"There's somebody at the door~

  There's somebody at the door~

  There's somebody at the door~

  Oh, thank you!"

  "Who was it?"

  "Chip! He brought me a gift!"

  "What did he- Why are you chewing on a Three's head?"

  "Cam't washte a guud geft!"

  "..."

  "Nom."

  --Elise 'Trash Bandit' Roberton and Gwen 'Newtonian' Hurcombe on a random Tuesday evening, 2033.

  I give my siblings their promised behind the ear scritches, since they did clean up after themselves, before reaching out and doing the same to the newest members of the gaze just for fun. My siblings take the chance to shake themselves off and try to scramble out of the lorry, but my tail whips out, booping Spot on the snoot in the process of blocking them from leaving.

  {Not so fast,} I chirp, ignoring their fur bristling in fear of another viral bath and turning my attention to Cyon. {Coating Compound. I can buy it now, right?}

  [{Yes,}] she responds, drawing my siblings’ attention to her avatar above. [{Though, since the B.I.N L.O.R.R.Y doesn’t have any prepared bacterium, I would suggest consuming and applying a dose directly from your R.A.B.I.E.S.}]

  {You’re saying I get to eat it too? Buy away!}

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  New Purchase!

  Bacterial Coating Compound – 15 points

  Remaining Points: 341

  _____

  A silver tube spawns from one of Cyon’s showy hologram portals, which I catch before cracking the tab on top and taking a whiff of the fresh chemical-fumes.

  “So just drink some?” I ask, hesitating for a moment before putting it to my lips just in case.

  Yes. The coating solution will be added to your R.A.B.I.E.S as an option for mixture before secretion. I could have stocked the organ directly, but I assumed you would relish the chance to try something new.

  She knows me so well.

  “Thanks,” I chirp as I take a swig of the viscous liquid, rolling it across my tongue as a vaguely familiar artificial flavour fills my senses.

  “Hmmm. What is that?”

  I take another small sip and smack my lips as it hits me.

  “Bubble-gum!”

  Nodding in satisfaction at my amazing skill for linking flavours arbitrarily, my gaze lingers on the mostly-full tube still in my hand.

  “Wh-“

  Just throw it into the lab to process. I’ll get some DogEater producing in the background for you.

  I do as Cyon says while offering my tail to my three slightly confused siblings who only heard half of my conversation with her. An off-green foam bubbles up between my fur, and as they reach out to run their paws through my fluff, the foam clings to their fingers, catching their curiosity.

  They squeal in interest, playing with the bacterial bubbles and wiping them on each other as I turn my focus back to the newcomers.

  “Can I get three more child implants please?”

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  New Purchase!

  Mark IV D.E.N Child Implant x 3 – 90 points

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Remaining points: 251

  _____

  Three boxes of syringes and aug installation pads fall on the ground behind me, so I pick up the kit, blinking in surprise because it weighs the same as Stripe despite its compact frame!

  I turn around and her two big sisters hop down from the lorry to follow, while my siblings get the message as my tail shifts, reluctantly pulling their attention away from the sticky foam and heading over to retrieve their symbiotes, letting the production chamber shut behind them. I set the kit down to follow the familiar process of adding the new raccoons to our network.

  {You three stay here and watch the lab,} I instruct the newbies after their augs are set in place. {Feel free to grab a bacterial bath whenever, and take your symbiotes when they finish too. Stay safe.}

  They salute me before scampering over to climb up to the mounted weapons.

  “Do they need a reload?” I ask Cyon while nodding in approval at the polite new connections in the back of my mind.

  Both autocannons have less than one hundred shots left, so yes. I can beam them straight into place for a little extra if you want?

  “Yes please,”

  Twenty five points vanish from my counter, but I barely spare it a glance, turning to face my siblings.

  Expectedly, Chip is the one with a multi-barrelled rocket tube strapped to his back, while Stripe only has a small handgun in comparison.

  {You guys ready?}

  They all chirp in agreement as I cast one last glance at the lab, pulling up the page in my augs and setting three more clones of Stripe into production with the last of the Culture Solution.

  I can start on Chip and Spot when I have more points. Oh, and myself? That’ll be freaky.

  We step over the charred bodies blocking the front gate and turn left almost instantly, leaving the wide main path and following a thin walkway beside a deep pit filled with miscellaneous waste, dumped here mostly by the upper city.

