Chapter 14
23 hours, 17 minutes, 38 seconds.
It wasn’t the beginning of a tv show, but Tiff felt like her life was about to be full of drama and suspense anyway. Every second the clock ticked down brought her one moment closer to completing her quest…whether she liked it or not.
She spent the entire day at school, anxious and jittery, expecting something to happen at every turn or at every opened door. The insecurity and paranoia she experienced the first time she opened her eyes after finding out her new Affinity came rushing back to her tenfold. Tiff was coherent but clearly distracted, to the point that Candice, sitting next to Tiff in Homeroom, waved her hand in front of Tiff’s face and declared that nobody was home. She promised to forward any deliveries at a later date, and it took Tiff a full minute to realize she was the butt of a joke.
20 hours, 45 minutes, 12 seconds.
Tiff stared at her quest screen all through lunch, enthralled by the ticking numbers slowly counting down. She hardly ate her food, and by the time the warning bell rang to get to class, it was only half finished. She stuffed the rest back into her bag and scurried down the hall so she wouldn’t be late.
No matter how hard Tiff tried, she couldn’t take her mind off her core and the quest at hand. Eventually she gave up pretending to ignore the System screen she hadn’t bothered to banish and let it consume her thoughts.
Where to put the core?
The library was out.
Just like the gym was out, the computer lab was out, and every other room at school was out. Tiff had already made up her mind that she couldn’t put it somewhere public, which removed 99 percent of all possible locations, but she was already at school so she wanted to double-check her options anyway. For a brief moment, she entertained the idea of sticking it in her locker inside the girls’ locker room, but she quickly ruled that out too.
As amusing as it would be to open a random locker and find a dungeon core, Tiff didn’t actually know how big the thing would be and if it would actually fit inside. Besides, the initial benefit of the room being closed to boys, and thus removing 50 percent of the population, was a false promise anyway. Men could walk into the girls' locker room if they really wanted to; it wasn’t like there was a magic spell keeping them out.
15 hours, 2 minutes, 49 seconds.
Tiff waited impatiently for the bus. Victoria’s contract to guard Tiff was complete, and she needed to return to work to extend it or take on a new client. Tiff assured her in the morning that she was fine and she didn’t want Victoria losing money just so she could babysit her little sister. Tiff climbed on board with all the other chattering students and amused herself by timing exactly how long the bus ride home would take, courtesy of her built-in stopwatch.
14 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds.
4 o’clock on the dot, exactly 14 hours left before…something happened. Her quest would finish, Tiff was certain, but she didn’t actually know what the System would do and she wasn’t keen to find out. Tiff had waited and worried long enough; she was beside herself with anxiety, but there was a reason she hadn’t done anything yet. She didn’t want to be alone.
“You know, Munch, I could have picked you up from school,” Victoria said as she leaned on Tiff’s open doorway.
Tiff glanced up from where she flopped on the bed and quickly sat up.
“I told you, it’s fine,” Tiff denied obstinately. “You needed to go back to work. How’d it go, by the way?”
“Slow,” Victoria sighed. “Not too many people chartering Roughnecks right now.”
“But you need to get paid,” Tiff fretted.
“Relax,” Victoria chuffed. “Mom’s chill about rent and I’ve got a security blanket. Besides, it’s not like nobody was coming into the guild. I just didn’t think being an over-qualified dog-walker was the right fit for me.”
“Somebody wanted you to [Bodyguard] their dog?”
“Trust me, you get all sorts of weird types out there,” Victoria shook her head. She glanced out into the hallway before lowering her voice. “Is Amy not home?”
“Out with her friends,” Tiff replied. “Told Dad she’d be back by 7; one of her friends will give her a ride.”
“You should look into those.”
“Rides?” Tiff asked flatly, knowing exactly what Victoria was talking about.
“Friends,” her sister smirked. “They’re not so bad to have, you know.”
“I’ve got friends,” Tiff sighed, flopping back down. “We just don’t, you know, hang out.”
“Kind of the definition of friend,” Victoria shook her head, but she dropped the subject. “Alright. Let’s see it.”
Tiff stuck her hand in the air and waggled it around. Her screen manifested at her fingertip and floated above her even as her arm went limp. Victoria closed the door and walked inside.
“A little less than 14 hours,” she observed. “Have you thought about where to put it?”
“All day long,” Tiff sighed explosively. “I could hardly think about anything else.”
“So,” Victoria amended, “Have you made a decision?”
