I shut the thick synthwood door, my eyes catching on the wrought iron accents covering it. And it wasn’t just the door. Wrought iron bars done in a gothic style covered the windows too, hopefully providing decent cover. Assuming they were real iron, that is.

I turned to face the rest of the room which was done in dark reds and deep blacks, casting a moody feel. The dim lighting didn’t help anything either. A red shade covered the only light in the room, shading the entire room like it was covered in blood.

The entire place was dusty as if it hadn’t been used in a really, really long time. If the gang outside attacked all visitors like they were posturing toward us, then the motel probably hadn’t seen anyone except for the posers since they moved into the area. It would explain why the parking lot was so desolate at least.

Torren carried Feras to the room’s bed which just so happened to be a large open casket padded with dark purple fabric. I moved to the barred windows, throwing the thick curtains closed to block vision in and out of the area. “Pull off that shade.”

Torren punched the light shade, sending it tumbling to the other side of the room. Clear, white light spread through the area, giving me a far better view. “Got it. Feras good?”

”Maybe…” I muttered as I set down the medkit and looked him over. The cut went down below a layer of fat. "Does he have a Medevac Insurance?"

"I doubt it. Not too many outside of the corps or Edgerunners do. We're too far down the totem pole for that."

"Nova." I took a breath and pulled on a pair of gloves from my kit. Regardless, Feras wouldn’t be able to hold out too much longer as is. If nothing happened to the grifter, he wouldn’t be alive long enough for it to matter what we decided to do with him.

Using the last of the saline solution, I cleaned off what I could of the wound, clearing the area to get a better view. Then, I took the sterilization spray from the kit and sprayed it all over the cut area. Feras groaned in his sleep, attempting to twist away as I held him down.

The fox eyed me, two cool pinpricks of Insight making me intimately aware of its actions. Then, as if accepting I wasn’t actually hurting the Magus, it dropped its gaze and moved closer to the door. Its scruff bunched up, aggression evident on its face as it scented the air.

”They’re gathering out there, Zuku.” Torren said. I looked up to spot him peeking through the curtains. “We have a plan?”

”When would I have had time to make a plan?” I growled as I pulled out butterfly bandages and a gauze wrap.

Torren sighed. “I was just asking… how’s he?”

I lightly shifted the unconscious Feras, exposing his side better as I cut off part of his shirt. Then, I pressed down with a gauze pad applying pressure to the wounded area. “Uhh… not great.”

”How not great is not great?” Torren asked. “And what about-“

“I don’t know!” My hand shook as I held down on the wound. “Just- just give me a minute.”

”We might not have a minute.” The bruiser muttered as he slid the curtain back shut and leaned against the wall. “I counted fifteen. Ten armed with guns. Five melee. Less than half looked capable.”

Okay. Okay. Only fifteen. That wasn’t bad… no actually, that was terrible. Let’s take stock? I had a bruiser whose capabilities I still didn’t know, a downed Magus, a fox sprite, and me who was dogshit at combat… but at least I was geared. I glanced at Torren, seeing him entirely ungeared. The 'bruiser' didn't have a gun or even armor.

What to do… what to do… Our leader was out cold, and Torren didn’t seem to have any plans of becoming the fill-in. That just left me to make the decisions... Damnit!

Chill, Shiro, chill… Could I call for backup? I might be able to get the Inquisitor to bring a squad. Hmm… “H-how many do you think you could take?”

Blood seeped up through the bandage, soaking my glove in sickly warmth and drawing my attention back to Feras’s gaping wound as the big guy replied. “I could easily take the melee goons except their leader without effort. Uh- maybe at least half the ranged ones if I had time to prepare.”

Okay, okay… could he really take on two-thirds of them by himself? He was the bruiser, but I had yet to see him do his role- no, I needed to trust him. Not like I had much of a choice in the matter anyway. And it was his job. Surely Feras wouldn't have just hired some guy without any capabilities, right? But surely he also would've checked our meetup point and made sure it was a good spot...

Should I flee? Get out while he distracted- no. No. I won’t just abandon the team when the going got potentially lethal. It wasn’t me. I couldn’t do such a foul thing. At least not while there was still a chance. And it's not like I could get out on my own without some serious luck considering they had the exit barricaded. I had a higher chance of survival sticking with Torren.