  The stale scent of metal and rot that hits my nose is familiar if unpleasantly overwhelming. Definitely a point scored against supersenses there, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. My siblings bounding on ahead of me don’t seem to mind, so maybe it’s just a human thing?

  I wonder if Cyon has a mutation to fix it.

  My gaze drifts down into the poorly sorted pit of plastic and rusted metals, and I swear I spot movement down there.

  I let out a short, low whistle, halting our procession in an instant.

  {Can you guys see something moving down there?}

  Instead of following my gaze with their eyes, Stripe and Spot step up to the edge of the walkway with Chip between them.

  They each grab two of the anchors on Chip’s PELT, and he leans forward, lowering himself down to touch the floor a short drop away. He presses his paws and nose to the floor, sniffing for a few moments before rapidly reeling himself back in.

  {Three groups,} Chip squeaks as he steps back onto the walkway. {Two squishy fishy, the rest are the big rats.}

  I stare at him in disbelief for a few moments.

  Squishy what?

  I believe he means-

  “Fours and Threes,” I cut Cyon off as she tries to translate without even being asked.

  No one knows the idiot better than me, I just needed time to process!

  “This is where an army would be nice,” I mutter, glancing over at the dozens of rubbish pits sprawling out across the dump, some of their piles leaking over the top. “Is there a way to accelerate clone growth?”

  Yes. At the cost of another increase to excess mutations, you can purchase Accelerating Compounds. It will be a little costly in points, but it will effectively increase your numbers much faster.

  “Why didn’t you mention that before we got here!”

  You hadn’t purchased reasonable upgrades for your siblings to defend themselves. I considered it prudent not to distract you further when you ‘don’t like making decisions’.

  “…”

  When in doubt, redirect!

  “Okay, so now that we have the basics covered, can I get an idea on the cost for increasing my numbers?”

  For an extra one hundred and fifty points per clone, you can cut the production time by two thirds to twenty minutes per clone.

  Nodding and humming thoughtfully, I quickly do a few very important mental calculations.

  {I actually have no clue what to do with that number at the moment. Let’s split up for now.}

  [{I don’t think you meant to say that first bit out loud…}]

  She clearly didn’t say anything because my siblings nod along with my instruction, waiting for a proper plan before running free, instead turning towards her avatar still sitting on the lorry’s roof.

  {You three take this pit,} I chirp while pointing down the row. {I’ll take the next, and we meet in the third.}

  {Kay!} Stripe cheers, scurrying forward to hug my shin for a moment as our brothers nod behind her, before all three of them vanish from sight and run towards the edge of the walkway.

  “Why can I tell where they are?” I ask, turning on my own invisibility and running towards the next pit as a few plants climb onto the central walkway from a far recess and head towards the front gate.

  Your D.E.N link generates what’s essentially a sixth sense for the location of all other nodes in the network.

  I leap into the air, clearing the edge of my target pit and plummeting towards the base of a heaping pile of scrap metal stacked against one of its walls.

  “Hide and seek will be boring now,” I mutter as I hit the slope, digging my claws in to kill my momentum as I slide down to hit the floor with barely a soft thud.

  Wouldn’t it have been boring anyway if you could perfectly hide from each other?

  ‘I mean… They kind of already can? Do you really think I ever had a chance against them living in this place?’ I subvocalise while gesturing to the scattered refuse surrounding me and the hundreds of hiding spots for a small raccoon within a dozen metres of me alone.

  Why did you play then?

  I turn a corner, following the faint smell of cut grass hanging in air and coming across a small pack of Threes digging into a pile of discarded food packaging, trying to scrape out some uncleaned remains.

  ‘Because.’

  I spring forward and rake my bare claws across one of the alien’s spines, continuing past to grab the remaining two by the backs of their skulls before they even realise their companion is bleeding out. Their heads crumple in my grip, spraying green blood and plant brain matter out between my fingers as I turn to keep moving and swipe my tail over the fresh corpses, delivering a touch of WhiteDream to break them down.

  “Who doesn’t want to play with their siblings?” I finish out loud, batting my best kit eyes despite not being visible.

  I know she can tell!

  “Even if they’re cruelly abusing an unfair difference in species.”