Innovator: Adventure by Association the Everternia Saga

  Innovator

  Adventure by Association Book 2: The Everternia Saga

  Zen DiPietro

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Message from the author

  About the Author

  Other Works by Zen DiPietro

  Dragonfire Station Universe

  Copyright

  INNOVATOR(ADVENTURE BY ASSOCIATION Book 2, AN EVERTERNIA SERIES)

  COPYRIGHT © 2019 BY ZEN DIPIETRO

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without express written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations for the purpose of review.

  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions. Distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.

  ASIN B08249JLCJ

  ISBN 978-1-943931-38-5

  Cover Art by Zen DiPietro

  Published in the United States of America by Parallel Worlds Press

  1

  Sparkles.

  Sally Strong’s factory had become beautiful. She’d always seen the beauty beneath its grime and filth, but now all that gorgeousness was on display. The glass dome ceiling allowed the sunlight to stream in, creating little sparkling glints and rainbows as it passed through the glass squares and triangles.

  Glorious. Like a kaleidoscope.

  The main engine, which she’d brought back to life thanks to the card-game-playing, quest-giving Nan, had been cleaned, polished, and oiled. It had only taken Sally two months and the help of Darthrok, Essley, and her new friend Rex to bring the formerly abandoned factory back to its full glory.

  Well, not quite full glory. The machines didn’t work. They had power, and she could turn them on and off, but they didn’t function. Yet.

  She was working on that. She’d find the solution sooner or later, if she just kept trying. In fact, the hard part—figuring out what to do next—was already done. Sujan had the necessary skills to reboot the factory’s machinery, so all she had to do was get him here.

  Yep. She was half-done with the plan already. She just needed to find a way to wake Sujan from his preprogrammed CM life and make him aware of everything the way she was.

  No problem!

  The fact that she’d already tried everything she could possibly think of to wake him up didn’t bother her at all. A puzzle with a missing piece was just one tiny step away from triumph.

  All she had to do was find the missing piece. Since she’d keep working until that happened, success was guaranteed. Just like the cotter pin key that activated the heart of the factory, which enabled her to awaken the factory, the answer was out there somewhere, waiting for her.

  In the meantime, she’d keep learning and growing. There was a whole world of things to explore.

  Including something very special right here at the factory.

  Yes indeed, she’d already innovated something special in this wonderful place. The first of many things, for certain.

  Closing her eyes, she touched the communicator she’d built into a necklace, then focused inward. She’d integrated the device with herself, expanding its usefulness.

  Immediately, she heard a distant clicking that quickly grew louder. A line of ten clickers hurried up from the subbasement, their mechanical legs making cute little sounds against the shiny floor.

  They ran for her, then encircled her, running together in perfect sync. Sally giggled and spun herself around in the opposite direction, raising her arms to the sky and pretending they were doing a dance.

  With a thought, she summoned another group of fifteen clickers that came and encircled the first group of bots. All of them rotated in perfect time. If someone on the roof peeked in through the glass ceiling, they’d get an amazing view of the mechanical marvel.

  She released the little mechies and they hurried away, disappearing into cleverly hidden crevices in the floor.

  So far, this was the only trick she’d programmed them to do. Figuring out how to synchronize them hadn’t been easy, but now that she’d worked it out, she intended to keep teaching them new tricks.

  Her friends didn’t know about her control over the clickers. People and mechies didn’t get along, and she didn’t think her pals would be comfortable with her playing with the small bots. They’d probably find her little pets creepy. That was okay, because she’d just keep them hidden away.

  For her, the little machines and this place were absolute perfection. They were a glimpse at the wonders that awaited once she got the factory functioning properly. Its powerful abilities were just waiting to be brought to life.

  She’d been the same, once. And now look at her!

  With the sun streaming down through the glass above, she closed her eyes, savoring the moment. Good things would come to her in this place, if she just kept working at it.

  All right. Moment savored.

  Time to get going.

  Everternia wasn’t going to give itself heck. That was her job. Jin had told her so, and she had felt the inherent truth in his words.

  Heck would be given, all right. By her. Very soon.

  Grabbing her backpack from a spotless, shiny table, she slung it onto her back. She’d added some things to it. Just-in-case things. Some you-never-know-when-you-might-need-it things, too. She’d even packed a couple of man-I-hope-I-never-need-to-use-that things.

  She didn’t know where she was headed next, but she expected to run into trouble at some point. Besides, she liked to be prepared for anything.

  She strode out of the factory, not bothering to lock it up. Her clicker bots would guard it just fine in her absence.

  She didn’t look back as she enjoyed the feeling of the sun on her skin, the breeze in her hair, and the thrill of whatever Rex had in store.

