Chapter 47: The One Who Got Away
Blanche frowned as she stared off in the direction of the compound. Crystal and Tempest were doing some light sparring. Arturo was sharpening his knife. The pegasus had been distracted by birds and was a short distance away, observing a flock. It was approaching noon, and Josie had not yet returned to camp, which was troubling. They had distress signals to use if anything happened while scouting, and giving that signal was a top priority if discovered or injured, but there had been no such signal yet.
“Worry over night pony?” Arturo asked in Russian
“Yes,” she answered in English. “It is troubling that she's been gone so long. I hope nothing has happened.”
”Would blow mission,” Arturo agreed with a nod as he continued to take his whetstone to his knife.
She nodded. “It would, but it isn't only that. I have very few friends. No offense to you, Tempest, and Crystal, but you are all more work acquaintances.”
”No offense taken,” Arturo replied. “Barely know you.”
She nodded again. “But Josie and I have worked together for a while now. We're the only ones we typically can vent about our Warden's orders and share a drink as we try to recover from missions.”
”Puffball is insane,” Arturo agreed.
Blanche chuckled. “When I agreed to be her bodyguard, I expected it would be a low-effort job. You look at her, and you expect her to be lazy and have a hooves-off approach to everything. Boy, was I wrong on that one. I think she's probably one of the most active of the Dreamwardens. Missions aren't usually too bad unless someone has pissed her off, and that is rare and takes a lot to happen, but I would never have believed back then how vicious and brutal she gets when she finally gets pushed to that limit.”
“Never make Dreamwardens mad is good policy. Also, never make nice people lose their shit because there will be blood,” Arturo said in English.
“Very true,” she agreed. She then shaded her eyes to look out into the distance. “Come on, Josie. Where are you?”
“I have great news!” Zipper announced as he flew towards them. Tempest and Crystal paused their sparing match to watch.
“Keep your voice down, and stay out of the air!” Blanche scolded him. “What's your great news?” She wasn't the one in charge, but Tempest had decided she would be the one to receive all the reports while the ex-pony listened.
“Pigeons!” Zipper said happily as he landed, spreading his wings with excitement.
“Pigeons,” Blanche repeated. “Why are you excited about flying rats?”
Zipper gave her a dirty look. “Pigeons get a bad, unearned reputation. They are very clean and very smart. They've gotten even smarter in recent years. In fact, they are smart enough to count and sort by number! I hadn't expected to see a pigeon flock here, but they have been spreading since the pandemic. They are ancestrally desert birds—which, I'll have you know, is why they don't know how to make a proper nest; they didn't evolve in a region that had materials to do so, not because they are dumb. If I can make friends with the flock, I might be able to get you better information about that base, like how many guards are where and how many people they see inside the walls.”
Tempest walked over. “That's good, but our immediate concern is now Josie. I have delayed it, but we should start looking for her. It has been too long. Can you convince the birds to be on the lookout for a night pony? Is that something they can do?”
Zipper bit his lip briefly. “It will take me a little while to make friends with the flock, and I'll need a picture of Josie. They are smart enough to identify certain ponies based on pictures, but I need at least a picture. I can't just describe a pony to them; it doesn't work like that.”
“No need. I'm here.”
They all turned to see Josie standing right behind them. It was bright and sunny, with hardly any cover in the area. Josie was an excellent shadowmelder, the best shadowmelder, but that still required shadows. How had she managed to sneak up on them?
She was also panting heavily.
“What happened?!” Blanche asked as she rushed over to her friend to check for injuries.
Josie allowed herself to be patted down. “I'm okay; I just pushed my magic hard to stay out of sight. I will need at least a day and a half of rest.”
“Are you saying you were able to shadowmeld in the open?” Crystal asked in disbelief. “That's not possible.”
Josie flopped down on the ground. “It is risky, but it is possible if I move very slowly and pour a ton of magic into it. I move too fast, and I'll get spotted. I don't think anyone but me can do it.”
Blanche sat down and touched Josie's face. “Why would you need to do something like that? How close to the base did you get?”
“Too close,” Josie replied. “But I have information. He's there—that damn crazy mad scientist, Rossman, Lair too.”
“Are you sure?” Tempest asked.
Josie glared at their leader. “I searched high and low for the bastard after he fled that Shimmerist group that breached Wabash years ago. There were others involved, but Rossman was the biggest name. The rest of them were nobodies I didn't care about….aside from Fain, but Fain isn't someone like me can win a fight with. She could kill me with a touch.” Her mouth pulled into a snarl. “They foalnapped a kid too young even to talk. I wanted justice. I never found him or Lair. I hated they got away.”
