her Nature shifted, growth retroactively asserting itself upon her. Considering her choice, it was not an easy process. Blood Hunters underwent sacred rituals to better fulfill their duty of hunting that which lurked in the dark, and further still, the Lycan subclass did indeed inflict that blood curse onto the hunter to be tamed by their will to fight the darkness.
My system and Authority made such growth simpler — and possible in the first place — but it didn’t remove the story that went along with that growth. For Shadow Stalker, the feats of a level 5 Lycan Blood Hunter were applied in reverse.
“Shadow Stalker!” Dauntless cried out in concern.
“Shove off! I’m fine…! I’m… fine…” Shadow Stalker pushed through the retroactive growth, looking down at her hands as if seeing them for the first time. “Better than fine. Yeah… Yeah, I really could get addicted to this.”
“Well then, manage your addiction in the viewing gallery,” I told her. “I still have a stream to host.”
Shadow Stalker looked up from her hands, ready to snap at me, as she was prone to doing. She fell silent and stunned the moment she laid eyes on me, though.
I chuckled, “Yes, that would be your new lycan affliction. Blood Hunters may tame the curse, but it will still affect you. I would suggest therapy. And not just because of the new beast in your blood.”
Dauntless turned and muffled his laughter with a cough. Shadow Stalker glowered at both of us, the expression noticeable even through her mask.
“Screw you both. Whatever,” She grumbled, stomping off. “We’ll see how those two little bitches like staring down a real fucking hunter…”
“I don’t think you’ll get the reaction you think you will from them,” I called after her, making the girl stiffen… and do her best to ignore me.
“What’s that about?” Dauntless asked.
“Something you may need to watch out for, but nothing I will overly concern myself with. With how much has now changed, that situation will handle itself,” I answered, waving him off.
Shrugging, he joined Shadow Stalker in the ‘viewing gallery’ for those who’d already been eliminated from the Second Dive. I turned my attention back to the stream.
‘So, uh… what was all that with Shadow Stalker? She screamed, man.’
“The amusingly foolish girl was just seeing to her earned growth in a unique way, choosing the path of a Lycan Blood Hunter. As you can likely imagine, such a choice came with consequences, even if she will only grow because of them,” I answered the question in chat.
‘Oh…’
‘Cool. Werewolf Ward. That’s not at all the strangest thing we’ve seen or heard today.’
My return to the happenings in the Dungeon was perfectly timed to catch Lady and the SK exec, Medusa, in the thick of their negotiations.
“-That’s not nearly enough,” Lady denied, firmly shaking her head. “My team will need hazard pay and assurances of support from you, at the least. And I want leverage on you, too, so you don’t leave us high and dry.”
Lady’s negotiation strategy was blunt as can be, but purposefully so. She saw the cutthroat, calculating, corporate bullshit and sought to cut straight through it.
“Hazard pay I can certainly do,” Medusa replied, unfazed by Lady’s strategic bluntness. “Lowfyr is no pauper, especially not for such an important mission and contract. Tell me, how would you like to receive payment for your services?”
“You’re deflecting.”
“Ah, but isn’t this a consideration that deserves to be addressed promptly?”
“So is the support from you. So is the leverage I want.”
“Direct support is difficult. Saeder-Krupp is not in the habit of doing our contractors’ jobs for them. But I can say I will be serving as your principal partner with the corp — your Mrs. Johnson, if you would. And unlike most Johnsons, I fully intend to join you in the field. Thus, I can offer support that way, mustering my own forces to work alongside your team.”
“Better,” Lady nodded. “We’ll see if you can keep up.”
“Oh, for some reason, I don’t think that will be an issue,” Medusa chuckled.
“Now, onto that leverage,” Lady changed the subject, stubbornly pursuing her goals for the negotiations.
“So blunt, so crass,” Medusa put on a forlorn sigh. “Where is your innovation, your creativity? Would you not rather scheme whatever ‘leverage’ you wish to hold over me into existence, as is proper?”
“I’m not getting me and mine that deeply involved in your politics,” Lady deadpanned right back.
“You already are, in a way, but I can see that you don’t want to be dragged deeper. You have my name and my guarantee of payment that way, don’t you? Is that not enough?” Medusa asked.
Lady returned the question with a question, “To force your hand if shit goes sideways? No. Give me a way to contact your supervisor.”
“Supervisor?” Medusa seemed confused by the idea. “No, that’s too much. I can’t just hand out a Great Dragon’s information like that, not as throwaway leverage.”
“… You’re telling me you answer directly to Lowfyr?” Lady asked.
“I am a full-fledged executive of Saeder-Krupp,” Medusa replied, as if it were obvious. “I have all the agency I need to act in the megacorp’s best interest. In the Zone, I have peers, but no one is outright higher than me on the chain.”
“Must be nice…” Lady muttered before shaking her head. “Then, I’ll be needing payment up front. 75%.”
“50.”
“60, equally spread around my team, and I’ll forgo any further leverage.”
“I can agree to that. But it does bring us back around to the question of payment.”
“I’ll take weapons, armor, and other equipment,” Lady said. “Information, too. We’re here looking into what happened to Feuerschwinge. Straight cash is going to be useless for us, though. You’ll have to get creative to pay us what we’re due.”
