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Maxi gutted the feral copy machine with her +10 Longsword of Grutomaton Slaying. Acquiring it had set her credit balance back down to near zero, but she figured that if she was going to make some headway on finding this Printer of Never Jamming, and maybe even learn what had happened to her dad, she needed a weapon that would dispatch any appliances in her path.
She glanced at the copy machines around her. They were in an office that had been torn apart by the creatures, as an entire floor of electronics seemed to have caught the virus at the same time. The entire place went bonkers, at least according to Von Patrick in IT who wanted to collect grutomaton parts for “PRINTER OF NEVER JAMMING IV.”
She counted the copy machines and said, “I got seven.”
Daisuke, a little ways away, with a gnarly scar around his neck, grinned at her. “Ten here.”
“Show off.”
“Shame they didn’t kill you,” Daisuke said in a teasing voice.
Patti was healing Flav, who was bleeding from his head. He rubbed his wound, and she swatted him away. “Why do I always have to take the brunt of the attacks?” he lamented.
“What can I say?” Maxi replied. “You’re the meat shield, but you’re a damn good one at that.”
“I don’t get paid enough for this,” Flav said.
“You don’t get paid at all,” Maxi said. “All our profits—”
“Go back into the fund. I know. I know.”
Belinda and Farhad strolled around the corner with a grutomaton inkjet in tow. The creature growled and hissed. Belinda was dragging it forward with what could only be described as an electric collar attached to a leash. It snarled and went for Maxi, and Farhad hit a button on the keyboard attached to his backpack laptop.
The collar lit up and shocked the thing. It yelped and growled.
“It worked,” Maxi said. “Though it seems kind of cruel.”
“The grutomatons can’t be domesticated,” Terry said in her Bluetooth earbud. Maxi wasn’t big on a craniotomy, and she looked good in glasses. “You can subdue them for a time and use them as an attack beast, but eventually the virus makes them highly aggressive, much like rabies. It’s how the virus propagates.”
“Yeah,” Maxi said, “I know. Still, maybe we can look for a less shocky way.”
Belinda giggled, clapped, and meowed a few times. She attempted to nuzzle up against Maxi like a cat looking for cuddles, but Maxi held her back.
“Hey, Belinda, we talked about this. There are certain things that are completely cool for cats, but not for humans.”
“I know,” Belinda purred. “But you’re so nice.”
The killer copy machine growled, and Farhad had to shock it again.
“You two better get back to IT,” Maxi said. “We’ll loot the bodies.”
Farhad and Belinda dragged the creature back toward the elevator in another part of the building. Patti helped Flav to his feet and followed them back.
“They find Yancy yet?” Daisuke asked as he kicked through the debris with her, searching for anything valuable.
“No, but he’s still on this planet. Unless he has a spaceship in orbit or something.”
“This isn’t Dr. Who.”
It had taken all the Power Twelve to fight Yancy alone. Even with the buffs, Daisuke had never stood a chance. The kid had been toying with them all this time. Though in hindsight, this same kid seemed to revel in letting others believe they had a fighting chance before gutting them.
The battle from the Power Twelve had trashed the server room, nearly deleting Terry in the process, as he had transferred his core programming there to maintain the containment of all the suspects. The judiciary system had gotten through most of the people they had trapped, clearing most of them, including all the Power Twelve on the list.
Still, the sheer number who were throwing the last raid really had put the Company at risk, despite the Power Twelve not being in the mix. During the investigation, the Company discovered a few of their employees were also sabotaging their coworkers, causing them to do less damage during the raid.
It was hard to untangle who was the mastermind of the operation because an email chain had been discovered that was promising the foolhardy they would be a Power Twelve in an alternate dimension if they threw the raid. The Company had been lenient on the morons who were just drawn in by the rhetoric and the fervor. Most of them were just demoted or booted to a Tier where they would find it more motivating to do their part in the raid.
The few who were caught actively sabotaging their coworkers and recruiting people into the conspiracy were terminated, as per Company policy, though Sledge’s lieutenant was given the chance for clemency in the Arena with a no-rules death match against Sledge. It was a spectacular fight but didn’t end well for the guy who had attempted to eliminate the majority of his coworkers.
The ones who had escaped during the battle between Yancy and the Power Twelve all had bounties placed on their heads, including Benson, the Customer Care Advocate who had seemed to be nice to Maxi at the time. It just went to show she never really knew some people. At least until they had her back during her efforts to clear her name.
While the charges against her were dropped, and since all the people they had killed were resurrectable, the Company didn’t punish them for their actions, but they hadn’t exactly thrown them a parade either. Terry’s restrictions were put back in place, and a team was delegated to reevaluate their policy on AI. For Maxi, it was about as much of a win as she was going to get from the place.
As for her uncle, he was placed on administrative leave, which meant the Company paid for his off time, the lucky turd basket. While he was too shaken up to give much information about what Yancy was, it was clear the so-called kid represented something truly ominous. Yancy may have not been directly responsible for the death of her homeworld, but there was no doubt he was connected to it.
Which brought Maxi to her new quest.
NEW QUEST (ONGOING): “END OF THE WORLD PART I.”
GOAL: Don’t let the void swallow the world.
TIME LIMIT: Unknown.
ALLY LIMIT: Unlimited.
REWARD: Unknown.
FAILURE: The Destruction of Earth.