by Jessie Wolf
I’ll get right on it, but it will take me awhile to get through all the security. (Dee De)
“I don’t care, just don’t get caught. Remember there is another standard Death Dealer AI here on campus I don’t need Prof. Recco coming down on us for violating the school’s security.”
Commander I have performed a full sensor sweep of the campus grounds, and found there are a total seven currently deactivated D.D. AIs and two active AIs. (Charlie)
“What the Hell! What do you mean there are seven deactivated and two active Death Dealer AIs on this campus?”
As I said there were seven deactivated and two active Death Dealers AIs here. They all belong to the security section with an exception for the two that are active. They belong to Professor Recco and a Mr. Kyle Hannes of the Physical Education department. (Charlie)
You mean to tell me that the Gym teacher has an active D.D. AI? (Dee De)
That is correct, sister dear. (Charlie)
“Well, I’ll be damned. Well, just be careful in what you do. Now I have to deal with my family.”
“What are you up to, sissy?” Fuyuko is looking at me with suspicion in her eyes.
“Oh nothing you three need to know. Now go back to your rooms and get ready for dinner. Alice and I will meet you in front of the dining hall in thirty-five minutes.”
I watch as they all head back to their dorms. I can tell they aren’t happy but they don’t have the training for this type of warfare yet. While I was dealing with my sisters Alice had taken Cissy upstairs to the third floor bathrooms to get cleaned up. As I’m heading up to our room I get some very strange looks from the other students. Then again, I kind of can’t blame them. I mean here I am walking down the hall ways looking like I just stepped out of an ancient 2D Japanese anime show.
I step into the bathroom and find Alice there still in her armor as well. “Babe, I thought you were going to get changed once you helped Cissy get to the showers?”
“I would have if it wasn’t for Selina Kyle, Duela Dent, Priscilla Rich, and Deborah Domaine.” She tells me with some heat. I can tell by the way she is all most spitting out the names they are most likely ‘Heathers’. “They didn’t want to let Cissy use the bathrooms, until I gave them a little encouragement to learn how to tolerate others.”
“And how did you do that, pussycat?”
“She fried the ends of their hair with a laser!” Cissy called out from the shower she was using. Looking over at Alice I can see the blush rising on her face. “I can’t believe that you guys are walking around the school armed like that. Where can I get one of those finger type lasers?”
Oh shit! I did not need this. “Alice, remember our promise. No violence. Just what in the world possessed you to use your antipersonnel laser on unarmed civilians?”
“What are you talking about? Those four are the ones that poured the paint all over me. Shit those four are the second biggest patch of bullies on campus.” Cissy yells at me. “Ever since they were made part of the Heathers last year they have made life for all the T-girls, parolees, and non-High Families kids a living nightmare. If you don’t want to use violence against them just give me the tools and I will!”
“Cissy, it’s not that we won’t use violence, it’s the fact that we can’t be the ones to use it first. No matter what else me and my family may become we are first and foremost Onna bugeisha. We have to follow a certain code of conduct while on the school campus. Do you understand?” I was almost pleading with the young girl to understand.
Thankfully Alice decided to explain it to her. “Cissy, we made a promise to the administration of this school to bring no harm or violence to this school, a place of peace and learning.”
“I don’t get it? You mean to tell me that the five of you are some kind of super bad ass soldiers and you made a promise not to get into fights? What are you, crazy?!”
“No, honey, we are samurai. To Maiha and her sisters places like this are the same as Temples and other Holy places. They won’t enter one without first seeking the permission of the elders there. It goes hand in hand with their faith’s teachings.” Alice explained. What I wanted to know was how she saw herself.
“Well, what about you, I mean I can tell that you’re not related by blood. Why can you just pound those bitches into the ground?” Cissy must have had a really hard time last year thanks to the Heathers.
“I am related, Cissy. Maiha is my wife and I am hers. I married into her family a few weeks ago. So I can’t use my faith or the fact that I’m Caucasian to get out of following the same rules as they do.”
“Oh, man, if you hadn’t told me I would never have guessed you two were a couple. So, you never did tell me where I can get one of those nifty finger lasers.” I can tell she has her heart set on making the Heathers pay in blood. Time for a little white lie and misdirection.
“Cissy, if we tell you you’re going to have to swear never to tell anyone about where we got them. I mean this is a matter of Imperial security.”
The sound of her voice changed along with her attitude when she hears this. “Did you just say Imperial security?”
“Yes I did. Now do you really want to know?”
“Um… what would happen to me if I slipped and told someone?”
“The Imperial Security Agency would arrest you, then throw you into a hole so deep, under the most secure prison, surrounded be the most loyal Death Dealers, that no one would ever hear from you again, not even your family.” I know it was dirty pool to do this, but I need her to forget about what she saw Alice do earlier. If for no other reason than to get her to think about what she wants to do. Even now century’s later people still tremble at the idea of another ‘Columbine’. The very thought of a child gunning down their fellow students is terrifying to them in more ways than one.
“Um… never mind. I don’t even want to know why you have them.”
I smile to myself thinking that I just avoided a very messy situation. “That’s good thinking on your part, Cissy. Now are you about done?”
