Red Menace

"Not bad work." Unable to sleep, QJ went running first thing in the morning, and then instead of returning home, he went to his Pop's old place to check out the ceramic tile he had installed.

QJ removed his running shoes and socks and walked barefoot across the white tile. As requested, Mike used the smaller 10cm tile for the hot tub and pool lining and the larger 30cm tile for the patio. "Best get started right away."

He entered the garage through the access door and picked up a small toolbox that he had prepared, along with a 10m extension cord.

Tal found him more than two hours later, still working barefoot on the smooth ceramic tile. Six holes were drilled through the tile around the circumference of the hot tub, and the copper rods were tapped in. "How deep are the pilot holes?"

"30 centimeters," QJ answered without looking up. "You can slip the oscillators over the rod ends if you like."

Tal nodded and picked up the box containing the silver-encased devices. By the time she installed five of them, QJ had finished with the sixth, so she installed that one, also. "You sure this isn't a magnetic field?"

"Yes. Those oscillators will travel up and down the length of the copper rods."

Tal pursed her lips as if deep in thought. "What's the dremel tool for?"

QJ brought up a hud with a 3-D draw-up of the area around the hot tub. "I'm going to etch grooves into the ceramic tile, parallel lines 8cm apart."

"You're establishing a mapping grid? Going to insert that silver wire into the grooves?" Tal examined the 3-D drawing. "And then coil them around the copper rods. You're tricking me, right? This is just a really big VRP Mapper."

"That's about 15 percent correct. I'm trying to recreate the hot tub in virtual space."

"That's been done before; you don't have to go through all this." Tal smiled when he slipped on safety goggles and turned on the dremel tool.

"With the water inside?"

"Going to map water too? That can't be done, QJ." Tal said it, even though she knew that he would already know that. "Anything that moves like that can't be mapped virtually. The lasers recreating the dimensions will bounce off the water's surface. So it will look like water but feel like nothing."

"You sound very sure, Mom." QJ laughed and began cutting into the ceramic.

Tal brought up her hud and contacted her backup. A moment later, Naomi's face popped up. "Got time to come to Pop's house?"

"Is QJ at it again?"

Tal nodded. "It seems he's at a dead-end, but I could use your opinion."

QJ was still cutting grooves into the tile a few minutes later when Naomi arrived with two cups of coffee. She handed one to Tal, and they immediately started going through QJ's work.

"Not a magnetic field?" Naomi was streaming the project to her lab so her assistants could give their input.

"He claims it isn't," Tal answered. "What do you think?"

"Well... He looks handsome in those safety goggles." Naomi flashed her friend a smile. "We're missing a piece of the puzzle. It may come down to the red nozzles on those silver encasements."

"He's going to power that up, right?" Gin's voice carried from the hud that Naomi left open. "He's going to need juice and lots of flash memory if he's trying to combine a virtual space with a real one."

Naomi shook her head slightly. "We've already decided it won't work with the water."

The Mohawk woman smiled slyly at her boss. "I think you are looking down on that guy too much. What's the first rule of reverse engineering?"

Naomi glanced at QJ, who was ignoring their presence while he worked. "We aren't reverse engineering his work, just trying to figure out what it does. But... the first rule is to assume the designer knows something you don't."

Gin nodded happily. "Assume he can do what he says and go from there."

"You'd make a good daughter-in-law," Tal said jokingly. "He'd need a memory unit, circuitry cards, an input device, and a big ass housing unit to hold everything."

Naomi disappeared into the garage only to reemerge a few moments later, dragging a giant cardboard box. "Care to guess what this is?"

Tal lifted the cardboard flap and looked inside. "Memory unit, and circuitry cards..."

Naomi waited until QJ finished etching the groove he was working on before getting his attention. "Do you have a construction diagram? We can help set this up."

QJ smiled widely. "Thought you said it won't work."

"It won't," Gajendra agreed. "But, sometimes, you gain things through needless struggle."

