A Play For Time Ch. 5 (System Apocalypse) (Patreon)

A/N: Chapter 5! Another Theresa POV to see how Alpha Squad has been doing~

-x-X-x-

“Welcome back Alpha Squad. Congratulations on-!”

“What’s the latest? You have an update for us, don’t you?”

Awkward silence falls as General Anders develops a pinched expression on his face. But Kyle doesn’t give two shits. He just rolls his eyes at the constipated look and scoffs.

“We hit Level Twenty-Five. It’s nothing to write home about. Maybe if we were actually at the top like we’re supposed to be, being one fourth of the way done would be exciting. But so long as that bastard is lording it over all of us, there’s no point in celebrating shit.”

He’s out of line… massively so. But he’s also kind of right. Flanking Kyle on either side, Theresa and Bruno share a glance but don’t say anything. Sure, Kyle was taking the existence of this mystery person the hardest, but that didn’t mean they liked it any better.

Just because their team leader had an ego the size of a moon didn’t mean Theresa and Bruno weren’t pretty damn competitive themselves. In fact, Theresa figured that was probably a large part of why they’d been picked for Alpha Squad. They wanted to win of course, but they were also willing to take orders and play second fiddle to someone like Kyle. It was all about the Team Victory, at the end of the day.

“You wouldn’t be out here waiting for us to come back if you didn’t have new information. So spill already. We don’t have time to waste on pleasantries, General.”

In the end, while Kyle could definitely have put things more diplomatically, Theresa sort of agrees with him. If this was just about them hitting Level Twenty-Five before the rest of the world (except for one person) then General Anders would almost certainly have sent an aide with his congratulations.

The fact that he was here himself spoke of something greater. And the only thing greater than the fact that they were beating out almost everyone else on the road to Level One Hundred… was the fact that someone was somehow beating THEM out on the road to Level One Hundred.

The three of them being at the top of the Leader Board was far too short-lived. Theresa had figured that they might bounce a bit in the first few hours, with some other really enthusiastic people maybe beating them to Level Three or Four or something. But eventually, the sheer amount of resources at work behind Alpha Squad would propel them into the lead and keep them there.

Well, it had almost worked out that way. But by the time they’d hit Level Ten and received their class evolutions, their mystery man had already overtaken them. ??? for the name. ?? for the Level. And Chronomancer for the Class. Theresa still didn’t know what to make of it even all these days later.

Not that she’d had much time to think about it very hard. Seeing someone take that Number One spot away from him had pissed Kyle off like nothing else. He kept it all bottled up, but Theresa would have to be blind not to know the signs after over a year of training with the guy. He was outraged that someone would dare take what he considered rightfully his. And he was infuriated that the government couldn’t track down whoever it was.

To be fair, Theresa was a little worried herself. Right now, the Leader Board’s Top Four placed her at the bottom, despite the fact that she was the same Level as Kyle and Bruno. She didn’t know why, but she did know what that would mean if they kept on their current path and nothing changed. The Triumvirate would be whoever this mystery jackass was, along with Kyle and Bruno. And she would be left in the lurch.

That’s why, even if she definitely wouldn’t have talked to a superior officer in the same way Kyle is, Theresa leans forward a little bit all the same, eager to hear the General’s answer. Still looking gravely offended that Kyle wasn’t treating him with respect, General Anders nevertheless gives them a reluctant nod after a long moment of silence.

“There has indeed been an update. We have not managed to identify the man in question yet-!”

A draconic growl reverberates through the room at that, causing the General to pause for a moment before continuing. Theresa just shares another glance with Bruno out of Kyle’s line of sight.

“-however, we have managed to confirm his existence and tracked down someone we believe has witnessed him operate in the flesh.”

Oh? That was actually pretty interesting. Even Kyle leans back at that, looking pleasantly surprised.

“Really? Where are they? I want to speak with them.”

The look General Anders gives that ‘request’ is long-suffering.

“That will not be happening.”

“Excuse me?”

“Orders straight from the top. Your father, as a matter of fact. The President, at the advice from his cabinet, has decided that you catch more flies with honey. Alice Johnson is currently being treated as an asset to be cultivated. Operatives have made contact with her under the guise of forming a party and are making inroads to gain her trust. She is being treated with kid gloves right now. It’s out of my hands… out of OUR hands.”

