Catherine waved him into the room so they could talk. “So, from what they’ve told me, the portal is located in the lower end of Manhattan near Columbus Park. They will take us across the water way, as the bridges up to the Queensborough Bridge had to be blown up a year ago to stem the monster hoard, first thing in the morning and drop us off at Pier 16. From there we will make our way across the street to the nearest fire escape and work our way across the access way they have built for us.”
Damian nodded, “Sounds easy so far, anything that you think we should worry about?”
“No, getting to the portal should be easy since the beasties tend to flock towards the few bridges that were left intact. The only difficulty I can foresee is there being more monsters wandering around the portal than we can easily deal with. After all, with all the gothic architecture in the area the place is crawling with gargoyles.”
Damian felt a faint confusion and asked, “Gargoyles tend to be non-hostile towards humans and are guardians of the buildings they inhabit. Why would we need to worry about them?”
“Because no one at the time was aware of that and perceived them as just regular monsters, so the military attacked the perceived threat. Now, any human is kill-on-sight for them as we are viewed as trespassers and hostile invaders of their territory.”
That did indeed complicate things a bit but if they were operating in the day, it shouldn’t be a problem as long as they gave any statue they saw a wide berth. Damian spent the next few hours talking with Catherine to get to know her better. If they were going to risk their lives together it would be best if they could get along. Their conversation wandered from their lives, to weaponry, which seemed to be Catherine’s favorite topic.
“My favorite is this beauty!” Catherine pulled a large two handed sparth axe out of her inventory. Its haft was four feet of solid oak wood with a wide, thin blade sharpened to a razors edge. The blade had a wicked gleam to it that seemed to catch the light no matter how little of it there was. It was a simple looking weapon but an effective one. “This has been my go-to for groups of beasties that rush me, and while it might look simple, its sharpness is second to none. I quenched it in monster blood, which made a weird shrieking sound now that I think about it, and the edge has yet to dull and splits any foul beastie like a hair. I named her Spite; cause boy does she hit like a spiteful bitch!”
Damian chuckled and showed Catherine his own weapons. She seemed to dismiss the crossbow entirely saying, “Bah, you should wade into the thick of a good fight not shy away like a sissy! What good are those muscly arms of yours if you don’t use ‘em to choke out a monster or two?”
After exhausting what topics, he could think of for small talk Damian decided that it was time to talk business, and get her opinion on the plan he and Lu came up with.
“How are you progressing on the political front? Find anyone you think is trustworthy or a good way to swing public opinion in our favor before shit hits the fan?” Damian asked.
Catherine blinked at the sudden tone shift before shrugging and responded, “Aye, I told my brothers who are in the army and they are taking care of it.”
“What!? I thought we mentioned to keep it a secret while we confirmed who we could talk to and then reconvene to make a plan!” Damian exclaimed in surprise.
“You did, but Arushi and I were talking and agreed that you boys were being to paranoid. Hell, Arushi informed her sister who is rather highly placed in the governmental structure in India and she is already working to get people on our side. With little difficulty I might add, turns out the fact that every Inducted has thrown themselves whole heartedly at the monster hordes attacking our cities gives a lot of goodwill.” Catherine waved away his concerns.
“But…...Ludwik and the others……the potential hit squads….” Damian wasn’t sure where to begin unpacking his swirling thoughts.
Catherine grabbed his hand and stared him down, “Listen to me, its fine. You went to worst case scenario and didn’t stop to think about factors that led to Ludwik getting that specific info.”
Damian tilted his head in confusion as she continued, “Ludwik was told that by the system, a system you found out for us, that treats what it does like a reality survival game show. We were preforming horribly, three years in and barely seventy of us could pass a trial with hundreds dying in the attempt and millions dying each week to monster waves. In terms of the gameshow, it was showing the rest of the universe, we were poor for ratings, but it is slightly at fault for not accounting for our situation with the number of pantheons that have a presence on this planet. From what that Maladus guy told you, it made the gameshow aspect of its directive to ensure it wouldn’t be forced to self-terminate. Taking into account some of the rules it enforces on everyone, there are probably some factions that would like to see it gone. So, it did what every reality show has done when ratings plummet, it created drama.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Damian started to see what she was getting at, “You mean it likely new of Ludwik’s disposition and told him one of the worse case scenarios and let him ask questions that would lean towards his bias.”
