We needed the machines, the ones the vanished civilizations had used to pry reality open and leave their home worlds, their home Slices.

Mandy brought the first one. It arrived inside a black, spiky iceberg, steaming in from the horizon at high speed. That iceberg left a wake, and began tearing pieces of itself off when it reached the shallows.

It burst into shards, and Mandy's voice announced: "The World Ripper, from the Order of the Atom." The thing itself was a floating black sphere the size of a basketball. I couldn't move it with my Human hands, just my Monster ones. I herded it into the dome, where it did nothing, just emitted an ominous hum.

Cassie had changed shape, coming in across the Shallow Sea as a kind of multilegged beast of burden, squishy and huge, with a mass of tentacles and, oddly, an egg-shaped body with a tiny Cassie head on the top. "I'm the Dunwich Horror," She shouted, clarifying nothing at all.

She'd stolen a thing called the City Mover. It was big and heavy, a hissing, steaming thing that rattled and whirled, made of iron and brass and gold. It made a lot of racket, clanging and yowling like a living thing, which it may have actually been.

Art Deco and his gang of five Makers appeared on the beach. They were hauling something, a wheeled cart made of thin iron beams. It was underwater at the moment. Art was in the lead, and, as he was wont to do, made a ceremony of it.

"Proclamation from the Queen: this noble enterprise proceeds forth adorned with the Jewel of Her Most Abhorrent and Exquisite Blessing. Her Favor falls upon it like acid upon vulnerable flesh. Let all who would dare raise voice or hand in opposition know that their suffering shall be both excruciatingly prolonged and aesthetically pleasing to Her discerning eye. Their agonies shall be as sweet nectar to our collective thirst for justice."

They'd brought a sort of throbbing mechanical heart made of iron. We decided to call it the Queen's Mean Machine. Because what else would you call it?

But it wasn't enough. Not for Operation Other Thing, not yet.

"It's nice to have the support of the neighborhood Maker Queen," Mandy said. "I never thought she'd do anything useful. She's a total bitch."

"Uh huh," I said. I couldn't look at Mandy. My face was hot. She'd just gotten dressed but it wasn't…doing the job.

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"What's wrong with you, Owen." She was brusque, busy. "What's next, also?"

"Nothing. All good." I faced away. "I think we need a power source for these. Anything you know of?"

"A power source. And we only need to do this one time. So it can burn these things out, right?"

I nodded, facing away.

"What's wrong with you? Oh. Okay, fixed the dress." She snorted and lightly punched my back. "Pervert."

"Dammit I wasn't looking. The next thing, I suspect, is the gloating phone call. The discussion of terms."

"We haven't had that yet," Cassie said, coming in with her Human form and her Director Cosplay. She inspected the various four-dimensional devices in the dome. "It makes me wonder why. Fix your dress before you kill this poor guy, Mandy."

"I did!"

"Get out of here, I gotta talk to Owen and you're a distraction."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She left, chuckling evilly.

Cassie watched her go with a smirk. She faced me, took in my fluster. "You're really good for her, you know that?"

"What? Me, good for her? I'd thought…well, I guess–"

"I'm saying that you kept her from killing Taylor and his friends, you of all people. If she'd done it, she'd never have forgiven herself."

"She'd killed him before. Under Harrigan."

"And he was back the next day. The stakes are different now. She's got a lot of capacity for violence, and I think she watches you and decides not to use it."

"Cassie…" I was struggling for words. "What do I do next with her?"

She smiled, and I was struck with how beautiful she was. She wasn't Mandy, but she radiated kindness and strength. "She likes teasing you right now. I think it's a new thing for her. So wait for the signal."

"What signal is that?"

"When she peels you like a Babybel cheese and makes a little animal out of the wax."

I flapped my arms in confusion.

She used her Thing From Another World narration voice, dramatic and deep: "Owen Walsh may yet learn the mysteries of the Human boob."

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