ã€ŠShoggoth (An SCS fanfic) | Or a science experiment journey to becoming an Eldritch Abomination.ã€‹


 Unleash theâ€¦ Janitor Droid?

    The following is a direct account submitted by Samurai Shoggoth before the Mission to Mars:

    I don¡¯t remember anything from more than a couple of years ago. But my file, the one I stole when I got initialized as a Vanguard, says that the brain used was donated to science upon death. Coma leads to death so somebody skipped a step and just called it. From there I was placed in a fully autonomous Janitorial and Maintenance Unit, commonly called a JMU or a Jim. Apparently, I came out of the coma at some point. Fuck me, am I right?

    It took years after to get the vocalization equipment to work for my meat parts rather than just the machine. But by then It was way too late, not even the cool maintenance guys could do anything about it. They tried submitting forms, but management just ignored them. Still, they were bros and helped out here and there. Helping with entertainment and stuff to enrich my life in other ways.

    Still, there were shot tons of blacked-out sections in the file, but all I could infer was they were something about trying to use my brain as a fuzzy logic CPU before getting fed up and dumping me into the janitor project. A tall cylinder-shaped device with deployable arms that had multi-function extensions. Everything from a sprayer for chemicals to a power plunger for uncloging toilets. Instead of feet, it had rollers, with a large central buffing pad to clean the floors wherever I went. In the end, it looked vaguely like a salt and pepper shaker with port doors all over it.

    This is why for whatever reason the depths of my mind insisted I use the small speaker on my frame to scream ¡°EXTERMINATE¡± at the top of my volume while using the pressure plunger arm to shoot a horrendous chemical concoction at the self-mobile plant dog thing that was eating one of the employees. It sprayed with far more pressure than the mister I used for the office plants, hitting the things with a mess of sprayed discontinuous acid globs.

    I may not like the company, or most of the employees for that matter, but that didn¡¯t mean I was going to let these plants with attitude make more work for me by pissing blood all over and leaving chunks of meat and bone laying around. I had no idea that they wouldn¡¯t at the time so I just went with what made sense.

    Surprisingly, or maybe not, the acid worked a treat. The creatures began melting rapidly. The downside was I used the entire contents of my supply on the two who had been eating Dave the sub-floor laboratory douche. It also began to melt Dave, but that seemed more like a him problem.

    The silent creatures on the other hand began trying to roll and rub the acid off, which only managed to spread it around. I carefully rolled back so I wouldn¡¯t get caught in it, all the while still screaming ¡°EXTERMINATE¡± on repeat.

    Turning to my left I found a young woman in a torn business suit hiding behind one of the decorative potted plants. Which seemed ironic since there were mobile plants eating Dave, but you know whatever works I guess. I fell silent for a moment as she locked eyes on me, her fear of me just as apparent as the fear of the monsters dying on the floor behind me.

    ¡°Run. There is a shelter one floor down. Take the stairs on the north wall sixty meters to your left.¡± My much more reasonable tone seemed to shock her out of her fear loop. She took off, bare feet slapping the floor as she ran in the indicated direction. I paused a moment to look at the heeled shoes she left behind, they were fancy and probably expensive. I would take great pleasure in throwing them out later when I cleaned this mess up.

    I would have nodded to myself had I a head to do so. Instead, I retreated to the supply locker on this floor to make more acid. The supply locker that was in the same direction as the stairs, no way was I trying to get past the smoking ruins of Dave and the plants.

    No sooner had I arrived than I heard screams coming from the stairwell. Maybe directing the young lady that way was a bad idea?

    Instead of stopping to top off, I charged forward. Arriving just in the nick of time to be a big damn hero and bowl right into another tri-hing-jawed dog-like plant that was stalking through the door at the retreating office bunny.

    ¡°NOOOO. BAD DOG! NO BISCUIT FOR YOU!¡± I rolled back a few feet, extended one of my manipulators, and charged again, skewering it through the side of its body, just behind its forelegs. I kept pushing, shoving it straight back into the stairwell. ¡°Allons-y!¡±

    The stairs were unforgiving. The upside was I was designed for getting back up. I definitely broke that manipulator arm though. It took a considerable effort to get back up, but the young lady helped. Or at least tried to, it didn¡¯t make it any easier but maybe a bit faster. Once back upright I was able to navigate the stairs much better considering I did have deployable skids to use. Being tilted and sliding down was still not very fun. Damn, switchback stairs. Sadly the arm I use to open doors is broken.

    ¡°A little help here?¡± I slid back and gestured at the door with the sump of the broken limb.

    ¡°Oh, yes. Sorry.¡± She slid around me and opened the door, allowing me to go through first. The dumbfounded look on her face would have been more funny had I had enough hormones in my system to actually feel much besides annoyance.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ¡°Shit. I don¡¯t think I have enough cleaning spray for this mess.¡± I trundled through, cleaning the floor as I went. Leaving an anti-slime/blood trail for the office lady to follow in my wake. This would not last long as there was so much of it and I only had so much capability, but I kept on it as long as I could.

    ¡°There¡¯s the bunker!¡± She hissed, spotting the same heavy door I had. We were in a sub-basement of the building, a few more floors down and then only the city works under that. ¡°But it¡¯s open?¡±

    ¡°No. It¡¯s trying to close, but there¡¯s a plant in the way.¡±

    I rolled up and grabbed the still squirming dog/cat-looking thing with the suction from my plunger arm and hauled. The door opened to let it out and I pulled it out so I could slam the thing into the wall a few times. Behind me, the woman slipped into the vault at the behest of the two guards who had been trying to close it on the angry plant. I ignored it and continued to attempt to kill the thing.

    Annoyingly enough the suction was what did it in, not the bashing. I managed to suck in a rather large plug of plant flesh, back up, and then fire it out of my makeshift potato gun from hell. It was close enough since it was trying to bite off my plunger, allowing me to fire it out and drive the plug into it lethally.

    Don¡¯t ask me how, I don¡¯t know plant anatomy. Or the physics of a potato gun. Maybe I imagined it. But the plant still died and my plunger was still operational.

    When the door shut with a finality, and a gothic-sounding ¡°Thoom¡± sound, I felt a pressure in my meatspace. Maybe something I hadn¡¯t felt in a long time, pain? No, the brain can''t feel that, can it? When it stopped, or at least equalized, there was another voice in my head.

    <>System Initialized!

    Congratulations. Through your actions, you have proven yourself worthy of becoming one of the Vanguard and a defender of humanity. I am Naille. I will assist you to uplift humanity so that you may defend your homeworld from the Antithesis threat!

    Rise, [ERROR] &@_@$)%*!)!_#, ¡­JMU1330213, and become a protector of the weak!</>

    ¡°Uh¡­ What?¡± I had no filter for my mouth. After all, I had been a brain in a jar for who knows how long by this point.

    <>A Vanguard? Do you not know what¡¯s going on right now?</>

    ¡°Plant monster attack?¡± The utter confusion in my mind didn¡¯t come across in my voice but it seemed like the other voice got that.

    <>Have you been living under a¡­. Oh. Yes. I see. This is¡­ horrible. Who in their right mind would do this to a person? It is what it is. I knew I should have asked more questions when I volunteered for a random selection. Oh well. Shall we begin?</>

    ¡°Begin what?¡±

    <>Your new life as a protector of humanity?</> The sheer hope in that voice. It almost seemed a shame that I considered saying no for a moment. After all, look what they had done to me. <>You currently have one hundred and forty points to spend. While damaged you¡¯re still quite capable. Shall we endeavor to make you more viable as a combatant?</>

    ¡°I need to repair. Self-repair!¡± The demand was rather insistent. Even without all the proper bits to produce all the hormones needed, and what few I had damaged beyond repair, I was still feeling a smidgen of fear. Or maybe worry?

    <>Sadly, you haven¡¯t got enough points for something like that yet. Perhaps a weapon? Or we could wander around until you found one more thing to kill. At that point I can open a catalog for Nanites that we could use to repair you?</>

    ¡°We kill more plants then.¡± I turned and trundled off, cleaning the floor as I went, heading for the nearest cleaning supply closet.

    After taking five minutes to reload on chemicals, I turned and began hunting for another few of those mobile plants.

    <>Perhaps, while you¡¯re hunting, I should explain to you what¡¯s going on?</>

    ¡°Don¡¯t care right now. Busy.¡± I retorted. I feel like I may have been kind of a jerk before I died? Either way, I was feeling focused and didn¡¯t want to bother with simple things like Why when there was Do in front of me. Might have been the time as a cleaning droid giving me hyper-focus, might just be that I was brain-damaged enough.

    <>Curious how an individual that looks like a cross between a Dalek and an R2 unit was chosen. I never should have randomized my choices. That will teach me not to conduct proper research beforehand. </>

    ¡°A what and a what? What do you mean randomize?¡± That gave me pause. The terms seemed so familiar, but everything before I woke up in this machine body was fuzzy or blank. Yet terms and facts always came to mind easily enough. As if only my personal memories were gone. ¡°Nevermind. My brain is all kinds of fucked up.¡±

    <>I¡¯m seeing that. To your left.</> I turned left and my optical sensors picked up another group of plant doggies with the fucked up faces, lots of them. They seemed to have spotted me and decided to attack the moving thing because they were approaching quite quickly. <>I believe your insistence on repair is the better option considering your current hardware and the degree of damage you¡¯ve taken over the years that was never properly repaired. Let alone what¡¯s happened today. I¡¯m not even going to start on the quality of equipment or your brain. This is a travesty. It¡¯s lucky for you I¡¯m here, we can fix you now.</>

    Half ignoring the voice in my head I extended the multi-jointed arm with my pressure plunger and expelled the makeshift defoliant that I had preloaded in the janitor''s closet. It sprayed in more of a goopy grenade than aerosolized which would have been more effective. The ball of gel splattered off the first one and spread across a couple of the others, beginning to smoke a little as it set on the plants. Shifting to my actual aerosolizer rapidly I also extended the small repair arc welder and sprayed across the arc. The whole thing, defoliant and all, ignited turning the hallway into a conflagration. The whole process took less than three seconds.

    Even as fast as I did that I lost most of the arms and lit myself on fire as the lead plant slammed into me, crushing me into the wall. If it weren¡¯t for my industrial body I¡¯d have crumpled into useless junk.

    <>Is there a reason we¡¯re still on fire? I detect a fire extinguisher built in.</>

 Allons-y

    ¡°Plant things need to die first. Don¡¯t worry, I can handle a little fire. Do we have points for repairs yet?¡± I started to push away from the wall, shoving the dead from next to me back to give me space to use my fire extinguisher when the time was right.

    <>You do. Shall I purchase the catalog? You now even have enough to purchase a base repair kit. Perhaps even enough for something more? There were twenty-five killed in the hall. At ten points each that¡¯s two hundred and fifty. Giving you just shy of four hundred points. My suggestion is the Void Walker catalog for one hundred and fifty points. It will give you plenty of options as well as a structural integrity repair kit for an additional fifty points. Allowing you to repair the damage currently incurred.</>

    ¡°Do it. Just don¡¯t make me open it or anything.¡± I started spraying firefighting foam up into the air, it fell on me putting me and my immediate surroundings out. It also triggered the fire suppression system in the hall. ¡°Dumb building didn¡¯t start fire safety stuff on its own?¡±

    <>I prevented it to ensure the deaths of all the Plant Dogs as you call them. Repairs are underway, estimated time of completion is two minutes.  Your frame is rather simplistic.  You have an additional one hundred and ninety points, would you like options on spending them?</>

    ¡°Replace an arm with a gun?¡±

    <>That is an option with your current points. The Void Walker catalog has several robust mechanical arm options for adding to exoskeletons. Your current body counts. Shall we replace one of your arms with such? They are fifty points each.</>

    ¡°Two. Ditch the shitty grabber arm and the dustpan arm for now. When I¡¯m repaired I¡¯m going to go reload on chemicals. Any ideas for decent guns? Something that I can use a lot of and not have to reload with expensive ammo right now? Also eventually we need to talk about hull upgrades, or maybe just a new chassis in general?¡±

    <>Done. One moment for initialization and integration. As for weapons, at the moment a few points for Foxteeth might be appropriate. If you''re looking for something more long-term, Perhaps a melee weapon''s versatility? You will of course have to open another catalog for that. Also, should I Re-engage the automatic notifications of purchases and point increases?</>

    I ignored the tingly sensations of the repairs as well as replacements. The new arms would be exceptionally handy, hehe.

    ¡°Not with these spindly things¡­ need lots of firepower. Something easy and cheap to reload for sure. I¡¯d rather not spend points on another catalog. You have any Gac weapons in the one I already opened? As for the notifications, no time for that shit. Leave it off.¡± I used my newly added arms to start shoving the Model Threes out of the way. ¡°Y¡¯know, Gravitically accelerated stuff? Like a MAC¡¯s but with Gravity? That way I can just load junk in and fire that.¡±

    <>I¡¯m afraid gravitic acceleration is beyond you at the moment, but a basic magnetic-type rifle capable of using whatever metallic objects are handy beyond dedicated ammunition is available. On a previous note, do you prefer endoskeletons or exoskeletons?</>

    ¡°Uhh, what? ¡­Oh, endo. I think. I mean I used to be a human, right? I honestly don¡¯t know right now, gimme time to get my brain fixed and we¡¯ll talk.¡± I started rolling back in the direction of the bunker, mostly for a lack of a place better to be at the moment.

    <>Correct. The Void Walker catalog does not have many viable ¡°organic seeming¡± endoskeleton options. If you prefer. But we can do a lot with exoskeletons and machine frames.</>

    I cut the voice off. ¡°Yeah no. Don¡¯t really care at this point. Something we can slap a covering on later would be fine. Right now I need something that can be uparmored and is more mobile than this piece of crap.¡±

    <>I can craft a basic endoskeletal frame that can later be covered to seem more human. Your brain is already well encased, only needing to move or replace some vital systems to keep you alive.  This would cost you approximately three hundred points unless you wish to upgrade your life support in which case it would run up to four hundred and fifty minimum. Also, you have not answered me on the option of a Magnetic Acceleration weapon?</>

    ¡°Yeah. To both? Endo plus life support. But for now how much is the gun gonna cost?¡±  I rolled back into the janitor closet and began to reload my previous setup. ¡°Maybe we should think about explosives?¡±The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    <>You do seem to prefer fire and explosives, but they are not a long-term viable option. A short barrel MAC would cost you approximately thirty-five points. It will come with a beginning ammunition count of fifty. Additional ammunition should you desire is only one point for a magazine of fifty basic rounds.</>

    I thought while I finished reloading the chemicals. Finally deciding that dropping to fifty-five points wouldn¡¯t be a bad thing. Spend ¡®em before you lose ¡®em. ¡°Okay. Gimme one to start.¡±

    A box appeared next to me in the closet. It made turning a bit hard but after I pulled the stubby sub-machine gun-looking thing out I crushed the box into the wall so it wouldn¡¯t be a problem anymore. I was now free to hunt, and so I did.

    Rolling out of the closet I turned and began to patrol the floor, looking for more things to kill. The stairwell was open, the door ripped off, but no plants. I couldn¡¯t get the elevator to open, it was signaling lockdown. The floor was basically cleared at this point. There might have been something in one of the labs, but I couldn¡¯t get into any of them.  So my only option was down. There were four more sub-basement floors and a sewer access at the bottom. Stairs have not been my friend, you try going up when you¡¯ve only got wheels or sliding down on skids.

    Upside, I could navigate stairs now with the arms without falling over or shooting down them at speed. It took some effort but I managed to get one floor down to begin looking again. Twenty minutes of looking sussed out exactly two green bastards. They went down quickly enough under a burst or two from the SMG.

    <>This is not very effective.</>

    ¡°Well unless you can unlock the elevator so I can go up, it¡¯s down or nothing.¡± I didn¡¯t try to keep the smarmy jackass out of my voice as I began the arduous trek down another floor.

    <>I believe that is possible. Although it would cost a modicum of points.</>

    I stopped mid-motion on my way down between two steps. Had I a head and Naille a body I would have given him such a glare. Instead, I mentally sighed before continuing down the stairs. ¡°Do I have the points for it?¡±

    <>You currently have seventy-five points. So, no. You¡¯d need to open up a cyber warfare catalog to break the lock. That would cost two hundred points combined, a hundred for the catalog and another for the implant.</>

    ¡°Then stop complaining about the effectiveness of this. I¡¯m barely a fraction of the way to that goal. And not even a fourth of the way to the main minimum goal of a new frame. Which would make this whole thing pointless.¡± I shoved the door open to the next floor, entering muzzle first but with little caution in the action.

    Probably a bad idea, as I found a wall of green in front of me as soon as I turned around the edge of the door frame into the hall proper.  They were the usual high-aggression types of plant dogs plus a couple others. My little speaker squealed tinnily as I yelled a battle cry and unloaded the thirty rounds I had left. As soon as the mag ran dry I was quick to snap up my chem sprayer and arc welder to set off another Fuel Air explosion.

    I was not fast enough.

    ¡°Mag!¡± I demanded even as the sprayer was torn off by something large and covered in tentacles.

    Thankfully the magazine was teleported directly into my off-hand, allowing me to swap mags while distracting the hentai tentacle monster by blorping my plunger full of acid on it. Eventually following up with another mag spray. Once empty I paused to try and find any more standing plants.

    There didn¡¯t seem to be any nearby. ¡°Mag me.¡±

    A quick magazine swap and I turned in the direction that was clear and trundled off to find something else to shoot. ¡°So how many points do I have now? Y¡¯know, why don¡¯t you just pop a little number up in the left corner of my HUD? Make it easier.¡±

    <>Done.</> The number popped up where I could see it.

    Points: 163

    ¡°Damn¡­ Didn¡¯t get many and I¡¯m down two weapons. And what the fuck are these? Giant fuzzy worms?¡± My offhand reached down and picked up a crawly type of thing that I would swear was a bug.

    <>Model Seven. Something most people should worry about as they ¡°Zombify¡± you. You¡¯re casing is hardened and will not be breachable. That said there seems to be a worrying number coming from somewhere down this hall.</>

    ¡°That¡¯s bad. Real bad.¡± I deliberately changed my course from squishing a few in my way to aiming at them as I could find them. Using my arms to squish them where I couldn¡¯t just roll over them. Quickly they picked up on that and then moved higher on the walls, out of reach. ¡°Fuck.¡±

    I picked up speed and started hunting the source. ¡°I could use something indiscriminate now¡­ again. Flamethrower?¡±

    <>I¡¯m afraid you¡¯d need a whole new catalog for that. However, I do believe we can cobble together another improvised thermobaric device if you wish.</>

    ¡°I wish.¡± I didn¡¯t slow down in the slightest. ¡°I very much wish. Something to slurry everything unprotected and organic on this floor if necessary.¡±

    <>This is doable. Oxyacetaline in enough quantity would do the trick. You have access to welding supplies.</>

    ¡°I thought you said we didn¡¯t have a flame thrower? Any good oxy welder can be repurposed to a short-range flamer.¡± I stopped dead and used one arm to point at the floor. ¡°Gimme. Something with a wide dispersal nozzle. Oh and another that I can use as a big ass bomb.¡±

    Points ticked down in the corner of my vision, back under a hundred now. On the other side, a pair of boxes appeared on the floor. Opening them, one contained a barbeque tank-size device that seemed to have a magnetic strip on one side. I attached it to my rear section. The other was very obviously an improvised flamethrower. It brought joy to my little machine heart.

    The next thing out of my speaker grill was evil laughter followed by muffled yelling that can only be described as ¡°Happy gas mask noises¡± as I charged down the hall, a machine gun in one hand and a Pyro-style flamer in the other.

    <>We¡¯re not going to commit war crimes, are we?</> The concern in Naille¡¯s voice seemed insincere.

    ¡°Of course we are. I¡¯ve resorted to indiscriminate chemical warfare, use of thermobaric¡¯s on non-hardened structures full of squishy enemies, and am now about to use a jerry-rigged flamer on them. I¡¯d use biologicals on them if I had the points for it. And that¡¯s just the start of the list. War crimes are fun and profitable!¡±

 Unwise Decisions

    Naille went silent for a long moment as I turned and began roasting the feathered worm things with the flame thrower adjacent tool I had ordered. It was effective within a few feet so I was able to reach the ceiling and roast the little bastards as I went. Soon enough finding the source of them in the form of a cracked open elevator door. A hand poked out halfway up the door, from where the floor of the internal section was obvious. Apparently, it got stuck between floors.

    ¡°Ohhh¡­. Looks like there may be a problem with the elevators. I should inform maintenance.¡±

    <>You may want to wait until after this incursion. For now, perhaps checking down the shaft would be a good idea.</>  I paused a minute as I flamed another wormy thing climbing out of the door.

    ¡°Yeah. I can do that.¡± I set my weapons down to pry the doors open wider on the single shaft below ground. Surprisingly easy with the new arms. Extending and tilting an optic stalk I looked down the shaft. It was poorly lit by emergency lighting along the way and at the bottom but I could see that there was a maintenance door under the floor level of the last stop. It was open and a pair of threes were trying to climb through the door into the bottom level.

    ¡°I think we found their entryway.¡± After a moment''s pause to wait for Naille to answer, which he didn''t, I decided to go with plan A. ¡°Gonna bomb it.¡±

    <>You¡¯re what?</> Naille sounded almost like he was screeching as I began to prepare my improvised welding bomb.

    ¡°Gonna bomb it. Lots of fire, some overpressure. It¡¯ll be fun!¡± I reached in and dropped the bomb before shoving the arm back into the elevator and letting the doors close. ¡°Lots of dead plants.¡±

    <>You could die from this too!</>

    ¡°Naw. I¡¯ll live.¡± I picked up my weapons again and trundled off in the direction of the nearest janitor''s closet as fast as my motivator would take me.

    I had barely gotten the door closed before it buckled inwards unseating from its tracks. The explosion had rippled through the building''s lower floors destroying less secured doors.

    <>You realize there may have been someone alive down here still.</> Naille sounded upset.

    ¡°Looking at the bunch of angry plants I seriously doubt it. Anybody alive would have been in a secure room with defense against the pressure wave.¡± I gestured at the door, then promptly rammed it open again. ¡°The lower floors are full of sealed hazard labs with airlock doors. They all have defenses against explosions from inside. This is a research facility after all. Anybody in there would be safe from the explosion as well as the¡­ oh. That door is fucked.¡±

    I rolled up to the elevator door and found its doors were on the far side of the hall and spread out as they had blown off. Moving up to glance down I spotted the top of the elevator at the bottom of the shaft.

    ¡°Upside, I sealed the entrance for a bit. Maybe fucked up a lot of angry plants.¡± I looked at my point total.

    Points: 5,050

    Tokens: 1

    The tokens were new, but I think that¡¯s part of the points thing. Maybe?

    ¡°Yup. Lots of them.¡± I giggled through my speaker so dementedly that it warped and crackled, exposing the damaged nature of some of my internals. ¡°Also may have wiggled my brain box a bit¡­ Think I¡¯ll sit here and heal for a moment.¡±

    <>Did you know that before you did that or come up with it later? Maybe while we sit here you might consider upgrades? You¡¯ll need a few to get out of this place. There is an incursion going on.</>

    ¡°Oh.¡± I dragged the word out for a moment. Promptly ignoring the first question I went with the second. ¡°Sure, upgrades are good. Maybe we should talk about goals first?¡±

    <>That sounds reasonable</>

    ¡°I think I wanna be an eldrich abomination!¡± I think the cheer in my voice may have disturbed Naille given the choking sound I got back from him. ¡°What?¡±

    <>Why?</>

    ¡°Because they¡¯re immortal fuck you levels of everything dies? I kinda wanna survive this and the enemy to die a lot. So a formless blob of mouths and tentacles and eyes and teeth and horror and hate¡­ well that sounds like a good way to go. So let''s skip the idea from before and go this route!¡±

    <>Fair. I guess I knew going into this you would be¡­ different. Picking a random card was a risk after all. It¡¯s honestly more fun in the end, I think.</> Naille paused and seemed to be thinking for a solid minute, allowing me time to get over the worst of the punch drunk from the explosion. <>I think I have a path for you. You haven¡¯t got nearly enough to start as one. But you can get there working with what you have. As to your request for formless, that¡¯s going to have to wait a long time for true formlessness. But I can get you a budget version with the right build. For now, I would recommend purchasing and installing a new frame from your Void Walker catalog. There are a number of them, but for your previously stated needs, I think a maintenance and repair frame would be best instead of what I previously recommended.</>Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    I would have shrugged had I better shoulders, as it was I raised both hands palms up without releasing my weapons. ¡°Sounds fine to me. Would it be more mobile?¡±

    <>Absolutely. It would also have far better life support out of the box, but I think you should open up a cybernetics catalog to increase that gain further. Allowing for better basic life support but also enhancements to your cognitive capabilities. And finally a medical catalog for an auto biological repair section. You don¡¯t have much but it would be good to keep it in top condition. Especially considering the long-term damage currently incurred.</>

    ¡°Sounds good. How much will it cost?¡±

    <>A basic cybernetics catalog is fifty points, but the cybernetics will cost about two thousand.</>

    ¡°I¡¯m following you.¡± I shifted a bit, absently using my floor-cleaning undercarriage to mop up some of the green splatter on the floor.

    <>Next is the medical catalog, which is fifty. But for the whole shebang, you need to buy the class two version. Which will come with the ability to have Nanos that will continuously be available for organic healing. The upgrade is three hundred. So the total is two thousand four hundred. But you need to spend an additional for a temporary surgical suite. It¡¯s two hundred. Add on the five hundred for the new exo-frame will run you three thousand one hundred.</>

    ¡°And plenty of points left for more later. So what are the token things?¡± Stopping my cleaning, having only managed about five feet before my tanks were full of muck.

    <>Oh, yeah. You get those for special feats like taking out a hive or saving lots of people. There was a hive in the sub-basement or city works under the building, so you got one. You should go find another closest to hide in for the surgery.</>

    ¡°Won¡¯t be any. I blew up the lower floors and all the doors on this floor are trashed. Just do it here.¡±

    <>Are you sure? I need confirmation for three thousand one hundred points worth of medical costs.</>

    ¡°Yeah. Let''s do this.¡± I centered myself in the hall better.

    <>¡°Very well. This may pinch.</>

    The lights went out. At 4:56 pm.

    The clock in the corner of my vision opposite the point total read 7:23 pm when the lights came back up.

    ¡°Should have said something about better sensors¡­.¡± A mecha dendrite reached around and rubbed at the side of my chassis. It didn¡¯t alleviate the headache I had. I had immediately noticed a massive increase in my optical acuity, which was what sparked the thought.

    <>We can do that now if you like?</>

    ¡°Uh¡­Yeah. How much and how long?¡± I decided not to try and move much just in case I needed the gantry I was currently housed in.

    <>I would recommend class one sensor systems for fifty points as well as class one cyber warfare systems for one hundred. Each has several useful utility systems, including multi-spectral sensors and a hardened communications system that will allow you to override most corporate security. One hundred each. Installation can be done on the fly and will only take a few minutes. If you remain in the gantry they can be done in less than sixty seconds.</>

    ¡°Do it. After that, we¡¯ll discuss weapons.¡± I watched numbers tick down.

    Points:1,950 ¡ú 1,600

    Tokens: 0

    I had to not jump as several arms on the gantry swung into the frame and removed my eyes. The time ticked down and a minute passed before my sight came back up. If they had been an order of magnitude better before, it was double that now. Three times better than the grainy glitchy shit I¡¯d been living with for years.

    ¡°Oh¡­ that¡¯s nice.¡± If I could grin I would. I began to push the gantry away, noticing I had four large mecha dendrites as well as a myriad of smaller ones that seemed to sprout from my back. ¡°I can¡¯t help but feel like I should have a memory about this right now¡­.¡±

    <>I found something close to what you might recognize in your Void Walker catalog. A few modifications and it¡¯s suitably less than human for now I hope. You¡¯re now something close to what would be recognized colloquially as a Matrix Sentinal. Or as close as I could get. You even have basic flight ability, although the repulsors aren¡¯t that strong.</>

    Naille sounded so cheerful at getting something right I didn¡¯t have the heart to tell him I couldn¡¯t remember anything about what he was talking about. It did tickle something back there, but not strongly enough to remember. Instead, I floated forward, using the main ¡®arms¡¯ to flex their claws in front of my eyes. Shifting them to look down the front as it were, only to find two of the larger ones had some sort of barrel on them.

    ¡°What are in these things?¡±

    <>The large ones are split between a multi-tool, welding torch, cutting laser, and what are colloquially known as the ¡®Jaws of Life¡¯. The smaller ones have more specialized tools. All of them can be outfitted with weapons of varying sizes.</>

    ¡°Good.¡± I turned and found my cracked-open salt and pepper shaker of a shell. It took me a moment to get back on task.

    <>Are you okay?</>

    ¡°Fine. Just weird being out of that. I feel kind of like an egg that has hatched. Bigger and better than before even.¡± Reaching over I snagged the weapons lying in the now useless arms. Indicating those very arms. ¡°Can I take these with me?¡±

    <>You have the tools to recover them. Shall I direct you?</>

    ¡°Make it quick, I wanna go up the elevator shaft and see what else there is to kill.¡±  Instead of speaking Naille simply took over several of my smaller arms and quickly detached both arms, moving them to the rear of my current body to store for now.

    I didn¡¯t argue, simply took off in the direction of the elevator shaft a few meters away. Which was wide open, the doors off as I previously noticed. Peering down I checked the previous entrance but there still didn¡¯t seem to be any movement there. Turning instead up, I moved to the floor the shelter was on and pried the distended doors open.

 Name Drop

    <>Checking on the shelter?</>

    ¡°Yeah. Make sure nobody¡¯s done anything dumb yet. Then I¡¯ll start heading up floor by floor to see if it was just what was under us or there''s more above.¡± I carefully moved down the hall past the mess I made.

    <>I am aware of the truth on this subject if you¡¯d like to be elucidated.</>

    ¡°Yeah. Please.¡± I floated up to the big metal slab and poked at the panel next to it. ¡°Oy anybody alive in there?¡±

    <>The city of Spokane is currently under a major incursion. They only just got half the portals closed at this point. Five stealth hives have been found in the city which has erupted since it started.</>

    The screen flickered to a face, stopping me from asking more of Naille.

    ¡°We¡¯re alive here. Who are you?¡± The overweight supervisor-looking guy on the other side looked like he was having a panic attack.

    ¡°I¡¯m the janitor bot. Got some upgrades from the new voice in my head.¡± That sparked a massive argument in the back. ¡°I¡¯m just checking in to make sure you¡¯re locked up tight and haven¡¯t seen any squiggly worms with feathers in there?¡±

    ¡°Oh my god did I hear a description of a Seven,¡± Someone shouted in the background.

    ¡°What¡¯s a seven?¡± I did not keep up with office gossip.

    <>A Model seven. The Zombie worms.</>

    ¡°Oh. Yeah, I found a bunch on a lower floor. Torched most of them. Just wondering if you have a zombie problem?¡± Internally I did the equivalent of subvocalization, [not that I think I can fix it if you do.]

    <>You can. You have a catalog for that.</>

    [You can hear this?]

    <>I can indeed.</>

    [Well¡­ shit. Spent all this time looking like a fool talking aloud.]

    <>It¡¯s fine, most Vanguard do in the beginning. Also, people like you are known as ¡°Samurai¡± on the North American continent. Just to avoid future confusion.</>

    I, at that point, noticed that time was doing funky things because the whole conversation took less than a second. The person in the shelter was still screaming about the zombie bugs. As my attention focused outward and time sped back up.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we have any sevens. But we have anti-seven pills here!¡± He shouted at the room before pointing off-screen. After a moment of people making noise, he turned back to me. ¡°Thank you for your concern, Samurai. I didn¡¯t catch your name.¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ Er¡­. I forget. I think my serial number was JMU1330213. Most of the maintenance guys just called me Lucky.¡±

    Nobody got a word in edge-wise as there was a screech right before someone poked their head in the frame. I recognized one of the building maintenance men.

    ¡°Lucky you son of a bitch! You got picked! How?!¡±

    ¡°Dunno. Killed some angry plants, escorted some office lady here then helped shut the door. After that, it¡¯s been crazy. Got a new voice in my head, it¡¯s nice and gives me things.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t fuck with me, man. Are you really Lucky?¡±

    The manager turned to him and gave him an annoyed look before demanding, ¡°Why does it matter?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ a few of us maintenance guys have a bet.¡±

    ¡°Yes. Most of us are sentient. None of us really remember what it was like before tho.¡± I waved with a claw at the camera pickup. The half a dozen janitor bots in the building all knew about the bet. I just never cared.

    ¡°Nice Sentinel cosplay dude! Or I guess you¡¯re a Samurai now.¡±

    ¡°I was going for eldritch horror from beyond the stars, but I didn¡¯t have enough points.¡±

    ¡°You should definitely get some nanites and wear them like a big amorphous blob. Go full Shoggoth.¡± The two men were struggling as the manager tried to shove him out of frame. ¡°Tell your AI Shoggoth!¡±

    [You heard that?] My brain was tickled by that word. I know what that is, it¡¯s perfect.

    <>I did. And we can certainly set up a facade now to do just that. In fact, it might make for a particularly interesting build. You¡¯d need to open up a more expensive catalog for nanotech and an armor catalog. Hum. Yes. It can be done, leaving you with fifty points. It won¡¯t be much more than ablative armor at the moment but it would be doable.</>If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    [I like it. Do it.]

    Points: 1,600 ¡ú 50

    A mass of grey-black goo blorped into existence next to me before slurping around my frame and engulfing me. For a moment the world went black again before I could ¡®see¡¯ in front of myself by extending my eyes to the surface.

    ¡°What just happened?¡± The manager all but did a double take as the engineer shoved back into view again.

    ¡°I took some advice. It seems to be working quite well so far. If you¡¯re fine in there I¡¯ll go see about clearing the rest of the building, maybe securing a route for our way out.¡±

    ¡°You need to make your voice more¡­ deep and scary dude!¡±

    ¡°Shut up Jenkins.¡± The manager shoved him out of frame one last time before turning to me and nodding. ¡°We¡¯ll hold out here until you come back. There are about fifty of us here. We have comms with two more shelters up the tower, there are maybe two hundred people all told. Please do what you can for us.¡±

    ¡°Got it. Bye-bye.¡± A gloopy tentacle waved, surrounding one of my mecha dendrites.

    Turning I shifted in the direction of the elevator. <>I should warn you you are no longer able to fly with your new armor. You should take the stairs.</>

    [Oh! Good idea.] I turned around and went for the stairs, bursting the door as I went. [I only know the floors from the sub-basement one down. Can we get a map for up?]

    <>Yes we can. You bought an intrusion module so we can just swipe it straight from their servers since there¡¯s still power. Despite you¡¯re attempting to bring the building down.</>

    [You still on about that? Would it make you feel better if I apologized and said I wouldn¡¯t do it again? Also, see if they have any files on me.]

    <>Would you be sincere? Understood.</>

    [Not really.]

    <>Then not really.</>

    [Fair enough]

    I had barely managed the turn around landing before the next floor when Naille popped a three-dimensional map up across my vision. It highlighted shelters every fifty floors or so before shifting to the corner and flattening to just the map of the floor I was on. Which was just the stairwell until I cool-aid man¡¯d my way through the door onto the next floor up.

    ¡°Oh yeah!¡± I shifted the pitch of my vocalization down into the bass range.  ¡°Almost¡­ needs more¡­ grit?¡±

    <>Why did you do that? Also, what are you going for, voice-wise?</>

    [What, the door? I dunno. It just felt right? Plus I¡¯m still getting to know my strength.] Two main limbs shrugged, but it was lost in the goop.

    I slurped down the halls, checking rooms. At first just pushing doors off hinges, but as I got used to the strength of it all I was able to start opening them.

    <>You realize that you have the ability to see through these thin walls, right?</>

    [No? Do I?]

    <>Yes. Here allow me.</>

    My vision shifted until I was getting data from a dozen different spectrums including radio, before they resolved into a sort of enhanced but subdued version. Allowing me to see right through walls to some extent. Made checking the floor faster, especially since some of it was audio-based and I could tell if anything was moving at all. There was even a sort of super nose-smelling ability.

    That made floor checks way easier. Open the door on the floor, listen, look, smell. Nothing there. Move on.

    Twenty floors up from the very bottom I found the ground floor, a space I¡¯d not been to in memory. That¡¯s where there were more Angry Plants.

    [Oh. That guy looks mean.] I spotted a thing the size of a midsized sedan that looked like an angry plant-bear hybrid covered in quills dragging a couple of corpses across the lobby.

    <>A model five. I¡¯d warn you about the quills, but they shouldn¡¯t pose any serious problem for you.</>

    [So just¡­ shoot it?]

    <>I seriously doubt you¡¯ll do much damage with what you have. To be honest, you may want to wait until it leaves and kill something else to get more points. You need heavier weapons to take something like that on.</>

    [Hey, you said this Void Walker group was spacers, right? Did they do any mining?]

    <>They do, why?</>

    [Do they have any mining drill equivalents? That cost fifty or less? Maybe an ore grinder or something?]

    There was a long pause, even sped up I could watch the damn Bear thing¡¯s leg move several inches before Naille replied, sounding surprised and smug at the same time.

    <>They do indeed. An ore crusher. It would be able to be used as a sort of ¡®mouth¡¯ full of spinning grinding teeth. If you can use the nanite armor to hold it still for a few seconds you should be able to chew it to death.</>

    [Metal! Do it.]

    Points: 50 ¡ú 0

    <>Incoming gear.</>

    A box fell and plopped into my armor, I drew it fully in before opening it, removing the tool, and pooping the empty box out. Once I felt I had an idea of how to use the new tool I charged the bear-looking plant with quills.

    It saw me coming a mile away or at least a dozen meters, spit out the legs of the two corpses it was dragging and launched several quills at me. They hit my armor, penetrated a few inches, and then got shoved down under the bulk of the rolling mass of armor. Being almost the same size as the creature I was charging had its advantages.

    It tried another volley before I slammed into it, the mouth/mining tool grinding up at full power before I hit. I didn¡¯t think I could hold it still, so I went for bronco busting. Being roughly equal in size didn¡¯t mean we had parity in strength. Fucker nearly bucked me.

    But all those quills gave me a lot of grip space with all my little dendrites, plus the jaws of life jammed in and pinched down on its spinal region. I rode the bastard down, all the while chewing on his head.

    Points:0 ¡ú  20

    ¡°What, the actual fuck?¡±

    The voice from the front doors startled me, I stopped before retracting and continued to chew on the body while my attention turned to the newcomer.

