Heads turned the moment the locals heard that cry. "Alani? That's the name that thunder was calling for?!"

Alani half-blushed, half-grimaced and turned to look at the ceiling with an innocent whistle. "I don't know these people…"

But alas, she could not escape. Jamie jumped on her, grabbed her up and squeezed her so tight she thought she would pop. "I thought you were done for!"

"We came looking for you. Even before the storm properly ended, we were already descending." Siti told Alani.

"I told you to leave me behind!" Alani protested weakly.

"We had a vote. Your proposal was outvoted five to one." Gary informed her.

[Six.] Ember added.

[Seven.] Crimson voiced.

[Eight.] Lunar wagged her tail.

[Nine!] Flare joined in.

[And ten.] Grandpa Reef added, just for good measure.

Alani looked at her friends around her, five humans and five Wilds, none of whom would let her be left behind and suddenly felt like crying. "But… but what about the mission?"

"Flip the mission! We might be back late. So what? What's he going to do, fire us?" Gary snorted.

There was a bit of laughter, then a whole lot of cookies, and since they were going to be late anyway, they figured they may as well take a short little break at La Vive and sample a few more foods while they were at it…

For once, not even Isabelle complained about the budget.

***

[Ember says Isabelle asked if you're sure about it.] Chirpy privately told Mindy.

[Yes, I'm sure. Let them have some fun for a bit. I'll cover the bills.] Mindy chuckled. [Just don't tell Remian. Oh, and get me a few snacks while you're there.]

[Isabella agrees.]

***

Remian, meanwhile, thought about it for a bit. [Did Isabella mention where this 'external funding' is coming from?]

[She absolutely refuses to disclose.] Carrie replied.

"Huh." Remian mused, thinking about some kind old grannie at La Vive generously buying a group of children ice-creams. "Well, it should be fine so long as they're not being bribed to do things I wouldn't approve of. In fact, doing an odd job here and there to increase their resources isn't a bad idea. If they could do side missions to earn enough to outright buy the machine, it would actually be an acceptable solution to the budget problem. At the end of the day, the training is meant to build high tech s.p.a.cecraft on limited resources. Developing their own resources for extra funding should help. Look at George, Tim and Mindy. They all developed their own resources already. Asking them to do something like procure such a machine would be a snap for them given their current a.s.sets. There's no reason Group 2 can't do the same."

Carrie sent it along to the group word for word.

Remian spoke no more of the matter.

***

"So, in short… we're eating out tonight!" Isabella exclaimed.

This roused a bout of cheers from the cookie-snacking children who had already pretty much given up on getting the machine a.s.sembled on time. Alani was already formulating how they might apologize to Remian for a late return. Gary was thinking of how to sabotage their own airs.h.i.+p so they could use it for an excuse for their lateness.

But then Remian sent along another bomb.

[Remian said, as long as you don't do anything criminal, your pa.s.sing grade depends on getting a functional machine into his hands by the deadline. Lateness would be immediate failure.]

Everyone froze.

"Can't do anything criminal… that means we can't steal it." Gary gulped, kissing his personal Plan B goodbye. "All we can do is beg, build, or bargain…"

"Can't be late… We have to get to Ashdale, quick." Alani exchanged glances and grimaces with the team. She kissed her personal shopping trip plan goodbye. She turned to the little turtle sitting on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Grandpa Reef, but we have to rush.

[Don't worry about me. Do what you have to do.] Grandpa Reef a.s.sured her.

Alani nodded and hurried to the door. She pushed it open and…

BANG! The whole door broke.

"W-wha…?" everybody was aghast, including the baker and the other customers.

Alani gulped. "Do I… have to pay for breaking that?!"

"D-don't worry about it! Must be termites!" the baker leapt out in embara.s.sment. In his mind, his door must have been faulty to break so easily to a little girl's push. After all, how strong can a little girl be?

***

At the time, Mindy was struggling to lift a 1.5 ton experimental electric engine component into a half-adapted airs.h.i.+p with her bare hands.

"I'm so weak." She sighed with some frustration. "Not long ago, I could have done this with one hand."

Hearing that gave Remian chills. Mindy's strength after the Flame Emperor fell was only a small portion of what it had been before the Spectre War, but even now it was mind-boggling to see a young teenage girl handle tons of hardware without machinery. She and Darian had been able to fight toe-to-toe with Tier 8 Spectres, even kill them if they had a good opportunity. Now, both the Flame Emperor and the Wood Emperor no longer supplied the kind of power they used to, but still they were able to trounce just about everyone else in the Wildlands without trouble.

Most guys were still measuring their upper body strength in kilograms. They would be thrilled to be able to lift even half a ton, and that was with the best Frames Arnold could churn out. Meanwhile, Darian and Mindy were grumbling about no longer being able to handle four or five tons.

Was it really the right idea to let children befriend Wilds? Playing with cubs was all very well, but when they started forming Bonds with Emperor-level Wilds, they might very well end up with a lot more power than they could handle responsibly. Darian and Mindy were at least reasonable, responsible people. What if some bad-tempered child ended up Bonding an Emperor and wrecking an entire town in a tantrum? Remian started to sweat just thinking about it.

Either that, or the desert heat was getting to him. This place was a lot hotter than Three Pines or Craggy Falls, even underground. More to the point, it was extremely dry. Staying here over an extended period of time resulted in cracked lips and headaches for Remian.

Still, he had to do his best to develop Fal'Herim's industry into a cleaner form. Truly clean industry was impossible with steam age technology, at least, according to Remian's standards (everyone else thought it was all clean enough already!) but he wanted to make sure everything from carbon emissions to wastewater would be as harmless to the environment as he could.

n.o.body seemed to get it. Even Tim and Asda thought they could just dump it all out there someplace and let the desert handle the cleaning. To them, the desert could handle everything. Remian didn't try to explain it to them, didn't need to explain himself in any way. He just did what he wanted, and n.o.body tried to stop him.

Some of it was appreciated. Such as the more obvious ones, like having them bury every structure in soil, rock and clay. As much as the could, they planted hardy greens on their roofs with soil containment layers on top of the rooting layer. Indoors life in Fal'Herim was a lot cooler now.

In any case, he was busy. From time to time he received reports from Carrie, who received them from the wolfcats accompanying Group 2. Most of them did not seem important, particularly those that involved the snacks they ate. The point was, Group 2 had made its way through La Vive and were flying through the neutral zone, meeting various new Lords of the Wilds along the way.

They were safe, they were on schedule, and they were on guard. That was all he needed to know for now.