"I thought you said we went on a little road trip. Why did you take such a big bag with you?"

  "So I could fit in the zero gravity suits."

  "Zero gravity where are we going?"

  "Saturn I thought it would be romantic."

  -- Excerpt from the trilling new Samurai romance novel the long road.

  I will admit that sitting in a car next to a person that has left your body battered and bruised just moments ago, isn't the most comfortable thing in the world. Then again, it is far from the worst experience I have had in my life and I have more pressing things to worry about. Chief among them, the bounty on my head and the reason for it being there.

  I guess selling the blueprints to my mask was not one of my smarter moves. I think that's what I get for cheating the system. Oh well, the fix is somewhat easy at least. With my newly upgraded Cyberwarfare catalogue, thank you Crow, it is easy to slip a piece of code into the underbelly of the web itself with some rather basic commands. Once someone puts on one of my masks they can’t pull it off, and their oxygen intake will become rather limited, making them a lot easier to capture. As long as they don’t have asthma, otherwise they will be too dead to pick up.

  I smile to myself. It is a rather simple solution and something I came up with after watching Crow fight Foxfire. Using the mask is a unique idea and probably not that smart in most cases, but here it could work. The only difficulty was making sure that I did not accidentally suffocate someone working for PsyCo, but some alterations to the software make that easy as well, and as an added bonus, the masks are now theft-proof, only working in the proper way for registered employees.

  Then that leaves one more problem, and that is destroying the blueprints. The ones that are out on the web are not that hard to grab ahold of, but I doubt that they are the only ones in circution, so I will need to find out who the walking trash can sold the blueprint to. Sadly, with them being part of the cube, I can’t really access their data, and will probably have to make a small trip at some point to find out exactly how bad the damage is. A problem for ter, to be honest.

  With that all sorted I turn back to my travel companion. Why did Crow have to pick a fight with Foxfire of all people? The woman is completely insane, even by Samurai standards. She pys catch with orbital strikes!

  “I mean, we did have a poster of her on our wall for a reason.” Maniac unhelpfully supplies.

  “You shush! That is not really what I need right now.” I counter.

  “Then what do you need? “ Foxfire asks, looking at me with a smile.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. The pn was to get out of the undercity and go on vacation with my girlfriends or something. You know, rex a bit after all this stuff, but now I feel like I have even more to do.”

  “I don’t think you have to do anything right now.”

  “I still have people using my name for all kinds of stuff, and on top of locking all those masks and destroying all the blueprints, I still need to create a pce for about 14 orphans to live.”

  She just smiles at me. “So you are a good person.”

  “I try to be, yeah.” I say, giving the girl a weird look.

  “So, why did you blow up half of the city without thinking about the consequences?” she demands.

  Well, it isn't like I was pnning any of that; I was just inflicted with a case of a crazy girlfriend, but saying that doesn't feel like a particurly good idea. Considering how many samurai are here, it almost feels like putting her on an execution block, especially now that she has a bunch of people to take care of. Fuck, Katelyn, you better be thankful.

  “I got desperate, panicked and made a mistake I deeply regret, but not much I can do about it now.” I say, trying my best to sound defensive.

  There was a little pause.

  "Okay, but I've seen you fight; you should have had no trouble dealing with most of the stuff down there. And you weren't alone because you mentioned another Samurai, so I think you could have bought enough time to prevent the colpse altogether. Lyona?"

  Based on Vanguard Maniac's fighting capabilities compared to the Antithesis we have seen thus far, it is my estimate that they would have been able to hold the line for a few more days, possibly a week or two. Depending on the exact equipment used in construction, that is ample time to prevent most of the city from colpsing. This is, of course, assuming what we've seen thus far is the upper bound of the strange Antithesis' powers, which we have no way to verify., Overall, I estimate that this was not a valid reason. The timing of most civilians being evacuated and 358, sorry 356, Vanguard being in Zürich right now was fortunate, but as Vanguard Maniac has stated previously, they were unaware of these events. It is a happy coincidence, though this makes it no less convenient.

  A female voice supplies from the car radio

  I chuckle, “You have only seen the dregs of the underground so far, there were truly titanic overlord-css pnts in there. Titanic creatures the size of a house spewing out more of the pnts by the second, while shooting you with spines sharp enough to pierce walls. Flyers that drop bombs, releasing clouds of microscopic model 7s. Creatures that exude fluids so acidic they dissolve even the best armour pting. When it was just me and two new Samurai, that is a lot to handle, especially if you have to protect a corpo-burg worth of people,” I rant. Halfway through it I finally realise the true horror of the situation.

  “And yet you are alive and unharmed, damage I did notwithstanding. But disregarding that, how did you even end up in this mess in the first pce?”

  “Well, it all started when I was sent on a mission by my corporate overlords…” and with that, I start to regale her with the story of how everything happened in the undercity, redacting some of the interaction between Katelyn and us.

