Chapter 176: Chapter 170

My security team stayed behind at Dr. Miles office until Axle could be moved to a secure room at the Tower, and I walked down the sidewalk in Prescott, aimlessly. Trapped in my own thoughts.

The city was still alive but had grown quiet after the water shortage started. Axle had warned me that we would see a dramatic drop in activity, and potentially lose some of the sub-affiliates too. Life couldn’t run without water, much less business.

Evidence of Axle’s importance, and the crumbling nature of my affiliate surrounded me as I walked, until all I wanted was to bury my face in Molls comforting scales and forget about all of it.

Instead, I used the phone my hobbs had leant me to call her. Within a few seconds, her face filled my screen, and a smile came to my lips unbidden.

She yawned, letting her mouth open wide before remembering to place a hand over it. Not that her delicate hands would cover her mouth, she could swallow a roasted pig whole if she wanted to, and each of her fanged teeth were larger than her hands anyway.

“Oh hi Tyson,” she said sleepily.

“Sorry, I woke you,” I replied.

Molls became more awake immediately. “What’s the matter? What happened?”

She knew me too well, even my compulsive apologies were tell-tale signs to her.

“Axle is hurt. Bad. He’s been blinded,” I told her.

Molls sat up, and I saw a window behind her, with heavy foliage and trees directly outside. “Oh no,” she said, scales flushing a mild yellow color. “Is he going to be okay? Are you?”

I nodded halfheartedly. “He’s going to be fine, I’m gonna make sure of it.”

Molls smiled softly and shifted her head to the side. “Are you going to be okay? I know you’re very close with Axle, and I know you blame yourself for everything that happens around you.” Her scales softened in color, and some of the purple I usually saw started to come through again.

“This might actually be my fault. I can’t talk much about the specifics openly, but I may have antagonized someone I shouldn’t have,” I said, shaking my head.

She nodded and shrugged. “You’re doing much better on that lately, though.”

“No, Molls, I’m really not. Turns out I’m just less prickly when things are going smooth,” I sighed.

“And things aren’t going smoothly, I infer?” she asked. Molls leaned back in her bed and I lost the view out her window.

“No,” I chuckled. “Not smoothly at all.” In the silence that followed, I sighed again and told her, “I miss you. Badly.”

Molls scales filled with purple color, and she briefly kissed her phone. “I miss you too, Tyson. More than I can express.”

I smiled at her. “Family visit not going well?”

“Oh, no. It’s fine now that I’ve explained everything. Mother is just being mother, of course. She can’t resist herself, and I’m very concerned I’m going to end up leaving here with a green or even red ring in my scales,” she said.

Because of her albinism, Molls scales slowly gained pigment from her emotional responses, with only the strongest emotions and situations becoming permanent.

“Well, at least make sure it's red if that happens. You’ve got plenty of purple to offset it now anyway,” I said with a wry smile.

“Oh shut up,” she replied, smiling coquettishly. “That’s not all your doing, don’t go getting a big head.”

“Too late,” I said, with a grin. “Way too late.”

“Ugh, I know,” she sighed back, playfully returning my smile.

We were quiet for a long moment before she spoke again. “Tyson, I know you’re hurting right now, and I’m pleased you reached out to me for comfort. I love few things more than being your oasis, you know that.”

“But?” I said.

“But I’m worried about you. I should come home, be there with you,” she whispered. “I could help.”

“Don’t worry Molls, I’m not going to do anything unusually stupid,” I said. “Besides, I need you someplace safe, and right now that is not Nu-Earth, let alone Prescott. Stay there, make your mom happy, and come home in a week or two.”

I thought briefly of Captain Omen and our arrangement.

“It’ll be safe by then,” I said.

Molls stared at me on the phone for a moment before nodding. “Okay. I trust you,” she said. “But I’m coming home as soon as I can. You’ll just have to make it safe before then.” Molls finished her statement with a smile and a quick mimed kiss at the phone.

“Hey, when are you thinking that’ll be?” I asked.

“Ugh,” Molls moaned. She threw an arm behind her head and smirked in annoyance. “I dunno, soon? At least a few days though. I’m pushing to keep this a short visit, but of course mother keeps making more and more plans.”

I frowned. “Sounds manipulative.”

Molls nodded emphatically. “Yes. Yes it really does. Feels that way too,” she sighed.

“I bet she’s trying to set you up with someone too,” I chuckled.

Molls raised an eyebrow. “Jealous?”

“Not even a little,” I said, smiling. “Just sounds like something she would try.”

“Ha!” Molls laughed, and flushed pink. “No chance. All of that effort goes to my brother, he didn’t get the conda gene, so he’s not a source of public shame for the family. He’s the pretty one.”

“Oh,” I said. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”

Molls shook her head and smiled again. “I’ve never felt more beautiful than I feel when you look at me,” she said, her eyes locked on mine. “Never. You have nothing to apologize for.”

She paused there, and her eyes drifted up and to the left. “Well, maybe for waking me up in the middle of the night, but I don’t really mind that either,” she said. “I’ll have pleasant dreams when I go back to bed.”

“Oh, crap,” I said. “Of course I called in the middle of the night.” I frowned. “Wait, how do multiversal time differences even work?”

Molls chuckled and shook her head. “They don’t, most of the time. I don’t mind babe, really. I was just teasing you.”

I nodded and smiled. “I still feel a little guilty.”

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“Oh stop it,” she scolded. “You needed me, and I’m happy to be here for you. Tell Axle and Jada I send my love.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Will do.”

Axle and Jada didn’t much care for Molls, and while the three were polite in shared company, I wouldn’t be likely to bring up her well-wishes. Molls could be a little naïve about people sometimes, which I adored about her. She defaulted to expecting the best in everyone she met, even in the BuyMort system.

