Chapter 89

Atlanta - 8:13 AM

The park had been packed with people, but so had the roads and neighborhoods. Groups roamed the city with weapons at the ready, though most everyone had time to wave or greet Manny. Every time they did, he would respond in kind with either a handshake or hug before returning to us, often with snacks and drinks.

“The people love you,” Jeff noted. Manny offered him a juice box, and he took it with an approving nod.

Manny just shrugged. “I’m the guy who stopped the scenario in this area so everyone feels like I’m some kind of hero. It gets a little troublesome, but if it makes them feel safer than I’m all for it.”

“What was the scenario here?”

“Gang of goblins,” he answered. “Little dudes with green skin, big heads, and chariots. They roamed the streets in rusty, mismatched vehicles. Just kinda bulldozed their way through everything, and some of my mechanic friends are trying to figure out what makes them tick. Try to get some of the regular vehicles back on the road.”

"That explains the state of things," Kayla said as she looked around.

The destruction on the streets was everywhere. Many of the cars and trucks were smashed and pushed to the sides of the road. It was fairly uniform, too, as though the goblins had spent extra time to make sure to get every vehicle without exception.

“Yeah, the assholes drove like they were competing in a demolition derby most of the time. Well, all except the boss,” Manny continued. “He drove a monster truck looking contraption. His ride was pristine, too; no rust, no damage, nothing. The other goblins cleared the way for him. Catching him was a pain. We ended up stopping him by building a barricade out of cars. Took us almost a whole night, but we got it high enough that he couldn’t just drive over it. That’s when we finally got him.”

Jeff nodded along. “Getting all those vehicles sounds like a big win for the community. Are your friends close to figuring out how they work?”

“We’ve got them to start, but from what I’ve been told driving them is a whole different process.”

“I may be able to help with that,” I said. “After we’re all taken care of at Merder Stadium and I’ve had some time to run some errands.”

“More eyes and hands couldn’t hurt,” Manny said with a nod. “But don’t get discouraged when you see them, okay? We had people who were mechanics all their life, both self taught and trained, who threw up their hands after looking them over for ten minutes.”

“If Ant says he can do it, I believe him,” Jeff said, throwing an arm around me.

“The kid’s got talent,” Kayla vouched. “He’s the one who got us up here.”

“Kid? You’re like, what? Five years older than me? Six?” I chuckled. Spinning under Jeff’s arm, I freed myself from the giant and continued walking. “I hear what you’re saying though, Manny. From the sound of it, goblin engineering sounds like a hassle.”

“You right,” he replied before looking at me. “You have some kind of vehicle class to get these two up here from Cordele?”

“Less about vehicles, more about logistics and information gathering. The rest was good old know how,” I claimed. “See, I look at things and I know stuff about them. It’ll probably work on the goblin cars.”

“You can do that on people, too?” he asked through a nervous sounding chuckle.

“Not yet, but I imagine I can later.” I noted the tension leaving his shoulders when I spoke. “Don’t worry, you’ve been nothing but polite to us so I’m not interested in spilling anything about you to other competitors. Though, since you’ve been so friendly I might want to warn you about that axe-“

“Yeah, I know,” he said quickly. “Would rather not talk about it.”

“Alright, man. Just a warning to put it down when you can, then,” I said. When Kayla and Jeff glanced at me, I simply shook my head. They would get an explanation later, and at least Jeff nodded in response.

“If you know about that, then you’re the real deal, huh?” he asked. “Ramona has a similar class from being so damn bossy all the time. Makes her perfect for being a manager, and she’s got the nerve for it. I fully expect her to get on everyone’s shit list, but I’m sure it’ll all work out.”

“What’s all this manager stuff about?” Kayla asked. “Your sister seemed really proud of the fact that she got to be yours.”