”How much time to prepare?” I asked as I pulled off the pad from Feras as the bleeding slowed, swapping it out for a new one as I once more sprayed his cut with the sterilization spray. Then, I used butterfly bandages, pulling together his wound and bandaging the edges of the cut together. I quickly wrapped him in gauze to support the patch job. It wasn’t a particularly good patch job, but it was the best I could do with the current situation.

”Just long enough to cast Wind Ward.” Torren closed his eyes for a moment and then nodded his head. “It’s tier four, so maybe a couple of minutes? I won’t be able to react to anything while casting.”

I peeled off the gloves and grabbed my bag off my back. I pulled the SB-17 AR out and clicked off the safety with a heavy breath. “Okay… I’ll try and get some support.”

”Got it.” Torren moved to the side of the room, sitting down on the couch. He shut his eyes, going entirely still. I kicked on Aetherial Perception, spotting the gathering of energy around the big guy similar to when he cast that breeze spell the other day. Only this time he was gathering far more than the last.

I moved to the window seal and peeked out of the heavy curtain. The gangers were getting more and more rowdy, several of them hooting and hollering as they brandished their guns. None of the gonks seemed to be wearing body armor, but I did notice one of the melee guys, a vampire, had the minute warping of subdermal armor.

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Several of them were chromed up, thankfully only looking to be basic Medtech and ASCorp models. At most, I could expect them to be slightly stronger or faster than a normal human. They looked like scavenged pieces based on the nonnative parts, so they probably wouldn’t have access to anything crazier. Probably got them from Scavs.

I pulled out my burner phone and called Inquisitor Ligh. No answer. I tried again with Shinobu to get the same result. I thought about calling Mira, but chances were she wouldn't get here in time. I had one last contact that might answer though: Hope.

”Hello?” Hope's tired voice called as the line connected.

”Oh, thank God… I need help.” I let out a brush of air as my heart rate settled slightly.

“What's going on?” She asked, not even a moment of hesitation in her voice. I heard shuffling in the background shortly followed by the clicking of a gun.

“I'm pinned in at the Mortas Motel. Little Yukoto. I don't have my badge or anything on me.”

Hope sighed. "I see why you didn't call the Crusade..."

Most gang activity was met with overwhelming force on both sides. Even before I hung around them, I knew the Crusade thought along the lines of stab first and ask questions never. There was a high chance we would be indiscriminately shot by Crusaders if they pulled up and we were in a firefight. If only I brought my badge and walkie talkie things might’ve been different. But no. I had to leave those at home, didn’t I?

A moment of silence passed. “Okay… I'm a few minutes out. Detes?”

“We’re pinned in by a poser gang. Fifteen of them. Moderately armed?” I checked all of their weapons. Seven of the ten ranged ones had cheap-looking SMGs that my body armor could probably take a few rounds of. The other three were loaded with ARs. Raijin, based on the black and blue color scheme.

“Can you hold out?”

“Probably… I’m with a… contact. One of the ones helping me infiltrate the school. He said he could take ten, but if he can’t…”

”Right... pretend I don't know you then. Have you called the Inquisitor?”

I peeked out the window, seeing them start to hype each other up. Their hoots and howls sounded like a pack of animals ready for a hunt. “I tried. No reply."

"Of course..." Hope sighed drearily. "Probably don't need to call in backup, especially so we don't blow your cover... Okay. I'll be there in a bit." The line went dead. A moment later I heard the roar of cars as a few of the ones blocking the way drove further into the area.

I slowly breathed, trying to calm down my racing heart as I watched the poser gang start to close in on our borrowed room. The vampire with subdermal amor led the way. He carried a rather massive katana that looked to be the most expensive weapon the lot of them had. He clicked a button on the side and the blade slowly started to glow red hot. Nova. Just nova.

My heart rate only seemed to climb higher as they approached. I was in a terrible situation with both of my companions out of it. If they rushed now, only the Fox sitting by the door would be able to do anything to help. Insight sang like a siren of the incoming threats, only making my anxiety grow worse.

After a moment of hesitation, I activated Cold-Blooded. The heat in my body immediately dispersed as if I had been hit by an endothermic grenade. My heart naturally slowed as a shiver raced all over me. A cool calm filled me, one that had almost faded to the recesses of my mind. Maybe it was thanks to the inevitable feelings of death? The cool faded deep enough to reawaken memories I'd almost managed to bury.

