Chapter 29: Something for Nothing

Delusion is a powerful thing. The mind can convince the brain of falsehoods with frightening ease. Spencer wasn’t under the impression that Mary was suddenly alive again. Nor did he think that he could somehow save her.

No. 

The delusion Spencer was waking up from was thinking that he could hide from the cruel reality of what the world had turned into. That he didn’t have to do something if it was too hard or too painful. If Spencer had simply bit the metaphorical bullet and confronted the grizzly scene at the back of that school bus a few days ago he could have spared Mary’s body and voice from being used in such an evil manner.

He couldn’t face her in life, he couldn’t face her in death, and now he was being forced to face the puppet wearing her skin.

Spencer blinked as an object suddenly flew in his direction. A pedestrian crossing sign had been ripped from the cement and thrown at him like a javelin. There wasn’t time for Spencer to react. Fortunately a shield appeared around him at the last moment. The shimmering shell fractured, but deflected the incoming projectile to the side where it embedded itself into the floor.

“Commander!” Anny pulled Spencer away from the doorway and aggressively pushed her face up into his. “I don’t know what's going on, but I know what that expression is.”

Her pink ponytail bounced as she continued.

“Whatever this is, whatever you’re feeling you have to bottle it up right now. Cork it, stow it, and deal with it later when no one is around!” Anny’s anger stuttered and came to a sudden halt as her own words caught up to her. “Just… put on a mask. Don’t let them see you upset.”

The fact that it was clear she was speaking from experience broke through Spencer's stupor. Bottling up pain, loss, and other negative emotions was a dangerous game, but Anny was correct in that Spencer had to deal with it later.

“Naomi!” Spencer shouted at the ceiling.

Fortunately the ranged DPS engie didn’t ask what Spencer wanted. A volley of high pitched energy blasts erupted from the rooftop above them and the abomination’s layered voices howled in pain.

“Sarah!”

Her name had hardly left his lips before the sword wielder was next to him with her exceptionally strong hands roughly removing Anny’s grip from his shirt. Sarah and Anny glared like the other one was to blame for Spencer’s condition.

“That’s not…” Spencer pushed Sarah towards the front door. “Keep the abomination busy. Don’t get hit. Stay out of range, but keep it in Naomi’s line of sight.”

Sarah schooled her expression back to neutral and darted out of the front entrance.

“Beatrice, down into the kitchen!” Spencer shouted up again.

He hoped the mute engie could hear him over the whine of Naomi’s blasters, but there wasn’t time to verify.

“Get these people out with Beatrice.” Spencer turned Anny towards the man still groaning on the floor of the restaurant. “Back entrance. There are going to be dogs and faceless on us any minute now. Get a few businesses down and find a place to lay low. Sarah, Naomi, and I will follow you as soon as the abomination is either dead or unable to pursue us.”

Anny nodded, but hesitated. “Commander… shouldn’t you stick with me? I-I can shield you if danger is near.”

“Anny we don’t have time.” Spencer scooped his rifle from the ground. “I won’t get close to the thing. I need to stay or Sarah and Naomi won’t disengage if the battle goes poorly.”

Spencer saw the hesitation leave her face in an instant. It wasn’t acceptance, more like a wall coming down. Her own turn to bottle up emotions. Anny nodded and turned away.

“By your order, commander.”

The exterior of the Chili’s now resembled the surface of the moon. Craters littered the ground, sidewalk, and road as Naomi maintained a steady barrage of fire. Spencer could practically smell the barrels of her overheated blasters from here. 

The abomination was fast. Uncomfortably fast considering how uncoordinated it looked earlier. Whenever it caught sight of Sarah it would take off in her direction. A mess of powerful legs churning underneath its lumpy body. Sarah would wait till the last possible second before lunging out of the way. The abomination would dig its heels in to stop, skin scraping off of its feet on the rough ground as it slowed to turn. These turns were where Naomi scored the most direct hits on the creature. Most of its upper body was already burned and pummeled from the energy blasts.

“Maybe we don’t need to be so afraid of these things after all.”

Even as he said it, the creature’s skin bulged at the top. Bubbles formed and pushed outwards on the meshed together skin. Sarah fled back further than normal as the creature came to a sudden halt. Naomi’s blasters stopped firing and Spencer heard the tall engie curse from above. She was overheated and needed to let her weapons cool.

Unfortunate timing to say the least.

The abominations exploded in a geyser of gore. Four red figures shot out of the collapsing body. Two landed on the roof by Naomi, one nearly hit Sarah directly, and the fourth landed in front of the Chili’s main door where Spencer stood.

