Chapter 72

Travis was walking from the new prefab building attached to the temporary HQ to his car to grab a quick bite, feeling like he was back at the beginning of his career, when he suddenly saw the plume of smoke rising from the forest. Already several people were pointing their noses at the sky, and orders were being shouted from the heads of the security division while soldiers armed with guns and shields took position.

They were still in the process of testing what sort of equipment worked best against powered individuals, especially since they were still stuck with conventional mercenary sort of stuff, but already they were a sight to behold.

Making a U-turn that had his heels digging into the loose dust of the trodden ground near the parking lot, Travis ran back to the headquarters. Large screens filled three walls to the brim while computers and personnel took up the rest of the space, making the large room appear like a cramped base of operations out of some science fiction organization. Which, he thought, was not too far from what they actually were.

On the screens was the live feed from several drones: the aftermath of a forest fire from different angles. There had been a fight, some people in the room said, but it had all been over before they could react with appropriate means. Travis could only grit his teeth at the uselessness of Candle Light in situations like these. Skill stones were trickling in from the dungeon, courtesy of Michael, but progress was slow. Not everyone took to them with the same natural talent Michael showed, and there had been more than a few failures. Even for those who did take the skill stones and adapt to them, skill levels were absurdly slow to get.

“Why were there no people nearby?” Travis asked, annoyed already.

“There were, sir. They are all incapacitated or dead, sir.”

Travis grunted. Dead people meant big losses, but most of all it meant that the brand image of Unity would suffer. It wouldn’t be until Candle Light was much more famous and paranormal activities much more common that he could shift the blame on the magical elements of the world. For now, the pubic was still very much not used to dead bodies.

By the time any response arrived, the fight was over. It had been the speedster again, once again slipping past their preparations with ease until he came upon Michael.

Travis was at the site minutes later, riding the quad to the end of the road and taking to teleporting the rest of way in. He found Michael hunched over the smouldering remains of a burnt tree, sucking the heat out of the embers until they were simple black coal. Travis knew that between the fight and now Michael had had the time to go in and out of the dungeon, looking completely calm and collected afterwards. He had no idea how much time he spent in there, but he knew it had to be quite a lot of time.

Johanne was only seconds behind him, having rushed here from who knows where. Protocol was too lax when it came to the upper echelons, Travis thought, and he had no idea where the woman had even been the whole morning. She was wounded, panting, and dishevelled. A suspicious amount of blood marred her clothes, enough that he almost asked her to explain herself before he remembered that she only responded to Michael and Michael only. They would need to talk about it.

“Why are you bleeding, Johanne?” Michael said, not lifting his head from his work.

Michael was too calm for the situation, even considering the time he spent in the dungeon to calm down. It was as if magic was twisting him into becoming… strange. At least, Travis thought that if anyone could afford to act strange, it was him.

“I went to talk to Carmela. I wanted to deal with her.” Johanne said, not an ounce of remorse.

“I take it didn’t go well,” Michael said.

Johanne shook her head. She recounted the events in excruciating detail, with Michael barely needing to prompt her to elaborate. Travis noted that she would have never shared this much information had it been him who asked.

“Worrying. Carmela has magic, now.” Michael said.

Travis frowned. He was about to speak up when Michael added: “why the fuck did you go there alone, though?”

“I’m sorry,” she said, almost bowing, “I did not expect such a reaction from Josh. Nor did I think he would come here immediately after.”

Michael sighed. “I can see Travis is trying his best not to give you a piece of his mind right now. As a punishment, I order you to listen to what he has to say, alright?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Before that,” interjected Travis. “You fought him. You finally fought the bastard. How was it?”

“He’s an idiot,” Michael said before recounting the events.

“He might be an idiot,” Travis said gravely, “but Carmela is not. It’s time to stop being passive.”

Michael stared at him. For a moment, Travis thought that the man was looking inside of him. It was like getting an x-ray that also happened to hurt at a visceral level. His silver card, embedded in his hand, quivered as if in fear. Was this the power of a Silver aura? He would need to update the files.

“I agree,” Michael said, aloof. “Call the others. I want you,” he looked at Johanne next, “you, Old Dave, Trevor and Jennifer here at 8:00 PM sharp.”

With that Travis was dismissed to return to his duties. He almost did not feel like eating lunch anymore.

Not because he was depressed, however. No. A grin was plastered on his face. This was exciting. Things were about to get hectic, but it was in times like these that real progress was made. Michael had been forced to grow once again, and no matter how sad it was that someone like him would be forced to experience such betrayal, it was good for the future of Unity and mankind as a whole that he did.

Old Dave would agree. Much more heartbroken about it than Travis, perhaps, but he would agree.

Travis went back to doing his duties for Candle Light. Some time later he got a message from Naoshida Industries, saying that the first batch of specialized equipment will arrive in two days. It was still the basic stuff, but from there they could begin to tailor their request to their needs. It wouldn’t be until the Science division was up and running that they’d have magical gear, after all, apart from the random mana-induced mutation. Which, for now, consisted of a single item: a gun that squeaked at random intervals.

Useless.

There were other items as well, but nothing that would help apprehend a rogue Copper or Silver-level threat.

