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Made in jp
[MOD]
Anti-piracy Officer






Somewhere in south-central England.

The MPY Kuudere Detective Agency:
The Case of the Zombot Apocalypse, part 1



Yancy came to his senses slowly in the dark.

He thought he was probably dead. His head felt like it was the pinata at a rich kid’s birthday party.

This one time in the coroner’s office he had hopped up on the post mortem table to see what it felt like. Yancy had thought he was likely to end up there one day, and now he had.

He was lying on a cold slab of some kind. It was damp with a smell of chemicals and drains.

Yancy groaned to see if he was alive. It wasn’t convincing. He thought of opening his eyes. Still dark.

“Why am I wearing clothes if I’m dead?”

He felt in his pocket and got hold of a Zippo lighter. Ever reliable, it lit at the first flick. Yancy found he was lying in the tray of a walk in shower. Someone’s bathroom. He sat up, head spinning, and took a look around.

A girl’s bathroom, by the look of the toiletries thickly nested on the shelving. Yancy got out of the shower and switched the light on. Too bright. An ice pick in his skull. He switched it off again. He put the Zippo on the counter and hoped it would not get too hot. He used the facilities. He had a wash, at least, he splashed cold water on his face. Nothing to shave with. A single girl’s apartment. His detective skills were working anyway.

“Designer stubble, that’s what they call it. Very stylish and fashionable.”

The Zippo sputtered and went out. He stood in the dark and winced at the smell of burnt petrol fumes.

There was a hellish banging on the door.

“Yancy! Wake up, Yancy you bum!”

A girl’s voice. Not the first time he had woken up in a girl’s flat being shouted at. Yancy wasn’t a monk.

He fumbled the door unlocked. It was Moon Potato, his Kuudere detective partner, also wearing a rumpled suit which looked like it had been slept in.

“Get out of it Yancy, I’m bursting.”

She shoved him out into the cruel morning light and locked herself in the bathroom.

Yancy dragged his unwilling body to the kitchen and tried to find the makings for coffee. It was his first time in Moon’s flat and he didn’t have the energy to search hard. He gave up and sat at the breakfast counter, his head in his hands.

“What did me and Moon get up to last night?”

Yancy knew he had a roving eye when his aspect was hard-boiled. He didn’t worry too much about it. He figured Goddess gave girls curves so mens’ eyes would want to rove over them. That’s how the human race got continued. Birds and bees and all that.

Yancy’s eye had roved over Moon’s curves and her glossy auburn hair. They had danced together. He knew she smelt good and felt good and moved good. Moon had all kinds of moxie.

But Yancy had a strict policy not to get tangled up that way with business partners. His love life was complicated enough already.

“At least I’m still wearing my suit, and so was Moon, so probably nothing happened.”

He drank some water and scowled at himself in the mirror.

Moon came out of the bathroom and put a bottle of aspirin on the counter.

“You look like a thousand miles of bad road, Yancy. You really tied one on last night. I’ll make us some coffee.”

“Moon, we didn’t... you know... do anything? Did we?”

“Nothing happened, Yancy. You were a perfect gent apart from when you were sick on the doorstep. You took yourself off to sleep in the shower and avoid temptation. Besides, we were both too drunk for any hanky-panky.”

Yancy couldn’t think of a good answer to that so he kept his lips zipped.

“Here’s black coffee with sugar and four aspirin.”

Yancy sucked it down eagerly. He began to feel a bit less like a moving corpse, and more like a very sick man.

“Say Moon, I’m real sorry to have crashed on you like this.”

“It’s okay. It would’ve been all wrong to let you stumble back to the Palace in the state you were in.”

“Thanks anyway.”

“No need for thanks. We’re partners. We gotta watch each other’s backs.”

“Yeah. Let’s go out and get some breakfast. I need a pile of pancakes and bacon with maple syrup.”

“There’s a 24-hour diner down the street.”

They went out into the early morning, stepping over a pavement pizza.

Members were wandering purposelessly in the street. No, they were bots. Yancy and Moon were pretty much shambling themselves, even with the coffee inside them.

“Uuurgh,” groaned Yancy. His head felt like the dinner gong at a fancy house party when the butler lets loose on it.

A nearby bot groaned back at him. It lurched towards Moon and grabbed her.

“Get lost, ya punk!” she shrieked. The bot grabbed her arm and tried to bite it, getting teeth into her trench coat. The sleeve tore. Moon stamped on the bot’s foot and it took no notice. Yancy whipped his cosh out and gave the bot a real hard rap on the top of its head. It dropped like a sack of spuds.

WTF was that about, Yancy?”

“Look out Moon, there’s others coming at us.”

Three more bots were shambling towards them, with dead-looking eyes and mouths working hungrily. Their arms were stretched out ready for the tackle.

“Let’s skedaddle.”

They ran up the street and round the corner. More bots, no, they were members, but they were acting like the bots, shambling and moaning, their jaws working.

“In here, Yancy.” Moon pulled her Beretta from her purse and shot the lock out of the nearest apartment building door with six rapid shots. The noise was fit to break Yancy’s head, but the door bust open easily. A spent bullet ricocheted into Yancy’s snap-brim and knocked it off.

“Goddess, Moon! Take a look where you’re shooting.” He grabbed up the hat and poked a finger through the bullet hole.

They piled in and looked for a way to jam the door shut. There was a good set of bolts. They slammed them home just as the door started to shudder with the impact of bots and members throwing their bodies at it.

They went up two floors and looked out the window. A big crowd was gathered, trying to break in.

“Do you think we’re safe in here, Moon?”

“We’d be safer somewhere else. If we get to the roof, we can probably jump across to the next building and get out from their back exit. There’s only narrow alleys between the buildings round here.”

Yancy knew he wasn’t going to like that, but he went along because he reckoned Moon’s thinking was on the money.

The stairway lights were off and they didn’t hang around looking for the switch. They went up the stairs as fast as possible. Some of the apartments had moaning noises coming them. It was pretty spooky.

Yancy spotted the service door exit to the roof. They went up and found themselves under a gloomy sky. Moon went to the parapet and checked the possible jump. The next block was a bit lower.

“This is the place, Yancy. We can do it easy.”

Yancy hesitated. He couldn’t make himself go to the edge.

“Come on, Yancy. We ain’t got time to wait around.”

“Moon, there’s something you maybe don’t know. I’ve got an irrational fear of heights.”

“Hell! I forgot about that. It stopped you jumping for the Moon, didn’t it?”

“I didn’t want to jump, but I got the courage from Holo. Then I jumped with her.”

“Yancy, think of Holo now. I’ll hold your hand and we’ll jump together.”

