The next day I met the guys in the Stealthed construction yard. We were harvesting lumber like crazy, melting metal into new shapes, combining it with Magic and Runes to give it structure and durability.

The Gardeners had given us the yard. We were depleting it rapidly, but it would be enough. It even had a little break area on a lawn, where we met and had pointless discussions. Our group mind was becoming very strong indeed, but you sometimes need a table. Also we had a supply of alien donuts we found in a fridge. They were pretty good, or they were bad and we just couldn't tell.

"Up late, Mateo?" Mabruk asked. "Talk to anyone special? Anyone…Human and female and into you?"

I brought out my phone.

Lir started shouting. "What's that on his face? WAIT! Could it be a SMILE?"

"On THIS guy?" Ruhk demanded.

I showed all of them the image Adaobi had signed off with the night before. Her face, her natural skin tone, the silk bonnet and pajamas. And she was making an elaborate kissy-pucker-face, eyes closed.

"OH MY GOD!" Mabruk yelled.

Amalthea rolled noisily over, curling her legs up and twitching. "I died," she explained.

Ruhk and his entire construction crew started running around the clearing excitedly, silent and fast but somehow still joyous. They bounced off me, nearly knocking me down.

Lir ran up and down my back, finished by hopping up and down atop my head. "I knew you could to it!" he shouted. "I didn't know if she could, though, you sourpuss. What a relief."

Mabruk waved his arms. "Hold on hold on. I need to know…did Mateo actually pull the leader of Caravan?"

"I thought Piscator was the leader," Ruhk said. "That Human asshole with the poison."

"Apparently he's been kicked out or downsized or whatever," Lir said. "Nobody liked him and he's moping on his Winnie. Adaobi has been in charge for a day and a half."

"So yes, Mabruk." Lir had stopped hopping. "Mateo got a long-distance good night kiss from the boss of a city. Or nation, whatever Caravan is."

"Clearly a nation," I said. "So she's more like the prime minister, super important, maybe the most important person in the world."

"Oh listen to this guy!" Ruhk yelled.

They jeered, threw alien donuts at me. I was still smiling.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Still wasn't a boob pic, though…"

"Lir, if a Prime Minister sent me a boob pic, you think I'd be dumb enough to tell you?"

"That's…oh man, how do I interpret this…because you're not denying it, I see that pretty clearly…" His ears drooped. "I don't need to see it, I just want to know if you got one!"

We started getting Molly ready: she was already bigger than the previous day. I had to adjust the Runes to keep her stable. I spent a lot of time on it, and it was exhausting, but it worked and she was good to go. For another week, maybe, then it would be time for another alignment. She just kept growing.

She wasn't in the Stalk, but Stealth was all over her. We were in a bare patch of jungle in the Canadian tropical wilderness. I don't know where, exactly, and I didn't want to know; I could see the beach over there, from atop Molly's back. I could smell the ocean. There were waves.

But we had a deadline.

And we were adding things. It turns out we were able to get past the no-explosive rules, and we did it with the aid of our stolen Covenant goodies. Thank you, Todd and Michelle.

Mabruk: "There's a lot of practical thinking in pop culture. In Star Trek, the ships all had energy shields that could take a beating before the ship took any damage. Their weapons sucked on that show, but I say shields are a good idea."

Amalthea: "Anime, I say anime! Cannons, Twisty Missiles, Lasers, where can I get a laser, you guys got a laser?"

Lir: "There's an issue that our dear friends the German Nazis ran into: their stuff tended to be unworkably huge, and made gigantic, juicy targets. That's us. Remember Mr. Parson's history class? That guy was an ass, wouldn't even consider My Tank is Fight as a valid history book. Anyway Stealth and Stalk are possible solutions but we'll need more."

Molly: ROOTS

Me: "What do you mean by that, sweetie?"

Molly: CATCH!

Me: "All right, do you need help with that?"

Molly: MABRUK

Mabruk: "Roger that, I think I know what she has in mind. She wants to add rigor to the xylem and phloem systems. Not only can this be done, I think it pretty much has to be. She's getting HUGE."

Rukh: "Rebound, can you do runes that lessen inertia and acceleration/deceleration intensity? And lessen inertia, however that would work? Assuming that's not the same thing."

Me: "After all the abuse we took during the first run? I've got it set to go, have you got something with cabin pressure we can all cower in?"

Lir: "I have a route set. I don't know how all-terrain Molly is, but I have a … not a flight path. A stampede path."

Amalthea: "Combat drones! With lasers! Guys, I ask for so little, can I please have lasers?"

I have to tell you: it was a lot of fun. Periodically I'd take out my phone and look at my image of Kissy Adaobi. Lir would run over, fast, to see if I had any other images from her, but I put my phone away and savored his noises of frustration.

Amalthea tugged at the hem of my Hawaiian shirt. "Gotta talk to you. Away from the lunatics so we don't ruin their good mood. And you need to be ready, because you're gonna get mad."

Amalthea was correct.

Eventually I called Lux. This was her kind of thing.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.