The running, Arcology, part 6, the end

I regained consciousness many times. Then I was unconscious for a longer time. I was sitting on a chair, regained consciousness several times and then, when I finally regained consciousness completely, my head felt like someone had tried to do surgery on it with a shovel. I spent the first twenty minutes screaming my pain. I was angry and furious and all other negative, exploding feelings I could feel. The pain faded quickly, my feelings didn’t.

I was strapped to a chair. I was covered in blood. The chair was covered in blood. Next to me there was a robot with a knife. I tried to calm down and think. Then, after I had been quiet for a while, Opium came and released me.

The whole team was alive. Most of them weren't feeling good. They seemed to be in a bad shape. Opium was uninjured. I really don’t know what had happened. Some computer-things, apparently.

They told me the robot next to me tried to perform a surgery on my head to put cyberware there. Some datajack or something. It was so that I could be able to go to cyber space with the others, to fight Deus. Well, it seemed like an impossible mission. It had had to adjust the medication to keep me unconscious, because my body had destroyed the medication so quickly. Then, when I stayed unconscious, the robot had a mission. It cleaned my forehead. Then it made the wound so that it could put the cyber there. The wound healed before it could insert the cyber. So it had to start again by cleaning my forehead, then making the wound. And again, and again, and again. It left me with a scar.

I got my stuff back and shot the robot with my shotgun. It exploded, but it didn’t make me feel as good as if I had killed a human. I wanted to kill the human behind this shit, but apparently there wasn't one. Well, such is life. Life’s a bitch, I guess…

After everyone injured was taken care of, we returned to the place we had left from. The place we had stayed after meeting with the other group. I spent a lot of time staring my face in the mirror. It made me sick to have another scar in my head. It wasn't even fatal. I was sad for a bit, but now I carry that scar proudly as a remainder of Arcology.

At some point other part of the group returned to us. Ronin, Dodger, Nerdy and the otaku. Some of the otaku had died. Aneki was dead too. Well, I now remember that he was kinda out of it when he was with us. He had been the only person in the world capable of destroying Deus. And they had done it. Deus was no more. Apparently Aneki had gotten to his senses just in time to destroy Deus.

I didn’t understand half of the shit others spoke about their mission. Apparently there had been loads of strange things happening inside cyberspace. I didn’t understand, I didn’t care, I didn’t even believe all of it. All that mattered was that Deus was gone and we were able to get out.

We prepared to leave Arcology. The best way to go was through the roof. We headed that way, and saw lots of proof about Deus being gone. At first we met a guy with green eyes. He was curled up in a ball and crying. He kept telling that he was gone. I wanted to kill him, just because I could. Others thought it was the best, to put him out of his misery. So I cut his head off with my sword.

We met lots of other people with blue and green eyes. They weren’t hostile anymore. We got to walk in peace. Others wanted to visit a shopping center. Opium and Rugh went to find jewelry. I found a place that had sold katana’s. I took six of them with me. Then I asked someone to go with me to find a new set of clothes. I only had one set of clothes left, and it smelled terrible. I had worn it for days.

Opium came with me and showed me black jacket-suits. They looked way too fancy for me. They looked like something a businesswoman would wear. Not me. I prefer leather pants and shirts with attitude. And combat boots. There was nothing for me there, so I kicked the wall, frustrated. It made the alarm go off. Then we left the shopping center in a hurry.

After the shopping center I found me a fancy computer from a school. Apparently it was good, because all the otaku seemed to like it and Nerdy too. I decided to keep it myself and sell it for good profit.

When we got to the roof Rugh saw that there was an astral wall. Others went to the roof and I was left there, in the hallway. They said that the maker of the astral wall would notice if I walked on top of it, and we didn’t want any attention. So I sat there, alone. Frowning. I didn’t mind being alone, I just didn’t want to be alone there.

After seemingly an endless amount of time others told me that our ride had arrived. Just as I was about to climb of the hatch to the roof Rugh grabbed me in his arms and carried me to the ride. I told him I didn’t like being carried. He said that he would let me go if I wanted to. I let him carry me, even though it feeled degrading. I told him it feeled degrading. He said something about scratching me behind my ear. I’m not going to write what I said next.

The ride was very small to my taste. Because the other option was to stay in Arcology and walk hundreds of floors down and fight the army to get out, I made myself stay there. I was so happy to get out. I then decided to never return. Well, I’m going there again soon, but then it felt like a bad idea. Now I just miss the action.

Our ride dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. I had made sure that the otaku would help me to find out about the lab. They promised to do so, but they needed a few days to recover. I was ready to wait a few days. Well, I was going to wait in their headquarters anyway. They didn’t seem happy when they realized I was going to be their roommate. They wanted me to eat somewhere else. I promised to do so, and they were happy with that.

When we were waiting for another ride I decided to find me a snack. I was sick and tired of energy bars. I found me a stray dog, that looked a bit sick. It didn’t bother me at all. I grabbed it, killed it, dragged it to the others and told them that it was real food. Then I went to a corner to eat.

After a few hours our next ride came. My stomach was full and I was bored. I jumped in and got to the headquarters. I went straight to bed.

Later on I contacted Juggler. I took him my computer, and he promised 5000 nuyen from it. I asked him to pay with explosives, and he promised to get me a hundred kilos of explosives. And he gave me some money from the katana’s.

I was so happy to be back on the streets of Seattle. The otaku were getting a lot of information about the lab, my revenge was on the way and I was content. I had a roof over my head and rats to eat. What more a big cat would want?

The running, Arcology part 5, the beginning of the end

We got the devise. It was a pain to get it, and it lead us into a trap. Well, let me explain...

We had rested a while in a safe place. I had complained about my broken clothes so long that someone got fed up with me and fixed the armor Opium had given me. He told me about Deus. I wasn't interested. I just wanted to get out. I had very bad feelings about this whole thing. I was so happy to be getting out soon, one way or another. Dead or alive. My revenge had been the only thing that had kept me going. And it still is. Well, nowadays there are other things as well, but I'll get to that.

