Kaleb stood outside the group's hangar headquarters with his hands on his hips. Before him sat the remains of his car, carried over in several trips by Roy, and a convoy of tow trucks. It had taken the rest of the night, but he had it all now. In several pieces, at least. Roy whistled at the carnage as Daivor hopped around the burnt-out car's insides. Even Milly was sniffing away at the car's melted tires. The tiny blue marmot sneezed at the irritating scent, and then glared up at Kaleb like it was his fault.

"What? You're the one that did this, girly. That was a perfectly serviceable car before you…boosted it."

Milly turned her nose up at him and looked away as Roy chuckled. "It was a nice old beater, Doc. But we were due for an upgrade."

"We are always due for an upgrade." Kaleb groused as he walked around his old car.

Daivor hopped up on the dash and placed his pipe between his teeth. "The brake pads are melted into the wheels, the shocks are destroyed, the frame is cracked, and the engine is completely blown."

"Not to mention all the paneling that's just fallen off." Roy added.

Kaleb squatted down near where the passenger side door used to be and peered in. The upholstery and interior had held up fairly well. If it was far enough away from the dashboard. Said dashboard was a melted mess that had been sparking even as they dumped it here. Whatever charge it held seemed to be gone, though. The steering wheel looked okay, but Kaleb wasn't going to take any chances.

He stood back up and groaned at the workload before him. But really, part of him was excited. It was something new to build again, just when the server farm was coming together and the Super Serum research had stalled. Now he had another long-term project to sink his teeth into. Not to mention a bunch of scrap metal. Although maybe some of the panels could be simply reattached.

Kaleb walked over to the pile of loose metal that had fallen off his car, only for Milly to get in his way. The little marmot whistled angrily at him and shook her head. She turned her tiny nose up at the pile of junk and then chittered angrily at Kaleb. The message being fairly clear. Daivor harrumphed as he blew a smoke ring.

"Diva. One metal is as good as another."

Milly chittered at the gnome and then sent a bolt of electricity into the pile of junk. Blue energy arced across the entire metal pile before it dissipated completely. Kaleb watched the energy course through the metal and then turned back to the hunk of metal that used to be his car. An idea coursed through his mind as he looked at all the pieces laid out in front of the hangar. He smiled down at Milly, who seemed to grin up at him and nod her little head.

"Daivor, can the frame be repaired?"

"Yeah. The damage wasn't that bad. We should be able to fix the cracks easily enough. But we'll have to strip the car down to the bones."

Kaleb rubbed his hands together. "Sounds good. We're going scorched earth on this one, Daivor."

"Doc, what about me?" Roy asked, waving a hand.

"Is the server still updating?"

"Yes, but you still need to build the actual scanner, y'know? You put it back together to help the werewolf, and now it needs to be broken down again."

Kaleb hissed to himself as he remembered that minor part of their project. The scanner needed to be built and then coded to pull information from the data server. But the car was right there and waiting. He wrestled with the matter for a few moments until Roy's laughter brought him out of his thoughts.

"Doc, there will be work left for you, I promise. Why don't you prioritize the scanner now and Daivor and I will clear out the car?"

"You two don't mind? I mean, this is a big job."

"Hey, what the hell do you think we are here for?" Daivor grumbled. "Besides, I don't have any personal projects right now and you did just give me a spa day."

"Wait, the gnome got a spa day?" Roy asked mock-angrily.

Daivor chuckled. "The gnome was pampered for almost a full day. Of course, while I was getting the hot stone treatment, the boss was getting a damn chunky rat!"

Milly actually hissed at Daivor and sent a bolt of electricity at the gnome. Daivor batted the bolt away with his pipe and grinned at the marmot. The creature hurried over to Kaleb's leg and scampered up his lab coat before perching on his shoulder. She whistled sharply at the gnome and then sank into his arm in a huff. Kaleb rolled his eyes as he turned back to the hangar.

"You two are gonna have to make nice eventually."

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"Never gonna happen."

"Have a good time working, Doc."

"I will. You two remember to come inside occasionally. It's a hot one."

Kaleb raised a hand in a gesture of goodbye as he passed through the Hangar's outer shield. He felt Milly hum happily as the energy of the shield swept over them. Quickly side-stepping around the rushing Brute clan and Hunter NPCs, Kaleb made his way toward his workshop. Farrah and her team had been in a tizzy ever since he and Abby had returned with their stolen data pads and slates. Her team had quickly cracked the things, but they were being annoyingly mum about the contents. Farrah said she was preparing a presentation for everyone. Which pissed Abby off a touch. It was her plan. She felt she should have first dibs on the work that came from it. Kaleb agreed, but Farrah said the information was important enough that everyone needed to at least be aware of things.

Abby had logged off vowing revenge against the 'upstart bunny NPC.' But Kaleb was more concerned about his baby in pieces outside. Now that he got a good look at the NPCs running around, though, he wondered if he should ask some questions. Most of them looked either worried or excited. A few were on phones, having animated conversations with the people on the other side. The brutes were huffing and puffing as they excitedly moved around the open space. A few carried boxes of information slates that they delivered to Farrah's team at the back. Farrah's raised platform was a flurry of motion as people at terminals quickly typed away at their work.

