Caitlyn sat there, face covered in a thin layer of dust, staring at the airfoil in front of her. They’d created models that worked perfectly well, using a thin ring of synthetic Core around the front edge that pulled wind backward, propelling the model forward, but scaling it up was becoming difficult. The amount of propulsion that worked for the model was nowhere near enough for the scaled up version, as the law of cubic space began fighting her.

Garth had been gone six months, and Caitlyn had come to terms with the idea that he might not be coming back. Even if he was alive, he was trapped in a dungeon there was no coming back from. That information had come from Chi’tet.

So Caitlyn had buckled down and worked together with Grass and Banyan to hold everything together, keeping the city calm and growing, preparing for the inevitable. In another month, the Dan Ui clan would receive their slap on the wrist, then the restriction on their world would be lifted, and Earth would be free game, available for any clan that wanted to stake a claim on it.

The idea that entire worlds and everyone living on them could be claimed, bought and sold like so much uninhabited land made the hair on her arms stand up.

“What do you think?” Banyan asked, glancing over the plane she’d put together to help them fend off the Empire. Air superiority would go a long way toward maintaining their independence.

“I think I’ll need to use a propeller, just moving the air with an enchantment is too weak, unless I use an inordinate amount of Core,” Caitlyn said.

Why am I even doing this? once the Clans return, it’ll be the age of the gods all over again, and a little flying machine won’t do anything to stop it.

Caitlyn wrapped her arms around her knees. She just needed something to keep her mind occupied, rather than thinking about how quickly everything was going to go to hell, or how many of them might die one month from now.

We’ve got the Garth Aid™, our citizens are bigger, stronger, and healthier than theirs. The city is literally alive and can handle huge amounts of Mana with ease, there are trees surrounding us that shoot beams of light at enemies. We can finally make our own cores. We’ll be fine.

Keep telling yourself that.

“Caitlyn?”

“Hmm?” she said, shaking herself out of her thoughts, spotting Ixel addressing her with a clipboard.

The senior Corio researcher looked over her hand-written notes and began to give Caitlyn the rundown.

“We achieved a new strength for synthetic cores, 2.8 Quires, roughly 40% more mana draw than before, using a technique that aligns the raw materials with a rotating field.”

“forty percent more,” Caitlyn said, doing the numbers. “That’s roughly equivalent to a fifty year old core.” A fifty year old core had a very weak mana draw in the grand scheme of things. It might improve her planes, though.

It was remarkable that they could make enchantable core substitute, but the researchers had perhaps exaggerated their abilities in order to not be slaughtered wholesale. Caitlyn didn’t blame them for it, but it was irritating.

The synthetic core they made was weak and almost useless, definitely not military grade like white five hundred year old core, or gold mythic core. The mutation technique they claimed to have was theoretical, only applicable to cores that were above a certain power threshold, namely mythic cores.

Which they didn’t have any of.

“Keep it up,” Caitlyn said. If nothing else, low power core substitute could be used for civilian endeavors, assuming they could bring the astronomical cost in raw heartstone sludge down. “Every little bit counts.”

Caitlyn returned to her internal calculations of exactly how screwed they were. Garth made the laser forest, though, and he admits to not being the strongest wizard in the multiverse, by a long shot. Doesn’t that mean that there are others out there who can wipe out everything he’s done with a wave of their hand?

Caitlyn had been introduced to the wider world of science and magic for a brief amount of time, and as quickly as he’d come, Garth Daniels, fabled monster of the Age of the Gods, had vanished, leaving her with memories and a legendary living city that seemed to think she was worthy.

Caitlyn flinched at Ixel’s touch on her shoulder.

“I’m sure…I’m sure everything will be all right, Caitlyn.” The Corio woman said.

My literal prisoner is trying to cheer me up. I must look terrible.

“Remind me to draft a letter absolving you of any responsibility for your actions while you were here,” Caitlyn said with a smile she didn’t feel. just another part of being responsible.

“I don’t think that would help,” Ixel said, tilting her horned head. “But I appreciate the offer.”

“Anytime,” Caitlyn said, returning her gaze to the flying machine she was trying to build. She needed to take a break, blow off some steam and come back at the problem with fresh eyes.

Maybe I’ll take the Button for a spin tonight.

Caitlyn had tried crafting Garth’s intricate design with a hand-print through it, hoping for some kind of solution to all her problems, and wound up with a magic button that allowed its bearer to see through non-living materials.

Caitlyn’s reaction was mixed. It was disappointing to know the Earth’s most feared and vilified mythological figure was basically just a giant pervert. It was also disappointing to know that she was one, too. On the other hand, it was unbelievably gratifying to spy on people at their most intimate, and Caitlyn was afraid she might have some kind of stress-induced addiction.

Her hand drifted toward the pocket that held the enchanted disc.

A cloud passed overhead, darkening the sky above them.

I could walk through the minotaur side of the city tonight, there’s usually something going on there worth watching. The minotaurs were very…primal, very large.

The sky darkened some more, tickling the back of Caitlyn’s mind.

“An eclipse?” Ixel said, looking up as the sky continued to darken.

Caitlyn glanced up and spotted something perfectly round slowly drifting in front of the sun, blocking it out to create a full eclipse, revealing the sun’s radiant corona.

“Is that the moon?” Caitlyn asked with a frown, glancing over to the side.

