Chapter 360
I tiredly sat in the chair of my workbench. It was… four in the morning? I didn’t sleep very well. Mira kept rubbing her face into my fur and biting my ears. Dunno what kind of dream she was having, but eventually I had enough and slipped out of her arms. Seriously, it was like it completely slipped her mind that my ears were super sensitive when I was like that.
Which brought me here, to my speakeasy. I had stuff I needed to do, and I couldn’t just fall back asleep. Time was short, and felt like it was growing even shorter.
I picked up the graphene nanocoils I bought from the Constellation Night Market. They were a core component in finishing up the Knight’s Roughrider. Not the vehicle itself, but she specially requested I put on some kind of non-lethal cannon.
Now, a beanbag gun was the obvious choice. They’d be easy to make, easier to get ammo for, and wouldn’t require much maintenance to run. Not to mention it’d be a traditional projectile firearm. Everyone and their dog knew how to use one these days.
Beanbag guns were boring though. Not nearly enough of a challenge to make, not to mention they had their own drawbacks. Weight and ammo were the main ones. The Gravitic chambers built into the Roughrider took care of weight, but I’d still have to rebuild the chassis to fit a bunch of ammo.
I wanted to make something different. Specifically, I wanted a tesla or shock cannon of some kind. It’d hit about as hard as a taser, so it wouldn’t fry someone. It would, however, stun and disrupt. At least, as long as the protections for it were enabled.
I’d been busy getting stuff ready to go the last several times I dropped by my speakeasy, so I already had all the parts and basic design set up.
Basically, it worked around a central coil and a specialty high-powered laser. Electricity flowed through the path of least resistance. If I fired off a cannon with just the graphene coils and stuff, it would be strong, but it’d also be undirected and slam into the closest object… usually the one operating it. That, obviously, wasn’t great for a weapon.
That’s where the laser came in. The entire cannon worked around a one-two punch. The ‘one’ was the specialty laser creating a plasma path of ionized air. It incorporated a brief electromagnetic emission to hold the ionized path steady for a moment. The ‘two’ was the actual burst of electricity that’d then follow said ionized path. It basically worked off the same idea behind my improved kinetic abilities.
The laser itself barely took any time to put together. It required some special materials, all of which were taken care of by trading in fire crystals with Transmutation. After I finished it, and while I was waiting for a broken part to finish reprinting, my eyes snagged on a rykon crystal sitting around from the last Blinder module I slapped together.
Should I make some kind of directed radiation weapon? It… it probably wouldn’t be that hard? The hardest part would be ensuring I didn’t cook myself with it, but actually getting one to work wouldn’t be that bad. Could be cool?
I tossed it onto my Shiro’s Fel Creations list that I might eventually get around to. Honestly, it wouldn’t be super useful. Like, I couldn’t think of any actual use cases outside of maybe against some kind of regenerative creature to give it cancer. It’d be one of those things that I made just because I thought it would be fun to make.
Anyway, back to my arc cannon. I modified a design and parts from a coil gun, and eventually got the firing mechanism set up. This was a big gun designed to be mounted on a vehicle, though. I didn’t have to hold back due to weight or concealment concerns like I usually did. I was free to make it as juiced as I wanted to.
Before doing anything further, I made a temporary frame for the weapon and hooked up a power armor power cell to it. The power cell connected directly to a high-capacity capacitor array that’d store the electricity till it was ready to be fired off. Then the trigger assembly was as simple as linking the capacitor and nano coils.
Down in my firing range, I worked with the weapon over the course of an hour trying to get the timing right. The timing for the laser and then the discharge couldn’t be too slow or natural air instability would cause my ionized path to disrupt. Too fast, though, and the electric arc itself would grow unstable. I ended up hitting myself more than the target with it, which was… heart-warming, I guess.
Once I got it right, I headed back up and disassembled the entire thing. I shifted my design principle slightly and made eight more charging barrels as well as a rotary device. The barrels would rotate, and when they hit the perfect point, the circuit would complete itself and discharge a shot. Then it’d rotate and the next one would fire. By the time it got back around, the capacitors would be fully charged for another shot.
It was probably unneeded, but it did increase my rate of fire, sounded intimidating as hell when it spun, and helped manage overheat issues. The rest of the overheating issues could be taken care of by building it around the thermoelectric engine in my bike to take advantage of AE3’s cold properties.
The rotary arc cannon had its own problem that I slowly worked through. Just as I was doing my final tests—
“Where’d you go, Shiro?” Mira sleepily called out through the pack heart link.
I dropped what I was doing and wiped sweat off my brow. “Uh—I went for breakfast. I’ll bring back donuts in a bit.”
”Really?” She yawned and her voice grew weaker. “Mmm… bring some coffee too. Wake me up when you get back.”
