Pulling my van into the driveway off of 17th Street, I left enough room beside me for Blaze to park. This was the first time I’ve needed to do that in months. Getting out, I waited for her to do the same, watching as she grabbed a bag from the trunk of her beige Prius. Nothing could stop me wondering how long we’d have gas or electricity to keep our cars running. More worries.

  Going ahead of her up the few steps, and unlocking the front door, I held it open for her. She stepped inside with her bag in her left hand, taking in the layout of my living room. I followed her in and locked the door behind us.

  Dropping my hat onto the walnut-stained coat rack near the door and next to my comfy chair, I added my baldric and sword to one of the hooks.

  “Welcome to my home. Kitchen’s straight ahead, through the opening. Bedrooms and my office are down the short hall to your left. First door on the left is my son’s old room...it’s just storage now, but it’s got a bed. Move whatever you need. Bathroom’s straight down the hall, on your right. Towels and such are to your right as you walk in. My room’s across the hall from the bathroom. The open door is to my office, slash computer room.”

  Blaze looked back and smiled, then slipped off her jacket and hung it below my hat. “Thanks. The agency probably thanks you too, for saving them the hotel bill.” She chuckled.

  “Yeah, they probably do,” I replied with a grin. “I’ve wanted out of this gear all day, just to let it breathe a bit. I washed it this morning for the first time in…well, I’m not going to say how long.”

  “Been a while since you used it?” she asked.

  “Since just before my wife died. We were in a fatal multi-car and semi-truck accident. She didn’t make it. I did, but both my legs were crushed. Took years of rehab to get back to where I am now.”

  Unbuckling my belt which held my knife and pouch, I hung them up, then pulled my phone from the pouch and dropped it into my pants pocket. Getting out of armor didn’t take as long as putting it on, but it still wasn’t some comic book magical quick-change in a phone booth.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. How long ago?” Blaze unfastened her tactical vest and hung it beside mine. Her clothes weren’t soaked through, but I figured she’d want a dry shirt.

  “Ten years this September,” I said. “But that’s the past. What we’ve got now, with the Game…it’s bigger than what was.”

  She nodded. “I get that. I don’t know games like you do, but I can see what’s coming. What’s already happening. How long before more people lose it like that Ice Mage did…and just start killing anyone around them?”

  “No clue. I hope maybe forever, but I’m sure it’s already happened elsewhere. Or maybe it won’t stop until everyone alive has grown up inside the Game, if then,” I said. “Let me get a quick clean-up, and I’ll fix us some food. Anything you can’t eat or shouldn’t?”

  She laughed. “Not much I can’t eat. I’d say I watch my weight, but I don’t think that’s going to be an issue anymore. Magic burns energy like a workout. Maybe not like the fighters, but I could feel it.”

  “I noticed that too. Maybe magic is like a new muscle…needs to be worked to get efficient. My REVEAL STATS is already easier. I’ve used it so often; I barely think about it and it just happens.”

  “I’ve been doing it too,” she said. “It helped with PokerRun. I don’t know if he can work as part of a party, but if he can…that man is scary when you’re staring down the rifling of his gun. Especially when you know the bullet would’ve taken my head off if it weren’t for your shield.”

  “I couldn’t let those rounds get through to you,” I said. “But your fire shield…that’s what got to him. He knocked it down, but almost before he could react, it was back up. That scared him. Made him think twice.”

  “I doubt my bosses will believe I just stood there and let him shoot at me.” She laughed again. “I can barely believe it, and I was there. Anyway, I’m gonna use your bathroom and change after. How long until dinner?”

  “Thirty minutes, maybe forty-five. I’ve got to get out of the rest of my gear too.” She nodded and picked up her bag, heading for the spare room.

  Sitting down, I unfastened the remaining straps. Pulled off the last of my gear. The boots were the best part to remove. I hadn’t worn them except a couple of times in almost a decade, and I’d need time to get used to them again. “I should polish them too,” I thought. “Much later," my body said.

  Forty minutes later, I was showered, changed, and halfway through stir-frying a mix of chopped onions, peppers, potato chunks, and some ground turkey I’d had in the freezer. I’d added beef bouillon, spices, and a splash of honey BBQ sauce for extra flavor and liquid. It was nearly done when Blaze came out.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Coffee’s in the pot on the counter,” I told her. “Red mug’s for you. Black one with years of character is mine. Powdered creamer’s all I’ve got. Don’t use it myself. Sugar and sweetener are next to the pot. Two packets for me if you’ll get it for me?

  “Sure thing. But red?” she teased. “Am I going to be stuck with fire-red everything?”

  “Maybe. Unless you start threatening to scorch anyone who does it. That might slow them down.”

  “Maybe.” The sound she made was somewhere between a laugh and a giggle. “Two sweeteners, got it.” She brought the mugs to the table and sat down on the side, leaving the end for me.

  Bringing the skillet over to the table, I sat it down on the hot pads I keep there. “Bread?”

  “Sure.”

