《Evolution Punk》 Chapter 1: Out of the Well ¡°Karla!¡± Karla didn¡¯t respond. Her eyes drifted over the mirror she found herself in front of. A teenage girl was reflected, toothbrush in hand. She almost didn¡¯t recognize herself. She was twenty six a second ago, and now she saw her sixteen-year-old face staring back. A drop of white toothpaste dripped onto her shirt. ¡°Karla! Are you alright?¡± her mother shouted from downstairs. ¡°Answer me!¡± ¡°Y-yes!¡± she shouted back. She spat and wiped off her face, pausing at the mirror once again. She didn¡¯t know what to think. Up until a moment ago, she lived in an apartment in City West. But now, she was here. Before it all. She didn¡¯t feel the cursed power that had taken her parents life, she was still normal. Still just Karla. ¡°Karla!¡± She dropped the toothbrush bolted for the stairs. The house seemed familiar still, despite not seeing it for over ten years. The long, thin hallway, the ugly carpet, the stairs that creaked under every step. Still she didn¡¯t quite believe it till she faced the woman who had been shouting at her this entire time. Karla came to a halt just outside the kitchen, staring at another face she hadn¡¯t seen in so many years. Dark skin, hair dyed into dark red curls, and wearing a large apron with a hand-embroidered apple over her plump frame. Her mother, Diana, exactly as Karla remembered her. ¡°Haah, don¡¯t scare me like that! First an earthquake and then all of that racket outside. Enough to give me a heart attack.¡± Her mother shook her head and focused her attention back onto a sheet of dough she had been rolling out on the counter. ¡°Don¡¯t be late now. Get some actual clothes on and head to school, I¡¯ll be making some things for the potluck tonight so get back early, I¡¯ll need your help carrying things.¡± ¡°Mom¡­¡± ¡°Hmmm?¡± Her mother didn¡¯t look up for a moment. ¡°Karla, what¡ª¡± She finally looked up and saw her daughter¡¯s face. ¡°Sweetie? Are you okay?¡± She set down the rolling pin and stepped over. ¡°Ah, I have flour on me, one second¡ª¡± Karla cut her off with a hug. She buried her face in her mother¡¯s chest and squeezed. ¡°Karla! Oh honey. Are you crying? What is a girl your age crying over an earthquake? We used to have them all the time down in California. First time I¡¯ve felt one this big up in Seattle, but it wasn¡¯t too bad. You¡¯d be surprised at a real big one.¡± Another rumble shook the building. Karla and her mother tensed as the shaking tapered off. A spark erupted in her chest, a familiar feeling, if a bit stunted or incomplete. The power that had been with her for what felt like a lifetime was suddenly back, flowing into her like a bonfire erupting into life. She could feel the world, sense the very air. The entire house was within her grasp, as well as the earth beneath their feet. She pushed her senses down into the soil her home and found them. Holes in the earth, growing as she embraced her mother in the kitchen above. A nest of ants had always been by the driveway of her home. Little, annoying red bastards that seemed to live only to bite her when she played in the grass as a child. She had always hated these creatures and today, they were gaining large, ugly siblings. She could feel the creatures dig and scratch at the dirt as they grew, forced to head upwards, to the surface. A long, red leg broke out of the driveway, digging through the asphalt and pulling up the large beast. ¡°It¡¯s just an aftershock sweetie!¡± Diana hugged her and laughed. ¡°Just relax, it¡¯ll be over soon enough.¡± The ant pulled itself up, struggling to squeeze out from under her father¡¯s car and then¡­ Karla reached out to crush the insect with the walls of its own tunnel. A quick death, and something that was easy for her. She focused, she squeezed with her power¡­ and nothing happened. The ant dragged itself up, nipping at the undercarriage of her father¡¯s Saab as it tried to pull itself through. She tried to push the asphalt inwards, to break and smash it with the crumbling black material. Nothing. ¡°Man oh man,¡± said her father Thomas as he stomped down the stairs. He was a tall blond man in a suit, a large bandage on his cheek marked where the earthquake had interrupted his shaving. ¡°I haven¡¯t nicked myself with the razor like that in a while.¡± Her mother huffed. ¡°Why do you keep using that? Just use an electric shaver like everyone else!¡± He chuckled as he rubbed his wounded face. ¡°Nothing gets as close of a shave as a razor.¡± ¡°Ha! Close! You¡¯ll take your nose off one of these days.¡± Karla stared at the two. This conversation, she had heard it before. Once, a long time ago just before the worst day of her life happened. They spoke the same, and acted the same, but they felt¡­ off. She looked over the house, it looked off, too. She pushed her focus outside, the sound of her parent¡¯s morning bickering faded as she concentrated. She had to prevent what happened next. But to do so, she needed her powers. She tried to force the ground to move, to slowly, powerfully move. She had been able to control solid objects as if she was a piece of construction equipment. Slow, accurate, strong. She applied that pressure to the ground, but as she focused, the earth merely cracked and broke under the ant¡¯s attempts to remove itself from under the rear of the car. She could sense everything, but no matter what she did, the world remained as it was. Unchanged, unaffected by the powers she had awoken today. Thomas grabbed a protein bar off the counter and quickly kissed his wife and daughter on the top of their heads, snapping Karla out of her concentration. ¡°I¡¯ll be late if I don¡¯t hurry now.¡± He took quick steps towards the door, entirely clueless of the beasts that roamed outside. ¡°Dad, wait!¡± Karla shouted, unlike how she did in the past, but he kept walking as he had before, stumbling a bit as he opened the door, as he exited onto the wood boards of the porch outside. A sudden surge of pressure lifted the porch with her father on it. An ant snapped its mandibles and tore through the wood beams like they were paper. Her father fell backwards, a great wound through his side, nearly cutting him in half. An ant leg pierced the wall with ease, tore into the fish tank, and ended Karla¡¯s pet goldfish Filbert¡¯s life once again. Karla reached out and pushed, harder this time, popping a blood vessel in her nose, and sending a stream of blood down her lips. She had never struggled this much. It just¡­ didn¡¯t happen. The ant with its leg stuck in the wall thrashed and turned, its mandibles cutting through the wall and front door with ease. ¡°Thomas!¡± her mother screamed as the ant grabbed him on his waist and pulled. Karla screamed. In terror, in frustration. Why can¡¯t I do anything differently? Why is it all the same? She watched in horror as her father was dragged out of the living room, still alive, still screaming. She felt the world grow dark.
¡°Karla!¡±Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Karla didn¡¯t respond. Her eyes drifted over the mirror she found herself in front of. A teenage girl was reflected, toothbrush in hand. She almost didn¡¯t recognize herself. She was twenty six a second ago, and now she saw her sixteen-year-old face staring back, a drop of white toothpaste dripped onto her shirt. Again. She saw her face again. Somehow, she felt like this scene had happened over and over. ¡°Karla! Are you alright?¡± her mother shouted from downstairs. ¡°Answer me!¡± She ran through the memory again, watched her father die again, faded again. But she couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that grew in her chest that something was wrong. Something was changing.
¡°Karla!¡± Her mother¡¯s voice drifted up through the old house like an alarm clock She dropped the toothbrush and stared at her face. Something wasn¡¯t right¡­ she wasn¡¯t sixteen, and she wasn¡¯t in her old house. That house had been destroyed by mutated ants in the first days of the Upheaval. Why? The world shook as if hammered. The calls of her mother stopped, the house stilled. Then another blow shook the world. Karla turned and ran downstairs, only to find her mother missing, to find the living room already destroyed, blood on the carpet but no bodies. Neither the ant, nor her father. She stepped outside, and the world faded to black.
¡°Karla!¡± Karla flinched from the sudden voice, the mirror, the toothpaste. She tried to think, but it was so hard. Only emotions were clear. The pain, the urge to run downstairs, to see her parents again. She tried to clear it, only for the memory to reset again. ¡°Karla!¡± ¡°This is a memory. Those people, they are long dead.¡± She whispered. ¡°Karla!¡± Karla screamed and tore at her hair. Trying to remove herself, trying to leave this dream. This nightmare. She turned and ran, away from the stairs, down the hall between bedrooms, and out the second floor window into the backyard. She was hit, hard. Not from the ground, but from a rocket to the face.
¡°She¡¯s hurt! She¡¯s slowing down!¡± A voice shouted somewhere nearby. The world was all blurs and blending colors. ¡°Get her!¡± Karla moved her arm to fend off the voice, and was rewarded with dying screams in several voices. An explosion hammered into her side, permanently damaging the shielding array that protected her six to nine o¡¯clock. Her left arm found the small kite shield from her belt and she held it up just in time to stop several explosive rounds hammering into her side. Karla blinked as the world slowly came into clarity. Six to nine o¡¯clock? She felt like the thoughts were hers, and yet not. She stumbled and looked around her. There were bodies scattered across the muddy field she stood in. Many bodies. Some were dressed in black, with a white design repeated frequently across them. Others were dressed in neon colors. They seemed to fight in groups. A group of orange and black clan members rushed forward, long heatblade-spears in their grasps. She automatically flexed a muscle she didn¡¯t know she had, and hundreds of micro-rockets shot out, tearing through the group. In the distance, a pair of dark purple-clothed women with wide hats flitted in and out of vision. Something was disrupting Karla¡¯s vision of them except when they moved or fired. They disappeared for a moment, which can only mean¡­ A pair of bright white-hot blue bolts fired through the open space between them and Karla. They hit the particle shields and passed right through. The bolts hit the chest armor of her harness, shattering the ceramic plates and slowing, but still moving fast. One bolt lost its plasma coating and was caught on the kevlar backing, the other kept going. Through her torso, through her left lung, and then it finally stopped as it punched through her back. She tried to scream, but found she couldn¡¯t. She tried to reach up to her face with her hands, but couldn¡¯t. Instead, large metal claws reached up. Mechanical, high-tech, covered with weapons, defensives, and utility elements. She could name each piece and their function, she could order each to activate if she wished, but she couldn¡¯t say where she was, or why she was here. Her self-analysis wasn¡¯t without action from her enemies. Bullets rained down over her particle shields, slowly overwhelming the nano-particles as they bunched together to stop the projectiles. Armor and machinery began to crumble and break under the onslaught, yet nothing felt pain besides her chest. She stared at the six legs she now had. Black cloth covered her mechanical body. The clothing was torn and burnt, but she could see it also carried the strange white shapes as the other bodies. Those were her companions. This was an ambush¡­ The others might be here soon¡­ The legs twitched as gunfire raked over their surface, but they were apart from her. Someone else¡¯s problem that she didn¡¯t care about. She was merely a passenger in this freakshow. On a nearby ridge, a clan in transparent green cloaks had hauled over an anti-tank weapon while she was distracted. They roughly aimed it at her and fired as quickly as they could. It should have been easy to dodge. They had set it up right in front of her for fuck¡¯s sake. There was even a helpful little voice that began blabbering away as she stared dumbly. [Warning, warning, warning.] It sent her mental notifications that that was indeed a weapon that could kill her. It was indeed aiming at her. It was indeed firing. The beam of light that erupted from the canon was the thickness of a man¡¯s torso. A fat man¡¯s torso. The beam pulled up earth and debris as it passed overhead, tearing a channel all the way up to the monstrosity that still stood awkwardly in the middle of the battlefield. The particle shields evaporated, as did the connection between Karla and the monstrous legs beneath her. She tumbled, her harness releasing her from its tight grasp and allowing her to fall to the earth. She sucked in cold air through her one good lung. It hurt. There was an eerie silence that dropped over the battlefield as the constant stuccato of firearms halted. Even in the distance where battles sounded like they were raging slowed. A cheer rung up through the groups. ¡°Hell yeah boys!¡± A man in orange danced, his spear waving in the air. He turned only to find he was the only one of his clan left. His arms slowly lowered. ¡°We did it!¡± the group in green cheered over their cannon. ¡°We took it out!¡± ¡°You just finished it off!¡± The pair of snipers shouted back as they walked closer. ¡°We got her first!¡± The surviving clan members slowly made their way forward, cautious, but when nothing happened, they inched closer to the remnants of Karla. ¡°Fuck. Is that all that¡¯s still human?¡± a voice asked nearby. ¡°Half a torso?¡± ¡°She¡¯s a freak,¡± another answered. ¡°But she¡¯s finally dead, thank god.¡± ¡°Look! The Witch is still breathing!¡± Karla lifted her head to look down at the gathered clan members as they scrambled away. How she knew they were clan members, she couldn¡¯t say. How she knew the pair of snipers were holding hypersonic anti-material rifles, she also didn¡¯t know. She tried to speak, but felt no tongue, no lips. All that came out was a painful hiss of air. ¡°I think¡ª I think she¡¯s done.¡± A trembling voice said. ¡°You¡¯re just scared,¡± an equally nervous sounding man replied. ¡°But she could have a self-destruct! Right? Shouldn¡¯t we back away?¡± Just as the voice said, an option appeared in her mind. [Functionality: 0.1% Weapons online: 0 Recommended action: Self-Destruct.] [Activate? Y/N] She laughed at it. What garbage. She thought of No, and the prompt disappeared, only to reappear once again. She thought No, and again, it came back. She decided to just ignore the mental prompt and look around. The group had backed away from her, they tensed as she lifted her head, but nobody moved to finish her off. She tried to make use of her strange automatic knowledge, but only general concepts came up. Until she glanced at the crumpled legs sitting in a heap a dozen meters away. [High Mobility Assault Harness - Arachne MK III ¡­ Owner: Witch ¡­ Status: Non-functional] For some reason, the name Witch felt familiar. A powerful explosion erupted in the distance, followed by two more. ¡°The inner circle is detonating! Get back!¡± an older man in green shouted. The clans moved a distance away, watching her behind cover. Karla laid there. After some time, and some faint murmuring, a wheeled vehicle pulled up onto the hill with the anti-tank cannon. Karla lifted her head to look, but after the vehicle dipped behind the hill, she dropped her head back onto the muddy ground with a huff. Should I just do it? She thought as she looked at the gray overcast sky. The prompt to self-destruct hadn¡¯t gone away. It remained there, annoying her to her last breath. She tried to close her eyes and grit her teeth, but found she could do neither. She laid there for some time staring at the featureless sky, waiting for... something. She wanted answers. She wanted to know why she was here, what had happened, but no matter how hard she focused, she could not remember anything except for the brief moments of lucidity since she fell into that accursed dream. Footsteps brought her out of her thoughts. Walking down from the hill was a man in what looked to resemble a bomb suit worn by ordinance disposal, but her helpful mind identified it for her. [Heavy Assault Harness - Toad MK XIII - Custom] As the man drew near, he slowed and walked around Karla. He took small steps closer, and noted her head following him as he approached. He eventually gathered his courage and stepped closer. ¡°Uh, Miss Witch? You don¡¯t seem to be planning on taking your life like your friends did. Mind if we talk?¡± Chapter 2: Bomb Disposal Karla looked over the harness the man wore. It was old, and heavily worn, but looked cared for and heavily modified. The small faceplate showed the visage of a young man, maybe not even twenty years old peering out. Now that she was looking, the harnesses of these people were all highly customized and unique. Only the old harness of the approaching man looked in any way standard. Only he had his face visible. He fidgeted as he stood over her, his harness clunky and awkward looking compared to the sleek tech of the others. A cloth covering bore seams around numerous black panels. It looked very practical and heavy-duty. She turned her head to the others. They wore metallic/ceramic face plates that integrated with actuators along the neck and helmets over their heads. The two snipers had wide, black helmets with many grooves and openings for sensors. The man in red had a tall, ornate helmet that almost looked like a shell with horns sprouted from his head. None of their equipment was simple or plain. Each piece was heavily designed, ornate. As if they were making a statement of glory and awe. They looked like cosplayers. Her helpful brain was telling her these people were dangerous, that their armor was high-quality, but deep down she just couldn¡¯t accept that these were combat harnesses. It looked like some high-tech anime had sprung to life. She still wasn¡¯t sure if this was some kind of dream. The pain told her she was awake and alive, but everything was just so surreal. ¡°I¡¯d very much like to speak with you, and if possible, I¡¯d like to bring you back to my master¡­ You see she is very interested in those in the Inner Circle, and¡­ and¡­ I¡¯d appreciate it if you came quietly.¡± Karla stared at him for a moment. The man¡­ no, boy, Karla corrected herself, was an awkward interrogator. He spoke as if he was asking a girl to dance with him. She was pretty sure she had been murdering his friends a few minutes ago, and now he¡¯s asking if she¡¯d come quietly? She wanted to laugh, but only a faint wheeze exited where her mouth should be. She shook her head. He¡¯s an idiot, she thought. Naive, but perhaps better him than those with their weapons still aimed at me. ¡°Oh, do you not have a voice synthesizer? I don¡¯t have one, but I do have a basic display if you¡¯d like to talk?¡± He fiddled with the large, bulky hands, pulling out a small box from one of the panels that littered the harness. ¡°I¡¯ll plug in an information cable so we can talk, okay?¡± He held up a thin cable. ¡°It¡¯s just I/O, nothing else.¡± She looked at the cable, and knew fuck all about it. She nodded her head, she had nothing to lose, she supposed. ¡°Okay, okay. Um, I¡¯ll just need you to turn your head.¡± Karla turned her head away and heard him approach and kneel down behind her. He pulled at something that sounded wet and metallic, and took in a sharp breath of air. There was a pause, then a click as something was cut. [Warning. Iso-Bomb disconnected from main links. Switching to backup.] She snapped her head around and the boy jolted back. Sweat dripped down his face, and his arms trembled. He¡¯d taken off part of the harness to expose his hands which now held a pair of needle-nosed pliers and a side cutter. ¡°Um, there is a bomb. I would like to disconnect it¡­ uh, please? It will be hard to talk with you with a bomb in the way.¡± [Functionality: 0.1% Weapons online: 0 Recommended action: Self-Destruct.] [Activate? Y/N] Karla huffed mentally and confirmed the No option once more. The kid wasn¡¯t lying, he really was just disconnecting her suicide bomb. She didn¡¯t need it anyways. She nodded again slowly and turned her head away from the trembling figure. A few moments passed where he didn¡¯t move, then more movement at the back of her skull. Something clicked, then a jolt of electricity ran through her brain. [Warning. Iso-Bomb disabled. Contacting headquarters¡­] There was another snap behind her head. [Warning. Satallite connectivity severed.] And another. [Warning. Wireless transmissions severed. Backup transmitters offline.] She frowned. Not really, she couldn¡¯t frown, but in her mind she was. The kid was audacious, taking more than he asked for, but she supposed it made sense from his point of view. [I/O line connected. Blocking¡­ Blocking¡­] She didn¡¯t know how to make it accept the connection. Once she made a conscious thought of accepting the input, she found the answer relatively straightforward. [I/O line connection accepted.] Karla felt a small pinch at the base of her neck, and then¡­ nothing. The boy seemed satisfied. ¡°Okay, I have you plugged in now. I¡¯d like to ask you a few questions if you don¡¯t mind.¡± Karla turned her head back to him. He was holding a small screen with a blinking cursor on it. She nodded. ¡°You can talk through this.¡± He held up the box. ¡°So you can hear me?¡± she tried to ask. Her words appeared on the monitor instead. ¡°Yes! I mean, kind of. You don¡¯t seem to have a speech synthesizer installed, this just rides along on that same output.¡± Karla stared at him. He grew nervous once again. ¡°Uh, I¡¯ll start with some questions. My name is Delta. What is your designation?¡± ¡°Karla.¡± ¡°Really?¡± He glanced up from the screen. ¡°You have an actual name?¡± ¡°Yeah, why? What did you expect?¡± ¡°I-I don¡¯t know honestly. The Inner Circle have never surrendered or been taken down without self-destructing. We kind of thought you would have a model number, or a code. Surprised old William Stoke named his creations.¡± Karla jolted, her few remaining neck muscles pulled as if she wanted to drag herself over to him. ¡°Stoke! William Stoke! Where is he?¡± She wanted to scream and curse and stomp the name into the mud, but all that came of it was her feeble wriggling and a line of text. ¡°Uh, I¡¯m not sure. He was with the northern assault forces, but for all I know he¡¯s now dead.¡± The cursor flashed without moving for a few seconds. ¡°He¡¯s dead?¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°I assume so. His command strider went down right at the end, just before all of you Inner Circle folks fell¡­¡± Delta frowned. ¡°Did his death affect you somehow?¡± Karla laughed internally. His death affected her alright. Memories flooded her mind as she thought of that bastard. The day she entered that dream, the day she lost herself over and over and over. William Stoke had merely touched her palm and had locked her mind away. She had realized it before, while in the dream. She had raged and fought against the small house in Seattle, the death of her parents, she had cursed the name William Stoke cycle after cycle. But after a while, she grew tired. She didn¡¯t know how many times that same dream played out, but she did know she eventually gave in, gave up. She eventually allowed herself to forget and be absorbed in the dream. The warmth of her mother, the horror of her father. The last moment of peace and the shattering of the quiet that was the Upheaval. She dropped her head onto the ground, lost in thought. Delta scratched his chin, a few tufts of patchy hair stood out here and there. ¡°Was William Stoke like a father to you or something?¡± said Delta. Karla turned her head back slowly. ¡°Or like, your creator?¡± The text box filled with obscenities. Overflowed. Overlapped. Delta watched as decades of words piled up over themselves, overwriting each other, corrupting each other. He glanced at her. Karla took a breath. A mental breath. She wasn¡¯t able to control her lungs, they seemed to move on their own. She allowed her head to drop into the mud once again. ¡°May he rot in hell, that bastard,¡± she said at last. Delta nodded slowly. ¡°Okay, um. In that case, could you give us some information? Like, what was Stoke¡¯s objectives? You guys came in pretty lightly¡ª¡± ¡°How long has it been.¡± Karla cut him off. ¡°Oh, huh?¡± ¡°Since the Upheaval. How long has it been.¡± ¡°The Upheaval? Gosh, I don¡¯t know.¡± He scratched at his chin hairs. ¡°That was a while ago¡­¡± He turned away and shouted. ¡°Hey Jay!¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± A man¡¯s voice called back. ¡°How long has it been since the Upheaval?¡± ¡°What the fuck Delta? You¡¯re supposed to be interrogating that mechanical piece of shit not playing trivia with it!¡± ¡°No, well. She asked!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t fucking know¡­ Two hundred and fifty years or so? Stop dicking around Delta.¡± Delta turned back. ¡°Jay says two fifty. I think that¡¯s close¡­¡± Karla didn¡¯t answer. She just stared up at the sky. All she could think of was How? How could it be that long? ¡°So, as I was saying, do you have any knowledge on what Stoke¡¯s objectives were? He pushed in without support¡ª¡± ¡°We have incoming!¡± A voice shouted from one of the clan members. ¡°Twelve Albatross heavy bombers heading our way!¡± ¡°But¡­ but how did they get here so fast?¡± Delta stood up. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter! Leave the Witch and let¡¯s go!¡± Jay shouted as an offroad troop transport vehicle skidded to a halt nearby. ¡°Get in!¡± Boots splashed through the mud and into the vehicle. Delta stood there, glancing back and forth. ¡°But, we didn¡¯t get any good info out of her. Olivia told me to interrogate her.¡± ¡°Too bad! We can¡¯t bring it back to any of our main bases. Leave the scrap for the birds.¡± Delta stood, looking uncertainly between the vehicle and Karla. ¡°Then let¡¯s take her to one of the small bunkers where she can¡¯t hurt anybody.¡± ¡°Delta! Leave it!¡± ¡°Olivia told me to get something out of her!¡± ¡°Ahhhh! Fuck! Fine!¡± A man in transparent green cloak ran up. ¡°I know Olivia will want her. I know I know I know! But¡­ are you positive you¡¯ve disconnected everything?¡± ¡°Yes! She shouldn¡¯t have any outside connections besides this.¡± Delta held up the screen. ¡°How? How? How? How?¡± Karla repeated over and over. By now it had filled the display and had began scrolling. Delta scrolled down, not finding an end. ¡°Uh, I¡¯ll unplug this for now.¡± The two picked her up with surprising ease and dragged her into the bed of the vehicle. Several clan members snarled and cursed as her torso was pushed up between them. Karla barely took any notice. Two hundred and fifty years! How is that possible? How could someone live that long? She thought of what these people had said about her body. She was only a torso? She lifted her head to look, but a boot came down on her, pressing her skull back into the floor with a metallic clunk. ¡°Stay down bitch.¡± The last remaining orange clan member glared at her, a heatblade sizzling in his hand. He bit his lip till blood ran down his chin. ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking move.¡± Karla stared at a boot with one eye, and the top of the vehicle with her other. She scoffed inside her mind and instead looked around with her powers¡­ nothing happened. She focused and pushed, but nothing changed. She couldn¡¯t ¡®see¡¯ anything beyond what her eyes told her. She tried to ¡®see¡¯ through the car, through her body, just over her face, but no matter how small of an action she did, her power didn¡¯t activate. She struggled as she laid there, but it was useless. She tried to move something instead. Above her, a small flap swung from the ceiling. She tried to push it aside, to halt its movement, something, anything. But again it was a failure. The same as her dream. The vehicle roared with electric life. The large tires churned against mud as the electric motors whirred up to speed. Something electronic hummed over the vehicle. A stereo phasic camouflage, she somehow knew. What that actually meant, she didn¡¯t know, only that it was very effective against electronic imaging, but rather useless against human sight. Outside there was a high-pitched buzz of small flying egg-shaped devices, drones. Built to analyze ahead of time, they didn¡¯t have enough firepower to damage even the lightest particle shields used by the clan members. Instead the drones scattered over the entire battlefield and sent back data to assault ships and bombers. The air hissed with the sound of many small thrusters overhead. ¡°Shit, they¡¯re close,¡± said the driver as she looked up through the curved windshield. ¡°They¡¯ll spot us before long.¡± A man in green crouched near the front of the troop compartment, helmet off, and spoke into the driver cab. ¡°Not close enough. Just keep it nice and slow and let the camo do its job. We¡¯ll be clear of any bombs by the time the birds get here, just relax.¡± He turned his head, his eyes were non-existent. In their place were a pair of sensors that covered his eye-sockets. He appeared to look straight through the sides of the truck. The wheels whirred underneath, steadily pulling the vehicle up towards a tall forest. The trees were tall and mature, and hardy. Ironbark trees. A species that grew after the upheaval. Their roots searched out metals in the soil and bedrock, imbuing their bark with the resulting metallic blend. They were hell to cut down, but fantastic in providing cover during combat. They wouldn¡¯t stop a two-hundred kilo Kite Bomb, but it would limit the effects. Karla tried to remember how she knew this. [A minimum one-meter wide ironbark tree is required to halt an eighteen millimeter heavy sniper round.] [A minimum two-meter wide ironbark tree is required to provide adequate protection from two-hundred kilogram Kite Bomb at a distance of twenty meters.] The knowledge spilled out when she tried to access it, but nothing useful revealed itself. What had she been doing all this time, why was she here? The kid Delta had asked what her mission was, but she was entirely clueless. She didn¡¯t remember this morning much less days or years ago. The last conscious thought she had was Stoke touching her hand all of those years ago¡­ No, that wasn¡¯t right, was it? She had moments when she felt like her dream was particularly wrong. When her dream slipped past the dream-like quality and into the uncanny. She had been brought back to lucidity each time, and each time she had struggled. But the hold was powerful, unforgiving, relentless. No matter how much she struggled, the inevitability of the dream won out. She shook way her thoughts, earning her a glare from the man sitting above her. The heatblade at the ready, all-too-eager to end her life at the first sigh of struggle. She laid still and tried to remember something useful. Mission parameters, she thought. [Follow order of the commander.] Overhead, several craft cut through the clouds, leaving long vapor trails from their wingtips. Their bomb bay doors opened. Current commander. [The Undying One.] Karla mentally snarled at that name. It has to be that prick Stoke, she thought. From the belly of the large craft, many bombs began dropping. The bombs floated lazily at first, then the guidance system kicked in. The bombs twitched as they began hunting targets. Heat signatures, movements, data provided from the drones. Each bomb spaced itself from its brethren, carpeting the battlefield and focusing on hardpoints and potential enemy hideouts. Current orders. [Self-destruct.] Karla felt a sudden urge to activate her bomb that still rode along the backside of her skull. She resisted, but found the order enacted without her will. A small, loud spark jumped to the bed of the truck, the connections severed and useless. ¡°Shit we¡¯ve been seen!