Kaleb kept his eyes on the Daivor’s Gnome Home, waiting to see what would change. The small brick house remained the same for a few seconds before a bright white light engulfed it. The light faded, and the house looked almost the same, except now there was a large metal conveyor belt strapped next to the chimney. Kaleb grinned and moved past Jar-lock as the belt started up. He was about to get his first item from the Gnome Workshop.
Kaleb crouched down as the chimney smoked and the conveyor belt whined. A small hatch opened on the side of the chimney and it spit out a small brown paper package onto the conveyor belt. Kaleb caught the package before it fell off the belt and stood back up.
“Whoa! Things kind of heavy.” Kaleb said as he moved over to Daivor and the others.
Farrah and Roy had stopped working as the Workshop turned on. But Daivor was still fiddling with a few bits of copper tubing on the workbench. Kaleb placed the package in front of Daivor who looked up surprised. He grinned up at Kaleb through his bushy beard.
“Aww, you shouldn’t have.”
Kaleb smiled back and moved to take the package back. “Oh? Okay then.”
Daivor batted Kaleb’s hand away and grumbled. “Smart-ass lizard. It ain’t polite to take back a gift.”
Daivor tore at the brown paper packaging and pulled out its contents smiling the whole time. Kaleb’s own expression went from delight to confusion as he saw what was in the package. It looked like a rigging vest used for mountain climbing crossed with a tactical vest.
The vest had multiple pockets, metal loops, small cabling over a shoulder, and even reflector panels. Daivor looked like he couldn’t be happier but Kaleb was still trying to suss out what the thing was. It didn’t look like he was the only one, Roy, Farrah and Jar-lock all moved closer to get a better look at the vest. As Daivor put it on, Roy asked what they were all wondering.
“What is it?”
Daivor looked up at them still smiling as he worked his arms through the straps. “It’s a rigging vest, it stores all my equipment and makes it easier for me to work on big projects.”
“Doesn’t your little chariot already do that?” Kaleb asked after he repeated Daivor’s answer for the others.
Daivor waved the question off. “Bah! That thing is for travel, this vest is for work. The cabling has been enchanted, so it will grow to what I need and…” Daivor took a running leap off the side of the table. Halfway through his fall he shot out a tiny arm, sending a line of cable up and attaching itself to the top of the table. Daivor swung from the cable, using his momentum to carry his small frame back up and on top of the workbench.
“I can do that.” Daivor finished.
“So grappling hook, and tool chest? It’s neat, but are you sure you want to keep it?” Kaleb asked.
Daivor squinted up at Kaleb as he adjusted the vest’s straps. “Of course.”
Kaleb shrugged, to him the vest wasn’t that great a pull. But luckily, in another 12 hours he would get another bit of equipment. Plus, Daivor seemed happy, so he was fine with letting things be.
Kaleb stretched his arms above his head and yawned. Now that things had calmed down somewhat, he realized he was running on 3 hours of sleep. He needed to crash then he could wake up and start on making more rooms for their base. Jar-lock, Farrah, and Roy gave him odd looks but Daivor seemed understanding.
“Go get some sleep boss. Me and the kid can handle things for a few hours.” Daivor said still playing with the straps on his new vest.
Kaleb nodded and told the others. “I’m gonna crash in the office for a few hours.” Turning to Roy he added. “Just help Daivor get Farrah’s command center set up for now.”
“That will be difficult with you and her being the only two who can understand him.” Roy responded sounding a little miffed.
Kaleb gave an exasperated sigh and looked down at Daivor. The Gnome shrugged his shoulders and looked unapologetic.
“What?! She’s a hot bunny, and he’s a young boy. Who would you choose?”
Farrah smirked, but said. “Pig.”
Kaleb rubbed his eyes. “Okay, just make sure that Roy gets your next… dusting.”
Daivor huffed and went back to his copper pipes. Jar-lock smiled at them all before turning to Kaleb. “I’ll go to city hall and grab any paperwork we need to legitimize this whole thing. It will go smoother if we have a better idea of the hoops we have to jump through.”
“Thanks, Jar-lock. Could you also get the paperwork for establishing a Super Group? Best to get it all out of the way at once.”
“Sure. But, I’m taking your car.” Jar-lock smiled.
“Go ahead. That just may confuse the fuck out of the HLO for a few minutes.” Kaleb laughed as he moved toward the hangar office.
Once he was inside the office, he closed the large window’s blinds. As he bundled up his lab coat to use as a pillow, Kaleb thought. Next step is setting up my room, and a damn bed. Suddenly, Kaleb remembered something and jumped up and grabbed the office phone.
“Yeah, boss?” Bob asked when he picked up.
“There’s a duck and a strongman coming to join our little party. Please let them in when they get here.” Kaleb explained.
Bob chuckled. “Sounds like the start of a joke, but I’ll keep an eye out.”
“Thanks, Bob.” Kaleb said before they exchanged goodbyes and hung up.
