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Author's Chapter Notes:
Just a little spoiler before we start: in this chapter, Nicole is angry.






Nicole is angry.

All her plans.. and for nothing. At least they weren't ridiculed – at least so it seemed. But when Lisa offered the zones, their gifts became meaningless... “maturity and courage” - that's all they said! She feels betrayed. Somebody must have known and prepared that set up – Nicole was sure that Lisa was unable to come up with such zones. If she had them for more than ten minutes before the party, all Amber could get would be ruins and scraps of population. The only question was who did it. Who knew about her plan and so carefully prepared this trap.

She thinks about the possibilities. The firsts would not do it, the zones would be too valuable for any of them to waste them for Amber. And they had no way to figure it out in the first place... The only ones that knew were Kate and Amber herself.

During the party, Nicole suspected Kate – she was so reluctant to give her micros and tried to settle that they will only use the colonies, if Lisa gives nothing. Maybe she betrayed her to to get them back? That's why Nicole went with the plan anyway, to make sure that does not happen. But now it does not make sense – Kate gave her colony as well and although she did not seem very positive about it – it did not look like she missed them. Who would some two hundred thousand micros... Maybe she simply looked bored and wanting to leave?

Besides it's not like she could come up with such zones anyway. She would have to cooperate with some mother, at least. And Kate would not do that – she was not this type of person. It does not add up.

It must have been some other mother – or mothers, Nicole trembles. If they wanted to get her, then it would not be a problem. Every one of them had dozens if not hundreds of zones, probably many of them just as big. It feels like they would not think twice about such possibility to play with her, it seems. But how would they find out what she wanted to do? One of her friends must have told them! Maybe it was Amber – desperate to get anything? But no.. she was not that good at such games. No, she would not be able to pretend so well, either.

Maybe they simply assumed she may be trying to do something to use Lisa's inability to give Amber something? It would seem risky – but since two zones were almost nothing to them...

And now it looks like Kate was right – the entire plan now seems pathetic and laughable. She tried to tell her, but she did not listen. This time Nicole had nobody else to blame. No – it was whoever gave Lisa those zones! They made Nicole look silly and weak.

She thinks which mother could do this. It may have been her mother, but then it was Lauren's zone that held the party... But it would be too obvious – especially how she invited them to herself afterwards. Amy? Would she have any reason to see Nicole suffer? Rachel would be.. unlikely, but she is so weird... Maybe it was all of them?

No.. Nicole is furious, it prohibits her from thinking straight. She needs to calm down, figure things out more slowly. She is angrily walking around one of her zones, even kicked some towns away during her thinking session, but it did not help. She needs something more, she needs...

She promised herself she would not do it when her mother almost caught her stealing her micros. It was only a couple thousands each, but she did it so many times... For a moment when her mother asked about the population in one of her zones decreasing, she felt almost like Amber, addicted to playing with micros – but in her own way. She promised she will never steal any significant number from her mother. It was simply too risky.

But now she has her own micros... Maybe she could, perhaps just a little? She needs to do something, but she needs to do it smart. Like an adult, she is. Yes – she moves to another zone, so other inhabitants would not be worried, grabs one of the transporters she requested and demands fifty thousand for colonization. Not too much and not too little – just the average amount for a new colony. She tells them the equipment is all there, so they do not need to take anything.

It takes them forever to gather, just like anything they do – but this time Nicole is not bothered, she waits while carefully watching the increasing amount of people. They slowly board the transporter – and finally, she hears “the colonists are ready”. Yeah right... micros are so naive.

She teleports to one of her empty zones and casually holding the transporter so they cannot see anything levels a roughly foot by foot area with her shoe. After sitting down, she smooths it, so that micros will not have trouble traversing it.. they seem to have so many problems with such simple things. She finishes her stage by digging an inch deep trench around it.

After checking the population – a bit over 48 thousands.. they cannot even count - she places the transporter in the center and orders them to get out. Little fuckers have no idea – and start leaving the can. They must not learn about her true intent before most of them is out – there is nothing more annoying than micros holing up in the transporter. Sure she can just crush it, but what fun would that be? They seem oblivious enough to gather in front of it – Nicole pays special attention if they are not running back, in which case she is prepared to pick it up to stop any more hiding in. Well, they would not hide for long, but still. She wants as many micros for her games as possible.

It is hard to see clearly, but when it seems they stopped moving out, she picks up the transporter and simply crushes it – noticing the population has not changed. At least this time they listened, good for them.

“You know what?” - she tells them while carefully laying down on her stomach to see the micros better and getting her face just next to the platform, with chin almost on the ground and speaks softly - “I changed my mind about this whole colonization thing. Instead we are going to play some games. You like games, right? I thought so! Now, to start with, here is my favorite” – she puts her right hand about five inches above the stage with her forefinger straightened and directly over the group - “I call it: I slowly lower my finger while you run away, doesn't it sound like fun?” - she finishes while doing just that, pointing for the center of the group. Most micros do not seem to react, so she adds: “I think you do not want to lose this one.” She moves the finger down so slowly, that all of them must have been able to escape. “See – wasn't hard at all!”

