"I'm going to kill you guys," Mary seethed from her bedroom door. "I'm seriously going to kill you guys."

"It's OK, Mary," Jemin said from behind her, scaled hand hovering inches above her angrily shaking shoulder. "It's uh…it's not that uh…yeah…What the hell, guys?"

"WE DID IT," Beepy toned from the cluttered coffee table stacked with piles of take-out containers. He turned on his heel and gestured grandly at what the three of them had created. "WE HAVE –"

"Hey!" Aria barked from the beanbag, where she'd been comforting an emotional Zippy. "Technically, Beepy, it was me and Zippy that made it. You helped get the info, but it was me and him that did it. Together. Right, Zippy?"

Zippy made a quiet sound from the beanbag, shuffling the three things in his hands, still in shock at what hung in the center of the bedroom. Aria tossed a black notebook across the room, popped off the bag, and turned with hands planted on her hips to nod seriously at Mary, as if she was on her side.

Mary twitched. She sighed deeply while rubbing the bridge of her nose, speaking to herself more than everyone else. "I just wanted to come back and hang out. Watch a movie. Make all of us some food. Chill," her anger rose as she continued. "I leave you all alone for one day and THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS? After last time!? You were grounded Aria! Instead of training, or doing anything else besides a quest from Alex, this, it's THIS you decided to do?"

"Cool, right?" Aria said, ignoring the grounded remark, and turned back towards the thing Zippy had created with her help. "Once we pirated—I mean gathered the right info, it was pretty easy."

"Easy. It was easy." Mary said while stepping into the room. She glanced daggers at Beepy, who avoided her eyes, and then at Zippy. She turned back to the…thing in the center of her room.

Hovering above the dirty carpet was a tear in space. She hadn't seen them before, being blind most of her life, but she knew what it was from descriptions friends had given her. Part of her was in awe at it. It spilled out alien elevator music and swirling rainbow light, throwing an unnatural presence across the room. Part of her was fearful. It bubbled up and out of her to come off as anger. But she wasn't angry at them. She was worried that the young drone trio had created a flipping portal in her bedroom.

"How did you even do this? Pretty fricken sweet, honestly. A portal, eh?" Jemin stepped around her to crouch in front of the drone sized portal. He leaned forward to inspect it up close.

"ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN," Beepy eagerly hopped off the table, ready to deliver the tale in song format. He'd been prepping since Zippy had completed the portal and gained his new Title.

"THERE ONCE WAS A TEAM, DUTIFUL AND THREE---,"

Aria pushed him, making him stumble out to stage left. "Nah, let me tell it! Let me tell it!"

Beepy gasped at the interruption. He spun towards Zippy to complain through their link, but Aria was already beginning, and his brother didn't seem to be able to take his eyes off the portal.

"Once we figured out how to do it, we needed a secure place to actually get it done. So we…um," She thought for a moment. "Decided that the best place was somewhere we felt safest? Yeah. Where we felt safest."

"Safest?" Mary shuffled closer.

Aria smiled sweetly at her Creator. Beepy looked back and forth between then, in shock at Aria's masterful acting abilities. "Yeup. We feel safest here, so we boogied back. See, the information that we got let us know that all Portals require some kind of…uh…sacrifice."

"Explain that," Jemin asked with a tilted head at her. "What do you mean?"

Aria licked her lips. "Well, we…uh...found out that Portals are only created in exchange for something powerful. There's a bunch of ways. Skills, Enchantments, Ward Bending. But it was always there. Exchange. That was the key word there," she put a hand to her chest. "I figured that part out. You have to exchange something with the right intent. But you also need something to deliver that intent, right? Right? Somewhere along the process, if you push it hard enough, the System listens. And the only thing we had that's powerful enough to make that exchange was…"

"ZIPPY'S WEAPON," Beepy blurted out, unable to help himself. "WEAPONS."

"Weapons?" Mary spun toward the blue bot, who still sat on the beanbag while shuffling the things in his small hands. "Zippy, you have more than just the one [Acient Paring Knife]?"

