"Or maybe," she mutters, as she turns off the damn radio, "you can't get all the details from a sparkly hit news piece, and the truth is a hell of a lot more complicated."

She thunks her head against the wall behind her. Maybe she'll knock some of the stupid out. (Ha, then what would be left?)

Well. She has a job to do, doesn't she. Maybe she can even manage to avoid killing anyone. That'd make Zash happy. And she... kind of feels like she owes it to him, to not, you know. Completely disregard his morals when trying to rescue him. She's absolutely going to get shot so much, though, so. Give her credit, Typhoon, she's burning up lifespan just for you.

But then, she was never going to have a normal life anyway, so.

A little while later, the guards currently in custody of the dreaded Zash the Stampede do not know what hit them. Mostly because what hit them is a big laser gun shaped like a cross. Bit inexplicable, that. As a bludgeon, not the laser bits, she's attempting to be good.

The laser bits are for cutting through the solid steel box holding him.

"Heeeeeeey buddy time to go rise and shine," she calls into the box. "How tied up are you because we have so got to go."

"Not," which is reasonably impressive given that the thing that's in the corner there is a straitjacket. The other things that are in the corner there are his red jacket, which he had very much not been wearing when he had several tonnes of metal dropped on his face, and his gun, which the Police had most certainly taken from him.

Also, there is a noticeable dent on another wall of the metal box and the knuckles on his right hand are bleeding.

"Let's go," he says, grabbing his jacket and his gun and rushing towards her. "What's the status? How are the people on the steamer? Did Nai steal the plant? Is Legato gone?"

She will not question him and his choices. The metal box had it coming.

“Most of the security force got slaughtered, but the passengers were mostly left alone. Legato is gone with the plant, Knives himself never showed up, but our least favorite prick is a loyal sonuvabitch so you can consider it delivered to Knives.”

Look, more security to keep hold of Zash! Isn’t that cute. She’ll let him handle these, he’s better at pacifism, her job is to lead him out of here. To which: they are going this way.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath when she mentions the guards being slaughtered. This obviously has no effect on his effectiveness at dealing with every guard here without breaking a sweat.

He tried so hard...

"Fuck," he says with feeling before opening his eyes again. "Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He takes a break from punching guards to leave a dent on the wall of this hallway.

She winces a little, but. Yeah. … Yeah.

“There’s more but it should wait ‘til we’re not quite so,” and that’s when some Julai Police show up, shooting, which does result in at least Morgan getting shot. She’ll get over it, but ow. The Police can be introduced to the business end of her gun, which in this particular context means being literally hit with it. “Y’know.”

Zash can rush ahead of her, then, and block most bullets with his own bullets, his robot arm, or his body. He doesn't burn through lifespan when taking heat. Or if he does his lifespan is somewhere in the several hundreds maybe thousands. Not to be worried about.

He also doesn't want to think about what she's implying because he's not sure he can remain entirely pacifistic depending on what exactly it is.

There is a mild trail of destruction that they follow out; clearly Morgan’s route to get to him, but it’s obvious she was pulling her punches. There could have been a whole lot more death and injuries; the laser gun is mostly for cutting through walls. She does that one final time, and then they’re out of the compound.

To a whole lot of guns pointed at them. It seems that there was an ambush and they are now surrounded.

“I cut to sewers, you handle… that???” she offers, already getting ready to execute said plan.

"Zash the Stampede!" calls someone, recognisably the same Police Captain from back in Jeneora. "You are surrounded! Drop your weapons and surrender!"

He smiles sheepishly and raises his hands. "Oh, my, how did I get here..."

"Are you going to destroy this city too?!" asks a different officer, one who's holding his gun particularly hard and looking particularly intense.

—he freezes, at that, staring at the guard.

"I won't let you turn this city into the next Jeneora Rock!!" he says, his eyes, visible through his goggles in the low light, looking wilder by the second. "My parents were in Jeneora when it happened, and you... How could you?!"

