Probably not the chapter you were looking for, but this is the best place to slot these scenes into the story. Anyway, this was a short, quick chapter. I haven't finished the Earth chapter yet, but I did have these lying around, so here you go.


Chapter 13: Interlude, with Numbers


"More focus on equipment?" Uno asked.

Jail's smirk marginally increased. "Yes, Dieci's success has convinced me. Dedicating energy resources to weaponry instead of body augmentation will be the way to go, I believe. Or rather, a better balance. Augmentation is good for close combat, so I don't want to do away with it entirely."

Uno nodded. "An excellent idea." For a regular human, combat effectiveness would be compromised if they specialized too much. But for a cyborg, already much faster and stronger than a normal human due to their mechanical enhancements, greater specialization could be advantageous. And mana could always be used for enhancements if necessary. No need to use up the limited and valuable energy used for Inherent Skills for augmentation. "Shall I dispose of our current cultures or preserve them for later?"

Jail's eyes flicked across the list Uno presented him with. "Keep the Nakajima culture for later. Incinerate the rest."

Uno nodded in acknowledgement and swept the rest of the list into the 'discard' folder. She would wait for a few days before actually incinerating them in case the Doctor suddenly found a use for them.

"Tredia Graze contacted us again." Uno said, amused. "He is offering us his robot army if you will help speed up the production process."

Jail twitched. "No. Just… no. When I make my robot army, it will by my army, made with my design for my purpose. Not some other moron's pet project. Who is Tredia Graze, anyway?"

"Some archeologist who thinks he has found a way to turn corpses into useful minions," Uno said disparagingly. "You advised him on how to get the process started a couple years ago."

"…Huh," Jail said, perplexed. It was an unusual look on his face. "I can't say I remember him. What sort of robot army was it?"

"Nonmagical. Think exploding zombies." Uno smirked. "You spent about five minutes looking at the schematics, burst out laughing, told him how to get a production line going, then slept for a day and a half."

"A day and a half? I never sleep that long."

Uno smirked wider. "I had you sedated until the drug was out of your system."

Jail groaned. "Oh, right, now I remember. Or don't. That explains a lot."

"And the moral of the story…" Uno said leadingly.

"Don't self-medicate, especially with experimental drugs," Jail grumbled obediently. "I learned my lesson! No need to keep reminding me of it."

Uno looked pointedly at a small bottle of blue pills on one of the tables. It hadn't been there yesterday. "So, if I pulled up the footage from the security camera from last night, I wouldn't see you making those?"

Jail shifted nervously. "I haven't taken any. It doesn't count."

Uno smiled, sickly sweet. "I'm afraid it does. Which means I will be leading the next surgery."

"…Fine." Jail grumbled, looking like she had killed one of his favorite abominations without recording the process properly for future reference. Uno didn't give in.

"Now, what did you want to do about Tredia Graze?" Uno asked as she pocketed the pills.

Jail sniffed, and decided to vent on Graze just a little. "Eh, tell him to send me what he has and I'll take a look at it. It'll be a good laugh if nothing else. I'm thinking string him along for a while, then give him something that almost works right, but will eventually get him killed horribly if he isn't careful."

"Very well," Uno said, and paused to listen to something only she could hear. "Due says she is going out with Dieci. Something about 'female bonding'."


An explosion rocked the dusty mountainside as a glowing lance of energy impacted the rocky surface. Birds fled their suddenly dangerous hiding places, filling the air with their angry, frightened cries. Several rodents dashed for the relative safety of their burrows.

Due whistled appreciatively at the size and depth of the crater. "Very nice, Dieci! Your skill might be more mundane than the rest of ours, but seeing it in action I have to say I'm quite impressed!"

Dieci smiled awkwardly and holstered her imaginatively named 'Enormous Cannon' on her back. Due could tell how young the other cyborg was from the slight pause before the smile; Dieci must still be relying on her programmed responses in social situations, something that she would overcome with time.

