(Rewritten) Ch. 28 – Bird Catching

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"They say you need only a tenth of the strength for a successful attack if you ambush the prey.

…

Samurai-everything ambushing anything is unfair."

– PMCs, after witnessing Stray Cat not-nuke the countryside with a bunker-busting fusion bomb

***

Leah eventually woke me from my soft doze far too light to risk any dreams, and asked me to try and remove her pirate eyepatch. It'd been four hours and she no longer felt any buzzing in the socket, and I was famished.

I used the spinneret to carefully dissolve the silk where it glued to her skin, and yep, Leah had her natural eye back. A rather beautiful green one, too.

"Heh, you're the stereotypical redhead with green eyes, huh? Irish ancestry?"

"I don't actually know. Never met my parents and there doesn't seem to be any documentation of them either. But I did have a DNA check done once, and it seems like the genes for my hair and eye color were tampered with before or while my egg was fertilized. Must've been expensive, but still no hint as to what happened with our parents."

"Our?"

"I…had a sister, once. She passed away many years ago. Tumor. Contaminated food."

"Oh. Sorry. I guess? Probably doesn't help, huh? I'd rather hug you harder." I did just that.

Leah smiled at me, laughed softly, and said, "Don't worry too much. It's been a long time, and I had help. Got a good way of dealing with it and stuff. Keep hugging me, though."

"Yessir! As you command, ma'am!"

I enjoyed how much easier it was to read Leah's expressions with both sockets filled up. There's a surprising amount of subconscious communication delivered just in the eyes. Enough that it made me blush a little when she studied me right back.

She really did like teasing me. A little too much.

I covered her mouth with my tail, just in case, and got Leah to laugh again. I loved how her laughter just took the space with confidence, ringing without effort. My own laughs were either chuckles (well, giggles now, apparently), or barely more than quiet exhalations.

I somehow didn't really want to introduce any physical separation between Leah and myself, and Leah's decision to remain immobile in favor of getting her second eye back, told me that she was probably feeling the same, if for different reasons. But that wasn't going to fly for much longer, not if we wanted to be ready for whatever we chose to do.

"Wanna try Dr. Shank?"

"Who?" Confused head tilting. Kinda cute. Am I seriously crushing on her already? That's too fast, even for me. A little Tinea somewhere deep inside of me was slaking her thirst on the sudden abundance of…closeness and getting a little too enamored. Time to handle that, I thought, wrangling my euphoric hormones away from that particular precipice. If I was going to fall in love with Leah, I wanted it to be not because of neediness, but because of happiness and mutual…agreement thingies.

"The Sleeve. You'll get why, I promise. Or at least Tynea can make sure you do?"

If we must, I can demonstrate, yes.

I laughed my silent laugh and said, "Yes, please."

I fully disrobed and cut the Sleeve from the back of it, unfolded it and let it stand up on its own.

Leah looked at it askance, "Okay, so, that thing's…not suitable for bedside manners."

I grinned at her as the knives came out and began humming slightly. I could hear it now, through my sensilla, but they were seriously quiet. I doubted Leah's ears were sensitive enough.

"Meet Daddy Long-Knives, please. He'd just love to wrap you up."

"Oh god. Are you evolving your terrible pick up lines? Mutating them? What's it like to go from so-bad-they're-good to so-bad-they're-bad?" I could see the smirk on her face, even without looking at her.

"Don't worry, Leah. It just needs to strip some of your skin." The smirk had longer legs than the Sleeve apparently, considering how quickly it disappeared.

"What?" She blanched, and I realized there was actual fear. Trauma.

"Oh shit. I'm sorry, I was kidding," I blurted in a hurry, hugging her close while using my augs to deactivate the thing until it collapsed. "I wasn't thinking. Fuck, forgive me. I'm sorry, Leah." I was shivering, panicking, and felt like an asshole. I was an idiot. Fuck.

Leah had closed her eyes and buried herself in my chest. I could feel her controlled breathing, as she slowly relaxed muscle by muscle. Frankly, it demanded immense respect, her ability to sort herself out like that.

Eventually, her muffled voice told me, "It's okay. It's just… I wasn't even awake. But I could tell they'd used sharp things to…hurt me. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. It's more just that I didn't know what else they were going to do. That I wouldn't be able to stop them. So…let's just not joke about that stuff, yeah? Not yet."

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Leah. Really. I fucked up."

"'S'all good. I'm still here. And you are. They aren't. That's what counts."