Yancy rubbed his ear where Holo had bit him. He hoped her magic was still in there and might boost his guts. He held out his hand and Moon took it in hers. They ran in step to the edge and Yancy closed his eyes as he jumped off and flew to the other side.

Bang! Touchdown on smooth asphalt roof material and he tumbled over, skinning his hands and knees.

“Good job, Yancy!”

“Yeah, that was real fun. Let’s do it again.”

They found the service door to get inside the building. It was locked but Moon shot it out, this time shooting through her bundled up coat to muffle the noise.

“Can I put that on expenses?”

“My hat too. It’s tax deductible. Okay, let’s find an empty apartment where we can hole up for a bit, get some food and try to figure out what the hell is going on.


TO BE CONTINUED...


© 2019 Yancy08620163 | 8J3U37
aka Starship Captain 88

I'm writing a load of fiction. My latest story starts here... This is the index of all the stories...

We're not very big on official rules. Rules lead to people looking for loopholes. What's here is about it. 
   
Made in jp
[MOD]
Anti-piracy Officer






Somewhere in south-central England.

The MPY Kuudere Detective Agency:
The Case of the Zombot Apocalypse, part 2



Moon and Yancy got down to the top residential floor. They thought it would be good to have a view from high up, and stay close the roof to escape.

They listened at the doors. They found two which had no noises inside, and broke into both of them as quietly as possible.

They were typical 2LDKs, lived in but no-one at home today. There was some food and drink in the kitchens. They brought all of it to the corner flat which had windows facing east and north.

Yancy found a first aid kit and Moon helped him to clean and bandage his knees and hands.

“Yancy, this might sound stupid, but I’d like a shower. I’ve been wearing this suit since yesterday and I slept in it. I may liberate some fresh underwear too.”

“You do that and I’ll fix us some breakfast. We need to keep up our strength and morale.”

Yancy fancied he was a good cook. In his normal aspect he was, but his gumshoe aspect relied more on diners and Chinese delivery food.

Breakfast turned out edible enough for two overhung detectives on the lam from a crowd of lunatic biting bots. Fried bacon. Fried eggs. Fried tomatoes. Fried bread. Toasted waffles. Coffee.

Moon came back from the shower looking fresher. Her suit was rumpled but she had a clean shirt and a different tie. She looked at the breakfast table.

“It’s always good to keep up the vitamin levels.”

They got stuck in. Their hunger was subdued as fast as their hangovers. Both detective brains started running on higher wavelengths as the caffeine and protein got their energy levels jacked up.

“Moon, I tried to phone the Princess. My phone’s on the fritz. Look.”

The screen just showed a bunch of confetti and random strings of nonsense. Moon’s was the same.

“Isn’t this connected with the way the bots are running mad, Yancy?”

“I don’t see how.”

“The bots are sort of computers, aren’t they, and so are these kind of phones. Smartphones I mean, like you can play games on and so on as well as making calls.”

“So what?”

“You’ve heard of computer viruses.”

“Yeah. The computer gets kind of infected by bad code and then it does things it’s not meant to. Like the bots are doing now, or our phones. You could be on to something with this, Moon.”

Moon switched on the TV. It was a big flat panel job, plugged into the cable digital network. The screen showed the same kind of nonsense as the phones.

“That’s not scientific proof, but it would be good enough for Al Capone. ‘Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, third time is enemy action.’ ”

“Let’s check what we can see out the windows.”

Whoever lived here was a serious curtain-twitcher. They had a big pair of naval binoculars on a tripod, and a small set of officer’s field glasses to look at stuff close by.

Moon took the naval binocs and Yancy had the field glasses. They looked all around as far as they could see from both windows. Then they switched instruments and did the same. Then they compared notes.

The Scarlet Cathedral’s lights were out. The Casino’s lights were out. There were several pillars of smoke in different channels, presumably showing the location of fires. The Mod Channel looked well lit up but it was too far away to see much detail. The Princess’s tall apartment building also looked pretty normal.

There was plenty of movement in the streets, but it was all bots and members shambling around. There were a few normal members out. The ones who didn’t run away quick enough got attacked and taken down. After a bit, they got up again and started shambling.

There were no trolleybusses or taxis running.

“This is crazy! It looks like a zombie apocalypse out there. But how can a computer virus turn a member into a zombie?”

“Beats me, Moon. The only thing I can think of is, we need to get in touch with the Mods.”

“How can we do that? The phones aren’t working. Nothing’s working.”

“Nothing digital is working, Moon. But if we can get to our office in The Deep, we’ve got two good old reliable analogue phones right there.”

“Alright. It’s actually not that far from here. We’d be better off sneaking through the back alleys than running along the main channels. Let’s see if there’s anything useful to take.”

They took two duffel bags and packed some cans of food and drink and the first aid kit, and some DIY tools. Yancy hunted around for spare clothes which would fit him, found nothing and decided to go as he was.

“It’s camouflage. Makes me look like one of them, especially with the torn knees.”

Secretly the hard-boiled Yancy liked a bit of dirt and sweat and bloody bandages on him. He felt masculine like that. He was about 90% hetero male in his detective aspect.

Moon had used all the shots in her pistol. She swapped the empty magazine for the spare she carried in her purse. Yancy had six in the chamber of his revolver and a handful of loose bullets. They couldn’t share because the two gats were different calibres.

“We don’t want to start shooting unless it’s desperate, Moon. The noise will only attract more of them.”

“You’re right. Okay, we had better work out tactics. I say no splitting up, whatever happens. We always fight better together.”

Moon and Yancy had been in some pretty tight spots. They knew and trusted each other to be capable of fighting well if it was necessary.

“But slow and silent is the best way. Also, we must be able to see as far as we can, and not get caught in enclosed spaces. Here…”

Yancy had glued pocket mirrors to two kitchen spatulas with hot glue. He showed Moon how they could be used to take a look around a corner without showing yourself.

“That’s good, Yancy!”

They checked all their equipment and supplies, and set off quietly down the emergency fire exit from the block.

It was a slow and scary journey to the deep. It took two careful hours to get to the agency office while avoiding all contact with bots or members. About half-way, they started to hear a public service announcement on the emergency broadcast speakers positioned at strategic points around the channels.

“Attention all members. The channels are being overrun by zombie bots. The bots are attacking members and infecting them. Do not leave your homes until further notice. Avoid all contact with bots and infected members.”

It was repeated every five minutes.

“That’s the Mods, alright. At least someone is safe and getting organised.”

They slipped into their office block by jimmying the fire safety door with a chisel. They sneaked into the agency office and locked the door. They sat at their desks and looked at their phones.