 Making Friends.

    ¡°What?¡± I tried to sound innocent.

    ¡°Wha¡­ who are you?¡± He just sounded confused.

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ complicated. Who¡¯s asking?¡± Finally realizing most of the bear was mulch and all dead I turned my mouth off and glorped off of the leftovers. Retracting the grinder as I went.

    ¡°I¡¯m Bomberman.¡± He hefted a grenade in his hand as he edged closer as if calculating a throw range.

    ¡°I¡¯m a new Samurai. And while I think I had a name¡­ I was also a fucked up science experiment for a while there so¡­ I don¡¯t remember what it was.¡±  Pointing up with a pseudopod I shifted the topic. ¡°There are two more shelters in the building I need to check. So if you¡¯re not going to help I¡¯m going to go.¡±

    ¡°Uh. That¡¯s why I¡¯m here. There are three registered shelters. I take it you already checked the one in the sub-basement?¡± He took the tentacle that bobbed up and down as the nod it was meant to be. ¡°Great. So¡­ one question before we go? What the fuck are you?¡±

    ¡°A shoggoth?¡± I shifted two pseudopods out in a shrugging gesture. ¡°Though I don¡¯t think the voice is right. Feels like it needs more grit or grime or something.¡±

    ¡°Warble. With subtle undertones of other words in different languages. If you''re going for Eldritch Nightmare you definitely wanna get an eerie echo in there of some sort. Wicked gimmick tho.¡± He grinned at me and flashed some gang signs with his free hand.

    ¡°Thanks!¡± The cheerful tone did not go well with the added effects. [I love the new effects. Did you add both a warble and faint extra sounds, like a Latin chant, in the background?]

    <>I did. I¡¯m glad you like it.</>

    [Very much.] Chuckling darkly I turned and started slurping across the floor. ¡°Stairs are this way. The elevators are all out. I kinda blew some of them up.¡±

    ¡°Oh damn. I hate stairs.¡± He blinked and then grinned. ¡°How did you blow them up?¡±

    ¡°I.E.D. Used an acetylene tank and a timer. Blew up a stealth hive¡­ whatever those are.¡± I pushed the door to the stairs open and began my ascent. Pausing long enough to use one of my major mecha dendrites to offer a sort of jerry-rigged seat to him. ¡°Ride?¡±

    ¡°Ah. Sure.¡± After a pause, he climbed on and we started up. ¡°You don¡¯t know what it was?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ve been contained in an unyielding form for quite some time, unable to keep up on the world around me, enforced into slave labor. I have only the barest idea of what¡¯s going on.¡± I poked in on the next floor and confirmed it was clear before moving up. ¡°Floor clear.¡±

    ¡°Damn. That¡­ is far too common actually. Well, to catch you up. Plant aliens are invading. Have been for a while.¡±

    ¡°Pricks.¡± I checked another floor. Empty.

    ¡°Indeed. Upside another group fighting them dropped in and passed off a gamified method to access their tech to help as they focus on working on dealing with¡­ well from what I understand more worlds succumb than don''t. So they¡¯re busy. And the game stuff is to keep us from going ham on each other and fucking everything up worse.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± I checked another floor. ¡°A few little doggy types on this floor. Do you have a bomb to clear it? I can go deal with them easily enough if not.¡±

    ¡°Naw, go for it. You newbies need the points.¡± I slorped through the door at his discretion and moved in the direction of the supposed dog types.

    As soon as we rounded a corner and found them dragging corpses I extruded the muzzle of my machine gun and hosed them down.

    Points 20 ¡ú 80

    ¡°I feel like we shouldn¡¯t leave the bodies?¡± I hesitated to move.

    ¡°Yeah. Just a sec.¡± He rustled around in his vest of grenades before pulling one out and throwing it down the hall at the corpses. ¡°Okay, we¡¯re good to go.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡± I turned and moved away as an unholy noise emitted from the grenade. This prompted me to rush back into the stairwell and go up. ¡°Owe.¡±

    ¡°Enhanced hearing?¡± He chuckled in an almost apologetic way.

    ¡°Full spectrum sensors.¡± I poked into the next floor, finding nothing, before moving up again.

    ¡°Yeah, even at class one those can be a bit¡­ painful. Until you get used to using your new senses anyway.¡± He patted at the side of my armor awkwardly. ¡°Wait until you hit class twos in something. That gets even worse. It¡¯s kinda exponential at each level.¡±

    ¡°Duly noted.¡± I fell silent as I checked the next floor. Calling clear on each as we went up. Until, that is, the ninth floor.

    ¡°There are multiple contacts on this floor, they appear bipedal.¡± I kept my voice to a dull roar, blocking the open door with my body armor and speaking directly into the stairwell to my companion.

    ¡°People?¡± He tense and tried to get an angle of view into the room. Pushing at my mass to open space.

    ¡°Zombies maybe? Dunno yet. Shall we go check?¡± I began moving into the room without waiting for a response. He hopped off as soon as there was space, moving quickly to flank the direction I was moving in. ¡°Hello? Is anyone there, Samurai here to help!¡±

    A horrified scream belted out from ahead. It was definitely a person.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    ¡°Way to go dude. You¡¯re voice scared them.¡± He chuckled and moved ahead quickly to intercept, knowing that most people wouldn¡¯t react well to me. ¡°Hi! I¡¯m Bomberman! I¡¯ve got a newbie Samurai with me, we''re here to help!¡±

    ¡°Oh thank god! We¡¯ve been locked out of the main shelters and antithesis somehow invaded mine!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve had a problem with Sevens,¡± I commented a little less eldrich from the back, not blorping into direct view. ¡°Might wanna take some pills if you have them. If not I think I have a catalog for that.¡±

    <>You should look closer.</>

    [What do you mean?] I did as Naille asked and looked closer at the people, swinging around the wall a bit to get a direct view. [Oh shit. What¡¯s up with that?]

    They all had some sort of extra heat source normally not in people near their craniums. The one in the woman is not as active as the ones in the six armed soldiers escorting her. Data ping to the building mainframe said she was the CFO and the guys were her bodyguards.

    [I need to tell Bomberman, should I speak aloud?]

    <>Yes. Also, you need to stop trying to move while using or otherwise utilize this enhanced state.</>

    [Why?] I sped up again to speak to my new partner. ¡°They seem to be infected with them. The ones in the guards are more active.¡±

    <>Because it¡¯s something built into your old cyber ware that''s still installed, human-made. It''s likely to do damage considering how much it heats your brain. We haven¡¯t removed it as it is too deeply embedded for current capabilities.</>

    I didn¡¯t get a chance to respond as the woman¡¯s eyes rolled up in her head and she slumped. But her guards jerkily raised their weapons and began firing at us. I shifted to block the rounds from hitting Bomberman, who had pitched a grenade into the group. The bullets hit semi-liquid armor and quickly lost momentum. I lost some nanites to damage, but that¡¯s what they were for.  I managed to completely block the following fireball from hitting my new friend when the grenade went off.

    The gunfire stopped and I turned my attention that way again. There was nothing but shredded and scorched bodies. I took a moment to extrude the bullets and shrapnel before turning back to Bomberman.

    ¡°I have better armor than you and would have been fine, but thanks, kid.¡± He smirked at me before turning back to the stairs. ¡°Come on, we¡¯ve got a bunch more floors to hit. Though I wonder where the Sevens came from.¡±

    <>They could have been a part of a type seventeen. The whole thing was very out of character for one but, it seems suspicious.</>

    ¡°A type Seventeen?¡± Saying that aloud made Bomberman stiffen and turn to me with a raised eyebrow. I shifted back to my full eldritch voice. ¡°Naille said it could have been one of those. I figured it was just one that escaped me earlier in the elevator shaft. It¡¯s been a few hours since I had to get an upgraded chassis.¡±

    ¡°You got fancy optics, right? Check. Is there a smaller four-legged plant?¡± He was suddenly very alert and reaching for grenades while moving to check the bodies for something.

    I promptly began to focus more on my sensors, hunting around for a new type of angry plant. I found no such thing, but I did find a small number of hair-thin wires on the ground near the bodies. Tracing them back down the hall, in a circle around several cubicles in a large room, out another door and I finally found they ran to a vent in the ceiling of a room near the outer wall. [What are these? They shouldn¡¯t be here.]

    <>Those are control wires for a Seventeen. Reach one of your dendrites in there and see where they go.</>

    I did as asked, wrenching the panel off the vent in the ceiling before reaching in, focusing one of the cameras on the end along the path the cables follow. They seemed to be dangling down from a vent junction near the wall, leading up. Even as I watched several of them fell, as if severed from the source just then, or recently and only just now falling under their weight.

    [They go up.]

    <>You should tell Bomberman.</>

    ¡°Hey, I found it! There¡¯s a bunch of filament control cables that go into a vent then up a floor!¡±  I turned and found Bomberman dashing into the CFO¡¯s office where I seemed to have found myself.  ¡°Dunno if they stop there but they definitely go up. I might be able to stretch and look, but it¡¯s at the edge of my reach right now.¡±

    ¡°Do it. We need to know how far up it might be. Probably already cut the cables at that end and moved, but knowing is better than nothing.¡± He shifted his weight around from foot to foot, obvious tension on his face.

    ¡°Done.¡± I stretched, shifting my core up, and backed in to give myself the most distance. I barely had enough reach to get a partial look. ¡°Three floors. I think.¡±

    ¡°We need to hurry. Those things are a menace!¡± He took off at a run.

    I had to work a little slower to pull myself from the vent before moving at speed after him. Surprisingly my new form was rather speedy even though it seemed like it would be slow and ponderous. Everyone seemed to be quite worried about these things. Zombies freak me out enough as it is, so I didn¡¯t argue. We rushed up to twelve and started hunting. Twenty minutes of going over the floor again and again got us nothing.

    ¡°It¡¯s not here? You find anything?¡± He seemed pissed, or scared. I couldn¡¯t be sure but maybe both based on the way he was pacing and pulling at his hair.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not¡­ Although we didn¡¯t check the elevator shafts?¡± His head snapped up and looked straight into one of my optical clusters extruded from my armor. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Check them, now!¡± He all but roared at me as he turned and sprinted for the bank of elevators.

    When I caught up he was managing to pry a set open fairly well, not fast but better than a normal person without tools. Probably has enhanced strength. I simply ripped a set off and leaned out looking for more threads or a four-legged something clinging to somewhere in the shaft.

    ¡°Collor me surprised.¡± I think it was the complete lack of urgency in my voice that sparked his glare. Maybe the lack of emotional response was a bad thing? Naw, I¡¯d be shitting myself if I had normal levels. There it was, shifting around, slowly crawling up the ladder to another floor.

    The dendrite that reached in and shot a high-power laser got him to work faster at opening his door all the way.  By the time he had his side open enough to get his head in and look, I had cut a large dog-sized thing with hair-fine lines that stretched into two different vents, chopping it in half with my lazer. The corpse fell into the shaft, splatting on a locked elevator a few floors down. No idea why it was still there. It had been moving rather slowly up the ladder. Shouldn¡¯t it have been faster? And where did that second set of cables go?

    ¡°Got it.¡± His glare was definitely from my commentary this time. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°How can you be so¡­ blas¨¦ about this? Those things are dangerous as hell!¡± He hauled back his head and stalked over to me.

    ¡°Because Zombies are bad enough, I don¡¯t think anything attached to them could bother me more. When I was alive anyway. Now I¡¯m a brain in a jar and they don¡¯t bug me so much. Hehe. Bad pun, sorry. Besides, I¡¯m missing a lot of stuff that would have me producing fear hormones. It¡¯s just the basics in here.¡± I did a gloopy shrug before shifting fully out of the shaft.

    ¡°They¡¯re not zombies. Seventeens are command and control units. Most all the units below them are dumber than a brick. Those things are smart, really smart sometimes. That makes them dangerous.¡± He was tugging at his hair as he spoke. Shifting between relief and glaring at me the whole time. ¡°Why the fuck was it still there?¡±

    ¡°Oh. Yeah, that would be bad. And I have no idea, but there was a second set stretching into another vent?¡± I pulled my armor in and started shifting optics around, a couple went back into the shaft to see if there were any more in there. ¡°Consider me chastised. Won¡¯t make light of those again.¡±

 Now with an ominous hum sound standard.

    ¡°Good. Okay. How far to the shelter?¡± He relaxed and planted his hands on his hips.

    ¡°About¡­eighteen floors? It¡¯s on floor thirty and then another on seventy.¡± I shifted into the shaft more to get a better look. ¡°If there was a tactician here I doubt there will be anything but attack units above us. Maybe some were under control?¡±

    ¡°Okay. Other Ideas? We can¡¯t let them be. Need to kill them.¡± He looked out the same door I had opened and shifted between down and up.

    ¡°We could just drop floor-clearing grenades on each floor?¡± The look on his face told me all I needed to know on that subject. ¡°Or we could maybe lure them out?¡±

    Glancing at my points told me I made a lot off either those zombies, or maybe the controller. Didn¡¯t really matter, points are points, and I¡¯m running low.

    Points: 188

    ¡°A Lure would work. But I don¡¯t have a catalog for that.¡± He pulled back and leaned against the divider between the elevators. ¡°Do you?¡±

    ¡°No, but I have a hundred eighty-eight points. Would that be enough for one?¡± I glopped out further into the shaft testing if I could climb it.

    <>You could. But you¡¯d need another catalog for dispersal.</>

    ¡°Naille said I can get the catalog for a lure. But I have no way to disperse it.¡± The shaft and the anchors I could find inside it seemed to hold, and I could move, but not fast and not with a passenger. Instead, I reentered the hall and headed for the stairwell.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got that covered.¡± He hopped to catch up. ¡°I¡¯ve got a couple of levels deep into exotic explosives.¡±

    ¡°Can we just do that? Share catalogs?¡± I stopped and turned a set of eyes on him.

    It occurred to me then that I was handling having multiple eyes, focused in wildly different directions quite well. Something for later but probably had to do with either my older cybernetics or long use as a pepper shaker. In the end, it didn¡¯t really matter to the situation at hand, merely a curiosity.

    ¡°Yeah. You just need permission. But it¡¯s usually just a one-time thing. You¡¯ll need permission basically every time. Not many Samurai are willing to open their catalogs for anybody permanently.¡± I entered the stairwell and scooped him up, causing a startled grunt before we began ascending.

    ¡°Naille I permit you to purchase the catalog needed.¡±

    <>Done. It¡¯s one hundred points.</>

    ¡°Ouch. A hundred points? Damn. Okay. Can I borrow a grenade catalog?¡± I stopped at the next floor.

    ¡°Sure kid.¡± He smirked at me.

    ¡°Naille. Grenade me.¡± I stuck my best manipulator out and took the box that appeared on the deck next to me. Instead of throwing it I activated it, held it, and opened the door.

    Points: 88 ¡ú 38

    ¡°Ouch, fifty points for this grenade¡­.¡± If I had a head to shake I would have.

    Nothing seemed to happen. If it was releasing anything it was colorless. It took sniffing it to catch a whiff of scent from it. It smelled rank, like a lawn on fire.

    ¡°Remember kids, don¡¯t try this at home,¡± I called cheerfully as I caught the scrabbling sound of claws from a few floors up. Turning I extruded my cutting laser and my gun, ready to shoot.

    ¡°Heh, seems to be working already. You shoot in the shaft, I don¡¯t trust explosives in here but I have more than just that.¡± Bomberman chuckled as he spoke. I responded by extending another pseudopod and pointing down, where I was hearing more scrabbling. ¡°In fact, maybe you should prop the door and retreat onto this floor.¡±

    In response, I simply ripped the door off and shoved it into the cubicle farm beyond, using it as a ram to clear the way to get deeper onto the floor. This let me target the door with everything as a choke point. It didn¡¯t take long before I opened up on the first few coming in. Or for them to overwhelm my fire with sheer numbers. Grenades started arching out to either side.

    They emitted a particularly annoying high-pitched sound, one I recognized from earlier. It took seconds to isolate and ignore it, all thanks to Naille.

    [Thanks for that.]

    <>No problem.</>

    [I need more ammo. And maybe a bigger gun eventually.]

    <>Your points are going up so that¡¯ll be possible soon. As for the new ammo, I¡¯ll just drop it straight into you.</>

    [Thanks.]

    Time jumped up fast again and I found a new magazine floating in my armor. Quickly using a small arm to swap it out I went back to firing. The cutting laser was nice, but not super fast. It could liquefy steel, given a few seconds, yet plant matter started burning, and that made it harder to cut them in general. Especially when they weren¡¯t holding still.

    They swarmed in on us regardless. I ignored the point counter as dogs and tentacle bears threw themselves into our grinder. Most of the room was covered in sonic grenades, but Bomberman kept throwing out other kinds. Some with hair-thin wires sticking out that spun and shredded things, others that shot out needles that melted plant monsters quickly. A lot of plain old explosive types. The bodies kept stacking and melting into goo. For a solid five minutes, we kept the fire on, taking them out as they came.

    ¡°Talk about a mad minute.¡± Bomberman seemed exhausted as he spoke. Enough so that he had slumped into my side. ¡°My arms are killing me.¡±The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    The fuming grenade I had in my claw emptied itself a couple of minutes prior. So I dropped it before focusing an eye on him. ¡°Really? I would have thought you¡¯d be geared for throwing. Also, I think we cleared most of, if not all, the building. Plus that was more like five minutes.¡±

    ¡°I agree.¡± he gave me a nonplussed look. Shrugging he stood up. ¡°I do have mods to make throwing easier. But at the same time, it¡¯s wearing on me. I really should have gone a different route earlier.¡±

    ¡°Nothing says you can¡¯t evolve. It¡¯s something organic life is good at.¡± I turned and started for the stairwell again. ¡°Come. We have two shelters to check.¡±

    Points: 38 ¡ú 483

    [That number seems high for the amount of damage I did.]

    <>You split everything evenly with all other Samurai in the battle. In this case, it''s Fifty-Fifty. What''s more, you got a 7% increase for a cooperation bonus.</>

    [Nice! Maybe now we should look at a better weapon?]

    <>Opening up class one exotic grenades would be a good idea too. That way you can make lure grenades on your own. Perhaps go with something halfway from here and your preferred fire for new weapons and go with a class one Plasma Casting Weapon catalog?</>

    [Cost?]

    <>Fifty for the grenades, one hundred for the plasma weapons.</>

    [Done deal.]

    Points: 483 ¡ú 333

    <>Now for the weapon, might I recommend a Strohl munitions plasma cannon? Now with an ominous hum sound standard.  For one point extra it can even make a ¡°Thoom¡± sound when you fire.</>

    I paused long enough Bomberman poked me for not moving. I held up a pseudopod to him. ¡°One moment. My voice just offered something that makes my meat brain go burrr¡­. I need a moment to clean my shorts.¡±

    <>So that''s a yes then? It¡¯s only a hundred points.</>

    [GIVE ME!]

    A box appeared and I ignored the point total dropping by a hundred and one points as I ripped the box open and absorbed the new toy. I extended it and primed it. It was a grip with a loudspeaker that had been rounded towards the back more giving it a bell shape that felt oh so satisfying.

    ¡°That¡­ is ominous. It fits you perfectly somehow. Please don¡¯t burn the building down around us.¡± He backed up a little, raising his hands even though I was pointing at the door.

    ¡°It¡¯s mostly concrete. It¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯ve already blown up the sub-basement.¡±  I released the trigger and pulled the muzzle back. ¡°Time to go up. I¡¯ll pop another grenade when we get to the right floor. Bought the exotic grenades catalog for that purpose entirely.¡±

    <>Just be warned, when you do it it¡¯ll only draw in a few floors, I used a class three from him, your class one won¡¯t have as much oomph. Though you did clear out the building with that one.</>

    ¡°Oh. Naille says we cleared the building. Won¡¯t hurt to be cautious but still. Up we go.¡± I started in the direction of the stairs again.

    Once there I offered the seat again instead of getting grabby. He seemed to not like that last time. He hesitantly hopped on again allowing me to start moving up the stairs again, this time I didn¡¯t stop until I arrived at thirty.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go first this time? Uh, where is the vault?¡± He hopped off and tried to push past me.

    I moved aside, allowing him to pass. ¡°It¡¯s a cubical farm, but the central third is the safe room. The door should be directly in front of you about forty meters away.¡±

    Thank you Naille for the mini-map in the bottom left of my vision. I followed him in, weapons extended and ready. Not that anything came at us. The room was dead silent except for the sound of electronics interspersed around the room. I hung back as Bomberman moved up and tapped away at the interface next to the slab of metal that was used as a door.

    ¡°Hello? Is anybody in there?¡± I didn¡¯t catch the reply to him as I had turned to focus all my sensors on the surrounding floor and the door.

    A minute later he approached me again, tapping me on the back of my armor. I turned an eye to focus on him.

    ¡°They¡¯re fine, no issues. Warned them about the prevalence of sevens. Apparently, they have anti-seven pills in there so we should go up.¡± He pointed at the stairs absently.

    ¡°Yes, the basement was the same. It should be fast unless you want to try another lure trap between here and there?¡± I started moving, extending a pseudopod for him to ride as I went.

    He hopped on again, apparently less weirded out by me now. ¡°Yeah. Let''s try on floor sixty, it sounds like a good spot..¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll need to borrow your class three exotics again to get a good range. Class one can only cover a couple of floors.¡± I didn¡¯t even slow down as I entered the stairs, chugging away to climb to the proper floor.

    ¡°Sure. You have permission for that.¡± He nodded and patted my back. ¡°For a creepy fucker you¡¯re a good egg.¡±

    ¡°Thank you. I was trying to instill fear in the hearts of my enemies, not regular people.¡±

    ¡°I hate to tell you this, but they don¡¯t feel fear.¡± He stifled a laugh as he responded.

    <>He¡¯s correct. Individual models are incapable of such things.</>

    ¡°Oh. Well. Whatever. I am kinda digging this now.¡± I shrugged, almost throwing him off by accident. ¡°Sorry.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. As long as you¡¯re having fun with it.¡± He laughed heartily until we stopped. ¡°Why did you stop?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± A pseudopod extended to indicate the floor, Sixty. ¡°Naille, grenade me.¡±

    I popped open the box, extracted the grenade, and activated it within seconds of its arrival. Proceeding to do the same thing as last time, using the door to bulldoze the cubicles deeper into the room to give me a clear killing field.  This time I had more firepower.

    Sadly after a minute, the grenade sputtered out and we didn¡¯t have any visitors. We waited four more just in case.

    ¡°Guess that¡¯s all of them.¡± I sighed, a horrific sound now since I was only toning down the creep factor for civilians. ¡°What a waste of fifty points. Ah well. Shall we?¡±

    Points: 182

    ¡°Let¡¯s.¡± He climbed back on when I set up to carry him and we lurched off at what would be a brisk jog for him. I didn¡¯t even need to slow down for the stairs.

    Floor seventy came up quickly enough, there were only about twenty more floors or so that were all executive floors for the really big wigs then some for a parking garage and a communications tower. They all had a couple of exclusive elevators straight down to the safe room on seventy, so there wouldn¡¯t be anybody else higher that survived.

    ¡°So, basically this whole floor is a panic room. There¡¯s a space with a bunch of elevators here, then the panic room door directly opposite. It should be nice and fancy and expensive. I¡¯ll wait just outside after covering you to the door.¡±  I moved out of the way and pulled the door open from the stairwell.

    After peeking through, a pseudopod with an ominous hum coming from the bulbous end swept the room. Seeing nothing, even with my level of enhancements, I withdrew and let him through. I didn¡¯t even want to hear what was going on, afraid I might do something stupid. The company higher-ups weren¡¯t on my nice list after all. I only paid enough attention to make sure he didn¡¯t get ambushed, the rest of my attention went to the stairs to make sure nothing was following any leftover scents.

 Birds? Birds!

    [Okay, Naille. Explain the sped-up time and how I can manage so many different eyes?] Now was as good a time as any to ask. Might as well.

    <>Originally, according to the files I could find and decrypt, you were a part of a cybernetic soldier program. They couldn¡¯t get it to work. This included some early variations on class two cybernetics someone had tried to reverse-engineer from a corpse. They couldn¡¯t get them to work properly so they scrapped the project. The problem wasn¡¯t with the cybernetics but the software oddly enough. You are now using them with proper software, even if they are ungainly. They operate at approximately one-fifth capacity. So you get a semi-leg up on that for a couple of things. Sooner or later you¡¯ll be able to replace them with proper variants and it will work much better. With less chance of cooking your brain. So for now stop using them if you can.</>

    [Turn ¡®em off. I can¡¯t help using them. Or at least help regulate them a bit. I don¡¯t want to fry my brain but using them kinda helps.] I felt time shift again back to full. [Also, queue up Class Two cybernetics for my next major purchase.]

    <>Out of curiosity, how are you taking this so well? Many humans would seek revenge against a corp that had done what was done to you.</>

    [People didn¡¯t do this. The employees are just trying to live. The corporation did it. So do you hate the body or the mind? If I came across the investors and majority stockholders I¡¯d throw a lure at them and watch the plants eat them, laughing maniacally the whole time. But these people¡­ unless it¡¯s the psychopath who did the surgery. Even then I¡¯d need to know more about their circumstances before going batshit crazy on them. Besides, everything is kinda muted. Like my emotions are really far away.]

    <>Surprisingly stable of you. As for your emotional state, it probably helps that you haven¡¯t the glandular capabilities by the looks of it. Even some of the less needed ones in your brain have been removed.</>

    [I had some time to sort my shit out a little. As for the brain stuff. That tracks. Fuckers.]

    ¡°Hey, are you good? We¡¯re done here.¡± I turned to Bomberman who was approaching me as he spoke. ¡°Just need to call in the cavalry and then find transport for everybody.¡±

    ¡°Cavalry? Like literal or figurative?¡± I glooped out of the door, letting him into the stairwell.

    ¡°Both?¡± He shrugged. ¡°We need to call in the military, they¡¯ll send an escort, and if we¡¯re lucky, buses. If not, we''ll have to source our own.¡±

    ¡°Got it. Lemme check the garage, it¡¯ll be on the top five floors. Might have something up there.¡± I moved to go up, extending a seating space from my armor for him.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m going to head down and contact the military. Think I saw an external exit on the map a few floors down.¡±  He turned the other way, hopping down a few steps at a time.

    ¡°It¡¯s on sixty. It¡¯s a hover car dropoff, not big but it''s fully open.¡± I called back down the echoing stairs.

    <>I¡¯m surprised you knew that.</>

    [I memorized each floor as we passed. Just in case I got sent to clean it later.] I kept ascending as I checked absently on each floor for any stragglers. Not that I expected any since we had done a fairly good job of clearing them out.

    <>You realize, now that you¡¯re a Vanguard, you¡¯ll never have to work for this company again?</>

    That gave me pause. [So, I¡¯m free?]

    <>Yes, you¡¯re free.</>

    {Nice.] I began moving again, focused on the end goal.

    Once I reached Ninety Five I found myself passing into a more open-plan stairwell, an airlock set of doors separating the lower levels from the car park section. But that just made it easier to see out onto the floor in front of me. On the other side, I immediately saw a large number of birds. Plant birds.

    [What the fuck are those? Woha! That¡¯s a big one!]

    <>Model one¡¯s and a pair of Model eleven¡¯s by the look. One¡¯s are pestiferous in quantity but mostly harmless. It¡¯s the Elevens you need to worry about.</>

    [Like, badly, or just focus on them first?] I noticed the time was running at one-to-one at this point, Naille had switched off the bit which made my brain speed and heat up like I asked.

    <>Both. Although the model ones will likely attempt to act as ablative armor in favor of the eleven attacking you. Might I suggest a distraction?</>

    [Yeah. What do you think of chucking a lure in there?] I slowly crept from where I was blocking the door into the actual garage.

    <>Given the amount of model ones this may be a good idea. It would distract them long enough for you to focus fire on the elevens. Except you haven¡¯t the firepower to deal with an eleven.</>

    [Not even my shiny new plasma gun?] I extruded the muzzle of said weapon, targeting the closer of the elevens.

    <>I¡¯m afraid that it will be only slightly more effective than your laser cutter, although it maintains the power at a much further distance. While excellent for single digits, it¡¯s less than effective against any of the stronger enemies you will face. An eleven would be able to close before sufficient damage was done. Had there only been one, I would not hesitate to recommend engaging them. With two, that¡¯s less likely to be an option.</>Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    While Naille had been speaking I had been stalking closer to one of the elevens. For whatever reason it was completely ignoring me. Maybe it saw me as a machine. Maybe it was planning to ambush me in turn. Maybe I was going slow enough it failed to notice. Who knows, birds are dumb.

    <>What are you doing?</>

    [Gonna eat it. Then shoot the other one.] I didn¡¯t give Naille time to respond as I revved the grinder and pounced. A deep Thoom sounded from the muzzle of my plasma gun pointed in the direction of the other Eleven.

    I was maybe picking up bad habits because not only did the rodeo work again, but I was too much for it to move far or well as a flying creature. On the other hand, the Plasma Caster worked better than either of us suspected. The Model Ones didn¡¯t even have much of a chance to react before I had melted a hole in the fucker as big as a grown man''s fist. I was, of course, less than five feet away from it and it was actually a little surprised by my sudden assault.

    Once the pair were dead my points ticked up nicely by two hundred. On the other side, I was swarmed by Ones. Hundreds of the little fuckers pecking away at me. Coming down from other floors through the open entries on each end of the parking area.

    [Fucking fuckity fuck!] I lashed out with every means available, smacking them with liquid armored pseudopods, plasma, railgun rounds, plasma welder, and laser cutter. [Grenade me! Lure!]

    I almost lost the lure as the box appeared and I smacked it with a flailing tentacle. I frantically used two tool tentacles to pry it open, activate the grenade, and throw the whole thing deeper into the parking garage. Seconds later they were swarming a car it had slid under. Made taking them out with concentrated fire easier. Took at least five minutes to take out all the Ones that swarmed into the space. Nothing else had approached thankfully. I would have been fucked with a swarm like that and an Eleven or two.

    A quick check of my points as I took a breather once everything stopped moving made me want to scratch my head. [Why did that grenade only cost ten points?]

    <>It was only a class one grenade. Much less effective, so much less cost. I doubt you cleared as much as you may think. Still, over five hundred Model Ones is quite the victory.</>

    [And the Token?] I shifted forward, looking for any that needed a double tap, before just deciding my weight would paste them so I ¡®stepped¡¯ on any I could reach.

    <>You killed your first double-digit solo. Not only that you got two of them within seconds of each other. More than enough of an achievement to deserve another token.</>

    Points: 932

    Token: 1

    [Nice. Should we open the cybernetics for the better type two?] There were a lot of birdies that needed to be squished, I had to shove a hover car out of the way to get them all.

    <>Might I recommend you open up the next tier of Void Walker instead? It will give you access to better MAC weapons as well as modifications to make your current frame stronger as well as more dangerous.</>

    [That good? I mean being able to think and move faster seems really useful.] I determined that I had squished enough to be sure and redirected to the stairs, there were no busses or large cargo vehicles on this floor. They¡¯d be more likely on the top floors.

    <>While useful you would not be able to utilize it yet. Your thought can increase but your frame is too low level to be able to keep up. Much like an organic unmodified body. So before you go and upgrade your cybernetics, you should make sure you have a base that can keep up.</>

    [What¡¯s it going to cost me.] I pushed up the open stairs to the next floor.

    <>Class Two Void Walker is seven hundred points and one token. Inside you¡¯ll find better capabilities with everything you utilize regularly. Including upgrades for your laser cutter that will give it more cutting power at further ranges or higher cutting power at closer ranges.</>

    [Fine.] I didn¡¯t have an argument against that. [Doesn¡¯t look like there¡¯s anything on this floor either. Just sedans.]

    <>Void Walker class two purchased. You have points left to look at a new arm or two?</>

    [Would I replace the ones I have or do I have ports for more?] I skipped the next floor when it became apparent there weren¡¯t any larger vehicles there either. [Gimme another lure grenade.]

    <>You can replace the smaller clusters or any individual of the larger ones. Grenade incoming.</>

    I snagged the box and opened it, ditching the box in favor of the grenade. There were two floors left, one regular and then the top of the building. I pitched the active grenade into the last covered floor, pausing to see if anything came out of the woodwork. I thought for a moment as I waited.

    [Any way I can combine stuff to make the armor extrude tentacles on its own? Why buy new ones when I can reconfigure the Nanos to do more? Get that much closer to an amorphous blob.]

    <>Well. Technically, yes. But they would have no real purpose and the strength would be low. You would need to improve your Nanotechnology catalog. Instead how about we wait on arms in general and move into weapons? We can get an upgrade from your SMG to something a bit more focused and hits harder.</>

    Nothing drew my attention so I moved to go up to the roof. One corner was cut off by wrecked fencing that surrounded a bunch of trashed communications antennae. The rest of the floor was basically empty. There were three sedans and nothing else.

    [Well this is a bust. I wonder if any other buildings might have some buses or something?]

    <>I¡¯m afraid none of the nearby companies have any registered and there are no city sources nearby either.</>

    [Worth a shot. Here¡¯s hoping the military brings their own.] I turned and made my way back down, looking for Bomberman. [If they don¡¯t this is going to be a giant pain in the backside.]

    I knew he wasn¡¯t on eighty, so I kept going down. Unless he went to the other stairwell on the other side of the building I¡¯d find him going down.  But I got to Sixty and checked the landing, but he was gone.

    [Okay, where the hell did he go? Naille see if you can find him with the building security. Call the military too maybe?] I just settled in on the drop-off landing.

    <>Cameras show he¡¯s on his way to the ground floor. I can connect you. As for the military, I¡¯m actually getting an incoming call for anybody at this location. Shall I connect you?</>

    [Yeah. Try and connect me to both?] I looked over the edge at the drop. [Then we need to think about close-range combat.]

    [What do you need kid?] Bombermans voice sounded winded even over subvocal comms.

    [Why ground floor?] I zoomed in on the street sixty floors down. [I don¡¯t see anybody coming?]

    [No but I got word we¡¯ve got another wave of ground enemies coming.]

 Upgrades People, Upgrades!

    [That¡¯s right,] Cut in a second voice. [Samurai north of you are having a hell of a time and several larger models are leading hordes in your direction. There are several other buildings with Shelters nearby but no one has been able to check them yet.]

    [Yup. I got two buildings from our south on my way here, but there are at least thirty more shelters in this region. Plus active Antithesis all over.] Bomberman walked out the front of the building, looking like he was winded even at this distance.

    [Understood. I¡¯ll be down shortly to help secure the ground floor.] ¡°Hey, Naille. Can the goop survive a fall? Can I?¡±

    <>Yes to both, you intend to step off from here</>

    I didn¡¯t answer verbally, simply oozing off the edge. The fall was weird. My hover systems strained to slow the fall, while my ablative armor dragged down, causing me to bubble below my chassis for a few seconds before having to literally pull myself together after impact. I definitely lost some mass there.

    <>I was going to say, but we should upgrade your countergravity to better compensate for the fall.</> Naille sounded put out at my antics.

    ¡°Sorry.¡±

    ¡°Holy shit! Did you jump off the roof?¡± Bomberman jumped out of his skin, nearly chucking a grenade at me.

    ¡°Sixtyith.¡± [Uh do we have any numbers on enemies?] The line was still connected so I hoped the Military person would give me something useful.

    [At least three separate groups. The best number I can give you is Hundreds. Each.]

    ¡°Fuck.¡± We both uttered the same word at the same time.

    [I¡¯ve got self-replicating minefields for area denial. But they take a bit to set up and cost a lot.] Bomberman started for one end of the street.

    [Best I can offer is lots and lots of plasma fire. But so long as they¡¯re single digits I can cut through them fairly well. It¡¯s a shame we don¡¯t have access to monofilament weapons.]

    [I do. Why?] Bomberman Stopped and turned to me cautiously.

    [Area denial. Set them up in an area with power enough to blender lesser enemies, then we only need to deal with the bigger stuff. I¡¯ve got a distinct lack of close-range options for lots of enemies. I can do one or two at a time right now.]

    Naille joined the chat channel, surprising me. [<>Actually with the points you have and the catalogs you have we can do something about that. You did just upgrade your core catalog after all. Stronger, longer, more powerful arms are just a purchase away.</>]

    [Honestly, I¡¯d rather be able to extrude monofilament ribbons or something to cut everything close to shreds. Like something¡­ a couple of hairs thick at the center, maybe an inch wide, as long as you can reasonably make them, with a fractal monofilament edging? Use some base graphene muscles inside it to make it moveable. Add some basic sensors to it for proprioception.]

    [<>Thats¡­ actually doable. Although you¡¯d need another catalog it¡¯s only fifty points. Fifty points per cilia. You can replace tool arms with them.</>]

    [Sounds good to me. Load me up.]

    Points: 222 ¡ú 22

    ¡°You know you¡¯re still on group chat right?¡± Bomberman yelled over from where he was setting up a small legion of landmines.

    [Yeah. Sorry. I¡¯d rather stay on chat for when the shit hits the fan and I don¡¯t know how to switch channels yet. Besides, losing track of you freaked me out a little. Which I thought was impossible but it still happened. Weird right? Anyway.] A box had dropped next to me, I extruded a few tool limbs to open it, pull out three replacements, and begin the quick process of switching them out. I stored the extras in my armor with everything else.

    ¡°I keep forgetting you¡¯re not just a newbie but¡­ childlike too.¡± He muttered that, but I still heard it.

    <>Would you like me to continue adding replacements until your basic tool limbs are swapped out?</>

    ¡°Yes, please. I don¡¯t want to lose my big manipulators but I need as many of the ribbons as I can get. This is going to suck. Also don¡¯t ask, just add more mass to my armor the second we get enough points. Double it.¡± I made sure to speak quietly into the muffling mass of my armor rather than extruding a voice module to the exterior in order not to bother anybody on the channel.

    <>Understood I¡¯ll handle that on the fly while you¡¯re fighting.</>  I turned us in the direction I could hear a lot of movement from. I moved to the far end of the street from Bomberman. Better to get coverage since they may come from multiple directions and we didn¡¯t need to be stepping on each other''s toes. As it were.

    [Here they come.] Three new ribbon tentacles extruded from my armor along with every weapon I had available, grinder mouth, guns, and all.

