Chương 39: R&R Ch. 39 — Sound the Alarms

Nicholas stretched his arms as they valiantly trudged back to base. Their entire shift was nearly silent as they walked back. It may have been noon now, but Nicholas couldn't care, nor did he have enough energy that he could realistically use his power to recover anyone who wanted to just power through to their next shift. Nicholas barely had the awareness to strip out of his costume and clean both his and Jasmine's before he stumbled into bed, passing out the moment his head hit the pillow.

Nicholas awoke to an alarm screaming as his room flashed with neon strobe lights burning his eyes. He rolled out of bed; the lights vanishing as he stumbled to where one of his costumes was." Retort" Still trying to blink the tears out of his eyes from the light he focused on two things, getting to Jasmine to help her with her armor and finding out what was going on. He certainly hadn't slept for eight hours yet. That was the emergency someone needed the strike team alarm, so the question was what was going on.

"Retort, active," Nicholas said, voice firm as he opened the door to Jasmine's room before swiftly turning around to look away. It was his fault for not knocking, and he would have to apologize as soon as they had time.

"Retribution here."

"Voodoo."

"Pierce."

"Comet."

"Sparky's busy trying to buy time for you all so I'll explain," Toxin, the final member of their quick reaction team said. If Sparky was the one doing it, that was a problem. Toxin's poison abilities made them exceptional at punching up ranks at least in a single target scenario.

"We don't have a wall breach but the region next to us does and the monsters are pouring into their side so we're trying to defend walls that we don't have the people for and the ones that broke through are on the stronger end." Toxin explained. Jasmine's breath hitched as Nicholas's mind tore through the problem.

"Okay, we'll handle it. Everyone make sure to take the potions," Nicholas said, moving to the cabinet where he had stored his own before knocking back one of the pulsating cerulean liquids. It was absolutely disgusting to drink but as he did power flowed through him sharpening his mind and pushing off exhaustion. He had recovered enough mentally he wouldn't be lacking in will. His physicality was irrelevant at rank two and he had his power topped up.

The line clicked silent and Nicholas watched as Jasmine sauntered in while knocking back her own magical wake-up potion. Her force armor tumbled out, and he moved to help her.

"Sorry about that," Nicholas said, voice quiet.

"Too sleepy to care doesn't count," Jasmine yawned.

"Still, I should have knocked."

"I would have said come in anyway on autopilot, you didn't mean anything by it." Jasmine reiterated.

"I still want to make it up to you."

"Make me pie." Nicholas blinked at his friend who was just requesting pie of all things, but ultimately put it out of his mind. He didn't have the time to consider what were the actual stakes of that question. With both of them armored to the best of their ability they shot out of their room taking the escape path so they could fly Nicholas on one of the flying swords and Jasmine with the power of her armor. As they flew down the halls, the rest of the strike team joined them, all of them full of energy.

Nicholas couldn't imagine it would last. One wake-up call was fine, but what about the next seven? And as everyone else weakened, they would be called on more.

"What's the plan bosses?" Voodoo asked, also using a flying sword Jasmine had made. He was the only one of them outside of Nicholas without a travel ability so giving him one of Jasmine's flying swords had been simple once they had seen the potency of his ability.

"Modified wall-break protocol." Jasmine said instantly.

"We're going to kill every Beyonder in the adjacent section and use Retort to fix it. They'll already be working on it, but we can solve the problem." Nicholas didn't agree with his partner's decision, but he didn't disagree enough that he was going to talk about it here. It would be a good plan, but it was going to be even more strenuous than usual expected tasks for this team.

"Alright everyone, as we planned since we're working as a team today," Nicholas said as their target location came into view." Maximize" Across the five of them it wasn't nearly as effective as usual, but sacrifices had to be made, and Nicholas had a job to do. He was going to be fixing the wall while they did all the fighting. Not that his portion was going to be devoid of fighting.

Jasmine, Comet, and Voodoo peeled off first to deal with the hordes inside at the same time Sparky joined up so that he and Pierce could help defend Nicholas as he worked on repairing the wall. This story has been stolen from Royal Road.

If you read it on Amazon, please report it As they flew Nicholas understood doubly so why Toxin hadn't been called to help with this portion, poison powers and residential areas didn't mix and even with Toxin's near perfect control for his rank it wouldn't have been enough while fighting so many.

"Anything beyond peak rank three?" Nicholas asked, thinking of the fog monster they had fought. Ostensibly both he and Jasmine had defeated the thing, but he didn't actually believe that for a second. That thing had been too strong and too fast for it to have actually been defeated. The question was why? Nicholas knew that some Beyonders were sapient; that had been proven a long time ago. Hell, they had a nation on the planet, but that didn't mean that was the norm.

And if the champions of the army were sapient, things were going to be a lot worse. Unless they always were, and that was just another thing the public wasn't told about.

"Going to get started now I trust you two," Nicholas said not actually trusting either of them but he didn't have a choice in the manner. Jasmine wouldn't have ever been here for this part when she could help directly and these were the two that could handle it, probably. As Nicholas gathered his will and forged his power into shape for his next working, a torrent of lightning and a near wall of arrows blazed through the destroyed section of the wall clearing it."