Oh.

He lowers his arms.

    The man shoots, once, straight through Zash's heart.

"H-hey, I didn't give the order to shoot!" the Captain says, though he's looking terrified by what Zash might do after that.

...nothing, is what. He winces a bit, in pain, and lowers his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..."

Morgan, meanwhile, has finished cutting them an exit. Fortunately for them, she did her homework. The metal is cut in three places and bent inwards, leading to cramped, dark, and smelly sewers below.

She looks at her creation morosely. “Really didn’t want to have to use that plan. Exit done, stop getting shot and hop in. We’ll bend it back so the squishy humans can’t follow.” And then without waiting for him any longer, into the sewers she goes.

He turns around and starts to follow Morgan, not looking over his shoulder again. The guards are all... too shell shocked to do anything, especially the one who shot, who's just staring at Zash like... well, like he just shot a man through the heart and watched him walk away with barely a limp.

Once he’s through, the exit is bent mostly back into place, and for good measure she gives the raw edge a quick welding laser blast to haphazardly seal it shut. They’re left almost entirely in darkness, but Morgan has her lighter and an idea of which way they should be going. Which is that way.

Zash's arm has an attached flashlight, that's probably better. He turns it on and follows Morgan, silently, barely looking at where he's going.

Yeah, it’s better. She puts her lighter away and can just be the sewer guide.

“… sorry,” she says, without preamble.

"It's not your fault," he says, before coughing some blood.

“Not about that. …Jesus, man, do you still have the bullet in you, why didn’t you say something, get it out, and.” She hesitates. “And get yourself fixed, because. We have a ways to go and we’re going to want to be fast.”

...well that rules out some theories for what the unsaid thing is and... leaves some very unsavoury alternatives.

Better ones, though.

"Give me a minute," he says, stopping somewhere he can sit and then taking his arm, jacket, and shirt off. Then he puts his arm back on and starts digging into his heart, which causes some more wincing and coughing but no complaining.

“Yeah.” She shifts her weight from one foot to the other, more anxious here than she’d been with all the guns up top.

“… I asked Zazi to keep her alive,” she blurts. “Because I didn’t know who would show up for the plant but I knew it was going to happen, and. Zazi knows Legato better than anyone, so Yvette probably was gone before he even got there.”

"—Zazi? What the," he coughs some more blood, "What the fuck, Morgan?!"

“Yeah I know,” she winces. “It was better than, than, I didn’t know it was going to be Legato himself, but. … There are some real fucked up people doing work for Knives, okay. Like, uh. Like me.”

"Yeah no fucking," cough, "shit. Oh here you are you little motherfucker," and he finally pulls the bullet out then throws it into the sewer water. "Explain while we're running."

“Yeah.” Off they go!

“So I did get out, but it was by. I mean when you’re dealing with a religious nut job the only thing to be done is, um. Go to God himself.”

"...you went to Nai. To flee Legato."

“No, I went to him to kill Legato, give me some fucking credit, man.”

"Of course, my bad. And Nai agreed to kill him in exchange for...?"

“… You.”

"Me. In exchange for me. To, what, deliver me to him?

"How the fuck did you even find us, Zazi too?"

“Right on both counts. Zazi, and then deliver you to him in February, safe and sound.”

"Why does he want that. Don't answer it he wants to lock me up so I stop getting in his way and can be convinced that humans suck. I know that humans suck, I have scars all over to prove it, I just don't want them to die of it!" He's not really talking to Morgan, here. "And Yvette?"

“I don’t… know, know, but.” She winces. “Zazi will keep their promises, but also. Uh. Wants… entertainment and novelty. Wants to poke the people and see what they do.”

"That's not giving me any—they took Yvette to Nai. FUCK." He kicks a wall hard enough to crack it. "FUCK." Another kick, another crack.

He covers his face with both hands. "Fuck..."

