E.L.F: Chapter Thirteen

Author's Note: Sickness! Sickness has slowed me down. But I've shaken it of and am back to work!

Chapter 13: Crossing

Putting one foot ahead of the other.

How much of my life has become just putting one foot ahead of the other? Jimmy thought, as he jerked his foot off the ground – the boot of the heat resistant suits that he and Pix wore used some kind of technology that made them stick to the ground, no matter how sheer and slippery it was. That did mean that every time he lifted his foot, he had to jerk and twist at it for a bit before the sole of his shoe let go of the ground and he could put his foot forward, then thump it down.

Jimmy kept his gaze down on the ground – the less he looked ahead, the less he could think about the vastness of the Foundry, the killing white heat that was outside of the suit, and the uncertain peril that lurked beyond it.

It felt as if the Foundry had become his whole world – the memories of everything before it fading into an indistinct dream – unreal against the heat and the light and the faint buzzing sound that was the only noise that came through his protective helmet.

Put one foot ahead of the other... He thumped his foot down, and then looked up.

Ahead, two Pix's intersected, hazy and indistinct.

Jimmy shook himself, slightly, blinking his eyes until Pix became one Pix once more.

"Let's take a quick break," Jimmy said, his breath fogging up the faceplate of his suit. He reached up and patted the side of his helmet, feeling it shift against his head. He found the button that turned on the comlink.

“Let's take a quick break, Pix?”

Pix took another few steps, stopped, then turned around.

“Zzzzzshhzzz againzzzzzzzz?”

Jimmy winced a bit as the buzzing static that came through his ear-piece added its unpleasant note to the droning noise that he had been hearing for the last few eternities.

"I said, let's take a quick break," he said, again.

“Zzzzzzzzz hat? Zzzzzzz”

Jimmy sighed, closing his eyes. "Can. We. Take. A. Break."

Pix turned and – by all the Architects, Jimmy wasn't sure he had ever seen a sight as brave and heroic as her walking backwards. Not because it was particularly hard. More that she had sacrificed five feet of ground covered in this place. That would be five feet that she'd have to get back!

She put her faceplate against his and spoke without the comlink – the noise sounding muffled, but audible.

“Sure,” she said.

Jimmy grinned and wished he could take this helmet off. Which lead to a round of horrible itching feelings, a desire to rub his hair, and the stinging of sweat dribbling into his eyes. He blinked it away, saying, “How far do we have to go, you think?”

“Halfway,” Pix said.

Jimmy closed his eyes, slowly breathed in, breathed out, breathed in, breathed out. Trying to calm himself, he said, “Pix, something's not right about this Korban guy. I mean, beyond the racism thing."

Pix snorted. “Duh. He's out here in the middle of nowhere, and he says he's here to research the Foundry? Yeah. Right. Still, not much we can do about him here.”

Jimmy nodded, bumping his forehead against the faceplate a few times.

“Do you think he might be a threat or something?” Pix asked.

“Not sure,” Jimmy said. “But let's be cautious once we get out of the Foundry.”

Pix snorted. “As if we didn't have a reason to before now!”

###

After another three eternities of walking and trudging and drinking from a thin tube that ran along the inside of the heat suit helmets, Jimmy and Pix came to the other side of the Foundry. The wall grew larger and larger for the last hour of the trek, and Jimmy felt his heart race and race as the door on the wall got larger and larger, and then...finally, it was done.

The two of them stood before the door.

And...tt was locked.

"Oh by the goddamn Architects!" Jimmy wrenched on the door handle, panting and sweating. To feel as though rescue from this horrible suit was a moment away, only to have it yanked away...well, let's just say it was not something that Jimmy wanted to feel.

“Zzzz this is a repeating message,” Edna said, her voice ringing through his comlink. “Respond once you hear it you tzzz zzzz wo...”

“Edna?” Jimmy asked. “Edna, we're reading you!”

“Oh good,” Edna's voice – her non-recorded, non-repeated voice – came through his com. “Checking your location. Uh. You've veered off on your course. This door you're at is locked.”

“No DUH!” Pix shouted.

“Just go along the wallzzzzzzzzz-” Edna said, her voice fuzzing into static and crackles. “Zzzzzz go zzzzz say agazzz Spinward.”

They did so, their hands trailing against the wall – the white light was dazzling, and Jimmy didn't want to veer away. Touching the wall might have been overkill. But it worked. They came to the next door. Jimmy braced himself, grabbing onto the handle and pushing. The door creaked open and he laughed, ecstatically. Joy and fireworks exploded in his mind, and together, he and Pix charged out of the Foundry.

The instant the door closed, Pix yanked her helmet off, gasping loudly. “Praise all those Gods I don't acutally believe in, WE MADE IT!”

Jimmy yanked off his helmet a mere moment later. "That's us one, Foundry zero,” he said, grinning as he shook his sweaty head, droplets flying off his hair. He started to undo the straps on the suit, his knees shaking with eagerness to get the damn thing off.

Pix used her teeth to jerk her gloves off. Then her fingers grabbed the zipper on her suit and she jerked it off. Jimmy bit his lip as he noticed how her sweat caused her shirt to cling to her body like a second skin.

"So...my suit was only loaded with half a water canteen, you got any extra?" Pix asked, rubbing her throat with one hand.

With the suit off, Jimmy kicked it away, then knelt and grabbed the duffel he had slung around his shoulder. He jerked the zipper open and pulled out the supplies that they had stored inside – including a canteen. He grabbed it and underhanded it to Pix.

She knocked her head back and drank the entire thing. Once she had finished gulping and gasping, she wiped her mouth clean. “Oh...uh...sorry,” she said, looking sheepish. “Do you need any?”

"Don't worry." Jimmy felt faint. "I'll be fine."

They staggered to the supply room that Edna claimed Korban had stocked nearby. Her intel was good: The room was stocked with a water re-processor, a bathroom, a crate of nutri-bars, a shotgun, everything a sentient would need.

Jimmy slotted his canteen into the reprocessor, humming as the water filled the metal bottle, while Pix picked up the shotgun, looking it over. She nodded, and set it down again, then made a second discovery: She pushed open the thin door that was labeled BATHROOM and peeked inside.

She cooed. "Shower!"

"Shower?” Jimmy asked. Pix's fingers tapped on a small console and the bathroom whirred – cluing Jimmy into the fact that it was reconfigurable bathroom.

"Showaaaaaaah!" Pix said in a sing song. She tugged at her shirt, revealing her belly. "Wait...can that processor handle the shower?”

Jimmy frowned. The water re-processor was rated to four people. He nodded, slowly, then asked a question of his own: "Can door lock?"

