“-thing in part-” Tessa cut off as she realized she wasn't talking to Greg anymore. Instead, she was in a gigantic crowd surrounding a raised platform. “Greg?” She called out hesitantly, looking around nervously as he hand went to the necklace he'd just given her, her voice lost in the cacophony created by everyone else calling out as well, similarly confused by the sudden relocation they'd all just experienced.

“Stay back, all of you!” Tessa heard a familiar voice snarl, her eyes widening as she immediately began to push through the crowd, rushing over to where Jennifer was fending off several men with crazed looks in their eyes, only succeeding due to the help of a group of women who had taken it upon themselves to surround Sarah, the poor girl shivering in fear as she looked around at all the hungry gazes coming her way.

“Everyone take four steps back or you'll start losing limbs!” Tessa roared as she arrived, her arms turning to blades as she fell in next to Jennifer, glaring at the bastards trying to get to Sarah.

“Silence!” A voice echoed from the platform, along with a pressure that immediately drew everyone's focus, all of them turning to see a group of blue people standing there, looking over the crowd with cold expressions.

A blue woman stepped forward and began to speak. “As many of you are aware, your world recently changed, along with all the life that inhabits it, some of you developing powerful bodies while others gained unique abilities, whatever civilization you may have had collapsing in the chaos these changes brought. This is, unfortunately, the natural consequence of mana developing on a world. Worse, as the mana density increases on your world, these changes will only get worse as the life on your planet struggles to adapt to the changing environment, new species rising while others fall in an endless competition that will alter the landscape of your world forever. Less than ten percent of sapient species survive this transition. As such, the Mage Republic, which we represent, works to seek out these newly awakened worlds, retrieving the sapients and relocating them to worlds that have already stabilized, giving them the tools and training they need to make a new home for themselves.

“You may have noticed that not everyone you know is here with you. This is because not everyone is capable of embracing mana, and those who can't will not be able to help you claim your new world. Their presence would only risk their lives and the lives of those who must protect and provide for them. Rest assured, they will be taken care of to the best of our abilities until you are in a position to take care of them yourselves and the sooner you claim your new world, the sooner you will be able to see them again. To further that goal, this ship is designed to simulate the conditions you will face when you arrive. Various challenges are spread across it which you must complete to gain resources and privileges. The better you do, the faster you will grow, and the more comfortable your life will be. You are also free to compete with each other as you wish. The only rule we enforce is that you must not kill one another. Otherwise, your culture is your own.” The woman finished, disappearing along with the rest of her group.

“I wonder how much of that is true.” Greg muttered, causing Tessa to jump and look around for him, finding him standing on her shoulder in his tiny form, having transformed from her necklace. It was really lucky he'd given that to her. Though he also sensed the glass he'd given to the bird girl and spider girl, along with Tina's clothes, and the smoke he'd tagged a bunch of ferals with… and Tessa's clothes, he noted, now that he was paying attention. He had a lot of smoke out there, didn't he? “Cause they lied at least twice as far as I can tell.”

Tessa frowned. “They lied?”

Greg hesitated, looking around at the crowd. “I'll explain later. We should get somewhere quiet first.”

Tessa gave him a worried look, but nodded. She had no idea what was going on, but she needed to get Sarah somewhere safe. Then she could deal with the idea that the people who kidnapped who knows how many people in an instant might be lying. She shivered slightly, looking around until she spotted the image of a sparkling unicorn floating in the air. “Come on, we need to meet up with the rest of the squad.” She announced, waving for Jennifer, Sarah, and Tina to follow her, taking the lead while Jennifer guarded the back, fending off any particularly motivated men with her still bladed arms, everyone giving them a wide berth. Thankfully no one seemed particularly interested in making a fuss after getting abducted by magic aliens.

“There you are!” Victor greeted them as they arrived under the unicorn, finding him, Brittany, and Carlos waiting. “Greg, please tell me you dissolved a bed at some point.”

“I mean, I didn't, but I'm still on Earth, so I can just go find a bed and do it now.” Greg replied.

“Sweet.” Victor nodded in satisfaction. “I was not looking forward to jumping through these peoples hoops just so I can get a bed.”

“Wait, hold on, why are you still on Earth?!? And why are you only six inches tall!?!” Brittany asked incredulously.

Victor gasped. “Brittany! You can't just ask someone why they're six inches tall!”

Greg rolled his eyes. “Basically whatever they used to teleport only worked on my solid bits, so my smoke is still on Earth. And… I just happened to be six inches tall when everything happened, so this is all that came with me.”

Brittany blinked. “You just happened to be six inches tall?”

Greg nodded hesitantly, searching for a good explanation only to realize he already had a perfect one. “I went out to check out the day ferals and ended up fighting this feral that could control gravity or something. I couldn't even move in my big forms so I got tiny so I could at least run around. Didn't particularly help with the fight, honestly, but I didn't see much point in getting big just to get crushed again, so… here we are.”

