"Listen, i know the term 'egg prime directive' can be perceived as silly but the number of times I've seen the girlies withdraw because you are trying to show them the truth is too many to count. its better to show them the possibility and let them find their way, like I did"

  — Samurai Sparkly Boom Booms in a interview 2052

  Quinn dreamt of corpses. Staring at her accusingly through glassy eyes. She saw Corporal Adele, Co-workers she had worked with for months or years but never knew the name of. All cut down by model-3s, their dead eyes still tracking her as they were dragged off to parts unseen.

  She awoke with the feeling of two bodies pressed up against her. One was familiar, Maia's wavy black hair draped over her neck from behind. The other she had her arms wrapped around, fox ears at eye height, a glimpse of pink collar and bronze skin under black hair. She must have shifted enough to give away her existence in the waking world as Aisha murmured to her.

  "Good morning Cutie. While this has been nice, I really need to go to the bathroom, can you let me up?"

  Quinn unlaced her arms, and Aisha shuffled off the bed and walked off to the door to the bathroom. How had she ended up in this situation? Last night had mostly been the three of them talking, Quinn and Aisha sharing their initialization stories, and Maia telling stories that left Quinn wanting to bury her head in the pillows. It hadn't been too long until both the new samurai had begged off to sleep, exhausted by a day of injury and combat.

  She wiggled a little, causing Maia to grumble in protest, and opened up her messages on her augs. There was one from Tim just letting her know she had a day off, paid even. The next one was from corporate, and she took a deep breath to quell the spike of anxiety as she prepared to open it.

  "Everything all right Quinn?" Aisha had returned from the bathroom, and was now sitting on the edge of the bed looking down at her with concern in her eyes.

  "Yeah, just a message from Amazon corporate, I always get anxious around those sorts of messages."

  Aisha hummed "I think I getcha, it's probably just them trying to make nice with the new Samurai, right?." Her eyes strayed to the position in the bed she'd occupied not five minutes ago. "Are you sure you're okay? you seemed like you were having a bad time last night."

  Quinn frowned "Just some nightmares, that's not unusual for me. Why what I do?"

  "You were crying pretty loudly at one point" Aisha gave her a sad smile. "You woke me up, and when I came to see what was up you kinda grabbed me and pulled me in." She nodded towards the position she'd been in. "I think… Maia came to join soon after."

  Quinn grimaced. "I'm sorry, I probably thought you were Maia."

  "No worries cutie. I was getting mixed signals as to whether you wanted to sleep alone or with me, so I picked the safe option. I'd be happy to be wrong about that choice, though."

  Quinn shrugged, causing Maia to grumble again and wrap their arms more firmly around her. "I'm.. not not interested, but I think I need to figure some shit out first. Is that okay?"

  "Of course!" Aisha flashed her a smile that weakened her resolve. "Take your time cutie, I'll be around."

  Quinn held out her arms and wiggled, causing Aisha to snort "What?"

  "Platonic cuddles are still okay, if you're up for that?"

  Aisha rolled her eyes, but still snuggled back into Quinn's arms without further complaint. The three stayed like that for some time, but after a while her augs beeped with an incoming message. It was from Elliot, suggesting the three of them meet in the rainforest cafe . Realizing that she hadn't eaten since the meal the lieutenant had given them yesterday and that she was famished, Quinn extracted herself from Maia and Aisha before getting dressed in the bathroom, donning the riot armor once again and heading out to the cafe. As she emerged she saw Aisha tossing a suspiciously "Bath in a can" looking container into the trash, and together they headed down and out of the building.

  It was on the walk over that Irys spoke for the first time that day, reminding Quinn suddenly that she had a guest in her head again.

  "Darling, I did want to let you know that a senior Vanguard by the name of Foxfire reached out sometime yesterday, putting out a general broadcast of sorts for any trans Vanguard in the area. She is seeking a short conversation on an undisclosed matter.”

  Quinn glanced curiously upwards, before remembering that Irys did not have a physical presence to direct said glance at.

  “Uh. that seems oddly specific, and how would she even know?”

  “I am unsure as to the purpose, as that was not shared, unless it pertains to your shared gender identity in a way I cannot immediately predict. However I can confirm that due to the rules of privacy surrounding fellow Vanguard, no information on your existence was actually shared and this was closer to a… shot in the dark, as you might say. There is no obligation to answer or reveal your presence.”

  “I see,” she mulled over what the conversation could be for, not finding anything springing to mind. “Well, I suspect if she had ulterior motives, as weird as that sounds given what I know of her, I doubt she’d need to do this to accomplish them. I’m willing to talk to her.”

  “Very well Darling, I’ve confirmed with Lyona she is currently free, if you are amenable to.”

  “I am.” She paused before calling out to Aisha. "Hey, I gotta take a call, meet you there?"

