"Why are we allowing this?" the bartender asked for the eighth time.

"Because this way you don't have to get wet doing deliveries out of the building," the manager huffed.

"It can't be sanitary!"

"Don't you know that they are some of the cleanest creatures in the world?" Jeb said, returning to his office and slamming the door. His voice carried through the thick wood. "Don't bug the new girl!"

"Very funny boss," Raul grumbled, turning to look into the kitchen where an ant that filled most of their loading dock was being weighed down with crates of freshly cooked meals for those stationed around the city.

"Come on, Anthony!" Daniela shouted, swatting her Fire Ant companion on the thorax. "You remember the directions, yes?"

The box-truck sized creature turned slightly and poked Danny's side with his antenna. She'd been delighted when Anthony came back from his trip to Wildwood at almost double his original size and all the way at Q5. The cook had been worried that as he grew stronger the connection they'd formed would begin to deteriorate. Thankfully, the no-longer-quite-so-baby Fire Ant had remained as affectionate as ever.

Of course, his arrival has caused quite a stir. It had taken a fair bit of threatening and paperwork to get the ant registered in Ocala. For some reason, they didn't believe that insectoid creatures were tameable at all due to their hive mentalities; they hadn't met Anthony. If puppies had exoskeletons, they might confuse them for Anthony.

Daniela spent a few more minutes making sure he understood the paths to the Crystal Wards set up and let him go. One of the staff of the Taste of Old had drawn the short stick and been lashed together with one of the crates to provide assistance and direction for the ant as needed. They'd originally wanted Daniela to go with the Fire Ant, but the Cloth Muscles had codes and authorizations that needed to be followed. Having a foreigner, however much of an ally Il Padre said they were, delivering to their fall back points during a hurricane was too hard to swallow. As a compromise, they'd leverage the brunette's powerful companion instead.

The fact that the creature was a higher Quotient worried the staff until Jeb the manager reminded everyone that they would prefer to have a strong escort thanks to the hurricane's straggling elements. In the brief time she'd been at the bar-inn-operation-center for the Zebelos she'd come to realize how effective Jeb was, even if it didn't seem like he did much. There was power in empowering your team.

"Stay safe, Rock Brain," she whispered to herself, glancing at her LPS where Ronan had just left its range.

"He'll be fine. Honestly, if anything can get through his thick skull we'll be in trouble," a voice carried in the wind.

With a growl that had everyone in the room looking for a predator, Daniela stormed out the still open loading door. Her shift started back up in less than thirty minutes and she's told Devon to cut it out with the snide comments. It was enough time. The drizzling rain evaporated before it got a chance to wet her clothes as she looked for the disturbed wind currents her boyfriend made when he used . When she did, a pair of materialized on either side of Devon's head and unglued him from where he'd been perched with a yelp. The makeshift flashbang tended to have that effect. Before he landed and snapped a bone, a gust of wind caught his shirt and hoisted him up. The garment ballooned as it had been designed to do, flaring out like a skydiving wingsuit.

"Rude," Devon huffed, straightening out to his full height. The range of motion his body was capable of was circus contortionist creepy and lent his stride a flowing cadence that drew Daniela's eyes despite her displeasure with the elf. Much like Ron, his Corporeal Threshold Traits had changed him. His personality... Not so much.

"I thought I told you to cut out the underhanded compliments," Daniela said, pivoting her Wisps to hound him. Despite the rain, what actually dripped down Devon's chin was sweat. He tugged at his Segmented Cowl and raised his hands up in surrender. "Him and I came to an understanding... Sort of."

"I'd rather it go away entirely. Yeah?" Daniela raised an immaculate eyebrow and pinned him with a look as the flames drew closer.

"Fine, fine! Come on, it's finally cool out here and you've got me sweating bullets!" Devon relented. He was smart enough not to use his own magic to try to dissipate his girlfriend's irritation.

"Good." Danny snapped her fingers and summoned her magic on either side of her. She caressed the two magic constructs and relished in the warmth before turning back to the elf awkwardly scratching at the back of his head. "Alright, you don't need to act like I kicked your dog. Just don't joke about my family."

"Heard some whispers," Devon said, shaking his head and drawing closer to the brunette. "Each of the Factions have pulled most of their hunting teams back."

"That's not surprising, we are supposed to fight the sky, haven't you heard?"

"Har har, Danny," Devon said, rolling his eyes. "I've got a count on their number and let's just say my arithmetic skills aren't bad enough not to see things are moving under the surface."

At the statement, Daniela dropped the playfulness. Without Ron, they would have to rely on the Cloth Muscle Earth mages to keep an eye on the underground and she'd seen them in action; they couldn't hold a candle to Ronan. The fact that April hadn't been able to track whoever fought the dead Air Tendril trying to warn them spoke of some hidden passages right under their noses. Hidden passages were classics for subterfuge. But... That meant someone had to know about them or know someone that knew someone else.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"See if you can snoop on the Breakers and the Clansmen. If there are tunnels, it might be worth it to check them."

"Is that smart with... Erh.. big boy out of town?" Devon said, clearly stopping his tongue before he could earn himself another scolding.

"If anything, knowing where they are will help us prepare. I don't think for a second something shifty isn't happening. I feel good about the core of the Zebelos and that Shaman lady's got a pair, but all it takes is one person to pop the soufflé," Daniela said.

"Never had one of those," Devon off-hand, already glaring at the clouds overhead and trying to figure out how he was going to manage his usual pace with the sky contested.

"I'll try to whip one up if they've got the ingredients later," Daniela said, pointing over her shoulder. "Managing the temperature control with my wisps will be a fun exercise."

