Guild Invites 4.7

I wasn't happy that Tattletale knew how long it would take us to get to the meeting point, but the how was obvious – Thinker power bullshit. The why was also obvious – to throw us off. I shouldn't let her get to me. We'd find out her agenda soon enough. James suggested that we change into costume here and cross the city using multiple Illusion Barriers. While we could run in our civvies and change when we got there, this was a good opportunity to practice using James's Illusion Barriers. So I quickly agreed and changed in the bathroom. My costume wasn't quite complete. I only had three skirt-nets and I was using the prototype cape that Parian had made for design purposes. It looked the same, but it was just linen instead of spider silk. Still, it would have to do. I at least had silk cords to compensate for my lack of skirt-nets. I was also short on good bugs. I'd brought a bunch of ladybugs and a dozen black widows from home, but I'd need more. I opened the tiny bathroom window and called more bugs to me: wasps, hornets, some ants, and lots of small fliers for «Combat Mapping». I had them land on my back under my cloak, so I'd have some bugs with me, but I'd need to gather more when we arrived.

James opened an empty Illusion Barrier to get us across the city. They were disturbingly quiet lacking the sounds of traffic, people, animals, and even wind. It also lacked the bug life that my senses expected, the millions of bugs all around crawling in dirt and hiding all around. It was a bit creepy, partly from the mere lack of noise, and partly because I kept expecting zombies to jump out at us. James broke into a «Sprint» which turned our journey into an impromptu race, albeit a short one. We only made it a few blocks before we reached the hazy zone that marked the edge of the Illusion Barrier. We quickly found an alleyway and James pulled us back into reality.

"Hey, since we're making good time, how about we try running through the Ghost Barrier? Just to get an idea what it's like." James didn't even sound winded.

I frowned behind my mask. I wasn't really happy with the idea. I didn't have enough bugs on me to run much of a «Combat Map» and only could manage a few «Entangles». On the other hand, we did need to scout the Ghost and Dragon Yakuza dungeons. Worst case scenario we would just turn around and leave. "Okay, but we keep moving. And don't forget to «Observe» them."

James tossed me a salute, did the rock star pose with his hand in the air, and called out "«ID Create: Ghost»!"

The quiet bugless void of a new Illusion Barrier opened around us. I immediately sent out most of the small bugs I had on me to get a minimal «Combat Map» established. At the same time I grabbed my bat and prepped two silk cords for «Entangles», because the ghosts had spawned all around us, just like the zombies did.

In the movies ghosts usually look human, just glowing and see-through. These ghosts were translucent and fuzzy around the edges, but less human. Tattered robes bound in chains hid their bodies from my view, but the faces... flat and expressionless with fathomless pits for eyes. A shudder ran down my spine as I met ones gaze and stared into the black abyss. These were not merely the souls of the dead, but the damned. As they glided toward me, I gripped my bat desperately and unleashed my silken cord carrying bugs. My «Combat Map» wasn't in place yet, but I sent them in to «Entangle» anyway.

"It's okay," said James confidently. "Most of them are level 12, only a few are 13. It'll be a complete walk in the park. «Observe»"

As my bugs spread out to create my «Combat Map», they encountered ghosts and almost immediately died. All I received from them was a brief sensation of cold and pain followed by nothing. As James punched a ghost in the face, the «Entangles» that I'd sent into attack made contact. I lost most of the bugs carrying the silk cords, and the cords passed right through them. Fuck this!

"Nope. Nevermind. It's immune. Let's just…"

"Get the fuck out of here!" At least the ghosts seemed slow. I headed toward the ghosts briefly getting them to turn to me, then I turned the other direction to create an opening. The ghosts followed. Apparently this should be named the Pac-Man dungeon. Hopefully that wasn't too accurate a description, because every game of Pac-Man ended with him surrounded and dead. We needed a place to exit where there were no ghosts and hopefully no one to see us emerge. Empty alleyway. Perfect! "There! Get us out of here!"

James grabbed my shoulder and we suddenly appeared in a not-empty alley. Fortunately, the teenaged prostitute in the alley seemed to have her John very much distracted. Or maybe she wasn't a prostitute, all their clothes were still on and they were only necking between the dumpsters. I didn't have time to speculate because they vanished when James opened up another Illusion Barrier.

