We loaded up all of the supplies we thought we’d need, to include plenty of hot food for Shea, into my [Inventory] and set out from the city gate. Anything else that we might need, Shiro or Alfred could send us by way of an [Inventory] plate that I had made for the shop. It functioned the same as the bag, but required a small command to be sent via mana to activate so that things couldn’t accidently get stored.
Once we were out of sight of the town, Shea stopped and asked “So what’s the thing that you spent all day and all night working on? This is going to really stink if I have to walk the whole way.”
I climbed out of Carnivac and put him into storage along with the girls’ packs and weapons, and retrieved Cyclone. Cyclone was covered in heavier armor than even Elita had been when we met and was over eight feet tall. His foot falls had a satisfying “thump” to them, this was a proper robot for me. I couldn’t help but laugh like a little kid to see him powered up and ready.
“It looks sorta like a knight”, Elita said, “but huge, and with some extra stuff that doesn’t make any sense. I see wheels, I think, but it doesn’t look like it could roll or carry us...”
“Just watch”, I retrieved a helmet, with some extra padding inside, and put it on Shea’s head.
“I can barely see anything with the blast shield down.”
“Elita and I are made of metal, you’re squishy, I insist. Besides, I’ll be the one driving.” I opened Cyclone’s hatch and climbed inside. Once closed, all of Cyclone’s senses became my own, just like when I was in Carnivac. This time I’d added special indicator screens that connected to multiple views as well as status updates for things like available mana, speed, and a rudimentary version of mapping software. I remembered that I’d need Carnivac’s Adventurer tag and retrieved it from storage and opened the hatch to place it into an internal slot, like a card reader. With the tag in place, our quest start point showed up on my screen with an indicator of how far away it was.
“Okay ladies, here we go! Cyclone, TRANSFORM!”
“Why are you yelling that?” Elita asked through narrowed eyes.
“Because it’s cooler that way.”
“Eh heh heh heeeehhhh...” Shea laughed nervously, in a cringy way.
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“Whatever, let’s test this out.” Cyclone transformed with wheels moving into position and my body completely changing shape. Inside, I was compressed into a fetal position, safely in what would be the fuselage of a heavy motorcycle. I based the design off of my memories of the Dodge Tomahawk and the Lazareth, with their four wheels and muscled Tron-Light-Cycle look. My senses shifted along with my form and rather than being aware of my limbs I was now aware of my being as a motorcycle and the extra view screens I’d added served the same function as front, rear, and side cameras. The sensation took some getting used to.
“What... is this thing?” Elita asked, confused.
“Are we supposed to get inside somehow? It’s like a tiny carriage, do we need horses?” Shea offered.
“Get on, like you would a horse, Elita you first. In front of you are my handlebars, you’ll want to hold on tight to those when we get going. Shea, get on behind Elita and hold on around her waist. Elita, I’ve got a read out screen in front of you, you should be able to see our destination point on it as well as some other stuff.”
“I do... But I really don’t understand what I’m looking at.”
“Okay, feet up on the pegs near your calves and let’s go!” I had put individual motors into each of the wheels so I had to concentrate on supplying an equal amount of mana to each one to move us smoothly. It was a rough start that earned me some curses. I resolved to write a program that would allow me to focus on a single stream of mana but then direct it where it needed to go according to my wishes... but that would have to come later. I started out slow, about the speed of walking. Shea was excited and screamed that we were moving and there weren’t any horses or anything. I accelerated to Carnivac’s running speed, which was about the same as a horse jogging. Shea gripped Elita a little tighter. I still felt like I was crawling though.
“I feel like I can move a lot faster than this, if you’re up for it.”
A wicked sneer crawled across Elita’s face as she said “do it”.
“EEHHH??” Shea yelled, “this is already as fast as I’ve ever been on a horse!”
I opened up the metaphorical throttle to as fast as I felt comfortable going on these dirt carriage roads. I was sure that my top speed would still be well beyond this, if I had proper paved roads to travel on. My speedometer read 40 MpH, Elita laughed like a mad woman and leaned hard into the wind while Shea screamed in terror. The roads were clearly not made for this kind of speed so I had to keep slowing down due to tight turns or loose dirt. Still we were making great time and what would have taken 3 days by horse was now going to take a couple of hours. I did blast past one carriage on the road, I can only imagine what they could have been thinking. Thankfully, my motors only made a low hum in terms of noise rather than the loud roar of a combustion engine.
We got to the edge of Shady Grove around dinner time and decided to make camp. Shea was exhausted from the trip and just wanted to melt into a puddle of goo on the ground. Elita was completely hyped up and demanded that I build another Cyclone for her to use. The amount of mana required to make the trip, actually dropped my won't have to worry about it amount of mana by a quarter so this was clearly not an efficient means of transportation.
Shea set up her camp and used a barrier magic tool to repel anything that might want to get close to her in the night. Elita and I didn’t need sleep, nor did we have any problems seeing in the dark, so we decided that we would search the village for anything while Shea slept, and meet up with her in the morning and decide what to do from there.
I pulled Carnivac out of storage and connected to the proxy. It wouldn’t hurt having another member to search the area. It was a tough decision on which shell to go with, but I decided to stick with Cyclone in his humanoid mode. Carnivac may be perfect for stealth at night, but Cyclone was more heavily armored and armed. Plus I still needed to get a feel for him in combat. Elita, Carnivac, and I— with Cyclone— stepped foot into the dark and unnaturally quiet village of Shady Grove.