Exodus: The Assassin's Path 92 Three Signatures

Two weeks quickly went by in TAP. Naomi Gajendra signed the agreement to join the faculty at the Fora Academy. During that time she had made the trip to Vegas and had moved her things into the house next store. She had seemed a bit tentative about living by herself, so Jinn and Ro-Ro volunteered to join her, Anna and Tal had protested their departure. Quinn and Tal had torn down the side fence between the two houses, essentially making one huge fenced in yard. It was Tal's idea, so they could share the yard and pool.

Em had returned from Maine with good news. The old fishermen from Portside had been resistant to the idea, but when she walked them through the process and took them to the sh.o.r.e in TAP, all of them stared at the coast in wonder. She had managed to set up two dozen VR chambers in the old cannery that Anna had purchased. Although she loved rooming with Ren, Em moved upstairs to the room Ro-Ro and Jinn vacated.

While she was away, Quinn visited Q-Town, originally he was going to grab ten thousand acres outside of town for their business. However, when he brought the 3-D map up, he discovered that he could elongate the 10 thousand acres. Instead of buying a square plot of land he stretched it into a very narrow rectangle that extended for 30 miles of coastline. Em had sent complete scans of the cannery, and he had been able to duplicate the specifications exactly, the old Cannery had been rebuilt in Q-Town.

Concert Hall was able to successfully capture Ro-Avriel, it was Jangles intent to move his entire guild into the floating city after he refurbished it. After the raid, Fora started streaming the locations of all the Avriel cities in real time. No longer would they move through TAP unnoticed.

It had also been two weeks since Quinn had put out the Great Fora Land Rush Quest.

Ma.s.s Quest: Great Fora Land Rush

Legendary Quest

Description: Bring your family

and a wagon to Fora in 2 weeks at

Noon. Race to stake your claim, before

someone else gets it.

Reward: 200 acres of land.

***********

Quinn finished his morning workout and logged into Exodus. He took the Exodus portal directly to Fora HQ. Mojo, Tal, Ro-Ro, and Jinn were sitting at the conference table.

There was a 3-D map of Fora displayed on the table hud. Quinn could see the grid lines. "How's it looking?"

Mojo frowned at him, "giving away 200-acre plots? Do you have any idea how many people are out there?"

"It has worked before, the idea is solid." Quinn smiled as he sat down next to the Dark Elf.

"Worked before?" Mojo shook her head, "who gives away free land?"

Jinn smiled at her former student, "and here I thought you didn't pay attention in cla.s.s."

Quinn frowned at her, "The Great Land Rush of 1879."

"1889 actually, but still very impressive." Jinn laughed at the look on his face.

"Right... that's what I said." Quinn and Remmy had made a starting line roughly three miles long. The partic.i.p.ants had access to the grid map of Fora with all the eligible plots. All they had to do was bring the stake they were given and drive it into the ground on the land they were claiming.

Tal whistled, "the hud says there are just over thirty thousand people lined up."

Mojo brought up another screen, "about seventy percent of those are NPCs from other countries. The rest are mostly production Halfling players."

"Let's watch the fun." Quinn brought up Yu's broadcast.

*Zoom in on Leah and Remmy as the flying platform moves away from the starting line.*

(Daiyu) Good Afternoon everyone. We are here in Fora to witness an unprecedented event. Fora is giving away 200-acre plots of land for farming and ranching. They are calling it the Pioneer Quest, and it is the single most largest Ma.s.s Quest in TAP history. We are just a minute from the start, the always beautiful Leah Fintree will fire the cannon.

It had only take Remmy a few hours to make an old fas.h.i.+on cannon to Quinn's specifications, all Leah had to do was pull a lever.

"Hmm... maybe we should have test fired this first." Remmy's sweet face smiled up at Leah.

"Hey, aren't you the engineer here? Safety first!" Leah did not want to blow up in front of all these people. "I should have put a cleric on standby."

Remmy laughed at the panicked look on her face. "We'll be fine... although I did enjoy blowing everyone one up in the Exodus Arena."

"....." Leah.

Remmy hugged her waist. "I won't let you down, promise."

*Zoom in tight on Leah...*

Leah started waving to the crowd as the counter approached ten seconds. As soon as they focused on Leah, most of Exodus picked up the live stream. Leah was by far the most popular in TAP, she had long exceeded both Quinn and Jangles.

(Daiyu) "Here we go... 5...4...3...2...1..."

*BOOM*

Leah and Remmy were engulfed in a cloud of white smoke as the cannon fired and 30 thousand pioneers raced for their plot.

Quinn clapped from his seat at the table, he was going to pull the lever, but Daiyu had mentioned that they'd get triple the views if Leah did it.

While the rest of the group were watching the pioneers race off, he strolled to the back of the Warehouse. Nuna was behind the service counter, going through inventory.

"Hey, Nuna!"

The Halfling Quartermaster looked up from the counter. She had curly black hair down to her shoulders, a cute round nose with just a hint of freckles. "Quinn!"

Quinn leaned on the counter, taking a look supply section Nuna had built. "Wow, amazing work Nuna."

"It was super fun too!" She had been surprised at the scope of their inventory, they literally have more stuff than she'd ever seen. She had directed Pop to sell off large portions. As it stood now, every member of Task Force Raven either wore Legendary gear or had it waiting for them when they reached a high enough level. "The help is great too!"

