07. Unexpected Dev-elopments, page 19
part #7 of Apocalypse Gates Series
“Tell you tomorrow around noon,” Alvin said, walking toward the portal he’d left open. “Good night.”
“Wait, I’m no—!” Cumberland was saying before Alvin went back to his base.
Chapter Twenty-three
Alvin stopped at the kiosk when he left the garage. A quick check showed him that he could still purchase armor from the Dwarves. He purchased five suits with radios, batteries, and flamers for the base, along with an extra suit for Shawn. Slipping the pieces into his bags, Alvin wrote a quick letter to both Night and Mithrilblood about another military base that would be sending them envoys.
“Hero?” Gothy called out.
“In here, Gothy.”
“What’re you doing?”
“Finishing up the beginnings of a deal.”
“Oh?”
“I already bought the armor. I was just letting the monarchs know about Nellis.” A couple more taps on the kiosk printed out the letters of introduction he’d used before. “And now, the letters of introduction are done.” He slipped them into his bag.
“Hero?”
Alvin turned around to find his seductive goth standing a couple of feet away from him. Her loving expression brought a smile to his lips. “Yes. I have a deal in place for your chopper. It’ll come with door guns and a swivel-mounted gun for the pilot.”
“You always give me what I want,” Gothy said softly, looking down. “Sometimes I feel like I’m not giving back enough.”
Alvin reached out and pulled her to him gently. Arms going around her waist, he kissed the top of her head. “You give me plenty, Gothy. I didn’t even shoot anyone, even when they were being asses. That’s your doing. Because I knew how much you wanted a helo, I was able to restrain the impulse. You’ve helped me mellow out enough that people have commented on it.”
“You make me not hate everyone, too,” Gothy said. “You’ve given me a toy and another wife, both of whom I love. I think those two outweigh any shiny bauble.”
“I would hope I don’t weigh more than your helicopter,” Desiree said from the doorway, her tone teasing.
Alvin laughed and Gothy snickered.
“We all try to give as much as we can to each other,” Mousie said, moving up behind Desiree and holding the shorter woman. “That’s what love is. I know I’m more than just a toy to you because of the attention, affection, and care you all show me. I’ll continue to be your toy, though. It’s something I crave, and something you both do, too.”
“Get over here, you delicious little thing,” Gothy said softly, holding an arm out.
Mousie let go of Desiree and moved to Gothy’s side, letting herself be brought into the hug. Alvin looked past them to Desiree, who watched them with a sad smile.
“What’re you doing over there?” Alvin asked her, extending his arm to her. “You’re family. Get over here.”
Desiree met his eyes, and her smile became real as she went to him. Folding her into the hug, the four of them stood there a moment, just accepting the love of the others.
“Sir, dinner’s been holding for some time,” Jarvis said from the doorway. “Would you be interested in it soon?”
“Yeah, buddy, we’ll be right there.”
“Very well.”
The hug broke apart a minute later. Kisses were given before they left the kiosk room behind. The table was set with covered dishes, and Jarvis was already seated at the table.
“Sorry for the delay, Jarvis,” Alvin said.
“It’s fine, sir. As it is, the ladies didn’t come out of the bedroom until just recently. They missed you showing the training room off to the colonel and the others.”
“We had people here?” Gothy asked as she took her seat.
“Just the training room,” Alvin said. “Had to give them a taste of what the battle armor could do. It’s what helped seal the deal.”
“Gothy’s getting her helicopter?” Mousie asked.
“Yeah, maybe as soon as tomorrow,” Alvin grinned, “depending on if they have it ready to go.”
“I need to buy the knowledge for how to fly one,” Gothy said. “I know fixed-wing aircraft, but that’s not the same. Desiree should pick up the knowledge, too, so she can sit in the copilot’s seat.”
“We can all pick it up,” Alvin said. “This way, we can switch out like we do with the Bradley and keep doing as much damage as possible.”
“Yes. I wanted to learn to fly, too,” Mousie nodded.
“You make a good point, Hero, and we don’t want to disappoint Mousie, either,” Gothy smiled.
Jarvis uncovered the dishes, the scent of bacon filling the area around the table. “Barbeque pork, bacon mac and cheese, salad, and cornbread muffins,” Jarvis told them. “I hope you enjoy it.”
“As if we ever don’t enjoy your meals,” Alvin chuckled and started to help himself.
“It can happen. It might be unlikely, but it’s still possible.”
“Not unless you were trying to make it happen,” Gothy snorted. “You’re too good a cook to make a horrible dish unless you wanted to.”
“That is true,” Jarvis laughed.
Silence took over the table, besides the sounds of happy eating.
~*~*~
Once they were finished with dinner, Alvin got his wives over to the sofa in the living room. Jarvis joined them and they watched Pentagon Wars. Even with Human knowledge, Desiree and Mousie needed clarifications about some of the jokes.
