Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 65: Retail Therapy

Isaac slowly hiked through the forest, emerging into the parking lot of the mid-sized shopping complex and getting a few odd stares for his trouble. After all, there was just forest behind there for as far as anyone could see. But by and large, no one paid attention to him. He was acting in an unusual way, but not threatening or particularly flashy, so they put him out of their minds.

The complex itself was halfway between the uni and his home, located slightly off to the side and it was where he usually went to shop from both locations, given that it conveniently contained both a furniture house and a hardware store, as well as all the normal things like a supermarket.

His first stop was the hardware store, where he bought quite a few planks and beams of lumber, and enough various material samples that the guy at checkout threw him a seriously odd look. It wasn’t like they were particularly useful, after all. But when he had an entire room that would transform with just a sliver of this stuff, a sliver was all he needed. He was also sitting on a pile of various crystals he’d bought way back, which were also a possibility, he'd have to play around a little.

Of course, a few carpets for the floor and some glass so he could add windows to the pocket dimension were also purchased.

His cart filled to bursting, Isaac walked out of the store and into a narrow alley between buildings. When he couldn’t see anyone looking at him, his purchases simply vanished into thin air. Or rather, they were sucked into his dimensional storage, filling it almost completely.

That was fine, though. He only needed to purchase groceries and one of those doohickeys that let you create a wifi network and access the internet via a mobile signal, rather than needing an overland connection. He thought that it might also be called a router, but Isaac wasn’t sure.

Oh, and he needed to get a power strip to add some sockets to the wall of the pocket dimension. All the various bits and pieces that belonged in the wall of a normal house could be put into the wall of the pocket dimension, you just needed them first. He already had a generator, though, in the form of the Electricity Elemental Generator he’d made before the event … gods, had that been less than two days ago?

And then on to the thing he was actually exited for, food. Isaac began to practically drool as he walked into the supermarket and bought up what felt like half the barbeque section.

Expensive, fancy mircobrews, a bottle of proper whiskey to replace the one that had been used up because he’d mixed it up with the venom, and some damn nice sodas. It was more than he’d have normally spent, but today was hardly a normal day.

Maybe he’d even invite some people over later?

Still, his mother was almost certainly awake by now, so he called her.

“Morning, mom.”

“Good morning, Isaac. How are you?”

“Oh, you know, free day. We finished up in the middle of the night and I basically laid in a lawn chair on my roof ‘till morning. How about you?”

“But you’re fine? I saw the news, that was …” a strangled sound was audible over phone “… terrifying.”

“Like I said, everything’s fine. We’re careful, always. No one got hurt, and we learned a lot.” Isaac tried to reassure her.

“I’m your mother, I’m allowed to worry.”

“I know, mom.” Isaac rolled his eyes.

“So now you have a day off?” his mother asked.

“Yeah. Pretty sure someone is going to go in anyway, but I won’t. By mom, have a nice day.”

“Bye Isaac.”

He hung up and went on with his shopping, big grin on his face. While he walked through the aisles of the supermarket, he took this time to think about where he wanted to take his [Class]. Isaac’s current Level was 24, one shy of the next Evolution, though he’d wait to hit it despite having the required XP. He really wanted to get some more Aspects and grind his [Skill] Levels a little higher.

This was something he’d thought about a lot, usually changing his mind every few hours or so. His path was his own, a new one, which no one had trodden before him, in either timeline. There was no one to lean on, no one who’d made mistakes which he now knew to avoid. They were his mistakes to make, and his alone.

Still, there were a handful of Aspects he wanted to grab. Well, he wanted to get a hell of a lot more, but these were the ones he was actually sure about.

The first one was an illusion and cloaking Aspect, just like the ones which the Perception blocking fields would eventually be based on. This would have two effects. First of all, he could point to them and go ‘hey, casino boss, I solved your problem, now pay up!’ and get the team a level of cash flow best described as ‘fuck you money’.

However, this wasn’t his only reason for getting it. Well, them, he’d get two different ones so he could stack them, but that was beside the point.

What these kinds of Aspects would do for him, personally, was enhance his stealth, resistance to [Inspect] and [Scry]. And depending on which one he’d end up getting, they might even have some decent use in combat.

Also, he wanted to get the Aspect of the Bladed Tempest.

