Cyberdryad Guardian Friends: Trouble in Bogsquat Swamp - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Rusakina Palme burst into the residential suite at the top of Earthsong Tower in the heart of coastal downtown Portlancisco, singing out in a happy wordless trill as she made a twirling leap in the air, causing her long, pale green, lightly sparkling hair to swirl about her in a radiant wave. She was tall, slender, and graceful, with smooth skin the color of buttercream and the fine-featured face of an aristocratic pixie. She clutched her shopping bag tightly to her perky, cute chest and kicked her shoes off, then scampered to the kitchen, where she dropped her bag and squealed in dismay at the sight of crumbs, streaks of cashew butter, and gobs of strawberry jam sitting out on the formerly-pristine stainless steel counter.

"Hey!" Rusakina exclaimed, her golden eyes flashing angrily. "Who made this mess here? Just because it's my turn to clean the kitchen today doesn't mean that you can mess it up as much as you want before then!"

Nobody was around, so nobody responded. The living room was a few steps down from the kitchen and entrance, with a massive steel and glass bay window granting a beautiful view of the west coast skyline of Portlancisco and an enormous glare-resistant viewing screen sitting in the center, facing a half-ring sofa of mint-green plush, cushy velvet, but nobody was sitting there now. Beyond there was a hallway leading to the bedrooms: Rusakina's own, but also those of Chancelly Mayple and Mariko Cheri, her teammates on the GAEA-Shield One defense force. Like her, they were dryads, the spirits of trees, who had been enhanced with cybernetic implants to aid them in the fight against elite evil organizations and criminal bosses.

Rusakina picked up her bag, bounded down the hallway, and pounded on Chancelly's door first. She heard a weary sigh from within, and then Chancelly answered. Short and buxom, with dark-brown skin and a round, grumpy face with nerdy square-rimmed glasses, she was the dedicated and responsible leader of GAEA-Shield One's dryad field agent team. Her hair was still green, but now turning orange at the edges, signifying that her phylactery tree was now adapting to autumn's shorter days. While her hair wouldn't fall out as a tree's leaves did, it did mean that she'd be even more bitchy and low-energy than normal. Even so, that was no excuse for leaving the kitchen a mess!

"Um, hi, Chancelly," Rusakina said with an earnest smile. "You know how much I value our friendship, and I think of you like a beloved sister, and I'd only come to you with my problems if they're really important..."

"Spit it out, Russie," Chancelly said. "Let's get this over with." She obviously expected, but did not want to deal with nonsense. Little did she know that Rusakina had a valid and important point of concern this time.

"Did you make a sandwich on the counter without a plate under it and then not even clean up after yourself?" Rusakina asked. "Because who does that!? It's sooo inconsiderate!"

"No, Russie," Chancelly responded, her tone flat and heavy with annoyance, "I didn't. Maybe you should ask Mariko."

"Oh," Rusakina frowned sheepishly. "Okay then. Sorry I interrupted you." Unlike Chancelly, who was grumpy but fair-minded, approaching Mariko about an issue like this might take some delicate handling.

Chancelly's smile had a hint of an apology to it. "No big deal," she said. "And sorry for being short with you. I'm just a little on edge from studying all day and still not getting the spell that I'm working on." Chancelly could often spend days working on a magic spell, getting more and more frustrated as time passed. However, thanks to her efforts she was not only the most durable of the three due to superior metals used in her skeleton, but also the most magically gifted.

"I'm sure you'll get it soon," Rusakina said, "as smart as you are! Good luck!" She leaned in and gave Chancelly a quick little kiss on the nose, then stepped back and darted further down the door to Mariko's room. She had to briefly remind herself about the mess in the kitchen so she could properly be angry again before rapping on Mariko's door.

Mariko answered, chewing a mouthful of something, with an episode of the popular erotic comedy animated series Makeout Boys playing on the small personal television she kept in her room. She kept her bright-pink hair buzzed short at the sides, but about twelve centimeters long on top, contrasting with her ash-white complexion and dark black eyes with epicanthic folds. Her heart-shaped face with its low-bridged nose projected both cuteness and a sensual sort of boredom, and her thin mouth quirked to one side when she saw Rusakina. She wore only a threadbare black T-shirt advertising a local steakhouse and a pair of black velvet hipster panties.

