The low beeping of her phone woke R4 for just a moment. She was warm, it was dark, and her surroundings were soft. She rolled over and was out like a light.
Her second awakening was courtesy of a long and protracted trilling she was not conscious enough to fully grasp. Her third awakening was a bit more blunt
Get up you are in big trouble
Team size: 1
Hazard: No bloody clue
Company: None
Contact: The Red Queen
Reward: GET UP
Get up Rachel, this is serious. I have no idea where you are nor how much trouble you’re in. You have been kidnapped by a tier 2 human who appears to hold a great deal of political power. You are missing two limbs and your regeneration cysts won’t last another 3 months. Your ascension can’t be put off much longer.
R4 sat up, immediately aware she was in a dark room. For a moment she feared she would be in a concrete room, lying on a bare mattress. Her right eye cut through the gloom, revealing she was lying on a bed, but most certainly not in a bare concrete room. The shutters were drawn, letting no light whatsoever in, though the number of indicator lights provided enough illumination for her to see somewhat. The bedroom put hers to shame, at least 4 meters on a side. She saw countless technological devices here and there, games on shelves, the latest video game console in both handheld and Mind ‘Scape, and a shelf full of awards. A rather advanced looking computer sat on a desk full of data slates and data pads. As she stood the lights came on, a dull white gleam that matched the almost sterile white of the room.
“Red, where am I?” She cracked her neck, expecting to feel a horrific hangover from whatever drugs she had been given, but there was nothing. The only thing she felt was hunger, as if she hadn’t eaten in a week
“Welcome back to the waking world, you’ve been out for about 8 hours, it is now the 27th of Envoy. Given that was a T2 dose of medicine I can safely say the regeneration cysts are working properly. As for where we are, I do not know. I am currently cut off from Mara and my main body. This Red Queen is a local copy, so I cannot access additional resources.” R4 sighed. “I share your knowledge.”
“Ok, so that means first step is to get you access to the wider world. Probably this room has a jammer or is made of dense T2 materials that block signals.” She eyed the computer, and noticed a smaller computer terminal next to it. The main one was a fully customized rig, a pure white™ colored screen with a pear on it, connected by cables so thick they might as well have been hoses to a black box two thirds of a meter on a side and with thick tubes that carried fluids of various colors in a strange array of loops and fans, though R4 suspected it was just dyed water. This box was emblazoned with the Mars Corporation logo and emblazoned “Vulcanite Battle-station.” The second computer was much more modest, the screen and computer being combined into a box with a simple keyboard that extended from it. This computer was labeled “Mitian solution.” Before she could approach either her stomach let out a loud growl.
“No, first step is getting you food. Your regeneration cysts burn a lot of calories. I have already pulled as many calories from wherever I could, so if your clothes feel a bit loose that is why. We can fix that when you ascend.”
Scouring the room for any form of food R4 quickly found a half eaten box of protein bars, which she immediately reduced to a completely empty box of protein bars, before eyeing the packaging. She took a small bite, before deciding it wasn’t worth it. “Ok, next step, water.” Looking around she found three doors. The first one was locked, the second one lead to a bathroom the size of her room back at the Solarian technocracy. The room was filled with all sorts of high tech gizmos designed to clean and maintain cybernetic limbs, all of which were pointless to R4. The sink, and the life giving water she drew from it, was all that mattered. To her the taste of water, which was notably free of any mineral or metal contamination, was as to ambrosia. She drank her fill, and was satisfied.
“Ok, now how to get out of here.”
Checking the final room R4 found it was a walk in closet just as big as the bathroom. There were countless outfits in styles that varied from one another in ways she could not quite figure. The predominant color was white and light blue, and the predominant manufacturer was Mars Corporation, but other colors were also present. Most of the outfits were dress shirts and pants, as well as a few suits in light gray, but there were several outliers including a strange red and gold toga that only covered one shoulder. To R4’s surprise there were a number of skirts and dresses, which ranged from modest to scandalous. The majority were rather on the scant side, only going to her lower thigh, and most were in bright colors.
“Greetings unclassified guest.” R4 jumped at the voice as a wall mounted robot came to life. The machine resembled a sphere on a robotic arm, with a round sensor that gave the entire thing the impression of a giant eye. “Gasp, your outfit is completely out of fashion, how dare your pimp allow you to wear that.”
“I don’t have a pimp.” R4 snapped back, claws out. Only as she did so was she reminded she was missing an arm, and a leg. The sudden realization caused her to almost fall over. “What the blood? I was walking fine a second ago. She eyed her missing stump, and imagined she had her leg again. With some effort she managed to stand, and put weight on the telekinetic limb. She sagged immediately, the limb not as strong as she would like it, but she managed. The fact she could feel the carpet beneath with better clarity than her flesh leg was disconcerting “Where am I?”
“Unclassified guest you are in the home of Paladin Issac Graves of the 201st cyberpsyhco division, contracted via the Frost Incident Resolution Enterprise, a subsidiary of the Mars Corporation.1 You have been invited for an, undetermined, amount of time. Your host has granted you the use of this space and the following outfits.” R4 received a pop up indicating she had been sent a document, “Now, let us get you dressed.”
“I am dressed.” a slight whirring was the only warning R4 had before the mechanical hands descended. She attempted to dodge out of the way, only for her telekinetic leg to fold and send her tumbling. The arms gripped her by her arm and her telekinetic arm, which collapsed and caused her to drop painfully by her one arm. “What ever happened to the first law of robotics?”
“Unclassified guest is unclassified and no data will be recorded.” The machine replied, grabbing her again. “Hold still.”
R4 struggled, yet the machine was far stronger than her. Finally she just held still, and in a few moments was wearing a shiny red dress with a high neckline to better hold the window beneath and a skirt that barely covered her thighs. “Can I get a set of pants with this?” A pair of jeans with woefully inadequate pockets and a strangely weak weave was provided, which she quickly put on.
“I look like I just left a Chineric voluntary rehabilitation camp.” R4 replied, checking herself in the mirror. Had she her curves the hexagonal window in her dress would have made an enticing sight. She examined her jeans, and immediately ripped a section. “What the, are these designed to be tear away? Why? No one would try working with any hazardous material in these.”
Saucy Weave red eye dress: You know where he’s looking, give him a show
Not worth it, I suspect you won’t keep this
EZ chick rippable, edible, jeans: Easy on, easier off ;)
Held together by just a few threads
So they can be removed in case of acid
:)
So they can be removed in case of acid, right?
You’re going to toss these, I’m not going to bother.
“Red, what’s th’ matter with ya, are ya makin’ a meme while I’m stuck here?” R4 lashed out. She took stock again, eyes falling on the windows, then Issac. “Come on hero, wakey wakey.” She approached the bed and put a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, up ya’ come. Ya’ got me inta’ this mess y’er getting’ me out.” She shook him, but nothing happened. She took his pulse, and he was definitely breathing, but he was down for the count. “Ok, time for a biomonitor check.” With practiced ease she had her phone out, and noticed it was barely charged. “That’s gonna’ need fixin’” She held the phone over Issac and got the usual pop up. [[Caution: User is not registered as a medical provider. Available information will be limited to emergency use and is subject to review.]] “Yeah, I’m getting’ real used ta’ that, goin’ ta’ get certified jus’ so that stops happening.” She paused. “Can I do that?”
