Chapter 25 Recipe for destruction

*Jeb’s notes*

Piyiki Kupei.

dead harem lady number 7, a bubbly, kind soul, whose Myst was capable of inspiring armies to great feats.

Inspired armies  = Myst has performance enhancing properties. Will Not Be Alone.

Death spell will require ability to deal with multiple opponents and penetrate their defenses. Scattershot, homing or penetration?

Add ‘interference rounds’ to clear a path and a ‘conductor’ for them to orient around. Relationship= Football players?

Age: 28 years. Second youngest harem member. A bit more rash? Young does not guarantee recklessness, only inexperience.

Tactics: Piyiki kupei spent most of her combat history leading from the back, as she was far too valuable to risk in combat.

Classically trained swordsman, although never got a chance to use it in a real one on one battle before she died.

Young + Never used training in battle = weak to lowbrow, underhanded/unfair or ‘cheating’. I don’t know how a spell can ‘cheat’. Move that consideration to the Spell’s personality ? underhanded veteran? So…me?

Football players or special forces? All I need is the interference rounds to make room for the conductor to ‘score’ on the enemy. In that sense it’s more like football. On the other hand, special forces have a ton more cutthroat training and ‘unfairness’.

Special forces veterans PLAYING football

Piyiki was one of the few harem members who actually had a sexual relationship with Pikaku. Can I use that? jealousy? Unreported, unlike Kikipuki, who was a very jealous lover.

Invert it. Whose jealousy caused damage to her?

Bubbly people internalize their feelings.

Trauma from Kikipuki? Most definitely, her behaviour was legendarily bad.

Exploit mental trauma. How?

Vresh mentioned temporary exile based on politics. Never took another lover. Actual love? = Heartbreak?

probe her Impact for that one instant of heartbreak and betrayal she felt when Pikaku sent her away for no fault of hers. Temp. stun?

***Jebediah Trapper***

“Boop.”

The tip of Jeb’s finger unleashed hell.

Six kinetic lances dived forward, plowing into the ground, sending a shower of dirt into the air into the eyes of the opposing group. To their credit, none of the opposing veterans flinched, instead moving to stand in front of their ward, weapons up.

A single bright light surrounded by a horizontal tornado of mixed telekinetic and thermal motes of Myst shot forward, plowing through the curtain of earth in a streak of light.

The Myst orbiting the center light separated in a smooth deployment, attacking the bodyguards from below in order take advantage of their mass and knock them away from the target.

Four of them were knocked away: having a high Body simply doesn’t make you heavier.

Another two squatted down and used some kind of technique to remain in place. One of them melted their feet into the ground, the other seemed to turn metallic.

The one who fused with the ground got hit through the temple by a mote of light, going limp.

The other was seemingly invulnerable, the high temperature and kinetic lances unable to deter him from aiming for the ‘conductor’ in the middle.

The hulking steel melas let out a bellow as he dove forward, snatching the conductor in the center out of the air and crushing it in his fist in a swirl of Myst.

The tornado of Myst didn’t give a shit. The one in the center wasn’t the conductor.

Half a dozen kinetic blockers slammed the bodyguard to the ground, preventing him from pushing himself to his feet as the formation swept past him, orienting on Piyiki Kupei.

The undead woman made to react, when a pulse of ivory light emanated from the formation, causing her to hesitate for an instant.

The moment passed and the undead creature’s legs bunched up, ready to fling herself out of the way.

The six lances that had disappeared into the ground popped up like daisies, wrapping themselves around her ankles and holding her in place.

“Wha-“

The conductor separated from the formation and blinked forward with heretofore unseen speed, expanding into a softball-sized complex knot of Myst, burning a massive hole through Piyiki’s head.

Instead of passing through, the lynchpin of the spell took up residence, unfolding and engulfing the undead creature from the head down, turning it to ash in the process.

All the while, the blockers formed a tornado of force and fire around the target, adding to the heat and intercepting off several Myst-based attacks from her allies meant to rescue her.

In the space of a sigh, there was nothing left of Piyiki Kupei.

You have gained a level!

You have gained a level!

You have gained a level!

You are now level 52!

