The next morning, the Aldecaldos had already parked by the bridge before I'd gotten up. No one had thought it was a good idea to wake me up. They had figured I needed the extra sleep. However, that had left the Nomads staring at a whole lot of nothing, since Alina hadn't added them to the exceptions list yet. She'd kept the cannons from targeting them but that was her only concession to their guest rights. The lack of any visible infrastructure had cause a bit of a argument amongst the Nomads, as even the water canals weren't could be seen currently. I imagined that they thought that Sally and Amanda were telling tall tales.

I cast a quick Cleanse and tried to put myself in order before walking over to greet them. No reason to be a messy bastard when they caught sight of me. On the way over to them, I had Alina add them into the allies list. To say they freaked out was an understatement, most of them were half way in their cars before I managed to get their attention. Sally had her monster of a rifle aimed at me, before she began to realized who she was targeting. Awkward.

"I said I solved the spying problem! See all solved!" I had my hands up, and they stayed up 'til she'd lowered her aim. I was grinning like a maniac the whole time though. Her face went through a thousand emotions before settling on relief and joy. That smile would live in my mind forever. I'd never seen anything so beautiful. She dropped her rifle ran over and tackle hugged me. Thankfully, my increased strength let me absorb her charge. I returned the hug firmly but carefully, I didn't know my limits yet and I certainly didn't want to hurt her. This close, she smelt of gun oil and synth leather, and I loved it. Oh that hug felt nice. She'd genuinely missed me. Her warmth was bleeding into me filled me with a sense of belonging. Like someone finally gave a damn about me, when they didn't have to.

A moment later, and Megan had joined in. She wrapped her soft arms around us, ineffectually trying to squish us. She smelt of some perfume, smoked cinnamon and clove and something else I couldn't identify. Very simulating. I was melting inside, I'd never been the center of this kind of attention before. I had no defenses against the feeling bubbling up, not that I would've ever wanted them. Megan's face carried a cocky grin that also plucked firmly at my heartstrings. I'd never felt so... loved. Was that what this feeling was? This fierce concern and protectiveness that burned deep inside me. This desire to never part from them again. It seemed awful quick, but what did I know about it. Yet, I couldn't imagine not wanting to be right there, right then.

"We saw the explosion, we were worried they'd killed you. You derezzed gonk. We checked and couldn't find any sign of you, except your tracks. So yeah, we knew you had gotten away. But you didn't call. Then we were worried you were going to cut us out." Megan started talking real fast. Babbling really. Was she furious or happy, probably both. Sally just buried her face deeper into my neck. My brain was so fuzzed out from all the happy thoughts, that it took me a second to parse what Megan had said.

"What? Cut you out? Why the fuck would I ever do a damned fool thing like that?" I didn't understand the female mind. I was starting to notice that talking to them rarely seemed to help with that problem. So I went with the male solution, action. I slipped an arm around Megan's softer frame pulling her closer and squeezed her gently.

"He probably had some dorph brained noble idea of protecting us." Amanda chimed in from the sidelines where she was watching with glittering eyes and a huge knowing smile.

"Darlin' you ain't joking, this danged fool has been working himself to the bone trying to get the place ready for y'all." Raynor had snuck up on the scene while I'd been distracted. Well he'd really ambled over, but I was really distracted. "Been awhile since I'd seen anyone so focused on fixin' things."

"Umm... " I was starting to get a little uncomfortable with everyone watching us. Even some of the Probes had stopped their tasks and were scanning us. Hell, the elusive Lumi was nearby with a wolfish grin. And Faergin was dancing close by while a few Nomads were looking him over in shock and wonder. I didn't really like being the center of attention for too long. Short bursts are great but this was getting weird.

"Shhh." Sally vocalized just holding me like she'd never let me go, ever again. Okay, in that moment nothing else mattered, and I could let everything else go. They were now my world. Megan hummed some song she liked while we all just stayed like that. I had no clue what else to do now. So I just gave up and followed their lead.

When the hug ended, I no desire to say anything. Neither did they. So, I led them over to the warehouse where the Probes had been storing the rations every morning. I grabbed a pull cart that had been put together by a builder and filled it with dozens of ration pouches. We brought them back to the camp the Aldecaldos had already started setting up and handed them out.

I should mention that the rations weren't "rations". They were stasis locked meals, preserved at the peak moment of their preparation. As these were labeled "High Quality" they were pretty damned good meals. However, they weren't labeled as to what meal was inside the pouch, so you got what you got. Today I ended up with a gravy coated country fried steak served with scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. A cup of rich dark roast coffee was also in the pouch. This was the type dimensional bullshit I could get behind. That meal was a jackpot as far as I was concerned. Sally ended up having a prime rib with some fancy wine sauce, steamed vegetables and a couple of rolls slathered in honey butter. Her drink was a glass of red wine. A little too heavy for breakfast but it all looked tasty anyway. Megan's meal was a whole 14' pizza with all the meats and some of the veggies and a side of buffalo wings. She'd gotten a tall glass of soda. That also looked great. I smirked when I saw them trade meals. They took bite of each others and even grabbed a few bites of mine as well. This was perhaps the only time in my life that I didn't mind someone stealing my food.