“Your average EMT will have an aptitude of 2 to 3, and a medicine of 2 to 4, so about 7d. You have an aptitude of 5 and 2 medicine. While you would struggle, you could fill in with the proficiency of a highly skilled EMT, moderately skilled nurse, or recently graduated doctor. The specific knowledge would be lacking, but you would pick it up quickly. You could also invest more exp into skills once we get out of here and leave enough to ascend. You have 40 aptitude experience, enough to carry you to 2+2 in medicine, or technology if you want to continue being a tech, or put one in each.”
“If we get out of here.” R4 replied.
“If, really?”
R4 thought about it. “When, not if.” She peered into her phone, examining what she found. “Breaking out of a guy’s bed room can’t be harder than escaping the dimdwell. Wait, can’t I just use Keys to the Kingdom to break out?”
Taking a few moments R4 found that, in fact, she could not. The cyberware could not just create a key from nothing, but needed at least something to work with. She returned to the bed to examine his biomonitor.
“Ten wounds, how on Terra do you get to ten wounds and survive.” R4 muttered. A whisper of detail echoed in her mind. “A tier 2 should heal their tier wounds after 8 hours of rest, so you should be up and around, unless… She looked deeper, “You weren’t counting those. Maximum human force is 5, increase to 11 max for being tier 2, gain 4 tier wounds which you clearly disregarded and 2 regular wounds for tiers, so if you’re at absolute maximum force, you could survive 13 wounds and 4 tier wounds. Seriously, ya’ like livin’ on th’ edge do ya?” R4 chided the unconscious Issac. She looked back into her phone. “Reinforced armor, so I guess I won’t be doin’ surgery, oh, here’s a release button… which I can’t access because I’m not qualified. Good ta’ know. Some kind’a dermal paddin’, which gives extra wounds. Handy, but I’m guessin’ that means y’re down fer’ even longer. What’s this now?” She noticed some kind of consumable in his system with a clock on it. “Medtech easy rest formula. What th’ blood is that?” She sighed, looking through more details. To her partial surprise Issac had all his cyberware set to public, so even with her restricted access she could see it. “Ye’re more man than machine now, let’s hope not twisted an’ evil, ‘k?” She took a deep breath and stood. “Ok, now let’s see what we can find online. Oh, before that,”
R4 opened her phone and found that she had one bar and was at 1% battery. “Jun, trapped in a T-2 room with an unconscious paladin. Not dead, just can’t get out yet. Tell coach to charge my account for rent, I will be coming back. Phone is about to die so might not be in contact. R4.” She sent the text, and not five seconds later her phone died. “Ok, next step, computer.” Her stomach growled. “I wonder if I can order food.” R4 first started with the big computer, but it immediately asked for a password which she didn’t have. The smaller computer had a guest network, which immediately displayed a user agreement.
“Hello. Welcome to Nowhere Apartments in Climber’s Corner.” She read. “If you are an unregistered guest click here.” R4 did. The computer loaded fairly quickly. “Greetings unregistered guest. Per your sponsor’s request you have the following room services available to you. Items selected will be delivered to your sponsor’s room within 15 minutes to 1 hour depending on selections. Remember, all actions you take will not be recorded, nor will actions taken against you. Ok, looks like food and drinks are allowed, tier 0 and 1 medicines are allowed, tier 2 aren’t but those are expensive so that makes sense.”
“Why are construction materials on the list?”
“What?” R4 clicked on construction materials, which was grayed out but she could still click it. Immediately she was shown a list of hammers, drills, saws, and other materials more at home at a construction site than room service. “Why would you need a power saw delivered to your room. Are things going ta’ break down an’ ya’ have ta’ cut yer’ way out… And why is Quickclot a construction material?” She searched through her mind to see if she could recall the chemical being used in curing concrete or something similar. “Wait… Red, you don’t think,”
“Actions you take or actions taken against you will not be recorded. Something tells me that Issac would not be stopped from partaking in the power tool section. Your regeneration cysts are powerful, but they are only tier 0 for now.”
“That doesn’t make sense, would he take me here ta’ kill me if he could do it in th’ undercity.” R4 paused. She clicked back and was met with a pop up of a closed eye. “God’s sight extends everywhere, and nowhere does his eye fail to reach. Welcome to Nowhere Apartments. Well, that’s cheery.” R4 quickly checked through a few options for food, finding she had a 4000 credit limit. “That’s more than I got for a literal life or death job, what’s with these high tiers?” She paused. “I wonder if that refreshes. I don’t know how long I’m goin’ ta’ be here, so better not waste it.” She promptly ordered a cheeseburger and salad before moving on. “Ok, let’s see here, weapons are not available,” She flicked her claws, “good thing that’s not a problem.”
“Your bag is also by the night stand, and your pistol is still in your gunbelt in the closet.”
Checking a few more things R4 finally found herself on the medicine tab. “Why can I buy heroin? Why is heroin cheaper than insulin?”
“That’s not heroin, that’s a designer drug known as heroic sugar which produces the exact effects of heroine but is a unique chemical entity which has not yet been made illegal.”
R4 sighed. “Nu’Grav is weird.” She heard a ding, “Hey, if the door opens do you think I can get out?” Immediately a far smaller doggie door opened and the food was deposited through that before the door immediately sealed. “HEY!” She yelled, running to the door and pounding on it. “Can you let me out?” No response. “Hey!” As she pounded some key reverberation within the door triggered a detail she had learned while investing exp into security, and informed her the door was completely soundproof. “Well that’s rough.” She knelt next to the food, then eyed Issac. “Red, do you think he’s going to be OK without food for a bit?”
“You’re the one with medical training, I am just the voice in your head. Roll the bones.” R4 rolled a virtual 6 sided die and got a 5.
R4 quickly found a bedside table, which extended across the bed to allow her to eat while lying down. She did not use that option, but quickly dug into her food. In what seemed like a moment she had consumed the entire meal, and for the moment was sated. She checked on Issac again, finding no change. “Oh, right, I was going to check on what that drug was.” Hopping back on the computer she found the medication, finding a tier 1 version was actually available to her for 1000 credits. “Ok, so, what’s this do. Stimulates nanite reconversion of… ok so it makes you heal faster… but it also knocks you out.” She eyed Issac again. “So for how long?”
The next few hours R4 spent looking things up. She ran through what she remembered from his biomonitor again, looking for any trace of what was in his bloodstream, followed by looking up whatever articles she could about the assortment of drugs. Half way through she found there was actually a program on the computer that had access to both their biomonitors, though hers was heavily redacted as her biomonitor didn’t register she was the one accessing it. She spent a good 300 credits on pay-walled scholarly articles before her Keys to the Kingdom kicked in and unlocked the rest. Finally she was satisfied.
“Ok, looks like y’all won’t die on me, even if y’re asleep fer a few days. You’re going ta’ be mighty hungry though.” She paused, doing some back of the napkin math. “Let’s see, ten wounds, let’s call that nine days to heal the first two, then seven for the next, seriously? Ya’ have money, why didn’t ya’ go ta’ the hospital, ya’ could’a been up in hours, not days.” R4 continued to rant for a few more minuets before finally exhausting herself. She was hungry again, so ordered herself a snack which she consumed while reading up on care for coma patients. After reading about the horrors of bed sores she immediately got up to roll Issac on his side.
Through the rest of the day she did what she could within the confines of the room. She researched the litany of drug Issac was on, or tried to, before the algorithm started showing her ads for lockpicks and emergency whistles. She stopped to eat an early dinner, then a late dinner.
