A pretty important part of settling into being a new Sam is moving out of your old place. It’s very… final like you’re giving up on leading a semblance of what passes for a ‘peaceful’ life these days.
When I moved out right after the Gulf Offensive, it was to less than stellar commentary made by my sister.
We haven’t spoken since.
-Asuriel, 2039
About ten minutes and a lot of tears later, I was softly hiccuping into Evie’s damp shoulder.
“W-what about the kids?”
Evie pulled back and grabbed both of my shoulders, “Spark, if you think for a second that the twins wouldn’t go with you even before you became a Sam, you’re kidding yourself. Those two worship the ground you walk on.”
I fought down a blush as I sniffled, “Benny?”
“Had to be restrained by all three of us when Nyra gave the ultimatum.” Evie smiled “Kept saying something about giving her a charlie horse like in school. Not to mention the fact that he wants more Sam food.”
I giggled, “That kid needs to be taught how to cook already.”
“And we’ll be the ones to do it!” Evie declared, “Will you be okay for a little bit longer? I want to bring the kids up here so we can tell them what’s going on.” She looked at the three veteran Sams, “We aren’t imposing if we all come with you are we?”
“Nope! Not at all!” a red-eyed Cryo replied, “We have plenty of room at HQ, and even if we didn’t, The Family would’ve stepped in to help provide housing for all of you.”
“She’s right,” Inque continued, “We take care of our own.”
“Good,” Evie gave a tired smile, “That means I won’t have to get Celine.”
“Who’s Celine?” Sky asked.
“It’s the name she gave to the spikey baseball bat I made her when she was twelve.” I answered, then looked at her, “Wish you would let me make you a new one, didn’t use good nails for it.”
“And I’ve already told you my answer!” Evie called over her shoulder as she left the cabin, “You can make me a new one after I shatter it over a Model Three’s skull!”
The closing door blocked off my response so I settled for sticking my tongue out in her general direction instead. A few minutes later, and the door opened to let in a trio of kids all clamoring to see me.
“Spark!” Summer shouted as she barely stopped herself from pouncing on top of me.
Autumn, obviously treating me with kiddy gloves, gave me a small hug.
“Spark! Why are you hurt again?” Benny demanded.
I said the first thing that came to mind. “Uhhhhhh I tripped?”
Is that really the best you can do?
I directed all my pouty feelings towards the AI in my head, ‘Pyri I’m tired!’
Then allow me to inform the others that all who are leaving should be packing an overnight bag.
‘Nono, I’ll do it.’
I sighed, took a moment to breathe, then ripped the bandaid off, “Yes, I got hurt out there, but more importantly, I need to ask all three of you a very important question.”
They all instantly went still.
“I heard about Nyra’s ultimatum for me,” I started, “that I should leave just because Pyri is in my head now.” I took a deep breath and braced myself for denial, “I’m leaving regardless because of how she hurt me, but the house is broken beyond safety no matter what she says.”
I paused one last time, then said the words:
“And I was wondering if you three would like to come with me, or stay here.”
The trio all stared at me dumbfounded, and I was gearing up to explain Evie would be coming with me as well, when Autumn reached out and booped me on the nose. “We were going to ask if we could come with you silly.”
“Aunt Nyra is being really mean ever since this morning, I don’t want to be around her!” Benny declared.
Summer gained an impish smile, “Wherever Autumn goes, I go! Except for this time, ‘cause I would’ve tied her up and brought her with me!”
Autumn shot her sister a look, “You and I both know you can’t tie me up! I’m too squirrelly!”
Cryo snorted, “It’s an entire family full of sass! Where have y’all been my whole life?”
Summer gave the redhead a look like she was trying to discover the best way to draw on her face with a sharpie. Evie broke in before chaos incarnate would erupt, “Okay! So everyone here is going! But it’s like, almost eight o’ clock, and I refuse to pack all my stuff tonight so I’m making an executive decision.”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
She looked at SkyFire, “Do you have any sort of drone or something that can keep an eye on everything while working with Spark’s?”
Sky stood up from the wall she had been leaning against, “Yeah, I can do that easily.”
She cocked her head to the side, then muttered “In fact, the drones I left behind to grab some,” her eyes swiveled to the kids, “...stuff alongside your C-Foam Launcher are here.”
As if on queue a robot dalmatian walked through the door and over to my stretcher, before poofing my launcher out of Aetherspace and onto the ground.
“Ohmygoshhessuchagoodboy!” Benny exclaimed before instantly giving the dalmatian a massive hug.
“They don’t let me hug them…” Inque muttered dejectedly.
“Anyways,” Evie said with a clap of her hands, “If SkyFire can supply drones, then we can get away with overnight bags for tonight, and come back tomorrow to actually pack everything up.”
She looked down at Benny who somehow had fallen asleep while hugging the drone. “I’ll pack Benny’s bag.”
“Actually,” Cryo replied, “All of your stuff is just in your rooms right?”
I nodded, “Yeah, everything except the tractor room, but I can pick through that and grab anything belonging to the kids.”
“Good, cause I’d rather get everything now,” Cryo replied while walking over to the fridge, “We can go over everything separately, one of use goes with Evie, one with Spark cause she’s easily ready to walk around by now, and the last one…” she trailed off and glanced back at me.
“Can go into my workshop and pull everything from inside of it, then pull the BioShifter from the shop.” I finished for her, “I can swing by and double check.”
[I can give the AI of whichever Vanguard goes to the shop some deconstruction instructions.] Pyri cut in.
