It was well over by the time we had made our way back to the shed, it looks like the other mercs had given up as quickly as the leader had. I would have assumed they were ready to hold off a few cops, but they had nothing that could have even threatened the LAVs. The area around the shed and U-Haul was crawling with soldiers, thanks to several green painted civilian vehicles that had arrived before us. As we halted, I could see a couple of people I assumed were medics tending to the injured mercs while Mary was watching as the hostages were being helped out of the back of the truck.
We had driven at a relatively sedate pace since I was still having to hang the rifle out the side of the car, the door still propped open by my foot. it was simply too large and awkward to stow on the move, although I had cleared the breach and taken the mag out. When we stopped Molly and I took a couple of minutes to pack away both the C8 and my C15, after that we walked up to Mary together.
“Good shot.” Mary commented indicating the truck with her head while examining the remains of one of the rifles I had shot in her hands, the hostages having been unloaded were currently looking more than a little shaken. “I take it from your choice of secondary targets the victims were being threatened?” She asked wryly.
“Yeah.” I confirmed sheepishly. “I know I was only supposed to take the one shot but…”
“It’s fine, we can discuss it more later if you are concerned about it.” She said while handing off the rifle remains to a soldier nearby, who glanced between it and us for a moment before leaving towards one of the trucks with it. “Ivy, Ed, and part of the engineering team are on the way over, they will be here in the next ten to fifteen minutes to help with the… hostages and the captured portal. The RCMP will be picking up our prisoners shortly, I am not sure what will happen to them after that yet, but I would hope we get some intel out of them.”
“We have some already.” Molly said. “Fuckers were going to go through a different type of portal, at least according to Sam. She saw some stuff through it, one sec let me look up that license plate design.”
“Was that the blue glow? We saw something as we approached but it was gone by the time we arrived.” Mary asked. “What made it different?”
“It didn’t look right for a dimensional portal to me it was different to what I had seen in the portal device when I helped Roger, and it was connecting to somewhere in the states we think.” I took over while Molly was distracted by her phone. “I could be wrong though.”
“Found it! Wyoming.” Molly said triumphantly. “Really? Fucking Wyoming? I guess that fits with the terrain we could see.” She put her phone away. “Mary, I think Mcclure was lying or wrong about this being a hand over though, I think they were all just going to enter the portal and leave.”
“I think the leader, that first guy who surrendered next to the truck, will know more than the others as he was having a conversation like he knew whoever was on the other side of the portal.” I added.
“Useful to know, I would like you two to bring all this up again in the debrief tonight.” Mary said with a nod before she glanced back at the activity around us. “I expect journalists will be crawling over us soon, we weren’t exactly subtle coming out here and we have a few hours of daylight left.”
She wasn’t wrong, not long after the other CRD people arrived, I saw a CTV van park up the road before some people spilled out to set up a video camera and have a reporter talk. I have no idea what they could even be talking about given no one was being allowed anywhere close.
Molly and I kinda just hung around and offered help but there wasn’t too much we could do, I guess it made sense to have us around given we were field agents but it did kinda feel like being a fifth wheel. Once a city bus of all things arrived to bring the other worlders to a hotel that the CRD had requisitioned, from the sounds of things it might have been the same one the tentacled people were in already. Mary suggested we should make our way back on our own, as she would be going with Ivy, Ed and the hostages.
“You know, we ran in a panic back there, but it kinda was unneeded.” I commented on the drive back.
“Ha, well we were planning on skedaddling after taking a shot.” Molly responded with a chuckle. “You scared the crap out of me when you grabbed me and jumped off the roof.”
“Sorry about that.” I said rubbing a hand on the back of my head, an awkward smile on my face
“I was worried you’d break something more than anything else.” She admitted, then hesitated for a moment. “Fuck it was terrifying when I saw them look towards us through the binoculars, I knew we should have been well out of range of them, but still.”
I was silent for a moment.
“Is it bad I wasn’t scared?” I asked quietly. “I felt we had to go because they had seen us and I had taken too many shots, but I wasn’t actually worried about them.”
