Kaleb sat back in his chair slightly, careful not to lean too far back. His workshop was still seeing a steady influx of lizards, and even Hunters, that wanted upgrades. But Terrance and Marie seemed happy to handle things. For the most part, Terrance would take down the orders and prepare the material while Marie did the forging. For the few Hunters who wanted monster hide armor, they would have to provide the hide, and Terrance would get to them later. Kaleb made a mental note to help the kid when he had time.

Apparently Farrah and D34d-I had given some of the NPCs their first pay. Most of which, it seemed, was going straight back into the guild. The Brute Clan lizards were happy to get anything they could bring back to their clan, and the Hunters were excited to see what Marie and Terrance could do. So, in a few hours, Kaleb's workshop was thick with credit chits, chips and sticks. Of course, their workload was growing, but it was a good problem to have.

KLA-CHICK

KLA-CHACK

Kaleb glanced up from his work to see Terrance kicking a large bag of credits with his foot. The tall boy was standing at the forge working, making more ingots. His Salamander was still in the forge, keeping it hot and eating the slag. The bag was one of many on their floor that was starting to clutter up the space even more. Kaleb put down the soldering gun he was using and sighed.

"Terrance, just move the bag to D34d-I's office. It's just going to go there, anyway."

"And take this one too!" Marie called over her hammering.

She flicked another bag of credits away from her with a foot. It clanged against the far wall and several lizards and Hunters watched cautiously. Kaleb glanced around and spotted several more plastic and leather bags full of credits dotted around the shop. They needed a better place for the money they got from orders. Again, an extension to his workshop popped into his head. But Kaleb quickly squashed it. Instead, he got up and started collecting bags even as a brute Clan lizard left an order for a pair of gauntlets and slapped some credits down on Marie's worktable.

Kaleb watched as a pair of Homunculi gathered up the credits and carried them toward the nearest bag. Which explained why there were so many of the bags laying about. Kaleb rubbed his eyes and stood. This had gone on long enough and, now that he noticed it, it needed to end.

"Okay, people! Here's how we're going to do this! Find a piece of paper, write your order down, leave your name and your credits, then we will get to it. If we need your measurements, we'll call you back in! Thank you for your patronage and please hurry off."

A bunch of the lizards grunted in amusement at his proclamation, but moved to follow his orders. As they did, more Homunculi came out of the woodwork to collect the credits. The Hunters were slower to follow, but eventually, they did. With only a few complaints about specialty orders. Kaleb told them he would take a look at them later if they left their names. Quicker than he expected, the workshop cleared out and all that was left was the swift-moving homunculi, Kaleb, and his two helpers. The roaring of Terrance's forge was joined by the snoring of Sebastian. But it wasn't an unfamiliar clamor.

"We're going to need a storefront." Marie said casually as she put down her hammer.

Kaleb sighed again, but nodded. "I know. I just didn't really expect this place to take on mass orders. What's wrong with the Hunter's Armorers?"

"Absolutely nothing!" Marie said heatedly.

"Hehe, we are just closer." Terrance chuckled. "Not to mention most of the Hunters know us. We're not experts by any means. But we've worked in other shops."

"Not experts yet. But since we've come here, we've grown by leaps and bounds." Marie said, showing a rare smile as she sat down and patted Sebastian's head.

"Well, you're welcome then." Kaleb said.

"I didn't mean it was because of you! It's just that we have our own space to learn and grow without my dad getting in the way!"

Kaleb grinned at Marie's tirade. She had delivered it to the wall above her workstation even as her face flushed with embarrassment. He looked over at Terrance to see the boy smiling as well. He put down his own equipment and threw a bit of charcoal at Scott. The Salamander snapped the rock out of the air and crunched down on it hard before burping a plume of smoke. The three of them collected the random bags of credits before Marie and Terrance took them to D34d-I's office.

As they left, Kaleb turned to the stack of orders on Marie's table. He had a few on his and even Roy's desk had a couple. Terrance's desk was note free, but that could have been because his station was closer to the forge. The heat from the thing was muted thanks to the runes in the room, but it was still a hot spot.

"Armor, armor, spears, swords, clubs…" Kaleb muttered aloud as he went over the orders.