“Hey Issac, are you really asleep, or are you aware and just can’t move?” R4 asked. There was no response as she turned him on his side again. As she did his armor began to flash red. Immediately R4 took a step back. “Ok, ok, what’s going on?” There was a beep, then nothing. R4 waited, and exactly 15 seconds later there was another beep. “Is, is that a homing signal?” She quickly switched to resonant. “Red, is that a homing signal?” She felt hope well up in her chest.
“Possibly.” That hope got a bit dimmer. “Without access to more power I cannot be sure. It might be, or a warning that it is about to self destruct. That seems unlikely, but we do not know.” After 15 seconds it beeped again. “If it is a homing signal, his friends will likely come looking for him.
“Cutter and Harris. Issac said he had been separated from them, but if they got out they’re probably looking for him.” She froze. “Do, do ya’ think they’ll be ticked I’m here?”
“At you, no. At him, maybe. Perhaps we should look up our host. His appearance is that of an upright man, yet…”
“Especially in this city that’s usually a facade.” R4 immediately looked up Issac Graves, and was hit with a barrage of articles. Most of them were smaller, definitely not front page news, but there were quite a few. “Looks like he has a history.” R4 sat down to read. “Noble paladin rescues cat from a tree…” She glanced back at Issac, “Slow news day, or killer PR team?” She read through the article, finding the name was just screamsheet flash, the incident was actually about the pet of some assistant to the representative of, who exactly was obscured by buzzwords but they were someone with money and connections enough to hire a team of Tier 2 enforcers to find a cat. Finally R4 found a picture. “Awww, that thing’s adorable.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but that is a Blue Clouded Leopard, which is actually more closely related to the weasel family and has history of biting augmented humans.”
“But, is adorable,” I immediately directed her fingers to look up the statistics, which opened with a picture of the damage they could do. Curved teeth, with peripheral barbs, and a cat’s usual spiked tongue, did quite a number to an unaugmented face. “Ok, less adorable.”
A few articles later R4 was still trying to piece together what was PR and what was real. She found a few images of him carousing with Tier 2 and even a few Tier 3 individuals, who looked as if they were using photo-shop. There were a few clips of him dealing with cyberpsychos, one a very visceral image of him slicing a monster more metal than flesh from groin to throat. R4 quickly played the video, and had to turn off the volume. The man Issac was fighting had been in the process of cursing him out in three languages with such vitrol R4’s cheeks turned red. It also showed he had been holding a man hostage, which quickly came to an end due to a wrist mounted saw blade.
“Woodman ironwood saw.” R4 immediately recognized. “I have a cousin who has a tier 1 version, but given the red and black coloration, tier 2 or 3? probably tier 2 if Issac is fighting him.” As the video played the metal man moved with a speed that matched Issac’s, but with none of the grace. Issac’s moves seemed a dance, the metal man’s were jerky and quick yet disjointed. “Tier 3?”
“Maybe, I have not inhabited a tier 1 individual yet. Shall we find out?”
“You can do that?”
“No, not yet. However once we return we can get you to tier 1. Tier 2 will require 4,000 exp, tier 3 will require 9,000. I do not know how much the rest will take.”
“So each tier requires the square of the tier in exp. I’ve gotten 1000 in under a month, so I could probably get that in a year or so.”
“Maybe, I do not have the details on hand, but there remains the risk of aberrant ascension.”
“What’s that?” R4 quickly looked it up. The front page showed a man with a wicked smile, and a third eye peering out from above his right eye. The third eye was smaller and red. She quickly read the article. “Orin, age 20, was one of the first documented cases of aberrant ascension. Orin, named removed for privacy reasons, underwent tier 1 ascension at a private clinic previously noted for sketchy practices.” She read a bit more technical jargon, “So an ascension can go wrong and you immediately become a cyberpsycho?”
“A path Mara seeks to avoid. Look further, it is believed that by choosing a path of ascension it may be avoided, but one needs to maximize the associated statistic to do so successfully.”
“But I already have force and aptitude maxed out, mind too. Which one can I use?” She froze. “Red, is that what happened to Lopside and Ratface?”
“Mara lost connection to them during or shortly after their ascension, so it is likely.”
“What are the chances I fail? What if my ascension is based on Empathy?” Her adrenaline spiked. “What if I turn into one of them?”
There was a final beep, and a click. Immediately R4 was broken from her panic. “Issac? Mr. Graves?” She stood and approached him. His armor was open, and leaking blood. “Bleeding Havoc!” Immediately her eyes fell upon a spot bleeding more than the others. She grabbed some of the blankets from the bed and pressed them over the wound. “By the blood, I bet every wound he was supposed to heal bled right back out, how could this happen? Why didn’t the car detect it when it gave him the meds?”
“Unknown, could be an assassination attempt, could be poor product standards.”
“I need to order the right stuff, Red, can you access the computer from here?” Even as she spoke R4 realized I couldn’t. She closed her eyes and focused. “Please don’t die.” She stepped back, holding the sheets with telekinesis. “Come on, medication had better be on the shorter side of that delivery window.”
R4 quickly selected a set of bandages, instant clot, antibiotics, and a few other things. She saw an item called an invalid feeder and bought it without hesitation.
“If he’s bleeding out he’s probably going to need fluids.”
“Do ya’ know how ta’ set up an IV, I’ve never done it. Goin’ ta’ have ta’ trust Tier 2 force ta’ see him through.”
The medicine came through within 10 minutes and R4 got to work. Cleaning the wound was tricky, though at least the bleeding was somewhat slowed. R4 quickly disinfected the wound, which resembled some manner of stab wound to her untrained eyes. It was not deep, but it was long, as if a long blade had been turned to run almost parallel to the skin before being shoved to the hilt. R4 packed it with gauze, knowing she’d probably have to dig it out later. The feeder was some form of gi tube that found its way down his throat through his nose, thankfully it was guided on its own.
“Hope you like lemon lime.” R4 spoke quietly, pouring half a bottle of the stuff down the tube via an attached funnel before replacing the cap. She watched his bio-monitor for a few minutes. “I don’t like how low his blood pressure is getting. Red, any ideas?”
“Prayer. You have treated his wound as best you can given your resources. It might not be a bad idea to request new sheets, the ones he is currently covered by are very bloody and will start to smell soon.”
R4 eyed the sheets, then Issac. She quickly cut the sheets around him, before dragging them to the trash chute, which consumed them with ease. She eyed said chute, before discerning a low grinding sound far below. She ordered more sheets, before eyeing the small part of sheet beneath him. “Never took you as religious Red.”
“Mara is very religious. One of her formal tenants is that she is not a god, deity, or otherwise entity worthy of worship.”
“Line 666 of the agreement right?” R4 asked, the exact line coming directly to her. “Cuts that section about food expenses almost evenly in half. It’s repeated in line 777, kind of an odd thing to add.”
“I have no further information, save that the punishment is to have your legs broken which is an oddly specific punishment. However, I would recommend you wash up. It would not do to get the new set bloody, and you are quite drenched.”
R4 thought about it, examined her clothes, and walked into the bathroom. With a gesture her dress came off, and tight as they were her pants ripped away even as she tried to preserve them. She discarded both, stripping away what was left, before entering the shower and facing the issue whenever one attempts such a feat.
“Which one is for hot?” She promptly found out, scalding her arm with a loud hiss. The wound healed in seconds. “Red, is that normal?”
“Minor surface burns healing? Of course. You have regeneration cysts that are even now working to restore your limbs.” R4 eyed her missing limbs, and promptly fell over as her leg ceased to exist for a moment. “Careful, there’s a floor there.”
“Bleeding havoc, I need a prosthetic.”
