When we headed back to the elevator, I noticed there were a lot fewer people hanging around the atrium. It was starting to get a little late, so it was possible most people had already gone home, but I found it just as likely that everyone just wanted to avoid attracting the attention of all the samurai in our group.

  We all piled into a single elevator car and took it down together.

  “I know that Maggie would like to come see the Strato Carrier, but how about you two?” I asked the twins, trying to make small talk in the small, crowded car.

  “Although I’d like to, it’s probably better if we don’t,” Alise replied. “Claire and I are trying to stay neutral so we can mediate between the different factions. If we go out to visit your ship, we may lose the trust of some of those factions.”

  “But we just had dinner together,” I said, confused. “If they’re so suspicious, wouldn’t they already think you’re trying to get my help, or working with another group, or something?”

  “There’s a difference between meeting with someone in a neutral location, where everyone can hack into the security system and monitor the situation, and visiting a faction's stronghold,” Claire explained.

  “You really think someone would have hacked the security system to watch us eat dinner?” I asked incredulously.

  “It wouldn’t be the first time,” Claire replied with a shrug. “We tried to keep them out at first but quickly realized it was just easier to let them listen in while we were in public.”

  “That’s creepy,” I grumbled. “If that happened to me, I’d probably track down whoever was doing it and… make an example of them.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” Alan grunted. “You may play the role of an antisocial vigilante in public, but you’ve never once attacked someone unprovoked. You’d absolutely try and scare whoever was spying on you, but you’d never attack them.”

  “I nearly attacked Mirage once!” I grumbled.

  “Only after nearly six months of aggravation and miscommunication. And you told us you regretted letting things go that far,” Jane added. “You might be a foul-mouthed hothead, but that doesn’t mean you like resorting to violence.”

  “I know, but that doesn’t mean you should go around telling everyone that!” I pouted. “You’ll ruin my reputation.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Alise chuckled. “We already knew you were a softy.”

  “Gee, thanks, that makes me feel much better,” I grumbled as the elevator pinged and the doors began to slide open.

  When the door was about half open, I caught sight of a familiar set of figures arguing in the parking lot. I stood up a little straighter when I saw the group and frowned. “You know, I can think of one situation when I have no problem resorting to violence: whenever my family gets caught in bullshit.”

  “Alright tiny, calm down,” Alise said, patting me on the head. “Claire and I will handle this.”

  The sisters slipped out the door and strutted across the open space between us and the squabbling samurai. It didn’t seem like they even noticed the twins until they were practically on top of the group.

  The girl in pink and white was first, jumping in surprise as the pair bore down on them.

  “Evening ladies what brings you here?” the girl asked nervously.

  “We were having dinner with a friend of ours,” Claire replied, with a small smile. “The question is, what brings you and Barracuda out here, Pearl? I know you don’t like to leave that luxury cruiser of yours.”

  “Oh, you know… I just wanted to get out and get some air…” the girl replied awkwardly. The sisters just stared at her for several seconds, until the girl threw her hands up into the air. “Okay fine, Geryon sent us here. She was a little worried that Man of War might send someone to cause trouble. He’s not exactly the most stable person, you know.”

  Once she was done explaining, the girl shied away, partially hiding behind her partner, who somehow managed to look sheepish despite his fishy features.

  “We’re aware. That’s why we spent several hours trying to convince him that Teddy wasn’t any sort of threat,” Claire sighed. “Did it ever occur to you that you might aggravate Man of War just by being here?”

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  “That’s why we kept our distance! We figured as long as we stayed back far enough he’d probably just dismiss us as a surveillance team.”

  “That’s a big assumption,” Alise muttered, rolling her eyes. Apparently the twins were satisfied with those answers because they turned on the other two samurai. “And why were you fighting?”

  “We saw those two skulking around and thought they were up to no good,” Cuda explained. “We just wanted to know why they were here, and they freaked out!”

  Claire sighed. “I’m not surprised. You two are openly carrying weapons, and they only awakened a couple weeks ago. They probably thought you were going to kill them.”

  Cuda just shrugged. “Then they should have been clear about their intentions.”

  “Now, what’s your excuse?” Claire demanded, looming over the two plainclothes samurai. I didn’t get a good look at them before, but now that I did… They were surprisingly plain. The woman had curly dirty blond hair and brown eyes, while the man had short black hair, blue eyes, and a goatee. They didn’t have any visible cybernetics, tech, or weapons, they didn’t even walk with confidence.

  “Pixel? Carrion?” Alise prompted.

  “We just wanted to get a look at her, maybe an autograph!” the man finally blurted out. “I mean… she’s the one that took out the shrimp during the siege and was one of the samurai that managed to make it out of the caves under Jasper!”

