Save State Hero 3 -ch 21-

Chapter 21

Edmund sighed, looked at the strange misbegotten glowing and sparking sword and then set it to the side. It was just one amongst a pile of strange weapons, things, objects, everyday items, that clearly did far more than they were likely expected to.

Abandoned and forgotten.

“It’s like finding a steak on a plate with several bites into it, and then left there. The fork and the knife still on the plate, napkin just beside it, half drank glass of wine,” Dot murmured as she set aside a strange looking chair.

Why Zeus had been working on a chair, or that it was throwing out strange noises that made him feel like he could taste the color purple, Edmund didn’t know. Nor would he hazard a guess.

Realistically, this was just one of those situations where no matter what answer Edmund attributed to it, it probably wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t fit every possible shift or change.

It’d just leave him feeling like it wasn’t quite right.

Like trying to get physics and quantum physics to match up perfectly.

This is just… ugh.

I almost prefer the god’s break room and the TV shows they were offering.

“It’s a dildo! Why the fuck would he have a dildo? Fucking wobbly sausage,” Iren declared and stood up. She was holding up a ten inch blue dildo with a pair of tongs, which were likely found here as well. There was no arguing what the phallic shaped thing was, as there were a pair of balls at the base of it. “I don’t get it. At all. This is just… trash-can soup. It’s all jumbled up with shit you could find in a trash can and thrown in a room. I hate this.”

Wincing, Iren flicked the tongs and sent the wobbling false-dong toward the far corner.

“If I was a therapist I’d be writing down ‘danger to himself and others’ at this point,” Harper offered up with a heavy sigh. “There’s no rhyme or reason to any of this. The fact that the log is being rather unhelpful is annoying as well.”

“At least it told us this pile,” Dot muttered and lightly pulled aside a broken bowl then pushed it to ‘cleared’ pile. They were digging around looking for what the Log had described as ‘a two inch cube’. Beyond directing them to this pile, that was all the information it provided. “Which, you know, I’ll be thankful for. Because there’s a lot of piles. A lot… of piles.”

When questioned why the Log was performing so badly, it had responded that the world of Zeus was a limiting factor. Asking any other question on the same subject, got a similar answer.

“How many times have I died?” Iren asked suddenly, picking up what looked like some sort of strange kids toy, then flung it over her shoulder.

“Thousands,” Edmund answered simply. Because it was true. Across all the constant attempts, every different push, or reset, Iren had died a lot. “If not thousands, very high triple digit. It’s always impressive to me that you just… die and think it’s fine. Then do it again when I start it over again. I’m not sure I could go straight into my death with absolute belief like you do.

“And yes, I know you’re afraid despite all of it. You’ve told me about it before. I still find it hard to contemplate. Maybe you’re just that much braver than I am.”

“Oh! Oh, I… I think I found it!” Harper said giddily. She then stood up and held her hands up in front of herself. They were cupping a strange glowing two-inch perfectly squared cube. “This is it, right? This has to be it. It’s so exactly what it was stated to be.”

Edmund put down the strange pink and purple jacket he’d picked up and went to where he’d put down the Log.

He quickly typed in a simple yet hyper focussed question. Is Harper holding the object I needt o break into Runner’s world and save Nadine.

“It is,” Edmund reported, then tucked the Log away. They had what they wanted. Now it was just a matter of getting out of this location.

Because Edmund had already tested using a Save-state here.

It simply didn’t function.

This location was a lot like the place where the fight between Runner and Zeus occurred. He couldn’t actively utilize his Save-states in a way that he could go in and out of.

He was fairly positive he could shift things from Shadow-state to Shadow-state, but nothing directly into the Save-state he was currently in or working on. Anything that was part of the location he was currently in, he just couldn’t access it.

“Well,” Edmund muttered and looked to Harper, Dot, and Iren. “We have what we came for, now we need to leave. Iren, you said you’re pretty sure you found the door? Where we’d want to exit?”

“Yeah! Totally did. It’s the only place that clearly had a seam in the wall,” Iren explained with a laugh. “I didn’t dig at it, just in case it was trapped or something, but it definitely seems like where we get out.

“Or make an exit. That’d work to. I could probably get my claws into that edge and start digging at it. This isn’t that strange stuff that you were in earlier. This is just really hard metal.”

Iren had demonstrated that already by accidentally tearing into one of the walls when she hurled a strange spikey ball after getting her palm stuck by the needle sharp tips of it.

It was still quite firmly lodged there.

“Alright, well, uh… we’re done then,” Edmund muttered and looked at the log in his hands.

He put in a quick question, ‘is there anything else I’d need here to carry out my plan’ and sent it into the log.

It responded as it had been as of late.

Unhelpfully.

“Unknown,” Edmund muttered to himself, then put the Log away in his pack. He didn’t go take the cube from Harper, but instead shouldered his rifle. He was better with a gun than she was and realistically, she was incredibly human. “Show me the way, Iren.”

