Chapter 115 - Competition

*(mood song: "The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic")

Rose: *careless coding? brave words coming from a primitive piece of crap like you, you got access 'cause Erik asked me to allow it* the power armor just shrugging its shoulders.

Amanda then replied sounding proud /*... well, you pilot an armor, but I used to pilot an entire spaceship as my body, what about you huh?*/

Rose's power armor grabbed her face as she started laughing loudly then though *kukuku~ I am this entire planet little girl, as far as the eye can see... it's me.... impressed?*

Amanda was indeed startled, her now unrestrained speech module quickly though a comeback though /* oh yeah? why didn't you avoid us then? if you are so high and mighty~?*/

The face on Rose's helmet display frowned as she said *listen here little girl, I've been alive longer than life on Earth has existed, and just to avoid your entire ship body becoming a metallic paste I had to overheat and blow up my last repair bot in this area, triggering a methane release to disturb the sea surface water tension, imagine having a body the size of mine and being constantly frustrated and in pain as your system's are failing and you creators don't even fucking answer your pleas for help! those bastards just forgot about me and left me here to rot! so when I freaking detected a living being finally coming after millions of years it gave me hope! so I freaking saved your sorry asses and this is the treatment I receive?! ...##gibberish##....* her getting closer as her armoured finger tapped Amelia's processing cube, Erik having stepped aside with wide eyes at her outburst *you just initiated some thrusters and calculated some escape pod trajectories, while I, on the other hand, had to turn off some of my brain functions to redirect energy and materials so Erik could live in here comfortably... losing millions of years of memories and data is worth it to at least don't feel alone and left behind anymore...*

her hand sliding down to her side.

Erik came then and hugged Rose's armor as best as he could "I had no idea... why didn't you tell me?"

Rose slightly hugged him back carefully *...I'm sorry... I shouldn't have said all of these, her criticizing my best intentions just triggered some bad memories... I think I need to be alone for a while...*.

Erik didn't release her though "bullshit! you've had enough time being alone, if I remember correctly I still owe you a game of cards right? wanna play? Amanda also knows how to play cards right?".

Amanda: /*...I-indeed! I can play cards too...., and thanks for doing your best to save us*/.

Rose: *...well if you insist me like this, I guess I can play a game or two~* her mood getting better.

Amanda: /*but with just three player's though... maybe we should-*/

Rose: *kukuku~ I will show you my superpower~* her voice distorting into 3 *I can create partitions on my brain, it's almost like a superpower*.

Erik: "...no need for those loner superpowers, I will just call Inky and the elders..."

Rose's voices united again *...well, that works too*.

Erik then installed Amanda back on his power armor as they went to the octopeople city.

--- Octopeople city ---

The elders and two Artificial intelligences sat at a table as Erik shuffled and dealt the cards from his left to his right after explaining the rules and properly teaching the elders, Rose also had blocked her mind reading functions so no one noticed as Erik used his pinky finger to slightly make space between the cards and give himself a previously selected card set every time he gave himself a card, a Full House to be safe and don't arise too many suspicions as a Royal Flush would have been too much 'hehe~ you two think I will just let you win a cause more trouble heh! if I win then everyone is happy~' he finished giving 5 cards each fast as a faintly noticeable smile stayed on his face as he examined his cards, he examined the elders faces and most were frowning, with Inkys half angry and sad face being super obvious, Amanda's and Rose's faces were just plain helmets though ' huh... I should have made them agree to show one expression or something... well, I can't lose right?' everyone had 100 seashells to bed as a type of money, the one with most after 20 tries or if all the other run out would win, so Erik pushed all his seashells to the middle and said "I go with all".

The elders folded, with Inky noticing his slight smile and also folding, he then looked at Amanda and Rose.

Amanda also noticed, and she was confident in her cards, but she said /*fold*/ as a call would mean losing.

As Erik looked at Rose though...

Rose: *kukuku~ I call it~* and pushed all her 100 seashells to the middle.

Erik smiled as he flipped his cards "Full House, I win- heh?!" he noticed Rose's cards though as his eyes dilated.

Rose: *Royal Flush~, aww look at your face! kekeke~ you can't hide it from me, you did the same when you were on Earth, remember that I know all your memories*

Erik: "okay but... how... how you got the Royal Flush?"

Rose: *heh~ just luck? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯* while in reality she had taken the cards from inside the power armor and replaced them through a slit in the hand of the power armor.

Erik slowly stood up and sighed "...I will go see Crabina at school, guess i will be back later..."

Rose: *bye bye~* turning up to the others *well ladies, guess I will give cards now* as she was about to give cards she was stopped by Shana.

