Exodus: The Assassin's Path 38 Travel Day

The VR chamber opened with a 'hiss' as he exited quietly. He glanced at the clock near his bed.. 0300, 'd.a.m.n, still so early. Quinn covered a yawn as he got undressed and crawled into bed. 'Some real sleep for once.' He fell asleep almost instantly.

A soft body moving next to him, drew him out of his slumber. He opened one eye.. "Oh G.o.d Tal, it is too early!!"

"Too early for what Quinn?" She smiled at him and placed a warm hand on his bare chest.

"um.... Okay, what are you doing?" If he hadn't been awake before, he certainly was now.

Her blonde hair was loose for once, it hung over her shoulders as she leaned against him. "I'm going to say thank you Quinn."

"d.a.m.n you smell nice," Quinn started to roll out of bed, but Tal hooked an elbow through his and pulled him back. He tried not to laugh, " hey you are freaking me out."

Tal stared at him, slowly moving until she was straddling his hips. "If that freaks you out Little Q, then what happens next, might be too much for you."

"Too much, too much!!" Quinn started to sit up, only to be pushed back down into his mattress. Tal's soft lips pressing lightly against his, her teeth nipping his lower lip.

After a moment she sat upright, her full lips were wet from kissing him, she grabbed Quinn's hands and moved them to her hips. "So.. it's no good then?" Her smile could have sunk an entire fleet of battles.h.i.+ps.

"Good? I don't think this fits on the good scale Tal." Her hips were nicely muscled, Quinn naturally gave them a squeeze.."

"Oh I see, so it's a yes." She bent down slowly, until her b.r.e.a.s.t.s pushed against him, her soft red hair falling against his shoulders.

"Hey.. why did your hair change color Tal?"

Quinn's body jerked upright in bed, his breathe coming in great gasps. He glanced around his dark room. No one. "You have got to be kidding me."

Quinn turned until his feet were on the soft carpet of his room. He exhaled loudly while tying up his

dark hair, "that was..... unsettling." He could hear the clinking of someone moving dishes in the kitchen. Taking a look at his clock, 0700, has to be Tal.

He slid on a pair of running shorts, grabbed a t-s.h.i.+rt from his dresser, and then managed to close the drawer on his fingers when he shut it.

"Oh G.o.d... sweet mother." Quinn grabbed his fingers as he gritted his teeth. 'That hurt, that hurt, that hurt.'

He bounded down the stairs, still shaking his hand when Tal stepped out of the kitchen area.

"Going for a run Quinn?" Tal wore a workout s.h.i.+rt along with a pair of spandex biking shorts. "I can't run obviously, but we should workout together sometime."

Quinn scowled at her. "Don't start any more trouble Tal!" He slid on his running shoes and stomped out the door.

"What does that mean?" A confused Tal watched him leave. "That was strange, even by Quinn's standards."

By the time Quinn had arrived at his favorite park, he had forgot all about the morning's events. A few sets of pull-ups had Quinn feeling like his old self.

Tal was sitting at the kitchen table sipping coffee when Quinn returned. They smiled at one another, each for different reasons.

"You okay little Q?" Her warm blue eyes following him.

Quinn gave her a glance, she had her hair down, she barely ever had done that in the past. The last few days had been really good for her. The cloud Tal had been living under, had finally rained itself out.

"Yep, just a bit unsettled by a dream I had." He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and sat down next to her.

"Nightmare? or Good dream?" She slid her plate over to him, she had only eaten half of her bagel.

He flashed a smile at her, trying to stifle a laugh. "Undecided."

"Oh this does sound interesting.. Was I in the dream?" Tal decided she'd tease him a bit.

Quinn ignored the provocation and nodded. "Yep."

"What was I doing?" She took a sip of her coffee, while she watched him eat.

Q shrugged. "Me, I guess."

*Cough* *Cough*

Tal sputtered and burned her lips on her coffee.

"Serves you right!" He laughed at her and headed for the stairs.

"Hey.. you can't say something like that and leave!" She watched him bound up the stairs two at a time.

"Can," he called back as he entered his room.

