Chapter 69: Bark and Bite
August 13th
Ripley’s fourteenth day… and he has an Arachne
Getting the Arachne to Diamante’s place hadn’t been easy, but it fortunately had the option to be divided into segments and be rebuilt seamlessly. It wasn’t a true deconstruction, more like division. Still, I’d never seen an Arachne built like this…
It was remarkable. Powering up and connecting to it, I had no idea just how powerful I’d feel as my brain sank into it.
External Link Established: Alberich Donovick’s Arachne Mk.2
Details: Isabel, if you’re reading this. I’m proud of you, there’s a reason why I had to leave you and Ripley. I know you and Domonic are raising him well. One day, I’ll be back, and I’ll explain. You have every right to be angry, and this doesn’t change that. Use it well, sweetheart. I’m sorry for everything.
My mother teared up as I read the message to her, but she was able to keep her feelings apart as we divulged deep into the working of the Arachne.
While not a Pseudo-Silver like my claw, it was a remarkable piece of engineering I felt both familiar and wondrous about. I’d absorbed the Engrams in the underground storage, netting me to V.2.09 in Data Mimicry which improved my deciphering and modification of them. As for the Shardware database, it was chunky but nothing in it was meant for combat applications.
My grandfather didn’t want my mother stumbling in that path anyway. So instead, I used my Scrapyard to familiarize myself with Bronze Shardware I didn’t have access to, able to directly download the information and make accurate adjustments to my understanding of the advanced models.
The Warp Material compositions Anderson had access to were nothing insane. The most important were locked under miles of concrete at corporate headquarters, but what he had was useful, with them I could begin designing entire Shardware pieces from the ground up without needing to buy the requisite parts as long as I had access to a fabricator.
The electromagnetics, whoo, did they help me base new adjustments on Livewire and Yttrium Steel integration. Scrapyard fine-tuned the adjustments, but I still had a whole lot to read through. Maybe one day I’d find a Database with a Data Digestion Protocol but they were some of the most sought after and rare to come across.
I was just about two weeks from the mission. Progress was steady but great, every drop collecting up. I stared at my mother, Elsa sitting far in the distance while Diamante grumbled about me being a secret nepo-baby.
”Who’s ready to tear an Arachne apart?”
———
Thank god for having a girlfriend so experienced in stealing data. Four of them. She gushed every time I thanked her for getting me one illegal blueprint or the other…
”Why are you giving all of this now?” I asked her.
Midnight responded while the others were busy in the net, her eyes glowing like a hungering wolf. “Sell this shit off normally, but… well… I like taking care of my property. Now when am I gonna get my payment… I don’t like waiting.”
…My mom very quickly left the room after that.
For good reason… let’s leave it at that.
———
Energized V.1.13 has updated to V.1.14
Effect: Warp Energy usage in Arachne-based Shardware is more efficient
Psyche V.2.00 has updated to V.2.01
Effect: Thought Multiplier is now more efficient.
Technician V.2.00 has updated to V.2.01
Effect: Scrapyard is better at simulating Bronze-Grade Shardware.
Integrity is now Iron VIII
The best thing about having an Arachne? You get to use it on anything, not just your own body but general Shardware. I never thought I’d feel limited to just using my own two hands, but adding another six on top of it? Mimicking Integration helped massively, and in time I’d managed to triple my output.
With just around 800k in Shardyne from R0N1N’s investment, I’d decided it was worth using it on BUGs mainly now. Elsa was passively searching for any exchanges in Little Requiem that would suit my own Features, whether to absorb them or mimic them.
I was falling in love. Today’s Technician and Psyche BUG was already working wonders.
———
August 15th
Ripley’s sixteenth day… and he takes a break.
I’d spent the last two days tinkering night and day, getting an understanding of the Arachne and using it to build myself up. Come two weeks, and I’d be entirely unrecognizable. I also had the spine and my grandfather’s eyes to add into myself, so that was something take into account.
But… god was I exhausted. Topaz had actually stopped by and been the first to notice it yesterday, and had actually gotten me to join him in the boxing ring to blow off steam. It was fun, and did help. It was partly what made me recognize that I was… burnt out.
Not just the last two days. I’d been on something non-stop since I heard the mission, even the dates with Elsa had been nerve-wracking. I needed a break, just one for myself. Alone, reset myself with some shit coffee sitting on this bench.
I breathed, taking in the sight of the large skyscrapers piercing past the clouds all around me. The park was nice, quiet, a rare slice of peace in the city.
”Hey, someone get this bum out of here!” I heard shouting from the back of my head, two rowdy kids were pushing around an old homeless dude, trying to get him to leave.
He was about to, but it didn’t sit well with me. Even if I still spent my time on the streets not having it easy… I was barely homeless. Climbing up rooftops in Little Requiem, a cozy scrap-mattress in my grandfather’s storage unit, Diamante’s creaky couch. I had places only I could go, I simply couldn’t bring myself to sleep somewhere so vulnerable after Metal Heavens and the bounties.
