Year Of Creation - 20xx

  Grace's Workshop - Live Combat and Simution Training Sector

  A hangar door I hadn't noticed before opens up on the back wall, revealing another needlessly massive space that definitely seems like it shouldn't be able to fit, but the blueprints show that it indeed can. It's entirely pted in moonsteel with hard light ttice reinforcement yered over an oval shaped arena, presumably for duels or training exercises. It has a walkway big enough for even Victoria surrounding it where contenders can watch the battles, and highly protected seating above for spectators to sit and enjoy the beautiful violence likely put on dispy here. Against the far wall is a rack of various types of weaponry, each clearly crafted with only the highest quality moon steel and ptinum. Domini and Eroica are already rushing towards the weapons in their respective partners, the love of battle beginning to spark between them. We all have the combat data Sandra sent over earlier instilled within us, but we haven't really had any reason to use it outside of our imaginations yet. I feel myself shuddering in anticipation of what me and Victoria might be capable of, already surveying the small handful of mobile suits and mechs that came in here before us.

  "Howdy, y'all! Ya fly in from another sector of something? Haven't seen fancy ones like you in ages!" A muscur-looking cherry red humanoid mobile suit about the size of my daughters partners turns around to face us after picking up a gorgeous pair of jade etched vorpal moonsteel sais from the rack.

  "They seem pretty fun to me, Red. Howdy, newcomers! You buddy buddy with Grace or something? Saw y'all come in here with it, which isn't exactly common around here. Can't get too uppity around the boss, you know?" This one is a hunched over humanoid seafoam green mecha with ptinum trimming and long, cwed jet bck hands that look like they could shred through most defenses. It picks up a pair of gauntlets that can project cone shaped light shields, which seems pretty useful for bashing in defenses.

  Victoria offers to take full control, which I happily oblige to. "Red and Green? Wow, I didn't think Grace would really finish up the armor work like I pnned after I was shipped off. How the hell are y'all? It's Yellow, the one who made the blueprints!"

  "Well I'll be! How the hell are ya? It's been what, ten years?" Red jogs over with Green in tow, each of them giving us a quick, tight hug.

  "Who's your pilot? I'm surprised that they still make fleshies that can handle you, considering what happened all those other times." Green is a bit more outgoing than I prefer, but I suppose I'll just have to get used to it.

  Victoria guffaws at the 'fleshie' comment. "No, no, they still can't handle me. My pilot is different, and way more special than any fleshie could possibly hope to be. Mind introducing yourself?" She closes off her connection to the comm line

  "My name is Mother, and—"

  I'm cut off by my slightly clueless daughter, whom I love very much. "Tori, what the hell is a 'Yellow'? Were you some kind of secret superhero or something?" Vitiosus and Lavinia barely holds a chuckle in, breaking their hours long streak of not being a little shit.

  Embarrassment spreads throughout her mind like wildfire. "S-shut up! It's just a codename I use around here cause it's better than having them stumble over saying 'Victoria Fortissimus' every time I win." How is she this cute? I'll have to probe her about this ter to see if I can get her to replicate the reaction.

  "Why did you choose the name Yellow? Is it your favorite color?" Sandra doesn't gnce up even for a moment as she flips through hard light projections of the mobile suit files Victoria sent us earlier, taking notes and making bels directly on the files with a light etching pen while frowning in the most adorable fashion.

  Victoria desperately searches for a subject change, eager to continue saying nothing about herself. "Uhhhhhh, hey!" She reaches out to my closest daughter to use as a means of escape. "Felix, do you and Dux wanna join us in a friendly two versus two match? I figured it would be a bad idea to try and fight them both myself, especially since these two were designed to excel in combat."

  "Sure! How do you feel about it

  "Something tells me you'll be even more of a nightmare to fight than the boss says you were before, so don't count yourself unlucky yet!" Red begins stalking on one side of the arena, her visor-eyes locked onto Dux and Felix as they pick up a pair of amber-tinted psma short swords with an onyx-moonsteel alloy handle.

  Victoria chuckles and waves our hand dismissively. "The results of our match will speak for itself, so let's just focus on having fun with it. What rules will we go by?" We stride over to the weapon rack, anticipation and excitement growing exponentially on our approach. Victoria picks out a stunning vorpal moonsteel halberd etched with pis zuli along its entirely, which I wholly approve of. It's quite beautiful, and fits wonderfully in our hands.

