The emergency medical transport flew off and Penny’s teary-eyed face was in her hands as she turned around and shuffled back into the building leaving the side door open a crack. Almost immediately, she straightened up and her sad face changed to one of vengeful glee.

The trio had set up the delivery entrance to be a bit of an unfriendly welcome for when their visitors inevitably arrived. After Elphina’s healing via Penny-made brew, the ladies agreed almost immediately to Rory’s idea. Following that was a debate between the pair of women in regards to what sorts of things they could concoct to cause their visitors troubles.

Rory had emphasized strongly that all the invaders needed to die. “Listen, a message needs to be sent. I know how they think. You can’t just slap the wrist of people like this, Elphina. And don’t for a second believe I won’t be sending a similar message to their partners in your product providers later on. They poisoned you and that has to be answered with force or they’ll just do it again. Or worse.” It was those later people who were the ones who did the actual poisoning according to Elphina. They had used something on the surface of the packages she picked up from them. A “contact contaminant” she had called it. Gloves were in her future, no doubt.

Elphina had pushed back against killing, disagreeing with Rory’s perspective and insisting that it would only escalate things. It was Penny who had piped in and sided with Rory. She had felt very strongly that they all needed to die. While Penny was usually a pretty calm little lady, it turned out she could be quite vindictive when it came to protecting her grandmother.

In the end, Elphina agreed and acquiesced under Rory's and Penny’s insistence, and she had created a few things that would end whoever breathed them in and hadn’t taken the antidote – which the three of them obviously had.

Elphina said it would be terribly messy and not smell very good and just might make the three of them vomit. Rory had started to express his concerns of those things considering he was supposed to be protected by an antidote, but Elphina had told him to stop complaining because it wasn’t like there were hours or days to make something quick and clean.

It turned out the old woman was apparently quite the savant at producing deadly things, although she hated doing it with a passion. According to her, it disgraced her craft. All that being said, she had made the concoctions and had accepted what was to come.

Thus, Rory and the two alchemists were in the delivery entrance, behind some crates that had been emptied of anything important and stuffed with trash instead.

Nearly ten minutes passed and Rory was getting a bit nervous. “I suppose I could be wrong. Maybe they didn’t plan on—”

The door smashed inward and a whole bunch of people charged through it. “Search the place. Grab the girl,” were the only words spoken.

Rory, Penny, and Elphina all threw the scarred bottles they had prepared and then ducked back behind the crates. They crashed open and brown and blue smoke blew into the air. Balls of plasma shot above their heads, hitting the walls, floor, ceiling, crates, shelves, and anything else in sight.

That was when the coughing started. And then the gagging and vomiting. Then the falling over, choking, and relieving of bladder and bowels.

Rory looked over at them with a crinkled nose. “Really?”

Elphina glared at him and gave him a poke with a boney finger. “Don’t complain at me, young man.”

Penny took out a cloth and wrapped it around her face. Then she handed one to her grandmother and Rory. He thanked her and started to put it on, smelling something bitter. It was an awful lot better than the stench those guys were exuding though.

Struggling to get the thing tied behind his head, Rory decided to put his hair up in the small tail that Steph loved, using the band she had given him. Incidentally, Rory wore it up most of the time now, liking the feel as much as keeping it out of his face. Well, except when he went to see Steph, which was as often as he could. She liked to put it up herself before he got measured, and he liked it when she did.

“Are you seriously daydreaming right now?” Penny said as she pushed Rory in the chest.

He blinked at her and blushed furiously. He mumbled, “Sorry.”

Her angry response was turned into a scream when a something thumped into their protective crate and tumbled over it. A man, far too pale and bleeding from the eyes and ear with vomit stuck to his lips and chin looked up at Rory from floor. He hands shakily reached up towards him, his black-nailed fingers spasming to clench and unclench like claws. Then the nails, black with death, started falling off of his hands like dried paint.

