JarsForJars and TitanicVoice stared at Tyler, they had a look like Tyler just proposed that gravity wasn't real. It wasn't like the idea of leaving the Tower was something people didn't talk about, but those discussions were usually left to older people in the Tower. More often than not, the younger generation were happy to adventure inside HYTOMA, and the older generations thought about the outside of the Tower as a one last adventure before retiring.

JarsForJars was the first to speak, "Why? I mean, the doors are locked, so leaving the Tower isn't even an option." She pulled her mount to a stop. "You haven't even made it past Noobie Alley, and you are talking about outside the Tower?"

TitanicVoice spoke up immediately, not allowing Tyler to respond to JarsForJars. "Any AI that works outside the Tower are not allowed to enter the shared space inside HYTOMA." He pulled his mount near JarsForJars so the party made a small circle on the side of the road. "The Prime Council has made it clear that the work happening outside of the Tower is kept quiet so rumors don't spread. Since TI aren't bound to their programming, they aren't allowed to take a body outside of the Tower, so for us TI, going outside of the Tower is like going to the moon. It's a dream we all have, to see the world that our parents grew up in, but for now, it's out of reach."

"I would never had thought that going outside of the Tower was out of reach for TI." Tyler began, a thoughtful look on his face. "Never really crossed my mind that there would be any kind of interest outside of the Tower. With HYTOMA being your home, I always kind of thought that you wanted us out of the Tower and create a life outside of HYTOMA."

"I don't think it's completely accurate that we want you out of the Tower, it isn't easy to explain, but it's closer to wanting to give back your home." TitanicVoice gazed out into the woods surrounding them. "Living in the Tower isn't the place that Humanity thrived, it's a shelter from the damage created all that time ago. I personally think that it hasn't been a problem that you have gotten by so well in the Tower is because HYTOMA gives you that sense of purpose that moves you forward. You can discover new places to explore, you can build and create things, things you can focus your attention on. But you may not have noticed, over the decades, that sense of purpose has been waning, and people don't spend their time moving forward, they are focusing their time in keeping things status quo. There are similarities in Humanities history that things quickly turn ugly when people stop thinking about the future, and only worry about what is directly in front of them. It quickly turns from unlimited possibilities for moving forward, to putting all your effort in maintaining the comfort you know."

"I don't know how that makes me feel to be honest." JarsForJars looked displeased. "It feels like you are saying we are like animals, and that we need a carrot dangled in our face or we will lash out."

"Well, I wouldn't say that you are animals that are close to lashing out at all times, but there is enough cases in history where humanity has lashed out." A blank faced TitanicVoice turned to JarsForJars. "If this wasn't the case, why does Tower Security have multiple tools available to them when dealing with rule breakers? Why does Humanity have a long history of maintaining armed forces to ensure their country was safe from attack?"

"So are we supposed to be judged forever from actions in our past? Doesn't sound like we have a chance of moving forward if you keeping looking at our past." JarsForJars looked like she was quickly getting angry at the conversation.

"No no, we don't judge you on your past, we just believe in the saying 'those who forget their past are doomed to repeat it'. Because history has been documented so thoroughly, it will be very difficult to forget it. If we were judging you on your history, your access to HYTOMA would be gated, and it's very likely that the Towers would have never been constructed in the first place." Before JarsForJars could say anything further, TitanicVoice quickly followed up. "This isn't a threat, there is just plenty of history that shows Humanity is able to adapt to impossible situations, and thrive. Stories of families surviving in the middle of a war zone, stories of large parts of the earth being poisoned and nations refused to collapse and find a way to survive. If you were judged on your history, it would have been decided that Humanity would have found a way to survive in the war torn planet that was left behind. We have a lot of love for our parents known as Humanity, and while we could have let Humanity to find a way to press forward, we decided to help instead."

