Save State Hero 3 -ch 22-

Chapter 22

Iren shook herself pulled off her sports bra and short-shorts, kicked her shoes off, and then just left it all on the ground. She was naked in all her glory once again.

“Does he really spend that much time in a bed with you?” asked Dot, looking at the Dragon. She didn’t seem bothered anymore and really just sounded curious.

At least to Edmund she did.

“Yeah, he does,” Iren said with a wide grin. “He needs a new name like Duncan McOkiner when it comes to me I guess. Half the time I push, half the time he pushes. I have no idea why it’s this way but I really like it.”

Iren walked into the elevator shaft, grunted, then sighed.

“This is going to be a really damn tight squeeze. Just come up behind me and we’ll figure out what to do at the top,” Iren stated, then suddenly laughed. “Ha… he likes to come up behind me for a tight squeeze. Last time he even told me so. Maybe I’m not all clapped out after all.”

“Duncan… what?” Harper asked, shaking her head. “Duncan… Duncan?”

Iren was shifting into her full Dragon form inside of the elevator shaft. Dot, Edmund, and Harper all moved tot he door to wait.

“Dunking my cock in her. Duncan McOkiner,” Dot mused dryly. “I hate how amusingly witty she is because even I end up laughing at her jokes.”

Iren only laughed and started crawling her way up the elevator shaft. Her body didn’t quite fit and she was forcing her way through it. Her shoulders, back, and hips knocking everything and anything off that stuck out in the shaft.

“Dunking… ugh. I really should have seen that one. It is funny though,” Harper admitted with a smirk. “Doug Inher? Neil On’mae?”

Dot only sighed, pressed a hand to her head, and then entered the elevator shaft. The blue shield she’d been holding out in front of them was now above them. Another appeared below her with a strange hand flipping gesture.

“Heh, dug in her and kneel on me? Nice,” Edmund said and joined Dot in the elevator with Harper.

“You did kind of kneel on me, Teddy honey. Or the backs of my knees? Hm. Well, it was interesting at least,” Harper mused and looked up.

“He does do that doesn’t he,” muttered Dot and then lifted her hand up. All three of them began ascending upward.

“Oz? Srit? Either of you wake up?” Edmund tried, wanting to change the subject away from the fact that if all the women he slept with compared notes, he likely wouldn’t be able to hide much about his preferences. “Or are we still too deep in Zeus territory?”

There was as of yet, no response.

“I suppose that also tells us that you won’t be able to use Save-states yet,” Harper remarked as they were moving up behind Iren as she slamed, climbed, and battled her way upwards. “I’m thankful Iren is with us because she can obliterate her way through everything but in the same breath… she looks like she can’t even take a full breath.”

“I-can’t,” panted Iren above them, her tail hanging limply down toward the shield.

Wither her speaking, Edmund realized what he was staring at.

He was quite literally gazing straight up into Iren’s undercarriage and all it entailed Edmund looked down instead.

“Uh, yeah,” Harper said, looking down as well. “Sorry, Iren.”

“S’fine,” she got out as she continued to push upward. It’d be at least another three hundred feet. “This is-for my Teddy!”

By this point, Dot had looked down as well. Not one of them wanted to look up into Iren’s backside.

It took an entire minute of Iren grunting, crawling, and taking massive chunks out of the shaft as she went, but they ascended out of the depths. Iren leading the way through the shaft with a single mindedness that Edmund had to admire.

“Alright, the elevator box… cab… thing is above me. I’m going to tear it open and get moving. You can handle everything falling, right?” she asked.

“Yes, we’ll move to your left side just in case as well so you can toss it down to the right,” Dot said and quickly herded Harper and Edmund to one side. Moving the two of them to the wall and doing the same herself.

All three had their backs pressed to the wall and Dot quickly shifted the shields. Everything was angled down and away.

