Pandora entered the estate and looked around. It was quiet but she smelled the same type of smells she’d noticed around the assault team. So, they’d gone a little early, probably when the helicopters exploded. She wasn’t surprised when a man stepped out of a hallway to her left and lifted a bulky gun toward her. It smelled of oil and rope but she didn’t know what it was because she’d never run across anything like it before.
Time slowed as her perception, agility, and dexterity kicked in and she watched as a projectile was fired from the tube and moved toward her. When it was five feet from her a charge in the projectile went off and four weighted prongs shot away from the center stretching a net out between them. Each prong was 90-degree offset from the other so that the next expanded equally before it wrapped around the target.
Pandora watched all of this and casually reached up and touched the net, which she absorbed with her ability Absorb Items. There were too many innocents up here. Far too many for her to be merciful to these men. Of course, she didn’t have to kill them, and if she broke anything she could repair them later so long as she didn’t leave them to bleed out. With that thought, she had a plan and executed it.
Pandora moved. She didn’t have a haste skill or anything that would allow her to attack quicker than one time every second, but she didn’t need to be that fast. In a moment she was next to the guard that had shot her with the net gun and kicked his shin with what she hoped was a gentleness that wouldn’t kill him. Even so, his leg flew backward pulling his other leg behind it which caused him to crash to the ground head-first. Luckily he’d had a helmet on because Pandora noticed that he was still breathing as she moved further into the estate.
As she came around the corner three bullets struck her doing some damage to her. It felt no worse than if she’d stubbed her toe. Pandora didn’t have any spells in this new world, so she moved to the next person and touched his weapon as she absorbed it. As he drew his pistol and fired the other two brought their weapons to bear and fired at her point blank as well.
The next 10 seconds consisted of Pandora absorbing weapons while the three soldiers continued to attack her. Once she’d thoroughly disarmed them and continued to block them or ignore them with her damage resistance until they were weaponless she broke a leg on each of them below the knee and moved on.
The next grouping wasn’t so lucky. There were 10 of them and they’d decided to use one of the house staff as a human shield.
“Pandora is it?” The soldier with his gun to the back of the maid's head asked, “If you move she dies.”
Pandora hadn’t even answered. She’d used Absorb, Burst of Speed to cover the 100 feet in the hallway they’d been holed up in and pushed the man back as she slipped her other hand between the gun and the girl's head just as he pulled the trigger. He’d been fast and pulled the trigger, but Pandora’s hand had stopped the bullet. Unfortunately for that idiot and the two behind him, she hadn’t held back on her strength Also, her Burst of Speed had accelerated to 68 Miles Per Hour. That in addition to her full strength shot the soldier backward like he’d been fired from a cannon.
The guard she struck and the other two guards he collided with were turned into hamburger as the kinetic force expanded through their bodies ripping them apart. She struck him so hard that the other seven guards off to the side were stunned and immobile which gave Pandora enough time to pick up the young girl and move her to a hallway Pandora had passed where she left her out of harm's way. Pandora returned to the fight using her ability Absorb, Burst of Speed again.
This time Pandora didn’t hold back. She took damage, but not enough to hurt her significantly. Seven seconds later the seven guards were dead. A second after that she was fully healed and seven seconds after that all of the soldiers had been converted into the MLAs she used to heal herself.
Over the next five minutes, Pandora moved through the estate wounding those that she came across who tried to take her on by themselves and killing anyone who tried to use hostages to stay her hand. Eventually, the word got out that using hostages led to an automatic death sentence, and the noncombatants were left alone.
By the time Pandora made it to the bunker she’d killed 15 soldiers and wounded 45 others. As she came around the entrance to the bunker she saw three squads. Two were watching the hallway to the bunker while the third squad worked on trying to get through the vault door.
“Stop in the name of the Empire!” One of the soldiers commanded.
Since the soldiers didn’t automatically start shooting and they didn’t have any hostages Pandora asked, “Why?”
“Because in that bag right there is a bomb!” The soldier said as he pointed to a large duffle bag on the floor at his feet.
“What kind of bomb?” Pandora asked, curious.
“A nuke!”
“A nuke? Really?” Pandora asked surprised. “My dad tried to explain to me about nukes. I never did understand how something so small could make such a big explosion. However, I have to wonder, why would you be given a nuke? You have to know that if you use that everyone here dies, even those in the vault right?” Pandora asked.
“Everyone in the vault will be fine and we’ll be upstairs and out of the danger zone.” The soldier says as if he’s talking to someone incredibly stupid.
