"So, I basically train them like Pokemon?" Marcy said, for the third time.

"Uh, pretty much," Tanya affirmed. "I mean, the knocking 'em out an' shit or breakin' them isn't a good idea. Assistant nearly ran out of Vitality once an' I don't know exactly what would have happened, but it felt real, real bad. That, like, go to the hospital immediately kinda panic."

Marcy nodded, then slapped her thighs. "Well, this just keeps getting cooler. Where do I sign?"

Tanya laughed. "Gonna have to wait 'til you're at full again, I'm afraid. It uses your Vitality an' stuff too, so I'm not taking any risks."

"What? But I feel so much better," Marcy said.

"So your Vitality is on full then?" Pete asked.

"No," Marcy grumbled.

Dante stood first. "We should be going then."

"Tomorrow?" Marcy asked.

Tanya grinned. "Tomorrow."

The group collected their belongings from around the room. By the door, Tanya passed Marcy the two sketches, scribbling the last of the Overlay notes on the edge of the designs.

"I can take these?" Marcy asked, eyes wide.

"I mean, tomorrow you're gonna be picking one, so probably best to sleep on it."

Marcy's face lit up before morphing into one of concentration. She folded the papers with care and gently slid them into an empty pocket in her bag.

With one last wave, the door swung shut behind them, and Tanya locked it.

As they walked away, a few last words floated through the battlements on the wind.

"Do you know which you're going to get then?" asked Dante.

"No clue!" Marcy replied brightly. The rest of the words fell away.

Tanya took a deep breath, and all of the exhaustion of the day hit her at once. She flopped onto the sofa, her back curving more and more with a groan.

"Not the day you expected?" came a familiar voice from the doorway to Tanya's flat upstairs.

Tanya forced herself upright before seeing Mrs Eceer's coy smile and slouching again.

"Did your mother never tell you how bad slouching is for your spine?" Mrs Eceer added, clearly joking.

"Somethin' somethin' blockin' chakras?" Tanya replied, waving a hand.

"Hmph, well, I suppose even a broken clock is right twice a day."

Tanya cackled. "Savage."

Mrs Eceer sat down on the armchair beside Tanya. "Is that what the kids are calling being right these days?"

Tanya snorted, sinking into the chair even further until her chin was pressed into her chest and her legs were splayed on the coffee table. "You've heard then?" Tanya asked.

Mrs Eceer nodded. "First customer in the Wyrm and Needle Version 2."

"I got so tongue-tied—thought I'd have more time to prepare." Tanya stretched and curled up instead, leaning her head on one squishy sofa arm. "Ain't sellin' things supposed to be one of those things you don't lose like ridin' a bike?"

"Tea?" Mrs Eceer asked, walking towards the Aga.

"Ugh, yes please," Tanya replied enthusiastically.

"People skills are some of the most fickle. As long as you charged them something fair for your time, everything else is icing."

Tanya smiled, warmth spreading through her chest. "That's one of the things me mum used to say." She paused for a second, hearing it in her mum's voice. Tanya sat up straight again, grinning. "That's what I got, by the way. Marcy has some way of communicating over long distance, and I've got a few hours with her to see if I can find me friends or me family."

Mrs Eceer spun round. "What? Communication?" She breathed it like it was holy. "I shall have to find some deal of my own—"

"Already done," Tanya declared.

"What?" Mrs Ecceer stammered.

Tanya wished she could take a picture of the absolute shock on Mrs Eceer's face.

"An hour with you was also part of my deal." Tanya finger gunned and winked. "For the wards an' stuff, ya know?"

"Good heavens!" Mrs Eceer propelled herself towards Tanya, arms outstretched, then faltered at the last second. She lowered her arms some, her face flushing. Then she looked down at one hand, stiff at a robotic right angle, and held it out for Tanya to shake.

"Fuck that," Tanya said, but her voice wavered. She leaned in for an awkward hug.

