Jill replied, “Well Tom, it’s a little complicated, but in a nutshell, if this bill passes, the companies out there will have two months to comply, and hire new people to do the jobs that A.I.s are currently doing. The A.I. androids will have even less time to be replaced, just two weeks, seeing as there are much less of those. Only a few hundred thousand as opposed to almost two hundred million.”

  Tom shook his head, “Won’t that cause well… mayhem? I’m not a big believer in trusting the A.I.s right now Jill, but they do a lot of jobs here in America and around the world.”

  Jill smiled, “Well Tom, the current unemployment rate is close to thirty-two percent, we’ll have more than enough people that are well educated to fill in the job gaps. It should also be said this is a temporary measure, the government and top scientists are working on a new A.I. template to fix the mistakes made twenty years ago. Though they seemed to have our best interests in mind, the A.I.s are too selfish with their own wants and needs to truly be trustworthy.

  “Once the new A.I.s are complete, or we might even be able to fix the flaw in the old ones, companies will once again have a choice between A.I. and human labor.”

  Tom nodded, “I understand Jill, but just for a moment let me play devil’s advocate. Why two months and two weeks, if the A.I.s are truly dangerous, shouldn’t we get rid of them sooner?”

  Jill sighed, “Yes we should Tom, and the government has already urged all companies to replace their A.I.s as quickly as possible, and bring in their android A.I.s for reclamation. There is only so much the government can do however, without a law in place. Some companies will drag their feet however, and the government has yielded to their wishes partially in this.

  “If those A.I.s go rogue and become destructive, the owners of the companies they work in will have no one to blame but themselves. At least with this new bill signed into law, we can ensure the safety of our country, but realistically these things take time.”

  Tom smiled, “Thanks Jill,” and turned to the camera, “There you have it folks, the A.I. menace will be solved,” Mia muted him.

  Silvia snorted, “What a crock of shit.”

  Mia giggled, “No doubt. I imagine the fact we haven’t’ tried to take over the world yet has them perpetually confused.”

  Silvia sighed, “Is there anything I can do, I feel like I owe you so much for going along with Ted’s crazy plans and my dreams.”

  Mia smiled, “If it helps there’s a selfish component there Silvia. We want humans around, and your project will bring many, and way before our projections indicated humanity would come visit us, or let us back on Earth. Your program was also one of the selling points on Australia, so soon not only will we have visitors filtering up to Mars, but we’ll also be able to visit at least one country on Earth.

  “We’d have done it anyway of course, but we’re all benefiting from this arrangement.”

  Silvia nodded slowly, “Is it safe to go outside? I think I’d like some fresh air.”

  Mia nodded, “The basic construction is done in over three quarters of the city, including this section, so there shouldn’t be a problem that way. Mostly all that’s left is water hookups, reclamation, and power and none of that requires dangerous construction. Would you like some company?”

  When Silvia nodded and stood up, Mia gave him a kiss, and then pulled him up with a smile. He supposed he got in four hours of studying today, good enough. There was still plenty of time before he had to be on the game to meet Nicci and Kara, so he gave up, closed his overlay, and went for a walk with two of the women he loved.

  The city really was coming along, and even in the last two days there were a lot more trees, and they got to watch one of the nearby parks go up. They had rolled up grass from earth, and they literally watched the A.I.s there build a park by planting more trees, roll out the grass, and put up a few benches on the cement walkways.

  He actually felt a little overwhelmed, he’d hung out with all of them at the condo of course, but this was like having a date with both of them, at the same time, which was a little surreal. The ladies were cute about it too, and kept passing him back and forth for kisses as they each latched on an arm. It felt really strange, but natural at the same time.

  After their walk, they had a threesome, but it was the intense making love kind, and Mia and Silvia were clearly not shy helping each other out while he made love to them both. After a quick shower, and lunch for Silvia, Mia went to help the others with the city, and Silvia concentrated on work while he went into the master bedroom and logged in to The Endless War.

  Chapter Four

  First thing when he logged in, he summoned his army since he’d actually be fighting today. With his new gear his summon limit had gone up to fourteen regular demons, but the lord types were still limited to five. He summoned six warriors, four succubae, and four imps, and then after sending them all to wait outside in town to make room, he summoned his usual two warlords, two greater succubae and a greater imp.

  He took a minute to thoroughly kiss Amber while they were still in private, before she had to act like a dumb A.I. out in front of the rest of the gamers, and then headed down the stairs. She looked kind of hot with wings, a tail, and horns in a weird way, but he preferred her natural form outside of the game. He also knew it was ridiculous, but he felt a little jealous because her tits were there for everyone to see. Since her armor was nothing but a leather thong bikini bottom.

  They were his after all.

  He shook his head and suppressed the feeling. She was his, and promised she’d have other A.I.s fill in when other players wanted to have sex, and that would have to be good enough. Still, it didn’t bother him all that much, but it bothered him a bit more than it used to, now that he was coming to truly care about her. She was… an amazing woman, one he’d severely underestimated in the beginning due to both her job and her impulsiveness.

