Mark was on high alert, flying fast.

The settlement was still half an hour away.

A vector from the right, from directly above, swirled in on Mark like the entire sky was crashing in on him. It was a glowing white fist, like the sun itself had manifested through the auroras. Clawed fingers curled.

Mark reflectively cut the glowing white goblin hand, ripping his rotor blades into the white expanse. He found little purchase at all. Not enough to stop the grab. Not enough to cut anything. It was a kaiju-sized fist, and it surrounded Mark almost completely in the time it took Mark to shift to a Union of Alacrity/Slowness.

The kaiju-fist was moving at more normal speeds now, but the Light Titan was still a kaiju-sized 'speedster'. It was the Light Titan, for sure. Mark recognized goblin fingers and goblin claws. He felt the astral body of the goblin out, and felt its vector, now that it wasn't moving so impossibly fast.

Grax was here to retrieve Mark, punish Goofy, and prevent information leaks, in that rough order of desire. It was the third real attempt on Mark's life in the day, and Mark had been ready to fight a kaiju since yesterday. Maybe not one quite so strong and fast, but Mark could adjust.

Goofy was still asleep, but he was waking fast because Mark was pumping Alacrity into him, too. Not enough to pop his head like others, but it was enough to let him know that something was going down.

Did Mark want to trust a goblin right now?

No.

He was going to trust Goofy anyway, because Mark could feel Goofy sensing something was very, very wrong, and so Mark peeled his adamantium away from Goofy's cage at the speed of thought, moving incredibly fast, and Goofy saw all of Grax, overhead and violently illuminated.

Goofy hated Grax.

Good!

The battlelines were as Mark wanted them to be. Mark was really glad this risky bet paid off.

Goofy started flying downward (powers working again even though Mark didn't un-shavallian him; good to know he could recover that fast) out of the grasping hand, though there was basically nowhere to go. There were a few gaps between the fingers, maybe 100 meters below, but those did not count as exits… Or at least they didn't count right now.

Mark tried a different form of Shaping than normal.

His adamantium could move beyond the speed of physicality, even if he himself could not. Moving his body at the same speeds as his adamantium was going to fucking hurt, though. Mark did it anyway, slamming cutting adamantium into a rotor blade right below him and spinning it fast enough to catch the atmosphere on fire, even as he closed his suit up completely.

Flames licked across black scales as Mark slammed against the insides of his adamantium suit while also yanking himself forward, as he pulled himself through the sky, downward, into those gaps between the fingers of the kaiju-fist cage.

He buzzed by Goofy and scooped him onto a slotted grate of adamantium on the way out of the hand, right through closing fingers. There was a lot of fire and the pain of almost being crushed by their own weight, but Mark made it out and Goofy followed, and then the hand closed.

Grax's vector gave the impression that he thought he had pulled off something amazing, capturing his targets without a fight. He wasn't even aware Mark and Goofy were out of the cage. Goofy was half-dead, but Mark would fix that in a moment.

Mark became a beacon of light and dark as he switched to a Union of Glory and Fear, with him and Goofy as one side and Grax as the other.

Time resumed and Grax yelped, the giant hand over Mark and Goofy turning insubstantial and fading inward as Grax suddenly retreated to the horizon, too far to do anything against. But he stood there, staring.

Mark floated in an aura of Glory, and Goofy floated 20 meters from him, under his own power, also shining with Glory.

Goofy reviled Grax. He was absolutely disgusted by the Light Titan. It was as though Grax was a pile of crawling shit that Goofy had not been able to deal with at all. And maybe also like Grax had been the last straw that broke the camel's back.

There was also an undercurrent of sorrow. A longing for something that could never be. Not now. Not ever.

Goofy intoned, "Let's kill him."

Mark asked, "Why are you doing this, Goofy? Why did you turn on them?"

Goofy had too much to say. He didn't know where to begin. He was also healing very fast. His fangs came back, and he hated that, but he left it be, for now. Whatever Union-based shavallian Mark had inflicted upon him was gone, and he was floating under his own superhero-rank Power, whatever that might be.

Grax remained on the horizon; a white goblin the size of a kaiju, but with ribbons of darkness on his hands and body where Mark had scored him with Fear. He was sizing up the issue before him.