So yeah, I sympathized, maybe for the first time empathized with them. I was damn guilty about it too. So I stepped up. “Are these men bothering you sir?”
One of the snotty kids, all dressed up in a uniform from some esteemed private school addressed me. “Yeah, this old dude’s stinking up-“
”I wasn’t talking to you.” I raised my hand up in front of the kid’s face, looking more directly at the old man’s face. “Are they bothering you.”
”I- I didn’t mean anything.” He was greasy, old and wrinkled like a dried sponge, but that wasn’t his fault.
”It’s okay.” I looked at the kids. “How about you two leave now.”
The bigger of the two laughed, standing up to a few inches taller than me. His eyes burned a vicious red… my own breath was calm as he yelled. “Leave? We didn’t do shit! Do you know who we are? Who our parents are?”
”Do you…” I activated my right Claw’s newest mechanism, from it’s dorsal side, palm and knuckles, metal slid and rearranged itself to cage my fingertips to form inch-longer wicked claws. I called it the claw-shell. “…know what this is? Don’t start something you can’t.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
”Fuck. Marcel.” The snottier one of them grabbed the bigger one. “We’ll call someone to deal with this.”
The two kids stepped back and retreated, hand in hand, were they… eh, I didn’t care enough. I looked back at the old man who was shaking, his head held low enough that his hood concealed most of his face. “It’s okay, they’re gone. But they were right, they’ll call someone and them being corporate spawn will get them the right help. You have somewhere I can take you?”
”Not really but…” The old man grabbed his head. “The… the old bridge, I sleep under there sometimes.”
”Let’s go.” I nodded.
As we walked, we got stared at, but somehow there was a difference this time… I didn’t feel weak and seen. I felt, maybe, powerful? This wasn’t Little Requiem, I knew that, but as I used my BUG through these months I felt a sharpness build in me. Maybe it was recognized now.
”So what’s your story?” I asked as we ducked into an alleyway, just because I was fine with the staring didn’t mean that he handled it well. Poor man.
”I… I was a veteran. SynTec… they took my BUG. Never been the same.”
”Fourth Swarm?” That meant he was a century old, but then again, so was Missy. Yet she looked barely older than thirty.
”No. Earthquake emergence.” He shook his head again. “I… it… they broke through in days, stationed up north.”
”Yellowstone?”
”Yeah.” He nodded, but the horror in his eyes stayed still… and they stayed, still. Even as we made our way to the bridge.
”No one has done this… for years… why?” He practically crumbled next to the tent he said was his.
”I kind of… get it. Not everything but… I couldn’t imagine living this way.” I sat next to him, I wasn’t ready to leave yet. “Never got your name.”
”Nathaniel.”
”Last name?”
”Gotren.” He gulped.
I thought of what to say next, so I said what everyone wanted to hear when they were in a tough spot. ”Everything… okay? Nathaniel?”
“I…” He stared at the ground, removing his hood, he had burns running down his neck and the back of his head. “No. But telling you changes nothing. Still, thank you.”
”I did nothing.”
”You stood up for me.”
”Everyone deserves that.”
”Not everyone does it.”
”Felt damn good to do it.” I chuckled. “My family once had money, not anymore but… damn, are they really that entitled?”
”They weren’t the worst, some kids a couple days asked if they could punch me for a hundred Shardyne…” Nathaniel chuckled back, I didn’t need to ask him if he took it. I’d arguably done a worse thing for money.
He looked at me, a gentle warmth radiating in those blue eyes of his. “What’s your name?”
”Ripley… Ripley Donovick.” I said gently.
”Ripley…” He laughed. “Used to have a dog — a real one — named Ridley, city banned homeless from having them though… snatched him in front of me.”
“Damn… they really suck ass.” I played around with a Bronze Shard in my pocket… maybe… I gave him a good look, confident in my decision. Then something made me freeze.
Under his collarbone, where I couldn’t see clearly before from the shade of his hood, was a small tattoo of a dog tag. The same kind Diana had mentioned. “…That tattoo, I like it… what’s the story?”
He looked down, as though he’d forgotten it’s there. “I… I don’t remember. Might be from the earthquake? No… it’s… when did I get it?”
”You have a BUG… Nathaniel?” I chewed the nail of my thumb.
He answered cautiously. “Yeah… Iron… not as nice as my old Bronze.”
I plucked out the Bronze shard, his eyes lit up like salvation was within reach. “Nathaniel… before I say anything. I’m not going to hurt you. I just… I need you to let me look at your frame, not going to do anything else… It might feel a bit uncomfortable, but nothing’s going to happen to you.”
He answered on sight with the shard. “Okay.”
He turned, exposing his frame to me. I winced, now with a better look, I could see how the burns on his head and neck all converged with where his frame came from. I switched over to the Network Feature in my Mimicset, instantly coming to view the thin Iron ripples slumbering underneath his chunky, crude frame.
