Chapter 15: Start Of A Team

By the time Spencer and Sarah arrived outside the large recycling center monsters had already begun to wander back into the area. They ducked into an open warehouse where a number of garbage trucks sat empty and abandoned. The large piles of trash lay unsorted and rotting in the center of the space. The smell was awful, but it was empty of monsters for now. Spencer found an empty two gallon bucket and turned it upside down to sit on while they watched the stream of monsters skitter southward and disperse evenly down each street. 

There was a strange coordination to their actions. Without visible or audible communication with each other the monsters naturally spaced themselves out in smaller groups as they roamed the destroyed and largely empty cityscape. Even the colossal ape-like monster meandered its way closer to the distant pillar over LA. Its path took it pretty close to the shopping mall. Spencer hoped Nick and his group were doing all right.

Spencer’s eyes shifted to the pillar of light that was only a block away from where they were hunkered down. He thought of retrieving Sarah the night before and Andrea’s reaction leading up to it. Spencer glanced at the sword wielding engie. Sarah knelt by the bicycles leaning against the wall.

“I suppose I haven’t really explained where we’re going.”

Sarah paused and turned her head towards Spencer.

“I’ll follow you wherever you need to go, commander.” She stated firmly. “You don’t have to explain your actions to me. I’ll trust you no matter what.”

There was an extra layer of devotion in her voice that hadn’t been there previously. The memory of the kiss they shared surfaced in Spencer’s mind and his heart thumped loudly in his chest. It was an incredible experience. One that Spencer deeply hoped he would encounter again. He wondered if there were any other milestones they could unlock through kissing… 

Spencer cleared his throat and forced his mind back to the topic at hand.

“I appreciate your trust and I’ll do whatever I can to continue earning it.” Spencer affirmed before continuing with his original point. 

“This death and destruction you’ve seen in my world,” Spencer nodded out the warehouse doors to the monsters in the distance, “This all started early yesterday morning. I was selected by some… system, being, power, whatever is behind all of this, to be something called a ‘champion’.”

Sarah nodded. “That is how you knew how warrior Nick gained his abilities.”

It was time to take a plunge.

Spencer’s parents weren’t perfect people. They fought. They had disagreements about everyday life, their business, and how to be parents, but one thing that stuck with Spencer from watching them throughout his life was how well they communicated with each other. Where other parents would let the fighting escalate to the point of divorce, Spencer’s parents always found a way to help one another understand their point of view and were willing to negotiate and compromise. It kept their relationship clear and their love for each other strong. Communication was key.

Though… Spencer grimaced as he thought about how often he wished they would call or simply text him when they traveled.

They certainly weren’t perfect communicators either. Nevertheless, learn from the good.

Spencer explained everything. The messages he received, his friends dying around him, his summoning power, his quests. Everything. Even his boon which maxed engie affection for him. 

A part of Spencer was afraid that Sarah would be disgusted by this revelation. His palms grew clammy once he finished talking. Images of Sarah walking away flashed through his mind. Ghosts of her face splitting into open disgust, distraught that her freedom was being influenced by powers outside of her control. Much to his surprise though Sarah appeared indifferent to the information.

“Commander… Spencer.” Sarah used his name for the first time since her arrival. “I had all of my rights, freedoms, and humanity stripped away when I volunteered to be an engie. I say I volunteered. We all say that, but it’s rarely true. There was nothing left for me in that life. No family. No future. No hope. I was an empty shell long before I lifted a sword. The military recruiter practically picked up my hand and signed the dotted line for me. I didn’t care what happened to me. I just wanted to be useful to someone.”

She stood and approached Spencer’s makeshift seat.

“Perhaps if you were a horrible person I might feel bad about what you’ve told me, but I don’t.” Sarah knelt in front of Spencer and gently took his hands in hers. “The fact that you even considered how I would feel about my affection towards you proves that you’re a good person. The type of person that I wanted to protect as an engie in the first place.”

She let go of his hand and placed hers on the side of his face in a tender caress.

