Seeking Strays

AN: I messed up once more, and totally skipped chapter 45. Should be the last time I ever do that. My numberings was all out of wack since I missed 37. If you haven’t read that, probably should? It gives context to this whole arc. Sorry about that! I think I’m all sorted now.

https://www./read/2440971-seeking-strays/chapter/2499659/

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I tried not to notice how new to gang life they all looked. Food, power, water, credits—there were all sorts of reasons for freshly joining a gang, and the riots weren’t helping in the slightest. It was like Silverport itself was driving people into more and more desperate positions.

Desperation had a particular look that was all too familiar. Tight shoulders, weapons clutched too carefully, and eyes that kept drifting to the exit as if wondering if they were doing the right thing. Whatever was promised to them kept them rooted despite the obvious desire to flee.

I’d worn the same look once. Maybe I still did. The armor just made it all the harder to see. I was growing less and less sure that was a good thing as the moments passed.

I dropped back into cover, and leaned against the wooden crate. For a moment, my thoughts ran around in chaos. I slowly shoved them all to the back of my mind. I had a job to do, and a messy head wouldn’t make this any easier.

The scent of rusty metal, mildew, and old boxes mixed with a particular blend of desperate fear. Rain scratched at the roof overhead, and filled the warehouse with a plinking noise. Somewhere in the warehouse, water dropped like a clock counting down toward something ugly happening.

The two Pikers’ footsteps grew closer and closer to my position. I waited for them to get closer before popping out with a flying kick. My armored foot slammed into the first guy’s head, and he dropped like a sack of potatoes to the concrete floor.

I caught his pike and whipped it back toward his buddy just as he started to react. The head of the weapon sparked with electricity as I slammed the flathead of it across his jaw. A sharp crack made my ears twitch.

“Argh!” The man let out a muffled scream. I carefully lowered him to the ground instead of letting his skull hit the concrete.

The less lethal approach was Harbor training to reduce casualties, probably. Or habit? Or maybe some pathetic need to prove that I wasn’t who they made me. I wasn’t sure anymore…

The noise alerted the rest of the Pikers, though. I wasn’t exactly quiet. The leader of the group flicked back his Trenchcoat, and lifted his head high. Light from the warehouse’s window spread across his face, making it look incredibly pale. An angry scar etched down across his cheekbone, and gave him the look of someone who’d done this thing countless times before.

“Who’s there? Show yourself, or we’ll tear apart this whole warehouse to find you!” His voice carried well. Confidence was easy to have when he had nine—seven now—armed men standing behind it.

Heh, right. Like I’d reveal myself just because he asked nicely. I grabbed the other pikes, and hopped up onto one of the crates. The second I had line of sight over the Pikers once more, I slung the weapons like javelins. All of my strength went into the throw, causing it to whistle sharply through the air.

The first throw was way off and slammed into the safe in a shower of sparks thanks to the lightning enchantment. Blue light flashed across startled face, and lit up the darkness. For a moment, we were all lit by the same light. Then the enchantment shut off, and darkness swallowed us once more.

The second hit its target and skewered a man into a crate through his shoulder. The lightning enchantment made his entire body twitch erratically. He slumped onto the spear with a cut off scream.

“Ambush!” The larger leader of the group shouted, and pulled a machine gun with a glowing drum mag out of his Trenchcoat. The coat billowed around him. “On the crate!”

I slid off the crate just as a throwing knife skimmed across the top of the crate. It clattered against a metal support pillar, and the blade flashed with electricity. The burning scent of ozone filled the air, and blue flight flickered brilliantly.

“Get him!” The knife thrower charged at me with his pike as I entered his range, and jabbed forward.

I rolled underneath the strike, and whipped my axe off. The head of the pike flipped off, turning the weapon into a bo-staff instead. I rolled into a flip back up to my feet, and punted the detached pike head before it could hit the ground. It popped another gang member in the chest and made him stagger back to give me more space to work with.

“Jackass! These are expensive!” The guy with the broken pike swung the wooden haft at my head. I caught the strike. His arms strained and his face turned red with effort as he tried to grab his weapon back. Mine barely moved.

My armored fist slammed into his nose, and he collapsed backward in a spray of blood with a broken nose. With a new weapon in my hands, I swung forward and shattered a third Piker’s arm just before he could stab forward. The wooden haft shattered against him, and he collapsed into a screaming mess.

In just a few moments, I’d taken care of three of them. With six total already down, that left just four of them. Unfortunately, that included the guy with the enchanted machine gun—

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

Red and blue light mixed in the air. My armor screeched as bullets deflected off, and slammed into the ground. Electricity sparked across me, and crawled along my body. The jolts tore through me, as did a few bullets that slipped through the gaps of my protective armor.

I grit my teeth, and forced my muscles to move as electricity continued to ravage me. My foot ruthlessly slammed into the guy still clutching at his nose. He let out another sharp scream, and rolled across the ground toward the big guy with the machine gun. The two collided with a sick crunch, and the gunfire abruptly cut off.

The sudden silence felt just as deafening as the gunfire. Smoke curled from the marks across my armor, and electricity continued to twitch my fingers. Somewhere underneath the pain, or maybe due to it, exhilaration surged.

