It was morning on the Jörmungandr, I was walking though the hallways when I heard several small explosions coming from the sparring hall, I bolted towards the hall and rushed in the find Vapaa stood behind John Henry, who was holding a large pistol in his front claws and aiming it at a target.

“Breath in” Vapaa said, John took in a deep breath and tensed up “take your ti…”

BANG

The gunshot rang out through the hall, and there was now a bullet hole in the wall just to the left of the target.

“Too soon” Vapaa said “but that was darn close for a first shot, remember, take your time, it isn’t a race” John nodded and raised the handgun, taking aim once more, he breathed in, and waited a few seconds before pulling the trigger, the shot rang out once more, this time hitting the target just on the edge of outer ring.

“Bloody good shot for a first time” I said, startling them, I walked forward “forgive me, it’s a little hard to go un-noticed when you are using a pistol from earth, may I have a look?” I held my hand out, Vapaa nodded to john and the young griffin passed me the pistol, it was large and bulky, at least compared to my arcane flintlock-style pistol.

“What type is this” I asked.

“Desert Eagle” Vapaa said, I gave a low whistle.

“May I have a go?” I asked, he nodded, I took aim and fired after a few seconds, hitting just off from the bulls eye, I passed it back to him “a bit bulky and loud for my tastes, but then I’ve used an arcane pistol for the past year or so” I then got out my spell pistol and aimed at the target, I fired and it hit dead on the middle of the bulls eye, Vapaa gave a low whistle.

“Where can I get one of those?” he asked.

“I could convert your Desert Eagle into a spell gun, if you want” I said “it will considerably increase accuracy at long range as the arcane rounds aren’t affected by wind or gravity, they just keep on going until they dissipate”

“If it makes it a better weapon then sure” he said “just let me use up all of the bullets first, better than letting them go to waste”

“Sure” I said “just come find me when you’ve done”

“Will do” he replied “and when you get a free moment, it’s not totally important, but I want to show you something”

“Okay” I said, before walking out the door, as I walked down the corridor I passed the common room, where I saw Orca looking at all of the different L.P. sleeves, I leaned on the doorway “do you listen to any music?” she gasped.

“Oh, it’s just you, Vuur Koning” she said, she then looked back at the shelves full of L.P.s “do these contain music!?”

“Yes” I said, I then gestured to the shelves and stereo equipment “all of this, bar a few albums that I bought, are inherited from my father, along with several other items that aren’t in here, I’m just passing through at the moment, plus I plan to head out with Autumn and the kids into the town today, but most nights, we have a group that gathers in here to relax and listen to music, you are free to join us if you wish”

“I’ll consider it” she said “thank you for the offer” I nodded before turning to leave.

---

I was walking through the coastal town near the Jörmungandr with Autumn and the twins, we were looking for somewhere to grab something to eat, I noticed a quiet fish restaurant at the corner of a street.

“Let’s try there” I said to Autumn, pointing to the restaurant.

“Sure” she said “as long as they have a vegetarian option” I nodded and quickly looked at the menu that was scrawled on the A-board, I stopped after a few seconds when I realised it was written in Minotaurian runes.

“Err” I said “I can’t read Minotaurian” Autumn shook her head slightly before looking at the menu.

“They have a vegetarian option” she said “I’ll tell you what’s on the menu when we sit down”

“Fair enough” I said, we all walked in and sat down at a table, Autumn picked up the menu and began scanning through it “I really wish I had a mask of translation”

“But I remember you told me you once learnt to read in a totally different text system” Autumn pointed out “what was it again, acrylic?”

“Cyrillic” I corrected “but I forgot after a few weeks, I should really refresh my memory of Cyrillic at some point”

“What’s serilic?” Garnet asked.

“Cyrillic” I said “it’s a typeface used by countries on my world such as Russia and other Slavic countries, they speak in a similar language style to Thestrals, but without squeaks”

“Why can’t everyone just speak the same language?” Ruby asked.

