“While we will most likely accept your generosity, we did not do this for a reward,” Jacob stated.

“While that is a fine sentiment, you will receive a reward for your service,” the old man.

After a moment of humming slightly while he rubbed his chin he appeared to reach an idea as he lifted a finger and said, “Your reward will be two parts. First, while you are traveling in other realms you will have a gift of time. You will both have time to attempt a mission and be able to repeat a time you have experienced to try new strategies.”

I cocked my head as I tried to parse the information. I had played a few games and while the second part sounded like replaying a completed mission I didn’t understand how the first one applied. Before I could ask though Rebecca beat me to it, “What do you mean?”

“Well my dear, having time to attempt a mission is pretty self explanatory. When you are notified of a situation requiring intervention in a realm other than yours you will arrive on the scene with a sufficient amount of time to complete your objectives. Your success or failure at that point is up to you. As to repeating a time; well that is bit obvious but I should point out that you won’t be able to change how the course of events play out for the world, just experience the time again,” he answered.

I spoke up, “So say we failed to stop a bank robbery for one reason or another; that’s how history will record it, but we can try it again to learn from our mistakes?”

The old man pointed at me, “Exactly so. My but it is pleasant to speak to people with more wit than that beast, granted that isn’t a very high bar. Secondly is a bit of a gift that will help you on your current task. Since you will acquire these when you arrive, or shortly thereafter, I see no reason not to pluck them out of time temporarily.”

He motioned with his hands and I felt a ripple along my body and my vision changed to a heads-up display with a small human silhouette in green in the upper right, a blue bar at the bottom that was about half filled with a lighter blue, and four names with small silhouettes next to them: Delphi, Zero, Schattenstein, and Omni. I raised my hands to my face, seeing the gloves Savira had picked out on them, and felt a solid face mask framed by a deep hood. Looking around I found the rest of my team now garbed in costumes rather than basic clothes with nameplates over their heads to identify them. Arya, or Delphi now, wore a dark green dress with a defiantly old Greek flair but extended into her mask which covered up to her forehead but left her red hair exposed; she still had the improvised armor on though. A more careful inspection showed that the mask was also a solid rigid material and likely had a similar HUD display as mine. Zero, Rebecca based on the physical attributes, wore a skin tight navy blue outfit with a white domino mask of what seemed to be the same rigid material as Delphi’s mask. Omni, who I guessed was Jacob based on the more slender frame wore a black duster over what looked like dark grey motorcycle racing leathers, his head was covered in a seamless black helmet that could have appeared in any number of science fiction games and movies. Jerome, who by process of deduction had used the moniker of Schattenstein, had gone more medieval in his appearance. He wore gothic style steel armor, complete with a tabard in black and white with an opposing colored hammer on the front. On his back was a teardrop shaped shield painted to match his tabard at least four feet long from rounded top to the point, and at his hip was a hammer with a spike on one end. His helmet was the only deviation from the historic style, and that was only because the T-shaped opening where one would normally see his face was a black material that I guessed matched our masks.

“I like the new looks,” I said, my voice coming out changed from how it normally would be, but not garbled like someone using a voice synthesizer.

“They all look good, but I have two concerns,” Arya said, her voice also slightly changed.

Jerome cocked his helmeted head and asked, “Which are?”

She laughed, “Yeah, too long of a dramatic pause. Concern one: why did some of the gear not change? He still has the bracers and bandolier that Jacob made. Concern two: what’s with the solid mask, that wasn’t part of my initial costume design though it isn’t exactly a problem?”

Jacob, or I guessed Omni now, raised a hand and said, “I might be able to answer the second part. After I finished my training time I spent a bit of time in my HOME coming up with improvement ideas for the team. One of those was to have a heads-up display that would show my own condition and my teammate’s conditions. I’m guessing the bar at the bottom is our energy bars as I had planned for some way to show that once I had a chance to experience it. I couldn’t figure out how to make it as small as contacts and I didn’t know your costume styles. It seems that the system modified your costume design based on this since we were going to come in as a team.”

Father Time spoke up, “A reasonable course of events, these outfits are what you will be in at the opening ceremonies so to speak. They are a bit more durable than the cloth you were wearing before; as to the lack of change in some of your gear that is because those were cobbled together here, and not part of the original designs.”

Omni asked, “Is the fact that mine did change mean that my gear was already considered better than the armor we made?”

The old man waggled his hand and said, “It was comparable to what you had designed already so I took it from the timeline of you having reinforced your chosen outfit with armor rather than leave it alone. I preferred the aesthetic of that to the eyesore that is makeshift armor.”

My thoughts raced forward in my standard habit of analyzing everything and came upon a question that would need to be answered, and I asked “Does that mean we will not have this when we leave this realm?”

“That is correct; these are temporary for your time here. However it should be noted that any time you visit this realm you will have access to your costumes from this point on,” he answered.

That reply raised a slew of other questions, but Arya’s mental voice stopped me, “I don’t think he will answer those questions. His thoughts are moving around faster than yours so I can’t pin down the reason.”

I nodded to her; it would spoil the surprise if I received too much information now it was just hard not to ask. Instead of the more interesting questions I asked, “Can you get back to the castle on your own, or do you need an escort?”

“Oh I can get back just fine now that I’m out of that cage. I wish you luck,” he answered before taking a step and seeming to disappear as if he stepped through a door.

“Shit, should have asked him where Fate was, we still have three landmarks to check assuming that’s where we will find whoever is that Lord or Lady of Fate,” Jerome said.

