Mistrunner - Chapter 39 - Fun, or Something Like It (Patreon)

Training is like building a pyramid. First, you need a wide, sturdy base of general competence. Then, you must narrow your focus, concentrating on the most important skills. And finally, you must choose a specialty. For me, I was always a rifleman first, everything else second.

Jeremiah Braddock

I looked in the mirror, my fingers snaking through the soft curls of my hair. I had no idea what the stylist had actually done, but when she’d finally given me a good look, I was floored. One side of my head was completely shaved, with only a little stubble remaining, and down the other was a cascade of tightly wound curls. Before, I’d never thought I could pull off a decent sidecut, but the stylist had put the lie to that expectation. It wasn’t like what I’d seen on so many other women – or men, I suppose – who’d been blessed with straight hair, but that was fine. For the first time in my life, I actually preferred my own hair to what I saw on other people.

Especially because of the color.

Stark white at the roots and fading into hot pink, my whole look was pulled together by similarly shaded makeup. Obviously, it wasn’t something I could do during a mission or while training, but for a day on the town? It was perfect.

I looked good. Like, really good. So good, in fact, that I sat there in the stylist’s chair, staring at my own reflection, an expression of awe playing across my face. It wasn’t until Jo spoke that the spell was broken.

“W-what?” I asked. “I…I wasn’t listening.”

“I said that I guess you like it,” she repeated, grinning.

The stylist, an older woman with her hair in green braids and a complexion similar to my own, said, “Lookin’ like that, the boys are never gonna leave you alone, girl.”

I wasn’t altogether sure how I felt about that statement. Sure, like so many girls my age, I had definitely taken notice of boys. And they’d noticed me in turn. But the idea of actually doing anything with one of them was so terrifying that I’d have rather faced another giant alligator than confront it. However, I was also inexplicably excited by the stylist’s offhanded comment. Yeah – I had no intention of unraveling those feelings, so I just moved right along past it.

The next few minutes passed in a daze, and before I knew it, Jo had paid the stylist. I tried to object, saying that I could pay my own way, but she wasn’t having any of it. After all, she’d said, I had saved her from Jack. That had to be worth a favor, right? I could recognize an unwinnable argument when I saw one – even if I didn’t necessarily agree – so I abandoned that particular thread.

There’s just something about walking around with a fresh haircut that you’re really excited about. It doesn’t just give you confidence. It buoys your entire mood to the point where everything just feels so much better than before. That’s what happened over the course of the rest of the day, which saw Jo and I revisiting the market, eating lunch at what she claimed was the best restaurant in town, and shopping for new clothes. Eventually, as night fell, we found our way to what Jo claimed was a local hangout for people our age.

Once upon a time, it had been a fancy hotel, as evidenced by the aged and decayed décor, but it had long since been abandoned, probably because of its proximity to the wall. When I asked Jo about it, she said, “My dad said this wasn’t part of the original town, but when he was younger, they moved the walls out. He said that his parents told him that, before the Initialization, it was named after some admiral from a war they lost a long time ago.”

“Why would you name something after somebody who lost?” I asked, a little confused.

She shrugged. “No clue,” Jo said. “Doesn’t matter, though. All those people are long gone.”

I was sure she was right, but given my uncle’s age, I couldn’t be so sure. Was his long life a characteristic of people born before the Initialization? Or was it his enhanced constitution? My gut told me it was the latter, but I didn’t know enough to rule out the former, either.

She led me through the hotel until we ended up at a staircase, which we climbed a few floors before exiting. By the time we reached our destination, Jo was huffing and puffing, but because of my constitution, I wasn’t even out of breath.

Still, my heart skipped a beat when I saw where we were going. The entire floor was open to the world, and because we were high enough, we could see out over the walls. In one direction lay the ruined city, but in the other was the untouched bay. However, what really caught my attention were the decorations someone had arranged.

Strings of lights, looking like fireflies, clung to the ceiling, casting everything in a soft glow. Various chairs and couches dotted the mostly open floor, and, most importantly, it was full of teenagers. Some looked to be around my age, but others were clearly on the cusp of adulthood.

