The Daily Grind - Chapter 388 (Patreon)

“When push it comes to shove we do not fall out of love.  We double down.  We do not fade.”  -Metric, All Comes Crashing-

_____

The trip back from where they’d dropped off their captives was… strange.

On the one hand, James felt like it was sort of neat that he saw at least a couple pieces of dungeon life through his window.  A sign that reality was getting weirder, but at the same time, that the world hadn’t just exploded because there were a few strange little guys roaming around.  On the other hand, seeing a sleeping flock of drill beaked winged goats hanging around on a children’s jungle gym in the middle of a park, stirring only slightly as the van rolled past, did not fill him with calm.  He’d been informed, told that things were getting chaotic, but there was a difference between hearing that the suburbs were full of weird stuff, and seeing it firsthand.

Really driving home the point about the world continuing to turn, they weren’t the only car on the road.  And granted, Alex had winced as they’d pulled up next to a cop at a red light and her earring charges for deflecting hostile attention siphoned away like water down a drain.  But there were still people here.  Going to work, running errands, visiting friends, getting McDonalds, whatever it was that required a few thousand cars in motion across the city at any time.

In the distance, something was on fire.  Not that distant.  And it wasn’t the clinic they’d left behind, either.  This was a completely novel pillar of smoke rising up into the overcast sky, the fading light of the day mostly masking the flickering orange of reflected flames.  Sirens howled, audible through the van’s windows and over the sound of rolling tires.  The fire department, at least in part, was still in operation.

Were they magic?  James wondered.  What could a firefighter do with any of the spells the Order had access to.  Climb magic didn’t negate enough heat to really suppress a fire, but Tenebrous Camp could save a million people from smoke inhalation.  They didn’t have any kind of water cannon spell, but they did have wood resistance programs that might let someone shrug through collapsing buildings easier.  And how many purple orbs would it take to make a dedicated firefighter that could run into a structure fire without fear?

If any of the locals used magic like that, James hadn’t seen it.  The entire situation in Saskatoon was a civil rights tar pit, but he had to admit, Drak’s horrible stalling tactic of giving first responders and park employees access to random spells was somehow more than anyone here had done.

He had all these thoughts while Alex kept using her skulljack connection to jump to the next song on her playlist that was coming through the van’s speakers.  Ten seconds to each song before she decided it wasn’t for her right now, and then the next one.  James wasn’t sure if he was interested to see where this was going, or about to go mad.

He did get to learn that Alex had a lot of hip hop and rap in about eighteen different languages on her phone, only about two of which he even recognized.  So that was neat.  But he was having a hard time keeping his thoughts calm and steady as he leaned his elbow on the window by his head and felt his Endurance stop pushing him upward.

In an effort to distract Alex before the next ten second skip, James waited until she hit on a song that had fairly soft lyrics, and then spoke up.  “So.  Vulture, huh?”

”I don’t wanna talk about it!”  Alex said, flushing red as she took a hand off the wheel to cover her face and block out James without taking her eyes off the road.  “It sounds like a C-tier Batman villain and it’s humiliating.”  She continued, talking about it anyway.

”Spiderman.”

”What?”

”The Vulture was a Spidey villain, not a… you don’t need to know this.”  James chuckled.  “I’m just kind of stunned that you got a moniker.  What have you guys been doing down here, anyway?”

Alex winced, taking her time before answering, letting the freeway eat up distance beneath them.  “Well.”  She said with a shrug and a sigh, killing most of the volume on the radio.  “We’ve been getting in fights, man.”

”I feel like it’s a very real possibility that the reports we’ve been getting at the Lair are not the same reports you’ve been sending.”  James said with what tried to be a lighthearted laugh.  “Like, you say ‘fights’.  Fights like today?  Fights like… like what Alex?”  James felt his hands starting to tremble.  The crash after a life or death situation finally catching up, though it was a strange realization to him that it wasn’t that bad.  He really was kind of used to this by now.

The answer Alex gave came with its own personal sigh.  “Hey.  So.  You know how when you and Alanna went to kick Canada’s ass, you guys spent a week with a shield team tracking down every single thread in the web so that no one got missed?”  She asked.

”Yeah, I hated that process.”  James said bluntly.  “But… well, we learned why we needed it from what happened here, right?  Why do you ask?”

“The web here was already fucked.  And we fucked it up more.  I would blame Simon, but I actually for realsies believe that his tactic of shooting super evil people in the head is a sound one, and we’re pretty sure he atrophied an entire faction before they really got started.  Knock on effects, etc, etc.” Alex waved her hand over the center console as she changed lanes to try to sneak past a semi truck.  “So we’re… I don’t know, we’re struggling?”

James nodded slowly.  “The whole point of the initial treaty thing was to get the abuse victims out.”  He worked through the process out loud.  “The whole reason Simon came down here was because we found out they were holding back.  So the Mormons we had an arrangement with spent the last, what, year?  Last year or so covering up their crimes and shuffling around the kids they’re abusing so we can’t find them.  Is that it?”

”Yeah man.”  Alex said the words like they were a bitter poison.  “And I’m not saying… I’m not saying we just start shooting people to punish them or something, I’m not an idiot, I’ve got the paladin vibe down.  But yeah, a lot of what we’re doing is identifying targets that have a handful of prisoners or slaves or brainwashed kids or whatever, and then just…” she shrugged.

”Rolling over them like some kind of bird-based vigilante?”  James couldn’t help himself.

”I hate yooooou.”  Alex groaned, before they lapsed into silence.

James kept staring out the window as they rolled past houses and businesses and a dealership parking lot where he caught a flash of a scene that looked like someone had gotten in a large scale gunfight and no one had ever cleaned it up.  “This city isn’t in a good place.”  He muttered.

”No kidding.”  Alex’s laugh was sudden and startled.  “I’m not gonna be cliche and call it a powder keg or something, but it feels like everyone’s waiting for something big to happen.”  She continued.  “And… man I don’t think anything is.”

”Is what?”

”Gonna happen.”  Alex answered, glancing out her window as she noticed James shifting in his own seat.  “I think it’s just going to be us, picking fights, until these assholes get too good at hiding, or they all give up.  Or decide there’s enough of them that I won’t get them all.”

”You even monologue like a Vulture.”  James told her with a cheeky smile.

”Fuck offfffff.”  Alex groaned.  “I’m just saying what you’re thinking!”

“Honestly?”  James sighed.  “I’m thinking a lot of places feel like this.  Even the whole thing with the Tyrannies, which should be stable, kinda makes me feel like something’s about to happen.  And I can’t shake that feeling for anything.  The US, the Underburbs, the pillars, the next… anything.”  He took a deep breath, smelling the ancient infusion of cigarette smoke that had long since leeched into the seats of the trade van.  “This is easy.  I know you guys think this is a chaotic mess, but… ‘pick a target and hit them’ had a kind of directness to it that I appreciate.  Even if I know it’s not solving the root problem.  It matters to someone.”

