Despite the monumental and, admittedly, overzealous counterattack initiated by myself in my newly operational Cloud Runner, there was hardly a desire to celebrate.

Red Bay was in complete shambles; our defence grid had been eradicated, and many communes were either ruined or in rubble. Countless people who managed to survive the attack were critically injured, about eighty confirmed survivors and more than forty were unaccounted for―either dead or gone missing. Rob and I were quick to find all of this out shortly after returning to what remained of our home by the bay.

Among the surviving residents was Sabrine Grace, who had debriefed us on everything when we returned. Shephard, Mofuni, and even the head of security Matthew Bridger were still here much to my profound relief. I initially became distressed when I was told that no one had seen Aaron in a long while, but that was quelled rather abruptly when I received an almost vortal resonation in my subconscious that he was currently in the Sanctum getting treated for his debilitating arm injury.

I sensed a deliberation in this message, almost like the vortigaunts there sent it to me knowing I was currently fretting about Aaron's whereabouts. Perhaps this sensation was indicative of my advancing growth in the Vortessence. Perhaps jumpstarting the Cloud Runner through such means nudged my ascension up by a few noteworthy decibels.

While my dear friend was fortunate that he was able to get such premium care, countless others needed medical attention, and our clinic was currently buried beneath the rubble of its neighbouring commune. Even with my staff's capabilities, clearing the entrance would take too long and would be too taxing on my stamina. I was moments away from committing to it anyway before the Limpiadores showed up in several trucks with the express purpose of bringing survivors to the copper mine, essentially confirming that we would be staying there until the heat was off.

They were painfully right. The Combine might have been crippled now, but so were we, and they still knew where our base was. We couldn't stay here anymore. We needed to leave, and the exodus to the mine began shortly thereafter.

Like they did a few times before, the prominent municipal heads of Red Bay held another meeting once we all settled inside our new home for the foreseeable future early in the evening.

Being that my actions were essentially the reason why there were any survivors from the attack at all, I held a seat at the meeting. Sabrine, Matthew, and Mofuni were once again assembled to discuss all the events that transpired that afternoon and formulate our plan going forward. And, for the very first time, Gus was also in attendance. Being that he was allowing us to have asylum in his subterranean base, no one could refute that he was entitled to also pitch in. The day's events and its ensuing problems did not merely concern just Red Bay or the Limpiadores, they may have had dire consequences for the whole world.

We were all gathered in Gus's quarters, which was revealed to be the old warden's office that had a line of observation windows overlooking a large open section of the mine where many of Red Bay's refugees were being treated by our hosts. The room was adorned with possessions I would have expected the likes of Gus to bear; an assortment of guns along the wall, large maps of the region and the globe with lines scribbled all over them on a long desk with accompanying measuring tools, and a peculiarly well-made bed with a stuffed critter by the pillows in the corner with a foot locker situated at the front.

There were also two massive tattered flags hanging along the wall above his bed was situated by; one that resembled the stripped flag patch that was on Shephard's fatigues, and an adirty yellow one that had a black circular symbol on it with an angular peak jutting out within it. It was explained to me that these flags were flown at the Black Mesa research facility during the Resonance Cascade, and the yellow one bore the company's logo. Gus backed the claim up himself by admitting that he carried them out of the facility himself when he escaped all those years ago as keepsakes.

We all conversed around a rather tiny fold-out desk with stiff and rickety fold-out chairs, but it was better than nothing. The mood amongst the heads was indescribable, which was a notion reinforced thanks to my maturing empathy. And what I mean by indescribable, I mean that nobody had a clue of what to truly make of what happened or where we would go from here. Gus himself looked particularly weary, maybe even a little more so than the others attending based on information he had before our arrival.

"I believe foxy girl's story rings true, folks," Gus said. "Our tabs monitoring the airfield in City Three have indeed concluded that it has indeed been blown to kingdom come. All of it. Meaning everything in it, see?"

