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Tightness. All-encompassing and inescapable tightness. Ash had to be conservative with the breathes she took. Mounting further with each passing moment, the pressure around her torso made her nearly blue in the face-and thankful for every ounce of oxygen she *could* get. Her body was shaken violently. Such were the hugs from one Annabelle “Anna” Hamrick-Ash’s mom and #1 fan. “OoooooOOOOO! I missed you so MUCH, Scooby!” Ash’s face turned beet red as she was flailed about-there were enough people in earshot of the campus apartments to hear her mom’s favorite little pet name for her. “~hrrk~” She struggled to get her words out from the hug, “m-kk-mom! P-pleaskkkkk!” Mrs. Hamrick gave one last tight squeeze before putting her daughter back on the ground. She straightened her oldest’s bangs before placing her hands on her own hips. “I think the hug is only fair, Scoob!” Ash winced again at the nickname, “Least you can do for not even trying to call! You know I talk to your sister weekly, right? I’ve got to get all my updates on you through her!” Ash rolled her eyes, “Yeah? Because Aidan’s a college freshman? She’s homesick? Of course she calls mom every week!” “Once a quarter wouldn’t kill you!” “Fine, FINE, sorry!” Ash crossed her arms and pouted for a moment-then her confrontational furrowed brow softened. “Missed you too, mom.” Anna Hamrick beamed-drawing in her daughter for one more, far less violent, hug. “So what are you even doing here?” Ash asked. “I know it’s ‘Parents’ Weekend’ and all-but that’s sort of, y’know, for the freshmen? I’m kind of in my fifth year? And you guys live, what, thirty minutes away?” “You SAY that-but we haven’t ever seen you for a visit, have we?” “Moooooom, I’m BUSY! You know this!” “Busy busting the chops of those LlamTech assholes for your adoring fans? You know you can hold off impressing lonely guys on the internet for ONE weekend!” Ash buried her face in her hand. Much to her dismay, her mother truly WAS her biggest supporter. Even on the ugliest streams, Anna Hamrick was logged in to Twitch to offer moral support-and usually call the cops to help as needed. Not *terribly* often though-any good mom wants their kids to be able to solve their own problems. And sometimes those problems are ten-foot tall robots that your kid just needs to learn how to beat themselves. “Ok, ok-fair enough.” Ash flicked her hair. “Shouldn’t you be checking in with Aidan though?” “Track meet weekend.” Anna popped a finger gun. “You’ve got me all weekend, Scoob.” Ash grumbled (as pleasantly as she could in front of her mother). Anna Hamrick was a busy woman, to say the least. After years in the reporting field in the 90’s, she was now sitting in the comfortable chair of Editor-in-Chief for the Austin Globe. For most of Ash’s teenage years, their mother was constantly sandwiched between meetings, calls, and paper deadlines. Austin was a lively city-even without the evil robotics companies she turned a blind eye to. Didn’t she have articles to review or something? Then again, her mother had a reputation for breaking protocol and getting in the trenches herself-insisting on being on the frontlines for a story, no matter how dangerous. The infamous Senator Schertz biker gang bribes in 1992. The Bat Country Traffickers raid. The “Sludge in the Soda Machine” expose. Hell, her mom even got the scoops on the LlamTech/PeachCorp tech war that was at its height in the 90’s, leaking upcoming innovations from both companies as they were fighting for dominance in the new digital age. Her methods were unorthodox. Ill-advised. Dangerous and frankly *stupid* most of the time. But they got results. They were what made Annabelle Hamrick one of the most notorious names in Texas media in the 90’s. While other journalists waited to cut through the red tape of a story, she was the one that broke the locks, got in the faces of her quarry, and exposed scandal and corrpuption for all the world to see. Anna Hamrick always chose to ask for forgiveness instead of pers mission. And goddammit, if Ash didn’t want to be exactly like her. Much to the dismay of the journalists in her employ, Anna had a knack for continuing to live like it was 1992. She didn’t *need* to get herself into the offices of corrupt politicians or poke around drug smuggling operations-but she couldn’t help herself. Being a renegade in her field was what kept her feeling young and alive-and for a woman who looked twenty years younger than she actually was, it seemed to work pretty damn well. Sure, she had the fancy Editor-in-Chief desk-but a stuffy job couldn’t keep a good girl down-no matter how much her subordinates begged her to let them handle the more risky stories themselves. Given all this, Ash realized just how *unusual* it was for her mom to just decide to show up on parents weekend without their dad. Something seemed *off* about this visit. Given her reputation and her schedule, her mom didn’t just show up to Southern U just to say “wha’s up”. In fact, it just now occurred to Ash that her mom was still in her best professional attire-a burgundy two button jacket, *alarmingly* short matching skirt, dark nylons, and heels that any reasonable woman would have difficulty walking in. She wasn’t exactly dressed for a casual weekend trip to a college campus. “…..You’re here for business, aren’t you?” Ash pointed an accusatory finger as she widened into a smile. For once, it wasn’t HER doing things she wasn’t supposed to! “You’re here to beat your own reporters to the punch” Anna Hamrick crossed her arms and smiled at her daughter. Apples not falling far from trees, and all that, huh? “Alright. You caught me.” Her mom threw up her hands-her collected wry smile never leaving her face. “I’m here on a bit of off-the-record business. Our legal department has sort of told me I’m not allowed to get into any more scraps, but hey-what are they gonna do? Fire me? I’m the boss.” “I KNEW IT!” Ash was hyped as all hell-shaking like a small dog that just ate an entire bag of sour skittles. Growing up, Ash had NEVER been able to convince her mom to take her along on business for the paper-reasonable enough, given what she had been through on jobs. But now? Ash had dealt with robots, drug lords, mad scientists, and death traps by the dozen. There was no way she couldn’t handle whatever her mom got into at this point. Was this finally her chance to shadow her mom on a stakeout?! To see how a REAL renegade journalist gets things done? “Shhhhh, keep it on the DL!” Ash’s mom grabbed her shoulder in brought her in close, leading her to the apartment parking lot. “What do you say to a ride-along, Scoob? I might need a hand, anyway.” “ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY” Ash said in a half-assed stage whisper. This was awesome. This was killer. She was about to tag along for some REAL gueirilla journalism. The unstoppable duo of Anna & Ash Hamrick. What a team! There was no was this could go wrong! No way that this could disappoint in any way whatsoever! ……………………………………………….. Holy shit, was this disappointing. Ash and her mom sat at one of the patio tables of “Taco Fantastico”, each halfway through a farm-fresh burrito bowl. Her mother’s eyes were scanning the restaurant, peering under tables and trying to get good passing glances at the operations behind the counter. She had been dragged along for one of those “Sludge in the Soda Machine” columns! Not a drug bust. Not hush money. Not even killer robots! Just…Unsanitary dining conditions. And lackluster kitchen maintenance. Ash poked the lettuce and beans in her bowl as Anna focused on a corner of the restaurant-apparently watching a rat scuttle beneath one of the ovens as she scratched something down into a notebook with fervor. This sucked. All that excitement and here she was being Deputy Health Inspector. Anna Hamrick noticed her daughter’s sour expression. “What’s on your mind, Scoob?” She asked, glancing between her notebook and her phone. “Nothing..” “Nothing?” “Yep.” “Bored?” “Yep.” “Disatisfied, even?” Anna smiled cheekily. “You could say that.” “Let me ask you something, Ash-have you ever seen those campus delivery robots? The TOGO bots?” Ash blinked. “The food delivery ones? Yeah. The little ice coolers on six wheels right?” “Precisely!” Ash shrugged. “All the time. Not exactly anything to be impressed with after what I’ve dealt with. They just sort of zip around campus with Whataburger bags inside them. Nothing crazy.” Anna tapped her notebook. “Ever