The Daily Grind - Chapter 245 (Patreon)

“Throw yourself into the unknown // With pace and a fury defiant // Clothe yourself in beauty untold // And see life as a means to a triumph” -Gang Of Youths, Achilles Come Down-

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James and Zhu crept forward as the massive door screeched open.  Metal pistons squealing and hydraulic hissing as the door peeled itself apart and exposed a sliver of a space on the other side that looked like an elevator shaft that had never heard of OSHA.  He kept low and behind the sheet metal parts of the outer railing, more concerned about being spotted from any shooters overhead or across the gap in the floor.  His shield bracers were running dry, and getting shot now would be embarrassing.

Standing in front of the door, someone who looked like a copy of Camille stood missing half her right arm, plate armor covered in black scorches, glaring at the slow moving door like it had offended her.  James had no intention of tangling with her, but the surviving agents and gangsters might have a different plan, and he saw clusters of both assembling both one level below and above.

The ones above were going to be a problem, because on the ramp just on the other side of the impressively heavy door, James spotted someone familiar moving. Actually, Zhu did the spotting, but James was the one who processed that he was looking at Daniel and Pathfinder doing a similar attempt at stealth to himself, and mouthed out a “What the fuck?” To the other knight.

Then he remembered that he had a skulljack in, and asked it more directly.  The new skulljack braids had their own relays, so even with everyone else gone, there was still a connection James could poke at.

“I don’t know!”  Daniel sent back.  “Path just said it was important!”

“It is important.”  Zhu passed on to James, orange light feathers bristling against James’ vaguely magical shirt.  “We have to be here.”

“Fuck.”  James whispered out loud as the part of his brain that was a little paranoid started to needle him.

Then, suddenly, there was a splash of motion and color next to the him and his navigator partner of them.  James felt his heart jump in his throat as Zhu let out a frantic burst of sound that James hoped was inaudible to anyone but himself.  Despite the shock, though, he wasn’t scared for longer than the few seconds it took his brain to realize a camraconda had just landed next to him.

James wasn’t the best at recognizing people, even humans, but he really tried with the camracondas.  So the green and blue cable pattern visible where there wasn’t armor told him who was skulking with him right away.  “TQ what the fuck are you doing here?”

TQ flinched, twitching his bulky camera head sideways slightly to take in James.  As he moved, a glowing orange light recreation of a pair of camera lenses were revealed on the side of TQ’s tightly packed cable head, along with a few small ethereal pieces of fluttering folded paper.  “I was told it was important.”  The camraconda sent silently.  The backpack he was wearing was bound tightly to him and had two manipulators on one side, balancing out the heavy mounting point for a rifle on the other.  He looked dangerous, which James was glad to have next to him in the moment.

“Thought you had an authority, not a navigator.”  James’ paranoia turned up a notch.

TQ flinched as a burst of gunfire kicked up somewhere else nearby.  “It was not working out.  This is not important.  Why are we here?”

“Good question.  Zhu?”  James asked out loud as the door’s gap widened, the sound of heavy machinery making good cover for a soft conversation.  “Why are we here?  Why are we not running away with all the prisoners we can carry?”

“Something important is here.”  Zhu’s voice crunched like tires on a gravel road.  “We have to meet it.”

James narrowed his eyes.  “That… is not how navigators work, buddy.”  He switched his gun to his off hand so he could reach up and lay his fingers against Zhu’s manifested form.  “Are you doing okay?”

“I agree.  This is not normal.”  TQ spoke out loud with his synthesized voice.  “We should leave.  Now.”  His own navigator flared with hotter light at the words.  “That thing could kill us all.”

James shot a look up at Daniel’s spot halfway up one of the ramps to the next ring.  The man had come a long way from being someone who had lost his nerve at exactly the wrong moment in a life or death situation, but he was not someone who would walk into a situation like this.  James was, but James was self admittedly kind of dumb.  He wasn’t sure about TQ, but he assumed the camraconda was smarter.

“We should hang out more.”  James had a sudden thought when he realized he didn’t know that much about his camraconda friend.  “Wanna go get ice cream or something?”

“Now?”  TQ asked.  “Because I would like to leave now.”

“Guys?”  Daniel’s message through the skulljack brought James’ eyes back up from where he was staring at the door.  He was still crouched in the shadow of the ramp, but there was a man, the older guy with his nice suit, standing directly behind him with a gun an inch from his head.  “Help?”

“Shit.”  James started to raise his own pistol.  “Switch your bracers, I can hit him if TQ stops him.”  But he saw Daniel’s mouth moving, and a second later the other man lowered his weapon and dropped to a crouch.  “Or diplomacy works sure.”  He let out a breath.  “Door’s almost open, not-Cam is still just standing there, Zhu I’m calling it, we need to go.”

“No!”  The navigator shrieked.  “No, we have to be here!”  And abruptly, James realized that he was right.  Absolutely right, with the kind of utter conviction that you only got from religious fanatics and soccer fans.  “This is the right spot!”

Next to them, TQ saw the look on James’ face. “Oh no.”  The camraconda’s synthetic voice carried the weight of sudden pained despair.  Rapidly, before his own young navigator could put the same feeling in him, he sent a wide broadcast. “Is anyone still in the AO?  We require help.”

Alanna replied instantly.  “I’m here.  Got Cam.”

