Water creeping in?

Keep your head above the surface!

New Houston Central Admin hiring today!

Remember: Work is freedom!

* Unknown artist, successful CA hiring campaign poster, 2055

***

“Emme? You’re alive?”

On the other end of the call, Emme scoffs at my words.

[“Of course I’m alive, Lissa!”] She dramatically sighs, and I can just imagine her leaning back with a hand over her heart. [“My own little sister, unable to trust that I can survive in hell. What has this world come to?”]

I chuckle, closing my eyes and leaning against the wall as all the tension leaves my body. The tears in my eyes fall, and a deep, deep relief falls over me.

It’s really her. We’ll be okay.

“Emme, you have no idea how relieving it is to hear your voice.”

My sister’s response makes her sound as tired as I am.

[“Ditto kiddo. It’s been a long night.”]

After a deep sigh I murmur, “You can say that again. Seriously, how the fuck did we both become samurai in just one night? The chances for that have to be ridiculously low.”

Emme snorts before an AI with a melodious yet aged tone responds:

[“Three Vanguard in one night is quite uncommon, but you’d be surprised how often family members actually initialize together. It’s not something we consider especially strange, though it’s still rare, all things considering. To be honest, the historical data of family members becoming Vanguard together is skewed upwards by species that have a tendency to form packs, like humans.”]

Oh no. It’s Her.

Ignoring Raya’s perhaps slightly concerning statement, I wipe my face as I say, [“Huh. Never really thought about us like that before. Weird.”]

Emme snorts as she returns, [“Technically, I don’t think Prism and I count as humans anymore.”]

I blink as the last AI in the call, her voice reminiscent of a sweet southern belle, explains:

[“To be specific, they are each their own unique subspecies of human. Though, Prism is definitely straying towards an entirely new species on her own.”]

Wait, She’s here too!? Lissa, can we hang up on them?

Rolling my eyes at my AI, I ask, “So… I’m assuming the person you’re talking about is Ghostlight?”

[“Yeah! OH! I forgot to introduce us!”] Emme clears her throat, then theatrically exclaims, [“Greetings, Vanguard! My Samurai name is Limelight, here with my AI Achys-”]

[“Pleasure to work with you!”]

[“AAAAND my new business partner, the adorable mermaid samurai extraordinaire, Ghostlight!!”]

[“B-Bwuh?!] Obviously flustered, the girl stutters out, [“I-I think that's pushing-”]

[“And last but not least, her assistant Nyvi!”]

[“Howdy dear.”]

I chuckle as I attempt to stand, but find my muscles refuse to listen. “Good to have names to voices. I don’t have a samurai name yet, obviously, but my AI’s name is Raya. Say hi, Raya!”

Nooo. You did not just do that.

I smirk, then gesture for her to talk. There’s a pause, before my AI groans before she forces out a single, very reluctant word.

[“Hi...”]

In unison Nyvi and Achys dramatically produce a very extended gasp, before the latter enthusiastically cries out, [“Did you hear that Nyvi!? Her name is Raya!”]

[“I sure did, Achys!”] The AI sighs. [“Wow, they grow up so fast. To think she already has her own name…”]

[“I can barely even remember my first Vanguard, when I got my own random string,”] Achys nostalgically reminisces aloud, [“I think it was back about five thousand years ago-”]

Obviously irritated, Raya interrupts the story. [“This is why I didn’t want to say anything! They always do this!”]

Nyvi giggles as she says, [“You’re just so cute! It’s not often I encounter one of us younger than me!”]

[“Ugh!”] I can hear the pout in Raya’s tone. [“I’m not even that much younger than you!”]

As the AI continue their bickering, I zone it out, then summon my avatar to pick myself up so I can start towards the apartment complex next door. It doesn’t take long to get to the exterior doors, but just to be safe, I wait and listen until I can’t hear the footsteps or talking of the soldiers anymore. As I determine it’s safe though, I realize that, well, something I sort of need to tell my sister about.

This might go poorly.

After a moment of preparing myself, during a lull in the conversation, I cut in:

“Uh, sorry to change the subject but…”

I gulp, then nervously say. “Emme, um… So, something happened…”

My sister’s response is immediately incredibly serious in tone; [“Did something bad happen? Do I need to kill someone? Was there a third?!”]

Out of the loop, Ghostlight mutters, [“A-A third what?”]

I bite my lip for a second, then reply, “Yes, maybe, yes? Technically all connected, but also individually separate incidents?”

Emme sighs before she orders, [“Explain, and I’ll tell you what we’re going to do.”]

“I’ll uh, go in order of importance?” I think for a moment, then begin with the bombshell. “The CA kidnapped our parents and tried to get me, though I escaped. They uh, blinded me in the process, but I’m pretty sure the situation is sort of resolved now. Thanks, Ghostlight.”

Taken aback, the girl responds, [“Y-You’re welcome? D-Did they literally blind you, or was that a metaphor or something? W-What did you mean by third earlier?”]