¡± The man in green shouted as he looked up through the roof of the vehicle. The whine of electric motors kicked up pulling the vehicle quickly into the edge of the forest just as bombs began to land. Chapter 3: Secret Tunnel The Rhino 6x6 troop transport was a relic from a war long past. The tires spun up rooster-tails of mud as the man in green focused. A whistling sound in the distance marked the first bombs reaching their targets. An strange moment of silence was followed by the sound of metallic whip-cracks. Karla bounced on the floorboards, the mud making it slick, and her lack of limbs making it difficult to keep still. She slid out from under the man¡¯s boot and towards the back, thumping against the rear hatch. Men and women cursed, but didn¡¯t move to stop her. They were too busy holding on as the vehicle bounced and skidded into the forest. She could now see Ironwood trees outside the truck¡¯s armored glass as they passed deeper into the woods. In the sky above, she saw many small objects drawing close. Appearing like pinpoints of dark stars, small teardrop-shaped objects began raining upon the forest like a storm. She stared upwards as a bomb landed nearby. The small warhead struck a tree, firing a sphere of energy instead of an explosion. The ironwood tree melted and fused at the heat, its limbs sheering off, leaving its trunk a glowing candle that slowly folded into itself. She somehow wasn¡¯t afraid, even as another teardrop fell nearby, turning the wall of the vehicle red-hot and searing the back and arms of several clan member harnesses who sat against it. The Rhino whined and squealed as motors overworked themselves, and as bearings began to seize. She somehow was unwilling to die, and yet unafraid of it. She felt numb. ¡°Into the valley!¡± The man in green shouted, holding his face that now sported a nasty scarlet burn. ¡°Get us into one of the shafts!¡± Repeated silences and cracks of Kite Bombs echoed overhead, but most impacted the upper canopy. By now there was a trail of molten ironwood trees that followed the Rhino through the rough track. The truck slipped down a deep embankment, exposed for just a moment, a moment taken advantage of by a single teardrop. An explosion ripped into the front of the truck, the sphere of glowing energy grew as it passed through the vehicle. Most of the clanmembers had moved away from that side after receiving burns, but now the energy penetrated the cabin, burning and melting weapons, gear, flesh. The right side of the truck collapsed, the suspension melted, the tires somehow burnt and flat, but functioning. Karla had a good view now into the undercarriage, as several holes had melted through the right-hand side of the vehicle. Ahead, a dark hole in a cliff face grew larger. ¡°Punch it!¡± The man in green shouted. ¡°Aaaah!¡± the driver shouted back as she urged the vehicle faster. Karla watched as the suspension collapsed and crumbled in realtime. First the rear wheel was left behind, then the middle wheel folded and tore away, leaving that side to weave and bob unsupported. The truck made it to the entrance of the cave just as the front gave out and dug into the soft soil. The truck spun into the cave, then rolled. Karla slid helplessly through one of the new holes and was flung into the air. Karla felt gravity leave her, then the earth meet her. She landed heavily at the entrance of the cave, sliding to a stop as the truck kept rolling. There was a moment of quiet as things settled and stopped moving. Karla stared up into the evening sky just outside the cave, just as a small black dot drew close. A single teardrop hammered into the cave entrance above her, shattering the cave entrance as it detonated, and sending a wave of hot energy over her. She screamed internally. Despite her body being mostly unfeeling, she still felt pain, somewhere inside of her. She still ached and itched and burned as the Kite Bomb assaulted her. The cliff face above her cracked and shifted. The extreme heat broke up the rock, sending its mass onto the entrance below. Karla''s world thundered with tons of stone and gravel, then lay in silence as everything dimmed to black. Karla laid there for some time, aching and buried in gravel. She heard sounds of the clan members clambering out, providing first aid, and talking for some time before anyone found her. A hand brushed away gravel off her face. ¡°Yes!¡± Delta jumped as he saw her. ¡°She¡¯s here! Though, I think she took a Kite Bomb to the face!¡± ¡°Ha! Serves her right!¡± A voice shouted back. ¡°Let me see.¡± The man in orange strolled up, bandages on his arms and face. His slight grin widened as he saw her. He let out a long whistle. ¡°Yep. That¡¯ll do it. I told you we should have just left it behind.¡± ¡°You know Olivia would still want her. Nobody¡¯s captured one of Stoke¡¯s creations before, not after that bomb goes of in their heads.¡± The man stepped uneasily to one side. ¡°And¡­ you¡¯re sure you disabled that?¡± Delta nodded and crouched down. ¡°It should be safe¡­ oh! She¡¯s alive!¡± Karla turned her head weakly in his direction. Her torso was still buried, but a quick tug from the boy and she was free. ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s alive?¡± the man frowned. ¡°I mean, it was a torso before, but now that looks pretty fucked up.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Karla looked down. Her ribs were exposed. Plated in steel, they reflected the small lights carried by the surviving clan members. She could see her spine still in its casing, now hanging limply below. She wished to see more, and was rewarded when her field of view expanded. Now she could really see how damaged she was. There really wasn¡¯t much left. She had no skin left, and any important organics she had in her torso must have been replaced with mechanical alternatives. She allowed her head to drop back onto the ground. How am I okay with this? Why isn¡¯t this freaking me out? She knew this was a terrifying, awful reality, and yet, she couldn¡¯t bring herself to be upset at this. A memory of being frightened surfaced. Of waking up to missing limbs and a broken body. Another memory, this time, more was missing, more was broken. Each memory, she grew more and more numb. She realized she hadn¡¯t been whole in quite some time. Her harnesses kept her moving, but only a small set of devices were required to keep her alive. [Refit required. Refit required.] [Oxygen-Hydrox interfaces: 1 remaining functional-40%. Hydrox circulator: functional-85%] What that meant, she didn¡¯t know. But she held onto the words ¡®functional.¡¯ ¡°Haaah, she might not make it.¡± Delta looked her over. ¡°She has a punctured lung, but I don¡¯t even know what material that¡¯s made out of. Maybe one of the tire patches would work for now.¡± ¡°Oh? So you¡¯re playing doctor with the corpse are you?¡± One of the two female snipers strolled up, gun a melted mess. ¡°Just let it die. Olivia would understand, and the corpse would be worthwhile anyways.¡± Delta shook his head. ¡°She told me to bring one back alive. She said it was imperative to have one still operating.¡± The other sniper in black stepped close, a twin of the first. She looked over Karla and laughed. ¡°Damn, even burnt her tits off. Are you sure you won¡¯t be doing more harm than good?¡± Delta pushed through the small crowd, opened several hatches on the wreck, and came back with a tire repair kit. ¡°Okay Karla,¡± he said as he crouched down beside her. ¡°I¡¯m going to try and patch you up. Please don¡¯t do anything¡­ abrupt.¡± Karla slowly nodded at him. The sniper twins laughed. One teased him. ¡°Oooh. You even named your pet?¡± Delta grunted as he tried to clean off the white fluid that stained the artificial lung. ¡°She said her name was Karla.¡± ¡°Really? I thought these things were grown in a lab? All test-tubes and robotics and such.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. She said that was her name. If we can bring her back to Olivia, we¡¯ll find out more, okay?¡± The group watched as Delta worked, his hands growing slick with the white liquid that shimmered under light. [Oxygen-Hydrox interfaces: 2 remaining functional-75%. Hydrox reserves: 20%] Karla suddenly took in a deep breath. She hadn¡¯t realized she had been taking smaller, panting breaths this entire time, not that she had any control over it. Her mind seemed to think this was an improvement. She mentally thanked the boy as she laid there. ¡°Now what?¡± Delta stood up and wiped his hands on a rag. ¡°Is there a holdfast on this route?¡± The man in green stepped up to the group, glared at Karla, then at the rest. ¡°This tunnel leads through several hundred miles of caves and mines. Some of it man-made, but a lot of it isn¡¯t. We should be able to get out of here once we reach the next shaft about ten miles in. We¡¯ll have to work together for now to get through this. The exit should drop us off in the mountains, and then we¡¯ll finally be done with this shit and go our separate ways.¡± ¡°Aw, are you tired of us already?¡± A sniper smiled at the man. ¡°You know, the next time we meet might not be so sweet.¡± He grunted and turned away. Delta took some straps and wrapped them around Karla as the group packed up and began to set out. He was about to throw her onto his back when he seemed to remember the display. ¡°Here, I¡¯d like to ask you a few questions while we walk.¡± He plugged in a cable directly into his suit. ¡°Is that okay?¡± A small screen inside his helmet lit up after a few moments. ¡°Fine, I have questions too.¡± ¡°Excellent. We can take turns!¡± Delta said far too cheerfully as he picked her up and attached the straps to his harness. Once she was cinched tight, he began following the group off through the tunnel. Karla stared at the retreating darkness, unable to look ahead. ¡°First off. You didn¡¯t sound to fond of Stoke, wasn¡¯t he your creator?¡± The text box filled with more obscenities. Delta adjusted several dials and the background noise quietened. ¡°He put me into a trance of some kind, a dream. I wake up over two hundred years later and I¡¯m a torso.¡± Delta laughed. ¡°You don¡¯t seem too beat up about it.¡± ¡°I think I knew, or realized several times. I woke up, but I could never leave the dream.¡± Karla thought back. She definitely had some scattered memories of waking, finding herself in pieces, finding men in red coats putting her back together. ¡°What happened to the supers?¡± she asked. ¡°Supers? What an old term! If my master hadn¡¯t told me about it, I doubt many people would even know what you mean.¡± Delta huffed as he clambered over a fallen chunk of rock. ¡°Most people refer to them as gifts or bloodlines now. Those in a clan all have one. Mine is a strange offshoot of the Lightning God clan. As you can probably guess, my family all can project lightning, but I was strange. I always could feel the flow of electricity, but got overwhelmed with heavier stuff. That¡¯s probably why Olivia made a deal with my grandfather to take me in as her disciple.¡± ¡°Olivia?¡± ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t know? She¡¯s like, the non-church version of William Stoke. She kind of jumps between clans when they aren¡¯t fighting, working on anything that excites her. You¡¯ll meet her soon.¡± ¡°Shut it!¡± The man in green hissed. The group crouched down and waited. There was a thick silence around them as they stayed there, only the distant sound of dripping water interrupted it in any way. Karla could see something drop down into the tunnel. Her vision was good. Even in this darkness she could make out the four legs, the strange shape, the faintly glowing eyes. ¡°Delta,¡± she texted. He didn''t seem to notice. The creature grew nearer, its rat-like nose at odds with its long-limbed body. It looked like a large naked man on all fours as it silently moved. It looked dangerous. ¡°Delta! Behind you! Look behind you you idiot!¡± The group huddled and waited. Karla had had enough. She was able to push her head forward a few millimeters, and then swung it back as hard as she could. There was thwack noise, followed quickly by a yelp from the boy. ¡°Ow! What the hell?¡± He turned, only to see the creature stepping into the light. ¡°Behind! Behind!¡± A pair of submachine guns sprang out of his sleeves and into his hands. He sprayed wildly, but with such a large creature in such a small tunnel, it was hard to miss. The light and sound were enormous in the enclosed space, but Karla couldn¡¯t see the results. All she saw was the other three creatures approaching from the now-unnoticed front. Chapter 4: Fresh air One of the women in green was grabbed by a large naked-spider-mole rat and dragged. Somebody used an ability to soften the earth, leaving the creature to sink and struggle in the dirt floor. It was only foot or so of built up sediment, but it was enough to slow the beast as it tried to drag her off into the darkness. Bright blue bolts rushed down the tunnel, popping the eardrums of several people, and piercing straight through two of the mole rats and into the tunnel wall. The tunnel shook. The red man with the heat blade made quick work of the last rat, though he was nearly shot by a spray of rifle fire as he took it down. Overall it was a mess, but these people were strong. Their harnesses, essentially outerwear, exoskeletons, and armor rolled into one, really shined in combat. Each person moved violently and acted without mercy, and their weapons were so, so powerful. The supers of the past would have struggled with such large, fast moving creatures. As the last creature breathed its last, the arguing began. ¡°You nearly took my fucking head off!¡± The man in red shouted. ¡°I had it under control! Why are you firing off rounds next to my head?¡± A green-clad woman shrugged. ¡°I helped, and you didn¡¯t die. Relax Barty.¡± "Don''t tell me to relax! Control yourself!" The maskless green man who looked to be the leader marched over to the twins, blood running out of one ear. ¡°You two. You could have dropped the mountain on our head! What the fuck were you thinking firing those things in here?¡± One twin scoffed. ¡°Relax grandpa. We¡¯re all here, alive and well.¡± The other twin laughed. "We took out two! We''re doing most of the work here, you should be thanking us!" "Thanking you?" The man''s face reddened. "You stupid girls will kill us all and I should be thanking you?" The arguing continued. Karla sent several texts to Delta, but he seemed shocked. She tried to send a different command, eventually finding that her thinking of the word ¡°Beep¡± the small display would indeed beep and not just write it down. The noise seemed to startle him out of his fugue. ¡°You alright?¡± she asked. He glanced around, then read the text. ¡°Oh, yeah. I¡¯ve just, never fired a gun at something besides a target before¡­¡± ¡°Is it dead?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ I think so?¡± He looked over the creature before responding. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s dead.¡± ¡°Then it''s not a problem.¡± After watching the other clan members argue for a half-hour, the rest of the journey went relatively quickly. Everyone in the group were supers, or ¡®gifted¡¯ as Delta called them. They were all faster, stronger, tougher than your average human, and running several miles with gear and weaponry wasn¡¯t a difficult task in the slightest. ¡°Those with gifts are valuable, to be sure. It¡¯s no use trying to give any of our new weapons to a basic human, my guns would break someone¡¯s arms if they tried to use it without gifts or a good harness. But at the end of the day, a hypersonic slug doesn¡¯t care if you have powers or not. Unless you¡¯re in a decent harness, you¡¯ll die anyways.¡± ¡°So the clans pick up anyone with a gift and raises them?¡± He shrugged. ¡°Most of the time, yes. And anyone with a decent enough gift is married into the clan. My gifts were definitely changed by my mother, she had some kind of sensing ability that my grandfather had hoped would enhance my family''s already strong perception abilities. I didn¡¯t inherent the powerful lightning or wide perception my family has, and now my mom¡¯s seen as a bit of a black sheep of the family. Dad now spends most of his time with his other wives. I think if I perform well, perhaps my mom will not be looked upon so negatively.¡± ¡°Your dad has multiple wives?¡± ¡°Yeah. All trueborn clan members have multiple spouses. My aunt has six husbands, though not a one has given her a good heir yet. They¡¯re all lesser, like me.¡± Karla shook her head. Bloodlines, breeding. What strange times. She had heard of supers giving birth to super babies, it was a thing in magazines and talk shows for a while, watching which child develops what powers. Though the fact that someone would breed their children like one would breed racehorses seemed quite alien to her. The tunnel opened up around a shaft that cut through the mountain. The group gathered around. The old man in green clapped his hands to grab attention. ¡°After we¡¯re out of here, assuming William Stoke is dead, this will be the end of our little alliance. I hope we can avoid spilling blood between the clans, at least for some time so we all can recoup our strength. There¡¯s no benefit of us fighting and making ourselves weaker as a whole. There are other threats out there and¡ª¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Ugh, enough!¡± One of the twins walked up to the hole and shot out a dart with a tether high into the shaft. ¡°You preachy old man. We¡¯ll see you when we see you.¡± She made a little finger gun and aimed it at him just before the cable pulled tight and lifted her up. ¡°Yup! See you all around!¡± The second twin shot her own tether and was whisked away just as quickly. The man in red was next. He glared at Karla for a moment before ascending with some kind of kite that lifted him smoothly. The old man in green shook his head. He looked over at Delta. ¡°Us Irons will keep with the tunnels, we have a place in the mountains to hole up and lick our wounds till we figure out what¡¯s going on. Does Miss Olivia¡¯s apprentice need an escort? We can take you to the nearest neutral holdfast.¡± Delta raised his hands. ¡°Thank you, Elder Stone, but we will take our own route. My master has contacted me and given me a location to meet with her.¡± Elder Stone nodded. ¡°Very well. Good journey. And to you.¡± He looked over Delta¡¯s shoulder where Karla was peeking over. ¡°Good riddance.¡± He spat onto the black rock of the tunnel, then turned away, leading his group of green-cloaked men and women off into the dark. Delta walked up to the edge of the shaft and shuddered. ¡°What now?¡± Karla asked. ¡°We go up,¡± he said. He looked up through the tall shaft that seemed to go on forever and shook his head. ¡°Okay, okay. This should be easy.¡± ¡°You alright?¡± said Karla. ¡°Yeah? Yeah! I think so. I¡¯ve never used this after I¡¯ve installed it is all. I¡¯m just a bit scared of heights is all.¡± Karla looked him over, he was shaking. He stepped over to the edge and peered down into the abyss below. ¡°Oh, gosh. Okay.¡± He took a few deep breaths, then activated some controls somewhere inside the harness. Small thrusters unfolded around his legs, arms, and over his shoulders. With a slight hiss, the thrusters ignited and began to lift him slightly, but not enough to actually fly yet. He looked like he was trying to step forward into the air, and was failing. He lifted a leg, hesitated, then backed away only to try again. Karla head butted him. ¡°Ow! Oh, shit!¡± He stumbled forward and was in the shaft. In his fear, he pressed the thrusters to their maximum output, launching the pair upwards. The large protective harness came in handy as he ground his way up the shaft¡¯s walls, screaming the entire time. Dust kicked up and loose rocks were knocked off, sent tumbling into the dark below. Karla laid peacefully against his back as they broke the surface, riding atop a pillar of fire and smoke. They soared through the cold night air into the middle of a wide valley. Delta cut the thrusters as they rose, only to fall quickly into a thatch of trees. He tumbled as he fell into the underbrush, breaking hard metallic branches as he passed. Karla felt like she had taken a beating, but it was all superficial and painless to her. Delta sat up and groaned. ¡°What the hell karla?¡± ¡°You were too slow. Seize the day.¡± She texted back. Delta glanced at the pad and huffed. ¡°Seize the day? What on earth?¡± He rubbed the bump on his head. ¡°Fine, whatever.¡± He set Karla aside and checked over his equipment. Several thrusters were bent or broken, but within a few minutes, he had broken parts replaced or bent back into shape. ¡°You¡¯re very handy. Are you a technician of some kind?¡± He smiled. ¡°Yeah, kind of. My master Olivia is the most renowned technician in the Americas. She¡¯s constantly helping whatever clan catches her fancy. One day she was helping the Lightning God Clan, that¡¯s where she found me and took me in.¡± ¡°Americas?¡± ¡°Well, she¡¯s known all down the continent, but maybe not so much along the coasts. There¡¯s too much Church out that way. Though you know that.¡± Karla felt a headache. ¡°Church? What about the government?¡± ¡°Yeah, the Church.¡± ¡°What church? Like, the pope?¡± Delta looked at her with a bewildered expression. ¡°You are part of the Church. The Church of Undying Light? Your creator Stoke was the leader. Supposedly immortal for living so long, though I guess that¡¯s over now¡­¡± He fumbled in his harness and pulled out a small tablet. After sliding through it he showed it to Karla. It was a map. On the coasts, various countries had settlements, some on the same locations as older cities. New York was still there, City West was there, but most of the central United states Canada and Mexico were one large gray zone. In bold letters, the map proclaimed the area as ¡°Clan Territory¡± and left it as that. Karla looked up from the map. ¡°Clan territory?¡± ¡°Yeah, areas change hands so much, no point in marking it down. But the clans all know. They keep track of every meter.¡± He shook his head. ¡°The clans keep fighting in the Americas, as do the warlords in Asia. I think the Church keeps small groups fighting, never coming out in force. The fact that they came out like that this time was strange. They practically forced the clans into a quick alliance. Technically they lord over both areas as some kind of government, but they hardly do anything except cut anyone down who stands out too much. One of the reasons my master moves around a lot. Keeps everyone powerful, keeps the Church from interfering.¡± ¡°Where are we now?¡± She looked around. A quiet pine forest in the middle of mountains¡­ The Upheaval really changed the world in so many ways. Some areas were strangely warm or cold for their latitude, others were full of venomous insects where before there were none. But when she was last conscious, there was still a United States, Canada still hovered to the north, and Mexico to the south. Now they were all just one big¡­ mess. ¡°Oh, around here.¡± He pointed. North. Way north. She wasn¡¯t sure where Alaska ended, but where he pointed was somewhere around the Alaska/Canada border. ¡°So far north¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a bit dangerous up here for many people, but it¡¯s good for keeping the Church off our backs. There¡¯s quite a few clan satellites out here as far as I know. Hard to say sometimes with how secretive everyone is.¡± He placed the tablet back into his harness and shrugged. ¡°I might not have much experience with fighting, but I¡¯ll get you to my master safe and sound!¡± A deep clicking from a wet, beastly throat sounded nearby. Another answered on the opposite side. Delta shrunk down, hiding away. ¡°Do you see something?¡± he hissed. Karla nodded. In the shadows of ironwood trees, creatures the size of minivans slid in and out of shadows. They had dark stripes over their bodies like tigers, but small patches of long, brightly-colored fur rose up from the crown of their large heads. Bears of some kind? She said as much in the text box and Delta cursed. He quickly donned his harness and pulled Karla back onto his back. ¡°We¡¯re going to move quickly, but we should be able to make it. No problem,¡± he whispered. The clicking drew closer. ¡°No problem!¡± He activated something on his chest and small panels extended from his harness. Like the thrusters, they were neatly hidden away when not in use. A haze of particles erupted, clouding over them both in a fog. Each particle lit up, displaying colors of their surroundings, displaying false movements and false shapes. The beasts took this as a sign to attack. Chapter 5: An Ambush Claws passed through the fog, a figure cut into pieces. The second beast snapped and bit at the falling shape, only to bite into air. Karla watched from Delta¡¯s back as he ran away in a straight line. Even as he tried to keep quiet, his frantic breaths were loud. ¡°You should move more erratically. Dodge.¡± Karla texted, the words appearing inside his helmet. Delta huffed. He altered his path just in time to dodge a beast diving through the trailing fog, its claws and teeth impacting a tree. ¡°Just shoot them. Why are you not using your firearms?¡± ¡°Huff, uh, huff¡­ I don¡¯t have any ammo for them. I only carry the pistols for an emergency, but never thought I¡¯d need extra magazines.¡± Karla processed this for a moment.¡°You have two fast-firing machine pistols and you don¡¯t have any way to reload? Dodge.¡± Delta abruptly cut to one side just as the second beast landed, its claws whirling like a dervish. One paw slashed against Karla¡¯s chest, leaving long, thin grooves on her metal ribs. ¡°I¡¯m a technician! I don¡¯t fight!¡± Delta shouted. Karla had a feeling she shared the sentiment a long time ago. Right now her brain was pointing out weak spots, developing tactics to counter the large bear-creatures. Most revolved around having a fantastically powerful harness. Remnants of her years controlling deadly machines for the Church. She wished she had legs. ¡°Besides! We only have to make it to a hilltop up ahead! My master sent a shuttle to pick us up.¡± ¡°Dodge. Stop running in straight lines.¡± Delta dodged just as a roaring shock wave passed by. It wasn¡¯t dangerous to the pair, but the fog was disrupted long enough for the second beast to track the two, correcting its path before it pounced. Claws and fur wrapped over the harness, damaging the projectors. Thick saliva splashed over the left shoulder as the beast bit and pulled. Karla watched as it yanked a projector off and crunch the device in its teeth. ¡°You should do something,¡± she texted. ¡°I¡¯m trying!¡± Delta attempted to reach for something, but the beast kept him pinned to the forest floor. The second beast gripped the leg of the harness and pulled, dragging all three down the hill. Karla sighed. She didn¡¯t feel anything, physically or emotionally. Everything still felt so numb to her, she half-believed this was all still a dream or fantasy she had cooked up to escape the never-ending nightmare Stoke had dropped her into. One of the creatures sniffed along the leg of the harness, found an opening and began pulling and ripping at the cloth that covered the metal inner workings. Karla watched as devices were torn and chewed to pieces, half-interested in the spectacle. She doubted this ¡®master¡¯ of Delta¡¯s would be kind to her. It sounded like Karla was part of some religious order that hunted down these people. Perhaps it would be better off to just engage the bomb and let it all pass away¡­ Oh yeah, he disconnected it. Karla glanced over Delta¡¯s shoulder in time to see him pull out a dagger with a heat blade. He swung it awkwardly, catching the bear creature in one of its forearms. Smoke and steam erupted as fur burned and blood boiled. The beast screeched and jumped back, one limb held awkwardly. Delta swiped at the other beast on his legs, but was too slow to catch it. It kept a distance away from Delta, eying the glowing blade. ¡°And this knife of yours, how long does the heatblade last on it?¡± Karla texted. ¡°It will last long enough.¡± He said as he stumbled up the slope. One of the creatures made a low howling noise as it slunk into the shadows, the second one followed its lead. ¡°Shit.¡± Delta turned and ran up the hill, searching for something. Karla could see the creatures appear between trees from time to time. They seemed to be waiting for an ambush opportunity. When she told Delta, he just nodded and kept moving. ¡°Those are some kind of shadow bears. They hunt in packs, and us encountering two was luck. I think they got greedy and tried to have us to themselves, but now they¡¯re waiting for the rest of their pack to get here. I don¡¯t fancy fighting more than two.¡± Karla thought for a moment. ¡°Bears don¡¯t hunt in packs.¡± ¡°Well, these aren¡¯t actually bears. They¡¯re from the other side. Ah! There!¡± Delta began running towards a sleek white ship that sat partially obscured in a small clearing. It was tall and thin like a large double-bit axe, with small angular wings to either side and sturdy landing gear underneath it. He ran up to the side and began punching in a code. An error sound played, and he entered a different code. ¡°Dammit! Which one did she use?¡± Karla couldn¡¯t see what he was doing, but she had a good view into the forest. Eyes that glowed in the faint moonlight appeared one after the other, they moved to surround the ship and began closing in. ¡°There are at least ten¡­¡± she texted. ¡°Probably more on the other side. You should hurry.¡± ¡°Okay! I¡¯m trying!¡± Karla looked around the clearing, then up at the moon that hung low in the sky. She could just see it now they were in the clearing, a round, craggy shape rising just above the treeline. She stared at it. It was¡­ wrong. The light and dark shapes were all wrong. She stared at it for a moment before realizing the moon was far too jagged and broken looking. Many smaller shapes scattered and merged in her vision, but if she focused she could see the moon was now many smaller pieces, all generally hovering around one another. A faint trail of white followed the moon across the sky. ¡°Delta.¡± ¡°One second! There! Got it!¡± A happy chirp emitted from the ship as the door slid open. The beasts prowling out of the trees hesitated at the movement, but were quickly closing after the door halted. ¡°Delta!¡± ¡°What?¡± he turned around and found the beasts nearing. ¡°What happened to the moon?¡± Delta glanced up at the broken moon, then back at the closing beasts. He shut the door. He ran through the ship to a console and plugged a cable in. The ship rocked as one of the bears rammed the side of the ship. ¡°What happened to it?¡± Karla texted. ¡°That¡¯s not really important right now, is it?¡±Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Is it not? It¡¯s the fucking moon we¡¯re talking about!¡± ¡°I mean, it¡¯s always been that way¡­¡± Delta prepped the shuttle to lift off, the craft tilting as one of the bears attempted to grab a hold of the tail. The sound of claws ripping down the side of the craft echoed inside. ¡°That¡¯s probably fine¡­¡± A deep thrumming sound echoed beneath their feet as the craft lifted. Karla could see the trees dropping beneath them, and a view of an extensive mountain range spread out beneath them. Several more thumps and jolts shook the craft before the beasts finally dropped away.. An alarm began to blare. ¡°Everything good?¡± she asked. ¡°Uh, maybe?¡± Delta flicked several switches. A display unfolded from the ceiling showing a transparent version of the craft. Several areas were in red. He looked it over for a few moments. ¡°I mean, it should be okay still. Olivia will be pissed though. Looks like our starboard fuel tanks have been torn up pretty bad, and so has the landing gear, but we should be alright for the flight.¡± He unlatched Karla and placed her into a seat. She slumped down. ¡°Oh, right.¡± He pulled her up and strapped her to the back. The harness opened, allowing a lanky teenager to step out. He began looking over the device. ¡°They took off so much¡­ were those the kind that eat metal or something?¡± He looked around back and messed with the torn legs. Beyond the fabric was a dense layer of mechanics, far more than Karla expected. Even the face turned out to be a display with a hard metal casing that wrapped over the user¡¯s head. She tried to speak, but realized she was unplugged. She jerked her neck and head around, but nothing seemed to grab this kid¡¯s attention. She pulled at the chair next to her¡­ it moved. She had reached out, almost unintentionally, but the chair moved very slightly as she willed it. She had been worried her gifts would never come back to her, but just now¡­ The chair moved again. Karla spent the next few hours gently nudging the chair as Delta tinkered with his harness. She would dance if she could. She tried to ¡®see¡¯ around herself, but failed with every attempt. Only the physical force seemed to do anything, so she kept at it, nudging the chair back and forth like a toddler excited by something shiny. The mountains disappeared into a mix of deep greens and blues as they flew. There were black lakes and some pale fields of snow scattered through the area below, but even that faded into a deep shade of blue as they ascended ever higher into the atmosphere. Karla felt herself slowing, fading away. Her head dipped several times before nodding off into a deep, dream-filled sleep.
