"—rk. Ca—rk—"

The male voice in Mark's ears was a sudden static, and then it was gone.

Elation, hope, and then sudden focus.

"I hear you! Come in?!"

Nothing.

Mark flew faster. The goblins were plastered to the bottom of their spheres, and Quark's hands made another Protect, and the reception flickered between 1 bar and 0 bars, and then, like stepping out of a Faraday cage, suddenly Quark was fully connected.

"—rk. Can you hea—"

"I hear you!" Mark said. "I can hear you, Quentin!"

Quentin at the command center perked up, "He's on the line! Got hi—"

"Mark," Aurora's voice cut in. "You're okay? Good. You need to think about killing the mud elemental. Whatever backup snipers were out there are probably gone, but you can consider searching for them, too. We have a location on where the secondary snipers were. They're hiding under a lot of magics, though. If Unionsense doesn't pick them up, if you get closer, then you should consider them gone."

There was a lot there.

Mark slowed down, asking, "Snipers? Where were they?"

"About 5 kilometers west and a little south of your current location, outside of the very edge of the deadzone. Quark has the info. We got the information from an unknown source. I think I was Walaria. They warned of void-bullets. You can ignore the snipers if you want to ignore them because standard operating procedure is to evacuate an area completely if they have to break cover. Under normal circumstances they won't risk being searched for and possibly found."

"… Void bullet? What is a void bullet?"

"The best sniper bullets around, fired from a very, very expensive machine. Takes a while to set up and then deploy, so if they left they probably left fast, with securing the machine a higher priority than their own lives. If you catch them then it'll be a big win. Bigger than the goblins you have. You should kill those goblins, by the way. Anything they say would be designed to fuck you or us over. We saw from a long range that you spoke to BiggestBaddest and you weren't taken in, so that's good. Those two are the same as him, but stupider."

Mark decided, "I'm not going after invisible snipers with weird bullets. They're human though, right?"

"Correct."

Mark suddenly needed to know, "Is Yoro okay? He didn't appear with me when I resolved."

"Yoro is not okay. He'll heal. He's not okay."

Mark let that go, for now, but inside a pit of coldness grew a bit deeper. Mark asked, "Why should I go back and kill the elemental?"

"Because you can still complete the mission, even with all the shit that happened besides." Aurora softly said, "Optics matter a lot, Mark. You should know this. You're a supervillain in that… that damned HVP."

Mark had a think. It was a quick think. He looked at the goblins in the spheres he had made, and they looked at him. They were cold, up here in the sky and with their Powers subdued. Old Slave tried to be stoic, to stand tall in his sphere and project confidence, now that he wasn't squished at the bottom of the cage due to so much wind.

Rubber was perfectly fine with rubbing his arms, huddling on himself, and complaining, "Stupid humans! I'll Bite you! You're not taking my fangs!"

Mark said to Aurora, to the command center, "I need to know what these goblins know. Anyone got any questions I should ask them? Is Lola there? Or Walter? I was hoping for Yoro, but—"

"I can still talk," Yoro said, voice raspy. "I saw Quark's recording, and no one is listening right now besides Aurora and I. What did they mean, First Prince Doomo?"

Mark said, "Fix up his voice, Quark, and let him ask the questions."

Quark did so.

Yoro's voice came through normally, as he said, "Tell me what your people meant when you spoke of First Prince Doomo."

Mark was already working a Union of Adamant and Ethereal on the goblins, geared toward making them susceptible to spilling the truth. There was probably a better way to do that, some better combination of truth-forcing and lie-erasing Key Words, but Mark didn't know them. So Mark forced an Adamant-truth-only and Ethereal-lies-be-gone into everyone present.

"Who is Doomo?" Rubber asked. Truth, probably. He didn't know the guy.

"That damned Greeplox doesn't know what he is talking about," Old Slave said. He was a liar.

Which was scary.

First Prince Doomo was involved, somehow—

The line clicked.

Yoro said, "This is a private line, now, and that's all I need to know. That suited one is Old Slave and Old Slave is a known entity to the Empire, and he and Greeplox were manipulating you. They are both one of the 10 pillars of Goblinhome, and both of them know how to speak lies and cause issues. Bring Old Slave in if you can, and we'll trap him forever. It'll be easier than letting him live— Ah. There he goes. He knew what I had planned.

Rubber remained alive.

