She lay in Beauregard's arms for several hours as she drifted in and out of sleep. Occasionally they would both be semi-conscience at the same time, and speak random things to one another.

She would drift back off and mostly forget them. Did he propose to her in one of those drifting rants? Tasìa wasn't certain, but neither would she blame him if he did.

She felt that even for the first time, she was just that good.

Only a few things did she retain from their exchange: he said something about coming down to South America because of the natural earth-based beauty of the women. This was solicited from her apology for smelling like hell from her earlier adventures that evening.

He also said he co-owned the restaurant and bar Señora Azul with his sister. He managed the bar, his sister did likewise for the restaurant.

Tasìa enjoyed laying on his torso with his warm flesh and hairy chest against her body. His hands cupped her haunches. The kneeding he did to her vertebrae she never wanted to stop.

Tasìa chuckled silently as she thought of how it began. It was almost a disaster. After she removed her clothes, she sashayed her hips over to him as she showed off her boobs and burly curls.

At that moment, as she tried to affect the persona of a hot little number with all her shit put together in both body and in mind, it occurred to her that she had earlier engaged the Modality just before she killed the phase beast.

If she were to have an orgasm, while riding on top of poor, unsuspecting Beauregard, well ...ouch.

"Oops, just one moment, por favor," she insisted with a finger in the air to signify her designated pause.

"I need to take care of something."

Tasìa found a half empty, clear plastic cup. She threw the beer within off the side of the patio. Tasìa then lifted a leg, sat her foot up against a table and peed into it.

A frothy concoction that appeared prettier and more appealing than the beer that she just had replaced. It hissed and sizzled, like it brewed inside the cup something evil, however.

Beauregard was alarmed by the sight of it, but he had the good mannered graces to not say anything.

After that little dust up, everything turned out nice. No. It turned out perfect.

After the fourth hour of drifting sleep and coupling, Tasìa forced herself up. The Dawn was about to break.

"Hey. I'm going to get going, okay? We no longer have the cover of the darkness to clothe us.

"This isn't the professional district," he pleaded. "No one cares what two lovers are doing in the open air, here. They are just thinking, 'that beautiful couple. They are adorable together.'

She giggled. What a sales man!

"That's a very sweet thought, and I wished it were true."

They joined lips for several minutes. A slight rumble vibrated the patio. Tasìa backed off.

"Did you feel that?"

"Probably, just a quake. We get them. They are never more than that."

She smiled while thinking how lovely his blue eyes were just then as he tried to convince her that everything was just peachy.

"I'll have to take your word for it."

"When can I see you again," he asked.

"The next time I get horny, I guess."

Tasìa chuckled at the little white lie. In truth, she was always horny.

"I'll see you soon."

With that, she got dressed and left him there to slumber away.

Well, with that out of the way, that being her virginity, Tasìa asked herself:

What are you going to do with the rest of your life? What's next for Tasìa?

She needed to run one last errand, but she reeked too much of love-making and adventure to be out in public. Tasìa shook her head. The rest of the world would just have to live with it.

Tasìa revved up the engine. It was time to visit the QuickMart and grab a case of Ki-Jack All Natural Gensing Energy Elixer for her training in the morning before she jumped back to bed at Annebél's place.

Nothing less than ten good hours of sleep would off-set the wear and tear from this evening's events.

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All QuickMart's were similar in design. The biofuel tower stations dominated the immediate skyline.

She pulled up and parked beside an outgoer bin used for drone pickups. With a peak inside of it, her curiosity became engaged. Inside was a pile of boots.

Silky gray, giant-spider-hide ones. The same that she purchased off of the Quick Mart clerk in Villa Marron.

"Well, that's curious."

Tasìa walked into the store, and waved her arms to get the attention of the clerk. His attention was locked in on a football game.

It took her a few more, "hey! Hey, you," to get him to acknowledge her existence.

"What can I do to help you?"

"Those boots out there in the bin, what's up with that?"

"Recall."

"Really?"

"Yep. They have to be sent back. Apparently, the hides of dead spiders attract the attention of live spiders. Live giant spiders. That's more liability than the company is willing to assume."

"Well, ain't that a bitch."

"Especially for the girls who got eaten alive last week."

She didn't hear anything about that tragic event, but Tasìa had little time to pay attention to the news. She was too busy being the news.

With that thought, Tasìa realized that she never once asked herself:

How much public attention did her escape get?

The clerk's attention returned back to the game.

Well, he certainly did not recognize her.

Tasìa grabbed a cart and she mosied between the shopping lanes of the Quick Mart.

Annebél's cubbards were bare. Tasìa needed to stock a few things for her own stay as Annebél's guest. She found four different varieties of beef jerky, for her protein needs. She threw in a bag of spiced chicharrones for variety.

