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Stop her machinations!", "description_bbcode_parsed": "A living nightmare from a world of dreams moves against you, young heroes! Stop her machinations!", "writing": "\"Hurry, young wizard! We haven't much time!\"\n\n\"I'm hurrying!\" Erwin answered frantically, trying to balance his spellbook in one hand and loosen the buttoned neckline of his blouse with the other. \"This skirt keeps catching on the gravestones! Who buries the dead, anyway?!\"\n\n\"Only someone who wishes to ritually raise them once more!\" Samantha replied, reaching into her red overcoat and pulling out a whip of chain. \"Watch out!\" With a loud ~CRACK!~ she fell a soldier made entirely of bones and malice. She wound it up again and replaced the weapon onto the belt loop of her black breeches. \"... The skirt looks fetching, by the way, but blue isn't your color. You're more of a Summer.\"\n\n\"Does it matter?? Look- unfh!\" Erwin ran into the door to the foreboding castle keep and immediately popped open his spellbook, gesturing at it aggressively. \"Hexis anexus!\" The door burst open, slamming the stone walls and echoing into the night. \n\n\"Hurry, to the top!\" The bat girl began ascending the long, weathered stairwell that led to the throne room, ferret at her side. When they reached the final wooden portal, Sam held back her companion. \"Save your concentration; I have this.\" She raised one leg, fully covered in armor and animated by dark magics to replace the missing true article, and kicked the door asunder, turning it into a large doormat. \n\nThey stormed the throne room together, Gothic couture as thick as the sense of foreboding evil. Finally, they stood before the lord of the castle, whose laughter echoed through the chambers with malevolent glee. Her ice blue hair fell to either side of her in hundreds of thin curls, and her sharpened canines gleamed pearlescent in the oppressive candle-lit gloom. \"So! Two fools to add to my graveyard? It's getting awfully crowded with your ambitious countrymen!\"\n\nSam gave her a fierce look. \"And that is why we will slay you on this day, Countess Brigid von Juggula!\" \n\nCarrie's evil grin faltered into one of disbelief, as if to try and contain her amusement was something completely beyond her strength. She burst into giggles, unable to contain herself. \"Wow, you two really haven't realized, have you?\"\n\n\"R-... Realized what??\" Erwin asked.\n\nShe smirked, reclining and crossing her legs dramatically, her boustier-contained bosom jiggling with the motion. \"That this is a dream.\"\n\nThe two adventurers stared blankly for several seconds, looking at themselves, then each other, before rolling their eyes. \"Well, I never! Now I feel completely silly.\"\n\n\"How do you think I feel??\" the feline queried. \"I just said 'countrymen' with a straight face!\"\n\n\"Man...\" Erwin cast his gaze down, disappointed. \"I was having fun throwing spells around.\"\n\nCarrie grinned a little more toothily than usual. \"You still can! Watch this. Hocus pocus!\" Outstretching both arms, she gestured to Erwin, then Sam, manifesting cartoonishly large collars onto their necks, chained to her throne. \n\n\"What's this?!\"\n\"Hey!\"\n\n\"Abra cadabra!\" Their strange costumes were replaced by lace in the form of skimpy undergarments, for which Carrie held a very well-known affinity. \n\n\"It's awfully small...\"\n\"Pussy, you're so very perverse!\"\n\n\"Shush.\" 'Von Juggula' grabbed the backs of her new acquisitions' heads and pushed them cheek-first into the pillowy sides of her parodically titular bosoms. \"Yesss, give into the squish, my little packlings. You [i]love[/i] my squish.\"\n\nSamantha held her refined look of unfettered propriety even as she flushed. \"That's not really debatable, mistress,\" she replied, accidentally dropping into a character she often found herself enjoying when Carrie got this way.\n\n\"Yeah, y-you already know that...\" Erwin blushed hotly, wincing as they all watched an obscene, embarrassingly thick bulge travel from the front of his frilly underwear diagonally up his hip, flirting with the limits of what admittedly should have been a well-fitting garment. \"W-... what we wanna know is, ah, um, w-why... why're we all dreaming together?? Didn't we fall asleep separately?\"\n\n\"Hm? Oh, I dunno.\" Carrie shrugged, rubbing her subjects' necks soothingly. \"Probably some magic bullshit or something.\"\n\n\"Our bond is strengthening.\" One of the animated suits of armor that Sam and Erwin remembered defeating in the castle courtyard clunked and thumped its way into the room, lifting its slotted visor to reveal Arus. \"Echelon said we could bond with our hosts through dreams. She suggested... playing with you.\"\n\nSam and Erwin hid behind her throne, embarrassed to be seen by a stranger in such an intimate setting. Carrie only laughed. \"Yeah, she's seen us fucking before, guys.\"\n\n\"Oh.\"\n\"Right...\"\n\nThe cat narrowed her eyes. \"She's dirty like that. A silent little voyeur, watching all the action unfold.\"\n\nArus made an expression something like disbelief and indignance. \"What?? What do you accuse me of?\"\n\n\"Oh, my, Arus,\" Mhend giggled as she floated in like a ghost they recognized from before. \"She has you pegged, doesn't she?\"\n\n\"Y-Yeah, like you're any different!\" Phactys grinned, shuffling in wearing the raiment of a mummy, which was also now familiar to them.\n\n\"You of all of us should talk!\" Mhend countered.\n\nThe caramel-colored inkling shook his head. \"Oh, no, I own it. I'm... p-probably the worst offender. I don't know if it's me or Erwin driving it, but personally I'm hoping we play mirror to our gracious warm bodies up there.\"\n\nArus, somehow, in all her inky blobness, was blushing. \"That's... crossing the line! I've always tried to give my host privacy during... personal... moments.\"\n\n\"Take the stick outta your ass, Arus,\" Carrie replied, lightly spanking her bat friend over her knee at a downright lackadaisical pace. \"Echelon told you to play with us, so play.\"\n\nArus scrunched up her face, turning away. \n\n\"I can't absolve you for it, okay?\"\n\nThe white inkling blinked, turning back to face her host. \"What?\"\n\n\"Offing your prior hosts,\" Cat answered coolly. \"I know you're always pulling the guilty mirror-me bit because you feel sorry for doing that. Well, I can't forgive you for it. That's between you and them.\" She reclined sideways in the overly ornate throne. \"Just try and make it right this time, and you can make it up to yourself by doing good, y'know?\"\n\n\"I don't...\"\n\n\"What was that?\" Carrie flicked one ear, looking almost disinterested.\n\n\"I don't think it would ever be enough,\" Arus admitted miserably, full of anger. \"A few good deeds can't right a lifetime of wrongs!\"\n\n\"... Alright,\" Cat nodded evenly, manifesting a leather whip. \"You want me to punish you?\"\n\nThe white inkling sighed in exasperation, walking toward the door. \"Should've known... wouldn't take... seriously-\"\n\n\"[i]Stop[/i].\" And she did. Carrie smiled. \"How about you stop taking [u]yourself[/u] so seriously? Brooding in dreams is a little much; even Cedric must gleefully kick puppies or something when he's asleep. I mean, considering the circumstances out in the real world right now, what've you got to lose?\"\n\nErwin smiled with a bit of encouragement that was uncharacteristic for him. \"Come on, Arus, it's been fun so far! Play with us.\"\n\nArus pointed back at the ferret. \"I know you well enough. You only wish to have two chesty girls to cavort with!\"\n\nThe ferret shook his head. \"Not true! My primary aim is to help you and Carrie feel better about each other. I [i]also[/i] wish to have two chesty girls to cavort with!\" He grinned, correcting her.\n\nArus drew in for a long, breathy sigh. If it were possible to tell, she'd most definitely have rolled her eyes. \"Fine, I'll join in with your whimsical nonsense. But I would like to go on record saying that this is a waste of time.\"\n\nCarrie only grinned. \"Whatever makes you feel better.\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nMax Tangent awoke upside down. Though this might've been something expected of his friend Samantha, this habit was his and his alone. As he rubbed the sands of sleep out of his eyes, the iguana looked up at his newest companion, who clung gelatinously to his head. \"Hey,\" he whispered, gently patting the creature's pseudopod. \"Hey Gropey! Wake up!\"\n\nFor his part, Gropey's singular eye underwent something like opening. The single slit pupil that had turned on its side and bent downward- in some strange facsimile of a sleepy eyelid- now straightened and turned back to attention. The gooey thing that clung to Max's head now bent forward, looking down at him.\n\nHe loved that about Gropey. The little guy had an attentive, almost expectant stare... as if incurably fascinated with the world around him. Max could admit that he relished something so apt to pay that much attention to him. Being the middle child of three siblings- a large family for his generation- he always found himself most comfortable when all eyes were on him. Of course, his overexcited nature tended to make friendships a little bit hard to hold onto for very long.\n\nWhich was why he couldn't believe keeping a pet never occurred to him before! Pre-splice people kept them all the time, as he had learned, and they were cherished by their owners. Such a thing was rare for post-splice folks, due to feelings of strangeness in keeping around feral species that they or their friends resembled. \"But nobody looks like you, do they, little guy?\" He grinned, jumping down onto a table to find Gropey a lettuce leaf to nosh on. On the way to the kitchen he'd fondly remembered working in, however...\n\n\"Are you sure, Kelvalde? Maybe you could re-check your notes...\"\n\n\"I'm positive I've never run across a five-cycle, Erwin, and I would just not have the first clue how to fabricate one. Not to mention most of my effort is going to securing this apartment building. Sorry, friend.\"\n\nErwin sighed, slumping in the seat of a table for two, rubbing his forehead as if nursing a headache. \"That's alright, thanks anyway, Kelvalde. If only Kei were here... this would be so easy! But that's the problem, isn't it... I need one to do the-\" A soft tone made him open his eyes. \"Oh, hang on, she answered!\" \n\nA hologram of Shelly Iverson joined Kelvalde's at the table; though while the husky looked grease-smattered and involved, Shelly had ducked into a bathroom. \"... Erwin?\" she asked in a hushed tone. \"Like, how come you're calling me?\"\n\n\"Shelly? Are you okay? What's going on?\"\n\n\"You totally called at the butt crack of dawn, that's what's going on!