Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen - Going At It Again

  I arrived at Jane's shop to find a pile of familiar clothes on her front counter. She was dealing with a client though, so I moved around and looked things over.

  Yeah, this was everything. The two ponchos, the shorts, the shirt, the hats. There was a nice all-black backpack as well. Nothing too special-looking, but that was probably for the best. The quality looked good, at least, and it wasn't too big of a bag. I wouldn't look too strange with that on over the poncho, though it'd certainly change the look a little.

  Oh well. We'd live with it.

  Jane finished up with her clients, then disappeared for a moment in the back. When she returned, it was with her arms full of weapons and ammo. "This is a weird one, Beanstalk," she said.

  "I know," I replied.

  "Any you care to explain?" she asked. I hesitated, and she noticed. "Fine. I've had a few moments like these before."

  From the tone she used, I had the distinct impression that I wasn't going to get a friend discount on this one.

  Hmm... maybe in the final loop I'd bring Fran back here again? They'd gotten along surprisingly well, and Jane hadn't charged me very much at all at the end. "Are those the guns?" I asked.

  One was the same handgun that Fran had used. It had lacked punch, but honestly, it was small, compact, had worked for the most part, and had decent ammo. Plus, she knew how to use a small semi-auto gun like that, so there was not much unfamiliarity to deal with.

  "Yup," Jane said.

  The other two guns were new to me. I reached out and took one of them, then out of habit, I pulled back the charging handle and checked the safety. Empty, and on. The gun was a sleek blue-ish black, with some lighter grey parts and a nice, relatively short barrel with a slim angled foregrip.

  "Grasshopper?" I asked as I read the name on the side.

  "Not familiar with the brand?" she asked.

  "Not really, no," I admitted.

  "It's a weird one. They make two kinds of weapons. Extremely pricey marksmanship rifles. Like the kind of shit top-end corpo guards might use laying down atop a skyscraper to snipe some punk's face off from a few miles off. Or training guns."

  I blinked, then looked the rifle over again. It had Trainer762 etched on the receiver. "This is a training rifle?" I asked.

  "Yup! Semi-auto only. It's damned good stuff, though, and costs less than you might think. Production numbers are lower, and there's a long backlog to order through, but they never jack the prices up. Good second-hand too."

  "Huh, alright," I said.

  Jane patted the top of a small tin box with heavy clasp hinges on the sides. "Sixty round in this one. And six magazines. All M993. It's an older kinda round, but it'll fuck up most dinos, I think."

  "I hope so," I said as I checked over one of the magazines. It looked pretty sturdy. Six twenty-rounders, plus sixty extra? Yeah, that would be plenty. "I'll take some buckshot as well, if you have any to spare."

  No reason not to bring the shotgun along. It had served pretty well, especially when the raptors had been hiding behind some shrubbery. The buckshot lacked penetrating and killing power, but that wasn't all that mattered.

  "You really gonna go off to fight dinos?" Jane asked.

  "Yup," I said. "With a friend."

  "She's the one the costume's for?" Jane asked. "Also, I have to point out how weird it is that you know what I have in here. I don't know what I have here."

  "Don't think about it too much," I suggested. "And yeah. We need to keep her identity somewhat hidden. The costume will help with that. Plus it'll look good. I'll present you to her one of these days. You'll like her."

  "Uh-huh?" she asked, her arms crossing.

  "She has nice thighs?"

  Jane blinked, then made a strange 'well, I suppose' sort of expression that dragged a chuckle out of me. "Right, well, once you paid up, we're square. But be careful out there, Beanstalk. Can't help but feel like you're running headlong towards some sorta trouble."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Yeah, me too," I admitted.

  I paid up, tucked everything into the backpack, then I was off.

  There was a lot of time left until the portal opened. Still, I put in a call with Fran, convinced her that I needed help and that she should come, then I scouted for a place to meet.

  I found a little coffee place just two blocks over. It was privately owned. Quiet. The kind of place that served cookies that had come out of a box, but the person manning the coffee machine knew what they were doing, and the wi-fi was pretty stable.

  I had some cake and ice cream. Probably not the best meal before jumping into action, but fuck it. I wanted it, it looked good, it tasted great, and I'd only regret it for one loop. I did get a few looks, being in half my costume and carrying a bagful of guns did that, but no one seemed willing to bother me, and if they looked ready to, I'd make my eyes flash and that'd scare them off.

  Fran arrived forty minutes before the portal was due to open. I stood up, greeted her warmly, then suggested she grab something light to eat before we headed up. Then I remember to buy water, which was important. I got two bottles and two cans of some sorta energy drink as well, and a few granola bars, just because.

  I had to be careful, at this rate we'd be going in a little heavy, but in future loops, I'd be able to pare that down to just the essentials.

  "You... want me to get changed, into that?" Fran asked.

  "Yeah," I said. "Trust me?"

  She stared, then took the clothes and slipped off to the washroom, returning ten minutes later walking with the confident strut of someone very much trying to project how comfortable they were while being anything but.

  I didn't know her that well, but I could at least read that much from her body language.

  "You look badass," I said as I slipped my hat on. "Come on. We're going to hit up a D-rank portal that'll be opening up in a few minutes. It'll be fun. Fun and safe. Very safe."

  I think she doubted me. Maybe the reading thing went both ways.

  In any case, she did follow me out and down the street, and we only stood in the food court for a few minutes before the air started to shift and even Fran, as an even newer D-ranker than me, felt the stirrings of magical energy in the air.

  The portal ripped itself open, people panicked, and I gestured her ahead and into it.

  The moment I was in, I grabbed my shotgun, dropped the bag, and started blasting. It wasn't long that the raptors in the starting room were dead. Then I turned towards Fran, who was lowering her hands from her ears.

  "An explanation, please," she said, rather tersely.

  Right... a lot of the camaraderie of the last loop was gone. Ah... well, shit.

  "Okay. So, we're here. This portal is filled with evil velociraptors that want to eat your fa--who want to kill us. Our goal is to traverse to the boss room as quickly and efficiently as possible. I've got a very good idea of where a lot of them are, but they're ambush predators. Here, I brought some equipment for you."

  Fran took the handgun and holster I passed her, then checked it over quickly before wearing the holster around her hip, then she took the rifle a little more awkwardly, but I was happy to see that she seemed to know how to handle it.

  Still, I gave her a quick two-minute tutorial on how to aim and shoot, reload and eject a round if there was a misfire.

  "If it comes to it, you can kill them in melee. They're not invincible. Just... it's better to kill them from afar, alright?"

  "Okay," Fran replied. "Deadline, are you well?"

  I paused, staring at her for a long moment. "No? But I will be. Especially once we're out of here. I think... I need a small vacation, maybe."

  "I see?"

  "Let's just get going? I'll warn you as best I can about anything that might be up ahead. I can't promise that it'll all be accurate, but it'll help, at least a bit."

  She nodded, slowly, then shrugged in her poncho and shifted her grip on the rifle. "I suppose I'm ready, then."

  "Yeah. Let's do this."

  ***