That was… huh, that was even more interesting. Kyle says what Theresa is really thinking though. Namely…

“Kid gloves?! This bitch has information about an ongoing threat to National Security and she’s being treated with kid gloves?! The United States has Black Sites galore for exactly this purpose! Just disappear her to fucking Guantanamo Bay and torture her until she tells us everything she knows, for fuck’s sake!”

Theresa might not have brazenly advocated for torture like Kyle was doing, but she had to admit, she was a little surprised that the government hadn’t just gone the route he was suggesting. This certainly didn’t seem like the time to be taking things slow or playing games with a potential source of information.

But the General just shakes his head.

“Our analysts recommended against that course of action, influencing the cabinet’s advice and the President’s ultimate decision. From what the girl has said about the encounter so far, it lasted less than a minute in total. He saved her life one time, spoke to her briefly, and then left her to her own devices. However, the fact that he DID save her life makes her a possible bridge between us and the Chronomancer. And that means keeping her happy and on hand might serve our goals better than torturing her and disposing of her in some Black Site.”

That… made sense, Theresa grudgingly acknowledges. Once you went the torture route, you couldn’t exactly reverse course, now could you? By setting the girl up with some undercover operatives, they would be able to keep an eye on her going forward, just in case she meant more to the Chronomancer than they first thought.

“… A bridge.”

Theresa stiffens as the air is suddenly blanketed with a slightly oppressive feel. She and Bruno weather it well enough, but it’s impossible not to notice when their very own Dragon Warrior starts using his Challenging Aura in what’s supposed to be friendly territory. Meanwhile, General Anders is only Level Five after all this time. He immediately starts to sweat, and though he does an admirable job of hiding it, Theresa knows he has to be shaking in his boots.

This was why Kyle was so flippant and disrespectful with the General. Because at the end of the day, while the United States might still be holding together for the time being unlike other sections of the civilized world, there was still a growing divide between those who had Levels and those who didn’t. Alpha Squad was just the largest example of that fact.

“What do you mean by… a bridge? Is my father thinking about making some sort of deal with this fucker? Is he planning on replacing me?”

Oh. Theresa hadn’t thought about that. But Kyle was right, the General had used the word ‘bridge’. Was the President contemplating a backup plan or something?

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

General Anders’ voice is as clipped as it is shaky, but he nevertheless maintains his composure admirably as he glares back at Kyle. Like a mouse glaring at a lion.

“This Project has been years in the making. Billions of dollars have gone into it by this point. Billions of dollars have gone into the formation and training of Alpha Squad. More than that, you are the President’s son. Your Squad’s loyalty to the United States of America and the security of this great nation is not in question. The loyalties of this mysterious Chronomancer cannot be known. If this… Shadow Thief girl can be used as a bridge between us and the Chronomancer, than I assure you that bridge will likely be used to deliver some form of saboteur or assassin right to the son of a bitch’s doorstep.”

Well damn. Well said, General Anders. Of course, it wasn’t like the US could bomb the Chronomancer, or have a sniper take his head off from a distance. Advanced weaponry just didn’t work anymore. Nothing above a fucking crossbow worked. Other technology, technology that’s sole purpose wasn’t to kill and destroy, that stayed functioning somehow. Honestly, it was all so fucking arbitrary that Theresa couldn’t be bothered to work out the details.

Still, on the one hand it meant that the world couldn’t throw nukes around like they were fireworks as it went through this incredible time of upheaval and uncertainty. But on the other hand, it also meant the US couldn’t just take care of their Chronomancer problem with overwhelming firepower whenever they tracked him down. And that meant…

The aura vanishes in an instant as Kyle leans back, a sudden wolfish smile on his face.

“Ah. But if this Chronomancer is as High Level as he seems, they won’t have anyone capable of dealing with him… except for us. When they finally track him down, they’ll need to deploy us to actually take him out.”

General Anders straightens his jacket and clears his throat for a moment before nodding.

“That may very well be the case, yes. So long as you all keep up on your Leveling anyways.”

Kyle lets out a bark of laughter at that.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that, General. We’re not slowing down. In fact… we’re just getting started. Come on guys, let’s head back out.”

That gets Bruno to finally speak up, a groan on the Glacial Wizard’s lips.

“What? But we just got back. I was looking forward to catching some z’s, man.”