Congratulations! You have Beaten the F̵̠̻̹͐̾͘ǎ̶͓͙̀̒ͅļ̸̼͆̿̒l̶͕͚̆̇ë̸̯͚̦́n̴̡̓͠ ̴̟̾Í̷͔͓̮̂͝d̶̪̄͜o̴̪̣̐̚l̵̬̗̿̆̽ ̷̺̓̌̽P̵̼̂͗̚į̵̼̞̇y̸͉͔͋̔ỉ̷̞͚͔̏k̴̡̳̀̏̀ǐ̶̠̈ ̵̛̮̝͊K̶̩̫̈́̋u̸͇̤̔̎ṗ̷̬͖͐́e̵̥̞͒ͅi̵̻̓.̸̟̭̱͊ in a one-on-one duel. Your s̷̨̡͈͉͔͓̗͕͕̩̜̦̭̰̫͛e̶̜̽̉l̵̨̛̘̟̰͖͇͕̻̈́f̷̣̻̠͍̰͇͕̘̼̠̝̙͔̍̚͝-̷̨̰̣̣̮̜̼̮̩͈͆͂̎̆͆͂̿͐̒̎̈́̿͐̊s̴̨̫̹̞̲͌͝ą̷̧̱͉̦̘̖̲͇̼̤̻̜̪͑̏̂͂̽̀̋̈̂̔͌͑̈́̕c̷̬̜̬̭̟̼̳͋͂̒̃̒̊͋͗̂̆̈̊͋͘͜r̷̢̡̖̹̼̟̟̣̋̒̔̊̈́͐̈́̄͌į̵̖̞͓̹̯̈́͒́f̴̢̱̻̦̩̱̖̳̫̣̝̾͛̾́̋̄̇͜͝͝͝ḭ̴̲͐͗̕c̷̖͖̠̾̀̂̐͆͛͆͝ĕ̵̍̈́̈́̕ is beyond reproach!

Č̵̦̘̠̋͂́͘͜͝u̸͇͒̀̈̊͘ͅr̶̰̰̒̏͆̚s̶̤͍͚͓͖̈́̈́̃̈́e̴̡̡̛̱̰͍̱ͅ ̸̨̢̻̩̙̦͕̎̍̅̊̕͠ö̸͓͚́̄̏f̷̧̧̠̟͚̻̀̉̆̓͘͝ ̸͔̒t̷͓̘̭͇̻̮̓̈́͘h̵̨̡͓̱͖̼͍͒̔̃̾̂͠e̵̘̦̜͓̿́ ̸͖͍̯̒̇̿̂͘F̵̠̻̹͐̾͘ǎ̶͓͙̀̒ͅļ̸̼͆̿̒l̶͕͚̆̇ë̸̯͚̦́n̴̡̓͠ ̴̟̾Í̷͔͓̮̂͝d̶̪̄͜o̴̪̣̐̚l̵̬̗̿̆̽ ̷̺̓̌̽g̶͇̱̺̗̓̈r̸̨̟͆͋͆̓̀̕ả̵̛̦͕̰̼͙́̀̅̓͠ǹ̴̨͍̳̖͋͋͊t̵̲͐ẹ̸̇̑̆͑̎͜͠͠d̸̺̣̮̺̥̆͑̈́͋͐̕͝ͅ

-5 Myst

Global reputation suffers.

Could be a lot worse, Jeb thought, dropping the three levels in Body. That curse actually helps me not die, although the global reputation thing is a bit concerning.

Body 53 à 56

The opposing veterans climbed to their feet in the deafening silence that followed.

Their eyes cleared, going from raw zealotry to cold calculation as they studied him and the burnt patch of dirt where their patron had been just a moment ago.

Jeb raised his finger, causing the hardened mercenaries to flinch.

“There’s plenty more where that came from,” Jeb said, meeting their eyes from his admittedly un-commanding vantage point, slumped over and bleeding. He neglected to mention that the ‘plenty more’ was entirely intended for specific targets and Jeb couldn’t use it on against them if he wanted to.

“Could just wait for you to die.” The oldest one said, looking down at Jeb’s wound. “Your head’s worth a lot of coin.

“I’m a Mystic Trapsmith.” Jeb said, too tired to shrug. “I took out your client with a ‘boop’. What do you think will happen when I die? Huh?”

The veteran’s eyes widened at Jeb’s baseless assertion.

“Come on. let’s round up anyone who’s still breathing,” He said, turning away. “We’ll sell the extra weapons from Hognath’s crew to cover our pay. This was a shit show.”

Jeb and Vresh tensed as one of the enemies walked over to them.

“Vresh Tekalis?”

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Big fan of your work, ma’am.” He gave a hesitant half-bow before going back to looting bodies. He glanced at Jeb and gave a short scoff, shaking his head.

Jeb waited until they were out of earshot to unleash a long sigh.

“Vresh, remind me to make a bluffing trigger based on the phrase ‘plenty more where that came from’, and a death trap.”

Normally Jeb didn’t care what happened after he died, but if killing him blew everyone up, they might choose not to do it.

Case in point.

“I’m not your secretary,” Vresh muttered, glancing over her shoulder at Piwaki. “Healer’s lucid.”

“Oh, gods, I’m gonna die,” Piwaki moaned in that piteous, overdramatic way that only people who definitely aren’t dying can pull off. “This hurts so bad.”

