Dropping her suitcase on the floor, Jennie glanced over her new apartment at Hunter HQ. Then she let out a sad, quiet snigger.
It was worse than she had imagined. Maverick Hunter HQ seemed to be packed to the brim with new recruits and even for officers, privacy was at a premium. For rookies like herself, it was a faint dream gleaming off in the distance. Her new room had four recharging capsules taking up fully half the area available. After arriving, she had learned that humans and Reploids were always placed in separate quarters, and she could see why. Bunk beds could be stacked neatly together, and recharging capsules did fairly well with other capsules. But mixing the two would have been a right pain.
The other side of the room had a small card table and four chairs. She eyed it speculatively. It was heavy duty metal, obviously meant to take some pounding, and so were the chairs. Perhaps her roommates would like to play cards? Euchre had been a huge thing at the ballet, and she dearly missed the nightly tournaments.
The one last thing in the room was a walk in closet. Opening the door, Jennie sniggered again. Obviously, this was where she was supposed to store all her worldly goods. The closet was not particularly spacious, but there was enough room for a clothes rack and a wall full of shelves, partitioned into four rows and four columns.
I guess that means I get one row of shelves. Jennie sighed, then started unloading her suitcase. The clothes went quickly on the rack. Two modest but sexy dresses that could be used for formal and informal parties took their places. Two t-shirts and two jeans for when she was feeling ratty were quickly slung over hangers.
Then she turned to the shelves. A small collection of books quickly filled out her bottom slot, leaving three more. Her undergarments took up another. A perfectly lovely Japanese ivory took up the third… it was of an old man carrying a child on his back, and it was exquisitely done, an heirloom from her mother. Last, but not least, her jewelry box had pride of place in the top slot. A smile played over her lips as she looked at it. As jewelry boxes went, it was huge, and full of some very expensive pieces. Jewelry had always been a terrible weakness of hers, although she had justified the acquisitions as solid investments.
Stepping back into the room, she was startled to see someone else looking at the card table. He had walked in so quietly, she had entirely missed him. Curious, she looked him over. He was a very young looking Reploid, with grey and dark blue armor. There were stripes of red as well, and his helmet was red, white and blue. The most interesting thing about him, though, was the bright red hair and the scars on his face… they seemed to form an X right between his eyes. She wondered how he had gotten them. She wasn't particularly surprised to see a boy sharing her room… the questionnaire she had filled out had included questions about her preferences for roommates, and she didn't mind boys. Living in the dorms at University, then performing in hundreds of dances had burned away any self-consciousness about her body.
Smiling, Jennie stepped forward to offer him a hand. He smiled back, and gave her a firm, confident handshake.
"Hi, I'm Axl." He introduced himself, and she nodded gracefully.
"I'm Jennie. So you're a rookie too?" It was a normal assumption, since the rookies all came in at the same time and were naturally put in rooms together. But he shook his head.
"Not really… I, uh, had a bit of a disagreement with one of my last roommates." From the urchin grin he gave her, she had the feeling he had been positively wicked. "So I've been hoofed over to you after being banished to a couch for two weeks."
"I see." She said dryly. "Well, just don't bang the wang in front of me and I'm sure we'll get along fine." Axl gave her a brief, wide eyed look, then laughed. He had a very nice laugh, she noticed.
"Yes, ma'am! No banging the wang, ma'am!" He gave her a crisp, parade ground salute and Jennie couldn't help but laugh. Axl laughed as well, and then someone else stepped into the room.
My lord he's HUGE! Jennie had to look up at the towering Reploid. Fortunately, doorsills and ceilings had been built for this sort of thing.
The newcomer was obviously not a new model. His body type had fallen out of favor years ago… and unsurprisingly so, since it was the line Sigma had come from. Fortunately, the newcomer didn't look too much like Sigma. The lack of hair was similar, but he had a normal shaped chin and overlarge, but perfectly human, brown eyes. In fact, there was a great serenity in his expression that made Jennie think of the Buddha. Although the terrible scar tracking down one side of his face was at odds with that. Axl's scars looked like ornamentation, but this one looked like someone had opened his face with a broken bottle. His armor was a dark, royal purple with golden stripes and flashes of dark blue. He was carrying a helmet in one hand… also dark purple, with antennae on the sides and a black, reflective visor.
"Hello." He said in a startlingly high tenor voice. Jennie blinked, wishing she could hear him sing. "I'm Sebastian. You are?"
"I'm Axl." Axl stepped forward with a confident smile, and they shook hands. Jennie took his hand a moment later.
"I'm Jennie." She smiled, pleased with the controlled strength in Sebastian's grip. She'd been half afraid he might accidentally crush her hand. "Welcome to the sardine can." Axl grinned, and Sebastian smiled faintly.
"Too true." He shook his head. "This place needs to expand." Jennie nodded. She had thought that the instant she saw it.
"It can't." Axl put in, and they both turned to look at him questioningly. "The property prices around it have really gone up… I mean, even at their worst the Mavericks have never dared launch an attack right on Maverick Hunter HQ! So this is prime real estate. Then add in all the Hunters fresh off the job with money burning holes in their pockets... no business is going to move without one hell of a lot of money. Not that I mind." He grinned cockily. "Wait until you see all the stuff around us!" Then he shrugged. "I hear their setting up some satellite HQ's, though."
"I heard that too. One in Albuquerque?" Jennie tilted her head. "And one in Calgary?"
"So I heard." Axl confirmed. "They're going for dry spots. Easier on the electronics."
A fourth person knocked on the door, and then cautiously peeked inside. Jennie smiled, a little relieved to see it was a girl. Then she slipped into the room, and Jennie winced faintly.
Her hair was a bright, almost neon pink. Little, sandy colored cat ears tilted to catch the sounds in the room. Her face was heart shaped, with large green eyes, a pert nose and a laughing mouth. A sandy colored tail slowly twitched behind her, flicking back and forth. Her armor was also hot pink, with some brilliant aqua marine and violent yellow thrown in, and almost eye watering to look at. Jennie finally toned down her visual receptors to cope with it.
"Hullo." She said softly with a shy smile. "I'm Dagger." Jennie glanced down, and sure enough, she had two large knives on her hips and several smaller throwing ones set into her chest armor. They all introduced themselves again, but anything else was cut off by-
"All recruits report to the training centre. All recruits report to the training centre."
"Well, see you guys later." Axl waved, and Jennie flashed him a smile as she followed Sebastian and Dagger out the door.
He smiled back, and she couldn't resist thinking how cute he was…