At one point Shrew got into talking with the otaku. They talked about Deus. I started listening when I heard them talking about Deus being bad to humans, and trolls. And elves too. And also animals, and the whole world. I had been thinking about myself, about what I was. I have come to a conclusion now, but I wanted to know their opinion. I asked what they thought I was. A human or an animal. They didn't know. Everything they knew was that I was a good person. A good guy. Ha, maybe, for now, we'll see.

Finally we went to get the device we needed. It was some trap-thingy. Deus was supposed to get trapped in the thing. They were talking about some system, and Deus was there, and they were going to go there and trap Deus. I didn't understand, so I prepared to fight.

We left for a certain floor. There we could see where the trap was, well, where the person who had the trap was. The plan was to go and find the trap and the person, steal the trap, and the person if he was willing to come with us, and go.

The people we had met went in front. They were really careful. More careful we ever were. They checked every corner, every single corner. Maybe they had seen too much to just wing it. Well, they had told us that they had been in the Arcology for months at a time, and gotten out only once in a while. They apparently knew more about survival in the Arcology.

We climbed up several floors. Ohh, how I hate elevator-shafts. I remembered the previous shaft too vividly. The metallic tentacles... Eww... And of course, I could get along with the tentacles, no problem. The only thing is it was too small place for me to function. I had to force myself in again.

We kept on going carefully. We took a break and then continued. We got to a side of a football-field.  Our destination was on the other side, so we started crossing the field. Opium kept looking up. Finally two strange-looking Medusas attacked us from above. They seemed to melt into the background. Their colors were strange, and if they were perfectly still, they were nearly invisible.

The Medusas sprayed some kind of foam on us. I took my sword and was attacking only to get sprayed with the foam again. Finally the foam covered me from head to toe. I was unable to move. I was trying to break free, but with no luck. The foam had hardened so it was impossible to escape. I just listened to the fight, but was unable to take part in it. I was furious.

Finally the team that wasn't trapped in the foam managed to destroy the Medusas. Rugh helped me out from the foam. To my horror I noticed he was using his big axe to cut me free. I objected, but he didn't care. I think it has something to do with my healing-power. He didn't care if he hit me with his axe, because I didn't need any first aid. I still don't like others thinking like that. It still hurts, dammit!

We kept going, after everyone was ready. We were very alert, ready for another attack. It didn't come. We got to our destination without any problems. Someone figured out where the trap was located. Luckily it was close.

We climbed up on a big set of stairs. On the top there was an otaku. He was one of Deus's otakus. He had white eyes. I have noticed that others talk about different eye-colors when talking about Deus's human-servants. The technicians and other people doing something with electronics had green eyes, security and guards had blue eyes. The people that were good with computers had white eyes. Well, I don't see the colors, but I listen to others. They talk about colors. Apparently the eyes are not real, they are cyber. Also, they are completely white, or blue, or green. Not like normal eyes people have.

One of the group shot the otaku with a silenced gun. Then we kept on going to the door from where the person carrying the trap had walked through last.

We agreed that me, Random, Opium and Rugh should go in, and others should stay and make sure we weren't disturbed.

I had my sword, because my shotgun didn't have a silencer. Not that it would even be possible to silence a shotgun like a pistol... I heard heated argument through the door. Me or Opium went through first.

Inside there was three of those blue-eyed people and then our target. One of them jumped behind a table. Opium shot another, and I attacked the third one with my sword. Random came to help me, but changed quickly to another target. I killed my opponent quickly. I slit his throat. I stopped to assess the situation. There was one opponent still alive. Others were fighting with him. Rugh had his axe, Opium her claws and Random his baton. I decided they didn't need a fourth one there. What a stupid decision. I think Arcology had had its toll on me already. I didn't was to fight!

I checked our target. He seemed to be fine, even though he was a bit startled. He had curled up on the floor, gripping the trap tightly. I also had time to laugh at the others. They seemed to have a bit desperate situation. The last opponent seemed to be very hard to kill.

Finally, when the last one of the blue-eyed guys was dead, others started talking about the leader of the blue-eyed people. Apparently he had been the hardest to kill. Well, it should be like that. The leader should be tougher than his underlings...

Then we left. We circled through a room with a pool, and headed for a lower floor. We knew the reinforcements for our enemies were already on their way. At least the blue-eyed people had made an alarm.

As we were escaping we met another group. They helped us, and when we got to a safe place the two leaders of the two groups got into a heated argument. The people who had helped us wanted to go and rescue some boss-person. Our group wanted to go and trap Deus. They didn't ask me, but I would've voted for trapping Deus. That's what we were here for anyway...

The other group left to rescue the boss-person. Our trap-carrier gave the trap to us and went to the rescue-mission. We headed for the rest of the group. Shrews spirit was called to heal injured. I hadn't even gotten scratches. Well, that's new.

We made a plan, and soon we were ready to execute. Nerdy went with the otaku, Ronin, Dodger and Aneki to fight Deus in the virtual reality. It was a place where you needed cyber to enter. Or something... I didn't have any chance to go there. I can say, it is very, very painful when my body pushes the cyber out. Well, it is also at least as painful when the cyber is inserted.

So, I was with the group which was going to make sure there was air in the place Deus was. I didn't understand. If Deus was in the virtual world, how there could be air? Or what? Hmm, maybe I don't need to know.

We got to our destination without any bigger troubles. There was two of those robots I had seen on the first day in Arcology. The one which exploded in my face. Not nice at all.

Someone suggested shooting them with a gun with silencer. I reminded they would explode in any case. So others shot them to pieces. I wanted to save my precious exploding ammo.

We got to a control room. There was a dead green-eyed person. Next to the dead guy there was white-eyed Sebastien. He was helping us. He had been waiting us.

Rugh gave me a heap of exploding bullets. I took them gratefully and started loading up my shotgun. Others started to look at the controls. They had to make sure the other team had air. Shrew called her spirit to look at the controls. I didn't bother. I couldn't understand them in any case, and I didn't care.

Finally, after lots of mistakes they managed to put air in the right place. Then we started planning the defense. After a while Sebastien told us we should see something. So we went with him. We trusted him. It was a huge mistake!

