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When will she make an appearance? They stand ready for her, in any case, but you can never be too prepared.\n\nLike what you see? Consider supporting me on [url=https://www.patreon.com/Milkie]Patreon[/url]!", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Epheral's forces continue to trickle into Locksmouth, putting the clamps on our heroes and keeping them at work. When will she make an appearance? They stand ready for her, in any case, but you can never be too prepared.

Like what you see? Consider supporting me on Patreon!", "writing": "If nothing else, the thundering booms of Epheral’s crystals passing through Locksmouth’s dome field served as ample warning for the citizenry to prepare themselves for the worst. They had started trickling in like clockwork on the second morning after Harbington’s evacuees arrived, and had steadily been going on into the night, and then into the following morning after that. Natalie and her pack had become so well-organized with the police at hand that there had been times where the attacks went almost unnoticed by the average pedestrian, oftentimes late at night when everyone was in bed. One of Epheral’s batteries may have landed in a different district than the residential, resulting in the homes and apartments of the common folk going relatively undisturbed. Other times, the average folk had to be well-brushed-up on their panic situation response drills to evacuate an area where at one moment they were simply enjoying a nice meal at the Burger Dictator, and the next an army of kobolds were ransacking the kitchens.\n\nIt made plenty of work for the dome’s heroes, but they delivered. Whenever an attack happened, someone wasn’t far behind. Be it Jacent, Natalie, Max, Carrie, or any of the Harbington kids, at least one of them would arrive promptly to deal with the situation and contain it. They’d shattered several the crystals in just two short days, enough to nearly be equal to the number that had been left behind in Harbington. By that point, everyone was reaching a certain familiarity with it. Enough that when a situation was cleared, citizens continued going about their business in short order after only a brief respite to collect themselves again. The Inklings were becoming welcome, comforting sights as they acted as sentinels toward the outside threat that had been bombarding them for what seemed like ages.\n\n“We’ve got another one setting down in the park.” Murphy warned Natalie over PET, “Almost took out a couple of our squad cars.”\n\n“Anyone by the park?” Natalie switched to communicating with her pack and their newest affiliates, all while she never stopped in her patrolling of the beachside area. She and Echelon paced up and down along the shore in separate directions, after having left fair-sized crater where the last crystal had dropped in.\n\n“I got it,” Carrie answered, “Anyone in the area for back-up?”\n\n“Uh, like,” Shelly cut in, “I took Aren and Gren to the park, so…?? ‘Cause I was watching them and stuff like you told me to?”\n\n“[i]Anyone else[/i]?” Carrie pressed.\n\n“Keep your Mary-Janes on,” Kenny groused, “I’m coming.”\n\n“Nobody else?” Carrie asked, shrugging, “Alright then. It’s clobbering time! I was so pissed you got the last one.”\n\n“Just make sure nobody gets hurt.” Natalie instructed.\n\nCarrie nodded, and then immediately deflected. “Shelly, make sure nobody gets hurt.”\n\n“Wha-?!” Shelly was flabbergasted, “Me? Aw, why me? Fine, just like, let me get the kids outta the way. Maybe if I take them to the mall Epheral won’t attack there. Except she will. What’s her [i]problem[/i]?”\n\n“You want an itemized list or what?” Carrie grunted.\n\n“Look, I’ll escort you if you keep getting into trouble then.” Kenny said.\n\n“Yeah I bet you will.” Daxton snickered.\n\n“Shut up.” Kenny disconnected from the call, and the others followed in his example one by one.\n\nCarrie didn’t have to take any wild guesses as to where the crystal landed. All she had to do was head upstream along the steady flow of people running for their lives. She jogged at a brisk pace, people tripping over themselves as she passed them by heading across the midway to the park. It was a quaint little place; somewhere many parents took their kids when they had the time off. Lots of the young ones made their own little packs there, and played the days away on the jungle gym or in the sand, or just ran around among the trees playing touch games. There was a tunnel there constructed for kids to crawl through. They OC’d there a lot. Carrie used to as well until Natalie couldn’t fit anymore. It was a nice place, with nice memories; Carrie was only made that much more eager to smash whatever decided it was hard enough to come into her neighbourhood.\n\nThe snow-white cat bound onto the grass, everything about her bouncing into place when she finally stopped to plant her feet. Her twin tails, the plaid ribbons in her hair, the plaid skirt around her thighs, and even her overstuffed blazer wobbled into a heroic stance with her fists clenched and a big grin spreading over her sharp teeth. Families who were fleeing stumbled in their mad dash to get a good look at her, the hero who had come to save them looking as if she’d gotten fresh out of a prep school classroom. Everyone recognized her, some even called out her name; Carrie Oakenfield; body-slammer of giant aliens, Inkling savior.\n\n“Alright everyone, no need to panic! Keep moving!” She bellowed out over the small number of people who remained, “Just point me in the direction of the bad guys and let my fists do the talking!”\n\nHer eyes darted around. It didn’t take long to find the crystal. They always stood out. Big, white, jagged, crystalline objects that boiled and bubbled with unnatural power, shifting in plain sight, fragmenting like a corrupted hologram, so obviously not meant to be in the world, let alone in the middle of the park where it had just barely missed smashing up one of the swing sets. Carrie liked that swing set. She and Natalie shared a lot of swings on that swing set. On a single swing, of course. Nobody, galactic terror or otherwise, was going to destroy the lap swing if she had anything to say about it.\n\nThe crystal was there, but no monster. She turned her head to look around, seeing no weird black constructs to contend with. “No way,” She said, “Don’t tell me I came all the way here just to break a rock. Where’s the monsters at?!”\n\n“Carrie, look out!” Shelly cried from the sidelines – way on the sidelines, from the street, as far away as she could get with Gren and Aren at her side. “It’s under the ground!”\n\n“What?!” Carrie shouted back, turning away from the crystal to look out Shelly’s way.\n\nGren and Aren jumped up and down, waving their arms and pointing. “Carrie!”\n\n“Yeah hi!” Carrie waved at them, “Shelly! What did you say?!”\n\n“It’s under the ground!” Shelly cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted back at the cat.\n\nCarrie twitched her ear. “Well duh it’s on the ground! Or wait, is it flying?!”\n\n“IT’S UNDER!” Shelly screamed, “THE GROUND!”\n\nA rumbling caught Carrie’s attention, not so powerful as to put her off her feet, but enough to shake her knees. She turned quickly to see the jagged shape of what appeared to be a fin jutting out of the ground just for a moment before it rather abruptly shot down under the dirt. A trail of upturned soil gave away where it had been traveling that entire time, and Carrie just hadn’t noticed it. Her ears wilted, she sniffed, and scratched her nose. “Motherfucker,” She said, “It’s under the ground.”\n\nThe ground shot up from under her feet, splitting over the enormous charcoal bulk of a beast whose vice-like jaws fractured open beneath her. Launched into the air under the sheer force of its attack, Carrie flailed her arms as the giant form of the beast followed her up. Quadruped, its body was ridged and jagged, as if plated in spots, and it was distinctly reptilian in shape. It resembled a dinosaur, though none the likes any history book had ever seen. It’s stumpy little legs were offset by its enormous size, its width making up much more than its height, and yet it still would have stood head and shoulders over Carrie herself. It’s jaws alone were enormous, housed in an almost beak-like scoop, perfect for coming up under the unaware and gobbling them up. As Carried hurtled skyward, the jaws of the beast surrounded and then clamped down around her. A single snap and she was gone.\n\n“AHHH!” Shelly and the kids screamed, pulling their hair and bouncing around hysterically.\n\n“It ate her!” Shelly freaked, “It ate her all up!”\n\nThe monster hung heavy in the air and then came crashing to the ground, though awkwardly. It reeled back and slammed its spine off the dirt, kicking its legs and wriggling in a serpentine manner before it flipped over onto its feet again. It stomped around indiscriminately, whipping its head left and right, bucking and kicking, fussing about. Then, it turned its glowing white gaze out toward Shelly and the kids, who froze up in fear. It offered a throaty, angry growl of warning, lumbering forward a few steps toward them.\n\nIts head jerked aside, as if struck. It stumbled, and then was thrown the other way. It growled again and began thrashing around, wrestling with something unseen. Shelly ushered Gren and Aren behind her protectively, and took a deep breath to quite literally puff herself up to brace for whatever was coming from the frightening, subterranean beast. She held her breath and shook, her body quivering in fearful determination not to let the same fate befall the kids she oversaw. She didn’t even think of running, too scared to let that simple answer cross her mind, which raced for potential, insane solutions to an otherwise easily beaten problem.\n\nAfter a few moments it turned to them once more, and began a clumsy charge toward them. On its stubby feet, it moved weightily, and less than gracefully, but its footfalls made the ground shake beneath it. Shelly could almost feel the tremors traveling up her legs as it got closer, but before it even reached the street, its head ducked down and it slid to a stop, dragging up trenches of dirt as it did.\n\n“Ah! S-Shelly!” Aren cried, jumping out in front of the butterfly protectively, “I’ll save you!”\n\nGren lashed out and grabbed Aren’s arm, yanking him back. “Aren no! Don’t! That’s stupid!”\n\nThe monster undulated its body as if to wretch. Shelly, Aren, and Gren shook in their collective footwear as they huddled together. Then, the monster’s jaws parted.\n\nThey were opened, by the squat form of Carrie, who hooked her fingers under the thing’s upper row of teeth as soon as she had the space to. “Raaaaahhh!!” She cried, as she heaved, getting her feet in place and her shoulders braced under the mighty maw of the beast, where she stood. She struggled against the strength of it trying to snap down on her again, but overpowered it slowly. It roared and flailed around, Carrie stubbornly straightening her knees and elbows as she forced the thing’s jaws wide open, and then braced herself like a wedge between them. She huffed her breaths, her face reddened with exertion and her eyes wild and angry. Unable to close its mouth again, the monster bowled onto its side and kicked around in the dirt in circles, trying to slam its face off the ground to knock her loose.\n\n“Holy crap!” Gren shouted.\n\nThe monster struggled, spinning sideways in a donut on the dirt until it got to its feet, reared back its head, and slammed its own jaw on the ground to force it to clamp shut. Carrie was launched straight out of it, sent tumbling along the ground. When she stopped and got to her feet, she held out one of the monster’s jagged, scratchy charcoal teeth defiantly. “Ha!” She panted, “You can’t eat this pussy!” She threw the tooth at it, and it clinked uselessly off the sturdy prana carapace of the monster, only mildly agitating it. “Come on! Try it again I’ll rip out the other twenty-some odd!”\n\nInstead, it charged at her. Like a rampaging bull it stampeded across the park, its massive form threatening to overtake her quickly. It rammed its angular head into her, knocking her out of the way before it scrambled to correct course and continue a relentless assault of rushing her with its body. Carrie took the strike full-on, being thrown to the side without terrible injury, and as the thing continued to come at her and start dragging her around the park, she started meeting it with blows. It rammed its face into her and she punched it, wild haymakers crashing into the hard shell of it and leaving small, white glowing cracks.\n\nFor one punch, she inked over. Arus reared back her fist and delivered it right to the side of the beast’s head as it came charging at her, striking it with enough force to barrel over a semi. The effect was the same on the creature, causing it to careen sideways and roll over onto the dirt. It kicked its legs and wriggled to right itself again, and before Arus could move to strike it again, it began frantically burrowing into the dirt. The inked cat hurried over just as the monster was pulling its small, waggling tail into the hole it had left on the ground, dirt caving in behind it to cover its tracks. The ground shook as it very clearly tunneled away, its exposed, jagged fin digging a trench out right between Arus’ feet as it dug away. Arus bent down and looked between her legs to see it, upside-down, making a bee-line to turn around and come back at her.\n\nShe stepped forward to meet it, hurrying to cut it off before it had an ample opportunity to lock in and come up under her again. She pounced it in its turning arc, and she dug her fingers into its fin. With all her might, she planted her feet and wrenched back, halting the beast as its entire truck-sized body desperately sought to get away from her. Arus heaved, and with a mighty pull of all her strength, she unearthed its upper half where its little front feet kicked around, and it snapped its jaws angrily. Arus planted a foot upon its back and dug in with her heel as she pulled back on its fin.\n\nShelly and the kids were totally enamoured with the display, so much so that they barely noticed Kenny run up next to them. He stopped, turned on his heels, and gave Shelly a quick glance from her chest to her face. “It’d help if you people told me where these places are!” He groused, then turned almost in the same motion and breath to run off and help Carrie. He inked over as he leapt into the battle, his sword unsheathing and circling around to his hand in a fluid motion for him to grip and charge in with.\n\nArus pried off the beast’s fin with a bone-rending snap, which mistakenly freed it to hurry forward. It slipped out from under her and attempted to burrow once again, only to have Polaris leap in and cut cleanly through its tail before it could get its back-end back into the dirt. The appendage fell heavy and limp to the ground, and the beast kicked its legs, finding it difficult to get its footing without the counterweight. It seemed stuck rear-up and half into the ground. Polaris glanced at its situation, and he smiled. \n\n\n“Arus, if you’d please.”\n\nArus stepped forward, fists balled into angry sledgehammers of pain. “Time to beat ass.”\n\nShe wind milled her fists down into the monster’s backside, burying her fists up to the forearm in it, and tearing out chunks when she would pull her arm back to deliver another. She pounded the creature into the dirt like a piston, machine-like in her delivery of left-right-left punches. While she quite literally dismantled it butt-first, Polaris turned his attention to the crystal and threw out his arm to send his sword sailing into it. The crystal fractured and cracked before exploding in a dazzling display of white light, sending shards of itself all over the park, raining down on Arus as she finished pounding the creature into dust.\n\n“Just come at us already!!” Arus shouted angrily, “What are you waiting for?!”\n\nPolaris de-inked and Kenny caught his sword again to put it safely back in its scabbard. He approached Arus, who panted in frenzied anger. Once more, he glanced to her chest before her face. “She’s clearly trying to wear us out,” He said, “Don’t worry. We expected this.”\n\n“It’s annoying!” Arus de-inked as well and Carrie turned to face Kenny, hands firmly planted on her hips. “If she takes any longer I’m gonna spend Homeshare ripping her in half!”\n\nKenny threw his arms up in a shrug. Shelly then broke in, squealing as she jumped on Carrie and squeezed her. “Ohmigawd!” She said, “That was awesome!” She bounced on Carrie, crowding her face with her considerable chest and cleavage offered by her seasonally inappropriate corset-like top. Carrie grumbled, while Aren and Gren tugged at her skirt in equal excitement.\n\n“I helped too y’know.” Kenny crossed his arms, pouting. He sighed and turned his attention skyward, where all Epheral’s crystals had been coming down of course. They always fell from the sky, and always from the same direction; from Harbington. The boy flexed his downturned lips, then squinted. It was sometimes hard to see, especially when the sky was clear, but it seemed yet another crystal was preparing to touch down. “Don’t look now,” he said, “More work.”\n\nCarrie pushed Shelly off her and looked up as well. “Damnit,” She raised her fist to the sky, “Damn you Epheral!”\n\nShelly creeped in behind Kenny and leaned over his shoulders, once again crowding someone with either her full awareness of personal space or complete obliviousness. It was anyone’s guess at that point. “Oooh,” She said, “What’chya gonna do, huh?”\n\nKenny blushed and pushed to contend for space with Shelly’s heaving chest. “Beat it up, I guess.”\n\nIt crashed into the dome’s field, where it met a very brief resistance before just slipping through remarkably well. How it managed to do such a thing was beyond any of their comprehension. It clearly left a small hole behind, burning through with its raw energy, but the gaps were often swiftly closed. It couldn’t have been doing much good for the power grid. With it securely through, it fell toward the Earth yet again. This time it looked as if it was going to land by the mall. When Shelly was right, she was right.\n\n“Alright, Cap!” Laila, who had seen the crystal coming down, flew up into the sky to intercept it, “Come on up!”\n\nShe turned and watched as far down below, Jacent leapt from the roof of a nearby building. That leap was propelled, throwing him well into the air, blasting him high above the city. Laila reached out, grabbed his hand, and spun to throw him further, after which a rush of air threw the prepared Jacent even faster through the air. He was shielded quickly by the rushing force of motion that saw him launched like a missile, where he met with the crystal not long after it went through the dome, catching it on his fist and smashing it against the force field. His force of impact sent a shockwave through it that surged all throughout the dome from one end of the city to the next, and resulted in the crystal erupting like a destroyed star. There were barely any pieces left to rain down over Locksmouth’s eastern side, aside from some flecks and glittering dust.\n\n“Or, that.” Kenny blinked.\n\nJacent rebounded off the inside of the dome and was sent hurtling back toward the city streets. He came rushing down where he landed on the midway and barreled down a couple of blocks, stumbling and rolling until he finally stopped himself. He slid to a halt in a knelt position, and once the inertia of his breakneck speeds finally settled, he stood among the citizens who had been heading on their way to go shopping. Having witnessed the entire spectacle, they cheered him. He only then looked around as if just noticed them. He modestly waving them down as he turned and abruptly attempted to stroll away.\n\n“Whoa.” Abigail sat staring at Jacent, with Jimmy and Lincoln with her seated at the same small café table with an umbrella overhead shading them from the not-too-warm sun. They had just taken to the commercial sector for a break of their own, not having expected to watch a display like that. Abigail had just pulled a fizzy orange soda bottle from her lips with a glassy pop.\n\nJimmy glowered as he sunk onto the table, clutching his head in his hand. “All this cheering’s going to give me a headache!” he complained, “They’re not THAT great! Jeez!”\n\n“Well let’s see you do that!” Lincoln rebutted.\n\nAbigail rubbed her chin. “Looks like being an Inkling makes you some big famous super hero… A hero that people love, worship, and will probably do anything for.”\n\nJimmy huffed, but he glanced up at Abigail’s thoughtful expression and noticed her barely-there little smile. He sat up, knowing better than to ignore that in favour of her otherwise disinterested look. He pieced it together in his mind and grinned himself. “[i]Anything[/i], you say?”\n\n-\n\n--\n\n-\n\nLocksmouth’s mall may not have been as thematic as Harbington’s, but it was no less expansive. A sprawling commercial Atlantis is what it most resembled, built of angular white tile architecture, a splash of green foliage and ivy, and serene running water. Waterfalls flowed down into placed reservoirs to act as fountains, bringing a sort of utopian charm to rest spots with benches and trash receptacles free for use by mall-goers. Storefronts were almost as paintings, adding welcome splashes of colour to the surroundings, along with purely decorative wall accents and pillars. The food court contained a few authentic food carts, with Natalie’s favourite bagel stop among them. Even with everything going on, teenagers and families were still using the space to shop, either unable or just unwilling to allow Epheral’s invasion to stop them.\n\nIt hadn’t been used as a safe space like when Harbington was attacked, freeing it up to go about business as usual. Only some exceptions were made by particularly cautious store owners who thought it better to close shop until the most recent monster scare had blown over. Very few of them were ever in such straits that they couldn’t afford to take a few days off, and even if they were, it wouldn’t have been hard to fetch support from the Arbitrators and the community to cover them. Alien invasion had been introduced recently as a clause outlined as being a situation beyond any one person’s control. Anything lost during such a time was promptly rebuilt or returned, though it did put pressure on Natalie and the others to be careful what they damaged when fighting those sorts of things back.\n\nCarrie had been less than careful, even if she couldn’t have helped what the monster in the park had done to the well landscaped grass. She once again had to meet with the Arbitrators for her regularly scheduled scolding. While that was going on, Kenny made good on his promise of accompanying Shelly and the kids to the mall. It had confused him in retrospect why Shelly, who was a hard sell as a bodyguard at best, would be put in charge of Gren and Aren, who seemed almost more capable themselves. It just made more sense to keep someone more suited for fighting in such a role, and how much more of a bodyguard could someone be than a guy with a sword strapped to his back?\n\n“Oh!” Shelly stopped the group for the third time to gawk into a store window, “Tell me that wouldn’t look fab on me!”\n\nKenny rolled his eyes. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have sworn Shelly’s reasoning for taking them to the mall wasn’t just to keep them safe. He was a fine one to talk, though. His reasons for coming along were just as selfish and laser-guided. When Shelly leaned forward, her chest hung so heavily it was a wonder her skinny body didn’t just snap in half. The blue top with the berry red accents she wore cinched her middle in a valiant (but ultimately futile) effort to make her appear as if she had hips bearing any description, while hugging up her sides and up under her breasts to push them together and forward for optimal presentation. As two separate pieces that clung to her sides, a bare line of her rubbery gray skin ran up the middle of both her front and back.\n\nKenny’s chivalry had long since drowned in the plunging abyss that was Shelly’s top-to-bottom cleavage.\n\nThe butterfly girl admired a holographic mannequin in the window that showcased a nice little purple dress. The body presenting it was modestly slender, and comparing Shelly to it, Kenny deduced that her bust would tear it to shreds and the skirt was much too short for her long chicken legs. Still, despite that, he just nodded. “Yeah, you’d look great.”\n\n“I should buy it!” Shelly clapped her hands together, “Wait here!”\n\n“Should you really be buying things right now?” Kenny asked, “You’re supposed to be watching these guys.”\n\nKenny gestured to Gren and Aren, the two of them holding ice cream cones in their hands, just watching Shelly like a pair of disappointed parents. Gren just shook her head, while Aren lapped at his ice cream and watched to see what Shelly would do next.\n\n“Isn’t that why you came?” Shelly stared at him inquisitively, squinting. “That is why you came, right? Don’t be such a spaz! It’ll only take a second!”\n\nShe paused, thought about it for a moment, and then leaned down to pat down Kenny’s shoulders. “Sorry, like, you’re not a spaz. You’re perfectly normal, even if you… y’know! Now, beebs!” She released him and almost ran into the store, leaving him scratching his head.\n\n“You guys put up with this all the time?” He asked.