“I’ll be right out. I just wish I had some clean clothes to put on.”
“What’s your room number and I’ll go get you some?” Alice was quick to ask. Too quick to my thinking, but I’m sure she’ll let me know when we are alone in our room tonight so I don’t push it just then.
“I’m on the third floor room 317.” That was a little strange. She was at least a second year and should be in one of the smaller rooms with only one roommate, not in the larger rooms on the third, fourth, and fifth floors.
“Um… Cissy, it’s none of my business, but why are you on the upper floors instead of down here in the two man rooms?”
“Oh… they always put at least one T-girl in with the GGs’ and since they don’t have enough T-girls to go around we always wind up in the big rooms on the upper floors.” From the sound of her voice she felt like the T-girls were keeping played for suckers. “I don’t know why they never have enough. I mean there are always at least fifteen to twenty applicants every year, but for some reason only five or six ever get chosen.” When I hear this I know something is fishy in Denmark.
“Dee De, Charlie, I hate to do this to you guys.”
I am already on it, honey. Seeing as how Charlie is better at hacking security systems I’m letting him handle the other request. I’ll go digging into the school admittance program. If there is anything funny going on I’ll find it. (Dee De)
About this time Alice comes back with some of Cissy’s clean clothes. “Here you go, Cissy. I got you fresh undies and bra along with a really nice blouse and skirt for you.”
“Thank you Alice. You guys are awfully nice for an old married couple.”
I don’t know who started to sputter first Alice or me. “Yah! What do you mean old?!” I ask her in full indignation. “I’ll have you know we are still in our teen’s missy! Just where do you get off calling us that?!”
She was giggling the whole time I was pitching a fit over being call
ed old. She has a very nice laugh and smile. It made me feel good seeing her smile like that. Unfortunately Dee De had to ruin the moment.
Maiha, the hallway cameras just went into a full ten minute loop. (Dee De)
“What do you mean?”
That the security section is currently looking at a recording of the last ten minutes. (Dee De)
“Can you get me a live feed?”
Coming right up. (Dee De)
After a few minutes Dee De comes back with a full view of the hallway. Before I ask Charlie paints each one of the girls standing in the hallway with their names.
Targets confirmed, commander. All four of the suspects currently standing outside of the door are members of the terrorist organization known as ‘the Heathers’. (Charlie)
“Ok, we have an enemy force of four teenage terrorists on the other side of the door and my usual method of ‘hammer and anvil’ is not an option. Any suggestions?”
Give us a few seconds. (Dee De)
Looking over at Alice I see her own AI has given her the good news. When she looks up at me she has this very disturbing look in her eyes. “Have Dee De or Charlie told you what they’re armed with yet?”
“No, just that the cameras are in a loop and that all four are members of the Heathers. Yours give you a run down on what they are carrying?”
“Yup. The two on the right side of the door are carrying honey bombs and the two on the left are armed with shaving cream balloons. Looks like they plain on a little ‘tar and feather’ action. How do you want to handle it?”
“Um… what are you two talking about?” Cissy is looking at us like we have lost our minds. I guess it is time for a little show and tell. I’ll just have to trust her with what is now a very public secret.
“Cissy, do you know what a Death Dealer is?” when she nods I go on. “Well, it is like this. Both Alice and I are what is known as second generation Death Dealers. Now before you ask I need you to remember what I told you earlier about the fingertip lasers.” She quickly nods her head that she understands. “Now one of the things all Death Dealers have is an on-board AI. What our AIs have just told us is that your ‘friends’ from earlier are waiting for us on the other side of that door. What we are going to do is embarrass the hell out of them with their own tricks. Now just stay in here until we tell you to come out.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She tosses me a very military salute. One that is so precise that I have this feeling that she was at one of the Military Academies.
“Cissy, before you decided to let the world know you were a girl did you go to one of the Military Academies?”
She blushes clear down to her toes. “My daddy had enrolled me in HMA before I came here. He wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but none of the Military Academies will take transgender. So when I told him that I was really a girl he got me into school here last year. That isn’t going to stop me though when I get old enough. I plan on joining one of the House Units as an APS pilot. I just got to figure out how I’m going to do that.”
Alice smiles at her. “I’ll make you a deal Cissy, if you stay here and graduate I’ll get you in one of the finest House Units there is, and as an APS pilot.”
“IF you can do that, with me being a T-girl, I’ll stay here tell I get my advance degree in something. What I don’t know, but it’ll be in something.”
I smile at her. “Cissy, I have a feeling that the curriculum is going to be undergoing a radical change over the next few weeks.” Looking over at Alice “Ok, love, time to deliver the first of the retaliatory strikes. Charlie has control of the cameras and Dee De is ready to broadcast the signal all over the campus. All we need now are some towels.”
“Towels, what are we going to do with towels?”
“It’s simple we wrap them around us like we just stepped out of the showers, then as we exit the bathroom you go left I go right and we slide under their fire. If we do this right they’ll hit each other. With Dee De broad casting everything that happens by the time they get cleaned up it’ll be all over the net and within hours all over the world.” The smile that crosses her face as she hears what I’m planning is one of total unbridled joy. The simple act of them trying to embarrass us will come back to haunt them a thousand fold. It is perfect; we use their own arrogance against them.