“Well, you certainly serve the right Dreamwarden,” Crystal muttered. “You got the one who goes nuts when kids are threatened, not that I think that's necessarily a bad thing.”
“Nothing crazy about defending kids,” Josie muttered.
Crystal gave her a stern look. “I've heard the stories of what she has the two of you do to those who get her mad. You could just make it quick and kill them, or you could just shake them down if you want to be humane about it, but you brutalize them, break them, and she always finds a way to watch. I've never seen a flip in personality from fun and carefree to the devil itself as dramatic as hers when the rage comes, and I deal with night ponies all the time—real Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde going on there. I'm not saying those guys don't deserve it, and worse, but she still sounds crazy as hell to me.”
Josie glared. “They never do it again, and they suffer for what they did. Hurting kids is unforgivable.”
“This discussion brings us nowhere,” Tempest said firmly. “What does Rossman and Lair's presence mean for the mission?”
Josie turned her dirty look to Tempest. “What do mad scientists do? They experiment. In this case, they are experimenting on people. That's the only reason they could be here. I wondered what rock they ran and hid under; now I know. I'm glad those parents got their kid out of here, even if they died in the process. I couldn't bear it if he were experimenting on a child. This place needs to be shut down. I'm not retreating from here.”
Blanche considered. “It does mean there could be some unorthodox defense here we are unaware of. Magic scientists are just mages by another name, and those two are mages with questionable morals and plenty of research. We'd be fools if we thought they hadn't come with some additional defense. It also means there is at least one crystal pony at the facility. That could be an issue. Rebecca has promised us reinforcements. We must huddle down, learn all we can, and await backup.”
Tempest nodded. “Agreed. Zipper, start making friends with those birds. Josie may not be doing much scouting for a while. If there is a crystal pony in the base, we may need to keep her back from it even after she recovers. Her magic level could tip them off that they are being scouted. We also need to move to a more secure location away from the base if we will be here for a while. Sooner or later, they are going to notice us out here if they haven't already, which by itself might not cause trouble. Our cover story is we are helping Zipper with wildlife observations for a study if confronted by anyone—we want to avoid conflict if we can until our attack. Still, I'd like to move us further away so they have less reason to be anxious about strangers in the area.”
“So, should I be making notes about the wildlife to make this seem legitimate?” Zipper asked.
Tempest nodded. “Yes, do that. Give us a brief report on the wildlife each night so the rest of us don't come off as completely ignorant if we run into anyone asking questions about why we are here. Also, if Rossman and Lair are indeed here, I believe I may know who the Marshmallow intends to send as one of our reinforcements, Bursa.”
“She wouldn't,” Crystal said with a shake of her head. “That dumb bug? We need to take Rossman alive. I highly doubt Bursa will be agreeable to the alive part of that.”
“She is notoriously hard to keep under control,” Blanche agreed.
“The timing of this mission, the revelation that Rossman is here, and the timing of Bursa's visit to Earth all coinciding together reek of Dreamwarden meddling. I am fairly confident she will be one of the reinforcements,” Tempest asserted. “I don't know how the Marshmallow managed it, but I'm willing to put a hefty bet on it. We'll have to be firm with the changeling queen about our goals and that if Rossman dies, we lose all the information about what he has done to whom. I think we can convince her to stay her killing blow if it means making sure there isn't some other unfortunate soul that ran afoul of the doctor now stuck in a cave somewhere.”
Blanche nodded. "Appealing to her that way may work. She had shown some care towards others before, like when she returned to fight the Pony of Shadows rather than get away when she had a chance.” She frowned. “I may know another possible reinforcement that Rebecca may be planning. She'd discussed hiring the person with me recently as a redemption case.” She looked at her exhausted friend. “I'm not sure you'll be too happy with who it is if I'm right. One of the things Rebecca discussed with me was how to break the news to you, given your feelings about the individual.”
Josie looked puzzled for a moment while seeming to be trying to reason out who it could be, and then her face hardened. “Ohhh…heeelllll no!”
Blanche sighed. “Sorry, but I'm afraid the attempted recruitment is underway.”
Rebecca happily strode down the street, her husband at her side. It was a cloudy day but not so overcast that the sun didn't occasionally peak through them. The forecast called for light rain in about two hours. Her weather senses weren't strong enough to verify that, but she trusted other pegasi to know what was what when it came to those forecasts, and they said it would be light rain, not enough to soak her hubby. She called that happy rain.
