Travis Gardin
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Chapter 22: Left Or White
🕑 Added 2024-10-21 18:00:04 +0000 UTCWe have to wait a while for me to recharge after dropping to near-zero AP and KP. That suits everyone just fine.
Madeline approaches me. “The fuck was that?” She seems both annoyed and curious, an interesting combination of emotions.
“My 6th Step class, Astral Pathbreaker, gives me Star Swarm, a probably unique power. It burns through both Arcana Points and Ki Points really quickly so I don't like to use it unless I have to.”
“Yeah, got that part.” She shakes her head. “No, I mean the way you fought. That wasn't your normal style. You went... Aggro.”
I look up at the obelisk that is dedicated to our first president. He probably would have hated it. “It's part of me. That...” I trust her, she's a warrior. She might get it. “Fire and lightning. Not the elements. The feeling you get, when you're one with your purpose, the moment, your skill, your powers. When everything comes together, perfectly.”
“You're talking about flow state.” She sits down next to me on the grass. “Yeah, I've gotten that a few times.”
“Eh, this is something deeper. Not just being able to go into flow state. It's...” What do I say? It feels like truly living? It feels like what I am truly, deeply meant to do? “It's like everything that I was, everything that I am, all points to this one fight. Like every hour spent in combat training, every hour spent playing video games, every hour spent with RPGs, they all combine into one singular... Power.”
She nods. “Like your purpose is clear. I've felt that, but when I'm with my kids. Like all my FBI training and shitty childhood and bad relationships were all leading to me being a better mom.”
It's totally different, but I understand completely.
She sits with me for a while longer, not talking. We watch as Biscuits heals up the crew and Quins has to collect the loot because he got the fewest kills.
6/22
Washington D.C.
5:10 AM
From the regular stags we (Quins) collect some stone antlers (neat but useless), some DC themed commemorative pint glasses (neat but useless) and bags of peanuts (actually just useless).
From the boss, Theo-whatsit, we got lucky and got all of his possible loot. Peanuts (srsly why), several scrolls and an antlered helm.
Scroll Of Stone Bones. Activating this scroll turns your bones into stone, massively increasing their durability and increasing your Toughness by 40.
Helm Of The Stone Stag Lord. Wearing this helm makes you look like a badass warrior. So much so that your Strength is added to your Charisma for the purposes of determining your Ki Point regeneration speed and ability to intimidate.
I read the description to the team and say, “well Madeline gets that hat, no question.”
She takes off her Pathbreakers helmet and puts on the stone helmet. She closes her eyes for a minute, clearly going into her menus. The antlers shrink from about 3 feet tall to about 3 inches tall. Then more antlers grow and wrap around her face, leaving only her eyes exposed. It honestly looks fucking badass. Or maybe that's the intimidating effect kicking in. Either way she looks like a viking mixed with a football player. Except with a giant flame sword. It's a good look.
I move to the next items up for bid. “Next up we have three, count them, three scrolls that improve Toughness by 40 and make your bones stone. Who wants one?”
Everyone except me raises a hand. You either want Toughness because you're focusing on it, like Madeline and Mercy, or you've neglected it, like Jose, Quins and Rutger. I'm probably good with my stats, so I bow out. “It's a roll off!”
Mercy gets a 1. Jose gets a 3. Madeline gets 16, Quins gets 12 and Rutger 10.
Madeline, Quins and Rutger each read a scroll and the rest of us see them all just stand there for about 30 seconds before they each fall over, screaming. Apparently having bones turn to stone hurts like a mother fucker. The screaming goes on for several minutes. I try healing them, but it only lessens the pain a little bit.
“It was like my bones were on fire,” Rutger says, rubbing their knees.
“Like ant bites on the inside,” Madeline says with a haunted look in her eyes.
Quins, who also screamed loudly, says, “reminds me of the beatings I got from this bloke named Anthony. Kid used to give a really good THWACK. I was littler than him and he kept calling me tiny. Rather rude he was.”
That handled, I address our next concern. “White House or Capitol Building?” We can go in either direction. I suppose we'll want to take both paths eventually.
Madeline and Jose speak at the same time, saying opposite things.
“White House.”
“Capitol Building.” Jose, with more syllables to say, finishes second.
I turn to Madeline. “Why White House?”
She looks towards the building in the distance, partially blocked by trees. “I think it's the 20th floor. Seat of power for the whole dang country. Plus, my boyfriend just made us watch the first two seasons of The West Wing.”
Boyfriend? She has a boyfriend?
Jose disagrees, saying, “we're literally in the Capitol Building. It's going to be the Capitol Building.”
This is the first time I'm hearing anything about a boyfriend. I wonder what type of guy he is. Hipster? No way. Fellow FBI agent? Maybe, but wouldn't work get in the way?
