The Crimson Dragons occupy what’s commonly known as the ‘upper districts’. Ironic, considering it’s in southwest Arthas, but the name is more to signify wealth than it is about geography. This is where the gang sells their drugs and pimps their whores. The latter being the reason for their urgent summons.
A corpo killed one of their hookers.
“We need to send a message” Ellie says to the room full of dragons “We can’t get the bastard himself, he and his family are holed up in Omega.”
She paces as she speaks, chrome hands clasped behind her back, artificial eyes scanning the gathered gangers.
“But he’s got a little mansion in Radion heights, nice and cozy in our territory”
A small smile forms on the woman’s face, It’s a joy from the promise of blood rather than anything kind.
“We’re going to burn it down.”
-
‘Burn it down’ is easier said than done, Radion Heights is one of the few places the cops give a shit about, and the corpo they’re targeting left plenty of guards to stop any attempts at vandalism.
How convenient.
Stealth isn’t really an option, she’s sure a few Scars could do it, but this isn’t a Scar level problem.
Instead they go for overwhelming, unstoppable force. Over a hundred dragons surround the fencing of the mansion, any pretense of peace destroyed by the myriad of weapons on display.
There are police on the periphery, they do not approach the mass of gangers.
They do have someone on a loudspeaker though.
“Attention citizens, disperse and return to your homes. Failure to comply will be met with force”
A ganger beside her snorts and in the distance she hears someone yell “FUCK YOU”, most of the gangers don’t seem fazed by the government agents.
Meanwhile, she’s a bundle of raw nerves.
She’s probably going to kill again, and this time she’s the one looking for trouble.
Isn’t this what she wanted? Prove herself to the gang, rise up to be a Scar.
Killings an afterthought to Scars.
Someone nudges her on the shoulder. She turns to find an older ganger sizing her up, and by older she means ancient. His hair is white and what isn’t cybernetic is leathery and wrinkled.
“First time?” He asks
“To killing?” He chuckles at that and shakes his head “At a raid girl”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah it is” he just nods at that
“It shows” she scowls at the man, who holds up a hand to placate her.
“Nothing wrong with the jitters girl, well, unless it causes you to do something stupid, but that’s beside the point.” His gaze falls on the cops, who are still shouting demands through the loudspeaker “They won’t actually do anything, didn’t bring the equipment, or the personnel. All talk and no substance”
She looks over at the police. He’s not wrong, they don’t even have vests, just a bunch of beat cops with their pistols and fancy ties.
“Why even show up then?”
“To show the corps they care” he shrugs “no matter how superficial”
-
The signal to start is quite bombastic. Turns out Ellie’s got a literal hand cannon, from which she fires a rocket into the mansion’s front door. Alex’s a little stunned by the sight, all she’d said was that the signal would be obvious, which wasn’t wrong, but what the fuck?
“C’mon girl, preps over, it’s all action from here” the senior ganger says before he sprints at the nearest window. She scrambles to follow him as hundreds of dragons yell their war cries and charge.
By the time she’s got to the window he’s already broken through.
She can hear gunshots in the mansion.
Damn, how are they moving so fast?
She throws herself through the window, wincing at the stray shards of glass cutting through her body.
There’s a corpse she doesn’t recognize on the floor.
Okay.
What to do?
She hears gunfire in the distance.
Well, it’s as good of a direction as any.
She rushes out of the room and turns left when she enters a hallway.
She makes it twenty meters before the sound of something monstrous is accompanied by someone bursting through a door ahead of her.
It’s the old man.
He looks injured, but alive.
He rolls away from her.
The spot where he was turns to so much shrapnel as the monster-gun fires off again.
The old man eyes her, nods, and backs up a few steps before training his rifle ahead.
She has no idea what the fuck is going on.
A thing of armor and steel walks through the door to face the old man.
It has exo-armor, which is the only explanation for how it’s simply carrying an Atomizer.
She shoots it in the back.
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It ignores her.
It shoots at the old man.
It hits and somehow he survives.
She looks at her pistol, looks at the monster, then shoots again.
When it doesn’t turn to face her she charges, as silently as she can.
It shoots three more times before she reaches it.
Somehow, despite everything, the old man is still alive.
She does the only thing she can think of doing, she jumps on its back and jams her katana in the joint of the exo-suits arm.
Modern day katanas are made with SD-30, also known as Steel derivative thirty, or durasteel if you’re feeling lazy.
There’s a lot it can’t cut through, the hydraulic of an exo-suits joints is not one of them.
Suddenly it has to hold the Atomizer with only one functioning arm, and fails miserably.
She has a few seconds to savor her victory before she gets swatted aside like a fly.
Everything hurts.
Focusing hurts, so she doesn’t.
Something tells her to move, so she does.
Her leg is crushed into so many pieces.
She has the presence of mind to scream.
She wants to black-out, she wants to die.
She lies there, crying and in pain as neither happens.