  “How do you know about that?” Claire asked suspiciously. “That operation was classified to keep people from creating a panic in the surrounding cities and keep people from approaching the site before cleanup was finished.”

  “I… may have… hacked into one of the Family’s archive servers on a lightly defended subnet a couple days ago…” the girl reluctantly admitted.

  The twins stared at her for a moment.

  “Why? What could you possibly be looking for on our systems?” Alise finally asked.

  “I wasn’t looking for anything specific, I was just poking around the network and I discovered the unprotected server, so… I yoinked some data off it,” the girl said.

  “Why?” Alise repeated.

  The girl shrugged. “Because it was there, and it looked like it might be a challenge? I’d just grabbed my Class II network intrusion, and I wanted to test it.”

  “Ugh… hackers,” Claire mumbled.

  Thanks to my newly enhanced hearing, I could make out each and every word. Based upon the conversation, it sounded like both groups were fairly green samurai, which would make sense considering how many newbies had initialized during the Global Incursion back home. I kind of felt bad for being so suspicious earlier. This lot wasn’t much of a threat to me. I guess I was just jumpy because the kids were around.

  “Everything good over there?” I called across the parking lot. The sisters probably knew that both Maggie and I could follow the conversation over that distance. I was just being polite.

  “Yeah, fine. Come on out,” Alise grumbled.

  “Are you sure this is a smart idea?” Alan whispered as we stepped out.

  “Yeah, this lot is no threat to us,” I replied under my breath. “Still, we probably shouldn’t stick around too long, or we might start to attract unwanted attention.”

  “What sort of unwanted attention?” Alan growled.

  “Based upon what I heard… the paranoid and unstable kind,” I replied, drawing looks from both Jane and Alan. “Maybe you should take the kids directly back to the truck.”

  “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Alan muttered. “Come on kids, back to the truck.”

  “But I wanted to talk to the fishy man. He looks fun,” Issi pouted.

  “Maybe next time,” Jane said. “Evelyn needs some alone time with her friends.”

  “Awww…” the little girl moaned, but she still followed Jane and Alan past the group of samurai.

  “Pearl! Good to see you again! Still living on that boat of yours? How come you haven’t called me yet? I thought we were going to have lunch,” Maggie asked as she walked up.

  I watched Pearl open her mouth a couple of different times to answer, but Maggie just kept asking questions without giving her time to answer. Valerie put a hand on her wife’s arm. “She needs time to answer, love.”

  Maggie looked back at her, confused for a moment, before nodding. “Right. I’m getting excited again.”

  Pearl sighed. “I’m sorry I haven’t called, but everyone’s been on edge lately, and I didn’t want to aggravate anyone, so I’ve been laying low. I’ll call after things calm down, promise.”

  Once Maggie nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer, the white-garbed samurai turned towards me. “Sorry if we spooked you earlier, it wasn’t our intention. I’m Pearlessence, and this is my partner, Barracuda.”

  “Charmed,” the fish man said, smiling wide enough for me to see his sharp, shark-like teeth.

  “I’m Pixelated, and this is my partner Carrion Feeder!” the other girl exclaimed. “We’re big fans!”

  “I heard,” I replied, pausing for a moment as I processed. “Did you say Carrion Feeder?”

  “I… um… may have salvaged a lot of my initial gear off another samurai I stumbled upon. I didn’t kill them, or plan it, or anything. I just got lucky!” he exclaimed.

  “Relax, kid, I’m sure you just did what you needed to in order to survive. I’m not going to judge you for it. I’ve actually been known to perform a little battlefield scavenging myself, when the situation called for it,” I explained.

  “Really? I’m glad I’m not the only one. What did you take?” Carrion asked.

  “A Class III anti-everything railgun,” I replied casually.

  The kid stared at me blankly for a moment. “Pardon?”

  “A very big gun,” I clarified, even though it seemed like he still didn’t get it. “Never mind, just don’t worry about the nickname. If you survive long enough, everyone will forget where it came from, and it’ll be a badge of honor. It could have been worse. Whoever named you could have called you something like ‘Bottom feeder’”

  “I guess that’s true…” he muttered.

  When he went quiet, apparently mulling over what I said, I stepped away from everyone. “Well, it’s been nice meeting everyone, but as I understand it, you have some sort of unstable madman in town that might take a random meeting like this as provocation, and I’ve got a family to look after, so I need to get out of here.”

  “Wait!” Pixel cried when I turned to leave, causing me to pause and look back at her. The woman reached into her jacket and withdrew a tiny stuffed bear. “Before you go, can you sign my plushie?”

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