Taschmonchen

# Ten - An Egg

Author's Note: This one focuses on a bar. So... Alcohol warnings. And also grief warnings, because of previous chapters. Neither will be much connected to the sex.

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Blauer rubbed at her neck, sitting against the tree and glaring at the three people across from her.

The quietest one was Yiska, to no surprise. The woman was still shaking from how close to death she'd come at the hands of a monchen. Either that, or she was even more petrified of "him", whoever that was, than she was of actually dying.

"Moonbound was created as a team." Jakob said slowly, "We thought that... Maybe monchen came from the stars. I know it sounds far-fetched, but they just appeared out of nowhere. Why would they not be aliens?"

Blauer nodded, "Aha. And?"

"At first, we were... Just a community. Everyone equal. Everyone voting on what we should concentrate on. We were not organised. Just various groups of friends. People who learnt to give in to their curiosity." Jakob took a very deep breath, "That... Changed. Recently."

"He'll kill us... And Miauzi..." Yiska sobbed, tears flooding down her face.

Splunk crossed her arms, sneering, "Who says I won't? Always wanted to eat a frog. See what the fuss is about."

"Enough." Blauer groaned, "They're dealing. They're trapped by him, Splunk. They want out. Helping us, might give them that. We can be... Friends."

Yiska glared, "Fuck you."

"Oh wow. She can be a bitch. I never realised." Blauer rolled her eyes.

Jakob sighed, "He was a friend, to both of us. Personally. Before all of this began. We introduced him to Moonbound. You are not simply asking for us to betray those we care for, but a deeply close friend, as well."

"A close friend who would murder your ass." Splunk laughed.

Yiska sighed, staring at the ground and sniffling, "He wasn't like that. Not before... All of this. He was a trainer. One who failed out of the program, but a trainer nonetheless. He trained Miauzi, before we took over."

Miauzi nodded, "He was nice! The Guild just failed him, 'cos Akte said to. B-bastards."

"Akte X are... Difficult." Blauer sighed and agreed, "They rejected my first two papers on monchen. Too much original research or some shit. Took Rotor's straight away, but he always wins."

Splunk frowned, looking at her with concern.

"Akte are a fraud." Jakob said quietly, "I don't expect you to believe it. But they don't exist. I tried very hard to penetrate their business. Both I, and Yiska."

Blauer shrugged, and winced at the movement on her neck. "So? All corporations are shady fucks. Doesn't mean that they don't exist."

"Not like this." Yiska sighed and sat up, wiping her eyes and reaching down her bra to pull out a small square of paper. "This is... Jakob, I, and... Some others, you may recognise."

Splunk took the photo, and snorted in surprise, "Da fuck now?"

"Show me." Blauer ordered.

The monchen considered eating the photo, and then handed it over. Blauer stared, and then looked up and back down again. "The fuck now?"

"You see Nurse Penny, and Nurse Jenny." Jakob said sadly, "And all their sisters. Along with Yiska, and the first generation of her clones. Myself, as well. We're all... Clones. We were created by Akte X. Yiska and myself were freed when they shutdown a program aimed at cloning a new army of trainers, to harvest monchen, and well... Their eggs."

Blauer went white and nearly threw up, remembering Flare.

Yiska sniffled, "I don't even know if I'm the original. About seven of me broke out, before they... Could dispose of us."

"Only four of me." Jakob said tightly.

Splunk paced back and forth, her liquid form beginning to boil. "Clones. I would say it's bullshit. But that's the kind of bullshit a big place like Akte would do. Clone trainers, nurses, cops. So that they can harvest people like me. The monchen are just a fuckin' crop to them."

"Cloning monchen was also on their path." Yiska sighed, "When we escaped, it was at the hands of the trainer we spoke of. He helped to shut down the program, by destroying so much infrastructure that it would become too expensive to explain to shareholders. At least, that was the hope."

Miauzi grinned, "I slashed the power generators! It was so much fun."

Blauer winced, forcing herself upright, and trying to pretend her arm wasn't tingling. "He was fired. Akte was protected. Government couldn't admit what they'd been part of. Right?"

"Correct."

"Bullshit." Blauer rejected it, "Never ask a conspiracy theorist for a nut, Splunk. They'll cum all over you."

Splunk frowned, and shrugged, "Eh. Oh well. So... We burying these idiots?"

"Not a murderer." Blauer snorted, and then winced. "Fuck. Well, I am. But not like this. Piss off, you three. Don't hang around."