“Hmm,” Medusa considered Lady and the rest of the now-combined party. “I see a fascinating lack of augmentation amongst your team. Could I interest you in top-of-the-line Saeder-Krupp cyber or bioware?”
“Not unless they volunteer for it. I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.”
“Such a shame. Very well. Shall we relocate ourselves back to the closest Saeder-Krupp arcology to see about your payment, then? For a job like this, I can bear to part with a whole arsenal or two. Enough to found a PMC, even if you choose to abstain from my best offerings.”
“I think we have a deal, then,” Lady nodded.
She turned to her troopers and heroes, “Anyone willing to try her ‘best offerings’?”
Luiz, the Boar trooper, instantly stepped forward, grunting curtly, “Rigger. Drones. More boom.”
Lady zeroed in on him, “You sure about that?”
Luiz just nodded, volunteering to take the Sixth World’s augmentations back to Earth Bet in the form of implanted rigger controls.
Xian, the Mountain trooper, sighed, “I suppose I should volunteer for the biotech, then.”
“You don’t have to. I won’t force you,” Lady said firmly.
“Nothing to it, Sir,” Xian waved off her trauma-heightened concern. “I’m willing. I’ve always been somewhat interested in pushing the envelope of what my body can do. I’ll make myself a monster for that. Our monster.”
“You’re braver than me, then,” Lady muttered.
‘Straight to the point. Undeterred, unbothered, unafraid. Lady drives a blunt bargain.’
‘Methinks the PRT is going to have a whole lot of new equipment to play with when she returns.’
‘I doubt they’ll be the first cyborg and bioborg on Earth Bet, but it’s important to remember that this isn’t tinker stuff. We might actually be able to reverse engineer and recreate it. Luiz and Xian are making a great sacrifice in the name of progress.’
‘Oh, I’m sure the PRT’s researchers will be going crazy when they get back.’
‘Is non-tinker transhuman shit in our future now?’
“I’m unsurprised they got such good terms,” I commented. “SK is not lacking in resources to pay them with, and in such a hurried situation, they can’t afford to drag things out.”
“Indeed, Sire,” Jenevelle nodded in agreement. “Medusa also doesn’t have the context to realize how much she’s actually paying. She thinks she’s getting a good deal, most likely, but as some chatters have said, the real boons come when Lady brings the loot outside the Dungeon, in un-black-boxed technology such as bioware, cyberware, and the all-important nanoware that makes both possible.”
“I only hope Dragon ends up bringing some matrix tech out of the Dungeon,” Calamitas said. “It would make my efforts to recreate something similar in this Age much easier if I’m not the only one working toward the goal.”
‘Oh yeah, Calamitas has mentioned a… ‘Hell-Matrix’ connected to the Dungeon, right?’
‘And I’m really hoping that’s just a dramatic name and she doesn’t actually end up tapping HELL to make it possible. Which… it says something that I’m even worried about that, but here we are.’
“It will be called the Hell-Matrix because it utilizes hellish enchantments to cut corners, not because it is something from the true depths of any hell,” Calamitas said imperiously. “Its base purpose is to expand the primitive ‘internet’ of this Age, but it will also work in tandem with the Dragon’s Dungeon, offering a way to… adventure remotely. Look forward to it if you dare, mortals.”
“Rest assured,” I said, addressing Calamitas directly. “Your efforts will have my full support. The more who have the chance to enter the Dungeon and adventure, the better off this Age is in terms of holistic Growth.”
‘Honestly, that does sound great, despite the name. I’ve been worried about having to find a way to Brockton Bay if I want to join in the fun.’
‘God, the whole world is gonna catch Dungeon Mania.’
‘Better than Cape Mania, in my opinion.’
‘Especially since regular-ass people have the chance to join and improve themselves.’
‘I can’t wait for the official opening. Dragon-bless adventure!’
“After this Second Dive, and a short solo exhibition I have planned, give me a week to get everything in order,” I promised. “Then, the Dungeon will open its doors to all comers, along with Calamitas’s Hell-Matrix if she can finish it at the same pace.”
Calamitas huffed, “Hmph, I like a challenge, Dragon. It will be done.”
“Exhibition, Sire…?” Jenevelle asked, the first even my Hoard was hearing of that part of my plans.
I grinned, “Oh, yes. Earth Bet has seen the Dungeon as they will experience it to start, but I also wish to show off something more… advanced. A ‘Dragon-level’ Dive, if you would.”
‘Oh… Oh, fuck yeah!’
‘Dragon-level Dive!!!’
‘We get to see Ancalagon cut loose?!’
‘That shit’s gonna have to be declared a worldwide holiday with how interest in the Dungeon is growing.’
‘We certainly live in interesting times.’
In the Dungeon, Lady and her now-combined party began to move again with an SK deal secured. Medusa escorted them back to the nearest arcology to receive their payment, rally forces for herself, and set out to find and defeat the Hoard party.
I’d be watching that plotline closely, and making sure the stream saw all of it, too. My Hoard party’s presence in the Zone made hostility with Saeder-Krupp an inevitability, but Lady’s party getting contracted for the other side was an interesting development. It was good for PvP, and I was eager to see what came of it.
