Monster Hunt NYC 2 Read online

“What did you do to Schnoogles?” he shouted as he stomped his feet.

  Iris and I started up the song again. This time I took the first line, and Iris the second line.

  “Henkie Henkie Henkie hen keeeey, Henkie Henkie hen keee. What’s your name, please call it out, Henkie say your name!”

  But troll number two wasn’t buying it.

  And around this time, I saw the glint of Aya's buster sword directly behind the troll. From there my eyes jumped to Lady C.’s weapons, also slightly reflective in the moonlight.

  I exchanged glances with Iris, and she shouted, “Now!”

  The troll responded by flinging his club at Aya, who met it with her big blade. Lady C. sheathed one of her swords, a flame spreading up the other.

  The troll bellowed as he tried to pivot to his other foot and strike Lady C. down, but the Metican warrior was fast. She dove forward, rolled, and came back up with the flaming sword.

  “Damn!” I said as she stabbed the flaming sword into the troll’s thigh.

  Lady C. stepped out and Aya stepped in, moving past the Metican warrior with her giant sword.

  I loved seeing them work together.

  It was fierce, badass, and always entertaining. Sometimes they didn’t cooperate, but at the moment, they were tag-teaming the Henkie troll by alternating strikes, which only seemed to make it angrier as it swung its club and its jagged blade at the two Huntresses.

  “Fireball!” Iris called to Lady C., who stepped back like a baseball player about to hit a homerun and swung her sword, causing a horizontal mushroom cloud that quickly burst into flames as it hit the troll’s body.

  He cried out and sailed to the ground, where he rolled around trying to put the flames out. By the time he got to his feet, Aya held her sword at his back and Lady C. had her two blades, one still on fire, at the front.

  With a terrible growl, the dirty troll took a knee. “Fine,” he said in a surprisingly high voice, “I give up. The name is Mitchell, by the way.”

  Iris spun around and tossed the net of light at the troll.

  He was gone in a flash.

  “What’s with the cool spin?” I asked Iris, a grin creeping across my face.

  “Just…” She cleared her throat. “Sorry, I was just getting into it.”

  “Do not mind Chase,” Aya said as she sheathed her mighty blade. “He doesn’t have as much flare as you do and is jealous.”

  “I believe Chase and Lady Iris have equal flare,” Lady C. said, offering me a soft smile.

  Chapter Two: A Rare Sun

  Clinton Hills was closer than Bushwick, so we went to Iris’ place. It had been a long day, a day in which we’d won an incredible tournament, the day in which Iris had fully joined our group as an Alpha at the conclusion of Sagelock’s Tournament.

  An incredible day.

  The UberLyft had dropped us off at the bodega so Iris could get something to cook. There was always something there, and after a little perusing, she ended up getting a halal rice mix and some fresh, lab-grown beef.

  “Promise we'll stay in the Dojo tonight,” Lady C. said under her breath as we left the bodega.

  “We won those gift certificates to the architectural firm, and we’ll call them as soon as we log in. I think cabins are a go,” I said as I let Iris and Aya take the lead. “But don’t be disappointed if things aren’t ready yet. I don’t know if construction is instant or not. It could take some time.”

  I was so engaged with talking to Lady C. that I was nearly clipped by a cyclist who whisked past me, ringing his bell a little too late.

  With no cars on the street, and everything above us, cyclists pretty much had free rein in Brooklyn. They made their presence known, and it was actually considered a courtesy for the guy to ring the bell at me. Most would have simply blown past or collided with me.

  Lady C. noticed how quickly he passed and placed both hands on the hilts of her swords. “I would have blown him off his bike with a burst of lightning if he’d hit you, Chase,” she said in all seriousness.

  “Relax, everything’s cool.”

  Aya plopped down onto Iris' couch as soon as we entered her efficiency apartment. The Thulean crossed one leg over the other, leaned her head back, and yawned.

  She was still in her tournament clothing, a sleek black armored bodysuit with webbed epaulets capped in a conductor hat, which was tilted slightly to the left. Lady C. was also in her tournament clothing, which made for about the most ridiculous armor I'd ever seen with its short pink skirt and elaborately decorated corset.

