Chapter 28:
The elementals were having trouble with Unit 3. Something was wrong with the crystal generator in its heart, and it was becoming more and more sluggish–dropping further and further behind. It was worrying Kara, because this whole business was running on a shoestring. They needed to move ten-thousand peeps a week. That gave them just under three days to get down to Tequila Kingdom, make the drop-off, three days to get back to the colony, and one day to get the next set of people loaded. They were short on time. The weather was going to get worse, which would make the delays worse, not better.
"What do you want to do, dearie," Maja rumbled? The witch spent most of her time in her little cubicle alone. Kara had pushed to have the witch come along–at least for the first couple of trips–simply because she'd built the things. At the same time, she'd been hesitant to push too far. They needed this woman, and Shoko had made it clear that Maja wasn't somebody you could order around.
"I...," Kara started to say. Knowing that Kara wasn't the sort of person to hang back, Frieda cut in, "what's our risk, Your Highness? What's the risk that it will stop on us?" Kara flushed. She'd been about to say something dumb and maybe alienate this woman when they needed her most. Maja sighed heavily. Muttering curses, the witch said, "it's going to stop. I've been looking at it... monitoring it from here. There's a flaw in the engine. It's bleeding energy into time space instead of converting it." One of the idiots Simone had sent them had worked on Unit 3. Maja had been busy, and Shoko was inexperienced. With a heavy hearted sigh, the witch said, "I should have checked it."
Kara had no idea what to do with what the witch told them. Frieda had always been the brainiac of the pair of them. "What do we do now," she asked? "Can the engine be repaired?" "I'll look at it tonight," Maja announced, "as soon as we're stopped." Calmer now, Kara asked the question burning in her mind. "Can we move the people," she rumbled? "What if we parcel them out into the other carriers?" "We're balls to the wall right now," Maja replied. "I built as many of the things as I could with the time and materials we had to hand. We have just enough to move ten-thousand each lift. No margin, Kara. We don't have any margin at all."
It was why she'd wanted to remain behind. She'd planned to spend the time working up materials to repair the machines and possibly to make a spare. Right now, they had no spares for anything. If Unit 3 failed, it was staying here–and the people aboard were staying too until they could figure out how to move them the rest of the way to Tequila Kingdom. "We'll nurse it to Tequila Kingdom, if we can," Frieda decided. "We'll leave it there... Maybe you can stay there and see if you can get it running."
Sunrise in Sonbong found Finn the King and his companions dealing with the prisoners that Nagumo had left behind in his retreat to the northeast. They were shockingly fanatical and hardly interested in answering questions. Finn couldn't help wondering if these people were bespelled. The peeps from Truth Kingdom had never struck him as crazy like this.
The sullen soldier that sat before him just now was one of the most hard core. She would only glare at her captors. She was dressed in armor of ancient design, and she'd been strapped with a pair of swords besides. Not that those swords had mattered when hundreds of men with guns had marched up on her. In calm tones, Finn said, "he can't help you. Only you can help you. What you're doing is against everything your people have stood for. Tell us where he went. Help me stop this." Rather than answer, the hostile woman only continued to glare at him.
With a heavy-hearted sigh, the King of Ooo announced, "three men will come here tomorrow." He gave the guards the description of the men in question. "They will take this woman into their custody," the King declared. Every word was like a shot to the gut for him as much as her. He didn't like doing this. It felt too easy to reach for this answer. "They will torture this woman and her companions," Finn said. "Do not interfere. Best you... best you not stay to watch. It won't be pretty."
The young woman's face had gone very pale. Finn looked her squarely in the eye. "It gives me no joy to do this," he said. "Every time I have to do this, I lose a little more of my humanity." Leaning forward, face just inches from hers, the big man said, "but I will kill a thousand of you to protect one innocent life. I will have my secret police torture the life from you... break you in mind and body... When they've finished, I will hurl you down the pipe to the Night O'Sphere, to burn a thousand years in hellish fire with all the devil's host gnoshing on your soul. You took lives. You murdered innocents, and you'll pay the price of that."
