Lincoln tilted his head in confusion, the dog-costumed being mimicking the movement. "I don't understand?"

Caleb gestured to the being, "This?!" He gesticulated.

"It's an Artificial Intelligence capable of interacting in the real world. That is what we discussed?" Lincoln said, puzzled.

"It's male." Caleb glared.

"Bark?" The dog boy yipped.

"Of course it's male," Lincoln answered. "I chose the most attractive body possible."

The dog boy rolled over and conjured a frisbee of light in his mouth. He jaunted over to Lincoln who took the frisbee and tossed it. The boy shot off, chasing the disk around the store. One he got it, he brought it back over to Lincoln, who ruffled the boy's hair.

"I don't care about your personal tastes!" Caleb retorted. "Don't you know male AI's are always, always, evil?"

Caleb had it on good authority (every fiction he'd ever seen) that any male AI inevitably turned on their master. For example, that one AI from that space movie, or the AI from that time travel movie, or the AI from that superhero comic. All of them were male. It didn't matter that this AI was as cute as a plush toy, male AI's were evil.

"You're exaggerating," Lincoln said. "Face it, you're upset that I didn't make him female."

Caleb opened his mouth to argue, but a hissing noise stopped him. He turned. Alex was next to the construct, glaring death.

"Um, Alex?" Caleb asked tentatively.

"Hmm?" She said, not taking her eyes off the dog.

"You're hissing."

Alex flicked her eyes over to Caleb. "What?"

"You're hissing." Taking matters into his hands, Caleb walked over to Alex, grabbed her by the shoulders, and wheeled her away from the dog-boy, who was currently cowering behind Lincoln.

"Maybe we shouldn't have someone with a cat system next to a dog," Caleb said as he brought Alex towards the door. Alex herself was a bit confused. So what if she was hissing at that dog. It deserved it.

"Caleb, what are you doing?" Caleb looked up to see his sister in the doorway, next to June and Nathan.

"Oh hey sis. Alex apparently doesn't do so well around dogs." He said.

"I do just fine!" Alex argued. She squirmed. "But that dog was giving me a look. He deserved what was coming to him."

Everyone turned to Lincoln, who was currently playing catch with the dog in question. "I'm going to name you Rover." He said affectionately.

"Yay!" Rover barked.

Alex growled.

"Lincoln, is that a dog-boy?" Hailey asked.

"It's a terror is what it is." Caleb grumped. Alex nodded in agreement.

"Rover here is a combination of dungeon essence and computer intelligence," Lincoln said proudly. "He's modeled after golden retrievers so he's very loyal and a very good boy. Aren't you Rover."

"Yes!" Rover wagged his tail.

"You're behind this aren't you?" Hailey said to Caleb.

"Me? Certainly not. I'd never be behind that thing." Caleb scoffed.

"Don't give me that. You stole one of the essences didn't you?"

"Stole is such a strong word."

Hailey's eye twitched. "You know we need those to get the city moving." Her voice shook with anger.

"Wait I had a reason! An actual reason!" Caleb added hastily.

Hailey stared, waiting for his answer.

"Okay look, making the city move was kind of a pipe dream. I said it as a joke but you went along with it. But we don't have the logistics in place for something like that. Where do we get food? Do we scavenge? How many people would it take to keep the place running? There's so many questions we need to answer. I figured I'd go along with getting a power source since I put the idea in your head but then we found a dungeon and got essence and it made something from nothing. So I took a couple and brought them to Lincoln. If anyone could make what I needed he could." Caleb explained.

"And what is it that you made?" Hailey demanded.

"He's an AI dungeon core. He can perform all the tasks we could possibly need. Making food, powering, maintenance, all of it. But now it's male and it's going to turn on us!" Caleb shouted to Lincoln.

"No he isn't," Lincoln stated. "Dogs are the most loyal animal. Rover would never try to do anything that would harm us."

"Caleb, are you telling me Rover here can run the city infrastructure on his own?" Hailey asked, ignoring the two's antics.

"Yeah," Caleb answered.

"Fine. How do we do it?"

"I dunno, Lincoln?"

"Give me about an hour and I might have an answer," Lincoln said.

A loud explosion shook the area.

"You might not have that long," Hailey said. "Looks like the Varnoss have started attacking."

"Lincoln," Caleb said, serious. "Go find Mr. Copper and get this city moving."

"My power's covering the dome currently. That wasn't terribly powerful so I should be good for a while." Hailey said.

Several more explosions rang out. Hailey winced from the power drain. "Maybe not as long as I thought."

"Go find others that can help," Caleb said. Hailey nodded, walking out. June and Nathan made to follow but Caleb stopped them.

"Wait, I need your help."

June turned. "You're being oddly serious."

"It's no fun when my sister's in actual danger," Caleb said.

"What do you need?"

"We need to stop as many bombs from falling on the dome as possible. Luckily the three of you have good powers that can help with that."

"My power doesn't work very far from me," June said. "I'd need to be near the bomb to stop it."

"Alex can get us on top of the dome," Caleb answered. Alex nodded in response.

The four made their way out of the city, riding Jim-Jam and Rocket. The two cats scaled the dome with powerful leaps and the use of Alex's catapult skill. Landing, the four dismounted and prepared themselves for the worst.

Caleb watched as squads of bombers flew by. He felt helpless having to rely on the others for help. Even before the end of the world, he was the type of person to do things alone. It was why he performed so many solo missions to help Hailey. That and he knew a part of him was unhinged from all the insanity.

He remembered back to the first days, up in New York City. The monsters had attacked and Caleb had joined with others to escape the city. Back then he hadn't learned the full extent of his invincibility. All he knew was he couldn't get hurt. He had learned quickly, even now the thing that destroyed New York haunted him.

The bombers circled around for their next attack, dark shapes in the sky. They reminded Caleb of a paintbrush, thin up top and thick at the bottom. The ships flew by and holes opened, dropping their payload. Bombs fell like rain, only to stop from the umbrella of power June had set up. Nathan followed up by detonating the bombs early while Sir Purrsalot protected everyone from the pressure.

They continued like this for a bit, bombs coming while the four destroyed them. But when it looked like the bombers had finally run out of ammunition another threat appeared. Unable to destroy the city with air support, transport ships had dropped off a small army to the north of the city. All manner of uniformed aliens with vehicles Caleb cold only describe as buckets with wheels marched towards the city.