In the scrapyard, the mutilated junk corpse of Corinth's body crashed, attracting smoke and decaying from the virus that Xyres implanted.

A bunch of colorful punk dudes gather around from their new treasure.

"Oh my god what in the fuck is this luck!" One of them was overly delighted.

"It's a fucking battledroid... This is an old design... Seems to be attacked by another advance mecha-virus type?"

One of the punks walked forward and leaned towards to sniff the smoke that it released.

"What the fuck? There's water leaking on its eyes, what is that? It smells fried..."

The hacker of the group with his vibrant visor inspected the body as well.

"Then a cyborg? Eww! But who would spend such an expensive attack against this old man's cyborg body? You literally have the need? -to freaking use an alpha type virus used by these new mech-viruses to this junk? Haha fucking loser... except..."

Except if this cyborg has something important hiding in its body for such a high class mech to attack it. And there is no common thug that does these things with how diamond expensive these techs are.

They all look at each other and their eyes immediately widen upon realization. This is a deep problem.

The leader immediately knew the danger they'd put themselves in and immediately commanded his fellows.

"Start the fucking car! Get the mini Aether EMP, this is a fucking corpoid property shit!"

The other guys panic after hearing those words. The one who seems to lead the group is both thrilled yet trickle the sweats of trepidation.

"Shouldn't we leave it be, leader?"

"Leave it be? Bryan, it landed on an illegal scrapyard hiding through an EMP and a suspicious Private Network after a name of a fucking coffee shop! Whether we touch it or not, they will come after our asses for either interrogation, or straight up erasure but most certainly both!"

He rubbed his hands roughly in this cold night seeking warmth and consolation for his anxiety.

"We are smugglers and scrappers as well so it won't matter anyway... Well even if we are normal guys nothing would change." At least he still tries to be optimistic with his subordinates.

The words that Bryan heard certainly made his stomach churn from nervousness. His violet mohawk is flopping from the fear as well.

"We need to leave and hide this body as soon as possible, sell it to black market, evacuate from this place and disperse, we don't need the money. We just need to leave it in their hands and perish leaving our traces." The leader tried to be as careful as possible in this short amount of time they've been given before the countdown of their lives begins.

The custom van drift towards them and the guys earlier suited up with a full face green visor outline to hide their faces. They picked the body of Corinth together and moved it inside where the spinning arrow-like gadget is embedded at the roof. It is the mini EMP.

..............

Their vehicle throttled the streets and immediately crossed away from traffic, being inconspicuous as possible.

The gang inside are having their discussion, split between their profit and survival but there is no violent disagreement. They know the danger they've set, they just don't know the severity of what they've messed up.

..."Sure it's a lot of money, but living gives us better opportunities! Fucking hell, look at the virus mech that attacked this... Uhmm, C class goofy cyborg, there's no way that this belongs to your local rich boy. Virus mech patents are a secret technology not released to the public yet or any common manufacturers, it's gotta be in the top 4 megacorps!"

[The XZ laboratory, a mega corporation that monopolized all of technological innovations including their patents, from newborn, cyborg, tech medical, warfare and common technology used by public today, they also have the authority if a certain technically should be allowed to be manufactured by in industrial level.

Nircess Cosmetics spanning across surgeries, digital media and aesthetics being the entertainment industry itself where Li Xiyun belongs as the star of the corporation.

Exrace Media a neutral mega corp which encompass the video games, streams, cyber and virtual internet space. They are more flexible in giving information to the public than Nirces who focus on entertainment shows.

And last is the SJ group. A corporation sponsored by the 4 cities of Rhythms to be the proxy of each representatives from the city, they are the diplomats, and surveyor of demographic volume including their performance and efficiency. SJ group is a mega corp that is hard to explain as they are almost in everywhere, having the ability to censor specific "harmful content" "misinformation" or whatever excuse they can put to take down the content they dislike. They can also mobilize lethal forces without repercussions from the authorities because they are -again... "Proxy" of the representatives of the cities. Most small to large companies belongs to them and they even have influence to the other mega corpos as well, anchoring the relationship of these 4 mega corpos close.] -Welcome to the Night Cities of Rhythms (Volume 002) by Emery Shaw.

............

