Chương 74: Problem Child On The Loose

There had been a time, not so long ago, when this dungeon had scared him spitless. No way could he have taken it on alone back then. That was the whole reason why Thomas had originally reached out to a vagabond fire juggler he'd met once before and struck a deal that turned into a fast friendship. Now at Level Three with a lot more experience under his belt, the fire-breathing chipmunks were almost embarrassing. Zach flicked two fingers and turned a chipmunk's own fire blast back on it.

Thomas stepped to avoid another blast from a second chipmunk that seemed to come at him in slow motion. He brought the hammer end of his halberd down and ended it before focusing on the next tree over. His Health Sight showed him exactly where every one of the monsters was hiding, and he pointed out two more to Zach before moving to the opposite end of the clearing to hunt out the others there. It took them maybe five minutes to cut a swath through the dungeon.

This place had literally given him nightmares once or twice, and now he hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Ashton, keep your eyes open," Thomas called back over his shoulder, because unlike level one dungeons, these chipmunks zigged and zagged from tree to tree and tended to sneak up on people. He had his Health Sight that functioned as a proximity alarm for monsters, but he was taking no chances on anyone else getting hurt. A few minutes later, they were far from clearing out the entire dungeon, as there were a lot of chipmunks, but he and Zach had at least taken care of the local ones.

Zach took a seat nearby in a lotus position to meditate and try to bring himself back in balance. Meanwhile, Thomas turned his attention to Braxton. He crouched in the ashy soil before the boy.

"All right, let's see the damage." He kept his tone light, but the burn was so deep that he suspected it seared down clean to the bone. Small mercy that the nerve endings had been fried along with it, which meant that Braxton couldn't feel a fraction of what he should be. The boy's tears had been shock and fear, which he couldn't blame him for. Thomas wasn't actually a doctor, but he bet good money that the hand would have had to be amputated if they had to rely on normal medicine.

Braxton sniffed and wiped at his eyes with his other hand. Seeing the professional dungeon divers do their work had at least distracted him from his own misery.

"You're gonna fix me?"

"I sure am."

"Is it gonna hurt?"

"Not even a little," he promised. He focused his Living Architecture on the wound, and the flesh began to pinken and then knit together. Braxton watched the whole thing with wide, fascinated eyes. He didn't even flinch once.

"I didn't know you could do that," Ashton said, watching nearby.

"Is that why Dad keeps saying that you should work at a hospital?" That startled a laugh out of Thomas. Derek was such an asshole, but at least he was consistent.

"Yeah, I can heal. Pretty awesome, huh?" Ashton shrugged, teenager cool. Kingston, however, nodded rapidly. By the time he was done, Braxton's hand looked whole, but Thomas wasn't going to trust that. There had been a lot of damage, not only physically but mentally. That was where the healing crystal came in. Thomas pressed a level one healing crystal into his palm.

"I want you to concentrate on this and let it flow into you. It will fix all the little bits that we can't see." Braxton squinted, and the healing crystal jellified and sank into his skin. His brothers 'oohed' appropriately. Carefully, Thomas watched with his Healing sight as it did indeed seem to fix some of the damage on the cellular level that Living Architecture hadn't. He saw how some of the power drifted up to Braxton's head, too. He had something like this happen to himself.

It turned those traumatic memories into more... informational ones. Then he noticed that Braxton's body was not expelling the excess healing mana as usual. Instead, the motes of healing just sort of floated there. Usually, people exhaled any excess, unless, of course, they were capable of being a healer. Uh-oh. Braxton hadn't unlocked his Gift yet, so the healing mana should dissipate by itself in a few days, but it did mean that Thomas would have a chat with him in about five years or so.

"Can he fight monsters now?" Kingston asked. Then, more excitedly, "Wait, can I? Now I'm in a dungeon?"

"You gotta be fifteen to unlock your Gift," Ashton said witheringly.

"Three more years for you." He smiled.

"Two weeks for me."

