DD 302 Ch 8

The second the show was over, I portaled all of us including Heather back to the hotel, which was peaceful for all of half a second before Helen grabbed her mother and throttled her.

“What the absolute fuck was that?” Helen screamed in the lobby.

“A distraction, dear.” The Harem Queen grabbed her daughter’s wrists, and I saw this slight frown flicker across her face when Helen wasn’t as easy to remove as she might have expected.

“Have me call him daddy?” Helen’s voice was incredulous. She jumped an octave like a record skip. “Mom, I cannot believe you did that to me!”

“Her distractions worked pretty well,” Bellaire stood beside me, a clutch daintily held in her hand while she scrolled on her CID. “In fact, it was maybe too effective. All anyone’s talking about is whether Ken will get some mother-daughter action.” There was an ever-so-slight scowl that flickered across Bellaire’s face before it disappeared into the ether to never be seen again.

“I just… ugh!” Helen made a noise of pure frustration as she threw her arms in the air and tried to storm off, only for her mother to continue holding her wrists.

“Is that any way to speak to your mother? You might be an adventurer, but you are still my daughter, missy.” Heather’s mother-tone came out full force.

Helen looked like she was about to shout something else when all of our CIDs began blaring an alarm in sync.

Heather made a curious noise and, still holding one of Helen’s arms, shifted so that she could see the screen.

Des was already ahead of her, reading through. “A warning for everyone to stay inside.” Des frowned and looked up at the group of us.

Mere seconds later, Bellaire’s CID started to chime repeatedly, as if someone was barraging her with messages.

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“One of the assistants from Carl’s show. Ken, could you open a portal back to the studio?” She asked, speaking casually as she eyed the mother/daughter feud and the alarms going off.

“And why would we go back there?” Helen’s tone was full of acid. I had a feeling Carl now had at least one new hater. It appeared Helen was not holding her mother solely responsible.

“They need our help,” Bellaire said, even as I was already drawing on the ability and beginning to rip open a pocket in space.

“Screw them,” Helen spat.

As soon as the portal opened up someone jumped through, panicked, and turned to our group. “Help! You need to help!”

“You can call the police for anything,” Candice answered.

“The police? What are they going to do to stop that?” She pointed back through the portal.

My own curiosity piqued as I peered though. Outside the window of the studio showed a small army of dwarves crawling up and down the building, with more crawling up the buildings on the other side of the street.

I froze, my mind struggling to understand exactly what I was seeing for a moment.

It was actually Heather who made the first move. A sword appeared in her hands, flickering to life with blue fire coursing through as she stormed back through the portal.

“We should help her,” I told the others with me.

“Help her?” Helen pointed an accusing finger at her mother. “And besides, she’s helping Carl.” Helen grumbled the name as if the mere speaking of it disturbed her.

“Come on.” I grabbed Des’s hand and knew the others would follow as I went back through the portal. The only surprise was that Bellaire came through as well.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay back? This could get dangerous.” I offered.

However, the PR agent stiffened, her eyes growing harder at the sight before her. “I’ll have you know I have been doing some training.” Bellaire squared herself up as if she was going to join us in this fight.

“Helen, you’re up front,” I said, even as the paladin already had her shield out.

“Duh. It’s not like I would be hiding behind you.” She grumbled.

“You know, if you just said things nicer, you’d be more likeable,” Des shot back before she could help herself.

“Not helping, either of you,” I snapped. “Fight each other later. Fight dwarves now.”

It seemed that Heather’s flaming sword was effective at catching the dwarves’ attention, as several of them crawling over the glass began punching through it and throwing themselves into the studio one after the other.

Helen slammed her mace against her shield. “You know, I’ve been looking forward to a rematch with these shorties.”

They didn’t react to the insult. I recognized dwarves well enough to know that these were just drones. They were essentially mindless creatures that worked tirelessly for their queen. They were not completely without intelligence, but they only did what they were told and not bit more.

The first dwarf came swinging in for Helen. Helen’s mace glowed as she cracked it in the face and sent it flying back out the window.

Carl and everyone else in the studio were ducking behind tables, flipping them over and stacking anything durable they could between themselves and the oncoming dwarves.

“Yeah! Kick them out!” Carl cheered.

Des cast him a snort over her shoulder. “Should I hurl you out with the dwarves for giving me a bad angle?” The demonic mage scowled at Carl, and he wisely snapped his mouth closed.

