Corvayne and Mosh hopped out of the Truck and started unloading the spare engine from the back before Mister I had finished switching to park. The first thing he had to do was get the specs of the part. He was happy that his personal screen... excuse him... that his phone was a functional computer for pulling that information up.

Grunt offered to be their lab hand. Everyone else settled in to watch. Why not? Well, Wick quickly dragged Hari out to get coffee for them before more esoteric requests came in. Corvayne was pretty sure he could do the entire job with what was there, maybe needing some copper wire if Mosh had a limit for making it up.

While thinking about Mosh he noted there was a small shrine with a pair of crossed hammers next to a work bench.

“Will it help if I say a small prayer to your building god?”

“Lythandies is a goddess. But yeah! The pantheon loves it when they start getting new attention off the beaten path. I'm sure I'm earning a lot of brownie points if people in a new universe are also calling her.”

Corvayne wanted to ask if Mosh knew how big the universe was and if he maybe was mistranslating galaxy, but relented. He had an anti-grav unit to make, as well as a kinetic impulsor for the crankshaft of the engine so the non-electric output could be put into useful as where he was going, they didn't have roads. He took a knee at the shrine real quick and thought about building things, then sprung back to standing to get to work.

Mister I proved an almost perfect audience, asking him about both parts. “How are you going to make the output of the engine power something that floats?”

“The electrical output of this engine's alternator should be enough to stay buoyant in air with two... three passengers of medium size. I was going to ask if I could buy a motor bike you're not working on to cannibalize parts, otherwise I guess a non motor bike would work for steering a front impulsor but I'd worry it's too light to just jump on and go.”

Mister I smiled and gestured to numerous half deconstructed vehicles. “Hah! Take your pick, besides the one under the tan cloth. That's my baby.”

There was a mothballed bike that was perfect for what Corvayne needed: steering, a seat, windshields helped too but anyone riding wore a mask and goggles. Mosh understood exactly what was needed and had been doing some work around the shop as-is to start building various tools. Corvayne recognized the start of a gravity calibrator, and a few sub devices for changing bond strength that were needed to produce covering for anti-ferrite wires. He wasn't trying to build anything that fancy, thank you, just a simple A-grav bike. So he asked Mosh if he could use a large chunk of copper wire since he'd need it for both parts.

Working with Mosh saved incredible amounts of time. The little cleaning ritual had nothing on him calling for his godess's help with making something. Corvayne stopped a few times just marveling at how things Mosh touched would just bend or melt into place.

Corvayne had the bike and engine prepped for work and all the parts laid out they'd need aside from a length of steel pipe. Everything else could be welded together.

“Mister I, can you get me two one and a half foot lengths of steel pipe, around two inches in diameter? Also, does your drill work on steel?”

Mosh nodded. “It's got a good diamond tip. Mister I's stuff looks old but it's all good workhorse stuff. Don't tell the old monk I complimented him. He'll get an even bigger head then he has.”

Mister I looked offended. “My green friend I find it odd you're so adversarial when we are more alike then different.”

“That's the problem! You're a workaholic, meanwhile I can't go hiking because I'll cause an incident!”

Wick came back with Hari and coffee in tow as Mister I left to go buy steel for the bike's wheels. Hari sat down and watched with facination, using the time to try to [Investigate] the parts and the engine, and tools they were using. She had bought more bananas. Corvayne considered trying to sit her down and explain she needed to eat them in a less sensual manner but opted instead to just push it aside.

“You two look like a pair of gnomes.” Hari added when she saw he was looking at her.

“I hope that's a compliment.”

Corvayne and Mosh began spooling wire for the anti-grav unit. It was important to get the shape right and to have it on a structurally sound frame so that the lift and weight would balance out. Oh yeah, he needed to find something to adjust the gravity.

“Mosh, can you adjust the lever for the turn signal to be go-neutral-reverse for the A-grav strength?”

“You want throttle or video game controls Boss?”

“Throttle, assuming you mean pull down to go up.”

“I can even move it to be a throttle position! Lythandies' reformation is nifty like that!”

