Chapter Seventeen - A Home Visit

“French was, until the fall of Canada and the dissolution of the province of Quebec, the official language of the Quebec region. It’s still a language widely spoken today, with well over fifty percent of the population in the region being at least fluent in French.

However, the language of the modern world is English, and without governmental oversight, educational reforms, and most importantly a powerful cultural background, most people in the region tend to learn English as a primary language.”

--On the French of Canada, 2043

***

I arrived at home entirely exhausted. The sun had set already, so I’d flown through the night with nothing to beat back the neon glare of the city.

It wasn’t that bad. After all, my current entirely-reasonable sleep schedule had me waking up a bit before noon, so it really only felt like lunch time, but at the same time coming home after dark made it feel like I’d been working all damn day long.

Plus it was a bit of an eventful day. Productive, sure, but eventful.

I was a little surprised to notice a car parked out front right next to my mecha. The house had defences, and I’d told Myalis that using them on media, police, or anyone that seemed annoying was totally fine.

Once I got a little closer, I could see why the car hadn’t been blasted off the roof. It was a muscle car, all sleek, aggressive lines and painted a black so deep that swallowed the light around it.

I’d recognize God’s Righteous Fury anywhere. Which meant that Gomorrah was here.

Or maybe Franny had taken the car out for a ride. That depended on whether Gomorrah would allow her favourite person to drive her favourite car. I wasn’t sure which of the two sat higher on Gomorrah’s list of priorities.

I parked my significantly-less-cool-than-the-Fury bike a couple of metres away then leapt off of it.

“I’m home!” I called out as I opened the front door. I removed my helmet and tossed it onto the nearest couch as I made my way in deeper. The kittens were spread out and around, doing their own things, and I got a few hellos from the older ones.

Then Nose ran up to me and stopped right in my way with shining eyes. “You blew up the mayor!” he said.

“Just his head.”

“That was awesome! Can I have a gun?”

I considered it. The responsible thing to say was no. “Sure,” I said. “But not right now. Maybe ask Grasshopper, she can give you like, safety lessons. Stop you from blowing your own head up.”

I wasn’t going to teach someone how to aim when I could barely figure out depth perception myself.

I patted Nose on the head until he squirmed away, then made my way deeper in. There was some noise in the kitchen, someone laughing, some music playing at a fairly low volume. I paused by the entrance and looked in to find the kitchen more occupied than ever before.

Gomorrah was sitting on the little island thing to one side dressed in casual clothes. Or as casual as Gomorrah ever was, which meant a blouse and button up sweater over a skirt that stopped below the knee. It was all very 1950s housewife chic.

Lucy and Franny were by the stove, Franny cutting up some carrots with swift ‘clack-clacks’ of a knife while Lucy stirred something in a large pot. Lucy was in her PJs still, but with an apron tossed on, Franny looked like her style was more street punk than anything, but it was pretty toned down at the moment.

“Hey,” I said. I felt a little overdressed in my coat and skinsuit armour.

“Catherine, you’re here,” Gomorrah said at the same time as Lucy shouted “Cat!”

Lucy abandoned her post to run up and give me a quick hug, a peck on the cheek, and a pinch to the ass before she grinned and ran back. “I’m cooking!” she said.

“I see that,” I replied before going over to the island. “What are you two doing here?”

“Just visiting,” Gomorrah said. “Thought you could use some company.”

“Aren’t you on vacation too?” I asked as I sat next to her. “I figured you’d have better things to do than spend time with the likes of me.”

Gomorrah shook her head. “You’re not terrible company,” she said. “Not great, not terrible.”

Franny snorted at that, and I had the impression I’d just missed out on an in-joke between the two of them. “Well, I’m glad to have you over! You’ll be putting Lucy’s grub to the test? She made this fish thing yesterday that was pretty good.”

“Pretty good?” Lucy asked. “If you want to taste fish again you might want to try a bit more flattery than that!”

“It was excellent,” I said. “Best fish I ever had. Finger-licking good.” Gomorrah looked at me strangely, but I dismissed her concern with a shrug. “So, enjoying your time off? I heard you were burning some stuff.”

“Testing some new equipment,” Gomorrah said. “What about you, Catherine?”

Should I continue to call her Gomorrah? She was in casuals, without a flamethrower or nun outfit in sight. It felt a little strange to call her Gomorrah when she was in the guise of a hot blonde from every teacher kink video ever.

“What about you?” Delilah asked.

“Urgh, I’m doing half-days. Morning I work, evening I play. It’s not working out so well though, as you can guess by the time.”

“Yeah, I saw you on the news,” she said. Her voice dropped a bit, keeping things between us under the cover of the noise Lucy and Franny were making across the room. “Did you want to talk about it?”

“The mayor thing?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Not really. Look, it’s our job to fix shit. Kill aliens, keep people alive. He was making that last bit hard. I gave him a chance. He decided to fuck around. So... I did what had to be done.”

“Is that Stray Cat talking, or Catherine?”

“What’s that mean?” I asked. “It was just Cat. There was a rat in my city and I dropped it at the city’s doorstep, that’s all there is to it.”

Delilah nodded along. “Okay.”

“Hey, if you two want, you can head out,” Lucy said. “I want to tease Franny and that’ll be hard to do with the both of you here. Besides, it’ll be another half hour before this is done.” She gestured to the big pot still on the stove. There was some steam coming from it that smelled like... beef? I wasn’t actually sure what she was making. A stew, maybe?

“Sure,” I said. “Have you seen my mecha up close? It got damaged and I’ve been trying to fix it up.”

“You know how to fix things?” Delilah asked.

I shrugged. “Come, I’ll show ya.”

We stepped out and started across the living room when we ran into Daniel. The oldest kitten in the bunch paused in front of us, then eyed Delilah up and down. “Wow, you are hot,” he said.

“Dammit, Daniel,” I said. “She could literally light you on fire.”

“I know, I’m warming up already. What’s your casual name, hotstuff?” he asked.

“Wait, you know she’s a samurai, right?” I asked. Delilah seemed content not to have to interact with Daniel at all.

“Yeah. That only makes it better, no?” he asked. “Hi, I’m Daniel. Big fan.”

“Hi,” she said. Somehow Delilah managed to communicate “I will skin you alive slowly” with a single syllable and a narrowing of her eyes.

Daniel raised his hands in surrender. “Okay! Cool. Nice to meet you, I’m gonna... not be here.”

“Fantastic idea,” I said as he stumbled off. “Sorry. He’s a... hmm... fucking moron?”

“You keep him around because?” she asked.

“He’s a kitten. Well, he’s a little old for one, but it doesn’t matter. Him mooching off of me doesn’t really cost anything.” I held the front door open for her and we stepped out. It was a bit chilly out, and the wind was pretty strong, but it wasn’t bad enough to need to head back in just yet.

The mech and my deactivated repair drone were sitting where I’d left them. Delilah seemed actually interested as I started to explain what I’d been fixing on it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t so smart or deep into the work yet, so I wasn’t going to be able to hold up the conversation forever.

“You’re actually moving things along nicely,” she said. “Especially considering how much stuff you’re doing all at once.”

“It’s not that bad,” I said. “I... I wanna keep busy. It’d feel wrong not to.”

“But we’re on vacation?” she asked.

“Yeah, I guess. Doesn’t change that I have to do something.”

The wind hummed between us, and eventually Delilah nodded. “I think I understand. Cat,” Delilah said after a brief but awkward silence. She brushed some of her hair away from her face. “I think I need to ask you for a favour.”

***