Page 68 of Monster's Baby

I gulped.I wasn’t great at teamwork.

“You’ll be great,” Bruce murmured.“Have faith in us.”

“I have faith inyou,” I countered.“It’smeI’m not sure about.”

We joined the other three members of our team in a tent off to the side.Once we were in, the attendant sealed the tent, activated the anti-spying charms, and sat in a comfy-looking chair.

“Hi!”greeted a bubbly blonde girl, taller than me by at least a head.“My name is Carmine, and I’m from Germany.”

A short boy with messy curls introduced himself as Joey from Greece, and the last competitor, a tiny girl who looked no older than twelve years old, introduced herself as Sofia from Spain.

After our own introductions, we stood in a circle around the pit of clay and argued about the form of our homunculus.

“It should stand upright, like a human,” insisted Joey.“Easier to control if it looks like something we’re used to.”

“I think it makes more sense to be on four legs like a beast,” Carmine disagreed.“It has a lower center of gravity and will be harder to knock over.”

“A dragon!”Pierre shouted excitedly.“Something with flight!”

“Hang on,” I said slowly.“Working as a team, we would get more power if we could concentrate on one body part, right?”

“Yeah, but if all of us focus on a punch from the right arm, the homunculus would fall over,” Joey pointed out.“We would need at least two for the legs, and one for the body.”

“I get that,” I said reassuringly.“What if our little guy didn’t have legs?”

Sofia looked confused.“How would it move?”

Bruce chuckled and patted my shoulder.“I see what you mean.How do snails move?”He faced the rest of the team.“Something bloated and formless would be hard to attack.”

“And put the heart in the middle,” Carmine said.“I see the use of that.And then we can put a hidden mouth underneath it.”

I grinned.“That is an amazing idea!We can jump onto the others and destroy them with razor sharp teeth.The mouth would only need us to focus on it when it’s in use.Otherwise, all of us can focus on moving in the same direction.”

Bruce clapped.“Brilliant.Any objections?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Let’s build.How big do we want to get?”

“As big as possible,” Joey said enthusiastically.“Can I make the teeth?”

“I wanted to make the teeth,” Carmine said with a pout.

“How about I make the lower and you make the upper, doll,” he said with a wink.

Carmine punched his shoulder, making him wince.“Call me ‘doll’ again, and that’ll be your face.”

“I love a woman who can fight back,” Joey said, waggling his eyebrows dramatically.

Still bickering, the two went to the far side of the clay pit and started shaping the teeth.

“As big as possible,” I murmured to the other three.“With all of us focused on its movement, it shouldn’t be too difficult to move at regular speeds.”

“Why don’t we build a small version to test it out?”Pierre suggested.“Practice working together, at least as the four of us.”

I nodded and picked up the heart that would signal the homunculus’s demise if it was damaged.“I think rubbery sides around a solid core center.Thoughts?”

Bruce chuckled.“They’re going to bounce off of us.Let’s do it.”He swirled his finger over the clay pit, pulling a small amount of clay toward him.He wrapped it around the heart and solidified it with a tap.

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