Once more, we in HR cannot stress this enough. Do Not Fuck With Samurai
-The Memo, 2057
I then spent the next hour or so being held hostage by Cari and her friends, talking about the latest trends, ideals and opinions, some idle gossip about the other Sam kids they know, and about the “young masters” in attendance. I also see a few others moving in reaction to an alert they receive, bringing a smile to my face. I make sure to record their paniced reactions for later.
“Goddess, their eyes are so annoying,” Alice says into her drink, barely audible to myself.
“While true, Alice dear, you cannot go around and punch them this time. This is a party as much as it is a wake,” Yerlett says, resting a hand on Alice's shoulder.
Opal rolls her eyes, “And yet, here comes the first brave bastard. Victor, you're up.” She waves her glass in a direction behind me.
I saw him coming, of course. One of the perks of keeping a Scout swarm attached to me at all times. Wavy platinum blond hair, dark blue suit that screamed status, and an expression that said he was used to getting what he wanted.
I speed up my perception, deciding to look into this guy. Billy Morgan- his fucking name is Billy, I don't need to do any more research. I return to normal time as he is about to say something.
“Hey, Billy Bob Jr.” I say without turning, “Either keep walking in a different direction, or I deperson you.”
A few things happen at once. Billy's brain short circuits and he just stops, trying to process what I have said. Alice and Yerlette's eyes grow in surprise, with a smile forming on the former's. Opal snorts while taking a drink and begins coughing, while Cari outwardly maintains her appearance of calm and politeness, but I feel her suppressing laughter as she still has not let me go the entire time.
As Yerlette goes to rub Opal's back, Billy seems to have processed what I said. Now, there are two things he could do, he could either-
“And who the hell do you think you are, talking to me that way!” He yells at me.
Recording in full dive spectrum.
I go to stand, Cari finally letting me go. “I'm a Samurai, Billy.” I say, standing at my full height, which is, unfortunately, still shorter than him. Dammit, I have never bemoaned my lack of height before, but it was hard to be intimidating when you were shorter than the opposition. “A Samurai who is here to fulfill a promise to someone I considered a comrade.”
I see his face pale slightly, but he doesn't back down. “I don't care who your daddy is, I don't care what company you run, today is not the day to try your luck.”
I see his face contort as I answer his lines before he says them. I didn't know a human face could be that shade of red.
“I will give you one opportunity to ba-” he pulls a gun and shoots me in my mask. THE FUCKWIT SHOT ME?
I send some Assault nanites to eat his gun, then his arm as I reach up and feel the spot where his bullet stopped. It was still there, compressed, a bit hot. As he falls to the ground and screams, I see movement around me, but I am focused on him as the world slows.
While I can do that, he is the eldest son of BeanTech's CEO, and doing so might cause complications for tomorrow's raid.
Well, considering you have already destroyed his arm and caused a massive scene, there are a few actions that can be done now. The first is, of course, acting on your threat to deperson him, taking the company, and possibly accelerating the time-line of the raid. Secondly, you buy him a new arm after apologizing and dealing with that fallout. Finally, you say nothing, do nothing, and either sit back down or leave.
Any time, Victor.
Time resumes as his screams fill the hall and I see a few people rushing over this way. Scanning them and actually reading their info, they are the CEO of BeanTech, his wife, and two guards.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I look down at Billy, the fury still there, but simmered to a cold chill. “Congratulations, Billy Bob Jr. You and your family are no longer people.” I say loud enough for others to hear.
The guards move to address the stump, which is not bleeding, cause the swarms cauterize.
The father, Joel Morgan, stares at me with hatred in his eyes, “You stupid fucking idiot! Do you have any idea-”
I play a loud high pitch sound out of my mask directed at him, shutting him up. “Your kid shot me, douche. Be grateful he's still alive.” I growl. “And because he didn't let me finish giving him a way out while saving face, all of your assets are mine. I don't know what that all entails, but I know for a fact my AI has the ability to make it happen. Better call for a ride from a friend, cause the car you came in isn't taking you back.”
At this point, I sit down and allow my awareness to spread to the rest of the room. I see Heracles in the far corner doing his best to hide his pride while looking stern, Cassandra looks mortified while Bo laughs her ass off, and Doma isn't looking in this direction, but I see she's subvocalising with someone, probably pushing the raid up.
And then there is my table. Yerlette is slightly pale, but her face has returned to a neutral smile. Opal is still recovering from the choking but has a smile on her face and something I can't place in her eyes. Alice looks a bit scared, but is looking at Joel and his family, then back at me. The fear quickly fading to awe.
Finally, Cari simply slips back around my arm as if nothing just happened, taking a drink.