Most of them were fairly simple orders from the Brute Clan. The Hunters were more elaborate, asking for certain enchantments or more baroque designs. Also, the hunters preferred their stuff to be made of animal parts. Which meant that Kaleb's shop was going to have to trade with the Hunters for the stuff. They still had a small collection, but it wasn't as big as their piles of metal and electronics. Not for the first time, Kaleb wondered at the lack of people asking for guns or energy weaponry. But then again, he and Roy were probably the only two proficient in their construction. He made a mental note to teach Marie and Terrance the craft. Terrance had once shown an interest in such.

Putting down the papers, Kaleb tidied up the shop a bit before he went back to his own work. Milly was belly up on his workstation, snoring away happily as Homunculi rubbed her sides. Kaleb shooed the little enablers away as he got back down to soldering. The scanner was basically complete again, or at least back to the stage it was at before Shaggy interrupted him. He had planned on having Farrah go over the coding of the device. But now, with her otherwise engaged, it was up to him. All he had to do was program something that let the scanner talk to the server in order to identify things in the field.

Kaleb chuckled to himself as he plugged the new scanner into his terminal and brought up its coding studio. He was sure it wasn't going to be anywhere near simple. The deluge of texts that fell down the screen seemed to prove him right as he sat down and began combing through the things code. Initially, the device had been a thermal imager. Reading hot spots in the surrounding and sending it onto a projected map. So, at least tangentially, what he wanted to do was feasible. He just needed to restructure how information was brought in, processed, and then displayed.

"Or in other words, everything." Kaleb muttered to himself as he got to coding.

It wasn't a particular skill he possessed in-game. But his Robotics skill, along with his Gadget Mastery, seemed to substitute well enough. His progress was slow, though, and the work was more tedious than he imagined. Thankfully, his mind seemed to slip into auto-pilot as Marie and Terrance came back into the room. They each had a tiny break before they returned to their own projects and the workshop fell into its normal hum.

It was several hours later, when Kaleb stuck his head up, that he realized Roy and Daivor had returned. Roy was helping Marie finish out the orders while Daivor was chasing Milly around with a small towel. Kaleb noted the Marmot was leaving little dusty footprints all around the workshop. Daivor was being followed by a veritable fleet of homunculi that was cleaning up after his Familiar and pet.

"Git back here, you electric rat! You can't just go dragging that dust around the entire workshop!" Daivor shouted as he used his cable belt to wrench himself forward ever faster. Milly chittered excitedly as she dove under tables and wove around legs as she evaded capture. Kaleb yawned as he reached a hand down and called Milly over to him. The blue marmot turned hard and made a beeline for his arm, sinking into it happily as Daivor skidded to a stop.

"Boss! You can't just let her do what she wants! Look at this place!"

Kaleb raised an eyebrow as Daivor turned, only to see the homunculi putting things right. The gnome huffed angrily as he threw the towel he was carrying to the floor. A pair of helpful homunculi quickly gathered the towel up and started to fold it.

"Well, she shouldn't be such a menace in any case," Daivor grumbled lamely.

Kaleb laughed quietly for a bit before he tilted his head toward his work. "The scanner is almost complete. I don't know how good my coding is, but I'll have Farrah look at it later."

Daivor swung up onto the table and quickly approached the terminal's screen. The gnome peered at the long lines of code for a time before he stroked his beard and nodded.

"It seems right. But a pair of expert eyes never hurt anyone."

"The car is all taken care of for now, Doc." Roy called. "It's still going to be a lot of work to rebuild it, but we cleaned it out as best we could."

"Thanks, you two. That's one thing down and a million and one to go."

"Like you don't love it."

Kaleb chuckled again. "Hehehe, of course I do. Although the weapon and armor orders were a surprise."

"Like I said before," Marie interjected. "We'll take care of that stuff."

"Yeah, but then what's left for the dear old Professor? I have to help occasionally, right?"

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"There are a few jobs that call for enchantments, boss. You and Master Gnome will have to do those." Terrance stated with a smile.

"Yeah, that's fair. Remind me to show you two how to do them at some point. Have y'all been checked for magical pathways?"

Marie and Terrance froze before both shook their heads. Marie crossed her arms and sat on her workbench before adding.

"Vivienne and Jar-lock offered, but I figured it was better not to know."

"Besides, I've seen them opening other Hunter's pathways, and it looks painful." Terrance added.

"Wuss."

"Hey, I don't like pain. It hurts me."

Kaleb rubbed his eyes as the two traded barbs across the workshop. "Okay! I'm not going to force either of you to go through it. But it would be a big help around here."