"Door lock can." Pix nodded.

The door locked. Sweaty clothes hit the ground, and Jimmy tripped into the shower cubical.

###

The shower took longer than expected, but what really surprised Jimmy was how much noise the bed made. Korban really needed to change his springs.

###

Jimmy and Pix waited until they were a good four or five corridor junctions away from the safe room before sliding on their comlinks. The mini-map screens folded out and Jimmy spoke into his comlink first.

“Edna, we're back online,” Jimmy said.

Silence.

“Edna?”

"Mmph, one sec." There was a fizzing pop sound, then a soft 'glug glug glug'.

"Are you eating?"

"Girls gotta eat!" There was another glug, then a sigh. “And drink, considering how you two go at it like rabbits...”

“Hey!” Pix said. “Wait...I choose to take that as a compliment.”

"Sure you do," Edna said. "Now, I've been working out a route for you two. And, well..." She paused for a long time. When she spoke again, it was with a soft, almost shy tone to her voice. "This is going to sound weird, but...I'm enjoying this a lot more than what Mom had me doing before."

"What did she have you do?" Pix asked, her voice gentle. Edna's mom was a touchy subject, what with the whole...dead issue.

"Nevermind,” Edna said.

"No, no, I want to know!" Pix sounded plaintive, and even clasped her hands together.

Edna sighed. "Fine. She had me doing the accounts."

"Like an accountant?"

"Yes." She paused. "Stop giggling!"

"Okay, fine, where do we go next?” Jimmy said – as Pix was too busy giggling.

Edna sounded like she was grinning. "You'll be glad to hear this. The next bit is easy...all you need to do is ask for directions.”

###

After three hours of trooping through connecting corridors, Jimmy peeked around the corner and nodded. "Yup! It's a Slor!"

The Slor sat on a hovering bath of ooze. It sort of looked like a silvery bowl, floating at about shin height (Which meant the Slor came up to about Jimmy's chest). The Slor had two very small sensory organs which let it see above ground. They were almost entirely vestigial in the bygone era when the Slor had first evolved, but they were slowly becoming larger as the race spent more and more time above ground and thus, better eyes were a better survival option. At least, according to Slor nature magazines. The much larger Slor sensory organ was, well, their entire skin. Through their skin, they could feel vibrations, gusts, drafts. They could taste chemicals on the air, and could 'hear' voices. Now, the question was, did this one understand Interlac?

"Uh, hello?" Jimmy asked. The Slor turned its hovering device, its manipulator arm barely visible against the folds of its skin. To Jimmy, the Slor looked like a disgusting grubby thing stewing in its own pine-scented juices. He had to force himself to remember that to another Slor, this Slor would be a young, handsome, healthy male. At least, Jimmy thought it was male. And really, it'd have to-

"Questioning Greeting: Hello humans. Worried question: Are you lost?"

"Uh, no." Jimmy looked around for the translator. He spotted it a moment later – built into the hover-seat itself. Nice touch. "Well, sort of."

The hoverpad ghosted forward. "Eager to please: Please. Welcome to Slor Corridors."

Jimmy grinned. "Uh, smiling pleasantly: My friend and I would like the best directions to the nearest bus station."

"Bus station?" The Slor and Pix asked at the same time.

"Aside to Friend: Do you really want to walk the rest of the way?" Jimmy asked Pix.

"Graceful Admission: Good point," Pix said, sounding as if she was enjoying the qualifiers that the Slor – and any people who would want to talk to a Slore – had to use.

The Slor's body rippled, and then a thick, viscous green ooze sprayed from every pore of the creature, splattering Jimmy and Pix with a layer half an inch thick.

"Mournful: I don't have legs,” the Slor said via translator.

"Restraining Irritation: I noticed." Jimmy said, trying to keep his lips closed as Slor mucus slid down his face. He slowly wiped his arm off on his sleeve, only to find that said sleeve was soaked as well.

###

"Ick, ick..." Pix wiped at her hair. "I hope this doesn't gunk up my hair..."

Jimmy looked at her, then shook his head. "It's okay."

"You sure?"

"Sure!"

"Uugh." She shuddered. "I feel all icky. When do we get a shower again?

"When we get to the Upper Levels," Jimmy said, throwing another towel away – there was a single towel dispenser in the survival gear. It was running low after their run in with the Slor. "Also, and this is just a theory so don't take it to court or anything, we're both icky, so does that cancel it out?"

She mulled that one over as she wiped off the bits of the comlink that had gotten gunk on them with a towel.

They continued walking towards the bus station for a few moments.

"You know," Pix said, closing her eyes, fingertips trailing along the wall. "I was thinking about what I want from life. See, I've figured it out. I want to find a small house in the middle of nowhere. Maybe a little hydropnics bay so we don't need to buy food. And then I just want to lay down in bed and never ever let you out."

“Remarkably similar to my idea,” Jimmy said, grinning. “After this is over, I'm going to get you that bed. But we're gonna have to set up near a Orx and Crakes. I can't grow food to save my life."

Pix grinned. "And we could steal your dad's set of a hundred and one classic action movies."

"Sounds like a date."

Pix's smile faded slightly. "We haven't actually gone on a date."

"I know. It's pathetic, isn't it? True loves really should go on at least one date."

"And what makes you think this is true love?" Pix grinned. "How do you know the euphoria of your first physical relationship isn't making you mentally repress all my minor flaws, flaws that will become readily apparent after a few months of our relationship?"

"Cause you're my best friend." Jimmy poked her nose. "You've been my best friend for ten years and you're going to keep on being my best friend no matter how many times I have sex with you."

Pix giggled, then grabbed his hand. "Okay! Well, now we've got that out of the way...on with the adventure?"

"On with the adventure!"

They walked in silence for a bit.

“This adventure kinda sucks, you know,” Pix said. “There's been no dragons, no princesses, no nothing...”

###

At the prow-ward part of Slor territory, where their civilization started to integrate with one of the oldest civilizations on Harbinger – the Tette<click><click>, the architecture started to take on the same look. That was why, as Jimmy and Pix walked along the main street of whatever Slor city this was, there were actual...well, streets to walk down, not just tunnels burrowed through imported biomass. That didn't mean the buildings surrounding them weren't amorphous, reddish brown masses of lumpy tissue – which made low, steady breathing noises as they expanded and contracted.

Jimmy just wished it did.

The bus station proper, though, was all Tette<click><click>: The structure was crafted out of multiple layers of organic extrusions, which created a flowing, smooth structure that managed to disguise the utilitarian harshness that would have dominated a human bus stop. The benches were configured for all the local races.

