You wake up to being shaken by your dad who is currently freaking the fuck out. "-or! Wake up! God fucking damn it!"

"Waaa? I'm awake. I'm awake." you say sleepily. Is this how your dad is going to wake you up every morning? You sure hope not.

"Oh thank Christ!" your dad pulls you into a hug and he sobbing uncontrollably into your shoulder babbling nonsense about you dying in your sleep or something. You notice as he is hugging you, you don't really seem to feel his arms around you. You give him a experimental squeeze and you can sort of feel a slight pressure against your skin but that's it. You also didn't notice earlier that your son is also currently pressing himself up against and looking up at you in worry. That's not good...

You pat your dad on the back and rub your son's head without really feeling it and say "There, there Dad I'm fine. See?"

"Taylor the skin on your face is burnt and partial melted!" he says hysterically.

Really? Huh. You channel some healing necrotic energy throughout your body. You don't feel any different, but you're pretty sure you did the spell right. It takes awhile for your dad to calm down, but after a few minutes of reassuring him your fine he settles down.

He stares into space with a haunted look on his face " You woke me up when you started screaming in your sleep. When you suddenly stopped scream I thought it was over, but then you started burning up right before my eyes and your foot came clean off. There was blood everywhere." Sure enough the ground and your dad are covered in blood. With a shrug you clean up all the blood with a quick spell. All better

"Well I'm fine now, so it's all good. At least this time I wasn't in coma for three days." you say cheerfully.

"Does... does that happen every time you go to sleep?" he asks with dread.

"I don't think so?" you say unsure "I mean I am asleep so can't really be sure, but I don't think I've ever melted before and the coma only happened that one time. Although I did also shrink a whole foot in my sleep."

"I wish I could forbid you from sleeping, but that would be ridiculous." mutters your dad.

You give him another shrug and say reassuringly "Well I haven't died yet in my sleep, sp I should be fine. I think anyways." You then notice Pulpinator leaning next to same tree as you. You pick up your sword and examine it. Where did you get this sword again? Oh well doesn't matter.

"Was that always there?" your dad asks confused.

"Who can say? When do things ever start existing? It could have been here since the dawn of time and we simply never noticed it before. Or maybe it just showed up five seconds ago. Perhaps it will cease to exist when stop looking at it and will only reappear when chose to think of it. And in those brief moments of nonexistence it wishes to scream for anybody to take notice of it, but it can't since it doesn't exist. However the important thing is that I got a cool new sword." you say.

Your dad leans back and thunks his head against the tree behind him and lets out a groan.

You spend the next couple of minutes experimenting with your new blade. It takes almost no force for it to go through the solid concrete floor. This thing is bitchin'. You bet you could slice straight through adamantine with this baby. While you would certainly enjoy spending the whole day stabbing things you unfortunately got a lot of things on your plate and only so much time to do them. You turn to your dad and apologetically say "So Dad I got a bunch of projects that I need to get done today so I can't really hang out and stuff, sorry. Running a guild takes a lot of work, but you can accompany me if you want."

Your dad sits up and says "I would like that Taylor. What are you working on now?" If you didn't know better you would say your dad sounded worried for some reason.

What should you get started on first? Well the most obvious thing is getting some sort of shuttle or steering system going on for your base. Sure you can leave whenever you want, but the rest of your guild is stuck up here. "I need to supervise the Transporter while she works on her next project, since she doesn't think things through like I do. So I am going to keep an eye on her shapely legs and smooth curves... and bountiful chest and-"

"I get the idea Taylor." says your dad cutting you off. Rude.

When the three of you make your way over to the Transporter's room you knock on her door and get no response. She doesn't respond but if you had to bet your immortal souls she is in the middle of tinker binge again, so walk in anyway. She is currently at her desk fiddling with one of the spare levitation spears and muttering to herself rapidly under her breath. "Hi!" you say. When she looks up you continue talking "Transporter this my dad. Dad this the super sexy Transporter." Both of them look uncomfortable for some reason.

"Um hey?" she says unsure. "Didn't even know that you had a dad. When did he get here?"

"It was yesterday?" you say hesitantly. To be honest you are unsure how long you were asleep this time so you aren't a hundred percent sure. "Anywho, I'm to help you with your project."

She snorts and says "And what do you know about tinkering?"

"Well when making a fly machine add landing features." you say smugly.

She glowers at you "Fine you can help."

"Great!" you exclaim before moving up close behind her and leaning over her to look at what she is doing, which is also an excellent excuse to press yourself up against her. As you lean up against her soft warm body which you can't really feel... Shit fuck cock! Oh gods this is the worst thing that has ever happened to you ever! What could you possible done to deserve this! You quickly run your hands along your thighs to see if you can get a reaction, but you get nothing "I can't even masturbate anymore!" you wail.

"What the fuck!" exclaims the Transporter. She and your dad are both giving you looks of horror, no doubt horrified at your terrible plight.

"I- what- I don't-" stutters your dad looking like he would rather be anywhere else then here right now.

You start to hyperventilating as the full weight of this disaster presses down on you. Your life is ruined! There will be no more sexy times ever again! Tears start to prickle at your eyes and the room starts to spin faster and faster. The voices are screaming at you to fix this and you don't know what to do. You try to think of something but the throes of panic grip your mind and you can't concentrate at all. You need to calm down if you are going to get anywhere so you start to sing softly to yourself. Your nerves start to settle and voices calm down to their usually maelstrom.

'Okay Taylor, you need think this through calmly and rationally' you think to yourself. First things first, you need to discover what the problem so you can plan out how to fix it. You start examining your aura in detail in order to discover any anomalies. It is difficult trying to parse through your aura due to copious amounts of wild, fae, divine, infernal, eldritch, and sheepy energies pulsing through your body, but after a few minutes you discover that your sense of touch has been flipped off for some reason.

You try and puzzle out why this happened for a few more minutes before figuring it out. Apparently your soul/body was going through so much pain that the 'breaker switch' regulating your ability to feel got flipped. You reach out and flip you sense of touch back on and poke yourself. You feel your skin press against skin and do a little dance. Success! Man that was easy to fix, just imagine if you panicked and did something extreme, like replacing your sense of sight with your sense of touch or overloaded your nervous system with magic and destroying it completely in the vain hope you could feel anything again.

"False alarm everybody, I can still masturbate!" you exclaim so that your father and the Transporter will stop worrying.

"I repeat, what the shitting fuck." replies the Transporter.

"Can fucks shit?" you ask curiously. "I mean sure you can shit during a fuck or fuck a shit, but could the fuck itself take a shit."

The Transporter buries her face in her hands and says "What in the world are you babbling about? You know what I don't even care, I am trying to work here unless you have something useful to say be quiet."

Jeez what's her problem? You look over to your dad for support, but he apparently left at some point. Weird. You fiddle with your pain switch and find that you can turn it on and off whenever you feel like it. Neat. That will be useful in fights and stuff. You look over at the Transporter who is still playing with her spear. "So what are you doing with that spear anyway?" you ask.

Without pausing from her work she says "I am trying to figure out how to scale the output of the propulsion so we can have a soft landing. It's not going so well."

"Why not?" you ask.

She responds with a bunch of gobbledygook that leaves you more unsure of what is going on than before.

You watch her work for a few more minutes before getting up and going over to the last remaining spear on the wall. Clearly the Transporter is terrible at her explaining herself and it is up you to solve this riddle on yourself. Well not everybody can be coherent as you are, so you guess you'll cut her some slack. You grabbed the spear and sit down on the floor, placing it on your lap.

You stare at its astral aura trying to puzzle out how it works. You never really bothered to learn much about the art of enchanting, it takes far too much time and resources for it to be practical for an adventurer like you. It is frankly much cheaper and quicker to go adventuring yourself to acquire magic items or if need be just buy them with the loot you gained from said adventuring. However you do know enough to identify and understand the properties of magical artifacts so you should be able to figure how what exactly the spear does.

Huh. The magic on this spear is weird. You guess that space parasite magic is fairly different then the branch of magic that you use, but you think you should be able to parse whatever the hell is going on here. You mumble to yourself as you try to sort through the ebbs and flow of the spears signature. After about an hour you think you got it more or less figured out.

The enchantment on the spear does four things. First it creates a magical web thing between it and the other spears using the large box in the center of the Transporter's workshop as a hub. Then the spears creates lines of force move along the magical web creating a sort of magical force rebar at the bottom of your base.

The webs then give off a reinforcing aura that hardens the nearby concrete so that it won't come apart when put under stress. The last effect is a levitation spell that pulls the whole thing up to a preset height. The levitation spell is actually pretty powerful since it can rip through non-magically reinforced concrete and lift the whole building up.

From what you can tell she failed to add even basic steering into her designs which is frankly ridiculous. She should have used a flight spell instead of levitation, any magic user could tell you that. You walk over to magical hub and study it to see if there is anything else that you missed. Unfortunately it looks like it just a big on and off switch.

You sigh and rub your face in exasperation. On one tentacle her spears are brilliant. If you found a way to produce them in large quantities you could create whole floating cities. On the other claw the fact it doesn't even have to ability to change the maximum/minimum height of the levitation is one of the stupidest things you have ever seen. You theories that one could add a slider to the enchantments but you lack to skill to pull it off. As you are about to give up one of the voices is in your head is babbling about how it could pull it off, it just needs control for a little while. With a shrug you give him control.

Riptooth blinked and shook his head as he took control of the host's body. He did a quick once over of his body to see what he had to work with. He was a taller and much more female than he was used to being, but he could live with it. Neither of which had any real impact on his work. His lack of claws on the other claw would be a huge pain in the ass. He often used them to take things apart and he was unused to such stubby nails.

Riptooth's eyes darted around the room with interest. There was so many different pieces of technology scattered around, he could hardly wait to take them all apart. He eagerly rummaged through his new clothing to see what tools he had to work with and found nothing. Really? He heard a voice to right and glanced at the human woman working nearby with scorn, ugh, mammals so gross and stupid. He then looked over the human's work with disgust, honestly a wyrmling could do better than this.

He still needed some tools if was going to fix this... this abomination! It was like that stupid gorilla was putting this together without really understanding what she doing and instead copied it from a picture book or something. Riptooth stomped over to the work desk and examined the tools on display. His lips curled in annoyance. The workshop was woefully inadequate for someone of his genius' He glowered and grabbed the best tools that he could find from the workbench ignoring the squawking of the fool. She obviously didn't know how to use them so he was doing her a favor by taking them from her anyway.

He then went to work taking apart the force staff as efficiently as possible. He stared at the parts inside in confusion unsure what most of them were. Let's see here the copper wire is for-

"Necros! What the fuck are you doing!?" yelled the ugly sow in front of Riptooth.

"Shut up you vile ape I am trying to work here." snapped Riptooth as he examined the components before him. She recoiled and backed away from him much to his satisfaction. He didn't have time for useless chit chat when he was working, not that he would talk to the lump of pink flesh anyway. His mind whirled as he puzzled out how it all came together and started to rearrange the parts.

There! He fixed the frankly amateurish mistakes that any idiot should have spotted and set aside the staff. Now that he understood how to fix them redesigning the rest should go by quickly and he could work on actually interesting things. He walked over the one of the holes in the floor and glared down it. How the nine hells was he suppose to fix these fucking things if they were a few dozen feet in the ground? The scaleless bitch didn't even design a way to retrieve them from the stone!

He looked over at the magic matrix at the center of the room with a thoughtful look before scuttling over to and pried its siding off. The human started shouting at him again and pulled him away from the box. With a growl Riptooth responded by hitting her between the eyes with a wrench. She slumped over on the floor unconscious and he spat on her in disgust before turning back to his work. He felt the host rage against him trying to seize control back from him, but he shoved her to the back of his head.

He grabbed a handful of wires and pulled them out viciously. The room he was in lurched and he could feel to whole building going into freefall, but he grabbed on to box to the steady himself. His soft human hands danced quickly across the various parts, discarding the unnecessary ones and adding in important ones that had been left out. Done! He gave the box a hearty kick and the buildings descent slowly came to a halt.

Ha! He was genius! Take that you soft skinned morons! He moved over to box that seemed to admit radiation. He frowned as examined it. This thing was so sloppily designed, how in the world were you suppose to kill anyone with all those features getting in the way? As he moved back to the workbench to get more tools, he gave the human's groaning form a kick in the face. A red hot spike of rage stabbed trough Redhook's brain and he blacked out.

You seize control of your body from that asshole prick of kobold and look down at the Transporter in a panic. Shit shit shit. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" you babble as you reach down to help her up.

She slaps your arm away and hisses "Don't fucking touch me!" As she looks up at you she you see that she has broken nose and a black eye. You feel a strange sense of déjà vu. She shakily stands up to her feet using her desk as support. "Fuck I think I have a concussion." she mutters to herself.

"Here let me heal you." you say worriedly as reach out to her again.

She recoils and snarls "What did I just say you crazy bitch! I am not letting you lay a finger on me!"

You flinch and start to fidget in agitation. "I... look I was possessed by-"

"I don't fucking want to hear any of your bullshit excuses! Get the fuck out of me face!" She yells interrupting you.

You hesitate unsure of what to do when you notice that the Transporter has grabbed a knife from her work bench and is holding it so tightly that her hand is white. When you look at her face again you see behind all the rage that she is terrified. Terrified of you. You are going to murder that little bastard the first chance you get. You move slowly over to the door so you don't startle her as you leave.

Well shit. You stomp back towards your room ignoring the people around you. All that work of making her feel safe around you shot right down the fucking drain. The Hollow Man walks up to you quickly and says "Necros why were we falling a moment ago?"

"I was fixing the Transporter's floater thing and it had to be turned off for a bit, but we can land now." you say while trying to keep the frustration out of your voice, the Hollow Man does not deserve your ire.

He gives you a surprised look and says "Wait you fixed it? You can work on tinker tech?"

"Kind of." you say evasively. You really don't want to admit to your fuck up right now.

He gives you a smile and says "Well good job. Is Squealer landing the base now then."

You wince a little at the mention of the Transporter before you mumble "I uh don't know? She might be doing that, but I can't say for sure."

He gives you one of his penetrating Hollow Man stares and asks "Is something the matter?"

"Who can say?" you say trying to worm your way out of this discussion.

"You can." he say flatly. Damn, it looks like he saw through your cunning ruse.

"Well I may have done something um... rash in the name of expedience." you say nervously.

He rubs his brow and says "What did you do?"

"Well I uh don't know a lot about enchanting myself only the basics really... soImayhavegaveonethevoicesinmyheadcontrolofmybodyandheattackedthetransporterandnowsheisscaredtobeinthesameroomasme." you mumble quickly as possible without meeting the Hollow Man's eye.

"You gave a voice in your head control of your body." repeats the Hollow Man slowly. "That seems like a very... ill thought out action."

"I uh yeah." you say eloquently in response.

"Is she okay?" he asks.

"I think so, but she wouldn't let me heal her, so I can't really say." you say. "She was really mad at me." you say stating the obvious.

Grimacing the Hollow Man says "I will go check on her and make sure that she is alright."

"Thanks." you say. The Hollow Man sighs and gives your shoulder a squeeze before heading off to the Transporter's room.

You stand there staring into space feeling sorry for yourself before deciding you have more important things to be doing then having a pity party. For instance figuring out why your dad left so quickly earlier. Did you offend him or something? You can't think of anything that you said that would be objectionable but who knows? Frankly it would be just your luck if you somehow offended your dad with everything else that is happening right now. With a sigh you head out and start wandering through your forest of ash looking for your wayward dad.

After a couple of minutes you find your dad sitting by a tree with you son in his lap. Awwwww, they are bonding! So cute! You hustle on over and move up next to your dad before sitting down. You lean against him and say "Why did you run off earlier Dad?"

You dad gives you a embarrassed look and says while stroking Mt. Flufflekins' head "Well I... I guess I wasn't expecting my little girl to be so... sexually active."

"I wish." you mutter to yourself.

"What was that?" your dad says startled.

"What was what?" you say putting on your best confused face.

