Ain't A Hero

Season 1

Bryan Schuder

Ain't A Hero: Season 1 by Bryan W. Schuder is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Semi-Official Release

Updated 05/04/2023

Ain't A Hero

Season 1

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 9

Episode 10

Episode 11

Episode 12

Episode 13

Story Timeline

Diary

Quick Guide

Transcript

Cataclysmic

Paranormal

Dedications

First and foremost... A special thank you to all the crazy humanity loving folks over at /r/HFY ! Out of all the places on Reddit for writing, you all are the most accepting and welcoming bunch of them all. As long as humanity is involved some how and you want to write, /r/HFY will give you a place to call home. I was not only surprised to find people interested in this crazy tale, but people who repeatedly read episode after episode... And still wanted more. I will try to deliver more!

So, in an inconsistent arbitrary order of me looking through the series posts, thank you to these fine folks that provided commentary. (Please let me know if I missed anyone!)

Attamark - Helped spot many prior mistakes!
Red-Shirt - Generous awarder of much Reddit Gold and more.
RougemageNick
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-1-

"We're Nexus News! At the great battle between the Chosen One, Sebastian Warwick, and the Dark Lord Noxian! The Chosen One's party have made their way to the magical rift that Dark Lord Noxian is attempting to consume. Wait! The moment is here! The Chosen One is charging in to give the final blow and-"

"That was the last transmission received from our on-site action news crew of the battle. The aftermath of the battle has been inconclusive. Our Nexus News investigative team is diligently gathering accounts from witnesses and we will report when we have more. Our technical experts are attempting to recover footage from damaged recording equipment. Thankfully, the magical rift was sealed. But no sign of Dark Lord Noxian was found and his whereabouts are presently unknown. Unfortunately, the only trace found of the Chosen One was the Legendary Sword of the Spirit Realm-"

The old and battered television screen blacks out and the faint, internal click sounds off as the unit powers down. A brown haired, overweight man sits on the couch in t-shirt and boxers. He tosses the remote onto the makeshift milk crate and two-by-four table. Sinking into the old, ripped couch, he blows the white streak in his hair out of his eyes. A distant, disconnected stare forms on his face, and a somber sign slips out. His blue sift slowly through the heavy thoughts as his shoulders slack with mental fatigue. "Shit, Sebastian... I... I-I can't believe it. I mean, you had your shit together. An awesome party. THE magical sword. The battle was going your way... You had Noxian's ass in a sling after that attack."

Another voice ethereally echoes in the room. "I know, bro. I thought I had him, too. But, the bastard had that one nasty trick up his sleeve."

The man holds his hands up in the air and puzzles out loud. "Well, what the fuck would have been that powerful to take you down-"

Pausing a moment in shock, he slowly pivots his head to the ghostly figure lounging on the other half of the couch. His blue eyes spring open as his pupils narrow to mere pinpoints. A shriek of terror strikes an octave short of glass shattering. "AHHH!"

Launching himself off the couch, the heavy set man backpedals hard into an arc and flops a meter away upon the floor. He continues the panicked slide on the carpet and plows through takeout boxes, dirty laundry, video games, books, and empty cans of caffeinated and alcoholic beverages. "AHHH! AHHH! AH-"

The ghostly figure rockets into the air from the couch with hands on his ears. His ethereal form zooms to within mere centimeters of panicked man's face. "BACH! SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Bach's mouth seals firmly as he stares wide eyed, pale in shock. The apparition removes his hands from ears with a relieved sigh. "Gods, I've forgotten how loud your shrieking is!"

A flash of recognition springs up Bach's face as he concentrates upon the transparent form. "S-s-s-sebastian?!"

Sebastian leans closer and eyes Bach with a slight curl to the corner of his mouth. "Yes."

Bach blinks uneasily with horror bubbling into his face. "Oh gods! You've come to haunt me! All those times I got revenge against you- You're going to make me pay now..."

Holding his hands out, Sebastian slowly waves them up and down to put Bach at ease. "No. Calm down, bro. I'm not here to haunt you."

Keeping his eyes on Sebastian, Bach turns his head away slowly. "Okay."

Sebastian twists his mouth and averts his eyes momentarily. "Well, not exactly."

Glancing around the rundown living space, Bach slowly mouths out the words as discomfort grips his expression. "Okay..."

Righting his ghostly form in front of Bach, Sebastian regains his footing, stands upright, and drifts down to contact the floor. "So... Long story short, I may have died, but I'm not dead."

Bach narrows an apprehensive stare and furrows his brow with growing curiosity. "No shit, man."

Sebastian snaps an annoyed glare back at Bach, and curls his upper lip with a frustrated sneer. "Stop being a smart ass."

Getting back onto his feet, Bach walks over to the small kitchen island. He sits down in a rickety seat next to aged stained island in the small combo kitchen/dining area, and squints uncertainly at Sebastian. "Fine. Sorry. Just a lot to process at once. So, um..."

Drifting over near Bach, Sebastian crosses his arms and recites a summation. "The Sword was able to capture the magical energy around the area. We're guessing it captured my spirit, mind, body, or whatever in the moment Noxian blasted me. And, it stored me within. I'm still figuring out the details, it's all still a blur. Bad news. I'm bound to the sword."

Bach quirks a brow and cocks his head intrigued. "Good news?"

The ethereal brother cracks a short grin as he eyes Bach. "I can be brought back with a substantial amount of the right magical energy infused into the sword."

Bach sits up straight for a moment, lost in thought. "I see. With enough of the right magical energy... It'd power whatever it does to fix up or reform your body, then I guess attach your mind or consciousness to the body. Probably like one of the old school resurrection spells."

Opening his arms out, Sebastian nods with a proud smile and chuckles. "EXACTLY! It's good to know those years in adventuring school weren't wasted!"

Bach grimaces with a grumble and sighs with stale pain. "Dammit, man, don't bring that up. I was doing just fine in school and I know my shit. Just never cared for the whole... risk your life everyday thing."

Brushing back a white streak in his translucent brown hair, Sebastian perks his brow with a sly smirk. "Well, that's why I'm here. I know you know all your stuff. And, you can help me out... Right?"

An awkward silence looms over the two and presses down around them. Sebastian hovers closer to his brother and focuses his attention upon him. Bach leans over to his fridge, intentionally avoiding eye contact. He opens the door and pulls out a bottle of cola. Using one of the drawer handles to pop the cap off, he eventually meets his brother's gaze and sighs. "Ah, fuck it. I'll give it a try for you."

Sebastian's ethereal form momentarily brightens. "YES! I knew I could count on you."

Bach sets up a swig from his drink and glances hesitantly at his brother while he ponders out loud. "Okay. So... Where are we going to get this ancient power source? Given how old that sword probably is, it can't be anything common today. Ancient ruins? Magical rifts in weird zones? Maybe, old magical focal points? It's going hard to hunt down one find one substantial enough. And the right type, too. Damn, we might be looking for a while if it needs something like raw elder power."

As Bach tips back the glass bottle and pour the soda back, Sebastian awkwardly shifts his eyes away from Bach, and swiftly slips out. "Lord Noxian's Heart."

Swallowing almost half the bottle of cola in one, painful gulp, Bach opens his eyes wide in horror. He struggles to contain the beverage, tears welling, and finally gasps for breath. "NOXIAN'S HEART?!"

Sebastian snaps a point right at Bach. "Yes, and you must be the one to plunge the sword through it."

Bach sputters and coughs, leaning away away from the ghostly finger. "ME?!"

Putting his hands up in the air off to his sides, Sebastian shrugs. "You're my twin."

The bottle clanks on the kitchen island, and Bach hastily wipes his mouth in confusion. "Fraternal twin! The sword knows that, right?! You did tell it that, right?!"

Sebastian scratches the back of his head and rolls his eyes. "As long as we share enough chromosomes, it'll work. From what we could gather from the sword, it should allow you to activate it fully."

Bach places his hands on his temples and then throws them forward. "DUDE! Lord Noxian almost wiped you clean from existence! And you want ME to try that?!"

He leans in to glare at his brother. His brother returns the motion. The two stare each other down. After tense seconds pass in silence, Sebastian speaks firmly with encouraging hints. "Listen, bro. We don't know where Lord Noxian is and his power is weak. He won't be trying anything soon. From what we know, he is going to be recovering for some time after this. Which will be plenty of time to get YOU into fighting shape again."

Bach crosses his arms, sighs, and drones in a lower tone. "You do realize, I was never really in a fighting shape."

Devious hints tinge Sebastian's grin, and he chuckles. "Well, I guess we ALL are going to have to work extra hard to get you there, whether you like it or not."

Bach's eyes spring all the way open. "We ALL?"

A door bell rings throughout the small, rough house, and the sound echoes faintly against the barren walls. Bach scans around for the source of the noise and furrows his brow bewildered. "I have a doorbell... that works?"

Sebastian ethereal form unknowingly shifts into the kitchen island with a sly smirk. "Well, they're here. My party. More correctly, OUR party."

Bach's expression withers into nervous dread, and he darts uneasy glances around. "All of them?! The Half-emin, Grath, Fvalian, and that Evuukian?"

With a sinister ear to ear grin, Sebastian trains his full attention to Bach. "Yes. All of them, ESPECIALLY the Evuukian, want me back among the physical living."

Bach stares at his brother, his head turns side to side as his eyes examine his brother from different angles. Sebastian backs away after noticing. "What?"

The corner of Bach's mouth pulls to a smirk, and he perks an eyebrow. "You and the Evuukian?"

Sebastian's ghostly form puffs his chest, and he confidently grins. "Yes."

Bach laughs and shakes his head. "Huh, I thought their whole cultural bias thing would never allow it?"

The flash of ego subsides, and Sebastian crosses his arm. "Well, officially. It's a little complicated."

After watching his brother think about the concept, he motions his head to the door. "Hey, could you answer the door? I physically can't. Don't want to keep them waiting and all."

As Bach walks over to the door, he remembers his overly casual attire and pat his faintly stained t-shirt and wrinkly boxers. He musters a bit of courage and carefully cracks the door open. "Oh hey... Everyone."

The half-emin, grath, fvalian, and that evuukian stand around concrete steps leading up to the small rundown house in the outskirt town. None have the most enthused expressions, except the Fvalian. She gives a greeting smile, with her sharp teeth. With a few remaining shreds of confidence, Bach smiles and holds a finger up to the group. "If you give me a few minutes, I'll get ready and come on out. I wasn't expecting to travel so soon."

The large, muscular Grath woman crosses her arms and grumbles in a low tone with a trailing sigh. "Hurry. Up."

Bach nervously strains a grin to gritting teeth as the door closes. He looks expectantly at his brother, and Sebastian bounces his eyes to either side. "What?"

Bach motions his hands down himself and lifts an annoyed brow. "A little privacy, man? I gotta get dressed."

Sebastian rolls his eyes and waves his hand as he drifts towards the front of the house. "Oh, right. Sorry, being on the adventuring road so much, you start to not worry about that."

After Sebastian slips through the front wall of the house to greet his party members, Bach pauses for a moment and thinks to himself. Swelling apprehension and worry drive his glances around the room, and he briefly stares towards the back of the house.

----

The party intensely discusses future plans. The tall, muscular grath woman retrieves a large map from inside a modified, ancient humvee and rolls it out upon the hood in one motion. The fvalian hops out of the driver's seat, climbs out the large, open roof hatch, and slides down the windshield. She stretches out her small, lithe frame and pins down the two corners of the map with a heel each. Holding down the top edge in the middle with a hand, she taps upon the map with a claw tip. The half-emin steps up in front of the grill and flips the hood of her cape off. Placing her hands on the sides of her waist, she picks at her belt of pouches with long black nails. She sighs, and her golden eyes glance at the fvalian on the hood. Leaning forward, she places a nail point on another part of the map. "Cideeda... We talked about this. There's no reason for Noxian to go back there."

Cideeda's long, furry tail flicks out from behind her, and she presses a claw tip down her choice on the map. "I know, Sotalia! But, you can't deny there might be some stuff left. Maybe notes, or some clues to where he may have gone."

Sotalia straightens her back and stands a moment to ponder before grimacing at the bright sun beating down. With a frustrated sneer, she pulls the toque off her head, letting down her dark red hair and revealing a pair of swept back horns. "What is with the weather around here?! It was near freezing last night at the hotel, now it feels like summer!"

The grath woman wipes beads of sweat off her tan forehead, shifts a number of platinum blonde hair braids, and removes her leather jacket. Walking over towards an open door, she leans into the vehicle and tosses it onto the back bench of the humvee. "Not the worst change in weather experienced. Surprising still."

Sotalia nods to the grath woman and loosens up her cape off the shoulders. "I know. Do you have to just keep two seasons of clothes out all the time?"

Cideeda rolls her emerald green eyes, leans back on the windshield, and combs through her short, multicolored hair with her clawed fingers. "I'll agree with Dretphi. But, it's better than it being as cold as it was on that ridge getting here."

Sotalia and Dretphi each nod in agreement, before continuing the debate over where to go next. Standing off to the side an ivory skinned, lean figure, confidently rests a hand upon a large sheathed sword at her side. Sebastian's ghostly form glides over to her side. She smiles gently as he approaches. "So, did he agree to help us, Sebastian?"

Sebastian pridefully puffs his chest out with a heroic grin. "Of course, my dear!"

She breathes a sigh of relief and rolls some tension out of her shoulders. Twisting her foot inside her boot, discomfort flashes on her face, and she twists a grimace. Glancing around, she finds nothing conveniently around her. Lifting up her boot while keeping balance, she undoes a few buckles, and eventually works her leg free of the knee high boot. "The finest artisans crafted these boots for my family. And, yet, they still manage to find every loose rock in the area..."

She aggressively shakes her boot until a stray rock tumbles out and narrows an irritated glare at the offending pebble. Drawing a long calming breath, she balances on one foot and slides her leg back in. Taking a few moments to readjust her fine clothing back to a neat presentation, she gazes at Sebastian with a roll of her violet eyes. Sebastian shrugs his shoulders. Cideeda waves over to Sebastian and the evuukian woman with a toothy grin. "Hey! Aristespha! Sebastian! You two are going to join in on his argument or do you want to be ALONE."

Aristespha checks the sword, resumes a distinguished posture, and gazes lovingly over to Sebastian. "Let's not keep them waiting."

----

The group eventually settles upon a rough plan. During the lull in the debate, Sebastian gazes over towards Bach's house and furrows his burrow. Cideeda glances around to the spaces around the house and follows her perking furry ears. The rest of the party halts the discussion and curiously glances towards the run down structure. Hovering over to the dirty brickwork wall, Sebastian leans his upper ethereal form through the front wall. After a few seconds, he pulls back for a moment confused and goes all the way through into the house. Cideeda's ears flick around again, and she twists her mouth. "That sounds like the kick starter of a motorcycle."

"MOTHERFUCKER!!!"

The ethereal, booming, echoing eruption seizes the attention of everyone. Sebastian launches out of the building with his ghostly figure billowing red with ethereal flames. "THE BASTARD SQUEEZED HIS FAT ASS THROUGH THE BATHROOM WINDOW AND IS ESCAPING ON HIS BIKE! GET HIM!"

The muffled rumble of a motorcycle blasts out over the battered roof of the house. Tires spin up and dirty gravel peppers the back of the small house. Frantically throwing everything into the humvee, the team rushes aboard. Cideeda floors the accelerator, and the machine spins out towards the back road behind the house. Sebastian stands on the roof, floating in sync with the humvee, and ahead glares at angrily. He roars out at the man on the side-car motorcycle many meters down the back road. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING, BACH?!"

The Bach glances behind him, and spots the ethereal figure, flaming red with rage. He snaps his head forward, contains a reflexive scream of fright between clenched teeth, and opens up the motorcycle throttle.

----

The motorcycle speeds as fast as the barely paved roads allow. The small town streets remain empty on an early morning as Bach darts through an empty bank parking lot. He sharply turns down a side step around an advertising sign flashing the current date "Sunday March 2nd, 3017". Darting his gaze around in a panic, he spots a narrow alley and power slides motorcycle with a heavy lean to line up the approach. Zipping between the trash filled passage, the humvee turns away at the last moment and launches powerfully down the roadway, and turns down an intersecting route. The powerplant of the military machine screams, and the huge vehicle accelerates. Down the long stretch of rural highway, the humvee closes the divide between it and the sidecar motorcycle. Sebastian launches from the roof, and flies towards Bach. He hovers himself in front of the motorcycle and loosely anchors himself near the handlebars opposite of Bach. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO HELP ME, BACH!"

Bach leans his head left and right around Sebastian's ghostly form, each time meeting the enraged, transparent face of his brother. "DAMMIT, SEBASTIAN! I'M TRYING TO FUCKING DRIVE HERE!"

Sebastian looms his face forward. "FUCK YOUR DRIVING! WHAT ABOUT HELPING ME?!"

Bach narrows his eyes at his brother, and a faint blue glows from his pupils. "Well! Maybe you should mention needing to destroy a world ending horror BEFORE asking your brother to help! Full disclosure, man!"

Sebastian continues his ranting. "FULL DISCLOSURE!? I was trying to be nice about the whole situation! Because YOU are GOING to HELP ME whether you like it or not-"

Bach nods his head and raises it, eyes pulsating blue, and Sebastian blinks blankly. Cocking the back of his left hand away from the handle of the motorcycle, Bach stares at his brother as flows of magical energy coat his arm. "Full disclosure. This might sting."

After a blur, a loud resonant clap follows the impact as the back of Bach's hand pushes into Sebastian's shocked face. His ethereal, warping visage tumbles loose from Bach's motorcycle and returns right back into the sword on Aristespha's lap. The others in the humvee glance over in absolute surprise. Streaming out from the sword, Sebastian frustrated visage reforms in the seat next to Aristespha. Sotalia spins around in her front seat towards Sebastian. "How the fuck did he do that?!"

Sebastian grumbles in a low tone. "I told you. My brother is full of surprises. He was ranked the same as ME in adventuring school."

Drawing herself forward from the back seat, Dretphi positions herself between Sebastian and Aristespha. "How do you want us to capture him?"

Sebastian sighs with irritation tainting his tone. "Alive."

Dretphi narrows her steely gray eyes and slowly shakes her head. She directs a stern expression at Sebastian and focuses an unamused glare. Sebastian groans. He twists his mouth and averts his face away from Dretphi's piercing stare. "I know... Just no permanent injuries, please! He's just running scared, but he's not going to make it easy."

Cideeda briefly pulls herself over the steering wheel and squints her emerald green eyes on the motorcycle. Holding her hand up to the open hatch, she directs the air above into her light brown face and sniffs. "It's a biodiesel engine. Sotalia, how far can your freeze spell reach, again?"

Perking her brow, Sotalia glances over. "Pretty far if I narrow the ray down. But, it won't be as cold."

Cideeda points at the motorcycle ahead and grins toothily. "Think you can hit it at this range with a headwind?"

Nodding confidently, Sotalia smiles slyly. "Of course."

With a motion of a claw tipped finger, Cideeda directs Sotalia's attention to a series of metal tubes on the engine. "Those are the fuel lines. Freeze them and it should stall the engine out."

Sotalia rolls up the long sleeves of her top and stands up in her seat. Steadying herself within the open top hatch, she grasps the top of the windshield and aims with a free arm extended ahead. She swiftly gestures with her hand and incants while symbols along her light tan and dark gray patterned arm glow brighter and brighter. "Try to get me closer if you can."

With an eager grin, Cideeda floors the accelerator and guides the humvee closer to the motorcycle. Bach snaps a worried glance back. Maintaining careful aim with concentration, Sotalia summons up the flows of magical energy down and releases the power. As the humvee tire rolls over a large rock, the beam of energy lances out. The ray hits a much higher target and contacts small of Bach's back and swiftly jumps up between the shoulders. Bach screams in shock, reflexively tenses up, and nearly clenches up the entire motorcycle seat. Sotalia twists out embarrassment on her face and quickly gathers more energy for another attempt. "Stupid bump! I'll get it this time!"

Another beam of energy streaks out and hits the tubing around the engine, forming a misting coating of ice over the metal. As Bach recovers from the surprise, he notices the motorcycle engine sputter. Leaning over, he spots the ice on the fuel lines. "Shit..."

He snags up a backpack from sidecar, and throws it over his shoulder. Keeping the grip on the handle bar, he steady the machine as the engine completely gives out. When the motorcycle nearly stops from the coast, he spring into a run towards forest near road. The humvee hard brakes to a stop and the back passenger's side door flies open. Dretphi launches herself and lands in a full sprint. Between the trees, Bach rushes across the forest floor, nearly stumbling. Loud snaps and rustles erupt from behind him, and he twists his head back. Dretphi powers through the dense floor, glides over the terrain without trouble, and swiftly covers the distance. Bach's eyes open wide in fright with a slight blue glow. When Dretphi closes right next to him, she reaches out. When her hand hovers over to grab, Bach speeds forward out of her grasp. Dretphi watches in astonishment as his footsteps grow faster and each stride lengthens. With speed unfitting his physique, Bach leaves Dretphi behind to her disbelief. A crackly voice sounds off in Dretphi's ear from a radio. "Dretphi? Have you caught him?"

Between heavy breaths Dretphi responds. "No. He. Somehow. Outran. ME."

A very confused Cideeda continues on the radio. "What?! How?! Never mind. We found an access road. Are you still running west?"

Dretphi flicks her eyes up to the sky through the freshly green canopy and notes the location of the sun. "Yes."

The radio crackles out with Cideeda's voice. "Okay. We found a clearing up ahead. Keep chasing him in this direction."

----

Bach coughs and sputters as the forest around thins. A wave of relief washes over him as he notices the upcoming brush leading to a clearing. As Bach lands his first step outside the forest, Cideeda pops up from the tall grasses and points a modified shotgun at him. She pulls a trigger and a payload of netting and weights explode outwards from the bottom barrel. Bach's luminescent blue eyes witness the expanding strands, and he drops into a feet first slide immediately, unnaturally onto the dirt. The net flies clear over. Cideeda adjusts her aim down and rests her finger onto another trigger. Bach raises his hands up instinctively towards the direction of the barrel. With a precise squeeze, the shotgun sends another projectile with electrical probes out the top barrel. The projectile bounces sharply off a materializing golden transparent disc. Cideeda immediately cycles the shotgun and fires. The golden barrier deflects the slow stunning projectile. Bach regains his footing and flings the shield right at Cideeda with a surge of magic flow down his arm. The golden disc knocks the shotgun free of Cideeda's hand. After a reflexive wince, Cideeda snatches the golden disc from the rebound off her weapon. "How the fuc-"

As Bach sprints across the field, Aristespha confidently strides out from behind a tree on the other side of the clearing. With a precise gesture and fast incantation, waves of energy pass rush out from Aristespha through Bach. He staggers, each step more lethargic and exaggerated, until he barely manages to stand. Aristespha carefully approaches, narrows her intrigued gaze, and aims her steady hand at Bach. "Strange. Most creatures fall completely asleep. There may be something to your brother's claims after all."

Something inside Bach stirs, and he tips his head up against the effects of the spell. He remains standing, while Aristespha's curiosity shifts to genuine caution. Bach flutters his eyes and starts to regain his senses as the effect of the spell fades. Shock sparks on Aristespha's blue and gray hinted, ivory face and she releases another wave of energy. Bach slowly drops into an unconscious heap and flops out onto the grass with a faint snore. Sebastian's ethereal form floats next to Aristespha, and she snaps her head at him with a harsh frown. "You did not mention how DIFFICULT he would be to capture. Sebastian."

Sebastian drifts back and shrugs. "I said he's full of surprises. But, I honestly didn't expect he'd be able to pull this much off."

Cideeda arrives holding the golden disc at her side, and glances over to the slumbering Bach. "Wow! He sure put up a fight. I'll have to use specially made restraints on him."

She passes off the golden disc to Sotalia as she stops from a jog. Sotalia examines the disc with confusion and intrigue. After digging through her utility vest pockets, Cideeda pulls out a collection of restraints. In between securing Bach, she pats him down, turns out pockets, and searches his backpack. "Looks like he was planning to run pretty far. A bit of money, passport, and a fake ID."

Sebastian hovers over and joins her in examining all the random things found. Sotalia pauses from investigating the golden disc and gazes between the team. "Where did this come from? Did he have it with him?"

Cideeda pulls her attention away from looting and thinks back to recent memory, lifting an eyebrow. "Um. No. It appeared when I tried shooting him with the stunner rounds. Pretty weird. Just popped into existence."

Glancing over to Cideeda curiously, Sotalia furrows her brow. "Have you found any artifacts on him?"

Surveying the items on the ground, Cideeda shakes her head. "No. Nothing I think is magical."

Sotalia holds the golden, translucent disc in front of her and squints in mild disbelief. "So... you're saying he conjured this?!"

Shrugging her shoulders, Cideeda tilts her head to the side. "I guess. I didn't see him do any kind of incantation. It just materialized."

Craning her head over to Sebastian with a growing glare, Sotalia furrows her brow. Sebastian eventually notices the concentrated attention upon him and glides over to Sotalia. "Yes?"

Sotalia narrows her golden eyes at Sebastian and takes a step forward to bring her face closer to his. "You said he FAILED out of the mage program."

Sebastian's eyes dart around confused with an awkward grin trying to settle in. "Uh, yes. He did."

Holding up the golden disc in one hand, Sotalia points to it with the other. "THIS isn't the work of a failed mage!"

Sebastian uneasily shrugs, biting his lip, and tries to avert his transparent face. "Well, what do you call not passing your fifth year finals?"

Sotalia's jaw drops, and she cringes as her mind processes this information. "Wait! He made it through FIFTH YEAR?!"

Glancing around desperately, Sebastian stumbles for a better response. "Um... Uh... Yes?"

Sotalia grimaces sharply and shakes the disc, waving her hand to punctuate. "Fifth year is the last year for school work! The only reason for the sixth year is internship hours!"

Lifting his hands up in the air, Sebastian struggles for a response. Dretphi steps up, taking huge breaths and long strides while recovering from the long sprint. "Sebastian. There are things you have not told us. Need to inform us."

Sotalia motions a thumb at Dretphi behind her, keeping her glare upon Sebastian. "Exactly! While your brother sleeps, we are going to have a nice long discussion."

Aristespha crosses her arms, straightens her posture, and narrows a glare at Sebastian. "ALL of us are going to have a nice long discussion."

Sebastian smiles nervously, pivoting between all the unhappy attention. He only finds difference with Cideeda's face, as she points to an electronic device freshly fished from Bach's backpack. "What?"

With the most innocent batting of the eyes, Cideeda eagerly inquires. "Can I have this? These are really RARE. And, I have been looking for one FOREVER."

Sebastian grins halfheartedly as he glances between everyone else. "Uh, sure. Go right ahead. Yeah, um..."

Cideeda giggles with sly contentment and continues to sort through the backpack. Sebastian shrinks with the walls of his party closing in and points over to the humvee. "How about we get on the road and discuss this further?"

----

As the world returns to Bach's senses, conversation hits his ears. His mind reconnects with consciousness, he assesses his situation with the faintest motions. He feels the bumps of the road shaking the vehicle and constraint of the ropes binding him. Hearing the voices of those he failed to escape, he resigns to the loss with a quiet sigh. He slowly and stealthily opens an eye to survey the area. Inside the humvee, he lies in the middle aisle between everyone. He glances up to the furthest back seat to see Dretphi laying out on the bench seat with a few pillows for comfort. In the driver's side seat next to him, Aristespha holds onto the sword with its scabbard across her lap. Sebastian hovers roughly on the opposing passenger's side seat. Focusing towards the front of the vehicle, Bach watches Cideeda in the driver's seat flipping through the holographic list of music on his Universal HoloPlayer Pro. Sotalia excitedly points out a selection in the list and taps to start playing it. "I can't believe he has a copy of this! These guys were totally my favorite band back in my gloom and doom phase."

Cideeda chirps back with a sly smirk with her canines peeking out. "I told you this thing is amazing. And, it's got all the unofficial modifications and unlocks."

Aristespha sighs and groans as she reverts her attention back to Sebastian. "Back to the discussion at hand... So Bach made it to the end of his fifth year and just dropped out."

Sebastian nods with arms crossed. "Yes. He didn't even take the final test. Just walked away from it all."

Sotalia twists her seat to face behind her. "You don't just walk away from that after getting that high of marks. What happened before he left?"

Staring towards the floor board in frowning thought, Sebastian sighs. "Something happened on an assignment he went on with his instructor and a few other students. Things went really bad. Bach was the only one to get out without any serious injuries."

Concern flashes up in Sotalia's face, and she focuses upon Sebastian. "What... happened?"

Sebastian angles his head to the side and grimaces, contorting his mouth. "They ran into a Nightmare Geist."

Silent looms in the vehicle. Only the sounds of the engine and road creep into the cab. The tension drives the swelling discomfort within everyone. Cideeda unconsciously sinks her claws tips into the steering wheel cover as her stare ahead grows distant. Bach winces as memories bubble up. Sotalia breaks the silence. "A Nightmare Geist?! They all lived?!"

Sebastian uneasily darts his gaze around and simply shrugs at a loss. "Yes. Though everyone except Bach needed to be hospitalized to recover."

Dretphi straightens her posture in the back seat and furrows her brow. "There are old legends my house told me. Whole towns destroyed by such creatures. Only viable option is to use magic to seal it. Secure the vessel far from anything we value. Hope nothing disturbs it."

Cideeda's happiness drains as something more solemn overtakes, and she goes quiet. Her breath occasionally shudders as something within occupies attention not towards driving. Sotalia notices Cideeda discomfort and gently holds her shoulder. Cideeda's breathing calms and she pats a free hand on Sotalia's. Aristespha narrows her eyes at Sebastian. "So, how did they... Seal it?"

Sebastian pauses and blinks blankly. After a few false starts, he responds with a mix of confusion and uncertainty. "Sealed? It was destroyed- Maybe. No one was sure, but there was no trace of it. Maybe it just left? I don't know..."

Bach closes his eyes and keeps quiet with a trace of frown. Sotalia rubs the bridge of her nose in frustration and grumbles to herself. "They didn't say anything?! Did your own brother say anything? This is pretty damn significant."

Sebastian rests his head on his hands and echoes an ethereal sigh. "No. He's never said anything about it. In fact, that's when he grew distant, and then just stopped doing the whole school thing. I tried to get him to tell me. But, I could tell something bad happened and he didn't want to talk about it."

Dretphi settles down into the back seat again and moves some pillows around. "We may be able to help your brother."

Sebastian twists his visage to gaze at Dretphi. "I hope so."

Dretphi stares out a side window and squints in thought. "No. We will. Before he sounded incapable of fighting. Different now. He can fight. Just, not."

Bach feels fatigue washing over him again. A spark of defiance furrows his brow. After a long, silent sigh, he submits with a defeated sigh.

----

Bach wakes to firm tapping of a finger upon his forehead. His eyes greet Dretphi's as she stares stoically at him from above, her platinum blonde, darker ended braids draping down. "Will you cooperate?"

Bach takes a breath in and frowns. "Yes. I really don't have it in me to run at the moment anyway."

Dretphi nods and carefully lifts Bach up to seat in the humvee aisle. She undoes the many restraints on Bach. Grabbing hold of the seat to the side, he pulls himself up the rest of the way. Turns around to the open humvee side door, and slips behind the shifted seat out onto a gravel driveway. Dretphi follows right behind him and stands to her full imposing statue. Bach slowly spins around to survey the area. A single, two lane road runs through the remote countryside. The gravel leads to a well kept single level, ranch style with obvious amenities. Bach surveys the front of the house and glances behind him. "So, this place got cable TV?"

Cideeda leans hard upon the sidecar motorcycle and pushes it past Bach and Dretphi. "Not yet! The installer is coming tomorrow, sometime between eight in the morning and eight at night. At least they're honest about it around here."

Bach watches his motorcycle roll up into the garage, and a very eager fvalian begins to examine it. He glances over to Dretphi. She shrugs with a slight twist in the corner of her mouth. "She has wanted one. Among other things. She refused to leave without it."

Bach puts his hands in his emptied pockets, pushes the inner cloth back in, and shrugs. "At least it's here. It'd be gone by nightfall if it was left in Tullachester."

Flicking a furry away back from Bach's voice, Cideeda perks her brow and rolls her emerald green eyes. "That's what I said, too. Too nice to leave it out there."

Bach plods over to the open front door, and Dretphi occasionally directs him via a firm but gentle nudge. When Bach crosses the threshold, he notices the house's furnishings and plain decoration. Afternoon light slips through the windows and reflects upon the well-cared for hardwood floors. He walks into the big living/dining room and scans the vicinity. He spots Sotalia and Aristespha going over a document at the window bar leading into part of the kitchen. Pointing to the couch in front of a big screen television, he awkwardly smiles. "Probably best I stay out of the way?"

Dretphi nods and motions a hand at the television. "Yes. That would be best. Maybe you can find some channels, for now."

Bach agrees, sits down on the couch, and reaches for the remote. He idly browses the television's settings and turns his ear towards the nearby conversation.

Sotalia sits down on a stool and flips through a stack of paperwork. "Well, that's the checklist. So, everything looks in order. You want to drop this by the leasing office in town tomorrow?"

Aristespha nods as her violet eyes follow the settling pages. "I need to stop and talk to a few representatives of the local guild office for some work while we get our investigations and... Training started."

Bach narrows his eyes at that remark, watching the television search for over-the-air channels. Sotalia drops the stack of papers on the bar counter, and guides stray red locks over her black swept back horns. "Not a bad deal for a six month lease."

Aristespha smirks as she slides the document closer to her. "My family's property agent recommended it, and said it would be perfect for adventurers needing a base to operate from."

Sebastian's ghostly form settles next to Bach on the couch. After darting his blue eyes over, Bach groans as he confirms the presence. Sebastian turns to this brother and sighs. "Look, bro. I know we got off to a BAD start, but this is important stuff."

Rolling his voice with a growl, Bach keeps his head forward at the blank display. "To YOU."

Sebastian throws his hands to his sides. "To everyone, asshole! Dark Lord Noxian is going to cause trouble again, and we've been THE group closest to stopping him."

Bach's lip curls, and he scoots over to one side of the couch opposite of Sebastian. "Man, fuck you. This is all about you, and I'm just being used as your fucking proxy."

Placing the palm of his hand on his forehead, Sebastian grits his teeth with a long exhale. "BRO. This is a chance to get you in the game! Like we talked about when we were in school... All the adventures I've been on, you should have been a part of them!"

Bach sighs as he flips through the channels. "Whatever. Kiss my ass, ghost of fucking failure."

Sebastian meanly eyes Bach as he drifts opposite to Bach on the couch. "Shit, look at you all brave now I'm intangible and can't kick you ass."

The two remain silent on the couch. Both stare angrily at the television screen. Minutes later, the brother actually pay some attention to the programming on the TV. Snapping out his stale ire, Sebastian cringes and grumbles. "Could you change it, bro? I can't. Gods, this crap is awful."

Bach flips the channel in search of a tolerable station and settles on the weather. "No kidding, man. Figures that be the one of the stations coming in clearly."

Silence falls again until Bach drops his head and sighs. "Goddammit. I want to help you, Sebastian. But, holy shit, there's GOT to be a better route than going to Noxian to get you released."

Sebastian leans in to whisper to Bach. "That's what I thought, too. But, Aristespha was pretty adamant about Noxian. The sword seems really tuned in on him as a source for the right magical power."

Bach sinks into the couch cushions and lets his eyes search his mind. "Well, that's a currently known source of that type of magical energy. But... There's GOT to be other places. Most artifacts just need the right type of energy, doesn't matter where it comes from. Okay, listen, Noxian is basically a conduit of really old school Elder magical energy. Rawest energy stuff. Almost all magical energy sources today are really tame in comparison to that. It's all derived from Elder, and Elder used to be the only source for a very long time."

Sebastian scratches his chin and nods. "Yeah. So, there's got to be some old ruins that might still be an easy source of that Elder energy."

Bach turns his upper body to Sebastian and gestures with his hands. "Exactly! Even if there isn't enough in one location, there's probably enough residual around to charge up the sword. So, we explore some ruins, find enough Elder energy, charge up the sword, get you back, and we both get back at Noxian."

Cracking a grins on his transparent face, Sebastian waves a finger at Bach. "I'm with you on this. Either way, you still need to get yourself into fighting shape."

Bach settles back to his half the couch and sighs. "Fine. I'll try. But, let me try to find a better route to getting you back along the way."

Sebastian smirks as he shifts back to his side of the couch. "Deal. Either way, it'll be good to get you into the action."

Rolling his eyes, Bach shrugs apprehensively. "Sure."

Sebastian thinks for a moment and uneasily glances at Bach. "Hey, your house back in that town... Um... Do we need to do anything to handle the rent, or...?"

Bach's blue eyes search his mind, and he sinks back into the couch cushions. "Not really. My lease was up this month, and I already sold most of my unimportant crap to make last month's rent. Also, I didn't expect my deposit back when I signed up for the place. About the only thing of great value I didn't cram into my backpack and the sidecar was the television. No great loss there, it was on its last legs anyway."

Sebastian stares at the television. "Yeah, that place was a real hole in the wall. Plus, you're a shitty housekeeper, bro."

Bach shakes head and eyes Sebastian. "Fuck you. It's called depression, asshole."

Sebastian tilts his head to the side. "Fair enough. Honestly, I haven't been anywhere long enough lately to really live in a place."

Bach gazes at the television. "So, how's the whole not-really-dead and ethereal thing been for you?"

Sebastian scratches the back of his head of coiffed brown hair. "You know... Not bad. Not good. It's been... Interesting. Yeah, interesting to say the least."

Both Bach and Sebastian settle in and watch television. Channels flip as the two catch up and other members settle into the house.

----

The sun rises slowly in the early morning, dew glitters of the blades of grass, and life stirs in the forest nearby. Standing in the middle of the large field behind the house, Sotalia paces casual workout clothes and lectures to Bach. "Okay, so let's find out what you can do."

She searches around the area and points to a spot. "Stand up here. I want you to cast the standard mage bolt you learned in first year."

Bach rises up groggily and yawns, while wiping the sleep from his eyes. He shambles up to the spot Sotalia indicates and scratches his back. She crosses her arms and aims a scrutinizing stare. Bach gestures out into the vast area of the field in front of him. "So... Any target you want me to-"

Sotalia dismissively waves in the general distance of grassy open expanse, and rolls her golden eyes. "Just cast it in the air. It should dissipate before it hits anything."

Bach sniffs through the morning haze and stretches his arms back out. "Okay. Sure. I think I remember those motions."

His hands gesture through the motions of the spell, exaggerating points and drifting lethargically on others. His incantations jumble and the magical phrases butt into each other sloppily, leaving near indecipherable distinctions between parts. Narrow his faintly glow blue eyes, a swell of magical flow materializes to a perfect bolt in his palm. From his hand, the projectile flies off into the distance and bursts by hitting a tree deep in the forest.

Sotalia glares with a fleeting facial twitch she vainly tries to suppress. "That was THE sloppiest gesturing and the worst incantation pronunciation I've EVER heard. But, somehow-"

She takes a deep breath in, places her long finger nailed hands together, and releases her bubbling tension through a long sigh. "Okay. Let's try something that is more sensitive to proper spell craft, the Hover Disc spell."

Bach shrugs nonchalantly and goes through the motions. He pauses in the middle of gestures to scratch, yawns at parts, and leaves the verbal components out of sync at the end. A large hover disc forms without any trouble next to him. Sotalia's glare intensifies to a glower. She pops individual knuckles of her long black nailed fingers, each snap releasing a tiny amount of bubbling frustration. "Step. On. It."

Gazing down at the hovering disc, Bach places a foot on top. He places his weight on the disc, and it does not move, even when he lifts his other foot off the ground. The disc then glides slowly with Bach's gentle lean towards a direction. Sotalia's anger seeps into her thoughts and her golden eyes meet Bach's. Just as she's about to react, she notices the faint blue glow in his eyes. Her anger flashes over to curiosity and wonder. "Wait... That would explain it... I'll be damned..."

Bach stops moving the disc around and apprehensively raises a brow to Sotalia. "I'll be damned... What?"

Sotalia opens up her large satchel and rummages inside of it, eventually pulling out the same golden, transparent disc from yesterday's chase. Still formed and solid, it shows no signs of decay. An evil grin grows, Sotalia's golden eyes glint with a newfound intrigue. She pulls off her hoodie and begins stretching and humming a happy, ominous tune. Bach steps cautiously off the hovering disc. "Something happened. I'm not sure what. What's going on?"

Sotalia circles a finger towards Bach with a smile. "I know what you are."

Bach freezes, nervously eyeing Sotalia as he turns his head away slightly. "What am I?"

Sotalia arcs her back and pops a few joints. "A Direct Caster. You actually got all the way through the mage school with high marks. So, I bet they never tried looking for it."

Glancing around uneasily, Bach fails to find a reason for the situation. "Huh? I'm not following you all the way."

Sotalia now smiles with a spring in her step. She brushes her shoulder length red hair out of her face and around her swept back horns. "You see, those motions and sounds YOU make now, don't mean anything to you. You don't NEED them."

While sorting through her satchel, she perks her brow and rests a hand on her hip. "You may have initially needed them, but after a point you just did them to pass the tests. They don't help you get into the whole spell casting mindset anymore. Your brain just does that on its own."

Glancing over to Bach, she grins devilishly and chuckles to herself. "I don't think you've ever quite realized it... Until now."

Bach's eyes scan side to side in a vain attempt for an explanation. "Okay. Uh, this has just officially turned weird. Whoa, is that magical sparring gear you are putting on- Oh. Shit."

Holding his hands up to Sotalia, he tenses up and searches the immediate vicinity. Sotalia smiles in delight and amusement while putting on gear. "You see, Bach. I've been teaching myself to direct cast, but I've never run into anyone that naturally did it. And to find someone that got through school without anyone figuring it out..."

Bach furrows his brow and grimaces as his understanding falters. "Alright, still confused at the change of attitude here."

With a mischievous, evil grin, Sotalia winks at Bach, holding her hand up with a tiny ball of fire forming. "I thought I was going to have to play kindergarten teacher to some oddball dropout. Instead, I've just gotten the sparring partner I've been wanting, to learn all I could WANT from. Don't worry. If all goes well, you'll have my respect."

Bach's eyes widen as his expression shatters to anxious worry, and a blue glow sparks in his eyes. "Oh that does NOT fill me with good feelings. Um, I'm really, really rusty on the magic stuff. Let's take it slow and easy, just some of the basics and- Why don't we have a nice sit down class and talk about things?"

The small ball of fire fully forms in Sotalia's hand, illuminating her face. She perks her brow and smiles at Bach. "Class IS in session. Right now, your real training begins."

----

Cideeda sits at the dining table with various mechanical and electronic bits and pieces strewn across the table top. She plays with the holographic menu and flips through the contents of the holoplayer. Aristespha reads through old tomes and other scripture, scribing notes in a journal. The ethereal form of Sebastian hovers near her, examining the material. Dretphi sits on the couch, inspecting armor and other equipment. The sliding glass back door of the living room opens. Sotalia struts in with an ear to ear grin, wiping sweat off her light tan face with a towel around her neck. "That was NICE."

She continues around the dining table, straight into the kitchen. She opens the refrigerator and pulls out a sports drink. Sebastian eyes Sotalia and then examines her previous path. "Where's Bach at?"

Bach steps through and drags the sliding door shut. He brushes off the small singed sections of his shirt. He pulls the loose thread from the leg of his pants, turned uneven cut shorts. And, he flexes the toes in his wet sock and glances at the shoe on his other foot. Dretphi lifts her head up as Bach plods to the couch and drops onto it, opposite to her. Cideeda, Aristespha, and Sebastian observe Bach as he stares blankly ahead. In between chugs of the sports drink, Sotalia points to Bach with a confident pose. "You did REALLY good. After I catch a shower, we'll continue for the rest of the day."

Bach blinks, still not moving his head. "You should treat yourself. Take a nice... LONG... Bath. Relax. Take the REST of the day off."

Sotalia perks an eyebrow with a wry smile. "And you miss out on all this great training? I'd like to try some magic homing missiles out. Don't worry, they're just training versions."

She finishes the drink, tosses the bottle into the nearby garbage can, and walks out of the room down a hallway to one of the bathrooms. Attention briefly returns to Bach, before everyone resumes their tasks. Bach stares forward still. "So... Dretphi? Does your training tomorrow include fire, ice, bolts of energy, manic gleeful laughter, and repressed emotions feeding some form psychosis?"

Dretphi gradually rotates her head and cocks it to the side. "No. Training weapons. Padded armor. Simple exercise routines."

Bach nods with a neutral expression. "That sounds nice."

Dretphi analyzes the state of Bach's attire. "You want a new shirt? I think mine will fit you."

Curling a lip, Bach shakes his head nonchalantly. "Nah... It'd only get destroyed. Thank you, though."

Nodding with a hint of concern, Dretphi slides over a bottle of water to Bach on the coffee table. Bach reaches out, grabs hold of the bottle, removes the cap, and starts drinking it. Dretphi cracks a small smile out of the corner of her mouth. "Maybe after training tomorrow, we will get you battle-ready clothing."

Bach nods appreciatively and returns the smile. "Thank you. That would be nice."

-2-

Bach lays on the bed in the furnished room. He stares above at the ceiling fan as it blows down a gentle current. While a modest bedroom, quality compensates for the smaller space. Bach studies the well made furniture and wanders his gaze around the room. He plays with the alarm clock on the nightstand and refreshes himself on the functions of a dedicated device, while glancing over at his old flip aetherphone. Surveying the bedroom, he nods to himself with a faint, approving smile at the stark contrast of prior living conditions. A knock sounds from behind the door. Bach pulls himself to a seat on the bed. "Um... Come in?"

The door opens, and Dretphi, the tall, defined Grath woman, steps in. She deftly balances a large stack of clothes in one hand and holds onto the straps of a backpack in the other. With a quick twist and slide of the hand, she places the clothes stack on top of the wooden dresser as Bach recognizes the garments. Drepthi walks towards Bach and calmly holds out the backpack. "I have recovered your belongings. I apologize that we went through them. Our practice from experience with capturing bounties."

Bach holds his hands up in front of him with a shrug of the shoulders. "Well... I mean... I did run and try to escape. I honestly can't blame you there."

He grasps the backpack with both hands, pulls it into his lap, and unzips the top. While he inspects it for the major items, Dretphi drops her head slightly and sighs. "I have not recovered your holoplayer. Cideeda has it. Refuses to let it out of her possession. She is stubborn when obsessed about something."

Bach pauses from sorting stuff along bed and gives Dretphi a slight smile. "Hey, I'm glad to get anything back. I mean apart from the holoplayer it looks like everything is here."

Dretphi places her hands on her hips and frowns with a hint of irritation. "We may have luck retrieving it when she finds another curio to obsess over."

Bach sighs and puts the backpack down on the floor next to the nightstand. "Honestly, I really haven't felt like listening, reading, or watching anything lately. I'm trying to process everything that's happened in the last... two days? Wow..."

Concern colors Dretphi's face, and she crosses her arms with a long frustrated exhale. "That was not how we wanted our initial meeting to go. We should have shown you respect..."

A few moments of silence punctuate the unease. Bach holds his hands up and pulls an awkward smirk at the corner of his mouth. "Well, it wasn't my finest moment either. Half an hour after I promised to help my brother, in his time of need... The first opportunity to actually get into adventuring... I tear off running like some chicken shit coward."

He lowers his head into his hands, shaking his head. Dretphi examines Bach and cracks a small smile. "You are not a coward."

Bach tilts his head up and peers over his hands with a prominent quirk of the brow. "How do you figure?"

Dretphi thinks for moment and meets Bach's blue eyes as he lifts his face out of his hands. "After years of little contact, your ghost brother demands you help him destroy the evil that destroyed him. He knows you have never adventured. Your brother's party is at your front door. You have little time to pick up everything you established to join him. It seems you have no choice."

Bach's eyes slide side to side in thought, and he directs his intrigued gaze up at Dretphi. "That... Sounds about right."

Dretphi nods and continues to explain. "An undesirable situation. You retreated. Hoped to get into a better position. Maybe force a change in the situation that would benefit you."

With a sigh, Bach grimaces with a curl of his upper lip. "Some would still say I ran like a coward."

Shifting her weight towards her other foot, Dretphi perks an eyebrow. "Some who have never been in bad situations."

Bach tilts his head to the side and focuses on Dretphi, fighting the confusion on face. "I still might run away some more-"

The slight smile on Dretphi's face morphs seamlessly into a smirk. "You will not."

Bach's puzzlement taints with an incredulous twist. "As demonstrated, I'm perfectly capable of making a good effort to escape."

Dretphi's smirk edges towards a grin. "Indeed. Still here."

Straightening his posture on the bed, Bach attempts a retort. "Well, um, I-"

Maintaining her gaze at Bach, Dretphi focuses her steely gray eyes and directs her tone. "There have been opportunities for you to escape. You can dismiss your brother. Outrun me. Dodge Cideeda. Resist Aristespha's magic. Hold your own against Sotalia. There is a vehicle you are familiar with in the garage. We are in an area we are not familiar with."

Bach opens his mouth briefly as a phrase stalls out to silence and contorts his face indecisively. Crosses his arms, he slouches forward and breaks eye contact with Dretphi. He idly scans the floor while he ponders to himself. Dretphi observes carefully and resumes her breakdown. "Did not attack us. Did not try to harm us. No attempt to sabotage us. You did not look for escape routes last night. You came back from practice with Sotalia today. I stand without armor, a weapon, in my casual clothes. I do not see a desire to attempt escape."

Bach sighs loudly and signals defeat with a slight shake of the head. He shrugs and places his hands on his knees, before gazing up at Dretphi. Confirming Dretphi's attire of a simple dark green tank top, blue gym shorts, and socks, Bach chuckles weakly. "You got me. I figuratively and literally have nothing left to hide. As awkward and weird as it was yesterday, this is honestly the best opportunity presented to me in years. I get a chance to help my brother out. I actually can get into adventuring. And, maybe we get to keep the Dark Lord Noxian from causing some kind of world ending event in my lifetime."

Unfolding her arms, Dretphi places her hands back on her hips. She gives a solid smile to Bach and nods. "Good reasons. The ones I hoped to hear."

Bach winces with a grit of the teeth as he analyzes his situation. "But, I'll be honest... I have no real idea what I'm doing. I'm just doing what little I can that makes sense to me at the moment. I don't know if that's a good thing."

Dretphi darts her steely gray eyes around and wrestle an uneasy grimaces on her tan face. "A sentiment that I share these days."

Within the quiet moment, Bach thinks and scratches his head of brown hair to briefly puzzle at Dretphi. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but you've been pretty open and straightforward with me."

Dretphi cocks head slightly and faintly twists her mouth as a few platinum blonde braids shift on her shoulders. "So have you. I hoped I would have caught you in the forest. Then, I could talk to you. Maybe explain the situation properly. I wish Sebastian had gone with my recruitment plan."

Bach blinks away from a thought and gazes curiously at Dretphi. "Um, which was?"

Drawing a long breath, Dretphi exhales slowly and fights against a frustrated grimace. "Lunches, dinners with everyone to acquaint you. A chore quest from the local guild to give you a sample of adventuring. An offer to join us on your terms."

Bach nods with a mixture of mild surprise and approval. "That probably would have worked pretty easily on me. I mean... I didn't have that much going on, and likely a lot less next month. So, why didn't he go with that plan?"

Dretphi rolls her steely gray eyes before she returns her attention to Bach. "Sebastian is impatient. Aristespha is encouraging it."

Bach twists his mouth, before gritting his teeth and hissing a breath in. "Yeah... Sebastian is easy to convince when routes opposite of his mind are taken."

Genuine amusement warms Dretphi's face. "Believe that is not recent behavior."

Bach exaggerates a series of nods. "You are most correct in that belief."

Fighting off a mix of discomfort and awkwardness, Drepthi sighs down a grimace, gazes down at Bach, and stiffens her posture. "Understand... The last weeks have been off. Not our best behavior."

Furrowing his brow, Bach sorts through his mind and returns a nod with a smile to Dretphi. "Yeah. Strange times I guess."

Dretphi glances over the shoulder towards the door. "I need to finish armor repair. Continue laundry for everyone. I wish to start on good terms. Your training with me tomorrow will be demanding. I wanted an understanding beforehand."

Blinking to attention, Bach leans over to the side, searches around Dretphi, and scrutinizes the stack of clothes. "Wait. Did you wash my clothes?"

Dretphi pivots to the direction of the clothes on the dresser. "Yes. They had a smell to them."

Bach averts his eyes while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. Dretphi smirks slightly with humored tint. "You need a change of clothes after what Sotalia did to your current ones. I gave your laundry priority."

Bach holds out his shirt and inspects out the holes and damage. Prominent burn rings discolor the fabric and faint magic miasma drifts off the surface. Bach's light skin shows through the gaps in the shirt without a sign of injury. Poking his finger out hole, he chuckles appreciatively. "Thank you. Really. I... really do mean it."

Dretphi expresses a warming smile and walks towards the door. "We will start early. Rest up. I will fit you for armor afterwards."

Bach watches Dretphi step through the doorway and close the door. Standing up from the bed, he moves over to the clothes stack. He sorts through the pile until he finds a shirt, peels off his old shirt, and works into the clean shirt. Bach returns to a seat on the bed, and stares out the window towards the dark evening sky. After minutes occupying thoughts, he shudders back to the present and glances around the room. Settling his attention upon the clock on the nightstand, he flops over the bed, reaches out, and plays around with the alarm settings for the morning.

----

Early morning sun drags slowly across the open trimmed lawn and reflects off the drops of dew upon the blades of grass. Bach drags his feet with each step and moves towards the spot in the backyard where Dretphi stands. Wincing as the bright light from the sun catches his eye, he grumbles to himself and shudders against the last remnants of sleep. "...gods... ...haven't been up this early in... a while."

He groggily searches around the vicinity and furrows his brow at the plain, open space. "Huh. I thought you'd have some training gear, some kind of equipment, or something..."

Dretphi shakes her head and straightens her posture. "Not at this time. In the future. Today, we focus on an exercise routine for you first."

A reflexive cringe grips Bach's face, and he drops his head in dread. "Okay..."

Crossing her arms, Dretphi steps in front of Bach, her head craning down to find direct eye contact. "When was the last time you exercised?"

Bach raises his head back up and averts his eyes from Dretphi's examining gaze that follows his attempts to escape scrutiny. "Ah- Um... Well..."

Taking another step closer, Dretphi tilts her head gradually down to finally intercept Bach's eyes when he peers up. She stares through him. The truth finally escapes Bach, and seeks refuge far from Dretphi. "Dammit- I guess three-"

As Dretphi's head of platinum blonde braids tilts unconvinced, Bach swallows hard and sighs. "FOUR... Four years ago when I got on some self-improvement kick. I went fully into it for a day, ached for a week, and never did it again."

With a simple nod, Dretphi thinks for a moment and perks her brow. "Stand up straight."

After pondering the notion, Bach rises out of the slouch, straightens his legs out, squares his shoulders, and pulls his head back. After a minute of struggle against physically manifested bad habits, he settles into a posture with blatant discomfort showing. He stiffens his form and holds the posture along with belief waning into certainty. Dretphi circles around reaching out to adjust Bach's form with firm but gentle directions. She stops in front Bach and tilt her head down to meet his eyes. "You may be taller than your brother."

Bach darts his eyes around and eventually furrows his disbelief at Dretphi. "Really?"

Dretphi stands tall next to Bach, and gauges the height difference. "Hard to judge. Very close. You need to stop slouching."

Lowering his gaze down to his now more apparent gut, Bach wrestles his embarrassment, and a disappointed sigh slips out. Dretphi reaches a hand out and firmly pokes Bach's midsection. "If this bothers you, do what I say."

Dretphi pivots and steps away from Bach. He relaxes his posture and rubs the pain away from the prodded section of his belly. Dretphi halts, pivots towards Bach, and points to the ground. "Set up for sit-ups. Do twenty five of them."

Bach blinks blankly at Dretphi. Returning a stern glare, Dretphi gestures to a clear section of trimmed grass near the back patio. Bach warily walks over to the spot, lays down on the ground with his knees up, and puts his hands behind his head. Bach breathes in and out a few times and attempts to lift his upper body up. He closes his eyes, grits his teeth, grunts, and groans. The meager momentum dies short of halfway through the sit-up. Straining in place for seconds, the remaining hold-outs of Bach's pride and honor finally abandon him. His upper body drops onto the grass, punctuated with a sad breath forced out of him. He keeps his eyes closed, shame plain on his face. "You know you probably have exercises you need to do. I'll work on this. No one needs front row seats to witness this..."

Easing down to a spot beside Bach, Dretphi prepares for sit-ups. Bach hears movement beside him and opens his eyes to Dretphi gazing right back at him. "You are correct. I need to do twenty five sit-ups."

Without a bit of hesitation, Dretphi cleanly and properly does a sit-up and calmly sets up for the next. "Your turn."

A mix of emotions contend for a place on Bach's face. With an exhale, Bach steels himself for another attempt. "You realize I'm about to embarrass my entire lineage."

Dretphi nods calmly with a reassuring tone. "Let them be embarrassed now. You will impress them later."

Bach closes his eyes, grits his teeth, and grunts as he tugs his upper body towards his knees. Similar to the prior attempt, he runs out of strength right before the halfway point. As the last bit of effort surrenders to the strain , Bach feels a hand on his back. Gradual force pushes him forward, and the extra force eases him over the halfway point. Summoning up the little strength available, Bach pulls himself the rest of the way up. Holding himself up for a few moments, he lowers himself slowly back down. Sniffing and closing his eyes, he rests upon the grass and stares at the passing clouds above him and Dretphi. "I... I knew this was going to be demanding, physically. But, the psychological... Not something I quite expected..."

Dretphi gazes at the sky and smiles reassuringly. "When we take a break, I will tell you of my first time training with my birth father."

Bach glances over to Dretphi and perks his brow. "Does it include embarrassing the family name?"

Grinning slightly as she executes a sit-up, Dretphi readies for the next. "Does almost stabbing one of my house fathers with a magic sword count?"

Bach flashes an amused expression. "I'll count it."

Dretphi rotates her head towards Bach. "Your turn."

Bach shakes the grimace off to determination and attempts another sit-up, with Dretphi hand behind him as he strains.

----

With his body trembling at the rising apex of a push-up, the strain squeezes the last bit of air from Bach's lungs. "Twenty- URK. Five!"

He collapses face first into the grass. Coughs blast long mowed grass clippings upon the ground out from under Bach's face. Turning his head to the side, he gasps for breath and settles to exhausted pants. Dretphi swiftly switches from a push-up stance to a sit next to Bach. "Your other exercises need work. Your push-ups are not bad."

Bach draws the strength to roll over and face the sky, and breathes heavily in his sweat drenched shirt. "Thanks... I'm just glad I... didn't have to resort to the cheater push-ups."

He tilts his head towards Dretphi. "I'm going to ache so much tomorrow."

Dretphi calmly breathes deep and wipes a few beads of sweat off her forehead. She leans forward and lifts herself up. She holds down a hand to Bach. "Yes. You will be sore. You should still do the stretches I showed you."

Bach clumsily raises a hand to grab onto Dretphi's. He throws himself up and she pulls him up the rest of the way. Steadying himself on his feet, Bach pulls in long deep breaths. "I'll try. But, I'll be honest, the pain might be too much right in the morning... I'll try in the afternoon."

With a nod, Dretphi strolls towards the house, stretching her arms and back along the way. Gesturing Bach to follow, she reaches into the side pocket of her shorts, pulls out an aetherphone, and inspects the time after a tap on the screen. "That's all for now. Lunch will be ready soon."

Bach startles and snaps his head up to the sky to see the sun directly overhead. "Really?! Did I really take that long?"

Dretphi glances back and nods. "We did walk the laps in between the exercises."

Frowning in defeat, Bach hangs his head. "Yeah... That does make sense, now that I think about it."

Slowing down Dretphi waits for Bach to catch up to her and pats his back. "Hold yourself to high standards. Do not hang yourself with them."

Bach's eyes drift along with thoughts in his head and eventually settle upon Dretphi. "Is that another one from your birth father?"

Nodding with a smile, Dretphi sighs. "Yes. Has many. Despite all he taught me, certain he has more saved for the right moment."

Bach tightens his smile and chuckles short of breath. "Still can't believe you nearly harpooned your house father."

Twisting an uneasy grimace on her tan face, Dretphi sighs and tosses back a few darker tipped platinum blonde braids over a shoulder. "My birth father warned him to not sit close when we sparred. It is not the worst that has happened to him. I have heard tales from my mother about how wild of adventurers they were."

Lifting a hand up, Bach counts off with his fingers and ponders out loud. "So, three fathers and one mother in your house?"

Dretphi nods plainly and nonchalantly glances over to Bach. "Yes. My mother and birth father are the heads of it."

Churning over the concept in his head, Bach furrows his brow. "That sounds like an interesting childhood."

Dretphi rocks her head side to side gauging her thoughts, and blinks indifferently. "I do not know. Such seems normal to me."

Stale frustration and long buried irritation briefly rise up into her expression, and she rolls her steely gray eyes. "Only problems I experienced were from my two younger brothers getting into trouble. Having to keep them out of trouble."

Bach nods understandingly and groans out a similar sentiment. "Yeah... I know how that can go. But, I can't imagine what having TWO brothers would be like."

A subtle, sly smirk grows on Dretphi's face, and she narrows her attention at Bach with a seeking gaze. "Any tales to share about your brother?"

Bach chuckles evilly as he flashes a devious smile to Dretphi and nods eagerly. "Oh, I got plenty. I'm sure he's told you about his heroic exploits in High Alton?"

Dretphi rolls her eyes and nods begrudgingly. "Yes. Numerous times. Proud of his part in them."

A sinister grin roots itself in the corner of Bach's mouth, and he laughs to himself as old memories rush to front of his mind. "Did he ever tell you all the time he called me at three in the morning from the bathroom of another dorm with two Fvalian women fighting over him in the bedroom?"

Dretphi's steely gray eyes shoot open wide in honest shock, and a glint of intrigue lights up her interested gaze at Bach. She points Bach to a worn path in the grass near the house that leads away from the back patio. "Could we walk around the house first? I would like to hear this, before we back inside."

Bach gives a simple nod and grins. "Oh. Yes. Yes we can."

----

The bathroom opens and a faint cloud of steam drifts into the hallway. Bach squirms in the loose fitting shirt and shorts as he steps out onto the hardwood floor of the hallway. He flexes his body and feels out the aches between winces and foreboding grumbles. Adjusting the towel wrapped around his head of wet hair, he glances down at the dirty clothes under his arm and ponders idly while searching the area. Walking through the archway leading into the living area, he spots Dretphi sorting through laundry. Glancing up from her chore, she points to a basket. Bach tilts the basket up with his foot and reads his name written on it. "Nice. Thanks."

Dretphi shrugs and resumes sorting through the freshly laundered clothing. "Makes it easier."

Bach deposits dirty clothes into his basket and the towels into the community basket. "So, when do you want to fit me for armor?"

Finishing the last stack of clothes, Dretphi sweeps it up and onto the couch. She reaches for a large toolbox nearby and slides it along the floor next to her. "Now. Stand here. Straight posture with your arms out."

Bach side steps under Dretphi's guidance. Flipping the toolbox open, Dretphi takes out a cloth tape measure. Standing up, she pulls out a length of the measuring tape while eyes over Bach. Tucking an end between Bach's toes, she leads the rest up to near the top of his head. "One hundred and ninety centimeters? Hmm."

She narrows a stare at Bach's posture, grabs a shoulder, and pushes his lower back. Taking another measurement, she nods satisfied. "One hundred and ninety two centimeters."

Continuing her examination, she writes down other various measurements on a notepad upon the coffee table. The sliding glass door opens, and Sotalia casually and happily strides in. "Ah... I was dubious about spending the extra coin per month for a hot tub. But, I. Am. Sold. Now."

Pausing mid walk, she ponders the situation and studies Bach standing still with his arms out. Noticing Dretphi taking measurements, she shifts her attention to the clean laundry in her basket behind Bach. She flings off the colorful beach towel draping over her onto Bach's outstretched arm. Strutting on by Bach in her two piece bathing suit, she curls a hint of a sinister grin. Bach blinks in brief confusion and twists his head to check the towel now hanging off his arm. He mutters to himself. "Really..."

Dretphi leans away from Bach and motions Sotalia towards a hamper. "Got the stains out of your cloak."

Quickly digging through the basket, Sotalia pulls out the cloak, opens it up with a flourish, and excitedly smiles. "Oh, thank you! The enchantments on this thing always interfere with any cleaning spells I try. What did you end up using?"

Directing her voice at Sotalia, Dretphi returns to writing a few figures in the notepad and readying the cloth measuring tape. "Denatured alcohol. Worked the best. Armored fabric layer required scrubbing."

Sotalia holds the cloak away from her, flips it around to each side, and admires it thoroughly. "Wow. That was tougher than I thought it'd be. Amazing work as always."

Dretphi resumes her attention to Bach, takes more measurements, and writes them down. Bach stares idly forward and allows his attention to drift inwards as the late afternoon sun filters in through the back sliding glass door. As he relaxes his arms down a little, another object flops onto his arm, upon the prior beach towel. Blinking back to awareness, Bach turns his head towards the side and glances down at the new addition. Cocking his head, Bach furrows his brow and squints confused. A rush of recognition burst forward from the back of Bach's mind and onto his face. Top to Sotalia's bathing suit lays upon the beach towel. Bach eyes widen between bewildered blinks as other parts of his mind confirm initial suspicions. A moment later, the matching bottom of the bathing suit lands on Bach's outstretched arm. Tensing his body, Bach carefully pivots his head forward and stares out into the backyard as the spring breeze washes over the field, keeping his eyes firmly affixed ahead.

Sotalia's voice oozes with a provocative tint behind Bach. "Yes... Nothing like putting on freshly dried clothes!"

A pair of strong hands firmly grip Bach by the waist and he immediately tenses. Bach snaps an unnerved stare down. While sitting on the carpet, Dretphi narrows a suspicious gaze at a few measurements on the notepad upon the coffee table. She quirks brow, tilts her head of platinum blonde hair, and mumbles unsatisfied Grath to herself. Leading with a light, nervous chuckle, Bach inquires uneasily. "Um, what's going on?"

Squinting at the written measures on the notepad upon the coffee table, Dretphi grimaces with her full focus upon the math in her head. "Need to double-check measurements on your other side."

Bach eyes the parts of Sotalia's bathing suit draped on his arm, feels Dretphi tighten her grip, and whispers. "Um, yeah, if you can just wait a moment and-"

Dretphi firmly torques Bach into a pivot, her attention fully upon solving the measure discrepancy. Spinning around, Bach greets the almost clothed Sotalia. Finishing slipping on a shirt, Sotalia pulls it down into place, lifts her head up with a sly grin, and playfully narrows her golden gaze. She steps up, reaches for her towel and bathing suit on Bach's arm, and smiles while guiding dark red hair over her black swept back horns. "Thank you. I didn't want these to pick up dust and futz from the floor."

After a few moments, Bach remembers to allow air into his lungs and manages a reply. "Not a problem?"

Sotalia strides to the hallway and exchanges a glance with Dretphi out of sight of Bach. Dretphi perks her brow at Sotalia and narrows a stare. Sotalia holds her hands up dismissively in the air in a grand dramatic shrug, heavy with playful sarcasm. Dretphi rolls her eyes before resuming business. "Sotalia. Could you bring out the backup equipment chest?"

Sotalia stops and alternates an uncertain point between two directions. "Is it the one in the store room or the office?"

Dretphi searches her mind for a moment. "Store room."

Sotalia slips into the hallway, loosely grips the side of the archway, and raps her long black nails on the wooden trim. "Be right back, then."

After shaking her head, Dretphi taps Bach's arm. "You can rest your arms."

Dropping his arms to the sides, he takes a few moments to roll the aches out of his shoulders. Leaning her weight back, Sotalia drags in a large metal, wheeled, machined chest of many thin drawers. "So, what are you going to put him in? Gods know, we have plenty to choose from."

Sliding the chest closer, Dretphi slides out one of the shallow drawers and peers inside the deep space within. Bach's curiosity leads him closer to the chest, just as Dretphi reaches her whole arm into the few centimeter thick drawer. His eyes widen in surprise and he cranes his head around for a better view. "Wow! A chest of linked aether pockets?!"

Sotalia quickly shakes her head and rests her hands on her hips. "Nah. Expanded space frames."

Bach moves closer to the chest and examines it. "Ah! Yeah, I've heard these are becoming popular. well, those who can afford them, at least. Those types of enchantments aren't cheap."

Sotalia gets on her knees next to the chest and opens the top lid. Beyond the magically inscribed frame, the space inside occupies a volume slightly larger than the chest itself. Bits and pieces of armor, weapons, and tools fill deceptively deeper space. Sotalia digs around and holds up a wearable, adjustable flashlight to Bach. "That they aren't. We actually had a few bags of holding and a chest of storage. But, after one bag lost connection to its aether pocket, we all decided to switch over to the expanded space frames. Thankfully, Cideeda was able to work a very nice trade for our old bag and that chest."

Taking flashlight in hand, Bach peers into the volumes beyond the framed portals. "I guess it's better to have your stuff launch out than have the pocket drift away in aether."

Sotalia groans with a roll of her golden eyes and shudders to a stale, frustrated frown. "You don't know how right you are. Gods, it took Aristespha a month of her communing with spirits every night and astral projecting before we tracked that pocket down and relinked it. Almost lost my arcane book collection."

Leaning back from the space frame, Dretphi pulls her arm out from the deep dredging and reveals what she found. "Almost lost a rare rifle in that pocket. The expanded space frames are reliable. They fail gracefully."

Sotalia and Bach shift their attention to the object Dretphi holds. Sotalia quirks her brow in surprise and smirks as recognizes it. "That's Sebastian's OLD helmet. The first one I ever saw him in."

Bach reaches his hand out to it with a smile on his face. "Wow. He kept it."

As Dretphi passes the helm to Bach, both Dretphi and Sotalia exchange intrigued glances. Bach rolls the high tech helmet in his hands, pauses to inspect signs of battle damage, and nods. "Yeah. Sebastian spent all his summer job money getting his first full suit of armor. But... He didn't have enough money for a good helmet. So, I did some research and got him this one. Titanium mesh construction, ceramic plating armor, a kevlar outer coat, ballistic visor, and attachable respirator mask. I did some basic magic deflection enchantments, too."

