Obtaining A Boutique
“?” Fox watched as Lesly brought a beauty with her. Lesly looked at him and stopped for half a second before smiling and walking to stand on Luis's right, politely. She and the other beauty stared at him, as Butler walked to stand beside him, and a piercing silence ensued.
The other woman, more or less of the same age as Lesly and Luis, looked at Fox with clear eyes. She had creamy brown skin, much lighter than Luis, chestnut, smooth hair, and gray-black eyes. This woman is tall, and she sported a lovely smile from time to time. Without a doubt, Fox felt charmed.
She wore a formal dress, looking even more proper than Lesly, who still showed a serious work formula in her outfit, but her dress was simply not as strict-job related.
“You will still need to know the affairs of the country better, Fox.” Luis said, standing up before walking around the ladies. He stood beside the new beauty and held her right wrist. She looked at him and nodded, to which Luis lowered his eyes and sucked in a deep breath.
Turning to Fox, he further stated, emptying his lungs. “My sister, Sona Heartez, will help you with that. She’s the vice president’s secretary, and one of her greatest assets, besides me.”
Lesly smiled in silence. Butler was so low-profile he seemed nonexistent. As Fox looked between the Heartez siblings, darting his eyes around, Sona walked to him and extended her right hand. At the same time, Lesly walked to Butler, while Luis remained beside his desk, alone.
“Mister Egoaiz, have you had something to eat? Thank you for coming, I was wondering when I could thank…” Lesly’s voice trailed off his ears as Sona brought Fox to the hidden gate. He looked back once before focusing on the path ahead.
‘Why is she holding me?’ Fox looked at his wrist, softly grabbed by this beautiful woman who brought him to an isolated room, away from everyone’s eyes, ears… knowledge.
Thud, thud. The doors closed 2 meters behind Fox as he looked at the place around him. Rather long and spacious, but filled with furniture, especially a bed… and heating, cooling systems. Fox suddenly realized the temperature was becoming a little hot.
“Fox or Phesx?” The beauty turned, asking him, lovely smiling at him. Fox was a little taken aback, but he stood with his back straight and hips not hiding from the public eye. “Fox is good.”
“Indeed,” Sona smiled and walked further ahead, nearing the bed. Fox looked at this but didn’t get wild thoughts, continuing to look around. The place was mostly white, beige, and reflective. The floor had spots patterns, with most and bigger being the black colors.
“Come here,” Sona voiced, distracting him from being a proper, fake gentleman like many men can learn. Fox gulped a bit of saliva before walking to the bed, he suddenly felt strange. Do most females in Lýmoca like to stand at the lower end of their beds before bedding?
Pheli wasn’t like this, but that young woman Roroa sure was.
Standing before her, nearly 2 meters away, Fox did or said nothing and looked at her. Sona blinked a few times before letting out a chuckle. She lowered her head and walked to him, taking her coat off. Her large, bouncing, drooped breasts swayed with each sounding heel from her shoes. Her hourglass, chubby figure attracted his eyes.
There was more curiosity in the impenetrable black polycoria eyes than interest. She slowed down near his front, stopping 2 steps and a half before him. Sona smiled at Fox, bringing her hands near his neck to slowly start taking his jacket off.
“I thought we were going to… analyze Lýmoca’s affairs?” Fox frowned as he looked down. Her fingers seemed careful not to touch his body too much, focusing on his clothes. He felt a little gratitude from it. He wasn’t a horndog, after all.
“We will, we are.” Sona smiled from ear to ear, bringing the corners of her mouth upwards, “But we can also talk before ‘studying’, I’m sure of it. We can do it many times, the talking. There’s a lot to discuss about life, after all. It’s no good if we spend most our time only talking about Lýmoca.”
“But… you, um… you are…” Fox felt his jacket leave his shoulders as he spoke, when Sona stopped and looked at him, narrowing her eyes in seduction. He could only stop, feeling blood making its oh but natural course.
“Me, I; what?” She voiced, but her face drew closer nonetheless. Clearly not caring about receiving an answer, Sona pecked his lips. Fox was paralyzed. She separated quickly, shortly after their lips touched. Being shorter than him, she looked up with narrowed eyes, studying his iris-pupil-less eyes contents as they both showed 3 impenetrable black pools.
Shortly after detaching their lips, Sona softly plunged her mouth onto his, pressing against each other’s face as Fox couldn’t help it anymore. He is a human, in the end. His hands moved up to find some things, catching orbs before measuring and deforming them with but his touch.