"I thought you... never mind. Anyway I suppose I was caught off guard and needed to go collect myself. I realize that I have been remiss as your father in that I have never talked to you about the birds and bees." he says.

You no longer have to fake your confusion as you are now totally lost. What do bird and bees have to do with anything? "Well if you want to talk about them go ahead, I guess?" you say baffled.

Your dad takes a deep breath says "So... I... shit..." before he falters awkwardly. You stare quizzically at your father waiting for him to say something. "So you know how reproduction works?"

Why in the world is he asking you about the reproductive cycles of birds and bees? You're no expert but you have a basic idea of how they reproduce. "Sure." you say with a nod.

"That's good. I guess it doesn't really apply so much to you since your gay." your dad says.

Wait how does he know you have been having gay thoughts recently!? Can your dad read minds or does he have some special dad powers!? Also how do birds and bees not apply to gay people? Do they repel flying creatures or something? You suppose that would be useful ability to have. "Okay?" you say unsure of why in the world he is telling you this.

"God this awkward." mutters your dad. "Do you have protection?"

"Why would I need protection?" you say starting at your dad with increasing confusion. You guess if you were to work with bees you would wear one of those bee keeper outfits, but it's not like you are going to be attacked bees out of the blue or anything.

"Well in your case to avoid catching a disease." your father says avoiding your eyes.

Your dad wants you to wear armor to keep you safe from bird diseases? "I already got some armor so no birds are going to infect me." you say with a shrug.

"Wait what?" your dad says bemused.

"I got body armor from the Hollow Man so birds should have trouble attacking me, I guess I could were full plate or something but it would kind of cumbersome." you elaborate. "Also I would need to find a set with wing holes."

Your dad stares at you before saying "Taylor what do you think we are talking about?"

"Birds and bees? You know the flying feathered things and the yellow buzzing insects?" you say. How dumb does your dad think you are.

Your dad buries his face in his hands and says "I am talking about sex."

Oh! Suddenly this whole conversation makes a lot more sense. Although you are kind of amused that your dad thinks he can tell you anything about sex that you already don't know. You probably know more about sex then everybody in this city combined. "I know plenty about that dad. I mean after all the partners I have had over the years, I think I know a thing or two about sex."

Your dad's face remains buried in his hands but he visibly twitches. "That's... a thing." he says sounding lost.

"If you want I can offer you some sex tips. I know it's been a while for you, since you haven't got any since Mom died, but with my help I am sure we could get you back on the saddle." you say.

"This is not how pictured this conversation going at all." mumbles your dad. While you can't see his face you can tell that he is blushing from the tips of his ears.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about Dad. We all have dry spells." you say reassuringly.

Your dad lets out a whimper and says "Let's talk about something else! Anything else!"

You frown at your at your dad's reaction. Really it was just sex, it was nothing to be embarrassed about or anything, but you suppose you can respect his wishes for now. However this conversation is not over. "Fine." you say with disappointment "But if you ever change your mind and I will be more than willing to help out." Judging by the look on your dad's face you doubt he is going to be asking anytime soon.

You stare in to space as you try to think of something to talk about with your dad. Well if he isn't willing to listen to your advice maybe he would be willing to give you advice instead. You don't think your dad has ever been in the same situation that you are currently in with the Transporter, at least you hope not, but maybe he will give a fresh perspective. "Sooooo I did something... bad, like really really bad." you say uncomfortably. "And I have no idea how to fix it."

Your dad looks worried and says "What did you do Taylor?"

"I... well..." god you hate even admitting this out loud "See it seemed like a good idea at the time and it technically worked exactly like I wanted it to if you ignore the side effects."

"Just spit it out kiddo." says your dad.

"I let one the voices in my head takeover my body and he attacked the Transporter using my body." you say refusing to look at your dad's face.

"Christ Taylor." your dad says sounding so disappointed in you.

"It uh get worse." you say nervously. At his silence you continue "You see her ex was an abusive asshole prick that died far too quickly for my liking and I convinced her to end the relationship with him, by promising I would never do what he did to her. So yeah..."

Your dad lets a gusty sigh "I'm not really sure what you want me to say Taylor. I'm not a relationship counselor or psychologist, I have no idea how to do deal with former victims of abuse."

"I know." you mumble "But maybe you can give me an idea or something then I could work out the rest."

"...How did she respond?" you dad asks after a minute of silence.

"She was really angry and scared. Uh she wouldn't let me heal her or touch her. She grabbed a knife to protect herself with." you say wincing at the memory.

Running his hands through his hair your dad says "Did you explain why you attacked her."

"I didn't attack her!" you say angrily. Your dad just stares at you until you say "...no. She wouldn't let me explain. The Hollow Man said he would try to talk to her and explain what happened."

"I think... you should first wait for her to calm down and then let her decide if she wants to talk to you. It might help if she feels like she is in control of the situation. Don't approach her when she is alone, she might feel... trapped?" your dad says hesitantly as though he is not sure of his own advice.

Make her feel like she is control of the situation huh. You think you can work with that. You just need to give her the ability to take back what you took from her. You not a hundred percent sure how you're going to go about it, but you probably got time to figure something out if you put your mind to it. The two of you lapse into an awkward silence.

"Soooo." you say breaking the silence "You apparently got fired while you were kidnapped."

"Figures" grumbles your dad. He then starts muttering to himself about ungrateful bastards.

"I was thinking since I am running my own guild I could give you job. I got lots of paper moneys so I could probably pay you what you used to make." you say over his mumbled rant.

Your dad blinks in surprise "Where did you get that kind of money?"

"Well once I took over the guild I got access to a bunch of paper money stashes that the Despoiler had and the Hollow Man knew where the ABB was keeping its money, so with the Wyrm dead I got his hoard."

"How much money do you have?" asks your dad.

"I think the Hollow Man said I have around three million. Which is a lot right?" you say unsure.

"Yeah that is a lot of money." your dad says dryly.

"So you want a job?" you ask.

"What would I be doing?" he asks.

"Well I currently got a couple hundred dudes and dudettes in my guild. I think I will have less once some of them are cured of their addiction, since some of them talked about going home to their families. But I need help keeping track of all my minions and stuff, and I am really busy most of the time so I can't really do it be myself. Since that was your job before that should be right up your alley, right?"

"What are you doing for your health plan? Do you have dental? How much vacation do your employees get." questions your dad.

"I... what?" you say baffled.

"As a business you should have these things Taylor. If you plan on turning the Merchants into a legitimate business you need to have benefits for your employees." your dad lectures before pausing then asking. "What are the wages set at any way?"

"Um..." you say taken off guard.

"You are paying your employees right?" asks your dad.

"No?" you say unsure. Are you paying any of your minions? You can't remember the Hollow Man saying one way or another.

Your dad is frowning at you now "Look Taylor if you want me to work for you and your group you're going to have to do things right. I am union man through and through, and you are going to do right by your employees. Also how are you planning on making revenue?"

Guh. You didn't think that there would be test or anything to get your dad working for you. "Beating up jerks and taking their stuff?" you ask more than say.

"That does not sound sustainable Taylor." your dad says sternly. "You need business plan in place so you can keep your organization afloat."

"I thought that was the force field generators are for." you say confused. All this talk about business stuff is giving you a headache. "Um since you seem to know all about this stuff maybe you should decided on it?"

Your dad raises a eyebrow and says "That is highly irrespirable of you young lady. This stuff is important and I am not just going to do your job for you." Your dad then spends the next hour lecturing you on the various things you will need to run your guild. You regret everything.

You stare at your dad increasing horror and bafflement as he starts talking about 401ks and pensions, and decided that you must esca- you mean you have totally important tasks that you need doing. Like uh... contacting your apprentice! That is like super important and can't be put off for another second! Their life could be endangered at this very moment! "I have to interrupt your... lesson Dad. I just remembered that I got super important stuff I need to get done today and I don't have time for your... thing." you say.

Your dad gives you a suspicious look and says "Oh what is that you have to be doing that is so important."

"Well I haven't got a chance to tell my apprentice that my base is now invisible and floating in the around sky around, so they might not be able to find me." you say.

"Well go ahead and call them." says your dad.

You pull out your new talky box that the Hollow Man gave you last night and go to call them when you realize that their number was on the talky box that the PRT are to stole from you. "Fuck." you say annoyed. Right let's see if you can remember the number... maybe some of the voices remember it? Each voice chimes in with a different number leaving you even less sure of what is was before.

You sit there stewing in anger until you decide to use magic to fix the problem. You summon up Whispering-Wind and ask him to give your apprentice your new talky box array and then have them call you. Oh and make sure not be seen by people since Gandalf does not want their brother knowing about their wizardry. As you wait for your apprentice to call you, your dad speaks up "Well are you going to call them?"

"The PRT stole my talky box, the pricks, so I had to send my spirit friend to go give my new number to Gandalf." you say.

Your dad gives you a baffled look and after a moment says "So what you are saying is that you are just going to be sitting here and waiting, correct?"

"Um yes?" you say confused.

"Well then I guess we can continue what we were doing then." your dad says. Oh. Oh gods. Your dad starts up again on proper behavior in the work place and your soul starts to weep.

After another twenty minutes of your dad's lecture your talky box starts to ring. "Oh thank gods!" you exclaim and grab your talky box. "This is Necros!"

"Hey boss lady, got your message." says Gandalf the Black.

"Good! Right first thing that you need to know is don't answer any calls from my old talky box. The PRT has it and may use it to crank call you. Ne-" you say.

"Wait the PRT have my number! Shit!" they say.

"Um yeah?" Didn't you just say that?

"They can probably figure out who I am with that information." moans Gandalf.

"In that case you better head on over right away. You should bring your brother since they will probably use him to get to you since they are evil. Which brings me to part two of why I called. My base is now kind of mobile, invisible and in the air currently, but you can see it in astral space so finding it shouldn't be too hard."

"How am I suppose to get inside of it!" they say annoyed.

"Fly." you say confused. "How else are you suppose to reach something in the air?"

"I can't fly!" they say.

"Oh. Hmmm. Okay when you are right under my base just call me again and I will send a spirit to bring you up." you say.

"Explaining this to my brother is going to be a nightmare." they groan.

"If you want I could talk to him, I am great with people!" you say.

She lets out a cackle and says "That would be hilarious, but I should probably do it."

You are unsure why that would be humorous but that isn't really important so you shrug and say "See you soon." and end the call. You then remember that your dad is right next to you. Quick think of another excuse!

"I just remembered I need to make plans so I can find and destroy Cobol, so I can't talk about whatever it is you are talking about! Bye Dad!" you quickly blurt out as you jump to your feet and scramble for dear life to your room. That was a close one, fortunately you are as sneaky as you are subtle. But now that you are thinking about it you should probably actually make a plan for getting your sweet sweet murder vengeance.

First things first, finding the bastard. This is honestly the trickiest part since you don't have many leads. In fact you only have three: his old base, the spies in the PRT and your mysterious contact. You honestly doubt you will find anything useful in the pile of rubble that is his base and even if there was something finding it would be a bitch and s half. So file that one under maybe.

Finding one of his spies in the PRT base is would be like finding an asshole in an asshole stack. You don't know how many members are part of the PRT's army of evil, but you bet it is enough to be a huge pain in the ass to find the spies. Better then digging through tones of rubble in the vain hope that whatever clues were destroyed, but still terrible.

Finally you have your mysterious contact which is honestly your best lead. Unfortunately you don't have her number anymore since the PRT has your old talky box. You suppose you could break in to their head quarters to retrieve it, but for all you know it was already destroyed. Also you are pretty sure the Hollow Man would have conniption fit if you went and did that.

Ugh. You don't really have any good options here, if only you knew what his astral signature was, finding him would not be too difficult. Sure it would take a few days of wandering the city but you would be able to find him eventually, but you don't so you can't. You wander if there are local bounty hunters or trackers that you can hire to find him for you. You do after all have loads of money.

If none of those work, well if you can't find him you suppose you can make him find you. After all he is trying to kill you so he can complete is vague but evil plans. So you can use yourself as bait probably, but how to get him to know where you are... hmmm. Last time he found you because you left a message on your dad's machine so logically he would see any new messages when PRT did as well. You could no doubt also get your informant attention the same way now that you think about it.

Honestly tracking down Cornholio sounds like a headache and half by yourself. You have butt loads of cash so hiring some mercenaries to find and murder him for you, is much easier really. It would also free up your schedule, allowing you to do other more important things like mentor your apprentice and find some god damn booze. But what really sells you on this plan is the best place to find some swords for hire is naturally a local inn or bar, meaning hopefully you can finally get drunk.

Unfortunately you have no idea were any of those are, except for that one that burnt to the ground. Hmmm. You should ask the Hollow Man were the local bars of ill repute are, as a former criminal he should know these things. You open the door to your room and look both ways for your dad, in case he is lying in wait to ambush you another rant about workers rights.

The coast clear you go looking for the Hollow Man and after about ten minutes of slowly and sneakily searching for him in your forest of friendship and harmony, you find him. You scuttle up behind him and tap him on the shoulder. He jumps in surprise and his hands go for one his knives before he sees it is you. "Hi!" you exclaim.

He lets out a sigh of exasperation and says "Please don't do that."

You shrug and say "Okay. Anyway uh how did the talk with the Transporter go?"

"It could have gone worse." he replied "I do not believe that she is going to do anything more reckless or stupider than usual."

"That's... okay I guess. So anyway I have a plan for finding and killing Cunt." you say happily "We're going barhopping!"

"I... don't follow." replies the Hollow Man.

"Well since I am no expert at tracking nor do I know the city that well, I thought it would be best to hire some of the local scoundrels to track down Curtis." you explain.

"And this requires us to go barhopping why?" asks the Hollow Man.

"Where else would one go to hire mercenaries?" you say trying to keep the duh out of your voice. "Unless you know of mercenary group already that is good at their job."

He pauses before saying "I do know a group that might be willing to find Coil for you."

"Cool, where are they based."

The Hollow Man opens his mouth then closes before finally speaking slowly as if the words pained him "...in a bar."

You give the Hollow Man a smug smile and ask "So should we head over there now then?"

"I do not think we should just show up on their doorstep unannounced, I don't believe that Faultline would appreciate the gesture. I will arrange a meeting with Faultline and let you know when it is." he answers.

Your talky box suddenly starts buzzing so you say a quick "Excuse me." to the Hollow Man and answer it "Hello?"

"Uh boss." says your apprentice "What do you know about giant ghost bees?"

You frown in confusion and say "Well it would depend on lots of things to be honest. I mean it could be a dire bee that became a ghost or maybe it could be a magically awakened bee that can cast spells and only made itself look ghost like-"

Your apprentice interrupts you "According to me brothers friend we are also being attacked by zombie bee people. They uh have guns."

Zombie bee people? That sounds vaguely familiar now that you think about it but you are having trouble remembering from where. "Are you okay?" you ask worried.

"Yeah for now. We have this murder-beast on our side that is apparently tearing all of them several new assholes. But only me and him can see the ghost bees when they are invisible so we kind of need a place to hide out and rest, since one of us got stabbed." they say.

"Well my base should keep out any ghosts, bees or otherwise. So you and your friends can crash here if you want. I'll get me base moving towards you if give me your address and we can meet up." you reply.

"I'll let them know. Thanks boss." they quickly give you their current location and then hang up.

"Um can you tell the Transporter to pilot us towards this location. My apprentice is having an emergency." you say.

Brian looked up from the book he was reading and immediately regretted it. He looked down as quickly as possible with a grimace and hide the scene before him with his book. "For the last time Brutus put on some pants." Brian ordered before he tossed Brutus's emergency pants to him. Brutus caught them and awkwardly started to put them on while he muttered to himself about stupid human rules. Brian groaned into his hands as he watched Brutus put them on backwards. It had taken them several days of headache inducing arguments to convince him to wear pants at all so this was unbelievably a step up.

