The alleyway echoes with the deafening sound of the shotgun blast. And, it is accompanied with a chorus of metallic clanks and a smattering of small pieces of concrete falling to the ground.

“Awww shattershot? What are you trying to do? Scratch the paint job? Slugs might do more than just tickle.” The quip is followed by a meaty soppy crunch.

Swift opens her eyes, not realizing she’d closed them tight instinctively when she saw the end of the barrel, and sees a shifting black form inches from her muzzle.

It moves again, stretching up and down, creating another meaty crunch before the gruff voice adds, “Lemmie show you how to use that shotgun.” Then another pair of blasts echo out in the alleyway as red splats cover the adjoining alleyway walls. “See, much more effective against unarmored targets.”

Swift blinks a few times, as she mentally does a check of her body. She glances sideways and sees a small collection of red dots growing on her clothes from where a few pellets had found purchase. But, nowhere else. She looks sideways the other way, at the mare she’d just been pounding, and gives her a quick threat-ending power hoof smash before turning her undivided attention to the huddled black mass in front of her. As her focus trails over their back and sides, she sees many segments of wires, and metal, sticking out of their back like a spider had plied their trade with some metallurgy.

Then the golden lines, like light shining through the cracks of a broken tinted window, catch her eye. Even more so when they turn to regard her.

“You alright, Swift?”

“G- Gearing!? You’re alive?!” Swift asks as her rear hits the ground in complete shock.

“I certainly hope so, the dead shouldn’t hurt like this,” he grumbles in a louder than normal voice. He gives a slight smirk, but Swift can tell something’s off with it. And it’s not just the partially caved in left side of his helmet that seems mangled and twisted into being form fitting with his left side. Nor his left eye that can’t open entirely from either damage or the helmet applying too much pressure. Every action he is making seems to be done with extreme effort. And cost.

“Hey! Metal ass!” a mare’s voice yells from the alleyway behind him.

A pair of hoofbeats draws Swift’s attention and she lowers herself as she prepares to pounce on the new arrivals. But stops and stares at the end of her muzzle, where Gearing’s forehoof appears and causes her to pause.

A pair of mares trot up and frown at Gearing as the left one says, “You should warn somepony when you decide to jump out of a damn window, you fool!”

The one on the right looks around and lets out a whistle as they look at the carnage. “Not really one for having any questions on if they survived or not, are ya?”

“Just having a bad day… and misery loves company,” Gearing mutters.

The one on the left leans sideways and notices the cloth behind him as she asks, “That who you’ve been looking for?”

Gearing shakes his head and steps to the side so the three can see each other clearly. “No… this is who you’ve been waiting on actually.” He waves a hoof at Swift. “This is ‘Iron Hoof’ Swift, the one Big Daddy said to keep an eye out for.” Both of their attentions snap to and start looking Swift over carefully as they try to size her up. Gearing waves over towards the two mares. “Swift, these two are with the Freight Cars.” He points to the one of the left, “This is Orchid.” Who dips her head a bit in confirmation as Gearing points towards the other, “And this is Silver Shoes.” Silver Shoes simply stands there constantly looking Swift over and doesn’t really pay attention to the introductions.

Swift likewise looks them over and tries to appraise their fighting ability and threat level. Orchid seems like a more timid green unicorn mare with a tree root brown mane. Her haunch is adorned with a pair of orchid flowers, stems intertwined, up until the two flowers, one blue and one purple, dip down at opposite angles. Both of her saddle bags seem particularly laden as they dip down and pull against the straps holding them over her back. Though, aside from the small knife on her right foreleg, the only visible weapon is the rifle casually slung over her shoulder. Silver Shoes, true to her name, is wearing a full set of metallic shoes that go up past the hoof. Along the sides are a combination of spikes and razors that declare them far more than just fashion accessories.

The bits of gore still imbedded in them help advertise that fact as well.

The long tan patchwork coat she is wearing covers up her own mark, and most of her hide. But Swift can make out the midnight black muzzle pointed in her direction, with an accompanying white mane, under her strange desperado hat.

Both of them are wearing a blue vest with golden buttons, and a matching conductor’s hat. A uniform they must have pilfered from some train station. Although, in Silver Shoe’s case, her conductor’s hat has been attached, and modified, to take up the place where the top of her desperado hat would be. Giving her a bit of a ridiculous appearance of wearing two hats at the same time.