Splunk put an arm around her shoulder and hugged her gently, "You're not a murderer."

The Moonbound twins wasted no time in vanishing, but Blauer was a little lost. Her brain was ticking over, connecting the dots, and she really wished that it wasn't. Cloning was so difficult, because it led to so many mutations. You had to direct the breed, hold its hand. Be a mother for the genetic process...

The roots of the pact shouldn't have taken so long to form inside Flare. An hour was the longest that Blauer had ever heard of, and she'd studied monchen her entire life. The professor had taken the lead, she could have...

Blauer shrugged off the schunden and reached into her bag, pulling out a ration bar. She frowned, biting her lip as she ran through the various chemical reactions in her head. Testing her theory and trying to guess where things had started to go sideways.

Splunk bounced up and nibbled a little at the wrapper, before smiling sideways at her, "So... We goin' back, I take it?"

"No. Headed to Trintown." Blauer said dismissively.

The schunden crossed her arms, "Don't block me out."

"I don't like saying things before I'm sure. Been burnt too many times." Blauer shook her head, "I'm not a trainer anymore. Trintown will have work for a washout like me. A place to rent, etcetera."

"Place for me to eat?"

"It's a city. Bigger than Eastre City."

Splunk nodded slowly, "... Ever been, before? Or just know this, 'cos you know everything?"

"Once. School trip, when I was tiny." Blauer shrugged. "Trintown started as an industrial place. It's where we found the first trinnchen. We harvested their radioactive material to build a reactor. City now has three... We also built our first nuclear weapons from monchen, there. History isn't always a nice thing."

Splunk frowned, "What's a... Nuclear weapon? Radiation 'n shit make every human sick. Permanently. Poison the ground. Why would you use something like that?"

"Kill the world, if you can't have the world."

Splunk shivered, her entire body rippling, "That's fucked."

"Yup. We banned them."

"... Trintown, huh?" Splunk looked through the forest, "I s'pose it's a place to start over. To let the memories settle. To remember, but not get stuck."

Blauer finished the bar and handed the wrapper to Splunk before moving off towards the path again. "Day's walk, at least. Come on, if you wanna. You can go home, where people care, too."

Splunk skipped along with a sloshing sound and kissed her on the cheek. "Nah. Not letting you outta my sight, cutie."

Blauer wasn't as sure as she had been, about anything. Yiska and Jakob weren't consistent on a single thing. But Blauer did know one thing.

Rita was a liar.

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"Welcome to Trintown!" A bright voice said, quickly palming a flyer in the direction of the two of them - which Splunk promptly ate.

As the paper fizzed inside Splunk's translucent mouth, the police officer smiled at the two of them, and produced a second flyer. "Trainers are expected to register their monchen with the Research Centre, in Trintown. Monchen also have a curfew, I'm afraid. We've had too many incidents where someone has tried to steal them recently. There is little leniency for newcomers, so make sure to remember it."

Splunk fizzled faster, glaring.

Blauer nodded tiredly, "Is it still six at night?"

"That is correct. Always nice to meet someone who has done their research." The officer smiled, "I take it that you've come from Eastre City? Might we inquire as to the purpose of your visit?"

Blauer frowned, "That's a difficult one. It is personal, but certainly not pleasure. I expect you'll get a full report once I check in with your Research Centre, though. Oh. We encountered Team Moonbound on the road, too."

"I am sorry to hear it. Travel can be difficult. But that is outside my purview." The officer smiled even broader.

Splunked burped a bubble of gas into the woman's face, and grinned just as broadly. "Tasty. But your inks are pretty toxic. Don't want that getting in the dirt."

The officer staggered briefly, before righting herself and smiling, "I am afraid that you will now be detained. Once the fine is paid, your trainer may be able to release you. However, if she loses her license, you will be sent to an education facility first, as she would no longer be able to train you."

Blauer sighed and rubbed her face, "Bitch. Get out of our way. You have no monchen, and I'm not a trainer anymore, neither. She's a wilding. Don't be stupid."

The officer reached for her pocket. Splunk's spit hit her in the face.

The woman fell to the ground, screaming.

Blauer walked along guiltily, headed down the steel-plated pavement in the direction of the tall building overshadowing the entire city. The Research Centre. Second-biggest one in the entire world. It was there that most monchen grew up, became the feral women that everyone knew.

Better than a farm.

Splunk popped a cheek idly, "S'rry."

"She was a bitch. She deserved that." Blauer shrugged, "And... I don't really care, anymore. About anything."