\" She responded, apparently feeling confident enough to raise her voice a tad. \"I have to be careful who sees me talking to who and stuff. I'm on a train with a bunch of soldiers, and Murphy's totally on the warpath for anyone who's inked. If she catches me talking to you, I'm so dead!\"\n\n\"Curiouser and curiouser,\" Kelvalde mused between muted hammer swings.\n\n\"Oh! Geez, I didn't realize.\" The ferret took a deep breath. \"Look, I need your help. I'm trying to build something, and there's a part I need to fabricate, and I don't know how to do it... and you're the smartest girl I know.\"\n\n\"What? Like, why call me? You're only behind me like a point or two in classes and junk, for serious.\"\n\n\"I'm a point or two behind [i]perfection[/i], Shelly. The system maxes out way before showing your true limits. And I can't reach Mandy! Please, I'm barely keeping it together enough to ask you this.\"\n\nThe butterfly laughed. \"Alright, whatever. So like, what's on your mind?\"\n\nErwin explained the purpose of his device and what he hoped to accomplish regarding the part he couldn't find. By the end, he was feeling oddly self-conscious. \"So, any ideas?\"\n\n\"Five-cycle? Like, why would you want that?\"\n\nHe huffed. \"I just [u]explained[/u] why I need it.\"\n\n\"No I mean like, five-cycle would just be dumb. You'd get feedback that would double your voltage just on the runoff. You could build more inhibitors, but it would take forever to find the sweet spot- you'd be chasing ghosts for weeks.\"\n\n\"Crap, you're right,\" Erwin noted, discouraged. \n\n\"Like, if you wanna power coupling for this thing, universal cycles aren't gonna do it. You're gonna have to make it from scratch especially for the machine.\" She smiled cutely. \"You [u]can[/u] do that much math, right?\"\n\nThe ferret boy nodded, sighing. \"Of course I can. What I can't do is make a power coupling that size with just random school shop tools, assuming they're still working; we'll have to go to the Fabricatory, then.\"\n\n\"That's a big negative, my friend,\" Kelvalde interrupted smoothly, removing his goggles. \"That place has sprouted giant roots of some kind- I can see it from the Residential sector. Whatever that is, I wouldn't go near it.\"\n\n\"Argh,\" Erwin angsted. \"Stopped at every turn! I hate to say it, but I might not have a choice...\"\n\n\"Like, it sounds like you know what you need to do, can I be excused?\"\n\nHe let out a sigh. \"Yeah. Thanks for your help, Shelly.\" Erwin half-smiled. \"Oh, um. Before I go, one more thing. Carrie says your breasts are fake... is it true?\"\n\nMs. Iverson only laughed. \"She's [u]so[/u] jealous! Whatever- tell Natalie Grayswift to aim my powers at her super jelly girlfriend sometime. That'll get her off my butt. Ciao or some junk!\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\n\"So didja figure it out??\" Max asked, startling his friend as he watched Gropey slowly consume a leaf of iceberg lettuce. Carrie looked on the eating creature with potential disapproval... just to be sure.\n\nErwin smirked at his reptilian buddy despite the scare- he was all but used to it. \"Well, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, I can build the machine! \"\n\n\"Felicitation! And what's the bad news, Erwin dear?\" asked Samantha, who walked up, yawning, joined by Jacent and Natalie.\n\nThe ferret looked at the world outside the Burger Dictator. \"The bad news is, I'll have to make the part I'm looking for from scratch, and the only place with the tools to do that is the Fabricatory.\"\n\n\"Dude, haven't you been tuning in to the emergency stations?\" Max asked. \"That place is super mucho bad news, not even rescue teams are able to get in very far- and some don't make it out of the place. Check it out!\" He punched it into his PET, which projected a hologram of a large building familiar to everyone but Jacent. What wasn't familiar, however, was the series of alien-looking roots coming up from the ground and into the place. Even more strange were the enormous pod-like protrusions coming from the windows.\n\n\"What [u]is[/u] all that?\" Carrie asked, wrinkling her nose. \n\nSam winced. \"I don't know, but I don't want to go there...\"\n\n\"It will likely be very dangerous,\" Jacent concluded in Natalie's direction. \"I will go in alone and retrieve the tools Erwin needs.\"\n\n\"I'm going, too!\" Carrie quickly called out second dibs, pounding her fist into her hand percussively, which completely inked her in moments. \"... Arus and I dream-bonded a little last night.\"\n\n\"No more splitting up!\" Natalie interjected decisively. \"Either we all go or nobody goes. Erwin, is there [i]any[/i] other way to make these parts you need?\"\n\nHe gave her a very frank 'no.' \"For industrial-sized parts, you need industrial-sized tools. Worse, I'm gonna need at least two of you to help me operate the stuff... assuming we can get there, and it's not broken.\"\n\n\"Then the decision's been made for us,\" Nat asserted. \"Now, there are some things that need taking care of before we're underway. Max, can you and Sam make sure we pack enough food for this trip? I was feeling pretty stretched in the subtran station.\"\n\n\"Indeed, I'll see to it, darling.\"\n\"No problemo, el culo kommisar grande!\"\n\n\"Good,\" she continued. \"Erwin, I want you to go online and get as much information as you can on the Fabricatory's current situation. Carrie, network with friends and see if you can help him out. Any information is important.\"\n\n\"Sure thing, Natalie.\"\n\"Yeah, I'll see if Jess knows anything.\"\n\nTwo hooligans popped up over the wall.\n\"Y'arr, what about us, Cap'n Nat??\"\n\"Do we get a job?\"\n\nThe wolf girl turned to face them. \"Actually, yeah, I do need your help... with something [i]very[/i] important.\" She pulled out her PET. \"I'm seeding a location to you. I want you to take Sam and Carrie's parents out of here, to this apartment building. You'll meet a guy there by the name of Kelvalde. Tell him Echelon sent you. And take the safest route you can!\"\n\nAlliston and Coul seemed a bit overwhelmed by the weight of their given mission. \n\"Um... sure. Okay.\"\n\"You can count on us, Cap'n Nat.\"\n\n\"So that's your plan,\" Hugh Oakenfield said, walking out from the play area where the rest of the parents had largely stationed themselves the night previous. \"Send us to the Residential sector while you mount an insane assault on the Fabricatory.\"\n\n\"Daddy,\" Carrie huffed. \"I know you're always worrying about me, and trying to protect me even though I've [i]told[/i] you not to, but now. Is not. The time.\"\n\nHugh held up a hand. \"I know. And that's why I'm not going to try to stop you.\"\n\nCat's expression faltered. \"You're not?\"\n\nHe shook his head. \"... Look. I know you're supposedly super tough, but... you're my only daughter. I still don't approve of all this, but...\"\n\n\"... But what?\" Carrie asked, tilting her head. \n\nThe older cat pursed his lips. \"But I don't want you to think that I don't trust you.\"\n\nCat sighed. \"But... you [i]don't[/i] trust me, Daddy.\"\n\n He blinked in total surprise. \"What do you mean??\"\n\n\"You never do, with anything,\" she explained, realizing that she was being dragged into a conversation she'd been dreading. \"I wanted to go camping with my friends, you wouldn't let me.\"\n\n\"You snuck out,\" he remembered.\n\n\"I wanted to play and go to school after the incident with the trans. You kept me in bed for a week even though the doctor said I was fine.\"\n\n\"I-... I just wanted to be sure...\"\n\n\"I introduced you to my friends, you became suspicious of them. I told you I was dating Natalie, you put her through the wringer and tried to interfere in our relationship!\"\n\nHe winced. \"I... wanted to-\"\n\n\"Protect me? Dad, I haven't needed protection since I was too small to reach the dinnerware. I played tackle-toss behind your back for a year. All those arm wrestling matches we have? I've been losing deliberately since I was twelve.\"\n\nHugh wore a face of pain and shame as he began to put it all together. He couldn't bring himself to say a word.\n\nShe frowned. \"Daddy, I know you like to feel strong. You worked yourself to the wealth cap just because you wanted us to have everything. But you never trust me to take care of myself, and so... I stopped being able to trust you with anything in my life. I [u]hate[/u] asking Mom to keep secrets from you. It's awful. I wish you would just-\"\n\n\"-Trust you.\" He nodded slowly. \"I... I see that, now.\"\n\nShe hugged him. \"So... will you?\"\n\nHugh took a deep breath, and sighed it out slowly as he squeezed his daughter possessively. \"Of course, Carrie, I won't go back on that.\" He paused. \"You know, all this, and I still wish that long-haired kid would take this all on himself. I'd ask him to do it without batting an eye. Is that wrong?\"\n\n\"Yeah, a little bit. And the really crazy part? He'd agree to it,\" Cat replied with a wry grin. \"He's an idiot like that. You two share something in common, actually: you both think you can protect everything you care about all by yourselves.\"\n\n\"Is that right?\" he chuckled softly.\n\n\"Yeah. But the difference is, he knows to listen to someone else when he's completely out of his element.\" She stared up at him expectantly. \n\n\"Alright, alright, I get the message.\" Hugh smiled and kissed Carrie's forehead. \"I still don't like this, but I'll trust you. And I mean [u]really[/u] trust you this time.\"\n\n\"Good,\" she nodded. \"And I'm trusting you to take care of Mom. Just 'til I get back, alright?\"\n\n\"Alright, Pumpkin. Be safe.\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nThe Fabricatory was a huge building set not far from the rest of the commercial sector, placing it a reasonable distance from the now abandoned Burger Dictator. The storms of the last few days had died down, but an ever-present fog obscured anything at a distance.\n\n\"Better leave the bike here, Cap,\" Natalie cautioned, still a quarter mile from the place- according to her PET, anyway; she couldn't see but a discoloration to indicate it was there. \"We don't know which way we'll be coming out of there, or how fast we'll have to do it. Let's go, everyone.\"\n\nThey made their way down the midwalk, damp footsteps sounding out a consistent, if strange rhythm. \"So,\" Jacent hazarded. \"This safe house... will the protective effect be limited to its walls?\"\n\nErwin adjusted his glasses, as always out of habit rather than necessity. \"And a small diameter outside it, due to the nature of the device. It's going to project a simple field; we can get fancy after we've done the ground work.\"\n\nHe nodded. \"So they'll be forced to stay within those boundaries?