Emmelyn picks up a glass, holding it up to the light above her. “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”

She pauses, shrugs, then throws the glass at the wall.

“Fuck beating around the bush Prism, we’re gonna kill your Grandpa.”

--Emmelyn ‘Limelight’ Seras, October 2056

So we are at a party today in some colourfully decorated bar, but it is kind of hard for me to get in the mood. A problem that Yui does not seem to share with me. She, for one, is happily dancing and mingling with the different people in this little bar. She was either taking this blending-in thing very seriously, or she was trying her best to put the events of yesterday out of her mind. I took another look at the PsyCo communication network, but there is no word from the other teams yet, so I hope that is good.

I look down at my other communication and smile at the incoming caller. I make my way outside of the bar and into a hallway before I open it.

“Hey there, are they in position?” I ask.

“Yes, they are. I know this was kind of my plan, but are you sure this is a good idea?” Cierra asks me a bit nervously.

“Honestly, I don’t know, but there is only one way to find out.” I say with a smile, as I mute Cierra, and call my victim.

“Evelin? Something wrong? Please tell me you did not burn down another whore house.” Magenta says as she picks up the call.

“You know that was an accident, and it was a doll house, not a whore house, but that is not why I am calling.” I defend myself.

Magenta sighs. “Then why are you calling?”

“To give you some advice, it is your third date, after all.” I say, grinning at myself.

“What are you on about?” Magenta says in confusion.

“You know, first the movies, then to the aquarium and now a fancy dinner.”

It stays quiet for a while. “Right, this is a date.” Magenta says.

“And that is why I called to give you some advice. It is your third one, after all.” I say, my grin only growing bigger.

“What kind of advice do you want to give me?” Magenta asks, but there is suspicion in her voice.

“Well, advice on how to best satisfy her in bed. Of course. I mean, if we are both going to date her, it is best to unify on that front and exchange information.”

Now I get treated to Magenta choking on the other line. “Evelin, I am not sure if I am ready for that.”

“Don’t worry. I mean, maybe she wants to be on top for once.” I say dismissively.

“That is not the issue here,” Magenta says in an awkward tone.

“Oh, you don’t think Claire is pretty enough.”

“No, of course not. She is cute and beautiful; compared to that, I am just dirt.” She says, with more vigour than expected.

“Magenta, I hate to say this, but there is not a city in Europe I can go to without seeing your face on some kind of billboard advertising some beauty product. I don’t want to say this, but you are the most beautiful female samurai out there.”

“Are you sure?” she asks, her voice having gone really small.

“Yeah, of course you are.”

“But I used to be a man.”

“And I used to be a brunette. I don’t really see how any of that matters. It does not matter who you were. It matters who you are now, and that is a beautiful woman.”

“Thank you.”

"If you ever tell anyone I said something nice about you, I will hack into your hair and make it the ugliest shade of orange I can manage."

Now I hear her laugh. “Oh, I'd love to see you try.”

“So, about that advice?” I ask.

“I will be fine, and she is coming back now, but thanks for the help. I really needed that.”

“No problem.”

She leaves the call after that, and I unmute Cierra. “So what did you think?”

“You think she is pretty?”

“She is objectively pretty but really not my type.”

“Yeah, you're more into blondes with blue eyes.” She says in a sarcastic tone.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“Huh, I did not notice that aspect yet.”

“Well, you like what you like, I guess. So you think that situation is resolved now?”

“It probably is, one way or another.”

“What does that mean?”

“Means either Magenta likes Claire, and we have succeeded, or she does not, and we have failed. Either way, she can’t ignore it anymore.”

“You think she was ignoring it before?” Cierra asks, now sounding truly concerned.

“No, it is way more likely that Magenta is too stupid to notice. She seems a bit dumb, sometimes.”

“Well, let's hope for the best then, so what are you up to?” Cierra asks, clearly wanting to change the subject.

“I am stuck at pride, in some kind of bar.”

“Wait, really, what do you think?”

“I think that some people should wear some more clothes.”

“Babe, that is not really the point of pride.”

“Okay, it is kind of hard to enjoy when sober, but I will manage.”

“Do you know when you will come back?”

“Not exactly, but it better not take longer than a week,” I complain.

“Why not?”

“Because I miss you and want to cuddle with you on the couch. We can even watch that stupid samurai show.” I say, with a bit of longing.

There is a bit of a pause after that. “I miss you too, so you better hurry it up.” Cierra says.

“I will, but I got to go. Someone has been trying to get my attention for a while now.” I say.

“Well, okay then, good luck with your job.”

Once I close the call, I take a look at Karter, who has been shifting nervously a few meters away from me. Push myself off the wall.

“So, where is the problem?” I ask.

“Who said there was a problem?” Karter asks in a nervous tone.

“Well, you would not be looking for me if there was not one, so spill, what is going on?”

“So I heard that some people went missing near an abandoned apartment a few streets down. I wanted to go take a look but would prefer it if you were to come with me as...” he makes a punching motion.

