BEDLAM Minus One

Road trips are great for clearing one's head. Finding yourself in the middle of a recently conquered, rocky desert was as well, albeit in a more irritating 'why is it so hot, oh fuck there are patrolling airships' sort of way. Fortunately, even moving at the slower pace we were driving our landcraft at so our mechanical servants could keep up, we managed to avoid any encounters with the locals until Verko's shanty town crawled into view. While I needed to see if Verko was still alive, I had no intention of hiding out anywhere he was aware of. Even if Klugetown wasn't currently occupied, I knew better than to trust that little rat not to stab me in my sleep, so we made a note of the town's location before moving on.

A day and a half later, we managed to find the southern coastline, which led to Jury discovering a hidden little cave we decided to hide in. I left her in charge of getting it habitable while I skulked back to Klugetown with a swarm of armed drones to find Verko.

While my personal weapons kept the denizens of the town at bay, sneaking into Verko's office was a little challenging thanks to the hulking, yeti-like guards swarming the town who were backed up by a small number of my humanoid golems. But my controlling override allowed me to make them explode, which revealed a critical weakness to fire that was held by all the yetis. But, the fact that my override worked on the machines at all confirmed something thoroughly infuriating.

"You gave him my machinery?" I hissed. Verko's personal guards hugged the ground with their claws over their eyes, cowering from the buzzing, laser-armed machines hovering over them. Verko himself just sat with his arms folded and an exasperated scowl aimed my way.

"Well hey! What do you expect?" He demanded, throwing his claws up. "The guy isn't the type to take no for an answer!"

"You could have sent for me. I'd have come up with something to deal with him," I retorted, folding my own arms as I paced the office. Through the window just behind his chair, I could see the uproar I'd placed the town in with my sabotage, as well as the yeti's efforts to quell the fire I'd started.

"Oh yeah? So why's it matter? Come up with something now!" Verko spat, leaning on and jabbing his desk with a claw. "Guy's cutting into my business and demanding I smuggle all his hokey merchandise! Smuggle! In his own territory! So he can stiff his import guys on the taxes and tariffs he set! Who does that?" I growled and slammed my hands on his desk as well.

"It matters because you gave him a sample of my designs," I explained, jabbing a finger at him. "Who's to say he hasn't picked them apart and reverse-engineered them?" Verko paused and slowly sank back in his chair, looking off to the side in thought.

"Well, uh," he pursed his lips and hummed before shrugging. "I don't think he has. At least, I haven't noticed any extras floating around, y'know? And I'm pretty danged sure he'd be flaunting them if he had a bunch!" I grimaced and shook my head.

"I suppose that leads to my next question. What is he using my animunculi for?" I turned and leaned back against his desk while glaring at his cronies.

"Most of the same stuff I was," Verko replied. "Deliveries, security, things like that." I raised an eyebrow at his explanation as a plan began to form. I turned and fixed him with a smirk.

"Deliveries, eh? You wouldn't happen to have any information on his logistic routes then if you know he's using them for such purposes?" I asked. He smirked back, reclined in his chair, and brushed off his chest.

"I might. What's it to you?" He retorted. I snorted and snapped my fingers, at which three drones whirred up and began hovering around his chair, causing him to wilt.

"What's it to you?" I shot back, my smile widening as he gulped. "Keep in mind I feel this does violate our initial agreement and I am looking for a reason not to retaliate." He cleared his throat with a fervent nod.

"Hey! That's a good point there!"

I watched the slowly approaching train of drones through my binoculars with a wide frown while Jury set up the pointy little radio tower device she concocted for this operation. Despite being out in the open in the sandy crags of the desert, there was no danger of being spotted as, just like Verko said, the Storm King was content to just have my machines fly supplies to and fro unguarded while he directed his ships elsewhere.

We'd spent a few days observing the route above us, but we'd also taken a few weeks to spy out the others. By my rough estimation aided by binoculars, Verko was right and the Storm King only had as many machines as I'd given to the mole rat. In fact, more than a few seemed to be in dire need of maintenance, which both eased my anxieties about my work being reverse-engineered and infuriated me at the sight of my machines being so mishandled.

The radio tower clanked as Jury slapped one of its panels closed and then trotted to my side. "It's all set up. Just waiting on your command, Bedlam," she said. "Uhm, I hate to ask, but are you sure it's a good idea to go to war with the Squall King? We haven't even rebuilt our hovercraft yet."

"Storm King, and don't worry, this is temporary," I replied, reaching back and gently patting her head. "I'm not going to tolerate this B-list warlord, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great wannabe abusing my hard work." I watched the drones approach before lowering my binoculars and turning to her with a smile.

"We're just going to thin his supply and then relax in that lovely hideaway you found," I added drawing a smile from her. I nodded at the device she'd set up. "Speaking of, let's test this signal booster of yours." She returned my nod and got into position. With a button press, the side of the machine projected a thin, blue magical sheet that held up Jury's weight as she reared up on it and began tapping little blips of light and text with her hooves.

