The Tattoo Summoner [System Apocalypse]

The next couple of days slipped past in the kind of rhythm Tanya only noticed once she'd already lived it. Finish a design, grab food, ink another design for Adder's gang, hear an update on the Estate and Wards, sleep, repeat. More tattoos got done than she thought possible; her body slowly becoming a web of designs, like the ones she'd always loved on other people but never thought would be hers.

News travelled fast. Mrs Eceer was apparently spending most nights up at the estate now, working on some Ward tall enough that everyone kept craning their necks to try and see it from street level. Only Olena had seen it properly using her new mech, and she just said it looked like electronics and then went on a huge tangent about how it wasn't quite accurate to real electronics.

Between sessions, Tanya met more and more old clients. Most of them had learnt how to use their new Summons in the same trial by fire as Tanya had. A few needed edits to not be too dangerous, and she heard of at least two deaths directly caused by her tattoos.

Their names were now on pieces of paper beside her bed.

Her favourite was coaching one of her old regulars in how to summon tattoos, a middle-aged sweetheart who had no idea they were even summonable because she'd been guarded so heavily for her food-based Class. They counted, and Tanya had given her over 30 different tattoos. When she left, she was followed by a pack of her childhood dogs, a sentient suit of armour, a miniature satellite, and a human-sized Howl's Moving Castle. It really made Tanya consider how she could think further out of the box with this tattooing ability, and her next round of tattoos for Adder were the wildest yet: a full-sized tank, a shark that could swim through air, and a magic carpet.

Marcy and Adder's men's call was successful on the third day. Tanya was tattooing a pair of wings when she heard it—the telepath's voice beamed straight into her head, reading out the words she'd written days earlier.

Everything felt like that, small, stacking moments and faces met as the neighbourhood around Tanya bustled with more and more life. It became an overflow for the Estate as more people had answered the call than they expected. This new wave was inhabiting more and more of the flats, and Tanya had heard a couple of the wreckages caused by the boss were being repurposed into greenhouses. She hadn't had the time to check it out herself.

By the fifth day, even the air had that strange held-breath quality. There was almost always at least one person in her shop she didn't know the name of. Runners were moving supplies up the road. People double-checked gear. Someone practising a summoned weapon behind the block. The kind of movement you get right before something, even if you didn't know what.

Tanya packed up her kit for the evening, wiped down the bench, and stepped outside just as Mrs Eceer walked into her shop. The look on Mrs Eceer's face told Tanya everything.

"It's here early?" Tanya said.

Mrs Eceer nodded.

"How long do I have?"

"Grab what you need and go. In theory, we have a couple of hours, but it's already advanced once."

Tanya had been packing her bag in bits and pieces over the last few days. No one knew how long the fight would go on for, so she had clothes, toiletries, utilities, medical gear, basically everything she could carry in one of those large camping backpacks.

She grabbed the last few things, stuffing them in and running down the stairs with it, bumping up and down on her back.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

Tanya had spent a lot of time wondering how this moment would feel. It was hard not to when she'd been prepping so intensely for it for so many days. Now that it was happening, it all felt too fast.

She had time while she was walking. She could use it.

"How are the wards doing?" Tanya asked.

"I was hoping to make them more efficient, but they'll hold."

Tanya asked a few more questions. Finding out the area around it with notable buildings she'd know, the fact that it would hold out against anything lower than a Boss unless a Mini-Boss could teleport, and the areas that were being used to fight each one. Tanya tried to keep up with all the information. Each Boss had their own area they were hoping it would stay in, their own team, and then their own buffer area up to where the Wards were as a full do not cross.

Tanya saw the tall, pale building in the distance. A large group were gathering further down the street they were on. A fizz of magic coursed through Tanya's body as she stepped through the Ward. She hadn't noticed it on the way in, but now she looked back, it had this red sheen across it.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"The colour and feeling were intentional. I want it to be very clear where it is," Mrs Eceer said, noticing. She pointed at the group.

"The groups are all gathering at rendezvous points around the Estate. We've ended up with about a hundred people who can fight and another hundred and twenty who can do other tasks. There are people like you doing support behind the scenes, but everyone who doesn't have an applicable Class is sorting magical items, ammo, or helping other supports. We have a full triage team helping the healers."

She sounded proud of that. Tanya assumed she'd sorted it.

"Healer wise?"

They walked past the group towards one of the main Peabody buildings.

Mrs Eceer sucked air through her teeth. "Fifteen with healing Classes. Seven of those are Martyrs. Unfortunately, Martyrs aren't much use if they aren't there right after the injury, and only two of those are willing or able to take the field. We have a lot of volunteers with varying medical experience, though, and the bottom floor of both main buildings has been turned into medical wards, just in case."

"Right. So what are the rest of the Martyrs doing then?"

