The Firehawk is one of the biggest pieces of proof that Sams get the coolest toys.

  And I’m the lucky girl who gets to tinker with it!

  -GroundWire, 2057

  “You okay Spark?”

  I almost didn’t hear Sky ask me that question, because I was too busy failing to pull my jaw off the ground.

  “I saw pictures of it in articles,” I mumbled. “They don’t do her justice.”

  Cryo stifled a giggle, “You in love with our ship Spark?”

  Not paying attention to her at all, I nodded without thinking.

  After we had exited the tunnels, we walked through the desiccated woods and eventually reached our entry point.

  Over top of it was one of the most beautiful pieces of machinery I had ever seen. It was obviously reminiscent of a giant bird of prey, if they evolved to have laser, and artillery cannons embedded in their bodies. It had a large cargo ramp in the back, which was opening to reveal a few massive tanks each painted with symbols for water, engine fuel, or…

  “Are those tanks full of flamethrower fuel?”

  “Uhm, yes.” Sky nervously fidgeted in place as her tail swayed behind her, “the Firehawk uses a lot of incendiary weapons, so I find it best to keep extra ammunition on board.”

  Nodding at her explanation, I prompted the stretcher to get closer to one of the tanks. Unlike the fuel and munition tanks, the water ones had high volume drainage systems built into them.

  “Aerial fire fighting equipment?” I wondered aloud.

  “Exactly!” Sky said, “I was actually an incredibly new helicopter pilot for the Indianapolis Fire Department back when I initialized a few years ago. Doesn’t feel right to go up into the air without a few thousand gallons to drop on a fire.” She pointed down the cargo bay at a few smaller chemical tanks. “Those hold a Class II fire retardant mixture for when dropping water won’t cut it.”

  “Sorry to interrupt the tour you two,” Cryo shouted from the ramp, “but do you want to keep the weapon emplacement you put in the gulch Spark? Seems decent and could easily be reused!”

  “Sure!” I shouted back, “At minimum I could take it apart for spare odds and ends later!”

  She gave me a thumbs up, and pulled some sort of winch from Aetherspace, “Sounds good! We’ll get it loaded up then! Sky can you get her settled down up front?”

  Sky responded with a wave, and guided the stretcher towards a door at the (Would it be front or rear?) wall at the end of the cargo bay. Through the door was a decently sized room that was some sort of communal space. A kitchenette with a small eating space was to my left, and to my right was a collection of multiple bunks, with a space clearly meant for the stretcher I was on. Considering the fact that that was where Sky put me.

  “This is kind of cozy.” I remarked.

  “Mhmm, Sometimes when we’re out for a while, there just isn’t a point in going home until we’re done so we just live out of the Firehawk for a bit.” Sky sighed as she pulled out a chair from the table, and sat in it. “Not really glamorous, but it’s better than anything you’ll find that's earth-made for sure.”

  She looked at me with a wry smile, “I hope it's obvious that if you want to take a look at her insides, you can whenever, as long as you put her back together properly.”

  “If I wasn’t fresh off of breaking both my legs, you’d have to stop me from digging into the crawlspace,” I said with a chuckle while gesturing to the grate embedded into the center of the room’s floor.

  Sky only shook her head before standing back up. “Cryo says the emplacement is locked down nice and tight. Her and Inque will be in here to watch you while I fly us back to your home.”

  “What do you mean by ‘watch me’?”

  “You’re clearly itching to get up from that stretcher despite still getting your bones mended,” Sky responded with a raised eyebrow, “You are getting rest for the next half-hour minimum, whether you like it or not.”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Listen to her Spark, give yourself time to heal. After all, you still have to explain to Evie why you have so many broken bones.

  I paled, “Evie is gonna kill me.”

  “Who, your cousin?” Cryo asked as she walked through the door, “She’s a feisty one.”

  “Yup,” I said, making my lips pop on the ‘p’. “She doesn’t seem to like watching me get hurt very much. Might be from getting my chest torn open this morning.”

  Inque walked in and instantly went to the fridge, “Ah so you’re one of the regular initializers huh?” xey let out a little ‘a-ha’ as xey found what xey wanted, “Guess that makes two of us then.” Xey reached up and tossed a juice box of some kind at Cryo then motioned to me. “Any flavor preference?”

  “You got strawberry?”

  “Does the pope shit in the woods?”

  I blinked for a few moments before an oily tentacle placed a juice box with a strawberry on it in my hand.

  “It’s an expression!” Inque smiled, “Some sort of amalgamation of sarcastic remarks.”

