Save State Hero -CH27-

“If you boys are done antagonizing Alex, Rene’s back,” Dorothy stated in a flat tone. Apparently she didn’t really approve of them prodding at Alex and his mother.

Edmund didn’t really care one way or the other.

He was emotionally numb to parents and the idea of them mattering at all.

Existences that he was wholly unfamiliar with, other than that his were an extreme that skewed an average.

“Indeed, indeed, I’ve gone and come back. I’m afraid though that I’ve found nothing to attack,” quipped the man in the mask in a sing song tone. Then he sighed. “Ain’t shit there and no one’s home. Place is a damn tomb and really weird, as well.

“That’s an understatement by the way. Weird barely begins to describe this. I don’t actually have words for it.”

“Yeah… yeah that’s not surprising. Yeah,” Runner hissed with a small shake of his head. “Before we go in there, just know that we’re not where you think we are. Not anywhere near, in fact.

“We’re in a place that is outside of my powers, in a way. Outside of everyone’s powers. Everything here is as raw as it could be. If you die here, you die. I can’t fix or change that. No one can.”

Well, I can fix it, but I get what he’s saying.

“Edmund, if Runner dies here, he dies,” Oz warned. “Edmund must treat Runner’s death, as permanent. Much like Andrea’s death. Edmund’s power won’t be able to revert it should Runner die.”

I… okay.

Okay. So-so I can’t let Runner or myself die.

Everyone else can get a rewind. Good to know.

“—look strange. Things won’t match, physics will be damned, and time is a suggestion, more than a law,” Ryker warned.

“Sounds like a really bad fever dream,” Rene mumbled.

“Uh… yeah? Yeah,” Runner agreed and then nodded his head toward the cavern entrance. “In we go then. Tempus fucked-off or whatever it is.”

Rene and Vince moved to the front of the group and entered. Heading into the darkness and a slow turn to the left as they moved down.

Edmund really didn’t like the way this was playing out already.

Dorothy was right behind him. Practically standing on his heels, in fact. Alina was just in front of him, though she was moving hesitantly. To the point that he bumped into her once.

“Did-did you just put your crotch on me?” hissed Alina.

“No, you put your ass in my lap. Keep moving. We’re falling behind cause we’re at the back,” Edmund threw back at her.

“What?” asked Dorothy, practically pushing up against his back. “What’s going on? Did something happen?”

“No. Nothing happened, we’re just—”

Edmund’s words broke off as he once again ran into Alina.

Though he couldn’t blame her for stopping the way she had.

Then Dorothy smacked into Edmund as he stared around the room.

They’d gone from a dark and dingy looking cave to the interior of a hotel lobby. A very expensive hotel lobby it looked like.

There was no furniture at all but you could tell what it should’ve been even at a glance. Or so Edmund believed.

“Wow,” Dorothy whispered from directly behind Edmund.

“Yeah,” agreed Alina from in front of him.

“It’s a rom-com,” Alex laughing blurted out from the left of them.

He and his father were watching the three of them.

“But they’re cute together,” Sam interjected. “They remind me of you and your girls. How in the world did you convince them you needed to come alone, by the way?”

“Didn’t. I ran. Just like you did from my mothers and aunts,” Alex declared, looking back at Sam.

“Ah… fair. Yes,” admitted Sam with a slow nod of his head. The two of them began moving off after Runner and Ryker.

“A Rom-com, huh?” Dorothy asked, putting her hands on Edmund’s shoulders and boldly leaning into him harder. “Does that make us a love triangle? Or a throuple?”

“Love triangle,” Alina affirmed and began walking away quickly. “Not interested in women.”

“Hm. That’s fair. Neither am I, to be honest. Most women aren’t. They only get skewed that way for media,” Dorothy said and then looked at Edmund from his shoulder, smiling at him. “I think Romina would do a throuple though. She eyes me like a woman who’s bi-curious does. Though none of that even takes into account Ellie who… well… she’s a Dryad. With a man of their choosing to bond with, they’ll do anything.”