Quinn applied some paste to his toothbrush and stepped into the shower. A pink sports bra was hanging from his shower head. He grabbed it and tossed it at the counter. "Isn't there six d.a.m.n bathrooms in this house?" He carefully noted that it definitely wouldn't be Tal's, 'way too small. '

By the time he came out of his room, the rest of the house was awake. Quinn meandered down the stairs, noticing that Pops and Anna were sitting on the couch having some coffee. Tal made a world cla.s.s cup of coffee.

He plopped down beside Anna and slid the ottoman closer, before putting his feet up.

"How did the rescue OP go last night?" Anna had fallen asleep almost immediately after dinner, she had been working hard.

"A resounding success." Quinn noticed she was eating part of a doughnut. "Do we have doughnuts?" 'A private stash perhaps?'

She scooted closer to Quinn so that she could share the ottoman. "This something I'm going to hear about today?"

Quinn nodded. "Probably."

"Wonderful," she finished the rest of her doughnut before Quinn could try and s.n.a.t.c.h it.

Quinn made a face at her and then turned to Pops. "You do a lot of research into TAP Pops?"

Ben Joki was not just a renown Economist, but he was also scholar. He was curious about anything new.

"Yes, I did quite a bit of research when you first mentioned TAP."

"Okay then, I could use a few explanations. Don't be afraid to dumb it down for me." Originally

Quinn thought that he shared a commonality with Anna, that was before he found out she had finished second in her cla.s.s at Yale Law School.

Ben closed the book he was reading and waited for the questions. Although Quinn wasn't a genius on paper, Ben knew he was exceedingly sharp. His comprehension and problem solving abilities, were nothing short of astounding.

"First.. how is this 'time' thing working in the game. Take Mojo for instance, she is suppose to be few hundred years old, this game is only 10 years old.

"Let's start at the beginning Quinn." Ben went straight into lecture mode. "The game is actually 25 years old, it was only opened for release 10 years ago."

"So it was playable for 15 years before release?" Quinn paid attention to every word Ben said, he was an encyclopedia of everything.

"Yes, the world had been built. The cultures and histories were being developed."

"How do you create a history and culture that is thousands of years old, in only a few years." Quinn had an inkling, but he wanted to know for sure.

"In a Virtual World, as long as all the occupants are math based, every part of time can be manipulated. You can speed up time,slow it down or make it stop altogether."

"So since Mojo is 200 years old..." Anna had to ask.

"She is that age in TAP. She probably remembers events from decades ago. Those 15 years of 'real time' were when these events happened. The reality inside TAP was more like thousands of years."

Quinn nodded,"It's as I guessed. Then ten years ago, according to their lore, we were able to establish a portal to their world."

Ben nodded, "Correct, it really is an amazing development. I know of a handful of brilliant Anthropologists who are studying the different cultures in TAP."

"Hey.. where's Tal and Ren?" Quinn hadn't seen either one of them walking around since they started talking.

"Tal took her to physical therapy. She has to go a few days a week until she rebuilds her muscles." Pops stood up and walked toward his room.

"Hey pops, we need to start paying our faction members, including the character ones." Quinn had given Pops 500 thousand credits, but that wouldn't go very far.

Ben stopped halfway before his room, "we've about 2 million in liquid a.s.sets currently, perhaps another 800 thousand in long-term sell-able items."

"...." Quinn.

'...." Anna.

"I want my credits back you pirate!!" Quinn called after him as he walked away.

"That's crazy..." Anna shook her head in disbelief.

Quinn agreed. "Hey I need two things. Don't dig deep, I just want to know who has it in for HYLO. Do they have any enemies in the corporate world?"

Anna took out a notebook she had sitting next to her and jotted down a few things. "Off the top of my head I can tell you that Orion media wouldn't cry if HYLO were to unexpectedly burn to the ground."

"Really? I didn't expect that, considering Orion is in VR games." Quinn inhaled deeply, "hey your hair smells really nice."

Anna pointed at herself, "this girl borrowed some of your shampoo, and she loves it!" She leaned forward and smelled Quinn's hair, "I know you put something in it."

Quinn frowned at her. "Gonna put some bleach in it."

"Hey. Can't we all share a bit?" Anna looped her arm through his and smiled.

