As the group stared at her, Grace waved happily before looking at the two brothers with a frown.

Recognizing what was about to happen, Xander sighed, "Grace, No!"

"Grace yes!" She growled before putting both men into a headlock and smiling "I want them both!"

"Not happening, young lady. You can't just go about kidnapping people."

Squeezing the two mens' heads into her chest, Grace scowled at her Godfather darkly. "Can too. Baron's law says you have to respect the ways of my people!"

"First, you don't have a people," Xander challenged only to be interrupted by the Hybrid as she smiled.

"Which makes me Queen," she countered and Xander sighed again.

"Secondly, your 'ways' need to be codified into laws and structures, not made up as you go along." Xander pressed on, holding up a hand to cut off her counter, "And not scribbled down in a Diary last week," He said and smiled as she pouted before pointing at the two slightly flailing men. "Third holding them to your breasts until they pass out and then declaring that silence is consent is wrong, now let them go!"

Pulling the two away from her chest, Grace glanced between the two before giving Moloch a shove. "Your whiskers itch, you're banished from my harem."

Gaping at the strange woman that had assaulted him and his brother, Omar was less than prepared for the white skinned, crazy lady to squeal something that sounded like 'Open mouth is consent' before her tongue was in his mouth. In a matter of moments, Omar was receiving one of the deepest kisses of his life as the crazy lady shoved two feet of tongue into his mouth and down his throat.

Omar had considered himself to be quite cosmopolitan when it came to the women. His time in the service had netted him a wide range of experiences with the gentler sex, as such he was considered to be quite the ladies man by his brothers. However, nothing in his years of chasing women had prepared him for this and that included that one time with old Olga Von Threep on his sixteenth birthday.

After a short eternity of flailing in a panic, the soldier felt a massive hand grab him by the back of his uniform jacket and jerk him away from the overpowering grip, and far more importantly, from the tongue. The two feet of tongue.

Gagging slightly as the last couple inches wrapped around his own tongue and clung to it as he was pulled away, Omar swore an oath of fealty to the one responsible for saving him.

Chewing on the Horse Jerkey she had stolen from the eldest Von Zinzer brother, Grace swore that her prude of a godfather wouldn't stop her this time.

"That's enough of that Grace! You have a job to do and this one is working for me," Xander said sternly as his goddaughter mocked pouting before blowing the frozen Von Zinzer a kiss and snapped to mock attention with a giggle as Xander sighed.

He indicated the young girl nearby, "Grace, this is Agatha, as of right now she is to be considered a class three Yellow VIP. Until we know otherwise, I want you to keep an eye on her and on the Jagers."

Xander watched as his goddaughter seemed to teleport to the young Heterodyne and swept the confused girl up in a hug, spinning her around with a squeal, the half-Geister sent a dark glare at the two Jagers that were with the party before she set about interrogating her new bestie on all the gossip she could drag out while her prey was still in shock.

Holding the catatonic man at arm's length, Xander passed him off to his brother with a sigh. "I'm sorry about her. I'd like to say that it's a flaw of her mother's people, but honestly she could just as easily get it from Othar. Whatever the case is, she hasn't quite cottened on to the fact that there is a difference between 'Husband' and 'Hostage' a situation that is not helped by her infatuation with the sky bitch at all." Xander said with a snarl at the last part before forcing himself to calm down. "Whatever the case may be, she does have some hard and fast rules that she will abide by… Usually… Mostly… Sometimes…" trailing off Xander considered his goddaughter and sighed. "Anyway, we need to be getting to work." With a wave and a final comment about their job, Xander corralled the gathered warriors with the ease of long practice and moved them towards their destination.

Behind him Moloch watched the assembled monsters walk towards the machine shop and sighe. Dragging his brother towards the open air cafe nearby, Moloch hoped that Xander wouldn't get too mad if he bought his brother something to fortify him after the attack.

If he was lucky, he might even find some Gleekin Grog for sale or trade, the last town he had found any in had actually paid him to drink the stuff. Apparently the brew was a tad difficult to dispose of safely, something about poisoning the water table or some such.

Moloch idly wondered what mad-boy would have thought of creating a table out of water and why so many people were concerned about it before shrugging the thought off. No matter, the grog should perk his big brother up enough to get him through the day. That, or set his hair on fire. Either way, he was pretty sure his brother wouldn't be kissing at the air anymore so he would count that as a win.

-

stepping into the machine shop Xander smiled at the scent of oil and metal that filled the place. One of the discoveries he had made in this crazy time had been an aptitude towards mechanical work. Unfortunately, his time with the Baron and the work required to govern a small province of the Empire had kept him out of the garage for far too long.

Maybe when he was done here, he could put some hours in and see if he could get his Chariot up and working again.

As the others stepped into the shop, Xander glanced at the back of the hulking construct that Agatha had called her parent and sighed.

It looked like things were going to get complicated. Xander wondered if anyone else had it as hard as he did at times.

-

Silas Merlot screamed as he held on to the short rope that was currently dangling over the edge of a pit filled with carnivorous war puffins. The growling, chainsaw-like death beneath him was overshadowed by the joyful laughter and crashing sounds of his kidnapper. Othar dove into the fray with the Beetlesburg Puff Kings that had been trying to take control of the criminal elements during the chaos of the Baron's occupation.

Above Silas a rather sadistic goat gnawed on the rope the one-time assistant to the town's Tyrant was holding on to.

There wasn't anything particularly special about the goat that was trying to murder him though, the creatures were just assholes sometimes.

-

(Short Chapter to keep myself focused, Hope you all enjoy it.)