Sebastien took us to a room nearby. There were a lot of people in pods. The pods were in upright positions. Someone said it was a "zombie"-room.

Sebastien stepped further away from us. He told us he was very sorry. He told us he had tried to resist. He had tried. His nose was bleeding, and he was crying. Pathetic. Either betray us with your head high or then don't do it at all. It was really pathetic. He fell down and stopped moving.

Suddenly I felt tired. It was like a wave or tiredness had washed over me. I staggered, but managed to stand up. Everyone else but Rugh and me fell down. I asked Rugh what the hell was happening, but he didn't reply. He made a fireball a few meters away from us. Then I noticed a small bug. It landed on my neck even though I tried to avoid it. It stung me. Then it was gone. Rugh had apparently experienced the same. Then there was another bug, and I lost my consciousness.

Then I woke up. My body ached. Others were unconscious. Then another bug came and stung me. I lost my consciousness again. I lost my sense of time. I woke up, I lost consciousness. Many times. I had a few seconds to be awake, and all that time I felt the most terrible pain in my body. Maybe Deus had noticed us and started to do something about it.

The running, Arcology, part 4. Raining again

We spent a while in the swimming pool. I sat in the corner and complained about the bad food. I was anxious to keep going. Nerdy was injured, as was Opium. And one of the otaku needed new pair of shoes. Like I would be bothered with any of that. I was kinda comfy, even though my clothes were damaged and I hadn't taken a shower in days.

When we finally left the swimming pool, I got to walk behind Opium, but in front of Nerdy. I didn’t feel safe being in front of him. Who knew what he would do, missing his mommy. Luckily Opium had had a serious talk with Nerdy about why you shouldn't shoot towards your team. It calmed me down a bit, but not completely.

We climbed a number of stairs up. Apparently the otaku, or whoever decided our routes in the Arcology, had come up with an easy route, for the time being anyway. We walked through some kind of prison floors. Houses were altered to prisons. There were lots of prisoners.

Others started thinking maybe we should save the prisoners. They didn’t have a bright future ahead of them. I remember the test subjects we had seen a couple of days earlier. They were horrible. I also remembered my own time as a test subject maybe a bit too well. Part of me wanted to save these people, other part wanted to make them suffer. They were people, so it was reason enough to make them suffer. I didn’t talk about my thought to others though; I didn’t want them to think I was weak-minded. I didn’t want them to think I felt compassion.

We kept on going. Others thought that we couldn't save the prisoners at that time. They said we could do that when we were going back. I agreed, but still kept it to myself.

At some point the otaku, who were coming behind us, managed to get in front of us when we switched directions. They led, and we followed. The atmosphere was creepy. Quiet, deserted. It made me feel a bit on edge. I tightened my grip from my shotgun.

The otaku went past a large kong. On the other side of the kong there was three persons without auras. They looked like dead bums. No one wanted to go and see if they really were dead bums. When we were walking past them I heard a noise. I turned my gun towards the sound and Random asked who was there. The one of the bums started to move, trying to get up. I got scared and shot it. The second one got up and the third was sitting down. We shot them to pieces. One of them managed to shoot me before that, and it hurt, not for long though.

After we had destroyed the bums, which were revealed to be some kind of robots, again, we ran again. The person we were bringing to Deus, the person we had grabbed from Hong Kong, Aneki, was there with us. I didn’t remember this earlier, but he was there. Apparently he was the key to destroy Deus. Well, anyway, we ran after Ronin, Dodger and Aneki. They were heading to a house. I noticed a kid who had been shot at, and was down, and grabbed him with me. One of the team grabbed another otaku, and after we had been running a while we stopped to assess the situation. One of the otaku was dead, again. The girl who had crush on Nerdy, her name was Wendy, was shot as well, but she’d live. Others pulled out their first aid kits and started working with the wounded. Shrew’s spirit was called to help as well. I almost got bored before we left again.

Several floors higher I smelled something really disgusting. Rotting bodies. There was a heap of them nearby. And next to the heap there was two human-shaped creatures, and they were also visible in the Astral Plane. I was hoping they’d be something like me, but Rugh said that they were most probably ghouls. They ran away when they spotted us. We didn’t run after them, so apparently they weren't dangerous. I didn’t want to ask more.

On the same floor there was food. I wanted to have fish, because it was some kind of meat. Others wanted to eat fruit. I suppose they were good or something. I have never been a big vegetable-eater. I had options. The fish was perfect change from the energy bars. It tasted fresh and real, not at all like the shitty energy bars.

We also spotted some rats on the floor. They were magical rats, because some of them were hidden from the physical eye. When I hunted them down and killed them, they were not hidden anymore. They tasted so much better than the energy bars.

On some floor higher up we ran into a control room with some blue-eyed people. Opium threw a grenade in there and staggered to me. She bumped into me, and I staggered a bit from the shock wave as well, and bumped into Nerdy. I really hoped he wouldn't be scared and shoot me because of that…

Then I had to take my mind off of Nerdy, because one blue-eyed person ran there with a katana. He attacked, and I pulled my sword to attack back. The hallway seemed to be a bit too small for my broadsword, but it was the only good melee weapon I had at that moment. The sledgehammer was tightly bound to my backpack, and I didn’t have a new tomahawk. Or a shorter sword. I decided to buy a short sword if I ever got out alive.

The blue-eyed person fought me and Opium. He cut my armor into shreds. Finally I managed to pierce him from the stomach with my sword. He fell down to his knees, dropped the katana and squeezed the edge of my sword. I twisted the sword a bit, to make it even more painful. Then Rugh shouted something about explosion-danger. I ran after the others. There was no explosion.

I realized I was half-naked. My clothes had been almost ripped off in the battle, and I didn’t have time to change. I counted for a second, and came to the conclusion that I didn’t have time to stop running, pull new clothes from the backpack, take the broken ones off, dress up with new clothes and ask Opium to borrow me her other armor. And I had noticed her clothes didn’t fit me anyway. And I didn’t think she would borrow them to me just because. I had a habit of breaking everything I wore.

