"Alright, come on."

Kay wined a bit as Adam picked him up, sweeping him away from the dirt pile he was studiously building up with the help of the little finnari hybrid girl . He looked like he was thinking about throwing a fit, but when Adam sat him down at the picnic table and handed him a paper plate with a very gooey glazed cinnamon roll, whatever complaints he had been thinking about voicing died.

Adam ruffled his son's hair, "that's what I thought."

It didn't take long before kay was covered in sugar glace, all four hands and the whole lower half of his face.

Krill and Riss appeared just then carrying between them a large liter soda cup with two straws. Adam doubted it contained soda, probably just warmed sugar water which the two of them had taken to calling tea.

As they approached Adam could hear them arguing.

As usual.

Krill argued with everyone, but he especially enjoyed arguing with Riss, who, like krill was willing to argue hours on end without stopping. Granted the two of them denied that their conversations constituted arguing, insisting that they simply enjoyed an exuberant debate.

Adam might have agreed if their conversations had been more scientific. He could see the merit of debating weather the Rorschach test was a valid form of reality testing, but he did not see how the two of them could "debate" for over an hour on the proper location to store a bag of sugar. Honestly this shouldn't have mattered, but the two of them were conducting a new "Experiment" that involved Riss and Krill moving in together and cohabitating "like the humans do".

Again they said it was for science but Adam wasn't so sure.

First you have kids together and then you start sending time together, and then you go and move in together.

It makes a guy wonder.

Krill still claimed openly that Vrul were not capable of feeling or producing romantic feelings.

Adam also pointed out that once upon a time they thought Vrul couldn't produce rage, but here they were proven wrong.

Krill had been annoyed, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

"Happy Foundation Day." Riss said, all around them colored lights swirled and music played. Adam could hear the clattering of metal against metal as a few sparring matches continued at the edges of the field.

"Chew with your mouth closed." Sunny admonished, doing her best to wipe some of the glaze from Kay's hands.

Adam raised his hands in a welcoming gesture, "And Happy foundation day to you as well." He glanced down at their shared cup with a grin, "I see the humanizing phenomena has gotten to you to.

Riss shrugged but krill lifted his chin defiantly, "You would be wrong. We are simply sharing this cup out of convenience. The booth was only offering one size and neither of us are large enough to finish off one drink."

Adam raised an eyebrow, "Uh huh."

"our relationship is purely professional."

Adam turned his head back over his shoulder to look at Sunny, "You hear that, I know we have a son together but according to Krill our relationship is purely professional ."

Sunny snorted as she finished cleaning Kay up, "Uh huh, which position do you think is more professional rever-"

Adam held up a hand, "And I am going to stop you right there." He already felt his neck turning red.

Sunny snorted, blowing a gust of air through the holes at the base of her neck ,"How is it you can be a married man with a son and still be a raging prude."

"With great ease."

Krill cleared his throat, "I think you forget my species does not have the same biological imperative as your does."

"And I think you just don't want to admit you are in love, because if you did that would be admitting that you have had an illogical and irrational emotion Mr. Spock."

"I am pretty sure in the later movies Spock's primary emotional response is Rage." Krill said brandishing his liter cup at Adam.

Martha and Jim arrived sharing a soft pretzel, "Why don't you let us take Kay for an hour or so and you can go have some fun."

"I was having fun heckling krill, but I don't think kay would mind." He glanced over at Sunny, who, while skeptical eventually relented. It wasn't that she was an over protective mother. She was perfectly fine with letting Kay figure out the world on her own. She was, however, paranoid about Kazna and the forces of Evil coming to steal her son.

Adam felt similarly, but his mother had already proven effective at fighting them off once, he was sure she could do it again.

He took her hand and walked her into the crowd, and they walked together around the little carnival sharing food and watching a few fights.

He saw Narobi and a few of the other engineers attempting to learn one of the Kata dances. Narobi was surprisingly good for an engineering nerd, though the rest of them were woefully lacking in hip movement.

