Koa Rain was on her way to the hospital to meet with her sister, who had recently gone missing. “You seem injured. Although I’m sure you already know that,” said Koa, looking down at Thomas’s missing legs.
Thomas had thought he’d seen her picture before. Koa Rain. Oh, God. This night just gets worse and worse, doesn’t it?
* * *
That failure has to be dead by now, Nero thought, gritting his teeth as he waited inside of his lab, a large hole that had been carved into one of the walls of the sewer. Cat People’s normal form lacks the defence of their deconstructed form, but regardless, its offensive power is unparalleled. Nero continued to call the cats back to him with the bell sound effect playing through his Unit. Suddenly, a small black cat rounded a corner, mewing contentedly as Nero picked it up and examined its minor injuries, laying it down on a small table with some medical equipment as the other cats arrived at Nero’s hideout.
Piotr couldn’t see the figure anymore. He spewed out the rancid sewer water from his mouth as he crawled out of the waterway and onto the dark alcove, wringing out his beard as he did so. “Where did he go?” Piotr wondered aloud, his voice echoing through the waterways. Then, he heard the sound of a bell ringing, calling him towards it. Piotr absentmindedly decided to follow its call, suspecting he could find the man in the raincoat at its source. “Of course, this whole thing may very well be a trap . . .” Piotr rubbed his chin as he walked. Then, he let out a terrible cry of agony as he took a step forward. “W-what the hell . . .?” Piotr lifted up his boot and saw that a rusted nail had sunk into the ball of his foot, tearing through the sole and even coming out the other side. Piotr composed himself and calmly tore it out with his Civ, using the kinetic energy from when it exited to close his wound. “A bit of bad luck, hm? I should buy thicker boots.” Piotr continued to follow the sound of the bell.
A few minutes later, he felt something crawl up his pant leg. Then something else. Then something else. Piotr looked down at his right leg to see several shapes shifting and squirming below the surface of his large soaking-wet pants. Then the figures stopped, and he felt a dozen pairs of sharp incisors tear into his flesh. This is a Civ attack, isn’t it? Is this really the best they can do? “Move the Headstones!” Piotr shouted, and suddenly, the teeth of the rats that were tearing into him flew out of his pant legs like bullets, bolts of energy streaming behind them, ultimately coming to rest—dead on the floor. This can’t be that guy’s Civ too, can it? There has to be another user. Piotr continued down the halls, undeterred by the increasing misfortune that befell him.
Hudson Beaudoin had felt the effects of this misfortune as well as he followed the sound of the bell towards his underling, Dr. Nero. And one of the things he noticed as he walked was a series of increasingly large cracks in the ceiling of the sewers. Something had likely clogged one of the drains and was causing the water above to pool and flood, placing extra weight on the ceiling above. “Has he given that luck Civ to something already? If that’s true, then I might need to be a bit extra careful,” Hudson mused as he rounded the corner to see Nero in his makeshift apartment, nursing a kitten to health.
Nero turned to see Hudson standing ominously at the other end of the waterway, having just rounded a corner to see him. The sound of the bell that Nero had been playing on his Unit had likely drawn him to his location as well. “Hey Boss!” said Nero, waving as Hudson walked up to him. “How’s it going?”
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“Those roaches you send to the assassin’s apartment—I went by about an hour ago to check on the progress of your assassination.”
“Pretty cool, right?”
“My son was in the building.”
Nero’s face went as ghostly white as his lab coat. “I-I’m sorry, Hudson . . . I didn’t know.”
“Why would you send something with such high potential for collateral damage to an assassination? What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I-I don’t know. Please, it was an accident . . .” Nero was slowly backing away, feigning helplessness as he reached for a heat gun next to a glass of water.
“I told you I’d kill you, Nero. And I’m a man of my word.”
“Rainbow in the Dark!” Nero shouted, grabbing the heat gun with one of his seven hands and attempting to bombard Hudson with a flurry of blows with the others. But before Nero could even get close, Hudson exploded like a water balloon, disintegrating into a puddle as water droplets covered Nero’s form. Nero started to cry in panic as he tried to dry himself off with his hands. “NO! NO, GOD, NO! I’M SO SORRY, HUDSON! PLEASE DON’T!” Nero cried.
Hudson slowly appeared behind his victim, peeking out from behind Nero’s shoulder. “Heavy Rain, Water Jet Cutter.”
The ceiling burst above Piotr as he rounded the corner to see that the sound of the bell had ceased. A torrent of water poured down, washing him back, and he shouted, attempting to shield his face from the falling debris that poured through the massive hole that had been created. Is this that Civ, too? Piotr washed into the stream, pulling himself out again as the water level on the alcove decreased. About a hundred feet away, he saw a man in a white lab coat lying face down on the ground, a pool of blood running into the waterway as the man in the dark raincoat stepped over him. “YOU! What the fuck did you do to that guy?” Piotr shouted as he slowly walked towards him, completely soaked.
This is the guy I saw with Rio. Did he follow me down here? Hudson prepared to escape through the sewers with his Civ. Wait . . . I need to find out what he knows. He’s already seen what I did to Nero. I might need to do the same to him. “Before I answer your questions, could you tell me who you are?” Hudson flashed a calm smile from below his dark hood, his pale face shining in the green glow of the sewers. I feel like I recognize him, from even before tonight.
Piotr looked him up and down. Staring at this body, he thought back to the roaches. “Your Civ . . . attacks with water, does it not? I know you, don’t I?” Piotr’s eyes widened as he thought back even further. “You killed Edith Matria! You-you’re Sauro’s brother!” Piotr was sweating as he realized the force of nature he had come into contact with. I have to get out of here!
“Oh, wow, a detective. Do you always go around throwing out blind accusations at people?” Hudson took a step forward.
“Thomas told me about you. And make no mistake, Leader of the Rainmaker Gang, I am no idiot.”
“Oh, YOU make no mistake, Piotr Ivanov?”
Piotr’s eyes widened at the use of his full name. Suddenly, he felt his arms and legs being sliced off of his body, blood leaking onto the floor as he fell onto the film of water that still coated the alcove.
“Yet, you forgot you were covered in water.”
Piotr screamed in agony as he rolled around without arms or legs, watching in shock as they rolled into the waterway and were torn to shreds upon striking it.
“In fact, your stupidity is one of the only reasons I feel comfortable keeping you alive. That and the fact that you helped my son, for which I am eternally grateful. So, instead of murdering you and tearing your body to shreds, I’ll leave you here as a thank you.” Hudson began to slowly walk away. “I remember you from your gang days, by the way . . .” He turned back. “You’ve fallen since then.” And then, he was gone.
Tears streamed down Piotr’s face. He’s right. I have fallen. I always need help. I’m always getting lost. I’m always fucking up. I almost die and I need Thomas to save me from Krokodil, the man I planned to take down myself. I need his help again when I get stuck in some old lady’s house. I can’t even beat a woman who could be my mother and doesn’t have a combat Civ! I need Blair and Rio to help me when I get shot because I’m so loud and stupid! And now I’m going to die because I keep screwing up. Piotr felt the blood leak from his arms and stump legs. I can never avenge my wife or earn the respect of my child. I don’t even know where they are!