Roy ambled through the newer section of the Triplet Village, which now looked like a surprisingly well-organized construction site. The place was buzzing like a beehive on a sugar rush: classmates hammering away like they were auditioning for a construction commercial, and a row of half-finished catapults gleaming in the sun like medieval death traps. Progress!
A mob of Roy's old classmates, looking like they'd just survived a group project from hell, was gathered in the central plaza. They were chatting, trading, and how they haven't worked so hard in their entire life. When they saw Roy, they stiffened up like they'd been caught slacking off.
"Captain Gunn!" Emiko called out, waving like she was trying to flag down a passing plane. Her smile was genuine, but her eyes kept darting to Eryndra, who was walking beside Roy with the calm, "I could kill you with my pinky finger" vibe she had perfected. "You're sticking around this time?"
"Yep," Roy said, nodding casually, ignoring the fact that Eryndra was getting more stares than a three-headed unicorn.
Since none of these poor souls had actually met her before, their reactions ranged from jaw-dropping awe to whispering, "Is she, like, a prostitute or something?"
Teddy and Lincoln, his Super Elite Presidroids, were hovering behind Roy like a pair of robot bodyguards who'd taken their jobs very seriously. Their old-timey coats flapped in the breeze, adding to the overall "what is even happening here" atmosphere.
Hina rushed up, their eyes practically bugging out of their heads. Hina pointed at Eryndra with the uncertainty of someone trying to identify a new species of insect. "Uh, Captain Gunn, who...is that?"
"Do I really have to go through this again? Her name is Eryndra. My ex-wife," Roy answered, bracing himself for the inevitable explosion of confusion and awkward questions.
"Ex-wife?!" the crowd echoed, sounding like a chorus of startled parrots. Some exchanged glances that clearly said, "Did we miss an entire season of this show? Is this when to dorky loser gets the girl?!" Others just stared at Eryndra like she was an exhibit that had mysteriously come to life. Roy was reminded that these people had known him as the "quiet kid in the back," not the "suddenly married to a super-powered being" type.
Eryndra, bless her stoic heart, took it all in stride. Arms folded, she met their gazes with the calm confidence of someone who could probably win a staring contest with a basilisk. She didn't say a word, more out of awkwardness than anything else. Her mere presence was enough to make the crowd shift their weight and avoid direct eye contact.
Alejandro coughed, breaking the awkward silence. "I may have forgot to mention her yesterday. Sorry."
Roy shrugged, accepting the apology. "She's here. Guess that's all that matters," he said, maneuvering past them and scanning the rest of the village. The crowd parted and the whispers continued.
"How does that even happen?"
"She is gorgeous."
"I'd let her beat the life outta me...."
The next hour was a blur of Roy trying to be a leader to some of the new villagers, which mostly involved nodding, saying "Captain Gunn!" a lot, and pretending he knew what was going on. He found classmates and dwarves building walls with enchanted dwarven tools, others bartering for runic garments with new villagers, and a few just getting hammered at a makeshift tavern. Most groups paused to greet him with the synchronized, "Captain Gunn!" He wasn't used to the formality, but hey, he helped start this whole "structured chaos" thing, so he had to roll with it.
Even Eryndra seemed mildly amused by the sheer awkwardness of it all. At one point, she nudged him and whispered, "These were your classmates? Your school days must have been...special."
He rolled his eyes. "You have no idea."
Eryndra suddenly raised her hand and caught something racing towards Roy's head. As she opened her hand she saw a lump of metal that was relatively hot.
She looked in the direction it was thrown from. Six people were huddled together and laughing.
Roy's posture shrunk. "Caliban..."
Caliban stood up and stretched before slowly walking forward. "'Captain', so glad you've come home. Be careful, construction in the area sometimes has all sorts of things flying around."
"Something is off about him, Serenity, any info on what he has been doing?" Roy whispered discreetly into his comm.
"Processing drone footage..... It seems as though he and his group have been taking frequent trips out of the walls for days at a time, so can't say for sure," Serenity answered.
Eryndra squeezed the ball of metal so hard it started to compress into a more compact sphere. "I don't buy it," Eryndra said as she took a bladed stance.
"I'll let you know when you can speak," Caliban said calmly.
Eryndra ignored him and continued speaking. "I think you guys were playing catch." Eryndra drew her arm back and whipped it forward with malicious intent. It cracked through the air directly at Caliban who simply closed his eyes and waited.
Eryndra groaned and rushed forward, tearing up the freshly cured concrete. In a blink she caught up and caught the ball before it hit. "Are you stupid or something?" she yelled in his face.
