We ended up chatting and having dinner with her folks, which is good because it took me most of that time just to work out the gearbox. "Ugh! If I have one enemy in this world, it is gear shaped." I groan and mutter to myself.

"Is that what you were distracted by during the meal?" Amelia ruffles my short red hair. "Aww, is the poor widdle over-powered impwossible existence not perfect at everything?"

"Hahaha." Apricot laughs at me when I start grumbling.

"Hey, Temmie." I ask the System. "How much chocolate for like an hour on Wikipedia?"

*Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding* She just laughs at me too.

"Why are we going to the basement for this anyways?" Amelia queries as Mittens follows us onto a platform by the stairs that wasn't there when we came down for dinner.

"We're going to need a long straight away for the speeds we're going to reach, it wouldn't be safe to do it in the city." I explain as we go down about a dozen meters below ground. "That, and I've been wanting to build a tunnel to Arcadia too. So, two birds, one stone. Once we reach the grasslands I'll take us up and make a little off-road course for us to goof around on."

"Are you going to be able to manage that?" She asks, but I just smile and tap my necklace. "Ugh. Temmie's right, you are such a cheat."

"Yeah, yeah. Now, do you want your motorcycle or not?" I don't wait for her to answer, and instead start building a generic Harley inspired bike. There's no exhaust, obviously. And the tank, aside from an egg-sized Mana Gem, is empty. I plan to fill the whole thing later, but that should be more than enough for now.

"Damn, now I want one of those." Apricot purrs as the engine revs to life.

"Sure." I shrug. "Let me show you two how the shifter works while it gets built." A couple minutes later and they've got it down, and are both ready to go. So, I re-create and upgrade my old road bike. At least these gears I understand. If only because I had to do maintenance on them all the time when I was younger.

"Hey, how come yours looks different from last time?" Amelia asks as I add a basket to the handlebars and set Mittens inside. "Why didn't you just use those gears?"

"A few reasons, mainly because they wouldn't be able to hold up long term to the kind of power those can produce. Not without wasting a lot of mana on durability enchants. That, and the open design isn't really safe for these speeds." Having explained myself I start pedaling, the tunnel forming a hundred meters ahead of me. "Try and keep up."

Over three hours later and I'm sweating as we reach the edge of the grasslands. Not from physical exertion, but from mental. I actually gave up on riding after only a few minutes and just added a sidecar to Amelia's bike. Apricot got bored and joined me and Mittens at the same time, her bike getting tossed in my inventory.

"How you holding up?" Our driver glances down at me.

"Good, we just crossed into the grasslands, so I can take us up and have a break." I proceed to do just that. "It was more tedious than truly difficult, at least once I got into the groove."

"Uh huh." She doesn't seem to believe me. "I'm sure compressing tons and tons of earth to create a tunnel as we travel hundreds of kilometers in just hours is a piece of cake." She rolls her eyes as she steps off the bike to stretch her legs. "You know you don't have to show off for us."

"We didn't even go two-hundred." I try to defend myself, even though we are damned close. "And, I know I don't have to, but I like doing so." I smile at her and Apricot. "Also, I have to get used to drawing on the well for prolonged amounts of time. Our little pixie half day wiped me out. I need to do better."

"Sorrel, you stupid lunker." Apricot shifts to human-size in my lap and wraps her arms around me. "I love you, but don't burn yourself out just for me."

"I won't, I promise." I hug her back and lift her up as I step out of the side-car, leaving Mittens sleeping in the foot well. "But, a person can't grow if they don't push themselves. Besides, I sensed a lot of minerals as we travelled, and I'm always looking for more materials."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"How could you even pay attention to that?" Amelia scoffs.

"What did you expect me to do, sit back and play rune games while listening to music?" I give Apricot a kiss before setting her down.

"Hey, we were stuck in a hole in the ground. Watching you throw around magic is fun, but it ain't that fun. I'm surprised Amelia didn't drive us into a wall out of boredom."

"I kinda liked it." The blonde counters. "It was relaxing, meditative even, and I got a few gains while I practiced my magic. But, I can't wait until we head back and I can really open this baby up." She pets the tank of the bike.

"Gimme a few more minutes and I'll make us all some lighter bikes and a little course to race around on." I start on some BMX bikes as I clear out a track for us.

"Ooh, jumps. Now that's what I'm talking about." Apricot hops on the first bike and takes off down the track.

