For the next few days, there wasn't much to do besides wait. The United Technocracy was busy finding each other, building themselves a base camp, and assembling equipment for their inevitable assault. Eventually they did figure out that Greg could be stopped by simple barriers, erecting one around their entire camp to keep him out and trapping any of him that actually got in. Greg actually made a game of figuring out how to sneak himself in. Plus, he figured that the more resources the Technocracy had to dedicate to dealing with him, the more time everyone else had to prepare. It was small, but if it even helped a little, it was worth it.

One of the United Technocracy's troops carefully inspected the team requesting reentry. Each one had been scoured clean using every cleansing method they had available to them, including a method that vaporized everything not protected by the armor's forcefield. He ensured there were absolutely no foreign substances in the decontamination chamber, pumping all the air inside out of the camp, before replacing it with the air from inside the camp. If this didn't work, there was no way to keep the creature out. The soldier took a deep breath, before opening the chamber, letting the team in. Suddenly, the entire surface of one of the soldiers turned to smoke, reforming into that hateful, grinning face!

"Hey guys! Did you miss me?" Greg winked.

"Quick, contain it!" The soldier yelled as Greg laughed madly, dispersing into a swarm of fairies, spreading through the camp.

"Oh, there once was a man who snuck in he~ And the name of this man was well-er-me~" The fairies sang in unison, some stopping to do a little jig mid air, before jolting away to avoid capture. The funny part? He already had a bunch of untrapped smoke inside the camp, spying on the United Technocracy. This was just for fun.

One of the soldiers took aim with his rifle, before another smacked it down. "Don't! It only makes it worse!" He yelled, before letting out a groan as someone who hadn't heard him shot one of the fairies, bursting it into smoke which reformed into even smaller fairies who flitted off in multiple directions.

While that part of Greg was enjoying messing with the United Technocracy, hiding a bit more smoke in the camp before eventually letting the troops capture him, another part was focusing on something much more… frustrating. After proving that his view of himself was stable, Greg was allowed to eat mana infused food, letting him grow his mana pool. Since they were on a mana planet, he could have also just not eaten anything, but according to Tessa actually eating mana infused food was faster, and Greg wasn't about to argue, particularly when it tasted so damn good! Mana was definitely the best seasoning. Then he started learning how to manipulate his mana, which thanks to his new ability, wasn't that hard. Or rather, it was difficult, but his ability helped him focus and sped up his perception of time so that he could fit an hour's worth of practice into just a minute. As long as Tessa burned him first, of course. It was still way too easy to get lost in that state. However, the problem came when he started to actually learn spells.

"This makes no sense!" Greg growled in frustration. "I widen this channel, and the spell gets better. I widen it a little more, and it barely even functions! I make a change in one section, and a completely different section that it isn't even connected to breaks down!"

"Greg, it's magic." Tessa commented, rolling her eyes. "It isn't supposed to make sense! You just need to keep experimenting until you figure it out. That's why it takes mages decades to get a single spell to tier nine."

Greg gumbled bitterly before activating his ability again, refocusing on the spell for sound manipulation he'd been working on, which was still sitting at about four percent efficiency. He'd thought his ability would give him an advantage, the way it had when he was fixing his phone, but if anything it actually hindered him a bit. His ability helped him notice patterns, but the patterns didn't actually make sense when it came to spells! Any pattern he noticed tended to make the spell worse, not better. It did still give him more time to actually work on the spell, plus it helped him stay focused, so he still used it, but it wasn't the cheat ability he'd thought it'd be.

As for why he was working on sound manipulation, instead of say fire or metal or some other attack related ability, he figured that with the time they had, anything he learned wouldn't be all that powerful, so if he focused on attack, he'd make little to no difference. However, with sound manipulation, he didn't need it to be powerful, he just needed to be heard. Greg briefly fantasized about rushing into battle, an epic soundtrack accompanying his charge as he smashed the United Technocracy troops to pieces, before chuckling as it shifted to playing yakety sax as he used his smoke to confuse the soldiers, causing them to trip, fall into traps, shoot at nothing, or any other method of distraction and annoyance he could think of, which was probably the more realistic fantasy at this point. He shook his head. The point was, he had ideas for what he could do with sound manipulation that didn't necessarily need power, just creativity.

