“Well?” Taylor asked.
Motoko slurped down the noodles, savoring the flavor. Her old shell was basic taste and food processing only due to being designed as a pure combat model, the upgraded model now had the same bells and whistles as Taylor and Lisa’s. Being able to taste in proper detail with her own form was something she wanted, but had no idea how euphoric it would be to actually experience.
“I think she likes it,” Lisa teased.
Motoko flipped her off with her free hand.
“I would hope so,” Vivian said with a huff. “I spent two days making this ramen broth from scratch, you better appreciate it!”
“I’m more surprised you didn’t just make a ramen bomb,” Taylor said.
Sophia snorted, and a noodle shot from her nose. The entire table froze for an instant, then Sophia started to cough. Amy was quick to reach out and touch her, the coughing ended almost immediately after.
“Thanks,” Sophia said, taking a drink.
“Is it safe to laugh?” Vivian asked.
Lisa apparently took that as permission as she sent the footage to each of them. Amy and Sophia’s phones both pinged, but the rest got the alert in their cyber brains. Motoko could only groan as everyone else laughed at her girlfriend’s plight. She reached out, wrapping a firm arm around her in solidarity, which Sophia quickly curled into.
“Daww, look at the honey badger,” Amy said, rolling her eyes. “Seriously, you always try to act broody and mean, but all it took to tame you was a badass with purple hair.”
“Says the acerbic white mage with no bedside manner,” Sophia said with a huff, not moving her head from Motoko’s shoulder, not that she was complaining. “Look at us, hardened killers all laughing over a fucking noodle incident.”
“Huh,” Lisa said. “I suppose that is true, as even Amy’s killed by proxy at this point.”
“Doesn’t count,” Amy said dismissively. Lisa snorted but Motoko hadn’t followed her logic. “Nazis. I was just doing a public service.”
“That is why the Nine were founded,” Vivian said. “I wonder if I’ll get to meet some of the retired members… I’d love to pick Shatterbird’s power apart for a grenade or two. Watching old videos just isn’t the same.”
“I’m still surprised that Hero took the credit for her all but ending the Machine Army,” Taylor said, gesturing with her chopsticks.
Victor’s mind was proving to be a treasure trove for downloadable skills, and she doubted he would ever be allowed to die for all he could offer them. Cranial figuring out how to upload muscle memory to someone’s cyberbrain really did change the game for skill sets. It brought Motoko back to those early lessons with Melissa, back before she and Taylor were separate people. The adjustment period was now much shorter compared to those early attempts.
The explosion at the rig had almost forced them back together, but getting Taylor into a shell and letting her have the brain for a bit seemed to head that off. Motoko really didn’t want to find out what would happen if the pair merged back into a single personality. That thought kept her up at night, and she knew it kept Taylor up at times as well. It was one of the deepest fears of anyone who was plural, that they might cease to be or lose their sense of self.
Having their own bodies certainly helped quell that, as did the ongoing sessions with Melissa and Jacob. Motoko knew Taylor would never fully accept Sophia, and she didn’t quite get it herself. She by all accounts had the same origins as Taylor, she had the memories of the bullying, but that hadn’t been HER. Taylor was a different person, and Motoko got to see a different side of Sophia for months that Taylor never saw.
That initial decision to date Sophia might have been colored by her desire to prove herself a different person to Taylor, but what had grown since was quite genuine. She reached up, scratching at Sophia’s scalp, eliciting a near purr from her little huntress.
She could be so adorable at times, not that she would ever say so in present company. Taylor was giving the pair a side eye, but kept her thoughts to herself. Meetups like this for lunch were now a weekly thing, something to foster communication. Amy and Vivian were only there because the latter had bragged about her family recipe for ramen and then it became ‘challenge accepted’ for the explosives Tinker.
Then again, that each of them was already on their second bowl pretty much proved her correct, and only served to bolster her already massive ego. If her plans for bombing the Endbringers were ever approved, and it actually worked… Well, there would be no deflating her ego following that. The Tachikoma were already fitting a weapon system that could deliver her ordinance to the redesigned Dragon Flight.
“So, who’s cooking next week?” Amy asked. “Not gonna lie, I could get used to this.”
“Melissa is making Mom’s lasagna recipe,” Taylor said. “Not sure how I feel about having it again.”
“Danny never could get it right,” Motoko said, earning a sharp glare from Taylor. Motoko immediately put her hands up. “Hey, they’re my parents too.”
Taylor sighed, sitting back. “I know… I’m just struggling to adjust now that we aren’t jumping from one crisis to another.”
“I mean, we are planning that raid on Haven,” Lisa said. “You can bet the action will pick back up soon.”
“Lise, that plan’s going to take months, if not years to pull off effectively.”
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Lisa rolled her eyes. “I mean, the actual fireworks are years away. Pruning their support network is the sole reason for that. Getting rid of the people they helped get elected, removing judges they back, all of that is still progress. Doesn’t mean the Nine can’t cripple their Masters though.”
“Isn’t Jacob planning to let Motoko take point on this?” Vivian asked, starting on her… Good god, her fourth bowl.
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “Jacob said he’s getting old or some shit and wants to pass the torch, despite having Riley, Taylor, and Amy to keep him in peak condition.”
“I think he’s attempting to create a team that is less publicly objectionable,” Taylor said, looking into her bowl. “No matter what good the Nine do, they are monsters to the public, so having a secondary team that they can reference without plastering on the front page? It’s not a bad idea, and Motoko would be free to pick the members.”
