Lory had made her way to the front of the gate, where some warrior Minites had gathered. Haley and I were still on her back. The enemies were still far enough that we could walk through their ranks, assuring we come to help. Then we came across a familiar face. I gasped, “Abby?”

She looked at me. “Steve? Lory!? And who the fuck are you.”

I jumped off and walked over to her. She looked at my left arm, or where it was supposed to be. “What happened to you?”

I put my right hand on her cheek, “Wow, you look exactly like I remember.”

Abby chuckled, “I know it has been three weeks, but damn Steve, you don’t have to be that dramatic.”

Lory giggled behind me. I looked at them, “Oh, I am being rude, let me introduce you.” Haley jumped off and walked over to Abby. She spread her demon wings, which scared Abby, and some Minites, then Haley showed her tail, before stretching her hand, just like we had learned her.

Abby took her hand, “Hello, my name is Abby Mercer.”

Haley smiled, “My name is Haley Rockwell, any friend of my mom and dad, is a friend of mine.”

Lory walked forward, “It is good to see you, Abby, you may call me, Lory, you earned it.”

She did a step back, “Hold on, did she say, mom and dad?”

Haley nodded, “That is correct. My mother took my father’s last name when they got married.”

Abby shook her head, “What kind of prank is this?”

I sighed, “It is complicated Abby, Lory and I have been gone for more than 48 years.”

Lory looked around, “Where is Funk?”

Abby just stared at us, “He is back in Brickton. I came here to pick up materials,” she pointed at the monster army. “They showed up, I volunteered to help. Why does Haley have a purple tail?”

Haley sighed, “Dad, how honest can I be with her?”

I looked at Haley, “Trust her as you trusted our family.” Haley nodded, and gave Abby a hug.

Haley clasped her wings around Abby, after she let go, she looked at the army. “We don’t have long before they arrive. Mom and dad were captured in the void and put in an alternate reality. They had no memories of their other life until they returned here. They had me, and since I did not have a body in the real world, the void provided. For the last eighteen years, I have been in a womb of the void. Time goes faster in the void, much faster.”

Abby just started catching flies. Lory looked at Haley, “I think you may have overloaded her brain.”

Haley sighed, “I miss Valentine, she would have a remarkable way to shock Abby even more.”

Lory nodded, “I know, Munchkin.”

I heard some zooming, some kind of bee monster came closer. Without even properly looking, I drew my gun and shot it, straight through it’s head. Abby looked at the bee monster crashing down. “Steve?”

“Yes?”

“Why do you have a gun?”

“Because, I am a secret agent.”

Lory chuckled. Haley shook her head, “We need to focus on the battle.”

Abby nodded and drew a pitch-black sword, and black tentacles came out of her wrist that tightly gripped the handle, seems she can use them better now. Her sword is very long, thick, and smooth.

“Lory?”

“Yes?”

“In what form do you want to battle?”

“This one is fine, jump on.” I did so with ease. I looked at Haley, “What are you going to do?”

She let out a deep sigh, “This is my first real battle. Just cover me a bit.”

“Haley?”

“Yes?”

“Trust in yourself, you can beat me in battle. You can use the void, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, where are they coming from?”

“Void portals?”

“Oh.” She smiled and nodded.

Abby looked at me, “Hold on, she has the void element?”

Haley nodded, “Let’s go!” She ran forward.

I sighed, “She might be an experienced fighter, but she has seen barely any real combat.” Lory started running towards the monsters. The first monster we encountered was some kind of giant fire scorpion with two stingers. As the stingers came down, Lory jumped to the side. I aimed my gun and infused energy into the bullet, then I fired only two bullets. The scorpion only has two eyes, when my bullets hit and blood splattered everywhere, it had no eyes left.

Abby jumped on the scorpion, it tried to sting Abby, but instead it stung itself. Abby jammed her sword down into the scorpion, it got drained of all life. Lory gasped, “Holy crap, did you see that, Steve?”

“Yes, that is, creepy. We should go see if Haley needs help.”

Lory nodded and started running towards Haley. She seemed to be doing just fine, slicing up enemies left and right. A tarbosaurus that seemed to be on fire came her way, Haley could not react to it properly. I created a silver wall to block the tarbosaurus that tried to chomp on her. Haley looked at me, she smiled. Then we saw Abby run towards the tarbosaurus. She jumped, right into its mouth.

“Lory?”

“Yes, we should go save her.”

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“That is a good idea.” We ran over to the tarbosaurus, crossing Haley, who seemed to be killing some kind of chicken.