  He was a wild one, that Rex. Unlike Essley and Darthrok, he was reckless. Dangerous, even.

  Sally liked that about him. She was pretty sure there was nothing he’d be afraid to do, regardless of the consequences. He’d been about to go on some sort of sabbatical when they’d met, but meeting Sally had given him a new lease on adventuring.

  At least that was what she thought he’d said. Coincidentally, he was from Reallife, just as Darthrok and Essley were. However, Rex often said things she didn’t really understand. Her other two friends did that on occasion too, but since they knew Sally was a CM, they explained things to her.

  Unlike them, Rex was under the impression that Sally was an adventurer like him. He seemed to think Sally was also from Reallife, but that she pretended not to be. He played along with it, appearing to find it endearing.

  She hadn’t figured out why that was, but part of being a good friend was accepting a pal’s eccentricities. And Rex was all kinds of eccentric.

  She liked that about him.

  Whistling a cheerful tune, she walked down the washed-out, practically nonexistent lane until it met up with a well-worn trail. S
he and Rex were supposed to meet in Reel. Sally visited the little fishing village frequently, in the hopes of finding Nan again.

  So far, no luck. She’d only met the old woman once, when she’d given Sally the cotter pin key that launched the factory quest.

  Sally wanted to ask Nan what she knew about the factory, and whether Nan had more special quests like that one. Quests that no one else had solved before. Sally had a feeling that quests like that could change the world, which was exactly what she was looking to do.

  Even just regular quests would be good, though. Anything that would offer her new experiences. She was new to adventuring, after all. The more she did, the more she learned, and the more she learned, the closer she’d get to her goals.

  And she sure had lots of goals.

  Waking Sujan, getting the factory working, and becoming a master technie would keep her busy enough, but mysterious Jin had also told her she should give the world heck. To change it somehow.

  She’d work on all of it, but she might have to take turns. She had a tendency to get distracted.

  Her whistling suddenly sounded weird. There was a sort of metallic warble to it. She pressed her lips together to stop, but the sound continued.

  Whew, it wasn’t her. That was a relief. She stopped and looked up, toward the sound.

  She caught sight of the little thing flying through the air, just before it did a nosedive to the ground. She hurried several steps after it and crouched to get a better look.

  A small, mechanical magpie lay on the grass, motionless. Sally stretched a hand toward it without touching it, waiting to see if she could feel any heat emanating from it. When she didn’t, she cautiously touched it with one finger.

  Not hot at all. Whatever had caused it to crash, it hadn’t been overheating.

  “Poor thing, look at you,” she crooned, scooping the magpie into her hands and gently turning it this way and that to inspect it.

  No apparent leaks or damage. Hm. She had some tools with her. She could go ahead and get a closer look at the mechanical bird.

  Her hand was halfway to the strap of her backpack when she caught herself. Nope! Not this time. She wasn’t going to let herself get sidetracked. She was supposed to meet Rex, and it would be rude to be late. She’d investigate the little metal mystery later. She carefully put the device into her backpack.

  That had been a close one!

  Resuming her travel and her whistling, she continued her journey to Reel.

  Sally hurried to the bus stop to look for Nan.

  Nope. Not today.

  She stifled a sigh. No matter how many times she checked, the old woman never showed up. According to James, her fashion guru and a resident of Reel, Nan’s comings and goings were a mystery. She might show up every day for a month then disappear for the better part of a year.

  No matter. Sally would wait, and she had plenty to keep her busy in the meantime.

  Looking to her left, she saw a small delivery truck roll down an alley and stop with a slow hiss of releasing steam alongside the candy shop. She could only wonder at the delightful things that were about to be unloaded so that they could be made into confections. The candy shop was new, and had been a welcome addition to the fly speck of a town. Other than Nan and now the candy shop, James’ store was the only noteworthy thing about the place.

  Looking to her right, she saw…well, nothing really. Just some dilapidated buildings in need of repair. With her head turned this way, the damp, stinky smell of fish became apparent.

  Crinkling her nose, she finished her search for Rex, but didn’t see him.

  What could be keeping him? Maybe he’d taken the train and it was running late?

  Touching the necklace she’d put her communicator into, she activated a channel she and Rex had previously established between them. “Hey. I’m here, you’re not. Will you be long?”

  Her vocabulary improved every day, but since Rex didn’t know she was a CM, or community member, she tried to use simple words and phrases with him to avoid a speech mishap.

  He didn’t seem to mind, and she liked that about him. She also liked his wild, carefree ways and his massive personality, which filled a room as soon as he entered it. He was fun and unpredictable, and he always seemed like he was just a moment away from doing something dangerous.

  Sally appreciated that about him. It kept things interesting.

