Chương 106: 103: It Wasn't Me!

After thanking Cody profusely, the dogs and I headed back to the rift. I needed to stop at the Team Fellow Survivors enclave because I'd promised Emma I would come back in the morning, and morning was rapidly disappearing. If I'd given the matter even a single second of thought, I might have realized that arriving at the exact moment of the township's forty-eight-hour deadline was not the best way to get in and out quietly. Did I give it that second? I did not.

My brain was occupied with the Jules-and-Toby show, interrupted every ten minutes or so by a thirty-second commercial titled 'What the Fuck Do I Do About My Mother?' The dogs and I stepped through the rift and into the enclave. In complete contrast to my first visit, people immediately noticed us. Lots of people. Some of them were blue. The guy I'd seen on television pointed at the dogs with delight.

"Rodi, look! Animals! We must film a segment on earth animals. It will be—what do they call it? Human interest, yes." The woman standing behind him looked just like him, except smaller and somehow less charming, more critical. She narrowed her eyes at the dogs and said, "Maybe later, Aqi. We have enough to do already." A third blue guy loomed over them. He was the same species, but his eyes were… wrong. I took an inadvertent step back, and then I realized he was wearing lenses over his eyes, like camera lenses.

They were at different apertures, though, so his eyes looked unbalanced. He also had a device hovering over his shoulder that looked nothing like any camera I'd ever seen, and yet still suggested a recording device. It was like a miniature satellite dish, except translucent and made of crystal. Also among the crowd of people at the gate: Emma, Jack, Jack's parents, Nat, and about three-quarters of the other adults I'd seen around the enclave. It was like stepping out of an elevator onto a convention floor.

I immediately wanted to step right back. Bear agreed with me with a loud bark, telling the closest people to Go away!

"Ah, I see you're all busy, I'll just come back later, shall I?" I gestured toward the gate behind me.

"Perfect timing," Emma replied. Nat grinned at me.

"Good try," she mouthed.

"We've been discussing our response to the police chief's ultimatum," Emma said, sounding more formal than I was used to from her.

"I've decided upon a course of action and would appreciate your support." Had a bureaucrat taken over Emma's body? Was the mayor mind-controlling her from a distance? But there was no gray mana tangled up in her head, so I shrugged.

"Is Pen in the garden?" Emma looked around, but Nat answered for her, "With Megan and the General, yes."

"Bear, Riley, go find Pen, okay?" I spoke the words to both dogs, but directed an intent look to Riley. It said, Please keep Bear calm and safe, okay? I'm trusting you to take care of her. Bear loped off without waiting for any further permission. Riley was a little slower. He sniffed Zelda, nudging her ear, telling her to keep me safe. She raised her tail upright, the position jaunty, saying My heart-person, I protect.

"Oh, how fascinating," Aqi said.

"Communication. But not in a multiversal language. Rodi, surely—""Later," she interrupted him.

"One thing at a time." She smiled at me, and it was the smile of a shark. Not a literal shark; her teeth weren't serrated, and she didn't have a conveyor belt of them waiting to provide replacements when one fell out. But I could recognize a hungry predator when I saw one.

"You must be Olivia Thorne. I can't tell you how delighted we are to meet you. Aqi and I are so looking forward to sharing time with you and learning more about your experiences." Oh, hell. How did I politely say, 'no, thank you, anyway' to that?

"But let me convey my identifying details. I am Rodihasavatha Di'Je'Vek'Amma. My colleagues, Aquilastalishnagra Di'Je'Karn'Avigna, and Tennairayorisekken Di'Las'Vek'Amma." She gestured to each of the others in turn. Holy fuck. I really hoped I wasn't expected to remember those names, because that was never gonna happen. I'd feel bad about it: pronouncing people's names correctly is Basic Manners 101. But I still wouldn't get it right.

"Call me Aqi," he said.

"Tennai," the big guy muttered.

"Rodi." The shark sighed, hissing in an aside to Aqi, "Be professional."

