-- James --

We now had four decked-out vehicles, with their own sets of armor. We would need to discuss which vehicles we would hold onto and what we would just scrap. I looked over to the car Violet was driving seeing it visibly shake, and looking really rough. Rowan and Aster drove calmly with Rowan in the back and Aster driving with a stone spike in his shoulder. We should probably take care of that. We needed to pull over but I wanted to put a little more distance, and I still didn't know what to do with this guy.

After another ten minutes of driving, I knew we needed to stop if only to make sure everyone was ok. "Pull up beside the lead car."

The man didn't say a word and only nodded, speeding up. I waved bay down and pointed to the side. "Pull over."

Everyone followed my lead pulling over and hopping out. I grabbed my driver and pulled him with me. I looked to see everyone perfectly fine, except Aster, even our jeep was in perfect shape. Did they even get a shot off at it?

Violet looked at the man I pulled out, "Who's he?"

"The driver."

She scrunched her face asking, "Why didn't you just throw him out?"

I felt a little embarrassed but answered honestly, "Didn't feel right."

Violet stared at me for a while before shrugging, "Weird, but ok."

"What do we do with him?" Aster asked

"Do I get a say?" The man asked hesitantly.

I was so shocked that he spoke I decided to humor him, "Why not what do you propose?"

"Give me a car to go back?"

That made me laugh, "Nope."

"Let me walk back?" This was a much more reasonable request. That might be a good way to get rid of him. He would be hours out at this point.

"We could tie him up," Aster suggested.

"This far out it would be a slow death, and I don't want that," I answered

The man began to shake, it would be a horrible and most likely slow death, "Please don't."

"Fine, but he needs to be somewhere else," Violet demanded.

I stared at the man than the cars, "We get in the cars, and he starts walking?"

"That'll work." Violet nodded.

The man looked relieved and nervous eying the vehicles. Does he think we'll renege? "Thanks." He said and began walking away. I watched not sure if this was right but was better than just killing the man.

We all entered our new cars. I began to turn the key only for nothing to happen. I looked around wondering if I forgot something finding nothing. I pushed my foot on the break and tried again, and nothing. The only sound was our jeep Bay and Violet purchased. I put my head out the window about to ask when Aster beat me to it, "Can anyone start their car."

A resounding no cam from me and Violet. It was at this point I realized the driver might have some answers. I hopped out of the car looking for the man and saw no trace of the man.

"Anyone sees that driver guy?" I asked.

Everyone hopped out of their cars to look around, and Rowan even jumped thirty feet up only to shake his head.

"Does anyone know why they won't start?" I asked seeing there would be no way we could catch the guy.

"They must have the anti-theft devices," Bay answered.

I stared at her confused, "But we were able to drive them."

"When they were already started." She pointed out.

"Hey," Aster cut in, "Hate to be a bother here, but Violet can you heal me?"

I looked over to see the massive earth spike still in his shoulder.

"The fuck Aster why didn't you say anything before?" Violet yelled.

Aster gave an annoyed look, "I thought the big fucking spike would have been a big enough clue."

"Whatever gets over here," Violet said shortly as Aster walked over. Violet gripped the spike and ripped it out, along with half his shoulder. The spike looked barbed as she pulled it out.

"Ow," Aster said much too calmly. How did he not scream? Must have gone numb or something. I watched as dirt, and metal barbs began to flow out of the wound. As it slowly began to close up. I could only admire his level of pain tolerance, as he didn't say anything the entire time he was healed.

"Your awfully calm about this," Bay said worriedly.

"Not the first time has I've been stabbed," Aster said exasperated.

"Ok..." Taring myself away from the healing I asked, "What do we do now?"

Rowan looked over the cars, "Scrap the cars, make them non-functional."

That could work, I turned to Aster who was almost done mending, "Aster how long do you think it would take to get the armor on our car?"

Aster looked to the cars, "Depends on how long we are willing to stay still."

"Ten minutes," I answered decisively, thinking that if those men were near our level they might be able to catch up to us in twenty.

