Sedona Airport Terminal, Sedona, Arizona - 6:21 PM


    With the Red Oracle as an escort, I was allowed into the building where the town hall would be held. The guards out front looked ready to argue, but turned their heads instead. It was easy to tell that they weren’t a part of the faction that knelt to her out there. She passed a note to one of them before we entered.


    As it turned out, she was just as unpopular with other strong individuals as she was with me.


    The room was set up with a black metal podium between a white board and rows of folding chairs. There were at least forty people in the room, and they all seemed wary of the Red Oracle and her newest friend. Not enough to do something about her, of course. She might have a way of ruffling feathers, but she was a net good for the people of Sedona all around despite her strange powers.


    “Damnit, Louise, you can’t keep showing up late to these things,” an armored man with a thick Mexican accent said the moment we stepped into the meeting room. He locked eyes with me from behind the podium and threw up his hands. “And you can’t keep bringing in strays to feed! If they don’t have anything to say about what we’re talking about, you leave them outside, you hear?”


    “This man is my guest, Antonio, and will be treated with respect,” the Red Oracle—Louise, apparently—said firmly before pointing me in the direction of the food table. “Feel free to have as much as you like, Mr. Franklin. It’s for everyone.”


    I glanced towards the table, but my attention was everywhere else. The man who had taken umbrage with us was Antonio Luna, the most powerful man in Sedona. His faction was often at odds with the Red Oracle’s, thinking themselves strong enough to handle the scenarios properly and not just be a resort city in the apocalypse.


    Antonio had earned his pride, at least, though I still knew him to be too arrogant. He would settle down eventually with time, but now that the scenario had been finished without his help I could tell that he didn’t want to sit still. His aura was all fired up, just like those closest to him.


    The others in the room that weren’t a part of his group seemed more conflicted. If the choice was between staying and defending their home and leaving for somewhere safer, then it was understandable. Most of these people grew up here and the shock of losing their safe space was a big one.


    “Stop that,” Antonio said with a scowl. “I don’t care if you’re Louise’s guest or not, Mr. Franklin. You will pull in your invasive aura or it will be done for you.”


    “Sure,” I replied, holding back a chuckle. After I retracted my awareness, I Lifted a sandwich and put it on a plate before Pulling that and a bottle of water towards me. That grabbed the attention of the people, but I ignored them. Letting the plate hover, I turned towards Louise after checking the food. “What kind of meat is this?”


    “Some kind of dinosaur today, I believe,” she answered before pausing. “Yes, something I’m not even going to try to pronounce, but it’s apparently very good.”


    “Fancy meat for an event like this,” I said before taking a bite. I began nodding; the meat was a little thin and chewy, but there was a subtle flavor that meshed well with tomato and onions and lingered on the tongue. “Alright, that is good. I’ll admit I was a little skeptical given the fact that the meat used to be extinct.”


    “That’s all thanks to Henrietta,” Louise said, ignoring the stares we were getting. “The dear girl has the Platinum Chef class. She caters all of these events. I can introduce you before you leave, if you like.”


    “You’d let me stay here for that long? Didn’t you want me gone because I was too dangerous?” I asked before taking another bite.


    “Of course you would say that here,” she said, gently striking me on the arm. “If you’re helping, then I don’t mind. However, everyone else is getting fed up with us. Why don’t we take our seats and, when it’s our turn, we’ll make our case.”


    “Lead the way,” I said, gesturing her forward. She nodded and I followed her to the front row.


    “Thank you,” Antonio said dryly. People started shuffling to sit, and it became obvious that they had been waiting for Louise.


    I leaned forward. Not only was this something that I hadn’t seen before, so it was new and shiny, but it was clear Louise wanted me to flex for her benefit. That wasn’t something I would normally do, but she was right that the people needed to be evacuated.


    Once everyone was seated, the Red Oracle sitting directly in front of the podium, Antonio started.


    “As you all know, I’ve been traveling between here and Flagstaff to see what the situation has been like for everywhere else. The news that I’ve brought back has been dire, dreadful, and, quite frankly, terrifying. Now, I’ve been saying for a while that we need to stop being stuck in place, that the administrators or whoever don’t have our best interest at heart, and we need to get stronger, all of us.”


    Antonio’s gaze panned across the room, though he avoided Louise and me. We weren’t the ones he needed to convince.


    “My team and I have been working tirelessly towards gaining points while we waited in this so-called paradise. We learned the ins and outs of the area, where the weakest monsters spawned, where the strongest ones nested, and everything in between. I understand that many of us chose classes based on construction, cooking, logistics, and other necessities. Those people provide vital services, and that’s not who I’m here to talk about.”


    He tapped his finger on the desk twice. “We need to arm ourselves as a community. Some of us have guns, yes, but that isn’t the part of the second amendment that is our ticket out of this mess. The well-regulated militia part is.”


    “Amen to that!” I cheered, agreeing.