  The magical girl gave her a thumbs up and walked off down the road.

  There was a brief pause before the call connected. A tall woman, sitting on a couch, toned, with blush coloured skin and silvery hair appeared, adorned with a pair of clearly real fox ears. Wearing a casual set of clothes, thigh high socks, midi skirt and a black t-shirt with the text ‘What the fox?!’ on the front. She turned to face Quinn.

  “Hi, I’m Quinn.. Mobile Suit Maiden. I don’t know which is appropriate here. You had wanted to talk to a local trans samurai?”

  She nodded. “Yup. Soo there was a bit of a situation yesterday, uhhh basically a new Vanguard took some Bionites to survive an extremely desperate situation. That stuff is extremely unstable and highly unpredictable, but it will rapidly mutate your body to adapt to whatever situation you’re currently struggling with.

  “Problem is, it also turned them into a girl, which they didn’t want, or at least think they don’t want. The thing is, Bionites can be influenced by someone’s desires, whether they realize they have them or not, soo if you’re a bit of an egg, it might trans your gender.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Not saying that is what happened, but it’s the most simple explanation, Occam’s razor and all that. Anyways, I reverted that process for the time being, but I think it might be a good idea if they have someone with experience regarding gender-fuckery to talk to, in case they suddenly start feeling dysphoric.”

  Quinn grimaced “That sounds.. Difficult to deal with for them. I can sort of remember what it was like before I figured it out, and getting instantly transitioned via samurai tech would have been chaos. I’m assuming we’re trying to stick with the prime directive still?”

  Foxfire leaned forward. “Exactly. And yeah that was mostly why I turned them back for now. They don’t really have the points and tokens for that since Bionites are pretty hard to undo. With your permission, I’d pass your contact details on to them to come meet you?”

  “Sure.” Quinn nodded. “Though, can I ask which Samurai this is beforehand?”

  “One second, I’ll go ask them for permission.”

  After that, the fox muted herself and looked off to the side for a bit, her eyes gaining that telltale unfocused look of someone using their augs.

  “Blade Dancer.” Evidently she had gotten permission to share.

  Oh. Quinn’s eyes widened briefly before she got it under control.

  “Ah, we worked together for a bit yesterday, sh.. They had seemed distressed by something at the time. Guess I know why now.” She scrunched up her mouth briefly in thought. “Maybe I’ll ask them along to do some more antithesis hunting today, see if anything comes up?”

  “Sounds like a plan. Most importantly I’d want them to have some sort of support network they can rely on, if or when they figure themselves out, if there even is anything to figure out.”

  “However it is, I’ll do my best to help. Thanks for letting me know, I was a little worried about them.”

  “No problem! Was fun talking to you and happy hunting!”

  “You too!”

  The call ended there, leaving Quinn with a slight smile on her face. Foxfire was surprisingly chill for a woman known to just end large corporations that had pissed her off too much, something to aspire to maybe..

  A few minutes later and Quinn stepped into the Rainforest Cafe for the first time. She caught Aisha and Elliot sitting in a corner, a smattering of managerial and white collar groups staring and whispering as the person in the magical girl outfit tore through a plate the size of her head of food. Elliot was more sedately working his way through a plate of pancakes, rifle leaned against his chair.

  Quinn grab a chair next to Elliot, connecting to the menu with her augs and scrolling through. Glancing between the sweet and savory options on display in front of her, she decided to split the difference and ordered a chicken and waffles. It hit her credit reserve hard enough she winced, but steeled herself in the knowledge that she'd make the money back far easier now she was a samurai.

  "So." Aisha got out in a brief break from her food. "Who was it?"

  Elliot perked up at that and looked at Quinn questioningly.

  "Oh uh, it was.. Foxfire? the European Samurai?"

  "You Bitch! You talked to Foxfire and didn't even invite me?!?"

  The panic attack sprung its ambush. Quinn retreated into her seat, scenarios of Aisha storming off and never coming back assaulting her. The thoughts kept pounding at the doors of her self control, why here, why now? Things were going great, why was this happening? She wanted to cry, she would not cry, not here.

  Elliot suddenly had his hands on her shoulders, staring right at her intensely.

  "Quinn, name five things you can see."

  What?

  "I.. don't"

  Elliot's tone sharpened, that same commanding edge he'd used a few times during combat.

  "Five things you can see."

  She glanced around, trying to piece five things to describe together.

  "Um.. you right in front of me. Stack of pancakes. Sausages and Bacon. Woman in blue suit staring at us. Logo on the window."

  "Good. Four things you can hear."

  "Your breathing, whirring of the drones, people whispering, sizzling from the kitchen."

  He nodded, though he was still watching her intently.

  "Three things you can feel."

  She paused again, stopping to consider.

  "Your hands on my shoulders. The seat below me. fuzzy armrests in my hands."