\n\nAren nodded. “Shelly has to look after us a lot, but it’s okay because she’s actually really nice! Well, kind of. She’s super autistic so sometimes she says things that’re weird or mean.”\n\n“But she doesn’t mean them,” Gren nudged Aren, “And since she doesn’t really fight she’s on babysitting duty. We are [i]not[/i] babies, and we are [i]perfectly[/i] aware that Natalie’s just pushing us out of the way to keep us all safe. Still, we’re mature about it. If anything, we’re the ones keeping [i]Shelly[/i] safe!”\n\nKenny blinked at the pair of them. They were sharp, for kids. After saying something so insightful, however, Gren dipped her face down to lick at her vanilla ice cream cone and Aren nudged her in return for her earlier shove. Ice cream smeared on her face and dripped onto her black sweater, and she gasped the biggest, most offended gasp. “TEN!” She squealed, and Aren turned quickly to flee through the mall. Puffed up in anger, Gren chased him. “GET BACK HERE I’M GONNA KILL YOU!”\n\n“Woop woop woop!” Aren squealed as he ran away, giggling despite his situation.\n\nKenny still scratched his head, frowning in dismay. That’s when he saw Quincey and Daxton, the pair of them sitting at the bagel cart eating some sandwiches. Quincey was waving at him, mowing down on what appeared to be the most thickly stacked sandwich she could wrap her hands around. Daxton, in comparison, ate a modest egg bagel. Kenny approached them and sidled up onto a seat at the cart, where the elderly badger who ran the place came to ask what he wanted, and he just raised a hand to hush him and shoo him along.\n\nQuincey chewed on her sandwich, which held at least three layers of cheese and vegetables splitting apart two layers of assorted meats. She’d managed to get clothes that agreed with her; she traded her tight, uncomfortable jeans for a green plaid skirt, cross-stitched with stripes of yellow, deep violet, and darker green. Her top was multi-layered, the topmost being a blue and sleeveless vest, split at the bottom to create a V shaped opening that revealed only a darker blue layer beneath that hugged her hips like a too-long undershirt. Beneath that lay tiny, barely-there white sleeves of a button-up top only covered her shoulders leaving her freckly arms bared. The low neckline of the top layer showed off the high, folded collar of the white lowest layer, and the button-down front covered by a red neck tie. She had comfy white socks on her feet and black shoes. She looked almost too comfortable, considering what was going on.\n\n“What are you up to, Kenny?” She asked.\n\nKenny palmed his forehead. “Realizing I came to babysit just so I could stare at a girl’s tits all day. While Epheral could attack at any minute! What the heck is wrong with me?”\n\n“Aww.” Daxton gave Kenny a soft tap on the shoulder with his fist. “That’s cute.”\n\nKenny glared at him, but was at a loss when it seemed Daxton’s “I’m With Stupid” t-shirt was doing all the talking for him. Daxton laughed at the boy’s obvious annoyance. “Ah, just run with it,” He said, “Tell her that’s why you came! It’ll be a compliment.”\n\nQuincey giggled. “Mm… maybe don’t. Daxton’s not exactly a Casanova.” She said, drawing Daxton’s unimpressed stare. She smiled and shrugged, hiding partially behind her bagel sandwich. “It’s your effort that’s endearing.”\n\nKenny looked at the two of them, and became suddenly very aware of their situation. “Forget what I’m doing, what’re YOU doing?” He fired back, “You guys should be helping the rest of us!”\n\nDaxton swallowed a bite of his sandwich and took a few impolite chugs of his accompanying orange juice before answering with a shrug. “Duplex and Lumina are back in Canvas with Koralo and Phactys. We just figured that while we’re on break we might as well just get something to eat.”\n\n“I was starving.” Quincey said, “And Duplex should be resting anyway. I don’t have anything to do while everyone else is running around. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that I steal Daxton for a few hours.”\n\n“You’re always starving.” Kenny grumbled.\n\n“And I’m [i]tired[/i] of punching Epheral’s goons in their faces!” Daxton sighed, “I want her to just show up in Garrison’s body already, so I can smack them instead!”\n\n“Well that’ll happen any minute now, I’m sure…” Kenny glanced around the mall, which seemed normal for all intents and purposes. The juxtaposition didn’t ease his mind any. “I hope you’ll be ready when she does get here.”\n\n“I have been ready for days!” Daxton groaned, “It’s her that’s late! I’ve been waiting since the day I met her!”\n\n“She’s just going to go straight to canvas as soon as she can,” Quincey pointed out, “You won’t even be able to fight her yourself.”\n\n“And we planned for that,” Daxton said, turning to Kenny, “Any idea how that’s going anyway?”\n\n“Pretty much set up,” Kenny said, “We’ve got a whole damn wing to ourselves practically. The thing was mostly set up before we got here, we just had to change the room around. Only took a few minutes with me floating things around. If Echelon can do her part, we’re set.”\n\n“And when we get her lured out?” Daxton pressed, “You know what we gotta do, right?” He gestured to his arm, tapping on his forearm a little bit.\n\n“Yeah, I know,” Kenny said, tightening his fingers over his own thigh nervously, “I’ll be ready.”\n\nKenny’s PET rang, a few chirps like a communicator. He withdrew it from his pocket and eyed the screen before answering the call to the image of his father. “Hey, Dad, what’s up? Where have you been for the past few days?”\n\nGerald skipped the pleasantries. “Come on over to the Fabricatory when you have the chance, kid,” He said, “I got something for you.”\n\nKelvalde pushed into frame. “And I helped!” He added. Gerald shoved him back out of the picture with gruff agitation. “Whenever you’ve got time,” Gerald said, “I know you’re busy, but this is important.”\n\n“Oh, uh…” Kenny’s attention wandered from the call, “Yeah, sure, I’ll uh… do that. Soon. In a bit.”\n\nHe looked out to see Shelly coming his way, her sneakers offsetting her cute little violet dress that she just bought as she pranced on up. The loose material around her hips was very swishy and had shown more of her thin legs as Kenny had expected. Quincey’s eyes bugged, and Daxton sat back thumbing the lip of his hat when Shelly’s bosom reached them before the rest of her did, as they often would. While her dress was arguably more modestly covering than her other top, it was much too small for her. Her chest was squished to a fabric-straining, borderline uncomfortable degree. Her cleavage was bunched up nearly to her own chin. How she could still breathe was a miracle in and of itself. Kenny swallowed as she stood and did a little spin, her wings spreading out at the end with a dramatic flair. “See?” She said, “I told you, I told you! It looks great and my tits are like… pow!”\n\n“Did that young lady just talk about her tits?” Gerald cut in. Kenny flustered, fumbling his PET.\n\n“I’ll see you later!” He squeaked, clamping down on the device to end the call, looking red-faced back at Shelly again. “H… heh! S-So! Did you mentioned that you like… f-fusion coils?”\n\n“With or without attached phase splitters?” Shelly asked.\n\nKenny sat back and crossed his legs, biting on his knuckle. “Uh-ha,” was all he could manage past his finger while nodding his head.\n\n“Uh, why?” Shelly furrowed her brow, “Did they start making grills with advanced mechanics or what? Baderick, do you have a fancy new grill?!”\n\nThe elderly badger who worked the stall shot a look Shelly’s way, looking her up and down with one intensely studious eye. “I don’t need fancy! Fancy is for people without skill!” He picked up and brandished the first thing he could get his hands on, which was a cutting board. “Keep all your twenty-sixth century toys and let artisans work!”\n\nDaxton looked back at the old man, then to Quincey. “He seems nice.” He snickered, as did she. “Man, he is so into her.”\n\nThey both looked at Kenny, who couldn’t take his eyes off Shelly’s chest even though she was pressing him for clarification on why he would ask such a bizarre question, which just had him flushed all to hell with embarrassment. She was animated! It made her chest wobble in almost exaggerated motions.\n\n“Parts of her, anyway.” Quincey blushed, clearing her throat, “Kenny, where are the kids?”\n\nBoth Kenny and Shelly snapped to attention. “The kids!” They cried, Kenny jumping to his feet. They didn’t have to look far to see Gren trying in earnest to dunk Aren’s head into a nearby fountain, the boy flailing and kicking his feet to try and get away from her.\n\n“What’s the matter?!” Gren cackled, “Wash your face, Aren! It’s dirty!”\n\n“Crap!” Shelly squeaked, “No! No no! Stop that! Like, bad children! Bad!”\n\nShe ran off to deal with them. Kenny hesitated, confused and trying to keep up with himself, before he ran off after her.\n\n-\n\n--\n\n-\n\nThe Queen’s Pier Hotel, located closest to Locksmouth’s coastline as one might expect, was one of the dome’s few tourist havens. While there was plenty to see and do in Locksmouth all year round, it was without a doubt one of the more popular summertime destinations for kids off school from the nearby domes. Harbington kids flooded the beach and waterpark, having no alternative of their own. The only other place nearby that came close was Anchorsway; but only because that dome had more theme parks, undersea shows, arcades and sea salt ice cream than it had houses.\n\nThe midst of autumn was hardly the time of year the hotel expected to see much business, but this year it was packed. The Harbington refugees in the wake of Epheral’s attack needed places to stay, and the off-season hotel had plenty of room. The people were set up as comfortably as possible with their basics covered and were promised that the hotel was notably on the Inklings’ patrol. Only so much could be done for the refugees, but the Arbitrators organized that even that much would be met. No one would go without a bed to sleep in and food to eat, at the very least. For their part, the hotel staff did their best – some may have grumbled for the sudden, intense influx of off-season shifts, but most saw it as an opportunity to help their fellow person.\n\nMany of the refugees did not want to leave the hotel. They made themselves comfortable in their rooms or around the premises, but to wander around the city was out of the question. It seemed as if at any moment another one of those crystalline prana chunks could fall out of the sky and spawn their terrors. Harbington had more than enough of that. For them, that crystal prana brought danger and death. The inked kids – Daxton, Quincey, Laila and Kenny – were the only ones from their home town willing to face down those things, and everyone else was all too happy to let them. They stayed in their safe spaces and watched on their PETs as news reports rolled in about the latest sightings of Epheral’s forces, and their subsequent dispatching from the local heroes. It was as exciting as it was scary for most. Never had they expected to be watching a real life super hero saga unfold before their eyes like that.\n\nThe Inklings had gained many fans among Harbington’s citizenry, though only the Elites and those with special powers. Those who had been bound with the Grays kept to themselves and kept quiet. They were convinced that they were a danger to the people around them, set up as targets for Epheral’s fury. Fearfully they stayed in their rooms and all but refused to leave, having their food delivered and only using outside lines and their PETs to communicate. Regular folk gave them their space, unable to rightly say if their caution was warranted or not. Few were willing to chance it, but they maintained their platitudes. “If you need anything, just ask,” they’d say. Despite this, the Inked never asked for much of anything, and it was unlikely that most would answer if they did.\n\nHarley, however, provided. The girl was inspired, galvanized by those who were quickly becoming heroes in her heart. She had met some like-minded kids, younger ones from Harbington’s elementary school who had fled there along with everyone else. Brooklyn, a kinetically charged green frog girl who seemed to bounce off more than just the walls, had announced herself as the head of the new Harbington Inkling Fan Club. Along with her was a young Pomeranian pup, Oliver, and Isabella the fennec fox. Together, they routinely had been visiting the Inked people of Harbington at their rooms and around Locksmouth where they were hiding out. It wasn’t difficult to find them, as most people knew exactly where they were hiding, and Brooklyn seemed able to wring and answer out of just about anybody.\n\nThe Arbitrators and school teachers thought their dedication to helping the Inked was harmless enough to allow it. They gave them things like food or clothes or medicine that the Inked requested, and they took off under loose adult supervision to drop those things off. They’d been at it for days. Some of the Inked didn’t take to their kind gestures, but those who did were grateful. As a part of the student council, Harley was used to accepting a thank-you, but for the others it was a first, and a beaming moment of pride for them.\n\nThe morning where Natalie had taken out a prana crystal at the beach, Carrie took one at the park, and Jacent took one right out of the sky, the Inkling Fan Club was eager to get together and gush. They all met in the lobby of the Queen’s Pier, where all their families were staying. They gathered in one of the small sitting areas around the place, where normally there were only a pair of lavish-looking armchairs to sit in. They gathered more, pushing them half way across the lobby just to make a four-pointed circle for them to sit in, obstructing more space than they ought to and forcing people to walk around them.\n\nHarley sat with her legs tucked in beneath her. She’d gotten herself some new clothes, just like everyone else. A small pair of black shorts, segmented down her hips, and a short, tummy baring white top that resembled one Quincey would wear. She had long socks to keep her feet warm, and her boots had been seeing a lot of mileage over the past few days. Around her were a new batch of faces, new friends she was all too happy to have. Somehow, meeting with them in that time made things feel normal. Just like school, when friends would move about, packs would grow and change, she met new people. These ones, however, she fell into with greater ease than she ever remembered.\n\n“So!” The green frog girl with the strawberry blonde pigtails flashed a bright white, brace-studded smile. Brooklyn wore big square glasses. She had wrapped tape around the middle of them to keep them together. Her bow tie, and her high-cuffed pants were a bright, garish pink that announced her loud and clear. If that message were somehow missed, however… she made up for it. “You guys saw what they did today, didn’t’chya?! Mmmf, when Jacent punched that big crystal outta the sky?! Oh man…! Wait, wait, I got this made up just for these kinda things.”\n\nBrooklyn tugged on the suspenders that held her pants up, and her bow tie spun rapidly where it was pinned to the center of her collar. “Whoo!” She squealed, letting her suspenders snap back before she curled up in her chair and rolled back and forth in it. “He Comet Punched me right in the pants!”\n\nHarley folded her hands together and nodded along. “It was very impressive. I know he fought Osoth when Locksmouth was attacked, but I’d never seen him… at work.”\n\nBrooklyn almost sprung forward off her chair, balancing on her hands with her legs tucked in under her behind. “It made me…!” She leaned as far forward as she could and pouted out her lip. “Mmmmmoist!”\n\nHarley winced. She turned her attention to Isabella, who rolled her eyes as she sat sidelong in her chair with one foot up on the arm, the other dangling off. She huffed, blowing her soft tuft of hair, dyed a gradient red to blazing orange like fire, making it flip up and settle back down. She seemed to bare as much of her sandy fur as she could, wearing little more than a wrap-around threadlink strip to cover her breasts and leave her sternum bare, and the lowest of the low-rise red pants, so much that her understicker peeked out the front. She topped it all off with shoes that fit her feet exactly, down to the individual toes and a rugged looking scarf wrapped around her neck. Such a confident look to match her equally confident demeanour.\n\n“Okay, but Natalie and Echelon slammed that sea monster at the beach.” Isabella said, “And then after that? Carrie and Arus dug up a shark in the park. Jacent doesn’t even have an Inkling. This is supposed to be the [i]Inkling[/i] Fan Club.”\n\nBrooklyn threw herself to bridge the gap between her chair and Isabella’s, the frog girl’s toes only barely hooking her to her seat, her entire body outstretched to grab on to Isabella’s. “We agreed that Jacent was honorary!” She complained, “And that we would slather his abs in butter!”\n\n“That last part was you.” Isabella snorted. She looked across the way to Harley, and Oliver beside her. “Sorry, your favourites didn’t do anything. Kenny and Laila did though.”\n\nHarley offered a bit of a sympathetic smile to Oliver. The Pomeranian puppy ball of fluffy brown fur lifted the rim of the pointy-eared, forest green knit hat he wore so that he could cast an innocent gaze out on the rest of them with blue eyes. Young, and small, he hadn’t even started wearing a hat until just recently, and the way he wore it covering most of his eyes so he had to walk with his head tilted back was an obvious tell regarding who his favourite Inkling was. It didn’t match the red wide-neck shirt he wore at all that bared his shoulders, or his blue shorts.\n\n“W-Well he was probably busy.” Oliver insisted.\n\n“And it’s alright,” Harley shrugged, “Quincey has done plenty for me. She must have needed a break. She saved my papa you know…”\n\n“We know!” Brooklyn said, “A thousand times we know!”\n\n“You’re the only one who’s met them…” Oliver frowned, “When are we gonna meet them too?”\n\n“They’re too busy, [i]obviously[/i].” Isabella shrugged, “Maybe when the whole darn world doesn’t need saving, squirt.”\n\nOliver made a face and threw his arms around himself to sit back in a huff. Harley hid her discomfort behind a smile. “Aw, it’s okay,” She said, “I’m sure they would love to meet you… eventually.”\n\n“When we meet ‘em I’m gonna decide which one’s the hottest once and for all!” Brooklyn was upside down in her chair, kicking her feet up into the air, “I dunno if it’s Natalie’s [b]big fat butt[/b], Carrie’s [b]big fat tits[/b], or Erwin’s [b]big fat dick[/b], or Max’s…”\n\n“Dream on.” Isabella exasperated. She looked across to Harley then, pointing at her. “Hey, you, do we have any work today or what?”\n\nHarley flustered under Isabella’s scrutiny. “A-Ah, well…” She got out her PET and began looking through a schedule she had made for herself. “We’ve made so many deliveries, but we could check up on them again… if it’s not too soon.”\n\n“I think it’s too soon,” Oliver offered, “We only saw them this morning! Are… any of them coming here?”\n\nHarley blinked. “Any of…” She paused, “Oh. I don’t know.”\n\n“Rrrrngh…” Oliver pouted again, “But we’re on the patrol!”\n\nIsabella chuckled. “Come on, squirt. What, do you want them to stop saving the whole freaking planet just to pat you on the head?”\n\nOliver blushed furiously and made himself small. “N-No,” He pouted, “I don’t. Stupid.”\n\nIsabella laughed and sat up straighter, raising her eyebrows. “Oh-ho! Did you just call me stupid?”\n\n“No.” Oliver pulled his hat back down over his face.\n\n“Tch. Whatever.” Isabella smirked.\n\n“Bored!” Brooklyn cut in, doing the splits upside down curled up in her chair, her hands gripping her feet to hold them out. “If we have nothing to do, lemme at your boobies, Harley!”\n\nHarley flushed with embarrassment. “I think maybe we should turn our efforts to helping the refugees, if the Grays don’t need our help…”\n\n“[i]What[/i]?” Isabella stared the girl down, “What kinda Inkling Fan Club makes pizza deliveries to a bunch of [i]normies[/i]?”\n\nBrooklyn tumbled backward out of her chair and stood up at a dizzying speed, teetering on her laceless shoes a moment before sticking her arms out in front of her, cocking her hips back behind her, and bouncing to jiggle her way backwards at Harley. The girl planted her butt on the arm of Harley’s chair and kicked her feet up. “Work, work, work!” She said, in mock strain, “Put down the schedule and work on my booty buttcheeks! We’ve got time off! Let’s use it!”\n\nBefore Harley could construct anything resembling a rebuttal to keep the group on track, the bobbing auburn pompadour of Jimmy Ret barged in between her and Brooklyn. The girls cried out in fright and Brooklyn flailed wildly before crashing to the ground. There Jimmy stood, clutching the back of the chair Harley sat in, his body craned forward, leaning in to seemingly stick his literal nose into the club’s business. “Excuse me,” He said, disingenuously, “Did I by chance hear one of you little twerps saying something about wanting to meet an Inkling?”\n\nIt took them a moment to collect themselves. Harley blinked repeatedly, just trying to take in the shock of the Rottweiler teen’s sudden appearance. She opened her mouth to speak, but then Oliver practically barreled her out of her chair, clambering up onto it, his little feet swiping the arm and slipping off a few times before he scrambled to a perch. “You know one?!” He practically screamed for everyone to hear, his curled, fluffy tail waggling a mile a minute.\n\nJimmy flashed him a salesman’s grin. “Oh buddy, do I ever!” He said, “One of the ones that came over from Harbington even! They were on the train on the way here! You know, when that big, scary dragon got killed?”\n\nThis caught the attention of the others. Brooklyn and Isabella crowded in, the fennec cocking an eyebrow in disbelief. “One of the Harbington posers?” She asked, “You don’t know any of the, you know, original ones?”\n\n“Who is it?!” Brooklyn asked, “Daxton? Kenny? Quincey? Laila?! Oh, please let it be Laila. I wanna climb her like a tower!”\n\n“Is it…” Oliver’s eyes got very big and seemed to shine, “Daxton?”\n\nJimmy’s expression flattened. He struggled to maintain a friendly face just thinking about those four, but he somehow managed to bounce back. He stood up straight and pressed his fingers to his bared chest, then straightened out his necktie casually. “Well, no, but she is an Inkling, even one with a special power.” Jimmy nodded at them to answer their quizzical stares. “You dorks just hit pay-dirt. You can meet her right now.”\n\n“AAAA!” Brooklyn squealed, bouncing in place. “But who is it?! I’m dying!”\n\n“If it’s not any of them…” Harley mulled the options over to herself, surrounded by her friends, too close for comfort even. They had all moved to squash her into her chair, but she was far too distracted with her thoughts to push them away. The only other person she knew with an Inkling was…\n\nShe began to sweat. She used to host Lumina! Did that boy somehow know? Harley hadn’t told anyone else about that, no one beyond Quincey and Daxton themselves. Had they perhaps let it slip? The sudden thought of being mauled by her newfound friends made her writhe about with worry. She wasn’t prepared for that kind of anarchy! What would her parents think? What would [i]everyone[/i] think? She did not want to be a super hero, or a fighter, or anything like that. It was why she let Lumina go in the first place! Her heart was pounding over the possibilities. It was like watching any chance she had at a normal life just sail right out the window.\n\nJimmy crossed his arms and paused for dramatic effect. He made sure the kids were hanging on his every word before saying, “You might not know her.”\n\nHarley let out a loud, relieved sigh from amidst her friends, drawing curious stares.\n\n“Well then who?” Oliver perked up, his tail never stopping. “We know all of them!”\n\nJimmy did not answer; instead, he dashed off. The kids’ watched him, following attentively along from where they were. Jimmy hurried over to seemingly a random spot in the crowd where the kids watched eagerly for the people to part and show them the face of the Inkling hero they were promised. Oliver’s tail flew back and forth, batting against Harley in his excitement. Brooklyn was nearly vibrating. Harley and Isabella may have been a touch more collected than their peers, but even they felt a spark of excitement welling up inside them. A mystery Inkling was like a character reveal for a popular show or movie. Some people just couldn’t resist getting worked up over it, and they wouldn’t have been much of a fan club if they hadn’t.\n\nAnother boy seemed to appear, a small fly boy with white hair all sticking up every which way and the tips of the various sweeps and licks all dyed a different colour. He stood poised across from Jimmy, and the two of them twisted in a flourish to throw out their arms when the people finally passed by and revealed their mystery Inkling.\n\n“Tadaa!” The boys cheered, waving their hands to drum up excitement.\n\nIt was, of course, Abigail. She stood before the kids in a classic hero pose: back straight, feet planted, and hands on her hips. The sleeves of her sweater dangled past her hands to her thighs, which were likewise nearly smothered by the long hem of it. She changed poses a few times, turning profile and striking a strongman pose, and then raising her arms as if to say, “Here I am!” It might have been convincing if she could have mustered some pride in her expression, but she simply looked tired… or bored. It was difficult to tell which.