She glanced at me for a moment. “Dunno Sam, people can be calm under pressure like that. I might not have been, but you don’t really know if that’s from your change or just your personality.” She reached a hand over to tousle my hair. “I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s good one of us had their wits about them.”
“Thanks for being there Sam, I’m glad we got those people safe.” She said with a grin still looking ahead. “There’s not a chance I could have landed those shots.”
“Yeah.” I said a little unsteadily while my burners fluttered in a sniff then I gestured at the front of the car. “Uh, sorry about the hood.”
Molly cackled.
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We turned the corner to arrive at the office and our small chat about Molly’s cat immediately died when I saw someone waiting while leaning against the door. More specifically, it was Kat looking at us with a deep frown.
Uh oh.
I am totally carrying a gun case taller than I was with a pistol in my holster, and Molly was similarly well-armed.
Shit.
“Uh hi Kat.” I said awkwardly with a wave as we stopped in front of her, a quick glance revealed Molly seemed to be finding something extremely exciting about a light fixture overhead.
Thanks for the save buddy.
“Samantha, what exactly have you been up to this afternoon, and what exactly are you two carrying around.” She had rolled out the imitation of mom’s lecturing voice. “The artifact department was alive with activity about another portal that Sam and Molly captured.”
“Um, technically we didn’t capture it.” I decided to focus on the one thing I could refute. “Mary and the soldiers did that.”
“Suuure, then what is this about a firefight then?” she asked eyes narrowing.
“I don’t think they actually shot at us.” Molly commented still looking at the light, drawing Kat’s glare.
“You don’t think.” Kat said incredulously.
“Well, we were out of their range.” Molly clarified.
“But not out of yours I take it by the large case, Samantha.” She rounded back to me.
“Uh yeah.”
“And did you shoot people then?” She asked leaning closer to me.
“Noooooo, near them, yes. But not at them. I answered leaning back with a sheepish smile to try and defuse her anger, fuck is it intimidating to have her taller than me again.
“How near them?”
“Uh, I shot their truck.” I started, then coughed with a blast from my burners. “And er, they had guns on their victims so I uh shot the guns they were holding…”
Kat sighed as I trailed off, then look at me with pursed lips. “I also heard you two are probably the only reason they didn’t get away with those people.”
“Yeah.” I confirmed uncertainly. “They were going to drive through a portal.”
She sighed again before pulling me into a hug. “Well, just try to stay safe right? I’m not exactly gonna stop you saving people, particularly given their fate with those machines.” I felt her turn her head towards Molly. “You’re not off the hook yet, but that extends to you too Molly.”
There were some vague mumbles of acknowledgment.
“Sam, have you eaten yet, it’s getting awfully late for you isn’t it?” Kat asked after releasing me.
“Uh, no I haven’t. I was going to try and find something after we put the guns away. I probably have thirty or forty minutes left but worst case I can steal Molly’s gas.”
“You know they have some stuff for you in the caf, right?” Kat asked with a frown while getting off the door so we could go into the office.
“Wait they do? I haven’t been.” Then I got a guilty grin while punching the code into the gun locker. “I don’t even know where it is.”
“You don’t?” Molly asked while unloading her pistol. “Oops, my bad.”
“I can barely get to the parts of this place I know.” I said with a little snort of steam as I swung the door open.
“Really?” Kat asked from a chair she had nabbed. “I’m doing pretty well so far.”
“Yeah.” I confirmed while placing my emptied pistol away before I placed the magazines on an empty shelf to come back to after dinner. “Like every time I try and picture getting somewhere I just kinda can’t keep the route in my head, I think I have an issue imagining stuff like that visually now.”
“That sucks.” Molly said. “Are you just not able to do stuff visually in your head anymore?”
“Uh, nooooooo.” I said steaming up. “There’s definitely stuff I can visualize.”
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Goth Anna floated through my mind again, along with possibly more… compromising clothing choices I had considered. Molly doubled over with laughter after looking at my expression, and Kat snorted presumably guessing what I meant.
