Kaleb and Farrah pulled into the Hangar’s parking lot while still bantering with one another. He was sure he was going to catch hell from the others for getting them stymied. But for now, it was nice to just sit and trade insults with the rabbit-woman. However, as the big gray building loomed in front of him, Kaleb sighed and tried to figure out what his argument was going to be. In truth, he had set out to get some dirt on the TekNik company and he had done that. But he also poked the HLO bear again. Which resulted in the entire team getting shafted.

  He blew out another breath as Farrah turned off the car. She watched him for a few seconds before giving him a shrug and opening her door. Kaleb joined her and quickly exited the car and moved to the door of the hangar. He was about to reach for the metal door’s handle when it burst open and Abby came charging out. She wore an odd mix of relief and anger on her face as the small woman bolted right up to him and hit him in the chest. Kaleb heard his armor creak, and he grunted in pain as the tiny Mutant had only just held her power back.

  “You freaking idiot! What the hell did you do this time!? We’ve been pinged with so many notices in the past few hours and you’re the only one who wasn’t with the group.”

  Kaleb scratched the back of his head as he spotted Two Gun, Vivienne, Claire, and D34d-I waiting just inside the door. Not answering Abby’s questions, Kaleb walked around his short friend and headed inside. Farrah moved along with him.

  “I’ll explain it to everyone all at once, Abs. Let me just get some coffee and maybe take off this armor.”

  He heard the tiny black-haired woman grunt in annoyance. But her footsteps were quickly following him. As he got to the door, Vivienne actually handed him a steaming cup of coffee as Claire gave him a questioning smile. Two Gun was eyeing his new rifle while D34d-I was the only one who looked actually pissed off. But the severe duck was always a little dour.

  Kaleb took the coffee from Vivienne and hurried inside. A burst of air at his shoulder told him that Farrah was heading back to her station at the front of the Hangar. Her work was done, so now she didn’t to pick up her AI disguise.

  “Lucky rabbit.” Kaleb grumbled in his mind.

  “Nice rifle.” Two Gun said as they walked toward the meeting table.

  “Thanks. It’s a TekNik special.”

  “You stole it?” Vivienne asked.

  “I requisitioned it so I wouldn’t die while escaping their underground lab,” Kaleb clarified.

  *Quack*

  “Is that why we got hit with the restraining order from city hall?”

  Kaleb jerked his head, as he wasn’t aware of any restraining order being issued. When he just stared at D34d-I looking for an explanation, the duck quacked again.

  *Quack*

  “You know? The order that restricts our missions to our already accepted contracts?”

  “Ohhh!” Kaleb caught on. “Yeah. That was the HLO throwing the book at me in particular. When they found out I was involved, they went for the maximum sentence, so to speak. Thankfully, it wasn’t their call.”

  Kaleb got to the groups meeting table and took his seat. The others fanned out to their seats and sat down, still waiting for him to explain. Kaleb sipped his coffee for a bit and then proceeded to take off his armor and weapons. As he did, he explained the mission to TekNik HQ, how things went wrong, and how he wound up in a secret underground lab. As he explained, he brought out everything in his pockets/ Including the power cores, the datapad, notes, and the business card of the military’s R&D guy.

  D34d-I immediately started going over the documents and datapad he grabbed while the others all continued to listen to his story. Kaleb explained about the three labs he had discovered, the bodies he had found, and the raccoon-dog. He also went in depth about the robots TekNik was producing and elaborated on the HLO’s connection to said robots.

  “That’s not new, Prof. The HLO has a decently sized automated.” Claire said once he was done.

  Kaleb nodded. “Sure, but that’s for defensive action. These were heavy-duty assault robots. I mean, the military was using them for training and target practice. So they maybe weren’t the brightest bulbs, but still that’s a lot of muscle.”

  *Quack*

  “And millions’ worth of credits.” D34d-I added, his bill still in the notes Kaleb had collected. “Just in these documents alone, the transactions are climbing toward the hundred million mark.”