\n\nThe Inkling Fan Club caught her lack of excitement like a cold. It swept through them so quickly and so strongly, it was obvious when each one of them was filled with disappointment. Oliver’s tail stopped wagging and he drew his tongue back, tilting his head and lifting his hat and staring at Abigail as if he should have remembered her, but had somehow forgotten. Brooklyn was no longer wiggling around, but hunched forward, eyes narrowed. Harley was innocently and genuinely confused, and Isabella, who stood next to their seat, let her arms fall slack at her sides.\n\n“Who the heck is that?” The fennec asked, “Why don’t any of her clothes fit?”\n\n“Why don’t your pants fit?” Abigail asked, crossing her arms and turning her head away as if she were insulted. “How ungrateful.”\n\n“Yeah, hey!” Lincoln piped up, “She’s an Inkling! Show some respect!”\n\nHarley furrowed her brow. “I think I heard of her from my mom,” She said, “She was at the high school.”\n\n“Yeah and so were we!” Jimmy said, “We wouldn’t have gotten out of there in one piece if Abby here hadn’t used her wicked cool Inkling powers to save us.”\n\n“I thought Daxton saved you!” Oliver said, “That’s what everyone says!”\n\n“Puff.” Abby rolled her eyes, “Sure, he helped. I guess. It was me though.” She approached the kids and they all turned in their seat to sit down when she stepped in close. They stared up at her, curiosity shining in their young, innocent eyes. Abigail stared back down at them, the dark circles under her ruby red eyes almost intimidating. “I’m keeping it on the down-low,” She said, “I’m part of the Harbington Heroes, but nobody knows it. It’s a secret.”\n\n“A secret?” Harley asked, “Why is that?”\n\n“Uh, duh?” Abigail shook her head, “So the bad guys don’t know, obviously.”\n\nJimmy and Lincoln joined Abigail, standing as a group before the kids, who were studying them with increasing scrutiny. It was evident by their faces that they were growing incredibly suspicious of the trio. Isabella was the one who stepped forward and confronted Abigail with a more intense interrogation. “Alright,” She said, “If all of that is true, then you have a super power. Prove it.”\n\n“What part of down-low don’t you understand?” Jimmy clapped back, “She just said that it was a secret. She can’t be jeopardizing herself or her top-secret mission just to prove to a bunch of kids that she’s got a power. Haven’t you ever read a spy story, or watched the movies?”\n\nIsabella cocked her head, flipping her hair away from her eyes. “Then you’re faking it,” She said, “If you can’t prove it, then you’re obviously just a bunch of posers. You think you’re honestly the first pathetic losers to go around pretending you’re a super hero after Natalie beat Osoth? Give me a break.”\n\nAbigail raised a brow, and Lincoln and Jimmy appeared stunned at the fennec’s brazen, scathing response. Brooklyn kicked her feet, seated once again on the arm of Harley’s chair, wiggling around on top of it. “So, what, they’re fakers? Laaaame. I should have known, she’s not as hot as the others.”\n\nAbigail studied them for a moment, seemingly unfazed by their harsh judgement. “Alright,” She shrugged, “If you want to know what my powers are…”\n\nShe casually extended her arm, pulling one of her sleeves back to expose to jelly-like blue skin. It caught the light of the lobby, reflecting a shine when she turned her hand and extended her index finger at Isabella. “Pull it.”\n\n“Pull…” Isabella furled her lip, looking at Abigail’s finger and then back to her face. “… Your finger? Uh, no. No way.”\n\n“What?” Abigail nudged her finger closer to the fennec, “Scared?”\n\n“I know that stupid joke!” Isabella said, “I’m not pulling your finger.”\n\nAbigail stepped closer. Isabella stepped back. The jelly girl ever-so-slightly smirked at the evident torment this was putting the prideful fennec through. “Do it,” She said, “Pull it.”\n\nJimmy and Lincoln laughed, spurring Abigail to menace the girl further. “Pull iiiiit. Pull my finger.” She carried on, with Isabella becoming increasingly distressed. The fennec backed off, her bluster fading as she started to become genuinely annoyed.\n\n“You’re disgusting!” Isabella protested.\n\n“And you’re a wuss!” Jimmy chimed in amidst his laughter.\n\n“Stop it!” Harley cried, “Leave her alone!” This made Abigail turn on her, leaning close and shoving her finger in Harley’s face. The girl retreated into the safety of her arm chair, curling up as small as she could with a startled squeak. Watching this, Brooklyn poised herself on the arm of the chair to spring away at a moment’s notice… only to dive forward and grab Abigail’s finger. She pulled as hard as she could with the intent to yank Abigail off her wedge-heeled rain boots.\n\n“BAM!” Brooklyn cheered, only to squeal as she met absolutely no resistance beyond an initial tug. She fell back off the chair and went crashing to the floor in a heap, all crumpled up with her legs sticking up. Her friends quickly checked to see if she was okay. Oliver just so happened to look Abigail’s way, who held up her hand backside-out, allowing Oliver to count out that she had only three fingers and a thumb. The boy froze, while the others tugged on Brooklyn to get her standing.\n\n“What the…?” Brooklyn had to shake off the inertia from her fall, not even realizing at first that clutched in her hands was the detached finger belonging to Abigail. It didn’t take long for that to change, however, drawing her attention to the very obviously human appendage she held. “Ah…!” There it was, cleanly removed from Abigail’s body. There was no blood, no tendons sticking out, but it felt very much like a finger, all… soft, yet bony. It wiggled at her. “A… A-AHHH!”\n\nBrooklyn screamed at the top of her lungs and threw Abigail’s finger across the tile floor. It bounced and rolled clumsily, and even with it out of her possession, Brooklyn desperately wiped her hands on her pants and screamed in horror, flailing around terrified at what had happened. That turned heads. Lincoln was quick to snatch up Abigail’s finger and Abigail swiftly let her sleeve fall back around her hand to hide it from the people who came running to see what the matter was. The teens turned away from the kids, who were trying to calm a then wheezing and heaving Brooklyn down, but they couldn’t contain themselves for long. Jimmy, Lincoln, and Abigail burst out laughing, even while Brooklyn burbled incoherently in her fright. Lincoln handed Abigail her finger back, and the girl simply put it back on her hand where it belonged, out of sight of everyone.\n\n“What’s going on?!” A well-dressed dolphin fellow was at the head of the gathering crowd, a little tag on his suit indicating that he was part of the hotel staff. “What’s wrong?! Are you alright?!”\n\nBrooklyn shook like a leaf and cast an accusatory finger at Abigail. “S-S-S-She-she… she!” She wheezed, falling into the safety of Harley’s arms.\n\nThe man scowled and stormed over to Abigail, his posture rigid and his tone loud and angry. “Young miss I will not tolerate this sort of behavior in my establishment! Especially now!” He bellowed at a comparatively calm, if unimpressed Abigail. “What did you do to this poor girl?! I thought those monsters had broken in! What is wrong with you?!”\n\nAbigail puckered her lips and shrugged, making a noise of confusion.\n\nHer refusal to so much as answer only angered the man further, but so many people had gathered around gawking, he had to remember to keep himself collected and professional. He paused, took a breath, but was still as tense as a coiled spring. He gave Abigail a stern, hard stare. “Smarten up and get along!” He barked, “I don’t want to have to throw you out, or… or tell the police on you!”\n\n“Nyeh, I’m gonna tell on you!” Jimmy mocked the man, causing Lincoln to laugh.\n\nThe man’s nostrils flared. “First and last warning!” He shouted. He then turned back to Brooklyn and made sure she was calm, and that everything was okay. The girl calmed down after a while, and with the situation well in hand, the people around them settled as well. Everyone soon returned to their business, but Brooklyn had made no attempt to explain that Abigail was an Inkling. She had kept quiet about that, and after a few puffs from a medistick, she was nestled safely among her fellow members of the Inkling Fan Club, staying as far away from Abigail as she could.\n\nWith the dust settled, Abigail smugly cocked her hip to the side with her hand resting there. She raised her other and proudly displayed that her finger was not only back upon her hand, but also fully capable of function.\n\n“You do have a power!” Brooklyn gasped, “What else are you hiding under that sweater?!”\n\n“Whooooa, a real Inkling!” Oliver gushed, getting up from his seat to get in close to fawn. “You can come apart and stuff!”\n\n“Shhhhhhhh!” Abigail hushed the kids. “Secret. Mission.”\n\nOliver nodded in understanding, but he couldn’t stay silent for long. “Oh, oh! What’s your mission? I wanna help!” He barked, “Please, please, please, please? Can we please?”\n\nAbigail squinted at the boy. She closed one of her eyes and turned away from him, just to shoot him a look side-long, so that her apparent sizing him up seemed even more scrutinizing. “I dunno, kid,” She said, “You’re… small.”\n\nOliver blushed. “I can do… easy stuff! Isn’t there anything we can do?”\n\n“Hmmm…” Abigail stroked her chin through the over-long sleeve of her sweater. “Well… there might be… one little thing.”\n\nOliver lit up. He turned to the others with a big, bright smile. “You hear that?! She needs help doing something super important!”\n\nThe others had lost their doubt and were instead surprised. “Really?” Isabella asked, “Seriously? What could she possibly do with a weird power like that? Can she even fight?”\n\n“Just fine, thank you.” Abigail haughtily responded, “If you’re not up for it, then I guess we’re done here. Come on, boys, let’s scram.”\n\nAbigail turned on her heels and marched away. Jimmy and Lincoln turned their backs and followed along. Oliver whipped back around and was clinging to the back of Abigail’s sweater in mere moments, yanking it nearly to the floor as he hung off her. “Pleeeeeease!” Oliver begged, “We’ll do anything to help, honest!”\n\nAbigail’s tentacles swung through the air with how quickly she turned around. She slipped out of Oliver’s hands and he bumbled to the floor, barely catching himself before his teeth met her boots. “Well then,” She resumed, “See, right now? I’m between missions. I’m, you know, doing patrol stuff. In order to keep my powers going, I need to rest. I just don’t know my way around though… and I’m really hungry…”\n\nLincoln joined her at her side, nodding, rubbing his stomach. “We’re so hungry! We feel like we’re about to collapse!”\n\nJimmy joined her likewise, putting on a big, cheesy smile. “Yeah, you know, it might be weird to ask, but could you guys go and… get us something to eat? Like nachos? Maybe some sushi?”\n\nLincoln nodded enthusiastically. “Or maybe a great big bottle of lemon-lime?!”\n\n“Or a hot dog…” Abigail mused, “Mm, heck, why not get them all?”\n\nIsabella blinked at them, twitching her ears. Perhaps she hadn’t heard them right. “You want us to…”\n\n“… Get you food?” Brooklyn wrinkled her nose as she finished the thought. “That’s it?”\n\nAbigail threw up her arms in a shrug. “We’re lost!” She said, “Come on, don’t be so mean.”\n\nHarley stared her down, but she couldn’t convince herself to deny their simple request. She sighed, her posture deflating as her anger and irritation toward the group left her. “I… guess we could bring something for you… if that’s what you really need.”\n\n“Oh yeah,” Abigail held up her hand to solemnly swear, “If I don’t get something soon, my Inkling is gonna eat up all my prana and I’ll be down for the count. You don’t want that when all those monsters or whatever start showing up.”\n\n“We sure don’t!” Oliver excitedly agreed, hurrying to his friends and doing his best to yank Brooklyn and Harley out of their seat. “Come on, I know where to get some good stuff! We can do it right now!”\n\n“Do it, and we can get her to sign something for you.” Jimmy stretched casually, “A real hero’s autograph. Wouldn’t that be neat?”\n\n“You can take a picture with her too!” Lincoln fidgeted, “All for a little food! But, ah, we don’t have any money!”\n\nThe kids, who were preparing to leave, froze. “What?” Brooklyn asked, “No money?”\n\nAbigail tugged on her sweater. She lifted it up to show off her small black shorts and her navel. “You see any pockets on me?” She flatly asked.\n\nBrooklyn blushed, her eyes moving up and down what she could see of the soft, squishy jellyfish girl. She seemed as if she were trying to connect the violet dots that speckled Abigail’s thighs in her mind. The way her tongue stuck out and wiggled was telling in how she imagined herself doing so. “I… see! Well alright then!”\n\nShe turned to the others and pumped a fist in the air. “Come on, Fans! Let’s fill ‘er up! I can pay for it, easy! Jelly-baby is counting on us!”\n\n“… Don’t call me that.” Abigail lowered her sweater again.\n\n“Come on! March!” Brooklyn declared, and she began a high-kneed march. Oliver followed her dutifully, and despite a moment of shared hesitation, Harley and Isabelle followed in behind with a little less enthusiasm. They marched off toward the glass entryway and promptly left the hotel. Abigail, Jimmy, and Lincoln waved half-heartedly to them as they marched on by the windows and off toward… wherever they were going to get all that food.\n\nWhen they were well and truly gone, Abigail turned to her two friends. “What a bunch of idiots. Am I right?”\n\n-\n\n--\n\n-\n\nKenny had a special appreciation for the Fabricatory. As someone who enjoyed machines and working with his hands, he recognized it as the marvel it was. Other kids? Well, they might just acknowledge something was made there. “Yeah, duh,” they would say. Everything was made there. Every scrap of material was processed and shipped out from that place, and several products were made and constructed there. They had Research and Development all their own, dealing in every social facet they could. They put their efforts toward everything from simple wool to the heat-resistant Starlite, for medicine and hospice, building construction, sports equipment, power generation… everything society relied on to function! With Kenny’s newfound Knighthood in mind, it could easily have been described as a tailor, blacksmith, and lumberyard all in one. More specialized applications of these base materials were performed elsewhere, but it always started with the Fabricatory and a requisitions form.\n\nLocksmouth’s Fabricatory was enormous. Even Harbington’s wasn’t as big as theirs. Kenny’s home city had sacrificed more real-estate for agriculture and drew in more manual labourers than it did researchers. Locksmouth was a city of scientists; eggheads, bookworms, thinkers and scholars. It was no coincidence that the Locksmouth Incident was in part solved by a teenage boy’s breakthrough anti-inkling-mind-control invention. That being the case, Locksmouth’s Fabricatory towered as a monolith above most of the city. Like Laila’s farm in Harbington, the Fabricatory was the big employer of its home. For every pound of food that Harbington churned out, an equal quantity of base materials was poured out of Locksmouth. The two shared a very beneficial exchange for it.\n\nKenny knew that Quincey’s dad worked there. He took a tram every few days from Harbington to Locksmouth to work as a medical engineer – just one of the subsets of research going on in the Fabricatory. Things like Daxton’s STOP were developed there. Many of the medical researchers were, in fact, Harbington specialists, Kenny knew. It was a point of pride for the city. The boy had been there himself once upon a time. When the opportunity to go on a fourth-grade field trip to one of the largest materials manufacturers on the planet comes around, a grease monkey like him would be nuts to pass it up. It looked almost brand new, however. Even in a time where buildings were practically self-cleaning, it was obvious that the construction was fresh. Osoth’s attack had sorely done a number on the place, and they’d patched up just about everything. Kenny had taken just a moment outside to press his hand to the quasi-plastic shell of the building to see if Polaris could utilize the hard metal structural skeleton beneath, just in case he maybe one day needed to climb that building. He couldn’t imagine a situation where anyone would have to, but he was pleased to learn that if it was called for, he could manage it.\n\nHe entered with Shelly, Aren, and Gren. The reception area held four desks, but only three secretary staff. When they saw Shelly and Kenny, there wasn’t a single one of them that wasn’t notably nervous.\n\n“I’m looking for Gerald Baxter,” Kenny said when he approached one of the desks, “He would have come here from Harbington?”\n\nThe secretary brought up the guest registry and didn’t have to look far. “Gerald’s set himself up in… the Metallurgy Labs, under the vouching of Medical Engineer Walter Abram.” She gave Kenny a careful consideration, “Are you… his son?”\n\n“Yup.” Kenny nodded, “I need to go see him.”\n\nThe cervine woman drew a flat line with her lips and shifted her eyes left and right. “Ummm… I’ve seen you on the news,” She said, “I… don’t know if it’s a good idea to let you go down there. I mean… you, specifically.”\n\nKenny tilted his head, puzzled. He parsed their concerns together in his head on his own, though. “Oh,” He said, “Nah, it’ll be fine. I’m not a walking magnet. I mean, not when I don’t want to be.” He paused, thumbing his chin in thought. He added, “I don’t want to be, you know.”\n\n“Eeeehh…” The woman hesitated, then pointed to the sword strapped to Kenny’s back. “Do you have to carry that in here?”\n\nKenny looked over his shoulder, twisting a little to see the pommel of his blade. He then crossed his arms stubbornly and shot the secretary a look. “Yes, I do. You’re not going to ban Natalie Grayswift from visiting just because she can… I don’t know, whatever she can do, are you?”\n\nThe woman gave him a flat look in return. “Natalie Grayswift doesn’t carry medieval weapons of war around.” She paused to think of the best way in which to solve the problem, and then lit up when a thought came to her. “One moment, I need to call someone.”\n\nKenny grumbled and stepped away. He shot Shelly a look, who simply shrugged helplessly. Aren and Gren looked around, bored, holding hands as Gren held on to Shelly’s hand in order to follow strict instruction to not wander off. They appeared to be enduring torture, being made to keep still and quiet and reined in.\n\nMinutes passed. More people came into the reception. Some were just there to ask questions, others were meeting with R&D teams for business. Kenny tapped his foot on the floor. The people came and went, filing in and out. The receptionists continued their busywork, answering PET calls, transferring inquisitive parties to those who could better answer their questions. A lot of reception work may have been automated – half of the time people didn’t even need to speak to another human being at all during the process. Some people, though, just felt more comfortable interacting with another human being. Whatever kept them in work, Kenny supposed.\n\nAfter some time, a man stepped off the elevator, donned in the apparel of one of the Fabricatory staff. Kenny noticed he was carrying a small EM-Lock device in his hand, and he knew exactly what they had in mind. Before the fox man had even approached, Kenny was already taking his sword off his back, unfastening the strap over his chest. He held it out compliantly.\n\n“Hello there,” The man said politely, taking Kenny’s sword and very easily attaching two small, squared pieces to it; one to the scabbard and one to the hand guard. Any slack the sword had in its holdings was immediately removed, and it snapped together firmly. The man casually tugged on the sword as if to remove it and was unable to. He gave it a few good, hard yanks and still was unable to. With the brief test completed, he handed the sword back to Kenny. “There we go. Safety first! I can hardly believe I’m putting a lock on a sword.”\n\nKenny kind of grinned as he took the sword back and fastened it to his person once more, taking a few moments to adjust it comfortably across his back and shoulder blades.\n\n“Right then! Oh, Mr. Nigel, if you could also just show this young man and his friends to the Metallurgy Labs, I’d be much appreciated.” The receptionist smiled, “And thank you. Just, safety first and all that. We can’t have someone wandering around with something so dangerous.”\n\nThe man nodded and ushered Kenny along. Kenny turned and waved Shelly down, and they all made their way toward the elevator. Shelly bounced up next to Kenny and sniggered.\n\n“They do realize that the word ‘magnetic’ is in ‘electromagnetic,’ right?” She whispered.\n\nKenny pressed a finger to his lips with a sly look. “Shhh.”\n\nGren and Aren giggled over the apparent obliviousness of the adults, but kept their lips sealed as they followed the man through to the lift. It was a short ride down, and the doors opened to reveal the metallurgy labs. The first thing that hit them was heat, followed then by the metallic smell of smelting minerals. The labs themselves were wide-open spaces full of conveyers and stations, and machines most of all. Massive, hulking Smelters snatched up metal ores and scrap plastics, stuffing them into the mouth-like openings where blazing heat engulfed the materials for breaking down. When the melted minerals emerged from the backside of the machine, more arms pounded the materials into shape, where they would then proceed down the line to be cut more finely into actual blocks or tools. Enormous cranes plucked the raw materials from storage containers or heaping piles like a claw game, letting nothing fall loose as they hovered overhead.\n\nThe smelters bathed everything in an intense orange heat and cast hard, sharp shadows around corners and faces. The light shined off the goggles and visors of the employees there, who wore full-body suits and thick, heat-resistant gloves, and took all manner of precautions not to accidentally get a tail stuck in the mix. One could scarcely pick out one sub-species from another, their masked, enigmatic appearance almost making them seem alien. Gren and Aren stayed close to Shelly as she and Kenny were shown in. Gerald was around there somewhere… it was only a matter of finding him in the mess.\n\nTruth be told, the metallurgy labs dealt mostly in plastic materials. It was, however, the only laboratory in the Fabricatory that smelted metals, thus its name. A lot of what the young visitors were seeing were just dull, gray blocks of plastic material for constructing doors, buildings, containers… and that aside, strong, clear panes of scratch-resistant, shatterproof plexiglass for windows. It seemed much of it was being repackaged, loaded into containers to no doubt ship off to other domes or perhaps even to the Ring. Some of the smaller domes didn’t melt down their own building materials, and goodness knew the Ring could always use more.\n\nThe man leading the group took them to some small offices. It was there the Fabricatory workers would do the research part of “research and development,” or hold meetings, or pitch ideas. It was easy to pick out which one Gerald was likely in, as Kenny spotted a very shirtless Kelvalde in one of the windows. The dusky husky just so happened to look out and see the kids, and his face lit up with a smile. He waved them in, and with that the man leading them took his leave. Kelvalde opened the door for them, meeting them as they stepped inside. “Well, took your time, didn’t you?” He chided, taking a moment to study Shelly’s new, albeit small violet dress. “You didn’t go [i]shopping[/i], did you?”\n\n“Well, yeah!” Shelly confessed.\n\nKelvalde gave her a quirky nod. “That was a rhetorical question, my dear. Alright Kenny, your dad’s been dying to get you in here. Come in, see what we’ve done!”\n\nStepping inside, it appeared the room had been converted into something of a workshop. The lights were dim, save the various viewscreens and projections that bathed the small room in blue light. The images displayed showed blueprints and were running through various longform explanations of metals, materials, and basic hydraulics and engineering. To an unfamiliar eye, it may have looked garbled and complicated, jargon, chemical compounds, and equations repeating again and again. The room was made more cramped by the clutter scattered all throughout it. Tools were left carelessly around, on the floor, on the work surfaces, and there was even a screwdriver sticking out of a mug, half-full still of someone’s drink. Scrap materials were scattered like a child’s toys with no rhyme or apparent reason for their placement.