"Yeah. I. I think so. Um. So that's what I'm sorry about."

He starts moving. Fast.

"Morgan, it's with all my love that I say that I hope you realise that if anything happens to Yvette I'm going to—I'll—"

He just speeds up because fuck Morgan was trying her best and he can't blame her, not really, he's just, just...

"Yeah. Go ahead. After everything..." After Livio. "I wouldn't even mind. I can hold still if you'd like to just punch me, though."

Her voice has taken on a sort of dull sounding monotone.

He can get enough surface thoughts from this distance to guess.

"Later. Her car?"

"Fine, but we're not going to be able to get it without making a huge mess. It's not ours to take, you see. It's in impound, waiting for its real legal owner to come and get it."

Growl. "How much faster are they than birds. Birds are easier to steal."

"In... math and percentages?? Any faster?? But my plan was to just steal some birds."

"If planning a fucking heist will take less long than however much we gain from using the car then we should steal the car so yes fucking maths." He'd apologise for being snappish but however petty he's not zero angry at Morgan and he doesn't want to waste time feeling bad about that.

"Okay, well, you're going to need to be the one doing the math, because I certainly don't know how. We're, uh -- in a town called New Colorado, I've got a map, here..."

Map!

He takes a look—and then something occurs to him. "How much sleep do you need, and if the answer is 'more than zero' can you ride a bird while asleep?"

"A little better than human average, but my fancy tricks don't help much. I can sleep anywhere, but... birds also need to sleep, yeah?"

"...yes, they do. Car it is."

"Okay. Uh, I'm not super sure where they're keeping it but I bet we can find out. Can you look like someone else right now or is that still broken?"

"Still broken. Also my initial plan to be improved upon is walk in looking like I do and inform them that they don't want to mess with Zash the Stampede."

"Oh. I guess that might work, yeah. I don't have a better idea, why not. Why's your face changey thingy broken, though?? We might need it later!"

"Because I need to make myself believe I really look like that and over the past hundred and forty nine years I accidentally developed a whole gender and self-concept."

"But... you could before. What changed?"

"Yvette being in love with me."

".......... that's not new!!!!"

"We were trying not to admit it to each other and ourselves because it's a really fucking shit idea!!!"

"Oooookay."

"Besides it takes a lot of the right frame of mind to work and is messed with by things like 'I might need to convince people to not mess with me by being me' being actively on the list of plans to try."

"I'll cross off you being disguised on the list of possibilities, then. Because she broke you."

Yeah. She kinda did.

"By the way if you try to kill Legato I will not get in your way."

"Knew it! Even the pacifist doesn't want him alive!! Ha!"

"... But since I'm technically bringing you to Knives, uh. He'd honestly have an easier time of it. Being God and all. Legato would just go 'sure thing I die for your glory' or whatever. That'd be easier."

"Would he? Or would be conclude I corrupted Nai and he had to take me down to restore God? He called me 'Fallen'."

"No no, he's bought in to me being on a sacred and impossible mission from God, he's of the opinion that if I pull it off I will take his place as the new and better him. Or something."

"...is that why he showed up. To, to test you or something. What is wrong with him."

"That is exactly why he showed up." Why he threw Livio at her. "By helping me you probably screwed up his test, so I think he got mad at you about that. So. I guess heads up he might show up again. If we get the chance to kill him I'm taking it, but, uh. You saw the fucker. Or rather, didn't, because he's a fucking coward."

"Gh."

"Yep."

They emerge from the sewers through a hatch at a waste reprocessing plant. New Colorado specializes in water production via several networked plants, relying on trade with other settlements and just a smidgen of tourism to make up the difference. The tourism is, of course, entirely based around having an actual nice bathhouse, with soaps and such. To many, the prospect of actually submerging oneself in water is the height of luxury. Since it doesn't make any sense to actually waste the water, it arrives through the sewers to be recycled, entirely underground to prevent as much evaporation as possible.