Meaning none of them were comfortable for Jimmy and Pix. One had fifteen slots at the bottom for the Tette<click><click>'s legs. The other was a curved trough, full of a viscous, bubbling ooze that smelled strongly of acid.

Jimmy and Pix decided to stand and look at the curved bus schedules. They did so for about five, six seconds, before Jimmy spoke up.

“Pix,” he said.

“Yeah?” Pix asked.

“I do believe we're looking at a decoration and not the bus schedules,” he said.

“Yeah,” Pix said. Slowly, they turned, until they saw a booth holding a Slor – who was currently partially deflated and snoring softly. Jimmy and Pix walked over, looking at the space above the booth.

"So." Jimmy tapped his foot. "Which bus should we take?"

"Uh, are you asking me?" Edna asked after a moment of silence.

"Well, seeing as how neither of us can read Slor or Tette<click><click>..." Pix trailed off.

Edna sighed. "And how exactly do you expect me to read languages that are transcribed non-visually? Tette<click><click> imprint information psionically, and psi doesn't go through a camera. And the Slor language, you need to lick to-"

"Ah!" Jimmy snapped his fingers. He stepped up, then focused on a single word: INTERLAC. As he thought that word, the wall shimmered, and words in the interstellar language slowly formed out of nothingness – words that spelled out the bus schedule!

"Okay, Pix, there's a bus that will hit the Traverse heading out in about twenty minutes."

Pix tapped her chin and opened her mouth, then closed it. She thought about it for a few more seconds, while Jimmy watched – wondering what the hell it was she was thinking about. Then, grinning, he said. "No, that's not enough time to have sex. More's the pity."

"Actually, Jimmy, you horrible, sexist person you, I was going to ask if you knew where the bathroom was?"

"Oh! Um..." He frowned. "I don't know if they have human bathrooms here."

They both looked at the Slor attendant, who remained deflated. Jimmy carefully knocked on the window pane. The Slor filled up with a loud squelching noise, and then spoke.

"Quivery: How can I help yea twice?" The Slor had a translator built right into the desk and it was one that had not been updated in a long time. A long long time.

"Uh..." Jimmy blinked. "Is there a human compatible bathroom here?"

"Afferimnation!" the Slor said. “Reconfigurmation begun!”

"Thanks! Where is it?" Pix leaned on the desk, her antennas sparking. Her knees knocked together slightly, the unique Pix 'need to pee' signal.

"Right around the corner. Take this key." The Slor extruded a single tendril, to handed her what looked like a chain of beads, that had been smeared with mucus.

"Uh...right." Pix held it as gingerly as possible, then walked around said corner, making small 'ew' and 'gross' noises under her voice.

Jimmy tapped his fingers on the desk. How does one make small talk with a Slor?

The door to the bus station opened. Jimmy glanced over his shoulder.

And froze.

The Xorquin.

That. Was. Impossible.

He wore the same jacket. It was a bit more stained now. His right arm was wrapped up in one of those inteli-casts, with the blue liquid in contained in a glass outer shell. The liquid seeped into wounds and healed them quicker than naturally. He walked slowly, with a limp, but he still had a definite presence. Like he could still rip Jimmy's spinal column out. The only thing going for Jimmy was the Xorquin had a big strip of cloth wrapped sideways over his head, covering two out of three eyes.

Jimmy shuffled slowly to the corner of the room, hands in his pockets, head away from the Xorquin. Don't turn. Don't turn.

The Xorquin stepped up to the desk and rattled at the clerk.

The clerk's translator rattled back.

The Xorquin held out his non wounded arm. The Slor dropped...a strong of mucus covered beads into that palm. Shit shit shit shit shit.

Jimmy shuffled towards the entrance, keeping himself behind the Xorquin (who was turning, slowly, to the corner that lead to the bathrooms).

Jimmy ducked out of the place. He drew his gun, gulping as he did so. Okay, okay, run run. He ran to the alleyway behind the bus stop, ducked around a dumpster that looked shockingly human, and then burst out in the back, where the bathrooms jutted out of the back of the bus-stop like a tumor.

Okay, maybe it wasn't so unlike a human bus stop.

The Xorquin was trying to thread the beads through the lock of the bathroom door, but he was having trouble getting them through the lock. Jimmy never thought he would thank the Slor for their fiddly, pointlessly complex keys. He reached for his gun, planning to-

Then the door opened. "Hey, Jimmy look what I found."

The Xorquin looked at Pix. Pix looked at the Xorquin. In her hand was...a lighter, a human style lighter, the silvery top popped off, Pix's thumb on the button to start the sparker.

The Xorquin reached into his jacket.

Pix blinked as his hand vanished into his jacket, then took advantage of having a computerized brain. Where Jimmy would have thought through every option and then gotten shot before making a decision, Pix came to the best decision, then...did it.

She clicked the lighter on and stuck her hand in the Xorquin's jacket, flames licking at the bandages the Xorquin had used to patch up his ribs, chest, arm and neck.

Jimmy did not know bandages were that flammable. The Xorquin jerked back, his shredder pistol hitting the ground with a clank, his hands beating at the flames on his chest. He backed into the wall of the bus station.

Pix blinked. The Xorquin tossed his jacket off, slapping himself with it.

"Run." Jimmy grabbed her arm. Pix was staring at the Xorquin, eyes widening. Widest. She didn't look away from the Xorquin, even as he was wreathed in smoke and a horribly familiar smell touched both Jimmy and Pix's nose.

BBQ.

Pix put her hand over her mouth. "Oh god, oh god," she whispered. "No, no, not again!"

"PIX!" Jimmy yanked on her. She blinked.

The Xorquin grabbed his jacket, his chest a big bunch of burnt scales. He ignored them, even as some popped off with the flexing of his muscles. They popped off and revealed burnt, raw flesh.

He yanked a second shredder from his jacket, cocked the safety back, aimed. Jimmy dragged Pix behind the bathroom. Shredder bolts peppered the wall, blowing hunks out of the material. A dark shadow passed overhead. Jimmy and Pix looked up and saw the bus!

It landed at the front. Jimmy fired his gun around the corner wildly. The Xorquin shot back, but then there was a pause. A rattle...a magazine hitting the ground?

Jimmy took the chance, dragging Pix towards the bus. The door opened. People – Slor and Tette<click><click> started getting out. The Xorquin slapped a new magazine into the shredder, aimed, and opened fire.

