Sabrina was looking at the machine I had built skeptically. “She looks like a sex doll. A really good quality one, but you left off things like eyelashes and stuff.”

I chuckled, “The mechanisms are there, but they are disconnected. This is not intended to run autonymously or with some kind of program, it’s a body. Installing an AI or something would not only be way beyond my skills, but pointless and probably dangerous.

“She’s strong and very fast, but not as strong or as fast as a standard class four physical brute, not quite. That was very much intentional. Like Mindy said, trust but verify. I am not going to be the one that brings about the machine apocalypse.”

I pointed out the bonuses. “Strong, fast. I haven’t installed any weapons or specialty systems. I thought about giving her an Inspector Gadget kit, but maybe the mark two… right now, just getting her nearly as functional as a human was hard enough, and it only works because I have hundreds of humans blueprinted I could use for inspiration. Technically, she’s still less than functional, since things like reproduction are beyond impossible, but most of what a human can do is possible, from energy-saving sleep mode to eating and drinking, tasting, feeling, and swimming, she can even fake a heartbeat with her circulatory system control.

“She can’t get through a metal detector, and her shielding means any kind of scanning will likely just give back a blur, and she should probably be secure against any sort of neurological monkeying, like a telepath. Cyberkinetics would have to get through her own aura to affect her, and Kendra’s one of the strongest cyberkinetics I know. Umm… only slightly more magnetic than a human body, able to survive and self-cool in most temperature extremes up to the melting temperature of iron or twelve degrees kelvin, and with pretty decent self-repair systems as long as Kendra can get the nodes working.”

I thought about what else. “Oh, she’s shielded as I said, so even if she gets hit by lightning she shouldn’t even stutter. Radiation and biologically immune, and even most acids shouldn’t cause more than a little smoke, the same as our suits since her skin is basically made out of a more tightly woven version. She might lose some hair if it grows, though.”

“Most of her should be bulletproof up to medium AP artillery. She doesn’t have the weight to stand and deliver, but I made sure to build her body on human bone structure and musculature, so if she knows how to punch someone, it should translate perfectly.”

She touched the drone’s hand. “Soft skin, and warm. A lot silkier than a human, she is going to have friction trouble if she decides to wear silk or satin.”

I shrugged, “She might have to use friction clamps. I also installed synthetic sweat glands, which only put out water or a clear bio-lubricant, but she can refill her reservoir if she needs to look like she’s sweating. It’s not likely to stink as it dries, though.”

Candace smiled a little, “Tier four brick, doesn’t stink when she sweats, can eat anything she wants without getting fat, can she have sex?”

I sighed, “According to Kendra, yes.”

Candace gave Sabrina a meaningful look, “I almost wish I could have a body like that of my own. Is there any particular reason you made her white?”

I shrugged, “Greek. She was based on Kendra’s original appearance. But she can alter her skin pigmentation and hair growth if she wants to look different.”

Sabrina looked curious, “So what is the hard part?”

I sighed, “Magic.”

“Huh?”

“Magic. She is an essence-user just like us. There are a ton of subsystems she is going to have to control with her powers. That means, unless I have a way for her to gather and store essence, she’s relying exclusively on her own spirit’s ability to gather and store essence. Without a body, it’s miniscule. That means magic, which I can’t do. Either that, or I am going to have to recharge her every few hours or she will shut down.”

Sabrina nodded, “I have a couple of cores, but she will probably overwhelm their ability to produce essence. And gems can store the energy, but she’d need a big one, probably expensive, at least as big as a Golem.”

“Gems? Cores?”

She nodded, “Yes. Cores, like the ones from those monsters you killed. The Kaiju have them, and the one from Orcules would probably have been big enough, but as it is you are going to need a gathering array. Either a small one, inside of the… body, or a big one she can use to recharge. You will also need a power gem, like maybe a piece of jade or a really big precious gem, and it has to be inscribed for gathering and releasing energy.”

“How big?”

She put two of her fists together. “Jade would do it, but other gems might also be good enough… I am not an enchanter, so I don’t know what else would be good.”

“Jadeite, like Indian Jade, or Nephrite, like Chinese Jade?”

She thought about it. “Chinese jade is better for absorbing energy quickly. You can actually kill a higher-ranked immortal using a nephrite weapon because it pulls out energy faster than they can use it to heal or protect themselves. Jadeite is probably more balanced, and would make a better essence battery.”

I nodded, “Okay, the aluminum, silicon, sodium, and oxygen. I can do that, but it will take a while and a lot of energy. The magic shit I can’t do, though.”