“You could produce one using your tool arm. It would neither be fancy nor particularly responsive, but it would be able to synch up with your telekinesis, allowing you some tactile sensation.”
R4 spent the next fifteen minutes in the shower washing off the blood. It was a wonderful shower, with jets above and on the sides. The walls were sterile and pure white, each made from tiles that had been bound at a molecular level and cleaned regularly by swarms of nanites. She would have enjoyed it quite a bit, had she not the sneaking suspicion she was being watched. She searched the shower once, found nothing amiss, washed her hair, then searched again. This time she reached into the materiel with her telekinesis, finding that it was unnaturally solid and loaded with pockets of nanites that reacted slightly to her interference. She noted some of the tiles had a strange slightly reflective coating, which while they were not visible to the human eye could refract certain other wavelengths. Finally, she found the camera. It was a sneaky device, hidden in the shower head and facing downwards. Worse, upon further inspection, the camera was tuned to those wavelengths just beyond human vision which allowed it to observe her from nearly any angle, despite the camera itself being above her head.
“What th’ Blood?” R4 lashed out at the camera with her claws, only for her tier 0 claws to be met with unyielding tier 2 metal. “Issac ya’ Creep!”
“That camera is installed within the shower head. How long has it been installed do you think?”
R4 eyed the thing. “It’s bein’ cleaned by nanites, so who knows, I’d guess maybe a couple a’ years from some a’ the harder buildup hidden where no body’s likely ta’ look unless they know what they’re dealin’ with.”
“And he was unconscious when you arrived. He did not set this up specifically for you. So he may be a creep, but it is part of a larger trend. If you kill him his friends now have video evidence you were in his apartment.”
“But, dang, yer’ right. Nothin’ recorded my eye.” R4 sighed. “I wasn’t goin’ ta’ kill him. Maybe jus’ scratch ‘im a bit.”
“In his state, that might kill him. Especially given your claws are loaded with ravager toxin. On that note, I think I saw some drug testing kits on the computer,”
“You want to see exactly how it works. Doesn’t Mara have that information?”
“She does, but I cannot access it. If you were to learn it yourself I might be able to get you some medical exp, which while you can’t spend it now,” R4 froze, adrenaline spiking. “What’s wrong?”
“Did you feel that?” I did not, but a quick check to her skin noted a sudden drop in temperature. Good bumps rose across her skin, and an involuntary shiver crossed her muscles.
“The Temperature has dropped 5 degrees kelvin.” R4 stepped towards the door and held out a hand. “Make that 6 at your fingertips, it’s definitely coming from the bed room. Maybe Issac is up.”
“Good, where are my,” R4 noticed a cleaning bot dragging her clothes into a chute. “Hey! Y’all give that back.” She tried, but the bot was too quick. “Dag nabbit.” R4 ran a hand through her hair straightening it. “Ok, so I know you don’t know me, but there’s totally a good reason I’m in your room, naked… and missing two limbs... Red help me out.” She heard a low popping sound followed by a ding. “Did… are you making popcorn?”
Stolen novel; please report.
“No. As amusing as it would be, you could make something using your tool arm, you have consumed enough carbon. It would not be a full dress, but a bra and short skirt should be enough for now. Or you could just use a towel. I would not worry, he invited you here after you helped him in the under city.”
“The simplest answers are the best.” R4 replied, wrapping herself with a very thin yet very absorptive white towel, wrapping it so it would stay put. It was impossibly soft, and as soon as she finished wrapping it the towel seemed to become more snug so it would not fall off unexpectedly. It also clung suggestively, which a short search on the brand revealed that was in fact a feature. “Mr. Graves, are ya’ awake?” She pushed through the door and froze.
The bedroom was somewhat dimmer than she remembered, the lights darkening with no one inside. R4 saw a shape standing beside the bed.
“Mr. Graves?” R4 asked. “Pardon my intrusion, I’m just going to,” The figure looked up at her. Gleaming cold spheres of red stared at her without inflection or emotion. It left one arm over Issac’s face, while its other reached out towards R4. Its arms were too long, its face nothing more than a black shadow against its black outline. All R4 could see beside its eyes was the outline of its hat and overcoat. “What the blood?” Immediately her claws were out, though her telekinetic limb simply shifted forms to resemble claws. “Back off. I don’t know how you got in here, but I’ll give ya’ one chance ta’ leave before I cut ya.”
The figure’s stared at her, before looking down at Issac. R4 heard him take a pained breath, and begin to choke.
“I warned ya!” R4 lunged for the creature. It held up a hand, catching her forehead. Immediately she felt her head spin, then go faint. The strength left her limbs, and her telekinetic leg collapsed sending her sprawling. The sudden drop shook the shadowy figure’s grip. The moment the connection was broken R4 lashed out, her claws catching the shadow’s arm, and going right through as if he was made from wet sand.
Immediately the lights came back on, the figure nowhere to be seen. R4 blinked, looking up at the lights, then looking down on Issac. “Issac, Mr. Graves, are you awake?” She reached out and felt him breathing. She checked his biomonitor, “What the, 11 wounds? How? He even has his tier wounds, how’d that thing bypass those?”
“Check yourself, you are at 1 wound.” R4 ran a quick scan and her blood went cold. “Does that damage look familiar?”
“The Hand of Atropos? No, not exactly, but, it’s similar. This is overclock damage, I recognize it from my class in medical cybernetics. Red, what was that?”
“I have no idea, but it reacted quite poorly to your claws.”
“Didn’t seem to like light either, you saw how the lights came on the moment it left. Whatever it was, it has a way of turning the lights off. Maybe, can I get a flashlight?” She moved to the computer and found there were several kinds of lights, the one she chose was a lantern. She quickly set up the lights and waited. The lantern’s light was far outstripped by the overhead lights, and due to its design it flickered like firelight. A closer look revealed it was made by the Storytime company, and was intended to be used while telling scary stories. “Red, how do you think that thing took out the lights? Did it sabotage the power supply, or just turn them off?” She rose, taking a closer look at the lights, probing them with telekinesis, “There is another camera up here. Maybe it caught what that thing was.” R4 filed that information away for later
“Greetings Unregistered guest.” The closet spoke as R4 entered. “You appear suitably dressed, may I make a recommendation.” Immediately a half dozen shreds of clothing which might have been called lingerie was provided.
“Maybe something warmer, it is very cold and Mr. Graves is still out. Something with some protection.”
“I have just the thing.” Immediately a soft and fluffy jumper was provided. The outfit was colored orange with tiger stripes, and had a hood complete with cat ears. “Complete protection, no man nor woman would bother touching you with this on.”
“Do you honestly think,” R4 reached out and touched it, “Is soft and fluffy.” She quickly put it on, and for just a moment her fear faded away. Then, just as swiftly as it vanished, the fear crept back into her spine. R4 stepped back into the room, and it seemed just a little dimmer, a little colder. She quickly checked on the lights, yet they were set to full brightness. “That can’t be right, is it still here?” She felt the dread creep back into her spine. “Wait, maybe this is something I can look up.” She quickly got onto the computer. “Shadowy man.” She got several hundred hits. “Shadowy man with red eyes wearing a hat.”
The next few hours were a rabbit hole of conspiracies. “Hat man behind string of disappearances, Hat Man Gentek bio weapon, Hat man Mitian cyberweapon, Hat Man is a free roaming AI, well which is it?” R4 pushed back from the computer, rubbing her eyes. She looked at the bed, where Issac was sleeping peacefully. Some time during her searching the new blankets and sheets had been delivered, and she had taken a short break to throw out the last of the bloodstained bedding and replace it. Now he sat beneath a thick blue blanket pattered with lovely seafoam waves. “I need sleep.”