“In a perfect world they would” I said “but it’s impossible to have a ‘universal’ language, as there will always be arguments over which language to use, in my opinion a language like Latin or Esperanto would be a good starting point”

“Why Latin or Esperanto?” Garnet asked.

“Latin because it’s an old language and it’s been around for a long time” I said “Esperanto because it’s a combination of several languages like Italian, Russian and German, so it would be relatively easy to teach people to speak it, as it’s so similar to so many languages” at that point Autumn read out the different options on the menu for me, Garnet and Ruby.

“I think I’ll just go with cod and chips” I said “it’s what they have back home, so I know I’ll like it” at this point a waiter walked over and took our orders for drinks and food, when the waiter went away I noticed a human sitting in a dimly lit corner, he was wearing what looked like sea blue armour and mask with crimson secondary colours and yellow highlights as well as a cloak that was sea blue, he had two swords that resembled Katana’s, one red and one blue, he seemed to be watching us closely, I tapped Autumn on the shoulder.

“What?” Autumn asked.

“Am I the only one seeing a human sat in the corner?” I asked her “one that we don’t recognise” the human noticed us looking back at him and he quickly started looking anywhere but at us.

“We can talk to him after we’ve eaten” Autumn said.

“I just hope he doesn’t speak a language the neither of us know” I said, the waiter soon brought our food over and we ate, I occasionally glanced at the human sat in the corner, just in case he went to leave, as we were finishing our meal he got up and headed for the exit “Stay here and pay for the food” I waited until he walked past before standing up and following him outside, when he saw me following he began to walk faster I matched his pace, ‘don’t run, don’t run’ I thought to myself, he looked back and bolted when he saw me, I began to chase after, I was really beginning to wish I had worn my armour, we both weaved through the crowds.

“Stop!” I shouted, he dived down an alley way and clambered up the walls, his mask glowing as he did so “great, he’s already a Toa, and he has a Calix” I muttered as I clambered up after him, when I got to the roof I saw him running along and jumping from roof to roof, I had to really push myself to keep up, I noticed Vapaa on a building on the opposite side of the street in his armour and cloak, John was with him.

“A little help here, mate!” I called, he looked over, then looked at the human and began running after us, staying on the other side. Up ahead I could see a Y-junction, I had to take a gamble, either he was going to jump to the middle row of houses, or he was going to go down one side, he jumped to the middle row of houses, Vapaa used his powers of flight and jumped after him, he suddenly disappeared in a flash of light and the human collapsed on the roof with Vapaa on top of him and holding the humans arm behind his back, I leapt over the narrow street and ran up to them, Vapaa pulled him up “Why did you run?”

“Because you’re just another one of the shape shifting bug things” he said in a New York accent “you’ve been after me for weeks”

“Bullshit” I said “you saw me in the restaurant, if I was a changeling I would have turned into a Minotaur or something, I’m human, just like you”

“Really?” he said sarcastically, Vapaa pushed his arm further up his back “ah, geeze, taking it easy” Autumn flew over with the twins.

“What’s wrong Vuur?” Autumn asked.

“He seems to think I’m a changeling” I said “apparently they’ve be after him for some time” Autumn frowned.

“If it’s Chrysalis’s hive…” Autumn trailed off, I turned to the human.

“Alright, you’re coming with us” I said “we’ll protect you and find out what’s going on”

“And if I refuse?” the human asked, I nodded to Vapaa who pulled his arm up further “ah, ah, okay, okay, I’ll go”

“Thank you” I said “Vapaa, if you would be so kind as to escort him back to the ship, confiscate his weapons and place him in the brig, for his safety as well as ours”

“Yes sir” Vapaa said, I then looked at the human.

“Trust me when I say this isn’t anything personal” I said “this is for your protection, we can’t have you running off and getting captured by changelings” he didn’t look at me, he just huffed, I nodded to Vapaa and he let go of the humans arm and grabbed his shoulder.