She shrugged, “You could ask Kali, qi sorcery is what they do, and if she can’t do it, she might be able to find someone that can.”

I walked over and knocked on Akyo’s door. She was home but had taken to withdrawing once she knew that I knew why she was there.

“Yes?”

“Akyo, can we talk to you?”

“Moment.”

After a few minutes, she came out dressed… well… very formally, or at least in a nice kimono although her hair was piled up a little messily. “You need my help.”

I nodded, and she sat on the couch, next to the body.

“I take it you heard the conversation?”

She nodded, and flicked her hair, after a moment a pair of fox ears appeared. “Yes. Us monsters have very good hearing.”

I chuckled, which I guess surprised her, and then said, “If you are a monster, so am I. So what do you think?”

She sighed. “I think you are going to ask me for a trade. What I want, or rather what I desperately need for the survival of my clan, for what you want, for your… toy.”

Candace glared at her, “What the fuck?”

Akyo glared right back. “Exactly right. I already offered a trade. My Yin for his cultivation assistance. My clan’s life and their FUTURE are at stake. He wants to play games like some kind of stuck-up young master. He’s no virgin, and what I am asking for would gain him everything and cost him nothing but a few moment’s pleasure. You ask like I am expecting to marry him or force him to join my clan, but I am not. I have made that very clear.”

I sighed and tried to play peacemaker. “You know, even if you can’t help, I am still willing to do that… coterie thing. No price, no giving up your yin. I won’t even ask for your help.”

She was in tears, “That won’t work! I am earth-aspected, all Husheng Huli Jing are earth-aspected. Or else I wouldn’t have waited and respected his choice. If I were a huxian like Daji, I would have just taken what I wanted from him.”

“But I am not. I won’t damn my soul to Nuwa’s tortures like that. And your coterie cultivation won’t work because your essence is opposed. If you tried to flood me with your essence without taking my Yin, you would kill me, like flooding a naiad with fire essence. Even running it through a spoiler, like you did for Cadence, would kill me.”

Sabrina sighed, “She’s right. If she’s fully yin-aspected with pure earth law, which she would be as a female divine fox, the only way you could help free her from the… chaos butthole would be to take her yin as you dual cultivate. Otherwise, your motion-affinity yang would overwhelm her earth yin, and shatter her core, which for a spirit creature means death.”

“So basically, the only way to save her is to fuck her.”

Sabrina shrugged helplessly. “If you were a virgin, she could rape you instead, and overwhelm your yang with her yin, and shatter your core instead. You are human, you could probably survive it. It’s been known to happen.”

“This fucking sucks.”

Akyo shook her head, “No, it wouldn’t. I imagine it would be wonderful if you didn’t hate me. But I still can’t convince you that I am not Christine, none of us can. But if you want me to call our formation expert, you are going to have to offer more than I can accept.”

I never in my life imagined that a girl would beg me for sex. Okay, I had imagined it, but not like this. The worst part was, it was weirdly appealing and would be more so if she didn’t keep holding out her yin as a bribe like I was getting paid for it. Call me old-fashioned, but that sort of pissed me off.

“Akyo, you want to know why I haven’t taken you to bed? I mean, besides the fact that I really like Abbey and can see me spending my life with her?”

“Yes.”

“Two reasons. The first one is, that I like you very much, and you will LEAVE me. Period. I don’t want to get emotionally attached to a woman that will fucking abandon me at the drop of a hat. I get your reasons, but it really pisses me off. The second reason is that you keep holding out your yin as a sort of payment. The fact that you would even think that I would accept payment for something that’s supposed to be a wonderful intimacy between a man and a woman is both humiliating and incredibly insulting.

“If you want to call me a young master type for calling out the insult, fine, but I refuse to scream ‘you dare?’ about it. It’s not a transaction. I won’t accept your money, I won’t accept your yin, and I won’t accept your formation master’s help in exchange for something that’s not about money!”

“Damn…” Candace said, “Then why wouldn’t you sleep with me?”

I chuckled at Candace, “Because you are my friend, and if I did, I’d be a notch on your bedpost instead. Plus, if I did, I’d want to tie you face-down to a bed and take you from behind while I swatted your ass until it turned pink and you cried. I am pretty sure that’s not your thing.”

She shivered a little, and then smirked, “Is that Abbey’s thing?”

I shrugged, “She won’t sleep with me until I either put a ring around her finger or a collar around her neck, what do you think?”

Sabrina chirped quietly, “I think this is a conversation I shouldn’t be listening to.”

