Sham's stomach was in knots as she stood at-the-ready, watching as a fancy air-born vehicle that seemed to put appearance over utility flew down onto the landing pad of SHORE's main HQ. This was it. The potential investors were here.
Sham hadn't had been able to manage to eat much of her breakfast, despite Nath's claims that she should do so for the energy. She would surely regret this later, but for now it was the least of her worries.
Saki stood beside Sham dressed in a cheerful yellow that betrayed the pure anxiety she felt at the moment. But being dressed in her favorite color helped, at least. Luckily for her, SHORE's procedures related to Weapon Girl dress code when they were out of uniform was actually quite lax, out of respect for the original founder's desire to allow her subordinates to express themselves freely. While Saki didn't really know much about the original founder at all, she was certainly thankful for the small freedom her rule allowed. It was nice, feeling like an individual.
Plus, it was good for times like this. She was USED to looking like she could theoretically be a normal person, which was good, because in this case the very fact she was altered at all needed to be kept completely secret. A single slip-up would raise the potential enemy's guard immediately.
Sham glanced towards her new friend one last time before forcing a smile on her face as the potential investors stepped out of their vehicle. She hadn't expected there to be so MANY of them, though.
The first one to step out was a pink haired teenage girl in a black dress with a white apron, carrying a large bag with her. Her eyes zipped around quickly before she stopped, stepping aside with her head bowed for the next people to step out.
The rest of the people were blonde, and they all shared plenty of similarities. A well dressed man and woman along with two children came out of the landed aircraft, one child seeming to be about fifteen-ish while the other about five-ish. There was something off about the whole family, but Sham couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. Their features were oddly elongated, their eyes seemed a little too round, and their hair seemed… weird in texture. All around it made them a little unsettling to look at.
That, or Sham was just FINDING reasons to be unsettled because she knew these people could be MOUNTAIN spies.
Not to mention, the whole 'family dynamic' thing was weird enough to Sham already. She had a father, sure, but she was really the only person she knew like that. Weapon Girls were always children who showed potential in their early years and then either taken by force or given up willingly by their families. Nath's sold her, and by the way Sora talked, her parents were HAPPY to give her up for the cause. This combined with the fact that none of the SHORE employees Sham interacted with had any interest in starting a family made the whole concept one big mystery to Sham.
Almost as big as the mystery of why her father had a child in the first place when he hated kids so much.
But the mother of this family must've been the most mysterious part of all to Sham. Pretty much every adult in SHORE was a male, so seeing an adult female was quite a strange sight. And while Sham had a father, her only ideas of what a MOTHER should be like came from pre-war movies. After all, the only semblance of memory Sham had of her own mother was filled with the deranged laughter of some MOUNTAIN child she couldn't remember the face of due to the fact Sham was two at the time and the sickening sound of her mother's bones being crushed by a giant rock said child was wielding.
It always terrified Sham that the child ended up getting away. She always feared the girl would someday come after her to try to finish the job that was stopped by the first SHORE Weapon Girl Sham ever met. Still, if that Weapon Girl HADN'T put saving Sham above stopping the other girl, Sham probably wouldn't be here today, so she was incredibly grateful.
But facing a mother now… it was weird.
"I hope you don't mind we brought along our maid," the mother stated with professionalism now. "We don't go anywhere without her, I do hope you understand."
Saki's body tensed. She had been made aware of their slight MOUNTAIN accent, which was one of the main reasons they were considered suspicious, but to hear it now… the accent she's heard taunt her, threaten her, and beg her for mercy… it was only natural it would stress her out. She tried to keep a smile on her face though. She couldn't draw ATTENTION to the fact she noticed it.
The pink-haired maid curtseyed. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Alice."
She said these words, but her expression didn't match it. She seemed disgusted to declare their meeting a 'pleasure', and her eyes were instead filled with what could easily be described as pure hatred.
Saki lost her composure for just a moment, narrowing her eyes ever-so-slightly. Alice narrowed her eyes back before both girls fell right back into their role.
Sham took a deep breath. "Of course that's fine!" she responded, not knowing at all if that should be fine.
"Hey!" the littlest daughter said. "My name is Frangelico, and you have to do as I say 'cause we're rich and you're not!"
Sham blinked. Great, another brat.
"I'm Amaro," the older daughter said now. "I'm quite interested in speaking with your Weapon Girls. Are we going to meet any?"
Well, that was surprisingly forward! That either meant they weren't anyone to be suspicious of at all or incredibly stupid, and Sham wasn't sure which.
"Of course, Amaro," the father said. "The gentleman I spoke with on the phone said we'd get a chance to meet with SHORE's Ultimate Weapon Girl herself."