"Hey, Rusakina," Mariko said, her voice rich and flat both at once. "You want to come in and watch this show with me? I bought it on video cassette the other day."

"Um, maybe," Rusakina said, chewing on a fingertip uncertainly. She looked into Mariko's messy, cluttered room and saw part of a sandwich sitting on a napkin on her end table. "Say, what're you eating?"

"Cashew butter and strawberry jam sandwich," Mariko said. "Want some?"

"Um, maybe," Rusakina said again. She took one step into her room, shuffled her feet, and looked around at the myriad of posters bearing countercultural memes and obscure musicians on them that adorned Mariko's walls. "Diiid you, you know, maybe... make it just now and leave a huge mess in the kitchen? Because that's not cool and you shouldn't have."

"Don't worry about it," Mariko said, her voice neutral. "Come in, sit down, and try a bite of it." Rusakina entered the room and sat on the edge of Mariko's bed awkwardly. Mariko picked up the sandwich and handed it to her, and Rusakina sniffed it, then took a bite. It actually tasted incredibly good. The smooth, creamy cashew butter blended well with the strawberry jam, and the light brown bread was wholesome and grainy with hints of honey and cinnamon. She wouldn't have minded having a bit more, but Mariko had her hand out in expectation, so Rusakina handed it over.

"I see you've got a shopping bag," Mariko said, gesturing to the bag Rusakina had brought in with her. "You must've made a big purchase today. What is it?" She bit into the sandwich again and started chewing with gusto.

"It's a beautiful designer dress," Rusakina said, smiling with satisfaction at her new acquisition, and from the bag she produced a most unique open-backed long-sleeved skater dress that came to just above the knees, black with just a faint hint of sparkle and shine to its fabric, and a sheer band around the skirt about four centimeters from its hem.

Mariko smirked at Rusakina. "Are you going to put it on for me? So I can see how you look in it?" she asked.

Rusakina looked around Mariko's room. "Here?" she asked.

"Go ahead," Mariko said, smiling. "I want to see this."

Rusakina fidgeted on the edge of the bed. "Well, first, there waaas one thing I wanted to ask about," she said, looking up at Mariko with puppy dog eyes. "If you made a mess in the kitchen just now, I think you should-"

Mariko held up a finger and smiled knowingly. "Ah, Rusakina," she interrupted, "the first thing about a mess is that you don't exactly make it, you know. You see, to me, a mess can be nothing more than-"

The alarm buzzer rang out through the sound system of their living area, startling both of them, and then the stern voice of Commander Antigone Jefferson rang out. "Attention: all dryad field agents of GAEA-Shield One! Report to the Briefing Room at once and be prepared for immediate deployment! Repeat, report to the Briefing Room at your earliest opportunity and be prepared for immediate deployment!"

Rusakina blinked. On the TV, the episode of Makeout Boys was just getting to a steamy scene.

"As we were saying," Mariko said, stretching her arms, "why don't you try on that dress so I can see how you look in it?" She smiled lazily at Rusakina.

"B-but the Commander said we need to go to the briefing room right away!" Rusakina protested. "We don't have time!"

"Well, she also said to be ready for deployment," Mariko said. "Are you? I'm not. I haven't eaten yet, and I'm also not properly dressed." She bit into her sandwich and and chewed, and then with her mouth still full she held the sandwich out to Rusakina and mumbled, "Wanna nother bite?"

Rusakina slowly took the sandwich and bit into it, enjoying its deliciousness once more, then handed it back to Mariko. "So I should put on the dress and wear it to the Briefing Room?" she asked.

"Of course!" Mariko exclaimed. "The Commander will applaud your sense of class, style, and professionalism."

