Initiation By Fire

Game date: 1/28/2021

 The past month has been far too quiet.  I've been expecting a shoe to drop, and it hasn't.

This is not to say that I have not been busy.  Far from it.  Ryatt's lawsuit was decided in his favor, with a

very large settlement.  We split it, taking as much for the group as we could without shorting him and his family.  He got to start his business, and pay his lawyer, and his family got a nice million to boost their lifestyle.  I found a financial advisor for them, one that I had vetted for relative honesty.  

Additionally, the Chystari Estate was handed to the Nepeta family with virtually no fuss, another surprise.  They also received the monthly stipend, but soon learned that Foster had wiped the savings with his lavish parties.  If we hadn't stepped in when we did, there could have been a negative balance, and they might have lost it all anyway.

We found visual copies of all the lost Nepeta records in the Dawn drone's memory.  I made copies of that.  Aru has been studying the ancient language, which Ms. Blackrose calls "Creato."  He and his family are taking it upon themselves to re-transcribe the records back into physical books.  Once I had everything downloaded (and I do mean everything - every last bit of blackmail-worthy material, from every surviving drone), I wiped Dawn's memory, and all the Chystari iDolls.  

Of course, Aru invited us to stay at the manor, with express permission from his extended family.  I believe it's a good idea; they may be targeted again because of that vault.  I converted my lair to a Mech shop.  The first order of business was to repair or salvage all the drones, and upgrade the junk van.  I designed a specialized self-destruct, hoping to keep the Sunchild from possessing the anthros, yet not destroying them completely.  

I designed a set of concealable claws for the anthros and turned it over to Varfana for production, only to learn that she already had a design like this, only better, from an order placed by CyberTek.  Well, doesn't that figure.  

I had to take a break from the work and the paranoia, and scanning the news feeds.  Our escapades had made headlines, and drawn comments from a number of opinion makers.  One comment in particular caught my eye.  Popular gamer/forum surfer "Chance" had said:

Who wants to take bets on how long Rintendo's owner lives?

and a commentor known only as "JD" replied:

I'll take that bet.

Yes, indeed, so would I.  In fact, I'd also bet that I knew exactly who "JD" was, and made a note to thank her for the vote of confidence.  Come to think of it, there are a number of names I'd be willing to stake some credits, one way or another, upon their immediate chances of survival.  I began to skim the forums.

Nobody seemed to be betting against Ryatt.  Perhaps JD is better known than I thought.  I resolved to spend a bit more time checking the gossip in the future, and went on to search for other deadpools.  Before I got too far, I noticed a thread that was highlighted by a bouncing peach icon.  Well, that's not conspicuous at all.  I opened it.  

The bouncing peach led me down a rabbit hole -- literally.  The "Rabbit Hole" forum was a section mainly frequented by conspiracy theorists, not very secure but mostly ignored because, frankly, who cares?  Okay, in this case, we do.  New thread, one message:

How can someone who doesn't like how things are being done in the government get involved? 

No replies.  I thought about that for a few seconds.  What it implied about our city, that no one had an answer; and what it implied about me, that I never even considered it as a possibility.  

There is no legal avenue for a citizen to make changes.

Then I shook off the thought, and concentrated upon the issue at hand.  Ms. Peach Chef had directed my attention to this message.  Or, more accurately, to the person behind this message.  She only does that when a situation has risen to a dangerously critical level.  Given the nature of the question, and the fact that it had no safe answer (and remembering the brownout at the library), the poster could very well have placed themselves in jeopardy.  

I traced them to a public terminal.  Whomever it was, had not used their actual identity to log in, thankfully.  Noted the coordinates, sent a direct message telling them to log off immediately, took the Owlet.  On the way, I told our group where I was going and why, and told Parker to monitor the location.  If anyone else arrived to collect our Person of Interest before we did, I needed to know about it.

