330 Vol. 6 pt. 16 (1/2)

”Sorry, Rock, I have no idea what just happened,” Fenrir said, petting his pet rock on the top of her head now that the shivering had ended. ”I… I just felt like I was suddenly a young deer targeted by a pack of starving wolves. I think it might have something to do with the weird feeling I'm sensing from Nell, but I'm not sure.”

Rock, having no idea what is going on, only cared about the fact that there are still sticks to play with. Sticks that were both in her mouth since he got distracted.

More importantly, were there any other sticks around? Naturally, the acquisition of more sticks was the most important thing for Rock. It was so rare that she got to have alone play time with Fenrir that she had to make sure it was the best play time to ever be played! Of course, it was already the best play time to ever be played. The last time was the best, too. Then the last time before the last time was also the best. And, of course, the last time before the last time before the last time – all of the previous times were the best! Could the time after this play session be even better? Would such a thing even be possible? Should such a thing even be possible?

All of those questions had the same answer.

Yes.

How could there be any other answer? It only made sense that every single play session with her owner would be the best thing ever! Even the play sessions that weren't supposed to be only play sessions would be the best play sessions ever, just like this latest session!

”Wait, I came out here to practice,” Fenrir said, looking back at Rod who was left on the ground.

Even if the play session was temporarily over, it was still the best play session to ever be a played session! Until Fenrir was ready to play more, Rock would simply lie down and chew on the sticks that she had, thus breaking them into even smaller and smaller sticks before eventually finding a nice, hard rock to chew on.

”Alright, Rod. I know what I want to turn you into, but turning you into that is a different question,” Fenrir said, once more holding Rod. ”I'm assuming that I might just not be close enough to you. We need to bond. And, we're both men, so what better way to bond than by fishing? Or talking about our women problems while sharing a sauna, but I don't think you have too many women problems. And you can't talk. Having a conversation is kind of difficult when you can only pulse.”

Rod pulsed once, agreeing with Fenrir.

”I could always talk to you while fishing. That might work. Then again… would trying to force our bond to grow stronger actually work? I've seen comics before where people were locked in a room together, and they had to get closer to each other before they were allowed out, and that always seemed pretty forced to me. Like, it doesn't really count, does it? This wouldn't be as bad as that, but still. Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way.”

Another pulse.

”You agree? Then that's definitely not the right way to do things. Maybe I should just try to… I don't know. It's been a long time since I've tried transforming you just by concentrating, so maybe that's all I have to do? Would it really be that easy?”

Rod pulsed one more time, but Fenrir turned his head to look at the direction of a twig breaking in the distance. As soon as Fenrir turned his head back to Rod, Rod decided to pulse one more time since he assumed that his partner did not see the first pulse.

But Fenrir did. Fenrir saw the first pulse out of the corner of his eye, and then he saw the second pulse as soon as he looked back at Rod.

And two pulses meant no.

”I figured,” Fenrir sighed.

Meanwhile, inside of that pulsating gem…

You weren't supposed to see that first pulse! I only meant to pulse once! Come on, partner! Figure it out! I didn't think you saw me the first time so I did it again! What are you doing acting like some sort of dense idiot who misunderstands the situation?!

”You're pulsing a lot. Did I miss something?”

Rod pulsed just once and made sure not to pulse a single extra time. After the first misunderstanding, there was no way that he wanted to risk a repeat.

What would have happened if Fenrir didn't see both pulses? Would they actually be making progress? Would Rod have finally gotten to transform?

”Oh, wait. How about I just practice changing your shape in general? I mean, if I can already change you a bit, why not practice that?” Fenrir asked, finally being hit by common sense as he picked Rod up and began to concentrate.

The majority of the time, Rod was kept in a small, compact form. Essentially, he was only the handle of a fishing rod most of the time. Including now. So, when Fenrir held Rod within his hands, he focused on increasing Rod's size to that of a proper fishing rod. It only took a few seconds and was a success just like normal. Next, he ”cast” the line without actually moving Rod at all. The line flew out and wrapped around a nearby tree's branch with its hook.

”Alright, let's try something simple now,” Fenrir said, holding Rod with both of his hands while trying to visualize Rod turning into a sword.

With closed eyes, Fenrir didn't feel anything change, and so he sighed and opened his eyes.

Before him was a sword.

The handle of the sword was still shaped and felt like a fishing rod's handle, but Rod's blank of a fishing rod was turned into the blade of a sword.

”Wait, seriously? It actually worked?” Fenrir asked, staring down at Rod. ”You actually changed? It worked?”

You're right I did, partner! It's because you finally decided to actually try and change me into something again after such a long time! I probably could've done this months ago! You need to try out new things with me more often! You can turn me into anything you want now! Any shape! Any size! I can be whatever you want me to be, partner!

”Alright, let's see if I can turn you into what I wanted before,” Fenrir said, focusing on the visualization of Rod turning into a pair of chains to wrap around his arms.

This time, Fenrir felt a change. Rod's handle turned into a metal chain that rapidly coiled around Fenrir's right arm, looping around it until reaching his shoulder before crossing over to his left arm. Starting at the top of Fenrir's left arm, Rod's chain wrapped around his arm all the way to his left wrist.

When Fenrir opened his eyes, he got his first look at Rod's new, advanced form.

”I would've thought you'd split into two to wrap around my arms instead of going around my back and being one long chain, but this works! I'm guessing you can't split yourself into two or anything like that?” Fenrir asked.

Rod's gem, located now on top of Fenrir's right wrist, pulsed once.

”Got it. So, whatever I want to turn you into, you have to stay connected. Now, let's try this!”

