Walking into Summers, immediately Buzz Buzz, Tori and Gran could see that everything was dead. The everlasting dark, hazy sky was even darker here, the road had been torn up, but strangely, the buildings were untouched. Maybe they were just too expensive to destroy.

Tori led the way to the footpath, Gram closely following her. Buzz Buzz was glad to be perched on Tori’s should and not have to walk anymore; that footpath looked sharp.

“So, what are we doing here again, Tori?” Gran asked, as Tori paused, looking for the next safest path.

Tori looked up as she thought aloud, “Uh, well, I was going to find a way to Dalaam, and then you said there might be a way to get there from Summers?”

Nodding, Buzz Buzz told her, “That sounds right.”

“Oh good. So, uh, yeah, we’re looking for a way to Dalaam,” Tori told Gran.

“Why, again?”

Tori blanked.

“Well, for now, we should find a place to rest. There should be a hotel nearby,” Buzz Buzz said.

And there was - at the other end of the dead town was a hotel. Tori, Gran and Buzz Buzz made their way there as carefully as they could, and within a few minutes, they were standing right outside it. The sign had faded, so it was impossible to tell what it was called, but it barely mattered. They went inside, happy to find a place to rest.

The inside was surprisingly clean for a place residing in an abandoned town. Though no one was sure what to think about the pile of dusty brown, presumably dead aliens behind the check-in counter.

Tori just stared at the pile of dead aliens with shock and disgust, while Gran tried to distract herself from it. Buzz Buzz decided to join Gran in her distraction-finding quest, hopping off Tori’s shoulder.

A Pigmask walked down the stairs leading to some of the guest rooms and over to the pile. He spotted Tori, and frowned at her for a few moments before grumbling, “You again.”

Tori was snapped out of her disgust-induced daze and replied, “Uh, yeah! Me! You’re the guy from Room 11 on the ferry we went on, right?”

“Yup, that’s me.” The Room 11 Pigmask sighed and crossed his arms. “And I see you’ve forgotten your mask again.”

Tori just laughed sheepishly, an awkward lopsided grin on her face.

“You’re gonna get it big time. I’ll be surprised if you even have half your brain cells by the end of it.” The Room 11 Pigmask then returned his attention to the pile of dead aliens.

“So, uh, what’s… What’s that?” Tori asked, pointing at the pile.

“Dead Starmen.” The Room 11 Pigmask hauled a Starman off the pile and heaved it onto his back. “Took the shells off them; it was damn hard to find a way without denting them but I found it.”

Tori was silent. Her face was hard to read at that moment, but whatever she was feeling, it wasn’t something good.

By now, Buzz Buzz was watching the scene, and his eyes drifted along as he watched the Room 11 Pigmask haul the shell-less Starman up to one of the guest rooms. Once the Pigmask had gone inside, he turned his attention to Tori and asked, “Did you really think Starmen were all robotic?”

“YES,” Tori wailed.

“Well I don’t blame you,” Gran told her, only looking a little away from the old magazine she had picked up. “They do look awfully like robots.”

The Room 11 Pigmask came out of the room, and as he came down the stairs, he asked Tori, “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be in Dalaam?”

“Oh, yeah, I am, I just came here to find a way there,” Tori explained.

The Pigmask nodded, then heaved another shell-less Starman onto his back and went back upstairs again.

The hotel was quiet until the Room 11 Pigmask came back down the stairs again.

“Uh, actually, I don’t suppose there’s a free room?” Tori asked the Room 11 Pigmask. “We kinda need a place to stay for a little while.”

The Room 11 Pigmask narrowed his eyes. “You…” he looked at Gran and finished, “...and the Shambler.”

“Yeah.”

The Room 11 Pigmask looked back at Tori and told her, “You realise that you weren’t supposed to get a Shambler, right?”

“Yeahhh, but, who doesn’t love a good Shambler…?”

The Room 11 Pigmask stared at her for a few moments before asking, “The doctor hasn’t studied them, has he?”

Tori shook her head no.

“Then I guess you and the Shambler can stay. The room next to the one I’ve been going in and out of is empty - you can stay in there for a little while.”

Tori gasped, and as she ran up the stairs, she called, “Thank youuuu!”

Buzz Buzz darted after her, and Gran ran as fast as she could to catch up.

Once Tori arrived on the highest floor, she opened the first door she saw. Inside were two piles - Starman shells and Starmen. Tori slowly closed the door a second later. She then went over to the second door and opened that one - thankfully, it was empty. While the room was awfully dusty and the view wasn’t much now, it was certainly better than nothing.

