Cyberpunk 2766AD

Oh great, the chick with the tail is in here. How the h*** do we keep stumbling across each other?!? "Holy s***. What the h*** happened to Jimmy?"

"Long story, and I'd really rather not go into it right now, but he needs help... NOW, or he's going to bleed to death." I snap. "Is the doctor available? Or someone that can stop his bleeding? Anyone?" I look around the room. Shotgun is here too, great. I groan inwardly. "C'mon! I need some help for this kid!"

 

Zu sighed and shook his head. He raced over and helped Kiara bring the injured freebooter into Killon's operating room. He was still cleaning the blood up from Zu's operation when they laid his body across the table. Zu wiped himself off and walked back into the waiting room.

 

Fox nods her head, "Yeah he's here. Hey doc, we have an emergency out hear!" That bastard from earlier comes out and grabs Jimmy and takes him into the doctor's office. "Don't worry, he has a pretty good reputation. He should be able to save Jimmy. Um..by the way, my name is Xare, though most people call me Fox." Fox looks down and the short woman and extends her hand as a gesture of friendship.

 

Jimmy groaned. He didn't feel good at all. His hands hurt, a lot.

"What happened?"

(Remember, ghost is still covered in vomit.)

 

"Don't worry, he has a pretty good reputation. He should be able to save Jimmy. Um..by the way, my name is Xare, though most people call me Fox."

I look down at the proffered hand for a moment, I almost don't want to shake it... bad things... seriously bad things... seem to happen every time we stumbled across her before, but finally I figured what the h***. "'Fox', huh? I'm Kiara," I allow as I shake her hand, "And I know the good Doctor and his reputation." I finish with a small grin as I lift my right hand up so she can see it well and roll the knuckles a couple of times, showing off my hand's dexterity and craftsmanship.

 

Fox gives her a grin. "So you also have a cyber hand." Fox holds up her right hand and extends the claws. At the same time, the port on the back of the hand can be seen. "Its good to meet you Kiara. To be successful, its probably a good idea to work together. Not to mention that one person won't be able to defend themselves against that yellow eyed monster of a bounty hunter. So what do you say, do you mind if me and Spencer stick with you? I figure that Jimmy probably will come with us as well."

 

Zu flipped his hood up and walked out the door. I'll leave them to their happy party, he thought. Once outside, he hurried out of the alley. He stared back at up, catching breaks in the rain clouds and seeing the neon lights of the top. He had been so close before, and now he needed to get back there. He needed to find someone who could help him. He caught a cabbie and looked down the alley again. Zu had the strange sense he might end up back here again.

 

Mr Stern stands alone in his office the light out leaving only the lightening flashes outside to light the darkness. He stood sipping on a glass of fine whiskey.
It was beginning to concern him that only three of the freebooters had been slain. From the data retrieval operation he’d sent Evan on it looked as though Tolva was the one he required. And thus on the quiet he’d sent for three cons and offered 250 Mill.

Now, now he had AG-Systems in his mind. And a third corporation QuireX this was beginning to look as though it could shine him badly. He needed to silence people and silence the right ones. Evan had Vornn out from the beginning. He’d lost Harry Page and Cyher had gone to ground. And then there was Zarkiel. The Zealot lunatic.

Adam had found a small lead. One of the AG-Systems Exo’s residing somewhere in New L.A.

Suddenly the silence was broke, him com chimed. He took another sip of his liquor and answered the Call.

“Sen Markus.” He said first.

“I’ve taken out Zu. Just heading out to apprehend Jimmy.” Sen Markus said.

“Good.”

 

Her suggestion bothers me, for a reason I can't immediately place. Tolva I know. Ghost I know... well, I thought I knew. This Fox person is a total unknown to me, other than the 'trouble following her everywhere' bit. But then again, this is really the first time in a long time that I've been alone... completely on my own alone.

"I need to find my friends." I finally allow. "I guess that's ok till I find 'em. Then I gotta talk to them... maybe we can work something out. But when everyone's together, there'll be too many to fit in one hover." I pause, unsure of what else to say. There's some stuff that's important, but I don't want to reveal it to someone I barely know... I stop talking with a bit of a dismissive shrug.