Fenrir punched forward with his left fist. The chain wrapped around Fenrir's left arm shot forward, extending in the direction of Fenrir's punch until it hit a tree's trunk to wrap around it. Fenrir then tried it again with his right hand, achieving the same result.

And then he tried both hands at once after bringing the chains back.

It worked. The chains around each of his arms followed the paths of his fists.

”This is awesome,” Fenrir said with a wide smile. ”You're awesome, Rod.”

Right back at you, partner! I've got to admit that this new form feels pretty good!

Even if Rod was now just a chain with a glowing gem, Fenrir still gave the gem a few gentle pats with a couple of his fingers.

The moment was soon interrupted by Rock charging into Fenrir demanding that she also receive pats.

Meanwhile, the two main builders found themselves having a calm discussion instead of a fiery debate for once.

”The transformin' type of mechas have got their charm, sure, but they're usually pretty small and – well, it depends on what type of transformin' we're talkin' about. If we're talkin' a mecha that gets bigger and bigger by transformin' into newer and more awesome configurations, like going from pretty small to the size of a galaxy over time, then that's perfect. Ya followin' me?” Tabitha asked, kicking her feet back and forth from her seat across from Rao.

”Galaxy-sized is a bit crazy, but yeah. That's not really what I meant though. The kind of transforming robots I like are the ones that can switch between like… fighter jet and robot, and when they're transformed, they basically look like jets with arms and legs,” Rao said, leaning over the table while eating some bread whenever it was Tabitha's turn to talk.

”See, those are nice and beautiful and I'd love to make one myself, but having dual purposes like that limits them to smaller sizes.”

”Not always. In the same series, there are basically giant space stations that can transform and space aircraft carriers that can turn into giant robots that look pretty humanoid.”

”Yeah, I'll give you that one. I just never got into that series because of all the romance drama. Too much drama, not enough spunk and fighting!”

”But drama, romance, politics, and all that are some of the main points of series like these.”

”I know. It's horrible.”

”Don't you think you'd get bored if you just watched giant robots fighting each other the whole time and nothing else?”

”Are ya crazy? Of course not! It's like with giant monster movies! It's always so annoyin' that they have to force 'human stories' into every single movie with giant monsters. Nobody cares about all that. We want to see giant monsters beatin' the crap out of each other! Let them fight!”

”I can kind of understand that. I don't have a problem with the human parts of those movies, but there is way too much of a focus on them.”

”Right! Sure, it's fine to have a human main character and all that for the boring people who don't understand the main point of giant monsters is the giant monsters, but I don't want to see their faces the entire movie, especially not durin' the battles!”

”Wait, I've got a question for you.”

”Shoot, Red.”

”Giant monster versus giant monster, giant robot versus giant robot, or…”

”I already know the question. The answer is giant robot versus giant monster.”

Rao held up a hand over the table which Tabitha was happy to high-five. ”Agreed. Like with the movie where giant robots were fighting giant alien monsters from the ocean. The first movie there was perfect, but…”

”But the second one just had to go and ruin it. Don't even get me started on how massive of a disappointment that was. For one of my favorite movies of all time to get such a disappointin' sequel… it almost makes me want to become a film director just so that I can show them how it's done!”

”Yeah, we'll make our own sequel that's way better than it was. One that really focuses on the giant robot versus monster action without making it about a bunch of annoying little kids while butchering the characters everybody loved from the first film.”

”Yeah! Now we just need to find some giant monsters from the ocean and a giant robot to fight them with.”

”That's the hard part, yeah. Too bad neither of us know anything about movies or CGI, though – wait, aren't there special AIs now designed to handle that sort of stuff? Can't they turn even the most amateur of drawings into super realistic CGI scenes?”

”If ya want to pay millions of dollars for their software and a license to use it, sure.”

”I guess our dream of making our own giant robot versus giant monster movie isn't going to happen.”

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”What's this about giant robots and monsters?” a third party asked. When Rao and Tabitha looked to see who it was, it was none other than Eva with a curious-but-excited expression.

”We want to fight giant monsters with giant robots,” Rao explained.

”Yeah, but we don't have either of those, so it's not exactly goin' to happen,” Tabitha added on.

”The monsters out there count, don't they? Isn't that why you're all preparing for them?” Eva asked, looking out to the ocean.

Rao and Tabitha joined her in looking out over the rolling waves before looking back at each other.

Eva had a point.

They already had a source for giant monsters from the ocean. All they needed was a giant robot to fight them with.

”You're with the scholars, right?” Tabitha asked Eva.

Eva tilted her head. ”Hm? Yeah.”

”I've only heard of it before, but ain't it possible to build pretty big suits of armor that can be controlled from inside? I mean big suits of armor. Wearin' armor inside of armor and all that.”

”The empire uses them as siege weapons. The dwarves have something similar, but they have magic golems instead that either act on their own or can be controlled.”

Tabitha and Rao looked at each other once more.

”So,” Rao said, ”giant robots probably aren't possible since they'd be too technologically advanced and all that. They'd ruin immersion or whatever. But—”

”Giant suits of armor and golems are possible,” Tabitha finished for him.

”Basically,” Eva answered.

”Red,” Tabitha said, looking at Rao.

”Shortie,” Rao said, looking at Tabitha.

”I'm more of an engineer. I know how to get complicated stuff up and runnin', but I struggle sometimes when it comes to makin' real big things and keepin' them from fallin' apart.”

”I'm more of an architect. I know how to get big stuff up without falling apart, but I struggle sometimes when it comes to all the smaller and complicated things.”