Sham made eye contact with Saki. There wasn't anything about that in the planned tour, but it wouldn't be surprising if PR promised something and didn't say so to Shifu or whoever it was that planned the tour schedule. Still, it was a strange thing to offer to people who were decidedly suspicious.
Still, for now, Sham figured she'd just move on as if nothing was said on the matter.
"It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Sham lied. "Me and Saki here will be showing you around the base. Are you ready?"
"What kind of tour-givers are you, not even offering us refreshments first?" Frangelico demanded. "Some sweets, a mocktail perhaps?"
What in the actual heck was a 'mock-tail'?
"Our apologies," Saki said, with a smile the felt quite fake compared to what she was using earlier. The kind of smile she got when dealing with an authority figure, Sham guessed. Having to answer to so many of the border-line bratty people who work for SHORE must've made it so she had to develop such a smile. "Can I get you anything?" - Not that there was anything she could've really 'gotten'. The SHORE base wasn't exactly known for its kid-friendly cuisine.
"Don't mind her," Amaro luckily stepped in. "She's quite the spoiled little princess sometimes."
Alice's eyes widened as she stifled a gasp that Saki couldn't help but notice.
Amaro rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. You can just start the tour."
"O-kay!" Sham declared in a playful tone despite her ever-present nerves. "Please follow me, and I'll point some things out on the way to our first destination!"
Sham walked them into the hallways that really weren't anything special, but she tried to act like they were. Saki walked behind the group to keep an eye on them, though Alice was trailing behind the rest, too, putting the two way too close for Saki's comfort. That girl was the most off thing about all of this.
"And here we are!" Sham finally said, glad to not have to make a hallway entertaining anymore, at least for now. They walked into a grand room that Sham wasn't often allowed in as it was a lounge for some of the highest people of SHORE with plush carpeting and couches nicer than Sham's own bed. Bookshelves made of fancy-looking wood lined the walls filled to the brim with large books - a kind of paradise for people like Sham's father who loved reading in their spare time, though Sham's father didn't care so much for the finer things in life as one might assume upon seeing him in this room. He was too practical to care for plush carpets.
But the main draw of the room hung with grace upon the wall in a frame made of the weak but apparently highly-sought after metal known as gold was the reason they were in here. An expertly done oil painting of SHORE's original founder.
When Sham was little, she actually used to be terrified of this painting. Something about the unsettling gray eyes gave the girl it was painted of a hunter-like gaze and it almost felt like she was staring Sham down like she was this girl's next meal the first time Sham saw it many years ago when she had come here in search of her father due to an already nightmare-ridden night. She remembered upon seeing it she rushed right into her father's lap, pushing the book he was reading aside so she could cuddle up to him despite him making it clear how typically against that he was. Her father sighed, rolled his eyes, and scooped her up, carrying her back to bed. "It's just a painting of someone who's already dead, Sham," her father had assured her, somehow recognizing what her fear was of. "It can't hurt you."
The memory was actually quite precious to Sham now. He really felt like a father at that time, carrying her like that. And how could she be scared when such a painting brought about one of the few gentle moments Sham actually had with that man? Because of that, despite never actually meeting her, Sham had a strange fondness for the girl in the painting, thinking of her almost as a friend for the many years she had none.
"This is a portrait of SHORE's original founder, back before it was even called SHORE," Sham explained. "Actually, you may notice, our founder was actually a hybrid, back when gene editing was done commercially for mostly appearance's sake. Back in the day, some parents who wanted their child to be unique would have them injected with new DNA while they were still in the womb, affording them attributes of whatever mammal they were crossed with, as well as, more commonly, inhuman abilities such of flight or strength and the like. Eventually such practices were outlawed for being unethical as any number of health problems could arise from such cross-breeding and doctors who could treat hybrids were extremely rare due to the vastly different bodies each one would have, needing both human and animal-related treatments. Plus, since such alterations could only be made before birth, the child in question could never consent to such things. Not to mention the problematic social dynamic hybrids and pure humans had with each other."
Sham was actually enjoying a chance to put her way too in-depth research into this topic to use. Not only had the portrait made her curious, but the fact that commercial gene editing was STILL causing effects since while hybrids were forbidden from reproducing, other sorts of altered humans were not, making it so children (typically girls, but on rare occasions boys as well) could be born with all sorts of strange attributes to this day. Those attributes were often what was looked for when trying to acquire a new Weapon Girl, and referred to as 'potential'. This potential is what Doctor Shifu used as his starting point when turning a regular girl into a Weapon Girl, so this history was actually quite applicable for Sham to know.
"Believe me," Amaro said with annoyance, "I know ALL about the problems of being a hybrid…" She shook her head. "Really it's disgusting that anybody would subject their child to a lifetime of hardships just so they can say their child is 'more special' than another. If they want an animal so badly, why didn't they just adopt a pet?"
Sham… wasn't really sure how to respond to that.
