Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 45: Calm after the Storm

“How did it go with the cops?” Amy asked as Isaac entered their meeting room.

“Well enough, I think they’ll accept the proposal by the end of the day. LA shook up everyone.” Isaac said.

“I hope that’ll prevent a repeat here.” Karl sighed in relief.

“Eh, part of the problem was that the Stormheart Gestalt was an insanely bad matchup.” Isaac said “A monster that strong, immune to conventional attack, it would have steamrolled any police force that currently exists in the world. But there are plenty of decently levelled people here.”

“You think you could have taken it?” Raul frowned.

“God no.” Isaac shook his head “But I’d have gone through the little ones like a reaper through wheat, which would have resulted in a weaker Gestalt once it reformed. And we could have taken that.”

“Maybe, maybe not. But I doubt there’s any single person in the world right now who can fight a Tier 5 monster one on one and win.” Bailey shook his head in annoyance.

Amy threw Isaac a questioning look, after all, she’d seen him beat a Tier 5 Hydra on his own a few days ago, but he declined to say anything about that.

“That thing isn’t representative of its Tier. It’s got a summoning cost of 450 mana, as opposed to the 250 points almost all other low end Tier 5 creatures cost. Also, the weakest Tier 6 monster costs 500 mana, meaning that monster’s within spitting distance of the next Tier, at least in terms of cost. Summoning, say, The Crusher from the Earth category would probably not go nearly as badly.” Isaac said.

“Probably.” Bailey repeated “Please don’t repeat that disaster here. We’ll have to go there eventually, but let’s make sure we prepare properly for that and get some kind of official authorization, otherwise we’ll be in deep shit even if everything goes perfectly.”

“I still can’t believe someone would ever be that stupid.” Patrick cursed “That’s not even just idiotic, that’s, like, Schildbürger level idiotic.”

“Schildbürger?” Bailey asked. His grasp of the German language and culture might be superb, but that didn’t mean he was aware of each and every children’s story.

“It’s an old story about the stupidest people alive. Trying to multiply their stores of salt by sowing it in their fields, trying to illuminate their town hall by carrying the light inside in buckets, stuff like that.” Karl explained.

“That’s certainly an apt comparison.” Bailey nodded.

“Actually, that’s not the whole story.” Patrick cut in “Yes, the Schildbürger are stupid, but the story is about a lot more than that. You see, in the beginning, they were smart, some of the smartest people alive, so smart that every Lord and King had to have one of them as an advisor. But with so many people out of the town, all the time, the town began to decay.

“So everyone put their heads together as to how they could fix the situation so they decided to get out of their advisor’s duties by acting like fools. So that’s what they did, doing all the stupid things Karl mentioned, as well as oh so many more.

“Things went to a head when they bought a cat and due to a misunderstanding, they thought that the cat would also eat people and were afraid it would go after them once it had eaten all the rats and mice. Therefore, they went after it with torches and pitchforks. The cat being a cat, it just climbed up on top the nearest house, which they lit on fire to get rid of it. Of course, it just jumped onto the next house, which was also put to the torch. This continued until the entire town was burned to the ground and the cat came strolling out of the ruins, just fine. With their city destroyed, the Schildbürger left it behind and headed off into the four corners of the Earth.

“And it is said that whenever you meet a particularly stupid individual, they’re a descendant of the people of Schilda. It’s a tale of willful ignorance and stupidity, of people doing things so incredibly idiotic the only way for it to be possible for them to occur is if someone is actively trying to be an imbecile. That is what I think of the person responsible for the LA incident.”

“Actively trying to be an imbecile is a good way to describe them.” Bailey nodded.

“End of the day, all we can really do is be smart, be ourselves and try to fix the ignorance that causes these kinds of messes. I know that part sucks, but when there isn’t something that needs fixing, this is the best job in the world.” Isaac flashed them all a grin “Hell, we all actively helped fix that situation from across an ocean. What else can we achieve if we put our minds to it?”

“Bring the dinosaurs back.” Raul said, reaching down beside him and pulling Brisa, his pet dinosaur, onto his lap and scratching her back.

“Learn cool magic.” Amy commented, putting her feet up onto the table and pushing herself backwards, the chair beginning to topple over but getting caught by a softly glowing field to leave her lounging in a chair leaning at a 45 degree angle.

“And anything else we put our minds to.” Bailey finished, flashing them all an equally broad smile “Now, like I said, we aren’t allowed to summon Tier 5s just yet, but someday soon, we might be. But until then, we do have a list of other cool stuff to do as long as my arm and growing every day. Who wants to see a Pisanosaurus?”

Isaac grinned as the tension in the room relaxed and the sense of gloom and doom faded slightly. He’d come here from a truly terrible place, but somehow, without even noticing, he’d found a new home. He’d never forget his origins, what he’d lost, that was for sure, but he could appreciate what he’d gained.

And together, they’d save the fucking world, any other outcome was unthinkable.