“I have to call the Princess first, to check she’s alright. Then I’ve got to call Umeko. You call whoever you need to, Moon.”

Moon started calling her various Waifus and her Husbando.

In the Palace, Onecornchippy heard an uncommon sound. The ring of her antique dial phone’s bell. She ran to it and grabbed the handset.

“The Frog Palace, the Princess Onec…

“Princess, you’re OK!”

“What? Is that you, Yancy?”

“Yeah. I’m down at the agency office.”

“”Where were you last night?”

“I spent the night with Moon Potato,”

“WHAT?”

“No, I mean I slept over at her place.”

“WHAT???”

“I mean she put me in her shower.”

“This just gets worse.”

“Listen, doll, all that happened was she asked me to drink morning coffee with her.”

WTF are you saying, Yancy? You know what that means?”

“No I don’t. Look, Princess. What happened is we finished a big case. I got cranked celebrating. We were both cranked. Moon wouldn’t let me go back to the Palace by myself.

“I spent the night sleeping in her shower in my clothes. Then I woke up and found this crazy zombie bot stuff going on.”

Chippy was lost for words.

“Princess, you and me, we’re strictly Platonic, right? So even if something did happen between me and Moon, which it didn’t, then you would be copacetic. Wouldn’t you?”

“Hrrrrm. There are certain standards of behaviour that a Frog Prince is expected to follow.”

“Listen Princess, when I’m Yancy the Frog Prince I’m all Prince, you know that. But right now I’m Yancy the hard-boiled Kuudere gumshoe and I’m working a case. So zip it and listen!”

Yancy had never spoken so directly to Onecornchippy before. She was taken aback. She clammed up.

“There’s some serious Goddessdamn shenanigans going down in the server. I need your help.”

“I’ve been watching things from my balcony. It’s frightening!”

“I know. Now listen, doll, Moon’s got a notion about this situation. Moon thinks it’s all to do with computer viruses. It makes sense, but we can’t figure out how the zombie bots are infecting real members,”

“Hmm. I could think about that. Do some research.”

“Can you do that, Chippy? For everyone? This thing, it looks like it’s everywhere.”

“I’ll do it.”

“That’s my Princess. Now look, I’ve got to make a few calls, then me and Moon will get a plan together. I’ll call you back later. Don’t go anywhere.”

Yancy heaved a deep breath. That had not been easy. He steeled himself to ring Umeko. They were not Platonic, at least they seemed to be moving in the direction of not being Platonic. He didn’t know. Nothing had happened yet. Umeko was hard to figure out.

“Okay, I can handle this. Just don’t say anything about being with Moon even if she asks.”

Yancy dialled Umeko.

“Be cool. Be cool. Be cool.” He said to himself.

“Hello?”

“Umeko?”

“It’s Victor now. I’ve changed my handle.”

“Umeko, it’s me, Yancy. Sorry, you’re Victor now, are you?. Are you OK?”

“Hi Yancy. I’ve been chilling. Where are you?”

“At my office. The detective agency, I mean. Listen Victor, don’t go out. There’s something happening. Something is going down in the channels!”

“What?”

“Listen to the public service tannoy. It’s serious. Don’t go out until I ring you again.”

“Well. Okay, I guess.”

“I’ve gotta go now, babe. I’ve gotta talk to the Mods.”

“What’s happening, Yancy, what are you mixed up in?”

“Moon Potato has an idea, but we gotta run it past the Mods.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to say anything until I’ve got better info. I gotta go now, Victor. Keep safe, dear one. I’ll call you soon.”

“Take care, Yancy.”

Yancy wasn’t sure how that had gone, really, but duty called. He and Moon had to get in touch with Kou.

“How’re you doing, Moon?”

“Everyone’s fine.”

“Good! The Princess and Umeko are fine too. Actually she’s changed her handle to Victor. Chippy cut up a bit rough when I told her I spent the night round your crib, but I got her calmed down and she’s going to research the infection for us.”

“The Princess always forgives you in the end, because your heart is in the right place.”

“One day I may go too far.”

Yancy moped. There was too much going on. He had liked the name Umeko. It meant Plum Girl in Japanese.

Yancy liked names with meanings. His own name meant nothing, a deliberate choice to get away from the old days, when he used to kill.

His off server GF, Hikaru, was misbehaving and he knew it was his fault. It was great to be bought bikinis but what girls really like is conversation and proper attention.

“It’s all in the songs if you listen.”

Now this zombie apocalypse looked like being a lot of work. Yancy felt like things might go crazy suddenly. A tipping point.

“Things fall apart. The centre cannot hold.”

To accentuate the positive, Victor was a good strong name. It meant something powerful.

“Maybe I can get Victor on to the team.”

Yancy felt his spirits lift. He had up and down moods like anyone. Basically he was an optimist though.

“Hey, Moon! What’re you thinking about?”

Moon also had been thinking about love and relationships. It never was easy. She came out of her brown study when she heard her name.

“Hey, Yancy. Maybe things aren’t as bad as they look. Maybe most of the members are holed up safe in their cribs.”

“Yeah, but those noises we heard from some of the apartments.”

“Are we ready to ring Kou?”

“The sooner the better.”

Yancy dialled Kou’s number.

“Mod Channel, Kou’s residence. It sounds silly to say I am not here, but I am not here. Please leave a message after the beep...”


“Kou! It’s Yancy and Moon at the Detective Agency. We’ve got a lead on this zombie breakout. Please pick up!”

“Moon, Yancy. Thank Goddess you’re safe. What information have you got?”

Moon explained her idea about a computer virus.

“Yes, that’s exactly what is happening. The server’s bots are being recruited into a zombie net. Nearly all the bots in the channels are infected already and beyond my control.

“I’ve deactivated all the bots in the Mod channel to prevent them being recruited. We’re safe for the moment. My worry is that criminals recruit zombie bot nets to organise them into the commission of some bigger crime.”

“You mean at the moment the bots are under some criminal’s control, but they haven’t been organised to do anything. They are just roaming wild.”

“Yes. If the bots were properly organised they might be able to storm the Mod Channel and get over my firewall. They could get hold of my admin controls. Then it would all be over.”

That sounded real bad, but there was nothing to say about it.

“Why are actual members getting infected, Kou? How can a bot infect a member?”

“That I don’t know, Moon. But please try not to kill any real members. Maybe they can be converted back somehow.”

“OK, Kou. You know we’ll help any way we can. Is there something specific you want us to try and do?”

“First, keep yourselves safe. Next, try to get in touch with people you know who’ve got some skills. The Princess, for example. She knows a lot of science and could be helpful figuring out what’s going on with the infected members.