Holding the helmet upside down in one hand, Bach clicks on the flashlight and shines a beam of light into it. "Hell, I even personalized it a bit for Sebastian."

Sotalia grasps the helm and tips the interior to her view. Her golden eyes widen then squint as she reads the text. "With a skull as thick as yours, you probably won't need this. But every warrior needs a helmet to hold in photographs. Love ya, you shithead. Bach."

Dretphi leans close for a peek and furrows her brow in surprise. "I never knew this was written here."

Sotalia settles back on her hands, shakes her head, and snorts into a laugh. "Well! That explains why he would never let anyone else hold that helmet for very long."

Bach gazes at the helmet, rotates it around in his hands, and sighs. "Yeah. I don't know how much he used it-"

Pausing from searching further within the void of the expanded space frame, Dretphi glances at Bach and smiles reassuringly. "All the time."

Sotalia grins at Bach and nods in confirmation. "Gods. You have no idea. First sign of trouble, that helmet went right on his head. It outlasted a few suits of armor. I think he was looking for a suit to go with it for a long time."

A smile slowly grows on Bach, and he feels the battle marks upon the paint, the faint dents in the exterior, and wear in the fabric straps. Dretphi stirs around within the next drawer and glances at Bach. "There is armor that can go with the helmet. I think you should try it."

Bach familiarizes himself with the helmet again and adjusts the fit enough to get it on his head properly. "That sounds good to me. I'll give it a try."

----

The alarm clock beeps constantly, and the sound bounces around the walls of the small bedroom. From under the bed covers, a hand emerges and seeks out the source of the jarring noise. With a groggy strike, the hand drops down on top of the snooze button. It remains motionless until it slips off onto the nightstand. Moments later, the body attached to the hand stirs under the sheets against the morning light beaming into the space, and defiant grumbles slip out with the annoyed turns under the covers. The bed linens slide away from the head board and reveal Bach's morning adverse face. One blue eye opens and wanders towards the alarm clock. In the quiet moments with faint sounds of activity leaking in from other parts of the house, he slowly peers around the room. His barely conscious gaze settles upon a coat rack turned impromptu armor stand. Admiring the eclectic assembly of armor, Bach attention wanders between his brothers helmet, a synthetic fiber duster, composite shoulder pads, a segmented kevlar breastplate, a pair of plain plate bracers, leather gloves, combination shin and knee guards, and a pair of old alloy plated boots.

After staring at the combination of gear balance between uncertain grimaces and dismissive sigh, Bach gazes back up at the ceiling fan, and a grin gradually grows on his light tan face. Wincing against the morning light flooding into the room, Bach finally concedes defeat to the start of the day and sits up with a great surge of enthusiasm. He freezes. His eyes widen, face contorts, and a faint strangled yelp of pain squeaks out. His seized body falls to the side on the bed. Bach groans and winces as he feels every day after workout ache in his body. "...every... ...thing... ...hurts..."

----

After a water rinse from the kitchen sink faucet, Bach places a cereal bowl and spoon in the dishwasher. He stiffly steps over to the dining room table and watches Cideeda lay out weapons, boxes, tools, and other parts out upon the tabletop. Suffering through pained wince, he fights against strained muscles and settles into a chair across from Cideeda. "So, what's your training going to be about?"

Cideeda blinks blankly at Bach and searches her mind with a tilt of her head of short, multi-colored hair. Large furry ears on the sides of her head twitch in sync to her thoughts, she furrows her brow on her light brown face. Her ears perk and her emerald green eyes flit open with a glint. She dons a sharp smile and reaches down on the floor with a lean. Placing three small stylish wooden lockboxes on the table one at a time, she slides them over to Bach. She then balances her small frame upon the dining room chair while reaching down under the tabletop and grasps hold of something within a satchel. With a deft twirl in her hand into a flip of the bundle, she unrolls a very worn and old set of lockpicks and grins toothily. "You can help me unlock these things."

Examining the tools before him, Bach rolls a pick between his fingers and inspects it apprehensively. "You want me to open these... With these lockpicks?"

Cideeda cocks her head, lowers her furry ears gradually, and narrows a suspecting stare at Bach. "And... What's wrong with that?"

Furrowing his brow, Bach holds the pick closer to Cideeda and twists the end of the tools around the end. "This pick is almost worn to nothing! I mean, I'll try... But, don't expect results any time soon."

With a sly smirk, an amused quirk of a brow, and intrigued lift of the ears, Cideeda reaches out and pushes Bach's hand back to him with a claw tipped finger. "Good, you do have some knowledge. I still want you to try. And... No cheating!"

Bach grumbles as he pulls his hand back, studies the arrangement of tools in the roll out set, and plucks a torque wrench from a cloth sleeve. "Fine... So, what are these anyway?"

Cideeda carefully glides a metal chest on a thick rubber and felt mat along the tabletop and sets it up in front of her for the next operation. "Those? As far as I can figure, they're old personal chests we found in an old ruin. They probably don't have that much in them, especially since Sotalia and Aristespha didn't sense anything magical. But, the chests are in good shape and early era artifacts are really popular right now."

Bach drops his head down and studies the chests with an apprehensive perk of his eyebrow. "Really? I mean, I can understand some things. But, old chests?"

Cideeda lifts her head up from rummaging for something below the tabletop and nods excitedly at Bach with an entrepreneurial spark in her emerald green eyes. "Oh, yeah! I've got buyers willing to give me a couple hundred for each one, even before I do any clean-up on them. People these days are into anything retro and antique. Even these chests, since they're likely from the Second Period from the style and aging."

Bach uncertainly rotates one of the small chests around on the tabletop, examines the thing in disbelief, and flashes an incredulous glance at Cideeda. "A few hundred for this? Dust and stains included?"

Shrugging up her shoulder in her loose t-shirt, Cideeda dons an indifferent smirk and rolls her emerald green eyes with a flick of her long, fuzzy tail. "Hey, I don't make the fads. I just sell to the people who follow them."

Rocking his head side to side while examining the old chest, Bach nods in agreement. He focuses upon the small box in front of him and pokes around the hardware upon the container. Inserts the torque wrench loosely in the old lock, he fumbles around the inside of the lock with the pick in his other hand. Concentrating on the task at hand, he pauses in thought and waits for his mind to dredge up old lessons. Glancing up from her project, Cideeda narrows an inquisitive gaze at Bach and smirks with a prominent canine. "Need a refresher on what to do?"

Bach blinks back to awareness and shakes his head slowly as bubbling knowledge guides his hands. "Not yet. It's slowly coming back to me. I haven't had to do anything like this since adventuring school. And, even then, I only got any real practice when getting my brother out of weird and really awkward situations."

Flicking up an interested furry ear, Cideeda furrows her brow while reaching down with both hands below the dining table, her long, furry tail counter-balancing with subtle wags. "Hmm... What kind of weird and awkward situations?"

Twisting his mouth with the growing focus on the lock, Bach chuckles lightly and squints his blue eyes at the progress of the lockpicks. "Well, I'll tell you after I get this one done."

Sifting through relevant knowledge, he sinks himself into the task at hand. The torch wrench applies gentle pressure on the cylinder. The pick lightly slides across the heads of pins within the device. Applying the right amount of force, a faint click sounds out and the tool shifts slightly. In the moment of progress, the unmistakable whine of a high speed motor breaks Bach from his trance abruptly. Searching around the area bewildered, Bach snaps his stare ahead. Cideeda wraps a bandanna on top of her head and pulls her short, multi-colored hair out of her face. She snatches up and flips out some safety glasses from the table. With an excited, toothy grin, she hoists up a cordless power drill with one hand and slides a drill bit into the chuck.

Indignation manifests a sneer of the upper lip upon Bach's face, and he holds his hands upwards in disbelief. As a sigh of disgust leaves Bach, Cideeda's furry ear flicks towards Bach. She glances over to Bach with a confused blink and secures the drill bit in the chuck with a slow spin up. Meeting Bach stare, she wraps her claw tips around the polymer chassis of the power tool. "What? These metal chests aren't worth THAT much. I totally can get a far better price for them after I drill out the old lock and replace it with a new one. People like the wooden ones for their looks. They seem to like the metal ones more for function."

Glancing between the pick and torque wrench in his hands, Bach settles an incredulous stare at Cideeda and furrows his brow in disbelief. "Um... NO. CHEATING?"

Cideeda pauses a moment, draws a smug smirk with an amused hint in her emerald green eyes. "Oh. That. You see, you are a beginner and need to learn these skills. You need the practice. But, I am an expert."

With a swift squeeze of the trigger, the drill briefly spins up and glints against the flood of late morning light radiating into the area from the back sliding glass door. Cideeda flashes a toothy grin and a proud wink. "And, experts get to cheat."

----

Examining the small, stamped gold token in his hand, Bach lifts an apprehensive brow as the faded yellow sheen glints. "Are you sure? This seems really valuable."

Rapping her claws tips upon the small wooden chests, Cideeda nods while inspecting the construction of the lock hardware. "Yes. You unlocked all the chests and kept the locks working. That's at least fifty or more a piece I can charge on top for them being historically intact and functioning."

Bach ponders a few moments and then swiftly pockets the token. "Well, no objections here then."

Cideeda rummages around the floor near her chair, her long furry tail occasionally flicking up into view. "Also, I saw how little you had in your wallet when I was going through everything."

Silence punctuates Bach's unamused expression, and he narrows mildly annoyed glare Cideeda. As it fades from Bach's face, Cideeda brings up another assortment of tools up onto the tabletop. After setting Bach's holoplayer off to the side, she places a simple rifle, pistol, a knife, and accessory pieces upon the table. Bach focuses upon his device, glances over to Cideeda searching the floor below between at the different containers of gear. When she dips down well below the tabletop, Bach slowly reaches his arm out and carefully watches Cideeda balancing upon the chair. Glancing between his hand and Cideeda's tail twitching up in the air, he hovers over the holoplayer. Firmly planting his hand upon the device, Bach feels five sharp points digging around his forearm near his wrist. He halts in place. Spotting Cideeda's hand, he feels each claw tipped finger curl tighter and press harder onto his skin. His stare follows along Cideeda's arm, and he finds a soft hair filled furry ear perked him. A pair of emerald green eyes greet Bach's blue eyes. Narrowing his determined stare, Bach tightens his grip on his holoplayer and pull in back. The pressure from five claw tips increase with his efforts. Relaxing his grip, clawed grasp loosens. After a minute of staring deadlock, Bach releases his hold of the holoplayer and Cideeda loosens her grip fully. Rubbing his arm, Bach examines the five pressure marks still visible.

Cideeda draws an evil, toothy grin and hoists up a victorious brow. "Not today?"

Bach shakes his head in defeat and sighs. "Not today."

Sitting back up in the chair, Cideeda's grin fades to a happy smile and nods. "Good! Because, today I want to give you a gun."

Blinking off-guard at the statement, Bach awkwardly stumbles to an amicable attitude. "Really? Okay. I mean, that sounds good. I wouldn't mind having one given I'm not able to throw that much magic around."

Cideeda happily perks her furry ears and slides a pistol over to Bach. "Now that's what I like to hear. Here's one I picked out for you. I think this might work best for you right now. We can change it up later, if you want to try something else. "

Bach pulls the weapon closer to himself and inspects curiously. "It... It's an Arc and Spark Plasma- Um. Damn, what model is it- Ah... Crap, um... It's been awhile. The Plasma Power Pulse Six?"

Fidgeting with a spark of excitement, Cideeda lifts an eyebrow and smiles. "That's correct! And, it's yours to use if..."

Cautiously picking up the pistol, Bach checks the routine areas. "If?"

A curious air hangs around Cideeda, and she dons a sly smirk. "If you can get it to work again."

Bach sighs and continues to examine the pistol. "So, what's wrong with it? I mean, what's it not doing?"

Cideeda rolls her emerald green eyes and grumbles with a twist of her mouth. "Well... Sotalia says she doesn't know. But, I think she tried experimenting on it based some guide she read on the aethernet and fucked it up."

Gazing up from the weapon, Bach cocks his head and furrows his brow at Cideeda. "Okay. What exactly did she fuck up on it? What was she trying to do?"

She coyly rests her chin on her hand and winks with a widening, toothy grin. "Oh. That is for YOU to find out. You seem to have some basic mechanical understanding. Now, let's see how much you know about tech."

Bach pinches the bridge of nose and groans with hints of hesitance. "Okay, fine. Can you at least give me some decent tools this time? Then, I'll see if I can get it fixed."

Sliding over a flat rectangular box to Bach, Cideeda bites her lower lip with an apologetic tone. "Well, good luck on that. Here's the service kit I got back from her. There definitely was some struggle and frustration involved when they were last used."

Bach flips the lid of the kit and his expression deflates to incredulous disappointment. "What the-?! I mean, I guess these will work. But, damn... I don't know how you expect me to do these-"

Leaning in towards Bach, Cideeda focuses her stare and bluntly asks. "Oh, I expect a little bit from you. Because, how did you do the mods to the holoplayer?"

Bach blinks puzzled for a second and darts his confused glances around before settling back upon Cideeda. "Uh, what do you mean? I just installed the mod chips some guides recommended and did the tweaks they instructed you to do. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Just the standard stuff they told you-"

Genuine curiosity overtakes the expression on Cideeda's face, and she levels an honest inquiry. "HOW did you do it? I'm talking about the method. The warranty seals are intact somehow. So, the mods are installed, but there is no sign of someone disassembling it to install them. The work, from what I can tell, is ridiculously clean. You seem to know enough, and you may have done this. But, I can't quite figure out how you could have pulled it off."

A smug smirk emerges on Bach's light tan face, and he confidently sits back in the chair. He places his hands together and taps the tips of his fingers, while slyly smiling. "Well, I can show you. But, I want my holoplayer back-"

Cideeda narrows her hesitant glare and curls a lip up around a pronounced canine. Gauging the reaction, Bach furrows his brow and eases in a compromise. "In a few months, after you are done BORROWING it."

Scratching her chin softly with a claw tip, Cideeda weighs the proposition in her mind with the sways of her tail. After some more contemplation, Cideeda rolls her emerald green eyes and nods in agreement. "That, I can work with that. There's that collection of graphical novel files I want to go through and see what I don't have on my laptop."

Bach holds his hand out flat, places the plasma pistol on top, then hovers the free hand over. A blue glow flickers in his eyes. Bach remains motionless save a few facial twitches for a minute. Cideeda leans forward and watches for any signs of activity. As she starts to shift back in her seat, both her ears perk and twitch towards the pistol in Bach's hand. With a twist and turn, Bach spins his hands perpendicular to the table and slowly draws them apart. The pistol erupts in activity as it floats in the middle of Bach's hands. Simultaneously in sequential orders, screws spin out, latches depress and release, components unlock, and pieces drift methodically away. When Bach's arms stop moving, the components and assemblies of the pistol float in an exploded mechanical view of the weapon's entire composition. Cideeda's jaw drops, her emerald bordered pupils widen in astonishment, and her face brightens with sheer wonder.

Bach grins humored and rolls his glowing blue eyes. "You know this is technically cheating. Right?"

Cideeda holds a finger up and smirks eagerly at Bach. "Well, you are under the supervision of an expert."

She darts her eyes around in thought and directs a hopeful smile. "After this one... Could we do a few more?"

With a faux sigh, Bach shakes his head and frowns playfully. "I don't know. I think I'm going to be a little busy with this. I mean, I do have to check out all these parts on this pistol you gave me-"

Snapping her full attention to a floating component, Cideeda holds up a matching part close. "She fried the main power coupling. Here's a spare."

The power coupling hovers out of Cideeda's fingers. The failed component drifts down from the hovering cloud onto the table top, and the new part moves into position. Flexing his finger, Bach slides his hands underneath the demonstration. In almost perfect reverse, the pistol starts to reassemble. Within the flurry of activity, components lock in place, pieces snap together, and screws tighten. When the bit of casing locks into place, the plasma pistol feather falls down to Bach's awaiting hand. Switching the main power switch on, he presses the self-test button. After a moment, the pistol status lights blink different colors, and eventually they all turn on and stay green. A happy digital chirp signals the end of the self-test and tickles Cideeda's furry ears to her enjoyment.

----

Door in the kitchen cracks open to reveal a glimpse of the garage. Pushing through the doorway, Sotalia backs in, clears through it, and pivots around with a wrapped pack of sports drinks. Hoisting up the pack on the counter, she opens the fridge. Ripping open a pack with a poke into the wrapper, she loads them into the fridge and rearranges for more space inside.

Uncertainty creeps into Bach's voice. "Hmm. Um, something doesn't feel right..."

Cideeda chimes in. "You have to release the clip first."

A faint click echoes in, and Bach acknowledges. "Ah. There we go, and it's free now."

Grumbling on the verge of a growl, Cideeda eases off to a frustrated sigh. "Well, shit. The sear spring bent, again! I'm going to have some words for Ralado next time I see him. That's the second damned spring I got from him that's done that. Well, here's the replacement. Gods, where did he get this crap?"

Metal contact clacks through the air, and Bach ponders out loud. "Okay. I think that's in there as best I can get it. And so, back together we go."

Stepping back from loading the fridge, Sotalia plucks a bottle from the pack and side steps over to the nearby counter. She cracks open the seal of the lid and pours back the beverage. Her attention wanders idly, she glances through the bar window looking out into the dining area. Leaning over the tabletop, Cideeda lifts up a rifle and places it in Bach's open hands. Tipping back the drink, Sotalia curiously perks her brow and ponders while watching Cideeda sit back down expectantly. Sotalia's golden eyes catch the blue flicker in Bach's eyes. With a wide eyed gawk, her mind stalls out in understanding the floating rifle rapidly self-disassembling. A gasp in shock sucks in the sports drink. Overwhelming survival reflex forces her lungs to squeeze. Only a small portion of the drink returns to the bottle. The rest spews forth uncontrollably out of Sotalia's mouth and nose. She slams the bottle on the counter and launches herself to the kitchen sink. Hacking, gagging, and retching, her body sorts out the flow of air and fluid between stuttering curses in different languages. Both Bach and Cideeda stare in the direction of the kitchen with concern. While maintaining the floating rifle disassembly, Bach's glowing blue eyes dart around to find Sotalia. "Are you going to make it?"

Sotalia yanks off a run of paper towels from a nearby roll, wipes the orange sport drink and spittle off her face, and vainly attempts to clean her splattered shirt. Darting in from the kitchen into the dining area, she points at the floating cloud of rifle pieces. "WHAT IS THIS?!"

Blinking uncertainly, Bach shrugs in confusion at Sotalia's outburst. "Uh, just something I've been working on since adventuring school. It was originally going to be my master's thesis, but I never got to really show it for that."

Sotalia draws in a few calming breaths, pulls a chair out next to Bach, and sits. She halts herself before speaking, holds up a finger, and turns her head to the hallway archway. "Aristespha! Could you come in here? Like, right now!"

Aristespha's voice disapprovingly echoes down the hall. "I am in the middle of an important-"

Rolling her golden eyes, Sotalia interrupts louder. "Just get in here! You need to see this!"

Faint footsteps hit the hardwood floors, and the proper and dignified figure of Aristespha trots out into the room. "Okay. What is this all about-"

As Aristespha processes the scene, the words halt in her mouth. Sotalia furrows her brow at Aristespha and gestures to the floating disassembled rifle. Sebastian's ethereal form passes through the wall, and he glances around at everyone, then Bach. He finally notices the target of everyone's attention and grins proudly. "Holy shit, bro! You've gotten really good at that. That's a whole lot better than you were back in school."

Sotalia and Aristespha exchange stares, then simultaneously grind their glares into Sebastian. Feeling a strange sensation, Sebastian shakes his head away from the spectacle and bounces his gaze between condemning stares of Sotalia and Aristespha. He settles on Aristespha and tries to present a smile against his discomfort. "Don't look at me like that... I told you about his research! Even what it was-"

Aristespha narrows her violet eyes at Sebastian and lifts an eyebrow. "You said he was looking into ways to take apart things."

Sebastian motions at the hovering rifle parts pleadingly. "Well... Was I wrong?"

Aristespha darkly furrows her brow. "No. You were correct."

Sebastian grimaces uneasily as he reflexively shrinks away Aristespha's cold glare. "How do you make that sound like a bad thing?!"

-3-

A pile of heavy leather bound books slaps down upon the dining table and a wooden echo bounces off the living area's walls. Brushing off her hands dismissively, Aristespha angles a hard stare at Bach and watches expectantly. Freshly rattled from his early morning haze, Bach perks a confused eyebrow at the literature before him and glances up at Aristespha from his seat. With a swift pivot, Aristespha walks with a rigid properness to an opposing chair. Presenting a cool confidence, she settles into her seat, stiffens her posture, and locks her violet eyes with Bach. Backing further into his chair, Bach averts his blue eyes for moments to avoid the pressing glare. Aristespha draws in a long breath, folds her ivory hands on the tabletop, and dons a faint frown on her blue and gray hinted face. "I am a Master Sage of The Grand Library, caretaker and researcher of the Sword of the Spirit Realm, and specialist in magics dealing with the mind, body, and spirits. I serve as the doctor, historian, and the spirit expert for this team. None of which I expect you to learn, as those roles take significant knowledge, experience, and discipline. Any questions?"

Bach searches his mind for a question, pauses in thought, and narrows a puzzled gaze edging close to insulted. After a tense few seconds of quiet, he points at the books on the tabletop and furrows his brow. "So, what are these for?"

Aristespha lifts the front cover of the book resting at the top of the stack and reveals the title page and rotates the book to face Bach. "These are books that will provide basic knowledge of first aid, psionic magics, and spirits. I expect you to read them as soon as possible."

Cocking his head, Bach flips through a few pages and blinks at the material. He returns his incredulous gaze to Aristespha. "Is there going to be a test or something? I mean, you just said I wasn't supposed to learn all this?"

Focusing a stern glare at Bach, Aristespha chills her violet eyes and twists her frown with subtle hints of irritation. Bach gives the stack of books a more concerned inspection between glimpse of the change expression on Aristespha ivory face. Tossing her lengthy silvery blue hair over very long, pointed ears, Aristespha groans into a sigh with a slight shake of her head. "No. There will NOT be a test. But, if you want to be a productive member of this team, I expect you to retain some of this knowledge. Knowing even a cursory amount could mean the difference between life and death."

Mixing understanding and wariness with a nod, Bach carefully closes the book and neatly rearranges the stack. He ponders a moment and summons up honest sincerity in voice. "Okay. I'll get right on it. It sounds important and I think I see why. And, I'll do what I can. Uh, I can start right now if you want me to?"

Despite the minute shifts in her expression and body posture, Bach notices Aristespha's mood lighten with her exhale. While initially confused, Bach's blue eyes glance around uncomfortably, and he pushes close against the back of the chair. Aristespha slides over an electronic tablet from nearby on the table in front of her. Tapping on the screen a few times, she presses a side button and sweeps up a released pen stylus. "Read them and retain the knowledge you can. That's all I can ask given current circumstances. I want you to be prepared as we have encountered much in our adventures."

Straightening her posture, she perks an eyebrow at Bach. "On to the next order of business... I have already filled out the information I know. But, I will need to ask you questions of a medical nature. We have found that keeping medical histories when we travel is vital, since we never quite know what clinics, hospitals, or facilities will be around."

Bach nods in agreement and sits up in his seat at the ready. "Yeah, that makes sense. Uh, I guess ask away?"

An ethereal voice beside Bach mockingly questions him. "When was your last sexual encounter?"

An audible slip of breath squeezes out of Bach when he winces reflexively in shock. Blinking bewildered with a flushed face, his mental processes resume from the abrupt halt, and he snaps his head towards the source of the familiar voice. Sebastian's ghostly face hovers with a prying grin. "So, bro? When was it?"

Realizing the originator of the question, BAch rolls his gaze away into outright irritation. "Fuck off, asshole."

Drifting his ethereal form down into the chair next to Bach, Sebastian smirks amused. "Morning to you, too! So... When was it?"

Bach grimaces, defensively crosses his arms, and defiantly glares at Sebastian. The brothers stare at each other, and the silence weighs down. Sebastian rolls his eyes with an exaggerated throw his head away from Bach. "Oh! So a Not Applicable, still? Why am I not surprised?"

Remaining silent, Bach stares sternly at his brother as a flit of irritation creeps out on his light tan face. Sebastian shrugs nonchalantly and shakes his head dismissively. "Oh, lighten up! It'll happen for you. You don't have to be so uptight about it. I mean, bro, I'll help you out-"

While smiling slyly Sebastian notices the devious smirk forming on Bach. Slowly turning his head to face Aristespha, the smirk grows to a full grin on Bach's face. "Has he ever told you the one time I was working at the bowling alley when he stumbles in drunk or high... Maybe both? And he has each arm around an emin woman-"

As ethereal hands desperately phase through and fail to cover his mouth from speaking, Bach pauses the story and smirk smugly at his brother. Sebastian halts his flailing arms and simmers his anger and embarrassment. "BRO. Shut. Up! Brother to brother confidentiality..."

Bach twists his upper body with an arm upon the back of the chair and studies Sebastian transparent form glowing light red, curling fingers in frustration. Flicking up two middle fingers to Sebastian,Bach cackles while waving. "Whacha gonna do ghost boy!? Haunt me?! Too late! We're already there! What else you go up those transparent sleeves of yours-"

A stern and cold voice resonates throughout the room. "AHEM. Can I continue?"

Sebastian immediately transforms back into his normal translucent, faintly blue tinted form and snaps his attention back to Aristespha. Slowly putting his hands down, Bach settles back into his seat and meets Aristespha's violet stare. Pulling in a long, calculated breath, Aristespha addresses Sebastian and furrows her brow. "Sebastian. I am trying to get work done. You will have plenty of time to harass your brother AFTER I am done. I will only have this room to myself and Bach for another hour before everyone arrives back from chores and practice. If you could excuse yourself for a moment and attend to something else, I would greatly appreciate it."

Accepting the cue, Sebastian hovers up out of his seat and floats towards the sliding glass door. "Okay. Sorry, dear."

Aristespha glances at Sebastian and meets his ghostly blue eyes before phasing through the exit. She slyly smiles at him and concentrates quietly with her hand on the sword leaning against a nearby chair. Sebastian pauses, searches in his mind, and contorts his face. With a lift of an eyebrow and a gleam in her violet eyes, Aristespha grins subtly. A faint blush colors Sebastian's ethereal face, and he contentedly smiles while coasting through outside.

Bach waits patiently for Aristespha and idles quietly drifting his attention around the vicinity. With a sigh, Aristespha taps the pen stylus on the tablet and gazes at Bach with a professional smile. "My apologies... First question. Any known allergies?"

----

Aristespha finishes writing a few last notes on the tablet. "Thank you for answering my questions."

Bach sits back in his chair, wrestles some apprehension, and perks his brow. "Well, that wasn't too bad. So, uh, is there anything else you need me to do?"

Placing the tablet off to the side, Aristespha motions towards the tabletop in front of Bach. "Hold your arm out across the table."

After a few awkward glances around, Bach unfurls his arm out over the spot indicated and opens his hand palm up. Aristespha reaches out, holds underneath Bach's hand, and holds the underside of his forearm. She briefly drops her head and lifts back up with her eyes glowing brightly violet. Focusing upon Bach's palm, she calmly instructs. "I would like to examine your magical ability and control. I am going to observe as you cast a few basic spells. Start with any simple light spell."

Uncertainly eyeing his arm in the firm grip of Aristespha, Bach flexes his fingers and pushes back his hesitation. "Okay. Just curious... What are you trying to see, or find out?"

Aristespha briefly lifts up on Bach's arm and punctuates her serious tone with a collected stare. "I am trying to make sure that how you are presently casting spells won't lead to serious injury, permanent damage, or other more immediate side effects."

Morbid curiosity nudges against Bach, and he grimaces with an uncertain cock of his head. "Uh, Immediate side effects? Like what, exactly?"

Despite the faint curl of a smirk from the corner of her mouth, Aristespha's tone remains calm. "Rupturing of organs, self-immolation, and in some notably rare cases... Detonation."

Bach blinks blankly with an unsettling grimace. He stares distantly inwards, and facial twitches lead to uncomfortable twinges as his blue eyes dart between mental imagery. Shuddering back to the present, he dons an awkward smile and nods understandingly. Aristespha's gaze shifts up and narrows with a commanding tint. "Now. Cast a light spell."

With brief, reflexive wiggles of his fingers, faint flows of magical energy rise up from Bach's palm. A small blue-white orb materializes from the condensing haze, hovers above Bach's open hand, casting a bright light into the area. Aristespha stares at the glowing object and momentarily closes her eyes with distinctly uncertain body language. She tips her head back with a side tilt and trains her glowing violet eyes on the small, few centimeter wide orb of light. Her stern, stoic demeanor cracks around the edges, and genuine confusion colors her ivory face. "Please release that. And... Do it again."

Fighting an uneasy squirm in his seat, Bach searches for an answer with glances to the glowing sphere. "Ah... Um... Okay."

He reaches out with his free hand, plucks the light orb up with his fingers, and deposits it off to the side on the tabletop. The magical object remains hovering in place. Aristespha quirks her brow incredulously and focuses her confusion at Bach. "I thought I said to release it? Did you hear me correctly?"

A wave of worry tenses up Bach, he meets the examining stare of Aristespha with an awkward chuckle. "I... Um... Well, I can't. I made that one independent. It'll go out on its own in about... Ah, 30 minutes or so?"

Aristespha's very long, pointed ear twitches, and she removes her hands from Bach's forearm. Snatching the glowing orb from the teablop and she brings it in front of her face. Studying it close, she spins and rotates it around with her ivory fingers. The violet glow in her eyes brightens as she squints her stare through it. "There is a hover enchantment, surrounded by an energy containment field, wrapped in a light conversion matrix, and all within a... Structure of some design..."

Bach sheepishly interrupts as nervousness drives his words. "Well, it's a stabilized lattice, with a static charge so it can stick to things."

Continuing the same intense violet glow from her eyes, Aristespha's attention drifts away from the light orb towards Bach. Averting his gaze from the directed eye contact, Bach stiffens his posture in the dining chair and nervously explains. "You can throw it, and it'll hover along that path until it hits something. Then, it'll cling to whatever surface until the stored energy is used up."

Aristespha blinks slowly and puzzles at the magical object in her fingers. Her expression drifts towards disbelief, and sparks of confusion fight for facial realty. Battling unease and nerves against the looming silence, Bach scratches the back of his head of brown hair and chuckles with a stammer. "I-I-I... I created it when I couldn't pay the power bill one month. I mean, I just got really tired of wandering in the dark at night. So, I crafted this spell, since I had nothing better to do."

Aristespha calmly places the light orb down in front of her and props her arms by their elbows on the tabletop. The palms of hands meet, and she rests her chin at the peak. Closing her eyes, a minute passes. She reopens her eyes and trains a studious stare upon Bach. "We will need to do different testing."

Bach nervously crosses his arms and leans against the back of his chair. "Okay. Don't know how to take that."

----

Bach stands several meters away from Sotalia, Aristespha, and Sebastian in the backyard and glances around at the training equipment off to the sides. Sotalia adjusts her training gear with a straightening of her posture and listens to Aristespha speaking close to her ear. Bach's head bounces between Sotalia and Aristespha, and eventually settles on Sebastian ethereal visage hovering between the two. Sebastian notices his brother's attention and only shrugs with awkward side glances between Aristespha and Sotalia. After a few minutes, Aristespha calls out to Bach and rests her hands upon her sides. "For this exercise, I need you to dispel the magic bolts we cast at you. Sotalia will cast small training bolts. I will cast larger bolts, when appropriate. We will start out slow and speed up to your limit."

Assuming a defensive stance, Bach raises his hands out at the ready. "Okay. Just so you know, it's been a while."

Sotalia playfully grins, stretches during her prance into position, and rolls the faint yellow glow between her long nailed fingers. "Don't worry! I'll hold your hand like a good little girl. I'll be nice... I promise."

Bach shakes his head and rolls his blue eyes with a faint cringe. With a few flicks of her wrists, Sotalia casts the first barrage of slow moving glowing orbs. The multi-color orbs coast roughly a meter a second in loose pairs at a time. Sotalia pauses between waves of magical flow and lines up her aim. Bach moves his hands and body to intercept the bolts, magical energy forming within his palms. When his hand nears a bolt, a pulse of energy pops and contacts the bolt. The bolt breaks down almost immediately with a faint puff of energized mist. Sotalia's golden eyes studiously track the speed Bach counters and adapts casting and bolt speed to maintain the challenge. Off the side, Aristespha observes with her violet eyes radiantly glowing.

Within the minutes, the pace between Bach and Sotalia ramps up to feverish. Despite demands of skill and focus, the two trade banter constantly. Sebastian excitedly watches the two and floats up for a better view. Sotalia whips a few bolts into trick shots and yells to Bach with a grin. "Oh my! Where's all this bravado coming from? Looks like someone's pride needs to be put into check."

Bach dispels the wild orbs and cracks a smile in return, wiping some of the sweat from his head. "You know, that's actually really funny coming from you. Don't think the irony is lost on me!"

Watching Sotalia lift an amused eyebrow with a subsequent flurry of magical projectiles, Aristespha raises her violet eyes up at the floating ethereal ghost. "Sebastian. How close is Bach to performing as he did in school?"

Sebastian glances down to Aristespha and furrows his brow at old memories. "I've seen him do faster, dear. But, not by that much more. This is just above his average."

Aristespha quickly swirls her arms and flexes hands in regimented, purposeful motions and flicks out a large potent bolt towards Bach. "Good. Time to start the test."

The large magical projectile blazes across the yard and flies towards the other bolts. Zipping through the volley, the fast moving orb startles Sotalia when it weaves into her stream of magic darts. Spotting the large bolt homing in on his center mass, surprise flashes upon Bach's light tan face, and he reflexively whips his hand out to intercept. The bolt crashes into the pulse of energy from Bach's palm and briefly pauses mid flight. Another larger emission of magical flow breaks down the orb into a fine miasma. Taking advantage of the break from Sotalia recovering, Bach adjusts his stance and readies for the next onslaught with a roll of the shoulders. "Okay! I think I still got it here. Yeah... I think."

Aristespha and Sotalia release their waves of magic Bach, and he balances his attention between the intermittent large orbs and the smaller bolt barrages. The burgeoning confidence fades when the larger bolts launch more often. With a stern and calculating stare, Aristespha throws out two large bolts. Bach's blue eyes widen, and he grits his teeth uncertain hiss. He flings his arms to intercept the two bolts. Countering blasts of energy erupt from each of his palms more violently than before and immediately disrupts the large bolts. Bach draws in enough breath between pants and uneasily chuckles. "OKAY. I think I'm at my limit. Anything past this, I don't got. We can stop now. Please?"

Sotalia halts her casting and waves the remaining magic flow of her hand. She pulls stray locks of dark red, straight hair over her swept back black horns and glances over to Aristespha. "Girl, I think that should be good. To be honest, I'm actually getting a little tired. We've been casting a lot for a while."

Narrowing her brilliant violet eyes at Bach, Aristespha furrows her brow and cocks her head of long silvery blue hair. "One more test..."

She deftly gestures, chants fast incantations, and heaves both arms towards Bach. Three large orbs simultaneously rocket out in a chaotic spiral. Too quick for shock to manifest on his light tan face, Bach reflexively flings his hands out at two of the bolts and snatches them. Sparking and warping in Bach's grip, the bolts waver against some forces and disappear. Faint trails of magical essence sink into Bach's body. Both of Bach's hands slap together upon the third bolt directly in front of him. In moments, it puffs away into another fading cloud of miasma. Bach shakes off his hands out while panting heavily, and eyes Aristespha suspicious with an uneasy curl in his frown. "Wow... Uh, yeah... Could you warn me next time! I'm pretty tired, and I haven't dispelled that much in a long time. Really not ready for that much right now."

Sebastian zip right in front of Bach and grins proudly. "Holy shit, bro! That was awesome! Oh man, that took me back to training back at school. We'll have you back in fighting shape in no time if you keep it up like that!"

Bach hangs his head down with a smile as his brother hovers around him. Sebastian tries to pat him on the back, but retracts his ghostly hand when it starts to pass through. Lifting his head up, Bach chuckles at the praise and encouragement from his brother and smirks at the attention. Sotalia and Aristespha gawk in shock with jaws agape. The violet glow fades in Aristespha's eyes as her attention shifts to other thoughts in her mind. Sotalia blinks blankly and slowly turns to face Aristespha with a narrowing, golden eyed stare. "That was... Was that... A complete spell decompilation he did right there?"

Genuine bewilderment overtakes Aristespha as he furrows her brow in disbelief. She gradually puts together a cohesive thought into voice. "Yes. Three of them. In under two seconds."

Sotalia sidesteps close, pivots in front of Aristespha, and gazes quizzically at her. "What... What were you trying to test? Was it this? That's really rough test to throw at someone who has been in the game in-"

Aristespha's very long, pointed ears twitch, and she arrives back to her senses. Shaking her head at Sotalia, she dismissively waves off the idea and frowns with a confused tinge. "N-no! I was trying to flush something out to the surface."

Sotalia leans closer and lowers her tone to a whisper. "Like what? This was a surprise, so what were we hoping to find out?"

Aristespha draws a thoughtful breath in, and her violet eyes search her mind for a proper explanation. "There is a strange feel to how he flows magical energy. I don't quite know much more. My hope was that putting a little stress on him would reveal more. Well, specifically more about his flow control. THIS was unexpected."

Sotalia crosses her arms, straightens her posture, and glances back to Bach and Sebastian talking. She raps her fingers on her light tan and dark gray patterned arm while watching. She returns to face Aristespha and perks her brow with intrigue and curiosity blatant on her face. "Now, I wonder what spells he's developed. He has to have a few that use his abilities specifically. That might reveal a lot more than just testing for things we don't know to... Or, even HOW to test for?"

A proper and collected facade reforms on Aristespha. A sly smile sneaks out for a moment, and she settles her attention upon Sebastian. "Sebastian? You once told me about a particular spell of Bach's you liked? What was it?"

Summoning up a graceful dignity, Aristespha strides over next to Sebastian's visage and beams a loving smile to him. Sebastian meets Aristespha's gaze and pauses from playfully hassling his brother. He thinks for a moment and glances over to Bach with an excited grin. "Bro! Can you do the D-Ball right now? Oh, please tell me you can pull that one off!"

Bach drops his head with a sad, embarrassed sigh and rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably. He lifts his head back up shaking. "Sorry. No can do,. man. I'm really out of practice with casting anything that powerful. That's going to take me some time to get back to cast that."

He halts and his eyes light up. Bach smiles with hope and holds his hands out to Sebastian. "Wait. I got enough left in me for a Plasma Bolt. That's one I can do."

Sebastian ethereal form drifts next to Aristespha as Sotalia joins them, and he points at Bach. "Dear, this one is pretty cool. We used this one to get through a whole section of the fourth year team assessment tests."

Bach scans the vicinity and finds a thick steel plate hanging in a frame, off in the side yard with the rest of the target practice setup. He plants his feet, extends his arm out, and holds his hand up. Remaining still, he silently concentrates. Air swirls into a point above his palm and condenses to a mist, while a faint glow forms around the growing haze. The white streak in Bach's hair rises up with the charging of the atmosphere surrounding. With a loud, low thump, his brown hair drops back down. The air chills with faint specs of glinting frost. The compressed mist ignites above his palm. A low hum emerges from the background noise and the contained haze glows red. The mist glows brighter, and the color shifts to white while the noisy pitch rises. In seconds, the orb glows a bright, brilliant blue and whines inaudibly. Bach orbits his hand behind the orb and guides the magical energies with a careful aim. Bracing his hand with the other, Bach stabilizes the energy orb as it spins up fast in place. With a loud crack and boom, the newly formed plasma bolt streaks across the yard and bores into the steel plate. A mix of vaporized steel and plasma explodes from the front and erupts out the back. The remaining mass of the bolt bounces off the ground and dissipates in an expulsion of leftover gasses after a few more bounces.

Bach stumbles back a few steps and tips himself forward. Regaining his balance, he rests his hands on his knees and grimaces with gasp through his clenched teeth. He straightens back up, shakes his hand vigorously, growls out. "OW! The damned thing launched too fast! Shit! It broke the sound barrier next to my hand. Dammit, that crap stings! Gods, I can't feel my fingertips..."

Sebastian glides eagerly to Bach and laughs with a grin. "Some things don't change. I thought you'd figure out how NOT to do that by now."

Rolling his blue eyes, Bach winces while flexing his fingers. "It's not that easy, man. Release it too slow and you burn your fingers from the heat when the containment bubble drops. Better to just send it as fast as possible and hope for the best."

Aristespha and Sotalia watch with genuine intrigue and furrowing impressed stares. Sotalia rests her chin upon her propped up hand and glances at Aristespha with a sly grin. "I think he can do a simple mission with us. I mean, he's not completely helpless. There's some potential here."

Aristespha nods slowly and crosses her arms with a thought twist of her mouth. "We will need to check with the local guild office. There should be a few quests in the area that should work. We also need to stock up on some supplies. It has been too long since we have really taken inventory and replenished."

Sotalia puts her hands on her hips and perks her brow. "Cideeda mentioned seeing a few good places we could check out when she was driving through town. I think a group trip into town this weekend would be perfect."

----

Finishing a leftover piece of bacon from breakfast, Bach flips a page of the First Aid handbook upon his bed. His blue eyes wander down the page, drag upon long segments of biology, and backtrack after halting on terms. Furrowing his brow, Bach mulls over the concepts between blank stares at the dense literature and peels back the previous page in a hunt for context. Sebastian passes his ghostly upper body through the window above Bach and gazes down with an incredulous lift of his eyebrow. "Bro, it's a nice day outside. What are you doing in here, still? There's, like, stuff and things you can do out there."

Resting the book open on his chest, Bach tilts his head back and glances up at his brother. "After all the crash course training this week... I'm really enjoying not doing anything right now. And, I'm still kind of sore in spots."

Sebastian pulls the rest of his ethereal visage through the window and coasts to rest down next to Bach on the bed. "So, what are you reading anyway?"

Bach flips the book up and turns it to the cover towards Sebastian. "Not a bad read so far. Pretty dry, but it's not like I was expecting a psychological thriller or something."

Recognizing the book, Sebastian wanders gaze back up to the ceiling and wrestles a smirk on his face. "I mean, it's not bad as far as text books go. It's one of the few books Aristespha made me read I actually liked. Pretty useful stuff to know."

Bach quirks his brow, pauses in thought, and slides his blue eyes into an inquisitive stare at Sebastian. "So... I guess you and Aristespha are pretty serious? Just from my observations so far."

Contorting his face into an uneasy grimace, Sebastian groans out a wavering sigh. "It's complicated."

Rolling his eyes away from his brother, Bach flops the book back down. "Gods, really? Why is that always the case for you? It's complicated. Like how this time?"

Sebastian throws his arms up in the air and narrows an indignant glare at Bach. "Yes, it is! Bro, here's the breakdown. Aristespha is the fifth child in a moderately powerful Evuukian House."

Bach interjects and posits. "So, like, powerful enough to control some industry or a bunch of land, but not that many votes on the whole Council thing?"

Sebastian nods in agreement and rolls his eyes. "Yeah, pretty much. I think her family gets five or something votes instead of the default one all the minor ones get."

Crossing arms, he leans close to Bach and explains quietly. "So, anyway... She's the fifth child. Which traditionally means all her older brothers and sisters have taken all the cushy positions in the family affairs and drained the coffers of any easy money for upper tier school tuition or even investment capital. So, with no ruling prospects and no easy money, she goes to a discount adventuring school."

A thought jumps across Bach's mind, and he narrows an uncertain glance at his brother. "Wait, she didn't happen to go to our-"

Sebastian waves off the statement and chuckles lightly. "Nah, bro. She DID go to one of the sister schools in some Evuukian lands. Completely aced everything as medical mage, and she got a fellowship to The Grand Library. Enjoying it all. Understandably a little sad that the family doesn't give shit about her accomplishments. But, hey, no political bullshit to deal with."

Bach nods and sighs with a grimace. "Yeah, I mean if there's going to be any benefit, that's not a bad one. Still, that's crazy about her family. Medical mage programs are pretty brutal, and The Grand Library just doesn't hand out fellowships... I mean, usually people have to donate more than what the fellowship pays to get those."

Shaking his head, Sebastian rolls his translucent blue eyes. "Shit, I know! Mom and dad would be thrilled to death if we managed to be janitors at The Grand Library. So, yeah... She gets in. She's studying ancient history for old medical spells, and just has the TV on for background noise. One of those goofy ghost hunting shows had a marathon running. She notices that some of the supposed ghosts are actually spirits. And they weren't trying to scare people off by yelling gibberish but begging them to stay in their ancient, forgotten language."

Furrowing his brow, Bach sits up and searches his mind as the significance sinks in. His face blanks and he ponders the notion further. Astonishment fills Bach's face, and he looks back to his brother. "Wait... Holy shit... That was her?! I remember reading up about some new line of research over at The Grand Library about investigating popular media for signs of spirit activity."

Sebastian drifts up with a proud grin and puffs up his chest. "She wrote the grant proposals, dove head first into spirit studies, and hit a few ruins. When she came back, she brought back more historical records in a year than some of the Elders ever did in ten years."

He leans close to Bach and whispers behind his hand with a smirk. "Though, good luck getting any of them to admit it."

Catching Bach's understanding eye roll, Sebastian settles his visage back upon the bed. "But, they made her a Master Sage on the spot. The youngest one EVER."

With a righteous undertone, Bach nods in agreement. "Well, hell yeah! I mean, you make a discovery like that, you should get some recognition. I think you deserve that much."

Sebastian darkly sighs and frowns as his eyes drift down. "Yeah... Recognition she got alright..."

Noticing the drastic change in tone, Bach focuses on his brother with a quirk of an eyebrow. After a few moments, the problem dawns upon Bach. "Aw, dammit... I think I know where this is going."

Sebastian nods grimly and draws in a long ethereal breath. "Yep. The whole family recognized that achievement. Everyone now paid all kinds of attention to her... And, specifically, her achievements to tout to the other families. What's worse is the first major research assignment entrusted to her was the Sword of the Spirit Realm. It awoke and said it was instrumental to destroying Lord Noxian... The world's latest pain in the ass."

Bach holds his mouth briefly and slides his hand down to his chin. "Wow... That's some crazy Murphy's Law bullshit."

Sebastian shakes his head frowning. "I know, bro. Gods, I was really hoping we'd defeat Noxian. Then, the Sword's quest is done! We return the damn thing back to The Grand Ol' Library, and go adventuring far from the fanfare. And..."

Bach cranes his head around, and sees his brother's somber face hung low. "And?"

Sitting up with a faint hope in him, Sebastian rests his hands on his knees. "See if she would be willing go official and public about our relationship. It's not easy given how a lot of evuukians are adamantly against any kind of intermarriage. Disowning family members is not uncommon. But... Despite all the bullshit, she does still care for her family."

Bach straightens back up and sorts through the drama in his mind. "Well, maybe the man who killed Noxian would have gotten a free pass? I don't know. But... Damn. Just, damn, man. That's her call on that front and a hard one."

Sebastian lowers his face into his hands and groans. "I know. So, I haven't really brought it further up to her, since I'm not going to put that kind of pressure on her. But, holy shit, I will be at her side the day she decides to tell them to deal with it."

Bach draws a smile and gazes at his brother's ghostly visage. "You know. I never would have thought you'd go for someone so serious... So seriously?"

Shaking his head, Sebastian chuckles and leans towards Bach. "Don't let that proper and uptight appearance fool you. She's just as crazy as I am, and it's amazing!"

Bach holds his hands up and twists his head away slightly. "Alright. I'll take your word on it. But, I really don't see it."

Sebastian simply shrugs with an uncomfortable, wavering grumble. "So much for those plans. I gotta get myself back together again, before I even worry about all that."

Pivoting on top of the bed, Bach sides to the edge and places his feet on the floor. He laughs to himself and wrestles a frustrated wince. "Yeah, you're not the only one with plans that got wrecked."

Sebastian's visage floats around in front of Bach, and he narrows his concern. "Hey, bro... I've been a real dick in pulling you into all this mess as hastily as I did. I promise to work with you and make things right and all-"

Bach waves his hand up and halts Sebastian midway. "Whoa! Hold up... Let me finish, man."

While Sebastian hovers nearby in curious anticipation, Bach draws in a deep breath and concentrates on his words. "I hoped that you would have defeated Lord Noxian. Because after all the fanfare was over and your group resumed normal, simple adventuring... I was going to ask if you'd let me join up."

Sebastian yanks his head back in sheer surprise and shudders at the full realization. "R-r-really?! I thought you didn't want to do the whole adventuring thing? Not risking your life and all that?"

Exaggeratedly shaking his head side to side, Bach groans. "No. No. No. That was just some bullshit I spun to hide the real problem. You know that encounter with the Nightmare Geist?"

Nodding his head slowly, Sebastian furrows an inquisitive brow. "Yeah."

Bach sniffs in a long breath and sighs. "It left me a lame mage... I... I just... I just couldn't tell people that, especially not mom and dad."

A distant glare at some point beyond the room masks Bach's face. Tears run down when he closes his eyes. Sebastian reaches out for Bach's shoulder, watches his hand through, and musters up all his encouragement into his voice. "Well... That's obviously changed... Which is fucking awesome!"

Bach dons a determined grin and chuckles. "Yeah. Something has changed. Gods, it took me over five fucking years to figure it out. But, I think I got a way, again. I just wanted to join you when I at least had it working decently enough, first. No sense in just being dead weight when you all were in the midst of chasing Noxian around."

Sebastian shines brightly with an ear to ear smile. "Bro, I think you're more than decent enough right now. Hopefully, Aristespha finds a good local job soon, and we'll get you on your first real quest. It'll be good experience, and I'm sure you'll figure it all out soon enough."

Bach rubs the back of his neck and contorts an unsure expression on his light than face. "Uh, you think I'm ready? It's only been a week of training and-"

Laying back and drifting in the air, Sebastian laughs and waves off the concerns. "Ah, bro... Don't worry. Simple task. Nothing too fancy. I looked over Aristespha's shoulder when she was browsing the job listings. There's a bunch of ruins in the area the county needs adventurers to check up on to make sure nothing moved in, or awoken there the last few years. Usually, you go out there admire the architecture, take a few pictures to confirm nothing has changed, and then go home for the day."

Bach tilts forward off the bed and nods. "Yeah... That sounds good."

He cracks an eager smile and snatches his boots over to him with a swing of his arm towards the floor. "And, you know, you're right. It's a nice day, I should at least take a walk outside. Go see what everyone is up to."

Sebastian floats off towards the bedroom door and glances over to Bach. "Speaking of which, I'm going to go see what Aristespha and Sotalia are up to. They've been studying magic articles all morning and talking about a light orb spell or something?"

----

Kneeling next to the steel plate in the side yard of the ranch style house, Dretphi inspects the frame holding the target at an angle. Cideeda reaches into her tool bag's front zipper pocket and retrieves a micrometer caliper. Examining the hole straight through the steel, she furrows the brow on her light brown face and picks at the charred edges with a curious claw tip. She measures with the caliper, narrows her emerald green eyed gaze, plops to a seat on the ground with legs stretched out and flick of her furry tail. "What put a twenty five millimeter wide hole through thirty millimeters of steel armor plate?!"

Dretphi investigates the outer rim of the hole and feels the surface of the metal. "Not a kinetic projectile. This was melted."

Groaning contemplatively, Cideeda lays back in the grass and huffs with a twitch of her furry ear. "It couldn't have been magic, at least not any magic we use. Aristespha doesn't care much for those types of spells. And Sotalia wouldn't be able to put that clean and round of a hole into the thing. There would just be a molten pile of slag and a small forest fire."

She throws out her arms to the air with her upper body and motions to the target. "I mean, this looks like the work of an anti-armor plasma cannon."

A familiar voice sounds out nearby Cideeda and Dretphi. "Well, I kind of modeled the spell after one."

Cideeda's tail twitches, her ears flick, and she glances back to see Bach standing behind her. Twisting and twirling herself up in an agile display, she hop ups and stands in front of Bach. Crossing her arms, she aims an inquisitive gaze up to Bach and flexes her toes claws into the dirt. "Really? Now... Mind you, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed I wasn't here to see it happen. That had to be quite a bit of power."

Tapping the steel plate to a faint resonate ring, Dretphi stares curiously at Bach with traces of disbelief. "One of your spells did this?"

Bach slouches as the embarrassment and hangs his head with guilt. "Yeah. Sorry about the plate. I got a little carried away yesterday showing off. Sebastian and I got caught up in talking about past stuff we've done and some of the old spells I know..."

Cideeda glances over at the plate and snorts with a dismissive, toothy grin. "Ha! Don't worry about it. The plate was doomed the day I bought it from the scrapyard. Dretphi and I are going to sight her anti-armor rifle with a new scope we picked up some time ago today. There's a few targets around I set up at different distances, down safe fire lines."

Dretphi points over a heavy frame off the side nearby, similar to the one suspending the metal plate. "We use paper targets in front. Hang the plate at an angle behind so the rounds bounce into the dirt."

An embarrassed grimace grips Bach, and he walks over to the metal plate. "Ah. Shit. Um, let me fix that, then. Don't want any bad ricochets off that hole."

As she stands up to her full imposing height, Dretphi smiles and calmly waves off Bach's concerns. "It is okay. That hole should not cau-"

With a perk of her furry ears, Cideeda raises up a clawed finger towards Dretphi and flashes a sly, toothy grin to her with a wink. "Let him fix it, since he did offer. I'd like to see this."

Bach eases down to his knees in front of the steel plate. Glancing over the area, he picks up one of the larger chunks of steel slag poking out of the short grass behind the target. A blue glow flows into his eyes. With a flick of the wrist, the large chunk floats out from Bach's hand and hovers steadily. He guides the chunk near the ground and sweeps around near the steel plate. Small specks and bits of steel pop out of the grass and tumbles upon dirt to join the chunk. The collection of metal merges into a larger mass. Eventually, the sounds of scrap impacting the collection silence. Bach opens his free hand near the hole in the plate and closes his eyes. The metal around the hole morphs slowly. The entry and exit edges warp flush with the rest of the plate as the interior of the hole smooths. Bach opens his glowing blue eyes and concentrates his stare upon the hovering, steel fragment collection. An orange-red glow brightens within the gaps of the bits, and the mass melts into a fluid ball. Directing the molten orb into the hole in the plate, Bach guides ooze into the gap. A smooth plug forms and cools seamlessly to the edges. The heated glow radiates out from the middle of the plug to the outer edges, briefly glowing brighter before fading completely.

Waiting a few moments to collect himself, Bah wipes the sweat off his forehead and releases a worn breath. He stretches his legs out from underneath and sits down on the grass. "That should do it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find every little bit I blasted out, so there's an indentation on the back of the plate. Got most of it though..."

Blinking blank as his words wane to confused silence, Bach eyes Dretphi and Cideeda to either side of him. Both Cideeda and Dretphi stare at the plate in awe. Bouncing a gaze to either side, he settles his attention forward. A large hand rests on Bach's shoulder, and Dretphi leans in with an enthusiastic smile. "Your training now includes armor repair work."

Another smaller, clawed hand lightly grips Bach's other shoulder. Cideeda's sly, toothy grin widens, and an eager spark lights up her emerald eyes. "You are going to save this team so much money on repairs and replacement parts. I hope you are prepared to make a lot of money by fixing up and modding all the extra gear we pick up for sale."

Bach closes his eyes, grimaces uncertainly, groans with begrudging acceptance. Dretphi pats his shoulder and smiles comfortingly. "Do not feel bad. Your value to the team grows. More you can contribute to our efforts."

Grumbling to an annoyed wince, Bach lowers his head and sighs. "Yeah... Sure... As a magical multi-tool."

Cideeda playfully squeezes Bach's shoulder and chuckles with a wag of her tail. "Hey! That's not a bad thing to be. You don't see those other two mages pulling shit like this off. Anyway, we'll make it worth your while. You want to shoot guns with us?"

Bach rocks his head side to side in deliberation. After a few quiet moments, a humored smirk cracks out the corner of his mouth, and he quickly nods. "Yes. Yes, I want to shoot guns. That sounds fun."

Cideeda springs up eagerly with a hop to her step. Dretphi rises up and offers an assisting hand to Bach. After getting pulled up, Bach joins Cideeda and Dretphi as the group sort through ranged weaponry.

----

Leaping over the couch arm, Sotalia vaults onto the nearest cushion. Searching under the random things on the coffee table in the living area, she snatches up the remote and flips through channels on the TV. "Gods, dammit... Hey! What station is it around here?!"

Cideeda leans on the dinner table scrolling through a holographic schedule listing from the holoplayer and directs her voice over. "Channel three dash ten!"

Squinting at the numbers appearing on the screen, Sotalia presses the right sequence. Dretphi scoots over behind the coffee table and settles on the middle cushion. Placing a large bowl of popcorn on the tabletop, she scoops a handful for herself. Brushing her some futz on her casual clothes, Aristespha glides into the nearby reclining chair and pulls it back, releasing the footrest. Cideeda scrambles into the remaining spot on the couch and eager stares at the display across the group on the wall. Bach wanders into the area, pans a gazes over everyone, and cocks his head. "Okay... What's going on here?"

Cideeda sweeps up a handful of popcorn and explains to Bach in between bites. "The two hour premiere for the... New season of the Next Adventurers of Nexus is on tonight!"

Sliding over a chair over from the dining table, Bach sets up next the couch and furrows his brow curiously. "Huh. I've heard of the show before. I've caught it a few times on bar TVs. I'm kind of surprised you all watch it."

Propping her socked feet onto the coffee table, Sotalia stretches her arms back and sinks into the couch. "Gods, it's a total shitshow. But, we can't help but to watch the trainwreck each season. It's one of those guilty pleasures and all. I wonder what incompetent mage they got this time around."

Phasing through the wall above the couch, Sebastian glances around eagerly between the group. "Hey! Did I miss anything?"

Aristespha shakes her head and spreads out a blanket over her. "No, Sebastian. They just got done with the introduction. They haven't even announced the new party."

Bach leans back in his chair expectantly with an apprehensive perk of the brow. The entire gathering quiets down when the announcer on the television screen goes into his routine.

"Welcome everyone to the new season of the Next Adventurers of Nexus! We have an amazingly diverse party to follow this season! Without further ado, let's get to know our Adventurers! Hailing fresh out of school from High Alton, Chad Bosch!"

The show cuts to a montage of pre-recorded segments of all this season's cast with extensive editing and special effects. The other visual bits fade away until it zoom in an brightly smiling muscular human with well kept, short brown hair.

"Hello, people. I'm the heroic, all mighty leader of the Flames of the Phoenix adventuring group. Let us fight your fires with our fire!"

Struggling to contain herself, Sotalia snorts out in a cackle. Aristespha visibly cringes with a grimacing eye roll and averts her violet gaze. Snickering with a sharp grin, Cideeda shakes her head and combs the fur on her fluffy multi-color tail. Dretphi simply groans into a sigh. Sebastian glances over to Bach and points at the TV. "So... This is why we don't have a team name. Period. I used to want one. Then, I saw one episode of this. Now, I'm just happy to have the registration number only."

"A choice slogan for sure there! Next on the roster is Tassilda Evernia, the Emin enchantress!"

The show cuts to a shapely, voluptuous woman with long raven hair, swirling horns, and piercing blue on black eyes. She tosses her hair back over the shoulder with her black nailed fingers and reveals more gray, patterned skin under her form fitting robes. "No one can escape my charms... And my spells."

Aristespha incredulously quirks a brow and cocks her head to the side. Sotalia disapprovingly contorts her face and narrows a glare at the screen. "Gods... That one is just trouble. I can feel the sheer bitchy through the screen."

"Magic we have! But, what's a party without some muscle? Here to lead the charge into battle is Trakenthin Stakken Olig Brecomin, the Grath warrior!"

The camera starts at the midsection of a large Grath man and tilts up to his face. He maintains a deadpan, stoic expression on his dark bronze face and stares unmoved at the camera. After a long drawn out silence, a single, loud grunt sounds out from him, and he glares at the camera as it backs away. Dretphi pinches the bridge of nose as flits of aggravation trickle out onto her tan face. Flashing an ireful glare at the screen, she twists her head side to side, works her irritated tension, and tosses her platinum blonde braids. "Our native language contains more words than other languages. A palette of diction at his disposal. He... Grunts."

Sotalia and Cideeda pat Dretphi on the arm and playfully sooth her frustrations.

"Truly, a stunning, poignant statement... Next on the list is the infiltration specialist, a mysterious Evuukian, Modoran Lotherin!"

A nicely dressed Evuukian man steals the scene. He stands prominently, his dusky bluish gray skin contrasting his white hair. Brushing back his locks from his face, he reveals his long, pointy ears and smirks smugly with a nonchalant posture. "I've put my abilities towards the greater good, in spite of my Dark Evuukian heritage."

With sharp wince and eye twitch, Aristespha reflexively blurts out. "Oh, bullshit!"

She crosses her arms under the blanket and tilts her head back, swelling with indignation and contempt. "It's bullshit! There hasn't been a Dark Evuukian in Nexus since the last cataclysm! Gods damned children these days... Just because you have dark skin does NOT mean you have ANY ancestry to those raving, back-stabbing, psychopathic head cases! It is a complete misnomer from a bad translation into Americ!"

Listening attentively to the grumbling stream of Evuukian curses under Aristespha breath, Sotalia snickers with an amused smirk. "Oh, girl. Tell us how you really feel, why don't you?"

Aristespha squirms back into the couch chair and shakes her head with a disgusted roll of her violet eyes.

"An enthralling back story, I'm certain... Finally! The last in the pack, but the one who you want to watch your back, the Fvalian healer, Deedri Preetta!"

Blinking in sheer disbelief at the screen, Cideeda gawks with her jaw hanging open. "Is... Is... Is that bitch wearing a bell around her neck? Someone else is seeing this, right?!"

The TV shows a very excited and young Fvalian woman with auburn eyes hopping around energetically, waving to the camera. She neatens up an extravagant top matching her long skirt. Light from overhead glints off of medical magic script decorating her attire. Rings sound out from the bell necklace around her neck. She holds out a peace sign briefly and gestures her hands up in cat-like gestures. "Meow! I hope they never need me, but I'll always be here to patch everyone up in no time!"

Watching Cideeda flop back into the couch cushions, Bach waits for pause in her grumbles and inquires with a light tone. "So, uh, how many years did that set back the perceptions of Fvalians?"

With an annoyed hiss, Cideeda rolls her eyes and speaks through gritted teeth. "About fifty, if she doesn't keep the damned stupid cat routine up."

"For this season to mix things up, we've decided to set our adventurers out in new territory! Let's see how their first day went..."

The show fade cuts to a discussion between party members on their drive down the highway. The camera focuses on a grand roadside sign, and an odd silence presses down upon the room when the fanciful "Amaranth Valley" script into clear focus on the screen. Bach glances around to the stunned looks and furrows his brow in thought. Reading the sign, he cracks a mean smirk and glances at Sebastian. "So... I'm guessing this is a sign I missed, because I was asleep when we all drove through?"

With an awkward smile, Sebastian uncomfortably nods. "Yep. That's the big town we're technically in the city limits of."

Bach returns to watching the TV. Flashes of indecision and uncertainty play out on his face, and his attention wanders between his thoughts and the drama flare ups on the show.

-4-

The ancient military machine rolls down the two lane highway, falling in line with other traffic approaching the thickening civilization surrounding. The powerplant within the humvee settles to faint, constant background whine, and the vehicle coasts down the gentle curves bordered by thinning forests and thickening stretches of residential. The road widens to four lanes right before long rows of small business fences in the highway. Sebastian floats within the middle aisle of the cab inside the humvee. "Okay, everyone. Here's the plan. Aristespha, you got medical supplies and digging for any kind of info about the ruins in the area."

Flipping through a menu on her tablet, Aristespha taps in a few entries on a checklist and nods. "Any problems with the self-adhesive bandages or the quick patch spray I got the last time?"

Dretphi shakes her head. Sotalia points to Cideeda across from her in the driver's seat, and Cideeda shrugs indifferently. Sotalia twists around in the front passenger's seat and leans out to look at Aristespha. "We're good here."

Aristespha jots down notes into the tablet with her pen stylus. Sebastian turns to Dretphi sitting in her backseat. "Dretphi, stock up on food and expendable gear. Since we'll probably be back doing ruin exploration, if you find a good deal on decent spotlights, grab a few please."

Confirming silently as her eyes focus on her aetherphone, Dretphi types out a list. Glancing up through the rearview mirror, Cideeda waves down the aisle for Dretphi's attention. "Hey, if you find any more of that jerky in the yellow and green bag, get me a few packs."

After a quick thumbs up back to Cideeda, Dretphi returns to her growing phone notes. Shifting his attention to Sotalia, Sebastian furrows his brow in thought. "Sotalia, you know what magical stuff you need to get. But, keep an eye out for any more of those disposal magic detector sticks. Also, check to see if there's any places with Aristespha for local history. If we're going down into the ruins nearby, I wouldn't mind knowing about any local legends or tales... That could turn out to have some truth to them."

Sotalia peeks back into the aisle and settles her golden eyed gaze at Aristespha. "Girl, you hitting the pharmacy first?"

Aristespha meets Sotalia's inquiring look and deftly dances her ivory fingers upon the tablet. "Yes, I hope there isn't too much of a line. Let me message you my list of magical supplies I need, real quick... There, sent it."

Checking her aetherphone, Sotalia settles back into her seat. "Got it. Message me when you get done, and we'll figure what places to check out. There might be a local history section in some bookstore around here."

Confirming nods, she pulls back stray locks of silvery blue over her very long, pointed ear. Sebastian shifts his attention to Cideeda. "Cideeda. Ammo, tech toys, selling of loot, and some updated reading material? Hmm. Anything I'm missing?"

Shaking her head, Cideeda keeps her eyes on the road and smirks confidently. "Nothing that I can think of. I'll message Aristespha if I think of anything, unless that sword has figured out how to use the AetherNet."

Sebastian perks a brow and angles a cold glare at the sheathed sword in the aisle next to Aristespha. "No. Turns out a few hundred year old relic isn't keen on keeping with the times. Not much of a conversationalist either anymore, since I moved in."

Finally turning to Bach, he smiles eagerly. "As for you Bach, I figured you could tag along with Cideeda and-"

He lowers his head forward and stares intensely at the old flip aetherphone within Bach's hands. A reflexive laugh slips out of Sebastian, he squelches to a snort. "Holy shit! And get you a new phone! Speaking of a fucking relic, is that the same one you had in school?"

Defensively darting his head around, Bach quickly follows the new attention towards his old phone. "Y-Yes. What about it?! It still works just fine! I mean, I just need it to make calls."

Sebastian raises his hands up diplomatically and seeks to calm Bach. "Hey, now... No judging here. But, I'm totally gonna hook you up, bro. Cideeda, can you get this man a proper phone?"

Cideeda momentarily flicks her eyes into the rear-view mirror and dons a toothy grin. "Will do! I saw one or two places that should carry decent phones. We'll check them out and see what we can find."

Spinning completely around in her seat, Sotalia's golden eyes peeks over the head rest. Her eyes flit wide at the target, and she smirks slyly. Her hand whips out, and her black, long nailed fingers snatch up the phone right out of Bach's grasp. "Ooo! Let me see!"

Bach blinks at the sudden loss of his phone and tries to reach around the front seat after it. Sotalia slaps a hand underneath her seat and pulls a bar up. The seat slides forward out of range of Bach's effective arm reach. She grins excitedly at the device and swiftly taps familiar sequences of buttons. "I haven't seen one of these since graduate school! Oh! Does it have any of the good games on it? I used to be a total master of the snake game."

Approaching for a grand rescue attempt, Bach's blue eyes judge the uncomfortable proximity of the tips of Sotalia's swept back horns. Bach settles back into his seat in defeat and crosses his arms with a frown. "I'd like my phone back, please."

Sotalia playfully sighs and rolls her golden eyes. "Okay. Here you go."

Holding the old phone over the back of the seat, Sotalia tosses back her dark red hair and waits. Bach snatches back his phone, flips it open, and inspects it suspiciously. Sotalia pulls the bar underneath her seat again and attempts to slide the seat back. The seat slides only a few centimeters and far short of its original position. Struggling within the tight, cramped confines, Sotalia strains against an immobilizing force. Watching the scene, Dretphi sneaks a smile out the corner of her mouth. Sebastian glances upon the cab floor and finds Bach's boot blocking the seat slide tracks. While Sotalia squirms uncomfortably in the narrow space between her and the dash, Bach holds a finger up to the rest of the intrigued team and searches through phone menus. "One moment, I'm just making sure she didn't do anything to it..."

Sotalia crooks her head around the seat, spots the blockade, and traces it back to Bach. With a faint grumble, she stretches back for a deep breath. "I didn't do anything to it! Really! Can I have some knee room now... Please?"

Flipping the phone closed, Bach lifts his boot back. The seat slides back swiftly and hits the limit of the track. Sotalia flops onto the back of the seat and blinks in surprise. Combing back her hair over her swept back, black horns, she collects herself and enjoys the space from the front dash with new relief. Aristespha points to Bach with her eyes trained on the tablet. Her arm unknowingly goes through Sebastian, and he cringes uncomfortably at the intrusion. Aristespha furrows her brow at information on the screen. "Sebastian, we need to get Bach officially registered with our group and fill out some more paperwork."

Hovering to the side and clear of Aristespha's arm, Sebastian thinks for a moment. "Let's see... Okay. After we are all done, we'll all meet at the local guild office. Sounds good, everyone?"

The gathering agrees in their own ways, as a familiar large sign for Amaranth Valley comes into view on the side of the road.

----

Around a busy parking lot, people stroll between the different storefronts surrounding the perimeter of the huge space. Colorful signage blending tech and magic decorates the different businesses in the open air mall, and townspeople peer inside the display windows to peek at the latest deals and activities happening inside. The door of "Aether Innovations'' opens. Cideeda steps out with a satisfied smile and holds the door from closing. After a few seconds, Bach walks through the doorway, slides the plastic bag around his arm, and pokes at a new aetherphone. He furrows his brow completely perplexed and eyes Cideeda with an awkward grimace. "Okay... So, how do you make call with this thing?"

With a humored snort, Cideeda pops up on the balls of her feet within toed shoes, and points a claw tip at the aetherphone screen. "The phone icon. Right there."

