Once Frank had left Rick's office, officially no longer employed by the company, he walked back to his own workplace, where he collected the few personal belongings he had placed there. A small calendar, displaying natural, by the hands of people untouched, beaches of far off tropical islands, possibly indicating to those who seen it his love for tropical climate or the absence of other people. Frank had purchased and displayed the callendar for such a purpose, to better sell the introverted, work focused image he had been trying to instill, all to better hide his brilliant mind from any possible exploitation. Once again, he could only thank his mom, as well the failiures of his old man, teaching him early just how dangerous and overstuffed this world was with both vultures and predators, wating for you to be at your most vulnerable to pounce and take a pound of flesh, with no regard of your survival. It was to be expected, for them, you were nothing more than prey, after all. Why would there be sympathy or regret over their actions towards lesser beings.

A derisive smirk crept on his face, one that displayed the emotion that Frank currently felt towards this world of his. While humans had advanced leaps and bounds, some would even say beyond the wildest imagination of their forefathers, it was still ruled and moved by the most ruthless and cunning individuals, a sort of jungle law still in full effect. The only things that had changed were the now forests of steel and concrete that the human race inhabited, as well as the main attributes that enabled one to be at the very top.

No longer was raw physical might and stamina the very pinnacle of human power. No, what enabled one to be at the very top, commanding the lives of thousands, was an innovative mind, combined with high charisma and a cutthroat attitude, enabling such people to gather other brilliant minds around them, while at the same time scheming for ways to take out their competition, growing ever larger and more powerfull as a result. Now, add the fact that cyber implants had just began their emergence, slowly, but surely sneaking their way into popularity, only gated by their relatively new status and lack of a long and succesfull history. Still, optical implants that sharpened ones vision, as well as skin grafts to make it more durable, comparable to hardened and cured leather in toughness, while still maintaining the elasticity of human skin, were making quite the noice in the upper echelons of the society.

'Now I just hate to get into "The junkyard" as one of its employees.' Frank thought as he slowly left the building once he had collected whatever personal things he had stored on his table, having left the pass and any other company issued identification token in the hands of staff manager. he had recieved a fair share of pittying looks, feeling slightly sorry for the young man. Though even more were filled with relief. Was it because the new branch manager's scapegoat to assert his position had not been them, or perhaps they believed that just being fired was prefferable to whatever else a person with Rick's reputation could come up with to torture anyone in the precarious position Frank had occupied.

Regardless, Frank now had to play the part of the desperate employee, scrambling to find a new leash on life, only to be rejected at every step of the way, untill hopefully, his salvation would come at the hands of the peoples last hope- The Junkyard. Franks mind raced, calculating the companies he could apply to, companies that would not risk offending the Fjord family for someone of his status, solidifying his reason to evevtually turn to The Junkyard for help. He had no record either in the lawkeeper books, or no cred on the street, leaving him in the perfect position to be on the whitelist as a possible employee at the last bastion of non corpo establishements. Add to that the call Rick had made, and he shoots to the top of said list. Clean and persecuded for no fault of his own, something that would easily be found by any investigator with barelly any effort neccessary to be put in said investigation. Jes, all he needed now was a track of attempting to contact a line of companies and get rejected by them all. Simple really.

And yet, it seemed that the world itself had decided that Frank needed a little, friendly slap to the face, to remind just how small and insignificant he is. So, as he turned yet another corner on his way home, the lomg awaited and rather unwelcome event happened, in this case- in the form of a car chase with guns blazing. In the lead was quite battered and riddled with bullets van, clearly reinforced and equipped for a simialr situation, the countless dents and the continiuation of its performance an obvious indication of the fact. It was followed by quite a few, six to be precise, black Marcos cars, a brand quite often chosen by low to mid level gangs and corpo workers who wanted to appear intimidating. Who says one cant strike rich while catering to the more illegal side of the world, all while maintaining a perfectly clear record themselves.

Due to the silencers on the weapons firing, as well as the fact that the chase had turned around a corner, just like Frank had, their emergence was quite sudden, causing every pedestrian on the street to scatter to the sides, hiding and covering by the walls to the best of their abilities, praying to not be caught by a stray bullet or rammed by one of the cars, should they lose controll. Frank's mind suddenly went overdrive, the world around him almost slowing down, his mind system flooded with adrenaline, his brain going into fight or flight mode.

He immediatly turned, putting maximum pwer into his legs and lunged back, to hide behind the corner he had just crossed, rooling forward and then pushing himself back, his shoulders gluing themselves to the wall, his heart pounding in his chest uncontrollably. Still flooded with adrenalin, his head shot from one side to another, searching for a better cover, clearly aware of the dirrection the cars were moving in- towards his location.

