Author note: Today’s chapter is double long because I added some stuff. I might split it up later, but for today, enjoy!

  Luke and Bumblebee were suited up and ready to head over to the portal when a black sedan drove up to the small warehouse. Four people in suits climbed out of the car as one. Luke caught a glimpse of a gun before the woman pulled her suit jacket closed.

  They walked over to the two mechs and the lead suit said, “Excuse me, gentlemen. Could I have a moment of your time?”

  Luke flipped his visor up and glanced over to Bumblebee to see if he recognized them and he seemed equally confused. He said, “We are actually kind of busy at the moment. If it's business related, Allen is inside and he can help you out.”

  “No, Mr. Moore, we are here for you. Will you and Mr. Simmons please step out of your armored power loaders so that we may talk?” the man said with a smile that said he didn’t expect them to say no.

  “No thank you. Not until you tell us who you are,” Luke said. He would have folded his arms, but he was holding Jinx’s carrier with one hand.

  “I am Agent Brown and these fine people and I work for SPEAR. It’s a government agency tasked with Surveillance and Protection Against Extraterrestrial Risks.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “SPEAR? Come on, that can’t be real. This isn’t a Marvel movie.”

  “Yes, I believe the senator that named our organization was a fan. The name is still accurate. We’re a government organization that oversees travel to and from Kalibutan and ensures America’s continued safety. We also have the ability to revoke your security clearances and permanently ban you from the complex, so I suggest you follow my instructions and climb on out of that hunk of metal.”

  Luke clenched his fist. He realized he recognized the other three people in suits. They were the ones stationed at the portal, scanning everyone as they left Kalibutan. He had assumed that they were scanning for contraband or whatever. Now he was realizing that Bumblebee might have been right. These could be the Men in Black, here to disappear them because they discovered that they had magic classes.

  If he really believed that, the smart thing would be to make a break for it now. Luke wasn’t running though. There was no reason for a government agency to imprison or kill their citizens. It wouldn’t make them money or advance their goals. They had to be here for something else. Maybe the Marvel reference was more accurate than expected. They were here to recruit them for a superpowered team, like the Avengers.

  “Fine, as long as this doesn’t take long,” Luke said and knelt down and popped open his torso leaves. Bumblebee followed suit.

  “Thank you. Since you are in such a hurry, let’s skip to the end,” he said and pulled out two pieces of paper.

  Luke realized they were actually parchment, not paper. If he had to guess, they were magical too. There was something about them, a faint wisp of mana or something.

  Agent Brown held out a paper and a pin and said, “Read the following oath out loud and then sign it with a drop of your blood. Since you are in a hurry, we will forgo the typical question and answer period.”

  “I ain’t signing away my soul,” Bumblebee said and read over the oath.

  Luke followed suit, but had to stop almost immediately. “I can’t swear to this.”

  “It’s a condition of your continued presence on this base, let alone travel through the portal,” Agent Brown said sharply.

  “No, I mean, I can’t. This says I swear not to tell anyone I have a class, but I already did. I told people on Earth and people on Kalibutan. I’m supposed to appear in front of the Lord once I reach level six.”

  The agent broke his professional facade and swore like a sailor.

  The woman to his left waited for him to stop swearing and said, “Should we just give him the specialist version if he’s already got connections with royalty?”

  “This piece of shit? No way. We aren’t trusting this Iron Man cosplayer with national security. Go get a blank oath and we’ll stop the bleeding.”

  She walked back to the car and got another sheet of parchment and a clipboard. Agent Brown took both and wrote out a new oath. He kept grumbling about cowboys as he did.

  Then he handed it over to Luke and said, “I hope this meets your satisfaction.”

  Luke didn’t like the new oath, but he could tell it was the best version he was going to get.

  I, Luke Moore, swear loyalty to America and her government. I will obey any lawful order from a member of SPEAR, and will help them protect our nation in times of need. I will never discuss their existence with anyone outside the American government. I won’t tell any alien the true extent of the power my magic class holds unless explicitly given permission by a member of SPEAR.