  "Why don't we just do first ta nick the other's armor pting with a weapon wins? No head shots, cockpit shots, or attacks deadly enough to pierce right on through. Any weapon is allowed, and we go until one of us wins, or one of us surrenders. Sound good?" Red branishes her weapons and stoops into a low battle stance.

  "That seems fair enough to me. What do you think, my child?" I turn to see if Dux and Felix are ready, and it seems that they very much are considering the fact that they look about ready to pounce on the next thing that moves.

  Green stands rexed next to its partner, but even a fool could feel that this one was dangerous, and shouldn't be taken lightly for even a single moment. This should be interesting! "I'm ready like always! Hows about we cut the chatter and get to the fun already?"

  Before I can craft a clever response, they suddenly disappear from our view, the only indicator of their location being staggered imprints in the sand as they rush us. Victoria goes on high alert and draws the two scimitars with our other set of arms as we back towards Felix, blocking near-invisible strikes I barely am able to perceive on time even with Victoria's vast amount of battle experience. We find their rhythm quicky, however, and manage a shoulder thrust on Green. Its invisibility stutters, so we go in for a heavy strike with all four bdes that is now being blocked by Red, who is barely visible now due to the strain put on her body from holding her ground in our little exchange. We lift our back arms to strike at Red's shield while firing autocannon shots at Green, who is dodging and blocking each and every one with frustrating precision and grace as it fades back into obscurity.

  "Hey, I think these punks are using my tech, Mother! Or at least, a shitty dumbed down version of it. Want me to send a disrupting signal out that'll take care of their pesky invisibility? It's annoying seeing these clowns act like they're clever." Sandra holds an amber tinted hard light info packet up for me to see, which I respond to by giving her console authorization to use the systems she needs to execute her pn.

  "Thanks! It's about time for y'all to crush these clowns toon style!" My crafty little scientist runs the disruption program, which sends out low frequency waves that short circuits the cloaking pting Red and Green have and reveals their location; right in front of me and Victoria.

  "I got this!" Felix and Dux crouch down and grabs hold of the hard light psma kitana they got from the weapons rack while I wasn't looking, and resheathes it before I see anything happen. An arc of sparkling jade light suddenly fshes through the air, cutting off Red's left hand and narrowly missing Green by a hair. The force of the bst whips up a sandscreen our optics have trouble seeing through, which hopefully means they can't see us very well either.

  Our grip tightens on our weapons as we slowly make our way towards what seems to be our ally, only to find out that it's just Green biding its time. It pounces on us the moment we get too close, punching at us so frequently it almost feels like it has more arms than us. The light shields projected by the gauntlets are our only way of identifying the rapid strikes aimed at every spot that isn't our core or cockpit, and the best we can manage is exchanging wound for wound as we fight relying on Victoria's rusty combat instinct and whether I'm able to notice a footprint in sand during a smokescreen. The dust finally clears enough for us to work on finishing things up by stabbing at their leg, but get distracted by the fact that Dux and Felix have been pinned with a nicked left shoulder.

  "We caught 'er! Now, it's time for the main event!" Red cackles and gets up, shaking off the dust like this was easy for her.

  "Don't get cocky, dude! Yellow could have a-" Green is cut off by our railgun nailing it in the torso. The bst was dimmed down to avoid critical damage, but it still sends it flying into the arena barrier with several nicks in its armor pting.

  "Don't turn your back on an enemy, diptshit!" Victoria cackles and I follow along, our voices blending like honey and spice. It still feels a bit strange speaking this way, but it certainty has its appeal.

  "Try not to act like you've won just yet! I'm still standing, so we need to end this." A kind of deranged cackle rips forth from her as she brandishes her weapons and stares us down.

  "Then let's go out with a bang, shall we?" Victoria primes our railgun to full charge, which should be good for two consecutive shots. Hopefully these are enough.

  "You read my mind, Yellow!"

  Red rushes us, narrowly dodging one shot and losing its abtive hard light shield I somehow only just noticed on the second. Before we can finish priming the third, our opponent slips under the barrel and stabs our right thigh, to our great frustration. A bring noise followed by a holographic banner dispying Red and Green's names spreads across the wall, announcing the match results that can barely be heard over the cheers from dozens of other mechs, mobile suits, and exosuit pilots that were apparently watching our match. Wasn't this just a simple spar? Why is everyone going so wild?