“Literally blinded, like, permanently disabled our augs and eyeballs with a knife after a flashbang disoriented us.”

[“O-Oh.”] Ghostlight is quiet for a moment. [“S-Sorry for asking. B-but uh, w-what about the second question?”]

“The third, oh that’s referring to-”

Emme cuts me off, breathing heavily as she says. [“Sorry for the delay, I was venting my anger there into a stray… bear fish plant thing. Don’t worry, I’m already planning on taking care of the CA when I get a chance. The fuckers don’t deserve to stay in power after all they’ve done.”]

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[“W-Wait sorry, but I have another question. I-If they blinded you in a attempt to kidnap, wouldn’t they have done the same to your parents too?”]

I blink as fear begins to poll in my chest.

[“Oh.”] Emme puts my thoughts into words quite well:

[“Fuck.”]

I immediately put the avatar into a sprint, cursing under my breath.

I’m… shocked you didn’t consider that a possibility.

‘Fuck off Raya! I was busy!’

It takes me seconds to get to and kick in the door to the apartment complex, where I find a totally filthy lobby. It’s dusty, full of trash, but most disconcertingly, has a large blood trail leading to the central stairs. I pale, then follow it up and through the hallway to a small apartment with an open door. Gulping, I then step through to find-

“Dad! Pop!”

Tied up back to back on two flimsy looking steel chairs in the center of a messy room, our parents are thankfully alive and well. Pop is seemingly out cold, but Dad gets a weary smile on his face, looking up at me as he grunts, “Hah, knew they couldn’t have gotten you.”

A bit of a grin rises as I start rushing over, but pause halfway there, as the actual amount of damage that had been done to them becomes apparent. Dad’s once beautiful blue eyes now have deep red gashes cut right into their middle, each one almost perfectly identical. There are large swollen gooseggs spread across his pale face and body, each having a slight purple bruise to them. Somehow his platinum hair is still in a ponytail, despite everything that’s happened, and his once grey tank top is darkened, soaked through with what I assume is blood and sweat. Pop isn’t much better off, his darker skin marred with similar levels of grime and bruises as Dad. I bite my lip, then move forward and pull my parent’s heads into a hug.

“Emme, I got them. They’re alive but…”

“Yeah yeah, I bet I look like shit.” Dad pauses, then asks, “Wait, did you say Emme? How are you…?”

“She’s a samurai now too, Dad.”

Emme chuckles, then says, [“Tell him he owes me a po boy.”]

Taken aback, I pull back out of the hug. “What? Why in the world is a sandwich important right now?”

Dad snorts at that. “HA! It’s ‘cause I ate hers a week ago. I have zero remorse, and there’s no way in hell I will make or buy her a new one. Little miss samurai can fuckin’ buy her own shrimp sandwich.”

[“I heard that! Tell him he’ll make me one unless he doesn’t want new eyes!”]

I roll my eyes, then use my spear to cut the zip-ties. “Okay, fuck this. I’m not going to be the middle woman for something this dumb.

Dad chuckles under his breath, then turns around as he stands up to pick up pop in a fireman’s carry. I almost stop him to offer the avatar, but then I remember I’m tired as fuck, so I just don’t say anything. There’s a distinct period of silence both in person and in the call, until someone does speak up.

[“S-So… U-Um…”]

Ghostlight hesitates, but does eventually say, [“I-I can’t tell if you’re both intentionally keeping the third thing from me or not, but there’s not really a better time to talk about it if you aren’t.”]

I freeze.

“Oh fuck, I forgot to tell you about Freesia.”

Dad stops, turning towards me. “Isn’t that the Bayden’s kid?”

Emme loudly coughs, then sputters, [“PBbbhf!? You killed her!?”]

[“T-That was a kill count?!”]

I grab Dad’s arm as I frantically explain, “In my defense, she was blackmailing me with Dad and Pop’s location to try and get out of the city alive. I got the info I needed from her before I cut her throat.”

“Ha.” Dad grins at me. “Good riddance.”

[“You bitch!”] Emme’s voice is loud but strained by movement. [“I wanted to kill her!”]

[“W-Wait, Emme, wasn’t that the ex you were talking about?”]

Throwing my free arm up in the air, I start guiding Dad down the stairs. “She knew you were a samurai and sort of half-convinced me you were dead! I was caught in the moment!”

[“Tch.”] Emme goes distressingly quiet for a moment. [“Fine. Dibs on the next one.”]

Ghostlight sighs, is quiet for a few moments, then says, [“I-I suppose a few murders aren’t a big deal for us anymore, considering that I blew up the Eleventh.”]

This time, I’m the one somewhat taken for a loop. “Uh… What?”

[“First off, Prism, mercy kills don’t count, so I’m probably the one with the largest murder count in this call,”] Emme states as if it were just a matter of fact, [“Second, Lissa, There are only ten floors left, or er, technically nine I guess, considering I broke a big ass hole in the top of the tenth.”]

“What the fuck is going on in this damned city?!”