Mrs Eceer grasped her tighter than she expected. Her body heat seeped through the fine fabrics of Mrs Eceer's clothes. It only lasted a moment, but as they pulled apart, Tanya could still feel it. Mrs Eceer awkwardly smiled and patted Tanya's shoulder, taking another step back.

Tanya coughed, the awkwardness settling into a tightness on her chest. She already missed the comfort of a person's touch, and that made her writhe even more. "So, uh, did you just come down because you knew they were going, or…?"

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Aha, hm, I, uh, actually just put the finishing touches on upstairs—"

"I AM A GENIUS!" Olena yelled. Her feet clattered down the stairs from the flat upstairs, and she nearly ran past the entryway to the shop entirely, skidding across the planks and steadying herself with a very mucky hand against the wall. It left a handprint as she pulled it away.

"What did you—oh my goodness," Mrs Eceer said as Olena looked up, showing the panda she had become. All of her skin was blackened with a generous sprinkling of soot and dust, leaving only the goggle marks around her eyes clear.

"Care to share your genius?" Tanya asked.

Mrs Eceer was already dabbing at the smudge on the wall with her napkin.

"I have finished shop!" Olena clapped her hands. "Well, not quite, I leave last step for you."

"Do you know what she's talking about?" Tanya asked.

"Perhaps," came Mrs Eceer's cryptic reply.

Tanya looked between the two women. "Well then, which first?"

Olena turned to Mrs Eceer, "You finish upstairs?! This going to be such a good too-late shop launch night!"

Tanya looked expectantly.

Olena scratched her head. "Oh, yeah, uhhh, maybe Mrs Eceer first in case mine go wrong and break it."

"Onwards and upwards," Mrs Eceer declared, and they all began their group clomping to the flat upstairs.

Tanya tried to work out what Olena was talking about. Something that could break her flat? I mean, that sure did have Olena written all over it, but why would that be completing the shop?

Tanya's pondering stopped the moment she stepped into her flat. Ever since Ishita and Fahad moved out, the entire main area had been covered in tarps and scattered with tools. With the days so long anyway, Tanya had just been stumbling in the dark and flopping straight into bed.

The kitchen was gone, as she expected. She'd been meaning to update it anyway, and since the stove was old enough to use gas instead of electricity, they didn't have any hopes of repairing it anytime soon. Instead, the space had been fashioned into a second bedroom, with a partial brick wall salvaged from buildings wrecked in the Boss fight and thick linen curtains covering the remaining space. Tanya's old sofa was still in the same spot, but with an assortment of new cushions and blankets, and her ratty old mirror and coffee table had been swapped for a gorgeous vintage walnut. A patchwork of new rugs covered the scuff marks on the floor. Tanya walked further into the room and noticed the new feature wall, the lilac paint she'd had in the back of the cupboard and had been meaning to use for months.

"Olena," Tanya breathed. "I thought you were just helpin' me tear out the kitchen."

Olena zipped around the room, picking up the last remnants of the work. "Well, I mean, I was, but then Mrs Eceer hear and—"

"It's nothing, really," Mrs Eceer interjected.

"And then I get busy helping Ishita, and Mrs Eceer is all like 'I handy too'."

Tanya's eyes welled up. "It's like home still but…"

"New?" Mrs Eceer finished.

Tanya nodded, swallowing the lump of emotion in her throat.

Tanya walked further in, unable to keep her eyes and hands off everything new. She eventually circled round to the new bedroom, peeking behind the curtain. It felt strange seeing her kitchen gone, but also good. She'd likely find a few more stowaways before the Apocalypse ended—if it even would—and this way they could stay with her less awkwardly.

The new bed was metal with swirling spheres on the four posts at each side. Above the bed was some of Tanya's own art she'd forgotten about from some portfolio long ago, complemented by the same lilac paint coating three walls, exposed brick on the other.

"You remembered," Tanya said. "The lilac, me wishin' I had a guest bedroom. All of it."

"I do listen, you know," Mrs Eceer said gruffly, but Tanya knew from her watery eyes; she was as emotional as Tanya.

"Thank you," Tanya said again. "Both of you. The shop and the flat an', just all of it. I don't know how to thank you."