Alex nodded, clicking her tongue as she checked the rearview mirror again.  “Hey, on that.”  She said apprehensively.

”Oooh, free anxiety!”

”Shut up.  So, the Tyrants.”  Alex barreled through James’ attempt at a joke.  “Either their powers aren’t as limited as we think, or a lot of people are being assholes.”

James cocked an eyebrow.  “Explain.”  He drawled out.

”Half of why we haven’t broken into their palace and started taking them out seems like… because no one gives a shit that the British got conquered again?  But that’s a wild thing to say!  The UK is a democracy!  Maybe not a very good one, but like… man you know the royal family wasn’t in charge of anything, right?  They were a symbol of an age that was mostly over.  So it’s insane that these guys took a lot of power stabbing the king, and not the prime minister!”

”That… that is weird, actually.”  James said.  “Okay, counterpoint.  A lot of us are joking about the whole conquering thing.  But it’s a shitty joke, and I see your point.  But I didn’t even think about the prime minister thing… hang on.”  His words gained steam as Alex kept maneuvering them through traffic.  “We know that they still have the same PM!  And parliament is still… parliamenting!  I’m even more confused now that I think about this; do you think they Tyrannies are going to hold elections?”

”For the position of Tyrant?”

”For the position of prime minister!”  James paused and dialed back his amused indignation.  “Or any government position I guess!”  He added.

”Oh that makes more sense.”  Alex’s eyebrows went back down.  “I don’t know.  I know JP’s doing… something.  Whatever weasel things that guy does.”  She passed over James’ attempt at a protest in defense of his friend.  “But maybe you can ask him when you head back.”

”Why do you think I’ll be heading back?”  James asked.

She stabbed a finger his direction.  ”You said it.  The Order isn’t hearing from us correctly.  You thought stuff was more fine than it really is, and we… well it’s not that we need help, but we need to be able to react.  So someone has to go back.  And we’re supposed to be able to split up anyway.  I figure it’s you and Spire.”

”Having fun raiding Mormons?”  He asked with deliberate neutrality.

”I’m having a lot of emotions raiding Mormons.”  Alex said with a hiss through her teeth.  “But Spire’s taking Simon’s place in Saskatoon, and you… whatever you do.”

”Thanks.”

”No, I mean…” Alex rolled her eyes.  “I don’t know what I mean.  I’m tired.”  Her gaze flicked back to the rearview mirror as she changed lanes again.  “Also we’re being followed.”

”I noticed.”  James swung his feet up over the center console, pulling himself deftly into the back of the van where twenty minutes ago, a man had been telling him with a manically pleading voice that he ‘couldn’t do this to them’ before the captives had been shoved out into a world beyond the memeplex’s borders.  “Well, I’ve got a lot of Velocity back.  I can go with my favorite car chase plan of Paving the drivers in the head repeatedly, what do you think?”

Alex made an uncertain noise in her throat.  “I think I can lose ‘em.  Do you have any demiplane slips nearby?”

”I do, but they don’t fit a car, and I’m saving them because I think I’m gonna need to use my bonus doors to get back home through the interdiction web.”  James said, tacitly acknowledging that Alex was right that he was going to be leaving them here.  “You?”

”Yeah, it’s just a detour.”  Alex said with a voice like she was resigned to doing something stupid.

James turned his head from where he was kneeling by the van’s back doors after having retrieved his rifle, looking up toward the driver’s seat with a puzzled furl on his brow.  “Am I gonna hate this?”  He asked, before deciding to clarify.  “Am I gonna survive this?”

”I know for a fact you’ve survived worse.”  Alex told him with her own cheeky grin.  “Now hang on tight, we’ve got about half a mile!”

”Oh I hate how that sounds!”  James lied with a laugh.  He actually thought this sounded like something absurd and wonderful and he felt a surge of strength in his chest as his own enthusiasm and need for the situation collided with and catalyzed his various orbs and Lessons and other random upgrades.

Twenty seconds later, he loved it slightly less when Alex angled the car off the road, caught way too much air in a van that was not designed for flight, and nearly got one of them killed slamming through a chain link fence before the van screeched to a halt inches away from drifting forever into nothingness on the edge of her demiplane’s landing platform.

James felt a little like he’d been shoved in a tumble dryer, but, he couldn’t deny results.

They sure weren’t being followed anymore.

_____

By the time they got back to the shuttered library, going through the process of taking a random route, parking somewhere else, and then teleporting to the library anyway just to break as many possible tails as possible, it was late evening.

A lot of that time had been spent waiting in Alex’s demiplane.  A demiplane that James was kind of jealous of.  She had a whole rough stone tower speared through her space, which was cool enough already, but the pitcher of water perched on a windowsill that removed foreign material from the body of anyone who drank it was even better.

Alex said it worked great on gunshot wounds, but only the really bad ones where the bullet didn’t penetrate fully.  A sentence James found horrifying, and clearly he didn’t know enough of what Alex was getting up to down here.  Apparently the water also healed the exit of the objects, which made him wonder if it healed the wound that had put them there too, and also what it would do to a pacemaker or something.  Alex had almost no answers, because it refilled from an incredibly slow and steady drip from the stones overhead in the arched tower window.

The rest of her demiplane had other fun stuff in it.  A two foot square garden plot that grew vegetables exclusively and effectively.  A horrifying and detailed smooth plastic mannequin that Alex could swap clothing with at any time.  A lawn.  All things that James never got.

”...I’m just saying,” he complained as the two of them walked out of the library’s reading room that they’d warped into, “I got a pile of gravel and a… mystery snowball?  You got actual cool stuff.  Yours is insanely better than mine.”

”The snowball of heat resistance?”  Alex asked him as the two of them zeroed in on the sound of voices and headed downstairs.  “Why are you complaining about that?  What don’t I know?”

”…what don’t I know?”  James demanded.  “Actually that tracks with how being fireballed earlier didn’t hurt, but I did not notice that yet!”  He kind of abstractly knew that people were doing research on demiplane stuff, and that there were common things that showed up frequently with only minor changes, but he had apparently experienced some hubris in assuming that his demiplane wouldn’t have anything on that list.  He’d check later.

Interrupting those thoughts came a younger human voice.  “Oh good you’re alive.”  Morgan’s face popped over the bannister overhead as James descended the stairs.  There was one of those new Garden kids with bodies of overlapping clay plates clinging to his shoulders and likewise staring down at James.  “Hey!  Arrush!”  Morgan called back over his shoulder, loud voice feeling out of place in what was still a library even if it was closed down.

James just smiled and kept descending the steps, aiming to meet up with the other paladins to cover what had gone down in a quick debrief.

It really was quick too, compared to the whole process of getting back here.  The fight itself had gone as smoothly as possible, even if there were some relatively light injuries.  The prisoners they’d rescued were currently being tended to by Liette along with the people from Recovery that were down here on a temporary full time basis to help.  And the loot was being examined, spellbooks tested while coins were packaged up for return to the Lair for copying later.

