After saying their goodbyes, Fredrick hung up the call, but I stayed attached to the car like a spider monkey for a few more minutes while he drove southwest. From what I could see of road signs, it seemed he was heading to the airport, which made sense as after coming in contact with me, he would need to be fully debriefed by his family before going back out.
So, after listening in on a couple more short phone calls, I let go of the car and rolled out from under it while he sped off before making my way back across town on foot and burning through the rest of my cloak’s stealth charges until I finally made it back home.
Only, there was a slight issue: no one was home yet, so instead of sitting outside and waiting for Deeana or my father to come home, I went ahead and snuck in through a window in the back of the house.
It wasn’t too difficult to pick the lock on the screen door leading to the back patio, and from there, I went to the laundry room window, which I purposely didn’t keep locked, and snuck in.
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However, upon stepping into the house, I was hit by the smell of something delicious cooking in the kitchen. Through my perception, I already knew who was cooking, but that made it all the more funny.
"Yo, did you just get back?" Throwing my hand up in a greeting, I walked in and found Brenden standing on a chair over the stove, frying up some meat.
"Yeah, you know you could have just done the family knocks, and I would have let you in; you didn’t have to sneak in through the back door like that," pausing his work, Brenden shot me a weird look as if what I had done was strange.
"I mean, yeah, I could have, but I didn’t, what of it hah, anyway, I see you capped out; I was wondering what was taking so long; you should have only been gone a week or so, but you’ve been gone over a month." Waving him off, I peeked at what he was cooking and noticed he was making enough for me to munch on, so I went ahead and began setting the kitchen table.
"Eh, ran into some trouble; that Token took me to Blizundra; I fucking hate that place; anyway, I ended up spawning at the top of one of the mountains, and it took me days just to find the first monster to fight."
"Bronze gate then, gotcha; since you said you didn’t hit any monsters, you must have had a puzzle to complete; good on you."
"Wasn’t too hard, just shape matching in a certain sequence; I put all my rewards and shit in Gnarnia, and before you complain, yes, I used your organization order; I got some good stuff."
"Oh? Like what?"
"More XP boosters, skill tickets, a lot of the same stuff you got, but I also got a couple of new facilities, which I used to upgrade the base. I got a storage facility, so all my stuff is in there." Hearing him say this, I froze and nearly dropped the stack of plates on the ground before looking over at him as if to say, SPIT IT OUT WHAT ARE THE OTHERS?
"I also got two more facilities; one is a Gravity Training Room, and the other is a dining hall, so that’s three new facilities; you should be able to complete the upgrade to Beta in there."
"Fuck yeah, good shit, little brother, I will need to make some adjustments, but yeah, I should be able to upgrade Gnarnia to Beta-Grade and give us access to the enhanced versions of those facilities. Not only that but when it reaches full Acclimation of Beta Particles, I will jump into another instance and power through to High-Alpha so that I can Rank up with you in the Gravity Room."
For the next couple of minutes, the kitchen was lively as Brenden finished cooking the meal and split it between us, but when he sat down, his childish face turned stern, and I knew he had something important to say.
"I’ve been thinking about how to Gain years on the Descent Progression, and well, I came up with an idea…but…I don’t know how viable or plausible it is." He said while cutting the large monster stake on his plate and shoving a piece into his mouth.
"Whatever or wherever it is shouldn’t be a problem; with my talent, I can get you there with relative ease; what’s the idea," I stated while carefully cutting through the meat with my knife and trying to figure out what type of monster it came from.
"April 20th 1999…." Brenden said, causing me to stop cutting and lock up before slowly glancing up at him.
"Not a good idea, little brother; I have reason to believe that it is highly likely to be a Fixed Point In Time; if that’s the case, and we try interacting, we will be killed on the spot by Arkadia."
Based on how I reacted, Brenden knew that by simply giving me the date and only the date, I had already recognized what he wanted to do, and I was against it.
"We don’t know that it’s a fixed point Taylor…"
"Listen carefully to me, Brenden." Cutting him off, I put down my silverware, steepled my fingers, and propped my chin on my hands.
"The Columbine High School massacre was the start of a chain of shootings which would carry on for decades; it was what put school shootings on the Map and in the minds of everyone in not only America but across the world."
"It created multiple copycats and wrote the book for new kids who wanted revenge on their bullies. It has all the signs of being a potential Fixed Point in time, and although I have no problem going over there, if we get that notification from Arkadia stating it’s an FPIT and cant be interacted with, will you really be able to turn around and walk away?"