Jimmy and Pix were almost on the bus by then. People screamed and other people dropped and screamed louder, in ways that made Jimmy want to scream too. The bus doors closed and the bus driver slammed his foot down. He was an Urtish, so he had a LOT of foot to slam.

The bus lurched forward, those still on screaming and panicking and pointing at Jimmy. Jimmy realized he was still holding his gun. "Uh, I-" he started.

Pinkpinkpinktwinkclang!

Shredder bolts thudded into the bottom of the bus.

"Whaz going on!?" The Urtish shouted, his translator shouting as well a moment later.

"Drive!" Jimmy shouted, aiming his gun in the vague direction of the Urtish (but not before flicking on the safety on). "NOW!"

The bus lurched into a higher speed, listing slightly to the side as it did so. Pix leaned against the wall, eyes still unfocused.

"Pix!" Jimmy grabbed her, looking into her eyes.

He paused. "Pix, snap out of it!

Pix kept staring over his shoulder.

Then bus jerked to the side and she whacked her head against the glass. "Shit!"

Jimmy half wanted to tell her to watch her language. But this was no school bus...even if it was Monday again. One week, and everything had changed.

"Jimmy, what the heck is going on!?" Edna shouted, startling him as effectively as the bus jerking to the side.

Something was smashing against the bus. The Urtish yelped. Jimmy looked at the side and saw that a large hover-car, painted bright red, was slamming into the side of the bus, the driver seat occupied by a still smoking, still badly burned, Xorquin.

Jimmy ignored Edna and brought his gun up and fired a few times out the window. That didn't do much.

At his side, Pix sat on the floor, trying to get her gun out, but her hands were shaking.

Jimmy braced himself and aimed, firing. Bang bang bang.

The Xorquin's car started to spurt smoke from the hood. The Xorquin kicked the door open with one foot as the hover-car started to lose speed.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me." Jimmy whispered.

The Xorquin jumped out of the car, which rolled off to the side, losing altitude faster than it lost speed. It smashed into the road and exploded, bits of shrapnel flying in every direction, some pinking off the bottom of the bus, which lurched to a forty five degree angle as the Xorquin grabbed onto the rim of the bus roof with his uninjured hand. He hauled himself up, cocked his leg up, then he was ontop of the bus.

Jimmy and Pix – who had picked up her gun from the floor - aimed up and fired. They blew holes in the top of the bus, but neither could tell if they were doing anything more than scaring what was left of the heck out of the other passengers.

A siren cut through the screaming and shouting and gunshots. A Slor police craft, sleek and rounded – like one of the flying saucers of ancient legend – came alongside the bus. It started to use the Slor's audio language, which was rather similar to the Xorquin's clicking and rattling, if only much much less complicated.

The Xorquin's claws grabbed the roof and started to rip it up through sheer brute strength. Jimmy gaped up at him. Pix shouted and slapped Jimmy shoulder: “Look!”

Jimmy looked. The Urtish was driving straight for a tunnel. The tunnel was very wide, but the Urtish was aiming so that...

Jimmy did not know whether to cheer for the Urtish, or to scream like everyone else.

The bus' roof smashed into the lip of the tunnel.

The bus jerked and a scream of metal filled the air as the roof was peeled up and back like the bus was being attacked by a giant can opener.

Then they were in the tunnel and wind roared through the roof. Alarms blared from the Urtish's console. The passengers kept up their versions of screaming their heads off.

The bus burst from the tunnel and shot out into the Traverse

###

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E.L.F: Chapter 12

Author's note: While editing this chapter, I found no less than FIVE continuity errors. And they weren't subtle, easy to miss ones. They were massive, massive, obvious ones. Just goes to show how much four years of practice can improve your writing!

Chapter 12: Foundry

Jimmy, for the longest time, thought that being a boyfriend to a girl (or a boy, though, he was fairly sure he didn't swing that way) would involve equal amounts of good times and bad. Times spent cuddling and kissing and talking and playing video games, and times spent arguing over who cleaned the kitchen and who made the most money, and all the other examples he had seen in fiction. But then, he actually got a girlfriend, and all the bad times had involved scary people with guns trying to kill them.

On the whole, he was grateful for that.

Then he woke up with Pix splayed across his chest and body like a uneven comforter – one with some soft pillowy bits, but also weird, suprising bony bits that he hadn't expected – and realized that he had just run into one of the bad times. Specifically, the: Do I dare move and wake my girlfriend while she is laying ontop of me, or do I remain perfectly still and just let my arm hurt more and more as it is slowly blood starved into gangrene and death?

After a minute of agonized thinking, Jimmy decided that he would move...if his fingers started to turn green and smell like death.

Until then? He waited and tried to convince himself he was comfortable.

It almost worked, too!

After what felt like a few billion years – enough for Harbinger to complete its slow route through the galaxy, digest several planets, and then return back to where it had found the bedraggled remains of the human race and their children – Pix opened her eyes and nuzzled her nose against Jimmy's chest, before looking up.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," Jimmy said, reaching up to brush through her hair with his hand.

"Are you comfy?"

"Um, I-"

"Good." She snuggled against his chest once more, pressing even tighter against him. After a moment, she spoke – her voice only slightly muffled by his shirt. "Wanna do it again?"

Jimmy started to splutter – he wasn't honestly sure if he was about to say yes, no, or yes yes yes yes. Pix interrupted him by pushing herself up – freeing his arm – and kissing him. Jimmy's eyes widened.

And not just because his arm was suddenly burning with a rush of blood and circulation.

It was also because they hadn't used any mouth wash since last night.

"You, bleck, you were right the first time," Pix said, waving her hand under her nose. "Morning breath."

"How could I be right? You didn't let me say anything before you kissed me!" Jimmy said, rummaging around in his pack for the wash. He pulled out the small dispenser, sprayed the smart liquid into his mouth, and shivered as he felt the faint tingle around his gums and teeth as the wash got to work.

"I can read your mind,” Pix said, shrugging slightly. Jimmy spat out a hardened pill of collected plaque.

“You cannot!” Jimmy said as Pix swished her mouth, then spat out her plaque as well.

“Can too!” She grinned, then started to tick things off. “You think my butt is sexy, you spent five minutes agonizing over whether to move your arm and wake me up or suffer – and you chose to suffer, very nice of you – and you are not looking forward to another round of walking through endless corridors!”

Jimmy frowned.

“Okay, fine,” Pix said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You were thinking my boobs are sexy. You never were a butt guy...”

###

The two of them eyed the doorway that led out of their campsite

"Who wants to bet the Xorquin is on the other side of this door?" Pix felt around her pockets for her gun. "He has been ambushing us ever since we started...except for that one time where we could have ambushed him, but, I mean..." She trailed off, looking cross.