 

Tolva's new augment explained

As the hover slides upward through the watery atmosphere I feel like crap.

Not physically. Slums aside the doctor is one of the very best and between the super-skin bondo stuff he uses and the nanites that speed the healing I feel almost normal.

I hope Kiara and Ghost are all right. They’ll take care of each other I tell myself. But I worry anyway; Kiara will have her hands full. After all, Ghost has bits missing in his head.

More immediate problems are surfacing.

I’m in a vehicle that probably is reaching its limit on time of service and will need to be charged, I have Gleeson’s damn tracking nanites partying down somewhere inside, I really am not sure what I’m shooting for here, and to top it all off it’s raining.

Thanks ever so much, Pinter, for this load of trouble. At the moment if he were here I’d shove him off of that building myself.

Flexing the shoulder I review what Doc. Fillon told me.

“Your new left shoulder won’t get tired when you climb but that is only one aspect. There is a small generator implant that will fuel three special functions, anti-gravity, force shield, and we’ll get to the last one in a minute.”

I made ‘hurry up’ motions.

“For anti-gravity I placed a special triaxial optic across the back of your shoulders.” He traced a line behind my back from shoulder to shoulder with his finger. “Should you fall or jump this will slow your fall, much like a parachute, so that you may land safely.”

I think of all the parachutists who break their ankles on landing in windy conditions.

“Thanks.” I tell him dryly and he ignores me.

“The force shield will protect the left upper quadrant of your body, from just over your head to about the hip. It is also feeds the absorber.”

I looked at him questioningly.

“The coating on the metal shoulder is energy-absorbent. It can absorb solar energy and even electrical if you’re desperate and can figure out a way to rig that. Solar is best.”

He grins, rubbing his hands over the third aspect.

“Thirdly, if you take a plasma charge to the force shield it will feed the absorber in a wave so intense that your generator will go close to overload.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good thing.”

“It’s not. I would suggest you don’t do it. But since you probably will I had to create a fix for it. Within seventeen seconds after any energy weapon burst hits you will have to shed the excess energy as a cutting laser burst through your robotic eye. It won’t be a prolonged beam, just a very destructive burst.”

“What about my eye?” I was horrified, “It’ll burn the eye out!”

“No,” he grinned, “I’ve taken steps to protect it. Just beware of that killer look because you really could kill someone with it.”

Solar. Great, I will need to redesign the suit so that my shoulder is exposed. It'll also make wearing the identity-hiding coat more problematic. A shame that Dr. Fillon was more genius than logical problem-solver. But I guess you can't have everything.

“Okay, Gleeson,” I say to the empty hover as I fly slower and watch the energy indicator fall, “Just what do you have in mind?”

 

Zu paid the cabbie and got out. He was back at the mall. He realized, after his last run in, that the bounty hunters still recognized him. Regular gangers may be thrown off, but the top dogs weren't. He walked around the mall, trying to figure out what he could do, but nothing sprung to mind. His chest still ached from the operation.

Zu made his way to the food court, ordered some Chinese, and ate in silence. He had no idea what to do and no idea where to go. For the first time, in the city that he grew up in, Zu felt completely lost and alone.

 

Fox sits back down, next to Spencer. "So Kiara, we should compare notes on the bounty hunters. First there is this gaint ogre of a man. We don't have to worry about him though, I already took care of that. There is this guy who uses plasma pistols. He could be very dangerous if he got the drop on someone. There is this martial arts master dude, with christian tattoos all over his body. He loves to use fire. Finally there is the yellow eyed monster. He could be a real demon. My armor is pretty strong, but he seemed to cut through it like it was nother. He moves at an insane rate, and can absord inhuman amounts of damage and not even slow down."

 

Roxy uses the rain to hide the noise she makes as she leaps from a small foot bridge looking down on the flyer Tolva sits in. Roxy lands cat like hard on the bonnet. She looks into Tolva’s eyes and smiles.

“Meow.” She snarls.

Lashing forwards Roxy sweeps her left hand into Tolva’s chest cutting into her cloths and merely piercing the skin in a graze. Or at least that’s how it appeared at first sign.

“Damn girl you’ve got something snazzy.”