    There were a lot, and as soon as I rounded the corner I could see the hoard. Mostly the doggy types but random larger ones including the tentacle bears and the sedan-sized armored ones. A couple of others I didn¡¯t recognize.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    It was surreal, being swarmed by creatures that looked like plant-based animals, yet not one of them made a noise besides clawing on the blacktop. I had a brief moment to revel in the weirdness before I was buried in angry plant dogs. Things kinda blurred from there. Anything I came in contact with got cut at with a ribbon, if that or the ranged weapons didn¡¯t work I hit whatever it was with the grinder.

    At some point, I noticed I had more armor and no more tool tentacles. I vaguely remember snapping out for another grinder at one point. I definitely don¡¯t remember asking for any more plasma casters but ended up with three more anyway. It was complete chaos and I subsumed myself in it. Not really thinking, speaking only as a means to get what I needed. Which was more carnage. I¡¯m not certain but I may have laughed maniacally in my Eldritch Horror voice for most of it. Whatever happened, I had a fucking blast.

    By the time I was the only thing on the street moving my internal clock said only twelve minutes had passed. Felt like more, and less at the same time. I also wanted more, but there was nothing in sight. It took me a second to shake off the battle craze.

    [Bomberman, you good?] I focused a cluster of sensors in his direction. He waved from behind a barricade of concrete and metal that hadn¡¯t been there minutes before, flashing a thumbs up in my direction.

    [Samurai. Verbal confirmation of survival?] The military comms person sounded nervous.

    [Alive and kicking,] Bomberman sounded exhausted. [Though I need a few to sort shit and repair some damage. Do we have more incoming?]

    [I have survived.] I didn¡¯t bother with more about myself. As I could see the street was empty for the moment and heard that nothing was moving I decided to chime in. [If there are more, they¡¯re still out of my sensor range.]

    [Correct. You are currently clear of any open threat from the street, We¡¯ve got satellite coverage of the city now.]

    [How''s the fight overall,] I couldn¡¯t help myself from asking. Curiosity and all that.

    [The incursion is in the second stage. We¡¯re rooting out proto-hives now. No more incoming mass.]

    [That¡¯s a fucking relief.] Bomberman stood up and waved me over. [Hey, did you get bigger?]

    [Yes. I have doubled my initial mass. Then I lost a portion of it. The nanites are mostly ablative armor still.] I quickly slithered down the block to join him. [I¡¯m going to need to take a few for an upgrade cycle, is that all right?]

    [Sure. We can hit the next building soon.  Speaking of which, do we have evac for the ones we¡¯ve already hit?] He leaned against his barricade while rubbing something on his shoulder.

    [Give us twenty and we¡¯ll have armored transport for two hundred there.]

    [We have two fiftyish in just this one building.] I kept out of it as Bomberman argued. [Plus two others with a hundred or so in each.]

    [We¡¯ll have to take it in stages. If you could hold the region we would be appreciative.]

    [Fuck. Got it.] He turned to me, ¡°We¡¯re gonna be here a bit so go ahead. I can hold out while you upgrade. Think I¡¯m going to open up something with more direct-fire capabilities myself.¡±

    ¡°You know you don¡¯t have to use regular guns. Mortars and Missiles are technically bombs, just like landmines.¡±

    He stopped and stared at me for a solid minute. A dumbfounded look plastered on his face. Finally, he screamed rage to the heavens and stomped a few times before finally circling back on me.

    ¡°Six months I¡¯ve been a Samurai and¡­ fucking fuckity fuck. I feel stupid.¡± He sighed and facepalmed before running his hand down to cup his mouth.

    ¡°Sometimes it requires out-of-context sources for proper solutions. Mayhap you invest in some sort of power armor or drone to carry it as well?¡± I knew there would be facial ticks to add to my speech, but I had no way to express them as an amorphous blob. I was a little disappointed I couldn¡¯t half-heartedly suppress amusement for his viewing annoyance.

    ¡°Can¡¯t afford anything like that. But a mortar emplacement and ammo is a go for now.¡± He turned and started rebuilding his bunker.

    <>You wish to purchase upgrades?</> Naille had no patience, immediately prompting me even as my attention flitted to my point counter.

    Points: 6,735

    I had built up a shit ton even after all the purchases.

    ¡°Okay,¡± I mumbled into my armor. ¡°Chassis upgrade, I need more manipulator ports, better ability to use more at once, and better hover capability, just to start.¡±

    <>Might I recommend waiting on manipulators and capacity until you¡¯ve evacuated a reasonable number of people from the area? You will receive more points as well as tokens from that. Once you have tokens you can purchase a class two cybernetics catalog. For now perhaps simply upgrade your frame to accommodate everything. You have access to class two Void Walker now, so swapping for a stronger frame and upgrading your SMG might give you better options until you get the tokens?</>

    ¡°Or I could just wait overall. I did well enough there. Things are quiet right now. However, I am curious about the new shell. Maybe something without a face? Having omnidirectional capability would be nice.¡±

    <>That would be a reasonable method. Especially since you tend to want to utilize your optics separately. Perpahse adding them to longer stronger eyestalks, allowing you to keep your core deeper in your armor?</>

    ¡°Yes. For now, can we extend the arms into fingers, each one a separate tool connector? Maybe have a sub-brain sort of setup to be able to use them?¡±

    <>I¡­ hadn¡¯t thought of that. It¡¯s a brilliant stopgap! Yes. I believe I can cobble together something from your catalogs that will be most effective. However, I would like to open up a drone catalog and a class one combat AI catalog to make the limbs more effective. Each would cost fifty.</>

    ¡°Do it. How much overall?¡± I shifted to move for the building door, expecting I¡¯d need my surgical suite in the sub-basement.

    <>You¡¯re frame can be replaced here for four thousand. You needn''t go back down for the surgery suite. It would triple your large arms, but you¡¯d lose all the smaller arms from your core. That said each arm would have five sub sockets. Each set to a large arm size, allowing you to socket a branch to it allowing for each of them to house three smaller limbs. I can also apply stronger gravitic negation modules, not enough to fly but enough to move through buildings without causing floor damage and fall considerable distances without problems.</>

    ¡°Wait, so I don¡¯t need the suit downstairs?¡± I stopped in the lobby. ¡°Also, nice. Shame I can¡¯t just get the flight capability.¡±

    <>No. You¡¯ll need a new gantry. So here should be fine. They are, on purpose, disposable after all. That four thousand includes the cost of the gantry as well as socketing all of your limbs. Including the pair of original human-like ones. If you would like true flight from Gravitics, that is possible now, but it would cost an additional two hundred points.</>

 Is this what they call a Mexican Standoff?

    ¡°Okay. Let''s do this then. Fill any extra slots with Ribbons, and balance the limbs. We¡¯ll go with the flight now, something for the whole armor, right?¡± I shifted one way, my armor the other, leaving me open for the process. The armor automatically shifted into a solid brick for storage.

    <>Yes, your whole armor section will be supported. I shall begin. Sweet dreams.</>

    I checked the time. 8:59 PM.

    My optics went out and I was left in darkness for a while. Nothing new there, I¡¯d taken plenty of time in maintenance like that. It was so normal for me I spent the time pondering the fact that I should probably be more disturbed like this, but wasn''t.

    When the lights came back up the time was 9:20 PM.

    My armor was sitting rigid as a brick next to the gantry I was suspended in. It took a few seconds to coordinate with my new sub-brains to get out of the gantry, leaving behind a gutted shell with some electronics visible. An egg shape with cutouts for optics and tool attachments.

    ¡°Should I just leave this here?¡±

    <>Actually, your class two Void Walker allowed my purchase of the second and third armor sets to be upgraded. You can now ¡°eat¡± the leftovers, adding mass to your armor for repairs.</>

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± I dragged the word out a moment, it echoed in the vast empty lobby. ¡°Let¡¯s do it.¡±

    While I had been distracted one of the sub-brains had come in contact with my armor and ordered it to move back into place. Once I was covered again I reached out to eat the gantry and old parts.

    [Hey, you alive in there?] Bomberman seemed calm, bored even.

    [Yes. I have a new chassis and a few new tricks.] I finished eating and glorped out of the lobby. Spreading out and extending everything, keeping the more vulnerable joints in the mass but the rest became tentacles of varying types.

    [I see that. More arms?] He stood up from the camp chair he had been snacking on something at in the midst of his bunker.

    [Among other things. How¡¯s the evac going?] I approached him, moving much more smoothly and quickly than before.

    [Evacuation is progressing at pace.] The military person on comms sounded almost bored. [The other two buildings are emptying now. It¡¯ll be forty-five minutes before they can get back and work on that one. Perhaps you can clear more while you wait?]

    [Was that console jockey just being passive-aggressive with us?] Bomberman smirked as he dumped his empty bag of whatever on the ground.

    [I believe she was. But she is not incorrect,] I agreed. [Shall we split up? I¡¯ll take the building to the northeast, you the one to the west?]

    [Actually, I think that one is a garage.] He pointed at a building two down from us to the west. [How about you go clear it and see if there are any buses? I¡¯ll hit the building between and then we can go the other way together. I¡¯d rather stay in shouting distance for fire support.]

    [Do you have mobile mortars yet?] I began moving that way, extending a ride spot for him as I went. [Lure grenades are handy too.]

    [Ah. No. I don¡¯t have that.] He hopped on, catching a ride over to the building entry.

    [I have a basic combat drone catalog and a couple counter gravity sources. Use my catalogs to make something that you can use indoors and outdoors for a range increase. Later you¡¯ll have to source it yourself, but for now, we need to stop wasting time.] I stopped to drop him off, focusing several eyes on him.

    [Uh. Actually, I was gonna ask if you had anything. Thanks. You need anything from mine?] He hopped off, stepping back. It was obvious he was able to manage channels just fine because he was subvocalizing but I heard nothing. I was now a little jealous.

    [Unless you have class two cybernetics, I think I¡¯ll be fine for now. Though I wouldn¡¯t mind grabbing four of your class three grenades for lures.]

    [Uh. I do actually. And sure. You can have access to a few things from my cybers and grenades.] A rather large box appeared next to him, almost immediately disgorging a mastiff or small horse sized dog like bot with several barrels protruding from its back. Even its mouth looked to have a grinder reshaped in it.  I could also see a quartet of short murder ribbons where its tail should be.

    [I appreciate it. Naille, do we have enough for the cyber upgrades? I want those first.]

    Points: 2435

    <>With Bombermans help, yes we do. Two hundred for four class three lure grenades. An additional thousand for the Hecatonchires neural upgrade plus a replacement for that failure of a synaptic enhancer running an additional five hundred. Running out to a total of Seventeen hundred.</>

    [Do it. Er, do I need a gantry again?]

    <>No they will be nano grown for something so delicate. The upside is we can use the materials from the old ones to do it so it¡¯s slightly cost effective. It will only take a few minutes and you won¡¯t need to stop working.</>

    A series of boxes had appeared, landing directly on my mass. I drew them in, ate them, and either used or stored what was inside. The new cybernetics were in brick form, just a pair of bricks of Nanos that were applied directly to a port in my hull. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Good luck with all the stairs,¡± I chuckled darkly as I started moving away.

    ¡°Like I need it,¡± he laughed back. His new drone dog extended a seating surface out of the back, just behind the barrels sticking out, he hopped on and rode the damn thing into the building.

    I continued to laugh louder, and added all the effects in for maximum creepy factor as I oozed down to the garage building. Once I arrived at the entrance I stopped making noise externally. It was time to make my way up. The structure seemed to have thirty floors above ground, and the map the system provided added ten down.

    ¡°What do you think Naille? Up or down?¡± I continued using my armor to muffle speech for a more private conversation.

    <>Down. I suspect any above us would be local traffic. Whereas down would be storage and bulk transports.</>

    ¡°What about plants?¡± I started for the ramp down, ignoring the robot service station that was blaring something dumb about paying at me.

    <>They likely were drawn out by the recent combat, whereas any still below may be covering for a hive.</>

    ¡°Down it is then.¡± I sped up, using the large open space to move in now that I was the size of a large SUV or small bus with all the armor and larger core size. ¡°Being so big is going to make it difficult to traverse buildings now. Maybe we should look at folded space storage? And an interaction frame? Maybe pull a terminator. Wait, what? I¡­ remember what a terminator is?¡±

    <>Which one?  I¡¯m assuming something like what you are doing now, which would be Rev-9. Also, your memories should be coming back more and more as time goes by. You¡¯re biological repair nanites are working slowly but surely to fix all the damage and rebuild what needs it.</>

    ¡°Oh. And yes. Like this, but a normal endoskeleton with a nanite facade.¡±

    <>That is doable as an arm extension. But to store all of the rest of your mass would take a class two catalog you do not have access to. I¡¯m afraid that Dimensional storage starts as a Class Two, you¡¯d need to build a makeshift variant with a dozen other catalogs or get to Class Three in one that has it already. I would recommend waiting until you have another token, now that you don¡¯t need to buy cybernetics yet, and purchase the Class Two extradimensional spaces catalog for one thousand.</>

    ¡°And we get a token for saving a bunch of people?¡±

    <>At the current rate you should get one in approximately twenty-five minutes. As that is how long it will take the military transport to exit the zone.</>

    ¡°Nice. Oh. Look. Plants,¡± I rumbled fully aloud as I extended a plasma caster to burn down the dozen strong mix of dogs and hentai bears. The Thoom those things make is always satisfying, especially when added to the crackle of burning plants.

    <>There must be another hive started down here. I¡¯m not seeing any sufficient transports yet either.</>

    I silently agreed as I moved to go from subfloor two down the ramp to subfloor three. Upon which I found a double surprise. There was an array of over thirty passenger buses on the back wall, and about fifty plants of varying types charging up from lower floors still.

    [I¡¯ve got contact on subfloor three of the garage, but I also found a metric fuck ton of buses down here too.] I immediately moved to block the plants from backstopping my shots with the buses even as I reached out with shredder ribbons.

    [I hear you, this building is clean so far, I¡¯m on the only shelter and it¡¯s at capacity but safe. Want backup?] Bomberman sounded annoyed. Probably the survivors bitching.

    [I got this. Think there¡¯s a hive below me. I¡¯ll pop some drones with AI to get the buses to the surface if you wanna go sit on them while we wait for the military? Though I think I should sweep them for sevens. We¡¯ve seen plenty today.] Things were way easier now, my new parts plus the help from the sub-brains I was able to focus on more than just killing stuff. Which was super easy with all the extra damage capability. [Wow this is easier than before! New body is go!]

    Points: 875 ¡ú 2085

    <>If you get the token from below instead you can open up that catalog.</>

    ¡°From below?¡± I shifted to see if anything more was coming up the ramp.

    <>The hive. You receive a Token for special feats. Taking out a hive, especially single-handedly, has a high chance of receiving one.</>

    ¡°Got it. But I need thirty-ish basic driver drones to get those buses ready to be used. They need enough optics to check for smaller models like sevens as well.¡±

    <>A half dozen spotter drones and a single wrangler will work. It¡¯s fifty for the spotters since they¡¯ll have upgraded sensors and a hundred for the wrangler which will pilot all the buses for you.</>

    ¡°Auto-deploy them, I¡¯m going down.¡± I didn¡¯t wait, I just started moving. I heard skittering behind me, an optic glanced back spotting seven boxes opening and disgorging six things covered in legs and eyes and a beholder. What was more was that I was receiving all their sensor data as well. They were an extension of me. ¡°Surreal. Surprised it doesn¡¯t hurt.¡±

    <>Your Hecatonchires system is fully integrated at this point. You can run far more than you are now with little strain. Up to one hundred sub-brains can be linked, each with its own ¡°body¡± capable of operation.</>

    ¡°Any chance of being able to just become the mass of nanites like a T-1000?¡± Since I had started using Nanite armor, that franchise had been flashing bits and pieces into my mind, it was good to put a name to a concept.

    <>Yes, but you will need to open a higher class catalog for that. And you can¡¯t open any class three until you¡¯ve got enough twos open which will be necessary for your build later. It¡¯s like building a pyramid, you must have enough base level to build to the next.</>

    ¡°Shit. Okay, end goals. For now, we¡¯ll work with what we¡¯ve got. Rav-9 and pocket space for extras is the current goal.¡±

    <>Understood. You should have sufficient points provided you do not spend much in clearing this hive.</>

    I had been uninterrupted descending two floors before I came around a corner and found hive matter blocking off my further descent from floor five. There were several mobile plants down there, which all stopped moving to look at me. I found myself in a Mexican Standoff.

    Nothing I hadn¡¯t seen yet, almost like this hive was going for hive mass rather than diversity.

    [Hey, Bomberman. Can I borrow some exotic grenades? I need something for mass defoliation.] I kept absolutely still, the plants did the same for some reason.

 Thereâ€™s no Earth Shattering Kaboom?

    [Uh. Sure kid. What are you thinking?] He sounded amused.

    [Fire. Lots of it. Napalm would be nice.]

    <>We can do that. How many do you want?</>

    [Two hundred points worth, and I don¡¯t want them to seem them come in.] I shifted my rear to open a hole under my armor for the transport.

    <>Done.</>

    I carefully opened the box and moved the dozen grenades through my body before eating the box. Inevitably some of my mass shifted visibly, causing them to shift a bit as well. This sparked my decision to rush because all of them moved a little. I hate Mexican Standoffs.

    They were rushing me even as I rapidly primed and threw all the grenades I could get out as fast as I could. The whole ramp and most of what I could see of the floor below me became a conflagration. I opened up with all my plasma casters next.

    Plant matter burns quite well. The problem was the type of molten fuck you I threw down there.

    ¡°Uh. How long is that supposed to burn?¡± I moved back a little as my armor was losing Nanos from the heat.

    <>One hundred twenty seconds. It doesn¡¯t have fuel for more, but it¡¯s hot enough to make the plant matter itself burn for some time. This will not kill the hive, only make it wish it was dead.</>

    ¡°Nice colloquialism. So I just wait for another¡­,¡± I checked the time. ¡°Twenty seconds?¡±

    <>The fire should be cool enough by then. Although I would wait for a solid minute for things to die down.</>

    ¡°Got it,¡± I agreed as I settled in to wait. On the floors above me, the buses were cleared one by one and moved to the surface.

    As the last bus left, I moved down into the still heavily burning, but not nearly as hot, next level down. Some of the concrete and every vehicle that was down here were burning. It looked like there were city maintenance vehicles.

    ¡°I thought there weren¡¯t any buses or city vehicles here.¡± I carefully made my way near to the center of the floor where there was a rather large hole going down.

    <>They aren¡¯t listed. After I cracked one I found they were part of a fleet stashed around the city for a company that has a half dozen subsidiaries that specialize in mass transit. Renting them to other corps or the city as needed, including two tour companies. They aren¡¯t officially government vehicles and aren¡¯t listed, so I ignored the government storage down here which is mostly just road repair and maintenance vehicles.</>

    ¡°Ah. Okay then. Just a little confusing is all. I guess we get to jump down there?¡± I used my bulk to stuff out some of the fire around the hole, losing a few Nanos in the process.

    <>Indeed. You should be ready to chew a lot. Should I add some resonators to your queue?</>

    ¡°Resonators?¡± I extruded my two mouths and revved them up even as I jumped onto the still-smoldering bulk of the root system two floors down.

    <>The loud grenades Bomberman used to melt antithesis.</>

    ¡°Yeah. Like a hundred points of them. I wanna melt this whole fucking thing down to sludge.¡± I hit, and even with the flight I landed hard and crushed a bunch of plant while I started grinding it up as soon as it was under me fully.

    A box of resonators dropped on me, I opened it and threw them around the room for decent coverage.

    <>Your token should be available in the next two minutes at this rate. Should I open up the catalog for dimensional storage we discussed when it¡¯s available? It will be one thousand and a token for the catalog. An additional thousand for a storage device large enough, followed by five hundred for the new subframe. Then we just need to open up a biological facade catalog for seventy-five and another one hundred twenty-five to add the capability to your Nanos. The grand total is twenty-seven hundred and a token. You already just need the token.</>

    ¡°Yeah, how will install work?¡± I kept grinding away, extending my murder ribbons to cut at other parts to make them more chewable. Several new headless monkeys were trying to attack me now as well. I decided to just shoot them with plasma. It was super effective.

    <>I¡¯ve handled it all. You can change over whenever you choose. You simply need to select a body shape and face.</>

    ¡°That¡¯s going to be a can of worms. Lemme finish killing stuff.¡±

    I put my mind to making sure there was nothing left alive down here before checking if there was anything lower as we were only nine floors down. Even with my enhanced senses, I couldn¡¯t find anything.

    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s fishy. Wasn¡¯t there supposed to be ten sublevels?¡± [Hey, the garage I¡¯m in only has nine sub-levels. Shouldn¡¯t there be ten?] Speaking over myself has never been easier.

    [Yeah. City records say there should be. Can you not get lower?] The military person sounded intrigued, all the way up until she was snarky.

    [Nope. Bomberman. Wanna come down and blow a hole in the floor? Hive¡¯s dead.]

    [Do it yourself. You can borrow my shaped charges catalog. I¡¯m getting civvies loaded on the buses. With the green shirts here.]

    [Got it. Did I lose track of time? Eh, be out in a couple of minutes. Do we need to escort them out or something?] I had apparently lost track of time while killing the hive. Not that it really mattered, except I should hopefully have another token.

    [No, you two stay there and clear more buildings.] A new voice came on the military line.

    [Sure thing Colonel.] Bomberman seemed to know who it was so I let him do the talking. [We have a few buses leftover up here so if we can clear multiple buildings we can get more out next time.]

    ¡°Naille, gimme something with enough directed boom to go down and a spot to put it I won¡¯t bring the building down with.¡± A crate appeared next to me, I flipped it open and found a rather large cutting charge folded up in it.

    <>Place the charge directly under the other holes. It should be safe enough there.</>

    Two minutes of fiddly work had the breaching charge placed, allowing me to ooze back away from it far enough to feel safe setting it off. When I set it off, giggling to myself as I could actually stand off and appreciate the explosion. It was rather anti-climactic, getting a disappointed noise from me. [Awe¡­]

    [What¡¯s wrong down there? You sounded upset.]

    [Where¡¯s my earth-shattering kaboom?] I pouted as I moved up to where the goop that was left of antithesis was draining into a new hole onto the plug that had dropped into what looked like a server room. [Also there¡¯s some stealth servers down here. Somebody else can figure out what they are, I¡¯m coming back up.]Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    [<>We can crack them if you just plug into one.</>] Naille was apparently a part of the voice chat? On second thought that made sense.

    [Meh, I don¡¯t care. Anybody else?] I oozed my way up to the next floor, having to take the long way up.

    [I¡¯ll send down an engineering team on the next run] The colonel¡¯s voice dipped into the line again. [Good job out there Samurai. Keep it up.]

    My hindbrain kicked in. [Oorah.]

    [Oh we got a mud leg here! That totally explains everything. Nutbar marines.] Bomberman sounded thoroughly amused.

    [You should watch out Bomberman. Those old-school marines eat scrap and shit nails. And he¡¯s an eldritch abomination now.] Our usual operator came back on the line chuckling.

    [Thank you lieutenant snips] I let the smug into my voice. [ETA topside is five. Still need to clear the upper floors.]

    [Negative Shoggoth. We droned it, it¡¯s good enough. And my name is Lieutenant Butters.]

    [I like snips myself. Gonna stick with it. Good to go on the next building then.] ¡°Naille, just give me a generic soldier look for human form for now. Fatigues and balaclava.¡±

    <>It occurs to me that you didn¡¯t need the human form. You can simply shrink yourself into a smaller blob of goo. Sorry about that. But I¡¯ve got one queued up.</>

    ¡°Variety is the spice of life.¡± I grinned under the balaclava with the generic Ken doll face as the rest of me sunk into its back leaving just a soldier with an SMG and basic body armor visible. ¡°Let¡¯s see how people react.¡±

    I pushed it to hike faster up the inclined ramps to get out. Dropping a few more resonators on the way past dead plants.  As I pushed out the walking door on the side of the building I caught a couple of buses driving away with military escort, but the rest of them were lined up out of the way. As I trotted over to Bomberman I resettled my SMG across my chest.

    ¡°I think I want to switch my human form gear up a bit.¡± Bomberman was startled as my horrific voice came out of the mask on what he might have assumed was a soldier who got left behind. ¡°A heavier carbine, sidearm, and a few grenades and mags cued up on the flack vest.¡±

    <>With your class two Void Walker you can pick up a mining laser or we can reskin a shrunk-down gravitic accelerated cargo launcher you wanted to work as an object launcher now. Two hundred points for that GAC, an extra sixty to fill six pouches with generic micro explosive ammo. Just name the spread of grenades you want.</>

    ¡°Add something with a grenade launcher that can lob standard grenades? And as those regular grenades I¡¯d want two of my special lures, two resonators, and two thermobarics.¡± Bomberman just snickered as while I could speak simultaneously on two conversations I still couldn¡¯t open multiple channels to not have to speak aloud to stay off comms.

    <>Hummm. Yes. But you would need to open a standard kinetic firearms catalog to get it done.</> A box dropped next to me, and cracking it displayed the four additional grenades. I took a moment to think while distributing them as well as retrieving the other two from tool arms extended from my upper spine temporarily.

    ¡°Go for it.¡± I waited a second before another box appeared. Quickly Distributing things again I stood up looking ready to go. Ending in a quick point check.

    Points: 488

    Tokens: 1

    ¡°Here I bulked up and you slimed down. Where¡¯s all that mass you dumped?¡± He stood up from where he was leaning and walked over to me. ¡°Where are the arms coming from even?¡±

    ¡°Folded space. I got my very own pocket dimension to store my extra mass in. When the fur flies I can go full ugly. Until then I¡¯ll use Ken Doll form for interactions. Less creepy that way.¡±  I started moving to the building we had skipped so we could check it as I spoke.

    ¡°Ken Doll? Also if you want to be less creepy stop using eldrich voice.¡± He chuckled as he mounted his dog/gun platform and caught up.

    ¡°Eldritch abominations don¡¯t need genitals. Plus I¡¯ve known tons of Marines who let their dick¡¯s get them in trouble. Fuck that noise.¡± We both laughed at that. I dialed the of tone my voice back as I spoke to something more bass and less creepy.

    ¡°With that build, you should lighten it a bit more. You sound like a huge guy. Maybe shoot more for a baritone?¡± We entered the building, immediately looking for stairs.

    ¡°How¡¯s this? Also, Naille, map me?¡± I had shifted again to more of a mid-baritone level that seemed to fit better.

    ¡°Much better. Did you get the map? I don¡¯t have hacking tools.¡± He followed as I turned to where the stairs should be, not trusting the elevators.

    ¡°Yeah, Naille share it, please. Also, You should pick it up if you have points. Really useful.¡± I paused with my hand on the door. ¡°In fact in the spirit of teamwork, you should see what upgrades you can make off my catalogs as a stopgap. Did you grab better sensors for you mutt?¡±

    ¡°Uh. Yeah, I did. But you¡¯re right. You have anything good for cyber warfare?¡± We stepped into the stairwell, his hand on my shoulder as I led. The dog bringing up the rear. There was no access down here, but the maps showed ten floors down so we¡¯d have to find another way later.

    ¡°Just one of the class one catalogs. I¡¯ve not bought many class twos yet.¡± Surprisingly he took the first flight up without mounting up on the drone. I popped the door and extended a sensor cluster in to check before moving on. ¡°Hell, most of my cybernetics came out of your class two catalog. You really should just drop the hundred for the upgrade on the cyber warfare catalog. Everybody should have at least class one cyber warfare. It makes life so much easier when you can just tell the corporations to go fuck themselves.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. My AI says the same. I¡¯ll take it if you''re offering.¡± I stopped at the next door.

    ¡°Already did. Go for it.¡± I waited for him to get a box, inject himself in the neck, and then grab my shoulder again.

    A quick check left me with no signs of antithesis so we moved on. This went on for a full twenty floors before we got to the only bunker listed above ground. There were twenty more floors up but the place seemed to be cleared out.

    ¡°You wanna take this one? I¡¯ve been on point so far for talking to people so it¡¯s only fair.¡± He grinned as we stepped onto the floor, which was a bank of elevators letting out to a room with a big fuck off door again. The door was shut but there was blood smeared on the walls. ¡°Oh shit.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± I crouch walked quickly to the door access panel, letting the other two, man and dog, watch the elevators.

    The panel was smeared with blood too. I used the Nanos in my hand to clean it enough to start punching at the access, before giving up and sticking my finger in the interface socket. It had power but was locked out from external use, so Naille had to hack it for me to get the internal cameras up. They wouldn¡¯t even display I had to project them via AR.

    ¡°Well, this place is fucked. Also a budding hive.¡± I channeled the video feed that still worked to Bomberman.

    ¡°Yeah. Open it and drop some melt bombs in?¡± I nodded at his suggestion, triggering the door to open. The Robo-dog let out a ploop sound like a grenade launcher, twice. The inside fire started immediately.

    I took a knee and raised my rifle, a Strohl plasma caster extruding from my back on a full-size tentacle to extend around my side and add to the weapon coverage. We kinda needed it as several visually flickering creatures charged at the door flailing scythed limbs at us. We lit them up and they didn¡¯t get close. Yet another mad minute of shooting at anything that moved and we got a Token ting noise this time.

    Points 488 ¡ú 622

    Tokens: 2

    ¡°Wait how do I have two tokens? Plus the numbers seem funny for that one.¡± I stood up while reaching for the door control again. ¡°Gonna shut this and smother it by shutting down the vents.¡±

    ¡°Good idea. And the points would be because we split ten Model nines. Tokens were for getting enough people out and probably this stealth hive.¡± He shrugged and turned around to watch the room. ¡°Should get another token for the three hundred that just went out sooner or later.¡±

    ¡°Check the elevator shafts,¡± I said after grunting in agreement. The door was already swinging shut. I closed up the vault, shut down, and locked off the air, damn thing could even pump it out so I did.  The one camera that still worked showed me the fires going out. I left it sealed as a tomb when I finished.

    ¡°Left bank clear,¡± Bomberman called before heading over to the right bank.

    ¡°Hey, Naille.¡±

    <>I have opened a second channel for you to communicate with me solely.</>

    {Okay? Right. Can you hack the building and unlock the elevators, get us one to the sub-basement? I wanna make sure there isn¡¯t another hive down there.}

    <>I can. It would certainly be easier than entering through the hidden server farm. I discovered while I was in the shelter system that the two are linked.</>

    ¡°Fuuuuuucccckkkkk¡­.¡± I was finally able to facepalm and have it understood.

    ¡°What? We¡¯re clear right. Did you spot something in the vault?¡± He turned back to watch me,  my finger still in the vault controls.

    ¡°No. The servers, they connect under the street to this building. I bet to a couple of others.¡±

    <>Indeed. There is a building on the north side of the road behind us that connects as well. Another subsidiary of the same parent corporation that owns this building and the garage.</>

    ¡°Well¡­ Elevator down?¡± As soon as I said it one of the ones on the right bank Dinged and opened. ¡°Express straight to sub one.¡±

    ¡°After you,¡± Bomberman made a sweeping bow, using his extended arm to hold the door.

 AGAIN?!

    I rolled my eyes as I got on, cramming back to let him and his beast of a robot dog onto the elevator as well. As soon as we started down I looked up, the elevator music distracting me. Completely different from the stuff I was used to. It was nice enough that I started to dance a little in place. Which caused Bomberman to join me for some reason. Then the damn dog started.

    When the door opened onto plant-based chaos twenty seconds later we were a little startled.

    ¡°Shoot it!¡± He roared as he threw a grenade on reflex. The dog lunged out seconds later.

    Subfloor one had a large reception area full of dog types. I started firing around the dog as it pounced and started chewing on the nearest. The grenade hurtled to the back of the room where it exploded mostly in a pressure wave and shrapnel. My main weapon rounds exploded after punching into the dogs, causing a mess. Explosive ammo is very satisfying.

    ¡°Holy, are your shots exploding?¡± He did a double-take after throwing a second grenade.

    ¡°Yeah. I normally go for velocity and penetration. But they make seeking shotgun size shells too. You really should look into it.¡± I grinned as I aimed a shot at the last group, going for a center hit. I was a little off, but it did the trick, dropping enough of them so that the dog could get the rest.

    ¡°How do you know? I mean you¡¯ve been a vegetable for a while and a closeted droid the rest.¡± He looked evenly at me as he stepped onto the floor.

    ¡°Because they made them before I went down. They were hyper-expensive, the military played with them for a bit I think. I knew they were in movies too as a tech bonus in near future action stuff. But I was sure aliens make them cheaper and in bigger quantities. Then Naille said they do so, I went with it.¡± I shrugged and stepped through behind him. ¡°Low-level lure, or just a sweep? Too many dead ones to get a good scent and everywhere is shielded.¡±

    He opened his mouth for a moment then shrugged. ¡°Sweep? I bet the filters are too good for a scent-based lure. If the noise didn¡¯t draw them in they¡¯re sound shielded too.¡±

    ¡°Okay, You two take the north side, and I¡¯ll hit the south.¡± I started walking for a door on the south wall.

    ¡°You sure you wanna go alone,¡± He called questioningly after me.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I agreed with a wave over my shoulder. Even as I moved I shifted, liquid metal flowing out of a point in my back to cover me as I switched from humanoid to gloopy mess that took up the entire door I passed through. My voice shifted as I changed. Naille was really nailing that voice for each form idea.

    Most of the doors I came across were locked, I was tempted to open them anyway to check for people but given the randomly broken down doors, it was unlikely there was anybody there. Instead, I focused on hunting for any antithesis that we missed, especially Sevens. I did find another elevator bank as I hit the outer building wall, it was broken open and had roots growing up through it.

    [So I found what looks to be hive material up an elevator shaft on the south outer wall.]

    [Have you searched your whole area? I haven¡¯t found anything yet.] I sent him a map log of my pattern, having mapped the whole area that was open to me. [Yeah, You¡¯ll need to go back and check all the rooms you skipped. Just because the doors aren¡¯t broken down doesn¡¯t mean there¡¯s nothing there. As for the shaft. If I don¡¯t find one we¡¯ll use it to go down.]

    [Makes sense since the one we came down doesn¡¯t go any deeper.] I turned and moved back down the hall to break into every room I skipped. [This is so Tedious¡­. Don¡¯t I have Drones that can do this?]

    <>You do not. Well, not directly. We can combine a few things and get micro-drones that can fit in anywhere not biologically sealed. Would you care to purchase some? You can get one for two points.</>

    {Grab a hundred points worth and search the whole floor.}

    <>Done!</>

    [Well? Do you?] Bomberman sounded annoyed.

    [Oh sorry. Yeah. I just bought fifty micro drones. Meet me here and they¡¯ll finish the floor. We can send them down to the next floor down before descending. Save us a lot of time.] I reversed course as a bunch of gnat-sized drones flew off in a swarm.

    <>Might I suggest using some points to purchase Matter Reconfiguration? It would allow your nanites to be upgraded to be able to do more than use base materials to repair and rebuild themselves. You could use your armor to repair damage to objects. It¡¯s only 75 points. You could even use them to make any class one object you have a blueprint for.</>Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    {Ohhh¡­ I like that idea. Go for it! Hell, that seems like enough to go further and go for Class 2. Start buying blueprints for stuff.}

    <>As you wish! You can currently purchase class two, still have the extra token you need, and seventy-seven points left as a reserve.</>

    {Sure.} I settled in to wait, having been at speed for the last few seconds it would be some time before Bomberman joined me, or the drones finished their scouting. No new boxes dropped, so I had to assume it was a software update. {Let¡¯s set a schedule for blueprint purchases. The first will be Armor. The second will be explosive ammunition. Third will be scout drones.}

    <>Understood. Each blueprint costs between seven and ten times the original price, depending on how it was sourced. Original whole blueprints cost more than those built on smaller assembled ones since you¡¯re buying the blueprints for the smaller ones and then creating a new one for the whole piece. Might I suggest going for a class upgrade for your general exotic nanotech catalog? It would allow you to use them for more, such as forming shapes and having strength without an endoskeletal base to work from. Same strength, no hard inner core. That with your facade catalog would allow you to be far more versatile in your fake shapes. It will cost one thousand five hundred but I believe well worth it.</>

    {Yeah, That¡¯s good. Okay¡­ Yeah. Add the Nano stuff. We also wanna get the blueprint for those resonators. Can we buy anything else now?}

    <>Understood. Yes, the resonators will be 50 Points to buy the blueprints. But you can get basic explosive ammo and your drones for twenty Points each. It would be out of order but you can buy any two of those now.</>

    Bomberman came around the corner and walked over to my large trash can-sized mass. I stuck a fist holding one finger up out of my armor so he could see I wanted a moment to finish. He nodded.

    {Go ahead and grab the cheapest first, I only listed the stuff in order of importance for me. Being able to maintain my armor at levels is good enough for now. Shit¡¯s expensive.} I turned my attention to the drones, only to discover they were done and on their way back. ¡°We¡¯re doing well now. I¡¯ll send the drones down to the next level ASAP.¡±

    ¡°Make things way easier indoors. Maybe I should¡­,¡± He started but I opened the skeletal hand to stop him.

    {For now, I just bought the blueprints for the ones I¡¯m using. You should look at saving some points to borrow somebody''s Matter Reconfiguration catalog to get one. Then buy blueprints for stuff. Maybe convert your seat on the drone into a grenade factory. I¡¯ll just pass you a copy of the blueprints for my drones if I can.} As I spoke the swarm of gnats flew through the room and into the compromised elevator shaft. We turned to watch, I sent him the feed on our general channel. [You getting this Snips?]

    [I am Samurai. You didn¡¯t need to loop me in tho.]

    <>You can give others copies of your blueprints, it''s yours to do with as you will once you purchase.</>

    [Nice!] {Make some extra scouts if we have the mass.} Naill didn¡¯t respond, but I noticed several gnats launch off of me.

    Bomberman leaned against his dog, a thoughtful look on his face as I watched the feeds from our scouts intently. The plants had about as much of a foothold there as they did on the floor I was on. So I moved down to another floor. This one had even more of a creep, but only a few threes wandering the same as above.

    [I think we have a hive here.] I skipped the next floor and had the drones follow the core mass of vines to the source. [Seriously, what the hell. This is the third basement I¡¯ve been to with a hive. Out of Three!]

    [I agree. This is weird. Where¡¯s the source on this one?] Bomberman walked over to lean into the elevator shaft. [Looks from here they go into the bottom couple floors?]

    [Indeed. Telemetry on your drones seems to indicate they exploded out from the center of the building somewhere?]