“No,” Tiff groaned. She sat up, stared at her sister, and pouted.
“I don’t have a choice, do I? It’s got to be here.”
“In your room?” Victoria raised an eyebrow.
“I mean, yeah,” Tiff shrugged. “It’s gotta be in the house, and there isn’t a better place to put it.”
“We don't know how big it is,” Victoria said fairly. “What if it takes up your entire room?”
Tiff panicked slightly before narrowing her eyes.
“What if it’s tiny?” She countered. “What if I can cover it with a shoebox?”
“Do you have a spare shoebox?”
“Well, no, but it’s the principle.”
“Tiff, you’re stalling.”
“You’re right,” she sighed, standing up. She marched to the center of the room…and did nothing.
“Tori…what do I actually do?” Tiff asked. “How do I place my core?”
“Why are you asking me?” Victoria chuckled. “I’m not a [Dungeon Master]. Ask your System.”
Tiff glanced at Victoria warily before screwing her eyes shut tight.
“System…how to place core?”
“What is this?” Victoria laughed, “A Google search?”
Tiff ignored her. Her eyes sprang open, and in front of her, a bright blue silhouette appeared. It was like a placeable object from any number of crafting video games, and Tiff would will it around her room with a simple thought.
“Hey, hey, Tori, do you see?” Tiff asked excitedly, pointing at the translucent diamond. It was about a foot tall, maybe half that wide, with eight faces: an octahedron. Victoria shook her head.
“Nope. Did you actually put it somewhere?”
“No,” Tiff said, partially deflated. “It’s like there’s a build mode.”
“Great,” Victoria nodded. “At least that shows you how big it is?”
“Yeah,” Tiff nodded. She walked it up to Victoria and measured it against her leg. “It comes up to about here.”
“Great,” Victoria laughed. “The most accurate of measuring sticks: my shin.”
“Yeah, but, well…now we know how big it is!” Tiff said hotly.
“So where are you gonna put it?”
Tiff looked around her room.
The obvious choice was under the bed. But that got quickly ruled out because, despite being much taller than it was wide, Tiff couldn’t rotate the thing sideways. It had to stand vertically. No matter what she tried, sticking it under the bed simply caused the blue silhouette to turn red, meaning it couldn’t be placed due to an object in the way.
The second choice was the closet, but that was quickly ruled out, perhaps temporarily, because it was small and crammed full of junk. Not just all of her shirts and dresses hanging up, but old shoes on a rack and many boxes full of junk Tiff was probably never going to use again but didn’t want to throw away. There were hardly any places Tiff could stuff the core without it turning red, and chances were if she wanted to put it in her closet, she’d need to clean the entire thing out first.
Less optimally, the next choice was behind her dresser. Before Awakening to her Class, Tiff never had anything dirty to hide behind the dresser, and she didn’t really want to put her core behind it either. That would be just as awkward to explain. Besides, sticking her core there would require moving the dresser away from the wall, and then there’d be an entire gap for everything else to fall into, like socks or loose change, so that was ruled out.
Tiff’s options were growing thin, as that left on top of the bookcase, which was quite tall and would be very visible, out in the middle of the room where anybody could trip over it, or under her desk. But if she put it there, she’d be playing footsies with her core whenever she sat down to do her homework.
“Tori,” Tiff whined, “There aren’t any good options.”
“What do you want me to do about it?” Victoria laughed. Tiff stared at her big sister as a devious idea struck like a bolt of lightning.
“Help me clean my room?”
12 hours, 22 minutes, 49 seconds.
“You know,” Victoria said wryly, looking at the mound of junk piled in the middle of Tiff’s floor. “If anybody else had asked for something like this, I’d have called them lazy and flipped them the bird.”
“You mean if Amy asked,” Tiff said triumphantly. It took a while, but they finally reorganized her closet so she could place the core on the floor next to the shoe rack. She still had plenty of space to hang her clothes, and now the boxes made a nice, neat tower.
“Yes,” Victoria said with a nod. “That sounds exactly like something Amy would do.”
“Well…speaking of Amy, she should be home in less than half an hour if she doesn’t want to get in trouble with Dad…so….”
“Is it time?” Victoria asked. Tiff nodded firmly.
“It’s time.”
She’d stalled long enough. Tiff angled the silhouette of her supposed dungeon core nearly in the corner where it could sit like a forgotten figurine or a discarded trinket, never to be seen again…and willed her quest to complete.
