Anti-antithesis

I will never get into politics, chat. Too much screaming and back stabbing and quadruple entendre that I just don't have time for.

I could do it, mind. After all, my family was very rich before Bo came along and made them very much not. You don't survive families like that unless you can not only read the unspoken laws, but make them yours.

-Vanguard Red Menace talking to chat while booting up a public game of Amogus 4, and very shortly dominating every session, 2056

Every cannon was fired in rapid, staggered order as missiles flew through the sky. The lasers blasted deep holes into two hives, then stopped and micro-adjusted before firing again, then repeated at the last set of hives just as three super-naplam shells arrived and dunked perfectly into the newly burned hole in each of the six hives, setting them alight.

The plasma cannons fired volleys of dense, burning materials in an arc that landed in the holes, sending even more burning death deeper into the hive. Then, four thermal oscillation missiles landed on each hive, causing an even greater reaction as the fire and heat already there added energy to the reaction, causing an even bigger fireball that rapidly shifted into a flaming glacier.

I was stunned at the beautiful display of violence and perfect destruction as a notification from Synaptic arrived.

Token gained!

Unlocked Class II Organic Augmentations

Purchased Class III War Swarm Medical Nanite Blueprints

Purchased Unilateral Neutralization of Death and Entropy Assistant Device mk 4 blueprint

Jim looked smug at my expression. “I know, I'm the best. Nothing but net and all that.”

“Sands, Jim. Why the fuck would I need anyone else to run this thing?” I said, awe still heavy in my voice.

“Hahahaha! Ah, that's just great, boss.” He holds his stomach as he laughs very hard. “That's ‘cause I can't fly this thing, boss, nor can I control the drones. My entire thing is heavy artillery, like you said. Even my minions are their own thing, with simple AI to control them in my stead, and I had to ask Morrigan to make them.” He sighed as he stopped laughing, “Plus, she's right, boss. You need more people not a part of your family to interact with. Not to mention a thousand jobs that pay well, crazy good training, and the pride in knowing that they get to work directly for a Samurai.”

I sighed, myself, and slumped back. “But I don't want to deal with more people.” I whined and mumbled.

Jim sighed as he turned around to face me. “Hey, boss. When we get back to the Tower, let's take a walk through it. I think you need to see the good you are doing simply by existing. You can make a decision after that about staffing Pandora, alright?”

I sighed heavily, but nodded. These guys were made to help me, and while I know that they are, technically, younger than me, their personality matrices are all set to be older than me, and they were made by Synaptic, so their quality was guaranteed…

I'm just running in circles, now. Jim stood up and walked over to me. “Hey, boss. Could I get you to say you agree?” He said softly. “The distinction matters, here.”

I looked at him. I understand what he meant, as just nodding is giving up while verbally agreeing means I have conviction towards the situation. “Yeah. Let's take a walk once we get home, Jim.”

He smiled and stretched his fist forward, and I smiled and bumped it with mine. “Awesome, boss. Now, you take the helm for me and I'll keep blasting these fucks. Mind if I use Ion Chaos on the next group?”

I chuckled as I sat up and reoriented the Pandora. “Yeah, sure Jim. Full access granted to all four railguns. Fuck ‘em up.”

“Hell Yeah!” He cheered as he jogged back to his station.

**************************************

Roger

“Alright, thanks Synaptic.” I looked at my family as we drove to our destination, seeing everyone fully geared up, ready for a stealth infiltration, yet relaxed. I sighed. “Vic knows we talked about the cultists, and he didn't take it super well.” I explained, and I see everyone sigh and deflate slightly.

“How bad was it?” Buddy asked.

“Could have been worse if Cari wasn't there.” I responded. “She prevented him from exploding and calmed him down, after which he seemed to come to terms with our decision. So, all in all, expect him to glare at us once we see him again.”

That got a chuckle from everyone as Jill lightly punched my shoulder. “When are we going to tell him that he looks cute when he glares? He just doesn't have the presence to pull it off.”

Cody shook his head, smirking. “Never. Plus, he's still growing, so who knows? Maybe he will go full Cap on us and get super buff all of a sudden?”