Ru looked up at the sound of voices, she had her violet hair tied in a ponytail. She walked over with her arms full of wooden spokes. "I thought we'd have more left over then this!"

When Quinn first made the Quest, he had tasked a half dozen carpenters with building wagons. They had worked non-stop for two weeks and had sold every one they made. Q hadn't asked for a cut of the profit, he knew that some of the pioneer families had shown up on foot. "Hang on to these Nuna, if the Land Rush is a success, we may do it again in the future."

Quinn helped them inventory items for a while, making sure to keep an eye on the time. In the end, it seems he didn't have too, Jinn arrived at the service desk to fetch him.

"Time to go Quinn." Jinn hid her smile when she saw him, he was sitting on the floor counting and cla.s.sifying daggers.

He looked up when he heard his name, "oh okay... did you realize how many daggers we have? Some of this stuff is incredible."

Jinn knew that there was at least two full Infinity Well vaults worth of stuff that Quinn had brought back. That plus Ba'Avriel, the Covenant Camps and Ravenwood made Fora very well off.

Quinn walked back to the front with Jinn, "oh hey, I hear congratulations is in order."

Jinn smiled, her pale face blus.h.i.+ng slightly. Unexpectedly Tal had asked her to teach in her department, she had immediately said yes. "You are going to have some sort of position at the Academy right?"

Quinn nodded, "yep, head janitor. There's going to be a broom closet with my name on it."

"...." Jinn.

"Oi... what's with that face? Seriously, what could they learn from me?" Quinn wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"Hmm.. nothing good probably." Jinn slid her arm through his, "I'm to escort you directly to the Academy Quinn!"

Quinn made a face at her, "really? Under whose orders?"

"Talia, Leah, and Mojo." Jinn smiled as his expression turned unreadable.

Quinn cleared his throat, "well then, I suppose we should get going."

They took the portal from HQ and arrived a few minutes later at the front gate. The six department heads were all standing around in small groups talking. Apparently, they had been very busy, there were just over fifty teachers gathered.

Quinn wasn't sure why he had to come, he opened the front gate and the Department Heads brought their subordinates to their respective areas. In the end, it was just him, Mojo and Leah.

"Well... perhaps we didn't have to come?" Mojo stated the obvious.

Quinn smiled as he slowly made his way toward the Aquatic Center.

Leah's freckled nose wrinkled slightly when she realized his destination. "Since we seem to have some time." She grabbed Mojo's hand and pulled her along.

*******

Three hours later, Quinn, Mojo and Leah met up with the faculty again at a Mixer that the Songbird was putting on. As soon as they walked in, he was grabbed by Kora and dragged off to meet her staff.

Kora introduced him to two of her former students, both experts in various disciplines. Quinn listened closely as they started talking about grappling.

A few minutes later Quinn spotted the pale blue hair of Lara as she knelt next to the table Leah was sitting at. She handed the redhead a pen and paper and then pointed Quinn out. Leah grinned at him and signed right away. Lara mouthed, "that's one!"

"The h.e.l.l is that..." Quinn kept his eye on her as he continued to discuss grappling holds with Kora, the Songbird leader next approached Mojo. Mora Jol glanced up at Quinn, a small smile on her face as she signed. Lara gave him the peace sign signifying another signature.

He excused himself and tried to head her off before she got to Tal, Remmy, however, hugged him around the waist just long enough to stall him. When he finally extracted himself, Lara was holding up three fingers.

"What gives Lara?" Quinn crossed his arms in front of his chest, he had a bad feeling.

"Hmm? You don't remember your solemn promise? All I needed was three signatures for a kiss." Lara's pretty face was slowly turning red, but she wasn't backing down.

"You can't be serious." Quinn hadn't thought she'd follow up, apparently, his Op Leader was very stubborn.

"Here works for me, Commander." She took a step closer to him, her lips parting in a smile."

"What? G.o.d ... no, not here." Quinn stomped up the stairs to the Songbird and waited next to her door.

"Room 211, I'm touched that you remember Commander." Lara opened the door and waved him through, shutting it quietly behind them.

"I'm here under protest... Is that okay with you?"

Lara grinned at him and nodded, "I"m perfectly fine with that," she sat the paper on the desk and turned toward him. "Wasn't really that hard to get... now then."

She approached him and stopped a small step away. "You wouldn't short change me right?"

Quinn could smell the scent of something sweet and flowery, roses perhaps. "No, I said it, so I'll follow through."

She stepped closer suddenly as if rus.h.i.+ng before she lost her nerve, her arms went around his neck and pulled him down toward her. Her soft lips pressed against his for a long moment before parting slightly. She pushed her tongue into his mouth and wrapped one leg around the back of his to pull him closer. She kissed him a second time and then a third before he pushed her away.

"You snuck in two extras," Quinn stepped away from her, his heart beating fast. Lara's lips were red from kissing, and she gasped for air as if she'd been holding her breath.

"Well... I'm a rogue, sometimes I steal and cheat." Lara gave him an innocent smile and then walked toward the door. She stopped at the door, but didn't turn around, "thank you, Commander."

Quinn stared at her as she left. "Sorry... not going to happen again." He glanced at the paper on her desk.

Songbird Tavern Poll of the Day: What is your favorite feature on a man.

Leah Fintree: Hands

Mora Jol: Eyes

Tal: Lips.

Lara: Gullibility

"...." Quinn.

*********