-
08 – Disrupted Perfection
Curt opened his eyes, rolled over, and looked to the phone on his bedside table and grinned at the perfect timing. One minute before his alarm was due to go off – that meant his meds had worked exactly right. The latest formulation that Two had come up with was working well. There were still nightmares, but not always – and importantly, he was able to wake up, rested, and ready to face the world as “Recruit Curt” again. He grabbed his phone as the first vibration started, and killed the alarm. As the screen went black, the room went back to semi-darkness, lit only by the lights of the…
-
04 – Status Quo
Curt winced as the clipboard came down on his head. ‘Who the fuck taught you first aid?’ Parker-2 asked, apparently aghast at the job he’d done of cleaning and bandaging the wound. ‘You did, dickhead,’ he retorted and smirked at the doctor. ‘Shouldn’t I be smacking you?’ ‘Don’t flirt, O’Connor, besides, spanking costs extra.’ Parker-2 grabbed a wheeled stool and sat. ‘You did a decent job,’ he said as he cleaned the wound. ‘Could be improved though. You’ve done the basic course, but you never came back for the advanced stuff. It would look really good on your aide application if you’ve already got that squared away.’ ‘Doc, I don’t-’…
-
03 – Shockwave
Before the shatter Curt ducked behind a half-full industrial bin and the detritus that had accumulated around it. It would do for a few minutes – the collection of empty boxes, packing plastic and deep shadows would keep everyone off his trail for a moment at least. He kept himself silent and still for a moment, listening for any sounds of pursuit. Any start-stop footsteps that meant someone was trying to be sneaky, and pounding of heavy boots from Solstice tryhards wanting another kill. Nothing. Whatever fights were going on, there was nothing close enough to mess with him. With one more look around, looking for silhouettes in the dark,…
-
42 – Probably Not The Answer
‘You’re an idiot.’ ‘I heard you the first four times.’ Stef watched as Curt walked over the scaled-down sim like some kind of overly-formal kaiju. It was mostly a collection of warehouses and industrial buildings. Nothing that would have a lot of traffic at night, which was good – it meant fewer civilians getting in the way. ‘You’re an idiot.’ Sending him a text hadn’t annoyed him. Asking for help hadn’t annoyed him. It wasn’t until she’d loaded the sim and explained what she was studying for that his vocabulary had seemed to boil down to three words, spoken with an increasingly flustered voice. ‘I just want-’ She stared down…
-
40 – Adventures in Shopping
Stef brushed cookie crumbs off the required Agency-wiki pages on goblins and looked up. ‘Um?’ ‘Yeah?’ ‘Thanks for this, but–’ She swallowed the rest of the cookie. ‘What’s the deal with the Court and what’s going on now? I’ll tackle this stuff on my own,’ she said, poking at the folder, ‘but learning stuff in context is more likely to stick.’ ‘It’s complicated,’ Curt said. But it was in a way that she was starting to learn was “I’ll give you a short explanation” rather than “I don’t want to explain anything to you, leave me alone you stupid bitch”. ‘I’m kinda smart,’ she said. ‘You can try to explain…
-
39 – A Lack of Scholastic Achievement
Stef pulled on her seatbelt, then pulled her phone from her pocket and tucked it into the centre console as Curt settled himself into the driver’s seat. ‘You understand,’ Curt said as he started the car, ‘this is another one of those conversations you should probably be having with Agent Jones or a Tech, right?’ ‘I didn’t, now I do, but try anyway?’ He pulled out into traffic and immediately hit a red light. ‘Hell, Newbie, I don’t even know if you know enough about agent creation and physiology or whatever you’d call it to get to this stage. What do you know? Tell me that, and I’ll build on…
-
38 – Glitter and Dust
Stef stared. If she’d been asked what she was expecting, she wouldn’t have been able to put it into words. Whatever that vague idea she’d had though, this wasn’t it. It was the same ice-cream shop they’d been at last night. It looked different by the light of day – ice-cream stores, like parks, were something that should only exist in bright daylight. By the light of morning, the colours of the paint, and the chalk illustrations were far cheerier, inviting customers in to experience all the homemade flavours. The only thing that hampered the shop’s cheer was the police tape. The blue-and-white tape sectioned off the area around the…
-
37 – Observations and Evidence
There was a knock at the door. Stef looked up from the sliding wooden puzzle from hell that Jones had sent as a get well present and stared at the door. ‘Um?’ ‘Me, Mimosa,’ came a woman’s voice. She quickly ran through the catalogue of people she’d met and tried to identify the voice. It was probably- ‘Magnolia,’ Magnolia clarified. ‘Open up.’ She hopped off the bed, stumbled, then opened the door. Magnolia – dressed in another cute dress that still somehow conveyed the impression that she could kill with a pinkie finger – smiled. ‘Perfect, you’re already dressed like a nerd, come on.’ She looked down at the Spider-Man…
-
26 – Watching the Clock
There were almost a dozen recruits in the gym – a couple that she recognised, but more that she didn’t. Stef looked around, unable to give much credence to her ability to identify and remember people. Still, most of the recruits around her were people she’d never seen before. ‘Shift B and C people,’ Curt said, noticing her staring. ‘We’re Shift A, different people tend to use the gym at different times.’ ‘Does that get confusing?’ she asked as she followed him towards the sim rooms. ‘I mean, “shift” has quite a different meaning around here. Using it in both senses…’ she trailed off and shrugged. ‘Seems weird.’ ‘It’s “require”…
-
25 – Bills and Benefits
Stef leaned forward, grabbed Curt’s phone from the cradle and exited the navigation app. ‘We’re here,’ she said and set it back into place. ‘Which building?’ Curt asked. She leaned against the door and pressed a finger to the window to point at the building they’d just passed. ‘That one.’ Curt slowed the car and backed into a spare spot about half a block down from her building. ‘I’ll just wait here,’ he said. ‘Go do whatever you need to do.’ She nodded and pushed on the door of the car, aware that she should probably say “thank you”, but unable to form the words. Talking was…still not easy. Maybe…
