B was back home but it was way too bright. He tasted dirt and found that he was laying on the ground watching his family kneeling. Men and women in red t-shirts with gold logos on them held them on their knees. ‘Oh no,’ B knew what was happening. Jormungrand had his foot on the side of B’s head.

“Watch carefully,” Jormungrand said. The shots rang out again. There was the cacophony of screaming again and laughter from Jormangrand this time. His mother’s scream lasted the longest out of all the screams.

B’s vision went dark again, but this time before he woke up he heard his dad’s voice call out as if it were a memory from Christmas day:

“B! Go get your mom!”

B woke up with a gasp next to the embers of the campfire in the early morning light.

“She’s still alive,” He breathed.

----------------------------------------

It was a few more hours until Lola and Mothman woke up, giving B extra time to think over his dream and what to do next. He was still deep in thought when Mothman went down and came back from the ruins, with some supplies and new clothes. B was nodding to himself as if he decided on what to do, while Lola was coming back from scavenging the old tents that Jormungrand’s men left.

They were all having some rations of some sort of eggs, and rice cooked on the campfire when B cleared his throat to catch the other’s attention.

“Mothman, what’re Jormangrand’s Fae powers?” B asked.

“He can transform into that half-human half komodo dragon form, which means he has a poison bite, and hard to puncture skin in that form. He is stronger than the average fae. And he has regeneration abilities when he eats meat. So when he gets seriously hurt, he can heal up from it within the hour when he’s full of meat.,” Mothman replied without missing a beat or a breath.

B nodded.

“B? You aren't thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing… are you?” Lola asked worriedly.

B paused.

“What do you mean?” B asked.

“You can’t just go kill Jormangrand,” Lola said.

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“I’m not going to-” B started.

Mothman choked on his food and recovered in a fit of laughter.

“You! Killing Jormungrand! Do you have any idea how many times I have tried to kill that bastard?” Mothman asked. His laughter turned to anger, “I’m a trained marine with Fae powers that can see into the future! And guess what? I have no luck against that manipulative- jerk. What are you? Some hacker barely got out alive?”

“I never said I’m going to kill him!” B interrupted defensively, “I’m going to go get my mom back.”

“Honey,” Lola said sadly, getting ready to console B. “Your mom is-”

“No! She’s still alive,” B stayed resolute, “I know it. She was still screaming when I was knocked out. There’s still a chance.”

Lola looked to Mothman. Mothman’s glowy eyes narrowed as his eyes looked at B.

“I saw that punch. You’ve never gotten in a fight before in your life. How are you going to get out once you find her?” He asked in a serious tone as if sizing B up.

“Mothman, don’t encourage this,” Lola complained.

“Fighting is a last resort. I’ll have the cameras on a loop. Hopefully, I can catch mom traveling in-between places. I know she won’t be alone, but I can make a taser and sneak up on the guard-” B replied, telling some of his plans.

“B!” Lola interjected in shock.

“Taser is a good idea,” Mothman replied as he rubbed his chin in thought.

Lola groaned, “There’s no stopping this is there?”

“But it’s going to be a one time use, so I’m going to have to make it count,” B said, “This is a high-risk high reward sort of thing.”

“Not that good of an idea anymore, unless you have a backup or two. You don’t want to go into a high-risk high reward situation for this. You want to get out alive.” Mothman explained to B, “I’ve got some friends on the inside that may be willing to help, they’ve gotten people out before. But this one… might be tough,” Mothman admitted.

“That’s great!” B said with hope filling his voice.

“But we’re going to need time for things to get settled down over at Jormungrand’s palace first. Collect some info on where she’s at. Then make a plan.” Mothman said nodding to B, “In the meanwhile, we’ll need a secure line to talk to the twins inside and I’m going to need to teach you two how to fight.”

“Twins?” Asked Lola now tuning into the conversation.

“Fight?” Asked B concerned that he was going to get hurt again.

Mothman got up with a stretch and smiled at Lola.

“Guess who else used the cryo chambers?” Mothman asked.

“Those tricky McHarvy’s!” Lola said excitedly, bouncing in her seat. “How are they? Did the cryo chambers work well for them? No weird effects?”

“No weird effects. They uh… They are my friends on the inside and uh… I’ll get them to talk to you when we get that secure line up and running,” Mothman promised.

Lola was pleased but B was not about to fight today and thought of a way out of it.

“We’ll need a place to set up a secure line. What about somewhere in Crudeoil City?” B suggested, hoping that this would distract Mothman from fighting him.

“Sounds good. We’ll have plenty of time to get there once I show you how to throw a punch.” Mothman said much to B’s dismay.