Corvayne gave him a friendly pat on the back. “Thanks Mosh.”

Wick stopped him about an hour and a half into the project with more coffee and a question. “Would you be willing to have a pair of gophers help you in exchange for letting one extra person in on Mosh existing?”

Corvayne set down the wire to give his hands a break. “Why do you ask?”

“Because it would pay for getting three pairs of faked mine credentials. And any parts you'd need or could want. Possibly a friend for life.”

“I wouldn't mind more help. Someone to do some of the boring stuff would free me and Mosh up to make the bike more comfy... possibly better storage since we got gear we'll need.”

She nodded. “Thanks. I trust Horton will be eager to help after this. You okay with Brines showing up too?”

He laughed. “Wick, you're the leader out here. I trust your decisions are to our benefit.”

A little later Brines arrived his usual joggers outfit accompanied by a heavy set man in a green I heart UFOs t-shirt and MUFO'ker hat. Corvayne assumed that he was seeing Horton who was talking as he walked into the garage. “Okay Wick, but this better be damn good to burn a sick day, I don't-”.

Mosh of course had a flair for being a little troll, waiting with arms folded as they walked around the parked truck, then with a theatrical voice calling out to them, arms up in what Corvayne would call a very corny impression of the kind of aliens that you saw on paperbacks where the guys and girls sharing space on the cover had damaged shirts. “Humans! I am Mosh of the Trickyclax family! Take me to your single women and craft beers!”

Both Horton and Brines had different reactions to Mosh, but with the same words. “Holy shit that's an alien!” said with both alarm and joy.

“I see what you guys mean. They are both freaking out.” Mosh shrugged. “Nice to meet you guys. Wick said you might help me and Corvayne over here build a hover-bike.”

“Wait, is the spear guy Chad an ET too?” Horton asked Wick, excitement obvious in his voice.

Did she give him a goofy fake name? "Wick, my real name is bad enough."

Wick ignored him. “Maybe? He walked to Cascadia from another planet, so he's definitely something all right.” She turned and smiled and winked. He smiled back.

“What planet? One we know?”

Corvanye shrugged as Horton shook Mosh's hand then pinched it. “It feels like skin!”

Mosh pulled his hand back and rubbed the back of it. “Of course it does you nutcase! What did you think it was going to feel like?”

“Rubber suit? Wick being Wick.” Horton said while staring at Mosh.

The goblin shrugged. “Fair enough. Listen, we got work to do.”

Horton wasn't done. “Hey, did you crash last night?”

Mosh once more looked offended. “No way! I am a CAREFUL driver. Never touched a spaceship though. I'll tell you my story if you help me by drilling holes in this piece here and here.”

“Wait, she said Hover-bike!” Brines added as Corvayne used one of the man's free hands to hold a screwdriver while his shadowy hand handed him a wrench. Like that, they had two more helpers. Brines flipped a few times from fear and shock to eventually looking happy to be included on what he stated was the coolest thing he had seen in a long time. Horton had questions which Mosh put up with as long as he got the goblin things Mosh needed to get the inductor working.

A few more minutes of work passed before Horton noticed what the project was. “Dude, are you building an impulse engine in a garage!?”

Mosh didn't stop this time to look at Horton. “Well how else are we going to make this bird go forward! Corvayne ain't going to get a gondola stick to do it!” Corvayne covertly looked up what a gondola was after that and the image was funny enough, but who in their right mind would build a city in water rather than around it?

With Brines on gopher duty and Horton picking up some of the stuff they were doing, it only took about four and a half hours to make the parts. Thank Lythandies too. The blessing Mosh provided cut down on some of the spooling and adjustments on the anchor chamber for the main anti-gravity unit. Without divine assistance tweaking them might have taken hours. He'd have to introduce the goblin to Spaces-Torn-Asunder if the opportunity ever arose. The only Watcher he liked would probably be a high priest in a few hours if the goddess really rewarded building things.

As they started putting things together, Horton had more questions. “So wait, I thought you'd like, need to mine something out of the core of a moon for anti-gravity.”

