Chapter 1 (cause I’m bad at naming conventions)
“You complete and utter jackass”
It doesn’t help that a 15.7 gigawatt arc of electric energy moving towards us at an increasing rate.
I really need to stop attracting attention from these assholes. Oh well.
Engage defensive protocols.
Caster plates in position.
WARNING : SUPPLIER ARMS IN COMPROMISED STATE.
Great. Just great. The one time I can’t fix them.
“You sure this will work?!”
Cast Nullify(type : Electric)
Supplying myst to caster plates.
The plates started to dissipate the myst. Not even a tenth of a second later, the arc hit the electrical barrier that I cast up.
I smirked “Make that a yes.”
“Not. Funny. You jackass.”
“Oh get a new insulting name would ya?”
The barrier started to strain. That can’t be good.
“Once you make sure that wall of yours won’t fail on us.”
Return MystConsumptionRate
Not bad for a few gigawatts hitting this.
Override Nullify.Usage(100)
The bluish barrier solidified.
“What do you mean ‘should’?!”
“Oh, lay off it. You know I never deal in definitives.”
He just pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.
“I know. That’s the third time you called me that in the past thirty seconds.”
And for good reason on his part. I keep dragging him into this shit that I find myself in. And yes, I know that I’m a bad friend. I’ve heard that comment too many damn times. Half of them from Quidel. Yet here he is.
“Do you know the quickest way to the top?” I asked, mainly cause the last time I tried to lead us anywhere, we ended up halfway across the continental U.P.. That was an interesting ride home to say the least.
“I’m trying to get my bearings, but it’s quite hard when you have several billion watts being thrown at your head.”
“Welp. Could ya hurry up?”
“Still not helping.” Quidel sprinted towards the rocky wall behind us. One dull thud later, the wall fell to reveal a small, steep tunnel going up towards the surface.
“Going up?” he said with a smirk on his face.
And we both took a mad dash up the tunnel.
“You going to disable that barrier?”
“Let it run for a few minutes. It’ll slow ‘em down.”
“I’d still love to know why the hell they’re after you.”
“Do you want that in a list form or an MLA format essay?”
“When can I get that essay?”
“How good is your internet speed?”
He shook his head. “Really?”
“And you wonder why I worry whenever you attempt to do anything.”
“Don’t even start that spiel and look ahead.”
Light. That’s a good sign. Or a very bad sign.
The tunnel let out to a grassy field. Another good sign.
And then I saw ten humanoid figures marching towards us. Okay.
Pointed straight at us. Well shit.
Well now that I got your damned attention, hello, bonjour, hola, guten tag, jambo, any number of other greetings.
If you found this, I probably destroyed the world at some point in the past. Probably. I make no guarantees or promises as you could recall. This transcript was made in an attempt to preserve some amount of the history of this place. Earth, the rock orbiting the star we call Sol, the stone we call home, was in quite the strange situation. You see, this planet, inhabited with all sorts of wildlife and the such, had a sentient type of animal called Humans that discovered – or rediscovered, one of several times, if you want to get into semantics – magic. Magic lead them to great things. Great things that improved life as a whole, or destroyed it all the same. Depended if the human was an asshole or not. Oh, and just to clarify, I’m one of these. I guess I just called myself an asshole, but, to be fair, I probably deserve all of the horrible names you could throw at me. Though the name that most called me by is Amadeus, meaning “love of god” – yes, I know its translation is ironic to what I probably did to the world.
“Deus, what shit-pile did you drag me into?” It sounded surprisingly calm and low-voiced.
“All of them, knowing this damned organization.”
“I still would enjoy knowing what the damned organization is called.”
50 meters away currently.
“Ask ‘em then.” I said, pointing towards the merry band coming at us. Their weapons aren’t drawn at least. Maybe I could’ve had them wear ugly Christmas sweaters, then they could’ve be considered merrier.
“Something tells me they aren’t very sociable.”
“You have a better idea then smashing them to base elements?”
