As the group continued to tour various locations, each one proved less than satisfying to Caboose for whatever he was looking for, something he did not spell out. The town around the arctic onsen failed to provide anything that met his interests, although he did manage to accidentally revitalize a failing shrine by bringing the entire group to it to pray for success in his present endeavor, resulting in the shrine becoming exceptionally popular both for being "the one shrine patronized by the Soldiers of the Reds and Blues" and for "being frequented by cute extra-species girls", much to the pleasure of the kitsune shrine maiden who worked there...even though she did not interact with the group much beyond failing to scare Caboose in an attempt to make the shrine popular for being 'haunted'.
For some reason, the search criteria also directed the group to a farm, but they did not stay long. At first Caboose was excited about working with animals, but Polt and Miia both quickly vetoed it when they saw that the farm had numerous extra-species girls - sheep-like satyrs and cow-like minotaurs - working there, and the last thing they or the other girls wanted was for Caboose to unwittingly snag even more girls for the engagement while trying to have fun. They were quite surprised when Caboose agreed with that decision once it was explained to them, before checking the search parameters for further possible locations.
After several more trips to various locations with negligible results, Caboose was left looking somewhat down at the end of the month as the sun started to set. Sitting back against a tree in the forest in Blue Base, he sighed sadly. "Nowhere worked..." he mumbled sadly.
"What do you mean, Master?" Cerea asked curiously. Everyone was in the room with him, though without the Freckle units. Their reasoning for it was rather obvious, since it was the night of the full moon. Once the sun set, the moon would rise...and none of them intended to be less than arm's reach from Caboose if they could avoid it. Miia, Papi, and Cerea felt they'd 'missed their chance' the previous month - and were quite envious of the rather smug Polt as a result - and no one wanted to 'miss their chance' this month. The only ones who weren't present were Lala - both because she continued to insist she did not see Caboose that way and because Kii still refused to allow her in the forest, though she was in the stairwell looking in, ostensibly to be ready in case what happened that night proved too much for the Blue warrior - Agent Smith, who had been called into the office earlier for something she'd kept quiet about, and Suu who had been put to bed earlier. The girls of MON were also there, and against the wall where the entrance to the forest was, the Engagement contract was posted with all their signatures on it. Any extra-species girl whose paperwork for becoming part of the 'engagement' was properly filed would just have to add their name to the contract in order to officially be part of the engagement and thus 'engage' with Caboose. For political reasons that Caboose did not understand, any human girls who wanted to be part of Caboose's 'family' in that regard only had to sign on to indicate they officially accepted sharing him with the other girls. All the girls present had already signed.
"Those excursions were quite fun," Rachnera added with a pleased chuckle as she hung from her webbing connecting the trees. Kii had been surprisingly welcoming of the web network, and got along rather well with the somewhat aloof spider girl. "I don't see why you're so disappointed with them."
Caboose sighed softly. "I'm glad everyone had fun," he allowed sadly, "but none of them were what I was looking for for tonight." He turned to Tio. "I'm sorry Tio, I tried..."
"Eh?" Tio asked in confusion. "What do you mean, Mr. Fiance?"
"On our date, you said that the night when I became Mr. Husband was super duper important for you," he explained apologetically. "So I wanted to find the perfect spot for it before tonight, so it could be the perfect night. But nowhere was perfect..."
Polt suddenly let out a giggle-snort. "Is that why you had Freckle searching for extra-species compatible honeymoon locations?" she asked in laughing surprise.
"Wait, that's what the search that had to be parsed was for?" Shii Shii asked in surprise.
"Wait, how do you know what the search was for?" Miia hissed irritably.
"Higher rank means higher data access privileges," Zombina spoke up easily, carefully applying her makeup to her suture marks. "How I knew he wasn't gonna find what he was looking for, but that the search would be fun anyway. Not that he actually needed to look for anything."
"Wait, what?" Caboose asked in confusion. "But I had to make tonight special, didn't I? Tio said it was sacred..."
Tio let out a surprisingly motherly giggle. "Oh, Mr. Fiance...it's not the place that makes it special..."
"What makes tonight special for us is you," Doppel spoke up, surprising several at the surprisingly kind tone she used. "We don't need a special place for tonight to be amazing. Just a special guy."
"And you are most definitely special," Kii observed warmly.
"You are all we need to make tonight perfect," Manako added, struggling through her embarrassment at speaking so romantically. Tio gave her a comforting, supportive, encouraging pat on her shoulder as Zombina shot her a thumbs up and Doppel smirked encouragingly.
"Aww, thanks girls!" Caboose said warmly, and they could all hear the smile in his voice even if they couldn't see his face yet. He then paused as the sensors in his helmet informed him that their pheromones had spiked in intensity. "Uh...are you all okay?" he asked worriedly.
"The sun just set love," Polt practically purred.
"The full moon rises," Oct added sibilantly as her tendrils writhed.
"The night begins," Rachnera added as she mightily resisted the urge to drag her claws against a tree, knowing that it would upset Kii if she did and using her webbing would have no effect whatsoever on her chosen target.