“Dibs on my little huntress,” Motoko said immediately.
Sophia elbowed her. “That is not my cape name.”
“Yeah, she strikes me more as a kitten,” Lisa interjected.
Sophia phased through the table and tried to grab Lisa, but she nimbly danced away, her smile not faltering once. “Oh, it is on.”
“Actually, most of my systems are idling,” Lisa said. “I doubt you could get me to push them either.”
Taylor rolled her eyes. “Lisa, sit.”
She did so.
Motoko had a gentle hand on Sophia, but she wasn’t so sure it was actually needed. Sure, Sophia could be a bit hot headed, but that struck her more as being playful if it wasn’t for that initial power use. That Lisa was sticking her tongue out certainly lent to that image, though it could also be a ploy to draw Sophia into just that.
Lisa could be a manipulative bitch at the best of times after all.
Just as it looked like Sophia would calm down, a glob of cream impacted Sophia across the forehead. Motoko and Sophia turned slowly to where Amy was spooning up another scoop. She held her disinterested expression, but there was the hint of strain where she was forcing herself not to smile.
Not that it stopped Vivian from cackling as Amy launched the second salvo in the ice cream massacre. Sophia and Motoko dove for cover, but the shot went wide, nailing Lisa right across her nose. Lisa blinked, reaching up to wipe the soft serve away before licking the finger clean.
“Of course you realize,” Lisa said with a growing grin. “This means war.”
Lisa snapped, and two modified super soakers dropped into Taylor and Lisa’s arms, Motoko realized exactly what was about to happen.
“That’s cheating!” Vivian yelled even as she reached for something at her belt.
“Fuck yeah it is!” Taylor countered. “Never underestimate a Tinker who had time to prepare.”
Then all hell broke loose.
“How was I supposed to know that all inorganic matter also included our clothes!?” Vivian shouted.
“At least it didn’t count our shells,” Taylor muttered.
“Small mercies,” Sophia agreed, sparing Motoko a glance.
She pulled the grumpy huntress into a short side hug before continuing to clean the ice cream from her hair. How Lisa had managed to source literal ice cream guns was something she was curious about, as was what she had done to get Doormaker of all people to drop them in like that.
Somehow the Tachikoma were to blame, she just knew it.
“No, the real mercy was that we weren’t in Toybox at the time,” Lisa said. “Imagine what might happen if the entire structure vanished.”
“I would never test any of my tech in there,” Vivian said, sounding affronted. “I’m not that big of an idiot and it wasn’t hard to get some basic clothes brought over thanks to Motoko’s cloaking bullshit.”
“You’re just jealous you can’t turn it into a bomb,” Motoko said, smugly.
“Inorganic matter to ice cream bomb was a new one though,” Taylor said, seemingly getting back on topic, and likely heading off an argument. “How the hell does that even work?”
“Same way all my shit works,” Vivian said. “Tinker bullshit.”
Motoko rolled her eyes, passing the towel to Sophia. “It’s no more practical than the sand bomb really.”
“True, but it was fun!” Vivian countered.
“It was freezing,” Amy said, poking Vivian in the rib. “I swear the temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees in an instant.”
“Twenty seven,” Taylor, Motoko, and Lisa said simultaneously.
Great, now Motoko was going to wonder if Lisa had joined in to head off a moment where she and Taylor were a bit too close, or if that had been a genuine accident. Lisa’s following wink certainly didn’t help matters there. Fucking Thinkers.
Motoko huffed and decided she would sooner return to her room than deal with the fact that she wasn’t wearing nearly as much clothing as she would like. At least she hadn’t lost one of her coats in that mess, those were tricky to find after her rescue at the hands of the Nine. That would take some time to undo in the public eye, but showing the Major fighting the Nine alongside Legend should prove sufficient, and they already had a target in mind.
Sophia followed behind her as she walked, trading parting barbs with Lisa as if they had a decade of practice. She was happy to see them developing some sort of rapport with one another. Rounding the corner, they fell into silence right up until Motoko reached her room. The others split off from there, leaving the pair alone as they stepped inside. Sophia wasted little time finding a change of clothes while Motoko did the same.
She had to smile with how Sophia practically lived with her now, but she also knew her little huntress was attempting to avoid a certain elephant, so to speak. Motoko didn’t want to pressure her, but the longer she put it off, the easier it would get to continue to do so.
“You know,” Motoko began slowly, not looking at Sophia, keeping her tone casual. “You can return home now. The PRT won’t arrest you for going AWOL, and you could even rejoin the Wards if you want.”
“Are you kicking me out?”
Motoko spun, not expecting the sheer bitterness coming from Sophia. Her girlfriend was holding a tank top as she looked on with such raw hurt that Motoko feared her heart might just malfunction. She didn’t hesitate to step forward.
“Hey, no, none of that,” Motoko said, putting both hands on her girlfriend’s shoulders. “You aren’t getting rid of me that easily. I know how much your siblings mean to you and it’s been months now. I just thought you might want to see them, that’s all.”
“I…” Sophia slumped and Motoko pulled her into a hug. “I do want to see them, but I’m afraid of what they might think of me after the whole Nine thing.”
“Hopefully they see you the way I do,” she said, tilting Sophia’s chin up. “As a big damn hero.”
Motoko leaned down and captured Sophia’s lips with her own. Things might still be a work in progress, but they would get better. She just had faith and having a badass huntress at her side certainly didn’t hurt.
