254 245: A Plague of Phantoms XXVIIII

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" I bellowed as I stared up at the new and improved King's glaive.

My grandpa Seamus, Iris and Bo managed to take a already miraculous piece of ancient splicer magi-tech and make it even more astonishing. The long and sleek train shined like a hopeful beacon amid a trawling storm in the bright morning sunlight. Now fully equipped with nineteen cats instead of just four I had the strain my eyes just to get a look a the whole thing.

"Ya ain't seen nothing yet Laddie! Wait till ya see inside. Nate and his band did a right find job furnishing the thing." Grandpa said exclaimed proudly as he clapped me on the back.

"I can't wait!" I emailed and dashed towards the engine car only to have Iris grab me by my collar and yanked me to a stop.

"Yes you can wait! We need you to help carry the rest of this manacite crap out of Jade's workshop!" Iris barked. I pouted and looked away from her.

"Oh come on! It's why we have the Orkands for!" I griped. Iris smacked me on the back of my head and started dragging me towards the shop's door.

"There is too much stuff and it's your fault for making us take all of those damn enchanted items you made over the last three days!" Iris griped back, letting go of my shirt only so she could open the door.

"Oh stop being dramatic! I didn't make that many!" I replied then turned took inside the shop only to find the doorway was blocked by an Orkand carrying a crate marked 'Homing spiral flame rings.'

I stepped to the side so he could carry it outside only to find three more orkands behind him carrying their own crates marked with the names of other mass produced enchanted items I had made. Once the four Orkands were out and heading to the King's glaive I poked my head inside and my face dropped as I saw at least twelve more crates staked inside the shopping space.

"Dramatic? Am I really?" Iris said. I didn't have to look at her to see she had a smuglom on her face. Instead of saying anything I held my hand up a few inches from her face and then walked inside. She chuckled a little at that.

As I stood inside the shop surrounded by literal crates of my enchanted items I scratched my head. I didn't remember making this many. Admittedly there might have been a few moments where I kinda got a little too into making them and blacked out but still all those crates were excessive.

"I'm surprised ya didn't make more. Ya got so much of yer gran and great-great Nan in ya." Grandpa Seamus said as he walked into the shop.

"Gods above! So obsessive creation disorder runs in the family." Iris groaned. I frowned and tirned to look at her.

"Obsessive creation disorder? The fuck kind of disorder is that?" I asked.

"The kind that makes you zone out for hours on end, repeating the same actions over and over again with so much focus that nobody could break you out of it." Iris said.

"Wait…hours?" I repeated.

"Hours!" Iris confirmed. Grandpa Seamus patted Iris on the back and smirked at her.

"He just had a touch of the twinkle." Grandpa Seamus said. "It was what we called it back in Sullivard whenever a star crystal bearer got all obsessive like that. When they're doing something they like during stressed times their minds will kinda…turn off. They can do tasks at speeds that'd make yer wonder if ya were seeing things."

Iris walked over to a nearby crate that was marked 'Force shudder blade swords' and opened it. There were at least thirty blade stacked neatly inside the wooden crate. I looked away from her out of embarrassment and rubbed the back of my neck.

"That explains all these…" Iris said closing the lid.

Iris then walked over to another marked 'Ogarai squad weaponry' and opened it. Inside were special magi-tech weapons that I had made specially for Jiggles' Ogarai squad. They were designed to look like shields in their dormant form but once mana was added to them they transformed into a special weapon that could be used short or long ranged depending on what the user wanted. Mana fueled the weapon it's long ranged forms had to be used sparingly.

"…shield things…Gods above Chase you were really cranking these out." Iris finished and closed the lid. As she Did Nate came out from the door to Jade's workshop with couple of boxes in his arms.

"Coming through!" He announced as he hurried towards the door. He paused just long enough to regard us. "Sarrak and his team have those crates! Grab my wife's stuff!"

With that he was out the door. I shared a look with Grandpa and Iris and the three of us shrugged and headed down to the basement where Jade's workshop was. Normally the workshop's shelves that lined the walls of the room were filled with half-finished rings, bangles, swords, or even gun frames that Jade was getting close to finishing but now the shelves were empty. Something I suspected was partly my fault.