“I’m confident I would have grown to care about you even without this ability of yours.” 

She kissed him.

It was a slow lingering kiss that made Spencer’s heart race even harder than it had before. She broke apart and rested her forehead against his. Her golden hair spilled down around them like a privacy curtain.

“It doesn’t matter to me how we got here. You’re my commander. I care about you deeply. I will follow you no matter what.” Sarah affirmed to him.

“We’re going to need more team members to make it through this.” Spencer said quietly.

Sarah nodded.

“That means more engies that will be affected by my boon.” He continued.

Sarah nodded again.

“Will you be okay if there are others that feel the way you do about me?” Spencer watched her reaction closely.

Sarah sighed and pulled back. She held his gaze confidently.

“They’ll never love you more than I love you commander.” She said with one hundred percent sincerity. “It’s not possible. As much as I understand the desire to monopolize you to myself, your safety matters far more than my pettiness. I won’t stand in the way of recruiting more team members.”

‘Bonding Event successfully passed, Milestone successfully passed, Love Confession: 

• Ten store credits awarded.

• Team member, Sarah, stats vastly improved.’

Spencer pulled Sarah into a hug. Partially to show his appreciation and partially to hide his face which was fully reddened by her love confession. He’d never had someone other than family tell him they love him before. Sarah smiled and wrapped her own arms around his back.

“Thank you.” Sarah’s black and purple dress muffled his reply as he nestled into her embrace.

“My pleasure, commander.”

******

Patience paid off in the end. By the late afternoon the number of hellhounds and faceless ones in the area thinned out enough to give Spencer and Sarah an opening to make a break to the nearest engie pod. They rode as quickly and quietly as they could. The pillar of blue light led them to an elementary school. The parking lot told a chaotic scene of abandoned buses and cars as the attack had likely occurred right as a majority of the student body were arriving. Broken glass, fragmented metal, torn school bags, and dried blood forced Spencer to look away. Sarah glanced back at Spencer for direction and he nodded to an open fence on the side of the main building. The pod was just behind the school in the recess area.

Sarah approached the fence and silently dismounted from her bicycle. Spencer followed suit and the pair gently positioned their bikes against the wall for easy access should they need to leave in a hurry. Sarah slid her sword from its sheath.

“How do you want to proceed, commander?” Sarah whispered.

“Take point.” Spencer unslung his Winchester hunting rifle and checked the internal magazine. “The pod should be pretty close. We move slow and steady. Opening the pod doesn’t take long. I just have to touch it.”

Sarah nodded and silently stalked her way through the open fence gate. Spencer chambered a round into his rifle, but didn’t switch off the safety yet. The last thing he needed was to slip and have the gun go off by accident. A gunshot would announce to every monster in a ten block radius that they were here. Satisfied with the state of his weapon, Spencer crept forward. He stepped carefully to avoid the broken glass of a side window and nearly ran into Sarah’s back as she peered around the back corner of the school building.

“I see the pod.” She reported quietly. “But there’s something else here, commander.”

Spencer leaned around her, fully expecting to see a pack of hellhounds or a few faceless ones lurking around the school. Much to his surprise, and horror, Spencer saw something he didn’t expect.

A large pulsating mound of purple flesh lay nestled between the blacktop basketball court and the side of the school’s cafeteria. It looked vaguely like the bio drop pods the monsters had arrived in, but the color was different. This one didn’t look like it had fallen here either. The placement was too deliberate, the shape too spherical, and the vein like tendrils holding it to the ground around it too uniform.

Sarah shot him a questioning look, but Spencer shook his head. This was brand new. 

Spencer decided he didn’t like new. 

The mound of flesh rose and fell in a slow rhythmic motion, like something was breathing within. Nothing else was around. No monsters, no pods, no colossal beasts. Spencer licked his dry lips and tightened his grip on his rifle.

“I don’t really like the idea of getting close to whatever that is, but the coast is clear for now. We run over, touch the pod, and get out.” Spencer explained in a hushed tone.