Mark narrowed his question to Goofy, "Why do you hate Grax?"

"There are lots of humans in Goblinhome," Goofy instantly began, "All of them will tell you they are happy to be there. Grax treats his humans like they are servants, walking around and cleaning, and they are servants. They are beneath him. There is no abuse or disdain, because Grax is a noble goblin. He does not push his needs upon his lessers. His lessers simply do as they should for their betters. That is what a proper noble is. Grax doesn't care about his human slaves because they aren't really there for him." Grax scowled deeply, hate bubbling. "They are there. They survive and live and have nice lives… Or at least I thought they did.

"In truth, BiggestBaddest has mind-shackled every human in Goblinhome into being lacunas for anyone who proves themselves. The whole body, too. There is no 'donated leg' or 'donated belly' and lots of healing magics. There are only human slaves, mind-shackled into being there with ghosts controlling them while the real human watches from inside themselves, living in pure horror as their bodies go about doing whatever BiggestBaddest wants.

"I was talking to a human about food… Their name was Kev. Third generation. Happy to be there. But I touched him when we were kneading bread…" Goofy sniffled. "The mind-shackle broke. Kev asked me to help him escape, and we talked about what he wanted. About lacunas and volunteering and all of that, and he didn't want to volunteer.

"All before that, I was told that all the humans were volunteers. That they can leave whenever they want! They just have to ask! So I tried to take Kev out of the city, to leave him at a human outpost.

"Grax killed Kev as I was trying to take him away, and then Grax told me all of this.

"That was seven nights ago.

"I hate Grax. I hate goblins." Goofy pulled out his fangs again and flicked them away. "Death to all monsters." He looked at Mark. "I am not a mimic. I am not a monster. I am a person."

Mark regarded him. "… Your teeth are growing back again, but don't worry about it. We'll solve it later. Focus on the kill right now."

Mark floated forward, toward Grax on the horizon.

Goofy blasted off a lot faster than Mark, roaring as he flew into the fight.

Mark took up the rear, waiting for the trick, because there was going to be a trick. That Grax on the horizon hadn't moved for the last 17 seconds, according to Quark's imaging. Grax had left the image there in order to misdirect. So where was the real—

Mark felt Grax's astral body reach his range far before he saw anything.

It was like the entire world, back and to the right, was pressing in on Mark, crushing his Unionsense like one would crush a pillow.

Mark latched on, instantly, flooding Grax with Fear and taking all of his Glory for himself, and Goofy.

Grax did not run this time.

Grax materialized, full of light and hate, and he roared a kaiju roar, unafraid.

Mark roared a kaiju Call right back, vibrating the world, and Grax's roar cut with Fear lancing into him, making him lesser.

But Grax did not run. He was deathly afraid but fighting anyway.

That was the problem with Fear; some people reacted weirdly to Fear. Mark would know. He reacted to fear with the need to kill. Glory and Fear still carried with it all of what Mark needed to impart and take, though. The Glory of speed and power; the Fear of slowness and weakness.

Grax sent a thousand arrows of light at Mark as Goofy swung downward, moving with speeds far exceeding what he was usually capable of. Mark would have dodged those arrows with minimal steps out of the way, but they only looked like arrows. They could curve and bend at weird angles, for Grax's vector was still in them.

Mark spun his rotors at unimaginable speeds, cracking light with adamantium and then flooding those cracks with veins of Fearful darkness.

Grax faltered, Fear gripping him.

Goofy punched through the center of Grax like a beacon of a much better light, cracking the Light Titan through the center with an impressive display of Tactile Telekinesis and whatever Power he had; Mark still didn't know.

Grax turned the sky into a shredding maelstrom of light shards, each more cutting than the last, destroying the land. It was a distraction. He materialized on the other side of the field, maybe two kilometers away and high in the sky, already raining down spears of light.

Mark stabbed into those spears with Fear again, and the Fear crackled up the lengths of light like black ink.

The light faded away.

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Grax stood on the horizon again, and it was really him this time. He was 'breathing' hard, chest rising and falling fast. He was in his Light Titan form so there was no actual breathing involved, but he was still himself, even when 600 meters tall.

Mark stared at Grax.