Finally Zippy tore his gaze from the portal to look at Mary. Her shyest drone seemed to chew on a thought, and she didn't sense any communication coming in from Beepy. After a moment, Zippy finally stopped his hand wringing and opened both palms.

In his hands were not one, but three [Ancient Paring Knives].

"Oh, shit," Jemin said while turning back to Aria. "You can do that against Relics that powerful?"

"You can never have enough firepower. We decided to play it safe! I told you." Aria nodded seriously again, deciding not to mention the fact that the casting the Skill had literally rocked her across the room and sent her straight through the drywall, as well as overexerting her Core. If it coincided with a strike of lightning from the backyard, the drones had chalked it up to simple System fuckery. When she had awoken to extremely concerned brothers, she had been starving. A quick poster move to hide the wall damage, and after eating all the bags of chips in the kitchen to fill her empty belly up, she felt alright. Pleased and proud at her growing Skills.

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"Shit on a stick, that's wild," Mary crouched next to Zippy, none the wiser of the hole in her wall. "And you, Zippy? You're alright? What happened next? You made the portal?"

Zippy started beeping and gesturing with his hands, speaking to Mary in his robotic tones. She wasn't able to answer with speech, but she knew her drones. The little guy had a ton to say.

Beepy translated in a slightly different robot voice. It was less dramatic and more curious. Shyer. "ONCE WE HAD THE THREE KNIVES, I THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT A PORTAL WAS. WHAT IT REPRESENTED. A WAY TO ESCAPE. A WAY TO GROW. THERE ARE SO MANY PLACES THAT WE ALL WANT TO GO. TRAVEL. SEE. TO FIND OURSELVES? I LATCHED ONTO THAT. BUT IT WASN'T RIGHT."

Zippy vented a sigh and shook his head before continuing through Beepy. "BUT THAT'S THE WRONG WAY TO LOOK AT THINGS. I WAS LOOKING AT IT WRONG. I THINK MANY OF US DO. ALL OF US WANT TO GO SOMEHOW. BUT WHAT ARE WE RUNNING FROM? ME? I…I DON'T WANT TO RUN JUST TO FORCE CHANGE. I WILL CHANGE, YES. GROW, HOPEFULLY. BUT I AM WHO I AM."

Beepy walked over to place a comforting arm on his brother. "I MIXED UP MY LACK OF VOICE, MY LACK OF COOL SKILLS, TRAVELING, AND TRIED TO FORCE AN IDEAL UPON MYSELF AND REALITY. EMOTIONS ARE HARD."

Zippy shook his head while Jemin laughed. "Yeah man, we all go through that. Don't be so hard on yourself."

The blue bot with no voice nodded seriously. "IT TOOK SOME THINKING, BUT I NEEDED TO…" He trailed off.

Beepy waited patiently, having eyes only for his brother. He knew that it was difficult for Zippy. For some reason, the robot always felt lesser. Maybe because he was created second, or that he didn't have a voice like Beepy, or any flashy Skills like [Volt Whip]. It didn't help if Beepy pumped him up. Zippy had to believe in himself.

Finally, Zippy started beeping again, and Beepy translated for the non-binary code speakers in the room. "I NEEDED TO ACCEPT THAT I AM WHO I AM. I CAN BE MORE, BUT THAT DOES NOT MAKE ME LESS. THE SACRIFICE I HAD TO MAKE THE PORTAL WAS THE PITY WITHIN."

"And the Monster Core from the [Daughter of Dymphna]!" Aria blurted, causing everyone to spin their heads in her direction. She looked at them all, wincing. "Sorry, sorry. Please, continue."

Zippy leapt from the beanbag and walked toward the Portal. He investigated its depths and felt swelling pride. He had help with creating it, yes. Aria had copied the notes regarding the Unspace with her Skill, and Beepy had helped with the operations. He had just been the compliant feet. They didn't poke any fun at that, but he had been sad he didn't help more. Heck, his brother and sister, Clan mates too, hadn't even snickered when he requested Aria also make copies of the best vacation spots for bachelor drones while avoiding Baba Ashe and the angry, menacing Bug. He'd been embarrassed, because the request came from a place of wanting to belong. Now, however, he just wanted to go because he was curious. Progress.