Gus was sitting on the opposite end of the table from me with his arms resting on his potbelly, and he looked at me with a balanced amount of profound disbelief and wonder. "Not only did you obliterate three convoys worth of Combine assets, you singlehandedly did what I and my troops have been striving to do for decades in only a few minutes with that metal bird of yours. That airfield was the largest military base in the region. We wanted nothing more than to knee these alien bastards in the groin in a very bad way for as long as any of my Limpiadores can remember, but now that it happened…well…"

He began to rub the back of his head uncomfortably. My telepathy filled in the blanks where he struggled to finish his statement. "You now realise that this may produce many profound consequences," I assumed. Gus blinked at me a couple of times before withdrawing his hand in submission. Now I was certain that my actions today, while necessary, were not going to be met with light pushback from those I had humiliated.

"No. We always knew what the consequences would be," Gus said, returning to lace his fingers together. "The thing is, darlin', we had always kind of assumed our chances would come the day that the uprising would be issued around the globe. We're mad guys with a lotta guns and ambition, but we've made a point to be patient. It's a free-for-all when humanity is at war with the Combine again, but Earth is still under their heel. Truth be told, folks, I really don't know what's going to happen next. That ginormous napalm-laced dukey bag you dropped on their driveway? Well…that…NEVER…happens…"

My bare toes began to curl when I registered the severity in Gus's tone. I looked at the table for a moment and began to fear that I might have unintentionally doomed everything the resistance had been accomplishing in secret. It threatened to consume my mind whole; knowing that I might have been the final nail in humanity's coffin would have been far too much to bear.

"Oh, don't start getting all down on yourself, sweety," Doctor Mofuni encouraged, able to see the distress on my muzzle. He had some bloody gauze wrapped around his forehead and was perhaps the least injured among the two other municipal heads. Matthew was heavily bruised, had multiple lacerations around his body, and was currently wearing an arm brace around his left arm after breaking it when he fell through the floor of one of the buildings that was destroyed by that strider. And Sabrine, while relatively unscathed physically aside from a few wounds and a gash along her thigh, was struggling to reconcile with the events of today, and was rather quiet during this meeting.

"The rest of us are alive because of you," Mofuni continued. "The Combine were not there to take prisoners. You did the right thing and more so. We have nothing but gratitude to give."

It warmed my heart immensely to hear such words of sincerity from Mofuni. It was a rare thing to see him and hear him speak with such clarity. While his peppery mood was somewhat unsuitable given our situation, I found that it was somehow anchoring me to a kind of optimism that we dearly needed, and I could tell it may have been having a passive effect on the others as well.

I managed a humble smile at him. "Thank you, Doctor," I said softly, my ears rising a bit after being angled back for a time. Despite how many felt about me flipping the tide of battle on its head, I was never one to overlook my consequences. I never would be.

"I wish there were another way, but I couldn't find one," I resumed glumly. "I couldn't let them get away with what they were doing, and I wanted to make sure they were unable to do it again. I repent for any future massacre I may have brought upon the people of this world as retribution for my counterattack…"

"It's okay, Krystal. We mean it," Matthew reassured, putting his hand on my lap kindly. "We've been putting up with the Combine for years. They can't cripple us any more than they already have, as sad as that is. You broadcasted a message today. One that the Combine is going to have a very difficult time suppressing from going around."

"So true, my friend," Mofuni nodded happily before looking at me. "You caught them with their pants down, Krystal. You made them bleed. And do you know what message that transmits to people?"

"If it bleeds, you can kill it," Gus answered, glancing at Mofuni with a confident smile.

"Precisely, former wannabe Paul Castellano!" Mofuni commended enthusiastically, making Gus's smirk drop with bafflement. I could sense that he felt like that was likely meant to be offensive, but he currently didn't know why. "It's common knowledge amongst the resistance that our malefactors have run a surprisingly shoddy administration of the planet if you know where to look," Mofuni continued, "but that's been really hard to take advantage of when humanity's gotten its limbs sawed in half and our junk rendered unproductive."