Mrs Eceer smiled and opened the door to Block C. It was one of the more central buildings, smaller than blocks A and B on either side of it. From the number of accessibility signs and the ramp leading up, Tanya assumed it was a more assisted block.

Tanya looked around. The building was lit up now with what Tanya assumed was a Monster Core. She wondered if it had an Interface like her shop or if it was just being used like a battery.

"You didn't answer my—"

Tanya noticed a group to her right, sitting on an array of green chairs in what used to be the building's waiting room. She spotted Ishita and counted another three adults. One was an East Asian woman with a toddler on each hip, another was a man holding a nearly newborn, and the third was a younger blonde woman with her entire leg in a splint.

Tanya waved, walking over to them.

"I'll be setting up some tattooing' stuff here soon. Just so you guys know," she said. She made eye contact with Ishita and smiled.

"Tanya, right?" the blonde woman said.

"Yep, that's me."

"We already set up your station in there," said the man, pointing at a side room, saying 'rec room' on the door in old signage. Tanya poked her head round the door. All of the shelves had been removed, and she could still see the nails where they would have been on the walls. In the centre was a tattoo chair and a side table, not too different from her own.

"Oh, thanks." She paused. "So are you guys…?"

"Your team," Ishita said.

"Wait, what?" Tanya said, looking between them and Mrs Eceer.

Mrs Eceer smiled and pointed around the group. "This is Tsai Chih-wei, Richard Almassy, Jessica Davies, and Ishita Sharma, who you obviously already know."

"And you're all…" Tanya started.

"Martyrs," Jessica scoffed, hobbling on her crutches to shake Tanya's hand. "I'm not much of a Martyr generally, me. But no one hurts my sister un'all." She had a strong Essex accent and fake teeth so white they were almost blinding.

The others followed suit. Richard held out a hand, bouncing the baby in the other. There was something awkward about the motion, but he looked at the baby with love. "Richard, and this is little Alfie."

"Beautiful name," Tanya said, offering the baby a finger.

"My wife picked it," Richard said, welling up.

Ishita put an arm around him.

Before all of this, Tanya would have had no idea how to respond. Now, she simply said, "Sounds like your wife had great taste."

A tear dripped down his cheek, but he smiled before wiping it away with his knuckle.

Tsai Chih-wei nodded instead, both hands full with what appeared to be fussing twins. "My English no good, sorry. Welcome."

"Welcome," Tanya echoed back.

"What do you think of your little team?" Ishita asked. She was still ashy grey, but her cheeks flushed beneath it, her eyes a warmer shade of brown than they had been in a long time.

"I didn't see it comin' at all," Tanya said.

That's when it dawned on her. She looked around at the group's faces, processing that each of them was a Martyr. She'd never thought about Ishita being the norm for a Martyr before. Three parents and a big sister.

Martyrs are fuckin' metal.

They fell into a rhythm of unpacking the kit as Tanya talked them through the process of tattooing. Richard talked through how she could connect to their electricity, saying he was an electrician before.

A woman walked in with kind eyes and the ever-tapping click of her walking stick. She set up a makeshift nursery in the office beside the waiting room, taking the newborn and twin toddlers through.

That's when the real work began. Tanya and Ishita found the right cabling to set up her tattoo gun. Tsai prepared a table of snacks, some general and some with labels saying 'Increase Vitality. Only have three per day.'

Mrs Eceer and Richard fiddled with a large radio system, setting up a way of contact with the rest of the group.

"Suppose I'll just sit here lookin' pretty, won't I?" Jessica huffed, flopping on a chair and placing her crutches down beside her.

Tanya almost joked back when the radio crackled sharply.

A distant boom vibrated through the floor.

Mrs Eceer straightened. "They're early."

Another boom, closer this time—followed by a faint, rolling bellow that made the windows quiver.

Richard's face went pale. Ishita clutched the table for balance. Even the babies in the nursery began to cry.

Mrs Eceer snapped the radio to her mouth. "Confirm sighting."

Static, then a voice: "Three Boss-class entities. North car park, football pitch, and the south access road. They're not on top of us yet, but—"

A deeper roar drowned the rest.

"They're circling," Mrs Eceer said.

"They're early," Ishita added with vitriol.

Tanya raked her hand through her hair. "What about Adder and the leases?"

Mrs Eceer was already moving towards the door. "Positions, all of you. We will send Adder's men for these leases as soon as possible, but then we need them on the field."

The team exchanged tight, frightened, determined looks.

"Mrs Eceer," Tanya said.

The elder woman looked over her shoulder.

"Don't die."

"Bless you," Mrs Eceer replied, doing the sign of the cross as she disappeared through the door.

Tanya swallowed.

Outside, something screamed again, closer.

The fight had begun.