Spires

Now

Cal was filled with regret. He shouldn’t have agreed. The more he watched the recordings and went over the giant monster’s measurables the louder his internal voice cursed himself for being a moron.

The kaiju was like a mix of a manta ray, a squid and Cthulu. An eldritch abomination mixture the size of a B-2 stealth bomber with tentacles as thick around as redwoods and longer than a couple of football fields. Wait, scratch that, it was the size of the bomber before it ate the energy core of a city. It was much bigger now. And it was cruising at a leisurely three hundred miles an hour over a great ocean on an apparent collision course with his facility.

“Shit. Can I even fly three hundred miles an hour?” Cal muttered. “My brain might blow up.”

Cal added a few items to the shopping list he was typing into his PID.

There was a plan that he was circling around in his mind. It wasn’t a very good one, but it was all he had at the moment. The fact that the Threnosh built their entire military doctrine around fighting on a significantly smaller scale than the current problem that was approaching.

Come to think of it the Threnosh fought more like hunters or pest exterminators than a proper military. They didn’t have artillery, no navy and barely an air force. Definitely no combined arms theory. Not that Cal knew much about that. His knowledge was mostly from books, movies and games. Basically nothing in reality.

“A proper missile or ten. Even a bunch of giant guns might’ve done the trick on this thing.” Cal froze the image of the flat, black shape of the giant monster on his desk. “It’s not moving that fast.” He stared at it for a few seconds in silence. “How the hell does a biological thing have jet engines?”

Cal brought the recording of the Threnosh firing at the monster back to the center of his desk. With the extreme definition through a magnified view he could see that their small arms didn’t manage to penetrate its hide.

“I wonder if Kynnro’s laser could cut through?” Cal liked to talk to himself when alone and working on a problem. “Have to get right on top of it though.” He winced as the monster’s tentacles shot out and grabbed the Threnosh soldiers one after another. The view didn’t follow them to their final destination, but he didn’t need to see to guess where they ended up. “Going to need to keep my perceptions up to avoid those. Another drain on my brain power.”

Cal rubbed a hand through his ever-lengthening hair. He frowned. “This would be easy if PC3 just shot the fucker with their beam thingy.”

Everything was easier with superior firepower. Unfortunately, that wasn’t available to him. Unless…

Something clicked for Cal. Possibilities. A long shot. No, more like a corner three. Tough, but doable and with the right play a high enough percentage of success.

He brought up the map of the monster’s projected track. He followed it to where it was going to hit land first.

“Uninhabited. No important resources. Just some spawn points. This can work.”

Cal spent the next several minutes adding to the list on his PID.

After he finished he contacted the engineer.

“Yes, Designation: Honor?” Engineer Verdant Mechanica 3581’s face appeared in a holographic projection.

“I have a quick question,” Cal began. “This facility. Most of it is underground and the ground is made up of solid bedrock.”

“Granite,” Engineer Verdant Mechanica 3581 said.

“Right. So, how do you guys dig through it?”

“We utilize drones equipped with a high-intensity directed energy discharge device to cut small sections out. Then we lift them out with heavy lifter drones.”

“Can I get a bunch of those digging drones?”

“How many?”

“As much as possible that will fit inside one of those heavy transports.”

“Yes.”

“And can I get them in, say, at least six hours?”

“That will be difficult. They will need to be requisitioned.”

Cal tapped on his PID’s screen. “I just sent you a blank check straight from Prime Custodian 3.”

“I do not understand. What requires checking?”

Cal sighed. “I mean Prime Custodian 3 gave me authorization to grab whatever I need for a task. I’ll be giving the interrogators the rest of the list, but I’d like you to handle getting the drones. Because I might need you and the fabricator to make some modifications.”

“One moment,” Engineer Verdant Mechanica 3581’s projection looked down. They raised their head after reading the message. “Undertood. I will comply immediately.”

“Thanks,” Cal said.

The engineer’s holographic projection disappeared.

Now all Cal needed to do was send the list to the interrogators and start fine tuning the plan. He didn’t foresee any problems getting what he wanted, if it was possible. The prime’s backing would take care of any obstacles.

A familiar chime in his ears made Cal nearly jump out of his chair. “Motherf—”

Congratulations!

You have received a Quest!

Defeat the Kaiju.

Success Parameters: Capture or Kill

Failure Parameters: Fail to defeat the kaiju.