There were lots of people walking on the sidewalk, and a lot of them were taking pictures and things like that, marking them as tourists. This part of town preyed on out-of-towners—many shops selling overpriced things that anyone could find close equivalents of down at their local Walmart. Coffee shops were hawking forty-dollar cups of coffee, smoothie shops hawking fifty-dollar smoothies, ice cream shops hawking forty-dollar ice cream cones, and an astonishing number of pizza joints hawking pizza slices at a price she would expect to buy a whole pizza. She doubted she would do much shopping here, but the buildings did look cool. Although the building designs were functional and artistic, they were hardly unique. That was the terror of being a Dreamwarden. Dreamwardens had seen it all…many times over. There were no unique ideas, no unique designs. It can take a long time between using an idea or design, sometimes eons, but it had always been done before.
Well, her thoughts had taken a bitter turn. She looked at her hubby, walking beside her, and her thoughts turned glad again.
“Hey, babe, are we just sightseeing, or do you have a destination in mind?” Russell asked. “Because you seem to have a destination in mind.”
“Nowhere in particular. I'm hoping to run into someone,” she replied, then added, “—figuratively, not literally; I may need your help with her if we do run into her. I don't want her touching me. Her touchy is very bad touchy, at least for me; you're safe.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “This person wants to sexually harass you?”
“Well, I have that effect on some people. I mean, who could resist a body like mine? But it isn't that. Her touch causes extreme pain to people who have magic, and it gets worse the more powerful you are. She could kill anyone from Wild Growth to Celestia with only one press of her finger—really nasty stuff. I'm nowhere near that power level, but it would still hurt…a lot. I need a big, strong man, preferably one with no magic at all, to keep her back. She can take down an alicorn, but she's helpless against you.”
“And why are we the ones looking for this person and not, say…a SWAT team?” Russell asked.
“SWAT may be looking for her; I never checked,” Rebecca replied thoughtfully. “I'm looking to recruit her. You know, reformation cases. I mean, her powers make her very useful for taking down baddies, and there are some baddies I need some extra muscle in addition to Blanche and Josie to deal with.”
“Babe…I'm not sure I'm cut out to be assisting you with your work stuff. You know I try not to pry into it too much, even when I know you are making vacation plans that are really for your work,” Russell said.
Her ears sagged. “You noticed that, huh?”
“Yeah, I noticed, and it's fine. I knew what I was marrying into,” he replied. “I even know you deal with some dangerous things. You don't keep Blanche around because of her pleasant personality, and I've overheard some of her adventures. While I don't know what Josie can do, I know she's pretty powerful. You send the two of them on missions a lot, and they don't seem to be the types to work charities.
”They do some charity work sometimes,” Rebecca replied. “But you're correct.”
“I don't want to know the details, babe, but I want to keep my distance from that stuff. Call it keeping my deniability. I'll help you with things today, this person and that group of ponies, but that needs to be it,” Russell insisted.
“I understand, and I'll abide by your boundaries,” she agreed. She'd half-expected this but was still disappointed, all the same. Despite being disappointed, she would do as she said and not involve him in these things past today.
Her ears perked as she picked up muffled cries of pain.
“We may have some heroics to do,” she announced. “I could be wrong, but I think we found her, and she's hurting someone. Shame on her. We should hurry.”
Russell stopped. “What?! Whatta we do?”
She paused and looked at him. “Just walk in and intervene. You're a big, strong man, and she's just an average-sized woman. Her powers don't work on you, so she can't hurt you with them. I'll keep my distance and talk. She might stop when she spots us. If she does, we can ensure whoever she hurt is alright, and then I can try to talk to her.”
“And if she just takes off?” Russell asked. “I'm not keen on chasing this lady down. Man chasin' a woman around, particularly a black man that doesn't go over too well with folks unless he's wearing a uniform.”
“Don’t worry. I'll say some things early on that I think will make her hang around. If that doesn't work, then we let her run. If she isn't intrigued by what I say, she isn't going to work out,” Rebecca answered. “Just make sure she doesn't charge me to put her hands on me. Her trying to torture me to get information is a small possibility. Again, we need to hurry. Somebody needs our help.”
He hurried past her. “Right, right! Let's go save the person!”
She hurried after him. “Hey! Wait up for me. You need me to lead the way! Your ears aren't strong enough to pick up on the noise.”