considered what a perfect opportunity for a dead drop such a device makes? An all-terrain insulated robot that can get into just about any place unnoticed?” She rested her chin on her hand. “Would be interesting if a business was using that for, oh, I don’t know? Smuggling operations?” Ash’s eyes narrowed. Her mom *was* on to something. “Do tell?” “I don’t gotta tell.” She gestured to the back of the restaurant. “I can *show* you.” A chirpy digital tune came from the kitchen, followed by one such all-terrain delivery robot. Built like the lovechild of a Mars rover and a school bus, the happy little bot rolled across the restaurant and out the door to make whatever delivery was set for it-*presumably* a farm-fresh ‘Tacos Fantastico’ burrito bowl or two in its payload. Anna leaned in to the table. “I’ve got reason to believe these things are making deliveries outside of their regular schedule. A couple of weeks ago, I had one of my interns start tracking the movements and traffic patterns of those bots all over the city-the app let’s you track your order via GPS, y’know? Had him place a few dozen orders on my purchase card. Different pick up and delivery locations. Nothing seemed amiss at first, honestly.They left their dispatch warehouse, picked up their food from the restaurant, then delivered it to their destination.” Ash pursed her lips. “..But?” “BUT-we started running some heat maps. None of these bots took the most linear course. Hell, some of them took MAJOR detours.” Anna pulled out a map of the city and pointed to a spot circled in highlighter, “On all trips, they made sure to pass by this same spot on Congress Street. No matter how far out of its way it was, these little guys made sure to swing by this single spot.” Ash’s smile widened. “So you think somethings up, huh?” “I like to think I’ve got a pretty good sense for when fuckery is afoot, Scoob.” Ash straightened her jacket over her shoulders and leaned in. “Sounds to me like we’re headed to a little warehouse Congress..” ……………………………………………………………………. UNMARKED DISTRIBUTION WAREHOUSE S. Congress-Austin, TX 04:51PM The duo kept their profiles low, moving with the footsteps of the warehouse worker to avoid detection. The building was nothing particularly special-shipping containers made a maze around the edges, with wooden crates unloaded and stacked toward the center of the warehouse. The only indication that anybody was home was an occasional thud and clatter coming from the very middle; so naturally that was what the two zeroed in on. Ash stopped at a corner, holding up a hand to signal for them to stop. This was as good of a vantage point as they were going to get-a foot wide gap in a stack of boxes gave them just enough space to see the central part of the warehouse, while still providing enough cover to remain unseen. A heavy set man of about forty or fifty had just pried open a crate when the TOGO bot had they had followed made its way to his workstation. The man then crouched down to the bot, opening a circular hatch in its aft section-an opening not unlike a torpedo tube, before standing back up to reach into the crate. After tossing the packing materials to the side, his greasy hands reached inside to retrieve some of its contents. Both hands held a three foot metal canister, like a bizarre cross between a giant battery and a propane tank. A tank with the silver “LLAMTECH” logo emblazoned on the side. *FUCK* Ash pulled back to the darkness, frantically rubbing her temples. “MOM.” Ash pressed in a hushed but stressed whisper. “You REALLY barked up the wrong tree here. These guys aren’t a freaking biker gang or something. You guys were tracking LLAMTECH. Literally THE bad guys.” Anna scoffed, poking her head through the gap to see what Ash was panicked about. “C’mon, Scoob! Do you know who you’re talking to? I’ve had my fair share of tussles with nasty tech corporations!” “LlamTech isn’t exactly the wacky sixties Batman villain of tech companies you dealt with back in the day, mom!“ Ash’s concerned tone remained just above a whisper. “Yeah, yeah, I KNOW you pissed off that Peachcorp company or whatever over lobbying or something back in ‘94-“ “Actually it was straight up kidnapping politicians, but go on sweetie-“ Anna interjected. “WHATEVER.” Ash threw up her hands. “You realize why Peachcorp doesn’t exist anymore, right? You realize why ALL those companies like that don’t exist anymore? If they didn’t get bought, they got trampled-in more ways than one-by LlamTech.” “So they have an aggressive acquisition plan, big deal-“ “MOM, I have literally been kidnapped and menaced by these guys more times than I can count! You’ve SEEN my streams! Human experimentation! Robot soldiers! That doesn’t raise any red flags?!” Anna Hamrick turned to her daughter-sure, Ash was a little manic almost all of the time. But she was the one in the thick of it these days-even with all her experience, Anna wasn’t the one getting in the trenches to get a story anymore. That torch had pretty much been passed to Ash at this point. Anna sighed. “You’re right..I’ll take your word on this one.” Anna gave a side eye to the man unloading the crate. “Maybe my crew IS in a little over their head.” “YOU THINK?” “Ok, I get it! Approach with caution!” She looked back over to the large man and watched him load the LlamTech canister into the torpedo hatch of the TOGO robot. “So what do we do? We’re already this deep…” Ash deepened into her crouch, twirling her ponytail in thought. What the hell was in those tanks? And what were they being loaded into these delivery robots for? “Well, these shipments gotta be going TO or FROM somewhere. If they’re doing this operation out of an unmarked warehouse, there’s no doubt this is some sort of PR nightmare they want off the books.” “So you think a shipping manifest ought to be here somewhere?“ “SOMETHING to tell us what the next move is. I don’t want to hang around here any longer than you do. If we can get that next breadcrumb, we can get out of here.” Anna nodded, putting her eyes back on the warehouse worker. As if on cue, the beep from another TOGO robot came from outside the warehouse door-making him abandon his workstation to go tend to the new arrival. “Now’s our chance-GO!” Anna pulled Ash’s arm as they dove out from behind the boxes toward the workstation. “We’ve got maybe two minutes to get what we can, mom. Move fast” Ash went over to the table opposite the man’s workstation where a laptop sat, while Anna scrambled through the open canister shipments themselves for any kind of packing slip or indication of *what* might be inside those tanks. The pc, as expected, was locked-and there wasn’t going to be enough time to crack the thing, even if she had her tech pal Adrianne to assist. As expected, the greasy hillbilly didn’t exactly keep excel sheet printouts of every thing coming and going from the warehouse-so there wasn’t going to be an easy grab-and-go on this. “Aren’t gas tanks supposed to be labeled?” Anna asked, scanning every side of one of the canisters. “Like corrosion or toxicity levels? Doesn’t matter if it’s propane or mustard gas, there’s a federal standard for that, right? I mean, I’d imagine you’d at least put the chemical abbreviation for what was in it for the safety of your own guys..” “That’s sure as hell not a good sign.” Ash continued rifling through the desk. “They don’t even want their own people to know about whatever’s in there. My guess is the circle of people who they’ve got informed on the full scope of this operation is in the single digits. Grease monkey over there probably doesn’t know a thing; he just knows he’s getting paid to load robots and go home.” “Not worth questioning him?” “Mom, he’s got two-hundred pounds on both of us. What are you gonna do, punch him until he says he’s annoyed?” “Your father and I should have signed you up for those kickboxing classes.” Anna sighed as she continued cracking crates open. “Something tells me those theater camps didn’t teach you how to drop a guy twice your size.” “I can hold my OWN, thank you! I just know when-“ Ash stopped as she noticed something peculiar beneath the mess of papers, “Hellooooooo!” Before her was a a cadastral map of Austin-showing every boundary, powerline, sewage route, and street. Ash dragged her finger to the spot on Congress street where the warehouse was. Around her finger, a substantial cluster of red dots had been marked in the surrounding area. This particular spot was obviously the hotbed for whatever they were doing-but the red dots fanned out into the whole city. More concerning, was seeing just how dense some of the spots around the university and the capitol building were, amongst other heavy population centers. What the hell were these marking?