Chapter Eight: Pet Sitting
Transporting outside of Westcliffe Connor and Seth made their way into town where they saw a huge crowd gathering around a large TV monitor in the center of town.
"What all the commotion about?" Connor asked approaching the screen with Seth following close behind.
"Oh!" Seth pointed recognizing the show, "The Crucible Games! I love this show! Westcliff is home to the famous Crucible arena, every season they bring together the biggest, the baddest, and the toughest fighters from across Albion to take on the Trials of Hell!"
Looking at the screen Connor watched a bald fighter running across the sands with Sandy Fury closing in behind him where he slid and kicked one into the spike pit in the center of the ring making the crowd cheer at the blood when the Fury hit the spike.
"Wow! That gory," Connor winced looking up to the massive arena on the hill, "what exactly are these fighters risking their lives for anyway?"
"Well, a million gold prize is the main prize but it is also the title they are trying to steal from the three-time reigning champion Iron Fist," Seth pointed to the screen where it turned to a masked fighter in heavy armor stepping out in the ring from last season where the ground shook and a massive troll rose in front of him.
"Damn, that guy is huge!" Connor spoke shocked by the warrior's height and more impressed by the massive war hammer he wielded and swung with ease to battle the troll.
"I've seen visions of the first hero the Champion, I see a grand arena, many spectators, and a lot of blood, I believe this 'Iron Fist' is the Hero of Strength," Gabriel spoke but was only heard by those with the seal.
"Well, he most definitely fits the bill for a Hero of Strength," Connor spoke watching the hero jump onto the troll's hand and then into the air where he smashed his hammer down on the troll's skull where the show had to censor the trolls eyes popping out of the beast skull but the mosaic censoring left little to imagine what happened.
The show then turned to an ad where one of the judges, a green-haired man spoke, "Hey Troll fighters! Ready for an exciting season fifty-four?! This season we've yet again switched up the game! This season we challenge any warrior to see if they have what it takes to fight our reigning champion the Iron Fist! This year we are excited to welcome the addition of a new floor with a new enemy! If you impress our former champion at the front gates, you'll get a chance to compete!"
After this, a long and fast-worded message appeared about how the Crucible would not be responsible for injury, death, or permanent disfigurement while competing in the Crucible.
"Now a word from the champion himself! Iron Fist!" the judge spoke as the scene turned to the warrior in a large gym lifting weights while wearing his mask, "tell your competition how you feel?"
"All I have to say is, do not waste my time, this arena isn't for arrogant fools or money-hungry idiots who think they can make it rich quick, people have and will die competing, in this tournament you and you alone must survive, and even if you beat the troll, I will not hand over my title so easily," the Iron Fist spoke setting the weights down and sat up to face the camera directly, "if there is a worthy warrior out there who can match my strength, I say, bring it on."
With that the show ended and the crowd began to separate going about their day while Seth and Connor looked up at the stairs to the mighty Crucible.
"Hardly any of those Patrol Guards here," Roscoe spoke looking around.
"Most are stationed in New Bowerstone while crime rate increases across Albion, Westcliff is one of the exceptions since they film and air the Crucible Games here," Seth explained looking over to a tavern, "OK here's the plan."
"What the plan?" Connor asked turning to Seth who pulled up his hood.
"I am gonna hit the Tavern, gather intel, see what I can learn about the 'Iron Fist' Perhaps his past can help us to recruit him when we get you into that arena," Seth said looking down at Roscoe, "you're in charge of Connor."
"Oh ha ha ha so funny," Connor chuckled watching Seth head into the tavern to gather what information he could.
"So, what do we do first?" Roscoe asked looking up to Connor.
"Gabriel, where should we start for this first quest?" Connor asked looking around the large town that had expanded over the years for its growing population.
"The closest quest I see in this town is in a nearby house a few blocks down from where you're standing, good luck," Gabriel said watching Connor and Roscoe's cards on the map table slowly moving towards their first quest.
Following Gabriel's instructions Connor walked down a road till he and Roscoe approached a very pink house sticking out from all the other houses in Westcliffe.
"I guess this is place?" Connor spoke tilting his head at the awful color the house was painted, "Five gold, it's crazy cat lady."
"Well knock then," Roscoe spoke watching Connor approach the front door and knock where they waited to see a plump woman dressed in pink answer.
"Oh, hello dearie! You must be the pet sitter! Thank goodness you arrived just in time!" she spoke.
'Pet Sitter?' Connor thought raising an eyebrow knowing he needed to correct her, "uh actually I-"
Before he could explain Connor was pulled into the house by his arm by the lady with Roscoe following close behind turning his head towards the kitchen when he heard mischievous whispering of something small.
