Thankfully the mental influence of the Bonding had faded a bit, Derek helped as well, offering the Egyptian word for Rose, Qadib, which had Jason nodding enthusiastically and even Brandon tried the sound of it - of course, she could decide what she liked best - but the more I tried the name, the more I enjoyed it.

"Thanks, Derek. Did you want to try?" I offered, but he shook his head.

"I'm still thinking." And so was Jason, Brandon got up, taking his egg to the other side - I rocked Qadib, waiting for her hatch-sibling to emerge, as the other two focused inward, concentrating, and -

*Pop!*

Derek looked at me. I looked at Jason. Back at Derek. None of us speaking, because was that the right sound...?

"Damn it." Brandon muttered. And I was horrified. Because of precious Qadib, and at that stage it's not yolk -

I didn't have words - it was incredibly awkward, and Brandon's expression was just stricken, and how do you comfort somebody who was trying to bring a fledgling life -

"Did you just have an abortion?" Derek asked - it was too soon. Brandon was still scraping bits off, and - I didn't think this was a time to joke at all - I was very disappointed at the part of me that was laughing, I pursed my lips -

"Derek." I hissed, and he rolled his eyes at me. What a disrespectful little...

I brought out another egg, went to set it down, but the mess, it would be better for everyone to move to a fresher nursery, less stressful, and I coached Brandon on proper birthing, placed a few ornamental, comforting arrangements, just something to liven -

And his face, it's absolutely terrible. To be torn like I am, because I do want to laugh, but poor Qadib, what sort of example, that egg was literally her sister or brother, now Mike's wouldn't be related, and I'd just sat back down -

'Pop!'

I looked down, eyes wide, because - it was the exact same sound. And Brandon - I noticed Derek staring at me, staring harder, I couldn't tell what he wanted, finally he picked up his egg -

I shook my head quickly, is he crazy? Popping out another, this one wasn't quite ready to hatch, not even close - but if Brandon was just going to blow them up -

Derek glared at me.

"Heartless." Jason shot -

"Oh, an abortion joke is alright, but because I don't run over and drop Qadib's remaining family into his lip, I'm the monster?"

"You killed her mother." Jason said, which unfortunately - made me gasp, which should have been all I needed to realize I'd been compromised, but I couldn't see past the fact that he was a naughty gremlin, and he had to be stealing Derek's power, to cut so deep -

"You ate her." Derek added, and - it hurt more, because it was probably true - and my stomach is upset, because, what was I thinking? That -

"You wore her flesh like clothes, Cody. Wake up -" It was devastating, and truly, I'd forgotten, refused to acknowledge - but the wing suit was right there, waiting - it was in the past, we could still be friends? Her mother tried to kill me, No, I'm her -

Qadib Bond Devolves to Basic Animal Bond

You can sense the direction of this creature, can protect her, and she trusts you. That she can grow stronger, developing through the resources you provide her.

It was awful, like having my heart ripped out, and I burst into tears for three short seconds as I heard Qadib give a terrible chirp of loss - her blue eyes lost, now brown with just azure specks, and then I was fine. The three seconds had been agony, a pain as bad as any other I'd experienced, and I couldn't imagine if it'd lasted longer -

It was unnatural. For me to be so attached to something after just minutes, and to a bird? Granted she's still...alright, she's hideous, and my Cowl! I sucked it off her and wrapped her in an old sweater, what was I thinking -

"Thank God." Derek said, shaking his head - grabbing the egg from my hand and tossing it to Brandon like a football - all of us scooting back for privacy, not because he looked like a Waffle House employee...

But this time - the egg glowed. That the bonfire light was just a candle compared to -

"Cody, you dick!" Derek shouted before seeing my face, realized and we were all scooting back, but also to the side, and I could see inside the egg. The embryo, hanging there twisting and boiling, the poor baby eagle trapped in there was being cooked!

I could see a little beak, tiny wings expanding, trying to escape and Brandon's eyes -

They had the hundred yard stare of a flashback painted across his features, a look on Grandpa's and Dad's face - it was never good, and I looked back to see, the eagle egg was blackening, smoke poured off Brandon's hands where he cupped it, steam seared, the smell of cooked flesh and he didn't so much as twitch, this wasn't new -

All while the bird twisted inside - I stood up to stop it, as I watched it give a final twitch and go still, but I didn't manage a step.

