After finishing their noodles, the group walked back through the rain to the community center. Corvayne saw Nyxion was waiting in the entryway, wearing a poncho, bandana, and rough looking clothes with bright yellow reflective stripes.
Wick laughed. “You going to try to sneak away in disguise?”
Nyxion smiled with a slight twitch in his eye. “No. I need Corvayne and Grunt to help me with some large game snares.”
“Large dangerous game that manipulates time?” Corvayne asked.
Grunt sighed a little bit, and turned his eyes back down the street to the warehouse. Corvayne knew him well enough to guess he was mentally tracing the path back to his bed.
Nyxion folded his arms. “Well, do you want to kill this guy or not?”
Grunt smiled then tilted his head a little with a finger point at Nyxion: Okay, you got good a point.
Wick poked Corvayne and motioned for him to bend down to her level, then planted a kiss on his cheek. He nodded at her with a smile to not overwhelm her and she looked very pleased with him as she went inside.
Nyxion lead them to the site they had picked. It was near the warehouse and looked to Corvayne like a train yard chopped into thirds and arranged in steps that lead to garages sized for train cars. A chain link fence had been stretched across the lower two sets of tracks, blocking them off from the ramp that lead from street level up to the raised freeway. The size of it suggested that it was another ambitious addition to Old Town that never got off the ground.
They entered on the lowest level, past a large hole cut in the fence and a little checkpoint booth covered in spray-painted names, like everything else that was near enough to the ground or a ledge for someone to paint it. Someone had dumped a bunch of metal bars and chains and springs and pins and rope, all in a pile.
Nyxion gestured. “Our plan is simple. When we know he's in old town, we make a stand here, trap the interior, and lure him in there.”
Grunt made a particular salute with three fingers then made a pair of horns on his head pointed with his other thumb at his own butt.
Nyxion understood the gesture better then Corvayne did as he responded after a few seconds. “If you have a better idea then 'Boy-Scout bullshit' then fire away.”
Grunt just sighed, then cracked his shoulders before lifting what Corvayne suspected was four hundred pounds of steel. Corvayne put the other half of the pile in his storage ring, getting all but four of the bars in before he hit a weight limit and the ring started to rapidly gain weight on his finger. Spitting out the last bar he put in fixed it.
He followed Nyxion to the wall opposite the road, a series of arches that lead into a space where trains could be parked out of the rain before they were diverted along a back track to the Old Town switch yard above and beside this one. Stepping into the train garage was a moment of visual overload. The amount of slightly rusted pillars that could act as cover or places to secure traps was staggering, a metal forest that had stairs at the back linking this layer up with the next one. The rain didn't find it's way through the ceiling inside, so Corvayne dumped a pile of steel beams near where Nyxion had stashed his tools, including ladders, then they started work creating a tangle of traps in the building.
He appreciated that when it came time to haul metal around and pull it into place with pulleys, Nyx didn't shirk his work, standing side by side with Grunt to heft and weld trap parts onto the rusted pillars of the empty depot. Corvayne asked Nyx to have the first layer as a variety of traps and the second almost all trip wires, as they might do a little more damage to Argyle when he did his trick to move really quickly. It probably hurt to get tripped even if time was stopped.
He had to ask Nyxion as they were hefting a segment of a lead pipe using ropes hung over a beam. “Is this what you did while camping?”
The man smirked as he held the rope around his arm. Above them, Grunt secured the pipe to the trap. Always a treat to see how agile the huge man really was. Nyxion looked over too, sweat dripping down his forhead. “Yes, but mostly on the scale of rabbits and maybe a bear here or there. Of course, they are not BEAR bears, the creature in question was more like a large star-headed mole. Grunt are you done yet? This damn pipe weighs a ton.”
Grunt flipped him off, then clicked something into place and gave a thumbs up, which was Nyxion's queue to lean against a pillar for a few minutes before they did the next one. Corvayne let his rope go and grabbed the light and battery powering it, then went towards the last area they were going to trap. He and Nyx had arranged the traps around a particular office that overlooked the tracks on the second tier. He wanted everything to be arranged to make it look like it was keeping Argyle away from the room, and had explained to both Nyxion and Grunt his general plan and why he needed a hole cut through the back of the room.
They ended up working late into the night, but all the hefting, building, and tying meant they had at least a dozen major traps and quite a few minor tripwires and spring triggered metal bars with spikes to show for it. Grunt left after a few hours and came back with take-out after a two hour break that possibly involved a nap. He also brought a half dozen beer bottles that steamed when he pulled them out of a cooler.
It was sort of funny to Corvayne that Grunt and Nyxion were finally getting along after a whole day of thinking up traps, and sitting with them eating felt less like preparing for a battle, which is what it was, and more like a day of hard honest work with friends. The smell of gravy and beef wafting from the big bag didn't hurt either.
Grunt had brought beer and handed one to Nyxion, who accepted it and raised it in a toast to the big man. “Nothing like sabotage to bring folks together, eh Grunt?”