Unfortunately they couldn't convince Rachel and Brutus to stop ever having sex where ever they pleased. They didn't even care if anybody else was in the room with them. Alec still complained about what Rachel and Brutus did to their couch... and table... and Alec's bed. Brian was pretty sure that the last one was to get back at Alec for being Alec. With a loud thump Brutus fell to the ground entangled in his pants.

Brian blinked as he heard somebody coming up the stairs of the loft, everybody was already up here... Brian swore and jumped to his feet "Guys we got company!" Brian considered going for his helmet in his room but decided he didn't have the time. He moved quickly over to the stairs to see that it was Aisha in the most ridiculous outfit he had ever seen. "What are you wearing!?" he asked in disbelief. For some bizarre reason, that he was sure only made sense to her, she was dressed up in wizard robes and a hat with a obviously fake beard on her face. At least it covered more of her body then her usual outfits.

"My wizard clothes, duh." said Aisha condescendingly.

"Wait, what are you doing here? How do you even know where here is?" Brian demanded.

"I got bored one day and followed you here one time." she said with a shrug. "Anyway I joined Necros's gang yesterday and the PRT probably found my cell number on her phone, so they know who I am now. I am going to go crash at her place, thought you should know."

Brian's train of thought grounded to a halt and all that came out of his mouth was "What."

"Well they can look me up from my number, right? So can't stay at Mom's or Dad's or else they can find me." she said as this was the most obvious thing ever.

Brian's brain rebooted and he blurted out "Wait how did you ever meet that psycho!"

"I used my magic powers to find her and now I am her apprentice." she said.

"No." said Brian.

"What do you mean no? That totally happened." she replied.

"You are not living with the crazy murderous crime boss." replied Brian. As Brian spoke Lisa and Rachel walked out of the their rooms.

"Pfff. Like you could stop me." snorted Aisha. "What are you going to do coat me in darkness?"

Growling Brian opened his mouth to argue when Brutus spoke up "Bees."

"The fuck." said Aisha looking over Brian shoulder. Brian turned his head and was able to see a giant bee appear out of nowhere, just in time to move out of the way of its stinger. Brian watched Brutus shift back into his dog form, destroying his pants, and then moved so fast that he was blur and he ripped through the bee.

A yell of surprise came from Alec's room. Brutus turned and charged straight through the door and vanished into Alec's room. As they stared at the broken door to Alec's room another giant bee appeared above them. Aisha let out a noise of surprise and shot a beam of energy from her hands causing the bee to pop. "Wait when did you trigger?" Brian said confused and worried.

"She didn't" answered Lisa "She used that song that Necros put out the other week."

Brian opened his mouth to yell at Aisha for doing something so stupid when they heard the door on the first floor burst open. Brutus came back into main area dragging a swearing and bleeding Alec before dropping him and charging down the stairs. "What the fuck is going on!" groaned Alec.

"I-" began Lisa only to be interrupted by gunfire coming from below.

Rachel snarled and ran down the stairs with the rest of her dogs following after her. Brian sent down a cloud of darkness to give Rachel and her dogs cover. Once the gun fire stopped Brian turned to his sister and said "Stay here." and moved down the stairs quietly. Looking around he saw Rachel and hers dogs standing among several shredded bodies.

Seeing that the coast was clear Brian dropped his darkness. "Holy shit." muttered Lisa as she looked at the bodies "Those are Coil's guys. It looks like those bee things mastered them." As Brian looked closer at the gruesome mess he noticed that each of the men had things like antenna, fur, and compound eyes. "Shit. Whoever mastered these guys got to Coil and he knows all of our identities. We need to leave now."

"I'll go get Alec and Aisha." said Brian and he headed back up the stairs. Alec lay unmoving on the ground swearing to himself as Aisha was talking to somebody on her phone. "Guys we need to go. Coil knows where we are and apparently the bee things can take over peoples bodies."

"I would, but I can't fucking move." snapped Alec. Brian strode over to him and throw Alec over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Let's go Aisha." said Brian. She nodded and started to follow him while she continued to talk on the phone. When they got back down stairs Brain spoke "Lisa do you know any places that we can lie low?"

Lisa grimaced and shook her head "Nothing that Coil wouldn't know about."

Brian considered asking why Coil knew so much about them, but there were more important things they needed to figure out right now. Aisha hung up her phone and said "I got a place we can hide out at." Lisa stared at her for a second before she broke down crying.

You stand at the entrance of your hideout looking down into the city below as you wait for your apprentice to call you back. Your base is moving at a pretty good clip so you should be reaching their location at any moment. Well while you are waitinh you should prepare what you're going to say to Gandalf's brother. Making a good impression will no doubt waylay his fears. Hmm perhaps you should open with that you won't let their... Brother? Sister? ...Sibling! You won't let their sibling die like all the rest of your apprentices. Yes. That will put him at ease.

Hmm what else- your talky box starts to ring breaking your train of thought. "Yello?" you say into your talky box.

"Hey Tay-Tay your base is about to pass us." replies Gandalf.

"Oh. I'll let the Hollow Man know to hit the brakes. I am going to send someone to go pick you up in a sec." you say. You hang up and call the Hollow Man "Hey Hollow Man can you tell the Transporter to stop the fort?"

You hear the Hollow Man repeat your instructions to the Transporter before he says "Is that all?"

"I think so." you reply. You quickly summon Moves-Like-Wind and ask it to grab Gandalf and their friends. As Moves-Like-Wind zooms away, you continue speaking "Although we should probably start moving again once we pick them up. So start moving again in five minutes I guess."

"Very well then." replies the Hollow Man and he ends the call.

You hear somebody yelling "Mon tabarnak j'vais te décalisser la yeule, calice!" behind you and turn around to see who it is. You see a young teen with curly black hair lying on the ground with a large puppet with strings attached to it floating behind him. You notice the Puppeteer is bleeding so you hurry over and heal his arm. You check his aura quickly and notice that he is poisoned as well, paralyzing him, but is should were off in a few minutes.

"Hi I am Necros!" you say cheerfully.

He gives you an annoyed look and says "Who else would you be."

Well you suppose you could go by several different names now that you think about. Kale, Steve, Taylor, Red, Kat, Rana, Ora the God Queen and many more. All them suit you really, but you think you will stick with Taylor for now. You feel Moves-Like-Wind stop at your wards, apparently he is carrying a magic user. You give the magic user permission to enter and Moves-Like-Wind pops in dumping a naked dog-man on the ground before leaving. "Hello. Did you lose your pants?" you ask.

The dog-man gives you a nod and grunts "Yes."

"Yeah I know how that is. Always losing the bloody things." you say mournfully.

"Of course you do." mutters the Puppeteer. What's his problem?

You turn to your brother of pants related woes and say "I could ask the Hollow Man to get you some pants if you like."

"Pass." replies the dog-man.

As you give him a shrug Moves-Like-Wind dumps a manish looking girl on the ground, a wolf with spines coming out of its back drifting behind her. The Dire Wolf immediately moves over to dog-man and starts to fuss over him. Awww. Puppy love. So cute. As you watch the adorable domestic scene before you, your spirit body drops a sexy blonde at your feet. How considerate! On her shoulder is a four-tailed fox that starts yipping loudly into the Diviner's ear. She groans before closing her eyes and covering her ears. "What's up with her?" you ask the others.

"No clue." replies the Puppeteer, but the other two ignore you as they nuzzle each other.

You poke the Diviner causing her to flinch and curl up into ball whimpering. The fox starts to howl loudly, grating on your ears. 'Hey you shut up!' you say in astral space. The fox blinks and cocks its head at you before it turns back to the Diviner and opens its noise hole. You consider kicking the stupid thing, but your pretty sure it would try to maul you to death.

Gandalf the Black is brought up next and you give her a hug in greeting. "Yay, your back and not as a necromantic golem meant to assassinate me either!" Alas poor 14.

"What are the chances of that happening." Gandalf asks worried.

"Um one in forty nine I guess." you say unsure.

"The hell does that mean?" Gandalf sounding confused.

"Well-" you began but are interrupted by the cursing of your newest resident. He is a large bulky man with what appears to be a shadow with gleaming white teeth hovering over is shoulder. "Who's the Beef Cake?" you whisper super quite like to Gandalf.

They give you a perturbed look and says "That's my brother."

Well Gandalf has one sexy brot- Gah! The gay thoughts are back! You decide to quickly change the subject "So! Your poisoned friend should be able to move his limbs in about a minute."

"Thank fucking crisse." grumbles the Puppeteer as Moves-Like-Brings brings two large dogs into your base and then vanishes.

"So welcome tomy flying invisible base of doom!" you say happily to your new friends.

For some reason none of them but your apprentice look thrilled to be here. Maybe they are all just shy? Well it's your job as the host to make them comfortable in their temporary home. As you consider what to say the Diviner starts to rock back and forth a little, muttering to herself. "Is that normal?" you say gesturing towards the Diviner. She must be the crazy friend. Every group of friend has a crazy friend. Well except your group of friends.

"No." replies the Beef Cake frowning "That is pretty new. Lisa you okay?"

The Diviner groans and says "She does something to my power." gesturing towards something behind you. You look behind you but you don't see anybody. Hmm weird. "Right now it won't stop telling me about the mating habits of Otyugh."

You wrinkle your nose and say "Gross. Has it got to part about when they ejac-"

"Yes!" interrupts the Diviner. "Why are you doing this to me!" she wails.

You give her a confused look "Um what?"

"Don't pretend you don't know what I am talking about!" she raves at you like a lunatic.

Okay then. Clearly the Diviner is crazy "Whatever you say crazy lady."

"I am not the crazy one here!" she yells.

"Lisa please stop yelling at the person that killed Lung in a one on one fight." Hisses the Beef Cake. He gives you a strained smile "I am sorry for her behavior."

You give him a shrug "Don't worry about it. You can't hold the actions of the mentally ill against them." The Diviner makes weird snarly gurgling noise that you sure is only comprehensible to other crazy people.

The Puppeteer bursts out laughing from the ground and the Diviner kicks out into his side. He lets out a "oooofff" and rolls away from her before shakily getting to his feet. "So got any grub around here? " he asks amused.

You don't think so but you suppose that it is possible. "Why do you want grubs?" you ask unsure.

He snorts and says "I mean food."

"Oh! The kitchen is this way!" you say and lead them into the main area.

"Shit, I forgot how freaky it was in here." says Gandalf.

The rest of your guests look disturbed as well, well except the dog-man and the Dire Wolf. As you move through your lodge the Diviner starts to speak in the elder tongue. Something about your mother fornicating with goats. You inform her in the tongue your mother was a saint, thank you very much. For some reason everybody starts covering up their ears. When you reach the kitchen they all hurry in as quickly as possible casting nervous looks back at your lodge.

The Hollow Man walks in as they are settling down and eyes them before saying "So who are these people Necros?"

"Well that is Gandalf the Black, my apprentice." you say pointing at your apprentice. The Puppeteer bursts out laughing again. "That is their brother, Beef Cake. The one giggling is the Puppeteer. The crazy one is the Diviner. She is the Dire Wolf and that is her mate dog-man." you continue pointing at the rest.

The Hollow Man frowns and says "And how do you know that these people are safe?"

You shrug and say "Well they are in my wards so the bee ghost things shouldn't be able to get at them."

"That is not what I meant." he says with a sigh.

You cock your head to the side in confusion and ask "What do you mean?"

"I mean how do you know if they aren't planning on attacking you?" he responds.

You eye all of them before shrugging "Eh. I could take them."

The Beef Cake speaks up and says "We don't plan on staying long, just until we find a safe place to hide out."

"I am not going anywhere." says Gandalf.

"Damn it Aisha. She is-" the Beef Cake starts but cuts himself off and giving you a nervous look. "You are not staying here."

"How are you going to stop me?" they snap back.

"Um before either you decide anything, I strongly suggest that I take care of these ghost bee-things before you guys leave my wards." you say interrupting their fight.

The Beef Cake glowers at you and then immediately stops doing so once he realizes you are you. "Why do you suggest that?" he says as if he does not want to hear your answer.

"Well since they can pass through things like walls you literally have no way of stopping them from entering where ever your hiding out unless Gandalf puts up wards. Even then Gandalf is pretty new at all this so they probably don't know how to do it except by creating a lodge. Getting a lodge to be powerful enough to keep them out would take days and they would find you first." you say trying to reason with the Beef Cake.

The Beef Cake mulls over your words before looking at Gandalf and asks "Did any of that make any sense to you?" You roll your eyes at the Beef Cakes antics, clearly none of his beef went to his brains if he couldn't understand that.

"Um yeah it would take too long for me to put up shields to keep them out before they found us again." replies Gandalf.

"Also" you chime in "if you have wards up they will know exactly where you are and would wait for you to come out to attack you. I would really prefer if you stay Gandalf, I wouldn't want you go like 14, poor little guy was torn apart by wraiths."

Gandalf blinks and asks "14?"

"My fourteenth apprentice, what's his face, he walked into a local crypt and manage to anger the dead. So they well... let's just say there was no way he could be brought back from the dead if you know what I mean." you explain.

"Wait how many apprentices have you had." they ask sounding perplexed.

"Well you would be number 49." you say.

"Um how long have you been doing magic." asks Gandalf nervously.

"Hmmm a few thousand years give or take." you say after some thought.

"Wait, are you even from Earth Bet?" speaks up the Beef Cake.

"What is a Earth Bet? Is it some sort soil gambling center? I am not really into gambling or soil to be honest." you say confused. You receive a bunch of incredulous looks from everybody in the room including the Hollow Man. "Are you guys all into that sort of thing?"

"Earth Bet is the name of the planet and dimension that we reside in." explains the Hollow Man patiently.

"Is it?" you say with shrug "I don't usually worry about irrelevant details like that."

"That doesn't make any sense." mutters the Diviner "I know for a fact you are from Earth Bet and that you are fifteen years old."

"If you says so." you say placatingly to her. It's best not to argue with crazy folk, they just get upset. "Anyway where were we again? Oh! That's right ghost bees. I think it would be best if you guys stayed here while I get rid of them."

"Well I am staying here." replies the Puppeteer "I already got stabbed once. I don't plan on getting poked full of holes in my sleep."

The Beef Cake sighs before saying "Yeah I guess this is the best place to hang out for now." The Diviner slumps over on to your kitchen table and just let out a moan of despair.

"I need to get the rest of my dogs." growls the Dire Wolf.

"Sure." you say and pull out your map. "Where are they?" After a couple of minutes the two of you figure out where her pound is on the map and the Hollow Man goes to talk to the Transporter for you.

You bounce on the heels excitedly at the anticipating of meeting a whole bunch of doggies when something occurs to you. All your new guests except Gandalf and the dog-man are soul-bound. Weird. Are they part of a group of soul-bound or is it just a coincidence? Actually how common are soul-bound now that you think about it. "Hey is there a reason your all soul-bound?" you ask.

The Puppeteer raises an eyebrow and asks "What the hell does that mean?"

How can they not know what you are talking about? "You do remember making the contracts with your spirit-parasites right? That's why you call yourselves parahuman? Its short for parasite-human contract." you ask confused. You receive nothing but confused looks from the people in the room. Do none of them remember making the contract? You thought maybe the Transporter just forgot about it with all the drug use or something. "You do know where your powers came from right?"

"Nobody knows that." replies the Beef Cake.

"What nobody was smart enough just to ask a mage? They could have told you in like ten seconds how your powers work." you say baffled.

"We can?" says Gandalf in surprise.

"Yep. Just turn on your astral perception." you say.

Gandalf switches on their perception and observes her chums before saying "Yeah there is something attached to them. I don't really know what any of it means though, but I am pretty sure that they are alive."

The Diviner sits up and says "The two of you can see if people have powers!?"

"Yep and now that I have seen your auras I can always find you know matter what." you say reassuringly. For some reason none of them look pleased to know this.

The Diviner slowly says "So what you're saying as that once you see anyone you know if they have powers and you can track them down."

"Yep. So if my enemies manage to escape me I can hunt them down and murder them in their sleep." you say nodding. The Diviner and Beef Cake look at you in horror. "But enough about that unimportant stuff we should really talk about those parasites."

