Here we go, everyone! Hope you enjoy :)

-Plum

42 – San Xavier

“I’ll need to scout alone.” He looked at Lucy’s frown and hurried to explain. “Before I can open a passage, I mean. I can’t picture a location in that part of the city well enough to cast the spell cold.”

“Seriously?” Lucy clenched her fist in frustration. “I had a friend who lived in an apartment off Valencia! I can picture it perfectly! I wish I could implant the information into your brain.”

“Yeah, I know. Frustrating.” Andy shrugged, but then he shook his head and started walking. “Anyway, people could be in trouble right now. We just got the message, which means their settlement might have fallen minutes ago. I should get going.”

“Well, you can get closer than this before you start flying!” Lucy said, following him as he hurried out of the underground.

“Yeah, true. Even if I took us to that restaurant near the university, it would cut out a big piece of the journey. I should bring you—and someone who can heal. Come on! Let’s go get Bea.”

As it turned out, Andy’s party grew to five people before he opened his passage. He and Lucy found Bea in the Waterhouse, as they’d hoped, but along the way, they ran into Jace and Frank Dunlap, who’d been chatting over coffee when the System’s message came through. The two men had immediately had the same idea as Andy and Lucy, namely that there might be people who needed help.

Andy was agitated about the whole thing; it was almost like he could feel the panic of the people trying to get away from whatever enemies had captured their settlement. He felt the need to hurry, so each new person seemed like a speed bump. He tried to contain his irritation as Bea insisted on enlisting a pair of her teenaged helpers to run through the settlement to let others know they were leaving.

When that was done, though, he didn’t waste any time scrawling the Greater Axiom of Passage, opening a shadowy, blurry tunnel into nothingness—one that would deliver him and the others to the overgrown restaurant near the university.

He went through first, and once he’d confirmed that only mice and a nest of cactus wrens were there to greet them, he sat down and hastily selected his Brimstone Stalker class. Before confirming he wanted to change classes, he looked at Lucy and said, “I’m about to pass out for ten minutes or so.”

She nodded. “I get it.”

He started the process and, after he opened his eyes again, he wasn’t surprised to see everyone had moved. Jace and Frank were standing in the doorway—open to the overgrown courtyard. Bea was sitting cross-legged on the floor nearby with a bunch of playing cards arrayed on the ground before her. Lucy sat in one of the chairs Omar had cleared off the last time they’d stayed in the restaurant, watching him.

“Hey,” he said, clambering to his feet.

Lucy stood. “That seemed quicker than before.” Andy nodded, starting for the exit. Lucy followed, grabbing his sleeve. “Just find a good spot! Don’t go trying to conquer whatever it is!”

Bea snorted softly at Lucy’s words, but Andy shook his head. “I’ll be careful. I want to try to confirm our theory—get eyes on somebody or something before I try to hide and change my class again.”

“Why change your class?” Jace asked, staring hard at Andy, his black eyes like pools of mystery.

“So I can open a passage here.”

“Oh, yeah.” Jace shrugged. “I was thinking you’d fly back and then open a passage there.”

Andy shook his head. “Nah, it’ll be faster if I just fly one way.”

“Makes sense,” Bea muttered, still focused on her cards. Andy watched her hesitantly place one of the ones in her hand, adding it to one of the rows.

Andy raised an eyebrow. “Solitaire?”

She nodded. “Nobody wanted to play.”

“Anyway, I gotta hurry.” Andy brushed past Jace, a little irritated that he and Frank were blocking the way.

Lucy followed him, and this time the grizzled old vet got the hint and moved to the side, folding his arms as he watched Andy. “Damn handy spell—that magic tunnel thingy.”

“Yeah,” Andy agreed, looking around the courtyard before gathering his mana and preparing to cast Flight of the Cinder Hawk.

“Whoa!” Frank said, stepping back. “I felt that.”

Andy looked at him. “Your Perception pretty high?”

“Yeah—eight.”

“Nice.”

“Same,” Lucy said, standing on her toes as she tilted her face toward Andy’s. He bent to kiss her quickly, and she added, “Just don’t leave us guessing—come back one way or the other.”

“Promise,” he said, and he didn’t feel stressed or guilty about the pledge. He really didn’t plan to get himself mixed up with anything he couldn’t get away from. “Lyta said the bugs can fly, but not well. There’s no way they’ll catch me. I won’t pick any fights I can’t win or escape.”

“Try not to pick any,” Jace grumbled. “Save some fun for us.”

“Right.” Andy took a step back from Lucy. “Here goes.” With that, he let his mana loose, populating the spell, and smoke and shadow poured out of him, encasing him in a swirling cloud.

When the smoke faded, he stood transformed—a great gray-black raptor with a curved black beak and hard, ebon talons. He lifted his face to the sky, shrieked his enthusiasm, and launched himself into the air. He turned back, watching Lucy stumble away from the dirt he’d kicked up, and then he called out, “Bye!” Two more pumps of his massive wings, and he was soaring skyward, already speeding for the southern edge of the city.

He knew he could fly for ten minutes without having to worry much about fully draining his mana. He also knew that he was a damn fast flyer, and he didn’t think he’d have any trouble reaching the southern edge of the city—and beyond—in that amount of time. A flock of small, flying monsters—weird things that looked half-serpent and half-owl—erupted from a burned office building as he soared overhead, trying to give chase, but Andy left them behind.

