Chapter 07-02

Six hours into their drive heading to the location indicated for the missing children mission they were parked on the side of the road only halfway there. Obsidian sat up on the hood of the truck kicking her legs enjoying the night air. Alex was at the back trying to break loose the lug nuts on a flat tire while also trying not to break the wheel hub. His super-strength could be overused.

With a snap one of the lug nuts sheared off bolt and all. Alex threw the lug wrench into the field next to where the car was parked and yelled into the air.

“SON OF A BITCH!” He yelled kicking the side of the truck. A new dent appeared where he had made impact.

“How’s it going big guy?” Obsidian called back from the front of the truck.

“It’s fine. I’m fine.” He replied though the words were forced out through gritted teeth.

“Its nice out here.” She said dropping down onto the dirt. She walked around to the back where Alex was working.

“Yeah, well.” Alex couldn’t think of anything nice to say.

“Want me? I think I can do it without shearing off the bolts.” She offered.

“Yeah,” he sighed, “Let me go and get the wrench.” He trudged away into the field.

It took a few minutes, but Alex was able to locate the tool that he had thrown. He handed it over to Obsidian so that she could break the lug nuts loose without actually breaking the bolts. Fifteen minutes later they were climbing back into the truck and pulling onto the highway.

“What stats does your power effect?” Alex said trying to make small talk as they drove.

“Wow, you need to wait until at least the third date before you ask a girl something like that.” Obsidian said in mock shock.

Even though Obsidian was just joking it forced Alex to think about the fact that he was alone. In the real world it wasn’t a big deal. He had resigned to the fact that he wasn’t whole in many aspects of his life.

“Sorry, I was just curious.” He said realizing that he had been quiet too long in his own head.

“I’m just busting your chops.” She said with a snort, “Each point of my power gives me plus two to my strength. I also was given the addition of an active armor which increases my armor by four per point that I spend when active.” She explained.

“Active Armor score, huh?” Alex said. He kept his eyes on the road but chanced a glance at Obsidian from time to time.

“Yeah, it’s nice. I can stop bullets with my skin, but I’m kind of a one trick pony.” She explained.

“I have three powers and I died so I think your one trick is serving you well.” Alex said with a smile.

“Fair enough.” She said with a nod.

A notification popped up in his vision.

-Notice You have entered a lawless area.

-Heroic Code and Villainous Pride have no bearing on actions or consequences in this area. You are on your own.

Alex dismissed the notification when an explosion rocked the side of the truck. They left the ground sliding ten feet with a loud screech. Alex did not stop, nor did he even slow down. He laid onto the gas when there was a loud whistle followed by another massive explosion at the driver’s side of the SUV.

Only a matter of seconds passed before a third explosion lifted the back of the truck into the air. Alex did the best that he could to keep the on the road and heading in the correct direction. Obsidian was tossed out of her seat and crammed into the space below the dash on the passenger side of the truck.

The back of the truck came back down bouncing from side to side as it fishtailed across the road.

“Who did we piss off this time?” Alex growled.

“I don’t know, but I found something.” Obsidian said unfolding herself and climbing up off the ground. She sat back down in her seat and pressed a button under the dash.

“Is it just me or shouldn’t we be dead after three explosions that close?” Alex asked chancing a glance to see what she was doing. The area in the dash above the glove compartment slid back and the parted in the center revealing a panel full of buttons and a screen.

“I think we’ve gotten lucky and we might owe Mr. Money some thread.” She said looking up from the panel.

“Is this a spy car? Did we buy a spy car?” Alex said with an extremely wide grin, “It’s been like twenty patches since there was a spy car released into the game world. Most of them are collecting dust in player collections.”

“What?” Obsidian asked in confusion.

“Sorry Bridger collections.” Alex corrected, “What options do we have?”

“Most of the options are red, I think they need to be repaired or reloaded. I’d love to use the oil slick.” She said. A screen appeared over laying the bottom of the windshield that showed a panoramic image of the rear view of the truck. Alex could see two trucks following them. Standing in the back of each truck was a man holding a rocket launcher. Currently they were reloading.