"What parasites." says the Beef Cake.

You sigh in exasperation "It's been like thirty seconds how could you already forgot about the parasites giving you powers." You get a bunch of blank looks from all of them. "Well?!" you say getting annoyed.

"Well what?" asks the Puppeteer bored.

"The parasites!" you almost yell in frustration.

"What in the world are you talking about?" asks the Diviner.

"Uh guys" speaks up Gandalf "we have been talking about them for like the last minute."

They give Gandalf a confused look before the Beef Cake says "No we haven't."

"Your friend are morons." you declare. "What kind of idiots forgets what they were told ten seconds ago."

"Um Tay? I think something is making them forget." says your apprentice.

You eye the parasites floating nearby and frown at them. Sneaky. Your apprentice turns to look at you and then shouts "Holy fucking shit! What the fuck is that!" She looks terrified.

You look over your shoulder but you don't see anything. You turn back to your apprentice "What are you talking about."

"Your aura!" they say hysterically looking at the ground "It's... it's... I don't even have words for whatever the fuck it is suppose to be! It feels wrong or something! "

Rude. "My aura is fine." you offended. You turn back to the soul-bound in the room and frown.

As you eye the parasite-spirits they eye you back. You can feel tension in the room slowly rising as the stare down between the two of you continues. These jerks are messing with your apprentice's family and friends, you consider doing a repeat of what you did with the baku but several things stop you.

Your pretty sure if you pick a fight with one of them the rest will jump in and attack you as well. In a fight between only one of them it could go either way. Five of them attacking you at the same time? You would be slaughtered. Clearly since violence won't fix this you instead opt to use the fine art of diplomacy.

So what's the haps?

Most of them ignore you except for the kitsune, it cocks it's head in curiosity. [Query]

It's slang for how you doing.

[Acceptance][Assurance][Query]

That's good to hear. I am doing okay myself, could be doing better. So why are you always yapping in the Diviners ear.

[Confusion][Error]

Huh. Have you tired just asking me.

[...][Embarrassment][Query]

When you continue chitchatting with the kitsune, you learn that apparently it likes cataloging information and so it kept trying to use some sort of multi-dimensional scanning spell or something on you and was getting weird results. It also doesn't like to back down from a challenges so it refused to stop trying to scan you despite the fact doing it so made it start tripping balls.

Now that it can finally sate its curiosity it starts to bombard you with a bunch of questions about who you are, where you from, and questions along those lines. The Diviner sits up at some point during your conversation and seems to relax a little. She speaks up after a bit "Huh, suddenly my power is working right again."

"Yeah it was being kind of stubborn and kept trying to scan me even though it knew it was a bad idea. But its pride demanded that it keep trying." you say to the Diviner while to side you answer some more the kitsune's questions.

"Wait you can speak to powers?" the Diviner says "Actually you know what? I am not even surprised anymore to be honest."

Gandalf speaks up and says "I don't know if I would call it speaking. It's... hard to describe."

"Well whatever you did my power is not going haywire anymore, mind you it still gives me complete nonsense about you if I focus on you at like. Like that you a several millennia old, but at least it seems to be relevant nonsense." says the Diviner.

You give her a thumbs up before trying to convince the kitsune to stop deleting the Diviners memories but it seems pretty stubborn about the whole thing. You spend a great deal of time arguing about the issue but it refuses to budge on it at all. You turn to the other parasite-spirits, while the tension from earlier is gone they still don't seem particularly interested speaking to you. But you are pretty good at making friends when you want to so you could probably turn them around eventually.

After a moment of contemplation you decide to shelve speaking to the rest of the parasite-spirits later once you have dealt with the more pressing issues like the ghost bees. You turn back to Gandalf's fellowship and ask "So have any of you been desecrating any ancient Indian bee farms?"

The Puppeeter burst out laughing for some reason. The Beef Cake slugs him in the shoulder before turning to you and saying "This isn't a joke, our lives are in danger, take this seriously."

You make an offended noise and say "I am taking this seriously thank you very much! I am not the one who was stupid enough to piss of some sort bee catacomb, unlike you chumps."

The Beef Cake takes a deep breath before responding "No we haven't been messing around in bee farms."

You tap your chin in thought and say "Well you must of have done something to piss them off. Ghosts tend to keep to their territory unless you manage to make them angry enough to leave. They don't usually just leave their haunting ground for no reason at all."

"Well we know that they are related to Coil in some way, since they took over some of his mercenaries. I am pretty sure whatever got his mercs is working with or controlling him." says the Diviner.

Coffin! You let a growl of anger causing everyone in the room to take a step back. Of course it all makes sense now. Since he failed to kill you and lost your dad, he decided to capture your apprentice and use them against you. Well now you have a lead to find him again. If you follow the ghost bees back to their base you should be able to find him. "I see." you say a smile growing on your face. For some reason the Fellowship seems to flinch and give you nervous looks.

"What do you see?" asks the Beef Cake nervously.

"Vengeance." you say with a giggle before turning to the Diviner "So you said you knew it was Corpse and his men that are working with the bees? Out of curiosity how did you know?"

"We talked about this on the phone remember?" replies the Diviner.

You blink in confusion for a moment before it clicks in your head "You're the Informant!" you say surprised. You run over and give her a hug "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Gah!" says the Diviner flailing her arms around in a panic. You guess she isn't a hug person?

"Informant? What does she mean by that Lisa?" says the Beef Cake sounding unhappy.

The Diviner paused before saying "Coil kidnapped her father and I helped her out for a favor."

"Yep. She helped me out even though Colony was her boss and all she wanted in return was for me till kill him. Which I was going to do anyway so it was win-win for me." you chime in helpfully.

"What." says the Beef Cake. He suddenly looks very very unhappy.

The Diviner is glaring at you for some reason. She turns to the Beef Cake and says "Look Brian, he has been pointing a gun at my head to make me work for him from the start. I saw the chance to get rid of him and I took it. I'm only sorry that Necros didn't actually kill him."

"Sorry about that, but the Construct bum rushed me." you say apologetically.

"Yeah I know, I saw the report. Thanks for not mentioning me to the PRT." she says. You give her another thumbs up. "Also Brian he decided to kill all of us instead of just me, so what does that tell you about him?"

"So what I am hearing here is that Lisa tried to get our meal ticket killed and then he sent bees to murder us." pipes in the Puppeteer. "That means we are fired right?"

The Beef Cake rubs his the bridge of his nose and says "Yes, Alec we're fired."

Fired, huh? You can always use more minions now that you think about it. You are sure that they are competent at whatever it is that they do, so your try to snap them up before one of your enemies hires them. "So... you guys need jobs so I was thinking-"

"Oh god no!" says the Diviner in pure horror, causing you to blink in confusion. Why did she randomly shout that?

"Um okay?" you say confused. "So as I was saying-"

"It's not happening." say the Diviner interrupts you once more. Who in the world is she talking to?

"Um please stop interrupting me please?" you say a little annoyed. You eye her to make sure that she won't have another sudden outburst but she keeps her mouth shut. "So you guys want a job?"

"No" say the Diviner and the Beef Cake simultaneously causing you to pout. They could have at least thought about it a little. You turn hopefully towards the Dire Wolf, the dog-man and the Puppeteer.

"How much you paying?" asks the Puppeteer in a bored tone.

"Um how much were you be paying before?" you ask. You are still pretty shaky on the exact value of paper money, snort, so hearing what he used to make will give you a idea of what you should offer him.

"2k a month as a retainer and then paid to do specific jobs. The pay for those varied depending on how difficult they were. We also had the right to say no to a job." he replies.

Hmmm. Your pretty sure you can match that money wise, but one thing is bugging you about that deal "But couldn't you just take the retainer and then say no to all the jobs?"

The Puppeteer pauses for a moment and then says "Shit. I wish I thought of that earlier."

"Well you if you're working for me you can't do that anyway. You only will get paid if you actual do things, but otherwise I am willing to match Columbo's deal." you say. The Puppeteer starts to consider your offer when something occurs to you "Just one more thing, what was it you did anyway?"

The Beef Cake face palms in the background for some reasons. "We were getaway thieves." says the Puppeteer. "Usually the boss would have steal something for him."

That does sound useful now that you think about it. You can have them steal from your many enemies and help finance your organization. "Hmm that does sound useful. So how about this, I pay you two thousand a month if you at least do one job for me a month and then I also pay you for whatever jobs you accept as well."

The Puppeteer says "I'm in as long as you don't fire me by sicking giant bees on me."

"Deal!" you say. "How about you?" you ask the Dire Wolf and her mate.

She stares you in the eye for about minute before final grunting "Sure."

"Great!" you say beaming at her before turning back to the two Debbie downers that decided to opt out and say "You guys sure you don't want a job~"

"Yes." they say simultaneously. Man how are they doing that?

"Your lose." you say with a sniff.

"I am getting paid?" ask your apprentice.

"Why would I pay you for the right to teach you? If anything you should be paying me." you ask confused. Seeing your apprentice starting to sulk you add "I guess I can give you an allowance?"

They immediately brighten up and say "Sweet."

The Hollow Man walks into the room and says "We are right next to the pound."

"Cool." you say before turning to the Dire Wolf "So let's go grab your doggies then." She gives you a grunt of acknowledgment and follows you and the Hollow Man to the main doors of your warehouse. You summon up the spirit of the nearby pound and quickly explain that you need it to escort the Dire Wolf and her doggies back and forth. It gives you a nod of understanding and brings the Dire Wolf and the dog-man down to the pound. "Uh we should probably escort them in case the bees come back." you say to Hollow Man.

He frowns in disapproval but does not argue with you about it. With a sigh he teleports to street below. As you are about to leave you consider bringing your son down with you, but decide that he would be safer up here with his grandpa. You fly down next to the Hollow Man and keep a look out for the ghost bees.

It takes twenty or so minutes but the Dire Wolf manages to retrieve all of her dogs and your spirit buddy brings them all back up to the base. You know what you need to do? Give your base a bitchin name. It is flying invisible fortress so just calling it your base seems kind of lame. Hmmm. Flyie floaty base? No. Let's see here... oooh the Necropolis! It's perfect!

The Hollow Man makes a coughing noise and you look over at him in confusion. He lets out a sigh and asks "Are we going back up anytime soon?"

"Um yeah... actually now that I think about it since we are both already out here we should go investigate the ghost bees." you say.

"That seems rather... sudden." he says neutrally. "Where do you plan on looking?"

Where do you plan looking, now that you think about it? Hmmmm. Well you know for a fact that they were at one point at the Fellowships base so that would probably be a good starting place. Local bee farms would also be a good place to check out if that doesn't pan out. You pull out your map and point "We know that they were attacked here, so we should start there for now." you respond.

The Hollow Man gives you a nod of acceptance and you quickly make the both of you invisible before the two you fly/teleport over to scene of the attack. After about twenty minutes the two of you are surveying the building from a nearby rooftop. You check out the nearby air space for any ghost but you don't see any of them floating around. You turn to the Hollow Man and say "Do you see anything odd?"

He does not answer for about a minute before saying "Beside the door being kicked in, I don't see anything odd."

"Well let's look inside and see if we can find any clues." you respond. The two of you make your way over to the broken door and peer inside. You see quite a bit of blood and some mangled bodies all over the floor. You cautiously walkover to them and examine them. These must be the bodies that were possessed by the ghosts, judging by the bee-like mutations that they have. Which is odd since ghosts don't usually permanently change how their victim looks. Of course the people who told you that they were ghosts didn't seem to know anything about magic, so they probably couldn't tell you the difference between a specter and a wraith.

Let's see here, what kind of incorporable creature's mutate their victims. Your honestly drawing a blank here, which is weird since after all the things you have seen you usually don't have trouble identifying things. Well maybe their description was inaccurate, so instead of focusing on ghost-like beings, you think about bee-like monsters. Intelligent spell casting bees? Evil druids? Summons of a bee themed necromancer? A-

Your train of thought is derailed when you notice a distant buzzing noise coming from the floor above. Well that was easier then you thought this was going to be. You mutter to the Hollow Man "They left a watch bee upstairs. I am going to go see if I can catch it." You then make your way up the stairs quietly with your notice me not field wrapped around you. As you peek over the top of the railing you see- OH FUCKING GODS THAT IS NOT A GHOST! HOW CAN ANYONE MISTAKE THAT FOR A GHOST! The insect spirit notices you as you notice it. It turns around and starts to move towards the nearest wall.

You move as quickly as you possibly can and call out to the spirit of this place. Den-of-Thieves manifests in astral space and you quickly order it to grab the bee before it can make its escape. Den-of-Thieves pounces and grabs onto the struggling bee giving you time to examine it. Huh. It is a lot weaker then you initially thought it would be. You can only assume the shaman is still new at this, judging by the fact she would create something so... underwhelming. Still the threat is still very real. For all you know this could have been a early experiment and they have gotten much better since then.

You remember that the Hollow Man is still down stairs and vulnerable to bee attacks so call out to him "Hey Hollow Man can you come up? We are in a lot more danger then I thought and it's best if you stick close to me."

The Hollow Man comes up the stairs quickly and looks around the room "What did you find?"

You go to motion to the insect spirit before remembering it is in astral space and he can't detect it. "It turns out its not bee ghost at all, but instead a bee spirits which is a bajillion times worse. You can't see it but I caught the one that was sent here to keep guard."

The Hollow Man merely nods in acceptance and asks "What in particular makes them so dangerous?"

"Unlike bee ghosts which are the bees with unfinished business in the living world, bee spirits are parasitic spirits that need host bodies to stay in the material plane. If left unchecked they will overrun entire cities using all living people within as materials to expand their hive."

"So what your saying is that we have a Nilbog situation?" he says sounding very concerned.

"Nilbogs? What in the world do they have to with insect spirits? While super annoying if you don't know about their weird, damage heals them and healing damages them racial trait, they aren't really a threat." you say totally confused. The Hollow Man can be so random at times.

Without missing a beat the Hollow Man answers your question "I am referring to a man called Nilbog. He was apparently able to turn organic matter into creatures and harvested the people in the city he was in. He over ran the city he was in and the city has been quarantined ever since."

"Oh. Then yes we got something like that going on. We need to find and kill the shaman before they manage to summon the queen of their hive. Once that happens things are going to go to shit so fast." you say.

The insect spirit in your possession it suddenly stops struggling and speaks in off putting buzzing voice "Taylor! I should have know you were beehive this! You always ruin everything!"

Huh you don't remember ever meeting any bee shamans before so you guess your reputation precedes you. "Well evildoer, it is my solemn duty to smite douche bags. So of course I ruined your evil plans."

"Ha! Like you could ever stop me you pathetic weakling!" they gloat.

"Who are you speaking to?" asks the Hollow Man puzzled.

Whoops you forgot he can't see astral space again. "Sorry Hollow Man just a sec." you say before addressing the bee "Look if we are going to talk, I am going to need you to manifest, it's rude excluding the Hollow Man."

"Seriously." says the bee in a flat tone.

"Yep." you say with a nod.

"Fine then! Beehold my glorious servant!" they scream as they appear in the physical realm. "As I was saying Taylor, your pathetic prey and I am the ultimate predator, the bee!"

"Um what? You are a bee, you know that they eat only nectar and pollen right?" you say confused. Somebody failed their knowledge nature check.

You are met with a moment of silence before they say "Shut up! You think you are so smart Taylor, but I have always been better then you!"

"Whatever you say who ever you are." you say not really paying much attention. After hearing a few thousand villain speeches you tend to tune them out.

"...How do you not who I am!?" they say sounding offended.

"Should I?" you ask baffled.

"It's me Emma, you dumb bitch!" they say.

"Who?" you ask puzzled.

"W-what!?" they stutter "How do you not remember me!?"

"I'm sorry?" you say unsure. "I don't think I have met a Emily before."

"... I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!.." they keep screaming for some reason.Whoever this person is, they seem like a crazy person.

