Chapter Eleven - A Duel at Dawn

Chapter Eleven - A Duel at Dawn

"Breakfast is the mmmmmost immmmportant mmmeal of the day!

Mmmmraw!

Touch mmmine and you''re a dead mmmmotherfucker!"

--Marvin the Marmoset, Marmo-Os mascot, 2054

***

"Cat! Nose stole my spatula and won''t give it back!" Lucy called out from the kitchen.

I blinked, trying to process all of that. It was... seven forty in the morning, which meant it was way too early to deal with anything strenuous. Last night had had me laying on our bed, downloading a few terabytes of kung fu straight into my brain, and at the moment I was suffering the morning-after consequences of that.

Basically, I felt like I was dizzy, without being dizzy.

I blinked as Nose came running out of the kitchen, spatula held proudly before him like some sort of trophy. The little shit was grinning the grin of a victor.

So I swept in low, spinning my hips around and bending one knee so that my centre of gravity lowered even as my leg shifted outwards. I held back at the end, slowing down so that my low kick was more like a low bump that caught Nose''s shin just hard enough to send him flying.

Then, since I was low already, I reached around and caught him around the torso, one arm grabbing him around the front, the other snacking through his arms to lock him in place.

I landed on my shoulder, with the little shit stuck in a headlock. "Gotcha, bitch!" I said.

"No!" Nose shouted, then he started to squeal like a pig caught in a bear trap. "Lemme go! I don''t want eggs again!"

"What are you on about?" I asked as I put my new grappling techniques to good use and kept the little shit locked in place. Eventually I caught him so that I had a hand free, and I was able to pluck the spatula away.

"I''m tired of eggs! It''s all Lucy ever makes in the morning!" he whined.

"What? Bitch, are you some little rich corpo shit that gets to pick what he eats in the morning? You''re going to eat what Lucy puts on your plate and you''re gonna be happy about it! The secret ingredient is love! The secret spice is my boot up your ass!"

Lucy and I stared at each other, and then she shrugged. "I guess? I don''t think I have anything like that. Today we''re going to be learning how to safely use some of the things in the kitchen, which does sound nice. We have a bunch of things here that I don''t even know what they''re called. Like... there''s a food processor, right? But like, it doesn''t process anything? It''s weird."

"I''ll take your word for it," I said as I started to chow down. "Any more plans with regards to taking over the school?"

Lucy thought about it. "Nah. Not today. You can''t push too fast with this kind of thing, because then people start to feel like you have an agenda. It''s better to wait for the school to mess up and to ride people''s anger to the top."

"Mhm," I said. I opened my schedule and looked at what things were like for the rest of the week. From the looks of things, I have four half-days a week, and that was it. That left me... with a surprisingly large pool of free time. Lucy''s schedule more or less overlapped with mine, only she had a couple more days and a few more half-days sprinkled in. I''d have to go bring her to school and pick her up a few times each week, but that wasn''t so bad.

Meh, I''d figure out what to do tomorrow, tomorrow. I finished breakfast in a rush, then watched as the kids came in to eat. Lucy was good with them, all smiles and pats on their heads. She wanted them educated and ready for the world. Something that we just couldn''t do a while ago, but now it felt like the easiest thing in the world.

It being easy didn''t mean that I wanted to dismiss it, though.

Lucy ate, gave some of the brats some orders that we both knew wouldn''t be followed without one of us there to bully the kids into doing them--shit like washing up only happened under threat of violence--and then we both ran back to our room to get dressed.

Twenty minutes later we were in the Bastion, flying back towards the CIAL campus.

I noticed that there were more people around when I came in to land. Enough that I was basically forced to set down in the spot marked out for the Bastion or risk landing atop some dumbass who didn''t know to look up.

"Alright." Lucy said. "I''m off to class! Oh, hey, if I get a bicycle for getting around with, do you think I can leave it in the Bastion?"

"I guess," I said. It wasn''t a terrible idea. "But like... don''t turn my transport into a shed. I don''t want to have to pick through random crap in the middle of a fight."

"Promise!" Lucy said. "Love you! See you in a bit!"

I got a goodbye kiss, then Lucy took off. We were a bit on the late side. I stepped out of the Bastion and shut it behind me, then took off at a respectable clip towards class. I was joined halfway there by Olivia who was carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder.

"I wasn''t sure if you had clothing appropriate for physical exercise, so I brought some extra with me," Olivia said. "It''s all CIAL-marked clothing, from the campus store! So you know it''s got the CIAL seal of quality!"

Yeah, I bet. I was both anxious to get started, and anxious to be done with it.

***