Without another word, the big man climbed to his feet and strode out of there, leaving the woman staring at his back. His face was troubled. Jay could see it in his eyes. He was becoming Woolcot. He was becoming just like Lord Woolcot. He feared he was. Bonnie stopped him in the hall and hugged him. The King was shaking. Jay put a hand on his father's shoulder. "It's... Dad, I love you," the younger man declared. Finn wrapped an arm around his son's shoulders. Squaring up, Finn wiped the tears from his face and strode off. There was work to do. Then the army was headed out to chase after Nagumo.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Shoko dropped through the open hatch of Unit 3's engine room to find Maja looking over the faulty machine with her dowsing rods. "Anything," she asked? Maja muttered curses. She was going to skin Abracadaniel. She was going to skin him alive. The engine room was decorated with beautiful friezes and carvings–like the fool had spent all his time daydreaming. Meanwhile, the engine had a flaw that was bleeding energy. He might have killed everybody on board. "C-can we fix it," Shoko burbled? She was daring a lot. She knew she was daring. She hoped that by using the word 'we', she could cushion things.
"We can't, Shoko," Maja said. "You'll be going on alone from here. This construct won't run. It may not run again. I'm going to try salvaging it–saving what I can. The bottom line is that it won't run more than a few miles more without exploding. I won't face Finn with that." "I don't agree," Kara announced, as she climbed down the ladder and into the machine's interior.
Turning to face the witch, the big woman said, "you're the only thing like a mechanic that I have to keep these things running. What if there's another failure?" "I'll be checking the rest," Maja growled. She was irritated. She'd gotten lulled into a false sense of security when things had gotten off the ground. The effort had been going so well, she'd let the loons Simone provided do the work on their own. Now they were paying the price. The giantess didn't look inclined to agree with her. "You're jeopardizing the mission, Kara Van Pelt," Maja growled. "Do you think Finn wants to see four-hundred-ninety-nine-thousand die to save one-thousand?"
Kara flinched as if slapped across both cheeks. That had been the Seekers' creed. Everything they did was to protect the majority of the population. It had always been about seeing the biggest chunk of humanity they could manage survive the long darkness. "I'll start getting some survival gear together," she rumbled. "Just in case." "I've got my phone," Maja rumbled. "It's charged." "I'll stay," Shoko said. "If we get it running, you'll need an elemental to power it." "You're pregnant, Shoko," Maja retorted. "It wouldn't be safe. Besides, Randy already agreed to stay." That news floored the younger woman, but Maja wasn't finished. The witch said, "after you've given him a piece of your mind, you can come back and help me set up some spells to keep the hold warm for a few days."
Back in Sonbong, Finn the King sat down before his host. "I've decided to make this place the hub for bringing in resources," the big man announced. "I can't trust the towns further north or south... not until I can figure out just who's standing with Nagumo and who's against. The Grid Face Peeps are coming out to look at your forcefield... maybe try to extend the area it protects to the airfield. They should be here in a couple days. Keep the forcefield up. Make repairs as you can."
The Lord's chief minister announced, "we've been receiving feelers from some of the other cities, Your Majesty. Many of them have been threatened. Most have played along, but only one or two are fully in his hands." It was good news to Bonnie's way of thinking. They wouldn't be fighting the people of those towns. It gave them directions to go to get this mess straightened out. Nodding, Finn said, "Princess Orzsebet will be here soon. Tell her everything you know."
The King laid out a few more things he wanted done while he was gone before rising and bidding the Lord and his people good day. After the ugliness down in the dungeon, he needed some fresh air. With Bonnie at his side, the big man went out to the palace courtyard and spent a while wandering through the garden, his mind on a half-hundred different problems. The few days away had been a welcome respite, but it was all back now. In spades.
As if in reminder of just how much was weighing on him, the shapechanger appeared at the palace door. She'd been hovering on the periphery the last day or so. Bonnie would have called it 'laying low' if Jake didn't always have her nose buried in her phone. Bonnie had heard the story. Some sick fucks wanted to rape her daughter for the crime of being Finn's grandchild. It made the pillow-person's blood boil. The outraged female at her heart wanted to snip some bits from those sickos. If Jake Junior was going through turmoil, she had a reason, and her erstwhile boyfriend had no time to spare for her.
Striding up alongside Finn, Jake Junior announced, "Fish Bitch is here to see you." It was disrespectful, but that was par for the course. Jake needed him, and he'd been closeted with the Lamprey Princess rather a lot. Much of it was work. They'd spent a fair bit wrangling the details of how to get the food Sheila was donating across the sea to Tequila Kingdom. But you couldn't ignore the fact that Finn already had a child with Sheila. Bonnie could see the attraction the older woman had for her father. The Lamprey Princess was built like her mother–broad-hipped and busty. It was a shape Bonnie knew her father liked simply because so many of her stepmothers had it. So, if Jake wasn't exactly enamored of Sheila, there was a reason.