Bartholomew watched as the Northern Tyrix Bears slunk off. He had lured them towards the ship he spotted landing in a nearby clearing. It had the markings of Olivia on it, a clear warning to any in the Clans not to mess with it. It probably had a sensor package on board, it would ID him as soon as he drew near. He knew he couldn¡¯t be known to interfere, but he had hoped the lured bears would tear that oblivious boy and the abomination on his back to pieces. He sighed. Olivia will probably dissect it anyways, but for some reason it rubbed him the wrong way. ¡°Barty, did they make it away?¡± A voice com picked up in his ear. ¡°Yes uncle, though they took some damage on the ship from the beasts.¡± ¡°What did you make of Olivia¡¯s apprentice?¡± Bartholomew shook his head. ¡°Green. Foolish. Despite most of these Inner Circle things blowing up the second they¡¯re down, he walked straight up to it while wearing some decrepit Harness. Looked like it was some relic from the first California war.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate Olivia or who she chooses to teach. She¡¯s had an iron grip over the clans for a century and it doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯s letting go anytime soon.¡± ¡°Uncle. The news. Is it true?¡± There was silence for some time before his uncle responded. ¡°We¡­ think so.¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t sure?¡± ¡°William Stoke was seen entering a strider and assaulting our northern strongholds, but it all seems so sudden, so badly planned.¡± ¡°Maybe he went senile?¡± Bartholomew laughed. ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate him either. His death is being proclaimed across the Church, I feel like there is more to this than we know.¡± ¡°They aren¡¯t hiding it? Do you think some of the Apostles are making a move?¡± The voice grunted. ¡°Not them, they are too loyal. His bishops are the ones making moves. I have a bad feeling about all this.¡± Bartholomew threw himself upwards, landing on an upper branch of a nearby ironwood. The pack of bears passed by beneath him, not noticing him at all. He had already sprayed his body down with chemicals designed to distract hunter beasts and electronic sensors alike. He sat there for some time, watching the small dot of light cruise off into the horizon. ¡°Uncle, the Witch claimed to be called Karla. Around when Stoke¡¯s strider went down, it seemed to slow and become confused. It still killed Sam, Cress, and Garvey before its harness failed. Then it acted all nice and cozy with the brat.¡± ¡°Leave it Barty. If it¡¯s a puppet or whatever, Olivia will deal with it.¡± ¡°But what if Stoke¡¯s alive, and he¡¯s inside of this abomination? The Church was supposedly working on mind imaging.¡± ¡°Leave it. We¡¯ll find out eventually. For now, return to the northern base and prepare for war. The other clans seem to be chomping at the bit to getting back to fighting now that Stoke is apparently dead. The Lightning God Clan are already on the move.¡± ¡°Shit. I¡¯ll head back now.¡± Bartholomew cut the com and glanced around. The beasts seemed to have dispersed, there was no movement in the surrounding forest. He pushed off the tree just as a bright blue bolt pierced straight through his chest plate. A tree caught his legs as he fell, sending him spinning into the dirt. He woke up moments later, system warnings blaring. His harness had already sealed his wounds and sent out a distress signal, but he wasn¡¯t getting backup anytime soon this far out. He had to get up and move. He rolled onto his chest and pressed himself off the ground, only for another bolt to cut through the undergrowth, taking off his right arm below the elbow. He tumbled back into the dirt, clutching at his arm in pain. ¡°Raaah! Who is it?¡± Bartholomew shouted at the trees. He couldn¡¯t see his attackers, and sensors hadn¡¯t picked up a damn thing apart from the two bolts¡­ He shoved himself sideways, rolling behind a tree as another bolt tore through the dirt where he was just laying. With his one good hand he drew a Tek-Rex 105 revolver and pulled back the hammer. Loaded with high-velocity rifle rounds, they would pierce through any shielding and armor a light harness would carry. The recoil would damage his one good hand, but he needed to sort this quickly if he wanted to live. The faint crunch of gravel reached his ears. His sensors picked up a soft footstep, at just the wrong spot of the forest floor. He spun out around the tree and fired¡­ at nothing. The revolver round raced through the forest and ricocheted off something hard, soaring high in the air, a faint red glow marking his failure. Another bolt cut through his wrist, taking his revolver with it. He screamed and fell back. ¡°Fuck! Do you know who I am!¡± He shouted. ¡°You¡¯ll pay for this!¡± He tried to com his uncle, but only now were signals being jammed. It seemed they wanted his clan to know he had been attacked, but not who did it. He triggered a small pair of drones to launch up in hopes of catching an image of his attackers, but a quick burst of pistol fire brought the pair down before they could cloak. A shadow moved. The wide-brimmed hat of the Fading Smoke Clan seemed to materialize out of nothing. A mix of their bloodline gifts, and their technology, their stealth was the best out of their clans, as was their sniping abilities. ¡°Fading Smoke¡­¡± Bartholomew huffed. ¡°Is this how the treaty ends?¡± The figure walked closer, and he recognized it. One of two, the twin daughters of the clan head Knowles. ¡°You!¡± He shouted, hoping to somehow turn this around. ¡°You wait for me to exit the tunnels only to ambush me? If this is found out, you will never find trust in any other clan again.¡± ¡°Oh Barty, you were messing with Olivia¡¯s boy, were you not?¡± said one twin as she crouched in front of him, a long-barreled sniper rifle across her lap. ¡°I think if this is found out, you¡¯ll be in far more shit than us.¡± Said the second one, behind him. Before he could respond, a heatblade found its way into his neck. His heatblade, stolen off his waist.
The twins watched as he twitched, then laid still, the blade burning away the man¡¯s throat. Tonya scanned for vitals, nodding once he was gone. ¡°There! Job done!¡± Selina shook her head. ¡°Nah. Just got a com from dad. We have more work now. Looks like the clans will be getting busy soon.¡± ¡°Good! If Stoke is properly dead, then maybe we won¡¯t have the Church breathing down our necks anymore! We can actually take this fight seriously this time!¡± Tonya happily wiggled as she pulled a dismembered hand from the revolver. The sisters laughed and chatted as they dug through the smoldering corpse, taking anything and everything of value. Chapter 6: A Ditch Witch Karla shook her head, it felt heavy and slow. ¡°Like I said. I¡¯m not interested. Thank you, for the offer, but still, I have never and will never be interested in joining a clan.¡± William Stoke sighed, then shrugged. ¡°Then it¡¯s time for me to leave.¡± He stood from her couch and held out a hand. ¡°Karla, it was nice meeting you.¡± Karla glanced at the offered hand. ¡°Is that it? You don¡¯t want anything else from me?¡± William smiled weakly. ¡°I want you to live well, Karla Morten.¡± She hesitated for a moment, then stretched her hand out, grabbing onto his. As their palms touched, she felt something worm its way through her hand, down her arm, and crawl into her chest like an eel burrowing into her flesh. She jolted and yanked her hand away. ¡°What was that?¡± She looked over herself but couldn¡¯t find any changes. ¡°Sorry, and thank you.¡± He smiled, a genuine, bright smile that looked as if all of his worries had washed away. ¡°I look forward to working with you, Karla.¡± Karla blinked as a sudden white light erupted over her vision. The sight of the room faded, leaving spots in her eyes. The room had changed. The small, dingy bathroom from the house in Seattle she grew up in greeted her eyes. ¡°Karla! Are you okay sweetie?¡± Her mother¡¯s voice, a sound she hadn¡¯t heard in over twenty years echoed from downstairs.
Karla woke with a start, her artificial heart pounding. She never wished to live through that dream again. She glanced around, then up to a figure by her side. Delta stared at a panel he had connected to her I/O. ¡°Can I help you?¡± she asked. ¡°Oh! Good morning!¡± He jolted upright, managing to look contrite as he cradled the panel. ¡°I, um, didn¡¯t think you would dream!¡± He stared at her cheerfully. ¡°I saw you twitching, and thought to plug you in to see if you asked for anything, but you were just talking in your sleep. Like a human would¡­¡± ¡°I am human you prick.¡± Karla wanted to stretch. Hell, she wanted to blink and yawn, but all she could do was move her head as she fully woke. ¡°Where are we?¡± ¡°We¡¯re¡­¡± he checked a display, ¡°about an hour and a half out from the lab Olivia wanted you brought to. We¡¯ll land and make sure you¡¯re stable first.¡± ¡°Then you¡¯ll interrogate me?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ I mean, master is very practical. I don¡¯t think she¡¯ll see the value in interrogating you since you don¡¯t seem to remember anything.¡± ¡°Dissection then.¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± Delta hesitated. ¡°Maybe? A bit? But she¡¯ll put you back together!¡± Karla looked at him with the most condescending look she could muster. Since she had no face muscles, all she could manage was a blank stare. ¡°How do you know I don¡¯t have some kind of transmitter beaming back my location and everything you say to my boss somewhere? I could be leading people back to your master and you¡¯d never know it.¡± He shrugged. ¡°I¡¯d sense it. I can feel electricity and electromagnetic waves, and you aren¡¯t putting off anything. You¡¯re like a self-contained black hole to me. Even humans emit a little bit.¡± ¡°I could still bring you harm, you are far too defenseless.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a torso.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re a child.¡± ¡°Hey! I¡¯m fourteen! I¡¯m old enough to fight at least.¡± Karla turned that over in her head. Child soldiers, great. America the land of child soldiers and gang warfare. She smacked her head against the seat. She froze, then snapped her attention to Delta, sending the chair beside her spinning. ¡°The moon. What the fuck was that?¡± ¡°Huh? What about the moon?¡± He looked at the chair. ¡°Did you just move that?¡± She jerked her head side to side. ¡°The moon! It¡¯s broken!¡± ¡°Ah, yeah?¡± Karla shook her head in frustration. ¡°What happened to the goddamn moon? ¡°Uh, my master knows more about it, it happened ages ago¡­¡± He thought it over. ¡°I mean, you know the creatures that came from the other side?¡± ¡°Other side?¡± ¡°Ah, wow. You don¡¯t know anything do you?¡± ¡°Just explain it before I headbutt you forever.¡± ¡°Fine! Fine. So. The Upheaval. Gifts were introduced to certain people, and so was different types of energies and metals and minerals not seen on earth before. Neutron, electron, proton, and now the K-particle and the Z-particle, right? Whole new periodic table of elements and all that. Well, those had to come from somewhere, and some think that ¡®elsewhere¡¯ is another version of earth. A mirror, or a sister planet that existed right on top of our world. That¡¯s why the land masses mostly didn¡¯t change, but trees and beasts kind of appeared. Master believes they were somehow integrated, maybe forcefully merged with our world. Now, if earth was merged, and all creatures on it was merged, perhaps the moon and other planets were merged? Averaged out with this new energy inside of them? Apparently, either on our side, or the other side, something had changed the orbit and exact placement of one version of the moon, maybe both. When the merge happened, the two moons were so out of sync, they kind of just¡­ shattered. The moon mostly kept together, but there are pieces that break off and trail behind.¡± He thought it over. ¡°Apparently in several thousand years, we¡¯ll have rings like Jupiter!¡± Karla absorbed all of this. ¡°Then supers were just¡­ evolved from having new energies around?¡± He nodded. ¡°Kind of. A gift is almost like a random genetic mutation that allows one to utilize various energies in the atmosphere now. My Master says if this merging had happened in the middle ages, we would have had guys with flaming swords, or wizards and such. But with a gun? Well, nobody lives with a bullet in the head.¡± ¡°So technology made us all equal, huh?¡± Karla chuckled. A certain revolver creator would be quite happy at that. ¡°Kind of. There are plenty of people who utilize cybernetics to strengthen themselves, but only the gifted get the full effects. Our bodies are stronger, more adaptable to modifications. I mean, I¡¯m talking to a torso right now.¡± ¡°I will bite you.¡±If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°You don¡¯t have a mouth.¡± Karla tried to look at her face, unsuccessfully. ¡°I don¡¯t?¡± ¡°No, you have like, a grill? An exhaust?¡± He leaned over. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s piped into your artificial lungs. It¡¯s like you are a brain, lungs, and heart, and that¡¯s it. Really impressive honestly.¡± ¡°How so?¡± ¡°Well, that you seem to be taking this quite well. The other Inner Circle members all kinda freaked out when they woke up and blew themselves up. We¡¯ve never been able to talk with one at length before. There was one a while back that apparently talked, but once they realized where they were, they detonated their bomb in their head.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a shock to realize you¡¯ve been alive for over two hundred and fifty years.¡± Delta blinked for a few moments, then jumped to his feet. ¡°Wait, you mean you were alive during the Upheaval? You were there as a¡­ like, regular human?¡± ¡°Yes I was a regular human! I lived through the Upheaval, and was doing fine till William Stoke came to my apartment. I thought he was there to recruit me into his hero group, the Southern Priests.¡± ¡°The Southern Priests was a hero group? Not religious?¡± ¡°I mean, they had the priest in their name, but they seemed pretty upright. Nothing too strange from them at the time. I thought it was just an edgy name.¡± ¡°So you were around during the second Upheaval¡­ What was that like?¡± ¡°Second?¡± ¡°Like, when the other beasts came. They crawled out of the ground, breaking buildings, highways and such?¡± She shook her head. ¡°I was alive, but not conscious. I only remember yesterday when you guys shot me to bits. Since Stoke apparently died.¡± ¡°Ah, some news about that. Apparently the Church has made an official statement about it. They¡¯ve confirmed he¡¯s dead.¡± ¡°So he is dead¡­¡± she sighed in relief. ¡°Thank fuck for that. If he was still around, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be able to rest.¡± The two sat in a cramped silence for a while. Karla focusing on the hateful bastard Stoke, Delta on the hundreds of questions he wanted to ask. ¡°So¡­¡± he started. ¡°Before the Upheaval¡ª¡± He was cut off by a heavy lurch of the ship. A small alarm began blaring. The ship tilted down, gaining speed as it dropped towards a wide forest below. Delta punched in some command and the ship leveled off. He looked over several gauges, all flashing red.¡°Oh no¡­ I think the other tank was hit. We weren¡¯t losing pressure too fast, but maybe there was a leak.¡± ¡°Will we make it?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to glide it in and hope the last of the fuel can get us into the canyon safely. Alright, buckle up! Oh, right.¡± He looked her over, then cinched the straps tighter. He climbed into the forward-most seat and buckled himself in. Once he had control, he began keeping the craft in an uneasy drift, floating the shuttle towards a sharp drop-off in the distance. As they drew closer, the drop grew wider, and branched into a wide canyon. Karla squinted. ¡°Is that the Grand Canyon?¡± ¡°Hey! You know it!¡± ¡°Of course I do! I went there as a kid.¡± Delta frowned. ¡°It¡¯s hard to imagine the Witch as a kid, honestly.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a boogyman.¡± ¡°You kind of was when I was growing up. You were one of the strongest soldiers in the Inner Circle, and the most feared. When we heard you were on the battlefield for the first time in years, many clan members second-guessed coming up here to defend, probably thinking this was some kind of deadly hammer blow come to put an end to the Clans. Turns out, it was just Stoke going senile and committing his best forces into a trap.¡± He shrugged. Karla felt a bit of strange pride at his description of her. She knew she had telekinesis and a perception power, but how those could be used on the battlefield she didn¡¯t know. Her abilities were always better suited to construction or heavy-lifting than combat. When she was first exploring her powers, she had swung around a group of sticks as if they were swords, she imagined herself as some kind of wielder of many flying weapons, a terror to her foes. Their slow, awkward movements put an end to that fantasy rather quickly. The shuttle shook again. A digital voice spoke up. ¡°Airspeed. Airspeed.¡± Delta edged the nose down slightly, holding onto as much height as he could. The craft drifted down, just over the rim, and then into the air above the canyon. Below, the land opened up, suddenly dropping from the highlands that surrounded it. She had hiked into the canyon with her parents when she was young, complaining the entire way, but she remembered how beautiful the rock formations were, and how barren the walls were of life aside from the occasional bird. As the drifted lower, she saw the canyon had undergone a drastic change. The rocks were the same, but all along the canyon walls were large, white crystals. They seemed to grow out of the cliff faces like a moss, the smaller, finer crystals gathered around larger, massive pieces. As the ship began to dip beneath the edges of the canyon, she could now see creatures who perched and circled the formations of crystals. Birds. Thousands and thousands of birds. Some were small, others the size of a sedan, but they all flocked around these crystals. Their beaks sturdy and curved, designed for breaking up the hard rocks. She watched a large orange bird breaking into a crystal the size of her old apartment by slamming a bony forehead into the side over and over like a woodpecker. ¡°This is the Grand Canyon? You¡¯re sure?¡± she texted. Delta didn¡¯t notice, he was entirely focused on controlling the ship down a specific branch of the canyon. He eased the craft between the walls, bleeding airspeed as they approached what appeared to be a dead end. He pulled a lever and was rewarded with a clunk. ¡°Oh, the landing gear was partially out, and also maybe broken¡­¡± He turned back. ¡°This will be a bumpy landing.¡± Karla couldn¡¯t do anything, so she just sat there, shaking in her seat as the air buffeted the small shuttle. The cliff face drew closer and closer, but Delta didn¡¯t let up, seemingly ready to smash it into the cliff to stop if need be. He waited till the last moment to flare the wings and bleed of the last bit of speed, touching down with the rear landing gear and promptly tumbling the craft over onto its side. Softball-sized stones ground against the shuttle¡¯s side, tearing a stubby wing off, as well as half the craft¡¯s skin. Karla watched as the ship was ground down around her, waiting for the craft to stop. It did, once it hit the cliff face. Delta coughed at the dust and smoke that filled the cabin. Karla got a minor warning about air quality, but her lungs seemed able to handle it without trouble. ¡°Kuack!¡± Delta coughed as he waved dust away from his face. ¡°You okay?¡± She nodded. It wasn¡¯t like she had limbs to break or organs to damage. ¡°That¡¯s your landing?¡± ¡°The ship was already damaged!¡± He unbuckled himself from the pilot¡¯s seat and promptly fell to the side of the cabin. ¡°I landed it in one piece, which is more than some could say!¡± Karla rolled her eyes mentally. How was he so competent with mechanicals yet so inept at just existing? Delta pulled on his harness which he had tied down to one wall, keeping it from becoming a heavy projectile in the crash. Once suited up, he unstrapped Karla and carried her to the rear cargo hatch, or what was left of it. The sheetmetal was crumpled and twisted, but a quick kick with Delta¡¯s harness and it opened. A deep red valley greeted her, with looming cliff walls that reached far overhead. She couldn¡¯t be sure, but the walls seemed taller than she remembered. Down here, there were no crystals, only the shrubby grass and small trees she remembered from her youth. Delta looked around, stumbling as he turned. ¡°Did I go down the correct branch?¡± he looked up. ¡°That should be right, this should be it, but¡­¡± He turned once again, finally finding what he was looking for. ¡°There! Ah, good. I didn¡¯t want to hike all day trying to find the right place.¡± He jogged over to a small overhang in the cliff edge and set Karla onto the flat, grassy soil. It was hard. What looked like a soft wash of sand and gravel was actually a hard platform. She looked at the blades of grass that extended up through her chest, projections. Delta tapped at the back wall, searching for something. ¡°She¡¯s changed it a bit¡­¡± He huffed. ¡°There was a panel around here? But now¡­ oh.¡± His hand found a small hole. He pulled out an I/O cable and plugged it in. There was a moment of silence, and then the platform began to lower. Delta scrambled to pull his cable out of the rock before it was ripped out. ¡°Ah! She always does this! Why does she have to make it so complicated?¡± ¡°Security, little boy.¡± A thin voice called out below. Carla peered to one side, only seeing a small room with multiple benches and displays. One had the wreck of the shuttle frozen on its screen. ¡°And that, is a complete mess. You just left the wreck outside? You were supposed to bring it inside via the lift.¡± ¡°Well, yeah, you said that.¡± Delta rubbed his head. ¡°But the shuttle¡¯s so damaged, I¡¯d have to drag it piece by piece.¡± ¡°Then that¡¯s what you¡¯ll do. Place the specimen over here, then bring the remains of my shuttle to B4. I¡¯ve placed a bin for you.¡± Delta huffed, but picked up Karla anyways. She could now see the owner of the voice. A short, thin woman who looked to be in her late thirties, though that would be deceiving as her face was entirely mechanical. A mask of metal and synthetic flesh, she looked beautiful, yet haunting as Karla drew near. ¡°Um, this is Karla, and she¡ª¡± The woman held up a hand. ¡°Go, you have your task. You will fill me in after.¡± ¡°Guh, fine.¡± Delta deflated as he trudged back to the lift. Once the lift was out of sight, the woman finally looked over Karla with a grin. ¡°Hello there, Karla Morten.¡± Chapter 7: Stretch In a small room that felt more akin to a warm study than some kind of lab, Karla stared at the woman. She tried to talk, but she wasn¡¯t connected to anything. ¡°My name is Olivia, but I¡¯m sure your identity is more interesting than mine, no? Oh, you have no voice synthesizer, right?¡± The woman got up and grabbed a small yellow cylinder off a nearby table. ¡°I don¡¯t want to read everything you say, let me install this.¡± Karla nodded and leaned her neck forward. There were several quick movements, a whirring of an electric driver, and then something clicked. When Karla lifted her head, Olivia stood, inspecting a small black sphere in her hand. ¡°Whew, you brought in some firepower, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Is that¡­?¡± Karla began to speak, but stopped at her voice. A digital harmony of several voices blended together. ¡°Vocalizing check!¡± Olivia grinned. ¡°And this, is the bomb that always does such a fantastic job of erasing you Inner-Circle pups whenever you get your foot caught in a trap.¡± She turned the explosive over in her hands. ¡°And do you know how this works?¡± Karla shook her head. ¡°I only know it is called an Iso-Bomb.¡± ¡°Iso? Huh¡­¡± She placed the sphere into a small plastic sleeve and sealed it. She saw Karla staring at her and grinned wider. ¡°Snacks for later. But right now, you are the main dish! A cyborg! A cyborg with gifts!¡± She leaned over the torso. ¡°You said you were over two hundred and fifty? Amazing! I¡¯m only around one hundred and twenty myself, less than half of your age and I¡¯ve still had to do a lot to keep my body up and running. My, my, you don¡¯t seem to have any degradation at all!¡± Karla wanted to frown. ¡°You were listening in on the shuttle.¡± Olivia shrugged as she fetched a small, wheeled gurney. ¡°Nothing better to do. Clans are all busy, Church is up in arms over it¡¯s dead leader. No, my time will come in the following months.¡± She lifted Karla with far less ease than the others had. ¡°Damn you¡¯re heavy. Is your entire skeleton replaced with metal?¡± Karla thought for a moment. ¡°Wait. How did you know my name? Most people seem to think I¡¯m some kind of creation.¡± Olivia shrugged as she pushed the small bed through a rear door and into what looked like a long, thin garage. Multiple bays each had projects in various stages of completion. Olivia pushed her into a nearby open slot. ¡°Like I said, nothing better to do. While you were coming in, I looked up records of a gifted with the name Karla from before the time the Witch first appeared. Not many actually! You were either a twelve-year old who died in an accident first testing their powers, an old woman who had the ability to spit acid, or you were a mysterious woman who suddenly disappeared some two hundred and forty years ago who¡¯s powers and appearance were both heavily classified by the Church. Not hard to figure out which one you were, despite how little was left about you. My biggest sources of information was just some investigations into a damaged apartment and a lawsuit that technically still stands against unpaid rent filed by the City West Housing Authority.¡± Karla grunted. ¡°So you know who I am. Now what?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯d like to figure you out. You seem to be conscious, sane, and with one of the most elegant electro-neurological interfaces I¡¯ve ever seen.¡± She rubbed her hand down the spinal column that hung beneath what was left of her ribcage. ¡°And the fact that you¡¯re still alive and not crazy after so long as basically a brain in a jar¡­ it¡¯s impressive is all.¡± ¡°I have a torso, though. Some of one at least.¡± Karla looked down at her shining ribs. ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. What matters is you have lungs, a heart, and a brain, and somehow that works. That¡¯s enough. Not only that, but you can still use your gift. Though, I would suspect you are having a bit of trouble with that, right? Has it degraded over time?¡± Karla nodded slowly. ¡°You know about my gift?¡± Olivia pulled out a datapad. On it was a video, paused on the face of a terrified clan member running. As she made it play, the camera turned to reveal what they were running from. Seven feet tall, all black steel and a strange reddish bronze. The being looked utterly terrifying and inhuman aside from its arms. It pointed with a hand, and six large guns floated in the air, pointing at six different targets. The guns fired, blinding the camera for a moment as they unleashed hell across the battlefield. A second video played, Karla playing with the nearby seat, swiveling it back and forth. Karla looked up at the woman as the video ended.¡°That first one was me?¡± Olivia nodded. ¡°The Supreme Holy Guardian to the Church, the Black Witch to the rest of the world. You were terrifying back then¡­¡± She shuddered at a memory. ¡°You saw me. Back when I was¡­ that.¡± ¡°Yeah. That awesome display was what made me want to become a technician in the first place! The unmatched power, the raw ability. I¡¯ve collected some remnants of battle harnesses used by the Church and replicated or improved beyond what they¡¯ve used, but you are something special.¡± Olivia dropped the pad and looked at her. ¡°You hold a lot of secrets that could help my research immensely. I¡¯d like to offer you a chance of rebuilding into something that is at least livable. More human than what you have now. In exchange, I¡¯d like to study you. I want to take you apart and see what makes you click, but then I promise to put you back together.¡± Karla laid there. ¡°That¡¯s it? You seem awfully accommodating for having me as your enemy until a day or two ago.¡± ¡°Ha! You weren¡¯t my enemy. Just another soldier in this never-ending war for the Americas. I don¡¯t want to dance around the issue, it¡¯s a waste of time. If you were crazy, or if you seemed resistant, I¡¯d use a different tactic, sure. Not to mention I¡¯ve been running diagnostics on you the entire time you¡¯ve been here. What I need, though, is a willing participant, not a cadaver to dissect. You have the brain scan of someone who just woke up from a nice nap, not the typical mental degraded psychos that usually come from putting a human brain into an unfeeling murderbot.¡± Olivia pulled out several devices and tools from nearby toolboxes, setting them onto a metal bench. ¡°If we can both get what we want, then I won¡¯t go blaming the tool for what the hand did. I¡¯ll give you a good place to rest, and I¡¯ll learn many things. After I¡¯m done, I¡¯ll let you go off to whatever hole you wish to dive into for all I care. Is that something you¡¯d want?¡± Karla let her head fall back onto the table. ¡°I wanted to kill Stoke.¡± ¡°Haha! You¡¯re too late to hop on that train. Here, I¡¯ll tell you what. I¡¯ll build you a body that performs up to gifted standards. If you want to go join some Clan or gang in some kind of holy crusade against the Church, then be my guest. Deal?¡± Olivia stood there, tools in her hands as if she knew Karla would say yes. Karla let out a sigh, then nodded. ¡°Deal.¡±
Delta picked through the gravel and stones at the bottom of the valley, picking up every little indication there had been a wreck here. Olivia had scolded him twice for not doing it perfectly, that¡¯s why he was currently scanning the entire branch of the canyon all the way back to the river, again. He had just made a second pass without finding anything when a humming noise echoed down through the valley, scaring off the crystal-eating birds into clouds of flapping wings. He deactivated his tools and pressed himself up against the cliff face. Hearing the droning noise coming closer, he activated a digital camouflage. The cloth on his harness flickered, then settled on browns and reds and tans as he nestled himself between some fallen stone. Sections extended, others retracted, giving his form a rough, stone texture with hard edges. Anyone who looked would find yet another fallen stone amongst many.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Minutes passed with nothing happening, then with a sudden roar, they appeared. Six drones, round and shuddering the air around them, swam through the canyon, searching. Delta didn¡¯t breath as they passed. The drones mapped their way to the end of the canyon, then turned back, scanning and analyzing as they went. Green lasers marked a grid as they passed overhead. His pile of rocks was scanned, then passed by. As the drones exited the branch, he remained crouched, not emitting any EW, isolating himself from the world. An hour passed. He risked a peek around, and found the area as silent and abandoned as before, besides the birds who again were making a racket as they chipped and ate the crystals. A good sign the drones had left the area. He lifted himself up, still maintaining his rocky appearance as he crept back towards the lift. He made his way down into the underground base and into his master¡¯s workroom, shaking and patting down the creased outer cloth. At one of the first tables, he could see the old woman bent over, working on something. ¡°Master!¡± He ran to her. ¡°Three were drones! Church models, I think.¡± She nodded. ¡°They followed you in.¡± ¡°But, the shuttle has stealth¡ª¡± ¡°Not if you¡¯re spraying fuel your entire trip. You left a giant mark across the landscape that lead directly here.¡± She huffed. ¡°I told you to be more careful.¡± ¡°But, there were bears!¡± He turned his attention to the table, and was shocked to find dismembered cyborg body parts hanging on a steel rack. A metal and tech-covered brain with a dangling spinal cord, a pair of black lungs hung like digital wine sacks, and a small black thing with hoses that attached all four. A heart, he supposed. On the table were all of the coverings and items that seemed to be extra. Ribs, muscles, the face he had grown accustomed to referring to as Karla. He hesitated to ask. He had promised Karla she wouldn¡¯t be killed, but now¡­ ¡°Uh, hi.¡± A voice called out. ¡°Karla?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. She¡¯ll be here for a while, so go fix up your suit, and take a shower. You smell disgusting.¡± Delta deflated, and walked to the back of the workroom where his own gear stand was tucked away.