I laughed at that, wiping a fake tear from my eye. “You guys know he bought the Class II bioshifter thing, right? That might actually happen.”

Before we could banter some more, two thumps sounded from the front of the hover van and the lights turned red. We all grow serious rather quickly, helmets on, cable checked, and ready to drop.

Five seconds later, the floor dropped out as we free fell some fifty feet, rappelling down and onto the roof of a megabuilding as the sun shone down on us. Our optical camouflage activated as the van disconnected its cables and flew away, our armors eating the cables to leave no evidence.

We rushed towards the entrance on the roof as Cody gained access to the camera system. “Route secure, no signs of patrols in the first part.” He reported as Buddy opened the door. We silently move down the stairs until we encounter the fifty sixth floor. I exhaled sharply at the number, but shook my head. Not the same tower, not the same problem.

Entering the floor, we see a food court to our left in front of the sky bridge, a throng of people between us and it. We weave through the crowd at a measured speed, careful to avoid bumping into anyone and drawing attention to us. We may be invisible, but not intangible, and this mission requires our highest level of deniability.

I saw a Raven on the bridge and smiled to myself, knowing Bahamut or Outsider is watching us. I know for a fact they can track us, and while before that might have bothered me, now I felt reassured, knowing we had reliable backup.

Entering the sky bridge, we bypassed the census scanners and tills, Cody giving them a middle finger as he snickered quietly. I rolled my eyes as he connected to the next building's security.

We repeated this process three times, getting progressively lower and closer to the target location, dodging crowds, security, and cameras alike. Finally, we arrived near the nineteenth floor of a corporate office building. Smaller than a mega, but owned solely by one Corp, so its security would be higher than its neighbors.

We shifted our armors to our pre-made disguises, our helmets also disguising our faces and hair using a combination of hardlight constructs and color shifting nanites. We looked like normal office drones, specifically those another team has captured to give us a clean entrance. Our eyes were tired, glassy with deep bags beneath them, with some splotches of makeup hiding blemishes and unsightly aug wires.

We walked with slight hunches and shuffling gaits as we approached the security checkpoint. Our key cards worked as they should as we made our way towards the elevator. Two people per, we split, Cody with Buddy, Jill with me. Cody and Buddy shift their disguises to maintenance workers and make their way down to the tenth floor, while we head to the sixth, where our covers worked.

“I know you hate this, but bear with it.” I muttered to Jill since I heard her tapping her leg. One of her many tells that let me know what she's thinking. All my family had them, and I had gotten very good at reading them. And this one told me she was annoyed, with the pattern of taps telling me she was thinking of extreme violence.

I heard her sigh softly as she stopped tapping. My lip raised slightly as the elevator door opened and we entered the floor of conference rooms and executive offices. Jill split to head towards the accounting head while I made my way to HR. I hummed a tune to myself, my cover's favorite as I entered the office, seeing three sets of equally tired eyes glance my way before returning to their work.

I took a seat at my desk and logged in, going through the motions that I have honed through years of this shit while the goober I installed through practiced sleight of hand did its job. The guy to my left, Jefferson, stretched and looked over to me. “Hey, Frank. How's the suit risk assessment looking?”

I glanced at him and shook my head, knowing both what guys like this are like, while also knowing the relationship between him and my cover. “I'm not making a bet with you, Jefferson.” I said in a voice that isn't mine, one with a slight raspyness to it, while also in a higher octave.

He deflated slightly. “Come on, Frank. You gotta give me a chance to make back my credits.”

The woman sitting across from me, Helen, scoffed. “If you can't afford the bet, don't make them.”

“Come on, Helen, you know I had good odds that last time!” Jefferson whined. “Who would have thought a ducking Samurai would reveal a Warship over our heads?”

I resisted the urge to smirk, both at the fact that my bro wrecked the betting market, and at the fact that Jefferson self censored himself. Ducking. Heh. I sighed instead. “Fine. I will hear your bet first before I decide. But I make no promises.”

He pumped a fist. “Just check the assessment first. General overview.”