Reward: 100000 Universal Points. Reputation Gain with Threnosh.

Failure: Injury or death. Reputation Loss with Threnosh.

You have already accepted this Quest.

“Oookkaaayyyy… the spires are taking their naming cues from my head now. And secondly, isn’t this a bit late?” Cal said as he looked up at the ceiling of his office expectantly. When nothing happened he looked back down with a sigh. He supposed he’d have to come up with a proper name. The thought made him wish his brothers were with him. Together they’d workshop something pretty good… something decent… something passable. “Mantasquid? Squidray? Mantasaurus Rex?” He shook his head. “Can’t use mantasaurus, too close to mantisor. Damn it, am I going to need to change that to mantisoids just so I can use Mantasaurus Rex? Why am I even using precious brain energy on this?”

Cal took one last look at the holographic projection of the giant monster.

“Fuck you, kaiju,” Cal said to the holographic projection on his desk. “I’m going to ruin your week.”

A heavy transport flew into the hanger of the facility. It landed near the other one that had arrived earlier. This time Cal had them all to himself. The transport’s side door slid open and a group of eight Threnosh in the relatively cruder exoskeletons stepped out and made their way directly to Cal.

“Designation: Honor. I am Interceptor Kymah 43. Subleader, Interceptor Squadron 1, under Prime Custodian 3. We are at your disposal.” The lead Threnosh saluted in their fashion.

“Welcome,” Cal smiled. “Briefing is in an hour. Feel free to get some sustenance or rest or whatever.”

“Acknowledged.” Intercepter Kymah 43 led the rest of his squadron into the facility.

Cal went over to the fabricator and the engineer. He looked at his gear arranged in a neat and orderly fashion, ready to load into the transports. “Everything ready?”

“Yes.” Engineer Verdant Mechanica 3581 said.

“Start loading them.”

Cal left the Threnosh to it and made his way back into the facility.

“Honor?” Caretaker intercepted him as soon as he left the hanger.

The Threnosh was out of their power armor and Cal was, as usual, struck by their height.

The standard, proper Threnosh came up to about his chest at four feet tall when not in power armor. Caretaker looked him in the eyes.

“Yeah?”

“I have a question?”

“Shoot.”

“What is our role in your task?”

Cal’s eyes widened momentarily. “Uh… no role. You and the team are injured and your power armor need repairs.”

“I can fight at seventy percent capacity,” Caretaker said.

“Different kind of fight. Number one it’s going to be up there,” Cal pointed a finger to the ceiling.

Caretaker’s eye followed. “I do not understand.”

“In the sky. The fight is going to be in the sky. Unless you’d got flight capability that I didn’t know about. Then I don’t think you’d be particularly effective.”

“Is not our role to face such threats?”

“Yes, but you’re not capable of facing all threats. There are some threats that simply give you no chance. You don’t want to waste your lives on such things.”

“Then what are we to do?”

“I’d say you rest, heal. Maybe review the recordings of your fight with the mantisors and the boss. Figure out what worked, what didn’t. Because you’re probably going to have to do that all over again.” Cal grimaced. “Thanks to this untimely interruption we didn’t get to kill the secret boss.”

Confusion crossed Caretaker’s gray brow. “What purpose does defeating the True Boss serve?”

“It’s a game changer,” Cal said. “It gives us control of the spawn point. We can set it to not spawn monsters. Or better yet to spawn monsters as we choose. It’d be the perfect farming grounds.” He paused. “Why don’t you sit in on that briefing. It’ll be a good experience. One day you’ll probably have to deal with similar threats.”

Caretaker nodded and left Cal in the day-lit corridor.

The drone flew closer and closer. Until a black tentacle smashed it into so much dust in three blinks of the eye.

“That was the third recon drone. Please tell me you got the readings?”

“I believe so, Designation: Honor,” Communicator Blackswamp 649 said. “The organism is able to detect disturbances through the considerable electromagnetic field that it generates.”

“Can you, like, jam it or something along those lines?”

“If I understand your words correctly, then, yes. I can broadcast a signal that will interfere with the organism’s ability. However, due to the energy the organism generates I estimate it will only last for three minutes, forty-seven seconds, thirty-two mill—”

“That’s accurate enough for me,” Cal said. “Looks like we’re going ahead with the plan.” He contacted the sleek transport over the comms. “Interceptor Kymah 43, is your squadron ready?”