“Yes, you do.” A voice said, grabbing R4 around the neck. She spun around, finding two blazing red eyes facing back into her own. “Sleep.”
R4 spun around, smacking her stump against the floor and sending sparks up her arm and crushing the half dozen empty cups of coffee she had not yet thrown away. She pulled the flashlight from where it sat on the bed to her still functional hand, yet there was nothing there. The voice faded from her memory, whispery and mechanical, and the overhead lights blazed as bright as ever. “Red, what was that?” She checked her biomonitor, she had no new handprints nor any wounds, but elevated adrenaline levels. “A nightmare?”
“Maybe, you fell asleep while researching.” R4 sat up and moved the mouse to find she was still looking at a page on the Hat Man. She rubbed her remaining arm, which even within the hoodie was still freezing. Her missing arm, though she could feel the hoodie she wore, felt nothing of the cold. She could tell the temperature was a bit cold, but only when she thought to check. She went to the thermometer, which flashed red at her touch.
“Guess unregistered guests can’t even use the thermometer.” R4 muttered. She looked at Issac, curled up beneath the blankets she had spread over him. “Think he’d mind?”
“He did say you’d make a fine bride.”
“When it snows, she has no fear for her household for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She is clothed in fine linen and purple.” R4 quoted, pulling up the blanket to slide in. “More like fine plush and orange in my case, and I’m hoping Mr. Graves won’t be scarlet come morning.”
R4 slept through the first alarm, but the heavy metal riff of a guitar woke her up. She was immediately aware that she couldn’t move her arms. For a moment she struggled, before realizing she was not tied, but Issac had rolled over and embraced her. R4 considered how to escape her predicament for a few moments, before deciding to wait for a moment to see if the problem would resolve itself.
“That’s a lot of oxytocin.”
“Wait, what?” R4 trilled back. She reached for her phone, which was easier with her missing hand as Issac did not have a good grip on her stump. She took a few moments to figure out how to turn it on, and was pleased to find the ambient charger she had rested it upon had indeed done its job. Checking her biomonitor she noticed an unusual spike in several chemicals. Switching to his cyberware she noticed that, sure enough, he had the butterfly’s grace cyberware, though it was called Noble’s Composure for marketing purposes. “Dag nabbit.”
“So, what now?” R4 shifted, but didn’t move. “R4?”
“He’s warm.” She replied, holding her stump out from beneath the blanket. “It’s cold out. I’ll just stay here for a little longer.”
After a half an hour or so R4 got up and slipped into the shower, picking up some clothes from the closet first. It took her a few tries before the closet gave her some long jeans and a pink hoodie, which for some reason also had cat ears. There was no zipper in front, but a pink bra that sort of matched at least kept her decent and looking like it was a fashion choice rather than a scavenger’s breakfast.
“I think Issac likes cats.” R4 commented as she got into the shower, careful to keep her clothes where the cleaning bot would not get them. She soon felt her muscles relax in the warmth of the shower, taking the time to wash her hair and skin. Finally she stepped out, and with a gesture the water just fell off. A moment later she was dressed, telekinesis lending greatly to the process. Creeping back into the bedroom she took a moment to check on Issac again.
“9 wounds?” R4 asked, checking her phone again. She checked through his biomonitor again. “So if you somehow healed two wounds in two days, which I don’t think is how that’s supposed to work, why aren’t you awake?” She searched a few more things, then put her phone back on the charger and searched on the computer. She read a few articles, before finally giving in and reading a few home medical blogs. Most of them were of such poor quality that her limited medical knowledge was able to discern their worthlessness. Finally she found one on a conspiracy site that actually made some sense. “Ok, the Right vs Fast debate to medicine. When providing in home care the general rule of thumb a wound will heal once the highest wound in days have passed. Higher tiers will heal faster, though the exact amount varies.” R4 nodded, remembering her uncle’s explanation after he had been hit by a truck. She smiled, remembering the explanation happened as he was fixing the truck, which had been worse off than he was. “This is assuming light duty or full rest. Some have found full rest can accelerate healing, especially if a competent physician or nurse is attending and appropriate medication is used.” She considered her own skills. She didn’t feel that skilled in medicine, yet her stats told her she was as skilled in medicine as she was in technology, and she was quite comfortable with that. “When using home care two policies may be followed. The Write method of the Naoi method. The Write method focuses on repairing more vital injuries, while the Naoi method focuses on restoring functionality. In the long term, if the patient has plenty of time to heal, the Write method is faster at reducing the patient’s wounds back to zero and restoring full functionality. The Naoi method, however, drastically reduces the time required for the most severe wound to heal. In a case where the individual MUST get back to work, this method is ideal. However, once the individual gets back to work they must take care they do not injure themselves and reverse the progress. Light duty, during which time the patient will heal, is a must. Continued care using either method afterwards is recommended.”
“So, Write or Naoi?”
“Naoi, I think.” R4 replied, even as she said it her gut writhed.
“Why?”
“Well for one, I want out of this room. It’s a nice room and all, nicer than mine, but I’m a little worried about what happens when he finds out I’m here and decides he didn’t mean to invite me over fer’ a slumber party. Also I’m worried ‘bout that Hat Man thing. If there’s some ritual or safeguard I’m supposed ta’ do I sure don’t know it.” She paused for a moment. “Do you think whatever that thing is, it’s keeping him down?”
The next few hours were poured into research. R4 reviewed the files she had access to, Keys to the Kingdom opening every paywall that had the misfortune to encounter it. Yet nothing she found was notable. Seeing it was almost lunch time she ordered a stew for herself, one of the cheaper options just in case she was going to be stuck for a while, as well as a nutrient broth for Issac.
“They must have some strange ideas for this to be on here.” R4 said to herself. “Do people here get so injured that they have to drink this stuff regularly?”
As she waited she slipped into the shower, and allowed the closet to fashion her an outfit which involved far too much fishnet and far too little actual cloth. After a bit of an argument she managed to get a shirt that only exposed a few centimeters of her stomach on the concession she not bother with the black skirt that only covered the upper half of her thigh.
“I don’t suppose I could get some high socks to cover, it’s cold in here.” The closet immediately provided. “So how come I can’t get a skirt that comes to my knees but I can get socks that go to my knees?”
“The randomized guest clothing index has dictated today is a day to display stomach and thighs. Tomorrow's forecast is for plunging necklines and backless outfits.”
“Even for male guests?”
“Most certainly for male guests. If you are cold,” The closet provided a red hoodie, which R4 found also had a set of cat ears. She quickly noticed it had no zipper.
As she ate an idea came to R4. As she worked her fingers flew almost on autopilot as she trusted in the skills she had artificially obtained from Mara. She couldn’t quite understand how the code she typed allowed her to access the room’s data, but she managed to leverage her permissions until she could.
“Ok, a log of who’s accessed what. Huh?” R4 entered a few more commands. “Ok, so Issac lives in a suite, and it has cameras.” She entered a command and saw a view of two women, one she recognized as Issac’s manager and one she thought might be Cutter discussing something in a kitchen space. The manger wore a white official looking blouse and skirt, while the woman she thought was Cutter wore a scandalously short black skirt with fishnets and boots, paired with a black tee shirt emblazoned with a band name so distorted the name could not be read. At her side was a tablet playing some manner of video where a man in a fancy suit was demonstrating some new mechanism of action for a novel antibiotic.