Rolling his blue eyes at himself, Bach grumbles and sighs. "Thank you."

Settling back upon her feet with an amused sway in her stance, Cideeda quirks her brow and eyes Bach with a grin. "A man who can weave together technology and magic in ways that astound me and freak-out our mages... Undone by a phone."

Following Cideeda when she walks down the sidewalk, Bach continues to navigate through the new menus, icons, and screens. "Hey! It's a massive increase in complexity to a device that didn't require much from me... But, I'll admit, having the expanded band two-way radio is nice."

Cideeda nods with a wag of her tail and squeezes her phone into a brand new case. "It costs extra, but it's a good feature for our line of work. We'll have to mod it up with the extended frequency chips I got from..."

A sly, toothy grin widens on her light brow face, and Cideeda's emerald green eyes glint against the shadowy context. "The Usual Sources."

Averting an uncertain gaze away, Bach slips the phone into his side pocket and glances between the advertising signs of the stores nearby. "Well, sounds good to me. So... Where to next?"

Cideeda flicks a point towards a game shop, eagerly struts down the path, and pats the satchel at her side. "There! I need to pick up some reading material. And, I might be able to sell one of the early era chests there."

Bach tags along behind as Cideeda strides to the double doors between front windows plastered with board, tabletop, and war game posters. Both enter the store on either side of the entryway. A brilliant assortment of entertainment vices for the Nexus nerd, geek, or dork litters the large area. Boxes of comic books upon tables fill a few aisles. Board games and books overload tall shelves along the wall that narrowly fit under the aged drop ceiling tiles. A long display counter showcases choice cards, miniatures, and dice. Regulars congregate in the chairs around open tables bouncing between playing games and discussing the latest episodes of shows. A few grant a momentary peek at the door, and promptly return to their activities. Bach scans over the chaotic expo of entertainment, stops, and angles his confusion down to Cideeda. "Huh... Why are we in a game shop? I mean, not that I wouldn't mind grabbing the latest issue of Tales of Orion, but..."

Smiling, Cideeda points to Bach and leads as they navigate the store. "You have your brother to thank. Sebastian recruited me right out of a comic book shop. I was between groups and decided to catch up on the issues of Tinkering Tina I missed."

Bach blinks in thought, and twists of mild disgust color his face when memories bubble to the front of his mind. "Gods... He tried to flirt with you, didn't he?"

Cideeda rolls her green eyes and giggles. "Oh, pitifully so. But, I humored him. Found out he needed a technical expert, and I got with the group. So, I can't complain about getting a steady enough job."

Lowering his head shaking, Bach sighs. After a moment, he puzzles at Cideeda. "What about the comic books?"

Cideeda gingerly flips through wrapped comics in a box and judges her position in the collection. "Come to find out, two comic book geeks are enough for it to be contagious to others in a group. Also, comic books are perfect for down time when you are too far from the Aethernet relays, and you have a few hours of night watch to kill."

Rocking his head side to side, Bach mull over the idea to an agreement. "Makes enough sense to me. I'm going to look at the miniatures they have."

Cideeda pauses with a perk of her furry ear and catches Bach's attention before he wanders off too far. "Wargaming or RPGs?"

Waving an indifferent gesture with his hand, Bach shrugs his shoulders. "A little bit of both? But, I really got interested in miniatures when I figured out how to morph the metal and plastic into custom poses for people. I got paid a lot for custom figures back in school."

A spark of intrigue lights up Cideeda's eyes, and an intrigue smile forms as her thoughts deepen. Bach makes his way to the display and kneels down to examine the assortment of miniatures through the glass. From above the counter, a frustrated voice mumbles out from the other end. "Dammit... Still doesn't work... Why won't it work? I read all the instructions."

Peering over the counter, Bach watches the shopkeeper concentrate his frustration to stare a hole through a paperback book. The large, round man keeps his fists on his sides and frowns, quietly muttering to himself. Bach stands up and casually drifts towards the register, while sneaking a peek at the book. Magical symbols adorn the page with scattered instructions at the top and bottom where space permits. Recognizing the type of discount text, Bach grits his teeth and curls his lip in disgust. He narrows his blue eyes at the contents apprehensively, and visibly lowers his expectations. The shopkeeper puts his hands on either side of the page and concentrates. Furrowing his brow, Bach stiffens his posture and studies the effort from the large man. As the seconds pass, he refines his suspicions to the markings on the book's page and cocks his head intrigued. Following his curiosity, he slides up next to the register across from the shopkeeper. In a lull of focus upon the book, the shopkeeper notices Bach, double-takes, and startles slightly. "Oh! Hello. Welcome to Amaranth's Wrath Game Emporium! The name is Steve. So, um... Can I help you?"

Bach makes eye contact with Steve and twirls his finger down at the book. "You have the ink bottle that came with this?"

Searching either side of him, Steve spots a bottle sitting on the shelf underneath the counter. He fetches the bottle and curiously eyes Bach. "Here it is. Um... Are you magically inclined?"

Bach holds his hands up and shrugs with a nonchalant smirk. "Well, somewhat. I'm kinda getting back into it lately."

Steve happily grins at Bach and respectfully pleads with a slight bow towards the materials upon the counter. "Man, I don't want to bother you, but if you can share any tips, I'd really appreciate it. I've been trying every book around. And nothing seems to work. I feel it flowing through me. But, damn... Nothing seems to happen. I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

Bach holds his hand out for the bottle and Steve passes it over. Twisting the cap off, Bach wafts the bottle underneath his nose, then seals the top with a finger. After briefly turning the bottle upside down, he lifts the finger and licks it. Steve blinks stunned and cocks his head confused. Bach furrows his brow and groans with a sneer of his upper lip. "Yep. This mix is pretty watered down. If it's the same stuff they use to print that page, unless you know how to brute force a lot of magical flow already... It's not going to work. You got any salt and... A lime, maybe?"

Steve arrives back to awareness and pivots around hunting. He plucks a salt packet from a fast food bag. Leaning over to a small mini-fridge behind the counter, he opens the door to reveal canned sugary drinks and a lone, lime-shaped plastic bottle of juice. "Will lime juice work?"

Bach nods, cracks open the paper salt packet, and dumps the contents into the ink bottle. Steve holds out the plastic lime juice bottle and Bach grabs it. With a flip the cap, Bach squirts a healthy amount inside with the dissolving salt. "Okay. Cap that bottle with your finger. Shake it a few times, and hold your finger out. We'll test to see if the rest of the mix is still good."

Following Bach's instructions, Steve perks a quizzical eyebrow. "So, what's all this supposed to do?"

Bach points at the container towards the sloshing dark concoction inside. "Recharge the mix. The watering down messes with the electrolyte mix, and the pH often gets screwed up during bottling. The cheap reagent they use is really picky about the solution it's in."

Steve stops shaking the bottle, places it down, and holds out his ink spotted finger. Bach stares at Steve with an instructing tone. "Okay. Now, I want you to concentrate and direct your flow to that point on your finger. If the mix is good, it'll glow."

Steve nods, closes his eyes, and summons a deep focusing breath. Bach narrows a studious gaze down and attentively watches the spot on Steve's finger dimly glow orange. "Steve. You're forcing it too much. Don't listen to what those guides on the Aethernet said. Calmly guide it. Take your time to think clearly about it."

The faint light shines brighter with each passing moment. Faint shadows form out behind action figures posed on the countertop and contrast the orange tint swelling out. The ambient conversations among the tables lower, and the regulars observe with growing interest. Bach smiles confidently and side steps out of the way. "Steve. Open your eyes."

Apprehensively opening his eyes, Steve tips his head down into a gaze of his finger. His eyes widen as he processes in stunned silence at the bright light upon his digit. The awe overtakes him as ear to ear smile grows. Bach snaps his fingers and points at the orange sheen. "Now THAT is a good sign. So, you want to fix this page right with your recharged ink?"

Steve slowly raises his head to Bach with sheer determination in his eyes. "Fuck. Yes. I do."

A small gathering of regulars surround the counter watching Steve's progress. After an important lesson on arcane dynamics, Bach instructs Steve with the application and motions to the symbols on the page. "Now... Trace those last outlines and put some curve on those sharp corners. They do that to save on ink, but with the poor print quality it really does a number to the energy flow."

Steve hovers his head over the page with an attentive eye and carefully applies new ink to the page. Standing back up after finishing the last flowing line, Steve waits expectantly. Bach examines the page closely and crosses his arms with a smile. "Alright. Give it a shot. Only way to know now."

Steve places his hands down on the sides of the page and takes a deep breath. His eyes narrow intensely upon the arcane symbols darkened by fresh ink. A flow of ethereal orange glow travels along the marked paths on the page. Reaching the center, the energy condenses and forms a simple rotating cube. The illusion floats up to a fixed point above the book and hovers in place. Steve slowly removes his hands from the page, and the cube exists for seconds before dissipating away. Awe quiets the crowd. Cheers for Steve break the silence.

"I got it on video, Steve! Fucking awesome, dude!"

"Holy shit, you finally did it!"

"It looked better than how-to videos on the Aethernet!"

Steve slides a stool behind him and plops down. Disbelief and wonder mix upon his face, and he blinks between moments of thought. He places his hands to the sides of his head. "Wow. I... I... I don't know what to say. I've been trying all these months and all these guides and... I did it."

He settles his attention upon Bach. "You... Man. Thank you. I don't know how to pay you back."

Putting his hands in his pants pockets, Bach shrugs his shoulders and acts nonchalant. "Don't worry about it. I've kinda been there before. Know how it feels."

Steve pats his legs and stands up in triumph. "I got it! Your next few visits, including this one... Twenty-five percent discount on purchases."

Astonishment radiates through the gathered crowd, and pockets of discussion bounce between those wrestling the notion in utter disbelief. In comic book aisles, a pair of perked furry ears above the shorter shelves flick before dipping swiftly. Bach bashfully chuckles and scratches the back of his head of shorter brown hair. "It seems like quite the honor. I'll have to find something to-"

A voice chimes cheerfully out beside Bach. "Sweetie, there were a lot of issues we didn't have. Would it be okay if we got them all?"

Bach's expression struggles to stay unchanged, and his body tenses in surprise. Moments of sheer bewilderment slip through the cracks of the facade. Bach's blue eyes dart around as his mind and frantically sort through the sudden change in the situation. The voice sounds familiar, but the cadence does not match. Claw tipped hands plop a large stack of comic books, graphic novels, and other media onto the counter. Smaller arms wrap around Bach's arm, and a short figure playfully leans on him. Donning a calm exterior, Bach follows a path down his arm and spots Cideeda acting sweetly affectionate. A chaotic blend of confusion, frustration, embarrassment, and indignation swirl through Bach's expression, and he aims a searching stare right at Cideeda. Discreetly revealing the screen of her aetherphone, Cideeda winks cutely to Bach, an entrepreneurial grin just beneath the surface, and lightly presses a hand of five claw tips into his forearm. Bach silently reads the note on the screen. "25% discount!!! Play along! PLEASE!!!"

In the moment, a stir from the back of Bach's brain refocuses his blue eyed gaze. A surge of confidence rises from sunken depths and solidifies his facade. As memory and old skills reemerge, a suave presence overlays upon Bach exterior. Tempering the act with a humble air, Bach dons a smile and endearingly addresses Cideeda. "Well, I don't know, dear. I wouldn't want to impose too much upon Steve's generosity, now."

Steve bounces his gaze between Bach and Cideeda and arrives at a conclusion. "Oh! No, man! It's completely cool! It's no problem at all! I thought I wasted my money on all those magic workbooks. But with what you taught me, it's going to be an absolute trip going back over those and practicing inking all those tweaks in. You've totally got me my money's worth back."

Shrugging nonchalantly, Bach glances at Cideeda with a smirk. "Well, if he has no objections, I have none for you, dear."

With an energetic wag of her long, fluffy tail, Cideeda smiles softly and perks her furry ears happily. Glancing around at the customers in the area, she reaches into the satchel at her side and inquires. "Steve, question. Would you know of anyone who would be interested in one of these?"

Cideeda presents Bach's holoplayer, presses an option on the holographic menu, and projects the hologram of an early era chest. Steve and other regulars study the imagery. Stroking his chin with great interest, Steve narrows his intrigued stare upon Cideeda. "That does look genuine. Does it have a working lock and key?"

Tugging lightly on Bach's arm, Cideeda reveals a toothy grin and entrepreneurial spark in her emerald eyes. "A working lock and maybe a key. If keys aren't that much different than miniatures. Are they, sweetie?"

Bach musters a smile with a brief twitch in the eye. "We'll find out, won't we?"

----

A relevant quiet drifts through the huge open space and over the rows upon rows of bookshelves within the large book store. Murmurs of conversation wane over the distance around the corner coffee cafe and the surrounding tables. People wander down the aisles and follow their interests between spotting the covers of books and inspecting the first pages. At the glass window front of the store, large automated doors of slide open to let the raw daylight in with a spring breeze. As the two walk in, Cideeda pats Bach on the back with a triumphant grin. "Come on! That was pretty good on the spot acting you did back there."

Bach rolls his eyes and grumbles as puts his hands in his pockets. "I've had plenty of practice getting out of awkward situations. Thanks to Sebastian. I didn't think I'd need to use that to con someone to give you a discount."

Twisting her mouth incredulously, Cideeda raises an eyebrow at Bach and cocks her head of short, multi-colored hair. "Con nothing. You just used your fair and honestly earned discount to buy everyone their reading material. You still technically brokered the deal, hence the discount still applies fully."

Remaining silent, Bach narrows his stare down at Cideeda. Adopting a genuine tone in her voice, Cideeda glances up to Bach. "You... You shouldn't feel bad. You helped Steve significantly with his magic. He got to repay you with a decent discount for you..."

A sly curl creeps out the corners of her mouth, and she averts her emerald green eyes briefly with a flick of her furry ears. "And assumed lady friend. He also got a good deal on a genuine early era chest, with a working lock..."

An entrepreneurial spark lights up Cideeda's gaze as she taps her finger tips together. "And a key custom formed on the spot with magic before everyone's eyes."

Bach stops walking and aims an uncertain stare down to his side. Cideeda wags her tail with her stride and winks with a toothy grin. "As someone who was a game shop regular and worked a lot behind the counter a decade ago... That would have been a hard day to top for many, many years."

Slowing her pace, she crosses her arms defensively and frowns faintly at Bach. "Now, if you are a little angry at me for putting you on the spot... I'll accept that and apologize to you."

After a long halfhearted glare, Bach eventually releases a sigh and dismisses the charges with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's okay. Really. It just brought back memories of some crazy moments with my brother that I'd conveniently forgotten about."

Cideeda nods, plucks her aetherphone from her shorts, and squints at the screen. "Yeah, I understand. By the way, do you see Sotalia anywhere? She messaged me that she was here and I'm not seeing her."

Peering above the tops of the display shelves, Bach scans the tops of heads wandering through the aisles and random people down the walkways. Halting his hunt, Bach spots familiar dark red hair and swept back horns and points Sotalia out near a history section sign. "There. Way down this next row across in the next section."

Cideeda peers down the aisle and catches sight of Sotalia. "I see her."

Bach blinks as his vision notices something else and snaps his attention over. His blue eyes widen, and he punctuates with gritting teeth. "SHIT...."

Cideeda perks her furry ears and glances over her shoulder at Bach. "What?"

Spotting an emin woman with swirling horns and raven black hair strut confidently toward the book shelf rows near Sotalia, Bach watches the small camera crew trailing behind. "We need to get over there and warn Sotalia."

Cideeda flits her emerald green eyes wide, perks her furry ears, and nods. She deftly sneaks upon the toes of her shoes and leads the charge. Bach sinks low behind the stacks and keeps as quiet as possible. At the far end of the aisle, Sotalia plucks a book out from a row and flips it over to the summary. As she reads the text, she furrows her brow. Blinking to awareness, her eyes lead her head, and she spots Bach and Cideeda frantically signaling her. She squints confused and tilts her head incredulously. "What?"

Bach motions to something behind Sotalia in the next aisle. Checking over her shoulder, Sotalia tenses when she catches glimpses of activity nearby. "Oh, shit."

Spinning back around, she promptly replaces the book and stiffly walks down the aisle towards Bach and Cideeda. When she joins the two a distance from the camera crew setting up around the young emin woman, she groans with a roll of her golden eyes. "Gods. Thank you. I did NOT want to get caught up in that bitch's path. Just something about her puts me off."

Bach peeks his head over the top of a long display shelf row and observes the flurry of activity. He ducks back down when the cameras shift, and the emin woman stands in front of another nearby section. A human woman steps out from the mix of recording crew, reads notes from a tablet, and prompts the young emin woman. "Okay. Tassilda. Talk about what books you'd recommend for people wanting to learn more about magic."

With a toss of her long, raven black hair behind her shoulders, Tassilda strikes a flattering pose in front of the shelf within the "Magical History" section. Glancing at the nearby contents with her light blue on black eyes, she slyly draws a book out and holds it suggestively close to her chest. "I will always recommend a favorite of mine, the Collected History of Nexus Magic series. It always captivates my attention and the details are all so enthralling. If you want a complete history of how Nexus got its magic, this is my first choice."

Bach cringes at the suggestion and disagrees with a shake of his head. Sotalia contorts her mouth in disgust and parts a spot in the books to spy through. "Really, woman? Out of all the books on that shelf, you pick the one that's a proven insomnia cure."

Tassilda gradually places the book back into the shelf and adds a purposeful bounce to highlight personal assets. Sotalia narrows her golden glare at Tassilda and grumbles while annoyance simmers to the surface. "Oh. And I bet you are the first to take offense at about people comparing you to a succubus, too."

Plucks another book from the shelf with her black nailed fingers, she presents a playfully suggestive smile on her light gray face. "Another one I'd only suggest to the most dedicated is The Great Magical Handbook of Nexus."

Bach slides his head right next to Sotalia's and sneaks a peek through the opening. He furrows his brow at the volume in Tassilda's grasp and frowns disdainfully. "Okay... She's GOT to be getting kickbacks from a publisher. I remember spending way too much money on that damned thing in school, and it was useless to get any useful information out of it. Also, it was pretty shitty doorstop, too."

Bouncing her examination between the two, Cideeda quizzes Bach and Sotalia. "Well, if you two are such experts, what book would you recommend?"

Sotalia holds her face and ponders to herself about the subject. Bach steps back and searches the books on the shelf. Walking down the aisle, he hunts through the titles on the spines, following the order. He slows and places a finger on a book, and tilts a paperback out. Stepping back over, he hands it to Cideeda with an encouraging tone. "The Illustrated Guide to Magical History. It's pretty much first semester magic history in illustrated novel style."

Straightening her posture, Sotalia stares at Bach incredulously. "Really?"

Cideeda inspects the paperback and flips through the table of contents. Bach points out the subjects in the listing. "It covers the Three Cataclysms, the Three Periods, the Abstract Prism, Foundation Constructs, and even basic Magical Flow Dynamics."

Sotalia peeks over Cideeda's shoulder and cocks her head in surprise. "Huh. It goes in how ridiculously dangerous Elder Energy is. Okay... Even how it caused the Third Cataclysm and prompted the creation of the Abstract Prism."

Noticing Cideeda's furry ears flicking around searching, Bach checks over the shelf and finds no camera crew visible on the other side. He returns his attention to the book in Cideeda's hands. "See. It's not bad at all. It has textbook parts after the story section, and it does a good job explaining it all. It even has a decent high-school romance subplot."

He cautiously scans the area and locates Tassilda and crew far off. "I think we're in the clear. They've moved on to the coffee shop."

Popping up on the ball of her feet, Cideeda's furry ears perk over the top of the shelving and flick around. "I was wondering where they moved off to."

Taking out her aetherphone from her tight fitting pants, Sotalia glances around before focusing upon the device. "Good. Anyway, I messaged Aristespha to see how far along she was and- Oh. Oh my."

Cideeda and Bach turn their attention to Sotalia. Scooting next to Sotalia, Cideeda reads the screen and blinks in astonishment with a flick of her tail. "Yeah. She's just MAD right now."

Fighting a flit of worry, Bach moves to peek at Sotalia's aetherphone. "Uh, what's going on? Huh?"

Sotalia holds her phone out for a better view to all and explains the developing situation. "Wow. Girl has gone full Low Evuukian in her rants. I'll be honest, I can only make out half of this, but I think we're not the only ones who ran into one of the Next Adventurers of Nexus."

With an uneasy groan, Cideeda hovers her claw tip over a few characters. "It's the fvalian. I recognize that term. Seems like she's stuck... behind her... in line?"

Bach squints at the new lines of characters and visibly struggles to comprehend between rocks of his head and contorting his face. "Uh, that's something not good. I've never seen half of these before. The ones I have... Um, it's never with anything you want directed at you."

Sotalia holds her phone up close and carefully reads the line a few times. She grits her teeth briefly. "Oh, girl is definitely furious. She's dropping out all the proper structure parts and really going off straight context."

Blinking her golden eyes, she stifles a snicker into a snort and tosses back her shoulder length dark red hair. "Okay... So, what do you two think this direct translation means? Brain devoid furred abomination destroy time. Yank bell broom handle feed, necklace reach rip start bell expedient ass exit."

Bach's blue eyes widen, and he scratches his head with his hiss of air through his teeth. "Um... Maybe we should check to see how Dretphi is doing?"

Nodding in agreement, Sotalia winces to an uncertain grimace as another line pops on the phone screen. Returning the illustrated guide back to its spot, Cideeda pats her pocket and slips out her phone. She motions towards the front exit while reading a message. "Dretphi says she is still waiting for the staff to get her order together over at the general store across the way."

After a quiet agreement, the three calmly but expediently escape the aisles towards the front door. Wincing at a thought, Bach shudders to a frown as they step out to the sidewalk in front of the bookstore. "Gods... Poor Sebastian. Hiding in the sword strapped to Aristespha's side right now."

Sotalia hisses breath through her teeth. "Yes. But, he's the only one keeping her calm right now."

Grimacing at the situation, Bach nods with a vaguely hopeful frown. "Well, I hope he's gotten better at that. That wasn't his strong suit back in the school."

----

In the open lobby of the general, overhead fans hang from the high rafters and blow a constant breeze down upon the customers shopping through the front aisles. A mix of brightly colored advertisements scattered around every convenient corner showcase the latest name brand fads with their products arranged in eye-catching displays. Throughout the store goods desired by the locals intermix with products geared towards adventuring groups. A banner waving gradually in the air conditioning currents displays "Amaranth Valley General Store" in big bold letters with "Last bit of civilization before your next adventure!" underneath in fancier script. The modest general shopping area contained with tall partition walls contrasts against the heavy metal structures supporting towering warehouse ceiling. Echoes of people and equipment filter in as distant noises, and employees rushing through doorways give glimpses of a greater, unseen complex.

Towards the back near huge double doors, a number of long counters with registers exist with different customers waiting for service. Dretphi's imposing form stands tall, and she sighs with stale annoyance trickling into her tone. Her steely gray eyes stare at a long, folded receipt in her hand, and her gaze wanders between the nearby double doors, the register showing order information, and the pallet platform next to the counter. The muffled squeaks of the wheeled cart sift through the closest doorway to the back, and Dretphi perks up. The metallic rumbles grow louder. Then, the noise fades. Seconds later, an employee rolls a hand truck stacked with goods through another set of double doors to a customer a few counters down. Rolling her eyes, Dretphi tosses back her platinum blonde braids over her shoulder and notices a grath man a few registers away. Cautiously peeking out of the corner of her eye, she observes the grath man subtly pose and straighten his posture with a tensing flex of his physique. Spotting the cameraman nearby, Dretphi eases out a long, frustrated sigh and keeps her gaze to the nearby doorway to the back with a hopeful grimace.

Retrieving his aetherphone from his belt holster, the cameraman studies the scene and reports with the phone against his ear. "Hey, Samantha... Your lone Unit C is still here with Trakenthin. He's failing to flirt with some grath woman. Complete no sale. It's getting sad."

Listening to the voice on the other side, he furrows his brow. "Hmm? Sure, I guess. Give me a moment.

Lowering his phone down and tap through the functions discreetly, he angles the device towards Dretphi and quickly snaps the image. With a nonchalant, wandering gaze around the room, he taps through a rehearsed sequence on the display and presses the speaker back his ear. "Sent it."

He briefly squints at Dretphi and nods with a thought. "You know... Now that you mention it, she does look familiar. Yeah... Huh, Unit A saw an evuukian woman with a really nice sword strapped at her side? I'll let you know if anything changes."

Summoning his confidence into his exterior, Trakenthin struts over towards Dretphi with a smile, his hand gliding over the counter tops along the way. Dretphi reads a new message on her aetherphone and searches around the nearby store. She gazes towards Trakenthin and waves in his direction. Smug smile springs forth on his dark bronze face, and he picks up the pace with a swift brush of his short, dirty blonde hair. Sotalia, Cideeda, and Bach hurry by Trakenthin right to Dretphi. Trakenthin sharply pivots and walks himself back to his original spot. He wrestles against an embarrassed grimace and his stride tenses up. Off to the side, the cameraman chuckles to himself while watching the retreat through a camera viewfinder. "Ouch. Denied."

Breathing out her anxious energy through a sigh, Dretphi quietly addresses everyone. "I am glad you arrived. Believed IT was going to talk to me."

Sotalia crosses her arms and tips her head back towards Trakenthin. "You mean the two meter tall ego back there?"

Dretphi groans with an annoyed grimace. "Yes. Unfortunately."

Grinning with a tinge of evil, Sotalia drips sarcasm. "Come on, Dretphi. I'm sure he's quite the accomplished man. Probably has plenty of trophies he wants to show you in the bedroom."

Furrowing his brow, Bach eyes Dretphi with a bit of concern. "Do you want us to do anything? I mean, is there something about him we should know? Sorry to pry, but you seem bothered by him."

Dretphi meets Bach's gaze and smiles warmly. "It is okay. Thank you for your concern. He seems an unfortunate nuisance from an aspect of Grath culture. One day he may achieve great things."

She narrows her eyes and peers at Trakenthin without moving her toward him. "For men that abide by those ideals, their deeds will receive a paragraph in history. Men the level of my fathers, write the history that paragraph will go in."

Containing her laughter, Sotalia reaches up to pat Dretphi on the shoulder. "You keep that bar high for the rest of us, girl."

Dretphi straightens up, crosses her arms, and dismissively rolls her eyes with grumble. "My bar to set."

Cideeda snickers with a shake of her head, and checks a new message on her phone. "Well, Aristespha is going to meet us at the guild office. I don't think she's in the mood to do any researching today."

Blinking her golden eyes widen, Sotalia briefly grits her teeth and settles upon an uneasy grimace. "Yeah. There's no translation for what I read.

Furrowing her brow, Dretphi searches for an explanation between the assembled group. After noticing the attention, Bach leans and whispers up. "She got held up by one of the Next Adventurers of Nexus."

Dretphi shakes her head and draws in a deep breath while relaxing her shoulders. "A sentiment I understand."

Noticing a clerk coming to the register, she pivots around in anticipation with a hopeful smile. The young emin clerk stands behind the register and promptly types upon the point of sale system. "I am so sorry about the wait. But, good news, your order is ready! We've already processed payment to your group card, and I am printing out your claim ticket. One of our warehouse assistants will be happy to cart your order out to your vehicle."

Dretphi takes hold of the claim ticket and her group card with a relieved nod. Stepping out from behind the counter, the clerk leads the way to a side door and guides the team. The intrigued cameraman finishes capturing a series of photos and presses the send icon on his aetherphone. Seconds later, a message window pops up on the display.

"Gods, Gerald. This is getting WEIRD now. Unit B is wrapping up with Tassilda right now. Meet me in the parking lot when you get done. We might need to call up Howie."

----

Gentle spring sun shines down upon the brick plaza between tall government buildings. As the image of the overhead sky reflects off the mirror tinted wall of windows, breezes sift through the young leaves sprouting out the branches of potted trees outlining a courtyard. Locals wander through the vicinity and quickly find paths towards the large parking lot of the open air mall. Between the crowds, small groups of people dressed in armor and other adventuring attire travel between the doors of a smaller structure with a simple sign next to the entrance, "Amaranth Valley Guild Office." Gathered around a metal mesh picnic table under the shade of an older tree, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia idly entertain themselves and occasionally check the areas. Furrowing his brow at the display of his aetherphone, Bach tilts the device into view of Cideeda and points at a line of text. "Okay, what does this setting actually do? I've never used that setting."

Cideeda's furry ears perk, and she glances her emerald green eyes at the screen. After a moment, she cracks a smirk and lifts a brow at Bach. "That's the automatic color mode setting. If you want it to change the color temperature depending on what time of day it is, you flip that on.

Bach gradually nods his head at the revelation and grimaces as understanding fails to fully materialize. "Okay... I might need to be educated on that."

As Cideeda taps claw tips on her phone and brings up an aethernet article, Dretphi scans across the plaza, slowing her hunt at the entries into the area, and frowns with concern. "She said she would be here."

Rapping her long, black nails upon the painted metal mesh of the table top, Sotalia leans back on her bench seat and glances around. "That's what she sent me. I wonder if something... Oh, there she is..."

A pair of violet eyes contrast the dark shade upon an ivory and blue and gray hinted face, framed by long silvery blue hair. Faint grumbles of Evuukian curses drift through the air with a part of very long, pointed ears twitching with her furious punctuation. Aristespha marches with her fists clenched, head bowed slightly, and frustration blatant. She halts in front of Bach, Sotalia, Cideeda, and Dretphi and tips back a distant glare. As she starts to open her mouth, a resonant voice at her side interrupts. "Dear. Take a deep, long breath first."

Fighting against a hesitant wince, Aristespha collects herself, closes her eyes, draws deep, filling breath. Exhaling with a long growl hidden in the mix, she stretches her neck to both shoulders. Sebastian's ethereal tone sounds out from the sword at Aristespha's side. "You might need another breath."

Aristespha grits her teeth, slowly hisses out her aggravation, and adjusts her attire back in order. "Thank you, Sebastian. I think I'll be fine."

Summoning up a new wave of calm, she relaxes her posture and sighs. "Well. It seems that some children's cereal is giving away medical mage licenses as the prize in the box. But despite the excessive delay, I was able to get the medical supplies we need."

A chipper tone colors Sebastian's voice. "Good! So, medical supplies, check. Sotalia?"

Sotalia works off a tight, humored smile, and tosses back her dark red hair. "Magical supplies are good. Unfortunately, there was nothing of value at the big book store. We didn't find a Local Lore section."

Sebastian resumes his run down and a ghostly hum sounds out. "Okay. We'll try the local library and maybe there's college that has some adventurer access program through the guild. Dretphi?"

Straightening her posture, Dretphi clears her smirk as she shifts her attention away from Aristespha. "Food requisitioned. Gear acquired. Found the jerky requested."

Cideeda happily grins with a perky wag of her long tail. "Thank you! Oh. We got Bach a new phone. And... We got new reading material at a really good price. Also, we managed to find a good source to sell any ancient trinkets in the future. But, didn't get to the ammo today."

Sebastian sounds out an understanding and appreciative tone and chuckles. "Well, I think that's pretty good for today, given all the interruptions we've had to work around. Before we call it a day, Bach, let's get you officially registered. Then, we can get out of here before we run into any more celebrities. Also, while Aristespha, Bach, and I handle all the paperwork stuff, the rest of you see if there's any missions, quests, and jobs you like posted."

As the group reassembles and enters the guild offices, off in the distance a cameraman and woman casually hang out by a van with the Next Adventurers of Nexus show logo plastered on the side. Despite the idle conversation, the two keep a very attentive eye on the guild office. As the minutes pass, the sun slowly drifts closer to the horizon and hints of orange sneak up high into the bright blue. The dark blonde haired cameraman sorts through equipment in the opened up van and idly chats with the brown haired woman with a packed clipboard. As minutes roll over to an hour, the two coordinate inventory efforts and review video clips. As late afternoon starts to lose out against early evening, the cars and people cycle out of the large central parking lot of the open air mall. With the change of locals, the volume of customers between shops shifts with the new demands, and entertainment businesses light up and ready for their evening prime time. Small groups wander towards Amaranth's Wrath Game Emporium with books, carriers of figurines, and boxes of neatly kept cards.

The metal framed, tinted glass doors of the guild office open. Bach trails behind the exiting team and examines his registration card closely. Sebastian's ethereal form floats behind Bach, and he peeks over his brother's shoulder with a proud smile. "It's pretty thing, bro."

Bach feels the card's facets, takes his wallet out, and carefully settles the card into the most prominent spot. "Yeah. Still though... I'm only, technically, an intern."

Sotalia's golden eyes glance over at the card in Bach's wallet and she perks her brow. "Still pretty cool that they can work it as an internship and have it count for college credit. Surprising given how long it has been."

Darting a quick peek over at the guild identification, Aristespha nods in agreement. "That paperwork is significantly easier now. On the other hand, the paperwork for denoting an authoritative proxy due to a team's leader being in a state rendering them physically incapable of signing forms through typical means due to unclassified magic from an ancient sword... THOSE are harrowing forms."

Sebastian catches Aristespha stare with an amused smirk and groans with a long roll of his translucent blue eyes. "Dear... If I could actually sign stuff, you know I would."

Aristespha winks playfully, rests a hand on the handle of the blade in the scabbard at her side, and taps. "I know. Well, before you scare the locals, if you could, Sebastian?"

Swirling his visage into the sword, his voice echoes out. "Understood. I just wanted to see Bach's registration card in the light while in that form. Vision is so weird from within the sword. Oh, anyone find anything good on the boards?"

The rest scroll through their aetherphones and take turns reading job descriptions. Debates follow after each reading and the team discusses jobs on their way to the humvee. Nearby a particular van, a cameraman records the group from a secluded spot and the woman with a clipboard stares in complete astonishment. She checks with the cameraman and stares hopefully. "Gerald. I hope you recorded all that."

Gerald grins smugly and lifts an confident, amused eyebrow. "Of course, Samantha. You'd think I'd miss something like that?"

Samantha flips up a section of pages, reveals her tablet, and quickly taps in notes. "I can't believe it. It's actually them and they are here. I've got to send all this to Howie. There's got to be a way to work this into this season."

----

Evening falls around the ranch style house as the last bit of the orange and red in the sky fades to dark blue. Through an open garage door, Cideeda flips on switch, and overhead lamps light up the large garage. Stepping around slowly, she surveys the workbenches surrounding the space. Eyeing the cabinets curiously with a pondering claw tip scratch of the chin, she hums to herself and wags her long furry tail with her thoughts. Through the doorway into the pantry section of the kitchen, Dretphi inspects the arrangement of groceries in the fridge. Standing up to her full, imposing height, she rests her hands on her hips and bounces her steely gray eyes between the packages of supplies on the nearby countertop and the scarce vacant spots inside the refrigerator. Sotalia walks on by with a casual glance over to the situation and continues her walk around the dining table and through the hallway archway. While walking down to her bedroom door, she turns her attention down one end of the hall and catches a glimpse of Bach plodding around his room with a new aetherphone in hand. An humored smirk appears on her light tan face and she guides stray locks over her pointed ears beyond dark gray patches below. Shifting her attention to the other end of the hall, she watches Aristespha step through the doorway with exhausted yawn. As Aristespha closes the door to her room, she removes the sheathed sword from her belt and places it on the bed. She slides the sword to a corner of the mattress and plops down in the middle. After removing her boot and excessive attire, she lays down the rest of the way on the bed and sighs deeply. Moments later, Sebastian's visage materializes and floats above her. "You okay, dear?"

Aristespha rubs her eyes and keeps them closed as she stretches out on the bed. "Yes. Just the state of things bothers me. I was ready to accept certain elements, but now new ones have been introduced that I was not anticipating."

Hovering down next to Aristespha on the bed, Sebastian grimaces uncertainly. "I know. But, we are making good progress. Bach is going on his first quest soon. That a big step."

Twisting her mouth with her thought, Aristespha ponders out loud. "Sebastian, your brother is still an unknown factor. Not that it is a bad thing. But, there's still much we don't know, and much you do not even know."

Sebastian frowns lightly and sighs with hints of self disappointment slipping in. "I know. I really wish I knew what more to tell you. He did mention the Nightmare Geist incident to me. And... How it left him a lame mage."

Aristespha 's violet eyes spring open, and she pivots her head to lock an examining glare on Sebastian. "Anything else?"

Blinking blankly from the sudden change of expression, Sebastian awkwardly glances around the room. "Uh, no. I kind of didn't want to push the issue. I mean I was amazed he mentioned it without me pestering him. So, I'm hoping he'll open up more once he gets some confidence back. I mean he's been out of the game a bit, and he's just recovering some of what he was capable of."

Closing her eyes, Aristespha rubs her temples in thought and massages her very long, pointed ears to the tips upon the mattress. Sebastian quickly stiffens up and glances down at Aristespha in a surge of concern. "I mean, is there something wrong with Bach? Like really wrong?"

Aristespha opens her violet eyes with a faint glow, reaches her hands up, and places them around Sebastian's translucent face gently. "Your brother is just fine. It's just... He has his abilities. What I am trying to figure out is how or even why he arrived at them. They are proficiencies that you would not expect."

Placing a hand on one of Aristespha's as his visage interacts with the faint magical flow around her, Sebastian smiles lovingly. "I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough, or he'll eventually tell us. I'm just happy to have him along... It just might turn out like what we promised each other when we were kids."

Aristespha warmly returns the smile as she lightly touches Sebastian's ethereal face. "We shall see. But, I want some answers eventually."

----

With a backdrop of a calm night through the windows above his bed, Bach examines his new aetherphone as he lays on top of the comforter. Flipping through menus, settings pages, and lists of icons, he eventually settles back on the home screen and mumbles to himself. "Well... ...it's time..."

Bach presses the phone icon and taps a series of numbers on the shown numeric pad. Holding the phone next to ear, he0 waits for the call to connect. After a few moments, Bach hears a familiar voice and his blue eyes soften. "Hey, mom. It's me. I just got a new phone and everything. Thanks to Sebastian. So, I wanted to try it out and... thought I'd call you."

Bach listens to his mother talk, nods with the conversation, and responds with the prompts. "He's doing well enough. Well, all things considered... Yeah, still getting used to it myself. So, I guess he's been keeping you up to date with- Well, I guess, technically, Aristespha has, since he hasn't figured out a way yet."

He tilts his head to the side and ponders a moment on something said. "Huh. Yeah, I guess his voice would sound weird over the speakerphone. When did you last talk to him?"

He nods briefly. "Okay. Well, saves a lot of long explanations. Give me a second... I think I got this figured out on the phone. It's got so many new functions, I'm barely about to make a call happen."

Removing the phone from his ear, Bach aims the front camera at his registration card. After he presses a few buttons, he replaces the aetherphone on his ear. "Did you get tha-"

Stopping mid sentence, he gently smiles with a tear welling in his eye. His mothers voice, happy and excited, calls out to someone in the background on the other side of the call. After a cheerful explanation from her, another masculine voice calls out loud enough to be audible near the phone speaker. "Well, it's about fucking time! Went to school long enough."

Bach rolls his blue eyes with a snort and shakes his head. "Thanks, dad!"

The voice of Bach's mother continues in a rapid succession of excited prompts that rise up from the speaker. Easing the phone away from the loud excitement, Bach interrupts. "Hey, mom, I'll answer all those. But, there's something I've been working on that I want you to see first. Let's see if I can figure out this feature. Cideeda show me it once, and I hope I can remember the steps."

Holding his hand out and palm up, Bach aims the front camera of the phone. He presses an icon on the screen, and a video stream of his mother's face appears in a smaller corner overlay on top of the video of his palm. Concentrating with a dim blue glow in his eyes, faint, flickering outlines appear in Bach's hand. The framework fills in with a transparent form, and soon details and color materialize. In seconds, the vague outline of flowers morphs into a bundle of violets, the forms solidifying into stabilized magical energy. Bach's mother's face floods with awe and pride as she watches the process. He presses the icon on the display again and puts the phone back to his ear. "I kind of wanted to show you in person. But, I figured, with everything going on, I'd just show you now. I'll get it in the mail to you soon."

-5-

A split unit air conditioner in the two bed hotel room hums up to speed as the vent blades slowly open. Seconds later the electronic door room beeps loudly and disengages with a solid thunk. The door swings open, and Samantha rushes in with Gerald following immediately behind her. Gerald hurries over to a desk near the large room window, places his camera down, and flips up a laptop screen. As the device springs to life, he eagerly connects the camera to the computer. Throwing herself onto one of the beds, Samantha pulls herself to the edge and fishes a laptop out of a carrier bag with an excited grin. "I can't fucking believe it! Howie is going to love this! When you get the video downloaded, send it straight to his aethermail."

Gerald swiftly slips into the chair near the desk and concentrates his full attention to the screen. "Will do! Howard is going to flip when he see this in his mail tomorrow."

A wicked smile emerges on Samantha's face, and she toggles the speakerphone on her aetherphone. "Tomorrow?! Oh, he's seeing this tonight!"

Blinking from a flit of shock, Gerald halts mid key presses and spins his head to face Samantha. "Are you sure about that? It's pretty late his time where he's at right now. And... Last time we called him late... It wasn't with good news."

Samantha places the phone next to her, taps the screen, and situates herself on the bed with a smug perk of her posture. "Oh, he'll be fine once he sees the video."

The phone rings, rings again, and again. After a few more chimes, the device clicks loudly as sounds of ambient quiet from the other side of the call filter out. A loud cough, a phlegm choked growl, and begrudging groan blasts out from the speaker. "Oh gods... Who the fuck is it at this hour?"

With her sweetest and most innocent voice, Samantha cheerful chimes. "It's me, Howie!"

A long pause hangs in the room. A long strained sigh breathes out from the other side of the connection and the voice dreadfully pleads. "Dear gods... Please tell me one of the lemmings hasn't gotten themselves killed already-"

Samantha squirms annoyed and blurts out with tinges of disappointment. "NO! They're all alive. Check your mail, Howie."

The phone resonates with the sounds of Howard stirring around on his side of the world. Grumbling to himself, he directs his frustration over the phone. "GERALD. Are you there?"

Gerald cringes, pauses from his work on the laptop, and chuckles uneasily. "Yes. I'm here. And I warned her!"

Sounds of movement stop, and Howard sniffs up groggy congestion and sighs long. "Okay, I'm opening it. I swear this had better be good. I'm coming down from a night I may not remember in the morning, and my head is pounding. If this isn't good, I'm booking you two rooms at the roach motel the new team are-"

The sudden drop into silence steals the attention of Gerald and Samantha. Loud gasps from the phone interrupt the glances Samantha and Gerald exchange. Gleeful cackles prompt Samantha and Gerald to curl celebratory fists to each other with growing smiles. A pleasureful moan rolls in from the phone. "Oh... Oh my. This... THIS is why I keep you two around. You two can find the speck of pure gold in a sea of shit."

Samantha lowers her head to her phone with an inquiring curl at the corner of her mouth. "So... How should we proceed?"

A few hums and clicks of the mouth play over the speaker before settling, and Howard drawls in a contemplative breath. "You two keep on task. I'll mail over a copy of the mission our adventurers are going on at the start of the work week. It's just some simple survey of some musty old ruins. There's a few on the list they had, so I got the one closest to town. I'm going to pound down two aspirin and a liter of water, and sleep some happy dreams thanks to you two. I'm going to call in a few favors from certain people who didn't realize they owed me. Then... We'll go from there."

With a sly smile, Samantha sinks into her pile of hotel bed pillows. "Will do. Oh, and they've already had some encounters with each other."

Howard's anticipation exudes from the speaker. "Oh? Do tell."

A fully evil grin overtakes Samantha's face. "Deedri held up Aristespha. I swear Aristespha was about to draw the sword. And, Trakenthin flirted with Dretphi... and got shut down."

Howard releases a satisfied breath and chuckles darkly. "Oh my, dear. If you talk any dirtier to me, I might need to start paying per minute."

Samantha laughs and reaches over to her phone. "Then, I guess I need to let you off. If we get any more goodies, we'll let you know."

Gerald directs his voice towards Samantha's phone. "Hey, Howard. You wouldn't happen to know who the new guy is in the group? I've never seen him before."

Samantha nods in confirmation to Gerald and waits for Howard's response. After a very long stretch of silence, a whisper of genuine surprise finds its way over. "Oh my. That has to be Sebastian's brother! Bach Warwick. I remember seeing his name mentioned in some material about Sebastian. Oh, I am interested now... What is he doing around with them now?"

----

A collection of documents litter the dining in the living area of the house with a few tables and a holoplayer in the mix. Aristespha, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sotalia debate between each other and shift their attention between different quest information packets. Bach sits back in his seat, occasionally glancing towards his brother curiously. A faint reverberating sigh slips out from Sebastian, and he grants an understanding nod to Bach. After some time, he manages an ethereal whistle and grabs everyone's attention. "Okay... So, I think we're all in agreement that we'd all like to slum it a bit with a whole bunch of easy jobs. Correct?"

Throwing her head of dark red hair back, Sotalia lifts an eyebrow and huffs. "Yes! Just some straight forward gigs for once. Preferably anything that a good fireball could fix. I'm starting to feel out of practice?"

Bach momentarily furrows his brow and narrows an incredulous stare. Cideeda stretches her arms out across the table and rests her head on the tabletop with flicks of her furry ears. "That would be nice. Though, I still like mine. It's not everyday a local government gives free reign to crack open an old military installation. Just think of what we could find..."

A toothy grin graces her light brown face, and a greedy spark glints in her emerald green eyes. "That really wouldn't be worth reporting to the government officials.

Dretphi nods with both her hands propping her head up above the table and stares inwards contemplatively. "I am interested in that job. Not now. Later. We need a simple, safe job now."

Uncrossing her arms, Aristespha shrugs her shoulders and idly with her silvery blue hair. "I'll admit that after all we have been through, a few easy jobs would be nice. BUT... We will need to start thinking about looking for signs of Noxian after this."

Sotalia, Cideeda, and Dretphi nod in agreement, while Sebastian ponders quietly and Bach remains uncomfortable in his seat. Sotalia swings her attention to Sebastian and narrows her golden eyes in anticipation. "So, what's the plan?"

Sebastian points to three packets and motions for Dretphi and Cideeda to group them together in the middle of the table. "Well, these three seem simple and straight-forward. Since this will be Bach's first mission, I think he should choose."

Startling back to the awareness, Bach glances around at the situation around him and uneasily notices the attention upon him. He leans forward slowly and pulls the three stacks of paper closer. Reading over the summary texts, he furrows his brow as memory flips back to the recent. After deliberation and swapping between the packets, he summons up a bit of confidence and places down his choice in front of his brother. "I think I like this one best."

Sebastian's ethereal form leans closer to the document, and he nods with a intrigued smirk. "So, tell us, why that one?"

Bach sits up straight in surprise. Sorting through a flurry of thoughts, he draws in a deep breath and ponders out loud. "Um... Well... It's a survey job. The place is an abandoned outpost for a long dead government. It was last reported inactive. All the job says is they want a group to go out and make sure it still is inactive. If all goes well, we tour a piece of history, take some pictures, and go home without any trouble. Also... If this one isn't too much trouble, it looks like they've got a few similar places that need surveying, too."

Sebastian surveys the rest of the team's reactions and gauges their expressions. When agreement manifests upon Aristespha, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia's faces, Sebastian crosses his arms and smiles proudly. "Alright. If there's no objections, let's do it. We'll see how this one goes and pick the next one from there."

Reaching over the table from her seat, Aristespha plucks up the job and keys identification numbers into her tablet. "I'll send our bid in. I should get confirmation sometime tonight, and we'll set off tomorrow morning."

Sebastian drifts down and gazes at Bach with a grin. "How does it feel choosing your first mission, bro?"

Bach blinks with his thoughts, breathes deeply, and groans uncertainly. "I don't know. Excited and worried? I don't know which is winning out right now."

With an understanding nod, Sebastian throws his hands to the sides with a shrug. "That's par for the course. It means you're keeping all possibilities in mind."

Tipping her head back, Sotalia laughs while guiding stray bangs over her horns and slyly grins. "Oh, don't worry... If the mission is a bust, we'll just blame you."

Cideeda furrows her brow at Sotalia from across the table and tilts her head into a hand with a smug smile. "Yes. And, we'll always remind you just when you think everyone has forgotten about it. Right, Sotalia?"

Averting her eyes away from the group briefly, Sotalia narrows her golden eyed stare and briefly sneers into a defiant grimace. "Gods damn it, girl... ONE time. Just one time. None of you will let me live it down."

A low grumble emanates from Dretphi, and her attention goes into the internal distance with uncomfortable memory. "Dried slime in my hair... WEEKS... Afterwards."

Bach scans around the group and furrows a curious gaze at Sebastian. "Um, do I want to ask? Or should I leave that one alone?"

Sebastian chuckles with a few snorts and rubs the back of neck as his bravado fades. "Oh... THAT... Uh, that was NOT one of our finer missions. Admittedly, there were moments. Funny moments to remember... Now."

Aristespha cringes with a shudder down her spine and shakes her head side to side as memories surface back up. "Gods... We went to check out an unexplored ruin for a newly formed county, since the ruin was in their land grant from the state. The only history we could find was that a very strange mage from the second era lived around there. A VERY strange mage indeed..."

Sotalia groans with traces of disgust surfacing and raps her long, black fingernails upon a paperwork packet as her discomfort simmers. "It turned out that mage had some crazy idea to find a commercial purpose for this breed of ooze he found on some trip. It was a herbivore slime that was harmless."

Narrowing her emerald eyes with a stubborn muscle twitch forming, Cideeda grimaces and squirms in her chair with irritated wags of her tail. "Harmless, physically. Mentally, on the other hand..."

Bach wanders his expectant gaze between the team, pausing with hopes of new information. Dretphi meets Bach's attention, closes her steely gray eyes, and monotonously speaks. "They spit slime. Excessive amounts. EVERYWHERE."

Aristespha sinks back into her chair with a slight frown on her ivory face and sighs as she crosses her arms. "That was such a nice top and matching skirt. It was such a shame what happened to it."

Sotalia nods somberly to Aristespha. "Girl, I know. It really looked good on you. But, there was just no saving it."

She glances over to Dretphi. Both shake their heads in unison, and Dretphi grits her teeth briefly and sighs. "I am skilled. Not that skilled."

Sebastian draws a breath in and grins sinisterly. "But, destroying that spawning pool and the lab was fun though."

Sotalia giggles evilly and flexes her hand in spell casting motions. "Oh gods, we were on our WORST behavior. I fried SO MANY of those little snot ball shits. We absolutely wrecked that place."

Glancing at the near devious and manic shift around the table, Bach witnesses the displays of satisfaction and vindication around. Aristespha breaks away from her reminiscing. "You will have to understand that while it was certainly destructive and immensely cathartic, it was within mission parameters. The slimes were an invasive species and would need to be destroyed. And despite filing it to the Grand Library, that mage's notes read worse than a fetish fanfiction."

Dretphi gazes forward, wrestling down an unamused grimace. "Initially, our actions may have not been appropriately justified. After an hour with the garden hose... In the fall... Before we were allowed into the hotel to shower... Believe our response was MERCIFUL."

With excited wags of her long tail, Cideeda snickers loudly and rocks back into her chair. "Oh gods! You should have seen the front desk clerk. That was a brave man to stand up to us and tell us we had to wash ourselves off before going any further."

Aristespha smirks, rolls her violet eyes, and sighs dismissively. "To be fair, they did just get new carpet in the rooms and hallways when we were there. I certainly would not want to explain the mess to my boss, if I were him."

Crossing her arms, Sotalia narrows her golden eyes and snorts. "Girl, that was probably the best job that guy had going for him in that town. So, I can't fault him for wanting to keep it."

Shaking his head with the memories, Sebastian floats away from the table and addresses everyone. "Okay... Well, lets get everything filed and get ready. We'll head on out early tomorrow and see if we can find a good place for breakfast."

----

The humvee rolls into a parking space behind a large diner, and the powerplant winds down. Cideeda hops out, adjusts the tactical vest over her body suit, and places her keys in a pocket of her cargo shorts. Stepping down, Sotalia ruffles through her armored cloak, unfastens her belt pouches, and places them on her seat before closing the door. Confidently exiting the vehicle, Aristespha brushes off her long sleeved top and pants combination, taps her boots of debris, and cinches the strap to the scabbard of The Sword on her side. Bach steps out and gazes around the area. A gust of wind fans his duster and blows his longer hair around. Grinning as the fluttering duster dramatically reveals the rest of his armored attire, Bach stands tall as a swell confidence washes over him. Sotalia rolls her eyes with a smile and walks towards the front door quietly snickering. Dretphi works her way through the aisle of the humvee and squeezes behind a pulled up seat to get outside. Her tall stature imposes with the dark gray soft armor plating layering her body. The group gathers back up and ventures to the front door of the diner. Bach calls ahead towards Cideeda. "So, I guess it's easier parking in the back?"

Flicking her furry ear back, Cideeda glances over her shoulder. "That, and it keeps us from tipping people off. I try to park away from the windows."

Sotalia pulls open the front door to the building and pivots to face Bach while holding the door open. "Gods, we were having the WORST luck capturing bounties when we got the humvee. Then, it finally dawned on us that even an old humvee was just suspicious enough to make people on the run nervous."

Rolling her emerald green eyes, Cideeda steps through the doorway with a wry smirk. "I don't know. I always thought the old battered work van we had was scarier than an antique military vehicle. That's just me, I guess."

Aristespha strides in front of the group to the restaurant host and greets him with a calm smile. The host perks up and surveys the group while hovering a stylus over a podium mounted tablet. "Hello! Welcome to the Amaranth Dining House, we are currently serving breakfast! Seating for five?"

Nodding in agreement, Aristespha pats on the handle of the sword at her side. "Yes, a table please, if possible. Also, is there any issue with this?"

The host glances down to the sword and shakes his head nonchalantly. "Oh, none at all. All we ask is that melee weapons remain sheathed and locked. Any large firearms will need to be unloaded and placed into these lockers over there. Finally, we kindly request no casting of powerful or dangerous spells on the premises."

As the rest of the team approve of the rules, Bach relaxes his shoulders and tilts his head curiously to the side. "Huh, wow. That's a pretty permissive policy."

The host sweeps a stack of menus, taps commands on the podium tablet, and motions the party to follow him. "Well, here at the Amaranth Dining House, we like to accommodate adventurers, mercenaries, and specialists that often operate out of our city. In fact, we even have seating geared for such groups to make it easier to enjoy your dining experience!"

Bach chuckles lightly and glances around the busy restaurant, as the group weaves through the walkways between seating sections. "Ah. Probably to keep from scaring the locals?"

The host glances back, quirks a brow, and smiles amused. "Well, actually, it's quite the opposite. There's a yearly adventuring convention at a center nearby, and the attendees have an annoying habit of bothering our adventuring patrons. So, if ever we ask for guild registration cards, that's because the convention is happening and we want to make sure you all can dine in peace."

The party enters an area with larger tables, wider gaps separating the tables, and reinforced steel chairs with extra cushioning. The host surveys the area and visually checks the two other groups dining already. A dozen of specialist military personnel from the Greater Azure Alliance converse between two tables, and a small team of three people with the markings of Borderland Rangers idle with fresh coffee between them. Directing the party to a table, the host distributes menus and bows politely. "Your server will be with you shortly. I hope you enjoy your time here."

Everyone slides the sturdy steel chairs and sits down to browse the menus. Dretphi quirks an intrigued eyebrow and twists her mouth uncertainly. "Grath style steak, eggs. Interesting. Shall see how Grath that is."

Sotalia points to a spot on the menu and squints her golden eyes down the list. "Yeah, I saw that. I think I'm going to play it safe with the pancakes, bacon, and eggs platter."

Placing the menu down, Bach nods and straightens his posture. "Think I'll have to do the Grand Tour."

Cideeda licks her lips, agrees with herself, and passes the menu down to the forming pile. "Fruit, yogurt, and juice for me."

Perplexed at Cideeda, Bach furrows his brow and cocks his head. "That's all?"

Lifting an eyebrow, Cideeda cracks a smirk and motions to herself. "I have a figure to maintain if I'm to fit in half the ducts I crawl into in most of these ruins. That..."

She bounces her emerald green stare between Aristespha, Bach, and Sotalia with a wry curl to her grimace. "And, I don't have the convenience of being able to nuke calories like you mages."

With a perk of her furry ears, she taps a claw tip upon a colorful picture on the front of the menu. "Also... I think I'm going to get a dozen of those honey buns to go. I'm going to need a little something later if we're digging around ruins."

A server arrives at the table with a tray of mugs and a glass pot of coffee. After delivering the precious cargo to the table, she stands by ready to take orders and sweeps gaze over. "Hello, I'm Kimberly and I'll be your server. Are you all ready to order?"

Aristespha lifts a finger up to catch Kimberly's attention, points to a section of the menu, and smiles politely. "Yes. I'll have the sausage and bacon platter. And if at all possible, could they cook the toast on the grill after they fry the bacon?

Kimberly jots down the request and nods with a smile. "I'm certain our cooks can manage that."

She cycles around the table while writing down orders and leaves towards the kitchen. Pausing to talk to the manager, Kimberly and the manager both watch vans pull into the parking lot with the "Next Adventurers of Nexus" logo prominent on their sides. Samantha exits out of one of the vans and walks to the back. Gerald hops out and steps to Samantha as she opens the back doors to the equipment. He hoists up a large television camera onto his shoulder and eyes Samantha curiously. "Okay, so what's the plan here?"

Samantha flips through her clipboard, furrows her brow as her hazel sort through the maze of notes, and takes a deep breath in. "Okay... The kids will get here in the next few minutes. We'll run them through some video journal bits and get them in there. If you could, can you record some scenery bits? The editors will need some B rolls to lead from and pad with."

Gerald nods and takes a quick survey of the area. "I think I'll get the sign and go from there. You going to confirm with the manager here?"

Samantha sighs, flips over another mass of paperwork, and pats around her pocketed vest. "Yes. I'll need to get them prepared and make sure all the arrangements are still good. Plus, I need to make sure they've signed all the waivers."

Inside the reserved section, Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia begin to eat their orders of food. Dretphi chews on her steak and furrows her brow uncertainly. Taking a break from his meal, Bach gazes over and judges Dretphi's reaction. "So, are the steak and eggs really Grath style?"

Dretphi swallows and balances her opinion into indifference on her tan face. "They are not bad. Do not have a proper stone slab grill. Competent despite limitations."

Aristespha devours her bacon with ravenous satisfaction, pausing only to answer the stare from Sotalia. "What? It's been months since I've been able to enjoy some greasy breakfast food. Medical magic takes energy, anyway..."

Sotalia snickers, holds her hand up placatingly, and returns her plate. "Girl, however you want to justify it is fine with me."

Cideeda's furry ear flicks repeatedly. Blinking to awareness, she perks her ears towards a source. She pops her head up and searches distantly towards the entry lobby. With a wincing cheek, she grimaces and faces the rest of the team. "Shit..."

Bach and Sotalia twist in their chairs. Dretphi focuses her gaze and frowns. Aristespha lifts her head up and angrily bites a breakfast sausage in half. Sebastian's voice echoes faintly from the sword. "Um... I'm obviously missing something here. Anyone want to fill me in? I can't see much inside the sword."

Bach settles back in his seat and directs his voice towards the sword. "Uh, the Next Pains of Nexus wants breakfast, too."

Within the small group of Borderland Rangers, a man briefly aims a steely glare over to the entry point. He grumbles and returns to his meal, shaking his head. "If you see our server, flag him down, Heccaeh."

The fvalian man nods, takes a moment to scan the area, and then resumes eating. As the sword at Aristespha shifts with her stiffening posture, Sebastian's ethereal tone rises up. "Dear, just enjoy your meal. We'll leave before they get too stupid."

Aristespha grumbles lowly in nearly silent Evuukian between bites. Dretphi glances over to Aristespha with an amused, tight smile and rolls her steely gray eyes. Cideeda resumes eating and flashes a disdainful glare at Deedri. Bach returns his attention to his plate. He stares in confusion as his fork hovers over an empty spot. Sotalia quickly sneaks in a piece of bacon between her lips and into her mouth. Straightening up, she aims the fork back to her own plate and nonchalantly continues her meal. A flurry of activity erupts a few tables down, and recording crews search for positions near their desired shots. The Next Adventurers of Nexus stride prominently to their table in the adventurers section. Chad Bosch leads the pack and stops in front of the Greater Azure Alliance specialists. "It's always good to check the local places to see what other adventurers and heroes are in town. Such as our men and women in uniform."

The specialists cheer roughly together in a halfhearted display. Chad continues down the path with a bright smile. Stopping beside Sotalia and Aristespha at the end of the table, he perks his brow with a pleasant tone. "Why hello fellow-"

Examining the group quickly, his posture stiffens, and he contorts the corner of smile. "Diverse adventurers. What brings all of you to this fair town?"

Aristespha takes a breath in and molds her posture to project an air of propriety and superiority. "Oh. Nothing significant. Just simple tasks and chores, and other bores to fine adventurers like yourselves. Hopefully, we will be moving on to other quests soon enough."

Sotalia's golden eyes size Tassilda up. Noticing the attention, Tassilda smugly judges Sotalia with a light blue on black glare. Donning a stoic exterior, Dretphi remains silent and steers her stare clear of Trakenthin. Deedri happily and excitedly waves to Cideeda, and the bell around her neck rings with the motion. Cideeda weakly waves back, and her halfhearted smile barely hangs on against the awkwardness. Bach eats slowly and sinks slightly down to avoid attention. Nodding at Aristespha, Chad's brown eyes analyze each member, and he pauses his survey upon Bach. "My knowledge of adventuring allows me to figure out everyone here... Except you..."

Carefully turning his head, Bach meets the examining gaze from Chad and uneasily glances around. "Um... Intern. You know, just learning the ropes. I'm picking up my schooling where I left off a while ago. Figured I'd try to complete it."

Chad's expression flashes back his iconic, non-threatening smile. "Ah! It's good for a group to take on someone and help them on their journey. It was good to meet all of you, but we must be off."

Trailing behind the host, the Next Adventurers move to the final table before their own. When the Borderland Rangers get their ticket from the server rushing off, they stand up into the aisle. As the leader just manages to get his wide brimmed, pinched-front hat on, he pivots towards the exit and meets Chad. Extending a hand to shake, Chad grins proudly and nods towards the man. "I'm Chad Bosch, Leader of the Flames of the Phoenix adventuring group. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir!"

The Borderland Ranger leader squares his shoulders as muffled sounds of cybernetics actuate. He reaches with his right hand into his jacket pocket and hands a roll of cash and the bill to Heccaeh. "You two go pay up and wait in the truck. I'll be out soon."

Heccaeh and another woman ranger deftly weave through the crowd of adventurers and crew. The leader fixes his cold, steely eyes directly at Chad. Crossing his arms, he taps upon his right arm with a cybernetic left hand. "Captain Hays of the Borderland Rangers. Acquaintance made. Any business with me you need to discuss?"

Chad bolsters his bravado and attempts an equivalent stare back at Captain Hays. "Maybe. Any news?"

A dry corner smile cracks, and Captain Hays bows his head slightly as his hat shades his sun weathered face. "Well... Hauled what was left of some group of would-be adventurers after a supposed geist had its way with them. Thinking about it... You all look real similar to them."

The harsh silence weighs down upon the area with the epicenter between Hays and Chad. As the seconds pass, Chad struggles against his growing unease as his body fights to squirm. Captain Hays's smile widens to a thin grin across his scarred cheeks, nearly touching both gray sideburns. "Do us all a favor, and keep out of the zones for... a while."

Nodding slowly, Chad drags his iconic smile back onto his face and stumbles to finish up the conversation. "I'll... take that as advice, sir. You have a... nice day."

The Next Adventurers shuffle over to their table, and the camera crew surrounds them afterwards. Captain Hays shakes his head at the spectacle, and pivots away down the aisle. When his view changes, he stares at Aristespha, Dretphi, Cideeda, and Sotalia with recognition. Halting next to the party's table, he tips his hat and gazes over the group. "Excuse me. Am I safe to assume you all are who I think you all are?"

Aristespha perks up, studies Captain Hays, and gently nods. Dretphi, Cideeda, and Sotalia follow suit, while Bach watches uncertainly. Captain Hays reaches into another pocket on his jacket and pulls out a few business cards. "Good. I was told by my commander that if I were to encounter certain persons, I was to give them my contact information. And, I was also to give them assurance that they would have assistance in their quest to eliminate a general pain in everyone's ass when requested."

He visits each member around the table, extends a hand to shake, and gives them a business card. When Hays reaches Bach, he pauses a moment, tilts his head, and engages his piercing gaze. "You look... Similar to someone."

Bach shrugs nervously and chuckles awkwardly. "Um... I'm the brother trying to get back into the swing of things. And eventually... Take on this general pain in the ass."

Captain Hays holds his hand out and Bach shakes his hand. Flipping the last card out, he places it in Bach's hand and nods. "I can appreciate that. Good luck, and if you all need to head into the zones, let me know. I'd be happy to get you all a guided tour."

He gives a final tip of the hat and walks to the front exit, his heavy boots sounding upon the floor and cybernetics actuating when his left arm swings. Rotating the card in his hand, Bach studies it closely and glances at the rest of the team. "Huh. Neat. At least somebody else is on our side."

Chad narrows his eyes and frigidly stares over his menu, his characteristic smile missing in action.

----

Outside a large perimeter fence, the humvee slows to a halt and the powerplant winds back down. From inside the cab the team stare curiously out at the large warning signs, in different languages and posted at regular intervals. Opening the front passenger's side door, Sotalia hops out and groans with a roll of her golden eyes. "That woman is such an Emin Purist. Did you see the way she looked at me?! She was totally trying to figure out if I should be called a half-breed or a mutt."

Stepping out the rear passenger door, Bach glances around the parking area at the dirt and intermixed chunks of pavement. He scratches the back of his head and furrows his brow at Sotalia. "I really didn't get that from her. It seemed like two mages sizing each other up to me."

Crossing her arms, Sotalia tosses back the red hair in her face to reveal a smug grin on her light tan face. "Ha! That little wannabe has nothing on me."

Cideeda slips out the driver's seat and grumbles while securing her vest and light backpack. "Gods. I just hope they didn't record me waving to HER and use it in the show."

Rigid and stiff, Aristespha steps around the vehicle and closer to the perimeter and sighs long. Sebastian's ethereal visage coasts in front of her, and he presents a loving smile. "Hey. It's okay, dear. We're at the job, and we're away from them."

Aristespha stretches the tension out of her shoulders and takes in a deep breath with a grimace. "I'll be fine, Sebastian. I just wanted to have a nice start to the day."

Sebastian grins and gazes into Aristespha's violet eyes. "I think we handled it well. And, we got a good contact out of it. So, it's still a net gain. Let's get started on the mission."

With a calming exhale, a reserved smile cracks on Aristespha's ivory, blue and gray hinted face, and she returns a loving gaze to Sebastian. "Yeah. You are right. Let me get the access code into the perimeter fence, and let us see the entrance to this place."

Sounds of shuffling and shifting equipment emanate from the back of the humvee, and Dretphi squeezes out. She stands tall, adjusts the hard plating attached to her under-armor, and flexes her body in the suit. Taking hold of a bullpup submachine gun, she guides the carrying strap over her shoulder and checks over the weapon. While the group congregates around the perimeter gate, Aristespha reaches over her shoulder into her small backpack and retrieves a tablet. She reads a few lines of text on the screen and presses buttons on a keypad lock. The status light turns green, a tone rings out, and the gate lock disengages. Aristespha pushes cautiously, and the gate drifts open the rest of the way. The party walks down a rough dirt path between overgrown grass to the entrance of the old outpost. Behind shrubs and vines, another series of moss stained warning signs decorate the walls near the entrance of the facility. Holding the tablet up to the group, Aristespha angles the screen to avoid the glare slipping through the sparse canopy of the surrounding trees. "Okay. This was the last picture taken of the entrance."

The team scrutinizes the picture on the tablet, compares it against the worn and aged entrance, and bounce between the finer details. After a few minutes, the group settles upon a mix of indifference and unimpressed. Gauging their expressions, Sebastian confidently poses and puts on a daring grin. "Well, that's a good sign so far. This is looking like it'll be a straight forward-"

Low, barely audible noises of utility systems powering up flood the air around the entrance. Dim lights switch on down the previous dark hallway past the entrance, with a lone exterior lamp flickering to life at the end of the chain. Sebastian's confidence wilts away into an awkward smirk. He blinks in disbelief, while holding his arms out puzzling. Moments later, he glances over his shoulder to Aristespha and furrows his ethereal brow. "This is NOT in the description of how it was, right?"

Aristespha slowly shakes her head as her violet eyes dart around seeking an answer. The group checks, primes, and readies their weapons and equipment. Sebastian hovers in front of the group and motions the team. "Alright. I'll scout five to ten meters ahead to check for anything obvious. Dretphi and Cideeda mind the front. Aristespha and Sotalia be ready with magic and range. Bach, support where you can and keep an eye on the back to make sure whatever doesn't try to pull a cheap one on us from behind. Okay... Let's do this."

The team filters through the entrance cautiously steps through the long hall, deeper into the structure. They wander down wide, dusty corridors under the glow of grime coated lamps. At each intersection, Sebastian's visage coasts down each path and carefully surveys the passages. During the exploration, Cideeda's furry ears perk towards suspicious devices, and she halts the team to investigate further. Dretphi keeps watch over the group as her suspicions bounce between the dark ends of hallways and the shadows beyond open doors. Glancing her golden gaze around, Sotalia pauses with a grimace during the inspection and frowns uncertainly. Aristespha eyes unique details of the structure and compares it against a similar picture on her tablet. With paranoia keeping him tense, Bach uneasily darts his gaze around each turn and corridor with his hand on his holstered plasma pistol.

As the party delves further in the barely functional facility, tension gives way to suspicion. Phasing through armored doors, Sebastian peeks beyond physical reach and puzzles at the findings with confusion growing. Steps upon the concrete floors echo over the still, stagnant silence. Concern and worry wanes against the waves of bewilderment and frustration washing over the team. As the team reaches another intersection of pipe and panel lined halls, Cideeda rubs her temples in frustration and growls out. "OKAY. WHAT is going on here?!"

Drifting back down the dimly lit, concrete hallway towards the group, Sebastian surveys the vicinity as he flies along. "Nothing. The lights are on, but... there's literally no one home. I checked behind the doors, and there's a few defense droids that might be functional. I mean, there was that one room with stasis pods for cyborgs or something crazy like that. But, it doesn't look like anything has moved in decades. Plenty of undisturbed layers of dust everywhere, and nothing else is on besides some emergency lamps."