Kaleb went back to his spot on the floor and laid down, closing his eyes letting sleep take him.
He awoke some time later to the sounds of rustling papers coming from the desk. He took a few seconds to get his bearings as he momentarily forgot where he was. Rubbing his eyes he heard a familiar noise followed by a mechanical voice.
*Quack*
“Oh, good. you’re awake. I have some things to discuss with you.”
Kaleb rolled his tongue around his mouth and barely listened to D34d-I’s mechanical voice. He stood and scratched his head, seeing that the duck had made himself at home at the office desk. Kaleb sniffed and rubbed his face, freezing in place when a rich aroma wafted through his nose. Quickly searching the room, Kaleb’s eyes locked on a small black mug set in front of D34d-I.
Seeing his gaze, D34d-I pointed to a nearby corner where someone had set up his coffee maker. Kaleb made a beeline for it as D34d-I spoke.
*Quack*
“I’ve been going over the paperwork we need to create our Business and it is fairly straightforward. We apply for a State License and a Business Permit and then go from there.”
Kaleb nodded as he poured himself of hot coffee. D34d-I continued when Kaleb didn’t interrupt.
*Quack*
“I recommend we go with an LLC just to protect each member from any liabilities we may incur during our work. We will also need to have a general meeting where we can all agree on an Operational Agreement and a name for the LLC.”
Kaleb blinded nodded again as he tilted his head back and took a gulp of the steaming liquid. “Ahhhhhhhhh!” Kaleb sighed loudly.
D34d-I just shook his head and shifted the papers on the desk.
*Quack*
“All of that will require a hefty sum. But I think we can roll it into one when we create our Super Group and get a lot of those fees waived temporarily.”
Stretching his arms above his head, Kaleb moved to the desk and looked at all the paperwork spread out on the desk. D34d-I had been busy as he had written notes on all the documents.
*Quack*
“That leads me to our finances. With the 8 of us all chipping in we have a sizable nest egg, no jokes please, of around 75k. Now 20k of that will go to getting the correct permits and licenses all squared away along with the Super Group fee. Once we complete those, I recommend we spend another 30k on getting our Headquarters up to code. Leaving another 25k for emergencies.”
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Kaleb frowned. “Will thirty be enough? The Command Center alone was twelve thousand.”
*Quack*
“Thank you for joining the conversation. For the bare minimum… 30k should just about do it. We need to prove that we can house, train, and care for our members all while providing coverage for our selected district.”
“How will we make money? Per crime or a monthly sum?” Kaleb asked taking another sip of coffee.
*Quack*
“That choice is up to us. Any large sum of money we find, goes to the city. But they can pay us on a per crime stopped basis or as a monthly sum based on the size and crime rate of our district.” D34d-I said sipping his own coffee and following Kaleb with his eyes.
Kaleb rubbed the back of his head and asked, conspiratorially. “And the small sums?”
D34d-I set his coffee down and gazed hard at Kaleb before speaking.
*Quack*
“I recommend we turn those over to the city. After filing the papers they will give us a 30 day temporary permit to work our district. After the thirty days an Overseer from city hall will visit us. They will go over our facilities and our finances with a fine-tooth comb.”
Kaleb sighed loudly. “That’s a lot of money to just give up. Especially if we aren’t sure how much we’ll get paid for our district.”
D34d-I shook his head.
*Quack*
“There’s a bigger problem.” When Kaleb gave him a curious stare D34d-I continued. “Anyone can see that they designed this pay structure to give businesses like ours less money as crime goes down. Choking us financially. We need to grow and take on more districts quickly which will overwork our members and we will flounder.”
“Why would they do that?”
*Quack*
“It didn’t use to be this way. The pay structure changed when the state granted the HLO the rights to all found money and equipment at crime scenes. No other company has that right. If we want to stay in business, we have to change the law or have the same rights granted to us.”
Kaleb rolled his eyes. “Oh, I’m sure that will be easy.” He said sarcastically opening the window blinds and looking out at the hangar.
D34d-I shuffled some papers on the desk before he stood.
*Quack*
“Some good news: Being a Super Group will garner us a decent amount of press and we can use that to ingratiate us to the community, which will help. On top of that: Two Gun and the others found out a lot of interesting things about our little neighborhood.”
“Such as?”
*Quack*
“Well, that bar they went to is apparently run by biker group called The Demons. According to Abby they are named accurately. And later when they traveled around there was a Monster Rush from the park in the north. Several players and people in the community quelled it but it appears to be a common problem.”
Kaleb nodded as D34d-I stood next to him. “So the neighborhood will keep us busy at least.”
D34d-I nodded and moved to back to the desk. Kaleb saw the bone white revolver he had made for the duck in D34d-I’s hip holster as he moved. He smiled as he moved back to the coffee machine to get another drink. D34d-I gathered a few documents and held them up for Kaleb.
*Quack*
“I filled these out as much as I could but some things we need to go over with the rest of the group. Company name, Super Group name, Team colors, Hierarchy. Things like that.”
