“Trash Bandit’s raccoons? Yeah, of course you can feed them. They love snacks!

Just don’t give them any cotton candy. For some reason, it makes her cry.”

--Newtonian, talking to a civilian after the incursion.

[{Hey, Spot}] I chirp back through our mental connection, knowing how to use it without being told.

He hums happily before looking down, staring off into the distance as Cyon starts talking.

I’m giving him an introduction to the functions of his augs.

“Thanks. While you’re at it, can you tell me why I can feel how focused he is?”

That would be an effect from your D.E.N implant. By creating a virtual emotional connection at all times, you can vastly reduce the degree of separation between you and your forces at the small cost of feeling a lot of emotions.

“That sounds… overwhelming.”

You can either reduce the burden with drugs, or temporarily close your child connections when you need a break. However, the latter will remove the benefit to your points gain.

“Okay, that seems more reasonable.”

A sudden jolt runs down my spine and my eyes snap down to Spot in my lap, where I find him grinning up at me as if he just found a stash of cookies.

{What did you do?} I squeak at him, narrowing my eyes.

{Nothing,} he squeaks back, but I watch as his eyes flicker and a moment later I feel another jolt of panic.

I start tickling him, and he chirps manically while trying to squirm out of my grasp. As I’m distracted, I suddenly feel the same nagging feeling in the back of my mind again, and I look over to see Chip and Stripe standing on the sofa next to me with the boxes with their upgrades open and the items to install the aug discarded on the floor.

“Did they just-“

I pause as the emotional links with my other two siblings connect, and I feel a burst of affection over them.

“Tsk, how can I stay annoyed when you do that,” I whine, pulling them both into a pile on my lap as well for a big hug.

‘What was that they were doing Cyon? What did you teach them?’

I simply showed Spot how to use the emergency alert all child implants have to let you know when any of your troops are in danger.

‘Fat chance they won’t abuse that. Ah well, what’s next? Let’s get these upgrades over with.’

That would be the Opposable Viral Sample, the light pink one. I would recommend giving them Human Thoughts right before you leave. I doubt they will like the drug since it pushes them towards a standard “human” thought process to make it easier to coordinate with them.

“Will it be uncomfortable for them?” I ask with concern, rubbing my face against Stripes belly as she chitters happily.

A little bit yes.

I frown, but quickly push my distaste of the idea away. I’ll just have to make sure to give them a reward worth the discomfort.

I inject them with the next viral sample one after the other, watching as they fall asleep for a few seconds before waking up and looking down at their paws in confusion. Chip reaches for the bag on his back and pulls out a green needler, deftly rotating it in his hands.

“Did that… give them opposable thumbs?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Yes.

“Wow… I get a feeling I may come to regret that.”

Looking away from the raccoon happily throwing a deadly explosive from paw to paw, I lay the last three syringes, filled with a sickly yellow liquid, out on the couch beside me and toss away the empty boxes. My ears twitch and I hear my stomach rumble, so I strain my ears for a moment, checking outside to confirm that the shooting in the Monkeys’ stronghold has stopped before asking Cyon an important question.

“Can we have some more food?”

Of course. Can I have permission to spend an extra point to add a collection of selected nutrients to your meal to aid in maintaining your Symbiote’s operation?

“Go ahead. Give us something meaty please!”

Four white boxes tubs on the sofa beside me, three of them marked for my siblings, all of them leaking the sweet aroma of spice. My siblings notice immediately and race over to open their meals, so I grab mine as well and crack it open, finding a steaming bowl of diced meat and vegetables in a fiery-red sauce, wrapped in a thick flatbread.

The smell is overwhelming, and I have to resist the urge to drool. I’m about to tear off a piece of bread and dig in when Cyon rudely interrupts me.

I hate to ruin your meal, but can I suggest you accept a call from a Vanguard in the uppercity who wishes to contact you? They have been trying to reach you since I alerted their AI to your existence while gathering information for you when you bought your new aug, but I have been blocking their attempts to reach you to give you some privacy.

