After introducing us—apparently the new girl's name was Luna—Dad took me away for a quick private chat. There wasn't much to say—I'd already confirmed that this 'Luna' was another one of the Red Faction's experiments, and it wasn't hard to imagine how her inclusion in the group was supposed to play out. That being said, there were a few things we still needed to discuss. Specifically, Dad was going to fill me in on the rest of her situation, and I intended to take the opportunity to talk about 'Dr. DeVille,' the Violet Bouquet, and also whine for a bit about how he scammed me with the sword.

'Luna' was originally known as Lewis Brunswick—and wow was that one of the most aggressively banal and sexless names I'd heard in my entire life. That being said, choosing a name like fucking 'Luna' seemed to me like a massive overcorrection. In human terms, she was the genetic product of a fairly well known Tier 7 Star Guardian who went by the alias 'Bloodbath' and an ordinary non-Guardian.

I of course already knew plenty about Bloodbath. Even among the upper tiers, and even among the true Star Guardians, some individuals were much more widely known than others.

Take my own 'dad.' The man was a middle of the road Tier 8—which, to be clear, automatically put him within the top hundred or even fifty in the entire world. He was also notable for his particular set of abilities that were uniquely close in their connection to incursions and breaches themselves. That being said, even though it wasn't hard to find information on him—do a search for 'Tier 8 Star Guardians' and you'd find his name, face, and a link to extensive articles about him—he wasn't actually well-known, at least relative to how important he actually was.

There were regular Tier 6 Guardians who were far more famous as Guardians than him. Ask the average person what they knew about 'Eigenmacht,' and they'd probably just ask you to repeat the question. It probably didn't help that he'd chosen perhaps the single worst Guardian name I'd ever heard of.

Regardless, Bloodbath was much better known, because aside from being a Tier 7 Star Guardian, he was also rather theatrical with violence. You could probably have predicted that from his chosen alias.

Also, unlike me, Luna was raised in a lower middle class family, despite both of us being put in LA. I decided to ask why that was the case. Why put me with someone like David Huntingfield and another, contemporaneous specimen with a clerical worker and schoolteacher?

"Well, among other reasons, we want to see how different environments during upbringing affect things," he explained. "We learned pretty early on that introducing you deep into human society is necessary to get proper results, and if we're going to go through all that trouble, we'd better well take it as an opportunity."

Makes sense—guess I lucked out, then. Or maybe they just knew I'd be the best and most awesome! One other part of his answer stood out to me, though. "Wait, what do you mean about it being necessary?" Now that I was thinking about it, I also recalled how he said we couldn't just stay on Mars. Originally, I'd attributed that entirely to the standoff and agreements they had with the Blue Faction—but he seemed to have dropped a hint that there was also something more.

But he refused to explain it. Ironically, that cemented my belief that there was something extremely important—and they didn't want me to know what it was yet. Goddamn stupid secrecy bullshit.

Regardless, the other main information of relevance was that they'd never seen the sex change thing happen until now—but my dad wasn't surprised about it. "In our experience, the awakening is often accompanied by changes to the underlying human form, although they are usually far less extreme. Luna might be the most dramatic change we've seen yet, though I'll admit you're also a bit special for taking things all the way in the opposite direction."

Seriously? That kind of pissed me off—and I got even more pissed off when he went on to further explain that the changes were "usually considered as positive by the recipient." Apparently, Luna was actually very happy about those changes, although she'd taken the rest of it less well. That pissed me off, because if Luna got a free gender flip, why the hell was I still stuck at five fucking feet tall? Minus two inches.

My dad kept rambling on, of course, seemingly indifferent to my tragic, vertically-oriented suffering. "In fact, you've adjusted to your new circumstances remarkably well already. I'd consider doing what you can to help her through it."

I wanted to roll my eyes. Yeah, right. Babysit the whiny new hatchling for us, will you? They'd have to pay me a lot more than they were to do something like that, and even then, I wouldn't actually do it. With all of that boring stuff out of the way, though, it was my turn to take control of the discussion. Dad already knew most of what happened the night prior, obviously, but I told him I'd figured out that the guy we encountered was specifically 'Dr. DeVille,' as well as the fact that I had a meeting set up with him later in the afternoon.

"Really?" He rubbed his chin. "That's an interesting coincidence. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to discuss things with you, and in fact, I'd encourage you to do so—however, there is one condition which is essentially non-negotiable."

I narrowed my eyes. "What is it?"

