IMOUTO HORRIBLIS III: RE:SOLUTION

"Rebecca is just Rebel without the L. Cause I don't lose."
-Rebecca, probably.

C's? She ain't got any, except in the algebra of avoiding falling killborgs. She gets an F for that, for flat.

MOTOKO

"Maine, wait!"

Surprisingly, he did just that. I was even more surprised because it was Rebecca that shouted that. She was looking at Jun with a frown on her face, eyebrows scrunched in thought. Her eyes widened, as she pointed at him in outrage, "The fuck you doin' here, Oni-chan?!" Her finger swept the field, and landed on me, "And you're awfully upset he's about to get a facelift. So that means... you're her!"

Uh, what? Not that I wasn't grateful that she had stopped Maine from executing my burrito breath of a brother, but I was kinda lost. Not what I was expecting at all. Still, nobody was shooting anymore, so that was good? Nobody except Akari, who was still engaged in a deadly dance with Dorio and Sasha. Akari dodged a swipe from Sasha's rippers, and her leg lashed out in turn. Her bladed foot grazed Dorio's cheek, but her follow up was blocked by Dorio's own heel. The muscular woman tensed for a moment, and then the one-shot in her leg blew Akari backwards. Right, she had that preem gun leg, like in Planet Terror. The round hadn't penetrated Akari's subdermal, but it was enought knock her off balance, and for Sasha to unload an entire magazine in her face. Not lethal with the amount of chrome she was sporting, but out of the fight none the less.

Jun took advantage of the distraction though, and Maine's good will. His struggling stopped when Maine grabbed him by the leg, and whipped him into the ground a couple times. When his face was lifted out of the dirt, I could see his eyes were semi-lucid. Hopefully that traumatic brain injury was minor, and maybe it knocked some sense into him. Too much to hope for, I know.

"You're the gonk from the BD!" Rebecca had kept advancing on me, and prodded me in the forehead with her Omaha, "Admit it!"

My eyes crossed when I looked down the barrel, and I suddenly realized what David felt like. Ice flowed through my veins though, and I handled it way better than him, "You found me." My tone was pretty flat, "Want an autograph, or something?"

She frowned at me in turn, "Sure, but what are ya doin' here? We ain't scavs."

I sighed, "I made a mistake. We're looking for a gonk that stole a stash of drugs from the Claws, because my idiot of a brother put his neck on the line for his choom and promised to get it back." I jerked a thumb towards the gonk in question, "And I didn't realize we'd go busting down your door."

She laughed at that, "Well, you found us!" Wait, what? "But that was a sanctioned gig. Some suit's kid overdosed recently, and they hired us to bust some drug shipments." She must have seen something on my face, because she threw me a bone, "You're a Claw, right? Check with Wakako, she's the one that gave us the gig." But... Wakako had husbands, kids, grandkids in the TC! She wouldn't act against them. Except... that fixers acted against their factions all the time. Padre corrected behaviour in overzealous Valentinos, and Wakako did it too, when I thought about it.

"So, what now?" It was Ichi that spoke, and he ducked back into cover when attention was turned his way.

Maine let out a groan, "Gonna have to find a new base."

Not everyone seemed to agree with him though, as Dorio let out a growl, "Maine, what the fuck? Are you kidding me? Not this shit again."

The big man spread his arms as he dropped Jun into the dirt, "Come on, you know how I roll. I don't like flatlining kids."

She advanced in him, looking like a lioness stalking her prey. Maine, showing he had quite a bit of wisdom, started backing away. It was a bit comical, because despite her bulkiness, he still outsized her by a considerable margin. She started jabbing him in the chest with a finger, to punctuate her points, "We. Are not. A fucking. Orphanage." Maine had been backed up to a wall, and looked like a naughty schoolboy. It was pretty fucking funny, if three people hadn't been killed in this fuckup, "We are mercenaries. We fucking kill people."

Maine caught her hand, voice hard, "We also ain't Adam fuckin' Smasher. We don't kill kids, end of discussion."

Ichi spoke up again, "Yeah, I'm really sorry to interrupt, but we still gotta get those drugs? We can't just go back empty handed." He ducked back into cover at the attention that drew.

A synthetic voice spoke up from Rebecca's direction, seemingly coming from nowhere, "Might I offer a suggestion?"

She reached into a pocket of her voluminous combat jacket, and pulled out a phone, hushing it, "Quiet SAAI. It's not time for a crossover episode yet, no matter how much certain armchair generals goad the author." She tucked it away, and lowered the gun, scratching her giant forehead with it. Man, it was a huge forehead, more like a fivehead, "But now that you mention it, it's not a bad idea. Drugs are gone, no gettin' 'em back. Sorry for zeroing your huscle, but ya can't retaliate against hired guns. Talk to the fixer, that's her fuckin' job, to fix situations like this." She opened one eye, and grinned.

"So, how about that autograph?"