Arrayed on the floor before him was one of the strangest sites that he'd ever seen. Saelil, Kitty, and Samantha were each curled into a backwards ball, their heads poking out from between their thighs. Samantha's power armor was nowhere to be seen at the moment. She wore only her pink skin-tight under armor.

Samantha's face turned bright red then her eyes turned away from him. Kitty merely lashed her tail and looked smug in a manner that only a cat could manage. Saelil, for her part, merely reached over and pulled her hair across her eyes. For once, even she was embarrassed to be seen in such a manner.

Scott stared at them in thorough amusement as both their faces and their butts pointed toward him simultaneously. "Something tells me there's a story behind this..."

Kitty rolled over then unleashed a happy little nyao. "Scott! You're here? Good. Tell these hussies that I'm the most flexible!"

Samantha snorted then rolled forward, performed a handstand while her legs spread outward, then gracefully returned to her feet. "Who exactly are you calling a hussy?"

Saelil tried to copy Samantha, but ended up falling sideways. She continued to lie on her side for a moment while she darkly whispered. Scott barely managed to pick up her words. Saelil had muttered, "Too much studying."

"Clearly not I..." said Kitty. The cat rolled over on her side then languidly lashed her tail.

The blond world-ender snorted at the cat. "I'd say if the shoe fits... but you can't even wear them."

Kitty gasped loudly then hopped up onto her precious little feet and thrust one paw toward her. "That's so mean!"

Saelil rose back up to her feet then turned to Scott. "Beloved, you seem to have caught me in an inconvenient moment."

He grinned at her in a cheeky manner and said, "Wouldn't have it any other way."

"Goodness," said Saelil. Her cheeks turned slightly red and she looked away from him. "Such a thing to say to an innocent and demure lady."

Samantha glanced at the dark elf then snorted derisively. "Innocent and demure?"

"Exceptionally so, yes," agreed Saelil.

Scott smiled at the banter between the girls. Admittedly he was not in his right mind of late, but after he returned to life he noted that Saelil seemed a bit somber. Her laughter reminded him of the cheerleader like nature she'd shown to him when they first met.

"As fun as this is, or perhaps isn't," said Scott. He looked to each of the girls in turn as he got their attention. "Mind telling me why you were all trying to kiss your own asses?"

"Kiss our own asses?" asked Samantha her eyes widening slightly.

Kitty padded quickly over to Scott and stood up like she wanted him to take her in his arms. Upon seeing such an adorable scene Scott could not help himself. Soon, he held Kitty in his arms and stroked her back.

The cat mewed lightly then said, "These silly creatures thought themselves more flexible than I. Can you believe it?"

The other girls looked to the cat then to each other. It was obvious from what Kitty claimed. The girls were competitive with each other for various reasons. If one claimed to be better at something then their pride would not let it stand.

"What started the debate?" asked Scott.

Samantha shrugged at him. "I purchased a flexibility upgrade. Kitty decided to make claims she couldn't back up..."

"Ha!" exclaimed the cat in a haughty manner. She wriggled in Scott's arms for a moment then directed a paw imperiously toward Samantha. "You were just jealous that I could bathe myself without water!"

"No... No, I really wasn't," said Samantha, her ponytail flying sideways slightly to match her sudden head jerk. "And who would want to see that, anyway!"

"You certainly looked," said Kitty. The cat's eyes became partially lidded. She spoke in a quiet and affected tone. "So embarrassing... A girl deserves her privacy, you know."

"You were doing that right next to me!" snapped Samantha. She pointed to a nearby glowing orb. "Your exchange is way over there!"

"Well, my fur was all a-fluffle," said Kitty, "A proper associate would have helped me in my time of need."

Samantha snorted at the cat. "What was I supposed to do, get a hairball?"

Kitty's eyes widened. "What an image!"

"Why, you!" snarled Samantha. She took a menacing step toward the feisty feline, but stopped when Scott spoke up.

"And Saelil?" asked Scott, while he did his best to ignore the banter between the two girls. Nothing good could come of discussing that with all three of the in the room, not without some sort of extreme luck upgrade on his part at any rate.

"I'm an elf, beloved. Agility is one of our defining traits," said Saelil lightly.

Scott tried to hide his growing desire to laugh. These girls were so competitive over the smallest of things. "So, one thing led to another and you all tried to kiss your own asses in reverse? Is that what I'm getting from this?"

"What? No!" exclaimed Samantha. "I wasn't trying to kiss anything..."

"We would have solved my issue if you had," said Kitty.

Samantha stared at the cat, but said nothing for a moment. "What exactly are you implying that I should have kissed?"

The cat lightly lashed her fluffy tail then looked up at Scott. "Would you like to see me kiss it, Scott?" asked Kitty in a cheerful conversational tone. "It would be ever so helpful if you could point out the spots that I miss."

"No one wants to see that either, fur ball," said Samantha, a slightly dangerous edge in her tone.

"I disagree," said Kitty. She lashed her tail lightly then offered a smug look, one that only a cat could manage, to anyone who cared to witness it.

Samantha growled at the cat. Kitty's smug expression intensified and she weaved her head from side-to-side.

Seeing that things were about to become heated, Scott spoke up. "You got a flexibility upgrade?"

The pony-tailed powerhouse frowned at the cat once more then looked to Scott. "It was painful, but yes."

"Your upgrade actually hurt?" asked Scott incredulously. Most of the time he barely noticed it when he acquired his upgrades. There were a few instances here and there, but for the most part they were just numbers on a screen to him.

"It cost me twelve million credits! Of course it hurt..." groused Samantha.

"Twelve million—" began Scott, but he caught himself part way into his follow-up question. "It cost twelve thousand experience points?"

"Yes! Well, the flexibility upgrade was only a thousand. But everything together was so expensive..." remarked Samantha. "Twelve million credits, gone! Just like that!"

"That's why I'm not spending much of mine until after we get our guests back home. There are a few things in Hellespont that I want to check on as well," said Scott. He did his best not to take a mocking tone as he spoke. Samantha would probably have a heart attack if she knew the kind of expenses he had covered to date.

"I planned to do the same, but I wanted to test out the upgrades at least once," she said.

He nodded to her. "What does your upgrade do exactly?"

Samantha looked into Scott's eyes for a moment then immediately launched herself forward. She rotated rapidly in the air while expertly performing a flawless somersault. Her rolling motion continued, however, as she pulled her body into a tight ball and bounced off the floor slightly. She rolled forward at an alarming pace, not unlike when she morphed while wearing her power suit.

Just before she reached Scott she bounced upward and somersaulted back onto her feet. She stood only a few inches from him now, Kitty slightly squished between them.

Scott blinked at her then did his best to fight down the color coming to his cheeks. "It, ah... does that?"

"It does that," said Samantha in a matter-of-fact tone. She continued to gaze into his eyes, her expression both calm and serious.

Kitty mewled pitifully as she was pressed between them. The thought of being sandwiched between the two was quite delightful, but at the moment it was detrimental to her ability to breathe.

Saelil made a noise of displeasure then artfully rolled forward and back to her feet once more. "I fail to see what is so special about the ability to roll around on the floor..."

Samantha glanced at Saelil. The dark elf gazed thoughtfully at her. Kitty struggled to get a little air. Scott? He simply stood by and quietly marveled at it all. Briefly, he wondered at his good fortune. If nothing else, these girls kept his life interesting in ways that had nothing to do with experience points.