//------------------------------//
// 9: Fight or Flight 
// Story: Infinity's Edge (Beta) 
// by Caldoric 
//------------------------------//

I hadn't really noticed just how quiet it had gotten, until the silence was broken by the sound of someone approaching. I turned to see the Chief had come over, and though he seemed happy that I'd fixed this particular Exo-Toa, he also seemed displeased with the fact that it had offered to let me pilot it.

Around the room, I could see everyone else was just staring at me, with a range of different reactions. Some shocked, others politely interested, and a few (mostly those that'd been near the damaged Exo when I came over,) were even in the process of taking notes on what I'd been doing. I was glad about that last bit, because I had no clue how I'd done what I'd just done, in terms of "real-world" techniques and such. As I looked on, sheepishly, my HUD returned to its normal green color, and I stopped seeing everything in triplicate.

The Chief grasped my hands firmly and gave me a half smile, as he said something similar to the phrase the Exo had used as it had stood up. After that, he turned his attention to the Exo, and engaged it in a mildly argumentative sounding conversation. They seemed to be having a disagreement over... something. I turned to Kapura, who had come up next to me, and asked him what was going on.

"This Exo-Toa wants you to be its pilot," he replied, simply, "but the Chief insists that it should have one of the hive members as a pilot, to help defend this place, as is tradition. It can't just bond with an outsider and go galavanting off, never to be seen again."

I nodded. "Understandable," I replied, "They can't spare any resources at times like these, facing attacks almost every day."

Suddenly, the Chief threw his hands in the air in apparent defeat, and returned his attention to Kapura and I. {Make him see sense,} he told us, and stormed off.

"As you wish, sir," I called after him, "I'll do my best." I then sighed, turned back to the Exo, and scratched the back of my helmet. "Kapura," I said, "mind translating for me?" He nodded. "Alright then."

Turning to face the Exo, I hooked my thumbs into my pockets. "Ok, Exo-Toa," I began, but the pointed at a particular spot on its armor. Closer inspection revealed a series of Matoran alpha-numerics, translating to a serial number (which wasn't important,) and a unit model number: Z4-4NA. How had I missed that? "Ok, then, Z4, if you want. I must admit, I'd just love to work with you, but... *sigh,* I just can't. I have no means of transporting you out of here. And, besides, you're needed here." Z4 made a sad whirring sound, its whole demeanor changing as it sagged. "I'm sorry, man. Honestly."

Moments later, the chief returned with another figure in tow. They were feminine, and shared some similar features with the chief, like head structure and such. I wasn't sure how I could suddenly differentiate, so I let it go.

{This is my daughter,} he explained. {She will be the one to pilot Z4, as everyone who lives here knows. } The chief glared at Z4, who "harrumphed" it's disagreement.

The younger Vahki spoke up, and Kapura continued translating. {Yes, father is right. It is necessary for me to have use of an Exo unit in case of emergency, though I'd personally prefer not having to resort to such desperate measures. Nonetheless, I've had my eyes on him since he was salvaged a while back. He fought bravely in the battle preceding our arrival, nearly at the cost of his own survival.}

I nodded. "I can totally understand where you're coming from on that. If tradition or whatever demands that you be the one to bond with him, them I'm more than happy to step aside. Heck, even if it were just up to me, I'd still step aside, because I'm merely an outsider to your world, with no real claim to anything inside it."

The Chief's daughter looked confused for a moment, before her father translated what I'd said. She smiled, giving me a first real glimpse of Vahki pearly-whites, before she repeated the phrase that Z4 and her father had spoken before, which I was coming to think equated to "thank you": W̵̷͟h̴͜a̛k̨áw͏͟h̛eta͢͡҉i̵͟ ̡k͢oè. Then, in a surprising move, she gently grasped my shoulders and planted a light peck on either cheek of my mask, which caused her father to raise an eyebrow.

"Wh... whakawhetai koe...?" I tried, politely dipping my head in her direction. She smiled again, chuckling slightly, then began speaking with Z4.

