ALL NOVEL Relationships are complicated
John's first step was a half fall, but Charlotte caught him with surprising strength. Her right hand gripped the first rung with as much force as she could muster. Step by step, she helped him go down to the hanger's floor. Feeling energy seep back into his body, the now familiar cold feeling of her healing spread. The poison cleared away in seconds, and his motor skills returned one by one. After almost a minute they reached the floor and she helped him stand, still supporting him with her left hand on his back.
“John? Are you ok? It’s good I got to you in time, but you were almost gone...” the healer spoke softly, but her worry almost fueled a confidence in her voice John hadn't heard before.
“I almost thought I was a goner, thank you Charlotte. Guess you saved my life again, and I am ok now, ” he wasn't exactly sure of that, but he didn't want to worry her any more. The coldness of her healing continued, and it felt almost comforting. Along with it came a pop-up confirming what he already felt, the poison was gone thanks to her magic.
His body was still throbbing from the pain, so he distracted himself by looking at the rest. John preferred to worry about them rather than himself, especially now. All of them besides Charlotte were gathered to his right. They were in bad shape, despite the help they had gotten from the healer while retreating. Only Bass was above half HP and Yan was on her last third. Yet every one of their faces lit up like a christmas tree, and they were high fiving each other in succession. Even Ember seemed relatively happy. Laughter echoed across the room, and Bass and Yan shot jokes at each other. And they had all started on their biggest task, pushing away the chitin, blood and corpses to clear the way to the airlock. Mountains of charred spider remains had piled up on the floor, and were slowly being moved away from the mecha and the door.
John wanted to help, and as soon as Charlotte could let him go he joined the effort, his hands quickly being covered by blood and goo, but it wasn’t long before most of the corpses had fallen down to the lower level. The blood flowed down without intervention, and most of the chitin began to break down into more blood. The cable was the only piece of chitin still entirely intact. But he figured it wasn’t much trouble. Parts of the walls were still covered with gunk, and some of it had begun dripping from the ceiling, but it was mostly spider parts and blood. Despite helping them, he wasn’t sure what to say to the others, he thanked Charlotte for her help, but it made him worry. Was he still so weak he couldn’t protect himself at all, he didn’t know.
Maybe because of their cheery attitude, he finally spoke a minute or so later.
“Is everyone ok? That was a hell of a fight but I think we all did a good job, and thanks for the save Charlotte!” he tried to sound confident for their sakes as much as his own.
“Think you should worry about yourself first, Boss! That was a hell of a risk you took jumping to the mech,” Bass spoke up, a smile on her face but a glint of worry in her eye.
“You know what, that’s actually a good point,” Bass smiled for a second, “wanted to ask you about that, Ember,” John turned to the spy, “I’m pretty sure the Gundam connected to me psychically, is that normal?” he asked, now that he felt better and the threat had passed, he became increasingly curious.
“If you would like me to tell you more about this world, I don’t mind. Essentially it’s to help those of us from the magic side adapt to the Gundams quickly. All of them have it,” she spoke with slow and steady breaths while she worked.
“Boss, I think that’s for later? We should get out of here first,” Bass interrupted, her tone worried.
“Oops, got a bit ahead of myself. Let’s finish that discussion later Ember, but I wanna hear about it for sure,” he responded, rubbing his neck in embarrassment. Soon enough though, the airlock was clear, and they headed through the same corridors as before. Though now, they were filled with blood. When they reached the forcefield at the entrance to mine, the soldiers were waiting for them.
A call to the scientist and a short conversation later, he sent a squad into the mine, and they were free to go back to camp.
Once they were clear of the mine and on their way back to the military camp, John found himself thinking. They got reports some spiders were left on the lower levels, but most of the place was clear.
Finally, they began their walk back to the camp, and John tried clearing his mind, ’good, seems like the spiders are gone, but I wonder what that shadow was, it’s giving me a chill up my spine everytime I think about it,’ he thought to himself, but asked Ember to continue explaining, hoping to free himself of his concern.