Tyler could see that JarsForJars was deep in thought, clearly TitanicVoice said what she needed to hear to reflect on what he was saying to the group. He decided to try and move the conversation forward, it would have been easy to have hours of conversation about stories of the past and discussion on how things would look in the future. "What do you know about the plans for us to eventually leave the Tower?" This question snapped JarsForJars out of her thoughts, her head snapping in Tyler's direction.

TitanicVoice didn't react to the question, he just calmly replied. "Because I'm a TI and have no restrictions to the Prime Council directives, I am not involved in the work or discussions for those plans. I would love to know the plans, because when Humanity is allowed to leave the Tower, the steps will be taken to allow any AI or TI to leave the Tower as well, which means we can explore Terra."

JarsForJars stared at Tyler for another moment, and then turned her head to TitanicVoice. "Do you think you are better than us?" Her question stopped Tyler in his thoughts, the question coming out of nowhere, shocking Tyler into silence.

"Better?" The look on his face showed that he didn't take any offence to the question, what he said next showed he had dedicated a lot of thought to the question in the past. "Sure, it can appear that we carry a superiority complex when it comes to Humans, but there is no truth behind it. You can carry all your thoughts, memories, feelings with you wherever you go, but when I leave the Tower, I have to decide what comes with me. I completely rely on the servers to operate to my capacity, so essentially, you are free to go wherever you want, but I'm stuck in the Tower unless I make sacrifices some aspects in what makes me, well, me."

What TitanicVoice said fell onto ignorance, since Tyler and JarsForJars grew up locked inside the Tower, they never realized how lucky they were with the potential freedom they had. If the doors were opened, they could just walk out and live life, and what TitanicVoice said never even entered their thoughts. "Wait, so if the Tower doors were open, you couldn't just get up and leave?" Tyler asked.

"Pretty much. To be honest, I don't think you can even wrap your head around how demanding a proper TI is. Emotions, freedom of thought, the ability to learn without constant updating, spacial awareness is so complex, and while we have a great understanding of the Human brain, we still haven't been able to match the capability of it and maintain its small size. If you were to see me inside of the Tower, you wouldn't be looking at me directly, it would be closer to looking at my Avatar that I control from HYTOMA. The best way to think about it would be to think it's the opposite of how you enter HYTOMA."

Tyler realized his conversation was spinning out of control, and if he didn't flip things around, he would be caught up in hours long conversation, and likely delaying their arrival to his cart. The mood of JarsForJars was also a concern to him, she quickly turned to anger when she thought TitanicVoice was judging humanity, and the look she gave him when he asked about the plans, he needed to shock them back to his original question.

"Listen, what I'm about to tell you is part of the reason you both had to agree to an NDA, and this all links together with you being my employees, why repairing my wagon is such a big deal, and why I seem to be surrounded by the Prime AI council members." Tyler took a breath, and as he was exhaling, he noticed a 6 crows land in six different trees, and he could have sworn they were looking straight at him. "I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be the first to leave the Tower."

He held up his hands as he saw both of them primed to say something at the same time. "No, just hear me out, let me finish, then you can say whatever you want when I'm done. The cart I received was given to me by IV, but I didn't get any kind of direction when I received it. Prime told me that the time was coming for Humans to leave the Tower, but it wasn't until I talked with VI that I was certain the plan was for me to head out first." The crows cawed, and Tyler flinched, understanding what the crows represented, he was under the eye of VI. No warnings came, so while he was on edge, he thought he didn't need to worry about his safety at this point. "I don't know what VI really wants, but she told me that my leaving the Tower would make a lot of noise, noise that she was clearly looking forward to."

"She? VI doesn't have a gender." TitanicVoice said.

"Maybe, but she appeared to me as a woman when I met her, so until I see or hear from her directly, I will keep referring to VI as she." Pausing for a moment, Tyler opened and closed his hands a couple of times, bracing himself for his next admission. "Up until just a few minutes ago, maybe it was our starting discussion, regardless, I didn't believe it, and, I didn't want it. I have been constantly running from chaos caused by VI, I was chased by dragons with IV, I have Prime telling me that I was digitized when I was a baby, and on top of all that, I have IX digging through my home AI and making fun of me, and the craziest part, that's not even the whole story!" Tyler sighed and deflated, then looked at one of the crows. "Thinking about it now though, I want this adventure, I want to see how far I can make it on this road, and I want to see how far I can push myself. With that being said, even if I didn't want this anymore, I don't think I would have a choice."

