My heart was suddenly beating in my ears. Teeth grinding. If I wasn’t already a bit out of breath I was sure I would be screaming with every exhale.

MAELSTROM.

My hand instinctively already reaching for my Burya to put the monster down.

I snapped my eyes shut. Inhale. Exhale.

I opened my eyes feeling at least myself. I wasn’t sure if that feeling had been from all the rage I had been pumping into myself, or just…

Maelstrom.

But my hand fell away from my Burya. I didn’t need to kill her. The girl was barely alive.

Broken. Ripped apart. White borg blood mixed with red real blood covered her. I was honestly shocked she was still alive considering how much blood was dripping from her onto the floor.

I stilled, everything that I was struggled with a decision.

On one hand, Maelstrom. Kill her. Painfully.

On the other, she was a victim of Scavs. No one deserved that. Funny how my two most hated enemies were responsible for this situation.

My eyes flickered as I scanned her. She had a rap sheet. I read it over still unsure what to do.

“Natalie Desanto AKA GearSlot.” I said finally my eyes bored into her optics. As if I could kill her by just glaring.

“A-are you-*cough* D-did Kamhead send you?” She asked, quietly a desperate hope in her voice.

The sound of it left my tongue tasting of ash, and a disgust welling up in me.

It’s all fun and games to put people in a pit to fight for their life, but get put into a Scav den and suddenly they are the victim! I raged inside my mind. My hands gripped so hard I could feel the blood coating my palms run down my fingers. I shifted them, to keep from breaking something internally.

“No, I was not sent here by some Maelstrom piece of shit! I happily kill you fucks whenever I get the chance after what you monsters did to me!” I roared back, my voice throaty and raw. My insides were still not doing great. I should really stop and take some MaxDoc to heal up again, but my hands were struggling to do anything but grip my own arms now as I glared at the Maelstrom in front of me.

All I could see is those fucking optics staring at me.

“Oh.” She muttered a raspy sigh escaping her. “Figures.”

I stalked up to her. For the first time in a while my arms felt wrong. Like just being around some Maelstrom made my phantom limbs act up again, as if I had an extra set of limbs already reaching for her throat to throttle her to death.

My head felt quiet. The song ended so it was just me and her and the sound of dripping blood.

Just me, and her.

Her life in my hands. She was dying regardless. Body torn into by Scavs. Another victim of them just as I had been…

I exhaled and it came out more like a growl. But the breath was ice cold on my tongue.

Suddenly I reached out and grabbed her face, uncaring about the blood I left there as I pushed her head to the side. She whimpered in fear and pain. As she knew a beast was here to kill her.

But I wasn’t a mindless beast.

I pulled the shard that was in her neuroport.

“I’m not going to rescue you, but that should be what was blocking your agent. Call some of your chooms. If they care about you, maybe you’ll survive.” I bit out crunching the shard in my hand. Fucking Scav shit made to shut down someone from being able to call for help.

Then I started walking away. I couldn’t deal with this shit!

“W-wait! W-where are we? I don’t know where to tell-Tell them to go!” She begged weakly, desperate.

My feet stomped into bloody flooring halting me cold.

“Megabuilding H11 Floor 37. Tell them to get to the North West side. Should be obvious where to go.” I ground behind clenched teeth, as I started taking another step away. I wanted to get out of here.

Then she was coughing, I could hear the blood in her synth-lungs. I had killed enough people to know what someone dying sounded like.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!

I turned around and grabbed a medkit off a pile of bodies. Fucking Scavs. They obviously took care of each other in here when needed. They had a full medical kit all stocked up. I thrust a MaxDoc into her hand, which would help a little, but grabbed a canister of borg blood.

I jammed it into her, not caring to be gentle. She whimpered, but it obviously helped. Blood pressure surging back as her breathing evened out, even giving her the strength to take the MaxDoc.

“There, that’s all the mercy I have for someone in Maelstrom.” I told her firmly. Slamming the medkit back onto the table beside her and storming off.

As I turned the corner I came across the dead Scavs, and remembered what I had been doing here.

I turned off the BD recorder, and grabbed a MaxDoc of my own.

I also needed to find a damn bathroom. Jun would freak if I came out this covered in my own blood like this.

My irritation spiked when I realized I would have to go hunt down my knife, I had dropped my Carnage somewhere as well.

Plus Ichi and Malcolm would be on their way soon, and so would a group of Maelstrom.

Fuck. Fuck!

