Millie the Gunsinger

Day Three – Morning

I woke up. That was a good start but I felt really groggy. My bed was kind of strange too. It was all lumpy and warm.

“Good morning Millie” said Twenty, her voice in my ear. Holy crap, she had me cradled in her arms. I shot upright and looked around me in confusion.

We were in another abandoned building by the looks of it. Early morning light was streaming in through some broken windows. Close by was Otaki, fussing over the metal canister his sister’s brain was inside. That was all kinds of weird but not my immediate concern.

“Why am I sleeping on top of you Twenty?” I asked softly, hoping Otaki would not hear.

“She was all freaked out about you being unconscious” chimed in Otaki. “We checked you a couple of times during the night to see if you were concussed. Don’t you remember that?”

“No” I snapped back. I glanced at Twenty who was sitting up against me. Both our amour vests were off and my boots were drying to one side. Otherwise she and I were still dressed. That calmed my racing heart a bit.

“I used my body heat to keep you warm” explained Twenty. “I was afraid you might get sick if you were not looked after”. She was looking very sheepish and kept her head turned away from me.

“It’s OK. I don’t usually sleep with someone after just one date, that’s all” I joked with her. Twenty turned to look at me with a gasp and I am positive she was blushing. It was hard to tell for sure but I think she was pleased at the idea.

“You should not tease her about that kind of stuff” warned Otaki from where he sat. “The Guards are not allowed to be intimate with each other or anyone else. They are not permitted any of those kinds of emotions”

“Wow, that must make it really lonely for them” I said. “How do they blow off steam then? They have human bodies and bits, you know, so don’t they get urges?” I was blushing myself by now. Twenty was very still next to me, listening to this conversation with interest.

“They are fed suppressants in their daily food allowances. It keeps them calm and stops the ...ahh.. baser instincts coming out”. Now Otaki was blushing too. Is sex talk always like this?

To be truthful here, I was a complete novice at any kind of relationship stuff. I never got close to anyone my age at the orphanage and the Sisters were very keen to keep us all chaste anyway. I had never even kissed someone with passion before. Di kisses me on the forehead at times, but that was because I was like a little sister to her.

Then what Otaki had said really hit home.

“So if Twenty stays off the special food she will start to become emotional?” I asked him.

He looked at Twenty sitting next to me, one of her arms still cradling me from when I had been asleep. “I think she is already on that road” he replied. “I hope you are both ready to deal with that.” He went back to making some adjustments to the canister and pulled a cable from a side port and placed it against his temple.

“I need to wake Emily up. Do you want to say hello?” he asked us both.

“Hell yeah!” I responded and scrambled closer to Otaki and the case. I had never met a brain in a jar before. My life was having some crazy firsts these days.

After I settled cross legged before them both, he opened the front of the case. The metal panel revealed a section of thick Ceramiglass, behind which a fluid filled tank was visible. Cradled in a plastic framework was an honest to god brain. Two eyeballs on stalks were connected to it and they were of a beautiful green colour. For a brain in a jar she had really nice eyes and they were facing right at me.

“Hi Emily, I am Millie and over there is my friend Twenty” I announced. I leaned forward with my hand to touch the glass tank.

“Don’t tap on the tank. She doesn’t like that” said Otaki and I snatched my hand back. How did he know I was going to do exactly that?

“Emily says hello to you both” Otaki said. His eyes were closed but I could see them moving under his eyelids. Hang on, was he using a cybernetic implant to communicate with Emily? He’s an Awakened, and a powerful one. I had seen that last night. This was impossible.

“Otaki, do you have implants?” I asked him outright.

His eyes snapped open. “Yes” he replied after a moment of consideration. I was dumbstruck.

Now many of you would know this already, but Awakened like us can’t get implants. The scientists don’t know exactly why, but any powered implant screws with our body’s electric fields or something. The implants don’t work and we lose the ability to use our Awakened powers. Permanently.

We can get unpowered prosthetics like a leg or hand but even a pacemaker would knock off any Awakened abillty.