\n\nAmid it all, Gerald stood hunkered over the worktable, sparks flying as he continued working on something. They stopped only to give his hand a rest, the man holding out the electric welding tool and rotating his shoulder, shaking away the cable that kept it attached to its power source as well as flexing his sore muscles. The break was only a moment before he was back searing metal with intense heat, very carefully and very meticulously crafting. He barely so much as breathed behind the mask he wore, the light of the sparks reflected in the visor. It seemed as if he hadn’t even heard them come in. He carried on with his work without so much as a grunt in acknowledgement of his son’s very existence.\n\nKelvalde closed the door behind them and shuffled in next to Kenny as he watched his father work. It was a familiar sight for the boy. Gerald was always working, and when he wasn’t, he was thinking about working. He’d gotten very familiar with seeing his father’s back, the way his shoulders bunched up when he hunched over a project. If it wasn’t that, he might have seen his legs sticking out from under a PeTra, or his back again as he left for work. Gerald was lost to the world when he worked. Kenny crossed his arms in bemusement.\n\n“A little birdy told me that some fellow from Harbington showed up here asking to use the space,” Kelvalde said, “They didn’t see why not. Though, with all his requisitions, I believe they’re getting a little concerned.”\n\n“Requisitions?” Kenny asked, “For what?”\n\nKelvalde chuckled. “Why, metal, of course. Steel.” He gave the alloy a hard E and L when he said it.\n\nAll the kids turned their heads at that. “Steel?” Shelly furrowed her brow, “Like, [i]steel[/i] steel?”\n\n“The steeliest steel to ever steel,” Kelvalde grinned, “And he’s been smithing it. I decided to give him a hand.”\n\nKenny squinted at Kelvalde, turning his attention instead to his father. He stepped over the clutter on the floor as if he’d done it a million times before, getting close enough so his voice could carry over the sound of the welder. “Dad? What are you doing?”\n\nGerald looked up from his work, the sparks ceasing immediately from the welder. He gently placed it on the worktable and stood up straight, turning to his son and removing the mask that protected his face. He blinked his small, blue eyes when they took in the light of the room, his bushy mustache wiggling a little as he acclimated himself to the dim light of the room. The bright sparks had left him seeing spots, a little. “Oh, you’re here,” He said, “I lost track of time.”\n\nGerald removed his gloves and set them on the table as well, standing to face his son proper. “I heard you ran into another of those crystals,” he said, “Are you all right?”\n\n“I’m fine,” Kenny answered, still confused, “Are you making something there?”\n\nGerald looked back over his shoulder quickly, and back to his son just as fast. “Well,” He spoke, “… Yes. Before I get to that though, I… think we need to discuss a few things.”\n\nHis tone was serious; it made Kenny a little uncomfortable. The boy chanced a look back at Shelly and the others. “Right now?” He asked.\n\n“Polaris,” Gerald cut right to the chase, crossing his arms over his chest, “This hero… knight business. What’s this all about? Are you trying to prove something?”\n\nKenny was taken by surprise. “What?” He rebutted, “What do you mean ‘prove something?’”\n\n“I want to know what’s going through your head,” Gerald explained, “I want to know what you’re thinking when you run head-long into trouble like that. It’s not like you to take risks like that. You’re smarter than that.”\n\n“Well that should be obvious,” Kenny answered, “I’m doing it to keep everyone safe.”\n\nGerald cocked up one of his bushy eyebrows. “Like at the mall?”\n\nKenny grit his teeth and balled his injured hand into a tight, defensive fist that he immediately tried to cover with his other hand and hide. Gerald didn’t take his eyes off his son’s, seeing right through him. He sighed in disappointment. “Kenny, holding a grudge against this thing is insane. You’re just a kid.”\n\n“A grudge? It’s not a grudge!” Kenny argued. He swallowed, standing firm. “It’s just me keeping people safe! Who else is gonna do it?”\n\nUndeterred, Gerald shrugged. “I don’t know, pick any one of your friends. Pick any of the Locksmouth kids. Any one of them. They all have powers like yours.”\n\nKenny shook his head in confusion, holding up his hand to try and grasp the point, unable to believe what his father was missing. “I’m not just going to let them do everything and sit back with my thumb up my butt! It’s a shared responsibility thing! Why not use my powers for good?”\n\nKenny paused, and he closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them, he kept his gaze fixed on the floor. “Look,” he said, “It’s not just me, alright? Polaris and me… it’s something we’ve got to do.”\n\n“Oh?” Gerald said.\n\n“Polaris was a soldier,” Kenny explained, “He worked for Osoth, and over I don’t know how many years, he’s done some bad stuff. I’ve done bad stuff too. This is the only way we’re going to fix it.”\n\n“Kenny…” Gerald started.\n\nKenny cut him off almost angrily. “That therapist I keep going to? She’s crap! She keeps telling me that what happened wasn’t my fault, that it was just an accident, but that’s a load of bull! I know what I did.”\n\nGerald glared at his son, stepping up at attention, staring him down. “Then you also know that there’s no fixing it,” He said, his voice lowered, “You can’t just undo it. You can’t just pick up a sword and fight bad guys to make it all better.”\n\n“Well I’m not going to just do nothing! I’m sure as hell not going to just sit back and not take responsibility for it! Polaris too! The only way we can start making up for everything is by doing the right thing! Now you’re the one sitting here telling me to run away from all my problems?”\n\nGerald kept a stern stare into his son’s eyes, who stared right back into his just as intensely. Neither flinched for a while or moved a muscle, not until Gerald finally let all the hot air escape him in a defeated sigh. His shoulders slumped, and he shook his head in disappointment. “I was hoping I could talk you out of it, but I figured it was no good.”\n\nThe man turned back to the workbench, turning his back on Kenny. There was a heavy silence in the air for some time. Shelly, Aren, and Gren nervously looked around. “Should we, like, leave? They’re arguing.” Shelly nudged Kelvalde, “This is a family thing, right?”\n\nLeaning on the worktable, Gerald tapped his boot on the floor, sighing again. “Kenny, I’m not sure you’ve ever stopped to notice, but you’ve always succeeded at anything you had your heart set on doing.” Kenny stared inquisitively at his back, and he shrugged. “I keep sitting back and waiting to see which one is going to be ‘the one.’ Granted, you don’t always take the knocks in stride, but you’ve always succeeded in one way or another. You wanted new friends when we moved to Harbington, and you went out and got them. Just like that. Took a while, and you were angry as hell over it… but you did it. You learned machines, you joined the cheerleading squad, and you are damn good at both.”\n\n“Now there’s all this… and you’re good at it too, damn it all.”\n\nKenny stood perplexed and surprised and embarrassed all at once. He wasn’t sure how to take what his father was saying. “Uh, okay?”\n\n“Your mother…” Gerald started, pausing so that his son could reflexively grimace when she was brought up, like he always did. “I know you don’t like talking about her, but your mother… The day you were born, she took you in her arms and she said to me, ‘Gerald, our boy is going to do something amazing some day, I just know it.’ I asked her what it was, and she… heh, she said it didn’t even matter. Everything you would ever do, to her, was amazing. You might not know it, but you were her world… Then again, how could you? When her mind started going, she feared you.”\n\nWhenever Kenny’s mother came up, his thoughts went only to certain snippets in time that he couldn’t shake. They weren’t good places. He remembered a frail woman, a vegetable with a chip in her head to slow her brain activity and allow her to cling to something vaguely resembling an actual life. She was someone who never could take care of herself. She never cooked, never cleaned, never worked; she never did anything at all. The only thing he ever remembered her doing, before the implant, was forgetting her home. She forgot her husband, and she forgot her son. She flew off the handle, terrified that she had been taken somewhere by strangers. She hit him.\n\nHis father always talked about her the way she was before though. It didn’t matter how hard he tried, however… Kenny just couldn’t imagine her any other way than the sad, pathetic excuse of a woman.\n\n“I guess I mean she was afraid of what she’d do, and she was terrified to lose you. She only agreed to get the implant so she wouldn’t hurt you anymore.” Gerald lifted his hands only to drop them back down onto the table, shaking his head in confusion. “So, she just removes herself from our lives and me? I didn’t do enough. Plainly put, I didn’t do enough. Then it all goes to shit.”\n\nKenny took a deep breath, sniffling and rubbing his eyes to wipe way the tears that had welled up there. “So what?” He asked, “What’s your point?”\n\n“Not this time.” Gerald brushed his hand over his latest project and gripped it by its edges. He lifted the plate and stared into the polished, reflective surface of it for a moment, inspecting its quality one last time before turning and presenting it to Kenny.\n\nKenny’s stretched reflection stared back at him on the surface of a steel shield. It was modestly sized for a small boy, and was squared on its top, tapering down to a rounded point at the bottom. It was encased in protective construct plastic around its edges that braced the point at the bottom and a small opening in the top. Kenny’s reflection twisted in the etched-on design that was boldly displayed on the front of the shield – some sort of flower he didn’t properly recognize.\n\n“As parents, we’ve failed you,” Gerald said, “We’re supposed to protect you. We’re supposed to be there for you, not keep you away. We’re supposed to keep you safe. We’re supposed to put you first. We never did any of those things. Instead of bearing the brunt of your struggles together, we tried to distance ourselves from them, as far away as we could get. Now you’re in something too dangerous to ignore, and I’m not going to lose someone I love again by not acting.”\n\nGerald held the steel shield out flat. “It’s yours. We might not be able to fight with you, but we can damn well try to shield you from that psychotic monster.”\n\nKenny was speechless. His mouth hung agape in awe. He looked between the sad face of his father and the well-crafted shield as if uncertain that he should take it. When he finally did take it, he did so delicately. He held it in front of him, looking down at it, examining its size and testing its weight. It could comfortably protect his entire head if he held it up, and most of his torso at chest-level. It wasn’t terribly light, but not as heavy as he would have thought. His arm could get tired holding it for too long. Checking the back, he didn’t seem to see any hand-holds for it, however. The confusion was evident on his face.\n\n“Well now for that, you’ll need something a little extra,” Gerald said, “Come here.”\n\nHe waved Kenny over, and Kenny stepped up to finally see several metal plates laid out over the worktable, all different shapes and sizes, but distinctly so that it was obviously made to fit over his body. “Armor?” Kenny blinked, “You made armor?!”\n\n“[b]We[/b] made armor,” Kelvalde chimed in, “And it works with threadlinks!”\n\n“I think it could still use some tweaking, but for now…” Gerald took one piece of the armor, a chevron-shaped metal plate that curved ever so slightly. He didn’t even warn Kenny before he turned and pushed the plate against the boy’s chest. It reacted immediately by clinging to his clothes, attaching firmly to him and then “gripping” down. Kenny stepped back to find the chest piece then shielded his sternum and chest, forming along the natural curve of his collar with a padded underside. He tugged his jacket over it, obscuring it only slightly. The fine metal still shined from the opening. Looking back to the table, there seemed to be several more pieces to put on, including what appeared to be work boots and gloves with metal plates and studs attached to them.\n\n“Well?” Gerald asked, “What do you think?”\n\n“… I’ve gotta put the rest of this on.” Kenny answered, quickly going through the numerous pieces with his father and attaching each one properly.\n\nWhen he was finally changed, he stood in what passed for full apparel. Metal plates protected his shoulders and his back. Never did they touch or collide even when he moved around. The black gloves on his arms slipped up to nearly his elbow, steel plating the backs of his wrists and out over his knuckles for purposes he could easily deduce. His sword arm bore a metal plate over the forearm, while his shield arm remained bare. The shield attached to the sleeve seamlessly through threadlink and remained fixed on his arm without having the need to explicitly hold it in place. From there, he was bare of armor over his middle and most of his legs, until one reached his feet. He wore big boots, shin-high boots with metal capping the toes and protecting the shins. Some had even been inlayed into the heel.\n\nHe felt weighted, but it was evident that the metal had been used sparingly to keep it from being quite so heavy. It could have been worse, but it had been designed with a padding beneath each piece that felt as if it were filled with gel or rubber. While Kenny bounced on his toes and twisted and turned to both look at himself and test how well the armor moved, Gerald made one last move to remove Kenny’s sword from its scabbard.\n\n“Mm? Did they lock this?” He grumbled.\n\nKenny looked over and casually stepped in to take the sword off his father’s hands. “Oh, I can handle that,” He said, and he didn’t even make motion or gesture to prove he had done anything at all. The sword just came out of its scabbard and the magnet lock on it clattered uselessly to the floor. Kenny collected it and put it in his pocket.\n\nGerald was surprised, but he did his best to keep his composure. “Oh, well… put that in your shield. In the top.”\n\nKenny looked again to the opening in the top. Carefully, he placed the sword’s tip inside and pushed it in. It slid in, a perfect fit, and the shield then snapped back with a sharp, metal ‘shink!’ Kenny jumped in surprise, not expecting the shield to collapse into the convenient shape of a sword’s scabbard. “Whoa!”\n\nGerald stifled a chuckle. He pulled the then-scabbard off Kenny’s forearm, and moved around to instead put it on his back. It stuck there just as easily as it did on his arm, requiring no straps to keep it in place.\n\nKelvalde finally stepped in proudly. “I designed that, that was me,” He claimed quickly, “Your dad did all the metalwork, but the fancier stuff was all me.”\n\n“Whoa, threadlink armor!” Aren’s eyes were practically sparkling as he gushed over the design from a distance.\n\n“It looks so cool!” Gren added, her fists balled up as she practically bounced in excitement, “Wow that’s the most actually heroic thing I’ve ever seen! Natalie doesn’t have armor like that!”\n\nKenny was feeling awful chuffed. He turned to Shelly and held his arms out to present himself to her. “Eh? What do you think?” He asked, “This do anything for you?”\n\nShelly tapped her chin, unable to hide her amused grin at how Kenny seemed to act, well, almost like a kid. It was weird and different, enough to be confusing for her, but she thought it best not to think too hard on it. She turned her attention to the armor, studying Kenny up and down. His visage was reflected in her big, amber eyes. “You look… protected,” She said, “Sort of… Like, how are you gonna protect your dick?”\n\nGerald immediately seized up, flustering a little as he kneaded the back of his neck. “I said it needs some adjustments, but I’m not [i]made[/i] of money! Steel is expensive!”\n\n“And like,” Shelly flicked her wrist, canting her hips, “A personal hard-force shield would be, like, so much more effective in both absorbing impact and overall durability. Plus, you wouldn’t have to polish it or keep it from rusting and stuff? But then I guess it’s also [i]super[/i] illegal to have an energy shield, so I mean, it’s okay then I guess?”\n\nCupping a hand over his crotch in embarrassment over its noted vulnerability, Kenny blushed. “Polaris’ power is magnetism! It needs to be metal, obviously, duh!”\n\n“Ohh em gee, if you add a few more pieces I bet you could totally use your powers to levitate!” Shelly added, leaning closer to inspect the boy in more detail.\n\n“Shelly, he wanted to know if you thought he was hot!” Gren provided, much to Kenny’s immediate embarrassment, and Shelly’s too. Gren took a special sort of glee out of the way Kenny glared at her.\n\n“Oh! Uh… Well, you look…” Shelly awkwardly couldn’t find the words. She just bit her lip and gave him a thumbs-up. “Mm?”\n\nKenny sighed. “Gee, thanks.”\n\n“I’m sorry!” Shelly raised her hands, “It’s just you’re so small, you don’t even look that scary!”\n\n“I’m not supposed to look scary!” Kenny barked back.\n\n“Eee!” Shelly bunched up her arms and scooted away from Kenny, “Now you’re [i]totes[/i] scary!”\n\nKenny growled, giving Shelly pause. Dropping her playful façade, she addressed him a little more meekly. “Are you, like, actually mad?”\n\nKenny paused, took a deep breath, and let it all out slowly, while balling his fists so tightly his knuckles whitened. “No,” He said, through grit teeth, “I am not angry. It’s fine. You’re fine.”\n\nShelly turned away from him hesitantly and shuffled aside a few steps before digging her PET out of her cleavage and beginning to frantically tap on it, shooting him a few looks while she did it. Kenny rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his father, who was watching it all and just shaking his head. He couldn’t hide his mirth, though, and Kenny seemed even less appreciative of his grinning expression.\n\n“You know, that design on the shield, it’s your mother’s… well, it [i]was[/i] your mother’s favourite flower. She used to grow them everywhere. Couldn’t walk two steps without running into a tulip around the house.” Gerald said, “That’s just a little bit of her in there too. I know she would have wanted to protect you as badly as I do.”\n\nKenny did one last look over himself, lifting his foot to try and see the steel caps on his boots. “Well, thanks,” He said, “Uh… don’t worry, I guess? I’ll be even better than before with all this.”\n\n“Kenny…” Gerald prompted, expectantly. He raised a brow at his son, giving him the stern dad look most teenagers were familiar with. Kenny seemed frustrated over this.\n\n“Alright, fine, yeah, mom…” Kenny said, “I can’t thank her too. Even if I could… You know. Wouldn’t matter.”\n\nGerald took a moment to contemplate his son’s words and consider a response. He hung up on that for some time. Much of it had already been said once before. Kenny was a stubborn boy in a lot of ways, not the least of which being how he felt about his mother at any time. The approaches weren’t always the same, the feelings weren’t always the same, but the constant always remained that Kenny wouldn’t budge.\n\n“Well then,” Gerald concluded, “I suppose you have work to do.”\n\nGren and Aren stuck with Kelvalde for most of the visit, but the kids were beginning to get antsy. “Can we go now?” Aren asked. Gren at his side bobbed on her toes and heels, swaying forward and back as she bounced her hands off her sides, unable to hold still. Shelly looked up from her PET and at the kids before turning her attention to Kenny. “Are we done? Maybe I should get these guys home, y’know? Let their families look after them instead of me for a while. Do you have all your armor and stuff or what?”\n\n“That’s everything,” Kelvalde said, “Right Gerald?”\n\n“Right.” Gerald stepped forward and clapped his hands down on his son’s shoulders, barely giving him a shake to get him out of his own head. From that close, and in the glow of the blue light, he looked tired. It had occurred to Kenny just then that a couple of days to forge all those things – the retractable shield and the armor – was a tremendous undertaking that left little time for anything else. Even sleep.\n\n“Right.” Kenny agreed, “I’ve got to be out there in case anything drops in again anyway.”\n\n“You be safe, alright?” Gerald said, to which Kenny simply nodded. He held the boy just for a little while longer before releasing him and stepping back. Kenny turned, rolling his shoulders slightly, still getting used to the way the armor pieces would shift with his movements. It was clear that the donned protection filled him with a sense of professionalism – he stood up a little straighter and seemed to consider his movements more carefully.\n\n“Alright, well…” Kenny looked to Shelly, “Let’s go I guess.”\n\nShelly stuffed her PET back between her breasts and reached out for Gren’s hand, taking it as Aren linked up and they walked in a chain toward the door. “’Kay, like, home-time. Hopefully before big, scary monster thingies show up,” She said, “And then I’ll go home maybe too, I think.”\n\n“You’ve got to fight the monsters too!” Aren said, “Go all stretchy on them!”\n\n“Nuh-uh! Like, totes not!” Shelly protested, “I’ll just get used as a slingshot again!”\n\nKelvalde waved to the kids as they passed by and they waved back, most of them. The husky stood by the door leaned up against the wall where he pushed his bangs away from his face and considered Gerald for a moment. The older man turned away and gathered his PET from the worktable, glancing at it for more than a few moments before he pocketed it into his suit. “Thanks, guy I’ve never met.” Gerald said, “Couldn’t have figured that out without you.”\n\n“Nonsense,” Kelvalde said, “It’s a commendable initiative! Why, it’s tradition that one’s father forges the family crest so that his son might carry it into battle. Call me a little old-fashioned, but I just couldn’t help myself.”\n\n“Family crest.” Gerald scoffed, “I’m a mechanic, not a neo-medieval nobleman. He doesn’t much care for it anyway.”\n\n“It might grow on him,” Kelvalde said, “You may be surprised.”\n\nGerald made for the door, stopping only to give Kelvalde a side-long glance. “She never had a chance to grow on him.”\n\nOutside, Kenny stepped into the elevator last behind the others. As the doors closed behind him, Aren looked up at Kenny curiously. “Kenny, is your mom dead?” He asked.\n\nKenny looked down at him. The boy’s tone had been so innocuous that even being caught off guard by the sudden question didn’t rush Kenny to anger like it normally would have. “Yeah,” He said, “She died a long time ago. When I was younger than you.”\n\nAren looked down, shuffling his feet awkwardly. “Oh,” He said, “That sucks. Sorry.” Gren and Shelly stayed quiet, uncomfortable with the idea of even speaking up to offer similar condolences. They allowed it to remain implied, not wanting to drag on the matter for Kenny’s sake. Kenny himself simply turned away to face the elevator doors, waiting for them to open as the chamber rose toward the ground floor. Silently, he mulled over his own thoughts.\n\n“I like her flower.” Aren said softly.\n\nKenny closed his eyes and tried to think back, way back, to any kind of memory regarding his mother that wasn’t either completely miserable or just casually contemptable. Tulips must have been those flowers he used to see around the house when he was little. Blue, yellow, pink, white… it had only just occurred to him that each of those colours were all the same flower placed everywhere around his old home in Anchorsway. They had always given the place an almost… nursery feel to it. They were warm and gentle, and he’d plucked the petals off them when he was feeling sad. His mother’s “spot” by the window was full of them. Vibrant, potted colour all around her like a barrier, while she sat husked among them. She didn’t seem to like them so much then, but apparently, she loved them before?\n\nThat room always had more life in it than she did. There was one time, though…\n\n… Where he put one of those flowers in its pot on her lap like she was an end table. It was funny at the time, mean-spirited, and demeaning. It was, however, the first and only time he saw her grab something and stare at it, rather than blankly out the window.\n\n“Huh.” He said, the elevator already having come to the main floor and opened to let them off. “Y’know? Yeah. They’re pretty nice.”", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "If nothing else, the thundering booms of Epheral’s crystals passing through Locksmouth’s dome field served as ample warning for the citizenry to prepare themselves for the worst. They had started trickling in like clockwork on the second morning after Harbington’s evacuees arrived, and had steadily been going on into the night, and then into the following morning after that. Natalie and her pack had become so well-organized with the police at hand that there had been times where the attacks went almost unnoticed by the average pedestrian, oftentimes late at night when everyone was in bed. One of Epheral’s batteries may have landed in a different district than the residential, resulting in the homes and apartments of the common folk going relatively undisturbed. Other times, the average folk had to be well-brushed-up on their panic situation response drills to evacuate an area where at one moment they were simply enjoying a nice meal at the Burger Dictator, and the next an army of kobolds were ransacking the kitchens.

