Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Two: Second Day, Second Chances (Patreon)

Cameras flashed all across the O2, as the second day of the convention got under way.

Supreme and his colleagues had packed up things. I was secretly relieved; a repeat of yesterday wouldn’t have been on my agenda.

The awkward part, however, was that I kept getting asked to spar every fifteen minutes…

“I am flattered by your attention,” I gently told Zenethrawn, “but I must politely decline.”

The Algerian savant pouted. “But surely we could both learn something. I am, after all, a master of every known martial art.”

Somehow I doubted the Ten Thousand Fists would agree with that assessment. “And it would be an honour to meet you in a spar, but unfortunately, such an engagement is not possible with my current schedule. I can, however, recommend that you seek out Tsuyoiken - he is possibly a better training partner for one with your style of combat.”

“Perhaps I shall. Good day, Belessar.” Zenethrawn bowed and departed.

At least he would be someone else’s problem now….

“Belessar!” The flash of a camera nearly overloaded my optical sensors for a moment. “A quote for the Sun-Times!”

“No comment!”

“But we haven’t asked you the question yet!”

“No comment!” I executed a rapid tactical withdrawal.

I managed to lose the cameramen behind the Romanian pavilion, where several dancers in bear costumes had managed to attract a crowd.

One of the bears appeared particularly lifelike…

ARAGROWL

LEVEL 16

CLASS: SHIFTER

A ROMANIAN ULTRA WHOSE PRIMARY SKILL IS TO TURN INTO A VERY LARGE GRIZZLY BEAR. A QUALIFIED BALLET DANCER, ARAGROWL WISHES TO ELEVATE BEAR DANCING TO THE STATUS OF A PERFORMANCE ART.

… you meet new people every day.

“The great Belessar, I see,” called out a cheerful voice. “Running from mere mortals now?”

I sighed in relief. “Unity. They’re paparazzi.”

“Ah, well, can’t blame you. Paparazzos have been responsible for as many royal deaths as terrorists, after all.” Unity held up a mug of something that sloshed. “Care for a beer?”

“Thanks, but I can’t. I’m on peacekeeping duty.”

“Didn’t know peacekeeping involves beating up ultras. Where do I sign up?”

“Don’t ask. How’s the convention treating you?”

“Can’t complain. Bunch of people want to buy me drinks. Something to do with surviving multiple Carnotaurs.” She grinned. “I even got asked out by Quantosphere.”

“I’m happy for you?”

“And by Zorka Bousch. And Kalthor Coldstar. And Devilmade.”

“... Isn’t Devilmade a girl?”

“Didn’t stop her. I did have to explain that I don’t swing that way.” She quaffed the drink heartily. “Although I preferred the propositions from the Saudi prince and the Romanian aristocrat better.”

“They were more romantic?”

“They led with diamonds.”

“Never pegged you for someone who liked flashy things.”

“A girl can never have too many diamonds, you know.”

“Then you should go with Quantosphere. He can synthesise them in job lots.”

“Why, Belessar, I never knew you cared.” Unity smirked. “Thanks for the tip. Want to join me and Shamrock at the Irish pavilion?”

“Don’t you have a Romanian aristocrat somewhere here with diamonds?”

“Maybe I like self-made men. Do you know where Quantosphere is right now?”

“I think his pavillion's somewhere near the Irish one."

“Sounds like fun! Lead the way.”

“To the Irish pavilion?”

“The map’s a bit fuzzy.”

“... how many beers have you had?”

“Dunno, fourteen, fifteen? Did I mention folks are buying me beers?”

“... Irish pavilion it is.”

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“I’m pairing up with you in the next fight,” grinned Shamrock. “And Agni too.”

“You sure? We generally land where the fire is hottest.”

“Pish. You’ve got your armor, and Agni’s fireproof. Besides, I have the perfect delivery system for you!”

“Sure. Are you getting free beers?”

“How’d you guess? Turns out fighting Carnotaurs gets a lot of people to buy you drinks. Should do this more often.”

“Right. How many have you had?”

“It’s bad luck in Ireland to count your pints.”

“If you say so.”

A cough at the back sounded.

The Elder from the Temple of Ten Thousand Fists stood there with Tsuyoiken, who bowed respectfully.

“Honored Belessar,” the monk began, “we would appreciate your company for tea.”

“I would be honoured to accept,” I replied politely. “When and where?”

