The morning came faster than Pepper cared for. He decided to stop fighting the rays of sunshine and leave the comfort of his bed. His body was wearing from working on Mala, but he knew he also needed to get a run in. He already knew what Amprage’s answer would be, so he simply started getting changed and tying his shoes.

  Amprage’s excitement was easy to see out of the corner of his eye as he was bent over, finishing his shoestrings knot. “You can come.” Was all he said.

  “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” Amprage was practically zooming around in circles and dancing at the bedroom door.

  Pepper set his tracking option on his holodex and headed out to record a new route. His senses, feet, and curiosity driving him at each turn or bend in the road. Before he knew it they had flew right past an hour long trot and were closing in on another half when Pepper decided to turn them back towards the house.

  A small smile crested his face when they turned around a corner and started heading down a small slope in the roadway. There at the bottom was the familiar pairing of Elowen and Tank. “Well look who it is.” Pepper muttered while Amprage just calmly stayed by his side.

  They started to close in on the pairing when Elowen looked up and saw them approaching. She came to a stop to show she would wait for them at the bottom of the hill. Tank on the other hand, decided he would come barreling up the hill.

  Pepper started to call out to the guard dog and was happy when he could sense that Tank recognized them. A wag in his tail and Pepper reached his hand out to ensure Tank was given a chance to sniff him and confirm any suspicion the guard dog may have of who it was. Tank let out a low, guttural growl and bark, but then spun around and headed back to his owner.

  “What trouble are you two getting into today?” Elowen asked with a playful grin on her face.

  Pepper rolled his eyes as his feet started to sputter to a stop. “Ha ha. Pretty sure that if I am in trouble, than you’re probably in a jail cell right next to me.”

  A playful expression came over Elowen’s face. Her hand reached up and pointed towards her chest. “What? Me? The royal princess of the kingdom, locked away in a guard tower, forever hidden from the world? I could never be in trouble.”

  The two laughed until Pepper added a sarcastic reply. “Sounds about right.”

  “Oh whatever.” Elowen rolled her eyes and then lightly shoved his shoulder. “Guilty as charged for being my own best troublemaker. You know… rebel to the core and all.” Their laughter continued until Elowen added. “Shh… don’t tell on me, but I totally snook three cookies out of the cookie jar before dinner.”

  “Pretty sure your dad will put the entire neighborhood on lockdown while he ensures it wasn’t a demon that took them.” Elowen snorted at his comment, and Pepper continued. “Bet they were worth it though.”

  “Totally worth it. Can’t go wrong with grandma’s classic recipe.”

  “Well, how are things?”

  Elowen sighed and made a duck face while shifting her eyes to the side. “Pretty normal. Been doing some research on what I want to do with my life.”

  “Oh yeah? What have you dwindled the list down to?”

  The question seemed to catch her off guard. She blinked and seemed to mentally grab hold of the list in her head. Her hand reached up and started to tap on her chin as the playful demeanor seemed to return just as quickly as it had faded. “Well, you know. Thought about the whole nursing thing, but I don’t know if I can deal with death and sickness.” She stuck her tongue out and made a gagging sound.

  The gesture brought a quick chuckle back to the conversation but she soon continued. “Then there was the whole veterinarian route. I do love me some little critters, but you know. There is the whole…”

  Pepper could sense where she was going and cut her off. “Death and sickness thing.”

  “Exactly. I thought about being a chef. But do you realize how early in the morning they have to get up?”

  Elowen paused and Pepper caught on to her hint. “I’m assuming it is early?”

  “Too early.” She exclaimed while her eyes widened. She shook her head for a second and returned to her list. “Then there was race car driver, but pretty sure the rules frown on you when you bump into all the other drivers.”

  There was a slight pause and Pepper felt like her list had reached the end. “Sounds like nothing is really panning out the way you had hoped.”

  Elowen shrugged and playfully crossed her eyes. “All boils down to the final options of International Drug Lord, Weapons Trafficker, or of course, my personal favorite, Super Villian.”

  Pepper smirked. “Really? Those are your final options?” He paused to see Elowen was fighting the large smile that wanted to appear. “Those all seem like the worst of the worst.”