With her concealed hand she reveals the whole Bionic arm and punches Tolva in the nose. With the shock factor on her side. Roxy somersaults over into the back seat pulling Tolva’s hair back she slaps her in the face with her Bionic hand. Tolva smiles in the face of Roxy’s assault.. Roxy digs deep into her white plastic coat and retrieves a large Knife. She lunges at Tolva forcing the woman forwards to avoid she bangs her head on the steering wheel. Roxy jerks forwards landing back first on the bonnet and sliding off from the wetness of the rain splashing across.

She rolls onto the road.

“Bitch what the hell.”

She stands to engage a second encounter.

 

Vornn kicked open the door to the waiting room. His yellow eyes shinning under the dim light. He draws his Sword with a firm grip across the Hilt. He slams the tip of the Blade through Kiars chest plunging deep inside. Turning to Fox he takes his golden gun in hand and fires. The bullet hits her in the shoulder. He fires a second shot. The bullet slams into Fox’s elbow taking the arm half off. Retracting his blade he turns to face Peter Fillon and blows his head clean of. Blood and skull shower across the floor. Vornn turns to the others sheaths his sword and holsters his gun.

Angry that neither of these Freebooters are Tolva he leaves disappearing into the shadows of the early hours of the morning.

 

My mind is still on Gleeson when a possessed woman lands on the hood of the hover and crashes through the canopy, glass everywhere. Then she’s everywhere, whipping around a mongo huge knife and slapping and punching with what feels like a hunk of solid steel.

The shield deflects most of the knife blow but I feel it trace a line of fire on my right side where the shield ends.

Her hand gets to the unprotected side of my face and I’m stunned as pain blossoms from my nose, eyes watering. Rain is coming through the broken canopy.

When she comes after me again from the backseat I lean forward abruptly and she flies over my head, skitters over the hood of the hover and lands on the road.

There is no time to think and I’m really pissed at this point. As she rolls I plant a boot on the hood of the hover and leap.

I’m a roof runner; I can leap like all hell is after me.

As she stands I land right on her, knocking her heavily to the pavement. Her head bounces off of it and I encouragingly grab her head and smash it against the pavement again adding a punch to the nose to share the joy of face pain.

“Who the f*** are you?” I scream at her.

She’s still holding the knife and manages to slash it at me. Oversight on my part. I try to grab the wrist and miss.

I roll away desperately, feeling the blade kiss across my leg. Dammit.

The hover is doing its thing, hovering about four feet from the ground, and I roll under it, trying to grab for the pulse shotgun which is easier said than done when you’re rolling.

When I come out from the other side, she’s standing there already with that big a** knife, blood dripping down her face, and a grin like the devil. She pounces after me.

I manage to get a shot off with the pulse gun but the ball of energy only nips her and spins her to the side, blowing a hole in the hover and sending it spinning off the roadspan, scudding me at least six feet the other direction on my back.

Scrambling to my feet I realize I don’t really have two and a half seconds for the gun to recharge.

Hoping like hell that Dr. Fillon’s little commercial about the anti-grav works I run to the edge of the span, plant my boot on the railing and hurl myself into empty air, free-falling like a skydiver as the hover explodes against a building on the other side of the roadspan above me

 

The explosion blows Roxy across the street. He white plastic coat lit up by flames and her arm aching. He rolls to her feet watches Tolva jump.

“Bitch.” She calls and draws her small gun while removing her plastic coat to reveal her armoured chest plates.

She pulls the trigger just as Tolva,s jump takes her from sight.

Damn I know I hit her. She thinks to herself while wiping blood from her lips. I’ll catch up with her sooner or later. She ponders.

 

Landing.

I don’t like falling, it’s something every runner fears. Remember Pinter?

I have to wait to engage the anti-grav, have to judge it so that I don’t land too hard. If it were engaged through a long fall, the Doc had explained, the landing would be harder. Seems counter-intuitive but who am I to argue?

Just the person falling from a height, that’s all.

The rain falling from above keeps me oriented in the stormy dimness, as does the air rushing up against me from below.

