"Love you too, Cap," Donutz grinned, lowering the spoon but keeping it pointed at Adler like a mock threat. "You gonna submit to our new Alpha or do I gotta keep you paralyzed forever?"

Adler's grin faded as she glanced at me. I could tell she was weighing her options, pride versus survival, loyalty to her pack versus the reality of the Magnetic Lynx's threat. I didn't push her; I just stood there letting the weight of the moment do the talking.

"Fine," she said at last, her voice low and begrudging. "You're Alpha, Alec-tater. But don't think this means I'm gonna bow to every single order. I'm only doin' this 'cause my lieutenant got a point—the Lynx ain't fuckin' around, and I ain't ready to die just to prove I've got bigger balls than you."

"Fair enough," I nodded, stepping back to give her some space. "You're with me, then. No more Skid Marks. No more Captain Adler. You're just Addie now."

She groaned, rolling her eyes. "Fine."

"Candace, let her up." I ordered.

Donutz waved her paw, muttering, "Release Mobility." Adler's body relaxed, and she struggled to sit up, wincing as her bandaged shoulder protested. She shot Donutz a mock glare. "You're sleepin' on the floor for that spoon stunt, Candy."

"Did you just use my old nickname?" Candace glared.

"I did, whatcha gonna do 'bout it?" Addie asked with a feral grin.

"Oh, I have many options," Candace purred. "I know your weakness."

I rolled my eyes at their banter.

"Here, help out the others," I handed Addie the medkit from Kristi's car. She nodded, limping towards the downed delvers.

I walked toward TurboFluff with Candace at my heels. The lynx was sitting cross-legged, licking blood off her paw like it was no big deal, though the gash across her arm and a blood stain spreading across her stomach told a different story.

"Yo, Fluff," Donutz began. "You saw what went down. The Lynx ain't playin', and Alec's our best shot at not gettin' wiped out. You in with him as Alpha, or you goin' solo?"

TurboFluff's yellow eyes flicked to me, sizing me up like I was a piece of questionable meat. "This guy?" she said, jerking her chin in my direction. "Level three, no gear, smells like a dumpster?"

I glared down at her, my arms crossed.

TurboFluff squinted up at me. "What? Even if that freaky dungeon Sentinel respects you for some dum' reason, you don't look like Alpha material. No offense, but you're kinda... scrawny."

"No offense but it looks like you're bleeding out," I said, pointing at my magic grass bracelet. "And I have the only aid kit and healing artifacts."

"What, those grass thingies? Pffff," TurboFluff let out. "I'll be fine. I'm a tough cookie."

"Fuuuuuuck!" Adler snarled from where she examined the bikes.

"What?" TurboFluff choked. "How's my bike?"

"Gone by the looks of things," Adler said.

"WHAT?!"

"That magnetic beerch didn't just chuck a metal ball at us... all of the electronics are fried. Your bike's fucked beyond repair from what I can see," Adler called back.

"Come on, you're screwing with me… It's not that bad, right?" TurboFluff called out, trying to sound casual but failing miserably. "I mean, our bikes are tough. Built to last, reinforced with a shit-ton of defence runework n' magisteel artifacts! Right? All of that shit couldn't have…"

Addie spent several more minutes examining the damage, her expression growing grimmer by the second. When she turned back, her face said everything.

"Fluff..." she began.

"No," TurboFluff said firmly. "Don't say it."

"Your bike's fucked, girl. Completely and utterly fucked." Addie shook her head. "Whatever that magnetic beerch did, it wasn't just compression. She sent out some kind of insanely high level magnetic pulse that fractured, incrementally shifted every gear, every bolt, every piece of metal in those engines. Look around—see how all our bikes are leaking gas? That's because the fuel lines got micro-tears from the magnetic stress. The magisteel runework's shifted too, none of the runes are functional. Hell, our jackets are useless now too, no longer reinforced."

TurboFluff's ears flattened against her skull. "But... but my baby... I just got her engine rebuilt. Spent months' worth of gas station wages on those custom exhaust pipes and engine..."

"I'm sorry, Fluff," Addie said. "She's gone. They're all gone. Even if we could somehow get them running, we'd never make it back to town. Gas is pooling under every single bike. I might be able to save my glider though… maybe. It's got a self-repair rune on it. Just have to refill the magisteel casing."

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She grabbed her bike and started to drag it away from the fire.

TurboFluff's eyes filled with tears. She broke down completely, wailing at the sky. "You bastard! You fucking magnetic bastard!" She cried, shaking and clawing at the ground.

Candace came to Turbo and hugged her, wrapping her foxtail around the crying lynx.

"Three years," Turbo wept. "I worked on that bike for three years. Every spare credit, every free hour... she was gonna take me places. Gonna get me out of this shithole life!"

"Donutz get your ass here and bind this fire before anything else explodes!" Adler yelled.

The fox let go of the lynx and rushed as quickly as she could towards the burning wreckage.

"Bind flammability!" She barked, touching the ground. The fire weakened, sputtering out slightly.

TurboFluff sniffed, looking despondent.

"Machines can be replaced," I said to her. "Lives can't."