"So," I said, turning to Kapura, "that meant 'thanks,' I take it? How was my pronunciation?"

{Boorish.} The Chief said, before the Ta-Matoran could answer. {Provincial. And you speak it through your nose. But, yes, you were correct in your deduction.}

"Oh. Well..." Said Voriki. "I'll have to keep that in mind as well, Jarei. Sir."

"Wait, Jarei?" I asked, confused. "What?"

{That is my name,} said the chief, {short for "Jarei'nakuros." I explained this on our journey here.}

"Ah. Well, I can see why you shortened it." I said. "And... out of purely platonic curiosity, what's her name?" I hitched a thumb at his daughter.

{Her name is Shelau, friend. But you would do well to make sure your curiosity stays platonic. And, also "out of curiosity," as you say...} Jarei folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. {What were your plans for the aircraft you rode in on, if you say you have no claim to anything of our world?}

I had to think for a moment on that one. "Uh... I was actually kind of considering the idea of giving them to a Museum or something back on the surface world, where this place's former inhabitants now live. In fact, if things are a bit difficult for you guys here, you'd be welcome to join--"

My next words went unheeded as an explosion, the kind that was more felt than heard, took place somewhere outside, and not too far off. Jarei's head snapped up at the sound, before he took off for the still-open doors. I followed as fast as I could.

"Chief, what's going on?" I asked as I approached, but he was already issuing orders to some of the nearby Vahki. As they began closing the giant doors, I caught a glimpse of what looked to be a large fire from a few streets over. "Uh, Chief?!"

He began making shooing gestures in my direction as he continued speaking, but I only caught on word out of the otherwise unintelligible language. It was enough to send shivers down my spine, and put me on red alert.

"Did you just say Lohrak?" I asked, highly nervous. Jarei nodded quickly, his face a mask of fear and concern, then continued speaking and gesturing towards the back of the room. "Alright, alright, I'm gone, man!"

So, without further ado, I booked it to the back of the room, past my companions, and attempted to get through the door to the rest of the hive. Unfortunately, I was stopped by one of the Vahki standing nearby. Judging by his tone of voice, he was asking me either what I was doing, or what the commotion was about.

"Lohrak!" I exclaimed. "Jarei said something about Lohrak, and sent me over here...!" His eyes widened, and he called out to the Chief, though he didn't look away from me as he did.

"J̕a̶re͢i̛͘,̵̡͜ ͠he͠ ̀á͠ha͘ ̡̡t̀͞e t͏͘en̛͢ei̢ ̢͟r̢̧͞o̴̢͞n̷͜g̕͟o͏ a̷̛̛ha҉̶u̵ ̴̨͢e̵ ̢́p͏̕ā͠ ҉̸a̧̛͟ņ̕a ͘k̷͞i͏҉҉ ̸̧͢L̴ơh́̕ra̢ḱ̕?̨" Were his words, which caused a stir amongst those present.

"Ų͟ t́é͢ ͡͠t҉a̸͠͡h̴͘í͏̡ ̶́m̕͟e̵͠a ̨̀̕i̷͟ ͏r̷̨͝ù̵ǹ͏̕g͘͠͡a͟ ̵͟i̸̸̢ t̡̀͢om͢͏ok̛a̸̡n͡͞g͏͜a̸ ҉̶̕ḿ̵ą̧t҉ua͏ ͝o͢ ͠t͠҉e̷ ̢̧o̢h͝ąn̴̴ǵ̛a̡!̴" Came Jarei's reply, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Ka̴̡͜ ̶̸kia͡ ̷̸hae͞r͝e͏̛ ͏m̵a̡͏͢i̡ r͠at̕ò̶́ư ͘í̡ ̸͠r͜ò̡͜t͟o͠ ́͝i ̛̕t͡e͘͡ ̷a̴̸r̵a̢͝͏ ho͜k̴̕i͞ ͘t̴̶͡e҉t͘a҉̀̕h̵͜i͘͡ ḿe̵͞ne͏͡ti̷͢͟ ì͜ ̕͝ţ͠e͏̸͟ie҉̵ ̵n͘͏̸ȩ̸i͏̸, n̨a̡ ̡t̸̀͞e ̧̀t͜í̵ḱi̷͢͡ t̡́è̀͝ ̧̀͟k̨a͟͜͠t͟͟o̡̢͢a̢͘ ͟ki͟ ̨t͟e̴̶͘ ̶̀h̵̵̀á̢ù̴m҉̛ar̀u̧!"

