Page 72 of Tapeworld Induction

Fury and misery swam inside her like twin sharks.

This hadn’t gone to plan. What she thought would be a lovely evening with the boy she fancied, a chance to talk about their feelings, had become a nightmare.

She wiped the tears rolling down her face. She was on her own now.

Except for—

Fuck. He didn’t take the stupid sword.

She picked up the Gunkatana. The blade revolver released from the hilt, materialising from thousands of particles with a sleek sound.

“GUNKATANA MODEL XR01 at your service.” Its sibilant voice faintly echoed through the hills.

She had no idea how to do this. But she would damn well try.

“Command: Rename to ‘Gunkatana’. And you’ll accept the nickname ‘Gunky’.”

It took a few seconds to process her instructions.

“Gunky is acceptable.”

Great. Something going her way felt good, no matter how stupid it was.

“Gunky, what’s the photo of Isaak Powers’s mum doing inside you?”

The sword went quiet. And stayed quiet. What she thought would be a processing time of seconds became minutes.

“What’s taking you so long?”

“Invalid query.”

Invalid query?

“Tell me about Isaak Powers’s mum.”

“Why don’t you look on StreetSocial? You’ll have better luck there, meat sack.”

“Whoa, what the fuck? Why are you calling me names?” Even the gun-sword was turning on her now. She wanted to cry again.

“You gave me the nickname ‘Gunky’. So I gave you the nickname ‘meat sack’. Is that incorrect?”

The sword has a point… She cringed at the unfortunate pun. “Fine. But pick a better nickname. I like Dee.”

“Thee what?”

She closed her eyes with so much strength she nearly saw stars. “Just give me the photo and go back to sleep.”

“Fine.”

The blade dematerialised, the Gunkatana back in hilt form, and the photo released, flying into the air. She picked it up, and then – with a flick of her hand – made the Gunkatana disappear, tucking it away inside a nook of her personal space.

She held the photo in her hands, studying his mother’s face. The photo must have been taken some time ago, as she looked the same age as Isaak, who shared her nose and lips. She looked the right combination of smart and pretty.

“What did you do, Mrs Powers? Why did you leave him?”

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Solivagant