The biggest issue they had was that none of them knew how the trap had been set.  “The idea that someone is frustrated enough at Simon and Alex to attempt to murder them is not novel.”  Spire said as she tried to get comfortable on the hard carpet floor.  Three years ago, it wouldn’t have even occurred to her to be bothered by the texture.  It was impressive how the presence of something as simple as beanbags and basket chairs in the Lair where she lived could have changed her opinion on comfort so much.  “Less so for myself, I have only been here briefly.  But the how seems simple enough.”

”Yeah, it actually makes me wonder how many of their equipping stations are currently… well, like that.  Full of armed guards and slave soldiers.”  James made a frustrated loop of his hand in the air.  “Actually, I have a quick question.”

”Yeah, shoot.”  Alex nodded his way.

”Why there?  I didn’t really have time to ask this.  But, like, the first time around, it wasn’t empty businesses or whatever, it was their religious buildings.  Stakehouses, temples, that kind of thing.  You don’t need specialized medical equipment, really.  You just need a bed or comfortable chair, an IV, a catheter, and those Clockwork Orange eyeball toothpick thingies.”

Spire-Cast-Behind hissed morosely.  “I need a comfortable chair.”  She said distantly, glaring at the floor.

“Not really an answer.”  James muttered, the day’s events making him more on edge than normal.

Simon came to his rescue.  “They used those places for kids, mostly.”  He told James.  “Because it makes monitoring their time easier, and the adults wanted precise information on who had what spells.”

”Ah, right, I remember there were actually spellbooks hidden in this very building, actually.”  James tipped his head up to look at the shelves.  “Did we find their underground library, by the way?”

Simon shook his head once.  ”No.  Anyway, other places, like that clinic, it’s not that they have medical tools, it’s that they’re empty and private.  They can put all the things you said anywhere.  The point is, they’re safehouses for the adults that have more… freedom is the wrong word, but who aren’t as closely watched.”

”Ah.”  James grimaced.  “So, with their whole group splintering into factions, where’s that leave the different established mundane religious buildings?”

”Oh!  Fucked!”  Alex said with way too much energy as she shifted to lean on the information desk that had lost its computer but gained a flat cardboard pallet of water bottles for people to take.  “Not that a lot of people are going to church anyway, with how things are.  I mean, some people do.  But… hey, think about how scary it would be if the Order got in a fight.  Like, with each other.  If you didn’t know who was on what side.  It’s that.”

James nodded grimly.  “A quiet civil war.” He phrased it, pushing his distress aside and putting on a smile as Arrush padded down the stairs to join them.  “Hey.”  He softly greeted his boyfriend, getting a relieved smile from Arrush and a wave from Zhu before he looked back at the other paladins.  “So what now?”

”Now?”  Simon shrugged.  “Simple.  It doesn’t change anything.  Now we let everyone keep testing the new spellbooks, we make sure the new crocamaws know we aren’t going to hurt them, we keep the investigation going, and we find the next target.”

He said it so mechanically, James felt like he’d just missed a step going up a staircase.  Like he was waiting for the rest of the sentence.  But then he saw Alex and Spire nodding along, and he cleared his throat to ask a question.  “I have a concern.”  He voiced into the library’s livelier than normal air.

”Mark’s doing the spellbook testing, don’t worry.”  Simon told him, completely missing what James was worried about.

”I… what?  Why does that help?”  James let himself be perplexed for a brief tangent.

Spire answered, still shifting her body around the floor by the front desks as if she could somehow magically force it to stop feeling so coarse.  “Umbral don’t feel the same pain the rest of us do from overleveled spells.”  She filled James in.  “Mark has been our tester since I have been here, because of it.”  She gave a brief flick of her forked tongue over the cables of her mouth.  “You may be interested in the spell that makes conversation audible.”  Spire told James.

”I would, yes.  Though I also have about eight billion questions regarding that.”  James leaned into the ratroach that had come over to press against him in quiet support.  “But no, my question is, how do we resolve this?”

”We can’t.”  Simon said with blunt anger, fingers tightening on his own wrist as he stood off to the side of the group.  When James gave him a pained look, he just shrugged back.  “We can’t!”  He repeated heatedly.  “These assholes are dragging in people from out of town, they’re recruiting, this is spilling out way too fast.  They’re done listening to us or following our agreement, any of them.  They’re using at least one of the mind altering spells as part of their loyalty rituals, they’re making their kids use it, they’re weaponizing dungeon life, and, again, they’re assholes.”  Simon continued, speaking with that same even voice he always used, like he was reading off a grocery list.  “We don’t have a way to stop what’s going on.  We don’t have the numbers.  There’s at least two thousand people in the bring on the cleansing fire faction alone.  So we’re doing what we can.”  He closed his eyes and turned his head away.

Alex put it another, much more disturbing way.  “It’s like Oklahoma.”  She said, itching at something on her shoulder.  “Except with fanatics instead of rabbits.”

“I don’t think it’s like that.”  Arrush said quietly, looking down at the top of James’ head.  “Because it would be wrong to try to fix things by culling.”

James exhaled into his boyfriend’s shirt, feeling a sense of comfort that he hadn’t known he was missing as Zhu’s feathers sloughed off Arrush in a cascade of dusty orange light and reformed on James’ neck and shoulder, the navigator settling in and then promptly closing his eyes like he was pretending to nap.  “Alex, don’t.”  He extended a single raised index finger to stop his paladin from saying something shitty.

A sort of muffled quiet took over the group as they folded arms and stared at their feet, or in Spire’s case, figured out what she was doing with her tail.  A few of the Recovery people sitting at a table on the other side of the stairs discussed daily food plans just inside James’ range of hearing. Mark lingered in the windowed meeting room off to the side, currently reading a spellbook that looked like a scratched black leather journal instead of being bored while he waited for the next crisis.  And from upstairs, a heavy thump heralded a scream of terror from one of the younger creatures.

”No one panic!  It’s okay!”  Morgan’s voice echoed over the top of the stairs, the words washing over the cluster of paladins and also Arrush that had all snapped their eyes up at the same moment.

”I don’t believe him.”  James said, not moving.  “Alright, look.  I came down here to check on you guys, and help out where I could.  Mostly because Spire ended up here for some reason, and then didn’t leave, so we don’t have a paladin in Saskatoon right now.”

The camraconda tipped her boxy head.  “I… had planned to return.”  She said, slightly confused.  “Hm.  Authority protection is clearly not enough to stop every interdiction.”

Simon gave a wordless frustrated growl as he shook his head.  “Mind control being one of the themes of Venture magic is really starting to piss me off.”  He turned one of his folded arms upward, glaring down at the Sewer symbiote on his wrist.  “Don’t get used to it.”  He muttered quietly.