“Aww, thanks Cyon,” I coo with a satisfying rumble to my voice. “Sure, let them call me.”

I tear off a piece of bread as I wait and use it to pick up some of the filling, continuing my meal because there’s no way I can ignore this Protector-grade food.

I slide the juicy parcel of food into my mouth and melt into my seat as the flavours explode on my tongue.

Being a Samurai is the best!

[“Why hello, Cutie,”] a teasing voice pulls me from my bliss as my half-closed eyes snap open and my purring abruptly stops.

Standing over me, looking down at me with her lips curled in a small grin that sends butterflies to my stomach, is a shiny woman. She’s wearing a suit of what looks to be fitted leather armour with polished metal plates in several places, and her long, flowing hair is somewhere between silver and white, with metallic flecks sparkling in it.

In stark contrast to my own, her eyes are solid orbs of swirling silver that draw me in, making it hard to look away.

[“I was starting to get a little worried you didn’t want to talk to me,”] she says, to my relief pretending that I didn’t just embarrass myself. [“But that was worth the wait.”]

I’m a fool. I lowered my guard too soon.

My face flushes and my Symbiote immediately climbs up to hide my shame, which definitely just makes it worse when the shiny lady laughs at me.

[“As much as I’d love to keep playing with you, I’m unfortunately quite busy killing plants, so I’ll get to the important bit quickly.”]

I nod and take a deep breath, trying to ignore the first part of her sentence and calm down as I slowly uncover my face.

[“I’m Newtonian, though you can call me Gwen.”]

[“Elise,”] I reply, taking another bite of my food and resisting the urge to start purring again.

[“Well, Elise.”] She pauses on my name, her grin widening slightly as my face heats up.

This food must be really spicy.

[“I initially wanted to call you to ask for help, since it’s not looking too pretty up here, but by the sounds of it you have your own problems to deal with, so I think we should just touch base instead.”]

I nod and use some bread to scoop some more of the crunchy red vegetables from my meal into my mouth. This is probably a horrible first impression, but damn it I’m hungry, and with the way her eyes are following my traitorous tail swaying back and forth behind me, I don’t think she minds.

[“The incursion hit us pretty hard up here,”] she says in a serious tone, despite her teasing grin never leaving her face as her eyes remain glued to my tail. [“Our air defences couldn’t keep up and dozens of pods slipped through. Then, to add to our problems, the university’s satellite has detected a large horde building to the west of the city. Stormsurge and Shadowflame, the two senior Samurai of the city, are trying to keep it under control, and I’m bunkered down at the university defending the people Stormsurge has evacuated from the collapsed sections of the city, but the damn plants keep popping up everywhere.”]

That’s… a lot.

I chew furiously, making disappointingly quick work of my food, processing the new information as my brow creases.

[“Why are there so many plants outside the city?”] I ask.

[“We suspect there’s a collection of hives hidden in the Cotswolds that we missed.”]

[“Well fuck. I was searching for a hive in the undercity, but are we just going to get trapped in from above anyway?”]

[“For now, don’t worry about it and focus on dealing with your hive. We’re still managing, and I’ll update you if the situation changes. If you can clear the plants down there and help us, we may just pull through.”]

I nod, tossing the last of my bread in my mouth and throwing away the empty box before pulling Stripe into my lap for a hug, waiting till my call is over to start administering their final injection.

[“Now that’s ou-”] Gwen starts saying something else, but she cuts off as her eyes flick down to Stripe and her brow creases in thought.

What’s that about?

I scratch behind Stripes ears and we both tilt our heads with curiosity, waiting for the pretty lady to continue. Spot and Chip both squeak small requests for attention in my silence, so I reach over to give it to them and Gwen’s eyes follow my arms, lighting up with realisation when she sees the rest of my siblings, however that works with this call.

[“No way! You’re the Trash Bandit!”]

I’m the what?!