(Rewritten) Ch. 79 – Xenocide Act VI; Terms Of Disengagement

"Love's a glitch in the system. It don't respect the boundaries of a cold and calculatin' world."

– An unexpectedly wholesome message amongst all the penis jokes on the walls of a public toilet.

***

Running spikes… What shape would be best? And, uh, malleability.

Probably stiff ones, right? The less energy was lost to springiness, the better. At least, I thought so.

And I'd need to have an easy time accelerating, changing directions, and stopping.

So, just cones?

Right. This was the kind of thing to ask my resident AI about.

"Tynea, what kind of spikes should I use for running?"

You'll want morphing spikes - short spikes for sprints to allow quick turnover, longer ones for slower movement but better traction. Wide, flat paddles for the current weather. Or very long spikes to dig deep.

You will get most of your efficiency from levering mechanics, though. It might be preferable to have retractable spikes that can "kick", so to say.

Ah, and active spikes would want yet different shapes. Hmm. There was a split-second conversation between one of my quasi-selves and Tynea, following which AI-I presented a first draft to test in the form of a mental picture of my feet, but modified.

It had thin, grooved soles of chitin designed to provide good traction in mud. The chitin would be soft and pliable, not very punch-proof, but enough so that my own weight wouldn't suffice to cause injury even if I sprinted across broken glass, or a nail sticking out. Nevermind my skin beneath, tough enough to repel small caliber firearms.

These soles had small, slender, and retracting cat's claws integrated between the toes for climbing, and a mixture of more rugged claws and paddles across the rest of the sole. The paddles were spring-loaded to catapult me forward as my foot left the ground. Each footfall would then load those organometallic springs again for the next step.

It will take about ten minutes for all these changes to complete, Tinea.

"That's fine. Will I be able to walk while the soles are growing?

Certainly. There won't be any open wounds, nor will shifting disturb the process.

"Okay. In that case, let's have the, uh, morphing start."

Moments later my feet and hands started to tingle painfully, but bionites raced my bloodstream to deaden nerve endings to mute the sensation immediately.

I let the Myriad split again and checked the bottom of my feet—and swallowed heavily against a puke reflex. The scales were being consumed and I stared, squicked out of my mind. The act didn't look healthy, or like it belonged on Earth. There wasn't any blood, but the whole thing was made to give me a new phobia. I shivered, and it was a physical fight to turn my head away and put the foot down, instead of amputating myself at the knee.

"Ah, Tynea?" I whispered.

Yes?

"If we have changes like these happen in the future, just let the stuff fall off instead? I'd rather spend points on food, to be honest."

Understood. I should note that reabsorbing hair is very different. It looks like reverse hair growth in time lapse.

"...Alright. A bit weird to see, but not…that," I acquiesced, pointing at my feet.

Speaking of food, it'd be good if you consumed the remainder of the broth. You're a little low on both protein and minerals.

"Right." I spied the bowl half-buried in the muck not far from Leah where I'd left it earlier, and walked over gingerly. The crawling sensation at the bottom of my feet still gave me goosebumps. Not exactly like I'd imagined being a samurai…

Mercifully, it stopped after a few seconds. When I lifted a foot, the skin looked mostly normal, with just a few warts already shrinking.

The scales will be dissolved over the next thirty minutes. You should not sense any of it.

"Say, did the skin, uh, ingest any dirt along with the scales?"

A little, of course. Usually, it would simply be expelled by the skin itself. However, as you have bionites available, they're instead pulling it apart for minerals and such.

Looking closer, I could see that happening. It looked a little like I was sweating water, mud and other residue across my soles. Weird. But at least this process didn't make the skin look like it was doing creepy alien things.

"Tynea, can we just do away with the icky factor?" I asked. "Make the whole reverse skin regurgitation thing look less, well, horrid?"

We could grow normal skin past the scales, reabsorb them once they're hidden, and then reabsorb the skin again. But the energy efficiency would be terrible, worse than just shedding.

"How much energy is that?"

Thousands of calories, and that's only for your feet. Please eat.

Oh, whoops. That was a full meal easily.

"Is my metabolism even fast enough to support that?"

Yes, particularly because the nutrient solution in your chest serves as a battery of caloric energy, and your Class II Innovated Innards offer a great deal of improved and quickened food-absorption.

I looked down at said chest.

"So, uh. Better food, bigger boobs, more safety?"

…Yes, Tinea. Better foods equal bigger boobs equal more safety.

"Awesome."

I heard Leah chortle from the other side of the egg, and her head popped up.

She grinned at me.

"What?"

Her grin widened, and—with twinkling eyes—she said, "As good a reason for bigger boobs as any."

I blithely cupped my breasts and hefted them. "Right?"

Inevitably her eyes wandered downward and a very slight blush tinged her cheeks.

