Several days passed uneventfully after discovering the abandoned bunker. I had a few more game nights with the members of Alana’s team, but mostly I put my nose to the grindstone and worked on self-improvement. I was essentially on standby right now, so the best use of my time was to improve my skill with firearms, progress my weight training, and continue producing designs for arms and other equipment.
I’d gotten the Sentry Bot blueprint done first; in the end I’d gone with modular weapon mounts and a standard loadout of a minigun and a shock projector; essentially a wireless taser that delivered enough voltage and current at full power to threaten a person in full-coverage armor. It was…theoretically non-lethal. At low power. If the target wasn’t wearing anything that might impede the electricity, necessitating higher output. More importantly, the shock projector wouldn’t damage the building much.
In addition to that, I’d gone ahead and chosen my new heavy weapons, though I could only afford one for now. It was sitting in the armory now with the rest of my guns, tagged with a teleporter beacon so I could bring it to me at a moment’s notice. The rest of my points had largely been sunk into an upgraded motion tracker for my armor and a strength multiplying undersuit that was better tuned to my newly-enhanced physiology. Next time I punched something while suited up, it would be learning why I’ve never bought a melee weapon.
I stepped off the elevator on my way back from weight training to find my mom standing in the hall, presumably waiting for the elevator herself…along with Haverson. I wasn’t sure I wanted more details about that. It wasn’t strange to run into her here though; we were both occupying high ranking officer suites on this floor along with Alana and Radcliffe.
“Hey sweetie! Josh here is taking me on a date! At my age; can you even imagine?” mom announced, much to both my and Josh’s embarrassment. I gave him a nonplussed look.
“Okay, I know she’s not as old as she makes it sound, but did you really get seduced by a woman twice your age?” I asked Haverson dryly. His embarrassment actually seemed to fade a bit and he gave a hearty guffaw.
“Hah! I’ll take it as a compliment, darlin’, but I’m actually closer to her age than yours,” he informed me happily.
“I’m not a cradle robber, you know,” mom insisted in a huff. “I wouldn’t date someone my own daughter’s age.”
“I’ll be holding you to that…” I replied with a sigh. “Just remember we’re still on the lookout for whoever attacked us. Stick close to Haverson and yell for Juny if you’re ever in danger.”
“I’m always listening!” the AI added happily, which only made the comment creepier.
“No worries, boss, I’ll keep her safe,” Haverson assured me, patting his hip where a handgun was holstered. And pointedly ignoring Juny. Honestly, a pistol didn’t impress me all that much at this point, but considering it was from our armory, it was at least Class I.
“Oh, it’s not like we’re leaving Boone. We should be perfectly safe here, right?” mom asked, patting me on the shoulder.
“I had Juny confirm we’ve blocked off the only secret tunnel into town, so it should be fine, but there’s no such thing as too careful,” I insisted.
“It’s a Juny guarantee!” she added.
“Thank you, Juny. But Erica, if you’re so worried, I know what you could do!” mom exclaimed, instantly giving me a sinking feeling. I already knew what she was going to ask for; I’d been expecting it for a while.
“I’m not buying you Samurai-grade cosplay,” I told her firmly. Even if I wanted to it would be too expensive right now.
“There’s no need to go that far. I heard you have some machines that can make Samurai gear!” she replied. I looked at Haverson. He shrugged.
“Well, I’m more of a commando than a quartermaster. If you want time from the fabbers you’re going to have to convince Alana,” I said, shifting the responsibility. It wasn’t really meant to discourage her; there was enough gremlin in me to want to see how that went.
“Challenge accepted! Ah, but for now, I guess we should get going. I’ll tell you all about how it goes later, see you then!” mom declared as she stepped into the elevator, dragging Haverson with her.
“Please don’t,” I replied as the door closed, referring to the date. Once it started to descend I heaved a sigh. Talking to her could be draining sometimes.
“Did you really have to foist her off onto me?” Alana asked as she stepped around the corner.
“Hello there!” Juny greeted as if she hadn’t definitely known Alana was there the entire time.
“How long were you standing there?” I asked in turn.
“I was about to turn the corner when I heard you refer your mother to me. I decided to wait until she was gone,” she answered with a shrug.
“Probably wise. But yeah, I really don’t know how things are going with the armor fabber or how much it would cost us to give her some time with it, so you were the best person to refer her to. Haverson might have an idea but that would’ve been a conflict of interest,” I explained matter-of-factly.
“Armor doesn’t take that long to make, but we need quite a lot of suits…well, I’m sure a few minutes wouldn’t hurt,” Alana decided, pinching her chin.
“Unless someone gets shot before they get their new armor, in which case it will hurt very much,” Juny riposted in an unnervingly pleasant tone.
“Someone is in rare form today…” I sighed. “Anyway, don’t feel the need to give her special treatment just because she’s my mother. The bit about safety was just an excuse, she really just wants cosplay that’s more authentic than she can make herself,” I advised.
