The Missile 2
Copyright© 2025 by Zen Master
Chapter 2: Ants or Centipedes?
Monday at school it was all the same thing. On the bus, in homeroom, in my classes, at lunch, it was all “How was the party?” It was good. “What was the Portal like?” Definitely scary! “Was the Survivors’ Party fun?” Oh, yeah. “Did they really pay you to go in the Portal” Yeah, but my Mom took the check.
Mostly it was “Did that Cindy chick go to the party?” Yep, she sure did. “She’s really pretty.” Yeah, I noticed. “Did you get to nail her?” (For that one, I slowly turned my head to look at the jackass who asked THAT question) “IF I spent half the night doing everything I could think of to her, would I tell YOU?” (shaking my head until he got the idea and left me alone)
At lunchtime I sent Cindy a text “Has everyone been asking about the hunky guy you kissed at the Portal? All morning I’ve been getting asked about you.”
I got my reply almost instantly. “Nope, not at all. The girls here all want to know about Eric.:)”
For the rest of the afternoon she sent me questions about Eric. Is he married? What kind of music does he like? Does he like Italian food? Did he have Friday evenings free?
She knew damned well I didn’t know any of that.
Monday afternoon after school I had another email from ALPRA. It thanked me for my participation in the test run in Anniston the previous day. It also requested that I log into a private video conference, a vidcon on Discord, that night at 8PM. It would be a planning session on the Alabama Hunters Guild channel.
Participants would be Team Newbie, several ALPRA personnel, and several invited Hunters. Since Team Newbie were all under 18, our parents were invited to join us. Further, at 9PM the vidcon would be opened in ‘text-only’ mode to all members of the Alabama Hunters Guild, for general discussion about the junior member training program.
I would have immediately called Cindy but she’d already sent me a text making sure I knew about it. I sent her a reply so she’d know I got the email and I’d be there, and then I sent texts to everyone else on Team Newbie as well as all the people we’d had on standby the day before. They probably got emails, too, but not everyone checks their email twenty times a day.
Mom and Dad would be there for this vidcon, but after that Dad had to go back to Japan. He said he would appreciate being in the decision loop, but if we had to make a decision and he couldn’t be reached, he would understand. As long as the PRA continued to protect us as well as they could, I had his permission to continue getting experience.
I was online by 7:30 or so, logged in to the vidcon channel but just chatting with the rest of Team Newbie, and at 8 we all shifted over to the conference. By the time one of the PRA guys started talking, we had 12 or so people signed in. I could see Cindy’s, George’s, and Matt’s parents behind them, and they could all see my parents behind me. Matt’s arm was still in a sling.
The PRA guy started by thanking Team Newbie for making it to the conference, as we had to collectively decide what we were doing next. We had a lot of choices. We could disband and forget Diving. We could continue on with the PRA-sponsored training program. We could go back into the same Portal in 9 more days. We could go into a different Portal in 4 more days. We could ignore the PRA and do our own thing. Or, probably a hundred variants on those. And, of course, until we reached 18 our parents had a lot to say in what we did. So, what were WE thinking of doing?
George typed “Sam?”
Matt just sat there.
Cindy asked “May I speak?”
I said “Sure!”
Cindy sat up and said “I don’t want to say I had a religious experience in there, but I did get to really focus on what was important to my life. It is my understanding that the state has at least two other Healers, but neither of them is willing to enter a Portal, so they will always remain Level Ones with very weak powers. I was with them, but when Sam came up with this plan for us to get a guided tour of a Pink with a pair of experienced Divers to keep us out of trouble, my parents and I agreed to try it.”
She sighed. “I was, frankly, completely terrified the whole time. Yes, Eric and Margie did a great job of introducing us to Portal Diving, but I had no business in there.” She said it again, whispering. “I had no business in there!” Then, in her normal voice “I don’t know how to fight and I don’t have a weapon.”
“However, during our last fight Sam showed me that I wasn’t alone, and I could trust him to protect me. He was busy with his own opponent when the Boss snuck up behind us and jumped us by surprise. Matt saw it coming in time to scream a warning, and Sam flew up and met it in mid-air. Yes, they both landed on me and I got the wind knocked out of me, but it was dead when they landed on me. I was covered in blood and brains, but I wasn’t injured.”
She took a deep breath. “I’ve talked to my parents and to Sam. I’m willing to go back in those things again, but I have conditions. I’ll learn how to fight with my staff now that I have it, but I’m not going back in unless Sam goes with me. I’ve gotten several offers of pay to go with other teams who need a Healer, but if it’s five of them and they want me, I’m not going no matter how much they offer. If it’s four of them and Sam will go, sure. They have to pay in advance, my Dad says a broker can hold it in escrow, and the fee is getting split between the two of us. Okay, that’s all I have to say.”
I guess it’s my turn.
“Personally, I want to keep Team Newbie going. We learned an incredible amount about how Dungeon World works yesterday. Did we learn enough? I don’t think so. Sure, I think that me and Cindy and George and Matt could do it by ourselves, but why try? We aren’t ready. Eric is far better at leading and fighting than George and I are. Margie is far better at what she does than Matt is. Why would we throw away those teammates for no reason?”
I nodded. “We TRUST them. We know what they can do, and a lot of times it’s stuff we can’t do yet. And, they still have a lot to teach us. I’m kinda dumb sometimes but I’m not stupid! If they are willing to continue on teaching Team Newbie, I want them to stay with us.”
George nodded and said “I’m in. I trust you guys. And, we’ll be a lot better the second time. We’ll all be better individually, and we’ll work together a lot better, too.”