Boys and girls were engaged in conversation, making out, or dancing to the beat of music blaring from sets of speakers artfully arranged throughout the floor. Everything – from the speakers to the furniture to the lighting – looked like it had seen better days, as if it had all been abandoned, but, upon first inspection, it seemed clean enough.

“This is The Admiral,” Jo said, sweeping her hand out. “Everybody comes here. There are drinks over there.” She pointed into the corner where a man in his mid-twenties was handing out cans of cheap-looking beer. “It costs a little bit to get in, but once you’re here, everything’s free.”

“Wow.”

“Impressive, right? But I bet you’ve got places like this all over Nova City,” she said.

“Uh…maybe? I wouldn’t know,” I said before I realized what I was admitting. “I mean, yeah. We totally have places like this. But better. Yeah. Lots better.”

“Right…”

“Okay, I don’t know about any of that, okay?” I said with a sigh. “I didn’t…you know…have time for this kind of thing back home.”

It was another lie, but a more palatable one. The reality of it was that, because of the combination of my antisocial nature and being my uncle’s niece, I’d never had any friends. So, I had never been invited anywhere like The Admiral. But Jo didn’t need to know that, did she? I desperately wanted her to think I was cool, and admitting I was a friendless loser didn’t seem conducive to that goal.

“Yeah – I get it,” she said. “With everything…well, I can see how you’d be too busy. But you’ve got a new look, you look great, and you’ve got a little free time now, right? So, c’mon!”

With that, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me toward a slim woman who looked like she was also in her mid-twenties. She had a pair of cybernetic arms, but one of them was poorly encased in what appeared to be the cheapest version of RealSkin on the market. It wasn’t ill-fitting, but the texture was all wrong. To make matters worse, she’d tattooed it, probably in an attempt to cover it up; the result was one arm that was blatantly mechanical and another that looked like a combination of rubber and plastic, but was covered in what should have been intricate tattoos. However, because that version of RealSkin wasn’t built to take ink, it was smudged and runny, making it look like a giant blob of black ink. It was made all the worse by my new Obervation ability, which made it to where I couldn’t ignore just how terribly it looked.

“Note to self, don’t cheap out on the fake skin,” I muttered to myself.

“What was that, little girl?” demanded the woman that I hadn’t expected to hear me.

“Uh…”

“Leave her alone, Trixie,” said Jo. “She’s with me.”

“And I’m supposed to care?” asked Trixie. As she spoke, I took a moment to examine her outfit. She was wearing a pair of shiny, silver shorts that, if Jeremiah thought I was even thinking of going out in public wearing, he’d have locked me up for a few months. It wasn’t just that they were so tight that I got a good idea of everything they were supposed to be covering. Nor was it only that they were short enough that I had underwear that offered more coverage. Rather, it was the combination of the two that made them seem so scandalous.

Of course, I’d seen more revealing clothing in Nova City, but this just seemed worse, and for reasons I couldn’t adequately explain. Up top, she wore nothing but a pair of star-shaped pasties and an open vest that barely came down to her ribs. In her mechanical hands was a tapered club studded with nails, with a chain wrapped around its thickest end. Finally, her hair, which was short and arranged in a bob, and makeup were indigo blue, making her stand out even more.

To put it bluntly, aside from her cheap skin job, she was probably the coolest-looking person I had ever seen. While I would never have had the confidence to walk around half-naked like she did, it definitely worked for her.

“I love your hair,” I blurted. “And your makeup is awesome. Is it permanent? Or do you have to put it on every day?”

That took her aback, and, for a few seconds, she didn’t respond. Then, she grinned, saying, “Permanent. No other way to go for a lady on the go, you know what I mean?” She looked me up and down in a decidedly predatory manner, adding, “I’d be happy to get together with you when I get off. You know, to discuss fashion…and other things.”