Gritting her sharp teeth, Cideeda lowers her furry ears and cocks her head with a frown. "This is not right. I've found detectors and sensors not even powered up for some kind of advanced security system. Hell, I bet the cameras aren't even active."

Bach glances up and spots an aged coated dome on the ceiling within the next stretch of hallway. When he points it out, Cideeda nods, squints her emerald green eyes, and aims her furry ears at the device. Reaching into a pocket, she draws out a green beamed laser pointer and aims a dot right at the camera. "Yeah. That definitely is a camera and looks like one on a gimbal. But... normally, I would hear servos running or even high pitched electrical whines from some of the components. There's nothing."

Bach's eyes glow a faint blue, and he holds his hand out. A small glowing orb immediately forms in the palm of his hand. He glances around at the team and waits. Cideeda quickly nods a confirmation and points a claw tip down the hall. With a flick of the wrist, Bach sends the glowing orb drifting down a dimly lit passage. Cideeda carefully watches and listens with her furry ears flicking around the air. Shaking her head, she twists her mouth and contorts an unsatisfied grimace on her light brown face. "Nothing. Didn't even TRY to motion detect and track. Even if it was on some kind of standby mode that should have woken it up."

Aristespha closes her glowing violet eyes and rubs the fatigue forming in her face. She opens her eyes back up, no longer glowing, and sighs. "I am not detecting any kind of magical activity here. No recent or even past disturbances from what I can sense."

Crossing her arms, Sotalia spins in place and scans the immediate area, unamused. "I can confirm that. Absolutely nothing."

She bends over, picks up a small toothpick sized stick on the floor, and holds it for everyone. Faint traces of magic flow coast up her arm to her hand, the toothpick glows brightly, and she frowns. "The only time I've seen any of these magical detector sticks activate is when I trigger them. There's nothing magically going on here."

Dretphi furrows her brow, kneels down to the smooth, concrete floor, and drags a gauntlet covered finger along it. Countless years of dust collect during the long swipe, and the cleared section reveals the contrast between the caked on dust and floor. "I have not seen any area disturbed. No signs of activity."

Sebastian crosses his arms, stares off in thought, and ponders out loud. "Dear? Does the info you got have a map showing where the command center is?"

Pulling out her tablet, Aristespha flips through documents and settles upon a detailed image. After searching through a rough map, she points down a hallway. "Yes, Sebastian. It should be on this floor. That way, from what this says."

Sebastian narrows his determination down the corridor. "Anyone against going straight to the command center and figuring out what the hell is going on here?"

No one voices an objection and similar curiosity grows within the group. Sebastian nods and floats down the hallway, and the team follows soon after. Leading the squad down, Sebastian ethereal blue eyes dart around to the age coated wall panels, the dark recesses of the metal piping, and the faintly fluctuating lighting fixtures. As he sweeps down another intersection at Aristespha's instruction, Cideeda and Dretphi swiftly sweep the other avenues before proceeding. When Aristespha and Sotalia round the corner, Bach briefly slows his pace and stares down the still corridors into the hazy shadows beyond his sight. Shuddering back to awareness, he rushes to catch up with the group and keeps a nervous glance around at the dark corners of the concrete and metal passage. Down another turn, Sebastian coasts to a halt in front of a huge, reinforced doorway and studies the imposing steel sealing off the entry. Stepping up, Cideeda scrutinizes the massive security door and cringes as her inspection continues with a frustrated sigh. "THIS is going to be rough to open. They really only built this thing to be serviceable from the other side."

Tapping her claw tips upon the steel and sniffing the air, she presses her furry ear upon the frame and waits while her emerald green eyes search around her mind. "And... It doesn't seem like... The door is getting any power."

She steps back from the massive entry and walks along the nearby wall glancing between different panel outlines. "So, I'm afraid that there probably isn't a proper override I can do on this side. While most of the security seems to be out... There may be a separate alarm system that I don't want to trigger by digging too deep in the control circuits."

Nodding at the conclusion, Sebastian's ethereal form phases through the door. Seconds later, he slips back from the other side with a concerned frown. "The panel looks dead on the other side, too. But, this thing, um, feels like a solid chunk of steel. Well, it doesn't feel hollow for me. Also, there's definitely some activity going on with the computers and electronics in this command center."

Cideeda paces around the hallway near the doorway and mutters to herself. "Okay... So, there's probably nothing critical inside the door, which makes sense to keep all the important bits safe... We might be able to cut it. But this thick of a door..."

A thought springs to the front of Dretphi's face, and she cocks her helmeted head. Perking her brow, she gazes down at Bach for a moment and sorts through her ideas. She steps besides Bach and taps him on the shoulder. "You can precisely melt the steel into a hole. Can you precisely melt the steel out to form hole?"

Drifting off in thought, Bach furrows his brow and scratches the back of head with building intrigue. "I... I think I can. I should be able to melt a pinpoint column through the steel and extract the molten stuff out. That should effectively cut it, right?"

Dretphi shifts her gauntlet from Bach's shoulder to the middle of his back and firmly but gently pushes him towards Cideeda. Bach follows the physical hint, steps over, and kneels next to Cideeda while she examines the door. Sotalia and Aristespha watch curiously. Bach taps the door with a knuckle. "Okay. Where do you want to cut?"

A toothy grin grows on Cideeda's face, and she reaches into a pocket on her vest for a white paint marker. Deftly sketching out an outline, she taps upon the massive doors. "This should be big enough for everyone to fit through without taking out too much structure and making it too hard to remove the cut."

Watching his brother, Sebastian smiles with pride and motions beyond the doorway. "Okay, bro. I'll keep a watch in there to see if any alarms go off."

Bach situates himself, braces a hand on the door frame, and hovers the other hand a few centimeters away from the door over the sketch line. His eyes flicker to a constant blue glow, and a pinpoint spot on the door brightens from a dull red to a brilliant white. A thin stream of cooling steel specks flow from the glowing spot and spatter upon the concrete floor. As the glowing spot creeps along, it leaves a thin ribbon of space behind. Slowly the slicing dot crawls centimeters from its origin. A swell determination fills Bach's focused stare, and he opens his hand wide, splaying fingers out. Transparent outlines of objects materialize between the door and his palm, and the details fill in. They form into mechanical, technological manifestations, and traces of magical flow etch pathways upon the ethereal objects. The cutting point slides faster and more molten spatter erupts. Another series of magical objects manifest within the streams of flow wrapping around the magical machinations and weave the forming constructs. Bach's eyes glow brighter, and energy flows surges to brilliant illumination around his arm. Over the intense minutes, Bach drives the cut down Cideeda's white paint outlines faster with each lamination of magical constructs.

When Bach's hand reaches the original starting point, he relaxes his arm as the ethereal constructs break down into cloudy masses. His eyes dim, and the magical manifestations dissipate into the flows that sink back into Bach. Bowing his head down, he wipes the sweat from his brow and breathes deeply. He raises his head back up, pauses a moment, and glances around at the closely gathered audience, Sotalia and Aristespha watching over a shoulder and Cideeda and Dretphi kneeling close to the door. He tilts his head up and spots Sebastian hovers above. Furrowing his brow, he glances up confused at his brother. "Hey! Weren't you supposed to be watching the inside? For alarm or something?"

Noticing the shift of attention upon him, Sebastian shrugs nonchalantly and nods his head towards the door. "Bro, if the first five minutes of this didn't trigger anything, I figured the last weren't either. I don't think they expected someone to be able to magically slice through this thing without someone inside taking issue with it."

Leaning forward to get his feet underneath, Bach attempts to stand up, stumbles in a daze, and partially doubles over. Sotalia and Aristespha support Bach, taking an arm each. Sotalia pats Bach's shoulder and grins slyly with an amused tone. "Okay. That's enough showing off today. I'll take care of the rest."

Aristespha ushers Bach away from the door and eases him down on the floor against the opposing wall. Dropping to a knee, she performs a simple check over on Bach. Catching her serious glare, Bach sighs. "I guess I did something you are going to be questioning me about later?"

Aristespha calmly nods and softens her serious tone. "Yes. Admittedly, your control and restraint lessens many of my concerns. Just don't forget those, and pace yourself, please."

Planting her feet back from the door, Sotalia shifts her stance and holds her arms out. She recites incantations, moves her arms with the forming flows of energy, and gestures methodically with her hands. Symbols beam brightly on arms, a golden light shines from her eyes, and streams of magic surge through the air onto her palms. Placing both hands together, she directs a beam of energy onto the cut section of the door. Translucent power envelops the massive chunk, and faint metallic clunks sound out. Tugging upon the beam of flow, Sotalia slides the steel out of the greater whole of the door, and rough scrapes resonate as the circular chunk grinds against the fresh slices. She exudes an air of confidence, glee, and accomplishment when the hundred millimeter thick, meter diameter steel plug drifts free. With grace and pride, she strides out of the way of the chunk, rotates it with a wave of her hand, and guides it down on the concrete with a heavy thud. Finishing with a dramatic flourish, she directs everyone towards the opening. "Volunteers?"

Cideeda leads the way and the team slips through the opening. Underneath the layers of dust, the command center contains rows of computing equipment, desks, and chairs. Old stationary and supplies litter the tops of tables under worn and stained whiteboards. Above the team, a complete drop ceiling remains with minimal stains coloring the tiles. As the team explores further into the space, attention shifts towards the badly damaged section of floor and the one large widening crack leading towards a corner. Dretphi sweeps the area with a spot lamp and keeps a close hand on her sub-machine gun. Sotalia searches some desk drawers near the entry. Cideeda signals Aristespha to an active terminal glowing underneath a thick coating of grime. After she wipes the display clear, Aristespha leans close. As she stares at the constant line after line of text, Sotalia curiously peeks over her shoulder and squints her golden eyes. Furrowing her brow, Aristespha cocks her head as recognition fills her face. "I don't remember the exact dialect. But... I get the rough idea. It looks like status messages and warnings about environment controls."

Sotalia follows another stream of output from the terminal and nods in agreement. "You're right, girl. That's the impression I'm getting, too. Serious looking warnings.

While wandering around in awe at the place, Bach notices a dim glow and wipes dust off a screen. "Hey! I got a working one here, too. It's spitting out a bunch of messages."

Sotalia rushes over, guides a stray strand of dark red over a horn, and reads the text. "Communications control. It received a status update from another remote site a week ago? And a full alert from another site nearby a few hours ago? Error... Security offline?"

As she edges closer to the opening the concrete floor, Dretphi stomps a foot down ahead and waits a moment. After checking the floor in front of her, she shines the spotlight down into a small chasm. Cideeda cautiously approaches and examines the area. "All these large power cables in the ceiling with data lines are running down to-"

Blinking her emerald green eyes in surprise, she smirks with a dismissive snort. "Well. That's probably the security system master control. It looks like something shifted below this place?"

Aiming the spot lamp around into the deep pit and tracing the smooth depths through the thin edges, Dretphi cocks her helmeted head and grimaces behind her full face visor. "Sinkhole. Hard to tell the cause. Limestone cave? Collapse in an unknown cave below? Significant damage regardless."

Perking her furry ears up, Cideeda squints her emerald green eyes and slink back after the edge. "Yeah... Looks like the security control system fell down and took the main power generator out with it."

Cideeda reflexively pats a vest pocket and cocks her head of short, multicolored hair. Dretphi taps control buttons on the side of her helmet, and Bach pulls out his aetherphones. Inspecting the alert on the screen, Cideeda blinks confused and puzzles at the message. "That's an emergency radio broadcast? That's strange, how are we receiving anything this deep in here?"

Sweeping his phone around, Bach watches the signal strength. "It's weak, but... I think it's somewhere around here? Is that right?"

Dretphi glances around and shrugs. Cideeda taps through a few menus, holds her phone out, and pans it around. After a few passes, she points to a direction. Bach nods, pivots in place, and motions towards slack cables hanging from torn conduits. Aristespha and Sotalia approach and their aetherphones chime when they get close. Scratching the back of his head of longer brown hair, Bach gazes curiously at Cideeda. "Uh, could it be coming from those lines?"

Carefully stepping up to the mass of torn cabling, Cideeda holds her phone near the exposed copper wiring and ponders out loud while isolating the signal. "Um, that's possible. If something is transmitting on those lines, or maybe some outside interference is getting relayed? But, this emergency signal is using a modern protocol, why would that be going across some ancient ruin's lines? Okay, let me turn on the speaker now-"

"To anyone- ... Mission to Outpost- ... Base security system came online. Part of the camera crew for Next Adventurers of... Trapped in the Command center. SEND HELP!"

A wave of dread looms over the team, and they collectively cringe.

-6-

Samantha lunges right into the mercenary leader's face and scowls. "What do you mean, you don't do rescue missions?!"

Weathering the verbal assault, the leader remains stoic and collected with strictly business exterior. "We were hired to guard key targets. We have guarded them to extraction, and we will remain with them until they are away from this site. As per the exact specifications of our contract."

Stepping back in huff, Samantha's face reddens with bubbling anger, and she growls loudly. "YOU. CAN'T. BE. SERIOUS! I've got a whole camera crew unit trapped down there, and you bunch of fucking tools won't move a gods damn finger to rescue them!"

Straightening his tall, armored form, the leader glowers over Samantha, summons up his resolve, and points over to The Next Adventurers of Nexus. "Ma'am. We guard the specified assets until they leave the site. Again. That's our contract. Period."

Boiling rage swell up into Samantha's twitching face, and she grits her teeth with hiss. "Then, what do YOU propose I do with my trapped camera crew?!"

The mercenary leader quirks his brow, glances behind Samantha, and coolly directs her. "I don't know. Maybe you should try hiring them."

Aristespha leads Dretphi, Cideeda, Sotalia, and Bach around the chaotic gatherings of recording teams and scans the different people rushing about. Settling her stare upon Samantha, she stops right behind her and hems. "Excuse me. Sorry to intrude, but are you in charge here?"

Spinning around quickly, Samantha greets Aristespha with brief shock. "Hello- I- Oh. Hello! Yes, I'm in charge for all practical purposes. And, I'm SO glad you are here!"

Aristespha nods with a slight bow, draws in a long breath, and maintains a calm expression against her unamused tone. "Excellent. We picked up an emergency broadcast at another site, and were able to ascertain that it was coming from here. What is the exact situation?"

Samantha blinks her hazel eyes blankly a moment but swiftly gathers her thoughts. "Oh... Yes! It seems that some of the outpost's defenses have been reactivated. We got everyone out except a camera crew unit of six people that got separated in the chaos. They are currently held up and trapped down in the command center of the base."

Nodding her understanding, Aristespha holds her hand out and levels a commanding gaze right at Samantha. "Give us a copy of any maps you have. Mark their known location, along with any information about where you encountered the defenses. Also, have there been any recent communications from the crew?"

Gerald overhears the conversation from nearby, scrambles over searching his pockets, and presents his materials with a pencil at the ready. "Here! We were last together in this hallway running from the things. They've radioed that they've barricaded themselves here and managed to lock the security door."

Aristespha passes the marked map to Cideeda nearby while Bach, Dretphi, and Sotalia peek over. "Thank you. What defenses did you encounter?"

Samantha wags her finger to a few bodies near the entrance of the outpost. "Over there! They look like cyber-zombies or something like that. Like rotting bodies with machine parts."

With a curt nod to Samantha, Aristespha signals the rest of the group. They walk over towards the entrance, and gather around the unmoving humanoid figures on the ground. Samantha follows until she breaks off to the side with Gerald in tow. Well behind impromptu barricades and equipment, Chad Bosch narrows his brown eyes at the other team. Ignoring the requests of a mercenary guard, he storms defiantly around him. He lines up an intercept to Samantha and stops in front of her. "What the hell is going on here?! I thought we were going to get a chance to go back down! We're supposed to be the heroic adventurers here! So, why aren't we being the heroes?!"

Samantha's voice rises louder than Chad in sheer indignation, and glares through his being. Chad crosses his arms, puffs up his chest under his breast plate, and stares down at Samantha. Chad snaps a retort, and an argument between Samantha and him ignites fully. Escaping out of earshot of the verbal outbursts, Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi and Sotalia split around to inspect the strange bodies near the entrance to the ruins. Twisting her mouth in thought, Aristespha sneers her upper lip and kneels for a closer examination. "Oh my. I haven't seen beings like this in a while."

Sotalia stands next to Aristespha and uncomfortably wanders her golden gazes over the humanoid creatures. "They look like vat grown cybernetic soldiers... Oh, ew. They look like they've been out of the stasis pods for too long."

Aristespha gestures as a violet glow lights up her eyes. Moving her hand over the body, parts of the body move with Aristespha's hand motions. She scrunches up her hose as she investigates further. "Yes, they certainly have. The preservative bio-gel spoiled quite some time ago. There is only the barest amount left to maintain basic functions."

Sotalia fans her free hand against the stench and covers her nose. "Gods, that's a lot of decay. Is there any natural tissue left?"

Pondering a moment, Aristespha furrows a curious brow at the body. "That is a good question."

She gestures deftly within a faint haze of magical energies branching onto the corpse, and a slice of rotting flesh peels off the body's leg. Snapping her head the other way, Sotalia winces her golden eyes shot and gasps loudly. "Dammit, girl! Warn me before you do that!"

The rest of the team huddles around another, similar corpse. Cideeda hovers a claw tip above the many exposed implant lines in the body and traces out the routes within the flesh. "These are some serious cybernetics inside here. They've got some serious power throughput with implanted conduits that big."

Dretphi searches the area, finds a stick nearby, and taps spots on the body. "Armor reinforcements in key areas. Small arms did not affect them significantly. Concentrated vital hits were ineffective."

Cideeda's investigative stare stops around the neck, and she holds her hand out for Dretphi's stick. Passing the stick over, she follows Cideeda's gaze and squints her steely gray eyes through her full face visor. Bach scoots over to get a better view. Cideeda pries a severed cable from the neck and perks an intrigued brow. "I bet that's what stopped this thing."

Hovering a hand over the cable, Bach's eyes glow faintly. "I guess that's some kind of power cable, because I'm feeling some power in it."

Bach slides his gaze to a round metal cover on the chest of the body. "And THIS has to be a power source. I feel it."

Cideeda taps the metal cover with the stick and grimaces with a light bite of her lower lip. "I think these use removable power cores. From the construction, it looks like you should be able to change them out. You want to try to open it?"

Tilting his head, Bach groans with an uncertain twist in his expression. "Ah... I don't know. But... It'd probably be best if we could make sure they had no power. I'll give it a shot."

Bach readies his hand right above the metal cover and concentrates as his eyes illuminate with a blue glow. After a minute, the power core cover turns sharply and then slowly unscrews itself. As Bach smirks with flits of confidence, the small plate floats off to the side, locking mechanisms within the chamber disengage, and a metallic tube with a row of lights along the side rises out. Both Cideeda and Dretphi focus on the extracted device. Dretphi reads the characters etched on the side and furrows her brow. "Military issue. High capacity power core."

Cideeda widens her emerald green gaze at the power core. "Holy shit.... That thing is almost fully charged. After all these years, it's still got that much in it."

Aristespha and Sotalia peer above the gathering. Shaking her head, Aristespha sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "That means they have plenty of power to make up for the lack of functional biological tissue. That unfortunately explains a lot."

Bach grabs the power core and stands up along with Cideeda and Dretphi. Holding her chin, Aristespha thinks and briefly pivots her head to Samantha who is now arguing with Chad, Tassilda, Trakenthin, Deedri, and Modoran. Sebastian's voice ethereally sounds out from the sword at Aristespha's side "Hey, Bach, Cideeda? Could you make sure these cyborgs out here are disabled. We definitely don't need any more trouble out there."

A loud and feverish argument between Samantha and the Next Adventurers rises up from the background noise. Sebastian sighs with faint reverberation from within the sword. "Sotalia and Dretphi. Get what equipment we need ready. Dear?"

Aristespha hardens her composure, neatens up her attire, and groans as she watches Samantha berate the other group. "I know. I'll inform... Them... That we are going in, and meet everyone back here."

A flurry of voices clash in the air and flood clearing around the facility with the back and forth of confrontation. Within a section of crumbling pavement encircled by mercenary guards, the Next Adventurers of Nexus stand around either arguing or idling. Recording crews slink around the edges of the space between capturing a few shots of the action and avoiding the attention from those in the conflict. With Tassilda and Trakenthin at his sides, Chad stands defiantly up and glares unamused at Samantha. "Listen, WE are supposed to be the Next Adventurers of Nexus! So, why are we not adventuring back down there?! This whole show is about people doing adventures."

He jabs a point towards the entrances of the ancient facility and narrows his glower. "There's literally an adventure right THERE! Yet, you say we can't do it!"

Samantha twitches her cheek under her eye and focuses her ire at Chad. "LISTEN! This was supposed to be a simple mission to get all of you familiar with each other and establish a group dynamic. Cybernetic zombies were NOT in the plan!"

Tassilda pouts, tosses back her raven black hair, and puts her hands on her hips. "This is a perfect opportunity, and you are WASTING it on another group!"

Samantha curls her lip and bares her teeth in reddened face rage. "Opportunity?! You HAD an opportunity and you all RAN!"

Chad explodes in retorts and counterarguments against Samantha with Tassilda and Trakenthin pitching in and verbally jabbing back. With a long sigh, Modoran leans against an old fence post near Deedri, perks an amused brow, and crosses his arms. "Well... This is turning out to be quite the day of... Entertainment."

Watching the clash of personalities, Deedri nervously rubs her hands together and rolls her shoulders through the tension. "Why are they fighting so much? Aren't we on the same team here? I don't know what they're trying to accomplish here. "

Twisting an ambivalent expression on his dusky bluish gray face, Modoran holds his hands up and shrugs nonplussed. "I really don't know. The only thing I can figure is that we have got three A-type personalities all wanting a chance to impress on the screen."

Deedri turns her head slightly towards Modoran and perks her furry, tufted ears. "A-type personalities?"

Modoran grins smugly and snorts with an ill-humored tone. "Assholes."

Returning her attention to face the argumentative scene, Deedri takes a deep breath in and groans with a trailing sigh and roll of her auburn eyes. "Yes. That, unfortunately, seems to be the case."

Carefully approaching Samantha from behind, Aristespha lightly taps her on the shoulder and presents a calm, professional exterior. Samantha spins out mid sentence, halts her retort to Chad, and presents a welcoming smile. "Yes? How can I help you further?"

Aristespha stoically meets the glares from Chad, Tassilda, and Trakenthin and focuses upon Samantha with a calm tone. "We are going in now. We will need to have a discussion AFTER we rescue your people. As a precaution, please have your guards mind the entrance in case anything else tries to come out."

Samantha genuinely smiles and exhales in relief. "Thank you so much! We'll do what we can up here. Please, get the crew back to safety."

After a quick nod into a bow, Aristespha pivots away and walks calmly to Bach, Sotalia, Dretphi, and Cideeda near the entrance way into the ruined facility. Chad squints his ire and frowns at Aristespha. Continuing towards the entrance, Aristespha signal the rest of the team to join her. Just past the entrance to the ancient structure and down the entry hallway, she grumbles loudly and wrestles her irritation. "That was... Horrifically awkward. Last thing I need is a bunch of self-important shits trying to play hero after they've run off with their security detail. And having the gods damned nerve to glare at me when we go do the job they should have done."

Sebastian's ethereal form materializes next to Aristespha and shares a disapproving expression on his face. "Okay, I do not like that Chad guy. Something about him doesn't feel right. I picked up that much from within the sword even."

Glancing around the smooth concrete floor and reinforced wall, Sebastian narrows a studious gaze around the vicinity. "But... Enough about those guys. We got people to rescue from here."

Visually checking the team, he bounces his gaze between everyone. Dretphi rolls her armor plated shoulders and double-checks the large machete on a magnetic holster on back and an energy shield gauntlet. Cideeda checks the chamber of her shotgun and cycles a round in. Sebastian nods and speaks to the group. "Okay. We'll do it similar to last time. I'll scout ahead. Dretphi and Cideeda, keep the front covered. Sotalia and Aristespha, hit anything at range. I'm guessing electrical attacks and anything that slices and dices will be the right type of attacks?"

Brushing off her bodysuit, Cideeda nods and points around her neck. "It looks like there's a main cable for the cybernetics in the neck. So, I'd aim for there first and see if you can damage it and bring them down quick."

Thinking for a moment, Dretphi sighs with a frown as she readies her sub-machine gun. "Attacking vital areas is not effective. Bodies outside showed that. Go for the power cable. Otherwise, attempt to disable limbs."

Sebastian's eyes search his mind and he glances to Bach. "Bro, watch the rear, provide support, and try to pull the power cores out of these things. It seems like they need them to work. So let's make sure they don't have them."

He floats over to the first intersection, studies all the directions, and glances back at Aristespha. She flips through a small packet of maps, scrutinizes a page, and then points towards a direction. Sebastian grins as the group readies themselves. "Okay. Let's do this."

----

Bright light floods the dark corridor as a long arc of electricity flashes into a plodding figure. Shuddering and shaking as the current flows into it, sparks erupt from the cybernetic cabling that decaying, necrotic flesh doesn't conceal. Smoke belches out through sizzling flesh of the figure, and it stiffly topples onto the floor. Another nearby cybernetic abomination pauses, listening to the downed cyber-zombie smoldering, and sloppily swings its partially decayed head toward another hallway run. Forceful pops and mechanical clacks bounce the halls, and fresh perforations rip open through the creature's neck. A few more holes open up in the rotting mass, and a bright flash explodes out from the flesh. The cyber-zombie collapses to the smooth concrete flood as plumes of acrid smoke raise up the slumped mass. The ethereal form of Sebastian zips around the corner of the intersection, points down a corridor, and holds three fingers up to the team behind. Cideeda and Dretphi position themselves at the sides of the hallway and Aristespha stands slightly back in the middle, starting a spell incantation. Sotalia's golden eyes dart between the shadowy corridors nearby, and she flexes her fingers within the faint magics mists enveloping them. Sebastian nods, turns back down the hallway, and ignites his form brighter. "Hey rot boys! Come get some of this, you fuckers!"

Backing away perpendicular from the team down another run of the intersection, and he holds a hand out to signal the others. Three cyber-zombies trudge out from the pipe lined corridor in a loose group with their hazy glares upon Sebastian. A red laser dot wanders up to the neck of one. When the three cyber-zombies near the middle of the intersection, Sebastian yells out. "NOW!"

Aristespha throws out an ivory hand with a forceful flick, and a large wave of translucent energy expands to the walls of the corridor. The pulses of flow push down the hall, reach the middle of the intersection, and coat the creatures in a thick, transparent energy. Struggling against the constricting magical gel, they manage only the tiniest, strained motions. Lining up her sights, Cideeda braces her small, lithe form and squeezes the main trigger on her shotgun. A loud kaboom blasts out and the middle upper chest region of a cyber-zombie liquefies into a gray green, chunky goop. Light flickers within the rotten soup, and the creature ceases fighting the energy enveloping it. Dretphi burst fires her submachine gun, and rounds punctures a cybernetic horror, pops reflecting down the hard concrete walls. A sparking corpse freezes in the energy and hovers within the magical mass. Aristespha raises her free hand as flows of power condense to an illuminated point. A beam of brilliant light streaks across the distance, she slices through the neck of the remaining abomination. The initial binding energy dissipates, and the leftovers from the fray flop onto the gunk and chunk coated floor. A decaying head rolls along the ground and rights itself on the laser sliced neck as few final twitches fade.

Sebastian gives the group a double thumbs up and squints down the hallway. "Okay! This way looks clear, and I think there's a big door here. Looks kind of important."

Aristespha swiftly straightens up her attire, retrieves the collection of maps, and traces a path on one of the pages. "That should be it!"

The team quickly reassembles and rushes through the intersection down a hall to a large door within the confines of a lighted section. Lagging just behind the group, Bach kneels down to the corpses of the cyber-zombies. He deftly hovers hand above the metal chest covers and swiftly extracts power cores. Extracting the last power core, he stuffs it with the others in his duster pockets. Dretphi takes a watch position towards the unlit, unexplored hallway past the large doorway. Typing on an active control panel, Cideeda's furry ears flick when blares out error tones. "It's locked. That might be a good sign."

Bach stands up from the pile of bodies. As he lifts his head up, he squints at something in the dark. In another shadowy, unknown stretch of hallway beyond the intersection and away from everyone else, he observes unusual flits of motion rising out of the blackness. A sleek humanoid figure moves precisely and purposefully without any waste. Its head tracks Bach perfectly with a slight rock in each step. When Bach discerns the faint red glow coming from where eyes should be, the being precisely snaps up the end of the rifle barrel. Bach's eyes flash bright, brilliant blue with terrified recognition, and he thrusts his hands forward. Both Sotalia and Aristespha freeze confused and search towards Bach. A rush of magical flow bursts forth from Bach's body, plumes out in a torrent, and swirls towards a point in front of Bach's hands. The flow condenses, and explodes out into a golden, splintering web of hexagonal fractals. The framework flashes up to the ceiling and sinks into two corners at the intersection, and floods full of golden transparent energy. The sleek figure smoothly engages the trigger on its weapon, and a chain of plasma bolts stream upon the golden barrier. The gaseous orbs bounce off, explode into the plasma splatter, or dissipates into the magic barrier. Bach staggers back and barely remains on his feet in the panic. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE?!"

The team snaps their focus to the golden barrier as plasma bolts pound onto it. Raises his head up from the ground to the others, Bach's pupils shrink to shock. He spots another sleek humanoid figure darting out from a shadowy corner down the unexplored section of hallway behind Dretphi and everyone else. With another bright flash of blue in his eyes, Bach lunges his hand forward. "BEHIND YOU!"

A woven centimeter thick cord of stabilized magical energy launches from a glowing mass of flow billowing out in Bach palm. Jetting through the air, the stream arcs over the group and descends directly towards its target. The sleek, near featureless being trains its plasma rifle at Dretphi. The magical cord plants itself onto the weapon. A web of blue energy threads spider out on the rifle from the contact point and root through the entire weapon. The cyber soldier strains its finger against the unmoving trigger. Bach grasps onto the cord, and a pulse of energy arcs down the path. Swiftly following the fuse, the energy hits the plasma rifle, and a burst of power propels the weapon out of the soldier's grip. The sleek being puzzles a moment with erratically flexing hands and processes the change of situation as an ominous shadow envelops it. Dretphi raises the massive machete with both hands. Its faintly glowing edge gleams with off-color outpost lighting. The blade slices down into the sleek humanoid and splits the meeting point between shoulder and neck. A stream of transparent red blood waterfalls down smooth contours of the body from the machete and splatter upon the smooth concrete. The figure shudders with fading life for moments and limply drops off the blade into a sloppy heap.

The tension surges and stifles in the minutes of still silence. Everyone watches either end of the hallway for activity in paranoid glances. Dretphi's steely gray eyes behind her full face visor scan her direction, and she pants tensely with sub-machine in one hand and blood stained machete in the other. "Think we are not under threat... Currently..."

Dragging himself up from the floor in a slight daze, Bach nervously bounces his glowing gaze between the golden barrier sealed intersection and the inky darkness the other way. "Okay... Um... Door? Please?!"

Sebastian rams his intangible upper body through the thick doors. The two crew members leap in fright as the angry ghostly figure materializes on the other side. Sebastian glares between the two crew members and an annoyed grins. "Will someone... OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR! PLEASE? We're only trying to RESCUE YOU here."

----

Aged lamps overhead light the large command center. Flickers of text stream out on a few dust caked monitors in a row of old consoles. Blinking indicators pulse on a control panel next to the heavy security beyond a barricade of upturned old office furniture. Away from the barrier, Sebastian hovers in front of a few recording crew members and inquires. "Huh... So, you actually got into the control center, and then something brought the system out of standby mode?"

A cameraman nods and shrugs uncertainly. "Yeah. We can't figure out if one of the adventurers hit something ,or if it was remotely triggered. I mean, the place was silent. Like completely dead. Then before we knew it, alarms were going off everywhere. Our group ran into those cyber-commandos- Or whatever the fuck they are. Gods, we were just lucky to get everyone into this old command area, I guess. From the looks of it at least."

A half-emin engineer sighs and shakes her horned head. "Unfortunately, the only thing we've managed to do is to get the door to lock. Seems like this room is off the main security system and on its own loop. Poor Radnae caught a plasma bolt to the shoulder blade. Harris got a bunch of ribs broken by a few punches from those freaks. And, Urdi got her ankle twisted when one of them swept her legs out of nowhere."

Sebastian drifts in thought for a few moments and blinks back to awareness at their expectant gazes. "Okay... Hang tight, I'm going to scout our path back and see what exactly is going on out there. I get the feeling these cyber-commandos are the real defenders to worry about. The cyber-zombies were nowhere near this dangerous. Meanwhile, I'll have my team help the injured and work on a plan for getting everyone out safely."

He waves to Aristespha and signals towards the door. Aristespha nods back as he phases through the heavy security door. Resuming her medical treatment of the large fvalian man, she inspects a very serious plasma burn on his shoulder. "You are incredibly fortunate. It seems like your camera harness and backpack broke the plasma bolt early. While these are pretty terrible burns, you still have a shoulder and shoulder blade intact. I'll apply some initial healing and preventive magic, and a synth skin cover. Anything further will have to wait until we get to the surface when we are in better circumstances."

The fvalian man winces against the pain and nods while laying on his belly. "Yes, ma'am. Um... Is Urdi's ankle serious?"

Gazing upon the fvalian a moment, Aristespha smiles slyly and pats him on his uninjured arm. "Oh. It's only a bad sprain. She saw that sweep kick and dodged most of it. But for you, Radnae, I have a question."

Blinking confused, Radnae twists his head carefully up to Aristespha curiously. "Uh. What's that, ma'am?"

Aristespha leans close to one of Radnae's big furry ears and whispers softly. "Do you know of any really nice restaurants in Amaranth Valley? Because from the way Urdi has been trying to catch your eye, you might be going to one."

A flush of pink fills Radnae's face, and he lowers his head to hide a surge of embarrassment. "Y-you really think that- She'd ask me out?"

With a small grin, Aristespha chuckles softly to herself while applying the next stage of Radnae's treatment. "Oh, call me old fashioned, but I think when a brave man shields a lady from a ball of superheated gas, he should at LEAST get a nice dinner out of it. Now... Make eye contact, smile, and wave at her with your good arm."

Sotalia sits nearby lightly applying the last thick cloth strip along a middle-aged man's heavily bruised and sore side. He groans and grumbles with each unintentional, painful move. Reaching into a belt pouch, Sotalia pulls out a small vial of blue liquid and narrows her golden eyes. "Now drink this."

The man eyes the vial with suspicion and furrows his brow. "What's it do?"

Sotalia lifts an eyebrow back and holds it closer to the man's face. "Oh, you know. It prevents you from experiencing tremendous amounts of pain when the brace strips I put on you activate and move your broken ribs away from your internal organs."

The man glares at the vial again warily. Sotalia rolls her golden eyes and sighs with a smirk. "It's blue raspberry flavored, if that helps, Mr. Harris."

Harris twists his mouth uncertainly and takes hold of the vial. "Like the slushies at the convenience store?"

Sotalia nods with an amused smile. Harris twisting opens the top and pours the solution into his mouth, tilting his head back. He swallows and gives a nod of approval. "Okay. Not bad. So, what's next?"

With a grin, Sotalia presses her hand on the side of Harris. "This."

Harris's eyes widen as the strips glow. A few ribs shift slightly underneath his skin when magical bandages stiffen. He checks his side, gently pokes the bruises, and lifts his intrigued expression to Sotalia. "Man, that is such a fucked up feeling."

Applying a cover pad over the strips, Sotalia laughs with Harris. "Gods, I KNOW. I've used these a few times, and I never get used to that."

On the other side of the command center in a cleared out section of floor, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Bach sit on the ground around a downed cyber-commando. The darkening transparent red solution slowly seeps out onto the dirty floor panels from the dividing machete wound. A fading status light pulses on the open chest chamber, sans power core. Bach rests his head back on the wall, blinks blankly, and eases a breath out with a faint whistle. "These are some serious cyborgs. I'm glad you had that machete. Otherwise... we might still be fighting it."

Dretphi straightens up and draws a small knife from her belt. She presses the blade firmly on the exterior covering of the cyborg and struggles to leave anything more than a pressure mark in the synthetic coating. Waving a utility scanner over the corpse, Cideeda growls out her frustration and shakes her head of short multicolored hair. "Damn this thing! It's like my scanner pulses are going right through. I'm getting more a signal from the plating in the floor panels."

Bach tilts himself forward and gets his legs underneath him. As he rises up unsteadily and reflexively braces himself against the wall, both Dretphi and Cideeda reach out to catch him. Bach waves his hand appreciatively and chuckles awkwardly. "I'm good. My leg fell asleep sitting on that floor for so long. I'm recovered enough, in the magic department."

Dretphi stands up fully, walks around the cyborg cautiously, and pats Bach on shoulder. "Thank you for shielding us. Disarming it."

Bach hangs his head and shrugs his shoulders. "Ah, not a problem. But... I just get the feeling when we get out of this Sotalia and Aristespha are going to have more questions about how I did all that."

He glances down to familiar gentle five claw point squeeze around his forearm and soft shoulder nudge in his side. Meeting his gaze, Cideeda flashes a toothy grin, winks her emerald green eye, and let's go. "Hey, you're getting the results that keep us alive. That's good enough in my book."

She glares down in disgust at the cyborg and shoves it away from her with the heel of her toed boot. "Let's get away from the dead thing. I've studied and gotten all I want from it."

Dretphi and Bach agree and follow Cideeda as she leads them to Aristespha and Sotalia. Bach briefly glances back at the cyborg corpse, winces uncomfortably, and squirms a bit. "Damn... Still feel a bit weird about killing that thing. It was alive and all..."

Nodding solemnly, Dretphi turns her head down to Bach. "It is never easy when it is something you can sympathize with. It did force a decision upon us all. It... Us... Do not feel bad for choosing us."

Cideeda aims her head over her shoulder to Bach and Dretphi with a faintly saddened frown. "Honestly, if there's any poor souls trapped in those things, I think we're doing them a huge favor. Give them a chance to move on to something better."

Bach ponders quietly in thought. After a few silence seconds, he sighs with grim acceptance. "Yeah... Especially those rotting ones. Gods... That HAS to be some kind of hell."

Sebastian rockets through the closed large doors, halt in the middle of the room, and calls out to everyone in the command center. "Everyone! We have a situation... Gather around."

People gather closer and attention shifts towards the middle of the room where Sebastian hovers. When the team gets near and Sebastian glances over the crews, he wrestles an uneasy grimace and sighs ethereally. "I checked most of the way back, until I could go any farther. So... Everywhere we ran into the cyber-zombies, we have cyber-commandos waiting. From what I can gather, they are able to coordinate with each other. After the first few groups shot at me, the rest stopped trying."

Members of the crew wither as dread weighs over them. Dretphi crosses her arms, lowers her helmeted head, and ponders out loud. "Any tactics you witnessed them employ?"

Sebastian nods gravely. "Yeah. Plenty. They changed up hiding spots between when I passed them the first time and on my return. They're in groups of three now. And, it looks like they are concentrating the groups the closer you get to the exit. I think they know we're going to try to get out of here and are looking to contain us."

Straightening her posture, Aristespha rolls her shoulders and breathes deeply with worry in her voice. "Any signs they are going to break into here?"

Shaking his head, Sebastian frowns and motions around the space. "No. They're waiting for us to make a move. I think they know they can wait us out."

Frustration bubbles into Dretphi's tone, and she tightens her gauntlet covered fist. "We were lucky with the two we encountered. It will be a perilous fight to get out. If they can communicate, our cautious tactics will cease to work. They will surround us."

Sotalia rubs her temples, guides back stray dark red locks over her swept back horn, and groans at the situation. "There's only so much firepower I've got, but I can throw my heavy hitters. How many are we looking at?"

Darting his translucent blue gaze around awkwardly, Sebastian lowers his head in grim understanding. "Fifteen or so from my count along the path. At least, those are the ones I saw."

Blinking in abject surprise, Sotalia uneasily bites her lower lip and drifts from the gathering with a single word. "Fuck..."

Cideeda paces around near the huddle, her distance stare inwards sorting through a flurry of thoughts. "We need a distraction or something. If only to just to keep them from attacking us, much less running in us. Even just for a few minutes. If we run for it, we should get to the exit easy enough before they form up enough of a resistance."

Listening attentively to Cideeda, Dretphi nods in agreement. "Avoid engagement. Move fast. That would be our best option."

Sotalia spins around towards the group holding a hand up in protest and balks. "Gods, we need something more than just a distraction. We need something to temporarily take them out! Stun them or shut them down. I can throw some ball lightning. They didn't seem to like electrical magic that much... But, that only can reach within a few meters of a spot."

An idea sparks inside Bach. He narrows his blue eyes, and glances around his head as pieces fall into place. Tilting his head towards Cideeda, he inquires. "When you scanned the cyborg, the pulses were going through it? Not like refracted around or being absorbed by it?"

Lifting a flap on her vest, Cideeda retrieves the small scanner and presses buttons to bring up the last reading. "Right through. I got some internal data of the cyborg, but mostly reflections from the micro-mesh reinforced concrete that makes up this base. It's weird they're so electrically permissive."

Stepping next to Cideeda, Aristespha angles the screen of the device towards her searching violet eyes as her very long, pointed ears perk up slightly. "Wait... I read about these once. There were such things as infiltration commandos by a few older nations. Recovered documents mention they have electromagnetic transparency augmentations to avoid being detected by radar systems. They were specifically designed to be used in areas that used robotic soldiers and radar systems for detection."

A sly smile cracks from the corner of Bach's mouth, and he perks a daring brow. "So, how much would say a powerful EMP fuck them up?"

Blinking in thought, Cideeda perks her furry ears, straightens her posture, and rests her hands on her hips. "They have some protections, and their augmentations obviously allow signals to go through. But..."

She furrows her brow, glances over to Bach while stroking her light brown chin with intrigued claw tips, and reveals an eager, toothy grin. "That's for defeating detection equipment. An electromagnetic pulse is orders of magnitudes more powerful than even standing directly in front of a microwave transmitter. Only hardened front line battle droids and mechs are capable of weathering blasts like and functioning through it. So, an EMP might fry them and definitely should take them down for a while."

Sebastian breaks into a hopeful smile and gaze expectantly at his brother. "Whacha got, bro?"

Bach nods with his thoughts and explains. "I believe I can construct a magical device that can release a powerful enough EMP. I think the construction of the outpost will keep it in the hallways?"

Meeting Bach inquiring gaze, Cideeda smiles slyly and perks her brow. "Oh yeah. This place is packed with metal plating and mesh throughout the entirety of the structure. It was meant to keep stuff out... But it works just as well to keep it in."

Narrowing her steely gray eyes in thought, Dretphi smirks and crosses her armored arms. "That will disrupt their communications. Leave them completely uncoordinated. Any we encounter active would be unable to relay intel. Keep our position obfuscated."

Sotalia furrows her brow and faces Bach seeking hope. She sighs with a reservation heavy in her tone. "I'm certain between you, Aristespha, and me, we can power this up and make it work. But... If we do have to fight, I don't know how much magic we'd have left to defend ourselves."

A cunning sparks glints in Bach's blue eyes, and he grins ear to ear. "Oh, don't worry. I got most of the power covered."

He grabs the edges of his duster and fans it open. A dozen salvaged, nearly fully charged power cores rattle metallically against each other in the duster pockets. Bach smiles smugly and chuckles. "Well, technically, they covered it."

----

Sebastian ethereal form flies around and directs people as they ready themselves near the security door. "Okay!"

He gazes over to Dretphi with a point. "Dretphi. Shield deployed and machete ready. Bash and slash anything that doesn't have the sense to get out of the way."

As Dretphi confirms the order, Sebastian meets Cideeda’s expecting expression. "Cideeda. Shoot anything that tries to get up in front of us."

He glances over to Aristespha with a smile. "Dear. Ward and barrier the crew."

Straightening his hover posture, he calls out to the gathering crowd. "Crew members! Line up two wide. Help Mr. Harris, Urdi, and Radnae along."

Glancing over his shoulder, Sebastian spots Bach and Sotalia. "Bach and Sotalia. When it blows and the crew clears the doors, I want you two to cover the back and make it hell for anything that tries to follow us."

People form up along the length of the wall near the heavy security door with a cautious distance from the actual entry. Reaching inside an open access panel, Cideeda readies a rigging of wires and components. Stretching her arms out, Dretphi holds her gauntlet forward as a force field forms into a tower shield from a mounted generator. She draws out her large, glimmering machete and inspects it. Aristespha recites incantations, precisely gestures, and fans out a protective warping bubble around the crew members with ample space. Bach and Sotalia stand facing each other in front of the heavy entry door. Bach holds his hands half a meter apart in the air front of Sotalia. "Okay. To build this thing real quick, I'm going to need you to flow some energy into it to keep the build processes going. That way I can concentrate on charging it up with the power cores. Okay?"

Nodding slowly with vague hints of uncertainty, Sotalia aims her golden stare at Bach and awaits further instruction. "Yes. So, what do I need to do, specifically?"

Bach motions his hands up and down and indicates the space between them. "Keep your hands right here. Then, when I say so, just flow energy into it."

Sotalia cautiously reaches her hands out next to Bach's. He rotates his hands around a center pivot until they are at the top and bottom. Taking in a deep breath, his eyes glow brightly, and he releases a calming breath. "Okay. Here we go..."

A surge of magical flow erupts from Bach and jets into the space between his hands. The amorphous energy solidifies into a ball outer structure and mechanical and technological shapes materialize inside. Two discs form, slide on the outside of the ball, and park next to Sotalia's hands. Gawking at the creation, her golden eyes dart around to follow the orderly chaos made manifest before. Bach calls out as his blue eyes flash brightly. "Now! Flow into it!"

Sotalia shudders her head of dark red shoulder length hair, blinks her back to awareness, and stumbles upon her words. "W-w-wait! What kind of magical energy!?"

Letting go of the top and bottom of the magical creation, Bach searches his duster for a power core. He briefly glances nonchalantly at Sotalia with a spark of confidence. "Well, any really... It'll process it out."

Furrowing her brow, Sotalia twists an uneasy grimace on her light tan face and tilts her head slightly. She shrugs her shoulders and releases a form of magical energy down her arms. Startling as the discs lock on to the streams from her hands, she studies the build process before her. Her fingers flex around the flurry of activity between, and she stares into the constructs materializing within. Bach presses a power core into the bottom of the creation. Placing his hand on top, he concentrates with a slow inhale. Sotalia's attention darts between flits of activity throughout the device, shifts in magical flows, and the adjustments to the discs near her hands. From the connected power core, a massive surge of energy floods into the center. Bach returns the empty power core into his duster and replaces it with another one. Each power core flushes the center with a new wave of power, and the whole magical orb shines brighter. Fighting off her fascination, Sotalia snaps back to her senses as the discs tremble near her hands. Stopping short of retrieving the seventh power core, Bach returns his free hand on the bottom of the magical bomb and narrows his brilliant blue stare. "Okay... That's all it's probably going to hold... Uh, safely for a bomb. Time to seal her up and prime it."

With a pulse of magic flow, the intertwined constructions within solidify around the radiating blue-white core. The exterior shell darkens to an opaque red. The discs next to Sotalia's hands dissipate into a cloud of miasma that sinks back into the manifested EMP bomb. Cautiously pulling her hands away to the sides, she stands fascinated at the creation. Bach shifts over to the side and hems to get Sotalia's attention. "Hey, you might want to move out of the way. It's going to fly out the door when I trigger it."

Sotalia blinks her golden eyes, side steps away, and dons a hasty front of confidence. Bach nods to Cideeda. "Open the door! It's ready to fly."

Taking her hand off the handle of her shotgun, Cideeda presses the button upon the rigged control panel. The large security door opens. After Bach taps a spot on the bomb, it rockets off through the door and charges down the hallway. Bach rushes into the protection bubble with everyone else. Cideeda presses another button, and the door quickly seals. She hops into the protective field. Tense moments hang over the gathering in the silent, still seconds. A chorus of alarms sound out from the banks of control center consoles into a chaotic cacophony, before the heavy security vibrates within its reinforced frame. Lights flicker to a very dim glow, old computer displays flash a rainbow of error messages, and the protective bubble crackles with tiny arcs. A low singular tremor pulses through the very structure of the outpost, and showers of ancient debris rain from clouds of dust from the ceiling rafters. Cideeda rushes over, yanks back an emergency release handle inside a maintenance access panel. A loud rush of fluid sounds from within the doorway frame, and hydraulic override rams swiftly drag open the security door. Sebastian darts open into the hallway, glances down both ways, and yells. "LET'S MOVE IT!"

Sebastian leads well ahead of the column and glides down the hall of flicking lamps and occasional waterfalls of sparks. Dretphi and Cideeda set the pace down the hazy passages of fresh smoldering electrical systems and swiftly gauge the threats from disabled, twitching cyber-commandos. Sweeping over the still and barely shuddering humanoid creatures, both push forth, with Dretphi booting cybernetic bodies clear. Aristespha calls out directions while guiding flows of energy into the protective bubble over the crew. Holding the rear of the formation, Bach aims his plasma pistol into the chaotic darkness, and Sotalia keeps a hand of sparking magic at the ready. The group weaves through the maze of the ancient facility, and swiftly darts through barricaded choke points.

A cyber-commando stumbles around in the middle of the hallway and ambles aimlessly. Fighting through daze, it gains enough awareness to face a powerful energy shield bash straight in its muted features. As it slams into the concrete wall with a resounding thud, another recovering cyborg menace spins shakily around to the noise and shudders when a large, glimmering machete slices into its neck. Falling into a wet slump, another one of its kind sluggishly sits up from the ground. A loud report echoes down the corridor with a bright muzzle flash. A lead slug bounces off the rising cyber-commando's head, and it flops back down onto the concrete floor. Cideeda cycles another round into her shotgun and calls out. "They're getting back up! These weren't hit as hard as the others!"

Sebastian's ethereal visage rockets around the corner and shouts back down the hallway. "Last three are still groggy, and then it's a straight shot out!"

Dretphi and Cideeda charge through the intersection. A loud crackle of energy sounds out, and another body smacks against the metal piped wall. Another shotgun blast booms, and heavy metal impacts with a wet crunch. Sebastian remains in the middle of the intersection, and directs the formation down the passage. Pausing a moment, Sotalia unleashes a bolt of lightning behind her and sprints back into pace. Bach lays a covering volley of plasma bolts from his pistol and suppresses the advance of awakening cyborgs. Setting up for another casting, Sotalia waits for Bach to run past, and another arc of electricity erupts down the hall in a flood of blue-white light and crackling chaos. Sebastian flies next to Sotalia and Bach and motions towards the exit. "Save the firepower and run! We may need it outside!"

Dretphi and Cideeda leap to either side of the facility entrance. The crew flee out in formation with Aristespha commanding from the middle. Cheers fill the air from the crowd of the other Next Adventurers of Nexus support staff. Samantha and Gerald run out to the rescued crew and immediately lead them away to the safety perimeter. Deedri eagerly rushes over to assist with the injured and happily assists. Modoran nods respectfully to the team with honest applause. Chad, Tassilda, and Trakenthin glower at the events unfolding before them. Bach and Sotalia halt and pivot around after clearing the entry. Panting heavily, Bach squints down the corridor beyond the main doorway. "What the- Oh shit! I don't think they're stopping. They might actually come out here!"

Peeking around from the side, Cideeda narrows her emerald green eyes towards the sleek wandering figures in the dark, hazy chaos. "Fuck! There's probably no central control to keep them from wandering off now!

Sotalia squints down the corridor into the distance, and her eyes widen in horror as she spots the unsettling humanoid outlines in contrast to the flickering backlight. "Are they all coming back online?! That's more than what we shot!"

Dretphi flips up her visor, draws in a deep breath, and bellows out to the crowds. "MOVE BACK! THEY ARE COMING TO THE ENTRY! GET BACK NOW!"

Sebastian zip out of the entry, pivots around, and watches the masses of movement swell out from the dark depths of the ancient ruins. "Gods damn it. I guess they engineered them to handle an EMP. Oh fucking hell, they're all coming towards the exit. We're going to need to set up a choke point here and try to keep them contained."

Aristespha slides to a stop behind everyone. "Bach! Do you have another one of those barriers left in you? Even if we call the guild and military, it'll take them at least half an hour to get out here. Anything to slow them down now."

Panic rushes up through Bach's rigid form with nervous trembling and shuddering breaths. He searches the area frantically and wrestles down the flits of fright. "Uh- I- Uh- Maybe! But, one or two won't get through, but this many?! I need a power source to recharge the-"

His eyes snaps o a large trailer power cell with runs of cables to Next Adventurers of Nexus equipment in the vicinity. Pointing at the device, Bach commands determined. "THAT. HERE. NOW!"

Dretphi and Cideeda bolt to the power cell. While unlocking the restraints, Dretphi prepares the device to roll on its wheels. Cideeda rips out plugs and disconnects cables in bulk to free it. Aristespha gestures out an incantation and throws both hands forward. A massive wave of force funnels down the corridor, and launches cyborgs back in the commando pile up. Sotalia flings out shock wave bolts, and each erupting impact knocks a cyborg tumbling behind the amassing horde. Dretphi lifts the tongue of the trailer and summons the sheer brute strength to drag it back. Ripping out the last few cables, Cideeda sprints ahead and feverishly clears the way in front of Dretphi. Reaches his hand out, Bach's eyes glow, and energy flows into a hexagonal grid in front of him. The magical matrix grows onto the heavy archway and roots itself to the concrete around. As the seal strengths, Sotalia and Aristespha stand back and keep spells at the ready. Dretphi heaves the power cell trailer into position behind Bach. "It is here!"

Bach draws his hand away from the framework of hexes, and a woven cord of magical threads form from his palm. Quickly pivoting around, he swiftly studies the power cell. Flipping open an access panel covered in warnings, he glances at the cord in hand and the high voltage electrical insides of the power cell. Gritting his teeth uncertainty, he winces and jams magical cable inside. After a moment of concentration, a rush of flow jet down around his arm and floods the insides of the power cell. The cord flashes to a bright prismatic glow, and the energy framework sinking into the archway fills in quickly, growing denser by the second. A thick golden barrier materializes and anchors securely into the structure of the outpost. Plasma bolts barrages from inside pelt the magical seal. The barrier holds with no signs of damage. Bach sighs with relief and quickly backs away from the entryway. "It should be good! I guess... I hope?"

Minutes of constant assaults from cyber-commando wane. After a few tactical changes, the cyborgs fall back, and only a few rotting bionic husks idly press against the entryway seal. The Next Adventurers of Nexus crews and adventures collect themselves. Meanwhile, Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia retreat to the humvee as Sebastian dissipates back into the sword at Aristespha's side. As the team rests, Aristespha hangs up on her aetherphone, walks back over to the humvee. "Well, the GAA military should be here soon enough to lock down the area. The local guild office was happy for the containment and information. So, we might get a nice bonus."

Grumbling as she sits in the front seat, Sotalia sips from a bottle of water. "Gods... Still can't believe we had to help them out."

Sebastian's voice resonates from the sword at Aristespha's side. "To be fair... That was a fucked up situation for anyone.

Rolling her golden eyes, Sotalia scratches the dark gray patches under her pointed ears and sighs. "Yeah..."

Cideeda finishes chewing a large piece of jerky and laughs while tapping on Sotalia's shoulder. "Did you see the look on their faces when we got the crew out? I hope THAT gets put on air!"

Dretphi groans while laying on the far back seat, throws her head back into her pillows, and sinks into the cushion. "I worry what will be on the show."

Bach yawns and stretches his neck. Pauses a moment, he chuckles to himself and shakes his head. "You know... I don't think they'll have much material to work with."

Blinking her emerald green eyes, Cideeda's furry ears perk with her thoughts, and she widens a toothy grin. "That's right... Oh, they'll be lucky to get anything of use from today."

Aristespha puzzles at Bach and Cideeda, and steps closer to lower her voice with a wry smile. "Why do you two say that?"

Bach gestures towards the power cell near the magical barrier. "I think that's the only one they brought, and they have a lot of power hungry equipment."

An evil smile settles upon Cideeda's light brown face, and she wiggles comfortably into the driver's seat. "Also, I know the EMP didn't help."

-7-

Rubbing the fatigue from her eyes, Samantha kicks the shoes off her feet onto the hotel floor. Adjusting her aetherphone on a nearby nightstand, she groans and flops back on one of the beds in the double room. "So... After the Greater Azure Alliance specialists, that we ran into at the Amaranth Dining House, blasted the barrier off, they put their own up and sealed the area off tight. Thankfully, we got the power cell trailer back in one piece. So, that's one rental deposit we'll get back. I'm still fighting MERC about SUPPOSED damages to other equipment."

Howard's tone steady to neutral and calming cadence from the speakerphone. "Huh. Interesting. Well, I'm glad that everyone got out in one piece. Be sure to give Radnae, Urdi, and... even that Ol' Harris a week off. Give them coupons to that spa and magical hot springs we got the advertising deal with. Back to business... How much footage did you all manage to get?"

Samantha winces, drags out a heavy sigh, and draws a deep breath in. "A little. Between the military lockdown, that electrical thing which corrupted a bunch of recordings, and then not having power for most of the equipment... I'm surprised we even got that much. Gods, I'm not sure if it's enough for an episode. I mean what kind of episode is this going to be?! They boldly eat, fail miserably on their first mission, and then go home to lick their wounded egos? That's at least an early to mid season thing. You can't just lead with THAT."

After a still silence, a low laugh grows into loud cackling through the speaker. Staring at her phone, Samantha's hazel eyes bounce between confusion and concern as an uncertain squirm travels through her body. From the other side of the double hotel room, Gerald halts work on his laptop, slowly turns his head, and narrows an uneasy stare on the phone. The laughing stops, and Howard exhales with a sinister glee. "Yes... Just that... With a little twist!"

Leaning an ear closer to her phone, Samantha contorts her face curiously with anticipation. "What kind of twist, Howie?"

Howard chuckles darkly to himself and explains with a proud, plotting tone. "You see... We have a team of young, ego-heavy, special little stars that just got their spotlight stolen by another team. A team of old, experienced adventurers that made them look like complete chumps. With all that happened, soon to be on national television."

Blinking with the rush of ideas, Samantha's attentions turn inwards and her eyes frantically sort through her mind. After a few seconds, she flits her eyes wide with revelation. Gerald and Samantha exchange matching eager gazes. Samantha mutters under her breath. "Holy shit."

Howard snickers at the subtle sounds of epiphany and pride manifest into voice through the phone. "Yes! We have something to catch all these young egos' frustrations and ire. Challengers... Conflict... Catalysts... We don't have to do anything! We just need these two groups to be in the same area as each other. Then, give them opportunities."

Drawing an evil grin across her light face, Samantha listens attentively to her phone, her anticipation renewed. "So, what's the plan? What do you need?"

Scratching of chin stubble resonates through the speaker, and Howard hums to himself as deliberation tempers his tone. "Keep the crew checking the spy cameras in their rooms at that roach motel. With those living conditions and today's humiliation, I'm pretty sure they are in the BEST of moods. I want you to arrange some video journal segments and pry as hard as you can into how they feel about the other group. Dig up some embarrassing shots to really get under their skin, so they'll be encouraged to be... Honest. I've got a few informants to call up... I wonder where Sebastian and crew are staying, because it's strange they've been in the area for so long and where doing regular work so close. I got a feeling they are staying somewhere nearby."

----

Stepping out of the bathroom doorway in socks, shorts, and a simple shirt, Bach presses the towel on his head over his longer hair. He plods through the hallway and wanders out into space between the living area and the dining table. Scouting out a nice spot on the couch warming in the morning light slipping through the back sliding glass door, he pivots but slows to a halt. He pulls the towel down out of his face and furrows his brow suspiciously. Facing the dining table behind him, he notices Aristespha and Sotalia sitting opposite of each other. At the end of the table, a chair slides out. Both Aristespha and Sotalia watch Bach expectantly. Aristespha directs Bach to the chair with a motion of the hand and a reserved smile. "Have a seat, Bach."

Cautiously approaching the chair, Bach maintains uncertain contact between the two. He sits down and notices the still solid and stable golden shield disc and magical cord ensnaring the cyber-commando plasma rifle. Sighing uneasily, he lowers his head and grumbles. "Okay... So where do you want to start the inquisition?"

Gently lifting her open hands off the table, Aristespha cranes her head and levels a genuinely concerned gaze at Bach. "Bach. We just want to ask some questions, if you are comfortable with them."

Sotalia straightens her posture and curls a grateful smile at Bach. "Hey, you saved our asses yesterday. So, thank you. Also, we really want to help you out, but..."

She furrows her brow and narrows her stare. "Gods damn it, you've got to give us something to work with! This whole mysterious ability out of nowhere thing is fucking annoying to work with."

Bach glances over to Aristespha's hand patting his shoulder softly. Maintaining a calm and purposeful voice, she focuses her violet eyes. "I know it is an uncomfortable subject. But, to help you out to the best of our abilities, we need to know more about your abilities. How are you able to perform these feats? And importantly, why you got to this point? We can help you. You can definitely help us. First, we need some information to start with."

A strained sigh escapes Bach, and he briefly grits his teeth. Furrowing his brow, he grimaces sharply as he bounces his gaze between Aristespha and Sotalia. After a few seconds, he relaxes and resigns to an acceptance. Raising his head, he settles back in his seat and draws in a long calming breath. "Okay. I guess it's only fair. And... I don't want to leave you guys in the dark. So... Um... Here's the quick and short version. After the encounter with the Nightmare Geist, I was left with limitations on the magical energy reserves I could use safely. I could get maybe one low level spell off. Then, that was it for half an hour or more. So... I was... A lame mage."

Aristespha keeps her focus on Bach with a slight understanding nod, while Sotalia squirms uncomfortably with the subject. Narrowing her violet eyes, Aristespha dutifully observes Bach's body language. "What restrictions do you have?"

Bach pulls in a thoughtful breath and ponders quietly for a moment. "Well... My throughput from the abstract prism is limited. What I have stored on me, I can use just fine. But, if I use too much of that and tap hard on what's near me... Well, I risk a complete drain out. I just can't draw much from what's near me."

Sotalia blinks in surprise and aims her golden eyed gaze right at Bach. "Huh. That explains the physical weakness after the big stuff. But, you recover fast enough."

Scratching the back of head of brown hair, Bach shrugs nonchalantly and smirks indifferently. "I mean, I use what's on me just fine and tap a little in what's near me. But, I can't get the throughput to sustain any normal spells. Even direct casting can only help so much."

Aristespha maintains her examining stare upon Bach and taps on the golden shield disc. "It certainly seems you found a way around those limitations. Describe it to me."

The long silence looms and agitates Sotalia. She bounces a confused glance between Bach and Aristespha. Bach grimaces and searches his mind for the words while his expression drifts at a loss. Sotalia twists her mouth in the bubbling frustration and pokes Bach hard in the arm with a long nailed finger. "Well?! Describe it already."

Snapping out of the stupor, Bach rubs his arm and narrows an annoyed stare. "Ow! I'm trying to! Gods, it's just a bit hard to describe. I mean I don't know the official words for it all."

Sotalia crosses her arms and quirks her brow with an unamused twist. "Well, how did you figure it out? Start there."

Bach nervously rubs his light tan hands together, darts his blue gaze around uneasily, and attempts cohesive explanation. "I was pretty depressed about not being able to cast spells. So, I thought about it a lot and obsessed over magical energy efficiency. Direct casting helped a bit... But, it was still too inefficient. It felt like there was still too much extra surrounding the magical flows. So... While laying around in my bed one night, unable to sleep and staring at the ceiling... Um, I tried to..."

After the silence stretches out to seconds, Sotalia prods Bach in the arm again with an impatient stare. Bach reflexively shifts his body away from the poke and sneers back. Leaning towards Bach, Sotalia furrows her brow with a demanding tone. "Stop drifting off mid sentence."

Grumbling aggravated, Bach places his elbows on the table and holds his head in his hands. "I'm sorry! It's going to sound completely insane, but I tried to SEE the process of casting in my mind. To see a Foundational Construct function... To LOOK... Where the Foundation Construct connects to the Abstract Prism? Gods, that doesn't make any sense when you say it out loud, I know."

Shaking his head in defeat, Bach pauses in thought and glances around. He meets Sotalia's bewildered expression and shifts his focus over to Aristespha. Nodding understandingly, Aristespha addresses Bach with genuine interest on her ivory face. "Bach. What you are describing is called Reverse Flow Perception. It's a process many at the Grand Library have been using for years to study magic fundamentals. It's a method of back-tracing how magical energy is manipulated via willing flow back up to the Abstract Prism and interpreting the sensations visually in your mind."

Snapping her head to Aristespha, Sotalia blinks incredulously and tosses back her dark red hair flustered. "Wait! What?! This is a thing?! Why haven't I heard of it?!"

Lifting an amused eyebrow with a playful smile to Sotalia, Aristespha chuckles. "Well, how many advanced theory classes and high-level magical analysis courses did you take in school?"

Sotalia snorts dismissively, rolls her golden eyes, and flicks back stray locks over her swept back black horns. Returning her focus to Bach, Aristespha presents a respectful smile and an encouraging tone. "I would guess you studied what you saw, experimented further, and eventually got tangible results."

Bach nods within the confines of his hands and lifts his head up with a long sigh. "Yes. It took a LONG time. But, I kept on figuring out how to use magic a little more efficiently, control flow better, and perform new magical operations. The individual parts aren't hard to figure out. The real problem is applying them properly. The sheer number and speed you have to do so is really intense, to say the least. I mean, it's gotten easier as I've grown more familiar with it all."

Sotalia crosses her arms and tenses her fingers. With the internal irritation rising, she squirms anxiously in her seat. Seconds later, she grumbles and slides back. "Let's take this outside. The mission yesterday bumped our training time, so let's do it NOW. I want YOU to SHOW me what the hell you are talking about."

Shooting up out of her chair, she marches to the sliding glass door, slings it open, and swiftly struts out to the training field. Bach scratches his head confused and returns his stare from the open door. Aristespha dismissively rolls her eyes and calmly rises from her seat. "Don't worry. I believe she was just hoping for an answer she should easily understand and immediately use for her own practice of magic. She's a very powerful and capable mage."

Glancing out to the backyard at Sotalia, her tone lowers and leans closer to Bach. "And she's developed quite the competitive streak and temperament to match, too."

Bach shrugs and throws his hands up in the air at a list. "Well, I don't know what to tell her. I mean, I couldn't do anything of significance for two years even after figuring out... the basics of this? Gods, only recently have I gotten the hang of the big things you all have seen. It took forever to get most my old spells adapted and working enough to function like they did."

Aristespha stands near Bach and waits for him to get out of his chair. "You have to understand... This is a woman who has always had top of the class energy capacity and throughput. She has never needed to optimize. There's spells she can cast with ease that would stress me too much. So, to phrase it nicely, her style of magic isn't SUBTLE in the slightest. Now, she wants to develop that horribly neglected skill set."

She twists her ivory face, fights against a grimace, and groans. "I have TRIED to advise her before, but she's a difficult student. She has tried so many gimmicks in some attempt to find shortcuts. Truthfully, I'm glad she has settled her focus on direct casting. THAT is an actual method to optimize your spell crafting. So, I can only hope to keep her trying."

standing up, holds his arm out, points along his forearm, and furrows quizzical gaze at Aristespha. "Okay... Are the magical runes on her arm another attempt at optimizing her spell casting? I've been wondering what those were."

Wincing sharply into a groaning cringe, Aristespha pinches the bridge of her nose. "Thankfully, they're just surface dyes that will fade out eventually. But... Gods... They look ridiculous."

----

In the large open field behind the ranch style house, Aristespha, Sotalia, and Bach stand near a stone boulder and propped up rocks in the middle of grassy landscape. Sotalia stretches her arms out and arches her back. Planting her feet down, she raises her palm into the air and closes her eyes. The runes on her arm illuminate, faint flows of magical energy rush out, and a flaming ball of orange hovers centimeters above her hand. She confidently grins with a wily glint in her golden eyes and glances back at Bach and Aristespha. "A fire bolt, direct cast, with runic optimization. Now show me your best version, Bach."

Bach blinks a moment, glances around uneasily, and ponders his predicament. Pulling a devious smirk from the corner of his mouth, he perks his brow. Aristespha furrows her brow curiously, places her hands on her sides, and waits in amused anticipation. Bach walks up next to Sotalia and stares forward to the target. Lifting his palm up, he firmly grabs underneath Sotalia's hand holding the fire bolt. Sotalia's confident expression pops, and she blinks dumbfounded. A blue glow dimly pulses in Bach's eyes, and the fire bolt's outer flame dissipates. The ball shrinks slightly and the orange fire blends to blue. A blowtorch hiss replaces the rolling crackles. Bach directs Sotalia's hand behind the bolt. Aiming for a stack of rocks next to the stone boulder, he releases Sotalia's hand. The bolt zooms off. A loud crack sounds, and it crashes onto the stony surface. A trail of magical gasses dissipate as a fading glow at impact cools.

Sotalia blinks in disbelief and gawks at the soot smudged rock. Holding her chin thoughtful with a slight violet glow in her eyes, Aristespha surveys with renewed interest. Bach poses a moment and nods with smug accomplishment. Recovering to her senses, Sotalia whips her hand, snatches the collar of Bach's shirt, and yanks him down to her level. She bares teeth, drills her golden eyes Bach, and punctuates each word with a resting growl. "WHAT. WAS. THAT?!"

Bach fights to keep a calm exterior and hesitantly meets Sotalia's piercing glare. "Uh, well, my best version of a fire bolt?"

Furrowing her brow to an irritated squint, Sotalia curls her other hand on the collar and draws Bach closer. "OH. Don't be CUTE with ME."

Satisfaction beams out from Aristespha, and she observes the unfolding exchange with smirking humor. Bach cautiously places his hands on Sotalia's forearms and gently pushes them away. Sotalia reluctantly releases her grasp upon his shirt collar and aims a demanding glare at him. With a nervous tremor, Bach smiles and chuckles. "I'll... Show you the best I can. It will not be easy, but I will show you some basics of what I did."

Sotalia rolls her shoulders, assumes a ready stance, and summons forth her previously confident posture. "Go ahead. I'm ready."

