Chapter 162: Recon with Adam (2) [Birthday Bonus Chapter]

Tommy and Mia welcomed Tyler in before Tyler realized something. He had forgotten Adam. After they agreed to have him meet them, Tyler teleported to his best friend’s dorm, knocked, then teleported back to Tommy’s.

"Hate it. Fuck, that feeling sucks," Adam said while hunching over like he was going to puke.

"It’ll get easier, don’t worry. Here, sip this," Tyler said while still awkwardly holding the large jug of Esper’s potion.

"Whoa, what the hell is this? This stuff tastes amazing. I feel so good!"

"That’s why I said sip," Tyler laughed while yanking the jug from Adam’s hand.

After meeting Tommy and his wife, Adam was surprised by how nice and chill they were. He expected his favorite streamer to be as outgoing and hyped up as he was on stream, but it made sense. They sat in his studio room while Tommy fitted a few cameras on each of them. First, he put one on each of Tyler’s shoulders, then each of Adam’s. Next, he strapped one to their heads. They were so small they could barely be seen, but Mia was showing the live feed from the cameras. The resolution and sound were incredible.

"Hey, Tommy, if you want, if you ever want to interview any of my wives, I’m sure we’d be able to do that for you. Emie wants Amanda one-on-one. What’s she like, anyway?"

"Sweet girl. She dropped out of college when her streaming career took off. She’s a non-ability user and doesn’t show her face on streams," Mia explained.

"Will she show her face for the one-on-one with Amanda if we take it? Or would you rather do it?" Tyler asked politely.

"I would recommend that she do so. That’s not going to be an easy one-on-one. I feel for her, and I’m sure all of you do too. It’s good to know our efforts have helped. Have you seen all the positive feedback from the elven people?" Tommy asked.

"No, honestly, I haven’t. I lost track of the news after the Arctic Academy attack, or lack thereof. Leviathan made me look good," Tyler laughed.

"Your Eidolons are something else, but your wives are also incredible. Well, Amanda is basically being celebrated as the elf who should bring them all together. You might want to look into that." Tommy smiled while standing up. "Well, you two should get going. We have our date night tonight."

"Oh, sorry to intrude! It was nice meeting you both. Your wife is lovely, and I’ve been a huge fan of yours for a long time. It’s nice knowing there are good people out there that kids can look up to. They say never meet your heroes, but so far, so good," Adam chuckled while shaking Tommy’s hand, then Mia’s.

"Thanks, mate. Good luck and be careful," Tommy said with a determined stare.

’System, message Amanda for coordinates for where I should teleport to.’

{Ping! You have a new message from Tyler. Hey, babe, where should I teleport to? I love you!}

Amanda smiled at the message and pulled up her status screen.

[Ping! Your coordinates have been set by Amanda. Teleport to the red dot and proceed with caution.]

Tyler and Adam appeared in a forest area, still full of life. He pulled up his mapping feature in his system and noticed the 0% and "Outskirts of Thornstead."

’Interesting. System, can you manipulate these cameras to also record into my database?’

[Accessing camera systems now. All live feeds will be documented and archived.]

"Anything on your end, Adam?" Tyler spoke softly.

"Yes, lots and lots of bots, everywhere. Look 20 feet ahead of us at that tree. Do you see anything without using your phoenix vision?" Adam whispered.

"No, I don’t. Is there really an enemy hidden in plain sight?"

"Yes, lots of them. Orochi senses at least 1,000 just in this forest. If we’re going to do reconnaissance, this might be trickier than we thought."

Tyler thought about it for a moment before he had an idea. He used Vox’s dimensional travel to successfully avoid the bots while picking up their locations on camera as best he could. The two moved silently until they saw the barren wasteland begin. There were cyborgs everywhere, but the most interesting detail was a woman with pink hair and a face that was almost fully mechanical. They were doing training drills, or what looked like it.

They were grateful for the cameras, and Tyler was really glad he brought Adam. There were probably 30 different types of bots in different groups. Tyler remembered the low-end silver scouting ones and saw there weren’t that many. Almost every color had several different types of shades, and they all followed the general’s instructions either by voice or tablet command.

’System, send a live feed to the girls.’

{Ping! Would you like to view the live feed via your Limitless Demonic System?}

’Yes, please,’ Kass thought anxiously.

The girls noticed something Tyler and Adam didn’t. Spacecraft—and too many to count. They were floating overhead, and plenty of them were parked with their large doors open for bots or the humanoids to come in or out.

Tyler didn’t know, but General Astrid knew he and Adam were there. She was inputting commands into the tablets to engage them in a surprise attack. They were sitting ducks.

"BRO, GET DOWN!" Adam shouted, ducking for cover.

Tyler grinned and let thousands of beams hit his staff, anxiously awaiting a notification.

More beams continued hitting the staff, charging it to the point where Tyler was having trouble holding the thing.

"Adam, I need to get you out of here, or you’re going to be on the wrong end of this blast," Tyler said while teleporting him back to his dorm.

"You’re not seriously going back, are you?" Adam pleaded.

Tyler was already gone and back at the scene.

’Release!’ Tyler thought excitedly, only to watch the massive charge get zapped into General Astrid’s hand with only a bit of her pole extended from her palm.

"That’s a powerful staff you have. Thanks for the power-up, cutie." She winked.