Suddenly a swarm of bees coming phasing through all sides of the room, going straight for you. Oh shit! You swing the Pulpinator widely, which has always been in your hand and always will be, bisecting the nearest bee. You began to dodge like a mad lady as you flail your blade around. After a solid minute of constant bee attacks you seemed to have cleared the room. The room itself was swiss cheesed by the wild swings of your blade and looks like it might collapse soon. The Hollow Man had apparently thrown himself down the stairwell to avoid your onslaught. "Oops! Sorry Hollow Man! You okay!"

"Yes" comes his voice from the stairs.

You turn back to the bee which is chanting "...HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE... "

You watch the bee ramble about hate for another minute before getting bored. "Well it's been... something, Ella, but I got to get going." You turn to Hollow Man and say "We should probably get back to the base and make new schemes now that the I know the info I got was bad."

The Hollow Man shrugs and says "Alright then. Do you think we will be attacked along the way?"

You study the angry buzzing bee and say "Maybe? It's hard to tell really, but I am leaning towards no. Judging by how angry she is I think she used all of her non-flesh formed spirits right then, so if we move quickly enough it shouldn't really be a problem."

"Very well then." says the Hollow Man and gestures towards the stairs. As you go to leave you remember the bee behind you. Hmmm. You should take it back to your base and see if you can use it to track down the shaman. You motion for Den-of-Thieves to follow you and leave the building. As you and the Hollow Man move to a nearby rooftop you hear a loud creaking sound behind you. When you turn to look you see the Fellowship's base collapse inward. Wow what a piece of shit, it just fell apart at the drop of a hat for no reason.

As you and the Hollow Man make your way back to the Necropolis the bee swears profusely at you and says some very mean things. After half an half or so the four of you make it to street below you base. You quickly fly up to the main entrance and pull open the door. You give permission for the bee to enter as well and once Den-of-Thieves pulls it through your wards, you take away its permission so it can't leave.

Your apprentice was apparently waiting for you by the entrance and says "Hey where did you- oh." They pause when they see the struggling bee and then continue "So you went hunting for the ghost bees then?"

"Those are not ghost bees." you grumble "That is a insect spirit which is like a hundred times worse."

"Um whoops?" they reply unsure.

You let out a sigh and say "It's okay you are new at this, so you are going to make mistakes once and awhile. When you get as good me you no longer have to worry about messing up." The Hollow Man makes a weird choking noise behind you. You give him a look of concern but he seems alright.

"So what happened." asks your apprentice over the bee's vigorous cursing.

"Well I went to check your brother's base for clues only to find that a watch bee had been left behind." you say gesturing to the bee behind you. "I caught it and the shaman that controls the bee's used it to start rambling about their evil plans till they got offended for some reason and then sicked some more bees on me. I killed them and then decided to leave around then. Hmmm that's about it."

"Huh. So what's so bad about bee spirits." they ask.

The Hollow Man speaks up and says "You are familiar with Nilbog?"

"Fuck." replies your apprentice.

"Anyway I am going to go so if I can track down the shaman with this bee right now. I'll be in my room." you say.

"You'll never beat me Taylor! You hear me! Never!" howls the bee.

"Yeah. Yeah." you say absently as you had towards your room. You look around your room to make sure your dad isn't about to ambush you with pension plans before heading in. You settle down on your mattress before examining the bee in more detail. Hmm what to do, what to do? You can't see the connection between the spirit and the shaman so you can't just follow a trail or anything... Oh! Insect spirits are always have a hive mind linked to their shaman. You bet you could use that find Erica.

You puzzle out how you should go about using the hive mind to your advantage when an idea strikes you. You could force your way into the hive mind and know exactly where she is. Nothing could possible go wrong! You place your hand on the bee's head and focus on its aura. You slowly reach out with your very essence and try to connect your souls together. "W-what are you doing?!" says Erin in a panicked voice, so you must be doing something right!

You feel a click inside your head and connect to the hive mind. You hear several dozen agonized screaming voice made of buzzing bees and one human girl. You see where she is and suddenly you are kicked out. You think you hear a rat like voice scream something like "What the shiting fuck is wrong with you, you stupid moron!" as you pass out.

Rana scribbled enthusiastically on her parchment as she hit another break through. She had finally got out of her rut when she finished that acid blood spell , thanks to that pixie that came by the other... century? She couldn't really remember what the pixie's name was anymore, but she was pretty sure it started with a T, or was it a Z? The important thing was that the pixie gave her boost of inspiration and had helped her through a block that she had been having.

As Rana was putting the finishing touches on her next master piece she felt the whole room start to rumble violently. Looking up in alarm she saw her book shelves start to fall over. Her books! Jumping to her feet she scrambled to nearest shelf to stabilize it, when in tear in reality popped in front of her and sucked her in.

Rana's head was spinning violently as she lay on the ground trying to not throw up. "What's going on?" she mumbled to herself. After a minute she felt more like herself and stood up. "Wait am I taller?" she blurted out in confusion. She used to be under four feet and now she had to be at least over five. And why in the world was she wearing shoes? Looking around she found herself in a unfamiliar room with weird light globes in the ceiling.

Spotting a window Rana moved over to it quickly to check out her reflection. Her tattoos where gone! She also blonde now for some bizarre reason. 'What in the world is going on?' Outside the window was a huge city made of glass and steel. Puzzled Rana stared at the city in bafflement before her confusion turned to excitement. A whole new place to explore! She slid the window open and hoped out only to realize she was thirty something feet in the air. She quickly cast feather fall and floated slowly to the ground.

Huh her magic felt weird. Crap she was must have been pulled away from the main body and most of the magical power that came with it. The body she was currently felt much weaker. Well she could increase its magical strength over time. She kicked off her uncomfortable shoes and stared at her tiny feet mournfully. Her beautiful feet were gone! With sigh she pulled herself together. It didn't matter what she looked like! She had experiments to perform!

Oooh there was so much to see and do in this new city! She wondered if anybody would be willing to let her test her magical plagues on them. As she wandered around the city taking in the sights she noticed a wolf shaman sitting under the largest bridge she had ever seen. He looked so despondent and lost that she decided to go cheer him up. Walking over she gave him a friendly wave and said "Hi! I am Rana. Who are you?"

The wolf shaman looked taken aback for some reason said "Sorry?"

"I'm Rana. What's your name?" she asked again.

"Um Theo." he replied.

"Well Theo, what's eating you?"

"Huh?" he replied eloquently.

Rana let a huff out and said "Try and keep up Theo. You look sad and stuff. What's the matter."

He stared at her unsure before finally saying "I did something really stupid and I can't undo it."

"We all do dumb stuff Theo, it's not really a big deal." Rana said patting him on the shoulder causing him to flinch.

Theo didn't say anything staring in to space for a several minutes but Rana waited patiently for him to speak. He finally blurted out "I killed my father."

"Well who hasn't?" said Rana with a shrug.

Theo stared at her bug eyed "You killed your father?! Why would you do that?!"

"Hey! Who are you to judge me! You did that same thing." Rana snapped back "And for your information he was RAPIST asshole. Also not my real dad, but I thought he was at the time so it really doesn't matter."

Theo looked extremely uncomfortable "I-i uh s-sorry." he stuttered.

Rana sighed and said "It's fine, you didn't know. Anyway why did you kill your dad?"

"I..." he started before he trailed off. "I did it to protect my sister."

"Well then what's the problem then? Your dad was a jack off who was hurting your sister, you did the right thing." replied Rana.

"It's more complicated than that." said Theo.

"It really isn't." replied Rana "But okay was your dad a good guy?"

"No he was a terrible person." muttered Theo.

"So what your telling me is that your dad was a shitlord and was going to hurt your sister so you killed him. And you feel bad about killing him? Why!?" said Rana in disbelief.

"I can't explain it." he said.

"Well I am forbidding you from feeling bad about it." Rana said imperiously.

"That doesn't-" began Theo before he cut himself off at Rana's glare.

"I said I forbid it and that is final." commanded Rana. Theo nodded quickly and didn't say anything. Clearly this Theo kid was hopeless and needed to be taken under somebody's wing. "Well Theo it is decided then you shall be my apprentice hence forth."

"Wait what?" said Theo.

Denat blinked as he felt a strange wrenching sensation and found himself outside of his cage. Aha! Freedom! He can finally continue his great works! Wait why were his arms so stubby and his hands pudgy? He looked around at room and found himself surrounded by children and one female adult. They appeared to be all sitting at desks with the adult in the front with a chalkboard. Was he inside some sort of mage academy for children? He quickly scanned the others to check them for EVIL and found them all pure of heart. Good. He would not have to reeducate any of them.

"You there, female mage! Where am I!" he asked bombastically.

"Eric! If you wish to speak raise your hand!" snapped the magling.

Denat raised his hand and bellowed "Cease these lies at once! I am not this Eric! I am Denat the Redeemer! Now answer my question!"

"Eric this kind a behavior is unacceptable! You are going into the time out corner." she said pointing at the corner at the back of the room.

"Nay, professor of the arcane arts, I refuse!" Denat exclaimed leaving his desk "I must go! There is JUSTICE to be done!"

"Eric you will-" she said red faced but he ignored her and strode out the class room. It took him a few minutes but he managed to find his way out. The city was one like he never seen before but it did not matter only JUSTICE mattered. He wandered the street looking for wayward sheep that needed to be brought back on to path of righteousness. After a few minutes he found some obvious criminal scum and scanned them for EVIL and found corruption in their hearts.

"You three turn and face my righteous wrath!" he commanded.

"Fuck off kid." one of the goons said dismissively.

"Fools! I am no child goat! I am Denat the Redeemer. REJOICE your redemption is at hand!" he bellowed. He went to draw his sword only to realize that he lacked his blade and armor. No matter he would use his fists of JUSTICE.

He charged the three screaming at the top of his lungs and kicked out at the closest goon's knee cap, shattering it one blow. As the goon went down screaming one of the others yelled "What the shit!" and went for something in his clothing. But he was not fast enough as Denat buried his fist into the fool's manhood.

When he turned to last EVILDOER he saw that had drawn one of those useless black powder devices. "Back off kid or I swear to god I'll shoot!" said the terrified goon.

Denat scoffed and said "Go right ahead fool. I'll even let you have a free shot."

The man stood there his hands shaking before dropping his flintlock. "Okay I give. I am not fighting no cape."

"A wise move!" proclaimed Denat "It shall make your reeducation much less painful!" Hmm. It looked like the second one had dropped a knife. Denat bent down a picked up. It would be useful for the lessons that these three would need to be taught.

"Reeducation?" the man asked nervously eyeing the knife.

"I shall save your soul from darkness before I kill you of course!" he said "Do not worry the pain shall only be momentary as I cleanse you!" The man stared at him in horror and scrambled for his flintlock. Denat merely watched, tsking in disappointment. The man pointed his flintlock and fired repeatedly into Denat. Denat ignored the pain as the bullets ripped useless through his flesh. "Hmm I guess our session will be longer then I thought it would be!" he said as healing magic coursed through him closing his wounds.

Gaulg blinked at the sudden brightness of the sun hurt his eyes. He could not remembered the last time he had seen the wretched thing, but he found rather disliked the experience, so he didn't plan on doing so anytime soon. He eyed a nearby building and headed quickly towards it to protect himself from the unpleasant itching as his skin started to peel and burn. He grabbed the handle of the door and found it locked. With a grunt of annoyance Gaulg kicked the door in and wandered into the shade of the building. Gaulg found a corner to sit and began to relax and think.

Last he remembered that blasted mage sealed he away in that infernal prison. After who knows how long Gaulg finally had manage to escape somehow but he could not recall how. With a frown he leaned against a nearby wall and considered what he wished to do next. His kingdom was no doubt gone after all these years of imprisonment, so even if it was in the same dimension as him, looking for it so that was a pointless endeavor.

He supposed he could rebuild his kingdom in this city, but the idea did not particularly appeal to Gaulg. Revenge then? The mage was no doubt lurking around here somewhere, but that could lead to being imprisoned once more.

As he sat there his bones began to creak and his flesh expand, as his host body began to be reshaped by Gaulg essence. His body expanded by several meters and bone spines grew out his body jutting out in all directions. Then came the inevitable hunger for flesh, intense and painful as usual, he would need to feast soon. Judging from what he saw of the city there shouldn't be much problem acquiring food. Gaulg waited patiently for the sun to set before getting to his feet and wandering into the night.

Gaulg cast a invisibility spell on himself and crept through the street looking for a meal. After a few minutes he spotted a human man walking alongside of one of the many roads. Despite his large form Gaulg moved silently behind him and dominated the man's mind. "Tell me about this place." Gaulg ordered. Gaulg listened with interest as the man described this odd city. Asking the occasional question Gaulg got a clearer and clearer picture of what to expect.

"Bring me to your family, I need something to eat." he commanded. He felt the man's mind try and rebel against him much to his amusement, but the man's will was not strong enough to resist Gaulg's might.

Later as Gaulg sat munching on the remains of the smaller more useless humans he decided on his course of action. He would find and kill that pathetic mageling that thought he could bind Gaulg. First though he would need servants and resources, he would not underestimate them again.

He ordered the man and his woman to approach him. He then grabbed a hold of them and began to drain their souls out of their bodies. Right before he devoured the last drops of their essence he dropped them on the ground. He watched as the virus spread through their still living bodies slowly changing them. As they writhed on the ground screaming Gaulg dreamed of vengeance.

You wake up with your face lying in your own drool, yuck. Ugh, your head is pounding as well. You flip off you ability to feel pain like any sensible person would do in face of a headache. What were you doing again? You appear to be in your room but you were sleeping on the ground instead of your mattress for some reason. Did you get drunk and pass out? You don't remember drinking any booze.

As you try and remember what is going on you notice a giant bee twitching on the ground a bit to left. Huh. How did that get there again? You suddenly remember the bee shaman and their shenanigans. You decided to merge with the insects hive mind to track down the bee shaman. Wow looking back at it, that was a terrible plan. So many things could have gone wrong, good thing you only passed out and nothing else happened. Yep.

Well you did find the bee shaman at least. She was in some room in some house before you passed out. Actually now that you think it about that is completely useless information. On the other hand you know what she looks like physically and spiritually, so that is something at least. Hmmm. Well the bee shaman seemed to think that she knew you and you have been having memory problems lately, so maybe your dad would know who she is. As you head out to find him you skewer the bee before it can recover since you can't think of any possible other use you could have for it.

You wander around your forest of ash until you stumble upon your dad and Mt. Flufflekins. "Hey Dad quick question. Do you know a teenage girl with red hair that apparently knows me? Her name starts with a E, I think."

Your dad blinks and asks "You mean Emma?"

"Yeah I think that's what she said her name was or something." you reply.

Your dad gives you a confused look and says "Taylor we talked about her only yesterday, don't you remember?" At your blank look he continues "You said she killed you and put in a coffin."

You... don't remember that conversation, but you can't think of why your dad would make something like that up, so you'll take his word for it. "Right. So uh were does she live again?" you ask pulling out you map.

Your dad lets out a sigh and looks at your map. He points to her lair and says "Why are even looking for Emma anyway?"

"She has entangled herself with forces beyond mortal understanding and I need to put her out of everyone's misery." you say as you take your map back.

Your dad makes a choking noise and says "I... look Taylor I know that you're angry with her. Hell, I am furious at her but you can't just kill her."

You blink in confusion and say "Angry with her? I don't really know her. I mean I know that she has at least fed the souls of few dozen people to insect spirits, which is bad, but I wouldn't say I hate her or anything. It's just she going to keep killing people because she is crazy as a shit house rat. All insect shamans are."

Your dad seems thrown off for some reason. Did he not know that bee shamans kill people? "Oh."

You pat him on the shoulder and say "Don't worry about it okay? I'll take of this problem lickety-split." Your dad just gives you a jerky nod but does not say anything. You go looking for the Hollow Man ready to tell him the good news. As you are moving through the trees of your forest you nearly bump into the Transporter.

