"Why are so many Samurai queer women? Are the Protector AI all Himejoshis? Or is this the next evolution of the Gay Agenda?"

  — SteelHeilsSecretSideTwink, in a now infamous GreenForest leaf.

  Quinn launched the repair drones and set the nanites to work before disconnecting from entirely embodying the mech. Sending a command to pop the hood, she wiggled out of the gel seat a little and stretched as the panel opened up to the sunlight.

  "Damn, you're actually pretty cute." Vixinertia's voice startled her out of her luxuriating, and Quinn blushed while turning her head away. "You can't just spring that on a girl after a stressful battle to the death, Vix."

  Vixinertia cackled "The best time for maximum fluster! And call me Aisha when we're not fighting, Vixinertia still feels a little wierd in casual conversation."

  Quinn gave her a stink eye. "Fine Aisha. I appreciate the help though, I definately owe you one. I'm Quinn, by the way."

  Aisha just grinned "You bet, I'll come collect some time. By the way, that maneuver with the sword at the end was fucking awesome, I gotta get a sword so I can try that sometime." She paused, considering how to continue the conversation. "So Quinn, what you do before you initialized?"

  Quinn rubbed the back of her head, grimacing when something came off on her fingers. "I was a warehouse worker at the amazon complex out near Middleton. You?"

  "Physics student at UW, doing classical mechanics on a GM sponsorship. Guess I gotta figure out if I even want to bother continuing now."

  "Yeah, I'm probably not." Quinn pulled her hand back in front, noting the dark red flakes peppering it. "Irys.. is this blood?"

  "Yes darling, how do you think the surgery drone installed the ECM Shielding."

  "What? It was cutting into my neck during that?"

  Aisha glanced up at her inquisitive. "What was, did something get in there with no."

  "No, just a surgery bot to install the anti ECM thing." Quinn scrunched her mouth up, then turned around to show the other girl the back of her neck. "Is it bad?"

  "It's a little gnarly but looks like it got sealed up pretty well. youre gonna need to bleach the shit out of that shirt though." came the reply.

  There was a dull thump and the ground rocked a little bit. Hylios piped up a moment later.

  "Hive destroyed! The others will be back top soon."

  "Thanks Hylios." Quinn replied.

  Aisha grinned wryly. "Hylios, Aphrodyte, Vyshnu, Irys. I'm seeing a trend, egotistical bastards."

  She grabbed her hammer and gave it a twirl. "So. What do we do with all the dead plants, we need to clean them up somehow, not let them take root?.

  "Correct, Aisha." Vyshnu's sage voice provided. "A wise course of action. Your esoteric explosives catalog has fleshmelter nanite grenades, which are a popular choice among human vanguard for such purposes." He paused briefly. "And given I deliver the weapons of gods from on high, I felt a sufficiently deific name was warranted."

  "Yeah Yeah, love you too Vyshnu." Aisha chuckled. "So, uh are the flesh melters dangerous?"

  "Exceedingly, though they are slow acting. You can purchase a safer version that won't target human biology unless you remain in the area of effect for a long period of time for an additional point."

  She hissed through clenched teeth. "Yeaaah, lets get the safer version. Can you show us where they need to go?"

  Quinn interjected "Let me pay for them, I have the catalog also and I owe you a ton of points."

  Aisha shrugged "Sure thing."

  New Purchase: Flesh Melter Nanite Grenade - x19

  Cost: 76. Points reduced to... 4624

  The hive team emerged a few minutes later as Quinn and Aisha were placing the grenades in the designated spots. Blade Dancer sliced through the C-foam with a shiny new sword of her own. Elliot and Rex were chatting animatedly while Dog followed behind lazily. Elliot flashed Quinn a smile and meandered on over, while blade dancer once again found a corner to brood in.

  "Sup you two, how was the surface fight?" Rex asked, watching the two of them at their work. "Kill anything fun?"

  Quinn pointed with a free arm at the remains of the model 12. "Big fucker hopped up on antithesis combat drugs and made smart by a model.. 17 variant of some kind. Was a pain and a half to put down."

  "Ha, we had to kill these three bodied wierd fuckers with blade tentacles, fucked Dog up pretty good, but she gave em twice as much." He grinned. "Also some giant digging worm fucker, you seen your boyfriends hand cannon fire yet? Damn thing put a hole near the size of me in it, just whoosh and a middle section was fucking gone."

  Quinn glanced at the unassuming revolver sitting on Elliot's hip. He had said it was dangerous, but damn.

  Elliot stepped in to help with the flesh melters, and soon they had unassuming little cans of soda like grenades sitting in the various piles of dead antithesis. Dog had grown back to full size and had stolen the corpse of a six that she then proceeded to devour, to Aisha's entertainment and Blade Dancer's poorly concealed envious hunger. Before long the group was done, and they moved a small distance away from the scene to avoid any nanite friendly fire. A suspiciously short amount of time afterwards, they got a request to join the shared call from one Synapse.