Silver Shoes nods a few times as she makes out the various blood spatters, and the growing red patches, on Swift’s side. “I heard watching you fight is something, special. I hope it’s not a bunch of talk.”

Swift smirks at her and pounds the ground with her power hoof. “Oh, I can fight alright.” She grins as she stares at Silver Shoes. “Looking forward to some real competition.”

Gearing waves a hoof and asks, “Before you mares start a pissing for distance contest…” He looks at Swift. “Where is everyone else? Did Sable come down here with you?”

Swift’s unable to keep the instant involuntary cringe off of her muzzle as she tries to think how to convince Gearing that abandoning Sable was a good idea.

Gearing’s eyes go wide, only slightly wider in the case of his left eye, as he steps towards Swift. “What happened?! Swift, what happened to Sable? Is she okay?”

Swift waves it away with both forehooves and says quickly, “She’s still on the roof. She refused to come with us. Said she was going to stay there until you got back.”

Gearing lets out a groaning sigh as his shoulder slump a little in relief. “Oh… okay… Good…” He shakes his head. “I didn’t really expect you all to stay up there… but I can understand the reasoning both ways.” He nods as he looks around at the ground. “It is a bit easier to find each other if one stays put and lets the other come to them.”

Swift smiles and waves towards him. “No sweat. We can just fly over there real quick.”

He scrunches his muzzle up a bit to the side and tilts the right side of his head towards Swift as he asks louder, “What?!”

Orchid leans around Gearing and points at him before pointing at her own head. “He’s a bit hard of hearing. Gotta speak louder, especially on that left side.”

Swift looks back and forth, and, again, takes in the damaged helmet formed to his head. She leans to the side a bit and directs her comments towards his right ear. “I said we can just fly there!”

Gearing turns his head to look at her, then waves at his back with a forehoof. “Swift… I’m grounded… I’m not flying anywhere… and… no offense, I know you’re strong… but you’re not carrying my fat ass up like eight stories.”

Swift looks over his sides and back again, and it dawns on her. His wings have been made completely void of the green crystals that she’s learned to associate with his wing ‘feathers’. In their place is a tangled jumble of the spider web-like metal. Metal that, like the rest of him, had the same chemical treatment and is quite dark at the moment. Except at the points where they had been deeply scraped, gouged, and in more than a few cases, broken in two.

Her wings give an involuntary flutter at the thought of having such devastation unleashed on her own wings as she shakes her head. She looks at him as she tilts her head as another realization sets in. He’s injured. In a lot of pain. And not doing well. But, despite everything, he just saved her life. By shielding her with his own body. And seemingly coming back from the dead to do so.

She makes a mental note to think about this more later. When she has time. Right now there are a pair of very anxious individuals that she can help. “Well, let’s get up to the roof then. I just gotta go find Handy and let him know.”

Gearing shrugs and waves her off. “Alright. But, don’t go looking for the business end of a shotgun again. I need to get back to the roof, like yesterday. I’m out of equipment.” He looks the shotgun over as he grumbles, “Broke my sword off inside of somepony’s skull. Really shouldn’t have surprised me. It was shitily made anyway, and I can only polish a turd so much…”

Swift points a wing over to the dead mare with the battlesaddle. “There’s a couple rifles there if you want,” she offers loudly.

Gearing shakes his head ever so slightly. “I can’t use that kind of stuff now… I just need to get back to the roof as quickly as possible.”

“Well, whatever you do, just stay out of our way,” Silver Shoes comments as she looks between them. “These damn Wild Ones and their drugged-up nonsense have pissed us off enough we’re taking a few more blocks.” She glances over at Gearing. “You know where the building is and how to get up from the inside now. You going to handle it yourself or want us to tag along and help you clean out the place?”

Gearing gives a slight shake of his head. “No, I’ll take care of it.” He starts walking away slowly. “Sorry for the mess… in advance.”

Silver Shoes starts laughing and slapping a forehoof on the ground as she says, “‘Sorry for the mess’ he says!”

Orchid curls her lip and nose in a slight bit of disgust as she comments, “Well he’s not wrong about the messes he makes.” She points back and to the side at the meaty bloody pile that had once been an average looking yellow mare. Before she spontaneously got a whole lot uglier and grotesque.

And deader.

Silver Shoes snorts and points at Gearing. “Yeah, but he’s the only crazy sumbitch I know of that actually apologizes for it!”