"The local branch of the Bernardelli Insurance Agency has her car. I tried to get it by being her bodyguard from the steamer, on the basis of wanting to go save her with it, but did nooooot get anywhere with the paperwork, so. No clue where they're actually keeping it."

"I really wish I had a way to do this that involved less being shot," he sighs. "Fine. Don't suppose you have some sort of map for the city itself? We could hit most likely places first, if there's anywhere with obvious warehouses or anything like that."

"Yeah, I do, though it's, uh. Not the best."

That map she has? It's an advertisement for the bathhouse and where to find it. The (small) map only shows roads instead of nearby businesses, and the place it wants its customers to head to is marked with a star. Helpfully, Morgan has drawn a sketch of the sewer system on top of it, and has several labelled squares of places of interest. .... Mostly of places that would contain people that could shoot them, not of warehouses, but.

That's... better than nothing. Wherever this Insurance Agency is storing its goods is very likely to be guarded, so they're probably going to be shot at anyway.

Well, him. "I'll do it alone, I don't want you to be burning lifespan on my behalf when I just don't."

And then he supposes he will try to find likely locations for warehouses or anything like that based on a... brochure map.

"Okay. Uh. ... I'll try to round up travel supplies while you do, how about, my priority was getting you out as soon as possible because you're extremely bullshit." Pause. "... here, take my gun, it's too obvious for me to carry around after, uh, breaking you out with it. And I don't want to just leave it lying around."

This is the sort of time she would have left it in the car, but if they still had the car, they wouldn't be having this problem.

Yeah. Sure. And Zash can be more obviously bullshit if he's carrying that enormous gun one-handed and not even breaking a sweat.

Time to go looking for trouble.

Well, it doesn't take very long. When he emerges out where people can see him, several of those people scream and run.

It's not immediately obvious where one would keep an impounded car from his current vantage point, but. ... There is that sign over there that says Bernardelli Insurance Agency, above what looks like an office. So. Maybe that's a good start.

...sure. Fine. People are probably gonna shoot him but maybe he can block sufficiently many bullets that they won't do it too much.

Nobody shoots at him upon entry. There is a young woman with long brown hair and a brilliant smile sitting behind the desk.

"Hello! Welcome to the Bernardelli Insurance Agency, how can I help you?" she asks, brightly. As if absolutely nothing is out of the ordinary and he is just a regular guy who walked in.

.....................

See, this kind of shit is how Zash mostly manages to go through his life without people going AAAH ZASH THE STAMPEDE THE HUMAN TYPHOON AAAAAH RUUUUN. Some people just do not, actually, care.

"Hi, uh. My, uh," no they're not dating she is not his girlfriend, "I work for someone whose car was in the sand steamer and she was kidnapped so I wish to use her car to go rescue her."

"Do you have proof of identity and power of possession, as written by the owner of the car in question? And what is her name."

"I, uh, don't. Yvette Marlowe. There are several witnesses who—" Many of them were guards. They might be dead. Right. "There were people on the sand steamer who saw me working with her?" he tries. "There were, uh, some problems. With how. We lost a lot of stuff. And she was kidnapped."

This is not going according to plan. This woman looks adorable and innocent and he does not, actually, want to threaten her.

"Hmmmmmmm that does make the situation a bit irregular, doesn't it," she agrees, getting into what looks like a filing cabinet. "Marlowe, Marl-- oh that plant engineer that was kidnapped! Yes." She retrieves what seems to be the file. "Let's seeeeeee. Hmmmm do you know a Mr. Vernon Evanson? That's the only person I see listed with right to possess the vehicle in the absense of Ms. Marlowe."

"Oh, that's me." That's a lie, Vernon is dead because of him. "Though I don't have proof of identity due to the whole everything that happened in that mess. My belongings were all with Dr. Marlowe," which is vacuously true. Also his persona used to call her Dr. even though she is not a Dr. so he's. Keeping that? He guesses?

