(M) “Took you long enough to find me.”

(S) “You knew I was there?”

(M) “Yup, it’s on my…”

(A) “What the fuck?”

Alice entered the room and apparently got startled by Marie’s presence, or maybe it’s her new bionic arm. This last one turned herself as soon as she heard the voice.

(M) "Why is she here?”

(S) "Haha, well, it’s a long…”

(A) "I’m where I want to be.”

(M) "That doesn’t answer my question, idiot.”

(A) "Oh, sorry, maybe I should translate myself into Blondy language."

(M) "You’re lucky I’m in the middle of maintenance…”

(A) "Che, I'm soooo scared."

(S) “Girls… please.”

I knew it was bad, but I didn't think it was "let's fight at first sight" bad. Marie forced her tool inside her arm, twisted it, and then pulled it back. Now I could hear the cogs rotating again.

She got up on her feet and stretch her arm in ways a human elbow probably can’t do. She then turned back, facing the both of us. Her eyes gazing toward Alice, who in return raised her chin up to openly show she was looking down on her.

(S) “Can we… sit and calm down?”

Marie's arm started to release steam. I don't remember what specifically happened between those two, but obviously, she was taking it very seriously.

And Alice clearly wasn’t.

(A) “Cool, you managed to graft yourself an iron…”

(M) “I see you kept Naomi's haircut.”

~~

Everything happened in a split second.

They were roughly 2 meters from one another.

Alice instantly closed the distance, throwing a punch toward Marie's face. In return, this last one took a step back and attempted an ascendant jab at her assailant's chin.

At the exact same moment, as both strikes were about to hit, Sam intervened.

With both of his palm, he guided the blows millimetres away from their respective target.

~~

(S) “Girls!”

The two of them were completely silent now. With one of there arm grazing the other's ear, they were gazing into each other eyes intensely.

As I was about to push them away from one another, I felt something on my upper lips. Shit, I’m nose bleeding again.

(A) “Sam?! Are you okay?”

Alice immediately went to me and tried to apply some healing magic -I suppose- and as for Marie she just distanced herself, visibly annoyed.

(S) "Don't worry, it's a known after effect."

(A) “Of what?”

(S) “You don’t think I can match both of your speed without some foresight do you?”

Even though, this is a bit too much to nosebleed with less than 5 seconds of usage. Maybe it’s because of the vision of Marie I had earlier. At least I don’t have a headache, so that’s nice.

(A) “Don’t overdo it…”

(S) "Then don't provoke a fight right off the bat!"

(A) “She was…”

(S) “No! You started it and you know it!”

I don’t like to make her feel guilty, but it might be the only way to reconciliate them. And also it's true she was the one provoking Marie first.

(S) “You two hate each other! I get it, but there’s a lot at stake here, so stop being immature and apologies!”

Our eyes met. She stared at me for a few seconds, before finally getting back up and turn toward our blond companion.

(A) “Sigh… I’m sorry…”

(M) “Hum? What did you say?”

(S) “Marie!”

(M) “Wow! I’m sorry! ‘Chief’! I accept your apology...”

Sigh, again with that nonsense. At least both of them seems to have calmed down.

----------------------------------------

I didn't remark it at first, but this is really a fancy room. Oversize bed, expensive carpet and panting, lots of exotic flower on golden furniture… I think I could take a picture and it would be a perfect definition of the word ostentatious.

The three of us were sitting down in circle, with the girls obviously avoiding to look at each other.

(S) “So, now that everyone is finally calm, we might be able to talk. As I said when I entered the room, why are you here and how did you know I was coming?”

(M) “Well, I didn’t really “know” you were coming, but I had a strong clue.”

She took out her book and opened it in front of me.

Struggle#11

Objective: Help Samsy to become The President

Sub-objective: Hack the Justin Hostel - Update the City - Build the Hourglass

(S) “What the… me President?”

Marie lifted her hand above her head.

(M) "Samsy President! A vision for the future!"

(A) “Pfffff Hahahaah!”

(S)“Shut up!”

While Alice was about to suffocate on the ground from laughing, I realized I didn’t check my own quest.

Struggle#12

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Objective: Become The President

Sub-objective: none

(S) “Holy shit…”

(M) “What?”

(S) “My book seems to agree with yours…”

(M) “You didn’t check before?”

(S) “Well, we just arrived.”

(A) “Like… 10 minutes ago.”