“It is something unique to me, as far as the researchers can tell” continued Otaki. He stroked the side of the canister. “And now Emily, which is why she is so important”.

“How did they even discover this?” I pressed him.

He sighed. I guess he was tired of explaining it all to the scientists. I was just the latest in a long line of people asking the freak some questions.

“I lost my left eye in a stupid game with some other boys when I was ten years old. We were playing with home made bows and arrows, shooting them at each other. I got one in the eye and it could not be saved. My father worked for the Yamaguchi labs back in California so he was able to get a proper cybernetic eye fitted for me. It looks just like a regular eye”

I peered closely at his left eye of course. Looked perfectly normal to me. Just the same as his other eye. “Seriously?” I said.

“Yes” he responded. “It is just a high quality civilian model, but I can use it in low light levels and to record stuff that I see. There is a small processor to support the eye and an external connection jack here in my temple” He tapped his head where the induction jack was sitting on the skin.

“Then when I was around thirteen I became Awakened” he continued. “It was not as part of the Awakening Centre procedure. It just happened all by itself one day. I had been playing about with matches and caught my bedroom on fire. I panicked and tried to put it out. I was absolutely positive my father was going to kill me for this one, especially after the accident with my eye. And something in me triggered the self-Awakening. I was able to control the fire and put it out” Otaki must have been a real problem child I thought.

“My father did not accept my explanation about how I managed to put the fire out. He kept pushing and it came out I had been able to awaken my Ability despite the implants. So we ended up being moved out to the Yamaguchi labs at Pan City. They wanted to see what it was about me that let me use implants and an Awakened power. I have been a lab rat for the past five years”.

Wow. He sounded really bummed out about his life. I leaned in close to Emily and peered into her green eyes. She could totally win a staring contest. No eyelids.

“So Emily is your sister? She has the same ability you do? Why did they take her body away?” I was babbling my questions in rapid fire now.

“Emily is a copy of my brain, created using samples from me that were modified in the lab. She was one of hundreds of male and female clone brains that Yamaguchi made. Only Emily was able to grow to mental maturity” Otaki explained.

“The initial development was overseen using virtual learning worlds created by the Archimedes AI. Once she was able to reach the mental equivalent of a two year old, I started interacting with her via the virtual setting. I gave her the name Emily and I have been her brother for all of her life so far”.

“You really consider her your sister? That is so amazing. But how can she interact with you via the implant? I don’t see any cybernetics added to her organic brain” I pondered to Otaki.

“Emily’s brain is designed to function as a quantum processor already. It needs no additional implants. Once she is in a living body she will be the first person able to use their own brain to access the quantum network. She can accept other implants and has the potential to be Awakened” Otaki was seriously in love with his sister, that was obvious from how he spoke about her.

“So Emily” I said to her, “Big brother stole you out of the lab and wants to run away with you someplace. I get that”. I looked up at Otaki. “But you must have had some major help to get you out of there. Who else is behind this?”

“I can’t tell you that. I just need you to get us to the rendezvous on the coast” he answered evasively. Humph! I wished we knew more about who was on our side and who was against us.

I turned around to Twenty, still sitting in the same spot. “Do we trust this guy, Twenty?” I asked her. If we were really partners now, she had to be given an equal say.

“I trust you Millie” she replied. “And he has offered us ten thousand Pandas. That will buy us many donuts and coffees”.

“Spoken like a true hunter” I grinned back. Time to get our show on the road.

=====

Otaki put Emily back into sleep mode while Twenty and I packed up our scant possessions. We put our vests and ponchos back on and I shouldered my pack. I gave my boots a quick brush down and shoved my feet into them. Eeyew – wet boots are really gross! At least my socks were kind of dry.

Twenty checked her pistol – she had a full magazine of the Armour Piercing but only one of the Suppression rounds. She put the AP rounds into the pistol and holstered it. Her only other weaponry was the extending metal baton.