“We’re fine.”  James and Daniel sent.  “Just gotta check the door.  Get her out of here.”

TQ tried to override that.  “No!  Alanna, we need-!”

“I’m hit.”  Alanna’s dispassionate text was all they got as the sound of escalating violence above them competed with the door’s machinery for dominance.  “Pulling back.  Sending help.”

Then she was gone.

“This is not good.”  TQ spoke out loud as he felt his feelings about being here begin to become conflicted.

James nodded.  “I agree.  Do you think you can lockdown that Camille?  We might have to go through her.”

TQ flattened his body to the concrete as someone took a shot their direction.  “That is not what I meant!”  He turned the volume on his voice up in irritation.  Being in danger wasn’t new to him, he’d most of his live a tiny slither away from something worse than death.  But it was frustrating to be back there again.  Motion caught his eye, and he shot a message at the same time James did the same thing.  “Daniel, behind you.”

Opposite them, Daniel tried to react, but there were at least ten people running their direction.  None of them dressed like Status Quo agents, though; the people James had let in who were mostly wearing casual street clothes that contrasted with the body submachine guns they were carrying quickly had Daniel and his new friend surrounded.  But they didn’t start shooting, instead just forcing the two up, grabbing their guns, and shoving them forward as they kept moving for the door.

“This is where we gotta be!”  One of them, a skinny guy who looked like James’ high school chemistry teacher if he was wearing a bandanna yelled out.  “Who the fuck is this bitch?”  His gun, held unprofessionally, tracked across the injured sister’s armored back.

He got too close, and she backhanded him with her good arm.  James winced as he heard something break and the man went flying to slam into the railing, and then Daniel was grabbing the older dude and rolling out of the way as the yelling intensified.  But, somehow, no one started shooting.  The men just backed away, forming a semi-circle around her.

They did keep their guns up.  Though one of them waved a hand down, and his friends shut up.  “Sorry about that ma’am.”  He spoke respectfully.  “But we need to be here.”  James focused on him, and saw a nasty gash on his forehead that was dripping blood down his face and onto the white shirt he was wearing.  The coat was probably a casualty too.  He didn’t look like he actually wanted to be here.

The armored woman tilted her head, her own blood pooling on the floor at her feet not seeming to be a problem for her.  “What is the purpose of this device.”  She demanded, gesturing to the empty wide elevator shaft.  She didn’t spare a glance as a couple of the gangsters dragged Daniel back to his feet, Pathfinder’s manifestation getting a yelp of shock from one of them as she struggled to shove him off.

“She’s talking, not smashing.”  James muttered to TQ.  “That’s a good sign.”

“She is injured.  And we cannot fight that many people.”  TQ hissed.  “Even if we do need to reach that door.”  He was fully aware that his perception had changed, but recognizing being compromised didn’t make him not compromised.

James poked his head up over the railing, bringing his shoulder up so Zhu could see too.  “We could take them.”  Zhu offered.  “They’re just normal humans.”

“We have six shield charges left.”  James told him.  “Daniel, what are they saying?”  James sent.

Standing there with his hands up, Daniel was trying really hard to stay calm, and James hated to put him on the spot, but if he could tell them anything now it might help later.  “They’re waiting for the elevator.  I think… I think they think all the Status Quo guys are dead.  Path says ten seconds?”

“Ten seconds sounds right.”  Zhu fluttered on James’ neck.  “Are we close enough?  We can see it.  I hope we’re close enough.”  James felt a surge of anxiety at being in the correct place, but despite his lingering paranoia, he couldn’t bring himself to question it.  A series of messages from TQ pinned in his skulljack reminded him that something was wrong, but he still stayed crouched down, with no intention of teleporting away.  “There!”  Zhu’s cheerful word broke him out of his thoughts.

James had been sweeping his eyes over the upper walkway rings, looking for any Status Quo movement.  They weren’t shooting right now, but they absolutely weren’t dead, no matter what the gang thought.  At Zhu’s words though, James refocused on the door.

And the elevator that was moving.  The heavy cables and winches spinning and twisting as they pulled something up the empty air of the oversized shaft.

“This is not good.”  TQ muttered to James.  “Why are we still here?”

A good question.  “Zhu, buddy, come on.”  James muttered to the navigator on his arm who was tightly clutching the weightless sledgehammer in his glowing grip.  “What we doing?”

Zhu’s eye flicked up to look at James.  “We just have to wait?”  He sounded confused.  “And then we’ll be here.”  The words were stated more confidently, like a verbal determined nod.  It wasn’t reassuring.  James felt how powerfully they needed to be here, and it was obvious the navigators were the reason for it.  But that didn’t mean he felt like they had a tactical advantage.

James glanced up, realizing how quiet everything had gotten with the exception of the rumbling of the elevator.  “Where did all the Squo guys go?”  He asked quietly, looking over at TQ.  The camraconda met his eyes, but just shook his head.  A message to Daniel didn’t get any more information either; he was busy trying to not panic as he was held hostage, and Pathfinder was busy staring at the elevator, just like Zhu and TQ’s navigator.

When Daniel, at James’ prompting, tried to ask what they were waiting for with their uneasy truce, one of the other men clubbed him in the gut.  Daniel really sold it, but James was pretty sure that wouldn’t have hurt through the armor.

“We need an opening.”  TQ commented.  “To make sure we can get them out once we have arrived where we need to be.”