At first, things barely changed. The silhouette quickly dissolved in sparkles, and the blue turned green as the core became real. A dim pulse emanated from the depths of the core, filling her closet with a soft green light that ramped into a steady glow. It floated several inches above the carpet, completely unaffected by gravity…and that was it.
“Not gonna lie, I’m underwhelmed,” Victoria judged with a smirk. “Congrats, Tiff, you have a nite-lite in your closet now.”
“Wow,” was all Tiff could say. She’d built herself up so much…all for nothing. Until she reached forward and touched it.
“Ahhh!” She cried out, stumbling backward and falling on her but.
“Tiff!” Victoria cried, rushing to her sister’s side.
But Tiff wasn’t injured, and she wasn’t paying attention to Victoria as she fussed over her. A whole slew of System screens popped up, which was what surprised her.
[Quest Complete! Reward Available.]
[New Quest Available!]
[New Quest Available!]
[New Quest Available!]
[Dungeon Territory: Online.]
Okay, so maybe 5 screens wasn’t the biggest number in the world, but Tiff was plenty overwhelmed by the deluge of information…starting with her completed quest.
[Class Quest: Place Your Core (Limited)]
Place your dungeon core.
Find a location to place your dungeon core to establish your territory. If no location is selected within 48 hours, your core will be automatically placed at your current location. Restrictions to core mobility still apply.
Reward: Territory Administration Suite
Tiff barely dared to look at the screen, let alone acknowledge it or claim her reward. She briefly shooed it away into the corner of her room while she looked at her three new quests.
[Class Quest: Establish Your Domain]
Secure your Territory.
0/1 Core Guardian appointed.
[Class Quest: A Fitting Image]
Spread your infamy.
Supervillain (locked) 2000 / 5000
[Class Quest: Undisputed Rule]
Resolve outstanding critical Dungeon processes.
Ongoing
Restricted
That was even more information and Tiff’s head was spinning. Because she wanted to be thorough, Tiff brought up the final screen. She almost wished she didn’t.
[Dungeon Core Status]
Structural Integrity: Normal
Territory Size: 40 miles
Territory State: Uncontested
Population: 5.2 million
-For more detailed statistics, please refer to the Territory Administration Suite
-Warning! Rival factions detected.
-Warning! Opposing Affinities detected!
-Over 500 Hero-grade individuals present inside of Dungeon Territory.
-Extreme Caution! 4 Superheroes present inside of Dungeon Territory.
Current Dungeon Policy set to: Default
Active Rifts inside Territory: 3
“Tiff, Tiff, earth to Tiff,” Victoria’s voice broke Tiff out of her temporary stupor. “Shoot,” Victoria mumbled. “Do I go get Dad or do I barricade the door?”
“Is a barricade really necessary?” Tiff asked. Her sister jolted and then smiled nervously at her.
“Geeze, Tiff, you scared me. You’ve been staring at your screens and then you went white as a sheet. I was afraid you’d pass out or something.”
“I almost wish I had,” Tiff said sadly. All her screens were still on display, so she turned them around so Victoria could read them.
“Tori…why? Why me? I just turned 16. This is way too much. I don’t know what half of this means!”
“Then we’ll take it one step at a time,” Victoria tried to calm Tiff, but her own face pulled into a frown as she quickly scanned the boxes. She moved systematically from one to the next, keeping her emotions in check as best as she could, even as her features turned more and more grim.
“Starting with this one,” Victoria tried smiling, but it was a weak, brittle thing. “You’ve completed your quest! Grats. You should claim your reward.”
“Do all quests give rewards?” Tiff asked, glad to have someone giving her guidance, even if it was telling her what to do.
“Yes,” Victoria nodded, “But they aren’t always tangible. I’d say it’s random, but the System knows what it’s doing.”
“So what’s this?”
Tiff hit accept on her quest screen. The blue box instantly dissolved, and from the pixelating remains, a solid object formed. There, in front of her, spinning briefly after manifesting from thin air and dropping into her open palms…was a small black object about 2 inches long and ½ an inch wide.
“Looks like a USB stick,” Tiff frowned, turning it over.
“Let me see?” Victoria asked. For the briefest moment, Tiff contemplated hiding the thing away before anybody could so much as look at it, but…Tori was her ally. Maybe her only one, though surely Tiff wouldn’t be able to keep the glowing rock in her closet hidden forever. If anything, Amy was bound to discover it.
Tiff held out her hand and Victoria picked up the stick. Her frown turned confused as she brought it close to her eyes, examining it from every angle.