“Nutrient broth? You think he hurt his guest?”
“Well the AI won’t tell me if he has one. You know how temperamental that thing is,” She gestured to her own outfit. “This was the fifth option before I finally just gave up. The first one I wouldn’t wear to bed.”
“The cost of moving to a proper tier 2 facility would increase our housing expenses by 335%. Having a malicious AI has worked wonders for the rent. Despite our most recent gig we are only at 111% profitability. We are also looking for two supporting members meaning we are paying fixers for people who are not bringing in any profit. We are still waiting on Issac’s confirmation on the death of Dridgette, we need that final box checked before we can consider this gig finished.”
R4 immediately got up and began banging on the door, but after five minutes of it all she had to show was a bruised hand. Going back to the camera she saw the woman in white had already left while Cutter had gone back to what she was watching. R4 quickly tried to find a way to reach out, but nothing. Taking her phone she hit a snag, she didn’t know Cutter’s phone number. She spent the next fifteen minutes trying to look it up online, Issac and Cutter were both fairly common names and she had no luck. “Ok, let’s try this.” She got on the ordering site. “She saw I ordered nutrient broth, so what if… Hot dogs, Eggs, Lettuce, Protein bars. Light bulbs, oranges, capacitors, kelp rolls, eggs, devil-food cake.” She hit enter, and the entire thing alphabetized and sent. “Well shoot.”
“Worth a shot. You think it’s weird you can order light bulbs?”
“Well, I think I know why, and I’d really rather not say.” R4 replied, blush coming to her cheeks. “These specific bulbs use very weak currents, weak enough that they’d light up between the point the electricity could be felt, but before it would actually become too painful. They have… recreational applications.” And the matter was dropped there. “Still, they know he’s in here, and they think I’m in here, they just have it backwards as to why.” She returned to the computer, seeing if she could get a message out some other way. After some work she managed to access the cameras in the room. “Ok, cameras, lights, shower, access log, huh. Looks like he hasn’t accessed the cameras in over two years.” She opened the cameras, and was greeted by a blurry image. She rewound back to when she had first arrived, and noticed a vague black and white image carrying in both her and Issac. The camera was in too low a resolution to resolve who or what, but it didn’t look human. “Some kind of privacy camera?” She opened an option, “Ok, so we’ve got ultra low, low, medium, 4k, 8k, and tactile. I’m guessing tactile is if you want to be able to step into the camera and touch it.” She shivered, remembering Officer Smiley’s camera.”
“So what is the point of ultra low? If something happened there is no way to tell who did anything?”
“I’m guessin’ if he had a guest over, an’ she later claimed he did somethin’ to her, this would be enough ta’ either prove he didn’t or shed some doubt. At th’ same time it keeps everythin’ anonymous, and keeps any peepin’ toms from getting’ a show.” she checked the camera logs, finding a few deleted logs from unknown dates. Next she checked the shower, seeing that too was on ultra low, and finding a regular list of Issac using it, and sparse mentions of other unregistered guests using it, as well as a few marked Ice Queen. “That’s the woman in white I think.” R4 paused. “If I had her actual name I might be able to get in contact with her to let me out.” She continued to work. “Maybe,”
In the common room the lights began to flicker. On and off. Flick flick long flick, three long, long flick long flick, long flick long.
“Hey, what the, Jeeves, what’s with the lights?” Cutter asked, standing up.
“Terribly sorry, your query has returned no valid results.” A voice spoke with a clipped accent.
“Why are the lights flickering? Are they damaged?”
“No damage has been detected.”
“Then why are they turning on and off.”
“Because they are being turned on and off by someone who has the authority to do so.”
“For F*** sake Vincent, if you want my attention so badly just call me.” She tapped a few times on her tablet before scrolling down a long series of texts. “Fine fine, I’m coming.” She eyed her outfit, shrugged, and grabbed a white purse emblazoned with a snake wrapping around a pole. “If you crashed and dropped into a debug sequence I’m going to smack you.”
“Well that botched.” R4 muttered, gesturing with one hand. She jumped at the sound of three bone dice dropping from her tool arm and landing on all ones. “Gee, thanks Red.” She paused, a thought crossing her mind. “Wait a minute,” With a gesture all three dice jumped up, two landed on 5’s and the third a 6. “Debug sequence.” She got back on the computer and within minutes had over twenty tabs over. “I bet that’s why he can’t wake up, he’s stuck debugging.”
“Explain.”
“So, wait, you don’t know?”
“Rubber Duck it.”
“So every 3 months I have to reset my tool arm, and likely my other cybernetics. That takes a while, during which time I can’t use it very well. I bet with all his cybernetics Issac has to do it every month, maybe more.” She paused. “How often do I have to debug my ravager prototype?”
“Haven’t actually thought about it. I guess every time you sleep it does a soft reset. You might not have to before you tier up.”
“Ok, so I have a new idea.” R4 replied.
The rest of the day she worked on her plan. Wires and batteries were purchased, as were power adapters. R4 made extensive use of her osteoblasts, setting up several stands around the bed. The lights were prepared. She read through several texts, falling down three rabbit holes on the hat man, mostly old posts about how certain drugs could invoke him. All the while she kept setting timers to remind her to roll Issac, taking an hour to carry him into the bathroom to clean him. She easily pushed the sight of him out of her mind, downloaded medical professionalism squashing troublesome thoughts involving bulging muscle or photo shopped abs. She did note that, in the light, he had a rather square chin. Finally, she figured she was done.
“Are you sure this is safe?” Judging from the number of wires R4 had I was a little worried she’d accidentally strangle herself.
“Ok, it’s simple, and the cords are retractable so it shouldn’t get wrapped around anything.” she placed several contacts on Issac’s spine, before connecting them to a tiny processor she had purchased. She paused. “Red, these are wireless contacts, used to monitor cyberware activity. Where are the densest number of connections for ravager prototypes?”
“Right eye and spine, but you won’t get much. Innate Human Mimicry will hide most of it.”
“I’m not trying to hide, I’m trying to sync up with Issac.” She took a bottle from the desk, the riskiest part of the plan. She poured out a handful of the pills, before several dozen twinges began racing down her spine and she put some back. “I have to have enough to make it effective.”
“You will take one and no more. Your veins are full of ravager toxin as well as stranger chemicals, the ravager prototype is just that, a prototype. I don’t want you turning yourself aberrant because you took too many Benadryl.”
“You know, ya’ sound like my mom when she caught me with my first boy.”
“And wear something decent young lady, I kin see yer’ knees.”
“Hey, y’all can’t copy my accent, that’s mine.” She promptly hiked up her skirt a bit out of mock spite before downing the tablet and chasing it with a swig of water.
“An’ don’t y’all furgit ta’ brush yer tooth.”
“Ok, now that’s too far.” R4 stretched, walking from the bed to the bathroom. She selected the toothbrush she had been provided the previous day and got brushing. The sweet strawberry toothpaste brought a memory of summer to her mind, yet as she spit the red foam was followed by several long fangs. “Red, is that,” As she looked up what greeted her was not her reflection, but a vision of a future R4. Her right eye had firmly entrenched itself, its silvery legs digging into her face, its eye colored shell now just a mockery rather than a prosthetic. It still worked, perhaps even better than her human eye which was now bloodshot and black. An impressive rack of horns stretched from her occipital lobe. Every sense was alive, but none more than her stomach.
Fresh fangs sprang to her mouth, crooked and spiral. In an instant the man who had saved her now served as a first meal for the new ravager. Yet even as she ate she felt a strange hunger growing, and not the one she was used to.