Rusakina couldn't argue with that, so she stood up took off her pink and white vertical striped sleeveless top and magenta skort. She knew her bra wouldn't work with this either, so she took that off as well and let it fall to the ground. She saw Mariko's gaze fixated on her small, pointy breasts with their puffy butterscotch-colored nipples and couldn't contain a faint tan blush.

"Mariko, you're sta-aaa-aring!" Rusakina chided her in a singsong voice that made 'staring' a four-syllable word.

"You're pretty," Mariko said over another bite of sandwich. "But those panties have gotta go. I don't know whether you're trying to look like a kid or an old woman in those, but they just don't work for you. Or for anyone. Ever."

Rusakina looked down at her high-waisted panties, white with pink polka dots and a mint green fringe and a little chartreuse bow in front. "I know how to dress myself, okay!?" Rusakina said indignantly. "They were just for this outfit. I won't wear them with my nice new dress."

Mariko's smile grew when Rusakina dropped the panties to her ankles, baring her firm, slender bottom and the bush of fine, pale green hairs that concealed the little slit of her pussy. Mariko licked jam and cashew butter from her fingers, then smiled at Rusakina. "You should burn them," she said. "They're so ugly."

Rusakina ignored her and pulled on the dress, delighted that it hadn't changed its perfect fit between the changing room at the boutique and now. As she reached back to adjust its clasp behind her shoulders, Mariko's hand snaked around from behind in front of her face, holding the last bite of the sandwich. Rusakina eagerly ate it right out of her hand, savoring the last sweet and creamy morsels, then turned to her with a smile, showing off the dress.

"You look nice," Mariko said, her eyes drinking in Rusakina from head to toe. "Ideally, we'd do your hair and nails, and give you better makeup, but this is good."

"Do you have any shoes that go with it?" Rusakina asked. "Maybe some low-heeled black pumps?"

Mariko rolled her eyes. "Girl, please," she said with a chuckle. "Have I got any good shoes?" She opened her closet and seized a good pair of expensive Aaron Chady designer pumps matching Rusakina's request off of her overstocked shoe rack, then handed them over.

The door abruptly burst open, and Chancelly stood before them in the hallway, wearing the simple burgundy sleeveless top, dark gray slacks, and combat boots that were their official GAEA-Shield One combat uniform. Her face was twisted in an impatient scowl approaching fury. "What are you two doing in here?" she demanded. "Didn't you hear the Commander's orders?"

Mariko scowled. "I mean, we had to get dressed first," she said with a sideways scowl. "You want us to barge into the Briefing Room butt naked or something?"

"You're still not dressed," Chancelly said, "and she's wearing some kind of formal evening gown thingy. They gave us uniforms for a reason, you know. Besides, what were you both doing in here naked?"

"That's none of your business," Mariko said, setting her jaw as she did when she was ready to go to the ground with Chancelly in an argument. The two of them were so strong-willed, and Chancelly was the team captain, while Mariko was a rebel by nature, leaving Rusakina to play peacekeeper too often.

"It wasn't like that, Chance!" Rusakina said quickly. "We weren't naked, we just need some more time to get ready!"

Mariko seemed surprised that Rusakina would contradict her, but improvised quickly. "Well, sure, we weren't, but it's still none of your business!" she said.

"Oh, would you just shut up and come to the Briefing Room?" Chancelly growled. "We're so late already!"

Mariko scowled and reached into her overflowing dirty laundry hamper, where she pulled out a pair of hot pink leopard print sweatpants with "BabyGrrl" written across the bottom in blocky, stylized sparkly gold letters. She put them on and stepped into a pair of bright red canvas shoes with white toes. As she tied her shoelaces, Rusakina gave her an uneasy look.

"If the point of me wearing this dress is to look nice and impress the Commander, what about you?" Rusakina asked Mariko. "Shouldn't you wear something a bit nicer than that?"

"It's all about contrast, Rusakina," Mariko said with a knowing smile. "You'll look even better next to me, just like an angel looks more holy and pure standing beside a devil."