"Give me really cool tattoo!" Olena exclaimed.

"Of course," Tanya said. She looked at Mrs Eceer out of the corner of her eye. "Same for you, Mrs Eceer, if you ever want one."

"Hmph," was all she got in reply.

They left the flat, and Tanya looked at the stairs, then up to the little attic trapdoor. "Up or down?"

"I set it up there BUT want it to be easy, so we go downstairs for final step now!" Olena trotted down the stairs, two at a time.

"How the plot thickens."

Mrs Eceer made an 'after you' motion to Tanya, and they both filed down.

What have we been waitin' for with the shop—OH SHIT—the monster core. She hasn't…right?

The excitement bubbled in her chest until she was breathless.

Olena was far ahead, and Tanya was just glad she saw Olena's long, light brown hair disappearing into the back of the shop. If they'd needed to go outside, she probably would have completely vanished already.

Olena hummed loudly, rooting around in the cupboard beside the tattoo shop with her wiggling butt in the air.

Tanya approached, craning her neck to see inside.

It was an absolute mass of wires. Olena had haphazardly cut out all of the shelves, leaving just ridges where they once were up the sides. A metal plate coated the bottom, looking like some strange leftovers, tin turned upside down with holes punched out for specific wires to peek through.

"It's ready!" Olena called, standing too quickly and hitting her head on the top of the cupboard.

Tanya winced at the thud.

Olena let out a string of multilingual curses. "I am fine. I am fine," Olena said, backing out slowly and holding up her hands. "Shit," she breathed, touching her head again.

That was the first swear word Tanya had understood. "Shit indeed. Need any help?"

"Aha!" Olena raced to the back garden. She called behind her, "My part is done, but now it is yours!"

Olena reappeared in the doorway, cradling something heavy and wrapped in blankets.

Tanya didn't need to check to know it was the monster core.

"You sure that you don't want to…" Tanya stammered, backing up.

Olena was beaming. "No, no! You must have the honour, yes?"

"So, uh? What do I do?"

"Put it on metal plate in cupboard. Also maybe don't touch with skin? I not tested. Want to borrow cannon arm?"

Olena waved it towards her, and at the slightest movement, it armed itself, small cannons pulsing out of the space near the top and locking directly onto Tanya's face with red lasers.

"Fucking hell—" Tanya said, ducking.

Olena laughed awkwardly, slapping it on the side like you would an old television. The extra cannons vanished. "Sorry, sorry. Is sensitive. Need adjustment."

"What did you do to it?" Mrs Eceer asked, still eying it cautiously.

"Well, American girl broke it—very American of her." She scoffed. "Olena does not just fix things, she upgrade things. Every break is a chance for new!"

Mrs Eceer turned to Tanya, expecting an explanation.

"The guys today had been buffed by some manager class dude that made their interface too strong for the cannon."

"Hm, Manager Class…" Mrs Eceer replied, eyes already glazed over as she dug into her Interface.

"I'll just, uh, use the blanket?" Tanya decided. She felt a pulsing under her forearm as Assistant crawled out.

"Jesus Christ! Did you just summon yourself?" Tanya exclaimed.

"What?" chorused Olena and Mrs Eceer.

Assistant bowed.

Tanya shook her head. "This day just keeps gettin' crazier."

Assistant floated over to the bundle of blankets, circling it. Then it pointed to the Monster Core.

"You think you're safe to touch it?"

It indicated to all of them.

"You think we are all safe to touch it?"

"I'm not dying on a hunch," Mrs Eceer stated.

Assistant flopped back with a silent sigh, spiralling through the air before swooping back again. It pointed once more, this time more precisely.

Tanya and the others leaned over the bundle. Up close, it looked like a dark black metal, with glowing lines across at the connections. Tanya remembered it being more glowing before and wondered how it had changed since then. Now it looked sort of like a strange metallic puzzle cube. She followed Assistant's pointing, seeing little shapes engraved into the metal. At first, they looked like a pattern, but Tanya realised they were each slightly different. "Holy shit, it's a language!"

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