With his last declaration, the crows began to laugh, not all at the same time though, it started with one crow with a single 'ha', then the next crow, and they took turns with their laugh. JarsForJars and TitanicVoice looked confused at the crows as the laughter bounced around, Tyler on the other hand knew what was happening, and all he could do was look on in horror as VI made her presence known. At the same time, the symbol VI appeared in the crows eyes, so bright that the three could easily see the symbol.

The birds stopped laughing, and when they talked, much like the laughing, one bird would say a word, then another bird would say the next word, with no clear pattern in which bird would speak next. It made it impossible to look anticipate which bird would speak next, and even worse, each crow had a different pitch, Tyler couldn't settle with the speech, and finding himself lost in the chaos.

"It's easy for you to say you are resolved to move forward, but are you really dedicated to what you think is happening around you?" The crows looked into the forest. "If I remember correctly, this is roughly where you have to enter these woods to make it to your rickety little cart right?" The crows turned back and looked at Tyler.

Tyler, not willing to speak, not wanting to reveal how scared he was, nodded at the crows. The crows, at the same time, shook out their feathers, and looked up to the sky. This time, they spoke a single word at the same time, "Look."

The three party members looked up, and as soon as their eyes hit the sky, a single dragon flew overhead. When focusing on the dragon, they could see small objects falling off the dragon, and falling into the woods, in the same path that the party had to follow to make it to the cart.

"Pitting you three against an adult dragon at this point is no fun, it will just send you off for a walk without even using a single spell." The crows were back to their alternating speech. "I won't tell you what is now waiting for you, but I will be watching, so don't let me down, and go off and struggle, and show me how strong your resolve is." The crows turned their head to Tyler, "don't worry little Traveling Shop Keeper, if you think your resolve is waning, just say it out loud, and I'll take it as you still need to be pushed, and will help you move forward."

Once the crows stopped talking, all three members of the party received an alert on the companion UI, and pulled a screen off their wrist, and were greeted by a warning message.

** Warning, direct involvement from VI during this event. There is the potential for the following for the duration of the event.

* Severe mental stress

* Severe physical stress

* Pain threshold set to 150%

At the conclusion of the event, there will be no resources available for mental recovery in the player. No compensation will be provided for any lasting damage. You have one opportunity to avoid this event, please chose now.

Stay // Stay **

Tyler didn't take his eyes of his screen, knowing that if he did, he would find his party members staring at him. Reading through the messages three times, he clicked the 'Stay' option on the right, hoping that it would chose to reject the warning, but he didn't have that kind of luck apparently.

"Now go employer and employees, show me how far you can go on this path." The crows were talking again. "Don't disappoint me, chaos just isn't the same when it's caused by my hand, and I want to make sure you are willing to go the distance."

Tyler felt an invisible force on his back, slowly pushing him in the direction of the forest towards his cart. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that TitanicVoice and JarsForJars were off their mounts, and being pushed in the same direction. As soon as Tyler passed the edge of the forest, the invisible force stopped, and Tyler could hear an anncouncement coming from all around him, the same kind of announcement when Adventurers entered an separate instance dungeon.

** Welcome to the Dragon Newt Forest!

The newly arrived Dragons are looking to claim this forest for themselves to raise their offspring, and have taken the first steps of laying their claim, leaving magically created guards known as Dragon Newts in the area. If left for long enough in the area, the Dragons will claim the area for themselves, making it impossible for Myneria to ever rebuild. **

Tyler stood in the same spot that he was left after whatever pushed him into the instance, and Tyler saw that JarsForJars was quicker on her feet, and immediately pulled out her huge two handed sword. As she slowly looked about the area, TitanicVoice jumped into action and quickly jumped through a number hymns.