"Thanks," Finn rumbled, as he turned to go meet the curvy princess. He gave Jake the barest of acknowledgments before heading across the garden to where Sheila had just come out of the door. She was carrying little Susie. Bonnie had held the little girl, and she couldn't deny Susie was cute as a button. Her father was very invested in her–just as invested as he'd ever been in Bonnie–but Jake was getting short shrift, and it didn't seem fair. Jake stood a moment, watching Finn with the stranger, then she turned and headed out through the garden's far entry.
Finn took his daughter from Sheila and hugged her. The little girl was delighted to be in his arms, and she reached out and hugged him back. "I guess this is goodbye," Finn rumbled. With a sigh, Sheila nodded. She had a kingdom to run, and she had to be on the lookout for what Nagumo might pull on her. "Fair-dinkum, you'll be seein' me again, Finn," Sheila replied. Patting her belly, she said, "we got reasons to chat." Leaning over, Finn kissed her cheek, as he handed Susie back. "Safe travels, Sheila," the big man rumbled. "I got vested interest in you," Sheila reminded him. "You stay safe too." Finn promised he would.
Jake Junior headed out to find her sister. She had a duty to Finn, but she had an older duty to her sister. Striding through the town, she found that life seemed to be returning to some semblance of normalcy. People were out working–repairing their houses and patching at the streets. There were even women hangin' out laundry to dry. It was a soothing sight. When she saw those things, she saw her honey. Her mind knew 'Finn did that'. It helped a lot, because she'd been in pain the last few days.
Liz was refusing to go to counseling. She was balking at everyone's attempts to help her. It was the monster in her coming out, and Jake knew all about what that was like. She'd spent a lot of time down at the bottom of a bottle, reliving all her past poor behavior, finally seeing things as they really were. Finn had done all he could to help her. He'd all but begged her to change. She'd pissed on him. She'd tried to use his daughter to further a scam, finally causing the break that got her exiled from the Candy Kingdom.
Finn still loved her. He'd never stopped. She'd been angry, and she'd felt the victim, little realizing how much that event hurt him. Her sisters and brothers had turned their backs on Finn. Kim had even threatened to throw Finn's family out on the street. She'd done so much damage, and it sometimes felt she still was doing damage. When her daughter was going down the road towards the same fate, it felt like there was no hope.
As she was approaching the gates, a workman fell off a roof ahead of her. Almost instinctively, she reached out with her stretchy-powers, catching him before he landed on his head. Dropping him back on his feet, she gave him a wave, before pressing on. A voice inside her said, 'you're not a monster, Jake.' Finn's voice. She found herself glancing back at the stranger. His buddies were laughing at him–dealing with the almost-tragedy of the moment with jokes and back-slaps. 'He's going home,' the voice told her. 'Because of you, he's going home.' It was a hopeful sign, when she really needed hope.
Following the directions she'd memorized, she arrived at the little farmstead that her sister called home. Unfortunately, the high she was feeling from having saved a life was not to last. As she came up the driveway, she found herself staring the results of Nagoono's handiwork right in the face. Her sister's dream was shattered. There was wreckage and debris everywhere.
She found Charlie standing out front, and her sister's expression was bleak. "Jake," the curvy pup greeted Jake Junior. Coming up alongside Charlie, Jake found herself at a loss for words. "H-how... how bad," she asked? It was the only thing that seemed safe. It was all she could come up with to address the awful that was in front of her.
Charlie sighed heavily. The house was wrecked. The barn where Charlie had kept her motorcycle was caved in, and it was clear that one of Nagumo's death-machines had done the deed. The windmill that ran the pump for the well was toppled. The roof of her yoga-studio was gone–caved in–taking the precious solar-panels that supplemented her income with it. "Probably figured you were one more farmer," Jake Junior burbled. Charlie nodded. Everything she'd had was gone. She wanted to cry.
"I'm... I'm not good with this," Jake rumbled, "but I'm sorry... I'm sorry you're going through this... I wish I could stay and help you get it back together." Charlie glanced up at her in puzzlement. Nodding, Jake said, "have to go. Finn's... Nagoono's headed northeast. We have to follow... take him down." Charlie frowned at her. Jake could see what she was thinking. Finn didn't need her. Why was she going? "He's holding Finn's daughter and granddaughter hostage," Jake rumbled.
