Reva was tired of repeatedly wiping Terra’s blue drool from flowing down her shoulders. They were almost back to Shopkeeper’s store, so Shiso insisted that they should just speed up. Violette and Saffron were taking turns throwing a magic-made bone for Sgt. Pepper to fetch.

“Can you stop playing with the feral dog?” Shiso grumbled. “We’ve already got one.” he said, pointing a thumb at Gunner.

“I’ve got more brains than the mutt.” Gunner growled. He was examining the insides of his gun with Hazel, who was explaining the machinery step-by-step. They continued their evaluation of the weapon.

“He’s not feral, Shiso.” Saffron defended, cuddling the dog close to her face.

“I still don’t like it.” he candidly huffed.

“It’s because you’re a cat person, isn’t it?” Violette teased.

“They’re more adorable than dogs!” he said defensively.

“How can you say that to this poor guy?!” Saffron gasped, holding the dog up.

“With my mouth and words.” Shiso said coldly.

“Dude, just suck it up and deal with it.” Selicy groaned, slowly gliding by. “She’s just going to stick the poor animal in your face until you love it.”

“And this worked on you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No,” she stated, emotionless. “I don’t love. I just hate less than others.”

“Uuugh.” Shiso said in one long groan. “Why do the last few people on the planet have to be the most maddening of the batch?!”

“Owch.” Selicy said, still not showing emotion. “That cut deep.” She drifted to ice skate across the ground in the back of the group.

“We’re finally here.” Reva sighed, trying to reposition Terra on her shoulders again.

To the group’s surprise, Shopkeeper didn’t appear as usual when entering the store. Everything was eerily quiet for a few minutes, like the store was abandoned.

Before long, the group was scared out of their skin as Violette gave off the most blood-curdling shriek from the back of the group. Apparently Shopkeeper had decided to scare them by soundlessly sneaking up on them and grabbing their shoulders from behind.

“Wow, you couldn’t be funner.” Shiso patronizingly said as Shopkeeper was bent over laughing. “Your comedy award will come in the mail. Keep an eye out for it.”

“Oh loosen up, you stiff.” Shopkeeper said, rolling her eyes. “Learn how to take a joke.”

“Yeah, I don’t think she took it very well.” the gunman said, pointing to Violette, who was still shaking.

“Some aren’t built to take my comedy.” Shopkeeper shrugged. “Anyways, do you have my merchandise?”

“Right to the point, aren’t you?” Selicy laughed.

“Always!” the merchant passionately insisted.

“They’ve got that,” Shiso said to Reva. “Let’s go find somewhere to put Sleeping Beauty there on your shoulders.” Reva nodded and they both disappeared.

“Is she the one who stole my products?” Shopkeeper asked, pointing at Terra on the knight’s shoulders.

“What if it is?” Violette asked.

“Oh, well, you know,” Shopkeeper said in an excessively giddy chuckle. “I’d have to kill her in her sleep.”

Everyone went awkwardly silent; even Hazel and Gunner looked up from the boy’s weapon to react to that statement. Violette and Saffron started to sweat a bit and Selicy silently crawled away from the situation.

“So, is it?” Shopkeeper asked with pure malice in her voice.

“No.” Saffron squeaked.

“Ok!” Shopkeeper cheerily said, completely changing her demeanor and clasping her hands together. “I’m still going to need my stuff though!”

“Haze, the stones.” Saffron asked with a snap.

“Yeah, yeah…” Hazel mumbled, haphazardly taking out Shopkeeper’s stones while showing Gunner a delicate part of his gun. She tossed them one-by-one to Saffron, but Shopkeeper dashed in front of her and snatched them all mid-air. She huddled the rocks together and rubbed her face against them like they were her own babies.

“You polish those with rags, not your face.” Gunner joked.

“Oh, let her have her fun.” Violette insisted.

“Well, she can have it out of my sight.” Hazel scoffed. She and Gunner walked away to the spare parts section of the shop, probably looking to modify Gunner’s weapon to be even more dangerous.

“Tell me when you’re ready to leave,” Shopkeeper told Saffron and Violette while not taking her eyes off of her newly returned merchandise. “I’ve got something to give you all.”

Before either of them could ask Shopkeeper to elaborate on that, the woman disappeared in a flash of green.

“I don’t think I’ll understand her.” Violette sighed.