They saw Conn and Eris again. Eris with her head tilted back to the sky in annoyance as Conn flicked marshmallows at the crowd rom above. He seemed to take some form of sadistic glee as he pelted people with the fluffy sugar cylinders. Upon seeing Adam he lobed a marshmallow directly at his face, which unfortunately for him, sunny Caught in her open left balm right before it could make contact. She eyed Conn who shrugged. And went to turn away.

Sunny waited until he was distracted before flicking the marshmallow right back at him.

It was a good shot and hit him right in the back of the head causing him to turn and frown at her.

Conn should probably have been able to sense that coming, but in large crowds like this his telepathic abilities were less effective. As far as they knew Conn's working memory wasn't much better than that of the average human. He could really only focus on one thing at a time, and his memory could contain up to seven pieces of information plus or minus two at any given moment.

So while he could monitor the general mood of an entire crowd, it was difficult for him to pick up singular thoughts.

They passed into a row of dueling circles, and Sunny stopped to watch a few of the fights .

Maverick was in one circle with a Drev that was almost twice her height, and she was practically toying with him. He was big, powerful and slow, and unfortunately for him she stayed inside his reach, ducking between his legs on mor than one occasion, kicking him in the back of the legs before he could turn around to face her.

Ramirez shouted and cheered from the outside of the circle waving his fists.

Someone tapped Sunny on the shoulder and two of them spun around. Dzara was standing there with her spear held in one hand, "May I have this fight, sister."

Sunny glanced down at Dzara's side, "And your wound."

"Krill cleared me for combat this morning."

Sunny huffed ad rolled her shoulders, "Are you ready to get pounded into the dirt."

"I'm ready for you to try."

Dzara wasn't a very accomplished fighter, at least not in comparison to Sunny. She had only been fighting for the past two or so years after getting her leg braces, but to her credit she had been working very hard, and she had the stones to challenge sunny to a fight. Adam didn't think he had seen dzara win a fight since knowing her, but she never bunched at her own weight, she always tended to choose those who were way better than she was.

He had a feeling that was on purpose.

He held to the side of the circle and watched as the two sisters squared up against each other.

"Been a while since I had a good brawl."

Adam turned just in time to see Lord Celez standing beside him. The rainbow haired war criminal was still wearing his fuzzy pink sweater, but now he also carried a large cloud of cotton candy. Adam vaguly wondered if it reminded the man of Home. The ball of cotton did vaguely resemble a celzex if you squinted at it long enough.

Lord Celex took a bite, "The last time I got into a good brawl I died."

"You know every time you say that its still just as weird as the first time. I keep forgetting you're-"

"Undead, does that make me a zombie?"

Adam shrugged, "maybe."

Celex looked on longingly at the fighting, "I would fight, but it would be highly unfair to anyone else if we did. I am an eternal being of reat and awesome power now."

Adam snorted. "Is that it? Right now you look like the flamboyant uncle . Lollipop is a flavor not an aesthetic."

Lord Celex raised and eyebrow at him, "Are you trying to goad me?"

Adam shrugged, "Maybe."

"You aren't very good at it"

Adam shrugged, "Fine then I guess you're just to chicken to fight me."

"I am not entirely sure what a chicken is, but if you are implying I am a coward, than I am going to have to take you into that circle and thrash you to prove a point."

"Try me."

"Only you would be stupid enough to challenge a maker to a duel."

"I stole the architect's ship, I am nothing if not audacious."

Lord Celex, reached up stuffing the cotton candy into a ball which he shoved into his mouth whole, "Very well, let us begin."

The two of them waked into an open circle, and the fight was overseen by an arbitrator who examined the lines.

Lord Celex pulled off his fuzzy pink sweater and handed it to one of the viewing members of the crowd.. He had sculpted himself a very fit physique, which Adam would have been jealous of if Celex had earned it the hard way. Adam didn't need to take off his shirt, but he did, just so everyone could see what hard work and dedication actually looked like.

Celex's was a fabrication, Adam' was for real.

The crowd oohed.

Adam watched as Celex winked into the crowd causing a very pretty girl on the front row to blush.

