Anti-antithesis

Here at The Company, we don’t have a “Work Life Balance”, as that implies there is a conflict between work and life. No, instead, we promote a “Work Life Harmony”, as this better encapsulates our working environment. Our on-site doctors, psychiatrists, and nutritionists make sure you are at your peak physical health, whether on the clock or off, keeping a close eye on your vitals to prescribe you the correct medications, vitamins, and counseling to make sure your productivity stays at its peak.

-Orientation at Hardy Life Solutions, 2042

Waking up the next morning was an experience that I thought I would never have to have again. Opal worked me hard yesterday, pushing me to my limits on both strength and endurance exercises for nearly three hours, causing me to both love the new baseline for my current body, but also curse Opal for the muscle pain I was in right now.

Every muscle group on my body was sore, something I didn’t realize was possible with a Class I body. I had hoped that I would have recovered quickly through the night, especially after Opal told me not to buy a nano-restore, as it would eliminate any progress I might have made. Woe was me, however, as I found myself curled under Cari’s coils, desperate for the pressure on my muscles to abate.

Cari found the situation amusing, especially after she learned that I was too wiped to even attempt to talk to Opal about her libido. It did mean we didn’t have shower sex, much to Opal’s disappointment, but I was fine with that, as I didn’t have a great association with such activities.

Cari stopped stroking my hair when I mentioned that, poking my cheek instead. “That sounds like a fun story for the morning, love.” She said while smiling mischievously.

I chuckled softly as I rubbed small circles on her back. “I guess it could be considered fun, from a certain point of view. It was from a job we did early in our “career”, I think I was twelve at the time. We were tasked with recovering some data, Roger thought it was to blackmail someone or was blackmail that someone held on our client, but we never figured out which. The catch with this job was that the data was only stored on a data shard that was always slotted in some guy’s head. We had to shadow the guy for a month to figure out his schedule, discover his security detail and any fail safes he had, and find the optimal time and place to nab him.

“He was an information broker, and thus had quite the robust security in place, yet his schedule was surprisingly simple. He would head to the office, then one of four restaurants to treat his team, then a gym before finally heading home. Never detouring from that schedule for longer than five minutes at a time, depending on how long meetings went or how bad traffic was."

I paused to take a drink, allowing Cari to adjust us to sit up rather than stay laid down. She also adjusted herself to cuddle onto me, which was both a nice experience for me and a slightly painful one as my side muscles did not appreciate the shift.

“We eventually decided to target him in his gym, as it was the easiest for us to infiltrate. There were very few places for children like us to go unnoticed in the places he frequented, you see. At that time, Jill had been “volunteered” to undergo age concealment surgery a few months back, making her look twenty at the time, and thus able to act as our cover.” I narrowed my eyes at the memory of how she looked back then, disgust and anger rising. “They made her look older, sure, but she also looked like she paid for a cheap plastic surgeon.” I sent a request to Outsider to track down any doctors that were associated with Ci-Spi to deal with later, a request she readily agreed to.

I shook my head as I held Cari closer. “Anyways, we shadowed him to the gym with the intention of ambushing him in the locker room when the wrench decided to make its appearance.”

Cari tapped my arm to indicate she had a question, so I paused. “May I assume the wrench is something similar to Murphy’s Law?”

I bounced my head back and forward, “Sort of, I suppose. We referred to any situation that was both unaccounted for and that didn’t show up in our investigations as the wrench, most often the wrench was a person that came out of nowhere. For example, if we were set to intercept a delivery, the wrench would be an unannounced traffic stop by the Bureau of Transportation and their armored cruiser. Or when we had to retrieve a kid during a particularly nasty custody dispute, the child’s Grandmother-in-law made a sudden appearance shortly before we infiltrated the house, even though all evidence we had pointed towards her being both in the hospital as well as on the East Coast.”

Cari nodded in understanding as she signaled for me to continue. “This time, the wrench was the guy’s personal trainer, a lady slightly shorter than him, but who was obviously attracted to him. She ambushed him in the locker room showers after their session, engaging him in a free shower sex session. While her presence was an issue, it was not one we couldn’t deal with. No, the wrench became a problem when she slipped on the tiles and pushed him out of the shower, where he hit his head on a bench and died pretty much instantly.”

Cari turned slightly to look at me, her expression one of shock. “Was the data shard unretrievable, then?”

I sighed and nodded. “The port was heavily damaged, to the point where removing anything was impossible. The wrench tried to perform CPR to keep him alive, but his death alerted his security team, which began to storm the gym to retrieve him. We had to kill her, as we could not leave a witness, and Buddy had to cut off the guy's head and stuff it into our bag, one that we had made to be a Faraday cage of sorts ahead of time to block any trackers on the shard. We got out, the security team having missed us, but we were penalized due to the target’s death.”

“Even though he would have died regardless of you being there or not?” Cari asked incredulously.