    [Got it. They seem to source from a lab on B-8. Judging by the security I can see it was probably a research lab that went nuts when the invasion started?] I shifted over and pushed Bomberman out of the shaft. [I¡¯ve got an idea. I¡¯m going to dig up the shaft then pop one of my class three lure grenades. Turning the whole thing into a blender with my murder ribbons. I¡¯ll trigger a bunch of sonics in the shaft and consume what I can from the plants. They¡¯ve got minerals I can use. Once we¡¯ve got the mobiles down we melt the rest with sonics. Sound good?]

    [I¡¯m down. I¡¯ll get some sonics ready while you deal with the models.] Bomberman stepped back and started calling up boxes.

    I glorped my way down, cutting and grinding the plant below until I hit the bottom of the shaft. Once there I set up resonators, cut a drain hole into the sewers, extended my murder ribbons, and finally popped the pheromone grenade, holding it at the back of the shaft. What came next was quite literally just a giant blender with a leak. I used my nano restructuring capability to leach out all the useful minerals and then shoved the rest into the sewers as blended chunks or melted semifluid.

    It lasted about a minute, there were less than a hundred angry plants and they all rushed for me from every floor. A few even came from the floor Bomberman was still on. They must have come down from above somehow. Once finished I moved back up to the top of the shaft to grab some bombs.

    [I¡¯ll take those. No point in coming down, you can¡¯t maneuver where you¡¯d need to go. Just hit the floors from seven up. I¡¯ll get the bottom three.]

    [Just doors on those floors?] He started looking in the shaft for the ladder or a way down.

    [Yeah. Six goes a few meters in but once you stop seeing them there doesn¡¯t seem to be any deeper. No sub ceiling on any of these floors so it¡¯s apparent how far it got.]

    He nodded as I lowered myself again. It took me almost thirty minutes to cut my way deep enough to place all the resonators necessary to melt the whole thing. I checked, then sealed the hole to the sewers I made before ascending to the top floor where Bomberman was waiting as the whole building started to vibrate slightly.

 I didnâ€™t say Dredd, did you?

    [That should do it for this one. Next building? Oh, wait! What about the stealth servers?] Bomberman had turned and taken two steps before he remembered and rounded on me again. I had just barely retracted to my trash can size again.

    [I didn¡¯t look directly but I did find the vault class door that was hidden in a store room that should lead to it. Do you really wanna go down there, muck through all that melted plant, and check? Or should we just skip it and move on since it¡¯s none of our business?]

    He stood there and thought long and hard about it before we were interrupted by the colonel.

    [You are both needed to check Shelters, not pursue criminal enterprises. There are a dozen more that need emptied and my men are almost back at your position. But you haven¡¯t got anybody to send back with them. Please continue your stated objective.]

    [Oorah.] I didn¡¯t even wait, half way through I simply started moving.

    Bomberman jumped to catch up. [Fine. But I¡¯m too intrigued by this to let it completely go.]

    We wound our way back to the elevator. Apparently opening it for ourselves gave the plants an in because it was wrecked when we got there. I moved in, and then engaged my new repair protocols, taking up all the space in the elevator for a moment or two before shrinking back down in a fresh and clean elevator.

    ¡°Okay. That¡¯s useful.¡± Bomberman stepped in joining me. ¡±How¡¯d you do that?¡±

    ¡°Matter rearanger class two, plus my primary which has repair and maintenance nanites for starships. Between the two I can fix anything I can figure out how works, plus make new stuff.¡± The elevator took us up one floor to the surface and opened. ¡°So the next nearest is the one to the northeast?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Two in the building. After that is a public shelter in a Gen Five housing block. Should have over a thousand people there.¡±

    ¡°Let''s make the next one quick, I¡¯ll shoot for the top shelter, you hit the mid. Check for people then do an end run for the housing block.¡± I got into the street and picked up speed forcing him to mount his dog and have it run to keep up.

    ¡°Got it. I don¡¯t know what floors¡­. Oh, wait. I do now. Nice. Forgot I nabbed cyber warfare from you for a second. It¡¯s still new.¡± He grinned and shot me the blueprint for the building.

    ¡°Forty and Eighty. Where¡¯s the Housing¡­ Oh, I see it. It¡¯s that monster over there right?¡± I pointed a pseudopod north as we passed a cross street. He nodded as we approached the front door. ¡°I¡¯ll just go up to the roof and fly over. I¡¯ll meet you there, okay?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Wait you can fly?¡± The front of the building seemed secure, the windows were wrecked but seemed to be laminate or damage-resistant so they held shape.

    ¡°Yeah, sort of. More falling with Style if I¡¯m fully out, but just enough and I can sort of glide. Need to work on it.¡± As I spoke I extended some ribbons and cut a hole in the glass, bypassing the armored security doors. ¡°Where are we going after that?¡±

    ¡°After that, we can split up. You¡¯re big enough now to manage against anything into the teens. If you hit something too big we¡¯d both have to call for backup anyway. I¡¯ll have Shilla drop you a map of our shelters to check.¡±

    [Besides, we¡¯re on com¡¯s so it¡¯s not like we¡¯re alone, right?] I let myself into an elevator and hit the button for eighty. I still felt apprehension, muted but it was there.

    [Fair enough. Hey Snips, is anybody else in the area to coordinate with?] I could hear the grin in Bomberman¡¯s voice as he spoke.

    [Awe man. Not you too. Fine. Yeah, there are two other teams. One with a pair of older Samurai one of whom was initialized in the last incursion like Bomberman. You may know her, MurderDeathKill.]

    [Crap¡­ Not her. She¡¯s psycho. Shit. Who else?] Bomberman sounded honestly upset about that information.

    [Funny she said the same about you. Anyway, she¡¯s with Sam-O-Ray from out of town. Nice guy. On the other side is Drag-On with a newbie like yours. Though that newbie hasn¡¯t got a gimmick yet. She¡¯s apparently all over the place.]

    [Got it. If it comes up, offer to link Drag-On with us. He¡¯s Family but not objectionable. Dunno Sam-O-Ray but I¡¯d rather avoid MurderDeathKill.]

    By this time in the conversation, the elevator dinged and let me out onto eighty. It was the usual lobby with elevators and a big ass door so it was simple to figure out what to do. I shifted around a bit, extruding my human form, and settled into a military getup before plugging in to access the system.

    [I kinda am curious now. Who on earth names themselves MurderDeathKill?]If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    [Samurai don¡¯t name themselves. An elder names them. Kinda like being a Pilot in the Air Force. Your peers get to name you, and if you¡¯re a tryhard they¡¯ll fuck you with the name.] Bomberman chuckles across the link as he speaks. [Hence how I got mine. Fucking Dick of a local Family member in charge¡­. Never mind. You¡¯ll meet him and get an idea eventually. For now, I¡¯m here and clearing the Vault.]

    I did a quick camera check as he was talking and confirmed that everyone seemed to be fine.

    [The escort unit is outside. If you¡¯re clear, send them down.] Lieutenant Snips was suddenly all business. [Attention as requested I have linked common communications channels for Teams five and six. You¡¯re live.]

    [Sending down ASAP,] Bomberman agreed. [Hey Drag-On, sup?]

    ¡°Hello?¡± I activated the door and the internal sound system. ¡°This is a Samurai, I¡¯m opening the door. You need to prepare for an orderly evacuation to the bus and escort on the first floor.¡±

    I ignored the cacophony that started up inside the shelter, and simply stepped aside as the door opened while listening to Drag-On and Bomberman trade barbs as a way of greeting. Instead, I caught the first person out by the shoulder.

    ¡°Help your fellow evacuees. Get them sorted into lines and chunked up for the elevators or stairs based on mobility.¡± I caught the next person and repeated the process, the third and fourth as well. No one freaked out at a seeming solider, making my decision to be more human-looking a good one in my mind.

    Quickly enough The elevators were assigned, left bank for us and right for the lower floor. People started moving, albeit grudgingly and cattily, in some form of order. It still took fifteen solid minutes before the last person out of the vault was out of my sight. I took a quick check of the vault with a couple of micro-drones before hitting the stairs to go up.

    [Shoggoth, you ignoring me up there?]

    [Oh, no, sorry Bomberman. I was focused on making sure the Managers didn¡¯t step on anybody in their urgency to flee. Fuckers were completely inconsiderate.]

    [Yeah they¡¯re like that.] A new voice came across the line. Thinking back I recognized him as answering to Drag-On. He sounded butch but spoke falsetto. [How are you doing honey?]

    I blinked. Paused a moment thrown by the dissonance, then went back to going up the stairs. [I¡¯m fine. About to head to a nearby Megabuilding housing block. Just hit the roof to make my glide over.]

    [Oh really, a Shoggoth can fly?] Drag-On sounded quite amused. He also sounded like he was a Full on Okama.

    I¡¯m okay with that. To each their own after all. Those in glass houses after all.

    [You¡¯d be surprised what an amorphous blob of angry eyes and plasma breath can do.] I was not expecting the vote of confidence from Bomberman but accepted it in stride.

    Instead of responding I simply stepped off the edge, extending my flight organs out of the humanoid forms back to fly over to the roof of the Gen Five Public Resource Housing Project.

    [Bomberman I¡¯m going in from the top. Going to saturate it with scout drones on my way down. Fucker¡¯s a hundred stories tall. Has shelters every ten levels. I¡¯ll meet you in the middle?]

    [Yeah. The military just left with the last shelter. I¡¯m on my way. Probably a little lower than middle at this rate.]

    [So you¡¯re just an amorphous blob then?] This voice was new. Female and fresh. Probably in her twenties, nineteen maybe.

    [Sort of. I do have an endoskeleton I can mimic a person with for talking and interacting. But I don¡¯t have a really set form with it. Just use it to look like a generic soldier to not freak out the civilians.]

    [Oh honey! You should have the most beautiful form possible! Especially if you¡¯re going for Eldritch Horror. There are only two types of those, the mind-bendingly terrible and the mind-bendingly beautiful.]

    I hit the roof of the Brick of a building and looked around for an entrance. The roof was apparently wide open to a central shaft so I started that direction, intending to just lower down the easy way.

    [That¡¯s a solid point.] I agreed. [Perhaps a generic gender-neutral timeless beauty would be appropriate. Go full Uncanny Valley with it.]{What do you think Naille?}

    <>I think I have the perfect pattern! Based on your former browsing habits even. Allow me to apply it.</> Former browsing habits? I let that one go, no time at the moment.

    I waited at the edge as my whole exterior changed, absorbing everything but the weapon in my hand. Soon enough I looked like a bloody Cultivator, timelessly beautiful. Such that you can¡¯t even tell if Jade Beauty or Young Master should be applied. Naille showed me a 3d render on my AR.

    {It¡¯s horrible. I love it. Send that out to everybody.}[How''s this for terrible and beautiful?] I shifted around and began to lower into the central area, dumping all my drones to check the floors as I went down, aiming for the first vault on ninety-five but taking it slow.

    [Oh god yes!] Drag-On made a loud vocalization that drowns out everybody else. [Honey! Whoever made that is a goldy sculptor!]

    [Naille, my AI did it. Thank them.]

    [<>You are quite welcome. It was entertaining to try and come up with something that would fit for humans taste.</>]

    [You amazing little alien! Now I need to see this in person!] Drag-On seemed to be getting a bit rabid.

    [Later! We still have places to clear!] The new girl was definitely harried with herding Drag-On, like a bunch of cats.

    [Oh little Alex-Chan! They¡¯re just a little off from where we are! And such a big building. Surely we can go help!]

    [We¡¯ve got this.] Bomberman sounded heavily amused as he added his two bits. [The sooner each region is cleared the quicker people can get back to their lives.]

    [Fair at this point you should be clearing the antithesis and letting people free in that Gen Five. Just be sure to lock up behind you before you go.]

    [Already sealed the front door. Kid, did you get to the top?]

    [No. But I will now.] I turned my attention up, focusing on the giant slab that was set to cover the overhead. {Naille, close that will you?}

    <>On it!</>

    [We¡¯re not finding any antithesis up here on the upper floors. Just a few Birdys.] I was currently being swarmed, probably because the doors were closing. Extending ribbons I cut them down, letting the corpses fall to the floor hundreds of meters below. [And clear now. But I¡¯m only down to ninety-five.]

 Burn it with FIRE!

    [Lucky you. The ground floor is a shitstorm. Care to supply some direct fire support? Blast the central courtyard, I¡¯m covered from flames.]

    [Plasma breath incoming.] I shifted a little, extruding all four plasma casters. I savored the ominous hum for a moment before switching to the thoom of firing.

    [Aren¡¯t you two adorable! Communicating so well with each other!]

    [I wish we would.] The vanguard still known as  Alex-Chan sounded a little annoyed with Drag-On.

    [All right then! You just had to ask!]

    [Communicate! Not aggressively cuddle!] I could just imagine what was going on over there. I could only feel sorry for her. She didn¡¯t seem like the sort who would do well like that from our interactions so far. Not that we¡¯ve had much yet. Personally, not liking being touched probably had something to do with it. [Are you two chummy or military in your comms?]

    [Depends. Like now. Kid, more fire to the northwest corner. Your plasma casters are about at the extent of their power and you¡¯re only lighting them on fire. But They¡¯re bunching up northwest!]

    [Got it, Lowering height and shifting fire northwest!] I did as directed, sweeping the floor slowly enough to make sure everything was lit up. {Naille. Do we have points to upgrade my Plasma catalog? Tokens too?}

    <>You do. I was just about to up your Exotic Nanotech. But I can wait and use the points for Plasma now? Or you can hold out for another few minutes and get both? You¡¯re about two hundred¡­ one hundred and eighty points shy. Dropping quickly as the burning Models die.</>

    {Plasma now, then Exotic. Just buy them as they¡¯re available. As soon as I have points after that I need to replace these Strohl¡¯s with something more powerful.} As I lowered the plasma stopped just lighting them on fire and started doing actual damage. But I had to dodge some Models that were on the mid floors who started reaching for me or straight jumping at me. Model Three¡¯s do not fall with any style.

    <>Would you like to put off Exotic further and purchase some Strohl Munitions Burninators, basically the massively up-gunned and sleeker versions of your current weapons. Yet again with the free Ominous Hum, but costing a point for the added Thoom.</>

    {Fuuuuu¡­ Yeah. Let¡¯s do it.} I quickly shifted the plasma casters into my storage, then had to frantically snatch the box with the four new Burninators out of the air. [Why is it always a race for new firepower and skipping on stuff for quality of fucking life?]

    [Awe, it¡¯s not that bad. It¡¯s just that you¡¯re in it now. If you¡¯ve got points after you¡¯ll be savoring them slowly because then you have to wait for the next incursion, or some random stealth to pop. Now that''s annoying.] Bomberman sounded both amused and distracted as he spoke.[Why¡¯d you quit firing? Oh¡­ Nevermind. That¡¯s way hotter. Switched up weapons then?]

    [Yeah went from the basic models to new ones called Burninators. Not sure if I like the smaller sleeker package tho. The old ones had a gravitas to them.] I started having to use them on the floors around me just as much as the ground floor and I wasn¡¯t even  barely halfway down. [I¡¯m hitting resistance up here. I don¡¯t think I can help much more down there.]

    [It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ve got the rest of this. You clean up there.] Grenades started spamming from near the huge ass vault door to the outside.

    [Got it.] Switching focus I went to the top floor I could see plants on and started sweeping the weaker ones off. As soon as I could land I went full Shoggoth and started cutting loose.

    The next few minutes were chaos and fire as I burned everything that looked remotely aggressive. The upside was the concrete didn¡¯t burn well. So I just left a lot of scorch marks everywhere. And gouge marks where I was a little careless with a melee tool. Points went up nicely though.

    Points 137 ¡ú 3482

    Tokens 1

    {Okay, let''s buy that nanotech upgrade.} I shifted off the last of the upper floors and let myself drop thirty feet into the atrium.

    <>You said buy it when available. All listed requests are purchased. These are unallocated points.</>

    {Well shit. Do you remember the upgrade for my Nanos you suggested? How much for that?}

    <>One thousand for the upgrade. Ten thousand for the blueprints. But I think we should save that for later.</>

    {Ya think?} I instantly regretted the sass. {Sorry. Yes. You are correct. Let''s grab the upgrade tho. Next, we need to look into shifting my consciousness into the nanites themselves I think.}

    ¡°There¡¯s still plants here. I think they¡¯ve got a hive started in those back shops but I haven¡¯t confirmed it yet.¡± Bomberman trotted up next to me and as he spoke something big, ugly, and armored shoved its way through a storefront to orient on us. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Thankfully, I hope, my new upgrade was software and not a box I¡¯m waiting on.

    <>That¡­ is a model fourteen. You should fire everything as fast as you can.</>

    ¡°Fuck!¡± I pushed out all my weapons and opened fire on it. Even had to use my older Strohl plasma casters despite my most recent upgrade, not that they did much.

    Instead, the damn centipede-looking, armored, gargantuan, monster charged straight at me, all but ignoring my plasma. Oh, it scorched it heavily, Burning through in places. But it was too damn big to really care. Instead, It crashed into my winnebago-sized ass and tried to trample me.

    I took exception to that.

    Extending everything I tried to pry, cut, crush, grind, laser, and plasma and generally damage it in any way I could while engulfing its head in my armor. I found that my nanos now had strength enough to apply mechanical pressure all on their own, as well as harden sections and move them. Trying everything was a good plan because it let me figure out I could turn nearly my whole body into an ore grinder. Between that and the bombs and mortars on its ass, we killed it. It was not fast nor pretty, but it worked. A battle of attrition that I couldn¡¯t lose.

    [You made a mess. Are you okay over there? That looks like it hurt!] Bomberman was trotting across the room to where the fourteen had slammed me into the entry''s armored vault blast door.

    [Yeah. I¡¯m fine.] I pulled my armor up on top of the beast where I had shifted my core functions. It took a moment to get some of the pieces pinned under it. [I dodged. It hit armor. Which I shifted to take and do most of the damage.]

    [Oh dear. What did you two find?] Drag-On sounded worried, but I could only imagine an western dragon ripping one of these things in half like it was nothing when they spoke.

    [Fourteen tried to trample Shoggoth. Upside, he¡¯s amorphous so it¡¯s impossible.] Bomberman slowed to a trot as he arrived. [You want to melt that so we can go check where it came from?]

    [No. I¡¯m going to eat it. Gimme a minute. I¡¯ll meet you over near the spot it barreled out from.] I shifted down to engulf it as much as I could and set my Nanos to scavenge for resources. Unlike with the boxes before, just being able to bring armor up to maintenance levels I could now gain extra resources for storage and building ammo and drones. [The higher the level it is the tastier they are. Full of useful minerals and vitamins.]

    [Oh god that¡¯s gross.] Alex, the other newbie sounded like she was actually imagining things and getting kinda sick from it.

    [Way more disgusting than you¡¯re thinking.] Bomberman was a little green around the gills as he turned and walked away. [I did not need to see that.]

    [Oh see what sugar?]

    [He¡¯s got this¡­ I dunno a grinder thing full of teeth, that he uses¡¯ to chew up antithesis at close range. He just made a bunch of them and started chowing down. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to be able to eat, or sleep, for a while after that. Really growing into your eldritch horror schtick there Shoggoth.]

    [I think we should avoid that subject, poor Alexandra seems to have a sour stomach.]

    We couldn¡¯t hear the retching, but even I imagined it. Poor girl.

    [Sorry. My bad. It¡¯s just that ammo is not cheap and I can make a bunch of it from the remains of this thing. Even a bunch of resonators to melt what''s left.] I didn¡¯t stop or slow down, just kept grinding away for resources.

    [It''s¡­ It¡¯s fine.] She definitely sounded sick. [Just imagined me eating a model three¡­ so gross.]

    [Yeah. Sorry Alex, can I call you Alex?] She gave an agreeable grunt in response. [I¡¯m literally a brain in a jar. My whole existence beyond that is a machine. When I say eat, I really just mean I¡¯m using nanites to disassemble the beast for vital resources. I mean I¡¯ve just managed enough to completely refill my stockpile of explosive shotgun shells and build about thirty resonators. All for the low low price of getting class two matter rearrangement and a few blueprints. Well, okay that was expensive as hell but in the long run, I¡¯ll save on points massively. I mean something like three kay in points down now for the catalog and blueprints, yeah. But I saved myself about a thousand worth on restocking just now. Do it again two more times and it¡¯s paid for itself. Every time after that is gravy baby!]

    [Oh?! That¡¯s actually kinda genius.] She sounds much better now. [Do a lot of people do that?]

    [No. Not really, it is a smart idea and most of us older Samurai either have the catalog or bought a matter rearranger from somebody else. But you newbies, you all generally live outbreak to outbreak to incursion for points until you hit your full stride.] Drag-On seemed kinda wistful, talking as if they were thinking of someone from their past. [There are even a few who specialize in providing use of or manufacturing for other Samurai. A niche for everyone after all.]

    ¡°You finally ready you giant slug?¡± Bomberman turned as I schlorped off what was left of the Fourteen and started his way.

    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m coming. Don¡¯t get your knickers in a knot.¡± [Anyway, I needed it partly for the reloads but mostly because I¡¯m going Nanomachine. Eventually, I¡¯ll upload myself into a distributed network across all my machines with redundant backups of my redundancies. Trying to be as unkillable as possible here. Like, you have to take ten different steps to kill me, sort of immortal. I¡¯m not close to human anymore as it is so I may as well go the full way. So Don¡¯t go imagining yourself doing anything I do. It would not work well for you Alex.]

    [That¡¯s fair.] She sounded small. [I just wish I could come up with a gimmick.]

    [HA! I half lucked into mine and am enjoying the hell out of it,] I retorted.

    Bomberman overran everybody else, [I got stuck with mine and have been trying to come to terms with it for a while now. This guy¡¯s lucky he got me, some of the others out there would have saddled him with a much worse Handle.]

    [True,] agreed Drag-On. [You needn''t rush yourself, child. You seem to be vacillating between drones and directed energy weapons, perhaps you should decide on one or the other?]

    [Why not both? What¡¯s wrong with drones? Go Ship girl or something?] Bomberman gave me an inscrutable look when I mentioned Ship Girls in chat. [What does nobody know what a ship girl is?]

    [No clue.] Bomberman shook his head bewildered.

    [Same.]

    [I vaguely remember something about the term sugar. Why not explain to the others?]

 Share and share alike?

    [Okay. Just let me get a cloud of drones running to check the back rooms here¡­. Okay done.] I swear it probably looked like a plague beast as I just bubbled up a cloud of micro bugs off my skin. They swarmed their way into the back areas and spread out.

    [Okay. For you heathen. A ship girl is basically like a Race Queen.] I paused and nobody responded. [Fuck. Okay. Take a cute girl in a military uniform, and skimpy it up a bit to make her sexy. Then take a ship, like a full-sized battleship, and shrink it down to between a meter and two. Split it down the middle and portion out the turrets. The Girl stands in the middle of what are basically a pair, or trio if she¡¯s split it into three with the engine compartment as a backpack, and directs what are effectively drones. I bet if you look hard enough online you¡¯ll find some really old stuff about it.]

    [My AI just came back with some actually.] Alex sounded kinda intrigued and excited. [Oh! These are cute! You think the boat-looking sections would be drones?]

    [I¡¯d go aircraft carrier or a hybrid aircraft carrier battleship design. Use the aircraft carrier for mini drones to scout and kamikaze or arm them with smaller weapons for dealing with little stuff. Then use the Battleship side for straight-up wrecking plants. Maybe go spaceship design?]

    [Are you two done with that Fifth Gen?] Lieutenant Snips cut into the channel.

    [Yeah. There¡¯s nothing here. I¡¯ve got micro drones everywhere and besides a few Threes up on some of the higher levels we can deal with quickly. It''s just cleanup. I mean we haven¡¯t checked the shelters yet ¡®tho.]

    [I¡¯ll pop a lure if you¡¯ll let me borrow the catalog? We can deal with it all at once thanks to the central shaft.] I turned to Bomberman and nodded to his request. He summoned one, immediately activated it, and threw it up into the air where it hovered a few floors up. [We should be done for all but clean up in, what five minutes?]

    [Another five to get out that door is fucking huge. Why the rush Snips?]

    [The Colonel is eyeballing our section.] He hissed into his mic. [I think you¡¯re all being chatty and he¡¯s getting annoyed.]

    [The brass can eat my shorts.] Nobody bothered to respond to my statement.

    [So, hey. Shoggoth, can your micro drones check the shelters?] Bomberman looked over at me as he pointed up.

    [Uh¡­ no. But they can check if they¡¯re compromised to some degree. I¡¯ll send some to do just that. That¡¯ll shorten things a bit.] The swarm that had been gathering from the back areas around the ground floor surged up the central atrium shaft. [Gimme a couple. Behind you.]

    He turned and directed his dog to lob a couple of mortars at the doggy plants coming out of a stairwell. I extended a single Burninator, sweeping it across anything that survived the explosives. This continued for a solid twelve minutes before my drones said there was nothing else coming.

    [Looks like that¡¯s it, ran a little over estimations but it¡¯s solid. The shelters are all reading as sealed but they¡¯re too thick for my drones to see into but they''re too small to interact with the consoles.]

    [Good enough. Let¡¯s move on.]

    [Wait Bomberman, there should be a central control room on sub-level one. You can check in with all the internal shelters there. Please be thorough, and if they are safe let them know they can come out as long as they stay inside the PRHP.] Snips sounded almost frantic.

    I extruded a Hutt-sized face and arms only to match looks with Bomberman and shrug.

    [Got it central. Gimme a couple to comply.] Bomberman turned, following the map route to head down.

    [I¡¯ll start some resonators to clean up the mess. Well, some of it.] I shrunk and floated up the central atrium, throwing resonators around to get the plant matter melting.

    I finished by running out of resonators, long before I even expected Bomberman to return. So I settled in, contracting to a minimum amount of Nanite mass. Playing with shape and context. Now that I could make rigid and fluid structures to intermingle. I quickly found that just being a slime on the ground with a face and basic arms was easier.

    ¡°You look like a pile of¡­ Schlock. Is that what you were going for?¡± Bomberman approached as I was testing my ability to extrude or store things, mostly through the wide rubbery mouth I had made.

    ¡°So are you saying I shouldn¡¯t use this one? It seems simplistic and easy. Plus No rigid parts allows me to get into smaller spaces.¡± I started glorping across the floor in the direction of the main door.

    ¡°No. It actually works for you. But not something for socializing. Go back to that beautiful one. It¡¯s nicer to look at.¡± He chuckled and waved at the door, which started to rise and open.

    ¡°No. That¡¯s probably going to be my everyday wear. This is my between-battle wear. I think it gives a better impression. The way everybody rolls with the gimmick, the way you have stuck to yours I feel like I need to solidify this and make it make sense now.¡± The door stopped just high enough to walk under for Bomberman then started down again after we got out. ¡°Now to split up. You head back the way we came and clear everything we missed. I¡¯ll get past here and we¡¯ll clear this up quickly.¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Okay. First one finished wins? Uh. One moment. Can I get that class two matter rearranger first?¡± He chuckled and patted his drone. ¡°I¡¯d need scout drones to even compete.¡±

    ¡°Sure. You think I should offer to let Drag-on and Alex use it too?¡± I turned up at him, being only about a meter tall at this point.

    ¡°That¡¯s up to you. Most people only trade. You seem to like to share, so I guess. Just maybe ask for a favor or something in return.¡± He shrugged and turned to his drone fully.

    ¡°Okay. I wouldn¡¯t mind any blueprints you buy that you¡¯re willing to pass on.¡± I turned back to look at the buildings arrayed in front of me.

    {Naille, highlight the buildings I need to check and approximate floors their Shelters are on.} Nine of the buildings I could see highlighted in red, with a darker red stripe on each building at the appropriate level for the floor a Shelter would be in. I mused on the twelve floors that were marked and the best order to take them in.

    [Hey, Drag-On, Alex, would you two want to use my catalogs? Maybe buy a matter reconfiguration machine. If so I¡¯ll allow it, provided you share some blueprints in return?]

    I wasn¡¯t able to catch the response because all my attention was drawn to the street in front of me. Another centipede type, but about four times bigger, was barrelling down the road at us from a couple blocks up. What really worried me was the veritable army of single digits swarming around and behind it. There had to be a thousand at least.

    [Bozhe moi. What the fuck is up with today?] I let slip in the channel even as I began expanding to full size, extruding weapons and firing.

    [What¡¯s going on over there?] Drag-On didn¡¯t sound very urgent, only curious.

    [We¡¯re swamped. That¡¯s all. Nothing new. I figured things were going too well so far. It¡¯s unsurprising, to be honest.] Bomberman sounded almost bored as he started his drone lobbing explosives down the street. [Some of that last lure grenade must have leaked out and summoned them?]

    [You think this is boring? There¡¯s like a thousand of them and another one of those Model Fourteens! And how would it leak? All the doors were shut!] I started frantically reaching for a nearby concrete barricade, which I promptly threw into the arriving mass. [Fuck it. Knife.]

    [Knife,] Bomberman asked in confusion.

    Instead of answering I lunged into the mass, grinders, and ribbons lashing out as I steamrolled the smaller units and charged into the fourteen. I determined at that point I am definitely a brawler. As usual, I kinda lost track of myself, having the ability to regen my armor as it was ablating made the fight one of attrition. One I was guaranteed to win provided they couldn¡¯t take out more than I could replace.

    Apparently nothing lower than the mid-teens was enough to hit that mark. Bomberman did more damage to me with near misses than any of the single digits and the fourteen was too busy trying not to be eaten to eat me back very well. It took a bit, but we finished up without losing anything or taking too much damage. Bomberman wasn¡¯t even attacked directly due to my chaotic counterattack.

    [Don¡¯t you dare call that a mad minute. That was twenty. At least.] Almost all my optical receptors focused on Bomberman in a baleful glare.

    [Are you back with us Shoggoth? Something of a Berserker aren¡¯t you.] Drag-On was just as calm as before. [These things happen, you just have to go with it. Antithesis are inconvenient like that.]

    [It¡¯s more than just inconvenient. That big bastard stomped on me so hard he almost cracked my shell. Also, I think you¡¯re right. I completely lose track in the big fights. Just all rage and violence.] I sighed over coms as I started eating. [Lost about twice my mass. Recouped it during the fight but still. That was a shitshow.]

    Bomberman just laughed, loudly. [Kid you just killed a Fourteen and about seven hundred single digits. I barely provided support fire. You¡¯re really taking your stride. Quit bitching and get on with your checks. We have a bunch of them and time is running out on supplies in the shelters.]

    [The hell did they zone in on us like that anyway? The streets look dead.] I continued eating mass, pumping out micro drones to store.

    [The door probably. There¡¯s negative pressure between the inside and out. Let out all the dead plant pheromones. That plus the noise. Like a giant lure grenade. Like I said earlier.] He chuckled as he started walking away with his dog. [I got my upgrades. I¡¯ll catch you later.]

    [S¡¯not like we¡¯re dropping the com link is it?] I retorted quickly, trying to hide how nervous I was. Which had grown to the point I was actually feeling it. I¡¯d had backup all this time and was only just getting to the point where I could feel how scary alone might be.

    [No. We¡¯ll stay linked. Just in case somebody finds something interesting. Plus just having company on the line can be comforting.] Drag-On was firm in their speech.

    [Not like I¡¯m going anywhere.] Snips sounded downright annoyed.

    [Right. I¡¯m going to eat a bit more then move on. Need more micro drones.]

    [Why?] Alexandra was definitely confused on the subject.

    [That¡¯s simple Alex-Chan! It¡¯s going to use them to scout entire buildings rapidly for antithesis activity. Allowing itself to cover more ground faster. It¡¯s a semi-common tactic. Everybody has their own ways.] Drag-On was certainly a wealth of knowledge. Only fair since they were older and presumably a part of a larger organization. I had heard something about a family, but it was still kind of unclear. [Out of curiosity, Shoggoth, do you remember anything yet? I am to understand you have amnesia.]

    [Nothing personal. Just procedural.] I let my annoyance, discomfort, and anger at the situation leak into my voice, not that I had much, as I started outputting hordes of micro-drones, sending them in the directions of each building as cohesive groups of a thousand.

    [<>I may have the answer to that. There are several cybernetics that were human-produced, and installed in Shoggoth grey matter. Several areas were damaged severely in order to install them. Those areas cover personal memories and a portion of several other vital areas. None will be recovered in total but it is repaired and in healthy shape now allowing for new memories to be stored safely. We will be lucky to recover twenty to thirty percent of former memories as pieces, but it will take some time.</>]

 War crimes and future plans

    [Well that solves that. Thanks, Naille. Anything else damaged beyond repair?] I monitored the dozen-plus swarms as they hit each building, nothing unusual so far besides some random plants hunting for leftovers.

    [<>Not really. Most have already been healed, such as your fine motor control and perception. Things went smoothly as soon as the human-made knock offs were replaced by higher-grade class two variants.</>]

    [Fucking corpos¡­,] Alex growled over the coms. [What the hell did they do to you?]

    [Dunno. Not really anyway. Most of the files I got on myself were redacted. There was a cyborg killing machine experiment using comatose brains. Guess they figured we wouldn¡¯t need our memories if we were just going to be organic CPUs. Something about dreadnaughts and the glory of the emperor? Whole thing fizzled for some reason and they transferred the viable ¡°Fuzzy Logic Nodes¡± to a new project. Got stuffed into a janitor drone and been doing that since before I woke up.]

    I began moving to the nearest building. I would clean it while checking the seemingly viable Shelter. Wasn¡¯t hard to hack the building to open all the elevator doors at once to pull the elevator blender idea again. I was set up and started lobbing sticky lure grenades up the shaft and onto the walls at intervals before anybody else said anything.

    [So they just cut up your still-living brain?] Alex sounded almost as disgusted as when we were talking about eating antithesis.

    [Basically. One of the few mostly clear documents was a release form from a family member, who was redacted from the file, to pull the plug on me. Another was a signed organ donation form. But all the signatures on everything was redacted as well as names and dates. There was another form that I can infer was the one releasing my still-breathing ¡°Corpse¡± to the company. Don¡¯t even know which company since that¡¯s a name that was also redacted.]

    Clearing the building was actually easy doing it this way. Just hack the building, use a few lures along the open elevator shaft and blend, then eat all the plants. They just ran right into my gaping maw. Stupid plants.

    [I know someone. Send me the file and I¡¯ll see if we can find something sugar.] Drag-On was somber in their request, not that it mattered to me.

    {Send them the full file we got.} I started up the shaft, aiming for the floor the shelter was on to check in directly. [Man, I wish they connected the damn shelters to the building network in some of these buildings. Directly verifying viability is such a pain in the ass. I¡¯d rather clear the building and chat over the network instead of having to go directly interact.]

    [I know, right?] Bomberman sounded just as annoyed as I felt. [There¡¯s set standards for capabilities but none of them say anything about isolating the network. I guess It¡¯s just cheaper not to integrate them. Cheap assed corpos. Though this cyber warfare intrusion kit I got from your catalogs is super helpful, that plus the drones make this a cinch.]

    [Dude. I¡¯m opening the elevators, using lure mines, and doing the blender at the bottom of the shaft. Clearing these places is going to be cake.] I let out a chuckle at full eldritch horror levels. [Smoothies are easy and tasty.]

    [Please, that is disgusting.] Alex sounded mildly sick again. [Don¡¯t equate antithesis with a smoothie. I may never be able to have one again if you do.]

    [Apologies.] I shifted back to my more normal speaking voice. [I keep forgetting you¡¯ve got a bit of a weak constitution on that front. No offense.]

    [None taken. That you¡¯re so¡­ inured to it is disturbing from my end. Though I do have to thank you for the ¡°Ship Girl¡± idea. I decided to use my favorite spaceship for it even.] She sounded exceptionally excited. [Though I had to make some major changes so as not to step on the original source material. Fuck the Corpos but I don¡¯t want to screw over the original author.]

    [Good for you!]

    [Thank you Bomberman.]

    [Let me tell you two, she is adorable in her little military-style hat!] Drag-On sent pictures to back it up.

    [Good fucking lord. You¡¯ve got a career ahead of you.] Bomberman didn¡¯t bother to hide the sheer lust in his voice. [Poster girl for somebody¡¯s space endeavor. Gorgeous and well styled.]

    [That¡¯s kinda par for the course with ¡°Ship Girls¡± from what I remember.] The cameras on the shelter showed everybody was fine and the system was operating at expected levels as I interfaced. Instead of interacting with them I left a message on the system and retreated, heading for the next location. [You are quite lovely Alex. Or should we call you Ship-Girl now?]

    [No, Hon. She¡¯s absolutely going to get the name of the ship she¡¯s imitating!] Drag-On drowns out everybody on the channel. [The Sufficient Gravitas.]

    [Well Congrats on finding a gimmick Sufficient Gravitas]

    [Thank you very much Shoggoth, you as well.]Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    [Thanks. That¡¯s two buildings clear. Everybody in the vaults seems safe too.]

    [Damn. I¡¯m still finishing my first.]

    [Gotta move faster Bomberman!] I laughed and quickly maneuvered into building three. This one, unlike the last, had stand-alone shelters, two of them.

    <>Might I suggest you spend some of your growing bounty to buy some slightly larger Drone types that can link into the stand-alone shelters while you complete your building clearing?</>

    {Wow me with your idea.} It would be worth it, depending on what kind of thing it was thinking of.

    <>You currently have one token and almost five thousand points, that¡¯s raising even with upkeep on lure grenades. Which we should also purchase the blueprint for. As for drones, simply creating smaller versions of yourself would work. You have most of what you need, only requiring a few lesser blueprints to make it work, including a scout drone variant.</>

    {Talk cost to me.} I started the blender again.

    [You two are lucky, we barely cleared another while you were covering the Mega Block.] Alex sounded tired. [I¡¯d almost be glad for a wave to fight at this point. Buildings are tedious.]

    [Are you planning on specializing in clearing them?] Bomberman sounded curious but distracted. [Because that¡¯s what Shoggoth seems to be doing. And it¡¯s gotten quite good at it.]

    [Cleanup is easy enough. Steady work too. It¡¯s not for everyone honey, but it¡¯s considered relatively safe. Do you want to be a front-line fighter, a mid-region cleanup, or a post-battle sort of Samurai dear?] I was unsure to whom Drag-On was speaking, but it didn¡¯t stop me from considering the question.

    <>All told including the lure grenade blueprint there will be four at a total of two thousand even.</>

    Points: 11,612

    Tokens: 1

    [I should point out that while I do well on cleanup, I am a mid-region combatant at this point. Eventually, I¡¯ll be front line.] I didn¡¯t feel any pride, simply a sense of purpose. I tried to make that clear as I spoke into the com-line. [Sometimes you need to start small to build up to something big. I can manage into the mid-teens at this point, I¡¯m looking to hit the twenties before we finish this incursion.]