“In addition to what my dad told me I’ve also had the advanced physics courses you obviously haven’t. If that explosion goes off in this tunnel sure the nuclear energy might not kill those inside, but I bet the shockwave would be pretty intense and the shockwave would be bad, very bad. Bad enough to throw people around in there. Do you know how many people are in that bunker, since you want to open it so badly? Pandora asks.
“Between 50 and 100.”
“That was last week. Mistress Carpenter, I know you’re listening through the intercom, how many people are in the bunker?”
Mistress Carpenter’s voice came from the intercom speaker, “There are 226 people in this bunker. Mostly women and children. Ten are infants.”
When the soldier that was talking shows the slightest hesitation Pandora moves and uses her ability Absorb Item to absorb the nuke. Then mayhem breaks loose. Multiple soldiers open fire against her while the soldiers who had been watching over the bomb pull grenades and throw them at her. Grenades, the bunker’s vault door can handle a few grenades. Pandora reaches up and swats two of the four grenades back toward the vault door.
“Grenade!” Multiple soldiers shout out before the two that made it past Pandora and the two among the soldiers go off. The shrapnel from the two behind Pandora shredded her jumpsuit while the two that went off next to the door shredded the armor of two of the soldiers and damaged at least five others. The armor does its job and none of the soldiers die in the two blasts among them. One of the soldiers, who thinks he has an advantage against Pandora steps forward with a shotgun and at point-blank range shoots her in the center of the chest. Luckily he didn’t push it into her flesh and the slug ricochets off to the side, instead of bouncing back up the barrel. It stings but doesn’t break her skin, though if she couldn’t heal herself it probably would have left a bruise.
The next 30 seconds is an exercise in futility for the soldiers as they shoot Pandora, she moves and maims one of them and then it starts over. They have good discipline and hold the line but eventually, it doesn’t matter, When the fighting is done, all of them lay before the bunker’s vault door with broken limbs and shrapnel wounds. Pandora looks over the soldiers and finds the two that were right next to the grenade blasts and walks over as she uses her Absorb: Heal Other/Temporary Hit Point Bonus ability to stop the bleeding and stabilize the soldiers.
Next, she looks around the room and locks eyes with the Captain who sits against a wall with a broken arm and leg. Well, at least she wasn’t accidentally ripping limbs off anyone anymore, “Captain, we need to talk,” Pandora says as she walks over and gently grabs the Captain by the back of the neck as she heals his arm and leg. She’s absorbed so many MLAs that she needed to spend some of them to make sure she doesn’t accidentally explode. Luckily, she knew exactly how she could check her attributes without dropping into her Mindspace.
With her hand on the back of the Captain's neck, she activates shadow step and drags the Captain through a shadow in the wall. Once through she lifts him to his feet and releases him.
“Wait, What?” The Captain stammers as he looks around into the utter darkness of the Shadow Realm underground.
“Pull out your flashlight Captain, your night vision goggles aren’t going to help you here,” Pandora states emotionlessly.
“You can’t see either, the Captain says as he tries to strike where he heard her voice come from.
Pandora catches his fist gently and says, “I can see just fine in the dark. Please pull out your flashlight so we can talk,” Pandora releases the Captain and steps back.
The Captain pulled out the flashlight and turned it on. Light exploded into the darkness but seemed to disappear after it went more than 10 feet from the Captain. He pointed it around as he tried to figure out what was going on until the light rested on Pandora’s face, “What is going on? Where are we?”
“I’ve pulled you into a parallel dimension, a place known as the Shadow Realm. At least that’s what I call it. Anyway, magic works here and you can pull up your personal status which I want you to do now by thinking ‘Personal Information’ or ‘Status’. Once you do, the information can be viewed much like you’d view information on a monitor except that you control the screen with your mind. Take a look at it while I check something,” Pandora said as she walked over to the vault door on this side of the dimensional barrier and opened it. She looked around the bunker entryway and then started a very quick walk-through of the bunker.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The bunker had been dug out and built quickly and then a tunnel had been attached to the basement. In the Shadow Realm, it was about 100 feet underground. Pandora double-checked to make sure no shadow creatures had made it into the shadow realm version of the bunker. Nope, the entire facility area was empty, though it was simply a replica of the open spaces and didn’t have any of the amenities she had added to the bunker, like sewage and water lines. This would do nicely for now and should house the men for a bit while she figured out what to do with them.