… Anna crossed over and looked over her daughter’s shoulder, trying to make heads or tails of the map as well. “Drop off points?” Ash asked. “That, and then some I think.” Anna dragged her finger along the the linear paths of dots. “Look at all the main drags in the city. 6th. Congress. Rainey. Major sewage pipelines on all of those. There’s a mark on those points almost every ten feet.” “So they’re…” Ash thought for a moment. The robots. The canisters. The heat map. The unmarked gas. “This is some kind of next level chemical warfare they gotta be planning..” “Using the delivery bots to cover ground on every inch of the city? Have them swing by here for every delivery they have, load up, and do a dead drop in as many spots as possible.” “But for WHAT?” Even as they found answers, Ash only grew more concerned. “There’s no way that’s just a poisonous gas in those tanks. LlamTech doesn’t just KILL people without reason. There’s gotta be a long play here.” “You know these guys better than me, Scoob. I leave that part to you.” Anna patted her daughter’s back before turning away to check for the warehouse worker and see how close he was to finishing up with the new arrival. But he was gone from his spot at the gate. Anna Hamrick didn’t even have to think twice about springing into action. For Ash, everything happened so fast that it took a few moments to fully process what had happened. She registered a hand grabbing her shoulder and another clamping over her mouth. Before she even had time to react, she found herself pressed against another body, followed by the sounds of two separate firearm hammers clicking into place. In less than a second, an assailant held Ash in a tight handgag, with the barrel of a firearm fixed to her temple. Her mother had moved just as quickly-having her own .38 revolver focused on the man holding her daughter. Ash tried not to think about where that gun had been hidden, as Anna Hamrick’s outfits didn’t exactly leave a lot to the imagination. Best to focus on the life-and-death situation at hand and *not* her mom’s revealing wardrobe. “Let. Her. Go.” Anna Hamrick hissed. Her small pistol was trained right over Ash’s shoulder-her expression chillingly focused. The usual levity in her face was gone-replaced now by the countenance of someone fully prepared to fire at another human being. “Or what? You’re gonna shoot me?” The man chuckled with a west Texas accent, muffled through a black ski mask he had slipped on to conceal his identity. He pulled Ash closer as she strained to escape him, pressing the gun even harder against her head. “If ye’ really meant that, you would’ve already done it.” “Nobody has to drop dead tonight. Just-“ Anna took a deep breath-clearly boiling under the surface of her collected expression. “Just get your hands off my daughter and walk away, fucker.” “I ain’t dumb, newslady. I see the way ‘yer holding that piece. You don’t think you can make the shot. We’re juuuuust far away from each other that ya’ run a chance of putting one right between these gorgeous green eyes..” He playfully brushed Ash’s bangs with the barrel, holding her head firmly as she tried pull away. He chortled to himself as she writhed against him, uselessly trying to break his grip. “Even if you did put one between my eyes-I’d make goddamn sure to pull this trigger on my way out.” Anna’s face was starting to flush red. The man holding her probably didn’t notice-but Ash could definitely see a bead or two of sweat beginning to form. Her arm remained firmly outstretched, ready to pull the trigger. GOD, she was so fucking cool! “Do you have any idea who I am?” She asked coldly. The man’s hot breath came up close to Ash. “‘Do we know ‘er’, she asks! HA! Not a lot of news reporters get famous, Miss. But the ones that do? I reckon there ain’t a soul in Texas that don’t know YOU, miss Annabelle Hamrick.” “Hlllhhh yhhh, mhhhhm!” Ash cheered her mom’s notoriety through the handgag, only to be quickly met with a jolt from her attacker and a firm *’shut up’*. “Great, so we’re already familiar.” Anna raised her chin. “So you know I’ve got a reputation..” “Reputation? Shit, I got buddies that are STILL in jail after that Bat Country story of yours back in ‘92.” Although masked, a lecherous smile could be *heard* in his voice. “Got a couple of newspaper clippings of ‘ya I used to keep under my mattress, too!” “Ghhrrssssss..” Anna Hamrick wasn’t about to flinch in this situation, so Ash made it a point to be creeped out for both of them. “This ‘yer daughter, huh?” The heavy set man grunted as he pulled Ash close, making her squeak. His fingers playfully twirled through her hair. “DAMN if she ain’t the spittin’ image of you twenty years ago. Pretty girl’s got a face for TV, alright-just like ‘er mom! Hell, she’s even wearin’ that biker babe leather just like you!” “Shut up.” Anna’s eyes were cold as she watched the man wrangle her daughter around. “We’re done here.” The grunt knew he was in control of the situation-so he decided to press his luck a little further. “Can I be a lil’ personal with ya, Miss Hamrick?” The man’s eyes moved between Anna, then back to Ash. Eyeing them both down. “Lemme tell ya, me n’ the boys used to see you on the evening news down at the station-I could NEVER take my eyes off those legs’ve yers. Hell, this might be a little T.M.I., but I used t’-“ “SHUT IT.” Anna Hamrick shouted. She was reaching capacity-and this situation was about to get a lot uglier if it didn’t resolve itself. “I’m going to count to three. You get your fucking hands off my girl by the time I reach one-understood?” “Oooooh, momma bear is gettin’ real serious now, huh?” The man growled in Ash’s ear. “Three.” Ash bucked her shoulders, trying to break out before it got things erupted. “Two.” The cold barrel pressed harder against her temple. “One.” Ash shut her eyes. ….Nothing happened. Wait…Did her mom?.. “Well, well, well-looks like Annabelle Hamrick’s a little less BOLD these days!” Ash opened her eyes back up-her mom stood before her, slowly lowering the pistol. Her face showed no sign of anger, frustration, or fear-just..Resignation.. ….She couldn’t make the shot? “MHHHMHHH!” *C’mon, mom-start blasting!* “Now ‘ah can’t help but admit I’m a little disappointed.” The man laughed, “You sure you’re the same woman who put out three rounds in Screwball Juarez’s leg back in the day?” “I just forgot to stretch, is all.” Anna tried to play down the seriousness of the situation. “That’s a damn shame…” he held the gun back up to Ash, “now, why don’t you put the gun down, pretty woman?” Ash saw the tinge of anguish wash over her mother-and genuinely wish she hadn’t. Her whole life she had been this proud, outgoing, *badass* of a woman who didn’t flinch in the face of ANYTHING. But here she was-having to hold back. Having to let herself be beaten. All because of *her*. Anna never took her eyes off the man as she slowly kneeled down to put the .38 on the concrete floor. “Now slide it over.” She complied, contemptuous sneer never leaving her face. “Good girl.” Without another word, the man released Ash-throwing her towards her mom with a shove before reaching down to pick up the other gun. Anna caught her and brushed her off-her eyes still furiously fixed on their rival who now had both barrels trained on the duo. “Now then ladies-there’s a few bundles of rope on that crate over there. Why don’t you get to work?” ………………………………………………. “Now THIS I wish I had some newspaper clippings of back in the day.” The man cackled as he tousled Anna Hamrick’s hair. He stepped back to snap a few pictures with his phone. “THE Annabelle Hamrick all tied up like a pinup girl. Shit, and her fine-ass daughter carrying the torch!” He placed his hand under Ash’s chin. “DAMN, if I was only twenty years younger!” Fucking creep. “Listen, pal.” Ash jerked her torso to the side to see just how tight the ropes were. “Maybe if you had spent less time ogling news reporters back in the 90’s and more time, I dunno, exercising? Talking to women? Painting? Maybe then you wouldn’t be working graveyard shift for a bunch of evil comic book villains all alone in a warehouse.” The man grunted before shoving a rag into Ash’s mouth. “Silver-tongue bitch, eh? Just like her mom. You must be proud, huh?” He proceeded to tie a scarf around Ash’s head. The side of