Pinpoint ripped her hand free as she whirled around, her gun somehow appearing in her hand as she looked for an enemy, only to find nothing. “Erika talk to me, what’s going on,” she demanded, her gun half raised.

  Erika was quickly growing tired of her power. This thing needed a manual because the jump scare messages every time something new revealed itself was getting old fast. Sighing, she explained to the hero what happened.

  Pinpoint stowed her gun away and looked at Erika like she was some kind of interesting sculpture. “So some new aspect of your power revealed itself after you shook my hand, and it formed some kind of party and activated EXP sharing, but you have no idea what that actually means.” The woman shook her head and let out a heavy breath. “Your power is just plain weird. Every meta I’ve ever met instinctively understands what their powers can do in general, but you’re just stumbling around and figuring it out on the go.”

  Metallic footsteps rang out “O’Shea? You good?” White Knight’s voice came from around the corner.

  “Decision time. Am I bringing White Knight in or not?” Pinpoint’s eyes dug into her.

  Each metallic footstep increased the pressure Erika felt to make a decision. If she said yes, it meant having two heroes helping her get EXP and even being able to upgrade in the portal. She didn’t know what else they might encounter here, but portals were notorious for getting tougher the deeper they went. That the only monsters she’d seen were zombies that even a baseline human could beat with a hammer didn’t mean there weren’t truly dangerous things deeper in, things that White Knight and Pinpoint might struggle against. And who knew how many other heroes were in here. How many survivors. If they got swarmed by monsters, she might need every ounce of strength she could get to survive. Telling White Knight meant ensuring she could get that strength. But it also meant sacrificing her privacy. John might be an asshole, and Mary might be overwhelmed, but they weren’t stupid. They would notice her fighting and figure something was up. It wouldn’t be hard to guess she awakened, and that would make it even harder for her to stay anonymous.

  “O’Shea?” White Knight said as he rounded the corner, his sword held ready.

  TIme’s up. Erika made a decision. “Tell him,” she said to Pinpoint. Her stomach dropped into freefall as the words left her lips. A large part of her wished she could take them back, but what’s done was done, and she’d have to live with the consequences.

  Pinpoint nodded at her. “Fresh awakened,” she said, jerking her thumb in Erika’s direction. “I’m invoking sponsor rights and deputizing her for the remainder of this dive under my authority.”

  White Knight raised his visor as he looked at her, his eyes hidden in shadow. “Got it. What’s her power?”

  “Growth type. I’ll handle it. Let’s get moving.”

  White Knight nodded and shook her hand. “Erika right? Congratulations on awakening, I look forward to working with you.”

  *Ding!* White Knight (Unknown - Class D Human) added to the Party! EXP sharing is active!*

  “So, Growth type?”

  “Yeah,” Erika said distractedly, her eyes flicking to the words hovering over White Knight’s shoulder.

  “So what can you do? We’ll need—”

  “I already got the details. Just treat her as a baseline. You’ll still be up front and she’ll be with me securing the rear.” Pinpoint’s tone made it clear not to dig any deeper.

  “Got it. Back to it then.” Before Erika could do more than glance between the two heroes, White Knight spun around and headed back to the other survivors. “Ready yourselves, honorable citizens, for we must push further into this den of evil! But fear not, for you are protected!” White Knight’s voice echoed down the hallways as he shouted.

  Following after the hero, Erika couldn’t help but cringe at the man’s words, but it seemed she was the only one. Turning the corner, she saw the survivors staring at the armored man with what seemed like adoration. She supposed if she hadn’t awakened, she might be looking at White Knight almost the same way, as a hero there to protect her, but she just couldn’t get the man’s regular voice out of her head. It just made his heroic persona seem extra fake.

  Once they rejoined, the group started to move again with White Knight in the lead. Stepping into the room he’d cleared, Erika saw a pile of undead near the door, a narrow path leading to another doorway ahead. There wasn’t much more fighting after that, just a few rogue zombies that White Knight dispatched with ease, often before any of the survivors even spotted them. But that was enough to give her more hints on whatever this party system did.

  *Ding!* Your party member has defeated Zombie (Class F) x7! You have gained 70 EXP! Congratulations!

  It wasn’t much, but she still got some EXP from White Knight’s kills without having to do anything. At least until they got ambushed from behind. It was just a pair of monsters that came at them from behind, but Pinpoint heard them coming and warned her.

  Whether it was because she was getting used to fighting, or because she felt more willing to take risks with a C-Class hero watching her back, the fight against the two zombies was easy enough. The first fell to a few strikes with the heavy mace she’d found, while the second Pinpoint had casually knocked down and kept pinned with her foot and allowed Erika to deliver the finishing blow with a stab of the strange dagger she’d found.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  *Ding!* You have defeated Zombie (Class F) x2 with assistance from your party! You have gained 150 EXP! Congratulations!

  Erika couldn’t help but frown at the notification as new strength crept from the dagger and eased some of her aches. It wasn’t the ambush that bothered her, but the numbers in her notifications. Fighting zombies alone, or with Mary, she’d gotten 100 EXP for every monster she killed, and in the party she’d gotten 10 for each one White Knight handled. But the two that she and Pinpoint fought only gave 75 a piece. It looked like just being in the party reduced how much EXP she got.

  Still, it was far safer than fighting on her own.

  ***

  *Ding!* Your party members have defeated Zombie (Class F) x56! You have gained 560 EXP! Congratulations!

  *Ding!* You have defeated Zombie (Class F) x13 with assistance from your party! You have gained 975 EXP! Congratulations!

