Alex and his Troop materialized out of the obscuring mist like ghosts, not a single one of them making a sound as they crossed the damp earth. Todd was always taken aback by the sight of them, no matter how many tis they aided his small town. The group of - well, children, really - were a Scout troop that had been on a camping trip in the mountains around the old gold mining town of Idaho City. The adults had died and sohow the children had not only survived, but thrived. They didn't gain skills and powers like everyone else - theirs were tied to their badges. Alex had explained it to him a few visits back.
"So you don't get individual powers just on your own?"
"No," Alex replied. "We didn't even know people got those. For us it's based off our badges."
"But who gives you badges now that…" he cut off 'now that your troop leaders are dead', realizing his mistake too late. Alex only waved it off. They'd been through too much for those old mories to have an impact.
"The System. We have an understanding of what badges we can earn, and we have a general idea of what tasks and experiences we have to do to gain them. Once we get one we have a really strong idea of what to do to improve it, but nothing concrete. The System seems to want us to figure it out on our own by testing and trying different things. So are easy," a bow appeared in his hand out of mid-air. "I know that to advance this badge I have to keep practicing on harder and harder types of shots and stronger or harder-to-hit creatures."
"So you could just keep setting up targets further and further away until you beco an expert?"
Alex chuckled ruefully. "I wish. No, The System requires more than just us challenging our skills, it forces us to advance them in harsh conditions or dangerous situations." The bow disappeared and Alex pointed to a badge on his chest. "See this one here? It's a survivalist badge. To get it to Advanced I had to go out alone and find the harshest environnts I could find, strip myself of anything that could help , and find a way to survive until The System had determined that I'd beco creative and inventive enough to really survive. It was grueling and I almost died a few tis." He shuddered at the mories.
Todd leaned in close, inspecting it. "Oh man. What did you have to do to get it to Expert?"
Alex's face went grim. "I'm a Squad Leader. I had to do the sa for my entire troop, making sure none of them died."
Todd leaned back in shock. What had these kids been forced to endure out there? A thought occurred to him. "Wait, don't you have a healer? If she couldn't practice only on small wounds to advance her badge…" His voice trailed off when he saw Alex's expression. Suddenly he wasn't so interested in the answer.
Todd shook his head, clearing the mories as the rest of the Troop reached him. "Please, please! Co in!" He waved them into the old Town Hall that had beco a de facto command center, eting place, and general gathering area. The people on this mountain were hardened survivalists themselves - an odd mix of strong community and extre loners. They'd be damned before they moved out of their hand-built cabins and hos and into a communal area, but that didn't an they didn't need a place to co yell at him for whatever problems were facing them that week. Hence the arrival of Troop 276.
Todd resisted an urge to pat the youngest kids on the head as they walked by. So didn't even look old enough to have hit puberty yet, and yet this was their best chance at fixing the problem that had been facing them for months.
Jake "Chef" Rivera moved to the small-but-functional kitchen imdiately, pulling a huge variety of ingredients out of his dinsional storage. Todd's mouth started watering imdiately. Not only was the kid an amazing cook, his food actually provided temporary buffs - strength, endurance, healing - whatever he felt was needed. It also gave everyone who ate it an overall sense of comfort, sothing that was sorely needed right now.
The remaining team found seats around a fold-up table, saving the head seat for Alex. Alex walked past it to sit on a side chair, saving the head seat for Todd. Todd just shook his head and smiled. That kid doesn't have a conceited bone in his body, even though he should. Soone who has saved as many lives as him and his group have shouldn't be as humble as they are.
"What's the issue, Governor?"
"Please, call Todd. How long has it been since you've patrolled this area?"
"A few months. We've been running rescue ops on the trails - a lot of people have been getting lost when the snow covered the trails."
Todd nodded in understanding. The residents here knew the mountains better than anyone, which gave their stubborn asses just enough confidence to get good and lost when they started feeling froggy and went further than they should. "I'll cut to it, although it ain't pretty. Maybe we should speak without…" he nodded towards the younger kids.
Alex and Samantha, his Senior Patrol Leader, followed his gaze to the kids next to them at the table.
"Nah," Samantha said. "They're good. They've seen a lot out there."