\"\n\n\"No,\" Natalie interrupted before Erwin could answer. \"It's supposed to be a safe haven. They have to be free to leave, or we're no better than Osoth. I mean, it's bad enough the Army is making a return- we don't need to bring back prisons, too.\"\n\n\"You... don't have prisons??\" Jacent posed incredulously. \"What do you do with your criminals??\"\n\n\"What prison can't: we reform them,\" Carrie replied dryly. \"I mean, I know you were limited by your timeframe, but prison was basically a giant lie- 'everyone is safe and we'll make these bad people behave, promise!'\"\n\nSamantha nodded. \"Crime is a... behavioral problem. It's treated the same as any serious mental illness.\"\n\nJace frowned seriously. \"Some people are [i]not[/i] redeemable. Sometimes they're just broken, evil monsters, fit only for a cage.\"\n\nCat grinned. \"Like a crazy homeless guy hitting bank robbers with toys? Heh, nah, fair enough, that still happens sometimes. And when they're too fucked up to fix, they stay in the bullet.\"\n\n\"The bullet...?\"\n\nNatalie held up a hand. \"Stop. We're here.\"\n\nA very large ovoid building stretched before them, the fog cover and its odd shape concealing a great deal of it. The terrain leading up to it had become increasingly unstable, pavement buckling under the pressure of enormous snake-like roots originating from under the building. Massive blue branches jutted out from every entrance, blocking them utterly with their unbelievable girth. Bioluminescent green vines traveled over, around and even through the branches of this tree like a series of veins, pulsing with an almost imperceptible sound akin to the pulse of a titan.\n\n\"Wow,\" Max marveled, all three of the eyes on his head- counting his monocular pet- staring at the colossus that extended into the sky. \"Hey Erwin, your dad cuts down trees, right??\"\n\nThe ferret shook his head. \"S-Somehow, I'm thinking this is outside of his expertise.\"\n\n\"Max.\" Natalie walked over to her reptile friend. \"Help me look for a way in. You climb up that way, I'll climb this direction over here.\"\n\nHe saluted her in some strange fashion, as was his way. \"You got it, Nats!\"\n\n\"Um, do you have something with your DNA on it that I could bor-\" Before she knew it, half of her face was covered in saliva. Max's tongue reeled back into his mouth as Natalie gave him a flat look.\n\nHe grinned. \"You have only yourself to blame.\"\n\n\"Geeet outta heeere...!\" She chased him for a few steps.\n\n\"Woo woo woo woo!\" He was up the wall in moments.\n\nNatalie wiped her face on Carrie's breasts like they were a bath towel, much to her loud disapproval, and hurried up the other wall face.\n\n\"Gargh, sticky... fuckin'... 'guana spit...\" Cat looked the front door over, cracking her knuckles. \"Alright, tough guy, let's see if we can take this giant branch out of here.\"\n\nJacent placed a hand on the massive tree limb sticking out of the doorway. \"Very well, what do you propose?\"\n\nShe threw up her hands. \"Lumberjack it! I don't know, do some judo chops or something!\"\n\nCap'n Comet sighed. \"Carrie. There is no such thing as a 'judo chop.' Striking in Judo was a dead art in [u]my[/u] time; besides, my style is derived from the Northern Fist discipline-\"\n\n\"Just chop the wood with your hand.\"\n\nHe huffed. \"... I just want you to know if I wasn't me, I couldn't do this.\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nNatalie half-struggled up the almost spherical outside wall of the Fabricatory. Max's powerset ensured she had a firm grip... at least, where flesh met glass. \n\n\"Now I know why he never wears shoes...\" she grumbled, working to get enough traction with her shoes to get over the equator of the structure. \"Wait a minute!\" In her most elegant action yet, she snorted mightily, hocked up a giant pink blob of hyper glue and spat it onto the polished surface. After getting just the lightest bit of it onto the soles of her shoes, Nat tested the grip of her sneakers... which held firm! \"Ah-ha! Who's awesome??\" \n\nShe hurried up the wall, which proved to be the wrong move. Not remembering Cap's arm gloves, she palmed for a section of wall that slid right off the surface of the stretchy bracers. \"Waugh!\" In a moment of stomach-flopping panic, she fell backward and tensed. Completely horizontal, she held fast only by virtue of her sticky shoes and unusual abdominal strength. The wolf girl hunched down enough to grab the wall with her finger tips and slowly began climbing again. \"Good thing I took gymnastics...\"\n\nBy the time she could see almost to the top of the dome-like building, Natalie was growing frustrated. Every window, every door, every emergency exit she could see was completely full of big alien tree... what was more, the occurrence of branches was being overtaken by that of incredibly bizarre seed pod-like structures on top of massive stems, pulsing and writhing occasionally without provocation. In her periphery, a dark form in the fog alerted her to its presence!\n\n\"Oh. Max.\" Natalie breathed a sigh of relief and sat next to her iguana friend, who had apparently beaten her to the top.\n\n\"I thought you'd never get up here!\" he joked. \"Nah, that was a tough climb, actually. Even Gropey almost fell once, but I caught him with my ninja reflexes before he could.\"\n\nNatalie smiled softly and stroked the ever-staring goo ball, who for his part edged just a little closer to her. \"You've really taken to him, haven't you?\"\n\n\"I just felt kinda bad for him, y'know? We did kinda send his mom, or dad or whatever packing. It seemed wrong to leave him there all alone.\" He brought a knee up to his chest. \"And nobody else was gonna care for him, looking as weird as he does...\"\n\n\"I was talking to Gropey,\" Natalie teased. \"But... I guess this was the right group for him, then, wasn't it?\" She put an arm around Max's shoulders. \"So, did [u]you[/u] see any open entrances to this place?\"\n\n\"Zip. Zero. Nada. I found more polka-dotted rhinoceroses than I found doors we could go in.\"\n\nShe pounded the roof in frustration. \"Damn. I thought for sure-\" A bark interrupted her. \"Eh? Oh, geez. Go time!\" Her flesh inked over instantly. \"This is Echelon.\"\n\nThe hologram showed a short, haggard mouse fellow wearing a torn labcoat, spectacles and a very familiar-looking bow tie. \"Oh my goodness gracious...\"\n\n\"What's your name?\" Natalie asked, biting her tongue despite knowing the answer: he was a very good friend of her mother's- a member of Lorna's old pack before moving to Locksmouth, in fact, and the only one who followed her. He was a kind and good man, if somewhat awkward.\n\nHe stared breathlessly at her in trepidation. \"T-Trevors... Doctor Wade Trevors.\" A flurry of sparks caused him to shriek and fall down, though he righted himself. \"I-I... this was a m-mistake, I'm sorry to have bothered-\"\n\n\"No, wait! Dr. Trevors... are you in trouble?\" she urged him to stay on the line.\n\n\"I... h-how can I trust you?\" he asked helplessly.\n\nNatalie held a breath, wanting to tell him who she was. \"I know one of your colleagues. Dr. Grayswift?\"\n\nHis eyes went wide. \"Lorrie? How do you know her??\"\n\n\"I make it a point to know people,\" she answered stalwartly, neither putting up walls nor allowing any further discussion on the subject. \"I know that she trusts you, and that I also need you to trust me.\"\n\nHe hesitated. \"... I'll need to think about this. I-Is she okay?\"\n\nNatalie winced. \"Yes, that's fine. And Dr. Grayswift is... also fine. But hurry, time is of the essence. We-\" Natalie looked down at the tugging sensation on her ankle, and noticed Gropey looking up at her, a tendril pulling at her leg. \"What's-\"\n\n\"Mmph! Hrm mmn hm mmhrmph!\" Max mumbled, trying to pull one of a half-dozen crawlers off of his face. Natalie looked up to witness one of the horrid tree-pods burst in a cascade of six-legged monsters, landing with multiple wet slaps onto the hard rooftop. They collectively shook off their repulsive spawning slime and let out jagged, familiar screams. \n\n\"What the f-... I'll call you back, Dr. Trevors!\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\n\"So wait, show me again how this Tiger Fist style thing works!\" Carrie insisted, standing next to the branch while he instructed. \"I just curl my fingers up and strike with the palm??\"\n\nHe nodded encouragingly. \"Yes! You'll notice this gives your arm in general a much more solid structure, so that your blows will be quick and powerful... much like the animal it's named for.\"\n\n\"How very bestial!\" Sam remarked with some wonder. \"I never imagined something used for fighting could be so graceful.\"\n\n\"The disciplines of kung fu are quite graceful, and practical.\" Jacent smiled. \"I use them in all things, not just fighting. Erwin, would you like to join this lesson as w-... wait, where is Erwin?\"\n\nThe three of them looked around, seeing nothing but each other and fog. \"Crap, where'd you go, Book Smarts??\" Carrie called out.\n\n\"Right here, Carrie.\"\n\nThe voice was familiar in all the worst ways. The three of them turned to see a female inked navy-blue badger, holding Erwin in a very uncomfortable position. \n\n\"Cedric!\" Cat called out. \"Wait. No... it's Parthal, using Cedric's body. Let Erwin go!\"\n\n\"Sure thing.\" In an instant, it happened: the ferret was dropped, Parthal's arm shot forward with telescoping elasticity, and Carrie was slammed against the Fabricatory's outer wall, head-first. \"Where's Grayswift??\"\n\n\"We wouldn't tell you if we knew!\" Jacent dashed toward her, unleashing a barrage of strikes and kicks that made the displaced inkling drop Carrie. \n\nShe attacked him with a flailing of bladed tentacles, all of which he managed to deflect- but he didn't see her torso extend into a huge bludgeoning shape that gut-checked him, rolling him ten feet away from her. \"Haha, 'if you knew,' that's cute.\"\n\n\"What do you want with her?!\" Carrie demanded, running toward the crazed elder inkling. \n\nParthal looked up. \"Oh, I see her. Nevermind.\" With a flicking gesture, she opened up some kind of transdimensional hole in the side of the building, exposing its chaotic inner chambers. At the same time, she wound up to jab an enormous spike-shaped extremity directly through the panicking Erwin. \n\nCarrie dive-rolled, grabbing the ferret in the process and taking them out of harm's way. \"I've got you, just- wha?!\" Barely having enough time to rise, she wrapped around Erwin protectively, taking the second spike assault on the chin- or more accurately, on the back. It struck like a toothpick on a bowling ball, the cat's flesh impregnable by desperate stabs. However, within moments it became clear that this was merely a diversion; the other tendril wrapped around them both, squeezing hard enough to break bone.