The Mimic in Monsterland

Liam hurried out of Rita's lab. “Take tomorrow off!” Len yelled after him. He shook his head. Because the next few weeks are going to suck for you. Len finished the call in his thoughts. He turned towards his eccentric partner, Rita who stood in front of her terminal, runes flittering around her eyes.

“Is it really not finished yet?” He asked. It seemed strange how long the gene process was taking in Liam’s case. He needed more information before he could form adequate plans.

She nodded without taking her hands away from her work. “It’s trying to cross reference every known gene with his, marking down every similarity. If my hypothesis is correct, it will be marking down a lot.”

“Fair enough. Let me know as soon as it's done. Is his Watcher Archive entry done?”

“Oh, that took all of six seconds. Watchers will record his every move from now on.”

“Good, that will help. It’s best to give him a bit more freedom. Let him stretch his legs.” And start seeing what this city is really like for himself. “And it also keeps Lirae at bay for some time.”

Rita didn’t say anything else; she was far too absorbed with her own work. But Len liked that about her. The world needed more people like her. Her work ethic and talent will help us understand the secrets baked into our blood. He still couldn’t believe they kicked her out of the main lab. She picked up on using that terminal faster than anyone in history according to her mentor. Len thought about the man. Miss you, buddy. And don’t worry, I’m keeping our dream alive. I will uncover every secret in this shitastic world. I will change it all. No matter the cost.

Len nodded his head, reaffirming his motivations. He stood up and made his way to the lab exit. “See yah later Rita. Don’t burn yourself out playing with your toys.” She responded with a miffed coo. Len walked up the stairs and back into the main entrance hall of his guild.

It was coming along nicely. He didn't love that the gnomes took the day off, but what can you do? He pulled out his Immediate Plans notebook from his dimensional bag, seeing what affairs he had coming up soon. “Hmm. Right, the meeting with my new little rabbit pal is coming up tomorrow night. Might need to pick up some coins for that one. Very interesting, that one. Motivations are boring but her distaste for the current regime and skill set could be quite useful. And she seems to have some interesting connections in the Gloom.”

He bumped his head with his hand. “I’m doing it again. Talking to myself.” He sighed, then pulled out a string of beads from his dimensional bag. "Sorry." He gripped them tight and closed his eyes. After the moment passed, he walked out of the guild through the back door of the training room.

He saw some of the training mannequins were left out. It didn’t surprise him, what with all the commotion today. He grabbed the covering that lay on the ground near them and threw it over.

He walked over to a clear spot in the backyard, gathered flames at his feet, and launched himself in the direction of the recent battlefield. He flew through the air at a leisurely pace this time. Looking over the decimated academy field, Len couldn’t help but think that for an impromptu and slightly poor response time, they managed to keep the destruction at a healthy minimum. No other academies sustained any damage.

He saw a few smoldering craters that contained some strange colored flames and liquids pooling. Ooooh, Daila was pissed. Man, I wish I could have seen it. I’ve only seen her fight once. Manipulating her odd alchemic flames was a fun challenge. He could never get his flames to change colors that drastically.

He continued his scan of the field until he found what he was searching for. The big bald man, Jaren. Hard to miss that shine. Len giggled to himself. Yep, I’m using that at some point. It looked like a few others were standing around him, he could make out two familiar dwarves along with a few other people.

He quenched the flames around his feet as gravity accelerated him down to the ground. He sped up quicker and quicker, the wind blowing on his face. Right before he hit the ground, he ignited the flames once more, stopping him right above the ground. The heat and sudden air pressure caused a small blast of hot air to rush through the area, ruffling everyone's clothes who stood in the vicinity of Len’s landing zone. The people surrounding Jaren all jumped and readied their weapons, undoubtedly thinking another attack was on its way. Fennel raised his shield and pulled his blade out of its sheath with the rest of them. His reaction time is getting better.

Jaren and Herman didn't so much as twitch from Len’s grand entrance. “Stand down!” Jaren and Herman yelled out at the same time. They looked at each other in annoyance. Len smirked. Jaren raised his voice again. “You all have your orders! Burn squads will be out here in an hour so move out! Fennel, you’re with us.”

The young dwarf’s eyes were staring out into the field. After a moment, he perceived the orders and walked up to our group. Hmm. He’s a bit out of sorts.

Jaren finished his barking and gestured towards the wall with his head and walked towards it. Herman and Fennel joined him. Len followed after the three. The Groundsmen worked alongside the wall crafters while they removed the quick patch job and started on the actual repairs.

Herman was the first to speak when they got close to the wall. “Any nasty bastards on the other side?” He asked Jaren, who just shook his head and crossed his arms.

“Nothing out of the ordinary. And that’s what worries me.” He paused and looked up the wall, then back at Herman. “Mind if we go on the other side? It's better to show than tell in this situation.”

Herman nodded. “Sure, the closest guard post is over there. Need to check it out for myself anyhow. And throttle anyone up there.” He snarled as he pointed towards the set of stairs that would take them up the wall. One that Len couldn’t help but think was suspiciously close to where the monsters broke in from. They walked up to the huge staircase.

