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Gohvis-Aeha took the opportunity to reassess the state of the chase while he waited for Germal to regain his composure.

One of Morgunov’s Roberts was getting closer, he noticed. The Vanguardians were keeping up fairly well, and Kallmakk, all the way at the rear, seemed to have calmed, somewhat, if only to focus on the chase, but there was definitely something brewing back there, too. He could sense a worrying buildup of ardor. If he didn’t pay attention, that could turn into a very big problem.

Bah. He was going to be very annoyed if Kallmakk ended up killing Morgunov in the middle of this chase, while he was more focused on protecting Germal. Surely, the Mad Demon would not be that sloppy.

Egh...

‘Master,’ came Germal’s voice. ‘What did Jonah say to you?’

‘Doesn’t matter. Answer my question. Why do you think Morgunov is a threat to mutants? He has never expressed any desire to harm us. Only study us. And even that has been rather fleeting, compared to his other interests.’

‘That is merely the way his mind works, Master. You know this as well as I. His interest in a given subject ebbs and flows. Make no mistake. He WILL come back around to us. And when he does, it will not be for some relaxed academic exchange with you. He will seek to enthrall as many of our kind as possible for his experiments. To make our power his own. And merge it with his abominable machines.’

He might’ve argued the point, but one of those same abominable machines was now getting even closer to his position.

Too close.

He sent a quick telekinetic wave in its direction, just trying to knock it off course and slow it down.

But it dodged his attack and continued to inch closer.

Annoying.

He decided to pick up the pace, instead. Just a bit.

Germal kept on talking in the meantime. ‘I’ve read his mind, Master. It was difficult, but I was able to discern some of his plans. One of them is to complete work on something called an Omnivore Drive, which will allow his machines to grow more powerful by consuming the flesh of those he feeds to them.’

Well, that certainly sounded believable. Morgunov would absolutely work on a project like that.

Gohvis-Aeha did have a counterargument, though. ‘Do you have any idea how many failed experiments that man has conducted since I’ve known him?’