"Thank you," Dieci said blandly. Due made a mental note to give the girl some pointers on inflection. "The Doctor believes my range and power should surpass the vast majority of the TSAB mages," Dieci added on as an afterthought.

"I can believe it." Dieci eyed the crater again. "So you have less body enhancement, but more firepower."

"Yes, the Doctor seems to consider it a beneficial trade-off." Dieci hesitated. "You are familiar with… 'normal' society?"

Due smiled. "Yes, very much so. I need to be in order to use Liar's Mask effectively," she said, referring to her shape shifting ability. "Is there something you want to know?"

"Is the Doctor's behavior… normal?" Dieci asked.

Due tapped her index finger against her bottom lip as she considered her answer. "Well, I suppose the short answer is no. To an extent, it's just his personality. He naturally gets all dramatic and excited about things. He's also insane, which can lead to him doing abnormal things."

"The doctor is insane?" Dieci frowned.

"Yeah, he's got serious psychological issues. Starting with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and getting worse from there." Due supplied.

Dieci's frown deepened. "Does that not bother you?" She asked.

"Not really," Due shook her head. "See, the Doctor is smart enough to realize that sanity has its advantages. Uno is pretty much a female, sane… well, saner… clone of the Doctor, and he designed her to be the perfect assistant. So basically, Uno is so useful to that Doctor that she has enough leverage to keep his worst tendencies in check…"

Due stopped to think for a minute, her partially mechanical mind 'helpfully' supplying her with a list of her recent activities. But what's a little murder and identity theft and more murder and more identity theft and theft of an important religious artifact and even more murder among friends?

"…When it really matters." Due shrugged. "He's medicated most of the time anyway, though the side effects of the drugs can make him a bit… inconsistent. Regardless, you don't need to worry about it. We older cyborgs aren't particularly good people, but Uno, Tre, and I are looking out for you. The only people who have to worry about the Doctor are our enemies."

"…Okay," said Dieci quietly. "…I don't think you are a bad person, Due." Dieci decided.

Due ruffled Dieci's spiky hair. "Ah, thanks little sis. But not being a bad person doesn't make me a good one either. I'm a hardened criminal, after all."

If it helped her family, she'd slaughter worlds. And she'd enjoy every second of it. She wished it bothered her more.


"Rumble Detonator."

The knife, buried in the mechanical golem's chest, exploded, filling the inner workings of the robot with shrapnel. The golem crumpled to the floor lifelessly.

Cinque stepped over the corpse and scanned the room carefully, but no further enemies appeared. "Clear," she announced. "Come on in-"

A loud crunch behind her caused the young girl to spin about frantically, throwing knives materializing in her hands. Upon seeing what had caused the noise, she relaxed.

"Tre," the white-haired girl said.

"Be more careful, Cinque," Tre advised as she stepped off of the golem's crushed head. "You only immobilized it. They are still more than capable of shooting while the central processing unit and power source are online."

Cinque nodded, noting belatedly the arm-cannon aimed at her back.

"Still, good work," the older, purple-haired woman decided. "Sein, Quattro, come on in."

Sein's finger emerged from the floor, turned back and forth so that the camera on the fingertip got a good look around to verify there was enough space, then withdrew. Moments later Sein and Quattro rose out of the ground as though it was water.

"Ah, that was fast," Quattro chirped, her pigtails bobbing slightly. "You're getting pretty good at this, Cinque!"

"Meh," Sein shrugged. "I still don't get it. Didn't whatshername give all of her stuff to the Doctor? Why do we have to fight our way through her defenses?"

"Stop whining," Tre scolded. "Doctor Testarossa was successful in routing the TSAB's efforts to apprehend her for a reason, and it isn't because she leaves off-switches on her defenses."

"So she's a paranoid nutjob," Sein deadpanned.

Quattro humphed, indignant. "A highly successful, incredibly intelligent, paranoid nutjob, Sein!" Quatro proclaimed, wagging her index finger in Sein's face. "Doctor Testarossa is a model-"

"Insane criminal mastermind?" Cinque offered helpfully.

"Exactly!" Quattro chirped, clapping her hands together.

