Several things happened at once when I accepted the prompt. A bright light formed on the ground in front of us and the air was displaced violently as brilliant blue motes of light condensed in an even brighter flash. I covered my eyes and widened my stance. Then the air that had been pushed out rushed back in. I stood my ground and Junipher seemed rooted in place with her arm in mine. She was smiling gleefully at the light and sound show. More energy and mana was pulled in and a hexagonal base formed from the ground and began to grow. Where blue motes touched it, it grew taller and soon resolved it into the center of my settlement, the System Kiosk.

When it finished it looked like one of those automated informational kiosks you see in some large cities, the kind that let you connect to the internet and look up information about the local sights and activities. It had four access terminals, one set in each of the cardinal directions. In between each terminal was a steel looking hatch that could fold out and receive any loot or items one wished to trade directly to the system. A wide canopy extended over the entire thing to keep the weather off of anyone who wished to use it. The terminal screens lit up with a simple “System Initializing…. Standby….”.

Then a huge pulse of blue light surged outward beneath our feet and wherever the blue light went more blue motes mana emerged into the air lazily. When they struck inanimate matter they began deconstructing it. Carly and Dick were forced to abandon their rooftop perch when it suddenly began dissolving beneath them. Buildings were deconstructed slowly within the 1 kilometer area I had now claimed. And why wouldn’t it, it’s all mine now.

I was about to access the now fully initialized terminal when a buzzer went off in my head. I looked around expecting to be attacked then realized I was receiving a phone call. Gonna take a while to get used to that.

INCOMING CALL FROM: RESTRICTED

ANSWER (YES/NO?)

“Fuck me.” I exclaimed. Work is calling. And I was having such fun. I dismissed the call without another thought. They can go fuck themselves. I jumped for a second time when I felt a hand begin snaking into my pants.

“WHOAH!” I looked over to Junipher and she had seemed to take that as an invitation, the sultry smile she wore almost too much to handle but I reigned in my rapidly shifting hormones. “I know you’ve been chomping at the bit, but that wasn’t actually an invitation.” She froze and quickly extricated herself just as she was about to make contact. I held her hand around my hip and smiled apologetically “I cursed because work was calling. They probably want me to come in. Come to think of it, I don’t suppose the system discriminates between giving upstanding citizens and murderous psychopaths superpowers does it?”

The hurt left her face and concern replaced it when she responded “No Karl, the system doesn’t refuse handing its power out. How dangerous are these… prisoners?”

“Oh, most of them aren’t violent, but the ones that are, let’s say I’d feel better for the few friends I have at work if those ones was made dead quick.”

Dick approached with Carly in tow. Seems she’s found something she likes, probably because other than being able to throw fire around he’s relatively harmless to a bitchy, strong willed young woman like herself. Dude doesn’t even realize he is likely to get pegged.

“Hey, Karl!” She said as they approached. “Dick says work is calling him in.” Yeap, already speaking for him, he’s fucked.

“Yeah, did you get a call yet?” He asked.

“Yeah, I ignored it.” I indicated around me with a wave of my free hand, when the fuck did I put my arm around Junpher? Whatever, better than the creep spider lady with the did up nails. “Was a little busy.”

He scratched the back of his neck and looked at Carly who stood with her arms crossed under her ample breasts. She looked at him expectantly, when he didn’t respond quick enough for her she interrupted him. “I still can’t get a hold of my dad or my sister, and now my crash pad is dissolving.”

“You going in?” I ignored her and before she could begin to fume Dick answered.

“Yeah, I think we need to, who knows what will happen if the prisoners escape. And I can deliver a message to Carly’s dad for her.” She beamed approvingly at him and he continued “I still have my bike. Uh… your car didn’t make it.”

I stared blankly at him as emotions warred in my chest. Junipher looked at me curiously as she was sensitive to emotions and I imagined she was intimately tapped into my own. Part of me didn’t want to see it, but the possessive part of my brain urged my feet forward before I realized I was moving, the Kiosk completely forgotten. Everyone currently engaged with me followed me and even Kaia rose from his nap to see what had agitated his master.

We skirted around the quickly dissolving apartment and I froze when I saw it. A black 2013 Volkswagen Golf. Resting on its crushed roof, the hatch back hanging open with large furrows from some monster's claws torn down the side. “I had just paid her off a couple months ago.”

Dick’s hand came up to my shoulder. “Sorry man, we tried to kill it before it got to the parking lot.”

Carly exclaimed “It was fucking huge! Looked like some kinda of BigFoot looking thing. We killed it, only… you know, after it threw your car at us.”

I looked at my ruined investment and realized it didn’t matter at this point. I had Kaia and Veep assured me there was some serious Sci-Fi shit that I can get from the Kiosk should I have need of it. So, fuck it. I turned back to Dick and my brain buzzed again.