I found a bathroom, but stopped before cleaning up. The sight of myself covered in blood gave me an idea. Instead I called Jun.

*Motoko! You okay? It went quiet!*

*Jun change of plans. I need you to stay up there… Scavs had a victim in here they are fucked, They are calling for someone to get them out of here, but I don’t want you to get involved.* I said ignoring his worried tone.

*Motoko? What’s going on I can come down to help if someone is dying. I know some first aid stuff.* Jun’s voice asked, obviously concerned.

*Maelstrom. The victim is a Maelstrom girl.* Considering how much I want to kill her, and her fucking friends, I doubted Jun was much more reasonable.

*Did you kill it?* Jun asked, suddenly his voice sounded a little dead.

*No, I didn’t kill her! I just said… She was already in pieces.* I told him, and don’t think I didn’t notice how you called her an it Jun. That’s rather telling Onii-chan. *It’s ruined my mood though. Jun just let me handle this. Some of her chooms are going to come pick her up. That will be that.*

*No. If more Maelstrom are coming I should come down. Make sure they don’t ever leave, we can-*

*Jun, if the Maelstrom find out you are here alone, they are going to send a hit squad to take you out. Just… Stay hidden up there, I’ll patch you into the cameras so you can keep watch, but I just want these fucks gone so Malcolm and Ichi can loot… Please just stay cool. I know… I know this isn’t comforting. But I have an idea. It’s not like I plan on being gentle with the fucks.*

*It’s your gig.* He said suddenly just as flat as before, then the call ended.

Fuck.

—--

I had called Ichi to let him know the situation, so he wouldn’t park too close until I let him know it was clear. Then I waited. Forced to listen to the Maelstrom woman slowly die even with the blood injection and MaxDoc.

My foot was tapping in irritation when finally the elevator started up and three Maelstrom came stepping out carefully onto the floor with guns in hand.

Of course I let them approach.

Let them find the broken open entrance door.

I stalked them. My silent steps more than capable of bypassing their chrome audio equipment. The fact I had access to all the cameras meant I could stay around the corner always completely hidden from their stupid Optics which were difficult to get around.

“Fuckin’ hell this really is a Scav den! I guess GearSlot was right. Think she was actually klepped, or she just leading us into a trap?” One of them asked suddenly.

“Fuck off, she was legit, now find her!” The other growled out and the first made a motion that I knew he was rolling his nonexistent eyes.

“Just cause you fuck her sometimes…”

“No! Because she is one of us, and we don’t let Maelstrom get fucked by Scavs.” He grumbled as they stepped into the first rooms.

“Fuck, look at that scop!” The first Maelstrom whistled as they came across the first body I had left, head bashed in across the table.

“Guess Gearslot was right. Some solo came through here, wiped them out. C’mon!”

While I followed them along. I was recording. The moment the elevator rose to the top I had started recording again.

The Only Thing They Fear is You 2 Electric Boogaloo.

I waited for them to find their choom. Unfortunately for the Maelstrom, each had already had their security breached through as I tracked them.

I was now in control.

“Fuck Gearslot you look like some truly rusty shit.” The guy that sounded actually worried about her muttered when they found her.

“Fuck you.” She wheezed but she sounded relieved. “Now get me… Get me out of here.” She begged and the big guy nodded, already reaching down to pick her up.

“Hell no! Look around, look at all this chrome!” The stupid fuck said.

That’s it. Can’t allow them to even consider that.

The stereo that the Scavs were so fond of started up with a thought from where I was hiding, literally crawling among the corpse of the Scav ripper doc I had murdered before.

The first guitar riff echoed through the room.

“The fuck? Where’s that song coming from?”

“What song is that?” The third asked looking around more in interest at the notes.

“I think… I think the girl, the solo wants us to leave.” Gearslot muttered quietly in the big Maelstroms arms.

“What? Fuck that! This is our territory! It’s our chrome! Some Fleshy cunt can-”

That was when I dropped the darkness on them.

For stupid worthless chrome junkies their optics were usually high end, giving them vision way better than a normal person could have.

Even if the chrome was a disgusting mess.

But it was still just chrome.

Still able to be shut down.

Two of them instantly lost sight.

“What? Fuck I can’t see!” Stupid and the other gonk that wasn’t holding his injured choom suddenly lost their right to see. The third the big fuck that was carrying the girl was allowed to retain his vision. I wanted at least one of them to see this.

I moved.

