Name: Disco Chomper

Description: The disco chomper is a pastel, multi-colored carnivorous plant that lives in the ruins surrounding the City of Grandesia. Like a disco ball, the surface of its bulb changes color so that you can never quite tell its color.

….

Ibnoxe lay on the bottom bunk of the bed, putting together the monster submission which would get him a bunch of easy credits.

Tomorrow, the dragon brothers had nothing scheduled outside Purity Grove. Charlotte had asked them to help her confront Victoria, mostly just to stand there so that she would be brave enough to say her piece. Plus, they would serve as backup in case a certain, classless electricity mage got out of hand.

"I don't understand why we need to be there when the girls have their talk," Holoxe whined as he pet Vue. "It'll make us look like we were the ones who ran to Charlotte, asking her to solve our problems."

The disco chomper bites its victim and clamps down in a toothless grip.

….

Ibnoxe paused the stream of consciousness typing that he was doing over the neurotransmitter, so he could address Holoxe's concern in full. "Doesn't matter what Victoria thinks. We're helping Charlotte. Her family is helping us so much already."

"I know," Holoxe said, "I just don't see why we need to insert ourselves in the drama."

"She's this sweet, teenage girl who needs to learn how to stand up for herself! It's only right that we help her."

"You like Charlotte too much," Holoxe snipped.

"You like Victoria too much," Ibnoxe said right back. Neither of their accusations were wholly serious, so they both let the matter drop. Before bed, he finished logging all the details about the newly named disco chomper, blurred Victoria's face out of the video and distorted all their voices, then sent it in.

Ibnoxe powered down his helmet and set it to the side. Rolling over, he cuddled with the vul—a little ball of warmth against his heatless scales. "Goodnight, Holoxe."

"Goodnight, Ibnoxe."

Come morning, they greeted each other with their personalized names which felt great to roll off their tongues. "Good morning, Holoxe!"

"Morning, Ibnoxe!"

They ate breakfast made by Josie, then went out to the garage to feed the vuls their behefleas. The third vul, Vel, came rushing to greet her siblings and eagerly gobbled down the insects with them.

Charlotte was too preoccupied to feed her today, bent over Holoxe's broken helmet in great intensity. "I've been working on getting the rest of the spyware off, but frankly, this is a mess. I'm afraid I'll end up missing something important. I think it'd be better if we gut the entire thing and start fresh with the new electronics." Her knuckles rapped against the exterior of the helmet, saying, "The best part about these helmets is the shell that's designed to fit your horns."

Sudden concern had seized Ibnoxe the moment that Lottie had uttered the word 'spyware'. "Our helmets aren't safe yet?" Previously, his was safe so long as the GPS was disabled.

"Well…" Lottie thought how best to put this. "There's still an IMU, camera, and microphone. They won't have your absolute location, but they might be able to figure out your relative location based on the log from the accelerometer, image feed, or audio recording. I'm not quite sure how much has been fed to the company or how much effort they'll invest to find you guys."

"The biggest giveaway," she continued, "probably isn't these helmets at all. You broke my mom out of jail. She was unlawfully detained in the first place, so she's getting a lawyer and all that, but the court system won't help you two—technically property of the power company."

Ibnoxe and Holoxe immediately objected to that. "We're not property!"

"We signed a contract!" Holoxe roared.

"We probably broke dozens of clauses from the agreement when we defected—definitely illegal. I dunno what the punishment is, but it wouldn't surprise me if Granesia Power Company welcomed us back and deliberately offed us on the next mission."

Dumbstruck for a few seconds, a rapid series of blinks fell over Charlotte's eyes. "Wait, did you guys think you were employees?"

"Well, yeah," the brothers said in unison, as if that were obvious.

A big, saddened sigh fell past Charlotte's lips. "Sub-dragons do not have personhood status. The law considers you animals—really smart, human-like animals. You were slaves."

Both sub-dragons fell silent, letting that sink in. The strict restrictions started to make sense, why they were never allowed to go outside or associate with their coworkers. Ibnoxe had always thought it was just a stipulation of their agreement, barring them from having a private life.

"But I… remember signing the contract," Ibnoxe said. His career started in Bioenginesis, another mega conglomerate where he received six months of initial training. Shortly after, he switched companies to Grandesia Power Company.

Holoxe nodded along, sharing the same memory with him. "Why would they have us sign a fake piece of paper?"

"Were you easier to control, back when you thought you were there on your own accord?"

Ibnoxe and Holoxe dared a brief, sad glance between each other. They had been totally complacent until the power went out and they met each other.

Charlotte abandoned the damaged helmet and flung Vie and Vue into each of their arms. "Look out for flying vuls!"

