Chapter 128: 118. Underworld Intro (III)

Team Struggle had done research before approaching the Rubare Familia. They were a well established crime syndicate around Central Florida. They had deep pockets filled with political connections that kept them afloat from legal troubles.

They weren’t the people who had crossed the O’Kellys, however. This was back when Rick had gotten into a fight that led to a bloodbath and his father getting hospitalized. Back on the Friday when the Yoroachian were first discovered.

To Rick’s annoyance, the Serranos– the reason behind his father’s hospitalization– weren’t involved with the assassination attempt on Hailey that spurned Team Struggle and Team Vigilante Vengeance’s active hunt. Rick would have to find another time to bury the hatchet with the Serranos.

Before visiting the Rubares, Casey had convinced Jay to contact her sisters. They’d used a payphone at a bus depot while the area was mostly empty– Jay had found random nickels and dimes lying around using his spatial-g and plucked them with his powers (Rick joked how that was the most usefully mundane thing he’d seen from Jay and his gravity magic).

It had been Rick who fielded the idea to look into who owned the office spaces and rented them out, because someone would want to make cash off of the destruction if they were crime-savvy enough. Again, Rick had been hoping for the Serranos. Checking in with Emily and using her gifts to quickly sift through public data, media, and fake news had led to the Rubares getting highlighted.

At the same time, the third and final big crime syndicate in their city had drawn Team Vigilante Vengeance’s attention. The team had busted into a warehouse acting as a server farm. The servers contained people’s data from all around Central Florida, but a significant bulk focused on the Champions. They had private information that angered the Allens even further. Lots of embarrassing selfies that would be illegal for adults to view, but was probably worth lots of money now. Jay knew at this point that the antagonists would die horrible deaths, and there was no saving them from Emily and Hailey.

The servers belonged to the Ivankov Mafia, a new age Russian group. It looked like the Ivankovs had sold the Champions' personal data to the cafe bomber, a single splintercell member of the World Knife. The cafe bomber was an individual working clandestinely and alone for the Benefactors. Which meant that the trail Team Struggle was following would end with a different splinter cell, whoever that could be. By the time this night was over, Jay was sure the Ivankovs would be obliterated as an Uptown Mafia group.

Maybe a few of their younger and more innocent members might be spared if the Rank 3 Death [Medium] and Unseelie [Mage] found a smidge of mercy along the way. Jay could only hope that Tim could keep the girls from going too far despite him being Rank 2 as an Endless [Starter Fighter]. Jay figured Tim had a bit more morality in him than you’d expect from a Junker. At least more than Rick.

“Deep in thought, Commander?” Casey asked, winding her tail around to pat him on the face. She had to sit forward on the edge of her seat to keep from pressing it against the wooden dining chair.

She wouldn't be uncomfortable sitting all the way back. She sat forward to spare the possibility of breaking the chair if she flexed her tail hard enough. Despite her catlike movements and seemingly dainty grace, Casey could break all the mundane stuff around her without trying.

So could Jay.

Sitting at the table while the Rubares put their daughters to bed felt strangely pedestrian. They’d spent part of the night getting bombed and putting a hurting on mafia, so the lack of action was interesting.

“I’m thinking about the inhumane acts Emily and Hailey will commit in anger,” Jay said. “I hope they don’t take it too far.”

“They’d pushed us to be this way,” Casey said. “They should’ve known the circles of hell we’d bring them for crossing us.”

“That, Casey, makes you sound like a villain,” Jay said. “I get it. We don’t have time to play it soft. I should be home helping Kleo or keeping an eye on YoAnna or trying to convince world leaders to stay friends with us. Hailey should be home having a few bottles of wine right now. The rest of us should be either resting, training, working, or going out to deal with monster infestations and violent Systemized. But we’re here. And we’re angry. But we can’t be so angry that we forget we’re supposed to be heroes.”

“Do you have more to get off your chest?” Casey asked.

“Nah, I don’t.”

“We are heroes, Commander,” Casey said.

“It doesn’t feel like that some nights,” Jay said.