“On your command, Designation: Honor.” The interceptor’s voice came back through Cal’s helmet.

“You are a go. Remember to keep your distance. You’re the distraction. Watch out for those tentacles.”

The interceptor gave the affirmative and Cal switched his view to focus on the other transport and the interceptors as they deployed from its belly.

The interceptor power armor was a different from what Cal was used to. It came in two parts. The base power armor was sleek and essentially served as a life support system for high altitude operations. It was pressurized and had a self-contained regenerating oxygen system. It made the two liters of oxygen stored in small tanks on its back last for nearly an entire Threnosh day. It also contained an anti-gravity system which provided limited flight capabilities.

It was the second system that truly made the power armor functional as an aerial fighter. It resembled an exoskeleton, but in the form of a jet-like frame. It contained everything necessary to turn the individual Threnosh into a miniature jet fighter. Weapons and sensor systems, aerodynamic wings and a tiny engine that generated enough thrust to propel it at roughly three hundred miles an hour.

From what Cal had read on its specs it was actually capable of three times that speed. However, the inertial dampeners in the power armor was only capable of compensating up to three hundred miles per hour. Any faster and the Threnosh using the power armor risked injury and death.

It was a good thing that he was considerably more robust than them since he was going to be using a similar system to give himself an edge against the flying kaiju. Though what he was using was a stripped down version of Threnosh make, not the spire-produced interceptor power armor. It amounted to a directional thrust jet pack with wings for propulsion and stabilization and an anti-gravity system for lift. It gave him a speed advantage and helped conserve his brain power since he wouldn’t need to use his telekinesis to fly.

“Drone operators,” Cal directed the four Threnosh sitting at their stations, “recon drones first. Once the organism detects them and attacks, Communicator Blackswamp 649 will begin disruption. Immediately send in the driller drones. Remember to dig deep and fast. I’ll take care of the next step.”

Cal made his way to the back of the transport. The seconds he had to wait in the airlock for the pressure to equalize were agonizing. The insects in his stomach were freaking out or maybe that was just him. As soon as he was through to the loading area he grabbed the hard case secured against the wall and attached it to the front of his unpowered armor. Next he attached the improvised flight pack to his back using his telekinesis.

He went through all the pre-flight checks using the projected display on his face-plate. Once done, there were no more reasons left to delay. He sent the command to open the rear ramp and was greeted by a bright blue ocean and an even brighter sky.

Cal patted the ax at his side. It was a lot heavier and made out of an alien metal, but it had a similar shape to his trusty camping ax. There was some comfort in that. He took a few deep breaths before he leapt out and engage the flight pack. The instant acceleration sent his already roiling stomach down to his feet.

He tried to focus on his quest. He zeroed in on the distant target. A giant black thing that marred the clean skies, like an ugly ink blot on a pristine canvas.

A zoomed in view showed the interceptor squadron peppering it with projectile fire from their maximum range, as ordered. The squadron took it in turns making strafing runs from different angles.

The kaiju flew on as if it was oblivious. The tentacles around its mouth merely hung limp as they were dragged in its wake.

“Send in the drones,” Cal said into the comms.

A loud boom shook the sky as he pushed the flight pack to its theoretical limit. If he timed everything right all he’d have to do when he reached the kaiju was to make a few dozen deliveries.

Black tentacles the size of trees lashed out and smashed a handful of drones. They were deceptively quick for their immense size. From a distance they looked slow, but Cal knew from the collected data that he couldn’t underestimate their quickness.

“Beginning electromagnetic disruption measures.” Communicator Blackswamp 649’s flat voice came in over the comms.

As soon as they said it the kaiju suddenly lurched and put on a burst of speed. It surged right toward an interceptor that was in the midst of their strafing run.

The distance between two objects moving at around three hundred miles an hour rapidly closed. The interceptor didn’t have the chance to react. One of the longer tentacles crushed the unfortunate Threnosh with its spade-lake tip.

“Cease attack, evasive maneuvers, withdraw to minimum safe distance.” Interceptor Kymah 43’s voice was devoid of emotion over the comms. “Reassessing organism’s speed.”

Cal flew up and around to the rear of the kaiju. He kept his distance and matched speeds while he watched the driller drones swoop in to begin their part of the plan.