After appreciating his work, he turned to his Creator and family, and prompted his brother to speak for him. It did not cause any shame. For the first time in his life, Zippy announced his progress to the world while bringing up the Title he'd earned. With help, yes, but it was his Title alone.

"I HAVE ACQUIRED A TITLE. AND OF THIS I AM PROUD. THANK YOU FOR BELIEVING IN ME, BEEPY AND ARIA. I PROMISE TO BELIEVE IN MYSELF TOO."

[Title: Ostensible Relativity Ascender]

[You follow a Path of self discovery. You weigh everything heavily. It is both your biggest burden, and your greatest strength. Continue upon your path to ascertain all planes of thought and existence.]

This Title also grants:

[Skill – Sacrificial Slice]

It had come to him once he had finally killed off his self-pity. As he struck the Monster Core on the floor with all three knives, he released the negative emotion and resentment while using the Core a physical symbol. His reward was a Title of his own. Plus, the creation of a portal.

Zippy flashed the Title off in his mind's eye, realizing that Mary had wrapped him in a tight hug. Pride pushed through the other side of her back from Beepy, who had latched onto her like a koala.

"So it goes…where exactly?" Jemin was back to inspecting the Portal, ever the curious one.

"Oh," Aria said while picking up one of Mary's early prototypes for a lazer blasting arm. She casually tossed the hunk of scrap metal into the portal, where it was sucked in and disappeared forever. "It goes to the Unspace. Yeah…we'll need to figure out how to point it, but this is one step closer to getting Brody! Why don't we all grab some foo--"

DING DONG.

DING DONG.

DING DONG.

Someone spammed the decades old doorbell of the house. Every one of their heads snapped to the door of Mary's room. It was rare for someone to ring them.

"I got it!" Aria raced out of the room first.

The gang followed her tiny form leaping down the stairs three at a time. Mary swore the young woman had exactly zero capacity for self-preservation. The young doll drone got there first, and without thinking, ripped open the front door to see who was outside.

"Wow," Aria stared up at the guests. "Pretty."

Someone snorted outside, and since Mary was second to the door, pulled it open to reveal who had arrived. In the doorway stood an assembly of people that surprised her. At this time of the night?

Her stomach dropped as realization came over her.

"Alright, quit staring. Hello, hello. Pleasure to meet you. Do you really need all those piercings? Why yes, they are real. Let's go," The sulty voice of Giat said. Mary recognized it, and immediately placed the voice to the gorgeous face. "We got a couple boy toys to save."

Giat barged in, all six feet on platformed latex boots, striding past the gang. Snu, a bloated Petal Gravewhistle, and a handful of menacing looking Garden Gnomes remained outside.

"Hi," Snu panted. "We came as fast as we can. We need to—"

"Oh, hurry up, Snusana," Giat called over her shoulder as she clomped up the stairs in her corset and colourful braids. Looking over her shoulder, she caught her Dungeon Boss sister gaping at her. "What? You never told them your real name? Let's go people! Chop chop! Alex is in trouble, and I am not Marking another one now that I found the perfect guy. It's time to fuck up some ghosts."

"How?" Mary asked, scared. "What's going on? What's wrong with Alex?"

"Allow me, Drone Dame," Petal Graveshitle stepped into the house proudly. "To relay the all-seeing eye and knowledge of Emilio, while we make haste," He turned to Zippy and Beepy. "Portal ready? Emilio mentioned you were all close."

Both brothers beeped together, Zippy toning, and Beepy speaking. Petal nodded seriously and turned to Snu.

"You better be right about navigating the unspace. I've never heard that Dungeon Bosses can do that."

Snu gulped. She'd heard it on Biscord amongst gossiping Bosses, but hadn't ever been able to confirm it for herself. But she'd try anything to help if Alex was in danger. The trick was "simple" according to some annoying prat Dungeon Boss from the dilapidated region of Quebec City. Apparently, the unspace was best utilized by the undead, and by a trick of the System, since Dungeon Bosses could respawn, they had some measure of control over it's mysteries.

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