"It's so great the agency showed up! I thought they would never come! They called me crazy for wanting a pet sitter for my precious babies! Please come in!" she smiled leading Connor into the living room which no surprise was also pink. Pink floral wallpaper, pink couch, pink lamps, even her telephone was pink.
'Gabriel did warn me some of these 'quests' would be utter rubbish, better get it over with,' Connor thought letting out a sigh then spoke, "So what exactly will I be pet sitting?"
"Oh, my little Nova accidentally got wet you see and the most miraculous thing happened! She had a litter and now I have a full house of the precious little angels!" she smiled.
"Wait, what? Wet? Don't you mean she got pregnant?" Connor asked confused by her statement.
"Nope!" she smiled opening the door into a dining room where Connor and Roscoe's eyes widened to see it was filled with small brown and white pointy-ear creatures.
Some were on the table tossing cups and silverware, others had managed to climb onto the ceiling fan and were spinning and cheering, and some were even flipping through a photo album laughing and pointing before ripping up some photos.
"What in the bloody hell are those?!" Connor asked ducking when a cup was thrown at him and smashed on the wall behind him.
"I believe they are called 'Gremlins', the man who gave me one told me to follow three rules: never feed them after midnight, never let them get wet, and never let them near bright lights. Unfortunately, my little Nova got wet and this happened! They multiplied! Are they not the cutest things you ever saw?" she smiled making kissy faces at all the Gremlins some blowing raspberries at her and even some flipping her the bird.
"Uh yeah...cute," Connor remarked cautiously eyeing the little creatures suspecting there was something more malevolent about them.
"I need to go to town hall to settle my divorce with my soon-to-be Ex-Husband and I don't want to leave them alone, so all you have to do is watch over the little ones until I get back! It shouldn't be more than a few hours! I will pay of course," she smiled.
"I suppose I can watch them," Connor spoke trying to count how many he saw but they wouldn't hold still, "how many are there exactly?"
"Fifty-one," she smiled picking up her purse her answering making Connor's eyes widen.
"Fifty-one?!" he repeated, "there's really that many?!"
"You'll find Nova in the Living room, he is just so different from the others, he just loves to read books! It's so curious," she smiled pointing to the couch where Connor noticed a loan well behaved Gremlin that wore a small vest that quietly was reading a book.
"So I just have to watch them for a few hours?" Connor asked looking back to the dining room where the Gremlins had stopped their mayhem and seemed to be in groups whispering to one another and peeking up at him.
"Yup! Shouldn't be too long to drag that old bastard but his balls," the woman spoke making her way to the front door.
"Is there any special food I need to feed them?" Connor asked looking back to these the Gremlins all standing by the Dining Room entrance all staring at Connor with mischievous grins.
"No dietary restrictions, have fun dear! Goodbye babies! Mommy will be back soon!" she smiled blowing kisses before leaving.
"Ok I am gonna call it, those things are evil!" Roscoe growled watching the Gremlins all waving with their wicked smiles.
"I'm sure we can handle this," Connor spoke taking a seat on the couch next to Nova who looked up and smiled.
"Hi," Nova spoke catching Connor's attention and looking down at the small creature.
"You can talk? Well, that's interesting, hello little guy, I'm Connor and this is Roscoe," Connor introduced watching Roscoe sniff the friendly Gremlin that giggled and petted his nose.
"She right, this one different in a good way," Roscoe spoke watching the Gremlin approach Connor.
"Friend?" Nova asked with a smile.
"Aw, sure we can be friends, little buddy," Connor smiled gently picking up the Gremlin in his hand.
"No like Mindy," Nova spoke pointing to a picture of the woman on the wall.
"So that's her name, yeah she gave me some crazy cat lady vibes, guess I was half right," Connor spoke glancing over to the doorway to the dining room to see the Gremlins still watching him closely.
"What should we do now?" Roscoe whispered watching Connor pick up a TV guide.
"We can watch some TV to pass the time, looks like some of last season's Crucible Games is rerunning, let's watch, if I am gonna fight the Iron Fist in the ring I might as well see his fighting style so I know what to look out for," Connor spoke turning the TV on.
"Welcome back to another exciting season of the Crucible Games! Today we have an exciting match-up for you! We started with ten fighters and now one has made it to compete against our champion Iron Fist!" the judge on the TV spoke getting Roscoe and Connor attention.
Meanwhile in the Tavern Seth took a seat in the corner of the bar pulling out his phone and sent a message to Friday, "Hey Friday, could you dig some information for me on the current Crucible Champion Iron Fist?"
