Leah’s ic was exactly how I remembered it, a heavily fortified bunker surrounded with security and anti-theft measures. Now that the Shelter was plete, it was the seost secure p the district. The exterior had a massive steel security door, it was strong enough to eveer the low level Antithesis in the Incursion a few weeks ago. I used to find it difficult to pull open, but now that I had syic muscles I found it quite easy.

  The front of the ic was empty. No oopped in for minor injuries or illnesses around here, only life-threatening s. I could see Leah’s silhouette through the frosted security gss that separated the waiting room from the medical area. She was easy to identify, no one else in the district had such a mess of curly red hair.

  I was about to sit down, when the inner door opened and a young man stumbled out. He took one look at me, turned pale, then ran out of the ic. “You’re quite infamous around here after what you pulled yesterday,” Leah said from the door. “I ’t say I really approve of your methods.”

  I wao give her a cocky grin, but couldn’t quite ma. Not after what happened yesterday. “Trust me, I already regret it.”

  “Good,” came her curt reply. “You should be a role model, and not go arouroying buildings. Seriously, nothing good e out of you l yourself to the gang’s level.” She sighed. “Now, what I do for you today?”

  “I always wao pay you back for helping me during the Incursion, so I thought I’d ask if you’d like any new medical equipment. Perhaps, a supply of free augs for you to install in the less fortunate?”

  Leah blinked in surprise, “Really?”

  “Of course. I’m pretty sure I make the augs with my equipment, and if you’re willing to install them in the local kids it would really help me out,” I replied.

  She looked even more fused at that statement. “Why…?”

  “I’m pnning on free education to the local kids. I know most of them either struggle to survive, or join the gangs just to get by, so I pn on them free meals as an iive to show up. Quality augs would help with that.” I gestured excitedly while expining. I hadn’t really worked out all the details, or any of them really, just an outli made sehough. I’m sure Jane, An and I wouldn’t have hesitated to put the little ones into a school if it was as secure as my base, and it gave them free food. Well, sidering my curreation people may be hesitant, but I could work on that.

  Leah stared at me for a moment. “Fine, I get behind that. I’d appreciate some ools to help install them too, thank you for .”

  “No problem,” I said with a smile, a genuine ohis time. “I’ll include a small number of nanite iors to help critical patients. I doubt it’s a good idea to keep too many here, they may attrauch attention.”

  “Fine.” She turned back towards her operating room but paused. “I’ll send you a list of tools I’d like updated. Please only send one of your helpers here when you o make a delivery, people feel a little safer around here, but they’re still hesitant to approae. I ’t have people afraid to e in because of your bears.”

  “That’s fair,” I replied, nodding.

  “Now, run along. You’re as much of a deterrent as your little robots.” With that, she stepped into the surgical room and smmed the door, leaving me once again standing alone in the waiting room.

  “Well that was fun,” I muttered to myself. There was no point in stig around any further, so I let myself out. The streets were busy; people felt safer around my bears, but it seemed like word of my attack yesterday got out, and most residents were giving me a wide berth. Not that I could bme them, in my own mind I wasn’t much better than a on ganger. I resorted to violence, instead of diplomacy, stealth, or any number of other options. I had to do better going forward.

  “So, Nyx, are there any abandoned buildings nearby that I could renovate to make a school?”

  Unfortunately no, it seems like people have flocked to this area and taken up residen every avaible building, even the ohat are structurally unsound.

  “Great… is that going to be a problem?”

  In the short term, no. Fortunately, the main avenues are built with a multi-tier road structure. There are suspereets eg all the buildings on the fifth, tenth and fifteenth levels.

  “Yeah, great, but they’re badly maintained so most people avoid them. No one wants to have a piece of pavement colpse uheir feet, then plummet five floors downwards.”

  The streets may be a mess, but the steel superstructure is still sound. This allows the stress to be distributed to nearby buildings.

  “That doesn’t sound safe.”

  In the long run, it’s not. If one building does actually colpse there’s a ce it could twist that same superstructure and create a domino effect.

  “Great! Wonderful! I’ll add it to the list.” I stopped and looked up at the massive interlog work above me. I’d always seen it as a hazard to cross, I’d never sidered that it could be a hazard to the entire district. “Fuck, well… I still need a pce for a school, and a way to obtain nutritious food to feed them.”

  Well, the food easily be handled by either opening a couple of catalogs, or buying it from a wholesaler topside. As for the real estate, you could block off the north side of the shelter to make a school, temporary or otherwise, or buy a building and kick people out.

  “You know I don’t like that sed option.”

  I’m aware.

  I groaned. Having a square block to set up in seemed like almost too much space to begin with, but between the residence, produ ter, multiple vehicles, and now a school, I was beginning to wonder if it was really enough. Whatever, it was food cause. If I used temporary walls I could always set the school up in the shelter while I worked on a more perma solution.

  “Fialk to me about food catalogs. Is there any way I could produough food to feed the local kids?”

  Sure, you just he space to build the growing areas.

  “Of fug course I do.” I paused, the anger draining out of me. “I holy don’t know why that never occurred to me. We’ve been discussing the ck of space for the st couple minutes. Maybe I should sult an expert about this shit instead of filing wildly here. I o follow up with the Family about a Teologies anyways.”

  I could tact the administration a an update for you.

  “Don’t worry about it, I’ll tact Barricade directly.”

  I sent a quick e request through my augs, and waited to see if it would ect. After a few seds, it did.

  “Howdy kid, what I do today?” Barricade asked as soon as the call ected. He sounded like he was in a good mood.

  “I’m calling for two reasons actually. First, to find out what happened with that a Teologies pany I found out about. Did anything happen with that?”

  “Oh, those jokers.” He grumbled, “There’s always some idiot that thinks they know better than the Samurai, and get away with some bullshit. Zero Drift, one of the other Samurai they stole from, found out about the operation and pletely ruihe pany and everyone involved. The kid wasn’t happy that they were targeting his mech. He treasures it more than anything else.”

  “Like… physically destroyed, or…” I asked hesitantly.

  “Naw, financial aation-wise. Haven’t you been watg the news?” He asked.

  “I didn’t really do that before awakening, and I’ve been kinda busy ever since I got back from Seattle,” I replied.

  “Really? Well, trust me when I say those idiots won’t be b you again. Unfortuhere will always be people out there that think they get away with this shit, so I ’t promise you it won’t happen again. What was the sed thing?”

  “Something more personal. I could really use the help of an architect, or even an experienced builder to help me pn out some improvements I want to make in the area,” I said hesitantly.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve run out of space down there already. I’ve heard you did good work ile, but I didn’t expect such explosive expansion. Most Samurai have a much smaller footprint than you.”

  “It’s not for me,” I huffed. “I’ve realized that trying to fight the gangs down here is a stupid idea, it doesn’t fix anything, so I want to build a school. Get kids off the street and out of the gangs’ hands.”

  I heard a pause oher end of the line, “You don’t have schools down there?”

  “Most people are too busy trying to survive to worry about things like education.” I shrugged, not that he could see it. “I pn to offer iives for kids to show up, I’m just g the space to do it. Pretty much every possible space down here is occupied, so I o figure out another option. Figured you might have some ideas I don’t.”

  “Maybe… I do have some time tomorrow. I ’t promise that I’ll have any solutions, but I check out the situation and maybe give you some ideas. Is that ok?” He asked.

  “Sure, thanks. See you tomorrow!”

  “Later kid,” he said as he hung up.

  I took a deep breath. I didn’t have a solutio, but I felt like I was making progress… somehow. Maybe I could actually do some good for my neighbors after all.