His wingspan was enormous, and his flight was clearly aided by magic; just the mere fact that he could fly with a human’s instincts proved that much. The thought of flying monsters gave him a nervous twinge, though, and he glanced over his right wing, toward the tall buildings downtown. Maybe it was his improved Perception, or maybe his Cinder Hawk form had excellent vision, but he could just make out the glittering green scales of an enormous reptilian tail hanging off the burned tower’s roof.

Was it a different monster, or was the giant flying thing he’d seen a reptile? “A dragon?” he whispered, wondering aloud. He didn’t think so, though; he’d swear he’d seen giant, feathered wings and a great beak. Maybe a different monster had moved in, chasing the monstrous bird away, or maybe there was more to it than he’d seen. It had been a long way off, and the sun had been in Andy’s eyes, after all.

It was interesting to him that the undead and whatever was atop that tower were coexisting. Maybe it was a case of the undead not wanting to mess with it, and the giant monster not wanting to eat already rotten flesh. Andy turned his attention back to his flight, and as the buildings slipped by beneath him, he focused on the black ribbon of highway that led south of the city—Interstate 19.

He pumped his wings, soaring higher, so much so that the wrecked and rotted out cars below were smaller than matchbox toys. A glance at his status sheet showed he still had over eight hundred mana, so he wasn’t worried about having to descend anytime soon. He wanted to be high to avoid any flying insect invaders. Setting his gaze on the hump of the lone green hill that sat on the eastern side of the interstate, Andy scanned its slopes and the surrounding ground.

It wasn’t hard to see the evidence of the invaders’ presence. Huge mounds of freshly turned dirt rose from the desert near the hill. They looked like giant anthills. He saw things moving, and as he drew closer, he picked out their individual shapes—something like a cross between a praying mantis and a centipede.

They had upright torsos that were almost humanoid, covered in green carapaces, and with two long, pincer-tipped arms. Their heads featured big multifaceted eyes and mandibles that looked like they’d snap through a person’s arm pretty easily. Their torsos were human-sized, but the long, many-legged lower portions of the insects were easily ten or twelve feet long.

They scurried around the slopes of their mounds, and Andy saw a long line of them leading away to the west and south, around the big hill, and down the interstate. They carried all manner of things into the mounds—metal objects, hunks of dead flesh, and even plants. As he flew past, soaring over the hill, more movement caught his eye, and he saw a handful of similar insects launch off the hill into the air, their wings buzzing like airplane propellers.

The flying insects only climbed about fifty feet into the air, trying to chase him, though. As they fell behind, they soon gave up, fluttering to the ground near the highway. They were a bit larger than the other insects, and their wings, when folded, gave their long lower section a bulkier, armored appearance; otherwise, they were the same.

Andy was down to five hundred mana by the time he saw the trail of insects leading off the interstate to the west, and that was when he saw the mission—San Xavier was an old Catholic church from a long time ago; that was the extent of Andy’s knowledge on the subject. It was big and covered in white stucco, with some ornate carving around its towers and front portico. At the moment, though, it was swarming with the giant green insects—at least fifty, but probably a hundred or more.

It wasn’t just that the insects had discovered the mission and were exploring, though. There was a lot more going on than that—smoke rose into the air here and there, and when Andy peered toward the source, he saw burning green corpses. Even as he circled, banking to the western side of the building, he saw a ball of fire streak out of one of the upper windows. Someone was inside, trying to fight off the insect invaders.

Andy wanted to help, but his mana was low, so he dove for the fields behind the old church. As he set down in a cloud of smoke and dust, he jogged toward a stand of young palo verdes, already canceling his Flight of the Cinder Hawk spell. He was down to just three hundred mana, and he had just a few options: try to help the defenders with what he had, wait for some mana and then try to help, or wait for some mana and open a passage into the city—back to his friends.

The third option seemed smart until he remembered he’d have to change his class. Lying defenseless in a field surrounded by giant, hostile insects didn’t seem so clever. It occurred to him that there was another option; he could get inside the mission and see who was in there. Maybe once he was inside, it would be safer to change his class.

He crouched there for two or three minutes, accumulating some precious mana points and surveying the battlefield. Most of the insects were on the other side of the building. There were a few of the winged ones that seemed to be on a perimeter patrol, flitting by sporadically. None of them even glanced his way, though. It made him wonder if he was dealing with individuals with diverse talents or if this was another situation like the Gavax Collective, and he’d be up against drones of one type or another.

Out of patience, feeling the urgency of his rescue mission, Andy stood, summoned Scirocco from his storage ring, and then cast Deepsmoke Shroud. Clouded in the warm embrace of the magical smoke, he darted forward, charging over the open field and a well-overgrown dirt road to the back of the mission. The building was expansive, with several outbuildings and what looked like multiple wings, but from the rear, he saw a grand arched opening leading to an interior courtyard-like area that seemed to adjoin the main church building.

There were insects there, some of the winged ones up on the roof and walls, and a few of the other kind hammering and clawing against the adobe walls and the heavy wooden doors. The insects used their jagged, clawed arms to hack at the wood, and Andy could see it splintering. He also heard the muffled yells of people—defenders.

His mind made up before he even knew he was contemplating a decision, Andy counted the insects in that courtyard—fifteen. He circled around them, putting the high white-stucco wall of the mission in front of him. Most of the insects were there, attacking the doors that led into the main building. Andy continued to circle the courtyard, trying to angle himself so that his left shoulder was against that white wall.

Thus oriented, he faced the buzzing, clacking, hissing insects, putting the far wall and arched exit at the center of his point of view, and inhaled deeply. Before he lost his nerve or thought better of the strategy, he poured three hundred mana—almost all he had—into Hellfire Miasma and exhaled.