Penny screamed again and fell backwards while Rory was frozen in shock. He had never seen anyone look like that before. He’d killed, yes. He’d seen dead bodies, sure. Many actually. But he, in all his years in the slums, had never seen a living human just fall apart in front of him.

Thankfully, Elphina reacted when neither he nor Penny did. She took a long curved knife, gripped it in her hand, grabbed a handful of the man’s hair, which had started to peel off his scalp, and stab him under his chin and into what remained of his brain.

After a moment, Rory blinked himself free of the macabre scene and looked up into Elphina’s eyes. They, however, were looking down at the man, expressionless and emotionless. Rory looked over at Penny whose own eyes were wide with shock.

Elphina withdrew the knife with a squelching sound and wiped it on a clean area of cloth on the man’s shirt. She then lifted her head then and looked at her granddaughter and she looked sad for a moment. Then she looked at Rory and looked serious.

“Sometimes we have to take actions we hate to protect what we love,” she said to him in slow serious tone. “You know that as well as I do, young man.”

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Rory thought about that statement and then nodded. He did know. He’d been living it since he was ten.

Reaching down and placing a hand on the leg of the body, Rory pulled it into his vault. Then they waited silently until the noises stopped. “Stay here,” Rory ordered. “Let me check that it’s safe.”

They nodded and he climbed over the now hole-filled crates they had hidden behind and coughed at the awful stench that passed through the mask and whatever concoction Penny had soaked it with.

He counted eight bodies inside the delivery room, most around the door and clearly attempting escape. It just as clearly failed as outside the door there were two more bodies. They had managed to leave the building but had not gotten get far.

Checking their faces, Rory noticed that none of them looked like the guys from the other day.

Rory winced to himself as he touched each on the wrist to confirming they were dead, he then sent them all into his vault for disposal in the jungle.

Rory walked back to Elphina and held out his hand. She handed him another bottle with a top that allowed for liquids to dribble out when turned upside down. She had said it had originally been for salad dressing when he asked. Shaking his head, he went around dribbling whatever the bloody hell Elphina had concocted all over the mess on the floor. It caused the disgusting stuff left over to be repelled from the flexcrete and bead up, allowing for an easy clean-up of all the evidence.

Once all the physical evidence was gone, Rory waved the red door a few times to disperse the fumes and stench.

“All clear,” Rory called once back inside. “Let’s finished cleaning up your delivery room.”

***

Two hours later, a freshly showered and clothed Rory was entering Cosmica Engineering to see his favorite brunette. He was not in a great mood and felt he could really use some relaxing time with music and pleasant conversation

Rory was both disappointed and surprised that Steph wasn’t at the desk when he got there. It was some other lady, a blond in her mid-twenties without an inscription. She was also good-looking but nowhere close to Steph’s standards in Rory’s opinion. She smiled professionally at his approach.

“Stephanie not working today?” he asked her.

The woman’s face fell and then looked angry at the question. “No,” she responded curtly.

Thinking whatever her problem was, wasn’t his problem, he just went ahead with his other business. “Can you please tell Mr. Forsythe that Rory is here to see him?”

Her glare never faulted as she answered. “Mr. Forsythe is a very busy man. Why would he have time for the likes of you?”

Rory blinked at her.

Wow!

Deciding he had had enough assholes for one day, Rory growled through gritted teeth, “Please call him.”

“What?” she said through a sneer. “You a friend of the little princess so you think you can just boss us all around? Do it yourself.”

What was she on about? Whatever. This woman clearly hated Steph and he had run out of patience with just about everything today. “Fine!” he snapped at her.

Rory turned around and walked to where the branch manager had taken him last time. Before he even got halfway down the hall, Mr. Forsythe shot out of his office like something was attacking him in there and smiled at Rory.

“Master Rory!” he called welcomingly. “What a pleasant surprise. It is completely unnecessary for you to come all the way back here to get me. Just let someone out front know and they’ll comm me.”