But from one moment to the next, Old Slave simply died. His vector sort of sprinkled in every single direction at once. He hadn't gotten his Powers back at all, but… But he had an internal kill switch, huh? Or something.

Mark asked, "What did he do to himself?"

Yoro said, "A self-kill cantrip with some basic magic. Probably the best outcome. He'll revive back at Goblinhome, or somewhere else, and then go back to Goblinhome. You haven't seen the last of him. Kill the rubber one or bring him in. I doubt we'll get anything good out of him, but you should learn some interrogation techniques and a goblin is a good choice."

Mark felt himself standing on the edge of something scary.

'Interrogation techniques'?

Mark had an instinctive reaction to balk.

He felt it was probably a good idea to keep that reaction intact, for his own sanity.

Mark said, "I'm going to try and Fear him into talking, using the kaiju and all of that. Just Fear, that should be enough. And I need to kill the kaiju too, right?" He looked back toward the southwest, toward the Shine's delta, where the mud kaiju rested like an island in the middle of the largest outlet of the river. "If the communications block comes back then I'm turning around and choosing a different path."

"Sure, Mark," Yoro said, sounding tired.

Aurora came over the line, saying, "Agreed."

Quark said, "I will continue to monitor communications."

And then Mark turned Rubber's cage toward Old Slave's cage, and ripped Old Slave's cage apart, with the body still inside. Flesh turned to ground meat in a moment, and then scattered on the sky. Rubber was a little quiet for a moment, and then Mark adjusted Rubber's cage to block out most of the wind, but he could still see outside.

Fear was primed.

Mark flew back south, toward the mud kaiju—

"Communications is down," Quark said, right as Mark noticed the reception bars crashing from 10 to 0.

Mark turned right back around, muttering, "Okay then."

Mark almost exited the communications block but suddenly there was a vector barreling in from the ground, screaming Mark's way.

It was a small vector but very strong, and it was Glorious Goblin, still wearing his white Glorious Man's kid-sized shirt, and a gold-sequined belt that turned that shirt into a tunic.

Mark turned some metal into blades, fury igniting, almost grateful for the target.

Mark roared at him, "I was wondering when I would see you again, Goofy Gobli—"

"Take me!" Goofy yelled. "Kill Rubberboy and then take me to talk answers! I don't want to be a goblin anymore! You can kill the fangs and dose them with shavallian! I heard you can do that from Greeplox! Goblins are awful, terrible people, and I don't want to be one of them!"

Mark paused. Blades pulled back.

Goofy hovered 50 meters away. Well within killing distance. But he wasn't moving to kill. He had reached that level and then hovered there, finishing his surprising decree. His vector was very serious, and he really, truly wanted Mark's help, and to help him in turn, and also for revenge or… or righteousness, or something.

Mark needed to know, "What the fuck?"

Rubberboy yelled from inside his cage, "Traitor! Traitor to the Green!"

"KILL ALL MONSTERS!" Goofy yelled, and then he pointed at Rubberboy. "That thing is a monster!"

"I should have suffocated you when I could!" Rubberboy said. "You're a disgrace! How many have you Bitten fully! None! You terrible goblin!"

"YOU ARE CORRECT! I AM A TERRIBLE GOBLIN! I WEAR THIS DECREE WITH PRIDE!"

According to their vectors, both of them were sincere.

Mark made a rapid decision. He mulched Rubberboy's sphere, killing him and scattered the remains on the ground and then he disintegrated the crunched sphere to clean it off. With another shaping he created a box for Goofy, and he gave the goblin a chair in the box, too. He left the roof open so he could get inside, but once he was inside the box was obviously going to close.

"If you're serious then you can—"

"Thank you!" Goofy looked triumphant in every way, and then he went into the box, saying, "Thank you, Mark. You are a righteous man."

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He just… got in there. Right into the killing space.

… Goofy wouldn't die if Mark killed him, but still…

Mark said, "… Yeah. Okay. I'll be turning your Powers off, now, and when your fangs are out and permanently sealed, we'll be having some talks over… over some food, or something. I'm not sure how to handle this right now."

Goofy chuckled, and then he chuckled loudly, and then he said, "Whatever you want! I am not sure how to handle the fact that my entire species are obligate horrors!" He laughed again, and it was a dark and twisted laugh, filled with horror that rapidly turned to crying. "They're so awful! … Greeplox was okay. All of them were so horrible. Horrible, horrible… horror…" He was crying a lot now, in his box. "… I need to… to lay down now."