I navigated to it, knowing that HR departments like this all used the same internal filing systems, no matter how hard they say they don't, and saw that it is at a respectable twenty percent. The lowest lawsuit chance I had ever seen was three years back around Christmas, an eight percent due to actually paying their bonuses. The highest was above ninety seven percent, and that company still exists in a confusing tangle of suits and shifting blame.

“Alright! Twenty, huh.” Jefferson started. “Let's say whether it goes above or below by the end of the day. I bet above, five thousand credits.”

“Seriously, Jeff?” Helen said incredulously. “Why not just ask Frank for five thousand credits?”

“Shush, Helen.” He said, looking at me with greedy, tired eyes. I rolled mine. “Fine. Five to me if it's even one percent lower by the end of the day. And if it doesn't change-”

“Then I get the pot.” The last person in the room, Velma, said snappily. “Now get back to work.”

My goober finished while we were talking so I snuck it out as Jefferson leaned forward to his computer.

An hour later, I saw the all clear message from Cody, which means it's about time for Jill to-

The alarm started blaring, causing us to flinch, then get up and leave the office. “Ducking really.” Jefferson muttered. “A darn antithesis drill?”

“Wrong alarm, Frank.” Velma said. “This one is a Samurai alarm drill, so we're heading for the bathroom, not the bunker.”

Which we did, being the only ones here as all the executives on the floor began to flee. A practical tactic for both executives and employees. The employees because Samurai rarely ever target them or bathrooms, and the executives, because Samurai regularly target them, starting their hunt from their offices.

Velma and Helen had, of course, taken cover in the women's stalls while Jefferson and I went to take cover in the men's. Well, Jefferson tried, but I injected him with a sleeping aid and placed him in a stall. I shifted my armor back to optical camouflage and exited, jogging to where Jill was supposed to be, in accounting.

Entering the VP's office, I saw what remained of him painting the walls and floor red as Jill stood there, admiring her work. “Was this necessary?” I asked, my voice warped to further add denyability.

She turned to me and nodded. “He grabbed my ass.” She said, her voice the exact same as mine, yet I could tell her tone was akin to one stating the sky was smoggy.

I rolled my eyes, but didn't chide her. I'm just proud she held it in until Cody and Buddy were finished. “Did you at least get the data before redecorating?”

“Of course. And I left a calling card.” She said cheerfully, sauntering past me.

I groaned as I followed. “That definitely wasn't necessary.”

“Bite me, it was fun."

We made our way to an exterior facing wall as I pulled out some det-cord and placed it in a door-ish shape. As we detonated it, we jumped through, stabbing our hands onto the wall to slow our descent as I saw Cody and Buddy already on the ground.

We joined them below the Fog Cloud and slipped away into the on going forever techno block party that encompasses the streets. We take a seat in a noodle shop, our clothes street appropriate as we order.

The noodles were over cooked, the synth meats too few, and the veggies were many, but the broth was seasoned very well. “Hey, what's in this? Kinda spicy in all the right ways.” I inquired, seeing the stall owner beam with pride. “My daughter is a genius, and was able to cultivate our own special spice. I'm trying to save enough for her to go to college, but she won't have it, saying her work will just get buried."

Buddy drained his bowl slowly. “Damn, I have no idea what combination that is… any chance I could buy a seed or two?”

We hear sirens fly by as security drones and APCs search for us, but we looked fully different and are still very close to the target, so they ignore us. A fun quirk of human psychology, people always assume the guilty run. As such, they will look for those fleeing, not those sitting and eating so close to their building.

“I'm sorry, friends.” The owner said apologetically. “But this is my daughter's project.”

Buddy nodded, then flicked him a virtual business card, one that I know has The Monster Box's logo on it. “If she wants a job, she can have one here. I can guarantee that if she made this, she has the talent to do much more.”

I saw the owner's eyes widen as he looked between us. I simply smiled and placed a finger to my lips. I saw tears well up in his eyes as Cody finished his bowl. “Thanks for the noodles.” I said as we left, making sure to tip extra well.

Buddy was licking his lips, deep in thought about the broth. Jill patted him on the back, shaking her head, "Looking for a sue chef already? Are you sure Abby will let you?"

Buddy just grinned. "I'm sure she will work well on the Pandora." We all nodded and muttered understanding at that.

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