Swift looks at Gearing as he turns and starts heading down the alley she’d come from. Her head zips back and forth between the corpses before she calls after him, “You’re not taking anything else?”

Gearing simply shakes his head as he keeps the combat shotgun’s grip in his mouth and continues down the alleyway.

Swift blinks a few times as she watches him leave. The champion of the ‘strip them naked and kick their corpse in a ditch’ method of scavenging is turning down free weapons… He must really not be feeling well. She scratches her chin a bit as she thinks it over, and debates on going with him.

She decides against it, as she really needs to locate Handy again, and turns to the two Fright Cars mares. “You two see a blue earth pony buck swinging a big hammer?”

Orchid nods and points off towards where they’d come from. “We saw him creaming a few Wild Ones losers.”

Silver Shoes grins as she looks at Orchid. “Oh, that tall drink of water?” She looks back at Swift as she waves it away. “Yeah, I thought about going down and introducing myself. But we decided to just enjoy the show from the window.” She sways with her whole body as she grins. “Strong buck like that might actually be able to keep up with me.” She grins wider. “I’d love to find out.”

Swift looks at Silver Shoes and narrows her eyes. “He’s taken.”

Silver Shoes grins as she tilts her hat and looks off sideways, not entirely seeing the problem with it. “Well…”

Swift leans sideways, stretches out her neck, and snorts as she looks Silver Shoes in the eyes. “He’s mine.”

Silver Shoes tilts her head and her eyes go wide as she straightens up and looks at her. “Seriously?” Swift nods and gives another snort. Silver Shoes flops down on her rear and folds her forehooves across her chest. “Fucking figures…”

Orchid puts a hoof to her muzzle as she giggles. She reaches over and pats Silver Shoes on the shoulder as she says, “I’d warned you not to get your hopes up on it too much.”

Silver Shoes waves her away with both forehooves before hopping up and heading towards the right, opposite Gearing. “Knock it off already. Come on, let’s go find some of these Wild Ones to work out some frustration.”

Orchid giggles as she follows Silver Shoes around the corner. “I thought you weren’t interested in drug heads?”

Silver Shoes glares at her sideways from under her hat. “I intend on beating them into the pavement.” She continues down the alleyway as she mutters, “Almost as good of a workout as sex… Almost.”

Orchid follows behind, giggling the whole way, and gives Swift a friendly wave as she passes.

She looks around, quickly taking in the three’s retreating forms, before turning and heading down the alley the two had come from. She needs to find Handy again. Things have gotten…

Strange.

Gearing slowly heads around the block towards the eight story building where he’d dropped off the others. All around, the sounds of fighting continue. But it seems to be at a distance. He hopes. His hearing is extremely hampered, and not being able to use his atypically exceptional hearing is making him feel very vulnerable. He even eventually goes to walk along the wall, keeping his worse ear near it as he walks. To give his ‘good’ ear as much space and angles to catch wayward sounds as he can.

He’s so uncomfortable with his current status he goes as far as even prioritizing this slight auditory improvement, over better cover and tactical positions provided by rubble and terrain.

When he gets near the building, he clamors up a pile of rubble as a particularly close gun battle greets even his ears. He crests the top of the brick pile, and finds a pair of earth ponies hiding behind a sky wagon and shooting at a group of ponies across the street. He takes in the scene, with the group of roughly four across the way firing a variety of weapons from the cover of a low wall. Each time one of their heads pops up, he notices the glint of gold on the center of their blue hats.

He looks down, at the backs of the two ponies below him. And every so often he catches the mad glint in their eye as they pop out to unload another practical full magazine in the general direction of the ponies across the street.

Gearing pulls himself up more, slowly, until he’s at the crest, with the pair of ponies less than a dozen feet down and in front of him. He rears up, then springs forward in an arc right at them. They are in the way of him getting inside of the door on the street side. And he can’t allow that at the moment.

Their weapons instantly silence.

But, for once, it is not from running out of ammo because of their spray and pray tendencies. No, the weapons silence because both of their mouths open past what should be physically possible in shrill screams. Releasing the weapons, and triggers, in the process.

Gearing evenly divides his weight between the two, with a pair of hooves digging into the middle of each one’s back. Entirely without the ability to mitigate any of it with his wings. Not that he would be likely to do that given the circumstances.

After practically slipping on the pair of ponies, he rears up and brings his forehooves back down. This time on the back of their heads and likewise silences them as his hooves don’t stop until they make contact with the concrete.