“I’ve rung her already. She’s safe in the Palace at the moment. I already asked her to think about how the infection spreads to members.”

“Good work, Yancy. Now, how easy was it to get from Moon’s apartment down to The Deep?”

“We sneaked through alleys and kept away from any zombies. It took twice the normal time, but we didn’t have a lot of trouble.”

“Do you think you could manage to get to the Palace and link up with the Princess?”

“Yes. We can do that. It will take two or three hours on foot.”

“Please would you do that, and ring me again once you’ve reached the Palace? I want to get a team organised. We can work better if we work together.”

“We’re on it, Kou. We’ll get ready now, and ring you once we reach the Princess.”

“Break a leg!”

Kou hung up. Yancy felt better to have a mission and a focus.

“Yancy, we don’t better rush straight out. Let’s get organised and cleaned up before we go.”

“You’re right as always, Moon.”

They prepared carefully for the trek. They started by writing down everything they knew about zombies and how to fight them.


TO BE CONTINUED…


© 2019 Yancy08620163 | 8J3U37
aka Starship Captain 88





I'm writing a load of fiction. My latest story starts here... This is the index of all the stories...

We're not very big on official rules. Rules lead to people looking for loopholes. What's here is about it. 
   
Made in jp
[MOD]
Anti-piracy Officer






Somewhere in south-central England.

The MPY Detective Agency:
The Case of the Zombot Apocalypse, part 3



Princess Onecornchippy, heir apparent to the Imperial House of Frog, had a pad everyone called the Palace.

Officially it was a palace. In actual fact it was a good size 4LDK in a swanky block close to the Mod Channel. The fortunes of the Imperial House were still low.

One advantage of such accommodation was plenty of storage. The Princess had filled her storage with girl stuff and princess stuff, and a hell of a lot of physical media like discs and books.

The truth is, Onecornchippy was a bit of a hoarder.

With the digital network down, access to physical media was key to the Princess’s research efforts. She started to look for everything she could find about zombies. There was a surprising amount of it.

Onecornchippy took it all over to her dining room table and sat down to work through it.

Down in The Deep, the Kuudere detectives were about to embark on their trek. They rang Kou and the Princess, to let them know they were starting out. They were ready and willing. They aimed to keep safe and secret, but they were armed and dangerous if a fight occurred..

The Princess researched like a champion. She tabulated everything she discovered about zombies.

She Blutacced the diagrams and tables on the wall and stared at them, free associating with the help of a very cold Negroni mixed up from Yancy’s stock. The strong, bitter cocktail fizzed in her bloodstream.

Her brain span off many scenarios, which she scribbled onto a yellow legal pad in rough shorthand. Eventually, she came to two conclusions.

1. The Zombie infection effect is a mass aspect induction and it can be reversed if we find the right alternative aspect and the way to apply it.

2. I need to call the Captain.

She decided that point one needed more input from alternative viewpoints, so she tackled point two first.

Chippy reached for her Bakelite dial phone. She dialled a long distance number. After many complicated routings she got connected.

“Hey, is that Chippy? It’s been a while.”

“That’s my fault, Captain. How are you doing?”

“It’s Major now, Chippy, I got promoted after my last mission.”

“Congratulations, Major! Listen, I really need your help.”

“You’re in luck. I’m heading for the server right now.”

“By yourself?”

“No, I snagged a tasty pilot boi to fly me in by shuttle. It’s an exciting ride because he used to fly gunships and he doesn't believe in autopilot. I’ll return him the favour tonight.”

“Oh, I see. That sounds… nice. The thing is, Tomoko, we’re having a bit of a Zombie Apocalypse crisis here at the moment.

“Zombies, eh. They don’t like blunt force trauma to the head, do they?

“You mean the cricket bat.”

“I’m into rounders bats for close quarter situations these days. I’ve been learning to dual wield.”

It was an alarming mental picture. You could always rely on Tomoko’s enthusiasm for smashing stuff.

“Well, count me in, Princess! Can I let Gonzalez land our shuttle on your helipad?”

“It will be a tight fit, Tomo.”

“Gonzalez needs to get used to operating in tight situations if he’s going to get together with me.”

The Major rang off. Chippy asked building management to hold the helipad clear for incoming traffic. Then she made a big pile of sandwiches for when Moon and Yancy would arrive.

The Major got in first. Tomoko was a tall, handsome girl with an athletic build, wearing a military uniform. Gonzalez was shorter, and wiry rather than powerful, and had a pilot suit on. He reminded her a bit of her lost love Mike.

Onecornchippy made them welcome and asked them to relax until the Kuudere detectives made it home. She could see Moon and Yancy from her balcony, sneaking carefully through the channels.

Yancy looked up at her with a set of field glasses and waved. She waved back. They made a dash for the main door.

Yancy buzzed up to her that they had made it. He got in with his key. Chippy set a pot of coffee to brew while they climbed the five storeys to her apartment.

When they walked in Chippy thought the detectives looked pretty beat up. They were both in dirty rumpled suits and trench coats.

Yancy’s knees were torn out and there was a bullet hole in his snap brim. Moon had a tear in the sleeve of her coat.

It was understandable, though, given the circumstances.

The Princess made introductions.

“Major Tomoko Dammijj, space marines commander on the Imperial starship The Heart of Choko.”

“Ensign Gonzalez, starship pilot.”

“Moon Potato and Yancy 08620163, of the MPY Kuudere Detective Agency. Yancy is also my Waifu and Frog Prince.”

Yancy liked the look of the newcomers. Gonzalez seemed professional and competent. The Major was intimidating. It was rare for Yancy to meet a girl as tall as him.

Tomoko was muscular and tough, her blue hair was cut tomboy short to go into a space helmet. But she also had curves. His eye roved over them discreetly. He was glad they were going to be on the same side.

“Moon, Yancy, we’ve met before.”

“You got me there, Major. I don’t recall the occasion, and I don't easily forget a gal like you.”

“You were fighting a big bunch of bad bots in a speakeasy in the Catgirl Sanctuary.”

Yancy remembered. It was the case of the counterfeit spuds. He and Moon had been pinned down by weight of numbers.

He called the Princess, who organised a bunch of her friends to come and help. There had been a tall girl in a cocktail dress, laying into the bots with a cricket bat.

“I recollect you now, Major. Thanks for your help.”

“It was fun.”

“Have you brought your cricket bat today?”

“No, these days I prefer a rounders bat. It’s very handy in tight quarters.” Tomoko dipped into her kit bag and brought one out. She flipped and juggled it expertly.