\n\n\"C-Carrie??\" Erwin worriedly croaked, seeing both tendrils coil tightly. Cat's growing rage, however, refused to yield. Her arms spread outward at an agonizing pace, keeping the threat at bay.\n\n\"Meh, not what I was looking for, anyway.\" Parthal hurled the two of them through her portal and quickly shut it. At the end of this act, however, she found herself assaulted by the pre-splice human again. \"Nope!\" She anticipated his punches, allowing them to splatter her entire form, quickly re-pooling. \"Not this time.\" A few more gestures, and a large portal appeared above their heads. Her cruel solid-yellow eyes narrowed in malevolent glee as the vaguely draconic creature they'd battled on the train landed unhappily in a mini-tidal wave of sea water. The portal closed as quickly as it opened, and Parthal jumped through a much smaller one in the ground, disappearing without a trace.\n\nFrom amidst the now wet grass, the faux-dragon rose and screamed deafeningly, very cross and probably recognizing them. \"Not to imply you're a helpless princess or anything, but I'd probably better take care of the dragon,\" Jacent reasoned. \n\nSamantha immediately ran behind him, all but cowering. \"J-Jacent, darling, we don't have sexism; if at all possible, I [u]choose[/u] to be a hapless princess! Now be a dear and save me!\"\n\nAmidst this confusing new future, Jacent finally did something he remembered from his old life: picking up a frightened girl and boost-leaping out of the way of a gargantuan terror.\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nCarrie and Erwin landed in a heap on the floor of the glorified sectional warehouse that was the Fabricatory. Cat took the brunt of the initial force before they separated, the ferret cushioned by his friend's soft center, then subjected to forces that fell off exponentially with each concurrent rolling bounce. When they finally stopped, each of them groaned and looked around in confusion. \"What happened...?\"\n\nErwin hissed and held his head as he got up, his body not agreeing with that plan of action. \"Hrngh... l-looks like Parthal threw us through one of her singularities...\" His hand slipped on a loose piece of blueprint, landing on his shoulder. \"Ow! ... Oh... hey, I think we're in the Fabricatory. It looks like some kind of basement.\"\n\n\"Forget about that, Natalie's in trouble!\" Cat stood up and reached for her PET. \"We've gotta warn her at least!\"\n\n\"Carrie?\"\n\nShe tapped the thing as it failed to respond to her momentarily. \"Parthal's bad news, you heard Kelvalde!\"\n\n\"C-Carrie!!\"\n\n\"Yeah, what??\" She looked up from her PET at Erwin, who was cowering against the wall. Following his gaze, she looked up into the dark side of the room and focused on three huge jewel-like eyes set in a perfect triangle.\n\nThump.\nThump.\nThump.\n\nAs it stepped into the light, a cylindrical head made itself known. Three sets of compactly folded insectoid pincers laid in the neck, aligned just like its eyes. Its eight foot tall, apelike body became agitated upon seeing them. Its massive chitinous arms slammed the floor, shaking the foundation as it let out an alien cry, its head rotating while it flared its jaws.\n\n\"Holy [u]crap[/u] you're ugly,\" Carrie assessed. \n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nThe roof was chaos. Despite Max and Natalie's best efforts, crawlers flung themselves at them in droves. The grabby little monsters were an irritation in small numbers, but large ones were a force to be reckoned with. Even Gropey was slurming higher and higher up Max's head as his owner was slowly overtaken by them.\n\n\"This must be where these little bastards come from!\" Natalie cast a worried look back at a sprout pod that slowly cast off sheets of ice she'd coated it with. Another was slowly priming to burst despite the thick layer of hyper glue Max had placed on it. She kicked and slapped and threw as many of the creatures away as she could, but they just kept coming back for more! \"Max, Flypaper! I need some glue!\"\n\n\"You got it Naghalsphwagh!!\" he spat out a crawler that stuck a limb in his mouth the moment he dared to talk. With a mighty hocking, he spat a wide pool of glue all over the top of the Fabricatory roof, watching it roll down the wall.\n\nNat threw herself at the glue puddle, rolling sidelong down it and losing crawlers as she went, like a reverse lint roller. The great fall to the bottom beckoned to her as she slid, but she quickly slapped her hand onto the last bit of glue, sticking herself to it. Concentrating, she absorbed Max's powers, stuck to the wall naturally- and most importantly- was able to secrete a solvent that freed her from the impossibly sticky stuff. \n\n\"Natalie!\"\n\nThe wolf girl climbed up to see... Cedric? \"What the-... What are you doing here??\"\n\n\"I came to help!\" He grinned with that same cruel smile he held at all times, kicking away crawlers. \n\n\"I dunno!\" Max shrugged. \"I just turned around and he was there!\"\n\nNatalie couldn't parse this new development whatsoever... but frankly, the odds were bad enough that she decided to put off thinking about it for the moment. Together, the three of them managed to fight, relocate or capture the vast majority of crawlers. The rest of them decided to flee, seeing that they weren't likely to ink a single one of them. Relieved but exhausted, Nat bent forward, panting with her hands on her knees. \"Oh wow, that would've really sucked. Thanks for the hand, Cedric.\"\n\n\"Sure, no problem. Anything to help out.\" He languidly stepped over and slapped Natalie on the rump.\n\nNat and Max stood, staring as if they'd seen a horrible phantasm. \"Dude... Cedric [i]never[/i] says 'you're welcome.'\"\n\nNatalie frowned, creasing her brows. \"... And he's completely asexual.\"\n\nHe laughed much too jovially and shrugged. \"What can I say?\" A navy-blue limb struck backward and knocked Max away. \"I'm just not feeling myself lately.\"\n\nNat gasped as Cedric's body inked over with those familiar yellow eyes, becoming noticeably female from the previous host's imprint. \"Gatemaker Parthal! Let Cedric go!\"\n\n\"Are you kidding? Do you know how fit this kid is??\" Parthal ran toward Natalie, who braced for the hit... but it never came. She vanished through a portal before reaching her. Suddenly, Natalie was flattened from behind by a double leg drop, crying out in pain. \"He's a huge step up from Professor Jug-hugs and her closet full of sweaters. Everyone on this planet's so lazy!\" She deftly backstepped away from a vengeful kick. \"Oh, but not you, you're both obsessive freaks! A sixteen year-old with a six-pack... do you know how ridiculous that is?\"\n\n\"It'll look fine when I beat the snot out of you!\" Natalie stood up and gave it a moment of thought. Max's powers were still active. She smiled internally at the deviousness of the tactic. \"Pteaugh!\" She spat her now super-long tongue at Parthal... but there were problems. Namely, that Parthal had dropped through a portal... and that Max had the same idea. Their tongues met in mid-air, sticking to one another, and Nat tried to fight the urge to reel it in... but there was no instinct for that. They both careened toward each other and shoved their arms out just in time to stop from bashing faces. Unfortunately, instinct kicked in again, and they locked lips for a few very awkward, scrambling moments. Finally, the solvent kicked in, and they pulled away as if avoiding the plague. \"Oh [i]that[/i] was uncomfortable.\"\n\n\"Blegh, bagels and egg!\" Max recoiled. \"You gave me stank breath!\"\n\n\"Nevermind that, where's-\" She spotted Cedric kneeling, trembling, holding his head near the center of the roof. Not Parthal, Cedric. \"... Parthal?\" She cautiously walked up to him.\n\nHe turned to face her, twitching and grimacing as if undergoing some Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation. \"N-Natalie! Transform into Echelon! Emnas hates Echelon!\"\n\n\"What??\" She blinked, uncomprehending.\n\n\"Parthal is their arsenal! Had to contain her... can't fight her forever, too strong!\"\n\n\"Wait, you're trying to contain Parthal??\" Natalie shook her head, disbelief all over her face. \n\nHe shook, one hand swathed in midnight blue... the other in magma red. \"Can't... I can't... but Emnas can.\"\n\nNat thought about it for a moment, and it made sense. Emnas hated Echelon?? She didn't know why, but it did add a layer of logic to the entire situation. If his inkling hated her inkling... perhaps it was something more than chance that they ended up enemies. Maybe... that was just the way it was meant to be. She looked at the blue liquid overtaking Cedric's arm and shoulder. \"... Max! Find the others!\"\n\n\"What??\"\n\n\"Just do it! I'll be fine!\" Seeing her friend back off, she grinned at the badger. \"Let's do it again, Cedric. Let's fight, you miserable jerk! ECHELON!\"\n\nCedric grinned in turn. \"Yeah... let's do this, you brainwashed idiot. EMNAS!\"\n\nThey clashed like two opposing ocean waves. Limbs thrown. Punches blocked. Grabs, tackles, throws. They knew each other's every move, anticipating and returning, acting and reacting. It felt [i]good[/i], but not like that horrible schadenfreude at Park Circle. The excitement and satisfaction of trading blows, coupled with inked bodies that could take the punishment- it was like base, wild freedom. \n\n\"I get it now!\" Cedric exclaimed, throwing a haymaker at the liquid wolf. \"My mistake was being nice! It went against everything I stand for! It made me fight myself!\"\n\nNatalie blocked his attack and countered with a gut-check that turned into a shove. \"And mine was trying to believe you could change, trying to like you!\" She panted, almost laughing. \"We're not friends! But we don't have to kill each other!\"\n\nThe badger swept Natalie's legs out from under her and leapt at her while she was down. \"You're a clueless, witless glory hound!\"\n\nShe flipped a leg up and kicked him under the chin, sending him reeling backward while she popped up. \"And you're a deluded, self-aggrandizing bully!\" she retorted sharply, participating in their usual repartee and understanding the point: aggressive provocation that they had long ago shielded themselves against completely. Barbless blows that drew no blood, but lit the tinder box in their countless previous conflicts.\n\nCedric's hands and eyes glowed as he wound up elaborately. \"AaaaaAAAA!!!\"\n\nA massive gout of magma flew at Natalie, but the telegraph both made it easy for her to dodge... and incredibly satisfying for him to throw. \"Come on! Bigger! Light up the sky, for all the good it'll do you!\"\n\nHe grinned deviously. \"You asked for it.\"\n\n -\n- -\n -", "writing_bbcode_parsed": ""Hurry, young wizard! We haven't much time!"