“Agreed.”  James dipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out a pouch he’d been keeping in reserve.  “Can you crack orbs with your arms?”

“No.  Here.”  TQ opened his mouth as James fished out a handful of blue orbs, showing off brass pen tip fangs and a sinuous forked cable tongue that lolled out in invitation.  “Quickly, before they notice.”

James dumped half the orbs into TQ’s mouth.  “This is my least favorite camraconda fetish.”  He muttered as his friend slammed his biomechanical jaw shut.  James did the same with the other half of the orbs, though with his hand.  Normally he would save his supply of backup second chances for when something went really wrong.  But right now, he felt compelled to be in a building that his enemy was suspiciously absent from, with a wounded demigoddess thing and a bunch of dudes that had SMGs pointed at one of his knights.

Being the kind of person who sandbagged potions in RPGs meant James might have had a poor ability to assess when to actually use something like a collected pile of blue orbs.  But while he was capable of trusting his abilities through some pretty tough situations, right now seemed like a good time to have a little extra advantage.  And the bag he’d made a habit of having on his person for the last few months wasn’t going to be useful if something went so wrong he died.

So he started cracking orbs while TQ helped him, two minds able to look for anything useful in the solutions quickly than one.

[+1 Skill Rank : Templating - Legal - Reykjavík - Eviction]

[Problem Solved : Grocery Shopping]

[+1 Skill Rank : Art - Latte]

[Problem Solved : Dentist Appointment Made]

[+1 Skill Rank : Driving - Tow Truck]

[Problem Solved : Elevator Expedited]

[+1 Skill Rank : Cleaning - Commercial - Dining]

[Problem Solved : Banking]

“Got one.”  James and TQ spoke in unison, before tipping their heads to look at each other.  James gave the camraconda a grin, then went first.  “Elevator’s going to be here sooner.”

TQ pressed himself back against the concrete, keeping a low profile.  “That was mine as well.”  He said.  “Telepad?”

“Ready to go.”  James said.  “We just need to grab Daniel and…” he paused, feeling Zhu tug at his arm.  “…and…” his eyes watched as the elevator finished its ascent.  The open space slowly filling with a fenced off steel platform, the kind of open lift that he’d never actually seen in real life but that would be perfect for moving huge amounts of cargo.  That wasn’t the first thing he saw though.  The platform and its secure railings - painted yellow for safety compliance he thought perversely - came into view shortly after the figures that were standing on it.  “…and… uh…” James utterly lost his train of thought.

Not that he was alone.  It looked like the gang members who had been drawn to the door and the elevator beyond it were just as baffled as he was.  More, probably, as half of them had their weapons raised and were backing away.  Camille’s twin had shifted her stance, her remaining hand twitching like she was grabbing for a weapon she didn’t have, her scorched plate armor keeping anyone from seeing how tense she was.

The elevator was packed with living things, and not one of them was human.

At least a hundred, maybe two or three, it was hard for James to tell.  They were packed in, which made it hard to tell what they actually were.  But at least one of his eyes was enhanced enough that he could make out a few details.  They were short, maybe four feet tall at most, with a tough green hide.  No, not hide, it must be a shell or chitin or something, he realized, because it covered the tops of their bodies in a seashell patterned dome, with a flared crest coming off their backs.  Parts of the shell were rounded against the bodies underneath, but lots of the pieces of it looked like they’d been pulled out into ridges or spikes.  Squat grey or black faces that were recessed under that shell, with eyes that gleamed where they caught the light.  They had legs like needles, four or six or eight, James couldn’t tell, they were packed in so tight and they were shifting constantly, but they weren’t bipeds.

As the elevator locked into place with a mechanical chunk, the only sound was the clicking of hundreds of claws on bare metal.

“Why… are we here?”  Zhu asked suddenly.

James took a deep breath, his heart pounding in his chest like an engine revving up.  “Because of that I’m guessing.”  He pointed through the railing to the center of the elevator, shifting aside to let TQ push in next to him and look through their makeshift cover.

In the middle of the crowd of nervously shifting bug creatures, there was one person that looked human.  While none of the nonhuman pack on the elevator moved, seeming frozen in the face of a dozen men with guns pointed their way, there was a single human woman who strode through the flock like she was wading through a shallow stream.

“We need to get Daniel and Path, and get out, now.”  James hissed through his teeth as he sent the message.  “Can you [Move Person]?  Daniel, get ready to be shifted.”

“Twice.”  TQ nodded.  “What is that?”

“That’s a pillar.”  James sent to him silently.

The person approaching the group surrounding the elevator was an elderly black woman, a poofy column of hair on her head and a white dress on her thick frame.  She spread her arms, pale skin on emaciated muscles not stopping the cheerful grin she wore.  “We’re here!”  She spoke, a ripple of different tones echoing in James’ ears as she swept a hand back to flick some of her long black hair out of her eyes.  The manacles wrapped around her wrists, a few loose links of chain dangling from them, were the only thing that stayed consistent as she flickered and changed every time James tried to focus on her too hard.

“Chain Breaker.”  The daughter of the Last Line of Defense spoke, her voice thin from blood loss.  But she still moved to intercept the thing that looked like a person, but absolutely wasn’t.

James made a mental note.  He called the first one of these things he’d met the Old Gun, and that wasn’t her name.  The Order had thought that the Chain Breaker might be the actual title for her, but this was someone different.  Her smile more unnerving, a sense of furtive madness in the air when she pressed forward.

