TBoB - Book 4 - Chapter 38 (Discard)

So... I had an idea about the next chapter of TBoB, tried it, and... it didn't really work out. It ruins the pacing of the current arc, and the banter feels like it should actually be part of a home episode than a Teddy/Nyx one. After getting this far I've realized what I really need to do is get on with the action.

Oh well, maybe I can salvage part of it later.

Since I'm almost definitely not getting a TBoB chapter out tonight, I thought I'd release what I have so you can enjoy it. Sorry!

“I can’t believe I had to resort to this,” I grumbled as I stumbled across the old visitor center parking lot. 

“You don’t have to do this, you could have driven outside the range of the interference to download a town map,” Nyx reminded me.

“That would take too long! We spent a lot of time dealing with that ‘dragon’ and putting out the fires, I don’t want to waste time running halfway back to the city,” I explained. “This is faster!”

“Stopping at an abandoned visitor’s center to look at a fifty year old map posted on a sign at the side of the road might be faster, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be nearly as accurate,” my AI countered.

“I just want a general idea of the town’s layout. Once I have the lay of the land I’ll have a better idea of where to search for the breach in my lines, or hive, or emergence point, or whatever it is I’m looking for!”

“You have no idea what you’re looking for, do you?” Nyx asked.

“I’ll know it when I see it!” I declared as I wandered up to the old wooden sign.

Nyx was correct, it wasn’t very current; In fact I had to brush a layer of dirt off to even read the thing, but it did give me a general idea of the town’s layout. I’d confronted the Antithesis firestarter deep on the east side. Assuming that the Antithesis didn’t come through the perimeter…

“I have no idea what I’m looking for,” I finally admitted. 

Nyx sighed. “Since we’ve already come all this way I’ll give you a hand, but you’re going to have to foot the bill for my teaching supplies.”

“How much?” I asked suspiciously.

“Three points.”

“Deal!” I exclaimed. 

Nyx’s bear avatar waddled over to the sign, pulling a marker, a pointing stick and some glasses out of thin air. After donning the glasses Nyx stood up straight, back to the map.

“First, your assumption that the antithesis did not come through the perimeter,” Nyx said, pointing the stick at the map and drawing a circle around it. Although we can’t prove they didn’t just bust through your lines, the fact that the Twenty-Three started burning the town core, instead of the perimeter, is a pretty good indication that it emerged in the area.”

Nyx drew a circle around the city then tapped the east side of the town. “In addition to that the Twenty-Three is an instinctive herder it would have tried to drive prey closer to the other Antithesis.” 

Nyx drew a second, curved line down through the east side of town, approximately where I’d fought the fires.

“Then, if we extrapolate based on the density of the antithesis that you fought.” Nyx said, scribbling what looked like gibberish on the board. “We can see that the antithesis’ most likely emergence point is around here.”

As Nyx circled a section in the middle of town, where two major roads intersected, right next to the river cutting through town.

“Can you explain that last part again?” I asked blankly.

“No,” Nyx exclaimed, taking off the glasses and throwing them into the nearby garbage bin. “That was all bullshit. All I did was basic trigonometry, and estimated based upon the curve of the fires.”

I stared blankly.

“Take two points of a curve, and estimate where the center of a circle might be?” Nyx tried again.

I shrugged.

“We really need to get you some basic school knowledge injections,” my AI muttered.