“I like a cosh myself.” Yancy showed her his nightstick. “I bopped a bot but good when it tried to chow down on Moon this morning.”

“Nice!”

Moon got out her cosh and the three of them started to discuss rough house techniques. Moon was a fan of the kitten heel stomp.

The Princess broke in. “This is all very interesting, but we’ve got a job of work to do.”

“You two gumshoes need to go and clean up and get new clothes. Moon, you can borrow some of mine. Then we’ll have sandwiches and coffee and I’ll explain my research findings.”

Moon let Yancy go in the shower first as he was far stinkier. She and Chippy tried to find some new clothes out of the Princess’s wardrobe. It was difficult because Moon was bigger.

In the end she gave up and decided to stick with her rumpled suit. It was important to maintain her detective aspect. Moon’s baseline had a lot of good qualities, but wasn’t much of a fighter.

Yancy had no trouble finding new clothes since he was in his home. He got a new suit but kept the hat with the bullet hole. He thought it made him look cool and dangerous.

Once Moon had also showered, everyone gathered at the dining table for a late lunch. While they ate, Chippy rang Kou to keep the Mods in the loop. Then she explained her research.

“To summarise the position, unknown criminal elements have infected the server’s bots with a zombie virus.

“Practically all of the general bot population is infected and swarming in the channels, attacking members.

“Kou can’t control these bots, but whoever has taken them over hasn’t organised them yet to do anything specific.

“Kou shut down all the bots in the Mod Channel. She’s safe for the moment, but if the zombie bots get organised they will be able to break in and take over the entire server.

“That’s problem no.1.”

Everyone looked pretty glum. Spelt out like that it seemed a bad situation indeed!

Gonzalez muttered something about taking off and nuking the site from orbit.

“Problem no.2 is that zombie bots shouldn’t be able to infect members, but they are. We’ve got an unknown proportion of the population turned into zombie members and roaming the channels looking for victims.

“I have worked out how this infection is spreading, and I think I’ve got a way to reverse it.”

Everyone cheered up. They knew the Princess was hot stuff when it came to science.

“Way to go, doll”, blurted Yancy. “Cough it up pronto!”

This was a hard-boiled way of showing his pride in Chippy’s moxie. He was trying hard to stay in Kuudere detective aspect. Being in the Palace was dangerously close to baseline Yancy the Frog Prince, and he had to avoid backsliding.

“Ahem. Right, here it is. The zombie is a powerful general aspect in itself. Everyone knows all about zombies. The media has been saturated with them for 10 years or more. All those films and books.

“What happened here is that a member got attacked by a zombie bot. She went down and got caught up in the aspect involuntarily. Another member saw this happen, and it triggered the aspect in him too. So now there’s two zombie members.

“These zombies start to attack other members. The infection spreads like a real zombie plague even though it isn’t. “

“What you mean is, the infected members aren’t infected, they just think they are infected and have to become zombies. Then they get the zombie aspect.”

“Exactly.”

Yancy was good at changing aspects. He knew about involuntary changes too, from recent bitter experience. Chippy’s theory made sense.

“Have you told Kou, Princess?”

“I wanted to get your opinions first.”

“You got me convinced, babe. I reckon you’re right on the money with this idea.”

Moon agreed. Neither the Major nor Gonzalez disagreed. They wanted to run it through the tactical computer on their shuttle, but they didn’t know how to.

“Hang on, you’ve got a computer on the shuttle?”

“Of course.”

“What if it gets infected?”

“It won’t. All our computers work in base 8. The programming is completely incompatible. The downside is we can’t use it to evaluate the Princess’s theory.”

“Let’s put it to Kou.”

Chippy rang Kou, who picked up immediately. She explained her theory. Kou agreed it made sense.

“Princess, what do you think we can do to reverse the involuntary aspect?”

“That is going to need a lot of explanation….”


TO BE CONTINUED…

© 2019 Yancy08620163 | 8J3U37
aka Starship Captain 88


I'm writing a load of fiction. My latest story starts here... This is the index of all the stories...

We're not very big on official rules. Rules lead to people looking for loopholes. What's here is about it. 
   
Made in jp
[MOD]
Anti-piracy Officer






Somewhere in south-central England.

The MPY Detective Agency:
The Case of the Zombot Apocalypse, part 4



They decided to keep the line open to Kou while the Princess explained her ideas. It would save time.

“To summarise, the Zombie aspect is very powerful and self-enforcing. Everyone knows it and they know how zombies behave; moaning, lurching unco-ordinatedly, and spreading terror and death in an anonymous horde.

“What if there was another aspect which is equally powerful, equally well known, but has the opposite characteristics; singing, dancing, and spreading joy and life from person to person.

“And there is; Mamma Mia!!”

Everybody started talking and arguing at once.

What’s Mamma Mia??
What? No, that’s crazy!
It’s a great idea.
I love Mamma Mia!
How are you going to do it?

“SILENCE ON DECK!” The Major roared in her best parade ground manner. Everyone shut up.

“Princess Onecornchippy. Please would you explain the details of your idea?”

“Thank you, Major.

“My point is this: Abba and Mamma Mia form a very powerful cultural nexus. Everyone knows Abba’s songs. Most people have seen the movies, or at least the trailers.

“There are various types of individual male and female characters united by song and dance and joy of life. There are rock solid core aspect and individual aspect features for everyone.

“It’s the precise opposite of zombies. ”

Yancy thought about it. He liked Abba well enough. Pretty much everyone did. Their songs were always on the radio even now. Lots of classics. And the other stuff.

Agnetha’s bottom in those tight jeans. The knee boots. His eye had roved… No, get back on track.

The pictures, well, they were chick flicks really. Yes, he’d taken girls to see them, because he wanted to please the babes. It worked. The dolls had loved it.

And he’d enjoyed the movies too. They were silly and fun. They were full of life and love.

“Princess, I’m on board!”

“Thank you, Yancy. What does everyone else think?”

Moon was with Yancy. Gonzalez was against. He didn’t know that much about Abba but he was new to the concept of aspects too, so his opinion didn’t count for much. The Major was neutral.

“I could be convinced if I could watch some of the movies, maybe.”

“What does Kou think?”

Kou hadn’t heard everything clearly. The Princess explained again. Kou thought it made sense. She had one question;

“How are you going to spread the Mamma Mia aspect triggers?

“That’s easy, we set up a playlist and repeat it over the public tannoy system.”

“Princess, how are you going to make a playlist?”

“You know, Yancy. Spotify or something.”

“But Princess, the networks are down cause of the zombie virus. Nothing digital can be relied on.”

“gak! What then?”

“This has to be done the old-fashioned way. We’re gonna have to make a mixtape.”