The schunden shrugged, "I dunno. Maybe she didn't. She just... Really rubbed me the wrong way. The fuck is with that curfew? And trying to arrest me for having a bit o' gas? I've had drunks puke on my face and didn't feel the need to drag 'em off to a cell."

"Trintown's a military town. Remember?" Blauer shrugged.

Splunk grimaced, "Fantastic."

"Team Moonbound stole their name from here, actually. Probably meant to be some kind of idolising reference, I guess. Probably insults the locals." Blauer said. "There was a team of monchen, back before we worked out the trainer thing. Just monchen, no humans. There were seven of them. They fought like hell to protect the city from the wilding clans, human invaders, and all sorts of bullshit. Even fought some wildfires."

"I've heard of them!" Splunk said excitedly, "I found a model in the trash once. A schaffunchen. I thought it was cool and kept it for a bit... But uh... Midnight snack? Only found out after that it was worth about two thousand points. Expensive meal."

Blauer frowned, "Schaffunchen. They tried to clone one of those once, too..."

"You're still doin' trainer shit." Splunk said with a deep frown, "Gotta move on, gal. Only way to respect the choices you've made."

She shook her head, "No, I uh... I'm just thinking. Don't worry about it. We're heading to the Centre to hand in my license. It will let Rita know where I am, but... I can't give myself the temptation. To try and get forgiveness, or throw some excuse, and go back to it all. Not... I need to do it. For Nixie and Eve. For Flare."

"Can I see the license?" Splunk grinned.

Blauer rolled her eyes, "No one looks good in a license photo. Here."

"Aw. You look adorable." Splunk grinned and kissed the picture briefly, before handing it back. "So proud. How old were you?"

"About... Six days ago?"

Splunk stared, "Holy fuck. What happened to that girl!?"

"She killed her monchen."

The schunden flinched and looked down, just plodding along as the two moved further into the city. There were no sirens, which meant that no one had been sent to detain them yet. That honestly surprised Blauer. She'd heard a few myths and legends about the ruthless efficiency of the Trintown military.

She hadn't put Moonbound and Trintown together when she'd first met the twins.

Trintown's Moonbound were the first story in a long list of fantastic fighters and soldiers. People who would go out and change the world, to protect the interests of the town. They'd invented vehicles that could float through the sky, or pound down their steel roads, and fitted them with monchen enhancements. Blitzchen shielding and froschen splatter rounds.

By tradition, the city's mayor was a retired member of their armed forces.

Even the Research Centre was run by their military. It wasn't officially a part of the trainer's network. Independently operated, but respected by everyone. Akte X had tried a takeover bid a couple times, of course. As had Coolbuzz. Both had suddenly had corruption investigations opened on them by the town.

Rita had interned here, when she was first starting out. Back when she was a new adult and stumbling around. Not the woman who wore the mark of losing an eye to a blitzchen as some sort of badge of respect. A blitzchen that Blauer had seen in action, and knew would... Hold... Back...

"You're thinkin' again." Splunk said worryingly.

Blauer nodded, "Yeah. Nothing I can do about it."

"Do about what, precious?"

She sighed heavily, "I think... I think Rita had something to do with Flare's death. I also think she did something to Blissbun, and that's why she's such a bitch and a half. And that the two go hand in hand. I've got no evidence, no pull to find any, and I shouldn't give a fuck. But... I do."

"Roter works with Blissbun, don't he?"

Blauer winced, "Yeah."

"Gotta warn your ex, then. Even if he won't listen." Splunk insisted. "I mean... I don't see Rita as a monster. She's a sweetheart. Taken care of me. After the... Farm... Rita was there when I got to the town. She made sure I wasn't bothered."

Blauer shrugged, "Not my ex. I'm a monster. You don't see me as one. Most monsters don't stand out in the daylight."

"It was an accident." Splunk insisted.

The trainer grimaced, no longer certain if it had been. Probably not the intended outcome all the same. But an accident only happens if you didn't know the risk. If you saw the danger, and ignored it, then it was your personal fuckup. The world should come down on you for doing stupid, so that next time you didn't.

How much brighter would the world have been, if Blauer hadn't undercut Roter? If the two of them had ended up with a monchen each, and gone their own ways?

Roter with Flare. Seeing everything that the beautiful feuerchen could be. Teaching her to dance with the fire, beneath the falling rain. Showing her how to fly and soar, bursting into flames in the sky above.

The sob escaped from Blauer's throat before she even realised she was crying.