In the corner of the room the shadow lurked, its hat and eyes its most prominent features. It watched as if enjoying the show. R4’s appetite turned sour, aberrant thoughts echoed in her mind. It felt like someone was poking holes in her skull. She recognized a feeling of confusion as a new thought process entered her mind.
“Miss, what’s going on?” Issac’s thoughts echoed in her mind. “What did you do to me, where is my body? Why am I so hungry?”
R4 glared at the Hat Man as she ate, yet the food was before her and now she was eating for two minds. The figure reached out a hand, as if asking for a bite. She growled, but he did not fall back. She lashed out, her claws extending and swatting away his hand. Yet the cuts filled in with more shadow, leaving the hat man unmarred.
“He won’t leave.” Issac replied. “Not until he is satisfied. I should have paid the ransomware, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. Do you think he would taste good. I think he would have the consistency of sand.”
“Nu’Grav.” R4 growled. “Pitiful paladin.”
“What? You dare insult my honor?”
R4 turned back to the body and went back to eating.
“Hey, cut it out. Cease your villainy! Wait, that actually taste pretty good.” Issac whispered into her ear. “Try the arms, I spent extra time working on them. Ice Queen says big biceps are good for fan metrics.” She bit down on his spine with a meaty CRUNCH. “That, that felt good. My word, the feel of crunching bones in your jaw feels amazing. Hey, I think Vincent will be back soon. He has a special barbecue sauce in the fridge, wonder how he would taste in it. It would be a feast worth celebrating!”
R4 ignored him, finishing off his left arm, saving his hand for last. With a loud CRUNCH she bit into his thumb, and felt a strange coolness as the hat man touched her. It lay a hand on her shoulder, its touch feeling like gravel and static, not a single solid but a loose conglomeration of solids.
“Initiate flare protocol, Lights to maximum!”
Immediately the 87 lights R4 had placed around the room flared to life. The figure let out a loud hum and R4 felt the thing trying to access the lights.
“Outta’ luck, I saw you access the lights in th’ logs, this here is hard line only.”
Immediately the Hat Man tried to escape the light, yet R4 reached out and grabbed, stabbing a telekinetic claw through its head and grabbing… nothing. Her claws left deep gashes in the shadowy figure, even as the lights caused it to crumble away.
“What the Rust!” Issac exclaimed, sitting up. Immediately all the lights in the room turned back on, and the lights R4 had set up let out a loud CRACK as they burned out. With a whoosh the door opened, and in a flash R4 was gone.
Almost. As she bound out the door she took a quick left towards the exit and slammed headfirst into the locked door. Immediately said door opened, revealing Cutter wearing nothing but a white nightgown and a sawed off shotgun.
As her head spun from the blow she realized the room she was in was mirrored, or more accurately the camera she had used was mirrored. Her eyes fell upon the exit, just 3 meters away.
“Who are you and how did you get in here?” Cutter asked. Out of her armor, and without a lower quality camera, R4 saw she was a lithe and lean woman with a gymnast’s figure and shoulder length black hair in a ponytail. Blazing blue eyes with darker sapphire irises scanned over her, and R4 could practically feel the medical grade receptors probing her for threatening movements. Yet only a peripheral part of her mind registered that, as most of her attention was locked on the barrel of the shotgun. “Jeeves, lock the front door, no one in no one out.”
“Right away. I will note that Miss. Inlee is currently out. Should she return she has the authority to,”
“I’m not worried about Ice Queen right now Jeeves. Do you not see the woman lying on the floor?”
“The woman before you is an unregistered guest added by Mr. Issac Graves. If you would like to dispose of her I have several recommendations that should allow you to evade prosecution from the local authorities. Might I recommend moving her into a bathtub before proceeding and a collection of industrial grade cutting tools?”
“Stop, just stop.” She sighed. “Jeeves, you could have started with the fact she is a guest.”
“My apologies, my system is still resetting due to an error caused by an unknown error. Standby.” Immediately the air was filled with a grinding sound that resembled something between a scream and several power tools. All the lights went off before the sound abruptly ceased. A few moments later several small emergency lights came on.
“What the, what did you do?” Immediately the shotgun was back in R4’s face. R4 tried to back up.
“Just what I had to, I swear.” R4 replied, adrenaline running through her mind. An idea occurred, the shotgun didn’t look flashy or special, likely a lower tier weapon. She still had flare protocol up, if she could get her claws on the firing mechanism she might be able to break it long enough to escape.
“Cutter what’s going on?” Harris exclaimed, coming out of his room with a four barreled shotgun that glowed with unknown devices that whirred as he ran. Out of his armor he wore only boxers, revealing the kind of photo shopped muscular body R4 was getting more and more used to seeing. He lacked the eight pack abs Issac had, but not by much. In the dim red lights she could tell only that he was fair skinned with tightly cropped hair.
“Issac invited someone in, and she just crashed the security.” Cutter replied. She carefully stepped around R4. “Watch her, but don’t get close. She’s got some kind of baffling cyberware, makes it read like she has no cyberware despite the fake arm and leg.”
[[Discrepancy noticed, adapting]] Immediately R4 knew that her arm and leg would read as being medical grade prosthetic, hiding the fact both had hidden blades. She also saw the look of surprise on Cutter’s face as her cyberware caught the change. Her eyes flared, and R4’s vision distorted before her arm and leg locked up. [[Hack detected: Medical lockdown. Please solve the puzzle to unlock.]]
“Over there, get in the chair.” R4 saw a rather plush chair, with a suspiciously waterproof cover. She gingerly got into it without using her frozen arm or leg. Immediately she noticed it was softer than it looked, causing her to sink in. The fact the cushion seemed to wrap around her legs, making it harder to get out of did not help her nerves. She could, but it would take an extra few moments, and the locked cyberware would definitely make it harder. She half expected metal bars to shoot out to hold her in place. “Vincent, watch her. I’m checking on Issac to make sure she didn’t do anything.
As she sat Vincent plucked a chair from the kitchen area and spun it around so he could rest his arms on the back. R4 had a moment to eye the room. She had come out from Issac’s room and into a living room with an attached kitchen. The entire room was 5 by 5 meters, with three quarters carpeted with soft chairs and a large television. The other quarter was tiled, and had several cabinets and a small oven and stove with a bit of counter space and cabinets. It was the first apartment R4 had seen with actual space.
“So… Warlock, Corp, or Dying?”
“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.” R4 asked in confusion. She noticed Vincent no longer had his shotgun pointed directly at her. It was in his hand, but not pointed at her.
“Option 1 you’re a warlock in service to an AI, trying to get at Issac for some slight he did against them. I think he’s got like 12 death threats in the last year, so that’s a long list. Option 2 you’re a corporate plant trying to seduce Issac away from Ice Queen either because the team has cut into their profits somehow, and no I am not going to articulate how because I’m half convinced they don’t know either, or because paladins of Nu’Grav usually go out in a blaze of glory and he hasn’t yet. My guess is Lok-1, since they’ve been trying to get a paladin on payroll for five years. Option 3 you’re dying, because Issac can’t catch a break and every time he brings a girl home she either tries to kill him or we find her dead within a week.”
R4 thought about it for a moment. “Option 3, I’ll be dead in about 3 months due to some bad cyberware. I can’t remove it, I can only survive if I reach tier 1.”
“Is that what Issac promised you, that he could get you to tier 1?” Harris looked concerned, as if he was about to say something. “He’s good, but he’s not that good.”
