* * * PARTHIA – MARY * * *

Mary watched with relief as the last of the ambassadors left her domain. The last two months had been profitable but oh so boring. ‘At least I was able to practice keepin’ my temper, or maybe it just made things difficult. Time to test my new defences on Tarifax.’

« Trish, other me’s busy. Got to go run the defences on Tarifax, Blackbeard’s getting’ too big for his britches again. Plan for our expansion, I’ll see to it when I get back. »

Trish shuddered, « Good luck, I’ll keep an eye on our home. Are you taking those horrors you dreamt up? »

« Heh... I just beefed up sometin’ that’s found in South America, oh an’ made them smaller an’ adapted them for the sea. You note I’ve kept them tied to my domain unlike just ’bout everythin’ else. »

« Just as well or you’d make yourself hated. Those things are the stuff of nightmares. »

« Well yeah. That’s why they’re so restricted an’ why I keep ’em dormant. »

* * * TARIFAX * * *

Mary focused her attention at the heart of her realm and shifted through the portal to Tarifax. Once there she dismissed her avatar and settled into the spare core. In mere seconds she had control and knowledge of her domain. She moved the reinforcements she had bought to the southern border where Blackbeard’s mercenaries were due.

Mary used her powers over the sea to inspect the Sahuagin host. There were fifteen thousand of the pests, and over five thousand sharks. Mary grinned to herself and spawned another few thousand of her miniature new defenders. Then she waited, and while she waited she watched her admiral of the skies.

The sky pirate fleet was coming from the north, presumably to force her to concentrate on two fronts. ‘Stupid Blackbeard, Admiral Hellwing can handle that lot with no help from me, that just leaves me with the sharks and their parasites.’

In the skies to the north a slightly worn looking cargo airship was straining to outdistance the trouble that was following in its wake, clouds of smoke streaming from its funnel.

Behind it came a mismatched fleet. Said fleet was not maintaining a tight formation, it was spread across the sky in a straggling line staining the skies with clouds of black smoke.

Mary maintained an absent eye on the coming conflict as her two sky destroyers covered by six fighter-bombers moved to meet the pirates.

The merchant airship dropped until it was almost skimming the surface of the sea as it made its best speed to the south as Hellwing’s squadron passed it and opened fire. Mary felt like sighing, the seeker missiles were going to gang up on one or two targets, whichever had the biggest or worse insulated boilers. Yep there went the two biggest pirate ships.

Mary snapped most of her attention to the southern border of her dungeon as the Sahuagin host arrived. ‘Beep, but Blackbeard is dumb as a rock, no fineness, just numbers an’ bludgeon away. This is hard, it would be so easy to become complacent.’

She noted absently that Hellwing learned fast, she was using her missiles sparingly to prevent wasting them in overkills. The laser beams were doing good work. Pity they would only be of limited use for the time being.

It was time. The host was now too far into her domain to escape easily. She woke her much modified Candiru and sent them on their way while marshalling the rest of her defenders. The Sahuagin were taken by surprise, they started to react to the dungeon’s defenders they could see and the clouds of squid ink that was hiding them. Their defenses did not see the tiny almost transparent fish that homed in of the scents they were programmed to seek.

The agony that the Candiru’s victims felt as the fish used their unorthodox points of access to their hosts was all the worst for the surprise. Then Mary’s modifications made things worse as her Candiru entered a feeding frenzy and started dividing and multiplying endlessly in the presence of such abundant food stocks.

Mary felt the first trickles of life energy flooding in as her Candiru-tribbles started killing their victims. That was when she released the rest of her defenders into the by now chaotic and broken ranks of the invading host.

* * * EARTH – PD / FBI * * *

While they were waiting to board their Florida flight Jerry and Damien updated their notes and took stock of what they had learned.

“Still nothing on that script, I suspect there will be a follow up on that,” observed Jerry.

“The visas are legit. There will be a review to see how they were granted,” added Damien.

“Do you think they will be revoked?”

“Probably, but maybe there will be a hold on that so we can follow them and learn more about them.”

“And what about the dungeons? I must admit they surprised me there. They both knew more and less than I expected. How the hell did they know about Goodyear?”

“So we have to see if we can get to investigate these so called traditionally formed dungeons. Cambodia and Venezuela. Not going to be easy.”

Then they were closing down their tablets and lining up to board their flight.

* * * EARTH – MARY * * *

Mike got home to see his wife’s car parked in their drive behind Mary’s jeep. He managed to squeeze his car in alongside it and made his way to the house. He was met at the door by a smiling Jenny. “Hi honey,” she said even as she grabbed hold of him in a hug. “We’re going to have a baby.”

When Mike once again started taking notice of the world around him he noted that Susie and Mary were playing with two half grown winged kittens.