First, Karla was disassembled, then reassembled. Her gift was tested repeatedly, finding Karla needed nothing beyond her brain to use it. Everything was secondary, and Olivia couldn¡¯t figure out why. ¡°So other cyborgs can¡¯t have gifts?¡± Olivia shook her head as she refilled the whitish liquid that circulated through Karla¡¯s heart and lungs. ¡°A cyborg is entirely mechanical. Because once you replace the arms with something really powerful, the torso can¡¯t handle it. Organs get crushed, bloodflow stops. It¡¯s not uncommon for scavengers to pick up hardware that¡¯s too powerful for their body to handle, permanently injuring or killing themselves. Of course those gifted have a strong body already, and don¡¯t need to replace everything else. The only problem is once a gifted replaces their torso, they lose their gifts. They are then just a cyborg.¡± ¡°So if you were to replace only parts of your torso? Like just the heart, just the ribcage?¡± Olivia shrugged. ¡°No matter what people do, eventually their gifts fade away. And no gifted wants to live like that.¡± She watched as Karla played with a small toy with her telekinetic powers. ¡°You are something special. If we can figure out what Stoke did to you, we¡¯d have a revolution in gifted biomechanics.¡± The tests continued. Each and every piece of her was extracted, subjected to scans, modifications, and analysis before being reinstalled. ¡°Fascinating!¡± Olivia kept muttering, her excitement was infectious. After three weeks of tests, dissections, and inspections, Karla was finally gaining new parts. First was a torso, a standard mechanical model that was frequently used for puppets and automated attack systems, but heavily modified to support the few organs she needed. The controls were directed through her spine, and the Raley-Coil strands that acted as muscles were upgraded. When she was asked why, Olivia didn¡¯t have answer. She just grinned and upgraded it anyways. It seemed the old technician just couldn¡¯t help herself when presented with a project. ¡°I want you to practice your gift as much as possible. There¡¯s been a small amount of progress, but I¡¯d like to see more. If you can get back to full capacity, then whatever Stoke did would be viable for others.¡± Karla nodded as a pair of ball bearings orbited one another above the table. ¡°I¡¯d like to recover more, I feel a bit lost without it.¡± Karla wasn¡¯t planning on fighting if she didn¡¯t have to, but seeing the torso, her torso, grow from a mass-produced object into a work of art under the hands of a talented technician was both exciting and difficult to wait for. She felt like a kid staring at presents under a tree, desperately wishing to tear the wrapping off and try it out, but not until given the go ahead by her parent. She had watched as Olivia worked, skillfully bringing plain metal ingots into parts that looked straight off a computer-controlled mill. Her power, the manipulation of metal was a valuable one. She could make prototypes quickly, and some parts she produced were impossible to craft any other way. Karla realized she¡¯d never be able to get some of these pieces serviced by anyone else, perhaps that was this woman¡¯s goal, but that was for the future. Right now, she was excited to finally test out the new body that had been customized just for her. The limbs Olivia fished out for her were not as customized. Prosthetics for civilians who had their limbs amputated or damaged beyond repair, the limbs would bring her up to a human level of ability, which Karla thought was plenty. Long, humanoid, and vaguely feminine, the arms and legs were fashionable models, meant for those who wished to focus on attractiveness and style rather than strength or speed. Karla had claimed these would be fine, but Olivia promised her she give her something more sturdy in the future. Once the limbs were installed, Karla couldn¡¯t help but look over herself in awe. A bright, shiny metal made up most of the structure, then covered with nano muscle strands of some kind of dark gray material. Her body now looked like a mix of dull carbon fiber and polished silver, a sports car made organic. She knew the limbs were more form than function, but it was hard to be upset with how good everything looked. ¡°Try it out. See if everything¡¯s hooked up right.¡± Olivia gestured for Karla to stand. She did. For the first time since her long dream, she could stand on her own two feet. She swung her arms for balance, but turned too much, nearly falling on the old woman. Everything was a bit clunky and awkward to use still. ¡°Hmm.¡± Olivia looked her over and held up a wrench. ¡°Tap the wrench with your right hand.¡± Karla reached out, missing the wrench entirely. The second time she managed to hit it, the third she touched it accurately. After a few dozen attempts, her hand was gently tapping the wrench along its length with each finger. ¡°Other hand.¡± Olivia ordered. Again, her movements were awkward at first, but they improved faster than the first arm¡¯s attempts, reaching competency in half the time. ¡°You¡¯re adapting so quickly. It¡¯s like the ride-along components are recognizing what you are attempting to do, and fixes your neurons to behave in the correct manner.¡± She looked over her handiwork. ¡°Try walking now. Karla took an uneasy step, and fell. Luckily her arms were calibrated, and she caught herself on the metal workbench, leaving a dent in the shape of a hand in the tabletop. ¡°Sorry,¡± she muttered as she straightened herself. The legs were a bit more difficult, since she had to balance herself with her legs, her arms, and her spine. But after walking down the workspace several times, she began to jog, then skip, then run. ¡°Enough!¡± Olivia shouted and Karla skidded to a halt. ¡°You¡¯ll destroy my workshop at this rate. Go ahead and sit down.¡± She gestured to a small steel chair by her side. ¡°How does everything feel?¡± ¡°Amazing!¡± Karla shouted in her strange electronic voice. ¡°Everything works so well!¡± Olivia humphed. ¡°That¡¯s not me. That¡¯s your hardware up top.¡± She tapped Karla¡¯s skull. ¡°You adapt so quickly, I bet I could equip you with whatever shape of limb I wanted and you¡¯d work it out within a few minutes.¡± ¡°I want human legs.¡± Karla deadpanned. Olivia had been pushy for the first few weeks, insisting on how much faster, more mobile she¡¯d be with six legs or some kind of electric snake body. She didn¡¯t fancy becoming a monster, and Olivia¡¯s suggestions on how much better at combat held no interest to her. Now that she thought about it, this small woman seemed obsessed with turning her into some kind of combat unit again. ¡°Weren¡¯t you supposed to make me into a gifted human only? Nothing more, right?¡± Karla asked. ¡°Well¡­ you adapt so quickly. I bet we could equip you with various bodies, and you¡¯d be able to move easy enough. You¡¯d make an amazing soldier with how adaptive you are. If only you made some progress with your powers¡­¡± Karla shook her head and turned to a mirror. Staring back was a metal mask in the shape of a skull with large glowing orbs for eyes. Behind it was actually her, a brain encased in some kind of high-performance metal. ¡°Is there a way of getting something like skin again?¡± ¡°Eventually.¡± Olivia waved her off before she said anything. ¡°Growing a bio-skin requires a more in-depth toolkit than what I have here and it¡¯s frankly a big waste of time if you¡¯re going to be doing anything but looking pretty¡­¡± She seemed to think of something. ¡°Actually, would you want to see a city? It would give you a better idea of what the world looks like. You aren¡¯t too far from the norm, honestly. I¡¯ll just need to get you some clothes and a mask¡­¡± ¡°A city?¡± Karla looked back. ¡°You¡¯re okay with me going out on my own?¡± She laughed. ¡°Hell no! You¡¯d be lost within the first day! Delta will go with you. I¡¯ve been invited to the Digital Snow Clan down in City West. They seem to have some new technologies they want some help with. You might find their tech interesting.¡± ¡°City West¡­¡± Karla sighed in memory of her old home town. ¡°What is it like these days?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll see for yourself.¡± Olivia grinned at her as the woman took several measurements. Chapter 8: City West Karla sat in the expensive-looking aircar beside Delta, both dressed far different than Karla was accustomed to. She wore simple, baggy pants over her legs and a long, baggy jacket that covered her body, not leaving a bit of her shape visible. Harnesses and other battle-gear were banned from the city, yet Delta, for some reason, had on body armor and a helmet. Both of his pistols were prominently displayed at his waist, and a pair of heatblade daggers sat horizontally across his lower back. ¡°Delta¡­¡± Karla began in her multi-toned synthetic voice. Delta jumped. ¡°Sorry! I¡¯m still not used to your new voice.¡± Karla frowned internally. She still didn¡¯t have lips to frown. Her face was covered with an opaque metal plate with several sensors embedded into its surface. Olivia had said ¡®Should block a stray bullet or two, but nothing too big so don¡¯t stick your face into a gunfight.¡¯ when she fitted it. Karla had chalked it up to the woman¡¯s idiosyncrasies. Now, however, she looked at Delta with worry. ¡°Why do you look like you¡¯re headed to a war zone?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± He looked over himself. ¡°I¡¯m not wearing a harness or bringing any real firepower though?¡± ¡°You¡¯re carrying heatblade daggers.¡± ¡°Self defense!¡± ¡°And a pair of machine pistols. And you have body armor on.¡± ¡°Well¡­ yeah. Haven¡¯t you been to a city before?¡± Karla wanted to say she had lived in City West, so long ago, but that probably meant little at this point. She remembered the tall apartment blocks that dominated the northern neighborhoods. They sat right under the a massive mountain range that had raised like a guardian¡¯s shield during the Upheaval. The mountains had provided a good barrier between the millions of residents that fled to the large city and the beasts that wandered the deserts to the east, but housing so many people had become a real issue back then. The aircar dipped lower as it approached those same mountains, though the view felt off. Above the tall mountains was a jumble of architecture, all greater than the biggest mountain that stood before it. ¡°Delta, are those¡­ buildings?¡± He nodded. ¡°Micro Habs. They hold everything a city would need, but all situated under a single roof. I¡¯ve heard that some people are born, live, work, and die all in the same hab. There¡¯s no reason to leave if you really don¡¯t want to.¡± The car passed over a particularly large building. Stepped sides like a pyramid, and a golden eagle at its peak, it was obviously inspired by Aztec pyramids, but on a massive scale. On one side was a group of hundreds of thin towers, each barely large enough to contain an apartment. They all fought for what little sunlight was available even at higher floors. The skyline was so packed, so busy with architecture that even hundreds of floors up, it was difficult to get a constant stream of sunlight during a day. She could hardly believe these buildings were real if thay weren¡¯t right in front of her. She glanced down into the dark depths below and shuddered. What had happened to this city? The aircar dipped between a pair of tall white structures. They were larger than old skyscrapers, and yet they were mere spires on an even larger white building that felt like it could hold a mountain inside. On long, waving banners, a very familiar symbol fluttered. An open eye, pointed and symmetrical, a long teardrop falling from the center. She had seen something similar on the robes of those she had woken up next to. Corpses clothed in black. ¡°Delta, whose symbol is that?¡± He shrugged. ¡°The Church.¡± ¡°And what are we doing here? then¡± She moved to stand, but didn¡¯t have anywhere to go in the cramped vehicle. There was plenty of headroom, but this vehicle was tiny for the four-hour trip into the city. ¡°Relax. Olivia¡¯s forged documents will see us through no problem. The Church mostly takes taxes and enforces some regulations, but the city is left to fend for itself for the most part. Land of the free¡­ you know?¡± Karla huffed. She had planned on keeping far away from the Church if she could. ¡°You could have warned me.¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯ll encounter them in the larger cities, they¡¯re a bit unavoidable.¡± ¡°But what about this white clan?¡± ¡°Digital Snow.¡± ¡°Yeah, that. How are they in the city if the Church is hunting them down?¡± Karla sensed the gravity lessen as the aircar filtered into one of many small slits in the side of a tall, white tower. These slits were massive, large enough to fit several vehicles side by side, and dozens atop one-another. A truck ahead revealed why. The size of an apartment block, but only as wide as a three-lane highway, the strange vehicle fit nicely in the long tunnel that cut through the tower. On either side were soldiers, scanning equipment, and landing pads where some passing vehicles were parked and their occupants questioned. Delta leaned back as the aircar arced through an automatic procedure into the tunnel. ¡°The Church doesn¡¯t usually mess with the Clans unless one gets too powerful. There were once more, but each time a Clan took out a rival, grew in power, the Church would bomb their headquarters from orbit. The Clans have learned to keep to themselves. It was only recently that the Church had been acting weird. First it was the Black Night Clan suddenly attacked. Then it was the Lightning God Clan. Once all of the heads realized the Church was out for blood, they banded together to stop their assault on our northern branches. It was a worry when Stoke showed up personally. Everyone thought this was some kind of trap. But his troops just rushed in, fighting to the last without any kind of strategy. In fact, at the end they split up their most powerful units, the Inner Circle. Practically handed the victory to the Clans.¡± ¡°And now?¡± He shrugged. ¡°I heard some of the bishops are fighting to take on the mantle of ¡®The Supreme.¡¯ Lots of deaths, lots of intrigue that I don¡¯t care about as long as they leave us alone.¡± An orange glow passed over the car. A scan. Karla tensed, but a small beep popped up on the dash. ¡°See?¡± Delta inputed their destination, and the aircar lifted out of the thin tunnel after the large truck. Below, the world dropped away. Buildings still loomed overhead, yet the ground was so far below she couldn¡¯t see the streets. ¡°First, we¡¯ll get a room in the Bronze Eagle. Once we¡¯ve parked the car, and dropped off luggage, we¡¯ll head over to one of the streets in the market district.¡± ¡°What are we getting?¡± ¡°I have to drop something off, but Olivia wanted me to show you the city.¡± He shrugged as he pulled up the papers. ¡°Oh! We¡¯re married!¡± He handed her a passport.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Her name was Charlene Lucine, apparently. She was currently twenty two, and apparently a wife to ¡®Donald Lucine.¡¯ She looked over at him. ¡°Charlene and Donald?¡± Delta shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve learned to just let master do as she pleases. Last time my name was Jovanovich and I kept forgetting it.¡± ¡°Jovanavich?¡± Karla laughed. ¡°Yeah¡­ Just be sure to call me Donald. The Church might be hands off, but they have sensors and informants all over the place. I hope the struggle in the leadership makes it easier for us, but no point in making our stay more hectic than needed.¡± Karla nodded as the aircar slipped into a landing bay midway up a tall gray tower. The vehicle halted near an elevator, the doors opening for them. Delta hopped out and held out a hand. ¡°Shall we?¡± Karla smacked his hand away and stood up on her own. He sheepishly rubbed his hand and moved to the back to grab their luggage. Karla looked him over. He really needed to get out more. He acted like a boy who had been homeschooled and finally met a girl, doing awkward shit and performing useless gestures like holding open doors and trying to help her up. Even now he was grabbing both of their luggage without her asking. She looked herself over. Her body kind of looked feminine, but she definitely didn¡¯t have a face that inspired any thoughts of Karla being a human, much less a male or female. Somewhere in the years trapped in a murderbot, she had kind of lost any feeling of herself being anything more than a single, powerful thought. ¡°Kill William Stoke.¡± She muttered. That¡¯s all she had been reduced to, and now she didn¡¯t even have that. The aircar hovered away, searching out a parking spot on its own. The elevator opened and the pair headed to their room. Dropping off their luggage, Delta took only a single package, a backpack filled with several ingots of various metals and fibers. He struggled with the weight. ¡°You need help?¡± ¡°Uh, no. I got this¡ª¡± Karla grabbed it from him, easily throwing it over her shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re a bit weak without the harness. You should lift some weights.¡± He frowned. ¡°I¡¯m a technician. I don¡¯t need to be overly strong. Besides, I can just install some muscle enhancements later.¡± The pair stepped into an elevator and descended. The sound of a vacuum seal hissed as the air was pulled from the elevator shaft. Karla waited for movement, but the feeling of movement never came. Outside, the floors were passing faster and faster, with Delta turning a faint green at the drop. Karla could still tell there was movement through sensors and visual clues, but that feeling of her stomach climbing into her chest when on an elevator would probably never happen again. And at the speed they were traveling, she had no doubt her stomach would be in her nose by now. ¡°Do the elevators always move this fast?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Delta shouted, his eyes pinched close. ¡°A lot¡­ of floors!¡± ¡°You okay?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine!¡± He gripped the handrail harder. Karla laughed and looked out. The walls were transparent, giving an excellent view out into the city. A morning sun lit up the upper floors, a glittering forest of metal and glass. It was dazzling as she looked over the city. The landscape had changed so much, and so quickly. She couldn¡¯t see an end to the forest of buildings to the south no matter how hard she looked. As the elevator lowered, the light dimmed and faded, till there was nothing but a half-night darkness engulfing the lower half. The first signs of light were holograms. Faint lines marked out aircar designs, the newest prosthetics, the nearest brothel. Below that, electronic billboards proclaimed the newest drinks and services. Guns. So many signs for guns and ammo. Religious signs from the Church, but surprisingly also from fringe groups that called for judgment day, the end of times, a new dawn, and everything in between. The signs were seemingly aimed at traffic that passed by. Aircars, rough and dirty from use in the city flew past at surprising speeds. Once below traffic, the buildings again faded into darkness and dense fog. The glass outside beaded with water, but otherwise the world was hidden in the thick haze. Karla thought about asking Delta how long this would take, but then she saw it. A glow. Like veins of gold, the streets below shone with a warm light. Signs of neon scattered above ground level, but along the street itself was where most of the lighting came from. Large lamps shone over the pathways, a warm golden color that gave the streets a feeling of sunset. Signs of brilliant reds and blues and greens and yellows drew her attention to shops, service stations for mechanics. And rain. A constant drizzle seemed to drift down from the eternal layer of fog above them, keeping the lower city slick and wet. At the base of the habs was a very unexpected sight. Buildings. Old buildings. The massive habs had been built over top of entire neighborhoods with long, sweeping arms reaching from the street up into the impossible towers that loomed overhead. The fringes of neighborhoods caught some light from the ambient overcast above and the golden lamps at street level, but further in, under the belly of the habs was an area covered in a deep, eternal night. ¡°Why are there still buildings down here?¡± she asked. ¡°Why not just demolish them?¡± ¡°I think there was some argument, where people refused to sell their homes to be replaced with habs, so the corporations just bought the air above. Then they supported it from the street, and now it¡¯s like you see.¡± ¡°So the habs just sit over several city blocks? Isn¡¯t that dangerous?¡± He shrugged. ¡°Keeps the rain out. If you don¡¯t live in a hab, it can be a pain to get medical care or certain services, but people on the ground typically prefer to live out of the way. Away from authority. For that reason, I¡¯d keep out of the mazes. Lots of nasty people in there, and it gets worse the further you go in. We¡¯ll stick to the main streets for now, then visit a few good habs that have some good food.¡± Karla looked at him. ¡°I can¡¯t eat.¡± ¡°Oh yeah¡­¡± As the elevator finally reached ground level, she got her first glances of normal people. Some were extremely tall, or with body proportions that defied expectations, but most were of a normal shape, just with the odd robotic limbs and sensors embedded into their skin. What was constant was their weaponry. Everyone carried firearms and armor. No one carried rifles or explosives, at least not openly. But everything up to pistols was carried, but what was even more prominent were the swords. ¡°Eh? Swords?¡± Delta stepped onto the street and stretched as if he hadn¡¯t been clutching the elevator for dear life. ¡°Yeah. Very common. Good for self-defense.¡± ¡°You keep saying self-defense this, self-defense that. What are you defending against?¡± As Karla asked, an altercation erupted outside. A man with the longest neck she¡¯d seen towered over a portly man who looked entirely unmodified. He wore a thick coat and a transparent plastic rain jacket, but could easily be mistaken for an old polish uncle. He didn¡¯t look threatening at all. The long-necked man seemed to think so too, prodding the man with a clawed hand. There was an exchange of words as the neck guy attempted to grab something from the man, then pulled out a pistol when the man smacked away his hands. Before the pistol was even properly aimed, the hand fell with the pistol still in its grasp as a curved saber cut upwards. Another quick move and the long neck was in two. ¡°That.¡± Delta said. ¡°And sometimes monsters and beasts that live in the sewers. I hear they¡¯ll eat you if you fall asleep outside.¡± Karla ignored him as the two arcs burned into her mind. It looked so simple, yet so fast. She didn¡¯t think she¡¯d be able to react if that was swung at her. The man just moved his wrist and suddenly the cyborg was dead. The sword grew dim and was sheathed, the man casually strolling away as if this was just another Tuesday. What was surprising to Karla was the lack of reaction from those on the street. Pedestrians gave a wide berth to the conflict, but otherwise didn¡¯t even pay much attention to the action. Some even jeered and laughed as the man was cut down. After a few moments, a pair of men, both in dark browns and blacks slunk out from under the tower across the street. They looked dirty and jumbled, as if every article of machinery and clothing was from a different corpse. ¡°Scavenger guild. You¡¯ll see them from time to time.¡± Delta spoke up. ¡°So if I was killed on the street, those scavengers would chop me up and use me for parts?¡± He nodded. ¡°But if you have nicer gear, you could get targeted by some of the larger gangs. That¡¯s why everyone always carries weaponry of some kind.¡± ¡°What about me?¡± She looked down at her baggy coat, she doubted it would stop bullets. ¡°Well, Olivia doesn¡¯t trust you with weapons yet, but the baggy clothes should make people think twice about messing with you. You could have anything on under there.¡± She pulled open her jacket and flashed him the bare steel and nanofibers. ¡°Or nothing. I should at least have some armor.¡± He blushed and snapped his head away. Karla rolled her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m a brain in a jar, Delta. This body was made by your master, you even watched her put it together!¡± ¡°Yeah, but still¡­¡± Karla shook her head. What a prude. Her body was vaguely feminine, but she didn¡¯t have breasts, or fucking skin. She did up her jacket, but still felt naked without any kind of armor or weapons now. If her end found her on the streets of City West, she would haunt Olivia till the old bat croaked. Chapter 9: Snow Turns out, fights weren¡¯t that common, neither was gunfire, but when it happened, it was deadly. Karla began to think Delta¡¯s thoughts on inner-city fashion were correct. Everyone looked either armed or wore obscuring clothing like Karla. There were vending machines with pistol ammo, clothing stores that sold armor and bullet-proof masks, and shops that looked almost out of a medieval rpg, with racks of hand weapons available. Karla ran her hand over a rack that held swords, daggers, axes, and spears. ¡°They really have everything, huh?¡± Karla asked. Delta nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve always liked daggers. Small, easy to keep out of the way.¡± He inspected a particularly tactical-looking knife with too many bells and whistles packed into its handle. ¡°What do you like?¡± She chuckled. ¡°I have never used a weapon like that. Though, I fenced in high school, so maybe a rapier would be the most similar?¡± She picked up a rapier with a long, thin blade. It felt good in her hand, but like every other hand weapon, it lacked a handguard. ¡°Why is that?¡± Karla asked. ¡°What if another heatblade slides down? Wouldn¡¯t you lose your fingers?¡± Delta laughed. ¡°If two heatblades hit one another, neither would slide. One would win, and it all depends on which one lands its edge more directly onto the other.¡± ¡°Would it just cut through?¡± ¡°Yeah, or both could be damaged and just turn into semi-sharp metal. Feel the edge.¡± Karla ran a metal finger over the blade. Her fingers were a lustrous steel of some kind, but she could still get a sense of the sharpness. It was nearly dull. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Heatblades melt through things instead of cut. If you had a sharp edge, the blade would cook until it was rounded like that, maybe even damaging the metal. Some people carry simple blades they don¡¯t have to recharge, but heatblades can cut through basically anything given enough time. Flesh basically evaporates, and metals and ceramics gives way eventually.¡± ¡°Know all that from experience?¡± He put the knife down. ¡°Uh, no. Magazines and such. Some TV I suppose.¡± Karla placed the rapier back onto the rack. She made her way through the shelves, admiring the variety of shapes, but was surprised by large stack of crates on one side of the rack. ¡°Why are there so many Daos in here?¡± She picked one up. Large, single-edged swords of Chinese historical origin laid in piles inside the crates. Each looked functional, if a bit cheap. ¡°Ah, imports from the Warring States. Non-rechargeable and the blade cooks when you use it, but effective. Popular amongst some hitmen for their disposability.¡± He picked one up and frowned. ¡°Not the best, and sometimes unreliable. I¡¯d go with a name-brand.¡± ¡°Warring States? You mean China?¡± He nodded. ¡°Part of it is, yeah. When the second Upheaval came, several civil wars erupted all over Asia. It all crossed borders and kinda merged into one big mess.¡± ¡°Oh. Do they not make good swords in the warring states?¡± ¡°No, they do, really good ones, but they don¡¯t export those. The constant fighting has kind of made the entire Asian continent a mecca for large-scale combat development. If you ever want to make lots of money as a mercenary, the warlords over there pay top dollar.¡± He scratched his chin. ¡°Japan also have some really good tech apparently, but they¡¯ve long shut their borders and stopped trading with anyone. Who knows what¡¯s going on over there now. I heard they have a way to cloak the whole country, prevents anyone from looking inside, even by satellite.¡± ¡°So how do you know they have such good tech?¡± she asked. He pointed up. On a high shelf, far out of reach and behind glass was a long katana. Its blade was bi-colored, with the edge a dark red, and a bright steel backing it. ¡°Those are sharp, and stay sharp even after heating. Those cut through metal just as fast as flesh, and will win every time against a regular heatblade. If you see someone with a katana, either they are fabulously rich and stupid to be carrying it around, or they bought a fake.¡± Karla looked it over. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t someone just take it apart?¡± ¡°Trying to disassemble an authentic piece only results in a broken sword, something changes when it¡¯s opened up. Nobody can replicate it. Seeing that one on display, it¡¯s probably broken from someone attempting to open it up.¡± ¡°Can Olivia not figure out what¡¯s inside?¡± ¡°She can modify metal as if it¡¯s clay, but she can¡¯t see inside an already complete device. She tried opening one up before and it fried as soon as she got her hands on it. They are shielded against scans too. Dunno why but they are super careful with their technology. Hand-held firearms out of Japan are pretty sub-par compared to African or American firepower though.¡± Karla looked up just in time to see a tall, broad-shouldered man step into the shop, his skin artificially dark as if it sucked in the light around him. A group of masked guards escorted him, spreading out between racks and shelves. They wore shining metal plates over their shoulders, and their bodies were carved and curled, an intricate gloss black metal that integrated with the skin of their necks. The man looked around, his body bulky and dangerous looking. He spotted the sword overhead and spoke quietly to one of his retainers. The guard made her way to the counter and began speaking in a muffled voice to the shopkeeper. ¡°Speaking of, those guys are probably NAA.¡± Delta whispered. She cocked her head. ¡°North African Alliance. Though these days they call themselves the New African Accord. Their body modifications are something of an art form. Many would kill to get their hands on one.¡± One of the guards snapped his head at Delta¡¯s words. Delta jolted then backed away from the attention. The unmasked man turned to them, his eyes and smile standing out like stars in a dark night sky. It was unnerving, but he didn¡¯t look threatening, at least not at the moment. Karla met his stare with one of her own. ¡°You know, in my country, anyone who looks upon me is put to death.¡± The man¡¯s voice was powerful, a king¡¯s voice that demanded respect and inspired fear. Karla had lost both feelings long ago. She cocked her head at him. ¡°So am I to die then?¡± Delta panicked, feebly grabbing at her sleeve. The man laughed. ¡°We are not in my country! But I like you Americans. Every person is a king. Every man takes his life into his own hands. I saw several entertaining fights on my way through the city today, each more frivolous than the last. But all had one thing in common.¡± He raised a hand, seemingly organic. ¡°You will kill for honor. You will kill to survive. You will kill for the sheer sport of it! You sell your lives so cheaply, yet fight so viciously!