"So, how are-" Tessa turned, before pausing as she noticed he'd gone back to working on his spell. She then turned to the other Greg in the room. "Could you please just use one of your selves to talk to me? This switching back and forth messes with my head." She grumbled.

"I can try but I usually just talk from whichever me gets the idea… not much distance from brain to mouth, you know?" Greg shrugged. "Plus, you weren't complaining about two of me last night~" He added in a low whisper, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

Tessa flushed brightly, smacking him hard. "Shush!" She looked around, making sure no one had heard him.

Greg snickered, pulling her in for a kiss. "You're adorable."

"I don't need my entire brigade knowing about my private life!" Tessa hissed, hitting him again, but still letting him kiss her. "Just tell me what the Technocracy is up to." She grumbled as she pulled away.

Greg nodded. "Right, so, pretty much all of them have reached the camp by now, and they've begun sending out scouts towards the ship. They're also clear cutting the forest and killing all the animals, to expand their camp and set up what look like permanent structures. They have a device for transmutation, or atomic reconstruction as they say, and they keep feeding trees into it for parts."

Tessa let out a groan. "Of course they do. So the more we let them sit, the more they can build, until they have a giant robot army to send after us!"

"Actually, funnily enough, I haven't seen any robots." Greg commented. "It's always just the soldiers working on things for some reason. Though, it could just be that they haven't managed to get a robot facility up and running yet… though you'd think that'd be the first thing they'd do, right?"

Tessa paused, frowning. "Maybe they don't trust robots? I mean, in all our fiction, they do tend to go crazy and decide to kill everyone at some point. Maybe that's not all that far off?"

"I mean, they're obviously advanced enough to make them, so it's probably something like that." Greg agreed, nodding along, before pausing and beginning to grin. "Maybe they have really good labor unions and robots were banned to keep people employed." He snickered. "I ain't havin' no robit take mah jahb!" He added in a faux redneck accent.

Tessa snorted. "I hope they're advanced enough to not let stupid politics get in the way of progress."

"I dunno… an interplanetary government sounds like it'd need to be pretty big, and the bigger a government gets, the more it refuses to change. Just a fact of life." Greg shrugged. "I mean, our leadership only had ten people, and it takes them the entire day to make a decision. The old government on Earth would take months to argue over a single issue. An interplanetary government could take years, if not decades to make decisions."

"If they work like we do." Tessa pointed out. "They are aliens. They could operate completely differently than we do."

Greg frowned. "Honestly, that might make them worse. The issue isn't psychology, but the fact that everyone wants different things. The more differences you have, the harder it is to make a decision. Our differences were within a single species. I can't imagine the differences a government with multiple species would have to deal with."

"They don't necessarily have multiple species…" Tessa replied noncommittally.

"It's very likely though." Greg retorted.

"True…" Tessa sighed, before shaking her head. "Let's get back to the matter at hand. What else is the Technocracy up to?"

Greg shrugged. "Not much. Just gathering, scouting, and building. And, you know, dealing with this annoying smoke guy who won't leave them alone." He added with a grin.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Tessa grinned back at him. "If he's anything like my annoying smoke guy, they must be ready to kill something by now."

Greg paused. "They do seem to go after the animals in the area with a surprising amount of gusto…"

Tessa let out a short laugh, drawing the attention of everyone else in the room, causing her to flush slightly as she coughed awkwardly and refocused. "Okay, so, if the Technocracy is hunkering down, then that gives us time to build up our defenses as well… or should we attack them before they're too entrenched?" She frowned as she considered the issue.