Cryo nodded, “Fair enough, let’s get you all packed up!”
***
With Inque going off to the shop to get the BioShifter, and Sky going with Evie and the twins, I was left with CryoFlare, who after I had gotten out of the stretcher it a pained hiss, had followed me into the house away from the bedrooms and into the-
“I can see why you called it the tractor room.” She remarked.
The room in question had a large toy barn and various toy models of farm equipment scattered across the floor, finally in the corner was a pair of massive containers each loaded up with wooden blocks.
“Yeah,” I swept my arm over the room, “this was where we all played as kids.” My voice turned somber, “It was a blast way back then, probably still would be now if I couldn’t drive the real things anymore.”
“So uhhhh what all is- was his name Bently?”
“Benny.”
“Ah right,” Cry rubbed the back of her head, “So what’s all Benny’s stuff?”
I gestured towards a set of toys that was a bit shinier, “Those ones, isn’t much but he should get to keep his toys.”
“Hey, can I give you a hug Spark?” Cryo asked.
I looked at Cryo in surprise, “huh?”
“Come on,” she prodded, “you sound like you need a hug.”
“O-okay.”
She pulled me into a hug and rubbed a hand up and down my back. “If you want, we can just take all of them. I doubt this ‘Nyra’ will even so much as miss them.”
I shrugged, “Let me ask Evie about it first… Pyri can you call her?”
Already putting you through.
Evies voice came through full of worry, [Hey Spark, you okay?]
“Hey Evie, sorry to bother you, but…”
[Spit it out.]
“Do you think we should take everything from the tractor room?”
I could hear the surprise on the other side of the phone.
[All of it? I mean. Anything in there that isn’t Benny’s was family toys but… yeah just grab them all. No reason to let ‘em all sit there collecting dust.]
“Okay, thanks Evie.”
[No problem.]
I hung up the call and gave Cryo a nod, “Those purple bins in the corner are full of wood blocks so you can yoink those as well”
“Gotcha covered!” Cryo grinned. She then waved an arm over the room, and then flicked her wrist, all the toy models disappearing in wisps of smoke.
“I can’t wait til I get access to that trick.” I muttered as I walked out of the now depressingly bare room.
“You’ll get it soon!” Cryo assured me, “Just gotta buy in, and you’ll be good to go!”
“How much does ‘buying in’ even cost?” I asked her with a raised eyebrow.
“I’ll let your AI answer that one!” Cryo replied with a cheeky wink.
The required catalogue and purchase will run you up about fifteen hundred points. Not super prohibitive considering you’re buying into established Class III infrastructure.
I glanced up at my point count which was sitting at just over eighteen-thousand. ‘I think I’ll be good to buy in, but I want to do the Vulgoran half of my transition, and body modding first.’
A wise choice. I have compiled a list of recommended purchases for that, but it can wait until after you get a full nine hours of proper sleep.
I shrugged at Pyri, then turned to walk up the stairs while explaining what I decided to Cryo.
“No problem,” she replied, “I waited a few weeks before buying into it myself.”
“Really? I figured you all bought the initial thing at the same time.”
“Nope!” She stretched her arms up over her head, “We all actually bought into it. Some sort of legacy thing for Indy based Sams. You’d have to ask Shadowtag about the details, although she gets cagey when it comes to legacy stuff.” Cryo looked a bit sad, “She’s lost a lot of people over the past few decades, pretty much the only Sam around here that’s been going for longer than seven years.”
We reached my room and I opened the door, “What’s she like?”
“Well, she’s a massive workaholic,” Cryo started, “No idea why The Family hasn’t slapped her with a forced vacation yet, but us three are going to force her into one after she trains you.”
I walked over to my closet and started sorting through my clothes to find anything I would want to continue wearing. “I need training?”
“Oh yeah you do,” Cryo said with mirth as she poofed away a bookshelf loaded with my various textbooks, “She’s very dedicated to training any Indy Sam that pops up and sticks around, even trains the ones from Chicago when she has the time.”
“Huh, I guess that’ll be some sort of fun.” I hedged.
“Oh don''t worry! She won’t put you through a Sam equivalent of bootcamp or whatever.” Cryo shuddered. “She’s very insistent about not traumatizing new Sams, even if we can get super therapy.”
I pulled out an armful of clothes and laid them on the bed. I like the sound of her the more I hear about her.”
“Yeah.” A voice that made my blood run cold cut in. I turned to find Nyra standing in my doorway, “And then you’ll end up dead when she’s through with you.”
“W-what do you want Nyra?”
“I just came up here to say goodbye,” she coldly replied, “After all, I don’t want you here where you can put all of us in danger.”
“Lady, I’m warning you,” Cryo cut in, “Leave her alone or you’re going to experience what it feels like for your blood to freeze solid.”
“Oh good, you found a new friend.” Nyra sneered, “Whatever, just get off my property before I grab something from my gun locker.”
With that threat laid bare, she turned and left us both standing there quietly shivering. Me from fear and emotional distress, Cryo from barely suppressed anger.
“I uhhh, I think I got the clothes I wanted.” I squeaked, “just need to teleport out my nightstand, and the boxes in my closet and that’s my stuff finished.”
Cryo visibly took a deep breath before turning to me, “Okay, let''s get these things pulled and then get you out of here.”
I reached over and hugged her, “Thank you Cryo, I don’t know if she would’ve left if you weren’t here.”
She poofed away the rest of my stuff with a flick of her wrist, and steered me out the door.
“Call me Alannah.”