Grax stared at both Mark and Goofy.

Goofy floated beside Mark, yelling, "Run, mimic! Run and prepare for death! We're coming with everything we need to End you forever!"

Grax narrowed his kaiju-sized eyes—

He vanished.

Grax had thought he could win easily, so he had probably only come himself. Otherwise something else would have happened in that brief altercation.

Mark laid down a capsule for Goofy to get back into—

The goblin instantly went inside, saying, "I mean it, Black King. I want him dead and gone forever. I want his poison and all the other poisons in Goblinhome gone. It will be tough, but it must be done if my people are to ever be free of their evil overlords."

Mark regarded Goofy. He found himself saying, "… I believe you really do want that."

Goofy's composure cracked. He froze, and then he softly said, "Thank you."

And then Goofy laid back down, and sighed. He wasn't asleep, but he was headed that way, and fast.

Mark closed up the capsule and got going, back to the north.

Quentin's voice came over the coms, "So… Uh. We're going on high alert here, Mark. Just so you're aware."

"Okay, Quentin."

- - - -

Mark stood to the side of a big central room located in a bunker northeast of the settlement. Eliot had made the whole thing as soon as Mark asked for it and Eliot was planning on it being rather important, going forward, so he had sprung for some important upgrades to the place. The bunker therefore had a bunch of different automatic systems, all really high class, but mostly bought and assembled in the last half an hour. It had food, entertainment, and it could be completely self-sufficient for a decade if they closed the vault doors now and never opened them again. Monsters would naturally break that containment, but maybe not!

And Goofy was going to be here, defending the place, since he was going to be living here.

Aurora was going to allow him this space and 50 meters on the surface as his own. Venturing outside of that area was going to cause problems, though. After seeing all of Mark's interactions with Goofy, thanks to Quark, Aurora was less reluctant about all of this. Aurora wasn't talking to Mark and them right now, though. She was way too busy talking to a bunch of different people.

The whole team, but Eliot and Mark especially, were preparing to throw down with some of the biggest problems in the world, and Eliot wanted Goofy as a resource.

And so Goofy got a tiny palace. Lined with surveillance and had no real defenses at all, aside from thick walls, of course. But it was still a tiny palace. Big enough for humans, too, because Derek would be staying here.

Derek had been very enthusiastic about this whole arrangement.

Mark wasn't sure which one of Goofy or Derek wanted to kill all goblins more.

Honestly, the last 30 minutes since getting to the settlement and settling down out here in the middle of the bunker had been a blur of activity. Mark had talked to tens of people and all of his own people multiple times, and now he was here, holding a vial of shavallian in one hand.

Goofy stood on the other side of the bunker's main room, prepared to self-neuter, for at least this body. If he came back in another body then that body would regain everything, so Goofy had already promised to do his absolute best not to die.

Mark asked, "You ready to cement this offer of amnesty? To help us take down Goblinhome, as much as possible?"

Goofy stared hard. "Yes, Black King. I am ready to become human."

… Goofy had a few weird ideas about a lot of things, but he seemed sincere.

After Mark had healed Yoro from what Yoro had called a 'tele-splice incident', which had been very, very ugly, Yoro had told Mark that stuff like this did happen occasionally, and there was precedent for it, but it would be challenged, a lot. It would especially be challenged by anyone who didn't want a new resource for humanity against Goblinhome, and by whoever had been trying to assassinate Mark (and Yoro!) today.

Yoro was understandably furious about the near-telefrag incident.

Whoever came out swinging hardest against this arrangement, either legally or with assassination attempts against Goofy, would probably be linked to the Ether Turtle goblin stuff, House Exatech losing 90% of its settlement people right before the hammer of Walaria came down on them, and maybe even Mark's first assassination attempt, his second assassination attempt through ITLKR, the backup snipers, and whatever else was out there still headed his way. There was a lot of shit to be linked to someone.

Mark imagined it was all ultimately linked to Thrashtalon and Leash, but so far there was nothing demonic happening anywhere.

So whatever Goofy had to say was probably important.

But…

Mark said, "You won't become human by doing this."

