The Meetup

"Should've started errands hours ago," Brian said as he poured some cereal, Cheerios at 2 pm just doesn't sit well with me." Bruce swung through the kitchen grabbed a scone from the pantry and then hurried out.

"Hey where are you going?" Brian asked but Bruce said nothing. A moment later he joined Ben in the garage who was opening up his cybernetic arm. Standrew grabbed a tool from the wall and scurried over to Ben.

"Hey thanks, buddy," Ben said. A moment later The Twins (who looked nothing alike) landed on the workbench and nuzzled up to him. The robotic hornet brushed past his hand but then the hummingbird landed on the table and pecked the other one away.

"Hey! Hey! Be nice to your sister!" he picked up both robots and perched them on his shoulders where they sank into the crook of his neck, "See, there's enough of me for the both of you." He turned to see Bruce with a rifle over his shoulder and a huge revolver on his hip.

"You're packing heat, where you headed?" Ben asked.

"Got buzzed over a private channel," Bruce said, "Somebody wants to meet."

"Mm hm... that doesn't sound suspicious at all, you know, on the tail end of a heist."

"Oh I know it," Bruce said, "But you know what a cautious guy I am."

"You taking Trip with you?" Ben asked.

"Thanks, but he's not very subtle," Bruce thank.

"I take that as a compliment," Trip said.

"I got errands of my own tonight," Ben said, "I don't like you going without backup, though."

"I got backup," Bruce bit his lip and whistled and a flying robot hovered around the corner. It was essentially a flying sniper rifle, a large caliber gun with four rotors and deployable legs to anchor it for a shot.

"That thing give me the creeps," Ben said.

"Why, because you didn't program it with a cutesy personality?" Bruce asked, "Not every inhuman robot has to act like a dog you know."

"The Twins' personalities are actually based on parrots and Standrew on a lemur," Ben explained, "If they're programmed to be friendly they'll be more likely to watch your back."

"It's a gun, Ben," Bruce said, "It doesn't need to be cute. I'm taking the van, not sure when I'll be back."

"Stay safe out there," Ben called after him.

---

It was almost sundown by the time Bruce arrived at the meetup point. He silently gave thanks that daylight savings time had been cancelled ten years before, otherwise it would have been dark by now. There were more places for attackers to hide at night, and they probably would have gotten there before him and had the chance to entrench themselves.

His mystery contact had told him to meet them at the port, for obvious reasons. It was abandoned but since it was still ostensibly corporate property, law enforcement stayed away. Only the occasional security drone flew through the site, and since there was nothing of value left, trespassing wasn't heavily enforced. This all made it into an underworld hub and the gangs and organized criminal organizations considered it neutral ground.

However, when Bruce observed the site from his position, it seemed like nobody was there.

"Think they chickened out?" he asked the robot hovering nearby.

"UNLIKELY," the self-aware gun said, "I AM CALCULATING A 75.6% LIKELIHOOD THAT THIS IS A TRAP."

"And the other 24.4%?" Bruce asked.

"THAT THE OTHER PARTY DOESN'T TRUST YOU EITHER."

"Well let's hope so," Bruce said.

"SIR, I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS ENCOUNTER."

"Just cover me on the approach," Bruce said, "take position up in that crane. Any snipers will probably be in that building over there, I can handle anything on the ground."

"AFFIRMATIVE." the self-aware gun flew up to the top of the crane and deployed it's legs to brace itself for a shot. Bruce knew it wasn't smart walking down, there, but it wasn't like he was going to just waltz right on in either. He kept to the shadows as he moved into the port towards a wide open area where the meetup would probably occur. When he got there he still didn't see anyone and he was considering leaving when he got a text message on his HUD.

in the office

;) xoxo

"Well that's kind of unusual," Bruce said.

"SIR, A CLOAKED HUMANOID JUST ENTERED THAT BUILDING," his backup said through his cybernetic phone and shone a laser on the door.

Cloaking technology was kind of a mixed bag. You could try hiding one electromagnetic frequency and hope the enemy didn't have sensors for the ones you weren't, or you could hide many frequencies and then cook yourself alive from the device's heat output. Most street samurai believed it wasn't worth it. But Bruce knew of one in particular who did.

"I think I know who it is," Bruce said, "Keep your sights on that window though." Bruce looked around to make sure there were no obvious threats like a cloaked RHINO drone then approached the building in a winding route to stay in cover. He drew the heavy revolver from his hip and held his hand a few centimeters from the door handle to detect any electric currents. He detected that it wasn't wired to anything, so it wasn't attached to any booby traps, at least none that could use his body to complete a circuit. There still could be a tripwire attached to it, but he didn't smell any explosives or toxins either, which eliminated that kind of trap. There could still be spikes on the other side...

Bruce shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. He could keep imagining traps all night which would leave him exposed and he wouldn't have accomplished anything tonight. At a certain point in his life, Bruce had just decided that he couldn't keep worrying about traps and ambushes constantly, so he cautiously opened the door and went in gun first.

"You're still so paranoid, but negligent," a female voice said, "You know there could have been an auto turret on this side."

"Autoturret, right," Bruce said, "That's the one I forgot."