  “Not really, below all those is being a politician. But… I don’t really like lying and fake smiles. My RBF would never get me any supporters.”

  “Fair point.”

  Elowen looked as if she was about to ask something, but the buzz on her holodex grabbed her attention. She sighed and then looked down at the roadway. He instinctively had a solid guess as to what it was regarding, but still asked anyways. “Dad?”

  “Yup… been idol for too long I guess.”

  “You ever mess with him and say something like, oh no I broke my leg.”

  Elowen chuckled, “Oh yeah, I tried that one a few years back. Come to find out my holodex is specially equipped with a health scanning ability. Dad simply told me to stop joking about important things and head home.”

  “Sounds about right. Well, it was good seeing you.”

  “Same, catch you next time on some random hill in the neighborhood.”

  “Will do.”

  The two parted ways and Pepper headed back to the house. It didn’t take him long but when he walked through the door he was surprised to see Wilson sitting at the kitchen counter. His roommate was wearing onesie pajama’s that were covered in Golem League Golem’s from the first couple of seasons. That wasn’t the part that Pepper found comical though, it was the fact that Wilson had a Big Duck Energy can placed just off to his right side, with a coffee mug set just to the left of it.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  Pepper watched as Wilson took a sip out of the mug, and then refilled it with the can of the carbonated beverage. His roommate looked like he had been awake for days and had been struggling to survive a midlife crisis. Wilson’s hair was frazzled and pointed in every direction and he reached up and rubbed his face.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’ve never worked so hard in my life…”

  Pepper couldn’t help but arch his eyebrow in pure confusion and judgement. I’ve never even seen you break a sweat Squints. He thought but turned around and started to reach for the half gallon of milk in the fridge. “Oh yeah? Spend a little too long on the late-night stream with your fans?”

  “That was the first live stream I have ever done… needless to say… the fans ask, no plead… no wait… beg! They are begging me to do more of them. I just… I just don’t know if I have it in my Pep.”

  “Wow, that series huh?”

  “I might have to just hang it up.” Pepper turned around just in time to see Wilson starting to stretch as if he was a senior citizen. He grunted and huffed, “I don’t know how much longer my body can take the pain and stress that comes along with the fame.”

  “Squints… you do realize that you haven’t even hit 24 right?”

  “You mind your own business there sunny… my body knows what it knows.” Pepper started to laugh as he took a long swig of the milk. Wilson reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose and then ran his fingers over his eyes. “I think I have a hangover.”

  Pepper narrowed his gaze while he put the milk away. He turned around to see Wilson had now started to rub his temples with his fingers. He didn’t know where Wilson would have gotten the alcohol from. “Well, what all did you drink last night?”

  “All I had was this.” Wilson exclaimed while holding up the energy drink can. “Does this stuff always make you feel like crap the next day?”

  Pepper rolled his eyes and sighed. “You don’t have a hangover. Maybe just caffeine withdraw, but nothing that can’t be fixed be…” Before Pepper could finish, Wilson grabbed the can and went bottoms up and chugged whatever was left of the contents. “Well, there’s that.”

  Wilson dropped the can down on the counter and finished with a belch. “Whatever… a working man has to do, what a working man has to do.”

  “Uhh, you might want to be careful to not get addicted to those things.” Pepper warned as Wilson got up and staggered back towards his room. Wilson didn’t answer but merely closed his door with a semi-loud thud. He started to walk towards his room to take a shower but paused when he reached Wilson’s room and heard his roommates voice call out.

  “I’m back TCG fans! That’s right, the one and only Silver Slayer Prime is here to answer your questions!”

  Great… it’s bad enough we have one over the top celebrity in the household, but now we have two. Pepper mentally told himself but realized that he had not really had many issues with Marcus since their semi-heated discussion. At least it has been more peaceful and quiet around the house. He slightly smiled as he finished the thought and went back towards getting cleaned up.

  He then went back to the workshop and decided he would take a few minutes of cleaning everything up. The last few days of work had left scattered remnants of material all over the place. It took him longer than he originally had planned, but he couldn’t help but feel more accomplished once the workshop had an overall clean appearance.

  A quick twist of his head and he popped his neck. He followed that up with rolling his wrists and then interlocked his fingers together. A multitude of pops and cracks let out as he stepped forward and started to inspect every inch of his golem. Pepper actually found it easier to start at the feet and slowly make his way upwards.

