Wish upon the Stars chapter 517

Before we could leave, we needed to check in with the others. After  dinner with my mom, we went to visit Benny and Jessie. They were up  first because they were main team members. Chelsea came along, excited  to officially re-meet everyone and learn about her new traveling  companions. Callen was around apparently, but we hadn't seen him. With  mom around and on Killian's ship there was no reason to worry about my  sister's safety.

When we arrived at Benny's place, I  rapped on the door. It only took a minute for him to answer. He appeared  to have gone to bed early, because his hair was tousled and his eyes  looked a bit blank. "Shane?" He said in confusion. "Aaaand you brought  your sister." He grimaced, glancing down at his bare torso. "One  second." He shut the door, then came back about two minuted later fully  dressed. "What do you need?"

I shrugged, pushing past him  with a laugh. "You're in bed? At like ten PM? What are you, a thousand?  We need to talk about our next destination. You free?"

He  rolled his eyes. "Please, come on in. Ass." He turned to Callie and my  sister. "You girls are welcome, by the way. I appreciate you having  basic manners." He jerked his thumb at me. "This dipshit has been a lost  cause for years. We're lucky we were able to housetrain him."

"I  will knock you out and dump your unconscious body in a cave." I said  flatly. "Now where's your better half? She usually keeps you from making  an ass of yourself while we talk."

Benny just snorted,  and both of us grinned. Chelsea seemed confused, but Callie just patted  her shoulder. "Ignore them. They snipe at each other as a sign of  affection. They don't realize how obnoxious it is...somehow. Which is  astounding because everyone tells them constantly."

"Anyway."  Said Benny. "Celine is asleep. We had a nice relaxing day together. No  training. Then we went to bed. Jessie is with Cark and Cass last I saw,  since I assume she's next on your list. What did you have in mind for  our next leg?"

"The Empire." I said with a shrug. "There's  a war coming, and I figured what better was to prepare for a war than  to be in ACTUAL wars to get better at it. We're going to go join up with  some noble house. I was hoping to talk to Vinnie about it before we  leave. Thought maybe we could join up with him. Assuming there's no hard  feelings for killing him in the temple. I think we're safe though,  considering it turned into a nightmarish survival incident with an  almost 90% mortality rate."

He snickered at that. "Yeah,  they got off easy. The Empire huh? So what's the question? You're not  thinking of leaving me behind, are you?"

"Given how  worried you were about Celine I was thinking I'd make the offer." I  shrugged. "No pressure either way, I'd love to have you. Although I am  curious about what kind of bump you saw from this whole mess. I assume  you got a pretty decent chunk of points too?"

He grinned.  "Nothing insane, I wasn't front and center here. But between this and  the leftover juice from the Glade I did ok. Here, check it out." He  grabbed a nearby piece of paper, scrawling out his information  carelessly. Between Might, Perception, and Focus, his writing basically  looked like a printer.

Benicio Cortez- F-rank.  Ability: Intermediate Mechanical Embodiment- Allows the integration of  existing inventions into the users body for the purposes of  strengthening and enhancing them.

Might-1905

Impact-35

Fantasy-256

Vitality-141

Focus-2683

Perception-282

Creation-171

Progress to next rank: 5473/10000

soul strength: Green 25%

Pet- Wolf named Rolf

Current  integrated tech. 10/10. Torso: G-ranked intangibility for short bursts.  Right fist: triple punch. Left forearm: F-ranked energy barrier or  variable shape. Left fist: minor slow acting tranquilizer effect. Right  foot: Density shifting to create heavier kicks and more powerful jumps.  Left Foot: momentum neutralization to allow stopping instantly. Head:  slight cognitive boost to allow more thinking time. Back: ability to  grow a shell to tank damage. Chest: Pair of golden G rank spider legs  that arch up from the shoulders. Waist: Belt of spiritual calming.  Heart: Illusionary double

Skills:Minor Cooking Mastery, Intermediate Inventing Mastery, Minor Haggling Mastery, Minor Stealth Mastery

I  whistled. "Damn. Nice. Seventeen hundred. I'm glad you got a few points  in Fantasy. I assume that was upward pressure from your rank. Having  any stat that low wasn't going to last long. The rest was in Focus and  Might though, which makes more sense with your build."

"Yup."  He said smugly. "More than halfway now. Celine did ok too, though  nothing nearly as extreme. She was even less of a player this time than I  was. Which is part of why I know she'll want to come on this little  recruitment drive of yours. She feels bad for not being able to help  more. She should be fine as long as we're all training together. Like I  said she didn't love how absent I've been lately."

Callie  nodded. "Yeah, I was pretty irritated with Shane for being gone all the  time too. Though lording my new stats over him helped. Plus he could  sense my annoyance and took some steps to placate me. You and Celine  should talk to Abel and Mel. The bond is amazing for a relationship.  Real communication is the best thing in the world for couples."