“What’s a mixtape?”

No-one knew except Yancy. He only knew because his father was into antique hifi and used to make mixtapes with Yancy when he was a kid. He explained the idea. It was simple enough and everyone got it straight away.

“Okay. Making a mixtape is easy if you’ve got the right equipment. We need a turntable and a tape to tape dubbing machine. Or two cassette decks. Also, the Abba records and some blank cassettes, and a ton of cables.”

“Can you use CDs and DVDs, Yancy?

“It should work if we’ve got a playback device with analogue outputs. An old PS2, for instance. They have phono connections. We still need the dubbing machine and some blank tapes. In the worst case I could do it on quarter inch tape. Reel to reel. That would be cool, actually.”

The Princess had a PS2. She had every kind of digital game machine ever released, pretty much. But she did not have any analogue audio gear.

Kou had a cassette deck attached to her public address system. It was an antique she had never bothered to remove.

Moon said, “There’s a ton of that kind of stuff down at the Dream Disco. They still play a lot of vinyl. I don’t know how we can get there, though.”

“We can take the shuttle.”

“Sorry, Major, but it’s not that easy. The shuttle isn’t designed for this kind of operation. It was pretty hard getting it onto the helipad. I don’t have confidence in my ability to manoeuvre and hover precisely in built-up areas. I’m more used to blitzing them with strafe fire.”

“You’re the pilot, Gonzalez. Well then, I’ll drive everyone. In my Land Cruiser. It’s over at my apartment.”

“How’re you going to go and get your Land Cruiser, Major?”

“I’ll walk over. It’s only 10 minutes.”

“You can’t walk around here with all the zombies, the street is swarming with them.”

“I’ve got my space marine armour in the shuttle. If I wear that it will be a piece of cake.”

The Major was tough and capable. Everyone thought she could do it if anyone could. She went up to the shuttle to get changed.

When she came back down she was wearing a full suit of articulated hardshell powered armour which made her seven feet tall and scary to look at. She was carrying a complicated gun five feet long. She had three rounders bats clipped to her ammo belt.

“Before I go, I want to work out the whole plan and make sure everyone understands it. Here’s how I see it:

“I’m going to walk over to my flat and come back in my Land Cruiser.

“You guys need to pack up all the essential equipment and get ready to load it up when I get back.

“We drive over to the Dream Disco. We’ll get in by climbing from the Cruiser’s roof onto the front balcony and through the windows. That way we don’t have to open the doors and let the zombies in.

“Then we help Yancy to make a mixtape. Once the tape is done, somehow or other we get it to the Mod Channel. Probably by driving again. We’ll have to firm that part up depending on the fluis tactical situation as it emerges.

Everyone agreed this was a good plan.

“But no plan survives contact with the enemy, so we have to be adaptable if and when things go wrong.”

They wished her luck and started packing their kit. The Major went down to the main lobby.

Things started to go wrong right away.


TO BE CONTINUED…


© 2019 Yancy08620163 | 8J3U37
aka Starship Captain 88

I'm writing a load of fiction. My latest story starts here... This is the index of all the stories...

We're not very big on official rules. Rules lead to people looking for loopholes. What's here is about it. 
   
Made in jp
[MOD]
Anti-piracy Officer






Somewhere in south-central England.

The MPY Detective Agency:
The Case of the Zombot Apocalypse, part 5



When the Major reached the lobby it was full of zombies.

Tomoko switched on her active camouflage and ran back up the stairs to the fifth floor. She banged on the door of the Palace, and shouted for them to let her in. The door opened.

“Zombies all over down there. Lock and barricade the door here. I’m going to climb down the outside.

“Gonzalez, get up to the shuttle and get the cargo winch swung out over the balcony side of the building. Be quick, and lock and barricade the access door behind you. There’s another gun in the ship’s locker. Don’t hesitate to use it.”

Gonzalez didn’t like this much but he didn’t argue. He had been under the Major’s command before. It had been the pinnacle of his fleet career so far, even though she was a Marine and know nothing about space combat tactics.

The Major had a power of decision. She had good judgement about her subordinates, and trusted their abilities. In return they trusted her. Gonzalez ran up the stairs immediately.

The Princess and the detectives began to barricade the door.

The Major climbed down the balcony outside. With her space armour and her athleticism it wasn’t hard to get down to ground level. She got moving toward the other Home channel, where her apartment was.

Whenever a zombot got too close, Tomoko casually smacked it away with a blow from one of her rounders bats. A trail of bot wreckage marked Tomoko’s passage.

“You need to get a look at Tomoko in action, Yancy. She’s magnificent!”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Yancy never went onto the balcony, because of his irrational fear of heights.

“Princess, what are we going to do?”


“I guess Tomoko will bring the Land Cruiser back here and park under the balcony. Then Gonzalez will lower us and the equipment by crane. We’ll land on the roof of the truck, safe from the zombies.”

A whirring noise. A crane hook went past the balcony. The Princess leaned out and looked up. She could see Gonzalez operating the crane on the helipad above.

She didn’t know the proper signals, but she gestured with her hands for him to raise the hook, and he did. She signalled ‘cut’ when it was level with the balcony. She got a broom, snagged the crane hook and locked it to the balcony rail. There was a harness for personnel attached, and a cargo net.

“Chippy, this is great, but how are we going to get Yancy down the cable?”

“I don’t know.”

Now that she came to think of it, she had never seen Yancy even go out on the balcony, however good the view might be. Getting him to go over the edge was going to be a challenge.

Chippy had read about the time Yancy jumped to the Moon. Acrophobia was mentioned, but it hadn’t seemed a big problem. But Yancy had been filled with courage and magic by the avatar of the Wolf Goddess. It was different now. He was on his own.

“Moon, we have to find a way. He’s the only one who can make a mixtape”

“Let’s just ask him.”

“Yancy, dear Waifu, please would you come out on the balcony for a moment?

Yancy walked to the broad wide open windows. But as he felt the wind, and sensed the gulf below, he stopped.

“Husbando, I don’t want to go out there, I really don’t. I’m sorry but I can’t do it.”

“Please Yancy… It’s really important!”

He edged a little bit closer. He got a chair and sat down in the doorway.

“This isn’t so bad,” he said. But he didn’t move any farther.

In some ways Moon was more used to Yancy’s psychology than his Husbando was. They had a different relationship. Not better, just different.

Moon went to the kitchen and looked for a bottle of rye whiskey. There wasn’t any. Yancy drank rye at the office when he was a hard-boiled detective. At home he drank gin.

Moon looked in the freezer. Bingo, a nearly full bottle of Tanqueray Export Strength. The good stuff, 43% alcohol.