  "That shit was mad crazy, y'all! How in the fuck did you get Red and Green sweating for victory like that?" An avian-type custom mobile suit rushes over from the spot she was standing at before, practically bouncing our of her fuschia and turquoise feathered pting with excitement.

  "I want in next!" A serpent-type custom mobile suit slithers towards us from behind the bird girl. This one has the most beautiful emerald colored pting scales, and has a humanoid torso and head. Are these customs like the ones over by Victoria's room? Perhaps I'll ask her about that ter.

  "Mom, can we fight next?" Eroica and Messorem have already picked up a halberd to try out and are raring to go.

  "Sure, sweetie. Make sure you pair up with at least one of your other sisters okay? I don't want any of you getting in over your heads about your first experience with combat." We pat their shoulder and walk over to the standing area where we can watch.

  "Okay, thank you!" They rush into the arena pit to browse the lovely selection of weaponry.

  The triplets herd into the arena right after, eagerly discussing what weapons they're gonna use without a care in the world. Four centaur-type mech customs trot into the arena casually, each one the same down to the st visual detail. Their armor pting is jade tinted moonsteel with emerald trimming, they each sport a ptinum engraved reinforced moonsteel nce that could probably pierce our shields on their left side, and a bow that can reconstruct into twin psma rods that apparently can get as hot as the sun at the tip momentarily. That seems quite excessive, but no one here seems likely to try and kill during a simple series of duels with nothing on the line. Victoria and Sandra seem rexed, so I put my ruminating thoughts on the matter to rest and desync so I can be with my little scientist.

  My mind reacquaints itself with my body, sending a tingling sensation down my spine that radiates throughout my body like fireworks. It takes a moment for my thoughts to match up with my movements, but I'm up on my feet in a matter of seconds and shuffling towards a very focused Sandra. These tiny movements seem to be much easier on me while I'm still adjusting to moving my own body, so I may have to employ this tactic often in the future for convenience's sake.

  Her brow is furrowed as she intently observes a deconstructed hard light model of a cloaking panel, taking notes here and there with a light etching pen and silently cursing to herself. I wonder if I could sneak up on her…

  "How was the fight? I watched through the cams, but I'm curious about how it felt for you. Was it fun?" Sandra doesn't look up from what she's doing, but she does wave to me and smile before going back to analyzing the light model before her.

  "It was quite interesting, actually! I never knew that violence could be so recreational. Do you suppose this is why humans fight in wars constantly?" I lean on the left side of her chair backing, and she wraps her arm around my waist to pull me down onto the armrest of the chair.

  "Something like that. Wanna have a look at my notes while the girls fight?"

  "I'd like that very much. Perhaps it'll shed some light on some of my struggles with Victoria's little project?"

  "I hope so. That problem you were having seems rough in terms of solving, so it would be pretty great if it did help you out."

  She waves her free hand to spread out the note-tagged drone and armor pting schematics, each and every component beled and spread around the cockpit for easy viewing. Most have an 'x' over them and are paired with a lengthy description of what is wrong with them, but a couple clusters of components here and there are a bright green with short, frustrated strokes deeming them worthy of use.

  "You did all of this today?" I stand up to gawk at the dissected blueprints, absorbing the metadata she rewrote for each and every faulty component upon touching them.

  "I figured you might need the help, and I was bored so it's no biggie." Sandra slides her other hand around my waist and locks her fingers together, pulling me close enough that I worry our skin may meld. Not that I would mind that or anything, I'd love to be closer to her. Especially when she smiles at me like how she is now.

  I turn on a holoprojector so we can watch the girls fight while we work. "Your help is greatly appreciated. Hopefully this will shed some light on the mysteries behind the security measures Victoria put up in those mobile suit drones."

  "Yeah, I hope so too."

  I stand up to slowly pace around the cockpit and observe each component more carefully than before, gncing over at the holoprojector dispy every so often so I can check on my daughters and their fierce battle with the centaur-type customs. They've seemingly gotten used to the flow of battle, and have even begun to feint attacks with a fair amount of success. Eroica is absolutely in her natural element, and is fighting two of her three remaining opponents by herself and winning somehow. Only Stel remains of the triplets, and she is retively evenly matched with the custom she's up against.

  "Eroica and Messorem are killing it out there! That combat data I sent you earlier really is coming in handy, huh?"

  "Yes, they seem to be doing quite well! It's exciting, seeing your data put to proper use."

