Bee Good And You Will Bee Lonesome (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Eldritch smiled thinly. "Ah, you're a fan. A pleasure. Just be careful what you read in those funnybooks. Some of them might teach you magic." He winked, and made a few gestures in the air and opened up another mystic gateway, simultaneously levitating the unfortunate Mystic Force into the air to pull him through the gateway after him. "You should have nothing to fear from Malador for this particular engagement, though of course he will seek to devour your soul as he does all life that does not bend to his will." He hmmed, and gave a little salute. Fleur de Joie, always a pleasure, Bee-Keeper, a pleasure making your acquaintance!" And with that, he was gone!

[Electra]

"Don't worry," Fleur reassured the Beekeeper as Eldritch whisked the prisoner away. "The Master Mage is always a bit of a pessimist, I think it's a natural condition of the people with the high-stress global and dimensional guardian jobs. There's no reason for Malador to take any interest in you or I, and with luck, he might never hear of this at all. Hardly anyone got a look at Mystic Force's little trick before we put him down, so the story may not even reach his ears. If it does, it's Mystic Force he'll be annoyed with. People like Malador are very concerned about their image."

She looked over and saw the bank guards and officers finally beginning to arrive, and the police along with them. "Oh good, here comes the authorities. We won't be stuck cleaning up all that money ourselves," she said with a grin.

[SpicyWaffle]

"Thank goodnezz! Juzzt glad thizz izz all water under the bridge, or whatever," exclaimed the apian avenger after Eldritch took his leave, toting his arcane accomplice along with him beyond the mystical portal. An almost tangible wave of relief swept over the young dark skinned teenager as the encouraging words of Earth's Master Mage and Fleur de Joie put him at ease, and then doubly so once the armed escort of guards and policemen hit the scene. "Good thing they're zzhowing up, too. Hope they can zztill get back mozzt of the money from the other one, though."

But his relaxed demeanor suddenly shifted, his tone moving from one of mild countenance to panic in a flash.

"Oh, no!" cried the Bee-Keeper, his gauntlet-clad hands finding their way towards the metallic cheeks that made up the bee-like helmet covering his face. What could only be taken as a look of horror - or, at least, as close to a look as the unflinchingly unanimated helm would allow - had crossed the Hero of the Hive's face, arms dropping downwards and shoulders slumping as an exasperated sigh escaped the otherwise enthusiastic hero. "... I forgot to get Eldritch'zz autograph. Nutzz!"

[Electra]

Fleur laughed. "There'll be other opportunities, I'm sure," she told the young hero. "The master mage tends to crop up when he's needed, and if you fight crime in the city you'll run into him now and then. But I suspect that in time you'll start seeing him and other heroes as colleagues instead of celebrities. We're all just people who do what need to be done." She watched the police in action for a few minutes, satisfying herself that everything was under control and she could let down the walls of plants. "How much do you know about Beekeeper II?" she asked her companion as she undid the walls and sent the trees back to their patches of ground. "What he got up to in Freedom City and all that."

[SpicyWaffle]

The sudden line of inquiry caught Baxter by surprise, his face contorting into an awkward display of unease behind his mask as his disappointment at an autograph soon turned into clandestine secrecy. Perhaps it shouldn't have come as a shock at all, given the history Fleur de Joie and his illustrious uncle had culminated in their time; but still, it felt unexpected. After a moment of pause to contemplate the question, the Bee-Keeper finally gave a small shrug, palms upraised to animate his mostly feigned knowledge regarding the lineage he'd taken the reins of.

"I know zzome zztuff," he began, the computerized voice distorting his identity the way only the buzzing of a billion bee-bots could. "You guyzz were all over the newzz for a while after he took Beedom Hall. That and, y'know, the giant beezz and zztuff," alluded the plucky teen hero as he danced around his own relationship with his infamous forebear. Another forced shrug elucidated that this Bee-Keeper had no real connection to the previous incarnation.

"Bezzidezz that? The guy makezz zzome pretty zzweet battlezzuits, and izz totally nutzz."