Every heartbeat brings with it a fresh wave of agony.
Through the tears, she looks at her leg.
It is not a leg, it is meat and bone and nothing else.
It’s barely even bleeding, as though her body has given up on the appendage entirely.
She cries harder.
Someone is speaking to her, trying to get her attention.
But all she does is whimper and cry.
She is in so much pain.
-
“Good news” Seamus says “We can get you some bone implants and even some bionics to replace the muscle”
He struts around the hospital room with surprising ease, considering he was shot multiple times by the biggest gun she’s ever seen.
“Why not replace it entirely? It’d be more useful” She asks
He chuckles, and she scowls.
“I’m not footing the bill for all the adjustments that would be needed as you grow kid” he says “besides, cybernetic are overrated”
She gives an incredulous look to the man who survived multiple slugs from an Atomizer “bullshit” she says simply.
He sighs “look kid, I just have a high tolerance and a lifetime to adjust. Rush the process and that little mind of yours will break into more pieces than your leg”
She sighs, he probably knows what he’s talking about, and that frustrates her more than the need to stay on this bed for however long until her leg heals.
She decides to pursue a different line of inquiry.
“Are you a Scar?” She asks
He tilts his head at that “I can see how you might think that” he says “but I’d need to be a dragon first”
Okay, now she’s extremely confused.
He sighs “I’m a merc. Owe Ellie a few favours so she called on me when her intel found that exo-suit.”
“She knew?”
“That woman’s scary kid, you need to watch yourself, getting caught in her sphere isn’t exactly conducive to a long life”
“I don’t know what conducive means”
“Get a dictionary”
-
“You’re an idiot” Aki nods at his own deduction
“Thanks, jackass”
“It’s not an insult. Just a fact.”
“If I wasn’t bedridden, I’d kick your ass”
“With which leg” He smirks
“Oooh, that’s low. Really kicking me while I’m down”
He pauses, wracking his brain.
“Ellie’s taken an interest in you, you’ve really got a leg up on the rest of us now”
“What can I say? I like to put my best foot forward”
He groans
“What? that wasn’t so bad” she says, before looking at the cast on her right leg “Okay maybe it was a little bad”
“No, it was decent. Just put the image of your leg being pulped into my mind”
She gives him a look “you blew off a man’s head”
“That’s different”
-
Alex has run into a curious dilemma, she can’t do anything, and all the shows she can watch have been curated to match the sensibilities of whoever funds this hospital. Which, unfortunately, is mostly true crime flicks.
She’s fucking bored.
Getting a phone has become priority number#1,the amount of things such a simple piece of technology allows (mostly doom scrolling) could keep her entertained for at least some of her time here.
She still has enough dignity not to ask Aki when he comes by, but every time it only gets harder. She’s pretty sure she’s losing her mind.
Sasha hasn’t visited, which hurts more than she’d care to admit.
Curiously, Clarice has, although she’s pretty sure it’s because the kid wanted to see her. Clarice has seemingly grown fond of the boy, for her interpretation of fondness at least.
{You okay?} they ask
She glances at her leg, before a shit-eating grin plasters itself over her face.
{Mostly} she replies {Missing parts}
That gets a silent chuckle from the boy.
{Missing brain too} they sign {Aki told}
She squints at the boy, “where’d you learn sass?”
He shrugs, then points at Clarice.
Alex stares at the woman, astonished.
Clarice just raises an eyebrow at her.
“Idiocy deserves acknowledgment” she says “And helping him express his thoughts is part of my job”
-
Perhaps the greatest surprise was when instructor Korin walked through her door, his thin form gracefully making its way over to the side of her bed. His looks are deceiving, as he can easily overpower multiple students with just raw strength. There are rumors he has advanced bionics, but the instructor has never seen fit to address them.
“Alex” he says once he reaches her bed.
She half bows in her seated position “instructor”
“You look well, all things considered” she blinks, it’s gonna be one of those conversations?
“Thank you, sensei” she replies.
“I am moving you to the adept class, you’ve shown a dedication to the blade that most can only aspire to” he grabs a blade off his belt “and take this, to replace the one you lost”
“Sensei, I appreciate the gesture, and the sword. But I am nowhere near the skill required for an adept” It hurts to say, but it’s true. Her technique is good among the apprentice’s, but she’s still a long way away from being an adept.
“You are taking jobs from Ellie-sama” as though that explained everything, and Alex reels at the honorific.
“Sama?” She asks.
He rolls his eyes “Truly, Hawk-san has failed you all. That you do not recognize one of the Dragons fingers demonstrates a severe gap in your education”
Alex’s eyes go wide like saucers, and her mouth does its best impression of a fish as she tries to find something to say. She settles on a different topic entirely.
“What about my friends?”
He smiles something warm at that, which is fucking weird, but she chooses not to address it.
“Sasha-san’s already been placed amongst the adepts”
“And Akihiro?”
“He is a lost cause to the blade, pray that he never needs to use one”