Anna’s mouth lifted into a wry smile. “You have no fucking idea, hillbilly.” Ash’s eyes widened-even as she was getting gagged. Did Anna Hamrick just say-? The moment was quashed as the man did the same to her mom-stuffing another rag behind her lips before fastening another scarf gag around her head. It didn’t matter though-Ash was beaming. Holy shit, her mom said she was *proud* of her! “Well, ladies-as much as I’d LOVE to keep snapping photos of this beautiful sight-I gotta get moving.” He placed a hand on Anna’s thigh and gave a firm squeeze. “DAMN-wish we could’ve met under different circumstances, gorgeous.” “Hhhhss Hfffff…” Anna groaned. She was mature enough to know that there wasn’t a damn thing she could do while trussed up like this. If this asshole wanted the excitement of getting a reaction out of her, he’d be disappointed. Ash’s mom really was a woman of resolve-because the hick’s hands moved right up to the collar of her coat and blouse. As if he knew Anna was making a concentrated effort not to appear phased, he firmly tugged open her top-revealing the woman’s ample chest and black lace bra. To her credit, Anna looked the man in the eye and didn’t even flinch. Even as he stepped back to take another few photos of the humiliating site, there was not even a twitch of embarrassment to be seen on the seasoned journalist’s face. Ash WOULD have been in continued amazement at her mother’s badass constitution, had she not turned away in beet-red embarrassment; cringing at an atomic level. *Jesus FUCK her TITS are out and she’s still trying to be a badass…* Ash thought to herself-her thoughts far more manic than normal. *WHY IS SHE SO COOL? JESUS I’m embarrassed FOR her what is WRONG with her?!* “Aaaaaand those are some gooooood shots, Miss Hamrick!” The man snapped one last photo of his local celebrity crush’s predicament before sliding his phone back away. “Suppose I ought’a get to *dealin’* with y’all, huh?” The two women watched as he crossed over to a crate and lugged out another TOGO robot like the one they had followed to get here. “You probably already know this-hell, you probably wrote a story or two about it!” The man grunted as he overturned the robot, “but these things have a REAL bad overheating problem. Poorly engineered batteries, ah think. They’re meant for short distances. Run ‘em without stopping for an hour or two?” They watched as he popped open a panel and flicked a pair of switches. The wheels started rolling uselessly as the robot sat there like an overturned turtle. “After a good while, these batteries tend to swell up and go BOOM.” The motor whine of the capsized robot steadily grew in pitch as it got up to speed. Within a minute, the little TOGO robot was at max cruising speed-or would have been, if its wheels were touching the ground. “Seeing as Austin Globe’s finest already knows what’s going on here, boss is already making the moves to relocate this lil’ shindig. This place ain’t much use to ‘em anymore-and he’s willing to sacrifice a little bit of product to keep us going in the long run.” The masked man cupped Anna’s gagged face. “Not sure if we could weather all that ‘bad publicity’ if you lived to run a story, Annabelle. I’m sure ‘ye understand?” “Dhnnhh chhlll mhhh hhnnhbllhhh…” Ash’s mom grunted, pulling her face away from his gloved hand. While her mom and the goon were exchanging good old fashioned villain/victim pleasantries, Ash couldn’t help but notice the straining little robot directly in front of them. The part of its underbelly with the exposed motor had begun to emit a soft orange glow; and it looked like the coils within were beginning to struggle with its own output. The whine of the motor was steady, but one could tell just how much this little robot was fighting. “As I’m sure your brilliant deductive thinkin’ probably figger’d out, those canisters you tracked down to us are a little volatile…” *Thats a big word for YOU, hick* Ash thought to herself. “All the crates in here? Wouldn’t take much to send ‘em all up in smoke. N’ like I said-boss is willin’ to take a loss.” He kicked the heavy robot straining on the ground. “Give this lil’ feller about ten minutes at this speed? That battery’s gonna blow. Then? All these shipments go with it. Pretty likely blowin’ the whole block if not just the warehouse..” “Yhhhh fhhhkkkrrrhhh….” Anna cooly cursed the goon beneath her gag. “-Blowing the warehouse, and any would-be heroes tryin’ to muscle in on our operation! So-“ The goon stepped forward and pulled Anna’s gag, removing the rag from her mouth. “Got anything you wanna say for posterity’s sake before the famous Anna Hamrick becomes a black spot on the concrete?” Anna spat out the gag furiously before locking eyes with the man. “I just gotta know-what’s the game here? Why blow your ‘operation’? This has to be *millions* of dollars in product. There’s no WAY you can just weather losing all that..” “Aww, sweetheart! You’d be surprised! This is just a stagin’ area! We ain’t buyin’ n’ sellin’ outta here.” The man stepped back and patted one of the shipping crates full of canisters. “These cans move on to bigger n’ better things around the city from here! Everything’s building up to the boss’s *main event*.” “…Main event?” Anna’s tone was one of skeptic concern. Ash knew her mom never doubted her research on LlamTech-maybe disagreed with her *methods*, but never *doubted* her. Maybe this gave even more credence to what she was telling people? It was all too damning-a warehouse full of mysterious gas canisters with LlamTech logos plastered all over them? For what? Maybe Anna would finally realize that LlamTech really was that boogeyman Ash had been saying they were… “Listen, lady-I’m just a heavy-liftin’ guy. And even if I knew what the folks up top were doin’ with all this stuff, it wouldn’t do me a bit of good to waste my time explainin’ their plan to ya.” He tugged on the ropes around her chest, making sure to cop a feel on Anna’s exposed bust. “Seein’ as you an’ your daughter ain’t gonna be around much longer. Shame about that!” “Listen, I don’t care what happens to me.” Anna gestured to Ash on her left. “But let *her* go. You already know I’m a liability. I get it. Who’s to say I wouldn’t tell the whole world about this operation? But your risk is with me-not her.” “S’much as I’d LOVE to grant you that request, Miss Anna-“ he stepped over and playfully patted Ash’s gagged cheek, “‘fraid the girl’s seen just as much as you have. Sure, she ain’t *famous* like mom, but who’s to say that apple don’t fall far from the tree? What if she tells all them younger folks on MySpace what were doin’?” *Damn. That kinda stung* Ash exhaled in disappointment. This guy REALLY hadn’t heard of her? Of “AshInvestigates”?…Or even of “that blonde girl that breaks into places and fights robots”? The ‘thug grapevine’ of Austin pretty much knew her by name at this point. Huh. ….She was a microcelebrity, dammit! “I know I won’t be able to get you pretty ladies to beg,” he shoved the rag back into Anna’s mouth before tying the gag back around her head, “so I’ll go ahead and let y’all spend these last moments however ya like.” The man tugged the ropes around Ash’s legs, then her mother’s. before stepping back to admire his handiwork one last time-the little (soon to be exploded) robot’s motor screeching all the while. Not one to leave without being creepy one *last* time, he pulled his phone out once more. “Smile, Hamricks!” He gave a nasty chuckle, snapping a few more pics of the bound and gagged mother/daughter duo. “Won’t need to hide those under the mattress, I reckon!” “Ffhhhkkknn ghhrsssss” Ash and Anna grunted in muffled unified disgust. With a tip of his imaginary hat, the man disappeared into the labrynth of crates to exit the warehouse-likely planning to get himself far away from the unpredictable blast that was to come. A minute had passed as they both writhed next to eachother-trying to find slack in even one of the knots holding them. Anna Hamrick stood just as proud as she had in front of Creep McHick moments ago-but *now* the nervousness had washed over her. She was doing everything she could to remain resilient in front of her daughter-but the very real threat of death coming for both of them was starting to make the cracks show. “Mhhhmmh?” Ash tried to nudge the woman next to her. Anna Hamrick wordlessly turned her gaze to her daughter. Her expression was very clearly deep in thought on how to get out of this-gears turning in her head as she tried to recollect years of experience