Reid froze. Breaking the rock off the wall was cathartic, just like Win had said. He'd definitely still been more wound up than he realized. The thing was darn tough, but he pushed through and cleaved it off in a series of large chunks - with only a little power cycling through his muscles. He'd finished, sweating and a mix of grateful and annoyed at Win, when she slapped him with the question.

She seemed like a good person - and they'd bonded - but that didn't mean she was. Reid tightened his grip around the handle of the pickaxe and swallowed. He didn't want more violence. Not with her. He'd already started considering her the second good extraterrestrial friend he'd made.

He tried to keep is words calm and clear. "Why do you think that?"

"A few reasons, but mostly because you mispronounce Vuxarina regularly, and you're totally fine with me calling you pinky - and your biology is all wrong for a Vuxarinan."

Reid turned to face her. She was closer to where they'd come from - closer to the canteen. To the clinic. To Lycra.

He couldn't keep the edge out of his voice. "Is Lycra safe, or do you have him trapped, too?"

Win glanced between Reid's pickaxe, and the black rock. Her gaze swam in waves between hardening and softening like she was trying to make up her mind, then she asked a question, calmly.

"Roc, do you think you're going to need to kill me to get back home?"

Reid shrugged. He tried to make it look as calm and nonchalant as Win's tone. How did she know he was trying to get home? Or - did... did Win think of the main cavern as home? That seemed... pretty messed up.

She casually walked towards the far wall, which left Reid ample room to get around her and back towards the canteen, if he wanted.

"Lycra is fine. Because anything else would be wrong. He's just a kid, you know. Anyway. I saw what you did to the muscle that hurt your friend. And I know enough to say that if you wanted to, you could have killed every single one of those meatheads. Could have - but didn't. So, that makes me think a few things. First is that you're not a bad person. Second, is that you don't actually want to kill me. Heck, you'd want to let me live, because that would be the right thing to do."

Reid's voice went off almost involuntarily, like a mantra. "Doing the right thing is a luxury."

Win searched over him for a moment, and then her faced changed into something Reid hadn't seen yet. It was a deep, real sorrow.

"That's the shittiest thing I've heard in a hundred years. You really mean that, don't you?" Reid didn't answer. Win put her pickaxe on the ground, and sat on a rock protruding from the cavern floor. She gestured to another one near her with an upturned palm.

"I'm not here to interrogate you. Well, maybe a little." She winked. "But it's for a good reason, I promise."

Reid took the offered seat. The heat of the rock seeped into him, and he felt his muscles start to relax.

"I'm the oldest prisoner in these tunnels, Roc. I lost track of how many people I've greeted down here long, long ago. But I still take on this... stewardess role. This life is easier when people are pulling in a similar direction - and I don't know which direction you're going to take. Normally that's a little thing, people can't change much around here. But you're not normal."

Reid grunted.

"Oh, don't be sour. You know I'm right. So I want to know why you're here, and where you came from, and what your intentions are for your time in this place." She pulled a packed ration out of her jumpsuit and underhanded it to Reid. "Right now, you're... a clown car full of secrets. I think I have you pinned down, and everything's out in the open, and then you show me something new and unexplained. It's like there's always just a bit more you're hiding inside."

Reid peeled open the wrapper and ate. Breaking the rock had made him hungry.

"Let's try this. I don't want to leave this tunnel until I know just a bit more about you. You don't want to tell me anything. So, I'll ask you questions, and you can refuse to answer, or even just give me a yes or a no. You say when we're done, and I'll try to answer a question for you to match each one you answer for me. Sound good?"

Reid swallowed. "Sure."

"Alright. So, pinky - you're not from Vuxarina, are you?"

"No."

"Why are you lying about that?"

Reid arched an eyebrow.

"Okay... then, can you tell me what planet you-"

Win's question was interrupted by a massive squeal. She was on her feet, pickaxe in hand, before Reid understood what the noise was.

Her diamond eyes narrowed, and she gave Reid a warning before speeding off down the tunnel. "It's a mole! Stay here!"

She was faster than he would've expected - light on her feet for a creature of her size. But Reid wasn't about to stay out of a fight.

He needed levels, after all. Nyx had explicitly told him so.

His right hand grabbed for the pickaxe he'd leaned against his sitting rock, and then he paused.

The black rocks had been absurdly hard - and Reid needed to test out his post-upgrade throwing arm.

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#

When Reid made it to the side tunnel, a group of injured miners was on their way out, limping and carrying each other back towards the canteen. Two were unmoving.

An ear-splitting squeal echoed out in the confined space, bouncing off the tunnel walls. Reid hadn't really thought too much about the actual beasts that had made the tunnels they worked in. The skulls over the toolshed were big, but not massive. The mole ahead of him was massive. Reid was very, VERY happy that the thing had a normal nose and teeth. His home state was a known habitat for a little animal called a star nosed mole - a rodent that had an eldritch horror growing off the front of its face. The one in front of him, thankfully, was just a large version of a typical creature.

Eight tons of fur and teeth and claws lashed out violently - but Reid didn't feel any fear. No desire to run. A fire burned in his gut - a voice and feeling deep within him that demanded victory and blood.

A few miners were still trying to hit the thing, but it was obvious that they weren't up to the task. Their pickaxes did little to sink into the creature, and it was too far away for them to hit it in a weak spot like the face. The tunnels made it difficult to attack it from above or below.

Win did her best to fight. She slipped in and out in ways that reminded Reid of Sara's fighting style - but a bit more... refined.

He shouted at her and the others as he closed in. "Make a hole!"

Only Win reacted, but she ushered the others back away from the creature. In its moment of respite, the mole lifted its head down the tunnel at Reid.