  I poked the straw through the top of the thing, “I’m surprised you said it and not Cryo.”

  I slapped my hand over my mouth so fast it stung.

  Inque almost fell out of xeir chair xey were laughing so hard. Cryo was straining to keep herself from smiling and was failing, eventually she just gave up and started making slurping sounds with her straw.

  I raised an eyebrow at her, “Childish revenge? I’ll have you know I was trained by the pettiest of children.”

  I began slurping through mine in return. Inque was only laughing harder as a voice played over the loudspeakers.

  [We now see a pair of women fighting for dominance by letting out their sonorous war cries for the word to hear.]

  Sky soon appeared in the doorway to the cockpit, giving the two of us death glares as her tail thumped against the deck. “We’re back, I’m going to go talk to Spark’s cousin and let her know how obnoxious y’all are.”

  I stopped just long enough to call after her, “Go ahead! She’ll think it’s hilarious!”

  “Not if I tell her you broke ten major bones she won’t!”

  Cryo smiled at me in victory, “No one can out do Sky when it comes to petty revenge. Now do you yield newbie?”

  I squinted at her, “Never!”

  Her smile only got wider as she raised a clenched fist in triumph, “Finally a worthy opponent, our battle will be legendary!”

  Sky came back to us slurping through our straws again, and rolled her eyes. “Here she is, she apparently feels a lot better now considering… well this.”

  Suddenly a shadow was cast over me, one with a terrifying smile. “Don’t worry, Spark only dreams she could beat me at my own game.” Evie looked over at a still slurping Cryo, “She can still give you a run for your money though. She tends to laser in on projects easily.”

  She turned back to me and thumped me on the head, “You don’t get away with getting hurt again though! Who lets an alien the size of a semi jump on them?”

  I cringed while rubbing where she had hit me, “In my defense, I couldn’t have dodged.”

  Evie only glared harder as she held up the phone I had given her, “Pyri?”

  [Spark is right that she couldn’t dodge out of the way, but she still could have avoided the situation to begin with.]

  ‘Traitor.’

  Only what is best for you dear!

  I shook my head, “Anyways, Evie we need to talk.” I gulped, “It’s about mine and all of our living situations.”

  Evie sighed, “Yeah, I have news about that too.”

  Seeing the confusion on my face she continued, “Nyra gave you an ultimatum while you were out making sure we didn’t get swarmed over and killed”

  My blood went cold, “She didn’t.”

  Evie looked away, “She did.”

  “Um,” Inque raised xeir hand, “Should we be here for this? It seems a bit personal.”

  Evie and I looked at each other, and I answered her unspoken question with a nod.

  “No,” she answered with a sigh, “If anything y’all might be able to help us, or something.” She sat down on my stretcher, “Spark… she said you weren’t allowed to live here anymore.”

  I choked back a gasp, “she said what?!”

  “Mhmm, she ranted about how Samurai stuff killed your mom in some way, and then set that ultimatum.” She scowled, “Misgendered you the entire time too.”

  “B-but,” I stammered as tears welled up in my eyes, “Why would-“

  “Cause she’s a fucking coward,” Evie snarled, “And can’t pull her head out of her ass long enough to realize that she’s throwing away the rest of her family over some half-baked concern for ‘safety’!”

  “Well I uhh…” I choked back a sob, “I guess it’s a good thing that I decided to join up with these three then..” I said while motioning to my new teammates.

  Teammates who all looked incredibly angry at that moment.

  Cryo was the one who broke the silence first, “I want to go down there and show her exactly what hell freezing over looks like so badly.” She turned and punched the wall with a loud bang, “Fucking CUNT! The hell does she think she is tossing family out like that?!”

  Evie only shrugged, “No idea, and she’s my fucking mother too” She glared at the floor, “Closest thing Spark had to mother too, and she pulls this shit.”

  “I find it ridiculous that she even thinks that she can stay here,” Sky interjected. “Let alone repairs, even just a basic look around tells me this place needs to be deep cleaned to remove antithesis matter. . And I haven’t even gotten a close look on y’alls house out of privacy.”

  “Oh don’t worry about that one,” Evie replied, “I had Pyri use Spark’s robots to do a scan of the house, and the results all recommended that the house be condemned and demolished.” She chuckled darkly, “Nyra refused to admit that it was an issue, and said we all needed to stay here.

  She looked up at me, and pulled me into a gentle hug, wary of my busted up ribs, “Before you fight with yourself too much on whether you should ask, I’m with you Spark. If you’re kicked out, then I’m going with you.”

  I could only cry into her shoulder.