Marie nodded. "And to the Hunters."

"But either way, I can teach you the runes even if you can't empower them." Kaleb said. "Also Terrance, you wanted to learn more about energy weapons, right?"

The tall boy nodded eagerly as Roy spoke up. "I've taught him a little, Doc. Just what you've shown me."

"It's not too complicated." Kaleb explained. "We'll just need some spare time in the future to dig into it. For now, I'm going to hand the scanner off to Farrah so she can double-check it. Y'all can do what you want. Orders, personal projects, whatever."

Marie and Roy grinned as they quickly brought their heads together over Roy's workbench. Terrance went to his side of the shop and sat down with a technical manual of some kind. Daivor whipped up to Kaleb's shoulder and glared down at his cybernetic arm. Milly was still inside, comfortably chittering away. The gnome tapped the metal appendage with his foot before he whispered.

"You also wanted to upgrade this hunk of metal, boss."

Milly stirred in Kaleb's arm, and he felt power surge through it for a moment. Images of his arm falling to pieces if he ever unleashed the Marmot fully flashed through his brain. He gave Daivor a subtle nod and tried not to focus on the feelings of excitement coming from his pet. She clearly agreed with the idea, but Kaleb was worried about how picky Milly would be about her new home.

The three of them left the workshop and pivoted toward the command center. People were still rushing about, but the pace was far calmer than it had been. People moved with a purpose, but it wasn't with worried looks on their faces or a scared gait to their steps. Kaleb hopped onto the command center's platform and looked around for Farrah's telltale ears.

He found the rabbit-woman standing near the rest of his guild. They were at a table at the side of the command center. Two Gun and Claire were sitting comfortably and chatting with Jar-lock while Vivienne and Abby were deep in their own conversation. D34d-I was next to Farrah going over some tablets next to a digital whiteboard. Kaleb remembered Farrah wanted to give a presentation about what he and Abby had found. Apparently, he was right on time.

He hurried over to the round table and quickly pulled out a seat. The noise brought everyone's eyes around to him, but they quickly smiled and greeted him.

"Hey! Professor! Been working hard?" Two Gun asked cheerily.

*Quack*

"Judging by the credits that were brought to my office, I'd say the Professor will be working hard for a while." D34d-I grinned happily.

Kaleb snorted. "I'd say. I bet half of what y'all paid everyone just came straight back into the guild. If not all of it."

"Lot of orders then?" Claire asked politely.

"Simple weapons and armor. Some Hunters want some tricky stuff, but my people can manage."

"Should we really be relying on swords and metal armor for our guards? What about guns?"

"The Brute Clan don't seem to like them much and most of the Hunters seem downright against modern weaponry." Kaleb shrugged. "We can make do. Don't forget, we have the shield and the energy turrets."

The others at the table nodded, but Jar-lock still looked concerned. Kaleb rolled his eyes and pointed up at the runes written all over the ceiling above them. He, Jar, and Vivienne had spent a good amount of time putting the hangars' defenses in place. They were as safe as they were going to get until all their skills improved again. Jar-lock glanced up and then realized his meaning. The big mage looked back down and shot a glare at him, but eventually nodded in acceptance. Kaleb took the win in silence while Farrah collected herself at the front of the table. He could tell she was gearing up for something, so when the table fell silent, he wasn't surprised that she started her presentation. The hangar's lights dimming was a surprise, though.

"Everyone," Farrah started ignoring the mood lighting. "I believe we have a B-Tier threat in our territory."

Those at the table waited patiently for her to continue. Although Kaleb saw Two Gun and Abby shoot him a few speculative glances. Kaleb was confused until Farrah spoke up again.

"No, it's not the Man-Rat this time, or it doesn't appear to be."

"Rat-Man." Kaleb said under his breath as Farrah explained further.

"This threat seems more clandestine in nature and is quietly moving in while suppressing the local gangs. What the Professor and Ms. Nightmare uncovered from a local gang's hideout shows that someone threatened or bribed the locals into submission. Now, the gang's own reconnaissance into things hit a dead-end when their scouts came back without their eyes or their mouths."

"Blegh!" Claire said, sticking out her tongue, but Farrah shook her head.