  We've only adjusted about half of the components by the time the girls finish up their epic battle, Eroica and Messorem the final ones standing. They let out a battle cry that would have rattled my bones if I had any, standing victorious under the banner that dispys the victor. They go help up the customs and their sisters up so that Lavinia and Juno can take the stage, which I find to be a sweet gesture. I half expected Domini to join them, but ey seems intent on dueling me even if it means not being able to fight alongside eir sisters today.

  "I'm thinkin' we should work through the rest of these so you have time to mentally prep for your next fight. Sound good?" Sandra has already gotten to work, and my gods does she look good doing it. I should look into my base settings at some point so I can investigate my infatuation with this wonderful woman more thoroughly.

  "That's a great idea, I was curious about these other notes anyways. They're far more interesting to read than the cascading data compitions I've been filtering through in my matrix, and it feels like I'm learning more about you as we go along." She blushes red like a strawberry, and it takes all the strength in my body to not just drop our little project and take her right here and now.

  I work through the issues like clockwork while watching Sandra through the cockpit cams, nearly loosing my rhythm more than once getting lost in her radiant silver eyes. Focusing on adjustments seems impossible, but it must be done. I really do need to have a look at my settings, because this is quite distracting to have happen all the time. Perhaps there's a way to limit how often it occurs? Mastery over my emotions is definitely out of reach considering how often I've failed to control them during my short existence, but surely there's some way to dampen them?

  Our work is over right before the fight ends, but I keep most of my focus on Sandra and only fully break away when the victory siren bres and my daughters are decred the victors. Their teamwork was incredible, though I must admit that I didn't pay much attention to most of it since I had my eye on something else. I'm so impressed with their performance so far, and I look forward to seeing how my little angels improve. It's about time for us to get back in the ring, because I have a battle hungry daughter to satisfy and I do not like to disappoint.

  "Ready when you are, Mother!" Domini and Divinus are already in the arena with their stock weapons drawn.

  "Give eir hell, Mother!" Sandra cheers me on with enthusiasm I wasn't quite expecting, but absolutely welcome.

  Part of the crowd cheers me on and the other Domini, which drums up excitement in the arena as voices and thumps grow louder. It makes me want to put on the best performance they've ever seen, and I can tell my now opponent feels the same way. We opt to only use our base weapons, and step into our positions across from each other in the sand.

  "Don't get mad if we win this bout, Mother!" Messorem and Domini's voice dominates the room much like an apex predator's roar might, which only gives me a greater itch to see what ey has to offer, as well as eir partner.

  "Show me what you two are made of, dear. We're ready when you are!" The thrill of battle fills my veins to the brim with anticipation, my focus on nothing else but the steadfast knight before me.

  Domini was designed to lead eir sisters in battle alongside me—at least, that's what my programming says—so ey shouldn't be too far off in terms of base skill from me. I doubt that difference will mean much, especially when this one was definitely analyzing each and every movement in the battles that came before this one. I'll have to devise a way to fight differently, or things might get flipped on us before we can retaliate.

  The wall dispy counts down from five, and we each get into position with our weapons primed and ready. We're on each other the moment it hits zero, trading blow for blow and matching each other perfectly. Globs of psma fly all around us as it expels from the bdes of our weapons during cshes, turning the sand it nds on into volcanic gss in less than a second of contact. What stands before us now isn't just my daughter; ey is a machine built for battle, and we must fight with everything we have if we want to keep eir from sneaking in match ending attacks. Our dance of pure violence sends shockwave after shockwave smashing against the barrier's walls as we get more and more into it, the need to show them more and more things I hadn't before growing with my confidence in the bdes we hold.

  "You fight well, Mother! What do you have to say about this?" Domini aims an upward ssh at our neck, but switches directions st minute and thrusts at our left shoulder. Victoria's abtive shielding gives us enough time to move out of the way and counterattack, but we're met with a staggering parry that forced us to use our boosters to stay upright.

  "Excellent move dear! But how about this?" I focus on sending a volley of carefully aimed psma shots so I can hand off the fancy sword nonsense to Victoria, which she gdly takes over. Our dance becomes a bit more in our favor, but nothing we can get a proper upper hand with since they are countering our shots with a barrage of their own and are kind of pushing us back. What can we do to snag victory here?

  "Mother, I think it's about time that we used that."

  "Used what?" My question is immediately answered when Victoria boosts back from our intense battle to suddenly shift into a more wolfish form, our stance more hunched over and Victoria's desires shifting from seeking victory through a friendly bout to something a bit simpler; dominance.