"Don't stop, do it. Don't you want revenge for all the awful things I've done to your...friend?" Caliban said, voice hitting like ice as he slowly opened his eyes.
"What do-" Eryndra started before she was cut off by Roy.
"Eryndra, please stop," Roy said, face now obviously forcing a smile.
"Go on now, the rat is suffering without you," Caliban whispered as a smirk grew wider on his face.
Eryndra instantly kicked his feet out from under him and he landed on his back. To her surprise, he didn't seem injured at all, and his smile remained.
Stella, the girl who chose the Infinite Assault Rifle reluctantly approach Roy from down the road. "Roy! You're needed at the main gate."
Roy gave a nervous nod. Eryndra slowly turned from Caliban and his crew of laughing goons and rejoined Roy. "I'm sorry, Roy, my body just...moved," Eryndra said, slightly embarrassed. Roy didn't respond, he only quickly moved forward.
Minutes later, a dusty caravan rolled in through the main gate. Several horses pulling a beat-up wagon with iron bars. Inside were about two dozen people who looked like they'd lost a fight with life and weren't getting a rematch. Shackles. Misery. You name it. Word spread faster than a rumor in a high school hallway, and the classmates gathered around, forming a tense semi-circle. "Are those...slavers?" someone whispered, because apparently, that was a perfectly normal thing to see in this messed-up world.
"Captain Gunn," Eryndra said, tugging on his sleeve with the urgency of someone who'd spotted a fire in a fireworks factory, "those might be the same guys from Noruma."
Roy nodded. He need to blow off some steam so he marched up to the wagon, ready to unleash some righteous fury. The slaver in charge, a skinny dude with a grin that could curdle milk, hopped off the driver's seat. "Afternoon," he said, his voice dripping with fake politeness. "You folks buying? If not, get out the f'n way. We got places to be, people to harvest."
Roy's anger flared like a supernova. "You can't just...do this! People aren't, collectible trading cards! Why is everyone acting like this is normal?!"
The slaver shrugged, scratching a scar on his cheek that probably had a story behind it. "Why? Because that's how the world works, kid. Money talks, freedom walks, and laziness flops. So, hurry up and pay or are you gonna let us do our jobs? We got markets to hit, quotas to fill."
Eryndra's lips curled in disgust, but she held back, letting Roy take the lead. Teddy and Lincoln stepped up behind Roy, their mechanical frames looking particularly menacing. The slaver eyed them warily, but he didn't back down. He was clearly used to dealing with people who weren't six-foot-tall robot presidents.
Roy's blood boiled, memories of his own less-than-stellar past flashing through his mind. His hand subconsciously drifted to his sidearm. "If I wanted to free them, how much are we talking? Give me a number, you walking pile of human garbage."
"The criminals too?" the slaver asked, jerking his thumb at one side of the cage like he was pointing out a particularly unpleasant stain. "Or just the 'innocent' ones? We got debtors, runaways, people their families sold off – the usual. And then we got the fun ones. Murderers, thieves, the whole shebang. I don't judge, I just transport."
Roy swallowed, his stomach doing a queasy flip. He glanced at the shackled group. A lot of them were young, teenagers even, looking like they hadn't eaten a decent meal in weeks. Their eyes were hollow, their bodies gaunt. It was a punch to the gut. "No criminals," he managed, his voice tight. "Just the...innocents. For now. Give me a price. And make it quick."
The guy scoffed and flipped through a ledger. "That's about three-quarters of the merchandise. Let's see...fifteen souls. I'd say...three gold coins. Total."
Roy blinked, stunned. "Three gold coins? Are you kidding me?"
"Take it or leave it, Fancy Pants," the slaver said.
Roy's mind raced. He'd expected to pay a king's ransom. But apparently, the gold he'd "acquired" from Riven of the Abyssforged Alliance was worth more than he thought. He must have seen over 1000 coins in the pile the Presidroids hauled in. He was still seething, but he pulled out three gold coins and tossed them at the guy's feet with the disdain he'd usually reserve for a particularly nasty bug. "Fine. Get them out. Now."
"Easy peasy," the slaver said, smirking like he'd just won the lottery. "Pleasure doing business with a sucker like you."
Roy fought the urge to punch the guy's lights out. He watched as the slaver's goons unlocked the cage and shoved fifteen trembling captives forward. They stumbled out into the clearing, blinking in the sunlight like they'd just emerged from a very long, very dark tunnel. Most of them were too stunned to even react. The smell hit Roy like a train but he quickly composed himself.
Eryndra lowered her voice, "You sure about this? You're basically funding his operation."