After scheduling tea at six, I left Unity and Shamrock to devour a few more barrels of beer and headed off to visit another ultra with a particularly unusual power.

Indradhanush was an elemental from Mumbai with the power to manifest rainbows. At first, he’d been labelled as a joke - until some experimentation had revealed that he could, in fact, generate electromagnetic waves of any frequency.

Including gamma rays.

And he could concentrate them, in the same way as a collimator concentrated a laser.

The only limitation, as he explained, was that he needed an energy source.

“I started with AA batteries, you know,” he commented, sipping his coke. “Gradually worked my way up to high-density power banks. Most of them discharge in a single shot, though, so I’m usually lugging around thirty kilos of spent plastic every fight.”

“I may be able to help with that. How powerful can you make the beam?”

“I can use the entire charge of any battery in one shot. No limitation on range, and I fire curved beams, so no need for line of sight either.”

“Theoretically, could you hit one of the Hierarchy spaceships?”

“Theoretically anything is possible. Practically I do need to have some way to aim, and those things move at a kilometre a second. What I can hit, however, is relatively stationary targets - like landed shuttles. Or shield generators before they’re set up.”

“I can get you the power and give you targeting coordinates.”

“Also I’m not hugely fond of getting up close and personal with the aliens.” Indradhanush pointed to his pudgy frame. “Like, if a Sarnak decides to chase me, I’m too fat to run away. Long range is my thing.”

“That’s fine. Ranger pays a lot less, though.”

“I’d rather be a living ranger than a dead frontliner, thanks. So what do you want me to do?”

“Nanocloud, Agni and I feel that it would be good to have a long-range strike element in our team. We’ve got close combat roles covered.”

Indradhanush fidgeted slightly. “Agni is sort of… scary.”

“You have nothing to worry about. She’s Indian like you, after all.”

“So are one point five billion other people, and plenty of them are pretty scary.”

“I’m not asking you to officially align with us. Just tell the Stratospheric Guard folks when you report to a briefing tent that you’d like to work with me. I’ll put in a request in parallel asking for you to get priority assignment.”

“That simple?”

“SURGE generally prefers to keep existing teams together, but they’ll assign unaligned ultras to whichever team needs the skill.”

“Okay. What can you give me in terms of energy output? I’m not going to be much use as a flashlight.”

“I use devices called Power Packs of varying sizes. Mostly, I’ll be giving you the small ones - you can drain them completely in a single shot.” I handed over four Small Power Packs. “Test these and see how easily you can handle them. If you’re comfortable, I’ll give you the Medium ones.”

“Is there a Large size as well?”

“It’s called Heavy. Depending on the target, we may go for that too.”

“How much damage will these actually do?”

“A lot more than a flashlight, I can assure you. Also, we’ll be carrying a truckload of these around, so you won’t need to worry about running out of ammunition.”

Indradhanush rolled his eyes. “Everybody says that - a truckload. You’ll run short, I’m telling you. It’s not like you’re carrying an actual truckload.”

“Actually, we are. Our combat supplies are hauled to the battlefield in a truck.”

Indradhanush frowned. “Wait. You mean like an actual truck? Six wheels, honks with a horn, everything?”

“Four wheels, but yes. We used a jeep for the battle of London, but we’re planning to upgrade.”

“You have an armored supertruck? Awesome?”

“It’s not armored. It’s just a normal truck.”

Indradhanush frowned. “But… won’t that make it, like, a sitting duck for enemy fire?”

“Which is why we keep it at least half a kilometre from the actual fighting. And generally under concealment somewhere.”

“I’ve never heard of an inventor doing that.”

“The military does it all the time. For each tank in front, there’s about forty trucks bringing it fuel, ammunition, food and other supplies. We just picked that concept and applied it to our ammo supply. And power supply. And spares.”

The Indian ultra scratched his head. “As long as I get my batteries, it doesn’t matter. Where would I be, normally?”

“Hopefully, close to the truck while we pin down the enemy target. Whether it’s a Carnotaur or something else.”

“Count me in.”

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The Elder and Tsuyoiken sipped at their tea gently. “Thank you for meeting with us,” the monk began.

“It is my honor,” I replied. “What can I do for you, respected Elder?”

“We desire to play a more active role in the struggle against the great enemy.”

“By ‘great enemy’ I presume you mean the Hierarchy?”

