Chương 35: R&R Ch. 35 — Hurry Up and Wait

"Would you like to fight me for the ability to make decisions?" Nicholas asked, glowering at his opponent. That made them give up quickly. Nicholas was glad that it was an easy solution to people not liking the position he had given them for their patrols. Nobody seemed to want to fight him. Even the Es, though, Nicholas hadn't tried to really egg any of them on. He was well aware that he wouldn't be able to beat most of them if he had to fight them in a one on one. He could probably steal a win from one or two.

There couldn't be that many people that he could embarrass in a fight like that. Actually, Nicholas really wasn't sure. But he was finally done with getting everyone their teams and their schedules. Though that should be the last person, Nicholas stretched his body, cracking satisfyingly as he tried to refocus himself. Things were coming together, and it was going to be time for them to put their money where their mouths were. Nicholas was feeling confident."

Recover" Was it a little childish for him to use his power like that to make it so his exhaustion went away but he didn't want to sleep anytime soon. And it gave him the chance to practice the belief manipulation technique Rend had given him. With a week of practice he had gotten to the point that he was good enough with the exercises that it should have been possible for him to do it. Not that Nicholas had succeeded at all so far, though Jasmine was much like him, not making any progress on her effort at all.

Speaking of Jasmine. Jasmine raced into the room.

"Can I have my pick me up? We both need to be up for another few hours," Jasmine said, fluttering her eyelashes at him." Recover" Jasmine let out a sigh of relief as the working washed away all of her aches and pain making it so she nearly had a full night's rest. Both of them were trying to flip their sleep schedules so that they would be up during the night shift, like they were usually supposed to. But so much of their work had to be done in the day, so Nicholas's healing was the choice on how to deal with that.

"I'm going to go recover and then get back to work." Nicholas said, waving to Jasmine once again as he walked past her, returning to their quarters and going to his room to meditate. Recovering energy wasn't actually that hard, especially when his second channeling power technique focused on rebuilding it fast, but any moment to be alone was everything he could ask for at the moment. He was good at this leader thing, at least he thought so, but he was running on empty after a week of preparations.

The training had been especially exhausting because of his own need to be better than everyone else, to remind them why he was at the top. Well tied for the top. And only when it came to combat stuff where he could use his powers. Really, Nicholas was still bottom of the barrel physically. But he was working on trying to make sure that changed eventually. Once his power had fully recovered, and a bit of extra time after that, Nicholas strode back.

"Lupine, make sure to wake up the rest of the people on your team soon. You guys will need to be patrolling in thirty," Nicholas told his fellow hero as he passed. Lupine nodded, yawning. Everyone was feeling atrocious, but Nicholas and Jasmine had decided everyone would be transitioning to their patrol schedule. That reminded Nicholas he had to make sure the supplements that the quick reaction forces would be using were ready. It wasn't something anyone wanted to rely on.

Some of the potential side effects were extreme at the best of times. But for the seven people that, on top of regular patrols, had to be ready to go at any time, it was invaluable. They were all on different regular shifts as well, sans himself and Jasmine. And of the seven beyond themselves, only one other was F-rank. Ouroboros's power was weird, but Nicholas wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if that horse was someone who could turn himself into a voodoo doll to kill monsters.

Nicholas shuddered to think about what he would be able to do in the higher ranks. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Even though all the work he did was important, running the war camp that was the compound his forces would be staying at, Nicholas couldn't help but feel it was all pointless. Nicholas wouldn't be able to change the math with prep work.

The odds said that half of them surviving this would be a miracle and what he should actually do was make sure he and Jasmine survived. Instead, they had been putting themselves more at risk than anything else. Nicholas wouldn't let himself be cowed.

"Hurry up and wait?" Nicholas whispered to himself. He hated the phrase. Especially now. He had thought that meant everything would be boring until then and he had nothing to do. As he had learned, having everything ready was actually increasing his load most of all the people. Everyone had been fine with the groups when they thought it was an emergency, but now that they had time with them to hang out, there were tempers beginning to flare.

That was ostensibly his and Jasmine's fault, but Nicholas didn't consider it such. He got power bios, not personality bios, and if people couldn't set aside their differences for something like saving the world, they were not going to get anywhere with them. Even if those folks were with their soulmates, Nicholas was certain they would be useless. But after he had gotten the reputation for telling those with that problem to sod off, they had gone to Jasmine instead.