I swallowed hard. I could face down a mutated man o’ war. I could kill dozens of dangerous mooks. I could even handle a giant idiot like Burt Burt. But under that woman’s gaze, I felt like my legs were about to give out. Obviously, I understood the implication inherent in her suggestions. I wasn’t stupid. I watched movies and programs on the entertainment feeds. And while I was flattered by the attention, I’d long known that I just didn’t swing that way. Still, it was difficult to remember that while she was looking at me.

That’s when something snapped inside me. Suddenly, her hair didn’t look so shiny. The body beneath her revealing outfit, less perfect. Her sneering face, far less inticing. And her words, entirely unpersuasive.

It actually took me a moment to realize that she had been using a skill, and when I did, my wide-eyed innocence turned into a scowl. Before I even knew what I was doing, I had my fingers around her neck, and I was squeezing. Ferdinand II was in my hand, his barrel pressed against her forehead as she futilely scrapped her cybernetic fingers against my forearms. Her efforts bore fruit in the form of a set of shallow cuts, but my constitution was up to the task of fending off her panicked scratches.

I leaned in close, barely hearing the screams around me, and said, “If you ever try to use a skill like that on me ever again, I will kill you before you have a chance to explain yourself. You got it, Trixie?”

Tears were already flowing down her cheeks, and she tried to answer. However, because of my grip on her throat, she couldn’t get the words out. So, she had to make do with a frantic nod. Satisfied, I released her. She fell to the floor, gasping for breath. Only then did the screams hit me.

“What are you doing?!” yelled Jo, who had a hold on one of my arms.

“She tried to use a skill on me,” I said as calmly as I could. It came out as a snarl. “Something that tried to snake its way into my mind. I don’t know what it was, but she was trying to make…herself and her words more attractive. I don’t like it when people try to manipulate me.”

As I spoke, I looked up to see that two more people – a man and a woman – had approached. Both sported cybernetics, though they were low-quality hack jobs that were barely stronger than a human limb. One carried a wicked-looking axe with a head that looked like it had once belonged to a giant buzzsaw, and the other carried a club similar to the one the fallen Trixie had carried. Both were glaring at me.

“What the hell? You come to our joint and you attack us? Really? You got a death wish, little girl?” demanded the woman.

“I’m not the one on the ground,” I said, keeping my voice calm as I shifted my gaze from one person to the other. “And as far as I can see, I’m the only one with a gun.”

“You think that scares us?” growled the man. “We both got subdermal armor. The best in Mobile.”

“So it’s barely better than normal skin?” I asked. “Fine. You’ve got your armor. I’ve got Ferdinand. I think I know which one I’m betting on.” I raised my voice. “Besides, I’m not in the wrong here. That woman tried to use a skill on me. Some kind of mind control. By rights, I could explode her head, and nobody could claim I was in the wrong.”

“Says you,” spat the woman. “Trixie’s one of us. She wouldn’t do that.”

“She did,” I assured her. “But here’s the deal – none of you can do anything about it. And yes, I see you over there with the crossbow.” I glanced at the bartender, who’d crept to within range and was aiming the aforementioned weapon at me. “So, I’m going to walk out of here right now. You want to stop me, feel free. It’s been a few days since I killed anybody.”

As I spoke, I tried to channel my uncle’s calm confidence. I wasn’t certain if I could pull it off, but I really didn’t want to have to kill anybody else. Not even Trixie, despite what she had just tried to do. It was bad, and she deserved punishment, but it didn’t warrant a death sentence.

Probably. If I heard about her doing it again, that would be a different story altogether. I wasn’t proud of my body count, but I wouldn’t hesitate to add another tally to the total.

“Mira…”

I glanced at Jo, who looked understandably horrified. She’d wanted to take me somewhere fun, and it had ended with me pointing a gun at one of the first people I saw. Her reaction, more than anything, showed me just how different my life had become. For me, my actions were a perfectly natural response to what Trixie had tried to do. For her, it was something decidedly different. Perhaps she recognized it as necessary, but there was a good chance that she would only see the violence.