“‘Course, mikata.” I wiped my hands off and cleaned up my stuff. The cannon itself was ready. Or, about as ready as it could be. I’d need to test it some more once I actually incorporate it into a flyer, but other than that it was solid.
That’d be for another time. I left my speakeasy behind and headed back for my Roughrider parked nearby.
— - —
Mira sipped at her coffee and leaned forward on the bike to wrap her arm tighter around Shiro’s waist. They weren’t even going that fast, but it helped her to feel just a little more grounded. She’d been feeling… off, lately. The pills they just got from Nael’s would hopefully help with that.
Snow drifted down from the neon-lit sky up above. It melted on the streets of Aythryn City almost as soon as it touched down. Traffic crawled along the streets with red streaks of break lights and the reflections of ads above. The hover bike repeatedly ground to halts and followed the flow of traffic.
It would’ve been faster to fly. Everyone knew flying above traffic was quicker than going through it. Shiro knew that. And yet here they were, on the street level, flowing behind terrestrial vehicles.
Mira saw through her bestie’s intention as at a glance, ‘course. By driving on the roads instead of through the sky, they could get stuck in traffic and miss the appointment. It’d be such a shame if that happened.
Even now, it was 9:21. They were almost there, but it’d be just too late to arrive. Unfortunately, Shiro was a thousand years too early to face off against something she’d meticulously thought about again and again for weeks. Her five minds weren’t just for nothing. The appointment was actually for 9:30.
Cold air slipped around them, making her skin feel unbearably tight. She barely managed to resist scratching where the chrome met her flesh. Her instincts practically screamed to rip and tear into the metal that shouldn’t have been—it was uncomfortable. Right, it was just a little uncomfortable. The medicine would kick in any time now. Mira took a breath and squeezed her eyes shut. Any time now.
”Are we there yet?” Mira asked. Her voice was deliberately light as she snuggled deeper into her poncho. It was probably one of the best gifts she’d received from Shiro.
Shiro huffed heavily and glanced over her shoulder. The silver streaks in her hair caught the light of a passing vehicle and shined brilliantly. “Are you a little kid?”
”You just now realizing that?” She snickered and snuggled up closer to that sweet warmth.
“Ugh.” Shiro sighed. Irritation tugged at her voice as she twitched around. “Almost.”
And, indeed, they were. The parking garage loomed just ahead. It was a concrete prison that made Mira deeply uncomfortable, though she kept it to herself. Her bestie had enough worries without having to think about her paranoia and newfound claustrophobia when it came to concrete boxes.
Shiro guided the bike inside and set it down onto its landing gear with practiced ease. “Here.”
“Finally!” Mira hopped off and stretched out. Her joints popped softly, and the metal bracketing and entwined into her bones creaked obnoxiously. She felt… better than usual. Still not nova, but better. She hadn’t woken up tangled in streets and choking for breath, nor had she clawed her way back to consciousness several times throughout the night with her heart hammering in her ribs.
Sleeping next to Shiro helped. She wasn’t quite sure what it was. Maybe Fox Shiro was just too cute for the fear to reach her? Or maybe it was that Perk of hers, Lethargic Presence? Or it could be something as simple as feeling safe around her. It didn’t really matter.
The girl in question hopped off the bike and circled around to the saddlebag. Mira stepped closer and gently closed her hands over Shiro’s, stopping her just shy of pulling out her rifle. “Do you really need that? We’re in the Corporate Quarter.”
”I always need it.” The girl’s mismatched eyes twitched. Both were bloodshot and tinged with a half-feral vibe. She said she went for donuts and coffee, but she looked like she’d been awake for hours already.
“Shiro…” Mira didn’t argue. It wasn’t a fight she could win head on. She just waited and tried to keep her expression as neutral as possible.
After a moment, the other girl exhaled sharply and slid the rifle back into the bag. Her hands lingered on the rifle longer than necessary before she pulled away. “Fine. Happy?”
”Perfectly! Thanks bestie!” Even though she knew for a fact her friend was loaded with more weapons than an armory scattered across her body, at least she put the rifle away. Mira squeezed her hand lightly before letting go. “Didn’t sleep well?”
”’Course I did.” Shiro brushed a silver strand out of her hair. The curtain bang fell back into place immediately after, perfectly framing her face. Her expression twisted into a small pout she likely didn’t realize she was making. “I alwayssleep well.”
Mira hid her smile behind another sip of coffee. “Sure you do.”
”What’s that supposed to mean?” The adorable pout turned into a sharp glare. The feral, predatory tinge of her eyes returned with full force.
”Nothing, nothing…”
They walked the short distance toward the building. The closer they went, the quieter Shiro got. By the time they stepped into the elevator, she was practically vibrating with barely restrained energy. Her fingers fidgeted, and electricity sparked off her shoes more than a couple times.
