And then they brought me back here!" Agatha bawled as she hugged the massive construct around the waist as he held the massive tractor above his head and seemed to be struggling slightly under the strain.

Taking pity on the construct, Xander moved over to the engine and with a grunt hefted the machine from the struggling man's grip, "Seems you're a little under the weather, old man. I remember when you would play Atlas in the old plays and pulled it off without any fancy effects," Xander said as Punch allowed him to take the burden off him and with a frown snatched Agatha away.

Letting the man get some distance, Xander slowly let the large farm implement drop to the ground with a sigh. "You know, I always wondered where you two ran off to. No way would you allow the boys to hare off on an adventure without someone to watch their backs," He grumbled as he dusted his hands off and stretched slowly to let Punch come to grips with what was happening. "What the hell happened, Punch? Where are the boys and what in the first spark's name made you think it was a good idea to just ghost like that," he growled before a slight prick on his neck reminded him that Punch was never a solo act.

"Judy, still hanging out with this reprobate," he whispered as the kitchen knife held steady at his jugular and the second member of the Boys first foray into creation glared at him darkly, even as the two Jagers stared in shock.

Grace, for her part, Had drawn a Cutlass and a rather nasty looking Needle Pistol out of her belt of tools and weapons and was now poised within striking distance of the woman threatening her godfather.

With a short hand signal the half-Giesterdaman slowly lowered the pistol, though she still remained poised to use her blade should the need arise.

"What have you done," Judy asked darkly as she stared between the Jagers and the now wide eyed Agatha

Grunting as he pressed forward into the blade and felt it give way as he called her bluff before stepping away from Agatha's protective mother figure, "Now that we've gotten the growling and threatening out of the way, how about we send the kids up to start packing and we three sit down like adults, drink some tea and discuss things." Xander said simply and shook his head as the two tensed at the thought of packing. "No, I am not taking her against her will, but I know you two well enough to know that you are about to rabbit and probably have a half dozen plans to get out of the city now that Klaus is aware of her presence. So can we please quit with the posturing and drink some tea?"

After some brief, silent communication, Punch sighed and nodded before nudging Agatha towards the two younger members of the party.

"Gil, Grace, take Agatha up and help her pack up everything she needs. Leave the big things and the like," Xander ordered as he moved towards the kitchen and shrugged. "If the 'Clays' decide to run it would be best to pack light so they're not encumbered, and if they accept the invitation, then we can have the Baron do the heavy lifting later," he explained before turning to the two Jagers that stood by the front door. "As for you two, sit down and make sure we aren't disturbed."

Ignoring the comments from behind him, Xander made his way into the small kitchen/dining room combo. The soft whirr of an air bellows was moving the oppressively humid air out of the kitchen through a rather intricate system of copper as enamel speckleware hissed and bubbled under pressure atop the stove.

He figured he had caught Judy in the middle of her canning day, a habit she picked up during their time in Avignon nearly two decades earlier. It was during the adventure of the 'Miraculous Retreating Rhône' and had actually saved the boys when the Soleil Papacy had tried to have them burned atop the 'Pònt de Sant Beneset' bridge after they had solved the mystery.

They had only been saved when they had been granted clemency after the fourth most powerful Pope had had tasted Judy's jellied Tulip Pears that she had canned just the day before and gifted to the constructs of the city.

He was surprised that she still kept up the habit after all these years, but he guessed that it was a feeling of home.

Taking a seat at the small, cozy table, Xander took a deep breath and waited as Punch and Judy moved about to prepare a simple tea set. While Punch and Judy had been one of the boys' first creations, they were considered to be some of their best as well. Back in their heyday, the two Constructs had stood against rogue clanks, psychotic constructs and sentient rutabagas run amok. The last had, thankfully, never made it into any of the Heterodyne boys books thanks to a rather effective campaign of bribes, oaths of silence and dark threats of violence to all involved.

