After the immediate health concerns were taken care of, Midnight and I turned our attention to Izzy who was currently taking shelter with Extra. That would be the case for at least a few days while the incident was investigated.
Since Extra had access to a lot of smaller folks, Izzy was also put up in a smaller temporary apartment. Safe, but not all that comfortable. Well, it was much less comfortable for me because I didn’t really fit. Fortunately, rather than crouching down I could just cast Reduce. It had unsurprisingly combined with Enlarge into Size Shift, and lasted long enough that I mostly recovered the mana expenditure for it during its duration. That wasn’t true on Celmoth, but Earth currently had increased mana recovery rates compared to what I had come to know as standard.
“So how did you get captured anyway?” I asked. “I don’t think that would be easy.”
Izzy frowned, folding her arms in front of her. “They tracked me down when I was out and about town. Bunvorixians, I mean. They released some sort of clear gas, I think, but I really only heard a hiss before feeling woozy. I’m not quite sure how they found me, though. Or why they would even be looking for me.”
“Well, they clearly know we’re associated,” I said. “Plus, you’ve been hanging around Ceira. That still mostly leads back to me, though.”
Messages with Ceira indicated she was still safe- and that her companions were keeping their eyes and noses open for any signs of Bunvorixians.
“Yeah well I wish that these people would leave me alone. I didn’t used to have a reason to shoot them down with their own weapons.” She sighed, “And Extra didn’t even let me keep one of those. Maybe I should try to secure a supernatural weapon permit… though I guess that doesn’t help getting knocked out by poisons.”
“You seemed to have recovered quickly at least,” I replied. Midnight nodded in agreement.
“Enough to be functional, but I was off kilter during the whole battle. It’s a good thing they didn’t expect someone to pick their crappy locks. Seriously, the cuffs and cage both had fancy electronic locks but I picked them with a handful of pine needles and a sliver of bark.”
“Ah, that I can actually see,” Midnight admitted. “You see, Celmothians and Bunvorixians don’t have hands.”
“... Okay?” Izzy tilted her head.
“So if I were going to pick a lock, I’d do this,” he said, extending a silvery grasping appendage from his suit. “If it had been me captured they would have removed the suit, obviously. And the locks probably would have shut down any tech still hidden on me.”
“I get that,” Izzy agreed. “But it still seems careless. I could just reach out of the cage and grab stuff.”
Midnight held up his paws. “As you might be aware, these are not arms. I’d have to paw something over to the cage and up into it, then probably grab it in my mouth to try to reach a lock that was presumably on the outside… Also, a mobile cage would be lacking energy barriers and stuff.”
“Yeah, you’re gonna have to tell me how to disable energy barriers from the inside,” Izzy said.
“Information on Bunvorixian security measures is already being supplied to the people here,” Midnight said. “Should be pretty easy to get it.”
“... Pretty sure I couldn’t pick a lock with any number of pine needles,” I admitted. There had been a brief bit of security training with the Brigade, but that wasn’t my specialty so it was more for emergencies. Also, if I really needed it I would probably use magic. Hmm, maybe I should actually learn that spell. Time to add it to my list of things I might want, along with every other spell in existence.
“Anyway,” Izzy said. “That sure was a mess, huh? I wasn’t expecting there to be so much happening.”
“Neither were they, probably,” I admitted. “They said to come alone- well, with just Midnight- which is kidnapper speech for ‘we’re afraid of your friends’. So I called my friends.”
Izzy nodded, “Yeah, they probably wouldn’t let me go even if you turned yourself over like an idiot. I still needed you to show up though because I couldn’t have escaped without a distraction to get out.”
“We wouldn’t just leave you even though we believed in your abilities,” I pointed out.
She nodded, then squinted at me. “It’s weird to see you like this. We were the same height once but you look way different now.”
I shrugged, “I’ve been spending a lot of time small lately. Celmoth is inconvenient without. More inconvenient, I mean. It’s not really made for bipedal people. Thankfully they like vertical space.”
“Sounds interesting,” she commented.
“We can probably show you at some point,” I said. “Once things settle down, obviously. I’m needed here. Speaking of which, we need to go soon to help translate Bunvorixian. But before that… what are your plans for the near future? I’m sure this disrupted things.”
