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CH 76: Never Meet Your Heroes
🕑 Added 2025-01-08 15:00:00 +0000 UTC"Reid Calderwall. Father of the Pathfinder Progenitor."
He had seen that title on the obelisk in Sanctuary. The alien recognized his name, and his power - and knew his daughter. Sara was famous - massively, interplanetarily famous. Enough that a homeless orphan from a faraway world was aware of her enough that he recognized her by name. Hope and emotion welled inside of Reid and washed away all other thought.
"Sara and Susan - How do you know them? Are they okay? Are they still on Earth?"
Lycra smiled and his yellow eyes glowed in admiration. "Viewscreen stores. Almost as good as reactor stores. On the slow days, I'd watch the programs through the shop windows. My favorite is the story of Merchall IV - where the hero and lord was given a quest to venture high into the trees and ride a bird to battle and victory! Companies make videos about the heroics of their awakened planets. Earth is an older program, but they do re-runs. It had the pathfinder, and it mentioned you and your osteomancy. But it said you were gone. Where have you been since the awakening? Were you in hiding? Secretly battling enemies? Are you on a secret quest now?"
A hero. His daughter - his smart, wonderful, powerful daughter was a hero known throughout the universe. Reid was full of admiration and pride. He wanted to know more... but one detail bothered him.
Reid shook his head. "Lycra, how old was Earth's program? When did Earth awaken?"
The alien blinked for a moment. "It was ten seasons, so... a thousand years."
The words droned out of focus in his ears.
A thousand.
Not a hundred years. Not a little over that. An entire millennia had passed between killing the Titan and waking up.
A well of condensed fear, ineptitude, worry, and sadness erupted deep within Reid. He let it carry his thoughts, and he vividly pictured a thousand scenes of Susan, old and dying, alone. He saw Sara, wrinkled and grey like his own grandmother had been, sitting in a wheelchair in front of the obelisk as she cried.
Reid fell forward, and heaved on the cargo bay floor.
#
#
The small alien continued to rub Reid's back, and apologized for the seventh time.
"I am sorry, Reid. I don't understand, but I am sorry."
Reid finally collected himself enough to raise his head. "I thought - I thought I'd been out for a fraction of that time, Lycra. If it's been that long - I don't even know if my family is still alive."
Lycra stood and gave Reid a quizzical look. "Out? Your daughter is definitely still alive - she is the ruling planetary lord of Earth. Unless something happens, her rule should last for thousands of years more."
Reid felt his heart slam in his chest. "You're sure?"
The alien nodded vigorously and showed off his vampiric teeth. "Yes yes yes. And Susan - she should still be alive too. Many from Earth reached higher grades. Those close to leadership often live close to the time of their rulers. Their natural lifespans will be long. Longer than you were... out. But what does that mean? Out?"
Reid let the waves of relief wash over him. The entire journey since waking up so far had been a roller coaster of emotions about his wife and daughter, and he wanted to take a minute to let it all sink in. He held up a hand for Lycra to wait, and sat himself back against the cargo bay wall.
The confirmation that they were alright slightly dampened Reid's persistent itch to storm the cockpit and fight Thad for control of the ship. It gave him more wiggle room and options to get home - and honestly, made him feel good. His daughter and his wife had lived for over a thousand years, and would likely be around for a while longer. They'd gotten strong enough to do that. Reid wiped away a few tears from his eyes. They'd done so much, all on their own.
Reid looked back at the alien before him, and wavered. Lycra had seemed to freely share information with Reid, and his response had been to try and deceive the creature. His ally - and maybe friend.
"Lycra, why do you love the planetary awakening programs so much?"
The alien tilted his head. "Being awakened - given purpose and quests to guide you - it is..." He looked up at the cargo bay ceiling. "I often dream of it. I get swept away to a newly awakened world, and the system itself guides me on a path to power. I am G grade, and I will die in G grade. But with access to the system's quests, I could be so much more. I could be powerful enough to make my own way."