"Maybe we should leave that one alone," James vastly understated the obvious. "But the Dragon barrier can't be tha-"

"No." I turned to face him. He couldn't be serious. Those ghosts could have killed us. I was about use small words to explain it to him, but the popup announcing a gain in my «Intimidate» skill was a big clue that I'd already made my point.

"Bu… okay." Thankfully James let it drop.

I'm pretty sure that I hurt his feelings, because the rest of the journey he didn't say much except "«ID Create»", "«ID Escape»" and "«Sprint»". I wondered if I should apologize. It wasn't all his fault. We'd both been stupid exploring the Ghost dungeon that way. On the other hand, he wanted to double down on our stupidity by trying out the Dragon Yakuza dungeon after that near disaster. Didn't matter. I wasn't in any shape to talk to James because I could barely breathe. Each illusion barrier only lasted a couple of blocks, so we stopped frequently, but the breaks weren't enough to catch my breath. The ache in my legs turned into a burn and then into pins and needles. I had a higher VIT and a higher level in «Sprint», but James was running me into the ground. I tried to push through the pain, focus on my bugs, and let a part of me handle my body, but eventually I reached my limit and had to give up. I just couldn't match him. We ended up walking the last few blocks. My legs felt like limp noodles and I wanted to just collapse, but something I'd picked up either with «Aikido» and «Acrobatics» warned me that I needed to keep walking until the shakes passed and thoroughly stretch afterwards.

We were also almost there. I had James bring us out a block away so I could scout the area. I stretched as I gathered bugs and set up «Combat Mapping». Tattletale was probably the lone female person at the meeting spot. I didn't spot anyone else that looked like the Undersiders, no giant dogs for sure, but there were people about. We relocated to the narrow alleyway where we'd spied on Lung and I searched again. I was fairly certain that it was only Tattletale, and I'd also had an opportunity to gather some more combat bugs. As we moved up to the roof and took up position, some of my bugs found a gun in her purse. I repeated my trick with the ABB and sent more bugs to crawl into her purse and jam the gun. I had to use smaller bugs since it was broad daylight, but better safe than sorry.

Once we were on the roof, I guided Tattletale to us with some ladybug arrows. I sat down on an air conditioner, mostly because I was afraid that I might collapse if I stood too much longer. I really overdid the «Sprint» training, but I pushed that to the back of my mind to focus on Tattletale. James posed behind me and I spread out my cloak. Showtime.

Tattletale climbed up to join us. She looked different out of costume. Her blonde hair certainly looked better in the sunlight than in shadow, and the freckles made her less femme fatale and more little miss innocent. However, the knowing smirk remained the same, and her clothes echoed her costume. Her blouse was the same lavender shade as her costume while her blue jeans were as tight as spandex.

«Fashion Rating, Confident. +20% to Reaction Rolls, +10% to Seduction»

"Lady Bug, Beetle Knight, I'm glad you were at least willing to meet with me. While I really am serious about owing you both, I need to ask for your help first."

Color me unsurprised that the villainous Thinker had a hidden agenda. "What kind of help?"

Tattletale didn't reply for a moment. She merely studied us both. "You may as well take off your mask, Lady Bug. I already know your identity, more importantly my 'employer' already knows your identity – Taylor Hebert, daughter of Danny Hebert, currently enrolled at Winslow High School."

Fuck me. I wanted scream and shout at her, but she was clearly trying to get a rise out of me. "Was that a threat? You know there are rules about that. They're unwritten, but they're pretty damn clear. Secret identities are off limits." I directed two black widows to crawl up behind her and onto her shoes. Not that I planned to have them bite her. If I attacked it would be with my «Entangle». She'd pushed my buttons, the widows were my way of pushing back.

I couldn't see James behind me, but through my bugs I knew his posture stiffened. "Do you really want to be naming names, Miss Sarah Livsey?"

Tattletale, presumably Sarah Livsey, didn't seem at all bothered. "Well, I guess that's fair. Which makes it your turn. My 'employer' is also suspects that you're James Barron. While he isn't sure yet, he will be soon. I can never keep what I know from him for long. I'm not here to blackmail you. I'm here to warn you. Given enough time I probably could have worked out your identities, but I'm not your problem. It's my employer."