Thinking about the new possibilities she has now, she brings her left hand forward, to support herself while making the wristcom visible to herself and the micros. It shows the clock and population counter, which has decreased by about a hundred – apparently some haven't - “See, this is your score, you can see how you're doing.” She repeats this process – but this time slightly faster, so she notices the counter decrease a bit more, sixteen hundred or so. Rising her hand again, she looks at the bottom of the finger, seeing noticeable traces of micros – and where she gently pushed it, reddish dots can be seen. Nicole has so much fun doing this – and being able to see the population changes – that she continues to repeat this process several times – and the counter drops just below forty thousands. Eventually, however, the micros are so scattered, that she needs to look for any groups to play with them – which is no fun anymore.

“Okay guys, you did really well, my finger is no match for you! But now let's try something else – so you get back to the center.” She doesn't notice any significant movement towards it, so she begins to carefully scrape away the edges of the platform - “Here, I'll help you.”

Eventually the micros understand they need to get back to the middle and group again. She can see them gathering, but continues to reduce the stage to three or four square inch area - they will not need more space now anyway. It seems that the remaining thirty five thousands are already in the middle – apparently some did not get back. This time they form a pretty dense group, that could probably fit under her fingertip – but she can still easily see a colorful crowd.

“Okay, so.. All that running was fun, but I thought we could repeat the game without it – what do you think? I love that you agree!” - but as she raises her finger again and begins the slow descent towards them, she can see some people trying to run again – where are they going... But she moves her forefinger and pats two larger groups that are already away of the rest and says “Hey, I said no running away!”

Nicole likes the effect the gentle pats seemed to have on the remaining group – she thinks they must have fallen and were getting up. She playfully repeats this several times at the edge of the platform and even outside – and enjoys the results. But she eventually gets back to her modified game.

It seems that the thirty two thousand people stay still while watching the particularly slow descent this time. She can still see some movement – but does not see any noticeable groups trying to get away. Just barely before the finger reaches the micros, she stops and raises it back - “Ha! Did you like it? I knew you would! Lets try again.”

This time she holds the finger just above them for a moment to make them wonder if she will crush them, but eventually pulls it back - “See, I told you my finger is no match for you! But what if we...”

She licks her forefinger to leave a noticeable layer of saliva and moves it next to the group, slowly rotating it over them. “Remember no running!” - she speaks as the finger barely rolls over them. When she can see the counter starting to decrease again, she stops and rolls it back a bit. “Another game – a trust building exercise! You have five minutes to help your friends, go!”

She watches micros dangle from the cliff of her finger, glued by the saliva. Some of them seem to be falling down though – the counter is slowly decreasing – and eventually the ones on the ground try to reach up and save them. But they aren't doing very well, reaching maybe a millimeter or so – barely third of where their friends are, so she gets bored quickly and retracts her finger, licking any remaining micros up and says “I didn't think you could do it – lets try something else.”

Nicole picks one of her hair from her head – just an average, three inches long filament – and slams it into the group. Previously she would not be able to see any effect, but now the counter shows a decrease of several dozen every time she hits them. Funny.. even a single hair is too much for the micros.

With barely thirty thousands micros left, Nicole runs out of ideas for new games. She could repeat some of the ones she used years ago, but she is already content with herself. The playtime has really calmed her, so she just watches them effectively motionless in front of her face. She thinks that she needs to practice being convincing – and even though micros are so stupid and naive, they may pick up her lie – so she tries to use her most serious voice:

“You know what, you won – I'm tired of this, here, get onto my nails so I can get you out from here” - as she puts her right hand next to them with nails down and waits for boarding. Barely any micros move, so she urges them: “Are you staying here or what?”

When they seem to be content with this plan – probably regained some hope, those micros... - and get on her nails, Nicole very carefully rotates herself around the hand, so she is sitting now and slowly moves them in front of her - “Hang on now.”

They never seem to care about what is going to happen to them, but she needs them to hope now for what she intends to do next. She never liked ramming stuff inside her, but April – her older sister – has explained her how she may one day need to when she wants to have children, so Nicole tried to come up with some ideas that she would like when she does that. She did not like buildings – they prickle a little and are a bit cold. She could accept just micros, but they needed to really squirm for her to feel anything. Thats why she says “I never told you where I am moving you to...” - and shoves them into her quickly uncovered sex. They manage to tickle her just a bit before they die, but it is enough to stimulate her and eventually she gets herself off, a couple minutes later.

As she lays back and thinks calmly about the recent events, she figures it must be her mother that did this to her. It is simply the only explanation – nobody else would have the influence or resources to play everyone like that. Nicole needs to get out of this trap. She must not let Erica get control of her life – just like she did with the firsts.

But later realizes that what she did just now was very wrong. Manipulating and playing micros to have some fun and the feeling of power? It seems so weak of her – and she must not let it happen again. She now knows she is better than that... Anybody can accomplish this with micros – no...

“I need to manipulate other Caretakers now, as an adult” - she concludes.

She notices the population counter still shows three hundred – apparently some micros did not listen to her when she ordered them to get on... With simple strike of her palm she fixes that and leaves the empty again zone – to make new plans and regain the respect she had before this setback.





Chapter End Notes:
I hope I provided enough details not to need to do pov for this. I already feel filthy... but also think it would be pretty redundant - and You can always use littles emotions from various parts of 5th chapter to imagine what was happening...

And as always - let me know what you think!!
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