As far as James knew, the Garden’s magic leaned heavily toward complex creation, transmutation and body transformation, and, like Simon had said, mind control.  There was definitely something else in the mix, though.  He just didn’t know quite how to define it, but there was a muddled thread running through a lot of the spells, especially the ones that created barricades of sorts.

”Don’t beat yourself up about it.”  James told her.  “I actually might have fallen into the same trap, but dipping into Alex’s demiplane I think reset the confusion timer.”

”Yeah, I think I could leave too.”  Alex agreed.  “But I’m not gonna, because this is what I’m on right now.”  She said, her own authority curling around her neck protectively.  “But James is right about one super important thing.  No one back home knows what’s going on here.”

Spire’s lens irised to a pinpoint.  “We have sent reports.” She said, as if the universe wasn’t allowed to ignore that.

“Yeah, Spire, think about that for a second.”  Simon groaned.

”We sent reports.”  She reiterated.  “I called.  I spoke to multiple people.  On the phone.  A human invention that I had assumed allowed for direct transfer of information via voice.  The Lair is not inside the memeplex!”  Her voice rose, her personal touches making her anxiety come across in warm digital warbling.

James froze with his mouth open.  “It… yeah, hey, hang on.”  He slowly spoke.  “What the fuck?”

”Then it’s one of the spells.”  Arrush said, as if it were obvious.  “They surrounded the city.  Why would they stop there?  They must have… a book for stopping phone calls.  Or killing news?”  He flushed slightly, uncertain in his own idea suddenly.  “I don’t know, dreaming of new magic is hard.  James knows.”

James took that as a cue.  ”I mean it could just be a spell that interdicts pieces of information the same way the ones around the city interdict teleports and also somehow cars.  Like if there’s one that pins down, say, a name in a similar way, then any report about that person would end up sounding normal but the information would be muddled, right?”

”See?”  Arrush said with a grin.

”I hate how reasonable that sounds.  But we also haven’t found that spellbook.”  Alex said.  “Uh.  This also doesn’t actually change my point?  Yeah, no, I’m still right.”

”You didn’t… tell us your point.”  James pointed out.

Alex winced and looked back at the repurposed information desk for a second, trying to focus on anything except the people she was supposedly a peer to while she fucked up a conversation.  “Right, sorry.  James needs to get out of here.  You too, Spire!  Leave!  Hell, you should probably take anyone who didn’t just come down here with you, because any rogue or recoverer that’s been down here too long probably has the same problem we do, right?  And definitely evac all the rescues!”

Simon gave up counting on his fingers after Alex listed a second group.  “That’s more than a telepad.”

”Oh, I can handle that.”  James said easily.  “My demiplane has doors that I can link to various places, and I keep one set to the Lair.”

”…you were bitching that you didn’t get anything cool, like, five minutes ago.”  Alex challenged him.

“They’re just slightly different teleporters.”  James said, before wincing himself as he realized how that sounded.  “I know, I know, please don’t…” he tried to fend off Zhu poking at his side while Arrush did nothing to save him.  “I’m sorry, okay?  My sense of perspective is fucked.” He sighed as he met Alex’s eyes.  “You really think I should leave?”

”I think that Simon and I are getting entrenched here.”  She said with a shrug that was smoother than her obvious true feelings.  “I have no clue if we ever wrap this up, or if we die trying, or if we slowly get replaced by permanent knights for this city, or what.  But a lot of people here need us.”  Her voice picked up conviction, Simon nodding along with her words with a completely serious look on his face.  “Right now this hellhole needs a paladin or two.  But the Order needs you doing your weird thing, not hanging out here with us.  And Spire, you were just talking about the Saskatoon umbral dungeon a couple days ago with Mark and Drak, but you’re here?  No, that’s nuts.  You two gotta go, man.”

”I am worried,” James told her, voice appropriately quiet for the library, “that something is going to go wrong.”  He turned and looked up at the overhead balcony, half of it visible from where they were hanging out, and lowered his voice even further.  One perk of the paladins all having a purple orb suite; every one of them could have a murmured conversation from thirty feet away.  “Not just that you’ll get hurt when I could have helped, but that the Pylon is up to something.  Or at least that the oilslicks are.”

”Valid.”  Spire said, shifting to follow the line of sight even though with her lower profile she wasn’t going to see more than just part of the railing and the library’s ceiling.  “Interrogate Three Oh Six before we leave.  Or, even better, bring her with us.”

James raised his eyebrows, still talking with a low mumble.  “That seems reckless.  I’d like to at least know what she’s up to first.”  He said.  “I mean, hell, last time I saw her she was vaguely racist toward the ratlings from her own home dungeon.  And she did seem invested in her own home dungeon!  Is she still ‘with’ the Pylon?  Okay, yeah, I’ve got a lot of questions, I should go interrogate her.”

”And while you do that,” Simon said, straightening up and rolling his shoulder, “we need to get ready for patrol.”

”…For what?”  James asked, mirroring Arrush’s confused look, the two of them tipping their heads in the same way almost getting a laugh out of the normally more stoic Simon.  “Are you mistaking your life for an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer again?”

Alex snapped her fingers, the noise cracking in contrast to their still-hushed chat. ”It’s not a mistake and there’s no vampires here.  But if there were, which one of you wants to be Xander?  Anyone think they’d look good in an eyepatch?”

”…I literally had my eye shot out down here…” James told her.

”Okay strong case for James.  Simon?”  Alex tried desperately to barrel through the joke she’d started and now regretted.  “Simon doesn’t want it.”  She said as her fellow paladin shook his head and started to walk off.  “Anyway, yeah, we didn’t really cover this did we?  There’s enough random stuff going on that we’ve started patrolling every night as it starts to get dark, and probably thirty percent of the time we run into a new problem.”  Alex paused, and then corrected.  “I mean a lead.”  She said.

James was not reassured.  At all.  “Spire, go find me Three Oh Six, I’m going to go see if Morgan is dead or not.”

”Understood.  I will prepare the others who need to pull out as well.  Where is your nearest slip?”  She asked.

”If we wait a day I can drop one point three miles away, but the closest active one is probably about four miles away down the freeway.  Spawned in when we were exiling those guys.”

It raised a question for James.  What was a day, if it meant a safer extraction?  Especially if it needed to involve a lot of younger skittish people that were nonhuman enough to be potential targets just for walking outside.  Sticking around felt like it was a trap, in light of what they’d uncovered about their altered thought processes in this conversation, but it was a very enticing trap.  Which was, James supposed, what made it an effective one, even if it was unintentional.

He’d have to think about if it was worth it.  Though there was a somewhat concerned corner of his mind that was wondering if he’d need to reassess his decision in twenty minutes as Simon and Alex returned at high speed while being pursued by a demon bear or something.

Mostly he just found himself wishing that his slip for ‘social hubs’ wasn’t at the top of its cooldown.  Sure, it was somewhere random within eight kilometers, but it could be here.  Something had to go right eventually.