“Right, okay, so a manager is just a fancy title for someone who keeps track of things for a team or fighter. They get a portion of the points their team wins, so it’s worth it for non combat classes,” Manny explained. “Ramona’s the manager for my team in the Chaos Cup where I’m fighting with Tito and Joanna. Every team needs a manager and anywhere between one to three fighters, though no one’s been stupid enough to enter alone and I’m pretty sure all the people with two to a team are looking for a third.”

Kayla and Jeff both looked at me again, but I grinned and pointed ahead of us. “Stadium coming up,” I said. Their gaze lingered on me for a few more seconds before they turned to look.

Merder Stadium was a large gray dome rising above the trees. Not many details could be seen from this distance, but we would be there soon.

“Yep, that’s it,” Manny confirmed. “Managers help fighters by providing them information on the other team. Apparently they get some kind of ability that lets them talk to you in a fight, which I’m not looking forward to but I can’t deny it's useful. Most of the events are team events, so they get a bird’s eye view on what’s working and what’s not and have access to a lot of resources that we’ll never see. They’re also in charge of the wheel.”

“What’s this about the wheel?” Kayla asked.

“That’s what makes it chaotic. I don’t know the specifics of it, but what Ramona said was that it’s this big Wheel of Fortune contraption that put restrictions on the players or changes the fundamental rules of the match for that specific team. You have to spin it at least once, but you can spin it up to three times. Apparently, the more you spin, the more chaos you sow, the more points you can get in a match. That only matters if you win though. Managers do that and, something she’s much more reluctant to talk about, betting.”

“Betting on the matches? That’s gotta be standard, though, right?” Jeff asked.

Manny shrugged. “Something about more restrictions, but this one’s voluntary. From what Benedict said, it can all get very lucrative. We’re probably not going to use that until the second round, get a feel for things first.”

“Makes sense to me,” Jeff said.

“You know, I’ve got someone who’s looking to be a manager for a team if you three want to sign up for the Chaos Cup,” Manny said, looking back at us even as he walked forward. “With the MVP Token, you wouldn’t have to take part in the battle royale that’s happening later today. They’re doing it to fill in slots since those tokens are so hard to come by.”

“I’m going to be Jeff’s manager. We discussed it last night, and he decided he’s going to go into the tournament for the one on one. He did tournaments for a while, and this will be good for him to sweat away some of that rust,” Kayla explained.

Jeff took his wife’s hand in his and nodded. “I assume it’s the same rules, but no wheel?”

“From what I heard, that’s about right,” Manny confirmed with a nod. “But yeah, I can’t blame you on that one. I wouldn’t be doing this unless I had a full team, either. Tournaments sound cool, though. What’d you compete in?”

“I did some fencing, focusing on the epee, but the rapier was always my baby,” Jeff said before grimacing. “Mine’s also broken right now, but we should be able to get it fixed.”

“You should visit Artist Alley, then. You can probably find a new one with no problem,” Manny said. “It’s in the World Congress Center on the other side of Merder Stadium. Dunno if you’ve come across those shops that people shove things in and they go on sale, but it’s basically a bunch of those kiosks and then people making things and putting them on display.”

“Is there anyone there who can fix it?” he asked. “I’m pretty fond of Killer Sting.”

“You can probably find someone who’ll do it, yeah.”

“Once you head off to register, I’ll go that way,” I said. “I want to visit Artist Alley and I have an old friend I need to catch up with. I’ll meet you guys by Milly’s inside Merder Stadium at noon so we can check out the battle royale. Sound good?”

“Sounds good… Ant,” Kayla said, though from the pause I knew she was about to call me psychic boy.

“We’re having a watch party in our manager’s suite, if you want to come,” Manny offered. “We’re going to have other managers of people we know who are competing, so there’s bound to be a lot of information shared around.”

As we started walking over a set of railroad tracks, Manny looked ahead and focused on his footing. Kayla looked at me from behind Jeff, and I shrugged. Do what you want, I mouthed. Couldn’t hurt.

Kayla nodded and squeezed Jeff’s hand. “It’s a tempting offer, we’ll discuss it and let you know.”

