“I’ll be damned, this choom really has no augs.” Isia muttered, looking over the readings on her device as she passed it over my arms for the upteenth time. We were in the Motel-18 lobby. Going outside was a bad idea until we were ready to head out, and the trio had insisted on doing a more thorough inspection.
“Do you really need to scan me so much?” I asked, pulling slightly away.
“Yes.” Quinn growled from the side, muttering to their drone as they were working their way through removing anything that was too damaged.
“If we’re going to take you to the base, we need to make sure you don’t know where it is.” Vesper declared. “The only reason we’re taking you in the first place is because you came under recommendation.”
“If it’s such a big deal, do I need to go to this base?” I lowered my arm as soon as I escaped the scanner. “Wouldn’t it be better to see if I fit what you’re looking for?”
The trio of masked strangers exchanged glances. “He does have a point.” Isia spoke up. “And he’s got his own gun.”
“That thing’s not cost-effective even against an E-class.” Quinn snipped. “In case your caveman brain doesn’t understand, cost-effective means that you lose money even if you kill the monster.”
My jaw tightened. “I wouldn’t know. The first thing I killed with my Bulstra was your drone, and that’s been very lucrative so far.”
Quinn glared at me. I could tell even through the opaque weather-gear. Maybe I should’ve taken the high-road and left it at that, I was sort of supposed to work with these people after all.
“You must’ve missed every shot until now,” they said.
Or maybe I should start looking for a place to dig a shallow grave. “A city wall would be a harder target to hit than your drone.” I shot back. “Or maybe the piloting was just that bad.”
Quinn’s shoulders tightened. “I’m calling bullshit on your kill count.” The words would’ve been more menacing if they hadn’t come out of someone two heads shorter than me. “No way in hell you’ve killed three E’s.”
I’d been about to point out how I’d killed two E’s without needing to shoot anything, but realized how absurd that would sound. Not to say suspicious. Next to me, Isia and Vesper were looking at one another, and it was obvious they were holding their own conversation.
Isia was the one to speak up. “Well… things are a bit more complicated than they look. Right now, we’re running on a shoestring budget.”
“Then let’s do this test-run.” I replied flatly. “Wouldn’t want to threaten your bottom line, right?”
All but Vesper flinched at the callout. Her helmet shifted to stare up at me. “We'll go to the Well and see what you can do.”
“I’ll need to make a quick stop at the internet-shop first,” I said. “Also, what's the ‘Well’?”
“It’s our gang’s hunting ground.” Quinn grumbled.
----------------------------------------
As it turned out, the “Well” was an abandoned construction site that was right in the shade of the outermost wall, underneath one of the high-way passes that connected the fourth district with the third. The place felt massive, easily two or three times the size of a factory where I’d hunted the other day. Jagged metal and concrete jutted out from the broken ground, large concrete and metal pillars rose towards the high-way, each one littered in rat-themed art.
Though I appreciated the shade the place provided, I was more thankful for having left the death-trap that was their ride. The thing they called a “car” was more a bunch of rusty pieces gobbled together with glue and tape. Its windows had been replaced with metal panels, and the whole vehicle was covered in bullet holes.
Also, it had no functioning AC.
Anyone hoping to ride along without a weather-acclimation gear would’ve died of heat-stroke. Even my own new and improved tolerance had not been enough to keep me from feeling like I was being cooked alive. Though the worst part was that Vesper drove like traffic signs were ignorable, there’d been a few misses.
Emptying a water bottle over my head, I calmed my nerves.
“So, what’s so interesting about this place?” I asked between heavy gulps, drying the sweat from my forehead.
“It’s a convergence point.” Vesper answered, pointing at the highway, voice still muffled behind her gear. “All the people moving through the road draw in monsters. It’s one of four convergence points in this half of the district.”
“Corpos always try to build something or another, but it becomes a money-sink. Employees getting attacked on the way over, or the building getting wrecked when a few E’s inevitably pop up,” Isia said. “We had a D a couple years back mid-construction, they’ve stopped trying since.”