That laugh echoed around him again.

The figures were miniature versions of the now inanimate pile of flesh splattered across the sidewalk. Each one stood around three feet tall. They were still stitched together organically from different human remains, but on a smaller scale. Three legs sustained it and four arms fumbled at odd angles. The one in front of Spencer looked up, still laughing, and Spencer caught sight of a pair of green eyes.

“I’m sorry I didn’t go back there.” 

Spencer’s words weren’t enough to convey the sorrow in his heart.

Nevertheless, the rifle kicked in his hands as the three three eight round blew a golfball sized hole through the monster’s upper body.

Spencer shouldn’t have been surprised that the thing didn’t drop from the first shot, but he was genuinely taken off guard when the monster didn’t even slow down.

“Oh shit!” Spencer brought his arms up to protect his head as bloodied flailing limbs connected with him.

The world spun as Spencer left his feet and slammed into the front of the restaurant at an odd angle.  His arm scraped along the stucco siding and tore open a large patch of skin. The quarter abomination screamed and stepped forward to attack again, but an energy pulse knocked it back.

This wasn’t the scorching destructive impact of one of Naomi’s shots. It was far weaker, but more controlled. In fact, Spencer could hear Naomi cursing loudly from the rooftop where she fought two of the creatures at the same time. Spencer glanced to the side to find Anny aiming at the monster next to Spencer with her wrist device.

Behind her the group from the kitchen huddled next to the far corner of the building. Even as Spencer watched Beatrice appeared behind the group actively beating down a hellhound while she protected the retreating civilians.

Their retreat had evidently run into problems.

“Stay down, commander!” Anny instructed Spencer before hitting the quarter abomination twice more.

The monster shrieked in pain, but stayed on its feet. Anny gritted her teeth and twisted something up on her device. Spencer snagged his rifle from the ground and chambered another round.

Neither of them got a chance to fire at the monster again. Sarah’s dark blade severed the creature in half from the top to the bottom. Her own quarter abomination lay dead a short distance away. Sarah stepped through the creature in an elegant rush. A “business as usual” attitude towards the deformed humanoid falling to pieces on either side of her pristine black dress. Sarah’s eyes locked onto Spencer’s bleeding arm.

“Commander.” She stepped forward.

Naomi shouted in pain from above. Spencer leapt to his feet and craned his neck to try and see what was happening up top, but Naomi was too far back from the edge.

“Sarah!” Spencer laced his fingers together and crouched down in preparation to support her foot. “I need you to help Naomi.”

Sarah only hesitated for a second before she stepped forward, planted her foot in Spencer’s palms, and launched herself up onto the roof. Further down the sidewalk Beatrice’s shield caught a second hellhound mid jump. Anny flicked her wrist in the other shield user’s direction and a fresh bubble shell appeared around Beatrice. In the meantime Anny reached into her bag and retrieved a gauze wrap and antiseptic. Spencer could change his passive to lifesteal to heal up the wound, but it wasn’t bad enough to remove his one shot protection just yet.

“I’m going to run out of supplies quickly at this rate, commander.” Anny noted sternly.

The older woman from the kitchen hobbled up to Spencer while Anny cleaned up his arm wound. She had the police officer’s arm over her shoulder to support some of the disoriented man’s weight. They had matching rings. A married couple it would seem. Their son followed close behind. The younger woman trailed behind, wide eyes frantic now that they were in the open.

“Do you have a plan?” The cop asked in a strained voice.

Spencer grimaced, partially because he didn’t have a firm plan, but mostly because Anny dumped antiseptic over his wound before wrapping it.

“We need to get up somewhere off of ground level.” Spencer glanced up and down the once bustling commercial hub.

The ground shook as something on the opposite side of the Chili’s crunched. At the same time a notification appeared in Spencer’s vision.

‘Congratulations on completing a quest.

Something Lost, Something Gained - Complete!

• Defeat 1 Abomination

• Reward: Unique Skill, Daily Revival, unlocked for your system.’

Spencer’s lungs stopped breathing. There it was.

He pressed the skill and his menu automatically navigated to his skills page where a definition appeared.

‘Daily Revival

• Cooldown: 24 hours
• Range: 10 feet
• Target: A deceased member of your team who is still on your active roster.
• Casting Time: Instantaneous
• Casting Cost: How much are you willing to lose?’

The last line gave Spencer pause. There should be defined terms for him to weigh against. Instead it was an open ended question. 

Was the system toying with him? What would happen if he activated it? Surely it wouldn’t kill Spencer outright, but what if it did something sinister? Spencer had been prepared to lose all of the credits he’s earned so far to bring Andrea back, but this added layer of uncertainty was cruel.