“It’s not my fault what angles they choose. That’s all their decision.” He immediately passed the blame. His charisma plummeted just as quickly as he threw someone else under the bus by the way everyone in the studio hedged away.

“Noted.” Des replied.

“Des, eyes forward. You can deal with the cowards later.” I said coolly.

“I’m no coward!” Carl shouted, but I could care less about what he had to say. The first few dwarves were just the vanguard. I knew more were coming.

A veritable army of them crawling up the walls like they weighed nothing began to flow in, not unlike an ant swarm once they found something to eat.

Rather than focusing on dealing damage, I zipped forward, foregoing my daggers for a pair of practice maces that cracked against the first dwarf and sent him stumbling backwards.

Des followed through with a big ball of shadow hitting the dwarf center-mass and with enough backward momentum that he was sent careening out the window.

The second one left the building, three more took its place.

The Harem Queen was making a much more exaggerated effort. Her blue flaming sword cut through the first few dwarves to meet her and melted those behind them into little more than dwarven puddles.

“Are you getting this?” someone asked behind me.

I checked over my shoulder to find several of the cameramen hunkering down and doing their best to get our fight recorded.

“Really? Is that what you should be doing right now?” I asked.

A few wore blank stares that gave me the impression they were in states of shock and simply going through muscle memory, but one of them shrugged and answered me. “The cameraman always survives.” Even as a stray hammer went flying and landed between his legs, causing him to fall back terrified as his pants darkened.

I sighed, turning back to the fight. I didn’t have time to spare for them. They would learn soon enough, or they might just die.

I moved forward, swinging for the fences and hitting a few dwarven home runs as they went flying out of the room.

The only person I hadn’t seen much from was Candice, and when I checked, I saw her casting several runes that began drawing wind. I had an inkling of what was coming next.

“Heather, get back!” I warned her.

She checked over her shoulder to see Candice’s work as well. Killing a few more dwarves and timing it right, the Harem Queen leapt backwards as a tornado ripped out from Candice, sweeping up dwarves and half the set before throwing it all out the window.

“I can seal this off, but we both know this doesn’t end until you find the queen.” Candice said.

I glanced at Candice and then back at the room full of people looking hopeful and nodded. “Candice has this. The rest of you, with me.” I rushed to the edge of the building, standing at the hole where the dwarves had smashed in the window.

I paused for a second to get my bearings and then pushed off the lip, working to get some distance.

Apparently my gravity training was paying off more than I realized. I managed to launch myself over a street and onto a roof several stories below me, tucking into a roll to dissipate my momentum, and spinning back up to my feet, where I began running again, while looking over the edge to try to backtrack the dwarves to locate their queen.

Unfortunately, the whole area was crawling with dwarves. They were rushing the streets as citizens screamed and fled, but the average person wasn’t a match for a drone. A car horn blared only for the smashing of aluminum and glass to overshadow the horn as it waned off in one final note.

“Shit. I didn’t stop to ask if there were any dungeons nearby.” I paused to look behind me to see how the rest of the group might be faring.

Helen leapt over while carrying Des, and her mother made the leap carrying Bellaire. Neither of them had issues with the leap, though Helen had used an ability.

And then, to my shock and surprise, one of the cameramen jumped and floated as if they were as light as a feather to join us and keep recording.

Bellaire paused and scanned the horizon.

“Two blocks over. There’s one attached to Grand Central Station. It’s quite the tunnel to the dungeon, but people commute into the city for it.” She told me.

I did a double take. “People commute to the dungeon?”

The cameraman spoke up. “Of course. The stuff there is farmed to oblivion, so prices aren’t great, but it’s pretty safe to just farm the first five floors a couple days a week. A person can at least make rent, or do it as a side gig.”

I looked over, wondering if that was how he had gotten his own levels. “If it gets dangerous, we won’t be able to protect you,” I warned him. “But thank you for the information.”

“Does that mean I have your consent to use your face?” He checked through his viewfinder before scrambling to catch up to us even as we were already sprinting across the rooftops. 

Bellaire took his question for me. “If you let us see the recording and sign off before you release anything, then yes.”

“Awesome!” He pumped his fist like he’d just gotten the deal of a lifetime.

I sighed, getting back to work. I felt almost certain we’d finished those two blocks when I looked over the lip of the building to see dwarves pouring out onto the street from a grand, heavily ornamented building.

