“Oh! Now you notice!” Came a muffled voice from behind Kaleb’s worktable.

Kaleb scanned the Worktable, finding the spot where Daivor had been working. Moving to the side of the workbench Kaleb had to stifle a chuckle as he found his companion. The small Gnome was between the table and the wall, holding himself by jamming his back against the wall and his legs into the table.

“How the hell did that happen?” Kaleb asked bemusedly giving Daivor a hand.

“With you four slinging Magic around willy-nilly. How else do you think? By the great Elf Goddess Dalvenor, Boss, warn a Gnome before you work with that much Magic. Nearly blew my beard clean off my face.” Daivor groused.

“I’m sorry, Daivor. I’ll warn you if we try something like that again.” Kaleb placated still trying not to laugh.

As he looked up at the others, Kaleb saw they were all staring at him questioningly. Kaleb quickly explained what had happened. Drawing apologies from the three Magic users. Daivor just nodded and went to inspect Jar-lock’s armor. Kaleb hadn’t noticed at first but the skin now seemed to glow an eerie red color.

“What the hell is that?” Kaleb asked.

Jar-lock nodded. “That’s what we were wondering.”

“The armor has taken on some of its original qualities. This is some great work, boss. It will stop the glowing once the Mana in the skin dies down.” Daivor explained running a hand over the Ifrit Skin Armor. “It’s even hot, that should abate too… maybe.”

Kaleb gave the others a rundown of what Daivor said before he asked. “Are the Rune’s all nice and stable?”

Daivor grunted a “Yep.” as he continued to survey different areas of the skin.

Once he got the go ahead Jar-lock was eager to try on his new armor, But Kaleb stopped him. “I still have to add the other pieces and the bone plates.Once I figure out how to cut plates from the bone easily.” Seeing the disappointing look on the big Warlock’s face Kaleb grinned.

“Just a few more minutes, dude. I’ll get to work and you can ask your questions.” Kaleb said moving to grab the gorget and pauldrons.

“Well, my questions mostly concerned your inclusion on the Watch List and you’ve answered those.” Varlin said.

“And mine were about you choosing to be a Wizard. But it looks like that’s out the window now.” Vivienne smiled at him.

Jar-lock nodded as he watched Kaleb gather up the pieces of armor. “I was more interested in the Lair and if the Council had delivered the materials yet.”

“Well, I can explain about the Lair. Seeing as I have answered most of your other questions.” Kaleb said as he sat down in a lawn chair next to his anvil.

Kaleb explained about his misadventures with Obadiah Nova and his tests. He thought it better not to tell them about the old man’s true nature. At least for now. While he talked he carefully and slowly rivet the shaped pieces of armor together. The work was slow, and he had finished his story with the two pauldrons still left to attach.

“How in the fuck did he expect you to solve a military training course the government uses? That’s like asking a cub scout, no offense, to complete Spec ops training.” Jar-lock complained.

Smiled as he used a strip of Ifrit skin to attach the pauldron to the gorget. “I imagine he made it easier for me somehow. The test was challenging but not really physically demanding. I assume he wanted to figure out how I think.”

Jar-lock wobbled his head noncommittally. “Eh, I guess that makes sense. At least you got the Lair.”

“WE got the Lair.” Kaleb amended. “I was fully on board with forming Austin’s first Super Group. Pooling our resources, working together,”

“Us funding your equipment?” Varlin interrupted, smirking.

“That too, but all for the good of the group. Come on, we have all played online games before. Some of the coolest stuff can only be done with a group.” Kaleb said.

The others all gave nods or mumbled in agreement. Vivienne brought up a hitch in their plan.

“What about the 15k registration fee for forming a Super Group?”

Kaleb shrugged his shoulders. “We can work that out after we get settled in the new Lair. Whatever that is.”

Kaleb was still absorbed in his work so he missed his friends looks of shock. It was Varlin who spoke first.

“You haven’t even seen it yet!? How do we know we’ll all fit!?”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Kaleb shrugged his shoulders. “I figured we’d work that out when we saw it. I was planning on visiting the location this weekend and I wanted to invite everyone along.”

“It’s an abandoned air hangar and field just south of Imperial Valley.” Farrah spoke up causing Kaleb to point a finger at the others.

“See? Air hangar. That’s plenty of space.”

“Plenty of ‘empty' space. Not exactly built for comfort.” Jar-lock said.

“Actually,” Farrah began. “The air hangar has three levels: The hangar area, a floor full of rooms, and training facility/maintenance room. It’s weird.”

“What is?” asked Vivienne.

Farrah adopted her teacher's tone as she explained. “The Streak was a solo hero, he would team up occasionally but nothing permanent. But someone designed this building with a Super Group in mind. It even has space for a large generator and water reservoirs. This place could run autonomously.”

“So he planned to start his own Super team?” Varlin asked.

“That’s the weird thing: He bought it a year after he retired.” Farrah said sounding perplexed.

Kaleb kept his hands working as he thought about the old man. “Maybe he bought it for Roy? Hoping the kid would follow in his footsteps.”

