Jane volunteered to apany Maria and I to the shelter. I’m sure she realised hoard I was being. I was never good with people. While the three of us walked Jane made small talk. “So, you’re the head of all the Samurai iy?”

  Maria nodded. “Officially that's true, but in truth I'm more just the main tact for everyone. Direg Samurai is like herding cats, you hope they go where you want, usually they do what they want.”

  She g the two of us, por opposites, walking side by side. “How do you know each other?”

  “We grew up together oreet. We had a few people looking out for us when we were young, so now we keep an eye on a few kids ourselves,” Jane replied casually.

  Maria turned slightly, “You grew up oreets?”

  I shrugged, “It’s pretty on down here. A lot of kids end up in gangs, others learn some sort of skill to survive. We just keep an eye on a few of the very young oo keep them from ending up like some people.” I poi Jane. Who immediately bonked me iurn.

  Maria smiled, “You both seem to have quite a positive outlook, despite being through so much.”

  “We have to,” I said, shoving Jane away, “beiive won’t improve anything. We know we don’t have much, we just have to make do with what we have.”

  “That’s a good philosophy to have,” Maria said, nodding.

  “Soooo…” Jaarted, a mischievous look on her face, “is our little Teddy one of the weirdest Samurai in town or what?”

  “JANE!” I looked at her in mock horror.

  Maria just ughed at our antics, “Not by a long shot. We have a data analyst that never leaves his room, a young boy who thinks he’s the main character in a mecha animated series, a surveilnce expert that dresses like a squirrel, and I use bio-meical bugs. If anything, she’s retively normal.”

  “You haven’t gotten to know her yet,” Jatered.

  I’d had enough of her attitude, so I began tig. Jaried to fight me off, while Maria stood by and ughed. It was the most normal I’d felt in a couple days.

  ***********************

  When we arrived back at the Shelter I was amazed by how different it looked. People were ba the streets, the market was already half set up, and there were some sort of giant maes ing up the site. They looked like unmanned bulldozers, but instead of just shoving the debris out of the way they were pulverizing and colleg it. The spectacle had attracted quite a few spectators already, and we had to push through to get on-site.

  We were briefly stopped by some sort of flying crowd trol bot, it kinda looked like an oversized traffie, but it let us past when Maria identified herself.

  In the middle of the Shelter was a gigantic truck, every on a while one of the maes drove by and dumped their load into a hopper on the back. Somehow that hopper was breaking everything down, then spitting the raw materials into different tainers on an attached trailer. Both Jane and I stared at the process in awe as roached.

  Maria waved at the man wearing a high visibility vest and hardhat standihe track. “Jacob, I have someoo introduce to you.”

  The man turned, and I got my first good look at him. He had a well managed brown beard, brown eyes, and was wearing stru attire. If he wasn’t w on a giant floating s, and standing in front of a high tech truck, I would have thought he was just another stru foreman. He waved back, “Maria, who have yht today?”

  “This is Evelyn, our Samurai, and her friend Jane.”

  “o meet you, I'm Jacob Stevens, aka Barricade." He held out his hands and a set of hardhats appeared. He plopped them down on Jane and my heads. "This is a stru site, safety first.” He certainly had a friendly smile.

  “Jacob here mostly works on rescue, recovery and restru. Hence all the support bots and stru equipment,” Maria expined.

  Jaodded. “A lot of us were shocked when we heard the Shelter down here was… missing. I came dowo help fix things, aa is double cheg the status of all the others.”

  “Yoing to rebuild everything, yourself?”

  “And I’ll be a lot faster than any ventional stru pany,” he smirked.

  I winced, “Well my AI Nyx has already, how did he put it, reallocated some funds from Indico’s ats to pay for the repairs. I thought we'd just make them actually pay for the stru like they promised.”

  Maria and Jacob exged a gnce. “Although I don’t usually agree with ‘reallog’ funds as you put it,” Maria started, “You’re not the first Samurai to take funds from a corrupt pany to help people. Put whatever you against the Shelter, then maybe make sure those kids are taken care of.”

  Jaodded, “You pay for the raw materials and basic furnishings if you want, but you won’t have to pay the stru costs.”

  Spooky stepped forward, “ you add some extra space for Evelyn to set up?”

  Everyone looked at the bear, then at me, questioningly. “That voice is Nyx, my AI. He occasionally takes trol of my bots directly.”

  “I… could.” Jacob said hesitantly, “we take a look at the blueprints ter.”

  Spooky nodded and walked away. I could feel Jane looking at the side of my head, judging. I chose to ignore her.

  “I o head back topside to let them know everything is sorted out down here. I’ll call you in a week or so te a meeting with the rest of the Samurai in town, if that’s okay with you.”

  I nodded, “It wouldn’t hurt, thanks for all the help.” Both Jane and I shook her hand before she turned away, the helmet closed and she just flew away.

  “Impressive dy, right?” Jacob ughed. “I doubt the city would still be in one piece if it wasn’t for her. Too many strong personalities, and no one else wants to deal with them all.”

  I didn’t answer, for a moment, I just watched her fly. “She is something.”

  Jacob patted me on the shoulder, “e o's see if you, me, your friend, and the bear, figure out a good way to make enough space for you.”