The bullets from across the street have stopped as, unlike the drugged up Wild Ones, the Freight Cars are keen on not wasting ammo and making sure they have a clear shot. And they notice him the moment Gearing’s bloody form comes out from behind the skywagon. He looks over at them, and a few point their weapons at him, but none of them fire as they try to sort out the situation.

One of the mares closest to him stands out from the low wall and waves at the others to stand down. “It’s one of Iron Hoof’s …” She yells over as she bounds over the wall. “Where’s Iron Hoof?”

Gearing holds the shotgun with his fetlock long enough to yell across the street, and make the area echo, “She’s getting her husband. We’re going to link up on top of this building. I’m going to clear it out.”

She grins at him, then looks back at the others as they climb over the wall. “What a coincidence… we were just about to claim that building…” She starts trotting towards him. “Might as well get it over with then.”

Gearing grumbles and waves a hoof towards her, and the others that start following her, as he says around the grip of the shotgun, “Thut youthelth.” Then turns towards the massive front door located at the top of a large set of decorative stone steps.

On the roof where they’d been deposited, Sable and Nahlah have remained in the same position since Handy and Swift left. With Nahlah sitting next to Sable, a paw around her shoulder, as she tries to comfort the metallic mare and provide her some semblance of stability to the situation.

Gauge however, is, in his entirety, unstable.

The fighting that they thought was so horrible before, has only been growing in volume. It’s seemed to coalesce into some sort of physical thing. A thing that has crashed into the building they are hiding on top of, and completely surrounded it. And, more terrifyingly, penetrated it. He can hear, through a variety of broken windows and collapsed segments of wall, the fighting getting closer. Not just around them. The time of that has long since passed. No, the fighting is getting closer still.

As it rises through the building under them.

To try and figure out what to do, he’s taken to pacing around the roof. Anyone else may have gotten annoyed by such actions. But Sable’s too busy lost in her own mind. And Nahlah is too busy trying to bring Sable back to reality.

So Gauge has been left to his own devices.

He’s become so nervous that even his apparently vast reserves of methane have already been released to join the foul atmosphere above them. He’s not sure how to get down from where they are. He could, he’s sure, just knock a hole in the roof. And if he couldn’t Sable certainly could with any one of several choices of destruction and mayhem at her disposal.

If he could get her to focus for a few moments long enough to understand what he wants.

But, even if that doesn’t work, there is always a last ditch effort to be employed. Through all of his pacing, especially the perimeter, he saw where Handy had impacted across the alleyway. He knows of the fire escape, and is pretty sure that at a full run, he could make it over there. It’ll just hurt like hell. Then he’ll have to worry about whatever else is in that building that either arrived after Handy and Swift went in there, or that they had missed.

Although he realizes he’s making a large assumption that they hadn’t already been overwhelmed by the persistent attackers all over the industrial complex.

As he’s aimlessly trotting around with his head low as he tries to think of what to do, and runs one horrible scenario of his grisly death before his mind’s eye after another, he notices a raised segment of metal sticking out of the roof. With literally nothing else to do besides contemplating his own mortality, he starts examining it. It doesn’t take him very long to realize what it is.

A roof access hatch.

He trots over to Sable and Nahlah, coming up next to them, but on the side opposite the hatch, as he points over to it across the front of their muzzles to try and get their attention. “There’s a roof hatch over there, mmkay?!”

Nahlah nods and looks at him. “Well, at least we know we have another way down instead of jumping.”

He shakes his head and points at it a few more times with the same hoof, then shakes it at the hatch’s general direction. “But if we can get down that way… they can come up!”

Nahlah smirks. “Yeah… stairs tend to work in both directions, Gauge.”

He looks at her for a moment before sitting down and pointing both forehooves at it. “Shouldn’t we… I don’t know… Do something about it?!”

Sable keeps her gaze fixed to an indescribable point in space as she replies, “If any hostile ponies emerge, and try to prevent me from seeing my darling Gearing again, I will act accordingly.”

Gauge looks at her and frowns. He lets out a sigh as he asks, “And how’s that?”

“Termination.” She turns her head to look at him as she adds, “With extreme prejudice.”

Gauge’s eyes jump back and forth between hers and Nahlah. “Oo... kay…”

Nahlah waves a paw at him and smiles lightly. “Gauge. Calm down. Just don’t make too much noise. The fighting’s already dying down under us. We can just skip out after dark once all of the excitement’s died down.”