¡± His hand clenched shut with a loud snap, his fingertips breaking the sound barrier as they formed into a fist. ¡°You live every day! So alive! I wish to live every day. Not a breath wasted, not a moment idle!¡± As the case was brought down and handed over, the man laughed and strode out, his group following him. After a few moments, Delta let out a breath and began panting. ¡°What the hell Karla! Those guys were the real deal! They could easily kill us!¡± ¡°He seemed nice. Who was he?¡± Delta wiped sweat from his face. ¡°I dunno. Some prince? There are many princes of the Musa dynasty in Africa. It¡¯s said the three brothers who conquered the continent each had a hundred wives. Not that I believe that, but nowadays there are a lot of princes about, each gathering power and fighting for favor.¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. After looking over the rest of the goods, they left the shop and made their way through the streets to where Delta needed to visit. The African man¡¯s words seemed to resonate with the city. People mostly minded their own business. Those that didn¡¯t either paid for it or got whatever they wanted. It was a city where bullies ruled and perished. Where every person¡¯s survival was in their own hands. City Security Forces would always arrive too late to prevent anything, their job seemed to entail cleaning things up, not preventing or protecting. The streets were a lawless wild zone. And as the prince said, the streets were alive. No wonder people stay in the habs, she thought. She kept out of other people¡¯s business and they walked without encountering any trouble. After an hour of walking, Delta seemed to finally calm down. ¡°Is it different than when you lived here?¡± Delta asked as he glanced around. ¡°Yes. It wasn¡¯t this¡­ big.¡± She glanced up at the seemingly never-ending buildings as they disappeared into the fog above. ¡°Where did all of these people come from? How was everything built so fast?¡± Delta shrugged. ¡°The wars in Asia and Africa brought over a lot of people once the Americas were liberated.¡± ¡°Liberated?¡± ¡°Ah, uh, that¡¯s the term the Church uses for when they dissolved the governments. I think there were bombs in the US, assassins in Canada, and general mayhem in Mexico. After that, they claimed their position as rulers, imposed a tax, and then mostly left everything alone. Since there was no restrictions on immigration, the Americas kind of became a safe haven for refugees.¡± ¡°But, there are monsters in the central areas, right?¡± He nodded. ¡°And in the oceans, that¡¯s why the cities became a safe hub for new arrivals. The Church didn¡¯t restrict it at all, in fact they introduced technologies to build larger and faster. They were the ones who built the first habs. Ah, we¡¯re here.¡± Karla glanced up at the hab they¡¯d stopped in front of. ¡°In there?¡± ¡°Yeah. We just have to deliver the bag to the guards at the gate to the central palace. All the way in the middle, where it¡¯s darkest.¡± ¡°I thought you said to stay out of the underneath areas. The, what did you call it?¡± ¡°The mazes, and yeah, you should. But this is under the control of the Digital Snow Clan, look.¡± He pointed up onto a pillar where four stylized flames in white were stamped. ¡°This should be safe since it¡¯s under their care. It¡¯s just¡­ this place, you see¡­ it¡¯s a bit¡­¡± Delta trailed off. Karla walked in as the boy stuttered behind her. After the first street, the entire area under the hab was black like night. Red lamps hung over doorways and inside windows. White lamps illuminated small bits of the paths that weaved their way through. She stopped in front of a window where several women stood, each in clothing that covered nothing, only there to decorate the flesh that was on sale. ¡°It¡¯s a brothel.¡± She looked around. ¡°A big brothel is what you were trying to say.¡± ¡°Uh, yeah¡­¡± Delta caught the eye of a dancing woman, she pressed herself against the glass and he jumped away. Across the street, a man in similar, revealing clothing gave Delta a small wave. Delta shook like a scared rabbit. ¡°Uh! Can we go now? please!¡± Karla laughed. ¡°Just stop looking at them, you¡¯re getting their hopes up. Unless you want to go in. I don¡¯t mind, I¡¯ll wait outside.¡± ¡°No!¡± He shouted, his voice cracking and shifting an octave or two upwards. Karla ribbed Delta every step of the way as the red lighting hid the bright red blush he¡¯d managed to cultivate. Eventually the white lamps lead to a central grouping of buildings. A large compound sat directly under the tower. Surrounded by walls and guards, the building looked like a palace compared to the rest of the city. She looked it over. ¡°So, here, right?¡± Delta nodded, worn out from protesting his innocence so feverishly. She walked up to the main gate and was stopped by several guards wielding heavy assault rifles, the largest firepower she¡¯d seen in the city. ¡°Halt there. Do you have an invitation?¡± said a large man with glowing eyes. ¡°Yeah! Here!¡± Delta held out a letter to the man. ¡°We¡¯re only supposed to drop this bag off.¡± The man looked over the letter, then his neck lit up. It pulsed for a few moments. ¡°You¡¯re to head inside.¡± He gestured to the gate, and the other guards opened it for them. ¡°Uh, inside?¡± Delta hesitated, but Karla strode in, not waiting for the boy to make up his mind. Once inside the walls, a woman in a long dress with panels of white and silver metal scales greeted them. ¡°You must be Karla and¡­ Donald? Or would you prefer Delta?¡± ¡°Y-yes!¡± Delta replied. She smirked. ¡°Delta and Karla then. Miss Olivia has already arrived. I will lead you to her.¡± She turned and glided down the path. She looked like she was floating, with the dress only softly billowing from her speed, never disrupted by her movements. The pair followed through several courtyards, all clad in a deep red wood and lit by warm lamps and luminescent plants. They eventually passed through a wide door into a large, empty meeting room, and then around the side where another door opened into what appeared to be private chambers. A woman laid on a table face-up with Olivia standing over her. ¡°Mrs. Rhodes. I have brought the visitors.¡± ¡°Ah! Thank you Holly. You may go now.¡± The woman waved her away. ¡°Miss Karla, would you be a dear and come closer so I can take a look at you.¡± Olivia turned to the pair. ¡°You¡¯re late. Did you bring the materials?¡± Karla held out the bag. It was snatched out of her hand and soon ingots were being pulled out and formed under her practiced hands. ¡°Your mask, dear. Can I see under it?¡± The woman on the table spoke up. Karla glanced at her and realized the woman didn¡¯t have a complete face at the moment. Small mechanical arms flexed and tilted, but it seemed like portions of her outer skin was currently missing. Karla removed the mask, her metal skull on display. ¡°Oh how wonderful! You¡¯ve taken the steps of getting rid of the face you were born with. Is that why your master brought you here? To get something new? Attractive? It would go along well¡­ with¡­¡± She eyed the Karla¡¯s torso through the gap in her jacket. ¡°You look¡­ very artificial actually. Is your body¡­?¡± The woman looked at Olivia who nodded as she worked. ¡°Full Cyborg. Organs and everything.¡± Rhodes seemed disappointed. ¡°Ah, I see. Still quite impressive. Most people are too scared to replace everything. I¡¯m one of them. I keep my blood and organs as they are, though I have reasons to not go fully mechanical.¡± Olivia shook her head. ¡°Charlie, she¡¯s a cyborg that still maintains their gifts.¡± ¡°No!¡± The woman looked back at Karla, a grin on what remained of her features. Despite her face being a mess, she still had plenty of veins and muscles hidden away behind the mask. ¡°They¡¯ve weakened, but I¡¯m hoping to find a way to bring them back to full strength.¡± The woman laughed. ¡°You are a wonder my child! You take such brave steps where few have survived! To think I¡¯d see a full gifted cyborg! How far has science come!¡± ¡°She¡¯s older than you are. By around two hundred years.¡± ¡°Really?¡± The woman wiggled and moved, much to Olivia¡¯s annoyance. ¡°Stay still or have a face that bends in the wrong damn direction!¡± The woman took a deep breath and thought it over. ¡°So¡­ you weren¡¯t one of Olivia¡¯s projects, and you would have been around before the first Upheaval, were you not? But then¡­ how did you get to¡­ all of this?¡± she gestured with a hand at Karla. Thankfully Olivia answered for her. ¡°Stoke.¡± The woman froze. ¡°You¡¯re fucking with me.¡± ¡°Nope. One of his pet projects I believe. Her brain is intact, with nothing too invasive, and the small subsystems outside the casing are all just inputs for visuals and coms, all of which was inspected, don¡¯t worry. But none of that affected her brain. She¡¯s pure human inside her head, but nowhere else.¡± ¡°Is that how she maintained her gifts?¡± Olivia shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s what I want to find out.¡± The woman couldn¡¯t hide her uneasiness. ¡°But, what was she for? Just hidden away? How did you find her?¡± ¡°She wasn¡¯t hidden away. I¡¯m surprised none of the Clans told you.¡± Rhodes huffed as Olivia placed the final pieces back into place. Her face now moved and slid together into the visage of a beautiful woman. There were small grooves where the plates fit together, but they were nearly invisible under the dim lighting. Rhodes stood and walked over to a mirror. ¡°The other families are all girding themselves for a new war. They seem almost excited to fight and are all tight-lipped about it. But you aren¡¯t going to keep secrets from me? Right, Olivia my sweet?¡± Olivia rolled her eyes. ¡°Yeah, yeah. You¡¯ve probably seen her before, but under a different name. She was known as the Witch.¡± There was a pause as the woman took that information in. She blinked as she looked Karla over. ¡°Darling, are you sure? She¡¯s not exactly the ten-foot tall murderbot I seem to remember.¡± ¡°Delta over there pulled her out of her busted harness himself. What is interesting is how he controlled them. The Inner Circle? I think they were all cyborgs. Full Cyborgs like Karla over there.¡± The two seemingly young, but definitely old women endlessly chatted about cyborgs and Stoke and Clans. Karla¡¯s attention began to wander. She thought about this entire trip of theirs. Was it all just to modify this woman¡¯s face? Her own face was a mess, she knew it looked rather strange, but the woman had almost praised it. Many people in the city wore masks, and she blended right in like Olivia said she would. Karla slipped the mask back on, but she couldn¡¯t get away from the feeling like she should have a face. Perhaps she wanted to emote and express herself. She thought over her face, and her eyes, the small nicks and damage her faceplate had, the little sensors spread out over the mask¡­ She didn¡¯t see these things. She sensed them. The slightest touch of her old gift, something she had missed and tried for weeks to ignite, suddenly reappeared. She stretched her feeling out, and found it only reached down to her neck. If she could grin, she would. If she can get this much, she can get more. If she can get her gift of perception back, she could get her gift of telekinesis. As her imagination ran wild, an explosion shook the building. Chapter 10: Fire Small squawking alarms echoed through the building, then shouts and gunfire. Holly ran back in, a pair of small rifles in her grasp. ¡°Mrs. Rhodes! The compound is under attack! I¡¯ve received word that several of our satellite holdings have also been assaulted.¡± A beam of light shot through the building. Heavy weaponry. Rhodes grabbed a rifle. ¡°How did they get that into the city? How did they slip past the Church?¡± Holly drew back the charging handle on her rifle, a high-pitched whine like the charging of a capacitor emitted from the weapon. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but we need to get you somewhere safe.¡± Gunfire erupted from a nearby room, an explosion was followed by pained screams. Delta pulled out his pistols, he looked nervous. ¡°Master?¡± he asked. Olivia grunted. ¡°Dammit. The Clans have begun moving. Let¡¯s get out of here before we get caught up in this mess.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t help us?¡± Rhodes gave her a sly grin. ¡°This is your fight, not ours, Charlie.¡± Rhodes nodded. ¡°Fine. Lets get out these three out of here.¡± Karla stood awkwardly. She wanted something to defend herself with, but she wasn¡¯t sure anyone would give her a firearm. As she was lost in thought, a sword cut through the door beside her, and the guard who had been on the other side of it. As the man dropped alongside pieces of wood, the group inside began peppering the figure standing just outside with a spray of gunfire. Bullets ricocheted off of something large, a shield. The soldier stepped through the opening, heatblade at his side. What he didn¡¯t expect was the arm that reached over and wrenched the shield out of the way. A spray of pistol fire from Delta peppering his body with high-velocity rounds. He fell to the floor, dead before he landed. ¡°Dammit! Come on!¡± Rhodes began rushing to the door, only to slow at the sight of Karla picking up the discarded shield and sword. She tested the heft of both. Karla looked up. ¡°What?¡± Rhodes looked over to Olivia. Olivia gave her a shrug. ¡°She¡¯d be useful,¡± said Olivia. Karla twirled the short sword, getting used to the balance and feel of it. Rhodes sighed. ¡°Fine. Miss Karla, was it? Would you mind taking the front with that shield? Holly, direct her.¡± The servant did as she was asked, not knowing why her master was so standoffish to this new person. If she knew she was standing behind the infamous Witch, she would perhaps share the same hesitation. ¡°Miss Karla was it?¡± Holly asked. ¡°I¡¯ll direct you to place your shield in a place to protect the VIPs as we move, okay? Just keep your shield up and don¡¯t move out of position.¡± Karla chuckled but nodded anyways. She needed Olivia alive and well. She didn¡¯t feel much about this Rhodes woman, but Olivia needed to live. Delta too, she decided after a thought. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± she said. The halls were quiet as they stepped outside. Sporatic gunfire erupted from the perimeter of the compound several times, but nothing heavy was seen again. It seemed like they used the heavy cannon to break into the front gate, taking out several small buildings as they did so. They were lucky the beam hadn¡¯t hit anything structural or their hall would have met a similar fate. As they passed through the back of a long hall, rifle fire erupted at the other end, tearing through several tables and bookshelves. Vases, artifacts, and decorations shattered and fell. Karla could feel the impact of several rounds on her shield. The woman Holly returned fire as the other three rushed out of the room. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± she shouted. More soldiers entered the hall, showering the hall with rounds. She began to follow when one brave soldier rushed forward, a grenade in his hand. Karla pushed into his path, but he had already thrown his payload. The grenade spun over her head, right towards the four behind her. The shield lifted and angled as she stepped forward with the sword. She felt the grenade bounce off the shield, then the slight resistance when cutting through the man. As the man collapsed, she turned her attention to the gunfire that now focused on her when she remembered something important.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Oh, Karla thought as she looked down. The grenade. Fragmentation grenades are not very good at damaging prosthetics, especially armored ones. At just a dozen meters, a good quality metal limb would face minor damage and emerge relatively unscathed. Karla¡¯s legs were not a dozen meters away, they were not good quality, and they weren¡¯t armored, either. Crooked shards of metal ripped through the hall, tearing into the shield and Karla¡¯s legs alike. She felt something she hadn¡¯t felt in a very long time outside of her small aches in her chest and brain. Pain. Signals of hot, stabbing pain could be felt over her ankles and feet. She dropped to her knees. ¡°Karla!¡± Delta shouted, but was shoved away by Holly as they turned around the corner into another passage. Just in time. Soldiers rushed to the end of the hall, guns raised. ¡°One here.¡± One grunted. Karla looked them over. Blank helmets, chest armor and plates over their vitals. They looked almost like any other street thug if all of their gear wasn¡¯t so pristine and new. ¡°Not a target. Just eliminate it.¡± Another spoke up. Karla raised her head, she wanted to say something, but a spray of rifle rounds silenced her.
Karla¡¯s head HURT. She pushed her thoughts outside, and found she couldn¡¯t see a damn thing, not clearly anyways. The two cameras that had functioned as her eyes had taken their fair share of the rifle rounds and sent nothing but distorted static to her brain. She felt movement, and the sound of skidding. She was moving. Something had her foot, and was dragging her down a cold alleyway. She kicked at it, eliciting a shout of pain. ¡°Fuck! This one¡¯s alive!¡± a wheezing man shouted. ¡°Not for long!¡± Another grunted. There was a sound of scrambling as something, someone crawled over her. She felt it more than saw it, as a heatblade stabbed down into her face. The blade pierced through an eye socket before it began to heat the casing over her brain, slowly burning through. She grabbed at the hands that held it, but the man was modified with large mechanical limbs, her arms were not able to fight back. ¡°Just relax, it¡¯ll be over soon.¡± The man pressed the dagger down harder. She bent her leg up and kicked. The jagged metal of her foot and ankle drew a much more pronounced reaction. He yelped and weakened his grip as the metal dug into the man¡¯s soft and unmodified midsection. Karla pushed up with her hips and twisted, putting herself over the cursing man. She reached down and found his chest, and ribs. She couldn¡¯t see it, but she could feel it. Unmodified, entirely human. She pushed her fingers into his side, eliciting a scream. ¡°Wh-aaaAAAAaaaat Hap-hap-happpeneed?¡± Her voice synthesizer was fucked. She talked anyways. ¡°What happened iiiiiiiiiiaiaaaaaaas-inside the Digital Snow Clan headquarters-ers-ers?¡± When the man didn¡¯t answer, she grabbed a rib and squeezed, it cracked and crumbled in her grasp. ¡°AAaahhh! They were all gone when we got there! I don¡¯t know! There¡¯s a fire, but the Security services haven¡¯t shown up yet for some reason!¡± Karla yanked the dagger out of his grasp and stumbled off of him. ¡°Get lost!¡± She shouted. She could hear them scrambling away, one whimpering as he moved. Her left eye was definitely beyond saving now. She tapped the right, and the static cleared up a small amount, enough to show she was in a dark alley, and at the end of it, was the hot glow of fire. She stumbled forward before grabbing onto the wall for stability. Her feet were in tatters, a red fluid leaked out with every step. Balancing herself, she took the few steps across the road into the now-deserted compound. There was no gunfire now, no shouts, only the crackling of all of that wood burning like a pyre. She moved forward. Her one eye did little to help her in this environment, and the messages she hadn¡¯t seen in a while popped up in her mind. [Warning. Oxygen levels insufficient.] My helpful brain has come back to tell me it¡¯s hard to breath here. Fantastic. Karla shook her head and continued forward. She was growing used to the balancing act of walking on what was left of her feet when she stepped on something slick and slipped. She fell sideways, dropping her face onto the concrete floor, hard. The little bit of vision she had vanished, leaving her in a pitch black void. She rolled onto her back, taking in large lung-fulls of hot, smoke-filled air. [Warning. Oxygen levels insufficient.] She wanted to laugh, or tell it to shut up. But she could hardly think right now. Her organic brain probably acted the same as always, and limiting oxygen was a good way to slow her thoughts. She tried to push herself up, finding the object she had slipped on. Her fingers wrapped over a slide, a barrel still hot from firing, a charging handle and a grip. A pistol. A submachine pistol with high velocity rounds. She pulled it closer to her face and could sense it more clearly. ¡°Detla.¡± She huffed. She shouted. ¡°Delta! Olivia!¡± There was no answer. She felt strange. She didn¡¯t need those people, but they were the first ¡®friends¡¯ she¡¯d had since waking up as a monster. She still needed the upgraded limbs she was promised, and any other upgrades Olivia could think up, but more than that, they were her only anchor in this crazy new world. Sirens faded in from somewhere above. The Church. She stashed the pistol in a coat pocket and dragged herself to her feet, only to promptly fell. The lack of oxygen was really getting to her now. She instead crawled on her hands and feet in the direction she came, at least she hoped so. Only the cool rain told her she had finally escaped. But that wasn¡¯t enough, she needed to get away from the scene. The last thing she wanted was a run-in with Church security forces. Already voices could be heard nearby. Boots and orders echoed over the maze as more and more arrived. She crawled across the street into the glass windows of a storefront. She felt her way along the street till there was a void, an alley. She crawled in. The air cooled as she made her way down the dark passage. She made it a hundred meters away from the street when the thrumming of an aircar lowered overhead. She pushed herself to the side of the alley, hoping to not be spotted. ¡°You in the alley, halt.¡± A voice called down, amplified and echoing. She pushed herself further into the corner as she made herself as small as possible, hoping the aircar wasn¡¯t talking to her. She made herself smaller and pushed a bit further, then found nothing at all beneath her. She dropped. The sound of sirens, shouting and flames faded as she weightlessly fell. A cool dark silence enveloped her. Chapter 11: Water Channels Karla felt a tug on her leg as she slowly woke up. She had met her greatest enemy last night in the pitch black. Water. She had fallen several stories before impacting ice-cold water in a fast moving channel. Her mostly-steel body sunk like a stone, and she still needed oxygen. The turbulent flow prevented her from stabilizing herself, sending her into a tumble, not allowing her time to search for hand-holds or footholds to escape the icy cold death. Growing faint, she had moved along with the flow of water, searching for something to grab a hold of or a way to climb out, pushing her senses out in hope of something, anything. On one side, she had sensed it. A small steel pathway followed the water channel, a service walkway it looked like. It was close enough to reach, if she leaped at just the right moment. She then sensed a change in the water channel, an abrupt drop. The water thundered over a sudden waterfall, and plummeted into an abyss just ahead. She had put everything into leaping out of the water, everything into landing on the small footpath. She was rewarded with a painful impact on dry steel just before the water fell away. She coughed up entire lung-fulls of water and rolled away from the deluge, her body shaking as she laid there. Another tug pulled on her leg. She hadn¡¯t been afraid to die, not when she¡¯d been shot, not when she¡¯d been nearly killed by Kite Bombs. Even while falling she hadn¡¯t felt fear. Only when helplessly standing under a fast-moving underground river did she begin to feel true terror. The helplessness, the inability to do anything to save herself, the inevitability of a slow death. Was she afraid of drowning before the Upheaval? She couldn¡¯t remember, but she was afraid of it now. On a positive note, though she wasn¡¯t sure why, that terror had made her gifts grow by leaps and bounds. They were nowhere near as strong as they once were, but she could now look over her torso, down to her thighs in great detail. The body Olivia gifted her was clear now, it¡¯s modifications were exquisite, and it was still in good shape. Her limbs more rough in appearance. Another tug. She couldn¡¯t sense down to her feet, so she sat up to bring whatever was pulling at her into range of her gift. Gnawing at her half-destroyed feet was a large, fat rat. The rat was as big as a German Shepherd, obviously changed by the upheaval or from the other side. It sucked up the fluid and chewed on the polymers and seals, its beady eyes locked onto its treat. Karla lifted her hand to her chest, and found Delta¡¯s machine pistol still inside one of the large pockets. She sighed in relief. How it didn¡¯t get washed away, she didn¡¯t know. She pulled the pistol up and aimed. A feeling of vertigo washed over her. This was the first time she had properly held a firearm since she was awakened, and it felt so, so right. Her brain sent her demands to adjust her aim, to grip the pistol a little harder and be prepared to pull down to mitigate recoil. Information she never learned poured into her, adjusting her stance, her grip, her point of aim, her squeeze of the trigger. A single round fired through the rat¡¯s skull and down through its body, instantly killing it. She could just tell the shot was perfect, even without sight, even as it tumbled out of her sphere of perception. She flexed her grip. That felt good. Natural. She had never felt such a strong affinity for something she¡¯d never done¡­ She supposed she had. Who knows how many people she had killed for Stoke. Perhaps many even before she became nothing more than a brain in a jar. Karla grit her teeth when a step alerted her. She snapped around and aimed the pistol upwards. She was entirely blind, and the sensors on her mask were heavily damaged, but her hearing was almost supernatural. She aimed at just above the source of the footstep, and judging by the yelp, accurately at a somebody a dozen meters away from her. ¡°Who-oo-oOiiiiii¡¯s there?¡± Her voice synthesizer cracked and sizzled as it worked. She punched her throat with her free hand. There was a spark as it made a popping noise. ¡°Who¡¯s there? Speak up!¡± ¡°Sorry! Sorry¡­ I only came down to check the grates! To see if there was anything to salvage before the rats got to it.¡± Karla frowned. ¡°Like this bastard here?¡± There was silence for a second. ¡°Speak, don¡¯t just move your head.¡± ¡°Y-Yes! Like that! They eat corpses and the organic fluids some gear uses. I thought you were dead, honestly. I didn¡¯t mean to bother you.¡± A footstep sounded as he began to walk away.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Wait! Does this pathway lead out?¡± ¡°Yes sir!¡± ¡°And you¡¯re a scavenger?¡± ¡°Uh, I am part of the Scavenger Guild, but I don¡¯t hack bodies to pieces up on the streets.¡± ¡°You were going to hack me up, though?¡± ¡°No sir!¡± the man sounded like he had bowed his head. ¡°I wold have taken anything valuable left on a corpse, waste not want not and all that, but I don¡¯t much like chopping people up. I would have left you whole.¡± Karla nodded as she pulled herself to her feet, or rather what was left of her feet. She was currently balanced on what was essentially the jagged remains of her ankles. ¡°If I follow this path up, will it lead me to an exit?¡± ¡°Yes! Though, it will be locked. The City keeps everything locked away down here, we¡¯ve had to find other ways of getting out. I could show you if you¡¯d like¡­¡± Karla waved him off. ¡°Go on, check your grates. If I find you sneaking up on me I¡¯ll blow your head off, got it?¡± ¡°Yes sir! Thank you sir!¡± The man skittered to one side. ¡°That also goes for your two friends hiding up there.¡± Karla pointed. She didn¡¯t know where ¡®up there¡¯ was, she could just hear the breaths, the dripping water from two figures, and the activation of heatblades. She wasn¡¯t sure, but it felt like her hearing was getting better the more she couldn¡¯t see. At her mention, two figures dropped down from dark corners above the path. ¡°Sir¡­ Ma¡¯am? Whatever. Sir! We just want this bastard. We have no interest in bothering you.¡± ¡°Oh, good.¡± Karla shrugged and began walking away, only to trip on the steps. Her senses didn¡¯t show her that far, so she had to feel it out with each foot. ¡°Hey, that one¡¯s crippled.¡± One of the pair whispered. ¡°Blind? Busted feet, too.¡± ¡°Just get the old man first. We¡¯ll chase that one down after.¡± Karla sighed. She really was going to let them go. With the distance and the sound of rushing water, she shouldn¡¯t be able to hear these two, but whatever the Church had installed on her head was amazing. She turned, aimed at the two voices and fired. The first fired perfectly, and Karla was rewarded with a gurgle, then splash as the man presumably fell backwards into the rushing water. The second trigger pull only resulted in a click. She cursed. ¡°You bastard!¡± The second man rushed forward, his wet footsteps moving faster than unmodified legs would allow. The sound still gave him away, and the first slashing cut missed Karla by a wide margin. She leaned in, placing her attacker within range of her sensors. She was surprised for a moment. It looked like a kid beneath his abstract mask. The surprise delayed her enough for the dagger to stab into her stomach. The boy seemed surprised at the lack of penetration, at how the blade had broken in half against her abdomen. ¡°A-A cyborg, wait!¡± He held up the dagger, which Karla snatched out of his hand. She hammered the butt of the pistol into his throat and pushed. He stumbled backwards into the rushing waters and was whisked away. Karla felt her ribs, there was a small nick there now. If she had an organic torso, that blade would have gone straight through her heart. She thought of the boy¡¯s age and shook that guilt right from her head. He and his friend had come here to murder an old man, and when she showed weakness, they¡¯d planned on gutting her, too. She looked over the dagger. Cheap, long blade, half-blunt and now broken. ¡°Old man,¡± she called out as she placed the pistol back in her jacket. She dropped the grip of the dagger on the path. ¡°Take your time coming back.¡± She began climbing the steps again, ignoring the silent scavenger who watched her leave. The pathway lead through many long miles of tunnels under the city, and Karla was beginning to grow tired of these damn pathways. Not physically, she felt like she could walk forever and still be fresh. No, it was tediousness of it all. Constantly having to check if there were stairs in front of her, if there was a sudden dropoff or wall. She had to be careful, and that took up much of her biological brain¡¯s processing power. She let out a breath of relief when she found a door. Tall, made of metal and with a small lock above a handle, she hoped this would lead her out of this hellhole. She leaned close enough for her senses to pass through the lock. It was complicated, but the action to open the bolt wasn¡¯t. A simple tug with her gift, and the bolt came free. She twisted the handle herself and stepped out into what sounded like a small underground tunnel. The sound of electric motorbikes filled the air, as did the wind from their passing. She smiled at the newfound freedom. She walked one way, only to find a wall. She turned and walked the other, finding a wall there, too. Only the street accessed this location, and traffic today sounded busy. She cursed. This was going to be a long day.
