“Teddy! Teddy! Teddy! Teddy! Teddy!” the hyperactive seven-year-old blur yelled as it rocketed down the hallway.

  “Issi!” I held out my arms to catch the seven-year-old as she unched herself at me.

  “You weren’t here when school was out,” the girl pouted. “I was going to tell you what I learned in school today.”

  Sharron chuckled aed Isabelle’s head before slipping past us and heading towards the kit.

  “You tell me now,” I told the girl seriously, before carryio the living room and depositing her in the big chair at the end. The ‘expining’ chair, as Isabelle called it.

  “Today I learned about the different types of pnts and what kind of foods I grow iure. Yrowing a very limited sele up in hy-dro-pond-ics,” the girl told me sternly eveumbling through the st word.

  “I was just trying to produough to feed everyo first, but I guess we could afford to branch out into new vegetables,” I said, nodding.

  Satisfied, Issi leaned back a little and started rog bad forth. “After that, I joihe big css, and Lulu and I learned maths. She’s very good at it and helped me finish the entire sheet! I even got most of it right,” she announced proudly.

  “Well done,” I said, giving her a quick pat on the head. “You’ve been talking about Lulu a lot tely, do you like her?”

  “Yup! She was very nervous when she came to css the first time, so I had to protect her from the scary parts, but after she got used to things, I learned she’s smart and funny. She’s great to hang out with!” Issi decred.

  “I’m gd, kiddo,” I said quietly. Lulu’s full name was Lucille, and she was Angeline’s daughter. Ongeline found out about the personalized schoram, she bothered me to allow her daughter to attend. I’d offered her a private bot, but she kept insisting that ‘socialization’ was important and ignored me when I reminded her that all the kids that would be learning with her were from the uy.

  She persisted, and once I expahe school, I finally relented a her give it a try. To my surprise, she and Issi grew quite attached to one another.

  “Did anything else happen today?” I asked.

  Issi leaned back, tented her fingers, and narrowed her eyes as she thought for a moment, then shot forward excitedly. “It aghetti for lunch!” she decred, before boung down from the chair.

  “I have to do homework and chey pnts. I’ll tell you about it ter!” she yelled as she took off back down the hallway.

  I shook my head and headed to the kit, where Sharron was eating a carrot. I searched through all the ets for a minute before stepping back, fused.

  “Where are my Nutriblocks?” I asked.

  “Jane finally got tired of watg you eat them instead of something nutritional and threw them out,” Sharron said. “I’m holy surprised they survived as long as they did.”

  “But they’re my favorite snack,” I pouted.

  Sharron scowled. “They literally had a ive nutritional value,” she said. “I checked into it. They were literally made of all the waste products from creating real food.”

  “I survived for years on them, and I’m fine,” I insisted.

  “You literally had yrowth stunted by ck of nutrition,” Sharron replied in a deadpan tone.

  “Minor detail. Nyx, please get me…” I started.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Jane’s voice cut through the residence.

  I turned slowly towards the garage, where I found Jaanding in the door, staring at me angrily. “You promised that you’d eat healthier and act as a good role model for the kids. Eating that crap viotes both those promises,” Jane reminded me.

  “But Protectrade ones WOULD be good for me, right, Nyx?” I asked.

  “I think if you want to dig yourself a hole, you do it yourself. I’m not going to get involved,” Nyx decred, using the security bear in the living room.

  “Traitor!” I decred.

  Jane just stepped past me, took a carrot out of the fridge, and shoved it into my hands. “Eat this, simir texture to your bars, far superior fvor,” she said before stepping away.

  I took a quick bite of the carrot, instantly missing the bnd fvor I was familiar with, before following Jao the dining room. “Why are you home so early anyways? I thought you were doing some career seling today.

  “That was the pn, and I did talk to a few,” Jaold me, “but the st one came to me in tears, saying he wouldn’t be able to go to school for much longer.”

  Sharron came out of the kit and stood o me, carrot still in hand. “Did he give you a reason?” she asked.

  “From what I made out between the sobbing, his family had to move out because they couldn’t afford to stay in the distriymore,” Jane expined. “He ran off before I could find out more.”

  I snorted. “Couldn’t afford to stay here? What the hell does that even mean? Now that the gangs are everyone in the area, most people should essentially be livi free. Which is good, because there are still a lot of people still w as scrap collectors.”

  “He seemed pretty certain,” Jane mumbled unhappily.

  I scratched my . “In that case, maybe I’ll go out and check out the situation,” I said. “Although most of the gangs have given up on the prote racket, there might be a few idiots running around thinking they extort whoever they want,” I said. “Nyx, you tell me where…” I g Jane.

  “Marcus Teller,” Jane said.

  “Marcus Teller is living?” I asked.

  The bear from the living room wandered over and joined our versation. “He lives in the plex three bloorth of here,” Nyx reported. “The bears haven’t reported any fights or vandalism in the area tely, but…” My AI paused for a moment.

  “But…” I prompted.

  “A hovercar started stopping by that and several other plexes over the st few days. It’s registered to Tri-Active Incorporated,” Nyx finished.

  I just stared at the bear for a minute “What the f…rick is a corp doing down here?” I asked, just barely stopping myself from swearing in front of Jane.

  “They’ve spent the st couple of weeks trag down and buying up the rights to those buildings,” Nyx reported.

  I felt my eyebrows raise. “Really? Have they?” I said incredulously. “Maybe I should go have a talk with these fine people about their iions.”

  Jane sighed. “Please don’t do anything stupid,” she said.

  “You know me,” I replied cheerfully.

  “That’s why I’m worried,” Jane grumbled.

  “Nyx, where is this car right now? Is it still in the uy?” I asked.

  “They aren’t, but acc to the car's autopilot, they’re heading to a building approximately two blocks to the north of here,” my AI reported.

  “Thanks!” I replied before pg my carrot oable and heading towards the door. “I’ll call the guys together, and we’ll sort this out. Want to e, Squiddy?” I asked over my shoulder.

  “I’m good,” Sharron said with a wry smile, “have fun!”

  “You know if!” I shouted back as I slipped out the door. As soon as I was ba the street, I sent a quick request to my squad to assemble.

  Bob was just wandering around the streets, saying hello to people. Despite being, hands down, the most frightening thing in my arsenal, most people that hadn’t seen him fight thought he was just a friendly fellow. He liked to meander around, talking to people, and had bee a good mascot and spokesbear.

  Bandit had beenrunning around, anizing security. I’d offered to let him and Spooky s the le patrol job, but Spooky really ehe challenge, and Bandit did not. Instead, he liked to keep an eye on the local area, making sure everything was calm. More than one fanger had been intercepted by a squad of rabbits directed their way by Bandit.

  The others spent most of their time either esc the family or in the garage. The Css II bots could handle some fairly plex ands, but they were still a long way from the self-directed, colorful personalities that the Css III ones had. I really o get my hands on enough points to perform the upgrade on the rest of them.

  As the squad gathered around me, I stretched out, loosened up my shoulders, and put on my most disarming smile. I was ready to have a nice, calm discussion.

  I’m SURE whoever this corp was wouldn’t regret messing around in my neighbourhood by the end of the day.