But those thoughts weren’t going to make any progress.  ”So.  How’re you doing?”  James asked Arrush as he started heading for the stairs at a slow plod as his Endurance decided it was time for his feet to start hurting again.  “Nothing leaking out of you that shouldn’t be, right?”

”N-not here!”  The hide around Arrush’s eyes flushed bright green before Zhu’s manic cackle made him realize he’d misinterpreted James’ words.  “Oh!  No I’m not hurt.”  He corrected, blushing more if that was possible.  “I… I feel… I don’t even know what I feel.  The crocamaws we had to hurt… they’re afraid of me now.  I’m not…” Arrush took a deep breath to steady himself, but he didn’t look at James directly as they walked side by side up the wooden steps.  “I feel like a monster.  I guess.”

”Me too.”  James said painfully.  He knew, for a fact, that he wasn’t going to ever be able to forget the sensation of his sword slowly punching into flesh, or the way the crocamaw’s expression had changed when it started screaming in pain and terror because of what he’d done.  “I don’t… fuck, I don’t think they’re ever going to want to be around me.  But.”

”But it’s better than what would have happened otherwise.”  Arrush said with his own hurt tone.

”I hate that you get to have the same nightmares as me, but I’m glad you’re here, firefly.”  James told him, bumping his still-armored shoulder into Arrush and renewing the ratroach’s blush.  Fading fragments of Zhu’s orange light the last remnant of the navigator as he receded back into his home in James’ mind, giving the two a little privacy while he took a nap.  “Now!”  He said with enforced cheer that he’d learned from Sarah as he surmounted the staircase.  “Where is my young problem!”  He asked boisterously, scanning the upstairs for Morgan.

It took a minute of sweeping his gaze over the library to realize that the upstairs had been moved around a lot more that the ground floor.  Shorter shelves had been pushed to make a contained area that seemed to have a lot of folding cots set up inside, the tables were all moved together and cleared of computers and flyers to make an eating space, and it generally felt like the space was more of a mess than an operational public library would be.  Even an underfunded one. 

James tried to force himself to process the information from his domain as the sensory spots swept over still shelved books, paper triggering a sense that was new to him and he needed to get used to if he was ever going to make use of it.  But it was hard when his presence at the top of the stairs drew attention from a crowd of younger life forms, half of whom seemed like they were about to bolt and hide and the other half looking prepared to bolt and tackle the new person out of pure enthusiastic curiosity.

The crocamaws that he’d just fought weren’t visible, likely in the staff area where Recovery had a medical station set up.  So that was something at least.  But the rest of the rescues filled the floor like it was a busy afternoon.  Twenty, thirty, maybe more.  A lot more humans than James expected, mixed in with the crocamaws, many of the kids looking like they were barely teenagers.  If they even were at all.  And a lot of those eyes were looking his way, peering up from trays of dinner or books or tablets they were reading from.  Some of them, James noted, were actually reading spellbooks; regardless of species, too.

He found that more impressive than he found it concerning.  At that age he was barely able to focus on an entire episode of Pokemon, much less on nothing for long enough to equip a spell.

But being stared at was still unsettling, and fortunately, Arrush came to his rescue.  “Did anyone see Morgan?”  He asked.  “It isn’t important.  But it will be very funny if we ambush him.”

Hilariously, that got about ten hands or claws pointed in the same direction; toward the back corner of the library where there was a door into a little hallway that probably went to storage, or offices.  The emergency exit stairway was there too, the red glow of the sign greeting James as he waved to the kids and slid through the shelves to escape the staring.  “You’re surprisingly good with kids.”  James teased Arrush.

His boyfriend tipped his muzzle up proudly.  “I learned the secret!”  He told James.  “If you make them part of things, they want to help!”

”That sounds suspiciously familiar.”  James said with a lopsided smile, leading the way and feeling like still being in armor was going to have him knocking at least a few things off the shelves he was creeping through.  “Now.  What the hell is Morgan doing in the storage clos…et…” James trailed off, eyebrows raising as the toe of his boot connected with a metal object that was left on the hard carpet right in the corner of the pair of doors that led either deeper into the library, or downstairs and out the back.  He knelt down as it pinged off the wall, and picked it up, turning over the level one spell coin in his fingers.  “Now why the hell is this here?”  He asked.

Arrush sniffed the air suspiciously, before turning the handle to the door into the little hallway and pushing it open on well oiled hinges.  “Morgan?”  He asked, voice a nervous pitch.

When the door from the stairs swung open, Arrush twitched in a way James hadn’t seen in a while, the ratroach jerking back with one paw already moving for one of the weapons he wasn’t carrying in here.  It was with almost painful relief that he saw it was just Morgan walking back in.  “Oh.  Hey.”  Morgan said awkwardly, looking down at James who smoothly pocketed the coin as he looked back at the teenager.  “What’s up?”

”Looking for you.”  James rose up to his feet.  “So?”

”…So… what?”  Morgan asked, eyes focusing on James.

James caught Arrush’s eyes and gave a quick pair of hand motions where his body blocked Morgan’s line of sight, before shrugging more obviously and turning.  “Come on, Mary has a job for you.”  He said.  Then he turned and gave Arrush a quick kiss, before patting the ratroach’s shoulder.  “Also, can you go get our guest for me?  I need to talk to her.”

”Yes.”  Arrush said, splitting off from James as the paladin led Morgan back into the hall area and past storerooms, the secret employee bathroom, and a couple other little spaces that were lit under fluorescent lights that hummed to life as he hit switches on the way.

Continuing his easy pace, James got to the end of the hall, and grimaced as he turned back to Morgan.  “Okay, this is my bad.”  He said, getting a calmly appraising look in reply.  “I acutally… thought this looped around?  To the other side of the stairwell.  Uh… this is definitely a dead end.  Okay.  Back that-a-way.”  He pointed and got a mild sigh from Morgan before they turned around.  “But yeah, you got my note, right?”  He asked as he walked.

”Yup.”  Morgan said with a nod.

”And you… checked off the tasks on it?”  James asked.  “All three things?”

”Taken care of.”  Morgan agreed quickly.  “Why?”

James shrugged again, now deliberately forcing himself to remain casual so as not to alert the problem that was walking near him through halls with colorful posters proselytizing summer reading programs.  This, he now confirmed, was not Morgan.  Which, in this city, meant one thing, and it was a thing he wasn’t sure how to actually handle.

”Well, it was a little important.”  James said instead as he picked an empty route back through the thin line of shelves, past what used to be a computer desk, and out to the stairs.  “Hm.  Is Liette up here?”  He paused to look around obliviously, over the heads of the kids that were back to sneaking peeks at them, though he knew he wasn’t going to spot the towering crocamaw.  The fact that he knew she wasn’t visible was half the reason he’d picked her to look for, it gave him a moment to motion Morgan past.