With my limbs back under control, I had just enough time to roll to the side to avoid a pike stab. The enchanted head screeched across the concrete, and lightning flared in a blinding flash that made my eyes sting.

I slid forward, and wrapped my legs around the guy’s ankles. With a surge of strength, I forcibly twisted the both of us. His feet were ripped out from below him, and he slammed into the concrete with a shout that abruptly cut off. Three left.

I shot to my feet and threw my tomahawk just as the big guy with the gun started to stand up. The head slammed into his metal hand, and chopped deep into the metal. The gun dropped from his hand and clattered against the ground.

“I-I got him!” One of the younger Pikers shouted while nearly dropping his weapon from shaking hands. For a beat, I saw myself standing in his place. Scared, hungry, and desperately trying to become part of something bigger even if it did wind up slabbed in a morgue.

For a heartbeat, I caught the scent of watered down soup, a cold draft, and the cramped room Sylvie and I used to share before I joined Hades. Back then, every terrible choice sounded easy when hunger was all that waited at home.

”HAAH!” He lunged at me, and the memory faded away. I slammed my fist forward to meet the head of the pike. The metal of my gauntlet groaned as the pike flattened. The metal drove back down the haft of the pike, and the wood splintered.

The kid holding the pike staggered backward, and was flattened as my fist slammed into his jaw. The last guy backed away with shaking legs, and tripped over a box. He promptly pretended to faint.

“Bastard!” The large man picked up his gun with one hand and sprayed wildly in my direction. I batted the barrel to the side with a twist of my arm, and threw a straight jab into his face.

After the first strike, he dropped his gun and brought up his metal arm to block. Metal screeched against metal, and his arm pulsed with runes. A shockwave of electricity erupted out of him, and momentarily made my limbs lock up.

He didn’t waste a moment, and directly kicked me to the ground—or tried to anyway. I grabbed his foot, and slammed my knee upward into his leg. It twisted the wrong way with a sickening crunch, and the man collapsed backward with a shrill scream.

I went down with him, and grabbed his cybernetic arm. I agilely twirled around the metal limb. Before he could recover, I threaded one leg across his chest and the other around his neck with his arm trapped between my thighs. We hit the ground as I tensed my leg to choke him out.

He struggled to escape the hold, but his elbow was pinned entirely by me. Every attempt to pull free only tightened my leverage. The cybernetic arm that could’ve put out a serious amount of strength turned into a hindrance as his face started to flush red. He dug his hand into one of my bullet wounds to let me go, but a little bit of pain wouldn’t stop me.

My eyes dropped to his neck. I could hear his heartbeat through the panic and strain. The veins along his leg pulsed, and each one of them drew my gaze lower and lower to his chest.

Only once he went limp did I release the man. I carefully lowered him to the floor, and checked his breathing. He lay totally unconscious while I shakily rose to my feet and tried not to focus on the blood pouring out of my open bullet wounds.

My fingers itched as I eyed the downed Pikers. There were ten of them laying around, totally helpless. My lips tensed back, and I licked at my canines. Silver flowed around my fingers, and danced out. It refused to take shape as if unsure of itself. There was 50 Vitae just waiting to claim.

50 Vitae… The number appeared before the thought truly settled. There wasn’t rage or excitement, only the cold, hard math simple and clean. Ten people were reduced to currency just like that with a price tag only I could see.

When would I get the chance to get so much again? One a day would take ages to be free from the syndicate. Ten hearts put me almost half way toward my chances of getting another catalog. Just ten. That was fewer days I’d have to wonder if I was still myself. Fewer days I had to worry about turning into a monster.

They were criminals. Armed criminals. Dangerous ones… the titles I strapped to the downed men lined up one after another neatly and reasonably like the headlines of a newspaper. Excuses always did come easy.

The silver claws sharpened, and flowed our menacingly. No, that wasn’t right. I wanted the Vitae. Everything else was just an excuse to hide the hunger surging through my stomach. Even just one. I could take one. The big guy was the leader, so if I let him live…

I clutched at my chest, and the silver claws screeched harshly at the metal plating. A jolt of pain flared up from a bullet wound, and I shakily backed away from the man. Rend instantly shut off, and the flickering silver vanished almost hesitantly.

A sharp rasp of air escaped me, and I clutched at my helmeted head. My ears flattened back against my skull as my head churned with nausea. What was the point of gaining corruption immunity if I became a monster to get it? What was I even doing here? How could I even think—?

A sharp metal click made my head snap up, and ears twitch alertly. Nothing moved between the crates around me. The warehouse was just as empty as it had been aside from the Piker gangers. The fur along my tail slowly puffed up as I listened for the noise again.

The click came again. It was slow, and calm. Far too calm to be from one of the Pikers. It was like… the slow scrape of a dial turning? I flinched backward—

“Well done. Well done indeed.” a new voice called from my side. I flinched back toward the vault, and instantly dropped back into a combat state of mind. “I hadn’t expected you to leave them alive.”

At some point, a lithe man in a black rain jacket appeared just in front of the safe. A red scarf was wrapped around his lower face and shoulders. Between that and a faded military cap covering the top half of his head, I couldn’t make out much. One thing was sure, though. He hadn’t been there when I started my attack.

My tail twitched in irritation. How’d he sneak up on me? When I spoke, my voice came out fully digitized by the voice modulator. “Who are you?”