Shrugging, the big beautiful Dragon began leading the group out of the room they were. Straight through a series of open areas filled with discarded items, weapons, furniture, and other things.

To a far wall that was lined with things on shelves. Everything here was rather lethal from the look of it and Edmund and his people hadn’t touched any of it.

Leaving it alone entirely and not wanting to deal with it.

Because for whatever reason, it’d all been stacked neatly, set in an order that couldn’t be determined, and was more or less ‘ready’ in their placement. It felt like things that Zeus wouldn’t be keen to have him digging through.

Less trash can and more along the lines of deserving maintenance.

“See? Here it is,” Iren said and dug her fingernails into a seam that honestly Edmund couldn’t really see. It looked like a smooth panel of what was likely some type of steel. “If I just wriggle my fingers and—”

There was a groan and a screech of metal as Iren pulled. Tearing the steel backwards in either direction of her hands. Pulling at the metal and shifting it away from where it joined together.

Grunting, she heaved at the line, then moved her hands, and repeated the process. Slowly tearing open a three foot wide gap in the metals to the poin tthat Edmund could truly see out of the location they were in.

Right out into what was most certainly a security checkpoint.

There were flashing emergency lights on the walls, the overhead lights were all a dimmed color to the point of hiding shadows around corners, and what looked like a machine-gun nest facing away from them.

“It seems we’re on the side they were trying to protect,” Dot surmirsed, peeking past Iren. “That does mean that we’re likely not out of the woods yet though. We would likely need tog et out of the entirety of this place before Edmund’s powers can work, or my ability to open a portal. But—”

Dot pushed her hands together, moved them forward, and a swirl of patterns appeared in front of them and expanded to the edge of the walls, ceiling, and floor.

“But it does seem like my regular spellwork is working,” Dot continued with a snort. “I’m dangerous and lethal, but I can’t get us out of here. That’s the crux I suppose.”

“I’ll take dangerous and lethal as a booby prize any day,” Edmund muttered.

“My boobies are the prize,” Iren stated with a laugh, then stepped through the hole she made. “I’m catching up to Ellie!”

With a click of her tongue, Dot followed after her. Spells weaving to and fro in front of her as she built and rebuilt them into ever stronger spells. Not for the first time, Edmund wished he understood how her magic worked, if only so he could do it himself.

It looked a lot like how an electrician might work with electrical systems, he’d thought.

Keeping his rifle snug to his shoulder, Edmund moved through the hole after Dot and Iren. Harper would take up the rear and carry the cube. Realistically, she wasn’t that useful in a fight at the moment.

“How strong is your skin lately?” Dot asked, moving in close behind Iren as the group began moving forward. Stepping through the security checkpoint and into the area beyond it. “Do I need to put a shield in front of you, or behind you.”

“I… I don’t know,” Iren murmured with a small shake of her head. “Before I joined Edmund I was probably able to get stabbed, let alone shot. Now I don’t know.”

Valid question, actually.

A lot of Dragons get so strong that even shooting them in their human forms doesn’t accomplish much of anything at all. Just bounces off or deflects wide depending on the strength of them.

Iren picked up the machine gun as she went through the security gun, placing it at her hip and letting it rest there. Edmund had no idea what kind of weapon it was, but most people in Legion had trained enough to pick up any gun and figure it out pretty quickly.

Racking a bolt she found, Iren watched a round pop out, shrugged, then started forward again. Glancing over his shoulder, Edmund noted that Harper grabbed up four metal cans that were likely box reloads for the machine gun.

“Guess I’m playing the action hero today,” Iren stated and started forward again.

The group moved to the end of the hall and the Green Dragon came to a slow stop. There was only one turn to make here.

“I feel like I should be in a bikini for this. Isn’t that like… more appropriate for a hot action hero female lead?” asked Iren and peeked around the corner and dodged back. “You rocked the evil cam-girl thing Dot, your boobs looked great, too. I didn’t how big they were until then. You hide them a lot.

“Also, they’re waiting around the corner. Whole bunch of them. They upended office furniture and shit. Looks like we’re going to have a rolling fire fight to the elevator at the end of this. Think we’re going up? Or down?”

“If it’s up, won’t they just lock it and prevent us from going up?” Harper asked.

“I don’t hide them, thank you, I just don’t emphasize them,” argued Dot. “And… if it’s going upward, I can make an elevator car as a spell and carry us up. We just need to get into the shaft. I’m sure Iren and her muscle for a brain can get us into the shaft.”

“I’m great at getting the shaft. Edmund really doesn’t say no to me. I get shafted a lot! I would’ve already clutched if I had a place to drop’em. At this point he’s already got me all clapped out and I have to work to keep it fit. But that’s my own choice I guess,” Iren countered with a laugh, hefted the machine gun, and turned the corner.

I… what?

No sooner than she’d gone around it then the machine gun she was lugging around began sounding off. The heavy stacatto of the big weapon unleashing rounds.