We ran through the living-floor quickly. I was the first one. It must’ve looked funny. A group of runners and kids led by a half-naked woman. I hoped no one spotted us and shoot, because it would've been really painful for me to get hit.

We almost reached the stairs, I opened the door, and we heard a bling from the elevator next to us. I turned towards the elevator with my shotgun ready. Rugh stepped past me. He had something in his hand. It was a grenade. He threw it to the elevator and grabbed me by the neck as he ran for cover. I was about to run when I realized he was throwing a grenade, but I wasn't as quick as he was. I decided to let him drag me. It wasn't very high on my spirit to let a troll drag me around like a rag doll. Well, not like a rag doll, but I don’t think he even noticed my weight.

He threw himself in a door. Opium jumped over us and Random stepped next to us. Then Nerdy hit the door and fell on us. Then the grenade exploded. Ohh great. It was phosphorus-grenade. Some of the phosphorus spilled on me, even though I tried to avoid it. Then I got up and kept going with the others and screamed as the phosphorus burned on my skin and remaining clothes. It took a couple of minutes to burn off. Smoke was coming from my burned skin and clothes. Then it started raining again. I’m very, very puzzled about this phenomenon. I just didn’t want to ask about it from the others, because I thought they would think I was stupid. I didn’t want to seem ignorant, so I rarely ask about anything, even though I don’t know. I normally wait and find out about things myself.

Some of the otaku needed new shoes. They had been running on the phosphorus. At that point I needed a completely new set of clothes.

We kept going up the stairs. On one landing there was a dead-end. Others didn’t think we should keep going up at that point. They decided we should break the place where the door had been. There were some beetles inside the wall that were active in the Astral Plane. I had never seen anything like that, but figured they wouldn't cause any problems if we broke down the wall. Rugh started hammering the wall with his gun. I took my sledgehammer and started hammering the wall as well. Others were keeping an eye on the other door. We assumed we were followed. I don’t wonder why.

After we had hammered the wall for a while Rugh called some spirits to help us. They went to the other side of the wall and started hammering from there. From the corner of my eye I noticed a spirit starting to materialize next to Opium. I warned Rugh.

When there was a big hole on the wall I decided to go and kill the spirit that was fighting with the rest of the group. I told others about my plan, asked that someone would grab my stuff from the floor and transformed. I walked calmly near the spirit. Then I leaped straight to the spirit. I extracted all my claws and ripped the spirit to shreds with one hit. I was happy about the kill. The I turned around and followed the others. I found the person who had grabbed my stuff and started running next to him. He seemed a bit startled.

We ran through a big hall, but luckily we didn’t have any problems. I was strong to fight the spirits, but guns were too much for me right now. If there had been guns and heavily armored people, I would've died for sure. I didn’t even want to start thinking about all the robots.

We found another dead-end. There was an alarm, and fire-doors closed. I was a bit startled, but then I relaxed. Rugh had started looking for explosives from his backpack. He seemed to have some problems locating the explosives so I took my backpack from the person carrying it and took it to Rugh. He took the explosives and started to plant it. I watched for a while and thought I would've done some things differently. As he looked like he knew what he was doing I didn’t bother to transform and tell him what he did wrong.

We went a bit back and Rugh detonated the explosives. We kept running. The person carrying my stuff seemed to hesitate when I kept following him. I didn’t care. I had talked about lots of stuff, but I had never done anything to attack anyone in our team. Well, with the exception of Nerdy, but he started it anyway.

We passed by some mazes, and found ourselves in some deserted floors. We found a nice little spot to rest for a while. Opium gave me her body armor, which was almost intact. It only had some damage from the katana. Others helped me to put it on so that it would not be baggy.

While others were resting and Random took care of the wounded me and Rugh went to look for shoes for the otaku that needed a pair.

We found a sportswear-shop. There were some sneakers the otaku needed. We went to the shop, packed the sneakers in a bag and Rugh took lots of socks with him also. I thought that seemed a good idea. I hadn't changed my socks in ages. I didn’t even take my boots off, unless I transformed. The smell was just horrible. I thought I should buy new boots when I got out. If I got out alive.

We were just leaving the shop when Rugh realized something. He threw his bag over some things. I didn’t know why he did that, but I did the same thing. I thought Rugh knew what he was doing. He didn’t laugh at me when I did like him, so apparently I did the right thing.

After hours of rest we returned to our journey. Stairs. More stairs. Hell, even more stairs. Always stairs. It started feeling like shit. Climbing a while, shooting some robots, running, climbing, shooting a bit more, resting, shooting, eating, shooting, running, climbing. I was so happy it was almost over. Finally we reached the floor we were supposed to go to. There was a group waiting for us.

When we arrived to the floor, to the other group, there was a lot of discussion, changing of information and planning. I complained about my armor, that wasn't very well-fitting and asked around if anyone had better one to borrow. Someone promised to borrow a jacket, but wanted it back. Like it would be in one piece then.

We were supposed to return several floors down to get some device after hours of rest. I thought about asking what the device did, but decided not to. I would've gotten a long and complicated explanation about how Deus was going to be beaten, but I didn’t think I would've understood it.

The next morning after meeting with the other group I found a note on my sleeping bag. It said something about shooting me and how I was able to heal. I was furious. I stared at it a while. The handwriting seemed familiar. I thought it looked like Random’s doing. I was about to go and ask about the note, not very nicely, from Random when I realized how I would find out the writer for sure. I wasn't dressed very heavily so I undressed and transformed. I smelled the note. It was Random. I noticed one of the new people being a bit startled about my presence. He pointed his gun at me. I would've growled at him, but I had a bone to pick with Random first. I transformed back, dressed up. I thought about taking my sledgehammer with me, but decided otherwise.

I went to Random and yelled at him about notes. I demanded to know why he wrote such stupid things. He said it was a joke, and innocent at that. I was about to beat him senseless, but thought someone would've come and saved him before I had a chance to finish, so I didn’t. I gave him a warning. I told him that if there ever was a next time with the notes, I would let my sledgehammer talk.