Then, a giddy laugh began to arise from the depths of his throat along with a perky grin. This likely showed that his mental stability was leering on the fritz again. "But that ship of yours you've got stashed away topside, Krystal? It just changed everything," he said, shifting around in his chair with bubbling excitement. "You've showcased just how inept the Combine's occupational forces truly are in the face of far more formidable equipment. Your Arwing can change the world."

Although enthusiastic about my stunts today, Mofuni wasn't quite lapsed enough to become oblivious to the new array of obstacles that would certainly come about after today. "But aye, let's not forget that we're dealing with entities that have a near infinity's worth of resources," he cautioned, tempering his perkiness some. "The Combine will adjust to this. They've got direct access to an arsenal beyond anyone's comprehension, as I am sure a few of us have seen in the past."

Gus and Matthew looked down at the table in silent understanding, while Sabrine was still silent as she rested her head on her palm. "I have no doubts they may bring some of that arsenal here to combat me should I rear my Cloud Runner again," I acknowledged. "Should they try to come after me, so be it then. I will do everything in my power to defend you or die trying."

Matthew looked like he wanted to object to something I said but Mofuni cut in again before he could. "You might not have to, my dear girl." Everyone, except Sabrine, looked at him curiously.

"What do you mean, Doc?" Matthew asked.

"I mean that we stick up for ourselves; we just currently don't possess the sufficient means to hold our own against them. At least not now."

"Elaborate?" Gus demanded, squinting his eyes with a searing amount of scepticism and lingering mistrust. His resentment towards Mofuni was still rather high, and I always grabbed my clipped staff whenever I sensed his temptation to strangle him amongst other restrained murderous desires. Mofuni, however, could not be more blissfully unaware of them.

"Sure thing, new not-bloodthirsty friend," Mofuni smiled before turning to the whole table again. "I know a place where we can acquire some more weaponry. Experimental weaponry. A kind of patented arsenal so lethal that not even the US Department of Defence wanted to touch it, and they were so gun-hungry that they'd munch on bullet casings from a bowl of milk for breakfast. I'm wagering that this stockpile will be what our little armies need to get our edge."

While still mistrustful of Mofuni and everything that he used to be before the Seven Hour War, Gus could not help but feel intrigued. "Where is this stockpile you speak of?"

"Why, back at my old place of employment, of course!" Mofuni answered. "I've still got my Aperture Laboratories' identification keycard; I can easily get inside the facility that kept these prototypes. The ocean was always the greatest obstacle in hopping over to return and retrieve them to help the resistance. Well, at least it used to be…" he said, shooting me a very conspicuous eyebrow nudge so piercing that one could probably see it through the concrete walls.

There was not a fraction of a doubt that Mofuni was soliciting me and my Cloud Runner as the linchpin in this new opportunity he just discovered, but I felt it was worth asking him anyway. "What do you suggest by this, Doctor?"

"I'm so pleased you asked, dearest," Mofuni replied. He looked just about ready to lay everything out before he suddenly banged his head on the table, making the whole thing tremble violently it made us all jump. All except for Sabrine, who still had her elbow fixed and her gaze gazing vacantly at the table.

Mofuni began to snore as he laid his forehead on the table, something that unnerved Gus after witnessing that brief but startling sequence. "What the hell…?" he grimaced, poking the unconscious scientist like he may explode.

"Oh Christ, that's right, he's missed his nightly Postum…" Matthew realised, rubbing his head tiredly.

"What?" Gus turned, still profoundly confused.

"It helps him keep his mind steady," Matthew explained before looking at Gus directly. "Listen, it's been a long day for us. Why don't we wrap this up for the night and get some shuteye?"

"Was kinda hoping he'd spill those succulent secrets of his," Gus complained singlemindedly.