“Maybe,” Jar-lock said rubbing his chin. “but does it really matter? It sounds like we have a decent Lair with room to upgrade. If we didn’t have that quest tonight I would wanna check it out now.”

Varlin and Vivienne nodded in agreement as Kaleb asked. “Your quest is tonight? What are you doing?”

“Protection detail for some rich businessman.” Varlin said.

“Supposedly he is a big benefactor to the Magical communities.” Jar-lock added.

“We hoped that you could handle the tech side of things.” mentioned Vivienne.

Kaleb stopped working as he thought about it. “Is there an actual threat to his life?”

Jar-lock shrugged his shoulders. “Kind of, he has been receiving more threats than usual lately. So they asked us to check it out. He is only in the city a few days, then he flies back to Chicago.”

Kaleb sighed. “I would love to help. But, after this I have Mass’ gloves and D34d–I’s gun or guns to make.”

“You want to make a gun from scratch?” Jar-lock asked.

“I wanted to try.” Kaleb said. “I was hoping maybe I could buy books or blueprints or something.”

Jar-lock sighed. “Gun making is not exactly something you should just wing. Be careful. Why not just break down another gun?”

“First: I don’t know if I could put it back together. Second: I wanted to make the frame out of the Ifrit bones.”

“Why?” Vivienne asked.

“Because it's the only thing I have that can handle Ifrit bullets. The bones are as dense as metal so all I have to do is figure out is: what parts I need to make.”

“Hmph!” Varlin coughed into his hand. “I can help with that.”

“Really?!” Kaleb and Jar-lock asked simultaneously as Vivienne groaned.

“My great-grandfather ran a historical gun museum when projectile guns were outlawed. It’s been passed down and added to by my family. I used to help with taking the guns apart and cleaning them.”

“Plus, you have me! You damn forgetful lizard!” said Daivor from his spot on the table.

Kaleb turned to find the small Gnome sitting on the edge of the worktable. Smoking a pipe.

“Where did you get a pipe?!” Kaleb asked alarmed.

Daivor shrugged. “I’ve always had a pipe.”

“But…”

“Now it seems to me that you are going about this all wrong.” Daivor interrupted. “You have Magic and, between the four of you, a decent-sized Mana Pool to draw from. So why not find a blueprint of the gun you want and use Shaping Magic?”

“Shaping Magic?” Kaleb asked. “Why didn’t you bring that up before?”

“Because Shaping Magic takes a ton of Magic. Frankly, even between the four of you I wouldn’t be surprised if you all passed out. But it can help with the constructing the separate parts out of the bones. Much more quickly than the lathe, anyway. Run it by your friends.” Daivor smiled and waved his pipe at the others.

Kaleb explained what Daivor had said. Jar-lock and Vivienne looked intrigued but Varlin seemed hesitant. Depleting your Mana gave people a killer headache and if they couldn’t handle it, they would all pass out. It took a few minutes of back and forth arguing but eventually they convinced Varlin to at least try.

Kaleb finished Jar-lock’s armor and passed it over. Once the Warlock put on the leather armor Kaleb could visibly see the leather resize to fit Jar-lock’s wide chest and shoulders. The armor still had a red tinge to it that made it look almost exactly like the Ifrit it came from. Jar-lock stretched and moved in the armor before getting the far off look in his eyes as he checked its stats.

“God Damn! Defense of 25 plus 5 for the Protection Rune, with 50% fire resistance, and 15% increased Mana Efficiency. Now that’s some fucking armor right there.” Jar-lock whooped.

Kaleb smiled as he moved inside to grab the biggest Ifrit bone he could find. Once he found it he brought back to The Pit and searched online for gun blueprints. But he soon discovered a problem. While there were a few blueprints here and there, they were all proprietary designs so they sold for massive amounts of money. He sighed loudly over his laptop keyboard racking his brain for an answer.

“Dude, don’t look for energy weapons. Here, move out of the way.” Varlin blurted pushing Kaleb out of his chair.

Kaleb watched as Varlin looked through various websites eventually stopping on a website Kaleb had never heard of. “The Historical Revolver Archive? Really, Varlin? A revolver?”

“Oh god, not again.” Vivienne said getting looks from both Jar-lock and Kaleb.

“Every game we play, he inserts his damn revolver fetish.” She explained.

Jar-lock nodded slowly asking. “Oh… so you two are…?”

“Cousin!” Vivienne added quickly.

“Oh!” Jar-lock said.

“Yeah.” Vivienne nodded, blushing.

Kaleb glanced between the two as they both seemed to smile at one another while trying not to look each other in the eye. He sighed loudly before clapping his hands together. “Hey! No flirting in my lab. Take your awkward anime shit outside!”

“HAHAHAHA!” Varlin busted out into loud cackles as Jar-lock and Vivienne both went red in the face.

To his surprise, though the pair did, indeed, step outside of his garage. “How long has that been going on?” He asked Varlin.

“Not long.” Varlin shrugged. “That was just what they needed though. They are both adults, no need for all the “Awkward anime shit.” as you called it. But there is still a stigma about dating online.”

Kaleb nodded before he went back to looking over the website. “So tell me about your fetish for revolvers.”

“It’s not a fetish, damn it!” Varlin yelled.