  “I am so sorry. I tried to stop them from bringing svery back, but rich fucks figured they’d pull a ‘Let’s all do svery, she can’t murderize all of us!’ and while I definitely could, I didn’t think it was worth it at the time. They are making me regret my decision more and more by the day though…,” her expression turned sad and then dark, towards the end.

  “What was the saying again, smash one asshole two more grow back,” I say noncommittally. It isn't her job to keep the world free of them.

  “That’s about hydra-heads. You’re thinking of hydra-heads. Then again multi-headed asshole-hydra is a surprisingly apt, if vulgar, way to describe capitalism.” she looks at me “The other samurai are escorting the people from the underworld, I assume. Are they okay?”

  “I would hope so, but I have not been able to check in with them on account of… You know… you kicking our ass.”

  “Maybe you should check in so we can send some backup if they are in trouble.”

  I nod, “Yeah, that's fair.” I quickly make a call, making sure to take it with my digital avatar so that my driver can’t overhear what is about to transpire. Katelyn picks up the call rather quickly, her portrait appearing in front of me as her camera turns on. It looks like she is still in her mech, but not currently fighting anything, so that is a good sign.

  “Hey, uhm…” she starts.

  “Evelin.” I supply.

  “Hey, Evelin, what's going on?” she says, sounding a bit disappointed.

  “Not much at the moment. But apparently there is a bounty on my ass, so I am getting out of the city for a bit to sort it out. How about you? Any trouble?”

  “We're doing fine. There are lots of samurai around killing the aliens, so we have been able to move with barely any resistance.”

  “Yeah, about that, apparently there was some kind of Samurai convention here before you blew everything up.”

  I can see on the video feed that Katelyn becomes a lot paler. “Fuck! Fuck, do they bme that on me?”

  “No, I don’t think they know you did it, and I think it would be smart if we kept it that way. I don’t want an army of angry Samurai on your ass. After all you need to be there to keep the Underworlders in line, we don’t want sudden riots now.” I say.

  “I see, but what if they ask questions?” she asks, sounding a bit stressed.

  “Then tell them that I did it, I pced the machine and set it off. Let them come to me if they have problems.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Because even though you hurt Maniac, I somewhat get the decision. You were still trapped in the past and needed to get out. I am sure that we would have felt the same in your situation. So, I am giving you a chance to be better from now on, however stupid that may look. I feel like you deserve a second chance at life, a real one, not one trapped in a box. The only thing I ask is that you try to seek forgiveness from Maniac.”

  “DO you think she will forgive me?” She looks really hopeful at that thought, perking up in her seat.

  “That's for you to find out. Now if you don’t need anything, I'll be off.”

  “Okay, thank you, Evelin. I promise that you won’t regret this.”

  With that, the connection is cut off only for that silence to be promptly interrupted.

  “Why would you think I would want her apology?” Maniac angrily growls.

  Still in the digital space, I answer, “I'm not sure if you want it, but I think you would love to see her try.”

  “How would you even know that?” she asks, sounding pissier.

  “Aw, come on, you would love a pretty girl begging you. Come on, Crow, back me up here.” I say with a big smile.

  “I have no clue why the two of you insist on sticking your tongues in other people.” Crow's impassive voice replies.

  “Right. Well, that's fine too, I guess.” I think for a second. “Anyway, there is no harm in letting her try, right? If she succeeds, it's another matter entirely.”

  “Ugh, fine! I'll let her try then.” Maniac grumbles out.

  With that settled, I focus back on my meatspace. Luna is focusing on the road, or at least pretending to focus on it, to give us some amount of privacy.

  I clear my throat to get her attention before speaking, “So, have you and Magenta known each other for a long time?”

  “I guess you could say that. I am her mentor and everything. And I filed an official compint with the protectors, because she was 14 at the time and I don't support child soldiers.”

  “Guess she was quite the big terror back then?” I ask, with a bit of a smile.

  “She wasn't that bad once she discovered streaming. Basically the only thing she did after that was invite every samurai that she could find onto her show.” Foxfire smiles fondly.

  “She hasn't invited me to her show yet. Should I feel offended about that?” I say in mock outrage.

  “I mean, you are kind of controversial, and she probably needs a lot of the money coming in from her sponsors to fund PsyCo’s operation.”

  “Right, I did wonder how we would create more revenue for PsyCo after I finished draining the corporation.” I say, as I open my different money syphoning programs.

  “Draining the corpo?” she asks, confused.

  “Yeah, nowhere hurts them more than in their wallets. Bonus points if the money is used to help victims of their company.”

  Foxfire looks at me with a grin, “I see you girls need some extra partners.”

  “Uhm, we also have boys, but we would love to have you around.” I pause, “As long as you promise me you are not pnning to throw any more of our other members through a wall.”

  “What about you?”

  “Give us a year, and then Crow and I will have our revenge.” I say with a smile.

  “No, thank you, I see no logical reason to engage in such a fight.” Crow says.

  “Okay, just me then.”