While we understand that the situation in Seattle was heartbreaking, the locals there have taken care of it.

  'And why did the Family allow the situation to develop that far?'

  As is well known, Seattle is neutral territory for Samurai factions. Due to raising tensions, The Family Samurai decided to back down to try and alleviate said tension. It is unfortunate that the antithesis attack happened at the same time.

  -Press conference held by Vanguard Doma to address security concerns after the Siege of Seattle, 2056.

  I hear the number Synaptic say. There were so many zeros, but not nearly as much as I expected it to have. Samurai discount. I guess. They, and I would be expected to help clean up all the floors that I definitely was responsible for wrecking.

  Rolling out of bed, I go to the bathroom first. Then beeline it to the fridge in the kitchen. I find a pre-made sandwich wrap thing and eat it. Nowhere near as good as Buddy's cooking, but far better than the company supplied rations we get for missions.

  I make my way towards the elevators, once more being impressed by the tech being utilized as I shift to my armor.

  “Hey, Synaptic. Is there a Samurai involved with this building or something? Cause we have been to a lot of fancy places for jobs, but none of them hold a candle to this place.:

  While there is a number of Vanguard derivative technology being used, no registered Vanguard have had any direct relations with the building's owner. That said, a number of out of town Samurai do use this hotel when visiting. By the way, would you like me to summon the van, as you have not connected your augs to the hotel systems to summon it yourself?

  “Yes please,” I mumble. I then open my augs and see front and center a connection request. I accept, then I feel a number of different spyware bots and spam files try to install themselves, only to ‘see’ them shatter upon something.

  While I accept that connections to inferior tech may be necessary, you nor your family will gain any pests in doing so.

  I nod to that as the elevator opened up to the lobby.

  As I step out onto the landing platform, I see the sun beginning to set on the horizon, my Agus filtering the light to not be harmful. I marvel at the gradient of colors reflecting off the sky. I have lived in the city my entire life, yet this is the first time I have had the chance to marvel at this simple sight that has existed here every day. I take a picture and send it to my family with a caption saying, “We can pay attention to the world around us now.”

  Soon, the van pulls up and the valet bows to me holding the door open. I slip inside and load up my various polyhedron swarms. I plug in the coordinates to the Family HQ, and while the auto-pilot engages, I send a message to Laser Lasso, letting her know I am on my way to the building. I get a message back in response.

  “Heya, kiddo. Glad to hear you are on your way. A liaison will meet you at the parking lot and take you to a meeting room to introduce you to the head honcho of New Phoenix. Don't be nervous. She may be intimidating, she don't bite newbies.”

  I turn my head in confusion at the last line. “Does that mean she bites others?” I mumble.

  I push the thought out of my mind as the van follows traffic towards the HQ. After five minutes, I check the GPS to see the approximate time, and am annoyed that it says two hours plus.

  “That is not going to fly. Synaptic, Samurai have a carte blanche when it comes to traffic violations, right?”

  Indeed! Would you like me to adjust the navigation travel in a straight line instead of following the laws like a normal civilian?

  The smugness in her normally silky voice tickled a part of my brain. I can feel a blush, thankful my face mask hides my face.

  “Yes please,”

  I feel the van speed up as it adjusts course, and I see the estimate drops to five minutes.

  And in those five minutes, I see The Family HQ building for New Phoenix. A sleek silver spire pierces the sky, standing as the tallest building amongst its neighbors, a stream of vehicles flow in and out of many points, probably parking garages.

  As I approach, a request pings my augs from the building. Accepting, I see it is a navigational request, pointing me towards a higher parking garage, one where no cars are moving near. I adjust the flight plan to follow the request, and soon I glide into a semi full parking lot with a bunch of eclectic vehicles.

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  There is a hover bulldozer with a trailer attached, a pod with a huge drill on its front, a golden Chariot with a Pegasus, and a few others. As I land in the requested parking spot, I see a red haired woman in a red pencil skirt and suit jacket with red flats standing a few feet away, a smile plastered on her face. I step out to meet her, my dozens of cube swarms following.

  “Good evening. Samurai War Games. My name is Kira, and I am your assigned liaison. A pleasure to meet you,” She says, reaching out a hand.

  I reach out and accept her handshake, “Good evening, Kira. A pleasure, and please call me Games for now. I was told you would lead me to meet the, and I'm quoting here, head honcho of New Phoenix."

  “Thet would be correct. Please follow me.” She turns and leads me into the building.

  After being awed by the luxury of the Niltmore, I am underwhelmed by just how boring the HQ is. Plain walls, hallways of opaque glass doors, and not a single sign in sight. Kira leads me past a dozen halls, and while I am normally very good at remembering maps and paths I have taken, I am utterly lost.