Kaleb filled his mug and took the papers giving them a cursory glance. “Ok then, lets get to it.”
D34d-I nodded his agreement, and the pair left the office together. Kaleb had seen Roy and Farrah working on something on the other side of the Mechanic’s Room. As they exited the office Kaleb saw Abby, Claire and Jar-lock standing around eating sandwiches. He was about to ask about Mass when a loud sound drew his attention outside.
*Boom*
A small dust cloud kicked up in the afternoon sun as Kaleb watched the large Mass Jump and spin in the air. The over-sized muscle-man was throwing himself in the air and spinning around like a top. Kaleb could see that Mass was also wearing his new armor and gloves. Following Kaleb’s gaze D34d-I quickly turned back to him and quacked.
*Quack*
“That reminds me, we have to talk about the equipment you made.” Kaleb tilted his head as D34d-I grinned with his duck’s bill. “Mass gets weapons AND armor!? All I got are two heavy ass guns.”
Kaleb shrugged. “He is bigger than you.” Turning to Claire he asked. “Where’s Two Gun? We need to have a company meeting.”
Claire swallowed the piece of sandwich in her mouth before replying. “He is downstairs rearranging our new furniture in our room. Which reminds me: We must discuss the room sizes as soon as possible. I fear our room is too small for two people.”
“I’ll put it on the list.” Kaleb said sighing, turning to Jar-lock he asked. “And Vivienne?”
The big man shrugged. “She hasn’t logged in today yet.”
“Well, we have enough for a quorum.” Kaleb said as he moved around the large pile of junk that was in front of the Mechanics Room.
“Quorum?” Abby asked.
Kaleb shrugged. “I don’t know, my dad used to say it.”
*Quack*
“It means that we have enough members to have a valid meeting. Surprisingly, he used it correctly.” D34d-I’s robot voice said as they all followed Kaleb.
Claire took off toward the stairs to get Two Gun. As the group moved past the Mechanics Room Kaleb saw Farrah, Roy and Daivor all hovered around a small monitor. Roy was holding a small radar dish as Daivor and Farrah watched the monitor’s screen, murmuring quietly. Kaleb could see the small metal computer, the trio had built humming away just beneath the monitor.
“No twist it back the other way.” Farrah commanded looking up to Roy.
The boy gave a long-suffering sigh and twisted to his right. Daivor tapped a few keys on a keyboard that was missing a good deal keys already. The keyboard looked to be on the very edge of the computer case. Farrah watched lines of code trickle down the screen until she saw something that made her jump and scream.
“YES! That’s it! Hold it there, Roy.”
“Can you hack through it before the signal moves again?” Daivor asked.
Farrah nodded, her long ears wobbling excitedly. “Yeah, I think so.”
“AHEM!” D34d-I coughed loudly. The trio turned, including Roy, which caused the other two to yell at him. But D34d-I cut them all off.
*Quack*
“Please refrain from any illegal behavior while we are trying to create a legitimate business please. We can file the paperwork for a subscription to the city’s D-Net.”
Daivor stuck out his tongue as Farrah crossed her arms and grumbled. “Sure, if you wanna pay the monthly charge.”
D34d-I rolled his eyes.
*Quack*
“We do.”
I didn’t know ducks could roll theirs eyes. Kaleb thought as Claire returned with Two Gun. Seeing the group altogether Farrah got a curious look on her face. But it was Roy who asked while he was carefully putting the radar dish down.
“What’s going on?”
Kaleb rubbed his hands together as he addressed them all. “We have some things we need to discuss as a group. Simple things, really. Team mascot, uniforms, how to conduct ourselves at picnics that sort of thing.”
D34d-I rubbed his temples and corrected Kaleb.
*Quack*
“We need to discuss our Operational Agreement, we need to name our LLC and our Super Group, we have to consider a hierarchy, and we have to discuss how we want to be paid by the city.”
Two Gun thrust his thumbs into the front of his pants and said. “Well, only one of those things actually sounds important.”
Jar-lock nodded as Abby quipped. “Everyone in favor of team Super Fluffy Fun Bears!?”
Abby grinned and raised her hand as Two Gun gave her a withering look. “Ok. Two things on that list are important.”
*Quack*
“It’s all important. Now everyone gather round so we can discuss things like adults.” D34d-I’s mechanical voice rang out in the hangar.
“Including you!” He said to Daivor. The Gnome looked like he was about to use his new rigging vest to climb the wall into the Mechanics Room.
Daivor got a sour look on his face and grumbled as he changed targets and threw his cable at Kaleb’s shoulder. The end of the cable spread out and grasped on Kaleb’s shoulder like a spider’s webbing and Daivor launched himself onto Kaleb’s shoulder. Kaleb felt a slight tug from the cable but stayed upright as Daivor made himself comfortable.
“I blame you!” Daivor said as he sat down and crossed his arms.
Kaleb sighed and looked back at his circle of friends. Hopefully, the meeting wouldn’t be too long. There was a lot to do.