I shrugged. “Roger tried to argue that, especially since the contract didn’t state any contingencies for what to do if the target died before we could act. The client was simply angry that the guy died before he could do anything to him, I think. Thankfully, our company agreed with Roger, which meant that the client had to pay in full, but in order to save face, we were required to do another job for the client for free.” I snorted in disgust, remembering that follow up job. “Apparently, the client had an illegitimate child that was suing them for child support and had us take them out. That job was easy, but it left a bitter taste in our mouths afterwards.”

I leaned my head back onto the headrest as Cari leaned onto my chest, the memories of the past swirling in my mind, and because of my neural augments, they were extremely vivid.

Cari stopped my spiraling thoughts with a kiss on my cheek, bringing me back to reality with a smile. “Well, now you never need to do those types of jobs again. Now, how about we get up and get some food. Jill and the others should have gotten back recently, and I want to propose an activity for us all to do.”

Getting out of bed was another form of torment, not just because of the muscle pain, but also because it signaled the end of our cuddle session. Not that it mattered much, considering that both Cari and I tended to end up in each other’s personal space throughout the day, anyways. The dining space was, thankfully, filled with my family this morning, minus Buddy, as his mentor, Abigail, had pulled him to work in her bar today.

Baba Yaga’s minions had made a German style breakfast today, one of hearty sausages and breads. It was delicious, as always, yet I could not help but be distracted by Cody and his decently foul mood. “Hey, Cody? Are you alright?” I asked while passing him some cheese.

He deflated slightly, sighing so hard I thought his plate would fly away. “No. No, I am not okay, Vic.” He straightened up and brushed his hair out of his eyes. “Those coders on the satellite, the idiots who couldn’t code an accounting spreadsheet to save their lives? I was so angry at them for the entire time I was on the satellite, swearing vengeance upon them and cooking up ways to punish them for their coding sins. Yet, once we breached their stronghold at the base of the station, all my rage simply… meant nothing…”

Roger took that opportunity to explain for Cody. “They were not people by the time we found them, but brains in jars with their nerves spliced into the station itself.”

Sands below, what a horrible fate. Cari must have agreed, because she got up and gave Cody a hug. He froze at the unexpected affection, but soon enough, tears silently fell down his face.

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

Cari

‘Goddess above, this family needed therapy’, I thought as I held Cody. Under normal circumstances, I would say they just needed to hug it out and vent, but after hearing Victor’s story this morning, not to mention how badly Cody reacted to my simple hug, they really needed professional counseling.

It took Cody a few minutes to calm down, and I had to thank the Goddess once more that my man allowed me to do this. I had seen plenty of jealous douchebags who were insecure in their relationships that would lash out at their “Girlfriends” for doing what I was doing now, and I was extremely thankful that Victor didn’t have a shred of doubt towards me or my intentions in comforting his brother.

This was not something I had expected to do when I chose to be with Victor. No, my initial plan was simply to use someone as a shield while I plotted the downfall of my extended family. I had not expected to actually fall for Victor and his family, let alone show them some comfort like this.

Once the tears dried up, we resumed breakfast in relative silence for a bit, doing our best to drown the sorrows in cheese and sausages. Unfortunately, I sucked at dealing with awkward silences.

I cleared my throat. “So! Considering we plan to go and see Buddy at work later tonight for dinner, I had an idea for something we could do beforehand.”

The idea of something to do to distract from what just happened must have been strong, considering Roger’s smile looked way too forced to be natural, even with his expert control over his face. “Sure, Sis. What did you have in mind?”

I shook my head slightly, smiling despite the atmosphere. “While I know we can all simply make our own clothing, I would like to take the opportunity to go and explore the Mall that was built a few months back. There is a dress shop Yerlette wanted to check out, a few hobby shops that looked interesting, and a movie theater that is showing a new release from Bloomhut.”

At the mention of the horror film magnate, Roger perked up, while Jill seemed to contemplate the dress shop far harder than I gave her credit for. “Of course, the commanders are welcome to come, as well. I am sure Outsider would be interested in trying out some new clothes on her paramore, Gimbal.”

At the mention of Gimbal, Outsider materialized behind me, her normally soft, mysterious smile replaced with one of genuine joy. “I would love to try dressing up for her, if you would have me, Victor.”

He gave a hearty chuckle at Outsider’s apparent joy. “Of course, Outsider. It seems as though Morrigan is interested, as well as Leman and Jim, interestingly enough.” He smiled at his unintentional pun, something that I knew was unintentional due to his slight pause after he said it. He turned to me, grasping my hand. “I assume Yerlette is coming, considering we are heading to a dress shop she is interested in, but will Alice and Opal be joining us, as well?”

I checked my messages and smiled. “They will be. Alice and Yerlette will meet us there, as Alice is finishing up a job, while it seems as though our resident bear is hibernating quite snuggly in her bed.” I made Opal a plate of food, quickly. “I will go and get her up, so why don’t you all figure out whose car we are taking. And don’t rush, considering Opal will take some time to get moving for the next few days.”

Jill snorted and nodded in understanding while the guys looked at each other in confusion. While the Poly Puddle may have Protector strength blockers to help, our period cramps were still nothing to joke around with.

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