Ember started speaking, her tone at the start was cold again, but the more she spoke the more color it had, “well, Newtypes existed even before we came here. But they weren’t mages, just an ability developed among the human populace that lived in space. I assume you know that, given your familiarity with the… anime.” John nodded, laughing in his heart about her seeming disdain, “anyways, they had two particular abilities, reading the future to a very small degree, and an innate and higher ability to pilot Gundams. It gave them a very clear advantage, and they are a huge reason for the wars of this place's earlier history. However, only when the Council arrived did we realize this was in fact a consequence of potential for Psychic magic. And we learned how to harness it for our own use too. However, with it being much rarer on our Earth, most of what we desired was to allow our Psychic mages the same abilities with Gundams that they had. So a system called Psylink was developed. One specifically designed to interface with anyone’s potential and enhance it for use in a Gundam,” she finished, her now almost having a teaching tone again.
“That is genuinely incredible!” John was fascinated by the idea, he would have to ask someone about it. But the other’s reactions were much more tame, if still interesting.
“Huh… I didn’t know that either,” Bass chuckled, “guess we didn’t need to know it,” she said with sarcasm, looking harshly at the spy.
“It hasn’t been until now,” Ember’s poker face was back, and she moved her gaze away.
When the group reached the camp they were escorted to one of the capsules, and asked to stay there until the final cleanup operation was finished. John immediately saw that the design was the same as the temporary HQ of the miners, and food was laid out for them on the kitchen top. It took only a minute or so before everybody settled and began eating ravenously, the trip had taken a toll on all of them.
“Finally, we can get some rest,” Yan had said after settling down, with a piece of pizza in hand. That was the first thing she had said in an hour, and she sounded strangely upset.
“Yeah, so let’s relax!” Bass agreed, and dropped onto the couch, laying across half of it.
Ember retreated to one of the corners without a word, though John knew she was annoyed. Charlotte said sorry one too many times before leaving to the bedroom to get some rest. It was clear her abilities drained her heavily.
‘Need to remember that, it’s only a matter of time before something is too much for her. It’s obvious that she uses Mana to heal us, and it clearly has an impact on her body, just like everyone said it could...’ John blamed himself. She definitely didn’t need protecting, but no one was invincible.
“As I am obliged to let you know, this was also a test of your abilities, and you all passed. From now on I am a full member of your team on missions,” Ember said, not one ounce of emotion on her face.
“Do we really want her?” Bass turned to John, “I don’t really trust people who are trained to lie to my face,”
“You don’t have to trust me, I will do everything required to fulfill our mission regardless of whether we cooperate or not,” Ember said plainly, “but I do prefer we do, if not for John’s sake at least. It reflects on him badly as an explorer,” she sighed.
“Besides, don’t you think that’s a bit unfair? We’re all working for the Council,” Yan spoke up, almost angry.
“And what’s up with you now Yan, you’re acting funny?” Bass asked openly, getting up from the couch now, “don’t like when we argue?” despite her mocking tone, John knew it was genuine.
“Nothing, but yes, I don’t like this. We’re a team, or rather, I’d like to think so!” Yan shot back.
“I guess we are, and to answer your question, maybe it is, but I don’t like not knowing if anything she says is the truth,” Bass fell back onto the couch, fatigue replacing her determination.
“Bass, we can trust her, I understand not knowing what’s the truth, but everything she’s done today was to help us,” John didn’t want this to escalate any further.
“No, John, she’s right, my job is to lie and cheat people, and I can’t say I wouldn’t do that to any of you if I was ordered to. Trusting me is going to be hard, but I do trust you. All of you, and especially John. But I can only do so much to show that…” Ember stopped for a second to think, her tone had been more somber than flat, “For what it’s worth, I asked Ingrid for this assignment. I wanted to stop lying and deceiving people.”
“Got to hand it to you, pretty sure that was honest,” Bass said, her tone still showing suspicion.