Just moments later, he noticed a possible salvation. An armoured van, used by several corporations to secure their money collectors, stood near one of a branch store, clearly one such collection underway. Frank did not hesitate, his legs working far too well in the stressfull situation, carrying him towards the car in a desperate run. He might have looked like a random madman, rushing towards the armoured car for who knows what insane reason, were it not for the aforementioned chase to appear from behind the corner just mere moments after he started his mad dash.

What was even worse, one of the chasing cars had managed to gain on the leading wan, ramming it into the side, causing it to flip on its side and crash into one of the building. No longer Frank looked like a madman. He was just one of the panicked civilians running for their lives. One could even point out that he was among the rare few who didn't scream as they ran. The rest of the pursuing cars appeared a few moments later, though no other did ram the crashed wan. No, from each of the cars, out stepped a couple of masked men, semi or automatic rifles in each of their hands. Then, they unloaded a veritable wall of bullets on the crashed van.

Frank had managed to finally reach the armoured truck, hiding his body behind it like a wall, or a protective older brother.

"Shit! Shit, shit shit!" He cursed, clearly not enjoying the the interactive event the world had prepeared for him. As his heart pounded and with the protection provided by the armoured cover, his mind could once again calm down just barelly, providing with a thought that was nowhere near calming. 'I might be involved in shit like this eventually as well.' The realising of said fact drained even more blood prom his face, making him look like a zombie from the cheap scary movies he had seen once or twice. Though the additional panic left his body when he realised that he had the knowledge to minimize, if not outright eliminate, any possible danger suchsituations might possess to him.

Still, with his heart pounding and adrenaline flooding his system, he came to the rather obvious conclusion, that it would be in his best interests to never have to take action in such a situation by himself. yes, it should fall upon trained professionals under his employ to do that, should the need arise. Though he would still walk the path of bio- tech asention. It was never bad to ensure ones safety on multiple levels.

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As his determination grew, the conflict on the other side of the armoured car only grew more intense, with friends of the upturned vans driver arriving, creating a proper exchange of bullets between the two parties. And while this street was not one of the main streets, it was not a proper back alley either, where the law enforcement could just ignore said shootout. The two parties, too engrosed in their friendly exchange of bullets, failed to notice the arrival of the heavy duty enforcers, all armoured and armed to the teeth.

A quick few explosions drew said gang members from their heated exchange, a couple of cars exploding among their vehicles, the enforcers having used some sort of grenade launcher. Then, a loud round of gunshots resounded, the enforcers having no need to concleal their gun fire, peppering the two gang groups with quite the amount of lead, causing man after man to fall to the ground, filled with bulet holes, their blood leaking on the ground, forming puddles of blood.

In a desperate effort to stem the incoming curtain of lead, one of the gang members pulled an RPG from the car, in a clear attempt to disrupt the coordinated and endless salve of bullets, though his attempts were cut short, the same numerous bullets creating yet another lead ridden corpse. And yet, even with all the bullets filling the thugs body, he still pressed the trigger of the RPG, releasing the charge, though it did not fly off in the dirrection of the enforcers and their armoured cars. No, yet another hail marry from the world with an express deliver of and RPG charge was sent Franks way, only the armoured transport saving his unlucky ass from a one way trip to the other side.

Still, the explosion racket heavily the armmoured transport, sending Frank flying against the nearby wall.

"Urghhhhh" Frank groaned, somehow still getting himself in a syiing position, once again his back against a wall. His head was buzzing, as enourmous headache headache assaulted him. The ringing in his hears and the blood covering one of his eyes did not help either. The shockwave csrambled all his thoughts, and only after an unknown time was he slowly grought out of his stuppor, as a couple of paramedics attended to him.

Once he came to, already on a stretcher and with quite the pounding headache, the conflict was already over, with the enforcers taking out every last gang mamber on both sides. His groan attracted the paramedics attention to him.

"Sir, do you know your own name?" Was the first question Frank heard, the headache still puounding his head. With another groan, he spoke.

"Yea. hrhhhh. Frank. Hrghhh. Got anything for a headache doc? That shit is killing me."

"I am afraid I have administered the maximum dosage for now. You will just have to bear it sir. My appologies."

"Hurhh. This is with the dosage? Shiiit." Frank groaned once more before gritting his teeth and dealing with it.

"Dont worry sir, we will soon be able to fix you up properly." the paramedic added, a warm tone conveying his supposedly possitive thoughts.

The next few hours were somewhat blurry for Frank, what with the pain and eventually the proper pain killers introduced into his system once they reached the hospital. This was one of the first moments Frank noticed the slight changes his tampering, and the supercgarhing of his brain had made to his body. He was way more tolerant and resistant to the painkillers he was administered. So much so, that even the doctor injecting the dosage noted it. Though since such resistance was merely a rare occurance, and not something trully unique, said doctor did not pay it too much attention.