Charlie's head whipped around. That was news. "The moms," she asked? "Princess Sakura's being held too, but we don't know where," Jake replied. "We figure Nagoono's keeping her kids with him." It took a moment. "Uh...," Charlie said. In tones that showed her irritation, Jake explained the provenance of Princess Sakura's two babies. Charlie goggled at her sister's explanation.
Defensively, Jake rumbled, "they were just tryin'a help her." "Both at once," Charlie burbled. "No," Jake growled. "My boyfriend's not a sicko, ok." Subsiding, she said, "it... It was an accident. He was just trying to help a friend." It was complicated. Just like her relationship with Finn, it was every kind of complicated. "I needed to tell you that we were going," she said. "I'll... I'll call."
Charlie turned and hugged her sister. "Be careful," she breathed. The family had pursued other roads than the one their father and uncle had been on. Kim had become a successful businessman. Viola was a famous actress with dozens of videos to her credit. TV worked for the post office in the Candy Capitol. Even their dad was more or less out of the adventure game. Only Jake was keeping up with Finn these days. "I will," Jake murmured. "I'm... I want to say that I'm sorry for not being a better sister." Charlie kissed her cheek, as if to say it was ok. Jake turned and rushed out of there–headed back to the life she now led with the man they'd once called their uncle before they'd wrecked the relationship. "A waste," Charlie decided. "So much waste."
Finn was already back at it, when Jake Junior returned to the town. He was on with the peeps in the west, working out the details of the food shipments to Tequila Kingdom and the last minute minutiae of getting all the humans moved. He interspersed that with the job of planning the army's next moves right here, laying out security arrangements for Sonbong and making sure things wouldn't go south after he left. And, when that wasn't enough, there was still the subject of bringing in money to pay the bills.
Knowing some of what he was going through–the ugly decision to torture the prisoners for information, and seeing the devastation that Nagoono had wrought–Jake couldn't burden him with Liz's troubles. She clammed up, shut herself off, and sat down in a corner with her phone and her troubles. As the day drew to a close, she got up and headed for her quarters to sleep. They'd be rolling out in the morning.
She'd just finished laying her pants atop her shirt, when the knock came at the door. It was funny how important it was to take care of stuff now, when she'd been pretty sloppy as a child and even as a young woman. Like as not, she walked out of a skirt or pair of pants, and left them were they were on the floor until she got around to washing them. Finn had bought her a beautiful wardrobe. He'd bought her two, in fact. She couldn't squander what he'd given her.
Neatly folding the pants, she lay them on top of her shirt and turned to open the door, announcing, "just a minute." That was when Finn burst through the door. Jake's face went hot. She'd just been thinking of him. "Uh...," she said. "I..." They'd been distant the last few days. Some of it was the war. Some of it was Fish Bitch getting in the way. A lot of it was Liz. She didn't feel sexy or beautiful. She felt... like a monster. She still felt like a monster.
Without a word, Finn threw the shapechanger down on the bed. When she might have pushed him away, the big man grabbed her wrists in his mighty right hand and shoved them up over her head. She was shocked to discover that, somehow, he was stronger than she was. In spite of her alien strength, she couldn't budge the grip he had on her wrists. The shock of that–that he could ravage her and basically do what he wanted–made her terrified of him and at the same time, instantly, desperately horny.
As if in proof of the power he had over her, the King bent and fastened his lip to the nape of her neck and gave her a nasty hickey–one that would be visible to any who looked. At the same time, he began to toy with her joy-button, teasing her hungry snatch. "Uhnn... uhnn...," she whined. "Did you think I forgot, pretty baby," he whispered? "Hmm?" Pinching her joy-button hard, making her scream, the big man announced, "you gave this to me, pretty baby." Reaching up, the big man popped the catch on her bra, baring those fine titties. Immediately he fastened his lips to the one on the right. Jake howled as a shard of white-hot lust shot up her spine.
The King reached down, stuck his fingers in the waist of her panties and jerked them down off her thighs. Wasting nary a moment, he shoved his fingers in her snatch and almost ruthlessly juiced her. Jake wailed and squealed, as orgasms hit her rapid-fire like gunshots. Hips wriggling, she begged him to stop. He didn't. He didn't until she was breathless. The big man drew his hands out from between her thighs. Spreading the fingers before her face, he showed her how sticky his fingers were with her sex-slime before slurping the goo off his fingers.