Sable nods. “Once my darling Gearing is back, we can go. My darling Gearing will be back soon.”

Gauge lies down and covers his head as he moans, “I probably shoulda went with Swift while I still had the chance…”

Nahlah looks over at him and frowns as she narrows her eyes. “No one’s stopping you…”

He turns to look at her and say something. But stops, with his muzzle open, as a metallic clank greets his ears. Nahlah looks over, at the same time he does, to the source.

The roof access.

As they are watching it, very closely, they hear another deep toned thump, and the hatch shake from a large impact.

Gauge sits up and points at it as he practically squeaks. “See! See! I told ya, mmmkay!?”

Sable glances over, then looks back where she was previously looking as she comments. “There are no hostiles in sight.”

There's a pause, as everything goes quiet. Even the fighting in the building has noticeably disappeared.

A moment later the roof access buckles upwards as it warps from an impact and goes flying open. But it only manages to stay attached, instead of soaring through the air, by a single hinge that bent and warped to allow the access hatch to slam into the concrete roof.

Gauge points at the mangled metal as it rocks and slowly comes to a rest. “What about now!?”

“Still zero hostiles detected.”

Gauge huddles behind her as he looks at the hatch and debates on the merits of making a run for the fire escape. “What they gotta do!? Shoot all of us, mmkay?!”

A dark from erupts from the hole, then impacts into the concrete with enough force to make them all feel the vibrations from a distance away. Through the concrete. Cracks form out from the point of impact as the guilty party starts walking towards them and comments, loudly, “Damn lock didn’t want to give.”

Gearing walks towards them as he asks, “You all okay?” His head whips around, then stops and focuses on Sable as he slightly changes directions to head straight towards her. “Sable?”

Nahlah and Gauge’s jaws fall to the concrete as they stare at him in complete disbelief.

The only composed member of the current party on the roof is Sable. She directs her focus towards him and smiles warmly as she greets him, “Hello, my darling. I’ve been sitting here waiting for you to get back.” She points a hoof towards the pile of supplies. “I’ve made sure you’re equipment is safe. I knew you would need it.”

He trots up in front of her and sits down as he gently rubs his right forehoof across her cheek. “Are you okay, Sable?”

Sable nods and nuzzles into the contact. “Yes, my love.” Then she starts leaning into it more, and, a moment later, she starts shaking as she looks down. “I knew you would be back.” She shakes her head. “I know…” She looks up at him. “I know…” She looks between Nahlah and Gauge. “I know it does not make sense… I am aware that it was logically flawed. My systems ran the calculations over and over and kept telling me it was not the case. The possibility was, in fact, not a possibility.” She looks up at Gearing and smiles. “But… deep down I knew.” She waves a hoof dismissively and giggles lightly. “It’s silly. I know… But a file in my system kept activating and confirming your return. That I just had to sit here.” she taps on the concrete below them. “And wait for you to come back. It assured me you would be back…” She leans over and nuzzles him gently. “And here you are.”

“And here we are…” Gearing says softly as he nuzzles her back.

Sable continues to nuzzle him as she asks, “Why did my darling Gearing’s PipBuck tag register as offline? Where did my darling Gearing go?”

Gearing lets out a groan and says softly, “Got too close to a matrix disruption blast, apparently. I could normally just sort it out on my own… but... Well… with a variety of issues going on I can’t right now…” He holds up his dead PipBuck and asks, “Mind helping me get it back online? It has a backup bootstrap that’ll work with the PipBuck systems in a pinch.”

She nods and smiles. “I would be happy to assist my darling Gearing.” She pats the concrete in front of her as she lies down. “Lay here. You must be tired.”

“Exhausted…” Gearing groans as he does as instructed.

Then, to his surprise, Sable lies down more, and uses her cables to direct his head to lie across her forelegs. As he’s getting comfortable, and letting her have her extra contact, she connects a data cable into his PipBuck.

She gently rubs his shoulder as she looks off into space. “PipBuck access in progress… Matrix rebooting.”

Gearing closes his eyes and nuzzles into her forelegs as he can't help but imagining lying out on a fluffy cloud at the moment. And quickly starts getting comfortable.

The moment is ruined when Sable begins screeching out, at high volume, “Alert! Warning! Critical damage has been sustained! Seek immediate medical attention! Wait… My darling Gearing is hurt!” She looks around quickly then starts waving her cables at the pile of supplies. “Quickly! We must administer healing potions now!”