It didn't take that long to find who they were looking for. They were behind a t-shirt shop next to a dumpster. It smelled considerably worse behind the building compared to the street. The restaurant smells didn't seem to carry as much in the alley. Fain was crouched next to a burly bald man. She had her exposed hand over the man's mouth, and he was whimpering in pain, with the sound only being partially muffled by the hand.
“Miss Fain, decent-mannered ponies don't torture people,” Rebecca said.
Fain looked up at her. “Who the heck are you? Some high-minded Shimmerist? This guy is a piece of Humanity First trash. He got on my case for not being properly rehumanized. He deserves to suffer.”
Rebecca shook her head. “I know people who deserve to suffer, and while this guy might have some questionable beliefs, being a jerk isn't enough to justify this. Hurting people isn't what you desire anyway, quite the opposite, and I might be able to help you with what you really want. I won't be able to do that if you keep torturing that guy. I need to know you will make an effort to be good. Please, let him go, or my husband here will have to separate the two of you.”
Fain released the man and shoved him down. He stayed with his face on the ground, sobbing.
“You seem to know who I am and a bit about me, but I have no idea who you are,” Fain said cautiously. “Are you a Shimmerist?”
“Well, I have a human husband, so that leans towards a no. I try not to get involved in factions. I like to think I'm above that, even if I know I have some biases,” Rebecca replied. “Hey, sweetie, can you go check on the dude? See if you can get him on his feet or if he needs an ambulance. I'm guessing she had her hands on him for a while. If you can get him walking, make sure he doesn't try to do anything foolish.”
Fain raised her hands defensively at Russell as he approached. He stopped and looked at her.
“Not going to work on me, lady. I don't have magic. I just want to check the guy out, not mess with you. Whatever is going on between you and my wife is none of my business unless you try to hurt her. If you do try to hurt my wife, I won't care if you're a lady. I'll deck you myself,” Russell said.
Fain inched away from the sobbing man, and Russell went to check him, not even looking at Fain.
“Not a Shimmerist then,” Fain said. “I don't deal with non-Shimmerists much. Shimmerists are typically the only ones interested in getting me what I want.”
“Shimmerists don't have the means, but I know someone who does, and I might be able to convince them to help you,” Rebecca replied. “Wouldn't it be nice to walk on four hooves or to touch a pony without causing them agonizing pain? You hate that you can't safely touch a pony, right?”
Fain sneered. “I heard talk like that from a non-Shimmerist once. He couldn't follow through with his promises, and he got me involved with a murderer who was going to torture a foal. Plus, I know who you're talking about because he talked about her too. She won't help me, not after what happened last time.”
Rebecca smiled. “Oh, but she owes me a favor. She wanted a better security system for her house after Shimmerists kept breaking in. She had some ideas but was unsure how to implement them, so she appealed to me and my colleagues. With her input, I designed and implemented a much better security system. I couldn't even get in there if I tried after what I put in place—I may have gone a teensy bit overboard in making the AI for the security system a completely murderous psychopath, but it does its job. Now she's under contract to repay the favor, and no one breaks a contract with us.’
Fain stared at her long and hard. “Unbreakable contracts, huh? I guess I know who I'm dealing with. I figured you guys would be pissed at me as well. It makes you being here even more of a shocker. So, what are you going to do, arrest me? Then after that, give me some job to do that will get me off on good behavior?”
Rebecca sat. “Well, you have some of that right. Miss Seapony, Angel Lady, Miss Nightmares, and Mister Potty Mouth are all still pretty pissed at you—primarily Miss Seapony, she wants to get creative with killing you, but this is between you and me, not them. I also do have a job for you if you agree to it, but we can discuss that in a bit. We aren't going to do the whole arresting thing. I'm not the police.”
Fain grunted and watched Russell help the other man to his feet.
“What about that guy?” Fain asked. “He heard you. He might not be as stupid as he looks. He could put together who you are.”
“I'm sure he doesn't want to talk about how he got victimized by a woman or saved by an interspecies couple,” Rebecca answered as she watched. “And if he does say something, the OMMR is good at cleaning up my messes.” She cupped her wing over her mouth. “Good job, sweetie. Is he going to be okay?”
“Yeah, think he just needs to walk it off,” Russell replied.
“His magic isn't strong enough for me to fuck him up that much,” Fain muttered. “He should be fine in a few minutes. He is just exhausted from the pain. If I held a pony that many minutes, they'd have long since passed out for the same reason.”
“Or dead, depending on who they are,” Rebecca commented.
