Elara sat in the center of the Lion's Oasis, staring at a pile of junk.
To the untrained eye, it looked like garbage: a coil of scavenged copper wire (stolen from a long-dead ruin by Roric), a pile of quartz crystals, a long iron rod, and the precious data chip given to her by her grandfather.
To Elara, it looked like hope. Or, at least, a very dangerous science fair project.
"Explain it again," Kaelen demanded. He was crouching next to her, his massive shadow blocking the sun. He looked at the tiny microchip as if it were a poisonous bug. "This... flea... will stop the army?"
"It's not a flea, Kaelen. It's a key," Elara explained, rubbing her temples. She hadn't slept in thirty hours. "The armor on the Ferals is locked to a specific frequency. This chip contains a 'Kill Code.' If we broadcast it loud enough, it tells the armor's internal computer to seize up. It turns the Feral army into statues."
Kaelen poked the copper wire with a claw. "And the wire is... the tongue?"
"The wire is the voice," Elara corrected. "The iron rod is the throat. And Zev..." She pointed to the Griffin Alpha, who was currently preening his feathers on a nearby rock. "...Zev is the lungs."
Zev looked up, looking insulted. "I am not lungs. I am the Storm."
"Exactly," Elara said. "I need electricity to power the broadcast. You are the only portable generator I have. I need you to channel a steady, low-voltage current into this coil. If you surge, you fry the chip. If you stop, the signal dies."
Zev puffed out his chest. "I can do this. I possess infinite power."
"I don't need infinite power, Sparky. I need a AA battery," Elara warned. "I need you to be a trickle charger. Can you be subtle?"
Zev looked offended. "I am the definition of subtle elegance."
"You entered a room yesterday by smashing a ventilation grate and exploding," Roric pointed out dryly from the shadows. "Subtlety is not your element."
The Scavenger Hunt
The first hurdle was materials. To build a transmitter strong enough to reach the Feral Army at the border, Elara needed height and conductivity.
"I need more copper," Elara announced, inspecting her meager coil. "And gold. Gold is a better conductor for the connection points. We need pure, soft gold."
Kaelen stood up. He reached up to his own neck and ripped off a heavy, intricate golden torque that probably symbolized his royal lineage. He tossed it onto the sand.
"Take it," he grunted.
Elara stared at the priceless artifact. "Kaelen, this looks important. Like, 'Crown Jewels' important."
"It is the Collar of the First Sun," Kaelen shrugged. "It is heavy. I have others. Melt it."
Roric stepped forward. He reached into a pouch and produced a handful of silver coins and a strange, green-tinged metal bar. "The Wolf does not wear gold. But we steal it. This is from a trader's caravan."
Elara looked at the green bar. "This is oxidizing copper. Perfect. Now, I need a soldering iron."
The three Alphas looked at her blankly.
"A heat source," Elara translated. "Small. Precise. Hot enough to melt metal, but focused enough not to burn the chip."
"I have fire," Kaelen offered. "I can build a bonfire."
"Too big," Elara said.
"I can strike the metal with lightning," Zev suggested.
"Too chaotic," Elara sighed.
She looked at Roric. The Wolf Alpha paused, then pulled a small, curved dagger from his belt. "This blade... it heats up when exposed to friction. It is a Shadow-Forged steel. If I strike it against flint rapidly, the tip becomes white-hot."
Elara grinned. "Roric, you are my favorite manual laborer. Let's build a radio."
The Assembly of Chaos
The next four hours were a masterclass in frustration.
Elara was trying to perform delicate electrical engineering using Stone Age tools and three apex predators who had zero concept of "personal space" or "fine motor skills."
"Kaelen, stop breathing on the chip!" Elara snapped. "The humidity is bad for the contacts!"
"I am observing!" Kaelen rumbled, leaning back slightly but still looming.
"Roric, hold the wire steady. No, not with your claw! Use the wooden tweezers I made!"
Roric, usually the epitome of grace, was struggling. His hands were designed for strangulation and spear-throwing, not holding a millimeter-thin wire in place while Elara tried to drip molten gold onto a connection point.