“That’s actually a really good sign,” Jeb said. “If you were actually going to die, you wouldn’t be able to feel much of anything at all. You would be experiencing this burst of calm euphoria as your brain shut down. So the fact that you’re able to complain so pathetically is actually a good sign.”

“That didn’t make me feel any better,” Piwaki groaned, sitting up, his hand clapped over his shoulder, slowly causing the flesh to grow back together over the bone.

Compared to Amanda’s healing, it was a C minus, but compared to just about anything else Jeb had seen before the world went crazy, the speed was nothing short of miraculous.

“If you’ve got nothing better to do, I’d appreciate it if you made sure Vresh and I don’t bleed out.” Jeb caught Jeresh’s gaze. “You think you can find Kolusk?”

“Probably up a tree somewhere,” Jeresh sighed, climbing to her feet. “I’ll look for him.”

“Where’s Kol?” Vresh asked. “He’s the only one who can find where they stashed the girl.”

“I don’t know. I suspect he might have taken the first opportunity to leave.”

At least, that’s what I would do if I didn’t care about my team or the job.

Kol had a thing about completing his job. A weird hair up his ass about his success rate.

“Actually,” Jeb said, wincing as Piwaki started to close the hole in his stomach, “I think he might have left us with the intention of rescuing the baby in the confusion and leaving us to die.”

“But… Kol Rejan is a national hero,” Piwaki said, confusion evident on his bird-face.

“I’ve met the guy a couple times now, and I would characterize Kol as… a goal-oriented psychopath. His job was not keeping us safe.”

“Huh.” Piwaki muttered, putting his head down and getting back to work as he digested that tidbit of information.

Once Jeb could walk without bleeding out, he found and disabled the nearby artillery, preventing the enemy from knocking them out of the air when they decided to leave. In his travels, he found Kolusk actually stuck in a tree.

The young man had been travelling at near sonic speeds when his Myst guttered out, his momentum embedding him halfway through a grand hardwood tree.

They found Kol a quarter mile to the northwest, as a pale bit of white flesh stood out against the green of the forest.

The naked keegan was stapled to a boulder by a thick steel blade, his eyes clouded over in death.

“Damnit,” Jeb muttered, landing beside the corpse and kneeling down to inspect it.

Kol had been nearly carved in half, held together by the very object pinning him in place. There were obvious signs of a struggle, upturned dirt, toppled trees, and gouges in the stone, but this wasn’t CSI, and Jeb had no idea what precisely had happened.

He only knew the end.

“How are we supposed to find the girl now, asshole?” Jeb asked. He didn’t give two shits about the cold-blooded mercenary. What he did care about was that they’d lost their only lead. The corpse didn’t respond.

Jeb had a brief thought of possibly using his ring to try and pry the Ability out of Kol’s head, but realized it was a moot point. One of the first things he’d learned was a person’s Impact dissipates almost instantly upon death.

Under Kol was a creased letter with Casey’s name on it, and dangling from his fingertips was a ripped section of the baby’s clothes. Jeb’s stomach felt like someone had tugged directly on his guts.

Ugh, it smells,Jeb thought, wondering how many of the undead damsels had been here waiting the courier in the follow-up ambush. They tainted the air just by existing.

Jeb blinked.

Miasma. Bad air. smell. Tainting the air.

“Could that work?” Jeb muttered, his mind jumping from train to train like an action western.

We’ve been dancing on the palm of ‘the Master’s’ hand this entire time because we’ve been using tactics he’s familiar with. This time, we’re going to force him to react to US.

“I’m going to go talk to Eddie again.” Jeb said, standing.

***1 hour later***

“The term you’re looking for is Astronomical Spectroscopy, a field I know nothing about,” Eddie said through Borg’s speakers. “Am I just ‘the science guy’ to you?” the cranky old roboticist sounded miffed. “Do I just ‘science up’ answers when you need them?”

“You knew the name, so you knew more than me. So just tell me, is it possible to ‘see’ concentrations of molecules with a powerful enough satellite?”

“Well, yeah, if you had a good telescope in orbit, but to reiterate, you don’t have one, and I know next to nothing about it.”

Jeb cocked a brow. “Given that the System has made you many times smarter than you were before, how long would it take you to figure out how to do it?”

Eddie let out a long groan over the phone.

“I could probably learn it in an afternoon. I’ll get Ron in on this. I’m gonna need access to some undead to figure out what their stank does to light.”

“Make it faster. Also where does NASA make their space telescopes?”

“They don’t, for one. They contract out to aerospace companies, same as the Department of Defence.” Eddie said. “Companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.”

“…and do you know where I could find one of their labs?”

Eddie sighed over the phone.

“Just because I know this doesn’t make me ‘the science guy’, okay?”