We were almost done in the Arcology. I was surprised to be still alive. I was happy that we were almost going to leave. Only the killing of Deus, and then out. I was anxious to get back on the streets of Seattle. They were nothing compared to Arcology. They were like a dream.

I was certain that we would be talked about after Arcology. I just hoped the rumors would leave out the part about me being a shifter. I didn’t want anyone to hunt me because of that. And really, the rumors the streets have about the runners who killed Deus don’t tell about a shifter at all.

The running, Arcology, part 3. Demon-cat

After an uncomfortable rest on a meeting room I was ready to go. Too bad others weren’t. I had to wait for everyone to be ready, and it took time. But Ronin or Dodger (still can’t tell them apart… And don’t care either) said we had to move quicker. That we had lost too much time resting, and we should be at least a couple of floors higher already. It made me wonder if he had something personal against this Deus-person.

We climbed up again. Stairs, stairs and more stairs. Through a lot of office-floors. There were mazes, too, made out of offices. Don’t ask why. I don’t know… But we had to go into one maze. Apparently it was the best and quickest way at the time. The hallways in the maze were really narrow. I wanted to kick them down, but others didn’t. So we followed the paths in the maze. Opium was first, then me. And then Nerdy, even though I had loudly objected. He might see some threats attacking me again and try to gun me down before the threat. After Nerdy there was Shrew, then Random and Rugh was last.

At first I refused to go anywhere if Nerdy was behind me. He was too jumpy in combat situations, and still is. There’s no way of knowing what he will do. Opium promised to have a talk with Nerdy, and I let him walk behind me. I was hesitant, still. I wanted to take away Nerdy’s gun, but others didn’t think it was a good idea. I noticed that others didn’t seem to mind me getting hit with bullets. Or anything else that might hurt me physically. I got to that conclusion when Opium told me to get the otaku from the other side of the maze. She said that I was the only one who healed quick. I gave her a Look and, because others agreed, left to get the otaku.

After this I’m not quite sure what’s the order of happenings until we got to an empty swimming pool. It doesn’t matter. I’ll try to tell the story as well as I can remember, it has been a while…

After the maze we got to yet another staircase. Otaku were thinking that someone was moving the walls of another maze. We noticed it too. Opium thought we should leave the maze be and keep going. Nerdy thought we should go and talk to the people moving the walls. I thought we should go and shoot the people moving the walls. It’s not a surprise we did what Opium said.

At some point we got to an elevator and skipped a lot of floors. It made me nearly freeze with fear in the elevator. I nearly shooted out when the doors opened. But I didn’t I managed to control myself enough to walk out.

From the elevator we ran to a staircase and up. Then we had to take a break, because the otaku were not as fit as we were. We were there to protect the otaku, and they needed to take a break. I thought to myself why they didn’t work out… I had had to start eating the energy bars everyone else ate. They tasted terrible. Disgusting. But I had to. I needed to stay strong.

Suddenly there was a round robot coming at us. I think it was dangerous. Others tried to shoot it, but the bullets just bounced on the walls from the robot. It seemed to have an armor. I shot it with my shotgun, and it broke down. It rolled around on the floor, bounced a bit and dropped into a flowerpot. Then we ran again.

After that we met a guy. He asked us to go with him to a hall nearby. He claimed to be a worker, and living with his colleagues somewhere. He was some kind of electric worker. We stopped and I found myself a nice place to sharpen my sword in. I didn’t care about the electro-guy or his colleagues. Others were talking to him anyway.

Electro-guy took Nerdy, Rugh and Opium with him to his hideout. I noticed Shrew had told her spirit to go with the group too. When they got back, the electro-guy helped us forward.

After a several floors the electro-guy left us there and returned to his place. We kept on going, until we got to a landing in the staircase. It had a clear sight to a big hall. In the middle there were a group of people dressed in rags. Shrew’s spirit told us that there was a big spirit watching them in the Astral Plane.

The otaku didn’t know what to do. No one knew what we should do to the spirit in the middle. As the conversation went on I thought they had come to a conclusion. I thought we would go there. So I told I would transform. No one said otherwise so I took my clothes off and transformed. Then they decided we wouldn’t go. I growled for a while and transformed back. I put my clothes back on and followed the others. They wanted to find another route. I was certain I would’ve killed that spirit easily. Me and my claws.

We found a door which would lead us to another way, past the spirit without having to meet it. I wasn’t interested at all. A bit annoyed actually. The door was opened and suddenly everyone started waving their hands and shooting. I took a step back and noticed that there was a lot of some kind of bugs flying around. They didn’t attack me so I kept my distance and was ready to defend myself.

Then we returned to the spirit. I transformed, yet again. Rugh started to glow in the Astral Plane. We went there and started to walk through the hall, towards the other side. We were walking on the side. The spirit came to us and told that we should go back in the middle. Because we didn’t do what we were told, the spirit told us again to go back, and then went there itself. It materialized.

The spirit tried to attack, and its powers made me tired. I didn’t think twice, I attacked. I ran as fast as I ever could. The spirit was materialized, but hidden from the physical eye. I saw it easily from the Astral Plane. I heard guns and made a huge leap. I scratched with my front paws, tried to bite and kick. I hoped it would fall, but it didn’t. I lost my consciousness after it used a power on me. When I woke up, I tried to attack again, but the spirit kicked me and I lost my consciousness again.

When I woke up again I noticed that the battle was over. I had been dragged to the side of the hall, next to some building. I growled and ran back to the center. I enjoyed the horror and fear I inflicted. The people tried to avoid me, but they didn’t leave the area. Finally I got bored and ripped some rags off of some corpse. I transformed and dressed myself in rags the best I could. I asked the people why they were there, but no one knew. One of them said I was a demon and wanted to pray. I grabbed him by the arm and walked him to the side of the hall, threw him inside the building through a window and jumped after him.

Others were inside the house. I demanded to know who had dragged me from the center of the hall to the side. Opium dared to confess. I kept a speech to the group, I told them that I wasn’t happy if they dragged me away when I was unconscious. If I wake up in a strange place I will not be happy. If there is no danger, I should be left there. It won’t take long for me to wake up.