Summoning List (Metal)

Name

Material Cost

Mana Cost

Clockwork Arachnid

Tier 1 Circle, Copper Wire

10

Iron Cloud

Tier 2 Circle, Iron Shavings, Marble

50

Barbed Dervish

Tier 3 Circle, Barbed Wire

100

Animated Armor

Tier 4 Circle, Tinfoil, Screws

200

Blade Tempest

Tier 5 Circle, Five Edged Implements

350

…

He still had an Aspect left over belonging to a Barbed Dervish, he’d grabbed a few so he could give on to Stagmer and other blacksmiths that might get recruited, so he could use that as a base to stack the more powerful Aspect with.

The way an Aspect of the floating blades would interact with a soulbound weapon that gained new abilities based on his Aspects … well, he didn’t know what he’d get, but it was sure to be good.

His phone chimed and he checked it, finding a link to a video there, sent to the research group by Patrick. It showed a rather angry looking man in his mid-twenties yelling into the camera about how the only reason ‘those people’ had gotten hurt was because they were ‘a bunch of pansies and …’. Well, suffice it to say, this guy managed to use every common racist and homophobic slur in the German and English languages, and more besides.

Reading between the lines, this person had summoned something during the Events, someone had ended up hurt, and apparently, he’d decided that the best way to address it was to insult everyone who’d had anything bad happen to them during the event, often because they were, according to this asshole, ‘too stupid to know when to duck’.

What a jackass. Isaac shook his head in annoyance. He’d better be as tough as his talk, otherwise, someone was likely to smash in his skull quite soon.

‘And now the idiots come out of the woodwork.’ Amy sent back in reply of the video link and Isaac agreed.

The conversation developed from there, revealing that this clip had been taken from the news, meaning that nitwits rant had been seen by everyone. And that meant that …

Isaac’s phone rang and he didn’t recognize the number, but picked up anyway.

“Is this Isaac Thoma? I’m with the Police Department, you helped us out a while back with the levelling program. You were put down as a ‘sensory specialist’ on a list of people who volunteered to help track down the ‘monster killer’. Do I have that right?” came a harried sounding voice, talking a mile a minute.

“Yes, all of that is correct. What’s wrong?” Isaac replied curtly.

“We believe we’ve identified the next most likely target and right now, we’re calling in everyone who sounds like they might be helpf- …” the voice broke off.

“Weren’t supposed to say that, I suppose?” Isaac asked into the silence “Look, I’m here, and I have time. Just tell me where and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Right. So, someone posted a video, insulting anyone who got hurt during the Event and it just ended up on the news.”

“Yeah, I saw that.”

“His home address is known, and he has no intention of entering protective custody. Instead, he’d apparently galivanting all over the place. So, please call the local police department and they’ll give transport to you and anyone else in your city, and transport you guys here to Leipzig. ‘click’”

The man on the other end hung up and Isaac was left standing in the middle of the supermarket, a little shellshocked. Then, he called the number Polizeirätin Eisenberg had given him a while ago, in case he needed to talk to someone in the department without going through the emergency line.

It was quickly revealed that no, that other call had not been a prank and when he’d told Bailey to pass along the message that he’d be willing to help with tracking down the killer, it had been noted. His help would apparently also be appreciated, if he could spare the time. And if the answer was yet, someone would come pick him up and drive him along with a couple of high Level SEK members to Leipzig to help out.

A serial killer would always be an important priority to the police. But a serial killer who got stronger, faster, tougher, harder to catch and contain … that was the stuff nightmares were made of and the police were acting accordingly. And this apparently included getting help from civilians, who really had no place in a police action. Then again, this entire situation was abnormal to an absurd degree, so who was he to say what was and wasn’t a good idea?

Maybe ten minutes later, he’d paid for his stuff, stored it and was standing in the parking lot, waiting for his transportation.

According to google maps, the drive to Leipzig would take around four hours, but a blaring siren and flashing lights should shave off quite a bit of time.

And speak of the devil, there it was, a cop car came blasting along the road, then coming to a stop next to the parking lot. Isaac ran over, covering the thirty or so meters in a flash. Someone opened the door to the back from the inside and he came to a stop just outside.

“Name?”

“Isaac Thoma.”

“Do you need anything you don’t currently have on you?”

“No.”

“In that case, get in.”

And ten seconds after that, the car tore off, heading towards Leipzig at quite frankly insane speeds. Either this would be a waste of time, or the exact kind of hectic, life or death clusterfuck he’d specifically wanted to avoidtonight.

Whichever it ended up being, it was sure to be memorable.