"Hmm... you didn't share that doughnut you had." Q freed his arm and nudged her legs off the ottoman with his feet.

"Oi.. Don't push me string-bean!" Anna gave him her best glare.

Quinn laughed and stood up. "I'm curious as to what a hundred pound corporate lawyer is gonna do to me."

Anna scowled at him as walked toward the stairs. "Hey! What was the second thing you needed boss man?"

"Kindly remove all female undergarment-type apparel from my bathroom... posthaste!!"

Quinn walked into his room, instead of entering the VR chamber, he grabbed his helm and lay down on his bed.

"Log On TAP."

TAP Interface Acquired.

Synchronizing character data.....

Welcome Back Q, find your path!

Q smiled as he brushed Leah's hair out of his face. She hadn't moved since he left, she must have been exhausted. Quietly he slid out of the bedroll and got dressed. He spied the Adventurer bag right where he had left it.

He slung the bag over his back and started out the exit.

"Just going to leave me here by myself?" Leah had sat up in the bedroll. Her red hair was crazily going in all directions.

Q dropped the bag by the entrance and walked back toward her. "Nope."

"Leah?"

A voice from outside the tent called and a moment later Mojo stepped in.

She smiled at the two of them, "sorry to interrupt."

"Lets meet up by the cooking fire." Q gave Mojo a blank stare, then picked up the pack and exited the tent.

Jinn, Rhapsody and Onion were sitting around the table looking at a 3-D map of the area. Crow was sitting by herself a few yards away.

Q smiled when he saw them.

System Message: Tormented Rhapsody has become one of your followers.

System Message: Tormented Rhapsody has joined the Fora Development Group Faction.

System Message: Sinful Jinn has become one of your followers.

System Message: Sinful Jinn has joined the Fora Development Group Faction

Sir Tormented Rhapsody

Level 51

Base Cla.s.s: Ranger

Sub Cla.s.s: Dryad TAP Cla.s.s: Natural Born Killer

Special Cla.s.s: Knight of Fora

Statistics

Strength 40

Endurance 43

Intelligence 43

Agility 45

Luck 43

Charisma 49

Sinful Jinn

Level 46

Base Cla.s.s:Troupe Master

Sub Cla.s.s:Dancer TAP Cla.s.s: Illusionist

Statistics

Strength 31

Endurance 29

Intelligence 45

Agility 40

Luck 27

Charisma 44

"I see I'm not the only one whose been leveling up." Q sat down next to onion and glanced over at Crow, "join us please."

Crow frowned and looked like she wanted to say no, but then got up and took a seat next to Q. Mojo and Leah walked up at this time, Mojo had the Crystal chest under one arm. "This is yours by rights." She handed the chest to Q.

"Found this also." He brought out the adventurers bag he had nabbed on the way out of the caverns.

Q opened up the Adventurer's Bag first.

Bran's Journal

Description: This contains

the jottings of a gnome engineer.

Q shrugged unimpressed. "I'll let Remmy look at it."

Quinn next pulled out two folded up pieces of paper.

Blue Print: Cloud Walker

Description: Detailed plans

on how to construct a personal

flying device.

Blue Print: Grappling Device

Description: Detailed plans

on how to construction Bracer

Grappling hooks.

"Hmm.. probably no one wants a flying device?" Q said with a straight face, he could feel them all staring.

"Hmm, those could really tilt things in our favor." Mojo's lavender eyes sparkled as she stared at the blueprints.

Q nodded and sent it directly to Remmy, along with Bran's Journal. "Raise your hand if you want one of the prototypes!"

Everyone's hand went up, even Crow, who had been pretending she wasn't interested.

"I'll make sure those involved in the rescue get the first ones." Q scratched his chin, "you all have my thanks. I should have said that earlier."

Mojo had her arm looped through Leah's. "We can't afford to lose our Apple Princess."

Leah's face turned slightly red, "thank you everyone."

Rhapsody was staring hard at the crystal chest, "quit stalling Q. What else is in the bag?"

Jinn covered her friends mouth, "you're welcome Leah."

Next Q pulled out a Black bracer.

Pins and Needles

Blowgun:Heroic

Description: Requires a

Ephryn Cartridge. Bracer

can fire five times before

reloading.