"Oh! Well then, that becomes very easy! We already have a sample of your DNA on file, and a machine to verify a match in office." She searches through another cabinet and comes out with a small vial and what looks to be a Q-tip, neatly sealed within. "Could I please have a small sample of your blood or saliva for the sake of verification?"

...where the fuck did she get a sample of his DNA.

Does he even have DNA. He doesn't think he does????? He doesn't think plants have genetics?????????????

"O...kay," he says, looking increasingly bewildered by the way this entire interaction is going.

One swab of saliva and a machine later:

"Well Mr. Evanson, I have to say that our machine is very confused! Why, I don't think I've ever seen it this confused in my life." But then she smiles brightly anyway. "But it's very confused in the exact same way that's on file, so that's all right!"

This verification complete, he is given a form to sign to affirm that he is taking possession of the vehicle in question. And then he's just. Given the key fob and told where to pick up his vehicle.

"Oh, before you go, Mr. Evanson, I wanted to warn you." She lowers her voice. "I've heard that criminal Zash the Stampede has escaped from custody, and from the pictures I think he looks a lot like you! You should probably be careful about keeping proof of identity in the future, and maybe get a different coat, someone might get confused!"

...this person??????

Help he wants to be this person's friend. She is so good.

Focus. "Thank you, ma'am, I'll keep that in mind," he says, and he'll. Go pick the car up! After the single most successful car heist in the history of ever!

He is entirely free to pick up the car! It isn't far, and nobody even gets in his way. The very bored looking security guard inspects his papers, and barely even looks at him before directing him to where in the warehouse the car is located. Which he can then just. Drive out.

Okay! He'll, uh. Do that.

...try. To do that. The car isn't starting.

Why is the car not starting. He is not a mechanic. Is Morgan a mechanic? She might be more a mechanic than he is. He'll just, uh. Release the handbrake and then lift the front of the car and pull it along by hand.

The bored looking security guard is not going to judge him for how he would like to retrieve his vehicle, he is not paid enough, thank you.

Well, he now has a car that won't start.

Morgan shows up not long after, her blue hair dyed black, wearing (cheap) sunglasses and a different set of clothes, and carrying a large amount of stuff.

"Oh! Cool! You got the car. Nice, I didn't even hear any gunshots, I guess your reputation does a lot."

"It, I," how does he even explain what happened there. He doesn't, is how. "The car won't start. I don't suppose you have any idea how to begin figuring out what's wrong with it."

"Uh. No? What's wrong with it, it looks fine."

He gets in and demonstrates that turning the key does not cause it to begin vibrating or whatever it is that cars do.

"Huh. Uh. Is there a mechanic we could take it to or something??? Because I've got nothing, man. My plan was to steal some birds. Birds don't have this problem."

"I didn't actually steal the car, the person at the Insurance Agency apparently had my DNA on file except I probably don't have DNA because the machine was very confused but she said the machine was confused in exactly the same way it said it had been confused on file so I got the car. So I didn't threaten anyone. And I'm wondering if I should maybe just go back and. Ask?"

"....... she just...? You know what, sure, why not. I don't have any better ideas, our token human was the one that sorted this all out."

"Pretty sure you still count," he says, but yes, back to the Insurance Agency.

"Not for normal people stuff I don't!!"

The same young woman is still there, behind the counter.

"Oh, hello again! Did everything go all right with the pickup?"

"Yes. Kind of. Um. We are having a little bit of trouble with the car? In that it won't start."

"Hmmmmm well it was inspected when it came into our custody, and after the steamer incident we would have done a second inspection upon retrieval to be sure it hadn't been broken..." She retrieves the appropriate paperwork.

"Yeah, inspection certified, the car should be in the exact condition it was stored in. And it worked fine before?"

"Yeah, we drove it to Terminal to get on the steamer when it stopped there. Well, Dr. Marlowe did."