Edmund laughed nervously, patted Dorothy’s hand, and quickly moved away from her. Her proximity, as well as Alina’s, had threatened his sanity. Memories and thoughts of both of them had started to surface and cause a disturbance in his head.

An especially poignant cluster of memories rushed to the front.

Where Ellie had indeed talked him into having a harem which somehow the Dryad had talked Romina into joining.

Thankfully that life was submerged back down as quickly as it had popped up.

Edmund moved at a quick trot to catch up to the rest of the team. Holding his rifle to himself as if it’d keep him safe from his own thoughts.

“Hahahah… ahhh… I remember when it was like that,” Runner murmured, looking to Ryker. “All flirty cutesie.”

“Shirley and I had a lot of dates killing people in dungeons,” responded Ryker, looking insightful while turning to look at Runner. “A lot of really deep conversations.”

“You two… you two are the worst. You make Hannah and I look normal,” Runner accused.

“Yeah, that’s fair,” answered Ryker as they moved to the back of the hotel lobby. Rene and Vince.

“I interviewed prostitutes with Rose and Pinky,” Rene offered from ahead of them.

“I bribed, blackmailed, and bought my wives,” countered Alex.

“Huh. Now I suddenly don’t feel as bad,” Vince stated. “You’re all awful people.”

“I mean, we kinda fit in though. We just do awful things to other people rather than our partners,” Felix said.

Dorothy sighed while catching up to Edmund. She was looking over the pistol in her hands.

“You know, it makes our own story seem rather tame comparatively, but also more sweet,” said the magician who then turned to face him with a smile.

Edmund snorted at that as they exited the lobby and moved into what looked like a hall. Only for the world to shift as they entered the hall.

Ending up in what looked to be a forest instead.

“You could say that, Dot,” Edmund whispered, as he looked to the sky above them.

Or the lack of a sky.

Above them he could see a mirrored version of the forest they were now in. It was far above them. He was fairly certain a plane at cruising altitude would have probably hit a tree on the other planet.

“Shit,” breathed Dorothy while looking up as well.

“Wrong place, back we go,” Ryker instructed, heading back the way they came.

From this side it looked like a burned down cabin with a doorframe hanging askew as their exit from the hotel.

“This is so fucked,” Rene said with a laugh as he went by accompanied by a laugh. “Kinda fun in a way. This’d be a lot of fun to practice skills in.”

Everyone began filing back through the doorway. Each person vanished as soon as they crossed the threshold.

Only to pop back into reality when Edmund did as well.

They weren’t in the hotel though.

In going back the same way they’d come from, they’d gone into what could only be described as a hospital. A hospital room, to be exact.

“This is… yeah, we’re okay here,” Ryker stated, exiting the hospital room. “We’re not far off from where we need to be. Just a couple more transfers.”

“How is this right on any level?” Edmund murmured to himself. He was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. This was all too much too fast for him.

From meeting what was obviously a real god, moving to other worlds, and then being dumped into a place like this. On top of that, he was struggling with the weight of lives he’d never lived.

All of them bubbling away beneath the surface.

Come on Ellie, your seed is supposed to help, isn’t it?

Could use a hand here. Feeling a lot like an NPC and could—

A strange fluttering warmth began to spread out from his chest. One that quickly calmed his anxious mind as it started to slip away from Edmund’s control.

Thank… thank you, Ellie’s seed?

Are you sentient? Did you respond to my needs?

There was nothing from the seed that lived inside of him. It was dormant and quiet outside of the soothing warmth it was providing him.

More akin to an animal trying to comfort an owner than a sentient life.

“Runner? Ryker?” called a voice from the left.

Edmund turned to look that way as he exited the hospital room.

He’d once again shifted locations in the doing so and was now in a family home’s living room. Having exited from what looked to be a bathroom or water closet when he glanced over his shoulder.

Letting his gaze land on the speaker, Edmund found a man sat down in a pool of what looked to be their own blood. There was a dagger in his chest and he was slumped against the wall.