I stared into the phone as she yawned again, this one longer and accompanied by a stretch.

“I should let you get back to sleep,” I finally said.

She smiled at me and shook her head. “I’m not even tired,” she said, yawning again at the end of the statement. “Really.” Her massive, green eyes blinked at me repeatedly and I burst out laughing.

“You’re the best, Molls,” I said. “Get some rest, call me when you have some free time.”

“Okay, Tyson. I’ll probably call later today, there’s this luncheon I’m supposed to attend, I’m sure it will be excruciating. You don’t have to say this back, but I want you to know, I love you,” she said.

I smiled, and before I could say anything back, she reached up and cut our connection. The MortMobile deity stared at me from the screen, before blinking a few times and shaking his head.

“Oh shut up,” I griped.

“You want advice, yes? Help? Direction, even?” his voice whispered in my mind. “He who fights enemies he cannot defeat, wants to be told what to do.”

My eyes shot wide as I heard him in my mind.

“Then tell her how you feel,” he said. “Before you lose the chance. And get to work, if you want this affiliate to survive.”

My phone went black, and I felt his absence in my head. But not the absence of his words. I needed to get to work.

I needed to get to the desalination plant in Los Angeles. If I wasn’t there, they were vulnerable to attack by the very affiliate I hoped would save us, WhaleHunter Salvage. And if WhaleHunter came through, they’d likely want me to fulfill my end of the bargain soon after.

With a thought, I tried to bring up my anti-magic helmet again. A thicker line of silver formed on my neck, roughly the size of a choker. I sighed and dismissed it again. At least it was healing, albeit slowly.

Willing myself off the ground, I flew up into the sky and veered toward the city’s primary military outpost. I needed a new helmet, preferably one that could let me travel underwater without drowning.

When I landed, several hobbs jumped to attention, first pointing weapons, then snapping off salutes. I nodded and returned the gestures as I walked toward the armory.

The building stood central on the compound, tall and jutting against the massive BuyMort warehouse in the background. A young hobb woman in BlueCleave fatigues and a helmet stepped forward to challenge me but flushed deeper gray when she saw who I was.

“Boss!” she barked, “What you doing here?”

“Need a helmet,” I told her. “You my guide?”

She blinked her oversized eyes rapidly, blushing deeper gray as she looked between me and the tall armory building. It was a three story barn structure, with a large cargo door on each level. An oversized cargo grappler sat in the parking lot nearby and was used to load and unload cargo from each level as needed.

“Yes, boss!” the hobb woman finally barked. “Name Tilsa. Old quartermaster reassigned, this my first day.” She saluted me again.

I narrowed my eyes and nodded. “You’re okay, I’m not actually here for you. Lead the way,” I told her.

Tilsa turned and moved to open the front door. “Tollya say this might happen. Know just what to do,” the hobb grunted.

Following behind her as we entered the armory, I scowled. Tollya was good at predicting things from me. A little too good, given our recent sparring session.

The armory opened up in front us, racks of weapons and armor on both walls rising up past catwalks to the top floor. I saw BlueCleave war picks in one section, alongside a smattering of other, lesser used melee weapons. Words swarmed over me and into my vision.

BlueCleave Arms and Armor - A Subsidiary of Silken Sands

Hobb weapon homemade. Soldier put together, Soldier agree very good.

Enter affiliate subsidiary sales page? Y/N

I selected no, shaking my head but feeling rather warm inside. BlueCleave had helped us so much, and seeing them grow into a more independent mercantile brand made me feel like I really was paying them back for the favor.

I came back to reality and swung my eyes about, looking at it all in wonder.

Hung in separated sections were conventional arms, slag rifles for Sleem or BuyMort bugs, heavier laser or plasma based weaponry, and an entire locked-off room for explosives.

I wondered briefly if Tollya’s nukes were in that secure section but shrugged it off as my guide walked down the center aisle. Tilsa glanced behind herself, then gestured. “This way, boss!”

We entered a smaller room on the ground floor, filled with deployable privacy curtains for changing. Armor of various sorts hung on metal versions of pegboard racks in the room, and the young hobb showed me to their assortment of helmets.

There were plenty of basic helmets like the one Tilsa wore, little more than a hardened cap with a strap and some minimal padding, but we had a selection of other items as well. Some that appeared to be part of a larger outfit meant to combat the Sleem, with a thick, jellied exterior. Others that looked like fire-fighter helmets, with a heavy drape to cover the back of the neck and a thick breathing apparatus.

My eye was drawn to the combat model, with a heavy, reflective faceplate, and layered armor. That one immediately caught my eye.

“Take whichever,” my guide told me. “We got lots more downstairs.”

I nodded at her and reached for a heavy combat model, blinking as the sales information came pouring in to me. 

Rakshi Ropar Power - Innovative Battle Protection Combined with Extra-sensory input makes our soldiers self-coordinated fighting machines. 50,000 morties, 4.9 stars

BlueCleave didn’t have any helmets that would let me breathe underwater, that were also unattached from a suit designed for the same task. I realized my needs were somewhat more unique and hoped again that my anti-magic helmet would repair itself.

That or I’d have to make a bunch of morties in a hurry to get another one. I didn’t like my chances against a foe like the Wizard without it.

I tried on the helmet and was pleased to see a heads up display load onto the faceplate. I’d gotten spoiled by my high end version, though. The map and various notifiers felt clunky, by comparison.

At least I wouldn’t have to remember a bunch of spell words for this one.

With my helmet need sorted out, I nodded at the young hobb and we left the armory. Once I was out, she made a show of securing the door behind us, then went back to her guard position. I saluted the hobb, and then fell away up into the sky with my gravitic drive.

The trip to Los Angeles, and our desalination plant, was going to take me a few hours.

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