Jimmy, seeing a chance to change the subject ahead of time before an argument, grabbed it and said: "I'll see you that bet."

"What should we bet?" Pix looked at him.

Jimmy rubbed his chin. “Not sure...”

“Oh!” She jumped up slightly, her antennas sparking. “I know! Favors.”

"Okay," Jimmy said. A moment later, he looked at her side long, his eyes narrowed. "What favors? It's not like I have a lawn you can mow or any thing."

Pix just grinned.

"Um, when you make that face, it's normally before you-"

Pix leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"Oooh...then...I really hope I win this bet," Jimmy whispered. She giggled.

"So do I! Mostly cause I hate getting shot at. Well, that and also cause I love-"

Jimmy opened the door before she could finish that sentence. The moment between the door starting to open and the door actually being open had an eternity of tension. Despite their joking, Pix's face was set and ready for action, her hands clasping her pistol. Then the door finished open and revealed another stretch of Harbinger's corridors. Pix holstered her weapon, shaking her head.

"Yeah. That's what I love. The lack of light, bullets, walking long distances, the lack of ice cream, the lack of beds, and the fact we haven't had sex for an hour.”

Jimmy laughed. “Well, hey, I won the bet, at least.” He started forward into the corridor, Pix following him once she had checked to make sure her gun was safe in its holster. They walked down the corridor, Jimmy's finger brushing along the wall, his other hand in his pocket, resting right on the handle of his gun. There was a long time of simple silence between them – and Jimmy felt rather proud of that. Some of their conversations felt more like they were to ward off the massive size of Harbinger. Far from other humans and E.L.F.s and even other aliens, the sheer scale of the galaxy's largest starship started to feel like a heavy weight crushing on his shoulders.

The next door they came to was rusted shut. Pix and Jimmy looked at one another. Silently, Pix held up a fist. Jimmy held up a fist as well. They shook. Pix threw her hand flat, but Jimmy kept his hand clenched in a fist.

“Tire skids on oil,” she said, grinning.

Jimmy swore. “Knew I should have done pipe...”

“Get to work, slave boy,” Pix said, leaning on the wall, assuming a stance that was too casually relaxing to be actually relaxing.

Jimmy snorted and then got out the laser cutter. The searing brightness of the laser's contact point was actually filtered down by the night vision's computers – which, he noted, might make them useful later in non-pitch black areas of the ship, to help with bright lights as much as with dim lights. As he carefully cut through the rust that had clouded around the doorway – and tried to figure out why this door had rusted, while most of Harbinger's construction was immune to the ravages of time – he heard Edna's voice speaking through the coms.

“Hey, kids,” she said. “You're near the Slor's terretory.”

Pix shuddered overdramatically. "Ugh. Slor."

"Hey, hey, don't be racist,” Jimmy said, not taking his eyes from the cutter.

"I'm not racist. I've just seen them talk." Pix paused. “Okay, you can't see, but I'm making HUGE finger quotes.”

Jimmy grunted as the laser cutter worked its way through the part of the door he had been aiming it at. He tested the door and it shifted ever so slightly – if he had to characterize the door, he'd say it was grumpy that he was making it do anything it didn't want to do and was fighting him tooth and nail. He gritted his teeth. "It's like...tolerance, Pix, you gotta have it!"

Pix scowled. "We don't have tolerance for people who spray mucus over us at home. Why is it suddenly okay for aliens to do it?"

"Cause when a human does that, they're sick. When a Sor does it..." Jimmy braced one foot against the door, then pushed his back against the wall. He started to push with his leg, gritting his teeth. "They're...rrrrgh!" He shoved again. "Talking!"

"Yeah, but..." Pix said, sounding plaintive. "It's gross!"

Jimmy frowned. “You know. You're an engineered life form. Aren't your muscles twice as efficient as human ones? Couldn't you HELP me with this?”

“Actually, after the Eugenic's Wars-”

“Just get over here!” Jimmy snarled. Pix rolled her eyes and hurried forward to the door. She put her shoulder to the door beside Jimmy's hands and together, they shoved hard. The door shifted and swung outward to reveal a long corridor, curving slightly to the side. But what was more important was...it was illuminated. Sure, the illumination was Slor-style, but their luminators were splattered all over the wall.

Jimmy laughed.

And then the Xorquin leaned around the corner and fired a burst from his rifle. Bullets bounced off the metal of the door and floor. Jimmy dove to the side, slamming Pix against the wall. She oofed, her antennas clacking against the wall. Then Pix saved Jimmy by pushing against the wall and shoving them behind the door frame just as another burst ripped out. This time, the bullets stitched along the ground where they had both laid.

Jimmy scrambled to get his legs behind cover and drew his pistol.

Pix did the same.

"How'd he find us?" Pix whispered. Well. She whispered the only way one could during a gun battle – which was by shouting slightly lower than the top of her lungs.

"No clue." Jimmy fired his gun at the open part of the door, not aiming at anything or even sticking his gun around the corner. He just wanted to rattle the Xorquin before he actually fired the gun around the corner. Pix did the same, kneeling down so she could shoot the ground too. They kept shooting for a few seconds before Jimmy's gun clicked. He hit the eject button and the empty container for the caseless ammo brick slotted down.

Pix fired two more shots, then her gun clicked. She reached into her pocket, but when she pulled out her caseless brick, it fell from her fingers and hit the ground with a thud. Jimmy snapped his gun back to ready, peeking out around the corner, his forehead itching like it was on fire. But nothing blew his brains out from the back of his head. The Xorquin was staying put. Or getting ready to do something evil.

"Jimmy? What is going on over there, I'm not getting any video,” Edna said.

"Xorquin has us pinned down, might be trying to jam us, figure us a way outta here!" Jimmy shouted. Something moved down at that corner – a tiny subliminal thing, a shift of shadows, the faint edge of scales peeking around the corner. Jimmy jerked back behind cover. That turned out to be the right decision: Another shower of bullets came down the corridor at them. Pix yelped, standing up with the ammo brick in her hand.

"I felt it ruffle my hair," she whispered, eyes wide. Jimmy grunted, then had a brainwave.

"PULL!"

Pix got it in an instant. She grabbed the door's wheel beside Jimmy and started to pull as hard as she could. Jimmy's arms strained and his legs strained and he gritted his teeth, hard, and together, they pulled. The door creaked shut.

"Laser cutter! Laser cutter!" Jimmy hissed, grabbing it from his pocket. He put it to the joints of the door. Pix looked at him like he was crazy. Maybe he was!

