"Should we get her equipment right away?" I asked bluntly. Ura looked at me and shook her head.
"No, I do not need to go on such a trip, but where did you get your Clothes, Meemee?" Ura asked, and I looked at her closely.
Meemee looked lithe and in shape, but now I could see that she was skinnier than she should be, and her B-cup breasts might be because of malnutrition. Her clothing was still a smart blouse and suit pants, but as I looked closer, they were old. You could see the wear on the hems, and they did not look futuristic at all.
Meemee [blushed on her white skin, and she looked away. "I- I found them in a bin outside a rich person's house a couple of days ago. The only thing of real value I have been able to keep is my comm, so I would have a chance to leave after Manpower kicked me out of their doors till I got an interview."
"Do you think someone might have paid for her to be put at the bottom of the barrel?" I asked Ura. Ura looked at me, and she looked surprised.
"What?" Meemee asked.
"Oh, I am just wondering if you have any enemies?" I said carefully. "While at Manpower, we learned that you can purchase someone to be the bottom of the pile if someone has enough credits. So, unless someone like us, who are looking for the not-so-great candidates who are a bit more desperate, comes looking, you will never come up in a search for better companies." I told her bluntly, and she looked at me, stupefied.
Meemee looked so cute with her little mouth open and her big ears poked up, and they were larger than I thought. Then her expression twisted to something much less cute, and I could see the pure hate on her face. "BLAKE!" She snapped, "Only fucking Blake would do this to me!" She suddenly snapped, looked furious, and turned to me. "I- I-I am going to kill him," She said, looking into our eyes, and something told me this was a promise to herself.
"Hey, Meemee," I said, gathering her attention. "Who is Blake?" I asked.
"A fellow competitor in the Drone program with me. A rich kid who came in second place. I was so jealous as he got put into the Top Bounty outfit on Planet the Blue Bladers. They are local celebrities with their own TV show, and I have seen him a couple of times, AND HE WAS THE ONE WHO DID THIS!" She snapped again, the pure fury coming back, and I snapped my fingers.
The sudden sound made her look at me in surprise again, as it was completely out of left field for her to hear me snap.
"Hey, Meemee, I can tell you hate this, Blake, but right now, we are in an AI car, and it is not a good time to think about such things. We are going to your place and then back to our ship, before I think you and I will go out and buy some basic equipment. Enyo, myself, and a girl named Emma will be going bounty hunting for a couple of planets, so we need to gear you up. So we can do that today. I have an appointment with Ura afterward, and then we will be leaving the planet. Are you okay with that?" I asked.
"Yes, I don't even know if my stuff will be there," Meemee admitted, and the AI car suddenly came to a stop. "We are here," Meemee said slowly, and I could see her bracing herself. She opened the door, and a proud smile crossed her face. When she stepped out, I noticed we were at one of the worst buildings I have seen in the city. Graffiti was all over, and we were tucked in the middle of eight pristine skyscrapers. This tower, though, looked like it might fall down soon if someone did not do maintenance on it.
"We are here?" I asked, curious.
"Have you never been to a tier one ghetto?" Meemee asked, and I looked at myself and shrugged. I pulled my shotgun out and walked behind her. Ura followed us, and I turned to the car. "Stay," I ordered.
Then we went into this massive liability for the city, and I could instantly tell that Meemee was familiar with the place. Some of the men around the front were of various species. I was unsure of the species, as it looked like a cockroach that learned to walk on two feet and was about the size of a dwarf. An urge to stomp on this person if it was a person and not just the fucking size of the cockroaches on this planet was massive.
"Meemee, you bringing some more ass back for us to enjoy. We enjoyed your other friends; Frank was expecting you to bring back some others soon." One of the men said suddenly. I turned to a bony green man who looked malnourished.
"I will see Frank later, Carter. These two are more than Frank can handle," Meemee said, her voice low.
The man chuckled, "Oh, the blue girl is going to be good."
—--
Quest Alert: Deal with Meemee's Recent Past
Meemee seems to have had serious issues surviving without drones for the last two years. To survive, she might have done some things she is not proud of to keep her life. Now, the people she used to keep alive don't want her to leave with you.