At some point the man I had dragged from the middle stopped breathing. Opium tried to give him first aid, but he didn’t wake up anymore. We threw him out of the window and kept going.

We had a long brake in some bar. I kept ranting about the shit people ate, and I would not eat anything like that if I had any options. Rugh suggested I ate people. I told him I would never, ever eat people, I knew what they ate. I noticed the otaku keeping even a longer distance from me now. They usually keep their distance. I don’t know if it’s fear or respect, but I don’t care. Either one is good for me. But I think it’s mostly fear.

In the bar I tasted lots of different alcohols, but none of them tasted good. I gave all my wine flagons to Rugh. I told him they were not good in my opinion. I thought it would be nice to tell him that Shrew liked the wine and Nerdy said his mother didn’t accept drinking alcohol.

At some point we were running along a road. We thought it was empty, that there was no one there. Then we noticed a group of blue-eyed people running towards us from a smaller road. It became a shoot-out, of course. I was shot also, but it didn’t slow me down. I kept shooting. Finally we managed to kill them, and I went with Opium to take some equipment from the dead. I think Opium grabbed a gun and some bullets, but dropped the gun while running. I kept the gun I took, it might prove to be useful at some point.

After the incident with the blue-eyed people we rested in some church. One of the otaku came to me with a beeping device. He said the gun I had had a tracking device in it. Someone went to throw the gun down the stairs and then we ran again. The whole stay in the Arcology was full of running. Good exercise though. We were running up the stairs, along the hallways, carrying heavy equipment with us. No wonder the otaku were so tired all the time. They didn’t seem like the athletic type.

At one time we were sneaking along some streets in a line. I heard whispering in some house. I had reached the window and was sneaking past it when I heard an argument. It sounded like the people had spent way too much time in a small place together. They started to fight. They screamed and fought some more. Random wrote a note and put it on the door. I glanced it but don’t remember what it said. Arcology doesn’t do good to my memory. I can’t remember things so well. There’s too much bad stuff.

At some point, in the middle of our escape, we were attacked by four medusas. We shot them down, and Nerdy had to fight hand-to-hand with one. When it was broken down it exploded, and Nerdy was nearly in the middle of the explosion. One of the otaku died there.

Nerdy seemed to be in a bad shape. We kept on going, trying to get as far away from the place as possible. Otaku didn’t have the strength to run. To be honest, I felt it too, the exhaustion. Well, my plan was to keep exercising if I ever got out alive.

As we ran along an open hallway, we noticed a flying robot couple of floors above. We shot it down before it noticed us. Then we kept running. When we got a couple of floors higher, we noticed a perfect decoy for us. There was this guy running like hell. He was running from a couple of other guys. We were happy to go unnoticed. Everyone’s eyes were on the running guy, and we managed to go past it all quietly.

Finally we got to a safe area. It was a small place with lots of cover. We went to an empty swimming pool. It had a cover over it, and it provided us with very good, safe place.

I went to a corner as far away from others as possible. I hoped to get out. I didn’t understand why I had agreed to go there without a pay. At times even the payback I so much desired didn’t seem good enough reward. It seemed like minimal pay compared to all the shit I had to go through. A huge amount of money spent on bullets that never got there in time, taking a huge amount of hits from bullets to my skin, one from Nerdy. Shrew’s constant “Kitty”ing, eating the shit they call energy bars. Terrible.

Now that I think back, it wasn’t that terrible, really. I was inexperienced and too hotheaded. Well, I’m still hotheaded, but more experienced. I would go back, and I would do it for free. Well, we are going there soon anyway. Back there I mean. Now it might be even more interesting, with the army there.

The running, Arcology, part 2. Small snack and flashbacks

I managed to sleep on the floor. It was rather uncomfortable, but I got to sleep a few hours undistracted. I had my shotgun on my lap, I was ready to shoot. I’m normally not afraid of things, but this situation was different. I wasn't on familiar ground, there were deadly robots flying around and the Astral Plane was disturbing. It gave me nasty feeling. It seemed almost like it was contaminated.

I woke up. There was a strange noise that had woken me up. Someone was coming towards me. When it came to my view it was disturbing, to say the least. It was a huge spider, robotic spider. It looked hostile, so I kicked the door to warn the others. I didn’t want to wait for the others to do something, so I fired my shotgun. It fell down, but was still moving. I grabbed my sledgehammer and hit it. I was about to smash it to pieces when it exploded. I flew across the hallway and hit the wall. I felt my clothes taking some damage.

The whole group ran from the small room. I wiped some dust off my clothes and followed. Another disturbing thing happened. It started raining. Inside. There was a ceiling and everything. I just don’t get it.

We ran a while, and stopped at an elevator. Ronin and Dodger said that we should climb the elevator shaft. It made me sweat. Elevator, it was so small. And we all should just go there? I didn’t mind the climbing. I’m just not good with small places. And nobody asked if I was OK with going to the shaft. Well, apparently it was a safe way up. That’s where we were going, up. To the top of the Arcology.

Nerdy opened the doors for us, and Random went in. I looked in, took a deep breath and forced myself there. We were climbing some sort of ladder; I believe they were for maintenance. My hands were shaking a bit. I still noticed Nerdy coming in after me, and then Shrew. She had started calling me Kitty. It made me a bit annoyed. Nowadays I’m used to it, but back then I got angry when she called me that. It made me feel like she tried to make me smaller and weaker.

At one point I told Shrew not to call me Kitty. Then Nerdy seemed to stop to look at a tiny air conditioning thing. I climbed faster and hoped to be out from there soon. I would've thrown my sledgehammer at Shrew if my hands didn’t shake. I was trembling with anxiety, fear, terror. I didn’t want to take my hands off the ladder for one second. I just climbed.

Another few floors went by as we climbed. Then we started hearing screams from below. I looked down. There were metallic tentacles that had pierced one unfortunate orc. Then the tentacles took one screaming girl. Random kept on going, and I followed. There was nothing we could’ve done for them, so we needed to get out soon.