The water tunnels under the city were a more recent addition to the city. The constant condensation and rainfall on the lower levels made managing the runoff an issue of primary importance as the city grew upwards. But recent was relative, and these tunnels had been around before BlueTwo was born, and had been his regular haunt throughout his life. He hiked his way down into the waterways that ferried away water, trash, and bodies off the street every morning. When the bodies he found were actually dead, they would be sources of good income for him. And today was almost his last if he had tried going messing with a still-breathing cyborg. He laughed under his breath as he climbed down to the two scavenger boys who thought they could take him down and claim his turf for their own. That cyborg had been injured, but he knew it was dangerous without testing them. Those two idiots probably never learned how sensitive a cyborg¡¯s senses could be. They¡¯d never learn it now. He pushed through their pockets, only finding drugs and trash. The good stuff was already mounted to their bodies anyways. He pulled out a fillet knife and went to work, carefully carving away the valuable arms and legs of the two dead scavengers. BlueTwo whistled as he worked, which he hadn¡¯t done in a while. Today was good. Chapter 12: Canyons Karla took an entire day to stumble her way back to an inhabited part of the city. She couldn¡¯t see a damn thing, but wherever she was, this section had steep streets and people who spoke mostly Spanish and French. The habs were spaced out here or nonexistent, with actual daylight reaching the ground. Karla could only tell because of the warm sun that heated her body as she walked. She stumbled over trash and curbs, but she was surprisingly mostly unbothered on her route. The people here gave a wide berth, and those that approached quickly altered course once they saw how modified she was. Of course not everyone left her alone. ¡°Whoa there girl! Where are you headed?¡± A high-pitched woman¡¯s voice called out as they placed a hand on Karla¡¯s shoulder. Karla could sense the arm, organic. She tilted her head. ¡°I¡¯m looking for my friends, maybe a technician.¡± ¡°Oh damn. I can see that! Amadou! Check this chica out! She¡¯s fucked up!¡± A man stepped close, his face so near Karla could actually make out his features with her senses. A man of African descent, he also had no major modifications on his body that she could see. ¡°Damn, real fucked up!¡± He laughed as he reached out a hand, slipping it into her chest pocket where the machine pistol sat. It was so smooth, that a blind person would have never noticed. Karla grabbed his wrist in a fast motion, yanking his hand back and away painfully. ¡°Ahhh! I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯m sorry! It¡¯s just, you leave such nice equipment just hanging out there, it¡¯s asking to come with me is all!¡± He cried out as footsteps spread out around the pair. Karla let go and he stumbled away, looking over his hand. ¡°Ah putain! Ma putain de main! Il est peut-¨ºtre cass¨¦!¡± The woman smacked him on the shoulder. ¡°Idiot! C¡¯est un cyborg! Sorry, miss. My friend here didn¡¯t mean any harm he can be a bit handsy sometimes.¡± Karla cocked her head. ¡°You mean thieving?¡± She took a step back. ¡°Well, haha, when you¡¯re in the Canyons, you can¡¯t let a potential score just walk off. We thought you were some smacked out druggie coming up out of the sewers for air. We were doing you a favor taking that dangerous-looking gun off your hands, really.¡± Karla froze up. ¡°The Canyons? Did you say we¡¯re in the Canyons?¡± That was over 200 miles south of where she started. How the hell had she come all this way? ¡°Yeah! Can¡¯t you see? Or not, huh?¡± The woman stepped around her, quiet for a moment. ¡°Only Clan members and Scavengers walk around with the gear you have on, and not down here. That pistol ain¡¯t cheap either. Any security forces from the city would lock you up quick for bringing that kinda gear down here. Who are you with if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡± There was a tension as several other footsteps began to circle her. She cursed her luck. ¡°I¡¯m ¡®with¡¯ nobody. I have friends up in the north of the city, but was attacked by a Clan, and then the Scavengers, then chased off by the Security Forces.¡± ¡°You gotta be with somebody¡­ Personal guard, perhaps? No way you can afford all that without some kind of backing.¡± Karla laughed. ¡°You could say that. I have friends, and I¡¯m looking for them, that¡¯s all. Maybe they¡¯re hurt, and I want to help them as soon as I can.¡± ¡°Friends, huh?¡± Selena paused for a moment. ¡°You know, I have a friend that can maybe fix you up! Your one eye still looks kind of salvageable, and there are replacements floating around for the other if you have the cash, though they are few and far between.¡± Karla could hear the footsteps and breathing of the group around her. They sounded like they relaxed a bit. ¡°Your friend, does he take IOU¡¯s?¡± ¡°Ha! Hell no, but he does take favors, especially from a kitted out cyborg. Come on, I¡¯ll give you a ride.¡± ¡°Baby no.¡± The man reached out with his good hand. ¡°Leave it alone, a cyborg is nothing but trouble.¡± ¡°Relax Amadou. Freddie needs some work done. You know what I¡¯m talking about. Just leave it to me, okay? Come on miss cyborg. Or do you have a name?¡± The woman began walking off, Karla followed by the sound of her footsteps. ¡°K¡ª¡± She hesitated. Should she tell anyone her name? Was she recognizable? She shook her head. She just had to deal with this Freddie guy, get some vision back, then head back to the north side of City West. ¡°Kat. Call me Kat.¡± ¡°Kat? Okay, okay Kitty! I¡¯m Selena. What you¡¯re standing in is currently my father¡¯s turf, the Amarillo Heights. You can tell by all of the rocks¡­ Oh, yeah. You can¡¯t see shit, can you?. Though, you can, a little bit, right? Or do you have spatial sensors built in?¡± ¡°I can hear you moving. Your friend Freddie, he knows what he¡¯s doing?¡± ¡°You snatched Amadou¡¯s hand by sound? Crazy¡­ Oh, and yeah!¡± Selena reached a small alley where dozens of small motorcycles were stored. She began wheeling one out. ¡°Freddie¡¯s good, damn good. He gave my father his current arms and his eyes after those punks from the next ridge over fucked him up. Ambushed him, left him barely alive and Freddie brought him back. Once he recovered he made all of those Putos pay.¡± She threw a leg over and flicked a switch. ¡°Come on.¡±This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Karla drew close and leaned down to inspect what she was getting on. A chopped and customized cruiser bike was slung low before her. It had what appeared to be pistons, and its loud, cracking exhaust echoed over the alley. Karla had only heard electric engines since she woke up, she was beginning to think gasoline had gone extinct. ¡°Is that gas powered?¡± ¡°What? Hell no! What are you thinking? I¡¯m not gonna risk gas mites. Once they get into your system, they eat away everything that has touched gasoline, inside out. Then every other ride you have, then the garage you keep them in. The fools at the bottom of the valley used to use it, had their entire garage fall to pieces after mites got in.¡± ¡°Gas mites?¡± ¡°Yeah! Little fuckers, the size of your thumb! They start out small, searching for sources of calories, then eat and eat and eat. They ate their way through nuclear reactors, through oil and gas refineries, and they¡¯ll eat you too if they can¡¯t find anything.¡± She glanced back. ¡°Well, maybe not you. I don¡¯t think much of you is edible, haha! Hop on! Let¡¯s go already!¡± Karla threw a leg over the rear seat, sinking the bike till it hit the stops on its suspension. ¡°Oh shit!¡± Selena leaned over. ¡°Well, the tires aren¡¯t busting, so we¡¯re probably okay.¡± She pressed something on the dash and a whirring sound emitted from the bike. Soon, the bike lifted slightly, the suspension more appropriately pressurized for her considerable weight. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± The engine snapped and crackled like an angry campfire, spitting jets of flame out of its long tailpipes. Selena tilted out onto a winding street that would have made Karla dizzy in the past, riding along the one of the great ridges that make up the Canyons. The Canyons were a series of rocky formations that lifted up around Ensenada, Mexico. They formed the end of the Great Barrier Mountains that had made City West so safe to live. She¡¯d never seen the Canyons, but had always wanted to come see it. That was long ago, and now she couldn¡¯t see a damn thing. The bike leaned till pieces scraped on the pavement, carving around the long, undulating corners that wound down the steep mountainsides. The smell of heated metal and hot plastics filling the air. She couldn¡¯t actually smell anything, but her brain was analyzing the air, telling her what was mixed up in the surrounding atmosphere. Karla tried to focus on her gifts, but all she could sense was some of the bike, a passing sign or wall from time to time, and Selena. Karla looked her over. Some simple sensors on her palms, one of her eyes was fake, and what looked like a stun gun was installed on her fingertips. She was so lightly modified most people would never notice. Selena called back over her shoulder. ¡°I take it you¡¯re from up north?¡± ¡°How can you tell?¡± ¡°Well your clothes look like mil-spec, and you have some gear people would kill for down here. Something like your limbs are expensive and the interfaces to make it work is even more crazy. Besides, nobody has enough to go full cyborg like you are. That is a whole other level of pouring money onto a fire.¡± As Selena went on about what kinds of cheap gear has been flowing into the canyons lately, Karla looked herself over with her senses, as much as she could. Her jacket was still intact, if dirty and scuffed. The pants were tangled around her torn up ankles, yet the cloth didn¡¯t seem to be damaged. Even the grenade had only dirtied the pants, not pierced through. I¡¯ll have to thank Olivia, she thought. She didn¡¯t leave me as bare as I thought. The pistol in her chest pocket was in good condition, though the magazine was entirely empty. And that was it. All of her earthly belongings could be summed up as the clothes on her back, and the gun in her pocket. She sighed. She¡¯d get an eye fixed, maybe find some ammo, then make her way up into the north side of the city. She wasn¡¯t sure where Delta and Olivia went, or even if they made it out. Hell, she didn¡¯t even know if there was still public transit. She¡¯d have to improvise till she met them again. She tried to relax as the road wound down into the Canyons. With the crackling roar of the engine, the wind over her body, it felt nice, relaxing for the first time in days. It became strangely warm the further down they went, with openings in the cliff side emitting burning waves of heat as they passed. She could hear shouts and orders, and mechanical operations within the mountainside. It sounded like the entire mountain was hollowed out and producing parts. ¡°A lot of the high-tech forges around here are owned by the Church, but they keep to themselves and under heavy guard. We make firearms, but we want to get into the bigger contracts. Shuttle and aircar parts and harness shit. The corporations that make those hold a tight grip on production though, no way we¡¯ll get a contract for that anytime soon.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you guys make gear? If it¡¯s so expensive down here, make it yourself.¡± ¡°Ha!¡± Selena shook her head. ¡°We do! But all of the good shit is shipped off to the north. The corporations and City both keep a sharp eye on gear in the South Sector. Nothing above the basics are allowed, and even those are expensive as fuck. Any nicer gear that gets brought down here are usually off the backs of the Scavenger guild or through small traders selling second-hand pieces. Even then, all of the gear that comes in is sucked up by the gangs. Some hoard pieces they¡¯ll never use just so others can¡¯t get a hold of them. Makes it damn expensive.¡± ¡°So everything down here is owned by gangs?¡± Karla said from the backseat. ¡°Exactly! The bigger gangs hold a lot of vehicle manufacturing, lots of profit, little chance of people sneaking shit out. If you¡¯re making something like harnesses or gear, you are heavily regulated and those forges spend a lot on guarding their stock. One missing piece of equipment and their whole contract can be gone. Then you have security forces chasing it down, executing anybody they think is connected. Super tight security shit.¡± The bike slowed, then turned into a slim alley that ran between two buildings. Along the mountainside were many small shops. One, a cinderblock building with a rough exterior seemed to be their destination. ¡°Here we are! Freddie will fix you up real nice!¡± Selena climbed off the bike and gestured to a door. ¡°And I¡¯ll pay for these fixes with a favor, right?¡± Karla already knew what kind of ¡®favor¡¯ it would be, too. Probably violent, probably dangerous. But if nobody down here had decent gear or heavy weaponry, she¡¯d be more than happy to pay for repairs with some physical activity. How hard could it be? Selena nodded. ¡°Real simple stuff. Easy for someone like you.¡± Chapter 13: Ready Freddie Freddie had a long night pulling bullets out of a pair of Arrecho¡¯s boys. His morning was no better, with his neighbor frantically waking him to sew up her dog that somehow ended up with a knife stuck in its back leg. He loved dogs, he loved helping dogs, but he preferred to help dogs not at four in the morning. He jumped as the someone banged on the front door then rolled over on the patient chair and ignored it. The bang sounded again, louder. ¡°Go away!¡± he groaned. He could hear muffled talking behind the door, but he really didn¡¯t want to deal with more inane bullshit tonight. A beam of light hit his eyes from a hole in the roof. He looked over at a clock. It was noon. ¡°Freddie! I have something for you buddy! Come open up!¡± He cursed to himself. It was Arrecho¡¯s daughter now, Serena who was bugging him. She banged on the door again and shouted. ¡°It¡¯s bad business to keep the shop closed all day!¡± Freddie groaned. He slid off the chair and into a pair of slippers. With a yawn, he proceeded to ignore the banging on the door and pushed through small plastic packages that filled a small shelf on the wall. ¡°Lasagna, burger, oh! BLT?¡± he held up a thin package the size of a credit card before shaking his head and throwing it back onto the shelf. ¡°Freddie!¡± More banging. ¡°Coming! I¡¯m indecent!¡± He called back over his shoulder, she didn¡¯t sound too urgent. Even if she was the boss¡¯s daughter she could give him a moment to wake up, dammit. He skimmed a bit more, then pulled up a package with a nod. ¡°Bagel breakfast sandwich, yes please.¡± He threw the package into the rehydrator and set a dirty mug against a device built into the wall. A button press, and a hot black liquid poured out. Sipping at the bitter liquid that was almost coffee, he stumbled his way over to the door as the rehydrator hummed. ¡°Yeah, yeah. I¡¯m here already¡ª¡± He froze as he opened the door a crack. Through it, he saw a cyborg. A full cyborg. He slammed the door shut. ¡°Freddie wait! She¡¯s nice! Let us in, man!¡± He stumbled back, racking his brain. ¡°Renault limbs, what looked like a designer Calico flack jacket, and the face¡­ a Triton face shield, bullet proof up to handgun rounds¡­¡± All premium pieces, though none of it matched up. That still left several groups that could have sent it after him. It was so jumbled though¡­ The small chime from the rehydrator made him jump, spilling his hot coffee over his hand and body. ¡°Ah! Dammit¡­¡± He stared down at the fresh brown stains down the front of his overalls. His last good pair. He took a deep breath and opened the door. ¡°You, cyborg. Were you sent looking for me?¡± The cyborg didn¡¯t flinch, but answered in a chewed up voice that sounded half-fried. ¡°I have no clue who you are. I was told you might have a task that needs doing in exchange for some siiiiiIIIIIIIimple repairs.¡± The cyborg punched their throat to keep talking. He could see in the neck a Cemi-Vox voice synthesizer. Designed to prevent their words from being picked up on drones and listening devices, it was a high-grade military device, and it was being punched nearly full force by a cyborg. Whoever put this cyborg together should be pissed at how this bot was treating the hardware they kitted it out in. There were holes in the mask, and damaged optics behind. The body was in good shape, a customized Deema Evo II Puppet shell it looked like, and the limbs¡­ ¡°What the hell happened to your feet?¡± He pointed at the pair of ankles the cyborg balanced on. ¡°Grenade.¡± It answered with a shrug. ¡°Faaaaah, come in.¡± He turned on his heel, allowing the door to open for the two. ¡°Selena, close the door will you?¡± He opened the rehydrator and pulled out his breakfast, gesturing to the patient¡¯s chair with the sandwich in his hand. ¡°Sit. Uh, whatever your name is.¡± ¡°Kat.¡± She replied. ¡°Right¡­¡± He moved to bite into his sandwich, but Selena got there first, taking the sandwich and eating most of it in several quick bites. ¡°Sure. Help yourself. Coffee?¡± He held out the half-full mug. ¡°Yes! Thanks Freddie!¡± She took the mug with a beaming smile. Freddie sighed as he sat on a creaking, wheeled chair and rolled close to the cyborg, looking her over. ¡°Haah. Okay. What are we working with?¡±
Karla went over the laundry list she¡¯d made in her head. ¡°I¡¯d like my vision restored as much as possible, something done about my voicebox so it won¡¯t randomly squawk, and something about my feet. I don¡¯t know if you have replacements, judging by what Serena told me, but even wrapping the ankles in rubber or something so I¡¯m not skidding around on hard surfaces would be good.¡± The man called Freddie looked her over. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± ¡°Do I need much more than that?¡± Karla looked down. She¡¯d removed her clothes, and there was indeed some wear and tear, but it didn¡¯t look too bad. ¡°Look, here.¡± Freddie pointed out several frayed black fibers sticking up on her left bicep. ¡°The muscle strands have separated here, and will continue to fray as you move, eventually failing. And here, these actuators on your knee, I bet they feel stiff, right? That¡¯s because your seals have blown out and have lost a ton of hydraulic fluid.¡± He peered around the joint. ¡°Were you somewhere high pressure? The seal has actually been pushed inwards¡­¡± ¡°I was underwater for a while¡­¡± She looked over her limbs with a frown. They looked amazing, and were apparently pretty expensive, but they were heavily lacking in durability and combat ability. Karla paused at that. Combat ability. Why am I thinking in terms like combat ability? Those two hundred years as a murderbot might be getting to me. She had never killed a person on purpose till she was taken over by Stoke. Still, she had a hard time caring about her personal moral quandaries. Something to look into later, she thought as she tuned back into what Freddie was saying. ¡°¡ªhonestly, they need a full factory overall, and would probably be better off replaced with something of a lower spec¡ª¡± She cut him off. ¡°How long will they last?¡± ¡°How long? It all depends on what you do with them.¡± Karla cocked her head. ¡°You had something that needed doing, right?¡±Stolen novel; please report. ¡°Uh, yeah. Something combat-related.¡± ¡°I¡¯m good at combat-related.¡± Karla replied, trying to put in as much confidence into her words as possible. Freddie twisted his lips and glanced over at Selena. ¡°You think the old man would go for it?¡± ¡°If it¡¯s cleared out already? He¡¯d be dancing to get in on this.¡± He sighed and looked over Karla for a few moments. ¡°There¡¯s a factory down here. A big one that fills the ridge where this valley ends up north. It is owned by the Rising Eagle Corporate Group. It¡¯s the only holding they still have left after some trouble with their board members, and they are still weak. I doubt they have much of a security force in place. They faced frequent corporate warfare once others smelled blood in the water, but they somehow stabilized, and are now steadily making their way back up in the world. If that holding was taken out, their entire corporation would collapse, they¡¯d be eaten alive up north, and down here¡­¡± ¡°The Amarillo Heights would take over!¡± Selena added cheerfully. ¡°Wait,¡± said Karla, ¡°you kill the people who own a factory, and then you just go in and claim it¡¯s yours? Wouldn¡¯t the city or church security forces step in?¡± Selena laughed. ¡°Nah nah nah. Chica listen. They don¡¯t care about whoever runs it. They have contracts with each and every factory down here. As long as the contracts remain fulfilled, they don¡¯t care if everyone in the factory is gunned down. We just gotta swoop in, bring in some of our people, then get to work. It¡¯s basic corporate warfare.¡± Karla shook her head, this was very different than her era. ¡°That¡¯s corporate warfare? Actual warfare? Isn¡¯t murder a crime?¡± ¡°Have you not been on the streets? There¡¯s too many people, even with all of the habs they built. People are cheap, contracts are gold. As long as you don¡¯t fuck up a contract, then nobody cares.¡± Freddie nodded as if this was all common sense. ¡°That¡¯s why you¡¯ll need to also find their documents on what their making. Technical specs, contract requirements. Delivery details. Beyond that, you just need to slip past their security detail and take out three people. They should be at the factory most of the days right now, they just got that new contract and they are ramping up hard. Here.¡± Freddie walked across the room to a cabinet. He pulled out a few pieces of paper and held them out. Karla stretched her senses out, but could only make out that the paper was creased, and covered in dust. Otherwise she couldn¡¯t see a damn thing. She looked at Freddie and waited. ¡°Oh! Yeah, your vision is out, right? Let me see if I can get your eye fixed up real quick.¡± He leaned over her and began prodding. ¡°You said it was working till you were impacted by something? Probably something loose or fractured¡­¡± A click, a spark, and the eye made a slight whine as it warmed up. ¡°There! Your power line was broken, but a quick solder job and it¡¯ll be good to go. That will break again after a hard impact though, so this is just temporary, okay?¡± He held out the papers again. Karla could finally see again. She took the papers as she glanced around. Grimy. The building they were in looked heavily run down and old. Serena was there, close to what she imagined. Young, pierced eyebrows and a sharp smirk over her face. Freddie looked far younger and scragglier than she expected, with numerous traces over his body from sensors and tools. ¡°You¡¯re young for a technician. You sure you know what you¡¯re doing?¡± she asked. Freddie scoffed. ¡°I was the head technician of the Rising Eagle corporate group. I personally handled the board of directors with their gear and interfaces.¡± ¡°If you were so well regarded, then what happened? Why are you all the way down here?¡± she asked as she looked over the papers. They were announcements of two men and a woman¡¯s success in gaining a large contract with some other corporation. ¡°Freddie here killed the board of directors.¡± Selena laughed. ¡°Wired into their brains, had them all melt down right in the middle of a presentation! It was kick-ass!¡± Karla cocked her head at him. ¡°They were doing some bad shit!¡± He held up his hands. ¡°I had full access to their heads and thought I could make a big change in the world if I took them out. Made an example out of them¡­¡± ¡°And? Did it?¡± said Karla. ¡°No¡­ well, kinda? Not really.¡± Freddie dropped himself back into his chair with a squeak and looked over the paper clippings. ¡°They lost a lot of their power, but I bet as soon as they get back on their feet, they¡¯ll continue with their side projects. All of the info I fed the news networks was purged, as if it had never existed. ¡± ¡°What was it?¡± He hesitated, his eyes flitting around the room. ¡°I was leading a project to develop a kind of brain digitization, not fully, just for pieces that were damaged, usually by folks who use the cheap knock-off interfaces that tend to fry their prefrontal cortex. We¡¯d upload a simple image from a healthy brain to help an injured person live a normal life. Personality and memories intact, clean.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound too bad,¡± said Karla. ¡°They started grabbing people off the street and giving them lobotomies.¡± Selena gestured to the front of her head. ¡°They put in this hardware, and a modified scan from a trained soldier, and boom! Instant, skilled, loyal guards and soldiers. No training, no questioning of orders, and no pay.¡± ¡°More than lobotomies, they were replacing over half the fucking brain!¡± Freddie leaned back with a sigh. ¡°I took out the directors and fled down here. I don¡¯t want them to get back onto their feet and continue that shit. I want that company to burn. Once they lose this last factory, other corporate entities will tear them apart. Maybe slowly, maybe fast if I can send word of what happened. But either way, that would be the end of those bastards.¡± ¡°That¡¯s also how I¡¯ll get you out of the sector, Chica.¡± Selena spoke up. ¡°What, I can¡¯t just walk out?¡± said Karla. ¡°Nobody moves between sectors of the City without a reason, especially north. If you were coming south, they don¡¯t care as much. I don¡¯t know how you made it down here to the Canyon, but I¡¯d bet my left nut you didn¡¯t come down the proper way, otherwise you¡¯d have been through all of the gates, and they wouldn¡¯t have allowed you down here with how kitted out you are. If we go through with this, I bet we can get you onto the first shipment back up north. You can hop off and be on your merry way.¡± ¡°Wait, how many sectors are between me and the northern sector of City West?¡± ¡°Just two sectors, three walls. One sector wall is right above old Tijuana, another is near the military base, then another right above old LA. You could go east after military, but there¡¯s another two sector walls to get through out that way. Honestly, it would be a pain in the ass to try and get through some other way. Unless you had some contacts with the City or Church, that is.¡± Karla sighed. That giant Church building was probably one of the checkpoints to get into the city, she wondered if there were more elsewhere. No way she was fighting her way through, but she¡¯d rather die on her feet than drown in the sewers trying to walk back north. It just seemed all nice and dandy, too convenient. Too perfect. ¡°You are trusting me quite a bit with all of this information.¡± Freddie shrugged. ¡°If you were here to kill me, you¡¯re already here. I doubt I could stop you. But if you can help, we¡¯re running out of time to stop the Rising Eagle from taking flight. We need to kill it in its nest.¡± Karla chuckled. ¡°How poetic. How many guards are we talking about? And how heavily will they be armed?¡± ¡°Light,¡± said Freddie, ¡°they aren¡¯t supposed to bring anything beyond simple guards down this way. Honestly the entire city is limited to self-defense weaponry aside from the Church and City Security. The number should be around forty or so, but they¡¯ll be spread apart and easy to deal with or avoid. Especially with how geared up you are. Besides, you just need to take out the three heads, and grab their data. I¡¯ll get you an GPIO tool to mess with their security systems once you¡¯re inside.¡± Karla cursed internally. It sounded complicated, but perhaps one of her best options. She had no cash nor connections down here, only her body. She might as well put it to use. She nodded. Only the end goal mattered. Get to the north of the city, find Delta and Olivia and get the hell out of this place. This was just the first step. ¡°Fine. If that¡¯s the price to pay to get fixed back up, and up into the north sector then I¡¯ll do it. But I¡¯ll need some weaponry.¡± ¡°I told you my family makes guns!¡± Selena gave her a thumbs up. ¡°I¡¯ll find some nice pieces for you to work with.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. Yeah, good.¡± Freddie rubbed his face as he looked over the papers. ¡°We should move soon. If we can get in before they finish up the contract, we¡¯ll get the payment for that delivery. They¡¯ll be hurt financially and we¡¯ll have their factory and a big paycheck. If you do this for us, I promise I¡¯ll find some damn good limbs to replace your worn out ones then, but that kind of ask is difficult down here without some serious cash.¡± Karla tossed the cutout papers onto the desk and laid back. ¡°Fine. Then we should get moving. Cut me up, doc.¡± Chapter 14: Gearing Up Freddie¡¯s hands and tools danced over the joints of her limbs with a practiced ease. It took only four days to get Karla into what he called ¡®fighting condition.¡¯ She had watched him with her senses intensely for the first day or so, ensuring he wasn¡¯t doing anything funny, but he was honest, and a damn good tech. Despite his work not being as delicate and evolved as Olivia¡¯s work, Karla could tell he wasn¡¯t an amateur by any means. Still¡­ ¡°Why is your place so empty? With skills like yours, you should have a line out the door for doing at least basic gear work.¡± Freddie finished a thin weld down her calf and flipped up the dark-lensed goggles he was wearing. ¡°You know, I thought the same thing when I ran down here. But getting gear in the South Sector damn-near impossible. The sectors in the north are the ones with the most access to good shit. You¡¯ve been inside a hab, right? You¡¯ve seen the gear they wear?¡± ¡°No? I¡¯ve been on the streets underneath, but not actually inside of one.¡± ¡°No shit? Well each one is like a city holding up to ten million people, their work, their homes, and their graves. I never left my hab before I was hired as a technician. Even then I stayed in their corporate headquarters located in another hab.¡± ¡°So what does that have to do with gear down here?¡± He shrugged. ¡°There are no habs down this way, only factories that pump out tons of pollutants and use the locals as cheap labor. Who has enough cash to buy gear? On the streets up north, most people have really cheap shit, too, right? Only those higher up in a corporation or working security for one can afford anything decent.¡± ¡°You make the habs sound like some kind of promised land.¡± ¡°Once you see inside of one, you¡¯ll understand. It¡¯s like a paradise. Nobody goes hungry, nobody goes without the latest in tech, the most stylish of gear. The limbs you¡¯re wearing are something you¡¯d see on celebrities and high-level CEOs. Life in a hab is¡­ good, damn good, but easy to lose your spot. If you don¡¯t produce enough, or achieve enough, you and your family will eventually end up on the streets, in the old town underneath. Eventually you¡¯ll be pushed south to die a slow death drinking toxins and breathing all the pollution from the factories.¡± ¡°Or leave the city entirely¡­¡± ¡°Ha! And face a quick death!¡± Freddie snapped the goggles back down with a huff and continued his task. After several days of work, Karla found herself with two new lower legs, one new eye that was at half the resolution of her old piece, a com unit, and a number of stitched, welded, and bonded pieces that reinforced and wrapped over her limbs. ¡°They won¡¯t last forever, you¡¯ll still need new limbs or a factory overhaul eventually.¡± Freddie stepped back, admiring his handiwork. ¡°But you should be able to move better now.¡± It was night, though the sound of motorcycles and aircars hummed outside in a constant ambient. ¡°Will it last through this fighting I¡¯m about to see?¡± He nodded. ¡°Should do. And like I said, I¡¯ll be able to get you something a bit better after this is over. You have me at a bit of a short notice right now. I¡¯ll at least be able to get you a set of proper, working limbs that won¡¯t fall apart on you.¡± There was a knock on the back door, and Freddie hobbled off on stiff legs to answer it. Karla took a moment to look herself over in a full-length mirror that was propped up against a wall. She looked¡­ scrappy. Multiple types of steel glinted around her shins where old military-grade legs had been bolted on. She had thought military-grade meant strong and tough, in reality they were the cheapest and simplest pair of robotic feet she¡¯d ever seen. They worked though, despite hurting like hell. Freddie was surprised when Karla shouted in pain. ¡°Cyborgs don¡¯t feel pain.¡± he had said. She cursed him to just keep going and finish the damn job. Karla suspected Olivia had made a test subject out of her, though at least the pain was lesser, not like how she remembered her body feeling. Her thoughts were interrupted by Selena carrying in a small crate. ¡°Kept you waiting?¡± Selena beamed, she¡¯d been absent for a few days. ¡°Dad wasn¡¯t as up for it as I originally expected, old man¡¯s gone soft, I think. But! I got you some goods in the end!¡± She dropped the crate on the floor. Inside were various ammos, magazines, and weapons. ¡°What is that?¡± Karla had expected something less, jumbled¡­ and maybe less rusted. ¡°These, my dear Kitty Kat, are all pieces and parts that won¡¯t lead you back to us. Pops was worried you¡¯d fail and implicate us. He only agreed to help if I took only unmarked parts that we didn¡¯t make anymore.¡± Freddie carried in a second, much larger crate. He dropped it onto the floor with a huff. ¡°And what the hell is all of this?¡± Selena grinned. ¡°Wildcards!¡± The crate was filled with what appeared to be numerous blocks of ancient plastic explosive, some anti-tank warheads, a few demolition charges, and a warhead off of something big and nasty. Karla looked over the first crate. There were two rifles inside, one with a destroyed chamber, another with a smashed receiver, a few pistols, a sword, and a good mix of ammo. All of it was aged and rough-looking. ¡°What am I supposed to do with all of this?¡± Karla asked.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°That is for me to deal with. With the help of my trusty assistant Freddie, I¡¯ll have a nice set of equipment for you before you know it! Oh, that reminds me!¡± She turned and ran back outside, past Freddie who was still staring at the explosives. ¡°Half of these are probably unstable...¡± He scratched his chin. ¡°With this we could maybe make the biggest improvised bomb seen on this side of the South Gate in years¡­¡± Selena ran back in with some clothing in her arms. A plate carrier weighed her down on one side, and a belt with many pouches in the other. She held them out with a grin. ¡°Tada! You got some fashion on the outside, now some function on the inside! Try these on!¡± Karla took both happily. She had wanted some kind of armor, and extra pockets would never be unwelcome. With the plate carrier and pouches full of magazines strapped on, Karla thought she looked slightly scary. ¡°You look fucking terrifying.¡± Freddie looked her over. ¡°If you had shown up looking like that I would have ran away.¡± Karla chuckled as she adjusted the straps and buckles. The coat had a lot of use, but with some armor this plan was looking more and more doable. She sat down and watched Selena as she got to work.