The moon was still sitting near the horizon, a pale orb that nearly blended into the blue of the sky.

“That’s no moon,” Garth said, peering into the sky beside them. “That’s a space station.”

Ixel and Caitlyn launched themselves away from the purple man who’d suddenly appeared between them, too close and too sudden for comfort.

Caitlyn felt a half dozen things at once. Relief, amazement, happiness, but the thing that blurted out of her mouth was simple accusation.

“What the hell, Garth?” she demanded.

“And…cross that line off the bucket list,” The ancient sorcerer said, making a note in a brown notebook manifesting itself in his hand before he snapped it shut with one hand, causing it to vanish.

“Oh good, you’re both here,” he said, his gaze taking in the both of them as he looked up.

“Caitlyn, I need you to make some guns, really big guns. You finish your P90?”

“…yes.”

“And Ixel, was it?”

“yes.”

“I need your team’s core mutating expertise. You weren’t lying about that, were you?”

“We…” Ixel hesitated in front of the man who’d killed so many of her co-workers.

“We haven’t been able to make a Core alive enough to mutate. It would have to be on par with a mythic core to be able to apply the technique. I’m afraid it’s theoretical until our Synthetic core production advances significantly.”

She winced, expecting some kind of retribution.

“That’s not a problem,” Garth said with a grin. “Now tell all your teammates to pack their bags and get ready for a change of scenery. I’m just swinging by for a quick pit-stop to pick up a few things I left here before the Dan Ui get on my case.”

“Alright,” Ixel said, nodding.

“And tell them to get somewhere nice and open, ‘cuz chances are it’ll be a bumpy ride.”

“o..kay.”

****later***

“You shouldn’t be afraid of heights,” Garth said, arms crossed as he eyed Caitlyn. The slim redhead was clutching his leg and hyperventilating. “You can fly. I taught you how to fly.”

“This is different!” Caitlyn shouted, pointing at the puffy white clouds far below L.A. as the Fertility raised the city into space.

Garth couldn’t exactly leave his Phylactery alone on earth, and he figured he might as well take his city with him too.

There was a massive patch of bare bedrock beneath them where the Fertility had sheared the city away from the ground, wrapped it in a bubble of force and begun lifting it into the air.

The general consensus among the population run the gamut between tightly controlled fear and sheer panic. Garth chuckled as he spotted a minotaur rocking back and forth, hugging himself while a woman in a settler bonnet pet his head, trying to keep him calm.

I AM VERY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THIS! Grass shouted into his mind.

I wonder if Grass and Ninja Lawnmowing Rock will get along…probably.

Garth glanced up at the blinding amount of mana that was being harnessed by the Fertility to physically lift the city into the air, creating enormous chains of force, so dense they could be seen without Mana Sight, hauling the city up link by link like a construction crane.

It was a demonstration of sheer unbridled power that would hopefully give the Dan Ui pause.

“Don’t worry, I tested it with bigger chunks of land, on planets with higher gravity than this one,” Garth said loudly so everyone could hear him, tapping the forcefield at the edge of the city. “We’re totally safe.”

Garth glanced around for the thing that would inevitably prove him wrong.

Failing to find it, he shrugged.

“Did you know that if we fell from this height, it would wipe out the human race along with life on Earth?” Garth asked. “Pretty cool, right?”

Caitlyn’s grip tightened, and the minotaur rocked harder.

“I’m unappreciated in my time.”

Garth was half-expecting some kind of Dan-Ui ambush, but he managed to hoist the city up into the Fertility’s belly and take off before they could respond.

That didn’t mean there wasn’t any kind of response, but it was limited to a swarm of some thirty or forty robe-wearing mercenary assassins trying and failing to break through the force bubble, watching with comic irritation as the city was raised above the breathable level.

Maybe they didn’t expect him to steal his city.

Once the massive airlock closed around them, the bubble popped, and Garth felt a momentary pain in his ear as the pressure equalized with the ship.

“Welcome to the U.S.S. Fertility!” Garth said, motioning to the ship around them. “If your house is still intact, feel free to move back in! if your home was damaged by the transition, Speak to Bel for housing assistance.”

They were standing in an enormous dome, their feet solidly held to the floor by the ship’s laws as it began winding up it’s Gate.

To double the total usable area of the ship, Garth had converted it into a full-on sphere, with each dome receiving opposite night and day, sandwiched against each other.

They hadn’t felt it, but once the gigantic dome airlock had closed around them, all of L.A. had flipped upside down, and now the other side of the ship was under their feet.

A hundred feet of reinforced stone lay between them and the other side of the sphere, where the dungeon native currently lived, opposite them.

With a bit of work, Garth would poke holes between the two to allow travel between the two lands sandwiched against each other, which would be necessary in the future.

“Are we still alive?” Caitlyn asked, her eyes wide in the darkness, not even bothering to admire the faux stars on the faux night sky above her.

“You’re alive.” Alicia said, flying down from above with her arms crossed, surrounded by a tightly controlled whorl of her deity’s magic. It was rather impressive, really.

her eyes narrowed as she looked at where Caitlyn was grabbing his leg. “Although for how much longer, who can say.”

Oh right, I forgot about that.

A flower grew out of the floor and squirted Alicia in the face with water, causing her to sputter and land awkwardly on the ground.

“Bad apprentice, no being catty.”