Bach motions his hand towards the stone targets. "So, well, get another fire bolt ready."

Holding her hand out, Sotaloa concentrates and manifests another fire bolt. She maintains a careful watch of Bach. Hovers his hand next to the side of the fire bolt, Bach ponders a moment and, with a bright blue glow in eyes, plucks the flaming orb away from Sotalia's hand. He levitates the magical ball of fire between both his hands, narrows an scrutinizing stare upon it, and hums thoughtfully to himself. Blinking in pure bewilderment, Sotalia flexes her empty hand and flashes a confused glance at Bach. "What the hell is this?!"

As Sebastian's ethereal form lands nearby, Aristespha grins mischievously and scoots close. Pointing to Sotalia and Bach, and Sebastian leans close to Aristespha whispers. "So, what's going on here, dear? I heard her yelling from inside the living room."

Barely containing her amusement, Aristespha hides the grin on her ivory face behind a hand and motions between Bach and Sotalia. "Your brother is instructing Sotalia on the finer aspects of magical optimization."

Blinking in surprise, Sebastian furrows his ghostly brow. "Is she actually LISTENING to him?"

Shakes her head, Aristespha smirks with a roll of her violet eyes. "Well, not in the strictest definitions. But, his blunt demonstrations are reaching her in ways she just can't ignore. I believe it has been very effective. I've certainly learned by watching."

Sebastian squints curiously at the continuing exchange between Bach and Sotalia. "What's Bach doing right now?"

Bach points out a flicker of energy within the fire bolt spell. Sotalia furrows her brow with initial defensive flits. Her body language softens, and her golden eyes watch attentively. Aristespha giggles to herself and winks to Sebastian. "He's telling Sotalia the issues with her spell. He is quite literally picking it apart before her eyes and critiquing it."

Sebastian grimaces and grits his teeth. "Oh, he doesn't know how she gets. She'll- Wait-"

He narrows his translucent blue eyes and cocks his head incredulously. "Is she actually paying honest attention and not going on the defensive?"

Keeping her comments close to Sebasstian, Aristespha nods and quietly laughs. "She has been actually receptive. Something she knows nothing about, but she actually WANTS to learn it. Bach has made it very apparent that she should shut up and pay attention. So... She actually is."

Sebastian shifts his gaze over to Bach and Sotalia. "OH... This is going to be good. Gods, I hope this will get her to stop spending money on all those magical gimmicks."

Drawing in a faintly annoyed breath, Aristespha puts her hands together and glances upwards with vague hope. "Oh, that would be so nice..."

----

Sotalia grimaces intensely, locks her eyes to her hand, and winces with a eye twitch. Keeping his hand underneath Sotalia's, Bach watches the fire bolt slowly form. The orb manifests into its final stage, appearing similar to prior incarnations. Sotalia gasps and exhales relieved. "Oh gods. That took forever!"

Tapping a button on her tablet, Aristespha sits on a nearby log and relishes Sotalia's efforts. "Seven minutes to be exact."

Bach pulls his hand away and nods at the stable, orange flaming ball. "So, that's just one tweak you can do. Practice that a bunch, and we'll cover the many others later."

Sotalia wipes a few beads of sweat from her forehead and brushes some of her dark red hair over a horn. "This is ridiculous! It's so excruciating! The amount I have to hold back and little details I have to handle..."

Slowly averting his gaze with a tight smile, Bach glances back to Aristespha and Sebastian, while Sotalia continues to rant to herself. He simply shrugs with an awkward grin. Shakes her head of long silvery blue hair, Aristespha rolls violet her eyes. She stands up from the log, walks over to Sotalia, and pats her on the back. "Welcome to what many of us have to contend with."

Sniffing the air, Bach searches the clouds streaming overhead in the afternoon sky. He squints over to the house and steps in that direction. "Let's go back inside. I'm getting a bit hungry, and it's getting really cloudy. The dark and stormy kind of cloudy."

Aristespha joins Bach at his side and keeps pace with him. "So, I have a question about the magical materials you create. How are you stabilizing the magical energy? I've done research into similar methods for medical uses, but longevity has been an issue."

Bach searches his mind and furrows his brow in thought. "Geometric substructures. That's what's given me the best results. I found that most spells don't bother messing with the substructures of the magical energy lattices and matrices, since they aren't intended to be permanent things. I created my first stabilized energy dish after watching a chemistry show on fullerenes."

The last statement piques Aristespha's interest, and she quizzes Bach. "Oh. So, a disc, similar to the one you created recently?"

Blinking his blue eyes, Bach furrows his brow and cocks his head of longer brown hair. "Uh, no. A dish. Like the ones you eat on. I mean... Okay, this is embarrassing... I, uh, that week I created it? Um, I hadn't washed dishes for a LONG time and didn't want to waste money on paper plates.

Averting his face from Aristespha, he uneasily chuckles. "So, I got inspired to form one. It worked decently enough. Still faded away after a week, but I refined the process. In fact, I eventually made a set of dishware for eight people that included dishes, bowls, saucers, tea cups, glasses, and spoons. The knives and forks were a bit hard to-"

Bach coasts his words to stop when Aristespha steps right in front of him. She cuts a glare right right through him and barely contains the sheer exasperation seeping out. "You mean to tell me... Your kitchen was stocked with stabilized energy... DISHWARE?!"

Sebastian juts his arm out in front of Sotalia. They both stop a few meters behind Bach. Immediately recognizing THAT tone from Aristespha, Sebastian motions Sotalia around the confrontation. Sotalia unquestioningly agrees, and the two circumnavigate around at a safe distance with a cautious watch of the situation nearby. Aristespha pinches the bridge of her nose, closes her eyes, draws a deep breath, and exhales slowly. "It's okay. It's fine. A little frustrating that an intriguing development in magical materials was used to manufacture... DISHWARE. So, am I to guess that your prior landlord has them now?"

Bach bites his lip and warily nods with a defensive smirk. "Yeah. When I was ABDUCTED and then released to my room here, I called my landlord and told her to sell or keep whatever was left to pay this last month's rent.

Perking his brow, he shrugs his shoulders and grimaces. "I mean, it wasn't bad dishware. Non-stick, microwave safe, and it looked pretty. Hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure my old landlord probably has already rented the place out again. Knowing her, she probably advertised it as furnished now to scam a higher rent."

Aristespha grumpily pivots away from Bach, and stiffly steps away. Bach searches the area and follows behind her with a half-hearted plea. "I can create more. Would you like a set? I'm sorry, I don't know what is significant or what isn't these days with magic. I've kind of been out of the loop for some time."

Aristespha sighs heavily, relaxes her shoulders, and halts in front of the sliding glass door. A recognition of opportunity sparks in her eyes. She lifts her head to face Bach with an unamused, but faintly forgiving grimace. "I actually have many magical materials I've designed for medical use. I can create small batches, but they are prototypes. You help me create them, I'll start teaching you medical magic. You'll need to know it anyway to properly manufacture the materials."

Bach puts both thumbs up in agreement. "Hey, that's fine with me. Just let me know what you need."

A cunning smile emerges on Aristespha's face, and she glances at the magical cord on the dining table. "Start with ten meters of the magical cord stuck on that gun and enlightening me on its properties."

----

Bach, Cideeda, and Dretphi sit around the dining table with roll-out pads and cloths covering sections of the tabletop. Detaching the barrel of her field stripped sub-machine gun, Dretphi runs a cleaning rod down the length. Cideeda checks the ejector of her shotgun, oils a few spots, and removes the bright orange safety plug from the chamber. Cycling it to her satisfaction, she puts the rubber chunk back in and stows the weapon into a carrying case. Bach hovers the cloud of parts for his plasma pistol between his hands. After a few final tweaks, the pistol reassembles itself and floats gently down to the pad in front of Bach. Cideeda shakes her head with a toothy grin. "That's still fascinating to me. By the way, since you are done, could you..."

Leaning over in her chair, below the table, she hoists the magically webbed up plasma rifle upon the tabletop. She taps a claw tip on the weapon and lifts an eyebrow. "Could remove the jam in and ON this thing, please? I'd really appreciate it."

Bach reaches out, grabs the magical cord attached to the rifle, and draws up the slack. Coiling the bundle in his hand, his eyes flick blue and a pulse of magical flow rush down his arm. Energy threads retreat from the gun and the excess dissipates back to the thick of the cable. Lifting the bundle off the table, he glances around with an uncertain grimace. Dretphi curiously quirks her brow. "What are you looking for?"

Bach twists his mouth indecisively. "Trying to find a place to put this. I don't want it. I'm full up energy wise, so breaking it down is a waste."

An evil smile emerges on Cideeda's light brown face, and she eagerly holds her hand out. "Hey! Let me have it! I got an idea."

He passes the coil over apprehensively. Signaling both Bach and Dretphi close, she lifts the cord up. "Sotalia has been wanting this ever since we got back from the mission. She's left it alone probably because she couldn't figure how to get it off the plasma rifle. And the only reason she hasn't walked off with the whole thing is because I'd come looking for it."

Tilting his head to the side, Bach blinks confused and narrows his gaze. "Wait, why would she want the cord? I mean, I think Aristespha seems more interested in magical materials than Sotalia."

Dretphi chuckles softly to herself, eyes the hallway, and whispers. "She likes to collect magical oddities. Of all varieties. An obsession."

Flicking her furry ears, Cideeda playfully groans with an emerald green eye roll and scoots her chair back. "Gods, that's a nice way of putting it. When it comes to oddball magical garbage, she's practically a hoarder. If it wasn't for all the folded space frame carriers we have, we'd need a separate trailer to haul it all."

She peeks at the hallway entry, wags her long tail, and walks softly into the kitchen prep and pantry area. Stepping next to the garbage can near the garage door, she waves the cord side to side at Bach with an excited grin and plops upon the tile floor. A few steps later, she directs her voice to the hallway. "Hey, Bach!"

Bach blinks bewildered. Cideeda points at Bach and motions her hand from mouth to the hallway. An understanding sparks in Bach, and he aims his voice down towards the hall archway. "Oh, um. Yes?"

Cideeda gracefully slides herself into her chair and raps her claw tips upon the tabletop. "What do you want me to do with this magical cord from the plasma rifle?"

Searching his mind for a response, Bach projects his casual tone. "Uh, well, I don't know. I don't want it. Just put it by the garbage can in the kitchen for now."

Grabbing hold of a chair next to her, she dramatically slides it around. After a few seconds, she moves the wooden chair back into place and whispers. "Now... Act like you're working and wait for the show."

The three work on their tasks, occasionally sneaking a peek towards the archway. Minutes later, Sotalia confidently strides out of the hallway. She casually glances over the gathering at the dining in route to the kitchen. Humming a tune to herself, she adjusts her loose fitting t-shirt in front of the refrigerator. She opens the door to the fridge and briefly darts her eyes to the dining table. She slowly dips down with the cover of the open fridge door and below line of sight bar window into the space from the dining table. Clanks and plastic shuffles sound out. In between the thinly veiled diversions of rearranging fridge items, frustrated, quiet grunts and clumsy movement upon the tile floor contrast the other noises.

The scrambling sounds stop with a relieved sigh. Sotalia pops back up with a vegetable snack pack and a sports drink in hand. Pulling her shirt down over the waistband of her shorts, she casually closes the fridge door. She swiftly steps to the hall archway with a nonchalant exterior. Cideeda winks to Bach and Dretphi. When Sotalia passes by, Cideeda flicks a part off the table to nearby Sotalia. "Oh, damn it. Hey, can you get that for me, Sotalia?"

Sotalia freezes mid step, pivots slowly, and nervously smiles. "Oh! Sure."

Squatting down to the floor, she keeps her back straight and her midsection quote inflexible. She snatches the part from the floor, carefully stands back up, and drops the piece into Cideeda's awaiting hand. "There you go. Now, back to reading! You all have fun with your, um, fixing and stuff."

Sotalia swiftly slips into the hallway, and faster footsteps upon wooden floor echo out. Placing her elbow on the table, Cideeda props her chin with her hand, and just shakes her head. Dretphi returns her gaze from the hallway and smiles humored. "She does try."

Cideeda shrugs and dismisses with a wave. "Oh, I know. Wrapping the cord around the waist wasn't a bad idea. I've got to give her some credit this time."

Scratching the back of his head, Bach bounces his confusion between Dretphi and Cideeda. "Huh. Okay. Why be so secretive?"

Cideeda laughs with a toothy grin and points towards the hallway. "Oh! It's because we've given her so much shit about collecting all that magical crap. She says all the time that she's totally going to prune her collection. But, when something catches her eye, she'll try to get it without us noticing. That way, we don't have a chance to call her out on it."

Dretphi taps Bach on the shoulder with a smile. "Matter of her pride. Similar to when she stole your last piece of bacon at the Amaranth Dining House."

Bach blinks his blue eyes and furrows a distant stare inwards. After sorting through a rush of memory, his jaw drops. His expression slips into disbelief, and he straightens his posture with the realization. "The fuck? She stole a piece of my bacon? Wait, what- Why?"

Perking her furry ears with a surprised flick of her tail, Cideeda covers mouth and giggles. "OH GODS. That's right. I thought I saw her fork move down on your plate. Wow, she actually moved quick that time. I only caught a bit of it out of the corner of my eye."

Bach leans forward in his chair, a tight frown on his face, and furrows his brow contemplatively. "But, why didn't she just ask, or just order some more?"

Dretphi locks the last part into her submachine gun and places the reassembled weapon in its case. "Pride. Image. Ego."

She uncovers something on the floor. Her arm muscles tighten, and she raises her huge machete up and carefully places it down upon the tabletop. Sorting through her repair kit, she procures a magnifying glass, and starts inspecting the glimmering edge. Bach carefully examines the section of blade closest to him curiously. "So, what are you looking for exactly? It seems like it doesn't have a scratch on it."

Gliding a metal pick along the edge of the blade, Dretphi quickly examines it to satisfaction and glances up from the magnifying glass. "Inspecting the blade. Verifying the enchantment upon the edge remained intact. Our last enemies were significantly hard."

Cideeda breaks from examining the plasma rifle and gazes at Bach with an inquisitive glint. "Speaking of which. Bach? Have you done any weapon or armor enchantments before?"

Blinking in thought, Bach furrows his brow and stares internally. Seconds later, he shakes his head and grimaces. "No. I don't think I've ever really tried any real enchanting. Never had any spare weapons or armor to experiment with."

Dretphi and Cideeda exchange eager grins. Cideeda leans close to Bach, perks her furry ears, wags her long, fluffy tail, and flutters her emerald green eyes at him. "Would you like some?"

----

A constant curtain of rainfall drops down upon the rural region surrounding Amaranth Valley. Water flows through the manmade drainage paths along with natural topography, and the trickles merge to larger currents. The creek in the nearby woods swells to the edges of its banks. The chorus of drops upon the roof drums a low background drone inside the ranch style house. Bach places down a large rifle barrel next to others on the tabletop. Tracing the length of the barrel, he rocks his head side to side uncertainly. "I... I might be able to do something. Um, anti-friction coating inside the barrel? Maybe some micro-grooves on the rifling? I not sure what you'd want on something like this."

Cideeda energetically pantomimes something bursting out in front of her. "Can you make it so the rounds sent through it explode into fire on impact?! That's possible right?"

Bach's face blanks, and he tilts his head blinking. Cideeda's excitement wanes as she gauges Bach's expression. Lowering his head down to inspect the barrel closer, Bach furrows his brow, and inspiration brews within. He mumbles a debate with himself and mutters out a grand plan. "But... Put mechanisms to... How much energy can I take from the round and convert... Then..."

Perking her furry ears, Cideeda cranes head around and focuses upon the quiet discussion. As pieces of words slip out, excitement flushes back into her face. Reading the mood shift, Dretphi waits in anticipation. Bach pulls a deep breath and holds his forehead contemplatively. He mulls over the options in a series of unsure winces and uncertain grimaces. Taking his hand off his forehead, he furrows his brow and shrugs with a hand held up. "It would take A LOT of testing to get it right. There's a good chance a barrel might get melted in the process."

Dretphi and Cideeda smile at each other. Sitting back in her chair at the dining table, Cideeda stretches her arms back. "More reasons to shoot guns? Well, I'm not going to argue."

Bach picks up a submachine gun round on the table and grabs a shotgun shell in the other hand. "I might be able to do something with these rounds. I know I need to be careful with the submachine gun stuff, since there's stuff with, like, the gasses and recoil that are important."

Granting an understanding nod, Dretphi cracks a smirk on her tan face. "Gas operated with an intricate mechanism. Do not worry. I will explain later."

Bach smiles gratefully and turns his attention to the other munitions. "Shotgun shells, I think give me a little more room to work in. We might have to do something to barrel, depending on what you want."

Sinking back into the chair, he sighs and squints distantly at the figures inside his mind. "It'll take some time to figure it out... And, I can only make so many a day. Now, if you want simple part performance tweaks, THAT I can do fast enough."

Cideeda and Dretphi discuss amongst each other, pointing out specifics in the party arsenal. During the detailed debate between the two, Bach casually picks up his plasma pistol on the pad in front of him. He removes the power pack and presses the safety discharge button a few times. Holding up in the air, he points it at the ceiling and rotates it thoughtfully. Narrowing his blue eyes, he gazes upon the workings of the device, angles different components into view, and examines the machine in his grip. As he relaxes his shoulders, a flush of blue illuminates his stare.

Flows of magical energy creep up along his arm onto and into the plasma pistol. The weapon partially disassembles. Parts shift, new magical components manifest in place, and the assembly melds together. The top lifts up, the sides of the barrel housing expand outwards, and the muzzle slides forward a few centimeters. Gaps between the outer casing fill with magical plating. Minutes of methodical process later, the last traces of flow drift off the magically bolster plasma pistol. A confident, roguish grin grows from the corner of Bach's mouth.

Bach admires the device in his hand. Furrowing his brow against flits of doubt, he fights back the uncertainty and summons up an experimenter's courage to the unknown. His blatant satisfaction fades against the awkward stares of Dretphi and Cideeda. Resorting to waving a hand in front of Bach, Cideeda narrows her emerald green eyes. Bach blanks his expression, and his eyes dart around the room with embarrassment filling in the gaps. "Uh... Y-yes?"

Cideeda exhales briefly with relief and grins toothily. "Good, you're back with us again. You zoned out for a while there, and we didn't want to interrupt you. But, I figured you were done when you started to admire your latest doomsday weapon like some kind of evil mad scientist."

Shuddering with frowns at the last part, Bach's gut tenses up uncomfortably. He eyes the plasma pistol with less enthusiasm. "Yeah. Well, this might be a bit overkill."

Dretphi pats Bach on the shoulder. "Overkill today. Enough kill tomorrow."

Cideeda nods, flicks her furry ears, and gives Bach a knowing gaze honed from experience. "Oh, don't be afraid to put a few aces up your sleeves. The key is to keep them hidden until they are needed the most. A lot of people forget that part. Don't want to give your enemies time to prepare."

An odd comfort exudes from the wisdom, and Bach relaxes. Agreeing with an accepting nod, he shifts his attention back to the plasma pistol. "Yeah. First, I have to find out if everything I did actually works. But, until then..."

The magical augments gradually vanish. The floating parts hover, reassemble themselves, and lock back into their original places. Bach places the pistol, holster, and power into a nearby case. While idly brushing her platinum braids, Dretphi eyes the glimmer edge of her machete and perks her brow at Bach. "What can you do for melee weapons?"

Gritting his teeth, Bach rocks his head side to side. "Ah. If you get the weapon how you want it, I know how to apply a stabilization matrix onto and into it to help keep it that way. It's similar to what's on your machete right now. As for putting magical edges on things, I'm actually a little wary to experiment on that."

He twists his mouth against a grimace. "Especially after my experiences making a knife and fork with stabilized magical energy."

Wagging her tail curiously, Cideeda blinks thoughtfully. Catching a similar reaction from Dretphi, she levels an inquisitive stare at Bach and awaits a further explanation. Lowering his head in embarrassment, Bach summons his composure. "Okay. Long story short. The knife sliced through the tough steak I had... Right into the last ceramic plate I had left. The fork fell off the table, landed tines first, and stuck itself a centimeter into the vinyl and wood floor."

Dretphi and Cideeda stare in wide-eyed shock. Bach throws his hands up in resignation. "I know. After that, I've avoided that APPLICATION until I can make anything like that safe. Well, at least enough for the user. Gods, I'm glad that fork fell off before I tried to eat with it."

He holds up a finger and smirks with a tinge of confidence. "Now, spoons on the other hand... Those I can do just fine."

Inspiration glints within Cideeda's emerald green eyes, her long, fluffy tail wags eagerly, and she perks her furry ears. "Make me a spoon."

Bach and Dretphi exchange confused stares, and squint expectantly at Cideeda. Slyly smiling, Cideeda waves towards the kitchen counter with cereal boxes upon it. "We'll place it over there. Then, we'll see how long before Sotalia steals it. We can even get a betting pool going, I'm sure Aristespha will want to join in."

The collective plot manifests between intrigued glances at each other. Bach holds his palm up, and a flash radiant blue illuminates his eyes.

----

Dragging her wandering gaze across the dimly lit bedroom, Aristespha jots down a few lines of notes and saves the document on her tablet. She reaches behind her and rearranges the pillow stack to supportive satisfaction. Sebastian's ethereal visage materializes next to her on the bed. He nonchalantly hangs an arm around her with the ethereal form phasing with contact. "So, brushing up that sex scene in the chapter of your latest slash fic?"

Aristespha lets the tablet fall forward on her chest and gently swings her amused gaze at Sebastian, sarcasm tinting her voice. "Why, yes! I think I have settled on a surprise three-way now, with a voyeur hiding in the closet."

Sebastian grins smugly and meets Aristespha's gaze. "Ooo... Is that a double entendre?"

Pausing in thought, Aristespha snorts lightly and vainly hides a guilty smile. Sebastian peeks over and motions for her to flip the tablet back up. "So, what were you writing down?"

Aristespha tilts the tablet up and reveals a sundry of writing with magical symbols, scribbles around curious points, and overflowing footnotes. "Just my research. Nothing really that exciting. Unfortunately..."

Sebastian's translucent blue eyes wander towards the title line of a referenced paper. "Effects of counter-phased magical energy exposure? Wow. That's an oddly specific field of study. What are you reading it for?"

Furrowing her brow, Aristespha sighs and gazes at Sebastian. "Your brother, of course. So far, it's all inconclusive. Again, there's certainly more to his story he has yet to tell."

Sebastian drops his head down and ethereally groans. "In time. I'm sure he'll tell it all in-"

With faintly glowing violet eyes, Aristespha holds onto Sebastian's hand and speaks softly. "It's okay. Really. We all have got stories that are uncomfortable to talk about. And, I have gotten enough information to begin to understand how he manipulates his magic."

Against the flows of magic coating Aristespha's hand, Sebastian lightly squeezes her hand and ponders out loud. "Begin to understand? You? Don't you have it figured out? You usually figure these things out before I even know what the question was, dear."

Twisting her mouth, Aristespha shrugs her shoulders and groans. "Sebastian, I consider myself very proficient in magical knowledge and practice. To put it in a way, some of the shit your brother does would freak out the experts well above me. I honestly have difficulty perceiving half of what he does."

Sebastian blinks in astonishment, and his expression grows more concerned with a tinge of worry. "Is there anything I can do? Anything I need to look out for? Or, maybe anything I can ask him?"

Aristespha slides down into the bed sheets and sinks her head of long silvery blue hair into the plush pillows. "No, not right now. He's fine. He has outstanding control of his abilities, and he is capable. It's just..."

Gazing down at Aristespha, Sebastian turns his head curiously. "It's just...?"

Pulling up the sheets, Aristespha squirms for comfort within the covers. "I have diagnosed and treated people with magical disabilities. I've discussed advanced topics with professions who specialize in that field. People have found effective ways to treat, compensate, and work around such disabilities. But..."

She drifts off in thought, gazing at Sebastian's concerned face. "I do not believe anyone has taken the route Bach has, with any degree of success. Especially not to such an extreme..."

-8-

Laying upon the top of his bed, Bach flips through the unending pages in a thick textbook. His blue eyes wearily scan the elaborate medical terms and drift between the dense paragraphs. Blinking hard with a grimace, each moment of focus grows harder to maintain, and Bach's attention wanders away in desperation. Fruitless minutes later, he closes the book, tosses it to the side on the bed, and winces. Letting his head sink into the pillow, he rubs the strain from his eyes and blinks his vision clear. His arms lead the rest of his body to a seat on the bed. Pulling his back into a stretch, he yawns, stands up, and plods to the bedroom door. He glances out the window at the sun-backed gray and listens to the surge of rain against the pane. A distant thunder washes over the house, and Bach opens the door to the hallway.

Walking into the large living room, Bach notices Aristespha lounging on the couch staring a hole through the paperwork splayed on the coffee table. He steps over next to the arm of the couch and surveys the piles of documentation with an electronic tablet dividing the masses. Aristespha shakes her head side to side, fights against the building fatigue, and straightens her posture in protest. Rubbing her very long ears, she notices Bach out the corner of her violet eye. "Oh! Sorry. I'm trying to finish up some paperwork. I should be done in an hour or... So... Then, we can work on your training and my materials research..."

Bach studies the scene. Stacks of paperwork liter the area into roughly organized piles. Boxes of receipts and invoices sit on the floor around the coffee table. A dulled flash from the sliding glass back door illuminates an uncomfortably familiar tax form. Points to a seat cushion on the couch, Bach furrows his brow and smirks. "Um, you want help with this? I mean, after trudging through that last book, this seems like a nice change of pace. Feels like I could be somewhat constructive and useful here."

Aristespha perks a brow and eyes Bach curiously as she scoots over on the couch. "Which book are you talking about?"

Bach carefully slides a pile of papers over, takes a seat, and sighs out his frustrations. "Greyhawk's Guide to Magical-Biological Interactions."

Fighting down a reflexive cringe to a frown, Aristespha nods heavy with commiseration. "That is an unfortunately rough one to get through. I remember burning up one coffee maker keeping myself awake when studying it. Despite how absolutely dry it is... It does contain the best information I've found on that topic. I recommend any mage of advanced proficiency read it at least once."

Shrugging his shoulders, Bach leans his head over to idly read some random piece of paper on top of a nearby pile. "Yeah, I'm starting to agree. It's actually nice to get the official terms for stuff. Gods, calling everything That Thing was getting old quick."

Aristespha chuckles to herself, stops as she remembers something, and fishes out a packet of papers from a stack next to her. "Speaking of official terms... If you could, fill out how and where you want your pay, please."

Bach grabs the form curiously and flips through with confusion. "Oh. Um... Okay. So, how does this all work out? I have no clue."

A surge of pride manifests as a smile on Aristespha's ivory face, and she pulls out a tablet from between a pile of papers. Tapping commands on the screen, she presents the device to Bach. "That's right. I forgot, you never did your internship year. Well, thankfully, I created a few diagrams over a year ago when we got together to formalize the financial process for our group."

She slips the tablet between Bach's hands, swipes through diagrams, and selects one to full size. "Depending on the mission, quest, or contract, the payout goes into our group's company account with the guild. We deduct any related expenses, then the money gets distributed evenly to everyone's individual guild accounts, up to a quota we all agree upon once every few months. Any excess gets put into another company account that is for shared party expenses, up to a quota. Anything above this quota at the end of the month, is divided out as a bonus to everyone."

Studying the diagrams, Bach zooms in on sections and watches summarizing animations of the process on the tablet. He eventually nods understandingly and hands the device back. "Okay. That makes sense to me, and seems pretty fair. It sounds like it avoids a lot of possible money drama."

Aristespha draws in a deep breath, exhales her relief, and quells a corner twist in her smile. "Yes, it certainly does. Money issues tend to break apart adventuring groups faster than any other issue and often with more dramatic results. Just ask Dretphi or Cideeda, they've got a few choice stories about financial fights between team members."

Lifting up a section of paperwork upon the coffee table, Bach bounces his bewildered stare between Aristespha and the overwhelming stack. "Damn... I hope this is just a backlog of paperwork, because this might actually be scarier than facing those cyber-zombies."

A genuine laugh slips out of Aristespha, and she passes Bach a pen and takes one for herself from behind her ear. "Yes, it thankfully is just a backlog. Chasing and confronting Noxian forced A LOT of our documentation to be left... Unfinished. It is normally a modest sum of pages of legal documents that amount to a few signatures. I have got most of the accounting handled by software. Most of the time, the only time consuming part comes from matching receipts and invoices to account transactions. I've got logging software on a tablet to help that process."

Bach stares at the mass of paper, readies his pen, and cracks a wary grin. "So, uh, where do you need me to start?"

Aristespha taps the packet with her pen and retrieves another tablet for Bach to use. "First, fill out your payment information. You can use the guild account system if you don't have a bank account. They're not fancy or featured, but they do work enough to hold your funds. After that, you can use this tablet to catalog receipts and invoices. It has the better camera for that."

Shifting his attention to the packet, Bach reads a few lines and a thought crosses his mind. "Hey, um, just curious. How much does that monthly individual quota go up to?"

Leaning next to Bach, Aristespha traces a finger down the page and stops next to a number. Bach follows the trail of text down to the spot. His eyes widen, jaw drifts down, and head slowly tilts. Aristespha grins with satisfaction and returns to her stack of papers. "Why do you think anyone considers this line of work? The actual pay can vary based on the workload we take on. There have been some slow months when we were fully dedicated to tracking down Noxian that cut into our ability to work other assignments from the guild. While you are starting at the end of a month, Sebastian wants you to have his share for this month."

She presents her tablet screen and points out an account summary. "As a... Oh, how did he put it? An apology for abducting you and flipping the fucking table that was your life."

Bach blinks in astonishment. After failed attempts to form a coherent response, he draws in a breath and shrugs appeased. "You know... I've now come to full acceptance of that incident and look forward to our future business ventures with a refreshed adventuring spirit."

Aristespha rolls her violet eyes with a humored smile, tosses back her long, silvery blue hair, and circles her finger over a box of receipts on the floor nearby. "Right. Sure. Let's see how you feel after sorting through this box."

----

Steadying the tablet, Bach lines up the shot and captures a picture of the last receipt from the box next to the living room coffee table. He sorts through the menus and links the image to an outstanding traction. Leaning back into the couch back, he blinks his blue eyes and snorts with a humored smirk. "By the gods... You guys have must have single-handedly kept Pancake Shed in business for the last few years. I mean, they're good and all. But, I mix it up a little bit."

Aristespha twists her mouth mildly defensive and lifts an eyebrow at Bach. "Well, you find another restaurant that widespread, near every major highway, open all hours, and that takes you as you come with no questions."

Using a pen to scratch a check mark on the last receipt, he stuffs it under a rubber band with others. "Yeah, fair enough. The one in High Alton was the perfect place to recover from all the crazy misadventures I had to rescue Sebastian from. Their hash browns are REALLY good at three in the morning."

Aristespha places her pen, tablet, and papers down on the coffee table and sinks back into the couch. "Indeed, they are. And, the Pancake Shed is very accommodating to adventures. There's one in Perimeter that lets you order your captive's food off the children's menu. That way bounty hunters can save money on food."

Bach slowly pivots his head to Aristespha and furrows an uncertain brow. "That's... Interesting."

Ducking forward to put herself on her feet, Aristespha stands up and stretches her back. "A lot of fugitives try to hide out in the Perimeter Weird Zone. Most are usually very thankful when a bounty hunter finds them, so they can get escorted out of the zone. It's very easy to get lost and find yourself in a bad predicament out there."

Stepping around the coffee table, she brushes her faded T-shirt off and guides stray silvery blue hairs over her very long, pointed ears. "Oh, I'm going to make some tea. Do you want any?"

Bach tidies up his immediate area and carefully pulls himself up and away from the nearby haphazard piles of paper. "Uh, sure, I guess. Are we done with all this for now?"

Spinning a carousel of single-serving drink packets on the kitchen counter, Aristespha plucks two of them out and loads one into the brewing machine on the counter. "Yes. It's not going anywhere. We've made good progress, so I'm not too terribly worried. Thank you for helping me with that mess."

Settling into a chair at the dining table, Bach wanders his gaze aimlessly. A question lands in his mind, and he quizzically stares at Aristespha. "So... You've been in a weird zone? You mentioned Perimeter and the Perimeter Weird Zone. It sounds like you've had some experience with them."

Aristespha fits a mug underneath the brewing machine and presses a button. While the machine hums with flowing water within, she ponders a moment as her violet eyes search her thoughts. "Yes. I have been in a few. They were some of the spots I visited during my research into spirits, sprites, and other such entities."

As his interest piques, Bach keeps his attention on Aristespha. "So, what do you know of magic in that realm of study?"

Aristespha deftly pops out the spent packet, pitches it into the garbage can without looking, and sets that mug off to the side. In a quick series of motions, she loads the next packet, hits the button, and slides another mug underneath the machine. Bach cocks his head curiously, and Aristespha smirks smugly. "Studying at the Grand Library, you learn how to run these things as fast as possible. Anyway, as for spirit magic... Most of my study has been focused on sensory, communication, and projection types of magic. Honestly, that was all I was really interested in. I know the theory behind the spirit family of magic."

Eying the cup as it fills, she waits expectantly. When the last drop hits, she sweeps up both containers and walks to the dining table. Placing a mug in front of Bach, she takes a seat opposite from him. "I just don't care for how those spirit mages perform most of their magic."

Bach lifts the tea up to his nose for a sniff. Feeling the hot vapor flowing around his nose, he lowers it back down. "So, um, what about it don't you like?"

Aristespha sighs with a slight frown on her face. "Most spirit mages are absolute ASSHOLES to all those entities."

Bach blinks to attention and gazes in surprise at Aristespha. "Wait- Really?!"

Nodding with a grumble, she lifts her mug and sips the tea. "I could go on for hours about it. They coerce, con, and manipulate spirits to do their bidding in exchange for some magical energy. Now, the smarter spirit types will negotiate up front. But, the simpler ones are lucky to get anything after getting controlled by spells. Thankfully, there's a growing movement towards spirit magic that is far friendlier and drastically more ethical. I actually spent a week with the teacher that inspired the initiative."

Leaning back in his chair, Bach ponders with bewilderment toiling on his face. "Wow. That's... Surprising. I've met a few spirit mages, but I didn't realize that's what they were doing. I mean, I never had any of the same classes with them after the first year. I focused on far different things than them."

Aristespha shakes her head and stares down at her cup. She smiles kindly and sighs. "I really didn't want anything to do with spirit magic after learning that, but meeting that teacher changed my mind. His name is Harold Marcus. A simple, old man on the outside that holds the favors of thousands of spirits, sprites, daemons, and ghosts. He keeps to forests out in the wilds. There's one spot he visits in the unclaimed territory between the GAA and Appaland."

She lifts the mug to her lips, drinks a moderate sum, and stares off distantly. "That was the most beautiful forest I've ever been in. The density of spirits inhabiting that area is a magnitude of order greater than anywhere else. It actually affects the biology of the flora and fauna out there. As for Harold, he is a very laid back and kind man. While I learned much from him, he always summed up his lessons to two things."

Breaking from listening, Bach remembers to enjoy more of his tea. "Huh, what were those?"

Aristespha snorts with a humored grin and glances at Bach. "Ask nicely and be reasonable."

Bach nods slowly and shrugs his shoulders in agreement. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Seemed to work for him."

Taking a deep breath in, Aristespha tenses her voice. "It does. His resident Elder Geist told me that's why it lives there."

Bach's eyes spring wide open, and his jaw drops agape. Using his remaining cognizance to land his mug on the table, he summons up his senses to keep tea from dribbling out of his mouth. "Uh... Eh... Hu- What?! Just to make sure I heard you correctly... By Elder Geist, you mean a five meter tall creature formed of pure elder energy, that has probably been around since after the first cataclysm?"

Aristespha sips long of her tea, and her violet eyes meet the shocked stare of Bach. After finishing, she places the mug back down on the table and cracks a smile with hints of old tension rising from her recollection. "Oh. Yes. It was my last day there. I was talking to Harold. It came over. Sat down next to me. Apologized for not meeting with me sooner, as it took it a while for it to go through its memories. It translated some audio transcripts I had played for Harold. And then, it showed me the location, on my tablet's map, of an ancient ruin that housed a library and manifested a pass card for me to use to get in. It wished me well, said it would see me again in the future, and left."

Bach gawks in awe at Aristespha as she exhales with a faint shudder. He finally blinks and recovers enough to form words again. "What did Harold do?"

Aristespha playfully sneers as she curls an upper lip. "Oh. He just absolutely fucking failed to hold back his laughter as I was scared for my very existence. He tends to forget most people aren't used to being that close to such a powerful magical entity."

----

Morning lights beams onto the rural landscape. A two lane road weaves through the countryside, and the last vestiges of rain upon it dries in the growing heat of fresh sun. Clear pools of water litter the low spots upon gentle rolling hills, and the excess drains down worn channels in the earth into the nearby stream. A few drops on the open garage door break free and fall onto the gravel junction between the ranch style house's gravel drive and interior concrete floor. Metallic clicks, clacks, and clanks echo faintly from within the garage and drift outdoors, in contrast to the ambient calm. Bach tightens a frame bolt with a wrench and grants a quarter turn twist to satisfaction. Standing back to survey his side-car motorcycle, his examining stare wanders across the machine. Morning light reflects off the freshly cleaned surfaces, while minute warps in the sheen hints at dents undone. Bach admires the close to new presentation of the vehicle before him.

Sebastian's ethereal breaks the long moment of quiet. "Sweet machine you got there, bro."

Bach turns around to Sebastian as he hovers through the door leading inside the house. "Oh, yeah. Cleaned it up and checked everything. Should be good for a ride, man."

Flying over the vehicle, Sebastian appreciates it from different angles. "I'll admit it's a lot nicer to look at when you're not riding the handlebars."

Bach grants a single laugh and shakes his head at Sebastian. "Well, I mean, to be fair, it's not like I gave you that long to take in the beauty."

Eying his brother with a smug smile, Sebastian rolls his translucent blue eyes. His ethereal form lightens and his expression softens. "Hey. Thanks for saving everyone. It's been rough getting used to just being an over-glorified cheerleader slash doomsayer, and mostly feeling useless. It could have gone really bad down there, but you delivered us the leverage we needed to make the best outcome happen."

Bach rubs the back of his neck and sheepishly shifts his shoulders up and down. "Man... I couldn't just let that happen to anyone and not do something. But, I've got to be honest..."

He awkwardly gazes at Sebastian, grits his teeth uneasily, and hisses in uncomfortable breath. "I was totally pulling stuff out of my ass! I mean, I knew the THEORY behind the whole EMP. I'd imagined a few designs in the past. But... Shit... That was the first time I've ever actually implemented an EMP bomb of all things! Gods, that was such a ridiculously complicated piece of machinery, I just-"

He drags his fingers through his longer brown hair and wanders towards the garage door with worry in each footstep. "Holy shit... I mean it's great that it worked and we got out, but- Dammit! Oh, it could have gone so wrong! If the blast wasn't enough, if they were fully insulated, or even if they just took cover in broom closet- I just- Well- I- FUCK! Two weeks ago I was just happy enough to get out of bed and read a decent story on an Aethernet forum..."

Holding his half-open hands shakily out in front of him, Bach's eyes shift between the bullet points of his rant. "Somehow in less than two weeks, I have gone from living in an over-glorified shack, seen as a failure of a mage, to somehow resuming our dream of adventuring together!"

He glances over his shoulder at his brother and sighs with an uneasy smile. "Don't get me wrong. I'm all for getting my life back on track, but... It feels like I've been strapped to the front of a runaway train! I try to keep focus on the many positives. But, I can't shake these feelings that I'm setting everyone up for disappointment... And... And, uh..."

Letting his arms go limp and flop to his sides, he slacks his shoulders and searches for serenity in the peaceful day outside. Sebastian stares at the floor with each floaty step towards Bach, shaking his head with a knowing smile. He circles around in front of Bach and waits to meet his brother's gaze. "Good. You've gotten to the freak out and situational awareness stage. I was starting to get worried."

Bach refocuses his narrowing blue eyes upon Sebastian with a dumbfounded expression. "W-what? This is... Normal?"

Sebastian doubles over laughing with an ethereal echo and holds a hand up to Bach. "Oh, gods yes! It happens to any sane adventurer. In fact, most of the veterans get worried when they think some newbie isn't freaking out, or worried, or not aware of how fucked-up their profession is!"

Blinking and drifting his gaze around the area, Bach follows his stare and paces the driveway in thought. Sebastian hovers close to Bach with a sly grin as he waits expectantly. Bach halts in place and furrows his brow at Sebastian. "So, YOU went through this, too?"

Sebastian nods with a ghostly snort. "Yes. Yes, I did. I tried to hide it from the group I interned with, because I was trying to impress them. We were camping out in these woods up in the Southern Crags near High Alton, clearing out this invasive species of dire rat. I volunteered for firewood gathering duty right off the bat and did it for a week. I didn't realize it, but they were totally expecting me to freak out after the first few days of fighting these things.

He darts his attention back to Bach and twists his transparent face into a disgusted grimace. "Fucking nasty, angry things, bro. The textbooks make dire creatures sound like enlightened, cooler versions of animals... Totally doesn't translate when it comes to rats. Fuck, those things still give me the creeps."

Turning his head away, Sebastian squints his eyes briefly and finds the dangling thought. "Anyway... The ranger in that group finally tracked me when I left the camp for firewood and figured out why I was so willing to do firewood duty."

Bach quirks a brow, bounces his eyes side to side, and leans closer. "Which was?"

Sebastian throws his hands up to the sides and exaggerates his shrug. "Oh, you know. Cursing the job, party members, school, the world, and so on... All the while chopping at trees like an ax murderer with blue balls."

He pauses a moment as his mind stumbles upon a random tidbit. "By the way, I so need to show you how to throw an ax, if you don't already know. Learned the basics from that ranger, after she enjoyed watching me rant and rave."

Narrows his eyes at Sebastian, Bach figuratively and literally stares right through him. Sebastian matches Bach's scrutiny and places his hands on his sides. "What? Why are you-"

His gaze darts between possibilities, and his eyes flit wide briefly. He relaxes his posture, and a goofy, unapologetic grin sneaks onto his face. The first few words fall out his mouth. He put his hands behind his head. "Well, you know, bro. She made a really good point about not letting such youthful energy go to waste."

Lifting his head up to the clear skies just outside the garage door, Bach rolls his blue eyes dismissively and plants his face into the palm of his hand. He slowly slides his hand down and just stares at Sebastian. "I, of all people, shouldn't be surprised. Especially after all those times I had to rescue you."

Sebastian smirks and jokingly shakes a finger at Bach. "Hey! I'm trying to pay you back for all those times. So, you feeling any better, bro?"

Bach tenses up his shoulders, puffs his chest up with a breath of air in, and relaxes with a long exhale. "A bit... If I am going insane, at least I'm on schedule, which somehow makes it normal. Right?"

Floating at the side, Sebastian presents an honest smile and genuine tone. "Hey, listen. We do good work for good reasons to achieve good things. But, that doesn't change the fact that what we are doing ranges from being a bit weird to really fucked up."

He gazes directly into Bach's eyes. "It's normal to feel this is insane. It's insane to feel this is normal."

Bach and Sebastian stare at each other for a minute. Sebastian watches Bach's familiar body language. Summoning up traces of determination, Bach wrestles a frown to a smile. "Yeah, it's insane and fucked up when you break it down. But... Everyone got out safe, and we kept those cybernetic monsters from getting loose. I don't think anyone else was going to get it done before really bad stuff started to happen."

Nodding with pride, Sebastian drifts back satisfied. "And that's what you have to focus on. It's a hard balance between striving for the best outcome and keeping aware of what it is you actually do. But, that's a balance you want to maintain. I've seen what happens when it goes too far one way or another. Not a good time either way."

Bach wanders his attention around the front yard and sighs. Taking in the nice sun filled scenery, he gazes off across the two lane road into the large open field bordered by greening forest. Sebastian floats next to Bach and stares off into the same distance. "Too nice of a day for any more heavy shit, bro."

Bach simply nods with a smile. "Yeah. I'm feeling okay for now, brother. Thanks for the talk. I kind of need to get that stuff out of my head. By the way, what's everyone else up to?"

Sebastian tilts his head to the side and furrows his brow thoughtfully. "I think Sotalia and Aristespha were analyzing the magical material stuff you made for practice yesterday?"

Grimacing into an unamused frown, Bach groans in disgust. "Well, I'm not going in there for a while. Already feel like enough of a lab rat for them."

Sebastian directs a thumb towards the side of the house with a scheming glint to his eyes. "Dretphi and Cideeda should be sorting through all the random melee weapons we've picked up-"

Bach swiftly sets off towards the side of the house, swinging an arm out ahead to signal Sebastian. "Sold! Sounds like fun to me."

----

Aristespha slides a box of paper with her foot, clear of the recliner. She swiftly drops into the recliner, pulls the handle for the foot rest, and spreads a blanket over her. "We've got about five minutes. Last week's rerun is finishing up."

Switching out a bowl under the spout of the hot air popcorn popper, Dretphi hands Bach the popcorn filled bowl. Bach ferries it with another in his hands over to the coffee table. Sebastian zips through the sliding glass door and drifts down to Aristespha's side. Wrapping herself tighter in the blanket, Aristespha gazes curiously to Sebastian. "Where have you been, Sebastian? You disappeared earlier today."

Pointing a thumb out the sliding glass door, Sebastian twists his mouth to the side intrigued. "I saw some lights coming from a house on the big plot diagonal to this one. It's the first time I've ever seen activity over there. Thought I'd check it out."

Aristespha settles deeper into the plush cushions of the recliner and tilts her ivory face. "Probably the property management company getting it ready for new renters, if I had to guess. Many of these properties are rentals."

Sebastian hovers closer and wanders his gaze towards the television. "That makes sense. I couldn't get close enough to make out anything, since I hit the limit from the sword. Anyway, apart from that, not much else is happening around here."

Furrowing her brow, Aristespha guides a few stray silvery blue hairs back and glances her violet eyes out into the evening beyond the sliding glass door nearby. "If I remember correctly, I explored that property as an option but it was not ready to rent when we needed it.

A bowl of popcorn lowers down near her. She happily lifts her hands underneath the blanket, and Bach places the bowl right between. Dropping off the other bowl on the coffee table, Bach departs back to the kitchen. Checking to see if anyone is paying attention to her, Aristespha smiles mischievously. With swift hand gestures underneath the blanket and soft incantations, her violet eyes briefly flicker. A small helping of popcorn drifts from the bowl into her mouth. Crunching down on the popcorn, she catches the mockingly judgmental glare of Sebastian. "Whut?"

Shaking his head, Sebastian sways his attention back to the television. Aristespha rolls her faintly glowing eyes and another batch of popcorn leaves the bowl. "Oh, please... You'd do it, too."

Dretphi immediately switches out another bowl under the popcorn popper and gives the freshly full bowl to Bach. Zipping through the hallway archway, Cideeda vaults over the couch arm and deftly maneuvers to the opposite end. Her long, fluffy tail wraps around her, and her clawed fingers reach out eagerly for the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table. The last of the popcorn drops out of the popper. Both Dretphi and Bach carry a bowl each from the kitchen into the living area. Shuffling between the coffee table, Dretphi settles onto the middle spot of the couch. Bach lines up to get between the coffee table and couch.

Sotalia's voice sounds out. "Hey, Bach!"

Freezing, Bach stands upright and pivots towards the kitchen. Searching the area, he squints confused. A flow of air accompanies a hazy blur directly behind him. Sounds of scrambling over a couch arm sound out along with a struggling grunt. Bach spins back around and snaps his gaze at the previously empty spot at the end of the couch. Causally waving off the last traces of magical mist off herself, Sotalia slowly stretches her legs onto her part of the coffee table, wiggles into the cushions, and puts her arms behind her head. Grinning with smug self-satisfaction, she perks her brow. "Oh, too bad. I guess you'll just have to get your own seat."

Narrowing his blue eyes at Sotalia, Bach cocks his head. Maintaining her smug attitude, Sotalia gently twists into the cushions more and flashes a sly smile. Bach stares at her briefly. A smirk forms on his light tan face and gradually grows into a grin. He lifts an eyebrow at Sotalia with an amused tone. "Well... I guess I will."

Sebastian blinks away from the programming on the television and turns his attention to his brother. Lifting his free hand up, Bach stretches his arms and flexes his fingers as a blue glow pulses from his eyes. Sotalia's smug attitude cracks, and she tenses her body and widens her golden gaze. Following Sebastian's focus, the rest of the team watches expectantly. Bach's hand twists down and drops just above the height of the couch. A framework of magical energy flows out and spreads to the floor. The framework fills in, and reveals an emerging structure. Parts materialize into existence, shift into place, and arrange to form a greater whole. Within the minute, the stabilized energy manifests fully, and a deck chair solidifies completely with translucent cushioning in the right places. Laying into the chair with another word, Bach magically adjusts it and scoops out a handful of popcorn from his bowl.

Sotalia gawks at the new chair, while Dretphi suppresses a laugh behind a hand. Leaning into view around Dretphi, Cideeda gives a quick thumbs up to Bach. Both Sebastian and Aristespha nod with approval. The television blares out the iconic intro music for the Next Adventurers of Nexus show.

"With that recap out of the way ladies and gentlemen, let's see what our adventurers were up!"

The screen cuts to a shot of Chad Bosch. Sitting by himself in a room for individual interviews that's decorated with a simple chair, background, and some lighting, he draws in a deep breath. "We decided to pursue a contract to investigate an old military facility where there may have been some recent activity. As the leader, I believe it would be the perfect mission to test team cohesion. But first, we needed to get supplies and equipment."

Clips and segments showcase the Flames of the Phoenix team shopping. A video journal segment shows Deedri uncomfortably sitting in the individual interview room. "Well, I've only done small medical supplies orders for myself. I never had to get everything for a whole team! Unfortunately, it took a lot longer than I expected. But, the people at the pharmacy were really nice and understanding! But... There was this one evuukian woman. Um, she didn't seem happy. I overheard her grumbling and-"

A piece of paper finds its way into Deedri's hands from an out of frame source, and she blinks at it confused. "Oh! Uh, what is this?"

From off camera a woman's voice speaks. "That's a translation of what that woman said."

Deedri's auburn eyes follow each sentence. Hints of distress slip out with each line she reads, until she covers her fair face with a hand in shock. Staring wide eyed at the bottom of the page, she grabs hold of the bell on the collar around her neck, muffling ring. "S-she wanted to put my bell WHERE?!"

Attention in the room turns to Aristespha. Crossing her arms, she returns an unamused and unapologetic glance to everyone else. "I'm not sorry."

Another clip shows Trakenthin seeking Dretphi's attention and the prompt denial by the group arriving. Trakenthin observes from a distance and notices Dretphi giving a warm smile to Bach. Trakenthin trains a sneering glare right at the back of Bach's head. Bach squirms uncomfortably when Trakenthin cracks his knuckles.

The next segment shows Tassilda posing for the camera and presenting her choice books with purposeful positioning of the material in compliment to her figure. Through the narrow gaps between the tops of books and bottom of shelves, Sotalia, Bach, and Cideeda occasionally show up in the frame of the shot. A few more shopping segments play out before a cut to the adventurers meeting together and planning for the mission. After a fade to the next day, the segment continues with an outside shot of the Amaranth Dining House. With a swipe cut inside, Chad walks and talks to the camera. He takes time to greet the soldiers. Then, he focuses upon Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia at their table. The video playback dramatically hangs upon the group into a slowdown to a freeze frame. Different angles of the team appear, and quick shots of each member follow. Unease swells through the living room, and an uncomfortable pressure looms heavy and thick.

Chad's voice cuts mid way into the sequence with a hard cut over to him in the individual interview room. "This group... I got a strange feeling about this group. There was something about them I couldn't quite put my finger on."

Tassilda's voice interrupts an individual shot of Sotalia. "Oh. I've had to deal with HER kind before..."

Sotalia sneers and narrows her golden eyes at the screen. "MY kind? That. BITCH."

The screen shows Tassilda in the interview room, sitting with proper posture. She takes in a deep breath and exaggerates her chest movement with a sly smile. "Yes, she is of the ilk that try, often in vain, to tap into the magic potential of their ancestry. But, unfortunately, especially for her... Their distance from their Emin ancestors is often too far for significant results."

Facial twitches of confined anger flit upon Sotalia's light tan and dark gray face, while those around watch for further development. The show cuts to a clip of Aristespha before switching to Modoran. He calmly sits in the interview chair, arms stretching behind his head and an idle smirk on his face. "I really don't know what everyone's problem is. I thought the evuukian was pretty cute. It's kind of a pity she left before I had a chance to talk to her and all. I caught sight of her leaving... I wonder if she's spoken for?"

Sebastian's blue-white ghostly form sparks hints of small flame-like distortions around the edges. A segment plays back Cideeda awkwardly waving to Deedri. Cringing at the display, Cideeda sinks into the couch. "Gods. Damn it. Of course, they used THAT clip."

Deedri sits in the interview chair and excitedly fidgets. "There was another fvalian on the team! She seems really nice and even waved at me! I hope I get a chance to talk to her in the future."

Viewing the screen in abject horror, Cideeda slowly shakes her head with a wince and mouths. "Please. No."

A video clip with Dretphi plays out. It cuts to Trakenthin, and he silently stares stoically to some point off camera. The camera shifts and zooms on Trakenthin, and he gives a dismissive snort. The show cuts to another segment. Dretphi groans to herself, places her face into her palm, and breathes a hard sigh. The show highlights some footage of Bach at the restaurant. Chad tips head back and his nose high. "Well, I guess it's nice they're helping out a drop out get back on the right path."

In subsequent clip, Tassilda quirks brow and rolls light blue on black her eyes. "I guess they thought they needed a token human."

Following the prior segment, Deedri searches overhead in her mind while tapping a claw tip on her lips, and simply shrugs. "I guess he seems okay. What does he do?"

Immediately after the previous sequence, Modoran's attention lies elsewhere. A female voice out of frame hems, and Modoran snaps his head back to the camera. He squints his dark blue eyes at something off camera. "Huh? Oh. Um? Sure. Whatever."

Finally, Trakenthin crosses his dark bronze arms, narrows his hazel eyes with flecks of anger, gusts in air through his nose with a rattle, and spits a wad of phlegm onto the floor. Bach blinks in disbelief and gawks in shock. Leaning forward, he glances around to the rest of the assembled group and his arms out to the sides. "Okay... THE FUCK was THAT?!"

Sebastian gazes over to his brother and twists his ethereal face confused. "I don't know, bro. They certainly gave you a special treatment."

"Looks like our Adventurers may have some friendly competition... Or not! Who are these people? Why are they here? And more importantly, what did they do NEXT!? All will be answered!"

The music drops into a suspenseful tune, and the video clips fade in. Chad sits in the interview chair with disgust and resentment plain on his tan face. "We hit a snag. That's to be expected with any adventure. We were regrouping and getting ready to make the rescue and be THE heroes. Then... They showed up. Strangely, just right at THE perfect time to swoop on in."

The show transitions to another clip with Tassilda. She crosses her arms and pouts defiantly. "They kept us away. We never got a chance to go back in there and prove ourselves. How DARE they take that away from us! We could have handled the rescue without question."

A final clip of the adventurers around a table shows them complaining back and forth, getting upset and yelling at each other. The screen fades away from the program and a commercial flashes up.

Sotalia shoots up from the couch, slips from behind the coffee table, and marches over to the kitchen. Opening the cabinet above, she reveals a variety of different glassware. Pulling back doors below the counter top, she procures multiple bottles of alcoholic beverages. She straightens up and wryly smiles at everyone in the living room. "So. Raise your hand, if you want a drink."

Hands go up for everyone, including Sebastian. Noticing the attention, Sebastian shrugs with a sigh. "Yeah, I know. But, I can still WANT one."

Turning her head away from Sebastian and towards the kitchen bar, Aristespha notices a new alert on one of her tablets on the coffee table. She picks up the tablet, props it up on her lap, and taps in a password. Flipping through the notification and alerts, a message from the local guild office blinks for attention. Opening the message, she reads the first few lines. Her head tilts back puzzling, and she furrows her brow, leaning close to read. Sotalia readies glasses and assesses the resources available. "Okay, I can mix a few good ones with these. What do you want, Aristespha?"

Aristespha darts her violet eyes between text messages. The perplexed expression on her ivory face and lack of awareness beckons the interest of the team. Returning to present reality, she notices the attention from everyone else. "Oh. Sorry. We just got a message from the local guild office. Someone just directly bid an existing contract to us."

----

On the living area television screen, a segment of Deedri happily chimes. "I know I keep saying it, I'm just excited there's another fvalian in the other team. It's just nice having someone else that could-"

The screen blanks to black. Cideeda pulls a claw out of the soft plastic power button on the remote and tosses it onto the couch. Turning to walk to the dining table, she shudders uncomfortably with a tinge of disgust. "Little creepy."

Aristespha picks up the whiskey glass of dark amber liquor and calmly sips. She directs her voice towards Bach, across at the table. "It's not unusual for different patrons to all bid on the same contract. In fact, that can help a common problem between multiple parties get the best group to address it."

Sotalia sits back, stirs the mix within her glass, and rolls a hand out to punctuate. "Yeah. Let's say a town has a bandit problem. At first, the one merchant that ran into them might set an initial bid. Then, later, as the bandits harass the town, other people with some money will throw in more into the overall pot. Eventually, it gets good enough that a decent team takes it and gets it done right, rather than a desperate group attempting it and fucking it up."

Holding a finger up, Aristespha slowly points down at the tablet in front of her. "But... What can also happen is that a patron can put in a bid with stipulations. It is often used for contract conditions on bounty hunting with the payout difference between the target being dead or alive. It can also be for limiting availability to groups with specific skills sets or requiring conduct conditions. Now, bids restricted to specific groups through the guild system are uncommon."

Settling into her seat, Cideeda claws the cap off of her bottle of beer and cocks her head of multi-color short hair, bewildered. "A specific group with an unpublished ID number? That's RARE."

Sebastian's ethereal visage drifts next to Aristespha, and his eyes trace text on the tablet. Taking a moment to appreciate the aroma from Aristespha's whiskey glass, he shifts his attention to Bach. "Yeah, most of our families know our team's ID number. And, we've gotten direct work by references and even contracts forwarded our way. Some really good ones, too."

He directs Bach's attention to Dretphi. Nodding as she holds her large bottle of cider with both hands, Dretphi furrows her brow and recounts. "My birth father maintains Grath military connections. There were contracts we were allowed. Hidden from the public."

Aristespha tips back a little of her drink, exhales, and narrows her violet eyes at the tablet screen. "What we have here is a direct bid to our unpublished ID number for a two month old contract that paid very little before to what is offered now... From a patron, undisclosed, with an ID number I don't recognize."

The gathering around the table idle amongst their own thoughts with hints of deliberation playing out in expressions and body language. Bach tips his head up, narrows a stare at the television, and furrows his brow curiously. "And... We got sent the job right after we were on TV. Maybe someone recognized you guys?"

Dretphi puzzles at Aristespha and drops her steely gray eyes at the tablet. "What IS the job?"

Shrugging her shoulders, she slowly shakes her head. "Ah. It is an investigation of some odd disturbances in a forest reserve an hour's travel from here. No major threats or problems listed. Just some strange activity has been scaring people away when they travel around, camp, or visit the area. There isn't much more in the description. The local park service put a really low bid initially... And now it's a very high sum."

Aristespha gently slides the tablet to the middle of the table. The payout number lights up prominently on the screen. The team leans in together, and different degrees of interest and surprise manifest between them. Resting back in her seat, Aristespha watches the group to process the amount. "So. Should we investigate? Personally, I am intrigued."

Sotalia knocks back a bit from her glass and shrugs amused. "Sure! If they want to pay us that much to wander around a damn forest, that's fine with me."

Cideeda quirks her brow and gently scratches her chin. "It's weird how we got this. But, it's not the first time. There's more to this, but for that amount I'm willing to take a look."

Dretphi nods in agreement. Bach watches the reactions and slowly nods. "Yeah, I've got no objections. If it's not another cyber-zombie den, I can work with that."

Sebastian grins proudly and clasps his hands together. "Awesome! Well, if tomorrow sounds good, let's do it. For now, let's find something else to watch on the TV and get a good night's rest."

-9-

A gentle breeze coasts over the tops of the fresh green canopy below and sifts through the thickening forest foliage. The wind sways young branches and flutters the pedals off new blooms. Reaching the perimeter around a cleared area, the strength of the gust dies and deposits a few old, decayed leaves in the thick patches of grass surrounding a gravel lot. With a swift turn of the front wheels, the humvee pulls into the parking space closest to the wide paved pathway leading between small buildings nearby. A faint squeak of brakes sounds out, and the powerplant inside the machine winds down to silence. Cideeda hops out from the driver's seat with a happy grin as the wind blows through her short, multicolored hair. Stretching her arms out, she lets the breeze ripple across her dark green, short-sleeve shirt. Sotalia steps onto a crumbling of asphalt and flips open a pair of sunglasses. Placing them on her light tan and dark gray face, she smiles as another gust tosses her loosely worn button down shirt over her bikini top and jean shorts. Aristespha glides down from the vehicle and turns around to retrieve a backpack behind her seat. Hoisting it up, she adjusts the backpack straps and her indigo blouse. With a final check, she guides the hilt of the Sword of the Spirit realm comfortably in the middle of her back, hides the sheath's straps with the backpack straps. Lifting another backpack out, she hands it to Cideeda and puts on her floppy hat. Bach lugs a large backpack around from behind his seat and throws it on over his loose-fitting t-shirt. He slides his seat forward and clears the way for Dretphi to shuffle out from the backseat. Sotalia puts on her belt of pouches and confidently struts out, peeking her golden eyes over her sun tipped down sunglasses. "Well, this doesn't seem so bad, right now. It's beginning to get that abandoned feel, but still better than some places we've been."

Aristespha circles around the front of the humvee and stands at Sotalia's side with an inquisitive perk to her brow. "It said in the briefing that they have done everything short of officially closing the area to the public. All events canceled, no posted times, and all services suspended. It is practically closed."

Cideeda checks the doors on the humvee and clicks the security system on with the key fob. "So, what's the plan?"

Sebastian's ethereal voice emanates from Aristespha's back. "Check the visitor area, and then hike the main trail? From what it sounds like, whatever was scaring people wasn't isolated to any particular spot. So, we might as well try the major paths and see if we run into anything."

Rolling his shoulders, Bach adjusts his backpack to a comfortable spot on his back. Scanning the path ahead between overgrown grasses and the park picnic furniture, he stops his gaze at rows of the rough wooden frame buildings and curls his upper lip, hinting of apprehension. "I guess that sounds decent enough. But... I'll admit a few of these buildings look straight off a horror movie set."

Dretphi joins up with the group, checks the knife sheath on her thigh, and cinches up the straps on her hiking pack over her tank top. "I think we could be mistaken for hikers."

Aristespha scrutinizes appearances, furrows her brow momentarily, and nods satisfied. "It is close enough. Nothing in the briefing indicated the disturbances so far caused any significant physical harm. But, we would be best to keep it low-key and avoid unnecessarily escalating the situation."

Reaching her arms up high, Sotalia arches her back in a stretch, and relaxes her postures with a sigh. "So? How are we going to do this? Building by building? They don't seem too big, so we should be able to clear them fast."

Retrieving her aetherphone from her capri shorts pocket, Aristespha browses the device and taps up a map of the area. "The largest building far away is the visitor center. There's one building for gift shop stalls and one on the opposite side for vending. Finally, there's the bathrooms and the utility building."

Sebastian's voice resonates from the sword on Aristespha's back, covered by the backpack. "Okay... Let's split up to check the small buildings, and then we'll meet up for the visitor center. I'll stay out of view for now, since I don't think most hikers have a ghost following them around. Let's try to keep up some appearances for now. Keep around the area, don't wander too far out of sight of others, and hit the alert on your phone if anything gets weird."

The walks down the paved path between the natural reserve wooden buildings. They split up to investigate. Aristespha wanders towards the vendor stalls. Dretphi taps Bach on the shoulder and points towards the bathrooms. Bach stares at the long rectangle structure with rows of doors on two sides, and nods. Each takes a side and carefully opens the doors to individual restrooms. Cideeda slinks cautiously to the utility shed, studies the locked door, and curiously glances around the area. Resting her hands on her hands, Sotalia lifts a brow at the activity around her and grimaces indecisively. Her attention wanders to a closed up snack with an extended roof sheltering rows of vending machines. With a nonchalant shrug, she struts down a branch route towards the area.

Minutes leading to an hour pass, and the morning sun rises higher towards the center of the clear blue sky above. Holding her floppy hat down against the breeze, Aristespha stands outside the visitor center on the long, wide walkway leading to the main doors. Narrowing her violet eyes at the many windows, she hunts for a glimpse inside through the reflections, tint, and dirt. Sprinting up to speed from the walkway, Cideeda perches herself up on a low, rough wooden fence near Aristespha. She smiles contentedly, wags her long, fluffy tail, and perks her furry ears. "Well, nothing to speak of in the utility building. Well, except for a lock on the door.

Rolling her emerald green ears, she flashes a toothy grin. "But, THAT wasn't hard at all."

Aristespha angles her head towards Cideeda and crosses her arms thoughtfully. "Did everything look normal to you? Anything out of place?"

Cideeda digs her claws into the wooden beam beneath her. Leaning herself back, she stretches her light brown legs out, and balances herself gracefully on the fence. "Looks like the park crews turned everything off properly. There were some marks on the door frame around the handle. Just looks like some kid with too much time and a stick tried their best to break in. Obviously, it didn't work out for them."

Her furry ears flick back, and she tips her head back. She spots the rest of the group approaching, and tips her balance forward back to an upright seat on the wooden beam. Pushing her arms down on the wooden beam, she pops herself up, swings her legs over, and spins around to face the other side of the face. Settling back down to a seat, she waves over to the rest of the team and muses to Aristespha. "Seems like nothing too exciting happened with everyone else."

Glancing over her shoulder, Aristespha pivots around in place and meets the gazes of everyone else. "Anything to report?"

Dretphi shakes her head and works out a stale grimace. "Bathrooms are clear. Have not been visited for some time... Including cleaning staff."

Bach nods in agreement and shudders with a brief frown. "Yeah... I think we're better taking our chances behind a bush, if anyone needs to go.

Glancing at Aristespha, he points a thumb over his shoulder at the gift shop stalls. "Did you find anything? Because all that looked pretty empty from walking by up here."

Aristespha shrugs indifferently and sighs. "No. There has been some sign of activity, but I believe it was the park employees clearing out inventory."

Swallowing down a bite from a chocolate bar, Sotalia directs everyone's attention to the vending area with the partially unwrapped candy. "Well, someone broke the windows on all the vending machines. They nearly cleaned them out of everything."

She snaps another morsel from the chocolate bar and slowly chews. Surrounding attention settles upon her, and she swallows with a long pause following. Underneath the sun glasses, her golden eyes dart between gazes, and she defensively puffs herself up. "What?! This was the last one left! If you want, there's plenty of granola bars left. Whoever broke into those things obviously didn't like those."

Rolling her violet eyes, Aristespha pivots to face the visitor center. "Anyway... I am getting a strange feeling from the visitor center."

Cocking her head to the side, Sotalia blinks her golden eyes and squints curiously at the visitor center. "Well, I'm not feeling any strong magic from there, girl."

Aristespha shakes her head and holds her chin as she scrutinizes the spaces beyond the larger glass windows. "It's not strictly magical energies, but more of a presence. It's similar to what I've felt before... We'll have to get inside and investigate."

Cideeda hops off the wooden fence and walks towards the front door while flexing her clawed fingers. "Sounds good to me. Let me check those front doors out."

Standing next to the metal framed glass window doors, she studies the construction of the entry. She peers through at angles and spots the locks and other supporting hardware. After scanning the outer frame, she presses her light brown forehead against the glass and darts her emerald green eyes into the darkened interior. Focusing on the top and bottom deadbolts, she furrows her brow, puzzling. She steps back confused with quirks of her furry ears, wags her tail with her thoughts, and steps back staring at the entryway. "Okay. The doors don't seem locked. The deadbolts on both doors are disengaged. And, I don't see anything that's obviously a trap, or even an alarm on them."

Backing away from the door, Cideeda gestures hands towards the doors and wiggles her fingers, perking her brow at the group. Sotalia cracks a slight grin, proudly straightens her posture, and stretches her arms and hands out. "A telekinetic pull sound good to everyone? Just to make sure?"

Aristespha, Bach, and Dretphi collectively nod and move off into the grass near the concrete path leading away from the doors. Reciting an incantation, Sotalia gestures a well rehearsed sequence of motions. She reaches a hand out in a grabbing gesture to one of the door handles. With a sly smile, she pulls back and the visitor center door opens in sync with her hand motion. The door swings a quarter of the way and stops. Sotalia's eyes spring wide open startled, and she reflexively opens her hand. The door slams shut with a resounding crash, and the door frame rattles. Tilts her head while narrowing her stare, Sotalia grimaces with waning confidence and cautiously retreats back to the group. "Something... Broke my hold of the door."

She glances over the rest of the team and combs back her dark red hair of her swept back black horns. "THAT was really WEIRD. I felt there was magic behind it... But, something else, too?"

Training her gaze at the door, Aristespha approaches methodically, carefully. Within a few meters of the door, Sebastian's ethereal form immediately materializes in front of her. "STOP."

Aristespha halts in place and blinks her concern at Sebastian. "Okay, but why though?"

Sebastian hovers around and searches the area in vain with an uneasy grimace. "I don't know, dear. I just felt something strange. The sword picked up on SOMETHING, and I felt it. But, I don't know how to interpret it. Ah, um... I'm at a loss here, but I KNOW I felt something unusual."

Checking the immediate area, he settles his translucent blue stare right at the front doors. He straightens up his form and warily watches the doors. "There's... Some things... Behind the door? I see some faint, wavy shapes."

Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia ready themselves into defensive postures. Sotalia holds her hands forward in preparation to cast. Bach, Cideeda, and Dretphi each unzip a side pocket of their backpacks, reach inside, and wait. Aristespha waves an open palm to the team and squints her eyes as they glow violet. Her eyes widen and her jaw hangs agape. Shaking her head, she recovers her senses. Standing up straight and hands held close, she closes her eyes and concentrates. Moments later, a field of shimmering energy forms between her hands. Dretphi gazes at the door, then turns her attention to Aristespha. "What is at the door?"