“I’m leaving now,” I said, casting a challenging glare at the closest of The Admiral’s mooks. “You want to figure this out, we can do it outside where nobody that doesn’t deserve it will get hurt.”

With that, I turned on my heel and left. With Observation, I could hear the three would-be attackers shifting from foot to foot. I could smell the urine soaking Trixie’s ridiculous shorts. And I could feel the tremor of Jo’s footsteps as she followed me to the stairwell.

I didn’t stop until we’d reached the bottom floor of the old hotel. When I did, I turned to Jo and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t…I didn’t want to do that. You understand that, right? I wasn’t trying to –”

“Stop,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. The excitement of the encounter had clearly overwhelmed her. She sniffed. “Just stop, Mira. I get why you did it.”

“What? Really? You’re not going to tell me off?” I asked.

She narrowed her eyes. “That woman tried to mind-rape you,” she said. “And I’m sure you’re not the first. Never mind that she’s, like, old, and she shouldn’t be even looking at us like that…”

“I didn’t expect you to understand,” I said.

“We’re friends, Mira,” Jo said. “I trust your judgment. I mean…I didn’t expect you to whip out a freaking hand cannon or anything, but…I get it. I do. So, let’s just…I don’t know…let’s go do something else and pretend this didn’t happen.”

Even as we spoke, I could hear a dozen pairs of feet pounding against the stairs behind us. We moved away, and when I looked back, I saw that most of the place’s customers were leaving. Clearly, my actions had shown a light on the bouncer’s predatory actions. Or maybe they were just scared. Either way, I felt certain that I’d just angered another of the town’s factions.

Were they a gang, like the Tigers? Or just a group of people who were filling a void in the town’s entertainment offerings for young people? I didn’t know, but I had a feeling I would eventually find out.

“C’mon. Let’s go,” I said. “We’ll figure out something to do as we go.”

“Sounds good,” she said.

For the rest of the day, we just wandered around town, and Jo continued to show me the sights. An old cannon from some long-forgotten war. An overgrown park blooming with flowers she called azaleas. A decaying and decrepit house, with huge, white columns and a stately look to it. On and on it went, well into the night until we ended up sitting on a concrete wall overlooking the river.

“Are you going to leave when you finish your training?” she asked, her feet dangling over the edge. We were high enough that it was mostly safe, and I was keeping an eye on the water. I trusted my Observation ability to let me know if anything big or dangerous was cutting through the water.

“I…I don’t know,” I admitted. I had always assumed I was going back to Nova City, but was that really necessary? One place was as good as any other, if I was to believe my uncle’s predictions about the upcoming Integration. So, what if I did stay in Mobile? Would that be so bad? At least there, I could have a friend. I was sure that wouldn’t always be the case, if I chose to travel. “What about you? Do you want to stay here?”

“It’s all I’ve ever known.”

“I know, but let’s say you could go wherever you wanted,” I said. “No restrictions. You could just go. What would you do? Where would you go?”

She sighed. “Well, there’s this place,” she said. “I’ve only heard about it once, and not from a reliable source. But it’s this town out west, in the mountains. The person who told me about it said that’s where they came from. Him and the man he was with.”

“What’s special about this mountain town?” I asked. I’d never even seen a mountain, save in a few movies.

“Well, it’s protected by this really strong warrior,” she said. “The way Stuart – that was his name – described it, it was a paradise. Nobody wanted for anything. But they were completely modern, too. As modern as any of the megacities. And Stuart would know, too. He’d been to Nova and Atlanta and a few others, too. I’d go there.”

“Sounds too good to be true,” I said. “What happened to this Stuart? To the guy he was with?”

“They…they left,” she said. “It was about two years ago. They were headed south, down to this place called Miami. The way he talked about it, it wasn’t a megacity, but it was supposed to be a big deal. I asked my mom and dad about it, but they’d never heard of it either.”

“Maybe they’ll come back,” I suggested.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” she said. “And when they do, I’m going to ask them to take me with them. Maybe you can do the same.”

“Maybe,” I said, looking out at the seemingly placid water. “Maybe.”