That said, (whatever it was,) the guard hurriedly opened the door and ushered both myself and my companions, who had mostly come over to see what the ruckus was about, through to the other side. We were followed by the most of the Vahki.

On the other side of the door, there was a space about as big as your average department store, and thrice as tall, which was being used as a community living space. There was a swiftly increasing level of activity from the assortment of semi-robotic inhabitants. Obviously, they'd already got the message, and were preparing in whatever way they normally did for something like this. I took off in a random direction across the room.

"Uh," Sans said, rather confused, as we ran,"I got one question, kid. What's a Lohrak?"

"Slimy green flying lizards with big, nasty teeth!" I explained quickly, dodging through a small crowd of Vahki, the new tail making things a bit difficult. "They're small, fast, and like to swarm their targets! Do not engage except as a -- sorry ma'am! -- as a last resort!"

"But where are we going?" Voriki demanded. "What's the plan?"

"Find the ships and take off, then go from there."

"You mean we're gonna... wing it?" Sans asked, as I sent a door crashing open with a flying kick.

"Not the time for jokes!" I declared, taking in the contents of the new room. "But we're apparently in the right place!"

For, indeed, we were in another antechamber, similar to the one we had entered from, except that this one had multiple types of ancient, dilapidated Vahki transports. Our ships were also there, being secured by some of the locals.

I surged forward, intent on getting to the Quantax, doing my best to dodge around Vahki that tried to stop me. To my surprise, however, I saw Kapura open the cockpit from the other side of the ship, climb in, and give a yank on something under the seat. In response, a decent sized panel on the back opened up, like the cargo bay doors on a C-17 airplane.

As I continued to dodge around the locals, who weren't trying to stop me nearly as much now, I saw that beyond the new opening, there was a massive cargo hold that, according to physics, shouldn't have existed. And I do mean massive, especially in proportion to it's comparatively small door. There was a commotion behind us, and we turned to see Jarei's daughter entering the room, flanked by what I could only assume were guards, as well as Z4 himself, though he didn't look too happy. Outside the main building, off in the distance, I could hear shouts, explosions, and the sound of lazer rifles going off.

Jarei's daughter began yelling at us and gesticulating wildly, and with Kapura preoccupied with whatever he was doing, I had to improvise. So, hitching a thumb at the Quantax and hoping she'd get the gist of what I meant, I did my best to assuage her concerns.

"If you could get everyone into that wierd, impossibly large cargo hold thing, we might be able to get them all out alive!" I added a few gestures of my own to try and get the point across. I needn't have worried, though, because Kapura was suddenly there to translate. Man, I'm still not used to him randomly appearing out of nowhere...

Jarei's daughter, whose name I now realised I had forgotten, looked at the Quantax's secret compartment, apparently came to a decision she wasn't entirely happy about, then began giving orders to those around her. She then turned to us, pointed in the general direction of the ships, and barked something at us before she turned and left in a hurry.

"She said 'get those machines online'," Kapura translated.

"Got it," I answered, making my way to my ship, "what's her name, by the way? I didn't catch it."

"It's Shelau, but she's out of your league!" Sans commented with a smile, as he hopped into the Axalera once more.

"I know, and that's not why I was asking!" I snapped, sliding into the Quantax. "I was getting tired of thinking of her as just 'Jarei's daughter,' alright?"

"Uh, what's 'out of your league' mean?" Voriki chimed in, starting up the Rockoh. "Is it that she's better at combat than you?"

"She may well be, but that's not what it means," I answered, looking over at the crowd of Vahki swarming towards the back of my aircraft. "It's... It's complicated, and it would take longer than we have to explain it."