We found Jade boxing up what looked to be several boxes of jewelry, materials, and tools. She looked particularly focused on making sure everything she needed was boxed up and ready to be moved. When she turned and saw the three of us she paused and smiled.

"Nate send you to help me?" She asked.

"Yes." Iris replied. Jade sighed and shook her head.

"I told him I only had these boxes left. Oh never mind." Jade said then picked up the box she was packing away. "You can grab those three over there. Careful, they're heavy."

Jade pointed to a couple of boxes stacked next to her workbench. I walked over without another thought and reached down to pick up one of the boxes and nearly threw my back put in the attempt. The box might have only been about the size of milk crate but whatever was in there weighed a literal ton.

"What the hell is in this? Weights?" I yelled as I struggled to lift up the box.

"No, Hammers." Jade replied then headed up stairs. Iris laughed and walked over to take the box.

"Geez Chase! This can't be that heavy…" Iris said then immediately regretted it when she didn't even lift the box a rat's hair off the others. "…Son of a bitch! What hammer is in here? Mjolnir?"

"Yeah…ya might want to leave ta me you two." Grandpa Seamus said as he walked over, pushed us put of the way and lifted the box effortlessly. Iris and I shared a look of disbelief as he carried the box up the stairs.

"THE FUCK!" We both yelled once he was out of view. I turned and grabbed the second box, it was much lighter than the box that grandpa took. Iris took the third box and frowned.

"Your Grandfather is something else." Iris said softly then headed upstairs I nodded in agreement.

"Tell me about it…" I muttered as I followed Iris.

When we reached the store's front door we were met by Jade and Grandpa who's already dropped off the their loads with the Orkands who were carrying them onto King's Glaive.

"I'll take those for ya two. Don't want ya delicate maidens to chip a nail." Grandpa Seamus teased as he took the boxes from Iris and I. We both pursed our lips at him and looked anywhere else but at him.

"Chase!"

I turned to the sound of my name and saw Jane and Madilyn stepping off of one of the mana train cars further down. They both rushed over to me in a hurried pace and I swore I saw smoke when they came to a stop in front of me.

"Jane, Madilyn, what's wrong?" I asked. Jane shook her head.

"Nothings wrong. The opposite really. We're ahead of schedule two whole days!" Jane said gleefully. Madilyn nodded at Jane's statement.

"We actually came to give you a update on the process." Madilyn said then pulled a small notebook out of the pocket in her lab coat. "Louie, Haws, and Sin were able to relocate the evos environmental cages into car nineteen at the back of King's glaive. Thanks to the pocket dimensions being physically tied to the mana crystals you created and those being welded to the cages, we can move all the evos effectively and efficiently in fifteen minutes. Chad has set up cars eighteen and seventeen into sleeping quarters for the Nate's Orkand squad and Jiggles Ogarai squad respectively, and there has been a slight change in the security team that will be staying behind while we are in Japan."

"Slight change?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

"Yeah so, Sin expressed some concerns the other day about leaving just two evls to cover all your properties so he decided to leave Twilight to guard the apartment. Bo is also leaving Gargesh to keep watch on Moldworks." Jane spoke up. I nodded and smirked.

"Didn't expect them to do that…" I said softly.

"Well don't forget that Day shift and Night shift are watching the store while Alpa'nagia and Bellial make their rounds." Madilyn added.

"On the other front. We have everyone's bags packed and loaded onto King's Glaive, cars five through ten were converted into living quarters, so once we get underway we'll deal with who is sleeping where. The Orkands are loading all the enchanted items into car sixteen and setting up a secondary workshop for Jade in car fifteen…once the Orkands are finished we can go." Jane said.

"Wait so everybody is here already?" I asked. Jane nodded and pointed to the second engine car.

"Yeah, except for us and Nate everyone else is waiting inside the second engine car." Jane said. I frowned and crosses my arms.

"You mean everyone else got to go inside King's glaive before me! Its my freaking mana train!" I exclaimed. Jane and Iris both rolled their eyes.