“I’m just bad at navigating places like this I guess.” I said trying to get off the topic while starting to unlatch the rifle case on the table, popping it open I doubled checked everything was fine, then mindful of the other people in the room pulled it out one-handed while stabilizing the case.
“Fuck, that is a big gun Sam.” Kat commented wide-eyed, I nodded while placing it in its cradle beside Molly’s C8.
“Isn’t it just?” Molly commented. “I thought Mary was insane when she picked it up, but it saved some people’s bacon today.”
I returned the loose rounds that were in Molly’s bag to their box before closing the locker. “Let’s find dinner, I’m running on fumes.”
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The cafeteria turned out to be quite nice as these things go, it was a large room with wooden tables and chairs rather than the usual plastic ones you might expect. I don’t think they were hangovers from the early history of the facility either, as they had modern styling and seemed to be in good condition. Something similar could be said of the rest of the room, instead of the suspended ceilings and bare concrete of a lot of the facility, there were stylistic wooden panels hanging obscuring most but not all of the infrastructure above while the walls and pillars were painted a soft green above grey tiling that came up to about waist height. The floors were still the same smooth polished concrete with black anti-slip mats around, but it didn’t look out of place.
As for the food, they had the usual trays of stuff in those machines for keeping them warm along with some short order options, but it seemed like the person running it cared. Each portion had carefully placed garnishes, and everything was carefully labeled with neat handwriting describing potential allergens and dietary restrictions. Some of the sides were arranged into patterns on serving plates, while others were on charcuterie boards of surprising complexity. Even the fridge cabinets were nicely organized with the same neat handwritten labels on stuff. It was pretty late in the day, but it seemed remarkably well-stocked until I remembered there were people here at pretty much any hour.
The young man running it at the time had actually gotten excited when I turned up, rushing off to the back room while shouting over his shoulder that he had a bunch of ideas he wanted to try making for me. Once he got back with a tray covered in an assortment of small containers he explained that he was actually working on developing changee assisting diets as a side gig, part of why he worked here was to get better access to willing subjects and he would sometimes go with Molly on house visits to meet people. I ended up giving him Mike’s number to swap ideas with, I will admit to being mildly concerned the two of them might end up setting the facility alight in the pursuit of replicating dishes for me from the degree of passion the guy spoke with.
“Why hadn’t I thought of these things.” I mumbled around another fire starter. “Fuck they are morish.”
“Sam you’ve been that way for a month and Dad hadn’t tried Indian food until you were a teenager.” Kat pointed out.
“True, I should get some of these for home on the weekend.” I paused then giggled, I seem to do that a lot these days I will admit I like how it sounds. “If someone looked in our garage, they would think it was the den of a pyromaniac. Mike got a giant bottle of lighter fluid last weekend that he tried to use as a sauce, it was good, but I am pretty sure they were going to die from the fumes.”
“I know Summers set you up with some stuff, but I still don’t know what it all was.” Molly commented around a burger.
“I can show you sometime when you’re by, it’s pretty varied.”
“Oh, you’re not too ashamed of my track record against you to have me by again?” She asked mischievously
“Hey! I won like a third of our games, that’s like twice as good as against anyone else.” I countered with a waggling finger and mock condemnation before returning to a smile. “Besides, I would have you around again anyway, although I can't do anything this weekend because my parents are coming by Saturday, and I really need to use what spare time I have to study for math Monday.”
“laaaame, but yeah honestly I should do that too and I have other midterms too.” Molly agreed with a sigh of resignation, then looked to my sister. “What about you Katherine?”
“Historically I would have been finishing creating a midterm until I got hijacked.” Kat said dryly glancing at her, getting a gulp in response. “Instead, I’m going out with Vero.“
“Oh nice, tell him I said hi.” I said then paused for a second. “How’s his mom doing?”
“Not great,” Kat said frowning. “Treatment isn’t taking, they were going to try another option I think.”
“Fuck, well I can’t really do much but wish her luck.”