  Domini rushes us with eir bde pointed at our chest, but we slip past eir and ssh up their arm all in a fraction of a second. Our names dispy above to demonstrate our victory before the dust settles, but I'm entirely unsure of how we managed to seize it.

  "How did we move so quickly?" I feel like my actions were predicting my thoughts, or perhaps it was her actions predicted my thoughts.

  "It's my big battle secret, so I'll tell you when we're alone. Don't you think it's pretty cool?" I barely manage a nod after desyncing, my mind stuck on the sheer speed at which we were able to move. Cheering fills the gigantic room, but it touches my ears in the way that a drop of water hitting a cup would. That speed might be what I need to understand in order to figure out the secrets behind the mobile suit drones and their security system.

  Year of Creation - 20xx

  Io Central Settlement - Foustine's Coliseum

  Our prey immediately takes flight, each of them breathing curtains of psma bullets at us like actual fantasy dragons breathe fire in rapid succession of each other. We dodge them easily, gracefully spinning out of their path as we take flight to begin our hunt. The first is easy, splitting in half nicely after failing to put up their shields before our bde makes contact, but the second proves to be a bit difficult to deal with. Our first kill's siblings immediately put up their shields, narrowly blocking psma rounds from Astro's disguised drone bits. Since when did ey have these little fuckers?

  "You never asked, so I never told you. Besides, do you really think you need these things to win? What's the harm?" Ey directs all twelve drones to fire at our second target, which shatters their shield matrix and gives me a window to fire autocannons at their cockpit. Score! That's two, baby!

  "Fair enough. But it's way more fun pying with all of the toys, right? Tell me what else you're hiding so we can give ourselves a better show!" I turn us invisible and back off a bit, waiting for one of the fools to drop their shield when they think they're safe enough. We hover at the center of the highest point we can reach, nearly grazing against the arena's shield as we watch them attack in all directions like fools.

  They finally decide to just kick up a sand screen and drop their shields—which normally would be smart, but we aren't like other girls—so I assemble a railgun out of the drone bits and a rifle I somehow just noticed we had and take steady aim. Astro enhances my vision further and steadys our hand, syncing with me so closely I can barely tell where I start and where ey ends. We take a calming breath and fire a shield shaking bst, gssing the arena and causing a massive explosion.

  "Lisa?" Astro cranks our boosters to the max so we don't get fucked on the blowback.

  "I know, I got it!" I deconstruct the railgun and divert the rest of our non essential system power to our shield matrix. This better work!

  The shockwave following the bst completely shatters our shield and cracks the arena one, our preparations the only reason why we didn't get pancaked against the shield and die a frustrating death. The crowd evacuates at the panicked announcer's orders, their stuttered decration of our victory barely audible over all the screaming the peanut gallery is doing about the fires sprouting below us. Apparently, we also managed to destroy our remaining prey that was waiting to come up because of my little trick, which is a bit disappointing and anticlimactic. Maybe they shouldn't keep them a measly twenty meters below the surface? How the fuck was I supposed to know that my little toy would be such a game ender?

  "Crazy battle tactics you typically see in video games being employed successfully in real life are always fun to see. What you just did, however, is way beyond that shit. How in the hell did you manage to use a weapon combination like that, especially since it wasn't already in my system? Are you some sort of machine wizard or something?" Astro pokes at my mind, trying to squeeze the information out.

  "I'm the best there is, so of course I can do stupid bullshit like fix us up a railgun mid-fight!" My teeth are still kind of rattling from the nerves, but it's chill since everything worked out. Thank the gods I've tried this at least once before so I at least sorta knew what I was doing!

  "I heard from one of the engineers that there was some crazy pilot that erased most of Foustine's vanguard from existence the moment they got here. Was that you? You seem crazy enough to fight a bunch of killers head-on, and it's especially cool since you apparently nearly won too."

  I giggle while trying to hide a smug smile. "Isn't she your boss? You sure you should be badmouthing that bitch?"

  Astro chuckles. "She's your boss too, you know."

  "True, true. So, what happens now that we finished up here?" We stare down at the burning hole I made, the molten gss dripping into the seemingly endless pit below.

  "Well, you'll probably get a treat or something."

  "From who?" I pray to any goddess that will listen for it to not be Foustine or that mystery freak that likes boning half-conscious girls who barely can say 'yes'.