It made plenty of work for the dome’s heroes, but they delivered. Whenever an attack happened, someone wasn’t far behind. Be it Jacent, Natalie, Max, Carrie, or any of the Harbington kids, at least one of them would arrive promptly to deal with the situation and contain it. They’d shattered several the crystals in just two short days, enough to nearly be equal to the number that had been left behind in Harbington. By that point, everyone was reaching a certain familiarity with it. Enough that when a situation was cleared, citizens continued going about their business in short order after only a brief respite to collect themselves again. The Inklings were becoming welcome, comforting sights as they acted as sentinels toward the outside threat that had been bombarding them for what seemed like ages.

“We’ve got another one setting down in the park.” Murphy warned Natalie over PET, “Almost took out a couple of our squad cars.”

“Anyone by the park?” Natalie switched to communicating with her pack and their newest affiliates, all while she never stopped in her patrolling of the beachside area. She and Echelon paced up and down along the shore in separate directions, after having left fair-sized crater where the last crystal had dropped in.

“I got it,” Carrie answered, “Anyone in the area for back-up?”

“Uh, like,” Shelly cut in, “I took Aren and Gren to the park, so…?? ‘Cause I was watching them and stuff like you told me to?”

“Anyone else?” Carrie pressed.

“Keep your Mary-Janes on,” Kenny groused, “I’m coming.”

“Nobody else?” Carrie asked, shrugging, “Alright then. It’s clobbering time! I was so pissed you got the last one.”

“Just make sure nobody gets hurt.” Natalie instructed.

Carrie nodded, and then immediately deflected. “Shelly, make sure nobody gets hurt.”

“Wha-?!” Shelly was flabbergasted, “Me? Aw, why me? Fine, just like, let me get the kids outta the way. Maybe if I take them to the mall Epheral won’t attack there. Except she will. What’s her problem?”

“You want an itemized list or what?” Carrie grunted.

“Look, I’ll escort you if you keep getting into trouble then.” Kenny said.

“Yeah I bet you will.” Daxton snickered.

“Shut up.” Kenny disconnected from the call, and the others followed in his example one by one.

Carrie didn’t have to take any wild guesses as to where the crystal landed. All she had to do was head upstream along the steady flow of people running for their lives. She jogged at a brisk pace, people tripping over themselves as she passed them by heading across the midway to the park. It was a quaint little place; somewhere many parents took their kids when they had the time off. Lots of the young ones made their own little packs there, and played the days away on the jungle gym or in the sand, or just ran around among the trees playing touch games. There was a tunnel there constructed for kids to crawl through. They OC’d there a lot. Carrie used to as well until Natalie couldn’t fit anymore. It was a nice place, with nice memories; Carrie was only made that much more eager to smash whatever decided it was hard enough to come into her neighbourhood.

The snow-white cat bound onto the grass, everything about her bouncing into place when she finally stopped to plant her feet. Her twin tails, the plaid ribbons in her hair, the plaid skirt around her thighs, and even her overstuffed blazer wobbled into a heroic stance with her fists clenched and a big grin spreading over her sharp teeth. Families who were fleeing stumbled in their mad dash to get a good look at her, the hero who had come to save them looking as if she’d gotten fresh out of a prep school classroom. Everyone recognized her, some even called out her name; Carrie Oakenfield; body-slammer of giant aliens, Inkling savior.

“Alright everyone, no need to panic! Keep moving!” She bellowed out over the small number of people who remained, “Just point me in the direction of the bad guys and let my fists do the talking!”

Her eyes darted around. It didn’t take long to find the crystal. They always stood out. Big, white, jagged, crystalline objects that boiled and bubbled with unnatural power, shifting in plain sight, fragmenting like a corrupted hologram, so obviously not meant to be in the world, let alone in the middle of the park where it had just barely missed smashing up one of the swing sets. Carrie liked that swing set. She and Natalie shared a lot of swings on that swing set. On a single swing, of course. Nobody, galactic terror or otherwise, was going to destroy the lap swing if she had anything to say about it.

The crystal was there, but no monster. She turned her head to look around, seeing no weird black constructs to contend with. “No way,” She said, “Don’t tell me I came all the way here just to break a rock. Where’s the monsters at?!”

“Carrie, look out!” Shelly cried from the sidelines – way on the sidelines, from the street, as far away as she could get with Gren and Aren at her side. “It’s under the ground!”

“What?!” Carrie shouted back, turning away from the crystal to look out Shelly’s way.

Gren and Aren jumped up and down, waving their arms and pointing. “Carrie!”

“Yeah hi!” Carrie waved at them, “Shelly! What did you say?!”

“It’s under the ground!” Shelly cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted back at the cat.

Carrie twitched her ear. “Well duh it’s on the ground! Or wait, is it flying?!”

“IT’S UNDER!” Shelly screamed, “THE GROUND!”

A rumbling caught Carrie’s attention, not so powerful as to put her off her feet, but enough to shake her knees. She turned quickly to see the jagged shape of what appeared to be a fin jutting out of the ground just for a moment before it rather abruptly shot down under the dirt. A trail of upturned soil gave away where it had been traveling that entire time, and Carrie just hadn’t noticed it. Her ears wilted, she sniffed, and scratched her nose. “Motherfucker,” She said, “It’s under the ground.”

The ground shot up from under her feet, splitting over the enormous charcoal bulk of a beast whose vice-like jaws fractured open beneath her. Launched into the air under the sheer force of its attack, Carrie flailed her arms as the giant form of the beast followed her up. Quadruped, its body was ridged and jagged, as if plated in spots, and it was distinctly reptilian in shape. It resembled a dinosaur, though none the likes any history book had ever seen. It’s stumpy little legs were offset by its enormous size, its width making up much more than its height, and yet it still would have stood head and shoulders over Carrie herself. It’s jaws alone were enormous, housed in an almost beak-like scoop, perfect for coming up under the unaware and gobbling them up. As Carried hurtled skyward, the jaws of the beast surrounded and then clamped down around her. A single snap and she was gone.

“AHHH!” Shelly and the kids screamed, pulling their hair and bouncing around hysterically.

“It ate her!” Shelly freaked, “It ate her all up!”

The monster hung heavy in the air and then came crashing to the ground, though awkwardly. It reeled back and slammed its spine off the dirt, kicking its legs and wriggling in a serpentine manner before it flipped over onto its feet again. It stomped around indiscriminately, whipping its head left and right, bucking and kicking, fussing about. Then, it turned its glowing white gaze out toward Shelly and the kids, who froze up in fear. It offered a throaty, angry growl of warning, lumbering forward a few steps toward them.

Its head jerked aside, as if struck. It stumbled, and then was thrown the other way. It growled again and began thrashing around, wrestling with something unseen. Shelly ushered Gren and Aren behind her protectively, and took a deep breath to quite literally puff herself up to brace for whatever was coming from the frightening, subterranean beast. She held her breath and shook, her body quivering in fearful determination not to let the same fate befall the kids she oversaw. She didn’t even think of running, too scared to let that simple answer cross her mind, which raced for potential, insane solutions to an otherwise easily beaten problem.

After a few moments it turned to them once more, and began a clumsy charge toward them. On its stubby feet, it moved weightily, and less than gracefully, but its footfalls made the ground shake beneath it. Shelly could almost feel the tremors traveling up her legs as it got closer, but before it even reached the street, its head ducked down and it slid to a stop, dragging up trenches of dirt as it did.

“Ah! S-Shelly!” Aren cried, jumping out in front of the butterfly protectively, “I’ll save you!”

Gren lashed out and grabbed Aren’s arm, yanking him back. “Aren no! Don’t! That’s stupid!”

The monster undulated its body as if to wretch. Shelly, Aren, and Gren shook in their collective footwear as they huddled together. Then, the monster’s jaws parted.

They were opened, by the squat form of Carrie, who hooked her fingers under the thing’s upper row of teeth as soon as she had the space to. “Raaaaahhh!!” She cried, as she heaved, getting her feet in place and her shoulders braced under the mighty maw of the beast, where she stood. She struggled against the strength of it trying to snap down on her again, but overpowered it slowly. It roared and flailed around, Carrie stubbornly straightening her knees and elbows as she forced the thing’s jaws wide open, and then braced herself like a wedge between them. She huffed her breaths, her face reddened with exertion and her eyes wild and angry. Unable to close its mouth again, the monster bowled onto its side and kicked around in the dirt in circles, trying to slam its face off the ground to knock her loose.

“Holy crap!” Gren shouted.

The monster struggled, spinning sideways in a donut on the dirt until it got to its feet, reared back its head, and slammed its own jaw on the ground to force it to clamp shut. Carrie was launched straight out of it, sent tumbling along the ground. When she stopped and got to her feet, she held out one of the monster’s jagged, scratchy charcoal teeth defiantly. “Ha!” She panted, “You can’t eat this pussy!” She threw the tooth at it, and it clinked uselessly off the sturdy prana carapace of the monster, only mildly agitating it. “Come on! Try it again I’ll rip out the other twenty-some odd!”

Instead, it charged at her. Like a rampaging bull it stampeded across the park, its massive form threatening to overtake her quickly. It rammed its angular head into her, knocking her out of the way before it scrambled to correct course and continue a relentless assault of rushing her with its body. Carrie took the strike full-on, being thrown to the side without terrible injury, and as the thing continued to come at her and start dragging her around the park, she started meeting it with blows. It rammed its face into her and she punched it, wild haymakers crashing into the hard shell of it and leaving small, white glowing cracks.

For one punch, she inked over. Arus reared back her fist and delivered it right to the side of the beast’s head as it came charging at her, striking it with enough force to barrel over a semi. The effect was the same on the creature, causing it to careen sideways and roll over onto the dirt. It kicked its legs and wriggled to right itself again, and before Arus could move to strike it again, it began frantically burrowing into the dirt. The inked cat hurried over just as the monster was pulling its small, waggling tail into the hole it had left on the ground, dirt caving in behind it to cover its tracks. The ground shook as it very clearly tunneled away, its exposed, jagged fin digging a trench out right between Arus’ feet as it dug away. Arus bent down and looked between her legs to see it, upside-down, making a bee-line to turn around and come back at her.

She stepped forward to meet it, hurrying to cut it off before it had an ample opportunity to lock in and come up under her again. She pounced it in its turning arc, and she dug her fingers into its fin. With all her might, she planted her feet and wrenched back, halting the beast as its entire truck-sized body desperately sought to get away from her. Arus heaved, and with a mighty pull of all her strength, she unearthed its upper half where its little front feet kicked around, and it snapped its jaws angrily. Arus planted a foot upon its back and dug in with her heel as she pulled back on its fin.

Shelly and the kids were totally enamoured with the display, so much so that they barely noticed Kenny run up next to them. He stopped, turned on his heels, and gave Shelly a quick glance from her chest to her face. “It’d help if you people told me where these places are!” He groused, then turned almost in the same motion and breath to run off and help Carrie. He inked over as he leapt into the battle, his sword unsheathing and circling around to his hand in a fluid motion for him to grip and charge in with.

Arus pried off the beast’s fin with a bone-rending snap, which mistakenly freed it to hurry forward. It slipped out from under her and attempted to burrow once again, only to have Polaris leap in and cut cleanly through its tail before it could get its back-end back into the dirt. The appendage fell heavy and limp to the ground, and the beast kicked its legs, finding it difficult to get its footing without the counterweight. It seemed stuck rear-up and half into the ground. Polaris glanced at its situation, and he smiled.


“Arus, if you’d please.”

Arus stepped forward, fists balled into angry sledgehammers of pain. “Time to beat ass.”

She wind milled her fists down into the monster’s backside, burying her fists up to the forearm in it, and tearing out chunks when she would pull her arm back to deliver another. She pounded the creature into the dirt like a piston, machine-like in her delivery of left-right-left punches. While she quite literally dismantled it butt-first, Polaris turned his attention to the crystal and threw out his arm to send his sword sailing into it. The crystal fractured and cracked before exploding in a dazzling display of white light, sending shards of itself all over the park, raining down on Arus as she finished pounding the creature into dust.

“Just come at us already!!” Arus shouted angrily, “What are you waiting for?!”

Polaris de-inked and Kenny caught his sword again to put it safely back in its scabbard. He approached Arus, who panted in frenzied anger. Once more, he glanced to her chest before her face. “She’s clearly trying to wear us out,” He said, “Don’t worry. We expected this.”

“It’s annoying!” Arus de-inked as well and Carrie turned to face Kenny, hands firmly planted on her hips. “If she takes any longer I’m gonna spend Homeshare ripping her in half!”

Kenny threw his arms up in a shrug. Shelly then broke in, squealing as she jumped on Carrie and squeezed her. “Ohmigawd!” She said, “That was awesome!” She bounced on Carrie, crowding her face with her considerable chest and cleavage offered by her seasonally inappropriate corset-like top. Carrie grumbled, while Aren and Gren tugged at her skirt in equal excitement.

“I helped too y’know.” Kenny crossed his arms, pouting. He sighed and turned his attention skyward, where all Epheral’s crystals had been coming down of course. They always fell from the sky, and always from the same direction; from Harbington. The boy flexed his downturned lips, then squinted. It was sometimes hard to see, especially when the sky was clear, but it seemed yet another crystal was preparing to touch down. “Don’t look now,” he said, “More work.”

Carrie pushed Shelly off her and looked up as well. “Damnit,” She raised her fist to the sky, “Damn you Epheral!”

Shelly creeped in behind Kenny and leaned over his shoulders, once again crowding someone with either her full awareness of personal space or complete obliviousness. It was anyone’s guess at that point. “Oooh,” She said, “What’chya gonna do, huh?”

Kenny blushed and pushed to contend for space with Shelly’s heaving chest. “Beat it up, I guess.”

It crashed into the dome’s field, where it met a very brief resistance before just slipping through remarkably well. How it managed to do such a thing was beyond any of their comprehension. It clearly left a small hole behind, burning through with its raw energy, but the gaps were often swiftly closed. It couldn’t have been doing much good for the power grid. With it securely through, it fell toward the Earth yet again. This time it looked as if it was going to land by the mall. When Shelly was right, she was right.

“Alright, Cap!” Laila, who had seen the crystal coming down, flew up into the sky to intercept it, “Come on up!”

She turned and watched as far down below, Jacent leapt from the roof of a nearby building. That leap was propelled, throwing him well into the air, blasting him high above the city. Laila reached out, grabbed his hand, and spun to throw him further, after which a rush of air threw the prepared Jacent even faster through the air. He was shielded quickly by the rushing force of motion that saw him launched like a missile, where he met with the crystal not long after it went through the dome, catching it on his fist and smashing it against the force field. His force of impact sent a shockwave through it that surged all throughout the dome from one end of the city to the next, and resulted in the crystal erupting like a destroyed star. There were barely any pieces left to rain down over Locksmouth’s eastern side, aside from some flecks and glittering dust.

“Or, that.” Kenny blinked.

Jacent rebounded off the inside of the dome and was sent hurtling back toward the city streets. He came rushing down where he landed on the midway and barreled down a couple of blocks, stumbling and rolling until he finally stopped himself. He slid to a halt in a knelt position, and once the inertia of his breakneck speeds finally settled, he stood among the citizens who had been heading on their way to go shopping. Having witnessed the entire spectacle, they cheered him. He only then looked around as if just noticed them. He modestly waving them down as he turned and abruptly attempted to stroll away.

“Whoa.” Abigail sat staring at Jacent, with Jimmy and Lincoln with her seated at the same small café table with an umbrella overhead shading them from the not-too-warm sun. They had just taken to the commercial sector for a break of their own, not having expected to watch a display like that. Abigail had just pulled a fizzy orange soda bottle from her lips with a glassy pop.

Jimmy glowered as he sunk onto the table, clutching his head in his hand. “All this cheering’s going to give me a headache!” he complained, “They’re not THAT great! Jeez!”

“Well let’s see you do that!” Lincoln rebutted.

Abigail rubbed her chin. “Looks like being an Inkling makes you some big famous super hero… A hero that people love, worship, and will probably do anything for.”

Jimmy huffed, but he glanced up at Abigail’s thoughtful expression and noticed her barely-there little smile. He sat up, knowing better than to ignore that in favour of her otherwise disinterested look. He pieced it together in his mind and grinned himself. “Anything, you say?”

-

--

-

Locksmouth’s mall may not have been as thematic as Harbington’s, but it was no less expansive. A sprawling commercial Atlantis is what it most resembled, built of angular white tile architecture, a splash of green foliage and ivy, and serene running water. Waterfalls flowed down into placed reservoirs to act as fountains, bringing a sort of utopian charm to rest spots with benches and trash receptacles free for use by mall-goers. Storefronts were almost as paintings, adding welcome splashes of colour to the surroundings, along with purely decorative wall accents and pillars. The food court contained a few authentic food carts, with Natalie’s favourite bagel stop among them. Even with everything going on, teenagers and families were still using the space to shop, either unable or just unwilling to allow Epheral’s invasion to stop them.

It hadn’t been used as a safe space like when Harbington was attacked, freeing it up to go about business as usual. Only some exceptions were made by particularly cautious store owners who thought it better to close shop until the most recent monster scare had blown over. Very few of them were ever in such straits that they couldn’t afford to take a few days off, and even if they were, it wouldn’t have been hard to fetch support from the Arbitrators and the community to cover them. Alien invasion had been introduced recently as a clause outlined as being a situation beyond any one person’s control. Anything lost during such a time was promptly rebuilt or returned, though it did put pressure on Natalie and the others to be careful what they damaged when fighting those sorts of things back.

Carrie had been less than careful, even if she couldn’t have helped what the monster in the park had done to the well landscaped grass. She once again had to meet with the Arbitrators for her regularly scheduled scolding. While that was going on, Kenny made good on his promise of accompanying Shelly and the kids to the mall. It had confused him in retrospect why Shelly, who was a hard sell as a bodyguard at best, would be put in charge of Gren and Aren, who seemed almost more capable themselves. It just made more sense to keep someone more suited for fighting in such a role, and how much more of a bodyguard could someone be than a guy with a sword strapped to his back?

“Oh!” Shelly stopped the group for the third time to gawk into a store window, “Tell me that wouldn’t look fab on me!”

Kenny rolled his eyes. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have sworn Shelly’s reasoning for taking them to the mall wasn’t just to keep them safe. He was a fine one to talk, though. His reasons for coming along were just as selfish and laser-guided. When Shelly leaned forward, her chest hung so heavily it was a wonder her skinny body didn’t just snap in half. The blue top with the berry red accents she wore cinched her middle in a valiant (but ultimately futile) effort to make her appear as if she had hips bearing any description, while hugging up her sides and up under her breasts to push them together and forward for optimal presentation. As two separate pieces that clung to her sides, a bare line of her rubbery gray skin ran up the middle of both her front and back.

Kenny’s chivalry had long since drowned in the plunging abyss that was Shelly’s top-to-bottom cleavage.

The butterfly girl admired a holographic mannequin in the window that showcased a nice little purple dress. The body presenting it was modestly slender, and comparing Shelly to it, Kenny deduced that her bust would tear it to shreds and the skirt was much too short for her long chicken legs. Still, despite that, he just nodded. “Yeah, you’d look great.”

“I should buy it!” Shelly clapped her hands together, “Wait here!”

“Should you really be buying things right now?” Kenny asked, “You’re supposed to be watching these guys.”

Kenny gestured to Gren and Aren, the two of them holding ice cream cones in their hands, just watching Shelly like a pair of disappointed parents. Gren just shook her head, while Aren lapped at his ice cream and watched to see what Shelly would do next.