Goofy tried to lay down between the chair and the wall of the box, but there wasn't a lot of room, so Mark moved the chair in the box to the side, out of the way as Goofy laid down on the floor. Finally, Mark did a Union of Energy and Entropy, turning Goofy's Powers off.

Goofy breathed softly, gripped one fang in each hand, and then ripped them out. He yanked out his lower fangs, too, and then he tossed his fangs through a hole in the cage. He laid down on the bottom. He fell asleep within a few moments, which was both surprising and not. Goblins could sleep and wake quickly, like cats. But to fall asleep that fast? Kinda crazy. The guy's vector was completely honest and exhausted, too.

"… Well okay then," Mark said, as he began flying north again.

He adjusted the box to make it more of an aerodynamic pill-shape, to give Goofy more place to lay down, and to allow less cold wind to whistle into the container. Goofy didn't seem to mind the small jostles it took to accomplish that, barely waking up at all as he got more space, and less of a wind chill.

"So this is weird now," Mark said, flying fast. He corrected, "Weirder."

Communications returned.

Aurora instantly deadpanned, "Is that Glorious Goblin."

"I'm calling him 'Goofy' and he came along willingly and I don't know what that means except that he already ripped out his fangs and I need some shavallian to sear them into never growing back… does that work? Some goblin named Greeplox said it worked. But does that work?"

"… Right," Aurora said, "I'm gonna… need a minute— I don't need a minute. We're not allying with any goblins, Mark, and especially not truly strong ones. You can put that thought right out of your head, right now."

"I want answers to a lot of things and he's powerful and unkillable without a ritual that I still don't know how to do, and I'd rather have his cooperation— He's depressed as fuck about his people and I really, really don't think he's lying—" Mark cut himself off.

Because Mark had an inspiration, and a deep, horrific realization at the same time. He faltered in his flight, slowly down just a little.

Aurora asked, "What happened?"

When Kardi and Grey Phantom had spouted all that stuff about Thrashtalon being a mortal man, and how Okuana had fucked him over, stealing his family that 'Malcolm Shaw' had Adamant Blood'd and turning them into monsters, Mark had been told many, many times, from many people, that all of that was either true, or propaganda, and there was no way to truly know at all. The Inquisitors knew the real story… theoretically. And yet, Lola had told Mark in no uncertain terms that the nuances of that situation were way beyond his and her clearance level, especially since Mark wasn't even an Inquisitor back then. He still wasn't an Inquisitor. Just an Inquisitor-in-training.

In that moment, just as well as now, as Mark knew he was stepping into big, big events.

Mark wanted to know about all that stuff all over again.

He wanted to know about the goblins, too, since they were clearly enmeshed with Aluatha in weird ways. Hidden ways, for sure. How hidden? How enmeshed? Greeplox had named First Prince Doomo… but what did that mean?

And yet, there were concerns if Mark learned that stuff.

Mark was going to kill someone. Whoever caused this shit back there, and whoever caused the assassination attempt in the tram, and the Ether Turtle, and the Changeling scare. All of that was linked. All of that had people behind it. People that Mark was going to kill.

… Or maybe he was just going to kill goblins, and if he killed enough of them then they couldn't be used against him or anyone else, ever again.

Whoever was behind all of this shit was dangerous, yes.

But the goblins were the actual direct threat.

Mark could 'deal' with the assassination attempt and this setup here, too but he wasn't going to allow any of it to blind him to the real issues in the world, like the monsters. So that was the inspiration.

The realization was this: Mark had somehow become a bigger enemy of Aluatha, or someone inside Aluatha, than he was able to deal with, at all. And the goblins were working with that person, or persons.

"So, uh," Mark began, "So the other goblins I had before Goofy were going to lie to me about anything they wanted to lie about in order to cause the effects they wanted, right? Especially Old Slave. They just lie, yeah?"

Mark wasn't sure what would have happened, but he was sure it wasn't going to be good.

"Correct," Aurora said. "Whatever interrogation Yoro was going to have you do to them is better off not happening, and whatever you think you want out of this one is not enough of a reason to bring him in at all— No. wait. Rekaro is talking to me. One se—"

"Let's End him, Mark," Reeni Thumb said, her voice coming through. "I can get the ritual up and running in an hour; by the time you get back."