  “Got it.” I grabbed half a loaf of wheat bread and some butter from the fridge and set them on the table before sitting. “Help yourself. If you need anything else, let me know. I’m not a fancy cook. Living alone, there’s not much point in being fancy.”

  “I’m the same. Thanks. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I agreed to come here.”

  “Well, I wasn’t about to rape an FBI agent who can set my house on fire. I’m not that hard up for sex. Or that stupid.” We both cracked up at that.

  “I didn’t think you’d try anything. You’ve got that whole ‘gentleman’ thing going,” she said. “I’ve played with a few gamers like that. Solo play, anything goes…but in a party, they’ve always got your back.”

  “I know the type. I guess I’m one of them. Most of the time.” We laughed again, and kept eating. Saving the town is hard work and makes you hungry. We shut up and started eating.

  “Will, this is good,” she told me after she slowed down. “Quick and simple, maybe, but it tastes great and it’s filling.”

  “Protein and starch to keep you going,” I said. “And I added garlic, in case we run into vampires.”

  “Garlic! Vampires? There wasn’t enough in there to annoy a vampire. Maybe if he drinks our blood and the garlic poisons him. I could barely taste it. If you’ve got real garlic, I’ll cook something you know has garlic in it.”

  “Feel free to look through what I’ve got. If you need anything, we’ll go get it. I’d love not having to cook all the time.”

  We finished the meal talking and laughing, just getting to know each other.

  After our late lunch or early dinner, I gave Blaze my Wi-Fi password, and she used her laptop on the kitchen table to write and submit her reports on everything we’d found and done today. I cleaned up and ran the dishwasher while mentally working out my priorities before our next outing.

  First up: MANA. My shields were going to need more juice if we faced more high-powered rifles or semi-auto weapons. I’d built my character to stockpile MANA…but like an impatient idiot, I hadn’t made anything to store it in.

  It was time to check the Rules again. One-shot batteries could store MANA, and they were cheaper to make than rechargeable ones. At Enchanting Level 2, I could make the rechargeable version…but I wasn’t there yet. It could be a while.

  One-shot MANA BATTERIES held ten points of MANA, and cost five MANA to IMBUE. Level 2 rechargeables held ten as well, but cost twenty-five to make. That didn’t even include the MANA it took to fill them. I could make bigger ones, but they’d cost more MANA to make. The higher the level, the better the batteries…but I needed solutions now.

  Some quick mental math told me I could make one item every two minutes and break even. I just needed something to IMBUE, so I could store MANA in it.

  Rummaging through my mental inventory, I remembered I had a partial left-over block of modeling clay in the garage. I think it’s the kind that stays soft until you bake it. That, plus some nylon cord, and I could roll out clay beads to act as crude MANA Batteries. If it worked, it could buy us time.

  “I’ll be in the garage if you need anything,” I told Blaze as I passed through the kitchen. “Gonna try making MANA BATTERIES so our shields hold longer. We haven’t seen the last of those big rifles…and I don’t want you defenseless if you pull that stunt again.”

  She looked up and smiled. “Me neither. He got through my shield on the first hit. I didn’t even know that was possible. My shield was still up, and he just punched through. It went down on the second shot.”

  “I wasn’t sure that could happen either. My shield stopped all the damage and stayed up. Might be something buried in the rules. I saw more stuff unlock after I leveled, so…yeah, maybe there’s more to it. It seems there’s new things available when you level. When you have time, check online for people transcribing the rules and posting them.”

  Giving her my Gmail address first, I told her, “There’re too many gamer geeks in the world, so someone’s transcribing the rules. Download copies in case we lose internet or power. Send ‘em to me, and to Bhaarrt, Ingrid, and Shadow. If we all have copies, we can pass things around through Guild Chat. If I can think of it, so can thousands of others.”

  Blaze chuckled. “I thought about that earlier. My boss says the FBI has a whole team working on it. So do most departments. Everyone wants to know how it’s going to affect them…and next year’s appropriation budget.”

  My sigh was loud and theatrical. “Politicians. It’s always about money and votes. People come in somewhere after that.”

  “The Library of Congress is going to host the official U.S. website for it,” she added. “The President signed an Executive Order for that this afternoon. Game Rules are and always will be in the Public Domain. That way, no one can try to control them. Not that they could, since everyone can see them.”

  “That works for me. Probably a Game Wiki by now too. See if you can find it. I’ll start on the MANA Batteries.”

  “Okay. I’ve still got a shit-ton of emails to respond to. Once word got around that I used my powers in the field…everyone wanted details. Some of them are high up in Washington. If I want to keep my job, I’d better respond.”

  Looking back, I nodded as I opened the garage door. “Your job matters. Gets us help we wouldn’t otherwise have. And the look on PokerRun’s face when you popped your fire…we might use that kind of misdirection again.”

  “It was fun. Neither of us looks like a mage. Let’s keep that illusion going as long as we can.”

  “When the monsters start spawning, ‘FBI’ won’t mean squat to them. But maybe they’ll still think I’m a fighter.” Blaze nodded and returned to her laptop as I went down the three steps into the garage.