That conflict was quickly becoming a major thread of the Second Dive, but it was still only one, even if the Guild party was also tangentially related to through Renraku, though neither Hoard nor Lady knew that bit of information yet.
Elsewhere in the Dive, however, another side of the Dive was taking shape, one more focused on the non-corporate locals and the remaining parties.
New Wave had already fallen in with a pack of the Zone’s Ghost Rats. Faultline had secured the guidance of a mid-sized Radpunk tribe. The Empire and Dojo parties were still separated from the rest of the Dive, caught up in their PvP hunt. And I was considering the MOX as a sort of wildcard, considering their primary point of contact with the Zone was with a spirit instead of any metahuman faction.
They were all disparate and disconnected for now, but I could already see the shape their paths would take, with the corporate conflict on one side of the Dive and the non-corporate interactions on the other side.
Hookwolf’s Fenrir party was the only isolated party at this point, having been embroiled in the extermination of an Invae nest. As I switched the stream’s focus to them, we saw their success there. Mostly.
After hours of fighting, the party had pushed deep into the Invae nest, ripping and tearing the entire way. Then, the storm hit. It was what finally turned the tide against the Fenrir party, with Invae reinforcements spawning through the thinned veil.
We caught up to the party, exhausted but still defiant, as they were forced to pull out of the nest. They left devastation in their wake, enough to make even Invae spirits wary of their proven strength, and so, the Invae didn’t give chase.
After such an experience, I expected the Fenrir party to level up dramatically upon their forced exit or extraction. That would certainly be something to see when it happened, but for now, they were still immersed within the Dive, deep in the Zone.
‘Damn. Even if he is a fucking nazi, I don’t think anyone can deny Hookwolf’s a strong motherfucker.’
‘Yeah, I hate rooting for him, but against THINGS like those Invae…?’
“They did good work against the Invae. I can give them credit for that much, at least,” Jenevelle said.
“And now, their real trials begin,” I added, smirking. “… Diplomacy or something akin to it.”
I’d noticed something as the Fenrir party pulled out of their extermination. They’d attracted attention from the locals. Hookwolf noticed, too, his fighting blood still running high and alert.
“Rune! We’ve got a voyeur fuck! Grab ‘em!” Hookwolf barked the orders.
Their watcher was a single scout — a tall and thin orc man dressed in makeshift radiation gear. He was scoping out the chaos that Hookwolf had brought to the Invae nest from a safe distance.
The moment the party turned to stare directly at him, the orc panicked. It didn’t save him from their reach.
In a blink of instinctively summoned spirit and mustered parahuman power, Rune took flight.
Not traditional flight; it wasn’t so much ‘flying’ as it was her throwing herself at her target, a gust of Wind dragging her high into the air so she could use the powered runes on her costume to glide the rest of the way.
‘Did… anyone else know Rune could fly without a platform?’
‘I think part of it is new, to be fair.’
‘She’s kind of a glass cannon, but a damn versatile one.’
Like that, she ran down the party’s watcher in moments. She caught herself in a slow, hovering descent before the watcher, sneering.
“The boss wants a word with you. Come with me, orc, or I’ll make you.”
The scrawny orc man raised his hands in surrender, “Hey, hey! I don’t want no trouble, chummer!”
“Double negative,” Rune retorted. “That mean you want trouble?”
“Wha-? No!” The orc hurriedly denied. “I-I just meant-…”
Rune cut him off, “Whatever, the boss will figure you out.”
She gripped the much-taller orc by the scruff of his rad-suit. As skinny as he was, she still shouldn’t have been able to throw him as she did next. But a burst of Wind lifted him like a plane, and suddenly, he was screaming his way through the air with Rune to escort him back to the rest of the party.
She threw him down to his knees in front of Hookwolf, who loomed over the orc with his arms dangerously crossed, “So… The fuck are you and the fuck you want?”
“Sammy! Sammy, chum!” The orc said frantically, the words rushing out of him. “I just came to look! The chief said the spirits were all actin’ up around the nest! He sent me to make sure it wasn’t the cultists pulling some shit!”
“Do we look like cultists?” Hookwolf growled.
“I surely hope not,” Victor drawled. “I would hate to be mistaken for someone so unreasonable.”
“There are cultists… for those things…?” Othala asked, disgust in her voice.
“Well, yeah, ‘course there are! They’re mad bastards that no one likes, not even us Glowpunks, but you can’t just ignore ‘em!” Information poured from Sammy’s lips at speed.
“We try to be vigilant about ‘em,” Sammy continued. “If they get any kind of headstart, it’s hard to burn ‘em out. But you… You were in there, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, we were exterminating the bugs well and good until that storm hit and made them frenzy,” Rune nodded standoffishly. “What’s it to you?”
“That’s-! That’s crazy! Insane! Drokking wavy, chummer!” Sammy gushed, excitement overcoming his fear. “You runners?”
“We’re Fenrir,” Hookwolf answered, grinning at the praise.
“But again, what’s it to you?” Rune asked.
“We-…” Sammy hesitated. “Well, look, no one likes Glowpunks, yeah? They think we’ve been driven mad by the rads and all, think we’re no better than the cultists. But we’re not! We just know the truth of the Zone, this blessed hellscape! We give it respect, and we know it better than anyone ‘cause we aren’t afraid to go anywhere-!”