The duo darted out, Sarah in front and Spencer close behind. They quickly closed the distance between their corner of the school building and the pod which sat just outside of the basketball court in the brown early summer california grass. Sarah shifted her position so she was constantly between Spencer and the mysterious mound of flesh. Breathing hard from the physical exertion on top of his stress, Spencer lifted a hand and touched the smooth edge of the egg-like pod. Mist poured out as the pod opened up.

The engie that emerged from the pod was shorter than Spencer by a good few inches. She wore simple white shoes, a light blue skirt that ended above her knees, and a soft white blouse tied off with a beautiful white bow around her collar. The top half of her blouse above the bust was made of a thinner sheer material which highlighted even more of her perfectly smooth and delicate looking skin. Her breasts, while modest sized for a gacha character, were pronounced enough to make Spencer blush as his eyes innocently glanced over them. 

The engie had a brown, gold, and blue quarterstaff held in her hands and a round crystal shield next to her shoulder. It took a second for Spencer to realize that the shield was not tethered to her in any visible way. It floated freely and seemed to move however it wanted to in a protective sphere around her body. Lastly the engie’s head became clear through the mist. She had beautiful short light blue hair that matched the color of her skirt and shining eyes. Her face was alight with a nervous excitement as she curtseyed to Spencer and made a quick series of gestures with her hands.

Spencer glanced at Sarah to see if this was some sort of engie code, but the sword wielder simply shook her head. The new engie’s face fell and she made another series of gestures with her hands.

It’s sign language! Spencer realized all at once.

“Can you hear me?” Spencer asked quietly and lifted a hand to point to his own ear.

The engie nodded.

Not deaf, mute maybe? Spencer mused. 

Back when Spencer was in middle school his mom had signed him up for a program where he helped out in a classroom that specialized in assisting students with special needs. That’s where he had originally met Nick. One of the other students he had spent a bit of time around was a deaf young girl with down syndrome. She was probably the nicest person Spencer had ever met in his life. He didn’t learn a lot of sign language during the limited time he spent in that class, but he knew enough for a polite greeting and a bit of chit chat. Unfortunately Spencer didn’t recognize any of this engie’s signs.

I don’t think she’s using American Sign Language. Spencer noted.

Zero conflict was a Japanese made game, so it was highly likely that she was using Japanese sign language. Then again, Andrea and Sarah spoke perfect English.

Perhaps they have all the language packs ‘downloaded’ to their brain? Spencer thought back to the sound files he had selected when he originally played Zero Conflict.

He slung his rifle over his shoulder and signed out a shaky greeting.

‘Good day, how are you?’

The engie lit up and Spencer noticed her change the signs as she answered back in ASL.

‘So happy _____’

Spencer didn’t know the last sign, but ‘commander’ was probably a safe bet.

“I guess I could just ask.” Spencer realized aloud. “Did you say, ‘so happy, commander’?”

The engie did a series of small happy jumps and clapped her hands softly together.

I’ll be able to talk to her just fine, but two way communication… 

Spencer had just resolved to make clear communication a top priority with the engies under his command. It had worked quite well with Sarah and he didn’t want to fall short with this new member.

I don’t even know her name yet. Spencer frowned.

It was odd that the system hadn’t popped up with her character info. His previous two members had displayed their info screen almost immediately. Why was hers different?

“Commander, we should leave the area as soon as possible.” Sarah hissed back to him while she continued to survey the pulsating mass.

The new engie gave a polite bow to Sarah before noticing what the sword wielder was watching. Her blue eyes widened and she moved quickly to position herself and her floating shield between Spencer and the blob of flesh.

Even though the situation was tense, Spencer had to laugh. Every single engie he had pulled so far had the exact same instincts. Place themselves between their commander and the nearest source of danger. 

He wanted to do more for this newcomer.

They did need to leave, but Spencer’s eyes drifted to the school right next to them.

“I have an idea. Follow me.”