Not that they were getting better results from her, but she was nicer about it. Nicholas checked his phone. It would be another few hours before he would be on patrol, and that would be enjoyable. It was one of the worst shifts available, and most people would be sleeping or avoiding it. During the day, even folks on the night shift felt compelled to be up just to hang out with the people. Nicholas fought back a yawn.

He wasn't tired, not physically, and he wasn't even that tired mentally, but his body insisted that he was supposed to be sleeping now. He checked his status screen before grimacing. He was still far from rank three in terms of Karma and Belief. Though he had, strangely for the first time in his life, his Karma higher than his Belief, which he wasn't sure was supposed to be possible.

With it not having clicked at two thousand, or three thousand, Nicholas was pretty confident the rank-up requirement was somewhere around ten thousand. If he combined his karma with Jasmine's, they would be able to do that, and while Nicholas wasn't going to call it impossible to transfer Karma, he presumed it would be something that would destroy one of them. And because he would be the likely candidate for the rank up, he certainly wasn't willing to do that to his partner.

"You going to be good for the shift in four hours?" Nicholas thought to Jasmine.

"Definitely, I'm planning on going with the swords tonight. Is that cool?" Nicholas mulled that over for a second before nodding to himself. That would work just as well as anything else. It was one of the worst combinations for them when it came to team synergy, but in terms of maximizing her ability it was by and away the best. One maximize and she would be the master of a hundred blades raining storms down on the enemy.

"Go for it, I'm not going to be trying anything too special," Nicholas said with a shrug. There wasn't anything for him to do in that department. His ability didn't change.

"I am so excited for when we hit C, then I won't have to decide before we patrol every day," Jasmine complained.

"It does seem hard, but it's not that bad, right? Almost every other superhero has to just live in a niche?" Nicholas commented. He actually thought Jasmine was in the right, but playing devil's advocate was fun and it was something to keep his mind occupied on while he did paperwork.

"Most people can't do all the things I can, and I don't want to hear about not needing versatility from word boy of all people."

"Word boy?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm calling you." Nicholas couldn't disagree with the accuracy of the name. The two continued to chat via the telepathic earrings while they worked on everything else they needed before they were finally free to patrol both of them atop flying swords and just enjoying the world around them.

They still did have arguably one of the worst patrol blocks, but that it didn't involve paperwork and there were other people in charge of that for the next eight hours was about the best thing they could think of." Barrage" Bolts of energy flew from Nicholas's outstretched hand, piercing the would-be robbers and knocking them out.

"I am so jealous of that I should make a knockout weapon." Jasmine said, picking up the now passed out robbers and placing them on the swords before sending them off to the base where they could be processed.

"Well, I didn't use the knockout word, I just hit them with bolts of energy," Nicholas commented as the world began to tremble to their senses.

"Is that what I think it is?" Nicholas asked as he spun around in the air to try and figure out where the feeling was coming from.

"Yeah," Jasmine said quietly, having felt this before. She hadn't been a super during any previous wave, but she had gotten the chance to feel what the onset of the wave was like. It felt so much worse now that she had her own senses. As the world continued to crumble from a few miles away, they flew to the wall so they could get a good vantage point for the event of the year. Nicholas could only look in awe as the world seemed to crack as something from beyond earth came through.

"You know I can't decide if I'm glad or upset that this is starting on our shift," Jasmine said as they watched reality buckle from miles away safely on top of the wall.

"I'm glad. It means we can finally start making a difference."

"Let's start off with a big show," Jasmine said as she watched the monsters begin to break through space and begin charging towards the biggest source of karma in the area.

"Well, we're not the openers so we can wait a little bit," Nicholas said as he felt a presence flare up near the portal. One that was sort of familiar to him, though he couldn't place where he had gotten the sense for the power before. The world trembled. Space severed. And hordes of monsters fell as if they had all been split in two by a single strike.

"What rank do you think that is?" Nicholas asked quietly.

"No idea," Jasmine said quietly. Nicholas could only watch as people stronger than he could fathom did battle for the city. Even with all of their power, monsters were let past, and Nicholas couldn't help but wonder if it was pointless if people that strong couldn't do it.

"Hey, do you want to know what I am thinking right now?" Jasmine asked, nudging him.

"What?"

"This isn't the goal, fighting like them. It's just a step in the way and isn't that just awesome?" Jasmine asked as her swords formed wings behind them.