Reaching into a pocket, the King brought out a wax-paper packet and dangled the condom in front of her nose. "Should I put it on, baby," he asked? "Pumped another one in Fish-Bitch. Maybe I should pump one in you... Maybe I should fuck my pussy raw and get me some pups of my own." Ass squirming, Jake Junior moaned in heat, her head thrashing back and forth. She was some of that turned on. He could hear her heart beating. He could smell her hot cream. It was time for the main event.
Finn lashed his toy to the bedpost with one of Sybil's vines, pinning her arms there. Jerking those sleek thighs apart, he climbed aboard, easing that fat sausage into her belly. "Aaanngggh," Jake wailed, her body shuddering. Bending down, he caught her left nip and gave it a painfully hard suck, making her squeal. And then he began to ride her. Hard. Almost of their own volition, those sleek legs wrapped themselves around his waist. It was the best she'd ever gotten. He was driving her mad.
Finn found his own climax coming up fast. This was a side of himself he'd rarely let loose. He'd been rough with Orzsebet. He'd treated her like this quite a few times. The only other person had been Emeraude, and he'd been under the influence of the Body-Snatcher at the time. With a groan, Finn lost it, shooting off deep inside her.
Resting against her, his hips grinding into hers, the big man whispered, "still very good pussy, pretty baby. Some of my favorite snatch..." He was still fucking hard as a rock. His words whispered past her ear making her shiver, and his fingers stroked her spine. "Think I'm'a have seconds..." So saying, the big man threw her on her belly. With a hand to the back of her head, the big man shoved her face into the pillow, then stuck her again, burying that fat thing in her belly once more. Jake screamed long and loud, barely muffled by the pillow at all.
Thousands of miles away, Randy Okonski woke to a frigid morning. Standing in the observation dome, he looked out on an expanse of white. It had snowed in the night. The interior of the construct had stayed warm enough, though. Thankfully. None of the flesh-creatures was in danger, but they were in a bind. The rest of the convoy was gone, and it wouldn't be long before their living cargo figured that out. It was time to beard the witch in her lair and figure out what they were going to do to keep a thousand people alive, while they tried to get this thing moving again.
Morning in Sonbong found Jake Junior laying in fevered, dream-haunted sleep. She'd gone down hard. Finn had made sure of that. When the alarm on her phone chimed, Jake Junior woke with a sigh. In spite of banging Fish Bitch for days, Finn had gone for nearly an hour last night. He'd had her every way he could have her. She was sore again. In the end, he had let her know that he'd used a rubber. He'd shot into a rubber. The simultaneous terror/sexiness of being forcibly impregnated had kept her hot as fuck the whole time. It was anything but the simple wham-bam that she'd had with Bill. With a wince, the shapechanger climbed out of bed and padded to the door of the little bedroom. Finn was gone, and that worried her for a moment until she heard the shower going.
Finding her boyfriend in the shower, Jake slipped in beside him and slipped her arms around him. Finn embraced her, offering, "know that I have always loved you..." She knew. She'd always known it. Finn had always tried to take care of them. "This is different," she murmured. "It's hard sometimes." There were tears in her voice. He'd warned her. This wasn't going to be an exclusive thing. "I know," the big man rumbled. "I told you. I sometimes feel like I'm in hell, being pulled from every side." And often it felt like there wasn't enough of him.
Moving on, the big man said, "I'd like you to think about staying with Charlie." She knew what he was saying with that gesture. Charlie was her sister. Charlie could comfort her and help her deal with what she was going through. "Asuka and Misato need us, Finn," Jake replied. "Charlie's grown." And she would hear no more on the subject.
They'd needed to say those things. Now, Finn left her there to finish washing in favor of drying off and getting himself dressed. When she emerged from the shower, the King was gone, likely off to deal with the odds and ends before they got out of here. Jake strode up to the mirror and stood there a moment. He'd laid out another chick-suit for her, this one in turquoise. Jake stared at the outfit a long, long while before coming to a decision.
Hundreds of miles away, Tatsuo Nagumo was up and pacing. He'd been pacing when his lieutenant arrived at his quarters, and he'd hardly stopped even to eat or drink. Their leader was in quite the state, and Kaito Maeda hardly could blame him. The attack on Sonbong had been an unmitigated disaster. They'd lost twelve of their precious machines. Somehow their foe had managed to attack and disable them over the course of mere minutes with little to no outward sign of an attack.