in tight situations. All coming to nothing. The motor’s sound steadily grew in pitch as the robot inched closer and closer to detonating-and both women knew that a sudden end was coming fast. Ash nudged her mom one more time, trying to get her to snap out of it and get back to the famous Anna Hamrick everybody knew. C’mon-she had to know something about using the robot to untie themselves, or maybe she had prepped an escape plan while they were snooping! Anything… If she hadn’t sprung into action by now? Then she really had to be out of ideas. No quips. No fast thinking. No overwhelming confidence in the face of danger. Her mom always had a plan-and this was her first time seeing her without one. Anna Hamrick wasn’t a woman to admit defeat-but her silence was about the same as doing so. “Hyyhhh, mmhhhmmm?” Ash tried to prod her to think of something. “Nhhhy hhdhhs? No response. Her mom just sat there-trying to think of a solution that wouldn’t come. Ash felt something wash over her. Not sadness. Not regret. Hell, not even fear. The woman resigning herself to fate wasn’t just her mom-this was motherfucking Annabelle “Anna” Hamrick. Literally the coolest, most resilient, most *badass* woman she ever had the privilege of knowing. A woman that, frankly, had never been reduced to a situation like this-to be overpowered, defeated, and facing certain death with no chance of escape. Failure, plain and simple. And Ash sure as FUCK wasn’t about to let defeat consume the coolest woman to ever live. Because you know who was something of an expert on colossal failure? Ashley Hamrick. Daughter of said coolest woman to ever live. And if there was anything that she got from her mom, it was that it didn’t matter how many times she got acquainted with failing. She *always* got back up. How many death traps just like this had she faced? How many humiliating scenarios where she had been tied up and left to die by some third-rate goon? Too many to count. But no matter how many times she got thrown *into* those scenarios, she always fought her way *out*. Ash shouldered her her mom a little more aggressively this time. The hit rattled Anna Hamrick out of her daze. “Phhktttt! Jhhkht pkkhht!” Ash gestured to her torso, turning into face her mom. Anna shook the fog out of her head and raised an eyebrow. Jacket potatoes? Jerk putz? “Jhhhkk. Htttt… PHH.. KHHTT!” Ash was almost slamming her hip into her mother-trying to gesture to the zipper at her side. JACKET POCKET! Duh. Anna turned away from her daughter, using her bound hands to try and shimmy the zipper down on Ash’s purple leather jacket. It took a few moments of fidgeting around with the zipper-as doing it behind her back with roped wrists wasn’t exactly easy-but eventually she managed to wriggle Ash’s phone out, giving her daughter an affirmative pat on the side to tell her it was free. Ash’s next few movements were actually astounding to watch, from Anna’s perspective. With practiced ease, she unlocked her phone without even looking. All from behind her back with bound hands, she swiped forward through two pages of apps before tapping- …..Twitch? The streaming app? Anna had supported enough of her daughter’s streams to know that *occasionally* viewers would call the cops when Ash was in danger-but that was NEVER when time was of the essence. A quick glance at the struggling robot told her that time was not something they had an abundance of. The robot’s motor was now a vibrant glowing orange- If she had to guess, there were maybe less than five minutes before that thing gave out and ignited all of these gas canisters. C’mon, Ash-what was the move? In the brief moment that Anna was looking at the struggling TOGO robot, her daughter was already live on Twitch. From what it looked like, she already had a few hundred viewers in the chat-all of them spamming dozens of emotes that she couldn’t quite make out from this distance. It was what Ash did next that was, frankly, baffling. Baffling, but brilliant. Ash grumbled into her gag-turning her face away to hide her crimson-flushed face. A deep breath was released, and Ash tossed her phone on the ground with purpose. Front-facing camera side up. Right between her legs. Anna’s complexion suddenly matched Ash’s as she, too, flushed red-hot with embarrassment. It had only been a quarter of a second that she let herself see what was showing on the stream feed-but it was long enough to see the chat absolutely ERUPT. “Dhhhnttt EVVHRR thhll ddhhd…” Ash groaned, still avoiding eye contact with her mom. She was fortunate enough that her dad still had *zero* clue about what exactly it was she did online-and it needed to stay that way. Ash foolishly looked down at her own stream to see if her plan had worked yet. The chat was exploding-as expected. Lots of the usual pandemonium in response to fan service. In fact, her fans appeared to be particularly blessed today-the camera was kind enough to give juuuuust wide enough of an angle to show upskirt shots of both her AND her mother Oh god, this REALLY had to go to the grave with them. “HHHH, YYHH HVV GHHT THH BHH KDDDDHNG MHHH!” Having seen a pantyshot of her own mom, maybe exploding didn’t seem like such a terrible fate. It’d be quick. Painless. And it *wouldn’t* haunt her for the rest of her life. That image was going to be burned into her memory until she died. With any luck, that would be soon. Hoping she could avoid making eye contact with the spectacle that her camera was getting, she zeroed in on her chat. The robot’s whine was getting to sound like the highest pitch of a violin-so any indication that her plan was working would be GREAT. Ash could feel her mom’s shoulders wriggling next to her, followed by seeing a rag hit the ground out of the corner of her eye. DAMN, mom really was good at this! The gag was out! “Alright, Scoob-“ she continued to try and loosen her ropes, with no luck, “I THINK I see your plan, but-OH GOD, THAT’S BOTH OF US ON CAMERA, HUH?” Both women looked away from eachother, very much hoping to avoid the pervy elephant in the room. “I uhhhh…” Anna cleared her throat, trying to pretend she wasn’t aware they were both having their dignity broadcasted over the internet. “-what’s the move? Even IF someone in that chat of yours called the police, there’s no WAY they could get here in time. Hell, why didn’t you just CALL the police yourself? I’m-I’m not saying I’m panicking or anything, I’m just trying to figure this out!” “Mhhh nhhh chlhhh phhhlhh…” Ash mumbled into her gag, her eyebrow smugly raised. “You what? Wait. Hold on.” Anna leaned in to Ash’s cheek and pulled her gag down with her teeth. Ash spat her own rag out and looked her mom dead in the eyes. “I wasn’t calling the police, mom.” “Okaaaay,” Anna remained as calm as she could-even as the TOGO robot started smoking. “Then, my beautiful daughter, the light of my life-and I mean this in the calmest and nicest way possible, please tell me-who the FUCK are you trying to get the attention of with a stunt like that??” Ash smiled and raised an eyebrow. The sound of another motor could be heard-this one much deeper, and with a whole lot more horsepower behind it. Another TOGO robot? Like the sound of a car mounting louder and louder as it picked up speed to hit someone, Anna could tell something big was coming directly for them. “ASH, WHAT DID YOU DO?” Ash just smiled and rolled her eyes-as the wall behind her straight up exploded into a cloud of smashed concrete and dust. All the while, Ash didn’t even flinch-her cool, collected smile unwavering as slabs of wall flew over her shoulder. The only movement from her was the act of raising her hand to push her bangs out of her eyes. “Wait, holy shit, you got your hands untied too??” Anna’s face widened into impressed disbelief. In spite of the certain death and peril of the situation, Anna couldn’t help but feel her body swell up with pride. Sure, she was usually one to keep her emotions *mostly* in check under pressure-but this called for an exuberant- “Fuck yeah, Scoob!!” Anna, despite being bound, shouldered the hell out of Ash-the closest approximation of a hug that said ‘Holy shit, I really DID raise a badass.’ Over Ash’s shoulder, a single red hi-beam light could be seen glowing ten feet off the ground; as an enormous silver monolith on tank treads pushed through the dust-stopping right in front of the bound duo. “STATEMENT-WHILE THE GESTURE IS APPRECIATED, PLEASE DO NOT FEEL THE NEED TO SACRIFICE YOUR DIGNITY TO APPEASE ME.” “Good to see you too, Iggy.” Ash said. “Wait, do you know this thing personally?” “ADVISEMENT-IT WOULD ALSO BE IN YOUR BEST INTERESTS TO DEACTIVATE LOCATION SERVICES ON YOUR PHONE. WHILE I AM GRATEFUL THAT IT MAKES FOLLOWING MY PROGRAMMING IN RESPONSE TO CERTAIN-“ the towering tank of a robot twitched, “CERTAIN STIMULI EASIER, IT IS UNWISE TO SHARE THIS MUCH DATA ON THE INTERNET. I HAVE JUST SENT A FASCINATING ARTICLE TO YOUR PERSONAL EMAIL REGARDING PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET AND THE EXTENT OF TRACK-“ “IGGY! I appreciate your concern but we REALLY need to get moving.” Ash was already untying the ropes around her legs, moving on to her mom’s bonds. “This place is a powder keg full of gas and that little bot over there is about to set ‘em ALL off.” The robot snapped to attention. His single eye darted its focus to the now sparking and smoking TOGO robot on the ground-likely seconds away from detonating. “ASSESSMENT-AH, YES. THE TEE-ZERO GEE-ZERO MARK FOUR COURIER UNIT. MOST KNOWN FOR THE COMBUSTIBILITY OF ITS POWER SOURCE. THIS PROBLEM WAS REMEDIED IN THE MARK FIVES DUE TO AN INGENIOUS METHOD OF DIV-“ “IGGY. We can get the tech specs later! You got room for two in that chassis?” “AFFIRMATIVE. I AM EQUIPPED WITH STORAGE FOR UP TO FOUR APPREH-“ “GREAT. Open up! We gotta move!” Having untied her mom, Ash pulled Anna to her feet. “Let’s go, lets go!” “Ash, are we really sure we can-“ The robot slid two human sized panels in his chassis open-revealing padded storage compartments. “I don’t have time to explain what I don’t have time to explain!” Ash pushed her mom into one of the compartments, before turning to the other-only to find one of the robots long tendril arms shoving her back into the same compartment. “DETONATION IS IMMINENT. PLEASE REMAIN CALM.” The door slid behind them-sandwiching Ash in the tight compartment with her mother. The space was small for even an individual-so naturally one would likely find themselves pressed far too close for comfort with another person if they were forced to share said space. As it stood, Ash found her face pressed firmly into Anna Hamrick’s ample chest-with very little room to even wriggle or object to the situation. Both women said nothing-but they knew not a word would be spoken of this. “Hmhhhhhmhhh…” Ash tried to give her mom a courtesy warning to brace herself-but her current predicament made words just as muffled as when she was gagged. There was an abrupt “POP” outside the chamber. This was it. The box they were in suddenly tumbled violently-spinning one direction, then another. As thick as the walls of the robot were, the sound of the collective explosion was like getting exposed to a thousand gunshots at once. The six inch steel absorbed the higher frequencies of the sound, keeping shell shock to a relative minimum as the two were tossed around against eachother. Ash closed her eyes and imagined that one scene from the bad Indiana Jones movie-the one where Indy crawls into the fridge to weather that nuclear blast. Not because she thought it was a cool scene, or that it was a comfort in the face of danger or anything; it was just all she could fill her mind with to avoid thinking about the fact that her face was buried in her own mom’s bazonkers in the middle of a chemical explosion. The little things, ya know? Within a few seconds, the sound of all the blasts made by exploding canisters had subsided-with nothing more than the low echo of the shockwave remaining. The cabin inside the robot stopped rolling with a heavy slam, rattling both of them violently. The two women fidgeted inside the cabin as their makeshift bombshelter lifted itself upright. Iggy proceeded to open the pod door to let Ash and Anna tumble out, quickly splitting apart to try and ignore the awkwardness of the last two minutes. The smoldering wreckage of the warehouse was three to four blocks away-meaning they were REALLY rocked by that explosion. Enough so that their little mobile bomb shelter must have literally been FLYING through the air from the blast for them to have landed this far away. A pause. “Never a word of this to dad?” Ash asked, straightening her bangs. “To anyone. Ever.” Anna replied as she assessed her outfit-noting a few tears in her stockings with a disappointed sigh. She looked back over at her daughter. “Proud of you, Scoob.” Ash popped a finger gun at her mom-doing everything in her power not to let the over-the-moon excitement of her mom’s praise show and make her look like a dweeb. It was showing, though. Her smile was taking up her whole face. And she *did* look like a dweeb. Ash paused for a moment. “You know what? Fuck it.” She turned and wrapped her mom in the strongest hug she could muster. Tight, all-encompassing, and inescapable. Anna Hamrick beamed, and promptly followed suit-eliciting a desperate squeak from her daughter as she proceeded to squeeze a little *too* hard. As was her way. Both women noticed the hug start to get a little tighter than usual. As if another set of very large (and cold) arms had joined the moment. The two opened their eyes to see a charred black robot, his armor still scored and smoking, joining in on the embrace-his long tentacle arms making several passes around them to complete the hug. “STATMENT: THIS IS A LOVELY MOMENT AND I AM SATISFIED THAT WE HAVE RETAINED A CASUALTY RATE OF ZERO PERCENT.” “Thanks Igg.” Ash patted one of the tentacles gingerly, trying to indicate that the moment was over. “You’re a real one.” The robot pulled away, allowing the other two to separate from his massive embrace. Anna took a long sideways glance at the smoldering robot, then to her daughter. Then back at the robot. “Sooooooooo, is this-?” Iggy snapped his attention to the older woman. “APOLOGETIC: FORGIVE MY PREVIOUS FORWARDNESS, MRS. ASHLEY’S MOTHER.” He tiled forward on his treads as if to bow. “I AM DESIGNATION EYE-GEE-EYE-EYE, MARK ONE. YOUR DAUGHTER AND I HAVE BEEN FAMILIAR WITH EACHOTHER FOR SOME TIME A-“ “This the boyfriend?” Anna cocked an eyebrow with a wry smile. “CLARIFICATION: IF WE WISH TO DISPENSE WITH FORMALITIES, THEN AFFIRMATIVE. I AM ASH’S BOYFRIEND IN A TRADITIONAL SENSE.” “He’s not my boyfriend, mom.” “CORRECTION: I HAVE RECENTLY DOWNLOADED AN ARTICLE TITLED ‘ARE WE DATING, OR ARE WE FRIENDS? A TEEN’s GUIDE TO DATING’ FROM THE MARCH 2009 ISSUE OF TIGER BEAT AND BY THE CRITERIA SET IN THE QUIZ AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE, IT WOULD APPEAR THAT WE EMBODY THE STANDARD FRAMEWORK FOR BOYFRIEND-GIRLFRIEND RELATIONS.” Iggy extended a steel claw from his body toward Anna, offering a civil handshake. Anna’s smile was very near bursting into laughter as she looked at a now thoroughly embarrassed Ash. GENUINE STATEMENT: IT IS A PLEASURE TO MEET THE MOTHER OF MY BEAUTIFUL GIRLFRIEND, MRS. ASHLEY’S MOTHER. IT IS OBVIOUS WHERE ASHLEY DERIVES HER FAVORABLE PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.” “Well, consider me charmed!” Anna shook the menacing metal claw gingerly before turning to her daughter. “Ash, why didn’t you tell me about the nice ten foot iron man you were dating?” “H-hey! It’s not like that MOM!” Ash brushed soot off of her leather skirt, not sure of what to do in this situation to make it any less awkward. “Listen, it’s a really, REALLY long story and I’m not sure HERE is where we want to have this discussion-“ “Mister ‘Eye-Gee’, I-“ ”INSISTENCE: PLEASE, CALL ME ‘IGGY’” Anna gave her daughter a shit-eating grin, savoring this opportunity to stir the pot. “Iggy, then-“ Anna continued, “You know, ‘The Iron Giant’ used to be one of her favorite movies as a kid. That might explain a lot of things. Hell, this is news to *me*.” A loading bar flashed on the robot’s display for a brief moment before returning to his regular red eye. “I HAVE JUST DOWNLOADED THE FILM AND WATCHED IT IN ITS ENTIRETY. YOUR DAUGHTER AND I WILL DISCUSS THIS INTERESTING NEW LAYER IN OUR RELATIONSHIP AT A LATER DATE.” “Awww, that’s sweet. See, Ash? This is the kinda guy I always wanted for you! Takes interest in the things you like, polite, bomb-proof and indestructible. Y’know, just a good fella!” Ash threw up her hands and was already leaving the scene. “I’m done. I’ll see you at Christmas, mom. Catch you later.” Anna carried on after her daughter-still surprisingly adept at running in heels. “Awwww, c’mon! Don’t be like that Scoob! We still gotta make plans for having tall, dark, and bullet-proof over for dinner!” Iggy scooped Anna Hamrick to let her stand on the ledge of his chassis. ”ANALYSIS FROM PREVIOUS DATA: ASHLEY IS AN ALARMINGLY