As the tarbosaurus tried to chomp on us, Lory jumped aside, I pointed my gun and used it to fire an energy beam with dark energy. It did not seem to like that. I tucked away my gun, and spawned a silver blade as a claw came our way. Just in time, I managed to block it. Haley ran past us, shooting a void beam at the tarbosaurus. It got knocked over, it twitched and tried to get up. When it suddenly died. A huge black tentacle erupted out of the tarbosaurus, a blood geyser joined the eruption.

Abby climbed out. “Woah, that was fucking wonderful!”

Lory and I looked at her, covered in blood and gore. Some kind of bee came for Abby, a black tentacle erupted from her wrist and it suffocated the bee. Haley seemed to make a beeline for the void portal that spewed out mobs.

We slaughtered more mobs, Abby seemed to have gone a bit off the deep end. She thoroughly enjoyed combat, there was not a single drop of fear left in her of getting hurt. But, she seemed to be the same old Abby, just, batshit crazy. Haley stopped in front of the void portal, she stretched both of her hands. Lory and I ran over to her, killing some kobolds on the way, we covered her with energy beams, I shot them out my sword, since I have no free hand. Just before the portal closed, a huge, giant T-rex came out of it.

Haley gasped as she tried to grab her sword, but the T-rex swept his tail and Haley got launched away. She used her wings to minimize the damage from getting launched away.

The other monsters seemed to have lost their will to fight, and slowly started to retreat. Not the T-rex. I pulled out my gun as I let my sword vanish. As Lory ran towards the T-rex, I started shooting. The bullets hit, and a bit of blood leaked out. However, the T-rex did not seem to be bothered. It roared and a stream of fire got launched our way.

Lory dodged just in time, but a claw hit us, and we got launched away. Then I saw Abby ran over to the T-rex. “Hey mothersucker.”

When I looked closer at Abby, she seemed to have a bandolier with grenades. “Lory, get up, we need to stop Abby.” She slowly scrounged herself up, despite being hurt by that blow. We looked at the T-rex, it chomped down on Abby before we could even move. She vanished, and we heard crunching sounds.

Lory gasped, “I don’t think she made it, Steve. Sorry.”

Haley walked over, “Oh fuck.”

I looked at her, “What did I say about cursing?”

Haley looked at the giant T-rex coming our way. “Dad?”

“Yes?”

“That T-rex just ate your friend, and it is coming our way, any plans?”

“Yes, we need to bundle our energy, and then we might be-” before I could finish my sentence, a massive explosion rocked the T-rex from the inside out. Haley, Lory and I made a shield around us as guts, gore and whatever, flew everywhere.

As the explosion died down, I looked at Haley, “Are you alright?”

She nodded, “A few scratches and bruises.”

I looked at Lory, “How about you, dear?”

“About the same. Is Abby, dead? How are we going to tell Funk, she died?”

I shed a tear, and it fell on Lory’s fur. “I just thought we had found a friend again, then she does something stupid like that. We could have killed it by bundling our powers.”

Lory walked over to the T-rex's corpse. I saw Haley starting to loot other monsters for some gold and miscellaneous items. Lory sighed, “Do you think, there is a piece of Abby left?”

“How should I know?”

Lory climbed on top of T-rex, and started digging. I called out, “Abby? Is there any chance you survived that, maybe a shield?”

Lory kept digging for about ten minutes. She sighed, “I am sorry, Steve, I can’t find her.” Suddenly, an arm came out of the corpse and grabbed Lory’s front paw. She yelped and jumped back, I had to grab her fur to hold on. We looked at Abby crawl out of the corpse. Haley looked over and quickly ran our way. Abby laughed like a maniac. “That was insane! Did you see me die!?”

All three of us, just, stared at her. She scratched her head, “Did I worry you?”

We all nodded. “Sorry, I can’t die anyway.”

“Wait, what?”

Abby grabbed a blanket out of her inventory. “I am immortal, motherfucker.”

I cleared my throat. “Language Abby.”

She looked at Haley, “Sorry, not sorry.”

Lory walked over and sniffed Abby. Abby petted Lory, “It is really me. Don’t worry, I cannot die.”

Haley shook her head, “But, how?”

Abby shrugged, “How should I know?”

I pulled out my gun, “I am aching to test it.” Abby sighed and grabbed my gun, she put it against her head and pulled the trigger. Haley grabbed my gun and gave it back to me. We waited, and waited. After about ten minutes, black smoke covered Abby and she stood up. She spawned another blanket and pulled it over her.

Haley looked at me, “That is awesome.”

I nodded, “It is. Abby?”

“Yes?”

“I understand your frenzy in battle now, there is no fear of dying. We should get to Brickton.”

Abby nodded, “The wagon with materials will be ready tomorrow. We should go to the inn.”

“Abby?”

“Yes?”

“It is good to see you again after all these years, I missed you the most.”

She smiled, “It has only been three weeks for me, but, I also missed you a lot.”