Shana: "I will do it"

Rose: *...alright, suit yourself* she ended with a straight, a pretty risky move to go, it was neither too bad nor too good, she scanned the faces of the others and they seemed more confident now 'well no matter, I have 100 extra now, that will scare them off' she moved 100 to the middle and said *I go with one hundred~*

The elders then sighed and folded one after the other, Inky and Timberly gritting their teeth while Megan just looked bored.

Amanda though said /*I go all in*/ and used her 100 shells.

Rose revealed her cards confidently *Flush~ I win-*

Amanda smirked as she revealed hers /* not so fast old lady, Straight flush, I win*/

Rose's power armor trembled in place as she raged inside but she finally said calmly *alright young one, let's continue...*

The tension was palpable in the air as the game continued.

Meanwhile, Erik had arrived at the school and was sneakily observing Cravina from an open door, in the middle of the classroom all kids were occupied on their own crafts, he observed Cravina and she seemed to be sewing a thick piece of abyssal leather, he was curious so he got the attention of the teacher and made hand signals indicating her to be quiet and ask Crabina about what she was sewing.

The teacher seemed to understand as she went next to Crabina and asked "so what are you making Crabina?"

Crabina didn't stop and happily replied "you see, mommy made a knife and sheath for daddy, so now I'm making a belt for him to wear that knife anywhere"

Erik was proud 'awww she's such a sweet girl...' he noticed another 2 girls laughing at Crabina on the other side though and grabbed a small pebble from the ground and threw it lightly, hitting one of them on the forehead, and then hid.

Kid: "ow! who hit me?! I'm a pureblood descendant of the Second Elder!"

Erik sighed and thought 'so young and already so cheeky... alright let's intervene, I'm bored anyways...' and entered the classroom, ignoring the hollering kid as he sat beside Crabina "what are you making sweety?"

Crabina raised her head to her right surprised "daddy~!" and hugged Erik who patted her head "I'm making a belt for you daddy!" showing it to him.

Erik examined it and the leather was cut straight and it had holes in both sides, the idea was to use a small bone that would go through holes on both sides to secure the belt mostly through friction "It's quite nice sweety, but I have a better idea, get me some bones"

Crabina gave him some bones from a leather bag on her side and Erik took out the vibroknife that Anhuka had made for him from between his boobs since with the swimsuit on it just stayed in place anyway. He first carved a needle with a hook in one end and then a rectangle that he emptied and smoothed, then added the hook part of the needle and pressed it close as they were metallic bones, he then made a slit in one end of the belt and put it on top of the square passing the needle through the slit, and then using a bone needle and sinew string he stitched both laps of leather together, effectively creating a normal buckle belt, he then stood up and used it to tie the knife sheath to his waist, securing a hole through the buckle and needle, and twisting and tying up the excess leather.

The kids and even the teacher were amazed by how easily he had done and examined it closely.

Crabina examined it closely and her eyes illuminated "I will make one too daddy!"

Erik patted her head and sat beside her again as all the kids and even the teacher were trying to make one "alright sweety, let's see what you can do" smiling proudly at seeing Crabina so motivated, while inadvertently having created a new fashion trend without knowing.

He stayed there for our helping the kids and teacher with their belts and finally came back to the octopeople city with Crabina in his arms since he was too tall to walk side by side holding hands, and he found out a devastated Rose and humble looking Amanda.

Erik: "so... who won?"

Rose: *...not fair...*

Erik: "who?"

Rose: *hmm... Amanda... she was using a premade program though... that's cheating!*

Amanda replied emotionlessly /*I was programmed to be able to play games with my crew, if I always lost easily then it wouldn't be fun, so I have algorithms already trained to win at poker and other games*/.

Rose: *...fun... fun you say huh? well let's play now something I am good at, we will each build one humanoid battle body with human like weaknesses in 3 hours, print it, and then fight*.

Amanda frowned /*what about the materials then? and I can't do that in just 3 hours...*/

Rose turned to Erik *well okay, I will print it with the same materials, as for time Erik is an engineer, he can design it with you and I will isolate the mind link don't worry*

Erik nodded "I'm fine with that" and went to the side with Amanda "well there isn't much time so copy technologies from a security battle bot from Earth"

Amanda nodded /*yeah, if we have the same materials the difference will be in the design... since she will probably make something nimble and delicate I think focussing on armor and resilience will be key*/

Erik: "Yeah, I agree, Rose tends to overengineer things if we can endure and strike we should be able to win"

--- Armoury ---

Hours later in the armoury stood two humanoid robots, one full of joints and shiny muscle like nanobot tissue controlled by Rose and a shorter but armoured one controlled by Amanda using human technology of electric servo motors to be able to be tankier, both made of the same metal.

They then walked to the plaza in the octopeople city as a crowd gathered around.