Finally we reached floor seven. It was out goal. Random opened the doors and climbed out from the shaft. I followed very quickly. My muscles hurt from all the climbing, but I was happy to be out on the open again. I shook my hands to make the pain go away, and it went. The otaku children were not so fortunate. They were complaining about their aching legs and arms.

We had reached some sort of market square. In the middle of it there was some weird structure. It was square, and on each corner there was a tree. The structure was a fountain. I noticed a weird smell, and Nerdy saw something next to the structure. Random went closer to see, and told us that it was a corpse, probably killed by a canine.

Others were indecisive about what we should do next. I watched them argue for a while and made a decision. I took all my clothes off and gave all my stuff to the closest person to me. Then I transformed. I wanted to look at the corpse, and I found out that it was indeed a canine that had killed this one. I didn’t recognize the smell though. It wasn't a normal dog. I had never encountered one like this before, so it was hard to tell what it was. It had come from one direction, stopped to most probably drink from the fountain and then kept on going. It had been hours since then.

I was just about to go and tell my findings to others, when I noticed the canine. It was behind everyone, so the people were between us. It had some powers, which it was using so that no one would see it in the physical world. But it wasn't invisible in the Astral Plane. It was just standing there, but when I started approaching it, it went closer to the wall. I started growling.

I tried to tell the canine that this was my pack, and it should walk away. Unfortunately we were different species. It didn’t understand leopard, and I didn’t know how to speak canine. It growled at me. I growled back, and then attacked. It bit me, but it wasn't so strong. I didn’t mind, I was certain I would kill it. But I minded that Random attacked the canine. He hit the canine with some sort of baton. The canine fell, and I killed it by breaking its neck. Then I raised my eyes from the dead canine and growled at Random.

I was bloody, so I walked back to the fountain, transformed and washed myself. After I was clean I dressed up and talked with Random. I told him that I didn’t like to have someone steal a kill from me. I would take care of my own fights. If I was outnumbered or clearly losing, then I would appreciate the help, but in that situation I was winning. There was only one canine. He seemed to understand my point.

The group wanted to go to a nearby fast food place to have something to eat. I decided to take the canine as my snack. I cut its back leg and wrapped it to a cloth. I couldn't take the whole animal with me, because it was too big. I would've left a trail of blood if I dragged it, and it was too heavy to carry around longer.

Nerdy told us that he wanted to have his mother’s blackcurrant juice, because he was starting to feel a bit sick. I offered him fresh meat, or blood. He seemed terrified by the idea. The otaku told me that they would prefer the energy bars. I enjoyed the shock I caused by eating raw meat. I always eat raw meat. It’s better than the energy bars.

We finally decided to head up, after one of the otaku managed to start an alarm by opening the fast food places door. So we headed towards the nearest staircase. We saw some corpses on the way, but I wasn't interested. Others seemed to look at the corpses closely. Shrew picked up a hammer, and Random took something from one of the corpses. I didn’t care about them, they were dead, I don’t eat people, and they didn’t seem to carry anything of interest.

We were just walking up some stairs when I had a bad feeling. I felt something bad was going to happen. Then we heard voices, people screaming, running, shooting. Some people were having a big fight, and we didn’t want to be a part of it, so we decided to get the hell out of there without being noticed. With all the noise and running no one noticed us.

We decided to hide. Then we saw some people working for Deus walking there. They went to a house, and we didn’t go near it. I was staring to be really hungry. Others decided to find another staircase and get as far as they could from all the gun fighting. I hoped that we would stop to eat soon; I hadn't eaten anything in ages. I had only drunk something from the fountain, but not eaten.

Others said that Nerdy and Opium needed some surgery. They weren't in a very good shape after all the fighting we had been in. We needed to find a hospital for them, but unfortunately all the three hospitals in Arcology were controlled by Deus. So we managed to find a health care center for us. Opium had a fever, and she was stumbling every once in a while when she walked. Nerdy said that he wasn't feeling good either. I thought quietly by myself how weak people were. They needed surgeries and hospitals to get better. I was stronger.

We finally got into the center. The front door was locked, and Nerdy tried to open it. He failed. Maybe he was distracted by his condition. Me, Random and Shrew went to look for an alternative route. It was just because I suggested breaking down the door with my sledgehammer. They thought I’d do less damage if I was out looking for an alternative. Shrew continued calling me Kitty. Oh how angry it used to make me. I think it was because I was more easily angered back then. Now she occasionally calls me Kitty, but I don’t care. I might grin at her, but I don’t get angry.

We found a broken window. Random Climbed in, then Shrew, then me. I had to take a deep breath to squeeze through a small window. We checked the place, saw it was empty, and then let the other guys in. I saw a rat.

Random was going to do the surgeries. Shrew and Alice, the girl who liked Nerdy, were going to help him. I found a quiet spot and started eating. I didn’t get to eat for long before my senses were overwhelmed by the smell of disinfectant. Suddenly I was back in the lab table. I rolled up into a ball and cried. The pain was real. The fear, the smells, the sounds, they were all there. The flashbacks were alive.

It took me about a minute to shake off the flashbacks. I stayed there, motionless, for a while. Then, after a few more minutes, when the flashbacks were just an echoing memory, I got up, wiped my face and continued eating. I was feeling terrible. The strong smell of disinfectant didn’t let me forget. The memories were there, not as alive as they were before, but it distracted me. I wanted to get the hell out from the place as soon as possible, but I didn’t want to go out on my own, there were too much robots and guards. So I waited and hoped.

We spent about half a day in the center. I was quiet and depressed all that time. I kinda wished for a fight, but it seemed like a bad idea. Half of me wanted to go and take on all the Arcology, and half of me just wanted to forget. So I stayed and waited.

