Home Again, Home Again!

"So where do we being," asked the young girl as her shadow seemed to dance along the floor and onto a wall standing up as much as it could. "We can't take over the entire world, can we? We need to take out a small area, but where would it be…our small niche?"

"Ah ha ha!" laughed the man as he walked towards the window and looked out once more. Beneath them a small train was chugging it was through the plains and towards a town. "Like I said Lord Death will fall…however, I never said Vigrid or the others will. They'll remain standing in three millennia time, so we better get on their side. And who do they hate most of all?"

"Lor…Lord Death?" she asked with a large question mark attached to the end of it. "How are we supposed to take down Lord Death. Vigrid and Marburg both had a hard time with him? If we could take him down, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

"HAH! Another astute observation!" laughed the man as he wiped his mouth clear of a little dust. "True, against Lord Death we stand no chance, but there are ways to screw somebody over without ever meeting them face-to-face. I prefer these methods anyways. Why should I put my neck on the line to annoy Lord Death? As long as Lord Death can't put a face to my name I'm fine, I'm in the clear! So, the next question is how do we screw Lord Death over without ever actually seeing Lord Death?"

"We got after someone he cares about?" she asked again. Apparently she didn't have any solid concrete answers for the man to use. "Is that right, Zhavio?"

"Hah ha! That is correct!" he said with a boisterous laughter as he directed her towards the window. The shadow danced timidly to the window and looked out it and at the train. "Lord Death is a man who never leaves his building, his school. He is completely attached to his work, actually…he is literally attached to it. He can't leave the building, so we can't attack his work and we can't attack his students while they are at the school. So, this leaves us with a brief window of opportunity…luckily, Vigrid provided one for us. We should thank him the next chance we get." The little girl looked questioningly at her 'partner', probably questioning his sanity.

"Once more…probably best if not done face-to-face," continued Zhavio. "We'll take down the same people who drove him insane, who drove a nail into his coffin." Zhavio paused for a second as he took another sip from his tea. "There's also the people who were in charge of further imprisoning poor Marburg…but once again luckily for us they are the same people. The people in the train I've been eyeing and keeping an eye on. We'll take them down, claim their hometown as our new base in the new world, and at the same time become friends with Marburg and Zhavio."

"That's smart…" said the young girl as her shadow dashed to the other side of the room. It flew onto the ceiling and hung there looking down at both Zhavio and the pile of corpses. "But how are just the two of us going to take down an entire city?"

Zhavio paused for a second as he took another brief look out and at the train. "I suppose it's a valid question, Nolle. However, my genius plan did not include just me and you storming a city. Actually, by my calculations we may not even have to lift a finger." Nolle looked up at Zhavio, she didn't understand the reason for his rather absurd thought.

"But if we don't do it, how will we be sure we will obtain the city?" she asked as her shadow moved back over to the window to share Zhavio's sights. "If we get outside help they'd probably just double-cross me…er, us. We can't trust anyone else. We can only rely on us, right?"

Zhavio smirked as he looked out at the horizon. "What if I told you that there was someone else out there, someone who would help us achieve our goals, do most of the heavy-lifting, and isn't smart enough to double-cross us? Would that make you feel good?" Nolle looked up at Zhavio, still lost about his seemingly random train of thought. "Cause there is some…thing like that in the town we're going to."

(-at the train station-)

Michael walked off of the train ahead of everyone else. His brisk pace made it difficult for the rest of the group to keep up with him. May was trying to catch up and talk with him, but even she found it hard, just getting off of a 16 hour train ride, her legs were shaky. Michael's golem legs couldn't possibly become shaky just due to disuse over a period of times. He just kept walking away from them.

Michael had sent them a letter talking about the problematic new body, but Michael highly doubted that they fully understood what had happened. They may have been worldly, but Michael did not remember many golems on their journey. He felt terrified about returning home with his body and the waves of his friends following him, trying to catch up definitely didn't soothe his nerves. He kept heading forward, eyes on the horizon.

They quickly found themselves a cab and hopped on. They drove down through the town and to the outskirts. They immediately came up to a small cottage in the outskirts. May was surprised that Michael lived this far out and away from the city. May was taken back by it all the same though, the house itself wasn't impressive in size, but there was a large field around them. May paused for a second as she thought she saw something out in the field, but was brought back into the cab when Shi shouted something about the house.