A black rock, about as big around as Reid's bicep, whistled its way through the tunnel and kicked up dust in its wake. The projectile sailed under the mole's snout and collided with its chest. It seemed to disappear in fur for a moment.

The mole's massive frame bucked and slammed into the floor as the rock split it open and ripped a channel clear through it, out the other side. The rock's leftover momentum saw it bounce off the tunnel floor, and it embedded into the far wall.

You have defeated Escaped Deep Mole - lvl 17.

Experience: 155,184,200 -> 155,234,200 / 209,715,200 (+50,000 xp)

Reid looked down at his hand. He hadn't even powered up that shot with his skill.

Win stared, wide eyed, at the hole in the creature.

The miners broke into uproarious cheers.

#

"Roc, Roc, Roc, Roc!" Voices echoed through the main cavern, as a troop of miners carried Reid, crow-surf-style, towards the processor. Another group farther behind was taking care of the corpse.

Lycra was already waiting near the chutes, sitting in a dingy looking wheelchair with his foot covered in a cast. A very unenthused, vaguely marsupial thing held the handles. Reid was definitely on the medics' shitlist.

Reid's one request - when the jubilant massing crowd of miners had mobbed him - was that they get his friend out from the clinic area to join him for this. They seemed to think Reid wanted a spectator, but he had something else in mind. His conversation with Win, as odd as it had been, made Reid realize he'd started evaluating most of his decisions as false dichotomies. He didn't need to keep everything for himself - because he was going to be so flooded with opportunity and strength, it wouldn't matter. There might still be hard choices, sure - but he was powerful enough to make his own path work for him. And that path included doing the right thing for those around you.

When they finally put Reid down, the miners backed themselves into a semicircle, and the mole's severed head was placed on the ground. The crowd quieted, a decent distance from the processor. Lycra's nurse started to move him towards the crowd, but Reid grabbed the side of the wheelchair.

"No - Lycra stays right here. He and I are splitting this."

Yellow eyes widened. "No. No no. This is yours. You should claim it. I can be here longer - I don't mind. You need to -"

Reid wheeled him over to the head, and kicked it into the chute. He leaned down and whispered as the machine clanked and whirred.

"Dust is dust. You're stuck with me, Lycra. I'm going to get us both out, and when I go back to Earth I'm bringing you home with me... Also, I got you a backpack."

Lycra nodded, and wiped his eyes. "Okay."

-

The clunking and whirring ceased, and the machine let out a new, trilling sound. Numbers appeared onscreen, just like they would with Crystal - except these were a great deal higher.

[Lvl 17 Mole - 20,000 credits awarded. Split 10,000 / 10,000]

Ten thousand credits off his debt, for one dead rodent. He'd made more from killing the mole than what he and Lycra had been able to mine in days. His mind started racing. If he could find a mole every day, he and Lycra would be out in... about a year? There were expenses, or other things that could happen. But it was a hell of an improved timeline. Freedom felt real.

One of the miners in the semicircle shouted into a cone. "TWENTY THOUSAND!!"

Reid was deafened by the cheers.

#

Later on, Reid and Lycra sat at 'their table' with Win. Backpack in his lap, Lycra wore one of his vibrant toothy smiles. His nurse, Amelia, had joined them after much prodding by Win. She had an arm around the marsupial as she drank. The drinks were hellishly expensive normally, but taps flowed free when moles died. Reid didn't know how alcohol was made down here in the Warrens, and he didn't want to. He told himself it was just a skill like Warren had... huh. Weird.... and left it at that. Jim had also taken a seat for himself. He was apologetic and "nice", but Reid felt a lingering distrust towards him. Everyone around them was at least a bit more animated and lively after they heard about the dead mole.

Jim had taken over the conversation. "I done been here three years, and In't seen a single mole dead! An ya killed it... by yaself! Damn near run it through, that corpse! So what's ya do? Skill for throwin'? Penetration? Gravity? C'mon, ya gotta say!"

Win gave the blue man an annoyed look. "No, he doesn't. And if you ask him again, I'm kicking you out of the table."

"Aww, c'mon. We's all jus' curious, is all. An this here table belon's ta Roc... An Lycra. Them says who sits." Reid could've sworn there was an annoyed undertone in Jim's voice... and something else. It was as good a chance as any to see the man gone.

"No, Win is right. It's a rude question, and that's the third time you asked. Have a beer on us, but do it at a different table - we're going to talk about some other things."

Win whispered in Amelia's ear and slapped her on the lower back. The marsupial blushed, then stood up and walked away, stiff as a board.

Reid gave her a look. "Why do you do that? Flirt with everyone?"

She crossed her arms and gave him a playful tone. "Now we're answering questions, are we? A big strong man spurned my advances, so I'm lashing out, looking for love."

Lycra spat out his drink.

Reid sighed and pinched his nose. "Alright. Walked into that one."

Win kept up her smirk, and rolled a vial across the table. It was filled with a massive number of small purple pills that looked like candy. She raised her voice loud enough for surrounding tables to hear her. "Pestis Melanocytia is a tough condition, Roc. Especially for a Vuxarinan. I found a recipe for supplements that'll help turn your skin back to its natural light purple color. Take one a week, and you should be back to normal in no time." She leaned closer, and lowered her tone. "With these, you'll just need to get your pronunciation right."

Reid opened the vial, then closed the lid. Selling the lie was important, but he wasn't ready to just put a random pill in his mouth. But Win having this now meant that she'd made it before all of today's events began. She'd made it for him before she got any answers to her questions. Reid made a decision.

"I'd like to have a chat with you. Just the three of us, somewhere more remote."

Win downed the rest of her drink. "You want to kill more moles, get credits, get out of here, yeah?"

Reid nodded. Win leaned over the table.

"Then I think I know just the place."