She reached over slowly and touched his chin. She guided his face toward hers as she leaned closer. “You wasted one of your most powerful moves to save Systemless. Even the jerk who offended Hailey. We see this. We understand what you want. Some of us will push the boundaries and go further than you like. But we aim to follow your lead, Pantheon Commander.”

“I guess you have a point,” Jay said before Casey took her hand away and left him tingling where she’d touched.

To be fair, Jay had seen his own morals slide up and down the black and white spectrum lately. Jay did have the weak laundromat man tossed into a corner filled with hungry monster rats. The acts of violence came easier to him when he leaned into it thanks to his Titles, especially with the theatrics of [Young Virtuous of Violent Ballads].

It didn’t make him the rabid killer like [Omen Bearer of the Apocalypse] had, but Young Virtuoso tended to highlight ways to turn violence into a musical number with thematic beats. It was partially the reason why Team Struggle took the long way to Room 413 rather than Jay gravity magicking them straight up to it. Mundane logic didn’t always work with the System and magic of the Multiverse. Logic and reality got curved and manipulated by forces greater nowadays. Case and point, the Rubares just finished putting their daughters to bed when Rick arrived at the door and knocked.

The timing was too perfect.

Like it was scripted.

Mr Rubare answered it, and Rick strode in,  grinning while covered in dark bruises. The Disable Gravity ritual was gone from his shoulder. His underwear remained intact. Rick accepted the offer by Mrs Rubare to use the restroom before taking a blanket to wrap around himself and sit down with his fellow Protectorates. He’d gotten up here pretty easily the second go around since Mr Rubare had told his men to stand down. They were already down after getting beaten up or killed, but Mr Rubare ensured the still living thugs wouldn’t try to go at Rick for round two.

“Anyone want hot cocoa?” Mr Rubare asked.

“Yeah,” Jay said.

“You know what, I’ll have some.” Rick stuck a thumb at Casey. “Her, too. She’s trying to play coy.”

“And that’s why I hoped the other guy would knock you into the next block,” Casey growled.

“He nearly did. Too bad for him he didn’t invest in Poise,” Rick said smarmily. “I tossed him pretty far. He might survive the landing. Depends on if he has enough Mana. He kept leaning on his toughening Skills and Talents without thinking of the cost.”

Talents didn’t usually cost too much energy. But the preferential Attribute boosters like Rick’s [Resilient Juggernaut] or Jay’s [Perceptive Highness] drank up Mana quickly when fully empowered. Rick har forced the Level 30 Goliath to use up Mana on a costly Talent. Mana was one of the Goliath’s disadvantaged stats along with his lack of magical defense. Then Rick had cast Disable Gravity using the ritual on his shoulder to simulate the Goliath as a weightless person in Zero-G. Then Rick had thrown the guy into the sky.

Jay had kept track of the fight with a segment of his Intellect dedicated to it. It reminded Jay of a street level super brawl from a comic book. Just like when Hulk and the Thing fought blow for blow the first time.

“I give it a fair Chance the guy survives and becomes a recurring villain of yours,” Jay said.

“Sweet,” Rick replied. “I forgot to get his name. Will that increase or decrease his Chances?”

Jay shrugged, holding back a smile as the Rubares watched with a mixture of fear, frustration, and confusion at the Protectorates hanging out at their dining table like a couple of teenage knuckleheads talking about a game. The hot cocoa got passed around before Mr Rubare and his wife sat across from the Protectorates and waited at Jay’s mercy.

Jay took a small sip while it was scalding hot for a Systemless. It was quite good. He took a second sip.

“Right now,” Jay said, “the Ivankovs are facing the wrath of another team of Champions. They will most likely be slain close to the last man and removed as part of your Uptown mafia alliance. And the Serranos are still licking their wounds after meeting Rick when he was still a weak Rank 1. He’s far more stronger than those humble beginnings now.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Mr Rubare said. “He threw my best guy into the sky, and he’s the strongest and biggest man I’ve ever met.”

Rick grinned fiercely.

“By the end of the night, Mr and Mrs Rubare,” Jay continued, “you will most likely hold a stronger position in the Central Florida underworld. That all depends on how deeply involved you are in angering the Protectorates. You have to tell the truth, even if it’ll most likely kill you. I’ll be the judge.”