  They caught me looking at them, and Aya was the first to speak. “Like what you see, Chase?”

  “Your tournament outfits are great, but I think you could wear your normal gear now.”

  “Oh, so now you are deciding what we wear. That's very Alpha of you.”

  “What would you like me to wear?” Lady C. swept her hand through her hair.

  Iris, who stood in the kitchen, cleared her throat.

  I took this as a sign to get out of this conversation, and quickly joined her, helping her cut the rest of the meat.

  Naturally, Lady C. came over to the counter and leaned against it, watching me slice and dice.

  “Who would have known he was so good with a knife?”

  Of course, this statement piqued Aya's interest, and she too joined Lady C. at the counter.

  She began fixing her hair with her ghost limbs, and as she did so, she started braiding Lady C.’s long brown hair with her hands.

  Yep, I lived a very strange life.

  Iris and I ate, discussed the music store we would go to the next day, and got ready to dive.

  I was still using Thad's NV visor, as it was sleek and he didn't seem to care about it. Over my head it went, and as I settled onto the futon, Iris next to me, that famous Brian Eno tone sounded off.

  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

  “This is all wrong,” the architect named Miles Kilometer said a mere second after his avatar took shape. He wore a pair of pressed slacks that matched his tight black vest. Underneath his vest was a blue collared shirt and a black foulard necktie that was the same fabric design as his pocket square. The man was thin, his white hair parted to the left, and his face freshly shaven.

  He also wore a hardhat.

  “Are you the Miles?” Lady C. asked, her eyes wide with delight.

  “Yes,” he said in a British accent, “Miles of Miles, Yards and Peter Meter Architectural Firm with office locations in Kingdom Glacio, Kingdom Chrono, and Kingdom Ventus. At your service!”

  “And which kingdom are we in again?” I asked.

  Iris elbowed me. “Kingdom Lume. It says on your dashboard. Also, the lightning in the sky.”

  “Right,” I said, noticing the lightning icon.

  The lightning didn’t crackle like its counterpart in the real world, nor was there any thunder. And the sparks in the sky weren’t the first thing I’d noticed when we’d been granted access to EverLife anyway.

  The first thing I’d noticed was the sun.

  The bizarre beacon was at its apex and currently violet, its color matching the top of an enormous steeple visible in the distance.

  I didn’t know how far away the steeple was, but it must have been twenty or thirty miles. Maybe more. Still, it was visible, and I stared at it a moment longer as Miles Kilometer continued his introduction.

  “Ahem, it appears as if one of the Alphas has lost interest in my presentation, a presentation clearly designed to aid his Dojo.”

  “Sorry,” I said as I focused on him. “Continue?”

  “Ah, you’ve given me permission to continue. Right, I will do just that then,” he said, his lips curling. “Now, as I was saying, your win at Sagelock’s Tournament entitles you to a fifty thousand Proxima dollar credit with our firm. Please press here to accept credit transfer.”

  A glowing blue button appeared before me and I pressed it.

  “Great, now you have forty thousand left.”

  “Forty th
ousand left?” Iris asked. “You just said fifty.”

  “The first ten thousand is a consultation fee, that comes straight off the top. Should we go over forty, our firm will bill you for the remaining amount. I encourage you not to let lack of money affect your courage for design grandiosity. There are always mortgages available if we do move past a budget you are comfortable with.”

  Miles snapped his fingers and a green gridline layout of our guild appeared before him, from the mythcrea quarters to the meadow and the pond.

  “One of the initial investments I encourage you to make is in wildlife. I see that you have a wildlife package, but with all the flowers you have here, it would be to your benefit to have the avian package, which we can get as a bundled discount.”

  “Bundled discount?” I asked.

  “Our esteemed firm has partnerships with the best manufacturers and Dojo accessories money can buy. Shall I continue? As I said previously, you will be billed for whatever remains.”

  “We aren’t looking for something too fancy,” I said.