Before I could say anything else, another commotion broke out by the room's doorway. Looking over, it became apparent that Jarei and Shelau were having an argument over her decision to evacuate everyone. I sighed, and put my masked face in my clawed hands as the sheer absurdity of the situation finally got to me. It was too much. I zoned out a bit, letting my thoughts wander along the familiar corridors of my memories, wondering where it all went wrong, and idly began fiddling with my tailfins...

~~~~
"But father, we have to evacuate...!"

"No, Shel, we don't!" Jarei countered, disappointment etched into his mechanical face. "I thought you were more mature than this, old enough to know better than to go galavanting off at the slightest hint of danger! Maybe 2,500 years was too soon to start your Trials..."

Shelau's jaw dropped, the Kanoka-shaping "mandibles" on either side of her face going slack in shock. "Wh-- father, this isn't like anything we've faced before! Yes, we've taken on bands of Lohrak before, among other things, but not a whole enraged nest at once! Especially not in conjunction with a downed airship nearby that's playing host to a firefight!"

"We are the Vahki, the ancient protectors of this noble city!" Jarei declared, standing up to his full height. "We maintain the peace! We do not back down from a threat, we hold our ground! And if things get difficult, we call reenforcements. That is how we have always operated, and we will not diverge from tradition on the whim of a stranger!"

"You and your traditions!" Shelau exclaimed. "They have blinded you to the truth! This is not a city anymore, it is a graveyard. We are one of the last three hives on this half of the island, and the nearest of the others is half an hour's flight away! The time has come for us to move to fuller capacitors again, father: we stand a 57% chance of survival with these strangers, as opposed to 34% if we stay. Continuing to cling to the old ways will see us scrapped like our neighbors, the Frostgear hive, before we recovered Za'ana. Or the Brightdisk hive before them, when we lost my moth--"

"Enough! You will mind your mouth, young sprocket, when you speak of the old ways. It is in our life-code and gearing to defend this place against threats, both foreign and domestic, and it was decreed by the Makers. Yes, the sacrifices of the fallen hives, and of your mother, were... unfortunate, but--"

"Unfortunate?!?" Shelau cried. "The death of my mother -- your wife, I might add, -- was more than that! It was tragic! Oh, rust it, I hate you! I wish that Knowledge Tower had fallen on you, not on her! She would have understood this! Augh, to the Reclamation Yards with you! I never want to see you again!" And with that, she dashed off towards the strangers and their ships, one of which was still taking on an impossible amount of cargo and passengers for its size.

"Shelau!" Jarei called after her. "Shelau Silvercrest, you come back now, or--!"

"I hope you short-circuit, you cross-wired monster!" She threw back at him, not looking back. Mercurial tears ran down the side of her facial carapace as she sought solace as far as possible from the being she had formerly seen as her father until now.

Jarei, for his part, was taken aback. He had been shocked by her words, despite only wanting to do what was best for her, whilst still fulfilling his duty to the hive. And yet, he had only seemed to drive a wedge between the two of them. He passed a hand along the top of his long head, worrying at a few of the scars and scorches from old battles. Could she be right? Was it, as she had said, time to search for fuller capacitors? He didn't know, and wasn't sure what to do. With a sigh, he made his decision.

He, and most members of their rag-tag hive, were getting old, and replacement parts were scarce, even with the help of the few other inhabitants of the city that they had come in contact with. And yet, half of the strangers seemed to have newer, less damaged parts, and one even seemed to possess knowledge of how to repair the ancient armored golems. His hive, his family... they were up against a wall now, with no other options in sight. Perhaps...

Yes, perhaps it was time to move on. To throw their fates in with these newcomers...

~~~~
I was startled out of my reverie when a wailing figure suddenly glomped onto my shoulder, nearly knocking me out of my seat. It turned out to be Shelau, who was sobbing wildly. I froze for a moment, before I dared to speak up.