INCOMING CALL: RESTRICTED

ANSWER (YES/NO?)

I made to dismiss the annoying call and realized that it wouldn’t stop them from calling over and over again. So I accepted the call and was notified that there was no visual connection, only audio.

“Yeah?”

“This Brunett?” the familiar voice of the Complex Lieutenant rang in my brain.

“Yeah, what’s up LT?”

“Hey man, we need you to come in, badly.”

“I’m a little busy myself you know.”

“I’m sure but we can’t get a hold of anyone in Flag or Snowflake. Can’t even reach Holbrook. I’m really sorry but we’re desperate.”

“How bad is it?” I asked not really wanting to know.

I heard his hand muffle the phone and he began barking out orders to someone on the other side.

“Sorry, kinda busy, what was it you asked?”

“How bad is it? What are you guys doing with the inmate population? Just give me the short version.”

“Alright, short version…. Ok, We got a couple people on Coronado but most of our assets are dealing with a disturbance on Kaibab, a lot of the inmates are dead, though no one on our end yet. But if the administration doesn’t get off their asses and make a decision I’m sure that will change. We really need you in here.”

“I take it you’re trying to get TSU together but no one can be reached. I’m guessing Coronado is mostly compliant but the inmates are getting restless because they realize nothing we got now can keep them in, and Kaibab is a shit show as usual?”

“I like your version of events, it’s more accurate.”

“You take a class?”

“Yeah, don’t know what good it’ll do but this little AI thing in my head was rather insistent, wish one of you geek types had been here when this shit started. I can’t really make heads or tails of this shit I just know the inmates are getting more dangerous by the hour.”

“My advice would be to release Coronado, they’re going to leave soon I suspect, rather not lose anyone over the lower custody inmates. I mean, I can now jump onto a two story building, won’t be hard for any of them to clear the fence and split, then I would take whoever you got, load em’ up with the rifles and shotguns and kill every mother fucker that blinks wrong on Kaibab.”

There was a muffled pause as he answered someone on the other side then he was back. “Yeah, that’s what I told Kristy, but she insists we wait for direction from Central Office, which if you’ve seen the news reports then we both know that shit ain’t happening.”

My head sank, “Alright, I gotta few things to do here, Dick will be headed your way shortly.” I saw Carly trying to get my attention, gave her a look and returned to my conversation. “Before I forget, is Sumpter there? His oldest showed up at my settlement last night, apparently her school trip got short by something big, fat, ugly, with six legs and a tail.”

“Oh yeah, he’s here, he’s spent all night body slamming any inmate that gets too close to the gate. Driving Kristy nuts. He’s even more obnoxious. But I’ll let him know, any word on his youngest?”

“No, Carly can’t get a hold of her, anyway, I’ll be in when I’m finished securing my position here, I’ll bring a friend or two, don’t shoot them, they’re different.”

“That’s fine, we’ve been trying to gather our families here, it’s safer than the city right now, we’ve only been attacked a few times by monsters. Fucking unreal.”

“Alright, later.” And I disconnected the call before he could respond.

“You two catch all that?” I said to Dick and Carly and they nodded, of course Carly had questions.

“Is my dad alright? Has he been able to get a hold of my sister?”

“Yes. And No. Apparently he’s slamming inmates left and right.”

“Sounds like him.” Then she sauntered off to Dick as he mounted his bike and started up.

Junipher looked at me expectantly. I cocked my eye at her, “Yes?”

“You will go to this place you call ‘work’? Where you keep your criminals? You will take me with you?”

"Yes and yes, though it might be good if you put some clothes on and covered your… assets.”

She smiled and thick bark grew across her breasts in imitation of my ballistic vest. I smiled and nodded. ”That will work.”

“Good, it is settled. Now let's get you some upgrades.” She took my hand and led me back to the Kiosk. She went to one terminal and I went to the one next to her when it freed up. And began examining the things available to me.

I had accrued close to 11000 UMC and Veep was there to assist me as needed. I scrolled through lists of various types of weapons armor. Everything from high energy automatic plasma rifles to simple revolvers. Hand to hand weapons ran the gamut from things easily identifiable to other things that required more hands and arms than I had. They even had power armor and giant mecha. I’m not going to lie, I was very tempted to save up for my very own mech suit. They had a dizzying array of transport options, from purely terrestrial bound to intergalactic dreadnaughts and everything in between.