Roy's jaw tightened. "For now. But I'm not leaving these people to rot, either. It's a temporary fix. A really, really messed-up temporary fix."
The slaver gave Roy a mocking salute. "Pleasure, 'Captain Gunn.' We're heading inland. Maybe we'll see you again if you're in the market for more...merchandise." He turned to his horses, urging them onward. The wagon creaked, the remaining captives still rattling around inside, like a mobile prison cell from hell.
As the caravan pulled away, Roy's gut twisted. He couldn't just let it go. But…how far down this rabbit hole did he want to go? "I can't just...leave it," he muttered, finally. "I need to see where they're going. There might be a bigger operation. A whole network of awfulness."
Teddy's metallic face turned to Roy, his voice monotone but firm. "We can deploy drones, Captain. Immediate pursuit is an option."
Roy nodded. "We'll track them. But I'm going in person. Not dragging the whole ship up some river just to get it stuck, so, we are going by truck."
"Sorry, what?" Emiko inquired.
"The ship has transport trucks, now listen close and watch the skies." Roy clapped. Two minutes later the cargo copter descended holding the large armored vehicle.
Serenity chuckled. "How many Presidroids?"
"ALL OF THEM, EVERY. SINGLE. BOT. I WANT TO LIVE." Roy shouted, ignoring his triplet classmates.
"You can tone down the paranoia, I'll support your little adventure with drones and Jets ready to scoop you like you're my...hmm, what was the term that movie used... dumpster in distress." Serenity quipped, her artificial tone teasingly dry.
"I have you, you watch plenty of Earth movies," Roy shouted to no one in particular.
Emiko, Hina, and Alejandro, clearly deciding to ignore the "crazy captain" routine, rushed over to help the newly-freed captives. Some classmates brought simple foods like bread, and clothes from the Infinite Wardrobe, while others offered them seats around a nearby fire pit. Roy felt a flicker of relief seeing the grateful expressions on their faces, but the weight of the whole "slavery is apparently a thing here" situation was still burning a hole in his chest.
By early evening, Roy was prepping for his "road trip of righteous anger." Eryndra was by his side, arms crossed, looking like she was ready for anything. "Ready?"
"Yep. Teddy, Lincoln, you're with me. Plus a few, backup base models that know how to fade into the back. Everyone else, hold down the fort. Or, village, I guess," he responded before correcting. He ran a hand through his hair, which was probably a mess. "I just...can't let that slimeball get away with this. I need to see how deep this goes. It's like an itch I can't scratch."
The triplets gave him worried looks. "Captain Gunn, be careful," Emiko said softly. "Don't go starting a war you can't finish."
He managed a small grin, tapping her shoulder. "I'll be fine. Probably. Thanks for the help. You guys are...less awful than I expected."
Before they set off, Roy noticed Teddy and FDR moving slightly quicker towards the car. With them slowly trying to best one another. Roy had to stop them.
"No, no! Captain, tell him!"
"Me, I have dibs, I am faster"
The two robots, with the IQ of a literal child argued over who got to drive.
"Serenity...when did they start developing personality?"
"Recently, captain, I have not studied human children, are they annoying, like these two?" Serenity inquired.
Just as the two found out how useless arguing was, when Lincoln slipped into the driver seat to get the win. So with five Super Elite Presidroids and three regular elites they moved to action.
They set off with Eryndra and the enthusiastic Presidroids, following the wagon's tracks north. The roads were rough, barely more than dirt paths. They moved slowly, since the slaver wagon wasn't exactly built for speed.
The Presidroids scanned for signs of their quarry, their mechanical eyes glowing in the fading light. Eryndra was silent, matching Roy's tense, "I'm about to explode with righteous fury" energy. He suspected she could sense how badly he wanted to do something, anything, to make this whole situation less awful.
Eventually, the tracks led them to a city that had seen better centuries. The walls were crumbling, the guards looked like they were one bad day away from retirement, and the alleys were a maze of filth and despair.
"Stick close," Roy whispered to the team, feeling a sense of danger that went up his spine.
Roy scanned what felt like a maze with crumbling buildings everywhere. The air was thick with the stench of unwashed bodies, stale food, and something vaguely chemical that he didn't want to identify.
Buildings leaned precariously, their walls scarred with cracks and covered in a layer of grime that looked like it had been accumulating for centuries. Windows were boarded up or shattered, leaving gaping holes that stared out like empty eye sockets.
The streets were a chaotic jumble of people, most of them looking like they'd drawn the short straw in the game of life, and then the straw blew off their hand. Ragged clothing, tattered, filth filled, with missing bits of cloth hung loosely on emaciated frames. Faces were gaunt, eyes hollow, reflecting a mixture of desperation and resignation. Children with dirt-smeared faces and swollen bellies huddled in doorways, their hands outstretched in silent pleas.