Nahlah manages to shake off enough of her complete dumbfoundedness to spring over and start digging through the supplies as requested.

“I’m fine! Sable, knock it off, I’m not that bad!”

“Yes you are!” Sable insists.

Almost to prove her point, Gearing’s vision gets cluttered with a wide array of warning messages and simplified pictures of ponies thrashing around and crying with damaged body parts. Especially head and wings.

“Dammit, Sable!” Gearing protests. “I keep that shit off for a reason. And…” he pauses as he looks up at her. “How the hell you even override my settings and activate that anyway, that shouldn’t be possible!”

She leans down and begins caressing his cheek. “Don’t worry, Gearing. I’m here to take care of you, my love.”

Nahlah bounds over with a couple potions held out at the ready. “Here. There’s a few more but he looks like he really needs these and it’ll take me a bit to dig the rest out.”

Sable takes it with her cables and nods her thanks, but Gearing lifts up a hoof to stop her from opening them up. “Sable, I can’t drink that right now.”

Sable looks down at him, and brings a pair of the potions over as she says, “But my darling Gearing is injured. Badly. He needs to be healed before he prematurely terminates.”

Gearing shakes his head lightly and says with a huff, “I’m not going to die that easily… but I can’t take those potions…” he looks up at her and frowns. “Not until I get this helmet off, that is.”

She sets the potions down then begins wrapping her cables around the helmet. “Then let’s get it off so we can administer proper treatment.”

His hooves jump up and hold the helmet down as he clamps down on her cables. “No!”

She stops solid and lets him have all the time he needs to explain himself.

“Sable, my ear’s crushed into it. I’ve already tried taking it off. Repeatedly. We’re going to have to cut the damn thing off. If I drink one of those potions, it’s going to try and focus where I need it most, which is my head. But, that’ll basically heal my ear into the helmet, and just make it much worse. Possibly permanently warp it.” Gearing lets out a sigh as he finishes. “So, not now…”

Nahlah looks him over and asks, “Gearing… you look like hell… What can we do for you?”

Gearing shakes his head lightly. “Besides getting a hold of a workshop, or at least a room where I can do what needs to be done with my own tools that were in the wagon. If they’re still here. There’s nothing really… besides.” he looks up at Sable and nuzzles into her chest lightly. “You helped keep Sable safe… And that’s a lot already… so. Thank you.”

“My love… if you are attempting to flirt with me… I must warn you…” Sable leans down and kisses his muzzle. “It’s definitely working.”

Gearing simply smiles, and leans into the kiss as he closes his eyes and lays there.

Gauge looks around as he asks, “So, what’s the plan? Mmmkay? What’ll we do now?”

Gearing goes still and enjoys the gentle contact provided by Sable as she caresses him with her cables. “We wait here for Swift and Handy to get back. Then head out.”

Nahlah looks over towards the roof access hatch as she asks, “Why’s it getting so quiet out there?”

Gearing grins. “Cuz the bad ponies are losing… badly.”

“Ah,” Nahlah says as she looks around. “Guess that means us getting shot at less now, then?”

“Mmmhmm,” Gearing mutters. He leans against Sable more and says quietly, “I’m… I’m just going to lay here for a bit… Rest my eyes a second… Lemmie know when Swift’s back… kay?”

“As you wish, my love,” Sable says inches from his eyes.

Gearing nuzzles her lightly, then goes incomprehensibly still as he drifts off.

Sable, still connected to Gearing’s PipBuck, looks over at Nahlah and comments quietly, “Gearing’s vitals are stable, but critical…” She looks over at Gauge. “Please go through our supplies and collect all of our tools into a single bag. Prioritize various saws and metal working tools.” She looks down at Gearing and frowns. “He’s going to need them tonight.”

Gauge, for the first time in a while, has a real sense of hope of getting out of this with his hide intact, and quickly, and happily, complies. While the other two watch over and tend to Gearing’s unconscious form.

Footnote: Connection reestablished, User Online, running diagnostic… please stand by. . .

This chapter drops a few subtle hints along the way of certain things that'll be explained later on. But only time will tell how many will notice. In the mean time, Gearing's back, and he's apparently made a few new friends. Though, he's worse for wear.

Thanks to my beta readers who've constantly helped me keep this story moving along. You're all amazing!

- Quillsy