Candace laughed loudly, “I probably would be into it, but I’d want you to let me do the same thing. But I hear you. It would change the team dynamic a lot. I will ease off for now. But if Abbey thinks she’s got a lock, she has another think coming!”

I facepalmed. “I thought you just said you were going to ease off.”

“Huh?”

“You got the saying right. Another think coming instead of another thing. You might as well have shown me your tits.”

Candace looked at me oddly. “You are so weird.”

“Come with me,” Akyo said, suddenly.

I looked at her, “What?”

“Come with me, to Japan. That’s where the Husheng clans are holed up, temporarily, with our kitsune cousins. The Huwang clans have control of the mainland, because they are embracing the chaos instead of fighting it, and have made...deals, with the human governments to help control the Kaiju. They are sending the Kaiju to Japan instead of letting them land on mainland China, and for it, they have gained power among the alphas, along with the support of the Oni clans and human government.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Come with me to Tokyo, just temporarily, and bring your… construct with you. I will talk to the elders, and maybe we can convince them to let me return with you. It won’t be a deal, it will just be talking, but the elders are likely to expect some sort of deal. That way it won’t be me asking for an exchange. I hated offering it anyway, but I felt like I had no other choice.”

I sighed and touched my headpiece. “Mindy, I know you are in class, but I need my sponsor.”

“Sure. Be right there.”

After a few minutes, Mindy came into the suite, looking a little out of breath. “What do you need?”

I sighed. “I have been made an offer, but I don’t know if I can take it. The thing is, it’s really important on a huge number of levels.”

She smiled a little, “Oh thank god. I have been your sponsor this whole time and you have never even once asked for my help AS your sponsor. What’s the problem?”

I glanced at Akyo. “Well, I have been invited to Tokyo. Plusses? It’s a chance to grow my power, get ahold of information I desperately need about magic stuff, get Kendra’s body ready for her to inhabit it, and possibly even show off my new toy, the one everyone is sure the defense department is going to reject, off to the Japanese government. Maybe make some money, and even possibly get Akyo on our team permanently.”

She looked shocked, “Okay, that’s a huge number of plusses. So what are the downsides?”

I glanced at Akyo, who sighed, wiping her eyes a little. “The downside is that he might be expected to do favors for my clan for a while, and most likely they will expect him to stay for a while… at least a semester, probably through summer break.”

“What kinds of favors?”

Akyo looked a little mortified, “Power favors, probably, especially if they have to connect him to the defense ministry. I am not sure why he wants to talk to them, but it’s a big ask. Also umm… intimate favors, maybe. Probably for me, maybe for someone else.”

She looked at me, “And how do YOU feel about that?”

I sighed. “I won’t be roped into having sex with a bunch of people I don’t know, but they might accept power favors instead, which I am fine with.”

Mindy nodded, thinking about it. “I can clear the way, with a couple of conditions.”

I nodded, “Go for it.”

“First off, you have already been cleared to test out of most of your courses. You are already on track for teamwork, but you know Jupier’s going to expect you to continue your martial arts courses… especially if you are in Japan. Lots of good places to train there.”

Akyo nodded, “That I can promise for him. If I tell my father he needs to keep training, he will literally fall over himself to get him under local instructors, especially if it involves chi manipulation.”

Mindy smiled at Akyo, “Secondly, you have to come back. We are your team. If you are not back by the beginning of your second year, I will tell Bob you have been kidnapped again, and we will come in force to get you. I also expect you to stay in touch, especially with Abbey, she has to stay for her courses.”

“Thirdly, if you DO decide to sleep with someone else, I expect you to come back and do the same for me.”

Candace cackled loudly, “I should make the same rule. Hah! Show of hands, who in this room doesn’t want to get boned by Mister Perfect here?”

There were no hands, which surprised me, but not as much as Mindy’s declaration.

My helmet said, in the staticky external speaker, “My hand is down too.”

“What?”

Kendra chuckled, “If that body works, I want to have sex too. I haven’t done it in over fifty years. Right now, if I could, I would jump ANYONE that wanted to go for it, unless they were absolute scum. Maybe even them if they took a shower. And I am not so far gone that I don’t notice that Jake is hot as hell. Heck, if I could, I’d even jump Candace, and I was never into girls.”

I shook my head and glanced at Sabrina, who surprisingly had her hand down. “Even you?”

She shrugged, “You are a hero. You saved me at great risk even if it was a setup. You are also really...I agree with Kendra. I don’t have yin to offer, Adrian took that years ago without even knowing its value, and he expected me to seduce you into working for him, but I wanted to for myself too. And then you offered to try and save my family when you can, even knowing I was a traitor. If you had asked, I would have ripped off my clothes in a second. I was going to ask when we were in Jersey, but it was too dangerous.”