Thirty driller drones, as Cal called them, represented a good chunk of the local inventory. Fortunately, Prime Custodian 3’s words trumped any and all infrastructure development concerns. Besides, potentially losing thirty drones was a lot less worse than potentially losing a few cities.

Controlled by the drone operators back on the heavy transport, the drones swarmed over the dorsal surface of the kaiju. It appeared that the disruption was working. While the kaiju was flying erratically and its tentacles were wildly lashing out in every direction it wasn’t targetting the drones.

As if right on cue, a wayward tentacle struck out and destroyed one of the drones.

“Try to keep clear of those tentacles,” Cal said into the comms.

“Acknowledged.”

As each drone reached its target point it fired up its high intensity, cutting laser and began digging tunnels into the kaiju’s flesh.

It took all of ten seconds for the kaiju to react. All of its tentacles lashed across its back.

The drone tracker Cal had put up at the bottom of his face-plate flashed red as five of them went dark.

“Get those drones inside!”

Two more went dark.

Cal cursed. At this rate the drone weren’t going to be able to dig enough holes and do them deep enough. They needed a distraction. And he was going to send some people to their deaths to make it happen.

“Interceptor Squadron 1. I need you to buy the drones some time.”

“Acknowledged.” Interceptor Kymah 43’s voice was flat.

Part of Cal wanted to do it himself, but he forced himself to remember that he had the most crucial role to play.

The interceptor squadron swooped in. This time they pushed dangerously close to the kaiju. They wove a complex interweaving pattern as they assaulted the kaiju’s face with a barrage of projectiles. In twos and and threes they attacked and withdrew from all angles. The display of quickness and aerial agility would’ve amazed any Earth-born fighter pilot. It was one thing to control a jet fighter. It was another thing to be the jet fighter.

As skillful and acrobatic as they were the interceptors still fought against probabilities. It was just a matter of time. The tentacles were too numerous, too quick in their own right.

A black tentacle clipped an interceptor’s wing, sending it into a violent spin as it plummeted to the ocean below.

The readings indicated the Threnosh was dead before they hit the water. The impact had overwhelmed the inertial dampeners. They blacked out when their brain bounced off the inside of their skull. It was a small mercy, since this meant that they didn’t feel the bones breaking in their body.

A second interceptor was less lucky. A lashing tentacle forced them to pull out of their strafing run. Slowing down in the middle of aerial combat was death. A second tentacle wrapped itself around the unfortunate Threnosh and pulled them toward the kaiju’s mouth.

Even zoomed in Cal couldn’t see the interceptor’s face through their darkened face-plate. He didn’t know why he did it, but he reached out with his telepathy to the doomed Threnosh. What he found brought tears to his eyes. Terror in the normally stoic Threnosh. The sheer overwhelming terror that, in the moment, unlocked the box that all proper Threnosh kept their emotions.

It was too late for the interceptor, so Cal did the only thing he could. He took away the terror, he turned the Threnosh’s thoughts to something else that he found inside their mind. The secret joy they felt as they soared through the sky. From the first day that they had been fortunate enough to receive the interceptor power armor from the spire, flying was what they had lived for.

Cal made sure that this was the only thing on the Threnosh’s mind before the kaiju bit down and turned everything dark.

“Communicator Blackswamp 649, status on the drones?” Cal’s voice was heavy with emotion. To forge such a connection at such a traumatic time had given him some feedback from the doomed interceptor.

“Currently at thirty-five percent coverage of target locations. The loss of drones will increase task duration past the limit of the electromagnetic disruption measures. Projections indicate sixty-three percent coverage as maximum probability beyond that limit.”

The kaiju flapped its enormous triangular wings up and down in an effort to dislodge the driller drones cutting into its flesh. A handful of drones went dark.

“Fifty-eight percent coverage.”

“Shit,” Cal muttered. “That’ll have to be good enough. Interceptor Squadron. I need ten more seconds, then you can get out of there.” He hated giving that order. They were already down to five members just in the last thirty seconds.

Cal triggered his flight pack. The vast distance to the kaiju shrank rapidly.

The interceptors renewed their reckless attacks. Two more were swatted out of the sky in quick succession.

Another one, Interceptor Kymah 43, was on a collision course with a massive tentacle.

Cal sped up his perceptions. Everything else around him slowed. The interceptor and the tentacle approached each other at a leisurely pace to his eyes. He grabbed the tentacle with his telekinesis and held it back, allowing the interceptor to swoop underneath it and land a spray of projectiles into the mouth area of the kaiju.