The lord's mood was volatile. He'd slapped one of their soldiers for speaking out of turn the day before. Morale was in the tank, and the men were reduced to whispering and talking quietly amongst themselves. It was every flavor of not good. Kaito had more bad news. Two of the towns who'd sworn allegiance were making noises about rebelling. The news of the defeat had spread like wildfire.
Before Kaito could open his mouth to share out that bad news though, one of their techs came rushing in. "I have the answer," shouted the soldier. Lord Nagumo's face turned towards his, and the fool's enthusiasm immediately got curbed. That look seemed to say, 'this had better be good.' The alternative wasn't to be contemplated.
Seeming to have a sense for the thin ice he was treading, the techie offered his master a deep bow. "Lord," he said. "I have figured out how it was done. We were undone by treachery." Tatsuo Nagumo frowned at him. The man held out a sheaf of papers. "When we converted the machines, we were somewhat in a hurry," the man explained. They had been in a hurry because this had all been done on the sly, with the other members of the ruling council in the dark. Everybody knew who was responsible for the haste. Thankfully, the tech moved on.
"Some of the movement and control systems are exposed, lord," he said. "It's here in the telemetry." Kaito gasped. "All our machines are still linked to the central computers," the tech explained. "I downloaded the logs... most of them. Some of the machines suffered damage that somehow disabled the black boxes." Shaking those papers, the tech explained, "there must have been infiltrators. They must have crept up on our pilots... perhaps during the night." They'd sliced through hydraulic hoses and severed control lines. The pilots probably hadn't even seen it coming.
Tatsuo gave vent to vile curses. Storming back and forth, he swore vengeance on the King of Ooo. Kaito moved in and got his hands on his master, stopping him from that unseemly ranting. "Master," the younger man said, "we must make plans. This won't be the last time he tries to take us by strategem of war. We must either shore up the weak points in our weapons or prepare defenses."
Tatsuo licked his dry lips. He'd been dodging around some unpleasant truths these last weeks. He'd known going in that his machines had vulnerabilities. He'd simply hoped that the power they had and the lightning strikes of his army would cover those vulnerabilities. If their foes were cowed and terrified, they'd have no chance or desire to try and take advantage. That now seemed... foolish. Finn the Human was no coward or shirker, and he was very experienced with war.
Tatsuo Nagumo turned his face to the maintenance tent. The first-generation machines would never be completely invulnerable. They weren't built for war. His second-generation machines were still on the drawing boards. He'd hoped to keep this a war of machines–to slowly ease the idea of total warfare up on his people. He'd wanted to ease their passage out of pacifism and back to warrior spirit. There was no hope of it now. "Begin conscription," he muttered. "I must have ground-troops."
Back in Sonbong, Finn turned from talking to the Lord to find a carriage rolling up with his mistress inside. To his surprise, when the footman opened the door, Jake wasn't wearing the green suit he'd laid out for her that morning when she stepped down. Instead, his girlfriend wore a pleated micro-mini in white that seemed almost transparent in the bright morning sun. Not that it did much to shield her hot little body, as the hem of said skirt seemed to dance with every step she took causing the see-through panties she wore underneath to play peek-a-boo with his eyes. Over that, she wore a sleeveless top in blue that hung open between her pert knockers, showing off a sexy bra in transparent white lace. Pregnancy had made those very nice knobs indeed, and her partly-open blouse displayed ample cleavage. Even her lips called to him. She'd daubed them in a deep red gloss that made them pop.
It was a look that hit him right between the balls, saying 'fuck me' without her lips once moving. Everybody looked, even Jay and Bonnie. Finn had dressed his mistress modestly while they were here, trying to be sensitive to his kids' feelings, but Jake clearly had other ideas. The only concession to where they were was the pair of hiking boots she wore on her feet instead of the heels that would have raised her height a few inches and made that round ass of hers really swing. Her expression was calm, though she was telling the world just where things stood–just who she was–with the choice she'd made. She may have been the King's bodyguard, but she was also his plaything–a role she was completely comfortable with. "Your Majesty," she greeted him. "Ms. Rainicorn," Finn replied. Nodding at the machine that was to carry them, he said, "bide a moment while the bags are put aboard."