I let out a soft whistle as I looked down over the crowd. “Yeah, that’s going to be a hell of a group to fight through.”

“Or we could just not,” Helen suggested.

“And how do you propose we just ignore this?” Des snapped.

I pointed at the windows on the sides. “We go through the windows. Can’t promise it’s going to be empty, but it seems like a better option than trying to push through those crowds.”

Helen nodded as if she’d been thinking similarly.

I had to wonder why there were so many dwarves here in the first place. There must have been some connection from the shuffle only now discovered, and the Dwarven Queen was trying to migrate.

But it seemed like suicide or perhaps extreme hubris for one of them to think that they could invade Earth like this.

“Hold up,” Heather said. “Before we go down there, we need a plan. I’m not sending my daughter down there without absolute certainty she’s going to make it back.”

“I’m not a child, Mom,” Helen growled back.

“You will always be my child.” Heather’s voice softened, but the glare never left her face. “And though you may moan and complain that I do not love you, I am not sending you into that without assurance that she’s coming back out.” Her gaze shifted to me.

“Why are you asking him?” Helen snapped.

“Because,” Heather said, “if worse comes to worse, he’s fast enough, not to mention he could always portal.”

The way Helen looked at me demanded I refute her mother even though she had a good point.

“I promise I will drag her out by her bratty ass if need be,” I said, much preferring to have Heather on my side than Helen at the moment. “Though that goes for all of you.”

“Oh please. You can have her bratty ass all you want,” Heather laughed.

“Mom!” Helen shouted at the top of her lungs. 

“As you could see, she could use a good scolding from time to time. Ah, to be young again,” Heather sighed dreamily. “Are you sure I couldn’t squeeze myself in there?” She winked.

“Positive. I’m not very good at sharing,” I said without even turning to regard the wily old adventurer. “I’m pretty sure I can just open a portal from here to the rooftop.”

The distance was too much for me to jump, and after a moment of thinking the answer was obvious.

“Why’d we jump from the building then?” Helen scowled.

“I can’t say anywhere in my training or experience in the dungeon I’ve really considered an urban combat scenario.” I answered honestly. It wasn’t as if there were urban floors in the dungeon.

Reaching forward, I ripped through space, a portal appearing just before me and on the roof of the train station. Heather and Bellaire were through it in the blink of an eye. Des and Helen went next, and I checked to make sure no one came up behind us before jumping through myself.

As soon as I landed on the roof, there was a clear sound from below, hammers working overtime, striking in rhythm, a steady hard clacking.

Bending to look through a window, the situation clicked into place. In the middle of the train station, a massive dwarven queen sat while drones scurried around her, beginning to build a fortress from the subway tiles.

I pulled myself back up and looked at the group. “Good news is we found the queen. Bad news is she’s in the midst of trying to fortify herself.”

Heather’s scowl deepened. “That’s what they do when they’re ready to start focusing on making more,” she said, disgust plain on her face.

“Been studying since they handed their asses to you last time, Mom?” Helen shot back, her tongue quick as a whip.

“Something like that,” Heather muttered, not bothered by her daughter's attitude. Though I assumed she had likely grown used to the barbs.

“We need to hurry,” I said, “because if I’m not mistaken, that dwarven queen is going to have plenty of bodies to start working with soon enough.” The station must have been full when they first arrived, not to mention there was a second stream of dwarves with people on their shoulders heading back towards the station.

The horror of what this could start to become sent shivers down my spine, and I grabbed the lip of the building and swung myself down, smashing through a window. I flung myself through to tumble down in a roll.

A few dwarves perked up, noticing me and drawing weapons. They had enough intelligence in their eyes that I figured they were the warrior caste rather than drones. All of those who had been working didn’t even flinch and maintained steady rhythms in their work.

Heather landed with a thud beside me, her sword blazing blue. Helen came next, only for Des and Bellaire to step out of a portal to my side.

I raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Des said with a shrug. “They don’t flip very well.” She grabbed at her chest as if it was the problem. For all I knew, it was. That was one part of flipping I would never have to experience.

Now that we’d made our entrance, not only did the warrior caste perk up, but so did the dwarven queen. She pulled herself out of a small pit she’d made in the midst of the work and squared up. Her eyes narrowed in assessment of the danger we posed.