Greg frowned as well. "If we were going to attack them, we should have done it before they all grouped together, when we could have outnumbered them. Now… they're too entrenched. Their numbers rival ours, they seem to be more experienced, and they'd have the home ground advantage. Even if we managed to win, we'd lose more people than it's worth."

Tessa grunted in agreement. "Then defenses it is."

There honestly wasn't much for them to do in that department though. The main defensive capabilities of the mages were mana infused walls and spell turrets, which were both created by the artificer division. The mana infused walls were sturdier, and kept the Technocracy's troops from phasing through them, which was apparently something they could do. The spell turrets, on the other hand, had predesigned spells which ran on pure mana drawn from prefilled batteries. The only thing regular soldiers could do to help this process was provide pure mana, either to fill the batteries or be infused into the walls. Otherwise they just had to man the walls and wait. It was boring, and frustrating, but there wasn't much more they could do.

*

Once the initial rush calmed down and most of the defenses were set, Greg's friends finally had some time to do some real catching up. "You do realize that I can make my own drinks now, right?" Greg commented as he sat down across from Victor with his tray of mana infused food. "Sitting all the way across the room from the drinks doesn't mean anything anymore."

"It's about tradition, Greg." Victor commented, shaking his head. "Besides, you'd still rather be sitting close to the drinks, and you know it."

Greg rolled his eyes, unable to keep himself from smirking. "So, you and… Becky?"

"Brittany." Victor corrected.

"Hey, pretty close!" Greg congratulated himself. "How did that happen?"

Victor shrugged. "How does anything happen? We spent time together, got to know each other, and eventually, it just kinda made sense. We kept ending up in the same places, since our abilities both lend themselves to stealth, and about a year ago it just sort of clicked. I really don't know how to explain it, but I don't know what I'd do without her anymore." He finished in a soft tone, a light smile playing across his face.

Greg let out a low whistle. "Wow… I never thought you'd not only get tied down, but be happy about it. I honestly always thought you'd go the way of Uncle Jonathan, the eternal bachelor, always with someone, but never for long."

Victor snorted. "Hey, I thought so too! But then you got together with Tessa, and I thought to myself 'if Greg can find himself a girl, anyone can'."

"You dick." Greg chuckled, flicking something that looked sort of like a blue pea at him.

"Bitch." Victor retorted with a grin, flicking it back at him.

"Well I see you guys are back to normal." Casey commented as she joined them, sliding into a seat next to Greg. "It isn't like we've been kidnapped by aliens and forced to fight for our survival or anything."

"Hey, you can't spend all your time hung up on the little things." Greg pointed out. "It's good to relax every now and then, enjoying mutual hatred between friends."

Casey glared at him. "We are literally at war!"

"Ah ah, we are about to be at war." Victor corrected. "We obviously can't relax then, so we have to relax now."

"Plus, we're about to be parents. Soon we won't have any time to just sit around and shoot the shit. Well, at least, you guys won't. Or maybe you will? We might want to figure out what responsibilities everyone actually wants to have… I will say, I can change diapers all day, cause smoke just eats that shit up. Literally. Perfectly clean too." Greg commented. "Plus, you know, I can always be around."

Victor and Casey shared a look. "It is our kid…" Casey muttered hesitantly.

"We could do every other week?" Victor suggested with a shrug.

Casey immediately shook her head. "Stability is essential for a child, especially in the early years. We shouldn't be switching things up on them every week if we can help it."

"So what, do we all just want to start living together?" Greg suggested tentatively. "At least, you guys, Carlos… Brittany?" Victor nodded. "And Ezme?"

"Emily!" Casey exclaimed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"Yeah, her. You five would need to live together if you didn't want to trade." Greg commented. "Plus me, probably."

"And Rachel." Victor added.

Greg frowned. "Who?"

"Carlos's girlfriend." Victor replied.

"Or as you know her, Jennifer." Casey sighed.