"Yes, I can't wait," Thomas muttered, then spent a few moments pinching the tips of Braxton's fingers to make sure that he felt everything. He did.

"All better," Thomas announced and squeezed his hand gently.

"Tell me if anything feels weird over the next couple of days, okay?"

"Okay," Braxton said, then held up his hand to show his brothers.

"Look, I didn't even get a scar." Reaching out, Thomas ruffled his nephew's hair.

"Next time, don't grab the weird sparking magic cords. Okay? I understand you wanted to help." Oh boy, did he ever understand, especially if the kid was a natural healer.

"But until you get your own Gift, you let the grown-ups handle the magic stuff."

"All right, but I'm hungry," Braxton announced and shot an accusing look at Zach, who stopped his meditation and had the decency to look sheepishly down at his own shirt, which was still stained with Chinese food and, unfortunately, a lot of blood. Thomas sighed.

"I've got snacks, but they're not great." He had dehydrated meal packets, thanks to Jo's foresight. His chest constricted at the thought of her, and he had to force a light tone into his voice so he didn't upset the kids.

"We're camping tonight." The healing was done, and now reality was starting to crash down on him. Don't think about her, he told himself firmly. Don't think about what she might be going through right now. That she's counting on us to rescue her. Telling himself not to think about something had never worked once in his life, and it certainly didn't work at that moment. So instead, he decided keeping busy was the cure.

"There's some camping stuff in my pack. Pull it out and set it up. Ignore the crystals," Thomas said.

"Don't touch the halberd either." Too late. The younger boys were already going through his pack with gusto. With a shrug, he let them have at it. Ashton tugged Thomas's sleeve and pulled him a few steps off, glancing back to make sure that no one was listening.

"What is it?" Thomas asked in a low voice. Ashton's lips pressed into a thin line, and he looked guilty.

"I think that my dad's off dungeon diving," he whispered. He glanced back at his brothers.

"He didn't want the little kids to know." Or me. Derek hadn't said a word about diving. Not that they had spoken recently.

"What makes you think that?"

"He told me he'd take me along one day, said he'd show me how to do it right, but he hasn't. And now he's gone all the time. He has money now, too." Ashton added defensively, "I didn't tell him that you've taken me diving." Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Well, that was one small mercy. It wasn't like Thomas was afraid of his brother, but he didn't have the bandwidth to deal with him lately.

"Okay, thank you for telling me. When this is over, just... just let him take you diving. Sometimes fathers need to feel special too. Now go help your brothers and make sure they don't mess too much with the weapons." Nodding and looking relieved now that he had unburdened himself, Ashton peeled off, and Thomas went over to Zach. He didn't interrupt his meditation, just sat nearby and watched him for a moment, both with his normal and Healing sight. He was looking genuinely better.

Heat was no longer rolling off him, and he could see no trace of Water mana in his body. Slowly but surely, the bright motes of Fire were settling back down into his core.

"Thanks," Zach said after a few minutes, eyes still closed.

"I would have jumped back into the fight, and it probably would have been a disaster."

"You've done the same for me recently," Thomas replied simply, and said no more. Having your friends pull you back from the edge was embarrassing.

"So tell me what happened again? I need to know everything."

"I, uh..." Opening his eyes, he let out a breath.

"I had just hit Vancouver when I got the message. I knew of an old storage locker in San Francisco, so I stopped there for a couple seconds to throw Kevin and my bag somewhere safe, and then keyed onto Jo's signature." He shrugged.

"The second I arrived—I mean the actual second, dude, it was so fast—that stun bola hit me and just whited out my brain. Then the arrows. I knew what they were because of my Gift. It felt like I was drowning, and I don't... I don't know how I made it back to you. I just threw myself out there and hoped it would work." Fuck, that had been close. If Zach hadn't pulled that rabbit out of his hat, Thomas wouldn't have known he was gone. His hand landed on Zach's shoulder briefly, squeezed, then dropped.