"I am," he hissed back. The back-and-forth seemed contradictory—isn't it unprofessional to tell people to be professional? But [Senses Beyond Sight] was doing its thing. They probably had no idea that my hearing was as good as it was. Emma looked over my shoulder, through the rift behind me. She licked her lips, then raised her chin and said, "All right, let's do this." I was standing in her way, so I turned and gestured her through. She shot me a narrow-eyed glance.

"You are coming with, right?"

"Do you expect me to apologize to the police chief?" I asked. Would I do it if she said yes? Probably, although I wouldn't be happy about it. But if it would keep the peace and make life easier for her and the other residents of Team Fellow Survivors, I would grit my teeth and make it sound authentic. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! Instead, she laughed.

"We are not in apology mode." She took a deep breath and stepped through the gate. I followed suit, Zelda at my heels, and so did a solid chunk of the rest of the crowd, including the team from the Multiversal Information Network. As expected, a small crowd of people were waiting for us on the other side. The police chief was there, no cast on his arm, so either I hadn't actually broken his wrist or he'd found someone to heal it. The mayor was there, too, looking a little less polished than she had the other day.

I didn't know how Harfield got its electricity, but the power outages were apparently widespread by now, so maybe that was why. I also recognized the lawyer and one of the members of the town council. Several uniformed officers formed the rest of the crowd. I tapped [Analyze] and did a quick scan of the opposition. I didn't think any of them would have leveled enough to pose a threat, but it felt like the thing to do. I was right.

A couple of the police officers might have gained a level or two, but the mayor still had the highest level at 7. In the brief moment between Emma saying we were not apologizing and stepping through the gate, I'd apparently developed some concrete ideas about what this encounter was going to look like. Totally, completely, 100% wrong ideas. Because I'd apparently also gotten jaded about aliens walking among us, but the mayor and company had not.

Rodi, Aqi, and Tennai looked like exactly what they were: blue, feathered, humanoid people from another planet. The police chief's hand dropped to his holster. He must have found another gun somewhere. He did seem like the kind of guy who owned an arsenal. The uniforms clustered together; the council member folded his arms across his chest; and the lawyer—credit where it's due—stepped forward and cleared his throat, ready to deliver his ultimatum. But the mayor—well, maybe she panicked.

Maybe it was an instinctive strike against something strange and different. Or maybe she made a split-second calculation that the aliens were a route to power. If I'd been looking at her, I might have had time to tap [Flag of Truce], but I had half my attention on the police chief's move toward his weapon and the other half on the lawyer, and so I didn't notice the gray mana tendrils reaching out toward Aqi until too late.

In classic on-screen presence fashion, he had his back turned so he could talk directly to the camera. Tennai, the camera guy, must have been focusing on Aqi or checking the light, or maybe he didn't have a mana sense. Rodi was the first person to notice, and she only had time to yelp, "Aqi!" before the mayor vaporized. No blood, no gore, just her clothing settling on the ground, a shimmer of fine dust in the air. There wasn't even as much left of her as there had been of my dad after his body was cremated.

The police chief did not react well. He had his gun out and pointed at the MIN team, and was shouting, "Hands in the air, hands in the air!" before the dust had time to drift away. Of course, he didn't have the [Universal Language] ability, so as far as the MIN team was concerned, he could have been yelling anything. Even if they didn't understand the words, though, they appeared to understand his intentions, because Rodi shot him a disgusted look and then the three of them disappeared. Just… gone.

No puff of smoke, no flash of light, no shimmer of mana. One second they were there and the next they were not. The police chief, proving himself the asshole I already thought he was, immediately swiveled to aim at Emma. I glanced down at Zelda and gave her the nod, the one that said, "Jump on this jerk and scare the bejeezus out of him, but please avoid hurting him too badly." She gave me a doggy grin in response. Yes! Big dog, knock bad guys down.

She took a running start, but then did the thing: transforming into a dog five times her size and leaping on the police chief with delight. I watched to make sure he didn't fire the gun, more worried that it would explode than that a bullet would hurt Z, but she plucked it out of his hand with her teeth and spat it to the side. He struggled against the hundred pounds of dog that had landed on him until she threw back her head and howled. Two of the uniformed police officers broke and ran.