While we where eating, I explained what I'd done with the Pylons. They seemed to actually listen and liked the idea of being able to work right under someone's nose while they had no clue, what was going on.

"Any plans to make a mobile version?" Sally probably wanted that for her truck.

"Sure, some of the Khalai tech already has that feature, I just have to figure out how to adapt it." I nodded and explained how I was trying to get it down to something you could strap on your belt. Then I went into how I had used Megan's idea of tunneling and founded Project Underbridge. The rest of the plan to have hidden wells and reservoirs really excited them.

"If you never achieve anything else, that alone would change the power dynamic in the badlands. We'd always be able to get away and be able to hide in the most remote areas." Megan was already plotting how best to take advantage of all the technological advantages that I offered.

After we were finished eating, I walked over to Amanda who was leaning in while talking with Raynor. Hmm. They seemed to be hitting it off. Interesting. I asked Amanda if she could formally agree to an Alliance between New Lordaeron and all the Aldecaldos. She said she would needed to call up a couple of folks and get their opinions but if they agreed we could work something out. I nodded. It would be a quick solution to one of my new quests.

In the meantime, I'd decided to show Sally and Megan around while telling them my full story.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I took them to the Moon Well where I'd first appeared. Why was I going to tell them the truth? Because there was no way for us to go forward without them knowing about my past.

"This is the place I came into your World." Then I had to spent a few hours trying to explain every detail I could remember about my version of Earth.

"So you came from a version of our World that was going through the year 2024. There was no Corpo War, no Johnny Silverhand, no nukes going off." Sally stared at me almost blankly, while trying to wrap her mind around my tale. Some of my descriptions of the firearms of my world made her snort is derision.

"Cyberware was still in it's infancy, there was no widespread direct neural linking to the Net. Companies still basically run everything but it's all behind the scenes, instead of out in the open." Megan looked horrified at the thought of no netrunning. The methodologies of hacking in my world must have seemed quite primitive to her.

"That about sums it up." I nodded. I hoped they could take it all in without it causing problems between us.

Then I led them on the same path that I'd taken when I started exploring. Was that really only a month ago? No, not even that yet. Damn. when we arrived at his island, I introduced them to Meadran.

"Ah what lovely young flowers you have brought. Every bit as glorious as the Dryads that danced in the Woodlands of my homeland. I am Meadran, serving as the Tree of Life for this small community. I wish you a pleasant stay while you are here." Even while holding back his vice as to not startle the ladies, this tree had more game than I did. Sad. The ladies chatted with the smooth talking tree for a while, mostly pleasant chit-chat. When they were done I took them past the company store heading toward the Nexus. I briefly explained it's functions. Which led to me sharing a few of my thoughts on the Company itself.

"These interdimensional beings, basically kidnapped you, right before you died. Dropped you here with no explanation, and still expect you to fulfill tasks to earn their "money" so you can buy what you need to "save" the world. Which is the overarching task they seem to want you to accomplish?" Sally was a little angry. It was easy to recognize how I was being exploited, when it was summed like that.

"That's an accurate summation, yes." I nodded, trying not to grind my teeth in frustration.

"What are you going to do about it? Anything? You don't owe anyone here. You have no skin in this game." Megan was shaking her head, probably trying to calculate what the real goal of the Company was.

"Had." I interjected. Surprisingly, that caught them both off-guard.

"Had?" She squinched her face up. I found her confusion adorable.

"I had no skin in this game. Now, I have you and Sally. That's all the skin I need to try to improve things for this world. What kind of man would I be, if I didn't try to make the lives of those I care about better." I got a pair of lovely smiles for that. Okay, maybe I could be charming too. Every once in a great while.

We continued on to the Nexus, where they got to meet Alina. The AI explained more about the Khalai, and where my awesome technology had come from. It took them both more than a few minutes to be anywhere near comfortable with the idea that I had an unshackled AI working for me. Given the history this world had with Artificial Intelligences, I got it. Hell, some days I wasn't too keen on the idea myself. The Robo-Buddies helped a lot with those fears though.

As the topics for discussion expanded, I tried to not bore them with all of my crazy ideas and visions of future projects. I showed them how the Forges worked and the functions of the Cybernetics Core. Then I introduced them to some of the Sentries roaming around, they were shocked at how alive the Khalai robots seemed. Then I further blew their minds by letting them interact with some of the Wisp Infused Probes. Most of whom were happy silly little guys.