    Antonio faltered as he wasn’t expecting to be interrupted, but picked it back up smoothly with only a confused glare at me. “Our ticket out of all of this is only good if we bring in more people from the community to fight. Is it easy? No. Is it gross? Oftentimes, yes. But is it necessary? Well, fuck yeah it is.”


    He banged his fist on the podium and there were some words of approval. “Sedona is home. Like most of you, I grew up here. Jimmy, Leslie and I graduated high school together,” he said, pointing at two people as if that proved his point. “We don’t have to leave just because the safe zone is smaller. It just means that we have to protect it better. The community was given the chance to do that. ‘Don’t worry,’ we were told. ‘As long as nothing happens to the scenario, then you will be safe.’ Well, look at us now.”


    “We don’t have enough people to protect everyone who has to live outside of the safe zone and go out to get stronger,” a man at the end of the front row said, standing up. “This is something Antonio has been saying since the tutorial, and most people have ignored it because they felt safe enough in this strange new world. The Sedona Militia can handle this, but only if we get more volunteers.”


    “We’re not forcing people to join the militia,” someone else from the back said.


    “And I don’t want to,” Antonio replied. “But the people need to see the kind of situation we’re in. Once they have, there will be a surge of volunteers. I know it. The last I checked, we had 9,000 survivors living in Sedona, but in the two days that the scenario hasn’t been shielding us, Harold says we’re already down to 8,000. Everybody knows someone who’s been taken over by one of these invasive brain worms and led off to God knows where. But that’s preventable with power, and that power can be earned.”This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    He pointed at Louise, who had produced a can of Pepsi and had lifted her hood to sip it. “I respect the Red Oracle. I do. But I cannot agree with her on this. She wants us to leave because it’s dangerous, but she hasn’t thought about what would happen if we suddenly show up at Flagstaff with eight thousand people. They don’t have the resources for us there. Staying here and rallying our forces is the only way for us to survive.”


    “This is our home, and no monster apocalypse is going to change that!” the standing man yelled.


    Without Absolute Awareness, I couldn’t tell how the people were feeling about the speech. The murmurs seemed to be in favor of staying and fighting. It was admirable, if a little misplaced.


    A man who had remained standing in the corner spoke up. “Is that all you wanted to say?”


    Antonio nodded. “I said my piece. There’s nothing more to it but to hear out Louise and get to voting.”


    “Then you’re up, Louise,” he said as Antonio and the other man sat down at the edge of the row.


    Without missing a beat, she leaned towards me. “You’re up, Mr. Franklin.”


    I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my sandwich. The speech had grabbed my attention, so I hadn’t been eating. “Can’t you handle it while I finish this?”


    “No, I think it’s best they hear from you,” she said, patting my arm.


    “And how do you want me to tell them?” I asked, standing up and setting my plate and water bottle on the podium.


    “I brought you here with little regard for your feelings and the promise that, if you help me, you’ll be rewarded,” she stated. “So I’ll let you decide. Do what you’d like.”


    Nodding, I moved to stand behind the podium. I could see everyone clearly from here. Most were curious as to who I was and didn’t try to hide it. The people belonging to Antonio’s group tried not to look intrigued, but they were watching me closer than anyone else. Even the man himself, standing off to the side with his arms crossed, had his eyes locked on me.


    “I am not one to fearmonger,” I told the crowd. “I’ve been all over the United States. From Florida, to Atlanta, to Pittsburgh. Chicago. More and more, you get the point. I’ve seen more in my time than anyone here, which Louise can attest to, as much as I hate that she can.”


    There was a lot of mumbled agreement to that statement.


    “With that out there, I have just one thing to say to you. You’re all going to die,” I said before taking another bite of my sandwich.


    A ripple went through the crowd as they all heard my simple proclamation. I hadn’t backed it with my Tyrant’s Will, but my confidence and attitude along with their rapt attention provided a similar effect.


    “That’s bullshit,” Antonio replied. “There’s—”


    “Mr. Franklin has the floor,” the mediator from before said. Antonio scowled, but leaned back against the wall.


    I swallowed the bite I had taken. “To be honest, I agree with Antonio,” I said, pointing towards him with the bottle of water before Spinning off the cap and gently Dropping it onto the podium. That didn’t go unnoticed by the audience. “Y’all really should have prepared better for this eventuality. Strength and power is the currency in today’s world, and you have allowed your people to grow lax.”


    Protests started, but I held my water bottle up as if to placate them. “It’s not your fault, I know. Moving the people towards a common goal is hard, and not everyone has what it takes to fight. I’m not going to fault them for that. I never will, because that’s just the way some people are. But I’m going to tell you something. It’s going to be the truth, and you’re not going to like it.”


    Glancing around the room, I took my time taking a drink of water. I wiped my mouth with my sleeve before I put the bottle down. “It doesn’t matter if you had started your militia a month ago or did it today. Your scenario wasn’t meant to be won. The person who came here, whoever they are, wasn’t supposed to be here.”


    “Do you know who they are?” someone asked.