ADEPT RUNNER. PLEASE ALLOW ME TO OFFER TRANSPORT TO MAINTAIN PACE, MRS. ASHLEY’S MOM.” Anna allowed her self to perch on the large robot’s base, just above the treads-gripping onto one of the panels for safety. “You really are the consummate gentleman, aren’t you?” Ash’d mom gave a gentle peck to the robots charred chassis, before reassuringly patting his frame. “Go get her, handsome.” …………………………………………………………………………….. LLAMTECH EXECUTIVE BOARDROOOM Austin, TX 07:08AM CST “-authorities are still investigating the source of the explosion, having not ruled out the possibility of arson. Although the damage from the blast extends over three blocks, no fatalities have been reported. We’ll update you with the latest as soon as we-“ The tv at the foot of the long boardroom was turned off. “Well, that’s not exactly a good look.” A stern woman with vibrant pink hair said curtly, leaning back in her chair. “Are we compromised?” “No m’am. Protocol was followed to a ‘T’” responded a smartly-dressed twenty something Hispanic girl organizing her stack of notes into a leather binder. “Say what you will about the warehouse labor we hire, they ALWAYS follow orders. No witnesses, no collateral, not even a a scrap of debris linking LlamTech to this.” The pink haired woman-LlamTech CEO Juliana O’Mara-tapped something into her phone to make note before looking back up at her assistant. “As always, Jackie-doll, you’re a peach.” The older woman sighed deeply before standing up. “Have a crew perform damage control on the site, discretely. Don’t want a trail to have been dropped from this.” “Yes m’am” O’Mara turned to a gaudy historic map of Austin, Texas that hung on the wall behind her, taking a moment to observe the painstakingly hand-drawn craftsmanship of it. Upon further observation, she took note of the pins placed throughout every area in the city-a heat-map of sorts keeping track of *something*. The highest concentration of these pins came from a single point, then fanned out to the entire city from there. A single point on Congress street where, interestingly enough, an abandoned warehouse had just exploded. The CEO took a thick marker from the desk and crossed out that point of interest on the map-it was, after all, just a smoldering crater now. “I like to see this as an opportunity, Jackie.” The sultry pink-haired woman said over her shoulder. “It’s time we diversified the reach of our distribution anyway. I hate to sit in one place for too long.” Jackie nodded, making notes in her day planner. Juliana O’Mara crossed the room to the window overlooking the Austin skyline, letting out another wistful sigh. “….And the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from her power,” The CEO crossed her arms as a sinister sharpness grew across her face, “and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels was finished.” Jackie looked up from her notes, reasonably alarmed. “…Revelations?” O’Mara paused. “Don’t tell me my Jackie never had to be dragged to Sunday school?” Her assistant smiled awkwardly to break the tension. “N-no! I figured! Just.. Wasn’t sure what you were trying to get across…” she was floundering, worried she might have overstepped her boundaries. “N-not that you need to explain anything, m’am!” O’Mara twirled back around to face Jackie, her dress trailing with a flourish. “Don’t worry your gorgeous head so much, sweetheart!” The CEO’s expression softened as she crossed over, placing a gentle hand under Jackie’s chin. “I suppose even the best of us get those little power trip moments! Standing in front of a window like that, view of the whole city! Oh, it just goes straight to your head! You start to feel like…Ohhhh, what’s that character’s name? The one from the Star Wars?” “….Darth Vader?” “That’s the one! I’m just being ridiculous. Please don’t worry yourself Jackie…” the older woman tugged the collar of her assistant and pulled her close, taking in a deep breath of her perfume. “Just a little over-stimulation, going to one’s head. A little show-boating, that’s all.” Jackie found herself blushing as her boss (and mistress, privately) pressed into her-forcing her to take a seat on the conference table. From everything she had been told, this endeavor was for the good of everyone in the long run. What harm was there in letting the woman in charge have those little moments of eccentricity? What tech billionaire *didn’t* have those? “We’ll just reposition, adapt, and move forward from this setback..” O’Mara’s tone became a little more lofty as she ran her nails along Jackie’s nyloned legs, almost melodic. “In any case, I think we’ve had enough discussion about all that Project L.O.C.U.S.T. business, haven’t we?” Jackie Garcia tried to maintain her professional demeanor as O’Mara pushed her hair behind her ear. “I-I’ll go ahead and move your eight o’clock, m’am.” “That mess from last night has me a little behind, Jackie.” O’Mara said with a lifted eyebrow. “Why don’t we push out my nine o’clock, too?” Jackie let the CEO pull her close, her nails digging into her thigh. The assistant finally let herself loosen up with a soft smile. “Yes m’am…”

This is an alternate branch of the storyline continuing from [4] with different events (Inspired by readers on [1], especially LunaSoliel. I will try to include all readers and commenters who offered inspirations. Please correct me if I miss or mislabel. Thank you!) The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl [5A] For the Primary Branch [5] Rachel recited what she was going to say to wake up her husband/wife and try to reign together all the confusing elements of this into something that made sense. The seat was missing a part it needed. And Giselle‘s parents seemingly now believed she’d always been the woman she was now. However, she realized they were better ways to deal with that than just saying, “Hey, wake up! Everything is screwed up”. Simultaneously, she remembered how crestfallen Jeremy was on days when she just let him sleep at the point of exhaustion when he felt like he needed to push himself. All that time lost. But he’d gone through the weirdest, most extreme

This branches into two storylines, with the alternate one marked with an A ===== The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl [6] For the Alt Branch [6A] However, despite how clever Jeremy always felt that his wife was, this was a situation where Rachel had precious few answers or even fewer clues to piece together. All she could really offer was, “Let’s just go have supper over there and see how things are. Cheesecake, after all.” Rachel was preaching to the choir when it came to the appeal of cheesecake. And despite lunch filling up her remodeled tank, along with a small snack, the walk and everything had activated her hunger again. It was like a ghostly trace of the big man who put down big food, but it certainly wasn’t going to ever begrudge home cooking. After making sure that Herschel had his own supper and something for later in his auto feeder, they got in the car again. Giselle didn’t quite have a climbing ascent method figured out yet, but she made it into the

The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl [3] Editing the stream on the computer took longer than usual because her muscle memory was misaligned with what it should’ve been. At one point, Rachel asked her if she wanted to use her “booster seat“ from when they set up their spooky streams several years ago so that the two of them were closer height for the video. It helped but didn’t quite close the gap. Thinking through a gag that she wanted to pull for a stream highlights video, Giselle murmured to herself and made a quick trip to the restroom. Standing before the toilet, an emerging voice inside her head started screaming loudly, but she didn’t understand why until the seat was up and her hand went to find a pants button that wasn’t there. An instant later, her ass was bare, cold, and wet. Several minutes after that, Giselle sprawled out on the couch with a large pillow covering her face and her fists smacking into that pillow. Rachel sat silently nearby, before taking a