  The thorough inspection revealed only a few places he needed to fix with some slight adjustments. Pepper was actually impressed with how well the abomination clay had cured. The new clay was clearly a far superior product compared to what he had previously utilized. He finally arrived at the chest and oblique portions and ensured their wasn’t a single gap or crack in the construction.

  Pepper greatly enjoyed having more room to work and design how the rune cards and power core would be situated inside. Too often he saw how the oblique and ribcage were less protected in matches. There was also the common sight of seeing a golem’s power core ruptured after taking a direct shot to the center sternum of the chest plate.

  It was these reasons that Pepper then decided to create two separate rack mounts, exactly where the lungs would commonly be found on a human. He ensured to measure out the space between the left and right sides and was happy when everything appeared to properly balance out. There was some extra metal tubing left over from the frame construction, and Pepper had spent practically a whole day in heating and hammering it down flat.

  The result was a reinforced sternum and spinal column which were welded together with his rack mounts. He had taken a metal hammer and started to bang on the frame relentlessly. After a successful volley of direct strikes, Pepper was happy when he saw the metal had only a few surfaces scrapes. But now with the outer shell of the black clay over top, he felt the armament was the best option that was financially available to him.

  With the exterior inspection completed, Pepper reached for his 7 Seas command interface and then flicked on the power switch. There was a faint glow of purple which seeped out of the few slots he had added to the golems design. The light quickly grew, and he finally saw the eyes illuminate with life. Nightmare Mala is alive!

  Pepper couldn’t help but smile as the initiation sequence began to scroll down the command interface.

  SECURE POWER CONNECTION TEST COMPLETE………………

  BIOC SYSTEM TEST COMPLETE……………….

  UNIFIED RUNE BOOTLOADER SYSTEM INITIATED……………….

  TEST…RUNE SLOT 1, SUCCESS……………….

  TEST…RUNE SLOT 2, SUCCESS……………….

  TEST…RUNE SLOT 3, SUCCESS……………….

  TEST…RUNE SLOT 4, SUCCESS……………….

  TEST…RUNE SLOT 5, SUCCESS……………….

  TEST…RUNE SLOT 6, SUCCESS……………….

  TEST…RUNE SLOT 7, SUCCESS……………….

  INITIATING RUNE IDENTIFICATION PROTOCOL………………

  RUNE SLOT 1, POWER………………

  RUNE SLOT 2, CONTROLLER / INTERFACE………………

  RUNE SLOT 3, FORCE BLAST………………

  RUNE SLOT 4, ENERGY STRIKE………………

  RUNE SLOT 5, GRAVITY………………

  RUNE SLOT 5, ENCHANTMENT………………

  ESSENCE SCAN INITIATING………………

  ESSENCE SCAN IN PROGRESS………………

  ESSENCE SCAN IN PROGRESS………………

  ESSENCE SCAN COMPLETE………………

  ESTIMATED GOLEM HEIGHT…14? 11?………………

  ESTIMATED GOLEM WEIGHT…3,278.27 LBS………………

  CALIBRATING RUNE CONFIGURATION FOR SPECS………………

  SYSTEM INITIATION SEQUENCE COMPLETE………………

  Pepper couldn’t help but feel the excitement surge through his veins. The deep purple coloration of his modified power core resulted in the clay maintaining a purple hue appearance. He grabbed hold of his control module and started to take command of his golem. Mala’s head tilted from side to side and he then went limb by limb until he finished at the golems feet.

  He smiled as he saw his golem start to come more to life. His high detail and precision sculpting allowed there to be little to no pressure points, allowing his golem to have a high degree of mobility. Pepper then ramped his power core up as high as it would go. An electric static shock of purple energy surged around the clay flesh of his golem. He brought the fighters hands together, the left hand clasped over the fist the right hand had made and Mala performed a ceremonial bow to its creator.

  “Ha! We’re so ready for this invitational.”

  Pepper took another minute to soak up his accomplishment before he powered Mala down. He then connected his command interface into his holocube to let the simulator adopt his new configuration. As the device was updating he pulled out the status card and began to fill in the details.