Case  in point, my ability to feel her gleeful malice as she tried to  casually convince my best friend to train with Abel, an experience she  knew very well was absolutely miserable. I kept my face blank too, not  wanting to ruin her prank. To be fair, the bond WOULD help their  relationship. The process of getting it just fucking sucked, mostly  because Abel, main teaching method (unless you were a nine year old  girl) was to hit you until you figured out how to pick things up.

"So,  Chelsea, you're going to be coming along with us huh?" He said as he  slumped down on the couch. "Our meeting was a bit brief last time, so in  case you forgot my name is Benny Cortez. I've been Shane's best friend  since we were kids, so if you want any embarrassing stories I'm an open  book."

Callie let out an offended gasp. "Why don't you ever tell ME embarrassing stories about Shane? I need blackmail material."

He  shrugged. "Sharing with his sister is one thing, but I'm not about to  spill state secrets to the girlfriend. Even I have limits. I might joke  about it, but a man's got to have a code." His expression was solemn,  and I shot him a manly nod of respect and gratitude...until he  continued. "You should ask Maria next time we're home. It's HER job to  embarrass him, so she'll be happy to spill."

My sister  giggled at our antics. "Seems like you're all really close. I hope I can  be part of that. I definitely want to get to know Shane, embarrassing  secrets and all. I don't really get out much, and I'm honestly shocked  my mom is giving me a pass to go with you."

Benny and  Callie didn't know about the exact details of my sister's abilities.  They had the general picture, but my mom had begged me not to tell  anyone about my grandmother, saying even knowing could be dangerous for  them, and I'd agreed. Plus Chelsea's powers were her own to share or  not. Still, I wanted them to be friends. Benny and Maria were the  closest thing I had to family, and it seemed like Chelsea could use that  as much as I could.

"So." Said Benny after a minute. Face  getting serious. "We have to join an army. Will you be able to do your  wish thing in that kind of environment? Or will you need to keep it  secret."

I shrugged. "Zeke will be around to ward off the  big guys, and Callen is pretty damned scary. We should be fine. Plus  Vinnie knows I'm WCP. And meeting here probably gave him a good idea  about what my power is, given it's only the cream of the crop that come  the temple for the trials. No way he wouldn't be interested in having a  candidate among his army to grant wishes."

Aside from just  stats, I had a few ideas for how to help with that kind of thing. "You  get a chance to do any research on the way that works, Cal?"

My  girlfriend nodded. "Looked into it during my downtime today. Basically  it's a pyramid. Every 'noble' from the Emperor down to an Earl has other  nobles under them. It's really stratified. Each of them can field an  army of their supporters, and battles tend to be pretty rank specific.  So we'd be fighting other F-rankers. The Empire doesn't want to waste  their nobles in battles with higher ranks."

That sounded  pretty similar to what the other factions did. Die in battle with  someone your rank and you were just useless, but they didn't want anyone  higher up killing too many of their lessers, since it didn't  differentiate talent or instinct. That was how you lost good people that  could be put to work. "I assumed it'd be like that. Does it matter  which army we join?"

"Oh yeah." She said emphatically.  "Not all E-rankers are created equal. Some are members of powerful  factions and families that allow them more leeway. Family skirmishes,  noble houses in particular, are a bit more freeform. Less limitations on  rank because your family's seniors are expected to protect you rather  than the rules."

That lined up with what I'd heard from  Zeke about his family. That hadn't seemed quite so simple. I wanted to  go with a big battle, but I didn't want to end up fighting E or D  rankers. "We'll have to ask around. Our options should be a bit more  varied if Jessie comes with us right?" If there was one thing I'd picked  up from games and movies, it was that armies needed healers.

"Definitely."  She said with a smile. "Even without the healing, her little energy  boosting thing would be a huge help in battle. Imperial conflicts are  all about stamina. You don't just fight hard, you fight long. Less  losses than you would expect, but it's a drawn out process."

"Sounds like we have our work cut out for us." I chuckled, glancing at Benny. "You still sure you want to come?"

He  shrugged. "What's life without a little risk. Or a lot of risk. Or  certain death. That's what makes it so much fun. Besides, I want to see  if I can make some cool inventions to help with the battles. Maybe some  kind of mines or something. I'm sure my Inventing will come in handy."

I  hadn't even considered that. He could make some nasty stuff, and even  put together buildings that could be used in combat. That was going to  make things interesting. At least assuming they didn't have Inventors  already around.

We got to talking about details, whatever  we knew or could scrounge up from our scan rings. Chelsea really got  into it, telling us everything she'd read on the empire's caste system  and how nobility cultivation worked. It was a fascinating subject, and  we ended up talking well into the night.

Eventually Celine  woke up and came down. Benny filled her in and as he mentioned she  seemed more than prepared to go into battle with us as long as we all  went together. She'd heard a bit about the empire too, since the  Faerieland interacted with them more than any other faction, and tossed  in plenty of her own trivia. It turned out to be a pretty interesting  night. I hoped we had more like it once we arrived. Before that though,  we had to leave, and before THAT I had some friends to contact. I was  just hoping they weren't too pissed about the whole murdering them  thing.