Page 69 of Monster's Baby

I put it on the ground.“I’ve got control,” I murmured, moving it forward and backward in front of us.“Join me.”

“One at a time,” Bruce cautioned.“Sofia?”

I felt a little resistance when she connected with the homunculus.She wanted to move it in a different direction.

“Over to the chair,” I said, and suddenly it was much easier to move.Her power added to mine did make things easier.

“My turn,” Pierre said softly.

He followed my lead, and the homunculus shot forward, reaching the chair in a leap.

“Is it because we know each other that it was easier for you to join?”I asked, most of my attention on the little lump of clay.

“I am not trying to control,” Pierre said.“I am lending my energy.”

“I think we should pick one person to be the lead,” Bruce said.“Then they will tell the rest of us the plan.”

“Your turn, Bruce,” I said.“Let’s see how much damage we can do with a jump from the chair to the floor.”

The homunculus hovered at the edge of the chair.When I felt the weight of Bruce’s energy join in, I counted down from three, and everyone focused on jumping.

The ground shook a little from the force of impact.

“Whoa,” Joey said, looking up from the teeth he was making.“That was intense.”

I brought the homunculus back over to my feet and scooped it up, breaking the link between it and the others.The clay flew back into the pit and I examined the heart carefully.“That landing did no harm to the heart at all.It recorded the pressure of impact, but it didn’t stop.”

“Amazing,” Pierre said.“Let’s go bigger.”

Together, the four of us sculpted the entire pit of clay around the heart.The top of the blob brushed the top of the tent.It took intense concentration from all four of us to levitate it long enough for the other two to attach the mouth on the underside.

“Everyone clear on the plan?”Bruce asked.“Siobhan directs the rest of us.Don’t fight her direction, or the meld won’t work as well.Once we jump onto another homunculus, we pause and Carmine and Joey take control of the mouth, Sofia keeping an eye out for a sneak attack from one of the others.”

“And what do we do if weareattacked while we’re busy masticating?”Joey asked.

“Siobhan takes control again.”

“What if one of the other groups has a similar idea as us?”Carmine asked.

“What if one of them builds a flying homunculus?”Pierre mused.

“If there’s a flying one, we’ll just have to wait until it gets low enough to attack.If someone else builds something like ours, then we’ll have to work together and hope they make a mistake.”I clasped my hands tightly behind my back to hide their shaking.“If anyone has a better idea than this, I’m all ears.We need to trust each other and work together for this to be a success.Otherwise, it’ll be a disaster.”

The others took their time to think about it.

Bruce spoke first.“I think this is our best option.”

“I’m with you,” Joey said.

“This is a good idea,” Sofia added.

Carmine put her hand in the middle of our circle.“Let’s go team Europe!”

I smiled at everyone gratefully.We stacked our hands on top of each other before breaking apart.

“Let’s beat those other guys into a pulp!”Joey cheered.“Because they’re clay?Get it?”

“Excuse me,” the attendant said from the corner, startling me.“You have two minutes before you must leave the tent.”

---