Krel isn't sure how much he trusts the Green Knight, but Mort apparently believes her story about being mind-controlled. All of them relocate to the living room upstairs. Krel is careful to sit nearest the exit, in case she's lying and attacks them. Toby claims the other side of the couch with him; Steve looks between them and the Knight, then mutters for him and Toby to make room and sits between them. Mort brings the Knight a steaming mug.
"Tea," he says. At her cautious look, he adds, "Halal. I checked for you."
"Thank you," she says softly.
Mort sits next to a yawning Douxie on the other couch and leans forward on his knees. "Now, I think it's time we discuss this… mind-control situation."
"Yes, of course," she says. "First, let me introduce myself. My name is Ikram. I was born in what is now called Saudi Arabia, in the twelfth century."
"Wait, what!?" exclaims Toby. "No way are you that old!"
The Knight – Ikram – chuckles. "I'm afraid so, child. I was cursed with immortality by the same wizard who mind-controlled me. For the past several centuries, I thought I was free, but a few weeks ago, he took over again and – well, sent me after you."
"Why us?" asks Steve. "I mean, what did we ever do to him?"
"I don't know," she says. "I haven't even seen the wizard in person in centuries. If he trusted me, he wouldn't have had to mind-control me."
"We understand," says Mort. "And I'm truly sorry you had to go through that. Any wizard who imposes his will on others is a monster."
Ikram glances between the three of them. Krel shifts awkwardly, tugging at a strap on his wrist brace.
"There are more Knights," she warns. "And they will come, now that I have been released. You must be careful. No offence meant, but you three are some of the worst fighters I've ever had to face."
"Hey!" Steve protests. "We beat you!"
"By pure luck," she says flatly. "You need training."
"We're getting trained," Krel says. "Nimue is teaching us how to fight."
"You need more training." Ikram takes a sip of her tea. "That's why I am going to train you. If your guardian agrees."
Mort raises his hands when her eyes land on him. "Don't look at me. I'm not their guardian."
Her brow furrows. "You're not? Hm. Then where are their guardians?"
"At home," says Toby. "And I'm sure Nana would be fine with it."
"How do we know you're not going to kill us during training?" challenges Steve. "This could all be a plot to get us vulnerable."
"It could be," Ikram agrees. "I understand that you won't trust me right away, but I know how the other Knights fight and I know how to train you, if you'll allow it."
"If Mort believes you, I believe you," says Toby. "We need the training, and if you know the other Knights then you're our best bet."
Steve crosses his arms. "Fine. But if we get killed, I'm blaming Toby."
"I can live with that," says Toby.
"You'll be dead, actually," Krel points out.
"So I guess it's settled," says Toby. "You'll train us."
Ikram nods solemnly. "I only hope we have enough time to get you three somewhat competent."
"Tomorrow," says Mort. He glances at Douxie, already asleep on the couch. Krel doesn't blame him. "I think these boys have had a very long day and deserve a good night's sleep."
On cue, Toby lets out a yawn. "Yeah. Tomorrow sounds good."
Steve also yawns, then hits Toby in the arm. "Don't do that, dude! You're making me tired!"
"Hey, think of it this way," says Toby. "We can sleep at our own houses tonight."
"Great," says Krel, trying to fake enthusiasm. He knows the others have been getting tired of the near-constant sticking together, but Krel's been kind of fond of it. Now it's back to an almost-empty, almost-destroyed mothership with the Blanks.
"I don't think they'd be here yet, but to be safe, I do suggest you all take alternate routes home," says Ikram. "I could probably draw your paths on a map."
"Alright," says Toby.
"Call me if you run into trouble," says Mort. "I can always give you a ride home, if you'd prefer."
"We're good," says Steve.
"Where should we meet for training?" Ikram asks.
"We can use my place," says Krel. "There is a training deck Aja and Varvatos would use."
"Very well," says Ikram. "And the address?"
Krel opens his mouth, then realises he doesn't know this information. He laughs sheepishly. "About that."
"I know where he lives," says Mort. Krel doesn't bother wondering how. It's probably a wizard thing. "Alright, then, kids. Run along and get some sleep. I'm sure you need it."
The three say their goodbyes and leave the shop. Steve stretches his arms.