I pursed my lips with my head tilted. Wonder why? I sure didn't know. Nope, not at all.

Bouncy-bounce.

Suddenly Leah's hand flashed up and something squishy hit me square in the face. Something that was very, very soggy, and absolutely dunked me.

I caught it as it slowly slid down my front balcony, and recognized the silk ball I'd tossed at her earlier.

I looked back up at Leah with a raised eyebrow, and she gave the cheesiest of grins with her squirt-gun pointed right at me and a stream of water already halfway to my forehead.

AI-Tinea was on the ball and instantly modulated the forcefield to catch the water, and then compressed it like the mother of all squirt-guns and shot it all back as a single splooshy sphere of aerated water that exploded on Leah's nose.

She recoiled with a funny sound, and this time it was me with the cheesy smirk, once she was done spluttering.

Quick as a snake she recovered and shot another stream at me, dodging the return volley from both my tail and emitter. Seeing that her attack was rebuffed so easily, she squinted at me and slowly lowered her squirt-gun. "Cease-fire?"

Huh. I scratched my jaw and studied her. The gears were definitely turning behind those pretty, pretty eyes. She's totally planning something. I walked over and crossed my arms on top of her egg to lay my chin on them. She followed suit, which meant she got in range of my antennae.

They immediately locked onto her face, since, surprise, that's where my focus lay, and softly stroked over her lips. I tasted all kinds of interesting things on them. Some of that amazing juice we'd had. Toothpaste. And certain other very sweet things she'd…savored in the past few days. She gently blew at the sensilla until the antennae twitched away, and then smirked at me.

Yup. I wasn't gonna be able to hide the object of my consideration ever, was I?

But I didn't mind. I liked Leah's reactions to it. The way satisfaction lit her up when she realized she'd caught my gaze, how it made her preen just a little. I appreciated the picture. And there was something special about unashamedly letting her know it, especially since she liked my attention so obviously. Reservations or not, she was quite clearly pleased with how into her I was. And maybe, just maybe, the blush on her cheeks meant she was into me, too.

That thought filled me with a warm and bubbling gladness and lifted my lips into a happy smile, which Leah couldn't help but answer.

"Well, my dear samurai," I asked, humor ringing in my voice. "What are the terms?"

The devilish twinkle was back in her eyes, and my antennae fluffed at her again. This time she just let them and simply closed the eye they were closest to. "Why, my lovely adversary, I would submit Terms of Disengagement until such time as that we are on the road again."

She grew quite a bit more serious, and a little sadder. "I rather miss my littles," she said, "and my friends. Let's hurry, yeah?"

Aw. I easily mantled the pod and my butt landed on one of its legs next to her, where I hugged her and squeezed her thoroughly against my bouncies.

"Sure, Leah. Let's hurry." I released her and patted her mussed-up hair and gentled her cheeks, wiping away a tear or two with my thumbs. Aw, aw. "Hey, if you're done equipping yourself and loading up your cannon, I'll take care of the rest. Wanna call home? I'll be done in a few minutes, too."

She smiled at me with swimming eyes and glomped me back. "Yeah. Thanks, Tinea."

"Aww. No worries, Leah. Important things are important, and I have no particular needs to meet right now. You do what you want to do, and I'll help."

"Mm." She nodded at me, and after a final pat to my back, she turned away and retreated into her pod.

Well, time to actually get busy, I thought, and dropped the meter and a half down from the pod's spidery leg onto the ground.

My feet would need a little more time to finish their growth, but I could already feel a thin layer of dense skin on my soles. A look confirmed that I had about three millimeters of rubbery chitin grown, with grooves and pits just beginning to form.

The padding will be complete in roughly one minute, and the various claws, paddles, and spikes, in about four.

"Understood, Tynea. Is there another upgrade you would suggest? Something that'll help us make a lot of points for Leah's big vehicle."

Do you intend to keep using guided bullets, and perhaps also those rocket-powered javelins?

"Oh yeah, we'll actually need them again soon," I said, thinking of my bargain Rod From God technique using those artificial gravity balls. "Assuming the mobile nests exist, and that Leah's cannon can't kill them with indirect fire."

I looked at her cannon and figured it was a little low to the ground. She might be able to walk right up to one and point down enough to hit it even if it didn't rise to move, but that would put her at unnecessary risk in melee range.

In that case, I would suggest you buy combat geneware for your Quanta. Something that will allow you to directly connect to any programmable projectile's protocols. You currently rely on your Sentinels to manage all guidance, but that is slow and inefficient.

"Make me some suggestions?"

Well, first of all, you do still need to eat. The bowl's that way, Tynea said, with a neon-pink arrow blinking in my display.

And like a good little girl, I went and grabbed it.

I even washed my hands first.

***