"Uh... Hey, Shelau... What's wrong?" She muttered something unintelligible into my shoulder in response, so I awkwardly tried to comfort her. "Um... Alright. I'm sure everything is gonna be fine. We'll have everyone safe and sound soon... I hope." I then called out to Kapura for a translation.

He showed up a second later, and the two of them began a brief conversation before he turned his attention back to me. "Shel says she's had a falling out with her father. He doesn't want to leave, and--"

Jarei's voice cut through the clamour of the hive, barking a short order to everyone present. His voice seemed to crack a little at one point, as if giving the order caused him great despair. Abruptly, all activity halted, and then every Vahki and Exo-Toa in the hive began furiously gathering various supplies and making their way in our direction. Shelau muttered something darkly between sobs, which drew Kapura's surprised attention.

"What was that about?" I asked, allowing more concern to seep into my voice.

"Besides the scathing remarks about his... well, everything, really... He's had a change of mind. Everyone's coming with."

Shelau grumbled a bit more, and I leaned my head against hers. After a few more seconds, she pulled herself out of my awkward half-hug, and began assisting the rest of the hive with putting everything they could in the cargo hatch. I was still nervous, however, seeing as the gunfighting outside was still in full swing, and I could now hear multiple somethings scrabbling against the outer walls... pretty big somethings, too.

Even as I was musing on the inevitable inadvisability of staying put, a large, reptilian head with a split lower jaw smashed through one of the walls. And, by large, I meant "big enough to eat a Matoran in a chomp and a half." Without even thinking, I summoned one of the assault rifles I'd nicked earlier, and opened fire on it from the open cockpit amidst choruses of screams from the Vahki. The beast retreated after the first couple of busts, only for other heads and appendages to begin smashing through the walls, one by one.

"Everyone who doesn't wanna die, get in the ship NOW!" I shouted, then returned to shooting whatever dared poke their ugly mug through the holes, with Sans and Kapura joining in with their own weapons, and Voriki just chucking energy balls from his staff.

"Are those Lohrak?" The latter asked, as Vahki streamed past us.

"Yeah, big damn ugly ones!" I replied, as another of the giant Rahi poked a face into the building, and then spat a glob of saliva randomly into the hangar. It hit a Vahki transport, which began to dissolve in seconds. "And they apparently spit acid now! Watch yourselves!"

Soon, everyone was in the back of the Quantax, and Kapura pulled another lever on the console, which closed the back hatch. "Mount up!" I cried. Seconds later, all four ships were in the air, and we quickly found the weapons controls. With the simple push of a button, spheres of pure light flew forth, blowing an even bigger hole in the outer wall that we could fly through.

Without giving myself a chance to think about the stupidity of what I was about to do, I lanced the Quantax forward through the hole, then directed it up at the steepest angle I could. This afforded me a brief overview of the surrounding area, and an attack of opportunity on the Lohrak that were on my tail. Allowing the ship to turn of its own natural momentum, I gunned the throttle and mashed the trigger when I finally pointed straight down at my quarry. The enemy's gate is downwards! I mentally reminded myself, using the old mantra to take my mind off the thought of how many creatures I was sending to Death's door...

"Caldoric, where are ya?" Sans asked over the radio.

"I am a leaf on the wind! Watch how I soar!" I replied, leveling out above rooftop level.

"Hey, uh, while we're out here, how 'bout we help out that downed airship we saw earlier?" Voriki asked.

"Yeah, we should probably do that," Sans agreed.

"Alright!" I cheered, and made a pass around the now-abandoned hive before turning in the general direction of the fallen lighter-than-air-craft. As it turned out, however, there were two airships in relatively close proximity, with the occupants of one having engaged a group of beings on a nearby rooftop in a firefight. It was hard to get an exact count of which species comprised the second group, due to the low ambient light level, but the ones from the ship were comprised of partially bioluminescent Skakdi, whose spines appeared to be the source of the natural illumination.

Making a snap decision, mostly because I didn't really like the permanently-smiling bastards (and who ever would, to be honest,) I mashed the triggers for the onboard weapons, and Kapura followed in my wake, and I let out a cry of "LEEEROOOY JENKINS!" over the loudspeakers during my approach. Once again, orbs of solid light parted company with the Quantax's and Jetrax's weapons, impacting with the street in a line that culminated at the downed ship, tearing deep into its armor and effectively shearing off one of the turbines.