“Cancer?” Molly asked, to a nod from Kat. “Lost an uncle to a bone one, it sucked.” She glanced at the clock upon the wall over the door. “Hate to break this up on such a downer, but we need to get to our meeting,” She said while standing up with her tray. “It was nice talking to you again Katherine, see you around!”
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The debrief went pretty well, we had succeeded beyond our hopes after all. Rescuing all the other worlders, nabbing an intact portal, and all the mercs with minimal injuries. Most of it involved Molly and I giving detailed descriptions of what we had seen for Wilson’s team to digest, along with the others giving whatever they had gotten so far. Sounds like the new people were in a local hotel, and having pulled up records on the original victim we knew their dietary restrictions to some degree so they would be stable for the moment. Ivy was still working with them so it was somewhat second-hand from Mary, but she was confident they would settle in until we could get them home.
I ended up skipping out on the second half of the meeting that would involve working with the Americans on the intel we had, I probably could have stayed but Molly had suggested I put stuff away instead as the meeting would probably be ‘boring and annoying’. I was cleaning the C15 when my phone buzzed a while later.
TheOneMoose (Jake): @IndustrialCat I just saw you on the news
TheOneMoose (Jake): Just a glimpse
IndustrialCat (Sam): Oh, uh hi then
IndustrialCat (Sam): What are they saying?
TheOneMoose (Jake): That the government got a portal and rescued people
TheOneMoose (Jake): The news knew next to nothing
IndustrialCat (Sam): neat
IndustrialCat (Sam): well that’s about all I could say too
IndustrialCat (Sam): lmao
supJim (Mike): i saw you in a car leaving with molly
supJim (Mike): it has a suspicious dent on it
supJim (Mike): did you do stuff again?
IndustrialCat (Sam): No comment
supJim (Mike): lmao
supJim (Mike): you two safe at least?
IndustrialCat (Sam): Yeah, no worries
supJim (Mike): cool all good then
I noticed Anna had sent a link about some cosplay of that one cyborg from One Punch Man, it was pretty impressive. After a few moments of small talk about details she found cool, I paused considering my obligations for the weekend already, I had realized I still kinda wanted to find some time to do stuff with her in person. Sure, I had seen her last night, but I could probably get away with procrastinating from schoolwork tomorrow night.
IndustrialCat: You free tomorrow night?
IndustrialCat: I could work on cosplay or we could go out somewhere
AceW0mbat: Sure
AceW0mbat: I was just gonna watch stuff but I would be down for whatever
IndustrialCat: What were you going to watch?
AceW0mbat: Uhhh
AceW0mbat: was gonna start Gundam IBO
IndustrialCat: I haven’t seen that one, any good?
AceW0mbat: Supposed to be
IndustrialCat: I’d be down to join you for that, do you have a TV?
AceW0mbat: No sorry
IndustrialCat: Well I doubt anyone will be home at my place
IndustrialCat: So we can do it there orrrrr
IndustrialCat: I can be very close, your choice
AceW0mbat: Your place
Heh, that last response was quick, either way, now I have Anna lined up.
I didn’t spend that much more time cleaning before an exhausted-looking Molly wandered back in like a zombie, it looks like the meeting with the Americans didn’t go great from her expression.
“No good?” I asked once she flopped into her chair.
“Nope, they are extraditing all our captured mercs, and while they accepted the info about looking in Wyoming it sure as hell didn’t seem like they were going to value it.” She sighed and dropped her face on the table. “They’re snatching a potential Intel windfall before we get anything out of it and are dragging their feet with their own shit. I don’t even know why our government agreed to hand them over so fast, they must have been negotiating that shit before we even got back here.”
“Worse yet, it looks like the FBI and EDB seem to be still butting heads over responsibility for their side of the investigation into Org A.” She said annoyed while mock fighting two fingers over her head. “They are essentially doing parallel investigations, wasting a bunch of time. If anything, the conspiracy theorist in me says this is probably intentional on someone’s part, but I have no way of knowing for sure.”