  Claire and Two Gun sucked in air through their teeth as Vivienne looked around confused. Abby was still glaring at Kaleb like he had kicked her cat. He was about to ask her what had her so pissed, when Vivienne asked her own question.

  “Is that a lot? I mean, an automated fighting for is bound to be expensive?”

  *Quack*

  “It’s the quantities and load sizes that have me concerned. Some of these orders seem to be for the standard complement of robots. But the others… there’s something here. I’ll have to get this stuff unredacted as quickly as possible. Which I can do now that we have nothing but time on our hands.”

  The duck’s voice may have been mechanical, but Kaleb could feel the icy chill coming off that last sentence. The table turned back to him, waiting for an explanation, and Kaleb sighed once again. He then explained about his destruction of the alien-testing lab, his daring escape, and his night in a military holding cell. The others looked a little more sympathetic at what he had gone through, although Abby was still pissed off. Kaleb’s eyes darted to the only empty seat at the table and he raised an eyebrow at Vivienne.

  “Jar-lock hasn’t logged in yet. I sent him a message, but I think he’s busy with real world stuff right now.”

  “Lucky you.” Two Gun smirked at Kaleb.

  “Lucky for all of us,” Abby added. “If he were here, he would want a sixteen page report in triplicate all about what the Professor just told us. At least this way we can cut through his ‘protocol’ bullshit and get down to brass tacks.”

  “And what, pray tell, are the brass tacks?” Kaleb asked the short mutant.

  Abby glared at him and scoffed before explaining. “We can’t venture out and take new jobs. Which means we are stuck defending our own territory until this bullshit punishment is rescinded.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Kaleb smirked. “Oh please, Abs. Like any of us are going to be sticking to that little addendum. The HLO is just trying to yank our chain. They will not enforce that.”

  “Wrong again!” Farrah’s voice echoed from behind him.

  Kaleb nearly leapt from his chair as he turned to glare at the bunny-woman. “What the hell?!”

  “The drones have spotted HLO watch teams on the outskirts of our contracted area.”

  Kaleb groaned as the others at the table booed and hissed in equal measure. He couldn’t see her, but Kaleb was sure that Abby was shooting him another death glare. The HLO were clearly willing to crack some skulls on this one. He was wracking his brain for an out when Farrah spoke up again.

  “Of course, I’ve informed the police of the sketchy behavior and they’ve promised to mobilize some officers.”

  “Bah! The local PD ain’t going to do shit. They still hate our guts.” Two Gun grumbled.

  “I never said I called the local police. No, the downtown department was much more willing to investigate for us.” Farrah grinned.

  Kaleb smiled. He wasn’t sure how disruptive that would be to the HLO, but anything to fuck up their efforts was a good thing in his book. D34d-I shuffled the notes in front of him and quickly quacked before getting up from his chair.

  *Quack*

  “Good. That’ll give me time to dig up dirt on them from these documents. If we can get some leverage on the bastards, we may be able to slip from their grasp.”

  The duck waddled off as Farrah nodded in understanding. “We’ve also had a communication from Alderman Madden. He wants to talk about his request to this group. I advise that we take it. That, combined with the corporate jobs we managed to take before the obstruction of our activities, will see us through for a while.”

  “I don’t think we should take the Alderman’s offer without confirming with Jar first.” Vivienne said.

  Two Gun and Claire nodded as Abby shrugged indifferently. Instead, she was glancing at Farrah with an odd look in her eyes.

  “Why do you think we should take Madden’s offer, Farrah?”

  The rabbit-woman’s ears twitched, and she turned to look at Abby. “Because he was the one that helped stop the HLO’s overreaching punishments. They wanted to hinder us far more than they already have and the military was more than likely willing to let them. But then Mr. Madden spoke up in your defense. We got a much lighter punishment than what the HLO wanted.”

  Abby turned her glare back on Kaleb, and he waved her off while rolling his eyes. He got it. She was angry, hurrah! A rolled up bit of paper hit him on the side of the face and he glared back at Abby. The two glared at each other until Vivienne confirmed with Jar-lock through the in-game messaging system. The big mage apparently had a few words to share with Kaleb, but was all for joining up with the Alderman. Kaleb rubbed his temples and started to stand.