“Isn’t that why you came?” Shelly stared at him inquisitively, squinting. “That is why you came, right? Don’t be such a spaz! It’ll only take a second!”

She paused, thought about it for a moment, and then leaned down to pat down Kenny’s shoulders. “Sorry, like, you’re not a spaz. You’re perfectly normal, even if you… y’know! Now, beebs!” She released him and almost ran into the store, leaving him scratching his head.

“You guys put up with this all the time?” He asked.

Aren nodded. “Shelly has to look after us a lot, but it’s okay because she’s actually really nice! Well, kind of. She’s super autistic so sometimes she says things that’re weird or mean.”

“But she doesn’t mean them,” Gren nudged Aren, “And since she doesn’t really fight she’s on babysitting duty. We are not babies, and we are perfectly aware that Natalie’s just pushing us out of the way to keep us all safe. Still, we’re mature about it. If anything, we’re the ones keeping Shelly safe!”

Kenny blinked at the pair of them. They were sharp, for kids. After saying something so insightful, however, Gren dipped her face down to lick at her vanilla ice cream cone and Aren nudged her in return for her earlier shove. Ice cream smeared on her face and dripped onto her black sweater, and she gasped the biggest, most offended gasp. “TEN!” She squealed, and Aren turned quickly to flee through the mall. Puffed up in anger, Gren chased him. “GET BACK HERE I’M GONNA KILL YOU!”

“Woop woop woop!” Aren squealed as he ran away, giggling despite his situation.

Kenny still scratched his head, frowning in dismay. That’s when he saw Quincey and Daxton, the pair of them sitting at the bagel cart eating some sandwiches. Quincey was waving at him, mowing down on what appeared to be the most thickly stacked sandwich she could wrap her hands around. Daxton, in comparison, ate a modest egg bagel. Kenny approached them and sidled up onto a seat at the cart, where the elderly badger who ran the place came to ask what he wanted, and he just raised a hand to hush him and shoo him along.

Quincey chewed on her sandwich, which held at least three layers of cheese and vegetables splitting apart two layers of assorted meats. She’d managed to get clothes that agreed with her; she traded her tight, uncomfortable jeans for a green plaid skirt, cross-stitched with stripes of yellow, deep violet, and darker green. Her top was multi-layered, the topmost being a blue and sleeveless vest, split at the bottom to create a V shaped opening that revealed only a darker blue layer beneath that hugged her hips like a too-long undershirt. Beneath that lay tiny, barely-there white sleeves of a button-up top only covered her shoulders leaving her freckly arms bared. The low neckline of the top layer showed off the high, folded collar of the white lowest layer, and the button-down front covered by a red neck tie. She had comfy white socks on her feet and black shoes. She looked almost too comfortable, considering what was going on.

“What are you up to, Kenny?” She asked.

Kenny palmed his forehead. “Realizing I came to babysit just so I could stare at a girl’s tits all day. While Epheral could attack at any minute! What the heck is wrong with me?”

“Aww.” Daxton gave Kenny a soft tap on the shoulder with his fist. “That’s cute.”

Kenny glared at him, but was at a loss when it seemed Daxton’s “I’m With Stupid” t-shirt was doing all the talking for him. Daxton laughed at the boy’s obvious annoyance. “Ah, just run with it,” He said, “Tell her that’s why you came! It’ll be a compliment.”

Quincey giggled. “Mm… maybe don’t. Daxton’s not exactly a Casanova.” She said, drawing Daxton’s unimpressed stare. She smiled and shrugged, hiding partially behind her bagel sandwich. “It’s your effort that’s endearing.”

Kenny looked at the two of them, and became suddenly very aware of their situation. “Forget what I’m doing, what’re YOU doing?” He fired back, “You guys should be helping the rest of us!”

Daxton swallowed a bite of his sandwich and took a few impolite chugs of his accompanying orange juice before answering with a shrug. “Duplex and Lumina are back in Canvas with Koralo and Phactys. We just figured that while we’re on break we might as well just get something to eat.”

“I was starving.” Quincey said, “And Duplex should be resting anyway. I don’t have anything to do while everyone else is running around. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that I steal Daxton for a few hours.”

“You’re always starving.” Kenny grumbled.

“And I’m tired of punching Epheral’s goons in their faces!” Daxton sighed, “I want her to just show up in Garrison’s body already, so I can smack them instead!”

“Well that’ll happen any minute now, I’m sure…” Kenny glanced around the mall, which seemed normal for all intents and purposes. The juxtaposition didn’t ease his mind any. “I hope you’ll be ready when she does get here.”

“I have been ready for days!” Daxton groaned, “It’s her that’s late! I’ve been waiting since the day I met her!”

“She’s just going to go straight to canvas as soon as she can,” Quincey pointed out, “You won’t even be able to fight her yourself.”

“And we planned for that,” Daxton said, turning to Kenny, “Any idea how that’s going anyway?”

“Pretty much set up,” Kenny said, “We’ve got a whole damn wing to ourselves practically. The thing was mostly set up before we got here, we just had to change the room around. Only took a few minutes with me floating things around. If Echelon can do her part, we’re set.”

“And when we get her lured out?” Daxton pressed, “You know what we gotta do, right?” He gestured to his arm, tapping on his forearm a little bit.

“Yeah, I know,” Kenny said, tightening his fingers over his own thigh nervously, “I’ll be ready.”

Kenny’s PET rang, a few chirps like a communicator. He withdrew it from his pocket and eyed the screen before answering the call to the image of his father. “Hey, Dad, what’s up? Where have you been for the past few days?”

Gerald skipped the pleasantries. “Come on over to the Fabricatory when you have the chance, kid,” He said, “I got something for you.”

Kelvalde pushed into frame. “And I helped!” He added. Gerald shoved him back out of the picture with gruff agitation. “Whenever you’ve got time,” Gerald said, “I know you’re busy, but this is important.”

“Oh, uh…” Kenny’s attention wandered from the call, “Yeah, sure, I’ll uh… do that. Soon. In a bit.”

He looked out to see Shelly coming his way, her sneakers offsetting her cute little violet dress that she just bought as she pranced on up. The loose material around her hips was very swishy and had shown more of her thin legs as Kenny had expected. Quincey’s eyes bugged, and Daxton sat back thumbing the lip of his hat when Shelly’s bosom reached them before the rest of her did, as they often would. While her dress was arguably more modestly covering than her other top, it was much too small for her. Her chest was squished to a fabric-straining, borderline uncomfortable degree. Her cleavage was bunched up nearly to her own chin. How she could still breathe was a miracle in and of itself. Kenny swallowed as she stood and did a little spin, her wings spreading out at the end with a dramatic flair. “See?” She said, “I told you, I told you! It looks great and my tits are like… pow!”

“Did that young lady just talk about her tits?” Gerald cut in. Kenny flustered, fumbling his PET.

“I’ll see you later!” He squeaked, clamping down on the device to end the call, looking red-faced back at Shelly again. “H… heh! S-So! Did you mentioned that you like… f-fusion coils?”

“With or without attached phase splitters?” Shelly asked.

Kenny sat back and crossed his legs, biting on his knuckle. “Uh-ha,” was all he could manage past his finger while nodding his head.

“Uh, why?” Shelly furrowed her brow, “Did they start making grills with advanced mechanics or what? Baderick, do you have a fancy new grill?!”

The elderly badger who worked the stall shot a look Shelly’s way, looking her up and down with one intensely studious eye. “I don’t need fancy! Fancy is for people without skill!” He picked up and brandished the first thing he could get his hands on, which was a cutting board. “Keep all your twenty-sixth century toys and let artisans work!”

Daxton looked back at the old man, then to Quincey. “He seems nice.” He snickered, as did she. “Man, he is so into her.”

They both looked at Kenny, who couldn’t take his eyes off Shelly’s chest even though she was pressing him for clarification on why he would ask such a bizarre question, which just had him flushed all to hell with embarrassment. She was animated! It made her chest wobble in almost exaggerated motions.

“Parts of her, anyway.” Quincey blushed, clearing her throat, “Kenny, where are the kids?”

Both Kenny and Shelly snapped to attention. “The kids!” They cried, Kenny jumping to his feet. They didn’t have to look far to see Gren trying in earnest to dunk Aren’s head into a nearby fountain, the boy flailing and kicking his feet to try and get away from her.

“What’s the matter?!” Gren cackled, “Wash your face, Aren! It’s dirty!”

“Crap!” Shelly squeaked, “No! No no! Stop that! Like, bad children! Bad!”

She ran off to deal with them. Kenny hesitated, confused and trying to keep up with himself, before he ran off after her.

-

--

-

The Queen’s Pier Hotel, located closest to Locksmouth’s coastline as one might expect, was one of the dome’s few tourist havens. While there was plenty to see and do in Locksmouth all year round, it was without a doubt one of the more popular summertime destinations for kids off school from the nearby domes. Harbington kids flooded the beach and waterpark, having no alternative of their own. The only other place nearby that came close was Anchorsway; but only because that dome had more theme parks, undersea shows, arcades and sea salt ice cream than it had houses.

The midst of autumn was hardly the time of year the hotel expected to see much business, but this year it was packed. The Harbington refugees in the wake of Epheral’s attack needed places to stay, and the off-season hotel had plenty of room. The people were set up as comfortably as possible with their basics covered and were promised that the hotel was notably on the Inklings’ patrol. Only so much could be done for the refugees, but the Arbitrators organized that even that much would be met. No one would go without a bed to sleep in and food to eat, at the very least. For their part, the hotel staff did their best – some may have grumbled for the sudden, intense influx of off-season shifts, but most saw it as an opportunity to help their fellow person.

Many of the refugees did not want to leave the hotel. They made themselves comfortable in their rooms or around the premises, but to wander around the city was out of the question. It seemed as if at any moment another one of those crystalline prana chunks could fall out of the sky and spawn their terrors. Harbington had more than enough of that. For them, that crystal prana brought danger and death. The inked kids – Daxton, Quincey, Laila and Kenny – were the only ones from their home town willing to face down those things, and everyone else was all too happy to let them. They stayed in their safe spaces and watched on their PETs as news reports rolled in about the latest sightings of Epheral’s forces, and their subsequent dispatching from the local heroes. It was as exciting as it was scary for most. Never had they expected to be watching a real life super hero saga unfold before their eyes like that.

The Inklings had gained many fans among Harbington’s citizenry, though only the Elites and those with special powers. Those who had been bound with the Grays kept to themselves and kept quiet. They were convinced that they were a danger to the people around them, set up as targets for Epheral’s fury. Fearfully they stayed in their rooms and all but refused to leave, having their food delivered and only using outside lines and their PETs to communicate. Regular folk gave them their space, unable to rightly say if their caution was warranted or not. Few were willing to chance it, but they maintained their platitudes. “If you need anything, just ask,” they’d say. Despite this, the Inked never asked for much of anything, and it was unlikely that most would answer if they did.

Harley, however, provided. The girl was inspired, galvanized by those who were quickly becoming heroes in her heart. She had met some like-minded kids, younger ones from Harbington’s elementary school who had fled there along with everyone else. Brooklyn, a kinetically charged green frog girl who seemed to bounce off more than just the walls, had announced herself as the head of the new Harbington Inkling Fan Club. Along with her was a young Pomeranian pup, Oliver, and Isabella the fennec fox. Together, they routinely had been visiting the Inked people of Harbington at their rooms and around Locksmouth where they were hiding out. It wasn’t difficult to find them, as most people knew exactly where they were hiding, and Brooklyn seemed able to wring and answer out of just about anybody.

The Arbitrators and school teachers thought their dedication to helping the Inked was harmless enough to allow it. They gave them things like food or clothes or medicine that the Inked requested, and they took off under loose adult supervision to drop those things off. They’d been at it for days. Some of the Inked didn’t take to their kind gestures, but those who did were grateful. As a part of the student council, Harley was used to accepting a thank-you, but for the others it was a first, and a beaming moment of pride for them.

The morning where Natalie had taken out a prana crystal at the beach, Carrie took one at the park, and Jacent took one right out of the sky, the Inkling Fan Club was eager to get together and gush. They all met in the lobby of the Queen’s Pier, where all their families were staying. They gathered in one of the small sitting areas around the place, where normally there were only a pair of lavish-looking armchairs to sit in. They gathered more, pushing them half way across the lobby just to make a four-pointed circle for them to sit in, obstructing more space than they ought to and forcing people to walk around them.

Harley sat with her legs tucked in beneath her. She’d gotten herself some new clothes, just like everyone else. A small pair of black shorts, segmented down her hips, and a short, tummy baring white top that resembled one Quincey would wear. She had long socks to keep her feet warm, and her boots had been seeing a lot of mileage over the past few days. Around her were a new batch of faces, new friends she was all too happy to have. Somehow, meeting with them in that time made things feel normal. Just like school, when friends would move about, packs would grow and change, she met new people. These ones, however, she fell into with greater ease than she ever remembered.

“So!” The green frog girl with the strawberry blonde pigtails flashed a bright white, brace-studded smile. Brooklyn wore big square glasses. She had wrapped tape around the middle of them to keep them together. Her bow tie, and her high-cuffed pants were a bright, garish pink that announced her loud and clear. If that message were somehow missed, however… she made up for it. “You guys saw what they did today, didn’t’chya?! Mmmf, when Jacent punched that big crystal outta the sky?! Oh man…! Wait, wait, I got this made up just for these kinda things.”

Brooklyn tugged on the suspenders that held her pants up, and her bow tie spun rapidly where it was pinned to the center of her collar. “Whoo!” She squealed, letting her suspenders snap back before she curled up in her chair and rolled back and forth in it. “He Comet Punched me right in the pants!”

Harley folded her hands together and nodded along. “It was very impressive. I know he fought Osoth when Locksmouth was attacked, but I’d never seen him… at work.”

Brooklyn almost sprung forward off her chair, balancing on her hands with her legs tucked in under her behind. “It made me…!” She leaned as far forward as she could and pouted out her lip. “Mmmmmoist!”

Harley winced. She turned her attention to Isabella, who rolled her eyes as she sat sidelong in her chair with one foot up on the arm, the other dangling off. She huffed, blowing her soft tuft of hair, dyed a gradient red to blazing orange like fire, making it flip up and settle back down. She seemed to bare as much of her sandy fur as she could, wearing little more than a wrap-around threadlink strip to cover her breasts and leave her sternum bare, and the lowest of the low-rise red pants, so much that her understicker peeked out the front. She topped it all off with shoes that fit her feet exactly, down to the individual toes and a rugged looking scarf wrapped around her neck. Such a confident look to match her equally confident demeanour.

“Okay, but Natalie and Echelon slammed that sea monster at the beach.” Isabella said, “And then after that? Carrie and Arus dug up a shark in the park. Jacent doesn’t even have an Inkling. This is supposed to be the Inkling Fan Club.”

Brooklyn threw herself to bridge the gap between her chair and Isabella’s, the frog girl’s toes only barely hooking her to her seat, her entire body outstretched to grab on to Isabella’s. “We agreed that Jacent was honorary!” She complained, “And that we would slather his abs in butter!”

“That last part was you.” Isabella snorted. She looked across the way to Harley, and Oliver beside her. “Sorry, your favourites didn’t do anything. Kenny and Laila did though.”

Harley offered a bit of a sympathetic smile to Oliver. The Pomeranian puppy ball of fluffy brown fur lifted the rim of the pointy-eared, forest green knit hat he wore so that he could cast an innocent gaze out on the rest of them with blue eyes. Young, and small, he hadn’t even started wearing a hat until just recently, and the way he wore it covering most of his eyes so he had to walk with his head tilted back was an obvious tell regarding who his favourite Inkling was. It didn’t match the red wide-neck shirt he wore at all that bared his shoulders, or his blue shorts.

“W-Well he was probably busy.” Oliver insisted.

“And it’s alright,” Harley shrugged, “Quincey has done plenty for me. She must have needed a break. She saved my papa you know…”

“We know!” Brooklyn said, “A thousand times we know!”

“You’re the only one who’s met them…” Oliver frowned, “When are we gonna meet them too?”

“They’re too busy, obviously.” Isabella shrugged, “Maybe when the whole darn world doesn’t need saving, squirt.”

Oliver made a face and threw his arms around himself to sit back in a huff. Harley hid her discomfort behind a smile. “Aw, it’s okay,” She said, “I’m sure they would love to meet you… eventually.”

“When we meet ‘em I’m gonna decide which one’s the hottest once and for all!” Brooklyn was upside down in her chair, kicking her feet up into the air, “I dunno if it’s Natalie’s big fat butt, Carrie’s big fat tits, or Erwin’s big fat dick, or Max’s…”

“Dream on.” Isabella exasperated. She looked across to Harley then, pointing at her. “Hey, you, do we have any work today or what?”

Harley flustered under Isabella’s scrutiny. “A-Ah, well…” She got out her PET and began looking through a schedule she had made for herself. “We’ve made so many deliveries, but we could check up on them again… if it’s not too soon.”

“I think it’s too soon,” Oliver offered, “We only saw them this morning! Are… any of them coming here?”

Harley blinked. “Any of…” She paused, “Oh. I don’t know.”

“Rrrrngh…” Oliver pouted again, “But we’re on the patrol!”

Isabella chuckled. “Come on, squirt. What, do you want them to stop saving the whole freaking planet just to pat you on the head?”

Oliver blushed furiously and made himself small. “N-No,” He pouted, “I don’t. Stupid.”

Isabella laughed and sat up straighter, raising her eyebrows. “Oh-ho! Did you just call me stupid?”

“No.” Oliver pulled his hat back down over his face.

“Tch. Whatever.” Isabella smirked.

“Bored!” Brooklyn cut in, doing the splits upside down curled up in her chair, her hands gripping her feet to hold them out. “If we have nothing to do, lemme at your boobies, Harley!”

Harley flushed with embarrassment. “I think maybe we should turn our efforts to helping the refugees, if the Grays don’t need our help…”

“What?” Isabella stared the girl down, “What kinda Inkling Fan Club makes pizza deliveries to a bunch of normies?”

Brooklyn tumbled backward out of her chair and stood up at a dizzying speed, teetering on her laceless shoes a moment before sticking her arms out in front of her, cocking her hips back behind her, and bouncing to jiggle her way backwards at Harley. The girl planted her butt on the arm of Harley’s chair and kicked her feet up. “Work, work, work!” She said, in mock strain, “Put down the schedule and work on my booty buttcheeks! We’ve got time off! Let’s use it!”

Before Harley could construct anything resembling a rebuttal to keep the group on track, the bobbing auburn pompadour of Jimmy Ret barged in between her and Brooklyn. The girls cried out in fright and Brooklyn flailed wildly before crashing to the ground. There Jimmy stood, clutching the back of the chair Harley sat in, his body craned forward, leaning in to seemingly stick his literal nose into the club’s business. “Excuse me,” He said, disingenuously, “Did I by chance hear one of you little twerps saying something about wanting to meet an Inkling?”

It took them a moment to collect themselves. Harley blinked repeatedly, just trying to take in the shock of the Rottweiler teen’s sudden appearance. She opened her mouth to speak, but then Oliver practically barreled her out of her chair, clambering up onto it, his little feet swiping the arm and slipping off a few times before he scrambled to a perch. “You know one?!” He practically screamed for everyone to hear, his curled, fluffy tail waggling a mile a minute.

Jimmy flashed him a salesman’s grin. “Oh buddy, do I ever!” He said, “One of the ones that came over from Harbington even! They were on the train on the way here! You know, when that big, scary dragon got killed?”

This caught the attention of the others. Brooklyn and Isabella crowded in, the fennec cocking an eyebrow in disbelief. “One of the Harbington posers?” She asked, “You don’t know any of the, you know, original ones?”

“Who is it?!” Brooklyn asked, “Daxton? Kenny? Quincey? Laila?! Oh, please let it be Laila. I wanna climb her like a tower!”

“Is it…” Oliver’s eyes got very big and seemed to shine, “Daxton?”

Jimmy’s expression flattened. He struggled to maintain a friendly face just thinking about those four, but he somehow managed to bounce back. He stood up straight and pressed his fingers to his bared chest, then straightened out his necktie casually. “Well, no, but she is an Inkling, even one with a special power.” Jimmy nodded at them to answer their quizzical stares. “You dorks just hit pay-dirt. You can meet her right now.”

“AAAA!” Brooklyn squealed, bouncing in place. “But who is it?! I’m dying!”

“If it’s not any of them…” Harley mulled the options over to herself, surrounded by her friends, too close for comfort even. They had all moved to squash her into her chair, but she was far too distracted with her thoughts to push them away. The only other person she knew with an Inkling was…

She began to sweat. She used to host Lumina! Did that boy somehow know? Harley hadn’t told anyone else about that, no one beyond Quincey and Daxton themselves. Had they perhaps let it slip? The sudden thought of being mauled by her newfound friends made her writhe about with worry. She wasn’t prepared for that kind of anarchy! What would her parents think? What would everyone think? She did not want to be a super hero, or a fighter, or anything like that. It was why she let Lumina go in the first place! Her heart was pounding over the possibilities. It was like watching any chance she had at a normal life just sail right out the window.

Jimmy crossed his arms and paused for dramatic effect. He made sure the kids were hanging on his every word before saying, “You might not know her.”

Harley let out a loud, relieved sigh from amidst her friends, drawing curious stares.

“Well then who?” Oliver perked up, his tail never stopping. “We know all of them!”

Jimmy did not answer; instead, he dashed off. The kids’ watched him, following attentively along from where they were. Jimmy hurried over to seemingly a random spot in the crowd where the kids watched eagerly for the people to part and show them the face of the Inkling hero they were promised. Oliver’s tail flew back and forth, batting against Harley in his excitement. Brooklyn was nearly vibrating. Harley and Isabella may have been a touch more collected than their peers, but even they felt a spark of excitement welling up inside them. A mystery Inkling was like a character reveal for a popular show or movie. Some people just couldn’t resist getting worked up over it, and they wouldn’t have been much of a fan club if they hadn’t.