The door shut behind her, and Tori dusted off the right bed, then the dresser next to it, then sat down on the bed. Buzz Buzz sat up on the dresser, and Gran dusted off the left bed before sitting down on it.

“I sure am glad that guy let us stay,” Tori said. “Most Pigmasks only really look out for themselves.”

“That sounds awful,” Gran replied. “How did you manage?”

Tori’s eyebrows arched as she mumbled, “Hell if I know.”

“But regardless, you were very brave. You still are,” Buzz Buzz told her.

A wide, bashful smile creeped onto Tori’s face. It lingered for a while until she remembered something, then fished through her pockets and pulled out the stone she had got from the kraken.

“Hey Gran, do you know what kind of stone this is?” Tori asked, looking over at her.

Gran hopped up and shuffled over to take a look at the stone.

“It doesn’t look like a pearl… or anything else I’ve seen,” Gran said after a while.

“Well… at least we asked,” Buzz Buzz said.

As Tori put the stone back in her pocket, she explained, “I got the stone while on the ferry I was taking to Winters, and I think it might have something to do with our quest? And speaking of which, how are we even gonna start ending this dispute…”

The door clicked open, and the Room 11 Pigmask poked his masked head in. “Dispute? You mean the one between us and the Starmen, right?”

“Uhh, yeah, that’s the one,” Tori replied, a nervous smiling faintly appearing.

“How? Bomb them?”

“Uh…”

“Not a bomb, then? I get it. Too dangerous - might end with you in the lab for a different reason.” The Room 11 Pigmask chuckled as he came further into the room, but didn’t stray too far from the doorway.

No one else found that funny.

“So if you won’t bomb them… then how do you plan on making them surrender?”

“That’s the thing, I have no idea ho-” Tori glared at the Room 11 Pigmask and questioned aloud, “Wait why am I telling youthis?!”

The Room 11 Pigmask grunted with confusion, then asked, “Whaddya mean, “why are you telling me this”? This could get you way up in the ranks if you give it enough tho-” The Room 11 Pigmask cut himself off as he squinted at Tori for a few moments. “Unless… You heard about the rebel Starman captain too…?”

“The… The what?” Tori asked.

“Don’t act dumb with me!” the Room 11 Pigmask snapped. “You know how fast news gets around once the spies file in their reports!”

“I’ve literally never heard of-”

The Room 11 Pigmask whipped the laser gun off his belt and loaded it. He snarled, “I guess even a worm will turn.”

The Room 11 Pigmask pointed his gun straight at Tori. Buzz Buzz quickly cast PSI Shield Sigma, and just as the laser fired from the Room 11 Pigmask’s gun, Tori rolled off her bed and fell to the ground with a thud.

“Please tell me you can at least match him in power with a gun of your own,” Buzz Buzz said to Tori as she stood up.

“Who needs a gun when you have fire?” Tori answered.

“You… You forgot your gun too, didn’t you,” Buzz Buzz asked.

Tori cast PK Fire on the Room 11 Pigmask, engulfing him in flames for a moment, then turned her head to Buzz Buzz and replied, “Yes but I can shoot fire from my fingers it hardly matters to me.”

The Room 11 Pigmask fired another shot which Tori barely managed to duck down for in time, then retaliated with another PK Fire. The Room 11 Pigmask kicked Tori in the stomach, both knocking her down to the floor and leaving her winded.

“Buzz Buzz, you may have forgot that PSI Shield only protects against psionic attacks,” Gran gently told Buzz Buzz. Buzz Buzz’s eyes went wide with panic.

The Room 11 Pigmask fired a laser at Tori just as she was about to get up, knocking her down again and leaving her dangerously close to falling unconscious. Gran got to her side as quickly as she could and cast Lifeup on her. Tori was back on her feet, and she cast PK Fire yet again The Room 11 Pigmask was no longer angered by this, just disappointed. He then fired another shot at Tori, and hit. Tori PK Fire’d once more, and the Room 11 Pigmask was starting to get weak. But he had one more trick - he pulled out a bomb from his belt and threw it at Tori - the explosion caused Tori to take a lot of damage, Gran took a little as well, and a hole opened up in the floor that Tori nearly fell into.

Things were looking tight - just one more hit from any of the Room 11 Pigmask’s attacks and Tori was done for. And while Gran could fight the Pigmask, she hadn’t thus far, and didn’t seem willing too. Buzz Buzz would fight too, if he weren’t a bug.