Your eyes widen in horror. Oh no, you are not prepared for this at all! You need to think fast on your feet."Um..." you say as you try to read her mood. Judging by her face you would go with chilly. Okay not great but you are pretty sure she isn't about to explode on you, you can work with this. Now that she is calmer you can at least explain what happened. "I am really sorry about what happened before, I wasn't myself-"

She lets out a mirthless snort and says scornfully "Yeah I like I haven't heard all this shit before."

Shit. Okay you could have worded that better. You fidget a little as you try again. "I am not saying it wasn't my fault because it was, but I feel like I should explain what happened because-"

"Lee already told me what happened." She says cutting you off. "You have voices in your head and you decided in your infinite wisdom to do what they told you to do, because you're a fucking crazy bitch."

"That's... not inaccurate." you force yourself to admit. "But the voice was controlling my body and I had to fight it back for control and-"

"But you gave it control you in the first place, right?" she says heat entering her voice.

"Um yeah I-" you start but she cuts you off again.

"So you fucking decided to give control to some voice in your head with me in the room, without warning me or anything, fuck you." she says getting angrier. You feel tears prickling at your eyes. This isn't going well at all. "Don't you start crying!" she hisses at you. "You're not the victim here and I am not the bad guy!"

You began to feel dizzy and have trouble thinking. You scramble to think of something to say to defuse the situation and blurt out the first thing that pops into your head "Hit me!"

"What?" she says taken aback.

"Hit me." you say repeating yourself. You flip on your ability to feel pain and continue "I hit you so it only fair-" you are cut off when she slugs you across the face. You stagger back a bit and spit out some blood. Oh looks like a tooth came out too. Huh. The Transporter is stronger then she l- She punches you again this time right in the eye knocking you of your feet. You slam your head on the ground and lay there stunned.

The Transporter makes a feral noise and kicks you in the side and you feel one of your ribs crack. She keeps kicking you until she runs out of steam. You let out a muffled groan and lie there in pain. She stares down at you panting for breath when she finally speaks "Shit. Shit, you alright?" You manage to raise your none broken arm and give her a thumbs up since your pretty sure that your jaw is also broken. She lets out a snort but this time it is not so angry.

She sits down next to you with a sigh and stares off into empty space with a unsure look on her face. After a few minutes she finally speaks "God this is so fucked up." You give a half shrug and hold in a whimper of pain. "I am still pissed at you, you know that right." You consider nodding but decide against it and give her another thumbs up. She blinks and asks "Can you even talk right now?". You give her thumbs down. "Shit. I kind of lost control and went overboard. Fuck, Lee is going to murder me."

You flip of your ability to feel pain and sit up against a tree and say "I'll talk to him, don't worry."

She blinks and says "I thought you said you couldn't talk."

"Well my jaw is broken but I turned off my ability to feel pain briefly so you wouldn't panic." you say.

She looks uncomfortable and says "You can heal yourself okay? I didn't mean to hurt you so badly."

You consider telling her no, that you deserve to be like this, but decide against it. She clearly is uncomfortable seeing you like this and ignoring her wishes would be frankly counterproductive to repairing your relationship. You flood your body with necrotic energy and your wounds close. You switch on your pain sensors to make sure that you didn't miss anything. You don't feel anything off with your body so you think you reversed all of the damage.

The two of you sit there in awkward silence for few moments before you finally speak up "I uh need to get heading out, so you see you around." She gives you a absent nod and you scurry away to find the Hollow Man. Well that could have gone worse, it could have also gone a lot better, but you'll take what you can get. At least you know that she doesn't hate you, since seeing you hurt upset her and all. You decide to put aside the whole Transporter issue for now and instead focus on more immediate problem of the bee shaman.

After another minute you find the Hollow Man speaking quietly into a talky box. "...all I am willing to say. It is your decision to chose to listen to my information or not." He then hangs up his talky box before looking up at you and says "Found out what you needed to know?"

"Yep I know what she looks like and where she lives so let's get going!" you say. As the two of you make your way towards the exit you ask "Hey who were you talking to anyway?"

"The PRT." he replies.

"What." you say your voice flat. Why is the Hollow Man talking to them. You know that he would never betray you, so something fishy must be going on. Have the brainwashed him when you weren't looking? How dare they!

"They need to know about the bee parahuman in case the situation gets completely out of hand." replies the Hollow Man. "I know that you do not like them after what happened yesterday, but it is important that they are informed."

You scowl and say "What use are they going to be? They don't even believe in magic and they don't know the first thing about how to defend against spirits."

The Hollow Man merely shrugs and says "It's better that they are aware of the problem then unaware."

Ugh whatever, you don't even care anymore. However you should check the Hollow Man for brainwashing at later date. When you get to exit you summon Moves-Like-Wind and have him boost you and the Hollow Man. Speed is of the essence after all. You throw the standard non-detection package over the three of you before you head out. The three of you make good time and arrive at the bee shaman's house in about fifteen minutes.

Yep this is the right place. You can see Erica's wards up around the house. Staring at the house causes weird and uncomfortable feeling to bubble up inside of you. But you stamp them down viciously. You don't have time for whatever those are, you got insane people to kill. You decide to survey the surrounding area before heading in. You don't see any bee spirits floating around. In fact you don't see any sign of life now that you think about not even a bird or a doggie. Unfortunately you and your companions can't pass through the wards without smashing them alerting her to your presence. So you will want to make sure your ready before entering.

You turn to the Hollow Man and say "Right, so her base has wards around it so we can't enter it without alerting her to our presence. So we should talk about attack strategies and stuff before entering." The Hollow Man makes a gesture for you to continue so you say "I am pretty sure that all her true spirit bees are gone so it should only be flesh-formed and hybrid bees left."

"What are those?" asks the Hollow Man.

"Flesh-formed look like normal people but are tougher and stronger. Hybrids will be people that have with bee mutations they are physically more dangerous than the flesh-formed. Your grenades should be more than enough to hurt them though so you should be fine long as you move quickly and are careful. Actually can I have some grenades?"

The Hollow Man gives you a level look before saying "No."

"But 'splosions Hollow Man!" you whine.

"Not happening." he says stubbornly, the jerk.

"Why noooooooot?!" you pout.

"I am not handing you explosive devices that I am fairly certain you would accidently set off and blow yourself up with." he says unrelentingly.

You cross your arms and glower "Fine. Anyway we are going to want to move quickly since if we take her out the bees will lose cohesion, but we also don't want to get overwhelmed so we are going to make sure we clear an area before moving forward. Sound good?"

The Hollow Man considers your plan before asking "How many do you think will be in there?"

"Um hard to say, but judging from the lack of life in the area she must of got most of the neighborhood. So thirty-fifty bee people maybe. They will probably have things like guns and stuff since the bee shaman got control of Chocobo. I can dodge gunfire pretty easily myself, how about you?" you say with a shrug.

"People usually have trouble tracking me due to my clones, but I can't dodge gunfire." he replies.

"Oh. Just a sec." You cast a couple spells on the Hollow Man and then say "I placed a couple of shielding spells on you to help keep you safe. They won't stop the bullets but it should make harder for them to hurt you. So I am going to summon a spirit and have it smash the wards. It will let us know if it is a trap or anything."

"Shouldn't we go in invisible?" asks the Hollow Man.

"It wouldn't really do any good. They can see astral space and invisibility would make us more obvious instead of less. Ready?" you ask. When he gives you a nod you dismiss Moves-Like-Wind and summon the spirit of the neighborhood so it can avenge its people. Cul-De-Sac floats up next to you and you ask it to go inside and attack the hive. It bulldozes through the wards and after about ten seconds the entire house explodes outwards knocking you and the Hollow Man off your feet.

You sit up and look over at the Hollow Man to make sure he is alright. He appears to be uninjured and getting back up to his feet so you turn your attention back to the remains of the house. Cul-De-Sac is floating above the ruins looking bored. It comes back over to you and informs you that it only found a single bee on the second floor and after it killed the bee the whole house exploded for some reason.

You guess the bee shaman knew that you were coming and left a trap behind. "Well looks like I am going to have to track her down the old fashioned way."

"And what's that?" asks the Hollow Man.

"Asking for somebody who knows anything about tracking for help." you reply and then turn to Cul-De-Sac and ask it if it knows where the bee shaman went. Cul-De-Sac shrugs and replies that it had been asleep until you woke it up so it has no idea where the bee shaman could be. You give it a quick thank you before you summon Ruins-of-Childhood.

It looks extremely disgruntled probably since its domain just got blown to smithereens. When you try to ask Ruins-of-Childhood where the bee shaman went it rather snappily replies that how should it know it was in its metaplane at the time. It glowers at you and asks if you had anything to do with its house being blown up. You evade looking it in the eye and give it quick good bye before dismissing it.

Well that was a bust hmmm. Oh! You can ask the Diviner to divine the answer for you. That is what diviner do after all. You turn to Hollow Man and say "Well we should head back to Necropolis."

"The what?" asks the Hollow Man in confusion.

How can the Hollow Man not know about the Necropolis? He has been living in there for almost two weeks now. Sometimes the Hollow Man can be so oblivious. "The floaty base." you say with a raised eyebrow.

He raises an eyebrow right back at you and says "Have you ever told anyone it was called that?"

"Sure I did! I told let's see here... the T- wait no... um. Well I am sure I must have told someone." you say uncertainly.

"I am sure your sure you have." says the Hollow Man in complete sincerity.

"Anyway now that is settled let's get going." you say quickly.

You resummon Moves-Like-Wind and head back to your base swiftly. Once there you head back to kitchen to see if the Diviner is still there. As you walk into the room the Diviner lets out groan and buries her head in her arms. Your apprentice speaks up and says "So did you take care of the bees then?"

"Ah... no. The bee shaman knew I was coming and rigged her place to explode for when I showed up. So the trail is cold once more." you say.

"Great." grumbles the Puppeteer "I am never going to get my video games back."

"Uh where those in your base or something?" you ask nonchalantly.

"Oh god what happened to our base?" asks the Diviner.

"Wellllll it may have collapsed in on itself after I left it. I am not sure why it did that but I think we can safely say it wasn't my fault." you say.

The Beef Cake glares at you for some reason and looks ready to explode before stalking out of the room. While the Puppeteer bemoans the fate of his couch you turn to the Diviner and say "So Diviner I need you to do some divining for me so we can track down the bee shaman."

The Diviner lets out a gusty sigh and say "Fine. Give me all the information you know about them."

"Let's see here... She has red hair, about my age, and had a name that started with an E."

The Diviner just stares at you before saying "I need way more information than that to figure anything out."

"My dad seems to know who she is, he might be able to help." you say. "Here, I'll bring you to him."

She makes a face and says "There is no way in hell I am going out there again. Bring your dad here."

You frown at her rudeness but you go to get your dad anyway. After a couple of minutes you find your dad. "Did you... kill her?" he asks hesitantly.

"No. She had already left her base by the time I got there. I have someone here who might be able to find her, but she needs to talk to you." you say. Your dad gets to his feet and he and Mt. Flufflekins follow you back to the kitchen. As the Diviner starts grilling your dad for information he has on the bee shaman you get the feeling this may take awhile.

You turn to Gandalf and say "We should really start up your lessons now that you are here."

"Sweet." says Gandalf, perking up with interest."So you going to teach me some bitchin' spells? Because I always wanted to able to throw fireballs around."

"Nope! First thing we got to do is get your lodge set up, can't teach you anything without one." you say.

"Shit. That takes 12 hours right." they say deflating.

"Mmmmhmm." you hum. "Well let's get started then." You and Mt. Flufflekins walk out to the main area with your apprentice trailing behind you despondently. You and your apprentice grab your leftover supplies from your earlier lodge making and head into a unused side room.

It's pretty dusty in here so you cast a quick cleaning spell. You sit in a nearby chair and it starts rolling away. You flail your arms around in surprise and scream "Aaaah Gandalf help! My chair is haunted!" Mt. Flufflekins lets out a cheep of alarm.

"Uh T that is just roller chair." says Gandalf in bemusement.

"Huh?" you say. You look down and sure enough your chair has little wheels on the bottom, neat. "Oh. Well that's a relief. The last cursed chair I sat in made it so I had to eat with my butt and poop with my mouth. It was terrible. Anyway time for you to get started."

"How?" says Gandalf unsure.

You shrug and say "Just listen to the songs in your head and follow the tune."

"Yeah, I don't have those." says Gandalf.

"Really? Hmmm. Look through the bags and try to find things that speak to your being. You then infuse them with your essence and places them around the room. The whole room should eventually be saturated with your magic and the objects you enhanced will help focus it."

Gandalf looks unsure but does what you tell them to. After a few minutes they start fiddling with some strips of leather and feathers. Seeing that they got things well in hand you start to play around in your chair. While Mt. Flufflekins sits in your lap you race back and forth across the room making wooshing noises. Giggling to yourself you spin around in circles until you feel dizzy and fall of the chair with Mt. Flufflekins. You hear a snort of laughter and see the Puppeteer looking in through the door.

"Hey boss is there anything to do around here. Getting kind of bored." he asks.

You puff out your cheeks in thought as you roll off your stomach on to your back. As Mt. Flufflekins repositions himself on your stomach you say "Um not a lot really. I got some art supplies over there if you're interested in that kind of thing."

The Puppeeter throws himself in to a nearby rollie chair and says "Nah, not really in the mood. So you don't even have T.V.?"

"What's a T.V.?" you ask.

He lets out a dramatic gasp and says "You poor poor soul! T.V. is probably the greatest invention made by man."

"Nuh uh. That's booze." you say.

"Got any?" he asks with interest.

You deflate and say "No some asshole fairy drank all of it."

"Oh yeah that was on the news wasn't it." says the Puppeteer. The two of you stew in disappoint and hatred of jerks that hog all the booze. Well that's what you are doing anyway, you have no idea what the Puppeteer is thinking. The three of you sit and watch your apprentice work on her lodge for a few minutes. Every once in awhile you shout out helpful tips when she seems lost.

To be honest though it isn't really that interesting to watch your apprentice work. You have seen masters of the arcane arts create breath taking and mind shattering works of art and while your apprentice isn't bad, it is pretty dull to watch them after awhile. You wrack your brain for any activity that you can do while making sure Gandalf does not tear a hole in reality or anything. You swivel back in forth in your chair looking around the room for something to entertain you when you realize that you have everything that you could possibility need right here.

You raise your hand and point your finger at the Puppeteer "I challenge you to a duel of chairmenship!"

The Puppeteer blinks before saying with a smirk "What are your terms?"

"We ride these magical rollie chairs and try to demount the other. The first one to fall of their throne is found to be loser." you declare.

"Hmmm. If I win you buy me a new entertainment system." the Puppeteer replies.

"And if I win..." you start before trailing of in thought. What do you want? Well you want to fix things with the Transporter, but you have a feeling the emotions aren't the Puppeteer thing what with his para-spirit is numbing his own emotions. You can't send him on a booze run because of the bees. Hmmm. "You have to be my friend forever and ever!"

The Puppeteer gives a snort and says "Deal."

The two of you roll to opposite sides of the room before turning to face each other. You place your feet on the ground and pick up speed quickly. As you are about to collide with the Puppeteer you pull your legs up. The two of you bounce of each other, sending each other spinning around the room. You let out a giggle as you zoom past Mt. Flufflekins, who lets out a cheep of encouragement. You quickly plant your feet on the ground to regain control and move to attack once more.

As you pick up speed you see the puppet jerk behind the Puppeteer and a thin strand of magic latches on to your leg. Your leg spasms and you lose control of your chair. The Puppeteer smashes into you before you regain your bearings. You feel your chair tip over and began to panic. As your chair falls to the side you tighten your grip on the chair so you stay on. You then lean into the fall and kick out with one of your legs into the ground. With the combined momentum of the fall and the force kick you send the chair twirling into the air while you are still seated. You do a 360 spin in the air before landing the chair back on the ground upright.

Mt. Flufflekins let out a cheer as you turn to face your opponent. "Cheater!" you accuse.