Another boy seemed to appear, a small fly boy with white hair all sticking up every which way and the tips of the various sweeps and licks all dyed a different colour. He stood poised across from Jimmy, and the two of them twisted in a flourish to throw out their arms when the people finally passed by and revealed their mystery Inkling.

“Tadaa!” The boys cheered, waving their hands to drum up excitement.

It was, of course, Abigail. She stood before the kids in a classic hero pose: back straight, feet planted, and hands on her hips. The sleeves of her sweater dangled past her hands to her thighs, which were likewise nearly smothered by the long hem of it. She changed poses a few times, turning profile and striking a strongman pose, and then raising her arms as if to say, “Here I am!” It might have been convincing if she could have mustered some pride in her expression, but she simply looked tired… or bored. It was difficult to tell which.

The Inkling Fan Club caught her lack of excitement like a cold. It swept through them so quickly and so strongly, it was obvious when each one of them was filled with disappointment. Oliver’s tail stopped wagging and he drew his tongue back, tilting his head and lifting his hat and staring at Abigail as if he should have remembered her, but had somehow forgotten. Brooklyn was no longer wiggling around, but hunched forward, eyes narrowed. Harley was innocently and genuinely confused, and Isabella, who stood next to their seat, let her arms fall slack at her sides.

“Who the heck is that?” The fennec asked, “Why don’t any of her clothes fit?”

“Why don’t your pants fit?” Abigail asked, crossing her arms and turning her head away as if she were insulted. “How ungrateful.”

“Yeah, hey!” Lincoln piped up, “She’s an Inkling! Show some respect!”

Harley furrowed her brow. “I think I heard of her from my mom,” She said, “She was at the high school.”

“Yeah and so were we!” Jimmy said, “We wouldn’t have gotten out of there in one piece if Abby here hadn’t used her wicked cool Inkling powers to save us.”

“I thought Daxton saved you!” Oliver said, “That’s what everyone says!”

“Puff.” Abby rolled her eyes, “Sure, he helped. I guess. It was me though.” She approached the kids and they all turned in their seat to sit down when she stepped in close. They stared up at her, curiosity shining in their young, innocent eyes. Abigail stared back down at them, the dark circles under her ruby red eyes almost intimidating. “I’m keeping it on the down-low,” She said, “I’m part of the Harbington Heroes, but nobody knows it. It’s a secret.”

“A secret?” Harley asked, “Why is that?”

“Uh, duh?” Abigail shook her head, “So the bad guys don’t know, obviously.”

Jimmy and Lincoln joined Abigail, standing as a group before the kids, who were studying them with increasing scrutiny. It was evident by their faces that they were growing incredibly suspicious of the trio. Isabella was the one who stepped forward and confronted Abigail with a more intense interrogation. “Alright,” She said, “If all of that is true, then you have a super power. Prove it.”

“What part of down-low don’t you understand?” Jimmy clapped back, “She just said that it was a secret. She can’t be jeopardizing herself or her top-secret mission just to prove to a bunch of kids that she’s got a power. Haven’t you ever read a spy story, or watched the movies?”

Isabella cocked her head, flipping her hair away from her eyes. “Then you’re faking it,” She said, “If you can’t prove it, then you’re obviously just a bunch of posers. You think you’re honestly the first pathetic losers to go around pretending you’re a super hero after Natalie beat Osoth? Give me a break.”

Abigail raised a brow, and Lincoln and Jimmy appeared stunned at the fennec’s brazen, scathing response. Brooklyn kicked her feet, seated once again on the arm of Harley’s chair, wiggling around on top of it. “So, what, they’re fakers? Laaaame. I should have known, she’s not as hot as the others.”

Abigail studied them for a moment, seemingly unfazed by their harsh judgement. “Alright,” She shrugged, “If you want to know what my powers are…”

She casually extended her arm, pulling one of her sleeves back to expose to jelly-like blue skin. It caught the light of the lobby, reflecting a shine when she turned her hand and extended her index finger at Isabella. “Pull it.”

“Pull…” Isabella furled her lip, looking at Abigail’s finger and then back to her face. “… Your finger? Uh, no. No way.”

“What?” Abigail nudged her finger closer to the fennec, “Scared?”

“I know that stupid joke!” Isabella said, “I’m not pulling your finger.”

Abigail stepped closer. Isabella stepped back. The jelly girl ever-so-slightly smirked at the evident torment this was putting the prideful fennec through. “Do it,” She said, “Pull it.”

Jimmy and Lincoln laughed, spurring Abigail to menace the girl further. “Pull iiiiit. Pull my finger.” She carried on, with Isabella becoming increasingly distressed. The fennec backed off, her bluster fading as she started to become genuinely annoyed.

“You’re disgusting!” Isabella protested.

“And you’re a wuss!” Jimmy chimed in amidst his laughter.

“Stop it!” Harley cried, “Leave her alone!” This made Abigail turn on her, leaning close and shoving her finger in Harley’s face. The girl retreated into the safety of her arm chair, curling up as small as she could with a startled squeak. Watching this, Brooklyn poised herself on the arm of the chair to spring away at a moment’s notice… only to dive forward and grab Abigail’s finger. She pulled as hard as she could with the intent to yank Abigail off her wedge-heeled rain boots.

“BAM!” Brooklyn cheered, only to squeal as she met absolutely no resistance beyond an initial tug. She fell back off the chair and went crashing to the floor in a heap, all crumpled up with her legs sticking up. Her friends quickly checked to see if she was okay. Oliver just so happened to look Abigail’s way, who held up her hand backside-out, allowing Oliver to count out that she had only three fingers and a thumb. The boy froze, while the others tugged on Brooklyn to get her standing.

“What the…?” Brooklyn had to shake off the inertia from her fall, not even realizing at first that clutched in her hands was the detached finger belonging to Abigail. It didn’t take long for that to change, however, drawing her attention to the very obviously human appendage she held. “Ah…!” There it was, cleanly removed from Abigail’s body. There was no blood, no tendons sticking out, but it felt very much like a finger, all… soft, yet bony. It wiggled at her. “A… A-AHHH!”

Brooklyn screamed at the top of her lungs and threw Abigail’s finger across the tile floor. It bounced and rolled clumsily, and even with it out of her possession, Brooklyn desperately wiped her hands on her pants and screamed in horror, flailing around terrified at what had happened. That turned heads. Lincoln was quick to snatch up Abigail’s finger and Abigail swiftly let her sleeve fall back around her hand to hide it from the people who came running to see what the matter was. The teens turned away from the kids, who were trying to calm a then wheezing and heaving Brooklyn down, but they couldn’t contain themselves for long. Jimmy, Lincoln, and Abigail burst out laughing, even while Brooklyn burbled incoherently in her fright. Lincoln handed Abigail her finger back, and the girl simply put it back on her hand where it belonged, out of sight of everyone.

“What’s going on?!” A well-dressed dolphin fellow was at the head of the gathering crowd, a little tag on his suit indicating that he was part of the hotel staff. “What’s wrong?! Are you alright?!”

Brooklyn shook like a leaf and cast an accusatory finger at Abigail. “S-S-S-She-she… she!” She wheezed, falling into the safety of Harley’s arms.

The man scowled and stormed over to Abigail, his posture rigid and his tone loud and angry. “Young miss I will not tolerate this sort of behavior in my establishment! Especially now!” He bellowed at a comparatively calm, if unimpressed Abigail. “What did you do to this poor girl?! I thought those monsters had broken in! What is wrong with you?!”

Abigail puckered her lips and shrugged, making a noise of confusion.

Her refusal to so much as answer only angered the man further, but so many people had gathered around gawking, he had to remember to keep himself collected and professional. He paused, took a breath, but was still as tense as a coiled spring. He gave Abigail a stern, hard stare. “Smarten up and get along!” He barked, “I don’t want to have to throw you out, or… or tell the police on you!”

“Nyeh, I’m gonna tell on you!” Jimmy mocked the man, causing Lincoln to laugh.

The man’s nostrils flared. “First and last warning!” He shouted. He then turned back to Brooklyn and made sure she was calm, and that everything was okay. The girl calmed down after a while, and with the situation well in hand, the people around them settled as well. Everyone soon returned to their business, but Brooklyn had made no attempt to explain that Abigail was an Inkling. She had kept quiet about that, and after a few puffs from a medistick, she was nestled safely among her fellow members of the Inkling Fan Club, staying as far away from Abigail as she could.

With the dust settled, Abigail smugly cocked her hip to the side with her hand resting there. She raised her other and proudly displayed that her finger was not only back upon her hand, but also fully capable of function.

“You do have a power!” Brooklyn gasped, “What else are you hiding under that sweater?!”

“Whooooa, a real Inkling!” Oliver gushed, getting up from his seat to get in close to fawn. “You can come apart and stuff!”

“Shhhhhhhh!” Abigail hushed the kids. “Secret. Mission.”

Oliver nodded in understanding, but he couldn’t stay silent for long. “Oh, oh! What’s your mission? I wanna help!” He barked, “Please, please, please, please? Can we please?”

Abigail squinted at the boy. She closed one of her eyes and turned away from him, just to shoot him a look side-long, so that her apparent sizing him up seemed even more scrutinizing. “I dunno, kid,” She said, “You’re… small.”

Oliver blushed. “I can do… easy stuff! Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“Hmmm…” Abigail stroked her chin through the over-long sleeve of her sweater. “Well… there might be… one little thing.”

Oliver lit up. He turned to the others with a big, bright smile. “You hear that?! She needs help doing something super important!”

The others had lost their doubt and were instead surprised. “Really?” Isabella asked, “Seriously? What could she possibly do with a weird power like that? Can she even fight?”

“Just fine, thank you.” Abigail haughtily responded, “If you’re not up for it, then I guess we’re done here. Come on, boys, let’s scram.”

Abigail turned on her heels and marched away. Jimmy and Lincoln turned their backs and followed along. Oliver whipped back around and was clinging to the back of Abigail’s sweater in mere moments, yanking it nearly to the floor as he hung off her. “Pleeeeeease!” Oliver begged, “We’ll do anything to help, honest!”

Abigail’s tentacles swung through the air with how quickly she turned around. She slipped out of Oliver’s hands and he bumbled to the floor, barely catching himself before his teeth met her boots. “Well then,” She resumed, “See, right now? I’m between missions. I’m, you know, doing patrol stuff. In order to keep my powers going, I need to rest. I just don’t know my way around though… and I’m really hungry…”

Lincoln joined her at her side, nodding, rubbing his stomach. “We’re so hungry! We feel like we’re about to collapse!”

Jimmy joined her likewise, putting on a big, cheesy smile. “Yeah, you know, it might be weird to ask, but could you guys go and… get us something to eat? Like nachos? Maybe some sushi?”

Lincoln nodded enthusiastically. “Or maybe a great big bottle of lemon-lime?!”

“Or a hot dog…” Abigail mused, “Mm, heck, why not get them all?”

Isabella blinked at them, twitching her ears. Perhaps she hadn’t heard them right. “You want us to…”

“… Get you food?” Brooklyn wrinkled her nose as she finished the thought. “That’s it?”

Abigail threw up her arms in a shrug. “We’re lost!” She said, “Come on, don’t be so mean.”

Harley stared her down, but she couldn’t convince herself to deny their simple request. She sighed, her posture deflating as her anger and irritation toward the group left her. “I… guess we could bring something for you… if that’s what you really need.”

“Oh yeah,” Abigail held up her hand to solemnly swear, “If I don’t get something soon, my Inkling is gonna eat up all my prana and I’ll be down for the count. You don’t want that when all those monsters or whatever start showing up.”

“We sure don’t!” Oliver excitedly agreed, hurrying to his friends and doing his best to yank Brooklyn and Harley out of their seat. “Come on, I know where to get some good stuff! We can do it right now!”

“Do it, and we can get her to sign something for you.” Jimmy stretched casually, “A real hero’s autograph. Wouldn’t that be neat?”

“You can take a picture with her too!” Lincoln fidgeted, “All for a little food! But, ah, we don’t have any money!”

The kids, who were preparing to leave, froze. “What?” Brooklyn asked, “No money?”

Abigail tugged on her sweater. She lifted it up to show off her small black shorts and her navel. “You see any pockets on me?” She flatly asked.

Brooklyn blushed, her eyes moving up and down what she could see of the soft, squishy jellyfish girl. She seemed as if she were trying to connect the violet dots that speckled Abigail’s thighs in her mind. The way her tongue stuck out and wiggled was telling in how she imagined herself doing so. “I… see! Well alright then!”

She turned to the others and pumped a fist in the air. “Come on, Fans! Let’s fill ‘er up! I can pay for it, easy! Jelly-baby is counting on us!”

“… Don’t call me that.” Abigail lowered her sweater again.

“Come on! March!” Brooklyn declared, and she began a high-kneed march. Oliver followed her dutifully, and despite a moment of shared hesitation, Harley and Isabelle followed in behind with a little less enthusiasm. They marched off toward the glass entryway and promptly left the hotel. Abigail, Jimmy, and Lincoln waved half-heartedly to them as they marched on by the windows and off toward… wherever they were going to get all that food.

When they were well and truly gone, Abigail turned to her two friends. “What a bunch of idiots. Am I right?”

-

--

-

Kenny had a special appreciation for the Fabricatory. As someone who enjoyed machines and working with his hands, he recognized it as the marvel it was. Other kids? Well, they might just acknowledge something was made there. “Yeah, duh,” they would say. Everything was made there. Every scrap of material was processed and shipped out from that place, and several products were made and constructed there. They had Research and Development all their own, dealing in every social facet they could. They put their efforts toward everything from simple wool to the heat-resistant Starlite, for medicine and hospice, building construction, sports equipment, power generation… everything society relied on to function! With Kenny’s newfound Knighthood in mind, it could easily have been described as a tailor, blacksmith, and lumberyard all in one. More specialized applications of these base materials were performed elsewhere, but it always started with the Fabricatory and a requisitions form.

Locksmouth’s Fabricatory was enormous. Even Harbington’s wasn’t as big as theirs. Kenny’s home city had sacrificed more real-estate for agriculture and drew in more manual labourers than it did researchers. Locksmouth was a city of scientists; eggheads, bookworms, thinkers and scholars. It was no coincidence that the Locksmouth Incident was in part solved by a teenage boy’s breakthrough anti-inkling-mind-control invention. That being the case, Locksmouth’s Fabricatory towered as a monolith above most of the city. Like Laila’s farm in Harbington, the Fabricatory was the big employer of its home. For every pound of food that Harbington churned out, an equal quantity of base materials was poured out of Locksmouth. The two shared a very beneficial exchange for it.

Kenny knew that Quincey’s dad worked there. He took a tram every few days from Harbington to Locksmouth to work as a medical engineer – just one of the subsets of research going on in the Fabricatory. Things like Daxton’s STOP were developed there. Many of the medical researchers were, in fact, Harbington specialists, Kenny knew. It was a point of pride for the city. The boy had been there himself once upon a time. When the opportunity to go on a fourth-grade field trip to one of the largest materials manufacturers on the planet comes around, a grease monkey like him would be nuts to pass it up. It looked almost brand new, however. Even in a time where buildings were practically self-cleaning, it was obvious that the construction was fresh. Osoth’s attack had sorely done a number on the place, and they’d patched up just about everything. Kenny had taken just a moment outside to press his hand to the quasi-plastic shell of the building to see if Polaris could utilize the hard metal structural skeleton beneath, just in case he maybe one day needed to climb that building. He couldn’t imagine a situation where anyone would have to, but he was pleased to learn that if it was called for, he could manage it.

He entered with Shelly, Aren, and Gren. The reception area held four desks, but only three secretary staff. When they saw Shelly and Kenny, there wasn’t a single one of them that wasn’t notably nervous.

“I’m looking for Gerald Baxter,” Kenny said when he approached one of the desks, “He would have come here from Harbington?”

The secretary brought up the guest registry and didn’t have to look far. “Gerald’s set himself up in… the Metallurgy Labs, under the vouching of Medical Engineer Walter Abram.” She gave Kenny a careful consideration, “Are you… his son?”

“Yup.” Kenny nodded, “I need to go see him.”

The cervine woman drew a flat line with her lips and shifted her eyes left and right. “Ummm… I’ve seen you on the news,” She said, “I… don’t know if it’s a good idea to let you go down there. I mean… you, specifically.”

Kenny tilted his head, puzzled. He parsed their concerns together in his head on his own, though. “Oh,” He said, “Nah, it’ll be fine. I’m not a walking magnet. I mean, not when I don’t want to be.” He paused, thumbing his chin in thought. He added, “I don’t want to be, you know.”

“Eeeehh…” The woman hesitated, then pointed to the sword strapped to Kenny’s back. “Do you have to carry that in here?”

Kenny looked over his shoulder, twisting a little to see the pommel of his blade. He then crossed his arms stubbornly and shot the secretary a look. “Yes, I do. You’re not going to ban Natalie Grayswift from visiting just because she can… I don’t know, whatever she can do, are you?”

The woman gave him a flat look in return. “Natalie Grayswift doesn’t carry medieval weapons of war around.” She paused to think of the best way in which to solve the problem, and then lit up when a thought came to her. “One moment, I need to call someone.”

Kenny grumbled and stepped away. He shot Shelly a look, who simply shrugged helplessly. Aren and Gren looked around, bored, holding hands as Gren held on to Shelly’s hand in order to follow strict instruction to not wander off. They appeared to be enduring torture, being made to keep still and quiet and reined in.

Minutes passed. More people came into the reception. Some were just there to ask questions, others were meeting with R&D teams for business. Kenny tapped his foot on the floor. The people came and went, filing in and out. The receptionists continued their busywork, answering PET calls, transferring inquisitive parties to those who could better answer their questions. A lot of reception work may have been automated – half of the time people didn’t even need to speak to another human being at all during the process. Some people, though, just felt more comfortable interacting with another human being. Whatever kept them in work, Kenny supposed.

After some time, a man stepped off the elevator, donned in the apparel of one of the Fabricatory staff. Kenny noticed he was carrying a small EM-Lock device in his hand, and he knew exactly what they had in mind. Before the fox man had even approached, Kenny was already taking his sword off his back, unfastening the strap over his chest. He held it out compliantly.

“Hello there,” The man said politely, taking Kenny’s sword and very easily attaching two small, squared pieces to it; one to the scabbard and one to the hand guard. Any slack the sword had in its holdings was immediately removed, and it snapped together firmly. The man casually tugged on the sword as if to remove it and was unable to. He gave it a few good, hard yanks and still was unable to. With the brief test completed, he handed the sword back to Kenny. “There we go. Safety first! I can hardly believe I’m putting a lock on a sword.”

Kenny kind of grinned as he took the sword back and fastened it to his person once more, taking a few moments to adjust it comfortably across his back and shoulder blades.

“Right then! Oh, Mr. Nigel, if you could also just show this young man and his friends to the Metallurgy Labs, I’d be much appreciated.” The receptionist smiled, “And thank you. Just, safety first and all that. We can’t have someone wandering around with something so dangerous.”

The man nodded and ushered Kenny along. Kenny turned and waved Shelly down, and they all made their way toward the elevator. Shelly bounced up next to Kenny and sniggered.

“They do realize that the word ‘magnetic’ is in ‘electromagnetic,’ right?” She whispered.

Kenny pressed a finger to his lips with a sly look. “Shhh.”

Gren and Aren giggled over the apparent obliviousness of the adults, but kept their lips sealed as they followed the man through to the lift. It was a short ride down, and the doors opened to reveal the metallurgy labs. The first thing that hit them was heat, followed then by the metallic smell of smelting minerals. The labs themselves were wide-open spaces full of conveyers and stations, and machines most of all. Massive, hulking Smelters snatched up metal ores and scrap plastics, stuffing them into the mouth-like openings where blazing heat engulfed the materials for breaking down. When the melted minerals emerged from the backside of the machine, more arms pounded the materials into shape, where they would then proceed down the line to be cut more finely into actual blocks or tools. Enormous cranes plucked the raw materials from storage containers or heaping piles like a claw game, letting nothing fall loose as they hovered overhead.

The smelters bathed everything in an intense orange heat and cast hard, sharp shadows around corners and faces. The light shined off the goggles and visors of the employees there, who wore full-body suits and thick, heat-resistant gloves, and took all manner of precautions not to accidentally get a tail stuck in the mix. One could scarcely pick out one sub-species from another, their masked, enigmatic appearance almost making them seem alien. Gren and Aren stayed close to Shelly as she and Kenny were shown in. Gerald was around there somewhere… it was only a matter of finding him in the mess.

Truth be told, the metallurgy labs dealt mostly in plastic materials. It was, however, the only laboratory in the Fabricatory that smelted metals, thus its name. A lot of what the young visitors were seeing were just dull, gray blocks of plastic material for constructing doors, buildings, containers… and that aside, strong, clear panes of scratch-resistant, shatterproof plexiglass for windows. It seemed much of it was being repackaged, loaded into containers to no doubt ship off to other domes or perhaps even to the Ring. Some of the smaller domes didn’t melt down their own building materials, and goodness knew the Ring could always use more.

The man leading the group took them to some small offices. It was there the Fabricatory workers would do the research part of “research and development,” or hold meetings, or pitch ideas. It was easy to pick out which one Gerald was likely in, as Kenny spotted a very shirtless Kelvalde in one of the windows. The dusky husky just so happened to look out and see the kids, and his face lit up with a smile. He waved them in, and with that the man leading them took his leave. Kelvalde opened the door for them, meeting them as they stepped inside. “Well, took your time, didn’t you?” He chided, taking a moment to study Shelly’s new, albeit small violet dress. “You didn’t go shopping, did you?”

“Well, yeah!” Shelly confessed.

Kelvalde gave her a quirky nod. “That was a rhetorical question, my dear. Alright Kenny, your dad’s been dying to get you in here. Come in, see what we’ve done!”