Aristespha flutters her eyes open with a bright stare. "We are about to find out."

With a swift motion, she flings her hands out in an arc to her sides. The shimmering energy expands into a bubbling wave and swells out into the vicinity. As the tide washes through the visitor's center, dozens of small glowing entities appear at the front doors along with a large being resembling a huge badger. It tightens clawed grips on the interior handles for the front doors. Aristespha meets its glare. "Well..."

Cideeda gawks and blinks dumbfounded at the badger entity, pointing a finger at it. "Okay... What is that?!"

Dretphi draws her head of platinum blonde braids back, furrows her brow, and narrows her stare. "That form is similar to a dire badger."

Keeping her stance at the ready, Sotalia desperately glances at everyone else for some indication for how to proceed. "Okay. So, that's probably a spirit? Maybe a sprite? Gods, that's really fucking big sprite..."

Bach relaxes his posture, and his focus drifts between the many small orbs tightly hovering behind the badger. Removing his hand out his backpack pocket, he zips it back up, while both Cideeda and Dretphi notice. He puzzles at the situation before him and motions towards the orbs. "Hey, everyone... I think the badger is defending the sprites by holding the door shut. Maybe we should ease back here?"

Cideeda and Dretphi each zip up the side pockets of their backpacks and relax their stances from defensive to cautious. Sotalia puts her hands down, while keeping an eye on the ghostly dire badger. "Okay... I guess that makes sense. But, how is the over-sized sprite defending anything by holding a door shut?"

Hissing a breath through gritted teeth, Aristespha rolls her eyes and exhales a groan of disappointment. "Bach. After you are done with that copy of the Spirit Guide, give it to her!"

She snaps a stern stare over the rest of the team and wrestles down her unease on her ivory, blue and gray hinted face. "This is NOT a sprite. It's a full fledged daemon! Fairly powerful and quite intelligent spirits that are usually sentient and VERY capable."

An reverberating presence echoes out over the area. "Correct."

Aristespha's glowing violet eyes slowly tow her head to face the daemon. Cideeda's furry ears snap forward at the door, and she remains motionless as fends of a whole body squirm and fluffing tail. Dretphi maintains her calm, stoic exterior, but stiffens her upper lip. Sotalia remains speechless and cocks her head in blinking disbelief. Bach and Sebastian exchange uneasy glances, shrugs, and hand signals. Regaining her composure, Aristespha politely addresses the daemon with a calm, reserved tone. "Excuse me, spirit. Why are you here, holding the doors closed?"

A low voice resonates through the air around the front doors, and faint metallic rattles slip out around the frame. "Defend."

Cautiously drawing breath, Aristespha nods as hints of concern well into her expression. "From?"

The badger daemon's ghostly eyes search for the words. "Abuser. People here, Abuser avoid. Hide safely. People not here, Abuser near. I defend. I can ignore abuser, they can not."

Bach's mind flings up recent memory as he tilts his head to the side. He furrows his brow while his eyes search through his thoughts. "Oh shit... There might be a spirit mage in the area."

Sotalia catches that idea, ponders to herself, and nods in agreement. "That could explain the strange disturbances without any solid explanation. Even a rookie investor mage would have figured out if someone was using regular magic to cause all the problems. But... Spirit stuff is harder to identify, since it's spirits doing all the work, rather than someone just casting spells."

Crossing her arms as faint irritation swells up, Aristespha stares into the daemon's eyes and inquires resolutely. "Where and who is this abuser?"

The same detached voice echoes into the area. "Big path. Always near. Awake now, will find. Careful. Bold now, desperate, waiting... Similar to you."

Aristespha lowers her head, intrigued, and puzzles out loud. "Similar to me? Interesting..."

Sebastian shrugs and dissipates back into the sword hidden on Aristespha's back. "So, I guess we do some hiking."

Aristespha bows respectfully to the daemon. "Thank you for the information. We will try to address this abuser."

The badger daemon nods appreciatively and its voice emanates out from the door. "Must stay here. Good fortune. Hide now."

Readjusting her floppy hat, Aristespha glances over her shoulder. "That sounds like a plan."

Sebastian's voice rises up and addresses the team. "Okay! Keep alert and let's see if we can find this abuser and what's causing the disturbances."

The group reassembles and makes its way to the main hiking path. Bach lingers behind and gazes at the spirit entities when they fade from sight. He walks around the corner of the building and hears a high pitch whine coming from his backpack. Snapping to attention, he stops immediately and quickly unzips the backpack's side pocket. An audible click sounds out and electrical whine tapers off. Bach sighs relieved and zips the side pocket back up. Lifting his face forward, he halts in place and stiffens his posture. Darting his blue around searching, he pivots towards the building and meets the daemon's curious stare through a window. A voice softly sounds near Bach's ears. "You... Hide. Hold. Why?"

Bach's guard slips and his eyes widen in uncomfortable realization. Confusion, shock, worry, and embarrassment bubble up on his face, splashing up and washing away to the whims of the next. Finally, an overwhelming honesty cuts through the turmoil, and Bach drops his head with a sad frown. "Fear."

The badger daemon simply nods and moves away from the window. "Understand, now. Not forever."

Recomposing himself, Bach draws in a deep calming breath and rushes along the path to catch up to the group. Contemplation flits on his face, but he fades back down upon nearing the team.

----

Noon sun slips through the spare, young canopy above as the party travels down a well worn rock and earth trail. Above the ambient drone of wind sifting through the leaves, Sotalia exhales in frustration and clenches her fists in front of her. "Dammit! You keep on telling me that the series gets good, and it's just been a non-stop drama rollercoaster!"

Chuckling to herself with a smug grin on her light brown face, Cideeda glances over to Sotalia. "You have to invest into it. Patience, you need."

Groaning, Sotalia shakes head, tightly purses her lips, blows air out, and relaxes to an unsatisfied grimace. "FINE. BUT... If I pull my horns off from frustration, I'm blaming you."

Bach shrugs contentedly with a smile. "This is why I stick to reading Tales of the Orion. No drama fatigue."

Watching the clouds go by in the blue sky between the foliage of the trees, Dretphi calmly walks with the group. "Forest canopy is thickening. Summer will be here soon."

Aristespha glances up and searches overhead, while holding her hat against the strong breeze. "It is. I wonder if we are-"

Furrowing her brow, her violet eyes dart between the dimming light flickering between the openings in the trees above. "Is it getting darker for anyone else?"

Dretphi squints and notices a strange change in illumination. "Yes. Something is shading the sky from us? Do not know what. Magic?"

Sebastian's voice emanates from the sword softly. "Heads up. The sword is feeling some activity around us."

Bach, Cideeda, and Sotalia stop their debate and search the nearby area. The wind fades away and leaves behind a still, stagnant air. The light in the area declines rapidly. The group halts expectantly.

"WHO HAS DEFILED THE SANCTITY OF THE FOREST BY THEIR PRESENCE?"

Heads seek the source of the low, booming voice. Echoes bounce around the surrounding forest, and the darkened vicinity obscures the origin. Cideeda's furry ears flick around scanning, and she grumbles low with a frustrated shake of her head. Sotalia plucks off her sunglasses, closes them up, and places them in her shorts pocket.

"I SEE A KINDRED. BUT, I ALSO SEE A BRUTE, A DEMON, A BEAST, AND-"

Promptly counting the members around him, Bach closes his eyes, breathes out in begrudging anticipation, and strains a grin.

"A FILTHY MOTHER TERRA DEFILING FUCKING HUMAN!?!?"

The rest of the team glances at Bach. Placing his face into his palm, Bach grumbles to himself. He rubs the bridge of his nose and vainly tries to suppress his simmering annoyance in voice. "Why? Why put that on me? Don't even know me and dumping that shit on me. Powers that be, fuck me."

"I WILL SHOW MY GLORIOUS MERCY UPON YOU THIS ONCE... IF YOU LEAVE NOW WITHOUT YOUR BELONGS, AND NEVER COME BACK!"

The last part echoes throughout the area and fades into a dead silence. The group stands resolute and waits expectantly.

"MAYBE I NEED TO DEMONSTRATE MY NEW POWER!"

In the distance a chorus of trees rustle. A wall of wind rockets down the path, sweeping up dirt and other debris inside a swirling torrent. Sotalia quickly gestures an incantation and steps forward with a both hands flung out. A thick energy shield rises from the ground to just above Dretphi's towering height. Aristespha finishes her casting and throws a hand up into the air. A barrier bubbles over the group and meshes with Sotalia's shield. The chaotic wall of wind blasts past. Sticks and tiny rocks pelt the shield and barrier. Almost a minute later, the wave dies down and the last bits of debris bounce into the surrounding leaves of the trail. Sotalia and Aristespha release their energy barriers, and the energies dissipate away.

"SO, YOU DEFY ME! I HAVE SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR THOSE WHO DARE CHALLENGE MY MIGHT!"

Cideeda reflexively springs up and instinctively leaps away towards the middle of the path. "LEGS! Watch your legs! Something tried to grab me!"

From the underbrush, swarming masses of vines slither and whip out. Dretphi draws her knife and postures herself defensively. Swiping purposefully, she counters attack after attack, slices taking end segments off vines each time. Sotalia backs away from the swarm and prepares a spell. As she raises her hand back for the final part, a plant strand wraps around her arm and yanks her back. Long stretches of ivy peel off the trees and descend upon the melee. Cideeda nearly rips open the zipper of her side pocket and draws out her laser pistol. With careful flicks of the wrist, she carves searing paths through the vines with blue beam bursts. Bach sprints and grips the vine pulling Sotalia with blue radiating from his eyes. Part of the vine snaps out from Bach's grip, cleanly cut. Sotalia wrestles the uncoiling the vine from her arm and finishes her spell. A freezing jet bursts forth from her hand onto the vine mass after her. Frost coats over the plan and freezes into to crackling stillness. Sotalia kicks through it with her boot, and it fractures into misty chunks upon the forest floor. Aristespha releases the buckles on her backpack straps. Firmly grasping the sword's handle, she swiftly draws the blade free. Stepping forth, she spins and slashes low with the momentum. She cuts high to split a descending vine and drops the blade down onto a vine sneaking along the trail. Bach watches in astonishment, and recognition dawns on his face. Sebastian materializes above the group and follows the scene in initial surprise. Recovering quickly, he calls out attacks. "Dretphi, twelve high! Aristespha, nine low! Cideeda, six mid!"

More vines rip from tree trunks, and whole sections of the ivy covered forest floor writhe under the blanket of old leaves towards the battle. A plant mass pulls from two trees nearby and joins a rolling swarm. Bach shakes his head, grits his teeth, and pulls his plasma pistol out from his backpack side pocket. "MAN, FUCK THIS!"

Bach hits the power button to full and disengages the safety. The pistol sounds out with an empowered whine. With a pull of the trigger, the weapon ejects a plasma bolt into the center of the rolling heap of vines. The bolt explodes with a fiery super-heated eruption of gas and incinerates a huge chunk of plant matter. The surrounding portion ignites into billowing fire and plumes out crackling cinders into leaf piles.

A higher pitched voice blares out into the area. "W-w-w-what are you doing?! You fucking maniac! Are you trying to cause a forest fire!?"

Many vines drop limp, and others abruptly halt their attacks. Flaming vines separate from the swarm and beat themselves out, rolling onto the dirt. Bach glances behind him to the rest of the team, quirks his brow curiously, and points his free hand to his ear. "HEY! Did that sound like a teen-aged girl to anyone else?"

Cideeda cocks her head, furrows her brow, and nods in growing agreement. "Yeah. Yes, it did."

Meeting Bach's inquiring gaze, Sotalia thinks for a moment and pulls an evil grin across her light tan face. "I don't know. Maybe we need to hear it, AGAIN."

Dretphi perks a brow, Sebastian gives a thumbs up, and Aristespha nods once. Bach spots another still mass of vines and squeezes the trigger. Another bolt flies out the barrel and explodes another bundle into a blaze.

"Oh. My. Goddess! What is wrong with you?! This is a FOREST! Stop setting fires!!"

Putting her hands on her hips, Sotalia processes this new information with indignation spilling out into her. "That- Gods, that does sound like a teen-aged girl."

Aristespha narrows her glare and closes her eyes with a long, annoyed sigh. "I think we ARE dealing with a CHILD. The wind wall was weak. Impressive looking, but lacking any significant power behind it."

Kneels down cautiously, Dretphi examines the inert vines at her feet. She pulls them apart with trivial effort and cocks her head with a frown. "Thin vines. Even the tree vines are not thick. Few attacked at a time."

Sebastian touches down on the ground perplexed. "You know... I'm surprised the tree roots didn't spring up, and the tree branches did reach out to swipe at us. We've encountered worse before."

Bach stares down the sights of his pistol and aims at another pile of leafy vines. "She either doesn't know the spell or isn't powerful to cast it- Hold a second, she's almost got the last two put out."

Pulling the trigger again, the plasma gun ejects another superheated ball into the vine mass on the forest floor. The writhing plants erupt into flame, and fiery bits splatter out in the area.

"AHHH! STOP!"

Aristespha focuses her violet glowing eyes and analyzes a bundle of limp vines. Her eyes follow the twisting mass up a tree and into the overhead canopy. Tapping her foot, she bites her lower lip and narrows her thoughtful glare above. "The magic in use is basic spirit control magic. It looks like sprites are doing all the grunt work. Unfortunately, there's too much going on with the sky and voice illusions to easily see where it leads to."

Dretphi scans overhead with a tight frown. "If we could locate her..."

Sinister curiosity creeps onto Bach's face, and he smiles slyly at the group. "Hey... I wonder if we get her frustrated or mad enough, if that will strain her concentration. It seems like she can barely maintain what she's got."

Rapping her long, thick nailed fingers on her crossed arms, Sotalia shifts her weight in thought and grins evilly with a wink to Bach. "Well, YOU are the- Oh, what was it, again? The filthy mother terra defiling fucking human? Oh, I'm certain you can live up to that namesake."

Bach nods slowly, mischief building, and gauges everyone's reaction. "I AM. Am I?"

A toothy grin appears on Cideeda's light brown face. Dretphi smiles and nods. Aristespha reservedly agrees and returns to observing the canopy above. Sebastian gives an encouraging chuckle. Taking a few steps in front of the group, Bach waves his plasma pistol loosely around and laughs loudly in an enthusiastic, dark tone. "STOP? STOP?! Why, this human filth you so proclaim is only getting started! I quite enjoy a good bonfire. In fact, I need another one right- HERE!"

He snaps his pistol at a resting mass of vines, squeezes the trigger, and sends yet another small ball of plasma straight into the center. The brilliant super-heated gasses rush out through the spaces between the bundle and vaporize much of the plant matter. Bach holds his pistol loose and nearly skips around the trail with a taunting grin. "AH! Ever SO enjoyable watching mother nature BURN! I could do this ALL day."

"OH! OH! You- You are- You are not filth, human! You- You are a THREAT! T-t-take THIS!"

Aristespha's stare darts to a section of the trees above, and she squints movement in the canopy. "Incoming! Energy bolt of some kind! I can't make it out clearly. It's taking a long route this way."

Sotalia pivots towards the same direction as Aristespha faces. "That's regular magic this time. I can feel that, barely."

Cideeda's furry ears perk towards the new faint sound, and she points with a claw tip. "It's moving down behind that tree!"

Bach spins towards the tree and waits at the ready. The small magical energy bolt whips out from the base of the tree. Bach tenses in anticipation. With a clear sight of the bolt, he relaxes down to moot disappointment and snatches the bolt out of the air.

"What?! How did you do that?!"

Plodding over to the group, he confines the small magical bolt above the palm of his hand. He turns off his plasma pistol and returns it to his backpack. Reaching everyone else, he presents the bolt with a long roll of his blue eyes. Aristespha drops her head down, and frustratingly winces with a groan. Sotalia stifles an initial snort and bursts out in mocking laughter. "HAH! A training bolt! OH. MY. GODS!

She points at the diminutive orb of magic and cackles out to the treetops. "GIRL! This is your attack?! AHAHAHAHA!"

Groaning, Dretphi draws in a deep breath and sighs deeply. "Can we flush her out? Capture her? The day is nice. I want to enjoy it."

Lifting an eyebrow, Bach nods as the magic bolt starts to warp and change. His eyes flush with blue light and mischievous intent. "I think a return to sender is in order. Give me one second and..."

The magic bolt balloons into a larger, energized incarnation, and Bach lofts it up into the air. It jets off down the reverse of its original path and flies faster with an angry, high-pitched buzz. The teen-aged girl's voice cries out. "Huh?! What the fuck is THAT- OH SHIT!"

Leaves rustle, branches snap, someone screams out Evuukian expletives, and bits of bark fleck down. The chaos above blends into a cacophony of panic with a warbling, angry, high-pitch whine punctuating the moments of scrambling. Cideeda's furry ears twitch and pluck out the bigger target from the soundscape. She tracks the sound and points it out to everyone else. With a crack, a branch drops from above. Someone hastily slides down a tree and flees into the trail path. The thin, lithe figure dive into a roll on rock and dirt path and dodges angry magic bolt trying to dive-bombs her. Scrambling back to her feet in a panic, sticks, leave, and vines stuck in her hair and clothes shed off her. The bolt whips sharply around and zooms right at her head. She covers her very long, pointed ears and dirt-caked golden hair, and squats to the ground. Summoning enough frustration, she defiantly stands back up. The bolt banks long near the group and rockets down the trail straight at the thin figure. The young evuukian woman holds both her hands up and projects an energy shield with the last bit of defiant pride on her dirty smudged face. The bolt barrels within centimeters of the shield. It turns at a right angle and slips drop below the shield. Zipping between her legs, underneath her tattered skirt, the magical orb halts behind her. The young evuukian shrieks in surprise, and reflexively grabs the front of her skirt to hold it down. The orb detonates into a burst of force behind. The waves hits the young woman's backside, tips her off balance, and shoves her onto the dirt. As the evuukian gathers her senses, the group approaches carefully.

Leading the approach, Aristespha stares at the young, evuukians woman lifting her ivory face off the ground, and her violet eyes light up with recognition. She laughs out loud and garners the attention of everyone else, including the girl. "OH. Of all the people in this whole world..."

She stands off to the side and waves out a hand to the evuukian girl on the ground with a devious grin. "Behold everyone... Valavera Tala Erisa. Fourth child of the Verherin house."

Valavera shudders to frozen fright. She slowly raises her head up towards Aristespha and blinks her green eyes, seeking an explanation. Shock and bewilderment surge as the back of her mind desperately tries to dredge something up from the past. "H-h-how d-d-do you know my name?!"

Aristespha takes a dignified hold of her hat, gently slides it off, and tosses her silvery blue hair around. She glares a dark, tooth-bearing grin down at Valavera with a strange, otherworldly shade upon ivory face. "Oh, after ALL the years I spent changing your diapers and baby-sitting to help out your mother... How could I EVER forget THAT face."

Valavera gasps to choke, her green eyes widen, and her pupils narrow to pin points. Defensively drawing herself up, she shrieks in sheer terror. "A-A-A-ARISTESPHA!!!"

----

Valavera sits defeated on the grass near the utility building with her legs and arms crossed, and sneaks a glance back behind her at the towering grath. Dretphi returns a commanding glare through her. Snapping her awkward stare forward, Valavera lowers her head down and meekly rubs her dirt smeared forearms. Aristespha stands with her back against the humvee, snorts out an irritated breath, and just shakes her head disapprovingly. Sotalia slides up next to her, crosses her arms, and sighs incredulously. "That's something else right there. She turns eighteen and has a paid ride to school. Then, runs off to join a damn Evuukian supremacy cult."

Aristespha winces, rubs her temples underneath her long silvery blue hair, and groans in frustration. "I know... Admittedly, her mother is pretty strict, but she's very nice and fair most of the time. I never thought THIS would be the way she would be rebellious. Gods, I just hope all this humbles that little brat. She's always been difficult, but this is a whole new level of STUPID trouble."

Walking up to the two at the humvee, Bach uncoils a section of garden hose off his arm every meter. He places down the remainder of the hose and the end with a sprayer nearby. "Well, the power was even to turn on. Water pump on the well is running, and there seems to be enough pressure."

Cideeda rounds the front of the humvee. Stepping towards the group, she holds a dirty, worn satchel at arms length and fights against a grimace. She orbits around the filthy belongs to stay upwind and winces in mild disgust. "It was exactly where she said it would be. Honestly... I could have tracked it down by her smell, though. Found an aetherphone with a dead battery and cracked ID chip. Apart from that, there's just some other junk..."

Narrowing an very unamused gaze at the team, Cideeda presents a battered, handmade book. "And, a Terra Priest handbook."

Sebastian's ethereal voice echoes from the sword on Aristespha's back. "So, how do you want to handle this, dear? You know her. As far as I'm concerned, we've completed the contract. I'm pretty sure if we just told the park service folks we scared off some dumbass kids and gave them that book, they'd believe us. Any other thoughts, everyone?"

Sotalia puts her hands up behind her head of shoulder length dark red hair, leans onto the humvee, and rolls her golden eyes. "Meh. She's not worth turning in to the police. She's an idiot. But, I think she deserves a chance. Maybe learn something and make better choices. Plus, I got a good laugh out of it."

Bach shrugs and directs a thumb over his shoulder at Valavera. "She put on a good show. But, I recognize that look of impending regret anywhere. The justice system has better things to deal with than her. I get the feeling dealing with what at home will be punishment enough."

Flipping opens the top cover of the satchel at a distance, Cideeda showcases the overflowing amount full of vending machine food wrappers within, and laughs amused. "She was going to starve anyway. She's been eating out of the vending machines, and I bet she tried to open the utility building. That girl is, and has been, in WAY OVER her head. She was probably just desperate."

Aristespha rubs the bridge of her nose and breathes deeply. "Thinking about this job now, I am CERTAIN it was her mother that put in the other bid now. Evuukian politics at their finest. They probably tracked her down to this area through her phone. And, I am certain they were trying to get to her without being obvious with their resources. When she left like she did, it probably got the attention of some other houses. It just happened that her mother saw we were in the area and decided to bid in hopes we'd handle it. Some timing and luck there."

Sebastian's voice resonates from the sword sheathed on Aristespha's back. "I'm gonna guess they knew about the source of the park service's problems well before the job got posted. They probably didn't want the average batch of adventurers to bring her in. They were likely trying to work out a discreet option... Then we happened."

Aristespha nods grimly and stares at Valavera. "She has NO IDEA how fortunate she is."

Stepping calmly away from the humvee, she arrives next to Dretphi. "We were thinking of getting her back home. Do you have any objections?"

Dretphi focuses on Valavera, shakes her head with a firm frown, and gazes down at Aristespha. "No. She is scared. Tired. Hungry. Defeated. Send her home. That fate will be sate me."

Agreeing with Dretphi, Aristespha catches Valavera peering over her shoulder. She concentrates her full attention on Valavera and dons a stern expression and proper posture. "Stand up. Face me. Now."

The tone of Aristespha's voice frightens Valavera into unquestioning, prompt compliance. Narrows her eyes at Valavera, Aristespha cuts a stare right through her. "Do you have any more surprises for us, or are you going to cooperate?"

Valavera trembles in place and lowers her head sheepishly. "N-n-no. That was all I had. It took me two weeks to work it out. When people stopped coming here, I had time to set something bigger up than what I was doing. But the daemon kept the rest of the nearby sprites away from me. So, I don't have anything else now."

Aristespha powers the glare upon her and orders. "Good. We are going to take you to our place for now. Then, home."

Valavera's face lights up, and she shows some genuine relief. "Okay. So, should I get in the vehicle and wait or-"

Cackling, Sotalia tests the hose sprayer and sends a jet of water off to the side. Cideeda closes the back hatch of the humvee and flashes a toothy grin to Valavera while holding a bottle of liquid dish soap in one hand and a stack of clothes in the other. Bach snorts to himself and averts his anticipating smile. Valavera blinks bewildered and gazes to Aristespha for an answer. Aristespha firmly bellows one word. "STRIP."

Valavera's face pales and her eyes dart around in fear. Summons the last bit of courage in her, and she defiantly shouts with an angry glare. "NO!"

Putting her hands to her sides, Aristespha tilts her head and examines Valavera up and down. "If you think we are going to let you track that stench into that vehicle and inconvenience our long ride home, you are very wrong. Now. Either you cooperate, or I'm certain Dretphi will be happy to pull that filth off of you."

Dretphi smirks, stands to her full towering height, and flexes the many muscles in arms with a few stretches. Valavera shrinks back, grits her teeth, and weakly nods. "Okay... Okay... I guess I probably do smell really bad."

Crossing her arms, she musters up a plea bordering on demand. "Can't I just take a shower in one of the bathroom stalls?! They're right over there!"

Aristespha leans her cold glare closer to Valavera and explains with a tinge of a growl. "NO. We're letting you out of our sight right now, especially your WONDERFUL performance today."

Her expression softens, and Aristespha grimaces tinged with disgust and whispers. "Also, I am certain the grass and hose are FAR cleaner options than anything in those restrooms right now."

Acceptance washes over Valavera, and she nods with defeated sigh. Awkwardly glancing off to the side, she focuses pleading embarrassment at Aristespha and motions to Bach. With an understanding smile, Aristespha calls out. "Bach, could you try to see if you could get that phone working, and give us a bit of privacy for a while? Please?"

Bach nods, searches the satchel for the aetherphone, and waves to the group. "Oh. Yeah. Not a problem. Uh, just let me know when you are done. I'll see what I can do with this stuff."

Tapping the hilt of the sword on her back, Aristespha gently calls out. "Sebastian, could you join him, please?"

Sebastian's ethereal form materializes next to Aristespha, nods with a smile, and flies over to Bach's side. Valavera watches in a mix of surprise and awe, with a faint flush of color in her ivory face. Bach ejects the ID chip from the aetherphone and scrutinizes the small device as he walks further away. Sebastian peeks over Bach's shoulder with curiosity, and both brothers furrow their brows at the tiny electronic device. A girlish shriek echoes out into the clearing. "OH GODS! IT'S COLD! WHY IS IT THAT COLD?!"

Between a mix of laughter and snickers, other members offer honest suggestions to make the process tolerable. Sebastian snaps his head back momentarily and shrugs at Bach. "Huh, I guess the water heater is broken."

Shaking his head with an evil grin, Bach chuckles to himself. "Nope. Works just fine. That hose is just hooked up to a cold water only faucet."

As a burst of shrill evuukian curses bounces between the surrounding trees, Sebastian reflexively laughs and blinks in surprise at his brother. "WOW. You EVIL asshole. Nicely done, bro."

Bach simply shrugs and rolls his blue eyes. "Hey, I'm just making sure she remembers this experience. And MAYBE, a little bit of revenge for singling me out."

Sebastian perks his brow and crosses his arms, judging playfully. "A little?"

Twisting his mouth against a flit of guilt, Bach shrugs. "Maybe a little more than that.

As Sebastian nods knowingly at the responding, Bach furrows his brow and inquires. "Oh, by the way? When did you start teaching Aristespha mom's sword style?"

Sebastian's ghostly visage strokes his chin, and he searches his mind. "Ah, I think it was shortly after she joined. Figured if she was supposed to protect the sword, she needed to know to use it, too"

Bach pops the battery out of the phone and nods. "Good call. Might have to get Cideeda to help me on this one."

----

Valavera sits in the aisle of the humvee cab between Aristespha and Bach. Her arms hug her folded legs and her cleaner golden hair drapes over a faded t-shirt. Squirming in the worn pants, she sighs sadly. Aristespha stares down at Valavera. "Continue."

Breathing in reluctantly and Valavera tells her tale. "So... I went to the forest reserve and park thing to try to scare everyone off and get it shut down. I figured if I did a good enough of a job and proved myself by doing what they asked, the Terra Priests would consider me for full membership. But..."

Sotalia chuckles to herself and cranes her head back with a smug grin. "Let me guess, things didn't go to plan?"

Valavera squeezes her arms tighter around her legs, and her ego shrinks even more. "NO. After a few days, my friend with the Terra Priests... He stopped responding to my calls. Then, my phone ran out of power and I broke when I got angry. The visitor area was abandoned, and the utilities got cut off. The daemon locked me out of the visitor center. I had next to no food left. I was losing control of the spirits I could control. And the big thing I set up to maybe get some major attention... Well... You all made short work of it."

Staring sternly at Valavera, Aristespha inquires coolly. "What are you going to do now?"

Valavera sheepishly gazes up at Aristespha. "Go home. Go to school. Learn to do magic correctly. Never get involved with any group like this ever again."

Aristespha nods and softens to a caring smile. "A very good answer."

Bach loads the battery into the aetherphone and presses a few buttons on the side. "Okay, battery is charged. The cracked ID chip pins should be fixed as per Cideeda's recommendations. So... In theory, it should boot up and come online, any time now?"

The aetherphone screen flickers to life, and a series of company logos splash up with a loading bar. After a few seconds, the home screen initializes and icons for the various functions and applications load up. The finer decorations overlay onto the interface and paint a colorful theme of evuukian pop idols and art. Bach blinks at the unfamiliar font, furrows his brow uncertainty, and taps the touch screen on the system status bar. He watches indicators flicker and progress between states. "Well, looks like it's working. Oh, it seems like it found the network and re-registered itself to it-"

The phone vibrates and chimes a distinctive ring. Every muscle on Valavera tenses. She remains motionless in wide-eyed horror. Squinting at the screen confused, Bach hands the phone over to Aristespha. "I can't read Evuukian, I'll leave this to you."

Taking the phone, Aristespha quirks a brow at the screen, and smiles with a sinister tinge. She presses a button on the screen and happily puts the phone to her very long, pointed ear. "Lady Verherin. It has been too long. How have you been?"

The conversation's language immediately transitions to an Evuukian dialect. Minutes later with Sotalia barely containing her amusement, Aristespha switches to Americ for group clarity. "Yes, of course. The phone battery is fully charged, so take your time. We'll discuss those details later."

She removes it from her ear and lowers it down the Valavera. "It's for you."

Valavera shakily accepts the aetherphone and warily brings it close. Speaking a few words in another dialect of Evuukian, she cringes and waits in silence. Lady Verherin's voice sounds from the phone's speaker enough to drift up into the cab of the humvee. While the words dissipate with the road noise filtering it, the cringes and winces Valavera displays, fuels smiles of accomplishment on the faces of everyone else.

-10-

A bundle of blankets twists and turns on the couch. A mass of golden hair slips out from under the cover, and green eyes peer out through the parting strands. From underneath the sheets, a light skinned hand reaches out and pulls hair back, revealing a sleep-dazed, evuukian face. Valavera rubs the drowsiness out of her eyes and groggily examines the living room. Past noon sunlight glows into the living around through the sliding glass door and warms the space. Lifting herself up to a seat on the couch, Valavera scans the room with fresher consciousness. She abruptly stops her head at the sight of movement. In the kitchen, Aristespha places a plate of breakfast food in the microwave and taps a few buttons. "Good afternoon, sleep-deprived one."

Blinking in confusion, Valavera swiftly glances at the sliding glass door and squints at the short shadows underneath patio furniture. She bites her lip in nervous anticipation, and her voice shakes. "I- I didn't mean to sleep in so late. I was just so tired and well... I..."

Aristespha calmly walks into the living room, drops a mug of tea off on the table in between some papers, and stands in front of Valavera. "You were busy with your thoughts for most of the night. I heard."

Valavera sheepishly hangs her head low and sighs remorsefully with a slight droop of her very long, yellow and blue hinted, pointed ears. Sinking into a back cushion of the couch, she averts her green eyes. Aristespha's stern exterior softens, she motions Valavera up. "Stand up."

Pulling herself up off the couch, Valavera stands at attention. Aristespha meets Valavera uncertain gaze directly with a soft smile and holds her arms out to the side. Valavera winces with tears forming in her eyes and embraces Aristespha. Burying her face in Aristespha's shoulder, she sniffles between tearful sobs. "I'm so- sorry. I just got so- caught up in trying to make it work that- I didn't think about whether it could work... Or, even if I wanted it- to work."

Aristespha wraps her arms around Valavera and holds her motherly with light pats on the back. "It is okay. You have kicked yourself enough for now. There will be other times for that when you are older. And... You need to save some for your mother in the near future. I'm really happy we found you first, with no harm done."

Lifting her head up, Valavera takes a deep breath and releases a tear choked shudder. "What did my mother tell you? She said she'd work out something with you. But... She didn't say anything more to me... Well, about THAT... At least."

Aristespha soothingly rubs Valavera gently on the back. "We talked, caught up, and hatched a plan. Your uncle Becker will pick you up later tonight. It works out. He just got done trading in surrounding towns and wants to acquire a few things to trade along the way back. Thankfully, we happen to have a variety of items we've collected that need to be sold to someone like him."

Valavera pulls herself back from Aristespha and wipes some of the tears from her eyes with a smile. "I haven't seen Uncle Becker in a year! I can't believe my mother would call upon him."

Aristespha shakes her head and sighs with a grin. "Well, despite how far he stays away from the politics, he is the best... BULLSHIT artist I've ever known. If anyone can weave a tale so thick that no one is going to question where you've been for the last month or two, it will be him."

Rolling her green eyes, Valavera smiles firmly amused. "After the first half hour of the story, no one will want to ask anymore."

Tilting her head towards the dining table, Aristespha smirks and pats Valavera's shoulder. "Take a seat. Let's catch up. I saved some breakfast for you."

Valavera nods and dries out the few remaining tears with her worn T-shirt. "That... Sounds really good."

She searches around and listens carefully with her very long, pointed ears. "Uh, where is everyone else?"

Aristespha pauses en route to the kitchen and points outside. "Outside. It is a nice day, and they're getting ready for our next mission tomorrow. They didn't want to wake you with the noise. They have held off test firing their guns. So, I assume they are checking armor and other gear."

Examining Valavera closely, Aristespha studies her up and down and smiles with a plotting confidence. "Speaking of which, we need to get some better clothing than that. I should have a few things that will fit you. And, to fit with your cover story of self-discovery... We have got old extra adventuring gear you can have your pick of."

Valavera rushes up and excitedly hugs Aristespha. "Thank you, so much!"

Aristespha pats Valavera on the back and discreetly wipes a tear off her blue and gray hinted face. "Consider it making it up to you for being so scarce for these past few years."

Sniffling, Valavera squeezes Aristespha with a smile. "You saved me from a HUGE mistake and... You've been chasing and fighting Dark Lord Noxian..."

She meets Aristespha's gaze and sighs. "It doesn't matter. You were here when I needed you, and that's all I care about."

Aristespha pulls in Valavera tight. The two hold each other for a minute. Loosening her arms, Valavera pulls away and furrows her brow at Aristespha. "I REALLY do appreciate everything. But... I have to ask... Um..."

Lifting an intrigued brow, Aristespha cocks her head to the side. "Yes?"

Valavera twists an uncomfortable grimace and grumbles. "Was the shower with cold water really necessary?"

Aristespha narrows a cold stare. "If I told you another one of those experiences would be awaiting you, if you EVER attempted a stunt like this again, would you think VERY CAREFULLY about committing such?"

Valavera slowly nods with wide eyes. "Yes."

Aristespha presents an evil smile and chuckles. "THEN, it was absolutely necessary."

----

Under the afternoon sun, Bach props his elbows upon the wooden top of the picnic table. Spinning his helmet around in his hand, he inspects closely and squints his blue eyes at parts. With a satisfied smirk, he rests the modern military helm upon the tabletop and sits upright on the bench seat. With her head upon her crossed arms, Sotalia watches Bach from the opposite side of the table. She stares and sighs out her sheer boredom. Reaching her hand out, she picks at a loose sliver of wood from a plank with a long, black finger nail. "So... What are you doing? That helmet looks fine to me. So, we should practice spells now."

Scratching the back of his head of longer brown hair, Bach shrugs with his gaze upon the helmet. "I'm going to try my hand at enchanting it. I mean, if I'm going to do anything with anyone's equipment, I should probably test it out on my own first. That only seems fair, right?"

Sotalia furrows her brow and focuses her golden eyes on Bach with a curious quirk of her light tan and dark gray face. "Wait. Didn't you say that you enchanted that helmet for Sebastian?"

Bach blinks confused and searches his mind. Realization dawns upon him, and he curls the corner of his mouth with a snort. "Well... I have never personally enchanted anything with my own spells. I used a store bought kit on this helmet. So, did you consider Elander's Econo Enchanting actual enchanting?"

Sotalia sneers her upper lip, lifts her head up off her arms, and stretches back on the wooden bench seat. "Oh! Oh no. Not in a million years. Gods, you really used Elander's Econo Enchanting?"

Rolling his eyes, Bach briefly grits his teeth with a slight twist of the head. "Well... I mean- What else do you do when you are a broke college student? I mean, all things considered, it's actually held out decently enough."

Poking the helmet, Sotalia shakes her head of shoulder length dark red hair in mild surprise. "Can't believe Elander's anything blocked the shots thrown at this-"

She places her hand firmly on the helmet and squints at the piece of armor. Searching her mind, she studies the helm closer. "Huh. I'll be damned. That old spell is still there! It's really faint, but I can still feel it. Gods, how is that even possible? Those slow burner spells usually run out after a few years, at best."

A proud grin appears on Bach, and he puffs up with the praise. "Well, I used to have some serious power to throw around. I do remember dumping A LOT of energy into that kit. WAY MORE than they'd ever recommend... or honor the warranty for."

Propping up her head with her hand, Sotalia cracks a sly smile and narrows an inquisitive gaze upon Bach. "Oh. Really? You had power?"

She perks her brow and focuses her stare. "How much?"

Bach glances up from the helmet and his eyes dart around the question. "Ah, um. A lot? I used to be able to cast a few good spells. Nothing too crazy, really..."

Sotalia squints her golden eyes and maintains an expectant smile. "How many cells were you rated at? There’s no way you didn't have a measurement done in a flow chamber."

Bach grips the helmet with both hands. While keeping his awkward stare upon the helm, he gestures dismissively at Sotalia and laughs with a nervous tinge. "Uh, it's been so long... I've forgotten the exact number. I mean, it's been over five years since I've even thought about it. Anyway, it really doesn't matter what my numbers were at this point. I mean, do you remember your-"

Sotalia stares through Bach and concentrates on every move. "Eighty six, sixty nine. Biased towards raw throughput. First year of school."

Bach's expression blanks, and he blinks in uneasy silence. Glancing at Sotalia's expectant glare bearing down on him, he awkwardly grins and begins to raise his head up to meet her scrutinizing, golden eyes. An ethereal voice echoes out near Sotalia. "Ha! I can't believe you forgot your score, bro! After the scene you made at High Alton University's Grading Chamber?"

An ear-to-ear grin sprouts on Sotalia's face, and she spins her head to Sebastian. "OH! Really? Tell me ALL about it."

Sebastian floats down onto the picnic table top and smirks deviously. "Oh, man! I mean most people just throw a bunch of spells until they can't anymore. But, we both got this idea of just venting magical energy out like characters from this animated show we were really into. So, Bach goes first."

He snorts and laughs while tensing his muscular visage. "And, DAMN! He goes all out, and just blasts energy throughout that huge chamber! I remember some of it leaking out the door seals. The graduate assistant freaks the fuck out and nearly yanks the emergency energy siphon and purge lever. Gods! They were SO fucking pissed at us."

Shrugging his shoulders, he rolls his translucent blue eyes. "But, they counted Bach's score anyway. Begrudgingly, since they didn't want to rescore him again. Also, he did pass out."

An eager glint flashes in Sotalia's eyes, and she assumes her most charming posture and tone. "So, do YOU remember his score, Sebastian?"

Sebastian opens his mouth and notices Bach waving around erratically just out of Sotalia's view. Bach motions cuts his hand across his neck and mouths out the words. "Don't tell her."

Grinning with confidence, Sebastian chuckles with bravado. "Why, of course! It is..."

He drifts off mid sentence, drops his head down in thought, and scratches his chin. Attempting to say something a few more times, he places his hands to his sides in frustration. "Well, shit. I've forgotten, too. It has been awhile."

Rolling her eyes, Sotalia plops her head back onto her folded arms with a huff and groans aggravated. "I can't believe you two. Forgetting important things like this!"

Bach shrugs with a relieved smile and resumes work on the helmet. "I mean, it doesn't matter. I'd probably be lucky to break a thousand these days. Hell, I haven't been able to get all the spells I used to be able to cast working with how I have to do magic these days."

Slowly turning her head towards Bach, Sotalia focuses an inquisitive gaze. "Oh? Which spells?"

Bach rubs his hands together and places them around the sides of his helmet. "Well, a number of small ones that I just haven't been focusing on. And the D-Ball spell."

Sebastian frowns slightly and crosses his arms. "Aw, man,bro. No D-Ball still?"

As magical energy flows out from Bach's arms onto the helm, he shakes his head and keeps his eyes on the helmet. "Nope. Sorry, man. I still haven't figured out how to optimize it enough to even get past the start-up phase. I think I could do everything else, but that initial setup is complex and power hungry."

Sotalia glances between Sebastian and Bach, leans back, and raises her hands up. "Okay. Hold up. What's the D-Ball spell you two keep talking about?"

A coating of magical energy rests upon the helmet and solidifies. Adjusting his grip, Bach rocks his head side to side. "Um, it's a ball form of the disintegration beam spell. Just something I managed to hack together in third year."

With an annoyed grumble, he slumps his shoulders and glances off to the side. "And, it was promptly banned from ever being used on any official tests."

Sebastian chuckles while shaking his head. "Ha! One of the many Warwick rules instituted because of us. Damn, that spell would have made those team assessment exams so much easier."

Sotalia's eyes spring wide open, and her mouth hangs open in astonishment. A devious grin reemerges, she slyly watches Bach with an intrigued charm in her voice. "So, that means you know how to cast the spell like you used to, correct?"

The magical energy sinks into the exterior coat of the helmet. A few faint glimmers flicker and fade while Bach tweaks the magical energies involved. With his brilliant blue stare full upon the helm, he obliviously explains. "Yes, of course. I used to direct cast it often enough to-"

His words stumble to silence. Revelation yanks his attention away from the helmet, he reflexively grimaces. Slowly lifting his gaze up, he turns to meet the eager, winning grin radiating from Sotalia. Happily standing up from the picnic table, Sotalia steps back over the bench seat. She rests her hands at her sides and tilts her hips into a smug, victorious pose. "Well... Looks like I have a spell to look forward to learning from you, in the NEAR FUTURE. Don't forget it any time soon. I think you're due for another training session with me."

She pivots and strides off to the house, accomplished. Sebastian glances away from her to Bach. "Sorry, bro. That was all your doing. I couldn't spare you there."

Bach sighs deeply and shakes his head. "Bah. It's okay. I'd rather her be obsessed with learning a spell than knowing my old magic statistics. Gods, she's already competitive enough, I don't need her to have numbers to justify it."

Sebastian circles a finger over the helmet with a smile. "So, how's the old helmet coming along?"

The remaining bits of energy visibly fade around the helmet. Bach hoists the helmet and stands up from the table. "Well, I meshed in a mix of some of the magical materials I've been working on and figured out some kind of energy storage system with an ambient energy recharging mechanism and-"

Narrowing his blue eyes at his brother, Bach perks his brow and groans. "You stopped listening after magical materials, didn't you?"

Sebastian's ghostly visage stands up next to the picnic table, and he confesses with a tinge of embarrassment. "Well, yes. I mean, you know I try to keep up, bro. But, I studied swords, armor, and psychology. You know the few spells I eventually figured out."

Tugging at the corner of his mouth, Bach raises a brow at his brother. "You know... I always wondered why you went with psychology. But, I think I understand now. Man. The strangest things that turn out to be useful, you know?"

Sebastian draws in a long ethereal breath and nods with a firm smile at Bach. "Oh, you don't know the half of it. I didn't realize how much I'd put those psychology classes to use."

He eyes the helmet and points at it. "Anyway, how are you going to test that enchantment? Going to shoot stuff at the helmet?"

Bach examines the helmet and shakes his head to Sebastian. "No. I kind of like this helmet, and I'm not THAT confident about my abilities. The firing range that Cideeda and Dretphi set up over in the yard off to the side of the house has a bunch of steel plates. Figured I could enchant those the same way I did this. Close enough of a test?"

Sebastian rubs his chin and gives a nod of approval. "Sounds like a plan, bro. If nothing else, maybe the metal plates will last a bit longer. They always figure a way to wear them out."

----

Late afternoon sun slides down the shingles of the ranch style house and beams upon the grass field on the side of the property. Glancing over his shoulder, Bach eyes the thick, chained back steel plate hanging between posts, and sweeps his gaze over the thick forest behind. With a shrug, he walks towards the house on the opposite end of the field and stands next to Cideeda and Sebastian. "Well, I got the same type of enchantment on that first metal plate. So... Um. Fire away, I guess?"

Cideeda squints down the improvised firing range and flicks free the locks on her hip holsters. Drawing a laser pistol out, she clicks the power switch, disengages the safety, and levels her aim. The sights line up on the steel target and narrows her stare against the glint of sun of the faint magical shimmer. She slips a finger in front of the trigger. With a slow squeeze, the trigger clicks. A blue beam splashes upon the surface of the metal plate. Light diffuses off a translucent golden barrier before the surface of the metal plate. The laser pistol cuts the pulse off. Seconds pass, and the barrier fades back to obscurity. Cideeda nods intrigued with a perk of her furry ears and glances at Bach out of the corner of her eye. "Not bad. Not bad at all. I held that to the max pulse time."

A sense of pride wells up in Bach, and a confident smile forms. "Well. It's just an initial draft, but it is similar to the barriers I put up when we encountered the cyber-"

A wicked grin flashes upon Cideeda's face, and she quickdraws the other laser pistol from the holster. "Let's see if it can handle two beams!"

Both triggers engage. Two rays of blue erupt from the ends of the photon weaponry. Both accurately contact the barrier and splash their energy on target. Smaller threads of enchanted light reflect off the barrier as it grows opaque. Both laser pistols discharge the last bits of energy and shut off the emitters. Bach's eyes slowly guide the rest of his head to watch Cideeda's dark glee manifest. Perking both her eyebrows at Bach, Cideeda shines a toothy grin. "I approve. So far, that is. We'll have to see what Dretphi brings out."

Sebastian ethereal visage hovers behind the two, and he glances around the corner of the house. Biting his lip in a wary anticipation, he furrows an uncertain glance back. "Huh. Well, she seemed really happy when you told her to hit it hard. I wonder what she's-"

Trailing of mid sentence, his eyes stare off into the distance while an epiphany shoves other thoughts out of the way. He blinks and turns his head towards Cideeda. "She just got that scope sighted on her rifle, didn't she?"

Cideeda winks at Sebastian with a smug smile. "Yes. We might as well throw a real test at it."

Catching the exchange between the two, Bach furrows his brow as his confidence withers. "Oh. OH-"

A loud, heavy mechanical clack echoes into the area as the large rifle bolt disengages. Dretphi strides around the corner of the house's brick wall with a hint of a skip in each step. Hoisting the anti-material rifle up, she keeps the muzzle pointed into the air with one arm. She reaches into a satchel hanging at her side, removes her hand, and playfully twirls a large rifle round in her fingers. Bach gawks the long, solid barrel of the rifle. Glances between the heavy metal and sturdy construction factor into the physics calculations eroding Bach's confidence. Dretphi stops in front of Bach and gazes down at him with a slight smile. "Doubting your abilities?"

Bach nods slowly and honestly slips out. "Yes. Oh, yes. Ah, um... Especially, with THAT much firepower."

Dretphi examines the first metal plate in the distance and glances back at Bach with a glint in her steely gray eyes. "A little doubt is healthy. So, we test."

Bach crosses his arms and contorts his grimace to side with a grumble. "Yes. I know. I was hoping to enjoy a few smaller tests before... absolutely shattering the thing to a million pieces."

Dretphi walks over to a mat next to a stack of sandbags on the ground. Kneeling down, she places the rifle on the ground and slips the satchel off. She sets the rifle up for firing, settles down prone behind it, and readies herself. Turning her head to look over her shoulder at Bach, she smiles warmly. "With what I have seen, I am not assuming the outcome. You should not either."

Bach meets Dretphi's glance. Puzzling a moment, he parts a reserved smirk and relaxes his arms to his sides. "Well, okay. It could... Possibly... Withstand that. I ain't putting my money on it though."

Perking her furry ears, Cideeda furrows her brow and gets Sebastian's attention. "Sebastian? Could you warn everyone inside real quick? This might be a little loud."

Sebastian flits his eyes wide and flies off towards the wall of the house. "Good call, be right back."

A minute passes with the bright sun beaming down on the region and a gentle wind blowing through the fresh green forest. Sebastian phases through the brick wall of the house and gives everyone a thumbs up. "They've been warned."

Dretphi returns her focus towards the target. Squints through the optics, she dials in a distance on the scope, and lines the crosshairs up on the first metal plate. She picks up the rifle round, loads it into the chamber, and carefully locks the bolt. She put in a set of ear plugs from the sachet. Holding her hand out from the grip, she calls out. "Cover your ears!"

Cideeda presses her palms against the sides of her head and seals up her large fuzzy ears at their bases. Bach plugs a finger in each ear and eyes his brother. Sebastian hovers with his arms crossed and catches Bach's glance. He raises an indifferent eye brow and gestures with his hands to his ethereal form. Bach drops his head momentarily with a bit of embarrassment and smiles awkwardly apologetic to his brother. Sebastian puts his hands up in the air and nonchalantly shrugs. "It's cool, bro."

Dretphi wraps her fingers around the grip of the rifle, rests a finger on the trigger guard, and checks her shot. Sliding her finger on the trigger, she gently squeezes. A loud boom ripples throughout the area, vibrating any surface it washes over. A bright yellow flash shines out. A crash rings out. Glimmering speckles of bullet fragments and magical sparks scatter away from the target and into the dirt below it. Silence floods into the acoustic void. Trickles of background noise filter in and lead a swell of normal environment noise over time. Dretphi pulls the bolt open and locks it back. Bach removes his fingers from his ears with a shudder and notices Sebastian staring at the target. Floating in place, Sebastian crosses his arm, and holds his chin intrigued. "That was strange, bro. I think I heard... Crackling? Almost like glass or something starting to break."

Uncovering her ears, Cideeda squints at the metal plate, unsure. "The plate is still there. But, the magical barrier is really easy to see. It looks cracked?"

Dretphi engages the safety and positions the barrel of the rifle pointing up and away from the first metal plate. Pushing herself off the ground, she stands up confused. "Need to get a close look."

Bach, Cideeda, and Dretphi walk, while Sebastian hovers, down the field to the metal target. Intrigue grows the closer they gather around the enchanted metal plate. The golden, magical barrier glimmers almost fully opaque. A meshing web of cracks spider out from the center impact point. Width and density of the cracks wane further out in the translucent field. Despite the fractures within, the barrier's surface remains smooth with a gap. Underneath the metal plate remains untouched.

Dropping down to a knee, Bach lifts up the bottom edge of the hanging metal plate, unhooks to chains, and angles the plate forward for a better view. "Holy. Shit. I think it actually held. Gods, looks like hell, though."

Cideeda squats to the side of the target with an eager wag of long, fluffy tail and peeks behind the plate. "Nice! No signs of denting on the backside. It shook the plate around, but it seems just fine to me. That's SO cool."

Sitting down on the grass, she examines the golden field on the front of the plate. Her emerald green eyes widen, and she points a claw tip to a disappearing fault lines within the barrier. "Is it- Repairing itself?"

Bach studies the spot and rocks his head side to side. "Well. Sort of? Technically, it didn't break enough to need big repairs. It more or less got stretched out in places. But, I did put in bits to recharge the barrier and maintain the internal alignment with any ambient energy. So, it must be using all the sunlight to recharge and realign itself. This is probably the very limit of what it can handle."

Cracks shrink slowly as the seconds pass. The lines fully retreat back to the impact point and clear the edge of the barrier. As the fissures close and the magical material solidifies, the golden field fades into transparency. Dretphi kneels down and spots a few bullet fragments in the grass underneath the target. She pinches onto the largest and lifts it up for a better view. Examining it carefully, an excited hint sneaks into her smile. Bach feels a strong hand grasp his shoulder and follows it back to the source. Dretphi cracks a slight grin. "When can this be put on my armor plates?"

----

Uneasily eyeing the team at the dining table, Valavera timidly approaches. From the huge collection of large takeout cartons and aluminum trays in the middle part of the tabletop, the team scoops and plucks out servings of different vegetables and meat dishes. Valavera stands nearby and nervously brushes off her nicer outfit of old clothes and leftover adventuring gear. She reluctantly hems and visibly tenses when everyone's full focus lands upon her. "Um. Before I leave with my uncle, I just wanted to properly apologize to everyone. I made a huge mistake, and I am forever thankful you stopped me before I did anything REALLY stupid. And... I am very sorry I called you such terrible terms and attacked you."

She holds her hands together low in front of her, bows forward gracefully, and remains in silence. Aristespha smiles gently at her and signals Sebastian in the seat next to her with her eyes. "That's a very nice gesture. Thank you. Sit down and eat. I am not sending you out hungry."

Sebastian floats up next to his seat and bows to Valavera with a gentleman's grace. Sebastian pulls his ethereal hand through the back of the chair and grimaces at the reminder. Dretphi reaches next to her and slides the seat back. Under Sebastian's direction, Valavera takes a seat in-between Aristespha and Dretphi. Gawking at Sebastian, Valavera blinks herself out of a trance and glances around the busy and full dining table. Aristespha places a translucent, dark green plate of stabilized magical energy in front of Valavera. The strange plate immediately seizes Valavera's interest, and she carefully prods it. Gently patting Valavera on the shoulder, Aristespha whispers. "We ran low on regular dishes. I will explain later."

Cideeda catches Valavera's wander glance and chuckles with a toothy grin. "Ah, don't worry about the names. I've been called far worse with a lot worse intent. Beast doesn't even register with me anymore."

Sotalia leans over the table, hunts down her target with a wandering plastic fork, and stabs a large fried egg roll. Returning to her seat, she cracks a smile at Valavera and rolls her golden eyes. "Don't worry, girl. We've all made mistakes. Big ones."

Taking a big bite out of the egg roll, she roughly points the fork, with the half eaten egg roll, at Valavera, and flits her brow with a wry smirk. "You try ending a contract with a group in a town full of backwater emin purists as a second generation half-emin. Gods... I had heard stories of how bad some towns were, but I thought they were just exaggerating the more extreme stories."

Sebastian's eyes open up with a spark of memory and laughs. "Yeah... That was such a fucked up place. I still remember going through the door of that dive bar. Everyone was mean mugging me, except you. The one half-emin woman in the place, sitting alone at the worst table, with a dirty glass of water, and literally pointing me to the chair in front of her."

Sotalia shakes her head of dark red hair, holds her free hand up, and bites her lip. "Gods, this will sound terrible. But, I was just happy to see someone other than a emin. Thank the gods, no horns, I might be able to talk to him. I REALLY didn't want to be alone around there."

Flicking her furry ears back, Cideeda sits back in her chair, holds her chin, and wags her fluffy tail. "Oh, that town that wouldn't take your money?"

Emphatically nods at Cideeda and gazes at Valavera, swaying the forked egg roll with each punctuation. "YES! If someone warns you about the town a contract ends in... TAKE. THEIR. ADVICE. I didn't and nearly got into some really bad trouble. Here I was in this little shit hole of a town. Paid in cash from a successful escort mission as an independent contractor. And... I couldn't spend ANY of it!"

Pausing in between shoveling rice into her mouth, Valavera blinks confused and draws her head back in shock. "Wait? They wouldn't take your money at all?"

Sotalia shakes her head wide-eyed and takes a deep breath in. "NO. These were racists, with principles. Biggest storm to hit the area was a few hours out. Nightfall in an hour. All transportation out of the place had already cleared out or was closed for the night. And, I had only managed to find a single dive bar to sit at with a dirty glass of water."

Furrowing her brow, Sotalia rolls her golden eyes and snorts derisively. "Which I'm sure they spat in. Anyway, they were closing early because of the storm."

Sebastian ethereally exhales in disbelief and rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah... I had gotten a pretty shit welcome to that place, too. They'd at least take my money, even if they were gouging me. Long story short, I managed to get a room at this awful motel, sneaked her in during the start of the storm, and we basically laid low until the start of my contract."

Sotalia sighs, uneasily flexes her long nailed fingers, and levels her head solemnly at Valavera. "Every time I think about those few days, I still get chills. I KNOW there were people looking for me. Gods, I was SO lucky."

Smirking at Sebastian, she shakes her head. "Turns out Sebastian's contract was the next part after my contract. After I explained everything to them, they were completely fine with me tagging along."

Sebastian grits his teeth briefly and sneers with a quirk of the brow. "Turns out the rest of the group didn't have the best time with that town either and wanted to leave for the next one with as much help as they could get."

Valavera loses herself in thought and squirms a bit in her seat with the flits of empathy. "I just don't know what to think about all that."

Finishing the remaining egg roll off the fork, Sotalia holds her hands up and shrugs with a smile. "It was a... LEARNING EXPERIENCE. You'll have plenty more of those, girl. Just hope the next one doesn't try to teach that much that quickly."

Taking a break from his meal, Bach furrows his brow with a growing through and faces Sotalia curiously. "Wait. So, you were the first one to team up with my brother?"

Sotalia twirls the plastic fork in her hand and twists her mouth with a nod. "Yes. Yeah, I was. Gods, we were SO limited with the jobs we could take."

Sebastian catches Bach's attention and motions a hand towards Dretphi. "Yeah, that was some rough times, bro. BUT, a few months later Dretphi joined up."

Dretphi smiles and idly stirs some noodles on her plate. "Was in a bad situation. Offered me a chance to move on from a... questionable team. No regrets."

Pointing towards Cideeda, Sebastian wrestles a grimace into a smile. "And, after an awful run of contracted technical specialists, Cideeda got on board."

Cideeda shakes her head of short, multi-colored hair and snorts. "I STILL can't believe what passes for technical specialists these days. I was amazed they weren't killed by those moronic fly-by-night contractors."

Sebastian smiles lovingly to Aristespha and adopts a more proper tone. "Then the wonderful Lady Aristespha graced us a few months after that."

Stirring a large spoon in a bowl of soup, Aristespha tries to hide a humored smile. "Well, I place most of the blame on the sword for leading me to you. I still debate if following its guidance was the best of ideas some days."

Sebastian hovers next to Valavera and lowers his head near hers with a wry grin, while eying Bach. He gives his brother a wink. "All was well with our group, then misfortune happened a month ago. Hence, I am now a bit more transparent than previously. So, two weeks ago, we picked up this scrub."

Valavera stifles a snicker with her hand, watching the exchange. Bach narrows his eyes at his brother and lifts a lone eyebrow. "Scrub, eh? Well, I think the word you are looking for is abductee, ghost man."

Sebastian straightens his hovering form and crosses his arms with a proud grin. "Well, strong words from the intern."

Valavera leans close to Aristespha and lowers her confused voice. "Is... Is he really an intern?"

Aristespha rolls her violet eyes and sighs softly. "Technicalities. A long story. This is why you should make sure you finish your schooling."

Bach and Sebastian stare at each other for long seconds, until both break down into laughter. Bach shakes his head and resumes eating with a humored smirk on his face. "I really don't know how you all have dealt with this asshole for this long."

Dretphi calmly responds in between bites with a hint of a grin at the corner of her mouth. "The paycheck helps."

A collection of snorts, chuckles, and snickers fill the air around the table. Sebastian gradually turns his head towards Dretphi with a warped smirk. "Ow. Good shot. Here I thought Cideeda was the only one with claws around here."

----

The turbo whine fades as a large cargo truck rolls down the two lane rural highway. Closing in the mouth of the gravel drive leading to ranch style house, pressured air hissed out and the six large wheels slow to a stop. The last of the momentum bounces through the machine and the back cargo pod rocks slightly on the suspension system. Loud mechanical clunks sound as the transmission disengages. A motorized grind reverberates with the parking brake clamping down. Finally, the engine sputters to a stop and the huge machine drifts off to silence. The driver's side door opens and a round figure steps down the short ladder. His worn trench coat of scattered patchwork flutters with the last leap onto the roadway. The pot-bellied evuukian struts off the highway, down the side of the gravel driveway. Reaching the doorway, he moves his head to follow along the door frame and finds the doorbell with a firm poke. Seconds later, the front door unlocks and opens, revealing a smiling Aristespha. "Well, if it isn't Former Regent Beckeri-"

The evuukian quickly holds up his hands, gestures them downwards, and respectfully shushes. "No titles here. But... I do appreciate that you still know them... Young Lady Aristespha."

Aristespha pulls a firm smile on her face and sighs. "Okay, Becker. Come on in."

Walking alongside Aristespha, he laughs heartily and scratches his clipped ear. "Strange times we live in. But, if I get to see you and my niece, they are good times to me. I hope the little one has not been too much to handle. Some habits, she really shouldn't take from her mother."

As soon as Becker clears the archway into the living room from the main entry hall, Valavera gleefully bolts from her chair at the table and throws her arms around. "Uncle Becker!"

Becker hugs back and warmly whispers numerous things in a dialect of Evuukian with a happy tone. Gently pushing her back, he studies her up and down, noting her clothing. "You are dressed for the occasion! Very good! I am glad you took care of the clothes. Because..."

He pats his belly, shakes his head with a good humored sigh. "Your Uncle Becker has nothing of his that will fit you."

Valavera laughs with a smile at him. "I've got everything packed in this bag. I don't have much at the moment. Should I put it in your truck?"

Becker scratches his short golden hair and brushes back the stray locks over one very long, pointed ear and tries to so over the other missing the upper half. "Not quite, yet. I have been informed that I may be able to acquire a few more things to trade along the way home."

Cideeda steps forward confidently, stands in front of Becker with her emerald eyes studying him, and extends her hand to shake. "So... I've heard you are a broker of unique and interesting items."

Furrowing an intrigued brow, Becker shakes Cideeda's hand firmly and draws a sly smile towards the corner of his mouth. "I often engage in such activities."

Focusing on Becker's face, Cideeda perks her brow and armors the inquisitive stare on her light brown face. "What do you define as unique and interesting?"

Grinning with entrepreneurial bravado, Becker reaches inside his trench coat, retrieves curious artifacts, and displays them on the nearby dining table. "Why, I just got back from an interesting adventure to Perimeter and the surrounding Borderlands. There, I met a strange character who claims to have lived near the heart of the Perimeter Weird Zone for untold years! He had an amazing collection of strange and wondrous artifacts..."

He darts his eyes around with faux paranoia. "Many that should never be so far from the zone. But... Here before you is just a small sample of what I have."

Sotalia's pupils dilate. Watching Becker place the artifacts on the table, she subconsciously drifts closer to investigate. Becker proudly grins as he effortlessly reads Sotalia's extreme interest. Returning his gaze to Cideeda, he adopts a similarly hardened, stoic stare. "But, I have other definitions, too. What do you define as unique and interesting?"

Stepping to the side, Cideeda slides her clawed fingers into a backpack on a dining chair next to her and slowly draws out a drained cybernetic soldier power cell. She firmly, soundly places it down on the wooden tabletop next to Becker's artifacts. She maintains eye contact with Becker and searches for his reaction. Becker remains silent. The neutral expression on his face shows no wavering. "Let us conduct some business."

Resting a free hand on her shorts waistband, Cideeda straightens her posture and calmly states. "Five thousand."

Lifting his eyebrow, Becker counters. "Two thousand.

The price point bounces between a narrowing divide. Twists of tone and inflection color the next bid for either side. Cideeda slowly spins the cybernetic power cell between her claw tips upon the finished wood table, and darts a piercing emerald stare to Becker. "These are very hard to find. Intact. No official documentation of their existence."

Becker narrows his calculating gaze and crosses his arms stoically. "Very hard to sell. Lack of documentation works for AND AGAINST the price point."

Another exchange of bids spring up in between the justifications. The rest of the audience stays back and watches the spirited financial sparring. When the number divide closes close, a tense silence looms over the two. Becker furrows his brow and takes a deep breath in. "I do have buyers. But... I would have far more eager buyers if... You had a fully charged cell to go with it?"

An evil grin cracks from the corner of Cideeda's mouth. She reaches into the backpack, procures a brightly lit, charged power cell, and gently places it next to the first power cell. Becker nods blankly. "Six thousand."

Another battle of economic prowess sparks, and Cideeda presses the price point harder against Becker's defenses. Aristespha leans close to Valavera with a sly smile. "He certainly hasn't lost his love of the haggle."

Valavera shakes her head with her green eyes affixed to the exchange. Another lull in the fiscal fight leads to a contemplative quiet between Cideeda and Becker. Becker confidently puffs his chest out. "For what you are selling... The number you say you have to sell... You have to admit that's the fairest price you'll get anywhere, anytime soon. And, I've given you my exclusive friends and family bonus."

Flicking her furry ears back, Cideeda nods her head and aims her face down, resting her lips on her fist in thought. Becker holds his hand out to shake Cideeda's. "I think we have a wonderful deal."

Wagging her fluffy tail, Cideeda lifts her head up and drives a toothy grin right through Becker. Pausing intrigued, Becker cocks his head and furrows his brow. Holding a finger up to Becker, Cideeda rest straightens her shirt and side steps. "I'm curious how eager your buyers would be to pay a premium if they had something that USES those power cells."

Reaching her foot back underneath the table, her toe claws find purchase on top of a rectangular case, and she gracefully slides it in front of Becker. While crossing her arms, she taps it with her claw tips and gestures with a hand for him to open it. Becker strains to gets down on one knee, releases the case locks, and lifts the lid. The cyber commando plasma rifle glints faintly in the dining room lamp light. Leaning forward with a toothy grin and glint in her eyes, Cideeda firmly and confidently quotes. "THAT. That will be seventy five thousand. FIRM. It works, too."

Becker examines the rifle in silence. Grumbling to himself, his mind calculates the margins between mumbled numbers. Eventually, he releases a long groan. Cideeda chuckles triumphantly and shakes her head while checking her finger claws. "Oh, don't act all pained. I know you have to pass near The Grand Library, and the end of the budget year is just around the corner. I'm certain plenty of professors with research budgets would like to buy the set."

Hoisting his heavy self up, Becker laughs happily and points to the rifle. "It is not pain... But longing for a future session in which I get to surprise you with something as wonderful! I WILL see my money again from you."

Both Cideeda and Becker vigorously shake hands with satisfaction throughout. With the bidding war over, Sotalia returns her ogling to the artifacts on the table from Becker. Patting unconsciously for her wallet, she leaves quickly for her room. Becker bows slightly to Cideeda and relaxes to his normal posture. "Hopefully, I don't have to fight you for this, but... Where did you get THAT chair?!"

Bach halts mid-step. Gradually pivoting around in a circle, he notices Cideeda staring at him with a toothy grin and a clawed finger beckoning him over.

-11-

The digital display on the fuel station pump flickers increasing numbers. Leaning against the side of the humvee, Cideeda wipes a few remaining bits of sleep from her eyes and holds the fueling nozzle. The pump clicks off and the hose shudders. Cideeda stares at the display, reading the final tallies. Lifting off the side of the vehicle, she removes the fueling nozzle, deftly twirls it around, and holsters it back into the pump. The pump display flicks through a series of status prompts, and the machine prints out a receipt from a slot. Cideeda closes the outside cover on the fueling port, and snatches the receipt. Stepping to the open driver's door, she stretches her arms and arches her back. She hops into the driver's seat and shuts the door. Arching herself up the back of her seat, she extends an arm over the head rest, and waves the slip of paper at Aristespha. "Here's the receipt."

Aristespha blinks away from the tablet, and slowly raises her violet eyes at the receipt. She reaches out, calmly pinches it between her fingers, and pulls it from Cideeda's light grasp. "Thank you. What's the tank odometer say?"

Cideeda slides back down in her seat and hovers her hand in front of the display in the middle of the console. Pressing a series of buttons on both sides of the display, she navigates the menus to fuel tank information and usage statistics. "Nine eight zero kilometers using that tank and filled up about fifty liters of synth-diesel."

Bach's eyes dart around the numbers processing in his head. "That's about... Twenty kilometers per liter? Pretty good for something this size. Strangely good, actually."

He sits up in his seat and leans out with a curious stare. Glancing back to Bach, Cideeda presses the buttons around the console screen, and shows off some statistics with a tap of a claw tip. "Well, the turbine powerplant is nowhere near stock anymore. The electrical drive system is pretty close to original. The batteries had to be replaced when we first found it, since they literally fell apart when I poke them with a stick. And, there's solar panels on top that I added to give us some other power options."

With a proud glint in her emerald eye, she grins. "For an ancient military vehicle, she's still doing good."

Bach leans forward and clings to the side of the front passenger's seat, focusing on the console screen. "Any particular reason you use synth-diesel? That stuff is not cheap."

Cideeda curls her upper lip into a sneer and rolls her eyes with stale regret and prior irritation. "Quality. We used to use bio-diesel..."

Narrowing her frustration into a distant stare at the side, she grumbles. "But, it seems like every place has their own SPECIAL blend that either runs okay, or tries to jam up the powerplant in this thing. Synth-diesel consistently works thanks to The Grand Library keeping a tight grip on the production."

Aristespha positions the receipt in front of her tablet and taps an onscreen button. An captured image appears on the tablet's screen, and status icons about the analysis flash up. Seconds later, a final prompt confirms with a notification showing a numeric amount. Aristespha taps Bach on the shoulder with a sly smile on her face and reveals the front of the tablet. "Also, since I am a Master Sage under the employ of The Grand Library and the group is presently on retainer to defeat Dark Lord Noxian, a healthy rebate is VERY easy to obtain."

Bach reads the information on the tablet and slowly nods in surprised approval. "Oh. Wow! That's hell of a discount in the end. Do you have to provide justification or some proof to keep getting it?"

Aristespha rests back in her seat, sets the tablet down in her lap, and rolls her hands with her thoughts. "Yes. But, they aren't very strict given the nature of what we are presently doing. We came to this region since it's around a number of places Noxian was known to be at. While it's an educated guess, this still may be a region he would fall back to try to recollect himself."

Sebastian's ethereal voice emanates from the sword near Aristespha. "But... Noxian has been REALLY quiet lately. The sword used to detect traces of his presence all the time, especially when he used any Elder energy to power his spells. Even from great distances. But lately... Nothing. No disturbances at all. So, either he's gotten really stealthy, or he's currently really weak."