"It is... slipping," Roric murmured, sweat beading on his forehead. "This is harder than hunting."
"Steady..." Elara whispered, guiding Roric's hand with her own. She felt the Wolf tense under her touch, his focus narrowing to a singular point. "Now, touch the hot knife to the gold... pssshh... Perfect."
She sat back, wiping soot from her forehead. "Okay. The circuit is closed. Now for the hard part."
She turned to Zev.
The Griffin Alpha was standing on a rubber mat (actually a thick piece of cured beast-hide) to ground himself.
"Okay, Zev," Elara said, holding up the two ends of the copper coil. "Grab these. Do not—I repeat, do not—summon a thunderbolt. I want you to just... think about static. Think about rubbing a balloon on your head. Just a tingle."
Zev grabbed the wires. He closed his eyes. He concentrated.
ZAAAAAAP!
A massive arc of blue electricity shot between his hands. The copper wire instantly glowed cherry-red and began to smoke.
"STOP!" Elara screamed, slapping Zev's arm with a stick.
Zev jumped, breaking the connection. "I felt the power flow!"
"You almost melted the transmitter!" Elara yelled. "That was 10,000 volts! I need 1.5 volts! Be smaller! Be weaker!"
"I do not know how to be weak!" Zev wailed, looking genuinely distressed. "My nature is the storm!"
"Imagine you are a baby chick," Elara coached, trying a psychological approach. "A tiny, fluffy, static-charged chicken. You are just keeping an egg warm. Gentle. Buzz. Not boom."
Zev closed his eyes again. He frowned. He muttered, "I am a chicken. I am a fluffy, weak chicken."
He grabbed the wires. This time, instead of a bolt, his feathers stood on end. A faint, steady blue hum traveled down his arms. The copper wire didn't smoke; it just vibrated.
"Yes!" Elara cheered. "Hold that! That is the perfect frequency! You are the best battery ever!"
Zev opened one eye, looking humiliated but proud. "I am the Static Chicken," he whispered solemnly.
The Tower of Power
With the transmitter built and the power source calibrated, they needed altitude.
"We cannot put it in the Griffin Aerie," Roric argued. "The wind is too high; it will shake the connections loose. And Kaelen's den is too low."
"The Central Spire," Elara pointed to the large rock formation in the center of the neutral zone, directly above the healing spring. "It's high, stable, and central."
They moved the operation. Kaelen carried the heavy iron rod (the antenna) up the rock face with one hand. Roric carried the delicate circuit board as if it were a bomb. Zev flew up, trying to maintain his "Static Chicken" state without discharging.
They lashed the iron rod to the peak of the spire. Elara connected the copper coil to the base of the rod. She inserted the data chip into the makeshift port she'd fashioned from the gold torque.
"Okay," Elara said, standing on the precipice, the wind whipping her hair. "This is it. The Kill Code broadcast. If this works, the Ferals freeze. If it doesn't, we just annoyed a robot army."
She turned to Zev. "Connect."
Zev grabbed the leads. He closed his eyes. He channeled the low-level hum.
The coil lit up—a steady, amber glow. The data chip pulsed.
A high-pitched whine emitted from the iron rod. It was barely audible to Elara, but the Alphas flinched.
"It is screeching," Kaelen growled, rubbing his ears. "Like a bat."
"That's the carrier wave," Elara said, watching the chip. "It's transmitting."
The Field Test
"How do we know if it works?" Roric asked.
"I brought a volunteer," Kaelen grunted. He whistled.
Below them, two Lion warriors dragged a captured Feral beast into the clearing. It was one of the armored hyena-men from the previous battle. It was bound, snarling, and wearing the chest piece with the polymer weave.
"Bring him into range!" Elara shouted down.
The Lions shoved the Feral closer to the base of the spire.
The Feral looked up. It saw the glowing coil. It saw Zev acting as a battery. It opened its mouth to scream a warning.
Then, the signal hit it.
The amber light on the Feral's chest piece—the receiver unit embedded in the armor—suddenly turned red.
The Feral froze.
It didn't just stop moving. It locked up. The armor's internal servos clamped down, forcing the beast into a rigid, paralyzed statue. The beast's eyes darted around in panic, but its limbs were stone.