  This I swear before all the gods, old and new.

  The idea of swearing an oath like this grated on Luke's soul. He knew it would be magically binding and he loathed the idea of shackling himself to these knock off secret agents. He said, "What happens if I break the oath?"

  "You haven't even taken the oath and you are already considering breaking it?" Agent Brown scoffed.

  "It says I have to obey lawful orders. I can think of several lawful orders Nazi Germany gave, I'm not signing up for that. I won't swear an oath to be some despot's puppet," Luke firmly replied.

  "What kind of insane conspiracy theorist are you? I'm starting to think letting you go through the portal is a mistake."

  Luke folded his arms. "Answer the question."

  Agent Brown, "You aren't in charge here, you can't give me orders."

  The young woman behind him huffed and said, "You aren't forced to obey the oath. You'll get feedback when you are about to break it, but the magic isn't strong enough to force your obedience. If you do break the oath, your contract breaks and Agent Brown is notified. You'll lose your clearance and be barred from all portal travel in America. This isn't mind control, it's surveillance. As long as you aren't actively betraying America, you have nothing to worry about."

  Agent Brown turned and scowled at her. He clearly hadn't intended in giving Luke and Bumblebee that much information. But it was exactly what Luke needed. She didn't mention jail time or any other consequences. That fact let him know the scope of SPEAR's power. They were a government agency whose authority reached to the edge of the Norfolk Complex and no further. If Luke felt like disobeying at any point, he could just walk away.

  He did admit to himself that he really wanted to stay and level up. They did have that hanging over him. The thrum of power that came with every level up was addicting. He couldn’t wait to go kick some monster butt today. He decided to swear the oath and play their game. For now. If they tried to force him to do something abhorrent, he could move to another country to keep leveling up. He heard the portal in Italy was right on the coastline. Beautiful sights on both sides of the portal there. The two in Australia might be in the middle of nowhere, but they said they were completely unregulated, not even taxed.

  Luke nodded in thanks to the woman for telling the truth. He swore the oath, followed by Bumblebee, and they both sealed it with their blood. The drop of their blood was soaked up into the parchment and the whole thing flashed. Luke didn’t feel different, but the oath was binding him now. He would have to ask Cormac about oath magic at some point. Maybe there was a way around it. The consequences of breaking the oath weren't dire, but he still didn't like being told what to do.

  “Alright, your first order. Tell us your class and what level you are.”

  “I’m a Driver and I’m level twelve,” Bumblebee said.

  “My class is War Machine and I’m level three,” Luke said through gritted teeth.

  “War Machine? I bet the brass will be interested in that. Expect a summons for training in the next few weeks,” Agent Brown said. “For now though, you may go. We’ll be in touch.”

  Luke didn’t hesitate to get back into his mech and hurry off. He felt dirty working with them, even though he really was a patriot. He had signed up for the National Guard for perhaps the wrong reasons, but he was willing to fight and die for his country. But those ideals came from a deep respect for freedom, not a love of authorities.

  They were stopped again before they actually made it through the portal. One of the military guards in the portal room pointed at Luke’s gauntlet and said, “That better not be a gun. Our treaty says no guns, no bullets on their side.”

  Luke glanced down towards his mech arm. He had integrated his spell rifle into the forearm, leaving only the barrel sticking out. He had realized that thanks to Machine Bond, he could aim better when the gun was integrated into the armor. The extra senses that came from his skill gave him pinpoint aim within forty feet and pretty good aim beyond that.

  “It’s a spell rifle. No gunpowder involved, I’m not breaking the treaty. I built it from the designs that the Kalibutan military uses,” Luke lied.

  The lie was to speed things up, but also to test his oath. He wasn’t sure if half truths counted against it. Since no punishment came, he was probably fine. Although really, he was only stretching the truth. Maybe Kalibutan did have spell rifles. Seneschal Cormac had mentioned spell rifles when Luke told him about his War Machine class.

  “Are you absolutely sure? Breaking the treaty can have serious consequences, including jail and death.”

  “It’s not a gun, no worries,” Luke said.

