Chapter One Hundred and Forty - Working Hard or...

I spent Sunday doing... not too much, really. I did a few longer loops practicing with my guitar, then some doing some French exercises, but I mostly took the day off and fit in three days worth of relaxing into just one day. It was very unproductive. I did call up Becky to see if we could go meet with Jane, but she was 'hella busy' so we had to put it off for Monday. As it turned out, that was a better time for Jane too, so it was all good.

So, the next morning, on Monday, I left the house only somewhat reluctantly, and headed out to work for another boring day.

"Yo, boss," I said to Eldur. It was... ten something in the morning, so too early to really start thinking about lunch, and I was currently tangled in a torture device that was claiming to be an exercise machine.

It wasn't all bad. The Luna Corp gym had some pretty nice machines, and this was probably one of them. I just wasn't feeling very charitable to it since I'd set the machine to 'D' on the scale and now I could barely keep up with it.

"Morning," he said. "Working hard?"

"Yeah, you could say that," I replied. I let go of a handle, letting some weight clink back down, then I grabbed a towel and rubbed my face free of sweat. The one nice thing was that... well, I needed this?

If I wanted to increase my capabilities, then I'd need to keep working out. As it was, I was a little, teeny-bit, lazy about it.

Look, no one wanted to wake up at god-no o' clock in the morning to do push ups and situps on the floor.

At the same time, if I expected to get stronger, then I needed to push myself, work on my musculature and cardio, and actually, physically, get stronger. I still had a bit of flab around my stomach, which was especially visible if I bent forwards a little, and my arms had a bit of dangly skin, and my thighs weren't thick enough to snap someone's neck. The less said about the flatness of my ass the better.

Basically, I had an unrealistic mental image of what I could be, and I'd never reach it if I didn't do an unreasonable amount of work to get there.

"Hey, Eldur," I called out before he could head out. "Uh, what's the plan for the rest of the week?"

"We're on workout duty today. Some training tomorrow, and then Wednesday to Friday we're the squad on quick-response. There are two or three portals that might re-appear in that time."

"Cool," I said. "Uh, hey, let's say I had an operation scheduled for new cyberware, how would I go about asking for a day off?"

Eldur stared, then sighed. "When's the operation?"

"Wednesday night," I said.

"And the cyberware?"

"Nothing too special," I replied. "Some ear augs. To keep the tinnitus at bay. New eyes. And I'm getting a little biomod too."

"That's a lot," he said.

"Nah, it's three small things," I said. "But... a day off to recoup wouldn't hurt?"

Eldur rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Fine," he said. "I'll see if I can't get you scheduled medical leave for Thursday. But next time, two week's warning."

"Two weeks?" I asked. "That's not much."

"How quickly did you get your operation scheduled? Usually there are month-long waits."

"Oh, uh, yeah, I had a minor op planned. Just tacked on the rest. Maintenance, you know?" I lied on the spot. I wasn't a very good liar, but it was believable enough. All cyberware needed maintenance, and it wasn't impossible to get something new installed at the same time as one was checking out their other stuff for firmware updates or whatever.

Eldur frowned. "Fine, whatever. Don't make a habit of this, alright?"

I saluted. "Promise not to, boss," I said.

I went back to self-torturing myself with the weight machine. That occupied most of the rest of the day for me, though there were a few breaks and some chatting with others. I even got a few minutes to talk to Dharti and get some advice on the spells I knew. She seemed pretty happy for me, and said that maybe tomorrow, which was more of a calm training day, we could go over some options for new Nature spells.

That'd be nice. I was very much down to improve my repertoire. Soothe Minor Pain was a go-to for me at the moment, and while I didn't use Restore Stamina very often, it wasn't a bad cantrip to have. I was ready for something better, though.

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Work ended with more of a whimper than a bang. Five rolled around, and I stepped out of the Luna Corp HQ fresh out of the training room showers, dressed in casual clothes with my biker jacket slung over one shoulder.

I paused a little as I saw Louise by the lobby. Could I go say hi? Only... she was busy, talking with someone else, and what would I even do? Walk up to her like a puppy starved for attention and make eyes at her?

What would Louise think of Deadline? Not me, the me that came in to work every morning and took that corporate cheque, but the me in a cool costume, fighting for love and justice and to line my pockets?

Well, I wouldn't be finding out today.

I got on my bike, started it up, then headed out. I rode pretty much straight to Full-Auto Stranger Danger, parking my bike out of the way before climbing off and simply walking through the fast food place out front to go right in.

Jane was there, sitting up on her counter, one hand behind her, the other tapping away on a phone.

"Hey," I said as I came up to her. How had she gotten up there? I didn't see a stool.

She looked up to me, then grinned. "Beanstalk! You're early."

"Only by a few minutes," I said. "How are ya?"

"Not bad, love, better now that I see ya. You been good?"

I smiled. "Yeah. I've been alright. I'm assuming you got my message about today?"

"Yup! You're outfitting another member of your secretive little group." She leaned back, one leg folding up so that she could hug her knee. It made the long skirt she was wearing bunch up and I found myself fighting not to stare at the shadowed outline of her thigh. I think she knew, because her grin became shit-eating quick. "If we have time to wait, I can think of a few things we could do."

"In ten minutes?" I asked.

"I'll make them feel longer," she replied smoothly.

I fought back a blush. Dammit, Jane. "Maybe hold off until you've met Becky. I'm... genuinely afraid of what will happen when your energy meets hers."

"Oh? She's a fun sort?"

"You might like her. Or hate her. She'd got style but no... direction with it? It's frustratingly casual for her."

"Beanstalk, you do know how to pick 'em, don't you? First the princess, now the Becky character. Are we going for the same style of outfit?"

"More or less, yeah," I said. "Something to help cover her ID, maybe make her look like she's part of the group, you know?"

"I can do that, easy," Jane said. "By the way, don't you think that it's time for an update?"

"On my existing costume?" I asked.

"Yeah. You came in here with a budget of fuck and all, and I worked miracles, but I've got the impression that you have a little more in the bank now. Give me a budget and I can probably work on something real cool. There's magical materials out there that are wild, you know? Cut-proof leathers and magic-reactive metals and shit like that."

"That... might be interesting, yeah," I said. "But how big of a budget are we talking, here?"

"I don't know. A thousand bucks and I'll get you a better cut and tailored version of what you have already. Ten and I can slip in some decent magic materials in, but nothing too special. That'll at least cover my time and effort. Five times that, and I'll make you something real awesome. The kind of shit that you only usually see B-rankers strutting around in."

"For that kind of money I could get plate armour... like, really top-end stuff."

"Sure, off the shelf. I'm talking bespoke, usable, high fashion, probably enchanted, definitely magical, and unlike all those prudes who make that shit high-ranking corpos wear, I know that there should be gaps to show off some skin."

"I feel like armour very much shouldn't?" I tried.

Jane glared. "Then you're only protecting yourself from people who want to ogle! That's the opposite of what you want to do! No one will know that you're hot if you're covering up too much! You need to tantalize, to hint! To show off some sexy, sexy skin!"

Right... this is why Jane was... Jane.

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