“Gavin? Gavin?”

I tried not to let the panic I felt enter my voice, conscious of Micah and Cassie’s eyes on us.

“Gavin, sweetie, can you say something to Mommy? What’s wrong?”

He remained silent and unresponsive, limp in my hands.

I picked him up and carried him out to the main room, where Pointy had been left during my rush to the shower. That, more than anything else, showed me how concerned Cassie had been about me.

“Pointy! I don’t know what’s wrong with Gavin. He was healing me and he just… collapsed.”

Pointy pulled herself up on the edge of the toy basket she’d been left in. “Can you bring him closer?”

I sat down next to the toy basket, laying Gavin across my lap. Cassie leaned against my back, peering over my shoulder at her brother. Pointy wobbled as she climbed on top of the toys and I lifted her out, setting her down on my sweet boy’s chest. The little turtle crawled up to his face and stared intently at him from several angles. Then she gave a thoughtful hum and looked up at me.

“You said he was healing you?”

I nodded, pushing my hair aside to reveal the large scab on my shoulder. “Yeah.”

At the sight, Pointy smiled. “Now, I’m not an expert… but I think he’s just sleeping.”

I frowned. “Sleeping?”

She nodded. “His temperature, pulse, and breathing all appear regular. I don’t have the sensors to monitor brain activity, but his outward signs are consistent with deep sleep.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Using his ability puts him to sleep?” That sounded… less than useful. “I’m glad we tried this in a safe place.”

Pointy frowned. “I don’t think it would, usually. My guess is that, as a starting ability, it wasn’t capable of mending your trauma in a single use. Since you are not completely well, I imagine he used it over and over until he collapsed, still trying to fix you up.”

That… that was Gavin all over. I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I’d remain slightly concerned until he woke up, but Pointy’s explanation made sense. I laid him down gently on the couch and went to get dressed, then returned to sit with him. Cassie and Micah followed me around, bumping into me and each other as they tried to stay within arm’s reach.

We turned into a bit of a pile on the couch. I scooted close to Gavin, gently stroking his face with one hand. Cassie wriggled onto my lap, and even the normally independent Micah snuggled up to my other side. I put an arm around him, happy to have him close.

“Mom, you were not ready to go out there.”

I gave a weak laugh. “Uh… guess not. Not sure what else I could have done, but I’ll have to figure it out, eh?”

“You didn’t even have any armor.”

“Well… no. But it’s not like we live in a video game. You think I can just go take armor out of the cupboard or something? Promise you I would have done that if I could.”

“You kind of can, though?”

I froze, hopefully. The statement was a little crazy, but Micah had to have a reason for saying that. Had I missed something?

“What do you mean? We don’t have any armor in our cupboards.”

Micah looked up at me, his face full of condescension. “We have lots and lots of paper. Don’t you remember that Mythbusters episode?”

Suddenly, I did.

The Mythbusters had spent a good portion of one episode testing a supposed ancient Chinese armor technique that used layered paper, and they’d actually deemed it “plausible.” The thick paper hadn’t protected against blunt force very well, but it had protected against swords and arrows just as well as steel, possibly slightly better. Even better, the ancient technique - laminate or lamellar or something, I didn’t remember the name - used lacquer, but the Mythbusters had found that the flexibility of untreated paper made it even more protective.

There were still problems. I wasn’t sure how we’d turn that paper into armor. From what I remembered of the show, they’d had some kind of framework they’d attached overlapping “scales” of paper to, and I had nothing like that. The paper armor might be too heavy for the kids, and even if it wasn’t, I knew I didn’t have the skills to make armor that completely protected us. I’d have to leave our joints unprotected if I wanted us to keep our ability to move freely.

But those were problems I could work on. Even my worst effort would be worlds above just sticking them in their snow gear.

“Aaaaah! Why didn’t I think of that!” I grinned, squeezing Micah in delight. “You smart boy! I’m lucky I have you around to keep my head on straight.”