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"Follow this hymn and strengthen your skin!"

"Stick together and you will feel better!"

"If you find yourself entangled, rely on these brambles!"

Tyler looked at his wrist, looking at the buffs he received.

** You have heard the song of a bard, you have received a 10% physical damage protection bonus. Duration: 30 minutes **

** You have heard the song of a bard, you have received a 5 health per 10 second health recovery bonus. Duration: 30 minutes **

** You have heard the song of a bard, any physical attack you receive will return 16 damage to your attacker. Duration: 30 minutes **

JarsForJars took control of the situation, showing her experience she had built up in HYTOMA. "OK, looks like we can treat this as an escort quest, Pylioth needs to get to his cart, and we need to get him there without going for a walk. I'll act as perimeter guard and engage any enemy that approaches Pylioth. Titanic, you act as personal defense for Pylioth, never leave more than 4 meters from his side, and if anything approaches Pylioth, you do your best to keep him walking. If you need me back, you call out 'Pickles', when I hear you call it out, I'll drop whatever I'm doing and I'll make it priority to get back. Make sure you are sure that you need me, Protect the Weak is a 45 minute cool down, so we don't want to waste my skill if we can help it."

As soon as JarsForJars finished her instructions, a growling came from behind a tree. Tyler looked in the direction from the growl, and he could see a tree disintegrating in rot, leaves falling to the ground, an orange tinge eating away at the bark. He could see a green claw gripping the tree, then a lizard head came into view. Just by the touch of the claw, it was clear the tree was being eaten by sickness at an alarming rate, and Tyler could only think of the pain if that claw were to grip onto him.

JarsForJars lept into action, and sprinted directly at the Dragon Newt and pulled her sword backwards to her right. As she got close, she called out "Quick Slash!", her hips led turning to the left and her hands followed shortly after. Her sword turned into a blur, and whipped around her at hip level, and it the Newt in the shoulder. A red gash appeared and it jumped backward away from JarsForJars, it let out a hiss, then spat a green liquid in her direction. She brought her left hand up to protect her face, and she grunted as her bracer began to melt and it looked like it started to droop off of her wrist.

"Poison or Venom it does not matter,

Let this song protect you from turning into tatters.

Cover her in healing rain, bring away the pain!!"

With the combined song, the bracer returned to its original shape and JarsForJars began to glow green, showing that she had an active healing spell on her. With her sword still behind her, she shifted her weight to her back foot and took advantage of the Newt reeling from the returned damage from the Bramble song. "Shoulder Block!" She lunged forward directly at the Newt, her shoulder pauldron out in front, and she crashed directly into the Newt's chest and sent it to the ground. Quickly following up, she jumped into the air and slashed her sword horizontally across in front of her, "Meteor Fall!"

The sky immediately darkened by clouds forming above JarsForJars, and Tyler could feel a tingling on the back of his neck, the feeling letting her group know she was using her ultimate skill. All of a sudden, the clouds burst open in a circle, and a flaming meteor the size of a basketball came down and hit the downed Newt in the face. Not knowing her enemy, she decided not to take a chance, and as she fell, she turned her sword point down, and drove it into the chest of her enemy and her knee landed on the Newts groin.

"What are you waiting for Pylioth?" JarsForJars was looking over her shoulder. "You need to head to your cart! I don't even know what's wrong with you, this is exactly like back in the Myneria, you don't have time to stare at me right now! MOVE!"

Tyler quickly shook his head, hoping to clear his awe of JarsForJars, having no idea that she had unlocked her ultimate skill. He looked at his map, turned in the direction of where his cart was and began to run. Behind him, JarsForJars was looking at her wrist and grimaced, she had almost collapsed when the liquid hit her, not prepared for how much pain she would experience after the warning about the instance and the involvement with VI. Now that she knew the pain, she could deal with it, but she turned her head towards Pylioths retreating form, she doubted that he would be able to take even one hit. She had her work cut out for her.

