Patreons Assemble While Monkeys Abound

  Astrid went down to check to see if the morning news crystal had arrived yet. Bivouac had designed a system to deliver small items to secure locations. Some people had expressed desire to have the systems deliver inside their homes, but Garrett had steadfastly refused due to the obvious security concerns, so those like Astrid and Zack that subscribed to the service had secure boxes outside their homes that could only be opened with their essence.

  Opening the door she froze as a monkey swinging from the portico screamed into her face before swinging away. Rollo went running past chasing after the monkey while holding onto two others that he had captured. Ragnar was a few houses down protecting himself with an essence shield while trying to capture another monkey while others threw…umm…stuff at him.

  The dungeon had turned out to be a huge success. After they fixed the small hiccup of no one being able to survive Jake’s tutorial which had been solved by creating the other characters tutorials for them to go through, the dungeon became the fastest growing dungeon in the galaxy. Astrid was so glad that there was a two year test period for dungeons before hardcore mode could go live. Adventurers could receive increased experience and have greater odds of earning the highest rewards from hardcore mode, but they also risked true death. The bureau of dungeons restricted new dungeons from opening hardcore mode until the survival statistics were thoroughly documented.

  The city was seeing quite the tourist boom from Zack’s creation and the pair of them had moved into a nice gated community and gave the office apartment to the brothers as part of their compensation package. And now the peaceful community's common area was currently full of screaming monkeys.

  Ragnar went running past and Astrid sent a voice communication through the dungeon management team channel asking, “Ragnar, what the hells are you two doing with all those monkeys?”

  Ragnar caught another one and now strung all his trophies up with essence to hang off his back as he selected another target. “We’re trying to capture them for the master. We assumed part of his harem had escaped.”

  Astrid was confused until she remembered why they might think Zack had a monkey harem. Chuckling she sent, “Let them go. Those aren’t his.” She smiled evilly as she looked forward to when Zack discovered the dragons believed he really did have a simian harem.

  Looking down the street she saw Rollo completely covered in monkeys that he was pulling off one by one and binding with essence. For some reason all the monkeys in the area were either trying to lick him or were rubbing their bodies on him.

  Ragnar walked up, “Damn. Monkey musk. I should have thought of that.” He cupped his hands to the sides of his mouth and shouted, “Quit trying to seduce the monkeys Rollo, those aren’t masters.”

  “If they aren’t his, who the hells do they belong to?” Rollo shouted back as he finished wrangling the amorous simians with leashes of essence that he tied off to a tree before walking over to join them.

  Astrid’s smile grew as she saw several of their neighbors standing in their windows with memory crystals obviously recording the chaos. “Ragnar, could you call beast control to round up the simians and join us in the dungeon. I’m wanting to have Haven, the fort, and the battle with the minotaur finished before Zack gets back.”

  She and Ragnar went down to the basement and accessed the secure vault that contained the alternate entrance to the dungeon. They also had a second alternate entrance at the office and the main one located in the premier section of the dungeon plaza and had contracted a dungeon services company to handle the crowds and gather the entrance fees, refreshments, and subscriptions for The Hunters Dungeon.

  *****

  Lemonsquisher closed his mcmansion’s front door and activated the security system before walking out to where his driver was waiting on him. When he got into the car, there was a package sitting in the backseat. “What’s this?” he asked the driver.

  “Some weird old guy from a delivery service dropped it off a few minutes ago.” The driver answered.

  Squisher wasn’t expecting any packages, so he checked the label to ensure it was addressed to him. Opening it up there were tickets to and from LA and a voucher for a reservation at a hotel. There was also what looked like a large golden movie theatre ticket. Squish did a double take when he looked at the dates. They were for the day before the meet up. He had wanted to go just to see what kind of weirdos showed up to see what was going on, however, he had decided not to bother. However, if the tickets were free and the hotel paid for, why shouldn’t he go. He had already booked the vacation.

  Pulling out his phone, he saw a reddit post discussing the packages that several other Patreons had received a similar package. People that were previously unable or unwilling to go were apparently deciding to attend. Squish chuckled, assuming this was going to end up being a marketing scheme to create buzz for some new merch or event or something. Perhaps someone had paid out a few dozen millions to buy the rights to create a Hunter animation series. Squish was all for that. He and the other patreons had spent many hours discussing who they could trust to make it right.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  As they drove to his corporate office, neither the driver nor squishy noticed the abandoned delivery fan parked on a side street.

  *****

  Zack walked out of the office to head to a restaurant down the street where he had agreed to meet some dungeon production company that wanted to purchase his dungeon. Zach had no intention of selling, but had agreed to the meeting just to get the word out he wasn’t interested in selling no matter what. The brothers were out of town gathering resources and Astrid was working late at the office.

  As he left his gated community for the short walk to the restaurant a strange but somewhat familiar looking man jumped out and urgently said, “MJ is the goat. You’ve got to trust me Zachary. Astrid and your dungeon are in danger.”

  Zack looked him up and down. The man had on a pair of comfortable white sneakers, baggy shorts with entirely too many pockets, a hat showing the rainbow sovereign and said, “Because I’m a songbird.” and a T - shirt showing Artemis carrying an unconscious Jake in her arms inside a heart shape with BFF captioned beneath it. All of it special order merchandise from the other timeline.

  Zack immediately knew who the man was, “brjenkins, I presume.”

