Dr. Alexis Jameson met Nyara's eyes, the black haired psychiatrist scowling as she asked, "Please tell me you weren't responsible for the explosions..." The tawny haired sexaroid shook her head, the beautiful woman looking unusually serious. "No, we didn't," Nyara said, "and worse, we have no idea who did." Christa smiled grimly, the white haired woman standing to one side of Alexis' office, looking out the window warily. Outside the city ran, just a week after the bombings shook the city to the core, but the air shimmered with tension. "I see things are almost back to normal up here," she turned to look at Alexis, "did you know much of Lowtown is still dark?" "I know," Alexis met her eyes frankly, "and most of that is because of all the damage that rioters did during the outage." "The fact we don't have money had nothing to do with it?' Nyara asked wryly. Alexis sighed, "I'm not even going to try to defend that." "You shouldn't have to," Christa gentled her tone. The taller woman walked over to Nyara's side, "As you can guess, things are tense down in Lowtown." "That's an understatement," Alexis agreed. In a not so surprising move an alliance of the downtrodden in the lowest parts of the city had seized the initiative, deciding to measure out some vengeance against those they deemed had hurt them. Armored stores belonging to various corporations were overrun, looted, as were the offices of city government. The rioters had even managed to surround the police stations, though that didn't last long. A relief force from the upper levels helped free the officers, but in the end they had been forced to abandon several of the stations. "Things are starting to settle down a bit," Nyara chided her lover Christa, "I think we'll be ready to send a delegation to the mayor soon." "Assuming he'll see you," Alexis noted, moving to pour her guests some tea. "How did you get up here?" She looked curious, "I thought the lifts were cut off from the lowest levels and the emergency ladders were being guarded." "The guards were susceptible by bribery," Christa shrugged. "Still," Alexis passed them the cups, "you took quite a risk coming up here." Nyara took a drink with remarkable grace, all part of her fine programming. "I'm here to give you this," she explained, taking out a small communications link and handing it over. "This is...?" Alexis picked it up tentatively. "Nothing illegal," Christa reassured her, "we just want to maintain communications with someone up here, in case things get worse." Alexis put it in a pocket as she said, "I'm not entirely comfortable with is, but I want to help." "Thank you," Nyara bowed slightly. Alexis hesitated then she asked, "I was wondering, how are Yume and Ariko?" "They're fine," Christa reassured her with a grin, "actually they're running a improvised medical center we set up. Turns out our big butch Yume has some medical experience, and where ever she goes Ariko follows." "I noticed," Alexis flashed a smile. Christa looked at the watch imprinted on the sleeve of her busineswear and said to Nyara, "We'd better get going, love." Alexis looked at the two of them, "Are you going to be all right returning Lowtown tonight? I could offer you a room..." Nyara chuckled as she shook Alexis' hand, "No, we should be good. We've got several routes ready to return by, if needed." "Then good luck," Alexis said, "and I'll keep in touch." In Lowtown, the normally dim light was worse than ever, smoke rolling amid the bases of the giant towers of the building. A woman warily walked the halls, her eyes scanning every step until she reached the right section of the building. Seeing the door broken down Kate Williams muffled a cry of alarm, the sandy haired woman hurrying forward. The almost too thin woman climbed over the wreckage, looking about wildly as she hurried in. A soft moan brought Kate's head up and she called, "Silver?" "Here..." the moaning voice was soft, painful. Racing to the back bedroom Kate saw two women crouching on the floor, one of them hurt. Silver's arm hung limp, useless, and her artificial flesh was torn around the upper and lower arm. Beside her Kari tried to tend to her wounds, her blue hair ragged and matted with filth. "You," Kari looked at Kate wide eyed. Kate rushed to their side even as she pulled her backpack off, nearly catching her leather jacket on it in her haste. "How badly are you hurt?" she asked both as she dug out the human and android medical kits she had brought. "Check over Kari first," Silver groaned, her shining hair now dusty. "Stop being noble," Kari growled to her before looking to Kate. "Her arm got banged up protecting me from a would-be-rapist," Kari said bitterly, "I only got knocked around a bit." "Then I'll look at you next," Kate said as she looked over at the wound to Silver's arm. "How did you...?" Silver met Kate's eyes in obvious question. With a surprising degree of skill Kate took a packet of artificial flesh and began to thread it into the damaged sections of Silver's arm. "The guards on the lift owed me a favor," Kate said simply. "But why come down here?" Kari blurted, "You could be arrested by your own side, not to mention most of the folks down here hate cops!" Finished with the repairs to muscle Kate took patches of artificial skin out and set them in place over the exposed flesh. "I was worried," Kate shrugged uncomfortably, "I couldn't reach Silver and none of my contacts here knew anything." Silver reached out to stroke her arm, "Thank you." Embarrassed Kate looked over at Kari and gruffly said, "Let's check you over, too." "Thanks," Kari smiled tiredly. Other than bruises and cuts she was mostly all right, Silver was relieved to hear, and soon the three of them were ready to go. Kate picked up her pack and slung it over her shoulder, her jeans and T-shirt nearly as dusty as Kari and Silver's clothes. "The way I see it you've got three options," she said as they climbed over debris to escape the suite, "I can take you uptown with me, you can join up with the provisional government here or I can drop you off at the first aide center/refugee camp." "Kate, you don't need to..." Silver started. "I know you're independent and capable," Kate said firmly, "and I respect that. I'm just here to help, if you'll let me." "You'd seriously bring us uptown with you?" Kari asked after a moment, her young voice filled with surprise. "Silver's my... friend," Kate said with a bit of a blush, "and you're her friend." A shrug and she added, "It's just that simple." Smoothly Silver kissed Kate, the motion surprising the taller woman. "You're not as tough as you'd like people to think," she sighed happily. Kari fought back a smile, seeing how flustered Kate was. "I think the goons who attacked us are the types fighting for the government here," she said as they reached the stairs, "signing up with them is not something I want to do." Kate's lips thinned as she pressed them together angrily. "I suppose you don't remember what they looked like?" she asked. "Don't even think about running around trying to avenge our honor," Silver said firmly. After a moment she said, "As much as I'm tempted, I think you should take us to the first aide station." "But..." Kate started. "Shh," Silver shushed her as they walked to ground level, "you and I both know the sort of trouble you'd get into bringing us back with you. I care for you enough not to want to do that to you."
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