Greg blinked. "The cat girl?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yes!" Casey exclaimed, throwing up her hands in frustration.

Greg narrowed his eyes. "And she's dating Carlos."

"Yup." Victor nodded.

"I'm not sure how I feel about that…" Greg muttered. The cat- Jen- Rachel had been his responsibility for a bit, someone he had to look out for, and Carlos… well, he'd seemed like a nice enough guy, but not exactly reliable. Of course, it had been two years… maybe he'd matured? Greg hummed as he mulled the idea over, frowning, before letting out a sigh. It wasn't up to him either way. She wasn't actually his responsibility, and she could make her own decisions. "Okay, so, that's six people, seven if you count a smoke Greg just kinda hanging, all together to provide two kids a stable environment. Plus, if Meredith doesn't want to help, we might as well add Jake into all that, plus whoever he's with, if anyone. Or just add them in anyways cause why not?"

"Because Meredith." Victor interjected, making a disgusted expression.

Casey rolled her eyes. "She's gotten better."

"She's gotten scared." Victor retorted. "If she still had power, she'd be the same insufferable bitch she was before."

"So you do think we should take her in." Greg grinned.

Victor frowned. "No?"

"Well, you just said Meredith with power is a bitch, and who has more power than a parent over their child? If you want the child to be raised well, then obviously you would advocate for all of us to raise the kids together, minimizing the power Meredith would have, so she'll be less of a bitch." Greg pointed out, a smug tone creeping into his voice.

Victor shook his head. "But that would give Meredith power over my kid, and that's completely unacceptable."

Greg frowned. "Ah, shit, right… plus, that goes back to the whole stability thing. Ten people pulling them in all different directions isn't going to be the best thing for a kid. As long as the parents aren't outright abusive or negligent, it's probably best to keep the parental group as small as possible. Too many cooks and all that."

"I wouldn't say that." Casey interjected. "As long as everyone is on the same page, working together as a group to raise a child can be great! There's a lot of work involved in raising a child, and being stuck doing it all on your own sucks."

"Sure, but it's hard enough for two people to get on the same page when raising a kid." Victor pointed out. "The more people you add into that, the harder it gets. Unless you have some other unifying factor, like the Amish or something."

"Plus there's the relationship factor." Greg added. "Yeah, raising a kid on your own is hard, but it's also bonding. Like, if I need anything, the first person I'd go to is Uncle Jonathan. There's no one who knows me better. Having a bunch of people all work together to raise a kid makes it easier, but it also makes it so that you don't spend as much time with them, so you don't know them as well, and they don't know you as well."

Casey frowned. "I guess… but what does that mean for raising the kids? It isn't like me and Victor are going to get together just to make sure the kid only has two parents."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure the kid isn't going to give two shits who we sleep with. They're just going to care who's there for them. We need to be close enough that both of us can actually be there for them, but beyond that I think we can still do whatever we want." Victor shrugged.

Greg nodded. "Maybe have family dinners together too, cause that's good bonding time, but otherwise I agree."

"As long as Casey isn't cooking." Victor grinned. "I don't like eating charcoal."

"That was one time!" Casey protested. "I'd just gotten my ability! I didn't know how to control it!"

"Casey, you cooked steak last month. It was like chewing on leather." Victor stated blandly.

Casey rolled her eyes. "Just because you can't appreciate a well done steak doesn't mean my cooking is bad."

"Well done isn't steak! Anything over medium is heresy!" Victor retorted.

"Medium isn't even fully cooked!" Casey shot back.

"Blasphemy!" Victor exclaimed, before turning to Greg. "Come on, back me up here."

Greg shrugged. "I prefer chicken. Or ham. Love ham."

Victor paused, considering that for a moment, before pointing at Casey. "Her chicken is dry."

"Sacrilege!" Greg exclaimed, pounding the table.

"I hate you both." Casey groaned, covering her face with her hands.