I blanched at that. “If there’s been a D-class monster here, surely it’d be profitable to set up a kill point?” It was standard practise, a convergence point was an easy source of kills
“Not sure how this works over where you come from, but that’s now how it goes in New Francisco.” Vesper crossed her arms. “Killing anything up to an E only really gets you cash through the bounty system. Corps only care about D’s and up, that’s where the rare materials are at. They’ve got Max-tac and high-profile mercs for those, there’s no sense in having them waste resources or bleed over something that’ll just turn to foam when it dies.”
“Emphasis on bleed.” Quinn growled, caressing the chassis of his dead drone like some pet they were about to put down.
“Wait, what about the police?” My question was met by a wave of laughter. “What?”
“The pigs don’t come out unless there’s a lot of money involved… or if a corp pays them to make a move.” Isia chuckled.
“Same thing.” Quinn pointed out, and the other two nodded.
I bristled. “What if there’s an arson? Or murder? Does that just go ignored?” Frontier City 02 wasn’t the most lawful of places, but at least if someone died, the police would show up. What was the point of keeping humans from dying to monsters if some psycho went around offing people?
“Depends on the gang and how they handle their territory. So long as shit runs smooth enough, neither pigs nor corps need to get involved, then they can do whatever.” Vesper answered with a shrug. “Anyway, not much you need to know right now other than the Well has gone without a good cleanup in a few months. We’ve already spotted other gangs trying to show up to make a dime, and we can’t let that go on.”
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Ok, killing monsters. That was more up my speed. I was actually looking a bit forward to it. There was that little part of me that was concerned that they’d let known monster presence go on untouched. But if they were going to clean them up now… then that’d be even better.
“What do you need me to do?”
“The doc said you were a good frontliners, so we’ll start by trying to get a sense of your combat style. Go do your thing.” Vesper declared. “Just assume you’re doing this alone. Quinn and Isia will be overwatch in case shit goes down.” She slapped the trunk of the car. “Take your pick.”
The hood opened up to… plastic.
It was a trunk full of firearms… no, calling them that would’ve been an insult. These were toys that could shoot bullets. I grimaced at the sight of them, they weren’t even imitations of real guns. Each one of them was a wild mish-mash of pieces attempting to solve the heat and melting problem while not using anything other than more plastic.
I lifted one up, a bastardization of an assault rifle.
It was so light it might as well have been made of paper. It wasn’t just the weight that was wrong, the texture, even the pull of the trigger was like pulling on a feather. The whole piece felt like it was made of foam, a sneeze away from popping.
“They’re my own design.” Quinn quipped smugly. “Peak cost-effectiveness. If it breaks, you can just bring the pieces back and reuse the materials.”
“No.” Suppressing the shudder (and the impulse to smash the thing), I put it back down. My lips curled, brows furrowed. “Wielding something this unreliable is borderline suicide.”
“Have it your way.” They slammed the trunk shut in a huff. “When your three bullets run out and you’re eventually surrounded, remember to beg. I won’t lift a finger to save your ass otherwise.”
The tainted glass that hid their features, reflecting my scowl right back at me.
“Noted,” I said flatly, turning towards the ‘Well’ and marching forward, certain that the silence behind me meant all three of them were talking amongst themselves again.
As I rounded the first corner, I pushed the annoyances away, breathing to focus, and catching the lingering rotting scent of monsters.
I was looking forward to some stress-relief.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Vesper spared a glance at Quinn as set-up on the car’s roof, pulling out his signal-boosters and activating the drones and surveillance systems they’d hidden throughout the Well. After a moment, they connected the dozens of vid-feeds into the group-chat, and all three of them had a full view of everything surrounding the newcomer.
> *Vesper: Activate the turrets.*
>
> *Quinn: Fuck off.*
> *Quinn: I said what I said.*
> *Quinn: Not gonna save his ass until he begs.*
Her jaw set.
> *Vesper: The doctor wants him alive, and is paying.*
> *Vesper: If the guy dies because of your stupidity, I’m not gonna cover for you.*
>
> *Quinn: You wouldn’t sell me like that.*
Isia joined in. By the looks of it, she’d already reached her perch, adding a live-feed of her scope.