  “Yes, we are,” Aya said as she stepped in front of me. “All of us are.”

  I turned to see all the mythcrea we’d captured.

  Altsoba the Skin-Walker stood with her arms over her chest; Fujin was sitting cross-legged on a cloud, his eyes electric; Sun Wukong was eating a peach; Magnus and Ophelia stood to Iris’ left, watching me intently; Rose and Gobi were in the back near the two trolls we’d captured, Schnoogles and Mitchell; Spew Gorge, the goblin, was giving me a dirty look.

  “Let’s get what they need,” I said as a tight smile formed on my face. I briefly checked how much I had in the digital bank, not including the gift card.

  Proxima Dollars: $46,250

  Spent: $24,500

  Loan: 0

  Still, I was hoping to use some of that cash for instruments.

  “Cabins,” Lady C. said. “The two Huntresses – that’s us–” She pointed to Aya and back to herself. “–demand cabins.”

  “Hmmm,” Miles Kilometer said as he stroked his invisible beard. “Then cabins it is.”

  The schematic before him began to change as demo cabins grew out of the ground. They were to the west of the mythcrea quarters, overlooking the field.

  “And I want the study that’s in the main quarters in my cabin,” Lady C. said.

  “Wonderful.” Miles touched the digital representation of the mythcrea quarters and it opened up into a 3D image, almost like a vintage pop-up book. He found the room she was talking about and transferred it over to the cabins. “Which cabin should it go in?”

  Aya and Lady C. spoke for a moment and then Lady C. said, “I’ll take the cabin closest to the quarters.”

  “It is done.”

  A prompt appeared before me and I accepted the modification.

  As they had done in his digital model, the cabins grew from the soil, quickly assembling themselves. Sturdy and made of wood, the cabins were like something one would find in Vermont: sturdy, rugged, with clean lines and red doors.

  There was also some movement in the mythcrea quarters as the room was transferred out.

  “As part of the package, you each are able to decorate your cabins the way you see fit. Please do that now while we work on the rest of the Dojo space,” Miles said with a thin smile.

  Lady C. looked to Aya, barely able to contain her excitement as they moved over to their cabins. She started full-on running after she got a few feet away from the group.

  “Come now.” Miles turned to the mythcrea quarters. I caught up to him as we neared the quarters. “Since it is the mythcrea who spend the majority of their time here, I believe they should have a say in how it looks.”

  Once we circled around to the front, he waited for the mythcrea to catch up. “Now, your rooms are bleak,” he said as the building schematic took shape on the grass before him. “And each of you will be able to customize your space later. My priority is making this place look smashingly good. To start…”

  He glanced up at the outer facade.

  “This has to go,” said Miles with a disgusted look on his face. “Glass. You need all glass walls here, especially because the south side of the building faces the center of EverLife and the Steeple of Litur and Industria. In fact, you are bloody lucky to have such a nice view. Some of the other kingdoms don’t have the hills and cliffs of Lume, which is why this kingdom is so desirable. And what a rare sun it is indeed!”

  “It’s always purple?” I asked.

  “Hardly, but you can discover that on your own time. Let’s talk walls, let’s talk glass,” he told me. “Triple pane glass, to be precise, with a smoky outer tint that will allow for your mythcrea to see out, and enjoy the incredible color-changing sun, yet also provide the privacy they need to feel comfortable. And there,” he said, waving his hand at the top of the building. “Without affecting the main structure too much, I believe a terrace would give your mythcrea a place to relax and enjoy the mild weather along with the views.”

  “Okay, glass walls and a terrace,” I said. “What else?”

  “Food,” Sun Wukong suggested.

  “A brilliant idea!” said Miles. “A cafeteria would be an ideal place for your mythcrea to have their food. Also, there could be a formal dining area on the terrace. And there appears to be ample room on the bottom floor for the cafeteria, as well as a couple of lounge areas. What else?”

  The ground shook as Yaksha, the Thai Buddhist giant we’d captured in Central Park, slowly walked over to us.