"Oh just be glad it's up and running now. Your Grandfather did exceptional work!" Jane said. Grandpa Seamus rubbed the back of his neck bashful and then playfully shooed Jane away.

"Awww, now stop it!" He said.

"Still though…" I grumbled and crossed my arms. Grandpa Seamus patted me on the head like a toddler.

"There, there Starlight. There, there…" He cooed.

"Grandpa! I'm not a child!" I barked. He simply chuckled while the girls shared sideways glances.

"Well can the grown adults please get out of the way!" Nate barked at everyone at as he and his squad of Orkands came our of the shop carrying crates.

All of us stepped out of the way as Nate and all of his orkands carried what I was hoping was the last of the crates out of the shop. I was about to say something when a shadow engulfed everyone. Looked up and saw Alpa'nagia descending and wrapping around his serpentine lower body around the roof of the shop.

"Star Shaper. I have finished my first round of patrol." Alpa'nagia announced proudly and puffed his chest out a little.

"That's good…where is Bellial?" I asked.

[Bronze city, Savor. I'm observing strange human behavior.] Bellial told me through the mental connection. A vision flashed into my mind of a small family, two normie parents and a splicer daughter, moving into a house. I saw this unfurling from above and through Bellial's eyes.

[Oh…it looks like a family moving in Bell, don't worry about them, if you see any gangs harassing families like that immobilize them and leave a warning.] I told Bellial, then looked up at Alpa'nagia.

"That goes for you as well. Protect the people that still live in the silver and bronze city as well as my properties, okay Alpa?" I said.

"Understood Star Shaper." Alpa'nagia said with a nod. He snapped his wings open and flew off to conduct a new patrol probably. Glancing back over to the shop I could see there were no more crates left inside and Nate was standing near one of the open cars of King's glaive. He seemed to be instructing the Orkands inside the car.

"Hey! Nate! When you're done meeting inside the second engine car!" I called put.

"GOTCHA!" He yelled back.

***

"THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!" I bellowed as I stood inside the newly renovated second engine car; which had originally been the main car before Grandpa Seamus and team did the upgrade.

I wasn't sure how but with Nate and his Orkand's help Grandpa was able to totally renovate the second engine car. The navigation basin that sat in the center of the room had been moved onto the ceiling and had see-through glass case encased it. The silver liquid that was trapped in the basin filled the entire case and showed a three dimensional map of the area around us. All of the crystal pedestals that were positioned around the room were in the same positions as before only now they were slower and had seats made of crystal in front of them. Everyone in Sho'lajah were standing around the navigation basin, looking at the map or the new details of the car. Though they all turned around when they heard me yell.

"Yeah…it's a pretty nice upgrade." Bo said as he poked the glass of the navigation case. Jane, Iris, and Jade all walked around me and joined the others. Grandpa Seamus clapped me on my back and laughed heartily.

"It's not just the visuals that were upgraded my boy! The originals engine got a beaut' of a didorstaic flux core however I managed ta upgrade it with some of that raw manacite ya gave me and make it a Alcrio-mazadithormic core!" Grandpa Seamus exclaimed excitedly.

"I'm guessing that's a good thing?" I asked. Grandpa laughed heartily and clapped me on the back again only harder this time.

"Course it's a good thing! This engine car alone increases the King's glaive's power three-fold. Adding the power from the other car, it's more than five times as strong Starlight."

My mind was reeling from those numbers. Before this upgrade King's glaive was a lot slower than taking a terraback or anyone of my flying evos but if it was as powerful as Grandpa said then it's possible that it could be just as fast if nor faster than using a terraback.

'We might not have to leave so early then…' I thought. The sound of the door door to the car behind me opening suddenly, knocked me from my train of thought and I turned to see Nate walking into the car. He'd changed clothes and had a towel draped off the back of his neck.

"Looks like we're all here." Jane said when she saw Nate. Nate looked around and Saw hos wife and son then quickly moved over to them. I took a quick look at everyone and nodded.