“Okay! Here we go! Remember to reward me lots, Teddy dear,” Iren growled and then her whole body shuddered to one side, and jerked to the other. “Lots and lots! Several clutches!”

Followed immediately by a resounding boom and clatter.

Debris, hunks of steel twisted electrical components, and what looked like wiring, were all tossed to the side. Falling down the elevator shaft into the darkness below.

People above began screaming even as Iren continued to reach up, tear things out, and drop it down to her side. Then gunfire came.

“Frickin’ itches! Fuck you!” Iren shouted, the ‘you’ becoming a breath of fire that absolutely lit up the entirety of the shaft and partially roiling down it.

Pushing past the shield that Dot had put up it billowed partly down the shaft.

“Bitch, that’s my eye,” hissed Iren punching at the elevator above her. Then threw her clawed hand to the side.

Edmund watched a woman tumble past. Wearing what looked a lot like a security uniform, a rifle held in front of her by a strap, she cartwheeled into the darkness of the shaft below.

Iren shifted upward, then she curled oddly. Her whole body pitching forward.

Only to start leaving the shaft, clearly she was pushing her body through the elevator doors now and exiting out to wherever it went.

“Teddy, we’re just trying to get out far enough that you can utilize this as a Save-state, right?” Dot asked. “Because… because you can tear out branches from Save-states and put it elsewhere?”

“Yeah,” Edmund agreed. “That’s the point, yeah. I just need a Save-state I can use so I can rip out the cube from it and put it elsewhere. I’m… at this point it really feels like I’m just looking to construct a single Save-state out of the myriad Shadow-states that will never exist.”

“But there are also places that aren’t Shadow-states that are just alternate worlds, right?” Harper pushed as Iren squeezed through the elevator doors. Her large body just too big. The walls were shattering, breaking, and steel was screaming as her body violently pushed it apart. “Can you tell the difference between an alternate world and a Shadow-state?”

Edmund raised his eyebrows at that.

Harper wasn’t wrong, there were indeed alternate worlds, but he hadn’t really been to them or looked into them. Mostly because he had no Save-state to get into in them.

“Yeah, I don’t exist in them,” Edmund said, crystalizing his thoughts as Dot began moving them up to the elevator doors now that Iren had wriggled through it. “If I don’t exist in the world, it’s an alternate world. A paralell world. If I exist in it, it’s a Shadow-state. There’s only one of me, after all.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Dot said as they reached the elevator doors. The shield shifting around to block the entry as the platform was settled.

Lifting his rifle up, Edmund began moving forward no sooner than it was stationary. Walking into the elevator bay that Iren had gone into only moments ago.

What he saw was a wide elevator lobby and waiting area. There were large glass doors on the far wall and no windows at all. The wall was solid and secure looking without the possibility of getting light into this location other than the doros.

There was also a large number of security personnel here as well as what he could see outside. People lining up on the street and waiting with weapons raised.

Well that exit is fucked. Maybe we can figure out another way out.

The big Green Dragon was currently low to the ground to the point that her belly was scraping the floor. Her shoulder blades were too high for the room and she once again was size restricted.

It didn’t seem to slow her though. She was using her neck and head to kill at the moment since her arms and claws were somewhat limited use at the moment.

A coiling of her neck, shifting forward, then lashing out with her head. Her jaw catching up a security force officer, and dispatching them with a grizzly clench of her teeth. Several chewing motions as she drew her head back followed by a flick of her jaw, flinging the remains of the person off to the side.

The bloody and broken body slamming into a wall and then piling up on the floor. One arm mostly chewn clean off and most of the body mangled beyond recognition.

Shit.

Iren is terrifying. She’s only gotten stronger and stronger.

Moving forward Edmund put the barrel of his rifle right up to the shield and glanced to Dot, who nodded her head at him. Looking ahead Edmund sighted up on the nearest of the security guards and fired.

A single burst of fire sent the person to the ground. Their body locking up as if Edmund had struck their spine. Shifting his weapon to the side Edmund moved forward. Keeping pace with the shield that Dot was supplying.