  The guard shook his head and let him through the portal. Bumblebee followed Luke through, still trying to get Jinx’s attention. She was looking at everything but him.

  As soon as they were out of sight of the portal and the merchants there, Luke and Bumblebee put on the speed. Their slow start this morning meant that they had less time to survey the livestock monsters. Luke made sure to activate the first half of Repair Craft, trying to get into a habit whenever he arrived on Kalibutan.

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  Before they made it to Bona Urbo, Bumblebee slowed to a stop.

  “I think I see something that’s not supposed to be out here,” Bumblebee said and twirled the Ice Sledgehammer Luke had given him.

  “I think I see what you are talking about. Is that a giant beetle?” Luke replied and stepped off the path to stand near Bumblebee.

  “Sort of. They call them Stone Beetles. They have super tough shells, flame and acid resistant. They wait until you get close then they jump at you, knocking you down. They aren’t too dangerous if they miss the first hit. They are slow enough you can flip them and squish them. You just gotta watch out for ambushes.”

  Luke held out the cat backpack. “Keep Jinx safe and I’ll deal with this. How many do you see? Is it just three?”

  “Three? I only see two.”

  Luke grinned and stalked forward. His War Machine buff to perception was useful. He raised his right arm and pointed a fist at the one directly in front of him. The monster wiggled, getting ready to jump.

  Before it could leap the thirty feet between them, Luke fired. He spun and fired his spell rifle two more times, as fast as the airgun could cycle. He hit the monster in the bushes far to his left, then the one in front of him, and finally the one clinging to the side of the wriggling branch tree. Three shots, three hits.

  The Stone Beetle in front of him still managed to jump at him before the magic took effect. Luke was already moving out of the way. It was a good thing too, because the monster moved much faster than he had expected, jumping thirty feet like it had been shot out of a cannon. It passed within three feet of Luke, wind whistling.

  Then the ice magic took hold then, bursting veins and capillaries then turning the monster into a solid block of ice. The other two monsters didn’t even get the chance to move before they were frozen in place.

  Luke took a careful look around to make sure that was all of them. He didn’t see any more. He mentally congratulated himself on integrating the airgun into his mech. Without the Machine Bond skill, there was no way he could have made those shots so perfectly. The System of the World agreed with him.

  Nice. His overall level was still three, but now that Machine Bond was at level four, it was only a matter of time before he was a level four War Machine.

  Without warning, Luke’s legs were swept out from underneath him. He frantically tried to figure out what was going on as he fell through the air. His acuity let him think faster and as his back impacted the forest floor, he realized he must have missed one.

  A Stone Beetle had taken out his legs, and completely broken his left knee. His mech’s knee, thankfully. His flesh one was mostly uninjured due to the padding the pilot suit gave him.

  Luke sat up and shot the shithead monster point blank. He had a front row seat as its mandibles and fragile forelimbs froze and shattered.

  “Do you see any more of them out there?” Luke shouted.

  “Nah, man. You’re good.”

  Only after he got that reassurance did he activate the second half of Repair Craft. Two points of mana flowed out of him, reversing the damage to his leg and restoring his mobility. Luke slowly got up. His left leg wasn’t severely injured, but he would be limping until his Health had a chance to fix it.

  Well, at least there was a silver lining to getting his clock cleaned. Now he could go more than three hours between uses for his Repair Craft skill. Too bad he couldn’t use it again right now. He didn’t have the mana. He was left with only five points of mana of his twenty-four point pool. He had spent fifteen on the first half of Repair Craft, two more to repair his knee, and a point for every shot he took. That would have left him with three points, but he had regained two extra points of mana in the intervening time.

  The next time he leveled up War Machine, he might want to put his stat points into Memory. It would give him a few more shots of his arm gun. He had twenty one more magnets in the hopper, so the limiting factor was mana, not ammunition.

  Then again, upping his constitution was probably a good idea too. He would have to think about it.

  They left the Stone Beetles for the slimes to eat and continued on to the village. When they got to Kruro’s workshop, they had to knock and wait to get let in. For the first time since he started working with her, the door was locked.