Candace cackled again gleefully, “See, your slave harem is nearly complete, master!”

“Oh jeesh…”

Mindy shook her head at Candace, “You are going to shut it down for all of us. I don’t want to be part of a harem, I just… I am in the same court as Sabrina. The minute I figured out he was… that he saved a bunch of innocents from my fuck-up, I wanted to do whatever I could, and I still do.”

Candace sighed, “Am I the ONLY one that was thinking about the size of his tackle when he ran through here naked?” At the silence from the rest, she laughed again evilly, “Hah! I knew it! Do you know how many girls have tried to get close to me and be my special friend just because I was on his team? Especially after what happened to Frost Phoenix? Did you know that she just rocked the number twelve slot for personal combat? They want that, PLUS they want his body.”

Mindy looked at me, “Right. Get your exams passed. Sign up as a teacher’s assistant for next year, and then get out of here. Some people have been trying to get close to me, as your sponsor, for exactly the same reason. I think, for your sanity, you might need to make yourself scarce for a while.”

***

Yes, I get it. Schools like the academy are not designed for people with perfect recall. Biogenetics and leadership were extremely simplistic, and I even corrected two of the essay questions because they were… well… stupid. The tests were ready on the tablets when I decided to take them, no doubt due to the two teachers telling me I didn’t belong there. Rendition seemed entirely too eager to see me next year as a teaching assistant.

Radiology and materials as well as power exploitation were pass/fail labs, and after what had happened in the video, both of my teachers were more than happy to mark them as a pass.

Teamwork was, of course, a mandatory course, but there were instructors, and Mindy got it postponed for next year. Since teamwork was only mandatory for the first four semesters, and I clearly had control of my powers in a team setting, there was no real flack for taking a bow, especially since I had aced introductory.

I decided NOT to try for the ladder competitions because I didn’t have to as a first-year, and even if my gear was perfect, it would take a while to get it assessed competitively. Akyo, for some reason, wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

“So how are we getting there?” I asked as I packed up some clothes. Despite certain people’s insistence, I was wearing Kendra’s armor, but her body was going to be coming along later as part of a heavy transport escorted by two class six alphas. It was expensive, especially at short notice, but did I mention she was loaded?

She smiled, “You broke through… how fast can you transfer now?”

I thought about it for a second, “About umm… no way, you want me to transit there?”

She nodded, “You have transited me before.”

“Yeah, but that’s like three solid hours! With a passenger! I have never traveled that far before. And transit is… weird. I mean, how do I know you will still be alive when we get there?”

Akyo looked up at me with big eyes, “I trust you.”

“Well, I don’t trust me. How about… umm.. I travel for fifteen minutes, and then we stop and make sure you are okay. Little jumps, and then big jumps later if it’s okay.”

She shrugged, “If that makes you feel comfortable. Like I said, you transited me before. It feels a lot like earth transmission, except you control it and it’s a lot faster. Like I said, I trust you.”

I sighed. And we checked our stuff. Both of us had on armored daypacks with some clothes and emergency items, and were wearing our armor, which I had insisted on. Quiet Code’s upgrades had worked great, even on the mark fives which she was wearing, but Kendra insisted she could do better, when we got a chance.

“How’s your energy?” she asked. She was wearing the Mark Five light, which made her look every inch a superheroine, the kind guys would hang posters over their beds. Fortunately, it was dense enough that you couldn’t actually tell if she was turned on, but it still showed off her great little body. Mine was the mark four heavy, which meant I looked a lot… lumpier, but I didn’t need artificial enhancements to look like I worked out regularly, because I did.

We stepped out of the dorm building, and I replied, “Good. Holding steady at twelve K. Transitting will be a little more expensive if we stop regularly since movement doesn’t burn energy, but starting and stopping…”

“Blueprint!” I heard a shrill voice call out.

I glanced around. Dammit. I knew that voice. After a moment, I whispered to Akyo, “Please just roll with this, okay?”

At her quick nod, I flipped up her visor, although with our rigs, that didn’t actually expose our faces except for the lower half, and holographics made sure that no recognition software on the planet would be able to identify us. A bit pointless, I know, but at least it kept our identities out of the public eye. I tugged her towards me, bending over, and put my hand on the rounded curve of her bottom as I gave her an urgent kiss.