"It works!" Elara screamed, jumping up and down. "It's a remote kill-switch! We just bricked him!"
"We turned him to stone?" Kaelen asked, looking impressed. "Is this magic?"
"It's better," Elara grinned. "It's admin privileges."
The Retaliation
The celebration lasted exactly ten seconds.
Suddenly, the data chip sparked. Zev yelped as a backlash of energy shot up his arms.
"It bites!" Zev cried, but he didn't let go.
"Hold it!" Elara yelled. "What's happening?"
The amber glow of the coil turned angry red. A voice—distorted, loud, and synthetic—boomed from the iron rod itself, vibrating the air.
"UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED. SIGNAL TRIANGULATED. LOCALIZING SOURCE: LION OASIS."
Elara froze. "Grandpa?"
The voice wasn't Arthur. It was the AI. And it sounded pissed.
"COUNTER-MEASURE INITIATED. DEPLOYING THE HUNTER-KILLER."
"What is a Hunter-Killer?" Roric asked, his hand going to his knife.
In the distance, toward the Dead Lands, a sound began. It wasn't the marching of feet. It was the roar of engines.
High in the sky, a dark shape detached itself from the smog layer. It was sleek. It was metallic. And it was moving faster than Zev at full dive.
It was an ancient, autonomous drone. And it was heading straight for the radio tower.
"Incoming!" Zev shouted, still holding the wires. "I cannot fly! I am the battery!"
"Kaelen! Shield!" Elara screamed.
Kaelen didn't hesitate. He grabbed a massive slab of slate rock they had used as a table and leaped in front of Zev and the transmitter just as the drone fired a plasma bolt.
BOOM.
The rock shattered. Kaelen was thrown backward, skidding across the stone, his arm singed.
"It flies without wings!" Kaelen roared, getting back up. "And it spits lightning!"
"Roric! The lens!" Elara pointed. "It has a red eye! Blind it!"
The drone circled for another pass. It was fast, but it moved in a predictive arc. Roric calculated the trajectory. He pulled a heavy throwing spear from his back.
"Zev! Surge!" Elara ordered. "Give me a pulse! Now!"
"But the chip!"
"Do it! Overload the antenna!"
Zev abandoned the "Static Chicken." He unleashed the Storm.
KA-ZAM!
A massive arc of electricity shot up the antenna. The iron rod turned into a giant electromagnet.
The drone, flying close for a kill shot, suddenly veered off course, its navigation systems scrambled by the magnetic pulse. It wobbled.
That was the moment Roric needed.
He threw the spear. It hit the drone's intake fan with a sickening crunch.
The drone spun out of control, smoking, and crashed into the cliff face fifty feet below them, exploding in a ball of fire.
The Aftermath
Silence returned to the spire.
Zev collapsed, his feathers smoking. The copper coil was melted slag. The data chip was fried.
"We broke it," Kaelen said, panting, clutching his singed arm. "Did we fail?"
Elara picked up the smoking remains of the chip. She smiled.
"No. We broadcasted the signal for a full minute before the drone arrived. The kill-code went out. It should have propagated through the network."
She pointed to the horizon.
The distant dust cloud of the approaching Feral Army had stopped. It wasn't moving.
"They're frozen," Elara said, relief washing over her. "We stopped the invasion."
"But," Roric added, looking at the burning wreckage of the drone, "we just told the Master exactly where we are."
"And he just sent a toy to test us," Elara agreed grimly. "That was a scout drone. Now that he knows we can hack his army... he's going to come himself."
Kaelen stood up, shaking the ash from his mane. He looked at the burning drone, then at Elara.
"Let him come," the Lion Alpha growled, his voice vibrating with a terrifying, battle-hardened resolve. "We have killed his army. We have killed his bird. Now, we kill the metal man."
Elara looked at her three Alphas. They were battered, singed, and exhausted. But they were standing together, shoulder to shoulder, defending a pile of melted copper and a tiny human.
"Get some rest, boys," Elara said softly. "Tomorrow, we go back to the Dead Lands. And we're bringing the sledgehammers."