"He's out for the count, Chief…" Sabrine said, uttering her first words since the meeting started, making everyone turn to her. She couldn't muster the will to glance up from the table so she just shook her head morosely. "I wouldn't mind tucking in for the night myself, everyone. I want this day to be over…"

We all quietly followed Sabrine's lead and disbanded the meeting right then after. If Mofuni wasn't going to be speaking again for a while, there wasn't any point in waiting for him at this table. I helped Matthew tend to Mofuni, putting his arms around our shoulders as we held him up firmly while he dozed.

We followed behind Sabrine, who was slowly trudging vapidly out of the room. Before we could leave Gus alone in his quarters, the two of us briefly shot each other a mindful look. His brow remained steadfastly furrowed as it always looked.

Though no words were uttered between myself and him, he gave me a small nod that I could have easily missed. It communicated that while he still might not have liked me, he could at least respect what I did, and that truly did bring me comfort, so I sent a tiny smile of appreciation his way in a quiet reply. Neither of us ended up saying goodnight to each other, however.

I personally walked Sabrine to her provided bunk where many other refugees were sleeping after me and Matthew put Mofuni to bed and said our goodnights.

While the medbay was where most of Red Bay's denizens were sleeping while their injuries were being treated, many of Gus's troops willingly offered us a bunk in their several residential quarters. It wasn't a well-lit area and the walls and floors were rather damp, but having the company of others around made it feel more inviting. Sabrine helped herself to one of the open bunks that was underneath one where a man was currently sleeping.

Sabrine had a mild leg injury that made her walk with a limp, which was the primary reason why I was there to help her move along with her arm over my shoulder. She had remained as silent as she was during the meeting. It was obvious that today's events shocked her to her core to where she was now a near-emotionless husk of her former self, but anyone with the kind of empathetic abilities that I was getting could tell that was not the case at all.

I sensed that what happened today was not the first time this happened to her. Sabrine had narrowly survived a Combine attack before and had relived the whole ordeal again today. I didn't know how long ago it was, but it was painful, and she was forced to experience it all over again. Potent reminiscence; that's what the vortigaunts described as this registration of the sensation.

Now was not the time to truly ask what was wrong. Our home was attacked and we were driven out. There was nothing else to say at the present moment.

"Thank you, Honey. I'm good now…" Sabrine grunted a bit as I helped her sit down on her springy and slightly grungy bunk, making the sleeping occupant above wobble a bit.

Her arm slinked off of me as she adjusted herself on the bedside while I stood up. "Do you need me to get you anything?" I wondered.

"No. No, Honey. I'm good right now," she tepidly raised her hand, fixing her gaze on the floor again. "I think…all I need right now is some sleep. If I can manage to wrangle any."

Sabrine started to lie down; her face as vacant as her stare. However, she managed to stop a moment before her head touched her pillow and looked at me standing beside her. She regarded me for another moment in silence; her face conveyed a level of heartbreak and fear I had never seen before in Sabrine, but I glimpsed a pearl of hope through her exhausted eyes.

"Thank you for saving us…"

That was all she had to say. I just nodded quietly in acceptance before I turned away, leaving her to cope with her grief in her own way and on her own time. I knew a thing or two about having my world crash down around me.

Rob and Shephard had been preoccupying themselves all evening by helping to treat the wounded alongside Gus's medical crew and other volunteers.

By the time I had left Sabrine alone to acquaint herself with her new sleeping arrangements, the two boys were just about to start looking for their bunks when I entered the medbay. I could gauge based on their grins that they had been having a rather piquant conversation between themselves, rather contrasting with the jaded mood of the people around them. I saw this as a positive thing because we direly needed some good spirits in light of all that had happened.

I indulged a bit myself in their talk. Shephard had been telling Rob about what life was like before the Combine, particularly engrossing Rob with an old-world beverage he called a 'slushie' amongst other common pleasantries that were unthinkable in this age. I also informed them of what I heard while at attendance in the meeting, specifically Doctor Mofuni's plan involving a hidden arsenal he wished to find and bring here to equip ourselves with, and that my Cloud Runner was the missing piece to making that dream a reality. They were both pressed to know more and were a little disappointed to know that Mofuni crashed himself to sleep before he could elaborate.