"Quattro," Sein said slowly, "that isn't necessarily a good thing,"

The cape-wearing woman sniffed, adjusting her glasses. "Oh, please. We only exist due to the Doctor's willingness to experiment with," she rolled her eyes and made air-quotes, "'unethical' projects. Since it's so different when the TSAB High Council does it!"

Tre cut the imminent rant short. "Enough. We have work to do."

"Fine," Quattro pouted, then perked up. "The sooner we start, the sooner we finish!" She grinned, her glasses gleaming in the low light of her holographic keyboards as she tore into Precia's firewalls.


It was disturbing, how Quattro acted. Due felt offended by her perky little charade. Due worked hard under all sorts of masks, but she always took them off when she was with family. It kept her grounded somewhat, reminded her who she really was under the lies she cloaked herself in.

Apparently, Quattro did the opposite. About the only honest thing in Quattro's personality was her hero worship of Due and Precia. Which was not exactly healthy. Due would be the first to admit that she was not exactly an upstanding member of society, but Precia's body count was horrific even to her. Quattro was creepy beyond belief.

"…and you brought back the Shroud of the Saint King!" Quattro squealed. "How did you do it?"

But at the end of the day, Quattro was her sister. And she appreciated Due's work like no one else did. Quattro liked Due for herself, not in spite of herself. She didn't have the strength to give up something so precious.

"Well," Due began her story. "I knew that just breaking in would be too risky, so I started at a different church with a particularly promising young nun, and I studied her until I knew I could take her place…"


Sein swam silently beneath the ground, her Inherent Skill allowing her to travel through the inorganic material as though it was water. Coming to a halt, she tentatively reached out in front of her, her finger passing through the surface in front of her. The camera on her fingertip allowed her to see out the other side, and she swiveled it one way then another, trying to get a good look-

A blur of motion, and the camera went dark as someone grabbed Sein's finger. Sein tried to pull away, but it was no use, and in moments Sein was dragged out into the open.

Tre, looking very unimpressed, let the shorter cyborg dangle helplessly. "What do you think you are doing?"

"…Scouting practice?" Sein suggested hopefully.

Tre grunted and dropped Sein into the hot tub. Once Sein resurfaced, her blue hair plastered to her skull, she spoke. "Turn the camera off and take a bath, or go away."

Sein sulked, but shucked her bodysuit and joined Tre for a soak.

"Why were you trying to spy on me, anyway?" Tre asked. "You're what, four? Are you even interested in that kind of thing?"

Sein snorted. "I have boobs, I'm at least a pre-teen. I reserve the right to have hormones. Cinque's the only one of us who looks like a kid, anyway."

"You are also my little sister," Tre said bluntly.

"We're not related," Sein smirked. "So I see no harm in looking."

"And I see no harm in an extra hour of hand-to-hand practice."

Sein winced. "Okay, okay, point taken. Yeesh! You need to loosen up."

"Two hours?"

"Shutting up now."


"Uno."

Jail's opposite gender clone turned to see Cinque approaching her. The petite girl looked around nervously as she approached.

"Is the Doctor… stable today?" Cinque asked quietly. "I want to discuss the possibility of modifying Shell Coat and… well, I want to make sure he's less… energetic than he was the last time."

Uno winced, remembering. She had mistakenly tried a new drug cocktail that was supposed to have helped smooth out the Doctor's erratic emotions. She still wasn't entirely sure what had gone wrong, but poor Cinque had been terrified by the manic glee with which the Doctor had torn into her equipment. Everything had turned out well (the Doctor's adjustments had been quite successful) but Cinque was understandably not willing to risk a repeat performance.

"Yes, he's doing just fine. He's actually working with Dieci at the moment."

A muffled explosion could be heard from the Doctor's workspace. Uno twitched. There was a testing range. She had set it up herself. Why did the Doctor never use it?

"Success!" Jail announced proudly, handing the cannon back to Dieci. "Go ahead and put it through its paces. I'll be designing various munitions for it at some point, so I'll let you know when I have something. Ah, Cinque, how are you doing today?"