Then Iren was gone, moving out of view even as she kept firing.

Dot moved quickly and joined Iren, dashing around the corner with her hands up in front of herself. A wall of magic moving out ahead of her.

Well shit.

Situating his rifle to his shoulder, Edmund did a quick press check on the rifle, tilting it to the side as he pulled it out of battery. Once he saw brass he let it go, confirmed the safety, and took the turn.

The rifle was an extension of him through a great deal of drilling.

Andrea had made him do a whole lot of work with the guns. So much so that it had often become part of his dreams on some days.

Iren was ahead of him, Dot was on her left, her hands still up and holding what looked a lot like a full wall of magic ahead of them. A deluge of incoming rounds were slamming into it and then dropping away. Hitting the ground and going still against the concrete floor.

Edmund didn’t fire, but he tracked targets. He kept his rifle ready in case something went wrong, or changed. The reason being is he wasn’t sure Dot’s shield was one way directional or would block it from both sides.

He just wasn’t sure since the shield was bisecting Iren’s weapon in front of the firing chamber, but he just wasn’t willing to test it. He kept moving.

Iren fired in bursts now, picking targets as they continued their steady walk.

Bodies started appearing on their side of the shield. People that were laid out on the ground and bleeding or unmoving. The fact that Edmund couldn’t determine if they were dead or not at a glance left him cold.

Drawing his pistol he let the rifle hang in front of himself. A quick press check and a flick of the safety and he was ready.

At which point he put a bullet into the head of every single person he passed. There was no way he was going to let anyone come up from behind them and that meant making sure every corpse, was actually a corpse.

By the third shot, Edmund could feel himself flinch with each trigger pull.

That every round being discharged was a physical thrum going through his body. Each and every gunshot discharged a small part of himself.

Edmund had killed people. He’d shot at those who shot at him and battled more than once. A great many times in fact.

What he was doing right now was something very different. He was potentially executing the wounded or dying with an execution style round to the head.

I choose this.

I’ve chosen this.

This is—

Edmund’s mind halted as he put a round in someone’s head and moved on to the next. His eyes scouring back and forth for the next body to come through the magical barrier.

He understood what he was doing, that he would likely not forget this anytime soon, but he would still choose to do it again. Just as he did when he killed everyone after the first time he moved through the portal to Australia.

This is fine.

Because just like everything else, it’s a choice, and I’m doing what I have to for the betterment of everyone I care about. And that’s—

The pistol came up, Edmund put a round in a person that was shuddering, and immediately shifted forward.

And that’s how it is.

Looking ahead, Edmund found that they were now at the elevator bay with only a handful of people left in front of the elevator doors. Work tables thrown down in front of them and bracing weapons against it.

Iren had turned away from the shield and was moving toward Harper now. She was working at getting the box magazine out of the weapon and was clearly going for a reload.

Taking the place Iren had been in, Edmund holstered the pistol, raised the rifle, and started firing at the remaining security forces without hesitation. They were in the way, this was his choice, and if it cost him, so be it.

Ellie gives more on any given day than I ever have. If I can’t even do this, I couldn’t ever look her in the eye when she supports me as deeply as she does.

In short order, Edmund had flicked, fired, and dropped all the remaining security personnel. He put a round in each person’s head as well  as they moved onward to the elevator doors.

Lifting up his foot, Edmund booted them.

They were unfortunately solid. These weren’t the types that were just covers that went over the elevator entry point. Admittedly Edmund was hoping they’d be the flimsy type that were just there to keep people out, but given the location, it was a silly hope.

Dot moved past Edmund, put her right hand to the elevator doors and stood there for several seconds.

There was a whining noise that preceded a heavy ‘ping’ and the doors loosened up.

Grasping the left as Dot tok the right, Edmund pushed and they slid open.

All they found was an empty elevator shaft.

“Elevator car it is, I suppose,” Edmund murmured and looked to Dot. “Or we get on top of Iren and let her claw her way up and out of here like a pissed off gopher diging it’s way out of it’s hole. You put a shield in front of her as a battering ram? A wedge?”

“Best idea I’ve heard and I don’t have better,” Dot said and looked at the other two women at the same time Edmund did.

“I don’t have any good ideas,” Harper admitted.

“Normally it’s Teddy slamming his way into my hole rather than me climbing out, but that’s fine. It’ll work,” Iren said as she fit the new box magazine in. SHe racked the weapon then handed it to Harper.

At some point his childhood friend had put the cube somewhere and now she only held box magazines. WHich were promptly dumped onto the floor in favor of holding the weapon itself.

Leaning into the shaft, Edmund looked upward.

He got the impression they were likely just as far beneath the ground as they had been when they dug the hole to get to 0, 0, 0. Though he had no idea where they were and what the world would be like once they escaped.

His only saving grace, was that they hadn’t actually done any Save-state work around this location.

Skipper wouldn’t have a had a chance to plan long term for their exit.

Just short erm.

“Up we go,” Edmund hissed.