Reid let the words linger in the air for a moment. "It wasn't all that good, Lycra." He resolved himself to share his story. "Let me tell you what really happens during a planetary awakening."
#
Lycra listened with rapt attention as Reid took him through the entire story - the woods, Sanctuary, Bertrand, the Salamanders, and waking up to find the obelisk. He didn't speak until Reid was done.
"Truth."
Reid smiled apologetically, "Yeah that's how the awakening really was. Close to what you saw in the show?"
Lycra shook his head, and smiled. "Better. But worse." He stood, and paced around the room. "Reid, your feats are mythical. Salamanders are exterminate-on-sight. When they're found, Crocs - ah, Cross-Cosmic Enforcers - are dispatched to kill the entire species. If they aren't sure they killed them all, they glass the planet." Lycra paused for effect. "You were supposed to ask why. Salamanders regenerate, and can only be killed by hitting them behind an absurdly thick and strong skull - you know that. But it takes an F grade to kill a peak G grade salamander. The Titan you fought should've been able to take over Earth. They are a menace, Reid! There are a handful of EOS species in the entire cosmos, and you fought one of them off before the tutorial. You killed things you should not have been able to. AND you did it unawakened. Which you weren't... because of the beacon... almost killing you... " Lycra pout-frowned. "Reid, you cannot contact Blasdej."
"What?"
"Beacons do not hurt people. Not unless they are sabotaged. Blasdej's programs always said you were the issue. They use your story to spread their awakening tools. They used it to pass laws limiting self-affixation, which was already a half-myth. But you were not the issue. It was their technology. That makes you a threat to them. You could damage their profits. Or their image." Lycra's voice rose in pitch and sped up as he walked himself around the cargo bay. He put both palms together and wound his fingers around each other.
"Storm of fates. This is amazing. YOU are amazing. Like a walking secret. OH! We should hide your identity. Body paint. Wigs. A new name!"
Reid gave Lycra a quizzical look. "I'm not changing my name. I'll contact Sara when we escape, and everything will be fine."
Lycra pointed at Reid. "No formal channels! Blasdej would find out."
"Then how the fuck am I supposed to get home?" Reid was getting annoyed now. Part of him knew that if Lycra was serious about this stuff, it could be a big problem. But it was still one Reid wanted to ignore.
"Same plan. We escape, work, and find a charter to home. Long-lived family means we can take time to get back - and your self-affixer fighting powers can earn us more credits!"
Reid spent a long time looking at the alien. "What if I don't have that much time?"
#
#
Lycra looked like a puppy that had been kicked. It had taken multiple explanations to convey that Reid did, in fact, still have his disease after the planetary awakening. He didn't take the news well, and spent quite a while convincing Reid that they'd find a cure for him, together. The honest eagerness in the little alien had Reid warming up to Lycra even more.
His short frame was again pacing around the cargo bay. "Okay, okay. Need to take stock. Plan. Reid, are you topped off?"
Reid's face contorted - and Lycra jumped back in. "Your health - is it full, or close?"
He felt a bit embarrassed at the question. Reid hadn't pulled up his status screen since he'd woken up - and he hadn't checked his notifications... nor had he seen any.
As he pulled on the thread for his status, a meaty notification popped into view.
PRIORITY NOTE TO SELF:
Reid, please keep reading. I am Nyx, and I helped wake you up. You will be tired, hungry and thirsty. Please rest for an hour, then walk due West to reach water. If I'm not awake by then, try to forage for food. Do not, under any circumstances, interact with people, intelligent species, or any beacon technology. I'll explain more later, but there are powerful people we need to avoid - for now. If you can't avoid contact, don't tell anyone your real name and keep your skills secret.
Your daughter should still be alive, and safe. Please do not look for her - as you are right now, you'll just cause her trouble. I suspect Susan is alive, too, but I can confirm that later for you. A lot of time has passed, so don't be shocked if your surroundings look different than you remember.