"What are you doing?" Pix and Edna asked at the same time. Jimmy could have sworn he heard Edna whisper 'jinx'.

"Trying something," he whispered. Clunk. A dull sound reverberated through the door's solid structure and it jerked outwards before Pix hauled back, her arms trembling as she shut it once more. Jimmy could hear claws scrabbling on the door, then heard silence. The Xorquin was getting a better grip on the door, to try and pull it open. The cutter finishing sheering through the joints. Jimmy put a foot up on the door and shoved.

Slowly, it inched forward. Then, gaining momentum with every degree that it tilted, the door slammed down onto a living, fleshy shape with a sound between a clang and a splat.

Silence.

"Jimmy...did..." Pix whispered. A single, green clawed arm stuck out from under the door, a thin spread of pink blood spreading out from the metal. The blood pooled around scaled knuckles. Pix put her hand over her mouth.

"Oh shit," Jimmy whispered.

"Nice job,” Edna said. “Got video again.”

"Edna, I just...killed him."

"Good. I'd suggest heading out. Now."

"I killed him." Jimmy whispered again. Pix's hand was still over her mouth, her eyes wide. The Xorquin's fingers twitched...then clenched into a fist. Pix yelped as the Xorquin's arm jerked up and grabbing the door's side, finger claws scrabbling against the metal, leaving thin little furrows.

"Run! Run!" Jimmy shouted, grabbing Pix and then jumping forward, running over the door. It clanked and clunked, with an unpleasant squishiness underneath.

They ran around the corner. Pix jerked Jimmy to a stop, almost dislocating his shoulder. "What are you doing!?" he asked, rubbing at his shoulder.

"He's still alive!" She looked around the corner. "That door was weighed a ton! He should be dead!"

"Xorquin are tough, though. They evolved as apex predators, and not just really excitable monkeys. If he gets out from under that door, he might still have his gun. He might be able to riddle us all up with bullets, even if we've broken half the bones in his body. We? We need to run!" Jimmy said. "Babe, we gotta go!"

Pix nodded, distractedly, and they hustled off.

“Also, never call me babe again,” she said, panting slightly.

“Yeah, that just sounded weird, snugglebutt.”

Pix nodded as they ran down the corridor. “That's better!”

Jimmy laughed...but as he laughed, he kept running and kept trying to estimate weights and forces and Xorquin tolerances to blunt impact. In the end, he had no answers, just a lot of questions. They ran till they couldn't run anymore. Even Pix was sweating fops. Jimmy gulped, gasping, his hands on his knees.

“Okay,” Pix said, panting. “I think we can stop running.”

Jimmy laughed around his gasping. "Cool. Think we can stop worrying about the Xorquin?"

"Maybe. If he can catch up with us with that many broken bones and internal injuries, then I don't think keeping on running will save us..." Pix leaned back against the wall. Then she paused, putting her hands on her comlink and lifting it up off her head. "Jimmy, we've got light."

“Now you notice!?” Jimmy asked, laughing.

###

After they caught their breath, Jimmy and Pix took a moment to check out their first up close look at a proper Slor lamp. Or at least, they hoped it was a lamp. It looked kind of like a slug that had been hardened to the wall with a epoxy. The slug had three light sources within its back, which were covered with a thin white membrane that softened the harsh white light. There was another slug a couple of feet down the corridor, stuck on the ceiling emitting a greenish color.

"Huh," Pix muttered. "I wonder how they keep them glowing? They need food, right?"

"I'd think so," Jimmy said.

"Does someone come around and feed them?" Pix asked, turning away from the slug.

"We've got battery men, don't we? The Slor probably have feeders or something." Jimmy shrugged.

"Hurm...” Pix shrugged. “Well, let's go then.”

Jimmy grinned, tapping his comlink. “Edna, got directions?”

Silence.

"Edna, come in."

"Edna?" Pix asked, tapping her comlink as well.

They both looked at the ceiling. "Nothing on your end?" Jimmy asked.

"Not a thing," Pix said. "What oh what are we going to do while we wait for directions?"

"We could sit. Talk. Gaze longingly into each other's eyes, in a completely chaste and...uh..." Jimmy blinked as Pix grinned, put her finger on his lip, then got on her knees.

###

Edna came back online as Pix wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

"Sorry, the connection is getting spottier-" Edna's next sentence was obscured by a sudden upswing of static. "-I say again, closer to the Foundry?"

"Uh, Edna, we think the Xorquin might still be alive, but we are not sure."

"Say again?" Edna sounded like she was shouting, but her voice was mostly consumed by the crackling, hissing static.

"I said, the Xorquin might still be alive!" Jimmy shouted.

"Say again?” Edna's voice sounded more distant.

"The Xorquin MIGHT still be ALIVE!" Jimmy blushed – he realized he was practically bawling into the com.

"Ooooh! How did you-" Static. When Edna's voice returned, Jimmy was almost convinced that she had just said: "-whistled for a babboon?"

"Just give us directions." Jimmy sighed.

After shouting at one another through the increasingly hazy connection, Jimmy got the directions. Pix, who had been listening in, chimed in. "Okay, we go left, then right, then left, then left, then right again."

"L, R, L, L-" Jimmy started to bob his head in the indicated directions, trying to keep them straight. He grinned. “Wait, if I know a damn thing about my geography, that'll take us around Slor territory!”

"I know!” Pix laughed. “Let's make a song out of it, for celebration's sake! L, R, L, L, and an R! It's a hippity hoppity, bippity boppity-"

"You're just making up words now."

"And you frungy know it!"

###

Jimmy had heard stories about the Foundry's and its light. But he had never thought he'd come to the Foundry. He had also known it was near Slor territory, but he also had had no idea that Edna's directions would take them to it. If he had known, well, he wouldn't nearly have been so happy to avoid the slugs.

Then again...it meant he got to see one of the wonders of Harbinger...

The Foundry's light bled the color from everything it touched, drenching it in such thick whiteness that everything under it was turned into a watery wash. It was a pure, stark, brilliant whiteness that washed away everything, leaving more and more brilliance. There was no place for color or detail or even shapes under that blazing light. And the door that lead to the Foundry...only seemed to make the brightness more intense by contrast: It was an utterly normal human style door, with a square plate of treated glass that let filtered light spill into the corridor that looped around the Foundry.

"Wow," Jimmy put his hand under the light. It looked almost white, with a tiny core of his normal color, watered down to a coffee stain. "That is very bright and white..."

"I like you normal." Pix dragged his hand out of the white. "Like chocolate!"

Jimmy bit his lip. "I was always more of a vanilla man."