Suddenly, the door burst open, gaining everyone’s eyes on the new entrant. It was Leicra, and already they were charging up a PK Beam. The beam fired, hitting the Room 11 Pigmask, who then flopped to the floor.

“Are you all okay?” Leicra asked, visibly worried.

Tori nodded, giving them a feeble thumbs up.

“Well, we’re alive,” Buzz Buzz said to them. He raised an eyebrow as he asked, “What brings you, though? It didn’t seem like you were going to go anywhere outside of Autumns.”

“Oh, the Apple told me to go!” Leicra replied.

Buzz Buzz, Tori and Gran exchanged worried glances.

“It is good I found you when I did, isn’t it?”

Everyone else nodded.

Gran cast another Lifeup on Tori and helped her sit back up on the bed.

“So why are you all here?” Leicra asked.

“We’re looking for a way to Dalaam,” Gran explained, “but we haven’t found one yet.”

Leicra’s face lit up as they said, “I did see a strange machine on my way here! I will lead you there.”

With that, Leicra left the room, and Buzz Buzz, Tori and Gran followed. They were led down the footpath and up onto the outskirts of Toto. It was only a minute or two until Leicra stopped in front of a large hunk of metal, vaguely shaped like a pad of sorts.

Leicra poked it twice then told the other three, “I’m not sure what it’s supposed to do, nor do I know how to fix it.”

There was a brief moment of silence before Buzz Buzz commented, “I would be able to make an attempt at fixing it, if I weren’t so small…”

“I’ve only handled biological components,” Tori added.

“I can fix it!” Gran chirped. Tori and Buzz Buzz looked at wide eyed, and Leicra looked up from the metal thing with a hint of curiosity.

Leicra took a couple of steps back as Gran approached the hunk of metal. She kneeled down (however a Shambler did that) and looked it over for a few moments. She then picked it up and put it on its side, and started fiddling around. Even without a toolbox of any kind, Gran made do. None of the other three were quite sure how she did it with a pair of noodle arms, but, regardless, she managed to fix the hunk of metal within a couple of hours.

Gran set the newly fixed thing on the ground, and gave the top a little tap. The top sprang up a considerable amount and wobbled before settling back down.

“So it’s… …What is it supposed to do?” Leicra asked.

“If we jump on it, it should be able to get us to Dalaam!” Gran explained.

“What if we miss?”

Gran was silent. “…Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen.”

“Wait, are you sure this is safe?” Tori asked. “I don’t question your skills, of course, but uh… Is it gonna be able to handle our weight?”

“It should! This metal is quite durable,” Gran reassured her.

Buzz Buzz had been sitting on Tori’s shoulder for a while now, and started gripping onto her uniform. Tori felt it, and asked Buzz Buzz, “You okay, Buzz Buzz?”

“Just… the thought of going through the air… that fast…”

“Aww, Buzz Buzz, it’s okay! You can just stay in my pock-” Tori was cut off when she realised that Buzz Buzz already was in her pocket.

“Oh, wait, Buzz Buzz? The stone’s in there, right?”

“Yeah,” Buzz Buzz replied, then buzzed out of Tori’s pocket to give the stone to her. He immediately went back into the pocket.

“Hey Leicra!” Tori called out to Leicra, grabbing their attention. Tori held up the stone and asked them, “I don’t suppose you know what kind of stone this is?”

Leicra wandered up to Tori and took a long look at the tiny stone she held.

“No, I can’t say I do. Sorry,” Leicra apologised.

“It’s fine, don’t worry!” Tori reassured them, gently placing the stone back into her pocket. “None of us have any idea what it is either, so it’s something in common!”

Leicra’s face lightened up a bit upon hearing that.

“Are we all ready?” Gran asked the other three.

Leicra nodded.

“Yup!” Tori replied.

“No,” Buzz Buzz whined from Tori’s pocket.

Gran stepped onto the springpad and was shot into the sky. Leicra and Tori watched her zoom away wide eyed.

“Ooh, on second thought, maybe I’m not ready,” Tori murmured.

Leicra looked over at Tori and asked her, “Is she going to be okay?”

“I hope so,” Tori replied.

Leicra then warily stepped onto the springpad and was shot into the air before their second foot was properly on the pad.

Tori watched as Leicra become smaller and smaller, then asked Buzz Buzz, “You holding tight?”

“Of course,” Buzz Buzz wailed.

Tori hopped onto the springpad, and she let out a shriek as the springpad launched her into the air.