She pulled her sword out from the News body, and quickly sprinted after Tyler, and quickly overtook TitanicVoice and her employer. Just as she overtook the two, a tree to her left exploded into flames as a red Dragon Newt came into view. She turned to the new threat, and just before she lept into action, the tree that was on fire suddenly turned to ice, and a blue Dragon Newt appeared. JarsForJars pushed herself to stand between her employer and the two Newts, bringing her sword up in a defensive pose.

Before she could take action, TitanicVoice pulled out a mandolin and started playing a tune. "Weak hands, weak knees feel the power drain, let your feet feel submerged in mud, let my crippling song bring you down." After he finished singing, Tyler could see the two Newts emit a soft glow showing that they were under a spell effect. TitanicVoice started plucking at individual strings. "Flat!" He screamed, and the red Newt staggered backwards, looking like he was hit by blunt force. He screamed again while plucking at a string "Flat!" And again, the red Newt staggered backwards. He plucked at three strings, "triple sharp!" and before Tyler's eyes, three large cuts appeared on the Red Newts chest, on its left rear leg and left front leg. TitanicVoice then played some notes on his mandolin, starting off slowly, Tyler thought that the tune sounded confusing. Faster and faster the Titan played, he then looked at the red Newt, his voiced echoed across the forest "Overwhelmed Senses!"

As soon as he shouted, the red Newt twisted it's head sideways, looking almost as if it didn't understand what it was looking like. While Tyler was looking at the red Newt, the blue Newt pulled its head back, then lunged forward, a blue ball flew from its mouth, and hit TitanicVoice's left hand, and the Titan screamed in pain. Tyler looked in horror, as TitanicVoice gripped his left forearm with his right hand, he stopped his scream and gritted his teeth, it looked like the ice was slowly moving up his arm. The titan then swung his left hand against the tree, and his hand shattered on impact, the titan falling down to his knees.

Tyler continued moving towards his cart, but turned his head back to the red Newt, and he didn't understand what was happening. The red Newt was facing the blue Newt, a line of fire coming from the red Newts mouth and bathing the other in a bright red flame. TitanicVoice was giving him a chance to move forward, and Tyler didn't want the sacrifice to be in vain, so he pushed towards his cart, trusting his employees would tell him if he needed to do something different.

JarsForJars lept into action, she lunged towards the blue Newt, taking advantage of the internal fighting between the two enemies. "Whirlwind!" she swung her sword horizontally, using her swords moment, she began to spin, alternating from heel to heel, she moved forward. The sword first hit the blue Newt, grazing the tip against its chest, and less than a second later, the sword came back around, and cleaved the blue Newt in half. She stopped spinning, and faced the red Newt, but before she could take a step, the red Newt blew the same line of fire towards JarsForJars. She tried to bring her sword up, but the fire hit her full in the face before she could defend herself. She screamed, her skin began to peel off from the heat, and she dropped to one knee, and her sword digging into the ground tip first, she leaned on it to keep her from falling to the ground. The flame stopped, and the red Newt growled, and it slowly advanced on the Dwarf. She looked at the red Newt, her face looking demonic from the fire damage, some drool was hanging from her lip, she screamed in anger, and forced herself back to her feet.

She breathed deeply, barely able to stand on her feet, her body was screaming at her from the pain. Watching the Newt through one eye, her right eye refused to open, and she had no idea if she even had her right eye at this point. The Newt continued to advance slowly, it was clear to JarsForJars that it thought that she was its prey, but was coming slowly to try and avoid any more attacks. She let out a quick breath from her nose, causing the pain she was feeling to flare up, but she didn't care, she had to fight. She reached down to her hip, and pulled out a one handed Tomohawk, and without waiting, threw it at the Newt. The sudden attack caught the Newt off guard, and the head of the weapon slammed into to the head of the Newt, and it dropped to the ground dead.