“You’re only seventeen,” Mr Rubare said incredulously. “How can you be the judge of anything?”

“Just like how I can judge this is decent cocoa in my hands,” Jay said. “You’re in my hands, too. Are you a decent cup of cocoa? Or will I pour you down the drain?”

Mrs Rubare grabbed her husband’s hand and held it tightly.

Mr Rubare combed through his hair furiously as fear, anxiety, and little sparks of anger came up in his emotional-g. He cussed under his breath, said a prayer to a god, and looked straight at Jay's multicolored eyes.

“I knew they wanted to whack somebody,” Mr Rubare said. “I didn’t know who. They had specific requests. A large, military-grade, untraceable rifle. With the military and government being so active around the city, you can’t sneak that stuff through if you’re not from here. Still, that’s not too hard to find. It’s Florida, right? But they wanted me to do it. And they wanted a place with a good view of the cafe. That made me uncomfortable hearing that, but these people were the type of people I couldn’t refuse. I took their money. I pointed them to a place that was under a business venture of mine. I gave them what they wanted. Business conducted. I didn’t ask any further questions.”

“Who were they?” Jay asked.

“Three weirdos,” Mr Rubare said.

Rick snorted and gave Jay a leer.

Casey’s cat ears tilted at odd angles. Something about Mr Rubare’s statement caught her attention.

“What made them weirdos?” Casey asked carefully, which got Jay to feel more curious. Even Rick started to catch on to Casey’s tendency to ask the right questions.

“One of them looked the part,” Mr Rubare explained. “Big viking looking guy with tribal tattoos on his forearms. Could be German. Don’t know. I just know he was a big guy. And his tatted forearms were bigger than baseball bats. He had a weird accent that I can’t place. European for sure, but I know a good amount of Euro people, and his accent is different. And he only had one eye. He was the one that did most of the talking. And by most of the talking, I mean he asked a few things. Then he told me a few things. And he kept conversations to a minimum. He had this weird darkness to him, too. And he seemed older than he looked.”

Now Jay was very curious. He felt the hairs on his neck stand for some reason. The description was way too detailed for this assassin to be some random World Knife guy. Maybe he was a superstar among assassins, a special agent trusted by the Benefactors. Still, the description of the man captured the imagination, even if it was incomplete.

“Tell us the next?” Casey urged.

“An Asian lady. And the more I talk about this, the more ludicrous it feels, but she was wearing a kimono with cherry blossom flower patterns on white. I know, that’s ridiculous. It’s also a pretty loud statement to make when you’re making dealings like these. But that was her thing. Pale skin. Straight black hair. Ruby red lips. She gave me the creeps everytime she looked at me. Mia wanted to stay close to me because of her.”

“She reminded me of a vampire,” Mrs Rubare said. Her husband tried to talk that down but Mrs Rubare hushed him in return. “I’m serious. She kept looking at Marco like she would take him off to the side and drain away his life. He didn’t see it for some reason, but everytime she smiled, I saw these two white points sticking out from between her lips. Fangs.”

“I swear, Mia, if I lose my head, it’s because they think we’re blowing smoke up their ass,” Mr Rubare complained.

“Why would I think you’re doing that?” Jay asked. “I know you're telling the truth. Please, keep going. You’re cementing your importance to me as you speak.”

“Oh, okay!” Mr Rubare perked up right away. “So, as my wife was saying, the Asian lady might be something dangerous behind the geisha guise. Then you had the oddest person there. She might have quirks you’re familiar with, um, how should I refer to you?”

He was directing that to Jay, which made him pause to think. Normally, he’d be Commander Luckrun in official matters. But he might want to change it up in different environments. The best he could think of was keeping it simple.

“Jay would do.”

“Well, Jay, she had a character that reminded me of you. Or, more specifically, your mother.”

Mr Rubare started to pale when he noticed the air getting heavier around him. Not enough to crush him. But it would make him uncomfortable.

“You know my mom?” Jay asked.

“She’d done work for me a while back,” Mr Rubare said with a dry mouth. “It kept slipping my mind up until now. I mean, I saw the news surrounding you and her, but it’s hard to believe sometimes. I, uh, once babysat you.”

