Chapter 31.2: Blackthorne Enterprises

The sun was well into the sky, and Ashton had long gone her way back to dream land by the time that Scott chose to summon Sonja back to Earth. The strangely perky woman hopped up onto the air-conditioner unit that Scott sat upon then grinned at him.

“What’s got you so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?” asked Scott with a smile.

“Hmm? I thought that would be more something you’d say about Ashton?” asked Sonja curiously.

“It’s…. Never mind, what’s gotten you to feel so cheerful today?” he asked.

Sonja smiled at him. “I come bearing gifts!”

“Oh?” asked Scott.

Sonja grinned at him then held up her backpack. It was suspiciously lacking in protruding items. In fact, she normally brought a lot more back with her than she did this time.

“What’s in the pack, former Jack?”

She blinked at him then pushed at him a little. “Sonja, remember, Sonja?”

“I don’t think that I could forget Sonja if I tried.” He said lightly.

She laughed softly then shared a small smile with him. “Well, that’s certainly sweet of you to say.”

“So, what’s with the gifts?” asked Scott.

“Well, you know how that shop owner that you rented the room from said it would be alright to split your days up so that you won’t lose all your time when you’re away on traveler business?” asked Sonja.

“Yeah. I’m glad he went for that, or most of the time I paid for would have been wasted.”

Sonja nodded to him. “Well, I went back there to finish sorting things for our next round of crating and he noticed a few of the things that you’d made. So, I know it wasn’t my right… but I sort of traded a few things for this backpack.”

Scott quirked his eyebrow. That had better be one hell of a backpack. “Oh?”

She grinned at him then took off the pack and showed it to him. “I know that look. Well, this is perfect. It’s a traveler’s pack!”

“A pack for travelers or a pack for people like me?” he asked.

“Both actually, it’s like that small sack you’ve had ever since I met you. The difference is that it holds forty times more and even has pockets that can be used to store separate items.”

“Now, that’s useful! What did you have to give him for it?” asked Scott. The one thing that had been problematic for them was the ability to actually transfer items. With packs like that and a few similar loot sacks, they could move large quantities of goods even after the eventual release of Sonja from her slave state.

“Three of your lesser scorpion armor sets…” she said hesitantly.

“Ah, good. That’s fine then, though I’m surprised that he’d part with a pack like that for three suits of armor that barely rate the same defense as iron.”

“Live armor is rare in the area, and it’s just as good as the regularly enchanted stuff with less of the fuss.” Said Sonja.

“How rare? I know he wanted my black armor, but he didn’t make that much of a fuss about it.” said Scott.

“I think you might be the closest thing to a supplier that he has in the area. What few items he gets mostly comes from towns that would require months of travel to reach.”

Scott rubbed his chin. That sounded quite useful. It was possible that he might be able to work out a trade deal with the shop keeper and pay in easily made goods. The lesser scorpion armor was nothing special. All he’d had to do was combine all of the battered and broken bits of plate armor that he had found in the man’s bins to form pristine armor sets. Afterward it was a simple matter to combine the bits and pieces of scorpion shell. He’d ended up with over thirty full sets before he was done.

There was still a lot of random junk left in the bins, he had barely touched the weapons and had not even looked at the chain items. His time had been short, after all. Hell, there were probably still enough broken plate armor pieces left for him to make four or five more of lesser scorpion armors.

“We’ll probably need to hunt monsters for useable parts, but otherwise we definitely need to spend our time in the near future building up the business.”

“Business? Did someone say business?” called a soft and cheerful voice.

Scott and Sonja turned their heads toward the roof entrance and say Ashton walk onto the roof. Scott said, “Yeah, definitely discussing business. You’re free to join us… though shouldn’t you be asleep?”

Ashton shook her head. “Couldn’t really sleep. I did manage to get things situated with my dream self. I booked passage on a boat heading toward your continent.”

“Ah, do you want to take anything to get to bed, or are you fine?”

“I’m alright. I’ll head back to sleep shortly. I’m more curious about this business business that you’re talking about.” said Ashton.

Scott grinned at her. “Well, Sonja here has managed to finagle her way into getting a traveler’s pack, and I rented out a store house of goods to combine. So, we’re going to try and start buying items to remake into better items.”