Aster turned thoughtful, as he looked at the armored vehicles then back to our beetle hood-covered jeep. "The models look different. Technically I could outfit the entire care but it would literally be attached with rope. One hit the wrong way would take the piece off."

"But we could take the hit?"

"Probably. I might be able to weld it on the move, but I would need Bays to help with that."

Bay looked surprised at the inclusion when I asked, "Why Bay?"

"External mana. I can't pull enough out of myself to do too many welds but she can channel a lot more than the body can store."

"I don't know how long I can hold it," Bay said calmly.

"You won't need to hold it." Aster said reassuringly, "If I had more time I could do it myself with my mana hammer but I can't use that while moving. Might just cause more damage."

"Is anyone else following us?" I asked wondering if we would have more time.

"That was a question for the driver we let go," Violet said snidely.

"Does anyone have a signal?" Aster asked everyone. At that we all pulled out our phones, finding none of us had any signal.

"How long before they're in range to report?" I asked

Bay answered, "Who knows those who fell off might already be in range."

"Let's go on the assumption they've reported failure already and we don't have a lot of time," I said.

"I'm going to have to do this on the road aren't I," Aster whined

"Yeah."

Both Aster and Bay groaned as we all set to the task of taking the vehicles apart. It helped a lot that we were just tearing them apart instead of being careful. It was the bindings that were the issue. Thankfully, I had packed plenty of rope!

In the end, we weren't really able to secure the car pieces as they all hung across the side of the vehicle. Looking like some kind of demented wind-chime. Complete with the piece spinning and banging together on the sides. We had stripped everything we thought we could use and then ripped the engines out of the cars to make sure they couldn't be used to follow us.

Violet was driving as I found myself and Rowan trying to hold one of the pieces of armor still with mixed success.

Aster was doing something that I couldn't see, "Hold it in place." He said annoyed.

"We're trying the wind keeps pulling it," I said shortly.

Bay and Aster had been trying to do something for a while, but nothing seemed to be working, "This isn't working." Aster announced looking around before asking hopefully, "Can anyone manipulate metal?" we all gave him an eye roll. If anyone was supposed to be able to do it, it would be him. Seeing none of us answer, "Nothing?"

"No Aster."

"Then this is going to get interesting." Aster pulled out what looked to be fingerless gloves that, on a closer look, had tiny scales. Were those dragon gloves, but why are the fingers open. Aster interrupted my thoughts turning to Bay, "We need this red hot, when it gets too much for you two let go."

We nodded.

"Now Bay channel as much power into this as you can, in this area. You'll need to push hard to get past its mana absorbing ability."

"Won't that short it out?" Bay Asked.

"I don't know, but it's still solid protection, and it won't bang around." The noise was getting pretty bad.

I spoke up, "At this point, we have enough pieces we could leave alone for the magic and weld the others. Does that work?"

Aster, seeing no one disagree with me, "Bay heat it up."

Bay turns to the large piece of door, concentrating hard. If it wasn't for the bead of sweat and slow warmth I could feel I wouldn't have thought anything was happening. The door began to glow, and I could feel the heat burning my hands. I watched Rowan forced to let go. "Aster!" I yelled knowing I wouldn't be able to hold much longer.

I saw him reach out with his bare hands, punch through the door of our car, and grab the glowing metal pulling it through like he was riveting it to the vehicle. Then repeat three more times keeping it in place. "You can let go."

I let go, circulating mana numbing my hands and healing the burns, "How many more do we need to do?" I asked, looking at Bay who looked wiped.

Aster took a breath, "Two more on the sides and one on the back."

"What about the engine?" I asked wondering how we could protect it.

"Do you want a red hot metal over the engine?" Aster asked, before shaking his head, "I have no idea if it would explode or break something. I mean now we won't even be able to open the doors."

"What?"

"What did you expect from rushed work?" Aster answered before asking, "Bay how are you feeling?"

She was slumped against her seat eyes closed, "Tired. I need some time that took way more power than I expected."

"We got time." Aster put his hand on her shoulder, as they smiled. As we drove down the road with the door banging on the sides.

I could only smile, despite the twinge of jealousy. He may not be very good in a fight but he is our support.