Dashing Devil Omnibus 1: Books 1-3, page 115
It turned out Tinker had made a couple improvements to his suit, as well. The crown, which he decided to redub a circlet because it sounded less pompous to him, now captured video. She’d also tweaked the propulsion pack a bit. Boyd’s pauldrons were the same, but now there were two more sleek black containers attached to the straps that crossed his chest.
The blanket dispensers had also been replaced, since there was no real need for fluffy blankets out here in the Wild Lands. The little genius had thought of a new application of his Black Flame now that they’d demonstrated it could last on obsidian outside of physical contact.
Tinker wanted him to throw stuff. In this case, she’d filled the two black cases on the back of his belt with several three-inch sized obsidian balls. The two black cases attached to the belt across his chest each had a hundred quarter-inch obsidian ball bearings. They were a little chunky, but the idea was sound.
The black cases would dispense twenty obsidian ball bearing into his hand each time he placed it against the case the way she showed him. With Boyd’s A-Ranked strength, the obsidian beads would behave like buck shot. It was a solid deterrent for larger threats with energy resistance and would be good for targets that might be difficult to hit with a single thrown object.
Tinker, as was becoming her habit, stated that this was just a prototype and once she had more time, the complete system would be much better. Boyd believed her. Then, there was the spear.
It was mostly made of the same shining metal as his pauldrons and other pieces of armor. The blade was leaf shaped and about twelve inches long—at his request. He wanted to be able to use it to slash with, as well as to stab. Black obsidian lined the blade and came to the surface of the shining shaft in a decorative scrollwork that also provided Boyd a decent grip. It was a beautiful weapon, despite being put together so quickly based off a simple sketch he’d drawn for her.
Tinker also made him a machete, similar in construction to his sword. The machete had its own strap, which hung from his left hip, opposite the sword on his right. Boyd was starting to look like an armory. He had a long dagger in his boot, a blade on each hip, his shield on his back, and a spear in his hand. Boyd was ready to face the Wild Lands.
“You two be careful out there,” Silvie half coed, half whined. She’d seemed fine with the idea of them going out into the Wild Lands right up until it was time for her lovers to do so. Now, she was a bundle of worry. “Watch out for each other.”
“Of course, my love.” Boyd smiled and pulled his silver-haired woman into a tight hug.
Tinker was a bundle of worry, as well. In contrast, Raev was calm as can be.
“We’ll be fine. The Big Guy just needs to keep up with me,” their fox featured lover assured her. “I’ve been in areas like—oof!” She was cut off by both Silvie and Boyd deciding to pull her into the middle of their embrace.
Raev let out a velvet laugh as her two much stronger lovers carefully squeezed her between them. “Alright, alright… I’ll be careful.”
“Don’t forget these.” Tinker poked what looked like a rack of pink dinner plates in a metal case. They were drones she’d made to accompany them and keep an eye on their blind spots. Today she was wearing black yoga pants and a pink tee-shirt, with her hair in a different style of braids, apparently trying some options out.
Boyd had made sure to comment on how much he liked this hairstyle during breakfast. He broke the hug to approach the rack and Tinker. It contained ten of the dinner-plate sized drones and would have been fairly heavy for a normal person to lift. He was told to set it down once they were outside; Tinker would take over from there.
“And be very careful, please,” Tinker added once he had a hand on the rack. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you… but still.”
“We will be careful,” Boyd promised, squatting down as low as the shield and his blades allowed to hug his short inventor. “I’ll appreciate having your eyes out there, too.”
Tinker wrapped her arms around him tightly, letting out a letting a cute little grunt of effort. “Hrrmph! I set out eye drops. I don’t think I’ll let myself blink much.”
Boyd chuckled. “Let yourself blink a healthy amount.”
Tinker was the most anxious of all his women. His Bond with her showed it clearly during their embrace. “We’ll be fine. I’ve been going into the Wild Lands since I was nine…”
“Eight,” Silvie corrected him.