"I do not vibe with Water mana at all," Zach muttered and gave a dramatic shudder.

"That's ironic."

"I know, right?" Zach didn't even pretend not to know Thomas meant the SoCal dude air he put on.

"You've surfed?"

"Hmm. A few times. I was more into skateboarding, when I was Kingston's age."

"Then you know the balance it takes when you go downhill really fast? When you're sorta riding on the edge and it takes, like, a shift between eating dirt and making it? Surfing's like that on the big waves, and that's what I chased. It wasn't about the water at all." Thomas grinned to himself and revised his assessment of Teleportation mana. He could never incorporate it properly into his core, at least not to the level Zach could. He just wasn't that kind of adrenaline junkie.

Even when he was obsessed with skateboarding as a kid, it had mostly been about pretending he was Tony Hawk. They fell into companionable silence, but they couldn't avoid the reason why they were hiding out in this dungeon.

"That raid can't be nationwide," Thomas said, with a long sigh.

"Our team was specifically targeted. They were ready for you to pop in and knew exactly how to take you down."

"Yeah. Who knows I can teleport?" Zach asked slowly. Thomas ticked it off on his fingers.

"Our team, the Dark Elves, the Brightens, the Ross-Astors." He really wished his list of enemies was smaller. Up until he started diving, he hadn't had enemies at all... well, except for one jerk paralegal who always sat on opposing counsel and had it out for whatever motions Thomas was involved in, specifically. Screw that guy.

"I think we can rule out the National Guard, at least. You've never teleported around them." Zach's eyes narrowed.

"My family knows, too."

"How?"

"Tad Woolworth saw me teleport, and people in those circles gossip like you would not believe." Thomas wondered what shape Tad was in now and if he'd had that dark mana forcefully expelled from his core. He couldn't think about that, or waste any compassion on him. Tad had made his bed. Instead, he turned his thoughts back to the much more immediate problem. Now that he had time to really consider it, he came to a startling conclusion.

"No, it wasn't any of them. It was the elves." Zach turned to look at him.

"Yeah? What makes you say that?"

"Because if it was the Brightens, they would have come for me first," Thomas said, pushing down the horror of that,"so I could fuel their little ritual sacrifice and make their magic stronger to take on the two of you. But the elves coddle their healers. Think about it: They wanted to take the most dangerous people down first—Jo and you. I was the afterthought. If it was the Ross-Astors, they would have hit me and Jo simultaneously.

We're registered with the right addresses, and they probably have access to those databases." Zach tilted his head in consideration.

"I can see that. The question is, if it's the elves, which faction are we dealing with? Out of the four, I'd hate to think it was the Dark Elves."

"I don't think it is," Thomas said.

"But I can't one hundred percent rule them out, can you?"

"No." Thomas's mind, of course, circled back to their missing teammate. They had to get to her without Zach teleporting right next to her and getting hit again.

"Do you know where Jo lives?" Zach shook his head.

"I've never picked her up from there, and today I was locked onto her mana fingerprint. They hit me so fast I didn't get a good look at the actual place. Do you?" Thomas shook his head, too. Jo had been understandably cautious about two strange men she'd just met dragging her into a dungeon—not that either of them had anything but good intentions—but he had never pushed past that initial wariness to ask for something as basic as an address. They practically lived in each other's pockets as teammates anyway.

Zach's teleporting made meeting up a non-issue, and it just never came up. That had been stupid. They were a team. He should know Jo's address. He was the healer, so he should know her blood type. He rubbed at his forehead.

"I hope her daughter wasn't caught up in this."

"She's almost fifteen, so not exactly a little kid," Zach offered, then frowned.

"Mariah, right?" Thomas shrugged. He genuinely didn't know.

"Mariah Fitzsimmons?" Ashton asked. He was walking by and had clearly been eavesdropping. Both men turned to him.

"Yeah. What do you know about her?" Thomas asked. Ashton's whole face lit up.