"This is a fucking secure line!" Aurora said, raising her voice in an uncharacteristic way.

"Not that secure, girlie," Reeni said.

"Gods dammit!" Aurora muttered.

"Yeah, valid," Mark said, not sure what he meant by that. He continued, "But I got an idea about all of that: This guy is honestly hateful of goblinkind and I want to use him to teach me about Goblinhome and then we're going to rip that place out by the foundations."

Reeni said, "Bad idea—"

"Get her off the line!" Aurora said.

Deedee spoke up, "I've got— There!"

Mark might have said something but Goofy woke up, stirring from his catnap.

Mark stopped flying forward, to look at Goofy in his cage.

Goofy had heard everything Mark had just said, even with the wind being so strong. Now, there was no wind. He looked out from the holes of his adamantium cage, and said, "I agree to the killing of Goblinhome." He added, "But if you try and kill me permanently I will run and find my own way to deal with my hated brothers, though I would rather work with Black King and tear down that which should be torn down."

Goofy put up a good, true front, but he was exhausted and he didn't much care what happened to him at this moment. So Goofy collapsed in his adamantium cage, and then he started snoring softly.

Mark resumed flying north, saying, "So there you have it. What do you think?"

"… I kinda like him, now," Reeni said.

Aurora grumbled but ignored Reeni. She did not need to think, or deliberate. She just said, "It's a bad idea for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that working with sapient monsters is grounds for immediate execution."

Mark might have been intimidated by that declaration back before all this shit had happened to him, from Addashield to Addavein, to Memphi, to this day and all of its utter bullshit. But right now Mark was beyond that, and it was like he was thinking clearly for the first time, as he said, "But you know, Aurora, that something rotten is happening right now and the other goblins were going to tell me bad shit, but this one might actually tell me what I need to know about the inner workings of Goblinhome. He might even know about the changeling scare we had, and especially about whatever happened here today." And then Mark's anger flared as he thought of something else! Even more shit! Mark loudly added, "And you didn't say anything about 'working with monsters is bad' when I was going to interrogate the others! You were okay with interrogations!"

The line clicked.

Aurora spoke, "We're on a private line again, Mark."

Mark's fury almost ignited, but he listened instead.

Aurora said, "Interrogations are not whatever you're doing right now, and you know it. You're not thinking clearly, and you are furious, but you're also right."

"Good! Thank you!"

"Bring the goblin to East Tower. I don't want him in the city. Expect him to get taken out by whoever is causing this shit. If that goblin is an asset for humanity, then that goblin is a wildcard who will tell you a lot about a lot. Now I might be wrong about this, but I have fought the goblins before, and they always tell humans curated lies that would have made you mad in probably-predictable ways. You also would have killed those other ones. This one? I don't know what you're going to do to this one, Mark. Neuter it and expect everything to be fine since it can't Bite? What's going on, there?" Aurora asked, "Why do you think this goblin is different from the others?"

"I don't know what's happening right now!" Mark flew fast, the world hidden beyond a layer of his own adamantium. He could only see and hear because of Quark. He could only breathe because he had rerouted breathing holes down across his face, to his neck. There were no direct gaps into his armor at all. "I'm fucking furious, Aurora. I need answers. I'm taking those answers wherever I can get them, and if that means working with Goofy—" Mark had a crazy idea. "Or maybe… maybe, like… assign Derek to the goblin? Derek can't be Bitten or killed, and he wants responsibility, right? To prove himself? What better way to prove himself than getting all the information he can out of the goblin? I don't want to be near Goofy at all, and I don't want anyone else to be near him, and… I just want answers, Aurora."

Mark flew on.

Silence stretched in the whipping wind.

Aurora breathed, then said, "Okay! Let's try it. Derek can do that."

Mark felt a burning sort of victory at those words. "Thank you."

"Come back quickly, and do a random approach. You're about 600 kilometers away, but the final trip will end up at about 680 kilometers to avoid any known issues. Have Quark route you a path that avoids those tagged dangers out there, and also to avoid potential snipers. If we get any more intel about snipers in your path, we will contact you again. Until then, fly fast; it's the best defense against all the monsters in the sky."

"Heard and understood."

"Expect to be attacked by sapient forces."

"… Heard and understood."

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