Looking below me desperately, I see the spaghetti snake of a roadway coming up below me. I haven’t figured out how to steer yet so I just hope for the best, engage the anti-grav when it feels right and land much too hard for my liking right in the middle of the road with hoverlights headed right toward me.

Hurling myself to the side, the lights sweep by inches away and a horn blares. I’m shaking and so rushed on adrenaline that even though I feel blood trickling from wounds I don’t feel the pain yet.

Shaking, I pause to place the heels of my hands against my nose and wrench it back into place. The pain is nasty and I fade a little before I feel okay again.

I keep the pulse shotgun out, hidden in the folds of my coat on the right side, the side away from traffic as I begin to walk, limping, pulling my hood up against the rain.

I need to find a haven so that I can assess the damage.

 

"OH COME THE F*** ON! EVERY F***ING PLACE I GO HE SHOWS UP! F***!" yells out Fox as she clutches the nub that used to be her left arm. Her elbow, forarm and hand was gone. She can feel a surge of nanites heading for the wound. Spencer managed to get off a few shots at the bounty hunter, but none connected. Fox looks over at Kiara, who is laying in a puddle of blood. She thinks to herself, "My arm will heal it self, but she really needs help." She runs into the doctors office and grabs a needle. She fills it with the same stuff the doc injected into her to heal her wounds earlier. She runs out and injects the nanites into Kiara's chest. "Come on, I really don't need one of the few allies I have dying." Fox kneels over her and waits to see if she comes to. "Hey Spencer, make sure Jimmy is ok." He nods and goes into the doctor's office.

 

Doesn't anyone sell gag wigs anymore? was Zu's thought as he looked at all the new fusing wigs. He could only imagine the mess that would be created when his real hair would grow back.

He walked out of the salon and made his way to the tech shop. Before shopping around, he attempted to reach Kenji on the comm chat again but to no avail. He sighed and looked at the various goggles being offered. Nothing useful presented itself.

He walked out, more frustrated than before. He sat down on a mall bench and turned on his mp3 player. The first song it played was the new industrialplosion track: "On Top Of The World." As he listened to the tranquil techno he found himself looking upwards again. The malled ended three floors up, but the structure itself went on for miles. Elaborate neon lighting circile the spire with it.

Once the track ended, Zu got up and turned the mp3 player off. He decided to make for the top level of the city. He didn't know why, but he felt that he could find the help he needed up there.

 

Wraith made it to the bar. It was in the dead center of LA. He managed to get a room with the last few credits he had left. It was good for a week. By then he would need to get some more, if he wanted to stay.

He lay down on the bed, he needed to rest. As soon as he hit the pillow, he turned off his augments, the sounds kept him awake. He was asleep within five minutes, oblivious to the world.

 

I saw the gleaming Emergency sign, smudgy through the rain. It had taken me a while to get there once I had seen the blue hospital signs.

The nanites still alive in my system from when Doc put my new augment in have been repairing the knife cuts. I’m certain, after a little cautious feeling around, that there is a bullet in my leg. No exit wound. If the nanites fix the entry wound, getting it out will be even less pleasant than what already faces me.

I veer off, heading not for the Emergency Room with all of their forms, questions, and undoubtedly sharp-eyed knowledge of who is ‘Wanted’ in this city but toward a back entrance.

There is little back here but parking places for delivery vans, bare concrete, and rain.

I stand in the shadow of a jutting steel building support and wait.

 

I grab the nylon webbing from the tie-downs and wrap it around my arm. It stops the lubricant from flowing and seems strong enough for me to hold fluid again. Lucky me this guy had the super mega big gulp in the truck filled with a neon green carbonated caffeine overdose inducing beverage.

My system holds. I contract everything I can and do a pressure test. The arm holds, for now. How long it will last, I have no idea. I scan my body and it seems the only damage I took was in the arm. Lucky me. Well not lucky, more like fortunate that I did not get my skull cut in half or something by Kiara.

I hope she is Ok. I hate the idea that I have lost both Tolva and Kiara now. I need to get fixed then I can find them.

I hear the turbines scream as I truck down the highway off to the one person that I know, knows how to fix me. Peter.

I park the truck two buildings away and set it on fire. No one is going to question some one and half meter overweight Hispanic looking female about what happened here.