They anxiously keep looking at the back window of their closed van wondering if there are pursuers already before swiping the curtains back again.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Just don't think that much, we are just going to escape another, this ain't our first ball against them newbs!" The leader gave a comforting gang gesture to his worried crew.

They are still tensed but forced themselves to smile awkwardly, at least for the effort of their leader.

.....

After a considerable distance, they start analyzing the scraps to recover Corinth's junk.

"Damn, this cyborg brain stinks." Their driver with yellow hair complained.

"Anyway, what hacker did you find?" The leader with the orange tone is invested in the value of this old cyborg.

Corinth's body was hooked up with connectors to the computer, his crew began to break down anything that might be valuable for them.

"You won't believe this leader, this virus mech is so advanced that it is able to detach itself, recreate through foreign nanobot particles and link its host to the original source of command... I don't find any cameras or sensor on this scorpion tho so it must've relied through the implant senses of this cyborg to feel its surroundings."

"Fucking crazy corpos... Alright what's the magic of this cyborg then?"

Sweats trickled on the blue hacker's face, the hesitation on his face speaks to the value of what they've dug themselves onto.

"That's the crazy part, he has no Aether module, his memory module data vanished, it is custom made, the components are both top tier and iconic materials yet somewhat old school in framework. Don't get me wrong but even the framework doesn't follow the same structures from 20 years ago. I'm sure they keep upgrading this old module, meaning that this cyborg based on the pattern of his module might have been a 6 to 5 year old as a cyborg, and for them to keep upgrading and augmenting this cyborg means..."

A silence for a tension permeates, only the hum of the truck's engine can be heard as the ambience, they really got involved into some deep level conflict that bottom barrels like them shouldn't be involved.

"This cyborg is an incredibly skilled terminator if it really is that old."

Cyborgs by nature are weapons, but are already outdated due to the weakness of their brain so the scientists forced their research to transfer human consciousness to a module. Cyborgs are common nowadays for fashion and compensation for disabilities if they cannot afford a newborn body.

They are still effective in battle and a force to be reckoned if they are skilled which is why they are very popular as guards, they are more cheaper than full fledge androids or new generation cyborgs and still offers layers of protection.

For an old generation cyborg like this to be attacked by something so advance that the public have never yet saw means that this cyborg is also important that it needs to be taken down by a potent weapon.

Skilled cyborg. You cannot find them anywhere except they are geniuses or if they are the terminators of the corporations they are working for.

The hacker nods

".... Yes boss..."

"..... Sigh... We've got into some serious shit..."

"And that's not all."

"Of course, fuck..." He tried to humor with the absurdness of this development but he himself doesn't even find it funny nor able to make everyone light hearted.

"There's this little chip that is encrypted. If I removed it or put it back, it would be encrypted no matter what but if I put it on an unregistered memory module, I was able to unlock it and look at what I found."

They all lean forward to fill their eyes with the screen of the computer. Even the driver let the van drive for itself.

This is the real goal of everything that happened to this cyborg.

There they saw a wall of text, research and documentary of a researcher.

But it contained so much detail about one specific topic that everyone had gotten crazy about and undeniably the most influential story that put the world in a raving defiance for freedom.

"Fucking fuck... This is... This fucking looks credible, but so fucking absurd..."

"I know right..." The hacker tried to laugh it off nervously but they can't deny it.

"So all of these... Research or some shit is about Starlium Gear? Then the reason why this super advanced virus mech attacked the cyborg..." The driver pieced together the fragments they've found.

Suddenly everything makes sense with that interpretation, their already fearing souls were now even pressed further with dread. They should've just run away the moment they realized it's something that they shouldn't have touched. But no.

They've been cursed by knowledge they weren't even able to comprehend yet. They just know thag what they saw right now. Is the real deal.

Curiosity kills the cat.

The leader's breathing was brief and faster, he's desperate and the crew's fear grew seeing their leader turn pale.

A hoarse and desperate voice escaped.

This is it. No escape, death sentence is already on their head. The leader knows that.

Even so, what can they even do? Regret is too late, their ignorance cost their life. Outside this truck, all eyes are at them. Dying so much for absolute bullshit.

Is there something they can do?

The leader contemplated his last denials and hope but his mind never consoled him. Everything is over for them. Bitter lips twist his face about to break to an ugly cry.