Aristespha crosses her arms with frowns and sighs. "Or... He may have unfortunately decided to go somewhere else. Honestly, we theorized he would at least visit an old hideout or maybe something meaningful to him in the past before going too far. That... May have changed."

Cideeda spots Sotalia exiting the doors of the fuel station's convenience store and notices the cardboard drink carrier in one hand. Sotalia holds the door open. Dretphi steps out carrying a large tank of water over one shoulder and tightly gripping a large bundle of bags in the opposite hand. Cideeda directs her voice to both Bach and Aristespha. "Before Sotalia gets back... I STILL think we need to find and check out Noxian's old haunt, back when he wasn't a crazed Dark Lord. He's been spotted in that one area a few times."

Aristespha nods in agreement and breathes in deeply. "I have to agree with you. It might take some time to locate it. But, I doubt we are going to get lucky and find him anytime soon. Even if we do find signs of him, it is going to be extremely difficult to track him down... Without the sword guiding us."

Sebastian's voice resonates with a solemn tone. "I'm certain he knows the sword can sense big releases of Elder energy. I'd wager he's playing it very safe and reserved until he feels he doesn't need to anymore. So, we are just going to have to do some hard, tedious investigating and try to get some insight to what he may be doing. But... Mission at hand first, we'll debate it later."

The back hatch door of the humvee opens up. Dretphi plops the large water tank inside and hoists the bags inside. Bach opens his door, hops out onto the pavement, and slides his seat forward. Walking around the side of the vehicle, Dretphi nods at Bach with a smile and lifts herself through the door to her rear seat. After Dretphi crawls back, Bach slides the back and hops in with the door closing behind him. Sotalia finishes arranging cargo, closes the back hatch, and strides quickly to the front. Opening the front passenger door, she carefully steps up into her seat and sorts through the drink carrier on her lap. "Okay, everyone, I hope they got the orders right."

Sotalia picks up a covered cup and examines the writing on the side. "One fruit tea combo for Cideeda."

Cideeda taps a claw tip near an empty cup holder in between her and Sotalia. Inserting the drink into the holder, Sotalia checks another beverage. "Black tea with a shot of thick coffee for Aristespha."

Aristespha reaches out expectantly, swiftly pulls the bounty back, and greedily drinks a long, satisfying swig with a relieved exhale. Sotalia inspects the next drink. "Hot spiced milk tea for Bach."

Waving it around Bach's open hand with a playful grin, she mischievously gazes at him with a glint in her golden eyes. "What do you say?"

Bach narrows his stare at Sotalia, and a wry smile creeps onto his face. "How far forward do you want your seat?"

Sotalia lifts a humored brow, pouts jokingly, and releases the cup in Bach's hand. Reading the writing on one of the two remaining drinks, she reaches an arm far back around her seat and down the aisle. "A Grath Black for Dretphi."

Dretphi shifts forward, extends her long arm out, and grasps the cup firmly. Sotalia turns her attention to the remaining container. Happily picking it up, she cheerfully reads the long, complicated order. The litany of ingredients and processes detailed captures everyone's attention and distracts them from their beverage. Each attempts to decipher the convoluted creation in Sotalia's grasp. Sebastian's ethereal voice breaks the awkward silence. "So... There's coffee in it... Somewhere... Right? Or Tea? Maybe?"

----

A whine of the turbine powerplant resonates out from the sparse section canopy. Between the thick forests bordering a narrow strip of aged ravaged asphalt, the humvee rolls slowly through the brush and debris cluttered passage. Hanging out the humvee's window, Cideeda supports herself on the frame and watches the front tire roll on the edge of the overgrown path. Her hand cranks the steering wheel with the terrain and adjusts to the contours of the narrow dirt trail. She stare uncertainly against the rocky grinding and wooden snaps underneath the tires and grits her teeth. "We might want to put a note in our report that vehicle access is QUESTIONABLE, at best. I can't tell if the road really is this winding, or if it's just that overrun with the plants and dirt."

The humvee crawls on top the layers of dirt, gravel, and debris upon the obscured, ancient pavement. Bach squints at a small object in the underbrush of the forest bordering the rough drive. Leans out his open window, he points out the object and calls out to the team. "I think that's an old road marker over there. It just might be this overgrown. Anyone else seeing this?"

Sotalia swings herself from observing the front tire on her side and checks the area Bach points to. Sliding her sunglasses down her nose, she spots the same object. "Yeah, that looks like a road marker to me, too. Looks like there was at least another full lane, this way."

Aristespha breaks away from staring out her window, flips through her tablet, and zooms in on some text. "This was a major research base at one point. Old government records indicate it had significant staffing. A two lane road would not be out of the ordinary."

Sitting back in his seat, Bach quizzically eyes Aristespha with a tinge of hesitation. "Just have to ask, but... What were they researching?"

Aristespha catches Bach's expression and shows him the tablet. "Electromagnetic phenomena. Non-military."

She adopts a partial smile with a reassuring tone. "No cybernetics or genetics. I'm not going to say it'll be any better. But, we can hope some possible problems are not as likely to occur."

While Bach reads the information, Dretphi bends forward, holding onto the backs of Aristespha's and Bach's seats, and peeks at the tablet. "Above ground. Wide open. Small buildings. Multiple antenna arrays in cleared fields."

She nods with a reserved approval. "A drastic change from the previous mission."

Shrugging with a faint bit of hope, he returns to searching the treeline. "Well, I'm willing to give anything that's not a cybernetic horror filled dungeon a chance at this point."

Sotalia lifts her head back from staring down along the border of the path and the underbrush. "I'll second that. Never have been a fan of those underground bases. Too tight and cramped."

Curling her upper lip into an irritable sneer, she grumbles. "And they are really limiting on the spells I can use!"

Cideeda flops back into her seat as the overgrowth and treeline retreats away to reveal a far less constricting path. Checking her seat belt, she accelerates the humvee and grins relieved. "I think we're good for now. Thanks for watching the road everyone."

She angles her head towards the group and directs her voice back. "As much as I don't want to run into a situation where I NEED them, I much prefer having the explosives option. So, I'm all for avoiding underground tunnels."

Dretphi nods in agreement and stretches her arms back onto the top of the back bench seat with a sigh. "Dungeons are nostalgic. Prefer to live in the present."

Sebastian's ethereal voice resonates from the sword near Aristespha, a tinge of sarcasm hinting through. "Aw... Come on, you all! You got to love the classics! Dank, dark tunnels with enemies lurking around every corner. Traps everywhere you step and more where you don't."

Groaning heavily, Sotalia dramatically rolls her golden eyes. "Oh. Yes. Please. Please, take me away to convoluted structural design that children would question."

She crosses her arms and flicks an unamused gaze towards the team. "Gods, I don't know why people just don't fill all those tombs, dungeons, and tunnels with concrete once they clear them out."

Aristespha sighs with a shake of her head of long, silvery blue hair. "I, unfortunately, have to agree. Despite SOME historical value... Most of those places were First Period projects by egotistical mage kings that read too many ancient fantasy novels. Most were purposefully designed to be obtuse with no real function."

Flicking her furry ears back, Cideeda sneers sharply. "They're just death traps. The only places I've ever visited that had some sense of purpose were the towers."

An old memory perks up Aristespha's smile, and she giggles while covering her mouth. "Oh! Remember that one governor that pestered us non-stop to clear out that old mage tower?"

Sebastian's voice emanates from the sword with an unamused tone. "Yeah... That guy could NOT take a hint."

An ethereal reverberates into the cab of the humvee, and Sebastian groans. "No, we won't investigate the tower. No, we're not interested in whatever you want to pay us. No, you ain't going to arrest us with those bogus charges. No, begging is not going to help. No, we don't care how many other adventurers want this opportunity, too. Feel free to go bother them."

Giggling to a snort, Cideeda easily navigates the less overgrown, wider road. "That governor, or whatever his position, was so slimy. I still can't believe what he planned to do with that tower. Trying to give us a non-guild job under the table."

Dretphi briefly winces and sneers, revealing a hint of a canine. "Would not stop staring at my chest. His eyes followed me everywhere."

Sotalia twists in her seat and glances back at Dretphi. "Girl, I remember that. I think the only time he stopped staring at you was to leer at my ass."

Furrowing his brow, Bach sorts through his mind and narrows his stare distantly. His blue eyes spring open and recognition swings his head to face the group. "Wait! Was that the guy who tried to pull a Sundial Tower Scheme a few years back?"

Aristespha nods and rests her cheek on her hand, lifting her brow in thought. "To be honest, we did not know what he planned on doing. Thankfully, nothing he proposed sounded good in the slightest. It was so obviously bad. Especially when he tried to extort us with those ridiculous, made-up criminal charges. He was SO desperate."

Twisting a frown on her mouth, Dretphi slowly shakes her head and draws a deep breath with her hands on her knees. "I remember when the news showed his picture, months later. Pointed at it. Yelled to everyone in the hotel bar."

Sotalia frowns tightly in disgust and shudders. "Gods, I'm so glad we reported his sorry ass to the guild. It was sleazy enough he was trying to sucker people into a non-guild job."

Cideeda tilts her head of short, multi-colored hair to the side, flexes her claws tips on the steering wheel, and rolls her emerald green eyes. "At least no one fell for THAT scheme."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Bach groans annoyed. "I just never get those schemes. Do they just expect no one to ever figure it out?"

Drooping her furry ears to the sides, Cideeda resettles in her seat and sighs with a trailing grumble. "It's a race against time. Get the ruin. Convince some adventurers to do a quick clear job. Doctor up some legit certificate of clearance. Hire shady contractors to clean and paint. Then, you pawn it off on the first people with more money than sense."

She glances over her shoulder and smirks dismissively. "All the while, you hope that Fate, Karma, Hubris, or Murphy don't take notice of what you are trying to do."

Sebastian's ethereal visage materializes in the middle aisle, and his wry chuckle sounds out. "Yeah, you better hope whatever remote part of Nexus you run off to doesn't have an extradition treaty."

Aristespha sits up in her seat, leans out into the aisle, and focuses on some distant structures through the front windshield. She returns to her seat and flips through a few maps on her tablet. "I think we are getting close. A few of these landmarks are on the map we got from the guild. We will probably reach the main entry in the next half hour."

Cideeda scans the horizon and watches the scenery go by. Wryly smiling, she adjusts the humvee's course along the scattered bits of proper road. "You know if, I didn't know this road led to yet another abandoned relic of the past, that probably contains some unmentionable horror, this would actually be a nice drive."

Bach glances out his window and eventually nods at the observation. "If the road was a bit better, I'd take my bike out for a trip. Need to do that anyway. Next break we take."

Dretphi reaches down on the floorboard. She hoists up a shoulder armor plate and works on securing the worn piece to her under-armor. "If the mission proves easy, we should enjoy the remaining day."

An uneasy sigh slips out from her. "If the mission permits us."

Bach hears velcro pads and mechanical fasteners behind him. Turning around, he observes Dretphi locking in the shoulder plate. He checks his own equipment and plasma pistol in the holster. "So, how much do we have to check and verify at this site? How thorough do we have to be?"

Aristespha flicks through various documents on the tablet and stops on one article. "Thankfully, most of the facility has been surveyed before. There are notes about anything important to know. Only two buildings on site are still sealed. Hence, they only require inspection to make sure they still remain sealed. The only hard part will be comparing how the antenna arrays look with the pictures on file. We will likely have to take all new ones."

An awkward silence looms inside the cab. Breaking the uneasy quiet, Sebastian grumbles momentarily. "Okay. I'll say it, so no one else has to... Sounds simple enough. "

A collection of eyes rolls, groans, and sighs fill the air in the cab. Sebastian drops his head and lifts it up with a smiling bravado. "But! We all know how that usually goes. So, let's keep the group together when we get there. It'll take longer to check everything out, but I think we're okay with taking our time on it. Correct?"

Dretphi nods in agreement, leans forward, sweeps up another armor plate from the floor, and sticks in place on herself. Aristespha gives a singular nod and continues to analyze the maps of the site. Cideeda removes a hand from the steering wheel and gives a brief thumbs up. Sotalia nods and inspects her belt of pouches. Bach shrugs at Sebastian. "Sounds good enough to me, brother."

Sebastian grins proudly and sets his sights ahead into the distance. "Good. Let's see what we got today."

----

A strong wind blows through the decaying metal frameworks. The remnant stretches of rusting braid steel cables and synthetic strand tethers sway gently with the breeze. Breezes whistle through the heaps of many, the once towering, structures on the ground. Still standing anchors in crumbling concrete bases fence in air spaces once occupied. Defiantly against time and wear, a significant number of the unique designs stoically hold above the tops of the trees nearby. Another gust rolls through the sparse stretches of thin, high grass growing between the cracks of the treeless asphalt lot. Fencing in the desolate space, six smaller buildings oppose each other into two columns of pairs with equal wide spacing. The collection pens in a space leading from the antenna array field towards the large, single-story, bunker at the other end. Within this paved courtyard joining all the structures, concrete barriers, steel girders, and other forgotten construction fodder litter the area in pockets of order against overall disarray.

The party rounds the corner of a small building next to the large bunker. Sotalia throws her head of shoulder length, dark red hair back while plodding along and seeks something of interest in the clouds above. "Gods, I think I'll skip mentioning this mission to my mother next time she calls."

Pulling away from investigating one of the small building windows, Cideeda pivots and grins slyly at Sotalia. "What? Don't want mother to hear about all your exciting adventures in comparing pictures of metal heaps and debris piles in abandoned buildings?"

Shaking her head slowly, Sotalia dismisses with a wave of her hand up in the air. "I try to keep it interesting for her. Have to justify the years of magic courses and adventuring school somehow. Don't think she'd be all that impressed that I'm spending all my time doing stuff like this."

Cideeda steps back over to the group with a slight shrug and tilts her head at Sotalia with a smile. "Fair enough. Thankfully, my mom is happy to hear my voice... And getting any pictures of the random artifacts and trinkets I find. Dad just loves to hear about the deals I've worked out of people."

Bach puzzles for a moment and gazes down to Cideeda. "What do your parents do for a living?"

Cideeda returns a nonchalant glance to Bach while stretching her arms back. "Mom's a metal sculptor most of the time, but does contract specialty repair work for large machinery to pay the bills when no one is buying art. Dad is the owner of one of the larger scrapyards down south."

Furrowing her brow to a sudden thought, Aristespha breaks from studying a gallery of pictures on the table and glances over her shoulder to Cideeda. "Has your mother put another batch of her Second Period styled statuettes?"

Cideeda scratches her long, furry ear, twists her mouth in thought, and squints an eye through recent memory. "I think so? I'll have to double-check. She was excited about finishing up a few big projects last I talked to her, so she didn't spend a long time talking about what she had in stock.

She gazes with newly piqued interest at Aristespha. "Why do you ask?"

Annoyance gently bubbles into Aristespha's ivory face, and she vents out her reluctance. Her violet eyes in stare defeated to the skies above with a corner frown. "I have a cousin getting married. I am expected to send a gift in lieu of my inability to attend. Both the bride and groom fancy themselves art snobs..."

She rolls her eyes and contorts with a tinge of disgust. "But, I don't know when and where they got that idea into their heads."

Cideeda slinks up to Aristespha's side with a toothy grin and gives her sly wink. "Well, I could get my dad to bolt some random junk together, from the almost Second Era, onto a nice wooden stand. He'd even gift wrap it for you."

Aristespha bites her lower lip and internally debates with herself in vain, seeking a reason for this scheme to not work. "That is... VERY tempting. I truly doubt they would know the difference... Or care after a certain point, so long as it would give them a reason to sound like they knew what they were talking about."

The group arrives in the middle of the courtyard in front of the large bunker building. Dretphi cautiously alternates her stare between the closed bunker and last small, sealed building along another edge of the paved space nearby. "Two remain. Both should be sealed. Large or small?"

Sebastian ghostly visage hovers back from the group casually and points a thumb over the shoulder to the small building. "I'll do a fly through of this one real quick. It looks locked up as it is. I'll just make sure no one has tried to crack it open or cut a hole in the side."

After a round of approvals, Sebastian lines up for the approach and holds a hand out with a finger up. "You all wait here for a minute, I'll be as fast as I can."

He darts off across the courtyard and drifts down the space between the sealed small building and another small building. While in flight, he studies the aging concrete wall. As he rounds the corner, he hunts for anything unusual along the backside of the structure. Inspecting the other side, he drifts out towards the tall, wide front doors. Sebastian's stare follows the outline of the huge doors, making an entire trip around. He squints at the door's dead and lightless control panel. With a shrug, Sebastian spins to fly away. He halts as suspicion swirls with curiosity on his face.

Crossing her arms, Aristespha narrows her stare. She quirks an eyebrow when Sebastian reverses his course and puts his ethereal visage, head first, through the doors. "What is he doing?"

Bach tilts his head to the side and watches his ghostly brother with a shrug. "Maybe he heard something inside?"

Sebastian withdraws his head from the metal doors and launches back a few meters. Holding his hands out, he shakes his head with a resistant expression and emphatically mouths. "No"

He glides back to the group and lands to stand before them. Sotalia crosses her arms and visibly ponders with a nonplussed expression on her light tan and dark gray face. "So? What DID you find in there?"

Straightening his posture, Sebastian wrestles a grimace with an uncomfortable tint in his tone. "Well. I got this weird feeling. So, I thought I should take a look inside. Good news. The building looks sealed up. Bad news. There's two security bots in there, of the three meter tall, armed and armored variety."

Cideeda springs open her emerald eyes and darts her attention between staring at Sebastian and the small, hopefully sealed building behind. "So... What's the condition of the two bots?"

Bouncing his head between his shoulders, Sebastian fights down an uncertain grimace. "One looks like it was parted out a LONG time ago. So, that one is sitting in a pile of pieces. The other looks all together, but I don't know how functional it is."

Briefly gritting his teeth, he hisses an ethereal breath out. "I... don't really want to find out today, if that's okay with everyone."

He glances over his shoulder at the small building. "But, I didn't see anything online and active in there. It might be in a sleep mode and just completely offline. That's a mystery I'm willing to leave alone."

Aristespha pulls out her tablet and swipes to the note section of the report. She twists an uneasy frown and draws an uncomfortable breath. "Well... That is good to know. I will add THAT in the report. I hope they will get the GAA to try to secure and salvage that. But, I don't think we should linger much longer here."

Bach blinks blankly, and his attention slides over to the large, closed doors of the small building. Snapping his head to Aristespha with a nervous frown, a nervously squirm slips down his body. "Uh... Um... I thought you said this was a non-military research base?"

Dretphi maintains a careful watch of the area as mild concern creeps into her voice. "Third party defense company security robot. Bought along with the construction of the site?"

Perking her furry ears with her thoughts, Cideeda lifts an intrigued eyebrow and drums her claw tips on the waistband of her body suit. "That's probably when they would have had the money to afford such a thing. Government budgets and all."

Furrowing her brow under her full face visor, Dretphi rolls her armor plated shoulders. "Surprised it is together now."

Cideeda rests her hand underneath her chin, closes her eyes contemplatively, and nods slowly. "If they did part out one of them... It's feasible that the other could be functional, probably from the parts it got from the other. It has been stored in a good shelter for all these years..."

Gritting her sharp teeth, she shudders against an uneasy wave through her. "I think this falls under stuff we can talk about, on the drive home."

Dretphi focuses a quizzical quirk of a brow to Sebastian and momentarily hums low in thought. "What weapons did you see?"

Sebastian closes his translucent blue eyes and rubs the temples of his transparent head. Sorting through recent memory, he contorts a grimace. "It was dark, and I only got a quick look. But... Uh... Two arms. One had a minigun on it? The other looked like a plasma particle cannon? It wasn't a railgun, gauss rifle, or a laser. Big port, lots of venting."

Sotalia sighs as she drops her shoulders in mild disappointment. Groaning against a sensible color to her voice, she darts her golden eyes to the side. "As much as I would LOVE the chance to test out some spells... I'm perfectly fine with leaving that much firepower alone. I'm okay with checking out this last building and going home for the day."

Aristespha closes her violet eyes, pinches the bridge of her nose, and nods in full agreement. "I will gladly second that. This will be sufficent to report on."

Putting his hands on his sides, Sebastian presents a slight smile and lifts his head back towards the large bunker. "If no one else objects, let's head for the doors, check them out, do a quick look around, and double-time it home. Probably make it to town before all the nice restaurants close."

Bach chuckles with a sarcastic twist as a dry grin emerges on his face. "What? And not help keep Pancake Shed in business as usual?"

Sotalia bites her lip and sways her hips as her face wrestles with temptation. "Damn it all. We did pass one on the way here."

With a spark in her green eyes, Cideeda pats around her hip at one of the pockets in her bodysuit. She pushes her fingers inside, grips hold of something, and retrieves a stack of small rectangular cards. Flipping through a number of them, she stops on one, Pancake Shed branded. "I am one stamp away from a free Shed Stack."

Aristespha rolls violet her eyes with a reserved smile and directs everyone's attention to the large bunker. "Okay. We'll debate THAT after we take care of this last part of the mission."

The group reassembles behind Aristespha and Sebastian, and the two lead the team towards the front sliding metal doors of the large bunker. Aristespha and Sebastian step onto the walkway directly in front of the bunker.

"HE. WAS. HERE."

Aristespha's tablet drops onto the pavement, bounces off the ground in its protective case, and settles a meter shy of the front sliding metal doors. Gripping the sword at her side, she gawks in shock. The sword vibrates in its scabbard as an ambient background noise rises up to nearby ears, and Sebastian's visage wavers with the sound. Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia collectively skid and slide to a halt behind Aristespha and watch the sword with anticipation.

"TRACES. FADING."

Sebastian's ghostly visage warps and waves for a few seconds afterwards. His ethereal form stabilizes as the sword drifts off to silence along with the ambient din. Aristespha cautiously removes her hand from the hilt of the sword. Kneeling down, she grabs onto her tablet and stands back up to face everyone. Exchanging glance, tensions rise between the group as heavy quiet looms over. Dretphi readies her submachine gun. Both of Cideeda's hands simultaneously hit the power buttons for both her holstered laser pistols. The fading high-pitched whine of Bach's charging plasma pistol joins the chorus. Sotalia and Aristespha slowly adopt textbook defensive magic casting positions. Sebastian scans around the immediate area for anything blatant. "Okay. Nothing obvious, right now. Everyone... Take a minute and scout it out. Call out anything."

While everyone searches for the out of the ordinary, Bach pauses. He stills, closes his eyes, and waits. His cheek twitches, and his head leads the rest of his body towards the metal doors. Opening his eyes, his stare works up from the ground to the top of the doors. His body tenses, and his full attention focuses on the top arch of the door frame. Frowning, his eyes glow blue, and he concentrates his stare. His pupils shrink, eyes open wide, and clenching teeth yank his frown down with a reflexive gasp. Blinking spooked, he shudders, and his eyes dart around to see what the others are doing. He watches Aristespha, Cideeda, Dretphi, Sotalia, and Sebastian search in directions away from him and without knowledge of what is upon the doorway. He draws deep breath in, exhales out his tension, and slowly raises his arm to point at the top of the door frame with an inquisitive, uncertain tone. "I see something up there?"

The rest of the group notices Bach's arm extending and hand pointing to the top of the door frame. Both Aristespha and Sotalia notice Bach's glowing blue eyes. Aristespha closes her eyes briefly, pauses to focus herself, and reopens her eyes with a violet light. Sotalia closes her eyes, too. She winces, cringes, and grits her teeth, straining. Eventually, she opens her eyes and they emit a very dim golden glimmer. "This is REALLY hard to maintain..."

Aristespha studies the top of the door frame and draws the corner of her mouth into an understanding smirk. "It gets easier. Eventually. I think I see... Yes!"

Her hand whips up with a finger out and traces a path across the top. She takes a step closer and squints as bewilderment flushes in her face. "It is really faint, but this is definitely left over from the use of Elder energy magic. It's significantly decayed, so it was some quick spell, of sorts. Or just raw energy manipulation?"

Trickles of suspicion slip into her demeanor, and a sterner tone filters into her voice. "But... What could he have done to the door, that would have it still be here?"

Cideeda's nose twitches, and she sniffs the air. Narrowing her eyes, repeatedly pulls in more air through her nose, and her head drops down, searching ahead. She steps next to Aristespha, squats down, and studies an odd patch of grime upon the concrete pad in front of the doorway. Her claw tip lowers into muck, and she swirls the patch to reveal an oily, reddish-brown fluid hidden underneath. Cideeda tilts her head back and glances up at the top of the doors. Spotting the control panel in the wall at the side of the door, she cracks a cornered grin. "This is hydraulic fluid. Noxian must have forced the doors open and blown out the hoses. This pool is leaking from the other side of the door."

Sotalia blinks a few times as the golden light dims out completely, and quizzically gestures at the closed doors. "If he forced them open, why are they closed now?"

Bach scratches the back of his head and carefully walks up to the side of the doors. Craning his head around to examine the area between where the top of the frame and the top of the doors meet, he squints at the construction. "This doesn't look like heavy, high-security doors. Maybe it's spring loaded enough that with the hydraulics busted, they moved back once the magic decayed?"

Darting her emerald green eyes around the mechanics before her, Cideeda nods at the theory. Dretphi traces her pointing finger up and down the door meeting point between the doors. She slightly twists her helmeted head to the side as her stare settles on the intersection between the two sliding doors. "An uneven junction. The gap is wide for this type of door. I could attempt to pull it open."

Sebastian drifts towards the doors in thought and nods. "Well, if it's been opened, we need to investigate, for the mission... AND, we need to find out what is going on here. Let me check the other side, and see if there's anything waiting for us."

Dretphi positions herself to the side of the doorway opposite to Bach. Sotalia and Aristespha get behind Bach, and Cideeda hops over with Dretphi. Sebastian gives a confirming thumbs up and floats through. The group waits in minutes of silence. Popping his head out the doors, Sebastian signals both groups in with a perplexed expression on his face. "It's clear from what I can tell. But, gods damn. Someone turned this place upside down. So, it's a bit of a mess in here. Be careful when walking around."

Dretphi positions herself in front of the doors and forces her gauntlet covered fingers in between the gap. Pushingher digits in, she cracks the two doors apart. With modest effort, the doors slowly slide apart. Air hissing and liquid sputtering echo from inside the bunker. Bach grabs hold of the edge of the opposing door and pulls with his weight leaning back. Once the divide widens enough, Dretphi puts both hands on her door, shifting her mass to wrench the door further back. "Not hard. Not easy. Have to coordinate going through ourselves."

Bach nods and strains as his door slides stubbornly inside of the frame. "Yeah. Agreed. Okay, watch the hydraulic fluid. I think more got pumped out."

Cideeda draws both her laser pistols. She aims them down the dark hallway leading deeper into the bunker and hops into the bunker over the oozing pool of hydraulic fluid. Sotalia braces herself on Bach's shoulder and awkwardly steps over the muck. Aristespha gracefully leaps over the obstacle and lands solidly inside. Bach glances at Dretphi and tips his head towards the inside. "After you."

Dretphi flashes a warm smile at Bach. She orbits around her half of the door frame, while pinning the door in place, and steadies herself inside. Bach attempts to copy Dretphi and slides a bit on the hydraulic fluid when the force of the door nearly gets the best of him. He manages to recover and swing inside. Releasing their respective doors simultaneously, and Bach and Dretphi watch the entry shut with another chorus of hisses and sputters from the broken hoses.

The courtyard remains silent. A breeze washes across the pavement and stirs up bits of dirt. Darkening clouds above move across the sky and project flowing shadows onto the earth below. In the lull, no signs of life reveal themselves.

A previously lightless, inactive console on the small building returns to light, active.

----

Lines of computing equipment fill the huge space with rows of order. Images and text mix and flick on the screens, and similar patterns travel between the displays. At the front of the large room, huge flat monitors occasionally scroll with new lines of text or update to a new variation of a prior image. An omnipresent sound of idle computation equipment lingers throughout and secures the ambient din in the huge room. A glowing orb of light drifts up into the air, touches the ceiling, and sticks. Another similar light orb lands on the ceiling a few meters away. Bach readies another small ball, and holds it while gauging the visibility. "This must be the nerve center for the whole operation. I mean..."

Aristespha holds her hand of condensing magic up and projects a bright light across the banks of computers. "It is. There are station labels on these machines. The language isn't that old."

Sebastian floats over to a station and reads, surprised. "Wow! It's something I can actually read. The spelling is a bit weird, but it must have been before phonetic spelling got popular. Looks like these are the utility control and monitoring stations. Not much going on here."

Sotalia shines her variation of a light spell over the nearby row of consoles, and perks a brow with spark of interest. "Ooo! Security monitoring station! Looks like some camera controls and other neat stuff."

She taps the thin, dust covered monitor and drags the system's mouse across the age coated desk. After a few seconds of inactivity, she repeatedly taps the space bar on the keyboard, and waits to no response. Grumbling in frustration, she investigates the system further and halts upon spotting on dark indicator light. She sighs, rolls her golden eyes, and clicks the power button on the monitor. The screen glow lights up the area around her, and she groans with an annoyed droop of the shoulders. "Of course, they logged out. Figures, the one time there's any competency."

Lifting a hopeful eyebrow, she taps her long black nails on the desktop. "Maybe... They wrote it down somewhere."

While walking towards Sotalia, Dretphi scans the room and spots an active station on the front row. "Front right station. It looks logged in."

Cideeda rushes over to the station, inspects the office chair, and carefully sits down. She squints at the screen and examines the current state of the computer. "It looks like a data visualization station? Wait! Huh, I think I recognize this operating system? It seems like an ancient ancestor of a few of the older ones today. Hey, Bach, could you come over here?"

Bach navigates through the strewn papers, stacks of extra computer components, and layers of cabling littering the floor. Rolling a nearby office chair over next to Cideeda, he eyes the seat of it, shrugs, and carefully rests his butt in the chair. "Well, at least they spent good money on the furniture."

He watches the monitor and analyzes the interface's layout and design. "It's definitely ancient. Well, I mean, I'm sure some of the old core commands haven't changed that much."

Nodding in agreement, Cideeda rests her clawed fingers on the keyboard. She furrows her brow in thought and clacks in a command to the terminal prompt on the screen. Streaming out on the screen, a list of commands with dates unrolls up the display. Cideeda's emerald green eyes flit open, and her jaw drops. Placing a claw tip on the screen next to her recent command's date, she slides up to the date of the next command. "Oh my gods... That command was entered TWO WEEKS AGO!"

Sebastian rockets across the room and stops right over Cideeda and Bach. "WHAT?! Holy shit. He was here!"

Bach winces uncertainly and glances up to his brother. "You sure it was him?"

Frowning sternly, Sebastian nods back. "Yeah, bro. Elder energy use. In an area he's been known to be around. Two weeks ago. I mean, I can't think of too many other people right now."

Aristespha runs over, deftly leaps over debris, and squeezes in behind Bach and Cideeda, excitement overflowing. "What was he doing here?!"

Her violet eyes dance around the command list on screen, and sparks of recognition twitch her ivory, blue and gray hinted face. "He was looking for something. He picked through everything in this place, logged into this station, and did something... What was it?!"

On the other side of the room, Dretphi finishes checking a file cabinet with her flashlight and shakes her head. "Nothing."

Sotalia growls and firmly crosses her arms, unamused. "Dammit! I can't find an username and password for this fucking thing! I so wanted to get that bastard on video!"

Bach blinks as a random thought jumps to the front of his mind. He glances over his shoulder to Sotalia and gestures a flipping motion with both hands over his head. "Have you checked under the keyboard?"

Sotalia lowers her golden eyes down at the keyboard. She lifts it up from the front and lowers her head to inspect. Grinning ear to ear, she carefully peels a laminated sheet with an username and password. "Good call! Now that's the security employee I've come to know and love..."

She types in the logon credentials. The system unlocks and a number of monitors nearby light up. Dretphi wipes dust away from the screens and watches the video feeds. Recognizing most of the camera locations, she stops upon one view. Panning into view, the display shows an open exterior doorway to one of the smaller buildings. A robotic figure missing parts resides in the space within, and an empty robotic dock for another similar machine blinks with activity. Dretphi steely gray eyes spring wide open. She immediately stands up straight and yells out. "WE. HAVE. A. PROBLEM!"

-12-

Idle hum of ancient equipment fills the large room. The light of banks of monitors glows into the illumination of huge flatscreen displays at the front of the control center for the bunker. Bach stares at the end of a faintly glowing cord of condensed magical energy, focusing hazy mists of flow swirling around. Holding the cable, he hovers his other hand near. Strands of colorful energies solidify within the miasma as the power coalesces. The magical haze materializes around and fills in the gaps. Examining the new plug, Bach compares it to a port on the computer workstation. "I've only done this a few times this small, but it should be electrically sound. It should meet your requirements."

Cideeda gestures on holographic screen projecting out from the holoplayer, shifting commands upon the interface. She squints and hems while checking the messages on the screen. "Well, it should be this connection standard with this plug and use this protocol.

She glances down at Bach underneath the console and shrugs with a smirk. "So... Plug it in. We'll find out if it works soon enough."

Bach guides the plug into the port and stops when it refuses to go in. He rotates the plug over and attempts again. Furrowing his brow with the sparks of confusion, he turns it over and slides it into place. Shaking his head dismissively, he pulls himself into an old office chair and rolls near Cideeda. The two search between the holoplayer output and workstation display. Cideeda rubs her hands in anticipation, gritting her teeth as her eyes dart in anxious anticipation. "System detected the device... It's querying it... Holoplayer confirms the proper protocol and is trying to emulate a data storage device to the system.... And...

With a surge of excitement, she bounces in her seat. "YES!!"

She wraps her arms around Bach's arm and squeezes tightly. Letting go, she holds her hand for a high five. Bach grins, happily returns the high five, and points to the screen. "Nice! That holoplayer has got the largest data drive I could manage on it. I hope it's plenty for this system."

Clawtips clacking upon ancient polymer keys, Cideeda eagerly types up commands in the terminal prompt and bites her lower lip as she focuses. "I'll repeat whatever commands Noxian did and dump the output to files. Then-"

Bach's blue eyes widen as an idea sparks in his mind, and he gestures over the entire system. "Hey! Can you do a direct dump of the system drives? Maybe you have the permissions to grab other stuff on connected machines?"

With an eager glint in her emerald gaze, Cideeda snaps her fingers, points at Bach, and nods in agreement. "Yes! That will take a while. But, anything might help make sense of all this stuff Noxian pulled off. Right now, it's just random numbers and graphs."

Scratching his rough chin, Bach glances over his shoulder to the others at the back security console. He sighs uneasily and gazes back at the screen. "Well... I get the feeling we'll probably have some time here. I don't think we're in a rush to go outside. Anyway, once we do, I doubt we're going to get a chance to grab data like this."

Cideeda frowns slightly to Bach, with hints of concern. "Yeah... I know. I'll get the transfers started. We should go see what they've found out. I'll be over in a bit."

Bach stands up and navigates his way to the main central walkway. Stepping over the junk equipment littering the area, he arrives next to his ethereal brother. He scans over the security area where Aristespha, Dretphi, and Sotalia observe screens of still images and video feeds. Sebastian contorts a concerned grimace and tilts his head towards Bach. "Any good news on your end of the room, bro?"

Nodding slowly, Bach wanders his attention between security displays. "Yep. Conjured up a data cable, and Cideeda got the holoplayer working with the system. She's recreating the commands Noxian used, saving the output, and then setting the thing to mass dump everything else on the systems she can access."

He shrugs plainly at his brother. "I don't know, man. Maybe there's some other useful information in the mess. If nothing else, there should be some hint as to whatever the hell all this data is. I mean, there's a method to the madness, I guess since there's some kind of order to it all. But, damned if I know what it is at the moment."

Aristespha rolls upon a dusty office chair away from the console and leans into the back rest. Rubbing her eyes, she cups her hands over her mouth and nose. She sighs deeply with a faint flex of her very long, pointed ears and rests her hands at her thighs. "Well, that's good to hear. I do have some friends in the computer science department at the Grand Library that might be able to help us."

Nodding at Aristespha, Bach's wandering gaze spots a figure on the screen. He gawks at the video of a large, armored robot. "OH. GODS. Is that it?!"

Sebastian nods slowly and groans with an ethereal echo as he sternly stares at the monitor. "Yes. And it's not getting any better the more we look at it."

Dretphi taps the towering machine showing on the grimy edged monitor. "Yes. Heavy armor. Fluid movement. Autonomous AI. Short barrel minigun. Plasma Projectile Cannon. DANGEROUS."

Scratching the back of his head uncomfortably, Bach searches around for an explanation. "How did it reactivate? It was quiet and behind the doors before. Right?"

Sotalia snorts out her boiling aggravation, grabs the monitor's bezel, and pivots the display to Bach. "You can thank good old, Dark Douche Noxian, for that."

She crosses arms and rocks back on her chair's backrest, frustration radiating through her motion. "From the logs and the crappy time lapse video I found, whenever he forced open the doors, he triggered an alarm. The system woke up, started to fire up the bot, and Noxian did... Something.

A spiteful growl rolls up from her, and she stiffens her posture angrily. "Fuck! I can't tell! Every time that asshole does anything magical, the camera loses its shit."

Wincing, Bach rubs his eyes into a pinch of the bridge of his nose and groans in begrudging realization. "Dammit... Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. The magic on the entry door had decayed. It would only make sense that the magic stopping the bot, cast at roughly the same time... Would have also decayed, too. Right around this time."

Cideeda slinks next to Bach, assesses the monitors, and bites on a claw tip thoughtfully. "Are there any remote controls for it tied into the system? Maybe a remote shutdown? Or an alert cancel?"

Aristespha shakes her head and waves a hand to the graphical menu on screen. Two robotic pictograms regularly flicker with status messages and color coding. Aristespha takes in a deep breath and rests her cheek upon the palm of her hand. "I have checked multiple times. There are all kinds of remote control features. Unfortunately, the one robot, that is still in contact with the system, happens to be the useless husk, gutted of parts. The system has endless pages of error messages trying to contact the working robot."

Finding a nearby chair, Bach pulls it over to him and sits with a firm frown. "Bastard Noxian probably fried or corrupted something by throwing that elder magic around... Now this thing is either stuck in alert mode, or worse."

He pulls out his aetherphone, clicks the power button, and sharpens his frown with the "No Relay Found" flashing in the status bar. Sebastian eyes Bach's phone and shakes his head. "I know, bro. We're too far out to easily call for help. We think we can radio for help if we get of the bunker and-"

Cideeda raises her hands abruptly and waves out an emphatic warning. "Whoa! No! We do NOT want to do that this close to it!"

Quizzical expressions appear on others, and all attention lands upon Cideeda. Moving closer to a screen with a video feed of the robot walking outside, Cideeda taps a button on the console. The stream freezes to a still frame of the towering mechanical soldier. Cideeda circles a claw tip over the head and shoulder section of the humanoid robot. "This thing looks to me like some kind of government hand-me-down. This HERE looks like some kind of antenna array. If we key up the radios on our phones, there's a good chance it might home in on the source expecting a fight. It's already doing an elevated alert patrol, so it doesn't need much more of a reason to go all out."

Squinting at the screen, Bach leans forward and spins a dial on the console, zooming in on the freeze frame. He swallows uneasily and pokes at the image of the armored mech. "Shit... It looks like it's got a little bit of everything, too. There's a lot of stuff on it."

The hard plates of Dretphi's armor suit clack when she crosses her arms, and she nods in agreement. "Yes. Possibly can see into multiple bands. Maybe radar. Probably thermal. Ultrasound."

Sotalia curls a lip in a sneer and huffs out her building frustration, shaking her head with an eye roll. "Gods, that figures. No amount of invisibility magic is going to obscure anyone enough from that thing. The best you could manage is to stay absolutely still IN a good hiding spot... And just hope you're lucky."

Sebastian's ethereal visage floats above the group and coughs for attention. "Okay. Everyone. Calm down. We can do this.

He furrows his brow, straightens his posture, and ponders out loud. "Here's an idea. From what I've watched, this thing has a rough patrol pattern. If we can plot it out and time it, there might be a few windows of opportunity we can use to get out of this bunker. Then, we move through the courtyard into the clearing, then bolt it for the outside antenna array. Once we clear the perimeter force and hit the forest, we should be good."

Nodding with the unfolding plan, Bach cracks a reserved smirk and sighs. "Yeah. I mean, that could work. If we can keep hidden between the buildings, we might be able to get far enough out. But, I don't know if breaking line of sight is enough with this thing."

Cideeda's emerald green eyes sort through the top of her head and her furry ears flicks with her thoughts. "These buildings are reinforced concrete. They should block radar enough that it won't be able to get a solid ping if we're behind even one. I don't know about acoustic detection. "

Dretphi presses buttons on the security console and iterates through a number of external cameras. "Windy outside. Storm nearby. It would be difficult to pick out footsteps with this noise."

Sebastian cracks a proud grin and gazes over the team. "Exactly! Ideally, we would get to the humvee, drive off, and put as much distance between us and this place as possible. Get to an aethernet relay, call the guild, and let the GAA have fun with his thing."

Aristespha narrows her violet eyes, pushes back in her chair, and analyzes the plan in her mind. "The open field of the antenna array will be difficult, since it is so open. We may need to find what cover is available and hide during a patrol sweep. But even if we are seen, we will hopefully have the distance to buy us time to mount a counterattack."

Sotalia rubs her hands together and an evil grin emerges. "Hopefully plenty of time for some powerful spells."

Sebastian drifts down to stand on the floor and directs everyone's attention to the security console. "Okay! It's a plan. Probably the best we're going to put together right now. So, let's get to studying this metal monster and figure out our escape route."

----

A harsh gust of wind blows ferociously through the courtyard, pushing flecks of age smooth pavement around in the current. Distant rustles of leaves chorus the air with a wavering drone that engulfs the area. The last remnants of white fluffy clouds jet across the sky in long, thin trails, and a darker front looms closer. The source of the constant, rhythmic thumping steps out from behind the corner of a small building near the bunker. A metal behemoth pivots its upper body, aims two weaponized arms down the path to the courtyard, and adjusts its walk to a measured strafe. Each step executes with an inhuman grace and precision, while the rest of the thickly armored humanoid body moves with exact coordination. The head of the security robot briefly turns, scans the area. Glints of sunlight reflect off the optics in its head and an array of sensors hunt down into the space. After a swift sweep, the towering machine returns to face its previous course. The body smoothly realigns with the head as it passes by. Continuing along the side of the bunker, the security robot moves away from the courtyard grounds to the outer perimeter of the facility.

As the last glimpses of its huge, rigid backpack unit and whip antennas leave sight around the corner of the bunker, Sebastian eases his face through the doors. His head emerges clear of the structure, and he glances to the corner and ground vibrating thumps. Silently tense, he listens and eases the rest of his ethereal form through the doors. Cautiously, he floats up to the bunker's roof, crests his head above eye level, and watches the security robot continue its patrol into the distance. After a minute of still observation, he quickly zips down and shoves his head through the doors. Pulling his head back, he flies back up to the roof line. The bunker doors slide open with a messy sputter and gurgling hiss. Bach and Dretphi swing outside to each side of the doorway, keeping grips on the doors. Cideeda leaps out onto the concrete walkway silently and swivels her head around while her furry ears scan the area. Sebastian motions towards the last passage the security bot used, keeps an arm pointed to the machine's position, and aims his voice down to the team. "It's still on course. Clear to move."

Aristespha and Sotalia rush out from the bunker and assume defensive casting stances near Cideeda. Bach and Dretphi simultaneously release the bunker doors to a final waning hiss that mutes when the bunker seals. Both swiftly walk up near the group. Forming a loose line, they sweep carefully across the courtyard, paying attention to Sebastian's tracking arm. Over the minutes, the group navigates the debris littered courtyard and stays within the perspective cover of the bunker from the distant security bot. Judging the path of the security robot, Sebastian drifts away from the roof, keeping level. He glances down to the group with a reserved grin, gives a thumbs up, and quietly mumbles to himself. "Keep it up... Doing good... Just a little while longer to the array..."

Something catches Sebastian's eye. Pivot midair towards the tree line, he puzzles at a strange wave of swaying treetops. A massive gale manifests into a wall of air and draws up debris from the bent over trees. A few treetops drop below the green canopy, and roots momentarily flip into view before sinking beneath the leafy sea. Sebastian waves an alarm and points. Cideeda's furry ears flick to the oncoming roar, and she alerts the rest of the group. "A huge gust of wind is coming. Get behind the concrete barriers."

The group gathers down low behind a chain of worn concrete construction barriers in the middle of the sparsely littered courtyard just as the wind speeds up through the alleyways of the buildings. The wall of wind blasts through. Dirt and sticks from the nearby forest soars through the area. A strange, loud noise grinds into the air, slicing through the drowning din of the gale gust. In the open, nearly barren field of the array, rust chunks crumble off a tall antenna tower assembly. Their ringing, bouncing impact on ground seizes the attention of Cideeda. She gawks wide-eyed at the tower. "Oh gods. No..."

An explosive snap of a support cable thunders out. The wind yanks the heavy steel line, and the supports audibly strains against the force. The last support cable slacks. The tower lurches past balance and flings the last support anchor, including broken off concrete base, into the sky. The massive structure of steel flexes as the bottom warps against the weight of the free-falling top. A cacophony of metal screeching and crushing upon the earth erupts, with the last crisp snaps echoing as the last of the strain escapes the fallen tower. The gust blasts through and sweeps the air, leaving an eerie silence. A repetitious thumping drifts up into the air, rising from the background with each passing second. Sebastian spins around to face the source. His eyes spring open, pupils narrow at the sight, and he bellows out an ethereal scream. "HIDE! IT'S COMING!"

Closing the distance beyond the bunker, the towering security robot clears swathes of ground with each thunderous, leaping bound. Each impact stamps deep indents into the dirt. Flowing articulation launches it into the next bound, crushing the soil beneath and leaving behind plumes of debris. It powers along the other side of the bunker and rockets around the corner in a calculated lean. Surging forth towards the center of the courtyard, the head of the robotic monster scans the area, spotting all targets in fractions of a second. Cideeda sprints behind a barrier in front of a tall pile of steel beams. Dretphi forcefully ushers Sotalia and Aristespha around to the back of a collection of concrete barriers, behind a pile of gravel. Bach's eyes glow as he flees to another barrier at great speed. Sebastian hovers in the air and frantically tries to logically assess the situation. The robot focuses on Sebastian. Riding a slide on the pavement to a bracing stance, barrels of its minigun spin up, and the machine aims the armed arm. Sebastian hears the spin up and glares down at the robot. Flaring up his ethereal form, he charges. "FUCK YOU, SHIT HEAP! TRY TO SHOOT ME! How much ammo you got?! Because I got all day!"

The minigun erupts blinding fire and precision mass. Rounds zip through Sebastian's form, and he dramatically dissipates. Seconds later, he reforms behind Aristespha, Dretphi, and Sotalia, trying to keep anxiety in check with a rigid grin. "Okay! Um! Ah... Ideas?!"

The military surplus war machine positions itself equally from each hiding spot, both weapons seeking a new target. The minigun winds down. The robot waits, pivoting its upper body and head independently and arms panning.

Aetherphones chirp out and echoes faintly bounce upon all the hard weather stained surfaces. Aristespha retrieves her phone and activates the speakerphone. Sotalia reaches into the collar of her armored cloak and slips a compact headset over a pointed ear. Dretphi taps the underside of her helmet. Cideeda's panting voice crackles through the speakerphone. "Okay! Well... It knows we are here. So we might as well use the radio. I think it's trying to jam us, but we're too close for that to work. Is everyone okay?"

Aristespha sighs with a wave of relief and lifts her phone close to her mouth. "Dretphi, Sotalia, and I are okay. Sebastian is with us here. Bach, where are you?"

Bach's voice briefly distorts over the speaker, and his excited, near panicked tone sounds out. "I'm okay! I'm down from you all and opposite from where I think Cideeda went. Uh, um, the concrete barrier closest to the middle building. Ah, any ideas so far?"

Sotalia pulls a menacing grin across her mouth and flexes her hands. "How about a few hard hitting spells?"

Sebastian shakes his head with a grimace at Sotalia. "No. Sorry. I'm going to have to veto that. Your hard hitters take time and positioning to cast."

He rocks his head towards the metal behemoth beyond cover. "It's not going to give you the chance."

Sotalia briefly sneers in frustration at Sebastian, takes a deep breath, and releases it with an accepting nod. "Dammit! You're right. It took no time to target you and fire at you."

Cideeda presses her back against the middle of the concrete barrier, slides her aetherphone in a front upper chest pocket near her neck. Closing her eyes, she lets her furry ears search the air and flick through the soundscape. She opens eyes after a few passes and bites her lip. "This thing isn't using servos or hydraulics. I can't hear them. It has to be polymer muscles. That's why it's got a ridiculous reaction time."

Dretphi growls and clenches a fist tightly as her gauntlet strains audibly. "The right rifle for this is in the humvee. That is too far. It is too fast."

Cideeda reflexively pats through her gear, confirms a filled pocket, and retrieves a rectangular bundle of a yellow clay substance. A devious grin cracks upon her light brown face, and she finds a few other items. "Well... I remembered to bring my block of breaching explosives. Got a mounting magnet and remote detonator with a controller, too."

Listening to the silence on the radio, she focuses on attaching the remote detonator and mounting magnet on the small brick of explosives. She tilts her head close to the phone and speaks in a lower, determined tone. "Permission to proceed?"

Sebastian responds over the radio with an eager hint in his voice. "Permission granted. Let's see if it'll fall for me again. Let me know when you are ready and I'll make a run at it."

Cideeda shakes out a plastic mesh bag from a small pocket. "I doubt I'll be able to stick it, but if it lands close enough I'll trigger it. Hopefully, the concussion will knock it down and give us a chance to get further away. Maybe damage it just enough."

She tosses the explosive assembly inside and gives a light test swing. "I'm about ready."

Sebastian prepares himself, watching Aristespha listening to her phone. Cideeda's voice hisses over the phone. "Ready!"

Aristespha keeps her eyes on Sebastian and speaks to her aetherphone. "Okay. Sebastian is going to draw its attention. He'll yell out if it is distracted. Then, you toss the explosives. When they detonate and the robot is down, everyone is to regroup and head straight into the woods to the west. Confirm Bach? Cideeda?"

Bach voice distorts over the phone against signal straining interference. "That sounds good to me. That bulky bastard should have some trouble getting us in there. If he can manage to get back up..."

Cideeda chirps excitedly over the static hiss. "Let's do this!"

Sebastian gives a thumbs up to Aristespha, Dretphi and Sotalia. He lunges out from cover, waving his hands in the air. Flaming up his ethereal form, he screams. "I'M BACK FOR YOU FUCKER! YOU CAN'T HIT ME! OOGITY BOOGITY!"

The robot's head snaps towards Sebastian, precisely tracking, and both arms immediately line up at the target. The minigun's barrels spin up. With a wild glint in his translucent blue eyes, Sebastian yells out. "IT'S WATCHING ME! DO IT NOW!"

Cideeda springs up from cover and vigorously swings the plastic mesh bag around with her arm in a large vertical circle. Holding her free arm out to aim, she launches the package in a lofty arc. The bag soars through the air and reaches the apex of its trajectory. As it sails down, the robot breaks lock on Sebastian. Pausing, its head snaps upwards. It crashes down to a squat and springs back into the air. It lands securely with a loud earth-shaking whump over ten meters away, its head tracking the bag. Cideeda's jaw slams to the ground in shock, and she scrambles frantically behind cover. "FUCK! ABORT! Stay in cover! It jumped out of the way!"

The robot redirects its attention towards Cideeda. The minigun spins down and a new low rumble resonates. Cideeda's furry ears twitch, and she nervously grits her teeth. "What is that noise? That sounds like an energy charge up of some kind."

She sneaks a peek out the side of her barrier and yanks back in fright. "Shit! It's charging up the plasma cannon! It's aiming at my position! I can't see exactly where!"

Bach flips the visor of his helmet down and rises just over the top of his barrier. He follows the angle of the cannon arm, as his panicked stare flutters between a flurry of visual calculations. A shock of tension jolts him, and he screams as loud as he can. "IT'S AIMING BEHIND YOU!"

Cideeda glances at the tall stack of steel beams behind her. Paling with mouth agape, her furry ears perk at the loud energy eruption. A twenty centimeter diameter ball of blue-white plasma streaks out from the huge barrel and blazes across the courtyard. Cideeda dives out from behind the concrete barrier. The plasma ball explodes into a concussive wave of superheated gas, filling the space behind the barrier and shaking steel beams down. Darting her eyes around, Cideeda collects her senses. The barrel of the minigun spins up. Cideeda spots a small pile of concrete parking stops. The claws on her hands and feet scratch upon the cracked pavement. She panic scrambles to the pile and desperately flattens herself, covering her head. A torrent of fast, unforgiving mass swarms her position. Chunks of dirt explode from under the pavement and concrete from the stops waterfalls over her back. The barrage relentlessly chisels down the pile.

Cideeda's short, dust covered hair vibrates from bullets passing over. Flecks of ricochets patter around. Bodysuit fabric ripples. Tears rips out with a faint mist of crimson and reveals light brown skin. Emerald green eyes spring open in abject shock at the hot searing pain and cooling red seeping out from the middle crest of both butt cheeks. Gasping in a frightened breath, Cideeda's throat tightens against another narrow wave of crimson pain streaking across her shoulder blades. A reflexive cry of pure terror shrieks out of her. "HELP!"

Sebastian's form blows out in a flaming aura and launches right at the robot. "FUCK OFF! JUST FUCK OFF WILL YOU!"

The robot briefly stops the assault, and prioritizes Sebastian. Bach pops out above his concrete barrier, levels his plasma pistol at the robot, and fires off a series of plasma bolts. The energy balls impact and lightly rattle the bot. The machine pivots its upper body and swings its aim around. Bach plummets behind the barrier as the loud rumble of minigun fire coats the area. Cideeda scapes up any sense left. Gritting her sharp teeth, she attempts to flex the muscles in her back and butt. Cringing against the pain exists, she moves, somewhat. She reaches an arm back and checks the extent of the injuries. She bites her lip, wincing. A sigh of annoyed relief slips out as she finds only grazes. Footsteps sprint across the ground and close in on her with a familiar clank of armor. A shadow crouches over Cideeda and pats the top of her shoulder with a firm but gentle gauntlet covered hand. "Can you move?"

Cideeda smiles through the winces and cringes. Lifts herself up, she crawls around to the back of Dretphi and forces herself up into a crouch. She taps a confirmation on Dretphi's back. Nodding her helmeted, visor protected head, she raises her arm mounted energy shield up. The two carefully move across the courtyard to an awaiting Sotalia and Aristespha. The impacts of bullets stop around Bach. Tense moments later lead to a realization, Bach radios through the headset in his helmet. "Look out! It stopped shooting at me!"

Dretphi watches as the robot's head locks upon her. Its arms follow. Holding her energy barrier up, Dretphi braces her shield gauntlet with her other arm. The minigun sprays a unyielding volley of metal. Dretphi concentrates every bit of herself and keeps the energy shield in place against the hammering impacts. As Dretphi and Cideeda edge closer, stray shots and debris from the blasts force Aristespha and Sotalia back into cover. Sparks erupt from the shield gauntlet and the energy field wavers with the overload alarm chiming through the thunderous onslaught. Dretphi pulls in her arms, plants her feet, and slowly squats down. She solemnly states to Cideeda. "Whatever happens. Stay behind me."

The shield flutters into a dissipating plume. Bullets slice through the air at Dretphi. Before each impact upon an armor plate, a golden magical barrier flashes. Metal careens at the plates of Dretphi's armor and bounce off barriers. Dretphi tenses herself and strains to slide her feet closer towards cover. Each hit shakes and rocks her. The barriers grow more visible and cracks form. Rounds contact Dretphi's helmet and throw her off balance. Cracks spider over most of the plates. The bullets stop. Bach's voice booms out into the courtyard. "OVER HERE! GOVERNMENT SURPLUS!"

Bach stands out from cover, eyes brilliantly glowing blue under his visor. His voice blares from the magical energy covering his respirator. "EAT PLASMA SHIT!"

The magically modified plasma pistol overflows with energy. Bach levels his aim at a spot on the robot. A powerful ball of concentrated energy vibrates inside the device with a whine rising from the background din. Bach pulls the trigger. The blazing white bolt screams out, and the recoil jerks Bach's arms up in the air, stumbling back. The robot curls the cannon arm up to shield itself. The bolt drops low, and rockets up to the minigun. A faint line of magical thread flickers into existence behind the powerful orb, leading back to the pistol. In the explosive swell of heat and energy, the force slams the minigun arm away and yanks the robot off balance. Metallic screech echoes out. The minigun halts, drive motor straining in vain. Sebastian sets down next to Dretphi and frantically motions her to cover. "It's distracted! RUN for it! I'll keep an eye on it for you."

Summoning all her willpower, she forces herself up, sweeps Cideeda into her arms, and sprints over to Aristespha and Sotalia. Sebastian hovers overhead, keeping sight off the robot. A smoking power cell drops from Bach's pistol, and he reaches into his duster for another. A surge of confidence drives a manic grin on his face. "Thought you were a badass! Huh!"

The robot stabilizes itself. The seized minigun drive motor struggles and groans. Bach pats around and retrieves another cell. "Don't worry, fucker. I got seconds for you-"

A familiar low rumbling vibrates through the area. Bach's wide blue eyes shine through his visor and hint at stunned shock. The robot levels its glowing cannon arm towards Bach. A plasma ball flares out. Bach drops everything, throws his arms out, and braces. A network of magical energy spreads out in front of him and solidifies with a golden fill. As the energy field grows towards the ground, the plasma ball crashes into the shield and explodes. The shield smashes into Bach, and his boots grind upon the battered pavement. The golden field crackles to full opacity. Plasma leaks burst forth through the cracks. A loud shatter rings out, and the magical barrier fragments into hundreds of shards. A concussive wave of blue-white plasma washes over. Bach flies backwards towards a concrete wall, and slams solidly with a dull thud. Sliding into a limp heap on the pavement below, smoke rises from his armor and clothing. Sebastian pupils shrink to mere dots as horror drenches his face. "Bach? Bach! BACH! OH GODS! BACH! NO!"

Sebastian's visage tries to fly over, and Aristespha seizes him with a hand, staring at him with glowing violet eyes. Sebastian sputters frantically. "What?! I gotta get over there and check on him!"

Aristespha fiercely glares and growls intensely. "It. Still. Targets. You. It may fire at you and near Bach! Calm down and THINK!"

Sotalia crests her golden eyes over the top of cover, glowers at the robot, and starts moving her hands to cast. Aristespha's other hand firmly snatches Sotalia by the collar of her cloak and yanks her back down. "Don't you fucking dare! I know it's hard. But, we need to lay low long enough to figure a way to get to him."

Grabbing hold of Aristespha arm, Sotalia glares back at Aristespha and slowly breathes. With each breath, her grip loosens until she lowers her head and wipes her eyes. "Gods, dammit. Okay. Sorry..."

Slowly lifting his head above the barrier, Sebastian watches the robot. The military machine waits patiently, the cannon arm pointing at Bach. Sebastian sighs with an ethereal echo. "Yeah... It still is targeting me. I don't think it has figured out that bullets don't work on me. I'll distract it. Get it to aim somewhere else. And, Sotalia, you go and at least drag Bach to cover."

Sotalia nods firmly and readies herself near the edge of the barrier. "Sounds good. Let me know when to run for it."

Sebastian darts out, mimicking a sprint to another pile of debris. The robot's head swings over and locks on to the new target. Peers over the top of the debris pile, Sebastian mumbles to himself. "Good... Pay attention to me, you bastard. Just long enough so we can get over to Bach-"

He squints over to a now empty spot. Sotalia peeks out, notices Sebastian gawking in utter confusion to the building wall that Bach ISN'T at. A distorted voice sounds out over the phones. "OWWW! Gods dammit, that hurt. I'm sorry. I didn't want to do anything when it was aiming right at me. Ow. Shit."

Ducking back down behind the protective barrier, Sotalia smiles firmly. "Damn you, asshole! You had us scared."

Aristespha lifts up her phone and sighs with a happier tint. "It's okay. Good call. I've got to treat the grazes on Cideeda, so she can move enough. Stay there for now."

Sebastian's visage reforms next to Aristespha, sheer joy in his face. "Bro, I know I seem like some kind of ghost, but my heart really didn't need THAT. Apart from pain, anything else wrong?"

Bach pats down another smoldering spot on his duster and winces when he slides up on the back of the concrete barrier. "Not really. Well, some burns. Sore back and ass. And, another shirt ruined."

Cideeda vocally eye rolls over the radio. "Oh? Sore back and ass?"

Bach sighs sarcastically. "Sorry. Forgot about that with all the plasma in my face."

In the lull of combat, the robot reaches over with its other arm and grips the barrel assembly with a mechanical hand. It sharply torques the weapon and rough metal grinds out. Sotalia slides her head from the side of the barrier, squints, and raises an eyebrow. "What is it doing?"

Flicking her furry ears to the noise, Cideeda crawls out enough to peer around the other side. Aristespha scoots along with her and continues treating her injuries. Cideeda narrows her stare and frowns. "Shit. It's trying to unjam that minigun. Figures this thing would be smart enough to know how to do field repairs."

Sebastian rubs his transparent temples and grumbles as he thinks out loud. "Okay. Let's all hit it hard at once. Hopefully, that will occupy it long enough, so we can get to the woods. I'll see how long I can distract it-"

A sharp, metallic crack shoots through the courtyard and the echoes bounce between the hard surfaces. An electrical groan of a motor follows, and an ominous cyclic scrape of steel shrieks, growing faster with each second. Bach's voice filters in through the radio. "Dammit! It must have broke the heat weld that plasma hit did. It's-"

Bach yells out. "WALKING RIGHT TOWARDS YOU ALL!"

The robot marches forward. Each footfall thumps solidly. Both arms aim ahead. The minigun fights friction to spin and achieves a threatening speed. A glow pulsates the inside barrel of the cannon. Sebastian pops his head over the top of cover and drops back down. He solemnly exchanges glances with everyone and desperately searches himself for a plan, a route, or a solution. Cideeda winces, gritting her sharp teeth, and covers her furry ears. "The hell is that noise?!"

Sotalia blinks blankly and snaps her confused glance at Aristespha. "Do you feel that?"

Dretphi feels the ground, waits, and furrows a puzzled brow. "It stopped walking?"

The crackling white noise surges out from the background and drastically pitches to a high piercing shrill. Upon a wave of excitement, Sebastian flashes a manic grin with his eyes fully open. "HE. CAST. IT!"

Heads peek out from the barrier. Bach stands behind his barrier, faint wisp of smolder drifting off his outfit. He struggles to maintain both his arms out his hands together as a half meter spherical maelstrom of visual white noise swirls chaotically in front of his palms. Wind vortexes around the orb as countless streams of magical energy pour into it. Bach's eyes spotlight blue through his visor, and veins of magic flow brilliantly in and around. The robot slowly turns its head at Bach, and spots the orb. Tensing his body, Bach draws his hands back. The orb jets at the robot, leaving hazy streams of magical energy in the wake. The robot leans away from the attack and raises its cannon arm to block. The orb adjusts course and contacts the upper arm. An explosive burst of fine powder and vapor billows out into a particle cloud around where the upper arm WAS. The forearm with cannon crashes out of the mist. The orb tunnels through the cloud, smaller. It sharply turns straight into the robot's chest. A plume of particulate mass blasts out, and the orb burrows into the machine. A heavy fog of vaporized material floods the air as it violently ejects out the gaping hole.

The courtyard silences. The robot remains still. A small pin point of daylight pierces out the center of the fresh, deep conical void inside the robot's chest. Bach's eyes dim, and he catches himself along the top of the barrier. He whispers to himself. "Please be dead."

Sotalia gawks at the scene before her. Aristespha slowly rotates her head to Sebastian and stares thoughtfully at him. "I can see why that spell was prohibited."

Sebastian beams with pride and casually shrugs. Cideeda drops her smile. "I hear something! It's not done yet!"

Everyone drops back to hiding. Bach slides down the back of the barrier. "Gods dammit! I'm sorry... I thought that'd get it."

Cideeda curls a lip as her mind processes the numerous noises coming from the robot now. "Don't be sorry! That hurt it A LOT. It's NOT doing well."

The robot struggles with its footing. The minigun spins up and the arm sweeps erratically for a target. Wisps of smoke vent out from the massive hole in the chest of the machine. Each struggling, sluggish action fans more haze out. Nodding thoughtfully, Sebastian watches the monstrosity barely stand. "Yeah, it's still a threat. But, it just might be one we can deal with."

Studying the robot, Dretphi squints her steely gray eyes through her full face visor, and growls in thought. "It is compensating. Better with each second."

Sebastian sighs with a trailing grumble. "Damn. We've already risked too much. I want to put this thing down hard, with as little risk to us. That minigun may still be functional."

Cideeda edges around the side of the barrier and spots the plastic mesh bag. Reaches into a pocket, she retrieves the remote control. She flips up a guarded switch and a green light blinks on the device. A second later, the light stops blinking and remains solid green. A sly, toothy smile grows upon her light brown face, and she hoists the remote control to Sebastian. "The explosives are still alive..."

A sinister glint sparks in her emerald eyes. "There's also a big gaping hole to put them in."

Sebastian points to Cideeda, and he furrows his brow as his mind pieces together a plan. "Okay... We need to get it there."

Dretphi holds her hand up. "I can run it in. Unfortunately, a few hits is all I can take. Magical barriers are worn."

Nodding, Sebastian takes a deep breath in. "Okay. I don't know if it will fall for me again. And... That will only work for so long. Dear, can you immobilize it with your magic?"

Aristespha contorts her ivory face as she deliberates. "Maybe for a few seconds? That spell was never meant to restrain machinery, even damaged. It could easily overpower me, eventually."

Bach listens to the discussion over the radio. Straining to lift himself up, he manages to place his back against the cold concrete of the barrier. Blinking in thought, he searches around his head at scattering of ideas and pounders out loud. "Polymer muscles. Cideeda. You said polymer muscles, right?"

Cideeda's voice crackles on the radio. "Yes? It does have them, I saw a few strands hanging out of the cut forearm. Why?"

Squinting at distant memory, Back cocks his head, focusing from a daze. "They have a freezing point, right? Or, something like they stop working right after a certain temperature? I remember that from a series I watched..."

Cideeda eagerly grins, showing her pronounced canines, at Sotalia. "How cold can your freeze spell get?"

Thinking for a moment, Sotalia laughs darkly with a swell of confidence. Cideeda chuckles. "We'll probably have a minute before it turns on the internal heaters, but it should work."

Sebastian nods slowly as the plan solidifies. "I'll distract. Aristespha will hold it down long enough for Sotalia to freeze it. Dretphi runs, snatches the bomb, and plants it inside. Cideeda triggers it. Bro, just sit back for now."

Bach's voice distorts over the radio. "Will do. I hope this works. I really don't want to look that far up my sleeve for cards at this point."

The robot sweeps its minigun side to side, seeking a target. The arm steadies more with each pass. Shuddering and stuttering in each motion, the head scans. Sparks sputter and bounce out of the hole. Sebastian runs out from cover. The robot's head tracks, the minigun swings out, and a roar of fire spews forth. Mass peppers the area around. Sebastian mimics a sprint, dramatically exaggerating dodges and dive rolls. "Oh no! I'm all in the open! What will I do!"

Rising up, Aristespha eyes glare radiant violet at the robot. She precisely gestures her arms and perfectly calls out her incantations, ending with a wide swing forward of both arms. A massive wave of energy speeds to the robot, impacts, and engulfs the damaged machine. The robot strains against the constricting, immobilizing energy enveloping it. Aristespha's body shakes, and she flows a surge of her power into the spell. "Now!"

Sotalia hops out the barrier and flings her cloak off to the side. Planting her boots, she gestures her arms quickly in front of her and yells out incantations at a feverish pace. Her eyes flare golden. The maelstrom of magical energy flows around her body, condensing into a point between her hands. The runic markings on her arms shine brightly, burn out, and wisp into the air. Wind gusts into the growing clear liquid orb in front of her, and waves of heat thrust behind her. The whites of Sotalia's eyes blacken around bright golden light. Shoving her hands forward, a guiding stream of energy spirals out to the robot, and a torrent of liquid deluges the machine. The clear liquid boils off upon contact with the metal beast and dryly steams. With each passing moment, less vents away and slip into roiling pools. An ear to ear grin shines on Sotalia, and she directs the stream to each part of the machine's body.

The stream cuts off. The frost coated and iced locked robot remains motionless. Stumbling to a knee, Sotalia rolls back behind the barrier, while Aristespha relaxes her hold on the bot. Dretphi tears out into a full sprint, straight for the plastic mesh bag. She coasts across the surface of the terrain, guides herself near the bag, and sweeps it cleanly from the ground. Powering on at full speed at the robot, she springs up to a jump and climbs onto the chest of the metal beast. The robot's head turns to meet the visor-covered face. Dretphi bares her teeth in a menacing grin, and drills an icy glare into the optics of the robot. Maintaining eye contact, she rams the bag upside the robot, shaking it violently from the force. Dretphi kicks off with both feet, sticks the landing, and sprints to safety. The tipped machine topples over stiffly onto the pavement of the courtyard. Sliding around the side, Dretphi swings herself behind the barrier, and Aristespha drops down.

Cideeda disengages the main safety of the remote control and yells out. "ONE!"

The frost begins to fade from the robot in a loud electric hum. Cideeda clicks the trigger, and a yellow light illuminates. "TWO!"

The robot slowly elevates its upper body up to a sitting position. Cideeda clicks the trigger again, and a red light flickers to life. "THREE!"

The head of the robot dips forward and examines the new filler within its chest hole. It pauses briefly. It lifts its head back up and long beeps once. Cideeda clicks the trigger.

The chest of the robot shatters and erupts out in a loud kaboom. Ammunition cooks off in a cacophony of thousands of cracks and riddles the rigid backpack unit full of holes. A loud piercing snap echoes in the area. Jets of plasma erupt from any open from a power core. A shockwave blasts across the ground and thunderously rattles the courtyard. A massive plume of plasma savagely vents up into the air, fading into the windy sky above.

Silence looms over the landscape. Fresh smolders drift up from the blackened crater in the courtyard pavement. Dissipating trails of smoke waft up from the larger bits of the robot in new, interesting locations. The last broken chunk of glass in the area drops out of its frame and shatters crisply. A strange whistle overhead grows louder with each moment. The head of the robot collides with the pavement and bounces poorly to a roll.