“Get to the point, toothy,” Hookwolf interrupted.
“I-I’m just saying, maybe you need some chummers who know the lay of the land…?” Sammy offered. “If you’re runners, you’ve gotta be here for a reason, and it ain’t clearing nests. Not even the megacorps care to pay for that dead-end business. So if you’re looking for something, the Glowpunks can find it. We just need to get a bit of protection out of it, ya know? ‘Cause… no one likes Glowpunks…”
Hookwolf scoffed, “Fuck off, kid, unless you can actually promise us a fight, not just protection duty.”
“W-We can find you one!” Sammy insisted. “Pick your opp, yeah? Radpunks? We’ve got enemies there. Corpos, Ghost Rats, cultists, anyone in the Zone!”
“Unless you want to turn around and go back in there,” Victor advised Hookwolf, keeping his voice low. “It’s not like we have any better direction to go in. Let ‘em use us as weapons; we’ll turn the tables on them and still get to fight. Maybe fight some fools who are actually worth looting, at that.”
Hookwolf’s shoulders shook, a laugh that started low and quickly grew bloodthirsty and eager, “Ha… Hahaha-HAHAHAHA! Fine! Take me to your chieftain, boy! Your little tribe is about to be… under new management~…”
‘… Yeah, I shouldn’t have expected anything else from Hookwolf’s take on diplomacy.’
‘The Glowpunks seem desperate. I’m pretty sure that Sammy kid is, like, 15 at most, and I don’t like how skinny he is.’
‘I mean, they’re radiation worshippers. There’s probably a reason one of them looks so unhealthy.’
‘Honestly, if I lived in the Zone, I might get it. When radiation is all you know, it kinda makes sense to worship it as something greater than you.’
‘Looks like Fenrir has an NPC faction to their name now, too. I don’t think they’re going to be working with them so much as conquering them, though.’
‘The guidance will likely pay dividends. The kid said the Glowpunks know every inch of the Zone, and I don’t really doubt him.’
‘Gotta know where to find the ‘best rads’, right?’
‘I wonder if magic helps them stave off rad-poisoning or if they just take it on the chin…’
‘The Zone’s tribes are probably deep into magical stuff. It’s kinda the only way they can grasp any power in the Zone. Not like they have connections outside it other than the Ghost Rats or like they have the resources of the megacorps, after all.’
“It seems we’ll need to give the Fenrir party time to consolidate its new… acquisition,” I considered aloud for the stream. “I’m sure they’ll do so quickly and play a bigger role soon enough. A Glowpunk warband to Hookwolf’s name…
“Until then, hmm… Oh, that’s an interesting conflux in the making. Shall we watch New Wave cross paths with Faultline and the Dojo hunting the Empire?”
IIIII
— Crystal Pelham, Laserdream —
Turns out, even smuggling runs through a hotspot like the Zone could be boring.
The Ghost Rats had been accommodating enough, but there was a lot of ground to cover, only broken up by the storm that they’d had to take shelter from — and what a storm that had been…
Aphrodite had painted a pretty picture during it.
“~Witnessed stories of love in the void, with metaplanes playing star-crossed parts. They clash and couple, spilling over onto the physical to spawn new, lovely things.”
But as amazing as the storm had been, it was also relatively short-lived. Soon enough, New Wave and the Ghost Rats were back on the road in the aftermath.
The Ghost Rats navigated the lingering chaos with practiced ease. Without them, Crystal was sure her family would’ve run straight into some anomaly or another.
As it was, with New Wave’s fliers calling down signs from the air, Old Edd saw them through without issue, and now, they were approaching the first stop on the Ghost Rats’ smuggling route.
“Finally!” Victoria exclaimed, stretching in flight before putting on a haughty act. “Hmph, it’s always such a pain to keep pace with puny mortals on the ground.”
“Don’t give any critics watching the stream that kind of ammunition, Victoria,” Sarah — Mom — warned. “I know you’re only joking but people can be… assholes.”
Amy scoffed in Crystal’s arms, “Some cynics might say assholery is humanity’s default state of being.”
“Not you, of course,” Crystal teased.
Amy matched the teasing, “No, of course not. Me? A cynic? Where would you get that idea?”
“Maybe from having spent more than five minutes with you?”
“Well, there’s your mistake. Terrible idea on your part. You have no one else to blame.”
“Look sharp, girls,” Mom interrupted their back and forth. “The Ghost Rats might do this regularly, but we still don’t know what we’re getting into here. We’ve agreed to watch them from above, so shout if you think you see anything off.”
“Oh, yes, we’re veritable angels to these poor, unfortunate smuggling souls,” Amy deadpanned.
“Still a bit testy that they don’t trust you to heal and totally not peek inside them, Ames?” Crystal asked.
“… Is it so wrong to want to touch an elf that my power can actually read?” Amy grumbled. “Just seems like a good way to work up to Ancalagon and his elves, is all.”
Victoria giggled, “Yes, ‘is all’, I’m sure.”
“I plead the Fourth-…” Amy said.
Victoria cocked her head, “… Amendment?”
“Of the Sis Code,” Amy finished.
“Oh,” Understanding dawned on Victoria’s face. “Oh, alright, fine, I won’t tease you about your… new unique tastes.”