Jay arched an eyebrow.

“I wasn’t supposed to be a babysitter. I was just checking on one of my businesses. It was a meat deli. Your mom had to pick up certain packages from there and have them delivered to the clientele. She saw me and told me to watch over you and didn’t give me much of a choice. She also threatened me with a machete if anything happens to you. She was… fifteen at the time. She was the scariest fifteen-year-old girl I ever met.”

“And I was two,” Jay said, sifting back into his memories of when he was younger. His Intellect remembered Mr Rubare playing peekaboo with him until Mom came back after a successful delivery.

Rick and Casey gave Jay a couple of questioning looks.

“Jay-o-boy, how are you connected to everything?” Rick asked. “Your dad was a ruthless gangster. Apparently this guy here was your babysitter. What’s next? You were always a wizard?”

Jay shrugged sheepishly.

Casey smirked.

“Was the other one Haitian?” Jay asked, redirecting the conversation.

“Seemed like it. She had the accent. But she was white, believe it or not. She had blue eyes and blonde dreadlocks of all things. She already stood out, but then she stood out even more because she couldn’t stop from standing out. She drank the whole time these people were here meeting with me. It was something god awful rough in that dark brown bottle of hers. Like rum that had been dug up from under the sand after being buried for centuries. One whiff nearly knocked me out. She wore all white but had on no shoes. Carried a black rooster in her arm like it was a pet cat! She had a black pig follow her around like a fat dog. She didn’t seem like she cared to be there, but the Asian lady kept making sure she sat and played nice. And the big viking bloke looked like he wanted to strangle her.”

“What does all of that mean to you, Jay?” Casey asked.

Jay was careful with his gravity senses after the last time. Something in the 4th dimension didn’t want him looking too closely when Benefactors were involved. It might be the same reason why YoAnna couldn’t find them. The Benefactors have somehow commanded the stream of time that was interconnected in the 4th dimension and barred a section of it from getting examined. And if YoAnna couldn’t use her divinity to spy upon the Benefactors, Jay damn sure couldn't use his gravity.

“They are not like any assassins we’ve come across,” Jay said. “Either they are a special unit of crazies similar to us. Or they’re something wholly unique. Maybe their eccentric Class derivatives?”

“When was this arranged?” Rick asked.

“Two nights ago.”

“Definitely not enough time to threaten us if they’re from out of town,” Casey said.

“They could've been in hiding for longer than that,” Jay said.

“The Haitian woman didn’t seem like someone who’d wait around though,” Rick said seriously. He drummed his fingers near his mug of cocoa before taking a sip. “Those bombs. Minor Hellfire being used. That’s advanced stuff, ain’t it?”

“Yeah,” Jay answered. “And they’d figured out concealment magic.” They might have taken the bodies of dead Yoroachians and ripped out that magic from them.

“Could they’ve been here for that long without us knowing?” Casey asked, rubbing her chin.

“The drunk woman in the white dress,” Mrs Rubare blurted out, “mentioned Miami. She talked about getting her favorite drink there.”

“Sounds too purposeful,” Rick said.

“I agree,” Casey said.

“This is troubling,” Jay said. Because this sounded like the Champions were getting led around purposefully with little bread crumbs. But the bread crumbs were explosives, obvious descriptions of their enemies, and the trail leading to Miami.

But that didn’t make much sense. Most of the devil flakes blew either west, north, or along the Atlantic currents. People in South Florida, especially Miami, were the least likely to gain Systemized powers. The MPC agents stationed there hadn’t seen much activity from the World’s Knife organization. Or they hadn’t reported such. Unless things had recently changed.

Jay finished his cup of cocoa and asked the Rubares for more details. He tried to be as intentful as Old Malcolm when it came to questions, no matter how small or simple they sounded. Jay would even rephrase his questions. It was a measure to dig up clues that hadn’t been roused by the right question phrased the right way. 

Doing this made Jay hurt a little. It made him wonder if there had been a way to save Old Malcolm from the Death Flag. Or was it par for the course, granting the Champions more power by meeting Gatanna under the friendliest terms?

“I think that covers it,” Jay said, his eyes glimmering as the Rubares slouched in their seats. They were exhausted.