“Don’t try anything” Vapaa said, before leading him away.

“What was that about” Garnet asked, I looked at him

“I’m not sure”

---

We were back on the ship, Garnet and Ruby were playing on the beach with John and Aurora, whilst me, Minion and Vapaa were walking down to the brig, we were all in our armour.

“I’m going to need to alert the Minotaurian guard about the changelings, tell them to keep an eye open” I said “if changeling are trying to capture a human then that means they’ve heard about our Toa powers and are trying to get one”

“I’ll talk to the changelings on the ship later” Vapaa said “I’m friends with them, so they might tell me more than if you were to ask them”

“How did you become friends with the changelings?” I asked.

“Who knew changeling like Transformers” he said with a shrug.

“Riiight” I said “just tell them that if any of them has been passing along information, if they come forward then their punishment won’t be as severe”

“Will do” he said, we reached the brig and walked inside, some of the cells had occupants, all guilty of minor offences, the human was sat in a room with a table and some chairs, I walked inside and Minion and Vapaa followed, I sat down on a chair but Minion and Vapaa remained standing, I noticed the human was playing with a sphere of water.

“Aquakinesis” I noted “rather unusual for a male to become a Toa of water, most, if not all Ga-Toa have been female, unless there’s something you aren’t telling us” Minion chuckled and the human glared at him.

“Who are you?” the human asked.

“Vuur Koning” I said “captain of the E.N.A.S. Jörmungandr, Toa of fire and leader of the Wolfpack”

“Yeah right” he said “Toa don’t exist, there just a toy made by Lego”

“Then how do you explain the red armour, Kenohi Hau and fire powers?” I said, conjuring a fire ball, I then took of my helmet “or even the biomechanical parts on my body, my jaw for instance”

“I’ve seen creatures walking around with mechanical replacement limbs” he said “you could just have a very advanced version of that”

“Then how do you explain it on your own body?” I said, he went to say something but stopped and frowned, I chuckled “thought so, whether you want to believe me or not, is up to you. All I know is this; I was in town having lunch with my marefriend and adoptive kids, I saw a human sat in the corner with blue armour and two swords, in a world where humans shouldn’t exist, you leave just as I’m about to get up and ask you things like why you are here, you run off down the street and I end up chasing you, Vapaa here ends up stopping you and you seem to think that we are changelings. I want to know why the changelings have been after you”

“I don’t know why they are after me” he said “only that they’ve been after me for the past few weeks, maybe even longer, whenever I ask why they are after me the reply in some strange language, I know as much as you do”

“Are you sure you don’t know why they are after you?” I asked.

“Yes!” he said “why, is there a problem with these ‘changelings’?”

“One of their hives tried to invade a country that we are allied with” I said “they might be trying it again, only this time they might be trying to capture a human to use as a weapon”

“Why would they want me?” he asked.

“Kriegsglück” I said, shrugging.

“What!?” the human asked.

“it’s a German saying” I said “it means ‘the fortunes of war’, it applies rather well to your situation, you’re just a victim of fate, it’s not anything personal, they’re just trying to gain an advantage in the Changeling-Equestrian war”

“There’s a war!?” he asked.

“Sort of” I said “it’s not a serious one, at the moment at least”

“So what happens to me now?” he asked.

“Well” I said “you have two choices; you can stay on this ship, travel the world, join a group of elite warriors and in return you get protection, or you can leave this ship, get captured by changelings, have who knows what happen to you, and be used as a weapon in a war, either way it’s your choice” I sat back in the chair.

“If I join” he said “what’s the catch?”

“You have to work on this ship to earn your keep” I said “I don’t care what you do, just as long as it benefits the crew and running of the ship”

“Like what?” he asked.