"Hm... and it looks like it's standard electric... has it been charged since then? Extended time in storage will often zap a battery that big dead."

"Oh. I," completely failed to consider the fact of power requirements of vehicles, "thought someone would have charged it."

"No sir, it is your property -- well, Ms. Marlowe's property -- and some people get very particular about their possessions being left alone."

"I see, that would make sense. Do you know where in this town I would be able to charge it?"

"There's a charging station just right down the road on your left," she says, pointing which direction down the road she's talking about. "Will that be all for today, Mr. Evanson?"

"Yes, thank you, Ms. Thompson," because no way is he not getting her name from the little name tag after she just. Was so nice. To him.

And then he can manually drag the car there and charge it, he supposes!

"Have a good day, and good luck on the rescue mission! Ms. Marlowe is very lucky to have employees as loyal as you two."

It does, in fact, turn out to be as easy as charging it. Though he has to pay for the charge. Fortunately, Morgan's still got some leftover money from Yvette, so they're fine there.

Cool! And now they drive!

Zash actually knows how to drive. Or, well, knows some about controlling certain types of vehicles that are not modern cars and can make up the difference using superhuman senses, speed, and reflexes.

It is a little bit of a bitch to drive, and it keeps wanting to list to the left, but! It is faster than a bird and does not require sleep!

Also, there are some official looking people that have spotted them on the way out of the town, and are now shooting at them.

Yeah okay he can accelerate as fast as this thing will go and hope none of the bullets hit the wheels. Once again, superhuman senses, speed, and reflexes mean that driving this hulk of metal as fast as it'll go is not actually that dangerous a proposition, to them or to bystanders.

Nyoom.

This car can in fact go nyoom!! The windows gain a couple bullet holes, but honestly the Military Police were not expecting Zash the Stampede to somehow find a goddamned car.

And Morgan will helpfully roll down a window, lean out the side, and blast the barricade blocking them. She gives Zash a cheerful thumbs up.

Zash keeps going at max speed until they can't see the town guards and Julai Military Police anymore and then he slows down to a more reasonable pace. ...he is not entirely sure what a more reasonable pace is but he's pretty sure that going at maximum acceleration all the time will bust the engine or something.

He's really missing Yvette, right now.

...he's really missing Yvette, right now.

"We should maybe take stock of what this car contains. Because I don't know what all is in this thing's trunk, do you???"

"No. I don't." He doesn't slow his driving down, though. "Can you figure it out without my having to stop?"

"Uh. Open the trunk while driving. No, I think that would go poorly. I guess we can check next time we need to charge. .... Hey why haven't we ever had to do that before?? She'd never taken us to a charging station or anything."

"I don't know. The battery is very powerful? There's an extra battery somewhere in the trunk?

"...oh I bet there's a solar panel."

"Oh! That'd make sense. .... Do we have the solar panel, like. Out. Hooked up to the battery and charging??"

Sigh. He guesses he is pulling up. It'll be better in the long term even though he wants to be moving moving moving.

So, what are the contents of the trunk, and do they in fact have a solar panel?

They do! It is neatly folded up in the trunk, along with what looks like it might be a spare battery.

Other things the trunk holds: little packaged rations, several large jugs of water (these seem to be built into the car itself, and are removable), a device that looks exactly like what the woman at the insurance office had, blankets, toiletries, a first aid kit, and. .... some other stuff?? It looks techy. But that's all that's obvious about the Other Stuff.

Okay, so how does the solar panel... work. Do they just. Set it on top of the frunk or something, where does it go, how does it hook to the battery?

The solar panel looks fairly simple to set up, and there's a slot under it for the battery to charge in. As to where they put it, it's not... immediately obvious. Morgan attempts to assist.

"I.... think it goes on top of the car, maybe?? See, there's, like, these little. Hooky thingies. Up there, and on the panel? But I'm not seeing where it hooks into the car itself. .... Do we... Swap batteries, maybe???"

