(Magenta)
As I did some last equipment tests to make sure that my upcoming stream would go smoothly, I found myself letting out a wistful sigh as I sat down in my chair. I still loved streaming, loved showing people what Samurai were actually like, that we are people who deserved love and respect. People that deserved to be remembered and not forgotten as werisked our lives.
Now, however, I was plagued with the feeling of wanting to cancel the stream because of one simple video. A video of three little kids and two animals playing outside on the newly constructed balcony of the penthouse. It was an odd sensation, and I still found it difficult to see them as my kids, rather than just Cierra’s and Maniac’s kids, but the more I saw them, talked with them, saw them explore and get used to the world, the more that new feeling had grown in her heart.
“Cute kids, whose are they?” a surprisingly familiar voice whispers from beside me.
I jump, blinking up at my little sister in surprise. “Sophia? What are you doing here?”
“I got hired, remember? You shouted at me for applying here.” Sophia says, giving me a peace sign.
“I guess, just did not expect you to actually get hired,” I said with a sigh. I had not barred her from the position, but I had also told the recruiter not to show any favouritism towards her.
“Well, too bad you are looking at the new assistant facility manager of PsyCo,” Sophia said with a bright smile. “And man, oh man, do you need me? I did not realise Samurai could be this, uhm, messy?”
I nodded, “I see. Well, good job.”
My little sister smiled again. “Don’t worry, so feel free to call me when you need some help; it is literally my job now.”
I had a mirrored smile as I watched her leave the room. “Oh, and Sophia,” I called when she was just about to leave the room. “Those kids, they're mine.”
With my final statement, I closed off the room, activating the sound-dampening barrier and leaving my little sister standing there, mouth open wide. That would be a conversation for another time; now she had a stream to get to.
-
“And that is it for today, my little sparkle army. I know it is a shorter stream than normal, but I have an emergency to take care of,” I say with a bright smile.
I wait a few moments to let the people send in their last goodbye messages before I close the stream. I take a deep sigh as I open the alert that has been flashing in my face for the past few minutes. It is a code pink sent by Maniac, meaning that it is a domestic emergency. I don’t know if that is better or worse than a hive showing up; I think about it, sure, Cierra was away joining Claire on a trip to a fancy lap somewhere so the fact that she called me wasn’t that strange, just problematic since Maniac’s problems could range from a simple spill to the entire building burning down. Luckily, I did not smell any smoke, so this probably was not a worst-case-scenario type of situation.
I quickly stand up and walk to the elevator, checking the internal security to see Maniac’s location. I frown slightly. She is in the penthouse, which is not that strange. She lives there after all. It is just when you expect people to come for an emergency; I kind of expected her to be in one of the meeting rooms, not at home.
I quickly get into the elevator and let it take me up. As the door opens, I am greeted with the fancy but at the same time homey aesthetic of the penthouse. The big, fancy furniture and rugs littered with dolls and other children’s toys give the apartment an interesting look that makes the place feel less imposing.
I walk in further, noticing that Daisy’s frankly massive doughnut dog bed is empty. As I keep searching for life, I finally find some in the main living room. Lying on the couch, covered in a pile of blankets, is Shinon and Shinobu. Daisy is lying protectively against them, looking ready to pounce on anyone who gets close to the girls.
I smile at them once they notice me. “Hey there, do you know where your mother is?”
The they look at me with big, wet eyes as they speaks in a raspier voice, “She is in Cali’s room. “
I frown, noticing that something does not seem right. “Are you two okay? What is wrong?” I ask, getting closer as I do. Daisy stands up, putting herself between them and me.
“We don’t feel good. our mouth hurts, and our nose is full, and everything we eat comes back out again.” They say with a horse voice, sounding really pitiful right now. Making me want to pick them up and comfort them.
I slowly pet Daisy’s head, making sure that she knows that I am not a threat to her family. She relents and steps aside. I slowly sit down next to the girls and give them a small hug. They feel extremely hot, but for some reason are still shivering like they are freezing.
‘Cyan, what is going on?’ I subvocalise to my AI as my concern keeps increasing.