“I don’t think I want to understand her.” Saffron laughed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Let me go, you insolent blockheads!” Terra screeched.

“Please tell me there’s a gag or something around here.” Shiso groaned. “I am not going to listen to this for another half-hour.”

“I’m sure she’ll calm down.” Reva chirped, sipping down a bottled soda. She had slipped back into her regular shielded armor. Everyone had by this point.

As soon as they found someplace to put Terra, they strapped the crazy woman to one of those beds they had in mental wards. For the past dozen minutes, Terra had been kicking and screaming like a child, trying to get free of her restraints.

“I will murder you all when I get free!” she shouted.

“This sounds like a lively party.” Saffron said sarcastically.

“If this is a party, I’m Bruce Lee.” Shiso sighed. “This wacko won’t shut up about how she’s going to kill us all. I’m tired of it.”

“I can’t help but agree.” Reva nodded. “Talk is cheap.”

“That’s not what I-” Shiso gave up on his sentence and just layed down in a chair.

“Why did you strap her down to a bed like an insane person?” Violette asked.

“Because there’s no asylums left on the planet.” Shiso snorted.

“Let me go and give me my staff!” Terra continued to shout. “Right now!”

“Oh, this thing?” Selicy asked, breezing into the area and picking up the golden scepter. “What if I just…” She took the staff and started to aimlessly wave it around.

“Don’t do that!” Terra shouted, kicking and flailing even more against the restraints. “If I find even one dent in that staff, you’re all going six feet under!”

“Yikes.” Selicy laughed. “Too bad I only know the metric system.” She took the scepter and used it as a golf club to hit some large purple and red decahedron through the air.

“You’re dead!” Terra shrieked.

“No, I’m Selicy.”

“Aaaagh!” she screeched.

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“So you connect this wire here?” Gunner asked.

“No.” Hazel said, shaking her head. “That’d be like plugging a battery’s plus into its minus.” Gunner tilted his head in ignorance. “Explosion. One that’d hurt.”

“Oooh.” Gunner admired. “That sounds destructive, though.”

“Yeah, I’ll teach you about that when we do bomb-making.”

“Hell yeah.”

Gunner reached over and grabbed a few parts, stitching them together and putting them inside the gun. After connecting a few wires, he pulled the trigger and a stream of fire poured out of the weapons.

“Napalm,” Hazel commented, seeing the scorched ground. “Nice.”

“Where’d you learn to do this stuff?” the boy asked, taking some components out of his gun again.

“I dunno. I guess I just liked putting stuff together until it did something.” she grumbled, leaning her chair back.

“Well, you’re pretty brilliant at it.”

“Because I’ve been building longer than you’ve been alive.”

“Yeah, but even-”

“That mana converter’s backwards.” Hazel warned. Gunner blinked, as if in a daze, then turned it around.

“But even you’re better than Saffron.”

“Saffron worked in magical development.” Hazel sighed. “Doesn’t involve too many mechanical activities, sadly.”

“What’d you do before… the thing?” he asked.

“Made weapons.” she answered simply. “Turrets, bombs, guns, whatever the government commissioned out of me.”

“You worked in R&D?”

“Kid, I was R&D.”

“Woah.” Gunner admired in awe. “Is that what you’re going to do when you get to Eden?”

“Probably.” she shrugged. “What about you?”

“Mercenary for hire.”

“That’s not a profession in a world without war.”

“I’ll find a way.” he mumbled. Hazel smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.

“You know what? Maybe you can work with me.”

“You think so?”

“Making weapons, computers, cars, whatever. You ever wanted to do anything cool?”

“Well…” Gunner thought for a second. “I’ve always wanted to fly in a plane.”

“An airplane?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “One of those really old biplanes. They looked so fun to fly in, even if they were way worse than any fighter jet.”

“I’ll tell you what,” she said, wrapping an arm around the boy and extending her hand out to the sky, as if painting the future herself. “When we’re in Eden, I’ll teach you how to build your very own biplane. Then, you can fly away to your heart’s content.”

“Really?” he asked, excited.

“You betcha.” she gartuneed, with a wink and a thumbs-up. She pushed her chair aside and stretched her legs. “Anyway, let’s go see how those guys are doing with the crazy lady.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I SAID LET ME GO!” screeched Terra. Gunner and Hazel heard it from the other side of the store.