"I'm hurrying!" Erwin answered frantically, trying to balance his spellbook in one hand and loosen the buttoned neckline of his blouse with the other. "This skirt keeps catching on the gravestones! Who buries the dead, anyway?!"

"Only someone who wishes to ritually raise them once more!" Samantha replied, reaching into her red overcoat and pulling out a whip of chain. "Watch out!" With a loud ~CRACK!~ she fell a soldier made entirely of bones and malice. She wound it up again and replaced the weapon onto the belt loop of her black breeches. "... The skirt looks fetching, by the way, but blue isn't your color. You're more of a Summer."

"Does it matter?? Look- unfh!" Erwin ran into the door to the foreboding castle keep and immediately popped open his spellbook, gesturing at it aggressively. "Hexis anexus!" The door burst open, slamming the stone walls and echoing into the night.

"Hurry, to the top!" The bat girl began ascending the long, weathered stairwell that led to the throne room, ferret at her side. When they reached the final wooden portal, Sam held back her companion. "Save your concentration; I have this." She raised one leg, fully covered in armor and animated by dark magics to replace the missing true article, and kicked the door asunder, turning it into a large doormat.

They stormed the throne room together, Gothic couture as thick as the sense of foreboding evil. Finally, they stood before the lord of the castle, whose laughter echoed through the chambers with malevolent glee. Her ice blue hair fell to either side of her in hundreds of thin curls, and her sharpened canines gleamed pearlescent in the oppressive candle-lit gloom. "So! Two fools to add to my graveyard? It's getting awfully crowded with your ambitious countrymen!"

Sam gave her a fierce look. "And that is why we will slay you on this day, Countess Brigid von Juggula!"

Carrie's evil grin faltered into one of disbelief, as if to try and contain her amusement was something completely beyond her strength. She burst into giggles, unable to contain herself. "Wow, you two really haven't realized, have you?"

"R-... Realized what??" Erwin asked.

She smirked, reclining and crossing her legs dramatically, her boustier-contained bosom jiggling with the motion. "That this is a dream."

The two adventurers stared blankly for several seconds, looking at themselves, then each other, before rolling their eyes. "Well, I never! Now I feel completely silly."

"How do you think I feel??" the feline queried. "I just said 'countrymen' with a straight face!"

"Man..." Erwin cast his gaze down, disappointed. "I was having fun throwing spells around."

Carrie grinned a little more toothily than usual. "You still can! Watch this. Hocus pocus!" Outstretching both arms, she gestured to Erwin, then Sam, manifesting cartoonishly large collars onto their necks, chained to her throne.

"What's this?!"
"Hey!"

"Abra cadabra!" Their strange costumes were replaced by lace in the form of skimpy undergarments, for which Carrie held a very well-known affinity.

"It's awfully small..."
"Pussy, you're so very perverse!"

"Shush." 'Von Juggula' grabbed the backs of her new acquisitions' heads and pushed them cheek-first into the pillowy sides of her parodically titular bosoms. "Yesss, give into the squish, my little packlings. You love my squish."

Samantha held her refined look of unfettered propriety even as she flushed. "That's not really debatable, mistress," she replied, accidentally dropping into a character she often found herself enjoying when Carrie got this way.

"Yeah, y-you already know that..." Erwin blushed hotly, wincing as they all watched an obscene, embarrassingly thick bulge travel from the front of his frilly underwear diagonally up his hip, flirting with the limits of what admittedly should have been a well-fitting garment. "W-... what we wanna know is, ah, um, w-why... why're we all dreaming together?? Didn't we fall asleep separately?"

"Hm? Oh, I dunno." Carrie shrugged, rubbing her subjects' necks soothingly. "Probably some magic bullshit or something."

"Our bond is strengthening." One of the animated suits of armor that Sam and Erwin remembered defeating in the castle courtyard clunked and thumped its way into the room, lifting its slotted visor to reveal Arus. "Echelon said we could bond with our hosts through dreams. She suggested... playing with you."

Sam and Erwin hid behind her throne, embarrassed to be seen by a stranger in such an intimate setting. Carrie only laughed. "Yeah, she's seen us fucking before, guys."

"Oh."
"Right..."

The cat narrowed her eyes. "She's dirty like that. A silent little voyeur, watching all the action unfold."

Arus made an expression something like disbelief and indignance. "What?? What do you accuse me of?"

"Oh, my, Arus," Mhend giggled as she floated in like a ghost they recognized from before. "She has you pegged, doesn't she?"

"Y-Yeah, like you're any different!" Phactys grinned, shuffling in wearing the raiment of a mummy, which was also now familiar to them.

"You of all of us should talk!" Mhend countered.

The caramel-colored inkling shook his head. "Oh, no, I own it. I'm... p-probably the worst offender. I don't know if it's me or Erwin driving it, but personally I'm hoping we play mirror to our gracious warm bodies up there."

Arus, somehow, in all her inky blobness, was blushing. "That's... crossing the line! I've always tried to give my host privacy during... personal... moments."

"Take the stick outta your ass, Arus," Carrie replied, lightly spanking her bat friend over her knee at a downright lackadaisical pace. "Echelon told you to play with us, so play."

Arus scrunched up her face, turning away.

"I can't absolve you for it, okay?"

The white inkling blinked, turning back to face her host. "What?"

"Offing your prior hosts," Cat answered coolly. "I know you're always pulling the guilty mirror-me bit because you feel sorry for doing that. Well, I can't forgive you for it. That's between you and them." She reclined sideways in the overly ornate throne. "Just try and make it right this time, and you can make it up to yourself by doing good, y'know?"

"I don't..."

"What was that?" Carrie flicked one ear, looking almost disinterested.

"I don't think it would ever be enough," Arus admitted miserably, full of anger. "A few good deeds can't right a lifetime of wrongs!"

"... Alright," Cat nodded evenly, manifesting a leather whip. "You want me to punish you?"

The white inkling sighed in exasperation, walking toward the door. "Should've known... wouldn't take... seriously-"

"Stop." And she did. Carrie smiled. "How about you stop taking yourself so seriously? Brooding in dreams is a little much; even Cedric must gleefully kick puppies or something when he's asleep. I mean, considering the circumstances out in the real world right now, what've you got to lose?"

Erwin smiled with a bit of encouragement that was uncharacteristic for him. "Come on, Arus, it's been fun so far! Play with us."

Arus pointed back at the ferret. "I know you well enough. You only wish to have two chesty girls to cavort with!"

The ferret shook his head. "Not true! My primary aim is to help you and Carrie feel better about each other. I also wish to have two chesty girls to cavort with!" He grinned, correcting her.

Arus drew in for a long, breathy sigh. If it were possible to tell, she'd most definitely have rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll join in with your whimsical nonsense. But I would like to go on record saying that this is a waste of time."

Carrie only grinned. "Whatever makes you feel better."

 -
- -
 -

Max Tangent awoke upside down. Though this might've been something expected of his friend Samantha, this habit was his and his alone. As he rubbed the sands of sleep out of his eyes, the iguana looked up at his newest companion, who clung gelatinously to his head. "Hey," he whispered, gently patting the creature's pseudopod. "Hey Gropey! Wake up!"

For his part, Gropey's singular eye underwent something like opening. The single slit pupil that had turned on its side and bent downward- in some strange facsimile of a sleepy eyelid- now straightened and turned back to attention. The gooey thing that clung to Max's head now bent forward, looking down at him.

He loved that about Gropey. The little guy had an attentive, almost expectant stare... as if incurably fascinated with the world around him. Max could admit that he relished something so apt to pay that much attention to him. Being the middle child of three siblings- a large family for his generation- he always found himself most comfortable when all eyes were on him. Of course, his overexcited nature tended to make friendships a little bit hard to hold onto for very long.