Otaki still had the Machine Pistol he had taken from one of the attackers last night. It had a nearly full magazine. He and I had our abilities to use as weapons, but I wanted to limit the use of my Gunsinger if I could. The little monster was getting hard to control and I reckoned Otaki was feeling the same about his Pyro power.

Our plan was simple. The spot on the coast was a good thirty kilometres away so we needed a vehicle to get us there. If we could steal a car or truck we would be there in less than an hour. It was risky to travel as a group because we would be fairly distinctive. But as soon as we got a vehicle, we could head off immediately. I didn’t want to leave anyone behind and then have to come back for them.

We left the derelict building and headed out on the deserted street. Twenty and Otaki must have carried me nearly a kilometre from the firefight last night. At least we were a good distance away from our last known location so hopefully we could slip through any net.

Being the prey and not the hunter was a feeling I had not had for over three years. Even out here in the Hole, with minimal cameras and scanners, I was apprehensive about being in the open. I wondered if J or Zeke-san was watching over us right now?

This area was mostly run down factories and warehouses. In the first days of the city this place was the Westborough Light Industrial Park. But economic crashes and better automation elsewhere saw a lot of the businesses close. The whole area became poorer and the factories abandoned. It was so poor it lost its name and just became the Hole.

My intention was to head to one of the remaining functional businesses that still operated in the Hole. The Westborough Organic Recycling plant. Yep. All the sewage and garbage from the Spit and even Pan City was sent there and processed. Nobody would bother to steal crap so their security should be lightweight. I planned to steal a garbage truck.

The only real hazard I expected was the stink.

We passed few other people out on the streets at this time of the day. Those we did encounter would suddenly head in a different direction or pass us with a wide berth. Three serious looking people is something I would have avoided too.

It took an hour of solid trudging to get to the outskirts of the recycling plant. The sky was overcast again but it had not rained so far. It was very humid though and Otaki and I were red faced and sweaty. Twenty seemed quite content and barely tired. She was one uber-fit woman I realised. Maybe I could take up running with her once this job was over? Yay, I could have a gym buddy!

The three of us lurked in the cover of an awning as we watched the morning influx of garbage trucks and sewage tankers. They had been out early, before we had even stirred, and were now bringing their bounty home. As predicted, the odour was quite potent and my eyes were stinging just a little.

We rummaged through our supplies. Otaki had a handkerchief he could tie around his face. Twenty had an actual emergency filter mask in her pouches. I had to make do with some folded bandages and tape from my first aid kit. Suitably protected from the stink we went into battle!

Skirting along the outer fences we came to a section near the vehicle park. Trucks were coming and going, but some were already finished for the day and their drivers were heading back to a central building. The trucks were in long rows and there had to be a good fifty or more close by where we were crouched.

The fence was old style chain link made from some reinforced plastic polymer. It lasted mere seconds under the intense heat from Otaki’s index finger. He blowtorched a hole big enough for us all to crawl through.

I could only see two obvious security cameras, about twenty five and fifty metres away. I whistled a long, low tone and let my Gunsinger come forth. I was tired but I kept it focussed on the task at hand. Two sonic bullets flew out, one after the other, and the tinkle of busted cameras was music to my ears.

We moved quickly into the vehicle yard, watching out for any drivers or security guards. I took the lead, Otaki next with Emily bouncing on his back, and Twenty at the rear to cover us with her pistol.

If I had not expended so much energy the previous night I would let my Gunsinger check the air ahead of us for any movements. But I was tired and keeping my monster for really important things like stopping bullets.

So I came around the front of a truck and crashed into a driver. We fell over in a pile of legs and arms. I think he even got a cheeky feel in somewhere as I struggled to get off of him.

“What are you people doing here!” he shouted as I got to my knees on one side. Otaki and Twenty were looking down at the two of us in shock.

“Um, just here on a work experience day” I suggested and tried a friendly grin. Somehow I knew he was not buying it. Twenty stepped forward and pointed imperiously at the confused man.

“I need to requisition your work vehicle under Guard City Ordnance 237B” she demanded and pulled a Guard ID badge from a belt pouch. How many things was she carrying in there anyway?