  “Well, guess that means I got to go and discuss the terms with our dear Alderman.”

  “NO!” the entire table shouted at once.

  Kaleb, startled, fell back into his chair and looked around in surprise. All his friends were staring at him like he was an overacting child and Kaleb gulped indignantly.

  “Hey! I can handle it. Nothing’s going to blow up in my face this time.”

  “Professor…” Two Gun started before trailing off.

  “I think we would all feel more comfortable if D34d-I and Farrah handle the deal for right now. You just got back from a long night and you’re probably tired.” Claire explained.

  Kaleb raised an eyebrow. “I slept just fine in the MP’s holding cell. I can go talk to…”

  “Nope! You stay here, Doc. Where I can keep an eye on you.” Abby grumped.

  “Okay. I’m not a child!”

  “Just think about all the new shit you want to build right now.”

  Kaleb glared at the tiny woman as his hand caressed his new rifle. He knew Abby was catering to his love for building things… and he was falling for it. She wasn’t wrong. With his quick dip into the TekNik headquarters, he had gotten a few ideas that he wanted to implement. Not to mention he still needed to update the shield, finish the scanner project, and maybe update his armor. Through the haze of his wandering mind, Kaleb thought he saw Abby and Vivienne sharing a thumbs up. But he ignored it as he continued to imagine what he wanted to build. His Cybar needed an upgrade as well, and the rifle could do with the Kersait battery upgrade.

  As he sat in thought, the sounds of chairs scrapping the floor filled his ears. He heard the others get to their feet as they started to go about their business. Farrah also returned to the Command Center as Kaleb blearily got to his feet and wandered in the direction of his workshop. He was halfway to the door when a firm hand grabbed his lab coat. Spinning around to look at the preparator, Kaleb found he was looking down at Abby again. She was pointing a finger up at his nose as he came out of his thoughts.

  “Don’t blow anything up, don’t piss anyone off, and stay out of trouble!”

  Kaleb rolled his eyes as he gently pushed her finger away. “Yes, mom. Anything else? Should I avoid strangers, white vans, and suspicious candy?”

  “Damn right.” Abby grumbled. “Also, if you could make me another side arm, I’d be grateful.”

  Kaleb blinked as the memory of wanting to make everyone a backup weapon hit him. He had wanted to do it at some point. But he simply never gotten around to it. He knew she was just keeping him busy, but at least it was doing something he liked and he was helping the team. Which was better than continuous boring patrols.

  “Fine. I have some ideas anyway. Now buzz off, ya little shadow-fly.”

  Abby snorted, but hurried away to the command center. Probably to pick up another mission or something. Kaleb opened his shop door and came face to face with two surly looking assistants. Daivor and Roy were glaring at him as he entered the room, their bodies angled toward their work table. A few gray devices were arranged on the table, and it looked like Roy had just completed the last one. Curious, Kaleb ignored the stares and hurried over. Checking over the newly built gadgets. When he recognized them, he had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing.

  “Miss Farrah demanded we make them after your little escapade last night.” Roy huffed. “I’ve lost hours of time I could be dedicating to my own projects and Daivor is near exhausted.”

  Kaleb glanced at the smoking gnome on Roy’s shoulder. The bearded gnome looked smug as he puffed on his pipe. Returning his eyes to Roy, Kaleb could see a twinkle of mirth behind the kid’s mask of annoyance. With a hefty shove, Kaleb moved past the boy and collected the gray devices.

  “I’ll get these installed and hurry back to help you with your projects. But we also need to work on some other stuff.”

  Roy pretended to teeter precariously on his stool before punching Kaleb in his arm. “Fine. But as we work, you're going to explain to me why Farrah had us rapidly make multiple body cameras.”

  “Yeah, boss. What bullshit did you get up to now?” Daivor smirked as the three of them collected the small body cams.