“That’s helpful, but we need something to fight back.” Alex said. He turned the wheel sharply so that they would swerve to avoid another incoming missile.

“How about this?” She said pressing a button on the screen. In the rearview screen Alex saw dozens of small shiny objects drop out of the back of their truck and bounce along the road.

“Let me guess…” he said. The right enemy truck hit the shiny objects and their front wheels exploded. The truck veered off the road and careened off the side smashing into a bolder. The man standing in the back of the truck was launched out onto the ground, “Spikes.”

“That was oddly satisfying.” Obsidian said with a smile.

“Yeah, I’ve wanted a vehicle like this since I was a kid. What’s next? We still have one left.” Alex said.

“Stop.” Obsidian said without explanation.

“What?” Alex demanded.

“Just stop.” She said reaching up and putting her seatbelt on.

Alex heaved a loud sigh but did as he was told. He slammed on the breaks. They were doing nearly a hundred miles per hour when in the blink of an eye the truck came to a full stop in the middle of the road. The man driving the other truck didn’t have time to react. Their truck smashed at almost top speed into the back of Alex and Obsidian. Their truck skidded forward a few dozen meters and both of them felt the pain of the impact. Alex lost a total of a hundred health points which was over a third of what he had total.

To the sound of groans of pain both Alex and Obsidian unbuckled their seatbelts. They opened their doors and more rolled out of the truck than climbed. Alex stood up straight and leaned up and back to try and work out the pain that was radiating though his spin.

The enemy truck was over a foot shorter after the impact. The front end had crumpled like a used beer can. The driver and the passenger were both out, if not dead from the crash. Neither one had been wearing their seat belts. Alex and Obsidian’s truck though scratched extremely badly was not much worse for wear. Exposed from the impact was a thick layer of armor on the rear of the SUV’s lift gate. Alex turned and looked at Obsidian.

“What? You should just trust me.” She said with a shrug.

“I do trust you, but there was plenty of time for you to say there is a thick layer of armor on the back of the truck.” Alex said in a huff.

“I didn’t know that was the case, I just had a gut feeling.” She said.

“Wait, so what am I trusting?” Alex asked.

“My gut.” She said with a nod.

“Sure, sure.” Alex said sarcastically returning her nod.

Moans of pain came from the back seat of the enemy truck. Unlike the first truck the man who had been firing the rockets standing in the bed behind the four-door cab did not fly over the front of the truck. Alex assumed that he must have been kneeling to get another round for the rocket launcher because his head had gone through the back glass and he was stuck in a bent over position.

Alex opened the driver’s side rear door. The moaning man was not clear enough to fight against Alex as he reached in and pulled him out onto the road. His legs scraped the ground as Alex drug him over to the dirt off to the side. He dropped the man down onto his knees.

The kneeling man, like all of the men in the truck, wore all black. Their clothes were made of thick work material that seemed to be lined with a Kevlar hybrid material. They all wore a black mask that had bright white eyes that weren’t glowing, but it was a stark contrast with the black.

Alex grabbed the bottom of the man’s mask and pulled it off of his face. Underneath there was nothing more than an average man. He didn’t know what exactly he expected, maybe some kind of lizard person, but all he got was normal.

“Who are you?” Alex demanded tossing aside the man’s mask.

“No one.” The man spat through a grunt of pain.

“Alright, no one, who do you work for?” Alex asked moving closer to grab hold of the man’s collar.

“I’ll die before I’ll tell you.” The man seethed.

“All of their gear is unmarked.” Obsidian said walking over from the truck.

Alex looked over to see that all of the men except for the one whose head was stuck through the glass had been drug out onto the ground and hog zip tied on the side of the road. Four in total.

“What are you thinking?” Alex asked her.

“Bandits, raiders. It’s a lawless area. They just sit along the side of the road and wait for someone to come through. They take them out, raid their bodies.” She said with a shrug.

“Well?” Alex asked pulled up on the man’s collar and lifting him off the ground.

“You might as well kill me.” The man said with steeled resolve.

“That can be arranged.” Alex said with a nasty grin.