Pix arched an eyebrow. "And bubblegum?"

"Vanilla and bubblegum," Jimmy said, hurriedly. “AND bubblegum!”

“Good, you get to live,” Pix said, winking at him.

"Okay," Edna's voice crackled over the comlink. "If you two are done being horny..."

Jimmy opened his mouth to complain about being characterized as 'horny', but before he could say anything, Edna interrupted him by continuing her sentence.

"This door leads to one of the most inhospitable area of Harbinger, other than the Planet Maw and the engines. Raw material cut out of planets is dumped down here from the Planet Maw. It goes through that big old beam of blinding light at the top of the Foundry."

Jimmy and Pix bent over, peeking through the window. They looked away, blinking. "Ow. Ow. Ow. OW!" Pix rubbed at her eyes. "Let's not look at that."

"What is it?" Jimmy whispered.

"If we knew, we'd build some of them ourselves." Edna sighed. "Raw material falls into it and completed things come out the other end. Robots, machine parts, and other things that Harbinger needs....”

Jimmy nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I remember, my Dad told me about it! He called it the Converter Beam. My question is, why build a room so big, and then put the Converter Beam at the top of it?”

“Well,” Edna said. “The video footage I've seen shows the items falling from the beam, getting about five meters from the ground, then...vanishing. Some of the material shows up where we need it – to fix broken doors. But most of it just vanishes. No one is sure where they go."

"Uhuh. And why don't we know for sure?" Pix asked. "The Tette<click><click> have been on Harbinger for two thousand years and other races have been here almost as long! Why hasn't anyone figured it out?"

"You two didn't pay any attention to Studies of Harbinger class, didn't you?"

"That's a college course! We're just out of high school!"

There was a pause. "Really? Damn. Well, uh, okay, let me try to dumb this down for you two. Firstly, you-" Pause. "Um, wait just a moment."

Pix sighed. "Can we tell her we don't care once she comes back?"

"I dunno, I thought it was kinda interesting." Jimmy leaned against the door, looking at the white light spilling onto the ground. “My question is, where we do go from here? ...we're not going across the Foundry, are we?”

“Oh, no!” Pix said. “I'm betting we're going to go from here to one of the Slor black market trade towns that are nestled near the Foundry!”

“How in the hell would you know about black market Slor towns?” Jimmy asked.

Pix beamed. “By deduction, my dear Leonite. The Foundry? Too dangerous. Slor territory? Too settled for two human children to get across it without being detained. And the Slor aren't exactly friendly to humans, partially thanks to your Dad getting involved in peace talks. That leaves the Slor that Edna would have a pull with – criminals. Thus, there must be Slor criminal towns nearby!”

Jimmy blinked, then nodded. “That...that makes sense. Good job, Pix.”

“Okay, now I'm offended that you sound so shocked!”

Before Jimmy could respond, their com-links clicked on.

"Okay, uh, bad news guys." Ed sounded kinda grim. "My contacts in the local Slor black market burbs have gone to ground or are dead – and I'm talking recently dead...” As she said that, Pix mouthed 'told you' to Jimmy. “Now, we could try the Dark, but the rumors are that the Dark near Slor territory has some monster in it...”

Jimmy nodded, then glanced at the window to the Foundry. He blinked. “Uh...wait just a second, Edna...”

“What?”

“Something's coming,” he said, while Pix stuck her head over by the window as well.

“Down the corridor?” Edna asked.

“No,” Jimmy said. “From the Foundry!”

It was a person, or at least a humanoid. Their clothes were reflective, so it hurt to look at them for too long, but Jimmy got the impression of a suited individual, lugging one of those backpacks with wheels behind them. The figure got closer and closer, till it arrived at the door. Jimmy and Pix stepped back in a hurry as the door opened. There was a moment of searing, painful light that burnt skin and crisped eyes...and then the door closed again, the silvery figure standing inside the hallway.

The figure wore a helmet that had long sides that drooped about over his shoulders. There was a black faceplate, which reflected Jimmy and Pix's shocked expressions. Large, clumsy gloves, reached up and grabbed at the helmet, then pulled it up and off, revealing the last thing that Jimmy or Pix had been expecting.

A human being.

He was pale, with a lantern jaw, and dull brown hair sheered almost bald. His nose bent violently about halfway down, while his eyes were an odd mix of gentleness and a glinting fierceness that made Jimmy feel a little uneasy. The human looked intently at Jimmy, then intently at Pix, and that fierceness didn't waver one jot.

"Oh, hi," he said. "Didn't expect to meet anyone on this side."

"Uh...neither did I, actually,” Jimmy said. “James. James Leonite. Pleasure to meet you.” He held his hand out, not sure if he'd regret this or not.

"Collins. Collins M. Korban." The man blinked a few times, then took the offered hand. "Are you two kids aware that this is a dangerous place?"

"Uh, yeah, we just came from the Armory?"

"Really?" Korban clapped his gloved hands. "Well, I have to keep going-"

"Wait, uh, what were you doing in there?"

"Me? I was doing research." Korban tapped his nose with a gloved finger. "Keep it mum, children, it's technically illegal."

"He's right," Edna came back online. "There are treaties that prevent all but a joint operation to study the place, but anyone who tries finds out the hard way how the Humans and the Xorquin, the Yetel and the Slor and so on all can't get themselves to work together. Hell, we have a hard time getting humans to work with humans."

Jimmy winced. "Yeah, that does sound bad."

"What sounds bad?" Korban asked, turning back from his backpack which he had opened. Inside, Jimmy saw some complex machines and small computers and other science stuff.

"Oh, right." Jimmy tapped his comlink. "Comlink."

"Ah! You know, when I was a youngster, everyone just wanted esophagus implants."

"Ew." Pix furrowed her brow.

"Ew is right. Fifteen people strangled themselves to death before they decided to remove them from the market." He shook his head. "Insane. Still, don't let an old man ramble!"

He turned back to his backpack. He had worked his way past the science stuff to some data crystals. Jimmy and Pix glanced at one another. Neither of them said anything.

"Aaah, I noticed," Korbin said into the silence, grunting as he tried to lug his main computer out of the backpack. "That your young lady friend is an Engineered Life Form. Does she have data processing capabilities?"

"Well, uh," Pix said. "I can speak for myself.'

"What?" Korban blinked. "Oh! Sorry, E.L.F."

"I have a name too,” Pix said, sliding her hand around Jimmy's hand – almost calculatingly. She narrowed her eyes, watching Korban as she squeezed Jimmy's hand.

