Taylor stepped through the rift in space, emerging into a scene of complete chaos in her Brockton base. Alec was running, being chased by Chrissie who had Aisha on her shoulders and brandishing his scepter like some fucked up jouster. None of them were masked. Lisa arrived behind her, and immediately began to cackle.

  The scene froze, Alec holding his hand up as Aisha crackled the taser. Shaking her head, Taylor finished the trek to the collection of couches in the living room, looking over the security system and being pleasantly surprised that nothing had been tampered with. The camera still caught much fuckery over the course of the night, but that was to be expected.

  “What fresh hell is this?” Motoko demanded as she stepped through. Once again Taylor had to deal with that momentary discomfort she felt from being in the same room as her other half, but it passed after a few blinks as they settled back into one another.

  She hated soupy days.

  Sophia was only a step behind and took one look at the disaster before shoving her hands into her pockets and wandering over to the couch while shaking her head.

  Lisa snorted. “Seriously, chaos gremlins one and all.”

  “Hey Tay! Motoko!” Aisha called out. “Just passing the time.”

  “Clearly,” Taylor said with a smirk. “You can get back to it in a bit, meeting time.”

  “Are we finally going after the chuckle heads?” Chrissie asked.

  “In a bit, just waiting on the others,” she confirmed. Not that she knew which group they would be targeting. Melissa had dibs on the Empire and had gone dark a few hours ago. Taylor suspected that there would be quite the story once the dust settled. “Has everyone unmasked to Vex or are there still holdouts?”

  “Grue hasn’t, but he went to bed immediately like an old man,” Aisha said with a grin. “Oh, the tribulations of getting old.”

  “Isn’t he seventeen?” Motoko asked.

  “Hey!” Chrissie said, dumping Aisha off her shoulders as she wheeled on the brat. “He’s the same age I am, you little shit.”

  “Not at heart,” Aisha said, rubbing her back. “He has the soul of an old fart and the personality to match.”

  “Rude,” Brian said, stepping out of the hall.

  He wasn’t masked, wearing a tight tank top that showed off his well sculpted physique. Taylor could certainly appreciate the effort involved, and he was objectively attractive, she just didn’t have the same connection with him that she had with Lisa.

  “But true,” Aisha sing-songed. “So, what’s the sitch? We gonna go kick in someone’s teeth?”

  “Eventually,” Taylor confirmed. “Amy’s going to be at the hospital today, waiting for any injuries from whatever Mel is out pulling at the moment.”

  “Mel?” Chrissie asked.

  “Oh right, you don’t know about all that,” Aisha said. “That’s gonna be awkward.”

  “Yeah, yeah, not everyone can shrug off stuff like you and Alec,” Lisa said. “So, I’m Lisa, or rather, Tattletale. The rumor of my demise was greatly exaggerated.”

  “Still too close for comfort,” Taylor said, pulling her into a side hug. “Coil had two bullets put into her, it was almost enough…”

  “Hey, I’m right here Tay,” Lisa said, pulling her close. “You’ve made sure something like that will never happen again.”

  “Shells aren’t invincible,” she muttered, even as Lisa pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s why I also developed the remote systems.”

  “I know,” Lisa whispered.

  “Daww, this is so sweet,” Chrissie said. “Seriously, you two are making me sick with jealousy here. Have respect for the hopelessly single gay girl here.”

  “Well, you’re probably in luck there,” Lisa said. “Toybox seems to be home to the hopelessly queer and most of us were single when we were brought on. Even Amy found herself a girl.”

  “Not helping nearly as much as you think,” Chrissie said. “Hey Stalker, you single?”

  Sophia looked up from her book on the couch, then flipped her off and returned to her reading. Taylor snorted, surprised to see Sophia of all people with her nose in a book, but then again, Taylor didn’t really know her like Motoko did. Sophia was a mystery to her, one she wasn’t particularly interested in solving given how involved Sophia was in the situation that led up to her trigger.

  “Think she would go for Rachel?” Lisa asked over their comms.

  “Please don’t try setting up people within this band of misfits,” Taylor said with a virtual groan.