[Electra]

Fleur cocked her head in acknowledgement at that. "That's most of the high points," she agreed. "Barry has his moments, times where you can see the good man he might have been, but it was buried under a whole lot of totally nuts." She seemed pensive for a moment about that, then brightened again. "But you do know about the giant bees, that's good. Would you like to come and meet them? I'm sure they'd be interested in seeing someone who is making a hero of that suit." It was hard to tell, but it seemed a little as though Fleur were trying to make up for her earlier suspicion, and the whole tying him up with vines business.

[SpicyWaffle]

Interest piqued, the Bee-Keeper III perked up at the suggestion of visiting the legendary bees that had harassed Freedom City back when his predecessor still cruised the streets. His own endeavors to study the clever little busybodies - no matter how minute the research - always seemed to end in disaster, whether it be giant dinosaurs or ne'er-do-well youths harassing him for Baxter's very peculiar interests. And now, presented with an opportunity to just meet the magnificently marvelous creatures whom had previously been the bane of Freedom City's existence seemed like an opportunity most fortuitous! Today was turning out to be the best day ever, sans the whole mistaken identity and money golem nonsense!

"I'd love to meet the beezz! I mean, if you're really okay with that," the chipper apian-themed teen cried in exuberance, his voice bordering on a shrill cry of glee. "I alwayzz wondered where they were hiding after the Bee-Keeper II wazz put beehind barzz."

There came another awkward pause, however, as another thought crept into the armored avengers' mind. A lone gauntlet found its way beneath the Bee-Keeper's chin, as if he'd suddenly entered a strange train of thought, his voice shifting from excitement to concern as he refocused his gaze on Fleur de Joie, his uncles' arch-nemesis.

"You think they'll bee angry? I don't wanna bee zztung a zzillion timezz and zztuff."

[Electra]

"You'll be fine," Fleur assured him, forbearing to mention that he would surely not receive a zillion stings because the first couple of giant-bee stings would surely be fatal. Luckily, the bees were not like that. "They love meeting new heroes. And even though their relationship with the old Beekeeper was... complicated, they won't hold that against you once they understand. They like the idea of bee-themed heroism in Freedom City. One of the youngsters even did a tour as a junior superheroine in Freedom City last year. You probably heard a little about Superbee, if you follow hero news."

As she spoke, Fleur finished collapsing the walls and coiling the vines and leaves neatly away to nothingness. With the street once again normal-looking, she extended a hand and rested it on the Beekeeper's shoulder, touching the other one to the pink rosebuds braided into her green hair. In an instant, the world was sucked away from around them, leaving them in a void that was the light green of sunlight through leaves, where the air smelled strongly of newly-mown grass. A second later they were out again and back in the world... or back in some world, anyway.

It looked as though they'd been dropped into a fairy tale world. The sky was a perfect blue with puffy cumulus clouds dotted here and there, and the sun shone down on a meadow unlike anything Baxter had ever seen. It seemed to stretch for miles, calf-high grass that moved like ocean waves as the breezes blew over it, interupted only by hundreds of massive flowers. The smallest ones were the size of helipads, the largest, the size of baseball diamonds. They came in all colors and shapes, creating a fragrance that filled the air with sweetness. In the distance, he could see what looked like... could it be a castle floating in the sky, drifting along like one of the clouds itself, but clearly made of earth and stone?

And then there were the bees! Dozens of them were at work in this giant meadow, moving from flower to flower to collect nectar just like their tiny counterparts. Only these bees were the size of semi-trucks, yet they hung in the air with seemingly no effort. Fleur surveyed the valley serenely, pushing her hood back and tucking her gloves in her pocket. "Welcome," she told him, "to Beedom City."

[SpicyWaffle]

Never before had Baxter ever felt such a combination of wonder and disbelief as Fleur de Joie took his shoulder, transporting both herself and the heavily-armed bee-themed adventurer to a place that shouldn't nor couldn't have existed on Earth. His eyes - wide and unblinking behind the visually-enhancing helmet - took in the feast before him, raw amazement at the sheer size and scope of the meadow he now found himself in the soup du jour, while the floating fortress of marble amidst the clouds made for a visually delectable main course; its unnatural suspension both mind-boggling and awe-inspiring as it towered from above the pastoral scene below.