As I walk towards the building I catch a glimpse of myself in the windows., I look like I have been rained on, puked on, and put though all kinds of emotional trauma. How fitting.

I need to change my outfit, get cleaned up and then find a way to fix this arm.

I still feel a bit strange. The singsong voice has not gone away, just gotten very, very quiet. Like whispers, but not saying anything important, or more to the point. I just can;t make out what it is saying.

I spot some guy and ask if is willing to exchange sex for some credits. He laughs at me. I break his arm in three places and ask if is willing exchange his life for all his credits, his clothing and the keys to his car. He thinks that is a much better deal.

After I kick him around and strip him naked I let the guy go whimpering off into the darkness of the night I can not believe I just did that!

I can't explain why am I becoming so violent. It a constant state of aggressiveness that has filled me. I want to fight, hurt, maim people.

Before I just made threats, but now I am acting before I even have a chance to consider other options. Almost like I can't not use force to solve my issues.

I need a lot more repair then just my arm. But I need to start with the arm.

 

PAIN!

My world is made of pain! My chest feels like it's on fire. I'm not unconscious, but I'm d*mn near to it. I can hear Fox saying something, but I have no idea what... a few seconds later she jabs me with something, but I don't feel the pinch of the needle at all... its lost in the sea of pain that is my chest. A few moments later I start to feel a *little* better... probably nanites. My eyes open a crack... Fox is hovering over me, a concerned expression on her face. "Can...I... still..." I pause to catch my breath, "rescind that... yes?" Sarcastic to the last... I swear, one day I'll probably tell the Devil himself where he can go shove it.

 

This was incredible. Absolutely incredible. One minute, the office was calm; the stereotype of what it should be, the next, everyone was panicking as the man known as Zu brought Jimmy the Kid in, bleeding everywhere. And then, it was calm again as Kiara and Fox got to know one another. Spencer almost swore aloud...Kiara was stubborn, hard, and impulsive. She could indeed be an ally...but how useful an ally?

The calm was broken again by the bounty hunter crashing in and spreading a mess of chaos in the space of about ten seconds. Spencer had fired twice, both shots going wide. Blood was everywhere, yet again. Fox had been dismembered, but it was healing thanks to the nanites she had been infused with. Kiara had taken a bad hit, and Fox was tending to her. Spencer simply nodded when she told him to go check on Jimmy.

Nothing was going right. Just when he thought he could have some space to think, something else would explode into the forefront. They were on the defense. They were reacting. Spencer needed to be on the offense. He needed to act.

In his last moments, the doctor had apparently done the right things with Jimmy. Nanites were repairing the ruptured tissue, and the appropriate cybernetics had been installed. The boy was slowly starting to wake up.

"Rest now." Spencer said. "You'll need it." Slowly, he sat down in the chair next to his bed.

"You're strong. And you've been lucky. But we need more than luck for any of us to get out of this. If you're willing to trust me, I can show you things that will stay with you forever. I can show you how to move, how to think, how to act and react. If you're willing, come talk to me later." He stood and walked back out into the lobby.

Kiara was coming to, and Fox was doing fairly well.

"We can't keep playing games. We need to act. Soon."

 

Zu decided utilizing the mall structure was his safest bet. He made his way to the turbolift, passing a flatscreen store on the way. The news was showing. The volume was down, but from the pictures it looked like another story on the freebooters. Except this time, another one of the freebooter's picture was missing: his own. His scruffy picture wasn't being shown with the other "wanted" stories. That's odd, he thought as he moved on.

He reached the turbolift, got in with a large group of people, and pressed the fifth floor button, the top of the mall. He looked around, and then removed his hood. People caught quick glances at his direction, but no one made a scene. Not one person raised an alarm. Maybe it's just because I've removed all my hair since my picture was taken, he thought and looked around some more. The elevator ride was silent, except for the muzak playing.

Once he was at the top floor of the mall, he stopped to look up once more. It was a long way to go. Zu knew he could reach it easily but, given recent events, he decided slow and careful was the best course of action. He turned on his mp3 player and amplified his hearing, then he keyed an arbitrary location on the top level into his GPS. He put his hood up again, and exited the mall.