“I’ll make sure it doesn’t impact operations any. Once all our key personnel are fully equipped, though, I’m sure we’ll live if someone a bit lower on the priority list needs to wait a few extra minutes,” she responded. “Besides, I don’t see why we can’t humor your mother a bit. We’re already imposing on her quite a bit by tying her down here.”
That was really more on me than her, but she was probably trying not to make me feel guilty. I wasn’t going to let it get to me. This was more on the corpos than me.
“What about your parents?” I asked. It’d occurred to me before, but I’d never had a good moment to ask. Standing in the hallway wasn’t the greatest time either but it’s not like Alana had much free time to just sit around and chat.
“Both dead. I don’t remember my own mother, but my old man died fighting the Antithesis when I was young,” Alana shared proudly. “My grandfather took me in after that, of course, but he had my dad when we was already pretty old. He’s gone now too, but he lived a good, long life.”
“Wow. I’m sorry for your loss. Is…that why you joined up with a PMC?” I wondered.
“Sort of,” she said while teetering her hand. “I would have preferred a real military, but a PMC was the closest I could get around here…and even then, it took a bit of searching to find one that would accept someone my size.”
I had noticed that Alana seemed short for a soldier on our first meeting. It would have been rude to just ask, though. I’d always been curious, so maybe now was the right time.
“How’d you manage to get in?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“That requires a bit of background on my old man. He was actually a Samurai himself- initialized back in the ‘20s. By the time I was born in the ’30s he had a few gene mods and some of them were the type that can be passed on, so even though I got my mother’s height, I got my dad’s strength. Even before I had the cybernetics, I could already have benched Huifang,” Alana shared, slapping a hand to her chest.
“So you just needed to get far enough for a group to give you a physical,” I concluded. Certainly, anyone that realized she was literally superhuman would have wanted to hire her.
“Bingo. The important thing was that I was strong enough to hump my gear and carry an injured teammate if I needed to, and I could manage that easily, even if I looked ridiculous doing it,” she affirmed with a chuckle.
“But…wait. If you already had genetic modifications, why not lean into that? Why go with cybernetics instead?” I inquired, given that replacing her limbs would have entirely negated the impact of her genetics.
“It was just the pragmatic thing to do,” Alana contended. “I had a catalog for prosthetics and not gene mods, so it was more efficient to lean into that at the time. I didn’t think clinging to my old man’s legacy was worth wasting points, and I’d rather be my own person anyway.”
“Huh. Well, I can respect that. It’s not really the same thing, but I’ve spent my whole life doing the opposite of what my father would’ve wanted me to,” I commented wryly.
“You mentioned you didn’t have a very good relationship with him,” Alana prompted. I hadn’t gone into much detail the other day but I didn’t have a reason not to share.
“He was just a greedy, homophobic, transphobic douchebag that saw me as a tool for securing his legacy,” I said nonchalantly. Though the words were venomous, my tone was casual. “When he realized I didn’t have a head for business he lost interest, so when my mom divorced him he didn’t go for custody. Biggest favor he ever did me was forgetting to take me off his life insurance before he died.”
“You sure it was an accident? Maybe he cared about you in his own way,” Alana suggested carefully, her tone giving me the impression she was just being considerate, not trying to change my mind.
“Oh, he was pretty explicit that I was never getting a dime from him and he even removed me from his will. Being a successful businessman doesn’t mean he was smart, though- he forgot that it didn’t matter if I was named in it or not if I was his only next of kin, and he was too much of a dick to his lawyer for the guy to bother reminding him,” I related as if sharing a funny story. Which, to me, it was. “Well, there wasn’t much left of the estate after paying off his business debts, but that’s why I’m pretty sure the life insurance was an oversight.”
“Archived emails corroborate Erica’s view, incidentally,” Juny contributed unexpectedly. That was new information.
“When did you even look into that…?” I inquired.
“Just now!”
“New revelations aside, that’s a hell of a tale to share like an amusing anecdote,” Alana observed with a bit of concern.
“It all happened years ago, and my mom has always been supportive, so at this point it is one,” I assured her with an unconcerned smile. A devious smile grew on Alana’s face at that point.
“I suppose Haverson will just have to show you what a good father is like once he marries your mom, then!” she suggested, provoking an uncontrollable shiver in my spine.
“Gee, thanks for that image. I think I need a shower twice as much now,” I said as I retreated to my suite, Alana’s laughter filling the hall behind me.
Alana seems to become the sister Erica never had, and it's hillarious
You know, I'm low-key digging how nonchalant Erica is about her old man. Shows her maturity and how she squared that bit of trauma away in as healthy a manner as she could have.
I'm also glad for her her mom is as supportive as she is. Maybe in future she can give her mom some rejuvenation upgrades and health boosts so the two of them have more time together?
Because let's be real... if we were Samurai, we'd want our loved ones to be taken care of, right?
Fridge logic: get the Family to look into the team of assassins and their vehicles.
🧊📦🧠➡️