"YEEEEEE-HAAAW!" I exclaimed, as we pulled up and away from the crippled vehicle, quickly getting out of range of their technically inferior weapons. As I looked back down, I caught a glimpse of a red-and-gold armored figure poking his head out of the other airship, holding a fireball and a big-ass sword at the ready.

Unexpectedly, Shelau's head was abruptly next to my ear, and seemed to be asking me something in a disapproving tone, though Kapura thankfully picked it up over our comms.

"She's asking why the hell you did that." He said, simply. So I had him tell her I was merely taking out the trash, which confused her enough that she pulled her head back through the window to the "hangarspace." Yes, there was a window just behind my seat, and no, I hadn't noticed until then. My situational awareness sucks: deal with it.

"So, what's the plan?" I heard Voriki ask. "Where do we go now?"

"We get outta here, and head home-- I mean, back to my base. Maybe I can find someone to reverse this transformation..." I said, wiggling in my seat to find a more comfortable position for my new tail, and forced the Quantax to climb higher.

"Wait, where're ya goin'?" Sans demanded, though he still followed.

"I'm taking a shortcut, I think." I explained. "I'm pretty sure that those twin Suns are actually the eyes of the giant robot we're in. Imma shoot 'em out, and leave this damned place behind."

There were exclamations of fear and reluctance, as well as a few curses from Sans, before I spoke again. "Yeah, I know, it's stupid, but I'm tired, and I want outta here just as much as you. But I'm not taking the long way back, and I'm not gonna try the massive hole in the back of this thing's head, because it's sandwiched against the ground, and will likely dead-end faster than we can turn these ships around." There was silence for a moment, before Sans spoke up again.

"This ain't exactly the wisest course 'a action, y'know," he quipped, "and I'm not even sure I follow your logic on the Suns being 'eyes,' either."

"When Wisdom and Valor fail us, all that remains is Faith, and Faith can overcome all." I quoted. "Now, will you help me do this so we can get outta here, or are we just gonna screw around?" There were some grumbled complaints, but I wasn't fazed. "Alright, let's blow this popsicle stand," I said, and went into a full-on vertical course, aiming straight for one of the Suns. With the four of us reluctantly working together,  the combined might of our ships' weapons and Sans' Gaster Blasters were more than a match for the "Sun," which exploded magnificently.

Unfortunately, it then turned into a deluge of (mostly) some form of glass, and a respectable amount of sand (which nearly took out our engines.) The now-cleared opening sent a brilliant shaft of late-afternoon sunlight spearing into the darkness at an oblique angle, lighting the area below a bit better... though not by much.

Seconds later, our four ancient ships had carried us all through the remains of our recent work, and treated we four pilots to the remainder of what may have been a glorious sunset as we lazily hung above the robot's left eye socket. I yawned and absentmindedly tried to rub my face under the mask, only for my hand to meet the rebreather's clear visor once more. Seconds later, said protection retracted, and cool, fresh air played across my face.

Judging by the chatter over the radio, the others had just experienced the same thing, with Voriki beginning to freak out. So, I did my best to calm him down, explaining as best I could. Or, I was going to, but an unfamiliar voice suddenly cut across our airwaves.

"Unidentified vessels at vector 257, you have just entered a controlled airspace from a highly quarantined area." The voice said. "Identify yourselves and your allegiance at once. Do not move from your current positions, or you will be destroyed."

Of course, being the glorious idiot that I was, (and still am at times,) as well as being nervous and sleep deprived, I decided to try and "defuse" the situation.

"Ah... Was? Was hast du gesagt?" I asked in German. "Es tut Mir leid, weil wir kein Englishe sprechen. Auf wiedersehen!" I'd probably butchered my impromptu "no speak English" excuse, but hey, I thought it'd work. So, imagine my surprise when it didn't.