Sighting up another enemy he put several rounds into them and sent them crashing to the ground.

A third, fourth, fifth, and sixth all was put do the floor. Even as some of them fired back at Edmund, their rounds mushrooming against the shield Dot had erected.

The flashes of pale blue light each impact caused caused Edmudn to flinch a bit but he trusted in her magic. The two women behind him were keeping in step with him as he himself trailed along behind Iren in her rampage through the elevator lobby.

Iren’s head flung another ruined person through a desk and pushed on toward the door. Almost as casually as could be she put one large eye down in front of the door and peered through it.

Only to immediately jerk her head away and turn around to survey the room.

Edmund was changing the magazine in his rifle as he’d lost count of the rounds he’d fired but it was willing to bet they were minimal. He stuffed the used magazine upside down into his carrier and looked around.

There were no more security assets standing.

“Going outside looks fucked,” Iren declared.

“Tear a hole in the ceiling. Let’s just go upward. Make a hole, babe,” suggested Edmund. “Dot, how much does it cost you to keep that shield up?”

“Not much. Even if they shoot it, it doesn’t change the cost. I have a deep well to pull on and familiars are strong,” Dot offered up quickly.

“Put the shield at the door. Harper, go stand in that doorway and take up the role of action-heroine since Iren is playing wrecking ball. We want them looking at the door, thinking we’re exiting,” Edmund ordered. “Rather than us planning a secondary exit.”

“The ceiling! Good idea. This is why I love you,” Iren stated, twisted her head around, then just slammed her horns into the ceiling.

It started giving away with a crackling and shearing noise as it was torn into.

Harper moved to the front door while cradling the machine gun appropriately. While she didn’t look like someone who would normally be wielding such a weapon, she had trained just as much as Edmund had.

Legionnaire training followed a stolen mantra that fit almost too well. Every Legionnaire a rifleman was a core tenant ripped straight from the marines and made true.

Harper kicked the door open, dropped the machien gun into a hip firing position, then began letting out a stream of simple burst fire runs. She worked the weapon effortlessly and moved it from the far left, to the far right.

Her face was lit with the flash of the muzzle and the outside sun.

She was beautiful in her indifference to the situation and willingness to put herself on the line for him. Standing in that doorway unflinchingly as those outside fired back at her.

Iren slammed her head into the ceiling several more times, then rolled over onto her back. Reaching up to the ceiling with her front claws and back legs, she slashed at it in a way that reminded Edmund of a cat.

The ceiling gave way in a mess of tangled materials being flung off to the side.

Stretching upward into the hole, Iren partially vanished inot the hole.

It looked as if she were squatting now and more ceiling materials began falling to the ground at her feet. The crashing and booming of her clawing her way through the ceiling was loud.

After several seconds, Iren stood up taller. Her legs spreading out and her feet getting set wide apart and even more material began falling to the ground. Ceiling tiles, wooden beams, carpet, and even a computer of some sort.

“Uh, oh! Okay! This isn’t a very big building! I found the ceiling. Time to go!” Iren called and settled down onto her haunches and leaned her shoulders down. “Climb on! Hold on tight. I’m not that magical and unless you’re hanging on tight, you’ll fall right the hell off.”

Harper pulled the door shut, walked over to Iren and tossed the weapon to the side.

“How the hell did Bastion manage to stay on top of Falkor,” she blurted out even as she started climbing up onto Iren. “I’ll sit up front, Edmund in the middle, Dot at the back. Because our dear sorceress can probably keep us stuck together and on Iren’s back.”

“I most certainly can,” Dot agreed. “And Falkor was a luck Dragon, that’s the answer in and of itself. Isn’t it? Lookedl ike a damn dog though rather than a Dragon.”

“Wait, you’ve watched that movie?” Edmund asked climbing up onto Iren’s back and settling down behind Harper.