“Careful,” Amy grunted. “You’re toeing the line with just that.”
Below them, the convoy, Ghost Rats surrounding New Wave’s remaining transport truck after having shared the spare, pulled into a relatively rundown, well-lived-in settlement.
Radpunks, Crystal knew. They were the majority faction in the Zone, and actually made their lives in it rather than sticking to safe megacorporate arcologies. She didn’t quite know what to expect, not from anyone living in the Zone, but from above, she could see they just looked like… people…?
Yes, just people living their lives, even in unique circumstances and environments. That some of those people were orcs, elves, dwarves, and trolls didn’t even enter the picture when Crystal took it all in. Even with all that diversity, even with living in an irradiated containment zone, the settlement was comfortingly normal.
The town was built in and around the remnants of a more civilized era, before the disaster that became the Zone. What had once been a small European village had been added to until it became a well-populated safe haven in the pseudo-apocalypse.
She could see houses and shops and farms, all clearly maintained with improvisation and innovation, not any established resources or outside help.
She could see people freely walking cobblestone roads, patched asphalt, and new dirt paths, calling out to their neighbors.
She could see children playing under the watchful eyes of parents or older siblings; a pair of parents chattered about this and that; a pair of teenagers flirted when they really should’ve been watching their younger siblings.
She could see magic being used for mundane tasks, scavenged tech being put to good use, and the persistent sense of community throughout, willing to try new things, old things, everything to survive.
When society collapsed, people did what they could to live on.
They carved out lives for themselves here in the Zone, a new take on society, no matter how hostile the environment was. They came up with new ideas to replace the unfitting old or revived old ones in new contexts.
She saw a small barn that looked to have been converted into a communal kitchen. Just past it, farms were worked by the community, everyone putting in what effort they could. Around the fields, a makeshift wall protected that most essential resource. And at the center of the Radpunk settlement, a gathering point had taken shape at a well-maintained library: information that had spawned a community.
Crystal felt like she was looking at the very essence of the human spirit, that stubborn persistence, because living on when one could was better than… giving up hope.
People kept on keeping one, making the best of what they had, what they could. And there was something really, really special to that, as normal as it all looked now, Crystal thought. She couldn’t help but smile, looking down on it all.
“It’s beautiful,” She said.
“Not what I was expecting, but I don’t know if I’d call it beautiful,” Amy thoughtfully replied.
“Look, though. Really look,” Crystal urged her. “They’ve made whole lives for themselves here. They’ve got their lot in life and just… do their best with it. It’s not living as we’d readily recognize it, but to me, this is… humanity.”
Amy fell silent, looking as Crystal had urged her. Eventually, she nodded, “Yeah… Yeah, I suppose I can see it. You’re right; that really is something.”
Below, the Ghost Rats were welcomed to the Radpunk settlement with open arms and good cheer. They were clearly regulars, known by the town. And considering what they could be carrying, it made sense that the Radpunks would be so openly eager to see them.
Bags and packs were unloaded, and the Ghost Rats’ wares were shown off for potential buyers. Despite what Crystal might have been expecting from such hardened smugglers, she didn’t see a whole lot of weapons or drugs or much that could truly be considered illegal.
Instead, she saw them trading smaller things, more important things, the little things that made a wider society worth the effort and that those in the Zone might miss most.
Media seemed to be the Ghost Rats’ best seller. Small entertainments — from cards to movies — and essential but hard to come by resources for the Zone — fuel, new seeds, good tools, and so on.
Tech was also present, but rare and expensive by the looks of things. The Ghost Rats knew to offer one cyberdeck — Sixth World computers — at most to the settlement, for they couldn’t easily afford more than that. Portable generators, water purifiers, gas masks, radiation meds, and other Zone essentials were more common and cheaper.
As the trades were made, a bit of out-of-place movement caught Victoria’s eye, “Hey! I know those costumes!”
Crystal looked where Victoria was pointing and saw Faultline’s party in the settlement. They were looking back up at New Wave’s fliers, but didn’t take any hostile action. From the way the Radpunks moved around them, Faultline’s party had clearly been welcomed into the settlement to a degree.
Faultline waved. Mom waved back. They didn’t have to fight here, much to Crystal’s relief. It’d be a shame to ruin a place like this with petty, pointless conflict.
“Do we… go say hi?” Crystal asked.
Mom sighed, “That might be for the best, just to make contact, at least. Faultline is one of the more reasonable non-hero parties in the Second Dive, so hopefully, we can just catch up and go our separate ways.”
Below, Faultline motioned toward the gates of the settlement, where the Ghost Rats were trading with the Radpunks. Mom nodded back and led New Wave’s fliers down from the sky.
They rejoined the non-fliers at New Wave’s remaining transport truck, Mom conveying the situation she’d seen.
“We’ll follow your lead, honey,” Dad said.
Crystal almost rolled her eyes. As if Dad had ever done anything different than follow Mom’s lead. Despite how he looked and acted, he was whipped.
“I don’t like playing nice with the… mercenaries,” Carol frowned. “But I suppose there are worse parties we could’ve run into.”
As one, New Wave went to join the leading, trading Ghost Rats while they waited for Faultline’s party to join them from the other side.
“Come down from on high to join us puny mortals on the ground?” Via — the cyborg elf Ghost Rat — asked.