“You want me to be the muscle. You do realise. I am not actually good at fighting.” I say, a bit bewildered.

“What about yesterday?”

“I achieved that by outthinking them, not outfighting them.” I say sternly.

“Well, if we run into any trouble, you can think your way out of it again.” he says while looking at me in fear.

“Sure, fine, let’s go then. Lead the way.”

We walk in silence for a bit, Karter still a mess of anxiety as we make it closer to where the proposed apartment is supposed to be. Once we reach the place, I frown.

“That door is way more expensive than it should be for this area.” I wonder out loud.

“Is that a problem?” Karter asks.

“Not really, but it is strange,” I say while hacking into the door security and opening it up.

The door whines open, and we head inside. The apartment itself is nothing special, just some old musty furniture. This place looks old, strangely enough, too old. Who puts a heavy-duty security door on an old apartment?

I look back at Karter in confusion. “Well, this place is strange. I can tell you that much, but I have not figured out what flavour of strange yet.”

“You think the people that built that door left?” he asks as he pulls a dusty figure away from the counter.

“Maybe it can’t hurt to look around,” I say with a shrug.

With that, we start searching the place until I hear Karter suddenly shout from another room, “I think I found something.”

I walk inside just to see him crawl out of a hole in the cupboard. “It’s dark in there. Do you have a light?” he asks.

“My eyes light up, and I can look. “ I say with a sigh.

Karter crawls out of the way, allowing me to crawl into the space. Once I am in, I look around. But there is nothing besides an old water heater. Then something cold presses into my back, and my nerves are set on fire as every muscle in my body cramps up. Then everything goes black as I fall unconscious.

I am cold, so cold, and really angry. But I feel that is what is expected when you wake up in a strange room, strapped to a chair with a sack on your head. I try to connect to a signal, but all of them are blocked somehow. Well, not all. I can connect to the two drones still attached to my backpack.

I activate them and make them scuttle around the room for a better view. The room itself is unassuming, with bare walls and a single closed door. I am sitting in the middle of the room.

‘Lyssa, what in the name of the protectors is going on?’

You seem to have been kidnapped.

‘Thanks. How long have I been out for?’

You have been out for more than a day.

‘Really, what? Did they fry my nervous system or something?’

Your biological nervous system is in critical condition, yes, but the biggest reason you did not wake up was because they kept giving you a sedative.

‘Okay, Lyssa, let's make a deal. Whenever I am hurt or something similar, and I am indisposed, I want you to buy the things to get me out of that situation.’

If that is the case, Lyssa would like to buy some nano-regenerative to take care of the majority of the damage.

‘Sure, don’t even need to ask.’

New Purchase: Nano-Regenerative

Points reduced to... 234

‘That feels a bit more expensive than normal.’

There is a lot of damage, and a lot of your body is now made out of rare metals and compounds.

‘I see. That is unexpected; what can you say about the signal jammer?”

This room has been isolated with some advanced materials. You could get two signal-repeater drones to get a signal out of here.

‘Sure, I need to contact the team and tell them that Micheal is a rat.’

New Purchase: Signal Enhancer Drone Swarm Structure X2

Points reduced to... 194

A little drone pops in, and I manoeuvre it to the top of the door. Sadly, the door is closed, so I have to wait until someone opens the door. Luckily for me, too bad for them, none of them thought of taping my mouth shut.

“Hey, assholes, when I get out of here, you are all going to be in a world of hurt!” I shout out into the room.

Not long after that, some people walk in. Strangely enough, they are carrying in a cable with a projector connected to it. They set up the little projector while I got my little spider bot out. I tried to send out a message to the team, but for some reason, they were unreachable. I don’t want to think about what that means at the moment.

Once they finished setting the thing up, they turned it on and take the sack off my head. I observe the room again, this time with my own eyes. There are two guards here, and the projector displays a white screen on the wall.

Suddenly, the screen displays an office, that is honestly, terribly decorated, like a rainbow thrown up or something. And not the good kind of rainbow that turns cute girls gay. A woman with even worse make-up is sitting in the bright lime green chair. “Hello, Evelin; nice of you to join us.”

Something hot starts to boil up in me, but I push it down, disorientating myself a bit before I speak, “Nina, to what do I owe this misfortune?”

She frowns. “It would pay you to be a bit more respectful of your betters.” She says in a low tone.

“I will do that once they show up; in the meantime, I am stuck with you.”

“You don’t seem to grasp the severity of your situation.”

I chuckle. “Severity, I know perfectly well what is going on. You want to kill me. The only reason I am here is because your overinflated ego wants you to gloat.”

“And you don’t feel like begging for your life? What a shame! I had pegged you more as a survivor.”

“I am, and that is why after I get out of here, I am going to drown you in problems until you choke on them. Goodbye,” I say, after I disconnected the connection.

While the guards are looking confused I activate my crystal blade and let it cut my bindings.