The badge, her expression, and the large handgun she was still holding all got the desired result. Well, a result. The poor guy threw a smart key at her feet and waved at a truck nearby.

“It’s that one. Take it” he squawked and took off like a frightened rabbit. Mission accomplished.

We all headed over to the indicated truck. It was one in a line of side-lift garbage trucks. The ones that lift those big plastic bins up in the air and dump the contents in the top. “Shotgun” I called out and headed over to the passenger side.

Otaki paused and looked at Twenty. “Do you know how to drive one of these?”.

“I am trained to operate a number of standard cars, trucks, armoured carriers and motorbikes, Mr Otaki” Twenty answered with a smug air. “It will be my first time operating a garbage truck but I am confident in my skills”. She let Otaki climb into the centre of the cab and took the driver’s seat.

The smart key activated the driving controls. Unlike fancier places such as Pan City, our garbage was collected by people not AI driven vehicles. From a side mirror I could see the driver was pointing out this truck to a couple of security flunkies.

“We need to get a move on, Twenty” I called out to her over my shoulder.

“Copy that” she replied and hit the start button. Except it was the window wipers. Why is the first thing you ever do in a new vehicle is set off the wipers?

“Twentyyyy!” I called out.The security were talking into their comm sets and coming cautiously closer. Then with a high pitched squeal the electric motor surged to life and the truck shot forward. The wipers were still squeaking backwards and forwards across the windshield.

“Head to the main gates” I yelled helpfully. Twenty was weaving the truck around the lanes of other parked vehicles, bracing herself against the steering wheel. Otaki and I were bouncing around in our seats, trying to get the seat belts fitted. I got mine locked in but he was struggling to do it one handed. His other hand was holding Emily’s canister in a death grip. At least she would probably survive a crash in her little cocoon.

I reached over and grabbed the belt and locked him in. He gave me a look of thanks. I always try to be helpful. I guess I am a caring person at heart! Then we were slammed against the belts as Twenty hurtled the truck around a tight bend.

“Bloody hell, Twenty!” I shouted. “Watch the road”. Twenty rotated her head to give me a quick glare. “Did you want to drive?” she asked sweetly. What, she had only been a free woman for two days and she was talking back already? I was so proud of her.

The truck barrelled into the open and we were headed for the main gates. Trucks already there were moving quickly out of the way as the metal barrier was being rolled across the opening. Security guards were running into position either side, four of them with short barrelled shotguns it looked like.

I opened my side window and leaned into the torrent of air blasting past us. I tried to shout but my voice was torn away by the rushing air. It was not strong enough to compete with the wind. Ducking my head inside, I yelled to Twenty “Start blowing the air horn”.

As we got close, the security team took aim at the windscreen of our truck. This was going to be tight. Then the big air horn blasted out our battle cry. I stuck my head out again and called up my Gunsinger.

The air and noise of our truck was shaped into a curving wall before us, semi-translucent in its density. The shotguns blasted us with heavy rubber pellets and my shield of air flung them in all directions. The security themselves were tossed aside like rag dolls and we hit the barrier with a mighty boom. I managed to get myself back into my seat just before impact.

All three of us slammed into the seat belts again. Air bags deployed like instant pillows and the cab was filled with smoke. I heard a real grunt of pain from Otaki and I remembered his ribs were hurt last night. Sorry about that.

We were still moving and the barrier was flung down under the wheels of the truck. Twenty pushed the deflating air bag out of her vision and we roared off down the street. I waved the smoke out of the side window and checked my companions. We were all alive, if a little bit sore. I realised the fine hairs on my left arm had been scorched off by the hot gas from the air bags when they fired. That was gonna sting later I knew.

“Well, that went better than expected” I said and peeled off my face mask.

=====

We had left the Hole far behind now. I had expected some sort of pursuit but we had not seen any vehicles or drones tailing us. It was another twenty kilometres to the small coastal town that Otaki needed to meet his boat.