> *Isia: She might not, but I will.*
> *Isia: Or did you forget the goop test?*
>
> *Quinn: That was months ago!*
>
> *Isia: And you still haven’t paid me back.*
>
> *Quinn: It wasn’t my fault!*
> *Quinn: I was framed!*
Despite the technophile’s complaints, the shared feeds showed that the discreet-turrets were starting their activation process. Vesper sighed in relief, as much as Quinn had been invaluable to the gang, they could also be the biggest annoyance.
This whole situation had been a grand mess.
Everyone had thought the doc had died during the Aeon-tower incident. Losing their main source of revenue had been a devastating blow, and Quinn in particular had not taken things well. So when the doc just showed up out of the blue several months later, issuing marching orders and then going underground? The techie had gone ballistic.
It had not helped that their first interaction with “Axel” had involved him killing Cecilia.
> *Isia: We’ve got movement.*
> *Isia: Three G’s sneaking up on him.*
The feed highlighted and singled out three brown blobs. The surveillance cameras didn’t have the best image quality, but the ones on the drones did have better zoom, locking in on three lizard-shaped monsters scurrying along the rubble.
Unfortunately, the feed with the highest image definition was not keeping track of the monsters.
> *Quinn: How can you tell? You’re zoomed in on his ass.*
> *Quinn: Have some professionalism.*
>
> *Isia: Never.*
Vesper frowned as she noticed Axel’s gun was still strapped to his hip. He had, however, picked up something along the way.
> *Vesper: Is he wielding a pipe?*
>
> *Isia: Seriously?*
> *Isia: Maybe the doc was keeping him for his looks.*
>
> *Quinn: Get your head out of the gutter*
She sighed inwardly, by all appearances Isia was pushing the whole thing to needle Quinn, but it was always hard to tell with their marksman. Vesper hoped this was just another one of her games.
Still, wielding the pipe didn’t look good by any measure.
Most monsters had a relative degree of resistance against blunt and concussive force. G’s in particular were more like stress-balls, hitting them hard just would not cut it. Had he lied about his kill count? Vesper doubted it, but maybe his experience had been limited to just firearms.
> *Quinn: The doc isn’t the sort to keep some sort of boy-toy.*
>
> *Vesper: Agreed there.*
> *Vesper: She’s sexually attracted to science.*
>
> *Isia: Lol.*
> *Isia: But that ass is maths.*
> *Isia: Had to make a 3D model to confirm.*
>
> *Quinn: I KNEW YOU WERE LYING!*
> *Quinn: My scanners weren’t broken!*
The leader of their little group would’ve been more concerned if the turrets hadn’t already finished activating. If worse came to worst, then their newcomer was going to learn a harsh lesson in making do with-
SKREEEAAAAGH
SPLAT
> *Isia: ...*
> *Isia: No fucking way.*
>
> *Quinn: That… that doesn’t make sense!*
Vesper blinked, froze-frame the whole feed, rewound, and played it back at half speed.
Axel was walking, slightly hunched, attentive of what was ahead but not behind. Three crawlers approaching, sticking to the walls, moving in to get an angle. One of them pounced, claws out.
The next moment, Axel was no longer looking ahead and the monster was gone.
She rewound, and this time played it frame by frame.
One frame he’s looking ahead, monster midair.
The next two frames were a blur.
And then the monster was gone, the ground splattered in frothing blood.
She played it over.
Blur, then death.
Blur.
Death.
Quinn and Isia were arguing in the chat, one throwing hypothesis after hypothesis trying to make sense, the other pouring hype at the single-handed massacre that was starting to take place. Meanwhile, Vesper remained quiet, chills running down her spine as she typed into the group-chat.
> *Vesper: I think we just found our gang’s new face*
If she ever saw the doc face to face, she’d kiss the woman.
This newcomer was the solution to all their problems.
“HEY QUINN!” Axel shouted, loud enough that it was almost heard all the way from where they were watching. “IS THIS COST-EFFECTIVE ENOUGH FOR YOU!?”
They might have some wrinkles to smooth out first.