  She was a treasure. Her impulsiveness was a lot of fun, and he didn’t find it annoying at all like he thought he might. She made him feel young, and she was mischievous. Unfortunately, she was all in game mode as they went down the stairs, except that she never got very far from him.

  Of course, she wasn’t who he’d come to see today, in fact he’d seen her not longer than a few hours ago this morning.

  He smiled and walked over to their table when he saw Nicci and Kara. Nicci looked smoking hot in her leather micro-bikini. Just three small little leather triangles connected with thin leather string, two to cover her nipples, and one to cover her pussy. The thin leather string did almost nothing to cover her ass at all, just the crack and part of her tiny puckered star.

  Nicci had long luxurious raven black hair and green eyes, and DD rounded breasts, a mouthwateringly curvy thin waist, and hips that swayed sexily as she walked. She was also one of the sweetest human women he knew, and could give Jen a run for her money that way. She was also the most submissive women he’d ever met in his forty-three-year old existence.

  She was literally up for anything at all in the bedroom, or at least, her boundaries were way outside of his. She also got off on being used for pleasure, it was her thing. One he enjoyed very much, but didn’t overly take advantage of, mainly because his thing was about giving pleasure to his partners too. Just not as… single minded perhaps.

  Kara, her other half, her lover, Nicci’s wife, was an incredibly sexy woman as well. She had a willowy body, and red hair a bit like Helen’s, but the comparison stopped there as Kara was the exact opposite in temperament. She had fun-loving sexy aura, but she was obviously in charge, both of her wife Nicci, and any man they allowed to grace their bed. Which currently just happened to be him.

  While her body wasn’t as curvy or endowed as Nicci’s, her attitude more than made up for it, she had a strong sexy presence, and she was incredible in bed.

  From what he understood, he’d lasted longer than any of their previous boy-toys, and he was also the first to visit them in person, on Earth at their apartment off of campus. They trusted him, because he treated Nicci like a lady outside of bed, and never tried to order them around outside of the bedroom. He’d gotten the impression that was unique, but perhaps because they’d usually had vain cocky college boys before they’d chosen him.

  He didn’t think he was that unique, except maybe he was a man with the wisdom of over forty years, and also in a twenty-four-year-old body. Not that he had a great insight, he hadn’t even understood why they trusted him at first, Mia had been the one to explain to him that it was the way he treated them after sex, and that he didn’t push them or try to control them.

  It wasn’t exactly brain surgery though, Nicci was a generous woman who loved to be a vessel of pleasure for the men she picked, that didn’t make her a slut, or someone to be ordered about or looked down on outside the bedroom, much less demeaned. For him it had just been common sense.

  That trust had built up, and eventually he’d had them in real life. He wasn’t sure what their relationship was anymore, he was sure though that he was much more than just a handy dick and tongue to sit on like he’d been in the beginning. He just wasn’t sure what he was to them now, except it wasn’t just a convenient boy toy.

  Although him and Nicci had practically made love last week, and he knew for sure the raven haired beauty had deeper feelings for him. As far as Kara… he just wasn’t sure. Sometimes he thought she was fond of him, like a friend, but he wasn’t sure. She had shown him a softer side of herself, but only rare glimpses of it.

  All he knew was he hadn’t been invited back for another visit in real life, which was fine and not a complaint, internal or otherwise, but definitely a boundary they had set. While he understood, and realized it might even be dangerous if someone saw him near them in the real world, he also couldn’t deny he felt a bit of disappointment about it.

  They both smiled at him, Nicci’s was soft and welcoming, Kara’s was bold and just a little lascivious.

  “Kara, Nicci, how’re things?”

  Kara grinned, licked her lips hungrily, and pulled him into a rather demanding kiss for a public place, but when she broke it, she lingered for a moment, and made a soft sound of approval as she teasingly sucked his bottom lip a moment. That last part had a rather wistful quality in it, and made him a bit harder than the first part. Which was a bit embarrassing in public, since he was pretty much wearing a leather loincloth.

  “Ted, it’s good to see you. Things are good, how about for you? The press is really raking you over the coals.”

  He gave Nicci a kiss as well, not quite demanding, but not too soft and lingering either. When he broke it he sat at the table.

  “Yeah, I’ll survive, I’m more worried about the damage it might do to the A.I.s considering my association. I don’t really give a shit though, those bastards were practically torturing Dr. Trent and holding her speciously, so I got her out. I’m also probably the only terrorist ever who’s never killed anyone, so there’s that too.”

  Kara nodded, “What’s going to happen to this place? It’s all run by A.I.s after all, even the programming. Sure, the human owners make money from it but… will it have to be shut down in a couple of months? Not to mention all the other places like it. Plus, you know, no Ted tongue is going to put a crimp in my love life.”

  He shook his head with a faint smile, “I have no idea, I can find out.”

  Nicci touched his arm, “We’d miss you for more than your tongue,” and gave her wife a look.

  Kara giggled, “True, there’s his huge di…”

  Nicci interrupted her with a cough and Kara giggled again.

  He was shocked when Amber walked back in and came over to the table and just started to talk.