Eddie then proceeded to give Jeb the name and location of three U.S. based companies that might have finished or mostly-finished satellites designed for defense, surveillance and astronomy.

The three were surprisingly similar. Simply a difference in software and a few extra features.

Jeb consulted a map of the new continent, with America shredded to pieces and layered in among the alien geology, mentally reconstructing the fifty states in his head.

Here, here, and here.

“Thanks, Eddie, you do this and I’ll let you off the hook for this month’s lease on your lab.” Jeb said, hanging up on Borg’s phone before the scientist could protest.

“Borg, I want you to come with us. This is an all-hands on deck situation,” Jeb said walking out of the cell.

“It’s a bit early, but that’s fine.” Borg walked out of the cell, the guards falling unconscious as the robot passed by them.

“Do I wanna know how you did that?” Jeb asked.

“Nope,” Borg said with a grin.

“Can you get Smartass out of her cell too?”

“Well, not easily, I haven’t prepped her guards yet.” Borg responded.

The two of them looked down the empty hall, toward the fairy’s room.

Jeb poked his bullet wound. It was still tender, and if Piwaki’s pain control wasn’t so good, he’d probably be in intense pain. In short, Jeb was not in good shape for a prison break.

But…it was his Familiar. It was the principle of the thing. Plus, if he didn’t have smartass’s help, it could hardly be considered his ‘best effort’

Jeb grinned.

I’m getting the hang of this deal.

***later***

Where did it all go so wrong? Jeb thought, bound and gagged, kneeling in front of the emperor.

“And then he tried to escape with both the fairy and the undead,” The Enforcer said, recounting the last fifteen minutes in a dry tone. “Shall I execute him now?”

“I’d like to hear Mr. Trapper speak for himself.” Pikaku said.

“Sire, he has traps keyed to his voice.” One of the Enforcers spoke.

“He’s got traps keyed to his kegels,” Pikaku said, waving his hand dismissively.

Ooh, good idea,Jeb thought before one of the Enforcers reached down and tore the gag out of his mouth.

“Speak,” Pikaku intoned as Jeb tried to cure his dry-mouth.

“I’ve got a plan that can solve your undead problems in a single move.” Jeb said.

“How?”

“Can you trust me, and dismiss the guards?” Jeb asked.

“Trust you?” Pikaku asked, his voice raising. “You’re facing execution for breaking our Deal!”

“Breaking our Deal!?” Jeb shouted, rising to his feet until he felt the edge of a blade at his neck. “The deal was my ‘best effort’. There were no stipulations about respecting the law or not breaking my team out of prison.”

“Typical fairy garbage.”

“I decided it would be my ‘best effort’ if I had access to all my allies, rather than let them be wasted as hostages. You don’t need hostages. You’ve already got my word! You know I won’t break it!”

“And what is your plan that a monstrosity of rotting flesh and steel and a deceitful spirit will make a difference?”

“I asked you to trust me.” Jeb “Everything I do is to finish the job I promised I would finish. I’ll tell you when they’re gone.” Jeb said, glancing up at the melas with a sword to his neck.

Pikaku leaned back in his throne, head cocked to the side. “Leave us.”

“Sire –“

“Jebediah here has taken the Vow of truth. He’s able to bend his words a bit, but a direct statement is like Iron. If you would give my bodyguards some reassurance?” Pikaku asked, motioning to Jeb.

“I promise not to take any action against you, nor trigger anything that would harm you by action or inaction until I leave this room.”

Click.

“There you have it. Leave us.” Pikaku said.

With quite a bit of muttering and some pointed glares, the Enforcers filed out of the room until it was just Jeb and the emperor.

Jeb had never been alone in a room with the brightly feathered tyrant.

“Alright, we’re alone. Tell me your plan.”

Jeb climbed to his foot.

“Your father has been reading the situation ahead of us in every encounter we’ve had with him.”

“He was a genius at warfare, intrigue and politics. I myself am only adequate.” Pikaku said with a shrug. “It was a large portion of the reason he wasn’t disposed of after…the incident. I felt he could be preserved as a resource.”

“I’ve got a method your father won’t see coming, and a plan that hinges on it that I think will trap him.”

“Enlighten me.”

Jeb took a deep breath. “Do you know what the words ‘astronomical spectroscopy mean?”

“I can’t say that I do.”

“Do you know what a satellite is?”

“A celestial body orbiting a planet,” Pikaku said with a shrug.

Jeb smiled.

“I take it that was not the correct response?”

“Technically it was. Now, do you think your father will know what these things are any more than you do?”

Pikaku gave the kitri equivalent of a smirk, his neck undulating from side to side slowly.

“No, I don’t think he will.”

“Allow me to begin by explaining what I think of when I hear the word ‘satellite’,” Jeb said.