"I don't know about you guys, but I am going to sleep like a rock tonight," he says.
"Me too," says Toby. "I'm beat."
Krel laughs. "Should we all take different routes? Just in case?"
"Might be a trap," says Steve.
"I don't think it's a trap," says Toby. "Come on, you trust Mort, don't you?"
"I guess," says Steve. "We can try splitting up, but just so you know, that's never a good idea in movies."
"Call if anything happens," orders Toby. He pauses. "Actually, call Mort first, and then each other. Let's be honest, Mort's the one that can actually help."
They say goodbye and split off. Krel isn't entirely sure which way to go, but he ultimately decides the most unpredictable path he could possibly take is through the woods. He doesn't like this decision, but he has to admit to himself that it's a good one. Through the woods it is.
It's already dark out, and it's a clear night. The deeper Krel wanders into the forest, the better he can start to see the stars. Krel stares up at them and wonders what patterns the humans have picked out, if they have constellations like Akiridion-5 does. He absently tries to create his own. He's always been fond of constellations, and it would be nice to have some to find in Earth's sky. He should look into that.
He's not paying enough attention to where he's walking, so it's no surprise when his shin hits something hard and he completely fails to regain his balance. He tumbles to the forest floor and lays there for a second, hating his decision to trek through the stupid forest with its stupid trees and stupid roots and stupid rocks and–
Wait.
He pushes himself into a sitting position and turns. He sucks in a sharp breath. That is not a root or a rock.
"Gaylen's core," he mumbles in awe. He stands and starts brushing leaves and dirt off of the rest of the core. Its faint glow grows steadily brighter as it's fully revealed. He thought they destroyed it with Morando. How is it here? How did he find it?
He… found it… in the forest… just like his dreams.
That has worrisome implications, but he can't just leave Gaylen's core in the middle of the forest for just anyone to stumble upon. He digs his hands under it and struggles to lift it up. Why does it have to be so heavy?
The glow brightens, and Krel scrambles backwards and shields his eyes. When it dies down, Gaylen's core has shrunk down to something Krel can easily pick up with two hands. He hesitates, but, again, he can't leave it here, so he picks it up. The glow brightens again at his touch; the core feels warm and alive.
"Let's get you back to the mothership," he says, glancing around the trees. "I don't want to be out here any longer than I have to."
Krel means to get some sleep, he really does. Only Gaylen's core is the kind of incredible scientific specimen that he can't help but study. On the surface, it acts a lot like any Akiridion core would. On closer inspection, it's amazingly different, and Krel has no idea how it works. It's made of similar material to an Akiridion core, but it's definitely not the same and the level of energy it contains is unbelievable – the latent powers of a god, supposedly, but from a more scientific perspective, it's enough energy to power all of Akiridion-5 ten times over, at least.
Needless to say, Krel gets completely sucked into his research.
"Hey, Krel, whatcha got there?"
Krel startles and spins around to face Toby – and Steve, Nimue, and Ikram, it turns out – as they walk into his lab. What are they doing here? Is it morning already? He runs to Toby and tries to put his excitement into words. He can feel himself practically vibrating with it.
"It's amazing – the power levels are off the charts – hundreds of kilojoules worth of energy, enough to power your whole planet for centuries – I did the Kliiban Test and–"
"Woah, woah, slow down," says Toby. "The what test?"
"You're speaking space nerd again," adds Steve. "None of the rest of us speak space nerd."
"We can discuss this later," says Ikram. "Your training is more important right now."
Krel would like to argue that, no, Gaylen's core is pretty important, but she does have a point. With the other Knights set to show up any day now, they need to be prepared. Krel can study Gaylen's core later.
"Right," he says. "Training. Here, I'll show you the training deck."
He leads them through the still somewhat destroyed ship, careful to avoid any dangerous sections. The training deck is, by some miracle, in decent condition. Krel probably should have checked that before. He would have, probably, but Gaylen's core.
"Alright," says Ikram, stretching and unsheathing her sword from her hip. "Nimue told me what she's done with you. I want to strengthen that. You're going to take turns. Who wants to go first?"
"Me!" exclaims Toby, jumping up and down.
Ikram raises an eyebrow, amused. "Alright. Remind me your name?"