The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl [2] Giselle‘s first waking thought in bed was alarm that her feet couldn’t even find the edge of it and that there was seemingly a massive woman with her arms wrapped around her. Her body‘s first reaction was curious arousal which felt warm and slick between her legs. From there, it didn’t take long for Giselle to bolt up in bed and piece together the events of the evening with her groggy mind. She was still a tiny girl, several inches under 5 feet. Just finding the edge of the bed on their massive Alaskan King felt daunting. Rachel watched her with sleepy amusement as she struggled to escape. As if the helplessness hadn’t triggered enough weird feelings inside her strange body, Rachel casually leaned over and gripped her like a spider seizing her prey. Giselle squeaked like a mouse. Morning cuddling wasn’t a problem when she was the one in control. But that overwhelming helplessness, while vaguely frustrating, also sent a sticky

This branches into two storylines, with the upcoming alternate one marked with an A ===== The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl [5] [5a] (Alternate) Rachel told herself several times she was going to wake up her husband/wife and spill the beans about everything. The seat is screwed up. And her parents now thought that she was always Giselle. But she knew that would be a lousy thing to wake her up with. At the same time, she knew she would be desperately disappointed if she slept through not only the early afternoon but until dinner. All those lost opportunities for work. Of course, any person would understand with what she had gone through in less than a day. Peeking through the doorway into the hallway at the couch, she saw Herschel and Giselle both curled up and snoozing. She would definitely tell her. But not yet. She had that video to edit to release on the weekend and she had to take a ton of presentation pics and upload them, and they still had the website work

This branches into two storylines, with the alternate one marked with an A ===== The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl [11] For the Alt Branch [11A] Neither of them wanted to let go of the little guy. He eventually decided that was enough of this silliness and opted to scamper out of their grasp and over to the cat tree on the other side of the room. Herschel seemed somewhat skeptical about the reappearance of his littermate. He had been fooled before by old videos with the deceased kitty meowing plaintively and attempted to search around the speakers and behind the monitor for where his dear friend was hiding. It broke Jeremy‘s heart. For several weeks, he had to close the door to the loft when working on tribute videos so that it didn’t cause the poor little guy undue distress. Herschel looked between Tycho and them, as though seeking some affirmation they felt unequipped to offer. And that still wasn’t all. The kitchen seemed particularly laid out in a way that vaguely

This branches into two storylines, with the alternate one marked with an A ===== The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl [20] For the Alt Branch [20A] Dale, returned to his male state, set a hand on his head, and considered the parts that Blessin Cross had filled him in on before declaring, “Sounds kinda like an episode of Rick and Morty.” Blessin raised a finger and noted, “Actually, a good analogy would be season two, episode one. The one with Key and Peele as time cop testicle monsters.” Oddly enough, or maybe not so oddly, Giselle vaguely remembered that one. Blessin emphasized, “Our evil friend also doesn’t want us to split this reality into several other ones.” Gwen had to do a quick Google on her phone but was soon caught up with the concept as well. “So, this Cerberus is trying to contain us. But don’t realities multiply infinitely and all the time?” Rachel offered a faint smile. As simply as possible, Blessin reiterated her theory that Cerberus was pruning or

A Rock and Family Vacation [25] Lacy immediately froze before taking her next step and leaned back in concern. “….Krystal? Why?” She understood that was a peculiar question, but this girl presented a peculiar notion by stating that she be called this name rather than it being her actual name. Lacy had no idea what to think, but she was sure that someone was trying to mess with her. The strange girl cocked her head and peered at Lacy as though she were an interesting decorative plant. “Would you prefer a different name?” If this were a normal situation, she imagined the girl would crack a smile to show that she was just joking. Instead, her face was like a mannequin’s or a robot's. “I would prefer to leave”, Lacy firmly resolved. She rushed over to the nearest sink, splashed her hands quickly with water, and then tore off a section of paper as she dashed around the weird girl and towards the door. She turned to face Lacy at each interval but didn’t motion toward her or do anything

This branches into two storylines, with the alternate one marked with an A ===== The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl [19] For the Alt Branch [19A] Finn’s right eye no longer existed. In the same way that Hanako‘s scalp had been stripped off, a gash twisted from her nose to above her right brow. The skin wasn’t bloody, rather it looked like an old scar, but the socket where her eye used to be just had a rough covering of flesh. It was gone. How could it be gone? How could that fucking monster take so much? Finn was in shock as reality dawned on him. He kept touching around there as though trying to pick apart the illusion to discover that in actuality someone had stuck a silly prosthesis to his face, and everything was fine. Giselle wanted to throw up. Everybody swarmed Finn and helped him gingerly to his feet. The spot used for transformed Dale became a place to rest a moment. Soon, Finn shook his head and called for Hanako. “Please”, he begged. “I can’t deal with

A Rock and Family Vacation [23] Her father was coming here. Brooke felt suddenly ill in a way that spread throughout her entire body. Simultaneously, a blazing, roaring fury consumed every sliver of thought. She could imagine a handful of reasons as to why he would show up and none of them were good. Eliot coughed into his orange juice. Following a deep breath, Brooke responded to the host, “I see.” The girls all turned to listen, with Blair paying special attention. But nothing more was said. At the door, they made a left and continued down a hallway with all the same ostentation they had seen so far. Blair noticed the occasional security camera along the way. Most were positioned high on the ceiling, looking down. A few pretended to be round decorations. But soon this section of the club had a clear absence of cameras. She pulled the bag with the rainbow obsidian rock closer to her. It wasn’t long before they arrived at a modest door, mostly wooden, with some light silver

This branches into two storylines, with the alternate one marked with an A ===== The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl [16] For the Alt Branch [16A] This was so far from where Giselle expected that any of this would take her. She adored the works of Carl Sagan. Science and the scientific method mattered to Jeremy and Rachel. Sure, they would occasionally joke about Slenderman, and Gerald relayed a near-death experience when he was a child. And they lived in the South, even though Rachel came from the Midwest. Jeremy knew small-town Southern culture well, but it also contradicted expectations. Finley had so many gun racks, but he also adored JRPGs and D&D along with death metal and country music. Dale, for all the pervy complaints she could lodge about him, was a huge Star Wars fan, went yearly with his roommate to the state’s largest pride parade, loved the works of Satoshi Kon, and posted a monthly adult animation that made fun of everyone and everything. She learned

A Rock and Family Vacation [11] Of course, Lacy had to start really fussing and scratching at her hair. Brooke secured everything to the point she wasn’t worried it would just spontaneously pop loose or come undone. However, Lacy could be tenacious at picking things and not letting them go. Somehow, despite everything they did, and well-timed vaccination, Lacy still managed to catch chickenpox when she was young. He viciously went at the blisters to the point that Brooke had to make him wear gloves and wrap him in towel-swaddled cold compresses. Whatever saved him from scarring. She wasn’t able to stop him from scratching his head though. And that indirectly led to the follicle study that her father put him in. Research at the company speculated on whether they might be able to isolate genes and compounds that promoted alopecia resistance. Really, her father wanted a cure for all sorts of hair loss. His grandson‘s hair was a good candidate and Lacy received the encouragement that