    I shook my head. “No, I don’t,” I told them honestly. “But I do know that Sedona was supposed to remain a peaceful place. A resort of sorts where you all would heal Avatars of Patrons in the administrator’s name, giving little Dipper everything she wanted. Fame, prestige, the feeling that she’s not an epic screw up. Something all of them want, I’ve gathered.”


    “And how do you know that?” a woman from the back row asked.


    Louise spoke first. “Because Mr. Franklin knows about the future, Amanda, now let the man speak.”


    I gave the Red Oracle a very meaningful look, and she hesitantly nodded. It didn’t escape my notice that she used the same language I did.


    “Louise is right. I’m here because I need something, and I came here to find the future disrupted by some motorcyclist. What I see now is a place that becomes desolate and devoid of everything except your corpses. And it’s all the administrator’s fault.”


    Taking a breath, I glanced at the ceiling. “See, she was banking on Sedona being the perfect retreat. You weren’t really supposed to win the scenario, but there has to be one in a place this size. Those are the rules. You were given food, water. Kept your houses. Given a chance to get stronger with countless quests you can stumble upon if you leave the safe zone to scratch that itch for power. You were given what might have been the closest thing to perfection the system had to offer.”


    I shook my head. “But now? Her whole plan has blown up, and she doesn’t have another one. An administrator without a clue as to what happens next. So what will she do? Overcompensate. The second scenario should only be moderately harder than the first to account for growth rates, learning curves, and the like. Instead, if you stay, you are all going to die.”


    “And what can be done, Mr. Franklin?” Louise asked.


    Glancing down at her, I took the moment to finish my sandwich. “The second scenario will start soon. Three days after the first ended, if I remember right. That doesn’t give you a lot of time to evacuate. Since I came here to complete a quest, I don’t mind breaking the scenario for you instead. And, because I know y’all don’t know what that means, it’s where we skip some stages and end it before it begins.”


    “And that works?” the mediator asked.


    “Yup. Done it a few times,” I answered.


    “Okay, but you do that and we’ll have time to train the people,” Antonio argued. “We still don’t have to leave.”


    “A valid argument, but you’re thinking short term. Because after the second scenario is the third, and after that is the fourth, and so on,” I said, waving my hand. “If the administrator can’t think of anything less than apocalyptic for the town for the baby step forward, what makes you think she’s going to slow down once they start taking the training wheels off?”


    A murmur of panic passed through the crowd at my words.


    “The best thing to do is to convince the people that leaving isn’t just the best option, it’s the only option,” I said firmly. “You’ll have a little over a week to evacuate. It’s a long way, I know, and not everyone is going to be up for the trip. Train who is willing to go so they’re prepared and leave the rest. This safe zone isn’t large enough for 8,000 people, but it’ll host a fraction of that. If you think my advice is hard, then you must not have looked outside lately because that’s the world we live in now.”


    “If you’re going to break this scenario, then I’m going with you,” Antonio volunteered. “This is a Sedona problem, and I want to see what we’re going to be up against with my own eyes. To see if an evacuation is really necessary, you see.”


    “Heard and vetoed,” I responded immediately. “I’m here for a specific psychic item, and the odds of it dropping go down drastically if people of other classes come with me.”


    “Well, we aren’t going to just take you at your word,” he scoffed.


    “You won’t, provided Louise’s note was to bring what I wanted?” I asked, looking down at the old woman.


    “It’s in the building,” she confirmed. “And, you were right. Fred used the watch to practice so much that it left behind a psychic imprint. How did you think of that, by the way?”


    I shrugged. “It’s Sedona. There’s a lot of weird psychic shit going on here. It was really more of a hope than a fact I knew about in advance, but sometimes miracles do happen.”


    “Wait, Fred? Like, the Warmind?” the woman in the back asked. “What do you need a Warmind for? That class is really weak.”


    I locked eyes with the woman that Louise had called Amanda. “I’m a Warmind.”


    “And you expect us to believe that you can handle it?” Antonio asked, throwing his arms in the air. “I can’t believe this.”


    “This guy’s been talking out his ass!”


    “Totally useless.”


    “Louise?” I asked.


    She sighed and waved her hand. “Go ahead.”


    Grabbing my plate and water bottle, I Lifted the black metal podium off of the ground. I started using Bend at various points on the three sides in quick succession to make good use of my least used ability. It began folding like an accordion, pressed smaller and smaller. The sound of metal popping and bending out of place permeated the room until I had made it much, much smaller.


    “Warmind,” I said before gently Pushing it towards Antonio. He grabbed the scrap metal out of the air, unsure of what to do about it. “You’ll get proof because I’m going to need someone to accompany me. For the best results I’ll need someone who hasn’t picked a class, is willing to fight for the city, and has been offered a psychic class before. This will be good for all of you, too.”


    “Tell them why, Mr. Franklin,” Louise requested, obviously very amused by Antonio as he passed off the podium.


    “Because I’m going to give them almost everything they need to excel. Points for their stats, points for their ability, and, while I’m here, instructions on how to be the best they can be.” My eyes scanned the room. “People of Sedona, I’m going to help someone become your very own proper Warmind protector.”