“Evelyn Cire…” Jane’s cold voice echoed around the airship’s residential area, causing a sense of dread to build up in me. “I believe you promised me that this would be a casual, family-friendly cruise. Why was the hangar bay absolutely stuffed full of bears?”

  “Not for the reason you think!” I replied, jumping off my chair and reflexively putting the kitchen table between Jane and myself. It wasn’t that I was afraid of her--I just wanted to give myself time to expin before the bops began.

  “The Family asked me to take as many bears as I could when we leave the city so they can put pressure on the city council to actually rebuild the military, which they’ve been deying for the st six months. They want to show that they can’t rely upon me to do everything!” I expined frantically.

  “Is that so?” Jane asked, arms crossed, still standing in the doorway.

  “Absolutely! I loaded almost every bear I could on the Stratocarrier, leaving just enough bears to patrol the undercity and help during emergencies,” I excimed. “Besides, with all the extra bears, I can keep an even closer eye on the kids and protect them if someone does the unthinkable and attacks us!”Jane unfolded her arms and stepped into the room.

  “Fine. I believe you,” she muttered, “but you better do your best to avoid fighting, like you promised.”“I will,” I promised.

  I pulled out the nearest chair and promptly colpsed into it. “Speaking of the kids, where are they?”

  “Down on the observation deck, with An,” Jane expined. “They can’t seem to get enough of the view.”

  She gestured to someone in the hall, and after a couple seconds a set of five colorful foxes came in carrying a variety of bags, followed by a frog in a tophat and suit.

  “I forgot I’d assigned you all a personal bodyguard,” I muttered. “Where have they been for the st six months?”

  “I’ve been using them as guards for the school. I didn’t like having bears wandering around the kids with weapons out; at least this lot has all their weapons hidden away,” Jane replied.

  “I guess that makes sense… Why’d you bring so much stuff?”

  “Because the kids need a change of clothes and their study materials. We may be going on vacation, but that doesn’t mean they can skimp on their studies,” Jane frowned, before gncing at the frog. “Speaking of which… do you have a pce where Mr. Froggington can set up, and teach csses?”

  Flicking open my augs, I brought up the pns for the aircraft carrier-sized airship. Even though Nyx and I had spent days discussing the details of the massive machine, I hadn’t even begun to memorize the yout. Oh, I knew the hangar bay was at the back, and the manufacturing area, containing the molecur manufacturing machines, was slightly ahead of that. The bridge was at the top, the living quarters were in the middle, but beyond that… I was clueless. I really needed to schedule some time to explore.

  It took me a minute to even locate the living quarters on the blueprints, but once I did, it was easy to identify the unused rooms nearby.

  “There’s a meeting room just down the hall. Step back outside the door, turn right, and it’s the first door on the left,” I expined.

  “Very good!” the frog decred. It grabbed the little hard travel case at its feet, then turned towards the door. “Please excuse me.”

  After the frog left, Jane wandered over to the table and slumped into the chair across from me. “So, have you figured out our route yet?”

  “Not fully,” I admitted. “I want to stop in Vancouver and Indianapolis, to visit some Samurai in those cities, but there are quite a few Megacities and refuges we could stop at along the way. I, for one, would like to make a pitstop in Seattle to check in on my friends there.”

  “I don’t have a problem with that,” Jane said. “I’ll have Nyx suggest some Family activities we could do while we’re in those cities, along with some good pit stops along the route.”

  She leaned back in her chair and stared at me for several long seconds. “I have to ask, how much did this monstrosity cost you? Up to this point you’ve only made small purchases and concentrated on blueprints. What made you decide to buy this behemoth?”

  “Nyx convinced me it was a good idea,” I replied with a shrug. “The truth is, even though I love our home, the Shelter is in a really inconvenient spot. Not only is it located in the extreme northeast, but it’s in the undercity, so all my troops need to spend extra time navigating to an access ramp before they can get topside, where most incursions happen. Not only that, but I was running out of pces to store my troops down there.”

  “You know, you could have just stopped production,” Jane snickered.

  “And if I had, there's a good chance I wouldn’t have had the troops to both contain the incursion that happened in the middle of the city and defend the towns around the outskirts of the city,” I decred. “I’m going to keep producing troops and extending the protective area as long as I can.”Jane sat up just a little straighter, the smile falling off her face. “Right, understandable. Still doesn’t expin why you invested in this thing instead of more production capability, or a surface facility.”

  “Well… I could tell you that it helped progress my core catalogs, like Armored Vehicle, Linear Accelerator Weapons, Fusion Generators, Matter Reconfigurators, and even Hydroponics, or that it gave me an excuse to open up the Nanite Repair Systems, Light Reactive Shield, and Projected Energy Shield catalogs, but the truth is… it’s just fucking cool!” I excimed excitedly. “Sure, it’s got enough firepower to scourge entire hordes off the face of the earth, and I’ve mounted the UHR in the main turret so I can fire on hives several hundred feet underground, but I like the feeling of freedom. Now, if there’s a problem outside the city, I can do more than just send a handful of Kodiaks.”Jane ughed. “I’m gd you’re enjoying yourself. You’ve spent so much time running around, worrying about everyone else…I think this is the first time I’ve seen you do something just for yourself,” she paused. “I did notice you didn’t answer my question about the cost, though.”