Corvayne laughed. “No, you don't need apergy material for something this small. It would save us the trouble of hooking it up the alternator and getting the thing powered.” That was always the trick, converting the energy source you had to what you needed. Having an alternator on the engine beat the weeks of sessions trying to figure out how to essentially build one under Spaces' supervision. That had been stressful, even if his instructor guided him without malice. Working a project with Mosh was the complete opposite. The goblin kept cracking bad puns like 'building an anti-gravity engine old-spool'. Corvayne couldn't believe how fast the day flew by. Maybe this was why in Grunt's books they got into details of building golems so often. Corvayne hadn't found them at all interesting but now understood the author probably had a TON of fun building them and just wanted to share.

Note to self: consider building a golem to patrol the warehouse.

Note to self two: consider asking someone else to do it, as lots of those sections involved explosions, golem AI going sideways and clobbering people, and more explosions.

It was close to six hours after starting that he had a final build and done a few adjustments on the hover bike. The throttle was a little too gradual for his taste, but the desert on the other side of the mountains was mostly flat, and the roads along the way there were smooth enough to deal with the controls feeling slow. He had to add a little weight to the wheels to get the steering feeling 'right'. Mosh loved that Corvayne went from previously worked on engineering to feeling things as 'right' or 'wrong' but there's a difference between building something and driving it! Still, he took it for a spin around the block, then again with Wick and Hari riding. Wick had a death grip on him even at only one tenth max speed, and Hari was laughing.

To make the riders feel better, he burned another hour taking a seat out of an old car and adding belts. The weight was easy to compensate as he could have put the truck on the bike and still gotten enough lift to stay off flat ground.

Horton asked for Hari's measurements. Wick stared daggers at him. He cleared it up by saying he needed all three's info. Once he had it, he vanished for an hour, and came back with three badges and three patched up orange coveralls.

Hari held the old jumpsuit she had been given away from her. “This what they wear?”

Horton held up the one for Corvanye. “You will look like miners. Except that you three... I mean the girls don't look like beef jerky left in a tanning bed, so say your newbies whenever any problems come up.”

Corvayne looked at Horton. “I look like dried meat?”

“No, you look like a bodybuilder surfer wearing a desert prince's disguise for being a commoner.”

Corvayne felt his eyes narrow a little. “I don't know what that looks like, but it seems very specific.”

Wick looked Corvayne up and down. “It's true but it's all good on you.”

“Oh. Thanks then, Horton.” He smiled at the man, who just nodded back.

“No problem. So Wick... you had an alien or two working on hover bikes out back. Anything else I should know? Find bigfoot? Met the fae? Dragons? Magic?”

Wick thought about it. “Uh, yes to all four. We killed a lot of bigfoot but they got rid of the bodies. The girl in the hat is an elf but she doesn't speak a lot of Cascadian. Me and Corvayne killed a small dragon. Mister I had a barbeque and we ate a bunch of it. Corvayne has a mounted head. I got a single spell but it's a good one.”

Horton just stared at her. “You know that since you have an alien who says he's a goblin in your garage, that's all sounding less like a joke to me.”

“Things are very different this month compared to last month Horton. I intend to make money too, so if you're in maybe we can work out me losing my gear to a pack of bigfeet...”

“I get paid really well, thank you, but if you can show me an elf or magic I'll consider your story and waive off the cost of all that stuff.”

“Hari, show him your ears.” Wick tapped her own.

The elf took her hat off and shook her head, rubbing her ears. “Hate hiding them.”

“I would request to know where she came from. Also if there are more.” He turned to Wick. “Is she a wizard as well?”

Wick shook her head. “Not just her, I can do magic too! I'd show you but it's a spell that knocks things around. Mister I forbid me from casting it in his house.”

She then seemed to realize there was a flaw in that command and went out to the parking lot and fired a few disrupts into the ground. Horton started laughing and pumping his fist. “This is epic! Wick whatever this is you know I'm in! This is fucking EPIC! Elves are real! Uh Wick, question...” He lowered his voice. Corvayne was still in the garage with Mosh getting the second seat and belts secured and honestly he could guess what Horton was asking.