Which was why he couldn't believe keeping a pet never occurred to him before! Pre-splice people kept them all the time, as he had learned, and they were cherished by their owners. Such a thing was rare for post-splice folks, due to feelings of strangeness in keeping around feral species that they or their friends resembled. "But nobody looks like you, do they, little guy?" He grinned, jumping down onto a table to find Gropey a lettuce leaf to nosh on. On the way to the kitchen he'd fondly remembered working in, however...

"Are you sure, Kelvalde? Maybe you could re-check your notes..."

"I'm positive I've never run across a five-cycle, Erwin, and I would just not have the first clue how to fabricate one. Not to mention most of my effort is going to securing this apartment building. Sorry, friend."

Erwin sighed, slumping in the seat of a table for two, rubbing his forehead as if nursing a headache. "That's alright, thanks anyway, Kelvalde. If only Kei were here... this would be so easy! But that's the problem, isn't it... I need one to do the-" A soft tone made him open his eyes. "Oh, hang on, she answered!"

A hologram of Shelly Iverson joined Kelvalde's at the table; though while the husky looked grease-smattered and involved, Shelly had ducked into a bathroom. "... Erwin?" she asked in a hushed tone. "Like, how come you're calling me?"

"Shelly? Are you okay? What's going on?"

"You totally called at the butt crack of dawn, that's what's going on!" She responded, apparently feeling confident enough to raise her voice a tad. "I have to be careful who sees me talking to who and stuff. I'm on a train with a bunch of soldiers, and Murphy's totally on the warpath for anyone who's inked. If she catches me talking to you, I'm so dead!"

"Curiouser and curiouser," Kelvalde mused between muted hammer swings.

"Oh! Geez, I didn't realize." The ferret took a deep breath. "Look, I need your help. I'm trying to build something, and there's a part I need to fabricate, and I don't know how to do it... and you're the smartest girl I know."

"What? Like, why call me? You're only behind me like a point or two in classes and junk, for serious."

"I'm a point or two behind perfection, Shelly. The system maxes out way before showing your true limits. And I can't reach Mandy! Please, I'm barely keeping it together enough to ask you this."

The butterfly laughed. "Alright, whatever. So like, what's on your mind?"

Erwin explained the purpose of his device and what he hoped to accomplish regarding the part he couldn't find. By the end, he was feeling oddly self-conscious. "So, any ideas?"

"Five-cycle? Like, why would you want that?"

He huffed. "I just explained why I need it."

"No I mean like, five-cycle would just be dumb. You'd get feedback that would double your voltage just on the runoff. You could build more inhibitors, but it would take forever to find the sweet spot- you'd be chasing ghosts for weeks."

"Crap, you're right," Erwin noted, discouraged.

"Like, if you wanna power coupling for this thing, universal cycles aren't gonna do it. You're gonna have to make it from scratch especially for the machine." She smiled cutely. "You can do that much math, right?"

The ferret boy nodded, sighing. "Of course I can. What I can't do is make a power coupling that size with just random school shop tools, assuming they're still working; we'll have to go to the Fabricatory, then."

"That's a big negative, my friend," Kelvalde interrupted smoothly, removing his goggles. "That place has sprouted giant roots of some kind- I can see it from the Residential sector. Whatever that is, I wouldn't go near it."

"Argh," Erwin angsted. "Stopped at every turn! I hate to say it, but I might not have a choice..."

"Like, it sounds like you know what you need to do, can I be excused?"

He let out a sigh. "Yeah. Thanks for your help, Shelly." Erwin half-smiled. "Oh, um. Before I go, one more thing. Carrie says your breasts are fake... is it true?"

Ms. Iverson only laughed. "She's so jealous! Whatever- tell Natalie Grayswift to aim my powers at her super jelly girlfriend sometime. That'll get her off my butt. Ciao or some junk!"

 -
- -
 -

"So didja figure it out??" Max asked, startling his friend as he watched Gropey slowly consume a leaf of iceberg lettuce. Carrie looked on the eating creature with potential disapproval... just to be sure.

Erwin smirked at his reptilian buddy despite the scare- he was all but used to it. "Well, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, I can build the machine! "

"Felicitation! And what's the bad news, Erwin dear?" asked Samantha, who walked up, yawning, joined by Jacent and Natalie.

The ferret looked at the world outside the Burger Dictator. "The bad news is, I'll have to make the part I'm looking for from scratch, and the only place with the tools to do that is the Fabricatory."

"Dude, haven't you been tuning in to the emergency stations?" Max asked. "That place is super mucho bad news, not even rescue teams are able to get in very far- and some don't make it out of the place. Check it out!" He punched it into his PET, which projected a hologram of a large building familiar to everyone but Jacent. What wasn't familiar, however, was the series of alien-looking roots coming up from the ground and into the place. Even more strange were the enormous pod-like protrusions coming from the windows.

"What is all that?" Carrie asked, wrinkling her nose.

Sam winced. "I don't know, but I don't want to go there..."

"It will likely be very dangerous," Jacent concluded in Natalie's direction. "I will go in alone and retrieve the tools Erwin needs."

"I'm going, too!" Carrie quickly called out second dibs, pounding her fist into her hand percussively, which completely inked her in moments. "... Arus and I dream-bonded a little last night."

"No more splitting up!" Natalie interjected decisively. "Either we all go or nobody goes. Erwin, is there any other way to make these parts you need?"

He gave her a very frank 'no.' "For industrial-sized parts, you need industrial-sized tools. Worse, I'm gonna need at least two of you to help me operate the stuff... assuming we can get there, and it's not broken."

"Then the decision's been made for us," Nat asserted. "Now, there are some things that need taking care of before we're underway. Max, can you and Sam make sure we pack enough food for this trip? I was feeling pretty stretched in the subtran station."

"Indeed, I'll see to it, darling."
"No problemo, el culo kommisar grande!"

"Good," she continued. "Erwin, I want you to go online and get as much information as you can on the Fabricatory's current situation. Carrie, network with friends and see if you can help him out. Any information is important."

"Sure thing, Natalie."
"Yeah, I'll see if Jess knows anything."

Two hooligans popped up over the wall.
"Y'arr, what about us, Cap'n Nat??"
"Do we get a job?"

The wolf girl turned to face them. "Actually, yeah, I do need your help... with something very important." She pulled out her PET. "I'm seeding a location to you. I want you to take Sam and Carrie's parents out of here, to this apartment building. You'll meet a guy there by the name of Kelvalde. Tell him Echelon sent you. And take the safest route you can!"

Alliston and Coul seemed a bit overwhelmed by the weight of their given mission.
"Um... sure. Okay."
"You can count on us, Cap'n Nat."

"So that's your plan," Hugh Oakenfield said, walking out from the play area where the rest of the parents had largely stationed themselves the night previous. "Send us to the Residential sector while you mount an insane assault on the Fabricatory."

"Daddy," Carrie huffed. "I know you're always worrying about me, and trying to protect me even though I've told you not to, but now. Is not. The time."

Hugh held up a hand. "I know. And that's why I'm not going to try to stop you."

Cat's expression faltered. "You're not?"

He shook his head. "... Look. I know you're supposedly super tough, but... you're my only daughter. I still don't approve of all this, but..."

"... But what?" Carrie asked, tilting her head.

The older cat pursed his lips. "But I don't want you to think that I don't trust you."

Cat sighed. "But... you don't trust me, Daddy."

 He blinked in total surprise. "What do you mean??"

"You never do, with anything," she explained, realizing that she was being dragged into a conversation she'd been dreading. "I wanted to go camping with my friends, you wouldn't let me."

"You snuck out," he remembered.

"I wanted to play and go to school after the incident with the trans. You kept me in bed for a week even though the doctor said I was fine."

"I-... I just wanted to be sure..."

"I introduced you to my friends, you became suspicious of them. I told you I was dating Natalie, you put her through the wringer and tried to interfere in our relationship!"

He winced. "I... wanted to-"

"Protect me? Dad, I haven't needed protection since I was too small to reach the dinnerware. I played tackle-toss behind your back for a year. All those arm wrestling matches we have? I've been losing deliberately since I was twelve."

Hugh wore a face of pain and shame as he began to put it all together. He couldn't bring himself to say a word.

She frowned. "Daddy, I know you like to feel strong. You worked yourself to the wealth cap just because you wanted us to have everything. But you never trust me to take care of myself, and so... I stopped being able to trust you with anything in my life. I hate asking Mom to keep secrets from you. It's awful. I wish you would just-"

"-Trust you." He nodded slowly. "I... I see that, now."

She hugged him. "So... will you?"

Hugh took a deep breath, and sighed it out slowly as he squeezed his daughter possessively. "Of course, Carrie, I won't go back on that." He paused. "You know, all this, and I still wish that long-haired kid would take this all on himself. I'd ask him to do it without batting an eye. Is that wrong?"

"Yeah, a little bit. And the really crazy part? He'd agree to it," Cat replied with a wry grin. "He's an idiot like that. You two share something in common, actually: you both think you can protect everything you care about all by yourselves."

"Is that right?" he chuckled softly.

"Yeah. But the difference is, he knows to listen to someone else when he's completely out of his element." She stared up at him expectantly.

"Alright, alright, I get the message." Hugh smiled and kissed Carrie's forehead. "I still don't like this, but I'll trust you. And I mean really trust you this time."

"Good," she nodded. "And I'm trusting you to take care of Mom. Just 'til I get back, alright?"

"Alright, Pumpkin. Be safe."

 -
- -
 -

The Fabricatory was a huge building set not far from the rest of the commercial sector, placing it a reasonable distance from the now abandoned Burger Dictator. The storms of the last few days had died down, but an ever-present fog obscured anything at a distance.