"Careful! Don't throw them." Ibnoxe caught Vie carefully in his claws and cradled her close to his chest. The baby vixen assuaged his self-loathing. Though Ibnoxe had done such a bad job taking care of himself for the past two years at the company, he regained some confidence knowing that this vul needed him.

Holoxe gazed down at Vue in a similar look of contrition.

"I just wanted to cheer you up. It's in the past now. I can repair your gear! I'll just need a bit of money. Let's go talk to Victoria about the beheflea queen's crown jewel."

***

Although Charlotte had jumped up and led them out of the garage in all confidence, the movement of her crutch and limping leg slowed as she neared the kitchen.

Lurking around the table was Victoria. Her unbrushed hair gave her a wild appearance in the morning, similar to yesterday but worse. The ordeal with the disco chomper seemed to put her in a particularly skulky mood.

"Hey, Victoria." Charlotte stood in the doorway, her eyes down to her toes. "I want to talk to you. Outside." By the hostility in her voice, it was evident that the teenage girl had gathered all the courage that she could muster to sound strict.

"Great. I wonder if the chipmunk wants to chew me out?" Before Charlotte could even get a word in, Victoria already started to undermine her. With indifference, she strode to the door and went out the back door.

Charlotte was left in the center of the living, frozen in place with her little fists balled at her side. "I'm not a chipmunk."

"Don't let her get to you," Ibnoxe said, resting one clawed hand on her shoulder. Since he ought to shift to human form in case the girls ended up drawing attention to themselves, he did so now. Ibnoxe offered an encouraging, toothy smile to her the way humans did.

"Thanks, Ibnoxe. And you too, Holoxe. Both of you for being here…." Charlotte took a deep breath and set determination in her gaze. She led them out to the backyard where she would confront Victoria.

"Alright. Let's get this over with." Victoria surrounded herself in an air of boredom. A knife spun around her fingers while she sat on one of the sub-dragon's sunning rocks.

Charlotte crossed one arm over her chest while the other had the crutch beneath her armpit. "First of all, you're not allowed to take advantage of Ibnoxe and Holoxe like you did the other day."

"Oh?" Victoria asked, seemingly surprised. More of her interest was earned in this conversation as she straightened herself up. "You mean it's such a bad thing that I'm showing the trained murderers how to do their job better with magic? That's the only teensy qualm I'd have with it, personally."

"Don't call them that!" Charlotte hollered. "They're not murderers. They're heroes! They saved my life." She drew in a deep, shaky breath. Her eyes started tearing up. Only a "Sorry," could squeak past her lips before taking a gasp from an inhaler.

Ibnoxe shared a sidelong glance with Holoxe from the corners of his eyes, then continued to gaze at Charlotte pitifully.

Once she could breathe again, Charlotte continued her confrontation. "Ibnoxe and Holoxe just did an amazing thing by defecting from the company. They don't know everything about the world yet, kind of naive like kids."

Ouch. That was something to hear, coming from the literal teenage girl.

"You shouldn't take advantage of them like that, keeping the most valuable drop for yourself."

Victoria shrugged. "I see what you're saying, but you and I do not see eye to eye."

"Give it back to them."

"Give what back to them?" The drone of Victoria's voice made it evident she was playing dumb on purpose, just to piss Charlotte off.

"The crown jewel of the beheflea queen!"

"Nah. I don't wanna."

A gulf was suspended between Charlotte and Victoria. The former did not know what to say next, while the latter had no inclination to further the conversation.

"You owe me money," Charlotte whispered.

"Sorry. What was that? Couldn't hear you."

Louder, she declared, "You owe me money! For helping you get Marcel out. I never said that I'd do that for free…."

A scoff sounded from Victoria. "Fair enough. Why do you think I took the jewel in the first place? You'll get paid in full as soon as I sell it."

"You can pay me right now by handing it over."

"It's worth more than that."

"It's not like you were paying me a lot in the first place! I gave you a discount 'cause I wanted to help you save Marcel. I just wanted to buy a few gadgets to have fun with when all this was over…." Charlotte did not budge an inch. The gleam in her eyes demanded the entire gem.

"Nope. A deal's a deal. Maybe don't get roped into people's sob stories next time." Victoria flicked the knife. The blade danced round and round on the back of her hand. Ultimately Victoria grabbed it and pointed the tip towards Charlotte casually. "You're still here. Is there something else?"

The girl hesitated and looked about ready to retreat. When she turned back, she saw Ibnoxe and Holoxe calmly waiting behind her. Charlotte took a deep breath and prepared to speak her mind—the true reason that she wanted to confront Victoria.