The sound of a loud buzzing and roaring engines had arrived. It is death.

Despite they can't do anything now for themselves. But they can do something for the world right? The leader had realized his last potential. His bitter face was replaced by laughter. There is no hope for them but there's still a funny thing they can do to fight them off.

"Max out the speed of the truck! JayC! upload this to the internet with all of your accounts! We are going to get fucked by them up!"

The hackers and the crew looked at him confused because they rushed anyway.

"We have no escape! You all know to yourself that this research is true and not a fucking prank! All because of Starlium Gear so they won't fucking care how much people they need to send just to get their hands on this! We are fucked in the ass boys! Fucked!" His hysterics were weird yet they don't find it uncomfortable. Their leader is just trying to humor their last moment that their initial sadness is being swayed by him.

Outside the truck, numerous planes are already following them, lighting up their trucks turning to snow.

"Leader, they are already following us! What should we do?" The crew is breaking his tears in front of them who are also crying except their leader.

The leader combed his hair with his hand and clenched it, then he laughed.

"We fight of course. You already uploaded them JayC?"

The hacker in tears for the coming of his doom could only nod.

"Don't cry JayC! Be proud that you will die fucking over those corpoids assess AHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Yes leader... Sniff... Sniff"

The leader braced his courage and opened the back door. With his modulated voice he screamed.

"You want this Starlium Gear for yourself? Fuck you AHAHAHAHAHA!"

His crew can only look behind him, enjoying himself, they can't help but to join his laughter as well. Sharing these last smiles feeling good. Scums like them are still allowed to enjoy laughter right?

The leader looks at his crew. They are afraid and crying. They don't accept this yet there's nothing they could do. But at least they understood that they really made something meaningful in their death.

The value of this knowledge, spread across the wild internet, if the people read this and took it seriously, then... It's going to be a pure wild fest! They won't see the next level of the revolution that this will bring but at least, they are the one who started it. The thought of it fills him with hype.

"It's too bad everyone... It's too bad that our names won't go down in history."

They wiped their tears and chuckled. Their leader was relieved.

"Alright everyone! Be proud that we gave everyone a chance for the Starlium Gear in exchange for our lives! Sorry for our mommas and loves but here we are, sniff, sniff."

He looked again towards the blazing lights of the plane and the land vehicles intimidating them.

"Now get up and pick a weapon! Don't care if it's for the client, just fucking use their auctioned toys hahahaha! It's my treat today!"

Seeing the attitude of their leader, a small bit of relief and courage fueled them.

"That's right boss!!! Can't believe you're so lenient today!"

"Wahahah true true! That was such a smart move boss!"

"Leader is lenient today, what's happening, are you going to die today?" The blue driver sarcastically digs at him.

The leader grins wide delighted from their cheeky remarks, he enjoys their dark jokes about their sealed fate.

"Yes! I am! Then now..." He opened the radio, slowly bopping his head.

........

A massive arm grinder manifested and sliced the roof of the truck, bunch of smuggled weapons were attached to their implants overloaded to them, It was the final stand of the Boss Korrosive and his crew as smugglers, a vengeful yet honorable death they felt.

[Now playing: Night Set, Fires Breaks, Take a Step! - Erico Talia]

"Play the goddamn music JayC! I'm feeling rock!"

"Yes boss! On it!"

Their colors and the music resonated with the emotions they were feeling. Bitterness, fear, sadness, anger, hope and courage.

"Wooooooooweeee!!!!"

"Yeaaahhhhhh! Let's fucking... GOOOOOO!!"

They screamed their hoarse voice, doing their best impression.

They listened to the music of this rockstar that is said to awaken the beast that sleeps on the metallic hearts when they hear him sing.

And it seems like it's true.

A tangle glow inside the van, the color of the six of them synthesized, leaving a colorful trail of colder colors. The dragons resting on their weapons, lighting up their eyes and leaving a burning aura in the air.

They can feel the surge of screaming in their hearts to shout at the world, hearing that blazing guitar banging their heads, posing up for one last time.

The perfect metal album. If only someone could picture it. What title of a song would suit them if they were a band?

"Spread Hysteria! Spread Insanity!" -Praise for the Courageous Ignorants by Open Flame Band