“I’ve been in and out of interrogation rooms with bad cops that hadn’t been this intense,” Mr Rubare said. “Jay, son–”

“Don’t call me son,” Jay said.

Mr Rubare shivered. He gingerly picked up where he left off. “Is it really true you slaughtered five hundred assassins? And a thousand gangsters, along with the Roach King?”

“Just like it’s true that only the teenage goddess and the people’s hero could keep me in control,” Jay said. 

“Did your mother end the Tonton Macoute all on her own?” Mr Rubare hedged.

“Yeah, she did.”

Jay watched Mr Rubare think through his next statement carefully. Jay was uncomfortable, but he was not trying to show it. The growing context of his mom’s activities to raise him while living the desperate life of a teenage illegal immigrant was staggering. Jay had brushed it off because things had gotten way better when Mom started writing and making money. This was when he entered daycare, when the Zhous and the Hernandezes entered his life, and when YoAnna became his first biggest fan. But that didn’t take away from the struggle his mom had been through in their early years together, and now that struggle showed up again in different forms.

“How is she?” Mr Rubare asked, finding the worst question possible.

You are reading story The Gravity Freak of Dungeons and Monsters: System Portal Fantasy at novel35.com

“She’s good,” Jay lied.

“Is there anything else you need from us?” Mrs Rubare asked, redirecting the conversation to business. Either she wanted to get the Protectorates out of her home as soon as possible, or she sensed a big landmine ready to go off asking about the mother of the devilish kid with gravity powers.

“I may have a need for you in the future,” Jay said. “Things will run differently now. You are beholden to the Protectorates. While you were ignorant of the nature of the plot posed against us specifically, you are accomplices for providing aid to what you recognized as dangerous people out to whack somebody. And making a profit. Since that somebody was one of ours, you will be held accountable.”

“How so?” Mr Rubare asked.

“By helping the Crime Chair with anything he needs while serving Protectorate interests,” Jay said.

“Who’s the Crime Chair?” Rick asked. “When did we get that? I wasn’t told of this?”

“What an idiot,” Casey muttered.

“As Vice-Chair, a power appointed to me by the Pantheon Leader and the Acting Pantheon Leader, I hereby declare Richard O’Kelly as the Crime Chair of the Protectorates.”

Rick acquired a new Title!  Old Title replaced! [Precursor of the System] → [Crime Chair of the Multiverse Protectorate Pantheon]!

“Oh, nice,” Rick said. “So I’m in charge of crime?”

“Policing it. Regulating it. Making sure gangs and whatnot play nice. I’m not saying you have to end crime forever, but just keep it under control,” Jay said. “And don’t let me hear about anything that deals with human enslavement. Which means end that as soon as you find it, Crime Chair.”

The air wavered with purple ripples as Jay’s eyes glowed menacingly. Rick nodded right away, feeling how serious Jay was on the subject.

“We have to listen to Rick?” Mrs Rubare asked, worried. “Can we have the other twin instead?”

Mr Rubare winced.

“Fair question, fair question, I probably deserve the concern behind it,” Rick said. “Trust me when I say I get reminded of the consequences of my actions a lot. I get reminded of a lot of consequences these days. So, trust me again when I say I’m learning fast, and I’ll do better. I promise.”

Jay tried not to look impressed. Rick was swallowing his pride as a Junker to appeal to someone not only beneath him on the new totem pole of power, but also an Uptown Mafia type that wouldn’t think twice to cross a Junker if it would get them an extra buck. But all the Champions and their leadership knew a single fact that was beating them on the head as they continued this reckless journey of theirs.

They needed the help of adults.

No matter how powerful the Champions get. No matter how easily they could kill other people. No matter the great dangers they thwart. They were part of a society, one that might snap and break apart with the spread of the apocalypse, but as of now, they were still maintaining societal norms. And the people supporting them existed in those norms and wanted to keep the best parts. Like the internet. Like having electricity and working sewage. Being able to watch live TV and new episodes of their favorite shows. And making calls to people whenever and wherever. A lot of these things functioned because there were adults trained in maintaining that stuff. And part of the ideals of YoAnna’s deliverance of the System was to merge the old with the new and not disrupt too much of the infrastructure.