Scanning the choices in cuisine surrounding her, Tasìa thought of the Modality read-out. She hoped that one day she could learn to control and engage it to do as she commanded. If it could give her nutritional information that she could use after her workouts to heal that would prove highly beneficial.

With that in mind what would she do for carbohydrate intake?

Her answer was obvious. She found the beer isle of the refrigeration section. The selection wasn't nearly as varied or as qualitative as the selection at the Señora Azul.

She added a case of Sachmilli's favorite, Quilmes, to her shopping cart. It was instock at all Quick Marts.

Tasia gave some more thought to the repair on her knee that the Modality performed based upon her caloric intake. It stated in its readout that the repair work covered a little more than forty percent of the total of a full physiological recovery.

Honestly, she did not feel any incumbrance in her knee since the treatment she received at the Modality's behest.

Neither in battle, walking, or in love making.

Did the repairs offset the pain receptor response? A curiosity she would have to explore further.

Tasìa stared at a pack of frozen salmon. Annebél had a grill in her backyard, and Tasìa had the perfect sauce recipe for salmon steak on the grill.

Pineapple syrup, hot sauce, dash of soy, habanero peppers and onions cut fine. However, she would have to go to a better stocked grocery store to make that a reality.

Perhaps tomorrow, but not today.

Her right bum cheek vibrated. It wasn't from the pleasant stroke of a man's hands but from an annoying phone. Tasìa forgot that she had slipped Val's phone in her back pocket.

Someone was calling him. It could prove to be useful to her investigation if she could blind side a potential witness. Tasìa glanced at the display, no information was given for the caller.

Even the digits were encoded in letters that she recognized as the common Finnish grammar as it now displayed before her in a dizzying array of font sizes.

She was almost anxious about this new mystery just now coming out of the blue, but Tasìa had to answer.

"Hello?"

"Apologies for no introductory nicities, but Tasìa, my dearest, you have to retrieve the neoPalm, immediately."

It was Demona Hellöiste.

"It's damaged beyond repair," Tasìa stated. Her tiredness gave her voice a matter-of-fact edge.

"A contraire, mon ami. In the right set of conditions, the device will repair itself."

"What?"

"Retrieve it, and I will tell you how to go about repairing the neoPalm from there."

Tasìa squatted to rest her back against a wall. There were only a few customers inside this early in the morning.

"Demona. I can't. You have no idea what kind of day I have had."

"Oh, but I most certainly do! I watched you the entire time. I mean while you were on the patio. Love making. Wish I could have joined you. Your man is gorgeous, and your body is a perfect physical specimen, but my reintergration into the natural world is far from complete at this time."

Tasìa smiled at the compliment.

"Oh, Demona I am far from perfect. Too short for modeling. No one is going to want me to be modeling on a runway. Besides, I have to recuperate for the rest of the day, so I can get back over there, I mean.

There was a moment of silence before Demona continued speaking.

"I'm sorry I missed judged you. From your previous actions, I assumed you wanted to save the world from nihilistic destruction."

Tasìa shook her head, vigorously. The clumsy attempt at persuasion from Demona's AI, if that is what it was, and not something altogether even weirder, left her feeling cold.

From the little that she could discern of Demona's plans, they seemed to be just as genocidal as the rest of the world's game players.

She was a freakin' Satanist, afterall.

Instead, Tasìa quoted from her grandfather's favorite musician. He would play the ancient vinal LPs of stereophonic music from a hundred years past. This particular line stuck with her.

"Fall mountain. Just don't fall on me."

With some measure of contrition in her tone, Demona replied, "okay. I understand I'm pushing you a little hard. But, you do plan to be in the vicinity of my device later this evening, correct?"

"As I implied before, that's correct."

"If you could retrieve the neoPalm, I'll take care of that insect problem on that roof, for you."

"All right," Tasìa was feeling very tired at this point. She stood up and put several bags of cashews and pistachios in her cart. "That's reasonable enough."

Demona gave her a farewell in a language Tasìa did not recognize before she hung up.

Tasìa put her groceries away, she took a shower, changed her clothes, and before she headed to bed she remembered to remove the PA from her pants pocket before she put the pants themselves in a hamper.

She placed the PA on the nightstand. As she climbed underneath the sheets, she eyed the Sportive Magician on the opposite side of the bed. As much as she would have loved to, did she even have the energy for a go at it at the moment?

She smiled at the thought of ending the evening with a happy little buzz but her lids were drooping, and she was fading out fast.

No. She did not.

The PA started vibrating against the nightstand. It squealed an alarm of extreme annoyance.

She retrieved it. An emergency alert. Words scrolled by - the IMCQ compound destroyed by a nuclear explosion one hour ago - according to the alert.

Tasìa was so tired, she could not even tense up to acknowledge the incident. Faces of her friends, Felicité, Marcìa, and Missi drifted in her mind. Those who would likely have been killed.

Just before she drifted off into slumber, Tasìa murmured, "Well, fuck me to tears. I forgot to save the world."