“Will any of the single fighters be there?” Jeff asked.

“A few who didn’t want to be a part of a team, yeah,” Manny said. “The ones who were all about skill on skill only rather than being thrown into a chaotic mess of a game.”

“Man, we’ve already had a lot of chaos, I’m looking forward to something straightforward for a change,” Jeff chuckled. Manny nodded, and the group fell into silence.

We followed the railroad tracks north, but Kayla and Jeff were busy staring at the destroyed buildings around us. Burnt walls and shells of buildings still stood, but it was obvious that this part of the city had been hit worse by the goblin gang than where we had come from. Thanks to the safe zone, that big gray dome we were heading to was still in perfect condition.

“The goblins focused on this area around the safe zone, didn’t they?” I asked for the Mills’ benefit.

Manny let out a heavy sigh as he looked down. “Yeah. People heard about the safe zone and started heading that way, but the streets around it were a war zone. The goblins would circle like vultures, running down anyone who tried to make it to safety. We had people watching from the safe zone, but it’s a really big place and response times… they weren’t great. It… was hard to watch.”

Jeff put a hand on Manny’s shoulder, and the man turned to look at him. “We just got done with a war with humanoid wasps,” Jeff said. “Lost a lot of friends, but we’re using their memory to move on. I’m glad you’re still pushing.”

“Yeah, well, pushing’s all we got.” Manny shook his head and Jeff let his hand drop. “It’s just taking some getting used to. Some people are getting used to it faster than others, but damn they don’t give us a lot of time to process, huh?”

“The people who can process faster than the others are the ones who are going to be able to make a difference later on,” I whispered, though still loud enough that they could hear me. “But as long as you remember the people who can’t and keep fighting for them, then you’ll stay on the right path.”

“It’s just hard,” Manny stated quietly. “And then we’re supposed to put up with these games like they’re some big reward for beating the first scenario while we’re waiting for the second to drop. We did well, so we get a fucking party. But I know where the enemy is. He’s in my home, acting like a king. And we need to cater to his whims because that’s where the points are and points are how you survive.”

“Benedict Merder,” Kayla said, crossing her arms. “How are the people reacting to him?”

“A lot of people on both sides, some like him and some hate him. Almost all think he’s up to something, but there’s no way to tell what it is yet.”

“I imagine there’s going to be a lot of people who will show up for the games just to be distracted by the circumstances they’re in,” I said, already knowing that the stadium was going to be packed by the time the Chaos Cup finals happened.

Manny simply shrugged, and the conversation lulled again. It was an awkward few minutes, but we soon made it to Merder Stadium.

“Alright, I’m going to go find that Artist Alley place,” I announced as the others started heading towards the stadium. “I’ll meet you guys at Milly’s at noon, unless y’all want to hang out in Manny’s suite. Either way works for me.”

"Wait," Kayla said before taking a step towards me. "You said last night that there was one more thing you were going to ask on the way. Something important?"

Smiling, I shook my head. "Nothing pertinent. Decided something myself last night, so no need to talk it over. You guys go get things set up, yeah?"

Kayla and Jeff looked at each other before the latter shrugged. “We’ll see you if we see you,” he said.

“Sure thing. Manny, nice meeting you and thanks for showing my friends the ropes.”

“Nice meeting you, too, Anthony, and it’s no problem,” Manny answered. “We’re all in this together, and that means we help each other.”

“You’re damn right there,” I said with a sad smile. After shaking Manny’s hand again and huggingthe Mills, I resumed following the railroad tracks north to get to the World Congress Center.

[[Patron Message]]

Are you sure you want him to be walking around with that axe, Ant? I’ll trust your judgment, but I’m also concerned. He seems like a swell guy.

Sincerely,

Sara

“I’ll get the axe away from him, but only when the time is right,” I answered quietly as I swiped away the message. “It’s a shame, but it’s also what needs to happen. But enough about that sad stuff, it’s time to go shopping.”