"I am doing well, Doctor." Cinque said politely. "I wanted to talk to you about my defensive Inherent Equipment if you have time…"

"Oh, I always have time for my daughters," Jail assured her. "Let me see Shell Coat, and we can talk about what you want."

Cinque took off her grey overcoat and handed it to her creator. "I was wondering if I could drop the Anti-Magilink Field by a little and boost the power of Hard Shell instead."

"Should be doable. Any particular reason?" Jail asked with interest.

Cinque, now significantly more relaxed, answered readily as they walked further into the lab.

Uno turned her attention to Dieci. "So what changes did he make?"

"I should now be able to deliver a physical payload if necessary." Dieci said as she shouldered her cannon. "I will have more tactical options this way, once he designs a variety of munitions."

"Well, let me know if you have any special requests, and I'll make sure it ends up on his to-do list." Uno said.

"Mm. Thank you."


"So, found anything interesting yet?" Due asked curiously.

"No, I'm still decoding." Uno shook her head in annoyance. "Quattro managed to get the files, but apparently Doctor Testarossa's computers automatically encrypt anything that is transferred to an external location. She truly takes paranoia to an art form."

Due shrugged. "Hey, you know what they say. It's not paranoid if they really are out to get you. And the TSAB is definitely out to get her." She paused. "Is she even alive anymore?"

Uno hummed noncommittally. "No way to know for sure at the moment. I suspect we'll never know."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it. She's either made it to Al Hazard, or she's dead. If she's dead, we'll never see her again. If she made it to Al Hazard, she'll either successfully revive Alicia, or she won't. If she doesn't, she'll keep on trying until she dies, and we'll never see her again. If she does, then she will either be trapped in Al Hazard for the rest of her life with Alicia, in which case we'll never see her again, or she will escape with Alicia, head to some far-flung Non-Administered World, and never talk to us again."

Due scrunched up her forehead as she thought that through. "Sounds reasonable. But you don't think she'll send us a message or anything?"

"No reason to break operational security," Uno said with a shrug.

Due gave her a dry look. "Raising her daughter isn't an operation."

"It would be to her." Uno insisted. "She's obsessive. If she is successful, she is never going to allow herself or Alicia to be associated with anything in TSAB territory for as long as she lives. She won't risk being found out, because that might lead to the TSAB separating her from Alicia."

"That's… kind of sad, actually." Due said. "Kids shouldn't have to live like that."

"We live under similar constraints, for similar reasons," Uno pointed out.

"Yeah, and look how we're turning out." Due sighed, gesturing vaguely at the two of them. "You, me, Tre, we're damaged goods. The kids aren't as bad as we are… except Quattro, who I swear is worse… but still."

Uno gave her sister a reassuring smile. "That's why we're doing this. So we don't have to keep doing things like this. So our sisters don't become like us."

Due hummed, her melancholy not dispersed. "But even if we do succeed, would there really be a place for a monster like me?"

"You're no monster, Due." Uno said insistently. "And even if you were, you are my beloved sister. There will always be a place for you. Always."

Due thought of her claws slicing through flesh, the beautiful sound exciting her with visceral satisfaction, the ferrous tang of spilt blood invigorating her as she tore away at her hapless victim. She shivered, not in fear but in pleasure.

"Thank you for saying that." Due whispered.

But she knew better. It took a monster to enjoy her kind of work.


Author's Notes:

There you go. I've fleshed out the characters some, which is important because there are quite a few Numbers yet to come and I want them all to have at least a little meat to their characterization. I don't want them to be utterly unlikeable, but I also don't want them to be completely likeable. Some of them are more sympathetic than others, but they are all distinctly different from Precia.

For those of you who have never seen StrikerS: Yes, these are definitely the good guys. Heroes of the show. Would I lie to you?

(Don't answer that, I'm clearly being sarcastic.)

Unlike A's, StrikerS is still in flux. But with every TSAB or Numbers scene I set the stage a little more and things are starting to take shape.

I'll go back to writing the new chapter now.