Miles was moving boxes. He didn’t think that he’d end up with a job like this after having helped move his parents one summer. However, everyone needed to pitch in with the Survivors joining them in the bunker as there was very little room. Fortunately, they’d been able to move some of the equipment out of the bunker and down to the factory below to free up some floor space. During this past week, the Survivors had been coming in via airship and portal from all over the world. He was glad that they’d have some extra help.

Three days ago, he’d gone out with Cheezus to survey the undead horde. It looked like they were staging an invasion rather than just trying to round up their small little guild. It looked like the dragon that Smash had damaged by exploding the Empress was fully restored. They hadn’t been sure whether their undead enemies could heal like that until he’d seen it. Additionally, there were more types of undead that they’d never seen before: large armored skeletons, well-disciplined skeletal warriors, the pterodactyl skeleton fliers, and zombies of several different types.

Many of them had been on the move looking for their little base. At the center of it all, he’d been able to make out the undead fortress, a massive castle built from the red earth of the area and bones of what must have once been massive animals. In front of the fortress stood one of the largest zombies he’d ever seen: it had one eye and a massive gut that looked like it consisted of hundreds of smaller zombies sticking out of it at odd angles, arms, heads, and legs akimbo. It was just the icing on the cake and one more reason they needed every willing gamer to come to their aid.

“Need a hand?” Rygor asked him. He’d just come downstairs and from the look on his flushed face he’d been outside getting his butt kicked by the new drill instructor. Emmy had gained a bunch of new recruits to learn how to shoot a gun. It was a good thing that he was in good shape since Emmy’s training seemed more akin to being in a military boot camp than something she’d learned from her dad in the backwoods. Not that he was complaining. Miles was probably one of the most fit of the Misfits and Emmy’s training would give him a sizeable edge in the coming battle. From their mock battles last week he knew that he was the most dangerous he’d ever been. Not only had he picked up the new General Ability: Gunslinger, but the inspiration for all of their in-person work outs had granted him another rogue specific ability – Enhanced Agility.

Miles nodded and they finished up moving the boxes outside so that they could be loaded down to the bunker later. Fortunately, that task would be a little easier since there was a hand cart designed for loading Gears straight from the factory to the bunker. Once this task was complete and they had what they needed from downstairs and vice-versa, Tim planned to cave in the tunnel connecting the two. While they didn’t have any solid evidence yet, it seemed like their very own AI had become corrupted by Precious One and was aiding the enemy. They didn’t have any solid evidence but a lot of coincidences seemed to point in that direction. There was certainly no harm in being paranoid – after all the world was out to get them.

After they were done clearing the basement, he and Rygor went upstairs to log in. “We’ve been setting up a sort of magical alarm system around the perimeter of the cave so we’ll have some advance notice of when the undead are here,” Miles explained.

“We could probably use some sort of defensive weapon,” Rygor said. “I think Sarah was an engineer in real-life.”

Miles looked at him stupidly. Rygor laughed and said, “I mean Kantala. She could probably help you rig something up.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Miles replied. “I think I got confused because you use your real name in game as well.”

A few minutes later Sarah joined them and they logged in.

***AR Online – Aeon 2.833.74***

Smash and Linca were practicing with their new weapons outside as the three of them zoned in. Smash had picked up the Reaver in Scotland. It was a pretty sweet looking sword with a number of neat abilities. Since Rygor and Kantala hadn’t seen it before he linked them the item so they could see his new find:

The Reaver

+157 Att

+90 MagAtt

Abilities: Double damage against undead and disassemble undead

“Nice,” Rygor said, giving him the thumbs up. “Didn’t you find something pretty awesome as well Linca?”

She nodded and linked the item:

Scepter of St. Magnus

+90 MagAtt

+204 Spirit

Abilities: Holy spells doubled and defense against undead +70

After showing off their items, Smash and Linca got back to their training and Cheezus led the two Survivors around the perimeter of the cave, showing where he’d added magical defenses. Kantala had a number of helpful suggestions to improve the detectors and also asked about the possibility of air based attacks. “Yeah, I know we were attacked by those winged skeletal birds earlier but I don’t have any way to get the devices we have into the air so that they can be useful for early detection.”

“I think I can modify some of the Gears I saw down in the factory to allow the devices to fly. You said that each device has a detection range of about 300 feet. Is that in all directions?” Kantala asked.

Cheezus shook his head, “I don’t know whether that’s true or not but we can test it out.”

“You two seem to be sorting this out just fine so I’m going to see if I can get some sparring in with Smash,” Rygor said. “Catch you later.”

They logged out and headed down to the factory. It didn’t take long to start working on the new detection device using Gears. “I never realized you could use Gears this way,” Miles said. “The magical devices that Deathberry helped me setup use the principal of spellcasting which I won’t pretend I understand.”

Sarah nodded, still working on one of the new Gears, “Right and spells in this world are Gears based powers all driven by technology. None of us can just walk into a room and cast a real fireball,” she explained.

“So how is what you’re doing right now different than those spells?” he asked.

“It isn’t much different really. Just the programming. In this case we’re programming a Gear to act like a flying bird but with the ability to cast a spell similar to the one that Tim had you use on those other items,” Sarah said.

He gave up trying to understand since it was confusing to go around and round mentally. What came first – the ability of Gears to take on the shape of any creature or the ability to cast spells that otherwise wouldn’t exist? Maybe it didn’t matter and they both just happened.

As they sat in silence, he continued to look down at her handiwork as she reworked several wires on the Gear and then entered a series of commands using a keypad.

She commanded it to fly into the air and it appeared like a small bird. Looking at the console in front of her she declared, “That should do it. Let’s get a bunch of these setup.”

Twenty minutes later they had setup the new detection system all around the base and Sarah had declared it to be fully functional.

She pointed over towards Emmy who had been giving Rygor some shooting lessons. “I probably should stop monopolizing your time. Your woman is glaring daggers at me. Why don’t you take her on a quick date before shit hits the fan?” Sarah said with a wry smile.

He started to protest but thought better of it. While he might be crazy skilled with daggers he was pretty terrible with women, so if Sarah suggested he go talk to Emmy he probably should before she blew up at him.

Miles headed over and watched Emmy give Rygor some guidance on how to handle a rifle. “The butt needs to be jammed into your shoulder to reduce the kick,” she explained. “Also, your left hand is bouncing all over the place. Until you get used to holding the weight of the weapon you may want to rest it on something.” She took her own rifle and showed him a couple of different positions that helped stabilize the weapon.

Once she had him setup shooting at some targets, Emmy turned to face him. Her chestnut hair whipped around her face and her blue eyes assessed him intently. He could tell he was in trouble by the way her lips were tightly drawn. Deciding a good offense was a good defense he moved forward quickly and surprised her with a kiss. She didn’t fight it for very long and they were just getting to the good point when he noticed that Rygor had stopped shooting.

“Will you two get a room?” Rygor said, exasperated.

Miles stopped kissing Emmy long enough to reply, “Hmm that does sound like a good idea actually.” Her pupils dilated for a quick second and Miles was about to suggest that they in fact find a nice place to escape to when the alarms started going off. Sarah had programmed them so that everyone could hear them from their Seemi just in case they weren’t logged in.