A rhythmic clattering of keys woke Damien up, and he opened his eyes to find a familiar chipped, green ceiling staring back at him. Thoughts slowly came to his head, as if arriving from somewhere distant, and he felt himself settling into his own body, the soft sensation of the padding on which he was laying catching his attention.

The memories of a failed battle came back to him, and he rushed to check his status page.

Status

HP: 52/100

Stamina: 47/100

Focus: 110/110

Head: 100%

Torso: 93%

Left Arm: 100%

Right Arm: 99%

Left Leg: 100%

Right Leg: 100%

Active Status Effects: Poisoned (In remission)

In the corner of his vision, he could see that his total money had increased, and there was a highlighted dot next to the figure.

Funds: 11,739

When he held his gaze on the dot, a small window expanded underneath.

Charge pending from Roger: 3,500 funds

“You stabilized quickly,” a voice called out through the drumming of keys. “I wasn’t expecting you to wake up for a few more hours.”

Damien turned to see Roger hunched over at his desk, the doctor too occupied to turn around. “How’d I get here?”

“Marcus brought you here.”

Damien scanned the room to find that it was just the two of them in the office. “Where is he?”

“He’s on his way here right now. Hasn’t stopped by since he dropped you off twenty hours ago.”

“Twenty hours ago? I was out for that long?”

“That’s right. The toxin you were infected with was a dangerous one, and it upgraded multiples times so it got a good hold of you. Thankfully, we managed to stop it from overpowering your internal systems completely.” The monitor on his desk turned black, and he spun his chair around to face Damien. “Your regenerative capabilities are without a doubt the best I’ve ever seen, so your body should be able to fight the remainder of the toxin off on its own. Now tell me, how are you feeling?”

“Mostly fine. A little light headed and mentally dull, but it’s minor.”

“That’s to be expected. The treatment usually has stronger side effects, but your body responded exceptionally well. But I had to do more than just treat the toxin. Your entire left arm had to be replaced, the thermal and biological damage it had sustained was substantial. Normally, I’d let the patient decide what kind of replacement they’d like, but you were knocked out and we couldn’t wait around. I replaced it with a new, fully bionic arm that most closely resembled your old limb.”

Damien looked down at his new arm, noting that it looked the same as before. Well, before the enemy’s thermal gauntlet got to it anyway. He swerved it around at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. “It feels exactly the same as before. Did it really settle in that quickly?”

Roger chuckled. “The wonders of modern technology. Module points were set up throughout your body when you had your sub-dermal armor installed, so removing and replacing limbs is quite straightforward. Unfortunately, I gotta charge you for the treatment and the arm, but I’ll give you a good deal. You can take your time paying for it.”

“No, I’ll pay it all now,” Damien said. “You’ve done more than enough for me.” He opened the doctor’s charge next to his funds and accepted the prompt, dropping his total by thirty-five hundred. “Thanks for saving me. I have no idea how I got poisoned by a thermal gauntlet.”

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Roger crossed his arm and rotated the base of his chair lightly from side to side. “Multi-stage toxins like that can only be administered through exposed flesh. It seems like your opponent used the extreme heat to melt through your sub-dermal before injecting you. Having the combination of thermal and biological damage on one weapon is an incredibly effective strategy.”

“You can say that again. The bastard got me good.” Damien stood up from the patient’s chair and almost lost his balance as his vision dimmed for a moment.

“Easy now,” Roger said. “Your body’s still readjusting.”

The door to the office swung open and Marcus strolled in with a paper bag in hand and his eyes pulsing blue. “Yo, Doc. Hope you don’t mind taking a flaming shit ‘cause all they had was extra spicy.” He handed the bag to Roger then turned to face to Damien as his eyes returned to their natural brown color. “If it isn’t the unluckiest motherfucker in the whole damn city. You should’ve seen yourself yesterday. Let me guess, ex-military-- and a nasty one at that.”