I agreed with the sentiment and replied, “One, probably Lady as most depictions of fate put it in a feminine role. Two, we are in a central location with the Docks to the east, Factory to the west and the Church to the north. I’m good with whichever we want to try.”

“Let’s start with the factory and work our way clockwise,” Rebecca said to nods from the group.

As we left the park I asked, “Jacob, what kind of design ideas did you come up with?”

“Basic ideas like reinforced costumes, simple gadgets like a recon drone or tracking beacon, and the HUD masks. I have come up with a few others now that I have seen your costumes and power sets,” he replied.

Delphi let out a snort and said, “Alex, he thinks of new gadgetry and upgrades like you think of everything. I would wager that out there he has at least a degree in engineering if not more.”

Omni’s costume covered his whole body, but somehow I go the sense that he was blushing as he replied, “Three PHD’s, since I couldn’t run around like most kids I studied various subjects; it’s the other reason I went with a tech head in this game, with the fact that our knowledge and skills outside the game can translate it seemed like I could specialize in that easily.”

“Dude, you’re what 23? How do you have three PHDs?” Jerome asked.

“They are all related fields so most of the credits from one carried to another, but I believe most would say I have no life,” he answered with an obvious smirk.

“No life or no wife, one of the two,” Rebecca chimed in.

He shrugged and replied, “I didn’t date much, and most women don’t care to worry about breaking their boyfriend’s bones when they hold hands.”

I could tell it was a hard subject for him to discuss so, with a lack of social tact I changed the subject, “Any specific new ideas now that you have been around us for a bit?”

“Well there are your arm blades, but honestly I don’t think they are going to be best for how you move. Delphi could use some form of offensive armament as her techniques are all support. I was going to suggest a weapon for Jerome, sorry Schattenstein, but apparently he designed his costume with a hammer. Honestly the only one I can’t think of some kind of upgrade is Zero, and that’s because of how flexible her power is,” he answered.

“What’s with the hammer anyway Jerome?” Arya asked.

Rebecca was the one who answered though, “We have a friend of ours who does medieval reenactment. He always argued that if we were going to be soldiers we should be able to make or use anything we needed from the environment we found ourselves in. He taught me how to craft bows and arrows using nothing but my k-bar knife and how to use the dress uniform saber as an actual weapon. Jerome didn’t take to the weapon crafting nearly as well and couldn’t make much more than a club.”

Jerome interrupted her story telling, “Yeah, and then he showed me that just because I’m strong and can smash things with a club didn’t mean shit if I didn’t know what I was doing with it. I got into the habit of practicing with various improvised weapons or common implements that could be turned into a weapon on the off chance it might be useful. Give me a pole, hammer, club, or an axe and I have some idea what to do with it, and a riot shield isn’t much different than a medieval shield. Crazy bastard is probably running around in one of the other SYS games causing all sorts of trouble with the random things he can make from bubblegum and twine.”

“Did what he teach you help in the military?” Arya asked.

The siblings both nodded as we marched, and Jerome said “Yeah, they had a few training missions that we stood out in. In our SEREs test we led them on a merry chase for four days before completing the initial supposed to fail mission and getting out of dodge. It was one of the tests that got the Spec-Ops recruiters interested.”

“I still remember the look on Captain Hull’s face when we did that wilderness survival test though,” Rebecca said with a mental chuckle.

I asked, “Do I even want to know?”

Rebecca snorted, “Oh it wasn’t anything bad. Basically the scenario was a crashed transport. We had to survive on this little island out in the Pacific. We had an emergency button we could use but we would fail the test if we pressed it within the first week. The idea was that we had to survive until they found us and sent a rescue team in. If a week went by we passed and could get pulled out after that, but the longer we could last the better our score. They called the test after two months and the pilot of the transport that came to get us couldn’t believe that we had effectively created a beach house and were well provisioned. I saw his report to our C.O. and it said that he believed the two of us could have survived out there for at the least another six months without trouble.”

Call a spade a spade, but that was impressive. The skills may or may not apply in Hero’s Call, but if they were playing one of those survival/sandbox games these two would be my picks for a team.

Jerome asked, “Anything that stands out for you two? It seems our team has some odd ducks in it.”

I shook my head and said, “Not that I can think of. I was an athlete in high school, got turned down by the military, and did a good deed which got me in here.”

Arya’s snort wasn’t mental this time, but her reply was, “He’s being modest again. Don’t even start arguing Alex; remember I can see in your head right now. Anyway, he turned what most would consider a disadvantage into an asset. He can analyze just about any form of information he understands faster than most people can make change. He also has a near eidetic memory from what I can tell. Honestly that radar sense technique he chose is probably the best game ability in his arsenal just based on the fact that he can process the information it gives him.”

I hung my head, I could tell the group was impressed but I had to interrupt, “Yes I do think faster than most, it doesn’t help out there though. My personality gets in the way.”

“Fuck them, you’re in here with us and getting paid to do it too,” Rebecca said.

I laughed and deflected, “Enough about me, Arya your turn.”

Her mental sigh told us her opinion of herself wasn’t far from mine, “Well I have some martial arts training both armed and unarmed, and have a pretty good head on my shoulders. If you want some unique skill I have though you are going to be disappointed.”

Deciding to poke a bit at her I asked, “Exactly how much is some?”

I could feel her glare as I threw her under the bus. Eventually she answered though, “3rd Dan in Aikido, I’m also trained in Iaijutsu and Wing Chun but there wasn’t any ranking structure for those.”

I wasn’t sure how Jerome managed to whistle across the mental link, but I shared his sentiment. Arya had mentioned training in Aikido before, but I hadn’t realized how extensive it was.

Our conversation went on as we traveled towards our next destination.