Friday, September 18th, 2048, early afternoon

I had just delivered and installed the first of the two fabricators for SHOCKS, and now I met with Arina to enjoy a bit of sun and fresh air. Just a walk through the nearby park, a dinner date would be terribly awkward if one of the persons could not eat or drink at all.

Technically the same applied to breathing, but that was not something I could postpone. So I just kept breathing and we talked about our daily life. Arina had stories about her old teammates and her experience with therapy to tell, while I gave her an update on my business with SHOCKS and renovating Styx base. And the latest attempt of the Macks to retake the base of course.

But there were also more serious things on my mind. So I asked “Say, what position does SHOCKS officially have on your status? Do they still consider you a Magical Girl or something else?”

“I’m sort of the girl nobody knows what to do with. The leadership at SHOCKS is supportive enough, but so far nobody really knows where to put me.”

“Sorry to hear that, but what would you like your life to be?”

Arina sighed and replied ”I don’t really have a plan. Not yet. Before the Macks kidnapped me, my life was filled with being a Magical Girl, school and teenage drama. Then the horrible time as a slave of the Macks, which I’d rather forget. And now I have to find out where I belong again.“

After a few seconds she added “I probably can’t be a Magical Girl again. This body you gave me is very fit, but cannot keep up with MG’s beyond the lower tens, level wise.”

This time, it was me who gave her a hug. Together, we drifted towards the next park bench and started exchanging kisses again. Gentle ones this time, taking it slow. Not for the first time, I admired the silky smooth texture of Arina’s synthetic skin. It was supposed to be silicone rubber, but did not have a rubbery feel at all.

I said “If nothing else, I can give you a place to stay in case SHOCKS does not work out. When in Victoria, I live in a small, repurposed shelter in Goldmont. I have a barely used room we can clear out for you.”

“That’s sweet of you. I don’t want to give up my friends at SHOCKS, but if it all goes wrong it is good to have a place to go.”

We slowly walked back towards SHOCKS, but parted at the entrance. Arina wanted to go on a shopping trip with her old team, and I had another fabricator to build and deliver.

Monday, September 21st, 2048, late afternoon

It had been a busy weekend, but now I was at SHOCKS again, fastening the last screws on the second fabricator I had delivered to SHOCKS. Or more exactly, a combo of recycler, material storage and printer.

I figured I might have to give out licenses for the Shiv instead of insisting on making all the weapons myself. That might hurt my point income because of the extra “degree of separation”, as Elya called it. The more indirectly I caused the enemy to die, the smaller my rewards in terms of points became.

But then again, if everything went well I might be able to kill large numbers of Macks all by myself a few weeks from now. Then the points from HANAF killing Macks with my weapons would become less important.

Next to me, B.S.O.D’s secretary Tanya already waited impatiently for me to finish my work.

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Just in time, Mark of the SHOCKS engineering team arrived to check if the fabricator worked properly. After a few tests, he pronounced it good and Tanya could give me the receipt for a complete installation.

I used the rest of the daylight to fly over to Styx Base, so I could continue with upgrading the place. Also, I already had a guilty conscience because Wendy still did not have her new body. Of course, she would not notice while being switched off.

Before turning in for the day, I started two print jobs in parallel: One on Herbie’s fabricator, parts for Wendy’s new body. On the bigger Mack fabber at the other end of the base, parts for an extra fabricator of the type I had just installed at SHOCKS. My base needed more production capability as much as SHOCKS did.

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2048

I had just assembled the new body for Wendy and gave it a last check before installing the Mack-built cyberbrain that housed Wendy’s consciousness. Like Arina’s new body, it was mostly designed after her real life body, but I sneaked a few prettifications in. The result was blonde, curvy, tanned and a little thinner in the waist than the original. At 170cm, Wendy’s new body was a little shorter than mine.

Eventually, it was time to switch Wendy on. Slightly anxious about how she would take being stuffed into a new body again after she had absolutely hated the Mack model, I started the boot process.

When she came to, Wendy did not immediately stand up but checked out her new body first. When she was satisfied that she was no longer in the Mack body, she let out a huge sigh of relief. I hid a sigh of relief of my own, as I had been unsure about Wendy’s reaction myself.

She tried out her new body in a rather businesslike manner, not as exuberant as Arina. But she still seemed deeply pleased about the change. Wendy gave me a sisterly hug and said ”Thank you so much! And now, can we get revenge on those fucking Macks together?”

I was impressed how fast she went from victim to aggressor, even if she did not have the means yet, But the desire to kill the Macks was palpable.

“I sure want to take them down! Although it is less personal for me. I’m from a different Earth and came here only a year ago.”

She gave me strange look full of longing and hate. I could guess what the hate was about, but the longing?

Like to Arina, I offered Wendy a tour of the base and she eagerly accepted. Halfway to the base entrance, we came across a Type 9 Mack that was carrying some rock to the recycler. I had found out that the local rocks contained a few percent of titanium by weight, and while recycling those was not very efficient, it allowed me to slowly build up a stack of material for new Battlecats.

When she saw the Nine, Wendy lost it. She grabbed a metal part that conveniently leaned at a nearby wall, ran up to the Nine and started to bash it with her newfound robotic strength. Once she had shattered its eye, she turned on me and hissed “Why do you have that mechanical vermin in your base?”

I had never seen such deep, primeval hate before. Holding up my hands I said “Hey, don’t worry about those. I control them, and they are convenient little servitors.”

I spent the next five minutes explaining how I had taken over Base Styx and hijacked quite a few Macks over the last months. To calm her down in advance, I continued “At the entrance, you will see a bunch of Type Four Macks, those are the metal squids. They act as guards against hostile Macks. The cat-like ones are a slightly modified version of a Mack type. I built them myself, partly reusing original Macks.”

We kept that part of the tour very brief, as I could see Wendy could barely control her rage at the sight of the Macks. A bit later we sat in my still barely furnished house and exchanged life stories. I told her about my life as a financially struggling student until I was whisked away by a freak collision of two alien invasions. Wendy told me how she successfully started her first business, only to be caught in an emergence and abducted by cruel, merciless robots. Her story ended in tearless sobs like I had seen from Arin before.

But every once in a while I had seen Wendy eyeing the Shiv. So I said “I can make one of those for you, and I even have a little aimbot program for your metaphorical augs to offer.”

I could see her eyes lighting up. So I added “Right away if you want, and you can have this gun. I will just print a new one for myself.”

Five minutes later, we were standing on the helipad and Wendy blew apart river pebbles with the Shiv. Even the Macks behind us were forgotten for the moment.