Dawn came, and with it, yellow rays of light that slashed across the Canyons like knives. She hadn¡¯t been able to appreciate it her first days here with her damaged optics, but now, she enjoyed watching the undulating cliff faces each morning. She watched as the fog crept up along the mountain ridges, and the shimmering heat of the underground forges that seemed to never shut off. Even the mountain Freddie¡¯s shop was built on held multiple smaller forges that made all kinds of tools, weapons, and auto parts. To the north, she could easily see their target from here. Steam poured out of tall, thin slots cut into the bedrock, creating a wall of white clouds that billowed and obscured the upper cliff faces. At the base was a massive vertical slot cut into the rock, a massive hauler parked inside. Several aircar landing pads were placed to the sides, and those had been busy every day with buses ferrying workers in and out. ¡°Oh man it¡¯s cold!¡± Selena wrapped a jacket around herself as she stepped out of the shop. ¡°How¡¯s progress?¡± ¡°Good, almost done with the pistols, a revolver and a semi-auto pistol in good working order. The pistol only has a single extra magazine, but I have a dozen quickloaders for the revolver for some reason.¡± Karla nodded. ¡°Any high-velocity rounds for my machine pistol?¡± She yawned. ¡°Like, ten. Honestly that kind of firepower is more than what we¡¯re used to down here. Anyone who tried to fire that would break their arms if they didn¡¯t have any gear. I¡¯m surprised we had ten, honestly. The rifle might be a problem. Automatic won¡¯t be doable, but I plan on changing the barrel out for something longer and converting it into a hand-racked marksman¡¯s rifle. I don¡¯t know how useful it¡¯ll be, but it¡¯ll be better than nothing. Oh, something special for ya.¡± Selena smiled as she held out a long, heavy-looking weapon. ¡°Something dope from the second California war, just got it working again. It¡¯s not too flashy, but it¡¯s got a heatblade.¡± Karla took the object and unsheathed it. It was a shortsword, or perhaps a very long knife. It was old and covered in nicks and wear, but it looked functional. ¡°Does it work?¡± she asked. She nodded. ¡°It does, though it might flicker out on you. Just hit the hilt and it should come back on.¡± ¡°How comforting.¡± Karla clipped the sheath to her belt and tucked it away under her jacket. ¡°When will we be doing this?¡± ¡°I dunno. Hopefully soon. Freddie should be coming back anytime now with some updates for us.¡± She seemed to hesitate for a moment. ¡°Kat, is your real name Kat?¡± Karla looked at her. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Well, there was a wanted ad that popped up, but it wasn¡¯t for a Kat, it was for a Charlene and Donald Lucine.¡± Karla blanked for a moment, she had forgotten her odd fake name given to her when she entered the city. ¡°Let me see it.¡± She held out a hand. Selena pulled out a folded poster and handed it over, on it was a rough imaging made up from the scan of Karla and Delta when they passed through the Church¡¯s gate. Both were wanted by City Security, both had a wanted price of twenty thousand dollars. She let out a relieved sigh. ¡°So he¡¯s alive¡­¡± ¡°I knew it. Should I call you Charlene?¡± ¡°Call me Kat. And don¡¯t mention this.¡± She held up the paper before tucking it away in a pocket. She felt absolutely giddy right now. Delta couldn¡¯t be wanted if he was dead. Karla clutched the pistol through the jacket. It never left her chest pocket now, not having a reason to take it out. But it also felt like a reminder of her destination. She was determined to bring it back to Delta, and she was sure she¡¯d hand it back to him sooner or later. It felt like an end goal, now. Not that she knew what would happen after that. The two stood there in silence for a few minutes when a small, white van hummed up the twisted road. It hovered, though only a foot or so off the ground, a relic from an era long past. It slowed in front of them and Freddie rolling down the window. ¡°I have some news! Inside, let¡¯s speak inside.¡± He pulled the van forward, then reversed it into a slot cut out for it directly in the front of the building. To call it a garage would be an overstatement, more like a keyhole that just barely had enough room for this specific van. The two went inside just as Freddie hopped out. ¡°Hey Freddie.¡± Selena yawned. ¡°Spit it out.¡± ¡°We have to move tonight. We have the perfect chance right now while they¡¯re currently short-staffed with guards.¡± Selena woke up instantly. ¡°Wait! Tonight? What happened?¡± ¡°It sounds like they¡¯ve been continuing that old project of mine. All of the guards were chipped. There was some kind of data breach or corruption on their system and it toasted the chip of every guard on the production floor. Now the number of guards has dropped from around forty to five. They are planning a shipment for early tomorrow morning, on the hauler¡¯s way back it should be bringing a replacement force to guard the place. I don¡¯t know how much cash the corporation has right now, but they shouldn¡¯t be able to afford a temporary hired force.¡± ¡°Only five?¡± said Karla. He nodded. ¡°Only the ones around the manager¡¯s office escaped getting damaged. They might place some of the staff on guard duty, but they will be Canyon residents with pistols. They¡¯ll surrender without a fight. Most of the guards are there to put down irate workers, not defend against intrusion.¡± The pair looked at Selena. She sighed. ¡°I¡¯m so fucking tired, but fine. If you¡¯re cool with a pair of pistols, a heatblade, and whatever ammo you can carry, then we can hit it tonight if you want. I¡¯ll get the rifle together after some sleep.¡± Selena yawned and waved her hand at the pair, disappearing to the back of the shop where she¡¯d made a small bed up for herself. ¡°Confident?¡± Karla asked. ¡°Very! I was worried with the number of guards, but with so many of them out, this is likely the easiest chance we¡¯ll get. Again, you don¡¯t have to bother with the guards, just focus on the three managers and get out. ¡± ¡°Sounds good. Let me know when and I¡¯ll get ready to go. I want to head back outside to take the view in a bit more before we leave.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± Freddie cocked his head. ¡°What?¡± ¡°You have more emotions than most cyborgs I¡¯ve seen. Usually the more you strip away and replace, the more robotic a person¡¯s brain will become, no matter how organic it is.¡± He shrugged and gave her a thumbs up. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing. Trust me!¡± Freddie got to work, and Karla stepped back outside. The fog had cooked off now, leaving a shadowed valley that woke up to the sound of industry. Chapter 15: Into The Fire Karla checked over her gear as they neared the factory. In the back of the van she had laid everything out and was stowing each item away as she went. Selena had done a fantastic job. The revolver was sleek, long, and sturdy-looking, with a slots cut for heat dissipation over the barrel and a rail holding a holo sight. ¡°It looks like it¡¯s from the future,¡± Karla muttered. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Freddie asked from the front seat. The van wound up the canyon, aiming for the cliff above the factory. ¡°Nothing, nothing.¡± She pocketed the revolver and reached for the semi-auto pistol. A short, octagonal body, with red polymers building up the bulk of the grip and underbarrel, the pistol was light, surprisingly so. When she tested the pistol, she realized it was several kinds of terrible to actually shoot. The light weight and large rounds meant each shot bucked heavily, jolting her harder than the revolver despite being lower-powered. It¡¯s only saving grace was a long, angular silencer that made it mostly silent if she locked the slide. She pocketed it alongside the single spare magazine and a few pouches full of ammo for both. She went over the plan a few more times, making sure she¡¯d memorized everything Freddie had told her about the layout and places where the three leaders should be. Offices on the upper floor, security system hardlines in the upper catwalks. ¡°This is it.¡± Freddie said form the front seat as the van coasted to a halt. ¡°I¡¯ll be up here with a winch to pull you out if you need it, but this should be the safest way in or out.¡± ¡°And I won¡¯t get burned?¡± Karla hopped out of the van and peered over the cliff. Steam billowed past in large, superheated clouds lit blue by the shattered moon above, and red by the factories below. ¡°Not with your body, but don¡¯t linger, or you¡¯ll eventually start degrading certain parts. I doubt your brain would last long boiled. Keep me updated on coms.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± Karla took a cable wire that lead off from a winch mounted on the van, pulled a hood over her face shield, and began rappelling down into the thick steam clouds. The rocks were slick and eroded, something in the air wasn¡¯t good for skin, and she kept getting messages about air quality. [Warning. Air toxins above acceptable amount. Acid vapors present. Pausing intake.] ¡°No wonder it¡¯s not guarded,¡± she muttered as she slid into one of the tall exhaust slots. It was long. Far longer than she expected. The exhaust split, and split again, heading to several sources of vapor and steam. She shuffled into different branching paths until she found the correct route, one that was for ventilation of the work floor, and was clear of harsh chemicals. [Air toxins acceptable. Resuming intake.] The sides were slick, steel coated with some kind of resistant film that gave no purchase to her mechanical feet, nor the chemicals that passed by. She slid further, almost coming out of a vent above a walkway. ¡°Stop! Stop!¡± she said through her com to Freddie. ¡°Stopping, what¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Vent cover. Give me a second.¡± Karla adjusted herself, placing her feet on the lip around the vent, and pulled out her heatblade. A thumb switch clicked, and its long thin blade humming for a moment as it came to life. Carefully, she slid the tip through the grate, and then in a large oval. It slid through without much effort at all, surprising her. She added heatblades as one of her new favorite weapons. She caught the heated metal cutout before it could fall, and pulled it up into the vent. ¡°Leave the cable at this length, I¡¯ll come back for it if things go south.¡± ¡°Got it. Good luck,¡± Freddie voice echoed across her com unit, then fell silent. She took a moment to take a deep breath and calm herself. Lowering her head through the vent, she peered through the cutout, immersing herself into the cacophony of sound that was the production floor of the forge. The outer shell of the forge was shimmering in heat from actual forges and casting tools, then closer to the middle was overtaken by hammers, grinders, and polishers. Massive was an understatement for its size. Dozens of levels held lines of machinery that lead straight from forges and castings to a docking bay for the massive haulers that stood in long rows into the mountain. Parts flowed into the vehicles, a never-ending stream of finished pieces, tools, and products. Karla stood in awe for a moment, the scale of everything seemed so bizarre, unreal. How they even utilized so many parts and pieces in a single city she didn¡¯t know. She shook the thoughts from her head. She wasn¡¯t here to daydream or sight-see. She dropped down with a loud clunk, the stiff rubber pads at the base of the military feet were loud on the metal flooring, but entirely drowned out by the racket of the factory floor below. The catwalk she was on overlooked the highest floor and arced out over the space to the other side of the haulers. She began moving forward. The arcing catwalks extended for what looked like miles into the mountain, making forty guards seem tiny for the sheer volume of area they had to watch over. She supposed there was one entrance and exit to this place, and most of the guards could be there, or protecting the managers. She grew impatient after thirty minutes of crouching. She stood and began to run, only to immediately drop back to the floor. Karla didn¡¯t even notice the first guard she came across before he moved. He leaned his rifle against the railing as he pulled out a smoke and stretched. If he hadn¡¯t moved, she would have probably alerted him with her heavy footsteps. She crept forward and took a good look at the man.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. He had black modified arms, body armor, and a helmet with a black visor. Ammo and stun grenades circled his waist, as was a stun baton and flares. They were more kitted out than she expected, though he looked more prepared for a riot of disgruntled workers than someone coming in to kill the bosses. She crept forward as he lit a smoke and took a deep pull. The heatblade hummed to life in her hand as she drew close. She knew her heart was steady, controlled by some hardware, a program, but it felt like it beat harder and harder with every inch she drew closer. She froze as he reached down for his rifle, picking it up by the sling. With one last, long step, she dashed forward and thrust the shortsword down in a wide arc into the man¡¯s neck. She aimed for a lump under his skin, a com unit. With her other hand she yanked the rifle out of his surprised grasp and tossed it down the catwalk. The man twitched, his arms reaching up and grabbing at her for a moment. She struggled, his arms were stronger than hers. He gripped at her and pulled at her blade, but soon he faded, slumping to the ground with a gurgle. She left the blade in his neck for a moment to cauterize the wound, then pulled it out with a hiss. Karla huffed as she stood over the corpse. She had defended herself before, but this felt a touch more brutal. She shook off the feeling and picked up the rifle, slinging it against her back. Then came the grenades, the baton, flares, and magazines. She packed everything into her numerous pockets, feeling a bit heavier, but comforted by the now-full pockets across her waist. She picked up the body and stashed it on the side where the catwalks were bolted right into the rock walls. He wouldn¡¯t be seen unless someone walked right where she was currently standing. She took a moment to look around for any movement, any sign that she had been seen. Not seeing anybody, she crouched and began moving quickly inwards. She had to make it to a security panel before anyone raised the alarm. She moved deeper into the forge. On the side were multiple rooms suspended above the factory floor, security headquarters. She located a pillar with a silver panel behind a small, locked door. She felt inside with her gift and twisted the lock, opening the panel easily. Freddie had given her a tool to pick the lock, but it remained unused in a pocket, unneeded. A simple display and an input slot greeted her. A security access point. She pulled out a small GPIO tool made by Freddie and plugged it in. Lights danced over the device, and a jaunty little tune began playing as a loading bar filled its small screen. Karla stared at it. ¡°Freddie¡­¡± she silently spoke over the coms. ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Why is the little tool you made playing a song?¡± ¡°Oh! You¡¯re already using it? Well, it was a last-moment thing. I had to use whatever was lying around.¡± Karla sighed, just as footsteps approached. ¡°What is that?¡± said a woman¡¯s voice. ¡°Hmm?¡± a man¡¯s responded. ¡°There¡¯s like, a game console playing. I used to play with the same one when I was a kid. Do you not hear it?¡± ¡°Ah yeah. It¡¯s from over here.¡± The guard stepped around the corner, finding the small console hanging off the access point by its cable. ¡°What the¡ª¡± A heatblade cut him off, stabbing through a rifle that was brought up to shield himself, then into the chest beneath. With the rifle slowly melting, the man pulled a small heatblade dagger from his back and thrust it down onto his assailant. Karla caught his wrist and held on. Shit! She cursed to herself. He''s skilled, and He¡¯s stronger than me too. She pressed the shortsword deeper into his chest when a shot rang out. The bullet ricocheted off her face plate, snapping her head back. The guard she was grabbing onto wasn¡¯t dead from the knife wound, and the momentary distraction was enough for his blade to sink into her shoulder. She shouted as pain filled her, real pain. The limbs gave sensations of pain, but this¡­ she could feel every centimeter as it dug deeper. The woman behind fired again, striking Karla in the elbow, allowing the man''s knife to bury further into her shoulder. Karla grit her teeth and pushed. The man didn¡¯t budge. He gripped her hand not allowing her to step back as he pressed the knife down with his other arm. She could see the woman as she lined up another shot from nearly point-blank range. Karla thought over her gear, over what she could do to turn the tables on this. She pushed with her telekinesis, but it faltered against something held by a living target, sliding off the man¡¯s dagger as if it was slick with oil. She fell against the pillar, pinned now as the woman fired again, missing, but sending shards of concrete splashing against her face. Karla took a breath, and focused. She had a thought, inspired by the video Olivia had shown her. Something she had wanted to try. She grabbed the pistol with her gift from her belt and slid it between herself and the man, placing the barrel right against his chin. He jerked as he realized what it was, but it was too late, the pistol fired. And again, and again. She unloaded half of the magazine into this man¡¯s head, then turned it over his shoulder. ¡°Wait!¡± the woman shouted, but a bullet dropped her, a second made sure she was down. Karla pushed the man off and winced as his dead grip pulled the dagger from her shoulder. She cursed. It hurt as if she was flesh and blood still. She washed her senses over her torso and found nothing important damaged, just a long, singed wound into her body. She stood there panting for some time, when the sound of the factory came back to her. There were shouts, and confused voices below. She looked down through the grating to see several workers around a production line. The woman bled from her two head wounds, dropping a constant stream of blood onto the machinery below. There wasn¡¯t an alarm, so it seems like Freddie¡¯s GPIO tool did its job. She looked over the dead woman. ¡°Freddie, first target is down.¡± ¡°Already? Which one?¡± ¡°Dalia.¡± Karla took flash grenades and smoke grenades off the man. His rifle was half-melted, so she left it behind, her coat was getting heavy. Freddie sighed over coms. ¡°Haah. Dalia, rest in peace.¡± ¡°What, did you know her?¡± ¡°Yeah. She wasn¡¯t as bad as the other two, but she definitely understood that profit meant everything. She would kill to make a profit for the company, but she was at least logical about it. I can¡¯t say the same for the other two managers.¡± Karla shook her head as she pushed forward. The excitement below began to spread, undoubtedly she would see more combat soon. ¡°Freddie, these guards are better kitted out than you said they would be.¡± ¡°Are they?¡± ¡°Yeah, rifles and combat-spec limbs.¡± ¡°Whoa, did they really kit these ones out?¡± ¡°I heard one talking, they sounded like a normal human. Do your chipped people sound normal when they talk?¡± There was a pause over the line for a moment. ¡°Are you sure the guard was talking? More than simple yes and no?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°The chipped ones can¡¯t talk beyond simple responses. Shit. Those are probably mercenaries¡­¡± As Freddie spoke, gunfire erupted over the catwalk, punching holes through the metal grating. Karla dove to the side, onto a ledge cut into the bedrock. Workers screamed and shouted below as six armed men and women unloaded onto the ceiling. There was a few moments of chaos before the gunfire petered out. The clicking and clacking of reloading weapons echoed up to her as she laid there, grabbing onto a small wound through her forearm. Chapter 16: Factory Floor ¡°You up there!¡± A voice called up from the production floor. ¡°Why did you come here and kill poor Dalia? Did you come in here for just her?¡± There was a moment of quiet, but Karla could hear boots on ladders, climbing into the upper structure. She was becoming surrounded. ¡°Freddie! There¡¯s more than fucking five guards you asshole!¡± she said over coms. ¡°Can you make it back into the vents?¡± Freddie responded. She looked around herself, a dead end. ¡°If you hand yourself over quietly, I¡¯ll at least listen to what you have to say.¡± The voice continued. ¡°You¡¯re a manager? You have authority here?¡± Karla called back. ¡°Hehe, you could say that. I¡¯m the head manager of this forge.¡± Karla released a smoke grenade onto the catwalk as she poked the rifle out over the edge and fired at the voice . White billowing clouds filled the area, and was punctured by a roar of return fire from the guards below. None of the guards noticed the figure slip out of the smoke and drop onto the top of the cnc mill. The factory was still active, producing away without a care for the chaos around it. Karla spotted the one man not firing a gun, hiding behind a tall shield. Her rifle up top had sprayed accurately and would have killed him if it wasn¡¯t for the clear shield he stood behind, several spider webs of cracked glass spread over his grinning face. The rifle above had fallen to its side, the fire control group crushed and forced to fire continuously as it laid there. It did its job. The continuous gunfire drew the attention of everyone in the area, as Karla stepped right behind the manager. She recognized him. Carl Weathers. He was on the top of the list, and had presented himself nicely. He muttered to himself as he watched. ¡°Hold your fir-khuuk!¡± He gasped as a heatblade found his neck. The gunfire slowed to a stop as the guards watched for movement. The smoke cleared for a brief moment as the grenade rolled down the catwalk, exposing the ledge, a bullet-riddled rock wall, and a crushed rifle, smoking hot and empty. ¡°Check it!¡± A large bruiser of a man shouted up. Several guards crept into the smoke, searching for the assailant. ¡°What do you want us to do?¡± he spoke behind himself, not looking. There was a moment as the ten guards waited around their boss for an order. It never came. Instead three stun grenades and a smoke grenade dispersed themselves between their feet. They turned in time to see the manager drop, a heatblade knife in his throat. Karla stood behind the deployed shield and aimed her two pistols. As the flashes went off, she fired, two bullets for each face she saw. She emptied both pistols quickly and leaped backwards, avoiding the two quick-reacting guards who had dodged her shots. A large, red-hot hammer tore through the shield, and the longest heatblade sword she¡¯d ever seen whipped through where here neck was a moment ago. She cursed. These guys were good. Too good for her. Gunfire erupted within the group, spraying machinery and walls alike. Nothing came close to hitting Karla, instead several incidents of friendly fire could be witnessed inside and out of the smoke. She ran along the walkways that lined the haulers, distancing herself from the chaos. Two out of three managers dead, this group of guards leaderless. Most of these seemed a bit dumb as they flailed in the smoke, she suspected those were the chipped. But those two¡­ she didn¡¯t want to deal with that right now. Something deep down told her she was outmatched and she needed to distance herself. She pushed her new legs to move her as fast as possible to the exit. A white bolt lanced through the building, cutting through a hauler container and the machinery on the other side. It had barely missed her. She glanced up in time to dodge another bolt from somewhere up in the catwalks. She cursed as the other guards exited the fading smoke cloud and began firing. Even now that a few had realized she was missing, their aim was terrible. Now she understood why Freddie had so much confidence. She reloaded the pistols, using her telekinesis to ferry bullets between her pouches and the firearms in her grasp. She was getting more skilled with it quickly, though she wished she didn¡¯t have to risk her life to gain her abilities back. She sensed it before it came. She tilted her head as a heatblade pierced through the machine she was leaning against. The steel panels glowed hot then gave way as the blade struck through where her neck was a second ago. Karla slid away from the machine revealing the woman who had nearly cut her head off earlier. Karla fired at the woman as she moved, but the man with a hammer stepped between them, a solid armor deflecting the light shots. Her brain labeled it. [Light Defensive Harness - Baja MK 1] ¡°Fuck! Freddie! One of these assholes is in a harness!¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± Freddie responded, uselessly. The man shouted as he leaped forward, his hammer impacting a cylindrical machine and crumpled it like a soda can. She pulled out her own heatblade, but just as she brought it up, the woman appeared over her shoulder, cutting down at her in a whirling blow that cut across the floor in a great six-foot arc. Karla stepped back and deflected the blow, the blade in her hand separating into two pieces. It flickered, then died, slowly cooling instead of the quick temperature shift a heatblade should have. She threw it at the woman, then ducked as a hammer nearly took her head off. She slid further away from the billowing smoke where several guards still fumbled and searched for an enemy. Karla reloaded the pistols and fired again, searching for an opening to nail the unarmored woman, but the harnessed man kept himself between them, the woman only attacking when Karla was out of position to fire back. She let go of the pistols and ducked, a blade came up at an angle, difficult to dodge, but Karla didn¡¯t plan on dodging and fighting as she had.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Two pistols hovered on either side of the man, firing point-blank into the swordswoman¡¯s unprotected torso. Karla slipped back and dropped her last stun grenade. It boomed and flashed a blinding light, giving her time to turn and run. She was close to the entrance to the factory, almost out, when a bright bolt cut down from overhead, cutting through an ankle and dropping her into a wild roll. She grit her teeth as she gained control over her slide, pushing herself up against a pillar. ¡°I just got that fixed you asshole!¡± Karla cursed as she checked her ankle. Weak, and half-missing, but it should hold her weight, if just barely. She peered out from the side and spotted them, a single sniper up in the catwalks. Another bolt flashed down, tearing a chunk of concrete out of the pillar and spraying Karla with pieces of stone. The man in the harness howled like a pained wolf as he stood over his partner. He picked up the hammer and pointed it at Karla. ¡°You bitch! I¡¯m going to tear off your limbs and use you as a wall ornament!¡± ¡°Be ready to move, Kat.¡± Her com spoke up. ¡°Selena?¡± ¡°Yeah, give me one sec¡­ and now!¡± The man stomped forward, hammer raised, and Karla knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to run from him. She dove between his legs instead as the hammer tore through the pillar she was using as cover. A bolt of white cut down at her, but the aim was off¡­ She glanced up and saw the sniper tilting from a gunshot wound. Another round fired from outside, clipping the man¡¯s head and dropping him permanently. She moved towards her two dropped pistols and the dead swordswoman, the hammer followed. She could feel the shocks as the hammer slammed down, tearing through machinery as she dived behind various devices and slipped through the production lines in a way he couldn¡¯t. ¡°Stop moving! You¡¯re only making it worse for you!¡± the man shouted. She finally landed at her destination just as he caught up to her. His hammer raised, and hesitated. Whoever this person was, he cared about her. He hesitated in harming the corpse of his friend, only for a hot piece of metal to enter into the back of his harness. The sword of the woman pushed through cleanly, easily. It was a damn good sword, better than what she¡¯d seen till now. Its blade was a dark black with an edge that glowed like sunset as it stuck out from the man¡¯s chest. Karla tried to pull it out with her ability, but now that it was on him, her possession of the blade faltered, her telekinesis slipping off the handle. ¡°Khhruu,¡± the man spat, blood running down his lips. He took another step towards Karla, hammer raised, then collapsed into a heap, the sword sizzling in his chest. She let out a deep breath she had been holding. She dropped her head back as she laid on the corpse, and activated her coms. ¡°Selena. That was fucking perfect. Thank you.¡± ¡°No problem! I got some friends with me. Once my old man found out they lost most of their security, he was game for a bit more involvement. Though, it looks like old Freddie¡¯s estimates were off, eh?¡± Karla laughed. ¡°You could say that again. I think there are some chipped guys in here¡­¡± She glanced back at the cloud where multiple guards searched fruitlessly for intruders. ¡°They look easy enough to handle. But these two were something else.¡± ¡°I know who they are. There¡¯s three of them, and they¡¯re mercs.¡± ¡°Mercenaries? Where¡¯s the third?¡± Karla looked around, waiting for another threat to pop up. ¡°Relax, I took the other one out. That sniper in the roof. The hammer, the blade, and the bow. I¡¯m surprised they had the cash to hire that group. They must have been a pretty penny.¡± ¡°Haaah. There was another two that seemed like they weren¡¯t chipped, up on the catwalks. There might be more¡­¡± ¡°If they aren¡¯t shooting at you, they¡¯re probably looting and bailing, seeing as their bosses are gone.¡± You think¡ª¡± Karla was interrupted by the appearance of a tubby man holding a briefcase to his chest. He spotted the dead bodies around her and squealed as he ran. ¡°Selena, Freddie, I just saw the last manager.¡± ¡°Oh yeah? Where?¡± ¡°Where?¡± Freddie shouted over coms. ¡°He just climbed into the cab of the lead hauler.¡± A hauler consisted of a group of containers fastened together, and a tug that pulled it along. The man had dove inside, and it sounded like he was starting it up. A shot rung out, and a stifled cry came from the cab. Karla relaxed at a job done. ¡°Uh, Kat?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± she asked. ¡°Looks like the windshield is bullet proof¡­¡± there was another crack from outside. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s not getting through. And he¡¯s moving! Hey! Kat!¡± Karla looked up. The hauler was indeed slowly leaving the bay, tearing out loading equipment and connected hoses as it went. Karla grit her teeth and stood. She was shaky on her damaged leg, and the metal flexed as she hobbled along, but she was able to move. She pulled the still-glowing blade out of the last merc and stumbled towards the slowly moving vehicle. She stepped onto the edge and hopped just as the last of the containers slid by. ¡°Karla! Tell me you got on board!¡± Freddie shouted over coms. ¡°Yeah!¡± Karla slipped for a moment before she could pull herself up, climbing with her good limbs till she was on top of the container. She was huffing now. ¡°I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°I see you,¡± said Selena. ¡°I¡¯ll clean out the rest of the guards with my cousins, we¡¯ll be waiting for you to get back.¡± Karla took a step, then fell as the hauler jerked and moved. Each container was stacked in a large grid, attached with tethers and shock absorbers. Usually they acted as one large trailer, but when the cab pulled abruptly, the containers would move and flex to absorb the harsh jolts. Karla watched as the trailers whipped like a snake in front of her, throwing her to one side. She pushed ahead, crawling through the whipping movements. ¡°Dammit, this guy can¡¯t drive,¡± she muttered. As the hauler pulled out of the valley, it¡¯s arc smoothed out. Karla stumbled to her feet and made her way to the front. The cab was right near the top, visible over the containers that lost their loads over the canyons. She hadn¡¯t payed much attention to what they were making, now she had a good view. Gear. The same black arms and legs the chipped guards had, poured like a steady flood from the hauler¡¯s open sides. Karla kept walking. This high up, she could see a wall a out in the distance. It stretched out into sea, and then off into the steep slopes of a tall mountain range. In the center was a white tower, with symbols she could just make out from here. A broken eye, with a long, slender teardrop. The Church. She had no interest in seeing them right now, time to put an end to this. She lifted the sword, and activated the blade. It was fast, heating up without much noise, a jet of red flowed down the edges like a flowing river of heat, meeting at the fine tip. Taller than she was, and with a handle as long as a forearm, this blade was definitely something special. She smiled as she admired the massive thing. Her brain even had a name for it. [Belier Greatsword - Mont Blanc] ¡°A reward for a job well done.¡± She turned the blade over in her hands, then swung the sword through the cab, cleaving the seating area in two. Chapter 17: Cleaning Out Cutting through the cab was perhaps not Karla¡¯s greatest idea, but it was fun, and her new sword performed beautifully. The blade cut through the thin aluminum and steel roof, through the seats, and through her target without much resistance at all. She now admired the blade as she cleaned and oiled the steel. ¡°You cut through the manager and the case he was carrying.¡± Freddie frowned as he looked over the two halves of the small case the man had been carrying. ¡°Can you salvage the data?¡± Karla peeked inside, it was a series of solid-state drives held in place by a frame. All were currently in two pieces. ¡°Yes, but that¡¯s extra work I didn¡¯t need to be doing.¡± ¡°And so was all of the mercenaries and extra guards I had to deal with. How many was it? Five chipped guards you said? I had to fight multiple mercs! One had a harness!¡± ¡°Fine, fine.¡± Freddie huffed as he got back to work. ¡°But if any of this is too damaged, we might not have the documentation to be allowed through the gates. And those documents include where these shipments were supposed to go.¡± ¡°Why deliver it? Won¡¯t the gear be worth something just by itself?¡± ¡°It¡¯s your ticket out of this sector, and a really good paycheck to boot. You just keep polishing your new sword.¡± Karla turned and looked over the place. It was a mess. Much of the machinery was intact and usable, but currently the Amarillo Heights gang were busy with tearing everything they could out. She spotted Selena stepping out of storage rooms in the back. ¡°Hey Selena! Are you just going to tear it all apart? What happened to keeping the factory for yourself?¡± Selena shook her head as she walked over. ¡°I don¡¯t even want it now. Once the City find out a shit-ton of high-quality gear has been dropped over the valley, they¡¯ll come down on this place like a hammer. Nah, we¡¯ll make a few shipments, make some cash, and pocket anything cool for the family. Honestly, owning a large amount of military-grade gear will be more profitable than owning the factory in the long run. I thought they made vehicle parts up here¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t think they¡¯ll come soon? We¡¯ve already caused a big mess here,¡± said Karla as she kicked a smashed machine. ¡°I bet the corporation won¡¯t want this getting out. They¡¯ll probably send a force down to reclaim it, but we¡¯ll trash the place and let them have it. It¡¯ll ruin them either way,¡± said Freddie as he stood up. ¡°Karla, you want some replacements? I know a place with some decent-quality gear just¡­ lying about.¡± He gestured to the factory. Karla slid the greatsword into its sheath with a click. ¡°I thought you¡¯d never ask.¡±
