“Thanks for meeting me on such short notice.” I ran a hand through my hair, almost as if to physically push back my stress. It didn’t work. Hadn’t worked even after dozens of attempts.
”Careful, kiddo. Might lose some hair at that rate.” Saint shook his head. “Haven’t stopped fidgeting since I got here.”
”Don’t-“ I flopped both my hands onto the booth’s table and clasped them together. “Just- look, can you help? Or not?”
Saint sighed and stared at me for several long moments. He waved an idle hand toward Big Mike, summoning the bearer of burgers. “Haven’t even told me what you need yet.”
”I- I have a friend. Close like a sister, really.” Mira’s beautiful smiling face flashed in my head. I should’ve known something was wrong. Should’ve guessed. Why didn’t Insight warn me? Or any of you voyeurs? You were always watching, weren’t you? “Disappeared. Savants, I think.”
Ugh- I really didn't want to come to him with this, but to be honest? I had absolutely no clue where to even start looking for a Savant Lab. Sure- I could dig through hundreds of thousands of potential locations hunting dens and labs hoping for the best…. Actually, I might still do that. Might be a good rage burner.
Anyway, the point was that I had no idea where to even start… Saint here, though? Saint had an ear to the ground. He knew stuff. He obviously had a way with people. Hell, he got us into Medtech with just a wave of his hand. Surely he could just-
I was coping. I dropped my head into my hands. Reaching for straws…. Honestly, I felt so lost. So massively lost. Even out in the Outskirts, this was one of the best ideas I could come up with. I felt like my head wasn’t working right. I was too close to this- too attached to think straight.
“Sorry, Shiro.” Saint gently tapped the table lightly, getting my attention. He offered a warm smile as if everything would be alright. “‘Course I’ll help. Can I have some more details?”
”Chek- chek.” I gave him the full rundown of the situation, bringing him up to date with the latest findings. So far, it was unfortunately little. Just word of mouth that it was Savants- no, not even. Word of blinks. Razorface coulda lied to me for all I knew.
I should go back. Ask more questions. I didn’t ask enough the first time around. Maybe even bring Saint with me? I made that gang my bitch so they probably wouldn’t act out. If they did? I could put them down like an aged mutt without too much trouble.
“Lab is probably in Oldtown if they picked her up there. Could be anywhere though. They like to use red herrings.” Saint rubbed at his chin and his eyebrows knit together in thought. “I know some people down there. Might’ve heard something?”
Yet another text popped up into my HUD from uncle. I couldn’t even imagine what he was going through right now. “I’ll take any help I can get.”
As of right now- well, my plan wasn’t great. Kick ass and take names, to be honest. I had an absolutely massive list of suspicious locations throughout Oldtown. I was hoping to find at least one Savant Lab or Scav Den, and then ‘ask’ some questions to find others. The odds of success were… not great.
The reporter didn’t even wait till he was done eating to pull out his phone and start looking into it. “I’ll probably have at least something in a day.”
A day- I couldn’t sit around that long. I needed to get out there. “Thank you for the help.”
“It’s no problem. Been meaning to write on the Savant problem for a long time anyway. Two birds, one stone.” Saint shrugged it off.
“No, really. I’ll owe you one. A major one.” I stood up from the booth just as Big Mike came by with a tray of burgers. I didn’t have time to eat. Sitting around just didn’t feel right. Not like this.
Saint pulled his phone away from his ear and winked at me. “Bring me in on the next one then, eh? Been needing a bit of pocket money.”
That wasn’t so bad. “Definetely. Call me if you find something.”
”’Course. Stay safe.” Saint waved me off and got back to his phone call.
I waved back and headed back out to my hover bike. I had a very long list of locations to check out, and not very much time. The sooner I got out there, the better.
— — —
Franky clutched his gun tightly, cowering inside of a locker. He wasn’t sure when it happened- how it started- but there was a demon out there. One covered in the blood of his brothers. One on the prowl and hungry for more. Hungry for him.They’d stood no chance against it.
He shifted slightly, causing his welded-chrome armor to rap against the metal wall of the locker. He went absolutely still like an ice block. A chill went down his spine. Did- did it hear? Did that demon hear him? His eyes squeezed shut. He couldn’t stay here- not like this. It’d all be over.