Goofy told Mark, "You can make the impossible happen. You will figure out a way to turn me human. I am sure. Give me the vial." He reached into his mouth and yanked out all four of his fangs, leaving four holes in his smile. "I am ready."

"… Get it in the wounds, and I heal you, and they're permanently sealed off, in this body. Healing won't bring them back."

According to Lola and a few different sources in Inquisitor's Hall, what Greeplox had said had been true. They had needed to do some rapid research and call some people, but they were pretty sure this was going to work. Shavallian wasn't supposed to work on monsters that well at all, but apparently it did work on goblins sometimes, and it did work to seal the Bite, ensuring fangs never regrew. Lola had said something about 'I learn new things every day!'.

Rekaro and Reeni Thumb had confirmed Lola's research and both of them talked about doing rituals to permanently End Goofy if he got out of line, and maybe even before, but Mark and Aurora had come down hard against that.

The last 30 minutes had been a lot.

Mark handed over the vial of shavallian, saying, "Don't let this body die, Goofy. We're watching to make sure you stay in this body."

"I understand precaution!" Goofy took the vial and swished the liquid into his mouth, like he was swishing mouthwash. He made a face and spoke with a full mouth, dripping muddy silver, red, and green. "Gah! Tastes like clay."

"Yeah, it does." Mark said, "60 seconds, and then I'll heal you, and see if it worked."

Goofy nodded.

He swished.

Mark waited.

And then Goofy swallowed it all. His vector crashed into his body, but not too far. Shavallian didn't work on him completely, just like it didn't work on Mark completely. He asked, "Do you think people will try to kill me?"

"Yes."

Goofy hummed. He stood tall, and said, "I will not kill them back. I swear. I might die, though. I will try not to."

"People tried to kill me at least 3 times today, and they didn't manage it. I'm sure you'll do fine."

Goofy grinned. And then he asked, "Can we talk about Goblinhome yet?"

"A bit more time. I want to introduce you to a guy who can't really be killed. His name is Derek, and one of him will be living with you. He's a good guy."

Goofy nodded seriously. "I will defer to this 'Derek'."

"… Yes, you will. Thank you for that."

Goofy nodded seriously again.

… Mark turned on the healing, and Goofy breathed in a little tight, before relaxing. He was afraid his teeth would come back, and he felt his mouth with his whole hand, but sure enough, like Greeplox had said and others had confirmed, nothing came back. He now had four holes in his otherwise perfect, white set of teeth… which was kinda odd. Most goblins had pretty nasty teeth, and Mark was pretty sure teeth regrew in goblins all the time.

Goofy cheered, "Woooo! No Bite…" And then he paused. His eyes went a little wide. "Oh… My… I don't even want to Bite anyone anymore… Oh." Like a haze had been removed from Goofy's sight, Goofy looked at the world through new eyes. Or at least a new wiring in his brain. "Ohhh."

Mark had mostly ignored Goofy's almost-sexual need to Bite him and everyone else. It was a part of what goblins were. Horny/hungry. Every goblin felt like that. But right now Goofy was just hungry, and it was amazing for him. Mark sighed a little in relief.

Mark held out a hand, to shake hands. "Nice to meet you, Goofy."

Goofy grabbed Mark's hand and shook, and yeah, there was a fuck-ton of strength there, but he wasn't trying to injure at all, and Mark could kill him in an instant if he wanted. "Nice to meet you, Black King!"

Mark let go.

Goofy let go.

And then Mark said, "I'll introduce you to Derek, now. He's outside. He's going to be your main contact for the settlement. There are rules. Rule #1, and the most important rule, is that you're not allowed into the settlement for any reason at all."

"Yes yes. I know this one. Even if they attack me I will not fight back, and even if a kaiju comes I will not seek refuge or assistance. Not before I'm human." Goofy nodded. "Can we talk about Goblinhome now?"

"… Yes. Uhh… I got a list here to go over, first." Mark glanced at the list in his vision that Quark had put there. Mark said, "We have a gate opening in a few days. It'll be scary out here. If you attempt to interfere I will murder you and this experiment ends."

Goofy stood as tall as his meter-height allowed. With a serious tone, he said, "I understand. I will fight Grax and the others instead when they show."

Mark had a deep moment.

He took a breath.

Mark asked, "… What?"

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