* * *

The following morning, straight after breakfast an excited Susie dragged Mary out of the house. She was introduced to her sister’s posse. Lacy and Kitty were soon doing their best to help Susie drag a reluctant Mary to the mall.

After an exhausting – for Mary – couple of hours shopping, Mary was thanking her stars for her storage rings. Lunch was a welcome relief and Mary treated herself to a seafood pizza while her new friends stuck to salads.

They were finishing their lunch when the three boys from Susie’s school showed up, Susie introduced the one in the lead as Jay and added that he was the team’s fullback. The big one lurking just behind his shoulder was Chris, the tailback and the embarrassed looking one was Logan.

Mary almost wrinkled her nose, at the smell of weed. She decided to evaluate them. She blinked in confusion. She took another look at the three stooges. « Hey Bluey, you havin’ me on? Jock an’ Minions? How did you get those idiots to accept that? »

« I offer what seems most appropriate. They just accepted without trying to change things. »

« Minion I’ve come across before, but where did Jock come from? »

« Someone asked. Now the option exists. »

Jay puffed up his chest and angled his head into what he believed showed his best side. The girl was staring at him. He grinned at her making sure to show his white teeth.

Chris nudged Logan as he watched Jay go to work. In his opinion it didn’t matter how rich that big bitch was, he preferred his chicks smaller than himself. Susie and her friends were more to his taste, pity they were still too young.

Logan for his part was feeling uneasy, there was a small insistent voice coming from his lizard brain screaming ‘Run! Hide! Danger!’.

Jay grinned lazily as he and his minions settled around the table. “What do you girls say? How about we go watch a movie?”

Things quickly grew ever more boring and irritating for Mary. She had no interest in football and that seemed to be almost all that was on the table. That, and some truly asinine tropes that grated with her experience on how things should be.

Feeling that unless she managed a bit of time to calm down she would do something unfortunate she rather abruptly said, “Excuse me, but got to visit the rest room, back soon,” and with that Mary rose and strode off.

On her way back she spotted something and grinned. ‘Might work, an’ it’ll really bug them.’ She thought to herself.

“Excuse me, would you sell me your hat? I’m bein’ pestered by some idiots an’ I figure if I turn up back at the table wearin’ that they’ll flip.”

The young man she’d stopped looked up at her and grinned. “You’ll make enemies. Are you sure you’re willing to risk it?”

“Yeah, an’ yeah if the wrong people see me it will make waves. But I’m peeved an’ I’d rather not break my sister’s friends.”

“Call me Roy, here I’ll lend it to you. Mind if I tag along to watch the fun?”

“Name’s Mary. It’s a free country, or so they tell me.” Mary accepted the red cap and set it on her head before heading back towards the food court.

= = O = =

Roy Anderson had been trailing round the mall for several hours making himself visible so the other members of his team would be able to blend in easier. The whole team had been finding amusement where they could. He grinned as he listened to the team on his earbud.

“Next time Heidi drags me round a mall I’ve got to get one of those storage rings,” muttered Drew.

“She’d kill you for spoiling half her fun,” replied Marie.

Then they redeployed as their principal headed for the ladies, Marie slipped in just ahead of her. After the expected delay she emerged looking less grim.

When Ms Silvestre changed course to intercept him Roy worried that he had been spotted or that she was going to take issue with his choice of headgear. So her actual question startled him. “Excuse me, would you sell me your hat? I’m bein’ pestered by some idiots an’ I figure if I turn up back at the table wearin’ that they’ll flip.”

Roy couldn’t prevent himself from grinning. “You’ll make enemies. Are you sure you’re willing to risk it?” he asked.

“Yeah, an’ yeah if the wrong people see me it will make waves. But I’m peeved an’ I’d rather not break my sister’s friends.”

Roy suppressed his desire to laugh, especially as he recalled some of the comments on her file. “Call me Roy, here I’ll lend it to you. Mind if I tag along to watch the fun?”

“Name’s Mary. It’s a free country, or so they tell me.”

Roy tagged along as Mary took his red cap and set it on her head.

“So I take it you don’t like your sister’s friends, what about her beliefs?”

“Bunch of gold digging scum... Got a good chance of educatin’ Susie.”

“Are you looking to go into politics?”

Roy couldn’t avoid chuckling at the appalled look she gave him. “Stop jokin’... I’d be driven to murder an’ mayhem in no time. Democracy is great for most places but I’m not getting’ involved. Might need to buy a couple of pols but that’s my limit on Earth.”

Roy blinked in surprise. What really surprised him is that she was telling the truth as she saw it. His new truth reading ability took her statement as truth. Then they arrived at the food court and the reactions were all she could have wished.