A stab of pain lanced through Cal’s brain, which forced him to release the tentacle. He was relieved to see the remaining interceptors flying away out of the kaiju’s reach.

Since he didn’t have the cybernetics that the Threnosh had to control their power armor, Cal was forced to use a pair of joy stick-like mechanisms that extended from the flight pack frame on movable arms that flowed along his own arms to control it.

The pressure on his brain steadily grew as he was forced to speed up his perceptions. Even with superhuman reflexes there was no way he was going to be able to keep away from the lashing tentacles at such close range.

Cal’s flight path brought him around the front of the kaiju. He wanted to get its attention away from the interceptor squadron. He almost immediately regretted that decision.

Without any other targets the kaiju’s was now focused on him. Black tentacles the size of trees lashed at him from what seemed like all directions.

He dove down to avoid one coming straight at him, but this put him in the path of another one swiping from a different angle. He was forced to roll and it missed him by a mere arm’s-length. The air displaced by its passing threatened to send him spinning out of control, but a brain-stabbing application of telekinesis kept him stable and on course.

It was like trying to fly through a forest where the trees could move and all of them were trying to nail you. The plan was working though. Every tentacle trying to get him was one that wasn’t going after the drones.

Cal flew up in an attempt to get on the kaiju’s dorsal side. The giant monster had other ideas. It rolled along Cal’s flight path, which kept its mouth and tentacles firmly pointed in his direction.

With the kaiju’s back now facing the ocean Cal reversed course and shot straight up into the sky. The giant monster gave chase. Its strange, biological jet engines roared as it fought gravity’s pull.

Cal juked from one side to the other to avoid the two extra long tentacles. He didn’t want to test his telekinetic shields and super durability against the spade-like tips. He was pretty sure that one hit would break the shields and his body.

He slowly eased up on his speed and let the kaiju get closer. It was a dangerous maneuver because it let the monster bring the rest of its tentacles into play.

He continued to weave from side to side in an erratic pattern to avoid the two clubbing tentacles. As the rest of the tentacles came into range he used his telekinesis to shoot himself a good hundred feet perpendicular to his flight path on the dorsal side of the kaiju.

The strain was incredible, his body hurt and his brain felt the stabbing of a thousand needles, but he got clear of the tentacles. He flipped over until he was pointed straight at the kaiju’s back.

The flight pack roared to life as Cal pushed it to the max.

One second and he was at the kaiju’s back. He cut power to the flight pack and pushed out with his telekinesis to stop his momentum. Once again the strain on his body and mind pushed up against his limits.

Cal felt a trickle of wetness running down his upper lip and ears. He ignored it. He had a quest to complete and he was exactly where he needed to be. Riding on the back of a flying kaiju.

His maneuver had confused the giant monster, but he probably only had seconds before it realized where he was.

There were several dozen holes of varying depths scattered across the broad, flat surface of the kaiju’s back. Unfortunately, they were about sixty percent short of the optimum number the plan was targeting. It’d have to do.

The giant monster was about twenty to thirty feet thick at its thickest and tapered to about ten feet thick at the ends of its triangular wings. The sheer mass, combined with the toughness of its skin made drilling through it difficult even for high intensity lasers.

Cal worked fast. He used his hands and telekinesis to take the contents out of the hard pack strapped to his chest and scatter them into the many holes. He felt like a remora skimming along the surface of a giant manta ray. Except what he was doing was definitely not beneficial for the larger animal.

A quick look at the altimeter projected in his face-plate showed that they were rapidly approaching eighteen thousand feet. The thought of being at such a height with only a relatively thin armor separating him from the void made him shudder for a moment.

It was an unfortunate distraction. Especially since he was just about to bail from the kaiju.

A tentacle struck out from the periphery of his vision. The split second was enough for Cal to throw up a desperate telekinetic shield.

It wasn’t enough.

The shield blunted the strike enough that it didn’t instantly smash every bone in his body. Instead it hit him with enough force to break his flight pack and crush part of his armor, along with the bones in his right arm.

The tentacle stuck to him and rapidly pulled him toward the kaiju’s mouth. Cal resisted with everything he had. The pulling force slowed. Then it stopped.