Victoria put on a playful, theatrical sigh, “Unfortunately, needs must.”
“What happened to watching the top of our heads?” Old Edd asked with a grunt.
“Are you really worried about something kicking off here?” Crystal shot right back. “You seem to have a good relationship with this town. Even if the worst happens, we’re still here to pull our weight, aren’t we?”
“‘Suppose you are,” Old Edd looked away, back to his trading partner on the Radpunk side of things. “Terrance, meet the strays we picked up on our run in.”
“We resemble that remark,” Amy deadpanned.
Terrance was a Radpunk with an easy smile, a human weathered by living in the Zone but still standing tall, “Ha! We had our own strays wash in with the storm, as a matter of fact! Ah, there they are now!”
Faultline and her party approached the trading circle. They were mostly calm and composed, but Crystal recognized the undercurrent of readiness they held themselves with. As expected of mercenaries, much more used to extraordinary situations than New Wave was.
“New Wave,” Faultline nodded in greeting.
“Faultline,” Mom nodded back, smiling slightly.
“Well, well, look at that! They know each other!” Terrance exclaimed. “I’m gonna choose to take that as a good sign!”
“You would,” Old Edd snorted.
“So… what’s the, ya know… deal here…?” Yvonne — the Ghost Rat orc shaman — asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Shadowrunners who have likely worked at odds with each other before,” Via guessed, shrugging.
“You could say that,” Faultline half-confirmed. “Both of our parties are in the Zone on a mission from the same source.”
“They’re looking for the Fire Wing, too, then?” Terrance asked.
“Sounds like it,” Old Edd grunted. “That’s what our strays want us to lead ‘em toward.”
“Good! I’ve already promised Faultline and her team a guide!” Terrance laughed. “It’d help my peace of mind if they could run with friends of the settlement for that, Edd. You’ll look after my people, won’t you?”
“It’ll cost you,” Old Edd grumbled.
Terrance shot him a knowing look, “Sure, it will. Not like you make these runs out of the goodness of your heart. Of course, of course, not. Definitely no fondness for your old homeland there, no sir.”
Via leaned over to the New Wave girls, whispering conspiratorially, “He’s a big softie at heart. We’d make much more profit running guns for the Zone’s PMCs, but here we are, ya know?”
“I thought you lot were just waiting for the best chance to betray us,” Amy said skeptically.
“Yep,” Via replied, her cybernetic eyes twinkling. “The moment you turn your backs, it’s right in the dirt with ya!”
“We’ll be sure to face forward with you, then,” Crystal giggled.
“That’s for the best,” Via nodded. “As much as I might appreciate keeping an eye on those backsides, you’ll just have to keep eyes on mine and Yvonne’s and the old man’s. Lucky, lucky you~…”
“Maybe, except for that last backside,” Victoria joked.
“Via!” Yvonne sputtered. “Don’t just-! Don’t just invite them like that!”
Eric shyly raised his hand, “Uh, I don’t mind the invitation.”
From Faultline’s side, Newter laughed, “Same, brother!”
“Boys,” Crystal rolled her eyes, noticing Amy was suspiciously silent at the same time. “And Amy.”
Amy glowered at her, “Don’t lump me in with them.”
“Your eyes weren’t… looking, then?” Crystal innocently asked.
“… No comment.”
With the easy back and forth between the younger generation, the older generation (and Faultline, though Crystal was sure she was her age) let themselves relax, content that things would spiral into conflict at this point.
… Which, unfortunately, was exactly when they spiraled into conflict.
There was a shout from one of the settlement’s watchtowers. The Radpunks and Ghost Rats snapped to alertness instantly. New Wave and Faultline’s party were just a moment behind. Crystal flew up to get a better look at what caused the shout.
From the air, she saw one of Ancalagon’s assigned IFVs barreling down the road leading to the settlement at speed. Another IFV was hot on its heels.
“Well, who could that be…?” Crystal wondered to herself.
Mom, having flown up beside her to get a similar view, half-answered, “My gut’s telling me it’s nothing good. Looks like a PvP chase, unless a party lost their truck.”
“They… aren’t slowing down,” Crystal noted. “Oh! They aren’t slowing down!”
“Brace!” Mom called down to everyone still on the ground. “Eric! Shield in front of the gate!”
Crystal’s brother obeyed in a hurry, throwing up a blue forcefield at the gate while everyone behind him scrambled to get out of the way.
Bare moments later, the leading IFV rammed straight into Eric’s shield. It slowed the truck, but not enough. Wheels spun out of control upon impact, taking out one side of the gate before it stopped on its topside.
Most of the Radpunks were retreating farther into their settlement, but a few fighters remained — Terrance leading them — to put up a defense. The Ghost Rats joined them, using their bikes as cover.
Faultline’s party, to their credit, instantly stepped up alongside the rest of New Wave. From the other side of the gate, the chasing IFV wasn’t far behind, skidding to a much safer stop.
The door of the crashed IFV was pried off with a surge of iron. Dread and visceral anticipation struck Crystal as she realized who must have been inside. Sure enough, Kaiser stuck his armored head out a moment later.
He stopped, staring at the forces arrayed against him, “… Well, this just isn’t my day, is it?”