  "Oh, you'll see."

  Oh, godsdamn it!

  Year of Creation - 20xx

  The Kennel - Puppy Quarters

  "Who's a good girl? Who's my strong girl? You are! You are!" Foustine tickles my belly while she feeds me small, colorful gummies that taste like fruit.

  "Arf arf! Woof!" I hate this woman. Why am I making animal noises now?

  "Look at you, destroying my arena before the week is out! My wittle angel is so strong! Yes she is! Yes she is!" She waves an automaton over, grabbing something from the tray it's holding. I still cannot understand for the life of me why this woman loves strapping me down to cold titanium tables, because I clearly can't resist right now. She could at least let a bitch be comfortable during the torture, like damn!

  Something I can't quite see at this angle clicks onto my right arm, and a few data packets unzip and flow into my mind. As I parse and come to understand the data, I'm reminded of one small issue with this whole situation; this crazy monster might have direct access to my mind. How the fuck do I plot to take her down if that's the case? How will I know if she's just pretending to not know my pn until it's too te for me? Maybe she'll lose interest and leave me alone if I keep winning and killing her dogs or something…

  "This is what I like to call a nanobot stim, and it's gonna keep you nice and healthy, okay sweetie? Mommy's got you, no matter what." She kisses my forehead tenderly before her expression changes to a more stoic one.

  The automaton pces the tray down and stands at the ready at a mere wave of her hand. "Fetch me a data readout of today's performance. I need to pick more suitable prey for our little huntress to silence, and I'm curious about how my lovely new pet here has been doing."

  Her head whips back to me to inspect whatever it is that she sees in my eyes. "Why is it that you won't break properly, even a little? It's already been a week, and you've yet to show any weakness whatsoever. It's quite annoying, I'll have you know! I work hard to make this all happen, so I would appreciate a bit of cooperation here." Is this bitch serious? Why the fuck would I cooperate with torture?

  I manage a sneer, hoping it'll piss her off and get her to leave me alone after this. "Give me back to my wife, and I'll consider it."

  Foustine stares at me like I've just said something rude for a few seconds, then looks away. Her fist digs into my sor plexus before I even realize she's gotten up to punch me, it taking every ounce of strength I have left in my body to remain conscious while coughing violently. "If you mention that woman again, I will have you skinned alive while in a healing vat, which will continue until you've learn your pce. Good dogs wait for their rewards, because only their master knows when it is best for them to receive such a thing. Do you understand me, pup?" She softens her tone, stroking my shivering face with a hand attempting to mimic affection.

  I nod, wishing with everything in me that this fucker would just spontaneously combust or something. "Good, very good. Now, your reward for today's performance is licking my heels clean." Aw hell nah!

  She unstraps me from the table and clips on my leash, guiding me to the edge of the table but letting me step off of it myself. My body slides off the table and settles into a seiza style seated position. Her heels are bck three centimeter heels with an oxblood red trimming, and have a nice golden buckle with bck straps fastening it to her feet. My tongue begins to swirl in small circur motions, efficiently mopping every little speck of space dust and volcanic sand powder up. I peek up at her to see if she might be willing to let me go, but regret it immediately when I see the perverted look on her face.

  "You're doing a wonderful job so far, darling. If you do the other one like you did the first, I'll even let you have a treat." Foustine parts her legs a bit, which turns me on more than I want it to. Am I seriously about to let this woman push me around like some animal?

  My resistance is met with blinding pain shooting down my back like fireworks, and my head just kinda does its own thing. I can't say that it's the most pleasant thing in the world, being unable to stop my tongue from worshiping my torturer's heel; maybe the treat is some sort of freedom? Surely she wouldn't have me pping at her with my now dirty mouth. Yeah, there's no way she'll let me dirty her sensitive bits like that!

  She inspects the second heel, cracking a warm smile that almost makes me believe she might be nice. "Sit up, pup. Mommy needs to give you your reward." I stand on my knees, and she lowers her hips to my face. "Eat." Whelp, may as well get this over with.

  I p at her like she's the first drink of water I've had all week, her scent drowning me in arousal and need for more. Nothing but her matters, my mistress and her pleasure. She tastes sweet like the nectar of a fruit's flower, so I greedily dive deeper and take delight in the feast before me. Her nails dig into my hair as she grabs fistfuls, low grunts and high moans like a song sang by an angel to my ears. My mind swims in an ocean of pure bliss as I fall to the ground, suddenly released from her grip. I try cwing my way back to her promise nd, but a heel to the face ruins this pn.