"No doubt, no doubt about that at all. Okay then," Todd took a deep breath. "People have been disappearing."
"Creatures?" Alex asked.
Todd shook his head. "Not the System kind, the human kind. Well, maybe not anymore. We're dealing with sothing much worse." The Troop waited silently while an involuntary shudder went through the man. "We got ourselves cannibals."
Looks were exchanged around the table. Alex leaned forward. "Cannibals? Are you sure it's not just creatures?"
"I wish, son, I wish. No, these are n - won too, but people. At first we thought maybe animals or the blasted System creatures, but then they started getting bolder. It started with people just not coming back from a hunt, but then people started disappearing from their hos. One family woke up when they heard glass breaking in their daughter's room. They rushed in just in ti to see a man, looking as wild as the woods, holding the girl in his arms. He gave them a wicked smile and chomped one of her fingers off right there in front of them before jumping out of the window with the girl. Her Pa sent a lot of shots downrange at him, and let tell you - he don't usually miss."
Alex nodded. Up here almost no one missed what they were aiming at.
"From what he said, he chased that blasted abomination of a man through the woods all night, following the blood trails as best he could. Eventually he lost the trail and had to co back for fear of them returning for his wife. She had her own guns, of course, but he swears he hit the bastard and it didn't do nothing. Since then they've been getting bolder, showing up in groups of two or three to snatch people right out of their hos at night."
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"Why hasn't everyone moved here and set up reinforcents and guards?"
Todd wiped his hand down his face in frustration. "Because we're all a bunch of stubborn assholes, that's why!" He breathed, calming himself. "Not assholes, I'm sorry for the language kids. It's just that - well, you know the people here. Can't nothing convince them to leave their hos. Every last one of the stubborn bastards - sorry kids - thinks they're safer in their own hos than with the group. Even as more people keep disappearing. We have entire hos being emptied out now."
Alex was silent as he considered. "How many people are missing? How many of the cannibals do you think there are? How often do they co?"
"We're missing 15 so far."
Alex sat back at that. In a town of less than 200 people having that many go missing was a huge blow.
"We don't know how many they are - they're dressed like damned wild people, sorry kids, and it's hard to even tell if they're n or won, or if they're the sa ones that have co before. As for how often - that depends on who they took. Seems like if they take a kid they're back in a day, but if they take a couple adults they can be gone for almost a week. Usually a little less, but around there. And now with this Cryptid Challenge starting tomorrow we don't have the ti to deal with this."
"How long has it been since they've been here last?"
"A week."
They all stared at each other, expressions grim.
"So, you think y'all can help us? I hate to ask it since y'all are so young, but honestly - we haven't been doing much good ourselves and y'all seem uniquely qualified to deal with this kind of threat."
"We could most likely find them," Samantha chid in. "But we are pretty specialized here. We aren't fighters. We can protect ourselves and have been in our share of fights, but not usually with people. We track, support, and help how we can, but we're no fighters. Our badges don't give us a lot of skills in that regard."
"Excuse ," Emily held up her hand. The young scout was a ghost in the night, which was at odds with her thin, adorable looks. She was 15 years old and looked waspish enough for a strong wind to blow her away. Todd had to remind himself that each of these kids had seen more ti in the field since The System had arrived than most of their residents. "Shouldn't we just let the Cryptid Challenge take care of them? It seems like it'll be dangerous, especially for small groups out on their own."
"Yeah," Todd said, "that's about the consensus here too. Everyone is happy to put their heads in the sand and just protect their own hos. We got enough issues with the Challenge starting up, I don't want us facing a two-front war here."
Alex had his chin in his hands in thought. Everyone looked at him, waiting. Finally he sat upright. "Good point Em, but I think we need to do sothing about it. People don't need to eat anymore - we only do it for the benefits that Jake's food provides. That tells that these cannibals likely have classes related to eating people, which ans they get stronger for it."
"Oh sweet Jesus - sorry kids," Todd said. "This blasted System and its perverse way of making us stronger. I can't believe it'd reward sothing like that."
"Seems like it rewards anything, as long as the people get good at it," Sam said.
"I agree," Alex said, "which is why I think we need to take care of this now. If it takes them a week to eat two adults then we're probably looking at a group of 10 - 15 people. Maybe less, maybe more if this isn't the only town they're kidnapping people from."