Deal with Meemee's recent past to complete this Quest.
Reward: ???
Consequences of Failure: Meemee will not leave Planet or Die.
—---
Stepping deeper into the ghetto building, she walked us over to a set of stairs and started to climb. I noticed a human woman with semen between her legs and a needle in her arm blissed out on the stairway, and I winced. This was no nice place. I could see that the drug might be something that we deliver things like this. I could not help but think that Meemee might not be as clean as I thought she was before. The innocence might be a facade or, better yet, true but pragmatic, regardless. She might not care about getting her hands dirty as long as she survives.
As we went up the stairs, we found more and more disgusting spaces up until we reached the twentieth floor, which had Ura a little tired. She was holding her own, but I could tell she was unused to twenty flights of stairs. I was feeling it a bit, and the armor was not helping. "This is the floor my stuff is on," Meemee said. I looked around and saw the trash and filth all around, and we entered the floor. I heard some kids crying in the distance and a woman screaming. Meemee walked forward with a hard expression, and I could tell that something about this place set her on edge. I turned and felt something to my left as we were about to go through a four-way hallway.
I reached out and moved with my shotgun and grabbed the hand, wielding a knife, coming for my unprotected head. I shoved the barrel of my shotgun into the person, and I heard them cough. I looked at the Lanky junkie with blue skin and four arms, and my eyes widened as I saw the second knife. The barrel of my gun winded him; otherwise, he would have stabbed me by now. I pulled the trigger as I flattened my ears, and a shotgun slug ripped a massive hole in his stomach and sent him flying.
Screams erupted, and I turned and pumped the gun to load the next round, then manually loaded another shotgun slug instead of a normal round. Keep a breaching shot for the first bullet. Both Ura and Meemee were looking at me, surprised by the sudden violence, and I shrugged. "He tried to stab me; let's move on," I said to both their stares. Meemee sighed, obviously in response.
"Fuck we are going to have to deal with Frank now; come on, let's move to grab my things," Meemee said, and I nodded.
We reached a graffiti-covered door that looked like if you used a wipe on it, the wipe would come off pure black and be ripped apart. It just looked so filthy. Meemee instead pounded on the door loudly without restraint. "DORTHY~! DORTHY~! OPEN THE FUCK UP, OR I AM GOING TO HAVE MY FRIEND BLAST THIS FUCKING DOOR OPEN~!" She yelled, and my initial thoughts of this girl were gone.
A moment later, a woman opened the door and looked exactly like Meemee, just older. Meemee pushed open the door, and the woman instantly looked pissed. "Fuck you, Meemee, Mom will not let you off for yelling at me like that!" She yelled at Meemee, and my eyes widened.
"Bosses, Meet my twin sister, Dorthy," Meemee said, "I don't give a fuck about her, and she is a worthless stain on society."
"Meemee, fuck you, I am just between jobs; I am going to get one just after-" Dorthy began.
"What? Just after what?" Meemee asked suddenly, "I have been feeding you the extra fucking trash I find while scavaging! But I am done, you and Mom can fuck off, I am leaving the planet. Good luck; I am grabbing my things and leaving," Meemee said, and Dorthy paled.
"You're leaving us?!" Dorthy said slowly.
Meemee walked into another room, and I saw Dorthy go from shocked to pissed slowly. Then she ran into what I guessed was the kitchen, and she grabbed a Kitchen knife that looked filthy with dirty water dripping from it. She ran toward where Meemee went.
"Follow me," I barked at Ura, and I moved quickly, following the Crazy woman, and came in just as the screaming started. I came into a mess of a room with parts all over the place and trash with Meemee on a dirty bed, and I swore some bugs on it, and Dorthy being pushed away as she tried to stab Meemee. I moved forward and kicked Dorthy off Meemee, sending her off Meemee and crashing into the wall. She coughed.
"FUCK~!" She cried out, and I walked over and put the barrel of my shotgun in her mouth, and she froze.
"Dorthy, is it?" I asked slowly.
She nodded slowly.