"Really, Amaro?" Frangelico asked brattily. "Honestly, I don't get it! How could you possibly be UPSET about being better than everybody else?"
"Quiet, Frangelico!" Amaro shot back. "Honestly this whole operation is revolting!" she complained. She made eye contact with Sham. "I know it's not YOUR fault, but really, don't you find it wrong that girls who happened to be born differently are forced into a lifetime of servitude? Reconstructed this way and that way until they're at peak usefulness just to be sent out for scary and painful battles until their last breath? Of course there's no hope of escape for them because they could never hope to BE normal even IF they stopped the war, so they're fighting for something they could never have!"
"Amaro!" Amaro's mother snapped, grabbing Amaro's shoulder. "Watch yourself, young lady!"
"No!" Amaro said, yanking her shoulder away. When she did, her jacket came off, revealing a set of feather wings folded up behind her back. She spread them out now in her anger. "Of course YOU would support it! After all, you think it's perfectly okay to have children that you KNOW won't come out right just because it's a 'noble family tradition' for the children to be bird hybrids! It's as they used to say - if God had meant for man to fly, He would've given him wings! Humans were NEVER intended to be crossbred with SPARROWS!"
Amaro turned her angry gaze towards Sham. "Your founder, Yuki or whatever that nameplate under the frame said, had the right idea to rebel. If this war is about going against tradition and societal norms like I've always assumed it is, I hope you win!"
"...You?" Saki asked. She was quite shaken up from everything that was just said, but…
"This is so stupid!" Amaro declared now, tears having formed in her eyes. "I want to go home."
Alice looked to Amaro with terror in her eyes, than towards Saki. Saki couldn't help but notice the muscles in Alice's arms tense, as if she was ready to unzip that large bag of hers in a moment's notice.
"Amaro," Amaro's father stated seriously. "Let's just calm down, okay? Now's not a good time for this."
"It never is," Amaro responded bitterly.
Alice's and Saki's staredown continued, a sort of mini cold war. The second one moved, they'd both take action. The truth about the other was now blatantly clear to them both.
They were both Weapon Girls from opposing sides, undercover.
Sham, however, still wasn't entirely sure what was going on. "...You're a bird hybrid?" she asked Amaro gently.
"Yeah," Amaro responded, having calmed down a little. "Just because it's illegal doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Just that it's harder to live normally when it HAS happened. What about you? I know SHORE does some pretty shady things, are you altered?"
"No," Sham replied softly. "Father said I don't have potential, so I'm not allowed to be altered. I wish I could fly, though."
Amaro smiled. "That is one good thing about all of this. It's nice to fly. Still, I've seen the way even MY country treats their Weapon Girls like dolls, and I've heard SHORE is so much worse. You wouldn't want that kind of life."
With a frown, Sham asked "You're from MOUNTAIN, aren't you?"
"...Yeah. I never wanted to do any of this, but like everybody else, I don't have a choice."
"I wish…" Sham continued, for some reason not doing anything about what she just learned. This girl felt relatable, somehow. "I wish I had the power to make things right and GIVE people that choice, you know? Maybe that's why I'm so desperate to be a Weapon Girl, despite knowing how bad it is."
"Nobody has that sort of power," Amaro told her. "I mean, I'm a noble in my country, and yet nothing I think ma-"
BANG!
All of a sudden, Sham was on the floor, Saki on top of her after having pushed her there. On the wall behind where Sham was standing was a fresh bullet hole, and there was a gun in the hand of Amaro's father.
After that, everything was a flurry of fast moments and loud sounds. 'Alice' had pulled a machine gun out of her bag and was now unloading her bullets in Saki's direction, who had a set of what looked like maracas out to defend. The mother of the two girls now pulled the jacket off her youngest, telling her to fly away.
The girl did, but Saki immediately went after her, knowing it was her responsibility to now kill the whole family. Every last member. Unfortunately, her most of her attacks were way too destructive for an enclosed space like this, so she needed to be in melee range to dispose of the young threat without injuring Sham, which was absolutely not an option. She knew protecting her was almost certainly placed at a higher priority right now even without her own personal bias.
A priority which now mattered to determine, because the father was trying to shoot at Sham, with her doing everything she could to avoid the bullets by hiding under furniture.
"ALTE!" the mother demanded. "Protecting Frangelico is your top priority! Escort her home, and don't come back!"
"Understood," the girl who had claimed to be 'Alice the maid' said dutifully. She then flew after Saki to stop her, but Saki didn't have time to handle this right now. Unfortunately, there was no way she could stop both of them from escaping without Sham's death.
So when Alte went after Saki, Saki moved right past her, back towards Sham. Frangelico and her Weapon Girl bodyguard would live.