Pandora made her way back to the entrance of the vault and found the Captain just inside the door, “Where are we?” he asked.
“We are inside a replica of the vault within the Shadow Realm. Think of this as a copy of the rooms on the other side. The vault door works but there is no water or toilets here but that shouldn’t matter. Nonliving matter tends to be absorbed by the realm rather quickly.”
“Why am I here?” the Captain asked.
“You’re here because I’m going to put all of the soldiers in here in a moment,” Pandora said as she closed the vault door. Don’t worry I’ll get you some food and water. By the way, did you look at your Status and Personal Information?
The Captain didn’t answer as he tried to attack Pandora again, this time trying to kick her. She caught his foot and squeezed it just hard enough that if she squeezed harder it would shatter his bones. Speaking slowly and with effect, she asked again. “Did. You. Check your Personal. Information?”
The Captain froze and nodded, “I checked, I checked. It listed me as a level 8 fighter.”
“And your Attributes?”
“What, you want me to tell you all my attributes?” The Captain asked.
“Just think ‘Show Attributes’ while thinking about what you want to show and it will appear in mid-air so you don’t have to say it all out loud.
The Captain's gaze goes vacant for a moment before a screen pops up
Attributes
Strength 17
Agility 15
Dexterity 14
Endurance 18
Constitution 20
Perception 14
Intelligence 13
Wisdom 9
Willpower 9
Charisma 8
Luck 5
Pandora nods and releases the Captain’s leg, “Just like that. Now take a look at mine,” Pandora says as she shares her attributes with the Captain.
Attributes
Strength 6152
Agility 6152
Dexterity 6152
Endurance 6152
Constitution 6152
Perception 6152
Intelligence 6152
Wisdom 6152
Willpower 6152
Charisma 6152
Luck 6152
Chaos 67,650
It was almost comical how big the Captain's eyes bulged when he read the stats. He recovered quickly enough and asked, “Chaos, what’s that?”
“Don’t you worry about that. Just know that it lets me do things like this,” Pandora said as she willed her clothes to repair all the cuts and bullet holes that had appeared. One of her breasts had almost been hanging out in the open because she’d been hit in the middle of her chest so much. While she didn’t care about her nudity, she did understand that others might.
“I see,” The Captain said.
“I’m sure you don’t, but that’s okay. I’m going to go bring the rest of your soldiers here. I’ll also bring some food and water. It’ll probably be a couple of hours before I get everything here. While I’m gone, I want you to explain to your people what you saw. I’ll also be getting one of the other soldiers up here to explain why you are all going to take an Oath or Vow to me.”
The Captain looked at Pandora confused.
“Don’t worry about it,” You’ll have company in a few,” Pandora said as she stepped through a shadow and exited inside the Vault right next to Mistress Carpenter whom she’d seen through the walls of the dimensional barrier while she was talking to the Captain.
“Pandora?” Mistress Carpenter said surprised.
“It’s me. Please have everyone stand back from the door. The soldiers on the other side are all wounded. I need to stash them before we sit down and talk. While I take care of the soldiers outside the door and the others upstairs I need you to order food for 100 men for at least a week. You might also want to order a few pallets of bottled water and have them delivered here. Also, camping supplies for that same hundred people, palletized is fine. No tents but lamps, sleeping bags, and other tools. Also, feel free to add one hundred decks of playing cards. Pay the fees to try to have everything delivered within 4 hours.”
“Of course, where would you like it delivered? Have it all brought down into the bunker's storage area. Keep it separated from the rest so I can grab it easily. Yeah, that should do.” Pandora said thoughtfully.
While they’d been talking everyone had moved away from the entryway that contained the vault door. This bunker had been designed as an underground facility and had its own well, sewage treatment plant, and air supply. In a pinch, it could support 500 people even though there were only a little over 200 people in it now. While the door was opening she turned to Mistress Carpenter, “Also, have one of the soldiers that is now on your payroll sent here. Tell them I don’t care who, I just need someone that can explain what they were shown by me to their fellow soldiers up here. Also, tell them to bring their gear with them. They might need it.”
“Very Well,” Mistress Carpenter said as she walked off into a side office.
Over the next 30 minutes, Pandora rounded up, healed, and then transferred all of the soldiers into the vault in the shadow realm. She absorbed all the corpses and converted them to MLAs as well as whatever mess they’d left behind. After everything was said and done 63 men stood around in the entryway to the vault in its mirror in the Shadow Realm waiting. Pandora left them and went back down to the vault in the material plane for a bit and checked on everyone there.