"She's cool. She's—" He visibly caught himself and dialed his enthusiasm back.

"Uh, I know her from school." That wasn't a surprise. Lake Tahoe had a smallish local population, which didn't support many schools, and they'd both be new to the area. It would make sense that they knew each other. Maybe Mariah was why Ashton was apparently attending classes again.

"You have her phone number?" Thomas asked. Ashton gave him a look of pure teenage scorn.

"You guys Snap, right?" Zach asked. That apparently was his language.

"Yeah, duh. But phones don't get signal in dungeons." It took Thomas a second to realize they were talking about an app and not... actual snapping. Well, whatever, this was a lead. He glanced at Zach with a question in his eyes. Reluctantly, Zach shook his head again.

"It'll be a few hours 'til I'm good to teleport again." Thomas wasn't surprised. The last time he lost control of his Fire mana had been worse, but he'd needed days to recover.

"Anything I can do? I have more healing crystals."

"Nah, I just need time—""What's this?" Kingston said, holding up a metal box he had pulled from Thomas's bag. He had completely forgotten about that. Thomas stood.

"Wait, don't—" It was already too late. The lid of the box popped open, and the psychotic unicorn toy leaped out with a screaming whinny. Kingston fell back with a shriek as the unicorn swarmed up his arm, then jumped to the ground and galloped around in a circle around him and Braxton, trumpeting its rage. Braxton giggled. The little toy unicorn wasn't attacking them, but it sure turned its angry self on Zach and Thomas as they approached.

In fact, it pranced between them and the children, snorting, showing its teeth, and whipping its lion-like tail.

"It likes us," Braxton said smugly and reached out to pet the unicorn. Thomas started forward, but Zach held him back.

"No, I think it's fine. Let it happen." The unicorn not only allowed itself to be petted, it turned and bumped its muzzle against Braxton's fingers without biting them. Thomas was honestly at a loss. Ashton came over and knelt down. The unicorn turned and looked at him. It seemed a little bit more wary of the older boy, but grudgingly allowed itself to be petted.

"What is this thing?" Ashton asked.

"It's your uncle's pet unicorn. Its name is Problem Child," Zach said, pure mischief in his eyes for those times Thomas made fun of Kevin being an energy vampire.

"Problem Child is not a nice name," Braxton said reproachfully.

"That's an awesome name," Kingston corrected. He reached to scratch the unicorn toy, and the usually violent thing practically melted against him. Thomas's tongue finally unstuck.

"What," he hissed, "the hell is going on?"

"I think it's kind of a guardian," Zach said.

"That pet lady said it's bonded to you, remember? But, like, what if it's bonded to your bloodline? Aren't there unicorn stories where the unicorn can only tolerate, um," he glanced at the boys who were listening intently, "children?" Thomas watched for a few moments as the boys gave the unicorn toy all the attention it clearly wanted. Unicorns weren't usually a boy's toy, but they seemed pretty interested in it, on account of its needle teeth, dagger-sharp horn, and whippy lion tail.

It became clear that the unicorn much preferred Kingston and Braxton, and out of them, Braxton most of all. Thomas guessed that it had to do with Gifts. The System recognized kids at fifteen years old as legal adults, and Ashton was nearly there. They'd know in a few weeks after Ashton's birthday if Problem Child started hating him. Until then, the unicorn had its uses, very specifically when a fire-breathing chipmunk came within viewing range.

Thomas had been keeping his Health Sight on and had been about to dispatch the thing, but the unicorn neighed a war cry and peeled off to gallop after the chipmunk instead. Problem Child was technically a level one, but fire didn't seem to stop it, and it plowed right through the blast and speared the chipmunk. It even collected the mana crystals from the drop and returned them to the young boys, spitting them into their hands.

"Two mana crystals!" Kingston held up the red mana, as proud as if he had killed the chipmunk himself.

"Wow!" Zach nudged him and muttered, "I think it's got your Gift." Thomas wasn't sure how to feel about that.