Friends Will Be Friends

“Did you guys run into any trouble on the way here?” John asked as Lucille broke free from her metal prison, viscous, molten tin running down her body. He had been in Meditate while they melted her, and was nearly back to full. As she burst free, John noticed that a field of mana seemed to permeate her, resting above her skin. Just what are the limits of her powers? I mean, I could do that too… but I thought that was because of my ridiculous powerset.

“I owe you one,” Lucille told Abigail, scraping the rest of the half molten metal off her body. In its high temperature state, it was much softer.

“Smooth sailing all the way through, nothing but cuddly chipmunks and such,” Grace replied between bites of a Bit Bat bar. John raised an eyebrow at her eating the candy bar, realizing they would need to find food for themselves. “What? I got peckish.”

“Didn’t we just have breakfast? And wouldn’t you rather save that for later, when we’re ten hours in and actually hungry?” John questioned, standing up from his position on the ground.

“Well, it’s open now,” Grace replied, promptly finishing her candy. “Besides, with the three of you, we’ll be able to get food no problem; it’s not like we’re on the floor.”

“It could not be less clear to me what that means,” John responded, looking at the two for confirmation. Abigail simply shrugged, but Lucille explained.

“It means we’re not poor - not lacking for skill in this case. By the tasks on the list, I’d guess civilization, or at least an imitation of it, is littered throughout our testing area. We’d be able to barter for or steal food from any village we come across if we can’t hunt it,” Lucille finished, stretching out her limbs. Putting her hand on her neck, she stretched it, and a loud crack issued out.

“That’s a good point,” John replied, more at ease. Food wasn’t much of a problem for him anyway. He’d gone nearly a week without eating before, a day wouldn’t kill him.

“So, what happened to you lot anyway?” the Brit asked as Lucille laid down in the grass, eager to stretch out.

“Well, we were followed from the start. They must have been teleported near us, because I noticed them tailing us five minutes after we started travelling,” the elf began. “We probably could have lost them if we were going at top speed, but I slowed down intentionally; I thought we could take them out.

“So we stopped at a stream for some water - which is gone, but I’ll get to that later - and talked about what to do. I decided it’d be best if we split up. I don’t know what exactly happened to John, but if you couldn’t tell, I fought someone who controlled metal,” Lucille said, adding a rare bit of humor to her last few words.

“So, you and your partner think you can take me and mine out?” Lucille called into the forest, and a white-haired woman in a blue robe stepped out. Her eyes glowed blue, and six swords of all kinds floated in the air around her.

“Well, considering you both seem to be people who wield guns, I’d daresay I could take you on alone. These swords are bound to protect me and deflect bullets in the air with ease,” the metalomancer lied, launching one of her swords toward the techno elf.

Lucille skillfully dodged, creating a light machine gun construct and firing upon her foe. True to her word, the flurry of cascading blades in front of Metallia protected her without much trouble, the five swords stopping each bullet Lucille fired.

Sensing something to be off, Lucille dodged out of the way as the sword that was shot out at her came back blade first, dismissing the gun she was using. If the elf had even considered that her opponent was lying - that the swords were being controlled by a spell and weren’t soulbound - she would have had a much easier time. As it stood, she didn’t have the imagination to consider such a possibility.

“Deflect this,” the assassin mocked, forming a rocket launcher in her arms. Swinging it up and pointing it at her opponent, she fired it. Dismissing the rocket launcher, she sprinted toward the hostile human, shotgun in hand.

Metallia, realizing that trying to use swords to block a rocket launcher was a bad idea, immediately did two things. First, she took the mass of metal at her back and launched it forward, using it to catch the rocket and enclose it, the explosion not escaping the bubble of metal.

Seeing this, Lucille realized getting close was a bad idea, but it was too little, too late. She fired her shotgun and tried to jump back, but the metal which had swallowed her rocket lurched forward, catching her foot within Metallia’s major sphere of influence and pulling her in. She used her eyes to cancel the spell, but the metal was already around her. It only caused a momentary delay.