“You didn’t even say please.” Selicy taunted.

“NOW!”

“If this goes on for any longer, I’m taking matters into my own hands.” Shiso growled, setting a hand on one of his guns on his hip.

“Quite the extreme, isn’t that?” Reva asked.

“I don’t care who gets the bullet; I’m not listening to any more whining no matter what though.”

“Have you tried just feeding her?” Gunner asked. “I get pretty quiet when I eat. It’s science, I’m telling you.”

Gunner took a familiar bag from his vest pockets and took out a small bright blue candy. He tossed one in his mouth, then tossed another into Terra’s. She was quite surprised, but chewed and swallowed it. She stayed silent.

“Huh, you were right.” Violette said, surprised.

“Boom, science.” the boy said, tossing another Mana Bite into his mouth.

“Not science.” Saffron judged. She noticed that Terra started breathing very heavily. “Hey, what’s up?” she asked.

“Give me my staff…” Terra whispered. Selicy sighed.

“How many times do I have to-”

“GIVE ME MY STAFF NOW!” Terra wailed. Under her fingers, the bed she was strapped to quickly started to smoke before exploding into purple flames below her.

They all backed up and watched Terra’s silhouette rise from the burning purple flames. It chilled them all, but it got worse when they looked at her. The woman’s neck and wrists were outlined in burning purple veins, similar to those that come with mana deficiency.

“Woooah, my God!” Gunner jumped back. He looked at the package of Mana Bites in his hand and threw it away like it was on fire. “It didn’t say that on the nutrition label!”

“Give me… the staff…” Terra said zombily. All of them beamed their eyes at Selicy, who had been using the staff for a limbo stick.

“I-”

“Don’t even try it.” Shiso barked. “Just give the woman her damn stick!”

Selicy groaned and threw the staff right at Terra like a javelin. She caught the scepter and yelped a bit when it shocked her in her hands. The purple veins receded back until there were none to be seen. Terra was breathing heavily again and fell to one knee. She looked around at all 7 of them.

“Who are you all?” she finally asked. “What do you want?” Saffron slowly walked up to the woman on the ground and held out a hand.

“We’re all regular people on our way to Eden.” she said compassionately. “We’re going to defeat the Gate Guardian, and claim Eden as a sanctuary for all that’s left.”

“I… don’t care… about sanctuary…” Terra weased.

“Well, until today, I wasn’t sure about our chances of getting in.” Saffron admitted. “But after seeing you, I think the Gate Guardian’s got another thing coming.”

“You think I’d help you with the kindness in my heart?” Terra laughed.

“No,” Saffron said, shaking her head. She extended her hand out to Terra further. “But I’ve seen what you can do. How would you feel about getting the chance to kill something immortal? The most powerful thing on earth.”

“The most powerful thing on earth, huh?” she asked. Terra’s hand shot out and clasped with Saffron’s as she got up. “Killing a god sounds fun as hell.”

“Then let’s make it that way.” Saffron winked. “I’m glad to welcome you to the team.”

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“You said you had something for us before we went away?” Violette asked. Shopkeeper had put everything into the backpack of hers and was ready to go.

“Oh yes, I do have something!” the merchant exclaimed. She snapped and out of her giant bag flew a spell card, which took its place in Saffron’s hands. She gasped and nearly dropped it. “Heard you were looking for them.” Shopkeeper winked. “But that’s the only one I’ve got, so consider us square.”

The group peered over Saffron to take a look at the card. It depicted a woman with blue skin with light trailing from her eyes; she looked to be shouting. At the top, the words Overload was branded in rainbow letters.

“How did you know I was looking for these?” Saffron asked.

“You always are.” Shopkeeper answered cryptically. Sgt. Pepper happily peaked out from the top of Shopkeeper’s backpack; Violette cried a bit, as she was told that he couldn’t come with them to battle. The saleswoman saluted the group and, in a flash of blue, disappeared before them.

“I hate her.” Terra complained.

“I second that one.” Shiso said, raising his hand.

“I don’t know what her deal is.” Gunner complained.

“None of us really do, sadly.” Reva sighed.

“So, what now?” Violette asked.

“Is that even a question anymore?” Hazel laughed, motioning to Saffron.

“I don’t think so.” the scientist girl giggled. “We take another step towards Eden.”