Even at a casual glance, Edmund could see a resemblance in the man to Vince and Felix both. Sharing quite a few features with the two men.

“Dad?” Vince asked aloud.

“Uncle Miles?” Felix said at the exact same time. The two men had just now exited the hospital room.

Guess they really are family.

Shit.

Terrible way to come back across them, though.

“Ah… no,” whimpered the man from where he sat against the wall. “No, no, no. This… no.”

“Front door,” whispered Ryker while looking at the others.

Alex looked rather unnerved suddenly at the man’s arrival and instead walked to the front of the home as Ryker had indicated. Sam, Ryker, and Rene went with him, the trio exiting.

Edmund didn’t linger either. He’d gotten the hint that this wasn’t a place or a spot that they were supposed to be. That this was a family affair with the inclusion of Runner.

“Miles will not last another five minutes,” Oz reported. “I will note his time of death accordingly when he passes.

“While Miles had betrayed Runner and Runner’s forces, Miles had originally been a key asset for Runner. Not to mention Miles is a Campbell. They as a whole are noteworthy.”

“He what?” Edmund whispered as he exited the front door, heading onto an open surburban street.

Only to end up somewhere else yet again. This time they were in some type of computer science center.

One with a great many computers humming and thrumming away. Along with chairs, half-eaten donuts, coffee cops, and a general disarray of what looked like people having been here.

Recently, too.

That they’d fled quickly and abandoned their computers and desks. Edmund could clearly see several purses that’d been forgotten or left in the rush.

“This is the spot,” Ryker croaked. “This is the spot and the time. This is now. Here and now. I thought I had more time.

“I thought… I thought that I’d misunderstood it and there would just… be more. There’s so much more to do. So much left to see. Just… so much.”

“Huh?” Edmund asked, looking to Ryker. He and Felix were the only two people who’d ever shown him an ounce of interest. Even those who worked with him at Legion had only ever treated him as a coworker and acquaintance.

The way Ryker was talking had left Edmund feeling a bit unnerved.

“Nothing. Just… thinking. Thinking that even an unseen ending is better than something never ending at all,” Ryker theorized with a click of his tongue. “Alright. This is the place. That means we’re going to be having a lovely battle. One that dictates the rest of it.”

Holding up his right hand Ryker began to quickly fire off spells.

Computers, desks, and chairs went flying off in every direction. Knocked about and blasted from one end of the room to the other.

Other parts of the room began to tear itself up out of the ground. Forming itself into walls made out of carpet, tiles, and underflooring. The centers were then filled with earth and dirt.

“Earthworks to fire from behind. For those who use ranged weapons rather than up close and personal ones,” Ryker remarked, then threw his hands out in front of himself and then spread them apart.

The ceiling, walls, and windows were all blown out with a boom. Shattering and tearing it all away and obliterating it.

Beyond the lab they were in was the infinite nothing of space.

Edmund could see stars, suns, planets, and an endless blackness of nothing beyond.

Some were as big as the sun he remembered from home, some looked like specks. There was even a planet that looked very Earthlike that was easily six times the size of the moon.

Hanging over them in a strange way yet clearly not effecting the planet as it probably should.

“Here they comes. Vince, Alina, Rene, you two will be doing hand to hand work. Felix, Edmund, Dorothy, use those guns please,” Ryker commanded. “Gus and Warner will be showing up just after it starts and handling their own tasks.”

“What about you?” Dorothy asked, settling in behind one of the barricades Ryker had made.

“Oh, taking care of my own business of course. Doing exactly what I’m meant to,” Ryker laughingly got out while holding both hands up in front of himself again. Multiple glowing runes began to appear in front of himself.

Runner moved up and hunkered down behind another barrier then looked to Edmund with a smirk.

“Should never try to out-think, or out-plot, a wizard. Wizards are conniving, deadly, bastards. Make sure you get a best friend who’s a wizard,” Runner suggested. “If they’re your best friend, you never have to worry about other wizards.”

