Chapter5:
"Augh…"
I felt like I'd just been hit by a train.
"What the—?" Cold shot through my fingers as I opened my hand and groaned.
[Feat Achieved! Push through the pain!]
[1 Bronze Gacha Ticket]
Oh. My body shot upright despite its every protest.
Snow stretched in every direction, broken only by the occasional brown tree trunk. The cold bit into me, sharp and burning. My whole body shivered, the only warmth pulsing faintly from my finger.
The base was gone. Nothing but an empty expanse.
Shuffling pulled me out of my daze. Anna Marie was curled in the snow, shivering hard.
"Oh shit—Anna? You okay?"
She shuddered before cracking her eyes open.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Her voice was rough as she pushed herself up. "How're you?"
"Feel like I got hit by a bus, but I'll live." I tugged the ring free and pushed it toward her.
"Wait, you still need it." She tried to hand it back, teeth chattering.
"Anna, don't be stupid—you're turning blue!"
It took more back-and-forth than I liked, but finally she gave in, slipping the ring on. Color started to creep back into her face as the warmth took hold.
I glanced inward at the ticket. For a second, I debated holding onto it—but hesitation wasn't worth freezing over.
I ripped it.
[Crow]
Trash Familiar
A very smart and loyal crow companion with intelligence on the level of a human. She can spy on people and relay the information to her master.
A burst of black wings exploded in front of me. I staggered back, smacked in the face by feathers.
"KAW!"
Out of thin air, a slim, jet-black figure appeared—a crow, sleek and sharp, looking far too majestic for a mere bird. I might've appreciated the sight if it hadn't immediately gone for me.
"Ah, hell…!" I scrambled, swatting at the flurry. The damn thing nailed me with a two-hit combo, both wings across my face as the damn bird flew right past me. "Bastard!"
"Hehehe…" Anna's laugh was weak but genuine as the bird circled away from me, landing near her instead. It nuzzled her cheek, smug as anything.
"Hey—you bastard." The crow flapped once, fixing me with a beady eye.
"KAW!" It lifted its left wing in a lazy shrug.
I swiped at it, but the little shit darted behind Anna like she was a shield.
"Ah, you bastardly bird—be of some use, you little shit!"
"Kaw." The sound came smug, and then it nestled even closer to Anna before lifting off again.
Didn't know how, but I caught the gist: back in a bit, going on patrol.
"Cute," Anna murmured from her perch in the snow. "So… can you just conjure animals at random? I didn't really think about it before but… well…"
Oh yeah. Out of context, my powers probably looked completely insane.
"Okay, so where… to start." I paused, hesitated. "Do you happen to know what gacha is…?"
"Uhhh, no." Her voice came out soft, a little embarrassed and thick with that Southern drawl. "Auntie never really liked me doin' the modern new-fangled stuff. She said it was a test from God."
Ah right. I smacked my forehead. Anna Marie was raised in the South by a conservative guardian, which was one of the key parts of her backstory. "Well, basically I'm like a slot machine, I guess?"
"Slot machine… like those things in Vegas?" She sounded amused, picturing it. "Do you just roll slots for animals?" She chuckled at the image.
"No!" I practically screeched at the mental picture. "I don't even have the best grasp of it. But whenever I hit a 'feat' I get tickets. Those tickets can give me almost anything random—powers, items, familiars, like you've seen." I gestured at the ring and then at myself.
"That sounds…" She trailed off.
"Crazy," I finished for her.
"I was gonna put it kinder, more like absurd," she said with a crooked smile. "Do you know how the feats work?"
"Kind of." I ran a hand through my hair. "I've gotten bronze, silver, and gold tickets. Bronze and silver are humanly difficult but doable. I'm still fuzzy on the dividing line. Gold has me confused too, honestly. I've been winging most of it." The thought nagged at me and I added, "And that's another thing. We might need to separate."
"What!" Anna lunged forward, face close. "I know I didn't do much, but I promise—next time—"
"Whoa, whoa." I put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "Nobody's abandoning anybody here. Sorry if that sounded like I meant that."
"Oh." She relaxed noticeably, exhaling.
I scratched the back of my neck. "Okay, so you know how I said I can get feats for tickets? Well, we were screwed back there, and my power offered me an out. Long story short: I'm kind of on Hydra's shit list. Destiny, or whatever runs this thing, will keep pulling us back into conflict. You'd be in danger almost 24/7, Anna. Hydra's huge. I wouldn't say they control the world, but they've got global influence."
"Oh, is that it…" Anna laughed, the sound small and stubborn. "Jack, they already went after me once. I'm not gonna leave you just because of that. They're gonna come after me too, and if they're as powerful as you say, there isn't much I can do on my own."
She was right. I opened my mouth to argue and shut it again. I had no idea how far Hydra's reach spread in this version of the multiverse.
If it were anything like the movies, Anna Marie would be captured within hours. Few places on Earth didn't have Hydra fingers in the pie. Wakanda and parts of Asia were probably safer, maybe, but first I needed to figure out where the hell we were.
I suspected we were somewhere near Sokovia, seeing that we were in Strucker's base. But I wasn't knowledgeable about geography and didn't completely trust my meta knowledge. The fact that Anna Marie was in the base already fucked up any of my expectations.
"KAW!" A flap of black wings cut through the air, and broke my train of thought.
"You find anything?"
Strange as hell to see a crow nod knowingly, but I was too deep into this weird shit to be bothered anymore.
Whatever familiar mechanics were baked into the summon, it let me understand the bird's little pantomime.
It scratched a series of crosses in the snow, cawed, then chirped once. My face fell as I pieced it together.
The drawing was crude, but clear enough. West and north were crawling with people. I couldn't get exact numbers from crow charades, but it didn't take a genius to guess Hydra.
The east was empty, nothing but open ground. South only led deeper into the mountain ranges.
"Kaw!" The crow hopped into Anna's lap, finished with its report.
"Not good news?" Anna's hand ran gently over its feathers.
"No. West and north are packed with Hydra looking for us. That leaves east or south." I groaned.
"Teleporting isn't an option?" she asked.
"There's only a fifty-meter range, and I get vertigo if I keep chaining jumps. I can do it, but I'll probably pass out again if I force it."
"Ah, well."
"Yeah. Not sure what else to try." I shook my head.
"Does height matter when you're teleporting?" she asked.
I paused. I hadn't tested that.
Getting up, I hopped just a little and pushed the distortion of space. Suddenly, I was a meter higher. Gravity kicked in before I thought it through, and I slammed back into the snow flat on my ass.
"Agh!" Cold powder swallowed me whole.
"KA! KA! KA!" The crow's smug laughter echoed, cruel and perfect.
Anna covered her mouth, trying not to burst out laughing too. Betrayal of the highest order. That bird was going to pay.
"Okay, so height isn't an issue." I brushed snow off my pants, teeth chattering.
"Pfftt, then I think we should go to the mountains," Anna said. "If you can teleport us ignoring height, it'd be pretty easy to escape."
"True." I nodded.
Knowing the shit luck I had because of the penalty, I figured crossing the flat plains, even with teleporting, would be a nightmare. Even with stealth, Hydra would probably spot us somehow.
"Are you going to be okay?" I asked.
Anna Marie looked pale and thin, even with the ring warming her. The prison garb Hydra put on her wasn't exactly mountain trekking material. My Durable trait was probably the only reason I wasn't freezing to death.
"I can do it, Jack," she said, voice steady as she met my eyes. "I won't be a burden."
"That's not what I meant." I lifted my hand and took her wrist, making sure.
The little bastard crow had already taken off into the distance.
Space bent around us, and we disappeared towards the mountains.