  A short wait later, one that felt long, the naga answered the door. Her hygiene was impeccable, but her clothing choice was clearly more casual than normal. It looked like she had grabbed a large pillowcase and added a belt.

  “I was wondering when you would get here. Come inside so Jinx may play,” she said and slithered to the side.

  Luke walked in and set down the cat backpack. He flipped open the top and Jinx hopped out. She started wandering around, more confident this time than last. Luke handed over her bag of food and treats.

  “Thanks for watching her. Let me know if you ever don’t want her around and I’ll find someone else to watch Jinx,” Luke said.

  Moments later, a translation in elvish came from speakers near Luke’s head. Part of his tinkering time this morning was to set up a magnetically shielded compartment for his phone, and connect it to a microphone and speakers in the mech’s neck. Thanks to Machine Bond, he could turn the speakers on and off at will, so it would only translate when he wanted it to.

  Kruro smiled widely and replied in elvish, “I will always wish to have this noble warrior nearby, but I will inform you if I no longer meet her high standards.”

  “Thanks, Kruro. Have a nice day off, we’ll see you in a few hours,” Luke said. He grabbed a Flame Sword and slipped out the door.

  When Bumblebee followed him out, Jinx was on his heels. Luke gently scooped her up and placed her back inside. As he rolled the door shut he said, “Not this time, little warrior.”

  They walked south until they left the village walls. Bumblebee said, “Where to, bossman?”

  “You can call me Skywalker. I kinda like that nickname. Anyway, I figure we’ll leave the Crystal Golems for last and check out the Purpleheart Ents and Gem Flies today. Can you lead the way?”

  “Bet. Let’s get running. They ain’t close.”

  Luke nodded and activated his digitigrade legs. The pair of them ran east and then north along the peninsula. Scrub brush gave way to grasping bushes, to a dark forest, then a wide reaching bramble patch.

  Mist Foxes attacked them while they were circling the brambles, and Luke discovered a weakness of his ice bullets. They were ineffectual against insubstantial monsters like the foxes. Luckily, his Flame Sword and Bumblebee’s Acid Sword were enough to burn the monsters down. They collected the first two mana cores of the day, tier two if Luke was judging things correctly. As they ran, Luke kept an eye on his mana and used the first half of Repair Craft as soon as he could. He just felt better when he had that protection active.

  Once past the thorny bushes, they made it to the north eastern coastline. It was a marshy area, reminiscent of the Florida Everglades, complete with mangrove-like trees. The trees were short and scraggly with green bark and sparse red leaves. They had root systems that looked like legs that had sunk into the muck.

  Luke was forced to retract his leg extensions because the sucking mud swallowed up the small paw of his running legs. He immediately regretted it. Although his innovative power armor design gave him several feet of height, it wasn’t waterproof. His left foot was soon soaked. His right foot too, but he didn’t have sensation there.

  The whole area smelled too. Death and decay were mixed with salty ocean air and a harsh lemon scent. The smell was oppressive enough that Luke was wondering about installing an air filtration system with his next upgrade.

  “I wanna get out of here as soon as possible. Where are those damn Purplehearts so we can count them?” Luke growled.

  “This is actually the area where the Gem Flies gather. That’s them over there. Don’t let them get too close, they’ll suck the mana stone right out of your runes. I know you got your runes on the inside, but let’s not tempt fate.”

  Luke turned to look where Bumblebee was pointing. Closer to the shore were dozens of dancing lights. They were slowly flashing lights, like J.J. Abrams had designed a bug whose purpose was to create lens flares. Each one was at least six inches long, but some were a full foot. Most of them were white or yellow, but some were red, purple, and blue.

  They would have to get much closer if they wanted to count them all. Before that though, “Bumblebee, you’ve been here before, right? What kind of monsters are there around here? I want to actually be prepared before we meet one.”

  “Oooh, good question. You woulda been pissed at me if I didn’t mention the basilisks.”

  “Basilisks? Please tell me there isn’t a monster out there that can turn us to stone with a look.”