“Ha… well, I suppose that makes me the mad master of this delusion,” Ryker declared while whipping up more and more runes. “Through ages and eons I made the rules just to break them, tore down angels and rose up devils.

“While everyone else thought that they could see the end in the far distance, none of them heard the violins begin to play far earlier than they all believed.”

As Ryker spoke he continuously threw out more and more runes. They began to create a weird almost impenetrable shell around him with the sheer volume of them.

Across the way, in the darkness of space, several blue colored portals began to tear open.

“Ah… and that’s all there is. The game is over, there’s no more moves to make, no more rounds to bet on, it’s time to pay for the game,” Ryker called, his voice taking on a strained edge. His volume was raising with every word he spoke. “And now as the sun is gone and the skies have fallen, where the dark is our sovereign, we can all crowd together in the impenetrable cold of the night!”

“Well that’s not morbid or overly poetic at all. So who’s got the joker?” Runner asked with a nervous laugh.

“Me,” Ryker whispered a second before the world became a blazing golden blue flame.

Endless men and women with weapons began to pour out of the portals that’d opened.

“Holy shit,” Edmund hissed before lifting his rifle up and over the barricade.

Then Ryker acted and the blue flames that’d began to color the never-ending expanse around them were smothered.

The countless spells the man had prepared began to detonate, fly off, or vanish away. Endless magical effects activated.

Explosions, holes in reality, columns of water, walls of fire, came and went faster and faster. Evening lightning bolts came from the sky and annihilated soldiers as they streamed out through the portals.

All the while Ryker pulled more and more spells up.

“Come on out then, my beloved wife!” Ryker screamed at the top of his lungs. “Lets get a look at you before this end comes for us all!”

“Ryker, dear!” screeched a voice from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

“The shit!?” Edmund yelled to himself.

“It’s his wife! Claire!” Dorothy answered the question, pressed in tight to the bunker next to him.

A beautiful woman with black curly hair and bright eyes stepped out of the nothingness. Forming from the inexistence of reality directly rather than moving through a portal.

“Ryker!” she called, her eyes landing on Ryker himself. She was wearing a smart black uniform that did nothing to hide her impressive figure. “I’ll free you! I’LL FREE YOU!

“I’LL FREE YOU AND WE CAN GO BACK TOGETHER AND HAVE MORE CHILDREN! OUR DAUGHTER NEEDS SIBLINGS!”

“She uh… she thinks Runner brainwashed him,” Dorothy remarked dryly a second before Claire’s hands shot up.

Crazed bolts of green lightning that quite literally broke reality as they zipped through the air began to land down and around Runner.

Some branched off and struck out at Ryker but they looked accidental. Every attack was clearly aimed at Runner.

Then Ryker shifted the positions of his hands and his runes began to intercept Claire’s magical works. Nullifying them with each impact.

“Warning. The world is no longer stable. Reality is becoming unraveled with Claire’s attacks. While they do not target reality itself, they are nonetheless impacting it,” Oz reporting in a nervous tone. “They are causing an issue with your powers and the Save-states of everyone nearby and around the area.”

“That’s seems a bit of an understatement,” Edmund answered.

“It is advised that Edmund seeks an escape!” suggested Oz. “The Save-states of everyone involved are suffering degradation and will become damaged!

“Your power is also no longer available. You can neither save nor load! Things are no longer controllable!”

“I mean, I get it. If I were her, from her perspective, it isn’t unreasonable,” Dorothy answered as well, as if Edmund’s comment had been for her. “In fact… I even empathize. Magic can warp emotions and thoughts. She’s not well taught and—”

More portals boomed open as more and more soldiers of both sides began spilling out into the area. Both those in what looked eerily similar to Legion black and red colors as well as uniforms that were black and blue, or white and blue.

“Warning, reality is continuing to unravel!” Oz stated.

Edmund could only act in the situation he was in, rather than lament it.

Lifting his rifle, he began to take shots at the soldiers in opposing colors.

Like the good grunt he was.