Act 1: Groundskeeper: Chapter 17

The next morning, the entirety of LTF was meeting around a long conference table in a briefing room for our assignment details. Lucifer had just arrived and took a seat in a chair at the head of the table. She had bags under her eyes and her hair was slightly less pristine than usual. She also had an annoyed expression on her face.

“Yawnnnnn!” She opened her mouth wide and stretched as she yawned. “Your first mission as a team is a bit… unorthodox. It’s not an official mission, but rather a favor that I owe Gardener Wendolk.”

Great. We were going to be running errands.

“His favorite little experiment has gone astray and normally Wendolk would have WTF help him reset his experiment, but their all still off chasing the doctor that managed to break in a bit ago.” Lucifer said, rolling her eyes. Stain raised his hand. “Yes, Stain?”

“Doctor who?” Asked Stain.

“I don’t remember his name, and it’s not important. All I know is that Wendolk has taken some sort of liking to him, which is stragley unusual of him.”

Stain lowered his hand dejectily. I took this moment to then raise my hand.

“Yes, Twin?” She said while she was seemingly distracted by twirling her hair with her fingers.

“What exactly is Gardener Wendolk’s experiment?”

“Just a planet.” She said, not changing her demenor in the slightest.

“Just a planet!? We aren’t Gardeners! How do you expect us to reset an entire planet?”

“Oh, you don’t need to reset the planet. Wendolk just needs you to take care of six individuals, and then he’ll do the rest himself.” For the first time, I saw an emotion other than whimsy or suspicion on Lucifer’s face. I saw fear. There was only one thing that truly scared Gardeners. Stain must have been thinking the same thing because he voiced my inner concerns.

“They aren’t Heroes, are they? Please tell me that they aren’t Heroes.”

Lucifer’s gaze swept across the room, taking a second to look at each of us. “I’m afraid to say that they are, in fact, Heroes.”

My face paled. Heroes are the end all be all to the work that we do. Heroes are people seemingly chosen randomly by fate. They have no natural limit to their strength, and if they put their mind to it, most become gods. But their most dangerous aspect is the fact that they can’t be wiped, and a world can’t be reset if a Hero resides in it, unless the Hero does the resetting. Other then Gardeners, Heroes are also the only other known beings that are able to reset worlds. They are extremely powerful and dangerous and are feared by anyone with the goal of perserving the Treeverse in mind.

I couldn’t hold my temper so I stood up and I snapped at Lucifer. “This is a suicide mission! You're sending us up against six of the most powerful kind of beings in the Treeverse for our first mission!?”

Lucifer stared at me, pure blank rage on her face. “Never raise your voice at me. I shall forgive it for just this once because I am just as angry about this as you. Believe me, this was not my choice and I will find no joy in this. Wendolk loves messing with me and I owed him a favor of any kind, and he chose this. I tried my best to talk him out of this, but to no avail.”

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I closed my mouth and sat back down, my face flushed red with embarrassment. “My apologies, Gardener Lucy.”

She immediately changed back to her happy-go-lucky self before addressing us all once again. “You’ll be heading to the conteinet of Yuroeinds on the planet Baileim, but anyways, I’ve done my best to acquire all the information I can on the six that you’ll be facing, and I’ve just sent it to you.” True to her word, our Holowatch beeped, signifying an incoming message.

I opened the message, as did the rest of my team, and I took a look at out targets.

The first was Sage Pactholder, a young female demon who possessed fire magic from Yuroeind’s god of fire, Ignos, and wielded the legendary dagger of fire, Flametounge. Her notes said that she was better taken care of from a distance, as she excels in close combat despite her proficiency as a mage.

The second was Sai Thunderpants, (What is that name! Who’s last name is Thunderpants? I think it was a given title. That’s even more funny!) an elven monk highly proficient in the art of a shortsword, with the legendary sword of lightning, Thunderbird. His notes said that while he was a threat, he had horrible luck and a weakness could be exploited in his prized pet, a flying pink fluffball named Dinky.

The third was Raven Snow, a powerful half-elf sorcerress of ice with a trump card up her sleeve in the form of the legendary hammer, Freeze Ray. (Who names a hammer Freeze Ray?) Her notes said that while she had large amounts of raw power, she had barely learned how to control any of it, was quick to let her emotions get the best of her, and was extremely scared of fire.

The fourth was Esge Asprince, the last remaining member of his species, Advils, what most people describe as a mix between angels and devils. He was adopted into the dwarven royal family but is the secret child of Usiuse, the leader of the cult of TAMBA and Yert, her right hand man. Esge does not know the truth about who his parents are though. He wields the legendary spear of stone, Piercequake with unshakable strength. Hs notes say that he is the most dangerous as he has no apparent weaknesses, and he holds little to no care in his heart for others. He is best dealt with at a distance and to be very wary of his speed with his spear.

The fifth was Maralin Montrova, a righteous dragonborn who grew up deep within the acidic rainforests. She is a kind and caring person despite her brawny and generally imposing appearance. She also rebuilt the legendary bow, Scatterot, and weilds it with near impossible precision. Her notes say that while both long range and close range combat are extremely dangerous, it is slightly less dangerous to engage in close combat, as it makes it much more difficult to use her absurd skill with her bow.

The sixth and final was Prob Nolly, the unanimous team leader and turtle beastkin master of the spiritual arts of water with the legendary trident, Tidefork. Their notes say that while they aren’t very dangerous, they excel at supporting and healing their team, and serve as the team’s stratagist. It is best if you deal with them early on, as it will severely weaken the rest of their team.

After I finished reading through the profiles, I looked up to realize that everyone else had already finished ready, and was waiting on me. I muttered a quite apology as they all finally turned away from me and back to Lucifer.

Lucifer then sighed. “Now that you know who your targets are, It’s about time that I drop you off. I’ll be dropping you all off about a mile south from where they are currently camped, so you may strategize as a team and get a lay of the land. Everyone ready?”

She looked around at each of us, getting either a nod or a mutter of affirmation until she looked at me. “Twin?”

I took a deep breath in, and then another. “I’m ready.”

She let out sigh and a worn smile, the closest thing I’d seen to genuine emotion on her face, but there was sadness, as if she was sending us off to our deaths, which, to be honest, is probably what she was doing. And then she snapped.

There was no theatrics. We were in the confrence, and then we were in the forest, a slight fog rolling over the morning dew. It was still dark out so the sun most likely was ging to rise very soon. We would most likely clash during dawn. How poetic.

I turned to Stain with a macabre grin on my face, an expression of someone whose already surrendered to their doomed fate. “So, team leader, what’s the plan?”