“How much of that was real?” Desiree asked when the movie ended.
“No idea, but it’s an accurate portrayal of what people thought about the top brass before the Rapture,” Alvin said.
“The actor was the same as the one from The Princess Bride,” Mousie said.
“He was a good actor,” Alvin said. “He did one where he was a cop, but was secretly a serial killer… what was it called?”
“Kiss the Girls,” Gothy said. “Had Morgan Freeman in it, too. That was a good movie.”
“Jarvis, you never recommend movies,” Mousie said.
“I enjoy a laugh over several movies, some that Alvin would hate,” Jarvis said.
“Like what?” Desiree asked.
“Musicals, mostly.”
Alvin twitched. “Ugh. No.”
Gothy snickered. “Why?”
“One of my foster families were all about musicals,” Alvin said. “No good memories there.”
“So scratch that,” Gothy murmured.
Jarvis yawned. “I’m off to bed. I wish you all a good evening. Desiree, Mousie, breakfast as usual?”
“Yes,” the two of them said together.
“I’ll look forward to it. I’ll go with a challenging dish for you.”
“Thank you, Jarvis,” Desiree said.
“We appreciate it,” Mousie added.
“It is nice to be appreciated,” Jarvis said, getting to his feet. “Now, please don’t leave a mess in the living room.”
Alvin chuckled, as Gothy’s hand had already snaked to his groin. “We’ll make sure there isn’t a mess out here.”
Gothy pouted at Alvin before removing her hand. “Have a good night, Jarvis.”
“Okay, ladies, come on. Time to head to bed,” Alvin said.
Desiree snuggled closer to his left side. Gothy did the same on his right, and Mousie shifted so her head was resting more firmly on his thigh.
“Damned brats,” Alvin laughed. “Okay, let’s go with a different tactic... First one to the room gets to dictate the toys and positions for the other two in the dungeon.”
The scramble off the sofa left Alvin gasping as all the women pushed off him to get to their feet. Catching his breath, he saw that he was alone in the room. He snorted and headed for the bedroom, already plotting what he was going to do to the winner.
~*~*~
A loud snore to his left woke Alvin. Blinking, he glanced to find who was making the sound. Gothy was curled up, facing away from him, with her taut ass resting lightly against his thigh.
“So delicate,” Alvin murmured.
Raising his head, he noticed that Desiree was gone. After getting out of the bed, he found the cage under the bed empty, as well. Mentally noting that they were likely cooking breakfast already, Alvin went to the bathroom.
Stepping out of the room a few minutes later, he saw both of his missing wives working in the kitchen, with Jarvis offering them suggestions. Not wanting to bother them, he went to the kiosk room.
Two letters from Night and Mithrilblood were waiting for him. Each monarch stated they would be looking forward to the new envoys. Mithrilblood’s went on to thank Alvin for helping the other envoys get to the Gate.
After reading their letters, he saw that there was a package waiting for him from Johnny. Accepting it, he opened it to find five dozen fetishes that would shield a person from mental influence for three minutes. Seeing them reminded Alvin that he hadn’t asked about getting help from Nellis with killing the fish-demon. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, wondering if the colonel would be willing to help and what it would cost. Putting the fetishes into the cabinets near the kiosk, he wrote a quick thank you note to Johnny before closing the kiosk down.
With that done, he moved to the medical bay to see how the DMV was doing with the terror worm DNA. Walking in, he found the bar a fraction away from the end. A second later, the machine beeped, having finished isolating the specific strands it had been tasked with.
Alvin played with the machine for a few, double-checking the bonuses and time required for the modifications to be done. When he had his answers, he didn’t start on anything new, as he wanted to check with the others first.
Stepping back into the main room, he smiled when Gothy came out of the bedroom at the same time. “Morning, beautiful.”
“Left me all alone...” Gothy said with a mock pout.
“Well, if someone wasn’t practicing their draconic, I might’ve stayed longer.”
Gothy’s eyes narrowed. “Really?”
“No. I wanted to check on some things, honestly. The snoring had nothing to do with it.”
“What were you checking on?”
“Wait for them to finish,” Alvin said, moving to the table.
“They’re just about done,” Jarvis said as he collected the coffee pot and cups. “Have a seat, and we’ll have breakfast shortly.”
“Works,” Alvin said.
True to Jarvis’ prediction, breakfast was done a minute later, and they were eating shortly after that. Alvin smiled at the meal— it was strawberry shortcake French toast, served alongside mini omelets with flaze and swiss.
Once he finished eating, Alvin sighed happily. “Damned good, ladies. I forgot all about that French toast. It was just as good as Jarvis’ version.”
“Thank you,” Desiree beamed.
