“Hello!” Alex called into the gigantic, seemingly empty building. “Mr. Bereaves! We do not mean you harm! We come bearing a gift! A very special gift! Pizza from the world’s best pizzaiolo, chock full of magic…and a note from the proprietors!” He gawked at what they walked past. “And very nice cars!”

  “Very nice.” Brody grunted.

  Alex’s voice echoed back to them as he and Brody walked over the spotless tile of Pearson Airport. Well, it had once been an airport. Now the departures entrance had been stuffed to the brim with the best collection this side of the world butting against kiosks that hardly worked before and definitely didn’t any longer. Covering almost five thousand acres, or twelve and a half thousand hockey arenas, Pearson was Canada’s busiest airport before the System came. Highest landing fees too, according to the internet archives.

  International travel still existed in the post System world, if one was open to risking a journey on a ship through the Atlantic or Pacific. Payment was upfront, survival rates were about half, and you were practically guaranteed to witness multiple eldritch horrors bubbling up and looking for a snack in between monster fish that hunted in packs while avoiding megalodons with skills that allegedly ruled with brutal efficiency via ritual sacrifice down deep below.

  If that wasn’t one’s speed, many private organizations offered airfare through multiple means, be it enchanted blimp or constructs that a rotating crew of Adventurer’s flew with levitation skills. Except the skies were filled with gigantic, mutated birds, if you could call them that, and things that people had no name for besides, since few had survived to tell what they had identified before plummeting to their deaths. Brutal business, international travel.

  The train system still mostly worked, surprisingly. Many were heavily armored and spiked to tear and crunch through any horde of monsters that roamed the wilds and enjoyed a spot of human meat. With such a mishmash of leadership and organizations that acquired carts through means unknown though, many such rides ended in crashes, battles, robberies, or worst of all, boarding and indoctrination by the notorious Cult of Train, a sort of hive mind entity that roamed the tracks and force-fed people enchanted coal to bring more into their number.

  The easiest way? Teleports through skills or portals. Those only cost a fortune, the people having the requisite skills charging a premium and always slightly strange. And better hope their portals and far distance ports were stable, lest you enjoyed spinning endlessly through the land of dead dreams or arriving at your destination with too many ears, no toes at all, or turned inside out.

  Most people took cars everywhere.

  Alex whistled and rummaged around in his pocket for his GoCoin. “So, this is where all the money goes, eh? Brody! Do not go--,” he stopped himself. “Yeah, yeah, that is flipping sick.”

  He ran over to Brody to admire the thing that might be a vehicle or might be a motorcycle.

  Shoved into every conceivable space was a mechanical marvel. Rows and rows of classic cars shined, every variety lovingly restored and smelling like motor oil. Motorcycles small and underpowered, and gigantic, unnecessarily loud ones with handlebars too far too reach comfortably. Then there were the post System vehicles.

  A Bentley floated off the ground humming and its body fused into what looked like a stereotypical UFO complete with blue glow underneath. Nearby sat a three-wheeled cart, a rickshaw, rusty and dusty, but with dual welded on belt-fed machine guns. All very expensive looking. Brody had scampered over to one that Alex drooled over too.

  He swung his leg over the motorcycle car mashup. Three wheels, with two in the front, one in the back, the frame all boxy angles that screamed retro. The wheels were thick and glowed a violent purple, the body bolted together and acting as a protective cage around whoever slipped in. Exposed pipes and conduit ran along the sides like veins, and a strange liquid coursed through it all. Without having ridden it, the vehicle still felt like speed.

  Brody placed his faux pizza box in a perfect little cubby behind him and turned to grip the handlebars. Alex [Investigated] it to see if anything popped up.

  [The Expediter]

  “This is the coolest car thing I’ve ever seen!” Alex caught up, analyzing it from every angle.

  “I want.” Brody pretended to lean into a turn, turning to Alex. “We…buy—”

  A single alarm chirped overhead. It sounded like a smoke detector that had run out of batteries. Both boys looked up at the tiny flashing red light.

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  Then a robotic voice screamed from the speakers in the walls.

  “BREACH.” The voice was robotic and flat. “BREACH. BREACH. ALL EMPLOYEES, THERE HAS BEEN A BREACH. TERMINAL 1 BREACH.”

  Brody was off the bike instantly. Alex looked around at the empty hall.

  “Employees?” he hissed, pulling out his GoCoin. “Shit. Shit.” He looked behind them, then ahead of them. “Usually, it’s monsters. Monsters I get.”

  The alarm chirped again.

  “BREACH. BREACH. ALL EMPLOYEES, THERE HAS BEEN A BREACH. TERMINAL 1 BREACH.”

  Alex swallowed. “That means people. Armed people, probably. Hired Adventurers. Guards. With guns. And like… tactics.”

  “We fast.” Brody shrugged.

  Alex shook his head as he looked around. So far, no storming guards. “Yeah, we’re fast as shit,” He sighed. “Alright, one more go to maybe make this easy on us.”