Regardless, they were at least captivated by the idea of a hidden arsenal that would better equip us to stand against the Combine, for there was no question amongst anyone in this mine that the retaliation to losing their airstrip would be fierce and merciless. We needed to be ready for anything, and I had faith in Mofuni's plan―whatever it was.

While Shephard was trying to wrap up his volunteer shift by making sure that everyone was comfortable in their deployed triage stretchers, Rob was heading off to bed in the bunk he had claimed just down one of the old tunnels nearby. He did not depart before giving me a proper valediction.

"Hey, listen," he said, stopping at the mouth of the tunnel, prompting me to also halt. Rob looked at me with a little regret in his gaze. "I don't think I've ever actually thanked you yet for getting that headcrab off of me. Of all the ways to go out, I'd never want it to be unthinkably slow like that."

That made me think back to the moment I saw the headcrab nearly succeeding in latching onto my young friend. To envision him transforming into those rapacious, self-aware mutations and succumbing to ceaseless torment was a thought that my subconscious tried its bloody hardest to eradicate when I witnessed him nearly falling prey to the parasite. If I were to fail to reach him and he had already turned…

I shut my eyes and scrunched my muzzle after that harrowing glimpse crossed my mind, trying to block it out. Rob felt a little perturbed by my sudden change in expression, but I quickly eased myself, which had a parallelling effect on him too. "That would have been a horrific fate. Yes," I nodded, disturbed by my own imagination. "But you don't have to thank me. No one deserves that overcoming them."

"No, I guess not," Rob agreed, slipping his hands into his coat pockets. His curly blonde hair had grown out considerably since we first met, and it was also now much wavier. "But I still owe you my life, along with everybody else who managed to make it out. Combine raids typically don't end with people escaping with their lives―much less with the attackers themselves getting sucker-punched so hard they do several flips before they're out of the ring. I feel pretty lucky that I got a front-row seat to all of the action―even if it turned out that I didn't have the stomach for it."

That brought a smile to my lips. "Had my G-Diffusers been fully active at the beginning you would have had a more pleasant time."

"I'll take your word for it," Rob chuffed. A look of sentimentality tried to reveal itself on his face. His (mostly) hidden affections for me had nowhere to hide from me now that my empathetic abilities were blossoming.

Beyond the sheepish crush he had for me, his feelings appeared to have evolved after today. There was much more adoration and respect for me after witnessing my feats, getting added to the list of things that made me attractive to him―among them most prominently my voice, my eyes, and my tail oddly enough. Apparently, one of his greatest hidden desires was to snuggle it. It was a good thing that Rob remained unaware to the full extent of how deeply my psionics actually went.

Rob began to get a little nervous the longer I looked at him without saying anything, so he anxiously began straightening his coat while eyeing the adjacent tunnel. "Well, I uhm…better get to bed, I guess. It's been a rough day for everybody, but we'll move on."

I pondered on what he said for a moment. "You've been moving around havens all your life," I deduced. "It's nothing new to you."

"Hardly," Rob confirmed. "You go where the grass is greener. You can't get too worked up over it."

"Of course," I said, "but that's harder to do when you have to separate from friends."

"That's why I've never had many," Rob shrugged. "With people getting shuffled around all the time in those cities there's hardly any time to."

I nodded in sympathy. "I've never made many friends myself. I also moved from place to place frequently. I was always using my time to become the best version of myself I could be. But with the few friends I do have, I would do anything to protect them."

Rob sat on my own words for a moment and chuffed mindfully. "Well, you've definitely excelled at that goal today."

I smiled before putting my hand on his arm fondly. "I always try my best," I said, right before planting a kiss on his forehead. To say the gesture caught him off guard was an understatement, but I made sure to nudge him along before Rob had a chance to gawk about it. "Goodnight, Robert," I told him. "Despite everything that happened, I'm still glad you could fly with me."