Not three seconds after I finished speaking, whoever was on the other end of the line began speaking in rapid-fire, angry sounding German. And, trust me, though the language's harsh syllables make it sound generically angry to someone unfamiliar with it, one eventually learns to pick up on when the speaker really is angry, and not just being confidently fluent.

"Aw, crapbaskets. Everyone, floor it!" I commanded, already putting the hammer down on my own accelerator. And, just like bats out of hell, we fled the scene, our flight punctuated by lasers, bullets, magic blasts, and even a large, crackling ball of plasma being forcibly directed our way by the silvery imperial ship far below. Soon, we were out of their range, and flying smoothly.

"So, guys," Voriki eventually began, something on his mind, "friends of yours?"

"Not exactly..." I replied, with yet another yawn. Man, I was tired. "I'm sorta trying to avoid revealing my presence to the general public, not being too fond of this particular world."

"Why?" Sans asked. "This place seems pretty cool, from what I can tell. Maybe you should just pony up and--"

"Don't you fucking start with the horse puns!" I snapped, cutting across him. "There's already an inordinate amount of them embedded in the names of towns and cities, as well as their day-to-day speech, and I'm sick of it. It's a really sore subject for me."

There was silence for a moment, before Sans spoke up again. "Jeez, man, lighten up...!" He said. "D'you wanna have a bad time?"

"Sorry," I replied awkwardly, and hung my head. "I'm not really thinking straight. I've been awake too long. Probably shouldn't even be flying right now..."

"Probably." Voriki agreed. "I must admit, though, the sky is so... big."

"This is true." Said Kapura.

We flew on in silence for a good while. Something was nagging at me, however, so I eventually spoke up.

"Sans..."

"What."

I could tell from his tone that he wasn't exactly happy with me, but I pressed on.

"It only took us a few hours to get here on those Gaster Blasters, but... We're on what's basically the Southern continent of this hemisphere, and we started on the Northern continent... That should've taken us most of a day."

"So?"

"So... You were using those 'shortcuts' of yours when I wasn't paying attention, weren't you?"

"Maybe. What of it?"

I paused a moment. "Could you, perhaps, show us another one? I'm sure we all could appreciate getting back faster, so we could maybe get some rest?"

No response was forthcoming from the skeleton prankster for several seconds, long enough that I tried to look behind myself and see if he was still with us.

"...I'll think about it," he said at last.

"Thanks."

Once again, we flew on in silence, though it wasn't so companionable this time. At last, the air before us rippled, and I could feel a faint yet distinct pulling sensation behind my navel as I looked at it. Seconds later, as we passed through the warping air, the scenery changed. One second, we were flying over desert sand, and the next we were soaring over a verdant countryside, with the lights of a small town clearly visible as the sun finally set beyond the horizon.

As we flew over it, mere blurs in the night sky, I recognized the place to be the infamous Ponyville, which I wasn't in too much of a hurry to return to. Which meant that the forest just beyond it, which we were fast approaching, was the Everfree Forest.

I smiled wearily, grateful for a somewhat familiar sight. I'd never expected to find any part of Equestria to be a welcome relief, yet here I was.

"Oh, thank you so much, Sans. I'm totally making some beds tonight, and yours is gonna be the biggest." I said, as we came to the clearing. Even as early in the evening as it was, I could already see a dense layer of fog on the ground around the little wooden hut that marked the entrance to my underground base. Man, it felt like months since I'd last seen it. And yet, why was my safe haven suddenly sending chills up my back as we descended into the ancient woods?

"Welcome to my base." I said, as we approached the upper canopy. "This is just the entrance, most of it's below ground."

"Why am I getting a bad vibe from this place?" Voriki asked.

"Dunno, maybe it's the trees." I replied, shifting a little in my seat. I had this annoying cramped feeling in my back, and this sudden, unexplained sensation of phantom arms, somehow trapped... "I hear there's ancient magic in these woods that's been left to run rampant over the last millennia, though I'm not sure how true that is. Anywho, mi casa, su casa, boys. Welcome home."