Behind him, Krieg also peeked out of the crashed IFV, humming, “No, it doesn’t seem like it, sir.”
Crystal and Victoria, the latter having now joined her in the air, bore matching vicious grins, practically purring their threat in sync, “Kaiser~…”
Before they could act towards long-overdue vengeance, however, the chasing IFV’s doors sprang open, and Garou of the Dojo party bounded out, barking, “Fuck off! They’re mine! My hunt, my prey! I’ll get to you lot after I’m done with them!”
“Not a chance in hell,” Crystal flatly replied. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for a no-limits shot at the Empire?”
“Don’t care! I’ve got dibs!” Garou shot back.
“We had dibs first!” Victoria yelled.
“Girls…” Mom sighed; she was unwilling to refute their statements, though.
Two more of the Dojo party came out of the IFV behind Garou — Bang and Mizuki, if Crystal remembered correctly. She did notice that members were missing from both parties — Sonic, Fenja, and Menja — but honestly, she just thought it was a shame she wouldn’t get to smack down the giant twins.
Bang stood calmly with his hands clasped behind his back, “Ah, this is fortuitous: a target-rich environment. I won’t bother trying diplomacy. We are here to fight — to exercise and prove our martial skills. Against the Empire, against New Wave, against you, Faultline, it matters little to us today.”
“Don’t we get a say in that?” Terrance asked from the backlines of the confrontation. “This is our town you’re crashing, after all.”
Bang nodded, “And I must apologize for that, good man. Still, it is the way of war, this collateral. Our minds and our martial hearts are set on this course of action. We will not be swayed from the fight.”
“I could be swayed,” Kaiser spoke up, trying to worm his way out of a disadvantageous situation as always.
“Forget that!” Victoria cried.
“Stand and face your death like a warrior, Rusted Emperor!” Garou shouted.
To Crystal’s delight, she could just about see Kaiser cringe beneath his armor, “If… I must.”
This was it, the chance at revenge that Crystal had been after since the moment she heard the Empire would be joining the Second Dive. She prepared laser blasts in her palms, waiting for the proverbial tumbleweed to blow past the Brockton Bay standoff.
Kaiser was a dangerous, clever, and unprincipled asshole, though. Surrounded by enemies, he didn’t wait for some unspoken signal. As he moved to leave his crashed IFV, there was a single instant of instinctively combined magic and parahuman power.
Concealed by his movement, a trio of javelins sprouted from the metal frame of the IFV’s doorway. Then, there was the ringing peal of spiritually struck iron, and the three javelins were hurled forth at blurring speeds.
One shot toward the Dojo party. Mizuki dove and caught it right out of the air in a tremendous display of athleticism.
The other two spears sought out New Wave’s members, Kaiser perfectly willing to go immediately lethal for once.
They targeted Carol and Neil, and would’ve run straight through both of their hearts if Crystal’s aunt and dad didn’t burst into showers of gold coins upon contact, confirming the kills by the Dungeon’s standards.
“Mom!” Victoria screamed. Her power’s force field was set alight with an aura of Phoenix flames, and she dove straight for Kaiser.
Krieg stepped forward at the last moment with an uppercut that broke Victoria’s flaming force field and sent her tumbling from power-imparted kinetic energy.
In an instant of treachery that Crystal really should’ve expected, the fight was on. It was chaos. Five parties clashed; only New Wave and Faultline’s parties were somewhat aligned. Fautline’s party fought not to be collateral casualties, New Wave fought for revenge, Kaiser and Krieg fought for their lives against everyone, and the Dojo party fought just to fight.
Crystal spammed laser blasts at Kaiser while he raised a wall of iron to take cover behind. They hit the wall with sprays of metal and pink sparks but failed to penetrate.
“~War, war, oh how I’ve missed thee,” Aphrodite sang and sighed in Crystal’s mind. “Once more, as always, the Areia must rise.”
Crystal felt a surge from her soul, fighting spirit rising like the drums of war. Her next laser blast wasn’t so much a blast as it was a laser lance that finally punched through Kaiser’s wall and sent him scrambling to reinforce it again.
Victoria recovered to come flying back around at Krieg, only to get tackled out of the air by a laughing Mizuki. The Dojo woman was clearly enjoying herself as she wrestled with Victoria — and even came out on top.
Garou dashed toward Krieg in the opening his party member had made, pouncing with predatory grace. The space around him suddenly shattered. When the shattering receded like the Sea at low tide, Garou found himself in a new place. Labyrinth had dropped him right in front of a ready Gregor, the hulking Case 53 punching Garou straight in the nose before he could react.
Garou didn’t even flinch. He pushed forward against the blow, instead, a contest of wills with the martial artist declaring his face wouldn’t lose against Gregor’s fist.
Even when Newter slid a hallucinogenic-laced hand across Garou’s skin, the man, the force of martial nature, didn’t back down. Through whatever he was seeing, he pushed and pushed until Gregor, some 300+ pounds of Case 53, was the one forced to yield.
Then came clawed hands and vicious strikes, some finding only hallucinations and thin air. Even fighting an army of his imagination, though, other strikes found real targets. Gregor was forced back, clutching bruises that seemed almost retroactively applied, blows destined to find flesh.
