AN: and this folks brings us finally to the end of chapter 47.

:)

Chapter 47.3: Legal Briefs

Presents given out, it was time to discuss various tidbits of business. Scott listened carefully as the girls related recent events in the little fortified area. Most of the plan to retake parts of the town were going great, but the teams met stiff resistance in two areas. A small group of bandits took up residence in a small strip mall near one of the old car dealerships, and dangerous higher level beasts were nesting in an abandoned warehouse on the lower-east side.

"Bandits again, huh? People insist on forming gangs so damned much around here," said Scott. It was ridiculous. Still, he understood why it happened. Some people would prefer to live free and crooked than to live honest lives under someone else.

"There's only about six of them, but they seem to have at least two non-humans at decent levels. Plus, heavy firearms," said Ashton.

"Can the teams handle it on their own, or do I need to get involved?" asked Scott.

"My strike team is already handling it," said Shara. "It'll be good practice for them."

"Sounds good. Bandits versus ninjas," said Scott before offering Shara a smile. "That should be fun."

She winked at him then shimmied a little. Her healthy cleavage swayed with the motion of her body. "I think so, too."

Scott laughed a little, but got back to business. "You ladies told me that things were mostly quiet and boring here. Does that mean that the monster nest is already being dealt with as well?"

Sonja spoke up, "Yes. I pulled the teams off of the expansion project and reformed them into an extermination force. They will be heading out in the morning."

It seemed to him that the people of the refugee camp were quite capable of handling such problems on their own now. Scott nodded his head slowly. That was wonderful as far as he was concerned. The few situations like this that he needed to deal with personality, the better the survivors had to be doing.

"What sort of casualty rate are we expecting?" asked Scott.

"Minimal. They are higher level monsters than are typically found in this area so far, but we outnumber them and the equipment being developed by our smiths and synergists is solid," said Sonja.

"What sort of extermination plan are you using?" he asked her curiously.

"We'll weaken them considerably with gas grenades. Firearms, and our new flamethrowers will be used to further reduce their fighting power as they attempt to flee from the primary exits, and then melee forces will move in to finish them off," said Sonja.

"We have flame throwers now?" he asked, a grin crossing his lips.

"Yes, a synergist accidentally discovered a process to create a magical flamethrower by combining a can of hairspray and small orbs of flame essence," said Sonja. She tilted her head to the side and continued, "It produces a surprising amount of flame for such a small device. They can even be refilled by synergizing other types of flammable liquids with the original cans."

"I'm surprised they didn't blow up when they tried it the first time," said Scott.

"Well, there was a small fire in the production area the first time it was tested," said Sonja.

"How many flamethrowers do we have?"

Sonja held up her hand, "Three. Flame essence orbs are hard to come by. Only a few people are in areas of the dream world where the monsters drop them and they rarely show up in stores."

"Damn. Wish we had more time to expand nodes. As things stand now, we could lose access to the other world at almost any time," said Scott.

The injunctions and counter injunctions were worrying. It was difficult to plan for a future that constantly changed.

"So, the biggest current combat issues don't require my help at all, huh?" asked Scott.

"Not at this time. If we suffer a setback, I'll let you know," said Sonja.

"Yeah, I guess I'd have to show my face if that happened," said Scott with a laugh.

"Well, at least you won't turn people to stone if you do," said Shara with a teasing grin.

Scott turned to her and playfully asked, "You've seen me, right? I'm not exactly Mr. Sexy Handsome."

Shara snorted, and the other girls agreed with her derision. Scott eyeballed them briefly. "What? I'm muscular and all, but I'm not exactly gonna win a beauty pageant."

Ashton leaned forward and made a production out of putting on her glasses. She did not truly need them, especially in fox form, but they were an old habit. "Seems to me, you might need these more than I do."

"You're kidding, right?" asked Scott sarcastically.