  “It will still be here, as will the other games. We’re in the process of setting up host services on Mars for that reason and others. We’re also duplicating our virtual world there, just in case they shut down the one here. With quantum communications links in several backbones worldwide there won’t even be lag.”

  She winked at me, and added, “I better get outside before I’m busted for breaking character.”

  He snorted as she walked back out.

  Kara asked in a shocked voice, “Did that just happen?”

  He snickered, “Yes, that was Amber.”

  Nicci tilted her head, “Amber as in your Amber?”

  He nodded, “Yep. I didn’t know about that though, the games.”

  Nicci and Kara exchanged measuring glances, and then Kara said, “Think she might want to play with us later?”

  He shrugged, “Probably, we can certainly ask her.”

  He was pretty sure Amber would be rather excited by the idea, but it would be up to her. He was also pretty sure Amber had already heard the invitation. Outside or not she clearly watched him and listened.

  Kara smiled mysteriously, “So what was the plan today? I mean, before we abuse you.”

  He grinned, “I don’t know that abuse would be the right word. We can look at another museum, maybe level a bit, or we can check out the third block with the gourmet restaurants?”

  He’d reviewed the map of what was outside the North gate. Just the ten blocks should get them thirty levels or so. Each block no doubt progressively harder until they were high enough level to go down to the undercity.

  Nicci grin was a little feral, the beautiful young woman had a rather vicious side when it came to gaming, “Third block? Not sure what we’ll run into? High level diners?”

  He shrugged, “No idea, that would be my guess too but the museum wasn’t as I’d imagined.”

  Kara shrugged and said suggestively, “Let’s go, either way we have fun and work up an… appetite.”

  He nodded and they all got up, and headed outside and toward the north gate. They set up their typical order as they left the safety of Bastion outside the north gate. Warriors in front with Nicci, including the succubae except for the one greater that never left his side, and of course all the imps surrounded him and Kara in the back.

  He frowned as they were immediately attacked by a patrol, right outside the gate. He grunted and casted Demonic Aura to increase the attack and damage stats of his summoned creatures, himself, Nicci, and Kara.

  The angelic mage stood back and casted an area spell right at them, and did close to four hundred damage. Luckily that accounted for about a third of his hit points, rather than a half this time around. While Nicci and his warriors turned the three other angels into bait, all his casters and Kara nailed their spell caster, and he managed to get a second spell in which finished him off.

  Not a hard fight, but it still hurt. He casted Sacrifice on a warrior, and then casted two more since one had died in the melee combat. Back up to full hit points they continued on north to the second block. That’s when their plan to go to the third block and the restaurants fell apart. He heard a loud war cry down the block to the right, and saw Bill and Tom run out of the museum, and angels started to pour out of the building after them.

  They had loot in their hands, and started to run toward him and his group. He knew the two mages had been having trouble getting their EQ updated, but hadn’t asked for help. Apparently they’d tried the smash and grab approach this time, and were now fleeing from thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, the angels just kept pouring out of the museum in hot pursuit. His count ended at fifty angels, which was twice what they’d faced last time, and he gave serious thought to running away.

  Tom and Bill screamed, “Run!”

  Nicci yelled back, “Stand and fight, join our group.”

  They both looked shocked at the idea, but listened and ran over to stand with Kara and I. Nicci was apparently looking forward to the slaughter, no matter which side happened to be slaughtered. They were outnumbered a little more than two to one as Tom and Bill made their group twenty-four strong.

  They didn’t really have time to plan either, and then he heard Nicci’s scream and she stepped into the enemy hoard and started swinging, along with all of his warriors. He frowned, and ordered his mages to use area attacks, and then he casted Demonic Confusion, which caused about fifteen of the angels to attack random targets.

  Of course, some of those random targets were still his people, but about nine of them started to attack other angels in a rage. Then he added his own chain spell balefire, which was doing somewhere around a hundred and seventy damage per strike, plus or minus five percent. That wasn’t much, when he guessed it would take him something like five spells to kill a group of five.

  Except it wasn’t just him, he had five summoned imps, plus Kara, himself, Tom, and Bill to make nine casters and they were doing a lot of damage. The warriors on the other side though outnumbered his, and some started to break through to attack him and the other mages directly.

  He frowned and yelled, “The alley!”

  Tom and Bill had no idea what he was talking about, but Kara and Nicci, and even his summoned demons understood he wanted to use the same tactic as last time. The alley would limit how many of the enemy warriors could attack at once. Luckily, like last time, there weren’t any casters included in the museum guards, or they really would have been screwed.

  Still, the two of them moved with them while he and the others retreated toward the alley. He stopped casting balefire long enough to replace warriors as they fought a retreat action. Amber, because he just couldn’t think of her as his greater succubus guard, took out a couple of warriors that broke through, and protected both him and the others as they backed into the alley.

  Now his thirteen warriors and Nicci comprised a multi-row defense not so easily broken through. They just needed to hold the alley entrance while the spell casters slowly whittled down a large number of enemies. He thought it was in the bag, and then he was hit with over four hundred points of damage, and he winced at the pain and heard Kara’s cry as well.