That might not be possible anymore with Earth. But that didn’t take away from Jay and his Champions needing every help they could get to cover all the angles of attacks and disruption their enemies would exploit. The Benefactors couldn’t bomb the Pantheon Estate directly, YoAnna’s magic prevented that. But they had the ability to hurt the Champions and set up clever traps and outmaneuvers.

Did they factor for Rubare to stay alive as a loose end after Jay figured out the latest bomb threat? Were they still in Central Florida or had they flown the coop to Miami? And why did the description of these strangers make Jay feel worried? 

The descriptions were very detailed and filled with character. The descriptions made it way too easy to imagine these people. They weren’t nondescript assassin-types. They weren’t faceless people ready to die for their cause. It was as if Jay was meant to know them even though he had never met these people before.

“That concludes this meeting,” Jay said, getting up. He padded over to the door with Casey and Rick following. “I hope you don’t mind my Champions taking your stuff.”

Rick had the blanket. Casey had the coat with the fur lining the collar.

“They can have it,” Mrs Rubare said with a forceful smile.

“Rick will keep in contact with you on his needs. Treat those as if they are my needs. And treat my needs as if they come from our [Godling], the teenage goddess.”

“Understood, and thank you for your kindness, Jay,” Mr Rubare said.

Kindness?

Jay planned to milk him for everything he, Rick, and Tim could think of. Jay supposed he’d spare Mr Rubare a second thought since he’d given his mom work and babysat Jay years ago. But that was about it.

The three walked down the stairs and passed the hired goons slowly healing from their beatings and the deadmen they were gathering up. Some of the goons looked away in fear. Others glared like they would rather risk their lives and die than accept defeat.

Jay gave them little mind as he directed his procession back to the gutter just so he could kill off the monster rats himself. The hired goons weren’t capable of doing it at the moment. Regardless of the rats keeping to themselves and feasting on bad guys, the monsters should be slain before they grew and caused further trouble.

A block away from the Rubares, Team Struggle came across more giant rats terrorizing some homeless Junkers. All the rain and water tended to make these monsters more mobile, leading to increased attacks.

Jay redirected Team Struggle to assist the homeless. Rick gathered the rats with a quick application of [Hit Me] and a pulse of his Red Affinity to attain the attention of only the monsters. Casey lashed out with quick and critical hits against as many rats as she could reach as they clawed and nipped at Rick.

Once the two had a critical mass of monster rats to themselves, Jay handled the rest. He used a combination of [Weighted Touch] at a distance to make the rats heavier, then he used [Dance Floor Relativity] and [Graviton Wall] to plant a gravity dash pad pointed at the nearest wall. He splattered a good amount of monster rats against the wall until one big rat appeared.

Level 20 Giant Rat Queen.

“That’s not good,” Jay said.

“Why?” Rick asked.

“I’ve talked to Frank over the monster levels,” Casey said as she flipped over the giant rat and landed a mid air kick that stunned the creature. “The higher the monster levels on Systemized animals, the higher the levels on anything weirder.”

The System would give lump sums of Experience and levels and even ranks to certain creatures to up the difficulty for the Protectorates. Despite all of the Systemized people with Class derivatives, they were still Unregulated– that term fell out of fashion quickly once the military made official their Systemized program.

None of the Unregulated truly mattered to the System unless they were directly a part of the pantheon, and the System seemed to take this spread of the apocalypse that YoAnna couldn’t contain and run with it as its playground to deliver more challenges to the Protectorates. It was as if the world was becoming a big violent video game, and the Protectorates had to navigate the game as the rules shifted and changed and turned against them.

“Are those three weirdo assassins powered up more than other Unregulated?” Casey asked after slaying the monster rat queen. “Maybe they were the best assassins, and the System cheated to give them more power faster.”

“No,” Jay said, shaking his head. “It’ll do that for beasts. Or something beyond that is an actual cryptid. But not for people. They should only get Experience boosts from the devil flakes. And that has a limit, too.”

“It’s a little concerning, Jay-o-boy,” Rick said after pulping another rat’s head and tossing the corpse away. “I don’t like it when other people outsmart us. You’re supposed to be outsmarting them. What’s got you tripping around like a lame-o?”