He saw a a shimmering field like heat waves in a roughly human shape, the telltale sign of visual spectrum cloaking. Sure enough, its heat signature glowed when he switched to infrared.

"And you still haven't learned that everyone and their mother has figured out how to bypass a cloaking device," Bruce replied, "I know you're there so there's no point keeping it up." The cloaking field dissipated revealing the woman underneath.

She wore black like she always did, slim, almost flat-chested. This was compared to her wide hips and her thick ass of course. One of her arms, her human one, was bare and roped with taut muscle like a wound spring. Her hair was slicked back and to the side and one of her eyes was solid blue with no pupil but it did have a barely visible lens.

"Hey Brucy," she smirked leaned her hip against the wall.

"Kate, you bitch!" he said.

"Nice to see you too Bruce," she said rolling her eyes, "I'm fine thank you. How have you been?"

"Girl, we weren't sure you were still alive!" Bruce said.

"Sorry that my skills mean I have to keep a low profile," she said, "Oh come on, Bruce, you know me. You can put the gun down." She seemed more annoyed than anything else.

"Yeah, I know it's you," Bruce, "We haven't always been on the same side." Kate rolled her eyes again then pushed his gun down and got on her toes to give him a kiss.

"There," she said, "Better?"

"Yeah," Bruce said, "It's great to see you again."

"It's great to see you too, babe," Kate said, "This isn't a social call, though."

"I didn't think so," Bruce said, "What's this about?"

"The boss wants an update," Kate said.

"The boss?"

"Mr. Asim," she said.

"Oh," Bruce said, "So... you're working for him fulltime now?"

"He's the best gig in town," Kate said, "Been working for him for for two weeks."

"Two weeks and you never bothered to call us?"

"I was busy making sure you boys didn't end up in prison, or worse," she explained, "Word on the street is somebody reported gunshots at SEXPO and it's hysteria at Robcorp at the moment. I take it you were successful then."

"We stole the robot yes," Bruce said.

"And you left a body behind," Kate said.

"Occupational hazard," Bruce said, "Comes with the territory."

"You were sloppy," Kate said.

"We got cornered," Bruce said.

"Is it ready for action yet?"

"Not quite, we ran into a problem," Bruce said, remembering how V had suddenly morphed into Ben's late wife and attacked them.

"Ben's an engineer," Kate said, "Fix it."

"If only it were that simple," Bruce said, "Her code is protected by military grade encryption."

"Bullshit," Kate said, "It's a sextoy."

"It's a sextoy that tried to kill us when we tried to look at her deep code," Bruce said.

"It tried to kill you?" Kate scoffed, "What did it turn into a dominatrix with a whip?"

"More like pulled a knife on Ben and took control of our computer system," Bruce explained.

"How?" Kate asked in disbelief.

"If we knew, then it wouldn't still be a problem," Bruce said, "We still haven't seen how much of a problem it is yet because we haven't really tested its new systems."

"You haven't even tested it yet?" Kate asked incredulously.

"Well not her combat functions, but she's amazing in bed," Bruce said.

"SIR," Bruce's backup said, "MOVEMENT TO THE NORTHEAST." Just outside Bruce heard a screech like a red-tail hawk and thought the animal might have triggered the robot's sensors, but then Kate's face turned white.

"Oh no," she whispered, "Bruce, we need to hide. Now!"

Bruce heard the screech again and realized it didn't sound quite like a bird, more like a jet engine. Kate got on her hands and knees and started groping the floor, searching for something.

"The floor is hollow, that means there's something underneath us," she knocked on one spot in particular and said, "It's weakest right there." Bruce smashed the floor with his foot and the wood fell away revealing a dank basement.

"Get in!" Kate said and climbed down into the hole. The jet screamed again much closer this time and Bruce dropped down. No sooner did he hit the ground ten feet below when something landed on the metal roof above them. Kate put a hand over his mouth and dragged him back into the shadows.

Whatever it was had long claws which scratched at the roof with a screech every time it took a step. After a minute it left and Bruce noticed light from a door on the other side of the room then something landed in the gravel outside with a loud thud. Kate dragged him out of view of the doorway just in time before a shadow passed in front of it. Bruce held his breath until hurt and finally the thing flew off with a loud jet-powered scream.

"AREA IS CLEAR," Bruce's backup said.

"Why didn't you take a shot?" Bruce asked the drone.

"OPENING FIRE ON AN UNIDENTIFIED THREAT IS UNWISE AND SHOOT TO KILL PERMISSION WAS NOT AUTHORIZED."

"You couldn't have shot it down anyway," Kate said.

"What is it?" Bruce asked as they left the darkness of the basement.

"A new Robcorp unit," Kate explained, "It's been hunting me for ten months now, ever since the job I took in Buenos Aires. I don't know it's official designation, but it's codename is The Harpy. It's heavily armored and has more sensors than the Chinese media. If it's hunting tonight, we better get off the streets."

"Your place or mine?" Bruce asked.

"I have some things to take care of before I move back in," she said, "Besides, I'm closer."

"I probably shouldn't," Bruce said, "Unlike Ben's car, the van can't drive itself."

"Well then let's park my bike in the back of the van," Kate said, "But you are staying at my place tonight." She leaned against him and started fondling his crotch.

"Well if that's the case."