“It is a USB stick,” she said. Some very faint, tiny print etched on the side of the stick made her squint. “SystOS?” She asked.
“Beats me,” Tiff shrugged. “The quest reward called it a Territory Administration Suite.”
“Sounds like a computer program,” Victoria nodded.
“Sounds like work,” Tiff whined. “I barely know how to use spreadsheets.”
“There’s a few people we both know who can,” Victoria grinned, just as the sound of their little sister thumped on a wall several doors down.
“I don’t know about bringing Amy into all of this,” Tiff groaned, “And Dad’s straight out. He’s one of the 500,” Tiff shuddered. As Victoria tilted her head, Tiff motioned to the next screen. “Over 500 Hero-grade individuals, Tori. How am I going to deal with that?”
“I’m guessing you start with this,” Victoria sighed, pushing the first new quest screen back at Tiff. Tiff watched it float toward her and reached up instinctively to stop it from floating through her face.
“Tori, I don’t even know what a ‘Core Guardian’ even is. How am I supposed to appoint one?”
“I think I’ve got you covered,” Victoria smiled triumphantly. “System!” Victoria called out theatrically, “I accept!”
For the second time that day, Tiff was…underwhelmed. Victoria stood in the middle of Tiff’s room, holding her fist in the air in a celebratory pose, all the while Tiff stared at her flatly.
However, yet one more new screen popped up for Tiff.
[Victoria VanDyne wishes to become your Core Guardian. Requirements met: approve or deny?]
“Tori,” Tiff sighed. “Shouldn’t we, I don’t know, think about this?”
“It’ll be fine,” Victoria grinned. “I’ve had this quest sitting in my System for a week, ever since I took you to the guild. Granted, it didn’t exactly tell me who or what you are, but I got a quest that said I met the conditions to upgrade my class and become the lieutenant of a nearby Villain. Since it’s been stuck in approval, it won’t tell me much, but it does show my Class changes. Here.”
[Class Change Available!]
Bodyguard -> Core Guardian
Affinity Change:
-Mercenary -> Marauder
Expected Stat Changes:
-Might: A -> S
-Mind: N/A
-Magic: N/A
The last line of defense against those who would oppose the Queen.
Tiff let out a low whistle. Getting a letter upgrade in a single stat was incredibly impressive. Getting a full tier-up to the whole category was legendary. It was the sort of thing people tried jumping into radioactive waste to achieve.
99.99% (repeating, obviously) of those people died horrific deaths. Sometimes they were mercifully quick…other times, they were slow, painful, and launched an investigation into who left some radioactive waste around for an idiot to take a dip in.
Tiff silently thought that Victoria deserved a stat boost. She’d basically chosen the most dangerous profession available, and now that Tiff had seen a real Rift in action, she wanted her big sister to be protected. Tiff knew she could soak in a problem and marinate in worry all day, but that would make her pruny and ancient before she turned 20. Perhaps she was being impulsive, but she hit approve.
Unlike video games, when somebody leveled up or completed a quest in real life, there wasn’t a fancy show. No fireworks, no golden light cascading from above. But Tiff swore she felt something as her whole room, no, the entire house, trembled. It could also have been her imagination, as she slammed her hands onto her bed to steady herself, fearing an earthquake, but nothing else was shaking. The blinds were limp and none of the books on their shelves so much as rattled.
But Tiff waved away the new congratulatory screen the System showed her, which offered no reward beyond an increase to her Villain Affinity, while Victoria seemed rooted in her position. Tiff watched Victoria’s eyes rapidly move left and right, like they were scanning an invisible paragraph…and then there was light.
Victoria’s whole body shone with the intensity of the sun, so much that her form became an entirely black silhouette. But something inside was changing, and before Tiff could cry out in horror, the light faded and…something else stood exactly where Victoria had been.
“Holy frick, I’m a Power Ranger!” Victoria said.
Except it wasn’t Victoria. It was clearly female, but it was like somebody had taken a recording of a woman’s voice and washed it through a modulator from hell. It was deep, solid, defiant, demanding, and 110% full of itself.
It matched the body, too.