Fortune smiled upon us.  The terminal was very near Varfana's weapon shop, where Aru happened to be at that particular moment.  They arrived first.  Parker displayed the pair approaching a halfling woman, wearing nondescript street clothing and a leather jacket, carrying a staff roughly twice her height.  They managed to get her to back to the shop without incident.  I noticed "Frank" cruising by as I pulled in and parked.

We made introductions.  The halfling's name was "Gordianus."  I'd only gotten as far as recommending BANlink and armor upgrades when Katrya interrupted to inform us of a "glowy situation."

No one (except perhaps for Gordianus) needed to be told what that particular shorthand meant: torchwraiths, and their various kin.  I cursed.  I've been doing that a lot lately; I'll have to break myself of the habit before I start to carry it over into formal meetings.  We hurried outside, to the sound of Frank's heavy plasmer guns, and screaming people.

Wraiths approaching, from all sides.  It was difficult to see this as anything but a planned attack.  Apparently our halfling's forum post had not gone so unnoticed, after all.  I gave her a brief rundown on what to expect from this encounter.

"These wraiths explode upon death, and their explosions heal each other. Ranged attacks are best if you can. If you must close in, get away after hitting. Don't get surrounded, and try not to let them clump up."

By this time Katrya had already destroyed one, on top of whatever indeterminate number her transport had flattened to get here.  I gave my drones battle protocols (first aid for Maggy, attack for Owlet), told Parker to bring Ŝtelita to the scene, and joined the fray.

There was a time, a million years ago, when I would have been too wrapped up in my own strategies to pay much attention to anyone else's actions during battle.  Not today.  Perhaps I've become more aware of my teammates.  Or, maybe I'm more worried about the possibility of a Sunchild hijacking one of my drones.  In any event, my peripheral vision has improved.  

I noticed Aru using his Ci, which had re-shaped into the form of a plasmer pistol.  It was firing with a force that I've never seen from a weapon that size.

I saw Varfana grimly protecting her storefront, her firearms skill improved over the last battle.

Vamir was back to his originally preferred rapier, although it seemed to have been upgraded to a vibroblade.  He seemed much more confident with it, and I approved the choice, even though close-range combat with these is risky.  

Ryatt's face settled into an expression of concentration as he entered lines of code into his BANlink that made sense only to him, resulting in actual force energy striking and killing wraiths.  I realized with some irritation that I never have discussed that particular technique with him.  Parker, make a note.  I really need to collaborate with him more.

EllieRocks cast her spells as if on stage.  It occurred to me that she was always performing, that the audience exists in her mind if not in reality.  She fires imaginary guns, providing her own sound effects.  She heals with the posed panache of an animated character.  I wonder if it would enhance her magic if we could arrange applause?

I paid particular attention to the new girl, and she did not disappoint.  Armed only with a staff, protected only by a thin wrap of synthetic animal hide, she charged into battle without hesitation.  When the wraith she had attacked burst, she appeared a little burnt, but persisted nonetheless.

Katrya did not, I am happy to say, attempt to lead the bulk of the torchwraiths away so that she could fight them on her own.  And her van...it seemed to anticipate the actions of others, even moving out of the way on occasion.  

When Ŝtelita arrived, I set it on a mixed battle protocol (top priority healing critical wounds, then attack enemies, then first aid for minor wounds).  I didn't want Parker driving it; I wanted her watching out for anything else coming our way.  There are plenty of public cameras, on top of the ones I own that she can peek out of if she's not wasting CPU cycles on anything else.

I do believe that we could have handled this battle without the extra drone, though.  Part of it is because I don't believe any novawraiths appeared -- it's hard to say for sure, because appearances can be tricky.  But a big part is that we have become a stronger, more cohesive team.  

I even had time, late in the battle, to try out a whimsical idea, setting up a bubble to try to contain the
burst of radiant energy when the last wraith was killed.  It didn't work, not completely, but I did notice that there was a slight delay, as if the explosion had to pop that bubble first before it could go on.  Maybe with a little more power behind it... I'll have to experiment.

There are some difficult times ahead.  But I'm beginning to think that we just might survive them.

..::Kai::..