Shady and Mike - 07:46 - Day 2
In the early morning of the next day, Shady sat in the Cafeteria, doing a daily routine check of her cyber arms, to her surprise no fixes were needed, which was unusual, normally always something needed to be fixed. So in addition to keeping everyone healthy Qualli’s space station also does the maintenance of artificial body parts. On the other side of a table sat Mike who was gulping down his third bowl of cereal. She herself was snacking on one of Qualli's bars, holding it into her mouthpiece on the side of her face display. She could feel the light vibration when the mouthpiece was grinding the bar to powder. Since she got her face display and cyber arms she wasn’t able to eat like before, but that was years ago and she didn’t mind. Her face display was able to analyze the taste of the food anyways, so she still was able to enjoy the best from eating, that and the nutrition of course. By now everything was operational and the cafeteria was run by another sentinel, wearing a chef’s uniform, although all that the giant was doing was bringing the order from a small opening in the kitchen wall, once somebody placed an order, and cleaning the dishes. Actually, the food menu was humongous, but Shady knew that a healthy body also came with a disciplined mind, that’s why she only ordered a ‘breakfast’ bar. Why Mike ordered cereal instead of the usual fast food he normally shoveled down his throat was a mystery to her, in fact, being up this early in the morning was highly uncharacteristic for him. For most of the breakfast, they quietly kept each other company until he looked at her and she could see a trace of a smile wrinkling up his face. Somebody who didn’t know him so well wouldn’t notice it at all, but she worked long enough with him that she knew he was thinking some bullshit again. Probably something inappropriate. “What?” She asked him. He grinned and took his time chewing before he swallowed and asked back. “Sooo…semi-alive butt plugs? That’s your jam?” Her face display went blank, as so often when she got too embarrassed or surprised. She wanted to throw a chair at him but the energy balls froze her body on the spot, it felt weird, almost like sleep paralysis. She sighed and let her sudden anger pass, simultaneously the energy balls disappeared, and answered. “What else is a woman supposed to do when there are no suitable men in her area? Have you seen the guys at HQ? Half of them are limp from meds and those who boast to bring it have the stamina of a senior. At least with adult toys, you can push the right buttons.”
“I’m a guy from HQ,” he countered. “You could have come to me, I would have given mommy sugar anytime she wants it. When I smoke the right sativa-indica-hyprid my stamina is almost unlimited.” he laughed. “Eww, no offense Mike, but if I want a skinny junkie's body rubbing against mine I just could go to any alley in L.A.2, and probably still have a better time than with you.” She shot back.
To somebody who didn’t know them, it might seem like they were fighting, but it was something they did for fun once in a while when Schwarz wasn’t around them.
He smiled. “Is that so? Well, I’m only sorry for your future boyfriend. How can an honest guy compete with all the freakish sex toys you have on your nightstand.” She shrugged. “Boyfriend? Yeah, right. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Says the guy who got caught masturbating, in a cabin in the woman’s shower room, when the new recruits arrived.”
“Fair enough.” He stood up to get a refill. “Why are you devouring that much cereal anyway?” She asked him. He shook his head. “I don’t know, I’m suddenly craving it, might be because of the implanted memories coming back, nothing concrete yet, I’ll let you and Schwarz know asap.”
Before their diss contest could continue Qualli and two of his sentinels entered the cafeteria. The alien didn’t look all too well, and his sentinels went straight for the kitchen. Shady and Mike waved in greeting, and the jellyfish sat down on the table next to her. “Guys please keep this for yourself but I screwed up.” He said. “What do you mean?” asked Mike. Qualli rubbed his eyes. “See for yourself, you will understand soon.” His eyes were fixated on the swing door to the kitchen, after a moment they could hear a loud ruckus behind it. The door swung open and the familiar voice of Anastasia cut through the air. “You fucking rubber duck, get your molester hands off me!” One of the sentinels walked out of the door having her thrown over his shoulder, she was hitting it with her fists, without getting frozen in place. It seemed like the energy balls only formed when there was violent intent against another ‘guest’. Good thing to know. Shady noted. Behind the one that’s carried Anastasia the other one appeared, holding a passed-out Daiyu in his arms. Both women looked way too pale to be considered healthy, Anastasia's eyes searched the room and widened with hate when she saw them. “You scum, it was you! Right? Wait till I get out of here…” she tried to wiggle herself out of the sentinel's grip but got frozen with energy balls, probably because she decided to attack Shady or Mike. Qualli flew to her and touched her forehead. “Sleep now child,” he said with glowing eyes. Anastasia's body went limp and the sentinels carried her and Daiyu away.
“So what was that about?” asked Shady. Qualli looked uncomfortable but answered. “Well, you remember when they went ahead without the watch right? I sent two of my sentinels to catch them, but when the two hid in the cold storage room I decided to teach them a lesson so they would stay inside a little bit longer, you know, as a small punishment. But then somebody locked the door with a chair and the poor souls have been in there since yesterday.”