Grunt nodded. Corvayne noticed he had brought a duffle bag with him as well, one that ominously was heavy even for Grunt. Maybe they were not done? Grunt mimed clicking a remote, reaching for popcorn, hand over eyes, then a yawn: They make it look easy in the movies.
“Yes well, if this was brush and we were booby trapping for normal humans, it would be easier. I was going to ask you Corvayne... I noticed that Lady Blood Claw has been getting close to you of late, even telling me that she might need a leave of absence from my service soon, possibly dropping me to go somewhere with you. Did you make a human-alien hybrid, you sly dog?” Corvayne felt Nyxion's elbow dig into his side, nearly making him drop a piece of beef he had pinched out with the little eating sticks provided.
Corvayne saw, oddly enough, that Grunt had frozen but then snorted a single time in amusement. Suspicious.
“No. We're friends at this point. I know it seems like I sleep with everyone, but I like the relationship we're building... I always sort of wanted something like a partner in arms. Wick's my partner in business I guess, because we both lead, but with LBC it's different. I mean, it's a little weird sometimes because she reminds me of the girls like Spears from the village. She's very pleasing to the eye and fit and tone and I know she's athletic and flexible and has a nice face. Except I associate all that with viciousness so I'm always shocked when she acts friendly. Her kind of friendly, as I think she'd break my arm if I tried to hug her.” He did not add that some of those thoughts had come from carrying her through the sewer away from a hell hound.
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Nyxion started laughing. “You two. You know, she's a good planner and leader, but she doesn't generally like people. She would rarely put two sentences together if she didn't have to before we crash landed here. I think she's soft on you... I mean I really assumed you two were already...”
Corvayne folded his arms. “No, I don't think she's interested in me like that.”
Grunt pointed at Corvayne, made an x with his fingers, pointed at his head emphatically: Clueless!
“Well, I mean, I had assumed Wick jumped you, Nyxion, and she got angry at the idea.” Corvayne frowned.
Nyxion nods. “I like her as a person, but... our relationship to one another is complicated, and I've sworn not to tell her one shiny secret. I'll say this, it's possible that someday I'll marry her, but I don't find her very attractive as an example of the female form. I would not do that without asking you for permission first, of course Corvayne. I expect if we were married it would be a means to an end and we'd keep our actual lovers in our private lives. A well managed house needs not do tacky things like parent testing if they already know who is who's bastards.”
Corvayne felt his face screw up in confusion and couldn't stop himself from blurting out, “What the hell, you don't find her attractive?!”
“I think if she let herself eat more and got proper rest and fixed her hair, green dye? Really? But if she fixed all that I'd find her at least okay. The glasses are sort of cute. But she's shortest and thinnest... well she's short and thin and for as much as she barks, she has no bite behind her insults. She looks at me, and very much you, as equals. Perfect for someone I work with, like a business partner or wife. You can't marry someone you are not able to sleep with, I agree with you there. But that doesn't get the old royal rod going, you know? I think I've implied it, but you know I prefer someone who acts like they disdain me and drops the act in private. I wouldn't dream of poaching your elf if she came my way... I mean, who do you consider yourself in a relationship with, exactly? Wick and the elf, Hari?”
The sudden shift from Nyxion's usual levity to caution when he asked that last question got Corvayne to think about what he was angling for. “Just those two. Seru badgered me into sex once, I don't hate her per-say but she's a lot of things I don't like.”
“All right. And you don't have any particular attachment to your fiancee?”
Corvayne stopped chewing his food, narrowly avoiding spitting it back into the container. “What?”
“You didn't even mention Spears-Like-Water aside to say that you didn't care for her. I understand totally, I have a few suitors who my aunt had to disarm and one she had to sedate because they despise me so much. Usually they calm down if you offer invitro. Especially the ladies who wilt away from the touch of a man. I don't know if your village had the medical-”
“No no, no. Not your weird ideas about the bond between two people who love each other and yes we had a geneticist work on all our pairings... Say that word again. Fiancee? You think that Spears-Like-Water, who didn't say a THING to me when I got my ass kicked out of my village, would agree to that?”
He looked to Grunt for approval but the look he was giving Corvayne... it was like Grunt was hurt on his behalf?
Nyxion just looked confused. “She said if you lost that fight between you two, you'd finally have to marry her though?”
If Grunt looking sad at Corvayne's reaction was odd, the fact he spit food out at that statement set off some alarm bells. Grunt waved a hand in front of his mouth, maybe a little too fast with his reaction time: Spicy! Oh that was very spicy! Hahahah I'm such a goof.
“She did not say that.” Corvayne folded his arms.
Grunt was looking at Nyxion and frantically signed something that even Corvayne couldn't follow.
“Slow down blabbermouth.” Nyxion said coolly.
Grunt looked annoyed but stopped, and signed slower, with a thrusting motion moving into a wave, then pointing at Corvayne, then fingers in an X one way then the other like they were clashing, ten fingers, point to self, finger walking out away from his arm, then again thrusting motion in a wave, the gesture so oddly smooth it almost distracted Corvayne from putting things together with the last few gestures: Spears-Like-Water was there? You fought her after I left as the tenth floor boss?! The Spears from his village?