But the most mesmerizing sight of them all wasn't the gigantic flowers, nor the perpetual waves of leafy foliage as far as the eye could see. No; what drew Baxter's eye more than anything were the dozens of massive honeybees, their busybody lifestyle of rolling around in the equally gigantic flowers a sight that the new Bee-Keeper simply could not find words to describe. All he could do for what felt like forever was gawk on in awe, their overwhelming presence enough to lay the oft vocal apian-themed teenager silent. The bees themselves... he'd seen them on TV when they were running amok, and they looked big then; but this? Baxter never imagined he'd ever see them this close, their fuzzy bodies defying what few laws of physics Baxter had soundly squared away under his belt.

"Beedom Zzity..." he repeated, more out of stupefied shock than to cement the green-haired heroine's statement in his mind. For a good minute, all the Bee-Keeper III could do was pan from bee to bee, with the occasional glance skywards towards the cumulus-based stone keep or an over-sized dandelion. Finally, however, Baxter forced himself to turn to his more feminine counterpart, a hand resting itself upon his brow as everything began to sink in.

"I don't... I juzzt... where are we?" Baxter finally managed to stammer out, the surprise brought about by the transport to the alien yet familiar landscape slowly wearing off as the dark-skinned teenager recomposed himself. This was nothing like the comics he'd read as a boy, save perhaps that one issue where everyone in the Freedom League was some kind of monkey. The entire field was a cavalcade of enthralling sights and monumental insects, with its oceanic fields of pollen-laden flowers and grass causing the yellow-and-black clad Hero of the Hive to feel quite insignificant.

[Electra]

"I call this world Sanctuary," Fleur told him, with a not-unkind smile at his stupefied reaction. "It's Earth, but an Earth that was ruined by war many decades ago. Some friends and I have been rehabilitating it, making it beautiful and liveable again. When the bees needed a place to live, I brought them here and created the meadow so they'd have enough to eat and something close to a natural environment. My friend Gaian Knight, that's his castle up there, he helped them build their hive. That's a mile or so over the hills there," she told him, pointing off to the east where what he'd taken to be a rocky ridge could be seen, upon close inspection, to have a lot more bees flying around it.

"Let me see if I can get their attention. They're pretty single-minded out here in the meadows." Putting two fingers in her mouth, she let out a piercing whistle that cut through the warm air. Several of the bees turned in their direction and began flying over.

[Avenger Assembled]

A trio of semi-truck-sized bees landed in a triangle shape around Baxter and Stesha, their faces taller than either of them as they loomed down over the two heroes. Stesha knew these bees well enough; Super-Bee (who only went by Ab-bee when she was in her 'secret identity' on Earth-Prime), Bee-la, and Bee-linda were three of the young, up-and-coming bees who were the future leaders of the hive. They had, perhaps fortunately, never actually met the Bee-Keeper face to face. Of course, one of them, being a very good student, had taken the chance to memorize his face.

"HELLO THERE," said what was to Baxter, giant bee with what was distinctly a gold tiara resting incongrously atop her massive head, her voice like the buzzing thunder of a jet engine as she loomed over them. Their wings were still, but they were loud all the same! "WE MIZZED YOU TODAY FLEUR DE JOIE. IZ THIZ WHO IT LOOKZ LIKE?" Super-Bee added, massive compound eyes seeming to stare right into Baxter's soul. With the other two bees behind him, there was no escape from the suspicion that was somehow unmistakeable on the face of the massive apian!

[SpicyWaffle]

Oddly enough, Baxter didn't seem all that surprised to hear that they weren't on Earth any longer - or, rather, Earth as he knew it - but the statement was still staggeringly powerful. Perhaps it was common fanfare for the other heroes of Freedom City to visit other worlds, regardless of their dimensional association, but for the Bee-Keeper III, this was quite the heavy response. Whatever questions he had about the place known as Sanctuary, however, were quickly put on hold as Fleur de Joie let loose with a shrill whistle, and before the Bee-Keeper knew it, the two of them were ensorcelled by a trio of outlandishly huge bees. Curiosity was quickly overridden by fear from the (while strangely adorable!) terrifyingly massive insects, their booming voices practically moving the similarly-themed teenager from where he stood through sheer force.