Playroom" Nicholas began his reconstruction process as his teammates fought to keep the area clear and stop any others from coming in. There was some support from the heroes of this area, but most of them were still focused on clearing out the monsters inside their district for good reason. Nobody wanted to be the cause of a nest but it still rankled him. They were the group of rank two and rank three rookies. Both of the areas next to them had rank three and rank four and yet this was the one to break first.

And from what reports he was hearing from the rest of the team, it wasn't because of a lack of strength. Laziness or incompetence from his peers as one of the other leaders.

"You should stop brooding," Jasmine said through their private channel.

"I'm not brooding, I'm contemplating revenge and face slapping," Nicholas scowled as he worked. The wall was mostly made of components almost like lego pieces designed to be strong when together but if pushed to break they would break into their parts for easy assembly later. There were whole teams of speedsters and other powers often used to piece everything together fast but both of those required space and the ability to get there.

They were providing the space, and some had come to assist him in reconstruction was great but it wouldn't be fast enough. Another burly Beyonder D-rank, according to Nicholas's senses, was barreling forward. He and Jasmine could cleanly fight rank threes as a duo. And they had each managed it by themselves, but unless they were willing to burn massive resources or completely wipe themselves out in a single go, they might be able to beat a rank four together. Nicholas decided against that plan in a moment.

"Team form up on me we have a strong rank four to fight and we're going to stop it from breaking the wall we're trying to fix more." Confirmation was given from all seven of them.

"Sparky I'm going to juice you up since you're our only melee fighter right now," Nicholas said, touching down to put a hand on his ally. Physical proximity made it easier especially when transferring this much power." Maximize""You know the buff is great, the job is shit," Sparky said before vanishing in a bolt of lightning, appearing at the Beyonder sword already cutting out huge chunks of the monster. Pierce began his bombardment as Nicholas considered what word would be best for his own uses.

That's when the other problem started. Or more accurately his own lack of insight.

"Boss man?" Sparky said voice squeaking.

"Yeah?" Nicholas asked, already having an idea of what happened. The monster isn't so far that Nicholas can't see the injury location.

"Would you say that with the boost you gave me and my offensive ability I should have punched through a rank four without a problem?"

"At least injure it?" Nicholas replied as Pierce swore beside him.

"I didn't scratch it."

"Not D, C probably with a durability ability," Nicholas relayed to the team. They would still do it if they didn't have a choice. Three of them would be punching up three tiers, and the other three would be punching up two. It was doable.

"Toxin, we need you to head to our location. We're going to take down a rank C," Jasmine said as she flew next to Nicholas, slowing to a stop.

"Damn he's a big boy." Nicholas could only nod at that assessment.

"Everyone on me, moment your buff runs out, come back," Nicholas ordered before doling out the boosts to Pierce and Jasmine. A second later it was Voodoo and Comet's turn.

"I'll be there in a minute or two, flying as fast as I can," Toxin said." Playroom" Nicholas nearly roared the command as he opened the ground beneath the behemoth, forcing it to trip. With a three-rank deficit, he almost certainly couldn't do a single command directly on it, and with the size of the beast, he wouldn't be lifting it up any time soon. But it needed stable footing as much as anyone else.

Arrows, a hammer with enough force to crack a building in two, a living lightning bolt, a woman doing the impression of the sun slammed into their opponent forcing it deeper into the hole.

"I think I can affect him but it's going to take all I have even with your boost," Voodoo said, her voice scared.

"I'll protect you," Nicholas promised. They both knew he was lying. This wasn't a situation where he could promise anything beyond his best, but he would do his best to protect the younger super. A crimson knife conjured in her hand as she chanted.

"Voodoo is chanting everyone buy her time," Nicholas relayed as poison mist slammed into the monster, beginning to invade its sinuses as mist drifted to each of them. While Toxin specialized in debilitation poisons, that didn't mean her mist couldn't do other things, and everyone inhaled the mist, letting the power infuse their system. Double buffs with everyone doing their best to slow it down so Voodoo could finish it. It was the best plan they had."

Analyze" Nicholas's eyes flashed a medicinal green as he looked at the monster. Multiple hearts and more or less backup systems for every major organ except one." Playroom" Earth filled the monsters' eyes as clouds of the stuff blocked its vision.

"Voodoo it has multiple hearts only one set of eyes though." Voodoo scowled, still chanting. With Nicholas unable to directly fight the monster in any conceivable way he had resorted to support. Blind the monster, move his allies into optimal positions, and buff anyone who lost it. His focus expanded as he poured everything into it. It would have to be enough because this was the best they could offer. IF a rank five broke through, it would almost certainly start hunting down heroes.

Their base wasn't that far, and why go for the hard meal when there were several easy ones. They couldn't fall. Jasmine glowing like an emerald sun brought her hammer down with all of her power as Comet did the same, a starlight fist crashing into the tusk at the same time as the hammer. The explosion rocked the battlefield, almost knocking Voodoo and Nicholas off their own swords but it did more than that. The tusk fell to the ground as Nicholas's mind whirled; this was an advantage he could work with.

"Now!" Voodoo shouted.