Herman and Fennel went up first. Herman started speaking with the boy, asking about the battle no doubt. Len walked with Jaren, a few steps behind.

“So, how’d it go with our thorny mistress? Did she relent or are we going to have to do something stupid?” Jaren asked.

“Nah don’t worry. No stupidness is required. She was much easier to convince than I thought.”

“So our new talent is a citizen then?” Jaren asked.

Len nodded. “Yep, no records though, but that was to be expected.”

“Tough. Yet it will be nice not to have to arrange an escort for him. That was a pain.”

“However I do feel bad for Fennel,” Len said.

Jaren raised an eyebrow and looked at the young dwarf currently being given combat advice by his uncle. “Why’s that? What’s he got to do with this?”

Len grinned. “Because of the grueling and hellacious training, you're going to have to put his squad through this month. His squad needs to top the charts in the next raid. Or else our plans will get pushed back again.”

Jaren scoffed. “Our plans, right? Cuz I’m the one with enough notebooks written to fill the bottom floor of the Capitol Building. Well, whatever.” He huffed climbing up the stairs. “And it has to be this month’s raid?”

Len nodded.

Jaren exhaled, and then a small smile grew on his face. “Damn. Those poor souls. And I don’t mean Fennel or Liam. They will probably be fine, it's the rest of the squad I’m not sure about. I will have to get back with Daila and go over everything tomorrow. Probably keep the squad small, easier to train.” Jaren continued grumbling some plans to himself, the man’s grin turning more sinister as he cooked up a training menu.

They arrived at the top of the wall. Len looked down. The elders in the group looked at the landscape for a moment but moved away. Fennel was the only one whose face was filled with wonder. It was quite the experience, seeing the city from this high up, but Len was used to it. The whole being able to fly business numbed him to the sight.

Herman asked for the group to hold off on going down to the other side of the wall for a minute. He wanted to search the post. Apparently, there should have been a full crew in this post. But from what Len could tell, there hadn’t been anyone here since last night.

Len had spent plenty of time in guard posts throughout the years. And this one was no different from the rest of them. A small room, barely enough space to fit four people. It had windows to see out into the Forest and the city. A large brazier hung outside the window to the city. Lighting it was the sign to sound the invasion alarm.

Herman cursed a couple of times under his breath. “Should have brought a scout.”

Len and crew left the dwarf to search the small room. He stayed in there a couple of minutes before returning. “Not a fecking thing. Blast it all to shit. I’m gonna have to run through every damn post on this wall myself this week. And when I find the crew too lazy to work their shift today, I’m going to hang them by their entrails from that window.” The dwarf was fuming.

Len cleared his throat. Herman closed his eyes and took a breath. “Right, let's head down.” He hopped off the wall.

Fennel, who was not at all prepared to see his uncle leap to his death, ran to the edge of the wall and looked down, fear and shock covering his face. He shouted out “Uncle Herman!” in distress. But Jaren and Len knew exactly what was going on.

Len walked over and looked down. Herman was about halfway down now, still descending. But before he got any further. He pulled out his axes and slammed them into the wall. The axe blades slid down the side of the wall, slowing down the dwarf’s descent until he fully stopped just a dozen feet from the ground. He pulled the axes out of the wall and dropped the rest of the way down, landing perfectly fine.

“What the heck uncle?” Fennel said, slumping to the ground.

Jaren jumped down next. He pulled out his double-blade when he got near the bottom. He swung the blade towards the ground. An arc of green energy shot out from the attack and collided with the ground. A giant gust of air flew up the side of the wall, rustling the young dwarf’s hair and almost knocking him down. Len already moved from the side, he knew this move all too well. The blowback from the blast stopped Jaren right above the ground.

Len looked back down and saw Jaren and Herman walking over to the site of the explosion. “Alright Fennel, your turn.” Len grinned sinisterly. Fennel looked down the wall and back up at Len in disbelief. “I can’t do any of that! Where are the stairs?”

“Sure you can, you just got to try.” Len lit a fire right under the dwarf's rear, which sent the boy right over the wall. Fennel cried out the whole way down. Jaren heard it and walked over to the boy’s expected landing zone. He slammed the ground with his fist and a small but powerful whirlwind kicked up in the spot. Leaves and dirt flew around the miniature tornado until a young dwarf’s body was caught in it. It died out soon after and the dwarf hit the ground with a small thud.

Len hopped down and descended slowly with his flames. Mangled monster corpses surrounded the area, proof of Jaren’s squad's work during the break in. He floated over to the others who were looking at the edge of the hole created by the monsters. “See this is what I mean. Len come here, you’re our fire expert let me get your thoughts on this.”

Len kneeled down next to the hole and examined it. Scorch marks covered part of the wall and wrapped around the hole. He touched them and rubbed the soot in his fingers. He sniffed it, it smelled strange.

“Jaren, there weren’t any Red Skinned Salamandras out here, were there?”

“That’s the thing, I didn’t see any fire attuned monsters at all.”

Len closed his eyes, pondering what this could mean. He could only come to one conclusion. “Well, I’m glad I finished his citizenship. Because Lirae is about to be even more pissed at Ferals.”