Jay frowned. “I don’t have an answer to that right now. I’m sorry.”

Rick flinched in surprise to Jay’s honest and heartfelt apology. Before Rick could apologize in return, Casey flew in and kicked him in the face. It wasn’t a powerful kick, and Rick was a tough Champion, but it stumbled him a bit anyway. He glared at Casey as she stood behind their commander, framing him with her body.

“I shouldn’t criticize,” Rick muttered, looking down. “I can’t do half of what you can do, Commander.”

“It’s okay,” Jay said. “I’m not offended.”

Rick fell into a sulking silence the rest of the way to the rendezvous with Team Vigilante Vengeance. Emily and Hailey hugged Casey as soon as they three reunited. Tim and Rick nodded at each other, the twins breaking out a box of cigarettes for a smoke shared between them.

Then all five Champions faced their Commander on a public square in front of a park. It was just breaking dawn, too, and the rain finally let up for a bit. Junkers in tents and sleeping bags around the park looked with a wary eye over at the Protectorates.

“How much killing did Team Vigilante Vengeance do?” Jay asked.

“A dozen,” Emily answered as the de facto team leader of her group. She’d been doing the vigilante/superhero thing for a while, after all. Just like Casey and Rick, Emily’s team was tatted up with spellcraft rituals they hadn’t gotten to use. The stuff would fade off in time or they had to insert shut-off runes to disable the rituals. “I’ll be honest. It was for my own self-satisfaction. But afterward, we simply subdued them and turned them over to law enforcement. We gave instructions to prepare the suspects for MPC interrogations.”

“I focused on finding the main person who collected our private info so heinously,” Hailey said. “We found her. I only needed five minutes to pick her brain for everything we needed. And for me to feel a bit better. She didn’t survive.”

“I injured some of them. No kills.” Tim shrugged.

Jay nodded sternly. Inside, he was relieved. He’d thought it would be an absolute massacre. Team Vigilante Vengeance didn’t go all out. He could understand why they would, but they didn’t lose their heads completely. Pun not intended in Hailey’s case.

“Okay,” Jay said. “Then I’ll speak for Team Struggle. We didn’t produce as many results as yours. But Rick’s the Crime Chair now. He will be the head of the underworld and crime syndicates.”

Rick got a round of applause. He was now the 6th Champion to be anointed by Jay with a Chair seat, replacing one old Title for a new one that gave them some System advantages toward the extra duties. There were a total of nine subservient positions under YoAnna, Kleo, and Jay.

Hailey: Public Chair

Frank: War Chair

Brit: Spirit Chair

Mike: Magic Chair

Tim: Loot Chair

Rick: Crime Chair

Ms Zhou: 1st Adult

Mr Hernandez: 2nd Adult

Ms Luckrun: Evil Adult

“Do I still get to moonlight as Death Maiden?” Emily asked.

“I might even send you myself just to keep people in line,” Rick said with a shrug. “Good move on Jay’s part, really. Can’t remove crime or corruption. It’ll always exist.”

“I’m willing to test that theory,” Emily said, leaving it at that.

Jay wondered about making Emily the Justice Chair.

He decided against it. He was not yet sure about Emily’s morality. He wished he could see the balanced Emily again, but that may never come to fruition. He would have to wait and see how Emily solidifies her personality.

“Did you learn anything about the shooter?” Hailey asked tensely.

“Yes,” Jay said. “And that’s a discussion we’ll have at home. For now, we need to clean up the streets before we head back. It’s getting flooded with giant rats.”

“The thing for Frank is coming up pretty soon,” Hailey said with a false smile. She was not pleased by Jay’s results. He would have to make it up to her.

But it would have to be after they clean up.

Jay tapped on [Commanding Gravitas], the air warbling with purple ripples as he spoke. “Champions, kill the giant rat infestation as fast as possible and keep defenseless people safe.”

“Yes, Commander!” shouted his Champions.

Without an ounce of hesitation, they moved quickly to fulfill his commands. They moved like fast blowing gales, especially Emily and Hailey since they were Rankers. Their [Ranker 60] Talent was truly something special, raising them to a power level that was above Jay’s stats in a lot of areas.