“Eight,” Boyd agreed. It wasn’t like they’d celebrated his estimated birthday; he hadn’t really tracked the ages they’d done things. “Just think of it like I’m going to go get some bacon for tomorrow's breakfast.”
Reassuring his tiny special friend was giving him confidence, too. “Oh, wait,” Boyd rumbled, “I use pancetta for linguine carbonara. I bet I could substitute something from a Crevice Boar.”
“Sinoe did say they are very tasty,” Mindy said from where she waited off to the side.
They were gathered outside of the elevator in the Great Room. Apparently, they had a multi car, multi directional elevator system that could take them all over the mountain base. The hangar was actually well off to one side of the base, instead of directly below them.
“Sinoe?” Boyd asked, giving Tinker one last gentle squeeze before straightening.
“Oh, she’s one of the guards. She’s nice, if a little… terse,” Mindy replied. “She’ll stay out of your way this time, but she won’t be far off. She asked that you only take what we’ll use from the boar, and she will deal with the remains.”
“We can use pretty much everything from the boar,” Boyd rumbled back.
“And you’ll be hunting other things,” Mindy smiled at him, “If you fill the storage with boar, we won’t have room for anything else. I don’t want to be stuck eating pork for the next month because we have a surplus. Take what you want, but it’s not like we could eat an eight-thousand-pound pig in a reasonably quick length of time.”
“Alright,” Boyd chuckled and closed the distance to pull Mindy into a last hug of farewell. “I won’t force feed everyone boar for a month. As long as this Sinoe is going to use all of it, I don’t mind.” Leaving a rotting corpse that size in their valley would be a bad idea.
“She will.” Mindy confirmed, pulling him in for another full body hug. The kaftan she was wearing really did nothing to hide the feel of her body beneath it against his. It may not be the most visually stimulating garment his lovers had worn, but it was quickly growing on him.
“I should probably grab a bag or container for the meat, and maybe something better suited for butchering,” Boyd responded. A machete or sword might be more useful than they normally would be, given the size of their prey, but neither would be ideal.
“I’ve got us covered.” Raev turned and showed him a small pack on her back. “I’ve got an eight-inch vibro-blade and some large self-sealing bags. Oh, and one of those indestructible tarp things that folds up real small for if we want to bright back anything too large for the bags.”
“We’ll need cables and mounting,” Boyd pointed out.
“Not my first time out, Big Guy.” Raev grinned at him. “Tinker gave me a fancy winch rig that we can hook up to the cliff. I’ve even got a small folding shovel to dig a pit. You’ll have to make the bleed cut with one of your blades, but I have everything else we’ll need.”
“Okay, it’s not that I don’t trust you,” Boyd explained.
“I get it.” Her grin remained and reached her eyes. He could sense that her mirth was genuine. “It’s always a wild ride. Trust me, you don’t want to get out there and realize you forgot something you need.”
“Why do they have to do this?” Tinker half-whined and half-asked Mindy.
“There are many reasons,” Mindy explained, sighing. Her face was currently being held in the familiar emotionless mask Boyd recognized from the PAC.
He didn’t like seeing it again, and assumed it meant she was more worried than she wanted to let on. “It will help Boyd get more in touch with himself—that’s the most important reason. Second is establishing our presence in the valley. Once the creatures get used to us being here, it will be safer for us to spend time outside.”
“Which brings us to my special instructions…” Mindy turned to Boyd. “Once the fight starts, be loud. Don’t hold back. Make a ruckus. Announce to the valley the presence of a new apex predator.”
“Wouldn’t Silvie be better suited for that?” Tinker asked.
“Silvie is flashy,” Boyd responded, “but she isn’t really loud. My voice will reach creatures that won’t have line of sight on the fight. The Crevice Boar is likely at the higher end of the hierarchy established in the valley, so most things would know what it sounded like.
“Silvie could draw the fight out and throw it about to get it screaming,” Raev said, “but the other creatures wouldn’t know to associate that with something new. They would probably assume two Crevice Boars were fighting over territory.”