  He bowed as soon as everyone saw him.

  Miles’ eyes grew wide as he sized the giant up. “My word! I was wondering what that towering man was doing on the horizon. We don’t discriminate against giants, but he’s too big for the mythcrea guild. I’ll tell you what we can do. You have a gazebo, right? Near the meadow?”

  “Sure do.”

  The architect unrolled a scroll and looked it over. “Ah yes, here it is. Okay, we will convert that into a space large enough for a giant, and include it in the mythcrea quarters cost. We’ll even add a few bubbling brooks, just to add to the ambience. A river? Sure, we can connect the streams to the Lume River. How’s that?”

  Yaksha looked down at me and I gave the big man a thumbs up. “And make sure he has budget for bedding,” I said. “And whatever else he’d like to add to his gazebo abode.”

  “You got it.”

  The golden giant bowed once again, and turned toward the meadow.

  “Okay then, what else?” Miles asked.

  “A place to fuse mythcrea,” Iris suggested.

  “Yes! How could I forget? A Fusion Center is crucial for any modern Dojo and competitive Alpha. That will work best…” He flicked his hand across the design and rooms on the bottom floor began to move. “If we expand the easternmost wall, we should be able to fit it there. A fusion center will take two floors, hence the need to expand the wall out.”

  He showed the design. The fusion center added a contoured wall to the right side of the guild quarters that made the building look much more modern.

  “Do you agree?” I looked to Iris, and started to grin when Altsoba morphed into Iris’ bespectacled form. She placed a hand on Iris’ shoulder, Iris looked at the spitting image of herself, and together they both nodded at me.

  A glowing, royal blue banner appeared, and I accepted the changes.

  The northern-facing wall crumbled, replaced by an enormous pane of glass. The building expanded to the east, and a parapet formed on the rooftop, indicating the terrace was in place.

  “The inside has been redone too,” Miles announced, “but I want the mythcrea to have a hand in its design, so you are all free to go and decide on the designs yourselves, all but the two trolls.”

  “Why the hell does everyone always single out trolls?” Mitchell asked.

  Schnoogles, the nicer of the two, turned to me. “Don’t we get a room?” he asked, removing a finger from his nose.

  “You two will have a wonderful
room,” Miles assured them. “One could even consider it an entire house. Come, there is more to be done!”

  Mitchell and Schnoogles followed Miles to the wooden sign pointing to EverLife. Iris and I weren’t far behind, but I did hold back a moment just to take a look at the quarters.

  It was a sight to behold.

  “Come on,” Iris said, and she started to reach her hand out for me and then stopped.

  In that moment, I heard our song “I Know You’re There” pass between us. It only lasted a moment, but there was definitely a spark.

  “Come on,” I finally said, letting the music pass.

  The sign that had appeared just as we respawned from the tournament came into view, and as we approached it, a light yellow line flashed on the ground.

  “Your property line,” Miles explained, “at least the side facing EverLife. You will find, if you adequately explore the space given to you, that this yellow line is visible all around your property, but the most important line is the line along the road. Now, Kingdom Lume has a lower crime rate than the other kingdoms, but you should still have some protections against intruders. Later, if Dojo raiding becomes something you are interested in, you will need to increase these protections. But for now, two trolls will do.”

  “Dojo raiding? Why would we become interested in that?”

  Miles’ eyes darkened. “You never know how a player will turn once they make it to EverLife. Come now, let me show you your best option.”

  The model appeared before me, our Dojo separated from the rest of EverLife by a thick wall of shrubbery. A small cottage pressed out of the ground, a well to its right and a simple stable to its left.

  “No wall,” I said, looking to Iris for confirmation.

  “No wall? Even a small wall will keep those who aren’t supposed to be here away.”

  “How small?” I asked the architect.

  “A yard, no higher. This acts as more of a barrier to small, invasive creatures. But those who approach it will think twice about crossing it. Your trolls will then guard this wall.”

  So much for getting rid of them, I thought as I turned to the two trolls. “And you don’t mind watching the entrance?”