“So we’re back where we were a week ago?” I asked dejectedly. “Still with no way of predicting them, except now we know they can put stuff in anywhere.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that.” She said looking up with a grin. “We gave them a bloody nose and Peter said that with a fully working portal we might have a bunch more avenues of investigation. If nothing else we can burn dangerous artifacts with it and study what the portal does in action.” She finished cheerfully.
“Do we know it would work with artifacts instead of people?” I asked.
“No, but Peter was saying that said it should conceptually according to your sister.” She said with a shrug.
“Neat.” Kinda amusing to hear third-hand info originally from Kat, but hey whatever works
Cleaning and lubrication done, at least according to the manual and memories of what Mary had shown me, I started reassembling the C15. After a quick check it was working as expected I went to put it back in the locker when a thought crossed my mind.
“Hey, Molly?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you know if they would be ok with me modifying this?” I asked hesitantly.
“Uh, prooobably.” She stretched the word out while looking at me with a look of confusion. “Why?”
“I want a grip for free handing it, it’s clearly designed for prone or strapped down use and it doesn’t have a nice place to hold when I am shooting upright.” I explained.
“Ha well, I guess that’s a unique problem. I can probably put in a request to have it done professionally if you want.”
“That would be great, thank you.” I said with a smile while I finished locking it up.
----------------------------------------
“Anna!” I greeted her when I opened the door, not delaying in grabbing her in a hug.
“Heh, nice to see you too Sam.” She said while returning it. “Did something happen I missed?”
“Uh yeah you could say that.” I admitted.
I gave her the not confidential Cliff’s Notes version of the night before as she came in the house, she seemed to have gone for a different style to normal with grey overalls and a black long-sleeve shirt under her old worn coat.
A+, no complaints from me.
“Woah.” She said while accepting some popcorn as I finished the story. “I haven’t really looked at the news recently, it’s probably a big story then.”
“Probably, I haven’t really looked either.” I admitted while searching for IBO on CrunchyRoll. “It felt weird to go and look up something I was involved in when I already know way more about than I will find anywhere else.”
“Subs or dubs?” I asked. “I would just go subs but I won’t judge.”
“Subs. I will judge.” She responded in a mock harsh tone.
We started roughly upright on the couch at the start, but I ended up almost laid out with her on top of me at some point, I would love to try the other way round but that seems dangerous. As it is being smaller than her made it kind of amusing, but I enjoyed the experience nonetheless.
Watching the show was weird as I am still not used to the idea of damage to mechanical stuff looking so… painful, it was still just animated so the effect was somewhat muted but yikes. There’s a lot of mech on mech and mech on mobile worker violence in that series, and Anna ended up comforting me a bit more often than I was expecting. I was glad my brain doesn’t seem to take note of weapons in a video in the same way, it notices them, but I guess the fact I am watching something without interacting with it means that I don’t feel the need to do anything in response.
On a positive note, I got a wonderful reaction from wrapping my arms around her belly under the overalls, technically not any different than hugging her with a shirt on but hey she enjoyed it too. Her brain pretty much melted when I offered for her to put her arms under my clothes, no dice though.
Eventually, I ended upright again, although she had her head in my lap. I can’t imagine it was that comfortable given how little give my body has, but she seemed reluctant to move and I wasn’t going to force her.
“Hey Anna, I won’t drag you to it but there is the games night on friday.” I mentioned when we were between episodes. “They are roughly monthly so don’t feel like you will miss something if you don’t come, although this might be the last for this year.”
She froze a little while considering, then when the silence stretched a bit too long I ran a hand on her cheek. “You really don’t have to force yourself.” I said softly. “I expect it won’t be too bad though, it’s just a bunch of asocial nerds that will be too scared of you to be mean.”
She giggled at that while I continued. “It will be another round of seeing them for the first-time post change for me, but I know them more and besides they will be too scared of me to be mean.”
“Fine, I will go then.” She said with a chuckle.
We ended up getting two-thirds of the way into the first season before a combination of story-driven melancholy and end-of-week exhaustion drove us to call it a night.