  “Hey, Sal, what’s up?” Rex’s voice sounded a little out of breath.

  “I’m here,” she repeated. “You’re not.”

  He let out a quick, winded laugh. “Yeah, sorry. I was on my way and…well, something got between me and my destination. I’ll explain when I get there, okay?”

  “When will that be?”

  “A.S.A.P,” he said.

  “Asap? What’s that? You okay?”

  He made an odd sound, kind of like he’d inhaled a large bug. “Be there as soon as I can. Gotta go.”

  The connection cut off.

  She wondered what had gotten in the way of him and Reel. It was a vague description and could mean a lot of things. Not many of those things would make him late, though. In fact, there were very few items that were both mobile enough to get in front of him and large enough to make him alter course.

  Oh well. She couldn’t change the circumstances, so she’d make the best of it. If she’d known he’d be late, she would have arranged a transport to take her to Reel because it was a long walk. From her factory, it had taken her two hours.

  She didn’t mind because she was rather fond of walking, but with Reel and her factory being out-of-the-way locations, the distance was becoming a problem. Arranging custom transport was difficult, too.

  If she had some kind of personal vehicle, some wheels of her own, she’d waste a lot less time and gain a lot of convenience. It would help her get back to Pivot more often, too. Essley covered about half the shifts there, and thanks to Jin, they could just lock up Sally’s store when neither of them could be there. Nonetheless, Sally preferred not to make customers wait.

  Hm.

  Pivot’s rule against motorized transportation might be a sticking point.

  Never mind. She’d figure it out. She was Sally Strong, upper-intermediate-level maker. She’d engineer her own solution. Somehow.

  Nice! She had an idea and the decision to see it through. The job was half-complete already. With the warm and fuzzy feeling of accomplishment, she did a little jig then skipped off in the direction of James’ store.

  Darthrok had taught her how to skip. It was fun! She didn’t know why more people didn’t do it. Sure, sometimes she got odd looks for doing it in a town, but she didn’t care about that. Having some harmless fun was more important than worrying about what people thought of her. Those people probably didn’t know how to have fun, and might find it instructive for her to show them.

  She skipped right up to the door, then went in.

  Hang on.

  She backed up, closed the door, then entered again.

  Wow, James had changed things up.

  Before, he’d had a wide variety of clothes, with a lot of it being couture costumes, formal gowns, and wildly outlandish getups.

  James didn’t cater to customers looking for economical, practical clothing.

  But now… display after display of form-fitting pants and strappy tops, arranged on mannequins, screamed for attention. Every few feet, an inanimate fashionista stood in a dramatic pose. They wore rivets, buckles, leather, stripes, and shiny metallic fabric. Some of the figures rocked all of those at once.

  And boots! There were short boots, extra-tall boots, and boots with…wait, what was that? She stepped closer to a pair displayed on an automaton that shifted positions every few seconds to show a different view. An intricate pathway of wires conveyed small black pearls on a circuitous course up, down, and around the boot, then brought the spheres forward to the toe, where they pushed a small wheel and made it turn. The wheel caused a carved metal rose to slowly rotate.


  Rube Goldberg boots?

  “Darling!”

  Sally turned to see James rushing forward, his arms outstretched. He wore a perfectly tailored tailcoat and matching pants made of a sparkling black fabric. Rhinestones ran along the side seams, adding to the glitter.

  “What do you think?” He wrapped her in an embrace, spun her around, then kept one arm around her while he swept the other to indicate his wares. “Strongpunk fashion. It’s hot, hot, hot!”

  “It’s great.”

  “Hot,” he corrected.

  “Hot,” she repeated dutifully.

  “I can hardly keep these babies in stock.” He indicated the boots with a flourish. “Everyone wants them.”

  Sally found that hard to believe, so she took his word for it. To her, the boots looked uncomfortable and impractical. She didn’t want to spend all her time worrying about breaking her boots, and she found the idea of uncomfortable footwear ridiculous.

  But if it made other people happy, then great!

  “Should I save you a pair when the next shipment comes in?” he asked.

  No, definitely not! To avoid hurting his feelings, so she took a moment to carefully craft the right words.

  “I’d be too worried I’d break them,” she said. “They’re too pretty to damage.”

  He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then nodded slowly. “Ah, right. You’re my functional fashion girl. Sometimes I get carried away. Well, what can I help you find instead? What does Sally Strong need today?”

  She smiled. “Nothing. I just came to see you.”

  He put a hand on his chest. “Be still my heart. You love me for me and not my merchandise. But surely you could use a nice pair of pants. I just got a shipment in yesterday.”

  She fought temptation. Nice pants were hard to resist. “I don’t have much storage.”