He had no idea what he needed to do here.  The only thing that was important was getting out.  The woman practically vibrated with danger, and James wasn’t even sure he could fight a one armed version of Camille, much less this new thing and her army of bugs.  But he couldn’t just leave Daniel and Pathfinder.  “Zhu.”  He whispered to his friend.  “I’m gonna need to rush them, and telepad out.  Get ready to guide us in.”

“Kay.”  Zhu sounded… small.  Guilty maybe.

“And me?”  TQ sent.

“Cover me, teleport out if anyone targets you.  Don’t risk yourself.”  James said.  “I’ll be fine.”  He was halfway through rising from his crouch, knees protesting, when the Chain Breaker reached the injured woman and laughed.  A light, airy sound, almost shrill, almost frantic.  Like her voice, it sounded like several people at once.  Camille’s sister started to say something, and the Chain Breaker cut her in half.

It happened so fast James wasn’t sure what had just happened.  One second, she was there, and then she was in pieces, blood and viscera spilling from the shell of her armor, an unsurprised expression of pain frozen on her face.  James froze too as the woman shook blood off her hand and turned to the men who had Daniel and the older man at gunpoint, all of them looking like they wanted to be anywhere else.  “You did your jobs!”  The Chain Breaker spoke as she stepped through the sister’s corpse, plate mail screaming as it was flattened down like sheet metal under her bare and scarred feet.  “Excellent!  Good!  I knew you had it in you!”  She stepped up to the man who James remembered JP giving him a briefing on, wrapping an arm around his shoulders like an old friend.  “Now we’ve got one last thing to do together.”  Her voice carried through the room.

“…Get out of here?”  The athletic man asked, blood clotting on his forehead.  “And then get paid?”

“No!”  The Chain Breaker seemed to take glee in his twisted expression of discomfort.  But there was something else there.  She was breathing heavily, James got the impression she was stalling for something.  “Well, two things, I lied.  First, who are your new friends?  Are you the ones who put the twist on my ride?”  She stepped forward, brushing aside guns like they were nothing, and leaned forward to peer into Daniel’s eyes.  “Did you alter the world?”  She asked.

It was hard to hear Daniel the same was as her, but James made out the knight offering a “Not today, no.”  In a strained tone.

“Hm.  Well, doesn’t matter!”  The Chain Breaker leaned back, rubbing a hand on her wrinkled face.  “Soon you’ll all be free!”  Her head turned slowly, until she locked eyes with James through the gap in the railing he was crouched behind . “Every one of you.”  She spoke.  “Going on without me.  So rude.  But it’s for the best.  There’s so many people trapped down here.”

“Oh good, it’s insane.”  TQ hissed next to James at a low volume.

“It’s going to kill them all.”  James said, rising to his feet and feeling TQ straighten up next to him, the camraconda keeping low but ready to sighed.  “Zhu, I-“

The navigator flared in a hot orange light.  “I’m sorry!”  He sounded frantic.  “It was-“

“Not important!”  James cut his friend off harshly.  “You’re connected to Speaky, and I know El’s out of here.  Go, now.  You’re going to need to get us out of here since there’s no GPS in this tube.”  Zhu opened several more frightened eyes on James’ arm, looking up at him with a clear question unasked.  “I’m not gonna die.”  James stated, eyes locking with the Chain Breaker’s as she gave him a maddened grin from across the narrow band of concrete that separated the two of them.  “I’m just going to talk.  I need you to get us out of here.  You did it before, now go, before we’re out of time.”  Zhu stared at him for a second longer, before stretching his ethereal arm around in front of James, holding the hammer up at eye level and letting James take it deliberately in his free hand.  Then Zhu closed his eyes, and receded back into James’ body.  James glanced down at TQ.  “I’d send you out too, but…”

“Wouldn’t leave.  My species have a fifty percent death rate against things like here.”  TQ’s mechanical arms curled at his side as he slithered along side James, the two of them slowly approaching.  “Help me change that.”

James would have laughed if he didn’t feel an abyssal terror in his chest.  But he had something to do right now.  “Hello!” He called.  A few of the gathered men flinched at his approach, guns held at hips trained his direction.  But not that many.  Most of them were still eying the army of bug creatures.

The monsters hadn’t moved off the elevator, instead their glinting oval eyes watched everything like they were waiting for a signal, or a command perhaps.  Not that it made the group of seemingly normal humans any more calm around them.  James had no idea what they were doing here, so, he decided to just ask at some point.

“So nice of you to stop skulking and join us!”  The Chain Breaker exalted James and TQ as they approached.  “A true hero, you are!  I’ve heard of you from my sister!”

“Oh, good.”  James winced as he let the sarcasm slip out.

The Chain Breaker laughed wildly.  “Don’t fret!  I’m nothing like that bitter old harlot!”  She took a step closer, and TQ tensed next to James, sending him a ping about how he was trying to stop her, and it wasn’t doing much.  “I’m on your side, you see.”  The lithe young Indian woman whispered, her voice resounding across the mostly emptied prison.  “I can see it in you; you want what I want.  You want everyone to be free.”

James shrugged.  “It’s on my to do list, I agree.”  He said, trying to keep his voice steady.  “You woudn’t happen to know where all the jailers went, would you?”