Amelia shakes her head and reaches for the second, but I shake my head and tell to wait a minute. While she's waiting, and Apricot's already doing flips, I quickly create a dirt bike.

"Here, this'll give you a chance to let loose." I lean forward and give her a peck on the cheek. "Thanks for driving us all the way here, and putting up with my silliness."

"Hey hey, this is awesome." Apricot slides to a stop next to us. "You gotta put one of these in near the house. Hey, how come she got another good one?"

"Because she drove us here, and I promised her a race where she could have a motorbike." I flick the pixie gently on her forehead. "And, I plan to make one near the city. The tunnel was sort of a spur of the moment thing that took longer than I thought it would."

"Fair." A smile lights up her face. "Now let's kick her butt."

***

We spent a couple hours in the late Summer / early Fall evening just riding around on the motocross track I made, laughing and having fun. It took Amelia a couple laps to get used to the new bike, but once she did, she easily beat us.

I let her lap us a few times before upgrading mine and Apricots rides. Then we took the fight to her. Once it started getting late, I restored the grass and packed away the spare bikes, before we raced home. The girls on their hogs, and me on a dirt bike.

"Damn, these things are fast." Amelia laughs as we stop in the basement while I make a tunnel to the underground parking area. "What was that, forty minutes? Less?"

"Just over thirty." I correct. "We topped out at over three-hundred-fifty kilometers an hour after I started reducing the air resistance. Probably could have pushed it higher, but they were sucking the Mana Gems dry as it was. And, I was having trouble keeping up with you two on my dirt bike."

I pull out the other bikes from my inventory and make them all roll down the new tunnel as we hop on the platform to head back upstairs. Amelia giggles as mittens stretches and wants out of her top.

"Amy-girl what are you doing to that poor kitten." Her father asks with a laugh as she fishes the cat out.

"Hey Turner. Surprised to see you up this late." I greet the man as we enter the kitchen.

"Oh, I'm just hungry." He closes the cupboard. "Glad you're here actually, I was really craving some of that cheesy popcorn you made the other day."

"Ooh, that sounds good." Amelia agrees with her old man.

"Coming right up, but I still want some hummus." I make a couple large bowls for them, and would have made a third for Apricot, but she shook her head and grabbed a pint of rocky-road from the icebox before plopping down in a chair.

"Do we have any chocolate brownies left." Kaitlyn says with a yawn while walking through the door to the kitchen. "Did you three have fun on Sorrel's new invention?" She asks after snagging a treat from the plate I hold out for her.

"They are so fun, and fast. Really, really fast." Amelia gushes after swallowing a mouthful of pop-corn. "What, do I have something on my face?" She brushes her mouth after catching me staring at her.

"No, I was just thinking about the popcorn." I smile at her antics. "Normally, I just pop it with magic, but if I bag everything needed for it, and make a quick-cooking Rune oven to pop it in the bag. It'd be a lot more convenient for you and your parents." I dip some pita bread in my mushed up chickpeas.

"Ah, he's got a new idea already." Kaitlyn laughs and savors a bite of her brownie.

"That would be useful for more than just popcorn." Turner says, and he does have something on his face.

Instead of saying anything else, I just get started enchanting a microwave. I cheat and just use straight heat manipulation to cook directly, instead of messing about with actual microwaves. So, instead of time and power settings, mine just has a temperature dial and a start button.

I'm almost done, when I think to add exclusions for metal, stoneware, and glass, so they don't get heated up along with the food. But, that only takes an extra minute, and meanwhile I make a big box of bagged popcorn.

Tossing one in the finished product, I turn the dial to the popcorn setting -Of course it has a popcorn setting- and start it up. Dozens of tiny explosions occur seconds later, it then dings and I pull out a fully popped bag of pop-corn.

Amelia and her father still haven't finished theirs, so I just pour it into a bowl for whoever might want some. "There, now you can get cheesy popcorn anytime you want." I latch the door closed and float the oven and box of popcorn over onto one of the counters.

"You picked a good one Amy-girl." He chuckles and tries a handful from the bowl I just made. "Mmm, tastes the same. Thank you Sorrel."

"You're more than welcome, and if there's ever anything like that you need, just tell me."

"He was talking earlier about how to make people's lives better. Apricot says around a spoonful of ice-cream. "So of course the first thing he does is make a popcorn popper."

""Heheh."" We all laugh a bit at that, and a wide grin fills my face at the thought.

***