Rob only stared widely at me in disbelief, stammering slightly like he was a droid that was having issues with its programming. "Yeah. I'm glad, too…" he said, unable to hide that beholden smile of his.

Before I would allow myself to retire for the night, I returned topside for a brief time to make sure the Cloud Runner was still secured in its hiding spot.

My Arwing was sitting by a rocky outcrop just outside the old processing building situated by the edge of the giant open mining pit. Her landing gear was now finally deployed, so her standing on the ground was much firmer. Her camouflaging screen had been engaged since I landed her a few hours prior, but I disabled it so I could see everything on her was still tidy and in place.

Despite how fast and far I flew out to sea to shake my scent, the risk of the Combine tracking her down remained uncomfortably possible, so I also had my beacon jammer on in addition to the screen. I took every precaution to mask my precious ship, which was why I wanted to make sure she was still all right before going to bed. The sun was setting over to the west, so there was still some sunlight left to see the Cloud Runner in all her glory.

Shephard had been itching to get another look at her after the battle, so I brought him up along with me. He always had a tremendous fascination with it the very moment it was hauled to Red Bay, but now that he caught a girthy glimpse of her in action today, he regarded it like it were a large mound of gold. "Ah, there's that plucky game-changer," Shephard said as the camouflaged screen dissolved around it, revealing my Arwing and its pterosaur-inspired design.

We both convened around her as I inspected her gear. "I think she performed rather well today with all of her new patches," I noted satisfactorily, tugging on the hydraulic shaft attached to the front's set of landing gear. "She was a bit sluggish when it came to her jump speed, and her laser output was not at its max, but I am quite happy with the results overall."

Shephard had been looking closely at the Cloud Runner's port cannon before looking down beneath her belly to meet my gaze. "Wait…going at Mach three plus is what you consider 'sluggish'?"

"I'm not acquainted with that kind of measurement, but Arwing types can usually kick it up a little higher than the highest speed I punched today―at least the Cloud Runner can."

Shephard stared at me in withheld astonishment for a moment before he began to laugh as he stood up. "Your supposedly underperforming flyer here still puts every single aircraft humanity's made to total shame," he said as we met each other at the Cloud Runner's nose. "The Lockheed SR-71 was the fastest plane ever made, and I can see this thing effortlessly overtaking it. But also, being fully armed with big ass guns like that inflict no drag while also being bomber-capable? Pop-Tart, I'm not joking, you could topple nations by yourself in a day with this thing if it were running worse than it was today."

I thought about what he said for a second. I still had yet to see much of what remained of the old Earth being confined to this region, so I still didn't have a complete scale as to how technologically advanced humanity was before the Combine's occupation. Shephard worked in his nation's armed forces; militaries are typically amongst the first to receive technological advancements in any society, so I had a firm reason to believe Adrian was educated when making this assessment.

"You really think so?" I wondered, leaning against my ship. "I'm not really in the market for toppling nations."

"Well, I think I know one that could use some toppling right about now," Shephard mentioned, putting his hands on his hips as he continued looking up at my Arwing. "Yeah… I guess their pesky little 'breakout' has just become terminal given today's outcome. I reckon they don't feel quite so safe anymore."

"And that's what worries me," I said, my ears folding slightly as I looked at the grass. "The Combine is said to possess far deadlier assets; they just happen to be off-world. I fear the Cloud Runner's debut will draw them here to counteract it."

"I doubt they'll put up a better fight," Shephard wagered. "If they're anything like those flying Frankenstein things, I don't think we'll have a problem with this puppy around," he said, banging the Cloud Runner's haul with his knuckles a couple of times.

"Let's certainly hope so," I said, "but it would be unwise to take chances. There was a reason the war only lasted seven hours…"

Not long after, I re-engaged the camouflage screen and made sure the beacon jammer was still up from the small and valuable remote device in my hand. We were about to head back down to our own bunks before the sun went down and call it in early when I sensed a familiar telepathic signal appearing on the scene―along with a couple more of them. Appearing around the side of one of the old buildings, the owners of said signals revealed themselves while Shephard and I were on our way back inside the processing plant, revealing to be none other than Aaron Beuford and two of my vortigaunt mentors―to whom I named Dazs and Kemp.