Shady and Mike looked at each other and after a moment of silence, they started laughing. Qualli looked confused. “What the hell is wrong with you? I just told you what happened to them, it’s not funny.” But that only triggered another wave of laughter. For the first time ever Qualli looked angry. “Are you insane? How can you laugh? They were suffering, the entire night, almost freezing to death and passing out, just to be kept alive by the life support system.” After trying really hard Shady and Mike had themselves under control, Mike wiped away a tear and asked. “So what’s the big deal? They are our enemies anyway, and it’s like you said, the live support kept them alive.” Qualli sadly looked at them. “Looks like you both still have a long way to go.”
Shady asked. “So why didn’t you check on them later?” Quallis's face went pale. “I…forgot.”
Shady's face display showed an (O.o) “What?”
Qualli raised his tentacles in frustration. “I just forgot okay? Can’t I be a normal guy who forgets things from time to time?”
Mike laughed. “Says the octopus.” Qualli didn’t even bother to react to that, he flew away. “Okay, gotta go. Catch you guys later. Bye.” And he followed his sentinels.
“Well, I guess now is as good as any time. I go check on the Boss, he said he wants my help this morning.” Shady stood up and brushed the crumbs from her pajama, Mike waved goodbye while shoveling more cereal into his mouth. With fast steps, she walked through the doorway and ran into Manch. He screamed and fell over, splashing a bowl of milk all over his clothes. “Can’t you see where you going bitch!?” For a moment they stared at each other in awe, then he said. “Wait a moment, you just fucking ran me over!” She nodded. “I just fucking ran you over!” Manch got back on his feed. “This shouldn’t be possible. Common give it a try, hit me.” Shady struck out but the moment she was about to reach him she got frozen by the energy balls.
Mike who heard the noise joined them and asked. “What’s going on here?” Shady unfroze and pointed her finger at him. “Mike! Close your eyes and wave around your arms like a windmill.” He looked confused. “What?” Manch got excited and also told him. “Shut up and do as she says!” Mike shrugged.”Err, okay…” He closed his eyes and rotated his arms wildly. Manch slowly approached him, step by step, until Mike's hand smacked him in the face. “Ouch!” Mike opened his eyes surprised. “I just fucking hit you.” Manch grinned brightly. “You just fucking hit me. I think it’s possible because you weren’t actively planning to do so.” Shady agreed.” Seems like the system only intervenes when hostile intent is detected, hence if it’s an accident it is possible to strike somebody.” Mike scratched his chin.”This is really valuable information, with this we might be able to kill that alien motherfucker.” The excitement of the discovery made them forget that they usually were enemies, for a moment at least. Mike noticed the bowl next to Manch.” Don’t tell me you were eating cereals.” Manch frowned. “Yes, why?” Shady and Mike exchanged quick looks and she said. “He was gulping down gallons of that just before.” Manch eyes widened. “Okay, let’s go back inside before somebody notices us standing around here.” Especially that annoying geezer. He thought. Together they returned to the same table. They didn’t even sit down yet and Manch asked Mike. “Did you also have that dream?”
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“What dream?” responded Mike and Shady at the same time, Manch sighed. “I see you didn’t. I had a dream last night, from a perfect version of our universe. I think our graving for cereal was triggered by the implementation of foreign memories, we just need to figure out why.” Shady started laughing, even with her monotonous voice it sounded sneering. "We? What makes you think we would work with you? Have you forgotten who our boss is?" Manch raised an eyebrow. "You mean who your boss was, right? Have you already forgotten what Qualli said? In his realm, our old ties to each other are meaningless. You can do whatever you want." She wanted to add something but Mike hold up his hand and interrupted them. “He is right on that. Also, we both got memories from the alien. It would be better if we figured out what is what together. Remember, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Times have changed.” At first it looked like Shady was against it, but she relented. "All right, let’s work together. But leave it to me to tell Schwarz about our new little alliance. Not that he'll kill you after all." Beads of sweat formed on Manch's forehead as he imagined what Schwarz would do to him if he found out there was a way around Qualli's countermeasures. Shady's wristwatch chimed with an annoying ringtone. “Speak of the devil.” It was Schwarz. Calls on the wristwatch got directly transmitted to the user’s brain, it wasn’t necessary to talk. Just imagining speaking was enough to share information. “Got to go, see you around.” And with a mocking hand wave to Manch, she strolled away. Before she left the hall she could hear Manch ask Mike. “She wouldn’t tell him, right?” Mike answered. “Ehehe… nah man. You are too useful, don’t worry about it.” You mean as long as you are useful. She thought.
After a small walk, she entered the multi-purpose room where the bake-off would be held. It was designed like a large arena with nine cooking stations, although not all of them would be in use on the contest day, Shady had no interest in participating. She found Schwarz practicing at one of the cooking stations, and his outfit threw her off at first. He was wearing a large apron and a patisserie hat but under that nothing else than his tanga. I better not comment on it, just pretend everything is normal. Schwarz was an awesome fighter and leader, but a terrible liar, especially when he tried to cover up bad decisions. It didn’t happen too often but when it did it was all too obvious. Now he was just forcing himself to wear it so that nobody would think he made a mistake, which of course was exactly what everybody was thinking. He looked like the stripper version of Santa Claus and greeted her when she approached him while he was melting chocolate in a pod. “Hey Shady.” She returned the greeting. “Sup Boss.”