  The man eagerly nodded, “Yes. Look I know we have our issues in the other timeline, but you’ve got to trust…”

  The malefic author used his ultimate word of power, “CLIFFHANGER” and Bret disappeared off into the mountains. Zack sent a message to Astrid and the brothers to warn them about the crazy man.

  *****

  Squisher finished the day's chapter and read through the comments for a few minutes before heading out to the meet up. As he walked towards the Chinese Theatre, he wondered if he’d be able to recognize the other patreons. He had chosen to wear a danger noodle pin from the backerkit on his lapel.

  As he approached the theatre, he couldn’t believe the size of the crowd. There had to be hundreds of people present. Some of them could be random tourists, but the turnout was amazing. Working his way through the crowd, several people nodded at him knowingly glancing at his pin.

  Suddenly a loud, “REEEEE!” rang out and a man in a green bird suit went rapidly up the stairs flapping his arms. Squisher chuckled as he made his way to one of the most popular patreons. Catching the man’s eyes, he waved and pointed to his lapel pin. The man let out another excited “Ree!” and flapped his way towards him.

  “Slyphie?” He asked.

  “Ree!” the bird man replied with a nod.

  “Lemonsquisher.” He said as he introduced himself and held out his hand. The elemental birdman shook it as squishy asked, “What are we supposed to do?”

  “Ree?” the man answered with a shrug. Fireworks went off from the top of the theatre and the entire crowd turned. Theatre employees rolled out a red carpet and set up ropes to funnel from the steps into the theatre. When they finished, a man with a grey beard and ball cap covered in eyeballs saying, “I See You!” and a T shirt showing Jasper holding up his paws saying, “Gift?”.

  The man raised his arms and shouted, “In Villy we trust!” the crowd stared at him. After a few seconds the man lowered his arms with an embarrassed chuckle and said, “Come on in. I am brjenkins and the presentation will begin in the main theatre in a few minutes.”

  Squishy thought he heard the birdman whisper “our fearless leader.” as he shook his head, but when the man saw Squishy raise an eyebrow the man only said, “Ree?” with another shrug and motioned towards the line that was slowly forming.

  As they approached the door, a pair of attendants greeted the pair and asked for their tickets. The men showed theirs and were motioned to continue on into the theatre. They chose seats in the middle a few rows from the front. The crowd filled in around and behind them. Squish was surprised as he looked around for ones he might recognise. He was surprised to see the variety of the people in the crowd. Every race, sex, and age group were represented.

  Squishy chuckled as he spotted a few people pull out tablets or notepads like they were attending a lecture. Others were doing the same as him looking around and taking in the atmosphere. After the crowd of nearly five hundred settled in and the doors closed, the lights dimmed. A stern looking woman in a robe with the emblem of the Malefic Order on it suddenly appeared stepping out of a portal of light. A spotlight focused on her and she lifted her head to command, “Theatre staff, secure the hall for the arrival of the Malefic One. Make sure no dragons interrupt our sacred ritual.”

  An usher from the back of the theatre replied in a loud voice, “Yes, Hall Master. The hall is secure and no dragons shall pass.” before exiting the hall and closing the door behind him. Squishy heard several loud gasps and he turned back to the stage to see Villy now standing center stage.

  “The effects are magnificent. I have no idea how they are doing it.” the man in the bird costume said and Squishy raised an eyebrow. The man could only shrug and clear his throat before correcting himself, “Reee?”

  Villy spoke, “I want to thank you for coming to the aid of the creator of myself, my chosen, and those that shared our adventure. Today is the day the multiverse watches as the mighty patreons get Zachary Oliver Garth, the greatest author of all time, control of his dungeon back from those that stole it from him. Let me introduce you to the man who made all this possible. brjenkins.” Villy bowed as he stepped backwards through a portal and another portal opened and the notorious former patreon stepped out of another portal.

  Squishy was amazed. The production was impressive. It looked like real magic. Some of the patreons apparently weren’t as impressed as the notorious brjenkins had ruffled quite a few feathers with his outrageous theories and claims that his predictions had been correct and Z.O. had changed the story so he wouldn’t be proved to be correct. A scattering of boo’s rang out. The goofy old man who for some reason now wore a monocle, top hat, and bow tie with his t shirt and cargo shorts.

  “I would like to begin by thanking one special patreon who helped me pull this gathering together. Bluetaco, please rise and be recognized. The lights panned the crowd, but no one rose. After a long pause, the confused looking supposed time traveller joked, “Probably stuck in the traffic. I’ll catch him up when he arrives. On with the presentation.”

  As the presentation finished, brjenkins finished by saying, “You will have one hour to make your decision and form teams if you wish. Good luck. Train hard. May Villy be with you.” he said before exiting the stage by stepping through another of those strange light circles.

  “Ree?” the birdman asked.

  Squish shrugged. “I’m going to stick around and find out what happens. If it’s as real as it looked, he promised he could keep us alive. Should we form a team?”

  “Ree!.” The birdman said before looking around and asking, “Ree?” Squish joined him in looking around for potential teammates. A few minutes passed before a group walked over to them and introduced themselves as Josetta, Atallchevy, infernalrobot, Darkcoffee, Ninjapop, and definitelynotvilly.

  ****

  Bret pulled himself up to the ledge he had been left hanging from and said to himself, “Plan J it is.”