Adam snorted, "Don't bother, he already has two hundred wives."

Celex almost looked insulted, "HAD, and it was two hundred concubines and ONE wife."

Adam frowned, "Avex didn't inherit any of your concubines did he because that's just super gross."

Avex frowned, "Are you trying to..... oh what is the word you humans use.... Cockblock me"

Adam shrugged, "I was a few seconds ago, but now I actually really want to know if Avex inherited your concubines because its making my skin crawl."

Celex crossed his arms over his bare chest, "he did not. If Avex wants a harem, than he's going to have to get his own." He turned to look at the crowd and grinned, "I am a good time in case anyone was interested."

Adam rolled his eyes hard, "Alright stop stalling and pick your poison, spear, sword,"

"Bare knuckles."

"Are you proposing to me." Adam teased

Celex looked him over as if he was actually considering it, "Mmmmm unfortunately you aren't my type."

"Not hairy enough?'

"You seem to be laboring under the delusion tha you're funny."

"And you seem to be laboring under the delusion you can beat me."

The arbitrator raised his hand and the two of them began to circle slowly. Adam knew that Celex could simply vaporize him with a thought, but he certainly hoped the old war criminal was at least honorable enough to give him a fair fight.

"I could beat you, like a dusty rug." Celex taunted

It didn't work.

Adam wasn't going to make the first move, "Are you going to fight me or keep running your mouth."

Celex opened his mouth as if to respond, but then lunged forward. Adam was ready, and the two exchanged a series of testing punches. Celex hit hard, really hard, and he was unrelenting.

But, Adam noticed, he was a bit uncoordinated.

He had amazing footwork, but he tended to stop moving to use his hands as if forgetting he had four limbs now.

Adam used that o his advantage, punching and moving at the same time.

He was getting the upper hand when Celez figured out what was going on. He switched tactics quickly and came in low, grabbing Adam around the waist with both arms and body slamming him to the ground. Adam tensed all the muscles in his core as they hit the ground narrowly avoiding getting the wind knocked out of him, though it hurt like hell. Celex grabbed him and locked his elgs around Adam like a barnacle, and the two of them went rolling across the circle.

Now that they were on the ground and rolling, Adam found himself woefully outmatched. He had never been great shakes at grappling but clearly grappling was closer to the Celex form of combat than boxing was. It took all he had simply not to be pinned or choked out. Instead it ruined into a long drawn out battle of stamina.

Wheover caved first would lose.

Adam managed to get his foot up between the two of them, and was ready to kick the Emperor off when the sky sunnely lit up with a blinding flash of white light.

The crowd went silent eyes wide as they stared upward.

The white light dissipated into a sharp disk that crackled in an arc through the night sky.

Celex let Adam go, and the two of them got to their knees to stare.

Adam's implants began buzzing almost immediately, and before he knew it Conn was hovering above him, "What the hell was that." Adam demanded.

"That was the defense nexus." Conn said,

"Shit." Adam reached out and grabbed his shirt from a gaping member of the crowd, followed closely by Celex who sprinted after him through the crowd. Sunny linked up with them on their way out, along with maverick and Ramirez. Maverick had a bloody nose but didn't seem to notice it as she raced after them.

The group of them piled onto a tram transport which whisked them to the airfield. Aam was met by a group of on duty soldiers.

"What's going on."

"The defense nexus was activated sir. Reports are coming in from all over arcadia airspace. Multiple similar instances. One station managed to capture this image before the explosions." Adam's mechanical eye opened the image.

"Shit is tha?"

"An unidentified ship of some sort?'

"Do we recognize the make?"

"The base model is Kree but the rest of it is.... Unknown."

"Kazna." Celex muttered darkly under his breath looking up at the sky as if waiting to see another eruption of light.

Adam felt his face pull into a grim line, "Put Arcadia on high alert. I am declaring a state of emergency and bringing us onto DEF-CON 3 get our pilots ready for wheels up in five."

"Yessir."

Weather a scouting mission, a probe, or he beginning of a full scale attack, Adam had no doubt that this was the beginning.

The beginning of war.