  “I can kinda see it,” Motoko added. “They have both ends of the whole butch aesthetic covered nicely.”

  “Is there a way to make these channels private between you two?” Lisa asked. “I really don’t think Taylor wants to see your messages to Sophia.”

  “Or Taylor’s messages to you,” Motoko said in agreement.

  “Oi, I resent that. I’m Ace and Tay is hella demi to the point she might qualify too,” Lisa said petulantly. “Can’t you just flag them as something to ignore?”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Motoko hummed, then Taylor found her presence withdraw from the chat as a second set of chats spun up in their systems, one Taylor could tell was not meant for her. Motoko then put a password up on it and that was that.

  Nodding, Motoko stepped forward.

  “As you know, Coil was killed yesterday,” Motoko said. “Now that the problem is dealt with, we can share his identity. Thomas Calvert, Director of the PRT ENE.”

  “Oh shit,” Chrissie said. “That was the black guy that was surprisingly chill sitting across from a Nazi, wasn’t he?”

  “Got it in one,” Lisa said, blowing her finger on a finger gun. “Capped his ass myself.”

  Taylor held her a bit closer, because despite how confident Lisa sounded, she knew better. Her girlfriend would be a raw nerve for a day or two, no matter how satisfying that had been.

  “Coil was a monster that deserved his fate, nevermind how illegal it was to have him as a PRT Director,” Motoko continued. “He crossed several lines and the people supporting him cut ties and tossed him to us as a peace offering. He was an important pawn, but they deemed the alternative to be worse.”

  “Shit,” Chrissie muttered. “Did I get caught up in conspiracy shit just because a cute girl pulled me along?”

  Lisa smirked as Taylor sputtered, the memories of the girl getting more than a little hands on when riding Rachel’s dogs flashing through her mind. Those same dogs were currently curled up on one of the couches surrounding Rachel on all sides. Maybe Lisa was right and she could get Chrissie interested in her instead, or hell, maybe there was someone else she could point the girl towards… Much as she wanted Motoko and Sophia to split, she wasn’t that callous towards her other half as to try tossing a Vex shaped wedge between them.

  “Relax Tay,” Lisa whispered. “She’s just teasing. It seems to be her thing. Flirty to a fault, quick to violence, but loyal to her people.”

  “That’s me,” Chrissie said with a smirk. “Also, damn good hearing despite the number of clubs I’ve snuck into.”

  Lisa rolled her eyes. “Yes, conspiracy is a word for it. Congratulations, you joined a black book operation under the command of Legend himself.”

  “Bullshit,” Chrissie said, then blinked when nobody else batted an eye. “Wait, shit, you’re for real?”

  “Indeed we are,” Motoko said. “To really blow your mind, Taylor and I were once the same person. We share a brain. Taylor is in our original body which is being remote piloted by our brain which is inside this cybernetic shell. Lisa was recently upgraded to a similar shell, but opted to keep her original looks rather than pull the whole dual identities thing that led to us becoming separate people.”

  “Their Tinker specialty also came with considerable multitasking,” Lisa added. “It allows them to live multiple lives, and they can even pilot my old body on top of all this.”

  “We don’t know if I have an upper limit,” Taylor said. “It’s kinda scary how easy it can be to lose myself in all that information. I can simultaneously browse thousands of websites with no loss in focus. Dragon was convinced I was an AI.”

  “Which brings us to the other thing that happened last night,” Motoko said, continuing in a way she thought would be amusing. “Contact was made with Dragon, and she gave some hints for dealing with the Armsmaster problem.”

  “Shit, that’s huge,” Sophia said, her book set aside. “When do we get to deploy?”

  “Still working on that,” Motoko said. “Just because we have an objective doesn’t mean we have a plan. We’ll need to wait for Mel and Ry for one, they both have things in motion today. Jacob and Kurt are busy too, but with things outside the current operation envelope.”

  “Just say they aren’t in Brockton,” Aisha groaned, flopping back across Alec’s lap. “Seriously, just because you named your alter ego after a military rank doesn’t mean you need to talk like it among friends.”