She found herself on hands and knees, skin burning to touch the hot metal pavement, as tears streamed down her face. Her shoulders quaked and her entire body trembling. She yelled and screamed inside her head, trying to force herself to suck it up. To stand up and march into the building. To admit she'd ruined her whole life and just see it done.

All she could think of was the last moment. Flare crying. Little drops of pain turning to steam, as she stared red-faced out at the world, and... Regretted what was coming. The flames burning through the back of her eyeballs, as she turned into nothing more than a concussive explosive force.

*Done being a total bitch? Ready to put an egg in me?*

Blauer sobbed, her head dropping against the burning steel. She hadn't been ready. She would never be ready.

There was no world in which she was prepared to face the trauma of being a trainer.

Not one who could both care for their monchen, and then turn around and kill them all, just for the hope that maybe, just maybe, they might find a way to save them all.

*This is a researcher position. High stress. Not everyone can hack it, so approach it with that in mind.*

She wasn't up to it. Blauer hadn't been stressed, she'd been taken and snapped in half.

The guilt of what she'd done was like a living thing, eating her alive. Taking away every ounce of strength she had to stay alive. The world would simply be better off if she was dead.

*The wassechen isn't required to do such a primitive thing. We are a research centre. Eve? There's a pill in my back pocket, could you fetch it, darl?*

Blauer stopped crying.

Splunk hugged her tightly from behind, silently.

The trainer stood up, shrugging the monchen off and rolled her jaw, "Sonuvabitch. That's how she fucking did it."

"Blau?"

She clenched both her fists, "Rita killed her. Anaesthetic, derived from the magical essence of both a schlachen and blattchen. That was a fucking lie. It was... Something else."

"Come again?"

Blauer grimaced tightly, "A small red sphere. Blattchen essence would have turned it purple, if it wasn't synthetic. Two toxic types would make sense to dull things, so I... I didn't even..."

Splunk took her head in hands, "Blauer. What's going on?"

"I didn't kill her." Blauer said, instantly feeling lighter. The whole world tearing free from her shoulders tumbling down behind her. "Rita did."

The schunden frowned, "Rita...?"

She nodded firmly, and then wiped her face quickly. "Rita gave Flare something, right before the procedure. She told me it was something, and it wasn't. She lied."

Splunk winced, "... Are you sure? She's been doing this a long time."

Blauer's stomach dropped as she put it together. "Fuck me... No wonder it didn't work... Uh... Rita published a paper last year. Long term control and stabilisation of blitzchen embryos through pact compaction utilising feuerchen essencing."

"I... Eat trash..." Splunk said slowly.

The trainer winced, "Rita implanted a second egg. A blitzchen egg. It was red, because it was surrounded by feuerchen shit. Not literal shit. Cum, blood, and other stuff, processed into base elements."

"Blitzchen..."

Blauer flinched, "Rita deserved to lose more than an eye."

Splunk stared. "No. No! She wouldn't! She's not a farmer! She wouldn't... Do... That! She couldn't!"

"Go ask Blissbun if you don't believe me. She'll let you know." Blauer shrugged, and cracked her neck. "As for me... I'm going to go cut this license in half."

"If you're right, and I'm not saying you are, then someone has to get in Rita's way." Splunk recovered quickly.

Blauer shrugged, "Sure. But not from inside the system. Working with the system, will perpetuate the system. Whoever is in charge of Moonbound has a point. Things are fucked. It's time that they got put under a bit of... Pressure."

"You and I can't pressure wash the entire fucking world." Splunk crossed her arms. "But you can do something here, if you prove you're right."

"If I'm right, then it was approved."

Splunk's bottom lip wobbled, "That doesn't make sense. And you know it."

Blauer shrugged, done arguing. She knew she tended to jump to conclusions. That was something that Roter had always told her off for. However, most of the time, the conclusions she jumped to were correct.

She still needed to prove how fucked up things were in the research world, and she would. But not as a trainer.

She walked through the slow-turning glass door and into the freezing interior of the Research Centre's reception. Finding herself at the back of a line of a lot of trainers and monchen. She sighed and settled into position, though she felt unbalanced.

Splunk hadn't followed her inside. Maybe the schunden heading back to Eastre was for the best.

The temperature of the reception was beyond uncomfortable. Before Blauer was halfway through the line, her chest was aching. It didn't matter that she was wearing a trainer's outfit, designed to tackle all and any climates - especially rapidly changing climates. She was still shivering, and her nipples hurt like hell.