By lunchtime, the silver cored wire had been fed into the grooves that QJ had cut into the ceramic tile. Naomi and Tal had set up the power supply and memory cards into the small tower.

"Time to stop for the day," QJ climbed out of the hot tub and stretched his arms overhead.

"Stop?" Naomi fixed him with a scowl that matched the one Tal was using. "Let's turn it on!"

"Without water?" QJ laughed at the two scowling women. "How am I gonna map water without water?"

"Shit..." Tal muttered. "Of course, we need water."

Naomi nodded in agreement. "We jumped the gun a bit. He knew we did and purposefully let us think we were turning it on."

Tal picked up their empty coffee cups. "Too much of his dad in him;" she smiled when she said it. "Let's head back; I can show you the VR/RL complex from his notebook. I'm sure this ties in with that."

By the time QJ returned home and slipped on his swimming trunks, Lotte was already waiting for him on their patio.

Her hair was loose, pushed behind her ears, hanging halfway down her back. She smiled when he cut through the side yard to join her.

"Am I late?" QJ was shirtless, his lean physique rippled with muscles earned from years of grappling. He wore green floral print trunks with black flip-flops.

Lotte shook her head. Today she decided to stop trying to hide her scars; even her full-body swimsuit had been replaced with something less modest. It was pale green, sleeveless, and extended to her knees. "No. I had to go in for some shots today, so I just got back."

"EPO shots? I heard they really hurt." QJ winced slightly, aware that the needle they use would be fairly high gauge.

Lotte extended her left leg, heavy scarring on the inside that started at the ankle and didn't stop until mid-thigh. In addition, a series of bumps looked like fresh puncture wounds. She pointed at them with a slender finger. "I always cry when they do it. I'm a bit of a baby."

QJ wrinkled his nose. "I think you're badass."

Lotte favored him with a crooked smile, her mood suddenly soaring. "Let's get done so we can log in."

QJ nodded.

QJ strolled past the Songbird a short while later, stopping in just long enough to pick up the upgraded gear that Remmy and Tal left for him. He and Ringo received a pistol and armor for their contribution to the Main Event quest. Instead of putting it on, he sent it to his engineering team.

Glancing at the package, he did a cursory inspection.

[Tempest (Silenced)]

Extended Barrel with Sound Suppression.

Chamber modified to accept Springfield

Rifle bullets.

Special Effect: Three-Round Burst. +15 Perception.

+100 Range

Battle Rating: 12

[Silver Silence]

Medium Armor

Silver Dragon leather infused

with sound suppression. +10 Agility,

+ 10 perception + 10 Deflection.

Battle Rating: 12

QJ paused in midstep. "They actually maxed out the pieces!! It looks like that wax I found can add sound dampening to items. I better go back and get more."

QJ's hud buzzed, and a moment later, Leah's freckled face popped up in front of him. "Mojo and I will be making a diplomatic trip to the Jol Clan."

"Why pretend?" QJ smiled slyly. "I know that's code for partying with the dark elves."

Leah laughed at his words, wrinkling her freckled nose. "I liked it better when you took everything I said at face value."

"Have fun," QJ said. "Was there anything else?"

Leah nodded. "Jali and Bali are coming with us."

QJ didn't bother to hide his grin. "Great, I can do without the babysitters."

Leah fiddled with a strand of her wavy red hair. "Well... The thing is..."

QJ stopped in his tracks, frowning at the Apple Princess. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

Leah shrugged without answering.

"You assigned someone else to the protection detail? Who is it?"

"Someone very nice," Leah replied. And loyal," she added.

"Loyal? What? Is it a dog?" QJ felt his eye twitch. "LEAH!" Glancing over his shoulder, he caught a glimpse of a red blur sprinting toward him. "SHIT!" His hud closed when he raced for the Exodus Academy gate, fifty meters away, but it seemed like a mile.

