Part Five: High-Ho, High-Ho...(Phase Two; Part Three)
She would be off-world for the next two days or so. He had been able to pull some strings, call in some favors and even indebt himself to their superiors to get them to ass-pull up some excuse for her to be called to Headquarters and the journey and visit would keep her busy for days. Enough time for him to mine what he needed from his friend's back and hide it away for later use.
The magically enchanted manacles clamped shut about the living, sentient gem's wrists as he knelt willingly. The being's friends and comrades surrounded him, pickaxes in hand. One looked remorseful and disgusted with himself; another looked horrified while the third, the being's human girlfriend, trembled at her task. Their pickaxes were enchanted diamond headed with sturdy Versitium handles and their users each wore thick leather gloves and clear enchanted diamond lensed goggles.
With a sort of pained groan the being made his gemstone body, glistening in the artificial lighting of the room, sprout protuberances of his stony flesh. These protuberances were prisms of himself that jutted from his back, each being feet tall and feet wide.
"Go." Was Ben's order, signifying that he was ready to complete his duty.
Kevin stepped forward and with a mighty swing and the sound of gem hitting gem sparks and shards flew. It did not hurt Ben for them to be mining his body and the watch's timeout feature let them take regular breaks while it recharged. If anything, the miners themselves were suffering more than he was. Within a few swings their shoulders began to burn and their breath came in pants. Sweat broke out on their bodies, their skin flushing. Mining Tandenite was not the easiest task in the world and Kevin gain a certain respect for Vulkanus's gremlins who had mined the same gem from his own back as he did now from his friend's.
"I so owe you." He huffed to Ben during one of the time-outs. Kevin, Cooper, and Julie were all leaning against the walls, struggling as if they had just attempted the Iron Man decathlon.
Then the cavalry arrived. Ben and Gwen's parents and after them Grandpa Max trooped into the warehouse. They were wearing the same goggles and held the same pickaxes. This allowed Cooper to remove the human Julie from the premises as she soon passed out from her exhaustion and exertion. And so much more was able to be mined in the subsequent hours and once she was back up Julie helped by gathering the fragments already mined. She swept them into a dustpan with a broom and then deposited the contents of the full dustpans into a large container. Once they had enough, and Kevin had mined a large single chunk of Tandenite for some unknown project, the pieces and shards were grounded down into a fine powder and sealed into what looked like a large snuff box. All in all the operation only took, not accounting timeouts or night time sleeping hours, a day and a half and the grinding another half a day.
So when Gwen came home, thoroughly pissed with their commanding officers, she found nothing out of their ordinary. Except that Kevin actually had a real smile on his face.
He was up to something.