Chapter Twenty-Six – Even In Death I Serve My Waifus

Chapter Twenty-Six – Even In Death I Serve My Waifus

“Games aren’t portals to infinite worlds, where players dance with imagination, conquer fears, and craft their own destinies, all while forging connections and finding joy in the art of play.

Now, how can we better separate the player from their cash?”

–Electronic Artists CEO, 2031

***

The Family didn’t look like they loved me.

Rac and I took my bike over. It was fast, and while it wasn’t the most comfortable ride for a passenger… well, I wasn’t the passenger. Rac held on tight, and she complained about it being chilly, but she was wearing a skintight suit that was pretty damned well insulated.

The ride over to the Family’s headquarters was pretty fast, but not as fast as it might have been. There was traffic in the air. It felt a little lighter than I was used to seeing pre-incursion, but not by much. There were more people up now than I’d seen in a week or two, and I was pretty sure that was a good sign.

Business was picking up, or something. At the very least, it meant that people weren’t afraid to get out anymore, and that the shit people needed to keep hovercars going was available again.

I hadn’t heard of any major power outages or anything, so I supposed the electricity needed to run the cars wasn’t lacking, but they probably still needed stuff manufactured to work, right?

I was out of my depth when it came to that kind of thing.

We arrived at the parking space on the roof of the Family’s HQ and I slid into one of the samurai-reserved parking spots. Interestingly, there was a car in the space next to the one I took. A long, sleek-looking thing that might have come out of a luxury commercial.

It was black and white, long, with sharp angles. A narrow band at the front where a cheaper car might have a windshield and… I assumed there were doors somewhere. I couldn’t see any seams.

“Do you know whose car that is?” Rac asked.

“I think I have an idea,” I said. The car had a knight at the front, acting as one of those old-timey hood ornaments, and the wheels had rims that looked like pawns stuck in a mandala pattern around the central hub.

Cheesy chess themed things along with a sort of classy old-rich aesthetic? That was Jolly Monarch’s ride.

Actually, I was starting to doubt that it was a car. Wasn’t his whole gimmick a set of drones that worked on a chess theme? Would this be a knight, then? Or… maybe he wasn’t that obsessed with the chess thing that he’d only use… however many pieces were in a chess set.

“Hey, Myalis, I know you can’t spy on other samurai, but any way you can let me know how many are here?” I asked.

Technically, no. Also technically, Grasshopper, Laserjack and Sam-o-Ray have all appeared in publicly-posted social media posts in the last six hours, all located within the Family’s New Montreal headquarters.

Right, so that wasn’t the straightest answer, but it was still pretty damned good. “Thanks,” I muttered.

Rac and I moved towards the entrance only to be met halfway there by a sweaty young man in a suit and tie. He rushed out of the doors and stopped ahead and to my side, so as to not block my path. “Miss Stray Cat, welcome. And… guest? Will the, ah, other Miss require a guest pass?”

I blinked, then grinned. Did they think Rac was a samurai too? Nah, it was probably best to break that misunderstanding. “This is a guest, yeah,” I said. “Can you make out her pass to Little Baby Racoon?”

“That is not the name I’m going by,” Rac said.

“If there’s not enough room on the pass, you can spell it ‘lil’ Baby Rac,” I added.

“Just Racoon,” Rac said with a growl that had the guy standing stiff. She turned towards me. “Why do you have to be a bitch sometimes?”

“It’s just a bit of teasing, but I can let up,” I said. “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think you couldn’t stand up for yourself… did I get the double-negatives correct there?” I asked the guy who’d come to greet us.

He jumped, then nodded. “Yes ma’am. Assuming you meant to inform Miss Racoon that you only insult her because you are aware that she’s capable of taking it?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Huh. Well, when you put it that way, maybe I am a dick?” I shook my head. “So, care to catch me up? I was out of the city for a hot minute so I don’t know what’s going on with the project I handed off to the Family. For that matter, how are we handling the end of the world?”

“The what?” Rac asked.