  “Sure it does,” Motoko said with a grin, then dropped it. “Serious talk, Taylor and I at our core started as the same person. Keeping up the persona that made me, well, me, helps keep us from getting as she called it, soupy.”

  “But your brain is inside the Major!” Aisha said. “Wait, that’s the problem, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Taylor said. “It’s all too easy to forget what the real me is, and I’m trying my damnedest to cling to my humanity despite slowly becoming so much more. We were terrified that piloting Victor would lead to another living up here with us.”

  “Sounds rough,” Chrissie said with a wince. “Sorry if the flirting made you uncomfortable.”

  “It did,” Taylor said. “Yet, that is an all too human experience, so I won’t fault you for it.”

  Alec groaned, his hand running through Aisha’s hair. “Oh god, she’s gonna get a ton of girlfriends and an extra personality for each one so she can cuddle them all at once.”

  “I’ve heard worse plans,” Lisa said, winking at Motoko as she did. Taylor shot her a glare, but Lisa just smirked, though her eyes betrayed a soft concern. Goddess she could be a handful when she got into a teasing mood. “So, who has ideas about how we might break into Armsy’s lab and liberate a caged Dragon?”

  Everyone looked around for a moment, likely too nervous to be the first to suggest something. It was mostly just an opportunity to bounce ideas and maybe have someone think of something off the wall that might just work, even a bad idea could inspire a good one.

  “He’s got world-class security,” Sophia said. “Expect him to be able to shut down any dimensional fuckery like he did when you got me and Militia out of there.”

  “He’ll know about Aisha too,” Lisa added. “We need something unique, something simple that only someone who overthinks things would miss.”

  “Think we could get Calvert’s body?” Alec asked. “He might not have purged the dead guy’s access codes yet.”

  “That might have been true before the whole Victor thing, but that will be fresh on his mind,” Taylor said. “Not a terrible idea though. Obviously Militia will be out of consideration for similar reasons.”

  “Wasn’t Victor taken out by the Nine?” Chrissie asked. “Same for Militia for that matter. I know I heard about all that at the truce meeting thingy.”

  “About that,” Taylor said, looking away.

  Just as she said that, an explosive crash sounded above them. Seconds later, a blast of flame spread out from the center of the room, Motoko stumbling back from the surprising heat. Melissa stood there, wearing a red overcoat and hat, both in tatters. She stumbled, grumbling as she pulled a glass from a cabinet and filled it with a bottle of liquor from her coat.

  Chrissie was sitting there, wide-eyed and nearly hyperventilating as Melissa flopped onto one of the empty seats, downed half the glass then topped it back off. She sighed in contentment, a smile on her face.

  “Kaiser’s dead,” she said after a moment. “The twins are in Riley’s hands. She’s never gotten to mess with twins that triggered together before, she seemed excited.”

  “Why is the Butcher here?” Chrissie all but shouted, looking around. “And why the hell are you all so calm about it?”

  “Because she’s basically the team mom?” Aisha said with a shrug.

  Chrissie gaped. “Team mo— Oh. Oh fuck, you’re all part of the Nine? What the fuck?”

  “Technically?” Taylor said. “Like we said, black book operation helmed by Legend. The Nine’s been under his command since the nineties.”

  “That’s… Holy shit,” Chrissie said, deflating a bit. “Can I get some of that?”

  Melissa looked at the bottle, then back at Chrissie. “How old are ya, kid?”

  “Not old enough,” Chrissie answered truthfully. “Don’t care, kinda having a minor crisis where everything I knew about the world is falling apart.”

  “Yeah, that tends to happen,” Melissa said, pouring more into her glass. “Still not happening, this is Tinker made and will fuck your shit up if you aren’t a regenerator.”

  “So,” Lisa said. “You look like hell, which usually makes for a good story. Wanna share?”

  “What’s to tell?” Melissa asked. “I just went for a walk.”

  “Some walk,” Taylor said, looking over. “Let me guess, it involved a field of blades and giant women?”

  Melissa looked up, a smile growing into a Cheshire cat grin. “Oh yes, let me weave you a tale about my most enthusiastic of walks.”