Without battles, he wasn’t leveling up nearly as quickly, but he was making slow and steady progress. He wasn’t in a rush now that things had stabilized. He had hit level 14 and was halfway to 15, most of the XP from skill leveling. He hadn’t realized how much tension he’d been carrying until things finally settled down.
Nick had reassured him that with the island being so remote, it would be very difficult to find, even if someone was looking for it. Since the manor wasn’t transmitting anything or emitting any kind of signals, it should keep off the radar. Gus still felt a little exposed without the bio-stasis field, but after a couple days, he began to relax, chiding himself for his hypervigilance and worry.
He had cut one jumpsuit down into a nice swimsuit. After a lot of rummaging through the dispensary, he had found a mask and snorkel as well as some scuba gear. Not being familiar with the scuba mouthpiece and tanks, he opted simply to explore the reefs and wildlife around the rocks. He’d always been fairly pasty since he was always indoors, but he was developing a respectable tan, and an ever-improving physique. With a little tweaking, he had automated Energy Absorption so he’d never get a sunburn again. Membership had its privileges. Taking a break, he lay back in the warm sand and closed his eyes.
While Gus enjoyed his downtime, a flashing red light winked on in the control center.
(1) message pending.
It set off no alarms or notices. The peacefulness of its mute winking belied the bombshell that it contained. Gus went about his routine for another couple days, not once visiting the control center, and so the message stayed there, patiently blinking.
Chapter Two
Panic Attack
“Gus, proximity alert! Someone is nearing the northwest shore!”
“What? Already?!” He had figured that it was a remote possibility that someone determined could find the island eventually. He waded out of the water and removed his mask and snorkel, tossing them to the beach, out of range of the busy little robot cleaners.
In his mind, he had estimated it would take a much longer time for someone to discover the island. Someone had come to ruin his plans to relax and prepare at his own pace before heading back to civilization. He tightened his grip on Jet and began to run to the area indicated by Nick.
The warm, salty wind blew by as Gus used Dash to move quickly down to the beach, drying himself almost immediately after a brief chill. He rocketed down the coast, steps bouncing like a skipping stone off the lazy waves that licked the sandy shore.
When the minimap showed he was nearing the landing zone, he moved away from the water, up to where the long grasses and palms grew, to hide his footprints and observe the invaders. His heart pounded like a big bass drum, threatening to betray his hiding spot to the world, even though Gus knew that it wasn’t that loud in reality.
A bobbing blip became visible along the horizon, and Gus zoomed in his display to see a small, unremarkable ship skip into view. It was traveling fairly quickly, directly for the beach where he was hidden. He clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes at the thought of someone coming to take away the island.
This island was his. He had not constructed it, but it was through his effort alone that it had become viable for use. No one else had been able to do that in decades of trying. Gus was also painfully aware he was still a noob compared to most supers out there, but he wasn’t going to let the island and the manor go without a fight.
The loss of the bio-stasis field was a double-edged sword. It freed up a huge reserve of energy taken up by the shield to unlock facilities. But the island was now out in the open, with no defenses to speak of. He felt sweat slick on his palms as he held Jet, waiting and watching the ship.
To be honest, he wanted to get back to civilization but hadn’t thought that it would result in such a quick move to seize the manor out from under him. Being alone was starting to affect him more than he would like to admit. Besides, the capacitors were so shot from being operational for so long that Nick had told him they would probably never come back online unless they were repaired extensively or replaced. He would have to find another way to protect his home.
As the ship approached, Gus could resolve some men moving along the decks. Most were carrying automatic weapons and patrolling back and forth. He could not sense any Nth with his passive Psi-link skill, which was a little confusing. Maybe these were henchmen, fodder to exhaust him and ‘soften him up’ before the real supers arrived to finish what they started. So strange to be seeing this from the other side of the equation. He almost felt bad for them; who knew what he would do if he had a family he had to support.
The details of the unkempt men came clearer the closer they came to the shore. No one was wearing a standard uniform and the group did not behave at all like seasoned soldiers. At long last, the ship neared and slowed as it got close enough to debark and Gus could make out some of their shouted commands, but they were all in a different language. There was a quick warbling tone and suddenly he could understand the commands one particularly nasty individual was barking at the others.
“You’re welcome,” Nick drawled sarcastically.
“Get ashore and see if there’s anything we can use. We need more water, and some food would be nice. Hurry! We need to finish here and get to the rendezvous point in less than thirty hours!”
It