“They have been a plague upon our people for a generation. Creatures that consume, that offer no sustenance to the world, but take life for the foolish purpose of staving off the inevitable.” The Elder took a delicate sip. “The universe seeks harmony in all things, even in its eventual collapse into a supermassive black hole. Neither the Hierarchy nor these creatures they claim to fight, the Attractors, should seek to alter that harmony.”

“I understand your sentiments.”

“We of the Temple hoped for many years that the creatures would attain enlightenment. Unfortunately, the revelations bought at great cost by the British soldiers have shown otherwise. They have been offered enlightenment, and have rejected it.”

“If you do not mind my speaking plainly, Elder, it seems you understand a great deal more of the enemy than the general public?”

“Our temple is old, not senile. We have amongst our number those who can perceive the patterns of the path that all things follow.”

“You have precogs.”

“A few monks have attained such a level of enlightenment, yes. Unfortunately, for many years, the glimpses they had into the fabric of the future made little sense. Now, though, with what is known, the picture becomes clearer.”

“And is the Temple of Ten Thousand Fists willing to share more of these insights?”

The monk’s eyebrows crinkled with amusement. “It seems that we are not the only ones who see beyond the surface.”

“I would be direct with you, respected Elder, in the interests of time. Please forgive any discourtesy.”

“You may speak freely, honored Belessar.”

“Do you actually have ten thousand ultras?”

“Alas, no. We do have ten thousand adherents, counting both students and teachers. However, close to a hundred of them are blessed with … gifts.”

“Such as Tsuyoiken here?”

“Indeed, he is our most promising student. There is also Mizuno Gasukei, whose blessing calms the seas, and Haganenoken, who is second only to Tsuyoiken in the study of the fist; Katarusishu, who elicits the secrets of the heart; and a few others.”

“I congratulate you, respected Elder, on your promising students. How may I help them?”

“The Temple of the Ten Thousand Fists will send our most promising students to the next attack by the great enemy. I would ask of you that you guide them on their path to enlightenment.”

NEW QUEST ALERT: MENTOR, MENTOR.

THE TEMPLE OF THE TEN THOUSAND FISTS WILL SEND YOU A TEAM TO AID YOU IN YOUR NEXT ENCOUNTER. GUIDE EACH OF THE TEAM MEMBERS TO SUCCESSFULLY DEFEAT AT LEAST ONE ALIEN AND SURVIVE UNTIL THE END OF THE CONFLICT.

REWARDS: FOR EACH MEMBER THAT DEFEATS AN ENEMY AND SURVIVES THE BATTLE, +1 WISDOM OR +1 CHARISMA, +500 XP.

PENALTIES: FOR EACH MEMBER KILLED IN COMBAT, -1 CHARISMA.

IN THE EVENT THAT ALL MEMBERS SURVIVE, RELATIONSHIP INCREASE WITH TEMPLE OF THE TEN THOUSAND FISTS, NEW ALLIANCE POSSIBILITY UNLOCKED.

Another quest, but a worthwhile one, from the looks of it. Getting a chance to improve my attributes was quite rare.

Hopefully, the quest wouldn’t backfire…

As I walked away from the tea meeting, a familiar figure stepped into my path.

Dyzer wore his battlesuit, the dull green standing out against the otherwise colourful background.

“Belessar.” The inventor’s voice came out in a flat monotone, making it impossible to tell his age or origin - or gender. “I wondered if I might have a word.”

“Sure.”

“Are you forming a team?”

“Already part of one, actually, but we may be open to working with other members.”

The inventor nodded. “Then I would be keen to participate in your next battle. As an auxiliary.”

“I’m not familiar with the term?”

“I wouldn’t be attached to your team officially, but once you deploy I would be operating not too far from you. Offer mutual support, take on bigger targets together, et cetera. I believe you did something similar during the battle of London?”

“I would welcome that. Would it be possible to share some of your capabilities?”

The ultra shrugged. “I have a fairly standard battlesuit. Laser cannons, heavy armor plate, rapid reaction thrusters. Don’t suppose you’d be willing to trade some tech?”

“Let me see what I can do.” Truthfully, I couldn’t sell advanced tech to anyone without the British government’s approval, but there was no reason to be rude.

“Thank you.” Dyzer strode off into the darkening evening.

I made my way off the grounds quietly, managing to dodge a couple of cameramen. Day Two was finally over.

Tomorrow, however, would be more interesting.

Tomorrow was the day my colleagues would come to the Convention.