The hidden exit. Right, if he could just get there, he might be able to survive this one. Just as he always had in the past, he’d get through. He didn’t raise himself out of the gutters to become a lieutenant for the biggest ripper syndicate this side of the ocean just by taking it on the back.
Franky eased open the locker and slipped out. Their base, if it could be called that, was in an abandoned school building long buried beneath progress. Secluded, big, and lots of empty rooms to stash their equipment. It was ideal in every way,
Or, at least, it had been. Now? Now it was something right out of a horror movie. The place was too big to get through quickly. The lights were off, leaving the entire place in darkness. In the distance, chains creaked and machines that’d been left on whirled. Mainly the bandsaws. The ones they used to easily rip people apart.
He stepped forward-
Clink!
His armor lightly beat against itself. Usually, he had it on as a mark of pride. It was ripped right from a high-level merc and scared his men just by looking at it. Now it was a liability. It hadn’t exactly been designed to keep quiet and sneak around like some kind of gutter thief.
Frank stripped out of the armor and tossed it to the ground. It left him in just scrap clothing, but it was better than being heard. He dashed away just as quick, ducking into a different locker down the hall-
The lights all around flickered and flashed, coming back to life for a moment. It was only a moment though. Just as quick, the lights faded back into darkness. Darkness- where the demon prowled. Where it stalked and slaughtered to its heart’s content.
Silence overtook the air. A frigid, deathly silence. This place shouldn’t be silent. Not with all that was going on across the school. One of the nearby saws had been shut off. He could feel it- the terror that the demon emitted like some kind of malignant miasma. He clamped down on his tongue, resisting the urge to shake and tremble-
Clack! Clack!
Franky heard it. Just down the hall from his new hiding spot, something messed with his abandoned armor. It was out there still, pushing the armor around like a curious dog that just found a scent-
Bang!
”Argghhh!” A scream erupted. He recognized the voice: Little Tony. The kid just got picked up off the streets to become a runner. “No- no. Please! Spar-“
Little Tony’s voice cut off abruptly. A sickening crunch echoed down the hall, followed by the sharp whip of something slamming into a nearby locker. Not a bullet. There wasn’t a crack in the air, nor the pop of a shot. It was probably one of the demon’s quills, launched out at lethal speed. He’d seen it take out his men one by one from the darkness using those deadly things.
Franky held his breath. He had no illusions about Litt- about Tony’s fate. Poor bastard must’ve been hiding just the same as him. Hopefully, Tony played his part and the demon would head elsewhere now. If he could just have time to escape, it would’ve all been worth it.
Click! Click! Click!
The sounds of boots came down the hall toward him. They were slow- deliberate. Incredibly unnerving. He hadn’t heard boots click this entire time, so why now? He didn’t even dare to breathe. The locker felt entirely too tight and cold around him. He was trapped like a rat with no way out.
The footsteps stopped just outside of his locker. He squeezed his eyes shut, not even daring to look through the slits in the locker door. For several minutes, he waited. And waited. And waited.
Eventually, he gained the courage to look up just slightly-
It was still there. It stood just in front of his locker, clad in shadows like darkness incarnate. It leaned against the far walls as if mockingly. His heart hammered loudly in his chest. He took a breath- the last he’d ever take…
Except the figure never moved. It never shifted, never twitched, never nothing. It just stood there, menacingly. It watched, drinking in his terror. It was all too happy to see him squirm like a worm desperately trying to live.
Minutes passed. Eventually, Franky couldn’t take it any longer. He gathered his fractured courage and slammed open the locker door. He lunged for the figure with all his might. His chrome fired on all cylinders, shooting him out like a catapult-
He slipped, tumbling into the hall with the bottom half of a corpse. A spray of blood covered him, and the other half of Tony collapsed to the ground behind. He immediately extracted himself from the corpse and still warm entrails. He could feel it dying his body deeper red then any of his victims.
His heart sped up even further, if that was possible. What he thought was the demon? It was Tony’s body propped against the lockers. He’d hit it with enough force to cut it into two-
No- he’d made a racket-
Franky slipped down the hall as quickly as he could. He raced down the abandoned school’s hall, passing gurneys and piles of old corpses yet to be tossed out. He ducked into a classroom, one filled with corpses hanging from the rafters like fine cuts of meat at a butcher shop. Just a bit further- just a few more rooms down and he’d be at the hidden exit.