"Are you going to calm down?" I asked.
She looked at Meemee and then at me. "That's right, I am a bounty hunter now bitch. Not just another fucking gangbanger or junkie like you and mom. I am getting off this fucking planet. I kept my fucking nose clean enough to make it out of here, you stupid Bitch." Meemee shouted at her sister, and something told me that this was an accumulation of a lot of arguments.
Meemee got up and kicked the bed hard. "I am fucking done living on bug-infested beds that we can't afford to get rid of. I am fucking sick of living in trash cans and that dumpsters. I would rather be fucking dead in a ditch killing some fucking Blue Dream junkie than here anymore. I am taking my fucking shit and going, and you can fucking tell Mom that too," Meemee shouted, and her sister glared at her with the barrel of my shotgun in her mouth.
"Well, that is that," I said. Ura, help her with her stuff," I said, and Ura looked grossed out by the living conditions. I could tell that Ura was holding herself back from puking. "Never mind, just wait, and we can go." I quickly changed, and she nodded.
Meemee grabbed some parts and a computer before quickly packing it all into a black bag. I said, "Okay, we are grabbing you new shit, and we are decontaminating you before you are in our spaceship," I announced, and she nodded.
"That works for me," Meemee said. I am done; I have what I need."
"Let's go," I said, pulling the shotgun from her sister's mouth, and she glared at me unceasingly.
"Frank is going to be pissed, Meemee," Dorthy shouted.
"That's for me to worry about," Meemee replied, and we walked out of the trashy room.
"I am just going to say, Meemee, if you are living with us, that room condition will not happen," Ura said.
"Understood," Meemee said, but I saw her smiling for that.
Walking back toward the stairs, we just about reached the door when I stopped us. I could see someone out of sight at the door frame, but the corner of the sleeve was visible. "Come out with your hands up before I blast a hole through the wall to kill you," I snapped.
"Oh, we have a feisty one here, Meemee. I was told you brought a couple of fresh ones, Meemee." A Blue man with four arms stood. Two were up in the air, while the other two were crossed, and one hand was clearly holding onto something like a pistol. I smiled and held my shotgun at him.
"I am leaving Frank," Meemee said, but the blue man was not happy. I could see his confident smile slowly turn to a frown.
"Fuck no, you aren't. You the only fucking nonjunkie muscle I have around here, Meemee," Frank said, and I chuckled.
"Frank," I said, gathering his attention, and he glared at me. "You think I won't just kill you right here right now without a care?" I asked bluntly.
"Of fucking course you wouldn't!" Frank snapped as I pulled out my tablet from behind and quickly snapped a photo while still holding my shotgun toward him. "What the fuck was that for?" Frank sneered.
—
Bounty: Frank (Last name Unknown)
Race: Belevolen
Crimes: Assault, Sexual Assault, Murder, Drug dealing, Rape
Federation Bounty: 9500 Federation Credits
Wanted Dead or Alive
Note: This man is believed to be the head of a small gang in the ghettos and is considered dangerous, with multiple loyal followers
Proceed with Caution
—
"Oh, good, you are a bounty, Frank, so I can kill you right here right now. There is nothing the government will do but give me money for putting a slug in your head to replace your lack of brain.
Frank chuckled and stepped forward a little, and six men came out from the stairwell and stepped up behind him with smug expressions. Each was blue and had four arms. They were all dressed in step-above rags, but they all had handguns.
None of them were pointed at me, though.
"How do you want to handle this, Meemee?" I asked bluntly, much to Frank's surprise.
"I don't want you getting hurt, but I can stay in this life any longer," Meemee said, and Frank looked pissed.
"Okay~!" I exclaimed, and I pulled the trigger.
Frank was left speechless as he never thought, for some reason, that I was going to pull the trigger. A large chunk was blasted out of his body, and he went down quickly. I was already pumping the next shell in, and his 'gang members' looked at him uncomprehendingly. Then I pulled the trigger into the group of them again and again. Buckshot ripped into the group as I released the entire clip in less than thirty seconds, and all the men he showed here were dead.