As their rather deeper, intimate kiss finished, with Sona looking at him and standing on her tiptoes with her seductive, narrowed eyes locked on his face. Fox asked with eyes closed, remaining lucid. “How do you hide this?”
“What?” Asked Sona in a contented, lovely smile. Fox gripped harder with both hands, “… Body.”
“Maybe you’ll learn when you have to hide them for me.” Sona dropped in a smooth motion afterwards. Before Fox could process what he’d feel next, priceless pleasure engulfed him.
. . .
3 hours later.
Step, step, step. Fox stepped out of the doors after opening them carefully. He didn’t want anyone to see what happened inside. The soundproof was good, so there was no need to throw it all into embarrassment.
Lesly and Luis were on his desk, discussing some matters rather silently, with Butler staring at the window with the afternoon sunlight basking the city. When Fox came out, the former 2 stared at him.
Fox walked to Luis without fear. Why would he have any? More so, he didn’t feel guilty or the sort. Lesly looked at him before giving the ‘men’ some time alone. Luis looked at him, feeling a bit annoyed. “Yes?”
“I was thinking of the guards that perished. Am I required to do something for them and their families?” Fox asked sincerely. Luis looked at him for a few seconds in silence before almost barking, “That wasn’t a subject for you to speak of. No. It’ll be of no use. You cannot change anything, only worsen it.”
“Okay,” Fox nodded and walked to Butler, but the latter had already walked to him. Butler faced Luis and said, “President, I’ll start this kid’s field training now. If you require any matters, PSD will be attentive. Ma’am.”
After nodding to Lesly, which she returned the gesture, Butler guided Fox out of the presidential office. Fox didn’t refuse and complied. Once outside, they didn’t say anything and walked out of the presidential building in calm.
When they exited the presidential precinct, many eyes stared at them. There were hidden news anchors positioned in corners and even below people or plants, streetlights, signs, and lights. One of them had the acronym ‘BLF’, but Fox ignored all these.
After returning to the car, Butler started a chat with casualness. “That thing you did there, speaking with the president. It was mature. Better than your almost tantrum. You nearly got scolded, too. It’s good.”
“It wasn’t my intention,” Fox honestly said, but as soon as he said those words, he hated them. It’s the same he told to Luis. Butler quickly caught that and smirked, “Good for you.”
… A few minutes later, Butler parked in the HQ’s parking lot. He and Fox stepped out without saying a word. After exchanging a nod started by Butler, they went on their way. Fox headed to the reception.
Arriving before Mena, he immediately asked her, “Hey, you went to a sea task the other time, right? What can you teach me about that?”
“Oh, you’re getting into that? Mhm, you better do get prepared. But it won’t be free. Gimme 2 regular void bions and I’ll teach you for a week. If my guesses are correct, you better get 2 bions for the next 4-8 months for me, Fox.” Mena offered and advised.
Fox nodded, he felt a little refreshed. Grasping Mena’s hands, making her lift her eyebrows a bit in surprise, he asked again, “How much would it cost me to start honing my craftsmanship here?”
“Oh, there are many packages for that. Well, just a few, but too many for anyone, even crafters.” Mena said, before lifting a thin screen from below the counter, hidden by the surface. Then, she turned it towards Fox before tapping the desk. “There’s 1 month, 3 months, semester, and year. The first 2 cost 250,000 credits, with the last 2 plans 1 mil each.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“What’s the difference?” Fox inquired. Mena cleared her throat. When was the last time she was asked this question? She contentedly began, “First, it depends on your demonstrated skill, and your schedule. The first is mandatory, but the second is vital for its utilization.”
“The better you’re at it, the more packages you can schedule. The first is for anyone who can create bions and weapons. You get all necessary resources to build for an entire month, with a reference of 10 hours a day. Even then, you’ll always have at least a small portion of unused goods remaining. You get up to 700 social points if you return them, no credits, though.”
“A 3 months package grants you the same amount of resources 3 times over, and much better ones at that. You can also directly request for any material you wish, and pay for it, with a slight extra fee.”
“The semester package gives you many great resources and lends you a few nuclear pieces or bions to study from or take references of. The year package give you the most top-notch bion resources, but not that many, and you have to pay an extra fee to replenish. The first batch lasts about half a year. They’re stingy with those. However, it lets you visit the nuclear armory, where you can analyze a NUA for free for an hour.”
“That sounds amazing… what about the equipment to craft, not the resources?” Fox was astounded, and encouraged, indeed. But he was still worried about the craftsmanship equipment the most.