Saki instead went after the father, who now shot towards her. It didn't matter. Most of the shots she could deflect with her melee-attack maracas, which were NOT explosive unlike some of her other ones, and any bullets she couldn't deflect wouldn't pierce her bullet-proof under-armor. It would just really really sting because she's already been hit by so many of those things thanks to Alte and the armor can't COMPLETELY nullify the impact. And her head and hands were actually pretty exposed so she had to be careful about that. Ugh, she really hoped the professor would figure out those energy shields he's been talking about soon…
Still, in this small of a space, it wasn't hard to get close enough to leap up and bash the man's brains in.
And great, now she was covered in blood and gray matter.
The mother was, of course, screaming. She'd have to be a pretty bad wife if she WASN'T concerned about this. Well, might as well deal with her next.
Saki rushed towards her but she really should've paid more attention before she did. As she approached, ready to bash the woman, the women grabbed Saki by the arm and slammed her to the ground, causing her to lose her maracas and be pinned down.
So she knew self defense, apparently.
The woman then desperately grabbed at Saki's throat, crushing it and therefore preventing Saki from breathing. This wasn't good. She wasn't strong enough to throw the woman off of her from this position without a weapon.
Thankfully, she didn't need to.
Another BANG resounded through the room, and the woman went limp, loosening her grip and allowing Saki to breathe again.
Gasping for air, Saki looked at the source. Sham was holding the gun that the man had dropped when he died, still aiming it in the direction of the woman's body with a horrified expression on her face.
Her first murder, it would seem.
Sham was still frozen in surprise, and Saki turned her attention to the last member of the family present in this room. Amaro, hiding under a couch that was really quite the tight fit for her.
"It's okay," Saki promised her. "You can come on out. I'm sorry you had to see that."
"You won't hurt me?" Amaro asked, clearly quite shaken.
"No, of course not," Saki responded. "I had to attack them. They wanted to hurt my friend. You understand."
The girl peeked her head out, still looking horrified, but when Saki didn't move Amaro came out completely.
"I do need to know, though," Saki said. "Why were you here?"
In tears, Amaro explained "My family wanted to get information on your Ultimate Weapon Girl for MOUNTAIN so they could make one like her. Not many people speak your language fluently anymore, and since we could already pull off the rich-person act being actually rich, my father decided we should do it. 'For our country'. Apparently MOUNTAIN created an emergency at one of the other bases to get the important people away, and then I was told to say the right thing so it could be said that we WERE meant to see her, and my parents assumed whoever was giving the tour would be too intimidated by us to refuse. I screwed it all up by my breakdown though, and now their dead and it's all my fault!"
"No," Saki soothed. "It's not your fault. We would've found out one way or another. It's okay."
"Are you okay?" Amaro asked. "You got shot so many times by that 'bodyguard'..."
"I will be," Saki promised her. Then she sighed. "You really do seem like a nice person. I'm sorry you got dragged into this."
With that, Saki floated upwards to make up for the height difference, then painlessly snapped the girl's neck.
Saki immediately broke down crying, falling from her flight. Sham tried to catch her, but she didn't really have the strength to, so Saki just kind of ended up falling onto her. Saki barely noticed though, saying how she felt instead. "I'm so terrible…" she murmured, tears rolling down her face.
Sham didn't say a word, just began rubbing Saki's back in a calming manner. Surely she was getting blood all over her hands since Saki had been pushed right into the puddle of it, but Sham kept comforting her anyway.
At least she understood. Saki couldn't stand it if her new friend understandably hated her for doing something that awful.
"We need to report this," Saki said finally, standing up. "That enemy Weapon Girl could still be in the building."
Sham got up, and also nodded, now looking around horrified at the carnage of the scene. The lounge was covered in blood and bullet shells, and yet somehow despite that all, the painting didn't have a scratch on it.
For some reason, Sham let out a breath of relief. "Yuki's safe," she whispered.
Saki glanced at her with a moment of concerned confusion, but Sham really didn't think now (or any time, really) was a good time to explain that the dead girl in the portrait was her imaginary friend for the majority of her childhood.
After that, everything got put back in motion once again. The whole place went on lockdown for a thorough security sweep, and Sham and Saki were both told to go to the infirmary. Sham didn't have any injuries unlike Saki who had quite a few bruises, but the doctors wanted to be careful and told them both to rest there at least until the lockdown was over. In the meantime, Sham decided to call Shifu.
"This is Doctor Shifu speaking," Shifu responded with annoyance already in his voice.
"Yeah, those people you said probably wouldn't have been too dangerous - they almost killed us. Just so you know."
Sham hung up before Shifu could respond, and simply stared up at the dark gray ceiling of the infirmary as she laid on one of the cots.
She killed someone today. She actually, truly killed someone by her own hands.
And yet…
She was surprisingly unbothered by it.
She wasn't sure if she should be concerned or grateful.