She put three fingers into a glass with rocks and some ginger ale. She brought this to Yancy. He took it and raised the glass to her.

“Dutch courage”, he said, and drank half the glass in one go. He gasped. It was strong.

The Princess heard the distant noise of a big rorty diesel engine. It had to be the Major in her Land Cruiser. Sure enough the big truck came into view.

Tomoko was driving slowly and carefully, trying her best to crush any bots which got in the way, while swerving around zombified members.

The Major looked up at the apartment block. She saw the balcony with the Princess waving from it, and the cable of the crane stretching up to the roof. She parked carefully in the best spot below the crane, and opened the sunroof completely.

She climbed onto the roof with a loudhailer. She wasn’t wearing the space armour any more, just a skin tight body suit. The armour was too bulky to drive in.

“Chippy, are you ready to go?”

Chippy shouted yes. She decided to get the kit down first, to chalk up an easy win. She and Moon put everything in the cargo net. She signalled Gonzalez to lift the hook. She swung the cable out from the balcony.

Gonzalez lowered the load slowly to the roof of the Land Cruiser. Tomoko quickly stowed the gear in the load bed. She hailed for the hook to be taken back up.

“Crunch time” thought Chippy to herself. “Yancy has to go next. As long as the Major gets him safely to the Disco, we’ve still got a chance, even if Moon and I have to stick it out here.”

“Yancy dear, would you put this harness on?” She helped him into the personnel lifting harness and closed the buckles. Yancy was limp and unprotesting.

She signalled Gonzalez to lift the hook and helped swing Yancy away from the balcony. He moaned quietly with dread, then closed his eyes tight.

Gonzalez got the kook down to the Land Cruiser quickly. Tomoko released Yancy from his harness. He clung to her neck and hugged her. On the balcony they couldn’t hear what was being said. Yancy climbed down into the cabin.

After that it was easy. Gonzalez lowered first Moon, then the Princess. Then he slid down the cable using rappelling gear.

Inside the truck, Yancy was subdued. His eyes were watery and he was breathing fast.

“Waifu, that was very brave”, said Chippy.

“I’m okay now, Husbando.”

Moon slapped him on the back.

“Major, Sir, we need to get moving. Zombie bots are closing in on us.”

Tomoko drove carefully, and took a direct course to the Dream Disco. There were zombies everywhere. Most of them bots, with a few members mixed in. She only had to run over half a dozen. The big truck coped easily with the impacts.

They reached the Disco in 10 minutes and parked just under the marquee. It was easy to get from the truck roof onto the marquee. They smashed in a window and got everyone and all the equipment inside. The Major and Gonzalez went first, to check for zombies. All clear.

Moon led them to the audio equipment room. It was a treasure trove of antique looking stuff covered with physical switches, knobs and dials. There were racks full of cables, and drawers full of media; tapes and discs.

“We’ve got to get Yancy sobered up.”

Moon and the Princess sorted out the Abba and Mamma Mia discs while Gonzalez looked for a coffee machine. Tomoko walked Yancy around and around, talking to him to stop him falling asleep.

“You can do this, Yancy. You’re gonna be a legend. The best DJ in the server.”

Yancy responded to the Major’s generous head pats and several mugs of coffee. He sharpened up. His brain began to run on crystal clear wavelengths. His eye roved over her body suit in a rather unseemly way, but she pretended not to notice.

“Clear that workbench!” Yancy ordered. He started to pick through the audio equipment, wiring it up as he went along.

Meanwhile the others were arguing about the running order of the Abba songs. They decided to ease in with a slower number, then pick up the pace. Mamma Mia third, in the hope that members would be starting to engage with the aspect triggers, then alternate slower and faster number for the rest of the tape. The final choice was:

Super Trouper
Dancing Queen
Mamma Mia
Gimme Gimme Gimme
Does Your Mother Know?
Take a Chance on Me

Yancy took a look. He calculated the run time and asked them to get some C30s. They didn’t know what those were. Yancy explained the name system for cassette tapes, and they found some 30 minute blanks for him.

“Okay. I have to play out the tracks in real time, so be patient while I record them to the first tape.”

He put a disc on the turntable and carefully cued up the tape. He dropped the needle into the groove, and the pure tones of Agnetha and Anni-Frid rang out across the Dream Disco dance floor once again.

It took nearly an hour for Yancy to record everything to his satisfaction. He listened back to part of it and assumed it was all good. He then dubbed a spare tape at 2x speed and listened back to part of that one as well. He wrote out labels carefully.

“There you go. An original mixtape and a spare dub in case something goes wrong with the first one.

“Let’s dub another one and leave it playing here. They’ve got a good sound system. It might help to open the doors and let the zombies inside. We would have them trapped.”

The Princess and the Major vetoed this idea. They wanted to get the tapes to Kou as planned. Yancy was too tired to argue.

Gonzalez and Tomoko led them back out onto the marquee. There was quite a crowd of zombies in the street outside. There seemed to be members mixed in with bots. It would be to drive away without crushing quite a lot of them.

They dropped onto the roof of the truck and then into the cabin. The Major drove. They went as carefully as possible, and headed towards the Mod Channel.

With no way to contact Kou directly, they simply fired their guns into the air at intervals until Kou’s face appeared over the wall.

The Major threw the first tape over the wall, then the second one. Kou knew what to do with them.

There was nothing left to do except wait. The Major was good at waiting, but no-one wanted to hang around in the open while zombies wandered in the channels.

“Where shall we go?” she asked.

“Head for the plaza between the Casino and the Scarlet Cathedral.” said Chippy. “It’s the biggest open space in the server. If this tape is going to work, we’ll see it work there.”

“If it doesn’t work, we’ll be totally screwed.”
“So will the whole server. At least we can go down in a big fight.”

After a few minutes they heard the Abba tape being played over the tannoy system. It began to work on the first repeat.

Zombie members stopped their shambling and began to dance. Their eyes lost the dead aspect and became happy and lively. If they were attacked by bots they fought back instead of turning to the zombie aspect.

The weary detectives, Gonzalez and Tomoko lent a hand with batons and their heavy duty shotguns. There weren’t a lot of bots in the channels compared to the population of members. It was clear pretty soon that the zombie apocalypse was coming to an end.

Kou began to alternate the mixtape with a message to clear the streets and go home.

Tomoko drove back to the Palace. It seemed clear of zombies. The Princess thanked Gonzalez and Tomoko for their help and invited them for dinner the next evening. She went up the stairs with Moon.

Yancy waited. He wanted a word with Tomoko.