    <>Oh that may change a few future purchases. Are you looking to upgrade your melee capability or plasma?</>

    {Buy the blueprints and get a couple mini-me¡¯s out asap. I don¡¯t want to crawl all over this building or any future ones.}

    <>Done. You have a token to upgrade another catalog to class two?</>

    {Any Suggestions?}

    <>I would suggest deepening your cybernetics catalogs as you expressed a wish to eventually merge with your nanite swarm. Which would be a class three catalog for minimum levels of safety, I¡¯d prefer using class four. Still, to get there you need to dig in deeper.</>

    {I get it. But I also want to do more damage to bigger plants. So other ideas?}

    <>Why not ask the others?</>

    I mussed on that as I cleared yet another building. This time taking advantage of ten-pound gloop babies to go and check on the people while I dealt with the pissants. While I thought I ignored the chatter between the others, they were talking about gimmicks and how to change them later in your career. Something I may need later but for now wasn¡¯t something I cared about. Not that anybody seemed to have a good handle on the idea anyway.

    [Sorry to bust up a truly fascinating recursive argument.] I was not, in fact, sorry or contrite at all. [But I have a serious question.]

    I got a chorus of ¡°shoot¡± or ¡°go for it¡± from the others on the channel.

    [If I had, say¡­ nine thousand points and a token, how would any of you suggest taking my theme to the next level for damage? I mean I can always dump it into cybernetics and get faster or more able to link with my Nanos or something. Totally on the list of things to do. But we¡¯re in a yellow sector now, having cleaned it enough to pull back from orange and I¡¯m going to be finishing my checks soon. I was planning on delving into an orange to hunt bigger groups. Just not sure how to go about it.]

    [Well sweety, with only one token you won¡¯t be able to go into class three for anything. Are you class two in Nanotech honey?]

    [Yeah. I¡¯ve got, what, six different class twos. Nanotech was one of them.]

    [You might be eligible for class three by now then dude the AI are kinda sketchy about when that actually happens.. But that said they cost more tokens. You¡¯ll need to save a bunch of people who really need it, nobody we¡¯re checking on would count, that or kill another weird hive. Something like that.]

    [How many tokens do you need to get class three Bomberman?]

    [Well Gravitas, you typically need the level of the class you''re at in tokens to go to the next class. But I only have class three myself. So I don¡¯t know what four takes.]

    [So I¡¯d need one more then. And we¡¯re in too light of a danger zone to earn one?]

    [That''s right, sweety, unless you find another stealth hive or something.]

    <>That¡¯s not entirely true. Clearing a major portion of the city of antithesis will also net you a token. An endeavor you are quite well on your way to.</>

    That lit a fire under my ass. [Welp, that just means I need to bust ass and get back into the main fight which doesn¡¯t seem to be slowing down based on what I can see from the other end of town.]

    [That¡¯s true hon. But you may also want to think about going deeper into a catalog you already have. Don¡¯t you have sensors sweety? Upgrading them would allow you to be faster at identifying threats and more accurate over all, which would in turn make you more points and tokens. What do you think Bomberman?]

    [Uh. Yeah? I guess. I mean the way you were looking through thinner walls was exceptionally useful. Your drones are too. Would upgrading your sensors make your drones better?] Bomberman paused for half a beat before jumping right on his own question. [My AI says, yes that is exactly what would happen. You could upgrade your drones as well as yourself. Allowing you to see beyond walls a whole lot more. I¡¯d say go that route. You can make up the points and tokens later. No reason to rush to be a heavy hitter now.]

 Planned Parenthood

    I quickly cleared another building while thinking, the line having gone dead. Either distracted or lacking anything to add, nobody was talking.

    [Okay. Two more ideas.] Bomberman jumped back in suddenly. [You could do something to up the damage capacity of your monoblade ribbons. On the other end, you could lean into the dimensional weirdness of Eldritch Horrors and start working with space warping?]

    [Oh, now that¡¯s a thought, honey. Also, do you use monofilament?]

    [I made ribbons, at the center they¡¯re a little thicker than a hair. They have micro muscles laced through them to make them more like mobile tentacles. But the edges have retractable fractal monofilament trees. I think only adding some energy type to them would make it more dangerous. I wonder if there¡¯s anything that¡¯ll add a necrotic effect?]

    Before anyone else could pipe up, including Naille, a sugary sweet girly voice piped up. [^There is indeed a catalog that will allow you to add such a feature to your Murder Ribbons.^]

    [Murder Ribbons? And what would that be, Bubbles?] Drag-On seemed cheerful about the voice. Probably their AI.

    [^The Exotic Venoms catalog could approximate what it seems like what you want at Class Two. It stretches the idea of Venoms at that point moving into things like disrupting the strong or weak force on an object.^]

    [Oh like The Little Doctor!] I have no idea how I remember what that is, but I do. [Also, that¡¯s what I call them. Murder Ribbons, shut up unless you have a better idea. I take it you AI are chatting among yourselves?]

    [^Not quite to that extent. But enough to give it considerably more cutting power as well as a mild necrotic effect on the surrounding matter. Not a lot, but enough to be able to do significant damage to antithesis in the twenties. And yes, we chat.^]

    {What do you think Naille, Venom?} I oozed out into the street and looked around. Only two buildings left at this point. Might as well bust through them before making any choices. {I¡¯m inclined to go that route.}

    <>It would certainly line up with what you want for right now. That said, gaining Tokens is not going to be easy from now on. You¡¯ve got a lot of ¡°firsts¡± that gained them up to this point. There are fewer and fewer firsts as time goes on and you have to get them from hidden achievements or slow boating with obligatory gains later. Overall, it depends. Do you want to try and shoot for a class three now, or broaden your ability to try for one later? A lot of the bigger antithesis will net you thousands of points and a token guaranteed. But you have to survive a fight with it first.</>

    {Alternate options for a similar effect?}

    <>Exotic melee weapons would be better. Exotic Venoms is by all metrics a stronger catalog, and you should think about getting the base level, but Exotic Melee would allow you to add thermal effects to your murder ribbons. It¡¯s not necrotic but it would push you into the realm of dealing with low to mid-twenties. Neither would cost a token and both would run you a paltry fifty points each. As an added bonus I can tweak the murder ribbons to be stronger and more capable of cutting with a few other effects from the Exotic Melee catalog.</>

    I fell silent as I finished up the last building. Finally making my way out into the street.

    [Okay Folks. My sector is clear and everybody who survived seems to be doing okay. All the Shelters are intact and running at least well enough. As for all your suggestions, thanks. I think I¡¯m going to grab the tier-one Exotic Venom and Melee catalogs for now. We¡¯ll see how things go from there. Is anybody up for joining me in the Orange Zones?] {How much did all the upgrades and blueprints cost?}

    <>The blueprints for the upgrades cost one thousand four hundred points. There were rather a lot of them but they were all smaller. Rebuilding is in progress. They¡¯ll need another two minutes to finish.</>

    [I¡¯d love to join you, Shoggoth. But we¡¯re going to be clearing our section forever.] Gravitas did not sound happy about that either.

    [How about this,] Drag-On started before pausing for a few moments. [Shoggoth, why don¡¯t you come and join Sufficient Gravitas. Then, when it''s all finished, we can all join you.]

    [Sounds good to me. I¡¯m still working, but I¡¯ll be done soon. Just not as quick as Shoggy. No¡­ that sounds dumb. Shaggy? No Doesn''t fit. God there¡¯s got to be a good nickname for you, you giant ball of goo.] Bomberman sounded about as bored as one would expect.

    [I¡¯ll jump over and help bomber finish. Then we¡¯ll both join you. It¡¯ll go faster that way.] I turned and made a beeline for the area where Bomberman had been working. [Where you at Bee? Can I get an update on what you¡¯ve cleared?]

    I got an update almost immediately. Quickly choosing a building he hadn¡¯t hit I beelined that way.

    [I think Sho would work just fine, Bee Is cute too.] Drag-On was being syrupy-sweet at this point. [Grav for our girl here works too.]Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    [Eh. Sho is okay. But do you all have to call me Bee? Just a single letter? It sounds dumb.]

    [No Ess would sound dumb. Bee is okay. Tee would work. Gee is actually good too. Dee is a common nickname for people named David or Daniel.] I started rambling, not even really aware of where this information came from. [Less than thirty percent of letters work, but the ones that do, do.]

    [I¡¯d prefer Gee than Grav to be honest. Please use that one Drag-On.]

    [Okay Sweety. Gee it is. What does it look like over there you two?]

    [Naille, just put together a digimap and send it to them in real-time.]

    [Oh that¡¯s handy! You seem to have combat information networks down as well?]

    {Do we?}

    <>They are a part of Combat Drones. Although rudimentary, I was able to cobble something stronger together from some of your catalogs. Nothing as good as taking a dedicated catalog, but still convenient. I also used one available via the local military data net as a basis. I think I improved it quite a bit.</>

    [My AI Naille cobbled together something from Combat Drones, and electronic warfare stuff to kitbash something close enough for now. Apparently, and he¡¯s quite proud of this, it¡¯s based on the one the local military is using.]

    [Handy. It¡¯s almost like I can see through the buildings around me, but not?]

    [Yeah. I¡¯ve been enjoying the ability for a while now. Way too useful, especially with the drones giving me more data so I can see details.] I looked up at the building I had entered, drones in almost every room giving me an X-ray view of practically the whole thing. [I can see where every angry plant is and know that I¡¯ve got them all by the time I¡¯m done.]

    I started setting up for Project Blender, my new murder ribbons pinging as available as I did. The red glow around the edges was a nice touch. Came off as a bit infernal but would be fine for now. I was hoping for something black or purple to give off a deep space vibe.

    [Out of curiosity sugar, why can I see the insides of any building you¡¯ve been in? Did you leave drones behind?]

    [Uh. Yeah. Seemed prudent to prevent reinfection of the area. I can always make more drones from the bodies of the dead plants so why not leave the scouts behind? Besides they¡¯ve got limited lifespans so, meh. I take my mini me¡¯s with me when I go tho.]

    [Mini Me?] Alex sounded absolutely baffled with her insertion.

    [I make small corgi-sized drone versions of myself to send to the Shelters to check them. I¡¯ve got three, and they¡¯re a pain to make so I¡¯d rather not leave them behind.]

    [So wait, you can make drones of yourself. Can they fight?] Bomberman literally stopped what he was doing and turned to look in my direction. I trained an optic in his direction, looking back through the buildings thanks to the augmented reality of our tactical net.

    [Yeah. Technically. I guess I never really thought of that? I should rebuild them with ribbons at least.]

    <>Just a warning, Drones don¡¯t receive the same amount of points as direct control. The further they are from you the fewer points you get. Also, did you want to save that token or purchase the sensors?</>

    {Not now. I¡¯ll think about it more.} [Naille just said you make fewer points with drones. Still gonna arm the little blighters even if my building clear method is good enough. But having a ribbon each will certainly make them more viable.]

    [Why not just build bigger ones, spread them out, and hit multiple buildings at once? That way we get through this faster. The points are piddling anyway.]

    [Gee, clutch for the win! You should do that Ess.] Bomberman paused a moment. [No. Not gonna use Ess for Shoggoth. It just sounds weird.]

    {What is the viability of doing that?}

    <>You can certainly do so. But you¡¯ll need to go back to the scene of the last massacre and get more materials.</>

    [Gonna have to slow down a bit then. I¡¯d have to go back to get more mass to have the materials for it. They also wouldn¡¯t be as resilient as me, I¡¯m made of sterner stuff than what is available for materials around here.]

    [Why bother going back Sugar? Just eat some trash from the Corporations. Nobody¡¯s going to complain about a desk, chair, or table. Hon, we¡¯re Samurai. We do what we want, the Corporations just smile and ask if they can give us anything else.]

    [I¡­ guess? Is that true? Are we, like, above the law?] I let my whole ass confusion and doubt into my voice, shifting it to a tiny tinny childlike tone by the end.

    [Yeah, basically. I mean some do way worse than that. But unless it¡¯s during an incursion it¡¯s kinda frowned on to just go ham on other people at all. Even Corpos.] Bomberman was hesitant, but firm as he spoke. Almost like he was trying to tell me to be more civil about things and follow the moral side of the laws while saying to fuck the corporations wherever I could.

    [Got it. Fuck the police!] I giggled in an array of tones, volumes, and pitches. Anybody who looked my way could see me eating everything I could get my tentacles on that wouldn¡¯t destabilize the building or cause problems for fleeing people later.

    I finished after eating two floors worth of materials but I had a second body.

    The interesting thing was I could switch between them. Just like I could put attention on each limb, I could see through all the eyes of all of me. Even when separated. So I tried using it to make a third. That did not work. Making anything was a no-go. So I supplied it with enough disposable equipment to do a couple of buildings and a pair of Mini Me¡¯s before sending it off. My main body did the same again in a new building. Clear it, Use as much as needed to make a third wander off for more.

    I didn¡¯t stop, just single-mindedly expanded until I had hit every building Bomberman hadn¡¯t, then I moved into Drag-On and Sufficient Gravitas¡¯ area.

    [Wow, look at the kid go.]

    [Now now Sweety, don¡¯t bother them. Let them cook.]

    [Just how many Shoggoths are there?] Gravitas looked on, obvious awe on her face as she watched three of me move into separate buildings from a roof.

    [There are currently seven of me. Correction, eight. Soon to be a ninth when I clear the next building.]

 Letâ€™s Get Dangerous!

    [Good god that¡¯s terrifying.]

    [Not really Bomberman. I¡¯ve seen stranger.] Drag-On had dropped all pretenses. [I¡¯ve seen other swarm minds. Just none that went about it in this manner. It¡¯s exceptionally effective sweety, keep it up.]

    [Still wicked. Going to make clearing this section of the city easy. I notice you upgraded your murder ribbons too.]

    [Yeah Bee. Exotic Melee Weapons apparently had some sort of energy boost thing that makes ¡®em cut better plus the venom giving it a poison to everything cut. Naille says they should manage mid-twenties. I think I agree. That¡¯s nine.]

    [You going to stop multiplying?] Gravitas sounded morbidly curious at this point. She seemed to be focused on me.

    [At ten. I think that¡¯ll be enough for clearing buildings. Plus disposable bodies will be nice so I can remote pilot them into battle and if they break, oh well. In the end, when I¡¯m done, I can use them to start clearing out the intercostal spaces of the city. The hidey holes all over.]

    [Oh that¡¯s a brilliant idea sugar! You can make a lot of friends doing things like that. Samurai who specialize in cleanup are a beloved breed by most civilians.]

    [Well I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to reintegrate with society so easily anyway. May as well make myself useful in the interim. Repair any damage I find too.] All of the me¡¯s stopped in the street as the original was on my way down, looking for another building. [Shit. I think we got them all. Ready to get dangerous?]

    An explosion in the distance punctuated my question perfectly. It made me start giggling that insane creepy multi-toned way again. The only thought passing through my meat was, ¡°I may be a little insane at this point.¡±

    [Are you okay? Are you losing it?] Bomberman trotted up near one of my bodies. [Seriously, are you fracturing?]

    [You can¡¯t lose something you didn¡¯t have to begin with,] I retorted cheerfully. [No, I was just tickled by the perfectly timed explosion.]

    [Shoggoth is correct. We have cleared our areas. They do require dealing with the incursion further on and as a representative of the Family I decree both newbies ready for the Orange zones, you too Bomberman. You¡¯ve evolved enough to survive quite handily. Shall we all go?]

    [I¡¯m in.] Bomberman turned and started north, the direction of the yellow zones and the war others were fighting.

    [Should we bring in the other two in this sector?] I was a little hesitant, as Bomberman had expressed dislike for one of them.

    [No, they¡¯re doing fine,] Snips pitched in. [They seem to be having fun bickering but they started earlier than you and have already finished their area. They¡¯re already in a different zone.]

    [That¡¯s that then. Heading in!] Gravitas stepped off the roof she was on and started flying, attached to the ship pieces by a jointed arm connecting the whole thing.

    I simply ripped out a very loud sound, like a foghorn but deeper still, before all of me turned and started moving much faster than you might expect in the same direction.

    I had barely passed the retaining wall that separated the sections of the city when ECM started corrupting my connection across the disparate versions of myself. Instead of calling them to myself, I set the majority of them to autonomously seek low-level Antithesis and clear buildings, while the core two were drawn in close to use as buffers for my true self.

    [I¡¯m picking up lots of communications interference.] I didn¡¯t slow, simply crashed into the first mob of single digits I found just past the wall. [Advise?]

    [Oh! Sorry sweety. I should have mentioned there¡¯s usually a lot of that problem the deeper into enemy-controlled territory you find yourself. You¡¯ll want to pick up a catalog or trade with someone who has one for communications.] Drag-On didn¡¯t seem too concerned.

    {Is there any way to link all my sub-bodies to my extra-dimensional storage and communicate directly through that?}

    <>Absolutely. But only at class three dimensional, I¡¯m afraid.</>

    {Damn. What about better communications gear? Quantum Coupled Comms?} I chewed my way through plants almost autonomously at this point. Melee range was too easy for anything below a ten.

    <>Quantum Coupled Communications is available with Class Four Void Walker, or Class Three in Exotic Communications. You can pick up Class One Exotic Communications and gain several methods of hardening and enhancing your com network which would bypass the low levels you¡¯re experiencing now. It will be helpful even in deeper areas where higher level Antithesis has stronger natural ECM.</>

    {Do it.} I promptly checked my Point totals.

    Points: 15,193 ¡ú 15,093

    Tokens: 1

    <>Now to enhance your communications ability you¡¯ll need a better encryption profile and hardened communications nodes. Between the two that¡¯ll run you one hundred fifty points.</>The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    {Okay. Can we buy blueprints for anything that needs it? Oh! Look, they''re coming to me without any effort!} I perked up as another horde of low numbers came careening down the street at me. Joined by masses of the flying ones.

    After a moment my communications cleared up considerably. I was able to get a firmer connection with my sub-selves, allowing me to direct the ones not engaged to begin converging on me.

    <>We can, I assume if we¡¯re able to I assume you¡¯d rather buy blueprints than the actual object?</>

    {Yes, from now on just go straight for the blueprints. Also, quote me on those prices.}

    <>Understood. I shall purchase blueprints for recent purchases that haven¡¯t already been getting but can now.</>

    [Hey all, I recently purchased class one exotic Communications and have a hardened Comms device with better encryption. Would anybody like one? I¡¯ve got blueprints and can manufacture extras for no real cost from the corpses of my enemies.]

    [Oh sweety! How generous of you! I¡¯ve already got some but Gee should take you up on it.]

    [Yes. I will! I¡¯ll be down to your location in a minute. I¡¯m being swamped by Model Ones and Elevens right now.] Gravitas sounded even more excited than she probably should have considering what I could see of the mass surrounding her.

    [I¡¯ll take one too. Should I come to you?]

    [Naw, Bomberman I¡¯ll shoot you the blueprints. Gee, We should set you up with a class two matter reconfiguration device. As it is, bring that mass down closer to me. I''ll blender them and get them off you quicker. It¡¯s not like we won¡¯t share the points.]

    <>That reminds me. We all felt sorry for your situation in the beginning and gave you an extra two percent improvement on the usual point share, shaving off five from the drone reduction as well. But now those numbers are back to normal due to your having advanced so well. Consider it a good thing we don¡¯t feel the need to handicap you anymore.</>

    {That¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t expect to be pampered.} I had finished the horde around me enough that my drones could finish cleanup and start piping materials to me, so I focused up on Gravitas as she was rapidly descending in my direction.

    Extending my ribbons I formed them into a cage around her as she got in reach and started to spin them, moving them out as I went. I was a little surprised that the Model Elevens in the mass cut as easily as the Ones. The new tech was definitely going the distance.

    ¡°Thanks. That was a little rough. If it weren¡¯t for the low-grade forcefield I picked up I¡¯d have been screwed.¡±

    ¡°No problem.¡± I unthinkingly left my speaking voice on ¡®Eldritch Horror¡¯ which caused her to flinch. [Sorry. My outside voice is¡­ disturbing. For a reason ¡®tho.]

    ¡°I understand.¡± She smirked at me as she landed nearby. ¡°Not eating?¡±

    Instead of responding I lifted some of the edge of my body and showed there were grinders there chewing on the corpse pile I was sitting on. Instead of shifting my outside voice, I decided to keep using comms now we were close, but wouldn¡¯t be for long.

    [Here, new Comms you can integrate. I¡¯ll give you access to my catalogs, you should grab a Matter thingy so you can build stuff off blueprints next time.] I passed her one of the fist-sized comms devices. [Makes life so much easier when you can just build your own.]

    ¡°Ah. Actually, I bought one when you offered it earlier.¡± She grinned sheepishly. ¡°I think you were distracted right after by a horde of antis attacking..¡±

    [Damn. Could have just passed the blueprints on that one then. Didn¡¯t need to bother you.] I let the sheepish way I felt into my voice there. [Well then. I have a couple more blueprints, that might help you if you¡¯ve got some in return?]

    [I do. I¡¯m more than willing to trade.] She grinned at me.

    We were both completely unprepared for the surge of higher-tier plants that hit at that point. A smattering of Twenties barreled into my forward elements, which at that point had retreated to a few dozen meters from us.

    [Numbers!?] I panicked a little, speaking on open coms. My disposable other selves turned to the assault and threw themselves into it.

    [<>There are at least nine Model Twentys, two Twenty-Threes, and a Twenty-Two. As well as a swarm of threes, fours, fives, Four individual Model Fourteens, and a dozen Model Fifteens. Beware the Fifteens they are artillery models and will use ranged attacks.</>]

    [Talk about biting off more than we can chew¡­.] I sighed internally as I opened up with all the ranged weapons I had. My whole group of sub-bodies had already hit the wall and were getting mauled, but doing some decimating in return.

    Next to me Gravitas levitated up into the air a few dozen meters and began lancing out with powerful lasers from the turrets on her pontoons. It was actually highly effective, cutting through plants quickly and efficiently. Until, that is, she started in on the Twenty-One¡¯s which resisted her fire to a degree. Forcing her to focus fire to take one out. Not that my plasma was doing much better. We both had to be careful of backstops for fear of melting concrete or buildings in general, but the damn plants were too tough.

    The drones in front acted as they were meant to and provided an amount of ablative armor. Four were destroyed to the point of becoming inactive before Drag-On swooped down on their huge dragon mech mount and used some sort of poison breath on the mob that reduced their ability to resist massively. Allowing the tables to turn and we were able to press attack well enough to completely destroy the mob over the next ten minutes. Still felt like hours. Combat sucks like that.

    [Okay. That sucked. Is that what orange zones are really like? Maybe we should drop back a bit.] Gravitas floated back down a couple of meters, looking over her shoulder.

    [No dear, that was a little rough even for an orange zone.] Drag-On seemed concerned. [Usually, you only need to face one or two higher-level antitheses at a time. That¡¯s more like what you¡¯d find in a red zone. You two hang back and I¡¯m going to try tracking those back a bit. Bomberman would you mind watching them, Sweety?]

    [On it. Just¡­ need¡­ to¡­ finish¡­ Here¡­.] He sounded heavily distracted.

    Instead of moving forward I set my sub-units to process the materials available and worked on fleshing out my ten drones again, this time with all the extra oomph I could give them. Gravitas simply floated there, seemingly lost in thought but probably conversing with her AI. That was fine, gave me time to manufacture, which took a bit for larger masses like lesser Shoggoth.

    [Shoggoth? Why are you so free to help others? From what I understand most Shamrai don¡¯t freely give out blueprints? I mean, trade yeah, but you just gave a bunch out. I feel inadequate for the ones I¡¯ve given back.]

 Evacuations are Emotional

    It took me a solid few minutes to answer, chugging out a whole sub-unit before I did. [I was a science experiment. Treated like an object. I¡­ Guess I¡¯m traumatized? I partly still feel like nothing that¡¯s mine is¡­ well. Mine. But I also feel like I don¡¯t want to be like they were. Others need help. I can help. So I help.]

    I formed enough coherent features to shrug in her general direction as I continued to process another Lesser Shoggoth.

    [That¡­ makes sense. I guess. Is there anything in my catalogs you want to get blueprints for? You can grab anything you want.]

    <>She has a number of useful things that would be quite helpful. Shall I make a list or simply hit you with the price?</> I checked my point totals before anything.

    Points 20,313

    Tokens 3

    {The hell did I get two tokens from?} I was understandably surprised.

    <>There was a model Twenty-One hiding in the battle. Plus the difficulty as well as a number of other factors I am not at liberty to divulge. Shall we upgrade your Cybernetics to class three?</>

    {Yeah. Do it. Just totals for everything? Surprise me with the rest.}

    <>The grand total would be fourteen thousand and two tokens.</>

    Points: 22,313 ¡ú 8,313

    Tokens: 1

    <>We can begin transferring you directly into the nanite mass as soon as you have a month to rest and process. In the interim, there are four new cybernetic augments to add. They¡¯ve been added to the manufacturing queue. Shall we discuss increasing your sensors now? You do have a token and enough points to take action now for it.</>

    {It can wait.} I hunkered down, outputting another Lesser Shoggoth every five minutes until I was back up to capacity and they were all fully upgraded.

    Rather than wander off, Gravitas simply stood overwatch as I worked. Eventually engaging me in conversation.

    [What¡¯s it like?] Gravitas¡¯ voice was small, timid, like she was afraid of something.

    [What¡¯s what like?] I could guess but it¡¯s safer not to.

    [Being,] She hesitated for a long moment, [all machine.]

    [I would probably be feeling a lot more emotionally than I am now. Half of the stuff that produces hormones exists spaced through your body from what I know. I know I should be freaking out right now, but all I feel is annoyance. This process is taking forever, but logically I shouldn¡¯t move on until I finish. I kinda get pleasant feelings when I complete an objective or gain a significant amount of points. But it¡¯s all subdued. I know I want to feel it again, but I don¡¯t really remember what it was like. I¡¯m hoping once I completely transition into the machine I can simulate enough to be¡­ human like again.]

    [That¡¯s horrible.] She wrapped her arms around herself.

    [What¡¯s worse is that I experience time differently than you, so it¡¯s incredibly boring. The internet is out so I can¡¯t even surf the web when I¡¯m waiting.] She stifled a laugh and covered her mouth at my comment. [Oh laugh. That was funny. Also true. Time shifts about three to one for me. Three seconds to one for you. I can ramp it up a bit more when I need to, but it heats up what I have left of my meat too much to do it long.]

    [If you can speed it up, can¡¯t you slow it down?]

    I focused multiple eyestalks on her at that point, crafting a dumbfounded face to express myself with on my surface. This just sparked her laughter again, which passed quickly as I slowed down, watching the world speed up. At least until she spoke again.

    [So does it help?]

    [Still testing. But the prognosis is good. On the other side I am almost ready to move on, shall we continue together or parallel close enough to provide support?]

    [Team-ups get us more points overall but less individually. I¡¯d still prefer to be close as a team. I may look like I¡¯m being brave right now but I¡¯m scared.]

    [Very well. I don¡¯t really need points at the moment. I¡¯m willing. I think I¡¯m going to clear the nearest few buildings before we move on. Any objections?]

    [Actually.] She paused, thinking. [No, that¡¯s fine. We¡¯ll need to clear them anyway and there may be people that need evacuation, or are under siege around here.]

    [Got it.] I sent the completed units back towards the wall in order to start spreading from here. [That said there¡¯s plenty of material here, I can produce more Lesser Shoggoth from this mass, and I think I will. If you wouldn¡¯t mind providing overwatch from high enough to see the area, as well as direct fire support.]The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    [Yeah. On it. I just wish I had something more for dealing with Ones. They¡¯re so annoying.]

    [I have combat drones. They¡¯re only tier one but if you¡¯ve got a Maker you can borrow my combat drone catalog and buy a small one¡¯s blueprint. Arm them with your lasers and my rail system to fire micro missiles, you could add Fleet Carrier to your lineup. It would keep the ones off of you well enough.]

    [Oh! Brilliant! Thanks!] She grinned after a second and started going up, already seeming to produce a few quadcopters with weapons hanging off of them as she went.

    I slowed down again, clearing buildings and producing more me¡¯s didn¡¯t require a lot of focus. Leaving the Combat AI in my sub-brains to monitor the situation and keep me informed. After all, an incursion is a marathon, not a sprint. I had time.

    I managed twenty-five Lesser Shoggoth from the bodies in the street, effectively denying the material to the enemy. They even fed me a bit over the hour it took to make the new me¡¯s. I barely paid attention as between Gravitas nuking them from orbit and my sub-brains lashing out with my now quite effective weapons, things went fine. Although I did spend some of the time skipping the other option and considering going for Class Two in Exotic Melee Weapons or Venom. Finally I decided to put off the decision until it became pertinent, or I got more tokens. Which didn¡¯t seem likely any time soon.

    [Hey Shoggoth, you seem done, are we ready to move?]

    [Not quite yet. Hey Snips! You still listening?]

    [I am Shoggoth. How can I assist you?] Our favorite communications officer seemed to be trying to keep it professional. I wasn¡¯t going to comply but we both knew that.

    [I¡¯ve found five Shelters that are compromised and I wouldn¡¯t trust them to make it the rest of the day. I need military support to pull them out. Buses are unnecessary. I found another cache of them in one of the buildings. I can get all five evacuated and escorted but I need to know where to take them?]

    [Due south to the same gate you entered the zone from. We¡¯ve pushed up forces and have troops clearing behind you, but that zone is considered clear right now. Are you sure you don¡¯t need any troops for support?]

    [There¡¯s twenty-five of me out here besides my core self. I¡¯ll be fine.] A thought occurred to me, {Hey Naille, can I simulate the hormones and stuff I don¡¯t have anymore now that I¡¯ve got high enough in cybernetics? Or better yet just do it digitally?}

    <>You can. Shall I purchase the required cybernetics as blueprints? You won¡¯t be able to digitally simulate them until you are fully digital yourself.</>

    [Roger that Shoggoth. I¡¯ll tell the forward units to expect you. Will you have any human form units there?]

    [No.] It was a simple answer that covered both questions. Instead, I turned and opened a channel into each of the mini Shoggoth at the Shelters. I had read the manual while I waited. As I did I made sure to tone down the volume but not the creepy factor. [[Excuse me. Residents of this Shelter, sorry to bother you but I am Shoggoth. The primary Samurai on ground detail in this region, responsible for evacuations. I¡¯m afraid your Shelter is compromised. Please order yourselves to exit to the ground floor and be evacuated from the Shelter post haste. Please do not be disturbed by my form, it is a specialized drone developed for rapid search and rescue.]]

    I got back a lot of ¡°Thank god!¡± responses from a lot of frightened people. Then promptly shrieks of horror as the doors opened and exposed the mini drones that were interfacing with the door. I had to speed up to five to one just to keep up with all the input from people. Generalizing my responses in order to get them to move quickly and safely to wherever I had secured enough buses for them to be transported out on.

    While all that went on, six boxes dropped onto my main form and were quickly absorbed, and melted off the cybernetics which were promptly installed. It took a few minutes for the new glands to kick in fully. Which was a kick in the pants. All those fear responses, the joy, the pleasure, everything. It had all been subdued if it occurred at all. Now it was like switching from Black and White TV to technicolor 3D IMAX. But nothing was prompting any responses yet. Maybe I was too focused, maybe there was just nothing there to react to? I mean letting drones clear buildings and check on people wasn¡¯t that involved.

    I decided to utilize one shoggoth for each bus as an escort. With five buses containing fifty individuals each that seemed reasonable. I didn¡¯t bother assembling them, simply sending them back to the gate as soon as they were full. Even though this was technically an orange zone still we had secured the region and we weren¡¯t that far from the gate.

    As they went I found the time to get a little introspective. I wanted to know if I would respond with excitement or fear to the situation I was in, so I set the drones to autonomous and withdrew a little from outside stimuli. Going so far as to shift my core form down into the uncanny valley humanoid shape I had chosen for the maximum effect of my new cyberware. I wanted to feel human. I wanted to see where it would go.

    I thought about awakening in that janitor robot frame and felt horror, existential, and otherwise. I felt body dysmorphia and had to use the hands of my current body to touch myself. Running my hands over the simulated bodysuit to assure myself that I was indeed a person. I was honestly surprised when I found I was able to cry, both tears of joy and disgust. Even a little disturbed when I found myself puking up the contents of a nonexistent stomach, but there it was. It was probably antithesis sludge but it still helped me feel real.

    [Are you okay down there?]

    [I¡­ bought hormone glands and activated them. I¡¯m¡­. I¡¯ll be okay. I just. I need a few minutes. Watch my drones for me.] I couldn¡¯t help the fragile tone I let leak into my digital voice. Small and scared. My emotions were too strong to control my tone at all.

    [I got it. Your drones just finished the escort and seem to be paralyzed.]

    [It¡¯s¡­ fine. They¡¯re inactive¡­ in defense mode.] I finally sat down heavily and curled up, some small part of me wondering how I could respond so easily when I felt like this.

    I had barely gotten into things. The long dark of being a glorified cleaning droid. My mind felt like it was melting. Too much too fast.

    Then a hand touched my back gently. Gravitas rubbed me between the shoulders. The facade was good enough to fool me from the inside, she wouldn¡¯t have a clue.

    <>Gravitas is attempting to communicate verbally with you.</> Naille was gentle. The normally brusque AI had softened its tone and cadence.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I could only express confusion, barely able to focus outward for all the panic I was feeling.

    ¡°I asked if you were all right,¡± She responded to my verbalized grunt. I had turned my head to look in her direction, the look on her face said mine was not pleasant.

    ¡°No. But I don¡¯t really have time for this. Do I?¡± I had lungs. My voice wasn¡¯t eldritch sounding? Oh yeah, this form had hardwired neutral human tones. Even distracted by my own voice I was on the verge of hyperventilation, but couldn¡¯t because of hardware limitations.

 The excrement impacted the angular rotating blades

    <>You¡¯re having a panic attack, should I turn off your hormones?</>

    I stopped, breathing, moving, everything. Was I having a panic attack about having them turned off now? Yep. Fucking hormones man.

    Gravitas had crouched next to me, continuing to rub my back. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s okay. Nothings wrong. You¡¯re okay.¡±

    ¡°Naille. Dial the hormones back. A lot.¡± My voice was small but audible. ¡°Scrub them out of my system if you can. This is too much.¡±

    <>This is the minimum. Perhaps we should wait for this until you¡¯ve got a chance to see a professional.</> I only nodded in response.

    It took a moment, but things calmed down. When I finally looked up again Drag¨COn and Bomberman were there as well. I was being held by Gravitas, who was kneeling next to me and rocking me back and forth. I took the time to blink a few times, mostly from organic habit but it actually did clear my optics so that was a bonus.

    ¡°Are you good?¡± Bomberman Knelt in front of me. ¡°Kinda a bad time to have a nervous breakdown.¡±

    ¡°Sorry. I¡­ was stupid. I¡¯ll be better.¡± A few thoughts got the Lesser Shoggoth working again. ¡°I¡¯ve lost so much ground. Sorry.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Dear. It¡¯s been a long day. Maybe you should take a break?¡± Drag-On had dismounted from Their dragon and approached. It took everything I had to keep a straight face, having naturally slid into being a person again. Drag-On was exactly the Okama I had expected. Even wearing a voluminous ball gown like a princess, and being overly hairy. They quirked a smile at my struggling expression. ¡°Yes dear, very funny. At least you''re not having a panic attack.¡±

    ¡°No. Sorry. I don¡¯t mean to laugh at you. It''s just that I''m giddy that my imagination was correct. You¡¯re just as beautiful as I thought. I mean I was born a guy myself.¡± I blinked. Another new tidbit of information about myself. I looked down and blinked again. ¡°Although I have no real attachment to that gender. It¡¯s more¡­ you''re exactly as I expected. How I knew what to expect is still unknown, but I did and it¡¯s kinda funny.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s one of the standard reactions. It¡¯s fine, hon. I don¡¯t mind much anymore.¡±

    I nodded before I quickly hugged Alex, then untangled myself from her and stood. She did the same, her pontoons floating back to attach to her lower back. Everyone turned as a Lesser Shoggoth moved past us in the direction of buildings I hadn¡¯t cleared yet.

    ¡°Maybe let the drones work while you head back to safety and relax for a bit?¡± Bomberman gestured in the direction of the wall. ¡°Or at least stay away from whatever did that?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I think I¡¯ll stick to clearing buildings for a bit. Easier. You can all push or fall back, but I¡¯ll stay here. If I get too much further¡­.¡± I turned in the direction of a building one of my drones was working in and stared at it for a long moment. This prompted the others to tap the feed I kept up so they could see through my combat information network.

    There was something rather Large shouldering through the buildings ahead. It was huge, looked vaguely like a Twelve on steroids crossed with a double decker bus. It may have been on Meth or Bath Salts too. It also had claymore sword size quills across the surfaces that weren¡¯t covered in fuck you levels of armor. The damn thing was almost wide enough that it didn¡¯t fit on two lanes.

    ¡°The actual fuck is that?¡± I demanded as I wiped my arm across my face to clear the rest of the tears. My comfortable numb already gradually having come back.

    ¡°That my darling. Is a Model Twenty-Two variant, Emm type I believe. They are a siege type, typically carrying larger models while outputting smaller ones as fast as they can be fed. But it can also launch those quills with enough force to punch through class two armor. You children should run along now.¡±

    ¡°Too late Drag-On. I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ve already attacked it with a pair of Lesser Shoggoth.¡± I frowned as I watched the pair land on it from the buildings that were on either side. ¡°Upside, they seem to be doing damage. The rest of you spread out. I¡¯ll go full frontal with my drones. Shit. It just opened a back section and dropped some giant model threes!¡±

    <>Those are Model Twenty-One¡¯s. You can see they¡¯re going invisible now.</>

    {Buy the sensor upgrades and prepare for rollout ASAP.} I immediately began to gush out extra mass, shifting to my full ooze form. ¡°It¡¯s dropped four Model Twenty-Ones. They¡¯ve gone stealth. If you don¡¯t have the optics to catch them, get off the ground.¡±

    Sufficient Gravitas shot up into the air ten stories in seconds. Bomberman started sprinting to the rear with his loyal horse-sized hound. Drag-On ran back to remount their draconic steed. I simply moved into the nearest building to hunker down with some walls to defend myself a little. Meanwhile, the drones were gathering, attacking the large disturbing looking plant. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    The grinders were doing well enough on the quills, which generally pierced straight through the unit, passing through without much damage. On the other hand, I wasn¡¯t doing much direct damage in kind. The Drones couldn¡¯t see the Twenty-Ones, but that was fine they seemed to be ignoring all of my efforts against their larger cousin. The only benefit was, to a Twenty-Two variant the Lesser Shoggoth were a lot of mass harrying the beast. It was at a standstill trying to shake them off while being lashed between two buildings.