Tessa glanced at Greg suspiciously, wondering why he was lying and concerned that he seemed to be so good at it. Was whatever secret he was hiding really that big a deal? For that matter, where was his body? Why hadn't it shown up with her? A pit began to form in her stomach as she began to put together the implications.

“The real question is what are they telling the ferals.” Greg muttered, staring off into the distance. The aliens weren't dumb or cruel enough to force the two sides together right off the bat it seemed.

Carlos blinked. “They got the ferals too?”

“Yeah, like… ten? miles that way.” Greg gestured vaguely in the direction he sensed his smoke.

“Wait, ten miles?” Victor asked skeptically. “How big is this thing?”

“No clue, but if I had to guess, probably at least twice that?” Greg offered. “Cause I’d buy those walls being about five miles away, and we can assume they're probably in a similar chamber, right?”

Victor paused, then nodded. “Checks out, sure.”

“What checks out?” Casey asked as she arrived, dragging along Emily, letting out an exasperated sigh as she caught sight of Greg. “Damn it, Greg, why are you tiny?!?”

“Shit happened and I aint explaining it again.” Greg replied. “I'm tiny, deal with it.”

“What are we dealing with?” Jake asked, arriving with Meredith for some reason.

“I am tiny. It's not a big deal. Literally just going to go eat one of the trees in a bit, and I'll be fine.” Greg explained, gesturing towards the nearby forest. The area they were in seemed to be split into four sections, one of which was a green leafy biome, another which was a rocky mountainous biome, and the other two being thinner strips filled with buildings. Annoyingly, for Greg at least, the strips weren't in line with each other, making the leafy region larger and the mountain zone smaller.

“Okay…” Jake muttered, before shaking his head. “Does anyone have any idea what the fuck is going on?”

“Didn't you listen to the blue lady?” Victor asked. “We're an endangered species and we're being conserved. It's pretty simple.”

“I got that but why?!?” Jake asked, frustration clear in his tone. “Why are they doing this, why did they just take us, and what do they want from us!?!”

Victor grinned. “Could you rephrase that last one as a why question? For symmetry.”

Jake glared at him while Greg cocked his head thoughtfully. “Why… are we valuable to them?” He offered.

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Jake groaned. “Would you two please take this seriously?!?”

Victor snorted. “Why? Aliens just abducted us like it was nothing, and they could dump us in space just as easily. It's pretty clear we're stuck going along with whatever they want, so why worry about it?”

Greg nodded. “Honestly, even if they flat out told us they were taking us to their homeworld to work as slaves in their mana crystal mines, what would we do about it? Not get stronger? Refuse to learn from them? Kill ourselves before they can?”

“Well no, but… I don't know, at least we'd know we have to do something!” Jake retorted.

“Like what, get strong enough to tame a wild planet warped by mana?” Victor rolled his eyes.

Jake froze, looking lost, and Tessa sighed. “Why don't we focus on figuring out what we're doing now.” She suggested. “Specifically, how are we going to keep Sarah safe?”

Everyone turned to look at the nervous looking girl. “That- is a good question.” Victor muttered, oddly serious.

“Why do you need to keep her safe?” Meredith asked skeptically.

“Because unlike you, people actually find her attractive.” Victor replied, unable to resist the opportunity to throw in a dig.

Meredith sneered. “I knew you were scum, but I didn't think you were a pedophile.”

Victor froze. “Shit, walked right into that one, didn't I?” He sighed. “Anyway, her ability makes her incredibly attractive to the opposite sex. Which, you know, shouldn't be an issue, but… Well, as much as it pains me to admit this, you should be more than aware of the type of trouble that could come her way.”

Meredith narrowed her eyes, giving Sarah a calculating look. “I see… And you've been hiding her?”

“Duh. What else would we have done?” Victor rolled his eyes.

Meredith snorted. “Men. You see a beautiful woman and you think she should hide herself away, so you don't have to deal with it!” She turned to Sarah with a serious look. “Attraction is a tool, and if you don't make use of it, someone else will. Take pride in their attention and use it to destroy anyone who crosses you!”

Sarah blinked. “Wh- What?”

Tessa glared at Meredith. “If you think you're going to turn Sarah into a little you-”

“What's her alternative?” Meredith retorted, crossing her arms. “Staying hidden for the rest of her life, never interacting with anyone for fear of what they might do? Is that really the life you want her to live? Or would you rather see her empowered?”

Tessa grimaced. “I-”

“False dichotomy.” Greg cut her off. “I agree that Sarah can't keep hiding, but that doesn't mean she needs to use her power to manipulate people. We just need to find a way to make her untouchable. Manipulation is one way to do it but it can't be the only way.”

Meredith huffed. “Anything else would force her to rely on someone else for her protection. Why should she do that when she's perfectly capable of protecting herself?”

“Because she's not a bitch?” Victor offered.