“Major, what I said back then, when I came down on the cable…”

“Don’t worry about it, Yancy. You were suffering irrational fears. No-one can help themself in that kind of situation.”

“And afterwards, you helped me sober up and, well, my eye roved a bit. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t mind the occasional roving eye, Yancy. I’m not 100% space marine. Sometimes I like to be noticed as a girl.”

“Anyway, thanks for your help. You’re a helluva dame.” He shook the Major’s and Gonzalez’s hands.

“I hope we get the chance to be team up again, Yancy. We’ll see you tomorrow, anyway.”

“Yeah. Actually, there’s something I’d like to borrow from you, if it’s OK?”

Yancy turned and slogged his way up the five storeys to the Palace.

Onecornchippy was fussing around tidying and filing her media stuff.

Moon had brewed coffee. There were some sandwiches left from lunch. Stale, but he didn’t care. He needed something inside him.

“That’s it, then partner. Another case finished. The biggest one yet, I reckon.”

“Not 100%, Moon. There’s something I’ve got to do.”


TO BE CONTINUED…


© 2019 Yancy08620163 | 8J3U37
aka Starship Captain 88

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/08/31 22:13:19


I'm writing a load of fiction. My latest story starts here... This is the index of all the stories...

We're not very big on official rules. Rules lead to people looking for loopholes. What's here is about it. 
   
Made in jp
[MOD]
Anti-piracy Officer






Somewhere in south-central England.

The MPY Detective Agency:
The Case of the Zombot Apocalypse, Aftermath



Yancy had one last piece of unfinished business before he could close the case.

“I’ve got to go out for a bit.”

“Do you need help, Yancy?”

“This is personal, Moon. I gotta do it by myself. Chippy, don’t wait up for me.”

Yancy checked his gat. Six shiny slugs slept in the spinning cylinder. He checked his cosh and his brass knucks. He checked the bayonet he had borrowed from the Major. He got some plastic trash bags from the kitchen.

All copacetic. Time to go.

Yancy walked down to the lobby and out into the gathering dusk. The streets were practically deserted.

Some of Kou’s new bots were clearing away the debris of dezombified units. The members were keeping to their homes, still traumatised from the day’s events.

Yancy marched out of Home and all the way to the Scarlet Cathedral. He lit a candle. He knelt and prayed for forgiveness for what he was about to do.

Then he channelled the old pre-Yancy. The person he had been before he changed himself into Yancy. The aspect who used to kill.

A dangerous light came into his eyes. They didn’t rove for girls and curves now. They scanned for targets.

Yancy walked across the square to the Casino. It was open but deserted. He turned the “Closed” sign on and locked the door.

He went to look for Saki-bot. He found her in the usual place, her office at the back. She stared at him.

“You and me, Saki, we’ve got history between us.

“I wronged you, I disrespected you, I freely admit it. Since then you’ve set your face against me, and I can’t win.

“I’ve tried everything to put things right. I’ve confessed at the cathedral. I’ve done penance. I’ve apologised again and again.

“I’ve abided the crap out of your rules. I’ve done all your quests.

“I’ve had to jump off a cliff and a tall building and slide down five storeys on a crane cable. Do you know how much that scared me?

“I’ve been shot at by enemies and friends. I’ve nearly been eaten by Zombies.

“I actually was bit by Holo, though to be fair I got a kiss too, so on balance that worked out alright.”

Saki clicked and beeped. Her optic sensors swivelled too and fro. She seemed tense but she said nothing.

Yancy became aware he was monologuing.

The pre-Yancy killer aspect wouldn’t have wasted his breath like that. He would have stayed sharp and deadly. He would have kept focus. He would have shot Saki several minutes ago, probably without even talking to her. Yancy was tired.

While Yancy was thinking, Saki leapt suddenly across her desk towards him, her mouth snapping.

He jammed his right fist between her jaws. She bit hard. It hurt like gak, but the brass knucks on his hand stopped her teeth from digging in too far.

Saki’s hands scrabbled for his face. Yancy had longer, stronger arms, and held her away from him.

Yancy pulled out his revolver with his left hand. He wasn’t a good off-hand shot but it didn’t matter at a range of less than a foot.

He shot Saki in the right eye. Her head snapped back, her teeth dragging across his hand and tearing the flesh. Her jaws let go of his fist.

He shoved the gun right into Saki’s mouth and fired twice. She slumped on the desk and Yancy put three quick shots into her body.

He checked his bitten right hand. It looked nasty. It was bleeding hard and it hurt like hell but it worked, more or less.

He reloaded his pistol and shot Saki’s head and body six more times, spacing out the impacts to cause widespread damage.

The bot sparked and jerked but it was random motion. Nothing worked. The mech was completely disrupted.

“Nothing succeeds like excess.”

Yancy looked around the office for some hard liquor to pour on his hand. There was nothing, of course. Why would a bot want whiskey?

On the bright side, bot teeth weren’t infectious like a member’s would be. He wrapped his handkerchief around his hand to reduce the bleeding.

Now the nasty bit. He took out the Major’s bayonet. He cut the head, the hands and the feet off the dead bot, and put them into three separate plastic sacks.

“Who’s gonna play football with whose head, Saki? Me. I’m gonna play with yours.”

He got a sheet of cardboard and a marker pen. He wrote out a sign that said “Closed for repairs” and hung it in the front door.

“Damn straight.”

Yancy let himself out the back entrance. He toted the sacks over his shoulder and walked east.

Once he got near the edge of the server he found a river in wild lands.

He threw the three sacks into it. He threw his gat and brass knucks and the bayonet in too, and the spare bullets in his pocket.

Not to destroy the evidence. His dabs were all over the casino office anyway.

It wasn’t much of a crime to shoot a bot, though. More like property damage. Anyway, who would worry about one more dead zombie bot on a day like this?

But it was part of the ritual to cleanse himself of the killer aspect.

Yancy turned and walked back into the server. He walked half the night, trying to drop all traces of his killer aspect. It had done its job and he didn’t want to be that person ever again.

He went back to the Cathedral and asked for forgiveness. It might work. It couldn’t hurt to try.

Eventually Yancy went back to the Palace and let himself in. Everyone else had crashed for the night long since.

He fixed himself a very dry Martini and knocked it back in one. He did it again. And again.

He had a shower and cleaned his hand wound. Then he went to bed and tried to forget everything.

Tomorrow is a new day, he thought. A new life.


THE END

© 2019 Yancy08620163 | 8J3U37
aka Starship Captain 88


I'm writing a load of fiction. My latest story starts here... This is the index of all the stories...

We're not very big on official rules. Rules lead to people looking for loopholes. What's here is about it. 
   
 
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