"Umm..." the boy began, the awkward question presented by the giant talking bee oddly discomforting. He wasn't aware they could talk, and the looks the one with the shiny tiara on its head only compounded things; just the sight of the massive stinger enough to put the newest incarnation of their former master on edge. "Hello! It'zz... uh... nizze to meet you, giant beezz! I zzwear I come in peazze, zzo pleazze don't zzting me in the fazze!"

[Electra]

"I'm sorry I missed you, I had errands to run this morning," Fleur told the trio of bees, sounding as though she were explaining to the neighbor kids why she hadn't answered the door for them. "And then there was a bank robbery, and you know how that goes. But that's very good noticing and remembering, Superbee," she complimented the lead bee . "You were really paying attention in hero history!"

Stepping back a bit, she gestured to her companion. "This is The Beekeeper, but he's not the same one who created your parents. This is Beekeeper III. He's new in Freedom City, and he's a hero instead of a villain. If it hadn't been for him, I might have spent half the day chasing the bank robber around! He was very interested in meeting all of you. He's a little nervous right now," she added in a voice that would've been sotto voce if she didn't have to speak so loudly over the buzzing. "But I'm sure you'll all get along really well."

[SpicyWaffle]

"Zzorry. Juzzt, y'know... zzo big!" explained the newest Bee-Keeper sheepishly, exasperatingly emulating the size of the bees with his arms by stretching them out comically. The nervousness was still there, and Fleur was right to point it out for her giant fuzzy friends. He almost seemed to falter there for a moment, an idle step backwards belying his fear of the enormous (but thus far friendly) creatures. For all his bee-themed shenanigans, Baxter wasn't his uncle; in fact, Baxter knew hardly nothing about bees except that they made honey and stung people. But that wasn't wholly his fault; in fact, it really was the truth that nearly every time he endeavored to do his own research, something ludicrous came up!

But that was neither here nor there. Right now, Baxter had to make his first impression count - after all, it wasn't every day he'd get to meet a bunch of semi-truck sized bees. He'd only get one chance at this, and there was so much at stake. After all, who wouldn't want to be friends with some giant fire-breathing bees? Besides, it would hopefully be a big step in putting the infamy of the Bee-Keeper legacy away for good, as well as clearing up all the bad blood between Beedom and Freedom City.

"Like Fleur de Joie zzaid, I'm the Bee-Keeper III, and I'm... uh... really nizze! Maybee, y'know, if you guyzz want, we could bee bezzt friendzz!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"BEEZT FRIENDZ, EH?" Super-Bee hmmed at that, loud enough to briefly rattle Baxter's teeth inside his armor. "WE COULD ALWAYZ UZE ANOTHER FRIEND? WHAT CAN YOU DO?" she added in a booming inquiry. "GAIAN KNIGHT HELPZ UZ MAKE HOUZES AND GABRIEL HELPZ UZ ZING, AND FLEUR DE JOIE HELPZ MAKE GIANT FLOWERZ FOR UZ TO EAT! WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR UZ?"

"HE LOOKZ VERY PRETTY," said Bee-la as she loomed over Baxter from behind. "MAYBEE HE CAN HELP UZ DECORATE FOR WINTER. WE HAVE TO KEEP THE HIVE LOOKING PRETTY WHEN WE ARE MOZTLY ZLEEPING. OR HE CAN TAKE CARE OF THE BAY-BEEZ!" The bees laughed at that, a deep, earth-shaking sound, seeming the find the image very funny.