"Only you Busters think training is fun."

"What did my mom say...'If you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life'? I'm not stuck in a hole in the ground without sight of the future, and I can spit fire. Why wouldn't I want to train?"

Devon sighed, shaking his head to hide a grin. Daniela had such a brutally honest and direct way of living it was a wonder she had waited for him to ask her out. "I'll check on goldilocks before I head off. He's been locked in that cold box with the walking corpse for a whole day and not a single complaint. She might have embalmed him without us noticing it."

"With April, eh? I thought Filomena and him... Bah, not my business. It took forever to get Ron off my back about you. I am not going to judge Sammy for embracing options. Well, unless he isn't being crystal clear with them; then I might need to sock him in the head."

"You sure you wanna be here in the kitchen when you could have gotten the Cloth Muscles to take you?"

"I said I wanted to love my job, Dev. As much as I enjoy fighting stuff, I like my enemies with... mass. I'll leave the wraiths to you all unless you need me."

"Suit yourself. Just save me some snacky snacks," the elf said, giving Danny a peck on the lips before backflipping and boosting himself over the top of the building. All three stories of it.

"And he wonders why he had to crash land right through our living room at the Embassy," Daniela said, shaking her head but sporting a goofy grin on her face. It turned into a scowl the moment she walked back inside, but it was nice to be vulnerable in front of someone other than Ron and Sam.

As she left the warehouse set adjacent to the Taste of Old, she walked by the cold storage. She couldn't stop herself from eyeballing some fine cuts of steak that had just the right amount of marbling for her taste before returning to the controlled chaos of the kitchen. The cooks arrayed were deep into preparations for the dinner rush now that lunch was on its way.

Her respect for old man Zebelos had gone up with her time in the kitchen. He'd given them cart blanche to feed the almost hundred different members of the Cloth Muscles and odd dozen of support staff based around the city. What that had boiled down to was almost nonstop cooking for the staff at the Taste of Old. It wasn't a bunch of plain meals either. Oh no, no white chicken and rice for those defending the city. If Daniela was honest, and she almost always was, she was jealous that the defenders hanging out inside a Crystal Ward all day were getting to eat Salisbury steaks with a side of scalloped potatoes.

It didn't matter that she'd eaten the same thing for lunch-- that was expected since she was working the kitchens-- it was the principle of the thing!

"Done with your smoke break?" Raul said, drawing Daniela from her thoughts.

"Leave the dad jokes to Jeb, Raul," Daniela huffed. The man worked his jaw like a fish for a second before abandoning the battle and returning to the front of the restaurant floor. With how few outside people were coming into the Taste of Old, he was short of work and had opted to poke at the kitchen staff instead of wiping more glasses behind his fancy bar counter. She hadn't missed Jeb's dismissal of the orc earlier, and apparently Raul didn't want to have that more widely publicized than was strictly necessary. Of course, one of the prep cooks was an elf; if he heard anything it wouldn't be long before the entire staff was raking the bartender over the metaphorical coals of the joke furnace.

Pushing the idle-handed booze juggler from her mind she cracked her fingers and measured the distance to the various cooling stoves in the kitchen. The main two were operated with the help of Fire Slimes, but with twice the usual staff present for the hurricane it was all they could do to keep the living blobs of napalm going. There were other Fire Attuned in the kitchen, like Raul, but none as skilled, Skilled and high Level as her. Without delay, formed in the compartments usually reserved for a wood fire or equivalent slime. As if they'd been perfectly prepared for her to return to the mix, whole hunks of ground beef were lobbed onto deep pans. It was a concerted dance, where the meat was browned, drained and then sauced with the onions and tomatoes some of the other cooks had prepared while the meat was cooked.

Daniela jumped into the middle of the chaos with gusto. Her hands moved with a dexterity born of helping her father in the kitchen of the Bunker but enhanced beyond her wildest dream by her progress to Q6. None of her Traits fed into her knife skills, but she was able to practically ignore the heat of the kitchens where the others carried rags to keep their sweat off the food they were preparing.

A lone Water Slime feasted in the corner as a merman and a fae cycled through the pots and pans being used in the kitchen, leaving them spotless as well as providing precise measures of water without even needing measuring cups. They weren't the only ones, as the brunette could see several of the other cooks separating out piles of ground spices on chopping boards to their eyeball's content. It reminded her of her father, and she finally eased off the scowl. There was a litany of orders, requests and curses flying from one side of the room to the other. Many of them were directed at her, as she was forced to adjust the intensity of each of her wisps to match whatever was being cooked while also paying attention to the olives she was coring for the picadillo dish the kitchen was churning out. Parallel to that prep work, she kept an eye on the large pots of rice boiling under her care.

Despite the practice the lunch rush had given her, her mana pool and regeneration was put through the paces as she was forced to flare the wisps enough to maintain the heat during the ingredient adding parts of the cooking. She'd not been the best of students of the sciences back under Teach's tutelage, but she was getting the thermodynamics conservation of energy fast track while working on a kitchen for proportions she'd only ever dreamed of cooking. She'd been promised some time after the dinner rush to experiment with her own dishes, considering the bulk of her concentration was on keeping the kitchen's pace from faltering, and she let herself daydream about the steaks in the cold closet again.

As she let her mind work on its own, instinct guiding her magic, she listened to the heart of the city. Because you couldn't run a city on an empty stomach, and the cooks were just as much gossips for internal scandal as external. After Devon's comment of things under the surface Daniela was adamant there had to be hints hidden behind the 'goings on'.