It also meant that when James followed him down the stairs a second later, and caught up to Morgan on the landing, he was positioned behind the apparent teenager as Morgan stopped at the sight of Arrush and Three Oh Six standing at the base of the stairs, with a semicircle of Order combatants fanned out around them.  “What’s going… on?”  He asked before freezing as James silently placed the palm of his hand against the back of Morgan’s head.

”Where the fuck is my knight.”  James said, voice a sudden vacuum of any of the light chipperness he’d had going up until now.

“And how many other people have you already replaced?”  Simon asked the now deeply unsettled Three Oh Six.

The known oilslick shifter jerked her head around at the paladin’s words.  “Wait, hang on!”  She started to raise her hand and then froze when Arrush shifted his weight next to her, paws on his sword.  “I didn’t- I told you I- I’m not with them!”  She eventually settled on, hand jutting out toward whoever was disguised as Morgan.

”Oh, don’t bother.”  The fake Morgan said, posture slumping in a way James knew was just trying to make his threat out of position.  “I’m surprised you caught us so fast!  Well, most of us.”  He turned his head and gave a bizarrely overdramatic wink at Alex.

”You motherfucker!”  Three Oh Six yelled up at him as everyone else completely failed to react to the implication.  The fact that Alex was currently on their skulljack network kind of undermined the attempt to convince the rest of the team that she was compromised.  The oilslick that was already with them had no way of knowing that, though, and Three Oh Six frantically started pleading her own case to the paladins around her.  “I swear I’ll tell you everything!  But you gotta believe me, I’m not on their side!”

“Making a lot of promises there.”  The shapeshifter James was still looming behind said, starting to spread his arms.  “Relax, whoever owns this face is fine.  For now anyway.  Not that it really matters, since-“ he picked what was probably a great moment to make his move.  A hanging question as to what he was going to say was the perfect time to try to bolt, because it was when anyone watching was more likely to be listening than prepared to act.

Unfortunately, James had learned this trick way before he’d ever even set foot in a dungeon.  JP did this all the time.  And if he could be ready for that absolute dumbass, James could be ready for this pale imitation.

His palm flattened with an amount of force against the back of the shifter’s head as they tried to spring to the side, probably hoping to make their way to the back stairs and the exit that apparently wasn’t as secure as James had thought.  And with that brief contact, James discharged all the electricity that lived in his body, the purple orbs that had modified both his skin and some other internal organ letting him lash out with a droning crackle and the sudden smell of ozone.

The oilslick collapsed into a limp pile, human features and mimicked clothing melting away into smooth black semi-solid oil as they hit the stairs with a splat, before slowly sliding down the steps with brief thumps of impact.

”Arrush, with me.”  James said as he shook his hand, sparks of static electricity snapping against his fingertips.  “Alex, Simon, take the front.  They can’t have gone far, and I’m not interested in fucking around right now.”  He glared at Three Oh Six.  “If I shoot one of your species, what happens?”  He asked bluntly.

”Oh shit, oh shit, please don’t kill me!”  Her voice cracked as her features rippled, eyes wide with panic.  “I’m not with them!  I’m not!  I swear, I didn’t replace anybody, I just wanted to talk, and I’m sorry I was fucking around!  I didn’t-“

”I am not going to kill you.”  James said calmly, but loudly enough to be heard over her.  “But I am going to go get Morgan back, and I need to know if your people are weak to bullets.”

”Yes!”  Three Oh Six screamed.  “Fuck, please, don’t-“

James was already moving for the back of the building.  “Spire, watch our new friend.  Zhu, wake up.”

”Yo.”  The navigator responded easier than ever, his strength not just back to full since the Underburbs, but even greater than it was before.  “What’cha up… to…?  Why does it taste like a chase scene out here?”

“Find Morgan.”  James told the navigator.  “Straight line.”

”…you mean even through problems?”  Zhu asked, excitement and concern swirling in his voice.  “Absolutely!  Love this plan!”  The molten orange of his pupils narrowed to points as his feathers flattened against James’ armored body, the arm and tail that Zhu had manifested swaying in opposition to James’ quick walk.  “Huh.  Close by, actually.  Out the back door, take a right, go past the public park, he should be in the parking lot of the church thing over there, but it’s gonna be surrounded by hedges and stuff.”  Zhu paused.  “And there’s a fight?  Between us and him, there’s just combat?  I was demanifested for like two minutes, come on.”

“Shapeshifter.”  James explained as he practically kicked open one of the back doors.

Zhu took that at face value.  ”Oh.”

”Are you going to be okay?”  Arrush asked James as they started running out into the cooling night air of the mostly desert area.  He was worried about the human; magic or not, they had just gone through a brawl where something large had kicked James in the ribs.

”Oh, I’m fine.”  James said as he checked the area while they jogged, mentally tagging the cars parked by the side of the road that passed behind the library and the sound of voices from somewhere in the parking lot for this little shopping area the city had for some reason stuck a public building in.  “This place is pissing me off, is all.”  He said as he started following Zhu’s directions.  “Are you ready for-“

He cut himself off as, ahead of them, a short figure exploded through a row of hedges that probably drank more water than everyone who lived within a mile of here combined.  Even in the dimming light, it was easy to recognize the form of the kanisugi that had been hanging out with Morgan earlier, the clay plated quadruped spinning on the sidewalk without seeing James, and reaching back into the bushes with surprisingly flexible front limbs to grab and drag a more human figure out.

Morgan staggered to his feet and saw James instantly, taking two steps forward before he froze and raised his hands.  “I’m the real one!”  He told the older human.

”I know!  Now move!”  James said, grabbing Morgan’s shoulder and shoving him past them as a pair of normal looking humans raced around the far corner of the hedges, saw James and Arrush, and wasted no time abandoning their plan to just recapture Morgan and the clay dog creature.  Instead they pulled pistols and pointed toward the most threatening person ahead of them, which is why James found himself looking at a pair of barrels.  “Freeze!  Hands up!”  He barked at them before they could say anything.

”Drop your weapons!”  One of them yelled back, before realizing that James wasn’t actually armed.  “And you put your hands up!”

”No.” James said, folding his arms and adopting a leaned back pose, while also using one of the valuable charges on one of his bracers to set it to .45 caliber bullets as he took in the profile of the heavy handgun pointed his way.  “What’s going on here?”

”Don’t get in the way!”  The other guy yelled, stepping forward.  “This isn’t about you!”

James looked back at Morgan with a puzzled expression, before slowly turning the same look on the approaching man.  “Are you okay?”  He asked curiously.

Zhu made a concerned noise from James’ arm.  ”Yeah you seem kind of… what’s the term for a human that’s got brain damage?  Concussed?”

“Anyway, why’re you kidnapping people?”  James asked more sharply.