“Do you plan to sell them?” she asked eagerly.

“Absolutely, though I have other plans currently.”

“Plans? Other than selling?” Her ears flattened and she acquired a strange, almost mortified, expression.

Scott glanced over to Sonja then back to Ashton. “I should wait till Shara’s here too, but who knows when she’ll wake up.”

“Right… so, plans…” said Ashton.

Scott laughed at her single-mindedness. “Basically, I am going to completely upgrade all of our personal Earth equipment with dream world items. Beyond that, I also intend to try and use them as bargaining chips with local law enforcement.”

“Wait, can you do that? I mean we’re wanted?” asked Ashton.

“Well, as it turns out, one of the only cops on the local police force whose worth a damn is an old friend of my father’s. He’s the sheriff now. He’d probably try to arrest me on site, and think he was doing me a favor… But with the way the world is now, if I can give the people in town an edge against the monsters…”

“I get it! You think that by providing high-grade equipment with special effects, the police might look the other way a little.” said Ashton.

“At the least. Their firearms are effective, but their armor is only good against other mid-tier firearms. I don’t think they have any actual plates and only have soft armor. A simple knife or the claws of a monster would be absolutely deadly.”

“Right… but do you think they will go for it?”

“The sheriff will probably try to get me to marry his daughter again. The rest of the police force… needs to be left out of the loop. Too much corruption, and some of them work for the bastards that ordered the hit on us.” said Scott.

Sonja spoke up. “How can you be certain that this sheriff is not corrupt?”

Scott shook his head. “Few people in the world ever managed to convince me that they were worth a damn. This guy… he’s old school, hardnosed, and doesn’t give a damn about red tape if it means protecting people.

“I’m surprised to hear you speak so highly about someone.” Said Sonja. Scott had never so much as made a nice statement about anyone with some sort of authority.

Scott grew quiet for a moment, and slowly closed his eyes. When that moment passed, he said. “When I was tried for what I did to the bastard my mother married, Sherriff Anson spoke up on my behalf and offered to take me into his home while everything was sorted out. If he’s become a scum bag, I don’t give a shit about this planet anymore.”

“That was really nice of him…” said Sonja.

Scott nodded. “Yeah, the judge basically told him to go fuck himself, but in more legal sounding language.”

“Wait, the judge… He is the one you think is related to your step father?” asked Sonja.

Ashton looked a bit lost during the conversation, but she chose not to question anything that was being said. She had felt left out a lot of late, and at least right now she could feel like she was part of what was happening. She was not just a bystander.

“Yeah, those bastards…” Scott blinked as he thought about that. Something that had not really thought about for a while reared its head. He definitely needed to head off and check something.

Scott glanced over to Ashton. “Have you thought about anyone who you need to contact? Family? Friends? Anyone?”

She shook her head. “I suppose I would like to know how my family is doing but we haven’t spoken in quite some time. They didn’t care much for my fiancé…”

Scott quirked his eyebrow. “Really…”

She sighed in exasperation. “Ok, I suppose they had good reason.”

“Do they live nearby?” he asked her.

“I would have said yes a few days ago, but they’re literally a hundred or so miles from here.” She said.

“Damn, that’s a long trek with the way the world is today. We’re sort of insolated here, but things are terrible in town.” Said Scott.

“How bad is it?”

Scott frowned. He didn’t want to think about it, but now that he did he could feel his body heat rising. He did not owe anyone anything, and yet the idea of what might be happening in town did not sit right with him. How much of that was his true nature, and how much was his new biological imperative to fight against evil he could not be certain.

“Bad… monsters invading houses and rampaging in the streets bad….” said Scott.

“Damn…” said Ashton.

Scott turned to Sonja. “Did you bring anything else back besides your sexy new backpack?”

“Yes, the rest of the armor sets, including your personal armor.”

“They all fit?”

“Sure, with room to spare!” said Sonja.

Scott laughed. “We definitely need more of those backpacks!”

“How much can they hold?” asked Ashton.

“Well, from the sound of it, we could probably run an entire armory if the four of us each had one.” said Scott.

Ashton’s eyes lit up with the glorious light of commerce. If Scott had not been certain that it was a hallucination, he would have sworn that he heard the sound of a cash register opening.