Phoning it in 8

Everyone dropped their gear in the Livingroom and explored the luxurious suite. It had seven bedroom and four bathrooms. There was a small kitchen off to one side with a full stocked fridge.

I only had to throw out the milk and some fresh fruit that had gone bad. I cheated by shoving them into Shadow before summoning replacements. Shoving things into Shadow isn't a common skill, I'm not sure why. It's a bit noisier than most Shadow techniques and only works on small items, but it makes it really easy to dispose of trash.

Now that I think about it, that's probably why it's not a common skill, my family treats entire worlds as disposable and generally has a number of servants to take care of any trash, allowing them to be complete slobs. Nah, they probably all know it, hid that fact, and use it to dispose of evidence while going about their numerous schemes. Yeah, that sounds a lot more like them.

"They have cartoons!" Karen calls out excitedly from the main room.

Everyone rushes in to join her as she turns up the volume on the TV and A Transformer's Christmas Special plays.

I would have bet any amount of money the kids would have changed the channel rather than watch anything robot related, but they watched with wide smiles with only Stan and Wendy keeping an eye on the possible entrances and exits, guns casually pointed, while watching the cartoon with half an eye.

Halfway through the show someone knocks on the door in a certain pattern and everyone returns their attention to their surroundings. Stan moves to the side of the door and reaches over to knock three times, which is then answered by another knock and everyone relaxes and he opens the door, revealing Shelly and Leo.

"Dude, toons," Craig tells the pair and they quickly join everyone in front of the TV, Leo pausing to give an approving nod to Wendy and Stan, who sat a little taller afterwards.

"How is everything still playing if there's no people?" Wendy asks, switching seats with Kenny, who runs a quick check on her weapons.

"In-house programming," I explain, "motels like to keep everything in house so they can air their own ads. It also lets them charge extra and provided targeted content."

"Porn," Craig says cheerfully as Karen pages through the movie index.

"Down in front," Red orders, waving a hand through one of the fish's astral projections that have wandered in front of the screen. It circles around her hand a few times before swimming off, much to her amusement.

"What should we watch?" Karen asks.

"Something fun," Leo tells her, as he and Shelly join the others.

As I'm watching them I realize these kids have probably not relaxed and watched cartoons since their world fell apart.

It makes me doubly glad I gave them the ability to morph, as it probably took care of any cases of PTSD by repairing any neural tissue damage caused by excessive adrenaline repeatedly flooding their still developing systems. They still needed therapy, a literal fuck-ton of it, but it would be a lot more effective without them suffering flashbacks and night terrors.

Training them in the basics in some of the arts should be realitively easy...

A week later...

I flip through my deck of Trumps, making sure I have one of everyone. Traditionally you are supposed to hand paint them freehand on cardstock. Artistic skill is considered a mark of pride in both Amber and The Courts and is integrated in their magical traditions.

I'd cheated and added ground up hair from the magical pink pony to the ink in the printer, before using blank cards so all the Trumps read 'The Mirage - Vegas' on the back and had photos run through Photoshop for the appropriate finery on the front. My erm… Merlin's family would probably sic the hounds on me for doing something this crass.

Everyone fit on the high cards with only the ace of clubs left bare. I'd printed off a deck for everyone and made an extra two decks for myself, just in case.

My attempts to teach everyone to use the Trumps had been really hit and miss due to how mentally screwed up the kids were, so I'd finally just cheated and enhanced their mental skills. I needed practice with my enhancement ability anyway and speaking of enhancements, any charges I didn't use on making sure they could all pull things from Shadow or use the Trumps I dumped into making everyone tougher.

I'm pretty sure they could all go hand to hand with a Terminator and come out on top now. I think that more than anything has helped make them all feel safer. Not that they still didn't carry weapons and set watches, they just look more relaxed while doing so.

"Time to go?" Murphy asked me.

"Just about," I agree checking one last time to make sure I have everything. "Where is everyone?"

Murphy waves for me to follow him.

We find the gang on the second floor of the mall in 'Hot Tubbics' where they are enjoying the hot tubs. Eric and Bebe are on guard in the front of the store, though looking fairly relaxed and drinking something out of little coconut cups with umbrellas in them.

Even in an empty world, heavily armed, and empowered the gang moves every other night, preferring not to sleep in one place for very long. Last night we ended up in this mall, sleeping in a Blockbuster's while watching a number of old comedies.

Leo notices me and hops out of the tub. "Going already?"

"It's going to take me some time to reach where I need to go and a lot of practice Walking," I reply. "It's safer for me to go alone."

"Ahem," Murphy growls out.

"With just my faithful dog as a companion," I added.

"Woof," Murphy says.

"You can contact us by Trumps if needed," Leo reminds me. "If you get in over your head, don't hesitate to call."

"I won't," I promise, just stopping myself from coming to attention. I am older than him by centuries and have lineage that has been worshipped as gods, yet I still find myself obeying his orders. It's more than slightly scary to tell you the truth. He is dangerously charismatic, but then after all he has gone through and what he has accomplished, it should really come as no surprise.

"You're leaving already?" Karen asks, having scampered over from the wading pool she'd been playing in.

"I'm only as far as your Trumps," I remind her.

"Are you sure they work across worlds?" she asks.

"Easily," I assure her, "that's what they were designed for. Using them while on the same world is considered incredibly lazy."

"Be careful," she orders, giving us both a hug, "and you remember 'When in doubt, double tap. The only wasted ammo is ammo not fired.'"

"I will," I promise.

"Remember to feed Pudge," Murphy tells her.

"Promise," she replies with a smile.

"Enough mushy stuff, we gotta go," I say, bumping fists with Leo before turning and leaving. "I'm sure I'll end up visiting you guys a bunch anyway. I certainly don't plan on spending all my down time in England."

Eric and Bebe give me a quiet nod as I leave.

Malls seem to be the favorite lair of post-apocalyptic teens, much like pre-apocalypse teens. I consider that while taking a step forward and stumble a little as I am yanked way off course by a swirling pit of chaos. That'll teach me to not concentrate while Walking. Seriously I should have known better, I mean at this point I can't reliably Walk and chew bubblegum at the same time.

I'm still in a mall, just not the same mall, I can tell because the shops are different and there are people everywhere, people dressed for warm and sunny weather. I spot a surf shop next to a 'Hot Topic'. It looks like I'm in California.

The crowds part around us as we head for the exit, but that's really no surprise as Murphy does look like a black, mutant koala. What is unusual is the way they're careful not to look at him, it's like their eyes slide off him as soon as they see him. As we step outside I know we're in California because it's on all the license plates and I see a bumper sticker for the Sunnydale Razor Backs.

Yeah, that explains a lot.

Typing by: Abyssal Angel