I see Joel is being restrained by his wife, she is saying to leave it, that they will deal with me later, while the guards have administered a sedative to Billy and are carrying him out.
“You will re-” Joel begins, but I cut him off with another sonic screech, taking a drink myself.
As the gala returns to a somewhat normal state, Opal turns to me, “Holy shit, Victor, and here I thought Alice had no chill. Did you seriously deperson him and his family?”
“If I make a promise, I keep it.” Is all I say.
Yerlette opens her fan and covers her face, while Alice looks at me strangely. She then deflates and looks to Cari. “Lucky bitch, getting first dibs.” she mutters. What did that mean?
“Oh, shit. Heads up, dad's on his way,” Opal says, draining her drink.
I only see one person on their way to this table, and seeing who it is scares me a bit, namely because the look on his face makes me think he will remove my spine soon. Once he arrives, he places his massive hand on my shoulder.
“Heya, Victor my friend,” Heracles says, his voice sounding strained, “Thank you for keeping my daughter and her friends company for a bit, but would you mind if I talked to you in private for a bit?”
[GoldenBod: You’re not in trouble, but I need you to roll with this for now] a message from him pops up on my augs.
I nod, then turn to Cari to extricate myself, but then pause as I see her staring daggers at Heracles with not the icy blue eyes I have gotten used to seeing, but reptilian icy blue eyes that look like flowing ice.
I then see her eyes shift back to normal(?), and she lets me go, patting my back. “Come back in one piece, Victor. You still have a promise to keep with me.”
I let Heracles drag me out to a balcony and sit me down. I also notice the balcony is fully cut off from the surrounding space. He lets out a long breath, rubbing the back of his head as two large pint sized glass beer bottles appear on the table.
He grabs them and pops their tops against each other, then hands me one, “Fucking hell, Vic, that was cathartic as hell.” he says.
I take the bottle and adjust my Mixer to off, taking a sip. Then a deep drink as the flavor of this spirit was addictingly deep.
Once we finish the bottles, two more appear, already opened, “So,” He starts, “First things first. You will be fine. You were clearly in the right, the fucker shot you in the face. Secondly, I am asking just in case you didn't know, but do you know who they were?”
I take another sip, “I didn't when I took his arm off. Synaptic alerted me when I moved to deperson him and his family. Good news, maybe, I now own BeanTech. I can give it to The Family at any time.”
I see his face shift amusingly from pride to frustration and back a few times. I take a few pics of that and mark them to be sent to Opal. She would get a kick out of them.
He releases a deep breath, “Hold onto it for now, we can discuss everything related to that later. Third thing that I assume you have guessed, but we are going ahead with the raid in two hours. The purifiers were installed ahead of schedule, and while some were advocating to wait and attack after the alliance makes a declaration of a threat, because they absolutely will soon, but I argued that doing so would just cause more panic than needed. Might as well solve the issue first, then announce the reasons why after the fact.”
I nod at that. I could see both reasons, and if I wanted to be petty, I would go for the first. Unfortunately, my petty was spent on Billy’s arm.
We sit there and drink a bit more, looking out at the city lights. Heracles coughs into his hand “So. Cari, huh?” he asked.
I look at him, tilting my head a bit, “What about her? She's a bit clingy, but considering the cuntwaffle, I understand why.”
He stares at me. He squints his eyes at me. I see him subvocalise, then I see his augs light up a bit. He nods. “Sure. That works.” he mutters, then he drained his drink then stands up. “Let's head back inside. The party’s dying down because of the… let's just go.” Heracles walks back inside, and I feel the balcony reconnect with the world.
I shrug and make my way inside, and I see Cari is waiting for me right next to the door. She proceeds to wrap herself around my left arm again, this time leaning down to my ear.
“You are very dense. So much so that it is almost annoying. Thankfully, I hate the cliches.” she says while pulling my mask off, “I am flirting with you, Victor.”
I feel my face flush heavily, and her smile brightens. “Are my motives pure? Not entirely. But the good news is I don't have to manipulate you, because I find you very pleasant to be around, and most importantly, safe to be around.”
While I am hearing her words and processing them, that is only due to my hive mind augs, allowing me to split my thinking. Internally, I am panicking.
As fascinating as it is seeing you panic internally, please focus externally for now. Panic can happen at home.
Right. Home. As I turn my focus back to her, I see her eyes look into mine and lose myself in them a bit.
I relax a bit, feeling her against me, knowing that for a beauty like her, she could choose anyone, and she is attached to-
“Before you zone out completely, I must make a request of you. The promise you made, to accompany me for the evening, and I need to extend that to you taking me back to your place tonight.”
I fell back into panic.