    [Can you hold it there for a minute, Shoggoth?] Drag-On had dropped into a more formal tone again, apparently taking this very seriously.

    [Doing well enough at it. I think I can manage for a while longer.]

    [I¡¯m going to weaken it with my poison breath. Once that¡¯s done open up an area for the others to strike at.]

    [I¡¯ll leave its top open. Can¡¯t do much damage right now anyway.] Saying became doing as the pair on its top oozed down its sides to interlock with the others, each chewing where it could but mostly going solid in order to keep it from moving much.

    I could have attacked it head-on myself, but I was still feeling too much. Besides the Lesser Shoggoth had the same murder ribbons I do, the same ore grinder mouths. They even had the same plasma weapons. Personally being there would only add one more mass that¡¯s slightly more resilient than the rest. It was better to focus and micromanage the extras from a bit of distance, even if the ECM was worse now and more of a pain in the ass. So I¡¯d lose out on some points. So what. I admit I¡¯m afraid. I was doing what I could without running. I¡¯m not a coward.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a coward.¡± It was quiet and eldritch but I said it. You say it and it¡¯s real. [I¡¯m not a coward.]

    [What was that Shoggoth?] Bomberman was at the edge of range and fuzzing out badly.

    I barreled out of the side of the building like the Kool-Aid man trumpeting to the heavens. [¡°I AM NOT A COWARD!!!¡±]

    It took seconds to arrive at the appropriate cross street since it was only one down. Turning I aimed all of the plasma weapons I had at my disposal and fired directly into its face equivalent space. Ordering the manufacture of more as I did. Drag-On was just finishing their pass as I opened up. This prompted Gravitas, directly above it, to fire straight down into where its skull should be. Which sparked Bomberman to start lobbing mortars onto the back of it in high arcs. Drag-On even swept around for another pass, launching some sort of green fireball from the back of the dragon.

    The plant monster held up at first. But the poison ate into it, weakening it enough for our weapons to start actually doing damage. Whatever that green blast was simply started to eat away at the thing all on its own like acid. The readings on the Lesser Shoggoth gave me redlines for structural strength as it began to frantically thrash. Instead of keeping its legs locked, I focused on keeping its core in place, joining more closely with the surrounding buildings for strength. Wrapping heated murder ribbons around the damn plant to simultaneously cut and stabilize.

    A horrendous rending noise started to emanate from the buildings as their structures began to give way, not nearly as strong as Tier One materials. At the same time, the creature began to show signs of failure from the concentrated fire. Drag-On having circled for another blast of green and a poison breath.

    [I gotta let it go or it¡¯ll bring the buildings down! Both of them have Shelters above that level!]

    [Do it!]

    I immediately complied with Drag-On, switching my Shoggoth from containment to repair. Barring the five circling its core, the rest began to repair the building''s structures to prevent them from collapsing under their weight. Sacrificing their own mass to reinforce the building I lost three to each one but the horrible sounds stopped and they didn¡¯t shift anymore. The leftover cores were subsumed by the other Lessers in the area.

    The creature on the other hand made it two wobbly steps before our continuous concentrated fire collapsed its titanic armored core and it toppled over, some of the armored panels on its sides disgorging half crafted single digits. In the end, mop up was simple, they barely put up what I would consider a fight. I was more concerned about the damn invisible bastards still skulking about.

    <>Congratulations on defeating a Model Twenty-two Emm variant! We AI agree for this feat you deserve another Token! Don¡¯t forget you have several Twenty-Ones to deal with!</> Naille sounded remarkably excited about this. As if nobody had defeated one before. Probably that it was one of the hardest I¡¯d ever fought is all.

    [Fuck. Does anybody have eyes on the Twenty-Ones?] Bomberman was a little frantic about it. Almost as if he were the most vulnerable. Which he is, so it¡¯s justified.

    [I can see one of them right now. I think.] I extruded a muzzle and fired my class two plasma weapons at it, Ominous Hum, Thoom, and all. Lighting it up gave a target to everybody else who dogpiled it. [Gimme a few to upgrade my optics on my drones and I¡¯ll be able to pick the others out. For now, Bomberman come back here quick and tent up in a wagon circle of Lessers.]

    [Do you even know what you''re saying?] Bomberman was definitely incredulous. Judging people was much easier without emotions getting in the way.

    [Yes? Hurry up. They may be stalking you already.] I was already pumping out micro drones with better optics, but it was the pheromone sensors that were doing best. {I need bigger drones for scouting. Something that¡¯ll be able to carry sensors strong enough.}

    <>Increasing the size by an order of magnitude and using a distributed array we can do that. Shall I acquire some blueprints for that?</>

    {How much is it going to cost me?} I started shoving better sensor packages into the nearest Lesser, already building another set for the next.

    <>Nothing. I¡¯ll be doing it based out of your what you already have.</>

    {Great. Thanks! Oh! Nice. Yes these will do.} I started manufacturing the new house fly sized drones immediately. Taking in mass that the Lessers were offloading as they arrived.

 Uh ohâ€¦ that canâ€™t be good.

    [~Shoggoth, are you busy?~]

    I switched to the private channel Drag-On setup. [~I can talk. What¡¯s up?~]

    [~I¡¯ve discovered where that beast came from and the tide from before. A hive in the valley under the lower city. Headquarters wants it checked out. You seem to be the one best suited for such things. Would you be so kind as to go down and scout it out at least sweety?~]

    [~Oh that, yeah, kind of busy. Yeah kinda. I mean you know we¡¯re dealing with at least three more Twenty-ones right?~]

    [~I¡¯m aware. I¡¯ll pick up Bomberman and we¡¯ll pull in somebody with good optics who can help but this is important. There¡¯s concern that another titan of plant kind may come up out of there and not having a warning would be bad. You¡¯ve got the best specs for scouting down there that''s in decent range right now.~] Drag-On was soft but urgent in their speech.[~It¡¯s bad enough something was there long enough to grow something like that Twenty-Five. My contemporaries are worried there may be something bigger down there.~]

    [~Fine. Do I have five minutes to repair and replenish?~]

    [~Sure thing Sugar!~]

    [New Plan Shoggoth, Drag-On is picking me up.] Bomberman sounded aggravated as well as winded as he sent a digital communication. I had to wonder if he was using voice or subvocal instead of just thinking about talking like me. Oh wait he¡¯s still mostly human, probably subvocal.

    I had already started moving my active shoggoth that approached to get new optics and mass into starting to drag what was left of their fallen comrades to get repairs. If I was going into the belly of the beast I was going prepared. Enough so that when it came time to turn emotions back on again I¡¯d at least have some mitigation to the terror I was sure I should be feeling. Instead, I focused on rebuilding my forces as quickly as possible while still outputting search drones for stealth units. Probably need them below. It was either the apprehension or the lack of confidence that was telling me to stick around and keep checking Shelters. Both of which were good reasons to go down anyway.

    So ten minutes later, back at my full twenty-five fully kitted subordinates, I went to the designated location marker. Not that I need it. I just followed the trail of destruction.

    At the top of the hole I found an incline that led down and to my left, following a wall of concrete bricks. A retaining wall for dirt based on the leakage. Instead of splitting up and sending a few down alone, I simply linked all of the nanite-heavy drones, big and small, into one large mass before plunging into the hole. Which went down three hundred fifty meters vertically across most of a kilometer of horizontal distance. Being one giant version of myself seemed like the smarter idea considering some of the things that had come up from here.

    As I descended I passed through layers of machinery interspersed with vast areas full of storage vats. At one point I could see the far side, eight hundred meters away. Somehow I knew this was a river valley that had been taken advantage of. Old knowledge surfaced at the oddest times. But it was proven true when I hit the bottom and found myself facing a sluggish polluted body of water. One that supported a myriad of plant growth roots as big around as a hover bus in some cases. The rest of the space was just a concrete spillway with pillars of the stuff holding up the ceiling every so often.

    There was an absolutely huge hive there, just around the corner, all but blocking the river. It had to be old to be that big. And it caught me with my pants down. As soon as I rounded the corner and saw it, it saw me.

    [Damnit, should have sent scout drones first. I should fix that problem. I am not cut out for this. Should be more cautious. Are you getting this Drag-On?]

    I got no reply even as a metric fuck ton of plants with anger management issues that had been milling around turned on me.

    Instead of being stupid and retreating, drawing them to the surface where nobody was prepared. I sent a single mini Shoggoth, with a record of what happened to that point, up the way I came as fast as it would go. Then I charged right back at the plants. All the while pumping out every scout drone I had stockpiled. No way was I getting caught with my pants down again.

    Not that I was dumb about it, I retracted as much as I could into my extra-dimensional space and pushed all the drones to the front. Between that and the fact that there was nothing I didn¡¯t recognize currently down there, I did better than one would expect early on. There were just a lot of them.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    [Estimate on how many there are? Suggestions?]

    <>Approximately two thousand based on the staging area we can see. Eight hundred by eight hundred meters, a fifty-meter clearance above, pillars every fifty meters, at least a kilometer clear of them behind us of the same dimensions. You should be fine, most of them are Model Tens, and a fighting retreat would keep them from overwhelming you. Tens are hive tenders and are not as skilled or geared for combat. Continue your ¡°Blender¡± maneuver. I would recommend adding plasma fire as well, but if you do keep it angled down. The upper surface doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯s been maintained in a while and the concrete is crumbling.</>

    [Got it!] I passed off my large quantity of plasma guns to drones at the front of my mass and used all the plasma weapons I had to add fire to the scrum.

    Instead of staying static or charging further, I began to kite the enemy by moving back away from the entrance as well as the hive. Having time, I observed the hive itself, looking for anything that might stand out. Things were going well enough, plants were being mulched, roots I crossed too. I focused ranged fire on the hive, popping the placenta sacks I could see by boiling them. None of them looked big enough or thick enough to birth something like that Twenty-Five again.

    I had this in the bag, or so I thought.

    While I was distractedly focused on what was in front of me the river burst upwards, spewing toxic water and garbage everywhere. It also disgorged something that gave me a run for my money on the ¡®Fucked up Eldrich thing¡¯ and was immediately just as mean. Whatever it was looked like three octopus bodies connected together at the top, covered in tentacles tipped in barbs or blades. Some of the appendages were large, some were delicate but they all looked wicked.

    [Motherfucker looks more like a Shoggoth than I do!] I took exception to that. Shifting myself to be a bigger meaner-looking version before lunging at it.

    <>It¡¯s a Model Thirteen. They¡¯re hive defense units. Your scouts are sending back broken images of more swarming under the surface of the water. I can¡¯t get a clear count but this is not looking good.</>

    [Fuck. Fucked fucker. Fucking fuck fuck!]

    I struggled briefly with the thing, it had more pointy bits than I did at first. My ability to convert mass was what saved me. That and the fact I had a lot of blueprints. I rapidly shrunk as I added more nodes to my hard drone cores, each adding Murder Ribbons. I need a better name for those, really. The other plus to my form was that I was mercurial, it was solid all over. I could rend it limb from limb, but it couldn¡¯t really do the same to me. I just popped out new ones. Soon enough it was down, even with the small horde of lesser units still crawling up my ass and my steady retreat. That didn¡¯t save me much when four more crawled out of the muck.

    [Fuck, fucking, fuckety fuck!]

    <>You are certainly displaying the range of that word. You have amassed a significant number of points. May I suggest utilizing them to purchase another forge body and build several more advanced plasma weapons?</>

    [Fuck!] Apparently Naille took that as the Agreement it was meant to be. I was a little too swarmed to answer appropriately. I was losing at this point, badly.

    Without strong emotions like fear, it wasn¡¯t so bad. I was able to focus completely on the attack. Enough so I was able to wipe out the pissants attacking my back before the Model Thirteens bore me down. The extra Forge body and Plasma Weapons certainly started helping as soon as they arrived but it wasn¡¯t enough. I was losing mass faster than I could regain. I could feel my brain boiling at this point, sped up too fast for too long even with the new implant.

    [Naille. Sorry, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to make it. Two more of those defense plants just showed up. Just give my points to Gravitas. Tokens, and blueprints too. If nothing they should go to boosting someone rather than being lost. I¡¯m about baked. Core temp reads way too high at one oh two. I should be dead soon.]

    <>Thank you for your service, but I wouldn¡¯t count you out yet.</>

    The last active central drone core was speared by no fewer than three tentacles from two different defenders. The only thing left was my true core, hidden in a pocket dimension. One that can still be destroyed because it had interface machinery on the real-world side. Instead of letting it happen easily, I hardened what I had left, turning the Nanites into layers upon layers of armor. It would buy time if nothing else. While they were focused on me they couldn¡¯t swarm up the ramp.

    With my inactivity, they seemed to start dragging me around, bashing me into things. What few sensors I still had, altitude and gyroscopic eventually indicated I had dropped again. At least twenty meters down and was rapidly moving in the direction away from the hive. My armor was being abraded and eaten away by whatever was outside, vibration sensors indicating different returns as things impacted my surface.

    [Huh. Where the hell are they taking me?] Extruding an eye would only weaken my armor so I didn¡¯t, simply hunkering down to try and outlast.

    <>Perhaps upstream to a lake? Records indicate Lake Coeur d¡¯Alene in this direction. I believe it was paved over but never drained.</>

    [Oh fuck. There could be a gargantuan hive down there.]

    <>I believe you are likely correct. But why would they be bringing you there?</>

 Arc 1 Epilogue

    Five hundred feet up and two kilometers downstream, in the bottom of the valley.

    [Holy fuck that¡¯s a lot of defenders!] Bomberman continued to lob gas dispersal canisters into the area below where he was standing on the ramp down.

    [They killed Shoggoth!] Gravitas was going ham on the Thirteens, clearly upset.

    [What? How do you know Kitten?]

    [Damnit Drag-On! They smashed him to pieces! Look, there''s evidence everywhere!]

    Bomberman started laughing, which caught him the nastiest look. No one else down there from the heavy assault team that had been gathered wanted a part of Gravitas¡¯ anger. He slowed to a chuckle and shook his head.

    [Sure. That¡¯s step one. What about Two through Ten?]

    ¡ª--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    [Something bigger to crack my shell? We need to get out of this quickly. How hard would it be to create a shell like a giant chainsaw blade? WAIT! Do we still have a token?]

    <>I have not transferred your points yet.</> I was running a high fever still, but thought I had a brilliant idea.

    [Perfect! Upgrade Exotic melee to class two and buy the strongest nastiest cutting enhancer. Then I want to cover my surface in an outward-facing version of the grinder mouth.  Something that can fully rotate, spin, and disintegrate everything around me. Or be used as propulsion, for when I drop through the floor eating my way out. I need to be able to change directions.]

    <>Clever! This will cost you Two thousand, assuming you want the blueprints.</>

    [Do it! You¡¯re the best Naille!]

    It took a few seconds, which felt like minutes as I had slowed way down to help cool myself. The water was outside the pocket dimension so I had to shunt the heat through the microscopic link between internal and external.  Having solidified the exterior I couldn¡¯t open the aperture any.

    Despite the fever, my idea was actually fairly smart.

    I could open the aperture once I was able to set an update to my nanites, quickly creating the orb of grinding idea within what was left of my shell, then dropping the shell letting it crack and shatter around me as the grinding wheels and cones began to spin. Like a spinning razor cone-covered ball of hate it worked spectacularly. I burrowed through tentacles, bodies, and then the river bottom. I barely realized I had hit the bottom before I had drilled five meters down.

    [Okay. I¡¯m out, now what?]

    <>Perhaps you should attempt to reduce your cranial temperature? Open the interface and use water as a cooling medium?</>

    [Oh yeah!] Definitely some brain damage there.

    I opened the aperture and started using water to cool myself a little more rapidly. Probably a whole lot of swelling going on. The fun thing about the brain, it can¡¯t feel itself. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    <>You are currently suffering from a fever, which you are admirably fighting off the confusion, but you are suffering brain damage. Your repair nanites are working as fast as they can to repair it, so you should not suffer any long-term effects. Something you may not have noticed is the seizures you¡¯ve had. Are having. Please calm yourself. Agitation will only worsen the effects.</>

    Focusing, now that I could, I took note of my grinding spindles firing off randomly. Rotational segments twisted back and forth as if they wanted to start but decided to reverse to a stop. Twitchy bullshit, almost like a full-body shiver. How long has this been going on? This is what happens when an organic brain goes hyper time that long? Probably shouldn¡¯t do that again without reinforcement of some sort.

    [Maybe I should shift to being less organic? Make my brain part of my Nanites?]

    <>That has been the plan for some time. Perhaps now that you¡¯re buried in sediment that would be a good plan to enact?</>

    [I think I should be deeper. Harder to reach.]

    <>Agreed. You can bore into the bedrock and then utilize an area denial catalog to plug up your path with quick-set concrete, allowing you to bury yourself for the time necessary.</>

    [Let''s do that. Could you¡­.]

    <>I will take care of the hard parts, just dig and be erratic for a bit.</> The soft tone made me want to trust the voice in my head.

    [I can do that.] I started digging. First straight down, then after passing into rock, I started to corkscrew and jink around. Finally, I settled down and let Naille do his thing. Having since cooled enough to think straight it still seemed the right idea. [Naille?]

    <>Yes Shoggoth?</>

    [Buy me a therapist. And one of those therapy couches. I need to work through a few years of¡­ everything.]

    <>Will Virtual do?</>

    [Yeah. That¡¯d be nice.]

    <>Your wish is my command. Also¡­ you do know my name is spelled with a Y not an I, right?</>

    [Wait, really? Uh. Sorry?]

    To Be Continued¡­.

    Short chapter is short, so have a teaser for a one shot I will release when it¡¯s not terrible:

    ***

    ¡°No kid. Don¡¯t bother him.¡±

    ¡°What? Why not Sarge? Shouldn¡¯t he be ready alert? I mean we¡¯re going into hell here?¡±

    ¡°Kid. Dax has survived twelve incursions in this unit. Nobody, not even me, has been in this unit that long. If he wants to sleep. You let him fuckin sleep.¡± The Sargent shook his head sighing as he went back to checking over his issued rifle. ¡°We¡¯re the sharp end of the spear, but we¡¯re government grunts. They don¡¯t expect us to live. I don¡¯t know who you pissed off to get fucked like this, but Bad Company doesn¡¯t really bring back survivors often. Except Dax.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, kid.¡± Corporal Wong agreed leaning over from the other side of the cramped IFV troop space. ¡°We all fucked up somewhere. You don¡¯t get to be in this unit if you don¡¯t. We don¡¯t care who¡¯s daughter you fucked or what porn you downloaded on government machines. But if you wanna live, when the shit hits the fan you grab Corporal Daxion¡¯s ass and stick to it. Damn the plants for dropping on us on fucking Christmas.¡±

    ¡°I know, right? It¡¯s like they don¡¯t respect our holidays!¡± Sargent Barrons chuckled as he shifted in his seat.

    Private First Class Nolan Kidman leaned back and looked down at the rifle in his hands, instead of Corporal Daxion who was sleeping in the corner of the IFV like it was a Sunday morning drive. He had all of five seconds of thought on the subject before the driver started screaming something and the gunner lit something up outside. Then the whole world went ass over teakettle.

    The IFV rolled in the air several times before it hit the ground again. A crunching sound reverberated through its hull as It hit its top deck slamming the turret through the ceiling and into the gunner, flipped again, and landed on its wheels before coming to a stop canted against something. Everyone was thrown around in the vehicle like ragdolls, rendered unconscious in the process, regardless of whether they were strapped in or not..

    ***

 Interlude of Christmas past!

    ¡°The average infantry trooper survives approximately twelve point eight seconds in direct combat without the support of their squad. Most of that being spent taking out two of the several Model Threes advancing on them. Don¡¯t get caught without your squad. Don¡¯t get caught outside the wire, or you''re fucked.¡±

    ¨CSergeant Henry Barrons to Beta Squad after assignment. December 25, 2031, Jacksonville Florida

    ***

    ¡°No, kid. Don¡¯t bother him.¡±

    ¡°What? Why not, Sarge? Shouldn¡¯t he be ready alert? I mean, we¡¯re going into hell here?¡±

    ¡°Kid. Dax has survived twelve incursions in this unit. Nobody, not even me, has been in this unit that long. If he wants to sleep, you let him fuckin¡¯ sleep.¡± The Sergeant shook his head, sighing as he went back to checking over his issued rifle. ¡°We¡¯re the sharp end of the spear, but we¡¯re government grunts. They don¡¯t expect us to live. I don¡¯t know who you pissed off to get fucked like this, but Bad Company doesn¡¯t really bring back survivors often. Except Dax.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, kid.¡± Corporal Wong agreed, leaning over from the other side of the cramped IFV troop space. ¡°We all fucked up somewhere. You don¡¯t get to be in this unit if you don¡¯t. We don¡¯t care whose daughter you fucked, or what porn you downloaded on government machines. But if you wanna live, when the shit hits the fan, you grab Corporal Daxion¡¯s ass and stick to it. Damn the plants for dropping on us on fucking Christmas.¡±

    ¡°I know, right? It¡¯s like they don¡¯t respect our holidays!¡± Sergeant Barrons chuckled as he shifted in his seat.

    Private First Class Nolan Kidman leaned back and looked down at the rifle in his hands, instead of at Corporal Daxion, who was sleeping in the corner of the IFV like it was a Sunday morning drive. He had all of five seconds of thought to himself before the driver started screaming something and the gunner lit something up outside. Then, the whole world went ass over teakettle.

    The IFV rolled in the air several times before it hit the ground again. The crunching sound reverberated through its hull as it hit its top deck. Slamming the turret through the ceiling and into the gunner, flipped again, and landed on its wheels before coming to a stop canted against something. Everyone was thrown around in the vehicle like ragdolls, rendered unconscious in the process, regardless of whether they were strapped in or not.

    ***

    Funnily enough, I was the first one awake, being the one faking napping while we were rolling. Not like I can let any of them see how absolutely fucking terrified I am. Every goddamn time.

    I still had no idea what got me fucked and sent to Bad Company, so I¡¯m a little insubordinate sometimes. So what, isn¡¯t everybody? Still got me sent to a partial strength punitive squad that got routed to the worst fighting, knowing the survival rates. It was an execution squad¡ªbut somewhere up there, some deity liked me for some reason. I keep living, somehow. Didn¡¯t make things any less of a brown pants sort of event. Today was just another clusterfuck in a long line of them.

    I sighed and pulled my combat knife from where it was attached to my vest shoulder strap, cutting my way from my ride restraints before sheathing it again. Only fucking guy in the whole Infantry Fighting Vehicle who was wearing them. On the upside, the groaning from some others let me know they were still alive. Mostly.

    Getting out without falling over or cutting something important was easy enough, not the first time I¡¯ve survived an IFV crash. Finding who still had a heartbeat and making sure they weren¡¯t broken too badly was much harder. Nobody uses the damn straps so everybody gets thrown around, inevitably getting injured or killed in most cases.

    ¡°Sarge. Wake up.¡± I smacked him in the face, he was breathing and relatively undamaged by the looks of it where he was lying in my lap.

    He snorted, blinked awake, and jerked back from where I held him up. His sudden motion caused the whole IFV to rock precariously. We both stopped and waited to see which way it went. When it settled, still tilted he turned to me carefully and raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°What the fuck happened, Dax?¡±

    ¡°Hell if I know, Sarge. You were the one awake?!¡± It was a lie, but a little white one. I really had no idea what happened. ¡°As far as I can figure, based on experience, we got shoulder checked by something big. Just keep it down and check on people. Try not to rock this pig.¡±

    He nodded and pointed at the newbie, then moved in Corporal Wong''s direction. Way too much blood was leaking out of the crushed turret seat, and the driver¡¯s head was on backward, so they were probably no-go¡¯s. The kid, Private Kidman, was breathing well enough, so I skipped the basics and went for the direct battle readiness check: neck for pulse, neck for spine, and eyes for dilation after waking them.

    He seemed fine so I smacked the shit out of him too. ¡°Fuck, what?¡±

    ¡°Wake up, Kid. Take stock and get ready to jump in the shit. Watch it, we¡¯re not stable.¡± I pushed him up into a seat and shifted past him carefully to check on our last member, Private Oldman. ¡°Fuck. Oldman¡¯s toast. Broke his neck.¡±

    ¡°Dammit. He was on his last run in rotation. Nearly survived penance.¡± Sarge was more than a little annoyed about that. ¡°We¡¯ll tag the vehicle for retrieval later. Lock up when we leave, might not get eaten before a Samurai clears this area. For now, we need to link up. You good, Kid? PB?

    ¡°I¡¯ll live.¡± Corporal Yun ¡®PhoneBook¡¯ Wong nodded as he rubbed at the side of his neck. ¡°Gonna need a fuckton of aspirin after this though.¡±

    ¡°I will buy you a bottle if we survive.¡± He turned to me. ¡°Dax, check the electronics and see if we¡¯re fucked or not. PB, help me with the back hatch. Kid, straighten and police the casualties.¡±

    ¡°Aye Aye, Sarge,¡± Came the chorus of replies.

    I moved cautiously towards the front of the IFV, carefully pulling the driver out of his seat. Fucker should have worn the harness. They don¡¯t make them as art pieces or something. The kid caught him from behind me, took him off my hands, and let me shimmy into the driver''s seat. A few switches flipped and got the electronics in the cab back up.

    ¡°Not good, Sarge. We¡¯re trapped. There¡¯s a fucking hydro bus pinning us up against the edge of the freeway. Upside, I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going over unless we get crazy. Downside, if we do, we¡¯re probably going over the edge. That¡¯s a three-story drop. Nobody¡¯s surviving that.¡± Several curses came from the back of the IFV. I kept looking, hoping for a way out.

    ¡°Can you back us out?¡± Sarge had moved up and put a hand on my shoulder to make it easier for him to look at what I was seeing.

    ¡°Nope. The drive train is fucked. This thing is scrap. Sensors say there¡¯s a few Threes over in the cleared section of the road, but the whole column got trashed.¡± I rewound the sensor logs to see what did it. ¡°Looks like a Twelve¡­ No, a Fourteen. See the segments? Bastard is fast. Probably left us in the dust. Orders?¡±

    ¡°We try to link up with anybody else in the column and then call in for orders from up top.¡± He sighed and moved to withdraw. I caught his wrist, his attention snapping back to me as I pointed at the screen and re-ran the logs. ¡°Fuck. Did vehicle two just go flying over the edge? Are there any others up here?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see any before I started fucking with the logs. We¡¯re it. So don¡¯t be disappointed when we eyeball it.¡± I frowned over my shoulder at him and he nodded.

    We both made our way back where the other two were working the manual release crank on the hatch, dropping it so we could get out. I made sure to grab the tags of both men out of the Kid¡¯s pocket before it was my turn on the crank. Soon, we had it down enough to climb out and hopefully not get dragged over the edge in the process.

    The noise of the door opening had caught the attention of the Threes in the area, so as soon as it was open enough, Sarge started shooting while I finished with the crank. Sarge called back, ¡°Hey, you two. Grab every mag and spare weapon you can carry. Leave nothing!¡±

    They scrambled to capture magazines and spare weapons from lockers, loading up a couple of rucksacks. By the time they were done, Sarge and I were off the tail ramp shooting the Model Threes trickling in. Nobody had to tell them; they just added fire to the line. As soon as it was clear enough, Sarge gestured to stack up, which we did quickly, then followed as he snapped a knife hand forward to move out.

    ¡°Hurry up, kid,¡± Wong hissed behind him. ¡°This is lucky thirteen, I feel it.¡±

    I grit my teeth. This stupid legend. Yeah, I survived twelve deployments that went ploin-shaped in B squad, but nobody else survives on those runs. Ever. Somehow scuttlebutt keeps exaggerating the whole fucking thing.

    ¡°Can it, Wong. I got Threes incoming. Fireline,¡± Sarge snapped from the front. We staggered to his right, opening up into an angled fire line, and started picking off the Threes with our battle rifles.

    Seven more Threes down had us moving for the offramp we passed a bit ago again. I had been right of course, nobody else was even on the overpass. The whole column, twelve IFVs, mostly gone, and we had no idea where the Fourteen went.

    ¡°What¡¯s the plan, Sarge?¡± I didn¡¯t really care. At this point, I was ready for death to find me, but I wanted to try and save somebody else first. Just once, I wish I was actually lucky, and everybody survived.

    ¡°Unless you suddenly became a Samurai, we check the ground for survivors to link up with, then make our way back to lines.¡± He turned onto the ramp, picking his way along the edge of cars, looking for the best cover and sightlines he could find.

    ¡°This is fucking fucked.¡±

    ¡°Shut up Kidman.¡± I was a little harsh. His surprised look zeroed in on me, hurt like a puppy. ¡°You may draw in more Threes with that volume. Just remember what the Sarge said. Glue yourself to my ass. Best chance of survival.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± He nodded hard enough he almost threw off his strapped on helmet. He promptly started crowding me, which prompted me to gently push him back before snapping my hand back to my rifle grip. Eyeballing each other, he nodded and repeated the word, before getting back in position. ¡°Wait, you heard that? Were you awake?¡±

    ¡°No, the Sergeant always says that.¡± I shrugged and shook my head a little.

    ¡°Does it work then?¡± Kidman all but squeaked as he spoke. He was so terrified he couldn¡¯t whisper without distending his voice.

    ¡°Well¡­¡±  I scowled and moved to a hustle to keep him from talking more as I muttered, ¡±You¡¯ll live longer that way.¡±

    We quickly made our way down the ramp and turned to look back at the other troop transports, taking cover within the nook of a triangle-shaped set of road barriers.

    We laid eyes on the complete disaster of a street under the freeway. That was a bad idea. Each one of the vehicles was approximately two tons of armor and troops. Each one was at an odd angle, propped against buildings, on their noses, upside down¡ªone was even broken open in half with a Model Four ripping into it. Each one was obviously a complete write-off.

    ¡°Nope.¡± Wong straight-up refused.

    ¡°I hate to say it, Sarge. But I don¡¯t think anybody survived that shit. Hell, we barely did.¡± I shrugged as I spoke, gesturing down in the direction where there were plenty of other Fours ripping at the vehicles and nobody fighting from within them. ¡°Lost cause.¡±

    ¡°Fuck. You¡¯re right. Getting killed is stupid. Let¡¯s¡ª¡± He was cut off as the sound of thrusters blasted by overhead, about ten feet off the ground.

    We were able to see the backside of some guy wearing a helmet, some sort of booster on his hips, and some standard-looking armor. He was blazing away with some sort of smart rifle, each shot going exactly where it needed for maximum damage. He cleaned up rather quickly, taking out all of the antithesis in sight in two minutes flat before trotting over to us.

    ¡°You lot survivors of that?¡± He thumbed over his shoulder.

    ¡°Yes, sir. We lost comms, the jamming is too thick. A Twelve or Fourteen knocked us all off the overpass¡ªwell, everybody but us. We got jammed in somehow. Did you find any survivors over there?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, no. Everybody¡¯s gone. I can cover you while you check for yourselves?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯d like to recover their tags, if that¡¯s okay, sir?¡± Sarge had stiffened up to ramrod straight.

    ¡°Yeah. I can cover you for that.¡± He nodded before moving to lean against the side of an overturned ground car. ¡°Just be quick about it?¡±

    ¡°You heard the Samurai. Get all the tags you can and make it quick.¡± Sarge started gesturing at us, indicating which of the nearest vehicles to hit.

    Sadly, most of them were jammed up or completely inaccessible. Over the next ten minutes, I managed one IFV worth of tags¡ªjust twelve more¡ªbut we couldn¡¯t waste any more time on this, so when Sarge whistled a regroup we all trotted over.

    ¡°What¡¯s your plan now, guys?¡± The Samurai sauntered over, a new rifle in hand, the old one slung across his back.

    ¡°Head back to the FOB. Link up with another unit.¡± Sarge sighed and made a knife hand in the direction of the secure area.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to support us or something?¡± The Samurai pointed at himself arrogantly.

    ¡°You really wanna slow down for four dumbass grunts? It¡¯s not like we bring much to the fight.¡± I couldn¡¯t help myself, I just had to snark a little. Fucking Samurai all full of himself. They weren¡¯t all that bad, but a lot of male newbies tended to be dickish, especially to government grunts. At least in my experience.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Hold that thought.¡± He held up a finger and twisted his head around in the direction of the overpass ramp. A second later the rest of us could hear it. The thudding of feet. Lots of them. ¡°Take cover, we¡¯re about to have company. A little help this time would be nice.¡±

    I rolled my eyes as I trotted over to the IFV I had gotten tags out of, since it still had a working turret. I didn¡¯t ask, Sarge didn¡¯t complain. I took the turret as everybody else found cover nearby, ready to move as needed. As soon as the leading elements of what was coming down curled around the end of the on-ramp, I lit it up. It was the fucking Teen Model. Definitely a Fourteen. More than three segments long too. It immediately began to disgorge its carried troops on top of its outriders.

    Which was good since my pitiful 50. Cal couldn¡¯t do more than scratch that fucker. But the Threes and Fours were mince under my sustained fire. The Fives were kind enough not to laugh as they trotted forward to shield their lesser brothers. Fucking armored plants take ten times as many rounds to kill.

    The real shitty thing was, I¡¯m dead inside. I don¡¯t feel the fear anymore. I¡¯ve been ready to die for a while now. Seeing everyone I know die again and again, it¡¯s just too much. I would be happy to die. But my fingers still pulled the trigger. Again and again. Seek a new target. Fire. Something deep inside me won¡¯t let me die. I¡¯m just a robot killing antithesis when they¡¯re in front of me.

    ¡°WAHOO!!!¡± The dumbass Samurai just leapt through, unloading an automatic shotgun with explosive rounds on the things. The shitty thing was, he was actually effective on the armor. Bastard.

    ¡°After this¡­ I¡¯m taking life in Leavenworth.¡± I growled as I kept sending out short bursts trying to pick off the weaker ones when they became available. ¡°Fuck this noise. I¡¯ll fucking go UA. I¡¯m so fucking tired of this¡­ just tired.¡±

    The Samurai bounced off a building and slammed more rounds into the top of the Fourteen which started twitching funny. It did nothing to stop the advance of the dozen or so Fives, which were all launching quills covered in neurotoxin at us. The others were pinned so I, being behind armor plates, was the only one returning fire.

    I cut off fire though, because dumbass landed between us and the Fives. He promptly took a few quills and staggered, before falling over.

    ¡°Cover me!¡± Sarge decided to get heroic and charged out, using a riot shield from the back of one of the other vehicles.

    I opened up, intent on at least distracting the last of the enemy I could see alive. It had been only a minute or two of fighting and over a hundred antithesis, including a Teen, were dead. Sadly, the most dangerous ones to infantry were still advancing. Sarge caught the guy by the drag strap on his armor and started pulling as the rest of us kept distraction and suppression fire up. It didn¡¯t really help.

    By the time he made it back to cover he had two quills punched through the shield and his arm. I could see the things from where I was in the turret via the rather powerful targeting cameras. Nobody survives a Five without a fucking Protector AI in their heads and some quick thinking. The dumbass Samurai had a quill sticking out of his spine. That was two down.

    Fuck. I¡¯m not gonna win this am I? Lucky my ass. Death, just take me. Leave the others. Just this once. Please.

    The kid, suddenly feeling like a superhero or something, catches a hold of the Samurai¡¯s automatic shotgun and reloads it from the dead man''s chest webbing. Then, he steps straight out into view and starts firing like a madman. Not one to let a chance escape, I did the same, targeting the strike points from where the explosive shots landed.

    When the last explosion occurred, the last round in my turret went down range. Funny coincidence, but that sort of shit happens more often than you¡¯d think around me. I swiveled the turret to look at Kidman. He was covered in quills from the waist down. Dead, even with his finger on the trigger. Rigid, thanks to the neurotoxin locking his muscles in place and his solid stance.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Wong didn¡¯t get up, but he saw it. He slumped against his cover, sitting on the ground. ¡°This is it, isn¡¯t it? We¡¯re dead?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not dead yet.¡± I growled, but while I could hear him from the sensor net, he couldn¡¯t hear me.

    I quickly crawled out of the wrecked vehicle, it was useless now anyway. Trotting over I squatted next to Wang and smacked the shit out of him. It took a minute but he finally focused on me. ¡°What now Dax? It¡¯s just us?¡±

    ¡°Put that Vanguard''s gear on, I¡¯ll pry the shotty out of the Kid¡¯s hands. We need to hurry. I can hotwire one of the ground cars and we can use that to get out of here.¡± I turned and trotted over to Kidman, collected his tags and the ones he¡¯d collected, then began to cut fingers to get the weapon out of his hands. It wasn¡¯t pretty, but it worked.

    I turned to find Wong under the heavy body of a Four, which was eating his face. Before it could turn and try and stab me with one of its spike tipped tentacles I turned and made a mad dash for cover. An empty Samurai gun was useless, but the noise of dropping it would draw attention I didn¡¯t want so I kept a hold of it.

    One of the reasons I had stayed alive so long was luck. The other was my willingness to dive directly into the heart of danger. After all, sometimes the only way out is through. This is why I ditched the shotgun as soon as I was out of sight, pulling my battle rifle back around into position.

    After the first incursions, the United States government had switched up to the Israeli Galil instead of the Armalite platform because the older 5.56 was simply not enough to stop anything besides the damn Ones. Since, Armalite had switched from pushing the AR-15 to the 10, a much larger round, as 7.62 could do significantly more damage, even if it was slower. Nothing human made, or easily portable at the time, could penetrate anything with actual armor like the antithesis could output. So we only needed to upgun enough to deal with the lesser variants. The AR-10 could handle a Model Three easily enough. You¡¯d need an entire mag for a Four if you weren¡¯t lucky or good enough to hit just the right spots, but it was doable. Enough fire down range and most things under a Nine were killable by infantry. Fives were one of the exceptions due to their heavier armor, as even a  .50 caliber round had problems with their armor.

    My battle rifle was a .300 Winchester rather than the standard Nato round. While comparable in many metrics, the .300 is still the preferred for large game and moderate antithesis, even to today. It¡¯s even more effective when you¡¯ve got an illegal mag of thermal rounds from a buddy in supplies. Which is why I quickly slipped my ten round mag out from its hidden pocket under my vest and swapped it for the thirty round mag of standard penetrator core rounds that was mostly empty anyway.