"Under absolutely no circumstances are you to reveal that you were created by a faction of Star Guardians." He paused. "Whether intentionally or unintentionally. I don't care whether you make up a different origin or just refuse to disclose it, but you will not reveal to Dr. Jason, the Bouquet, or to anyone else our own involvement in your unique circumstances."

I blinked. Wow, he's super serious about that. It wasn't hard to imagine why, though. Honestly, I felt like I would have already assumed not to do that. I just nodded respectfully, though. "Understood."

From there, I just took a few minutes to confirm some things about Dr. Jason and the 'Bouquet,' as my dad referred to the criminal organization. Finally—well, after complaining a bit about the sword and managing to wrangle a promise of some proper monetary compensation out of him—I asked for his help in keeping Katherine away from the meeting later today. Unfortunately, he left it to me to figure that one out, the absolutely useless jackass.

Just a few minutes after being separated from the others, I returned to the main living area of the penthouse, where Katherine and 'Luna' were both giggling over some stupid video playing on Katherine's phone. Immediately, I found myself assaulted with a bizarre mix of complicated feelings. It was a vaguely unpleasant cocktail of disgust, amusement, relief, and envy, all shaken into a noxious buzz. Disgust at the way they were cavorting around in my own home, amusement at the way they instantly latched onto each other, relief that it would surely provide me with a way to distract them with each other, and a seething envy at the 'competition' I was liable to face when dealing with either of them.

Therefore, the first order of business—well, socially speaking—would be to figure out Luna's sexuality. I had absolutely no idea how to account for the whole gender change bullshit, so I had effectively zero confidence in making a prediction either way. If she was—fuck. What would straight or gay even mean here? Whatever. If she was interested in men, then that would make things simple. I would just remove her from that particular component of the social equation.

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If she was interested in women, then things got a bit more complicated. It wasn't necessarily a problem, per se—I could just as effectively leverage both of them in that case, and it might even open the door for more potent forms of manipulation. That being said, it would still take more nuanced consideration and a more careful approach.

As for keeping Katherine away from my meeting—well, I realized I already had everything I needed to construct a solid plan. My musings over Luna's sexuality, as well as the first part of my conversation with my dad, gave me a simple but effective plan. So, taking a page out of my dad's own book, I loudly and obnoxiously clapped my hands together to get both of their attention. "So, since Luna is actually a transgender or whatever and only just did the switch, why don't we take the day and do some fun shopping and stuff?"

Instantly, Luna turned stiff as stone, as if I'd shot her with my evil Petrificationinator 3000 raygun or something. Meanwhile, Katherine's jaw dropped open, as if I'd just said the most ridiculous thing ever. In retrospect, maybe it was a bit weird to reveal something big like that so suddenly and casually. Eh... consider it as an assertion of dominance. But before I could figure out a way to correct course, a loud whump reverberated out from the direction of the miniature gym, like David had dropped a big dumbbell or something.

Even muffled by the thick glass of the exercise room, I could clearly make out the incredulous question that was no doubt directed at my real dad, Daniel. "You want me to—wait. How many million?"

Oh, that must be about the price of the Adamantite in my sword. Specifically, I convinced Daniel to pay me the raw material cost for the sword, since it was both worth a significant amount and was also supposed to be part of their initial offer to actively work for them. Turning back to two women still gaping at me on the other side of the living area, I shrugged. "Also I'm apparently kind of rich, now, so I'll even volunteer myself to pay for all of it?"

As it turned out, you weren't supposed to just 'out' queer people like I'd done back in the penthouse, which was another thing that made a certain amount of sense in retrospect. It was actually pretty embarrassing, since I usually prided myself on my ability to selectively follow usual social norms and even use them as tools with which to fulfill a particular purpose. Evidently, there was a whole new world of norms that I'd need to rapidly learn to navigate.

In fact, Katherine actually hit me. The bitch literally walked over and socked me. I didn't do anything to avoid it because I never imagined she had it in her to actually do something like that. Sure, I could have played it like I was confused and innocent and oh no, she hit me! But the truth was that I was just totally unprepared. Fortunately, she wasn't strong enough to seriously injure me like that in the first place, and even though she could have potentially bruised me a bit, she did sort of chicken out a little at the end. It was, ultimately, a rather weak punch.

But still! The fact remained that Katherine fucking Legato, of all people, had walked over to Alexis Huntingfield and socked her. The indignity! Not that I would complain about it verbally.

Also, we did in fact proceed with my original plan of 'going shopping.' The idea was to force Katherine into dealing with Luna, and when it came time to meet with the Good Doctor, I would simply saddle my fellow Star Guardian with the newer recruit. It was perfect.