We headed back to the Town Hall while I told them about my impressions from the first time I ended up walking through the Badlands and how I'd met Greg.

"He got the better of you, but not too bad. You had no way of knowing how much wood was worth." I loved how Sally got slightly upset on my behalf. I explained how I got my Galena. Then the first trip to NC and the experience with the terrible not pizza, and rounding things out with my time at Lizzie's. How they treated me as a Bennie. Everything that happened with Sinnamin. My first meeting with Misty and Vik.

"Viktor Vektor is one of the best out there. He's still whispered about in quiet corners of the city." Megan seemed to know of him. "He's a legend in his own right. We'd been thinking of finding him to try and get some chrome work done."

"So, about this Misty." Sally asked in a deceptively cheerful tone, I knew that tone.

"She's great, reminds me of my sister a little." Let's try to head that off, by making making Misty into a substitute for the Sister I'd lost. I got the "I know what you just did, but I'll let you get a way with it" stare for my efforts.

I moved the story on to my clumsy attempts at hunting Maelstrom. The bloody horrors of the Scavs' den and how badly that messed me up. What my mind struggled with about getting chipped. How odd it had made me feel. Then we got to the first time I met Sally, on my way back to the Valley.

I skipped over our shared events to where I was running from Arasaka and what happened after that. The sacrifice of Scuff and Fix, Chuck and Barry. My breath caught a bit at thatpart of the tale. We'd found a place to sit and relax, over by the corn farm. "So I walked back to the Sunset Motel. Headed back into NC to try to setup the other outpost. Then the Mox had put out the word for folks to get me over to Lizzie's. I'd figured it could wait."

Biting through my syllables, I told them what happened to Sinnamin, and my frankly bewildering response. I got more hugs. Which I appreciated but didn't help as much as I thought they would. "I still don't understand why it got to me so much. I barely knew her. But it was all so sad, so wrong. A broken life that, maybe, I could have helped. Part of me thinks I should just flatten the City once I've enough power. Rebuild it afterwards, and try to make something better out of the rubble." I shook my head.

"I know it wouldn't help much. The Corpos are the biggest problem with how they twist everything into a commodity. The way they'd destroy resources, rather than let the people have them for even an ennie cheaper. Until you have a solution to all of them, you can't change anything for long." Megan had cut to the heart of the problem.

"I have an answer to that problem, right here. I'll fill the world with clean water, and wholesome food. Charge folks little to nothing for access. I'll eventually be able to out resource the Corps, but I'll also need to be able to out fight them. Because as you pointed out, they'll do anything to keep their control." I turned my gaze back towards the City. They knew the rest of the story about what I'd been working on since I got back here.

"I hope none of this changes anything between us." I ended story time there. My voice was starting to get a little raspy, and I was just plain talked out. My eyes took in their looks at each other, and my brain knew that whole conversations were passed between them. Not that I could get anything out of those looks myself.

Then I was being held, both forcefully and gently. Soon after but before I could comprehend what was going on, I was being kissed. Megan quickly mounted my lap, facing me. She held my face and applied soft but firm pressure to my lips with hers. My thoughts froze up for a second. Then her tongue slowly worked it's way into my mouth. I was confused for a minute until my thoughts had caught up, right this was normal. Very warm and pleasant. I tried to mirror her movements, becoming more adept and eager with every passing second. Just as I was about to take the initiative, she broke off the contact and Sally pulled my face firmly to the side.

Sally smashed her mouth into mine, allowing no time for adjustment. Oh. That was amazing. Sally was a fierce and demanding kisser. She wanted everything all at once and kept pushing for more of it. I felt like this was a battle and I'd better get with the program. I went on the attack trapping her tongue and pushing it around, making my own demands of her. I pulled back and nipped at her lips gently. Causing her to let out a giggle.

Our make out session continued and it was as if time had slowed down. Everything had a slow building tension as we took turns exploring each others mouths. Our tongues were dancing, playing and searching for the next interesting reaction. Honestly, I'd never known that simple kissing could be so... exciting.

It might even had led to other more interesting things, but we slowed down to soft caresses and more measured kisses, and then we stopped. It was extremely painful to do so as my excitement had reached near critical levels. Regrowth was no help at all, my biology was difficult to deny. Though when I cast it on them the ladies they both began to explode in ecstasy. Their cries made my problem worsen, soon the pain was almost blinding.

It was a long few minutes until I could calm down. Well, I'd gotten my answer. I thought it was a good one.

Eventually, after a quick Cleanse, we made our way over to where dinner was being served. Our faces were still flushed and we desperately wanted more.