My black widows were now on her shoes and crawling up onto her socks. "Who is your employer and why shouldn't we shoot the messenger?"

"His name is Coil. He pretends to be a minor player, but he has a powerful Thinker ability. He wants to force you to work for him, like he did me. If you help me get away from him, I can help you stay out of his grasp. I'm at your mercy here. With your power I'm basically standing in a minefield that is completely under your control."

«New Quest Alert: Save Tattletale»
«Help Tattletale escape from Coil's clutches without getting trapped yourself»
«Reward: 25,000 XP, Increased reputation with Undersiders, and a new teammate.»
«Failure: Capture, imprisonment, torture, forced servitude and possible death of yourself, James Barron, Tattletale and multiple innocent parties.»
«Bonus Goals: Remove Coil as a threat by any means necessary.»
«Bonus Reward: 50,000 XP»
«Accept?»
«Yes» «No»

I rapidly read the window. Fuckity-fuck fuck! Torture, forced servitude, any means necessary. James's power was spelling it out in no uncertain terms that Coil needed to go down. Multiple innocent parties. Tattletale, or Sarah Livsey, had already mentioned my father's name. "«Yes.» We'll help you. Beetle Knight, I think we should trust her."

"«Yes,» I agree." James gestured with his hand and the bugs I had on his helmet suddenly took flight before landing on his hair.

Mentally I cussed out James. Even without turning I could figure out that he'd just stored his helmet in his «Inventory». Just because I was willing to help her didn't mean I was ready to give away all our secrets yet. His little extradimensional holding space would have been a good one to hold back.

"James Barron at your service. You'll have to tell me how you figured it out sometime."

Sarah grinned at him. "And sometime I'll tell you."

I ordered my black widows off her socks as I reached up and removed my face mask. "And I am Taylor Hebert."

"My real name is Sarah Livsey, but I don't use that name any longer." She smiled at both of us. "My friends call me Lisa."

"Nice to meet you, Lisa. Now, tell us everything you know about Coil." I was trying to «Intimidate» her but my right calf muscle painfully seized up on me and ruined my delivery. "Oh shit. Damn."

"Taylor! I mean, Lady B- ah, screw it. Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Just a cramp," I lied. I bent over trying to massage the massive knot of pain out of my calf. I knew I should have stretched more.

Lisa held her hands up. "Muscle spasms. She's not a brute like you. You both ran all the way here. Most people can't just sprint half-way across the city like that. A rub down should help, ice or rest would also work." She turned to me. "You need to cut yourself some slack. Pushing yourself like this will only lead to injury. As it is you might have to take a few days off to heal. Lay down and I'll see what I can do."

The cramp wouldn't let go and now my other leg felt like it might join in. Maybe I should let someone help, but not her. While Lisa was a girl and having her do it would be less awkward in some ways, I was having a hard time trusting her despite the big nudge from James's power. "Thank you, but no. James, would you mind? Please?"

Thankfully, James agreed. "Of course."

I laid down on the gravel roof, which was already warm in the sun. Damn this was a terrible first impression. I felt James grab my leg and start working my calf. It didn't take him long to find the cramp. I propped my torso up on my arms and tried to focus on the Tattletale. "So, what is your Thinker power, 'Lisa'?"

"Oh, I'm psychic."

"What the hell does that mean?" Holding back the pain had me snapping off my words and that sounded a lot more accusatory than I planned, but really did she have precognition, aura reading, or something like that? James's fingers were doing little to ease the ball of pain in my calf.

She sighed and sat down cross-legged on the gravel by me. "I'm sorry, that's just a little joke. I have enhanced intuition. It's great for puzzles. Give me a few clues and I jump ahead to the solution. I can tell you're the literary type. Think of me as Miss Sherlock Holmes, only a hell of a lot smarter."

Ego showing much? "So that's what let you work out our names?"

"Not really. Coil already knew somehow. I have no clue how he beat me to it." There was more than a trace of irritation there. "He was only mostly sure about James." And now her usual smugness was back in full force. "Your reactions, the little clues in your body language, confirmed it for me. It was obvious, really."