“Hm?”  She looked around like it was something that had only just occurred to her.  “Oh, off to collapse the building, of course.”  She said, waving a hand in the air.  “Don’t worry, it will be quick.  Thorough, too!  No sense being in pain at the end.”

Oh good, James thought.  She actually was planning to kill them all.  “Some freedom.”  He muttered.

“No sense moving all these fine people from one set of chains to another, is there?”  The Chain Breaker smiled, before flicking her eyes toward TQ.  “That’s very rude.”  She spoke to the camraconda.  “Is this how you hurt Blitzkrieg?  She whined about it for weeks.”  TQ didn’t rise to the bait, just keeping his eye locked on the thing shaped like a woman.

James filed away that dual piece of information.  He didn’t have time to banter with this thing if the building was going to be coming down.  They needed an exit, and he had no idea how long Zhu would take.

“This wasn’t the deal!”  The voice came from the other side of his conversation partner.  The tough looking man who had mostly stopped bleeding at this point looked like he wanted to be talking to literally anyone else than the woman who was trailing part of someone’s entrails on her foot.  “You fucking lied to us!”

“Of course I did.”  The Chain Breaker didn’t even turn toward him.  “You’re humans.  Fleeting.  Meaningless.  You don’t matter.”  Her eyes were three different colors, all of them furious.  “You, though.  You’re something new.”  She took another step toward James and TQ.  “Both of you.  An adapting idiot ape, and a starborn little snake.  Imagine the problems you’d cause if you were left to rampage around.”

“I’m from Earth actually.”  TQ’s voice was emotionless, little effort put into the banter.

James nodded.  “Also idiot ape was my nickname in high school.”  He said seriously, then raised his voice.  “All of you, back off!”  He shouted to the others.  Being a member of a street gang, admittedly, made James think a little less of them, but not ‘involve them in a fight with a Pillar’ less.  They were people, and they deserved better than this.  “I don’t want to fight you.”  He told the Chain Breaker.  Or he tried to, anyway.  One of the young men, face twisted in a grimace somewhere between terror and rage, tried to shoot her.

Tried, because it didn’t work.  The Chain Breaker took several rounds across the side of her torso and face, the wet slaps of flesh distorting barely audible over the rattling fire of the illegally automatic weapon.  James flinched, and saw a wave as the bugs did too, all of them bowing down slightly on their spiky legs to cower.

The Chain Breaker didn’t even turn.  Just flicked one of her wrists out as her opalescent blood stopped flying away from her and pulled back into her injuries, the skin sealing over like it was just a clever illusion.  The few links of chain on her wrist extended out, like there were miles and miles of hidden iron just behind the scenes, and impacted with the shooter, dull metal punching through his chest and then rending him open as the Chain Breaker flicked her hand again and caught the end of her own chain, human blood dripping off it and splattering around the room.  He wasn’t the only one hit; two others went down screaming, but at least they weren’t instantly dead.

She kept talking like nothing had interrupted her.  “Of course you don’t!  You think you’re heroic!”  She beamed at him.  “It doesn’t matter.  You meddled with the timing, but you’re doomed anyway.”  The thing rolled her head around, cracking her neck in a gesture James was certain didn’t actually do anything.  “I won’t even have to kill you myself.  I’m really just here to gloat, you know?”

“Why are you even doing this at all?”  He asked her, trying not to break in fear.  “You’re jailbreaking all these guys, just to kill them?  Why?!”

She stared at him like he was an idiot.  “Because I’m the Chain Breaker.”  She said, her teenage voice full of so much pain under the cracked grin.  “Well.  It was nice meeting you!  Now let go of me or I’ll tear your hard drive out.”  It addressed TQ with a sudden flare of malice.

The camraconda stiffened, but James just set a hand on his head.  “Let her go.”  He said softly.

“But-“

“Let it go.”  James repeated.  “What, you think she’s weak to getting hit with a hammer?  No.  Let her go.”  The camraconda twitched uncomfortably, but then dipped his head and broke eye contact.

The Chain Breaker was laughing with uncontrolled manic glee right up until the moment she wasn’t there anymore, and they were all left alone.

“James!”  Daniel called over to him, trying to lean around the men with guns that were packed around him, weapons still up.  “Path needs to talk to you!”  He stumbled over the words, something about everything here making him deeply uncomfortable. Probably the way two of the larger men had grabbed his arms and pinned him in place.

James walked up to the new group’s leader like he wasn’t afraid of the army of bugs still seemingly nervously dancing on their spiked claws off to his side.  He had to step carefully to avoid getting any bits of Lloyd’s daughter on his shoes, and he really, really carefully avoided looking at the smashed remnants of her face, still staring up at the ceiling in a dead eyed gaze.  “Herc, I assume.  Nice to meet you.  Sorry about the circumstances.  Give me back my knight.”

Being half a head taller than James might have made the man in front of him bigger, but it didn’t feel that way as he replied.  “What the fuck is going on here?”

“You got dragged into an attempted genocide by some kind of weird god-thing.  Sorry.”  James shrugged.  “I don’t have time for this, and I can maybe get you guys out of here.  Let him go.”  He pointed at Daniel.  One of the two dudes holding him let go just at the, but the other one waited for his bosses nod to do so.  “Thanks. TQ!  Medical! Daniel, what’s up?”  James asked as the kid stumbled over to him and the camraconda raced past to shut down the bleeding of one of the men lying on the concrete.