  Clearing his throat, he flipped the GoCoin high in the air and shouted as loudly as he could.

  “Mr. Bereaves! We’re here to deliver a gift! Just a gift from someone that wants to make a connection! We mean no harm, and we definitely don’t want to overthrow you as a Council of Toronto and claim the Tax Guild Sto—”

  Brody elbowed him in the side. Alex looked at him askance as the robot voice yelled once more and the GoCoin fell back to the ground.

  “We’re just here to deliver a pizza! AND A NOTE! We want to give you this special pizza! Emphasis on SPECIAL. It’s got a couple magical properties, and we think that you would appreciate it! THERE IS NO NEED FOR GUARDS WITH GUNS!”

  The GoCoin clinked against the tile, landing without wobbling or spinning. Since Mary had given it to him way back, the coin hadn’t let him down. It was supposed to lead him in the right direction. Looking down, he saw it pointed right, and scooping it up and looking that way, he saw that it was leading him and Brody deeper into the airport’s bowels.

  SECURITY CHECKS

  Alex had never suffered airport security, and likely wouldn’t. Yet even without the negative Pavlovic association to unnecessarily winding stanchions where for some reason everyone was wet coughing, being forced to empty his pockets and separate his ‘large electronics’, whatever that meant, all while being sure to not to lose one of the infinite things one needs while traveling, he felt his belly churning at the sight.

  “Should’ve seen that one coming,” He sighed as the alarm chirped and yelled once more. “It’s never easy, is it, Brody? Can’t ever just walk into somewhere like a Dungeon or here and just hand it over. Nope, gotta get the guards called on us.”

  “Easy boring.” Brody cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders.

  “You’re right about that. Alright, should I do my last Title I have to open now or—"

  The speakers crackled, and something big came through the noise. When someone reached a certain level, absorbed enough Essence, or was just plain powerful, you could feel their presence. And Keanu Bereaves, retired actor, Councillor of Toronto, holder of the Tax Guild Stone, was certainly powerful.

  But it was the kind of voice that seemed underwhelming at first.

  “Pizza, you say? And enchanted too? Hmm.” the Council said, echoing through Terminal One. “Yeah…you might be friendly.”

  There was a pause.

  “But you can’t be sure these days. Friendship means little when it’s oh so convenient.”

  Alex flinched, grabbing Brody by the arm, and hissed. “He said a line. Not his line…but…THAT WAS A LINE. Do you think he’s going to say a bunch of lines the whole time? Are we going to get a slow-mo Kungfu scene? MATRIX KUNGFU? Brody, do you think he actually knows matrix kung fu?”

  “Stop fan…boy. Or…scared boy.” Brody grunted back.

  “Whatever.” Alex righted himself back up.

  Keanu continued over the speakers. “You made it through my turrets and pencils. Relatively easy too,” The Councillor sighed. “Yeah…You make it to me, gate G 95, and I will meet you,”

  There was another seriously long pause. Brody looked at Alex with a raised eyebrow, but having watched practically every movie the man had been in, Alex knew it was just his cadence.

  “But you’ll have to make it through all of my…protections.”

  Then the speakers died and the chirp came back.

  “Quiet.” Brody said.

  “Man of silence, so they say.” Alex responded.

  The speaker crackled back to life.

  “I’m fluent in silence,” Keanu said, going quiet for a moment, before speaking up again. “I also have a past with free pizza.”

  Alex leaned into Brody and whispered again. “Free fucking pizza. He said it.”

  The strong presence disappeared, and the chirping alarm started up again, blaring it’s warning that something, or several someones were on the way.

  “Ready?” Alex asked Brody as he looked on towards security. Something about that way seemed…not good.

  “Rea—”

  Every door along the concourse exploded open at once. Maintenance doors, emergency exits, staff-only doors flew wide at the same time, and huge men poured out.

  They all worse black suits with identical cuts stretched over absurdly muscled frames. The look was complete with black ties and gloves with polished shoes. Each boxy haircut had sunglasses even though they were indoors. Besides their fashion, and importantly, they all wielded pistols in their hands.

  If Alex squinted just right, they looked like…

  “HALT!”

  The order snapped out of dozens of mouths at once. Running all together, the guards poured towards Alex and Brody from both ends of the concourse.

  “YOU ARE IN VIOLATIC OF COUNCIL PROTECTION!”

  They all raised their pistols as one.

  “Brody—GO!”

  The first shots cracked out as Brody and Alex flung themselves forward toward Security. A bullet pinged off the beautiful motorcycle hybrid, causing a jet of steam to shoot out. He didn’t know where they should be going, but the GoCoin had told them to run deeper into the fortress.

  As they sprinted towards Security, Alex heard more doors banging open. They’d been funneled straight into more waiting guards.

  “Title! We…need…everything!” Brody snarled at Alex.

  Alex swallowed and opened his final Title. It was risky, as it may be anything, but so was running headfirst into dozens of armed guards with pistols.