There was a shout from above, Naomi again. Spencer glanced up just in time to spot the tall blaster wielding engie falling back first over the edge. Without hesitation Spencer darted forward with his arms up to break Naomi’s fall. A metal shape nearly took Spencer’s head off as Beatrice collided with him. Her shield spun up to meet Naomi part of the way down. The hover shield absorbed some of her momentum and made it a lot easier on both Beatrice and Spencer’s arms when she hit the tangled pair.

Beatrice signed out a quick apology to Spencer, but he waved it away.

“I’m just glad we caught her.” Spencer’s eyes dropped to Naomi and his heart sank.

Sharp claws had torn through the side of Naomi’s business suit. The purple jacket darkened as blood seeped out. Naomi hissed and looked away from her own wound.

“If either of you say anything about me being heavy I will dropkick you across the street, darling.” Naomi warned Spencer and Beatrice harshly.

Beatrice met Spencer’s gaze and made an exaggerated round motion over her chest making fun of the source of Naomi’s weight.

Naomi blushed. “You know for a mute you’re entirely too loud sometimes.”

Beatrice stuck a tongue out playfully.

“What happened?” Spencer asked as Anny stepped forward, rolled her eyes, and got to work patching Naomi up.

Her naturally boosted healing from being an engie would stitch her wound closed in a matter of hours, but Anny still needed to control the bleeding a little.

“Faceless. Two of them.” Naomi gritted her teeth and looked away as Anny dabbed the deep gouge in her side. “We got the first, but the second hit me from the side before I could react.”

Beatrice tugged Spencer’s arm sharply. He turned to find a pair of hellhounds sliding around the corner of the Chili’s.

“Can you-”

Spencer’s orders were cut short by another pair appearing at the opposite corner of the building behind the group of people still waiting to be told where to go.

“Down, down!” Spencer shouted. “Beatrice take your side I’ve got this one!”

The Chili’s employee screamed and threw herself against the wall. The family gasped and dropped to the ground. Given his limited mobility the police officer hit the ground hard. Spencer heard him grunt as the air was driven forcibly from his lungs. There was no time to worry about it, however, as the hellhounds had already started to sprint at the group with terrifying speed.

“Let me up!” Naomi shouted right as Spencer fired at the nearest hound.

The round hit the creature’s front right leg. It yelped, but barely slowed.

Spencer slammed the bolt back and forward again.

“Come on!” He shouted, nerves hitting new highs as the distance between himself and his target closed by the second.

The second shot hit the hellhound squarely in the head. It hadn’t even dropped to the ground before Spencer swung his barrel to the second dog.

Too late.

The monster’s rows of teeth opened wide as it left its six legs and leapt the distance between it and Spencer. He reflexively turned his gun to the side and managed to wedge it in between the creature’s powerful jaws. It clamped down, narrowly missing Spencer’s fingers by inches. The metal groaned and bent as the hellhound snapped its head back. The force of the motion ripped the weapon free from Spencer’s grip.

A bright flash came from Spencer’s right as a bolt of energy liquified the hellhound’s head. Naomi stepped forward and kicked the corpse off of Spencer before any of the melting flesh could drip on him. Anny rushed past, already casting a bubble to help Beatrice fighting a dozen feet behind Spencer.

A crash of metal and glass sounded from across the street as six more hellhounds tore through the car dealership.

“We’re being overrun.” Spencer coughed painfully. “Naomi.”

Naomi put a stabilizing hand on Spencer’s shoulder and stepped forward. The tall engie held her injured side with one hand and winced even as she took aim at the fresh wave of enemies barreling down on them.

Spencer’s hand flicked up to open his menu. It resumed where he had last left it, on his skills screen.

‘Casting Cost: How much are you willing to lose?’

One more capable fighter would drastically improve their chances at getting these people to safety.

Spencer took stock of his surroundings.

Naomi’s red hot blasters were busy laying down fire across the street, Beatrice had a deep cut on her leg and two hellhounds dead at her feet, Anny was split between firing her own weapon around Beatrice and tracking the hellhound progress across the street to shield Naomi as soon as she needed it, and the sounds of sword slicing through flesh indicated that Sarah was still fighting the faceless one on top of the roof.

If his team knew this ability came with an unclear price to pay they would demand Spencer never use it even if they were the ones grayed out on his roster, but there was only one way to find out what the cost truly was.

“Please don’t kill me.” Spencer whispered. His plea aimed at both his team and his system.

Spencer lifted his finger and tapped the ability’s activation button.