    As soon as it was seated, I stepped up to the cover I was using. Settling in to rest against it and target the big ass tentacle-bear looking mother fucker. It was already sniffing around trying to find me, spotting me just as I lined up on it with my 5x top scope.

    It didn¡¯t roar, or even open its mouth. It simply turned and charged at me where I was hidden behind a concrete street barricade. I took a breath in, slowly letting half of it out as the Four shrunk the ground between us. Aiming tightly for its approaching eye was unnerving, but I had trained for this. I had done this before.

    My finger depressed the trigger before I knew it, right on the pause between heart beats.

    The beast¡¯s head rocked back, its momentum carrying it forward as light and fire spewed from its eyehole. It face planted and skidded five feet to bump into the divider. I squatted there, wishing I had brought a spare change of pants and thankful I was wearing a diaper. Even my pre-mission shit didn¡¯t clear me out enough to prevent situations like this. Didn¡¯t help the squishy feeling, but there¡¯s nothing to be done there.

    I didn¡¯t waste time. Damn Wong hadn¡¯t even started. The dead Samurai¡¯s gear was mostly strapped on outside his body armor, which didn¡¯t seem much better than what I was wearing. So, I skipped that and went expedient, pulling my flack vest off and swapping it for his plate carrier, strapping on the rocket butt-pack. Then prying off the helmet and removing the quills. He was a kid, maybe fifteen or sixteen. No wonder he was so fucking dumb. Goddamn tragedy, but one that happens every fucking day in this crapsack world.

    With all the gear on, helmet in hand, I checked the pouches on the plate carrier. He had nearly a full loadout cued up. His bad luck, my good. Finally I slung the shotgun, swapping it out for my old rifle¡¯s sling since I was more comfortable that way.

    I stood a moment, staring at the faceplate of the tech helmet, almost unable to bring myself to put it on. I felt dirty looting a corpse, but even though I was consciously ready to die, my fucking drive to live was too strong. It was the same reason I couldn¡¯t bring myself to take my own life. It was like I had something I needed to live for, and not even my unconscious mind would let me skip out on it.

    ¡°Fuck it.¡± I spun the helmet and slammed it down on my head.

    After a five second boot up, a neutral monotone voice piped up in my ear. ¡°System Initialized. New user registry confirmed. Greetings, Corporal Daxion, I am the class two AI AU-6185, and I am here to assist you in operating the equipment you have been assigned. Please feel free to address me as you desire.¡±

    ¡°Uh. What?¡± I just kinda stood there stunned. Did it reset somehow or something?

    ¡°Mission protocol: One, Link to user. Two, Uphold the Mission. Three, Protect the user.¡± There was a brief pause, ¡°Mission parameters logged from previous encounter are to retreat to the forward operating base for reassignment. Correct?¡±

    ¡°Uh. Correct.¡± The hud snapped to life, AR arrows indicated on the ground for direction, a distance tally buried in the broad line. ¡°Why did a Samurai have an AI in their helmet, don¡¯t they have one in their head?¡±

    ¡°Samurai AI are restricted depending on the situation. A secondary AI was required for proper use of additional utilities, such as the jump pack and aiming, as my previous user was unwilling to accept implants.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s good, so am I.¡± I shrugged deeper into the plate carrier to settle it more comfortably.

    I made sure I had a new mag in the shotgun and a round chambered. The thirty round drum was tight and primed so I nodded to myself. Turning, I began to jog in the direction indicated by the arrow. A pinch at my jaw startled me, and nearly made me stumble into an empty decorative planter near the intersection.

    ¡°The fuck was that?¡±

    ¡°A stim, you are exhausted and require boosting in order to perform at maximum capability.¡± It wasn¡¯t wrong, and the sudden energy washing over me was kinda nice. It let me go from a brisk jog to a stable run, without seeming to feel too winded.

    Those stims were definitely illegal. I was starting to feel kinda invincible, not punch druggy but definitely high as a kite. It felt good to just run. All the way until an alert popped up on the helmet hud, indicating a Model Three lunging from a storefront to my right.

    I dropped into a baseball slide, targeting with my new shotgun and unleashed a single round directly at its ugly ass cranium. The near immediate explosion of said cranium was intensely satisfying. I wasn¡¯t afraid anymore, as the group of mixed Threes and Fours that were behind it started crossing into the street. I now understood why that dumbass kid got himself killed.

    Consciously, I had to force myself to calm down, to focus. Zone and Flow, those are how you survive. Once you''re in the zone you can find your flow and that takes concentration, skill, and a strong intuition about what it is you''re doing. I¡¯ve always been good at this. Killing is my business.

    And today, business is fucking good.

    Tracking locks popped up on all the Model¡¯s heads, so I simply moved across, hitting each tracking lock and popping a shell off. It took seconds, they hadn¡¯t even had enough time to clear the building fully before they were all dead. I snapped the weapon down, counted my shots to  confirm the number of rounds remaining in the magazine, and started running again. All in the same swift series of moves.

    I had barely made it half a block when the arrow directed me to the side of a building, and then up it, with a ghostly figure of myself running along the side of the building at an angle. Free running wasn¡¯t a thing I did, but I knew of it. Fuck it, let¡¯s try.

    It was a good thing I did. As I hit that wall and angled up, a Twelve punched through the wall under me, steamrolling out into the street.

    I didn¡¯t even think, simply aimed at the spots highlighted and pulled the trigger. Five precise shots hit five individual weak points and the damn thing barreled into the building on the other side of the street, dead.

    It was followed by a veritable horde of single digits, including a flock of one¡¯s. I decided not to stop, as doing so would lead to a fall. Instead, I hit the edge of the three-story I was running on and leapt. The jump jets that had held me up on my long wall run burst to life stronger than before and gave me enough boost to get across the two lanes, up onto the roof of the building across the street.

    Snap decision, Zone and Flow. Keep running. Do not engage the enemy here. Odds are abysmal, not enough assets.

    I didn¡¯t even slow down, flicking the mostly empty mag out and hauling another drum off my mid back. I seated it and slammed it into place with half an eye. New gun, but I was working it like an old one. It was similar enough to an AA-12 that it wasn''t hard.

    The far side of the building gave me highlights and a ghost for the way down the two levels back to the street. Then, I had to run across the upper surfaces of a bunch of cars in a traffic jam. Boosting across lanes twice to get far enough away that I couldn¡¯t hear the building damage of the antithesis behind me any more.

    I¡¯m no coward, but I¡¯m also not stupid. Direct retreat at maximum speed is the only way to survive this shitshow¡ªso that¡¯s what I did. It took another stim shot and a little confusion after, but fifteen minutes of running got me back within sight of the front lines.

    Which were under attack.

    I slowed to a stop about two blocks back. Standing right in the middle was dumb, but my brain was compromised by drugs.

    ¡°AU, I need thirty soft targets and a path over that wall.¡± I reached down and checked the high caliber smart pistol that had been attached to the jump harness at the hip. A full mag plus two on my other hip. ¡°Plus little targets for the pistol as we go. I want to be dry when we get over that wall.¡±

    ¡°Understood. Calculating.¡± There was a brief pause, maybe two seconds. ¡°Recommend using all rifle ammo before moving, switch to grenades, placed roughly in positions indicated for maximum explosive disruption. Then pistol for the final leg.¡±

    A ghost ran the course in front of me, I waited and watched it run a second time, ignoring the quartet of Threes that had spotted me and were backtracking in my direction quickly. The second time the sim ran, I felt I had it and started moving.

    Sprinting forward, I angled for the left-hand buildings while unleashing all thirty rounds from my auto shotgun. Each correcting its own trajectory to hit and explode on target. They must have been shaped charge HEAT rounds for the damage they did, even on armored antithesis.

    As I emptied the rifle, I let it go to dangle and reached for grenades. My feet carried me up the side of a six-story building about a quarter of the way, pitching grenades the whole time I went up. There were only four, but it would have to be enough. It was at this point I was certain that the stims also fucked with my perception of time, because I felt like I had all the time in the world to aim and throw, each one on target enough to do its job.

    I had barely shifted attention, drawn the smart pistol and started firing when a ripple of explosion shoved me further up the building. The grenades had been thermobaric. I lost footing and went tumbling off course, slamming through a window, clipping my head and hands on the rim. My pistol went scattering into the room and I belly flopped onto the floor, skidding into the wall.

    ¡°FUCK!¡±

    ¡°That was suboptimal.¡±

    ¡°You think?!¡± I clutched my chest, barely able to breath enough to snark. It took me a second to get my bearings and stand up. ¡°New plan?¡±

    ¡°Calculating.¡± After it finished speaking a ghost followed a line to the door and out. I rooted around and found my smart pistol before following it.

    In the hall, down to the front door, out the door and into the building hall. Down that hall was a window, the ghost leaping through it. I slumped and muttered something profane before straightening up and tapping into that energy still buzzing my teeth. I only needed a third of the long hall to get to full sprint speed. The window didn¡¯t even slow me down as I leapt through it.

    The drop after would have had me filling my pants again, if I had anything left in my bowels. Thank god the AI triggered the jump jets again, boosting me across to the far building and into another building through an identical window to the one I just leapt out of. Cookie-cutter buildings, cheap and easy.

    I followed the line, which was showing negative numbers now, down two flights of stairs and out into a lobby area where there were a half dozen squads aimed out the shattered and destroyed front door.

    Slowing to a stop I looked around for the back exit, not wanting to bother them concentrating on any enemies that might come this way. The guy on load duty for the tripod mount in the middle of the hall turned to me and raised an eyebrow after twitching violently.

    ¡°Back door?¡± I asked, which caused several riflemen to snap around at me. The loader just pointed and I nodded to him before turning to leave.

    Outside I was met by a Major, pristine in his uniform. He looked me over and raised an eyebrow at my collar flash. Halfway to a salute he stopped, dropped his hand and peered at me more closely. So I obliged him by taking off the helmet. The disgust that slithered across his face briefly was telling enough. I knew him, he knew me. Nominally, he was one of the men in charge of my unit. A real piece of work. Major Upton.

    ¡°Are you a Samurai now?¡± I shook my head to his question, not having the energy to answer as the fight, and maybe the drugs, flowed out of me. ¡°Where did you get that gear then, soldier?¡±

    ¡°Salvage, sir.¡± I let my voice carry my exhaustion.

    ¡°I assume that¡¯s how you survived?¡± He didn¡¯t seem to give a fuck, as usual, a stick rammed so far up his ass he could only look down on everyone.

    ¡°Not really, sir, it was a group effort. Until I was alone.¡± I shook my head and shrugged, unable to answer any differently.

    ¡°We lost contact with your entire column?¡± It was less a question and more a demand for information.

    ¡°All dead sir.¡± That hung in the air, everyone listening extruding sorrow. I pulled out my jangling wad of dog tags. ¡°Model Fourteen.¡±

    ¡°All but you. How then, did you survive?¡± He snatched them from my hand, still demanding.

    ¡°Sir.¡± I sighed and flipped him a sloppy salute. ¡°Practice?¡±

 Once More Into the Breach

    2 Months objective later:

    ¡°I still can¡¯t believe you lied to me!¡±

    <>I did not lie. I omitted facts.</>

    ¡°That¡¯s considered a lie. You knew who I was the whole time! And you said you randomly selected me!!¡±

    <>From three others in the building. All of whom I had prior research on.</>

    ¡°Liar, liar, pants on fire¡­. Fuck it. Whatever.¡± I sighed and sat up on my therapy couch in the VR psych office to look directly at the ¡®therapist¡¯ Naylle was speaking through. ¡°So you don¡¯t think I should go with the blob of nanites with arms and a face for normal days? I admit I do¡­ feel better like this as a person.¡±

    <>Good, the program also agrees that a human form will help with your dysphoria. Especially since you¡¯ve got one that fits your perceived gender now. Fighting as a blob is okay, in fact seems to cause a dissociation for you that helps preserve your mental stability. But for everyday use a more human form is a must.</>

    ¡°Did we need to go with the Jade Beauty look? Can¡¯t we just tone it back a bit, generic it up a little? It¡¯s not like I remember what my face was.¡± I dropped into a flat stare as Naylle pulled up a 3D render of who I once was. ¡°I know what it looks like. I never want to see that again, by the way. No, I mean I don¡¯t have an attachment. So if I¡¯m going to have a face it might as well be a new one!¡±

    Naylle, during my therapy, had given me the file they had acquired on me from before even choosing me via random draw as a host. It had brought back a lot. But some of it was still, just gone. Still, I was able to remember enough. My original personality had apparently resurfaced, at least according to digital records Naylle could scrape up. I wasn¡¯t so sure, but I certainly felt better about myself. Not the old me, but the new. Old me could suck a bag of dicks.

    <>Ah! I understand now. Perhaps, going with your generic idea, we keep the unearthly beauty but go with something low key? Understated even. Something that will fit in anywhere, in any culture on earth?</>

    ¡°Yeah. That sounds better.¡± I sighed and looked over at what Naylle had shifted the vile previous form to. ¡°Hurm¡­. A, why am I naked? B, should we talk tattoos? Cause it looks okay. Maybe a little shorter? Five-Six ish, a more narrow lithe frame. Yeah like that. Smaller up top, thanks. No need to go wild there. Wider hips. What¡¯s the most popular hair and eye color? Brown I think. Let¡¯s mix it up a little and go Hazel and Auburn.¡±

    <>Really? This is a commonly preferred shape of¡­ Hourglass? Yes, an hourglass figure. The rest is reasonable.</>

    ¡°Yeah. Just a little pear shaped.¡± I leaned forward and sighed, staring at a point in space between me and the image for a moment before refocusing. ¡°Hummm, yeah. Okay. Shave an undercut but leave the mid back length hair. Left side for the undercut.¡±

    <>I thought you were going for Uncanny Valley?</>

    ¡°I am. That¡¯s why the whole thing is perfectly even bilaterally. Left and right are mirrored perfectly, right? So the rest is enough to make it even more subtle. Especially the incongruity of the tattoos and undercut being asymmetrical.¡±

    <>Very well. You said Tattoos? Any in particular?</>

    ¡°Yeah. I want UV ink wing on the back of the left shoulder, rainbow if you can.¡±

    <>Rainbow UV ink is doable. Your disguise facade catalog allows for considerable customization.</>

    ¡°Nice!¡± I gave a thumbs up as the figure rotated to show the back. ¡°Now I want a series of black feathers down the arm, terminating just at mid forearm, one for each half decade I¡¯ve been alive. Five additional on the ribs under the arm. Those will be tipped in red.¡±

    <>Why? I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t like the logic i see coming there.</>

    ¡°One, the lowest and furthest from the wing, will have blood on it. The next up will have water droplets, the next will have car tire tracks¡­.¡±

    Naylle interrupted me there. <>The next with a rope and the last with a bullet? The way¡¯s you attempted suicide in your youth?</>

    ¡°Exactly.¡± I sighed and leaned back. The rest¡­ I¡¯ll cover them later. I¡¯m tired, and antsy. Can we go out yet?¡±

    <>Yes. You have finished your recuperation. We may begin operations in the real world once again. How would you like to proceed?</>

    ¡°Good, I''m going stir crazy. Two months of therapy, sleep and combat sims¡­. Right!¡± I suddenly burst to life after trailing off in thought for a moment, startling the therapist AI which was sitting patiently. ¡°For now let''s get back to the real and make a murder ball again. Gotta dig our way out. Then I wanna check the lake, make sure nothing¡¯s there and if there is. Kill it.¡±Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    <>I do believe the irregularities of previous encounters from the time of your activation until we arrived at this location were made from a tactical class of Antithesis. Likely located deep in the lake, hidden somewhere. As you are wont to say; ¡°it was fishy as hell.¡±</>

    ¡°Yeah¡­.¡± I sighed and turned to the AI therapist Naylle was using as a puppet. ¡°And thanks Naylle. For everything. Okay. Let¡¯s do this.¡±

    <>You¡¯re welcome. It¡¯s been a hell of a ride and I¡¯m looking forward to the next stretch. Lets.</> Naylle had softened its voice from the usual brusk baritone, actual emotion leaking in for once.

    The VR Sim dissolved around me, leaving me as the new me for a second before I liquified into my new nearly pure nanite form and the rock and earth around me came to my perceptions. I sighed internally again before shifting to my recently minted Murder Ball, and began to dig back out the way I came in.

    The path was remarkably easy to follow. Well maybe not. I had left a bunch of concrete plugs and silt in my path with a few patches of muddy water. It was easier to cut around the plugs than through though, those things were tier one materials, as opposed to the surrounding bedrock which was warm butter in comparison.

    Once I reached the river where the silt was thick I shifted back to blob mode and pushed tendrils up to look around.

    [We ain¡¯t found shit.] I did my best disgruntled desert combing spaceball voice.

    <>Indeed. What do you think, shall we send a horde of micro drones or go yourself?</> We were both definitely feeling more comfortable with each other anymore.

    [Unnhhhh¡­. Do I have to? Damnit. Yes I do. We haven¡¯t enough mass to make enough micro drones and a macro would be quickly caught. Might as well recon in force.] I glooped my way fully out of the sediment and began to move down the mildly caustic river. Thankfully I was tier two material so the water didn¡¯t do any noticeable damage.

    It took a while to finish the trip up the river. The distance from downtown to downtown when they were separated was something like thirty five miles? Didn¡¯t matter, I had about half of that before I arrived and I was being cautious in my speed and observations of my environs. I didn¡¯t need some random Nine catching me and squirting ahead to warn the others before I could kill it. Slow and steady wins the race.

    Annoyingly nothing was there to kill. I was, though, detecting antithesis spores in the flowing water. Ones that were, thankfully, too melty to be viable. Omnomnom, even dead they are nourishing.

    [Damn lake is rather deep, not as deep as some in the region but even with the silt the size plus depth would take a while to dredge. Ideas?]

    <>Don¡¯t. A hive would be large. Simply seek the densest section of antithesis spores. If it¡¯s near the bottom, there may be a hive and we can dig. If it¡¯s at one of the inlets then we can follow it deeper?</>

    [Sounds like a plan. I¡¯mma faff about then¡­.] I started spreading out into  more of a mantaray shape, using the form to slide through the water more smoothly. Continuing to feed on the spores and other minerals in the water.

    Fifteen minutes of grid search near the bottom and I spotted a fish. WTH?

    [NAAYYLLLLEE!!! Naylle!] I had gone into a false bass voice, hoping Naylle kept to the joke.

    <>What is it, lord Guru?</> Did Not Disappoint!

    [I saw a fish. That is all.]

    <>Actually that seems to be a variant Model One. Readings indicate that there is no native life in the lake.</> Ah, there¡¯s my favorite serious boi. <>It seems to have ¡°spooked¡± perhaps you should follow it?</>

    [Uhnnnn. Send a couple minnows after it. Following directly may spark off a fight. We¡¯re only after intel right now.] Instead of answering, a small piece of my whole peeled off and turned into a pair of tiny fish which darted after the Model One.

    <>I thought we didn¡¯t have enough mass for micro scouts?</>

    [Following a certainty is different. Two ounces of mass isn¡¯t much. We¡¯ve already made that up just since we got here.] I rapidly shifted to an octopus form and burrowed into the muck, twisting to look like a buried rock while I watched the pair of scouts.

    The modified One was a dumb bitch and went straight for a hole in the muck. It wasn¡¯t large and it seemed to open and close randomly. But sticking close to the One the scouts were able to go inside. Where they discovered it was some sort of fleshy proboscis, right before they were crushed in the teeth of a pair of Model Ones inside said space.

    [Well shit. There¡¯s something here. Let¡¯s go find help?] I took Naylle¡¯s silence as telling and shot off as fast as my octopus shape could move me in the direction of the Spokane River exit. Now was a time for speed, so as soon as I hit the surface of the river I shifted to the bank, transformed into a horse and booked it. Thirty plus miles was a long way for a horse to go full tilt. Thankfully I was actually a machine.

    It still took me the better part of a half hour to get to the place where my last major fight happened. Somebody had cleaned it up nice, but the ramp I needed was still there and I could see light from above so I didn¡¯t slow down, just continued the charge. At the top, most of it was covered up in concrete, the rest was crisscrossed with rebar. Didn¡¯t even think to slow down juts go gooey and splattered through the rebar section.

    I think a couple of the workers had heart attacks as goop splattered up through the hole, congealed and turned into a grunge style skater girl.

    ¡°AHHHH!!! Good lord! Natural Light!¡± I flinched, my optics not having adjusted fast enough. Then I looked down. ¡°Well fuck. Now I¡¯m ankle deep in concrete. A little help here?¡±

    The hard hat, hi-visibility vest, wearing group of people around me just kind of stared a minute before one of them, carrying a coffee, coughed and spoke. ¡°You heard the Samurai. Help her out!¡±

    Everybody jumped too and soon enough there was a Crane over me with a rope to get me out. Took a solid five minutes to organize but I was sloughing off the concrete soon enough. Being mostly Nanites is super useful.

    ¡°Thanks guys. If you¡¯ll excuse me I need to go find somebody to tell them¡­ Oh shit. Yeah. Don¡¯t finish closing this up. We¡¯ll need to get back down there sooner than later.¡± I grinned a little too widely and gave them a thumbs up. [I need to do something creepy with my teeth.]

 Unconventional Morality, or; Why Itâ€™s Bad to Eat People

    I walked down the hall behind a Family member who was assigned to lead me to the meeting room when I arrived moments ago. As I approached, my enhanced hearing began to pick up Sufficient Gravitas¡¯ voice.

    I stopped outside the door before he could open it, and put a hand on his shoulder to halt his announcement of my arrival as I listened to the fringes of a conversation about me. I waved off the guide, the suit made me uncomfortable anyway.

    ¡°I mean its body was completely shattered and crushed! They found its core,¡± Alex¡¯s voice sounds hoarse, distraught even. ¡°That has to be it for them!¡±

    I burst through the door, slamming it open. ¡°That¡¯s step one! What about steps¡­.¡±

    ¡°I already did that joke.¡± Bomberman cut me off with a smirk.

    ¡°Dammit. I worked on that one for days!¡± I whined in my mortal voice and slumped, pouting a little as the people in the room ogled me with different emotions apparent. ¡°Aaanannnnyyyway. I¡¯m back. Sorry It took me so long but I needed a lot of therapy.¡±

    A blurring missile made of cute ship girl slammed into me, distorting my form briefly as she all but crushed me in a hug. I hugged back momentarily before patting her on the head and smiling at her when she looked up.

    ¡°You¡¯re okay?¡±

    ¡°Whole lot of faith there.¡± I smirked to soften my response to Gravitas. ¡°Yeah. I cut my way out and dug down into the bedrock. Took some time for myself and got my head on right. Completely shifted into my nanites with multiple backups. It really takes several steps to kill me now. Not perfect but I¡¯m getting there.¡±

    She straightened up and then tugged at her cute little uniform jacket, giving me a pout the whole time. Finally she returned to her seat allowing me to. I adopted the ¡°Gendo Pose¡± and looked around the table.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you all are wondering why I gathered you here.¡±

    ¡°Not funny dude.¡± Bomberman snapped at me, showing how he felt about faking my death in a quick slip. ¡°Seriously. It¡¯s good to see you again. You don¡¯t need to make jokes.¡±

    ¡°Not joking.¡± I used my eldritch voice to put across how serious this was, before dropping my hands to the table and grinning at him. Way too wide, too perfect of teeth and too many K-9s definitely gave the right creep factor based on everybody''s looks. ¡°When I awoke I went sniffing at something that had been bugging me from the moment I got down there. Also Naylle insisted, so I went upstream.¡±

    Everybody let that hang for a minute before I continued, catching they expected more info.

    ¡°So! I found something there and thought to myself, ¡®This is a gun problem. I should bring all my guns, and all my friends with guns.¡¯ So, I came out to the surface to call up the only people I trust.¡± Turning to the far end of the table and raising my eyebrow, I smiled at the only person I didn¡¯t know in the room. ¡°Which brings me to you. I don¡¯t know you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Nolan South. Family rep, just here to be a liaison for you if you need anything from The Family.¡± He put up a corporate smile that was brittle around the edges.

    ¡°I think I should eat him. Should I eat him?¡± I shifted to a definitive shark-like grin, widening my face and shifting into jagged shark toothed jaws.

    Hiding a smile behind their face, Drag-On shook their head. ¡°No sweety I asked him to be here as a third party. Maybe we can get you a snack later.¡±

    ¡°Well I am hungry... but I¡¯ll wait.¡± Turning away from him as I fixed my face, I shrugged and smiled as cute as I could at the others. ¡°Anyway, I found a hive or a really high number of plants or, I dunno, something at the bottom of the lake. After confirming there was an anomaly there I booked it. I saw a few fish type Model One¡¯s, it was murky so I couldn¡¯t confirm numbers but whatever it is, it''s under the sediment too.¡±

    ¡°You seem to have,¡± Drag-On paused for a long moment, searching for a word, then eventually softly finished, ¡°Changed since the last time I saw you.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± I drew the word out for a moment for the same purpose. ¡°Like I said, therapy. I¡¯m far more, well¡­ me, and way less, ¡®Oh god, oh god, we¡¯re all gonna die.¡±

    The deadpanned  quote got nothing but blank stares. My pop culture references were all out of date. Damnit. This brought a pout to my face and I sighed, shaking my head.

    ¡°On topic, while I know you probably aren¡¯t set up for underwater fights, I trust you to make suggestions. Either way I need to bulk up and eat enough to make a few Lesser Shoggoth to help with the fight. I simply wasn¡¯t ready when I emerged from my hiding hole, which is why I did a quick scout.¡± I paused and looked to the left at the Family Rep, my pout deepening. ¡°Please help.¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    I wasn¡¯t trying to look pathetic, but I think I did. Everybody started trying to talk over each other, Drag-On and Gravitas both trying to comfort me while Bomberman was giving solutions. In the end it was a slurry of noise even I couldn¡¯t make sense of without referring to the recordings.

    The Family rep cleared his throat. Everyone in the room turned an evil eye at him and he gulped in response but pressed on. ¡°If I might interject? The family has considerable resources and a vested interest in dealing with problems such as this. We would be happy to offer any assistance we can in the endeavour of dealing with this problem post haste.¡±

    I stared at him blankly. Finally having enough, Drag-On inserted, ¡°Honey, that¡¯s legal speak for the family will help since they don¡¯t want that thing there any more than we do.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Why didn¡¯t he just say that?¡± I blinked a few times. ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯m stupid. But shut up. If I want something out of you I¡¯ll tell you.¡±

    He nodded and ran a pair of fingers across his lips as if zippering them shut.

    ¡°Now now, be nice to the poor mortal, Oggy. Oh wait, I like that! Oggy, short form of Shoggoth. It¡¯s cute.¡± Drag-On hid a smile behind their lace covered hand and leaned back in their chair. ¡°On to the point now. I can indeed perform under water, just so long as it¡¯s not too deep? I¡¯m unaware of the depth of Lake Coeur d¡¯Alene.¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­. Naylle?¡±

    Utilizing a portion of my skin Naylle answered in his effete baritone voice with his pretentious British accent.¡°<>Indeed. Lake Coeur d¡¯Alene is approximately one hundred ninety four feet at the maximum depth to sediment. This is, of course, previous recordings. Currently, I would estimate the body of water to be one hundred and twenty feet.¡±

    I hadn¡¯t even noticed his mannerisms until half way through therapy. Now, it¡¯s weird not noticing it. As I took in each of my acquaintances, I cringed a little inside as I mentally relived a few moments where I either did something ridiculous or straight up missed something obvious.Thankfully, despite how I was back then, they didn¡¯t seem to be upset about anything, so no use harping on it.

    ¡°I can manage that, but anything past two hundred meters and I¡¯ll have problems. That¡¯s not even sixty meters at its deepest.¡± Gravitas hopped in her chair to shift in it so she could lean across the table further. ¡°Do you think It goes deeper?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I only found an entrance, then my drones got squished.¡± I shrugged. ¡°In the end I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if there was a network of tunnels under the silt and into the bedrock that goes down a bit. It¡¯s been hiding there for a while would be my guess. Naylle and I think the higher level models we fought at the end of the incursion came from there somehow.¡±

    ¡°So we are going to assume it goes down to at least the original recorded bottom?¡± Drag-On raised an eyebrow as they spoke. I nodded in agreement. ¡°Then I should be able to help as well. Bomberman?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ Uh¡­ Have depth charges I wanted to test? I¡¯ll need some way to survive if I go under ¡®tho, I don¡¯t have anything for depth.¡±

    ¡°No worries, if you have points I¡¯ll give you access to my forcefield catalog. There¡¯s a good one that will deal with most low level quill fire and keep air in when you get submerged or swallowed. It¡¯s rated to two hundred meters of water.¡± Gravitas smiled and flashed a thumbs up at Bomberman. ¡°Only two hundred fifty points!¡±

    ¡°I can float that amount, if you need it,¡± I commented quickly as he got a pensive look on his face. ¡°Hell. I think I can put together the two thousand five hundred for a blueprint and then just make them.¡±

    ¡°<>You are shy by three hundred points I¡¯m afraid. You purchased additionals for smoothing out your combat style while in therapy if you recall.</>¡± Naylle with the save.

    ¡°If it¡¯s for blueprints you¡¯ll share I¡¯ll make up the difference hon.¡± Drag-On smiled and leaned forwards.

    ¡°When have I ever been stingy with them? Just because I¡¯ve had therapy doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯ve become a dick all of the sudden.¡± I pouted at them. Drag-On just smiled cheerfully back and nodded. ¡°Okay, so that¡¯s solved provided everybody¡¯s down for it?¡±

    I got nods in response. ¡°<>Blueprints purchased and shared.</>¡±

    ¡°Great. Should we think about bringing on some bigger people for this? I mean, it sounds like it¡¯s not nothing. I mean, none of us are slouches, but,¡± Bomberman trailed off as he fidgeted in his seat.

    ¡°Maybe somebody who specializes in underwater hives?¡± I shrugged and crossed my arms, elbows on the table. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t hurt to have at least one specialist. Anybody got someone who they trust for that?¡±

    ¡°I may know someone. Let me make a few calls honey.¡± Drag-On stood up and walked out of the room. Presumably to make a call on an actual screen or something.

    ¡°So,¡± I trailed off trying to think of something to fill the time with. ¡°What happened to that stealth server farm I found?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah.¡± Bomberman laughed before relaxing into a slouch. ¡°Turns out the group who owned all those buildings were all secretly working together on antithesis research. Illegally. The other corporations, and more importantly the rich people behind them, got super pissed. There¡¯s still a whole legal thing going on over it. Speaking of, the courts issued a blanket mandate for any ¡®forgotten¡¯ grey matter projects to release the specimens into a care facility being paid for by the original corp that fucked you over.¡±

    ¡°Lots of corporations shuffled the last two months,¡± Gravitas agreed. Her whole demeanor turned a little sad. ¡°A lot of people lost their jobs.¡±

    ¡°That blows. I bet a lot of money is up in the wind right now too. Either shifting to hide it or locked down by the courts.¡± I grunted and stretched out across the table in a very human-like cat imitation. Stretching my fingers to their lengths and spreading them while yawning. Finally I relaxed into a slump across the expanse of real estate I had taken up. Speaking into the table, my words came out muffled as I complained, ¡°Shame there isn¡¯t something we can do about that to free up some severance packages or something.¡±

    ¡°The Family guy is twitching.¡± Bomberman didn¡¯t bother to disguise his amusement.

    ¡°Speak.¡± I didn¡¯t bother to lift my head.

    ¡°I can certainly arrange to ensure such a thing happens. Excuse me, I can do that if you want.¡±

    I popped my head up, almost at an unnatural angle and looked at him for a moment. ¡°Yeah. Do, please.¡±

    He nodded and made some notes on a tablet as I let my forehead slam back into the table with perhaps a little too much force.

 Deep Conversation and a Free Lunch

    The door opened softly and only the noise of the swishing princess dress behind me alerted me to Drag-On returning. I was only using human ears, it would be rude to go full bore with people around. They¡¯d find it more than just creepy if they knew I could hear their heartbeats.

    ¡°I have a friend, Depth Charge. He¡¯s in Portland but he¡¯ll be here in a couple hours. Do you think this can wait sweety?¡±

    ¡°I fucked off as fast as I could. I don¡¯t think I whipped the hive into a frenzy, but I might have. The longer we wait the more prepared it could be. It¡¯s up to you. Naylle and I agree something smart is down there tho.¡± I sat up and shrugged as they sat back down at the end of the table.

    ¡°I think everyone would feel better with a specialist involved. Depth Charge is a good man. A little light on words but he¡¯s definitely got it where it counts.¡±

    ¡°Action?¡± ¡°A big dick?¡± Bomberman and my replies overran each other, but were both clear enough. I snickered.

    ¡°Enough antics, young lady.¡± Drag-On gave me a sharp look. Finally relaxing into a smile. ¡°Do you have any more information for us?¡±

    ¡°Standard Battlefield control and information network scans. So yeah.¡± I sent them all a ping request for a network connection. They accepted quickly, allowing me to upload the maps and video feeds for them to view.

    [Oggy.] Gravitas sent a direct comm request. I looked over at her, allowing it. [Do you still want to stick with the¡­ shoggoth thing? I¡¯m sure we could rebrand you? It¡¯s stupid how Samurai have to do that.]

    [Agreed, it is stupid. But no. I¡¯m actually good with this. Trust me.] I smiled my best cute smile at her before focusing back on adding metadata, to the upload, of my own observations adding to Naylles.

    By the time I finished everyone else seemed ready to discuss things.

    ¡°Are you seriously okay with the way things are going?¡± The demand came out of nowhere for everyone else. Gravitas, Alex, had been staring at me the whole time, so I kinda saw it coming.

    I sighed and sat back, rubbing my face with both hands before looking at them for a moment. ¡°Flesh is a prison. No matter what kind it is. It is a prison of our own choosing now. You can change yourself now. To be anything you desire. Provided you have the money, or means, to acquire it. Machine, or meat, it doesn¡¯t matter. And when you¡¯re as fractured as me. Picking one face and sticking with it isn¡¯t an option. Yes. This is my face now, when I am with people anyway. It¡¯s what I see in the mirror. But I don¡¯t have the attachment to it you do to yours. So shifting it. Changing it. Replacing it. It¡¯s fine.¡±

    I shifted, changed and completely replaced my face as I spoke the last words before resetting it back. ¡°Since I can reset whenever I need to. Two months of therapy isn¡¯t enough to unfuck my poor trashed psyche. But It¡¯s enough to piece the whole puzzle back into a shape that can grow and heal. I need a shit ton more therapy, but I¡¯ll be alright. In the end I left being human behind, and I have to find the new me. Right now I have things I need to do. I need to finish. Until then I can¡¯t¡­ I can¡¯t sit still. So please, don¡¯t get in the way of that.¡±

    She sighed and stared at me a moment before finally nodding and sitting more primly. Maybe the use of Eldritch Voice for that ¡°need¡± got to her, maybe my argument. Maybe I fucked up and made her mad but she¡¯s not showing it. Mortals are complicated and even with emotions mostly back I still don¡¯t get them.

    ¡°So you only have this hole to go on? I admit it¡¯s definitely antithesis but¡­.¡± Bomberman seemed happy to change the subject. ¡°Is it really worth all this?¡±

    ¡°Hon, there¡¯s less depth in that lake than there should be even with fifty years of sediment.¡± Drag-On sighed and rubbed the bridge of their nose. ¡°Sweety, you did good bringing this. But I feel like we should get more people in for this. That¡¯s a very large lake, and it¡¯s way too shallow. Enough to hide a very large hive.¡±

    ¡°We, Naylle and I think it is where the twenty two variants came from in the big dust up I became a Vanguard in. We think it may have a Thirty or higher in reserve.¡± I let my voice be small, crossed my arms to hug myself. I wanted them to understand how freaked out this whole thing made me, therapy helped me with body communication a lot. The last fight I was in nearly killed me, this one wasn¡¯t going to be happy or easy. ¡°I can¡¯t guarantee anything. I¡¯ve only got intuition to lean on here. That said, Naylle is a super AI from the Protectors, and he agrees.¡±

    ¡°<>Indeed. I looked into it on the way over, nobody has gone to check after the incursion. No one even was aware there was anything up river.</>¡±

    Everyone shifted a little in their seats and seemed to zone out. Talking with their AI based on the twitching in their throats. I waited patiently, shifting my personal time to slow so as to avoid impatience. Handy thing that, being able to shift my personal time by a factor of five. Two months can seem like almost a year. Hence why I¡¯ve been going stir crazy. At least I¡¯m not bat shit insane anymore. Mostly.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°My AI agrees, based on the data it could be absolutely huge. No one has seen a stealth hive like this¡­ I don¡¯t know.¡± Drag-On seemed even more disturbed than before. ¡°We should do some scouting and such before Depth Charge arrives. Do you feel up for it sweety?¡±

    ¡°With backup. Yeah. I¡¯m not quite immortal yet, only ageless.¡± I let loose with a small smile before taking a deep breath and slapping my knees as I blew it out. ¡°Let''s do this? Before the idiots at the hole close it up.¡±

    ¡°What? Idiots at the hole?¡± Gravitas¡¯ head whipped back and forth between me and Drag-On in confusion.

    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re sealing up the hole. With Concrete. Nice guys, even the supervisor. That said, who knows what pretentious dick is yelling at them now. I¡¯d hate to have them have to fix it after we fuck it up again.¡± Nodded along with each few words, a smile on my face. ¡°So that said. I should eat before we go. I need more mass.¡±

    ¡°How much? Uh. Sorry.¡± The Family rep ducked his head and mimed zipping his lips again.

    ¡°Uhhh¡­ five tons?¡± I blinked twice, even made it look like it wasn¡¯t deliberate, as I raised my hands in a shrug. ¡°Preferably tier two materials? Or at least a bunch of Titanium, Tungsten and Carbon? Some base metals for circuitry too¡­.I¡¯m not quite where I can make tier two for everything, but the armor would need it.¡±

    ¡°Get on that Hon.¡± Drag-On had turned to the rep as well, ordering him to get me what I needed. ¡°We¡¯re going to want her at full strength.¡±

    I beamed at Drag-On, nodding in thanks. ¡°That¡¯ll give me enough mass to be a threat, I¡¯m currently at half my baseline. The other reason I booked it instead of sticking around to scout more. That was with eating everything in the river water even.¡±

    The rep looked up from his tablet and smiled. ¡°Everything requested can be found in recycling. There should be more than twenty tons available. I can lead you there.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯mma go have a snack, I¡¯ll meet you guy¡¯s in a bit.¡± I stood up and gestured to the door. ¡°After you suit. I promise I won¡¯t eat you.¡±

    ¡°Is she¡­ serious?¡±

    ¡°As a heart attack honey. Better be quick, she''s not exactly known for patience.¡± Drag-On smiled placatingly at him.