“I'd say they are pretty interested in humans, yes.” Wick turned to where Hari and Corvayne were watching her and winked. Very subtle Wick.

“You sure we'll catch up? We spent all day building this thing.” Besides Grunt seeing them off, everyone else had wandered off, with Wick setting up deals for Horton and Brines. Horton wanted to do an engineering project like a hoverbike with Mosh. Brines was all too happy to look for rich people to sell literally enchanted items to. At the moment they were still wearing most of the stuff aside from the one enchanted longsword. Corvayne had thought honestly him and Grunt would be better to go off to the mine than him and the two girls, but Grunt explained with a few hand gestures that Corvayne and himself were NOT good at talking their way into places. Fighting the two would also likely bring the entire mine down on both of them. Hari might give them an edge on finding something out about the artifact or ruins if they got there first.

Wick added the last bit. “On top of what Grunt's saying, you want us to try to talk first. We do that, then if a fight happens, it happens.” She handed Hari the Airfoil Rapier.

The elf sqeaked happily and hugged Wick. “I love the sword! I love you Wick!”

Corvayne was a little irate that it didn't seem to trigger Wick when Hari did it. Maybe it was a thing about him being a guy? Either way Wick gestured for Hari to calm down. “As long as you don't ditch us, I figure this will set you up to be fully equipped.”

Wick had the robes folded up on her back. Mosh had made her a real metal wand with an emerald he had somehow smoothed into a perfect marble shape inset into the hilt, as well as made her a holder for the yet untested sundial. That might be something they did once they were out in the open desert. Corvayne gave her the amulet of 'health' that supposedly made someone more durable. Her last gift was that Grunt was loaning her the boots of running. How they fit her feet AND his? No idea.

Corvayne went with the cleaver and his spear with the sidearm. Of course the fire breathing dagger too, since it was pretty easy to hide on his back in a pinch. He was wearing the armor he found under his jumpsuit. It was weird that something that looked like wood and felt like stone was so comfy. Hey, since Hari WAS here...

“Hari, can you investigate my chain mail that I found by that other dragon?”

“Oh sure... 'OH GOD DAMN'” she swore in Cascadian. Corvayne felt the a bit of pure joy at her face expressing surprise and disgust whenever she got a good result. “It's an artifact! Again!”

“Well, it explains why it's so tough and lightweight.”

“We have to talk about your luck. It's supposed to be a once in a career thing for a party to find one!”

“Maybe it's good luck making up for a lifetime of bad luck.”

They had packed potions of healing and Corvayne had the strength potion too. Supposedly it was usually able to make someone half again as strong, so that might be enough to pop the shields around the aristocrat if it came down to fighting him with his cleaver. He wanted to try talking before fighting. All he wanted was information. With Brines safe, he could hopefully trade something. But Corvayne also knew that if they didn't find common ground, half of diplomacy was the strength you brought to the table.

The bike had been mangled and looked like a patchwork of colors but it had room for their stuff, a gas tank that could cover at least six thousand miles, and room for three. He had moved the front up and built better protection from the wind, as the machine was going to go FAST. They were wearing orange jumpsuits, put on goggles and had masks for when they hit the desert. Corvayne also had a pair of headbands and had Wick bring a pair of small clean socks for Hari's ears as he didn't know if they would get clogged with crud and he didn't want his teammate to suffer during the ride. Same with earplugs for everyone.

Hari thanked him while she stretched the socks over her ears.. “Do you think we will catch them? I want to give that smug jerk a few broken ribs back...”

Corvayne reminded “They have half a day lead on us... also our goal is info. If we start fighting, that almost certainly goes out the window.”

“If they are driving, that's nothing. You got a GPS on your phone that will work out on the dust?”

Wick nodded. “Are you ready to do some seriously high-grade trespassing?”

Corvayne adjusted his goggles to be a little looser. “Ideally we catch them before they hit the mine proper.”

Wick put her goggles on and grinned. “We'll see if your luck... and your bike holds up.”