"It's time, Husband..." Papi panted as her entire body began to heave from the intensity of her emotions.
"It's...our turn..." Cerea managed to get out, struggling to keep herself under control.
"Remember girls, he'll need guidance," Polt spoke up, barely keeping her emotions in check long enough to make sure things didn't go out of control.
"He's only experienced with anatomy pretty close to baseline human," Zombina added, having a bit better control of herself than the others as she'd lived without the effect of the moon in her early life...and dealt with its effects without 'satisfaction' for a lot longer than the others had.
"I can't wait any longer!" Miia suddenly cried, only stopping from wrapping Caboose up in her tail by Rachnera and Oct using webbing and tendrils to hold her back. "Please, Darling...we need you..."
Caboose nodded worriedly. "I know. I'm just..."
"Don't worry," Polt managed to get out as she began to pant - there was no other way to put it - like a bitch in heat. "Seeing you won't change how everyone sees you...anymore than it did how I see you..."
Nodding, Caboose reached up disengaged his helmet, slowly lifting it off. As his face became visible, hearts appeared in the girls' eyes as they caught sight of him, and - as it had when Polt first caught sight of him - a certain music segment from "Young Frankenstein" began to play, almost audible from how many heads it was playing in simultaneously.
Sweet mystery of life, at last I've foooound you...
Kuroka Smith sighed to herself as she pulled up in front of Blue Base. On top of every other headache she had experienced from her work as an Interspecies Exchange Coordinator, she was now going to have to call MON away from Caboose's side on the night of a Full Moon to deal with Dangerous Extraspecies that somehow managed to make their way into human territory. This was not going to be pleasant.
As she entered the base, she frowned as she noticed it appeared completely empty. The ground floor had no signs of life save the Freckle units all docked at a charging station. To her surprise, her own Freckle unit immediately docked at the station before going into standby. Confused, she made her way to the stairs.
On the second floor, she found only Suu curled up asleep in her bedroom alone. This surprised Kuroka, as she thought that Suu would also be under the influence of the full moon and someone would need to keep her in check...until she noticed that Suu's Freckle was also there, emitting an odd hum in the air that only seemed to affect the air around Suu's bed. Kuroka assumed it was somehow counteracting the effect of the full moon...implying that Caboose's assumption of the effect being the result of an Alien Tower on the moon had some grounding in fact. As she stared, the Freckle turned towards her. [Fifth floor,] it offered helpfully before returning its focus to Suu.
Nodding, Kuroka made her way up the stairs, idly tugging at her tie and fixing her glasses. If they were in Kii's forest here, maybe she would have a chance to relax before she had to tell her girls what had come up. As she reached the fifth floor, she was surprised to see Lala sitting outside, her face glowing bright blue and her eyes wide, her hands clutching her scythe tight as though afraid of what they would do if she let go, her eyes locked on whatever was going on inside the soundproofed forest chamber. "Lala?" she asked curiously.
"In...there..." Lala managed to get out before biting her lip hard enough to nearly draw blood.
Confused, Kuroka stepped into the forest...and froze. Seeing all the girls clothes scattered here and there was not surprising, given the full moon. Seeing the girls themselves scattered about au naturale with expressions ranging from the ecstatic to the exhausted was a surprise, given the sheer numbers. Seeing a set of Blue armor carefully set to one side set Kuroka's eyes widening...and then she saw something that made her jaw drop and her cheeks color.
The man who stood there wasn't exactly physically impressive, all things considered. He was lean, limber, and well muscled with surprisingly pale skin, though not unhealthily so. Long blonde hair hung down his back, cut short enough to easily fit under a helmet but still long enough to blow in a non-existent breeze. However, despite not being exceptionally impressive physically, something about him - be it scent or something more metaphysical - seemed to shoot right to her hindbrain with the impression that this before her was the pinnacle of physical mortality. Then he turned to face her, and she felt her heart skip a beat and leap into her throat. While there were a few scars across his body and one on his forehead just below his hairline, his shining blue eyes with a look of absolute innocent enthusiasm and his wide grin gave him the look of an idealized Adam, and gave the instinctive impression that here was someone who had never tasted the Fruit of Knowledge, one untouched by the concept of Sin.
"Hi Kuku!" he greeted warmly, making her gasp as she realized this was Caboose without his armor. As he gently set down a relaxed to the point of dazed almost unconscious Oct, he turned fully towards her, and she struggled mightily to keep her eyes on his face. "Did you need help with the Moon tonight, too?" He held his arms welcomingly open to her, forcing her to remind herself that his name was Michael J. Caboose and not Valentine Michael Smith, however much he looked the part just now.
Emotions roiled in Kuroka's heart, body, and loins as she struggled against herself. Her professional side warred with her maiden's heart and her strong attachment to the frustrating, infuriating, endearing man before her...
"Fuck it!" she snapped as she signed the contract before yanking off her tie, tossing aside her glasses, and rushing to the embrace.
...and lost badly.