Nothing bothering to dodge through the crowded walkway, he pushed and shoved his way through, causing all sorts of mayhem in his wake. He was one step away from the platform when strong jaws clamped over his leg.

"FUCK!!!!"

When he walked in ten minutes later, Breeze was sitting at QJ's desk, talking to Lotte. Dessi and Ringo were the only others present, leaning against the window ledge on the far side of the classroom.

Ringo covered a laugh when she spotted QJ walking in. "What the hell?"

The left sleeve of his jacket had been torn off, one pant leg shredded, and his face looked like a thundercloud. In addition, he was liberally covered in something that could only have been drool.

QJ stopped before arriving at his desk and glared at the doorway. "Don't even think about coming in here!"

A whining noise from the hallway made everyone else present perk up their ears.

"I don't care; you damn menace!" QJ gestured for Breeze to get out of his chair.

A moment later, the red-furred beast peeked into the classroom. He was over a meter at the shoulder, covered in rippling muscles and battle scars.

QJ pointed at the beast. "You are bad! BAD, BAD, BAD!"

With each bad, the animal's head lowered, his tail tucked between his legs as it belly-walked into the classroom.

QJ held up his hand to stop it from advancing further. "I can't even look at you."

"QJ..." Lotte stood up and approached the animal. "Why are you being so mean?" She patted the red beast on its head. "What's your name, boy?"

[Bingo]

Spirit Animal: Canine

"Mean? That thing dragged me around Exodus for ten minutes. Do you think I looked like this when I logged in?"

"Hey!" Sato's voice carried from the doorway. "Whose dog?"

"Now you've done it." QJ watched as the predictable creature did what it always did.

Bingo chomped down on Sato's leg and upended him with a wrench of his head before running out of the classroom like its fur was on fire. The clicking of Bingo's nails on the tiled hallways floor sounded like a drumroll as Sato's shouts for help grew further and further away.

Ringo laughed from the window, her tanned face showing all her white teeth. "What the hell is that thing?"

"That's Bingo, my Aunt Ro-Ro's spirit animal." QJ's tone said he bore no fondness for the creature.

Dessi tried to speak but was belly laughing, and all that came out were gasps.

Ro-Ro set it loose for seasoning when it was three. The red menace spent three months in the Wood Elf continent of Kurie, managing to take over and combine three wolfpacks. After that, the Wood Elf government petitioned someone to hunt it down and capture it. Fortunately, Q found out and made Ro-Ro collect her problem pup.

"Hmm..." Lotte knew she shouldn't laugh, but it was impossible. "Will he bring Sato back?"

QJ shook his head. "No."

Breeze took the seat behind Lotte. "Does he do this sort of thing often?"

"Yes," QJ answered.

The panting of a large animal echoed in the hall; QJ looked around the class for something to throw. But, instead, he paused; his eyes widened in shock when a big black cat slinked in.

"Mali?" QJ's sour mood melted away as he approached the sleek animal. Belle's Shadow Fiend rubbed its face against the side of QJ's head. Its loud purring sounded like an idling chainsaw.

Sato and Bingo hadn't returned when the bell went off, so Ringo sounded roll call and moved to the front of the class.

"We're going to break into two groups for range training. The first group will head to the rifle range while the second to the handgun range." Ringo stopped in front of QJ's desk. "This is a different cat from the other two."

QJ nodded. "This is Mali; she belongs to a Silverleaf woman named Belle."

Dessi moved away from the window and, instead of leaving, faced the classroom. "The third years will be shooting with you today; we'll split the classes up evenly and combine them."

"The range?" QJ clapped his hands together. Two things guaranteed to set Bingo off were gunfire and saying the "d-word. (dog)."

"The servers are reopening in the morning; roll call will be 0800 at the Guild Keep."

"You're with us, QJ." Nina smiled at the first year. "Looks like the rifle range is first."

Maya matched her smile. "We finally get to hang out."