Right. I’d faced death before. This time the odds were far more favorable than they had been. You got this Shiro. It was just some gonk gangers. Easy stuff. You got this. You got this. I got this. I shivered as my brain calmed to cool rationale. This was a kill-or-be-killed situation. I couldn’t afford to hesitate. I brought my rifle to bear, running a last-second check to make sure I would be good.

Torren let out a shuddering breath from my side. I momentarily flicked on Aetherial Perception to see the very air itself condensed into a turtle-like shield around the big guy. The hexagonal panels of the shield fused, becoming stronger with each passing moment before coming to a rest as a slight green haze naked to the human eye.

Torren’s eyes flickered open as he returned to awareness. He paused a moment before rubbing at his arms. “Did it get cold in here?”

”You ready?” I asked, my voice sounding oddly slow to my own ears as my head raced with half-baked plans and ideas.

Torren immediately nodded. “As I’ll ever be. You have a plan?”

”Hit them hard and fast before we get trapped in here. All it would take is a single grenade... Think you could take him?” I asked as I pulled the curtain back slightly and pointed to the man with subdermal armor. He definitely seemed the leader of the group considering his chrome and blade.

Torren stared at the man for a moment before slowly nodding. “No problem. I won’t be able to do much with all of them up though. Those ARs especially will pop through my Wind Ward.”

”Chek… what about-“

A voice called out from the parking lot, cutting me off entirely. “Come out now and surrender! If you do, we promise to take good care of you! Right boys?”

Several obnoxiously loud laughs sounded from beyond the motel room’s window, each one prickling Insight with danger. And yet, in my cool head, I could pick up some certain tones of uncertainty amongst our attackers. There were Cues of several of them being unsure about this. I looked out, and yeah- some of them were scared. Of me or Torren? Doubtful. Probably scared of Feras. A good Magus could easily wipe them out. Too bad Feras was both unconscious and entirely incapable of fighting them off at the moment.

”We’ll give you five minutes to decide! Oh, and so you don’t get any ideas! Charlie!” The voice called again. I looked out through the window to see it was the katana-toting one in subdermal armor.

One of the AR guys in the back hunched over, pulling a bag off his back. He pulled free a device of some kind before turning it on. Just as the thing kicked on, I got a certain layer of feedback looping through my PA. I checked my phone to see it was out of service entirely. Must be some kind of jammer?

As if in reaction to the first guy, a second AR-wielding one guarding the exit pulled out a device from one of the cars. He tapped on it for a second before setting it up back behind the car out of my sight. Almost immediately, the light pattering of rain from the exit and the occasional boom of thunder entirely stopped. Only the ambiance of the Mortas Motel mixed with hoots and hollers from the poser gang remained. Some kind of noise isolator?

These guys were prepared… too prepared. Either they must do this often, or this was some kind of ambush- I shook my head, pulling free of that dangerous spiral of thought. They must just do this often. As far as I know, no one would want to ambush me outside of him, but he made it quite clear as long as I stayed away he wouldn't bother hunting me down. It wasn't mercs from Sentinel either. Twenty mil would see a lot more skilled mercs and Edgerunners headed my way long before a group of lowlife posers.

“That complicates things.” The bruiser ducked back behind the window and leaned up against it as he wiped his palms. “So?”

I stared at the soon-to-be battlefield for a few more moments, creating a mental blueprint of the scene as my mind slowly chugged along. After a moment, I came to a decision and backed away from the window.

I fished around in my bag for my commlink, setting up a local channel. The range wasn't as good, but it would get through the jammer. After searching Feras, I found his and set it up too before tossing the link to the bruiser. “Here.”

Torren caught it, not even hesitating before pushing the earpiece into his ear. “Chek… good call.”

I nodded as I heard his voice twice, once aloud and another through the earpiece, and then backed up to the bathroom. Once out of sight, I doused myself with the haze liquid from the canteen.

Immediately, my reflection grew distorted in the mirror. It wasn’t much, but every little bit would help. Hopefully, the effect of the liquid and my Perks would give me the advantage in the firefight that would ensue soon.

”Woah.” Torren whistled lowly as I stepped out of the bathroom. He looked at me, though his eyes kept swimming away as if he was forcing himself to. “What happened to you?”

”Is now really-“

A loud engine roared one last time from outside the room. The leader of the gang called out, excitement evident in his voice. “One more minute!”

I shared a glance with Torren and the fox. With a minute left to spare, I checked my rifle one last time as I quickly spilled my newest half-baked plan.