“Yeah…” Izzy nodded. “I’m not sure. I like it here in New Bay, but the danger is a bit too high. That’s why I haven’t joined the Brigade or something, since that would theoretically draw more trouble. Then again, I guess I shouldn’t expect different around you.”
“It’s not my fault,” I protested. “People are looking for trouble, and I’m just easier to find.”
“I know,” Izzy waved me off. “Well, maybe I should just get more serious about my own strength. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to shrug off whatever that toxin was, but I could have spotted the trouble early enough to react. I’m better at telling the difference between dogs and Bunvorixians now anyway.”
“... Is it the lasers?” I asked.
She chuckled. “Yep, that’s it.”
I was aware of them acting differently, of course. They might be able to fool me, but they’d have to know what dogs acted like which wasn’t always the case. Like with the ones guarding the trail, stiff like soldiers.
-----
Extra had received information on the Bunvorixian language from Celmoth, but that wasn’t enough for anyone to speak it even if they were familiar. Apparently, automatic translators were in the works but they hadn’t had that long yet. Just a few weeks, and without any helpful test subjects to determine if it actually worked they had to manually review every piece.
Although Zorphax was nominally the one in charge of extraterrestrial issues, Malaliel was the one interrogating the tiny dog when I arrived. She stepped out of the interrogation room to discuss with me. “Thanks for coming. We’ve got more than just this little guy in captivity,” she commented. “But he seemed to be the best equipped among them. He’s also been the least cooperative, with the others at least responding to our attempts.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“So what do you need?” I asked. “I’m not good at negotiations unless you want me to call him a stupid shrimp.”
“We need you to maintain a Translation spell on as many of our members as you can,” she commented.
“Well, that depends on how long you want it to last,” I said. “But I can do four at once efficiently. Or five if two are Midnight and me. That might help with the functionality…” I shrugged. “At least, one of us experiencing more of the language directly.”
“I don’t know if having either of you in the interrogation rooms would be beneficial. However, if you could improve the effectiveness while listening outside that might be worthwhile. Especially if Midnight could offer his knowledge on Bunvorixians.”
“I make no promise of impartiality,” Midnight replied.
“Do try,” Malaliel commented. “We might be at war, but that’s all the more reason to understand what’s going on.”
A little bit later we gathered together the people who were going to get magic use on them. There was an angel- Malaliel, of course- some human, and finally Jim’s brother. I could understand why they had trouble getting pictures of ‘Kyle’, as he seemed to both have reflective surfaces while his writhing mass also drew in light.
“I didn’t know you worked at Extra,” I said to Kyle after Translation was cast. Zorphax had brought him up, but that could have been as a notable civilian.
“I can actually be quite calming,” he commented. The meaning was clear, but the words still made me shiver slightly. “Thank you for your assistance, Mage.”
“You’re welcome, (-----).” His name wasn’t something I could assign any real sounds to, but I could still say it. ‘Kyle’ wriggled in delight at actually hearing his name from someone else other than his brother. Probably. I wasn’t really good at reading any body language.
Midnight was assigned to watch Malaliel’s interrogation of the ‘chihuahua’, while I was placed outside Kyle’s room. There, I saw a mid-sized Bunvorixian. Reminiscent of, what would you call that… a border collie? It was quite odd that they fit into the intentionally bred patterns of Earth dogs. They couldn’t count on extradimensional inspiration, but there was something about supernatural parallel convergence. Maybe that was how things were supposed to be, or something.
Kyle slid into the room, but rather than shirking away his guest seemed attentive. Something about the way he moved, while still creepy, was rather alluring. I could feel some sort of power stuff happening as well. Presumably that calming thing.
“Hello, is this working?” My basic knowledge of Bunvorixian had filtered some level of functionality into my new targets.
“Whoa, you can talk!” the Bunvorixian barked. “What are you? Some sort of weird tree?”
“I am not a tree. In fact-”
“Do you know any ------?” the not-dog asked, a word not translating immediately. “I saw images of them. We used to have them but then the Celmothians killed them all! It was terrible!”