Waiting for a reply we watched a tall figure enter the bar wearing casual clothing with curly red hair with a scar across his nose and corner of his left eyebrow.
With heavy footsteps he took a seat at the bar, "Hey Mac can I get my usual please!"
"Kyler! Where have you been? I haven't seen you in ages!" the balding bartender Mac smiled approaching.
"I've been training, of course, I can't get rusty you know," Kyler chuckled watching Mac fix his drink.
"Will you be competing in this season Crucible?" Mac asked seeing Kyler chuckle.
"Me against the Iron Fist? Hmm nah, I wouldn't stand a chance!" Kyler chuckled taking a sip.
"You kidding? You're just as big as that beast! I bet you could claim that title for your own!" Mac encouraged watching Kyler chug down his drink.
Finishing his drink with a satisfied aww Kyler set his empty glass on the counter along with a few gold pieces, "We'll see, I'll catch you later Mac, I gotta get to work!"
Leaving the bar Seth heard his phone ping and looked at his message his eyes widened when he saw a picture of Kyler pop up and quickly looked up to see Kyler exit the tavern.
"Wait!" Seth called leaving a few gold pieces on the table and ran after Kyler outside of the Tavern where he looked around to see the man was gone, "dammit!"
Back at the pink house after a few episodes of The Crucible Connor had gained a bit of knowledge on the Hero of Strength, getting a direct hit would be deadly, especially if he wasn't holding back, Connor had seen the man completely shatter bones of monsters and men alike with his hammer.
"You're not gonna seriously try and fight him will you?" Roscoe asked also having watched a few episodes and was not liking the odds.
"If the only way to talk to him is by fighting him in the arena then I have no choice, I have a good sense of his fighting style, with that hammer his close-range attacks are lethal, if I can maintain a safe distance I think I can handle him," Connor explained having not noticed the entire time he and Roscoe were watching some Gremlins had snuck in and had unplugged the TV on them.
"What the?" Connor spoke hearing all the Gremlins have migrated into the room and all burst out laughing at the prank, except Nova who rolled his eyes.
"Oh ha, ha, ha that's so funny, little shits, give me that," Connor spoke approaching the TV and snatching the plug from their hands and watching them scurry off.
With this distraction the Gremlins began to change the clocks in the room, what had read eleven had now been moved back an hour.
"There," Connor spoke turning the TV back on to see the Iron Fist standing on top of a dead troll and holding his hammer in the air getting a cheer from his fans.
"Let's watch some more, hopefully, there is an old injury I can exploit," Connor spoke retaking his seat, meanwhile at the tavern, Seth took his seat again at his table.
"Kyler Blade huh?" Seth spoke reading the information Friday could get him, "Only child, raised by a single parent, who also acts as his coach, hmmm."
Reading more our heroes were not aware of events happening in New Bowerstone where at the castle, Reaver and Lord Tirich watched an episode of The Crucible.
Lord Tirich was an intimidating-looking man with jet-black hair tied behind his head he had several scars on his cheek and an eyepatch covering his eye.
"Why are we watching this trash Reaver?" Tirich growled watching Reaver point to the Iron Fist.
"Him, I suspect he is the new chosen hero of Strength, my dear friend, you saw for yourself in the old crypt, that something was stolen, a hero is on the rise, it best to nip his growth in the bud now before he blossoms into a true threat, don't you agree Vex?" Reaver asked looking to the darkness where a hooded figure slowly emerged with a mask.
"It's true, Reaver's suspicions are on point for once, I felt his awakening, a hero has returned," the Vexator spoke watching Lord Tirich think.
"If this 'Iron Fist' is truly the new Hero Strength I want him dealt with now," Tirich spoke standing up, "locate the others too before the hero gets his hands on him."
"I will send the Guard Patrol immediately," Reaver smiled getting up and seeing four more masked figures appear behind the Vexator.
"Don't fail Reaver, you know what will happen if you anger me again," the Vexator warned leaving.
"I would never dream of it," Reaver smirked leaving the room to assemble the Patrol to Westcliffe.
On his way out he entered the palace library where Lady Grey sat at a deck dressed in a black pants suit with her blonde hair tied in a ponytail behind her.
"What do you want?" Lady Grey asked not bothering to look up from her book.
"It seems heroes are returning, your patience is going to pay off," Reaver spoke watching her smirk.
"Well then," she spoke closing the book, "time to see how my experiments turned out, I'll call to inform you how the tests went."
"Make sure to eliminate any witnesses," Reaver smirked watching Lady Grey stroll out with glowing red eyes.