[Electra]

"Baybee," Fleur scolded with a laugh, deliberately using the pet name she'd given the giant apian when she was no bigger than a large dog. "Girls, that's not at all polite. Friends help each other because they are friends. You don't become friends with someone because you think he can do something for you! Gaian Knight and Gabriel both helped you out before you'd ever done anything to help them, isn't that right?" She waited expectantly until three sets of giant antennae waggled in reluctant agreement. "I'm sure Beekeeper would love to have a tour of the hive," she suggested in a meaningful tone of voice. "Perhaps you could give us a ride there and show him around?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"AWWW, I WAZ JUZT KIDDING," hummed Super-Bee good-naturedly as she ducked her massive head at her 'teacher's' chiding. "ANY FRIEND OF FLEUR DE JOIE IS A FRIEND OF OURZ, RIGHT GIRLZ?" The other bees nodded at that, one of them making a deep bass noise that might have been another chuckle. She leaned over the Bee-Keeper and extended a massive limb for him to climb, a mighty chitin leg as thick around the waist as he was. "EVEN IF YOU DO LOOK ZORT OF ZILLY," she teased. "COME ON AND CLIMB ON AND I WILL GIVE YOU A RIDE. BUT YOU BETTER HANG ON TIGHT, I CAN GO PRETTY FAZZZT..."

[SpicyWaffle]

These bees were weird! Beyond the normal giant-fire-breathing sort of weird, too; they had a strange sense of humor; an amicable trait in the Bee-Keeper's eyes. Though between his nervousness, their bombastic buzzing voices, and the sheer scope of their fuzzy little physiques, Baxter was still awkwardly coping with what he was looking at. He'd lived in Freedom City all his life, and seen some weird stuff through the news - and even now as a hero himself! - but these bees really took the cake. But they seemed nice enough, as far as giant flame-spewing apiary scientific wonders were concerned, and that was all Baxter needed to hear.

And, hey, at least one of them thought he was pretty. That was something, at any rate!

"I'd love to zee the hive," the Bee-Keeper III replied to both Fleur and her enormous compatriots, some measure of confidence returning to his excited voice as his graciously skittered up the extended appendage of the one known as Bay-bee, saddling up where he could without sitting on her massive wings, before quipping a small joke of his own to stave off any hard feelings; "Y'know, if you don't think my zzillinezz will harsh your zztyle, ladiezz."

Now mounted atop one of the infamous bees the previous Bee-Keeper had once used to terrorize the city, he felt strangely proud of himself. Sure, he was still nervous, but at least he hadn't completely freaked out like when Eldritch had first shown up. Maybe that's why he didn't, all the shock from that first encounter having built up some sort of minor immunity to the site of the otherworldly domain comprised of gigantic flowers, towering cloud-based castles, and bees the size of freight trucks.

[Electra]

Fleur hopped up on a second bee with the easy confidence of someone who'd done this many times before, and suddenly they were airborne and streaking across the bee meadows at great speed! Luckily, the ample fuzz covering the bees provided a secure seat and a place to hold on, so it was marginally less dangerous than it might have been otherwise. Giant gossamer wings beat the air like helicopter blades, preventing much in the way of speaking while they traveled, but there was plenty to look at!

From this height, he could see the meadow spreading beneath them for miles, dotted here and there by strange formations that looked like ancient artifacts but were too small to make out in detail. Off to the southwest, the meadow gave way to deciduous forests, while to the northwest, patches of cultivated farmland, orchards and fenced pastures dotted the land. As they rose over a hill, he suddenly could see the hive itself, growing bigger by the second as they flew towards it. What had seemed like a natural hill formation turned out to actually be a beehive the length of a city block and at least ten stories high, made of stone and daubed liberally with mud for insulation. The bees slowed as they approached, swooping downwards to fly into a cavernous entrance at the bottom of the hive.

Inside, the hive looked a bit more like a traditional beehive, if one done at a thousand times normal scale. Wax honeycombs covered the walls, some of them merely providing insulation, others filled with what had to be gallons of honey each and sealed up for storage. Everywhere bees were working, repairing, filling cells, or busy with chores Baxter couldn't begin to fathom. Many of them noticed Fleur de Joie flying past and acknowledged her with a wave of their antennae or one of their strange buzzing calls, but apparently speed and time had granted the Beekeeper some measure of anonymity.