  We stop in front of a nondescript door. “This is her office. Doma is expecting you so you may enter. I will be waiting for you once you are finished to take you where you need to go.” She gestures towards the door. I nod in acknowledgement and enter.

  Inside is a decent sized office space, thirty feet wide by twenty feet long. The lighting is a bit dim, and the walls are covered in dark wooden book cases. The floor is covered in actual dark hardwood, and there are two couches made of black leather with a few ottoman spaced between them and a table. The back wall is a screen depicting the sunset just outside.

  Dominating the space is a massive blackwood desk with a tall highbacked leather chair. Sitting in that chair is a woman I presume to be Doma. She is in a simple black dress with long sleeves, her long black hair done up in a bun held in place by a pair of rods. She appears to be in her twenties, but who knows with Samurai tech. She smiles at me as she stands.

  “Welcome, War Games. My Samurai name is Doma. Please, come and sit. Coffee, Tea, water, soda?” She steps around her desk and gestures towards the couches.

  “Water, please,” I answer as I join her on one of the couches. It is very firm, but conforms to my body nicely.

  She waves her hand and a gust of wind blows through the room, two glasses of water float over from a mini bar set up next to her desk.

  “So, I have read Laser Lasso's report on the situation you found yourself in earlier today, and I must say that, while I am saddened by the loss of human life, I am proud of how you handled the situation. I cannot tell you the number of new Samurai that have either ended up crippled or dead because they could not judge a situation properly. While you proved yourself capable of dealing with the situation, you did the right thing calling it in.”

  Hearing her praise felt oddly satisfying. Her tone was similar to Synaptic. Calm, Powerful, Secure.

  “While Lasso has her peculiarities, I trust her eye for people intrinsically, and if she thought you couldn't handle the situation, she would have advised you to do far less.” She gestured to my floating swarms and I felt the wind pick back up. One of my cubes, a Scout swarm, floated over to her, “That said, nanite swarm users are rare. While I know of a few, the most popular one is Grey Goo in Vancouver, and what she does is more support in nature.” She turns the cube in her hands effortlessly, manipulating it as if it weighs five ounces, not fifteen pounds.

  “Lasso has informed me that you have a desire to join The Family officially, not remain a freelance Samurai. I must admit, while I am happy with the new blood, I am surprised at your willingness to join without even a sales pitch.” She allows the wind to pull the Scout Swarm back to the hardlight counter it was placed previously.

  I cleared my throat, "Well there was a sales pitch. From my older brother,” I say, the last part, calling Roger my brother, came out quietly. I take a deep breath. “I'm sorry if I say this wrong, but I'm not the face of our group, so I'm not great with words. I can trust you to keep this conversation between us, at least for now?”

  Her smile widens a bit, but I can see something shift in her eyes. “Of course. This is not an official interrogation where everything is recorded, just a friendly chat between,” She clocks her head slightly, pausing as if searching for a word, “coworkers. I won't say friends yet as that seems a bit too forward.”

  “Right. Well, we are, we're, a group of child espionage agents for hire. There are quite a few other groups like us in the building where we lived. I have the data on them, but I don't know them personally. The last job we had seems to have been to instigate the hive breakout in the megabuilding, and due to various circumstances, we cannot and are not willing to go back to the company. Roger convinced us that The Family was the organization that we could trust to actually care about our wellbeing, while also offering sufficient backing for our extra activities.”

  As I finish my word vomit, I feel lighter for some reason.

  Doma's face changed subtly quite a few times, from surprise to concern to anger, to curiosity, then finally resting on a soft expression I cannot place. “Well now. That is quite the story. Hmm. You mentioned there are other children like you, and you have data on them. Would you be willing to share that data so we could liberate them? And please, don't worry, we will not simply free them to abandon them on the streets. We will offer them work and rehabilitation services in order to wean them into society.”

  Something in her expression, her voice makes me want to trust her. I fear mental manipulation, so I run my augs and neurons on overdrive to see if I can find some evidence of it, but there is nothing. She is earnest in her desire to help. So, I take a leap and nod, then send her a data packet containing everything Synaptic obtained from their servers.

  “Thank you for trusting me. I will make sure The Family does everything in our power to help these children. I will also label this information as coming from an anonymous source, if that's okay with you.”

  I nod once more.

  “Very well,” I see her augs flash for a moment. Then it dawns on me. I just sicked an entire corporation on my former boss, a corporation with more power than any pre-incursion country, all to save the other teams like my family. Then, I feel a single tear drip down my face, and I am once more extremely happy I have a face plate to hide behind.