I quickly became overwhelmed and VEEP was there to save me. She had put together an upgrade package that enhanced all my preferred weapons in one way or another and rounded out the weak points in my equipment. I would be getting more magazines for my pistol and my AK. As I hadn’t used my AR at all she took the liberty to sell the ammo for that, before I protested she explained that ALL the magazines for said weapons would be upgraded with something called a Manite converter. It basically absorbed ambient free mana and turned it into nanites which could then be formed into ammo. They would essentially reload on their own, and I would have 10 for each weapon that way they were always in rotation. She said unless I can manage to empty all of the magazines in under 30 seconds I would never be without ammo.

For equipment she found me a compact tactical vest that somehow managed to hold all of my rifle magazines for one rifle and all of my pistol magazines. It had a unique mechanism that moved the next usable magazine into a position right where my hand would naturally reach down to grab it, It would wait 3 seconds for the empty magazine to be placed into the empty slot and then shift the next loaded magazine into place. FUCKING SICK!

The next thing I balked at initially, a special nano-weave UNITARD. It was charcoal grey and had the ability to regulate my temperature to a limited degree, a built in hydration pack and a self repair capability that meant I would never look like a Chicago bum in winter that just got into a fight with a cougar. If she hadn’t presented me with a snazzy looking pair of tactical blue jeans as my next piece of equipment I would have rejected the first, but I saw the need for clothes that don’t dissolve after the first fight and relented. And the combo didn’t look bad once I was all geared up. I kept my desert tan duty boots as they were working well for me thus far.

Veep then suggested I pick a new pistol. Her logic was that the 9mm was reliable but at some point I was going to come across an enemy that would require a different tactic. So she presented me with three choices. The first was a beautiful looking massive revolver. It was a six round hand cannon sent straight from the Gods. It’s barrel gleamed an iridescent silvery color and ended in an ivory handled grip with some kind of flowing alien script etched into the handle. A fairly generic looking reflex sight sat on top.

The next was an ordinary looking black pistol turned out to be an alien laser weapon with a molded grip that would be configured for my hand should I order it. It carried enough charge to fire 50 shots that did high amounts of heat damage. It then would slowly recharge.

The next weapon stood out in ways the other two did not. It was made of an alien metal and had a fat barrel with tubes that ran from a small canister near the front of the trigger guard and into several ports along the bottom of the barrel. The grip had a nice curve to it and it had an angular reflex sight mounted above the grip. The weapon also came with its own holster that doubled as a charging capacitor. While the weapon was holstered it would absorb the charge held within, when the weapon was drawn the holster would absorb ambient mana into the capacitor and then recharge the weapon when it was replaced.

PVX-10 Plasma Pistol

25 Shot Capacity

Fires concentrated plasma with high heat and penetration capabilities.

1200 UMC

That’s the one. Veep confirmed my selection and informed me that I had enough left over for the ‘Advanced Genetic Restructuring’ option. It would further increase my bone and muscle mass, strengthen my lungs and heart and reinforce and increase the baseline functions of all my internal organs. I would get a few points in Endurance and Strength with the change and limited night vision. Seems I could make direct adjustments to a few things, such as my height, base hair color, base eye color, and enhancement to ‘sexual organs’. Huh, never hurts to add some extra weight to the ole’ ‘sexual organs’. I chuckled mirthfully. Then looked at Junipher who was waiting patiently for me to finish my selections. “Are you done growing?”

She looked at me with a puzzled smile, “No, Karl, I am still considered young to my people, though I assure you I am past the age of majority.”

She read my frown in a heartbeat and I gave her a mischievous smile. “How tall SHOULD you get?”

She responded thoughtfully. “Just under 7 of your feet.”

“Thanks” I winked at her. Can’t be shorter than my pretty tree lady can I?

I finished off the selections by setting my intended height at seven and a half feet and decided that I didn’t need hair on the top of my head and nuked the follicles so I would be completely bald. Fuck it, down below too. With that settled I stepped away from the kiosk and another resident quickly took my place.

I checked two notifications before I moved over to Kaia that was napping blissfully by a large bonfire someone had had the foresight to start.

Settlement construction in progress (3) ETA 12h 43m 36s…

Advanced Genetic Reconstruction in progress, ETA 3h 12m 45s...

**Warning** some actions require user to be sedated… sedation will be initiated in 3m 12s.

Shit. I leaned against Kaia’s flank and Junipher joined me, I took a quick look around and saw Alyssa and Lulu already sleeping, the trio we had saved were huddling by the fire, all with new clothes, Johnny was sitting in front of the fire with a group of older Natives I didn’t know and they were all chanting something in Navajo. I looked down at Junipher and watched the fire dance in the reflections of her black eyes. “Made some changes. System needs to knock me out. Make sure someone keeps an eye on the demon portal, directs them to… Shu…” I began to drift as I spoke.

She took my moment of weakness to place a tingling kiss on my cheek, “It will be so.”

If I were a king, she is the only one that could be my queen, plant lady or not… Then I was unconscious.