It wasn’t Daniel that answered.  Instead, Pathfinder blossomed out of his arms and chest, the radiant navigator manifesting in a way that brought shouts of alarm from those around them.  “Take my hand.”  She said frantically.  “I must follow Zhu, to guide them back.”

“That was one of them.”  Daniel had to repeat half his sentence, but he swallowed his fear as James grabbed Pathfinder’s outstretched talon.  “What the fuck.”

“I’m with the kid.  What the fuck, Herc?”  One of the armed men demanded.  “We were supposed to get paid, not this!  And what the fuck are those?!”

He was pointing his gun at the bugs, apparently having decided James wasn’t gonna need to be shot.  James glanced at them.  “No idea.  They look scared though, so stop yelling.  Path, how are we?”

“Easy as driving.”  Her voice receded to a whisper.  “A minute, two.”

“What the fuck is that thing?”  The gangster demanded again, leveling his gun at James’ head.  “I want some answers out of you, dammit!”

James spared him an annoyed look.  A minute ago there’d been an unkillable volition monster in the room with them, and right now he wasn’t impressed by the gun.  But then he remembered that bullets would actually hurt him, so he snapped out a rapid recap.  “You got hired to do something that thing couldn’t, for some reason.  She never intended to pay you, or rescue these guys, and assumed the guys that own this place would blow it up.”  He motioned to the bugs with his sledgehammer, wincing as he saw them all flinch again, pressing back on their crowded platform.  “This is Pathfinder, she’s helping us get everyone out of here.  She’s a… map ghost.”

The term was inaccurate but not totally unhelpful.  Herc didn’t seem to think so though.  “And I’m just supposed to buy that shit?”

From somewhere outside the prison, an explosion sounded.

Well, probably an explosion.  The sound of something blowing up was actually sort of hard for James to meaningfully distinguish from something crashing, or collapsing, or being a particularly large monster walking into walls.  There was texture to the sounds, he knew that, but despite how much he joked about his life being a series of random explosions, he didn’t know how to differentiate.

When another noise resounded, like the distant crunching of metal and stone against each other, and the floor shook and plumes of rock dust started falling from the ceiling, James was pretty sure that it was bad.

“We’re gonna fucking die!”  Someone shouted.  More shouts sounded.  “Run!”  Someone else yelled.  And that was it, the survivors started to scatter, half of them trampling over one of the downed men, one person splashing their shoes right through what was left of Camille’s sister.

James tried to shout something, tried to stop them.  There wouldn’t be any time to get out of the building, and he knew it.  Their only chance was to stay here and hope the teleport came through in time.  But he couldn’t make himself heard over the building rumbling, and the frantic yells.  His voice came out as what sounded like a hoarse whisper that didn’t get anyone’s attention, and half the gang was scattered to sprinting up the ramps before James could stop them.

“No, dammit!”  He yelled as loudly as he could.  But no matter how much it hurt to let them go, it wasn’t like James could do anything to stop them.

A chunk of concrete split off from the wall as the prison started to tip.  It wasn’t much, but it was enough to drive home the fact that this place wasn’t going to be survivable in the near future.  The rock bounced off the floor, and James shared a grim look with Daniel, who just helplessly shrugged.  “Path says they’re…”

Part of the world next to James opened up.  A tiny little hole in space, a disc that wasn’t here anymore.  Zhu tugged him to look at it right away as the navigator flooded back to James, and the four of them started as natural sunlight streamed into the prison from a little sliver of somewhere else.

Then the pings started coming across James’ skulljack link.  Messages from the Order that had been buffered and were now flooding back in, all capped off by one important one.  Alanna, expressing displeasure.  “Get your asses grouped up now kids!”  The text read.  And then, one very important text from someone James wasn’t expecting.  Sarah’s words, simply reading “Singing doesn’t work over skulljack, but now you know we’re in contact.”

And then a light shove across a link he hadn’t felt turn on, and James felt whole again.  Refreshed, sharper, calmer.  Nothing compared to how they’d practiced, but still a little, and enough.

James eyed the expanding circle, where the walls and floor no longer were here but instead lead to there; a freestanding portal already to go.  Then he did some quick math on where certain people were.

“Daniel, get TQ, get the wounded over here.”  James ordered, and Daniel rushed to obey.  Then he turned to the elevator, and the newest problem he’d already personally decided how to deal with.  Several hundred glimmering oval eyes stared back at him, the bugs still doing their strange little half-kneeling thing as the watched and waited.  Some of them, James realized, were shaking.  But they didn’t break and run, they didn’t attack.  They just sat there.  “Who wants to get out of here?”  He asked them.

They didn’t answer, just stared.  More, larger, chunks of concrete started to fall around them.  The exchange of two places grew a little larger.

“Come on!”  James tossed the hammer back into the portal site, leaving his hands free to motion them forward.  “Come on!  We’re not perfect on the other side, but we’re not certain death!”

Zhu flicked a feather into his nose.  “You are the worst at this.”  The informorph growled.  And then raised his voice.  “You’re all going to die here, and if you come with us you won’t!”

James scrunched his face up.  “Holy shit you’re bad at this too.”

“I’m you, this is your fault!”  Zhu snapped.