"I guess that'd make sense? Attach it there, charge this battery, then swap with the used battery when needed... Is there anything about overcharging a battery, is that a thing, I've heard of that being a thing but it wasn't a thing for things that ran on batteries back on the SEEDS ships."

"I have no idea. How would we... check."

"I also have no idea! I didn't have to worry about that when I was just walking."

"..... we can just leave it up there, and if it explodes, well, we have another one? I think this is still faster than the birds if we need to stop and walk while charging. Though I guess I don't.... know how long that'd take...."

"...we'll figure it out, I suppose. Though, uh, just in case we're about to be massive idiots, let's see if we can find an instructions manual somewhere or something."

Morgan goes and looks in the trunk again.

"... I'm not seeing any instruction manuals back here..."

Back seats? Under any seats? That funny little compartment in front of the passenger seat?

The not-so-secret compartment is empty, and there aren't any manuals obviously out and about, or they'd have found them already.

They turn out to all be in the funny little compartment. Along with a little checklist that looks like it was written by Yvette herself, for... them. Huh.

...for them to read? Like... Zash and Morgan? In case she wasn't there? Is that what this is?

Zash is so incredibly in love with this woman he needs to take a moment to recover from how in love he is with her before he can call Morgan over to read the fucking checklist.

That is exactly what this is, yep. It is also color coded. Different parts of the checklist refer to different manuals, which have appropriately colored tabs opening to the correct page.

Morgan is busy with the not-so-secret compartment.

"Why didn't you tell me we had a secret compartment!!!" she says. "This is for hiding a person in, right? ... I'm going to put snacks and a water bottle in there, hold on..."

"Vernon—uh, you never met him but he was Yvette's guide—made sure we had that to hide her if needed but we used it this one time to hide me from the Julai Military Police. But come over here, there's a checklist," what's on the checklist he is maybe hugging the checklist a little bit but he should also, like, read the checklist.

"What? Holy shit!!"

She of course comes to peer over Zash's shoulder at the checklist.

The tidy color-coded checklist is mostly about regular maintenance that goes into every day stuff, and answers a lot of their questions! For example, the batteries will not allow themselves to be overcharged, and will not explode in ordinary operation. Apparently she usually would just leave the spare one charging until she swapped it out with the one in the car itself. One of the Strange Devices in the trunk is a chemical repository that holds extremely concentrated amounts of different chemicals, some of which it can combine for them, see associated manual color coded in purple for further details. Another of the Strange Devices is for fixing a flat tire, apparently, it's some kind of goo that'll fill the hole and meld with the tire itself for a firmer seal until they can get a replacement.

There are also directions to a hidden envelope of money, located under the silicon-weave fabric of the back of the passenger seat, should they happen to need it.

Zash loves her. So. Much.

Yvette Marlowe if you are dead he will bring you back and then kill you. ...and then bring you back again because HOLY SHIT HE HAS RESURRECTION POWERS and this fantasy has gotten away from him. Point is you had better not be dead, you cannot be dead, you can't can't can't—

"... Uh. You okay?"

"I need her to not be dead. I don't know what I'll do if she's dead, I can't, I can't—"

Oh man, this is so not Morgan's area of expertise.

"... We'll get moving again and see, okay? And not worry about it until we know one way or another."

He tries to take a calming breath, a slow one, because he noticed himself starting to hyperventilate and getting a panic attack right now would be the opposite of useful and would work not at all to rescue Yvette. Slow breaths, slow breaths, one after the other, focus on breathing, don't focus on anything else...

"Right. Sorry about that. Let's follow the checklist and go."

"It's cool. I... I get it."

And then NOPE they will both not be dealing with ANY FEELINGS RIGHT NOW it is time to just go.

Yeah. Yeah, they can go. As fast as they reasonably can, which is faster than if they had to ride birds, and they don't need to stop very often, so. Yeah.

She can't be dead. She can't, she can't, can't, can't, can't...