"Certainly there are prettier men," said Sonja, before taking a brief pause. Scott was about to make a sarcastic response but he was cut-off by her continuation, "But you are far from unhandsome."

"You could do with a little more meat on your bones, though," said Shara before poking Scott in the stomach. "You were cuter when you were fat."

Scott snorted at Shara but took that to heart. She did say things like that on occasion. Did she truly not care what he looked like?

"So, we'll agree that each of you is ridiculously hot, and I'm plain with potential to look reasonable?" asked Scott.

"You're prettier when you're a dragon, but I like you this way as well," said Sonja without shame in her game. "Your face is unremarkable, but impossible for me to forget."

Never one to pay attention to his looks before, it was weird to receive back-handed compliments about his appearance. Briefly, he considered improving his appearance and image. Outside of his intimidating armor, he was just a strong guy with an average face. Of course, when he wore his armor some people looked as though they might drop a deuce in their underwear when he walked by.

"Am I really that ordinary looking?" he asked. "I was joking you, know.... Kinda thought I looked a little handsome in the mirror."

The girls laughed at him a little then began to chat freely. As Sonja told him previously, he was not bad looking. If anything he was borderline handsome in a classical way. Average to passing-fair as some might say. His most commanding feature was his eyes, however. When they glowed bright red, it was hard to look away.

His lady friends continued to discuss his masculine attributes as though he was not in attendance at their meeting. Not one to interrupt people having fun if possible, he ignored them in favor of considerations for his next move.

The home front was secure and expanding. If nothing popped up while he spent time with Shara, then it might be time to try looking into a few more personal matter excursions. His wisp was one thing, but there was something else to consider.

Scott looked to Sonja and nodded. He needed to increase his skills and levels considerably, and soon. There was a long overdue trip that they needed to make.

There remained many things to do, and precious little time to do it. Scott worried that most of it would not be completed before the way between worlds closed.

"Gotta focus on the most important tasks, and make a choice," said Scott to himself. There was one decision above all to be made. Did he stay on Earth, or did he abandon ship with his friends and as many people as possible. The other world might be the best place to live in the end, even if he'd miss a lot of the modern Earth conveniences.

Sure, civilization was wrecked, but that didn't mean that the technology it developed needed to be abandoned. Thoughts began to whirl inside his mind. "Technology in the other world... Magic stones making flamethrowers..."

He rubbed his chin and continued to think quietly to himself. There were combinations of synergy possible that neither world could create on its own. No matter which planet they remained on, a continuation of those sorts of innovations was in order.

"Ashton," said Scott.

"Yes?" she asked him curiously, after breaking off the chatter.

"I want to try something. Gather up as many auto mechanics, and people with mechanical engineering skills as you can find. Then see if a few salvage teams can be put to work on special projects," he said.

"What sort of projects?" asked Shara.

Scott grinned. "I think it's time the other world caught up with the latest in automotive improvements."

"You want to take a car across? They won't go through the nodes, though," said the business fox. "They're too big."

"We'll start small, motorcycles and scooters. If we can get them to work over there then we start breaking down cars and trucks. We can take them through piece-by-piece."

"Could we even put them back together, though?" asked Sonja. "Cars and vans are completely unknown in my world."

"We'll try, and in the worst case scenario, we'll have a lot of scrap parts to work with during synergy research. I'd love to try it with helicopters and planes, but I figure we need to at least make cars work first," said Scott thoughtfully.

His eyes widened and he turned to look at Ashton once more, "Oh and put out the word that every non-fiction book found needs to be brought here. Fictional ones are optional."

"What's gotten you so fired up?" asked Ashton.

"Whether we stay here or go to the other world, I refuse to completely abandon modern technology. There's no point in letting any of it go to waste when we have agreements for salvage rights throughout the area now," said Scott.

Each of the girls nodded toward him then acquired thoughtful expressions. There was a lot to do, and a lot more than they could do to make life easier for the survivors, not to mention for easier for themselves.