Alice steps over to one of the spare linen closets and pulls out four towels. She hands me two before disengaging her armor. I quickly follow suit and soon we’re naked as the day we were born. Wrapping the towels around our chest and hair we get ready to pull the wool over the Heathers’ eyes. Charlie gives me an update on their positions that I relay to Alice. We couldn’t have planned their placement any better if we had tried. I hold up my right hand with three fingers up and being the countdown. When I reach one, we shove the door up as wide as we can and step out together. Alice immediately dives to the left as I do the same to the right. Dee De shows the honey bombs going over my head as a pair of shaving cream balloons return form the opposite direction.
The reaction to our surprise maneuver was met with cries of outrage and cheers of approval. We couldn’t have done it any better. Everything went exactly according to plan. The ‘Heathers had hit each other with what would have been some very messy and embarrassing little tricks. What was even better was the fact that more than a few students, who were not part of the Heathers, had seen everything go down. Standing up I look over at the ring leader of this group. Smiling I walk over to her.
“Allow me to introduce myself, I am Maiha Mana Nakatoma, and you would be, Selina Kyle first daughter of Henry Kyle, CEO of Kyle Starship Lines. Let me give you some advice. Get out of the ‘Heathers’ before you wind up behind bars. If however you want to continue to torment your fellow students go right ahead. Just remember that I will be there to answer each and every one of your little acts of terrorism, with a response of an equal; or higher level of humiliation. In plain terms, you smack someone I’ll break your hand, you send someone to the nurse I’ll send one of you to prison. Now please, be so kind to tell the rest of your little friends in the ‘Heathers’ that I consider them all to be members of a terrorist organization. As such I can and will prosecute a war of total annihilation against them.”
The poor girl was at first shocked that anyone would dare to threaten her, then she became enraged. “Just who do you think you are to speak to me that way?! I’ll make your life a living hell! You do not tell a ‘Heather’ what to do!”
“Look! Bitch, I am trying to be nice about this, because you have no fracking clue as to who you’re dealing with. So I will enlighten you. I am Lady Maiha Mana Nakatoma, Head of House Nakatoma, and System Governor for the Death Gates System and First High Lady of the Death Dealers in this system. You do not want to go to war with me!” of course that is exactly what I’m doing, but she doesn’t need to know this. “Now why don’t you four young ladies go get cleaned up and leave my friend Cissy alone, or the next time I’ll really hurt you.”
Looking over at Alice and Cassidy I smile. “Come on girls we need to get ready for diner.” With that I head for mine and Alice’s room. They both quickly fall in behind me as I push my way past the two ‘Heathers’ that were covered in honey. Those honey bombs must have been filled clear to the tops. I have to give it to the little shits, when they setup a honey bomb, they setup a honey bomb. Those girls had to have been covered by at least a full quart of honey. That was going to take them the better part of an hour to get out of their hair, not to mention how long it was going to take them to get their clothes clean.
“Dee De, did you get all that?”
(GIGGLE) Everything from the time you kicked open the door up to the not so subtle declaration of war on the ‘Heathers’. (Dee De)
“Is it ready for up loading?”
In five, four, three, two, one, and it is on the net and sent to every students in box. (Dee De)
I heard a ping sound from our room’s com system signaling the arrival of an email. Smiling I look over
at Alice. “Alice, be a love and check our mail, please?”
She gave me a strange look and opened up the mail app on our system. Right there in front of her on the screen was a video file waiting to be down loaded and opened. Smiling she clicked on the file. It took a few seconds for it to load and then play, but when it did it was worth the wait. It showed the four ‘Heathers’ standing outside of the bathroom holding their little surprises followed by the door flying open and her and me stepping out into the hallway. The video showed everything that happened. It even showed me telling them to change their ways and to back off. From start to finish the video lasted a total of five minutes. Cissy who had followed us to our room just stood there looking at the video giggling.
It was a real boost to her morale, and it showed in her reaction to the video. “Oh man, I wish had a copy of that. I would send it to every person I know and their parents. The fact that someone is actually standing up to those bitches is going to make life around here so much easier.” The poor girl was as bouncy as a kitten. Not that I blame her. With all the shit she has had to put up with just to go to school here, I would have been just as happy to see the ‘Heathers’ get some of the crap thrown back in their faces.
“You do have a copy, Cassidy, it’s in your email account.” When she looks over at me I smile. “It was sent to every students email account along with all of the staffs’ accounts. They won’t be able to stop the signal. The information will get out. I figure that by the time we get to the dining hall everyone’s families will have seen and/or heard all about the ‘Heathers’.”
“But how did you know it will be, and how did it happen? What I mean is you got all this on video? If there is one thing I do know is that the ‘Heathers’ always make sure that they don’t get caught on video. The one time someone used the personal com-video to record what they did, that girl became their primary target for bullying until the poor girl dropped out. Everyone here knows better than to video them. How did this get done?”