“Welcome back!” Lieutenant Strong shouted to them as soon as they walked through the portal. Back in the familiar darkness of the warehouse. He headed over to them, holding a small item, and continued speaking, “they told me over the radio you guys did it! Good work! Oh, almost forgot, Matthew was here earlier,” he turned to Yan with an almost puzzled expression, “think he had something to say to you guys,” he said, then winked as his face softened.
“That’s the first I’ve heard of him wanting to say something, especially to people like us,” the shapeshifter responded, her last words mocking, but a curiosity in her voice.
“It is strange, you should ask him about it when you see him!” he faced John and paused, “also, this is for you. Sent straight from Ingrid. Told me it’s to call your girlfriend?” in his now open hand was a SIM card just like any one John had seen before. Excited, John grabbed it in a flash, but then he worried.
“No, it was just to talk to my parents,” he tried lying, but the concern showed in his voice as it shook.
*’God damnit, the last thing I need is more people knowing about Alice. She’s already in danger, and while I trust my team, who knows about Strong or someone overhearing us. Ingrid really shouldn’t have done that!’* even while he worried and felt anger boiling at Ingrid, he also felt a fuzzy feeling when thinking of his girlfriend.
“Awww, John’s blushing!” Bass laughed almost maniacally, “this is one hell of a day,” John knew it wasn’t malicious, but it just made him blush more. Weirdly, though, the look on her face was just neutral, not like her usual chuckles.
“Shut up Bass!” he chuckled back, just to keep the embarrassment away. Now he had no reason not to tell them, he realized, “well, truth is I do have a girlfriend. She’s mundane though and I’m scared something will happen to her. Didn’t mention her because I thought it might keep her safe. But I know I can trust you guys, so I should have, sorry,” John tried to keep his tone flat, but he was terrible at it. Guilt and worry snuck in without him noticing. He had lied too many times by now to feel good about it, it wasn’t just necessary by now, it was normal. It was awful.
“You really don’t need to apologize, or worry about it, we all have our secrets,” after a short silence Yan spoke first again. John was almost glad to see she really didn’t have much of a reaction. Charlotte, unlike the other two, seemed worried herself now. She was fidgeting with her crosses and sending looks every which way.
“Thanks, Yan. You’re right, just thinking too much about all this,” the Gamer responded with relief.
“Alright, all done? Not that I mind you guys talking, but there was something else I needed to tell you,” Strong stated, grabbing the attention of the group again.
“Seems like it,” Bass responded.
“Hope you didn’t forget those rewards I promised? Well, you’ll get them tomorrow, so all of you should go get some rest.”
Not long after that, the group broke up, all of them quiet for one reason or another.
John took his phone out the moment he entered his room. Excitement brewed inside him, and he wanted to talk to Alice as soon as he could. His hands shaking a bit, it took a few tries before he managed to pull out the tray and put in the sim, but he got it eventually. Dropping the old one straight in his inventory. The phone opened up with a chime, except the carrier was different. Right next to his mundane one now appeared the letters ABY AUC.
’Probably from the Abyss Auction, makes sense from what Ingrid told me, more importantly though, I have cellular!’
John decided to test it out right away, and he clicked Alice’s name from his favorites screen in seconds.
"John? You’re back in Springfield?!" Alice's voice appeared on the other end, and she was clearly more excited than anything.
“Not exactly. I got a new SIM that lets me call you from here!” just hearing Alice’s voice felt refreshing. Everything else that happened melted away as he talked to her.
“And you can’t call me with your normal SIM? Where the hell are you?” her tone was curious but also harsh.
’Fuck, what do I say now?’ he tried to come up with an explanation on the spot, and he figured he would be a better liar on the phone.
“I’m out of state, seems like my SIM only works for texting around here. Really rural out here, so guess it’s not surprising,” he tried explaining it away.
Alice sighed, “I know you can’t tell me why, but your lies don’t have to be so obvious, John,” she was disappointed, he knew that.
“This place is out in the middle of nowhere, I swear!” it wasn’t a lie, just outside the complex was probably the biggest forest that John had ever seen.
“Sure… More importantly, what have you been up to?”