TurboFluff's head snapped up, her grief instantly transforming into fury. "Easy for you to say! You've got your little rust bucket car sitting pretty over there while my entire fucking world just went up in smoke!"

"You'll live," I offered her my bluegrass bracelet. "Take the damn healing bracelet before you pass out from blood loss."

"Ttfff-thanks," she accepted the bluegrass artifact, pulling it on her wrist with a sniff. "Fine. You can be Alpha. You win. I have nothing left. Just… just promise me that you won't fuck me over, help me get a new bike?"

"Deal," I agreed.

"Thanks," she nodded, lowering her eyes.

Tequila Sunrise groaned from where she lay, finally showing signs of consciousness. "What... what the fuck happened? Why does everything hurt?"

"Magnetic Lynx happened," Adler called over. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Tequila."

"Fuck, I feel like I got hit by a truck. Multiple trucks. Driven by very angry trucks." Tequila Sunrise groaned, struggling to sit up. Her brown and tan wolf fur was matted with dirt and blood, and she had a nasty gash across her forehead that was still oozing blood.

I walked over to her, stepping carefully around scattered debris from the explosion. The wolf looked confused and disoriented, her amber eyes unfocused as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.

"Tequila, you've been out for like ten minutes," Adler said, kneeling beside her packmate. "How much do you remember?"

"Fuck all," Tequila said. "Wait… let me think. We were tracking Alec here. Found him sitting by the dungeon edge. Then Strand Princess showed up in her fancy ass glider, and we all had our weapons out..." She trailed off, looking around at the burning wreckage. "What the hell happened to our bikes?"

"The Magnetic Lynx happened," I said grimly.

Tequila blinked at me. "The what now?"

Candace limped over to Tequila. "Okay, so, long story short—the legendary Dungeon Sentinel that guards Highway 69 came out to chat with Alec. Bark pointed a gun at her, which was... not a great life choice. She turned all our weapons into a metal ball and shot it through Bark's bike engine. The explosion is what knocked you out."

Tequila's head snapped to her bike.

"Bikes are gone," Candace said. "The Sentinel sheared every gear with her magnetic power."

"Bikes are gone?! A dungeon monster came out to talk?" Tequila looked incredulous, turning her head back to the fox girl. "That's... that's not how dungeons work. Sentinels don't just come out for casual conversation. What the fuck are you saying?!"

It seemed that her concussion knocked out the last ten minutes of her memory.

"The Magnetic Lynx is hella old. Probably the oldest Dungeon Sentinel in the world and… apparently Alec's special," Candace continued. "The Lynx basically blackmailed him into accepting some kind of whack quest. Said she'd kill everyone in Ferguson if he didn't reach the heart of the dungeon and break some time loop. Then she forced Kristi Strand to bind the quest using her family's authority."

Tequila's wolf ears flattened against her skull as she processed this information. "Hol' up. A legendary-tier dungeon boss threatens to murder an entire town unless a level-three human completes some suicide mission? And somehow this leads to me waking up with a concussion next to the smoldering remains of my bike?"

"Pretty much," I confirmed.

"Me, Cap and Turbo declared Alec as our Alpha," Candace added.

"Why?" Tequila sputtered.

Candace looked at me tiredly.

I opened my mouth.

"Let me guess, you're also expecting me to follow you as Alpha because some crazy dungeon monster said so?" Tequila shook her head. "No. I'm not about to reorganize my entire life around the demands of some Slayer-damned Sentinel!"

Candace's expression tightened. "Tequila, she wasn't joking about the mass murder thing. She literally destroyed all our artifacts and weapons in seconds! This is like a… town-saving quest! Are you in or…?"

"I don't care what some dungeon freak wants," Tequila shot back, struggling to her feet with a wince. "I've got my own responsibilities. My mom and other sisters are back in Iona, working at the grain mill. She's not the sharpest claw in the pack, if you know what I mean. Sweet as honey but dumb as a brick. I can't just abandon my family to go on some suicidal quest with a human I barely know!"

She gestured at the wreckage around us. "Look at this fucking mess. Without our bikes, we don't have a domain anymore. Can't reach the good dungeons, can't make decent money delving. The Skid Marks are clearly finished."

"So what's your plan?" I asked Tequila.

"Simple. Princess beerch got a functional glider, right?" Tequila glanced in Kristi's direction.

"She do," Candace nodded.

"Good. Use it to take me n' Bark home to Iona," Tequila said. "We got a decent family doc there that can patch us up."

"And you're okay with potentially dying when the Lynx gets impatient and starts taking out Citadels one by one?" Candace asked.

Tequila shrugged. "Loops, I'm sorry about your whack doomsday timeline, but I've got family to think about. This whole delving thing was fun, but I ain't got shit now—no bike, no rune-reinforced clothing and no weapons. The fuck you want from me? Just take me n' Bark home, you knobs."

"You'll think about it, maaaaybe?" Candace offered.

"Whatever," Tequila said. "You remeba' my landline number, ye?"

The fox nodded.

"Call me after you sort out your life with your new Alpha in a week or so," Tequila sighed. "If we don't find another delvin' group to join by then and if you can get me new wheels… We'll see."

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