Ah, the chicken, one of humanity's oldest companions providing both meat and eggs for human consumption. Too bad they are mostly extinct due to bird flu and other welfare issues. Now you can only find these creatures in remote corners of the world where you have to pay a premium for an egg and a carcass costs as much as a mega-building.

— From the documentary: From mighty lizard into luxury food.

After last night's party, I get out of bed a few minutes before midday. Leaving a grumbling Claire behind, I enter the kitchen where Yun Min and Cierra are eating some leftover cake while having a quiet conversation. I smile and give Cierra a kiss on her head before I grab myself a slice of cake and sit down as well.

“Should you not eat breakfast first?” Yun Min asks. “You're going to get fat if you start the day with sweets.”

I lift my shirt, revealing my abs, which I somehow have now, despite never working out. “I think I'll be fine.”

Yun Min shakes her head. “The world is not fair. "

I smile. "Like you have anything to complain about; according to Sam, you’re really fit yourself.”

Yun Min’s face turns completely red at that. “How would you know?”

“Sam texted me a performance review.” I say with a big grin. “You should be proud she gave you a high score.”

“Okay, little gremlin, sit down and eat your cake,” Cierra says as she pulls me closer.

I smile and do as she says.

Yun Min gives Cierra a thankful nod. “So, what is the plan?”

“We got the wrong eggs,” Cierra explains. "We need to go there and exchange them for the correct ones. You are coming as the muscle.”

Yun Min looks at me. "Why not let her be the muscle?”

“Because she is tiny so nobody takes her seriously.” Cierra answers. “You’re tall and strong, so you look a lot more imposing than our resident Smurf.”

“Okay, what’s going on? Did I leave the dishes out or something?” I ask.

“No, I’m just messing with you,” Cierra says, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

I nod. “Okay then. Do we have an appointment, or are we just going to run in there and ask questions?”

“I thought we'd handle this the Maniac way,” Cierra says with a smirk.

“I don’t think killing everyone will solve the problem,” I point out.

“No, not like that,” Cierra says, bumping my shoulder. “Just make a nuisance of ourselves.”

I nod and then look at Yun Min. "Anything to add to that?”

“No, just finish your cake and we can go.” Yun min says.

I smile and get to work on my cake. Fifteen minutes later and we are in one of PsyCo’s cars heading towards the… what’s this kind of place called again? A chicken coop? Fertility clinic?

We arrive and park our car in a very fancy parking lot. One with, like, those concrete barriers and little people in booths to keep an eye on your car. The clinic itself has ‘Hopeful Dreams’ painted in big letters over a glass sliding door. The inside of the building is very sterile, with lots of white and harsh lights. Pictures of mothers with babies are placed in strategic areas trying to convince you to have one of your own, as well as a singular office plant inside.

There’s a woman sitting behind the reception desk typing away at something as we walk up to her.

“Hello, how can Hopeful Dreams help you today?” the receptionist says with one of those customer service smiles.

Cierra takes out a metal container and puts it on the counter “I was here a few days ago to retrieve these eggs but according to our test they are not a genetic match, so we will be returning these and exchanging them for the correct ones.” She says with a business smile.

The woman nods and starts typing something. “And what is the name?”

“Evelin Vance,” Cierra replays

The woman rattles the keyboard some more and turns back to Cierra. “Those have already been delivered to a person named Cierra Vance.”

I quirk my eyebrow at that but don’t comment. Instead, I try to keep myself busy by digging through their local network.

“Yeah, that would be this one,” Cierra says, patting the metal contraption. “But the DNA does not match that of Evelin.”

The woman looks up at Cierra. "Are you sure you tested it correctly? Mistakes can happen.”

“I had it analysed by PsyCo, so unless you are suggesting that you have better technology than actual Samurai, I think you guys are the ones that made the mistake.” Cierra says with her dangerous smile. The one where it’s like she’s saying talk back to me again, and you will regret it.

The woman blinks, then looks at me, and then quickly switches to Yun Min, who has a visible assault rifle strapped to her chest. “Right, I am sorry, miss. I’ll try to get my manager and see if he can resolve this for you.” She says as she gets up and walks to the back.

“Cierra Vance?” I ask as soon as the woman leaves the room.

“Yeah, they don’t let just anyone pick this stuff up, so I just told them that I was your wife,” Cierra explains

“That makes a surprising amount of sense.” I admit.

“So, what will happen next?” Yun Min asks.

“Normally they would try to do their best to fix their mistake now that the subtle threat of violence is levelled.” I say as I jump over the desk to mess with the computer.

“Then what are you doing?” Cierra asks, giving me a look.