Additional Effect: Damage to

eyes from Pins and Needles is

permanent.

"Your weapon was damaged fighting spiders right?" Q handed her the bracer. "I don't know what an Ephryn Cartridge is."

"Remmy makes them, I'll get some from her." Leah slipped the bracer over her wrists and nodded to herself.

Mask of Fortune

Disguise:Unique

Wearer can change their

appearance and voice.

Q tossed it to Mojo, "keep this for our Shadow team, it might come in handy."

Q put the empty bag aside and slowly opened the Crystal Chest.

System Message: 44 million credits has been deposited into your inventory.

Q immediately opened up trade windows with Crow, Mojo, Jinn and Rhapsody, giving them each 10 million credits.

Even the stoic Crow stared at Q in shock.

"Coming to my a.s.sistance in that miserably dark place, nothing else needs to be said about it." Q moved on, ignoring the complete silence.

He glanced up at Mojo when he noticed the next item. "Guess this is yours."

Dark Queen

Dagger:Legendary

First Strike Banishes

Target, effect is permanent.

One time use.

1/1

Requirement:Dark Elf

"Banishes? What kind of effect is that?" Q asked looking at her.

"How... how can that be here? It's been lost for.." She quickly nabbed it from Q and held it against her chest. "Q'Ikah! This is the one of the royal heirlooms!"

Rhapsody was staring at it, "that's a really big deal I take it?"

Mojo nodded, "with this my family can move to the front of the line." She stopped talking, as if she said too much. "Thank you Q'Ikah."

Q shrugged. "Thank yourself, it's not like you didn't help."

Deed: Luxury Cottage

Unique: Temporary

Description: Can only be set up on

owners property or on unclaimed

Lands in TAP territory. Must remain for

1 day before moving.

Q laughed at the faces staring at him, "yeah, this is mine."

"Hey Q! You already have a place! Two places in fact." Jinn made a dive for the deed while Rhapsody jumped on his back.

Q quickly put it in his inventory, laughing at their antics. "d.a.m.n... both you two have your own houses to build anyway."

Q pulled the last item out of the chest. "Of course..."

Spider Queen Egg

Embryo: Legendary

Description: This is a Spider

Queen Egg, use extreme

caution.

Q's laughter echoed through the tent. "Ain't that flipping awesome. The spider nemesis gets a spider egg."

He turned it over in his hand. It was actually quite warm. "Bet it taste good scrambled..."

"Q, you wouldn't eat that right?" Leah was looking at him with pretty green eyes.

"Umm.. well, yeah I might. Who knows it might make a super omelette that shoots me up 20 levels."

Q licked his lips as he eyed the cooking fire.

"...." Jinn.

"...." Rhapsody.

"...." Mojo.

"Hmm, I'll try some then." Crow spoke up, causing everyone to stare.

Q nodded to her. "See that? Smart girl."

Q withered under the stares of his friends and put the egg in his bag. 'I'll be seeing you later.'

An hour later the small group were on horseback riding toward Talon. Q had told Crow that she was the new Survey Chief for the camp, and left her in charge.

Q glanced over at Onion, who seemed surprised that he going with them. "Some pvp experience will do you good."

"Make sure to bring Daze back something nice Onion." Jinn reminded him, she was riding behind them with Rhapsody.

"What? I'm not sure what you mean." Onion turned red and stared at the back of his horses head.

Q laughed at him. "Hey.. Daze is awesome, I think the two of you fit nicely."

"Yep." Jinn agreed.

"Same here." Rhapsody gave him a thumbs up.

Half a day later the small group entered Talon, they had taken it slow because Leah was still recovering. She had spent most of the day in front talking with Mojo, although every once in a while she would sneak back and visit Q.

Q stood in front to the portal, "we'll be porting directly to Zohai. Make sure you choose the right destination."

"Hey... didn't you tell me we were going to Eidelyn, when we stopped for lunch?" Rhapsody narrowed her eyes at him.

"Hmm.. Did I? My mistake." Q grabbed Leah's hand and stepped into the portal. The rest of the group did the same.

A few moments after they left, a dark figure appeared out of the shadows and followed them.