"Nobody's going to look good!" Chancelly raged. "We all look like unreliable idiots, because you two are showing up ten minutes late by the time we get there, and they're not going to care what you're wearing, except perhaps to the extent that it's not your uniform!"

"Hey!" Rusakina protested. "Take it easy!" But her protests were in vain, and Chancelly irritably herded them out of their comfy and luxurious home and into the elevator. Below the residential suite where the three dryads lived were all sorts of laboratories and offices and boardrooms and such things to manage and improve the operations of GAEA-Shield One.

Soon enough they approached the Briefing Room, and Chancelly let out a growl of impatient fury when Mariko stopped outside at one of the office's vending machines and bought a can of refreshing Bestie-Cola and a Lovey Heckler candy bar: layers of banana creme, nougat, chopped peanuts, and caramel coated in rich milk chocolate.

"Now that you have your stupid snack, are you ready to answer the Commander's urgent summons?" Chancelly asked through gritted teeth. Mariko looked straight at her, her eyes narrowed, and chomped defiantly into her candy bar. Once again, it was getting tense, and Rusakina felt it best to step in.

"Don't be so hard on her, Chance," Rusakina said gently, "I ate part of her sandwich just now. She's probably just still hungry!"

Inside the briefing room, Commander Antigone Jefferson sat looking at her ruggedized waterproof digital watch. She wore the full, dressier variation of the burgundy-colored pseudo military uniform of the conventional soldiers of GAEA-Shield One, along with the Triple Spear Medal of Honor received from the office of the President for outstanding service and sacrifice by an independent military contractor. Also there was Dr. Elena Marshall, the brilliant inventor and doctor who had installed the dryads' cybernetic implants and been instrumental in helping them get acclimated to their new home.

"Good afternoon, ladies," Commander Jefferson said, her tone and expression neutral. "I have an important, time-critical mission for you. Our goal is to have you briefed and deployed within ten minutes, so this is no casual meeting. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Commander!" Rusakina said in unison with Chancelly and Mariko.

Commander Jefferson continued. "Then the situation is this: I've received contact from our friend and supporter of the GAEA-Shield program in the Senate, Majority Leader Lynn Czartashian, that coincides with an intelligence report from our eyes on the corporate mercenary and industrial para-military group Nailrazer." Her voice lowered gravely. "Not only are Nailrazer operatives and allies dumping toxic waste containing dangerous mutagens into Bogsquat Swamp, but they've also kidnapped a young man, Gilbert Dewey, who is the boyfriend of Senator Czartashian's daughter Prinna, and the Senator's office has received a threat that they will bury him alive with the newest batch of toxic waste if the Senator does not bring the Resource Harvesting, Industry, and Jobs Act to the floor for an up-and-down vote straight away during the Senate's upcoming session."

Rusakina didn't follow any of that. "What's that mean?" she asked.

"They call it the Slash and Burn Act on the blogs I read," Chancelly said frowning. "It guts the Environmental Protection Agency and rolls back most of the environmental legislation passed in the last century. It passed the House comfortably and that warmongering partisan jug-eared coke addict President Thrush is expected to sign it as soon as it hits his desk, unless the Senate votes it down."

"Senator Czartashian's one of our biggest supporters," Commander Jefferson said. "Without her support in a position of leadership, we could lose our grant and our government contract. And that's looking at it strictly from how it affects us. There's also the human life at stake and the prospect of thousands of tons of toxic waste being illegally dumped into a pristine natural environment. Put it all together and it looks like a job made for GAEA-Shield One."

"I can see why you want us to deploy immediately!" Rusakina said. "We can't let them get away with any of that!"

"Girls, my team has got the PetalPad set to teleport you directly to Bogsquat Swamp," Dr. Marshall said with a kindly, apologetic smile. "If you're ready to deploy, we'll go up to the roof and get you on your way."

"The PetalPad, really?" Mariko complained. "Can't we go by helicopter? The last time we used it, it made me puke on myself, and let me tell you, I was not too happy about it." She took a big bite into her candy bar and chewed with a grumpy scowl.

