Chapter 224: Melting Tension

"So, we all agree on what we need to do?"

"Beat the towers, rescue our friends, and kill the unkillable? Ya, totally agree, but, just one little thing. How do you plan to kill the mayor?" Aquina asked, walking up to me.

"I need to find more information out, but I think it's going to have to be one of those on-the-spot decisions. That is a ways away, we still have to get to these other towers."

"Then we need more than what the armory has for armor, we need to go shopping," Grace declared, pointing a finger at me.

"You can take two with you to shop, but the other three are coming with me to do the next tower."

"That is a pretty good idea Mr. Leader, Kierra, and Aquina, let's go, those for can go get some experience," Grace said, giving me her suggestive eyebrow wiggle before she turned to leave.

I rolled my eyes and looked at the group with a half-smile.

"Let's head back to the hot tub place and grab out stuff and get changed, then we can head for the next tower, Okay?"

The girls all looked at me and started walking in that direction. Wow, it was like they had all pulled the short straw, rough. Well, it is what it is, I started walking, looking at the ground, but then I ran into a faceful of the chest. This wouldn't be a bad way to go, drowned in a sea of breasts, but it was a nice refresher that I wasn't that short of a straw, just the other one.

I recovered to a standing position from the breast faceplant and the girls were all grinning at me. Well, Carly was glaring at me, so that was good enough.

"Okay, let's go!"

By the time we got back out from the empty hot tub house and to the next tower, we decided to sit and have a small picnic, just not as exciting as the last. As we ate, I noticed one of the black SUVs driving by, but it was always far away, and I didn't want to start bringing guns out yet. Everyone finished their meals and Latisha and I explained the things that happened last time. 

Carly looked a bit worried, but I summoned the Jet-Ax, and handed it to her, showing her how it worked and then how to summon the earth armor. After that, I showed the Living Rock Chains to Sandra and then her Sand Sword, and then I got Latisha hooked up with the Basic R-type sword and she pulled out Aquina's Water Pistol.

Now that the girls were all set, it was time for my single item! Cape At Hand, The original armory! I latched it around my shoulders and looked at the girls, they looked ready to kick to ass! Well, maybe not in spirit, but they had the right gear.

"Let's get going so we can have some time to relax after!"

"You know, Dave, this is really turning into a job," Latisha complained as we walked up to the sliding automatic door like the last one, but it was now shut down for repairs.

"Turning into a job? You have no idea, this is our job until we can figure out why we are all here in the first place, and how we can stop it."

"You don't want to leave if we figure out how? Go back to where we came from?" Sandra asked me.

"I don't know, I had an experience with what I thought was the real world a couple games ago, and I thought I grew up on the earth, but that's just another game world. Still, even if the earth is real, I have played there and it's only one life. I don't want to lose all of you and there aren't enough lifetimes in infinity for me to get enough time with all of you."

The girls went silent after that, looking back and forth from each other. Then they changed, but not in a magical or a transforming way. Tension melted off them, worry fell away; something had I had said had changed something deep inside of each of them. Every one of them now looked ready to kick some ass, body, mind, and spirit! 

My reassurance that I wasn't going to leave them if I found a way to get back to wherever it is this all started from, that I wouldn't take it. That was true, but I would put an end to the one cause of all of this, so I might have to go back to the beginning in order to stop this. The thing was, I didn't even know if there was a beginning, what if this was an endless loop that had no start or ends? Stupid thoughts, but valid.

I walked forward and the door opened revealing a black staircase going down; this was different. Last time it had been at the bottom of the building's floor, the lobby area, but this time there was no cloak and dagger. I guess the first one was just to get you in the door, after that you were already knee-deep in the muck, so no point in trying to hide it now. 

We all walked in together, and the door closed behind us, plunging us into darkness. Right away, torches on the walls heading down the stairway lit up. I was sure there were none there before, but there was no point in trying to reason with game logic. 

"Okay, this is different from last time so keep your guard up. We have no idea about what will be ahead, but this smells like a dungeon."

Carly sniffed the air.

"I can't smell anything, what are you going on about?"

I rolled my eyes. This was going to be quite the adventure with these three. This part made me think of Serina and Emera, and Tilly, with our dungeon adventure, but then I groaned, remembering how it actually went. I reached out to the side and grabbed a shot of vodka and downed it while the girls weren't looking. 

Here is to hoping that it wasn't the same!