Kaleb waffled between curiosity and his desire to get the scanner built. The scanner won, but just barely. Farrah would tell them eventually and he would need to be fully ready when that happened. He marched into his workshop with a vengeance, nearly knocking over a big brute standing just inside his shop. The big lizard turned an angry look on Kaleb that quickly softened as he realized who had bumped him.

"Sorry?" Kaleb said questioningly as he looked around.

A short line of four brute clan members were waiting next to Marie as she used a digital tape measure to size up a lizard. Kaleb took one glance at the lizards assembled and the tools arrayed near Marie and nodded in understanding.

"Upgrading armor?"

"They got the credits for it and a few of them want weapon upgrades as well."

"You and Terrance have it, or do you need some help?"

"We've got it, boss." Terrance said, raising a hand around a large Brute Lizard's shoulder.

"Ok. I'll be in here doing my own stuff."

"Okay!"

"Whatever."

Kaleb rolled his eyes at the two different responses and walked around the line of lizards. He briefly had the idea of building a fitting room for this stuff. But that was for later. Right now, he needed to focus and get the scanner done. He was sitting down when one of the brown Homunculi raised said scanner into the air and waved it at him. Kaleb scoffed in surprise before he gently took the device from the little creature. He would always wonder how they knew what he needed. He looked back to where the tiny creature had been, only to find it gone. It's short job over.

Kaleb quickly fell into a working fugue as his hands began taking apart the thermal imager again. He had already inscribed what he wanted on the frame. Now he just needed to sit the inner workings into a new housing and attach a scanner. It would be pretty roughshod, but the work was going quickly with the help of the Homunculi. They constantly brought him the best tools and pieces for the job. So much so that he thought about bringing his car into the hangar to get their help. That line of thought was cut off as Milly poked her nose out of his forearm and sniffed the scanner's PCB. She gave it a few good sniffs as Kaleb worked on it, and eventually she poked her head up to see what he was doing. That caused a bit of a fuss when one of the recent additions to the workshop stomped over.

Marie and Terrance had also gone out yesterday to secure 'cool pets.' Apparently, one of them had been successful. A great big stone turtle stuck his head onto Kaleb's work table and gave Milly a sniff. Making the poor blue marmot squeal in surprise. Kaleb himself nearly jumped out of his chair when the beast, which was the size of a big dog, pushed its way closer to Milly.

"Sebastian! Stop that! Leave them alone. I need you here right now," Marie scolded, not unkindly.

The stone turtle huffed in annoyance but trundled back over to the young woman who was currently hammering metal. As the turtle got closer, Kaleb saw stone-like armor appear on Marie's torso and arms. As it did, the petite girl began to hammer with a force far beyond her size. Kaleb blinked as he watched Marie work for a few moments and then asked.

"I see you got your own little pet."

"We both did!" Terrance shouted happily.

Kaleb spun around to see the slim boy holding up a bright red lizard about the size of his forearm. The creature licked the air with a tongue of fire, before Terrance thrust the creature into the forge. The fire inside blazed even hotter as Kaleb watched the tiny lizard happily settle itself into the forge's fire. Terrance grinned at the little creature as he went back to melting metal.

"Well, good for you both. I hope they are just as helpful as Milly." Kaleb smiled, rubbing his cybernetic arm.

He could feel his new companion chittering happily as Marie snorted. "Sebastian is way more helpful. He increases my endurance and overall strength. I can work twice as hard on jobs that are twice as big and he's only a baby."

"So is Scott! And he can get the fire way hotter just by laying in the forge. We can now work with better metals and maybe even forge them more efficiently."

"So? What kind of name for a lizard is Scott?" Marie rolled her eyes.

"Says the girl who called a pet rock Sebastian."

"He's not a rock! He's a Tratestudine!"

"And Scott's not a lizard, he's a Salamander!"

"Same diff."

"Not that kind of salamander! A Fire Salamander from the planet Wutogien."

"Meh! Looks like a scrawny red popsicle." Marie huffed as she reached down and rubbed Sebastian's rocky head. "My Sebastian is a much stronger and bigger boy, yes, he is."

Kaleb listened to the two snipe at each other about their pets as he went back to work. Milly popped her head back out when the big turtle was gone and looked at Kaleb. He scratched behind her ears real quick before going back to work.

"Never compare yourself to the turtle and salamander." Kaleb whispered to Milly. "You're much cooler than both of them. Even if you totaled my car."

The blue marmot stuck her nose in the air as half her head was submerged in his arm. From her haughty air, Kaleb could tell she was agreeing with his assessment of her abilities. Kaleb chuckled to himself as she took one last sniff of the air and retreated into his arm.

"Daivor is right." Kaleb mumbled. "You are a diva."

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