I quickly swapped to my backup shotgun, moved forward, and cleared the immediate stairs as I heard shouting in the distance. I pulled back my sawed-off and started to reload my shotgun first with a slug, then buck rounds. I turned to the two ladies beside me, and Meemee looked shocked.
"Come on, we need to get moving just in case. We might meet more trouble downstairs. We need to move before everyone realizes the dumbshit is dead," I told them, and I started to take a point, and I pulled down my visor to cover my face. Both Ura and Meemee moved behind me, and I started to move down the stairs, floor by floor, and check the corners.
What happened now, though, was there were barely any junkies on the way down. One saw me and lunged for my shotgun, which he permanently found out was stupid. We were down ten floors before I heard more and more movement from above.
"Fuck~!" Meemee cursed, "We need to go; Zack probably heard something and brought the rest of the gang. We are about to get flooded from above!"
I put my shotgun on my back, pulled out my sawed-off shotgun, and looked at Meemee, "We are moving faster than. Come on," I said, grabbing Ura and throwing her over my shoulder. Then, I started to go downstairs three or four at a time. I started to move as fast as I could without restraint,
It took half the time to get down the rest of the floors to the first floor, and Meemee was hurrying to run after me. I stopped and saw a couple of guys with guns as I peeked into the corner. I put Ura down, and I heard the first shot fired from the other side. "Fuck, they caught us~!" Meemee shouted.
Ura quickly got her footing, and I stepped out with my shotgun raised and leaped to the side as they started to shoot, and I did the same. The First one got blasted by my slug, and I pumped in a new round and unloaded at them.
The first one erupted into pieces, and instantly, one of the men turned to run as brain matter blasted all over his blue face. A moment later, they all stopped shooting as they lay dead on the ground, and I cursed as a leg plate of my armor was dinged from one of their guns.
"Come on," I snapped, and I pulled Ura with me. Meemee started to follow.
We exited the building by stepping over the gang's corpses. Meemee looked shocked, and the AI cab was still there. I got us to it, shoved Ura in, and Meemee followed. "MOVE to the space Port NOW RUN!" I shouted at the AI.
"Emergency mode activated. Gunfire detected, Speeding enabled, To the Spaceport."
The AI car started to speed off, and I turned to Meemee, "What the fuck was that~!" I shouted, my adrenaline pumping.
Meemee looked ashamed, "Don't fire me, please," She begged.
"WHY THE FUCK WOULD I DO THAT! NOW TELL ME WHAT WAS THAT!" I shouted.
—--
Quest Completed, Deal with Meemee's Recent Past
Meemee seems to have had serious issues surviving without drones for the last two years. To survive, she might have done some things she is not proud of to keep her life. Now, the people she used to keep alive don't want her to leave with you.
Deal with Meemee's recent past to complete this Quest.
Reward: Increased Loyalty from Meemee
—---
I looked at the notification, and it suddenly pinged. I sighed and got a second one, followed by a third.
—--
New Trait Unlocked: Yes, I will shoot first
In a Standoff and outnumbered, shoot first and win.
—---
—----
New Trait Unlocked: Friendly Boss
Help a Subordinate in a personal quest.
—--
The Sudden dings cut into my adrenaline, and I sighed, leaned back, and got out of Meemee's face. "Sorry," Meemee said. I just wanted to get my Drone stuff and go."
"What drone stuff?" I asked.
"When using drones, you can customize settings for your flights, but it takes time to get it exactly right. When I was in class, I got all my settings to what I liked at the time, and this holds all those setting changes to make things work for me, including my brain patterns and various other junk information, and what it should filter out. It saves me months of tweaking and fixing." Meemee stated with a blush, and I sighed.
"AI car, reroute to the Bounty Office. You can turn off emergency mode."
The AI car stated, "The authorities will be advised of this and will meet you at your new destination."
I sighed before saying, "Thanks!" sarcastically.
"It is our job to provide the best services. Please leave a review, " the AI car replied. I sighed and turned to Ura.
"Well, I guess we're not done with interviews today," I said bluntly. Ura laughed charmingly, and Meemee looked at us both with a questioning face.
-----
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