I stepped through the gate. One moment, I was within the confines of my Hub and the next I was in a filthy alleyway. Weak daylight filtered between the surrounding buildings. Early or late, I couldn't say.

There was no sense of transition, nothing to indicate that movement had occurred. I found that to be something of a conundrum.

However my thoughts were interrupted by a foul odor. I had not smelt its like since the Sinnamon incident. Someone was dead nearby, and had been for a while.

Nothing new there. I shouldn't have been bothered by it, I knew what this place was like. It was a grinder, people went in one end and meat came out the other.

"Fucking hell." I grumbled. My senses were obvious highly jacked compared to before. I couldn't ignore it and time didn't seem to deaden the hair curdling vapors.

Might as well see what had happened and then try to get my bearings.

I was suppose to be near the Afterlife, and I remember Megan... grr Velma saying that was where Rogue was.

Wonder how much she's like the one we met in the Mana Sink?

Though it would be a shame to have to meet her without John. I'd like to see that reaction, after the behavior of the lady we had encountered.

I let my nose guide my feet and soon enough found the corpse of a older man. He had been down on his luck, judging by his attire. Maybe even living on the streets, if you can call that living.

Hmm a single strike to the abdomen had dispatched him, leaving his entrails laying out for the world to see. I had no way to get any data on him, and his ports were empty. If he had had anything in there to begin with.

I could detect no motive and he had made no discernable attempt to defend himself. No scrapping around his hands.

Someone had killed him just to do it, insofar as I could tell. Though I could easily be wrong, not knowing too much about how to read a crime scene.

Mana flooded me as I cast a Purify on him. I arranged him as best I could, returning his insides to their proper place and placing his hands to cover the wounds. He had been there long enough for rigor to have passed.

"Wherever your soul has gone, rest well." It was all I could offer without knowing more about him.

Hell my actions weren't really about him, were they. I was trying to maintain some dregs of my humanity.

Another Purify to clean my hands. At least the first spell had remove the immediate stench.

Now the general bouquet of the city was noticeable. Acrid chemicals and human despair. I shook my head as I pondered the feasibility of casting a Purify on the whole fucking city.

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Leaving the alley. I saw that I was near by the river or was it a bay? Looked like a river from here. The roadway was busy car zipping by at a good clip. I scanned around seeing crowds of people roaming the sidewalks and the air was full of drones conducing who knows what business. Further up in the sky all manner of AVs were darting about.

I growled at the sheer volume of noise and the weight of the sickly life that filled the area. I wanted to heal them all, and I wanted to slaughter the lot of them. I was beginning to think I was a bit cracked in the head.

"Nothing new there." I muttered to myself. I spied a few vending machines and decided to test whether my BTC could handle money transfers here.

My choices were crappy burritos, shitty sodas or a one shot plastic pistol. I snorted. What a joke. As if you could put anyone serious down with such a piece of garbage.

My stomach growled, I hadn't eaten my snack bars yet.

Crappy burrito it was. I touched the machine and my BTC shook. One wrapped bundle of questionable food was dispensed.

Well that was a load off my mind. I had money even if I had no interface with the NET. An agent wouldn't be too hard to find, maybe a jaunt to Kabuki was in the near future.

Hmm. Since I couldn't return to my Hub for days at a time, I'd need a place to stay. Rent or buy? Probably rent for now, until I got to know the city better. Maybe, I could find that Hotel I'd stayed at before.

First I had to figure out where I was exactly.

I found a small shop nearby selling a variety of basic goods. I walked in and searched for something innocuous to buy. A section with a few varieties of earplugs caught my eyes. That would do. I found a pair that had a good filter on them. Reducing loud noise, while let normal sounds through. Perfect.

The clerk was watching some brainrot that passed for news here. Mostly loud screaming about opinions from the little I heard. I did however manage to catch the time. 5:30 PM.

At the counter, I asked the clerk the way to the Afterlife and without even looking at me he described the way. I touched my BTC to a scanner to pay, and it worked like a charm. I thanked the clerk who didn't bother to reply and left.

I tried to move with the crowds and avoid the few pickpockets I noticed in the press.

It was a relief to find the back entrance the Afterlife and easy enough to work my way around to the front. In the enclosed walkway I put in my new ear pro and shifted my holster to theleft side of my chest.

A belt or leg draw with my long arms felt too awkward and thus slow. A good thigh draw would have my pistol on my knee. The cross draw while probably not the fastest, it still felt the best for now. I'd have to practice more until I found the optimal placement. I checked my pistol to feel the action and checked the mag to ensure it was indeed loaded. The caseless ammo through me at first but I adapted quick enough.

I nodded to myself, taking a few deep breaths to center my mind.

I turned the corner to see the stairway. Suppressing my desire to clean up all the trash, and ignoring the stares from a few mercs hanging around, I descended.

Noticed a few traps on the way down too. Old school ones. No electronics so not connected to the local net. A hazing ritual for the newbies or just a sadistic game?

I hit the hallway to the club's proper entrance, stopping to scan the way. More traps and a borged out fella at the end of the hall. The obviously broken vending machines worried me a bit but I figured I should be alright as long as I paid attention.

A moment later, I stood in front of the bouncer, who looked at me with a bizarre combination of respect and contempt.

"I don't know you."

Now I wasn't completely lost here, Sally and Megan... ugh, had mentioned a passcode if I found myself here without them.

I really didn't want the say it.

I whispered it to the bouncer, "Holes and poles showed voles the moles." Argh, so stupid.

He smirked, "Older code but it checks out." He stepped aside, "Have fun, newbie."