The elevator chimed. The elevators slid open. Mira stepped out—and then stopped just at the lip. She turned back and placed a hand on Shiro’s shoulder, causing the frazzled girl to focus. “Hey.”
Shiro blinked and her shoulders tightened. “What?”
Mira searched her face and really looked at Shiro with all five of her thought processes focused. She didn’t have her usual uncaring mask on. The confidence of a thief she wore like armor vanished. There was just the girl underneath—tired, scared, more stubborn than a mule, and trying way too hard not to show any of it.
”If you don’t want to do this,” Mira’s voice came out softly, “you don’t have to.”
”Really?” Hope flared brightly in her eyes, and the almost predatory tension that usually clung to her pupils easer. Her entire expression lit up into a cute, sickeningly sweet look like she was someone entirely different. It made Mira’s chest ache like she tricked some poor child into getting in a van. “Wh-what about you?”
“I’ll still go.” Mira didn’t even hesitate. “The Crusade’s specialists can help… I was gonna do that anyway.”
That part was true. She’d decided that weeks ago, back when she’d kept waking up shaking so badly she couldn’t hold a glass of water. Back when she realized functional didn’t equal fine. Although she used to be able to ignore that, it was hard to keep logic out when at least one of her processors always thought logically. Their little deal had just been the last push she needed to actually go.
Counseling only worked if the person actually wanted help. Mira believed that whole heartedly. It’d be a waste of time and money otherwise. Likewise, dragging Shiro in kicking and screaming wouldn’t fix anything. It might even make it worse.
So, Mira hadn’t dragged—at least, not much. She walked in companionship instead. She waited and watched full of hope until this exact moment when Shiro needed to make the final decision herself. What was that saying? You could lead a camel to water, but you couldn’t force it to drink. Her bestie was far more stubborn than a camel.
Shrio stared at the floor with her jaw clenched. Mira should see the thoughts spinning through that pretty little head of hers. The promises made, time already spent, and effort to get here all fueled her calculations. She wasn’t just careful about coming to the decision—she was downright paralyzed by her thoughts.
”I—I’ll go,” Shiro said without even lifting her head. “W-we’re already here, anyway.”
The Sunk Cost Fallacy wasn’t something Mira particularly wanted to weaponize. It was just—it was there. It was always there. She’d long known Shiro was particularly weak to it. If it helped her come to the decision to actively want to get help, then so be it.
Mira let out a heavy breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Triumph didn’t surge through her. It wasn’t satisfying either. Something closer to… relief, almost.
”Okay.” Mira squeezed Shiro’s shoulder lightly. “Okay, I’ll be right here when you’re done.”
”Chek…” Shiro smiled. It was small and unsteady. Vulnerable in a way she almost never let herself be. And yet that small, frail smile lit up her entire face. “Th-thank you. For being with me.”
”’Course.” Mira ruffled her hair and dodged the reflexive swipe that followed. “You’re stuck with me.”
“Don’t remind me.” Shiro rolled her mismatched eyes and entered the office.
Mira turned toward the waiting area and sunk into a plush chair. She cradled her cup of coffee between her hands, and let the warmth sink into her bones and the bits of metal tunneled under her skin.
Her reflection stared back at her from a nearby window. Tired eyes looked back with a tight smile. The halo bobbing over her head pulsed with light. And then there was the weight that always seemed to press down on her. The smile faded into a broken, distorted expression she couldn’t quite name—rather, she didn’t want to name.
Mira did feel bad. It was impossible not to. After the argument last night… She analyzed all her actions. If her chrome was good for anything, it was over analyzing. She hated the idea of being someone controlling. Trying to control wouldn’t work with Shiro, anyway. The stubborn mule would just dig her heels in and resist with all her strength.
She’d watched Shiro burn for too long, though. It was only a matter of time til she crashed. Watching her push pain aside like it was nothing and flinch away from help like it was a trap… it left Mira feeling sour every time.
She wasn’t trying to be controlling. She just wanted to keep her little sis alive. Sometimes being the older sister didn’t mean giving advice or silently supporting from behind. Sometimes it meant she needed to block the door and say, I know you’re scared and hurting, but you don’t get to disappear on me.
Mira stared at the steam curling away from her coffee. It blurred her vision slightly, and the reflection on the window broke. A weak, quiet laugh left her. “Tough love, huh?”
She hoped—really hoped—that it was actually love and not just selfish fear wearing a kinder mask.
— — —
AN: This is one of my favorite chapters. There’s very few arcs and chapters that I look back on and think, yeah, I really liked that. I think it’s a vibe thing, maybe? I dunno, but this one is up there alongside the Dark Zone arc in Myth//OS. What’d you guys think?