  "Good. Now take a deep breath, in and out."

  She complied, taking a slow breath in, then out.

  "How are you doing."

  She took another.

  "Better.. I think."

  She glanced up at Aisha who was watching her with deep concern.

  "I'm sorry cutie, I was only joking." She glanced away hesitantly. "I'd offer a hug, but I don't know."

  "Please." Quinn murmured, barely over a whisper.

  Aisha must have used some of her equipment because she was hugging Quinn tightly before she could even blink.

  "I'm so sorry I didn't know you had anxiety I wouldn't have made that joke if I'd know it might freak you out."

  Quinn returned the hug, still speaking quietly. "Its fine.. you didn't know." She glanced at Elliot. "Thank you, Elliot. That helped a lot."

  He let go of her shoulders and settled back into his chair, still studying her face. "I'm glad to help, I've had a few friends who got panic attacks so I've helped with them before."

  Aisha eventually let her go too, before settling back into her seat. Quinn caught her glancing between Quinn's face and her food, and mustered a smile. "Eat, I'm doing okay." Aisha gave a weak smile back but dug back in.

  "So, you're a fan of Foxfire?"

  Aisha hurriedly finished her mouthful. "I mean yeah, she's one of the most successful Vaguard in the world, she's a physics nerd like me, and well." She wiggled her fuzzy fox ears. "She's a hot fox girl. What's not to love? Oh, she prefers not to be called a Samurai by the way"

  Quinn snorted. "Got it."

  Vishynu's voice suddenly rang out in their augs. "I'll note that Vanguard Foxfire has a known tendency to visit fox themed samurai relatively soon after their initialization. I suspect you'll get a chance to meet her in the near future if she doesn't suddenly diverge from her pattern."

  "Oh." Aisha replied. "That'll be cool as hell." She flashed a grin at Quinn. "I'll have to tell you about it after it happens."

  Soon after her food arrived, and she wolfed it down with nearly the same voracity as Aisha. As the meal continued, Elliot spoke up as a serving bot took his food away.

  "Quinn, did you check the email from Amazon yet?"

  She shook her head, slicing off a chunk of waffle but pausing before putting it in her mouth. "Not yet."

  "Ah, we should probably discuss what we wanna do with it. Maybe read yours first, then we can chat."

  "That makes sense."

  She steeled herself, then opened it up on her augs.

  From:

  Subject: An extraordinary Opportunity.

  She started to try to read, but the corpo speak quickly caused her eyes to glaze over. "Irys, can you summarize this for me?"

  "Of course, Darling. They're attempting to forcibly transfer you to the subsidiary PMC Amazon Dispute Resolution. Its technically a significant pay boost, but compared to what you could make as a Vanguard should you choose, its a pittance. There's a contract and some legal threats that, based on my analysis of.."

  "No, don't spoil, I want to look at it!" Quinn's eyes lit up. Taking apart corporate legal bullshit, now this is what she lived for.

  After fifteen minutes of reading the frankly heinous contract and empty threats should she choose to decline, Quinn finally glanced up to see Elliot and Aisha watching her. Elliot tilted his head.

  "Uh, you read it?"

  She cringed a little, realizing she'd fell into hyper-focus. "Yeah, sorry, I got distracted by the legal stuff."

  He furrowed his brow. "You.. read that? I just had Hylios summarize it for me."

  She nodded with a smile "Yeah! I was in law school for a bit, with a focus on corporate law. Reading this and picking it apart is honestly enjoyable." She animatedly began delving into the details, describing the onerous NDA and incredibly restrictive non-compete. She was midway through summarizing the binding agreement to sell thirty percent of all points to Amazon's research division at a competitive rate but zero restrictions when she realized she'd been rambling for several minutes. She glanced up, embarrassed, only to find Elliot watching with a big smile on his face, and Aisha watching her while biting her lip slightly.

  Elliot broke the silence first. "I appreciate the breakdown, it was more understandable than Hylios' at least." he briefly murmured something sub-vocally, then returned to speaking normally. "I'm with you we should be ignoring the fuck out of this 'offer', but we should probably heed Synapse's warning they might actually try it on when we tell them to fuck off."

  She nodded, that unfortunately made sense.

  "I think we should quit, and probably leave the facility as soon as possible." He grimaced. "You seem close to your roommates, we.. might want to consider getting them out too. We can go downtown, figure out a new plan from there?"

  Aisha leaned forward in her seat. "If I can get the college cleared, maybe I can host you this time? Might not be a good place for the mech though."

  Quinn glanced outside, towards where she could barely see the silhouette of the mech standing sentinel. "That's fine, I was gonna see if I could help in the wilderness maybe. We can figure it out later I guess."

  With that, the three got up and headed for the door, ready for another day of antithesis hunting.

  foxfire-a-scs-fanfic