Click! Click! Click!
That walking- that accursed walking. It came from the hall, heading in his direction. It
was headed in his direction. How did it-? With sinking dread in his heart, he looked down. Bloody trails led right to where he was. That damn bastard Tony had left blood all over him.His heart picked up even quicker, throbbing with a dull ache-
The door to the room opened. He couldn’t quite see past the corpses dangling from meathooks attached to the ceiling, but he could feel it. It was here. His heart pounded faster and faster inside of his chest. An aura of fear coursed over him, even stronger than the last time.
Franky hid in the corner of the room, hoping- praying it’d be over soon. He was in luck. It would indeed be over soon. Very soon. But, of course, he had no way of knowing that. He cowered in the corner, weapons completely forgotten in his absolute terror.
Click! Click!
The demon’s footsteps approached. Slowly, as if teasingly, they trailed toward him. His heart sped with each step. An ice cold grip tightened around his chest. The icy claws stabbed deeper and deeper with each passing moment. His entire body turned frigid.
Click!
One last step came, pausing right behind him. Franky felt a hand tap his shoulder-
Franky collapsed, clutching at his heart.
— — —
Ugh- I shouldn’t have given into impulse. It’d been oddly fun though, messing with him. Letting him feel the fear and terror of his victims. The helplessness and despair. Being absolutely incapable of resisting as some cruel tormentor ripped and ripped and ripped and- well, that was quite enough.
I backed away from the dead Scav. How was I supposed to know his heart would explode? Or, at least, that's what it looked like happened. I barely touched his shoulder and he just keeled over. I didn’t even get to use my bag of fun tricks. And how was I supposed to question a dead person?
Drugs. Right, it must’ve been the drugs. No way someone just naturally had that weak of a heart, right? Or maybe he had a chrome thumper under the hood? I glanced down toward the leader of this particular den in disappointment. I was hoping we’d continue our game for a bit longer, and then I could ask him some questions. Now my toy was broken.
Eh- didn’t matter. Got what was coming to him regardless. Same as the rest of the beasts in this Scav Den. Honestly? All too easy to take care of. Just a bit of pressure here and there, and the entire Scav Den fell apart at the seams. Way easier than anything I’d dealt with recently.
“Caw~!” Corvid called from my shoulder, seemingly just as disappointed as I felt about the situation.
”Chek, chek…” I lightly wiped some blood off my face and tossed my coil-pistol into its holster. “Think we’ll find anything?”
Corvid tilted his head for a moment and then slowly shook it. “Caw- ca-caw…”
”Thanks for the reminder.” I pulled my phone out and marked the location for the Crusade. There were about five dozen civilians waiting for processing in one of the classrooms. The bastards had set it up like prison cells to hold them captive. I’d saved five dozen people by attacking this place. None of them Mira.
The Crusade would be able to get them out without much trouble even with the Scavs still alive, but it felt good to rip them apart myself. I wasn’t the only one missing someone in this cursed city. Seeing what they did- seeing the corpses just tossed like trash? I couldn’t hold myself back.
“C’mon, looked like he was headed to something this way. Might be a secret safe room or something.” I backed away from the Scav leader. Didn’t have anything worth taking anyway. Scavs were a poor bunch.
There was quite a bit of equipment here that I could take. A bunch of heavy processing stuff that I could use to set up a small factory, but… well, I didn’t want this stuff. It was too steeped in the blood of the somewhat innocent. There were practical just as much as sentimental reasons.
Really, I was worried about putting that stuff in the Aether. Might spawn a Revenant with the accumulated resentment and hatred. ’Sides, I didn’t want to spend too much time here. I wasn’t one to be affected by gore much, but even that had its limits. I don’t envy the poor bastards that have to comb through this place for any speck of evidence.
Corvid managed to find a secret room not far from where I flatlined the leader. A light breeze gave it away. Wasn’t much back there, unfortunately. Just an escape route, a mountain of drugs I ‘confiscated’, and boxes of ripped chrome that I left behind.
I had about a dozen other suspicious locations to dig through anyway, and that was before I even approached the nearby gangs to ask around. Something would turn up soon. It had to.