"Oh god, I hadn't even thought about that!" Todd covered his mouth in his hands in shock at the realization. "There's small towns and residences all over these mountains. Not a ton, to be sure, but probably a thousand or two people within a few day's walking distance in any direction.
"Right," Alex said, "which tells that one of two things is likely to happen when the Challenge starts. One, they're going to realize they're not strong enough and will need to grow their classes and gain levels. To do that they'll need to start taking a lot more people and eating them a lot faster."
"That's horrific! What's option two?"
"They discover they can eat the creatures from the Challenge. That ans that by the end of the Challenge they'd be much, much stronger than they are now."
"Oh fu - sorry kids. Oh my god, that is… I guess it don't matter which way it goes, both spell death for us here."
"You could just move," Emily said. "Get everyone out of the area and down to Boise."
Todd shook his head. "No chance of that, I'm afraid. Much as I'd support it, you'd be lucky to get half a dozen people to pack up their hos. We're a proud group up here - too proud sotis. They'll live or die here."
"Then in that case I only see two things we need to do," Alex said. "First, Ben and Liam help you build up your fortifications. I know they are young but Ben is the best architect you'll find - he has three synergies, all of them related to building and fortifications. Liam is more of a tech specialist but he has synergies directly related to ergency fortifications." The two boys bead at the praise, straightening in their chairs and giving each other a high-five.
"The second is that we go hunt down this tribe of cannibals and take them out. Em is a scout and can find anyone. She'll get in and out without anyone seeing her - she can do recon. Olivia has synergies that give her water-based skills. Mostly they're for obscuring the area and manipulating water, but she can cause so damage and can help us escape if we need it. I have a synergy that lets do so fighting, but it's not great."
"I can do so support," Sam said. "If you have any trained animals here that you're willing to part with they can help out too - the tougher or more dangerous the animal, the more they'll help. I can do so healing in the field so I don't think we'll need Mia to co with us."
"But I can help!" Mia whined from the end of the table. "You guys always leave out of the super dangerous stuff!"
Alex smiled warmly at her. "I know you can help, Mia, you've saved us more than anyone. But your synergies are all healing and we will be in a fight. You may be needed here, to heal anyone that is injured by the creatures from the Cryptid Challenge. You'll be the most important person here."
The girl was mollified, if reluctantly. She nodded with a sniffle. "I always get left out of the fun stuff. How am I supposed to get my other badges if you guys never let fight anything!"
Olivia ruffled the girl's hair, much to her chagrin. "You'll get plenty of chances later! Right now they need you here. People are going to get hurt."
Mia nodded soberly, straightening her long, black hair. "Fine. But you better bring back sothing cool!"
Sam laughed. "You'll get first pick, Paini." Mia smiled at being called 'little sister' in her native Punjab.
"Okay, so we don't have a lot of ti," Alex brought everyone's attention back to the matters at hand. "The Challenge starts tomorrow morning and you all aren't ready yet. Todd, you are going to get everyone you can to shelter here. I know it'll be hard, but you have to do it. I don't care what it takes, you get them here. Ben and Liam, you two are going to fortify this place as best you can. We don't know what's coming so don't get fancy - just make the walls, windows, and doors as strong as possible and create so barricades and fall-back points. Myself, Sam, and Olivia are going to leave tonight to try find this group."
"Speaking of that," he fixed Todd with another look. "We need two of your best fighters or marksn. Do you have anything like that here?"
"Yeah, plenty of marksn, although not a lot that will want to leave their families. I don't know about fighters - haven't really had much cause for that up here. We've gotten plenty of beasties, but nothing that sparked any fighter-specific classes, as far as I know. I'll get the word out tonight. I have a skill that lets communicate with everyone in this town through The System, like text ssages from before. Cos with being Governor I guess."
"Good," Alex nodded. "Get anyone here who is willing to volunteer so we can interview them. I want to leave within two hours, so they need to be quick."
"But first!" A cheerful voice called out from the kitchen as Jake erged from the door with steaming plates. "We eat!"
The tension that had been hanging in the air since they arrived dissipated with the scents and tastes of food that healed the body and soul.
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