As we left the city behind the road climbed the scarp that bounded this edge of the Spit. A few other vehicles going into the Spit passed us but nothing seemed to be chasing us. A small roadside cafe was coming up ahead so I told Twenty to pull in there.

There were a couple of cheap electric cars in the parking bay, soaking up solar power from the nearby roof cells. It was a common feature of most places to offer free battery recharges to patrons. Twenty parked the truck in a bay for larger vehicles.

Otaki had been recharging Emily’s canister from a socket in the cab. He looked at me in concern once the vehicle engine stopped.

“Why are we stopping here” he asked me.

“This is only a garbage truck, but all that drama at the recycling plant should have set off some kind of response” I answered.

“Did you want the Guard to chase us Millie?” wondered Twenty.

“No, but I expected something. This feels like another set up and I don’t want to take any more risks” I explained. “I think we need to ditch the truck and get another vehicle”.

“Not much choice here” said Otaki. I had to agree. The little electric cars parked here were two seaters. We would never fit all three of us in one of them, and I didn’t want to steal two cars. Plus these belonged to working people, not like the garbage truck. I would feel really bad ruining other people’s lives like that.

While we pondered our next move, my stomach gave a loud grumble. I glanced over at Otaki and Twenty. “Coffee anyone?”

I left the two (sorry, three) more conspicuous members of our little gang lurking in the garden seating area overlooking the lowlands while I went inside. It was a mom and pop kind of set up, with mom at the counter and pop running the kitchen. I ordered three coffees and three bacon and egg toasted sandwiches. I used one of my precious ten Panda notes to pay for the order.

The only other occupant was a travelling rep of some kind. He was seated at a table, drinking a coffee and scrolling through stuff on his phone. His cheap suit looked new and his phone was a top end model. He had barely glanced at me when I came in. I am not so vain as to think I am worth notice, but I was wearing an armour vest and looked like I had been dragged backwards through a hedge. Even around the Spit you would take notice of that.

Maybe I was being super paranoid, but I really did know someone was out to get us.

I thanked the lady for my order and juggled it all out the door. As soon as I placed the food and coffees down on the outside table, I said to Twenty and Otaki, “Get ready to go. I just need to check something”.

I ran around the behind the cafe and came to the opposite side, near the parked cars. My cheap suit guy was looking back towards the garden area and talking on his phone. I crouched down next to the side wall and called up my Gunsinger. I focussed on his conversation.

“..it has to be them. The girl is a definite match and I can see a truck is parked in the bay” he said into the phone.

“Don’t engage them. Stay back and wait for the response team” said a voice at the other end. “Copy that” said Mr Cheap Suit and disconnected his call.

I realised they wanted to wait until we were somewhere not too public before they jumped us. Our vehicle grab had been way too noisy to avoid being spotted. I am impulsive at the best of times and my plans were always half-assed. Just like this one.

“Hey, cheap suit!” I yelled and rushed him. He spun towards me and his shocked face was just perfect. I lead with my right fist which even with surprise he blocked easily. Except that was not my real attack. My left fist drove like a hammer up into his groin. He was taller than me and at least thirty kilos heavier. I got that sucker airborne and dropped him gasping to the ground. Thank you Sister Venerae for your wise words – always fight dirty.

Twenty and Otaki came around the other side of the cafe and stared at me. The toasted sandwich in Twenty’s mouth nearly fell out.

“He was a plant, set here to watch out for us” I called out to them triumphantly. “And he called in reinforcements so we need to go”.

“In what?” said Otaki. I pawed through Cheap Suit’s pockets and came up with a smart key. I hit the button and the nearest little electric car beeped as the doors unlocked.

“That” I said.

I dragged Cheap Suit into the outside rest room and strip tied his hands and feet together. A piece of duct tape for a gag and voila – one bad guy safely out of the game. He had a short barrelled ten millimetre pistol, one of those holdout types with four shots. I don’t like guns but Twenty might like it. I dropped his phone down the toilet and took his wallet. Holy smoke , he had nearly two hundred Pandas in notes. I stuffed the notes into my pocket and left him to nurse his aching manhood.