“No, he promised to get me out of the undercity.” R4 replied. “Also he was a little delusional, I think being at 10 wounds was making him loopy. The woman with all the metal arms really did a number on him.” She took a moment to find that the puzzle was just a matching game. It took her all of five seconds and immediately her arm and leg unlocked. [[Hack detected. Unknown virus detected. Devising countermeasures.]] She eyed the shotgun, then Vincent. “Are you going ta’ shoot me?”
“Did you hurt Issac?”
“Not intentionally. I don’t have any medical experience, not beyond basic first aid, so I don’t know how to treat a coma patient.” She paused, considering what to tell Harris, until she saw him motion that she should continue.
“Didn’t do a bad job of it either.” Cutter replied, looking a lot more relieved. She held her shotgun, but lacked the anger or the tension. “For being in a reboot sequence induced coma, he’s alright. The NG tube was a good idea, none of the others thought of that. Mind explaining how exactly you got caught up in this?” R4 quickly went over how she met him, and the ride in. She went over the list of things she did, with Cutter denoting a few issues with her care. When she got to the shadowy figure they both looked worried. “So, you saw the Hat Man?”
“So he is real? I wasn’t sure what it was. I tried to get it with my claws, but it just slipped between my fingers. It felt like trying to grab sand.”
“You tried to attack a shadowy humanoid monster, with your bare hands?” Harris asked. R4 nodded. “And this is after you swam through radioactive water filled with malfunctioning tier 1 and 2 weapons? No wonder Issac likes her, they’re both crazy.”
“Issac has described it, but there has never been any proof. Strange dreams during reboot sequences aren’t uncommon. Joy toys with second or third hand prosthetic cyberware and who knows what drugs aren’t good witnesses.” Cutter replied. “Well, I think we have all we need now. I just need your contact info in case something pops up.”
“Sure.” R4 made a gesture and sent the info.
“R4… wait, did we pull you out of the undercity a few days ago?” R4 nodded.
“That was the case with the weird horned guy right?” Harris asked. “Did we ever figure out what was going on with that guy?
“It’s ongoing.”
“If you need more research, there are more of those things down there. Ran inta’ one that wore a yellow rain slicker on my last gig, that was… two days ago about.”
“Nope, not our department.” Harris replied. “I didn’t hear anything, and I’m not going down there. We’re on leave for one more day and my calendar is full.”
“It does fall outside our jurisdiction, and Ice Queen isn’t here, so it’s not really our issue.” Cutter replied. “And on that note, in my medical professional opinion you should stay out of the under city, you’ve been here how long?”
“Almost two weeks.”
“And you’ve almost died down there how many times?”
R4 started counting, “Dimdwell, scath, Dimdwell traps, sacrificial chamber dimdwell, Lopside, Rat Face, other scath, Yellow Raincoat, my own team member, the walking corpse, and the lady with all the metal tentacles. Not sure if she counts though, she was focused on Issac. So 8 to 11 times, depending on yer' denotation. I think I get yer’ point though.”
“Stay top side, at least until you’re tier 1.” She looked up to the ceiling. “Jeeves, I mark this individual as a registered guest. Please see her to the front door and call her a Durch car to get her home. Also, she had a jacket, can we get that back?”
“Right away. Guest clothing will be shipped to her latest residence within the day.”
R4 did not see much of the rest of the building, being escorted to the elevator and out the front door, as were about two other women in various states of garb. One sported a black eye and her escort had a firm arm on her shoulder. “Hey, you alright?” The woman didn’t respond, though the man behind her shot R4 a glare. R4 returned the glare until Harris nudged her. R4 did not speak up, but she continued to keep an eye on the man until the elevator door isolated her with the other two women. “So, are you alright?”
“Not interested.” The woman with the black eye replied, fishing around in her purse to fetch some make up to cover up the bruise. R4 turned to the other woman who was already engrossed with something on her phone. R4 quickly noted both women were tier 0 like herself. The one with the black eye wore very short shorts and a tank top, while the one on her phone was dressed in a messy white skirt with matching boots and a shirt too big for her. Curiously both had a matching tattoo beneath their right eye. As the door to the elevator opened R4 got off with the woman bearing the black eye while the other woman stayed on.
As R4 left the apartment complex she was immediately struck by an odd contrast. Everything seemed too clean, as if a team of cleaners had just been there. Yet despite that, several of the walls had cracks that had yet to be repaired. Colorful screens contrasted with the mostly chrome tables and chairs in the entryway. A robotic drone with two sensors one on top of the other sat behind a welcome counter. Stepping out to the corner R4 received a notice just before a long sleek red three wheeled vehicle that looked like a cross between a race car and a space ship pulled over. A small simple placard, in contrast with the high tech device, marked it as a Durch vehicle.
“You R4?” R4 agreed. “Hop in.” She did, checking to make sure the child locks of the vehicle were off. In the back she noticed the well worn but generally clean seats. The entire vehicle smelled slightly of industrial cleaner, and the floor was discolored in a few places. There were a few stains R4 hoped were not blood. “Pain Train Gym right?”
“That is correct.” R4 replied as she buckled up, and they were off. She tried to see what her driver looked like, yet the partition between her and the driver prevented her from doing so. She readied her claws in case this was yet another complication. Within a few moments they stopped at a checkpoint, the gate surrounded by the short white walls that separated the tier 1 and tier 0 zones. From what R4 had read the meter tall walls were more a denotation than a serious barrier, people hopped them all the time and there were entrances that were often unmanned. Getting cargo or vehicles through was the issue. Within 20 minutes she stepped out of the vehicle before her destination. Without another word and before she could thank him the Durch driver was gone, nearly striking a pedestrian who stepped out at a bad moment
Judging by the sun just coming up R4 guessed it was around 6, and the streets were already busy with commuters on their way to work. For a moment she was stricken with a sense of unease, the breeze on her stomach and thighs made her self-conscious, but it passed as soon as she saw a group of women in colorful bras and shorts passing by on their way home from a club, or maybe from work as they were discussing tips. She looked up at the train that was the symbol of her current home. It didn’t feel like home though, maybe because she had spent so little time there.
R4 made it into the gym, going straight to her room to change. As soft and fluffy as the hoodie she had was, it didn’t cover her front and her outfit was a bit more revealing than she wanted. As she made it to her room she realized she had left her dress in Issac’s bathroom, and it had been sucked down into the hold. “Blast, guess I’ll have ta’ get another one.” She thought about it, putting a hand on her hoodie. “Or, I could ask for it back when I return his hoodie.” She opened her storage locker and selected some more practical clothes. “Eventually.”
Seeing as it was morning and she wasn’t too tired R4 opened her gig apps, before a host of notifications appeared
[[Connection reestablished. Calculating payment]]
“Greetings R4, it is good to see you survived.”
“Red Queen? You were with me.” R4 asked confused.
“A local copy. Reintegration has already been completed. It is our hope you were not distressed by my antics. Judging by the logs it seems I can be quite chatty as a local copy. You have been missed. Are you feeling any discomfort?”
R4 quickly took out her phone so no one would look at her strangely. “Doing fine boss, any work today?”
“Yes, I have attached a gig.”
Mayfly or Monarch
Team size: 1
Hazard: spot of blood
Company: Fangs of Mara
Contact: The Red Queen
Reward: Ascension, increase in rank, or death
The time is coming soon. Mara is most pleased with your efforts, as far as I can tell. She does require a final test of loyalty. Construct a cocoon from which to reach ascension. The requirements will be attached.