Page 2396

((The Father's Day Special -- page 12 of 24))
Hector kept the trains running until the dust was well behind them. When he let everyone go, the very first thing they all did was look back at the devastation they had just escaped.

The Lorentians were all obviously shaken and stumbling, apparently having difficulty standing upright. None of them were vomiting, though, so Hector figured he'd done something right. A few of them were electing to stay inside the little iron train cars that he'd made.

All the Lorentians, that was, save the ambassador. Edgar Stoutamire was much calmer than the others, Hector noticed--perhaps even calmer than some of his own party members.

Curious. Hector wasn't sure what to make of it, though.

Fortunately, no one else seemed to notice the train car that had been flying through the sky, and Hector was able to annihilate it without drawing attention to Pauline. Maybe that didn't really matter at this point, but it was one less wrinkle to worry about--for the time being, at least.

Chort was not dead, Hector knew. He couldn't sense any of the monsters anymore, but there was no way in hell that a bunch of rubble would be enough to kill them.

They could've been trapped, though, unable to move under that small mountain of debris. He could hear Salvador and Mevox openly discussing that very subject behind him, having apparently ended their pan-forma merge.

'If it's stuck under there, should we bother trying to dig it out and finish it off?' said Mevox.

"If it can survive that, what makes you think we can finish it off?" said Salvador. His breathing was somewhat labored, but he still looked like he was ready for more, despite his words.

'Don't psych yourself out,' said Mevox. 'We were handling business just fine.'