“Redirecting that pestering tank’s firepower.”
“I doubt we’d be able to trick them with that.”
A sharp crack of gunfire hit my ears and a sharp pain erupted from my leg. Well at least I know they have some people with good aim.
Still hurts like hell. Upgrade from bloody hell, but nonetheless.
“What do you think?!” My voice basically dripping with venom. I hate when Quidel starts this crap.
He just smirked “Well then it’s time for some fun.”
And just as quick as the smirk appeared, a blade, about 15 centimeters in length, came into his right hand. He raised the blade with a deathly glint in his eye.
“Step any closer and you’ll all be dead before the foot hits the grass.” His voice echoed around the field.
And of course a single soldier decided to take him up on his offer. Quidel’s blade sliced over his own arm quicker than the blink of an eye. The bodies that remained dropped to the ground with a nice thud.
“Did you really have to do that? You could’ve tried to talk to them.”
“Talking doesn’t require weapons and I also gave them a warning that they just straight up ignored!”
Before I could protest, he put a finger over my lips.
“No. You know that line is a straight up lie you like to tell yourself.” We both heard a gunshot in the distance. “Come on,” he said lifting me up “let’s get you home before you complain more about me killing people.”
Ah, Quidel. My one longest lasting friend. I still don’t know how we came to be in the same group of friends, but life seems to baffle me in every single aspect of it. Including the fact that it needs to end. I suppose I should tell you what I know about him, though I think he does a better job at explaining himself. If not, I’ll try to tell you about it.
Well… It isn’t home but at least he tried to get me in someplace that isn’t on an unending cycle of attempts on my life. The poor girl at the desk must have been terrified when she saw two random idiots walk in, one of which has a bullet in the leg, the other with a slice across the arm. As Quidel walked towards the rooms, I gave her a bit of a tip for the inconvenience of dealing with Quidel. And to a lesser extent, me and my bloodied leg. Hopefully the bleeding will stop before I have to sleep.
A spark cut me off. It seems the universe is having fun cutting me off from talking today.
That’s going to be at least a couple hundred to repair.
“What broke this time?” Quidel asked while watching the TV. Something along the lines of a house-building show by the looks of it.
“The bloody supplier arms.” With a side of incoherent muttering.
“Aren’t they made of some custom forged osmium-iridium alloy that you bragged about?”
“It’s a carbon-titanium alloy and because it’s a custom blend, it’s gonna cost a ton to repair. And it just fucking shattered.”
He glanced over. “Doesn’t look shattered to me.”
I took one of my several magnifiers to get a closer look at the damage.
Cracks everywhere along the spherical joint. Structural damage to the internal supply system. Large chunk of the joint is flat out missing.
Quidel nearly choked on his cup of coffee. “Holy fuck. Do they want your liver to go with that?”
“Knowing my suppliers, they’d rather have more cash.”
“Don’t you think you could use something else less pricey? It seems like a chance to get a new and improved material out there.”
“As tempting as that sounds, I’d rather have my gauntlet made from my current alloy.”
“Still. You don’t have unlimited funds”
“I know, but you aren’t the one footing the bill. I know how to be thrifty, you know!”
“If only you would be willing to protect yourself then you wouldn’t have to repair the gauntlet as often.”
“You really aren’t. You try to be but your refusal to let any blood be on your hands is preventing it.”
I glared at him and he just glared straight back. I knew he was right. The fact I refused to allow anyone to die at my hands was a hindrance to any attempt at self-defense I made. I just can’t bring myself to kill someone. To take someone’s life, it’s just… not mine to take.
“Says the one with a healing focus.” I finally managed to speak up.
“And I’ve taken my Hippocratic Oath and lived by it.”
“Then why do you kill the innocent?!”
“Those people aren’t innocent!”
He just got up and huffed out the room, slamming the door behind him.
The silence in the air just reminded me of how different we could be. Me, the pacifist. Him, the military supportive healer. Both valid stances on the topic. One day, one of us will be proven wrong. But today was not that day.