Accessing their bio chip reveals that she has a high fever. And currently only Shinon is awake.
I hug her closer. ‘Can’t we buy some simple medicine? The poor thing is in pain.’
The problem with that is that Miss Shinon and Shinobu’s constitution was genetically created and optimised to be a soldier. Normal medicine might have an adverse effect on them.
“Auntie Sparkles, what is going to happen?” Shinon asks, sounding extremely exhausted.
I pat her head, planting a kiss on her forehead. “It is okay; you are just a bit sick. You just have to wait it out for a bit. Is there anything you want to watch on TV or anything you want?”
“I want my Mom,” she says, sounding so sad.
I stand up, feeling angry, but doing my best not to let it show. “I will get her for you then.”
I quickly start walking further into the apartment towards Maniac. The little bitch was letting such a sweet girl, waiting sick on the couch all alone to do gods knows what. It grinds my gears on a deeper level than I care to admit; even my parents, soulless as they were, sent for a nanny when I was sick. Maybe I should just shoot her again, give her some more sense.
I slam the door open only to find Maniac, or I guess Evelin, going off the hair and posture, standing in the middle of the room. She is holding Cali in her arms, as the little girl softly cries. I take one look at her face to see the sheer panic in it, knocking all the anger out of me as understanding dawns on me. Both kids are sick, and both are genetically designed, so giving them medicine for minor things is unwise.
“Uhm, so this was your emergency?” I ask quite stupidly, but I still want to make sure there was not yet another problem to take care of.
“Please, I don’t know what to do anymore. They’re in pain, and I am having Lyssa run simulations for possible medication, but it is apparently not going well.”
I nod, stretching out my arms to take Cali and give Evelin a moment of peace to recenter herself. It was rather unsettling seeing the strange woman this powerless; it made her appear to be made out of glass, and the previous bravado just a shell to hide that fact.
She hesitates for a moment, but eventually does hand over her little daughter. Evelin’s eyes have always been striking, and seeing them on such a little child still amazes me, but instead of the normal sparkling gold, they look a bit dull as they are filled with tears.
“How much sleep has she had?” I ask her once I notice that she does not appear to have that much energy.
“I don’t know, not enough that is for sure, but I uhm.” Evelin gets out, sounding very confused.
I smile at her. “Don’t worry about it. I will take care of Calliope and put her to bed. You go be with Shinon. She is scared and in pain and wants her mommy.”
Her eyes go wide. “Oh no, uhm, thanks,” she says before she just disappears into thin air. Whoever thought giving this girl the ability to teleport was a good idea was on a whole new kind of stupid.
Making Cali fall asleep is not that hard. She is still young and rather audio-oriented, so I just sing her some lullabies, and she falls asleep easily. Once she is asleep, I stay for a little while, sending a small message to Claire to update her on the situation. I make sure to leave a surveillance crystal in the room to alert me when she wakes up again, as I slowly make it out of the room.
Once I walk back into the living room, I find Shinon has crawled into Evelin who is softly stroking her head as they watch some kind of nature show. I smile at the sight and make my way to the kitchen while searching online for any food that is easy to keep down while having a fever.
I get to work slowly, but before I can even fully start, I receive a call. I open it only to be greeted with Cierra's panicked expression.
“Magenta, what is going on? Are my babies okay?” she asks, not even giving me time to greet her.
“Don’t worry, they’re all fine,” I say in my most calm voice. “They just have the flu, and because of how they were born, we can’t safely prescribe them medicine, so they just have to stick it out for a bit.”
Cierra nods but does not look comforted by it at all. “Should I come home?”
“If you want, but I will be staying here to help out. I was planning to just make some food then call Luna,” I explain
Cierra smiles, “Yeah, she probably has something to help them, okay if you’ve got this handled, I am leaving it to you, but call me if anything goes wrong.”
“Will do, boss,” I say with a smile, giving her a salute.
“Magenta, thank you, and good luck,” Cierra says before dropping the call.
Getting Luna here was surprisingly easy; just saying that her grand-daughters were sick and needed their grandma was enough for the demented fox to speed on over, making me think that this little episode would be over before anything big happened.