Frank's head was X-rayed to check for concussion, or internal bleeding, but once they learned that his life was in no immediate danger, he was sent to one of the patient rooms to sleep off the painkillers and to observe him for a couple of days, just to be sure. He had recieved quite the hit to his head due to the blast. His mother had rushed over at some point as well, tears staining her eyes as soon as she learned of the accident he was in. Needless to say she never left his side for more than just a moment, and even then she did so very reluctantly.

Throughout this the entire time Frank was half conscious, the rather notable, some would say unbearable, headache as well as the painkillers, muddling his mind and thought process.Still, he noticed when his mother arrived by his side, as well as her panicked and worried expression. 'Lords, what did I do in my previous life to earn such a magnificent reason to push forward and protect?' He mused as he woke up, slowly turning his head to his mother who was slouched on the bed, tightly holding his arm. She had just recently fallen asleep, the exaustion finally taking over.

Frank exhaled a long breath, quickly noting his condition. 'The headache is gone entirely, only slight phantom pain remains in the body, no doubt an after effect of my boddy slamming into that wall.' His thought process was clear, not in the leas thindered by the pain killers that were supposed to stillbe in his system. 'Extremely elevated resistance to chemical compounds, as well as the ability to purge them from my neural network. Good to know. Should grow even stronger wth the progress of CEWE's modifications. Good.' He slowly sat up in the bed, one of his hands still in the hold of his worried mother. He smiled lightly, and then very carefully released his hand, then with just as much care and precision he picked her up and placed in the bed, covering her with the blanket. Then he noticed the bag with his home clothes his mother had clearly brought over and changed out of the nurse gown. Then he sat in the place his mother had, and held her hand, just like she had before, easing the expression his mothers face had changed into when his hand was withdrawn. There he remained, thinking over his own reactions from the incident, finding yet another fatal flaw in his current existance. 'Not only am I inadequatly equiped, my mind is lacking too. Yet another of "The book's" things goes up in priority to be made. Cant panic like I did last time, even if the decision was correct at the end of the day.'

A few hours later, his mother slowly stirred awake. A confusion marring her face as she saw the hospital ceiling above her head, and felt the bed she was lying in.

"Morning mom." Frnak smiled, as her head wipped to the dirrection of his voice, his smiling face and concern for her clearly visible in his expression.

"I am okey. You dont have to worry."

She almost lunged at him, huggin him and carressing his hair.

"My boy. My sweeet baby boy." she whispered, tears welling in her eyes "I was worried. So, so worried." she almost sobbed, when a realization came to her.

No matter how unexpected, yet like any other woman can, her mood suddenly changed by one hundred eighty degrees, her now slightly swolend eyes, with fresh tears rolling donw her cheeks, squinted as she moved away from the hug and looked suspiciously at Frank.

"Explain?" a cold voice suddenly left her lips.

"When I woke up I saw you slumped on my arm. Since I feel fine, I coudn't see you in such an uncomfortable state, especially with how worried you must have been for me, so, here we are. How are you feeling mom? Better now I hope?"

"What were you doing there at that time of the day?" she suspiciously asked, the question plaguing her mind for most of the evening.

"I will tell you everything once we go home." Frank looked at his PHVI(personal health virtual interface) for a moment and then asked as he ponted towards it. "Did they refill mine? Seems like they did."

"Yes, that was one of last things they did yesterday."

"Hmm. What about your shifts?"

"I got a couple of days off due to the emergency."

"Hmm. Lets go home. I will explain there."

"Are you really fine?" Gloria asked with concern, just as the doors opened an a nurse came in.

"AH!" the nurse exclaimed, noticing Frank on the chair next to the bed, and not in it, drugged to the high heaven and out cold. "What? How? "

"Resistant to painkillers. Doc said so yesterday. Even I remember that much."

"Wait here a moment." she rushed out of the room, returning with the doctor a few minutes later. As the two entered the room, both Frank and his mother were already dressed and prepeared to leave.

"You seem quite well, mister Wraith, but to be sure, we would like to run a few more tests, and take a few blood samples." spoke the doctor.

"That will not be neccessary." Frank spoke as he lifted his hand, ponting at his own PHVI. "Did not dispense its painkiller dose during the night, nor are there any alerts."

"Erhm, y-yes," the doctor stammered "But PHVI's are not infallable. It would be better to..."

"No need." Frank interrupted him "I feel fine, and there is no reason for me to stay here. My numbers prove that I am fit to leave and so I will do just that."

Frank did not give the doctor any more chance to speak, not willing to hear any of the excuses he might come up with to reason the additional tests and blood samples. So, the mother-son pair collected his stuff and left the hospital.