Victoria’s base form could barely be seen. Where there had been a tall young woman in track pants and a tank top, there was now an armored individual wearing a mix of a medieval knight in full plate and a yoga instructor in bod-con latex. The entire ensemble was pitch black with purple and green highlights, and it hugged the body like a second skin. However, instead of leaving nothing to the imagination, it made the figure look somewhat androgynous, with heavy leather padding covering the chest, knees, and elbows. It really could have been a skinny dude with girlish hips…if it wasn’t so badass. There were bladed protrusions on the shoulders, the highlights crossed over the chest to form a glowing diamond pattern, and the helmet, a winged affair with a solidly opaque visor, left not a single speck of skin exposed.
The figure lifted a hand up to the helmet and touched their temple. The visor retracted with a sleek whoosh and Victoria’s grinning face could be seen smiling from ear to ear.
“More like the weekly villain,” Tiff groused, steadying herself. She’d been worried they’d done something irreparable to Victoria’s body, but they’d done something impossibly worse.
They’d inflated her ego and destroyed her image.
“Ohh,” Victoria sighed, clenching the fingers on her fists. Despite looking like she was wearing spiked gauntlets, her fingers bent like they were surrounded by soft cloth. “Tiff…this feels amazing!”
Victoria didn’t hesitate for a second and walked up to Tiff’s bed, crouched down, and lifted the whole thing up…Tiff included.
“Tori!” Tiff squawked. “Put me down!”
“Sure, sure,” Victoria obeyed, placing the bed where it originally was. Victoria kept flexing her various muscles and joints, clearly pleased with the upgrade the System gave her.
“You aren’t…stuck like that, are you?” Tiff asked nervously.
“Psh, no,” Victoria waved her hand. In half a second, Victoria was once again shrouded in light as her armor vanished, leaving her standing in her old clothes. Nothing looked drastically different about her body, despite getting a full Might upgrade, but Tiff supposed looks did not always determine a person’s strength.
“Good,” Tiff grumbled. “Because I don’t want to be around when Amy finds out you’ve got a transformation sequence.”
“Oh Lord,” Victoria laughed. “If she ever finds out what we’re hiding, she might not ever talk to us again!”
Tiff put a finger to her chin.
“That would make the house quieter,” she joked dryly, earning a chuckle from her sister.
“Yeah,” Victoria grinned as she took a seat. “Until she gets over it and demands I add choreography.”
“That is something she’d do,” Tiff sighed.
The girls fell into silence for several moments, her room visibly unchanged from an hour ago when they first set out to complete her quest. Well, with the exception of the core in her closet, which was going to be a problem. For the time being, Tiff took an old sweatshirt and tossed it over it, covering it up.
“Tori,” Tiff eventually said, “Are you really going to be able to go back to work like that?”
“Are you kidding?” Victoria scoffed. “Of course! It’s not like I need to wear my new getup. It’s a perk reserved for serving under the Dark Queen.”
Tiff tossed a pillow at her sister and rolled her eyes.
“Be serious. Won’t people be suspicious if you show up so much stronger?”
“Well,” Victoria took a moment to actually consider before shaking her head. “I won’t say no outright, but I don’t think it’s as big of a risk as you might think. I’ll probably go get myself re-Assessed to see my new limits, but I’m pretty good at pulling punches.”
“Tori….”
“Relax,” Victoria waved a hand. “I won’t go getting into any fist fights until I’m sure I can control myself. But enough about me. How are you feeling?”
Tiff gave the question serious thought, running the entirety of the last day through her brain.
“I’m not sure,” She said with a frown. “Physically, nothing’s changed. I didn’t get a costume like you and putting that shiny green thing in my closet didn’t actually do anything to me. I feel the same as I did when I first laid down.”
“But…?” Victoria asked leadingly. Tiff cringed.
“Tori…you might need to get into one of those fist fights sooner rather than later. You know how my System told us there’s a ton of Heroes in the area?”
“Sure,” Victoria nodded. “But Tiff, 40 miles is huge. Pretty sure that includes Downtown LA. To be honest, I’m surprised there’s only 500.”
“It says more than 500, Tori,” Tiff corrected, “On top of real Superheroes. But that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s those ‘opposing factions’. I don’t know exactly what it means, but it can’t be anything good. I just got a notification of a gang war.”
“Like hell I’m letting you get involved with something like that!” Victoria declared, jumping to her feet. Tiff quickly shook her head.
“Tori! Why would I want to get involved! I don’t plan to! As you said, it’s probably somewhere far away. It doesn’t have anything to do with me. But…Tori…if I can see this about some random people I’ve never met before…what’s to stop them from learning the same thing about me? Remember that guy looting the destroyed store at the Rift? Why do I get the feeling I’ve just become a trouble magnet?”