Abandoning her shotgun, she stretched one hand into the air and formed a flare gun, firing it into the air. Though she was quickly trapped, she was happy to see her opponent pained as the robed girl clutched her side. The elf’s round of buckshot had found its mark. This earned Lucille a squeezing pressure on her arm, and she gasped as the glass and metal that formed her arm cracked, and the circuitry within hissed in protest.

Unfortunately, by the time John arrived, all Lucille’s attacks had done was make Metallia waste her only health potion, and the elf’s arm had already repaired itself.

“Then John arrived, and handled the situation much better than I did,” Lucille admitted, blowing her hair out of her face.

“See, diplomacy isn’t always that bad, is it?” John asked, laying down beside her. He was joined by Grace first, who was eager for a rest after so much running, and then Abigail, who just wanted to join her friends in relaxing.

“Diplomacy that almost got you killed,” the elf matter-of-factly stated, earning her a round of boos from Grace and John. Abigail didn’t join in, as she agreed with Lucille. She related to a punch first, ask questions later type of attitude.

“Either way, we’re all here now,” Abigail cheerily stated, and all was quiet for a moment before she hastily continued, “Oh! I just remembered, for a good while as we ran, a road was right next to us. I was thinking we could go back and walk along it.”

“Not a bad idea, a road means civilization,” John reasoned as they all began to get up. “Could be the village we need or the snakes you need. Might find the caravan too.”

“It also probably means other people. We’d run the risk of encountering a hostile group again,” Lucille argued, dusting herself off. “It’s risky.”

“Well, we could stick to the trees. Keep out of sight and scout out the road,” John suggested, looking at his duster’s durability to make sure it was alright. Luckily, it was at around 88% durability.

“I don’t think those two are exactly the picture of stealth,” the elf replied, pointing toward Abigail and Grace.

“Not a problem!” Grace exclaimed, reaching into her inner jacket pocket, digging around as if looking for something. After a few moments, she stuck her head in as well before coming out shortly. “Here they are!” Her hand emerged holding two chameleon stickers. “Little buggers thought they could hide from me.” She slapped one sticker onto Abigail’s stomach and the other onto her own. Her tattoo glowed, and both of them slowly faded out of view, the grass behind them becoming visible.

“I’ve only got two, but you were only worried about us. Should be good, right?” Grace asked, reappearing.

“Well, it’s better than wandering around aimlessly,” the elf conceded, and together they began heading in the direction Abigail and Grace had come from. After about fifteen minutes, trees showed on the horizon. Another ten, and the pyromancer broke the silence.

“There’s a river up here; if you guys have water bottles, you should fill them up. I’m hoping one of you do… because we don’t."

“Well, I don’t have any more empty vials, but…” John began, sticking his hands into the water. The water level shrunk imperceptibly as he filled up his inventory with units of what was labelled as ‘Fresh Water’. A minute passed, and he took his hands out. Cupping his hands, he took the water out of his inventory. It overflowed immediately, but he was left with enough to drink. “I can store it in my pocket dimension.”

“I’m not drinking out of your hands like a mutt,” Lucille stated, eyeing him as one does a worm in their apple.

“I wasn’t suggesting that! I could probably just take it out like this…” John said, sticking a hand out and retrieving a unit of water from his inventory. A cubic foot of water appeared in the shape of an actual cube for a moment before deforming and falling to the ground. “I take it out, and you guys catch it. It doesn’t touch my hands coming out this way.”

“Better than nothing, but I’m going to drink my fill now in the hopes of avoiding it,” Lucille replied, taking water from the river into her own hands.

“No offense, but that’s pretty weird,” Grace joined in, bending down to the river and doing the same as Lucille. Abigail, who had already drank more than enough the first time her duo came across the river, simply watched them bicker.

“Man, you guys argue more than my sister and I did when we were little kids,” Abigail joked, leaning against a nearby rock. She wasn’t expecting it to be slick, so she tumbled to the ground before she could catch herself. Looking back and laughing, John and Grace simultaneously said,