“I most certainly have. I’ve been going through all the silly movies you and Harper quote, watch, and have memorized. Ellie and Alina are doing the same you realize,” Dot stated and sat down behind Edmund. She reached around him and Harper both and locked her hands to Harper’s hips. “And don’t act like you haven’t tried to learn more about me, Alina, or Ellie, either. We’re all looking into one another.”

“Man, I wish I could do that. But I’m still the only one who doesn’t remember. Even Harper remembers now. It’s not fair,” Iren whined, then laughed. She bunched herself up like a cat getting ready to pounce.

Then launched herself up toward the ceiling three floors above them. She had clawed her way straight up to a point where light had begun filtering down from a hole she’d made.

Iren jumped.

With a clattering boom she blew out through the top of the building, straight through the ceiling, the roof, and out into the gloomy day. Heavy dark clouds were overhead and were in the middle of either getting ready to rain, or had just finished raining.

It was cold, misty, and felt quite gray.

Iren started flapping wildly no sooner than she’d cleared the building. Pumping them firmly and quickly gaining altitude. Pushing up into the sky faster and faster, moving into the bulk of clouds and fog.

“Think they’ll figure it out!?” Harper called out against the whipping wind.

“I mean it’s a giant damn hole in the building!” Edmund answered with a chuckle. “It’d be impossible for them not to figure it out. The question becomes ‘when’ really, and what their response is.”

“Dragon Police,” Dot asserted. “Or Dragon military assets. This world is Dragons and Humans, remember? They’ll be on us fairly quickly once they figure out where we are.

“Though I wonder how radar works on Dragons. Do they show up? Would magic reflect it? How does it interact?”

As if her questions had provoked more than idle thoughts, Dot’s shield reformed around Iren. It shifted into sharp angles and sloped planes that were all angled away from the ground.

Well, it’s the best we can do. The best we can try.

It’s not as if we can do much of anything else as we’re trying to make our escape. Or at least, get far enough away that my Save-states start working again.

Edmund took that moment to open his Save-state ability and see how it was looking. If they could jump to another Save-state then this operation was all done. They wouldn’t need to remain here for a moment longer.

Except his current Save-states were still red and most of it unresponsive.

He could see them all and how it all was laid out, just not access any of it.

“Somethings different!” Edmund shouted. “I still can’t utilize my Save-states! I’m wondering if Skipper’s done something! We might need to run her down and go from there maybe!”

“That sounds impossible!” Iren called back. “How do you find someone who can see the future and plan it out accordingly that you don’t ever find them? I mean, if I were here, I’d just hide and keep you stuck here if I had the ability to stop you from leaving!

“Get you to die of old age or just lock you here forever! Why would I try to force something to happen when all I really have to do is let time take care of you?”

Well shit.

That’s a really good point.

If Skipper’s goal is just to kill me, then all she really has to do is lock me in here and send the world’s forces after me.

Then there’s the problem of finding her, when she can see the future.

She could literally just go to any location that she wants and peer ahead to see if we find her there.

Only to just keep changing till she finds a spot that we don’t find her for a while, then leave when the time grows close.

“Well, I’d say that’s as good a time as any to go find Farady and Cashatok!” Harper suggested. “Hunker down, figure out this cube, and what to do next!”

A gout of flame washed over everyone and rolled off the shield in the next instant, followed by a bright Red Dragon flying by.

They were wearing strange armor that looked a lot like a uniform.

“Iren, I have no idea what to do, can’t see much, and we’ve been found,” Edmund admittedly plainly. “I’m open to ideas.”

“Fight free, preferably over the ocean, and then find a place to lie low!” Harper immediately interjected. “Boats are slow, planes are easy for us to pick off, and the open ocean would be a lot harder for them to militarize against us without planning!”

“I love it!” Iren said with a laugh. “Which ways the ocean.”

No one had an answer to that as they flew through the cloud bank.