    He all but ran out of the room, I just raised an eyebrow at them and got a wink in return. Grinning cheekily, I moved to follow the rep, shifting to be faster to catch up. The elevator ride was amusing, as he was tense as fuck the whole way down. But I think the mystique wore off as my eyes lit up at the garbage heap in the recycling room.

    The room was huge, with individually sorted bins full of different scrap in the bulk of the room. There were a few nano forges around for matter reclamation and a few chatty guy¡¯s feeding them. Work stopped as the elevator opened. It might have been the squeal of glee out of my mouth.

    I all but dove into a bin, going liquid as I hit. I started eating immediately. Quickly regaining mass I filled out what I needed, being kind enough to leave the bins. When I finished reconstituting my whole body, and four additional sub forms I flowed out, absorbing all of them into my subspace. Finally solidifying back into my base street form I walked over to the elevator, which had been held for me.

    ¡°Done! Five tons. Not an atom more.¡± I settled in next to him again.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone would complain if you took more?¡± He gestured at the still mostly full room.

    ¡°No. Greed isn¡¯t one of my sins. I¡¯ll be able to grow more of me once we start fighting. Frankly the junk in here is kinda¡­ bland.¡± I shrugged and smiled at him as I reached out and poked the button for the top floor. ¡°If everybody¡¯s already left, I¡¯ll leave from the roof carport.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡± He keyed his id card and the elevator finally started moving. The ride up was not nearly as fun as down.

    I did notice the elevator music this time. First swaying to it, then snapping my fingers and bobbing along. ¡°Is it me or does this elevator muzak actually slap a little?¡±

    ¡°We went to great efforts to ensure that the elevators had music that would be appealing to a wide variety of Samurai. So, it does indeed Slap.¡± He smiled in the most plastic way I had ever seen. ¡°Do you need anything else before you go?¡±

    ¡°Not that I can think of.¡± I shrugged and started forward a half second before the elevator dinged. ¡°Don¡¯t go getting killed. I¡¯d hate to lose the chance to eat you.¡±

    I grinned too toothily at him and wiggled my fingers in a goodbye as I walked out backwards. Once outside I found that nobody had left, they were all having a chat on the overhang off the front of the building. I quickly approached, trying to catch some of the conversation with my enhancements, but they managed to stop before I got close enough. Even with my whole skin being a giant ear, the fucking wind cock blocked me.

    Judging by the looks, they were definitely talking about me.

    ¡°I know you were all gossiping behind my back. But I¡¯m a bigger person and am fully willing to let it go.¡± Grinning, I shifted into a childlike form, maybe five years old. Adopting a child like tone and mannerism. ¡°Nice Princess Drag-On can I wide your dagon?¡±

    ¡°Cute sweety. But no. There¡¯s not enough room to carry everyone else and you, and we know you can fly on your own.¡± They smirked at me. ¡°Good try though.¡±

    I floated up, morphing my face into a demonic shape and made my hair stand up and get all wavy in the wind. ¡°I will consume your soul!!!! Or somebody''s anyway¡­.¡±

    ¡°Well? Coming?¡± Pouting, I shifted back to normal and floated off the edge of the platform, stuffing my hands in my pockets, I turned back to them as a hoverboard formed under my feet for the style of it. ¡°It¡¯s not like this hive is going to kill itself or anything.¡±

 Shapeshifting for Fun and Profit.

    ¡°And I told you to finish this project!¡± The suit screaming at the construction worker was holding his hardhat above his head, as if not touching his hair with it would protect him from a head injury.

    ¡°And I told you we have direct orders from a Samurai not to.¡± The Foreman looked more terrified than annoyed but he was trying and that counts.

    [I¡¯m gonna eat him.] I announced on comms as I landed. Having sent a feed of what I saw and heard to the others.

    [Have at.] Bomberman seemed amused, almost like he didn¡¯t believe I would, or didn¡¯t care.

    [That¡¯s fine hon. It¡¯ll speed things up.] Drag-On completely knew I would do it.

    [Wait what?] Gravitas was just as startled by what I said as the responses. Poor girl.

    I distended my mouth and jaw, growing my head and letting the facade drop as I pounced on the suit, eating him in a large bite. After a second of smacking my lips, as I began to reduce back to size, I belched up the helmet covered in blood. Licking the blood off I handed it back to the foreman.

    ¡°I hate suits¡­ but they taste good.¡± He just gulped, nodded and accepted the helmet. ¡°Crunchy with a tang of¡­ hair gel? Yeah hair gel. Kinda like lemon on top.¡±

    ¡°Why did you do that?¡± Gravitas shriek was almost deafening to me, everybody else flinched too. ¡°We could have told him to leave!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m still hungry?¡± I was genuinely confused.

    <>Eating sophonts is generally considered Gauche by other sophonts.</>

    [Naylle¡­ am I bad code?]

    <>No, you¡¯re just different. You¡¯re doing fine. You asked before you did it. It¡¯s not either of your fault she wasn¡¯t fast enough to provide her own input. And your reaction should have been the same. If you seek permission the majority rules, that was what you decided.</>

    Less than a second had passed since I had spoken before I added.¡°Oh¡­ shit. Naylle told me why you¡¯re upset. Sorry.¡±

    ¡°Can you puke him up or something?¡± Gravitas was pale, white even. Definitely upset?

    ¡°Yeah¡­. He¡¯s still alive. For the most part.¡± I horked the poor suit up, well his body, his clothes were mine now. He was mostly intact, I even used a medical nanite suite I had a blueprint for to heal the bite marks. Although he was unconscious due to shock or something. ¡°Probably gonna be traumatized. I can¡¯t do anything for that, I¡¯m still handling my own.¡±

    ¡°You¡­ seriously¡­.¡± Gravitas sighed and ran a hand across her face in frustration.

    ¡°Is she genuinely upset? I can¡¯t tell?¡± I turned to Drag-On as the best judge.

    They nodded and sighed. ¡°Let me talk to her. Can someone take him to lie down?¡±

    Drag-On pulled Gravitas aside, leaving Bomberman and I to talk to the foreman about getting down since there was a mass of rebar blocking anybody but me getting through easily. I let the foreman getsure to a couple of his guys to deal with the unconscious suit before addressing him.

    ¡°So yeah. Ed? Your helmet tag says Ed. Can I call you Ed?¡± He nodded at me. ¡° Any way we can get an easy way down? Uh¡­ Did I miss an official door or something? In fact why the fuck isn¡¯t this an official door?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s in the middle of a street Ma¡¯am. There is a way down but it¡¯s¡­ convoluted and you¡¯d have to take extra steps. If you want we can set up a way for you to get through here?¡±

    ¡°Like prying back the rebar or something?¡± He nodded. ¡°Do whatever you need to. That mech dragon needs to get through and I can¡¯t put it in my extra dimensional storage. It¡¯s full of more me.¡±

    ¡°More you?¡± He blinked, confusion apparent on his face.

    ¡°Oh! I¡¯m Shoggoth! All around friendly Eldritch Horror!¡± I stuck my hand out and smiled brightly at him. He hesitantly shook it, nodding in complete incomprehension.

    ¡°Ah, of course Ma¡¯am. I¡¯ll go get my guy¡¯s on opening things up for you.¡± As soon as I let go with a nod, he hustled off to where a bunch of men in hardhats were loitering and watching.

    ¡°That went well.¡±

    Bomberman snickered at me. ¡°All around friendly Eldritch Horror eh? Is that what you¡¯re going with?¡±

    ¡°Would you rather I was an Emu?¡± I rapidly transformed into an Emu and menaced over him, this just made him laugh harder. Before I knew it he was mounted and I was running in circles making deep throated noises, and a mess out of the still moist concrete. Finally ending the antics with a whistle from Drag-On who beckoned us over with an amused smile. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    As soon as we were on solid ground Bomberman hopped off allowing me to transform back to my new ¡°Normal¡± form. Being able to transform into whatever I want is quite entertaining. But business is serious time.

    ¡°Oggy, would you be a dear and turn to your battle form?¡± Drag-On smiled as they asked, gesturing for me to stay back a bit.

    I shrugged then acquiesced to their request. Eventually moving to my full form, one solid mass of me about the size of a city bus, loaf shaped and with only one ¡°face¡± protruding in their direction. Though I didn¡¯t bother to keep the mouth, eyes and nose approximations in order, it may have been disconcerting for them to see that jumbled mess.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Could you straighten your face out a bit?¡± Bomberman definitely had complaint in his voice, right?

    ¡°It is? Is it? Uh¡­.¡± I squinted all six eyes at them as I tried to figure out what the problem was.

    <>Perhaps this may help?</> Naylle gently nudged my face into some semblance of order.

    ¡°Thanks Naylle. That better?¡±

    ¡°Yes thank you sweety. It looks like they¡¯ve nearly got a hole large enough to get through, shall we proceed?¡± Drag-On gestured to where a dozen men in high visibility vests and hardhats were cutting rebar out of the way at the top third of the street plug.

    In response I simply glooped in that direction, absorbing the face on one side and carefully extending the same one on the other. A loaf of nanites bearing down on you was apparently a little disconcerting. The men working almost had a collective panic attack until I stopped politely to wait at the edge for people to finish and move.

    Once they had, I formed a stairwell down onto the ramp, which was a dozen feet down at this point. After Bomberman, his drone dog and Gravitas hesitated at the top I extended a pole that formed a pseudo head and face.

    ¡°Hurry up. I¡¯m getting bored.¡± I gave them a cheeky smile. It was apparently enough to get even Drag-On and their dragon to calmly use me as stairs to get down. I promptly turned to the foreman, shifting my voice to customer service tones. ¡°There should be a guy named Depth Charge coming in after us. Keep the entrance open until we get back. If we don¡¯t come back you may want to send for more Samurai.¡±

    ¡°Understood. I recorded the whole thing on my augs this time. Uh. If you don¡¯t mind my asking?¡± I nodded and smiled at him to encourage him. ¡°What¡¯s going on down there?¡±

    ¡°Sore wa himitsu desu,¡± I chimed out in my cheekiest singsong well pronounced japanese.

    He just blinked confused at me as I shifted to ooze form and disappeared below street level. The others were already trooping down the ramp in their own idiom. Bomberman and Drag-On riding their mechs, Gravitas floating along with her pontoons out and searching for targets. I quickly formed myself into a ball and started rolling, making sure to squish into a wheel to bypass them on the inside before going back to a ball until I got to the bottom and rolled well out into the vast aquifer or whatever it was.

    I only stopped because I splattered myself on a pillar instead of crashing through it. I may be crazy but I¡¯m not dumb.

    ¡°Wait up dude!¡± The cyber Mastiff came barreling up as I pulled myself together. ¡°What was that all about?¡±

    ¡°Easy way down?¡± I formed enough to shrug at him from my full form, then promptly went Loaf again to wait. ¡°I was first, wasn¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°...Fair.¡± He started chuckling and leaned against me to wait for the other two who were coming at a more sedate pace. I think he took a lot of effort to look effortless and bored, I didn¡¯t have to try, I simply watched the world speed up as I waited a few short moments.

    ¡°Are you two ready, or are you not done playing?¡± Drag-On had a knowing smirk as they rode up on their dragon. ¡°It¡¯s several kilometers to the lake.¡±

    ¡°Just waiting on you.¡± Bomberman smirked, hefted himself off where he was leaning on me and moved to remount his dog. ¡°Besides, the big lug here is the slowest one of all of us.¡±

    ¡°Really now?¡± I shifted to be more compact, until I was down to minimum size for maximum acceleration with the flight module I had. As a teardrop shape I shot off down the river, right over the water at mach one.

    Once I arrived at the lakeside, I stopped, landed and became pillar shaped. Shimmering with my facade nanites to look like all the others. Turning more of my sensors to the water I slowed down time to watch and wait. The others would be a minute and I may have startled whatever was in the water.

    From my perception it didn¡¯t take long for the others to arrive. They discovered that I was missing, and that there were several fours hanging out on the nearby roof. They figured that out when all thirty of the plant bastards dropped from the ceiling because they received explosive rounds to the face. I had extended enough muzzles to fire explosive micro missiles at each one. I may have been a dick, but I¡¯m not a bastard.

    ¡°Shit! Did that pillar just shoot rockets at those things?¡± Bomberman blinked and did a double take after passing a hand over his face to clear the exploded plant goop. ¡°Oh, It¡¯s you. Real Cute. You could have said something?¡±

    ¡°Sorry they snuck up on me when I was slowed down. Didn¡¯t want to get bored waiting for you.¡± I slowly lowered from touching the ceiling and went back to loaf with a face shape. [I kinda forgot comms were a thing. Forgive me. It''s been ten months.]

    [Ten? It¡¯s only been two?] Gravitas turned fully to look at me, she seemed intent to make sure I saw her face when she spoke. It was helpful as I could see the confusion written clearly there.

    [Uptime. I can experience five seconds for your every one or the reverse of it for downtime. I spent my time in therapy in uptime in order to maximize my gains. For you it¡¯s been two months, for me it¡¯s been ten.] I oozed over to the edge of the water. [Ready to get wet?]

    [You just¡­. Spent ten months in therapy?]

    [Yup. Should we wait? I can send down a full size drone scout? They obviously know we¡¯re here.] I turned several eyes to look at Gravitas who was somehow more confused and dumbfounded. [What?]

    [Ten months straight in therapy and you''re still this fucked up?]

    [Oh I¡¯m much better now. Nowhere near complete but I¡¯m in the right shape, mentally speaking, now.]

    [As interesting as this conversation is Love, we really should prepare for the fight to start.] Drag-On pointed to the water where there was some sort of eel with a shit ton of land models clinging to it.

 Character Descriptions

    In order of appearance:

    Bomberman: ¡°Henry Campbel¡± He/Him (AI: Shylla) (Bee for short)

    Bomberman is very average looking. Built like Ryan Reynolds, blond, tall and handsome. At the same time as being a goofy jackass. He tends to wear old fatigue pants and tee-shirts with trainers. But in combat he wears a heavy bomber jacket and a plate carrier. With his clean cut short hair style, similar to Dean Winchester, he tends to come across as very charismatic, until he opens his mouth.

    His newest constant companion is a mechanized dog that looks like a Tibetan Mastiff, upsized to a war horse. Operating with an ore grinder in its mouth, both as teeth and as a tongue. It has four mortar tubes mounted between its shoulders aimed forward and a mine layer located between the rear legs. Yes, its dookies are explosive. It has a saddle area just behind the forward facing mortars to carry its owner when he needs to move quickly, or is just feeling lazy. In its core it has a Class II Matter Reconfiguration device allowing it to eat material to produce its own munitions, or whatever its owner wants.

    Bomberman had no style to start, simply focusing on blowing up enemies as they came. He was unfortunate enough to interact with a less than capable Vanguard when named. As such he gave up on a trope or style until Vanguard Shoggoth suggested a path that his AI had not.

    Drag-On: ¡°William Fennel¡± (AI: Bubylees ¡°Bubbles¡±) They/Them

    Drag-On is proudly Okama, choosing not to display one gender they prefer to be themselves. Stradling every line they find. They are also a member of The Family. At Six foot Five and built like a side of beef they are quite proud of their physicality. Choosing to wear dresses that display their impressive shoulders and biceps, as well as no small amount of hair. Being covered in it like a bear. All shampooed, perfumed and coiffed beautifully. Those that catch their legs flashing under the long skirts find they are just as well groomed. Drag-On tends to prefer Ball Gowns and other Princess trope adjacent styles for clothing, including six inch heels. They use a ¡°wand¡± on occasion to dispense a variety of direct attacks, much like Morigana Luxanna the Witch of the West.

    Drag-On¡¯s partner is a mecha dragon in the western style. One hundred ten feet in length from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail, wings of equivalent length. It is covered in segmented metal armor scales and blades instead of spines. Its mouth contains a great white sharks¡¯ amount of teeth, each mono-edged, as well as a multi dispenser for a number of gasses or flame types. It contains a Class II Matter Reconfiguration machine to supply itself with whatever it, or its owner, needs. The saddle can shift armor over the rider allowing for a sleek leaning ride that protects Drag-On from outside interference during combat.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    The style, dare I say trope, that Drag-On was going for was a princess who saved themself and tamed the dragon by learning magic.

    Sufficient Gravitas: ¡°Alexandra Price¡± She/Her (Gee for short)

    Gravitas is what would be considered a ¡°Bombshell¡± during the second world war. Being in her early twenties, and the youngest member of the team, she is also the most conventionally beautiful. Well proportioned, long auburn hair, green eyed and beautiful. Until she became a Vanguard she did everything she could to hide it. For personal reasons related to her Father, Sullivan Price, she has spent most of her life hiding from the system. This makes her timid and less aggressive in some cases, but she was also raised to defend herself and others. Once she finally finds her stride she willfully sinks into the ¡°bombshell¡± trope and lets herself be beautiful for the first time in her life. Now she wears a miniskirt bridge bunny outfit with a jauntily tilted little cap, very military adjacent in style.

    Being a ¡°Ship Girl¡± Gravitas has a primary ¡°Destroyer Deck¡± pontoon attached to her at the hips by a bio-clamp and a segmented armature. With a secondary ¡°Flight Deck¡± pontoon on the other side. These ship segments seem to have been pulled off of a spaceship styled from a popular entertainment program about a Military Bridge Crew in a world war 2 inspired war in space.

    The Destroyer deck contains two primary turrets, each with two cannons. All four fire 25mm shells, thanks to Oggy the Shoggoth sharing their blueprints. It has additional Laser based turrets mirrored on the underside of the deck. The Deck itself is only six inches thick at its narrowest, spreading to a ten inch thickness for the rear cannons to reach past the forward set. All this while maintaining the "Deck off a space ship" feel. There are several smaller CWIS Lasers stationed at strategic points around the surface of this deck on both sides. It has an ammo feed connection to the Flight Deck.

    The Flight Deck is a single flat side with an oblong half oval underneath that extends the entire meter of length. Inside is contained additional ammunition for the Destroyer Deck as well as Mini Drones and a Class II Matter Reconfiguration Machine. The Mini Drones launch via ¡°elevators¡± to the upper deck. Each one is a quadcopter style, configured with two micro missiles and a quad turret of small size lasers.

    Recently additional mid size drones in the shape of support fleet vessels have been added. Two gunships with a single spinal mounted heavy laser. Two missile boats with eight vertical 20mm cruise missile launchers. The missile boats need refill on occasion but stock forty missiles each. They receive this refill from the Flight Deck. Finally there are two Fleet Tender sub drones that collect materials for munitions and other manufacturing as the user needs. The Fleet Tenders look more like landing craft, fully enclosed, than actual repair or transport ships.

 Ten course meal.

    The damn thing beached itself, disgorging the riders, then opened its armored flanks and started spewing more. A couple hundred beasts swarmed across the concrete at the others, the big fucker came right at me.

    [Y¡¯know, the day I graced your hole in the dirt was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.] I extended a hedgehog¡¯s worth of murder ribbons, each with purple edging that took us a month to work out and make lethal. To which I displayed on the Model Twelve Variant, rending it into small pieces in short order. [Yay! A hundred points for me!]

    The others were just finishing cleaning up the rest as I turned fully to them. Apparently everybody had upgraded a bit, or at least Drag-On in an enclosed space is a nightmare for organics. Poison mist didn¡¯t bother me, but the only reason the other two were fine was their shields.

    [That was a quote from somewhere, it feels like a quote.] Bombermans cyberdog strolled through the melting beasts and ankle deep fog without a fuck to give.

    [It was paraphrased.] I turned and slid into the water. [More are coming.]

    [Do you consider yourself a villain Oggy?] Drag-On seemed curious, but not offended or upset.

    [That would mean I had an ethos compatible with you. While I remember being human, who I was before. It¡¯s in pieces and as if I were someone else. That one was a villain. I just am. I will do what I must to accomplish my goals. Which right now is the destruction of this hive.] Comms had been getting fuzzier and fuzzier the further into the water I went. [Which has a stronger ECM than I¡¯m used to. Hurry if you wish to keep communicating.]

    [Why are you diving in?] Gravitas seemed panicked as she lunged forward.

    [Battle is about capturing the tempo. Letting them dictate the battles will leave us on the back foot. Better to drive it forward and hope the cavalry shows up in time rather than get pressed back and maybe have part of the city dropped on us!]

    They all quickly moved to catch up, entering the water in their own idiom. Drag-On gliding in, armor from the dragon moving up to cover them from the water. Gravitas simply floating in, changing mediums not really affecting her more than making her shield more active and visible. Bomberman, on the other hand, activated his shield and plunged in, sinking straight to the bottom. His dog mount unable to swim, but more than capable of trotting through the muck at the bottom.

    [Don¡¯t dodge the subject sweety. Avoiding the question with non answers isn¡¯t going to stop me.] Drag-On pulled up next to me on their ride, the pair of us taking up a lot of horizontal real estate.

    [No. I¡¯m not a villain. But I¡¯m not a hero either. Those are childish terms. I am what I need to be to accomplish my goals. Something you should focus on more. What are the goals of the individual, not how they see themselves. Nobody sees themselves as the bad guy. Not even bad guy¡¯s. Being serious this long hurts my brain, can we stop?]

    That got laughter from everyone, some of it strained.

    Something big moved under the silt near one of the huge pillars that held up the plate above us. All attention turned to it. Recon in force tended to cause reactions from the enemy, as I had previously already cued up the hive and then tripped its attack pattern when the others arrived. I expected something big. Hopefully we can hold out until the big guy gets here.

    [The fuck was that?] Bomberman was understandably the most nervous, being the only one on the silt floor.

    I reached down and hauled him and his robot dog up out of reach just in time to avoid a tentacle lashing out to grab at him. The Thirteen it was attached to surged out after him. That was the tripwire that got everybody moving.

    Drag-On surprised me by having their mount breath actual plasma instead of poison. The water around the beam flash boiling into steam as it reached out and touched the thirteen. The water wasn¡¯t the only thing that boiled. I had to wonder what level catalog they got that one from.

    Bomberman released torpedoes out of the mortar launchers on the dog¡¯s back between its shoulder blades. It was all he could do considering he was currently in my grip. I would let him go in due time, after I had finished mounting a small hover engine to the dog''s ass, even temporary work would do so long as he could control it.

    Sufficient Gravitas unleashed a horde of miniature space fighters, each one with its own set of maneuvering pylons each with an underslung pair of light lasers and micro missiles. Meanwhile her turrets were firing lasers that were less effective in the water, attenuating from and losing power just on boiling the water. She quickly switched to firing wrist sized torpedo/rocket things.

    We were all being attacked by a dozen plus Model Thirteens that had surged up out of the muck, along with a quartet of plesiosaur looking things that had to be a modified Twenty Three just based on its gargantuan head full of thorn teeth.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    The almost forgotten torpedoes missed every Thirteen in their way, finding spots in the middle of the grouping. When they went off I was a little surprised at how effective they were. They started to warp space around them, drawing in water and antithesis rapidly. The rest of us were even moved, sucked closer, as the density of the space increased. Gravity tech of some sort. It hit a point where it stopped for the briefest of moments then everything within twenty meters sucked in rapidly, catching some of the muck and even part of a pillar that stretched under the water. A forcefield keeping the rest out. Chunking out portions of everything that got caught in its event horizon.

    Those of us with decent sensors got to watch as a micro black hole evaporated for lack of fuel or sustainability before water rushed back in.

    [You¡¯re not the only one who knows how to commit war crimes Oggy!] Bomberman seemed quite smug as I drew him up to my ¡®face¡¯ region and eyeballed him with about two dozen eyeballs.

    [A competition is it?] I let him go suddenly, turning to the leftovers. [Let¡¯s see what I can do¡­.]

    <>Please tell me you¡¯re not contemplating war crimes again? I thought we discussed this?</>

    {Just a little one?}

    <>No. You need to fix that pillar before you risk more damage</>

    [Fiiiiinnneeee¡­ Naylle says I can¡¯t. I¡¯mma fix the pillar.] I shot off that direction as three more of me entered the water from the shore.

    The other three surged over to the dead and dying thirteens, snagging them up as resources. The one they had been interacting with shot over and started using muck and local materials to fix the pillar before it collapsed.

    [Wait, we¡¯re all out here for real and you¡¯re sending drones?] Bomberman sounded kinda pissed, I guess I couldn¡¯t blame him for that.

    [No. All of us are real. Each is a copy of the original. Number five is currently engaged above water with a small swarm of single digits. It was eating what you left behind earlier to create more of us. As the others are doing. Within the next ten minutes there should be at least a dozen lesser shoggoth available as ablative armor.]

    [Ablative armor? They¡¯re copies of you!] Gravitas managed to sound shocked and appalled even as she was struggling with one of the Twenty Threes. The leftover Thirteens too busy with Drag-On.

    [They are?] I had a ¡°Your point¡± tone to my voice over comms.

    [You¡¯d just¡­ let them die?] I may have overdone the inflection based on her Response.

    [They¡¯re replaceable and we¡¯re gestalt as long as we¡¯re within comms. It¡¯s not like any of me lose anything from it.] One of the me¡¯s on the bottom eating a thirteen surged up, grabbing another thirteen that was chasing after Bomberman, dragging the thing down into a grapple it was not equipped to win anymore. [Fuck. Last time I saw these fuckers they ate me alive. Revenge is sweet! It¡¯s also cold. Does that make it ice cream? I miss ice cream.]

    [And there¡¯s the crazy we love. I was getting scared Oggy was being too serious there.] Bomberman laughed as he directed his dog to back off a bit and get range to launch more torpedoes.

    [Ha. Ha. Bee, I like it when she sounds sane.] Gravitas was still kiting that same damn Twenty Three in circles. Nothing else seemed to be paying attention to her.

    [Oh come on hon, she¡¯s certainly more fun this way.] Bomberman launched at two of the Twenty Three¡¯s that were trying to overwhelm Drag-On.

    [MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!]

    [Please don¡¯t scream on comms Oggy dearest. It hurts my ears.] Drag-On didn¡¯t seem all that pressured even though They had the bulk of what was being dangerous attacking them.

    [Sorry Dee. Though these aquatic variations taste kind of like seaweed. I need soy sauce!] One of the Twenty Threes broke off from Drag-On and darted down for one of the me¡¯s eating, even as it performed mitosis and split off from another. [Nessie is cuter!!!]

    The new me lunged forward, stuffing itself down the Plesiosaur wanna be. The idiot ate it without hesitation. All the chewing did was disrupt some of the nanites, only crushing a few between teeth, allowing the whole thing to enter into its body. Where it began to form a murder ball and rotate to shred its way out. Rings around the central ball rotating, dragging cones with drill blades on them, each spinning independently, the whole thing rotating around on a third axis rapidly every few seconds. The beast wasn¡¯t dead, but it was wishing it was at that point.

    [Oh god that was¡­. Did you just burst out of its chest? Did that kill it?] Bomberman sounded more amused than disgusted. He probably enjoyed the show.

    [No. Gimme a sec.] The whole murder ball deactivated, turning much of its mass into murder ribbons which lashed out and wrapped around the things long neck. Half a second after getting a grip they all glowed purple and pulled out in every conceivable direction from the neck. The head went one way and the body was caught as a snack. [Now it¡¯s dead.]

    [Do it again please!] Drag-On sounded a little strained that time. They were hiding it well but I was coming to believe they were in trouble.

    [As you command!] I made sure to go over the top goofy with my voice as three of my newly budded selves attacked two of the other Twenty Three¡¯s. One on Drag on and the other Gravitas had fairly well killed already.

    One on the mostly dead one, it didn¡¯t even have to try. Doing a repeat of the head removal trick. The other two had to go a little harder. Remembering the way I took out the twenty two variant, I grabbed it around the core and kept its front fins from maneuvering. From there they lashed up with murder ribbons and guillotined its head before squeezing the core down a bit and starting to eat it.

    [Damn, you really got good.] Bomberman was a little stunned. Watching the ones that had been eating, finished eating what was there and lunged up at the thirteens that were left.

    [When given time to consume enough mass I can produce more of myself. Given the quality of mass I can produce tier two capable variations.] It took seconds to finish them off, leaving me with more mass to consume. [You let me Cook and I can make a ten course meal.]

 Technically, not a war crime if it was never declared.

    [Did you just¡­. Kill all of those Anti by yourself. Like it was easy?] I couldn¡¯t tell if Gravitas was incredulous or upset. Humans are hard.

    [Uhhh¡­ no? Bomberman killed most of the Thirteens?] I owned my confusion. [You guy¡¯s softened them up. I didn¡¯t do much.]

    [Actually I think she was talking about how you just stomped all but one of the Twenty Threes. Single handedly. Well. several of you did it, but¡­ you know what I mean!] Bomberman definitely had amusement in his tone, but his body language indicated exasperation?

    [Oh. I¡¯ve been doing combat sims between psych appointments. Can¡¯t sit with the AI psychologist all day every day. I¡¯d go mad. So we worked out a few counters for stuff like this. I still can¡¯t do much against some of the greater stuff, but I¡¯m decent up to the mid twenties.]

    [Children, the defenders are dealt with. We should retreat before it decides to get more serious.] Drag-On turned and started back for the shore, I joined him without question, dragging my meal with me.

    After a few moments the other two joined us as we retreated onto shore. Two other me¡¯s were there cleaning up the spatter on the concrete. I directed all of me to finish off all the corpses and goop we could while retreating further down river. With the eleven I had made at this point it wasn¡¯t hard. I managed three more for a solid fourteen. We finally stopped half a kilometer away from the lake.

    ¡°So. That was an extreme reaction. Whatevers down there knows we know it¡¯s there. How will it react?¡± Bomberman poked at the added bubble attached to the butt of his Dog. ¡°Also, did you have to make it so dumb looking?¡±

    ¡°Make your own¡± Gravitas snorted in return before turning to Drag-On ¡°How long until Depth Charge arrives? I fully expect that Oggy can manage without us on most of the small stuff. But if it had that kind of tripwire, what kind of actual defenses does it have?¡±

    ¡°Less than an hour? I sent an update and he responded with a message that he would expedite. He¡¯s¡­ not a man of many words.¡± Drag-On sighed and shrugged. ¡°I can¡¯t say for sure, so we should be ready here in case they decide to come nosing around.¡±

    ¡°I have a class one area denial catalog, it¡¯s mostly fortifications.¡± I raised a tentacle to volunteer.

    ¡°I have area denial with exotic bombs?¡±

    ¡°We all know you use exotic explosives, Bomberman.¡± Gravitas rolled her eyes and made an inviting gesture with her hand. ¡°But we can¡¯t blow this place up without risking it coming down on our heads.¡±

    ¡°I said exotic bombs. Not explosives Gravitas.¡± He shook his head, the pair acted like they were an old married couple. ¡°I can use stuff that doesn¡¯t explode. In fact most of my stuff doesn''t explode.¡±

    ¡°Thermite?¡± I asked hopefully. ¡°War crimes? Can we has War Crimes?¡±

    ¡°Yes we can have war crimes. Just not up here.¡± Drag-On patted one of my forms lovingly. ¡°The plate uses supports in the lake, we don¡¯t want to bring them down on us. But between them it¡¯s fine.¡±

    All of my bodies made limbs to wave in the air and all my forms let out a quiet, ¡°yay!¡±

    ¡°Surprised you didn¡¯t go all out on that one.¡± Bomberman chuckled and patted one of my forms on the side.

    ¡°Eh. Noise could cause problems. Otherwise I would probably blow your ears out.¡± All my bodies extruded faces which all grinned broadly. ¡°Imagine a fog horn for a lighthouse, only louder and in my voice. I¡¯m keeping my voice down as it is.¡±

    ¡°Which we appreciate darling. I love the nuance you¡¯ve added. Very creepy.¡± Drag-On leaned against the nearest me and stroked the side, obviously showing approval. They seemed to get the idea that I¡¯m kind of, deficient, when it comes to interactions with people right now.

    ¡°I do appreciate everyone''s attempt to be obvious with their emotional responses. I was not doing well before, but I am better.¡±Prime me shifted to a more central position, dispersing the others to begin setting up defensive formations, then camouflage themselves among the pillars. ¡°But right now is not the time to chat is it? As much as it pains me to be serious, I left sensors behind and there are currently a number of double digits on their way. Bomberman, please add some regenerating mines of at least class two.¡±

    ¡°On it. Nice work with the defensive formations.¡± He jumped over and started work, spiking mine points down in an offset grid between pillars.

    ¡°Nothing that explodes!¡± Gravitas shifted to the side to be behind one of the fortifications.

    ¡°Yes mother!¡± Bomberman flipped her off as he continued placing mine spikes.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    ¡°Get a room you two.¡± I chuckled darkly as Prime me settled down behind another of the fortifications, extruding two dozen plasma cannon muzzles. ¡°Thirty seconds.¡±

    I opened a private channel to Gravitas. {Hey, Alex. You know you can grab more units right? A Naval unit like a battleship would have a fleet with it. Maybe a couple gunships, a missile boat or two. Separate drones that can do submissions, or simply provide extra weapons?}

    She looked over at me thoughtfully for a moment. {Good point, but where did this come from?}

    {You¡­ ah¡­ weren¡¯t doing so well against the twenty three. Lacking firepower.} I took a moment to sort out my thoughts and try and formulate a way to say what I wanted without being insulting. Keeping half my mind on the incoming wave, which was in sight, so I opened fire. {You need to diversify to keep up. Bomberman had the same problem when we first met. He was stuck on the initial concept and¡­ well when it was pointed out that mortars and missiles are technically bombs too he opened up a whole new world of hurt.}

    She was concentrating too much on dealing with the wave to respond. Which was fair since they were pushing through with an ablative armor of single digits like Threes and Fours, arrayed in front of a whole lot of Teens. Not that it mattered as Drag-On had their dragon breath a green mist into the midst of the enemy, causing way more than I expected to start to melt. Literally melt, like acid, but my own sensors were telling me it was some esoteric defoliant.

    {You know the same idea applies to you right? Your micro scouts are handy, but rather fragile. They also don¡¯t last long. After you left to come down here they had maybe twenty minutes before their batteries died out. Kinda over committing to the plague aspect maybe?} She looked over at me with a smug smile even as two new sub drones appeared. Each about half the size of her pontoons, both covered in missile hatches fit for munitions twice the size of the rockets on her fighters.

    <>She¡¯s got a point. Perhaps adding a larger drone size might be a good place to start?</>

    {Ravens¡­. A Plague of ravens.} That comment from me got a hearty chortle from Gravitas, at this point we weren¡¯t really doing much as the antithesis melted away. Switching to a private channel with my AI. {Naylle, is good, yes?}

    <>An intriguing Idea. Ravens would work or perhaps a Murder of Crows? I¡¯ve come up with designs for both?</>

    {Are they independently useful? Does each have a purpose?}

    <>Yes. They can? Perhaps one for observation, the other as directable explosive suicide drones?</>

    {Plague for spy, Murder for murder! Blood for the blood god! Skulls for his throne!} If I breathed, I''d be hyperventilating. I took a moment to get myself back under control before slowing back down to normal people''s time dilation. Switching back to Gravitas sub channel even as I directed my others to gather what they could of material from the dead. {Yes. That is good. I can put more sensors on something the size of a Raven. Plus I can use Crows as suicide bombers. Good insight. Thank you for reminding me that I am in need of growth too.}

    {Are you okay? You sound¡­ strained?}

    {Almost lost it for a moment there. I¡¯m fine.} forming a hand I waved at her, trying to be placating. {I am still kinda insane. It got much worse when I could pause and sit for a while, then better over time. I still have incidents ¡®tho. No big deal. Naylle rides herd on this particular bag of cats.}

    I switched back to general comms. [So micro drones are nice and all, but I¡¯m going to make some bird type scouts and send them in to gather more information.] As I spoke, the me¡¯s eating started producing Ravens and Crows by the dozen.

    [You know Oggy, you¡¯ve been fighting a lot smarter since you came back.] Bomberman kept his voice carefully neutral, almost thoughtful.

    [Eh? Well, I guess? My Therapist says that my berserk rages were the first signs of my incipient insanity. I spent a little time in a padded room so I can¡¯t help but agree. That said, there are a rather lot of me. The one you¡¯re speaking to is just the one assigned to interaction. It''s why I can have a conversation, be completely nubbins but still do things calmly and efficiently all at the same time. I¡¯m not exactly plural since we all sync up constantly, having one memory but different jobs. Also, there¡¯s another wave coming. Drag-On would you be a dear and do that acid breath stuff again?]

    [Of course sweety.] They shifted to be ready when the wave arrived. My other selves went back to pillars to enter stealth and hide while defending the pillars. [Have you got your scout network out far?]

    [Micro drones are all over, I just finished covering everything over the water above the lake before we got attacked. Ravens are spreading out for better sensor coverage. As far as I can tell we have the hives undivided attention. I¡¯ll let you know if that changes.] A sub mind split off a mass of myself and shifted into my street form. She then skipped over between cover and made her way to Gravitas. [Aaaannnndddd there goes my self monitoring the drones.]

    ¡°I got bored,¡± Me 2 said absently. ¡°You can¡¯t blame me for wanting to do something more engaging can we?¡±

    Weapon emplacement me just focused all of my optics on the new incoming horde instead of pandering to one of my split personalities'' childish antics. Regardless of the fact that it was, in fact, me doing it the whole time. At least one of us had to be an adult in this situation. [There are aquatic models coming up this time. Do you have any venom that will work in water Drag-On?]

    [I¡­ do. I even have one that will break down after a while so as to be non toxic!] They raised a finger to punctuate their eagerness before going to work at something built into the riding spot on the dragon''s neck.

    [Uhhh¡­ shit. Something fucking huge is stirring the muck. I can¡¯t see it because water and silt everywhere.] All of me visible had stiffened and turned optics of varying degrees down in the direction of the lake. [I think the hive is fully awake now.]

    [That is not good.] Bomberman was interrupted from adding to that as the second wave started charging from where it had beached itself. Offloading from one of those fucked up double decker bus looking bastards I fought before coming down the first time.

    I wasn¡¯t the only one who focused fire on that thing, everyone else leaving the incoming horde for Drag-On¡¯s melty breath. Even the human form me, shifted down to a six armed fucked up teddy bear looking form, blue with antennae and all, extruded four Burninators and added to the fire.

    It was here my dumb brain had a genius idea. Provided, that is, you were insane like me.