"Oh, I'm Toby," he says. "Tobias Domzalski. But you can just call me Toby, everyone else does. Except Jim, he sometimes calls me Tobes."
"Alright, Toby," she says. "Let's spar."
Krel and Steve sit on the side-lines as they square off. Krel tries to pay attention as their spar begins, but then he starts thinking about Gaylen's core again and instead he pulls up the data he's gathered so far on his phone and starts running simulations. Okay, what, in theory, would happen if he tries to use Gaylen's core like some sort of battery? Once again glad he upgraded the primitive human tech, he runs a simulation to see – and it exploded, that's not good. This is why he runs simulations first. Okay, what if he reinforced the wiring and adds a power modulator – nope, that exploded too. Out of curiosity, he pulls up the specs for Seklos's canon and plugs in Gaylen's core as power source – exploded as well.
"Ay-yi-yi," he mutters to himself. He hears Steve beside him hide a laugh, but doesn't pay him much more mind.
So Gaylen's core as a power source is not an option. Maybe there's a way to siphon energy out of it into a battery. He starts small. If he just tries to get a single joule out, then maybe – oh, no, that would have hurt in real life. Krel is not interested in being electrocuted today. Maybe using Gaylen's core for power in any way isn't an option either. That's unfortunate.
Is there a way to harness the "latent powers of a god" without integrating with the core? Surely there's some way. Krel runs several more tests, each one either exploding or smoking or some other worrisome reaction. He's beginning to wonder if it's a glitch in the system. He's not desperate enough to test anything in real life, of course, on the seemingly likely chance it does explode.
He's suddenly torn away from his simulations when tan fingers snap in front of his face. "Alright, Krel, is it? Off your phone."
Caught, Krel quickly turns his phone off and sets it on the floor. He gives Ikram a smile. "Uh, my apologies."
"You're from the twelfth century, how do you know what a phone is?" Steve exclaims.
Ikram sighs. "I was born in the twelfth century, but I've lived in the twenty-first century – well, probably longer than you have. What are you kids, thirteen?"
"Sixteen!" Steve gasps indignantly. Then he nods towards Krel. "Oh, yeah, and I think he's fifteen."
"In Earth years," Krel says.
"We're not even going to go there," says Steve.
"I adapted," says Ikram flatly. She returns her attention to Krel. "It's your turn for a spar."
Krel gulps. "Uh, right."
He pushes himself to his feet and stretches all four arms, then follows her onto the training deck. He activates his serrator.
"Now, act like I'm still trying to kill you," she says. "I know I'm not in armour right now, but you can pretend. I'm told you're rather intelligent."
"I'm very intelligent," corrects Krel.
"Great, we'll see if you're a fast learner when it comes to fighting." She smirks, then runs at him sword-drawn. Krel panics, but he has learned from fighting Nimue that it isn't acceptable to make a tactical retreat, so instead he throws up his shield and winces as the sword comes down on it in a shower of sparks.
When she backs up, he switches his serrator to sword form and leaps at her. Unfortunately, she's clearly expecting that. She dodges and sweeps her sword at his legs – it doesn't hit him, but as he tries to dodge, he stumbles and trips. She grabs his serrator hand and twists it just enough that he lets go. She releases before she hurts him – again, by the way – and levels her sword at his neck.
"Dead," she says.
"Yeah," he mumbles. "I know."
"You're distracted," she notes. "That needs to change. A distracted fighter is a dead fighter. I suggest that you get your mind off whatever it is you're so preoccupied by before the other Knights show up."
Krel nods. "Yes. Sorry."
"Aside from that," she says, "your technique is sloppy. As I'm sure Nimue has told you before, you need to watch your opponent for openings and weaknesses. I left you plenty. Next time, use them."
He swallows. "Yes."
"Aw, don't worry, Krel," says Toby, running forward and patting him on the back. "We all got our butts kicked! I say we go out for lunch and then pick this up later. Yeah? We can bother Douxie at his waiter job."
"We can head to my gym after," says Nimue. "There's room enough for two of you to be trained at once – well, really, if we just pit Ikram and I against all three of you you'd still be outmatched."
"Hey!" protests Steve.
"She's not wrong," Toby admits with a wince. "But after lunch! Come on, there's some nice chicken tenders with my name on them."
