"Dakota, I'd like to give your garage a gift." I met her eyes. Pretty sure she was only half as crazy as she played at appearing.

"What the wind brings, I won't refuse." She shrugged. So, I'm the wind, huh. We'll see about that.

I had the Probes assemble my latest creation above the roof of her Garage. I was tentatively calling it a War Pylon.

Three double sized Khaydarin Crystals merged into a single unit. Two half again sized rotating control rings, each with three blue glowing hard points beside which floated half size Photon Cannons emitters. Its huge Psifield dampened only by the equally huge cloaking field. It served as a defensive turret, concealment, energy supply and communications relay. Its range reached all the way back to New Lordaeron. A very useful multipurpose structure.

It was beautiful.

"So ugly." Dakota grunted.

I almost shot her right then and there.

She turned back towards me. Startled she looked all around. It was like she lost something. Heh.

Of course, she couldn't see me or anyone I came with. Even our vehicles seemed to have vanished.

The confusion was glorious. They started searching frantically for any sign of where we had gone.

I had the field exclude us for now. They all jumped again as we just reappeared. Ha.

"While my baby is active, no one can spy on us. If by some miracle they did find a way to see through the cloaking field, they'd be blasted by the cannons." I glared at her. My ingenuity called ugly.

Megan squeezed a bit to get me to refocus. It worked even if I still grumbled about ungrateful wenches.

Dakota looked at the Pylon then back at me. She smiled like she had won the lottery. "Good job, Medicine Man."

Scoffing at her antics, I pulled Megan in for a kiss as I had the Pylon cover everyone with the cloaking field. As far as any satellite was concerned there was nothing here, just more desert.

"Now we are almost ready to get down to business." I called everyone attention back to me. "But first..."

Several of the teens we had brought along unloaded the water barrels and crates of food. I gestured to the pile. "I come bearing gifts."

They all examined the piles. Some took cups of water from a quickly opened barrel. Exclamations rang out at its purity and flavor. Moon Well water always tasted sweet and tickled the tongue.

That's right, I had the best water.

Grills where quickly erected and soon after a cook out started up. The smell of sizzling beef and roasting corn and potatoes wafted over the area.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Like my Mom always said it's better to start with a meal. Then you know that when people are being rude it isn't because they are hungry, that's just how they are.

Well except the guy still trying to kill me with his eyeballs. I lean my head down to Megan's ear, "Who's Grumpy over there?"

"Hmmm? Oh, that's Saul. Panam's dad." I could feel her grin, "He's not going to like you, might as well get used to the idea. To be fair, he wouldn't have liked you even before you rocked his daughter's world. He's too cautious and thrives on control."

"Lovely." I muttered.

Once everyone had been fed, we started the negotiations.

Since I didn't really want anything from them, it was pretty simple.

All I asked from them was news from other cities and the shifting condition in the wilds between them. Well that and their friendship.

In return they would get access to any Outpost I built, a cut of any trades they help to transport, and most importantly knowledge of where some of the hidden reservoirs where once they where built. I threw in preferred trading status for any products, including food, made in any of my future locations.

I showed off my the modifications to my Omaha and armor. While excellent I didn't expect that to blow their minds. Though the shield got a lot of attention.

Sally showed off the new Special Operation Rifle based off Raynor's huge weapon. I hadn't realized it at the time, but the damned thing was a gauss rifle, launching depleted uranium rounds. The ability to precisely manipulate magnetic fields of the Khalai tech as well as substituting crysbronze alloy bullets took the weapon from devastating to anti-tank nightmare levels. Not only was it half the weight, it could fire almost as fast as a Copperhead.

When Raynor first fired the new model his comment was, "Ultralisk, who?" No idea what or who an Ultralisk was, but Jim seemed impressed.

Still a little too large for indoor work, but I had a cut down model on my too do list along with a new full auto shotgun design.

They loved the ridiculous damage and low recoil. Who wouldn't?

I wasn't ready to show off the power armor yet, but I wasn't going to hold it back from my allies either. I just wanted to get its functions smoothed out and some safeguards worked out for if anyone turned on me.

Hey, I'm new to this not stupid.

When the show and tell portion was over, I presented a simple contract clearly stating the aforementioned terms. All in plain, everyday English.

Wouldn't you know it, most signed on the spot. I had no illusions that it was due to my winning personality, or even my amazing goods on offer. No, it was that Amanda trusted me. Everything else was just frosting.

Still a few wanted something else.

At first I thought it was greed, but no, they just wanted to wait until I had "proven" myself to them. Alright, I told them that if they defined what that meant I'd be happy to prove myself.

The hazing that followed was more annoying than anything else. A lot of silly little fucking tasks design to embarrass me, or make me uncomfortable. I put up with it for a few hours before I just started laughing after they wanted me to do the Chipmunk song and dance for the zillionth time.

Then there was the drinking. I had to drink them under the table. Not that there was a table just a camp fire that we had to avoid stumbling into after a few bottles had made the rounds.

Argh, never drinking again. Just kidding Regrowth and Purify took care of all the trouble and Cleanse cleared up the mess. By that point, I enjoyed watching them all have a few moments of extreme discombobulation.

Finally everyone had signed except Saul. He said he'd sign if I let him punch me as hard as he could.

I thought about shooting him and just dealing with Panam afterwards. Nah, she'd probably be pissed.

So, I let him pop me one right in the kisser. My new high body stat made it not so bad. Sure it hurt, but no where near as bad as it should have. I suspect my face did more damage to his fist than the reverse. I started him in the eyes the whole time, trying to let him know I was going to pay him back one day.

He kept his word and signed the damned contract.

1000 Company Points and an Adjutant Token richer. Go me.

Was it worth it?