“Well, he mentioned wanting to see me suffer once or twice, so yeah, he was kind of an asshole. But how did you know it was ex-military?”

“Regular folks can’t do shit like that. Only way I survived my encounter with one of them was hit-and-run tactics.” He nodded to the handful of paper packaging that Roger pulled out from the paper bag. “Sorry, Dame. Would’ve gotten you one too but you weren’t supposed to wake up until later this evening.”

The doctor peeled the wrapping back, revealing a large, double-decker burger. “He shouldn’t eat for another hour or so, anyway. Gotta let the medication stabilize first.”

Another wave of light-headedness hit Damien, and he rubbed his forehead with two fingers. “Wow… I wasn’t prepared for that fight at all. I was way too reckless to think I could take someone like that on. Didn’t even consider that my opponent would use biological weapons.”

“You got caught off guard, happens to the best of us,” Marcus said. “By the way, how’re you feeling. Emotionally, I mean.”

“Combination of humbled and pissed off. That was one hell of a loss, and I was forced to run away with my tail between my legs.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. Every one gets their ass kicked every once in a while. Be grateful that it didn’t get you killed in this instance.”

Damien nodded. “You’re right. And I owe it to you. Thanks for saving me.”

“Don’t worry about it. To be honest, I feel partly at fault for what happened. We should’ve given you more of a warning about those monsters.”

“You guys already taught me more than you needed to. I can’t always rely on others, I gotta start piecing things together on my own.” Another wave shook his sense of balance for a second. “By the way, how exactly did you find me?”

“You called, remember? That’s how I got your location.”

“I recall trying to get in contact, but not actually saying anything.”

Marcus chuckled. “That’s because you didn’t say a damn thing. All I heard was coughing and wheezing. It scared the shit out of me so I bolted it to the source of the call. Luckily, the bastard who did that to you didn’t give chase. Probably couldn’t afford to leave the package unprotected.”

Another memory flashed in Damien’s mind, the reason for the fight in the first place. “Right, the packages. Did one of you get the prototype?”

“Not sure,” Marcus said with a shrug. “Both Kat and I managed to secure the cases inside our convoys and we already gave them to Zero. As much as we wanted to, we couldn’t exactly open the things up to see what’s inside. Assuming that this whole prototype thing is legit, we’ll find out if we managed to get the real one when Zero’s done analyzing them. Two out of three chance that we got it, so the odds are in our favor. Surprisingly enough, he paid us for securing just the two.”

“So I’m the only one who didn’t complete his mission, eh?”

“Hey, now. Don’t go beating yourself up over it.” Marcus said. “We didn’t have the misfortune of fighting ex-military. It was only basic Skull members for us. You just had bad luck.”

“The fact that Damien’s convoy had the strongest security would suggest that it carried the real prototype, wouldn’t it?” Roger said, in between bites of the burger.

“Not necessarily.” Marcus said. “Zero mentioned that even the guards didn’t know which prototype was the real one. Could’ve been a diversion tactic for all we know.”

“Well, regardless of what happens, I’m sorry for the trouble I caused.” Damien said. “I won’t get caught out like that again. Next time I run into an ex-military soldier, I’ll take out my frustration from this last defeat. It’s personal now.”

Marcus smiled. “Wounded pride, eh? Always a good motivator.”

“Whatever you decide to do, take it easy,” Roger said. “The effects of the toxin won’t go away for at least two days, so your combat abilities will be hindered until then. Try to stay out of trouble.”

“I’ll be sure to do that. Especially since I don’t even have a weapon anymore.”

“Hold on,” Marcus said with a raised eyebrow. “I didn’t even notice that you didn’t have your katana.”

“Got his ass kicked so bad he lost his weapon,” Roger said with a cheeky grin.

Damien took the dig in good stride. “Can’t say that didn’t happen. But that whole experience taught me something important about my old weapon.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?” Marcus asked.

“It was way too weak to deal with stronger enemies. It’s about time I upgraded my gear.”