Joy arrived at the Furies compound shortly after dealing with the System’s nonsense, body in tow. She wasn’t going to let an unexpected variable cut into her deadlines. It was time for a takeover.

The slight delay was caused by her retrieving her vehicle, but she had it stowed pretty close by. Plus, she had to find a pair of sunglasses, which wasn’t the easiest in an underground city.

She threw the body of the wannabe predator in a pool of still water before dropping it in her trunk. It wasn’t clean by any means, but it got rid of the worst of the odor. It helped that it had only been a couple hours.

The gate to the Furies base shook as Joy banged on it. A gateman opened to yell at her, before seeing the body in her wake and thinking better of it.

“I need to talk to your boss.” She said simply, not elaborating in the slightest.

The gateman just nodded before running off. Presumably to get someone more qualified.

A few short minutes later, a contingent of guards arrived to guide her to the boss. Or so they said. Joy personally didn’t trust a word these buffoons said and kept her guard up the whole time. It was clear that the rules that the new boss made were flouted at every convenient opportunity. It was made even clearer by tuning in to random conversations.

“Did ya hear about Jun?”Gangbanger 1 asked.

“Nah, what happened to em’?” Gangbanger 2 replied.

“‘Parently he got caught by a snitch while he was breakin’ the rules.”

“Damn snitches. If it weren’t for them it would be so much easier to break these dumbass fuckin’ rules.” He continued, “I dunno why even fuckin’ follow em’. The new boss is a freakin’ weirdo.”

“Don’t say that! Do you wanna get snapped in half ya moron? The boss’ll tear ya a new one if he catches ya saying that!”

“I’m not scared.” He sniffed, then continued, “I could take em’.”

“No you fuckin’ couldn’t moron! You can barely take me! With the boss’ Augs, you’d never stand a chance!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure.”

“You saw him tear Jeff apart last week!”

Before Joy could hear the end of that riveting conversation, she finally reached the main compound. Picture in your mind a warehouse that was hit by a hurricane twenty years ago. Now imagine it covered in shitty graffiti. Got it really solid in your mind now? Now picture someone with a cyborg ninja fetish put shitty LED strips in every crevice.

Awful. Tacky. Vomit inducing. Joy was tempted to take over just to get rid of the decor.

Entering the warehouse, she realized that the outside was only the beginning. Every wall had luminescent paint absolutely covering it. They were crude murals of combat, most likely Alex’s famous ‘duels’. He was really going for a cyborg ninja king aesthetic and sticking with it. Joy could almost respect the lack of shame if it wasn’t so overwhelmingly pathetic.

There were no walls inside the warehouse, it was just a wide open space, so Joy could spot the boss immediately. Yeah, that guy outside wasn’t exaggerating it would seem. This behemoth most likely could rip someone in half. He was seven feet tall and absolutely covered in implants. Or ‘Augs’ as most called them.

He was a caucasian male, which meant that he was ghostly pale. No one dealt with the lack of sunlight especially well, but it hit pale-skinned people especially. Appearance-wise, at least.

Often, with the combination of malnutrition and dehydration, their skin became almost transparent, their blood vessels and veins sticking out with a much greater contrast than preferable.

Combine that with machinery that was barely blocked by his skin, and it gave him a particularly horrific visage. Like a monster of paper flesh and metal… That was seven feet tall. Joy could not stress how important that was to his intimidation factor.

“I heard you were the one that killed Devon. You got a reason for that?” The behemoth asked coldly.

“As a matter of fact, I do.” Joy smugly stated.

She pulled out her phone and played the clip of the man – Named Devon apparently – threatening her.

Stolen story; please report.

“Fuck. I knew I shouldn’t have accepted that guy! His vibes were way off! Brother kept saying that ‘We’re a gang, everyone’s vibe is going to be off’, but I knew better!” He shouted in rage.

A man in a raggedy suit stepped out from his shadow and said, “It seems you were right, brother. I apologize. His ‘vibe’ was atrocious, I’ll admit, but I wasn’t too well versed in reading people back then.” He said to his brother.

He then turned to Joy and said, “Hello, ma’am. My name is Omar, this big fellow over here is Alex. We extend our greatest apologies for the stress Devon must have caused. If you wouldn’t mind… could you drop his body?” He finished with a bit awkwardly.

“Sure.” She said nonchalantly, then threw the wet, stinking corpse at Alex. She may not be as strong as a Glyph Stage Marked, but she was still extremely strong. A normal Marked was still stronger than an Unmarked, even if the difference was slight. That slight difference compounds when you're much stronger than normal. Throwing a two-hundred-pound man six feet? The hardest part about that was getting a good grip.

Alex, now being the recipient of a corpse to the face, was apparently not thrilled with the gift.

“What the hell!? WHY?!”

“You asked me to drop him, but you didn’t say where.”

“Listen, I understand that our gang has put you through a tough-” Omar started, before being interrupted by Joy saying, “No, you don’t understand. What if I was just some random woman with no combat training? You don’t get to lecture me when you can’t control your gang. It seems to me that a change in management is necessary!”

“Alex, I challenge you to a duel to the death! The stakes? Leadership of this gang.” Joy shouted loud enough that even those outside could hear it.