Xander planned to give Gil the Benford two thousand Whacki-Weed-Whacker as a birthday present. He made a mental note to be off the continent when that happened, though Klaus would turn him inside out if he ever got a hold of him after that. Still, it should be good for a laugh and it would definitely get Klaus to work on his cardio.

Taking a deep breath, Xander nodded politely as Punch set down a small brown and blue tea cup in front of him before Judy filled it with tea. The two working in concert as they set the tea up and took their chairs themselves and carefully filled their own cups.

Taking a moment, Xander slipped out a small silver flask and poured a small bit into his cup before offering it to the other two. With a shake of her head, Judy refused even as Punch reached across the table and politely took the flask to drop a small dash into his own. With the first sip, lightning seemed to arc across the revived flesh even as the rips and stitches tightened up, clearing some of the fatigue from the big man.

It had been a collaboration between his Gleekin and the Baron's brightest minds, the liquid lightning acted as a method to help the constructs of the world keep their charge far longer than they usually would. It had proven to be fatal to most humans, though sparks could be thrown into a deep madness by the liquid and usually ended up building some sort of sentient organ grinder of doom before sleeping for a week.

The Jagers that tried it said that it had a 'varry nize keek!'

Taking his own sip, Alexander had to agree to some extent as an arc of electricity sizzled across his tongue and through his system. With a sigh, he set the cup down and began to try and explain to the two why it would be best to come with him of their own free will. Honestly, he would rather be fighting something right now.

Silas Merlot grunted as a heavy blow to the gut knocked the wind out of him and sent the stick thin man sprawling to the ground in pain. Holding his gut, the once Administrative Assistant Tyrant to Beetleburg snarled darkly before forcing himself to his feet. A crazed look in his eyes as he foamed at the mouth madly and with a screech of unbridled rage he launched himself at his opponent, his hands twisted into claws ready to rend and tear.

With a twist of its body, the goat sidestepped the enraged human before bouncing up and with a twist of his head brought both horns crashing down onto the madman's head, sending him to the ground once again.

Holding his head in pain as the goat proceeded to bounce up and down on him, Silas desperately wished that this whole day was nothing more than a bad dream brought about by some overly fermented fish paste.

He would give anything to be sitting down with a cup of tea right now.

Sitting down in the overly gaudy chair that Boris had found somewhere, (he refused to call it a throne) Klause sighed darkly before glaring at the first of his many headaches. The Slaver Engine had been picked up and was getting loaded under heavy guard while the rest of his troops worked to enforce peace in the town.

Currently he had a half dozen merchants that had been caught price gouging when they heard that he had taken over. It was something that always seemed to happen when he moved into an area. He would understand it if his presence was a destabilizing influence. He would be far less annoyed by this on a personal level, if he didn't put so much damn time into making things stable wherever he went.

Shaking his head to clear the dark cloud he was descending into, the Baron stared at the six merchants. His initial, knee-jerk reaction, was to simply ship them off to the Waxworks and wash his hands of them. It was a simple and direct act that would show that he was both fair and not to be screwed with, all in one simple gesture.

Unfortunately, Alexander had been a horrible influence on his inner tyrannical villain over the years. So, sighing in defeat, Klause pointed at one of the short paper pushers that always seemed to orbit him when he was anywhere near a professional location. "Gustav, pack these six up and put them to work at the Paderborn Imperial soup kitchen for the next year. A time of service to the poor and all debts will be squared," he ordered as he ignored the plaintive begging of the assembled merchants and turned to the next headache.

Apparently the gathered students and craftsmen of the town had somehow caught wind of his plan for a glass bell micro-lab and administrative center and home for the town square and had somehow turned it into a competition on who could make the most stupidly over the top creation they could.

Glancing at the round ball that had everything he had asked for, but also had an inner Labyrinth filled with sharp glass edges and would spin around slowly forcing everyone to stay awake for the majority of the day as they rushed around to avoid being tumbled about in a hallway of razor blades and broken glass.

Rubbing his eyes in despair as he tried to figure out a way to let the obvious spark down gently, Klaus cursed Alexander again for being able to ignore the chains of command.