"How are you planning to do this?" asked Michael, "just barge into my house without much of a 'hello'? I mean, my family hasn't seen me in awhile. I'm afraid they won't take it too well to suddenly see me and a small army of my friends appearing on their front door." Xander and Ash hushed quietly as they looked away from the house. They knew they were putting him into a bad position, but they didn't quite expect him to snap back at them like that. He was usually the calm one out of the group.

May impatiently tapped her foot as she slowly put together what he meant. Michael was in an even worse position than May thought he would be. She thought they were just coming in and maybe becoming extra dinner guests, but then she realized that that wasn't quite what Michael was upset about. 'My family hasn't seen me in awhile' were Michael's exact words just moments ago. May realized that they hadn't seen him since his recent body swap with a golem. Haven't seen their son in awhile and he comes home…and they find he's been replaced with a robot. It wasn't exactly the hallmark movie story of a lifetime.

Their small cab stopped. Shi started to struggle out of the cab and began to rush to the door ahead of everyone else shouting, "last one there is a rotten egg." However, Ze was soon halted and dragged back into the cab by the combined efforts of Melody, Ash, and Xander. They pinned hir down to the ground just to shut hir up. "Let me go you, you bunch of rotten eggs!" screeched Shi struggling to break free once more.

May moved forward, inviting Michael to take the lead. "We'll wait out here and you…you go and try to smooth things over?" May said with a slight quiver in her voice. She was completely unsure about how to do this, she was stuck here. As far as she was concerned the more she looked at it, the more it looked like a losing situation. Michael nodded and got out of the cab.

He moved to his door and knocked, he tapped his foot nervously. He couldn't believe he was doing this. Chances are if he was by himself, he wouldn't. He would've left and just gone to a hotel to relax for the reminder of the time. He didn't really care to be here right now…like this. He would just say hello to his father, maybe spend the night and then leave. He definitely didn't want to spend any more time here than he had to.

A hacking cough cut through the air and through the door. Michael noticeably stiffened. His feet held fast to the floor, despite his welling dread of whomever or whatever may be approaching the other side of the door. The doorknob fidgeted for a second as the homeowner tried to open the door. Michael looked behind him and at the cab full of his friends, not a one of them knew what he was thinking at this moment as they all stared with bright-eyed amazement, waiting to see what kind of man had given life to their friend.

Michael knew instantly that without a doubt, Shi was probably regaling the rest of the group with stories about how behind the door stood a bear or an evil soul-sucking reaper that was ready to steal Michael's soul the instant the door opened. Michael sighed as he returned his gaze to the door. He impatiently tapped his foot, still trying to find the right words to explain his current situation. Without a doubt it would probably come up at his very first therapy session. The military kid who was turned into a golem and fights demon-like creatures on a regular basis, it was a surprise he hadn't already been institutionalized.

After what seemed like an eternity to Michael, the door finally opened. A seemingly old man was on the other side of it. One hand was still on the doorknob, holding it open, the other had a cigarette that was soon left on his lip as he looked Michael up and down.

"Well?" asked the man after what can only be described as an uncomfortable amount of silence. "What do you want?" May flinched as she could almost hear the sound of what she imagined to be Michael's heart breaking. The golem's shoulders visibly slumped, moments ago they had been rigid with the thought of the worst case scenario and now…now that he was face-to-face with it, his spirit had left his body. "Are you expecting me to let you in my house? You should know your way around here. After all, you grew up here." The cigarette moved up the man's face as he smiled at the young man.

Hope returned to Michael's golem-like eyes as he stared up at his father. He recognized him. Michael could almost hug him, but he knew his father better than most people. He wasn't one for the act of showing affection and even less so with his son. It didn't bother Michael, though, so he just stayed silent, nodded, and did a quick little salute, something his father had taught him when he was young.

The man simply laughed. Of course, he would recognize his own son even without his body, he had been told about his accident almost the instant he heard it happen. Even without that tidbit of knowledge, the man would've known. He could've been a meister if he wanted to be, but fighting Evil Humans was something that bugged him. He would rather just have it out in an old fashioned was with regular humans on both sides fighting with their regular beliefs. That being said, he still had all the qualifications for being a meister even in his ripe old age, including a top-notch soul perception. He was about to welcome Michael into the house once more when he paused looking outside and at the lawn.

"What's the cab still doing here?"

It looks like the awkward family moment was less awkward, but it seems like trouble is still resting on the horizon.