Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Six - So Very Unpunk

Becky was nearly done with her breakfast when Fran arrived. I'd ordered a coffee and a single piece of toast, mostly because the waitress behind the counter gave me the stink-eye and I didn't want to cause a fuss or be any more memorable than I had to.

We were just chatting about, of all things, music.

For someone so punk, Becky's taste in noise was real... mundane?

I liked classic punk rock and the late-90s early 2000s rebellious team-spirit kind of music that my grandparents had probably been raised listening to. The kind of stuff that told people to stick it to the man.

Becky liked video game OSTs and whatever was on the radio.

Pop. She listened to pop.

It was hideously un-punklike and uncool of her, but... yeah, I supposed that it kind of fit, in its own way. She was non-conformist to the point where it wrapped around to her not caring about being non-conformist. So punk she outpunked the punk stereotypes.

Cool shit.

Anyway, we were just wrapping up when Fran arrived. She pulled in at the back of a car so nondescript that it was almost hard to pay attention to it. Not some old beater, but like, an all-black SUV, with slightly tinted windows and no mods. Good brand, but nothing insane. The exact kind of car you'd expect a spook or a drug dealer to be moving around in.

She stepped out of the back shouldering a backpack, one hand casually shifting her hair over her shoulders before she called something out to the driver and they slowly took off and merged back into traffic.

"Oh, Blondy's here," Becky said. "Are we going to go meet her?"

"Better, yeah," I agreed.

I moved up to the counter, paid for my meal in cash, then asked the waitress to watch over my bike for a few minutes. I wasn't sure she would, but it cost nothing to ask.

Then I ran out, because I didn't need Fran meeting Becky unsupervised.

"Fran!" I called out as I caught up to Becky and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Good of you to make it, you're a little early."

"I enjoy punctuality," Fran replied. She smiled and nodded to me, then turned her pretty yellow-y eyes onto Becky. "And you must be the young woman that Deadline was talking about."

"Did she mention how hot I am?" Becky asked.

"Not in so many words," Fran replied. "You're certainly... forward."

"Yup, forward is what I am!" Becky said. She smiled, all smug and cocksure.

"You two can flirt later," I replied. I wanted to put an end to that, actually. Why? Because...

...

Maybe I should talk to a therapist at some point? Me not wanting two of the women I flirted with (and one with whom I'd banged) to get too chummy with each other was probably a bit weird. Like, I had no business sticking my nose in between whatever they might have. It wasn't like I owned Fran, and I certainly didn't have dibs on Becky.

Whatever. I took a deep breath, buried all of that to worry about it in a future loop, then gave both of them a confident grin. "You two ready?"

"Hardly," Fran said. "You haven't told me what to expect. I believe your instructions were to bring 'tough' clothes and that was all."

"Yeah, pretty much the same," Becky said. "What's the portal like?"

"I'll tell you about it on the way over," I replied before I started heading towards the lot with the portal. It wasn't far. Walking over would be fine. "The portal is an E-rank, on the lower end of that, even. Monsters within are buglings. Are either of you familiar?"

"Nope!" Becky said. She walked with her arms crossed behind her head, swagger on full effect.

Fran walked with far more grace and decorum. How she could give off 'corpo princess' vibes just by walking was a mystery, though it was one I wouldn't mind solving if I got to stare at her hips some more. "I'm only vaguely familiar. From the name, they're insectile?"

"Yeah. About this high." I gestured to my side to show what I meant. "Six limbs, big mandibles. Secrete a sort of cement in their... scat, and have a mean bite. They're insectile, so they're covered in an exoskeleton. It's pretty tough."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"How do they handle voltage?" Becky asked.

"I have no idea," I replied honestly. "But having seen you fry a few goblins, I feel like your magic will rip through them. Yours too, Fran. Like I said, bottom of E-rank. I wouldn't say that they're a non-threat, because that'd be too overconfident. They're still the size of a dog, they still have tough skin, and they still want to eat you."

"You seem to know a fair bit, did your research, did you?" Fran asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. Won't even be the first time I fight buglings at all. Ah, we're almost there. Here."

Reaching into my pocket, I withdrew something I'd brought just for the occasion. A set of three paper masks, the kind worn when someone had a cold, or when the air quality index was particularly bad. Then I pulled out three very cheap sunglasses, picked up at a gas station, and three baseball caps with the F-ENE Beavers logo on it. I didn't play much baseball, or care for it much at all, but they were cheap and had elastic bands.

"To keep our identity hidden?" Fran asked. "Shouldn't we have worn full costumes, then?"

"It's more of a just-in-case," I replied. "The site we're going to definitely has security cameras, but I know how to get us in. Still, if someone notices, at least some amount of cover is better than none?"

"Neat," Becky said as she took hers and fit them on. It did change her appearance a lot, though her clothes were very distinctive. Fran, in contrast, was wearing... okay, so her cargo pants and blouse and her canvas jacket all had designer logos on them, and her boots were hella nice, but it was all plain-looking-enough, even if I was sure there wasn't anything affordable on her.

We made it to the yard with the rows of garages, and slunk along the edge, heads down and business minded. No one came out to stop us, which I was kind of expecting. No one had poked around last time, either.

I made it to the door with the big 51 stenciled on it, unlocked it, then let the girls in. "Okay," I said. The portal was here already, buzzing and humming away, releasing a small but constant flow of magical energy that made the hairs on my arms stand on end. "I've got some gear to share. Mostly lights. It'll probably be dark in there."

"I can make my own light," Becky said. She snapped her fingers and produced a small, twisting ball of lightning that hovered above her.

"Sure, but can you keep that going for an hour or more, while casting other spells?"

She though about it. "Yeah? Maybe? It'd be tricky."

"Maybe take one of Deadline's flashlights, just in case, but there's no reason not to have you practice another trick at the same time," Fran said. "As for light, I also have my own. But yes, I'll take a light as well."

I passed around flashlights. Small ones, with clips meant to hook onto the belt.

I looked at the portal. It was just doing normal portal things. I hoped that it would go even better with two more people with me. It should. More hands made for lighter work, or however that expression went.

"Alright, I'll take point. Becky, let us know if you're going to cast anything, I don't need to be blinded in there. Ah, do you two want buffs? I don't have anything great, but it's better than nothing."

"Oh, what kind?" Becky asked. "Wait, buffs weren't on offer when we did stuff together last time!"

"I didn't have them, back then," I said.

"That was like, two weeks ago," Becky said. She started to count on her fingers. "Ish?"

"Yeah. It's nothing great. See Darkness, which gives you better night vision, and Soothe Minor Pain, which takes away the bite of some pain."

"I'll take that buff," Fran said. "I've been studying quite hard lately, to learn more spells. Unfortunately the branch of magic I'm most attuned to doesn't lend itself well to performance enhancement."

"Performance enhancement?" Becky said. "That's a lot more syllables to say the same thing."

Fran gave her a flat look. "Yes. Too many for you?"

"Alright!" I said. Well, there went the flirting... maybe? "Let's get this started, yeah? Save the sassy remarks for the bugs."

This was going to be a whole thing, wasn't it? Hopefully not, though.

***