"Fine." Not it wasn't. Not really. "So tell me how did Coil… Oooh. Aaaah." I don't know what James did, but it was suddenly like he had heated fingers. The knot in my calf melted away under his magic touch. "Oh, don't stop."

Tattletale lost it, laughing loud and long. "Maybe you two should get a room."

James froze like he'd been stung. "Is… that better?" The subtext seemed to be if he should stop now.

From the heat on my face I was blushing up a storm, but I was supposed to be the team leader. "It's better, but still hurts, please keep going." I quietly mouthed "«Intimidate»" before focusing a glare at her. "And you, grow up. Regardless of my cramp, this is serious."

"Wow, that's..." She snapped her fingers at James. "I knew you were underselling with the whole Thinker/Brute combo thing. You're a Trump aren't you? You're getting new powers when you need them. No… that's Über's schtick. You get them as you use them. However…" She turned back to me. "You just mumbled 'intimidate' and suddenly got scary. That doesn't match your powers. Plus both of you did a tandem flip-flop in your attitudes toward me. Not to mention the way both of you keep flicking your eyes away. What are you two seeing that I'm not?"

I didn't need this. Her enhanced intuition wasn't quite as bullshit as James's power, but it was close. "That's why you wanted us to unmask. You can read us better when you can see our faces."

«Your insight is keen. WIS has increased by 1»

"Looks like I've got some competition for the Miss Sherlock Holmes contest. You're right. Body language gives me a lot to go on, but I can read more from faces. Now that I've answered your questions, it's your turn."

"It's not really my secret to tell." I looked back at James. "What do you think? Should we tell her?"

James paused in massaging my calf. The knot in my leg was gone now, but I really wanted him to continue. He gave Tattletale a long look before responding. "With her power, I don't think we can stop her from finding out. Besides, we both got the same quest didn't we?"

"We did," I agreed with a sigh. "I'll tell her." And as much as it pained me to ask, my legs were both still sore. I wasn't sure that I could walk, and I needed to be ready to fight. "Would you please do both my legs and up to my thighs?" Damn it. I was blushing again.

"You should," added Lisa. "She overextended herself. You're not just relieving that cramp, you're actually repairing torn muscles. That's a low-grade healing ability."

James nodded. "It's very limited healing. It's mostly good for fatigue, but it will get faster with practice." He resumed kneading my leg.

Even if it was just fatigue related, it was still pretty awesome. This could let me keep up with James in training. I focused my attention on Lisa, because now that the pain was gone James's touch felt rather intimate, and I'd just asked him to do my thighs as well. "Very well, I'll tell you about our powers and you'll tell us everything about Coil. We'll do everything we can to help you get free and stop him. Agreed?"

Tattletale nodded. "Agreed. You scratch my back. I scratch yours. Your secrets are safe with me. It's all copacetic."

I wasn't really happy about this, but James was right. With her power Tattletale would find out anyway. "«Invite Lisa»."

«As the designated Party Leader you may dismiss party members, but only The Gamer can add members to the party.»

Lisa was staring from me to James with a puzzled look on her face.

"You have to do it, James."

"«Invite Lisa Wilbourn»" intoned James.

"What. The. Fuck?!" shrieked Lisa. "This… This is…"

"Bullshit?" James and I asked together.

"Yes, glorious bullshit."

«Sarah "Lisa Wilbourn" Livsey has joined the party.»

«Mini Tutorial Start!»
«Teams»
«Now that you have a party of three members The Gamer has the ability to form a Team.»
«While only active party members can gain and increase stats and skills, forming a Team has several advantages»
«As a team you are more than individuals. The actions of each team member impacts the [Reputation] of the team.»
«To create a Team, The Gamer must propose a Team Name and a minimum of two additional party members must accept.»

Lisa stared at a window her eyes wide. "Pure, glorious, 100% concentrated bullshit."

And there was the answer to our quest to form a Team. Maybe James's power could have explained that at the time. "James, it says you have to do it."

"I saw that. Just thinking what to put there. I just don't want another lame name like «Tutorial?», and we've never really discussed team names."

"Monarchs," said Lisa. "It works for both your insect and Lady/Knight themes."

That… worked. "I like it."

"Agreed," said James. "«Create Team Monarchs.»"