“And those omelets? Had to stop with three of them or I wouldn’t be able to walk,” Alvin chuckled.
“Thank you, Hero,” Mousie smiled.
“I know you’re still eating, but we have some interesting decisions to make,” Alvin said. “The DMV is done with the terror worm DNA. We can modify our base fear resistance by thirty-three percent or our mental resistance as a whole by fifteen, but only one or the other. Each person would take a full day to modify. I haven’t started it on anything else, as I wasn’t sure if we wanted to do this now or wait.”
“You’re still planning to fight the fish-demon, right?” Gothy asked as she finished her meal.
“Yeah.”
“Then we should do the modifications first,” Gothy said. “I can go first t—”
“No,” Mousie said, cutting her off. “One of us should go first to make sure it’s okay. Besides, you have your ring.”
“She isn’t wrong,” Desiree said. “Mousie or I should go first. Does it have any side effects, Hero?”
“Not at that level, but if we try to up the percentage, then it starts giving a chance of unintended consequences.”
“Does it tell us the chance or what kind of consequences?” Gothy asked.
“No. If we knew, we’d game the system, which is probably why.”
“Fair, we would... Fine. Desiree or Mousie can go first and I’ll go last, since, as they said, I have my ring. I’d suggest the flat mental resistance.”
“So would I,” Alvin nodded.
Desiree and Mousie exchanged a look, but Mousie was the first to speak, “I’ll go first.”
“Okay. Before you go into the tank, maybe we should get the books for flying and the three of you can spend some time in the training room. I’m going to check with the major about completing the deal.”
“That’s a good idea,” Gothy said.
They got up from the table, thanking Jarvis as they left.
Chapter Twenty-four
No one was around when Alvin left the base. Shrugging, he started walking back to the RED HORSE buildings. He’d only made it a few hundred yards when a Humvee came barreling toward him. Stopping, Alvin turned sideways and stuck out a thumb.
The Humvee came to a stop near him, the gunner giving him a head shake. “Major said to bring you in.”
“Nice of someone to be waiting,” Alvin said.
“Sorry. The crew compartment’s full,” the gunner added before Alvin could reach the vehicle. “You’ll have to ride in the back.”
Laughing, Alvin started walking again. “Pass. Tell him I’ll be there in a bit.”
“I tried,” the gunner laughed. “Hop in— there’s room in the back seat. I was asked to try getting you into the cargo space.”
“I bet I know who asked, too.” Alvin went back to the Humvee and climbed in. “Onward, James!”
“That’s... not my name?” the driver said with a questioning lilt.
Alvin snorted as the sergeant beside the driver sighed. “Just drive, Hoke.”
It didn’t take them long to reach the main buildings. Alvin got out and had started walking inside when the sergeant from the Humvee came running up beside him.
“Can’t let you walk in unaccompanied. The guards wouldn’t be kind to you if you did.”
“I’d be unkind right back at them,” Alvin shrugged. “Overall, I think I’d be the winner of that scuffle.”
The sergeant side-eyed him. “Of course.”
“I’d prove it, but the major would be pissy that his men got killed,” Alvin said, opening the front door and stepping inside.
“Hold and be accounted,” a stern voice barked.
“Two of us,” Alvin replied without pause. “We good now?”
“That’s him,” another of the guards sighed. “Fucking asshole.” The last two words were muttered, but Alvin heard them.
“Not going to dispute that. Can’t argue the truth,” Alvin replied.
“Major is waiting for him,” the sergeant said quickly.
“Oh, he’s the one,” the first guard said, giving Alvin a hard look. “You know where, Sergeant.”
“Yes, sir,” the sergeant said, saluting.
“Oh an LT? No wonder,” Alvin snorted as they walked past the men. “Is it true that lieutenants are there to keep the captains just busy enough so the sergeants can do the real work?”
The sergeant didn’t reply, but his lips twitched a few times. The lieutenant muttered as Alvin kept walking, clearly in a worse mood now.
The sergeant opened the briefing room door and stepped aside. “Have a seat. The major will be with you soon.”
“Thanks. Good luck with the asshole on the door.”
“Yeah, I’ll need it now that someone pissed him off,” the sergeant said as he shut the door and left.
“You’re welcome,” Alvin chuckled as he took a seat.
The major didn’t keep him waiting long. Shawn, Milo, and the rest of Milo’s team followed the major into the room.
“How’s the hospitality?” Alvin asked.
“Not as bad as it could be,” Milo replied. “The Speedway is pretty full, honestly.”
“How many of them are worth a fuck, though?”
Milo shrugged. “Probably less than half. Most of the useful ones have signed on with the base for jobs.”
Major Cumberland cleared his throat. “I’ve arranged for your helo. How long for you to deliver the armor, letters, and coordinates?”