Garou’s rampage against Faultline’s crew was only stopped when Labyrinth panicked and shunted him through the Sea to another spot in the fight. He landed amongst Mark, Amy, and Eric, and didn’t hesitate for a moment.
Mark threw out one of his power’s flashbangs, light so bright from taking on the spirit of the Sun. Garou fought straight through the blindness.
He pierced Eric’s shields with knife-hands, and then Eric himself in short, overwhelming succession. Crystal’s brother burst into a new shower of gold coins, the third casualty of the fight, all on New Wave’s side.
Seeing her family in such dire straits made Crystal pull back from trying to skewer Kaiser on her new laser spears and fly to Mark and Amy’s aid. The drums of war still pounded in her soul, and Aphrodite’s armor, made of love and lasers, instinctively came into existence around her.
She barreled straight into the rampaging martial artist, so passionately defiant that she was mimicking Victoria’s usual fighting style.
Her laser lance skewered Garou through his stomach. He kept fighting, throwing out strikes that bounced off Crystal’s new magical armor.
Seeing himself make no progress, Garou bodily threw himself off Crystal’s laser lance, landing with the grace of a leopard.
Before he could regather himself and counterattack, a spell was cast in a spiritually singing voice, “~Comet… Azur…!”
Amy was the caster, no longer content to main ‘White Mage’. She hit him with a magical laser, a constant stream of pearlescent, churning blue starlight. Isis helped her cast with loving, guiding, embracing hands layered upon Amy from behind.
Garou flew when the laser spell hit him, tumbling straight into yet another portion of the fight. With room to breathe, Amy was left panting. Crystal and Mark both took a moment to gape in shock at the sight of their healer casting lasers.
“I… I can see why you like lasers so much, Crystal,” Amy joked, still catching her breath.
“Holy…” Mark muttered before catching himself and shaking his head with a proud grin. “That’s my girl! You’ll teach your old man how to do that, right?”
It was still odd to see Uncle Mark so spirited, not at all like his usual depression, but Crystal didn’t have time to linger on that thought.
“Better hurry,” Amy told her. “Or that… monster… will steal our Kaiser kill. Go get that rustbucket for us, Crystal. For Fleur.”
Crystal nodded, determination refreshing the armor spell she’d instinctively cast, “For Fleur.”
She turned and raced back out into the action, shining like a star of Passion in Aphrodite Areia’s armor. Garou had been ‘lucky’ enough that Amy’s magical laser blasted him straight towards his primary prey: the two Empire holdouts in Kaiser and Krieg.
With Mizuki still gleefully wrestling Victoria (and Victoria starting to return the fervor, by the looks of things), Kaiser was honestly getting off easy in the chaos. Which just wouldn’t stand, not in Crystal’s book or in Garou’s.
Krieg, meanwhile, found himself casually engaged by Bang. The senior martial artist was dancing around Krieg’s usually effective, power-reliant fighting style with his hands still behind his back. He Flowed through the fight, even as Krieg used his power to turn the air into stagnant molasses.
Crystal watched her mom rain down laser blasts, taking up her former role in the fight. They were just as ineffective against Kaiser’s iron defense, and Kaiser was throwing back spears. It would only take one to get lucky.
Then, Garou was there, engaging Kaiser all out from the very start, and Crystal wasn’t far behind him. Kaiser found himself pinned against his own iron wall before two determined opponents, both out for his blood.
Crystal’s laser lance sang in her hands, pulsing with the Passion of vengeance. But Garou was just as empowered by the Hunt now that his prey was in front of him.
Garou’s knife-hand strikes carved through hastily thrown-up iron defenses. Crystal’s laser lance missed a fatal blow when Kaiser ducked to dodge one of Garou’s strikes.
Without looking away from their shared target, Garou lashed out with a kick at Crystal’s side. She stumbled, and he capitalized. Wild claws overlaid his fingers, tearing through the armor on Kaiser’s chest. Crystal came back in with a charge, throwing her shoulder against Garou to get him out of the way of her lance so it would strike Kaiser true.
It did. Spirit of Aphrodite, it did… The lance pierced Kaiser’s breastplate. He burst into a shower of victorious gold.
With that, a weight Crystal had carried for half her life lightened, Passion fulfilled, vengeance achieved…
Just in time for Garou to abruptly, wildly switch the prey of his Hunt. Pure predatory instinct threw a new strike into Crystal’s chest, a not-so-metaphorical arrow that found a sweet spot in her armored now that her Passion was quickly fading.
For an instant, just a fleeting moment, Crystal knew no more.
Then, she blinked and saw Ancalagon in front of her, the tower around her, Dad immediately glomping on her in a tight, rather shaken hug, and even Aunt Carol joining in with actual tears in her eyes. Crystal could only blink at the sudden shift of her surroundings.
“Well fought, Crystal,” Ancalagon nodded to her. The praise and approval she saw there felt good. Maybe a little too good…
“T-That’s my gir-ir-irl…!” Dad’s shoulders were shaking as he held her.
“Dad…? Are you using me to hide your tears?”
“Fatherly tears! Manly tears! The manliest!”
Crystal just laughed, rolled her eyes, and hugged him and Aunt Carol back. Her Dive might’ve been cut short before the endgame, but she couldn’t bring herself to regret how she’d ended her adventure.