The egg didn't pop, the shell didn't crack, it just poofed. Right into ash and Brandon fainted backwards, Jason hoped up to check on him -

"No! Jason!" Derek shouted, and I turned, diving for Jason, knocking him flat, face down I slammed my eyes shut, appeared a blanket over both us -

*Cheep cheep*

Maybe they'd already bonded, maybe the eyes, the imprinting didn't matter, that Jason's power signature wasn't exactly like Brandon's - and maybe Jason really was going over there just to check on Brandon. I didn't have Derek's sense -

Derek wasn't surprised, his warning was as quick and confident as a man walking a dog that'd seen the neighbors cat, and the Small Unit Tactics was enough for me to react, rather I was saving him or stopping him -

No apologies or excuses made, Jason even thanked me.

*Cheep cheep*

"I'm not naming it."

"How about Crispy?" Jason thanked me, but he was bitter - "Char-lee? Is it a girl? De'fire? Ethnic names are big right now..."

Brandon had a tiny little bird on his knee, completely bald, except for the crackling flames emitted. His skin was bare, his clothes had burnt off but he didn't.

"Flamer?" The good thing about knocking each other out is it doesn't take long to wake back up, and until Jason learns not just how to use Derek's power, but when?

I was once more thankful for my friends, the tough love, because as nice as it is to have a pet that can provide me with transportation one day - what Brandon has?

"I can't believe Derek has a pyramid and you have a fucking phoenix." Jason mumbled after he woke up from his nap, "I'm as lame as Cody."

"And Mike." I responded.

"Cody, Mike is is an archangel."

"It's not a phoenix." Derek shook his head.

"Then what would call it."

"Moltras." I said, and Derek nodded, both of us looking around -

"Moltras." Brandon said, "I like that name."

And so what? It wasn't any worse than Rose, I guess. And it probably sounded cool in Egyptian. Jason and Derek's pets were like mine, and had a basic bond - and we didn't ask Brandon's

He remained in his own world as we went to bed, waking up it still laid on his chest, he still watched over it, already bigger than my Qadib, who had been the biggest last night when we compared them all, but all of them had grown. There were downy feathers floating everywhere, and the faint aroma of incense, like teak wood and tobacco.

Our pets went into our inventories, for me, crib and all, I watched over her, but for them? They were frozen inside, they couldn't create a pocket of life for their pets yet. Derek said he was working on setting up a webcam, that he thought if he could watch his 'Squid' grow, and Jason said he was working on creating a shoebox - visualizing poking holes in it -

He was the link between our powers, borrowing my more dynamic inventory, even temporarily gave him the shape to imitate it, but it was still different. The way he described it to me reminded me much of my crafting, that it was a mutual adaptation and that the more he tried to change it to his needs, the less powerful it was, but he had to balance it, make it so he could still use it in a way that worked for him.

But to find out that you can have a bond was a victory in itself, that we could do more than just train? Another secret that Derek happily documented, his own bonding process, and prepared to share, he said it was actually more valuable than the tree I grew, or the roses, for our purpose.

That in all the mission was a success, that the seeds had been planted and my name, our video, was out there, Derek shared more crumbs from his plan -

"What you're really doing is changing society, Cody. You're right to see that people have lost freedoms, but you're not asking why, you see them all as freedom's taken, gobbled up, but don't realize they were abandoned first by our parents, their parents. You're right to call it infringement - it was a slow erosion because the freedom was replaced with a better alternative."

"What?" This was the opposite of what I believed, there is no 'better alternative' to freedom, but Derek held up his hands -

"Is a car better than walking?"

"Usually," I nodded, if you have to walk everywhere, you're not going to get far in life.

"But a car isn't a freedom, it's a privilege. Spoil people, give them access to a vehicle, and they'll forget they can just walk places. Think of how much control the government has simply because of roadways, fuel control, transportation regulations - all privileges. Because you could always walk -"

"That's because people don't know, and they're not teaching -"

"It's a circular argument that goes nowhere, that's why this is big. We don't have to debate the problem if we can just fly over it." Derek's eyes gleamed.

Flight. Derek's method - Show people a better way. He was finding the cracks of freedom that still existed and looking for wedges, that if he could drive them in, the whole cage would break apart. That my plan had been pushing the egg out of the nest before it had even started to crack -

And he was going to teach the world to fly -

As I did bursting out of the Potomac,

Engaging. On my mark -

A message spell, a burst of mana, and my thoughts sent to my contacts. Disorderly, garbled - but Derek had made it simpler, that rerouting it through his inventory system had allowed us to speak in chat, that instead of a burst of mana, a trickle was used to keep the line open instead of the echoed delay we first experienced.

Ready. Mike responded, and then I exploded from the Potomac, and they were on me -