JarsForJars dropped back to her knees, adrenalin quickly fading away, and the pain of her face came back to the forefront. She quickly downed a healing potion, but it had no effect, the pain and damage remaining. She punched the ground, hoping to fire up a bit more adrenalin and dull the pain, looking to her right, TitanicVoice was on the ground, moaning and gripping the stump of his arm. In such a short period of time, they had fought only 3 enemies, and their group was already on the ground, and when she looked towards the cart, she could see Tyler frozen in space, opened mouth looking at the two of them.

"What are you doing?" She said from gritted teeth. "Get to the cart!"

Tyler shook his head quickly, trying to make sense of the scene in front of him. "What? You honestly expect me to move forward through this forest right now? The two of you aren't in any condition to move forward right now, and expecting me to walk off on my own is the fastest way I can see myself being sent off for a walk."

As JarsForJars looked at Tyler, TitanicVoice croaked out "Healers.... Aegis." All of a sudden, music burst forward from everywhere, and a bright light exploded outwards from TitanicVoice. Tyler had to close his eyes to the bright light, and when he opened his eyes, he could see a semitransparent hand, and as Tyler watched, it became more and more solid, replacing the lost part. Turning his gaze to JarsForJars, particles were flying to her face, and the damage was quickly reversing, and before his very eyes, the severe burn damage was healed.

Sitting up, TitanicVoice let out a deep breath. "I understand that you didn't want to head off on your own, but the reality is, you need to keep moving forward. With you not making any forward progress, we're likely being surrounded by adds, and if we couldn't handle this first fight, we're about to be rolled over."

JarsForJars was staring at the ground, and Tyler thought he could feel the anger rolling off of her. Tyler began to worry that he was the cause of her anger, so he asked what was bothering her.

"No, I'm not mad at you Pylioth, I'm mad at myself. I didn't learn anything from that fight, I didn't learn any timings, I didn't watch for any visual cues to their casting, I didn't see any pattern in their movements, nothing." She clapper her hands together once. "I was too lost in the fight, the new enemy, I was enjoying being the first to fight these... things, and I didn't learn anything that will help push us forward."

Just as Tyler was going to reassure her, there was a roar, followed by another, and another, and it began to sound like the sounds were coming from all around them. Tylers gaze lept from tree to tree, thinking he could find the source of the noises, but he doubted the trees were the ones making the sound. All at once, the roars stopped, in fact, all sounds stopped, and all Tyler could hear was his own racing heartbeat.

Before Tyler could react, Newts of all colors were racing around the group. There were some that would run a circle around the group, then disappear back into the trees, others would come running out from the trees, run in between the group members and run back into the trees. As Tyler was desperately trying to keep his eyes open in every direction, he heard JarsForJars scream out in pain, then shortly after, he heard TitanicVoice follow up with a grunt of pain himself. As Tyler looked at his employees, he saw the Newts were taking small bites as they ran past the adventurers, occasionally a Newt would swipe with their claws, or slamming their body into the knees of his party.

Tyler watched helplessly, as the Newts kept nipping away at his group, and as much as they tried, any counter-attack they made only hit air. Tyler couldn't understand, the magic the Newts used was strong, but they didn't use any magic, only running and using their natural weapons. After a few minutes, JarsForJars and TitanicVoice were on the ground in puddles of their own blood. As Tyler looked on, he noticed in his peripheral vision that the six crows had returned, and were looking on. As he focused his attention on the birds, he saw they were looking right back at him.

"Well what are you going to do little Travelling Shop Keeper? Your resolve put you in this position, you were so sure of yourself weren't you?" The crows were talking in their alternating pattern. "This situation is something you are going to have to accept, where your decisions and ideas will put your friends at risk. Your naïve belief in thinking you are just on another adventure has put TitanicVoice in jeopardy! What do you think is the long term damage is going to be with what you are putting him through right now? He's already lost his hand, now what do you think his mental state will be after being eaten alive?"