Quins puts in a vote. “I quite liked Olympus Has Fallen. Bloody good time, that was. So let's go recreate a scene or two, eh? I can blow up the front door.”
Really, how does she even find the time? She's got kids, too. Between them and the Pathbreakers I can't imagine she's had time to date in the last two months.
“Let's avoid the obvious trap.” Rutger puts a wet blanket on the White House plan.
I mean, if I wasn't fighting side by side with Mercy, I wouldn't have time to date. Traveling together and fighting together is honestly great. But if she wasn't here? I dunno, if I felt like I do now, I'm not sure I'd want to keep doing this. I'd rather have a normal job that lets me see her frequently.
“Mercy?” Madeline asks, obviously pressuring her work out buddy.
Maybe I should arrange for her to have some time off. Phoenix Team definitely deserves it. Madeline deserves it.
Mercy looks thoughtful, then glares at me. “I think... Jun, have you been paying attention?”
“Of course,” I say. “Madeline's boyfriend loves Olympics Has Fallen and Rutger is a trap.”
Wait. Shit. I grimace. “That's 100% wrong, isn't it? Sorry I was...” Quick! Sub-minds! Think of something reasonable to have been thinking about! “Allocating levels. I'm maxed out at 10 again.” Nice save, sub-minds.
Oh. I am actually maxed out on levels. I really should allocate some.
So I could take Weapon Master or Monk to level 10. Both are currently at level 5. Both would get me useful techniques. Buuuut, they don't lead to the same 5th step class. Weapon Master, when combined with Warden, unlocks Landsknecht, a speedy striker. Monk, when combined with Crack Shot, opens up Stylist, which groups your techniques into stances to increase their power but reduces flexibility.
Being able to jet around the battlefield even faster as a Landschneckt seems like a winner, but I still gotta go Monk. My subclass there, Supportive Ki, should get me some more healing, recovery and support techniques. And with no dedicated healer right now, I've got to be able to step into that role.
I put five levels into Monk and get 10 Strength, 10 Agility, 15 Ki Points and 40 free points. Thinking that being faster on my feet sounds ideal, I drop my accumulated free points (104) into Agility, bringing it to a mighty 239.
I get the techniques Lingering Healing Palm, Slow Regen, Zero Inch Punch, Regen, Accelerated Healing Palm, Durable Cloth, Thunderous Clap, Vitality Palm Strike, Unarmed Flurry and Air Punch
The two Regen techniques are passive regeneration effects, which aren't impressive yet, but they stack on each other. I'm sure they'll get a lot of use between fights and they should gain proficiency quickly.
Lingering Healing Palm, Accelerated Healing Palm and Vitality Palm Strike all add to my healing repertoire. Vitality Palm Strike looks like the big heal I've been hoping for, leveraging my Strength into a healing punch. It also hurts the undead, so that's cool. But it costs 30 KP, which makes it not something I can use a lot.
Zero Inch Punch, Thunderous Clap, Unarmed Flurry and Air Punch give me better or more versatile unarmed (or Atmos storm fist) attacks.
Durable Cloth... Makes my clothes more difficult to damage. Uh, okay?
“White House first,” I say, having processed my levels. “I think Jose is right, that the Capitol Building is floor 20, but I want to clear everything this place has to offer.”
I get nods, eye rolls and shrugs.
After I heal everyone and I recover my KP, we strike out for the White House. Compared to the Capitol Building and the various monuments, it's not actually that large. I think my Get! store had a bigger footprint.
Out front, outside the White House fence, are several demons holding up signs. The signs say things like “don't give peace a chance” and “yes blood for oil” and “legalize kitten consumption.” The demons themselves look humanoid, except that instead of a head they have one giant mouth where their neck should be. The grey, metallic teeth are about three inches long, and collapse together over the neck mouth. Their fingers end in six inch long metal talons. Their skin is a clay-like red/brown. Oh, and they're all wearing overalls. The kind made of blue jeans. Cool, cool, cool.
Protest Demon. Tier 3. Aggressive. Clawed and fanged. Has sonic scream attacks. Also, they are total hypocrites. They are totally the “not in my backyard” type. They want other people to sacrifice, but not themselves. Total dicks, these guys. Also, they will try to eat your kitten, just a heads up.
Possible loot: Overalls, kitten bones, pamphlets about conspiracy theories.
The demons see us. They charge. We obliterate them. The loot is literally garbage.
Quins fires two arrows. The first blows a hole in the gate for us to enter through. The second blows the front doors of the White House off their hinges.
I look at him. He smirks and says, “if you can, boss, drive a knife into someone's eye for me, yeah?” He's still on Olympus Has Fallen.
I give him a smirk in return. That movie is pretty awesome.