Stepping inside, it appeared the room had been converted into something of a workshop. The lights were dim, save the various viewscreens and projections that bathed the small room in blue light. The images displayed showed blueprints and were running through various longform explanations of metals, materials, and basic hydraulics and engineering. To an unfamiliar eye, it may have looked garbled and complicated, jargon, chemical compounds, and equations repeating again and again. The room was made more cramped by the clutter scattered all throughout it. Tools were left carelessly around, on the floor, on the work surfaces, and there was even a screwdriver sticking out of a mug, half-full still of someone’s drink. Scrap materials were scattered like a child’s toys with no rhyme or apparent reason for their placement.

Amid it all, Gerald stood hunkered over the worktable, sparks flying as he continued working on something. They stopped only to give his hand a rest, the man holding out the electric welding tool and rotating his shoulder, shaking away the cable that kept it attached to its power source as well as flexing his sore muscles. The break was only a moment before he was back searing metal with intense heat, very carefully and very meticulously crafting. He barely so much as breathed behind the mask he wore, the light of the sparks reflected in the visor. It seemed as if he hadn’t even heard them come in. He carried on with his work without so much as a grunt in acknowledgement of his son’s very existence.

Kelvalde closed the door behind them and shuffled in next to Kenny as he watched his father work. It was a familiar sight for the boy. Gerald was always working, and when he wasn’t, he was thinking about working. He’d gotten very familiar with seeing his father’s back, the way his shoulders bunched up when he hunched over a project. If it wasn’t that, he might have seen his legs sticking out from under a PeTra, or his back again as he left for work. Gerald was lost to the world when he worked. Kenny crossed his arms in bemusement.

“A little birdy told me that some fellow from Harbington showed up here asking to use the space,” Kelvalde said, “They didn’t see why not. Though, with all his requisitions, I believe they’re getting a little concerned.”

“Requisitions?” Kenny asked, “For what?”

Kelvalde chuckled. “Why, metal, of course. Steel.” He gave the alloy a hard E and L when he said it.

All the kids turned their heads at that. “Steel?” Shelly furrowed her brow, “Like, steel steel?”

“The steeliest steel to ever steel,” Kelvalde grinned, “And he’s been smithing it. I decided to give him a hand.”

Kenny squinted at Kelvalde, turning his attention instead to his father. He stepped over the clutter on the floor as if he’d done it a million times before, getting close enough so his voice could carry over the sound of the welder. “Dad? What are you doing?”

Gerald looked up from his work, the sparks ceasing immediately from the welder. He gently placed it on the worktable and stood up straight, turning to his son and removing the mask that protected his face. He blinked his small, blue eyes when they took in the light of the room, his bushy mustache wiggling a little as he acclimated himself to the dim light of the room. The bright sparks had left him seeing spots, a little. “Oh, you’re here,” He said, “I lost track of time.”

Gerald removed his gloves and set them on the table as well, standing to face his son proper. “I heard you ran into another of those crystals,” he said, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Kenny answered, still confused, “Are you making something there?”

Gerald looked back over his shoulder quickly, and back to his son just as fast. “Well,” He spoke, “… Yes. Before I get to that though, I… think we need to discuss a few things.”

His tone was serious; it made Kenny a little uncomfortable. The boy chanced a look back at Shelly and the others. “Right now?” He asked.

“Polaris,” Gerald cut right to the chase, crossing his arms over his chest, “This hero… knight business. What’s this all about? Are you trying to prove something?”

Kenny was taken by surprise. “What?” He rebutted, “What do you mean ‘prove something?’”

“I want to know what’s going through your head,” Gerald explained, “I want to know what you’re thinking when you run head-long into trouble like that. It’s not like you to take risks like that. You’re smarter than that.”

“Well that should be obvious,” Kenny answered, “I’m doing it to keep everyone safe.”

Gerald cocked up one of his bushy eyebrows. “Like at the mall?”

Kenny grit his teeth and balled his injured hand into a tight, defensive fist that he immediately tried to cover with his other hand and hide. Gerald didn’t take his eyes off his son’s, seeing right through him. He sighed in disappointment. “Kenny, holding a grudge against this thing is insane. You’re just a kid.”

“A grudge? It’s not a grudge!” Kenny argued. He swallowed, standing firm. “It’s just me keeping people safe! Who else is gonna do it?”

Undeterred, Gerald shrugged. “I don’t know, pick any one of your friends. Pick any of the Locksmouth kids. Any one of them. They all have powers like yours.”

Kenny shook his head in confusion, holding up his hand to try and grasp the point, unable to believe what his father was missing. “I’m not just going to let them do everything and sit back with my thumb up my butt! It’s a shared responsibility thing! Why not use my powers for good?”

Kenny paused, and he closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them, he kept his gaze fixed on the floor. “Look,” he said, “It’s not just me, alright? Polaris and me… it’s something we’ve got to do.”

“Oh?” Gerald said.

“Polaris was a soldier,” Kenny explained, “He worked for Osoth, and over I don’t know how many years, he’s done some bad stuff. I’ve done bad stuff too. This is the only way we’re going to fix it.”

“Kenny…” Gerald started.

Kenny cut him off almost angrily. “That therapist I keep going to? She’s crap! She keeps telling me that what happened wasn’t my fault, that it was just an accident, but that’s a load of bull! I know what I did.”

Gerald glared at his son, stepping up at attention, staring him down. “Then you also know that there’s no fixing it,” He said, his voice lowered, “You can’t just undo it. You can’t just pick up a sword and fight bad guys to make it all better.”

“Well I’m not going to just do nothing! I’m sure as hell not going to just sit back and not take responsibility for it! Polaris too! The only way we can start making up for everything is by doing the right thing! Now you’re the one sitting here telling me to run away from all my problems?”

Gerald kept a stern stare into his son’s eyes, who stared right back into his just as intensely. Neither flinched for a while or moved a muscle, not until Gerald finally let all the hot air escape him in a defeated sigh. His shoulders slumped, and he shook his head in disappointment. “I was hoping I could talk you out of it, but I figured it was no good.”

The man turned back to the workbench, turning his back on Kenny. There was a heavy silence in the air for some time. Shelly, Aren, and Gren nervously looked around. “Should we, like, leave? They’re arguing.” Shelly nudged Kelvalde, “This is a family thing, right?”

Leaning on the worktable, Gerald tapped his boot on the floor, sighing again. “Kenny, I’m not sure you’ve ever stopped to notice, but you’ve always succeeded at anything you had your heart set on doing.” Kenny stared inquisitively at his back, and he shrugged. “I keep sitting back and waiting to see which one is going to be ‘the one.’ Granted, you don’t always take the knocks in stride, but you’ve always succeeded in one way or another. You wanted new friends when we moved to Harbington, and you went out and got them. Just like that. Took a while, and you were angry as hell over it… but you did it. You learned machines, you joined the cheerleading squad, and you are damn good at both.”

“Now there’s all this… and you’re good at it too, damn it all.”

Kenny stood perplexed and surprised and embarrassed all at once. He wasn’t sure how to take what his father was saying. “Uh, okay?”

“Your mother…” Gerald started, pausing so that his son could reflexively grimace when she was brought up, like he always did. “I know you don’t like talking about her, but your mother… The day you were born, she took you in her arms and she said to me, ‘Gerald, our boy is going to do something amazing some day, I just know it.’ I asked her what it was, and she… heh, she said it didn’t even matter. Everything you would ever do, to her, was amazing. You might not know it, but you were her world… Then again, how could you? When her mind started going, she feared you.”

Whenever Kenny’s mother came up, his thoughts went only to certain snippets in time that he couldn’t shake. They weren’t good places. He remembered a frail woman, a vegetable with a chip in her head to slow her brain activity and allow her to cling to something vaguely resembling an actual life. She was someone who never could take care of herself. She never cooked, never cleaned, never worked; she never did anything at all. The only thing he ever remembered her doing, before the implant, was forgetting her home. She forgot her husband, and she forgot her son. She flew off the handle, terrified that she had been taken somewhere by strangers. She hit him.

His father always talked about her the way she was before though. It didn’t matter how hard he tried, however… Kenny just couldn’t imagine her any other way than the sad, pathetic excuse of a woman.

“I guess I mean she was afraid of what she’d do, and she was terrified to lose you. She only agreed to get the implant so she wouldn’t hurt you anymore.” Gerald lifted his hands only to drop them back down onto the table, shaking his head in confusion. “So, she just removes herself from our lives and me? I didn’t do enough. Plainly put, I didn’t do enough. Then it all goes to shit.”

Kenny took a deep breath, sniffling and rubbing his eyes to wipe way the tears that had welled up there. “So what?” He asked, “What’s your point?”

“Not this time.” Gerald brushed his hand over his latest project and gripped it by its edges. He lifted the plate and stared into the polished, reflective surface of it for a moment, inspecting its quality one last time before turning and presenting it to Kenny.

Kenny’s stretched reflection stared back at him on the surface of a steel shield. It was modestly sized for a small boy, and was squared on its top, tapering down to a rounded point at the bottom. It was encased in protective construct plastic around its edges that braced the point at the bottom and a small opening in the top. Kenny’s reflection twisted in the etched-on design that was boldly displayed on the front of the shield – some sort of flower he didn’t properly recognize.

“As parents, we’ve failed you,” Gerald said, “We’re supposed to protect you. We’re supposed to be there for you, not keep you away. We’re supposed to keep you safe. We’re supposed to put you first. We never did any of those things. Instead of bearing the brunt of your struggles together, we tried to distance ourselves from them, as far away as we could get. Now you’re in something too dangerous to ignore, and I’m not going to lose someone I love again by not acting.”

Gerald held the steel shield out flat. “It’s yours. We might not be able to fight with you, but we can damn well try to shield you from that psychotic monster.”

Kenny was speechless. His mouth hung agape in awe. He looked between the sad face of his father and the well-crafted shield as if uncertain that he should take it. When he finally did take it, he did so delicately. He held it in front of him, looking down at it, examining its size and testing its weight. It could comfortably protect his entire head if he held it up, and most of his torso at chest-level. It wasn’t terribly light, but not as heavy as he would have thought. His arm could get tired holding it for too long. Checking the back, he didn’t seem to see any hand-holds for it, however. The confusion was evident on his face.

“Well now for that, you’ll need something a little extra,” Gerald said, “Come here.”

He waved Kenny over, and Kenny stepped up to finally see several metal plates laid out over the worktable, all different shapes and sizes, but distinctly so that it was obviously made to fit over his body. “Armor?” Kenny blinked, “You made armor?!”

“We made armor,” Kelvalde chimed in, “And it works with threadlinks!”

“I think it could still use some tweaking, but for now…” Gerald took one piece of the armor, a chevron-shaped metal plate that curved ever so slightly. He didn’t even warn Kenny before he turned and pushed the plate against the boy’s chest. It reacted immediately by clinging to his clothes, attaching firmly to him and then “gripping” down. Kenny stepped back to find the chest piece then shielded his sternum and chest, forming along the natural curve of his collar with a padded underside. He tugged his jacket over it, obscuring it only slightly. The fine metal still shined from the opening. Looking back to the table, there seemed to be several more pieces to put on, including what appeared to be work boots and gloves with metal plates and studs attached to them.

“Well?” Gerald asked, “What do you think?”

“… I’ve gotta put the rest of this on.” Kenny answered, quickly going through the numerous pieces with his father and attaching each one properly.

When he was finally changed, he stood in what passed for full apparel. Metal plates protected his shoulders and his back. Never did they touch or collide even when he moved around. The black gloves on his arms slipped up to nearly his elbow, steel plating the backs of his wrists and out over his knuckles for purposes he could easily deduce. His sword arm bore a metal plate over the forearm, while his shield arm remained bare. The shield attached to the sleeve seamlessly through threadlink and remained fixed on his arm without having the need to explicitly hold it in place. From there, he was bare of armor over his middle and most of his legs, until one reached his feet. He wore big boots, shin-high boots with metal capping the toes and protecting the shins. Some had even been inlayed into the heel.

He felt weighted, but it was evident that the metal had been used sparingly to keep it from being quite so heavy. It could have been worse, but it had been designed with a padding beneath each piece that felt as if it were filled with gel or rubber. While Kenny bounced on his toes and twisted and turned to both look at himself and test how well the armor moved, Gerald made one last move to remove Kenny’s sword from its scabbard.

“Mm? Did they lock this?” He grumbled.

Kenny looked over and casually stepped in to take the sword off his father’s hands. “Oh, I can handle that,” He said, and he didn’t even make motion or gesture to prove he had done anything at all. The sword just came out of its scabbard and the magnet lock on it clattered uselessly to the floor. Kenny collected it and put it in his pocket.

Gerald was surprised, but he did his best to keep his composure. “Oh, well… put that in your shield. In the top.”

Kenny looked again to the opening in the top. Carefully, he placed the sword’s tip inside and pushed it in. It slid in, a perfect fit, and the shield then snapped back with a sharp, metal ‘shink!’ Kenny jumped in surprise, not expecting the shield to collapse into the convenient shape of a sword’s scabbard. “Whoa!”

Gerald stifled a chuckle. He pulled the then-scabbard off Kenny’s forearm, and moved around to instead put it on his back. It stuck there just as easily as it did on his arm, requiring no straps to keep it in place.

Kelvalde finally stepped in proudly. “I designed that, that was me,” He claimed quickly, “Your dad did all the metalwork, but the fancier stuff was all me.”

“Whoa, threadlink armor!” Aren’s eyes were practically sparkling as he gushed over the design from a distance.

“It looks so cool!” Gren added, her fists balled up as she practically bounced in excitement, “Wow that’s the most actually heroic thing I’ve ever seen! Natalie doesn’t have armor like that!”

Kenny was feeling awful chuffed. He turned to Shelly and held his arms out to present himself to her. “Eh? What do you think?” He asked, “This do anything for you?”

Shelly tapped her chin, unable to hide her amused grin at how Kenny seemed to act, well, almost like a kid. It was weird and different, enough to be confusing for her, but she thought it best not to think too hard on it. She turned her attention to the armor, studying Kenny up and down. His visage was reflected in her big, amber eyes. “You look… protected,” She said, “Sort of… Like, how are you gonna protect your dick?”

Gerald immediately seized up, flustering a little as he kneaded the back of his neck. “I said it needs some adjustments, but I’m not made of money! Steel is expensive!”

“And like,” Shelly flicked her wrist, canting her hips, “A personal hard-force shield would be, like, so much more effective in both absorbing impact and overall durability. Plus, you wouldn’t have to polish it or keep it from rusting and stuff? But then I guess it’s also super illegal to have an energy shield, so I mean, it’s okay then I guess?”

Cupping a hand over his crotch in embarrassment over its noted vulnerability, Kenny blushed. “Polaris’ power is magnetism! It needs to be metal, obviously, duh!”

“Ohh em gee, if you add a few more pieces I bet you could totally use your powers to levitate!” Shelly added, leaning closer to inspect the boy in more detail.

“Shelly, he wanted to know if you thought he was hot!” Gren provided, much to Kenny’s immediate embarrassment, and Shelly’s too. Gren took a special sort of glee out of the way Kenny glared at her.

“Oh! Uh… Well, you look…” Shelly awkwardly couldn’t find the words. She just bit her lip and gave him a thumbs-up. “Mm?”

Kenny sighed. “Gee, thanks.”

“I’m sorry!” Shelly raised her hands, “It’s just you’re so small, you don’t even look that scary!”

“I’m not supposed to look scary!” Kenny barked back.

“Eee!” Shelly bunched up her arms and scooted away from Kenny, “Now you’re totes scary!”

Kenny growled, giving Shelly pause. Dropping her playful façade, she addressed him a little more meekly. “Are you, like, actually mad?”

Kenny paused, took a deep breath, and let it all out slowly, while balling his fists so tightly his knuckles whitened. “No,” He said, through grit teeth, “I am not angry. It’s fine. You’re fine.”

Shelly turned away from him hesitantly and shuffled aside a few steps before digging her PET out of her cleavage and beginning to frantically tap on it, shooting him a few looks while she did it. Kenny rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his father, who was watching it all and just shaking his head. He couldn’t hide his mirth, though, and Kenny seemed even less appreciative of his grinning expression.

“You know, that design on the shield, it’s your mother’s… well, it was your mother’s favourite flower. She used to grow them everywhere. Couldn’t walk two steps without running into a tulip around the house.” Gerald said, “That’s just a little bit of her in there too. I know she would have wanted to protect you as badly as I do.”

Kenny did one last look over himself, lifting his foot to try and see the steel caps on his boots. “Well, thanks,” He said, “Uh… don’t worry, I guess? I’ll be even better than before with all this.”

“Kenny…” Gerald prompted, expectantly. He raised a brow at his son, giving him the stern dad look most teenagers were familiar with. Kenny seemed frustrated over this.

“Alright, fine, yeah, mom…” Kenny said, “I can’t thank her too. Even if I could… You know. Wouldn’t matter.”

Gerald took a moment to contemplate his son’s words and consider a response. He hung up on that for some time. Much of it had already been said once before. Kenny was a stubborn boy in a lot of ways, not the least of which being how he felt about his mother at any time. The approaches weren’t always the same, the feelings weren’t always the same, but the constant always remained that Kenny wouldn’t budge.

“Well then,” Gerald concluded, “I suppose you have work to do.”

Gren and Aren stuck with Kelvalde for most of the visit, but the kids were beginning to get antsy. “Can we go now?” Aren asked. Gren at his side bobbed on her toes and heels, swaying forward and back as she bounced her hands off her sides, unable to hold still. Shelly looked up from her PET and at the kids before turning her attention to Kenny. “Are we done? Maybe I should get these guys home, y’know? Let their families look after them instead of me for a while. Do you have all your armor and stuff or what?”

“That’s everything,” Kelvalde said, “Right Gerald?”

“Right.” Gerald stepped forward and clapped his hands down on his son’s shoulders, barely giving him a shake to get him out of his own head. From that close, and in the glow of the blue light, he looked tired. It had occurred to Kenny just then that a couple of days to forge all those things – the retractable shield and the armor – was a tremendous undertaking that left little time for anything else. Even sleep.

“Right.” Kenny agreed, “I’ve got to be out there in case anything drops in again anyway.”

“You be safe, alright?” Gerald said, to which Kenny simply nodded. He held the boy just for a little while longer before releasing him and stepping back. Kenny turned, rolling his shoulders slightly, still getting used to the way the armor pieces would shift with his movements. It was clear that the donned protection filled him with a sense of professionalism – he stood up a little straighter and seemed to consider his movements more carefully.

“Alright, well…” Kenny looked to Shelly, “Let’s go I guess.”

Shelly stuffed her PET back between her breasts and reached out for Gren’s hand, taking it as Aren linked up and they walked in a chain toward the door. “’Kay, like, home-time. Hopefully before big, scary monster thingies show up,” She said, “And then I’ll go home maybe too, I think.”

“You’ve got to fight the monsters too!” Aren said, “Go all stretchy on them!”

“Nuh-uh! Like, totes not!” Shelly protested, “I’ll just get used as a slingshot again!”

Kelvalde waved to the kids as they passed by and they waved back, most of them. The husky stood by the door leaned up against the wall where he pushed his bangs away from his face and considered Gerald for a moment. The older man turned away and gathered his PET from the worktable, glancing at it for more than a few moments before he pocketed it into his suit. “Thanks, guy I’ve never met.” Gerald said, “Couldn’t have figured that out without you.”

“Nonsense,” Kelvalde said, “It’s a commendable initiative! Why, it’s tradition that one’s father forges the family crest so that his son might carry it into battle. Call me a little old-fashioned, but I just couldn’t help myself.”

“Family crest.” Gerald scoffed, “I’m a mechanic, not a neo-medieval nobleman. He doesn’t much care for it anyway.”

“It might grow on him,” Kelvalde said, “You may be surprised.”

Gerald made for the door, stopping only to give Kelvalde a side-long glance. “She never had a chance to grow on him.”

Outside, Kenny stepped into the elevator last behind the others. As the doors closed behind him, Aren looked up at Kenny curiously. “Kenny, is your mom dead?” He asked.

Kenny looked down at him. The boy’s tone had been so innocuous that even being caught off guard by the sudden question didn’t rush Kenny to anger like it normally would have. “Yeah,” He said, “She died a long time ago. When I was younger than you.”

Aren looked down, shuffling his feet awkwardly. “Oh,” He said, “That sucks. Sorry.” Gren and Shelly stayed quiet, uncomfortable with the idea of even speaking up to offer similar condolences. They allowed it to remain implied, not wanting to drag on the matter for Kenny’s sake. Kenny himself simply turned away to face the elevator doors, waiting for them to open as the chamber rose toward the ground floor. Silently, he mulled over his own thoughts.

“I like her flower.” Aren said softly.

Kenny closed his eyes and tried to think back, way back, to any kind of memory regarding his mother that wasn’t either completely miserable or just casually contemptable. Tulips must have been those flowers he used to see around the house when he was little. Blue, yellow, pink, white… it had only just occurred to him that each of those colours were all the same flower placed everywhere around his old home in Anchorsway. They had always given the place an almost… nursery feel to it. They were warm and gentle, and he’d plucked the petals off them when he was feeling sad. His mother’s “spot” by the window was full of them. Vibrant, potted colour all around her like a barrier, while she sat husked among them. She didn’t seem to like them so much then, but apparently, she loved them before?

That room always had more life in it than she did. There was one time, though…

… Where he put one of those flowers in its pot on her lap like she was an end table. It was funny at the time, mean-spirited, and demeaning. It was, however, the first and only time he saw her grab something and stare at it, rather than blankly out the window.

“Huh.” He said, the elevator already having come to the main floor and opened to let them off. “Y’know? Yeah. They’re pretty nice.”", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Issue 30: Bastion", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "application/msword", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "3", "name": "Violence", "description": "Mild violence", "rating_id": "1" }, { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "f", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "5", "views": "221" }