"Neither were we," Chancelly said, her nose wrinkling, "since we had to ride in an un-air-conditioned armored personnel carrier with you."

"The PetalPad is a continually-improving piece of experimental technology," Dr. Marshall said. "I'm confident that it shouldn't replicate that problem in this performance."

"I'd advise abstaining from heavy foods before departing if that remains a concern," Commander Jefferson said. Mariko's scowl as she chewed on the last of her candy bar was obviously holding back an angry retort, and Rusakina was worried that she'd start yelling and cussing at the Commander, so it was time to help get the team motivated.

"We're not afraid!" Rusakina said. "We're the cybernetics-enhanced dryad field agents of GAEA-Shield One! We thrive on danger and stress! Let's do it!"

"She's right," Chancelly said. "The mission is the most important thing. We can do this, team!"

Mariko rolled her eyes and sighed, then guzzled down her soda, belched loudly, and crushed the can on her head. "All right, bitches," she said, "let's make Nailrazer and their cronies sorry they ever messed with our favorite senator's daughter's boyfriend, or dumped toxic waste in a perfectly good swamp! GAEA-Shield One, move out!" She dropped the crushed can on the table like a microphone and stood up to leave.

"See?" Rusakina said privately to Chancelly, as they left the Briefing Room and started towards the elevator to the roof. "When Mariko commits herself to a cause, she gets serious."

Chancelly nodded, but kept frowning. "Don't get me wrong, she's a valuable member of the team," she said. "I just get frustrated when I see she's not applying herself."

Dr. Elena Marshall had to input a special access code to the elevator to get them access to the roof, where the PetalPad, a huge platform of broad green leaves enmeshed with wires and transistors forming a bio-electrical circuit board, sat floating in a pool of superconductive nutrient gel behind a locked cyclone fence gate with a retina scanner and four large, fierce-looking German Shepherds. Dr. Marshall scanned in to get the door to open, then led them inside and entered the passcode to extend the catwalk over the gel to the PetalPad.

One of the German Shepherds whined, and Dr. Marshall scowled. "Oh, um... Rusakina?" she asked. "While we're up here, could you feed and water the dogs? They're not due for another couple hours, but it wouldn't hurt to get it out of the way now."

"Um, okay," Rusakina said, but she felt a little awkward about it. She took down the large sack of dog food, purchased in bulk, and carried it over to the feeding area, where she poured a generous portion into each bowl. The dogs all gathered around, and she scratched them at the chin and ears and talked to them in a low, cutesy voice. "Who's a good doggy? Is it you? It is, isn't it?"

"I, um, think you're not supposed to just pet them for no reason," Dr. Marshall said. "It contradicts their training, and you could get bitten."

"It's not for no reason," Rusakina said, grinning. "It's because somebody's a cute little wolfie woo-woo!" Giggling, she ruffled the fur around the neck of one of the German Shepherds affectionately, then put the food back up. With that done, she turned on the pump and rinsed out their water dish diligently before refilling it with cold, clear water. But when she bent forward to set the bowl down, she felt a rustling under her skirt and then a cold nose sniffing between her bare buttcheeks. With a yelp, she leapt away.

"No, bad dog!" Rusakina admonished. "You don't sniff people's butts!" The German Shepherd cocked his head at her and whined in confusion.

"They're dogs," Chancelly said wearily. "They'll do that. You about ready to go?"

"Yep!" Rusakina bounded away from the dogs and crossed the catwalk to stand on the PetalPad with Mariko and Chancelly. Beneath her feet, its leaves shifted softly atop the rolling mass of gel. Dr. Marshall stayed behind at the control terminal, flicking switches and inputting commands.

"You ready, girls?" Dr. Marshall asked. "Once I click the button to activate it, you'll be in the Bogsquat Swamp."

"There's no time to lose!" Chancelly said. "Send us!"

Dr. Marshall clicked the button, and a last-minute surge of realization and despair overcame Rusakina as, just before reality rended itself and folded and spun around her, she remembered that she never had cleaned up the mess on the kitchen counter.

Continued in Chapter 2

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