“Well, shouldn’t Silvie at least go with you? You could be both loud and flashy,” Tinker pressed.
“Raev and I can take care of ourselves.” Boyd smiled at her reassuringly.
He checked the FDU on his wrist to confirm the tactical map with their planned route was displayed properly on it. Flying would be a very bad idea until they had a better understanding of what was in their valley.
“Silvie will be on call, just in case. If it comes down to it, she could just fly through the side of the mountain and get to us in under thirty seconds. Her being next to us wouldn’t make that much of a difference… not unless there's something that could take us out so quickly that her getting to us and then back to the clinic within a minute wouldn’t save us, that is.”
“Well…” Tinker started to say but failed to come up with another reason for Silvie to go instead of Boyd.
He felt the roiling concern boiling within her.
Changing tact, she decided to ask a different question. “Couldn’t you be a little more worried, at least?”
“He is very worried,” Mindy answered for him. “Boyd has just learned to use the worry instead of letting it show. Everyone but Raev is more worried than they appear. Which brings us to my second set of special instruction. Raev has a decent amount of experience in terrain similar to this. You would trust her to guide you, correct?”
It was a question she didn’t need to ask, but likely wanted him to answer for Raev’s benefit. “Of course. I can sense her confidence and I know she’s not foolish. It’s not bravado, but a comfort level gained through experience,” Boyd responded to Mindy, keeping the ‘for Raev’s benefit’ aspect of the conversation private. “I wouldn’t be willing to do this, if it wasn’t for her coming with me.”
“Good.” Mindy’s emotionless mask slipped for just a moment to reveal a sweet, little smile. “Then on the way out to the hunting site, she’s your prey. Raev’s not guiding you, you're chasing her. Can you get in that mindset?”
Boyd decided it wouldn’t be all that different from just following her. He would still have to maintain situational awareness to make sure his prey didn’t become prey to a bigger predator. “I can.” Boyd confirmed.
“Okay, good. Then that’s all,” Mindy stated and waved them towards the open elevator.
Chapter 40
“That’s it?” Boyd asked. He’d thought there would be more to the exercise.
“Chasing an A-Ranked across the side of a mountain and then taking on another A-Ranked isn’t enough for this first exercise?” Mindy arched a black eyebrow at him.
Boyd shrugged one shoulder. “Well… no, that seems like a fair first run. I’m just not clear on how it will help me get in touch with my other self.”
“You let me worry about that part,” Mindy replied, somewhat cryptically. “This is just to get you outside and breathing some fresh air. Thinking about it too much will defeat the purpose. Chase your pretty vixen and then fight the giant pig, that’s all there is to it.”
“Okay, fair enough,” Boyd replied. He collected the rack of drones and looked around the group of women one more time. “Anything else?”
“Be careful, but not too careful,” Silvie added.
“We will,” Boyd replied simply, stepping into the elevator with Raev. The instruction sounded pointless, but he didn’t point that out because it was a display of concern, not actual advice.
“I love you.” Silvie floated in the air, shifting back and forth. She didn’t bother hiding her worried expression. It showed in her bright blue eyes and the little pout on her lips.
“I love you too,” Boyd and Raev responded together, then looked at each other with matching grins.
Tinker just let out a sad sounding whine. Based on how she held herself, Boyd assumed she was fighting the urge to bounce from foot to foot. He could sense a whirl of anxious emotion across the Bond they shared. He took it as a sign of her trying to come up with reasons for them not to do this.
“Tink,” Boyd said softly, drawing her attention back to him and breaking her train of thought. “We are going to be fine. We won’t be gone long. I have to make it back quickly so I can prepare for our date. Have you picked out a movie?”
Tinker blinked as her mind tried to switch gears to the new topic. “Um… no, but I’ve narrowed it down to a couple options. Raev said she would help me pick once I narrowed it down to a few.”
“Good,” Boyd smiled at her reassuringly. “Raev can help you pick when we get back.”