Twenty and Otaki were already in the little car, having unhooked the recharger. Twenty was the biggest of all of us, so she was driving again. I sat on Otaki’s lap in the passenger seat and Emily was consigned to the storage space behind the front seats, along with my backpack.

Otaki wasn’t happy with her being out of his reach and I wasn’t happy about sitting on him. But sometimes you just have to grin and bear it.

“Let’s burn rubber,Twenty” I said. “Copy that” she replied and with a shower of gravel she gunned us out onto the main road.

“Hey, where is my coffee and sandwich?” I complained as we headed up the asphalt. Some days a girl can’t get a break.

=====

The road that lead down to the coastal town was deserted. It was close to noon by now and we had no other options. I told Twenty to drive us through the streets and we looked apprehensively from side to side as we came down to the beach front.

We could see some people and cars moving around so the worry began to lift. As we reached the water’s edge there were some people sitting on the beach. Some surfers were even catching waves. The knot of fear in my chest was easing but I would not feel safe until Otaki was safely away from here.

His contact was a fishing boat skipper at the small harbour. Twenty drove us along the road that fronted the beach and we parked in the lot near the main jetty. There was trio of other electric cars parked already, plus a couple of trucks.

We all got out and stretched. My legs were cramping after all the walking and running I had done today. It felt so good to be able to move again. I had been very conscious of sitting on Otaki all the way here. It was the closest I had ever been to a man and I was not sure how I felt about it. Nobody had said much in the journey here – I think we were all too on edge.

I watched him as he took Emily’s case carefully from the rear of the car. He was definitely a handsome young man. It did not hurt that he had a lean, fit body too. With a really cute little butt I had to admit. This was very much on display as he was leaning over the front seat.

“Don’t forget my backpack” I called out to him. He mumbled some reply but snagged it anyway as he brought Emily out. It was a shame in a way that he was leaving now. I had so many questions about him, his sister Emily, and how it all tied to the Guard clones and me.

Twenty had been sniffing the air and looking watchfully about.

“Something wrong?” I asked her. Could she smell trouble coming? Were her enhanced Guard senses detecting an approaching enemy?

“Does the ocean always smell so bad?” Twenty replied. She had a look of distaste on her face.

I inhaled deeply and regretted it. Rotten seaweed and dead fish. I had forgotten that the seaside was not all sun, sand and icecream. Especially when standing downwind of fishing boats. “It’s OK, we won’t be here too long” I assured her.

As I went past her to the wooden jetty I did ask “Can I borrow that filter mask you have?”. She barely thought for a moment and replied “No, your head is too small to fit”. She was getting some serious attitude.

With Otaki in the lead we walked down the jetty to the end. My boots clomped along the wooden boards and I could barely hear Twenty’s soft tread as she followed behind.

“That’s the boat at the end of the jetty” said Otaki, pointing to a large vessel tied up. I squinted against the light reflecting from the sea – there were some figures on the deck, looking our way.

“Millie” said Twenty behind me. There was a strange tone in her voice. “Millie, something is happening”. She had a rising tone of panic in her voice.

“Otaki!” I yelled to get his attention. He was looking intently at the boat and the people aboard. He faced back towards me and shouted “Run!”

I turned back to Twenty and she was right next to me. “Twenty, something is wrong! We need to run” I shouted.

“Millie! My processor has reactivated. I am...” she cried and stopped short. Then her hands shot out and gripped me around the throat like a vice. My own words were choked off and my vision swam.

I fell to my knees and she knelt beside me, maintaining the powerful grip. I could not utter a sound. Her face was devoid of any emotion, but her eyes were wide and pleading. A tear rolled down her cheek.

My Gunsinger surged up inside of me, struggling to be let out. But all I could see was Twenty and I could not let it hurt her.

Just before I passed out I saw armoured Jacks from the Guard swarming around us, hemming in Otaki and the canister with Emily. Life really sucks some days.