The two figures, now rapidly being joined by another pair who were running around the same blind corner of a parking lot driveway, took a hesitant step back before adjusting their uncomfortable grips on their weapons and pointing them at James again.  “It’s not kidnapping and you don’t need to worry about it.  Step away, that thing is dangerous.  You can walk away.”

”I think they’re stupid.”  Arrush said, forcing himself to mimic James’ attitude as he casually pivoted so he was facing the two that were trying to cut into the street to circle them.  It was fascinating to him how often humans, or even dungeon life that ‘grew up’ around humans, treated sidewalks as real lines.  “What’s wrong with them?”  He asked.

It was Morgan that answered, surprisingly.  The kid catching his breath as he tugged the clay plated Garden creation close to his side.  His words came out a little muddled as he was still gasping for air, but he got the point across.  “They call themselves Godeaters.  They think this is Mad Max and they want to own Utah.  They’re idiots.”

”…Seriously?”  James asked.  “So why are you trying to infiltrate us?”

Morgan answered again, since the four people trying to surround them were too busy glaring and grandstanding with firearms.  “They’re infiltrating everyone.  They think we’d stop them.”

”Okay, so they aren’t completely brain damaged.”  Zhu affirmed with biting sarcasm.

”Also,” Morgan stopped gasping, took a deep breath, and straightened himself up.  “They’re anti-dungeon.”

“Alright, that’s enough!”  One of the newcomers ordered, waving a shotgun around with a lack of trigger discipline that James noted with a disproving tsk and a shake of his head.  They didn’t take the minor criticism well.  “You’re all coming with us!”

Arrush met his eyes.  “Why?”  The ratroach asked.  “Will you shoot us if we don’t?”

”Yes!”

”Oh.”  Arrush nodded, the people around them seeming to suddenly notice that the ratroach wasn’t acting like a puppet.  “Okay.”  He said, and then abruptly split into mirrored copies of himself, three versions of Arrush lashing forward with a sudden burst of motion.

One of their assailants yelped at the sudden ratroach that was inside his personal space, and shot Arrush in the stomach with a snapshot of his pistol.  It didn’t do anything, except cause the Climb spell’s mirror image to blink out, but it did prompt James to shoot him in the leg.  The double crack of gunshots ending with a bullet whizzing off into the street, and another punching a hole through a limb that splattered a black oil out the exit wound instead of blood.

James, head still hurting from the last time he did this, risked a Separate Alloy charge to rip apart the two other handguns in play after one of them shot another Arrush in a panicked pull of the trigger.  Guns tended to be less susceptible to Separate Alloy, but he really only needed to hit one or two important bits, so James hoped he wasn’t giving himself a bonus nosebleed doing this.  The last gun on the enemy side, the shotgun, was actually dealt with by the Arrush image that coalesced into the real version of himself as the others were disabled.  The ratroach’s paws clamping around the wrists of the last kidnapper, pulling the shotgun out and around, and then spinning his own body past as well so that he could finish yanking the long gun away with a metal clatter in the street and the shapeshifter’s arms behind their back with a pained yell.

The part of the situation James found the most insane was that a passing car, uninvolved entirely in this street fight, swerved to dodge the discarded shotgun.  Maybe out of concern for running over a loaded firearm, maybe out of politeness, and he didn’t know which would be funnier.

”You shot him!”  One of them yelled at James, trying to pull the trigger on the pistol that wasn’t doing anything.  “Help!  We need backup over here!”  They screamed back over their shoulder.

James found that incredibly hypocritical.  “Morgan, get your friend there back, now.”  James said, keeping his own gun up in a steady grip as he flicked his eyes toward Arrush.  “Bring that one along.”  He told the ratroach before addressing the others that they were slowly backing away from.  “Here’s the deal!  We’re going to take a little time, and then pack up and leave!  You can have your buddies back when we do!  But until then, you’re going to stay right fucking there, got it?”  James yelled.

”By ‘right there’ he means you don’t get closer, not that you literally can’t move.  Dumbass.”  Zhu cut off one of the oilslicks that looked like he was about to ask a question.

“Let me go, fool!”  The one that Arrush was dragging backward demanded, thrashing and kicking his feet against the pavement as Arrush hauled him with minimal effort.  The ratroach found it surprisingly easy; he’d assumed the oilslicks would be the same weight as a human, but this one seemed quite a bit lighter.  Even if it was kind of slippery.  “Help me!”  He yelled to the others, who made no move to go back on the offensive.

”Hush.”  Arrush said with exasperation.  “You are being annoying.”

”You’re kidnapping me!”  The oilslick screamed.

”You said it’s not kidnapping, and you don’t need to worry about it.”  Arrush said with a grin that glowed like a blue scythe in the fading evening light.

James nearly choked on his laugh.  “Okay, go.”  He said.  “I’ll be right behind you.”  Their escape, awkward as it was, was quickly backed up by Ink-And-Key and Alex showing up to provide further support.  Everyone falling back to the library even as the cluster of people ‘chasing’ them at a safe distance swelled to about twenty.

It wasn’t clear if they were all oilslicks, but they looked like they were determined to put the shuttered library to a siege, ignoring the fact that they were still out in the open and obviously doing something absurdly illegal and violent.

”What did you do?!”  Ink-And-Key yelled as they slithered backward through the library doors, before Alex and Simon slammed them shut and pushed shelves into place to barricade them.

”I got kidnapped!”  Morgan retaliated.  “By that guy!”  He pointed at the unconscious semi-humanoid blob of oil that Spire was keeping an eye on.  “And I’m shaking and I hate it and I don’t think I’m talking right?  Oh, Three Oh Six is fine, she’s just a dumbass.  But I think you figured that out?  I still made sure she didn’t stab anyone.  Hi Three Oh Six.  You look bad too.”  Morgan found that now that he’d started talking he was having a hard time stopping, his hands trembling, and tears from no particular source of sorrow forming in his eyes as the requirement that he keep in control of his emotions dropped out from under him.  “Ahhhhh, fuck.  I need to… sit down.”  He collapsed to the floor in a heap, pulling his legs up to his chest.

”Morgan got kidnapped.”  James explained more calmly.  “Let me see if I have this right.”  He pointed at the unconscious oilslick.  “From the Pylon, but part of an independent group that wants to be knockoff warlords.”  He turned and pointed at Three Oh Six next.  “From the Pylon, here to talk to me, personally… on behalf of a different group of oilslicks?”

”On… on… on behalf of my home, one of the genus loci.”  Three Oh Six stammered out, still looking like she was she expected to be shot.  “You call it the Pylon Motoric.”

”There’s no the.”  Spire, Simon, Alex, and James all said at the same time.

The shapeshifter flinched at their shared joke, and James took pity on her.  “Okay, hang on.  You’re a representative of the dungeon?”

”We don’t call it a dungeon.  It’s our home, and our partner.”  Her voice steadied a bit, though it didn’t go near the cheeky tone she’d used when James had shown up.  “I’m one of the ones chosen to carry a message.”

