(Rewritten) Ch. 99 – Daddy-Long-Legs

"The 'Hatchet' is silent, and very, very deadly.

It just doesn't take a beating very well.

Why's it part of our line-up?"

– The CEO-equivalent of Warforge Technologies, probably. Somewhere not on Earth.

***

In Leah's words, I was hella kissing her.

The moment I'd arrived—two Threes on a ragged sled of silk in tow—I'd grabbed her and stuck my tongue down her throat. Figuratively, anyway. She rather didn't seem to mind the aggressiveness I displayed in my quest to blow the annoyance away, judging by the way her shoulders rose while her hands cradled my face.

Or by the panting excitement in her breath.

There was a snapping of teeth somewhere just behind me, and I kicked the distraction hard enough that it thumped into the wall a few meters away.

Eventually we broke apart and she looked at me, her red hair wild and her rosy lips swollen. It was quickly becoming my favorite look, all things considered.

She raised an eyebrow at me even as she pulled me closer by my waist.

"Not that I'm not happy to be your scratching post every now and then, but what's got you so needled, Tinea?"

I blushed and looked away with a pout, totally aware that I was being a recalcitrant little brat and secretly enjoying Leah's amused twitch of a smile.

"Muuu… Stuff." I looked the other way, pouting even mightier with a giggle dancing on my diaphragm, just waiting to be let out to play.

Leah's other eyebrow joined her first. "I see. Will I need to employ special strategies to get you talking, missy?"

Missy. Aww. A brilliant smile broke out on my face, simple happiness making me giddy with the discovery that, for the first time in my life, somebody was playing with me in that specific way. It just flooded my heart. I found myself bouncing on my toes, happy tears blurring my vision, and I all but jumped Leah as I peppered her face with lots of tiny kisses.

Leah giggled and stroked my back, inadvertently reminding me of the gear I'd glued there. But all the bad mood had already been driven away.

The painful tightness that still stuck around somewhere in the back of my mind from the first…murders I'd committed in more than fifteen years, justified as they were, was gone.

"Just old shadows," I said. "Don't worry about it. Therapy stuff. We'll talk about it once we've got a place to settle down, yeah?"

Leah studied me, gentle seriousness in her gaze as her eyes wandered back and forth between mine. "Okay." She nodded before she gave me a much more chaste kiss. "Let's get moving, then."

***

I snorted at the Threes ineffectually clawing at the concrete. I'd inadvertently freed one leg each when I'd kicked them earlier, and now they were rotating on the spot as they were trying to get to me, gnashing triple-hinged jaws and all. Chasing their own tails, so to say.

"Good bois, yes you are," I chortled as I patted their bellies. It only drove them madder.

Now, to properly poison them…

***

Leah stood on the concrete landing pad, tilted head and half-crossed arms, engrossed in the schematics and lists her cybereye showed her.

"I think that's it, Ypsi, dear? Anything to add?"

Nope! It's all good, Leah! Ypsi said enthusiastically, with a little-girl-double-thumbs-up so adorable that Leah's answering smile was so stuffed with fluffy sweetness that, had Tinea seen it, she would've been fawning all over her immediately.

Leah snorted at the image, tickled every time she thought about Tinea, how her behavior had become a lot more dynamic since Leah had claimed her. And been claimed in return.

Claimed. Hard. All the way…mostly. Leah bit her lip as she suppressed another ridiculous squeal, pinching the bridge of her nose trying to keep the schoolgirl giddiness in check, even as the corners of her mouth rose unbidden and uncontrollable.

I regret nothing!

Oh god. She really was adopting Tinea's playfulness, wasn't she?

But…if that let her experience more of that sinful cuteness the girl freely displayed every other minute…

Worth it. Yup.

Giggling, Leah straightened up and looked around the court one last time. Plenty of space, nothing in the way.

"Okay. Implant, then Daddy-Long-Legs?"

Yes! Um! When do you want the skill-download?

"We'll do that once I know what we'll be fighting, okay?"

Okie! said the virtual girl with another thumbs-up, her dress switching to something a little frilly and faintly maid-like. Please sit down and, uh, rest your head on your arms! This is one of those uncomfortable ones. I'm very sorry!

"That's okay, Ypsi."

Yup! Ypsi does her best! She's very polite and helpful, after all! Also, here's the purchase!

Purchased:

Total cost: 200Remaining points: 18358

Giggling, Leah sat down, placed her crossed arms over her knees, and her head on top. She flinched against the hot, sharp sting echoing through her brain, and just breathed deeply as she waited for the pangs of the blinding migraine to fade.

Squinting uncomfortably, she groaned as she climbed to her feet again. She rubbed her natural eye with the ball of her palm—she'd learned the hard way not to try the same with the artificial eye. It wasn't very squishy, and bruises at the back of the eye were no fun—and stretched after the momentary bit of torture.

"Ypsi, what's my brain look like? Got a sketch?"

Um, sure! Is this good enough?

Leah's eye displayed a three-dimensional model of a human brain, with three artificial objects in it. At the back of the brain was a small, dense carbon wafer, shaped and flexible enough to follow the contours of the cerebral cortex around it. It trailed a myriad of filaments all across her brain and even down into her brainstem. That was Ypsi's transceiver, installed during Leah's initialization months ago.

But seated right between the halves of the brain, in a spot that wasn't as dense with brain matter, sat a tiny oblong pill, now attached to a small umbrella-looking layer of complicated geometries. The pill was the Polylaterality implant—the prosthetics one. The new umbrella was simply labeled 'Piloting implant'—no special name there, apparently.

Both implants connected to either half of her brain with lots of little tendrils and wires.

Leah's lips curved once more. "Yeah, that's enough to sate my curiosity. Thank you, Ypsi."

You're welcome, Leah!

She backed up, braced her hands at her hips, and grinned. "Alright, Ypsi. Go ahead, let's see the big one."

Okie!

Purchased:

Total cost: 15880Remaining points: 2478

And then it was suddenly there. From one moment to the next, unannounced and with no warning, a gigantic spider simply…existed in front of Leah.

It smoothly caught its weight with a light bounce on its legs, even as golden filigree grew and curled across its eye-bleeding blackbody surface. White-edged joints released gently misting vapor, which flowed down along the long, long legs and settled on the ground.

Little lights winked on across the front of the thorax where organically shaped armor plates hid the lenses of the forward sensorium. The entire vehicle lit up in a wave of pinprick illuminations before all color disappeared—even the graceful, golden curves—leaving nothing but a stark, black hole shaped like a spider.

Then the drone bay's gate yawned like a maw, just above the abdomen's forward joint with the thorax, and Leah's Big Brother parked itself inside. Two more hatches fell open underneath the bottom of the abdomen—the small round one that led into the tiny living area, and the rectangular one, several meters long, for the pilot's pod.

Leah bit her lip as she slowly walked around the giant construct.

"Ypsi, can you have it light up a little again, please? I want to be able to see it properly. Just a little, though."

I can do that! Here you go.

The little stars across the spider's body appeared again along with the golden curlicues, and Leah almost moaned from just how neat it all was. The legs were clearly aerodynamically shaped to support its ability to run at a hundred and thirty miles per hour. Its entire volume was sleek and even the bulbous abdomen…just…looked sleek. Fast.

Urgh. Leah couldn't find words. She wanted in!

But the robotic gantry had already moved the cannon underneath the torso and was dismantling its carriage so that Daddy-Long-Legs could pick it up instead. Yeah. She'd have to wait just a moment.

Dang it.

Okay. Food. Food was important and she was hungry anyway.

***