-+1 Villainous Points

-Villainous Tactic – Threat

“Do your worst.” The man hissed.

Alex gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. The man looked up at him unflinchingly. The two stared into each other’s eyes. When Alex decided that they were getting nowhere fast he punched the man in the face knocking him out cold. He let go of the man’s collar letting him fall to the dirt in a heap.

“Function is there anything you can tell me about these guys?” Alex asked his digital assistant.

“Analyzing…” Function said in a droning voice.

Alex watched as the men’s bodies were outlined with thin blue lines through his interface. Information streamed across the HUD lightning fast about size, quality of equipment, information on the trucks, and it was all compared against databases that he was either accessing or building. Even the man’s eye color was being examined.

“Information compiled.” He said after a few moments.

“Well?” Alex asked.

“It appears that these men work for the Tammorra Collective. They specialize in hunting down specified targets and taking them down for outside employers.” Function explained.

-You’ve Completed a Random Event!

-Survived and Deterred Raider Ambush

-Defeated 8x Tammorra Foot Soldiers

-6048xp (756 Each)

-Defeated 2x Tammorra Squad Leaders

-2418xp (1209 Each)

-Defeated 2x Tammorra Rocket Men.

-1662xp (831 Each)

-+34 Heroic Points (You’re a Hero!)

-+16 Villainous Points (You’re a Hero!)

-+54 Hero Tier Points (-25 Until Next Tier)

-+8 Villain Tier Points (-2 Until Next Tier)

While Alex was zoned out looking at the incoming notifications Obsidian was doing what she did best. She went from body to body collecting anything of importance. A new set of notifications appeared when she attempted to hand the items over to Alex.

-Needles 12x

-Total Value: 8574t

-Your Share: 7717t

-Deposit in Personal Account?

-Yes | No

~~~

-Item

-Kill Order

-This kill order is signed for a Hero named Aether operating out of Winter Garden.

-Target: Aether

-Payout: 25,000t

-Deposit: 10,000t

~~~

-Needle 1x

-Total Value: 10,000t

-Deposit in Personal Account?

-Yes | No

~~~

Health Serum I (6x)

Energy Serum I (8x)

Together Obsidian and Alex loaded up the back of their vehicle with the equipment and weapons from the men that they had defeated. Alex was planning on selling it all in the future to hopefully garner a little profit. He had gladly accepted their needles and was a little taken aback by the money that was paid by someone to kill him. Accepting the money was really easy when he thought about the fact that it would help him live.

After about an hour the road was clear of the wrecked trucks and the men were all lined up hog tied in the dirt. They left one of the knocked-out men untied so that when he woke, he could untie the others. They were just doing their jobs and they had lost so their death was not required, yet.

They drove towards the town where their first mission was located. Once they were about an hour outside of the town’s limits midnight rolled around with a notification popping up in the corner of his vision.

-ITS MIDNIGHT!

-WONDERFUL WORK

-You defeated 15 Villains or those who wish to do harm.

-You’ve earned a total of 12,428xp!

-Congrats! You’ve leveled up! You are now level 7!

-You now have 3 Power Points to spend! ([email protected][email protected]!#$<@#%)

-Congrats! You’ve leveled up! You are now level 8!

-You now have 3 Power Points to spend! ([email protected][email protected]!#$<@#%)

-Congrats! You’ve leveled up! You are now level 9!

-You now have 3 Power Points to spend! ([email protected][email protected]!#$<@#%)

-You have 12 New stat points that need to be allocated.

-You have 53 Heroic Points (You are a Hero!)

-You have 17 Villainous Points (You are a Hero!)

~~~

-Your Factory is doing well

-326,370t Net Income

-(-)228,459t Operating Cost

-(+)9,791t Deposited into Personal Account

-(+)24,477t Deposited into Calson’s Personal Account

-(+)63,643t Deposited into Factory’s Operating Capital Account.

The only thing that Alex could do was grin. Things, despite his recent fall backs, were starting to come together and now he had nine new Power Points and twelve more stat points to spend. It was about time that he purchased a new power.