“Well, I did say normally, right? Yeah, so in this case, the woman is running. She left out the back and is about half a street away at this point.” I explain.

Cierra blinks. "Then why aren’t you chasing her?”

“She left her computer unlocked. I thought it would be faster for me to just look at it and figure out what happened.” I say while i start opening all of the files.

“I can go get her back?” Yun Min suggests.

“No, that’s fine,” Cierra says before turning to me. “Maniac, go get her back.”

I feel a chill run down my spine. “But I …”

“Please,” she begs, giving me a pleading look.

I let out a sigh. “Fine.”

I start up my teleport drive and set my coordinates to be a bit ahead of the running woman. I teleport, stretching out my arm to try and block the woman’s path. Well, she stops, just not before she hits my arm at full speed. Sadly for her momentum, my arm doesn’t budge, and she lands square on her ass.

I shake my head. “Please don’t try to run again. It’s annoying.”

The woman looks up at me in fear. “I’m sorry, please don’t kill me.”

“Why would we kill you?” I ask, feeling confused.

“Because we might not find the eggs,” she says, still looking small as tears start to form in the corners of her eyes.

“Well, that is not any reason to kill anybody, and we won’t know unless we try, so come on, let’s go.” I say as I reach out my hand.

The woman carefully grabs my hand. “Are you sure? That woman looked really intense?”

“She was just really looking forward to all of this, so when something went wrong, she got upset.” I explain.

The woman nods, and we walk back to the facility. Inside the reception we find Cierra frowning at the screen.

“Something wrong?” I ask.

“Not sure. I can’t make heads or tails of this; the admin is a mess. Whose organisation is this bad?” She complains as I slowly raise my hand. “Evelin, put your hand down.”

“Evelin?” the woman asks, looking at me.

I nod. “Yeah, that is my wife." I say, pointing at Cierra. “Don’t worry, she scares me too sometimes,” I whisper in her ear.

The woman just nods mutely as Yun Min shakes her head.

“Anyway, can you tell me where the eggs are or not?” Cierra asks.

“I don’t know. Like you said, our data is a bit of a mess, so we might have to look for a while.” The woman explains.

“Then we better start looking.” Cierra says as she gets out of the chair. “Any other ideas?”

“We can do a physical search. They tend to put names on these things, right?” I suggest.

Cierra nods. “Yun Min, want to go do that with me?”

“Better than just standing around,” Yun Min answers.

So the two of them go off to the freezers while I stay in the lobby to look through the mess of data. The woman keeps looking up from her PC to look at me from time to time. I try my best to ignore it, but it starts to get a bit distracting.

“Relax, we’re not in a time crunch, so you can take your time.” I say.

The woman nods. “Do you remember when you had your eggs frozen? It might tell us with whom it could have been switched.”

“That’s a good idea, so all my surgeries were done before I turned sixteen, and this was one of the first ones, because the medicine could fuck with the others. So, I must’ve been fourteen or fifteen, so five or six years ago.” I say as I try to narrow down my own search as well.

The woman suddenly stops. “You were so young?”

I shrug. “The world is a terrible place.”

The woman nods, and we continue searching. About fifteen minutes later, I find something that makes my blood boil. I call Cierra and Yun Min.

“The two of you can come back; they aren’t here,” I say.

“What do you mean they aren’t here?” Cierra almost shouts on the other side.

“According to the logs, my eggs, as well as eggs belonging to some other people, were sold to a company called the Akechi Project.” I explain, reading the transcript.

“I have never heard of them before,” Cierra muses.

“I haven’t either, but according to their website, they specialise in reverse engineering samurai tech.” I say.

“Do they sell any of it?” Yun Min asks.

“No, it says here they only take the stuff apart and send back a blueprint.” I explain as I look over their services.

“And those are accurate?” Cierra asks.

“I assume so; they’ve been in business for, like, over ten years. You can’t do that if you don’t deliver at least some results.” I point out.

“So what are the chances they still have your eggs?” Cierra asks.

I shrug.. “I’m not sure, but I’m also not sure what they would use them for, so here’s hoping.”

“Okay, we’re on our way back. Make sure you save the relevant details and send them to me,” Cierra says.

I frown. “Uhm, why?”

“So, I can sue this company for… is it theft or kidnapping? Fuck it, I am so pissed I am going to do both.” Cierra hisses out.

“Right, sure, sending you all the relevant details,” I say as I do just that as well as send a complete copy to the PsyCo server vault just in case.

I let out a sigh as I close the applications, then I turn to the receptionist. “Why is the issue never botched paperwork?”

“Because that would mean that you are lucky and so few people in the world are.” She answers.