Korban blinked, opened his mouth, closed it, then brushed his hands through his hair as he looked at the two of them. A slow flush started to rise up his cheeks. "Well, um, what is your name young...lady?"

"Pixel," she said, sticking her chin out. By now, Jimmy was starting to feel like he was standing near something very awkward. But he had no idea what it was.

"Right!" Korban nodded. "Now, Pixel, do you have the capabilities to process data?"

"I've got a class four data processor." Pix preened and Jimmy kissed her cheek. Korban gaped. He hastily closed his mouth and nodded, handing her a data crystal. Pix looked at it, then at him, arching an eyebrow. “Okay, I have to know...” She said, shifting slightly so that Jimmy hid her data-port. Jimmy didn't look down, but he knew that Pix was taking out the Xorquin crystal. “What was your plan, if you didn't meet an E.L.F outside of the door?”

Korban blinked, coughed, and said: “Well, my original plan was to walk to one of the nearby towns, and rent computer time...”

Pix shrugged. “Well, how about you give me half of those credits? Since, you know, I am saving you the trouble.”

Jimmy did look at her this time, his eyes wide. Pix winked at him, grinning slightly.

“I...suppose...” Korban sounded faintly disgusted. He tossed a credit chit at them, and Pix caught it, then took the data crystal from his hands.

"This data should take me about an hour." Pix smiled.

"That is fine, thank you." Korban said, though it sounded far less than fine to him.

"Are you sure you should be wasting your time with this?" Edna whispered.

"Well, my feet hurt, we need a break, and it's lunch time." Jimmy shrugged. "Also this guy might know how to get across quicker than your 'walk in a big circle' method."

Edna sighed. "Fine. Whatever."

Jimmy tapped his comlink and looked at Korban. Korban was looking at a small device that looked like a metal tennis ball with a radar dish attached. "Um, young..."

"Jimmy."

"James!" Kroban stood up. "Would you care to help me set this up?"

"Don't see why not." Jimmy shrugged. "Could you tell me more about your work?"

"Sure!" Korban stood up. Jimmy glanced at Pix, then leaned in and kissed her. She started and opened her eyes.

"Hey," She grinned. "You made me miss a byte."

"It's just a byte," he whispered. "Keep one eye open, we don't know if we're safe or not."

"Don't worry about it. I've got the eyes of a dagget and the ears of a fennec!"

Jimmy grinned, kissed her a few more times, then headed back to Korban.

"So I see you are, ah," Korban groped for words as he carried the tennis ball/radar dish dohicky- he and Jimmy were making a good pace, even if every footstep made Jimmy's feet ache more. "...involved with that E.L.F."

Jimmy looked at him funny. "Um, yeah, I'm in love with Pix."

Korban harrumphed. "You do know she is just a cyborg right? It's not like she is really real."

And suddenly, the pieces all fell, click click cluuunk, right into place. Then Jimmy's brain went through several stages. First, denial. No, no way. Korban was so polite and cultured! Second, shock. Before now, the only person who'd ever said something like that had been the gutter-trash that surrounded Pix's foster home. The people who were poor and needed someone to rail at. Not this...this...cultured, polite, odd scientist out in the middle of nowhere.

And then, the third and final stage: I will not punch this man in the face. I will not punch the man in the face.

Jimmy, instead, just focused on getting his job done with as fast as he could, so that he and Pix could leave.

They came to another door into the foundry and there, Korban started to multitask amazingly well: First, he started setting up his device. And secondly, he made Jimmy's job much much harder. "I know she may look pretty, my boy, but she is still a construct. I know popular opinion is against people like me, but we're more common than the liberalized media will have you believe."

Jimmy clenched his jaw.

"And I know you are angry now, while she has you whiled with her fake charms, but when you know her for longer, she'll be a lot less real..."

Jimmy crossed his arms over his chest. Out of sheerest desperation to change the subject before he belted the guy, he asked: "Sir, can I ask you some questions about the Foundry."

Korban turned around, finished fiddling with his widget. "You may."

"Can we get across it with suits like you were wearing?"

"Presumably, but I only have one spare."

Jimmy gritted his teeth. "What if we paid you?"

"Those suits are hand made. I wouldn't trade them for the world, that would end my experiments!"

Jimmy closed his eyes. "What if we used the suits to get from this side to the other, then hid them on that side and let you take the long way around. Then, when you finished coming around, you can pick the suits up!"

Anything to get out of this place faster, and get away from this jackass...

Korban pursed his lips. “Interesting. Would you mind carrying some supplies with you? If you set up three more transponders and cameras, I could then process the data while I walk, and...hmm, yes! This could be most adventitious to both of us. It could give me more data, and you the short cut you so desire."

Jimmy nodded. “Okay. Okay. Sounds good.”

“And, well, your cyborg would be useful in setting up those transponders,” Korban said as he stood up.

Jimmy smiled, coldly, his desire to be better than Korban suddenly vanishing in a puff of smoke. "Korban, if you call her a cyborg again, I'm going to break your kneecaps."

He stalked off, leaving Korban to stare after him.

Yes, saying that might not have been the wisest thing to say. But it had felt good.

###

Jimmy tugged on his right glove with his left hand, working the fingers into the surprisingly small holes. The fingers looked so big, but most of that was insulation or whatever kept the killing light of the Foundry off your skin. As he dressed, he ranted.

"A thousand years ago, they'd be bugging out cause my skin is dark and yours is white!"

Pix paused in getting her gloves on and licked his cheek.

Jimmy scowled playfully at her. "Pix, please! I'm trying to stay angry here! You licking me isn't-"

She licked him again.

"Stop that!"

She giggled. "Oh, come on. Don't let haters fill you with hate. If you hate someone, they'll hate you right back. You gotta hug to get them to change their minds."

Jimmy blinked, pausing in struggling into the left glove. "That's actually kind of profound, despite the whole insufferable cuteness factor. Also, wait, didn't you want me to ambush and shoot the Xorquin in the head? Just, like, two days ago?"

Pix smiled. "Profound and cute and hypocritical! What more could you want?"

"Again, you ask these questions, and answers I can't seem to find." Jimmy sighed and then leaned in to kiss her quickly before plomping his helmet on. Everything became tight and hot and instantly, his face started to sweat and itch.

Pix turned to him, her face turned into blank blackness by her helmet. "Besides," she said, her voice muffled. "There's a difference between trying to kill someone who has a different opinion from you, and killing someone who is trying to kill you and wipe out the human race. Edna, can you hear me?”

"Sure can! And Jimmy..." Edna's voice sounded only slightly muffled.

"Yeah?" Jimmy asked.

"You should have broken that asshole's knees."

###

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