It wasn’t anything… dangerous. It was old, maybe even a century old and simplistic, but it was definitely nothing too complicated for me to simply gain access to with a few whirs of my Claw. His BUG connected to mine.
Reading Warpcode…
Error-
What? That was the first time I saw an error, but I pushed through, searching for a memory. I honed my thoughts, multiplying them.
’Dogwhistler’ X ‘Memory Reading’
I recalled the sensation of peering into the memory of a BUG, seamlessly feeling how it was to split the maniacal streams of Warpcode to the moments of their death… but this man wasn’t dead. It was a cyclic repetition of nonsensical thoughts and sensations, constantly avoiding me as my thoughts on Dogwhistler skimmed past his deeper thoughts.
Then… only when I reeled the memories all the way to the beginning did it strike, and visions flashed before my eyes.
A familiar voice spoke, my body limp and… taken apart. ”Unstable, but not so much he’ll be a hindrance.”
“He’s fine… not the best but oh well. Not like we’re trying to make a hybrid.” Another voice spoke, muffled but I saw shadows skirt around me. I blinked up, one mask and one skull staring down at me, the masked person… it was odd, like a gas mask but a wolf’s jaw was drawn or imprinted on it.
Everything was so blurry, but I felt the needle slice into my neck. The vial was strange, a red flower floating inside of it, but the warmth spreading was… comfortable. Removing the need to think, to remember, to give me ease.
“I don’t know how they did it.” The wolf-figure said, and the skull shook his head.
“It’s nothing. I’ll figure it out myself soon.” The Skeleton responded. “My prosperity depends on it.”
Then the visions vanished as though they’d smashed me in the brain, leaving a blistering headache running through me. What? Had that been the beginning of the BUG’s memories? But something was wrong, I wasn’t disconnected, something pushed me out?
The streams of Warpcode I sensed began to grow unwieldy, like a calm puddle had erupted into a raging hurricane. Nathaniel screamed as a whistling noise erupted from his being, his eyes bloodshot as he raised his arm up. It looked entirely human, my Network didn’t pick up anything from it.
But I saw it change in front of my eyes, splitting into two as a hollow chamber charged up with a white light. He screamed. “What’s happening, Ripley!”
The streams of Iron Energy exploded across his neck, black veins curdling across his body as an infective glow coalesced around the altered arm. I’d read about this, about what happens when a person’s compatibility reaches 0%. When the BUG takes over.
When you became a MAL. A Fractured.
Feral eyes stared at me, his white arm-cannon blaring a shrieking noise that heightened my Matrix to act. My legs twisted and pounced just as a blinding white light streaked past me… when it smacked into the wall, dust and rubble exploded with a shockwave of pure kinetic force — a Sonic Carbine?! I didn’t have time to question it, the man was already dead once the Implant took him over…
My claw-shell engaged, five sharp gouges went straight to his heart, the chest caving in. That didn’t stop what he’d become, with the intelligence of a beast, he smacked me so hard that my vision went blurry. The carbine charged a bright white again, as I reeled backwards, my nose bloody.
I activated my left hand’s blade, the mechanism unlocked like an ambushing tiger’s claws. The blade pulled out, then it extended — modified to use the hyper-mobility of the Metal Heavens’ Priest’s tentacles — slashing out in a curving arc and beheading the man… the MAL.
A MALware. I reminded myself as the body went limp and I crushed Nathaniel’s head under my foot — the Core would be where his brain was. A Fractured… right, that’s what they called them. 0% compatibility… do not ever reach that. Focusing on that gave me the stomach to look at Nathaniel’s remains, to understand something…
The two faces in that memory. The skull was Mr. Skeleton, an older model of his current body but now looking back at the voice, it was unmistakable. The other masked figure then… I didn’t get a good look at them. A gas mask with a wolf-maw carved on it, but it sounded female behind the muffling.
Dogwhistler.
I’d found them… I breathed out. Right, the arm and the BUG… I could look again. The arm was covert Shardware of a technicality I never saw before, it had virtually zero leakage of Warp Energy, an efficiency unheard of. The metal arm… fuck, I looked at it.
Parts of it had melted and degraded, it happened to MAL bodies when their core was destroyed. They would lose form and produce shards out of their old bodies, and true to the word… Iron Shards were all that remained of what bits had bubbled up. Not everything was destroyed, but enough that I wouldn’t be able to use Reverse Engineering to figure it out.
Then the BUG… they should still have one. I looked at the splattered remains beneath me, the Iron BUG wriggling out of the crumbled bones. It had… red veins? The red corruption spread around the metallic worm, growing and festering until it spurt and bled a metallic ichor. Becoming mere paste on the ground.
I’d… never read of that happening. A BUG destroying itself?
It was useless. I grabbed the scraps and shards of the arm and retreated away. So much for a quiet break.