It also gave me points for doing Girl Things—you know, capitalized, with a little trademark symbol—with Luna. And, even more importantly, it was an opportunity to dress myself appropriately.

I wanted a sexy, tight-fitting, expensive, and outdated three piece suit. You know, mobster style. I didn't actually have any suits, mostly because I didn't have much formal wear at all. I was a rather informal gal, you see. That being said, I knew exactly where we needed to go, and David was kind enough to take us there. The first order of business was obviously to handle the suit. There were two important reasons for this, and it wasn't because ooooooh, Alex is selfish and impatient.

First, an utterly non-negotiable requirement for the suit was that it would be tailored precisely to my own figure. That meant I needed to give the suit people as much time to work with as I could, since the actual meeting would be later this very same day. The second reason for putting my own suit-acquiring needs first was that I needed to keep Luna excited and anticipatory. Doing so would just make the whole process a lot easier. If I could delay things for long enough, the new girl would be at peak excitement at the same time I would be ditching her and Katherine together.

Ha. New girl. New, girl. Very funny stuff, right there.

Anyway, that's how we ended up in what looked like an extremely expensive, high-class men's clothing store in the richest, glitziest heart of LA. Most likely, it looked like that because that's exactly what it was. Luna, predictably, was looking rather disappointed, not that I actually cared. "Wow, holy shit, look at this." I held up a shiny, light brown leather dress shoe that looked basically identical to all the others. "Look at the price of this thing. And to think that old men make comics complaining about the cost of their wives' shoes."

It was several thousand dollars, and so were all the other ones that were just slightly different. "Oh look, this one's black, and this one is also black, but it's less shiny." I turned it over. "Oh, I guess the buckle part is also a bit different."

"Excuse me, miss, can I help you?"

Turning around to face the old, kindly looking gentleman who'd approached me, I set the shoe back on the shelf and put on a pleasant smile. I actually recognized this man from the last time I was here with David, not that I recalled his name. "You most certainly can," I said while sticking out my hand for a shake. "Huh. You worked on my father's last suit, if I'm not mistaken."

After just a second or even less, the man's eyes lit up. "Ah, Ms. Huntingfield! I thought you seemed familiar. Come, come."

Flashing Katherine and Luna a wry smile, I separated from them and began outlining my plans. I did have to brace myself, because there was no way around being violently blunt with this kind man. I knew all too well that a big part of his job was to steer clients away from 'bad' choices, but a particularly horrendous set of choices was exactly what I needed. "I'd actually like to get a few outfits fitted to myself, and quickly, if you can." Steeling myself, I pushed forward before he could say or ask anything. "One is going to be business formal, with pants, but for the other two—I'm just going to be honest—I want to look like a lesbian pimp."

The old man blinked. "I'm sorry—come again, Miss?"

Just under an hour and ten thousand dollars later, I was the proud owner of three new suits, 4 dress shirts, a leather belt, two pairs of dress shoes, a set of sterling silver cufflinks, three ties, a Goddamn cane, special socks, for some reason, and, most importantly—a dangerously potent aura and egregiously poor taste.

While one of the three outfits was a pretty normal, if masculine, suit, the other two arrangements were calculated to be dramatically more—eye catching. Along with being deliberately a bit overtightened in the chest area, the two offending outfits were both trim, three piece suits that were essentially identical except in color. While the 'sensible' suit was a dark grey with lighter gray pinstripes, the next suit was a crisp, stark white. I intended to pair that one with a shiny, satin black dress shirt and a lovely violet tie.

As for the final suit, and the one which I wore out of the store—the best way to describe it might be 'a violet nightmare.' The suit itself was a deep, somewhat dark violet, and the tie and shirt effectively mirrored the other combination. Essentially, it combined the same satin black shirt with a crisp, silver-white tie. Add in the matching fedora and classy black cane, and I was now a genuine menace to the state of modern fashion.

The violet theme was also a very deliberate choice, beyond just being particularly flashy. It was the color most associated with incursions, after all—so what better way to play things up than by branding my 'business' persona with the very same color? Yes, I was locked, cocked, and ready to rock—and when the other two finally caught sight of me, both of their jaws dropped. "Well how do you do, ladies?"

I sidled up between them, throwing my arms around both while fixing the lacquered cane behind my own shoulders. "Sorry to keep you waiting so long—I dare say it's past time we get the two of you ready for showtime."

I was pretty sure the two of them were now just about ready to faint.

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