“Alex,” Omar said, “Think about this for a second. She just waltzed in here, corpse in tow, and challenged you. She must have an ulterior motive!”

“And if I do? What, are you scared he’ll lose?” Joy goaded.

“I ACCEPT!” Alex shouted before Omar could get off his next word.

Alex stormed towards the impromptu sparring ring and Joy followed close behind. Those who heard the commotion from outside were now streaming towards it as well. The ring was really just a section of the warehouse where the concrete floor had been broken, and instead of fixing it, they just filled the hole with gravel instead. It wasn’t a large hole, either. Only about twelve by ten feet. Well, not large for a sparring ring, it was huge for a fucking hole in the floor.

There wasn’t an actual boundary that would prevent you from leaving it, but the encircling crowd of gangsters would serve that purpose just as well. Alex entered the ring opposite her, and one of his subordinates threw him his sword. It was a… cyber ninja katana that glowed neon blue. Joy would have killed him just for that, so it was no big loss that he was in her way.

“What, do I not get a weapon?” She asked the crowd.

“HAH! Take this, maybe you’ll survive more than a few seconds!” A man from the crowd said as he threw her a dagger.

“Thanks! When I’m in charge I’ll give you a promotion!” Joy said cheerily.

The brigands that surrounded them laughed even harder when she said that. Oh, they’d see.

This would by no means be easy, the augments that Alex had proved that, but Joy had years of grueling training at her back. This would not be her first time fighting someone stronger than her. Much stronger, in this case, as he had Strength Enhancement Augments. From what she had heard, the most common only made a person two to three times stronger, but from the sheer bulk of the man in front of her, she knew that would be hard to contend with.

Oh well, it was do or die. Literally.

Omar started counting down from ten outside the ring, and as it reached three, Joy focused.

Joy’s POV:

Vaguely, I could hear Omar’s voice say “1”, but I didn’t need the countdown to know when this started. Alex dashes at me, and I can tell from the way his muscles bunch in his shoulders, he’s going for a decapitation. I’ve never been more thankful for someone going shirtless. He reaches me in less than a second, but I’m already rolling through his legs. I drag my dagger along his inner thigh as I go by, and cut his back once I’m standing behind him.

Alex turns around quickly, his sword following him to slash where I was just milliseconds ago, but I'm already gone.

Subtlety is my friend. I am not faster or stronger, but I have more finesse.

Alex’s eyes narrow at me. He must have realized this won’t be quite as easy as he hoped. He rushes me once more, this time going for an overhead strike, but he telegraphs it way too much. That would have gotten him a week in the arena at the estate.

I sidestep the sword at the last moment so he can’t redirect his strike, while his sword clangs off the gravel, I get a few cuts on his arms. I can vaguely hear the crowd going ballistic, but that isn’t where I am focused.

Alex returns to his ready position. Oh? He’s going to be on guard for this exchange? No matter. I rush at him myself this time, and he attempts to cut me in half at the waste. I roll under his slash but don’t go in between his legs this time. This time, I stand up directly in front of him, not two inches away from him, and stab him in the side. The dagger cleanly slides in between his sixth and seventh ribs, puncturing his lung, but not hitting his heart. That would end things too quickly.

Alex lets go of his sword and screams. He attempts to just grapple me, but I slide out of range, dagger still in hand. We’re getting close to the end, and he knows that. He is bleeding profusely from his side and a few nicks on the rest of his body.

It’s time to end this with a bang.

Alex grabs his sword off the ground cautiously, and I let him. He prepares his largest onslaught yet. He dashes at me once more, leading with a stab at my heart. I sidestep it easily. When that misses, he – surprisingly cleanly – turns that stab into a slash to where I dodged. I crouch under it, but he is already striking at my position again.

Roll around a diagonal slash, jump over a horizontal slash aimed at my legs, riposte a stab at me while I’m in the air. That leaves my hands numb, but knocks me far enough away that I’m officially out of his range. Alex is panting now. His left lung must be on the verge of collapsing.

It’s time to end this. I need this to be terrifying. There are a few ways to control a group of violent maniacs, but the easiest is to be the most violent maniac in the group.

I take off my sunglasses and flex my mana. Now that I’m focusing on it, I realize that I can amplify the terrifying aura that comes off of me. I can’t feel it myself, but the crowd goes silent at the blanket of aura covering them. Alex looks into the swirling verdant abyss that [Demonic Eyes] transformed my eyes into.

And screams. It is not a shrill screech, nor a baritone shout. No, it is a guttural scream that leaves everyone around him terrified. Then, he falls to the ground, dead. The scream must have fully collapsed his lung, that combined with the stress and blood loss, it’s a miracle he survived that long.

— — — — — — — —

Joy looks to the crowd, a manic look in her eyes, and they freeze. They want to run, fuck, they want to run so badly, but they can’t move. Then Joy speaks.

“This is now my territory. If you wish to leave, go ahead, I don’t need cowards in my ranks! But… if you wish to really change things, be the first to seize the reins of the underworld, then join me! I will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams! Augmentations? Mods? All the food and supplements you could eat! It will be yours!”

At her permission, a few did indeed run, but the rest…

They were interested.

Very interested.