"Salutations!" Aaron beamed with a happy wave of his right arm―one that had a satchel strapped around it while the other looked to be kept in a sling.

"Aaron!" I hollered with glee as I ran over to give him a massive hug of relief. It had been alluded to me that Aaron would be making his way over to the mines as soon as he recovered sufficiently, but I had not anticipated that he would be here so soon. All the more reason to make this surprise the most pleasant one.

"Hah, hah! Easy there, Lassie, mind the sling," Aaron advised jovially, closing his bulky right arm around me in mutual gladness. I had noticed the sling his left arm was in when engaging in my tackle, and I made sure to calculate my collision accordingly.

"Thank goodness you're all right!" I said happily, rubbing my whiskers against his own.

"Blimey; you too, Krystal," he replied as we both released each other. "I didn't know what happened to you after you took off with your flying machine. Our friends here insisted you were all right, but I'd rather see it with my own eyes to know for sure. Not that I had any doubts, of course. I've heard that you made a real mess out of their airbase in City Three?"

My tail, which had been happily swishing, dampened only marginally at that. "Well, they ransacked our home. I had to return the favour."

Aaron gave me a silent nod with a tepid smile. "Glad to know that we had an invaluable member of Star Fox around to save the day."

I grinned so widely in appreciation that all of my canine teeth were revealed. Even though Aaron was plenty bereaved over what happened to our wonderful Red Bay like the rest of us, it was encouraging to see him refusing to break from seeing today's finite but otherwise bright positives. Even still, the two of us reflected on this dismal reality in a brief moment of silence before Adrian finally caught up with me.

"Good to see you up and around, Goliath," Shephard greeted, using his own endearing nickname for Aaron. "It didn't seem likely that a shot through the arm would be the end of you. How's it feel?"

"Like a loose torque wrench, but I can still feel it," Aaron informed, showing off his cast. "Our friends here gave me some of their best tonics, but I won't be using this thing for a few weeks at least."

"Regrettable."

"But practical," the two vortigaunts commented humbly. "We intend to bring our tinctures here and administrate whoever needs them, but this will take time. There is considerable distance between here and our Sanctum."

"Indeed. I hope the Chief has enough to help everybody down there," Aaron added, adjusting the satchel strap around his shoulder. "Speaking of which, why don't you two show me around? I've never been here before. I hope it's still able to accommodate a lad of my breadth."

"If you can fit through the front door, you'll have no issue," I jested. That made Aaron laugh softly but powerfully like the hum of far-off fusion propulsion.

He ruffled my hair and ears playfully before we began to show him to the mine entrance. We were about halfway there when Aaron brought up a peculiar question. "Oh, before I forget, do you youngins know the state of the kitchenware?"

I looked at him curiously as we walked. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, being that we're all a little on edge after being forced to evacuate our safe place after a brutal Combine attack, I thought that we could use a little bit of that sweet stuff in a cup. You know what I'm talking about, Lassie…"

My eyes widened as I saw him pat his satchel tentatively. Aaron should not have tantalised me like that; even at that point, I had already begun licking my lips hungrily.

"Huh?" Shephard questioned, not at all understanding what we were talking about. He had no clue of what he was about to experience as soon as we found a hot plate, a pot, and some water for Aaron to utilise in the cooking processes of his signature beverage: the Beuford Bomb. Having only had it twice before, once at the estate and the second sometime after the supply line to Red Bay opened back up, I was rather excited to share the same euphoria of the taste with my dear Popeye.

"Aaron brought with him some special ingredients for his signature drink," I explained. Shephard became slightly alarmed when he saw Dazs and Kemp giving him fangy grins as they too understood the culinary masterpiece that was on its way to being reconceived. "I swear on my life, Corporal; one sip from it, and yours will change forever."