"Nowhere in the rules does it say I can't do that." the Puppeteer counters with a grin. Gods damn it. He is right. Well you have no one to blame but yourself for not seeing such a obvious loop hole. "By the way nice moves." You puff up in pride only for him to ram into you again while you are distracted. At the look of indignation on your face the Puppeteer chuckles "All's fair in love and war, boss!"

How dare he! You glare at him until you realize that since he is using his powers you can use yours. You give him a savage grin causing him to falter before you summon Crypt-Keeper, the spirit of your base. She boosts the speed of your chair and binds you to your chair so you can't fall off. "Ready or not here I come~" you say before launching yourself forward like a rocket.

You smash into him sending him and his chair flying into the air. Before he can reach the ground you slam your feet into the ground and change direction slamming into his chair again keeping him in the air. You spend a another twenty seconds juggling him in the air before he loses grip on his chair and goes flying into Gandalf. They fall into crumpled heap and you roll over to make sure that they are alright. "Sorry! Gandalf that was accident! You okay?"

"Yeah." groans Gandalf as they get to their feet. You poke them and heal a bruise that would eventual form if left untreated.

The Puppeteer grumbles as he gets to his feet "Aren't you going to ask if I am okay?"

You sniff and say "Nope. Since I am the queen of all things chair and so defeated you soundly, you're my friend now forever and ever." The Puppeteer lets out a huff of laughter and you give him a grin. "Want to go another round? This time without magic. Double or nothing!"

"How do you get double friendship?" he asks amused.

"You have to be my bff." you explain

"Sure." he says with a shrug. The two you clash in another epic dual. The Puppeteer fights valiantly but in the end your superior skill wins out. You breathe heavily covered in sweat as you grin victoriously at your latest conquest. He rammed into you quite vigorously but you were able to take control when you started plowing him with all your might. It got very intense before the end when both your thrusts got longer and harder, you are quite sure that you will both be sore the next morning. At the climax his body gave out, while you were ready for another round. You shake your head in disappointment, men tire so easily. You leap from your chair and dance the dance of victory.

The Puppeteer snorts at your antics and shakes his head "You're such a dork."

You let out a scandalized gasp and say "I am not a penis! I don't even have one! I know for sure because I checked quite thoroughly the other day! Your just jealous of my chairmenship!"

"Whatever you say... dork." says insubordinate jerk.

"Laugh it up." you say with a glare "But when I buy myself that T.P. thing you can't use it!" He just gives you a insufferable smirk. You give a huff of annoyance and walk over to Gandalf to check their progress while ignoring the Puppeteer's laughter. After making sure that they are on the right track you say "Hey I need to go check up with the Diviner and my dad. Will you be okay on your own for a bit?"

Gandalf looks up from their work and gives you an absent nod "Yeah I got this shit on lock." You have no idea what that means but it sounded like a affirmation , so you just nod and make your way back to your dad with Mt. Flufflekins.

You walk into the kitchen to see your dad watching with bemusement as the Diviner is hitting her head on the table. "Things going well?" you ask.

"No." mumbles the Diviner "Your dad hasn't talked to Emma Barnes in almost two years. The only recent thing he knows is that she hurt you in some way. I know the details of the attack on you from earlier research, but since you are having a memory block I can't make a good projection of her personality. Are you sure you can't remember anything about her?"

You consider the Diviner's request seriously before saying "Well I don't know a lot about her per say but I know stuff about insect shamans, would that help?"

"Maybe." says the Diviner neutrally.

"Well I can't be certain how long that she has been at large." you begin.

"At most a week." says the Diviner.

"Um okay." you say blinking in surprise "So when she first started out she probably grabbed the nearest people she could get her hands on and fed them to her insects."

"Her parents." adds the Diviner.

"Jesus Christ." says your dad with a pained expression. Did he know them or something?

"She then would start working on converting her neighbors. She would try and make them look human as possible so nobody would notice as she made her way through the neighborhood. She would also grab people that nobody would notice when they go missing, like the homeless. She would be less careful with them and allow them to have mutations so she could have shock troopers." you say.

"How many people could she convert in a week." says the Diviner as if she dreading the answer.

"I'm not sure. You see, I saw at least thirty of the bees, which is far more then she should be able to produce in a week, so something weird is going on. But if she had thirty or so true spirits she would have about twice that with her disguised servants." you say.

"Shit." mutters the Diviner.

"Since she had to abandon her hive and it will take her a day to set up a new one before she can start converting people again. Hmmm she is going to be looking for a place that is defensible but would allow her access to large amount of victims." you continue.

"You talked to her right, is there anything she said that could have been a hint of what she is up to?" asks the Diviner.

You consider your brief conversation with the bee shaman before saying "Well she said something about me ruining her plans somehow. If I had to guess she is trying to nab soul-bound for her hive. Also she seemed really mad when I didn't know her so I think she might be a tad obsessed with me."

The Diviner sighed and said "Well that's better than nothing. You got a computer up here? I'll need it for research."

"A what?" you ask confused.

The Diviner lets out another sigh and buries her face in her hands.

While the Diviner is grumbling about airheaded morons for reasons that escape you, you ponder your relationship with the bee shaman. Everyone seems to think that you should know who she is, so it does seem odd that you can't remember her. You seemed to have at least known her for at least two years from what the Diviner was saying, so it is a bit odd that you are drawing a complete blank. Hmmm. Maybe you should delve into the deep recesses of your mind to figure out this puzzle. What could possibly go wrong?

You breathe in and out as you focus on the idea of Eliza Borns, your old friend. Your body start to relax as your breath slowls and your mind starts to focus. You feel something fighting against you but you plow right past their objections as you search for the lost memories. You feel you typhoon of emotions slam into as you remember your best friend/sister/bully/betrayer. Hate/ nostalgia /longing/confusion flood your body overwhelming you. You don't like these feelings at all.

With the memories of Emma returning you remember rest of the Barnses. They failed you but you still cared for them in your own way and Emma... Oh god Emma killed them. She fed their souls to terrible alien beings and they were gone forever. They were your family how could she- You blink in confusion what were you doing again? The Diviner seems to covered in vomit for some reason. She is just sitting there with shell shocked expression on her face not moving. "You okay?" you ask. She does not seem to hear you, that or she is being very rude.

Your dad looks at you with concern "Taylor are you okay? Do you need to lie down?"

"Um no? Why wouldn't I be okay?" you ask confused.

"You just vomited on Lisa." your dad says looking worried.

Huh. You don't remember doing that? Did she say she was hungry or something, and you decided to feed her? You try to recall what you were doing again. Let's see here.. oh that right you were trying to remember who Evana Bottles was. You focus on trying to remember who she is and suddenly a violent storm of emotions hits you- You blink as the Diviner screams "What the ever shitting fuck!" For some reason she covered in vomit. "Stop vomiting on me!"

You give your dad a disapproving look. He really shouldn't vomit on people without their permission. Anyway you turn your mind back to task of remembering Eva Bears and OH GOD YOUR GOING TO BE SICK- "Whyyyyy?" moans the Diviner sopping wet from what appears to be large amount of vomit.

"You okay?" you ask her concerned. Why in the world would she cover herself in vomit? Well she is crazy so you can't say your surprised.

She just stares at you as if though she wants to strangle someone to death. "Get out!" she hiss at you. You get the feeling she mad at you for reasons that you can't discern so you decide that you should give her some space and scurry out of the room.

You're not sure what all that was about but you should probably think of a way to make up for whatever it is you did to offend her. Maybe she is sensitive about the fact that her skin spews vomit? Well whatever it is you did, your sure it what was just a misunderstanding and you will be able to clear it up in no time. You briefly consider checking up on your apprentice but change your mind. You didn't hear any explosions or dimensional breaches opening in the last ten minutes so your sure they are fine. Anyway you really want see the doggies so you go looking for the Dire Wolf.

You find her in the corner of the main room with her pack. She glowers at anybody that approaches her and the pack, she must be shy or something, well it's up to you to make her feel welcome. As you walk up to her you wave your hand and say "Hi!" The Dire Wolf turns and gives you a grunt but does not say anything else. Yep, she is shy. You guess you just need to break the ice a little. "Um can I pet your doggies?"

She eyes you in silence for a minute before grunting out a "No." You deflate a little in disappointment about the lack of doggie petting. Jeez the Dire Wolf is hard to talk to. You try to think of a conversation starter but flail around a little bit. "Is there anything else?" she asks curtly.

"You got enough food for all your dogs?" you ask.

"Yes."

You bite the inside of your lip as look around the room for something to talk about. Your eyes land on her mate and his mate jr. You turn back to the Dire Wolf and waggle your eyebrows "So how long the two of you been together?"

The Dire Wolf stares at your face as if trying to solve some great mystery "A week." she says bemused but you can hear a note of happiness behind her usual gruff tone.

Ah young love! It warms your heart to see such a young couple find happiness. You sidle up to her and give her a sly grin "So he any good in the sack?" you ask mischievously.

She gives you a shrug and says "Sure." nonchalantly, but you see her lips twitch up a little. Success! You found a subject that the two you enjoy talking about. You prod her for details and the two of you began to talk about your sex lives. She is pretty new to the wonderful world of sex so you are more than happy to give her plenty of advice. Unlike your dad the Dire Wolf seems to be interested in your expert advice and asks you questions on occasion.

As the of you are talking about some of your favorite positions an idea occurs to you. "Hey dog-man could you track the bees by scent through astral space?" you call out. The dog-man cocks his head to side before nodding. "I think I got a idea for your first job." you eagerly. "I need you to track down the bee shaman is so I can gank her."

The Dire Wolf frowns at you and stares into your eyes. You make sure not to blink or look away as she does so. You don't need the Dire Wolf thinking that she can push you around. "How much?"

You're not to good with paper money stuff so you can only guess what would be a good amount. You of course don't let your uncertainty show on your face since the Dire Wolf would see that as weakness and rip your throat out with her teeth. What would be a good reward for a job like this? Hmmm. Well ten thousand is usually a good amount of money, unless the paper money is totally worthless like it should be. You decide to take the risk and go for it "Ten thousand."

The Dire Wolf walks over to her mate and they speak to each in the language of dog. Which you kind of understand a little since you are quite fluent in rat. It's not quite the same but you can usually get the gist of what they are trying to say. Right now you think they are saying the deal is good and they should take it or they plan on murdering you and just take the money. The Dire Wolf walks back and says "That works."

You give her a firm nod and say "I'll go get the Hollow Man and meet you at the entrance in ten minutes." She shrugs and walks over to her dogs, so you head out to find the Hollow Man. After a few minutes you spot him watching the Beef Cake from a distance. "Hey Hollow Man, I got a new lead!"

"That's good." he responds. "Where are we going?"

"Back to the house. The dog-man thinks he can track the bees to where ever they ran off to."

The Hollow Man frowns and says "I don't know if you are aware of this but, the police will be at the scene of the explosion by now and if they noticed anything odd they would have contacted the PRT. "

You scowl. Damn the PRT! Always pissing in your cornflakes! Well you suppose if you are sneaky enough you can avoid them or jus beat the ever loving shit out of them if they get in the way. Part of you is hoping that they spot you. "Well we can't rely on the PRT to track down the bee shaman. They can't even track me down. So we are going to have to work around them." you say.

The Hollow Man lets out a sigh but gives you a nod. The two of meet up with the Dire Wolf, the dog-man and two other doggies. You put up a notice-me-not field on all of you and call up your buddy Moves-Like-Wind to bring your companions to the ground and enhance all of your movement. When you all reach the ground the Dire Wolf starts to buff her dogs including the dog-man. The dog-man shifts back into his dog form and the Dire Wolf mounts him. Kinky.

Since you are going to be sneaking around the PRT you should probably make all of you invisible as well just in case. You grimace as your magic expands over all six of you, the strain of keeping six spells going is giving you a major headache. You fly above as the rest of them as they make their way across the rooftops. When you get to the ruins of the bee shamans base you spot a bunch of vans. You also see some PRT jerks hanging around and a woman dressed in red, white and blue. Behind her you see a humanoid made of steel and wood.

You turn to the dog-man and whisper "Right. So see if you can get the scent without alerting those assholes."

The dog-man gives you a nod and pads his way quietly towards the house, weaving its way through the PRT jerkbutts. You watch him sniff around the ruins and after a bit starts making his way away from the house. You all trail after him once he is out of sight of the PRT and after you are a good distance from them drop your invisibility spells. Gods it is a pain holding that many spells for long periods at a time.

The dog-man moves slowly as he follows the scent. After two hours you find yourself in front of a large building. It reminds you of something but can't think of what. Hmmm. Oh that's right, it's that temple you woke up in. What are the odds? "Jobs done?" asks the Dire Wolf.

You turn to the dog-man and ask "They haven't left the building yet right?"

The dog-man sniffs the air and walks around the building at a distance before returning to you. "She has not left." he grunts in astral space.

You give the Dire Wolf a nod and say "Yeah, jobs done." before turning back to the temple. It is a good spot really. If she already took over the local clergy she could nab visiting followers with ease. Since it is a established sun god temple people would not be suspicious until it was too late. To make matters worse since it is a sun temple there is no doubt a large amount of innocent people inside of it during the day that the bee shaman can take hostage. You're probably better of coming after the sun is set and it will be mostly deserted. Your pretty sure thanks to distance and your notice-me-not field that the bee shaman has not noticed you, so she won't know you found her already.

"Hey Hollow Man we should come back later tonight when it will mostly deserted." you say.

The Hollow Man nods and says "That is probably for the best. We don't need people getting between us and our target."

While sun god worshipers tend to be dicks to you and your fellow brother/sister undead, killing them unprovoked is still wrong. You consider putting up some sort of watcher to make sure she doesn't leave while you are gone, but unfortunately none of your spirit buddies can stick around if you leave, so no dice. You suppose you could ask the Hollow Man to stay here and keep watch for you, but decide against it. If the bee shaman spots him then he will be on his lonesome and he could get hurt. Unacceptable. "Okay lets head back." you say.

After half an hour all of you are standing inside of your forest with your companions. The Dire Wolf and her pack head off somewhere to the side, while you and the Hollow Man make your way to your room. On the way there the Hollow Man says "You should really consider contacting the PRT and letting them know where she is." You make a face at the Hollow Man and open your mouth to say something but the Hollow Man cuts you off "I know that you don't like them, but can we really afford to let a S-class threat get out of hand? If we can convince them to assist us then our chances of success will increase."

"I... I'll consider it." you say grudgingly. He raises a good point, but the PRT are treacherous especially the Construct and they might use this as a opportunity to attack you. You walk into your room to find your dad and Mt. Flufflekins there. Mt. Flufflekins lets out a cheep of excitement and flies over to you. You catch him in your arms and snuggle him close. "Hey Dad!" you say cheerfully. "We found her again."

Your dad gives you strained smile and says "That's... good. Where is she?"

"Some temple to a sun god." you say.

"What?" your dad says confused.

How was that unclear? You open your mouth to respond when the Hollow Man speaks up "She means Winslow." You do?

Your dad looks alarmed for some reason so you decide to reassure him "She only moved in today so and I plan on dealing with her tonight so the people of the temple should be fine. Well unless she set up multiple lodges beforehand and has been harvesting people from there the whole time. Turning the whole building into a giant hive." For some reason your dad fails to be unalarmed.

Well if first you don't succeeded try again. "Don't worry Dad I have a scheme brewing in my head. I will take care of everything." you say patting him on the shoulder comfortingly while giving him your best smile.

"What is your plan if I may ask?" questions the Hollow Man.

You turn to the Hollow Man and say "I am thinking of going in with you, me, the Dire Wolf and her pack since we are all the heavy hitters. The Puppeteers skill set is honestly not that useful in direct combat, it's much to situational. Also I don't think it would work on the bee people since their anatomy have mutated far too much. The Transporter is pretty squishy so she is staying here, although she does have a mean right hook." you say rubbing your jaw. "And I don't think the Collector really likes fighting judging from my conversation with him."