“Who would have taught that cooking with a tanga would be so refreshing? It really helps to focus.” He opened the conversation. Are you fucking kidding me? Shady replied. “Yea… who would have thought right? Good for you. So…how is everything going?”
“Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.” He smiled at her.
“Schwarzwälder…what?” She couldn’t repeat it completely.
He nodded. “Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. I looked it up in the Pc-Room. It’s an old german receipt, and I’m going to win the bake-off with it.”
"Good, good." She decided to tell him at least part of what had happened. "Listen boss, and please don't get mad ... Mike's on to something, along with Manch." The metal ladle in his huge hand bent and made a squeaking sound as he suddenly tightened his grip. He didn't look happy about it, but he said nothing and kept stirring. That’s a better reaction than expected. She used his silence to hastily continue her explanation. “So Mike was shoveling cereals down his through like crazy this breakfast and at first I thought it was some weird side effect of withdrawal but…” She skipped the part where she accidentally pushed over Manch, for now. “… and it turns out Manch was doing the same thing. We think it has something to do with the memory transfer from Qually. Maybe they soon start remembering stuff.”
Schwarz silently kept stirring for a while, but then he nodded and said. “Well keep me updated. But don’t trust Manch, remember what I told you…” Shady agreed. “Yea, I know. He killed your last team.” He nodded again, grimly. “Now help me with the cake. Will ya?”
Eris - 07:59 - Day 2
After discovering her little Onsen paradise Eris spent a large amount of time there, according to Gregor too much time. After an, more than expected, refreshing sleep in her quarters and a light breakfast, she couldn’t help to resist revisiting her new refuge. She had just entered the hottest basin when heavy footsteps came fast closer behind the door. The decorative vegetation already hid her well from potential viewers, but for some reason she instinctively let herself sink deeper into the hot water. Not a second too late, the door opened and Qualli followed by two of his sentinels carrying Daiyu and Anastasia walked in. What’s going on? Both women were unconscious, luckily nobody noticed Eris in her hideout. Qualli wasn’t speaking but it seemed like they were communicating in other ways not audible to the human ear. The sentinels put both women into the next basin and Qualli touched their foreheads. He kind of seemed worried, if that’s an expression the alien was capable of. His eyes began to glow and after a while, he let go of Anastasia, whatever he was doing with her now he seemed satisfied. Next, he focused back on Daiyu and he looked worried again. His eyes began to shine bright. Nothing that Eris experienced so far could have prepared her for what followed next. Daiyu’s body floated slowly up over the onsen and her skin started to peel off as if she was a giant banana, but it didn’t fall in the water it kept floating at some distance around the rest of her body. But that was just the beginning. The muscles gently moved aside and revealed the organs, the rips bent outward, not with force it looked more like they suddenly were elastic like rubber, and her lungs spread outward like wings while Daiyu’s heart floated in the middle of everything. Slowly her body got disassembled like a 3D animation showcasing a new product to an audience of potential investors. Her body parts didn’t disconnect completely, everything stayed connected through her nervous system and her blood veins, and she wasn’t dead either, the lungs were still breathing, and the heart was beating and pumping blood through her veins. But the whole thing could also be an insane diorama by a twisted serial killer. Eris felt fear in a manner she rarely had before, even in the hot water her hands felt cold, and even colder sweat ran down her face, she had to fight the urge to throw up but a little bit still got in her mouth. She forced herself to swallow it as quietly as she could, under no circumstances she wanted to be found out. As if this wasn’t enough Daiyu’s skull opened up like a blooming flower and her brain was visible, the most unsettling thing was that Daiyu didn’t seem to feel a thing even though it looked like she was undergoing the world’s worst torture, her face showed relaxed expression like a sleeping beauty. All of Quallis's tentacles were glowing as well and he was touching and moving Daiyu’s insides and brain multiple times, wherever he touched her, the body tissue glowed up and quickly returned to its original color. Despite her shock, Eris found herself thinking that the whole scene reminded her of a mechanic working on a car engine.
Faster than it had started the whole thing was over, after a few more wiggles with his tentacles Daiyu’s body set itself together and she sunk back into the Onsen as if nothing ever happened. Daiyu sighed gently in her sleep and Qualli was visibly relieved. The sentinels picked up Daiyu and Anastasia again and together with their master they left the bathing area. After a moment or two, just to be sure they wouldn’t come back, Eris gave up the fight with her revolting stomach and threw up her breakfast into the plants. Gasping for air she hurled herself outside the basin. Lying on her back she thought. This is by no means an enemy we could ever dream of defeating. Still in shock, she rolled herself into a fetal position.
After god knows how much time she stood up, still processing what she just witnessed. All she could think of at this moment was telling Gregor. Without even bothering to put on her clothes she wandered the space station, only wrapped in a towel, in search of her assistant. She found him in the gym, bench-pressing 230kg. When he saw her with her wet hair and pale face, only wearing a towel he immediately stopped his workout and rushed to her. Worried he asked. “What happened?” Relieved to have found him she smiled slightly. “We have no chance of winning.” Eris started to cry, her knees gave out and he caught her before she hit the floor.