“I don’t know of this thing of which you speak,” Kyle said evenly. “But if you would describe them and perhaps use the word again…?”
“You talk funny weird tree guy. Anyway, I can’t believe you don’t know ------ because they live in trees and in the ground and sometimes they run real fast and we chase them.”
“Are you speaking of… squirrels?” The word finally translated.
“Yeah!” the not-dog said. “I always wanted to meet them but then those terrible felines wiped them out!”
I hadn’t heard of that. Seemed like something we should ask about.
“I would like you to focus, please,” Kyle said. “I am here to ask you questions. What was your job aboard the ship?”
“I chewed on wires!” the doglike individual exclaimed. “I mean, we’re not supposed to. But when you put them in right they’re okay to chew on, we have real tough seals and stuff. I also put the wires in place and make sure the ship doesn’t blow up!”
“... What would you call your position?”
“Oh, I’m a systems engineer!” the Bunvorixian declared proudly. “I make sure everything is in place and working for the combat crew and command. Command is important because they’re in charge.”
“And who is command?”
“It was Leo.” The Bunvorixian suddenly snapped around her…? head. “I mean, commander Leofric. He ended up around here somewhere, right?” she sniffed.
“The chihuahua?”
“I don’t know what that is,” the Bunvorixian replied. The word hadn’t translated after all. “But he’s small, like all the commanders!”
“Why are the commanders small?”
“Because they’re commanders, and commanders are small!” the Bunvorixian replied.
That didn’t make sense. Maybe it wasn’t translating properly? Usually that ended up with nothing, though.
“I see,” Kyle commented calmly. “Oh, I forgot to ask for your name.”
“That’s okay!” the Bunvorixian responded, wagging her tail.
“... So what is your name?”
“Oh! I’m Zeb! What’s your name, tree guy?”
“It is (-----), but Kyle is easier to say.”
“Is it?” the Bunvorixian asked. “Krral. Well, it’s kinda easier. I don’t even know how to begin pronouncing the other thing. Krrial. Yeah, I got it. So when do I get treats? I heard I get treats if I’m good?” she paused. “Oh no! That was a Celmothian spy tactic I was warned about! I’m not going to get treats, am I?”
“... We can give you treats,” Kyle said. “In fact, you’ve been so helpful we can get you something right now, and more if you keep answering questions.”
“Grr…” Zeb backed up slightly, constrained by a leash connecting her to the table. “You won’t trick me!”
“What do you want?” Kyle asked. “You’ll know when we bring you something.”
“Food! No, wait. Nothing! I won’t fall for this. Then I can get a treat for being good when I’m rescued!”
“Sure, let me uh…”
“I have an idea,” I said, briefly pressing the intercom so Kyle could hear me. I scurried over to where Midnight was- hearing brief snippets of ‘you’ll never get secrets from me, monkey-bird!’ and got him to relinquish a can of tuna. Then I returned to the room and entered after getting permission from Kyle. “I brought food.”
Zeb sniffed. “You won’t fool me! That’s not food, that’s a metal container!”
“It has food in it,” I pointed out, pulling the tab. It smelled… kinda bad. I knew it wasn’t expired, though. Midnight was very meticulous about that. It was just a concentrated fish smell.
“Food! No wait, it has to be poisoned. I won’t eat it,” Zeb said, straining at the limits of her movement to get to the can.
“Kyle has more questions for you,” I pointed out as I held the can out. If Zeb tried to bite my hand, I had protections so it wouldn’t matter too much. But she just dove her nose into the can.
“Mrph mrr mrgl mruh!” the Bunvorixian commented.
“I couldn’t understand you,” I replied.
“It’s hard to fit my nose in the can,” she said. Though about half the can was empty.
I reached my hand into the can to scoop it out, holding it towards her. She pulled the scraps off my fingers and licked my gloves clean, but didn’t even try to bite.
Zeb pulled back, wagging her tail. Then she stopped. “Wait! Uh… don’t tell anyone I took a bribe!”
“I won’t,” I waved.
“Good because fish meat is hardly worth it as a bribe,” she said as I made my way to the door. “I’d prefer red meat!”
I’m sure Extra would be glad for that information later.