Krel laughs and walks over to pick up his phone again, then turns on his transduction and yawns. Steve shoots him a concerned look. "You alright? You look tired."
"I just woke up early" he fibs. Steve and Toby will never let him hear the end of it if they find out he didn't sleep at all. "Come on. Let's go get something to eat."
Tonight he'll get more rest, he tells himself. Gaylen's core will be able to wait a few hours for him to sleep.
Krel does just as poorly training at Nimue's, but that's less because he's distracted and more because he's tired. He means to go to sleep that night, get two or three hours.
He doesn't.
Gaylen's core captures his attention more than almost any other project ever has. He isn't foolish enough to run any tests with it outside of a simulation yet. Most of his simulations have ended in explosions of varying levels – once the simulation ended in an explosion big enough to level the entirety of Arcadia, so that idea got immediately discarded forever. Most of the simulations ended unequivocally with his own death. So, yes, he's smart enough not to test them in real life.
His phone rings. He absently throws the call to a holoscreen. Toby's face pops up.
"Hey, Toby," he says. He doesn't turn around, instead setting up another scan of Gaylen's core. Maybe he should try a different type of scan – maybe one that looks at low-spectrum energy this time, he's been focusing too much on high-spectrum energy and it isn't getting him anywhere.
"Dude, where are you?" Toby exclaims. "We have training this morning!"
"This morning?" says Krel. His eyes widen. "Wait, what time is it?"
Toby frowns. "Krel, it's almost ten in the morning. Please tell me you got sleep last night."
"Enough," he lies.
"You look kinda tired," Toby says. "Maybe you should sit out today."
"No, no, I'm on my way," says Krel. He grabs his serrator and turns on his transduction. "Be there soon."
He glances over the research one more time. Some of the figures blur, and he shakes his head. A few hours away will do him so good. A few hours of sleep would also do him some good, but he doesn't have time for that.
He takes Aja's hoverboard – his hoverboard now, Aja left it for him and he still forgets it's his – because he's already late and Nimue will murder him if he's much later. He goes through downtown and hopes he won't be attacked.
In his distraction he almost runs right into someone. He swerves to avoid them but loses balances and hits the ground. A foot stops his hoverboard while he sits up, and then a hand is offered to help him stand.
"Careful there," says Seamus.
"Thanks," Krel says. Seamus pulls him to his feet. His vision blacks out for a second, but he blinks a few times and it's back. "Sorry."
"You're in a hurry," Seamus says.
"Oh, no," mutters Krel. "Yeah – I gotta go."
Seamus laughs. "Alright, man, see you around, then."
It's probably the nicest interaction he's had with the guy, if Krel thinks about it, but he doesn't stay on it too long, instead hopping on his hoverboard and coasting the rest of the way to Mort's shop. He doesn't know the way to Nimue's gym through the record shop, so he runs inside Mort's and tears open the secret hatch.
"Good luck," Douxie calls.
"Thanks!" he calls back, rushing down the stairs, then opening the secret bookcase entrance and running through there as well. He almost runs straight into Steve, who steadies him by the shoulders.
"Hey, I was just coming to get you," he says. His brow furrows. "You okay, bro? You're looking… kinda awful."
"I am fine," Krel insists. "Come on. We have training."
"Yeesh, looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," says Steve.
More like no side of the bed. Is there a wrong side? Akiridion beds don't have a wrong side. Human beds must be very strange. Does his human bed have a wrong side? Which side is the wrong one?
"Krel, welcome," says Ikram as he walks in. Nimue glares at him. He shrinks back and smiles awkwardly. She's going to murder him. "We're going to continue with spars, but this time, I want you to spar each other."
The three of them exchange wary looks.
"Uh, I feel like that'll end with one of us stabbed," says Toby.
"I know," says Ikram, which isn't at all comforting until she nods to the wooden weapons on the ground. "That's why I made you these. They might bruise, but you almost certainly can't kill each other."
"Almost certainly?" Steve repeats.
Her face falls into a deadpan. "Well, you three continuously amaze me, and not in a good way. So yes. Almost certainly."
Toby picks up the wooden hammer. "Hey, it's as light as my real one! Ha, I probably can't even knock you out with this, Krel."