What I did to wake you would've taken a lot out of me - so I estimate I'll be 'resting' for anywhere from an hour to several days. I might not wake up. If I don't, and you do - I've placed some other notes behind level prerequisites for you to read. Grow in power, and survive - for both of us.
Your status screen will look a little different. Don't freak out. I had to do some work on your internals to wake you, and you'll have gotten an influx of any excess energy during the process that should result in a level or two. It's all stuff you technically earned from the salamanders and that questline, just awarded at the actual XP rate instead of the restricted one.
Keep raising your level. I want to have this talk in person, but as long as you consistently keep getting more powerful, your cancer shouldn't be an issue in the short term. Short term being years. So yeah, hopefully good news for you to hear. Once you read this, you'll be able to see any other notifications you've gotten, and you'll be able to view your stats.
Last, if you can, don't touch a beacon until I'm awake. Please. Even if you don't believe anything else in this message, believe that.
-Nyx
P.S. I know the Shackle was bad to you. It couldn't help it. But the Shackle is gone now, and it's just me. The one who helped bring you back from the dead. I hope I wake back up, too.
He slowly digested the message. The shackle - the absolute asshole piece of the system that had been embedded in his mind - was gone, and a new thing was there, that had apparently helped him wake up. Or revive.
Reid hadn't thought of himself as being dead - just... asleep. The use of the word stuck in his mind. There were too many mind-bending trains of thought that could lead him down, so he set it aside.
This - seemed real. It was the second confirmation he'd gotten about Sara and Susan being alive. And the second warning to not interact with people under his own name. That ship sailed already with Lycra, but he could be more careful with everyone else.
He'd missed his chance to follow other parts of the instructions - but not the one thing that mattered above the rest.
Grow stronger.
Reid had no idea if this Nyx was on his side, let alone being right about his cancer. But if Nyx really had brought him back, he was inclined to trust it. The advice was to gain levels and power. Levels for a longer life. Levels to gain enough power to return to his daughter without worrying about some corporate entity that wanted him dead. He just had to find a way to earn some.
His path forward resolved in his mind, as uncomfortable as it felt. Going back to Earth was false security. Sure he'd reunite with Sara if he did, but he would be choosing to create a burden and problems for her - with enemies that might be more powerful than she was capable of dealing with. He would just be picking a fight on her behalf, with nothing to back it up. He needed to grow stronger - even if he didn't know how strong he actually needed to be in order to not be a burden. Figuring that part out would come in time.
Reid shut down his massive lingering desire to reach out to his family by telling himself he'd find a discreet way to get a message to them somehow, in time. Then he opened his status. He focused on the first two sections.
STATUS
Name: Reid Oliver Calderwall
Affiliation: "Earth"
Race: Human
Grade: G
Level: 13 -> 23
Health: 188 / 350
Experience: 103,949 / 204,800 -> 155,184,200 / 209,715,200
STATS:
Constitution: 35
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 6
Perception: 11
Power: 35
Control: 75 -> 125
Stat Upgrade Points: ERROR
"Well, fuck me." The jumps were incredible. If he'd been earning this much xp for every salamander kill during their quests, Reid might've been able to kill the Titan without resorting to using his corrupted petrification skill. Over a hundred million experience... Reid did quick math and realized he was probably looking at thousands of experience for each salamander. He had no idea how to earn that much experience again - but if he had to find a way, he damn well would.
Once he was able to get his stats raised, Reid felt like he'd have a pretty easy time taking down just about anything. With control at 125, his new per-stat cap would be 62.5. He could rest to let his health get back up higher, then dive in and nearly double his current power and constitution. With that much, he could definitely kick Thad's ass. He also really needed to work on the other stats - but they could commandeer the ship on his power and constitution alone, Reid ventured.
A few feet away, Lycra's patience had very obviously run out. The alien leaned forward, into Reid's space.
"What happened? Is it bad? Did the volatile mana from the charge jump ruin one of your skills?"
Reid's revelry in his new gains immediately ceased.
"The WHAT?!"