[SpicyWaffle]

From atop the soft-haired steed, the roar of beatings wings drowned out whatever howls of excitement or fear might have escaped the Bee-Keeper's lips as they rocketed through the air with surprising grace and fluidity, the auspicious alacrity of the gigantic bees whipping through the air as marvelous as it was terrifying for the young boy, his grip soundly tightening on the impromptu fuzzy reins with each cresting of a hill or minor aerial adjustment to keep himself seated. Despite their speed, Baxter nevertheless was treated to an eyeful of sights from below; the meadows below stretching on for what seemed like forever interspersed with an amalgam of impossibly large flora and debris from what must have been the former civilization that existed here, as Fleur de Joie mentioned. But there was more than just that as they fluttered along, and as signs of civilization made themselves present near the massive woods, the armored teenager couldn't help but have his interest piqued; certainly the last thing he'd expected to see upon the home of the enormous apian entities was a farmstead!

Regardless, their arrival to the mud-and-stone hive filled the newest Bee-Keeper with no shortage of emotions as they passed through, the occasional buzzing or waggling of antennae tossed towards the green-haired woman with them as the citizens within the massive structure went about their busybody lifestyles. But what a sight it was! Honey as far as the eye could see; its sticky substance encased in wax-laden honeycombs bigger than Baxter could have possibly imagined. And the bees! There were so many, and all so big; like a swarm of prop planes tearing through the air or skittering along the surfaces of their waxy home. But for all the awesomeness that made up Bay-bee and her compatriots' home, there was also a sense of dread and unease within the Bee-Keeper as all the buzzing continued to bombard his senses. They hadn't seemed to notice him - yet - but the thought of making a bad impression certainly felt like a weighty thing upon his shoulders, with tangible fear finding itself lodged in his throat as they continued on.

"It'zz amazzing!" chimed the Bee-Keeper as loudly as he could so as to make his voice heard over the clamoring of so much buzzing. He was determined not to lose heart, and while he spoke his eyes remained ever transfixed on what might be the strangest yet most awe-inspiring thing he'd yet to bear witness to. Frankly, it was amazing in and of itself that everything seemed to efficiently organized; as though every inch of the massive hive had been painstakingly planogrammed. "Geezz! How do you guyzz keep everything moving zzo zzmoothly?"

[Avenger Assembled]

The giant bee laughed, and this close the rush of her wings cut the volume of her voice enough that Barry could hear himself think even as she spoke. "IT IZ WHAT WE ARE!" she buzzed exuberantly at him as their companions swooped all around them in a massive aerial ballet. He could hear what might have been singing from the hive as they approached, though it was hard to tell if that was real or just all the massive-chested humming coming together in one glorious song. "BEEZ HAVE ORDER AND PEAZE HERE, AND WE CAN BUILD WITHOUT HAVEEEING TO FIGHT OR TO DIE LOOKING FOR FOOD! THIZ IS A VERY GOOD PLACE TO BE A BEE! AND THE ZQUISHY BIPEDZ ARE VERY NICE TOO! WE HAD ZOME TROUBLE WITH THE LOCALZ, BUT FLEUR DE JOIE AND THE OTHERZZZ TOOK CARE OF THAT! NOW WE TRADE THEM HONEY AND THEY LOVE IT! HUMANZ LOVE HONEY."

[SpicyWaffle]

"Definitely have enough..." the young teenager remarked, a slight whistle escaping from the mouthless formation that made up his helmet as he surveyed the slew of sticky sweet substance. The enormous honeycombs almost seemed on the verge of exploding with their contents, whilst the busy little bees the size of freight trucks poured more and more into each non-insulation based compartment with expedient aplomb. The flurry of activity was both mesmerizing and awe-inspiring for Baxter; a boy whom by stark contrast never seemed to quite keep everything together.

"It muzzt have taken forever to build thizz plazze, even with your friend, Fleur! It'zz zzo mazzive!" Baxter prattled on, swiveling on his impromptu fuzzy seat atop Super-Bee to give his rapt attention to Fleur de Joie, though careful not to let loose his grip upon the hairy hide of his faithful bee-steed. Whomever these other humanoids were, the Bee-Keeper hadn't a clue, but at least it seemed like they had all come to a diplomatic resolution in the end - doubly so, given that it seemed unlikely the bees would have lost any sort of physical conflict.