  With Pinpoint’s senses, they found and joined up with several groups of survivors as they made their way through the portal. The growing group of civilians meant that the two heroes couldn’t easily watch everyone alone and so several of the civilians joined Erika in fighting off the monsters. Even more surprisingly, she wasn’t the only fresh meta.

  “Kyle, you’re with me and Erika in the back,” Pinpoint said to a slight young man wearing a black hoodie and jeans. Acne scars covered his pale skin, and Erika could see a lock of greasy looking long hair covering part of his face under the raised hood of his hoodie. If someone asked her to picture a stereotypical gamer nerd, she would’ve pictured someone like Kyle.

  “In the back with the girls? I’m not that weak! My powers would be better up front clearing mobs!”

  Erika started to glare at the gamer guy, but thought better of it and plastered on her neutral customer service face. Picking a fight with another meta right now seemed like a bad idea. Though Pinpoint had no such reservations.

  “Is that so?” the C Class hero said, the hint of an edge in her voice that sent a thrill down Erika’s spine. Next to a pissed off meta was not a safe place to be. Worse was being the target of their ire.

  Gamer guy seemed to realize he’d fucked up and seemed to shrink in on himself. “N-Nevermind, I can protect people from the back too,” he said with what sounded like cracking bravado.

  Pinpoint stared him down for a couple seconds longer before she nodded. “Good. You’ll be with me backing up the civilians and volunteers, and once we’re out of here we’ll register you. Make sure you control your powers. Understood?”

  Gamer guy hastily nodded and fell in next to Erika as they got moving again.

  “Erika,” she said, holding her hand out to him. The guy stared at her hand for a few seconds, stumbling in his distraction.

  “R-Right,” he stammered, grabbing her hand and squeezing it awkwardly. His hand on hers felt cold and clammy though his skin was strangely soft. “Kyle… but you can call me Game Phreak.” The words tumbled out of gamer guy’s mouth in a rush as he quickly whipped his hand away, sharp nails leaving a trail of stinging marks on her palm.

  “Game Freak?” Erika asked as a new notification popped up, taking most of her attention.

  *Ding!* Game Phreak (Kyle - Class E Human) added to the Party! EXP sharing is active!*

  “Y-Yeah, it's my handle. I have electric powers so I thought it’d be a good superhero name. What about you? What’s your superhero name?”

  “Just Erika.”

  “Just-Erika? Like Justice Erika? Justilicious Erika?”

  “No. Just Erika. Like that’s my name. Erika.”

  “Oh. But like what’s your superhero name?”

  “Don’t have one, I’m not a superhero.” It wasn’t a lie. She really wasn’t, even though she was freshly awakened and Pinpoint deputized her. Technically she couldn’t call herself one until she registered.

  “B-But you’re helping Pinpoint guard the normies?”

  Erika stopped for a moment and raised an eyebrow at gamer guy, Game Phreak, she mentally corrected herself. Hefting the rusty mace she had slung across her shoulder with a scavenged belt from one of the zombies, she gestured with the heavy weapon in one hand. “Turns out I’ve got some natural talent swinging this around,” she said, secretly enjoying the way Game Phreak’s eyes widened.

  “O-Oh,” he stammered. “W-Well don’t worry, I’ll protect you from any monsters that come at us.” Game Phreak wiggled his fingers, sending brilliant blue sparks arcing between them.

  Lightning powers, because of course the other freshly awakened isn’t just two meta classes above her, but got an impressive power. He’d probably get snapped up by a guild or the utility and shoot through the classes as they power leveled him. Elemental control powers were always valuable.

  “I’m sure you will, but I can handle myself,” she said, carefully keeping her voice neutral. Talking to Game Phreak was a bit exhausting. He seemed nice enough despite his awkwardness, but Erika mostly tuned him out as he started talking about the different games he played and how they helped him figure out his powers.

  “—so since the Elemental Shaman class in Battle Planet can use Chain Lightning to do multi-target DPS, I figured I could control my lightning in the same way. But it’s pretty cool that my lightning can stun monsters, like a taser you know?”

  “Yeah, that’s cool.”

  “Right?! And then like right before the heroes found me, I figured out how to do a lightning nova—”

  “Have at thee foul beasts!” White Knight’s voice echoed down the hallway along with the sound of fighting. The group came

  Game Phreak looked up ahead, then at Pinpoint. “Uh, Miss Pinpoint, shouldn’t we go help White Knight?”

  Pinpoint shook her head as she turned to face back towards where they came from. “No, he should be fine, but get ready. I hear a lot of something coming at us from behind.”

  As if Pinpoint’s words manifested them, Erika heard the scraping, dragging sound of zombies as they shambled towards them from the dark. But something seemed different from the other zombies she’d heard before.

  “Get down!”

  Before Erika could start to move, someone pushed her down to the ground hard, driving the air from her lungs. “Oof!” Something clattered to the ground in front of her with the sound of wood hitting stone as she started to push herself back up, only for her to feel a boot on her back pushing her back down.

  “Stay down, cover your ears and eyes,” Pinpoint said from above her.

  Confused, Erika did as she was told, plugging her ears and squeezing her eyes shut. Even with her hands covering her ears, she could still hear the hint of zombie moaning as they grew closer. Whatever Pinpoint was doing, she hoped she did it fast. She didn’t want to become zombie chow. A loud boom cut through the faint sounds she could still hear and the ground shook as words popped up in her closed eyes.

  *Ding!* Your party members have defeated Zombie Soldier (Class E) x4! You have gained 200 EXP! Congratulations!