  “No, that’s Medusa. Basilisks just freeze you in place when you lock eyes with them. They are lizard things, about as big as the leeches from the other day, actually. They swim in these waters cus they like the Gem Flies. They are like a parasite, only a good one.”

  “Symbiote?”

  “Yeah, symbiote. They hunt together and share the kills. If there are a bunch of Gem Flies behind you, then there is probably a basilisk in front of you.”

  “Great. Then how do we fight it if we can’t look at it?”

  “The way we did it was to CLOSE YOUR EYES!”

  Luke flinched at the yell and turned towards Bumblebee. He was about to say something about not needing to yell when he saw that his partner was frozen in place. The realization finally came to him and Luke closed his eyes.

  Luke stepped in front of Bumblebee to break the line of sight. He said, “There’s a basilisk out there now, isn’t there? How are we supposed to fight it with our eyes closed?”

  Bumblebee didn’t get the chance to answer before Luke was hit from behind. He felt four sets of claws dig into his armor and he was knocked forward. Bumblebee caught him and kept him from falling into the knee high water.

  They stumbled together, just barely keeping each other upright as the monster clawed his way up Luke’s back. Bumblebee fumbled for his sword magnetized to his back, but froze again halfway through the motion.

  Luke spun around to get the basilisk to face away from Bumblebee. At the same time he reached down to the weapons stuck to his sides. The Flame Sword was missing, but his trusty Ice Sledgehammer was still there. He pushed mana into the runes as he swung it up and over his shoulder. The hammerhead hit the monster and it hissed in pain.

  The hiss quickly turned to hacking as the monster’s airways froze shut. Luke slammed the hammer over his shoulder again, this time knocking the monster off his back. The weight lifted off his shoulders and a large splash resounded.

  He spun around and swung blindly, his eyes still screwed shut. His first and second hit missed, he was swinging too high. He bent over. The third swing connected, a weighty impact that resulted in a shattering sound. Luke peeked with one eye and saw the lower half of a lizard floating in the water in front of him, along with dozens of chunks of frozen monster.

  “I got it, you can look now,” Luke said and straightened back up.

  Bumblebee said nothing and Luke turned, fearing the worst.

  Yep. Bumblebee was paralyzed again.

  Based on the direction he was looking, the second basilisk had to be up in the tree. Luke was momentarily stymied. He couldn’t close his eyes and climb the tree with his hammer. Well, maybe he could but it would be a bad idea. Maybe his embedded spell gun? Did his preternatural aim extend to instances when he wasn’t even looking in that direction? He had a pretty good idea of the monster’s position based on Bumblebee’s steady eyes.

  A dozen Gem Flies were winging their way towards them, so he had to make up his mind quickly. Luke stretched out his right arm and fired three ice spell magnets, one after another. The third shot hit something.

  Bumblebee threw an arm over his eyes and Luke risked a look. The ice spell had hit the basilisk in the tail and had frozen it to the green tree trunk. The monster was trying to pull away from whatever was holding its tail, but was failing. Luke stopped the confusion with an ice shot to the head.

  Luke pulled Bumblebee out of the way of the distracting flashes the Gem Flies were giving off. He scooped up a mana core from the one floating in the marsh, but had to leave the one frozen to the tree.

  When they were out of range of the sparkly bugs, Luke looked around and let Bumblebee know it was safe.

  “Sorry about that. Usually we have one guy with his eyes shut and he holds onto the first guy’s shoulder. That way we don’t both get caught at the same time.”

  “Bumblebee, you are going to have to bring this shit up before we get in it. Come on man.”

  “Yeah, sorry. I’ll try to think ahead next time. Hey, what happened to your flame sword?”

  A chill ran down his spine. Luke patted his waist where the sword should have been. It was gone. The first basilisk had knocked it off his side when it attacked him from behind. The Flame Sword was probably stuck in the mud about two hundred yards away underneath three feet of water. They were going to have to spend the next hour or two dredging the mud in between avoiding the Gem Flies.

  Luke raised his head towards the sky and swore loud enough to scare birds away.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Pacific Rim (2013).