Apocalypse: Fairy System by Macronomicon (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

Gimmie,” Eddie said, snatching the satellite dish/staff out of his hand. The old man took the staff and retreated back into his cave, muttering something about gravitational lensing as he did.

“Alright, let’s go debrief Nance,” Jeb said, wiping grease off his hands.

“Hold up,” Colt said, grabbing Jeb’s shoulder and glancing around like he was guilty of something. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah?”

“Zlesk says you’re some kind of savant at killing people?”

Jeb rolled his eyes. “You get lucky and kill one pirate crew, and everybody suddenly thinks you’re a murder savant.”

“How do you do it? Kill people?”

Jeb’s eyes narrowed, looking the teen up and down. “You wanna know because you think killing people is cool, or because you don’t wanna choke and get somebody else killed?”

The kid shrugged noncommittally, and Jeb almost throttled him.

“You ever watch those movies where the bad guy kills the hero’s family?”

“Like The Punisher?” Colt asked.

“Yeah, like The Punisher. Don’t be like The Punisher. Think real hard about how much harm enemies could inflict on your friends and family if you leave them alive to nurse a grudge. It helps.”

“But…”

“Yeah,” Jeb said, nodding. “I know. We missed our shot and now there’s any number of people out there who are just aching to hit us where it hurts. Consider this a cautionary tale of what not to do.”

Colt absorbed that silently for a moment, staring at his shoes before glancing back up at Jeb. “I hate my Myst power.”

“Why? It’s a great power. You’ll never be out of lube.”

Colt’s cheeks flushed. “No, you and Zlesk and that other guy all got out of it in a couple seconds. It doesn’t work on anyone important.”

“Colt, your build sucks and you’re using it wrong,” Jeb said, breaking the harsh news to him. “Your slime is a godsend for crowd control, but you wanna go after the Big Bad. Mathematically, you will always have the most impact on a battle acting as support. If you can’t nut up and accept that, you will always be pushing more burden onto your teammates. You’ve got a ranged bonus; lean into that harder, too. Get yourself an actual sling and learn how to use it.”

“But if I wasn’t up on that roof, that guy would’ve killed you.”

Jeb frowned. “If I recall correctly, you got knocked out and I shoved him off the edge. If you’d stayed downstairs and helped Zlesk, odds are you two would’ve subdued the people in the courtyard fast, and Zlesk would’ve been fresh enough to help us take down the guy that’s been killing your friends.

“I know Zlesk isn’t going to give you shit about it, but you’re the reason he’s laid up,” Jeb said, poking Colt in the chest. And I’m the reason Kebos got away, Jeb thought, his mind wandering to his missing foot.

Then Jeb saw tears budding in the teen’s eyes.

Ah crap, I think I might’ve broke him.

Jeb opened his mouth to apologize, but Colt spoke first.

“How do I get better?” he asked, looking up at Jeb.

Jeb chewed his lip. “Talk to Zlesk. Ask him to teach you how to fight when he heals. Talk to Eddie, ask him to make you a magic sling or something. Then experiment with your slime. Can you harden it? Make it come out hot? Cold? Sticky? Can you be Spider-Man? Can you change the lubrication? Change its viscosity? Specific gravity? Does it float in water? Any change you can make or unique properties you discover are going to greatly expand your options in a fight.”

Colt was beginning to lean back, like he was being forced away by a deluge of condescending advice. Luckily, Jeb only had one more tip before he let the kid off the hook.

“And most importantly, never stop thinking.”

“Okay.” Colt nodded, presumably having absorbed almost none of that advice.

“Okay, let’s go talk to Nancy.”

Jeb followed Colt out to the front of the mansion, where one of the mercenaries dropped Mrs. Everett’s sandwich, gaping at the massive stag trotting along beside Jeb.

Can’t get hoofmarks on the rug.

“Buck, your name is Buck now,” Jeb said to the big buck. “You stay out here with your friends and don’t let anyone hurt the children, capiche?”

Buck nodded.

I wonder if it’s the control lens or inborn intelligence from being a magic construct, Jeb thought.

Together, he and Colt headed in and met with Nancy. With a bit of begging, they were allowed to let in Zlesk. Although Nancy didn’t seem particularly happy to see a keegan up close and personal again, she held it together admirably.

For his part, the beat-up keegan sat in the corner of the room, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

The little girl was recovering from a cut on her shoulder, and a stab to the liver that should’ve been lethal, save for the fact that her Body was obscenely high, and children’s livers hadn’t yet been subjected to the same trauma as an adult’s.

The little girl was inspecting the back of her hand when they entered the room. Jeb didn’t see anything on it, so he declined to comment, simply sitting down.

Over the course of the afternoon, they carefully dissected what she had witnessed that night. She had witnessed the exchange between O’sut and the judge with her own eyes, heard him call the judge by name, even, and witnessed him kill Jake.

The fucker was going down. But the account didn’t give Jeb any clue how he was going to come after the rest of the nobles who’d purchased XP bags from O’sut. Presumably a few of them might have been hosting children at their homes. These children were most likely disposed of as soon as word got out about the raid on O’sut’s puppy mill.

“Rules are in place to protect you,” Zlesk said, rubbing his