As I'd suggested ages ago, we'd figured out how to rework the shield projection design to produce a screen to display information and visual designs instead of needing to break out pens and paper. Once we were finished with the Storm King, I had plans to expand it to include the ability to control our machines, but this was plenty for now. I looked down at my controlling glove as the gems hummed quietly and lit up.

"Booster's at full charge, and it's found your glove," she said, narrowing her eyes and leaning closer to the screen. "And that looks like several animunculi. I think we're ready."

"Alrighty, let's go," I said. Using the screen as a visualizer for where my signal was going, I quickly pinged the machines above us and then sent the kill command. We both turned our attention skyward and watched as the drones flew unabated for a few seconds before bursting apart in a fiery chain. Jury gasped and flailed her hooves with excitement.

"It worked! EEEEEE~!" She squealed and eagerly pranced in place.

"Sure did. Let's get out of here!" I watched as the heavy crates the drones had been carrying fell to the earth. "After seeing if they've got anything good."

I relaxed on the sofa we'd hauled from the Everfree and stared at the lights Jury'd bolted to the ceiling of our relatively bare breakroom. Unlike Foal Mountain, we had our full complement of golems to work with, so she'd managed to turn this miserable little hole into a proper dwelling while I was dealing with Verko. Our golems were hard at work digging out more living and work space, as well as organizing the raw materials they were harvesting both from the rock and the coast. Even while we were scoping out the Storm King's supply chains, they were at work and so this cliffside was already a cozy lab and home almost comparable to the castle.

If I wasn't in the villainy game, I swear I could make a killing at residential development. Then again, real estate is its own form of evil, so let's not take it off the table for what we do next.

In any case, I sighed happily for the first time in just under a month. Small victories were still victories. The size doesn't matter so long as you keep the momentum up, and while the Storm King was at the head of a massive, burgeoning empire, we were guerilla fighters. So long as we were careful, we could pull off more hit-and-run jobs like we'd just done and rapidly exhaust his supply of animunculi. A pair of hooves clopping against the stone drew my attention to the left entrance to the lounge cave.

"Okie-dokey! The menu routines are all finally updated for the local foodstuffs, the diggers just found a really fat pocket of rare ore, and the soil top-side is rich in alchemical gobbledygook," Jury chirped as she trotted up and hopped onto the couch beside me. A golem carrying a heavy-looking black case marched in behind her. "This place is pretty nice, don't you think?"

"Sure is. Good work finding it," I replied, gently petting her side and drawing a happy hum from her. "Just what I need to get my head straight and off the lil'est princess." I eyed up the golem as it set the case down in front of us and opened it up. Jury beamed and hopped down before using her magic to pull out and set up a contraption from inside the box. The thing was a larger silver frame, inside which there were several exposed and suspended charged gems. I tried to examine the runes she'd carved, but she scooted over and blocked my sight with a wink.

"I wanted to show you something I was working on back at the Everfree. I never got a chance to finish it since stuff started heating up once you figured out how to release Stygian, but while you were in Klugetown I got it put together," she explained. I leaned forward with curiosity as she set the gemstones spinning. "You talked a lot about those 'computer' things back in your home world and how you could use them to make music. So, I made this and tried to make that one song you said you liked." The gems pulsed with different shades of light, and then began to hum and squeal. At first, it was just ugly noise, but slowly it shifted and something coherent formed. I huffed in amazement as the sound turned into actual music and then I quietly gasped as a familiar song began to play.

"I used your voice to do that sampling process you mentioned and tried to remember how the words went from when you sang it a few times," Jury explained hopping back to my side and curling up. I slowly sank back in my seat. It was grainy and as she said it was my own voice being used, but it didn't matter.

"Good god, how," I paused and shook my head before looking at her in wonder. "How'd you the tune right?" She beamed and shrugged as her tail swept to the song.

"I dunno. It just felt right when I was tinkering with it," she replied, her head bobbing to the rhythm. "Might be the magic of music and harmony at work, but I dunno for sure. I got it right, though?"

"Sure did. You figured all this out on your own, huh?" I asked, at which she nodded happily and I chuckled. "Sometimes I forget what a brilliant little lady you are." I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close.

"Voice synthesis, hm? Have to keep that one in mind." I leaned my head back and smiled as the song rolled on. Slowly, I found myself lost in the music like I was back home. My real home. Back during a time when I was fresh out of college and things were looking up.

I was in a similar situation now, actually. Fresh out of a sort of learning and growing period and facing an uncertain future. And certainly, some folk looking on with heavy, judging eyes.

But now?

Now, as I found myself compelled to set Jury aside so I could stand up and take a breath with my arms outstretched, now I had the power to make some serious strides. And nothing could get in my way, especially since those heavy, judging eyes were far, far away, giving me space to think and plan.

You gotta

"Make your own kind of music~! Sing your own special song!" I sang, sweeping one arm to my chest with the other still stretched out. Jury gasped, then giggled and clapped her hooves. "Make your own kind of music, even if nobody else sings along!"