"Okay…It looks Ike we're all set. Last chance, anybody that doesn't want to go speak up now. Cause I'm not turning this train around once we get started." I said.

"A little late to be offering us a way out by now Chase." Iris replied.

"Yeah, everyone here now has something invested into seeing this plan succeed." Louie said.

"Not to mention it would be a disgrace to the DeCharles name if I accept payment and not render services." Damon said in his pompous voice. I rolled my eyes but didn't give him shit considering he was actually being helpful for once.

"Okay…don't come complaining to me later when everything goes pear-shaped." I said with a shrug. Iris and Jane both scowled at me and crossed their arms.

"Why are you already expecting things to go wrong?!" Iris snapped.

"Because this is real life, not a comic or a novel, no plan survives first contact with the enemy…and don't forget our enemy isn't just some random techno-splicing company. It's a company owned by the President of the United…I mean Zeonic States of America. That means our enemy is the entire Zeonic States." I replied. Iris and Jane both deflated a bit.

"You're thinking ahead…already making contingencies for any problems we may face going ahead." Madilyn commented. I nodded and looked at everyone.

"I refuse to let Beaufort or anyone else take someone I care about from me again…." I paused and looked down at my hands. Memories of my grandmother and all the happy times we spent flashed before my eyes…followed by the tragic way it was all taken away. "…if none of you ever listen to another thing I say…then let it be this: the only lives that matter are the ones of the people in this car, everyone else is just a meat shield."

"Ya don't care who has to die as long as we're all safe." Grandpa said, the words a conformation of fact rather than a question. I nodded and looked to him.

"Especially you Grandpa." I said. Grandpa Seamus looked at me with steeled conviction.

"Lulu was a woman of strength, conviction, integrity and spunk. A rare beauty, a unparalleled mind, and one of the greatest women I've ever known. The day she died it took an ascended to finally take her down, she took on hordes of thrads at her age and sacrificed it all…for you. Our greatest treasure…" Grandpa Seamus gritted his teeth and I saw a fire burn in his eyes that rivaled the sun. "…I'll not disgrace the memory of that great woman by letting myself fall to the very shit breathing, pox scorned bastard that orchestrated her demise! If I'm ta die then The Morgan herself will have ta come and rip the very soul from my body herself! And the hells dammed bitch better be expecting a fight!"

I smirked at that. Growing up Grandpa had never been the confrontational type, unless it came to me. He'd always been the kind one, the nurturing one. If there was a fight to be had Grandma Lulu was probably the one fighting it. He'd never admit it but Grandma's death changed him, he became louder and more outspoken. I always thought it was him preparing himself to make the same sacrifice that grandma did. Hearing that he was willing to fight to survive way laid those fears.

"Good! King's glaive!" I exclaimed. The mana train's crystal components hummed and pulsated as if waking up from a long slumber.

"You called Sho'lajah?" King's Glaive responded. It's voice was a lot clearer and less mechanized than before. There was a oddly masculine tone to it that sounded non-threatening.

"Set a course for Tsushima Island, Japan!" I announced.

"Plotting course to Tsushima Island, Japan…estimating travel time…complete. Estimated travel time: two day and seven hours. Approximately eleven hours will be spent traversing the ocean. Would you like to set off?" King's glaive replied.

"Yes! Sho'lajah Artifact Company…!" I started.

"WE ARE UNITED!" Bo suddenly bellowed at the top of his lungs. Everyone turned and looked at the boy with amusement and confusion. "What? It's our battle cry! Like how Titania yells when Jane and Ayia'liah fuse."

"…that's stupid…" Indy said, deadpan. Bo huffed and turned to the boy.

"No its not! It's awesome!" Bo replied and puffed his chest out. "But I wouldn't expect a little kid like you to realize how awesome it is!"

"Stupid! Stupid!" KC repeated and snickered. Bo's cheeks became red as the adults in the room laughed at the toddlers giggling.

"It's awesome! I don't care what anybody says!"

"Repeat confirmation. Would you like to set off Sho'lajah?" King's Glaive asked again. I chuckled and nodded.

"Yes! Let's get this road trip started!"