Matt said “I don’t know if I’ll be able to go. I went to the hospital today, and they think they put everything back the way it’s supposed to be, but it’s gonna be a while before I’m at full speed again.”
Cindy asked “Can we see if I can help with that? I’m told that it takes all day to recover our Mana out here, but if I can heal you faster than that I will.”
Several of the older Hunters were nodding. Eric said “Yes, it supposedly works just as well out here as it does in there. I don’t know from personal experience, though. You’re the first Healer I’ve ever met.”
“Matt, can we meet somewhere tonight? I’m in Glencoe. Where are you?”
Matt’s mother leaned over his shoulder and said “For this, we will go to you. Give us your address and we’ll drive over as soon as this is done.”
Cindy’s dad leaned forward and said “Why don’t we meet you part-way?” He looked at her and asked “Where should we meet?”
Cindy said “How about the Domino’s on 431, headed towards Gadsden?”
Cindy’s dad and both of Matt’s parents were nodding. Mrs. Jeffreys said “We’ll let you know when we leave. Do you have their number?” That last was aimed at Matt. He nodded. “Good. We’ll call you. Thank you!”
I had to ask. “How expensive was that hospital stay? Is the PRA helping?”
Matt’s father answered “They gave us a number to call yesterday at the debriefing. We gave it to them when we checked in, and they never brought it up again.”
“That’s awesome!”
I think everyone on the vidcon either nodded or smiled at that. A 15-year-old kid got hurt on a PRA-sponsored event? They’d BETTER take care of it!
The PRA scheduling guy, his label said he was Mickey Allen, wanted to move on. “Okay, if your team wants to continue on with this program, what’s next? In four days you can visit a different Portal. In another week you can go back in the same Portal again. Or, do you want to take some time off? We shouldn’t pressure you to go too fast, but we need to know if you are Diving again this weekend. We are holding a couple of Portals in case you want to use them, and we need to release them for others to use if you don’t want them.”
Huh. “Well, since SOMEONE decided that we can’t participate in high school athletics, I’ve got my weekends free. Can we do one on Saturday, so we have Sunday to recover?”
I looked at the rest of the team. They all nodded. Matt said “If I’m ready to go, sure.”
I looked back at Mr. Allen. “What’s available on Saturday?”
“If you’re willing to drive some, we have four different Pinks with four different animals, as well as three Violets with your choice of giant Ants, Spiders, and Centipedes. If you like seafood, there’s a Pink down by Orange Beach with giant crabs.”
“We could do the crabs, but why travel that far? I’m gonna say that we’re not ready for the spiders yet. Well, Eric and Margie probably are, but not the rest of us. And, I’m not sure I want to go exploring a giant ant tunnel yet, either. Anyone want to go see the centipedes?”
The rest of the team either nodded or said “Sure!” or something to the same effect.
“Sir, we would like to visit your Violet Centipede portal this Saturday.”
“Thank you for being so accommodating! I’ll get that one assigned to you immediately, and get the other ones freed up for other Hunters as soon as I’m done with that.”
“No, thank you for being so helpful. Where is the Centipede Portal?”
“It’s up in Sardis City, 10 or 15 miles up the road from Gadsden, in a warehouse. We have to let them know as soon as we can, since it’s a business and they’ll be open then.”
I had to blink a couple of times at that. They were trying to run a business with one of those things in the way?
The “ALPRA 1” guy said “Alright, that’s all the business we have for the 8 o’clock meeting. We’ll leave this channel open, and then open it to the rest of the Alabama Hunter’s Guild at 9.”
I looked at Cindy’s picture. She was looking at the screen, but I couldn’t tell who she was looking at. “Cindy, if you and Matt want to go, I’m going to stay here. I’ll make sure you both get anything I get out of the next meeting.”
They both agreed to go meet and left the channel. Soon after that the screen changed to a sign saying “Thank you for signing in to the 9 PM Alabama Hunter’s Guild meeting for junior members, with other interested members invited. It will start at 9:00 or as soon after that as we have the minimum of participants.”
The meeting at 9 was huge. When the screen cleared to show the PRA people and a couple of others, the counter was still climbing but it had already passed 500 participants. The guy in charge with the label ‘ALPRA-1’ looked up, and said “Mr. McGowan, thank you for remaining on the conference. We’d like you to stay on video if you don’t mind.”
Huh? “Sure!”
“Thank you! We’ll use you to represent Team Newbie, who were the test group for our training program. Everyone, thank you for participating. Tonight, we’re going to discuss the training program that the Alabama Portal Regulatory Agency has set up for our newest Weapons. You are all in an awkward position, because the Portal System has awarded you all Weapons and will let you enter the Portals, but by both United States Federal law and Alabama State law, you are not yet considered adults.”
He took a couple of breaths. “In this country, it is every adult’s God-given right to do stupid things that will kill you. If you are only 15, though, you can only do them if your parents give you permission. Thankfully, this slows you down enough that we have a chance to help you. If you are one of our new 15-year-old Weapons, you have the brains of an adult, but you do not yet have the body or the skills or the experience of an adult. This means that your brain can get you into trouble that your body and your experience can’t get you out of.”
This time he took a drink from a water bottle. “As many of you probably know, yesterday a six-man team went into a Pink portal on a training mission. The team had two experienced Divers, a Level Three Axeman and a Level Two Fire Mage. The other four on that team were 15-year-olds like yourselves. One of them got injured, but they all walked in and they all walked out.”