Mena threw him a hand with silly demeanor, “Oh, you dummy! Nothing to worry about. You get all the ultramodern bion crafting equipment any crafter needs. Although your individual booth might vary depending on the package. Well then, have you decided?”
“I’d like to try for the first 2 plans, then.” Fox decided after some serious but rapid consideration. He still had his Myertha without repairing, but its first fix would cost 800,000 credits at least. And it would still be useless, and illegal, to ride.
“Okie, dokie…” Mena finger tapped her desk a ton of times before grabbing a piece of paper from her screen. It gave Fox a schedule and booth within the HQ. After looking at it, Fox faced Mena, who beat him to speak, “It usually sends everyone to a random base that is either in the state requested or nearby. All on me. Now, get to work, Fox.”
“Thank you,” Fox grinned a bit before blinking and thanking her. Without much else to say, he grabbed under his shirt and passed his personal window through the wall of the counter. The little door opened. Mena smiled at him, and Fox nodded at her before he went through the double doors.
After a long walk through places he didn’t visit before, Fox arrived at a place after a long corridor where the hallways were of a black metal-brick-like pattern and material, and the lights a bit dimmer yet actually stronger.
‘It smells so good…’ Fox thought as he put finding his booth secondary. A bit of oil, a bit of metals being melted, the heat of some furnaces, melters, and even the sound of high-intensity machinery and tools at work. It was perfect.
There was an excellent soundproof for even the supposedly smallest booths, or rooms, but it would never be the same if Fox is nearby. His hearing senses might not be exaggeratedly wide and far-reaching, but they were pretty acute, and that was without going hyper or through breath.
After a while, Fox found his booth. He opened the door calmly, looking sideways twice, and finally entered the booth. It was only for testing, so it was rather small, smaller than a room for package for a month. Only about 3 meters wide and 7 meters long.
Fox entered it and checked for a few things, grabbing several objects and components before walking to a little digital television to read a series of instructions. He introduced his code, grabbed his personal window from his abdomen to identify himself, and began the test.
He had an hour to begin as many bions’ constructions as possible. Fox didn’t have to finish, but the television warned him that at least 3 basic void bions or 2 basic gut bions could be enough for the 1-month package.
Fox sat cross-legged and began. He started by making the plain, boring foundations of many bions before focusing on the bigger ones. It usually didn’t matter how big or small bions’ infrastructure was, but in this case, Fox opted for complicated big and small ones.
As the time ran down to 40 minutes from an hour, every foundation was finished. Fox grabbed the components of the big bions and fully armed ¾ of them, leaving only a few last important touches and the last plating or coverage unworked. He took 30 minutes for this, with only 10 minutes remaining for the smaller, complicated ones.
While size didn’t matter in bions’ case overall, the small bions Fox choose were a bit more complicated than the big ones because of the small space. It left too little maneuvering and demanded ample agility and individual stamina of the wrists and fingers to work them.
Yet, as the 10 minutes passed, Fox ‘brusquely’ worked his craftsmanship and completed as many small bions as he could, even finishing 2 gut bions. One was a skeletal hand replacement, it was only for the upper half, but it could work well and even add either electric or heated explosive waves to one’s fists or forceful stabs.
10 seconds before the time went out, Fox lifted his left hand in surrender. He was damn tired. The time stopped and Fox heard a noise from a wall. He turned his head, only to see a thick tray come out of the wall like nothing.
Fox picked his creations one by one and delivered them to the tray. After scanning his works with an unnoticeable scanning system, which only rang like a tiny hum-buzz in his ears and even mind, the wall opened slightly higher.
Then, the tray ate his bions, unfinished and not, before placing a counter over it and closing the gap where the tray came out seamlessly. Almost 4 minutes later, the TV made a buzzing sound that was somehow comfortable for his ears.
“Those were 14 unfinished bions and 7 bions; 2 gut bions and 5 void bions. You barely qualify for the 3 months package. 1 month and 3 months packages are available.” A static, pre-recorded voice rang from the TV.
‘Damn.’ Feeling the high-end contest, Fox sweated a little. Was he that amateurish? Then, he tapped the 1-month package for obvious reasons. After that, the TV indicated him to put his WID on the TV before taking it back. Now, he had an additional single blue, tiny stripe coiling at its left corner. He tapped it as a poor hologram showed the 1-month remaining, already counting down.
Without a doubt, Fox had to get to an available room, here in the HQ or in a Proteros base, and start creating. However, before that, he thought of that sweet Mena. He turned to the TV and asked like it was a godly being, “Can I rece-”
“Admission finished, leave the area.”