Getting Fain to be a better person was a good thing on its own, worthy of doing, but, on a practical note, it was best to remove anything that could potentially kill any of the alicorns or other significantly powerful ponies. Some would say having such a secret weapon available was a good thing, but dead alicorns were not something Rebecca was willing to risk, and she was friends with at least two of those other significantly powerful ponies that Fain would be lethal to the touch. Killing Fain would be the surest way to remove that threat, but Rebecca wasn’t the murdering type, even at her most enraged. Death was a horrible thing. Dead people couldn’t laugh, cry, do anything creative, be friends, or become better people. Reforming Fain was the best solution for everyone. It helped Fain, it helped Rebecca, it kept important people safe, and was just a good thing to do. She was here to help people, especially people who didn’t have friends. Fain had a history of being used, abused, and generally mistreated, which led to her current lashing out. Fain certainly could use a friend—one who actually cared. Whether Fain could become a better person through friendship was still a big question, but one worth trying—better than Miss Seapony’s suggestion that involved two sharpened wooden poles, several metal spikes, a shovel, and a bunch of termites, yeesh.
“And some say being non-magical has no advantages,” Russell muttered. He patted the man on the back. “You okay to walk, buddy? Sorry, I can't walk you out to the street. I'm not risking leaving my wife alone with this lady.”
“I don’t need your help, pony-fucker,” the man growled. He then took several unsteady steps towards the street, each looking like they might be the one that would make him faceplant with the cement.
“Not much gratitude,” Russell muttered.
Fain sneered at the retreating man momentarily before turning her attention back to Rebecca. “So, you guys don’t lie. Tell me straight out then, are you promising to make me a pony if I do what you want?”
Rebecca considered her wording for a moment. “You’ll get to be a pony…most of the time.”
Fain arched her eyebrows. “Most of the time?”
“We can’t permanently turn you into a pony; you have gone through too many full transformations to do another stable permanent transformation. Trying to do it again could kill you,” Rebecca explained. “What we can get you is the temporary transformation spell for your regular use, a talisman that, when worn, will make you a pony. You can’t leave it on forever because it has to recharge, and it can cause damage if it goes more than a week, but you only have to have it off for a day or so every week; the rest of the time, you’ll be able to be a full crystal pony.”
Fain licked her lips. “I can deal with that. If that’s as good as it gets, I’ll take it. It is certainly better than dying. So…nothing is free; what do you want out of me?”
“Three things,” Rebecca answered. “First, no more hurting random people who don’t deserve it with your powers. Since you and I might disagree with the whole who deserves it part, you don’t use them on anyone I disapprove. Second, I want you in my employment. I have two magnificent bodyguards, but a third doesn’t hurt. I’m very squishy, and I don’t want someone squishing me. Although, you might end up watching my hubby more than me. I’m sure you’re very familiar with the tactic of someone trying to hurt someone that a Dreamwarden loves to get something out of the Dreamwarden. I wouldn’t cave to that kind of pressure, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do all I can to protect Russell from anyone trying to pull that stunt. He’s precious to me, and I want someone hanging nearby to keep an eye out for trouble and do something about it if there is any.”
“Not thrilled about being told that I can only use my powers at your discretion and guarding a regular human is grating, but those conditions are worth it for what I would be getting,” Fain grumbled. “What’s the third thing?”
Rebecca frowned. “You remember your old pal, Rossman? Well, I received reports today that he just turned up in Mexico—I already knew he was there, but I had to wait on an actual report of it. That’s one of the annoyances of my job. Anywho, he’s at a base where they hold partials against their will. I am angry about this base. At least two partials have died escaping this camp, and more may have died at it or while trying to escape. I’m sure you have feelings about camps where people hold partials against their will and do who knows what kind of experiments. I have people down there trying to put an end to it. They are powerful and skilled but grievously outnumbered. It would only take a few more reinforcements who have power and skill to turn the tide in our favor to shut that place down and free the prisoners. I want you to be one of those liberators.”
Fain gripped her hands into fists and practically growled. “Filly, if all you wanted me for were that, you wouldn’t even have had to offer anything.”
Doctor Rossman waited patiently as the guard brought in the subject: a partial woman, aged sixty-three, with olive skin, lavandander hair with streaks of gray, a full tail, and a stub of a horn. Her name was Valeria. She was shaking. The guard directed her to a chair by a desk and shoved her down into it.
Rossman frowned. “There is no need to be so rough with the patient. She was perfectly capable of taking her seat on her own.”