Rank 3 was when you truly started to become more of a force of nature than a person. The Ranker Talents denoted how much further you could boost your Attributes passively or with more willpower for greater results. Basically, at any point, Emily and Hailey could exude a range from 30% to a maximum of 60% of their Attribute power using the Ranker Talent alone.

Getting [Ranker 60] was the highest Ranker Percentile at Rank 3. Doug as the Roach King had only achieved [Ranker 45]. Other monsterized [Freak] derivatives have achieved less with [Ranker 30]. They had cheated with the System evolution, eating monsters and becoming monsterized themselves for a quick power rather than working for it like the Protectorates, hence their lesser Ranker Percentiles.

But that could still make a huge difference between peak Rank 2 and low Rank 3, which was enough to give Jay’s Champions a challenge during the Junkside War. Challenges that pushed certain Champions to greater heights in their personal pursuits of glory.

It was safe to say that all of the Champions would get [Ranker 60]. Dennis had achieved it as the first Champion Jay had evolved through their Experience pooling contract. The big guy had done enough to earn the highest percentile even if he was seemingly the most distant of Champions these days. He would also be the weakest Champion with the [Ranker 60] Talent.

Consequently, Hailey and Emily could technically exude more power than Jay via their Attributes and some of their Talents and Titles under the right conditions. But Jay still had them beat if he unleashed his full power with every Talent and Title stacked to his advantage. His Chance would suck, but he could overcome that with the right narrative moves and some quick decisions. The only person who could truly give Jay a run for his money while being exceptionally stronger than him was Britney.

But how long would that last?

Jay had given his Champions charity to get them to Rank 3 or close to it. He’d gifted them some of his Experience as Pantheon Commander, Vice-Chair, and the lead killer of the Junkside War. He liked that his Champions were higher level than him right now. This encouraged him to gauge the true height of his power despite his lesser rank and levels.

This made Jay all the more excited to evolve to Rank 3 because Jay was widening his power base and training his maxed powers to find more nuances in his abilities. He was playing with combinations of System powers: his Skills, Talents, and Titles. He was learning to combine the System powers with alternative sources of magic such as spellcraft and incantations. He even started to learn crafting! The Spellcraft Knife was his work while Macy had taken the time out of her zany and busy schedule to help him construct it. Crafting was kind of hard to pick up without the Skills. His (maybe) evil mom had more to teach him, too. Something she dubbed small magic, whatever that meant.

Jay could feel that his lengthy time as a Rank 2 would make his Rank 3 evolution even greater. And a trip to Miami might add a bit more to Jay before he acquired Rank 3 and whatever changes that would accrue from his freakish nature.

Despite the doom and gloom spreading across the world, Jay still had lots to look forward to. He held onto those shiny and fun goals of his. He held them close to his heart, and kept them safe even if he had to deceive himself to stay the course when things got rough.

***

You and your Champions have survived multiple assassination attempts. You and your Champions have found significant clues left by your earthly enemies, leading to fights and full-on territorial takeover, the disbanding of criminal elements, and the rise of a new Chair of the Protectorates to improve your standing. Despite the hassle, you have protected the weak and slain monsters.

You acquired +2 Poise, +2 Conviction, +2 Discovery.

Congrats! Lesser Freak leveled up to 27! +8 Free AP.

Congrats! Rick can evolve to Rank 3!

Rick leveled up to 31!

Rick has replaced his Class! [Starter Fighter] → [Fighter].

Rick has replaced a Talent! [Rooster Boon] → [Rooster Boon II]

Rick has replaced a Talent! [Status Overflow] → [Great Status Overflow]

Rick has replaced two Skills! [Savage] and [Bloody Fervor] → [Aura of the Fervent Savage].

Rick has acquired the [Ranker 60] Talent!

***

[Commanding Gravitas]:  Passively exude a commanding weight that enforces the acknowledgement of your prominence by slight or great means. Actively empower your orders or influences with great hammering weight, which may buff or debuff others. The buffs or debuffs target Conviction and Chance. Using this Talent boosts Poise highly. It also boosts Conviction extremely. Ranking up improves Talent.