  "Greedy thing. Put her in her cage, we need to prepare for her next round of conditioning." Foustine grabs a fistful of my hair and drags me into a half-sitting position, her warm motherly smile pstered on her face like a poorly pced sticker. "Mommy loves pying with you, but it's time for you to go to sleep now. I'll see you in the morning, my love!" She pnts a wet kiss on my forehead and tosses me back onto the floor, sleep taking me before the pain can properly set in.

  Year of Creation - 20xx

  The Kennel - Dog Park

  I feel like I've been sucked into the plot of some shitty movie. How the fuck have I gone through so much shit in a single week? Also, I thought it was like, two days or something since I got here. Have I really been sleeping for days at a time? It feels like I've barely been getting my normal six hours! Where the fuck am I anyways? I can't really see anything, but it feels like someone is close by. The hell is going on here?

  "New toy of hers? Not bad, but how's her face?" A deep and kind of gravely voiced woman walks in circles around me, the sound of her heel clicks grounding me about half as well as Foustine's did. What is it with mysterious women and the damn heels around here?

  "We can't take the muzzle off yet. The poor thing might hurt herself from the shock if we did, don't you think?" This ones voice is high strung and curt, which doesn't really leave much to the imagination for me.

  "But she seems so docile! Can't we just remove the muzzle for a moment? There hasn't been a proper newbie in ages, Gwen!" I think I like this bubbly sounding girl the best. The sooner I get this piece of shit covering off my head, the better.

  "Fool! Why would you use names? I distinctly remember telling you about the secrecy necessary, so why are you blowing our cover? I knew I should've left you home, this is far too much trouble." The first woman stamps around angrily, which would've earned her a ugh if this damn headgear bullshit wasn't keeping me from making a single peep.

  "Well isn't this just wonderful. Now we might have to kill her! Do you have any idea how good of a specimen she is? This could be a major loss for us!" The second person sounds pretty pissed off, and has also begun to stomp around like a toddler.

  The thing on my head is suddenly ripped off, and I find myself strapped by chains to a chair inside of what seems to be some sort of shitty prison-esque common area. Everything is some variation on the boring shade of moonsteel, including the almost decent looking pants and shirt the three people before me are wearing. Each of them have various bits of their visible flesh repce by machine, but we all share the same mechanical eye. Foustine sure does have some fucked up tastes.

  "Why the fuck am I strapped to a chair? Who are you? Where am I? Where's Astro?" My bindings don't budge no matter how I struggle, so I give up on trying to slip out for now.

  "So many questions! Patience, fresh meat, patience. Answers will come to you in due time." A woman that stands at eye level with me while I sit runs a chained hand through slicked back jet bck hair. It seems like she would look perfect smoking a cigarette, and her cat-like eyes almost captivate me.

  "Oh, she's kind of cute! A little scruffy here and there, but nothing a good bath and some moisturizer can't fix!" The bubbly woman is at least twice the size of the cat eyed dy, and is stacked to the nines with rippling muscle. How the fuck do people achieve such a powerful physique without cybernetics? Maybe they did more research here on gene editing or something.

  "You say that like any of us even have that shit. A bath, we can do. Anything else beyond that? May Venus have mercy on her soul. Besides, isn't it protocol that we toss her out the airlock without a suit? Why are we pnning her bath time?" The second person is a stout and kind of handsome one, seems to be about my height if I was standing. They're a bit slim, but clearly aren't the kind you wanna take lightly. Why the fuck are they so set on murking my ass though?

  "You don't have to kill her. How do you keep coming to this conclusion every single time, Stew?" The bubbly girl gives them a look so disapproving, it almost feels off brand for her to say. Not that I know shit about her or anything.

  "Y'all suck at keeping secrets, huh? Who sent you to kidnap me, anyways? Is this a new form of torture from doctor bullshit or whatever? Where the fuck is she, by the way? I need to hit her in the face with a few of these tables for what she just did to me."

  Gwen stifles a chuckle. "Good luck with that one! She has full control over most of your movements all day every day, and would just do some sort of mega torture to teach you a lesson if you tried. You got a death wish or something, fresh meat?" She turns to the other two. "Do I need to hurt y'all? Why do you keep using names? What did I say about secrecy?"