I was so happy when we finally left the center. We found a case of stairs and started climbing. I was so happy we didn’t go to an elevator. I had started thinking about Astral walls. What if I was in an elevator and it went through a wall? An Astral wall that is. I think it would be messy…

We left the staircase and found ourselves in a maze. At least it seemed like a maze. Most of the halls ended in a cement wall. We circled around, went through a window, came out from a door, up and down, left and right, the halls were everywhere, and it felt like it never ends. Most of the rooms we passed by were really small, and I had to force myself into some of them. I didn’t like it, but Ronin and Dodger had some aid in walking through the maze, and they seemed to pick the smallest of rooms. Yea, Ronin and Dodger, still can’t tell them apart…

We had managed to get quite near a new staircase when we found that a large door was keeping us from getting there. I used my sledgehammer and broke the door. We all were quite surprised when there were two boars and a bear. They seemed nasty and angry and attacked us.

Shrew and Nerdy shot the bear dead before it got to us, and then one of the boars attacked Shrew. I hit it hard with my sledgehammer and it didn’t move anymore. I had a quick thought about why these animals were here. It was just a quick thought, because I had to defend myself from the other boar. It attacked fiercely. I defended just as fiercely. It was actually fun! Not the part where its tusk ripped me and caused some damage, but even so, it was fun! All the adrenaline and things!

Nerdy fired his gun, and I hoped he knew where to shoot. Unfortunately he didn’t. He hit me in the back. Hooray… I smashed the boars’ skull and turned around. I stared Nerdy angrily. Now I realized why Opium didn’t want me behind her with my shotgun. She didn’t trust me to be good enough shooter. Well, I've never shot my team. Ever.

I dropped my sledgehammer and walked to Nerdy. I grabbed him by the jacket and lifted him up. His feet didn’t touch the floor. I was so angry, even though the wounds had healed already, I still didn’t accept it. I yelled at him a while and finished by saying that if he ever did that again I would let my sledgehammer do the talking. He tried to defend his actions by saying that the boar was attacking. Yeah, it was. It was attacking me. Apparently Nerdy had tried to help it…

I left Nerdy be after a while, when I had calmed down. I went and cut legs from one of the boars to take with me. I didn’t want good food go to waste. Nerdy found thirteen golden coins from the floor and Shrew cut her a golden ring that had been on the other boars’ snout.

We kept on going. On the other side of the big hall the animals had been in there was another door. I kicked it down and Random went ahead to scout. We heard a thump and went look. Random had fallen in a pit. He climbed up and looked puzzled. Then he started bandaging his ankle.

There was a door nearby and Shrew went to try it. She got an electric shock. She stepped back, trying to get herself together after the shock. I walked past her and looked around a bit. It was a narrow hallway. There was a torch there. Actual torch. In Arcology, the science place. There were robots, Artificial Intelligence, electricity, everything. And then there were torches. What a weird place.

I walked to a place where there was crossroads. I walked back. Shrew went there to pull the torch. A secret door opened. I and Shrew went to see what was in the secret room. There were a lot of shelves, and on the shelves we saw some flagons made out of leather. I grabbed one and opened it. Then I tasted it. It tasted bitter and bad. Shrew said it was very good red wine. Good quality. I took a few with me and sipped the opened one so that I wouldn't be thirsty. We went back to others and Nerdy said that alcohol was bad because his mother told him so. Yea, really. His mother. I’m serious…

We kept on going, and we reached a cement wall. It had a face. Shrew went to talk to it, and it replied. I noticed another torch, and decided to see if there were more doors around. I pulled the torch and a brick fell on me. I was startled a bit, but kept pulling it. Well, I went next to the wall first so that I wouldn’t be hit with a brick every time. It was fun for a moment.

The wall told us that we were not allowed to pass through, unless we solved a riddle. And there was more. If we had it wrong, one of us had to die. The wall told us we had to choose one to die in case we didn’t know the answer. I suggested one of the otaku could be sacrificed. They weren't much of a use there anyway. I noticed some terror in their eyes, and kept pulling the torch. In the end there were a hundred bricks until nothing fell anymore.

Common opinion was that I was the best candidate for the person to die. I was pretty loud when I said that I had taken more bullets they had seen in their lifetimes, and I wasn't a volunteer to take more damage because of these kids. I had died a few times in their missions, well, theoretically died, and we should sacrifice one of them now. Then I calmed down. I realized that even though everyone knew I was different and able to heal in a blink of an eye from mortal wounds, I shouldn't be shouting it to the world.

Finally Random volunteered. The wall told its riddle. “The more there is of it, the less you see it”. I didn’t have a clue. Others suggested I should plant some explosives to the wall. I started doing just that. Shrew called me Kitty again. I promised to tape her to the wall with the explosives if she didn’t stop.

Others were thinking about the riddle. They came up with darkness, but they weren’t sure it was the right answer. I had planted five kilos of explosives on the wall. I suggested everyone to take cover. I thought about the answer. I was about to answer the riddle, but the wall said it didn’t sense the one volunteered to die if I got it wrong. I decided to just press the button on the timer. Then I jumped over the pile of hundred bricks and took cover with the others. The wall didn’t resist.

I always program my explosives to go off after a certain time. I want to make sure everyone gets out of the way, but no-one has time to disarm it. After a minute and half the wall exploded. When we got back there, the wall was gone, and there was a hole instead. And I was five kilos of explosives lighter. The group promised to find another way the next time. I hoped there wouldn't be a next time. I liked making things explode, I really enjoy it from time to time, but I didn’t like to use half of my wares at one explosion. I would've wanted to take fifty kilos of explosives with me, but they were kinda heavy to carry around. But then I would've been able to explode walls for fun. Well, maybe next time we are in Arcology…

Finally we got to go up. Others wanted to stop for the night. We made a stop in some office floor. We chose an office, and it was full of small cubicles. I got goose bumps. It makes me sick to think about those small places people work in. Terrifying idea…

I tried to make others change their mind, but in vain when they decided to sleep in some meeting room. It wasn't as small as the room they were before. I still had to make myself go to that room. Shrew called me Kitty again. I threatened to throw her out of the door. She called her spirit there. I didn’t know why. I curled up in a corner and tried to get some sleep. I didn’t want to transform, because I thought we might have to leave pretty quickly, so I wouldn't have time to transform and dress up. It was uncomfortable to sleep on the floor in human form.