Why join The Family?


    ‘Cause they help you with a lot of stuff including getting points, asking for help, getting financial assistance in both credits and points.


    And finally.


    You can demand to get Sundays off and no one will tell you no.


    -Deus Ex to a brand new Samurai, 2055


    Cr- Allanah and I both split up soon after, she went to help Sky with the rest of the house clearing, and I started walking towards the shop. The Firehawk was actually too big to land anywhere other than in the field next to the shop. From here, I could see the BioShifter inside the open cargo bay, so I turned towards my workshop instead.


    On the way there, I found all six of my Fox-bots, leaning down I started scritching between all their ears. “We’re leaving tonight.” I told them, “Go wait in the ship so I don’t have to track you down when we take off.” Marian responded with an affirmative yip and trotted off, leading the rest of my small drone force towards the ship.


    Standing up, I resumed my journey towards my workshop. Passing through the ruined doorway, I found my workshop unnervingly bare of everything, my tools, the randomly strewn projects I had left half finished, just… everything.


    Everything except for a heavily disturbed pool of my dried blood.


    So much had changed in the last several hours.


    Suddenly a loud noise broke me out of my trance, the sound of a large object getting dropped with some curses following it in the upper loft where I kept some of my less commonly used tools and parts I was saving for a rainy day.


    It was slightly amusing hearing what was most likely the strongest person for several hundred miles struggling with what was probably the most annoying part to move  up there.


    A complete battery system I had stolen off of a Version 12 Cyber Wagon when some Nonsanto reps came out to try and sell us a new membership package. Instead, I tricked them into signing a paper giving me the rights to the vehicle they drove in with, and almost got whatever poor excuse of an electric engine out of there when it lit on fire without warning.


    I got the batteries out though, which meant I had a decently sized bomb sitting in my loft for two years.


    “Careful not to blow us all to smithereens while you’re dropping stuff up there Inque!” I called out.


    Xeir head poked up into view, “Easy for you to say!” Xey fired back, “Why didn’t you disassemble these batteries?”


    I started climbing up the stairs to the loft, “‘Cause I didn’t want to remove a safety feature that would cause the thing to ignite on its own!”


    Reaching the top, I found Inque standing in a mostly cleared out storage space. “Why aren’t you just poofing it away?” I asked.


    “Cause Rayne said the batteries have a chance of catching on fire if I send them into Aetherspace!” Inque said while throwing xeir hands into the air with frustration. “Other than that, I got everything other than a drum full of what I think is waste-oil down below. Unless you have a secret compartment around here I don’t know about?”


    I shrugged my shoulders, “Nope, no secret compartments in here. And yeah that drum can stay here, unless y’all can use it for something?”


    Inque went quiet for a few moments before nodding, “Rayne says it can be fed into a matter decompiler back home. Might as well take it so it doesn’t get spilt or burnt out here.” Xey looked down at the heap of batteries and wiring fastened together, “How did you even get this up here?”


    I raised an eyebrow at xem while pointing next to the stairs, “I put them in a crate and lifted it up with the pulley system I have.”


    Xey facepalmed, “Of course you had some sort of jury rigged solution ready to go.”


    I pouted and stamped my foot a little, “I’ll have you know that that isn’t jury rigging! I built that pulley system specifically for any heavy lifting to or from the loft!”


    A tentacle sprouted from Inque’s side and rushed forward to boop me on the nose. “I know, just teasing you a bit there.” Xey sprouted a few more tentacles which rushed around the head of electrical equipment in front of xem, careful not to touch any live parts. “Come on, the others should be finished by now.”


    With that, xey lifted up the heap and trudged over to the stairs with me following behind, close enough to steady a loss of balance without crowding xem. Once we got off the stairs, I jogged over to the pair of big doors on the north side of the workshop and dragged one of them open.


    The rumble of the door on the track felt very final, which was fitting considering this might be the last time I ever hear it again.


    The screaming and yelling didn’t help matters either.


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    Oh dear, it looks like your aunt discovered that it was more than just you who is leaving tonight.


    Nyra had confronted everyone else while they were dragging their overnight bags onto the Firehawk’s cargo ramp. Alannah and Sky had both gotten in front of Evie and the twins while Nyra was screaming about ‘abduction’.


    Before I knew it, I was sprinting across the gravel. The looks on the twin’s faces as the clutched each other was a look of sheer terror. I hadn’t seen them scared once today, even not while we were in danger of getting mauled by antithesis.


    Nyra turned at the sound of my footsteps and had the audacity to look smug, a look that didn’t last after I slid to a stop and shoved her down into the dirt.


    “How dare you!” I screamed. “We all just lost most of our family, and all you can think about is taking some sort of twisted satisfaction in treating everyone around you like garbage!”