Finn turned back to Lord Seo Joon. "There's a small chance that he can get around us," Finn announced. "He still has access to Truth Kingdom's small navy. I'll be leaving some troops here to hold down the fort until we've run him down. Keep the forcefield ready. Keep your guard up. Send the fleet out to sea as you can to fish. Sheila will be back with another load of food in a month to help you out." The Lord acknowledged those orders and thanked him profusely, bowing from the waist until his face very nearly touched the ground in an embarrassing display.
Finn took the man by the shoulders and made him straighten. Embracing him in a bro-hug, the big man said, "you are my brother, not my pet, Lord. Let us have no more bowing and scraping. My bond to you is my life. Your people will see no more harm. I'll run this rogue down. Be at peace." With that, the King turned to go. Bonnie smiled at the Lord, and Jay acknowledged the man with a nod, before turning to get aboard the strange conveyance. Jake was next, and Finn couldn't really help boosting her up with a hand on her ass. Then the King himself swung aboard. As the crew shut the door, the big man settled into the seat beside his mistress. Jake said not a word and didn't so much as crack a smile. It was commonplace for the King to touch her that way after all.
The strange vehicle reminded Finn of a Grid-Face Person airship, only in miniature. Massive, segmented steel wheels on the four corners and in the center supported the thing. Somewhere down beneath his feet, a power-source of some kind hummed away. The space where they sat, much like on an airship, was partitioned off from the cargo space further back, and it had comfortable seats, a couple of tables, and a small galley for cooking.
As the miles rolled by, Finn did his best to work, while Jake sat staring into space or looking out the window. He didn't have much for her to do at the moment. Jay didn't take long at all to head upstairs to claim one of the little cabins, though Bonnie got quickly underfoot, exploring the strange machine, and eventually finding herself out on an open-deck up top. For her part, Jake slipped into slumber, ultimately laying her head against Finn's shoulder.
Lunch came, and Finn woke his girlfriend, taking her to the little gallery. Sitting down with Bonnie, the big man asked her how she was taking the ride. "It's... It's great, daddy," the younger woman replied. "It's the adventure I always wished I could have." For her part, Jake was distant. Mostly she was head down with her phone. Finn let her alone, though he did occasionally remind her to eat. She had to get something down and keep up her strength.
As the sun set, Finn decided that Jake had been wrapped up in her own thoughts much too long. Setting aside work, the big man reached out, took the phone out of her hands, and toggled it off. Reaching into his pocket, he took out a deck of cards and lay them on the table between them. Jake glanced away. It was eerie the way he could read her. Billy had been good at it too, but he'd done a lot of lying to himself to avoid dealing with the hard reality of what she was up to. Finn went right at her and never let things fester for long.
As he dealt the hands, the King said, "I'm looking at ways to help Liz. How bad is it?" Jake sighed. Forcing calm into her voice, she admitted, "not good. I... I don't think it's bad yet, but it's..." "Going in the wrong direction," Finn rumbled. "I have options, Jake," Finn said. "I've asked Betty to look at some options... Maybe making her a ward of the state." He was going to take her freedom away. The idea... sucked. But wasn't that what Liz needed? "Got any fives," Finn asked? Frowning at her hand, Jake replied, "go fish."
Finn occupied the time all through dinner, as the strange vehicle bounced and rumbled across the miles. Bonnie came in from upstairs, looking a little chill, but exhilarated all at the same time. In short order, she'd dealt herself into the game, and they went on for several more hours with Jake slowly calming down and loosening up until she was almost her old self again–the smart-aleck kid Finn had known for much of his life.
The operators came through, shutting off unused lights in the machine, plunging the strange ship into darkness. With a yawn and a kiss for her dad, Bonnie headed up the stairs to bed. Finn put the cards away. Taking Jake by the arm, he led her up the spiral stairs to the quarters on the second level. Standing in the tiny cabin, he slowly undressed her, laying her clothes out on the table, just as carefully as his own. "Do you have any more," she asked? It took a moment. Turning to face him, she said, "tell me you didn't use them all." "No," he said. "Got four left." The skinny shapechanger glued her lips to his, smearing the red gloss on his mouth. "Did you like it when they looked at me," she breathed? "Yeah," he said. "Straight sexy, baby."
Maja's in a bit of trouble. Tatsuo doubles down on stupid, and Finn gives chase to shut him down. More fun to come.