Travis did not worry much. He saw how zealous Johanne was about the science division. Already the foundations had been dug, prefab buildings were being brought in in segments, and she was ordering people around to plant trees and greenery and place boulders and other random elements so that the completed buildings would look nice. Strange woman. She was also coordinating with Candle Light to a surprising degree, considering how little she spoke to anyone who was not Michael. She ha already been instrumental in binging in at least two powerful anomalous items, things that the rest of Candle Light combined would have not been able to deal with.

Travis continued his rounds. They ended with him checking on an operator who had been given a skill stone Michael had retrieved from the dungeon, one that should allow him to perceive magic. After the last batch of tests, courtesy of Johanne, it had been proven that skill stones can be removed unless they have been with someone too long, while cards can always be removed.

The soldier was not taking well to it and was forced to unequip it, much to his dismay.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “I’ll find other ways to make myself useful to Candle Light.”

“Don’t worry,” Travis reassured the man. “I’m glad to see such passion. We’ll find something compatible with you.”

Johanne took it from there, appearing as if out of the woodwork saying she had ideas, and Travis shot her a dirty look. After he had given her a lecture about safety and engagement rules, she had shared some of her ideas with him. She had looked guilty for a moment before steeling herself, to which Travis decided to let go of his misgivings. She was a valuable asset, after all, even if her methods were utter lunacy. No other sane person would have managed to have the builders swear that a first small lab would be ready before Monday.

When he returned to the dungeon, he noticed that he was the last to arrive.

“Why have you called us all here?”

“It’s time to pull all stops.” Michael announced. His presence seemed to have grown, something Johanne had mentioned about his aura increasing in tier, although Travis thought that her explanation wasn’t the whole picture. “After today’s attack, even though we weren’t the ones who attacked first,” he glared at Johanne, “I realized we cannot keep going slow anymore. We need to take some risks. We need to power the fuck up. We have a framework to deal with it, now that the company is up and running and Candle Light division is getting up to speed. I’ve been told the Science division is coming along well. That’s great. What’s not great is having a Security division that can’t protect shit. Or a crippled Candle Light that can’t deal with what’s about to happen. I told you all what I saw in the mana around the dungeon, and you all know that it’s about to reach a small town. It’s doing numbers on our equipment here, and I dare not think what it will do inside a town. What the reactions to it will be. So. You two,” he said as he looked at Trevor and Jennifer, “are effective immediately Level 2 Operators within Candle Light as well as heads of security. It’s time you learn what you have been protecting around here.”

“Wait,” said Trevor. Travis approved of the man’s caution.

“No” interrupted Michael, “we don’t have much time to waste. Josh is surely whining at Carmela’s feet right now, isn’t he?”

Travis nodded. “My men saw him go there, yes.”

“See? Your men. That’s a problem. Integrate within Unity. Create a Spy division, put someone with balls in control of it. Anyway, this means we are out of time. It was a mistake to even get here, but now we can only try our best to fix the situation before it escalates. I want you,” he pointed at Travis, “to get at least another silver card. You,” he looked at Old Dave, “need to get used to more action. You said you were quite active back in the day, no?”

The old man nodded. He looked older, defeated, but there was a hint of pride to how he looked at Michael. Travis knew the old man thought himself finished here. It wasn’t true at all. Old Dave was the true CEO of Unity, dealing with all the messes Travis and Michael and Johanne left in the wake of their hurry. Travis especially had been a source of headaches for the old man, and he knew that without David dealing with his messes, he would not have gotten half as far as he did. Still, Old Dave barely spoke with Michael nowadays, it made sense he thought he was finished.

A twinkle appeared in David’s eye, however. Perhaps he wasn’t as finished as he thought. He nodded. “I did my fair share of scuffles. But I hoped to put that life behind me.”

Michael shook his head. “This attack demonstrated that we aren’t safe even if we hide in the heart of Site 00. At least until we power Unity up with magic. Until then, you are all in danger. So, Dave, I want you to fight. These two are skill stones for [Water Bullet] and  [Stone Wall] which, together with your [Stone Skin] will allow you to grind the first floor easily. As for you two,” he looked at Trevor and Jennifer, “it’s time you see what we are actually dealing with here. What the dungeon is, what kind of dangers there are inside there, and especially what powered individuals are capable of doing. I can’t expect you to do your job in the dark. But first I need you to swear an oath.”

He explained the oath to them, and they took it in stride. Jennifer looked like she wanted to ask questions, but she held back. Only after they were done did Michael speak again.

“Now. Your role will be to watch and take notes for the first delve. Do not interfere. Don’t do anything. Just watch and learn, alright? Once we reach the second floor, we will regroup and discuss strategy. Then the real grind begins. We will keep at it until you two are powerful enough, Travis has the second silver card and Old Dave has grown used to his abilities. Then we will go back to the second floor to rest and strategize. I want to get out of here with a plan to deal with Carmela’s threat from all possible directions.”

“We should also discuss giving access to the dungeon to more people,” said Travis. He had recovered quickly from Michael’s barrage of words. “Especially Security and Candle Light people, but I’m open to considering outsiders as well.”

“Of course,” said Michael, “this is just the beginning.”

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