Okay, she wasn’t a great kisser, but she sure put her heart into it. Her tongue, too. I guess a lack of experience, but apparently eagerness made up for it. After a few moments, I felt a hand grab my shoulder and start to tug on me, which I ignored for a few moments before finally releasing Akyo’s lips and turning towards the source of the noise.

“What? I asked Crystal. “Who are you? How did you get on campus?”

She shook her head. I had to admit that she was gorgeous even if I was currently doing my best to ignore her, and her contraweave was doing it’s absolute best to show it off. Then again, she was a member of the Flare, and being gorgeous was sort of their whole reason for existing. Perfect blonde hair, high, firm boobs, great legs, five and a half feet tall plus another four inches in heels that looked extremely impractical to fight in… and I knew what she looked like naked. Then again, it wasn’t her body I despised, it was what was on the inside that counts.

“I am part of Empire’s number one superteam! This is Kellar, of course they let me in! Look, I know things went badly, but we need to talk.”

She looked furious “I am your girlfriend, idiot! How dare you!”

Did she really just use the young master line? “No, this is my girlfriend, I am going to have to ask you to let go and leave me alone.”

“No, we need to talk alone. Look, you didn’t understand what I was going through. There were mistakes made.”

I growled and did the only thing I could think of. I am not very good at emergency interpersonal communications, obviously.“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

She scowled, “You know exactly who I am, mister.”

I grinned, “I literally have no interest whatsoever in dealing with you.” I brushed her hand off, but she was holding my armor pretty tightly, and she did have class three strength. After a moment I slid my thumb under her hand and wrenched her hand off of my shoulderplate, twisting her wrist so that her torso bent trying not to hurt her wrist.

“What? What are you doing, asshole!” she screeched, her body starting to shift to its crystalline form.

“What I should have done already. You don’t get to touch me, lady.”

“I will sue!” she said, yanking back, her eyes starting to glow.

Oh boy. Oh boy. Was she really going to cut loose? Here in the middle of campus, with all of the students and some of the staff watching?

I carefully formulated an energy capture point defense shield. She used lasers, but they weren’t force lasers or particle cannons, which meant that my kinetics might not work well. I could probably blunt them a little with air shields to change their focus, but I’d be relying on my armor and the ability to bend the light wave's direction or spread its focus if she shot.

“Heat distribution activated.” I heard Kendra state coolly. Oh. Nice.

“Go ahead. Burn me.” I said quietly. “Do it. I swear, I want you to. I haven’t had a good fight in a while, and some strange bitch accosting me with powers is a good reason to deliver a righteous beatdown that someone clearly is begging for.” I slapped my palms together, forcing a crackle of static electricity to race along my arms, strong enough to cause everyone’s hair in the vicinity to rise a little.

She shifted back to her human form in an instant, bursting into tears. “How can you! I am just trying to make things right! What’s wrong with you?”

I grinned, broadly. And she caught the expression. “What! Why are you smiling?”

I chuckled, “I don’t know who you are, but watching you cry is fun. Now go away, I am busy.” I raised my voice a little, “No miss, look, if you want an autograph, you will have to go through my sponsor!” I noticed several tablets pointed towards us, which meant someone was going to download it to the school’s network. But for now, I had done what I needed to do, and we vanished.

Mach… friggin… three. Holy cripes, it was fast!

Fifteen minutes later, we arrived in Ohio, in some of the scrubland surrounding a lake. Not really hot monster territory, which was why I chose it. It was outside of the ‘reduced’ chaos area from my breakthrough, but it wasn’t exactly packed with edible sapients or even animal life, anymore.

Akyo glanced up at me. “That was fast. I thought you were going for fifteen minutes?”

I chuckled, “That was fifteen minutes. It seems to sort of… suspend people traveling with me, I think because their motion stops completely. That’s probably what keeps them safe.”

She nodded, “That was… kind of vicious.”

I sighed, “Sorry, but she’s getting on my nerves. Every time I forget she exists, she shows up again and tries to rub her tits in my face. Don’t get me wrong, they are great tits, but like my mom always says, it’s what’s inside that counts… and she’s rotten inside.”

Akyo giggled, “My mom used to say the same thing, but I think she meant that you should look past a homely exterior and see the beauty inside.”

I shrugged helplessly.

She snorted, and then said, “I almost wish you’d have let me at her. I know you don’t need a girl to fight your battles, but being mean, for good reasons, is awfully tempting. Plus wow. I kind of want to go back to get another kiss. That was much better than I expected. Can we do that again?”

I nodded, “Sure, I liked it too. You really mean it when you kiss. But not right this second…” I noticed she seemed to be feeling fine, so I wrapped an arm around her and we blitzed again.