The police chief froze, a whimpering, quivering mess. Our allies, including the Shield from the gate who'd somehow appeared in front of Emma with his arms spread wide, all stood a little taller as courage flowed through us. An interesting assortment of people didn't seem affected by her howl at all. The lawyer was the most obvious. He adjusted the knot of his tie and shifted his shoulders, settling his suit coat more precisely, but he didn't look scared.

Did Zelda's Heart's Howl ability only affect people in the System? That seemed unlikely. I opened up my interface and read the description again. Heart's Howl. Your voice carries the weight of your spirit. When you howl, allies within range feel courage rise, while enemies feel instinctive fear. The effect scales with Spirit and activates naturally in moments of danger. I had trouble believing the lawyer was an actual ally, but apparently the System didn't think he was an enemy either.

Emma gently lowered the arm of the guy who'd leaped in front of her and stepped around him. She looked around at the remaining people, then shot me a look that said without words, "Really?" I shrugged.

"I warned her."

"Warned who? What the hell just happened?" The remaining council member wasn't wearing his suit today, but he was one of the two who had been under the mayor's mental influence before. Zelda's [Size is Just a State of Mind] wore off, and her normal-sized self hopped off the police chief and trotted over to me, tail wagging. Good job, yes? Good girl, yes?

"Good girl," I praised her.

"The very best girl." I reached into the treat slot on the companion pouch and pulled out a biscuit. Handing it to her, I added, "Don't tell Bear I said that, though." Zelda hmphed, but took her treat. Bribes. Good by me.

"Mayor Guilford?" The council member finally realized that the mayor was now just a pile of clothing on the ground.

"Mayor—what happened to the mayor?" The pitch of his voice rose. Emma patted the air in a classic take-it-down gesture.

"Let's all calm down while we figure that out. We don't want anyone else to get, uh, vaporized, right?" She glanced at me again. I put a hand to my chest.

"It wasn't me. I didn't do it."

"You didn't?" Emma asked.

"The mayor?" I shook my head in an emphatic no.

"I think she tried her mind control spell on the alien news guy."

"And he vaporized her?" The council member didn't sound nearly as horrified as I would have expected. In fact, there might have been a thin trace of satisfaction in his words.

"Mind control?" The lawyer spluttered.

"I told you, Jim. You didn't believe me, but I told you."

"It sounded so unlikely." The lawyer still hadn't joined the System. Had he had any messages after that very first one? This whole thing must be so insane to people who didn't yet have a creepy Santa Claus in their brain. Not that it wasn't insane to those of us who did, but imagining what it must be like for the people who hadn't paid attention to the System's first message and still had no real idea what was happening made me sympathize with the lawyer. Just a little.

If I hadn't been gardening when the System arrived, if Zelda and I had been curled up on the sofa reading a book, or if I'd been working instead of taking advantage of the nice weather, how long would it have taken me to realize that the world had changed?

"Mayor Guilford was a Mind Mage. Level 7," I said absently. I was watching the police chief. As Emma, the lawyer, and the council member got into a discussion about the mayor and her mind magic, the police chief rubbed his face with both hands, then fisted them. And then he sat up and grabbed for the gun on the pavement next to him. I had enough time to inhale about half a breath, but not enough to use it to speak, before Jack appeared, one foot on top of the gun.

The police chief recoiled in surprise, scrambling backward, and Jack shook his head at him before bending down, picking up the gun, and disappearing. He reappeared next to me and tried to hand me the gun.

"I don't want it." I pushed it away.

"Aren't you collecting them?"

"Pfft." I shot him a glance, and he grinned at me.

"Life is more fun with you around, Olivia," he said. My jaw dropped, my eyes widened, and I gestured toward the mayor, the place where the MIN team had been standing, the police chief, even the cars those two runaway officers were hiding behind.

"I didn't do a thing! Nothing! It wasn't me!"