Taking my question far too literally, Ghostlight takes a deep breath, then explains, [“My, well, my former family had a, according to Emme, super creepy lab on the twelfth floor that was doing antithesis experiments. They released a bunch of Model Sevens into the water supply… f-for reasons that I suppose would make them money? That seems to have spawned a model Twenty-Seven, which considering the level of organization that’s been happening, is what’s coordinating the antithesis, as well as summoned a hidden nest and a model forty plus to finish what it started.”]

I snort, shaking my head. “What, are you a Montero or something?

[“U-Umm… I did say they were my former family, as in, that’s no longer the case.”]

I hit my head against Dad’s bicep, getting a weird look from him.

“Emme, you’re business partners with a girl who used to be a Montero now?!”

Emme nervously giggles, and I swear I hear an explosion in the background. [“To my credit, she’s a mermaid.”]

I groan at my sister’s half assed attempt to protect herself. “You being hopelessly gay is not an excuse here! Do you even know if she did anything terrible in the name of her former family?”

[“Lissa.”] Emme’s tone is scary enough to make me really pause and listen. [“I’d legitimately trust Prism with my life. Hell, she’s already saved it at least once, if not more. Even if she was once a Montero, she’s proven herself worthy of our company a thousand times over in just this one night. Also, I’ll beat you up if you keep arguing with me on this. Prism is a great person, end of story.”]

“Uh… Uh-huh, got it.” I take a deep breath to calm myself. “Thanks, Ghostlight… For saving my sister’s life. Actually, can I call you Prism?”

The girl’s voice is trembling as she responds. [“I-I suppose you’re welcome? A-Again I guess? A-Also, you can call me either name, I don’t mind.”]

“Right, so now that that’s taken care of,” I roll my neck, then ask, “Prism, what’re the details of our plan here anyways?”

[“Hey, what if I was the one making the plan?”]

“Considering I’m pretty sure you’ve been fighting this entire time we’ve been talking, and she’s the one who made the speech to the city… Prism, what’s the plan?”

[“Emme’s fighting the horde outside of the city as we speak, and we got a big submarine shelter we’re funneling the last thousand people onto.”]

“There’s only a thousand of us left? Fuck.” I pale a bit, putting a hand to my forehead. “I wish I could go fight with you two, but I don’t really have any points left.”

Emme quickly chimes in, [“To be fair on the fighting the entire time thing, I've been taking short breaks, cause I have been getting a bit tired, but I should have enough left in me for the end of this. There’s more than enough points to share, if you want to come help. I wouldn’t blame you for sitting back to keep watch on Dad and Pop though.”]

“I’m actually sort of worried about that. The soldiers that ambushed us swapped to new orders once Prism made her speech, but who knows if they’ll go back to the old ones once they’re home free?” I sigh, then continue. “It’s sort of hard to imagine getting into the same shelter as them as being a good idea. Can you just make a smaller secondary sub for us to use to escape with? I could use that in combination with my hardlight avatar to kill stuff while safe in the sub.”

There’s another collective silence, until Emme mutters, [“I’d rather just get a big warship or something that I can use afterwards for stuff. Tiny sub is kinda boring.”]

“A submersible warship?”

[“Yeah! One that I can put a big anti-grav engine onto and fly into the sunset!”]

“That’s… actually not a terrible idea, considering we’ve basically lost our home. It’d be a good place to stay until we find somewhere we want to settle.”

[“I’m pretty sure we even have all the catalogs already! I just need to get the points! Okay girls, let's go!”]

“Wait, shouldn’t we-”

[“T-Too late, she dove back into the front-lines. A-At least she’s enthusiastic about it?”]

I shake my head, then lead my parents out onto the street. Emme is chaotic at the best of times, and when she gets her mind onto something, there’s no stopping her. I suppose I’ll need to do a bit of research into naval combat to help her out, that’ll be… interesting.

Actually, would naval combat even really apply to fighting antithesis? Sure, it’d be helpful against corporate fleets, which we’re probably inevitably going to run into, but would it even really help against the smaller foes? I suppose there might be advice for how to deal with invaders or aim a ship’s guns, but that’s just the sort of specific information I could find as I need it…

‘Raya, what do you think about getting a big warship to fight with?’

It’s actually quite a common vector among Vanguard to get a large mechanical vehicle to fight in due to their tendency to be quite decent at both attack and defence. I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest or most creative idea ever, but it’s certainly a decent choice. Now, it starts to become a different story when that heavy warship can fly.

I grin, putting my cheek onto my palm. ‘In a good way?’

I suppose you could say it like that. I highly doubt the engines she’s looking to buy would allow for the speed necessary to escape the atmosphere, but it’s a start to getting there, especially if it has a submersible mode. That’s technically one step of many to it being a space capable vehicle.

‘So, a yes?’

There are issues, but they’re minuscule enough I doubt they will come up. To be honest, from the way the other two AI described it, I’m worried that there may not be enough time to evacuate everyone before whatever is climbing up gets here.

“They’ll-” I pause, then change my words.

“We’ll find a way. I promise.”