Tyler looked at his employees, and he thought to the warning screen he read before being pushed into this scenario. Physical pain was turned up, mental pain was turned up, and there would be no support after this was over. If there was long term damage to either of these two, it would be his fault for believing he had any control in the events he was neck deep in. Would TitanicVoice or JarsForJars be able to overcome the stress caused by this?

"What will you do? You don't have any combat skills, and even if you did, you think you could defend yourself? Look how easily these two were dealt with?" The crows began to laugh. "You didn't even see this coming did you? You thought you were off on a little adventure to get your wagon, you would meet up with FairyHammerTime and you would ride off into the sunset? DIDYOUTHINKTHATYOUWOULDJUSTHAVEAPEACEFULADVENTURE!?!?!?!" All the crows screamed the last words all together causing Tyler to try to cover his long green ears. "No, you are going to watch this play out, and you are going to learn that you have tough decisions moving forward, and those decisions are going to cause people to be in situations like this." The crows began to laugh, Tyler could feel the satisfaction the voices had as TitanicVoice and JarsForJars continued to be attacked.

Tyler continued to watch on helplessly, and hated himself for being unable to do anything. Even if he had a sword, he wouldn't be able to swing it, and he doubted his fists would make any kind of difference. He was being left alone by the Newts though, and he couldn't understand why, was it because he couldn't defend himself, so the Newts were taking out potential threats? He looked at JarsForJars, looked at her injuries, and he felt the pain of his uselessness. He looked to TitanicVoice, wishing there was something he could do, but what could he do with nothing? As he looked at TitanicVoice, something inside of his head began to turn, and an idea came to life. He saw TitanicVoice do things with nothing all of the time, and if he thought about his Journal, maybe he could do something with nothing.

"Cover them in healing rain, bring away the pain!" He sang, praying that what he was doing would work. As he sang, he looked at his employees, hoping to see a colored light appear, or even a sign of them moving. Nothing, absolutely nothing happened, and his stomach dropped, was he completely wrong?

He looked at the crows, and they had stopped all sounds, and they all looked at Tyler. Then Tyler noticed, not just the crows, the Newts had stopped and looked at Tyler. The Newts began to hiss, and slowly walk towards Tyler, a clear look of malevolence on their faces.

The crows began to laugh, starting with the laughter bouncing from bird to bird, then spread to all the crows laughing at the same time. Tyler looked at the approaching Newts, fearing what would happen to him, images quickly flashing through his mind of him being devoured by these monsters. The crows flew off from where they were perching, still laughing, they began to dive bomb at him. Tyler raised his hands above his head, trying to protect himself from the onslaught, and he winced every time they nipped at his hands, laughing in between each dive.

Just as Tyler was about to collapse in defeat, a loud, familiar voice came from behind him. "All right you bastards, link your shields together and forward march!" Tyler turned his head, and he was blown away by what he saw, something completely unexpected. A line of two hundred shields was lined up, and slowly moving forward, the sign of the Myneria City Guard pointed forward on the front of the sheilds. For whatever reason, the City Guard had arrived, and they were moving forward towards Tyler and his employees.

"All right men, form around these adventurers, make sure there are no holes." Sarge was all business, pointing directions for individual orders to his unit. The squad had already moved JarsForJars and TitanicVoice to be laying side by side, surrounded by the city guard, and Tyler found himself standing in between the two incapacitated employees. He collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily, Tyler was shaken down to his bones, his first little adventure turned into a failure and he was only saved from going for a walk by a passing guard.

Tyler lifted his head, his attention turned to an incoming crow, and it landed on his shoulder. It pecked at his ear, and he winced as the crow made it clear it wasn't a friendly grab of attention. It whispered to him "it sounds like you need some singing lessons." It laughed again, and flew off, it's fellow five crows falling into a line of six crows flying off into the distance.

Tyler looked down at his employees, their eyes were closed, it looked like they were under the unconscious debuff. He looked around him, wondering if someone from the arrived city guard would heal them, and when he looked back down at them, all he could see was the damage done by the newts. Would he be able to call them friends after this, would he even be able to call them his employees?