“Yes. The fight was... incredible. I mean, I was rooting for Corvayne of course but she was absolutely beautiful with her spear play, and the watery form she has... she looks like a jewel. I was a little jealous of you there Corvayne, not going to lie, growing up with a beauty like that side by side then having her try to beat you up to finally pin you down.”
Corvayne could barely follow that line of thought it was so insane. “You have Lady Blood Claw, didn't you basically grow up with her as your bodyguard?”
Nyxion sighed. “Her? I mean, I suppose but I find the cuttlefish skin to be a little odd. Not to mention she picked the job up because she had little else she could do.”
Corvayne was trying to match someone saying the mood ring skin was too odd but that being made of water was perfectly fine, but also someone who didn't like Wick? Was Nyxion insane? Nothing about what he said made any sense.
Grunt looked pale. He looked at Corvayne and tapped his forhead, pointed at Corvayne, then gave a thumbs up while leaning forward and lifting his eyebrows up in a questioning manner: That's a lot to think about, are you okay?
“I'm okay Grunt. It was a one on one fight, I beat her... though I'll be honest, I think she's in trouble. Nyxion, she was one of my partners for patrols, but nobody referred to her as my fiancee. My own father lamented that I'd be alone my whole life and he'd never be rid of me. Spears never asked me to marry her, in fact she looked repulsed when she was near me... the nicest she'd ever been to me was after the fight where she asked for help. That and saving my life twice, but I think she did it because she wanted to be a good Watcher.”
Grunt draged one of his meaty hands down over his face. Corvayne held a hand up. “Easy. There might be some effect of a curse going on. Like the name thing. It might explain why she was made of water... Grunt when I knew her, she was a normal person with tan skin and blue hair. She also didn't have water powers, either, aside from using [Flow-Like-Water]. I talked with Lady Blood Claw after the fact and we think that I'm carrying some sort of curse too.” A thought he wanted to avoid was coming up. “I think after nobody is following us, I need to leave Cascadia and go home- I mean, back to my village to try to figure out what's wrong with me.”
Grunt nodded and pointed to himself, then gave a thumbs up, then hit his chest: Okay. I'm in. Bros for life.
Grunt always warmed and lifted his heart after it felt heavy. He put a hand on Grunt's arm. “Thanks man. You're the best friend I could ask for. I'll need the backup too for finding Spears-Like-Water. Especially if I can't understand what she's saying because I'm cursed.”
Nyxion laughed. “You had better not leave me out of that adventure! Also, if you end up rejecting marriage to her, I'll deal with the fallout myself. You've warned us all that she's vicious but have no fear, I will keep her from savaging you using my own body if need be.”
Corvayne gave Nyxion a level look and said in monotone. “Thanks man. You are the best friend I could ask for. I really need the backup of you getting your balls crushed by my amazonian patrol partner.”
Nyxion looked annoyed. “Better me then you, right?”
Corvayne felt himself laugh. “Can't disagree.”
Grunt looked at Corvayne and made a series of motions including popcorn, couch, flipping books open, and a bro fist pound.
“You want to hang out one of these nights?”
Grunt nodded, extremely pleased that Corvayne got the gist of it. Corvayne felt pretty proud too, it was a pretty hard Grunt-ism to unravel. Corvayne kept eating. “Yeah. I might not get into the Spears thing yet. A lot is on my plate, and if she's in a tower I can't go in there without Argyle sending images after me. My hope is to surprise him and take him out before he goes for backup. I also want to say that I prefer having too many things to do then being helpless...”
Nyxion lifted a beer. “To never ending struggles.”
Corvayne lifted his. “To endless distractions.”
Grunt made the universal sex gesture then a figure eight, grinning as he lifted his beer.
“Very ambitious Mister Grunt.” Nyxion laughed.
Grunt proceeded to finish all three of his take out containers in the next two minutes then hefted his bag, motioning for them to follow him. Carefully navigating the path through the traps they came up to an office they had arranged all the traps around. It was the most secure point in the building. He started pulling out tools for making serious traps. Munitions. Mortar. Tubes packed with spikes.
“Where did you get this?” Corvayne asked.
Grunt smiled and mimed walking with something heavy dragging his ankle: Dawn.
“Ahh.” He was about to place a trap then stopped. “Do you have a lock? If we got one, I want these somewhere that he won't degrade it before he's close.”
Grunt took the nuclear battery from his bag, then an electronic lock. Seeing the goods, they backtracked and mixed in some firepower to earlier traps, emptying the bag then arriving back at the door. Grunt handed him the battery, very gingerly.
“No need to do that, it's almost impossible for us to set it off.”
“If that device is impossible to set off, how are you going to hit the time monk with it?”
Nyxion looked confused until Corvayne explained how the battery worked. Then the nobleman grinned as the sequence of events Corvayne was setting up clicked. “Oh... that's nasty. The perfect payback for my belt! I hope he's just alive enough for me to laugh at him after this.”