As the song pulsed through the radio, I slammed into stupid fuck. Carnage bashing his knee in and then whipping around to smash his face. Sending him crumpling to the floor at the unseen attack. Then I slammed the barrel into his cheek putting weight behind it so he could really feel the pressure of the barrel pressing down on him. But I wasn’t looking at the gonk that was a split second from losing his head, I was staring at the big fuck with the girl in his arms.

My bloodsoaked body glaring with all my might. Every ounce of barely restrained rage on display.

The voice that came out wasn’t my normal one. Sexy Motoko voice was in play mostly to make me sound older. “Only warning. Take your chooms and get lost.” I pumped the shotgun just so stupid would know exactly what was pressing against his stupid face.

Then I let my hack finish processing. I blinded them all got up, leaping away, and then bouncing again leaving the ripper room, as I deactivated the quick hack for the entire group.

Just as their sight had disappeared, it suddenly came back, as I undid the attack. I also tweaked the stereo. Letting the sound dimm down so it was just a faint rumble in the background. A warning if they were smart.

I watched on from the camera system as I moved to a place they wouldn’t find me even if they looked.

“Bitch!” Stupid cursed as he rose up his gun waving this way and that, but after a few seconds he realized other than his chooms he was alone. “Where did she go!?”

“Don’t know.” The big guy said but as he had been holding his injured output firmly actually trying to protect her even with his vision lost. “But let’s not find out. Move your shit, we’re leaving.”

Stupid fuck looked like he was going to argue but eventually he just cursed and spit onto the floor following the other two.

I watched as they got into the elevator and left. I knew Jun had been watching too, so I was actually impressed they got away without being murdered.

Time to check on my brother, get my crew to loot this place, and deal with everything.

Fuck.

—--

“I told you Jun, I’m fine. I’ll stop at Viks to get checked out.” I told him grumbling. He had seen how much blood I had on me from the cameras, and it seemed he had taken all the feelings he had about seeing Maelstrom and not murdering them, towards smothering me.

“You don’t look fine.” He grumbled as I drove us as quickly as I could away from the Megabuilding.

This was supposed to be fun! It was supposed to be a glorious orgy of violence and brutality! Fun! I was supposed to be the Doom Slayer against acceptable targets! Like a game, but more real!

But now all I could think about was how it ended. The bitter taste in my throat at being reminded Maelstrom existed.

“It totally ruined my song.” I grumbled, the fact I had been so happy to finally finish an awesome song felt so… Far away now.

“What song?” Jun asked, almost startling me and pulling me out of the spiral of just frustration I was feeling.

That’s right. It was actually done. Like done done… I felt a tiny bit of that happiness in finishing the song and music box come back, as I popped the shard from my neck and stuck it into the Quadra’s stereo.

The song started and I could tell the noise surprised Jun as my heavy riffs dropped into the heavy drums.

Okay, so maybe seeing Jun’s face perk up in interest as he listened to a song I played helped my mood a bit.

I stopped on the street in front of the apartment complex to let Jun off at home. Despite it being so late, I did want to go see Vik. Just to get a checkup. But as I parked Jun surprised me by popping the shard out of the stereo before I could stop him.

“Jun!”

“Nope. This is mine now.” He told me actually teasing me, before racing out of the Quadra before I could stop him.

“Hey! Get back here! Give it back!” I called out as I started to slip out of the Quadra, but Jun pointed right at me.

“No! You are injured, go to Viks!” He demanded and I stalled which gave him all the time he needed to race inside.

“Bastard!” I yelled at him, but he just laughed as he raced inside.

I was going to powerbomb his ass the very next time I caught him sleeping. I decided, but it was with a much lighter feeling that I slipped back into the Quadra.

—--

Thankfully Vik was able to take care of me. To my surprise he hadn’t been in his clinic when I got there. I actually had to call him up.

Turns out Vik actually had a life outside of waiting around in his clinic for my gonk ass.

It gave me weird vibes, like meeting a teacher outside of school.

“You have a fracture in your skull, and two of your ribs kid.” Vik unfortunately hadn’t been happy at me, when I explained that I was still feeling pain even after ‘healing.’

“I figured. Broken bones don’t tend to heal up without sleeping.” I explained and he just sighed rubbing at his head with one hand not covered in Ripper needles.

“Alright, kid. I’m glad you came to me for me to check you out, so I won’t yell at you too much.” He offered with a warm hand on my shoulder as he thankfully let me off easy.

I hadn’t actually told him just why I was a bit more beat up than normal. Hopefully he won’t find out it was something I basically did to myself.