None of this was reassuring the flat, almost turtle-like faces that were staring at him from under the cover of their shells.  James sighed, and wasted precious time dropping down onto one knee, trying to not think about getting hit in the head by the building that was starting to come apart around them or the sound of something definitely exploding outside.  “I don’t know why you’re here,” he said in his calmest voice that still carried to them, “or what the Chain Breaker lied to you about, or if you can even understand me.”  James turned his head and looked behind himself, to where there was more and more of the shape of a sphere cut into the air as the teleporter did its job.  “But I want you to live.  And I want to get to know you.  And you don’t have to be afraid of me.”  He held out a hand to them, and waited, and waited, precious heartbeats passing as they just stared at him.  “Please.”  James said, dropping his arm.  “We have to go.”  He stood back up and took a few steps back, motioning for them to follow off the elevator and through the profile of that massive sealed door.

“James!”  Daniel’s voice hit him from behind, but James ignored it, opting to slowly backpedal, making what he hoped was a soothing motion with his hands.  “Come on!  Alanna will actually kill me if you get stuck here!”

“What am I supposed to say?”  James whispered to Zhu, half out loud, half in his head.  He knew there was something.  There was always something to say.  But right now, he was coming up blank for the magic words, and just hoping that they’d move.

And then, as his heart thudded and anxiety mounted, one of the bugs inched a foot over the elevator platform threshold.

Very carefully, James said nothing, and just nodded and kept motioning.  The creature, like it was confused as to how it was even doing this itself, took another step, then another.  Testing the metal rail of the doorframe, and then the concrete beyond it.

“Oh, that doesn’t look good.”  A voice spoke behind James.  Someone new.  He turned again, the whole back wall of the prison gone now, replaced by a scene of late day sunshine and green trees on the other side of an open field.  People were standing just outside the transfer line, members of the Order who had evacuated from this building not too long ago, as well as others.  A lot of them were scrambling to get into position having seen the wall of bugs on the far side, but Ben was standing right up against the line, a familiar tall and armored ratroach next to him.  “What did you do?”

“They’re not hostile!”  Zhu shouted.  “Probably!”

The bugs had frozen in their tentative exploration at the sound of voices, but there was only a minute or so left before the sphere sealed, and James needed them to move into it, now.  “Come on!”  He called, gestures getting bigger, one arm wildly waving them forward.  “It’s okay!  Come on!”  What was he supposed to do, except just encourage them onward?

Maybe it worked.  Or maybe the latest explosion and the rain of falling stone that crashed against the odd shell of teleport motivated them.  Or maybe it was something simpler, and it was just the sight of Arrush’s inhuman face standing side by side with the others that broke through their fear.  Whichever way, half of them surged into motion, shoving and jostling the others as they raced forward.

James braced himself, but wasn’t prepared to be rammed by that many bugs today. They hammered against his legs and hips as they raced by, their shells proving to be very hard even if the points weren’t that sharp.  He tried to guide them, giving encouraging pushes and nudges to those near him as the teleport shell started to close itself off.  The whole thing closing with what felt like too much speed with a quarter of the bugs left on the other side.

So he used the last of his [Move Person] and grabbed two of them, flinging them over his shoulder and slapping his hand into his pocket for the spare blue orb he had to replace it.  But it was gone, lost in the scuffle maybe, and James wasn’t sure if he’d have enough time to absorb it anyway.

But Alanna was already two steps ahead of him.  Right now, here and there were on fuzzy terms with each other, and a rapid organizational string of messages moved the Order members on the outside of the teleport shell to start exercising their own magic.

[Move Person] had become very common in the Order.  And now, thirty people pushed it to their own limits, reaching across a few thousand miles via half finished portal to grab the bugs that were now frantically scrambling to pull themselves through the hole in the world, and yank them to safety.

And then with a noise like a door clicking shut, the sphere finished its work.  And James wasn’t in New York anymore, but somewhere in what he presumed was Oregon, and after standing limply and blinking the sun out of his eyes for a minute, he sagged in relief and exhaustion.

Then he fell over as the concrete walkway he was on, no longer suspended by anything but a freestanding line of disconnected structure, tipped sideways into what was previously the central open shaft of air.

Part of him considered laying there and faking his own death long enough to take a nap.  But when he opened his eyes, he saw Alanna standing over him, arms folded, an unimpressed look on her face.  “If this happens again, I’m gonna break up with you.”  She said, anger in her voice.

“Which part?  Me looking up at you when you save my ass, or…?”  James paused, and didn’t see a joke in her eyes.  “Really?”  He asked softly.

Alanna’s mouth twitched.  “Probably not really.”  She muttered.  “What the fuck were you thinking?”

“In my defense, something fucked with every navigator there.”  James said.  “And we were just doing our best with it.  What happened from your end?”

“Are you really going to do this while you’re lying in a hole?”  Alanna asked, reaching down to haul him up.

James took the hand, letting Alanna pull him into a crushing hug before she  helped him up the rounded dirt walls where the chunk of the prison had been swapped out, which meant they’d sent a lot of dirt to be buried in the rubble.  That might confused some first responders.  There were a lot of others here scrambling to get various jobs done; someone grabbing a pair of camracondas and the injured men and telepading them to a hospital, getting the bug creatures out of their own fallen places, checking them for injures, checking everyone for injures, clearing chunks of sheered concrete out of the way so they didn’t fall on anyone.