For the next four hours, Pandora waited while the soldier from the Cambridge estate came up to Scarborough in Michael Carpenter's helicopter and also had all the supplies delivered that Mistress Carpenter had ordered. Once everything was delivered, Pandora made her way to the storage area of the Bunker in the Material Plane and quickly transferred all of the supplies into the Shadow Realm equivalent.
While Pandora was returning from the Shadow Realm the soldier from the Cambridge Estate entered the storage and called out, “You called for me?”
Pandora holds up a finger, “One sec, just stay right there.” Pandora calls back and then finishes transferring the supplies. When she’s finished, Pandora returned to the soldier, “I need you to come with me and talk to the 63 soldiers that attacked this estate and convince them that it's in their best interest to join you and the others by taking a Vow, or Oath to me?”
“Sixty-three? You were able to capture 63 without killing any?” the soldier asked disbelievingly.
“Oh, some died. There were 15 assholes who took hostages and tried to hold me off that way. I don’t take kindly to anyone threatening innocents,” Pandora said.
“That is good to know. I’ll make sure to let the others back in Cambridge know that as well,” The soldier says hesitantly.
Pandora grabs the soldier by the upper arm and transfers both of them into the Shadow Realm. The soldier pulled out a flashlight and turns it on before Pandora leads him to the group that is still waiting in the main lobby.
“The Female Goddess Returns,” One of the soldiers calls out disrespectfully
“You, stow that shit!” The Captain calls out.
“Yeah Chace, stow that shit!” The soldier beside Pandora says as the other soldiers in the room look at him angrily. “What?” he continues. “She destroyed the three helicopters we had waiting for exfil and then she turned into a goddamn dragon and sent all three of our teams here. The only thing that went right for our mission is that our sniper took out Michael Carpenter…”
Pandora interrupted him, “Well actually,” Pandora said as she transformed into Michael Carpenter and then shifted back into Pandora.
“Are you saying you also took that sniper shot to the forehead?” The soldier from Cambridge asks disbelievingly.
“I am. Didn’t you notice that there wasn’t a body upstairs when I left you and the other soldiers to watch over the estate?” Pandora asked.
“Yeah, but?” The soldier started to say.
“Pandora, why did you bring Sgt Stokes here?” The Captain asked.
“Captain, and as many of you that wish to, and you too, Sgt Stokes, please follow me,” Pandora said she turned and walked back to the storage room. After a few moments, the others follow. As the soldiers come into the storage room they noticed the pallets of supplies and equipment.
Pandora looked over the soldiers that followed her, “You are all in the sealed Bunker under the Scarborough Estate you attacked earlier. You are just in a parallel dimension where the rules don’t really apply. This bunker is huge and can easily support 500 people in the real world so it should be able to support the 64 of you easily enough. On the pallets behind me are pallets of water, food, and camping equipment so that you can keep the darkness at bay while you’re here.
“Why are you leaving us here?” The Captain asked.
“I am leaving you here to give you time to talk to Sgt. Stokes here. Sgt. Stokes will explain to you what I required of the survivors from his assault team, what happened to Commander V, and answer any other questions you have for him concerning me so that you know the numbers I showed you for my attributes were not just for show.”
A couple of soldiers looked around and looked about ready to speak up when Pandora continued.
This Shadow Realm has a few properties that you will find quite useful. Anything that is lost or discarded tends to be absorbed by the shadows so get your people in here and distribute the supplies to everyone. You also might want to assign someone to sit on your food and water. That is a literal suggestion. If they’re just in the room watching it. I am being literal here. Once it disappears it's gone and there won't be more until I come back, which could take a couple of days. As for bathroom breaks. You can use the toilets and urinals. Anything you leave behind should be absorbed pretty quickly.
“What do you want from us?” The Captain asked.
“I want you to be the guard force for my people. I’ll be back in a couple of days to talk terms. Oh, btw. Sgt Stokes does not have the only weapons. One of the pallets has a duffel bag that has some weapons you brought with you. Sgt Stokes, the same rules apply to them as I stated to you and your team. If they shoot at me they get to stay on this side of the dimensional barrier, forever!”
“Understood Pandora, I’ll make sure to brief them thoroughly,” Sgt. Stokes said.
Pandora nodded and stepped through a shadow into the vault in the Material Plane. It looked like she needed to talk to Mistress Carpenter about accelerating her plans.