Meredith glared at him for a moment, before turning away, not even deigning to respond as she focused on Sarah again. “What do you want? I can teach you how to control your own life, or you can continue to be dependent on others. It's your choice.”

Sarah hesitated. “I- I want to be able to trust people… I don't- I don't think I could do that if I was always manipulating them.”

Meredith visibly flinched at that, her eyes widening as she stared at Sarah. “I see…”

Victor snorted. “Well, as fun as that was, it didn't exactly get us anywhere, so does anyone else have any ideas?”

“I can make us a shelter to at least get her out of sight for now.” Greg offered. “Which, honestly, should probably be our first move no matter what we do.”

Jake let out a relieved sigh, finally finding a direction he could focus on. “Right, let's do that. Let's head to the mountain region, since it looks like everyone is going to the forest. Victor, Brittany, the two of you should go check out what those buildings are for. We'll make a base by… that cliff, got it?” Jake pointed towards a cliff a good distance into the mountainous region.

“Got it.” Brittany confirmed, Victor nodding along.

“Are Meredith and… Erica?” Greg glanced at Emily hesitantly. “Uh, are the two of you staying with us? I need to know how many rooms to make.”

Casey glared at him. “Emily is staying with us, but we can share a room.”

“I will stay with you at least until we figure out the nature of these challenges or I find a more promising team.” Meredith replied noncommittally.

Victor snorted. “I think the better question is do we want you around?”

Jake coughed. “It wouldn't hurt to have a healer around until we get a better idea of what's going on, right?”

Victor narrowed his eyes at him. “You aren't wrong… But why do I get the feeling you're not making this decision due to logic?”

“Victor, enough.” Greg interjected before Jake could answer. “Meredith is useful to have around, and she hasn't done anything to fuck with us, so stop focusing on old grudges and let's get to work.”

Victor sighed. “Fine. C'mon Brit, let's go do some scouting.”

Brittany scowled. “I told you not to call me that!”

“But it's so convenient!” Victor snickered as they walked off. “I save a whole syllable!”

*

“Okay, turns out that dissolving shit does increase my strain.” Greg grimaced, only halfway through making their base but utterly incapable of continuing. “Maybe if I went for a second floor?” It didn't seem to cost him anything to create stuff, the issue was just digging out all the rock. He had plenty of smoke now, so all he had to do was build on top of what he'd already dug out, and it should be good? He turned into a cloud, moving through the ceiling and starting to create the second floor, doing what he could to blend it in with the rest of the cliff. They weren't exactly trying to hide, but Jake insisted they do their best to not draw attention, and Greg honestly couldn't argue against it. No need to stand out if they didn't have to.

Once Greg finished with the second floor, he put a bed in each room and created some stairs down to the living room, floating down and reforming his body, falling onto the couch next to Tessa. “And done.” He announced with a satisfied smile, putting an arm around Tessa's shoulders as everyone froze, staring at him wide-eyed. “What? Surprised by how fast I was?”

“Shit yeah, dude!” Carlos exclaimed. “You've only been around for like a week!”

Greg blinked. “Eh?”

“How- how did this happen?” Jake asked, looking pale.

“Smoke?” Greg replied, not feeling any less confused.

“When did this happen?” Meredith asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Just now?” Greg answered, starting to get the feeling they weren't talking about the base.

“Congratulations!” Casey squealed, jumping up to give him and Tessa a hug as Greg finally realized what everyone was getting so worked up about. “I'm so happy for you two!”

Tessa rolled her eyes, flushing as she pushed Casey away. “We just started dating.” She grumbled. “It isn't like we got engaged.”

Casey smiled. “Well I'm still happy for you. Particularly Greg! Honestly, I was beginning to think you'd never realize a girl likes you.”

Tessa couldn't help but snort at that, quickly covering her mouth as her flush deepened and Greg chuckled. “I didn't really have much of an option. She kinda beat me over the head with it.”

Casey rolled her eyes. “I figured, and I'm still impressed you picked up on it.” She turned to Tessa. “How much did it take?”

“I asked him point blank what he looks for in a woman and what he thought about me, and I still had to jump in his lap and kiss him before he got it.” Tessa sighed, shaking her head in exasperation, though she couldn't keep a small smile from her lips.

“In my defense, it wasn't that I couldn't see the signals, I just could fathom the idea that I literally just told her I just flat out don't care about people, and she still liked me. Honestly, it still doesn't make too much sense to me, though I admit there is some logic to it.” Greg commented.

“All that matters is if you care about me.” Tessa retorted. “And you do, don't you?”

“Oh, big time.” Greg grinned.

Tessa nodded in satisfaction. “Good.”

The room fell silent for a moment as everyone processed that, Jake looking a little sick, Meredith examining the two of them with a calculating look, Casey watching them proudly while Carlos and Emily didn't seem all that invested. Sarah looked like she didn't quite know what to make of it, and as for Jennifer and Tina… “What's dating?” Tina asked. The ferals didn't exactly have a great grasp on relationships.