Poofikins jumped onto my lap and mewed. This seemed like a very dangerous plan. No kidding.
“Well, I don’t want to die. I don’t want anyone else to, either, though. But, if it comes down to it, this falls under the heading of My Job.” I’d had that confirmed by Mephs, after all. Was able to be gung ho because I wasn’t allowing myself to feel any fear. Which was hard, but so far I was managing. My music changed to “Champion” by Fall Out Boy. The chorus was, “If I can live through this, I can do anything.” Really hoped that was going to be true.
SuperBun shared that he had to go, too. He felt he had a chance to win if he could go head-to-head with the Anti-Mother telepathically. But he knew he had to be close to her to do it.
Harlie and Jamie’s Poof Mous-Mous joined Poofikins on my lap. The Poofs were having a discussion, and it was one they weren’t allowing me to understand.
The discussion didn’t take long. Mous-Mous purred at me, then hacked something up. In any other animal this would have been gross. But the Poofs, being Black Hole Universe Animals, were able to ingest almost anything and, if it was something they weren’t actually eating, cough it back up later.
And what Mous-Mous hacked up was worth its weight in whatever precious stones or metal you wanted to name.
There was a Z’porrah power cube sitting in my lap.
The power cubes allowed the user to move anywhere they could think of. If you could see it in your mind’s eye, you could go there. And you traveled in a moment. They were hugely powerful and had been used against us for years. We’d scrounged a few and used them against our enemies, too.
But they were too powerful to just leave in anyone’s possession—the Mastermind had used one successfully for far too long, after all. The Poofs had collected all of those we knew about and many we hadn’t and had given them to Algar, who kept them in the “water reclamation facility” under the Dulce Science Center where he lived. Was sure that this was some sort of pocket universe or similar, but had never asked outright.
Basically, she who had a Z’porrah power cube had the means to go anywhere. Even to the center of a star. She also might have the means to get out again, which was the very definition of win-win.
“This is how we get there, all of us, in the blink of an eye.” Hugged the Poofs. “You guys are the best.” Mous-Mous mewed at me. “And it’s all set up for Kitty, no fiddling needed? You are the best Poofs ever!” Received much Poof love in return.
My music changed to “Get on the Ball” by No Doubt. Right, I’d forgotten something. Got up and went to where I’d put the ball that was Cradus and Spehidon. “And we also have this.” Explained what it was to Lilith.
The motes reached out and caressed the ball. “Yes, I can feel them in there. I agree that this should be brought with us. And I have an idea. But it will require you to trust me.”
“Shoot.”
“If I enter you, you will become stronger and I will be able to ensure we both last longer inside the star.”
“What happens after?”
“You birth me. Unlike ACE, I do not wish to be limited. I will not try to remain or bend you to my will. I give you my word.”
“Tell me who called you to come help us.”
The motes touched me and I could see Naomi’s face in my mind. She blew me a kiss.
“Good enough for me.”
“We will join just before we make the attempt,” Lilith said. “I would prefer to . . . stay as we both are for as long as possible.”
“Are you afraid I’ll try to keep you?”
She was quiet for a long moment. “No. I know you. You have honor. And you would not keep any against their will. You offered to birth ACE and would have done it if ACE had agreed. You have offered this to ACE many times. I trust you.”
“Good. I give you my word that I’ll birth you as soon as it’s safe for us to do so, once we’ve either won or lost against the Anti-Mother.”
“If we lose, I will not allow you to birth me,” Lilith said. “If we lose, I will be all that could keep you alive.”
“Thank you.” It was weird to be working with another former enemy in this way, but apparently this trip was all about the Fate of the Galaxy making me have the strangest bedfellows yet.
Wruck went to the armories to gather all the body armor he could find. While he did that, I dumped my purse out to see what I might have that could be helpful. “I have a lot of firepower, but the ones I’d bet work the best are Serene’s.”
“Explosives may cause the star damage,” Lilith pointed out.
“True enough.” The trap Serene had made rolled against my thigh as “Supercollider” by Fountains of Wayne came onto my airwaves. Picked it up. “You know . . .”
“What is that?” Lilith asked.
Explained what the trap did. “I wonder if this would work on a parasite.”
“It’s not solid.”
“No, it’s not.” Looked at Lilith. “Um, do you trust me?”
“Yes. Why?”
Triggered the trap and tossed it at her. The trap expanded, went around her, snapped shut, and went back to its original size. Caught it before it hit the ground. I’d guessed right—“as big as a chocho” indicated mass, not merely size. Lilith looked bigger than Wilbur, but mass-wise she could contract down to something with far less weight and take up far less space.
“Can you get out of that?” Lilith didn’t answer, but she also didn’t stream out through the many openings. “Gonna take that as a ‘no.’ Hang on, going to hit the release button.”
Hit said button and Lilith streamed out of the trap. “I would have appreciated a warning first. That was somewhat frightening.”
“Sorry, I just figured it would be faster to see if it could hold you than fret about whether it would work on a parasite or not. This appears to be able to do the trick. We want to capture the parasite so that we don’t have to destroy it inside the sun and thereby risk the star itself.”
Wruck returned, laden with body armor balls in a giant sack, like the Anciannas version of Santa. There was far too much Fake Santa going on during this trip. “I cleared out all the armories. Hopefully no one will need body armor any time soon.”
“Also hopefully Mother can create more.”
“I can,” Mother confirmed.
“Awesome.”
“But it takes some time, so what you have is all that you can use right now.”
“Figures and no problem, I’m sure we’ll be good.” That was a total lie, but leaders were supposed to be all about the positives. “I think we should all wear these, including SuperBun. Let’s see how many we can get on each and still be able to move.”
“I also found similar armor but designed with face masks with breathing apparatus,” Wruck said, pulling these out of his bag of goodies. “They work like the body armor and we should be able to layer these as well.”
“It is Christmas!”
Wruck put on a face mask. Still looked like him. “Feels natural enough.”
“I can see all of you but can’t see the breathing apparatus.”
“The entire mask is a filtration system.”