Theresa had to admit she felt the same way, a little bit. As a Purifying Cleric, she had access to all sorts of support spells alongside her healing. ‘Buffs’ and ‘debuffs’ was what the eggheads called them. But nothing could really help with the mental exhaustion. And ever since Kyle had realized he wasn’t in First Place; they’d been going pretty hard to try and overtake the Chronomancer.

Of course, Kyle doesn’t want to hear it now anymore than he’s wanted to hear Bruno’s last half-dozen complaints. Turning on the other man, he sneers.

“You can sleep when you’re dead, Bruno. Or maybe when we’ve made that fucker eat our dust. So long as he’s beating us, we don’t have the luxury of things like sleep. Especially now that we know we’re going to be needed to deal with him when they finally figure out who he is. We need to be ready, and that means we keep Leveling.”

Yeah. The three of them were the highest Levels in the world, after the Chronomancer himself. And he couldn’t be that far ahead of them, right? Whatever he knew, whatever trick he had, he was still just one man against the whole damn world. They were a team, a squad that could take on far greater numbers and far greater foes than any solo player could ever handle by themselves.

That gave them an undeniable edge. His advantage was probably letting him barely stay ahead of them, but would it last forever? Probably not. And that’s when they would strike.

Clearing her throat, Theresa finally speaks up as well.

“Kyle is right, Bruno. We have to keep up the pace, or we’re just going to fall further behind. And we can’t let anyone else smell blood in the water either. Our advantage has to be insurmountable.”

Every Level they earned would put them a step ahead of the rest of the pack and a step closer to the Chronomancer. Really, how much higher than them could he actually be? They’d catch up in no time…

-x-X-x-

The Rocky Mountains. Caleb had stepped out of a small graveyard at the foot of the mountain range. And when he said small, he means it. Maybe five or six gravestones had still stood in the graveyard, which itself had been surrounded by a rotted, dilapidated wooden fence.

From there, it had taken fifteen minutes for him to reach his next spot. And from there… well, he’d gotten to work.

Stone shifts against stone, roiling and rumbling as Earth Elementals lumber towards him. The creatures number in the dozens, all of them Level Thirty-Five and above. However, they are stymied… by their own element. The position Caleb takes up is one down a narrow corridor of stone, and the Earth Elementals do not have the intelligence to do more than cram themselves into the crevice to try and get to him.

As they do so, of course, their movement slows to a crawl thanks to Slow. And their rocky bodies rapidly erode, their health bars dropping under the effects of his Time Decay. Almost contemptuously, Caleb throws out a Time Splinter here and there where his mana allows, speeding the process up.

One by one, the latest batch of Earth Elementals falls. When they’re all dead, Caleb checks and is pleased to see that he’s already halfway through to Level Thirty-Six after just two hours of farming.

The higher he gets, the slower he’ll level. The slower they’ll all level. But Caleb has a plan born of foreknowledge. He knows where to go. He knows exactly what to kill and for exactly how long to kill it.

Smiling, he takes out some rations and chows down while he waits for his mana to come back. This also has the added benefit of allowing the dozens of Earth Elementals to respawn in the hidden valley just beyond his crevice. Once he’s ready, Caleb rises to his feet and moves to the end of the crevice, before beginning the painstaking process of carefully picking up every Earth Elemental without getting his brains splattered across the mountain side by a rogue rock fist.

It's a careful dance, but one he’s already done a dozen times by now and will do a few hundred times more before he moves on.

He still wonders how Kyle is reacting to all of this, to not being the top dog for once in his miserable, entitled life. But in the end, it doesn’t really matter. Caleb will just have to ask him when they finally meet again to settle the score Kyle doesn’t even know exists… once and for all.

-x-X-x-

A/N: On the advice of a patron, my plan going forward is to try include little blurbs of Caleb in chapters where he's not the main focus whenever possible, just to show what he's doing. This chapter is my first attempt at that, so let me know what you think. Does it work or does it feel ham fisted?

Also I'm thinking next chapter will probably be another Alice POV to show how she's doing now that she has 'friends' who actually seem to like her for her (heh).

That said, I'm still kind of writing this story by the seat of my pants.

Now that we're 5 chapters in, I'm hoping everyone has a fairly good feel for the story's characters and circumstances... so tell me, what do you want to see the most going forward? What are you looking forward to? What do you think needs to be included and shouldn't be glossed over?

As always, hope you enjoyed reading and please leave me your feedback, it helps a lot!