"Better leave the bike here, Cap," Natalie cautioned, still a quarter mile from the place- according to her PET, anyway; she couldn't see but a discoloration to indicate it was there. "We don't know which way we'll be coming out of there, or how fast we'll have to do it. Let's go, everyone."

They made their way down the midwalk, damp footsteps sounding out a consistent, if strange rhythm. "So," Jacent hazarded. "This safe house... will the protective effect be limited to its walls?"

Erwin adjusted his glasses, as always out of habit rather than necessity. "And a small diameter outside it, due to the nature of the device. It's going to project a simple field; we can get fancy after we've done the ground work."

He nodded. "So they'll be forced to stay within those boundaries?"

"No," Natalie interrupted before Erwin could answer. "It's supposed to be a safe haven. They have to be free to leave, or we're no better than Osoth. I mean, it's bad enough the Army is making a return- we don't need to bring back prisons, too."

"You... don't have prisons??" Jacent posed incredulously. "What do you do with your criminals??"

"What prison can't: we reform them," Carrie replied dryly. "I mean, I know you were limited by your timeframe, but prison was basically a giant lie- 'everyone is safe and we'll make these bad people behave, promise!'"

Samantha nodded. "Crime is a... behavioral problem. It's treated the same as any serious mental illness."

Jace frowned seriously. "Some people are not redeemable. Sometimes they're just broken, evil monsters, fit only for a cage."

Cat grinned. "Like a crazy homeless guy hitting bank robbers with toys? Heh, nah, fair enough, that still happens sometimes. And when they're too fucked up to fix, they stay in the bullet."

"The bullet...?"

Natalie held up a hand. "Stop. We're here."

A very large ovoid building stretched before them, the fog cover and its odd shape concealing a great deal of it. The terrain leading up to it had become increasingly unstable, pavement buckling under the pressure of enormous snake-like roots originating from under the building. Massive blue branches jutted out from every entrance, blocking them utterly with their unbelievable girth. Bioluminescent green vines traveled over, around and even through the branches of this tree like a series of veins, pulsing with an almost imperceptible sound akin to the pulse of a titan.

"Wow," Max marveled, all three of the eyes on his head- counting his monocular pet- staring at the colossus that extended into the sky. "Hey Erwin, your dad cuts down trees, right??"

The ferret shook his head. "S-Somehow, I'm thinking this is outside of his expertise."

"Max." Natalie walked over to her reptile friend. "Help me look for a way in. You climb up that way, I'll climb this direction over here."

He saluted her in some strange fashion, as was his way. "You got it, Nats!"

"Um, do you have something with your DNA on it that I could bor-" Before she knew it, half of her face was covered in saliva. Max's tongue reeled back into his mouth as Natalie gave him a flat look.

He grinned. "You have only yourself to blame."

"Geeet outta heeere...!" She chased him for a few steps.

"Woo woo woo woo!" He was up the wall in moments.

Natalie wiped her face on Carrie's breasts like they were a bath towel, much to her loud disapproval, and hurried up the other wall face.

"Gargh, sticky... fuckin'... 'guana spit..." Cat looked the front door over, cracking her knuckles. "Alright, tough guy, let's see if we can take this giant branch out of here."

Jacent placed a hand on the massive tree limb sticking out of the doorway. "Very well, what do you propose?"

She threw up her hands. "Lumberjack it! I don't know, do some judo chops or something!"

Cap'n Comet sighed. "Carrie. There is no such thing as a 'judo chop.' Striking in Judo was a dead art in my time; besides, my style is derived from the Northern Fist discipline-"

"Just chop the wood with your hand."

He huffed. "... I just want you to know if I wasn't me, I couldn't do this."

 -
- -
 -

Natalie half-struggled up the almost spherical outside wall of the Fabricatory. Max's powerset ensured she had a firm grip... at least, where flesh met glass.

"Now I know why he never wears shoes..." she grumbled, working to get enough traction with her shoes to get over the equator of the structure. "Wait a minute!" In her most elegant action yet, she snorted mightily, hocked up a giant pink blob of hyper glue and spat it onto the polished surface. After getting just the lightest bit of it onto the soles of her shoes, Nat tested the grip of her sneakers... which held firm! "Ah-ha! Who's awesome??"

She hurried up the wall, which proved to be the wrong move. Not remembering Cap's arm gloves, she palmed for a section of wall that slid right off the surface of the stretchy bracers. "Waugh!" In a moment of stomach-flopping panic, she fell backward and tensed. Completely horizontal, she held fast only by virtue of her sticky shoes and unusual abdominal strength. The wolf girl hunched down enough to grab the wall with her finger tips and slowly began climbing again. "Good thing I took gymnastics..."

By the time she could see almost to the top of the dome-like building, Natalie was growing frustrated. Every window, every door, every emergency exit she could see was completely full of big alien tree... what was more, the occurrence of branches was being overtaken by that of incredibly bizarre seed pod-like structures on top of massive stems, pulsing and writhing occasionally without provocation. In her periphery, a dark form in the fog alerted her to its presence!

"Oh. Max." Natalie breathed a sigh of relief and sat next to her iguana friend, who had apparently beaten her to the top.

"I thought you'd never get up here!" he joked. "Nah, that was a tough climb, actually. Even Gropey almost fell once, but I caught him with my ninja reflexes before he could."

Natalie smiled softly and stroked the ever-staring goo ball, who for his part edged just a little closer to her. "You've really taken to him, haven't you?"

"I just felt kinda bad for him, y'know? We did kinda send his mom, or dad or whatever packing. It seemed wrong to leave him there all alone." He brought a knee up to his chest. "And nobody else was gonna care for him, looking as weird as he does..."

"I was talking to Gropey," Natalie teased. "But... I guess this was the right group for him, then, wasn't it?" She put an arm around Max's shoulders. "So, did you see any open entrances to this place?"

"Zip. Zero. Nada. I found more polka-dotted rhinoceroses than I found doors we could go in."

She pounded the roof in frustration. "Damn. I thought for sure-" A bark interrupted her. "Eh? Oh, geez. Go time!" Her flesh inked over instantly. "This is Echelon."

The hologram showed a short, haggard mouse fellow wearing a torn labcoat, spectacles and a very familiar-looking bow tie. "Oh my goodness gracious..."

"What's your name?" Natalie asked, biting her tongue despite knowing the answer: he was a very good friend of her mother's- a member of Lorna's old pack before moving to Locksmouth, in fact, and the only one who followed her. He was a kind and good man, if somewhat awkward.

He stared breathlessly at her in trepidation. "T-Trevors... Doctor Wade Trevors." A flurry of sparks caused him to shriek and fall down, though he righted himself. "I-I... this was a m-mistake, I'm sorry to have bothered-"

"No, wait! Dr. Trevors... are you in trouble?" she urged him to stay on the line.

"I... h-how can I trust you?" he asked helplessly.

Natalie held a breath, wanting to tell him who she was. "I know one of your colleagues. Dr. Grayswift?"

His eyes went wide. "Lorrie? How do you know her??"

"I make it a point to know people," she answered stalwartly, neither putting up walls nor allowing any further discussion on the subject. "I know that she trusts you, and that I also need you to trust me."

He hesitated. "... I'll need to think about this. I-Is she okay?"

Natalie winced. "Yes, that's fine. And Dr. Grayswift is... also fine. But hurry, time is of the essence. We-" Natalie looked down at the tugging sensation on her ankle, and noticed Gropey looking up at her, a tendril pulling at her leg. "What's-"

"Mmph! Hrm mmn hm mmhrmph!" Max mumbled, trying to pull one of a half-dozen crawlers off of his face. Natalie looked up to witness one of the horrid tree-pods burst in a cascade of six-legged monsters, landing with multiple wet slaps onto the hard rooftop. They collectively shook off their repulsive spawning slime and let out jagged, familiar screams.

"What the f-... I'll call you back, Dr. Trevors!"

 -
- -
 -

"So wait, show me again how this Tiger Fist style thing works!" Carrie insisted, standing next to the branch while he instructed. "I just curl my fingers up and strike with the palm??"

He nodded encouragingly. "Yes! You'll notice this gives your arm in general a much more solid structure, so that your blows will be quick and powerful... much like the animal it's named for."

"How very bestial!" Sam remarked with some wonder. "I never imagined something used for fighting could be so graceful."

"The disciplines of kung fu are quite graceful, and practical." Jacent smiled.  "I use them in all things, not just fighting. Erwin, would you like to join this lesson as w-... wait, where is Erwin?"

The three of them looked around, seeing nothing but each other and fog. "Crap, where'd you go, Book Smarts??" Carrie called out.

"Right here, Carrie."

The voice was familiar in all the worst ways. The three of them turned to see a female inked navy-blue badger, holding Erwin in a very uncomfortable position.

"Cedric!" Cat called out. "Wait. No... it's Parthal, using Cedric's body. Let Erwin go!"

"Sure thing." In an instant, it happened: the ferret was dropped, Parthal's arm shot forward with telescoping elasticity, and Carrie was slammed against the Fabricatory's outer wall, head-first. "Where's Grayswift??"

"We wouldn't tell you if we knew!" Jacent dashed toward her, unleashing a barrage of strikes and kicks that made the displaced inkling drop Carrie.

She attacked him with a flailing of bladed tentacles, all of which he managed to deflect- but he didn't see her torso extend into a huge bludgeoning shape that gut-checked him, rolling him ten feet away from her. "Haha, 'if you knew,' that's cute."

"What do you want with her?!" Carrie demanded, running toward the crazed elder inkling.

Parthal looked up. "Oh, I see her. Nevermind." With a flicking gesture, she opened up some kind of transdimensional hole in the side of the building, exposing its chaotic inner chambers. At the same time, she wound up to jab an enormous spike-shaped extremity directly through the panicking Erwin.