  "Hey Kiddos, good work with the hive. Hopefully that got ya'll some points and a half."

  There was a brief tapping of keys before he continued.

  "Damn, a command model too, freaky shit. Nice job Vixinertia and Maiden."

  Rex scowled. "I'm not a fucking kid, and we didn't exactly have a walk in the park down below either."

  "Trust me, I'm older than you. And I can't see underground with my loose net, so I just assumed you did a good job considering the hive's dead. But good job Rex, I'm proud of you buddy!"

  Rex seethed, but clearly decided not to comment further.

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  "Right, now that's done it's time for you lot to go the fuck home and take a break for the day."

  Vixinertia perked up a bit "We can keep fighting, we can buy Samurai boosters and what not if we get tired, right?"

  "No can do girl." Synapse interjected. "You're still basically baselines, and that means the amount of combat you've gone through is going to fray your nerves and dull your decision making. Break time isn't optional, there will be shit to kill in the morning, trust me."

  Vixinertia huffed, but didn't push further, and honestly Quinn could see the girl was kind of on her last legs.

  "In terms of places to go, Rex your apartment building is clear. There might be a few stragglers on the way there but you're a big boy, and dog is bigger. Blade Dancer, I can hook you up with a crash space in a cleared zone for now. Maiden and Boy scout, the Amazon complex is still clear, I'll get you a superheavy transport for the way back, but you should consider how you wanna get around on your own power. Vixinertia, the campus is still seeing some action, so I can do the same..."

  "Can I just go with Quinn?" Aisha piped up, glancing at Quinn afterwards as if for post suggestion permission. Quinn mentally sighed a teeny bit, but nodded.

  "Yeah Sure." Synapse replied. "I'm not your mom, long as you've got somewhere safe to sleep I don't care who it's with."

  Quinn caught Aisha waggling her eyebrows at her, and rolled her eyes. Damn that girl was forward.

  "Anything else we need to know?" Elliot asked in a straight to the point tone.

  "Yeah." Synapse added. "You two should be careful, Amazon's been known to try it on with Samurai, more so than other corps. And especially with their former employees."

  "Gotcha, thanks for the heads up." Elliot responded. "We'll be careful."

  "Alright Kiddos, anything else before I leave you to naptime?" Synapse paused briefly, waiting for a response but getting none. "Sounds good, stay safe and drink some water." He signed off.

  The five glanced between themselves, bonding over the shared suffering of having to interact with Synapse, before Rex went to hop up on Dog.

  "Alright, I'm heading out. Where he sending you Dancer? I can give you a lift."

  She mumbled something to him that the rest couldn't hear, but he nodded regardless. "Yeah we can swing by there. Hop on."

  After the other two left, Elliot, Quinn and Aisha sat around and chatted for a while. Elliot talked about the trials they'd faced in the tunnels below - ambushes, short range knife fights, and the occasional stragglers from behind Quinn that she apologized profusely for missing. He also talked about the hive itself, how they fought off the vicious three bodied model-13 hive defenders and a swarm of knive fingered monkey like model-10 hive attendants. They planted a giant bomb Rex had purchased, then skedaddled while the hive went boom.

  Quinn and Aisha shared the story of the hordes of model-6s, Quinn losing her arms again, and the extended duel of sorts with the enhanced model-12. Elliot Oohed and Aahed in the right places to make Quinn feel bad-ass, and she went to find the dropped sword to show it off.

  After a while the superheavy transport once again arrived, and after landing briefly to let Aisha and Elliot aboard it attached its cables to Cassie the second and began hauling them back towards the Amazon compound. The flight back was uneventful this time, with the city behind them seeming significantly less war torn as when they had approached a few hours earlier.

  As they flew, Quinn mulled her plans for the future. She'd earned a large batch of points today, and she knew Samurai could make a lot of money selling the right tech to corps or medicines to the rich scared of dying. Hell, there was a chance selling Cassie the second alone would get her enough to live somewhat comfortably for pretty much the rest of her life. She'd never have to work again.

  But at the same time, that fire of wanting to make a difference that she'd had in her youth, doused to embers by failures and the realities of the world, had ignited into a roaring flame once again. This had been why she'd tried to study law, to find a way to give the common folk some way of fighting back against the all encompassing corps and their predations. Embracing being a Samurai and all the violence and potential it meant could be a way to achieve that goal beyond what she could have even imagined before.

  She resolved to sleep on it, but part of her knew her mind was already made up. The thought of returning to a quiet life when she had this chance didn't sit right with her.