Vendors hawked their wares from makeshift stalls, their voices hoarse from shouting over the din. The goods on display were a sorry collection of things – rotting vegetables, scraps of fabric, chipped pottery, and dubious-looking concoctions in cracked vials. Roy spotted a man trying to sell a single, scrawny chicken, its feathers plucked and its eyes dull with despair. Another vendor was offering a pile of rusty tools, their edges dulled and their handles cracked.
Thugs and cutpurses lurked in the shadows, their eyes narrowed and their hands hovering near concealed weapons. They eyed Roy's group with a mixture of suspicion and avarice, clearly assessing whether they were worth the risk. Roy caught glimpses of people exchanging furtive glances, their hands slipping into pockets or under cloaks, probably engaging in transactions that were best kept hidden.
The ground was littered with refuse – broken pottery, scraps of cloth, bones gnawed clean, and puddles of stagnant water that reflected the grimy surroundings. The air was thick with flies, buzzing around the piles of garbage and landing on the exposed skin of passersby. Roy saw a child picking through a heap of refuse, searching for anything edible or salvageable. A mangy dog, its ribs showing through its matted fur, sniffed at a discarded bone.
As he pushed through the crowd, trying to find that slaver, his heart was as dark and damp as the city.
He caught sight of the slaver's wagon turning down a side alley, but by the time he shoved his way through the crowd, dodging stray limbs and questionable smells, it was gone.
"Son of a..." Roy muttered, his vocabulary failing him in the face of such frustration.
He trudged on, Eryndra at his side, Teddy and Lincoln clearing a path like a pair of robotic bulldozers. Finally, they emerged into a courtyard that was only slightly less depressing than the rest of the city.
Puddles of something that might have been water, but probably wasn't, dotted the cobblestones. Buildings that looked like they were about to collapse at any moment surrounded the space. It was like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie, only with more grime.
Roy turned a corner and practically face-planted into a young guy slumped against a wall. The dude looked like he was one strong breeze away from becoming a skeleton. Skinny, covered in dirt, and radiating an aura of despair.
Roy, feeling a pang of sympathy that was quickly followed by, "Oh, great, another complication," reached into his bag and pulled out a shiny package of Earth snacks. An open bag of chips. Because everyone loves chips, even in a world where slavery is apparently a Tuesday. "Here," he said, offering them with the awkwardness of someone who'd never given charity before. "Take these. Don't...die."
The guy's eyes widened like he'd just seen a miracle. "It's...it's you...thank you, mighty Thunder God...Crusher of Houses!"
Roy's face twitched. He snatched the chips back like they were made of solid gold. "Nope! No chips for you!" he snapped, his voice cracking with irritation. "Absolutely not."
The man's face crumpled like a discarded tissue, and a weird glow flared around him. Before Roy could even process what was happening, the guy unleashed a blast of "light magic" that sent Teddy and Lincoln sprawling with a chorus of metallic clangs. Roy's hair practically stood on end. This random, starving dude had just taken down his advanced robot bodyguards? What in the actual heck?
"What...was that?!" Roy hissed, his brain short-circuiting.
The man's head drooped. "I...I didn't mean to... I'm just...desperate," he stammered, stumbling forward and grabbing Roy's ankle with the grip of a drowning man. "Please, take me with you! I'll do anything! I'll be your...your servant! Your...whatever!"
Roy pried the guy off, eyeing him with the suspicion he usually reserved for suspiciously friendly squirrels. Eryndra, ever the calm one, radiated a faint aura of "I will protect you, even if it means vaporizing this weirdo." But the stranger seemed oblivious. "Okay, fine," Roy said, finally, swallowing his annoyance. "But here's the deal. You teach me that...glowy punch thing. That 'magic' stuff. Defense, offense, whatever. You teach me, I'll let you tag along. But no more 'Thunder God.' One more time, and you're walking back to this slum. Got it?"
The guy's face lit up like a Christmas tree. He nodded fervently, clutching the bag of chips like it was the Holy Grail. Behind them, the Presidroids were slowly getting to their feet, staring at the stranger with a mixture of alarm and confusion. Roy sighed, a mixture of exasperation and, "Well, this is my life now."
"Welcome to the crew...uh...what's your name?" Roy muttered, already regretting this decision. "Eryndra, keep an eye on him. Because apparently, random starving guys can take down my robots now."
"Lutrian!" the guy said softly, a note of relief in his voice,
"I demand a rematch!" Teddy screamed.