Carrie dive-rolled, grabbing the ferret in the process and taking them out of harm's way. "I've got you, just- wha?!" Barely having enough time to rise, she wrapped around Erwin protectively, taking the second spike assault on the chin- or more accurately, on the back. It struck like a toothpick on a bowling ball, the cat's flesh impregnable by desperate stabs. However, within moments it became clear that this was merely a diversion; the other tendril wrapped around them both, squeezing hard enough to break bone.

"C-Carrie??" Erwin worriedly croaked, seeing both tendrils coil tightly. Cat's growing rage, however, refused to yield. Her arms spread outward at an agonizing pace, keeping the threat at bay.

"Meh, not what I was looking for, anyway." Parthal hurled the two of them through her portal and quickly shut it. At the end of this act, however, she found herself assaulted by the pre-splice human again. "Nope!" She anticipated his punches, allowing them to splatter her entire form, quickly re-pooling. "Not this time." A few more gestures, and a large portal appeared above their heads. Her cruel solid-yellow eyes narrowed in malevolent glee as the vaguely draconic creature they'd battled on the train landed unhappily in a mini-tidal wave of sea water. The portal closed as quickly as it opened, and Parthal jumped through a much smaller one in the ground, disappearing without a trace.

From amidst the now wet grass, the faux-dragon rose and screamed deafeningly, very cross and probably recognizing them. "Not to imply you're a helpless princess or anything, but I'd probably better take care of the dragon," Jacent reasoned.

Samantha immediately ran behind him, all but cowering. "J-Jacent, darling, we don't have sexism; if at all possible, I choose to be a hapless princess! Now be a dear and save me!"

Amidst this confusing new future, Jacent finally did something he remembered from his old life: picking up a frightened girl and boost-leaping out of the way of a gargantuan terror.

 -
- -
 -

Carrie and Erwin landed in a heap on the floor of the glorified sectional warehouse that was the Fabricatory. Cat took the brunt of the initial force before they separated, the ferret cushioned by his friend's soft center, then subjected to forces that fell off exponentially with each concurrent rolling bounce. When they finally stopped, each of them groaned and looked around in confusion. "What happened...?"

Erwin hissed and held his head as he got up, his body not agreeing with that plan of action.  "Hrngh... l-looks like Parthal threw us through one of her singularities..." His hand slipped on a loose piece of blueprint, landing on his shoulder. "Ow! ... Oh... hey, I think we're in the Fabricatory. It looks like some kind of basement."

"Forget about that, Natalie's in trouble!" Cat stood up and reached for her PET. "We've gotta warn her at least!"

"Carrie?"

She tapped the thing as it failed to respond to her momentarily. "Parthal's bad news, you heard Kelvalde!"

"C-Carrie!!"

"Yeah, what??" She looked up from her PET at Erwin, who was cowering against the wall. Following his gaze, she looked up into the dark side of the room and focused on three huge jewel-like eyes set in a perfect triangle.

Thump.
Thump.
Thump.

As it stepped into the light, a cylindrical head made itself known. Three sets of compactly folded insectoid pincers laid in the neck, aligned just like its eyes. Its eight foot tall, apelike body became agitated upon seeing them. Its massive chitinous arms slammed the floor, shaking the foundation as it let out an alien cry, its head rotating while it flared its jaws.

"Holy crap you're ugly," Carrie assessed.

 -
- -
 -

The roof was chaos. Despite Max and Natalie's best efforts, crawlers flung themselves at them in droves. The grabby little monsters were an irritation in small numbers, but large ones were a force to be reckoned with. Even Gropey was slurming higher and higher up Max's head as his owner was slowly overtaken by them.

"This must be where these little bastards come from!" Natalie cast a worried look back at a sprout pod that slowly cast off sheets of ice she'd coated it with. Another was slowly priming to burst despite the thick layer of hyper glue Max had placed on it. She kicked and slapped and threw as many of the creatures away as she could, but they just kept coming back for more! "Max, Flypaper! I need some glue!"

"You got it Naghalsphwagh!!" he spat out a crawler that stuck a limb in his mouth the moment he dared to talk. With a mighty hocking, he spat a wide pool of glue all over the top of the Fabricatory roof, watching it roll down the wall.

Nat threw herself at the glue puddle, rolling sidelong down it and losing crawlers as she went, like a reverse lint roller. The great fall to the bottom beckoned to her as she slid, but she quickly slapped her hand onto the last bit of glue, sticking herself to it. Concentrating, she absorbed Max's powers, stuck to the wall naturally- and most importantly- was able to secrete a solvent that freed her from the impossibly sticky stuff.

"Natalie!"

The wolf girl climbed up to see... Cedric? "What the-... What are you doing here??"

"I came to help!" He grinned with that same cruel smile he held at all times, kicking away crawlers.

"I dunno!" Max shrugged. "I just turned around and he was there!"

Natalie couldn't parse this new development whatsoever... but frankly, the odds were bad enough that she decided to put off thinking about it for the moment. Together, the three of them managed to fight, relocate or capture the vast majority of crawlers. The rest of them decided to flee, seeing that they weren't likely to ink a single one of them. Relieved but exhausted, Nat bent forward, panting with her hands on her knees. "Oh wow, that would've really sucked. Thanks for the hand, Cedric."

"Sure, no problem. Anything to help out." He languidly stepped over and slapped Natalie on the rump.

Nat and Max stood, staring as if they'd seen a horrible phantasm. "Dude... Cedric never says 'you're welcome.'"

Natalie frowned, creasing her brows. "... And he's completely asexual."

He laughed much too jovially and shrugged. "What can I say?" A navy-blue limb struck backward and knocked Max away. "I'm just not feeling myself lately."

Nat gasped as Cedric's body inked over with those familiar yellow eyes, becoming noticeably female from the previous host's imprint. "Gatemaker Parthal! Let Cedric go!"

"Are you kidding? Do you know how fit this kid is??" Parthal ran toward Natalie, who braced for the hit... but it never came. She vanished through a portal before reaching her. Suddenly, Natalie was flattened from behind by a double leg drop, crying out in pain. "He's a huge step up from Professor Jug-hugs and her closet full of sweaters. Everyone on this planet's so lazy!" She deftly backstepped away from a vengeful kick. "Oh, but not you, you're both obsessive freaks! A sixteen year-old with a six-pack... do you know how ridiculous that is?"

"It'll look fine when I beat the snot out of you!" Natalie stood up and gave it a moment of thought. Max's powers were still active. She smiled internally at the deviousness of the tactic. "Pteaugh!" She spat her now super-long tongue at Parthal... but there were problems. Namely, that Parthal had dropped through a portal... and that Max had the same idea. Their tongues met in mid-air, sticking to one another, and Nat tried to fight the urge to reel it in... but there was no instinct for that. They both careened toward each other and shoved their arms out just in time to stop from bashing faces. Unfortunately, instinct kicked in again, and they locked lips for a few very awkward, scrambling moments. Finally, the solvent kicked in, and they pulled away as if avoiding the plague. "Oh that was uncomfortable."

"Blegh, bagels and egg!" Max recoiled. "You gave me stank breath!"

"Nevermind that, where's-" She spotted Cedric kneeling, trembling, holding his head near the center of the roof. Not Parthal, Cedric. "... Parthal?" She cautiously walked up to him.

He turned to face her, twitching and grimacing as if undergoing some Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation. "N-Natalie! Transform into Echelon! Emnas hates Echelon!"

"What??" She blinked, uncomprehending.

"Parthal is their arsenal! Had to contain her... can't fight her forever, too strong!"

"Wait, you're trying to contain Parthal??" Natalie shook her head, disbelief all over her face.

He shook, one hand swathed in midnight blue... the other in magma red. "Can't... I can't... but Emnas can."

Nat thought about it for a moment, and it made sense. Emnas hated Echelon?? She didn't know why, but it did add a layer of logic to the entire situation. If his inkling hated her inkling... perhaps it was something more than chance that they ended up enemies. Maybe... that was just the way it was meant to be. She looked at the blue liquid overtaking Cedric's arm and shoulder. "... Max! Find the others!"

"What??"

"Just do it! I'll be fine!" Seeing her friend back off, she grinned at the badger. "Let's do it again, Cedric. Let's fight, you miserable jerk! ECHELON!"

Cedric grinned in turn. "Yeah... let's do this, you brainwashed idiot. EMNAS!"

They clashed like two opposing ocean waves. Limbs thrown. Punches blocked. Grabs, tackles, throws. They knew each other's every move, anticipating and returning, acting and reacting. It felt good, but not like that horrible schadenfreude at Park Circle. The excitement and satisfaction of trading blows, coupled with inked bodies that could take the punishment- it was like base, wild freedom.

"I get it now!" Cedric exclaimed, throwing a haymaker at the liquid wolf. "My mistake was being nice! It went against everything I stand for! It made me fight myself!"

Natalie blocked his attack and countered with a gut-check that turned into a shove. "And mine was trying to believe you could change, trying to like you!" She panted, almost laughing. "We're not friends! But we don't have to kill each other!"

The badger swept Natalie's legs out from under her and leapt at her while she was down. "You're a clueless, witless glory hound!"

She flipped a leg up and kicked him under the chin, sending him reeling backward while she popped up. "And you're a deluded, self-aggrandizing bully!" she retorted sharply, participating in their usual repartee and understanding the point: aggressive provocation that they had long ago shielded themselves against completely. Barbless blows that drew no blood, but lit the tinder box in their countless previous conflicts.

Cedric's hands and eyes glowed as he wound up elaborately. "AaaaaAAAA!!!"

A massive gout of magma flew at Natalie, but the telegraph both made it easy for her to dodge... and incredibly satisfying for him to throw. "Come on! Bigger! Light up the sky, for all the good it'll do you!"

He grinned deviously. "You asked for it."

 -
- -
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