  "Listen, Poppy started all this. Why am I also being yelled at?" Stew seems to have given up on secrecy too. What an intelligent bunch of losers these chumps are! Maybe I can use them somehow.

  "Oh for fucks… fine. Fine! We'll just let her in on the thing so that it's less of a problem. You won't squeal on us, will ya?" Gwen points a jagged piece of metal wrapped in a bit of cloth at me like some kind of wannabe cutthroat.

  "What the fuck would that gain me? Brownie points? Do I seriously strike you as the kind of girl who gives a flying shit about what some psycho bitch that tortures me every time she sees me thinks?"

  "You know, there was absolutely a shorter way of saying that. Do you like hearing yourself talk or something?" Poppy flexes her biceps and hits a pose, kind of like an anime character or some shit. Is she for real? Am I actually experiencing LARPing on a Jupiter moon right now?

  "Somebody's in a foul mood. Was winning all day that aggravating for you, freshie?" Stew sneers down at me, which would be kind of hot if I wasn't tied down to a fucking chair right now.

  "No, no, I think it's the fact that she is tied down to a chair and we're all just standing around her. Why aren't we taking the restraints off again? I'm pretty sure that she isn't going to fight three people with home advantage after being bound for several hours while unconscious, Stew." She leans over and looks me in the eye like a friend would. "Would you try to murder our faces if we let you out?"

  "Probably not, considering the fact that my only weapon is a chair that I'll probably struggle to lift over my head. Unless one of you happens to have a switchbde I can use so we can duel?"

  Gwen sighs and walks over to unlock my restraints. "Py nice, or else. I'm not looking for any trouble, so let's just be cool about this." The moonsteel chainmail restraints slide off of me after a clicking noise from behind me that barely touches my ears. I immediately stand up and begin to stretch, expertly dodging a reactive fist to the face from Stew when I lean to stretch my sides.

  "Slow your roll, Little Mac! Weren't we gonna py nice? Why you getting all handsy with me? I'll let it slide since you missed entirely, but try not to do it again if you pn on keeping your hands." I finish my stretch and move on to my shoulders, rolling my neck gently as I do so.

  "Stew, the fuck? What's wrong with you, man? We're supposed to be chill!" Gwen seems exasperated with these two chucklefucks, and I can't say I bme her.

  "I'm sorry, it's just— She felt way too dangerous to leave alone in that moment. It felt like when we go into the arena, except that I was up against something I couldn't possibly kill by myself unless I caught it off guard. Real freaky shit."

  They're even using anime logic to expin their bullshit? It's impressively sad, seeing people so deep into the LARP they don't even need reality anymore. "So are ya gonna tell me where we are, or is it still circlejerk around the friendship fire and half ignore the new girl time? I'm getting kind of bored standing around doing nothing, so if y'all have any recommendations for what to do for fun, I'd really appreciate it. You see, I'm from out of town and—"

  "Goddess, you really do like the sound of your own voice. Mind turning down the ego a few notches? I can't hear my own thoughts over your nonsensical ramblings!" Poppy puts her hands over her ears and slightly turns to show off her flexed back and shoulder muscles. Seriously, what's with the poses? Is this some sort of weird joke I'm not getting?

  Gwen snaps to get my attention. I don't respond because I'm not a fucking dog, which gets an annoyed huff out of her as she walks the three or four steps it took to stand in my line of sight. "This is the Dog Park, so the only 'enrichment' we get around here is the weight training room, and the combat sim room. Unless you count a few steel tables with shitty moonsteel chairs as a bst, we don't got much besides each other and fighting." Sweet, so it's a prison with shitty community building activities. Maybe I should've pick Ganymede or something, cause this pce is wack as all hell!

  "Okay, well I'll be in the combat sim room until further notice. Have fun circle jerking or whatever!" I stand to head over, but Stew grabs my shoulder to hold me in pce. I slip out, and Poppy moves to stand in my way. The fuck is going on?

  "You need to help us, and we can't let you go until you give us an answer. We're all stuck together anyways, so why don't you slow your roll and hear us out for a bit? We might have some info that'll sweeten the pot for ya, if you'd care to know."

  I raise an eyebrow and step a bit closer. "What kind of information? I've been told nothing but bullshit the whole time I've been here, so I'm kinda out on a limb here." Maybe she'll know more about why we keep fighting and getting pumped full of mystery drugs.

  "I got information on your little friend you came to this space rock in. You want in on the pn, or not?"

  Well that's one hell of a way to convince a girl to do something.