”You’re a dungeon prophet?”  Simon asked incredulously.  “Wait that means the Pylon, and probably also the Garden, aren’t passive.”

”Of course they aren’t?”  Three Oh Six said like Simon was a moron.  “I’m supposed to find the Order’s first paladin, and extend an offer.  I wasn’t here to ambush you!  Please, I’m sorry, I-“

”Relax, please.”  James sighed, waving a hand down at the oilslick.  “You’re fine, and even if we’re annoyed at you, no one is going to hurt you.  But we do need to leave.  What can you tell us about the godeaters?”

”Those morons?”  Three Oh Six’s attitude pivoted, while Alex gave a full body wince at the name.  “They think if they take over the territory the doors are in, they can take over our home and ‘get more powerful’ or some shit.  Wait, is that who he is?”  She scrambled back from the unconscious oilslick near herself.  “They’re insane!  Top of the list for weirdos and crazy people from home!”

”…that implies you have… a list.”  Spire said with the kind of voice that only came from a camraconda who had just spent several days familiarizing herself with a list of local factions, and was suddenly learning she was going to need to add more.  “James you said we need to leave?”  She asked hopefully.

”Yeah, the rest of these idiots, or at least a big pack of them, are mustering nearby and might storm the building.  I do not want a fight when there’s kids in here, so my offer to them is we throw them their friends - oh, that guy Arrush has is… yeah, you know - and we leave.  Now.  I’ve got a slip we can evacuate everyone through fairly close, we just can’t waste time.”  He didn’t know how to organize something like this.  Hopefully one of the Recovery agents would and James could learn on the fly.  “Any objections?”

”We’re going to need to come back.”  Simon said with his perpetually calm low voice.

James gave him a quick nod.  “Yeah.  But right now…”

”The kids are the priority.  Right.  Mark, Drak!”  Simon was already moving, Alex crossing his path as she headed to a different part of the library.

Voices rose and directives were set.  And the people from the Order exploded into motion.  None of them had ever handled an evacuation from a warzone before, except for Alex, and that had been less an evacuation and more teleporting two people out.  But they knew what parts to play anyway.

The kids were rounded up and double checked.  Recovery made sure to pick up everything that wasn’t replaceable or was a strategic asset out of the library space.  The rogues vanished in the wind so quickly that James actually forgot there had been a rogue team here.

A lot of the rescues weren’t happy with being moved.  Some of the crocamaws thought this place was supposed to be a home, and some of them didn’t want to be anywhere near James or Arrush right now.  Some of the Mormon kids were terrified of leaving the state, of being taken so far from their families even if those families had been abusing and weaponizing them.  Liette didn’t want to leave either, because she was afraid she’d never come back.

James didn’t have time to sit with all of them and work stuff out.  It was a hard compromise to make, but as he found himself with nothing to do aside from keeping drone overwatch going over the potential battlefield now that they were exposed anyway, he spent what time he had talking.  Explaining that they would definitely be able to come back to this city later when things were safer, that the Order wasn’t going to abandon them once they were gone, that there were also beds with nicer blankets where they were going, that there was no way he was going to deprive anyone of the cool daily magic they had grown so used to.  Actually that last part was how he enticed more than a few of them.  Letting them know that the Order maaaaybe had a little bit of different magic, and that they liked to share it, helped create some artificial courage for the kids that were being asked to leave behind their whole world again.

The only thing that he could have asked for was some kind of school bus to transport everyone.  But the Order didn’t have that on hand, and it seemed a little rude to logisticor in a vehicle when there genuinely wasn’t a clear space anywhere nearby where the swap teleport wouldn’t rip apart at least one building or water main.

And then it was time to go.  A final headcount was done, because the most valuable cargo here was the people themselves.  No one was missing, no one was currently replaced, and Three Oh Six reluctantly agreed to go along with them too.

If these assholes had waited for just, like, eight hours, James fumed, then he could have put a slip less than a mile away.  But as it stood, they needed to move multiple uncomfortable vehicles that weren’t designed for hauling groups of kids a lot farther to a highway, and then down that highway, and then off the side of that highway to run through a hole in reality.

But at least, he figured, he’d get to check on the place when he got there.  James really didn’t enjoy his demiplane enough.  It felt like he was always running away from something.

”Alright.  Is everyone ready?”  Alex’s voice rang out over the group, the younger paladin easily drawing the attention of the group of scared and sometimes injured children that were assembled inside a loose square of people who were pretending to be confident adults.

Spire-Cast-Behind rose up to her full height by the door, lens eye whirring softly in the still air as she widened it at them.  “Stay with your groups.  Your companions are relying on you.  James, our status?”

There were some people trying to be inconspicuous that were watching the area, and he’d spotted one of them trying to climb onto the roof of a nearby building but being almost hilariously incompetent about it.  It would have been funnier if the guy wasn’t looking for a fucking sniper post.  Aside from that, though, there was no army outside.  At least not in the parking lot.  Maybe a little time had let them cool off and take James at his word.

And maybe if he wished hard enough he could learn to fly through sheer willpower.

Out loud, though, he gave Spire a clearer report.  “There’s no one waiting in ambush by the parking lot.  We’re good to go.”  He said.

”Excellent.  Let us move quickly then.”  She shoved open the side door with one of her mechanical limbs, the alarm already disconnected earlier, and slithered out into the night.  The others began following in their groups, heading to vans and cars that would be making their way inconspicuously to the meetup point.

James went last, before turning to stare directly at the closest badly hidden watcher.  “Hey!”  He called to the oilslick.  “Your friends are inside!  Still alive, too, though we had to use a lot of duct tape on them, so sorry about that!”  Zhu waved sardonically from his arm as he turned, felt the brief flash of someone aiming at him through his improperly worn necktie, and then nothing else threatening as he installed himself in the driver’s seat of a car with three cramped humans in the back seat.  “How’s everyone doing?”  He asked.

Zhu preempted their grumbles.  “Oh!”  The navigator said, eye on James’ shoulder pivoting around to look into the back seat.  “Put your seatbelts on!  It feels really weird to be able to know exactly when one of you gets hurt if you don’t, and I don’t like it!”  One of the kids clipped their seatbelt with a rapid and panicked motion, and Zhu relaxed instantly.  “Thanks!  Wow, that must be what pulling a splinter out is like for you!  Very neat!”

“Is it really?”  James asked, only half paying attention as he kept his drones overhead while following Alex’s pilfered van out of the parking lot and onto the darkened streets.

”No.  Now shut up and drive.”  Zhu told him, hand layering over James’ on the wheel.

James shut up.  And drove.

But in the tense silence of the car, he couldn’t stop thinking that he felt like he was chipping away at one problem out of many.  And as the road rolled by underneath the tires, he kept adding to his mental list of Very Important Situations that he felt the pull of. 

“I never should have decided to save the world.”  He complained under his breath. 

There was just too fucking much of it.