    I spit into the dirt at her feet. “I heard you mutter about how you would ‘protect me’ while you were delirious from blood loss. Was that a lie?” I chuckled darkly, “Or is it because of the fact that you can’t seem to handle the fact that me initializing today is the only thing that stopped our entire family from being wiped out?”


    I didn’t get an answer from the shell-shocked woman on the ground.


    “Figures, we’re leaving because this entire area needs to be combed through to make sure I didn’t miss anything, and a new hive doesn’t sprout from one of the barn pits or the lagoon.” I looked back at Homeplace and felt a rush of melancholy. “You threw out the chance to come with us when you sucker punched me earlier.” I turned to find the twins had taken the opportunity to dash up the ramp, and Inque had rushed to get the batteries secured before rushing back down.


    “Let’s get out of here.” I muttered before walking away.


    All five of us turned and began walking up the ramp when Nyras voice called out. “Go on then! Turn your back on the home that just earlier today you would’ve died for! Leave us all floundering for scraps while you get to live like a king you good for nothing boy!”


    We all froze at the sound of Nyra misgendering me. Sky’s tail slapped the ramp as a hiss built in her throat. Without turning around she shouted back at the woman behind us. “Big talk from someone who turned her back on the people she raised.”


    I was ignoring the rest of what was going on as what Nyra said turned over in my head. I was being accused of leaving my home to the wolves.


    Spark? Are you okay dear?


    ‘It’s time I put my money where my mouth is.’ I replied.


    I put my fingers in my mouth and let out a sharp whistle. Marian instantly came running down the ramp and sat down in front of me. “I rubbed the fox bot between the ears. Raising my voice so I would be heard, I gave her the last order she would be getting today.


    “You stay here with the others and protect Homeplace from anything that wants to do it harm, antithesis or human.” Looking up behind Marian I saw Robin limping down the ramp. “Not you Robin, you’re coming with us so I can fix your leg.”


    Marian let out an electronic yip before dashing down the ramp, four more Fox-bots trailing behind her.


    I turned towards the woman at the bottom of the ramp, “For the record, I did die for this place.” I waved an arm at the building Inque and I had come from. “Just look in my workshop, it’s all mine, I can assure you of that at least.”


    With that said, I spun on my heel and trudged the rest of the way up the ramp and into the Firehawk. The BioShifter sat there, tempting me to just reassemble it right that second and finally get the body Pyri had shown me in the mixing room.


    Unfortunately, I had to sleep in an actual bed tonight.


    I trudged into the cabin to find the twins both talking to each other in hushed voices while Benny slept on his bunk.


    I moved to lie back down on the medical cot while Sky walked past me, and into the cockpit. Evie laid down on one of the other empty bunks while Alannah and Inque sat at the table.


    Soon the gentle hum of the ship’s engines told us that we were up in the air, leaving the smoldering ruins of my former home.


    Nyra’s words came crashing back into my mind.


    Was I abandoning the wastes?


    ‘Pyri?’


    Yes Spark?


    ‘Do you have an itinerary free?’


    I always do, what would you like to schedule?


    Sighing with relief as I settled into my cot. I replied, ‘I’d like to discuss the possibilities my application paper outlined.’


    ‘I want to save the wastes, even if I have to drag everyone in it kicking and screaming.’


    So we sat there and started outlining the basic plans for proper reforestation of the lands almost everyone considered too depleted to ever properly grow things without chemical intervention again.


    ***


    We made it to Indy far quicker than we would’ve by car. Sky had opened the door to the cockpit and offered to let us all see Indy’s skyline as we came in for a landing.


    It was, in a word, beautiful.


    Lines of light stretched across the dark horizon in a web of humanity, a single mega building on the south side towered into the sky to hold a large portion of the city''s residents with more suburban housing scattered to the north where we were headed towards.


    The Indianapolis Sanctum, which The Family had constructed the building by request of a Sam named Asuriel a few decades ago, It was future-proofed to house any and all Family operations there alongside the Sams who decided to live there.


    Now it housed seven Sams; the three magical girls, Shadowtag, a pair of Samurai more dedicated to infrastructure and civil service projects than fighting directly, and now me.


    It felt weird to be calling this building home, not uncomfortable, instead it felt strangely familiar and right to call this place home.


    The building was a mish-mash of different shapes and colors setting it apart from the surrounding buildings, it was several stories tall with the lower floors looking more office shaped from the exterior, a band in the center level with hover car traffic lanes that was clearly meant for parking of both mundane and esoteric vehicles. Finally above that were the Samurai quarters, a set of floors covered in decorative infrastructure that even in the dark glowed with various light fixtures built into it.


    Sky looked back at all of us from her pilot’s seat, then threw a hand out to indicate the building we were landing at.


    “Welcome to your new homes, everyone!”