Chapter 180: A Voice From Miami

Rachel sighed and rubbed between her eyes. "I hardly did anything. Several crackpot conspiracy theorists thinking the government was filled with lizard people from the underground city of whatever-they-called-it is nothing compared to what the Secret Service has been dealing with recently. Anyway..."

She nudged Scarlet with a reassuring look. "Yeah, we’ll make it work with the funeral tomorrow. I’m sure Maria and Fiona would want to come, too, with how close you’ve been getting with them over the past bit, what, with all these Quests you guys have been doing. I’m jealous."

The reaper showed her fangs, yet her eyes became downcast. "I know this is all last minute; my dad had a will, and the lawyer was just cleared of suspicion. As for the Quests, I don’t do much... just transport people and have X-ray vision to help spot things. I’m no hero or anything... Anthony’s the one that tells everyone what we need to do, but it’s nice seeing people have hope when they’re saved."

"Don’t sell yourself short, Little Fang," Selvaria said, holding up a thumb. "We’re totally the superhero monster squad. Without you, I’d be dead from running everywhere— No, literally, I’d be dead."

Scarlet almost choked with laughter. "Wow, Selv! You make me sound like an all-terrain vehicle. Ouch. Designated transport girl, reporting for duty!"

The leviathan shook her head, Coral’s ears flapping with the blob resting atop it. The monster girl jabbed her finger at the confused saint, spinning the basketball in her hands. "No, that’s Ms. Artillery here. She’s got the tanks, ships, and guns. I keep telling her she needs a plane."

"Wha— How insane do you want me to be?" the auburn-haired Legend balked. "I only just got that tank due to the Level 10 Limit Break Feats we got from our last Quest, which I can only summon for a limited time, by the way, and now you expect me to fly your fat tail around? You already dented my ship... twice. I don’t even know how to repair it yet."

"Accidents," the leviathan dismissively waved off, "and my tail isn’t fat... I think it’s quite slim and pretty. Just you wait until I unlock my scale color change Feat. I’ll be super cool, and I’m thinking about this strobe-light scale flash attack—like an electric flash bang— I saw it on a wildlife deep-sea documentary. It’s cool."

Rachel’s chest shook with silent laughter at their rapidly shifting topics, Alexa doing her best to remain totally out of it. "Sounds cool. Okay, I’m going to figure out what’s going on with this call and confirm a few things for tonight and tomorrow. Be out to school the Legends in basketball soon," she said with a wink at Barbara. "You and Anthony as team captains? Throw me on whichever team you decide."

Nia jumped up, arms flying into the air. "I’m a captain! And I’m super fast and awesome; why don’t I get to be the team captain?"

"Haha. Not the same, Little Bun," Scarlet snickered, guiding the bun out and shooting Rachel a thankful smile. "I’m glad to see you recovering, Rachel... I know it hasn’t been easy to sit still."

Rachel waved them off, flipping her phone around in her fingers and forcing a laugh when Selvaria heard a few women talking about a rock-climbing area in the rec center, voicing her desire to try it out.

"Yeah, be out in a minute..."

They filed out with a few other women, seemingly going for the rock-climbing area of the rec center. Now alone, Rachel hung her head and drew in her bottom lip, hissing out the stress of the pain in her muscles. Nia wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t saying anything, as ordered. Shifting to a bench by the wall to rest her back against it, she flexed her tingling fingers.

In truth, this trouble wasn’t caused by her recovering spirit, or, at least, it had very little to do with it. Her gaze drifted to her toned arms and thighs; this was her first test of exercising in the sunlight, and it showed her dependency on moonlight.

Scarlet knows my body hasn’t recovered enough... She’s trying to offhandedly tell me she’s worried without tipping anyone off. When Maria gets back, I won’t be able to hide it, either, but she can just heal me anyway, so that doesn’t matter... Dammit.

The real reason for her knotted muscles wasn’t how challenging it was to operate in any physical activity in the sunlight, though; last night, before Maria and Fiona left, the whole group had gotten together to discuss her invitation to the company she wanted to build.

She’d already talked to each of them personally about the topic, and she’d forced herself not to listen in on their discussion to give them privacy, which was hard. That was probably one of the reasons Anthony wanted to talk to her, but why bring her mom into the equation for his Level 10 Feats?

Vision narrowing, she rubbed her face, trying to let the tightness in her chest go. It’s almost like I’ve never worked out in my life when I’m in the sun, which might help my base, actually... If I train up in the sunlight, then maybe I’ll be able to increase my Base Stat Grades. It’s worth a shot, and it does give Alexa and me something in common to work toward. Now... if only I could get into anime or manga to—

She shook her head, redirecting her mind again. No, that’s Selv, Alexa, and Scarlet’s thing. I don’t need to share in everything they do. They’re not into sports or fighting, but Anthony and Barbara are, which gives me something with them. We can have different interests and still be friends. I just need to find something else we can share besides leveling. Later...

Rachel unlocked her phone again and looked at the number on the ID, her ears tilting to the side as she lifted an eyebrow. Arizona area code? Weird. The only person I know from there is...

As she tapped the voicemail, her tail went stiff as a familiar voice came from the speaker, one she hadn’t thought about since the start of The Oscillation:

"Umm. Hey, Rachel, it’s, umm... it’s Zoe—you know, heh, loli cat-girl that hates goblins— Wow, yeah, uh, that seems so long ago. Ugh. Get to the point, pussy cat!" she angrily chided.

"Right, so... I got your number from your old roommate, and I don’t know who else to call... All my friends went home, no one in my family is picking up their phone, and... mmgm, and the credit card my parents gave me got... canceled? I don’t know! They don’t believe I am who I say I am, and I can’t get anything to go right— It’s like... I’m cursed or something," she groaned.

"I’ve called, like, literally everyone else, and I borrowed money from this guy that a friend told me could get me some short cash— No-ho-ho! I’m not calling for money—I swear—I just... I don’t know who else to call, and my dorm room got blown up by a rocket launcher during that Crystal attack! How does that happen?! I’m so screwed... Sorry. I know you’re probably saving the world... Sorry... I’ll just... hang up now. Sorry to bother you."