"Ha-ha," Krel says dryly.
"Alright, since Steve and Krel both use swords, I want you two sparring first," says Ikram. "In the meantime, Toby is with me."
Krel picks up one of the wooden swords. It has a different feel than his serrator, but he also won't accidentally stab Steve in his sleep-deprived state, so it's worth it. Steve tosses his from hand to hand.
"Ready to get your butt kicked, Tarron?" Steve challenges.
Krel laughs. "You're on, Palchuk."
The spread out and circle each other for a moment. It's just Steve, which means Krel's chances of winning have automatically shot upwards. If Steve gets overconfident enough, Krel is almost guaranteed to win.
"Krel?" Steve calls. Krel snaps back into focus. Steve looks concerned. "Uh, you okay? You blanked out on me for a second there."
"I'm fine," says Krel. "Let's get started."
"Alright," he says slowly.
Krel takes initiative and runs towards his friend. Steve brings up his sword to parry Krel's attack. Krel's struck with another bout of dizziness, but ignores it to jump back and try to get another jab in at Steve. He dodges. Krel stumbles past him.
Krel starts to move, but he moves to fast or something because his vision darkens and he has to steady himself. Steve doesn't catch this. By the time his vision is back, Steve is lunging. Krel can't get reoriented in time to dodge and is instead met Steve's wooden sword to his stomach. Oh. Good thing they didn't use serrators. That's going to leave a bruise but at least he isn't going to die from it. He falls into a sitting position on the floor.
"Dead!" Steve calls, before grabbing Krel's hand and pulling him up.
Dizziness floods Krel's senses. Steve is talking, but he's blurry and it's getting dark. When Steve releases him, Krel has barely a second to think that maybe he should have slept, before he hits the gym floor and the world goes black.
"I'm going to strangle him."
"I think the last thing he needs right now is for you to strangle him."
"I'm gonna. And then I'll have to explain to Aja why I strangled her brother."
"We both know you're not going to strangle Krel."
"I am. And I'm going to shake him until he has some sense. And then I'll strangle him some more."
It's incredibly weird that the first thing Krel wakes up to is Steve and Toby arguing about strangling him. He lets his mind wander for a second to debate whether Steve will actually strangle him if he fully wakes up, but decides that at the very least, Steve is too scared of Aja to do that. He opens one eye first. Steve and Toby aren't looking at him, so he opens both.
"Why are you in my room?" he asks.
"Krel!" Toby shouts. Krel winces, and he lowers his voice. "You're awake!"
"Yes," says Krel. "And you're in my room."
"Yeah," says Steve, voice tense. "We're in your room. Because you passed out. Passed out, Krel! You scared the crap out of me! I thought I hurt you!"
Now it's coming back to Krel. He really should have gotten sleep. Now his friends are mad at him because he scared them.
"And then we get Mort to help, and he tells us you haven't slept in days," Steve continues, pitch steadily raising. "Days! So it turns out, the minute we stop having sleepovers, you stop taking care of yourself! You have to sleep! Or did they not teach you that in Human 101?"
"I did not get a human one-oh-one," Krel says. It comes out less sarcastic than he'd hoped. To his horror, his eyes burn. He didn't mean to scare his friends or make them mad. And now they think he can't take care of himself. Aja thought the same thing, really. Always protecting him from everything.
"You can't just not sleep! That's basic life skills, Krel! Is this going to be a regular thing? Do we need to call you every night and tell you to go to bed?"
Krel sniffles, then embarrassedly tries to hide it by forcing his expression to stay neutral. Toby looks alarmed and elbows Steve. He pauses and furrows his brow. Krel pointedly looks at his hands. If he ignores the liquid building up maybe it will go away. Or not. Krel angrily wipes away the traitorous tear that streaks down his cheek. Ugh. How do humans deal with their emotions being so physically obvious?
"Oh, no, no, no," Steve stammers, waving his hands in front of him. "No, don't cry. I'm not mad – well, I am mad – but not at you – well, yes, at you – what did I say?"
"I'm fine," Krel mutters.
Steve looks at Toby with wide eyes. Toby glares at him and nods towards Krel. Krel scrubs his other cheek. He's only making things worse by actually crying. Stupid wasteful human tears and stupid transduction for making him have them.