The gang stripped anything useful from the factory, pulling equipment, tools, and gear into small trucks that came and went in a constant stream. For several days they had looted and ransacked the place without rest. This sight made more sense to Karla. The idea of taking over just because you murdered the boss was a strange one to her. Now they acted more in-line to how Karla thought gangs should act. Loot, pillage. ¡°How is it?¡± Freddie stepped back as he admired his work. Karla lifted a leg and admired it. It wasn¡¯t a jumble of pieces welded together but a pristine, new leg. Fresh. Black steel with bronze-colored plugs and hardware, the new gear looked fierce. ¡°Good, damn good.¡± She stood and wobbled a bit. Freddie laughed as he put away his tools. ¡°It will take a bit to get used to the new hardware, I¡¯d suggest taking it easy for a few days¡­¡± Karla took several steps, then dodged side to side and grinned. ¡°These are great!¡± She meant it too. The legs were powerful, and sturdy. She felt like they could take a beating without much damage, and the power they could deliver was impressive compared to her old pieces. Whoever designed these seemed far more concerned with durability than power, something Freddie claimed was common amongst She jogged back to Freddie with a smile. ¡°Yeah, just put some clothes on.¡± He held out her jacket. She scoffed but threw the jacket over her shoulders. ¡°What now?¡± she grabbed her pants and slid them on, the fabric stretching over her newer, bulkier legs. ¡°Now, we get you on the first truck up into the north, and with that,¡± he clapped his hands, ¡°our contract is done!¡± Karla picked up her sword. ¡°And this won¡¯t be a problem up there?¡± Freddie nodded. ¡°Hand weapons are considered personal defense weapons, no matter if they are a dagger or a sword from French Special Forces.¡± ¡°That¡¯s where this is from?¡± She looked over the blade. Dark black steel made up the blade, with small circular holes running up its length. A thin, wavy edge as white as snow capped the blade, like a layer of snow an a stark black mountain. It was slightly sharp, even when the blade was deactivated. ¡°Why would special forces use a big sword like this?¡± ¡°They have different specialists. Some are physical combat-oriented, useful for breaching rooms and close-quarters fighting. The merc you pulled that off of might have been a deserter of the French army, or they managed to kill one.¡± ¡°Well, now it¡¯s mine.¡± She grinned and swung the sword over her head, misjudging it terribly and cutting deep into a bench. ¡°Oh shit, still getting used to the arms.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Freddie shook his head. ¡°How are you adapting so quickly? You move around for a few minutes and you act as if you were born with those limbs.¡± ¡°Secret. I have some, you have some, let¡¯s leave them alone.¡± ¡°Ha. Fine.¡± He stood up and stretched, it had been a long session as he grafted on the new gear for Karla. ¡°Be prepared to leave soon. You can¡¯t take grenades or larger weapons through, so just the pistols and sword, got it?¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. I know.¡± She had really wanted to bring something bigger and better with her, but had been reduced to keeping the revolver, and replacing the semi-auto pistol with another, better pistol from one of the managers. In the end, the massive sword was by far her happiest acquisition. ¡°Who are you murdering next chica?¡± Selena strolled over. ¡°Do you really need all of that?¡± ¡°I do. And I¡¯m not murdering anybody, I¡¯m just¡­ more aware of self-defense and how important it can be.¡± ¡°Right¡­ You sure you don¡¯t want to stay down here? We could use the muscle! My father would be happy to welcome you into the Amarillo Heights!¡± She flexed a tattooed arm with an interlocked A and H on the bicep. ¡°Thanks for the offer, but no. I have to find my friends. Who knows what kind of trouble they¡¯ve gotten up to by now. Or if they¡¯re even still in the city.¡± ¡°Too bad. Well, it¡¯s been a blast.¡± She turned to Freddie. ¡°You about ready?¡± He nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll leave tonight.¡± Karla perked up. ¡°We?¡± ¡°I decided it¡¯s time to head back north. There¡¯s some unfinished business I have in the North Sector, and with the Rising Eagle Corporation busy with this clusterfuck, I think now will be my best chance to get back into the game unnoticed. Besides, I¡¯ll have a kitted out cyborg guard with me!¡± Karla rolled her eyes. ¡°What will you pay me?¡± Freddie held out a hand, and left it there, a strange smile on his face. Karla looked at it and waited, but he kept his hand held out, waiting for her. She tentatively held out her hand, and he grabbed it. A strange notification popped up in her mind. [850,000 dollars has been deposited] She pulled her hand back as if she had been burnt. ¡°What the hell Freddie?¡± She hadn¡¯t seen physical money since she woke up, and had wondered what kind of money was used now, but it was still a surprise to suddenly have money transferred to her like that. ¡°It¡¯s not a lot, compared to what a full cyborg would earn for a job, but I¡¯d appreciate if you could do me a favor.¡± ¡°You want me to guard you on the way up?¡± ¡°No, no. I want you to guard this.¡± He held out what looked like a high-tech pizza box. ¡°I want you to deliver it to a location in the city. To some of my old friends.¡± He spoke over the com ¡°Hab 5154, it¡¯s in the north of the city, one block away from the wall. Drop this on the northernmost leg at nightfall.¡± She looked it over. It was simple, and not-dangerous looking. It had rounded corners and several vents and seams, but the device had no real inputs or outputs of any kind, only multiple hardpoints to feed straps through. A small green light illuminated out of a corner of the top. Karla tried to peek inside, but something blocked her view. It was shielded. ¡°Doing some secret shit there Freddie?¡± Selena cocked her head. ¡°Don¡¯t think I can¡¯t see the coms unit on both of you lighting up.¡± ¡°Is it such a secret if I¡¯m doing it in front of you, Selena? I¡¯m hiring our friend here, do you really need to know the details?¡± Karla shook her head. ¡°I didn¡¯t say yes.¡± Freddie twisted his lips into a frown. ¡°Then¡­?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t a bomb, is it?¡± No!¡± he shouted, louder than he meant to. He continued over coms. ¡°It¡¯s my life¡¯s work. Everything I¡¯ve studied or designed has lead to this. It isn¡¯t worth much to most people, but my old colleagues would be able to advance years in a single step with this.¡± She sighed at his pouting face and mounted the box to her plate carrier, her telekinesis feeding a loop through it. ¡°Fine, fine. I¡¯ll do it for you, but I better not get into hot shit for this.¡± ¡°Be careful!¡± Freddie pulled up her coat, but was surprised to see it neatly tied in, hanging below the plated carrier in a very secure fashion. ¡°Oh, okay. Good, good. Thank you Kat.¡± ¡°So!¡± Karla clapped her hands with a loud crack. ¡°When are we heading off?¡±
¡°So, it¡¯s out in the open now?¡± A large black-steel cyborg in a luxurious red suit ran his thick metal fingers over his bald head. From his lower jaw down, not a bit of natural flesh could be seen. He was sitting at a desk, yet he dwarfed the fine piece of furniture twice over. ¡°Was he with them?¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t sure yet, ¡° said Eleanor, a tall woman in a slim dress. She looked unmodified if one didn¡¯t look into her glowing eyes. ¡°I found one of the mercs as he made a run for it.¡± She gestured, and a man was pulled into the room by floating chains. The links tugged as if pulled by a powerful force, yet nothing held onto their ends. ¡°I-I didn¡¯t run away! The charges were dead! My contract was finished!¡± the man in chains croaked. Otis stood, his legs were as large as trees, yet each step was faint, quietly making their way across the fine carpet that lined the office. He stood in front of the chained man. He gestured and a hologram appeared above the desk behind him. ¡°This group¡­ was there a man with them? A technician? Perhaps aged a bit since this was imaged off of him¡­¡± ¡°I-I don¡¯t have to answer to you. You can¡¯t do this! I¡¯ve done my job! The guild will not let this go!¡± the man shouted. Otis reached out, and two of the chains floated into his grasp. He clenched the steel and pulled, the chains compressed and wound over one another like steel snakes, crushing down on the man¡¯s chest. The man screamed. Otis tilted his head, almost casually, conversationally. ¡°Was this man with the group? He¡¯d be useless in combat, but perhaps good with anything electronic. I hear the security system was fried, the cameras spitting out garbage. That was the work of a technician, was it not?¡± ¡°N-no! There was a cyborg and a Canyon gang following it! Nobody else!¡± ¡°And the man!¡± The cyborg jerked the chains, eliciting several cracks as ribs gave way. The man screamed again. ¡°No! There wasn¡¯t a man! I didn¡¯t see anyone else! Just the gang that runs the valley down there!¡± Otis nodded, contemplating that for a moment, then jerked outwards violently. The chains tightened, then met in the center, leaving little of the man¡¯s chest in one piece. He huffed as he stood over the body. ¡°Otis, you ruined the carpet again.¡± Eleanor moved her hands and bits of flesh and blood pulled itself out of the rug, though a dark red stain remained. She clicked her tongue. ¡°Do we make a move?¡± ¡°No. Not until we find him. We have to be sure he¡¯s in our grasp before the Church finishes their work. But we can¡¯t risk his harm, not when he still holds so many secrets. It will be a race to get to him before the Church or some other opportunistic bastard snatches him up.¡± ¡°But the factory?¡± ¡°A small setback, nothing more. Send someone to check it out, search this valley for any trace of him.¡± ¡°Yes sir. One last thing, this cyborg¡­ do you think it¡¯s one of his?¡± She gestured and the hologram changed. A frozen 3d image of Karla stood, knife in hand as she dispatched a guard. ¡°Its gear is jumbled, but some of it is high-quality. Maybe that¡¯s actually him? Perhaps he¡¯s ditched his flesh for a metal shell?¡± Otis huffed, the sound of a two-ton bull. ¡°If that is him, then he¡¯s already finished his work, and the church wouldn¡¯t be far behind¡­ We¡¯d need to hurry.¡± ¡°Should we put a mark out for the cyborg?¡± He nodded, his large hand rubbing raw spots onto what little bit of skin remained on his head. ¡°If it steps foot in the upper sectors, I want it. The brain case must not be harmed.¡± ¡°What if it¡¯s just a regular brain? Not digitized?¡± ¡°We will continue our search for mister Frederick Strauss either way. Until we have his work, or himself in our hands, we will not let him go. Not again.¡± Eleanor bowed her head. ¡°Understood, sir.¡± Chapter 18: Trucking The hauler slid out of the bay as the sun began to drop towards nightfall and gained altitude steadily over the light-raked valley. At the front was a small, boxy, yellow cab that powered the hundreds of house-sized containers as their thrusters lit up. ¡°Hey, you¡¯re pretty good at this, you could make it as a trucker!¡± said Karla as she stared out the windshield. Freddie shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s all autopilot really. I learned how to operate one and brought a load south, then abandoned it for the Canyons.¡± ¡°Regret it?¡± ¡°Not at all. The Corporation would have killed me, slowly. They weren¡¯t happy about my method of leaving¡­ and others were also looking for me elsewhere. I thought maybe staying in the Canyons would be a good way to avoid my untimely end and continue my research in peace.¡± She laughed. ¡°Not so peaceful, huh?¡± She leaned her head against the window. Below, the thousands of interconnected ridges formed a complex series of canyons. Selena¡¯s canyon was tiny and insignificant from up here, she couldn¡¯t even tell which one they had flown up from by now. ¡°All of that fighting and drama over a single valley.¡± ¡°That¡¯s life down here for you. Hectic, brutal, and with little gain for your effort.¡± Freddie shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll be happy to be back north. I¡¯ll finally be able get back to my work.¡± ¡°Not much work as a technician down here, huh?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Freddie thought it over for a minute. ¡°What will you be doing? You¡¯re a bodyguard for somebody?¡± ¡°No¡­ kinda? I¡¯m not sure what I am to those people, but they took me in when others wanted to kill me. I feel like I owe them.¡± The Canyons passed underneath as the evening sun began to drop, casting a complex array of shadows over the valleys below. In the dark shadows, the glow of forges could be seen, each and every stone cliff was studded with openings for heat and steam. The jumbled ridges soon grew taller, steeper, till great mountains stood shoulder to shoulder in tight formations. She had seen some other haulers and air traffic during the day, but as night set, and signal lights on airborne vehicles lit up, the sky ignited with the dancing lights of thousands of craft. ¡°So many!¡± Freddie laughed. ¡°You¡¯ve really been sheltered, huh? Yeah. Lifeblood of the world is in the haulers. You can¡¯t build trains, whether underground or on top of it. Things burrow and dig down into the earth, they tear up anything heavy that puts out vibrations like a train would. That¡¯s also why the large habs are so high above ground.¡± ¡°Underground? What things underground? Like monsters?¡± He nodded. ¡°Plenty of monsters, sure. I once saw a mole rat the size of my old shop dig out of the dirt to attack some of those loud bikes Selena¡¯s gang like to use. The bigger problem is the creatures from the other side. There was a big mother fucker that fell on the city seventy or eighty years ago. Released a bunch of ugly babies when it died. Most were killed, but there were hundreds of thousands of those fuckers. Many are still burrowed into the soil and hibernating. Every once in a while, when there¡¯s enough vibration from vehicles or construction, they come out and wreck some havoc.¡± ¡°If they¡¯re just babies, are they really that dangerous?¡± ¡°Nah. I mean, for me or any normal human they¡¯re deadly, but for supers or the military with proper hunter-harnesses, not at all. Once the babies grow up on the other hand, I mean¡­ you might be able to see some of their heavier pieces those military guys use as we pass by in the military sector. Actually, we¡¯re about to cross over into the military installation. Climb into the back of the cab, will you? I placed shielding over the sleeper cab, they shouldn¡¯t see you as long as you stay back there.¡± The wall ahead of them was impressive. Massive, constructed of some kind of white material with ridges along its base for strength. It rose halfway up the nearby mountains, then emitted a tall, pale-blue shield of light that reached far into the sky. She would have thought it was a wondrous feat of engineering if she hadn¡¯t seen the habs and their nonsensical size already. Other air traffic slotted smoothly in between one another into several single-file lines. ¡°What would happen if you flew through the gate? Just ignored them if they asked you to stop?¡± she asked. ¡°You¡¯d get blown to pieces without a second to explain yourself. Go. Now, before we get scanned,¡± said Freddie as he waved her away. Karla dipped back into the sleeper area of the hauler cab. A small bed, a smaller table, and a bookshelf. It looked lived in, with various trinkets placed on the walls. There were small cards and photos from other cities around North America, as well as on other continents. One token marked the previous owner¡¯s visa into the warring states, into what was once Vietnam, judging by the image indicating their point of entry. Another was from Europe, their entry into the European Union a golden disk, stamped with ominous words.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Freedom Through Suffering. Liberation Through Faith¡± Karla stared at it for a moment. The old countries of the European continent were all there, from Portugal out out to part of what was once Russia. The words seemed not in line with what she remembered. Not that she had traveled much as a kid, most of her knowledge of Europe was as comically stereotypical as it was out of date by now. She laid back. Even this city was so strange after two hundred years. She wasn¡¯t sure where to go from here. She could finish up her business with Olivia and Delta, maybe get slightly better gear? Then what? She drummed on her chest as she waited. She had no family, and no purpose to speak of. She felt the small box on her back and chuckled. One purpose, she corrected herself. She looked at the small trinkets from all over the world. Awe-inspiring sights were plastered over each image, and every small token for entry looked weird and different. She thought of Freddie and his entire life in a single hab. The small valleys they were passing over minutes ago were were also filled with people like Selena who¡¯d never leave their little part of the world, never see anything beyond their little valleys. Everyone was just so hemmed in. Not allowed to leave, not allowed to exist on their own. ¡°Hey!¡± Freddie called from the front. ¡°You can come out now!¡± Karla climbed into the cab. ¡°No problems?¡± He shook his head. ¡°None at all. I shielded the sleeper compartment, all it saw was an empty space.¡± ¡°Oh. Good job. Very good boy.¡± ¡°Fuck off.¡± He grinned. The hauler lifted up from the gate, gaining altitude over the coast as it began to pass by more and more hab units further inland. ¡°We¡¯re in the military sector. It¡¯s all grunts and commandos here. Monster hunters, mostly.¡± Karla looked over the lights in the distance, it looked like they were coming up upon a city. Closer to the coast, large warehouse-looking structures sat with many large doors that faced the ocean. Most were closed, with little indication anything to what was held here, but ahead, she saw one open, with crews maneuvering a vehicle the size of a skyscraper lying on its side. Thick, bulbous arms moved with a heavy slowness that gave a clue to its actual size. The minute figures riding on top gave her a better estimation. It looked like a massive deep-sea submarine, with numerous arms on its sides crawled back into its pen. Only its prow was rounded and streamlined as submarines should be. Bladed shapes erupted from its shoulders, and large guns tucked in around its waist. It was bristling with weaponry, sensors, and limbs. ¡°I thought that was a submarine at first¡­ Is that a submarine? Why does it have legs?¡± ¡°How else will it get the hell out of the waters? Nobody wants to stay in the ocean longer than they have to, not to mention some kaiju can pull an entire ocean away, leaving a sub crumpled on the seabed. We learned our lesson long ago from those fuckers.¡± Freddie shook his head. The hangars passed away, numerous large buildings and several habs slipping underneath. Karla stared back at the retreating submarine. Kaiju. She heard the term used for some of the large beasties that had popped out of the ocean when the first Upheaval shook the world, but they were still creatures from Earth, changed and enlarged. Killer whales that tore apart tanker ships, sharks the size of houses, Octupi that spanned a city block. Now the term Kaiju was used for larger creatures from the Other Side. She almost wanted to see one of these creatures. Mostly she was happy to stay far away. She shook her head and focused on the view out over the military base that continued along the coast. Hundreds of individual squares, thousands of buildings, and many rows of heavy tanks and smaller, sleeker vehicles sat in lots. Not one seemed to have tracks or wheels, and every one that moved did so by hovering steadily over the ground. ¡°All of this to fight monsters?¡± Freddie cracked open a soda and took a sip. ¡°The creatures from the other side aren¡¯t normal. They can spit flames, move things with their minds, disappear into smoke only to reappear right on top of you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re familiar with fighting monster?¡± ¡°I had originally wanted to become a soldier, but I wasn¡¯t cut out for it.¡± ¡°What stopped you?¡± ¡°Nerves. I don¡¯t handle combat too well, I get overwhelmed. I never wanted to admit it when I was younger, but when they took us out into the deserts, I found out real quick that I wasn¡¯t cut out to hold a weapon and have orders shouted at me while death rolled my way.¡± The two sat in silence for some time, watching the numerous buildings and installations slide by. The craft began to lower. ¡°Oh, we¡¯re already at the next checkpoint. Military Sector is smallest, but we¡¯re making good time. You¡¯ll be on your way before you know it. Head on back, I¡¯ll call you when it¡¯s safe.¡± Karla nodded mutely as she slipped into the back. The hauler lowered and entered into the gate, the sound of voices and scanning equipment could be heard. This scan seemed to take longer, and Karla picked up her sword and held it over her lap as she waited for something to happen. A small ding sounded from the cab, and the craft lifted, flying back into the sky without trouble. ¡°That scared me! Was that longer than normal?¡± she called out from the back. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± He checked over his instruments. ¡°That was strange.¡± The hauler lifted up, the autopilot taking a wide arc to the next checkpoint. Freddie modified the route to be more direct, but it was instead rerouted out into a large arc that went over the sea over and over. ¡°Shit, something¡¯s up. I¡¯ll get the hauler to go in a straight line towards the gate, but it wants to lead me away from the city,¡± said Freddie as he modified the path. ¡°Are we going to see some danger?¡± ¡°Maybe? Stay in the back where it¡¯s shielded.¡± Karla pulled on her vest and ammo-filled belt. She grabbed her sword again and waited. The first forty minutes were empty, nothing out of the ordinary and smooth flying towards the next gate. ¡°Freddie, maybe it¡¯s some kind of bug?¡± said Karla as she poked her head out of the back. ¡°Shush!¡± Freddie waved her back. ¡°There¡¯s a group of shuttles coming, the seem to be moving to intercept us¡­¡± There was a sudden alarming noise emitting from the dash. ¡°Ennnnn! En-Ennnnn!¡± It wailed. The hauler jolted as it dove towards the ground. ¡°Freddie?¡± There was no answer as the alarm continued. A sudden jolt rippled through the vehicle, then a pull of acceleration pushed her back into the back wall. ¡°Freddie!¡± she shouted. Gunfire erupted outside, and the cab shook from the impacts. Chapter 19: A Race to The Bottom Karla tumbled out into the cab as the hauler pulled out of a steep dive, several craft in hot pursuit. ¡°Freddie! What the fuck is that?¡± Karla managed to plant herself into her seat and pull the seat belts over her shoulders just as the hauler took another hit. In a small mirror mounted on the cab¡¯s boxy hood, she could see several containers erupting into showers of hot slag from some kind of energy weapon. The containers tore apart under the barrage, spilling thousands of black limbs over the city. ¡°I think it¡¯s the company! Shit! Did they know I was onboard? Or did they know this is their products we¡¯re moving?¡± He mumbled to himself. ¡°How did they know?¡± ¡°Freddie!¡± Karla shouted as more gunfire and large blasts of energy shook the ship. He seemed to snap out of it. ¡°Okay, okay. We¡¯re here now, and they¡¯re trying to shoot us down but not kill us. Their mistake.¡± There was another detonation as several blasts missed, tearing through several buildings. ¡°Not kill us? Are you sure about that?¡± The region they were over was a scattered mix of habs and old, decrepit buildings. The ships chasing them seemed all too happy to splash their shots over the older buildings, but were careful to not hit any of the habs. Freddie seemed to realized this just as an old tower was hit by a blast of energy, collapsing into dust. He steered towards the denser habs in the north of the sector. A small radio in the dash began squawking at them.¡°Halt and you will not be harmed. Land the vehicle now and you will¡ª¡± Freddie turned it off. ¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡± asked Karla as she gripped the handle on the roof of the cab. The hauler wove upwards around a hab, skimming the building with several hundred pieces of gear that rolled, tumbled, then fell off the building¡¯s sides and into the streets below. The Scavengers would be having a field day today. ¡°Hug the habs, burn through the north gate, and get into Sector North. I say we dive down somewhere in the north, get below the fog and bail in our own directions. I¡¯ll drop you off first, then jump out further down.¡± Freddie looked over at her. She returned his gaze, unsure if she should trust his optimism. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say if we rushed through we¡¯d be blown to bits? Are you sure about this?¡± ¡°No!¡± A wild look was on his face, he looked tense, unpredictable. ¡°But whoever is chasing us isn¡¯t the Church, and they run the gates. If they don¡¯t want to be fired upon they¡¯ll leave us alone. I¡¯ve upgraded this cab, it should make it long enough to get to the other side.¡± Karla looked at him, a mental grin growing over her mind. ¡°Okay. Kick it Freddie.¡± The craft swung between the few habs as they approached the northern wall, the craft that followed only taking shots when they were in the small space between, but with the habs growing more and more dense, they were being fired upon less and less. She looked back and saw one of the ships that was in pursuit. Small, a bubble canopy over an swooping short mantle that sat over a boxy body. Something in the undercarriage lit up, and several blasts of energy raked up the side of the containers, tearing into their sides. Karla was pressed back into her seat as the hauler fell, then pulled up into an arc that wove between habs. ¡°Freddie! That looked like a security vehicle!¡± ¡°Really? Not private security? Shit, was it City or Church?¡± ¡°City!¡± Karla had just caught the symbol of the City Security teams. A red bear roaring at a golden sun. Freddie thought for a moment. ¡°Then we continue north. Nothing we can change now. At least if they¡¯re after me, they won¡¯t be won¡¯t be working together.¡± He twisted the vehicle till it straddled the fog that began to form between habs, slipping further north. Freddie looked pale. ¡°Shit, you may have to leave the city¡­ no, no.¡± He trailed off, deep in thought. The habs grew tighter, resembling Sector North by the time they hit the wall. A forest of massive buildings formed a jumble that allowed security vehicles to slip ahead, blocking their approach and firing on them as they passed nearby. The hauler jerked as several containers sheared off, dropping more parts and gear onto the streets below. As the vehicle lost tons of cargo, it soared, boosting into the upper regions of the space between habs, into the lanes of traffic that constantly soared between. Alarms lit up, one after another. Collision alerts, predicted path alerts, damage. But Freddie somehow managed to avoid ending their chase prematurely. The craft rose through the traffic. Ahead, a wall, and a white tower. ¡°If it¡¯s City Security, I doubt they¡¯ve warned the Church, that does mean this could get messy.¡± Freddie pushed the hauler to its fastest speed as the security vehicles frantically fired at the vehicle. He kept the stack moving and twisting, always placing a container between them and anything powerful aimed at their thrusters. The building grew larger, the gate, a slot just large enough to fit a dozen full haulers through, was more than large enough to fit the cab and what was left of the containers. Karla saw most had been torn to shreds, leaving only twenty or so intact containers still attached, with the remnants of shredded containers still hanging off like bits of gristle off a corpse. The white tower turned red as they approached. A pair of large beams of light illuminated the hauler, and many warning lights lit up over the dash. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to time this right¡­¡± Freddie hovered a hand over a button that looked like it had been added to the dash. ¡°Time what right? Freddie?¡± ¡°Just one moment¡­¡± he watched the red lights grow in intensity, and the group of pursuing security force vehicles pull off from their pursuit. There was a moment where the lights that followed the hauler blinked out, the white tower appearing as it had. Normal. Calm. Then the red bloomed into a pair of small suns on either side of the gate. Beams of light poured out, distorting the air with their heat and potential energy. Freddie hit the button, and the world darkened.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. A dark gem of energy formed around the hauler, a prism of hardlight. The two red beams slipped into the gem and abruptly changed directions. One shot vertically, a straight red line that reached space and kept going. The other wrapped under the vehicle and sliced across the wall in a long, whipping motion. The light didn¡¯t pierce the wall, but every inch of it that it touched evaporated into expanding gases. As did the driver¡¯s side engine the beam had clipped on its way through. ¡°Shit!¡± Karla shouted as the hauler was lifted by an explosion of vaporized metals. Freddie pulled the hauler down, just barely making into the gate. Vehicles passing through swerved out of the way as tons of gear poured over the passage. The orange glow of a scan washed over the vehicle. ¡°Well, they have our faces now¡­¡± He pulled the craft into a rising arc as they left the gate. ¡°What if they fire again?¡± Karla looked back, watching for the red glow. ¡°They won¡¯t be able to, not yet¡­¡± Lights and warnings erupted over the dash. Rockets and projectiles fired from the around the gate, a swarm of micro-rockets homed in, detonating in small hand grenade-sized explosions. The hauler shook and bounced in the storm of weaponry. Suddenly, it halted. The craft rose upwards in silence, the main engines destroyed. ¡°Shit¡­ they¡¯ve stopped firing,¡± said Freddie. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a good thing?¡± Karla readied herself for a fight. Freddie looked over as the vehicle arced over the city, slowing its rise. ¡°They probably recognized me from the scan¡­ I was wanted by multiple agencies when I fled south. Sorry, I didn¡¯t want to alarm you.¡± ¡°So we were fucked from the start.¡± She shook her head. ¡°You should have told me you were wanted by the fucking City and Church!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± His gaze fell to the case strapped behind her back. ¡°Run. Don¡¯t fight. When we hit the ground, no matter what happens to me, that case is more important. Just take it and move on, okay?¡± Karla felt the case. ¡°What¡¯s inside?¡± ¡°Like I said, my life¡¯s work.¡± ¡°No. What is it?¡± Karla undid the loops that held it in place and pulled the small case out. It didn¡¯t feel dangerous, it didn¡¯t even look important. He looked at the case for a moment. ¡°Technology. Everything I¡¯ve worked on, built up to that box. That¡¯s what they¡¯re after, that¡¯s why they¡¯re chasing us. If that can get to my contacts, I¡¯ll be happy. Please, just deliver it.¡± Karla hesitated. This felt like something she didn¡¯t want to get involved with, still¡­ She sighed. ¡°Dammit Freddie. I¡¯ll take it, just don¡¯t go dying on me.¡± He gave her a faint grin as the craft began to descend. ¡°I won¡¯t die.¡± The ship built up speed as it dropped. They had arced high over the city, even surpassing the habs in their massive presences. Below, the dense rooftops of the habs were visible. Some rooftops were simple or full of machinery, but the ones directly below them were full of life. Small towers, glistening steel and glass spires, all luxurious, and elegant. The hab they were heading towards was a bit more lit up than most. A stadium, or an arena of some kind sat over one side, a great black bowl of interwoven steel, filled with lights, crowds, and a large open area in its center.
In the dying minutes of the act, only Jack Ripper and four others were left. Jack¡¯s last name wasn¡¯t Ripper, but the organizers had labeled him as some kind of drugged up psycho to the crowds, with a name to match. He had heard his stage name was based off of some murderer from before the Upheaval, but he didn¡¯t care about its history. He was just wishing he¡¯d been faster when those loan sharks had chased him down. He hadn¡¯t read the contract too closely, but somehow his failure to pay had lead him to be standing in the middle of a large arena on the top of some hab. He was almost excited when they said the reward for ¡®winning¡¯ was a permanent residence inside the hab itself. A goal he¡¯d never dreamed of getting the chance to achieve. He now stood in the middle of a large field of gray concrete, already slick with the blood of others. The three professional gladiators had easily cut down four men chained together, a group of six women armed with a spears, various teams of two armed with complimenting weaponry, and lastly two identical scrawny fellows with axes. All of which were apparently seasoned killers and out for blood according to the announcers. The shrieks and quick deaths said otherwise. ¡°Oh! And that is the end of the twin sewer psychos!¡± The announcers voices echoed across the arena. ¡°Give it up for the incredible gladiators, your hometown heroes, the Roman War Dogs!¡± A roar rose up, the three gladiators turned and waved their bloody weapons to the crowd. The only wound on the gladiators was from a spear. One of the women had thrown it at the back of one gladiator, only to be viciously cut down by the other two. Jack looked over the sword he¡¯d been handed before being shoved out here. Simple steel, a sharp edge. No heatblades here. The crowds wanted blood and spectacle. The white tunic the ¡®challengers¡¯ had been given embodied that. Any cut stained the pristine white cloth, leaving bloody corpses strewn across the arena. He glanced over at the other survivors. There were two. Technically this was now an even three-on-three fight. Except these last three were the cowards who had run when their compatriots had been cut down. ¡°Come on! What are you waiting for? Tomorrow? I don¡¯t have all day!¡± A gladiator with a large bronze helm and a spiked mace shouted, his voice amplified for the crowd. A roar of laughter echoed across the stadium. ¡°Please! I-I can¡¯t!¡± A thin, balding man held a net in front of himself. Poor bastard, Jack thought, a net. How do you defend yourself with a net? Not well, it turned out. The man threw the net vaguely at one of them, and it slumped to the ground in a limp bundle at the gladiator''s feet. The man squealed in terror and ran away, much to the amusement of the crowd. The gladiator¡¯s shoulders lifted in a chuckle. He glanced at his partners and they nodded. They began to close in on the last survivors. Jack watched as the three took one each, the man with the slight spear wound approaching him with a long, curved cleaver. He had segmented armor over his arms, though his torso was bare. The man turned away from him, raising his hands, making himself look defenseless. Jack knew it was all a game, he¡¯d seen this man perform this exact move twice already, no way was he going to rush in like an idiot and get cut down like the others had. He took his sword, and threw it instead. A clean arc. Perfect. The man snapped his head around, just in time for the blade to bury itself in the man¡¯s eye slot. He shrieked as he fell to the ground, twitched for a moment, then laid still, dead. A roar came up through the crowd, shouts and laughter and jeers rained down onto the two remaining gladiators. ¡°Now you¡¯ve done it.¡± One pointed his mace at Jack. Jack blinked at the dead gladiator. He was hoping to distract the man, then run. Where to, he wasn¡¯t sure, but he didn¡¯t expect to actually kill him. He looked up at the two gladiators who closed in. The net man and a woman with a trident both scurried off, not even thinking of helping him. Jack cursed them for running, not that he had helped when the first group had all died. He picked up a short spear from a ragged corpse and held it out, backing away as he did. He felt it. Something dangerous was coming. Something deadly¡­ but it wasn¡¯t these two. He had a gift, and like many other gifted people it was borderline useless. He could sense danger. He never knew what it was, and didn¡¯t have the power or ability to avoid the danger. He had what most would call a useless gift. The roar of the crowd built as the two closed in, it grew even more once Jack stopped retreating. The gladiators were mere feet away, when the roar became a cacophonous boom. The floor shook, knocking Jack onto his back as he coughed in the thick cloud of dust. Something had arrived, and arrived fast. Where the two gladiators had just stood, now laid a long ditch that begun through the upper stands on one side of the stadium, and ended across the concrete floor. Something had slid by at an incredible speed, coming to a stop through a wall. An exit. Jack¡¯s only thought was the glorious opening now in the side of the arena. He jogged, then ran, and soon he was sprinting. The other two survivors made it through the hole before him, disappearing into the dark halls that laid behind the walls. He didn¡¯t care if he was allowed to stay in the hab, or if he would be thrown back onto the streets, he just wanted to live. He threw down his spear and ran faster. As he approached the hole, a cyborg stepped out, a sword longer than it was tall in its hands.