Chapter 5-138: On the Road Again... (1/2)

Bone Marrow didn’t have a front seat divider, so it fit three people across easily. We headed on down the road, the gathered evidence tagged and noted to be returned to Heavenbound Hall or set up in a fund for the Forsaken Compound that was already starting to be planned there quietly. The relatives of the dead naturally wanted all the proceeds from the sale of the Gear of the dead, but a great amount of it seemed to have gone missing, and Bone Marrow’s trunk was just a little bit heavier.

Still had to burn loot to improve our Gear, after all, and someone had to pay for it.

We drove on down the highway for an hour, hitting El Dorado and ignoring all the traffic media and military going the opposite way. It was a disaster, but everything was over but the consolation, and that was certainly something we didn’t need to help with.

Especially with our loot in the boot.

It was about noon before Briggs came up in the van, meeting us in the parking lot of the auto dealer who’d been happy to sell an overpriced Draco-class surplus military vehicle that got maybe ten miles to the gallon to Sama. It was big enough to fit even Briggs, and the two of them swung into it together, looking oddly like a newlywed couple as they gunned out and went rumbling off at speed, on their way to administer some newly-minted vengeance.

His Aruan Shooters were left with me. They were perfectly willing to go with him, of course, but there was the matter of their dead friend, and the siren call of Seven if they accompanied me on a Good Deed.

They were on this trip to make a boatload of Karma, as owners of some of the very few vivic Weapons in the land. Also, this was a way for them to prove themselves to themselves. They could do this!

There was a lot of ‘new intelligence’ coming in, thoughtfully being supplied via Shvaughn, which was leading to this and that name and party and location and personages and events that had happened now explained, with who had done what and how. Master Fred had relayed it all on while he and Shvaughn waited for morning Renewal, and she could shift her Pacts and wipe the Signs away once more.

She had also changed her face, and now was a rather grim-looking, still attractive Amazon with browned skin, black hair, and the golden-crystal eyes of an Earthbound Warlock called Topaz, who also turned out to have a reliable reputation as a Warlock-hunter. I just smirked knowingly, and considered that she could also pop up as a certain Lawbound not listed among the dead at the Hermitage Massacre if it was useful to her.

Father Bower agreed to ride with the Aruan shooters, the body of their buddy Itemized and ready to be brought back in a few days. They still couldn’t really believe I could do it, but I was so casual about the fact that I’d be able to do so they couldn’t not believe it, either.

Helix and Sir Pellier rode in the back of Bone Marrow, The Mick drove, while our new Topaz rode with Master Fred. It was clearly apparent that she wasn’t a Good person, and I didn’t want to inflict her on our Paladin; he agreed he’d be uncomfortable with her there. Master Fred seemed to have no problem tolerating her, and by the way she was dozing against his backside, it was mutual.

I just shook my head at her antics, but Master Fred had brought her along for a reason, and after watching her perform, it was plenty obvious that she was very good at what she did. A Warlock Grandmaster, indeed...

The Mick was a bit put off that he couldn’t monopolize my time with more discussions of Blood Magic, but actually, both of his other passengers were Casters of a sort, and while The Mick wasn’t even a nice guy, he wasn’t judgmental of the enthusiastically naïve Helix or the stern Paladin. They had their things to do, he had his; I was the friend of a friend, now one of his teachers, and he paid his obligations back.

That was good enough for Sir Pellier, especially since he saw it was good enough for me. Helix was a bit afraid of him, of course, The Mick saw it, and only used it a little bit.

It was another long day of travel, especially given as we’d been set back by half a day after the events of last evening, but nobody much complained. We’d kicked in the Imprusar’s teeth but good, and we’d lived through an Apocalypse Swarm that could’ve eaten a major city to the ground, or even eaten its way through an undead horde (which just would’ve returned the next day, but still).

It could have killed the whole world, leaving nothing but undead behind, forever being eaten and reborn, trapped in their Shroudzones for eternity...

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The day passed with three rest stops, and we made it down to the border in the afternoon.

“Your business?” the half-bored, half-interested guard on duty asked, taking the ID’s we had provided him. He looked over the pale-skinned, dark-haired people in the rather exceptional car, and then noted the amendments to the passports.

His expression got very careful suddenly. The Mick smiled as his name popped up on the man’s register as someone tied to violent incidents of various sorts, and the law was watching him.

In Mexico, not so much.

“Family business,” The Mick replied with great sincerity.

The border guard looked at the other three people, noted sparks on the end of the slender young man’s fingertips, and the other man had that grim stare that comes when you put too many people in the ground.

“Have a nice trip!” he waved them on, handing back their passports. Whoever these Blooded wanted to deal with, as long as it was in Mexico, it was fine with him!

Considerably less well-funded, the Mexican side of the border just waved them through, the guard looking enviously after Bone Marrow as The Mick pulled away.

The Prestidigitation coloration effects would fade off within the hour. We all looked related at the moment, especially once I hid my ears, and I was wearing shades for that goth uncaring bitch effect. “Did I make a good vampire wannabe?” Helix asked with a wide grin. He’d even lengthened his canines, just in case.

“Aren’t too many of us use lightning magic, but I doubt he knows that,” The Mick replied calmly, and Helix’s lips pursed at the mistake.

“It was fine. Actually, just subtle enough to make him realize he didn’t want to ask too much. Blooded Casters have a fine reputation for not putting up with idiots who make things difficult for them,” I noted for Helix, who looked relieved at the bailout.

“This is true,” The Mick agreed, as he pulled onto the highway heading south. He was paying close attention to the road, as the roads in Mexico were infamous for sudden potholes. The Mick claimed a Shaman once told him that the chupacabras hated the roads, and so dug up holes in them just to mess with people.

As people generally shot the blood-sucking creatures on sight, I supposed it was a fair trade. As the creatures didn’t eat and scatter the bodies of those they killed, and their bloodsucking attracted a lot of negative energy, the Withered slain by them were a constant source of undead in these lands.

Sir Pellier was tapping on his phone. “Father Bower is five minutes behind us, the Warlocks are waiting near the first interchange ahead of us.”

“Just keep going. Have them speed up to catch up to us,” I noted.

The Mexican Pyramid Shroudzone beckoned, far on the horizon ahead of us.

But tonight... I would reach virtua Wizard/6. That was very, very important.