Steve awkwardly sits on the edge of the bed, then pulls Krel into an even more awkward hug.
"Uh, I'm sorry," he says, then coughs. "Oh, that felt weird. I don't normally say that."
"Steve," Toby bites out.
Krel chuckles weakly. "It's okay. I'm sorry for this."
"No, no," says Steve, clumsily patting him on the back. "You gotta cry, bro, then you gotta cry. See? We're hugging it out. All good. Yeah?"
Krel manages another laugh. Steve pulls away and awkwardly moves back to his chair.
"Don't make it weird," he orders.
"Don't worry, your reputation is safe," says Krel, before pulling up his bedsheet to dry his cheeks.
"Look, what Steve was trying to say with all the angry yelling," says Toby, shooting Steve an annoyed look, "is that we're worried about you. It's really unhealthy to go so long without sleep. Even Akiridions need sleep, don't they?"
"They do. And it was an accident," Krel says. By their expressions, this doesn't help. "The other night, I found something in the woods. It would be – better if I showed you."
He swings his legs over the edge of his bed and stands. He leads them back to his lab and starts pulling up some of his research and scans. Toby looks around at them in awe. Steve crosses his arms.
"I don't get it," he says. "What did you find?"
"This," says Krel, stepping closer to show them Gaylen's core. As he nears it, it brightens – a weird anomaly to go with all the other things he hasn't figured out yet. Toby and Steve approach. Toby frowns at the core.
"Woah," says Steve.
"Is that what I think it is?" Toby asks.
"It's exactly what you think it is," says Krel. Then he pauses. "What do you think it is?"
"Well, it looks like Gaylen's core," says Toby, "but I thought you destroyed that."
"So did I," says Krel. "I stumbled across it in the forest. I couldn't just leave it lying around for anyone to find, so I brought it back here. That's why I kept forgetting to sleep – I've been studying this."
Toby's brow furrows. "I don't know, man. This thing is dangerous."
"Isn't this the thing that made Morando go cuckoo-nut crazy?" Steve asks.
"Morando was already 'cuckoo-nut crazy'," Krel dismisses. "But yes, this is the thing that made him a god. And I think this is what I've been dreaming about."
Both of their eyes widen.
"No way," says Steve. "Nuh-uh, you are not keeping this thing in your house."
"What? Why not?"
"We agreed the dreams were bad news!" Steve exclaims.
"No, we didn't," says Krel.
"The dreams were bad news!" Steve insists. He throws his hands out towards him. "And this thing is already making you light up like a Christmas decoration just standing next to it! Bad news."
Krel frowns and looks at his hands. Huh. His glow is more noticeable than usual. Another anomaly.
"I hate to agree with Steve, but he's right," says Toby. "I don't like this at all."
"We should tell Aja," says Steve. "Send it to Akiridion-5 and have them lock it up somewhere safe."
"No!" Krel exclaims. "We're not telling Aja. Besides, this might be able to help us! If I can figure out how to harness some of its powers in a safe way, we can use it against the new Knights and whoever they're working for."
"It's too risky." Steve grabs Krel by the shoulders and moves him away, switching their places and putting himself between Krel and Gaylen's core. The core dims slightly in response. Krel swallows. Yeah. That's definitely weird. "I get not telling Aja about the Knights, I do. But we have to lock this thing up."
Steve does have a point. Gaylen's core is dangerous. In the wrong hands, it could destroy the world. But in the right hands, their hands, maybe it can save the world, instead. It's not that Krel doesn't trust the scientists on Akiridion-5, but he doesn't know them. And if they just lock it up, then it's of no use to anyone. If Krel can just figure out how to harness its power somehow, then they'll stand a chance against this evil ancient wizard and his Knights.
"I'll be careful," he says, looking between his friends' worried faces. "I can figure this out. I know I can. I'm asking you to trust me."
Steve and Toby glance at each other. Steve's shoulder slump and Toby nods.
"We do trust you," he says.
"Just – promise us you won't do anything stupid," Steve demands.
Krel looks between his friends – to Toby whose face is drawn in worry and to Steve who looks ready to grab the core and call Aja himself – then to Gaylen's core, still glowing faintly behind them.
"Alright," he says. "I promise."