“Less intelligent creatures don’t thoroughly understand the ramifications of time travel, so they’re not going to expect you to be waiting for them when they arrive.” The dimwit said.
“Let’s try an experiment,” Vresh said, kicking one of the empty chests onto the platform.
“Hit the button.”
The operator might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he did what he was told.
A fraction of a second before his palm made contact with the button, the triggers activated, and the display flickered as the coordinates were altered to drop the package off the second before the wipe.
“Creative,” Vresh muttered to herself. Not even she could survive a wipe. A second later, telekinetic Myst reached up through the floor and tore the guts of the platform to shreds.
The operator gave a pained squawk. “Those are worth millions of bulbs apiece!” he whined.
“Well, my job here is done.” Vresh said, spinning on her heel and heading back to the break room. She’d seen Overpul tea, and she had a serious craving.
“Done? But you were sent here to-“
“To put them back in the tutorial. They went back in the tutorial. Even if I wanted to take punitive action, they’ve prevented anyone from following.” Vresh said, waving. “Sometimes I get an easy job.”
*** Jeb***
Jeb tried to land on his feet, but his pegleg slipped, forcing him into a superhero landing beside the chest.
Everyone else landed more or less okay. Baby Casey was laughing, even.
If Smartass was right about the destination, then we should have a good four hours to meet up with Freeman’s group right after Eddie betrays us.
Jeb didn’t know what level of paradox would cause them to all stop existing, but maybe…just maybe, if he swooped in and killed the World Tortoise while he and his entire crew were unconscious, that key fourteen hours Jeb was knocked out the first time, they would be able to resolve the issue.
Jeb didn’t have any logical reason that would work, but he felt it in his guts.
“How many did we get?” Jeb groaned, pushing himself back to his feet.
“Fifty-Three ability potions. Roughly even spread,” Brett said, setting the potions out by color.
Let’s see, there’s six of us, not including Casey Jr or Smartass, so with fifty-three potions, someone’s gonna have to get the short end of the stick.
Still, nine potions is twenty-seven levels worth of stats.
“Nine each, minus one” Jess said, doing the same math in her head. “If you include Casey.”
“We include Casey,” Jeb said, nipping that shit in the bud. “I’ll take the eight. We’ll do an even split first, then you can trade with each other at your discretion. I don’t want to hear anyone bitching about getting the short end of the stick. We don’t have time for it.”
“Ron, what’d you get?”
“Boom,” Ron said, rolling back his sleeve to reveal three slave collars and an unidentified brass armlet, along with fifteen rings jammed onto his fingers like Christmas ornaments. The necromancer had several wands stuffed in his new, vaguely magical belt.
“I’m surprised you didn’t explode,” Jeb muttered, taking his eight potions from Brett. There were three Myst, three Body and two Nerve.
+9 Body
+9 Myst
+6 Nerve
Jeb didn’t have time to haggle for more Myst potions. He had something he needed to do, so he downed all the potions at once, suffering through their effects to get to the other side as quickly as possible.
As soon as the ache fled Jeb’s body, he picked himself up.
“Alright, I’m gonna go wake up Felicia, you guys wait until after every one of your doppelgangers has retired from the battle, then join up with Freeman. We’re gonna win this time.”
“Who’s Felicia?” Brett asked, frowning,
“The mountain, I think.” Ron said, eyeballing Jeb askance. “She did feel like a girl, but I didn’t catch her name.”
“What if we’re not where, or when we’re supposed to be?” Casey asked.
“Then we’ll figure something out.” Jeb said, taking flight.
Jeb rose into the air, and his heart leapt as he spotted the World Tortoise, back outside the forest, carefully avoiding the Safe Zones. He also spotted the Safe zone, where Freeman’s army of survivors were heading toward the Tortoise, flanked by a huge swarm of undead.
Excellent.
Jeb turned and headed toward the mountain at top speed, tearing through the air.
On the plus side, it only took him a couple minutes to reach the mountain. On the downside, the gate leading into the mountain was gone.
You mother- Jeb gritted his teeth and landed where the gate had been, and began running his hands across the smooth stone.
Maybe it’s some kind of illusion, or maybe I can cut my way through…
Jeb certainly could entertain the notion of tearing out chunk after chunk of stone, with his Myst, but how long would that take? He didn’t have time for a potential dead end.
What if…
“Felicia, I’m here to help. Open up.”
If there were any crickets on the barren mountainside, they would have been chirping at him.
Jeb raised his voice, screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Listen up. Your enemy is right there!” Jeb shouted, pointing at the world tortoise in the distance.
“This is your one chance to get revenge for what’s been done to you!” Jeb shouted, throat hurting from the sheer volume. “There’s only one day left before it’s out of your reach forever, and to take that chance, you’ve got to let me in!”
Jeb stood there, looking up at the mountain, feeling like an idiot as he shouted to himself on the top of the soot-covered volcano.
“Alright, fine!” Jeb said, “Hard way it is.” He reached