Part of me wanted to leap into action right then, but I was hesitant to leave Gavin. Not only that, I was bone tired. This afternoon had been a frenetic rush of tasks. I’d been running on adrenaline all day, and while I was still worried, the panicked energy had evaporated into exhaustion. Looking back, it was clear I’d made some major errors in my haste, and I’d come close to making more. The first space rodent had led to a foot injury, and the second had mauled my back. If I’d gone out in the front yard like I’d first intended, who knows how many I would have had to fight? If there’d been three… I shuddered.

As I went over the fight in my mind, I realized I hadn’t really out-fought either of the two rodents. The first had let go shortly after biting my ankle, but hadn’t retreated. The second had gotten off my back on its own accord, and it had seemed to be having a fit of some kind. It certainly hadn’t been focused on me. Clawing at its mouth?

My tired mind made the connection. The ghost peppers! I’d rubbed them on the outside of my gear, but it had sort of been a shot in the dark. Not something I’d put much hope in. After all, there were species on earth that didn’t mind them. We’d used peppers before to keep squirrels away from the birdfeeder, but pepper didn’t bother the birds in the slightest. I felt very lucky that an alien species had a predictable reaction to an Earth substance, but maybe our attackers were made-up animals based on Earth’s biome in some way, or came from similar enough worlds that other similarities might arise. Either way: lucky.

Both of my attackers had started acting strangely after biting at me. It pretty much had to be the ghost peppers, unless our attackers had a severe nylon allergy or something. No, wait - one of the rodents had bitten my rubber boot. The peppers were the only commonality.

Their reaction had saved my life, but we’d have to do better if I went out with the kids. Even if the kids were mostly armored, I didn’t want me or them to have to get bitten to incapacitate our enemies. I needed the animals thoroughly out of it before we got close to them.

That line of thinking made the answer obvious: the water guns.

The fact that the ghost pepper’s spice was oil-based presented a problem, since it would naturally separate from the water, but we could shake them up before we went outside, and they’d get continually shaken as we carried them around. That should keep them mixed enough to work. Right?

Just the trace amount left on the outside of my clothes was enough to cause major problems for the rodents, so I didn’t think I needed a concentrated delivery. I had a big bottle of olive oil in the cupboard. If I threw the thawing ghost peppers in there and left it overnight, they’d probably infuse the oil pretty well. Then I could just spoon some into the water guns before we left, and the olive oil would help keep the peppers themselves from rotting now that they were no longer frozen. We might be able to use the tactic for weeks!

Or not. It all depended on what we had to contend with next. But it should work right now, anyway.

Okay, then. After dinner tonight, I’d work on armor for myself and the kids. I had a few ideas on how to do that, but I’d have to try them out to see what would work best. I’d put the ghost peppers in oil and see if Cassie could fire one of the big squirt guns. Tomorrow morning, we’d see how I’d done.

“Mooooommm… aren’t you going to make armor?” Micah poked me in the side, impatient.

“Soon. You had a wonderful idea. I’m just going to sit here a little bit with Gavin.”

“No, you should play with me!” said Cassie. Ah. And she’d been sitting with me so nicely. I guess sympathy only goes so far when you’re three.

I sighed. I just wanted to close my eyes, but I hadn’t been the only one with a hard day. “Tell you what… If you bring me a book, I’ll read it to you. Micah, you can sit and listen, or you can start gathering all the paper, notebooks, and thin paperbacks we have in the house to bring here.”

“Wait. Books? You’re gonna make armor out of real books?” Micah looked scandalized. I understood his feelings. Books were sacrosanct in our house.

“Look, kid. Books are important. Real important.” I waved my hand around, indicating head height. “But you? Your brother? Your sister?” I raised my hand as high as I could reach, then flicked my fingers toward our sitting room’s lofted ceiling. “Much more important. It’s not even close.”