"I am still considering asking the PRT for help." you add with a frown. "More people would be great, but that are all deceitful assbutts." If the bee shaman escapes again she might realize that you can track her down quickly. At that point she will start to act like a cornered bee and start doing more and more crazy things to escape you. So more bodies would only help unless of course they decide to attack you instead of the bee shaman. If only you could divine their thoughts...

You slap your forehead in exasperation and stand up. "Be back in a bit. I need to go ask the Diviner something quickly." you say calling over shoulder as you leave the room. You make your way to the kitchen quickly and look in. You see the Diviner muttering to herself while fiddling with a talky box. It looks like she got a change of clothes and washed all the vomit off of her while you were gone. The kitchen table is now covered in sheets of paper with notes scrawled across them. "Um hey." you call out from the door way "Can I come in? I got news and stuff."

The Diviner looks up at you with a blank face before sighing and motioning for you to come in. "So I would like to apologies for earlier." you say. You're not really sure what your apologizing for to be honest, but apologizing to someone is never a bad thing.

The Diviner eyes soften a little and she says "Let's just pretend it never happened. As long as you don't do it again we're fine." You give her a nod and hope you never accidently do whatever it is you did again. "So what do you have for me?"

"Well I managed to track down the bee shaman again with the help of the dog-man. She is in a temple called Winslow or something like that. I plan on attacking around midnight when the least amount of people should be there. I am considering talking to the PRT and asking for help, but I am sure if they will just get in the way or not."

The Diviner gives a hum while she thinks before saying "Well the bee parahuman is out of control, judging by what you said, she has killed around a hundred people in a week and it will only get worse from there, so the PRT would pretty eager to put her down. In situations like these they have been known to work with villains in the past so I am like ninety percent sure they would work with you."

"What do villains have to do with anything?" you ask baffled.

The Diviner smirks at you and says with sincerity "Oh honey, I hate to break it to you but you're a villain now."

"Wait what?! That can't be right! I am a hero!" you say flabbergasted. How could anyone think you are a bad guy?!

She pats you on the cheek and says with a foxy grin "The PRT announced your villain status yesterday after your breakout. You probably shouldn't have mastered a hero and then use them try to assassinate someone."

Damn the PRT! Now they are spreading malicious lies about you! You would never mind controlled any hero! Oooooh, you are going make them pay for that! Grinding your teeth together in rage you say "I see."

The Diviner looks at you in amusement and says "If you like I could arrange something with the PRT for you."

"That... that is probably for the best." you bite out. You're so angry right now your body is vibrating in rage. You doubt you could hold yourself together long enough to speak to PRT let alone convince them to work with you. You start to sing to yourself quietly to calm yourself down as the Diviner puts her talky box to her ear. "I would like to report a emergency." says the Diviner into her talky box.

As she is talking to whoever it is on the other side of the array you scheme of ways to get back at the PRT. If they are willing to spread lies about you, you should return the favor and spread truths about them. You don't doubt for a second that the PRT has been suppressing their more nefarious deeds from the public eye. Well you will just have to drag their secrets into the light where all can see. Their booze related heresy being the most important and damning. If people knew how the PRT worked against the sacred brew they would no doubt revolt and join your cause.

But how to spread the word? This city is probably one of the largest, if not the largest, on the continent. Reaching everybody would take a great deal of effort. Hmmmm. Wait the Shit Man must know a way of doing so since he is spreading your songs around and selling them. Actually weren't you making money off that or something? You should probably look into that as well now that you think about it.

"Hey they want to speak with you." says the Diviner shoving her talky box into your face.

You take the talky box from her and take a deep breath before saying "Yes?"

"This is Necros, correct?" says a stern sounding woman.

"Yes." you say again.

"I want you to understand that if this is a trap of any kind or that you betray us that the consequences well be severe." she says.

" I always tell the truth. I am not liar like you people." you say offended.

The woman seems to ignore your cutting remark and says "Give the phone back to Tattletale."

Who? Well since the Diviner was the last person to use the talky box the woman must mean her. You hand the talky box back to the Diviner and go back to thinking of ways to spread the good word. You know what you should do? Make another album. You can sing about the various crimes committed by the PRT in the form of song . All the people that bought your last album should buy your next one as well. You grin broadly as you combine two great passions of yours, song crafting and shit talking the PRT. You start humming to yourself as you write lyrics in your head.

After a few minutes the Diviner addresses you "Right so I set up meeting spot for you and the PRT." She then scribbles an address on a piece of paper and hands it to you. "This is the address you will met up with them at to discuss your plan. You will be meeting up with them at one am. You got all that?" she asks.

"Yep. Thanks for the help." you say gratefully. You check your talky box and see that that it is 4:15 pm. As you head back to your room to tell the Hollow Man the plan, you see that he was standing outside the kitchen waiting for you to come out. "So we are meeting the PRT here at one am." you say showing him the paper.

He looks over the paper and says "That should be fine."

As you walk into your room you let out a yawn. Your feeling pretty tired now that you think about it. Today has been emotionally and physically draining. "Hey I am going to take a nap. Can you wake me up when it is time to go?" you ask the Hollow Man.

"Go ahead and rest." replies the Hollow Man.

You flop down on your mattress and Mt. Flufflekins moves over to snuggle with you. As you close your eyes you say "Goodnight Dad. Goodnight Hollow Man. Goodnight Mt. Flufflekins."

Taylor rubbed her eyes sleepily as she sat up. As she sat on Mt. Flufflekins snout she listened to his soft, but at the same time loud, breathing as he slept. 'He must still be awake' thought Taylor. Taylor then turned her thoughts to what happened during the day 'Today had been... you know what? Forgot about today.' Taylor then shoved those thoughts down in the dark pits of her mind where they belonged.

Taylor got to her feet and made her way to archway. Part of her wanted to stay behind and just relax with her son, but she couldn't do that right now. She needed more power to deal with... the bee shaman. Yes, bee shaman. Maybe Rana knew something useful about insect shamans, she did have a library that seemed never ending surely she had books on the subject. As she reached the archway she took in the various songs and found some missing? Where was Rana?

Taylor's antenna drooped as she couldn't locate Rana. Where had her friend gone? That had been her favorite song too. It always made her feel like she could deal with her problems. Disappointed Taylor turned her attention to the other songs. Hmmm a couple others were missing as well, weird. Closing her eyes she tried to decide to which path to follow. What she needed most was a way of sneaking past the bee shaman's servants.

She needed to be something she wasn't and so focused on the song that pretended to be something that is wasn't. Listening to the song was a confusing affair, each note acted as though it was a different note. It was if though she was hearing two songs at once. The first being the illusion and the second being the true hidden tune. After walking for a minute she walked through the singers archway and found herself in a grassy field.

Across the field stones jutted out of the ground with symbols etched into them. Off to the side was a man, in what looked armor made of crystal, sitting on the ground humming to himself as he carved into one of the stones. Taylor flew up to him and said "Hello. I'm Taylor who are you?"

The man looked up at her before rising to his feet towering above her. He had to be at least seven feet tall. He then did a little dance, hopping from one foot to another, before ending in pose with his arms stretched out "I am Gremthaxel the Betrayer! I apologize in advance for my future treachery!" He then slips and falls on his face "Betrayed by my own body! Curse you, me! You handsome devil you!"

Taylor stared at him in disbelief. Was this some sort of act to get her to let down her guard? Well she wasn't falling for it. "That's great... Grundel?" she asked unsure. What was his name again.

"Gremthaxel the Betrayer." he corrected with a smile.

"Yeah that." Taylor said not really caring. Right she came here to ask him for help, although now that she thought about maybe asking a liar for help wasn't the best plan. Maybe she could bluff him into helping her?

Frowning Taylor said "Yeah I don't buy it."

Gremthaxel blinked and he scrunched up his nose in confusion before saying "Um what? What don't you buy?"

"I don't believe for a second you could trick anybody with a name like that. You must be the worst liar ever." said Taylor dismissively.

"What?!" exclaimed Gremthaxel. "How dare you! I am the greatest betrayer in the history of everything! I once tricked reality into doing my bidding! I betrayed gravity itself! My trickery knows no bounds!"

"Meh. All talk, no substance." said Taylor with disinterest. "You're so transparent you couldn't trick a small child."

"Not true!" said Gremthaxel wringing his hands in distress. "I can scam candy from a baby! I have done it plenty of times."

"Prove it." she said.

Gremthaxel tapped his chin in thought. "Hmmm. How do you suggest I do that?"

Taylor pretended to think about it for a minute before she said "I bet you can't trick me into learning the art of treachery. If you succeed in doing so only then will I admit your status as a betrayer. But if you fail you must teach me your tricks."

Gremthaxel didn't even think about it before yelling "Deal!" and stuck out his hand. When Taylor reached out to shake his hand he pulled it back at the last second "Too slow! Betrayed!" He then proceeded to do his dance his dance of treachery. Curse him. He then stuck his hand out again. This time Taylor's hand shot out like a snake but Gremthaxel danced out of the way once more. "Whoop! Feel the sting of betrayal!" He then proceeded to start dancing once more.

Taylor let out a roar of frustration and leap onto him. She gnawed on his head as she tried to grab on to his hand. After a few minutes of struggling Taylor finally managed to seize his hand. "Ha I win!" she declared "Now the challenge begins!"

"Phooy! Very well then." Gremthaxel sat on the ground and pulled out three cups. He then withdrew a rock, covered in markings, from empty air. "This a stone that contains the knowledge of Masking. It allows one to hide their true nature from those with the eye of the magi. I shall place it under these cups and then I will shuffle them." He placed the stone under the right most cup. "You then must choose a cup, if the stone is within you must take the stone and use it. We shall do this three times. If you pick up the stone I win and if you manage to evade the stone you win. Deal?"

Taylor smirked and said "Deal."

"THEN LET US BEGIN!" he bellowed. His hands then blurred as he shuffled the cups. Taylor tried to follow his movements but it got more and more complicated as it went on. He would sometimes shoot the stone between the cups and at one point started to juggle them. After exactly one minute he let go of the cups and said "Choose."

Taylor looked down at the cups unsure which one contained the stone, but in the end did it really even matter? Either way she got what she wanted. Shrugging Taylor reached out and grab the right most cup and lifted it, revealing the stone within. Forcing herself to keep the smirk off her face Taylor went to grab the stone when something occurred to her. She quickly reached out and flipped over the other two cups and saw that each one had a identical stone underneath them. "You cheated!" accused Taylor. She was not really sure why she cared at all, but it was the spirit of the thing.

"I did? How?" ask Gremthaxel in confusion with his cocked to his side.

"What do you mean how!? You put a stone under all of the cups!" she exclaimed.

"I fail to see how that matters." said Gremthaxel perplexed. He give her a odd look as though she was being the unreasonable one here.

"Of course it matters! There is only suppose to be one stone!" she argued.

"Hmmm. I don't remember saying that. I said I would put the stone under these cups and I did. I placed it under all these cups. " he replied. "You agreed to the terms when I laid them out."

Taylor opened her mouth to argue before realizing he wasn't wrong. Huffing she picked up one of the stones and looked down at it. Wait. How did she know that the stone did what Gremthaxel said it did. For all she knew it would turn her brain into mush. She quickly scanned the stone in astral perception and found that it did exactly what he claimed it did, but if it was stone of masking couldn't it mask what it truly did? She looked up at Gremthaxel who just smiled happily back at her.

This was terrible idea. What had she been thinking? Could she back out of the deal? She felt her body rebel against the very thought of going back on a deal, so no dice. She looked up at Gremthaxel again and saw that his smile had grown even wider. He had her trapped and they both knew it. She had underestimated this man, he was diabolical genius. Sweat started to travel down her back and her hands started to shake a she looked down at the stone. 'Stupid stupid Taylor! You always fuck everything up.'

"Well?" he prompted.

Gulping Taylor grip the stone in her hand and activated it. It was different from when she merged with Rana and Mr. Nibbles, instead of a intense stream of memories or a burning sensation, she felt as if a tight band wrapped around her brain. The pressure increased steadily and it felt like her brain would be ripped in two when the band snapped. Blinking Taylor tried to figure what had changed but she didn't feel any different. Of course she hadn't felt different after Rana did her thing either, so did that really mean anything?

Gremthaxel was once more on his feet doing his jig of deceit. "Haha! Betrayal at its finest."

"What-what did that stone do?" asked Taylor quietly. Her heart raced as she tried to stop herself from panicking.

Gremthaxel stood tall and smirked at her before saying "Exactly what I said it did and nothing else!"

"What." said Taylor.

"You see you were expecting a trap but there was never any trap at all. Thus I betrayed your expectations of what would happen. The most foul betrayal indeed!"

"I..." started Taylor. That was the stupidest thing she ever heard. This guy was an idiot. God she had been panicking over nothing.

"Now then since I taught you the fine art of treachery you must now admit that I am great betrayer!" he said as he broke into dance.

"Actually." said Taylor "You never taught me anything about treachery. You taught me concealment and that is it."

Gremthaxel lost his footing and landed on his face with a loud thud. "What- wait- no- I!" stuttered Gremthaxel.

"So that means I win." replied Taylor.

Gremthaxel looked like he was going to cry "Nooooo undone by my own hubris!"

"And since I said tricks you are required to teach me multiple things." she continued without mercy.

Sniffling Gremthaxel laid there on the ground for a moment before finding his voice "Very well then I shall take you on as my apprentice. Clearly you have the talent for the art of treachery and it would be a travesty to not teach you. Maybe you can even surpass my greatness."

Taylor considered his offer. On one hand he probably knew a lot of magic and tricks that would be useful, but on the other hand his name literally has Betrayer in it. Maybe giving him the title of master over her would be not a such great idea. She wasn't even sure what Gremthaxel was or that Gremthaxel was even really his real name. Who knew what crazy power she would accidently give him by saying yes. "Yeah, I am going to pass on that."

"What!?" he cried out offended. "Why not!?"

"Well mostly I don't trust you." said Taylor.

Gremthaxel just stared at her gob smacked "How can you not trust me?! It's the name isn't it. People are always judging me by name. The racists." He glowered at Taylor "You're a racist too, aren't you!?"

"I don't even know what race you are." replied Taylor confused.

"That's what make it so heinous!" declared Gremthaxel.

"That doesn't even make sense." said Taylor "And anyway I also don't trust you since you keep talking about how you betray people all the time and have tried to betray me multiple times in this very conversation."

Gremthaxel rolled his eyes and said "Now you're making excuses for you racism. Well you aren't going to fool me."

"Whatever." said Taylor "Look you still have to teach me some stuff per our agreement."

"Not till you apologize for your racism." replied Gremthaxel.

"You have to teach me. We had a deal." said Taylor impatiently. He was not going to weasel out of this deal.

"Actual we never stated when I had to teach you. So if you don't apologize I'll teach you after the heat death of the universe." said Gremthaxel.

"We'll both be dead by then." said Taylor getting annoyed.

Gremthaxel snorted and said "No I won't."

"Fine I am sorry." said Taylor.

Gremthaxel narrowed his eyes and said "For what?"

'Shit.' Taylor wasn't actual sorry for whatever slight Gremthaxel claimed to have felt. She was sorry she had to listen to his ramblings. "I am sorry for the heated words we exchanged." she said.

Gremthaxel stared at her face intensely before saying "Apology accepted."

"So you going to teach me something now?" Taylor asked.

"Nope." said Gremthaxel.

"When are going to teach me something?" Taylor said rephrasing her question.

"When I feel like it." he said with a shrug.

Taylor glowered at him and felt like stomping her foot. Stupid poopie head! "And what do you need to feel like it?"

"I don't know." he said slowly. "I will have to think about it and get back to you. I won't take more than a day. Deal?"

"Deal." said Taylor with a sigh. That was probably the best deal she was going to get out of him. At least he set a time limit this time.

Grumbling to himself, he flopped down on the ground and closed his eyes. Taylor rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. Gods who knew that he would be such a sore loser about this. Well hopefully he would get over this ridiculous mood and be useful again soon. After a few minutes of examining the nearby boulders Taylor felt herself waking up.