‘Nice. I was insulted and humiliated, one after the other.’ Fox quietly turned around and walked out with his head low and face darkening. There was nothing he could do either way.
. . .
3 days later.
It has been 4 days since Fox returned from his 3 months long special VIP task under Roroa. Fox has gone back and forth through the HQ, doing who knew what for all day long. He had no social life whatsoever. If anything, he was a ghost half of Lýmoca talked about throughout the internet.
Needless to say, seeing this ‘regressing’ behavior, the special agents who instructed the training regimen and the recruit fellows from the same batch as Fox felt disappointed. He really just returned and did nothing all day, only bothering about his craftsmanship.
But today was going to be different. Knowing the moon would soon show its full splendor on the last day of the month, Fox walked to Mena early in the morning instead of rushing to the massive, divided workshop at HQ.
“Hey, again?” Mena asked, not bothering to call out to him and working on her desktop. Yet, while she didn’t receive a response yet again, she did feel Fox’s presence remain. Lifting her head towards him, she saw a thinly smiling Fox holding 3 huge black bags whose contents bulged out of their zippers.
“Oh my…”
Clank! Thump! Thud! Before Mena could speak, Fox dropped the bags on her counter. They sounded very heavy and by the many too much lots. Fox broadened his thin smile as he opened the first bag, with bions sliding out like lukewarm yolk out a broken eggshell.
“These are…” Mena’s face was terrified. Then, her countenance went mad, “SO MANY!”
She took the anti-accident, protective plastic out of a bion that rolled down the bag and inspected it. It was a bion! Not a basic quality, and while it wasn’t an excellent quality, it was up to part with the secret world’s global standard, just good quality!
She looked up at Fox, wondering many things. She wanted to get him for herself. Not through marriage or contracts, but stealing his brain, cloning it, and putting it in robots’ bodies with top-notch bion biotech to create endless more bions.
“All these for me?” Mena calmed down and went princess mode. Fox blinked and nodded repeatedly, knowing how she felt. Mena expressed, over the clouds. “Yup. I’m accepting them, but that doesn’t take away something. Aren’t these too many? Wouldn’t it be good if you sold some? Like, just a few or half a dozen?”
“I am buying your knowledge for… almost your whole life, I guess.” Fox darted his eyes around their upper corners. Mena nodded with her lower lip out, understanding. He continued, “I already built and sold many more basic bions before I could finally find the way to make the next best quality. These are all yours as a gift, appreciation, and my future needs. All work related.”
“Mhm, don’t worry. This isn’t enough to whore myself out,” Mena smiled with thin-narrowed eyes, holding a spherical bion below and in front of her chin. Fox smiled, glad he wasn’t seen ‘like that’. Then, he asked her, feeling curious. “How come you’re always here? Do you not go out?”
“Your timing is just bad. Just last night I had a hunt with a team task effort to get some lagj idiots who nearly interrupted a Captain’s mission. I’m a bit tired, don’t you see?” Mena posed for Fox, who had already noticed but still nodded after she posed by compromise.
“Well, good luck then. Hope this helps you survive, always, from now on.” Fox commented, adding more than he thought he would, feeling strange himself. Mena stopped playing around and looked at him with blinking eyes, “Oww, Fox! That was so sweet. Can I kiss your forehead?”
Fox looked at the big sister role model before instinctively blinking as he slightly nodded. Mena smiled and went closer to him, who was already leaning over the counter, before holding the top corners of his head and plating a kiss on the left upper spot of his forehead.
“Mwaaaah!” Mena quickly let go and ruffled his hair for 0.3 seconds, all counted by Fox, who let her be… for now. Then, she asked him, feeling contented and keeping her eyes fully narrowed in joy. “So, what now? Are you going to petition a form to take a business up your butt at last?”
“Mn, can you take the form out for me? I’ve further investigated them, to start small, I’ve selec…” Fox nodded and began explaining. Mena felt a bit baffled. She was just being silly, so for Fox to readily agree, it surprised her. But even more so, it gladdened her!
… After Mena helped him out, Fox took the form and dialed the business’s owner for a meeting. Something simple, just outside the desired store Fox wanted to purchase at the price the owner was having obvious issues getting through.
A young schoolgirl waited for him in front of a closed boutique, with her backpack and a cute, stripped, red and obscure brown duckbill cap. According to her information, she was a rich parents’ 17-year-old girl who didn’t have enough time to care about her rather impressive, yet semi small, boutique because of her studies.
…