“Well I want you to rest then, here, for observation. Head wounds like that… Skull fractures are serious kid. So rest. I’m going to make sure you don’t have a brain hemorrhage in your sleep.”

With those orders from Vik what else could I do? I leaned back and closed my eyes.

—--

With a clean bill of health and skull back to how it should be I left Viks the next morning. intending to go see Judy to drop off the new BD. Unfortunately I was still kinda covered in blood. I had washed up a bit, but there was only so much I could do without a change of clothes and a shower.

So I went home instead. Did just that, and even took a few moments to get some food in me. Then I raced over to Lizzies.

I had cut out a bit of the BD already. Mostly just everything after meeting the Maelstrom victim. I didn’t want anyone to see how rattled it had made me. I had kept a copy of me messing with the second Maelstrom group, but that wasn’t going to be handed over to Judy. It wasn’t good enough to really bother with.

Lizzies was quieter than normal, being so early in the morning when I pulled up. Rita wasn’t even the one guarding the door, but another girl that I had seen around, but hadn’t spoken with. I waved at her as I passed and got a nod in return.

The insides were still active, but slower than normal. People were mostly hanging around in little corners rather than packing up the place, but I moved through.

Judy’s realm was how it always was. Dark and hidden away, but to my surprise, Judy wasn’t actually here.

Huh.

I shrugged, it would have been nice to talk to her, but it is what it is. I grabbed the shard with the virtu on it and placed it onto Judy’s desk. Knowing she would get it. I was a few steps away before I stopped and quickly picked it back up.

Etching the name of the BD onto the shard with a grin before putting it back nice and obvious on her computer there. Now she would know what to call the BD for Nox.

Showing my mature and reasonable mentality I also sent Judy a text letting her know it was on her desk, including that the BD was a bit more brutal than before so she should be ready. As tempting as it was to leave it as a surprise, that might not be an entirely nice thing to do for someone kinda doing me a favor by fixing up my virtu.

With that I headed back out of the club into the sunny California day.

I blinked at the sunny bright day, raising my hand over my eyes as I glared at it.

“Nah fuck that.” I grumbled heading to my car. I was going to go hide in the apartment… Maybe get some Ramen first.

—--

I was on the couch with a bowl of to go ramen in front of me as I looked through my system alerts.

Eighteen Scavs.

I hadn’t actually counted last night.

I had brutally murdered eighteen Scavs.

Seventeen 500xp alerts, and one 1000xp alert was in the listing.

xp was nice on its own. The level up to level 12 was great.

But that wasn’t even all that my system had given me. I had used skills I didn’t often practice. I had fought in a way that I never had.

Street Brawler had leveled up, and considering how early I had got those alerts, I might have gotten a good way into the next level if it wasn’t already maxed out with Body at 7.

But better than that, I leveled Annihilation! Annihilation 5 also unlocked a perk. I had to go back and check to even remember what perk I had picked before, and it was Recoil Reduction. One of the reasons I was able to even use my Burya without breaking my arm. I was a little hyped at wondering what I would pick next!

Quick Hacks 7. Also popped up in the list. I guess my rolling Weapon Glitch had been good for more than just giving me a brutal melee.

I had gained a lot from that fight.

I stretched as I considered what to do with my points.

I’ll admit a big part of me was tempted to put the stat point into intelligence.

Just to see. What was 11 in a stat/skill? What did it mean?

But I shook off the temptation. Instead I went to my adaptation page and pushed another point into my arms.

Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 5/8*

I exhaled and I shrugged, and honestly. I couldn’t even really feel the difference so much anymore. Sure they still gave weird signals sometimes. Falling asleep on my arm only to wake up and feel like someone else was touching my face was a weird recurring issue in the morning.

But it felt… Normal.

I felt normal.

Well, I felt normal enough. Ignoring the slight itch of my Subdermal. The ache my ankles gave me in my calves as they forced bone and muscle to move in ways they wouldn’t normally. Or the small minor things that I felt from time to time.

In the end. It was just me.

I smiled and nodded looking at my skill points.

Did I want to spend them?

I had two…

Nah there wasn’t anything that wasn’t already close to max level that I couldn’t level up pretty quick.

Rockerboy staring at me still at level 6 was tempting to actually grind out though.

I did finally finish my music box! I grinned as I stretched, wiggling my toes as I finished off the ramen.

Time to make some songs!

I reached over and plugged my personal link into the box humming as I started on a new track. I was thinking… Samurai. I nodded, decision made. Let’s see how I compare to Johnny.