Rory opened his mouth to respond when the man’s face lit up and he said, “In fact. Why don’t I just give you my direct contact and you don’t even have to worry about it again.”

What is going on today? Okay. Today was not his fault. Don’t take it out on him.

“Thank you, Mr. Forsythe,” Rory said through a thin smile. “Can we head into your office? Do you have time for me?”

He stepped aside and pointed him in. “Of course, of course! Come in and let’s talk. You seem somewhat perturbed. Perhaps I can help.”

After they were back at the round table in his office, Rory stared. “I noticed Stephanie isn't working today. Is everything okay?”

His smile got a little stiff. “Nothing is wrong per se. She’s occasionally called away for her expertise is all. Have no fear though. All indications are that she will have returned by your next measuring day.”

Rory nodded, confused but satisfied with the answer.

Well, she is brilliant after all.

Comforted with that thought, Rory nodded and spoke. “I came here for business actually. But before that, I wanted to share why I came down to your office myself.” He told the story exactly as it happened with no embellishment or commentary. It didn’t need any in his opinion.

The man’s face darkened. Literally. The shade of his skin became darker. Like a purple. When Rory was finished, Forsythe spoke through pursed lips. “Master Rory. I cannot apologize enough for our employee’s behavior. Please believe me when I say her views are not shared by me, this store, Ms. Stephanie, or Cosmica. I can assure you, the matter will be handled. I will think of some sort of appropriate compensation for the insult.”

To Rory, he looked honestly mortified, which was probably fair. The woman really did not represent the company or her manager very well.

Nodding, Rory smiled. “Thank you. I’ll take your word for it. Since you brought up compensation, perhaps we can discuss that very thing. I’ve come upon something that I wanted to get your take on. It’s the body of a creature with skin I think could be used to make armors. Understanding that I’m not in any way an expert – or even proficient on the topic really – I wonder if the concept at least might interest you.”

The man’s eyebrows rose and he looked thrilled. “Of course, of course! If it’s anything even remotely like your previous product, I can assure you Cosmica is interested.”

“How is that going by the way?” Rory asked. “The material I mean.”

His face lit up like Rory had just asked if he had wanted a present. “It is quite an extraordinary substance. We have been able to discover some wonderful properties. By the time you are ready to order your armor, I expect we will be able to provide a detailed assessment of its capabilities. And please allow me to share that I am supremely confident the end product will be extraordinary.”

Obviously Rory was thrilled to hear that. “That’s great news!” he said happily. Then he refocused. “So, about this new creature… it’s rather large. Really bloody big actually. Should we head back to where I provided the last material and you can have your people check it out? That should have enough space. If Cosmica likes it, we can talk about the price. If not, it cost us nothing but some time and a conversation.”

The man smiled even wider and asked Rory to follow him. They went back to the same location as before only to find the snake gropers were there. One of them was licking his lips. Rory shuddered.

They better not have done anything creepy to Lucifer.

Accepting it was beyond his control now, and not caring in the least about this new snake, Rory dropped it out of his ring and onto the floor with a thwoomp. The seventy-foot brown monstrosity lay before them, the green tail of another snake still sticking out of its mouth. The gropers stared at it, looking disappointed.

One walked slowly up and touched its skin with some machine that looked like a black rectangular rod with two M-steel prods at the end and a small projector facing the man that Rory could not see. After a few seconds looking at the projected display, the tester guy leaped backward and everyone jerked, staring at him.

He stared at it, open-mouthed. Then he turned to the others, and bellowed, “What are you gits just standing there for? Get to bloody work! And be careful with it or you’ll be looking for a new job!”

And thus the serpent groping commenced. Rory sighed and turned toward Mr. Forsythe, not able to watch.

“This will take a few minutes,” he said to Rory while bouncing once on his toes and overall seeming quite pleased. “Why don’t we go back to my office while we wait for the results?” Rory nodded to him and followed.