Catherine squeezed his hand and let go, “And Ludwik fell for it, unfortunately. It wants to keep ‘ratings’ up and found a quick way to do so while giving us what help it can. It’s surly more than just luck that you stumbled into Maladus’ camp when you did. So, while yes, we might need to be somewhat careful its not near as bad a situation as you think it is. Honestly the fact that kaiju might exist should worry you more.”
Damian’s head snaped to her his face paling, “What?”
“Well think about it!” Catherine said with way too much cheer in her voice, “Cryptids became real and they, while based on some mythological creatures, don’t exist in any pantheon just human belief. Japan created, in my opinion at least, one of the best kinds of monster movies when they made Godzilla. It spawned plenty of kaiju into the mainstream consciousness, and I guarantee there were not a few people that believed they were real and lived in some strange cornered off section of the world.”
“No…...that…...that would be too much! We already struggle enough as it is. The system wouldn’t possibly….” Damian trailed off. He gripped the edges of table tight enough to crack them as a system prompt pinged in front of both of them.
Damian didn’t know how, but he was going to find a way to punch this system in the dick. He shot a message to the governor group chat and let them deal with it. “I really don’t like you, system.”
Damian chose to ignore the system for now, as otherwise he believed he would pop a blood vessel. He turned to a giggling Catherine and raised an eyebrow, which only made her laugh harder. “Oh god, your face! I wish I could have taken a picture of it!”
Damian just grunted at the woman, “I’ll let you get your rest we need to be ready to go tomorrow.”
Catherine started to calm down, “Sure thing, make sure to have a stiff drink before you sleep though, you seem like you need it.”
Damian just nodded his head and woke up Bronze from where she had been napping, on a table in the corner of the room. When he exited, he found someone waiting who brought him to his own room, and after a few beers he had requested, Damian fell asleep.
The trip to Pier 16 was uneventful, and went by in the blink of an eye. Contrary to what he experienced yesterday, today Catherine was all business. Her face was set in a slight scowl and her posture was slightly tense, ready for anything to happen. They raced from where they docked, across a street and into an alley way. Upon exiting the first fire escape onto the roof they found less of a pathway and more hastily welded sheet metal paths leading from building to building. Damian had Bronze scout ahead of them to look for any monsters that would hinder their path. It took an hour of careful navigation to reach the end of the trail and look out over their destination. The area looked as if a bomb had gone off. The remains of what used to be paved and cobbled stone was littered with craters and remnants of trees. The remains of a statue was only identifiable by the base that still remained in its place. Hovering in the center of all the destruction was a glowing violet portal.
Between them and the portal was a small herd of minotaur. They were each the size of a large truck, with bulging muscles and snorted steam from their nostrils whenever frustrated. Which considering they were all bulls, was anytime they walked to close to one another. There we nine of them in total all clustered around the portal as if they were guarding it.
Damian turned to Catherine and said with a deadpan tone. “I blame Riordan for this.”
Catherine snorted, “Don’t be mad because the man made a good book series and happened to choose New York City as a setting. Be mad at the people who associated the Greek Pantheon with Manhattan because of it.”
Shaking his head Damian pulled out his crossbow the Nocturne Buck, and took aim at the closest minotaur. “How do you want to play this?”
Catherine hummed in thought, “The objective is to get into the portal, so fighting isn’t necessary and a waste of resources.” She pulled a stone from her inventory and gestured at an overturned delivery truck on the far side of open plaza. “I’ll just chuck this at the truck and when they charge over to investigate, we make a break for the portal. Sound good?”
Damian shrugged as he didn’t have a better idea and put his crossbow back into his inventory. Catherine nodded and raised her hand counting down from three. She let the rock fly and it sailed with pinpoint accuracy to clank against the truck bed. The minotaur all whipped around and charged at the sudden noise, with those closest lowering their horns to impale the truck. Amidst the clangs of impact from bullhead to truck bed, Catherine and Damian surged from the overhang they were waiting on. Sprinting across the road into the portal, Bronze following close on their heels, the world began to swirl in their vision. Before the minotaur realized they had been tricked the two were nowhere to be seen.