"It'zz good you guyzz worked everything out with thozze other, uh, bipedzz, and that you zzhare your honey with them. But where did they come from? I thought thizz plazze wazz zzuppozzed to be ruined or zzomething? Have they... have they alwayzz lived here?"

[Electra]

"Oh no," Fleur called over from her bee. "We built all of this, the hive, the comb, the meadow, all over the past two years." She sounded very proud of the fact. "The second Beekeeper created the giant bees, but as weapons, without a real plan on how to give them a good life. They lived in an underground bunker on a diet of sugar water and daytime television. As you'll probably notice when you talk to some of the adults," she added with a laugh. "At first I only had the bees who were captured in the Freedom Hall battle, and then the fire-breathing bees that he exiled from the hive. I brought them here, but they weren't happy without the queen and colony. When we finally got Beekeeper into jail, I got him to reveal his secret lair to me so that I could go and collect the bees and bring them all here."

As she spoke, they continued their rapid journey through the hive, deeper in and further down all the time. There was no more natural light here, but some sort of phosphorescent light provided enough brightness in the corridors to allow sight. "They didn't know how to build a hive, so we helped them with that, and I make sure they have enough to eat. But they're amazingly self-sufficient besides that."

[SpicyWaffle]

"Thizz whole plazze in only two yearzz?!" the Bee-Keeper exclaimed, still as shocked at the existence of the extra-dimensional world as he was with the expediency it had been cultivated. Even the massive hive, with its hundreds of buzzing drones and well-kept combs, was nearly enough to mentally wind the young boy. When he'd first started this little roustabout-like lifestyle, he'd never expected so much to happen so fast. Yet, here he was nevertheless, riding atop a giant bee with a tiara his insane uncle had created through a honeycomb large enough to house a small city block on a planet formerly ravaged by war. Talk about an unbelievably tall tale!

"Zzo, uhh..." Baxter mumbled, his modulated voice all but drowned out by the beating of Superbee's gargantuan wings. Even as their little cruise through the honey-rich home went on, the young Bee-Keeper couldn't help but feel a twinge of dread at all the giant bees present; all of whom would only really require one good poke from their stinger to have him shishkabobbed. Thankfully, they didn't seem all that upset that he was there; or maybe they were just too busy. It was honestly hard for him to tell, given that he didn't actually know anything about bees.

"They... uh... they don't zzeem to mind me beeing here. Maybee they've really let bygonezz bee bygonezz? I'd have thought the queen would hold a grudge for... y'know, the whole beeing left with nothing but zzugar water and zzome TV."

[Electra]

"The old queen is gone," Fleur told him, looking pensive for a moment. "She was old when they came here, the parent to all the adult bees in the hive. They don't live as long as humans, though much longer than your average honeybee. Queen Beelissima hatched out here, and has never known anything but Sanctuary. The others... I suppose they don't seem to think about it much. They aren't at all interested in going back to Prime, except for a few plucky kids like Superbee here. Some of them are angry at him, especially the dragon bees, who he exiled from the hive. Some of them, especially the robot bees, seem to miss him."

She shrugged. "Sometimes parental relationships are complicated. You'll probably have some explaining to do when we get to the queen's chambers. That's where we're going," she explained, "to the very bottom of the hive." Indeed, their progress for the last few minutes had been inexorably downward, through seemingly endless hallways of comb. Now when he looked closely, Baxter could see that in the chambers they passed, many of the combs were not filled with honey, but with large white spheres the size of yoga balls, or with shapes, moving shapes, wriggling behind nearly opaque curtains of wax.

From another chamber, a bevy of tiny, relatively speaking, giant bees shot out as though propelled by rockets, their palm-leaf sized wings keeping keg-shaped bodies improbably aloft as they formed a wedge and zoomed down the corridor. Their high-pitched buzzing sounded excited, and they nearly ran straight into Superbee and her friends as they passed. "ZZORRY!" one yelled as they sped away, up the corridor and out of sight.