Alice was finally able to regain her composure and join the conversation. I'm glad she can speak normally with Marie, or maybe she just doesn't realize it…

(M) “Wait, you waited 2 days at the 10th struggle?”

(S) "No, we left the camp almost a day ago. Then we had to wait in a ghost city and destroy some robot."

(A) “Well, I defeated them.”

(S) “…Yes, yes you did. Anyway…”

(M) "You've already passed your 11th?"

(S) “Yep.”

She started to look at the ground, visibly thinking about something. Is she annoyed? Or worried? Did something happen?

(S)“Is there a problem?”

(M) "You passed your 11th struggle thanks to… her. But… would you have been able to do it on your own?"

(S) "Hum? Well, probably not I guess… At the very least, I would have to run away and take them down one by one. So it would have taken me several days and a lot of luck."

(M) “But If you would have failed… then I would be stuck here…”

(S) “It works like that?”

(M) “I don’t know, but if it does, that means I…”

She didn't finish her sentence, but Alice, listening to our discussion, widen her eyes, before laying back a little, harbouring a childish smile toward her "friend".

(A) “You owe me one…”

(M) “Noooooo!”

She started rolling on the floor in denial, while lil’ sis started laughing deviously. I can’t believe the two of them were literally about to kill one another minutes ago.

(S) “That’s… that’s not really important, is it?”

“Of course it is” "You're right, it’s not!”

I wonder what is the story between the two of them. If I remember correctly they were pretty good friends when we started building the settlement after the purge… I thought it would just be Alice showing off her i-talent and pissing of Marie, but there might be more than that.

Anyway, I don't think it's a good time for me to get into it. Truth to be told, they kind of scare me…

(S) “So, what’s the plan? Have you learn anything about this place?”

(M) "Well, It's been only two days since I'm here so I don't know that much. It's a normal city with futurist technology, however, their software are so outdated it's a bit shameful. Because it was my first sub-objective I tried almost immediately to hack this Hostel, and oh boy… a simple multi-layered sprout root and I had access to everything."

I guess I’ll act as if I had understood what she just…

(A) "Shouldn't you have access to the intranet?"

(M) "No! The best part was that they didn't even have any doppelganger protection so I could replicate the source code of they're own server from within."

(A) “Hahahaa, what a bunch of amateurs!”

(M) “Right? I could DDoS their entire system in 5 minutes. ”

(S) “Girls… I’m still here…”

(M) “Oh… yeah sorry…”

(S) “With what did you do that anyway?”

She pointed at a sort of laptop on the bed.

(M) “I based the overhaul structure on what I had on Earth, and then I copied the Book flux input in order to free myself from the electrical consumption and enhance the overhaul speed of the processor.”

(S) “Marie… please… my brain…”

(M) “Come on! I just said processor!”

(S) “You said flux input and consumption too…”

(A) "Hahaha..."

My limited cerebral ability seemed to amuse them.

Damn, I just realized I'll have to spend the next struggle with those two geniuses! I miss Prometheus so much right now…

(S) “When did you have the time to build those anyway.”

(M) "You know… after the 6th struggle, I wanted to let out some steam. I had a lot of free time, a lot of available component, an arm to repair, and many theories about flux."

(S) “Oh, yeah, now I remember you telling me that at the camp.”

After that Alice asked about how she lost her arms -it was a "choice"- and her other gadget. Frankly, I don't understand half of what they're talking about, but I guess they're getting along now. Pretty weird given that they were at each other throat a few minutes ago, but clearly I won't complain about it.

(S) "I don't want to disrupt you girls… but maybe we should discuss the objective."

(M) “Oh yeah, there’s that.”

(S) “Do you have a plan?”

(M) “Kinda…”

(S) “There’s surely a loophole somewhere, or maybe it’s something like a club president.”

(M) “Well…”

(S) “I mean, it would take years for someone to get elected, and I literally arrived here today so it’s must be something else.”

(M)"Sam, shut up, I'm trying to talk!"

(S) "Oh, sorry..."

(M)"I checked, in the objective, it is stated ‘The President', with a capital T. And there is an upcoming election, and every time they spell it that way. I spend the whole morning on it, I'm practically sure, it's about making you the head of the country."

(S) “But I don’t want to be president…”

(M) “Doesn’t matter, if we want to pass the struggle you’ll have to. And it's not like you'll have to stay president once we got you in office.”

(S) “Sigh… When is the election?”

(M) “In two month.”

…

…

…

We are so fucked.