  “It was fucking expensive, alright,” I admitted, throwing my hands up. “It wasn’t all my points, but it was the vast majority of them. Between the catalogs and this thing, I’m already running low! I’ve earmarked a bunch of points to upgrade my Synthetics while we’re traveling, but beyond that… It's all family savings and emergency funds. I didn’t even have enough to fully arm this thing!”“Alright, alright, calm down, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Jane excimed. “I wasn’t trying to criticize you. I just wanted to know if it was expensive or not. I’m gd you remembered to create an emergency fund this time. I’m sure you’ll build up some points again in no time, especially with this thing.”

  “That is the pn,” I grumbled before sitting up and looking at Jane. “But only after we get back!”

  Jane just nodded. “You haven’t cut back on safety features on this thing, right?”

  “Only weapons!” I confirmed. “I wouldn’t have suggested we use it to travel unless it was one hundred percent safe!”

  “Good.”

  Jane leaned back in her seat and frowned. “I know the kids enjoy the view, but they usually get tired of it after a couple minutes. I wonder what’s taking them?”

  “I’ll check,” I said. “I need to head to the bridge and perform my final checks anyways. I can look in on them before I go.”

  Pushing myself to my feet, I trudged over to the door and tapped the open button. As it swept open, a tiny blur slipped in and smashed headfirst into me.

  “Avast, ye ndlubbers! I’m shanghaiing this ship!” Issi decred as she bounced back, rubbing her head.

  “You commandeer the ship and shanghai the crew,” Nyx corrected, as their avatar wandered in behind the girl.

  My eyes flicked between the pair. They both had tricorn hats, leather vests, and plush swords at their belts. Issi even had an eyepatch on.“What’s this?” I asked.

  “I’m a mighty pirate! And I’m taking this ship to be the fgship of my new pirate fleet!” Issi excimed proudly.

  I looked up from the little girl to the bear, then to An and the kids beyond.

  “When we were on the observation deck, Issi asked if this was like sailing across the sea,” An expined. “And I told her, ‘Sure, probably.’ Well, you know how her brain works. She went from ships to sailing to pirates in just seconds. You know, the regur. What I didn’t expect was for your AI to show up and encourage her.”

  “Imagination is important,” Nyx decred with a smirk.

  “You just wanted to aggravate me,” I grumbled, turning back to Issi.

  “Alright, Captain Isabelle, if you were to take over the ship, where would you go?”The little girl’s face scrunched up for a moment, and she brought a hand up to her chin.

  “Where were you pnning to take us?” she asked after a couple seconds.

  “Vancouver, then Indianapolis,” I replied with a raised eyebrow.

  “Then to Vancouver! Steady as it goes!” Issi shouted before matching past me, hands csped behind her back.

  “As the captain orders,” I chuckled, stepping aside so the others could come in.

  When An passed by, he just shook his head despondently. “It’s going to be a long trip.”

  TheWackyWombat

  SCS Fan Fiction DiscordIf you'd like to join a slightly more active discord, try the SCS Extended Universe (ie Fanfiction) discord.

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  Check out my Stories:

  Teddy Bears On Brigade

  Evelyn "Teddy" Cire is a street kid just trying to make ends meet, in the slum deep under Calgary Megacity. That is, until the Antithesis attack, and she's given the power to fight back.

  Avaible on: [Royal Road] or [Scribblehub]

  Tarnished Honor

  Reina and Skyler, long term girlfriends, fight Alien invaders in the Cyberpunk City of Vancouver.

  Avaible on: [Royal Road] or [Scribblehub]

  The Wicked Witch of the Wild West (ON HIATUS)

  A young outcast witch tries to find her pce in the world by traveling the remote wilds in the wild west

  Avaible on: [Royal Road] or [Scribblehub]

  Duelling Dungeons

  A story about Talia, an Arachne girl, finding her pce as a floor boss in a competitive dungeon. Half cozy slice of life, half action.

  Avaible on: [Royal Road] or [Scribblehub]

  Unexpected Guests (TBoB x DD crossover)

  Evelyn (From Teddy Bears on Brigade) ends up in the world of Duelling dungeons and needs to find a way home.

  Avaible on: [Royal Road] or [Scribblehub]

  Support me!

  Join me on to gain full access to my backlog (Currently 10+ chapters ahead!)

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  Here's the link: https:///c/wackywombat

  Buy the shirt!Want to wear your favorite bear loving samurai? Get a shirt! Commissioned by RavensDagger himself, and hosted on the official SCS webstore you can get the Teddy T now! Sorry, no bear hoodies... yet, but if you show your support who knows what might happen in the future.

  Teddy T-shirt: https://litrpgforge.com/products/scs-secret-merch-teddy

  And if you don't feel like supporting me, you can still take a look around at the other Fan fiction shirts, or even official SCS merchandise here: https://litrpgforge.com/collections/stray-cat-store

  Finally: Big thanks to all those people that review my draft, the chapters would be a lot rougher without your feedback!