“Well, if fighting is your thing, you could always go with the defence division under the command of my brother, Minion” I pointed to Minion as I said this “Good with maps? That puts you on the bridge studying charts and planning out routes with the others. Know how to wire up equipment, or good with a wrench? that puts you in maintenance. Multilingual? That puts you in communications, just want to do odd jobs? Then you’re part of the ordinary crew, or if none of the above take your fancy, then you could always work in the workshops doing commissioned work, you have until we leave this beach to decide, that’s in 2 days”

“Where will I stay until then?” he asked

“I’ll have a room assigned to you” I said “and if you are a little lacking in combat skills then go to Vapaa, he’s usually teaching classes on things like martial arts and looking for weaknesses in opponents” the human nodded.

“Okay” he said “can I leave the cell now?”

“Sure” I said, I then turned to Vapaa “give him back his weapons”

---

I was in the workshops, working on the Royal Enfield, Garnet was there, helping me out if I needed him the pass something or heat-weld two items together, perfect time for bonding, although my dad’s bike was really making it hard for us, some of the parts in the old engine were seized, and I was getting Garnet to heat up the crankcase to try and loosen them.

“Keep going” I said, the edges of the crank case were starting to glow under Garnets flames “alright, stop” I then picked up the crank case in my bare hand, thanks to my control of fire I could withstand the heat, I yanked on the offending part and it slid out with some effort.

“What is that?” Garnet asked.

“This is the crank pin” I said, shaking my hand to cool it off “the crank and flywheel rotate around this”

“What are you going to do with all of this?” he asked, gesturing to the engine parts.

“Clean and then reassemble the engine” I said “I’m going to put it on display somewhere” I heard footsteps walking towards us, I looked over to see Vapaa, holding his gun.

“I guess you’re done?” I said, he nodded “put it on the table, I’ll be over in a moment”

“Sure” he said, I turned to Garnet.

“No can go and play with Ruby now if you want” I said.

“Thank you” Garnet said, before walking out of the workshops, when he was gone I sighed

“He’s still so terse around me” I said, walking over to the table and looking at Vapaa “how do I get him to open up and accept me?”

“I know just as much about parenting as you do” he said “probably better off asking your brother”

“Probably” I said “anyway, you want me to convert this to use an arcane mechanism, correct?”

“Yeah” he said.

“Okay” I said “I’ll work on it whenever I get spare time, but I’m not sure how long it will take”

“That’s fine” he said “oh, there’s something I want to show you” he then walked into his workshop and I followed, he held up a vial of a clear green jelly like substance.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Natural secretions from changelings” he said, I took a step back.

“Why are you showing me a vial of changeling shit?” I asked

“Well” he said “I heard that they used this stuff to build their hives, so it’s kind of like a natural glue”

“That’s practically common knowledge” I said, crossing my arms “where are you going with this”

“Well, look what happens when expose it to an open flame” he then got out a bowl filled with a miniscule droplet of changeling gunk and a long pole with a lighter at the end “you might want to take a step back” he placed the bowl on the ground and I walked back several meters, he stretched out his arm, holding the pole right at the very end and lowered the lit end into the mixture, when the flame touched the substance it combusted violently with a loud bang, shattering the bowl and sending the shards across the workshop, all that was left was a scorch mark and a large chunk missing from the floor, several people in nearby workshops exclaimed.

“SORRY, SORRY, SORRY!” Vapaa shouted.

“What in the name of Celestia is wrong with you!?” I heard someone shout back.

“The air is thick with envy over my genius” he said, smirking

“So to some up” I said “changeling shit is explosive”

“Only if you add a spark or flame, most of the time it’s very stable, but add an ignition source and it has the same power as ten times its weight in rubidium.

“Fuck!” I exclaimed “I’m surprised the changelings haven’t already utilised it”

“I think it’s to do with the fact that it's their crap” he said.

“Do you think you’d be able to make a grenade that utilises this stuff?” I asked.

“I was waiting for your go ahead” he said.

“Well get to it!” I said, before walking out of the workshop.

Next Chapter: Chapter 39 Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 38 Minutes