Sebastian floats up above and surveys the destruction. Hovering up higher, he scans the greater surrounding area and releases an ethereal sigh of relief. "Yeah... Think it's fucking dead this time!"

-13-

Through a golden, crackled, haze coated helmet visor, Bach gazes up into the fast moving clouds above. The sun nears the horizon by the minute, slipping between a clear northern sky and the darkened southern bank. Bach takes a long breath in through his helmet's respirator and exhales slowly. Laying behind the concrete barrier on his back, he rests his band on his stomach and stares upwards. A gust of wind blows through, and flutters the tears and char spots on his clothing. A few flakes of ashen cloth break free with the flow and drift away into the distance. Bach spots Sebastian scouting the area overhead. Floating down closer to Bach, Sebastian waves at him. "Hey! Bro! You alive?"

Bach gradually rolls a soot stained, gloved hand into a thumbs up and calls out through his respirator. "Yeah. Wiped out. But. Alive, man. Some fucking how."

Sebastian smiles proudly, returns a thumbs up to his brother, and points around to the surrounding area. "Cool, bro. I'm going to look around and check the area again. Make sure nothing else is aiming to join in the clusterfuck of our day. You... You rest."

Sighing, Bach glances to the edges of the vision as his head slowly lags behind. "Not going to be a problem."

Sebastian flies up and off over the top of a nearby small building. Aristespha rolls out a pack of medical supplies and brushes a flat space nearby clear for Cideeda. "Lay on your stomach. Let me work on those injuries more, and heal them properly."

Sotalia flips open a pouch on her belt, pulls out a vial, and hands it to Dretphi. Narrowing her eyes through her helmet visor, Dretphi suspiciously sneers at the vial and holds at a respectful distance. Standing up with her hands on her hips, Sotalia quirks an unamused brow at Dretphi. "Oh, don't be that way. It's cherry flavored. Drink up. It'll cut the swelling down."

Dretphi groans with heavy hesitation, lifting up her visor. She pops the cork off and slams the liquid back. Her tan face contorts in stiff disgust, and she mutters a number of Grath curses under her breath. Sotalia rolls her gold on black eyes and shakes head with a dismissive smirk. Taking a moment from tending Cideeda, Aristespha makes eye contact with Sotalia and points over towards Bach's location. "Could you check on Bach and make sure there isn't anything that needs my immediate attention?"

Sotalia glances over towards the concrete barrier near Bach. "Of course. It'll give me a chance to survey the damage around the crater."

Cideeda winces against an excited, toothy grin, slipping her arms out of the top of her body suit with help from Aristespha. "Keep an eye out for any big parts from that robot. I want its head!"

Dretphi pops the locks underneath her helmet and pulls it off, letting her platinum blonde, dirty blonde tipped hair air out in the breeze. "I call the weapons on the arms. If salvageable."

Nodding with a confirming wave of the hand, Sotalia walks confidently over towards Bach. She strolls carefully through the courtyard, casually eyeing bits of robot embedded into strange spots. Stopping in front of the barrier, she notices a number of golden stabilized magical energy shards on the ground. With a quick check side to side, she kneels down, snatches up a few handfuls, and deposits them in her pocket. In her search, she stares upon Bach's plasma pistol. Shimmers of extensive magical modifications glint brightly upon the weapon. Sotalia reaches out, picks it up, and gawks. Blinking back to her senses, she sweeps up the two power cells into another pocket and stands back up. She rounds the corner of the barrier and glances at Bach on the ground, looking up into the sky. Bach's blue eyes shift under the visor and meet Sotalia's face. Raising an intrigued eyebrow, she places her hands to her hips and smiles out of the corner of her mouth. "Cloud watching?"

Searching around, he resigns himself with a narrowing gaze and speaks through the respirator. "Kinda."

Sotalia shakes her head of dark red hair, motions for Bach to get up, and starts to turn around. "Come on. Let's get back to everyone else. Aristespha needs to give you at least a once over."

Bach sheepishly mumbles as averts his gaze away. "You go ahead. I'll be right over. I'm going to need a few minutes."

Cocking her head to the side, Sotalia's curiosity halts her step. She slowly pivots around, and lowers an inquisitive gaze. Bach watches her step to his side and sit down right next to him. Sotalia gently places Bach's plasma pistol off to the side and focuses her attention on Bach. Reaching out to Bach's helmet, she flips the visor up and detaches the respirator off to the side. Craning her head over, she hovers her face right above his with a devilish grin. "Let me guess. You tapped yourself out, and your limbs are worthlessly weak right now."

A long sigh of embarrassment grumbles out from Bach, and he meets Sotalia's expecting stare. "Yes."

Sotalia lifts her head back and covers a giggle with her hand. "Wow! Throwing all that caution to the wind in a time of crisis. You ARE certainly Sebastian's brother."

She mockingly holds her arms out in a casting pose and imitates Bach's voice badly. "Hey, government surplus! Eat plasma shit!"

Tossing her shoulder length, dark red hair back, she snorts. "Really? A bold leap from cover AND a one liner? We should put you on the Next Adventurers of Nexus if you keep that up."

Bach rolls his head away with an embarrassed grimace, and his pride escapes through a defeated sigh. Sotalia pats Bach on shoulder, and he turns his head back to face her. Gazing upon him kindly, she gently smiles. "All that aside. You did good getting the heat off Cideeda and Dretphi. So... Thank you."

Perking her brow, she smirks. "But, next time you piss off a battle bot... Head for cover afterwards. Okay?"

Bach weakly nods, and squints at Sotalia's eyes. "Um..."

Sotalia notices the puzzling attention. "Yes?"

Twisting an uncertain expression on his light tan face, Bach blinks. "Uh, you know your eyes are gold on black at the moment... Right?"

Sotalia momentarily frowns and groans annoyed, averting her gaze away. "I do now. I'm not exactly surprised."

She dismissively waves a hand around and drones on technically. "It's a Magically Reactive Biological Trait that is common with those with some Emin genetics in the mix. Thankfully, it only happens when I dump a lot of magic out."

A pouch snap clicks off, and Sotalia pulls the top flap open. Feeling around inside, she retrieves a labeled vial and checks the writing. She sets it to the side. Bach feels Sotalia's hand under his neck. She removes the helmet off to the side and carefully lifts Bach's head up. "Let's get this down you, it'll help get the magical flow going and electrolyte balance right."

Bach barely manages a shrug and opens his mouth. Sotalia pops the cork off and pours the contents into his mouth. Almost wincing one eye closed, Bach strains to swallow. Immediately reading Bach's reaction, Sotalia curls her upper lip and sniffs the vial. "I thought I did okay with flavoring with this batch. I followed the instructions exactly as Aristespha told me. It even smells right."

Bach stares at Sotalia. "So... What flavor is it supposed to be?"

Sotalia's gold on black eyes drop down to Bach, and she dons a very unamused expression. "Cherry."

Drifting his gaze away from Sotalia's developing glare, Bach fights down a grimace. "How do you define... Cherry?"

Sotalia lowers Bach's head back down and crosses her arms with a pout. "Dump all this magic into these potions, and you are telling me the flavoring is off?"

Bach squints into his mind briefly and narrows a curious stare. "Speaking of dumping magic... You managed to freeze the air down and pipe liquid nitrogen at that robot. Correct?"

Sitting up straighter with pride, Sotalia beams at Bach. "Yes. That is correct. It's a composite spell I weaved together a while back."

She huffs, blinks in surprise at her forearms, and plays off the discovery nonchalantly. "Unfortunately, it takes a while and a lot of energy. But... I believe you can't argue with the results."

Bach nods with a bit more strength. "Certainly can't. Completely devastated that bot. Pretty sure Dretphi could have punched it to pieces with how brittle it was."

He returns his sights to the passing clouds overhead and grimaces with disappointment bubbling up. "Damn, I really thought a D-Ball would take it out. But... I'm still not there yet."

Sotalia shakes her head, snorts, and tilts Bach's head towards her. "Bach. Take it from someone who always wanted to be THE one that saves the day..."

Her tone softens, and she sighs. "But learned otherwise. It's not important to land the final shot. It's important to make that final shot even possible."

Bach blinks between flits of thought. Seconds later, she reaches out, puts her hand on top his longer hair, and ruffles it with a warm smile. Her eyes catch something along his collar line. Running a finger underneath his shirt collar, she carefully lifts it away. "Looks like you got some burns there. I'm going to go check to see how far along Aristespha is with patching up Cideeda's ass and back. I'll get some burn cream for you, at least."

Sotalia gets her feet underneath herself and pushes up. Midway through the ascent, her legs wobble. Her arms spread out, and she braces herself against the concrete barrier. Glancing around, she shifts her weight against the barrier and gently eases herself back on to the ground. Bach turns his head with a smug smile at her. "There's no rush. Sit down. Watch the clouds for a while. It's kind of cool how fast they're moving right now. Definitely a storm moving in."

Grumbling to herself, Sotalia fetches a vial from her belt. She pop the cork and tosses back the liquid down her throat. Contorting her face into shades of disgust, she coughs and gags. "Oh gods! Wow! This tastes awful!"

She eyes the remaining red traces in the tiny bottle and fights down a surge of embarrassment. "Oh, I owe Dretphi an apology."

Bach stares unamused at Sotalia. Glancing over towards Bach, she swallows her pride. "And, sorry to you, too. I really had no idea."

Sotalia scoots over, places her back up against the concrete barrier, stares up into the sky. Bach flits his eyes back to the sky above. "Hey. Next time we train. Could you do that spell again? I'd actually like to examine that one up close."

A wicked smile sprouts on Sotalia's light tan and dark gray face, and she provocatively eyes Bach. "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours."

Bach closes his eyes hard and opens to awkward uncertainty. Lifts his head up, he glances over. Sotalia quickly turns her gaze away to a passing cloud. Bach lowers his head back down and meekly responds. "Sure."

Sotalia simply nods, hiding her sheer satisfaction away.

----

Through the rippling sheets of rain, the Pancake Shed sign illuminates the lone highway intersection with a hazy projection upon the mirror slick road. Within the middle of the dark, hazy night, the traffic lights simply blink red and swing with the whims of the storm. In stark contrast to the surrounding deluge, the Pancake Shed restaurant interior shines out from the large windows and casts a glow upon the encompassing parking lot. An older grath woman with gray-streaked black hair scrapes the grill top effortlessly and guides the refuse into a hole off the side. A middle-aged woman plays with her curly hazel hair and eyes the shift figures on a clipboard. "Well, Triti, I think this is it until Havok's bar closes at three. This storm is something else."

Triti nods as she finishes cleaning off the last bit from the grill top. "Big storms lately. It is the season."

The woman taps menu buttons on her aetherphone and a radar weather map cycles through an animation. She shakes head and gazes out the store front window. Flashes of light erupt in the distance and spider across the sky. Her stare drifts back to the clipboard full of sales and supply notes. "The storm probably picked up something when it passed over that damn weird zone. Oh well. It'll be a nice break after dealing with those adventurers and that camera crew."

A long growling groan fills the air near Triti, and she stabs the scraper tool corner first into a wooden knife block, away from any slot for a knife. Stepping to the side to a sink, she turns on the water and washes her hands. She faintly mutters a variety of curses under her breath. The woman spins around and narrows her gaze at Triti. "Hey! I thought we agreed. If you are going to say something bad about a customer..."

The woman picks up her clipboard and slides next to Triti with a devious glint in her eye. "Say it so I can hear it."

Triti cracks the start of a smile from the corner of her mouth and quips just over a whisper. "They were not natural."

The other woman laughs and lifts the clipboard to hide sight of her mouth. "Oh, they HAD to be magically enhanced. With the way she was flaunting them? I've paraded around dresses I got on sale less shamelessly than her."

A pair of headlights shine down the highway and beam through the rain. A yellow light blinks out of the front corner of the shadowy mass pushing through the torrent. The humvee slips out from a curtain of rain and turns into the lot. Pulling into a spot close to the entry, a fading whine sounds as the powerplant spins down. The rear driver's side door cracks open, an ivory finger pokes out, and a thin sheet of magical energy expands outwards. Seconds later, a floating barrier against the storm stretches over the humvee and forms a path to the front door.

The woman giggles in between sly snickers. "I almost wish that Rekeeka worked today. She would have flipped seeing how that fvalian girl was dressed up."

An electronic door chime rings out from a box above the entrance doors. Both the woman and Triti shift their attention towards the entry. Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia stand in the small entryway as the door closes with another chime. Aristespha attempts in vain to straighten up her attire, and just accepts the state of her clothing. Bach rubs the bandage around the base of his neck and tugs a worn t-shirt away. He brushes some dirt off his pants, stopping when flakes of charred cloth break off along with the dirt. Wincing, Dretphi stretches her arms and back out in small motions. She pulls on her long sleeve shirt and examines underneath with a slight frown. Sotalia slouches forward and covers a yawn with her hand. Blinking repeatedly, she drowsily scans around the area and fights the urge for another yawn. In shorts and a tank top, Cideeda holds on to her Pancake Shed card with a pillow tucked underneath her shoulder. The woman and Triti exchange glances between sparks of recognition. Walking to the front register, the middle-aged woman places her clipboard down and gazes at the group. "I say this not just out of Pancake Shed policy, but you all can take whatever seats you want. I'll be right with you."

The group meanders towards the largest table. Bach slowly eases himself into a seat and cringes when his back settles against the chair. Dretphi slowly works her way to the seat and briefly grits her teeth for a few movements. Aristespha slides out the chair and plops down. Sotalia lazily drags out the chair and slumps down. Placing arms on the tabletop, she rests her head down upon them. Cideeda turns her chair around ninety degrees, places her pillow on the chair, and carefully lowers herself. Leaning her side on the chair back, she throws an arm over the top, her fluffy tail wagging slowly. The woman arrives with menus in hand and surveys the group. "Welcome to the Pancake Shed, I'm Clara. I'll be your server this fine early morning. Is some coffee in order or anything else to start with?"

Sotalia lifts her head up and yawns through the strands of hair freeing themselves from her swept-backed horns. "Coffee. Please."

Unanimous agreement chains around the table. Clara nods with a knowing smile. "I'll bring a few pots just for you all with all the fixings."

Cideeda hoists up her Pancake Shed card. Clara plucks it out of Cideeda's hand, lifts a brow, and smiles. "Shed Stack for you. Anything else before I get the coffee?"

Dretphi raises her hand up. "May I ask the cook a question?"

Clara shrugs and waves at Triti. "Hey, Triti, the lady has a question for you."

Triti slowly turns her head to Dretphi. Bows slightly and Dretphi inquires with long elaborate sentences in a dialect of Grath. Triti thinks with a long inhale, her eyes searching her mind. With a single nod, she grins with her reply. A smile sneaks onto Dretphi's tan face, and she gives another slight bow. Aristespha glances over at Dretphi with curiosity. "What did she say? I do not pick up all that."

Dretphi smiles fully with a hint of anticipation. "It is not a stone top. Should still get honorably close."

Clara steps away from the table and walks straight to the coffee machines. The group rests at the table in silence. Everyone individually drifts in their own minds and mindlessly gazes upon the menus. Clara and Triti chat briefly, and the two look over a few times. Clara returns to the table with two pots of coffee, mugs, and extras. She spreads them out to everyone at the table. Examining the group, Clara sighs and addresses the team. "Okay. It's none of my business, but I got to know what you all did today. If nothing else, the coffee is on the house. You all seem to need it more than it needs to sit in the brewing tank."

Sotalia draws a slow grin and perks up. "Government surplus. Eat plasma shit."

Bach sinks into his chair and groans as the laughter erupts from the rest of the table. Even a quiet ethereal chuckle from the sword at Aristespha side joins in. Shaking his head, Bach narrows a gaze over the gathering. "I'm never going to live that down. Am I? It was all I could think of in the moment, it's not like I have a lot of experience with that stuff!"

Clara takes orders in between hearing the different perspectives of the latest mission with Triti listening nearby.

----

"A near maelstrom stage storm passed over the city of Amaranth Valley. Local authorities report no casualties or injuries. The mayor of Amaranth Valley went on to praise the efforts of public services and the Greater Azure Alliance specialists that have been serving in the area lately to assist in the local guild office efforts to manage nearby ruins. Authorities still warn citizens to be on alert for flooding and to avoid travel in flooded or flood prone areas for the next few days until the water table settles-"

Flicking her furry ears away from the television in the living area of the ranch style house, Cideeda adjusts the pile of pillows under her on half the couch. Briefly wincing, she settles belly down upon the plush mass and sighs. "Okay already... I can't stand hearing the same news stories over again. Could someone next to the remote change it? I think the Research Channel is doing a marathon of Tech of the Ruins."

Dretphi eyes the remote on the coffee table from her seat on the couch. Staring at the remote, she sighs. Her tank top and shorts barely cover any of the bruises and welts across her body. She grimaces and reluctantly readies herself to lean forward. Just as she starts to get up, Bach pulls himself out of his chair, plucks the remote off the coffee table, and aims it at the television. "What channel is it again?"

Dretphi settles back into the cushions and exhales in relief. Cideeda searches around the top of her head and thinks out loud. "Four dash two nine? That's what I remember for this area. I know it's around there."

Pressing a few buttons on the remote, Bach rubs his back. Drifting between a few channels, the Research Channel title pops on the screen. Bach reaches over the coffee table and hands the remote to Cideeda. "I'll let you handle this. Anyone need anything while I'm up? Wanted to grab a drink anyway."

Dretphi retrieves a cold pack from behind her back, unwraps one from around her shoulder, and strains to pull one off her leg. She holds the lukewarm batch in the air and glances at Bach with a warm smile. Cideeda slips a hand behind her shirt and presents another pack. Bach collects all in his hands and glances over at Sotalia. "You need anything, Sotalia?"

Furrowing his brow, he cocks his head. "Sotalia?"

Snoring loudly, Sotalia startles briefly and rolls over in the couch chair. An aspect of her subconscious self tugs a blanket back over herself, and she squirms back into comfortable slumber. Bach quirks a brow and glances between Cideeda and Dretphi. "Wow. She is out for the count."

Cideeda crosses underneath her head and rolls her emerald green eyes. "Oh, she'll be fine around dinner. This usually happens when she goes all out and drains her reserves."

Chuckling quietly, Dretphi shakes her head and flashes a smile at Bach. " She was given an opportunity. Wanted to show off."

Bach shrugs, pivots, and walks towards the kitchen. He opens the refrigerator, tosses the warm cold packs in, and digs around for fresh ones. Leaning forward, he quickly puts a hand on his lower back and slowly straightens back up with a cringe. "Not that I don't appreciate the wonders of magical medicine, but... Damn, I wish there was something for the aches."

Dretphi nods slowly and lifts her feet up on the coffee table. Cideeda tucks the remote between two pillows under her and carefully stretches her arms out. "You and me both. But, careful use of the powerful pain management magic is the best practice. I once knew a guy who got addicted to healing potions."

Bach hands Dretphi two cold packs and slowly leans over to place a third on her leg. "Really?! Damn. That's a pretty expensive addiction. I bet that didn't win him any friends."

Shaking her head wide-eyed, she grimaces with an uneasy sigh. "Well... He was fine... Until he started stealing from party members."

Bach secures the wrap around Dretphi's leg and hands the last fresh cold pack to an awaiting Cideeda. "What happened to him? I don't think anything good happens if you are doing crazy shit like that."

Cideeda slides the new cold pack under her shirt onto her back. Wrapping her arms around the piles of pillows, she flexes her clawtips into the fabric while squirming back into a comfortable position. "He eventually got help. Of course, that was AFTER he was found passed out in some small town alchemist shop with a bunch of empty potions around him. Guy had to go through some pain tolerance reconditioning for the withdrawal hyper-sensitivity. From what I heard, it's usually a one time thing for most people. Most don't go for a second time."

Blinking a few times, Bach eases back into his chair and stares at the television screen.

"On this episode of Tech of the Ruins, we take an in depth look at security robots, drones, androids, and cyborgs. How were they created and what were they used fo-"

The television flips to another show. While the twitch in her eye fades, Cideeda slowly retracts her arm back and returns the remote between the pillows. "We'll try that marathon later on. After THAT episode."

The front door opens. Aristespha strolls in, gripping a large sack in each hand. She shuts the door behind her with a press of a boot. She quickly walks to the dining table, hoists the two sacks on the tabletop, and takes her hat off. "Took three times and a manager to get the order right, but we have the finest greasy burgers this side of town can offer."

Cideeda peers over her shoulder at Aristespha with a toothy grin. "Any new dents on the humvee?"

Placing her hands on her sides, Aristespha sways her hips into a playfully defensive pose and bites her lip as her violet eyes wander. "No. But... I may or may not have cut off one of Next Adventurers of Nexus vans. I also may or may not have also used choice language and gestures, during prior possible event."

The ethereal voice of Sebastian echoes, as his visage materializes. "To which I may or may not have fully approved of. You did signal anyway, dear."

Aristespha removes various bags, cartons, and containers from the two large sacks. She spins around, steps over to Bach, and hooks a finger around the collar of his shirt. Examining around his neck, she nods. "Looks like most of the burn has healed. Back and chest feeling any better?"

Bach shrugs and waves a finger behind him. "Much better. Still sore when I move certain ways."

Aristespha releases Bach's shirt with a smile. "It should be safe for you to take a few aspirin. We'll have to wait and see to see if there's a muscle group that needs more attention."

She shifts her attention at Dretphi and sighs. "Looks another dose of the anti-contusion and anti-swelling mix for you."

Dretphi curls a lip into a sneer and grumbles. Aristespha crosses her arms and shakes her head. "Now. Now. My potions have the proper amounts of flavoring. You'll feel and look a lot better. I promise. You can also mix it with your drink."

Gracefully steps around to Cideeda, Aristespha slowly flips the back of her shirt up and lifts the waistband of her shorts up. She quickly assesses and gently releases the garments. "Probably another day and the swelling should go down. Still touchy on the upper back?"

Cideeda slowly nods and sighs. "Yes, doc. Trying to keep it elevated. It seems to help a bit."

Aristespha nods and glances at Sotalia with a wry smirk. "Has she moved from that spot since this morning?"

Bach, Cideeda, and Dretphi shake their heads. Aristespha moves over to the dining table, picks up a carton, and returns to a spot next to Sotalia. Cracking open the box, she gently fans the scent of food. Second later, Sotalia sniffles loudly and stirs in the chair. She sluggishly sits up on the couch chair and squirms around as sleep releases her to consciousness. Her hands drift to her face, and she rubs the sleep out. Her eyes flutter open, and she lethargically stares at the gathering. "Hey."

Aristespha covers her mouth and stifles a giggle. Cideeda presses her jaw down past her crossed arms into the pillow below. Dretphi tightens smile, and her steely gray eyes wander to the others. Bach and Sebastian exchange glances. Sebastian ethereally snorts while Bach laughs. Sotalia awakens fully and glares at the team, hunting for clues. "What?! Are my scleras still black?"

Sotalia fishes her phone out of her robe pocket, presses a camera app open, and stares at the screen. "What is so funny- OH GODS DAMMIT!"

She narrows her eyes at the image of herself with one black sclera eye and one white sclera eye. Putting her phone away, she crosses arms into a frustrated pout. "Always! Can't fade to shades of gray. Or change back in sync. Nope! Has to be one before the other."

----

In the dining part of the large room of the ranch style house, the team lounges around the dining table. In the quiet moment, distant stares wander over the leftovers of fast food destruction upon the table. Bach assesses the pile of empty burger cartons in front of Sotalia and wanders his gaze at the heap in front of Dretphi. Comparing the very similar dimensions of the refuse, he furrows his bow inquisitively and visibly ponders. He briefly opens his mouth, closes it, and shakes the thought out of his head. His curiosity retreats against the satisfaction of self-preservation. Aristespha retrieves her aetherphone from her pants pocket and places it upon the table with a sly grin. "Since everyone is here and not going anywhere soon, I wanted to share this interesting voicemail I got from Captain Hackle of the Greater Azure Alliance Specialist Squad."

While everyone exchanges confused glances, Aristespha taps the play button on the phone screen.

"Hello. This Captain Hackle of the Greater Azure Alliance. I apologize if this is not the correct means of contacting your group, but it was the only means granted to me by the local guild office. First, I would like to congratulate you on a... Successful operation in handling the rogue security robot. We are currently securing the site and surrounding areas as indicated by the guild's request for containment assistance. This brings me to the reason for this call. While we have collected most of the security robot, we are missing some components. Namely, the head and both arm mounted weapon systems."

Cideeda and Dretphi gaze at each other. They glance down to the wall behind them. A security robot head lays on its side with a plasma projectile cannon and minigun propped upon it. Dretphi smugly smiles. Cideeda dons with a wide, toothy grin and whispers loudly. "They may be looking for a while."

"As per local, state, and other such laws, you are not under any obligation to assist any further than the initial requirements of your contract with the guild. However, I would recommend that you consider providing assistance as a professional courtesy that I would happily repay when the time comes."

Another irritated voice rises up from the background noise of the recording.

"Wait a minute... Are these same assholes from that cyborg den?! ... What the fuck did they do to this thing?! Plasma burns, part of it is... Disintegrated?! Holy shit! They froze this thing and blew it up! Motherfucker. And I thought the dick who put that barrier around that base entry was troublesome enough. Where are they finding these people?!"

Captain Hackle grumbles over the sounds of a microphone readjusting.

"As I've been... Informed... by Specialist Theyal... You are the same group that rescued the... Unfortunately titled adventurers' camera crew. Again, I would strongly recommend at least a meeting between my group and yours at your earliest convenience. I strongly believe that we may be able to assist each other in future endeavors. Please contact me at the number and aethermail I have attached to this voice mail. Thank you, and have a nice day."

The phone silences and returns to another menu prompt. Sotalia muffles a burp and barely contains her sheer prideful amusement. "Wow. We're making friends in all kinds of places."

Bach warily eyes Aristespha's phone and tilts his head away. "Uh, I think friend is a strong word. Maybe, associate? I suggest if we do meet them, we do it somewhere public?"

Shaking her head, Aristespha rolls her violet eyes and brushes back her long, silvery blue hair. "It will be fine. They are a very decorated, but very offbeat group. They are just adventurers under the military umbrella for all practical purposes. I am curious if they have some information we don't have."

Sebastian hovers over Aristespha's shoulder and peeks at her phone messages. "Dear, speaking of information, any word from your friend Nash over at the Grand Library?"

Lifting up the phone, Aristespha stares at the screen and lifts an eyebrow. "Nothing new since last night when he responded to my initial message. But, he's probably just waking up. I'll send him an aethermail to call me."

Sebastian scratches the back of his head and puzzles at Aristespha. "Why not just call him?"

Aristespha taps the last few characters of the message and sends it out. Placing the phone back on the tabletop, she twists a smile. "Won't work. Being a head of a department, his official phone gets constantly rung by everyone. So, it's usually on silent. He has a personal phone he only lets family know of. For everyone else, the best route is an aethermail."

The phone plays a new chime and vibrates on the table. Grinning deviously, Aristespha answers and places the phone up to her very long, pointed ear. "Let me guess, passed out in front of the console after watching videos, waiting for something to process?"

A long silence follows before the speaker on the phone sounds out a response. Aristespha smiles satisfied, pulls the phone away from her ear, and presses a button on screen. "Well, wake up, you're on speakerphone."

Nash's voice resonates out Aristespha's aetherphone. "Damn, woman. Wake me up, and already put me out in front of an audience. Slave driver. So, who's all there?"

Aristespha glances at everyone at the table and says their names. Nash yawns loudly and grumbles to a more aware state. "Okay! Suppose you all want my expert analysis of the bits and pieces you sent over from those weird ruins? I mean, I got some really good soup and hot sauce recipes I'm willing to share, too."

Aristespha eye rolls with an amused smirk. "Your culinary wisdom will have to wait. What have you found out?"

Nash dramatically stretches a mock sigh over the speakerphone. "Fine. Someday, though. Well, when it comes to the tidbits you sent. All I can figure after looking it over... It's GOT to be some mapping data. The formatting and patterns just scream it. Unfortunately, I don't got much more past that. Have to figure out the exact time period, which government had their hand in it, and all the other factors. Then, there's this whole thing with all these extra vectors and dimensions it's tracking."

Cideeda leans forward and directs her voice to the phone with a bit of curiosity showing. "Could it be just part of the data set, or maybe an index?"

Nash responds with an equally intrigued tone. "You know I thought that, too. But... The formatting isn't right. It's strictly header then data, repeating. So... What is it indexing? Anyway, I'll see what I can do. I think we might have a system that might be a close match given we get the rest of the system dumps?"

Aristespha nods and places her chin on her intertwined fingers. "I think we can do that. Send me the transfer account and link?"

Keys clacks rise up from the background, and Nash hems. "Yep, I'll get that to you right about... Now. I keep a few anonymous accounts for such reasons. I'll see if I can sneak you all some Finder's Reward from the department acquisitions account. Might take a while..."

Lowering her head closer to the phone, Aristespha inquires with a vague condemning tone. "What did you DO this time?"

A long pause hovers in the air. A long drawn out groan echoes through from Nash's side of the call. "You know. I make strides in nurturing interdepartmental cooperation and worked with the materials science guys to buy a mass document incinerator. Since, they were a bit short at the end of the budget year."

Aristespha maintains her tone and focuses her inquisition. "What was it REALLY?"

Nash takes a long breath and exhales equally long, before slipping a response at the very end. "... a military surplus flamethrower..."

Cideeda snorts and breaks out laughing. Dretphi's eyes open fully, and she stares at the phone. Bach and Sebastian nod at each other with a mix of astonishment and respect towards the achievement. Furrowing her disbelief, Sotalia glares at Aristespha and mouths, "Who the fuck is this guy?!"

Sitting back, Aristespha simply shakes her head with a chuckle. "Did the deans ever stop being mad at you for smuggling those kegs of beer through the department purchasing system for the graduation party?"

Nash laughs for a few seconds and snorts. "Mad? Well, officially they do not condone such misuse. Unofficially, they've been using that same trick with that same local brewery. That place has the craziest beer names now on their hidden roster. It's made them pretty popular with a few other departments and businesses. Copier Paper is a really good pale ale. Black Toner is great oatmeal stout. Whiteboard Markers is a solid collection of different sours."

Aristespha bites her lip with a sly smile, and her eyes reflect upon memories. "That was a really good party, though."

An office chair squeaks over the speaker, and Nash gives a few trailing chuckles. "I know. Well, I won't pester you all any further. I'm going to hunt down a few graduate assistants, and press-gang them into actually doing some work. I'll message you with the progress and call you if I get any breakthroughs. Don't know how long it's going to be. It’s kind of the way these reverse engineering jobs are. Luck can go either way depending on what we try. I'll hopefully know more later."

Aristespha nods thankfully. "That will work. You take care."

Nash sounds out over speakerphone one last time. "Will do. You all do the same."

The phone switches back to the menu screen, and Aristespha tucks the phone away in a pants pocket. "So... That's Nash for you."

Sebastian crosses his arms and shrugs. "Seems like an interesting fellow. Was he an adventurer at some point?"

Aristespha shakes her head and snorts. "No. Never. I fear what he may have been capable of if it wasn't for the confines of the Grand Library."

With a smirk, Sebastian laughs dismissively. "Please. What trouble could you get into at a respected place, like the Grand Library."

The longer Aristespha tightly keeps her mouth shut and awkwardly averts her gaze, the curiosity grows from the rest of the team.

----

The idle drone of the television fills the space and joins the soft flow of air from the split unit air conditioner. Early afternoon sun filters in through the back sliding glass door and casts a warm glow upon the carpeted floor. Lounging in his stabilized energy chair, Bach lifts the remote at the television and flips through a few more channels. "Damn... There's NOTHING on. I forgot how bad mid-week, mid-day television is. I mean, I knew it was bad. But, wow. At least I wasn't missing much when I slept in past noon."

Coiling her fluffy tail around herself, Cideeda squirms into her pile of pillows behind her back and underneath her on the couch. "Yeah, I know. But, until the holoplayer is done uploading everything into that account Nash sent us, I don't want to bother it. Connection speed is slow enough as it as, I don't want to have to restart it."

Dretphi stretches her neck side to side and glances over to Cideeda. "Should we try the marathon again?"

Cideeda droops her ears and groans with a frown. "Not quite yet. I looked up the schedule, and the whole bots and cyborgs thing is a few episodes. Out of all the things to make a multi-part series out of."

Adjusting her shirt and shorts, Sotalia strolls in through the hall archway. Gazing over at the group, she blinks her usual white sclera golden pupil eyes. "No kidding, girl. Gods, I've had enough robots and cyborgs to last me a while."

She glances over to her side along the wall and scrutinizes the robot head near the dining table. "I can guess the plans for the two big guns, but why did you take the head of that bot?"

Cideeda slowly puts her arms behind her head and widens a toothy grin. "Mostly as a trophy. And... Judging by how quick it was to target us, I bet there's some choice parts in there. Part that might be either useful or worth something..."

An entrepreneurial spark lights up her emerald green eyes. "Or both."

Shaking her head with a smile, Sotalia slowly plods over to the sliding glass window. She stares out onto the backyard and admires the afternoon sun overhead. She rests her hands on her hips and idly shifts her weight between her feet. Squinting through the glass, she grimaces inquiringly. "Huh. Sebastian is rushing back here awfully quick. What's going on-"

Sebastian phases through the sliding glass window, zips through the room, and flies down the hallway. Jetting straight to Aristespha's room at the end of the hall, he wrestles an awkward smile. "Dear, I need you to get the sword and follow me... There's... Something I think we all need to get a better look at. I can't get close enough to get a clear look."

After a minute of confused exchanges between Bach, Cideeda, Dretphi, and Sotalia, Sebastian glides out of the hallway into the living room and signals everyone to follow. "Follow me. I really hope I'm wrong about this."

Aristespha walks out from the hallway, holding the sword in its scabbard. Falling in behind Sebastian, the group trudges across the large open field of a backyard. Near the corner of the property, Sebastian points over to the lot diagonal and motions towards the house. "You know that house I mentioned that had someone going through it? The one I saw the lights on and other activity?"

Aristespha crosses arms and squints her violet eyes to the distant house. "Yes? The one I said someone was probably getting ready for renters?"

Sebastian groans reluctantly and raises a point to one of the vehicles near the house. "Well, looks like THEY'RE moving in."

Cideeda steps forward, shields the sun from her eyes, and focuses on the distant target. Her light brown cheek twitches, and she grits her sharp teeth. "No... No way. How?!"

Dretphi quirks her concerned brow at Cideeda and searches in the same direction. Spotting a tall, unfortunately familiar figure carrying adventuring equipment from a vehicle, she growls to herself. Placing her face well into the palm of her hand, she groans. "Of all things..."

Sotalia gestures out a quick incantation and holds her hands in front with finger tips touching. Staring through for mere moments, she grimaces and grabs her horns swearing a few different languages. She steps angrily away and grumbles to herself. Bach eyes Sebastian and slowly sighs with a wary frown. "I can't exactly make it out. But... I think the mass of people with recording equipment gives it away."

Sebastian nods as his ethereal form pinches the bridge of his nose. "Yes. It was exactly what I thought. Well, at least we know where they're at. Great. Well, let's head back before anyone notices us.

He glances over to Aristespha with a smile. "Dear?"

Hovering Aristespha's side, he drifts cautiously in front of her. "Hey. Dear? Let's go back to the house. And..."

Aristespha's ivory face reddens in stark contrast to the blue and gray hints. Her grip shakes around the sword. Her head tilts to one shoulder with a crack and to the other with another similar crack. Gritting her teeth, she hisses as air draws through and screams out. "FUCK!"

Next to the house in the middle of the crews and adventurers, Samantha snaps her head toward the direction of the angry voice with a smug smile. Waves at the group in the distance, she holds her aetherphone close to her head. "Good news, Howie! Looks like the locals have just found about their new neighbors."

A dark, ominous laugh bellows forth from the speakerphone, growing in volume with each passing second. Eventually, it fades and Howard speaks through. "Good. Very good."

Timeline

March 3017

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Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

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Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 9

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Episode 10

Episode 11

Episode 12

Episode 13

Excerpt from the diary of Deedri Preetta...

Dear diary,

Today we moved into our new home! It's actually a really nice house, and I get my own room. It's certainly a nice step up from the... Really terrible motel room I had to share with Tassilda. I don't like to wish bad things, but if Fate sees fit to burn a building down they couldn't pick a better place. I imagine the neighbors would mind the fire, but they would enjoy the property value increase.

My room is just right for me. I have plenty of space to set up all my medical equipment, and it came with a big bed. It is the smallest room in comparison to the others, but I'm happy with it. Given the hour long argument between Chad, Tassilda, and Trakenthin about who should get the biggest room, I'm happy to have it. I find it funny that Modoran moved all his stuff into the bedroom across from mine at the end of the hall while everyone else was arguing. He said that he'd prefer to have me on the other side of the hall rather than risk getting stuck between Chad and Trakenthin. While everyone else kept going about their reasons, we helped each other move our stuff in our rooms. You could not believe how nice it was to not have a camera crew following you around, while they were distracted with the fighting.

The amazing thing is that we even have neighbors out here. And, they're the same people who saved the camera crew that got trapped down in the military research base during our first mission! Chad got some information files about them from Samantha. I don't know where she got them from, but I get the feeling it's not the type of information you are normally supposed to have. The camera crews weren't around when we got to see the files. Gods, it felt a little weird looking at it all. But, I couldn't help myself. Really! The group is really accomplished and all. I mean, they were the group that confronted Lord Noxian! I had to find out more about them.

Hopefully, I can get a better look at them in the future, so I can draw them here. I'll just describe them for now. I know I already said this, but I'm really excited! It’s so amazing to see so many different people. I mean, all the people back with mom and dad are still interesting and unique, but all this is so new to me! Things were a little... stagnant back home. Okay, let me describe them.

There's Aristespha Selena Tarikira Orienden. The name alone is Evuukian all the way. I hope I wrote it down correctly. Evuukian names can get very elaborate. The file said she's 31 years old and 182cm tall. She seemed taller to me, but I'm not that tall myself. Also, I think the boots she was wearing added a few centimeters and her ears rose just above her hairline. Oh, she has really lovely hair. It's very long with a slight wave. That silvery blue color almost shines in the sun. I haven't gotten the best up close look, but it's just astonishing all the Pre-Cataclysm genetic modifications for things like hair color that are still around. While the colors are not strictly unique to Evuukians, it's just so prominent and common. And like most evuukians, she has the really long slender pointed ears that extend past the back of her head and up above. I think she has violet eyes and her skin is pale with gray or blue hints to it. The skin tone hinting is very common with Evuukians, but her ivory skin just shows it off more. I think Modoran has some similar hints, but I haven't gotten a close enough look. On a side note... I REALLY hope adventuring and being the group's medical mage gets me her athletic figure. Gods, I really need to get on an exercise routine. Also, I hope she's still not mad at me for taking so long at the pharmacy. Because, I REALLY want to ask her where she gets her outfits! They are SO PRETTY and functional, too! Even her worst has to be better than this crap the show wardrobe people set me up with. On to the next person...

Bach Nikola Warwick. So, he is really new to the team. From the file, he just got registered a week or so ago. There's not much about him, but he is Sebastian's brother. He's listed as an intern and hasn't graduated from school yet. I really looked over the info Samantha brought us, and I honestly have more questions now. He went to school with his brother, dropped out, and now after so many years is back? Honestly, he doesn't look like the adventuring type. He's 30 years old, and it says he's pretty tall at 193cm. I don't know. It could be that he's just hunched over and really... Stocky? I don't want to be mean, but he could really lose 5, 10, or more kilograms? Well, maybe now that he's with the group he'll get some exercise and maybe get outside more. Given his light skin that's tanning easily, he's been inside A LOT. Apart from that he's got longer brown hair with a really cool white streak in front. Also, blue eyes. In fact, I remember seeing them glow blue when he put up that barrier at the military lab to keep all those horrible cybernetic things contained. That reminds me, how does a drop out manage a barrier that strong?! I don't know. It just doesn't make sense. Something is not lining up. There has to be more going on here, but I'll just have to find out later. Oddly, Chad took a REALLY long time with Bach's file, almost as long as he took to look through Sebastian's file.

Sebastian Bartolome Warwick is an interesting case. He's bound to an ancient sword? He's able to materialize himself as some kind of projection? I still don't know the details, and I haven't seen it myself clearly. So, maybe it's some kind of illusion spell? I've never really studied that much into that type of magic. Looking over his file, he's quite the heroic type. His file photo is... flattering. 192 cm tall, muscular enough build, and a nice tan. I have to admit, I REALLY love the classic heroic loose pompadour. Brown hair with a cute little white streak... I can see why he's the leader. He's got blue eyes that are piercing and a really nice smile. His smile actually seems really genuine, unlike Chad's which between you and me is a little unnerving. From what I've seen so far, he keeps near Aristespha. I'm guessing that's because she has the sword, but I don't know.

I am really excited about Cideeda Garadra-Deeseeni! She's another fvalian! After mom moved away from the village, I never got to be around other fvalians that often. Only when visiting family. So, I hope I get to talk to her and maybe even do some activities together! She's 28 years old and it says she's about 155 cm, so I'm actually a little taller for once. Her short cut hair has this really neat mix of brown, white, tan, orange, and black colors. That definitely is the fvalian calico hair color pattern in her genetics. She has the really big ears that point to the sides and have the fur on the inside. I really wish mine had the furry tufts inside. It must keep so much of the dirt and annoying bugs out. But, I like the tufts on my ear tips, so I wouldn't give them up. I've only seen them from a distance, but the her file says she has green eyes, almost an emerald green. I noticed the picture showed some pupil reflection, so I bet she's like me and can see well in the dark. I have to say, she must have done some kind of gymnastics like all the time when she was a little. I'm a bit jealous. She's got this amazing lithe, fit build. It makes total sense since she's the technical and infiltration specialist for their team. Modoran is really careful with what he eats, so he can keep slim for sneaking around. I need to ask her what her secret is. She has got light brown skin and some really neat markings from what I've seen. Both our tails are similar types, long and with medium length fur. Her tufts out at the end while mine tapers with longer hairs. As usual with all of us fvalians, she's got claws on her fingers and toes, and the classic pronounced canines. I have to find out where she buys those toed shoes with the holes for toe claws. I think most people don't realize our claws don't retract or anything like that.

Dretphi Prakkenten Reti Veranattin. That house name sounds familiar. I think my mom once told me a few stories about a General Veranattin who led Grath military reserves in defense against an onslaught of bandits headed towards border towns out west. I wonder if she's related to him? Dretphi is certainly a Grath. Big, tall, and strong. She seems very reserved? Then again, it might just be grath traditional stoicism to other races playing out. It says she's 200 cm tall and I believe she's every centimeter and probably more. She's actually the youngest of the group at 26. She has a lighter tan, almost bronze skin color. It's one of the common skin tones for Grath, but I don't remember what historical region in the world that's from. Honestly, with everyone spreading out in the world a lot of the old genetic origins names don't mean that much. She has faint gray stripe markings along her arms and maybe elsewhere. That's actually a characteristic common for a certain origin lineage. I'm really curious about her family tree and where her ancestors were from. Also her hair is really interesting! She has a rare temperature sensitive protein in her hair. I remember reading up about it in a Pre-Cataclysm genetic modification history course. Over time the protein actually changes in response to temperature, lightening the hair color with warmer temperatures and darkening the hair with colder temperatures. So her hair starts out platinum blonde and ends up dirty blonde at the very ends. It's really neat, especially with how she braids her hair. Her eyes have a very steely gray color. I think that's another rare coloration, too. And of course, she's pretty muscular and stout in her build, but still shapely. No wonder Trakenthin gawks at her for so long when he's gotten the chance. She's probably just as strong as him given Grath biology.

Finally, there's Sotalia Aurica Feratosia. From what I can gather, she's a half-emin and I believe a proper 2nd generation half-emin! It's becoming more common outside of the old Emin territories to see Part-Emin and Half-Emin, but second generation Half-Emins are very uncommon. It's fascinating to see what traits were passed down and expressed. She's 35 years old, the oldest of the group, and 183 cm tall. I would have only guessed she was in her late 20's. That's probably the emin coming through with keratin protein production being enhanced and modified with common genetic mods. Though, I do remember a number of other people growing up that did not look anywhere near their age. Then again, a lot of those old genetic mods are scattered throughout every group. She has this dark red, moderate length straight hair. I know Emin hair colors can be any color, but I don't remember ever seeing this particular shade of red before. It might be some quirk of the 2nd generation... Or, could it be that she dyes it? Her skin is a mixing of light tan and a dark gray that flows together with the dark gray on the backs of her arms and neck. Possibly on her back and sides of her legs, too? I remember that being a common pattern based on Blaschko lines, but I haven't seen it myself. She has the emin golden iris color but white scleras. She has very developed horns. They start just above her temples to the front, sweep back, and curl towards her pointed ears. They have a black coloration that I don't think is natural. Tassilda uses a polish on hers, so I'm guessing Sotalia does, too. It seems to be a common thing since they naturally can crack and discolor. She has the long, thick black nails common with Emins. Which reminds me, I need to see if I can borrow a file from Tassilda. I haven't been able to find my claw file since we moved. Anyway, it's a bit weird having Tassilda the full Emin and Sotalia the Half-Emin around.

Well, that's all I got for now, diary. It's been a really exciting few weeks now! I just hope we go on a few quests and work as a team. It's been a rough start, but I'm hoping it works out in the end. I really wish we get to meet the other group, and we do stuff together. I get the feeling that might not be the case with how Samantha was talking. Well, I'll try to be nice and keep out of the drama. But, I don't know if the rest of the group will be so... welcoming. Maybe I can do something when the cameras aren't watching... Write to you later, diary.

Guild Registered Group #7704: Quick Physical Identification Guide

Aristespha Selena Tarikira Orienden, 31 year old female Evuukian. 182cm, Athletic thin

Pale ivory skin with gray/blue hints. Very long silvery blue wavy hair. Violet eyes.

Very long, pointed ears that extend behind the head.

Bach Nikola Warwick, 30 year old male Human, 193cm, Stocky

Fair skin with farmer's tan. Long brown hair with gray hairs and a notable gray/white streak in front. Blue eyes.

Sebastian Bartolome Warwick, 30 year old male human soul bound to sword,192cm, muscular

Tan skin. Short brown hair arranged in a loose pompadour with a white streak. Blue eyes.

Presently in ethereal and ghostly form.

Cideeda Garadra-Deeseeni, 28 year old female Fvalian,155cm, Lithe, fit

Light Brown skin with various markings and variations with thin hair covering that grows thick in some areas. Short, multi-color hair: A mix of brown, white, tan, orange, and black. Green eyes.

Long furry, hair filled ears that articulate and droop to the sides. Claws on fingers and toes. Sharp pronounced canines. Long tail with medium length fur, tufts out at end.

Dretphi Prakkenten Reti Veranattin, 26 year old female Grath, 200cm, Thick, muscular

Tan skin tone with faint, grayish stripe markings along body. Long hair in multiple braids that starts out platinum blonde and darkens to dirty blonde at the tips, darkens with long term colder temperatures. Steely gray eyes.

Sotalia Aurica Feratosia, 35 year old female 2nd Generation Half-Emin, 183cm, Hourglass

Half light tan and dark gray skin. Moderate length straight, dark red hair. Golden eyes.

Short swept-back black, ridged horns that start above temples, towards the front of the head, and curl down behind the ears. Short pointy ears. Naturally long, thick black nails.

Transcript from "Histories of the Evuukian House of Assembly" Episode 89

Meriten: "First, I would like to thank you for coming in for an interview, Former Prime Minister Ottocasian."

Ottocasion: "Oh, the pleasure is all mine, Mr. Meriten. When I got the invite and saw the particular subject, I knew I HAD to come on your outstanding show."

Meriten: "I figured as much. So, shall we go straight to the topic at hand?"

Ottocasion: "Yes. Oh yes, please! Don't make me wait!"

Meriten: "Former Regent Beckerin Alva Niko Verherin-"

Ottocasion: "Ancestors help me! The stories I could tell about that man!"

Meriten: "And stories that will be told. But, first things first... How did Former Regent Beckerin, as we know he preferred, ever become a Regent?"

Ottocasion: "Desperation! And desperation of its purest form! You have to understand, back then, the House Of Assembly had more in common with a tavern full of angry drunks and a fighting ring than it did with a proper form of governance."

Meriten: "I distinctly remember those times. I must say, we common folk were quite worried if we were going to have any form of government the next day given some of the nightly broadcasts of the Assembly."

Ottocasion: "Oh. If the cameras could only show half the events going on. As troubling as those times were, some good came of it. We saw a dramatic increase of youthful assembly members."

Meriten: "Yes, and the decor of the House of Assembly changed around that time. I assume not much survived the many brawls."

Ottocasion: "Well, truth be told, we ran out of matching spare chairs and desks. As thrilled as we were to have such youthful participation, it really did a number to the furniture. But, that's what you got when houses started to bring in their strong sons and spry daughters to the meetings."

Meriten: "Indeed. Which is why the fact that, after an entire year of deliberation, all the houses had finally agreed to elect Berotan Elro Wreto Arreshin. It was quite the astounding achievement! You could taste the relief in the air."

Ottocasion: "Oh, yes... I still remember the dead silence after the final vote was revealed. Everyone was just... Speechless. After failed vote after failed vote, we were just anticipating another round of voting. But... No. We had FINALLY picked someone to serve as Prime Minister! We were elated! It was the first time in so long that we were all genuinely happy."

Meriten: "Unfortunately, that had to end... Didn't it?"

Ottocasion: "Yes. Yes, unfortunately. Damned Powers-That-Be didn't waste any time either."

Meriten: "If I remember my history correctly, Prime Minister Arreshin... I believe he dropped dead?"

Ottocasion: "Ancestors as my witness, yes. He dropped stone cold dead in the middle of the first trade referendums. Just dead. It was sheer chaos for a solid week afterwards."

Meriten: "The news outlets certainly had a time of it."

Ottocasion: "Tell me about it. Every theory in the known world was flying around the media. Poisons, magical hexes, and all sorts of foul play. It was far less dastardly. Turns out it was an unknown severe allergy to a very straight forward medication coupled with a weak heart. Truthfully, at the time, I really wished it was some form of foul play."

Meriten: "Did you, really?"

Ottocasion: "Yes, absolutely! Frankly, every political commentator was spinning some strange conspiracy theory with the honest truth being a cover story. It would have given all of us FAR more time to come up with a damned solution to the problem of no longer having a Prime Minister. You have NEVER seen so many house members in a near panic. Not only were the people of the nation sick of the whole state of affairs, every province was threatening to pull their representative houses back for re-election, and some were facing possible disbandment."

Meriten: "I believe this leads to where Beckerin comes into the picture."

Ottocasion: "Indeed. As the famous saying goes; Quick solutions are the bastards of desperation. We needed the quickest fix. But, unfortunately, the most obvious solution, electing another Prime Minister wasn't going to happen. Despite all of our collective necks being on the chopping block, the houses would fight and squabble with any candidate now. Many of the craftier houses would certainly find a way to spin the delays in the new election process to their advantage. And no house was going to give another a chance to get a step above them. After much searching, we found a strange quirk of the laws created during our transition from a monarchy to a republic. While the positions of king, queen, prince, and princess had been abolished and any power removed from anyone appointed by any monarchy member... There was still one position that had never been touched."

Meriten: "The Regent."

Ottocasion: "Yes. Exactly! Because of how limited the Regent was in power in comparison to proper royalty and how rarely those laws were used, it had been completely ignored in the Articles of Transition! A few very astute legal experts postulated that the Reagent had enough authority to assume roles of the Prime Minister in interim. It took some trickery with how the old monarchy positions were translated to republic positions via the Articles, but we came up with a route to reactivate the Regent position."

Meriten: "It still is fascinating to this day that particular oversight had never been found until that point. But, I guess no one was honestly looking, until that point."

Ottocasion: "And we probably would have been still looking if it hadn't been a random comment from an elder member of one of the houses. He rambled on about how back in the monarchy days they would have just installed a Regent. So, with some very liberal interpretations of law, the House of Assembly could install a temporary Regent to serve in the event of the death of the Prime Minister. But... despite that amazing work, we still had a problem."

Meriten: "Which was?"

Ottocasion: "Finding someone! There was no way any house member with influence could be installed. The other houses would riot. We could not afford another deadlock. In the heat of a full blown spat between houses, the name was yelled. I will never forgot the line that hung in the air. Gods damn it all, let's just get Beckerin to do it! The entire House of Assembly grew quiet. The silence of a few hundred plotting minds thinking upon one person was absolutely deafening. Beckerin. Mr. Beckerin Alva Niko Verherin! A first born of the Verherin house, a moderate house, that had renounced his claim to the house and completely removed himself from any political influences for the past decade. Not only was he truly a neutral party that could no longer serve normally, he was actually qualified from years of personal training at the hand of his father, mother, uncles, and aunts. Beckerin had more time in a house seat by the time of his twentieth birthday than a good fifth of the Assembly! He was our man!"

Meriten: "And the other houses had no objections?"

Ottocasion: "Oh, there were plenty... Right up until the first wave of messages from the provinces started to pour in with deadlines and threats. The House of Assembly collectively reached an unanimous decision to install Beckerin as the first Regent in over two hundred years. We had bought the stay of execution we all were so desperate for."

Meriten: "How did Beckerin react to this?"

Ottocasion: "Well, when government agents eventually found him in a border region town in a motel between his ventures, I believe he originally thought it was a very elaborate practical joke. When he saw the official paperwork, he excused himself to gather his belongings... And then promptly attempted escape out the motel's bathroom window."

Meriten: "Oh my! Was there an epic chase?"

Ottocasion: "Oh no. I made sure to recommend an expert with previous experience in capturing elusive fugitives be part of the team. Beckerin was cornered immediately upon climbing down and escorted directly back the capital."

Meriten: "So the reign of Beckerin began?"

Ottocasion: "OH YES! Was it ever the most refreshing experience! I'll never forget the first few sessions. Beckerin was very compliant, initially. But, I could sense that something was churning in his mind, just beneath the thin veneer of contempt. After all the initial ceremonies and press, we all convened for winter holidays. During that time, our dear Beckerin got to work. You have to understand that upon his renouncement of his claim to his house, he was for the most part exiled from his family. Now, his brothers and sisters did of course visit tastefully in secret, but he spent a majority of the winter holidays alone in the House of Assembly's old royal quarters. They were granted to him by his position. Unfortunately, the support staff wasn't. So, he was all alone to entertain himself with nothing but the resources the legal core of our empire at his disposal."

Meriten: "I'm sure at the time that didn't seem too threatening. But, I must say with hindsight, that was not the wisest move the Assembly had ever done."

Ottocasion: "Debatable. Maybe not the wisest at the time, but it served a greater purpose that no one could have ever imagined. When all the houses reconvened, we were happily greeted by Beckerin with the biggest smile. The perceptive house members were very disturbed by this alone. We had no idea what was coming next. We were so blind in jumping out of the way of a falling candle, we leaped into the fireplace."

Meriten: "This has been debated and argued by many historians, but... Who was the first to get hosed down that fateful day?"

Ottocasion: "HA HA HA! Yes! I've heard the debates, and I'll be happy to settle this once and for all."

Meriten: "So?"

Ottocasion: "It was Baccel Meriton Avel Fettela."

Meriten: "Oh my! Really? Everyone says it was Reletal Oboren Selet Paccellin!"

Ottocasion: "Well, he was a fast second to receive the hose. When the two decided to get into a heated argument over a trade policy, Beckerin calmly raised a garden hose with a sprayer he had run to his podium and proceeded to douse Fettela and, then immediately afterwards, Paccellin. Which immediately stunned them into silence with the rest of us."

Meriten: "Thus the fateful moment titled by scholars, the Beckerin Reveal."

Ottocasion: "HA HA HA! Yes! I will never forget the horror in so many of the faces of the Assembly. I must admit I, too, was shocked, but I was left in awe quickly. Beckerin revealed three key points of power the Regent had and still had at the time. One, the Regent had full and final say in all major policies that required government involvement to enforce presented in the Assembly. Two, the Regent had command over all civil services. Three, the Regent had the power to command the military in defense of the empire from direct threats to the stability of the empire."

Meriten: "I would guess the house members were not exactly happy by this reveal?"

Ottocasion: "Of course not. In fact, we were all fairly livid at this point. But, any temptation of revolt faded quickly when the police rushed in, secured the exits, and remained in the room as a very vigilant guard over us. Then, the Lord High Knight and Prime Arch Mage from the military walked into the room and stood at either side of Beckerin. As it turns out, attempting any kind of aggressive action upon the Regent was considered a threat to the stability of the empire."

Meriten: "Many have recounted that they thought they were about to be in the middle of a coup, but... Beckerin continued normal Assembly business. Well, minus the hours-long arguments and outbreaks of fighting."

Ottocasion: "Oh, the back room plotting that happened after that first day. The first week after that spectacle, I was brought into SO many secret little meetings about what to do about Beckerin. But, Beckerin was charismatic and quite capable of gaining the trust of all the staff and administrators for all the houses. He knew all that was going on. He even revealed every single plan hatched by everyone in an amazing presentation. Normally, given his Regent powers this all would be grounds for being put on trial for treason. But, Beckerin gave us a deal that, at the time, we could not refuse. If we elected a new Prime Minister, the position of the Regent would no longer be in effect. So all we had to do is to just get together and vote for a new Prime Minister."

Meriten: "I remember this. Beckerin has gone on record stating that he had hoped to only need to serve as Regent for a couple of weeks. But, he served for over A YEAR. What happened from your perspective?"

Ottocasion: "Oh, he was simply too good at the job!"

Meriten: "But did not everyone initially want him gone?"

Ottocasion: "Of course. But, initial slights aside... After a month, no one could deny the results! Policies stymied for years went through with newly revised fair terms in days. The number of violent incidents in the House of Assembly plummeted. Many houses were actually on decent speaking terms for the first time in YEARS. Public approval was sky-rocketing. After a few months, there was no need for the police and military presence anymore. It was strange. It was like for the first time house members got an honest taste of what a functional form of a government was... And liked it! Of course, the whole turn around was driving poor Beckerin insane."

Meriten: "I seems as if he was really hoping to push a quick vote on the new Prime Minister."

Ottocasion: "Yes. Let it be said, that because you are great at something does not mean you can stand to do it. He eventually got tired of all of our delay tactics and finally put a deadline for electing a new Prime Minister. And, we eventually did so. We were all a little sad to have to do it. But as just and fair as Beckerin was being, most agreed that we really didn't want to push him to the point of wanting to abuse his power upon us. I'm certain he would never be malevolent, but I would not want to push him to see what new heights of annoying antics he would employ. I'll still always remember watching him give his last use of his Regent position. He declared that he would be strictly excluded from future Regent candidacy, right before he declared the new Prime Minister."

Meriten: "And thus, he immediately left the House of Assembly and disappeared for a number of weeks afterwards."

Ottocasion: "As much as we would have liked for him to attend his going away party, none could blame him for leaving the area as quickly as possible. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves regardless. It was such a lovely party, really. So many of us woke up in the strangest of locations in the old royal quarters."

Meriten: "I've both heard and read up about many, many stories of the behind the scenes antics of Beckerin and his unorthodox methods in sorting out all kinds of issues between houses. Do you have any favorites?"

Ottocasion: "Oh, plenty! A few that have NEVER been spoken of... I don't know how long we have left for this interview."

Meriten: "I am NEVER above a good multi-part series of episodes for a good interview."

Ottocasion: "Well, I am not one to disappoint Where. Do. I. Start?"

Excerpt from the book "The Cataclysmic History of Nexus"

In our world of Nexus, recent history has been punctuated by three major Cataclysms, each with a major Period associated afterwards.

Before the First Cataclysm, there was the Pre-Cataclysmic Period. This period is most notable by the complete lack of any verifiable magic. Many theorists and historians debate to this day if magic was completely absent, dormant, or simply inaccessible by means we are familiar with today. No signs of any use of magic has ever been found within this period. Despite the outstandingly advanced technology of this time, a significant amount of records were stored in formats that turned out to be very susceptible to corruption via magic. Thankfully, reconstructive efforts and untouched records are found everyday, enriching our knowledge of this time period. Many of the most advanced technologies available today are those originally created during this period that have been redesigned to function properly in our magical world. Furthermore, Pre-Cataclysm technology has served as the inspiration for the latest technological magical hybridization.

The First Cataclysm is also known as the Magical Emergence. There are presently no known records that accurately document the exact nature of how magic emerged in our world. Those that did know were probably the very first victims of the First Cataclysm. The world itself, along with all flora and fauna had to quickly adapt to magic as it integrated into the core of the mechanics of reality itself. Only recent efforts have delved deeply into the nature of this integration enough to provide reproducible models and updated laws and theories. As to whether reality has changed or not, that is a topic of significant debate with proponents on either side.

The First Period symbolized a drastic upheaval. Many advanced technologies became unpredictable, unusable, or unavailable. With socio-political collapse happening throughout the world, the infrastructure required for mainstay technologies of Pre-Cataclysm no longer existed. The global community fragmented and isolated out of necessity for survival of against a world growing more unfamiliar by the day. It was a number of decades before the first organizations that stretched beyond the boundaries of small communities formed. The first Mages appeared, learning to harness the difficult and dangerous rawest magical power, now known as Elder Magic. The first Mages were rare, feared, and revered, and often went into positions of power and control.

A grand experiment to test the very structure of magic sparked the Second Cataclysm, The Equalization. This experiment caused one critical side effect, magical power flowing out to many more beings than ever before. Magical power once limited to a rare, elite few was now available to those with the dedication to harness it. The nature of these connections was still quite dangerous, unpredictable, and often inconsistent. Regardless, many more beings had access to it. Soon, unfavorable mage kings and queens were overthrown by commoner mages. Old sociopolitical structures toppled overnight and made way for new ones, but this led to a period of great instability.

The Second Period showcased the troubles with great power and newfound responsibility. While magical use was now widespread among the world, the dangers associated with such use lead many to turn towards technologies of the past and practical solutions towards more common problems. This allowed for both magical and technological development to continue at equal levels, with most of the world involving a mixture of both in everyday life. Unfortunately, Elder magic was, and still is, quite dangerous. Numerous magical disasters plagued the era. The potency and unrestricted capacity of Elder magic drew the malicious interest of a group of mages. They attempted a grand project similar to the experiment that sparked the Second Cataclysm with the intent to restrict Elder magic access to themselves exclusively. They almost succeeded.

The Third Cataclysm, the Acceptance, marked the point when the world needed to take the initiative and be responsible with magic. The greatest mages of every discipline and style worked together to create the Abstract Prism. Effectively, the Abstract Prism is an extra-dimensional structure of immeasurable power that provides the framework and structure needed to stabilize magic for the masses, protect against damage of the core of magic, and manage threatening anomalies. This change effectively halted all new flows of Elder energy into the world. The raw elder magical energy from the theorized source of magic feeds through the Abstract Prism. From the Abstract Prism, new specialized, filtered, and stabilized forms of magical energy stream forth to every being of willful mind. To facilitate access to magic of all shapes and varieties, Foundation Constructs bound themselves to the Abstract Prism. To this day, these still provide easier and safer routes to magic than ever before. Much of the greatest powers of Elder magic were sacrificed, but the gains far outweighed the losses. Though, many unanticipated side effects are still being discovered.

The Third Period, the current period, has seen untold development and success in all areas. Magic and technology now finally work together in many new and amazing seamless fashions. Both magic and technology are equally common to everyone and provide tools that one can use. While there is still plenty of chaos and instability in the world, the structures of magic are protected and functional. Technology is fast approaching Pre-Cataclysm levels. This is an era of progress.

Quick Reference Guide from "Paranormal Entities and You!"

In your adventures of the world, you will eventually run into at least one paranormal entity. Usually, it is a fairly mundane affair that is a harmless distraction. But even in the developed world of today, there is still a chance that even the most careful person can encounter a dangerous entity. We HIGHLY recommend you take time to read and enjoy the full text of "Paranormal Entities and You!" but recognize the need for quick and easy reference to aid your survival of an encounter with a paranormal entity. Hence, before you are the most immediately important details to know during your possible encounters.

Elder Geist – Visible. Extremely tall and broad. Bipedal. White smooth looking energy exterior. Shows signs of intelligence. Can speak many languages. Calm demeanor.

Extremely rare of the Geist family. Elder Geists are ancient magical creations made with extraordinary amounts of care and specialized design. They were strictly crafted to be guardians and defenders. By their very nature, they are immune to almost all magic. Approach with respect and care. Most are reported to be harmless and never aggressive. While extremely powerful, they were all originally peacekeepers. They also cannot be harmed by most forms of magic today and are immune to regular weaponry. Keep calm, be nice, and you may have a new friend.

Energy Geist – Visible to transparent, depending on energy. Shape varies. A variety of possible colors. May show signs of basic intelligence.

Energy Geists are recent attempts to recreate Elder Geists in some new fashion. Most are very simplistic creatures and do not perform much outside their original programming. It is advisable to maintain distance and avoid. Even if programming indicates it should not be a threat, many are unstable creations. They are often similar to golems in operation.

Nightmare Geist – Visible unless in darkness. Extremely tall and broad. Bipedal. Black billowing flame-like energy radiating from form. Shows signs of extreme aggression. Only known to release horrific roars.

IF YOU CAN SEE OR HEAR IT, YOU ARE TOO CLOSE! Please! Stop reading this! Sneak away quietly and quickly in the opposite direction of where it is or is going! DO NOT STOP UNTIL YOU REACH CONTACT OF MILITARY, POLICE, or SPECIALISTS! INFORM THEM OF WHERE YOU LAST SAW OR HEARD THIS BEING! Then, LEAVE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY BY THE FASTEST MEANS POSSIBLE.

ONLY if you are sufficiently away from the threat, you may continue reading.

Nightmare Geists are horrific magical creations designed with one sole purpose: To DESTROY. Specifically, to destroy Elder Geists. By some forgotten design method, they are able to counteract the normally invulnerable nature of the Elder Geist by physical contact. When parts of an Elder and Nightmare Geist contact, both parts destabilize and violently release their magical energies. While Elder Geists are invulnerable to most magic, Nightmare Geists greatly affect them. Unfortunately, Elder magic has been the only recorded method for taking out a Nightmare Geist. Even the best modern broad spectrum magical energy attempts can only temporarily stun a Nightmare Geist. It has been theorized that old Elder energy imbued artifacts MAY be effective. It is not recommended for ANYONE to attempt any kind of experimentation with this theory.

Sprite – Sometimes visible, often invisible. Small in size. Take on a variety of shapes and colors. Typically not aggressive, but can be harmful. Simple creatures.

Sprites are from the spirit family. They are typically small, simple creatures that interact in the world in specific ways. They are natural magical beings that exist much in the same way typical physical flora and fauna do. Often they do so in parallel to physical world counterparts. While often hard to observe, sprites are typically very powerful in focused abilities and can be fascinating to watch. Unless directed to do so, most sprites will continue their activities uninterrupted from physical world influence. Sit back, mind yourself, observe peacefully, and keep a respectful distance.

Daemon – Sometimes visible, often invisible. Medium to large in size. Take on a variety of shapes and colors, but will often adopt a form of a natural or magically enhanced creature. Intelligent creatures that have their own agenda and thoughts. Some can talk roughly, but only if effort has been taken to learn a language.

Daemons are part of the spirit family. They are intelligent entities and should be observed from a safe distance first before ever approaching. While most are not aggressive, this is typically due to their ability to get away from any physical threats with ease. But, daemons often take roles as defenders of the area they live in and will organize and command sprites and other daemons. It is very wise to be respectful and mindful when in the presence of a daemon. If they show any signs of aggression, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. They command potentially powerful magic and some of the more powerful varieties have been known to manifest greater magical effects in their immediate area. The most powerful Daemons have been revered as gods by many localized religions and cults. It is very advisable to avoid these but in a respectful manner. This level of daemon typically is prone to egotism and pettiness. They can also be ruthless with the methods they use to acquire power.

Ghost – Semi-visible, transparent. Typically medium size. Often they are in the form of a previously living being. Intelligent typically, but psychological states vary.

Ghosts are the previously living somehow manifesting a presence on this plane. The exact nature of this is not fully understood. Most commonly held theory is that the consciousness is still maintained on this plane for one reason or another, and is projecting a visage via magic or other means. Unfortunately, most ghosts are often not psychologically stable due to the circumstance that rendered them a ghost. Thankfully, most ghosts are harmless and are only able to project themselves visually and audibly. This can NOT be said about any ghost within a magically enhanced area or a weird zone. Ghosts in these areas are best avoided since the nature of these places often grant them dangerous abilities and further exacerbate any psychological issues.

Anima – Semi-visible, transparent, flashy. Variety of sizes and forms. Mechanical in nature.

Ghosts of the machine. It is not understood what these are exactly, but it is theorized to be the a counterpart to the natural spirits and are some magical manifestation aligned with technology. Their formation and function remains mostly unknown. They can be a wealth of knowledge and function given the right circumstances. Some of these Anima seem extremely intelligent and even sentient and sapient. Approach with caution.

Echo – Semi-visible, transparent. Variety of sizes and forms. Repetitious in nature.

Echoes are strange renditions of repeating sequences of visual and audio phenomena. These often occur in areas known to have been exposed to massive amounts of magical energy. Echoes are completely harmless, but can often dictate very tragic and disastrous events.

Doppel – Can be visible or invisible upon choice. Variety of size and forms, but often a form of a previously living being. Commonly intelligent depending on the being.

Doppels are very strange. Despite taking on behavior similar to a Ghost or even an Anima, they actually are Spirits, specifically Daemons. By some fluke often associated with magical destruction in an area with Daemons, magical energies imprint the aspects of a living being upon a Daemon. For all practical purposes, the Daemon now thinks itself as a previously living being including memories and mannerisms. They are to be treated with great caution as they may have some of the same issues as a ghost, but with the magical power of a daemon. There have been reports of Doppels being worked with and reasoned into realizing what they actually are. This has helped many be freed from the previous identity to form their own. But, it is recommended to not attempt this yourself.

Arch - Can appear as they wish in and whatever form they choose. Fully intelligent, sentient, sapient, and likely beyond.

Arches are mostly mystery with very little, if any, documentation. They are beings of great power that are theorized to be able to wander through the Aether at a whim. They remain one of the least understood supernatural beings in existence. Many attempts have been made to contact them. No properly documented attempts have been successful. Many believe that is intentional on the part of the arches.