"Not like that, Claire. The organs weren't ripped or burned out. They were simply gone. Now I've had my team on this all night and part of this morning, and we've come up with a few suspects. In order of likelihood, we have…"

Farrah turned to the digital whiteboard as a mugshot appeared on its surface. The face that was projected on the board was sunken and sallow, with multiple scars running across the man's face. He looked to be wearing a surgical gown and was covered in blood.

"Dr. Richard Steinwell, noted villain with the power to shuffle people's facial features. A psychotic plastic surgeon with disillusions of finding the perfect biological being and if he can't find it, he will make it."

"Trope." Abby whispered next to Kaleb.

Farrah either ignored or didn't hear as she tapped the board and another face appeared. This one was a woman whose body looked like it was made of clay. The photo was clearly taken at a distance and while the woman was mid-transformation. She was walking down the street as her clay-like legs formed under her.

"Carla Haut. Another villain and serial killer who has been known to collect pieces of her victims as trophies."

"Wouldn't that leave residue or something behind?" Jar-lock asked.

Farrah shook her head. "No. Whatever her mutation did to her, it allows her to… suck the pieces off her victims, leaving nothing behind."

There was a moment of silence around the table as that sank in. Then Farrah tapped over to the next image and Kaleb had to stifle a laugh. Looking around, he could see he wasn't the only one. The man on the screen looked more like a flamboyant magician than a hardened criminal. He had a top hat and cane and was dressed in a blue and purple suit with sequins on the pants. Kaleb even spotted glitter shining off the man's short cape. Farrah waited for them to get themselves under control before she continued.

"Wally Wondrous. A-Tier Villain and suspected demigod of chaos. Honestly everyone, if this is the one we are dealing with, I'd suggest we call in people more qualified and avoid our territory until he is handled."

"Now wait a minute," Two Gun started to say.

"He is an A-Tier threat capable of warping reality as he sees fit." Farrah interrupted. "We are not equipped or remotely capable of handling something like that."

The table went quiet before Abby grumbled. "How is that fair?"

"Who said anything about fair, Ms. Nightmare? This is the world we live in and sometimes the literal Gods walk amongst us. Although the jury is still out on whether Mr. Wondrous is one."

"But you said you believed the threat was B-Tier?" Jar-lock asked.

"Yes. Although Wondrous is the type to randomly snatch the eyes from someone for fun. He isn't really one to build a criminal empire. Neither, really, is Ms. Haut. Which is why I suspect our culprit is Dr. Steinwell. Of course, I could be wrong all around and this is the work of someone new. These are just the most likely candidates. However, the fact remains there is a new player in our neck of the woods and they are cowing all the other gangs. Quietly and with dangerous speed."

"Was there anything in the data we collected about where this person is?" Kaleb asked.

"No. But they do seem to be working in our mandated territory. On the datapads, we found chats between several low-tier gangs about joining up with our new ghost. Most were against it outright, but some were of the opinion that whoever it is, is here to stay."

Farrah finished her statement and turned off the whiteboard. The lighting came back, and Kaleb and the others blinked as Farrah waited for the discussion to continue.

"So the question is, how do we catch this guy and where do we start?" Two Gun said happily, rubbing his hands together.

"The gangs." Jar-lock said simply. "We hit their hideouts and dig up what we can."

"In doing so, we may spook this wannabe big boss." Abby warned.

"So what?" Kaleb asked. "If they are spooked, they may get stupid, and even if they aren't, that's useful data as well. They may believe they are so well hidden that we won't find them."

"But we will." Claire grinned.

*Quack*

"Either way, this falls under our contract. We have to do something. A B-tier threat, if that is what this is, needs to be handled immediately. Failure to do so can result in the loss of our contract."

"Bad time to be out of a car, Professor." Abby laughed.

Kaleb shrugged as the others looked at him. "It'll get fixed. But for now I'm hitching a ride where I can, folks."

"That's a hefty problem." Jar-lock said. "Can we rent something?"

"It's not like we don't have enough cars, Jar." Vivienne said.

"And besides, the doc's got to work on those orders."

"Hey! Don't think that means I'm going to sit this investigation out." Kaleb argued.

The conversation fell into patrol times and where and when to hit the hideouts they knew about. Abby and Two Gun were the ones with their ears to the ground on such matters. So Kaleb kept his mouth shut and listened. He was rotated across different patrol times because of his lack of a vehicle. But he was okay with that. In fact, everyone at the table was charged with an odd excitement. They had a new big bad to focus on. And by all accounts, it was going to get weird.

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