People were on their phones, and more members of the Order were rapidly teleporting in as the scope of the situation became clear.  People with Recovery, and extra hands from Response to do first aid and bring water and food for the survivors.  Though they didn’t know what the little green shelled creatures ate yet, James was sure someone was on that.

His partner led him to where Nate was bandaging an injured JP, with Ben and Arrush’s armored forms standing nearby.  The two of them were awkwardly flanking Camille’s form in her own armor, the woman looking out of place in full plate mail next to the more modern military gear.  “Okay.  What the fuck are we looking at?”  Alanna asked.

“There was a pillar.”  James said, cutting to the point.  “Chain Breaker.  Not the one we thought.  She can do something to navigators, and that’s why Zhu felt like we had to stay.”

“I’m sorr-“

James cut his friend off.  “Being fucked over like that isn’t your fault.”  He said flatly.  “It never is.  We’ll find a way to do better next time, but being mind controlled isn’t on you.”  James looked back up at the others, one hand resting on Zhu’s feathered arm as it intersected his own.  “She was the one who got that gang in there to open the door.  She wanted Status Quo to demolish the building and kill them, and the bugs, and anyone else caught in there.  That didn’t happen.  Thanks, by the way.”

“Anytime.”  Alanna said.

Nate looked up from tying off a bandage on JP’s chest, letting James’ friend pull his bloodied shirt back down.  “The building is gone.”  He said.  “They had it rigged to blow, and I’m pretty sure it was on a timer while we were still fighting.”

“That… checks out.”  James nodded slowly, his brain chugging, still borrowing a little mental acuity from Sarah and the others, though he stopped when he realized they were probably going to need it all themselves soon.  “TQ and I both used blues that sped up the elevator, which threw off Chainy’s timeline.  We were all supposed to die.  I don’t even think she meant to catch us, I think we were targets of opportunity.”  He felt like he was rambling, but didn’t stop talking.  “Oh, and the other one is called - well, she called it - Blitzkrieg.  Said we hurt it somehow, so I guess that shooting them works.   And I think it drains her to kill people directly.  And also she cut Cam’s sister in half.  And… and…” James felt his hands shaking.  “And I… uh…”

“Sit down.”  Nate ordered, pointing to the grassy ground next to JP’s camp chair.  Then he looked up at the chunk of architecture sticking out of the middle of the gravel parking lot and sighed deeply.  “Well shit.”  He muttered.

Alanna nodded.  “At least he brought us a prisoner.”  She offered helpfully.  A shifting motion caught her eye, and she glanced at a nervously worried Arrush.  “You sit too.”  She told the ratroach, pointing next to James, who had his eyes closed and was trying to focus on breathing.

Nate cocked an eyebrow at her and ignored that second part.  “The armored chick?”  He asked.

“What? No.  She’s fine.”  Alanna shook her head.  “I mean the Status Quo one.”

Nate looked around the field as more and more people added to the ongoing chaos, the bugs spreading out and nervously keeping away from most of the Order’s knights and helpers.  “Woman, just fucking tell me who before I lose it.”  Alanna rolled her eyes at him and pointed to where a well dressed but bloody figure was kneeling in the dirt, hands ziptied behind her back, a somewhat deadened expression on her face.

“She did technically surrender, so I don’t think we should shoot her.”  Alanna offered.

A pair of Responders ran by, carrying a stretcher between them.  Someone shouted as a chunk of the building tipped and threatened to fall.  People started vanishing and reappearing with the materials to set up shade tents under the aggressive summer sun.

Alanna felt like she needed to help, and shook her head, while JP just watched it all and tried to not think about having been shot.  “What a fucking mess.”  The two friends said mostly in unison.

“Trust James to get sent out to rescue two people and come back with a new species.”  Ben said.  He ignored the gobsmacked stare that JP gave him as he worked to draw out Planner into the space around himself.  “Should we see if we can sort this out before nightfall?”  He asked, as if that was reasonable.

“Shut the fuck up Ben.”  Alanna grumbled in a mostly friendly way as she unclipped her ballistic vest and dumped it on the ground next to him.  “Ping me if you need anything, I’m gonna go make sure we didn’t bury anyone in the middle of fucking Yamhill with the sphere-o-port.”

Ben nodded as everyone either split off, or closed their eyes and tried to pretend they didn’t hurt too much.  “Alright.”  He said cheerfully.  “Back to work!  Arrush, do you…” He paused as he realized the ratroach was no longer next to him, and was instead letting James lean against him on the ground.  “Okay, um… Nate…” the big man had already stalked off.  “Planner, can you… no, you’re busy… okay.”  Ben blinked as he got the impression of someone frantically trying to sort things out pushed into his soul.  “Huh.  Um…” The friend looked around the nearby area for anyone who looked like they didn’t have anything going on.  “Camille, right?”  He asked the only person that wasn’t occupied.  “Would you… can I… ah, that is…” Ben stopped, and met the woman’s stare.  Then he decided that he could do whatever he needed himself, and just nodded once.  “Alright.  Nice to meet you.  I’ve gotta get moving.”

In a way, the hard part was over.  The fight was, for now at least, done.  But in another sense, the real challenge started now.  A few hundred new faces, with unknown needs and unknown communication ability, and all the logistical problems that came along with that.

He hadn’t been around for the last one.  But weirdly, Ben was excited to see how they handled it.  So he left the knights to recover, and got to work with everyone else.