The monolithic insectoid shape paused in its motion and jerkily turned towards Bain, an awkward grin crossing its face. "Hello, Bain! It is Gren! How are you doing?" Raising its uppermost right arm, Gren waved Graviton's body around, squeezing tighter. She was beginning to gasp from the pressure, and her arms were pinned to her sides.

Bain blinked. "Wh... how are you doing that?"

Gren looked down at the gigantic bipedal form and chuckled. "Oh, I have not been transformed, although if Nahma decided that would be a good idea I would be mostly fine with it. No, I am merely piloting it. See?" He turned around, revealing a long, familiar shape embedded deep within his back. The shedding's legs were sunk deep into its flesh. "I am serving as its spine! It is not easy to control."

He managed to turn back around, although he came worryingly close to falling over. Now that the villainess had been foiled, people were slowly starting to wander over, curious to see what was going on. Khi put his lance on his back, his mask nervously looking from side to side as he pulled himself behind Bain's bulk.

Shifting his weight, Gren approached Bain. "As you can imagine, this body is far from perfect and far too large to be helpful for anything inside of your buildings, so Nahma designed several of them for us sheddings to use when we need them! Nahma's personal version is not yet completed. Do you like them?"

Bain appraised the colossal... vehicle? He wasn't sure what to call it. It was fairly terrifying, and the maw of teeth rimming its wide, triangular jaw looked as though it could pretty easily crush a car. As for the bulky plates of chitinous armor covering his shoulders, chest, legs, and skull, each piece was at least six inches thick. Overall, it utterly dwarfed Bain in nearly every aspect.

Pulling himself back to reality, Bain realized he hadn't yet answered Gren's question and started. "Oh! Right. Uhhh, it's pretty big." That was an understatement. "How... how exactly did you get... in?"

Gren's maw split in a massive grin. "Ah, it was quite simple! First, we ripped the back open and tore the bony spine out, and then started-"

Bain hastily interrupted him as more people gathered. "Okay, maybe it can wait for a bit. Do you want to..." He trailed off as he realized the shedding couldn't very well come inside under the conditions. "Well, maybe you can't come inside, but... I don't know, are you hungry or something?"

Ambling over to him, Gren further increased his grip on Graviton and hunched down, knuckling the ground with his remaining five limbs. With a horrific squelching and tearing sound, he proceeded to literally rip himself out of the vehicle's back. It went limp as he did, but continued to hold onto Graviton. Shaking the worst of the meaty fluids stringily hanging off of him, he scuttled to the ground and spread his mandibles wide happily. "Now I can come inside!"

Bain winced inwardly as the people watching them covered their mouths in shock and disgust but gestured to Gren anyway. Family took priority over onlookers anytime. "Yeah, come on in. Seriously, though, are you hungry?"

Gren nodded immediately. "Yes, my hunger is insatiable. Did you know we found new food on Whiteball? It is proving somewhat difficult to find large amounts of, though. And they build such odd structures..."

Raising a nonexistent eyebrow, Bain led the way into the cubical building, making a mental note to ask for repairs for the gaping hole on the second and third floor. "Really? I don't think I've heard of Whiteball. Does the food taste good?"

Pushing the swinging door open, Gren replied, "Not especially, no. But there is quite a lot of it, and their stings do not hurt very much. That, and they are not very organized. I must admit, there are quite a lot of them. We're having to move a lot of sheddings to Whiteball to deal with them. Oh! And we found out that the rocks on Whiteball are not actually rocks. They are more like... like shedding-plate. Like our natural armor. Do you understand?"

Bain shrugged, happy to just chat with the shedding for a bit. "Not really, no, but I'm happy to listen. Do you want to explain a bit more?"

Nodding, Gren continued. "Of course! They have little things attached to their arms that spit green fire, or claws that sting. It is quite annoying. but with enough sheddings, we should finish conquering Whiteball in a few weeks or so. We've been working on it for quite some time, after all."

Stopping for a moment, Bain paused. "Wait, conquering? Where's Whiteball?"

Gren looked out of the narrow windows in the front of the cube and cast around for a moment, seeking for something and not finding it. "Hmmm... Well, you cannot see it right now, but it is visible at night. Do you know of what I speak? The large white ball floating in the sky?"

Bain froze. "The - the moon!? You mean to tell me that there's something alive on the moon and that you're... somehow on the moon too!?"

Before Gren could answer, a familiar voice interrupted him. "Hey, Bain! How's it going?"

Walking towards the two of them with a slightly strained smile was Stitches, wearing a new suit Bain hadn't seen before. All thoughts of the moon and the sheddings and whatever they were doing with the moon flew out of Bain's head all at once, and he strode towards Stitches in a fury. The zombie's casual smile vanished instantly. "Uh, what is it?"

Bain's claws were clenched into fists as he stopped in front of Stitches, glaring down at him. "What were you doing? I left Khi with you, and the next thing I know he's trying to take Graviton on all by himself! What happened?"

Stitches held his hands up defensively. "Hey, no need to get upset. There were civilians trapped under rubble, I had to go save them. Besides, Khi is fine now, right?" He looked around as if to make a point. "I don't see him around. He's okay, right?"

Khi poked his head up from behind Bain's shoulder, chittering irritably. "You did not tell Khi of any civilians! You jumped through the hole and left before Khi could say anything! And if Stitches is Bain's protector, why was Stitches not protecting him?"

Stitches waved his hands around in increasing distress. "I - look, I'm a hero! I save people, okay? Bain can take care of himself!"

"Khi almost died!" Bain retorted. "What exactly were you doing that meant you couldn't take Khi along with you!? What would you have done if he hadn't survived? If Gren hadn't shown up?"

Stitches waved a hand away dismissively. "Look, it doesn't matter all that much. Now, this-" He held a tablet up, grinning. "Now this matters! Take a look!"

Eyes narrowed, Bain took the tablet and looked at the screen. A picture of Stitches using his telekinesis to lift a few small pieces of rubble made up the main bulk of the article, with a fuzzy shot of Bain in the distant background battling Graviton. The headline of the article read, 'Undead Hero Saves Dozens - Zombie Hero Running Territory?'

"Isn't it great?" Stitches beamed, taking the tablet back and looking happily at the article. "I mean, I'm sure we can get some better pictures of you later on, but for now, I made the front page! I mean we. We made the front page."

Bain's faceplate was inscrutable as he stared at Stitches, but his talons slowly curled, crushing the ceramic tiling of the floor and digging noticeable trenches. "You... were taking pictures."

Stitches raised his hands. "Look, Rep is just as important, okay? If we don't get paid, we can't save lives."

Bain turned around, careful not to knock Khi off his perch on Bain's shoulder. "I don't think you realize, Stitches. But I don't have any money. So am I saving lives, or am I boosting your Rep? Because you're definitely not getting your priorities straight."

Stitches snorted. "Bain, you're new to this. Trust me, you'll figure it out."

Bain literally snarled as he passed through the doors, a trail of crumbled footprints following him. Gren promptly skittered along with him, running up the wall and out of the building. "Stitches... I need a break. A long one. And I think I'm going to spend it with Nahma."

Now Stitches' face turned to concern. "Wait, he's still going to defend the territory, right?"

Bain closed his eyes, forcing the rising wave of fury downward. He was still feeling pent-up from the close save, he told himself. "I need to cool down. Don't come looking for me. I just need to think for a bit."

He told himself that the whole way down to the third layer of tunnels.