“She resisted coming,” the guard said in a testy tone, gripping his rifle hanging on his shoulder with two hands.
“Well, she hardly has the strength to put up much resistance against a man such as yourself,” Rossman said in a tired tone. “Try to be more gentle with the patients. They are under enough distress as it is.”
The guard muttered something that sounded like gibberish and took his position at the door. Rossman sighed and looked at Lair; she shrugged and pointed her horn at the patient. He nodded and turned his attention back to the partial woman as he tapped the recorder to begin the session.
“Beginning session,” Rossman spoke. “Subject, Valeria Muniz, this is her ninth session. The subject seems to be experiencing signs of anxiety. Hello, Valeria. How are you feeling today?”
Valeria didn’t answer, only stared at him.
He grunted. “Subject seems to be reticent. Valeria, have you eaten yet today?”
Valeria gave a slight shake of her head.
“Well, you must eat. Treatment requires that you keep up your strength and energy,” he admonished. “Doctor Lair, if you would?”
Doctor Lair levitated a bowl of fruit, a mix of sliced mangoes and peaches, to the table in front of the partial woman and set it down gently in front of her. Valeria just stared at it.
“Hmm, perhaps you will feel more like eating later. How is your appetite?” Rossman asked.
Valeria continued to stare at him.
He sighed again. “Doctor Lair, can you please get the scale so we can get her weight?”
Lair went to get the scale but paused as sounds of a disturbance erupted outside. He heard Valeria whimper. Rossman lifted his leg to check his phone for updates.
ALL SPARE GUARDS TO HOUSING AREA THREE. PARTIAL MALE WITH HEIGHTENED STRENGTH ATTACKING GUARD
Housing area three, that would probably be Alvaro Cano. He had four escape attempts to date. One of which resulted in him receiving severe injuries to his right leg that made him have a permanent limp. Rossman was quite cross about that injury, but it had occurred before he started his tenure here. He did his best to minimize injuries, but they still occurred from time to time, even sometimes deaths. The deaths troubled him, but these were broken people, so their mortality rate was going to be poor. Whether it was from poor biology or victimization by bigots, they would live shortened lives. Surely, they were better off here than they would be on their own. Here, they advanced research. One day, this research would allow him to unlock the greater mysteries of transformation magic and create alicorns. If only they understood what a great work they were all involved in.
The guard at the door had also checked his phone but now stood unconcerned. Such disturbances were sadly all too common.
However, Valeria was even more agitated due to the disturbance and was back to visibly shaking and rubbing her arms.
Once again, he sighed. “Doctor Lair, you may need to place her on the scale. Try to be gentle.”
Lair approached the woman, and Valeria shied away. She began muttering in fear the Spanish term ponies in Latin America had devised for a rehumanization clinic—elmallugar, originally el mal lugar, but over time it had fused into one word, as it was said quickly in hushed tones.
“Valeria, I’ve told you. We aren’t here to rehumanize you,” Rossman assured her—although, he would be thrilled if he could learn the process. It would greatly help his research. He understood why these people often thought they were being coerced into rehumanization. They remembered the clinics; they remembered unicorns and crystal ponies running them. He sometimes wondered why crystal ponies always got a bad reputation in the public consciousness for being associated with those places and not unicorns. Crystal ponies weren’t the ones casting the spells. Maybe it was because it was Equestrian unicorns and not Earthling ones, so there wasn’t the same sense of betrayal.
The partial woman struggled against Lair’s magical grasp, and Lair was becoming visibly frustrated by the woman.
“Maybe we should skip the weighing and move directly into today’s procedure,” Lair suggested.
He shook his head and stomped. “No, we do this properly. I will not have our work rushed. Do you recall what happened when we rushed before? I will not have a repeat of that debacle. We will get her weight, get her to eat, get her current thaumic reading; then we will begin the procedure.”
Hopefully, Valeria wouldn’t do too much screaming this time as they worked. It pained him that his work often caused his patients intense physical pain, but it was a necessity to do things the way they did. They would understand, eventually, once his work was through.
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Ooo...
Um...
Dont touch me
Id DIE ON THE SPOT!
my magic literally is limitless so just getting near might kill me
Damn
Perhaps i can help
Just need to avoid the magic...Ah! I got an idea
An old friend
WHERE WAS THIS FOR ARI LONG AGO?
oh well MINE!
Heh
You dont even NEED fain
okay so up right down down down
[RAILGUN BARRAGE ACTIVATED] see you there!