The two forces pulled against each other for a moment, but something had to give. Later the determination would be made that there was some as yet unquantifiable quality to the kaiju’s tentacles that let them suction things with tremendous force. It wasn’t entirely physical. Some speculation suggested that it was magnetic in nature, which would explain its effects on metal objects. What it didn’t explain was its equally powerful effect on biological objects.

Cal dug in with his strength and augmented it with his telekinesis.

The kaiju did the same.

Cal’s armor gave first. The helmet along the right side of his head, the entire right arm armor and a good portion of the right torso armor, all tore free from the rest. The thin undersuit layer went next.

It didn’t stop there. Cal felt his exposed skin follow suit a fraction of a second later.

The pain was like nothing he had ever felt before. The right side of his head and face. The right side of his upper body. It felt like the hottest fires of hell.

It pushed Cal into the animal portion of his brain. The flight or fight response that was solely focused on survival. It lent a massive boost to his adrenaline and telekinesis.

Half-mad with pain, he tore free from the unknown force employed by the kaiju.

Cal fell free of the giant monster. His right eye was awash with blood. The vision in his left eye flickered black. He leaned on his telepathy to partition his thoughts. To keep the pain separate long enough to finish the quest.

With what felt like agonizing slowness he used his telekinesis to input the required code into the detonator stowed safely in a waist compartment on the left side of his body.

A series of massive explosions high above him bloomed in the daylight like another star.

Cal imagined he could hear the kaiju’s pained roar.

“Fuck you… ruin… day…”

Cal’s vision went black as he continued to plummet to the great ocean below.

Then

“… and that’s how I’d deal with Rodan,” Eron grinned.

They had just finished watching the latest Godzilla movie. Perhaps the last Godzilla movie ever. It was a sobering thought and Cal couldn’t help the frown that crossed his face. He wiped it off immediately and smiled when he noticed his six year old niece, Veronica, looking at him with worry.

“It’s a good thing you pirated all of these movies,” Cal said.

“I know right,” Eron said. “SSD too, so they should last. Although I’ve been grabbing hard drives from Best Buy every so often. Makes sense to make multiple backups, especially if these might be the last movies ever made.”

They were holding a movie night for Eron’s last night. Tomorrow he was finally going to go south to check on the rest of their family. It was something that he had been talking about for the past six months.

“No way, Uncle Eron,” Tessa said. “Rodan flies too fast. You can’t even get to him. And even if you did he has volcano powers.”

“You’d get burnt,” Veronica nodded sagely.

“First of all, he’s got to land sometime, so I can get on him then. Secondly, you girls are forgetting that I’m a Solar Paragon,” Eron did the old fashioned air quotes. “Which means I’ll probably, eventually be able to fly. Also, solar, implies that I’m powered by the sun and as we know that is way hotter than any stupid volcano.”

“We can test that out,” Nila said from her spot next to the kids on the carpet. She was holding one side of Veronica’s pillow fort steady. “Where’s the nearest volcano? You can take a little dip.”

“Mount Shasta, I think,” Tessa said.

“That’s like way up north,” Eron said.

“I’d think twice before taking a dip in a volcano,” Cal said.

“Why, Uncle Cal?”

“Well, Tessa, some dragons like living in volcanoes and since we know that wyverns are a thing now, then dragons are also a thing, probably.”

Veronica’s eyes grew wide.

“Jeez, Cal!” Nila laid a hand on Veronica’s back.

“Er… Mt. Shasta’s really far away and also, I’m probably wrong.”

Eron chuckled as he shook his head.

“Rodan could be at the volcano,” Tessa said.

“Right, back to that. I don’t know why you guys are having such a hard time believing in my Rodan-killing move. It’s simple. Get on top of him. He can’t get me if I’m on his back, drawback of being so huge. Then I punch a big hole in his back. Tough to survive a big hole in your back.”

“But Mothra stabbed a big hole in him and he didn’t die,” Veronica said. “I’m sad Mothra died.”

“I know, me too,” Nila commiserated.

Eron shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe I could,” he got up off the couch and mimed diving into a pool, “go inside him and punch his heart or something.”

“Like Ant-man?”

Eron pointed a finger at Tessa. “You are exactly right on that one!”

“Does he even have a heart?” Cal raised a brow at his brother. “Seems to me that he’s made of lava.”

“I don’t know,” Eron said flatly, “he’s a fictional monster.”

Cal stared at his brother for a moment before a reluctant laugh escaped his lips. After a beat the kids broke out into riotous laughter. Nila rolled her eyes.