"Okay. Yeah." I let things settle a bit, forced myself to calm down and think of other things. Then continued, "The Sleeve doesn't need its knives. They're just to remove the clothing on injured patients. It had to peel me out of my trousers when I'd broken every bone from my feet to halfway up my spine. But it won't need them for you. Do you still want to try? Or would you prefer I carried you?"

Leah breathed in and out one more time, then looked up at me with that wide grin of hers. "I'll use it. Can I just get into it like a normal person, maybe?"

I smiled back, pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Sure, I've disabled it already. Here, let me just spread it out."

With a thought I sent a call to Tynea. "Tynea, how adaptable is this thing really? Can I let it close at her front instead of her back? Like a normal piece of clothing?"

Absolutely, that is no issue.

Reassured, I carefully laid Leah at my side, and spread the Sleeve and watched as it reversed which way its feet pointed and its elbows bent, and the entire musculature shifted along. Now it had its opening at the front, as I'd wanted. Without the knives out, and without it moving, it really just looked like a futuristic but otherwise normal supportive, boring-gray piece of clothing.

"Okay. Leah, I'll just basically dress you in this thing like it's an overall, yeah?"

"Sure. Works for me."

The muscles in her throat and around her clavicles worked to support her head as I picked her up. There was something really intimate about seeing that, and it almost had me blushing self-consciously as I smoothed her red hair upwards and away so I could settle her into the Body Sleeve's torso.

I was pretty sure Leah noticed, what with the twinkling in her eyes. Tease. Seriously.

"There'll be a slight sting in your spine somewhere. No idea where, but it won't hurt much. You'll be able to feel the Sleeve like it was your own skin, just…worse. Duller, or maybe fake. You'll get used to it and the thing handles itself just fine. Biggest difference will probably be your completely uneven weight distribution with the limbs being empty. Although, do you maybe want to be wiped down first? Must've been a few da—"

I froze as I heard a near silent whoosh out in the corridor. I sensed Leah about to say something and quietened her with a gentle tail across her mouth.

I focused harder and my antennae fingered the air in front of me, combing for air currents. I couldn't quite recognize what the whooshing blurry echo-picture was, not until it came close enough for my human ears to finally pick it up and identify it from experience.

Bird wings. To be specific, fake pigeon model One wings. A single set. Coming closer.

As silently as I could, I whispered, "Ypsi, Tynea, help Leah sort herself out. Antithesis." To Leah I motioned zipped lips until she nodded her understanding.

The thing must've been almost at our door when it settled down. Probably on one of my strings, from the way it trembled. Should I have gone for the spider type spinneret? Could've turned it sticky right under it…

I'd be able to move very fast, but would I be quick enough to catch it, if it heard me coming? And if it did, would it run to alert more critters, or would it investigate?

Investigate. That gave me an idea. I slowly, silently, uncapped the nutrient slurry and set it down near the tunnel. It had a distinct smell and given enough time, I figured the model One would come sniffing for it.

I didn't want to use a gun in this small space, not to mention the noise I'd cause digging around in my shift for it. But mindful of my body upgrades, I just sat right next to the tunnel, ready for the flier to come in.

I let my tail silently build a quick curtain across the bubble, so the model One wouldn't be able to see Leah on the way in. I really appreciated how the tail's fuzz deadened the airflow, erasing any audible disturbances it might've caused with its movements.

After half a minute of waiting, I heard it take off again. It was coming even closer, flying circles around the room until it spotted the tunnel entrance.

My hand flashed out as it shot down the tunnel. It looked like it was going to dive right into the sauce with a single-minded focus, but I caught it before it could make a mess. In a split second I grabbed it with one hand around the head and the other behind its neck, and broke it with a twist before I actually tore it in two to the characteristic smell of cut grass and mold.

Then I held still for a good ten seconds, listening. After no other sound nor vibration reached me, I relaxed and breathed out. Leah took the signal, peeked around the curtain at the pieces of model One in my hands, and said, "Holy crap, are you Hulk or what, Tinea?!"

I giggled and whispered, "No ma'am, just a samurai."

"Oh, if that's all."

"Indeed, ma'am, nothing suspicious here."

I looked at the bird-like alien, tossed it out, and continued, "Leah, I'll have to head out. See what's going on, if there are other Antithesis around. We'll also have to figure out how to destroy the dead Antithesis. I'm not sure if a model One is enough to serve as a seed for a nest. Tynea?"

Model Ones are quite small. Not much biomass for their seed grapes to consume. Usually an attempt to root from one fails, but not always. Especially not if there is a rich source of biomass nearby. Like that slurry.

Ah. That explained why it tried to divebomb the jar.

"Alright, gotta burn it. We'll think about that later. Guns first."

And with that I went about equipping myself once again.

***