“Okay everyone, love ya, we’ll be safe, have fun, see you later,” Raev said before tapping a button on her FDU that caused the elevator doors rapidly to slide closed.
“That was just going to keep going in circles,” she grumbled once it was just the two of them.
Boyd chuckled, “You’re probably right.”
“Before we get on comms, I wanted to check in with you about Tinker. You have a Bond with her now, right?” Raev asked quickly. The elevator was fast, they didn’t have much time before it opened at their exit point.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Boyd asked, instantly concerned after sensing Raev’s worry about the tiny inventor.
“She was a little awkward with me this morning. When I went to get her for breakfast, it was different than before. She seemed uncomfortable at first. It faded pretty quick, though, and she was fine with me doing her hair and everything. But still… did I overstep somewhere or something?”
“Oh,” Boyd sighed, knowing what that was likely about. “It was the nap yesterday… so nothing you did. I just pushed a little too hard while she was emotionally vulnerable. She probably expected you to act differently because you’d shared a bed together. It’s not a stretch to assume that Tinker overthinks… everything. Acting normally should be enough to fix it. I’m guessing that’s what you did, which is why her discomfort faded.”
“Oh, yeah, that tracks.” Raev nodded, her tails swaying behind her. She was wearing her new suit which contrasted nicely with the fiery red of her tails. “Thanks.”
‘Very astute.’ Mindy commented in his mind, ‘you picked some things up in my absence. When did my little shit become so emotionally wise?’
Boyd personally believed it was her influence that started his interest in emotional wisdom. Once she’d been taken from him, he’d picked up extra voluntary training on things like gauging emotions in both opponents and civilians. Correctly judging the emotions of those around you had all sorts of purposes for a Hero, plus it was one of the few ways he’d had to feel closer to her.
‘Aww, that’s sweet.’ Mindy cooed into his mind. ‘Okay, I’ll be busy with helping to put your Silvie right. I won’t be listening for the most part.’
Boyd very much approved of getting Silvie back to normal.
‘It will take time, because we are doing it naturally,’ Mindy explained.
Boyd approved of that, too. They’d all probably had enough mind fuckery for a lifetime—at least the heavy stuff. Mindy’s pushes and prods would probably help expedite undoing some of the damage.
‘That’s the plan.’
Raev glanced at her FDU then up to Boyd. “Let me know when you're done with your mind talk. We’re here.”
“We’re done,” Boyd chuckled, “sorry about that.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it.” Raev smiled. “It’s all part and parcel of having her around, and it’s not like she interrupted our conversation. Ready?”
Raev lifted her FDU towards the door to indicate opening it. Boyd nodded his confirmation. She pressed the button and the door slid open.
He scanned the small room beyond. It was essentially an airlock, designed so only one door could open at a time. They moved into the next section after deciding it looked clear, shutting the large door behind them. Raev tapped her FDU to open the second door.
This door exited into a small cave on the side of their mountain. It was a ways from the base, and only a few hundred feet above the valley floor. The cave was also empty of life. The mouth of the cave opened on a ridge that ran in either direction. The ridgeline was barely wide enough for Boyd to feel comfortable running along it.
He moved into the cave first, cautiously scanning the area and making sure to check the corners and the ceiling of the cave. When nothing invisible pounced on him, he waved Raev forward. She smirked at him as she strode forward, completely at ease—though Boyd noted that her ears were twitching about, listening for threats instead of looking. They moved towards the mouth of the cave together in silence, stepping out onto the ledge.
Trees hid the ridge from the valley, but he had a decent view of it between them. Like on Old Earth, the sun rose in the east and set in the west. Their tall mountain cast a long shadow over the valley during the morning hours, but it was still a sight to behold. The valley was gorgeous.
The trees were green and full of life. Splotches of color broke up the greenery a little more than what Boyd had seen in pictures of similar landscapes from Old Earth. Large bright flowers bloomed in the canopy, while fluorescent birds flitted from tree to tree.