  The transport dropped them off about where the previous one had picked them up, a short ways in front of the main warehouse building. A few PMC were still around, and a number of civilian employees were also around, though far less than a standard day. After Quinn let herself down from the mech, the trio headed for Quinn's apartment building while she checked her messages.

  Maia had replied letting Quinn know they were safe and demanding Quinn confirm she was safe too. She sent a brief response that she was fine and would explain more in person. Jing Qi had replied with a terse confirmation of her reaching a bunker.

  Tim had collected a list of the team mates she had saved giving their sincere thanks, with a promise of a vigil for those who didn't make it at a later date. He also had managed to convince the higher ups to give her a few days off, so she was free from deciding how to handle her Amazon situation for at least a few days. She sent him a brief thanks back.

  Parking the mech in front of the apartment she had the arms help her down before mentally shutting the front again. She regarded it sitting in the street momentarily before asking.

  "Hey Irys, is there any chance of someone trying to steal it?"

  "Very unlikely, Darling. Not only would you notice through the cerebral link, but I could control it remotely and destroy anyone who dared with the mechs own weaponry. It'll be fine for now."

  Quinn nodded and turned to Elliot.

  "I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

  He gave her a thumbs up.

  "Sounds good to me, enjoy the evening off!"

  And with that he jogged off deeper into the compound, presumably towards his own apartment building.

  Quinn turned to Aisha, who was watching Elliot go with an amused look on her face.

  "Damn, he's a catch. Shame he's competition." She gave Quinn a stare with a raised eyebrow. "Unless he's willing to share of course."

  Quinn decided the building entrance was suddenly very interesting, not quite sure if she was going to end up regretting letting the other girl stay. After pinging the door with her augs the two headed into the foyer, where Aisha immediately took an interest in the cafateria.

  "Oh shit, you got food in here? Mind if I grab something to eat before I join you up at your place?"

  Quinn gave her a concerned look. "I guess? The foods pretty shit though, and you might end up paying way more than its worth."

  Aisha waved a hand as if to brush it off. "Can't be worse than uni cafeteria food, and Vyshnu will make sure I'll get fed for a decent price I'm sure."

  Quinn shrugged, her funeral. "Sure, I'm in room 27-13 when you're done."

  Aisha was gone near immediately, drawing surprised gasps from people inside clearly not expecting a full magical girl to wander in for an early dinner. Quinn had to smile a little at that, as she called a lift to take her up - she was not feeling the stairs today.

  She found her way to her room, unlocking if with another ping of her augs. She was surprised to find Maia inside, lying on their bunk and scrolling through something online. Maia looked up as Quinn entered, before bounding off the bed and wrapping her in a hug. They stood like that for a short while before Maia drew back a little, still holding Quinn while looking her in the eyes.

  "Holy fuck Quinn, you took forever to respond to me. I'm just glad you're okay. Wern't you near where a bunch of seed pods landed in the upper floors today?"

  "Maybe? But yeah we got to a shelter without getting got. A bunch of the others on the floor didn't make it though." Quinn's face fell, now remembering the dozens of corpses of those she failed to save.

  Maia wrapped her in a hug again. "Hey it's okay, its not your fault. I'm just glad you're safe.I didn't even see any here before I got to the shelter in the basement."

  Quinn pulled back and sat down on her bunk, Maia joining her. "Yeah, I think I understand that intellectually but a part of me still disagrees. I'm surprised they didn't send you back to work though."

  Maia grinned. "Maybe they would have, but apparently some crazy bastard initialized and blasted a whole bunch of the floor I was assigned to today to pieces with a loader mech, they were forced to give us the day off."

  Quinn tried to stifle a giggle and barely succeeded. "Oh, you're welcome then."

  Maia shot her a confused look. "Welcome for what.. "

  Quinn gave them a minute to work it out, it getting harder and harder to keep a straight face.

  "That was you? You're a fucking sam now?"

  Quinn broke out into a grin. "Yup, and Elliot too actually."

  Maia blinked, trying to process the revelation. "Fuck me.. not literally right now though." They suddenly blinked and noticed Quinn's clothing. "And you're even wearing body armor, how did I not even see that. Well, this makes things interesting."

  There was a knock on the door. Quinn held up a hand and went to open it, finding Aisha standing in the door, looking annoyed.

  "Nevermind, that shit is worse than uni food, I didn't even know that was possible." She glanced into the room, noticing Maia sitting there just staring at her. "Hi, I'm Aisha, nice to meet you."

  Quinn backed up to let Aisha in as Maia returned to her senses. "Maia, Quinn's roommate. I'm guessing you're a sam too? What you doing here?"

  Aisha jumped up and flopped down onto Jing Qis bunk before responding. "Needed a place to crash since UW is still antithesisy. Plus seeing if I can consentially get into your roomies pants."

  Maia giggled. "Can confirm, they are quite nice pants."

  Quinn groaned internally, this was going to be a long evening.

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