Birds Of A Feather, Chapter 1.10 (Patreon)

1.10

+++

Stopping that car in the manner that I did was simply showing off.

I had other options. I could have just moved out of the way, jumping over it or even just stepping to the side, and it would have run right into the barrier that had been behind me and achieved roughly the same result as what my kick had achieved.

I had chosen not to do this for a simple reason.

Reputation.

In this city, there were three things that drove everything. The first was money. The second was force. The third was reputation.

All three fed into each other in one manner or another. Money usually implied force, both in the ability to hire it and the ability to acquire it, which in turn led to reputations being made. Megacorporations knew this well.

Force, in turn, usually implied money, both because acquiring force usually meant that you had money, and if you didn’t, then using the force you had access to usually made it somewhat easy to acquire money. This, too, led to reputations being created, though of an entirely different sort. Every Boostergang and borged out merc understood this.

Reputation inevitably required one of the two. A good reputation got you good attention. If people think you’re good for something, someone will seek you for it, and so the cycle fed itself.

Being well known is practically a superpower all of its own, so long as you cultivated the right kind of reputation.

I haven’t even been here a full day, but I’ve been relying on the implications that came with my form. A four metre tall Exotic was no meagre thing, but relying on the implications and biases alone was a poor decision.

Backing it up with hard data, though?

Why, that sounded quite excellent indeed.

And so, I stood directly in front of a car as it accelerated towards me, and I did some absolute bullshit.

Were there other things in this universe that could stop a car by standing in front of it? Yes. Any of the heavy-duty Full Body Conversion frames could have achieved it. Most of them could lift a car outright, if it was necessary.

None of them could have achieved it in the same way that I had, though. Even the heaviest FullBorg frame in existence weighed less than three hundred kilograms, and without proper bracing, they would have been moved by the collision, by the process of slowing down something that weighed anywhere between three and five times their own mass.

Comparing me to a mere FullBorg, though, was misleading in the extreme.

The truth of the matter is that the things I had most in common with were ACPAs, and even then, only one specific ACPA.

Arasaka’s DaiOni... Their attempt to match IEC’s Dragoon, though it had admittedly mostly failed.

In comparison to me, even that machine didn’t quite match up. Literally, I still had another half a metre in height on it, and even fully kitted out, it weighed only 1.12 tons.

That put it in the realm of smaller cars... Which also meant that, unless it was braced very well, it would also be moving backwards upon taking that hit.

I had stood dead still and let it collapse around my foot. An impossibility by basic physics. I had braced a single foot against the curb, but no matter how you sliced it, it didn’t make any sense. I was so tall that there was no possible way that it could have mattered when it came to transferring force, not with the angles involved in the way that I’d been standing.

Yet, it had been done, and all that I had left in my wake was cracked concrete. This was proof of an impact, yet still much less than what should have happened.

The secret sauce was Chozo Bullshit, of course... But nobody else knew that.

I expected that the examinations of the crime scene would make for a great deal of confusion for the investigators, but this itself only worked for my purposes. Their confusion and inability to determine how something like what I’d done was even possible in the first place would provide all the fuel that the rumour mill would need in order to churn and start building a reputation.

It wouldn’t be all that quick... But I didn’t need it to be.

I had time to spare.

+++

I was, fortunately, not bothered by anybody on my way back to the Scav den. The streets were fuller than before, though, and so I made a point of slipping into stealth relatively early, ducking into a brief alcove before darting into an alleyway while nobody was looking at my path. Just like that, I slipped out of notice, the eyes that had been following me all day now no longer finding me.

I slipped back into the building itself with ease, flitting through the skylight that I had left open. I didn’t bother with stealth when I dropped inside, the cameras had been turned off and their recordings had been erased quite thoroughly.

Rising to my full height again, I was quick to move to the office, unenthused by the scent of blood that even now still spewed from the entrance to the lower rooms.

I now had both identification and a bank account. Everything I needed in order to get somewhere in this city... the only question, of course, being where.

As much as my current location counted as ‘shelter’, it was quite poor. The smell was one thing, but amenities were another. I had a sink, a stove, and that was it. I didn’t have a fridge, the only food here was a single bag of flavoured Kibble. There was neither bathroom nor lavatory, and certainly no place to wash or dry clothes.

Given the right tools, I could change that, but I didn’t have the right tools, and acquiring them was currently battling with acquiring better living conditions for the next step.

It was a catch-22 either way. Considering my size, no normal shelter was going to work particularly well, which necessitated something large, yet also something low-key since I didn’t currently have an income source. Finding one was another priority, but that too was something that would be informed by my other circumstances...

Annoying things all round.

I ducked through the door into the office, and then walked over to the vent that I’d hidden the Agent in. I took a few seconds to pry the grating off, before promptly replacing it after I fished the Agent itself out.

It was exactly where I’d left it, as was everything else in the building. Evidently, no one had been by.

Which, of course, was the other problem with this locale. The Scavs would be around eventually.

A talon wedged the Agent’s case open, and I reinserted the battery before shutting it again. The Agent powered up after a second, beginning its boot sequence a moment later.

I needed to do some more research, first of all. Everything else could come later.

The Agent finished booting, and my finger shifted, but before I could even start flipping through the menus, a noise from outside caught my attention.

It sounded like wheels hitting a gutter. The shifting of suspension systems followed it immediately, as did a deep, guttural sound from an engine. A big one.

I popped the Agent’s casing open and pulled the battery out, before tucking both into my robe. Quickly, I ducked out of the office, before jumping slightly and catching both sides of the skylight.

Raising myself, I made my way out, staying low while peaking over the edge.

A truck. Relatively small, only a standard delivery truck that handled inner-city traffic.

Unmarked, where a lot of them would be plastered with logos. A private vehicle.

... What, exactly, were the odds of Scavs appearing right after I’d thought of them?

I sensed attention coming my way, and I lowered my head, shifting back towards the skylight. After a few seconds, it moved on, and I poked my head up to start looking again.

The truck parked behind the building, next to the garage door. Through the windows, I could see three people, none of whom looked particularly happy.

The doors opened, and I again ducked as my Supernatural Bullshit provided warning.

“Doesn’t look like anything’s wrong.” One of them said. “They answering?”

“No.” Another denied. “I’m going to bang on the door.”

A few loud thumps echoed out a moment later, the metallic sound telling me that the one who had knocked had a Cyberhand, if not an entire Cyberarm.

Obviously, nobody answered.

A few more bangs came a few seconds later. Still nothing.

“Nothing.”

“Well, something happened here. The boss was clear, if we don’t get an answer, we go looking. Alexi, get the door. We need to check if the Cyberware is still there.”

Hmm. A truck. Three Scavs. Looking for Cyberware.

Now, that’s an opportunity. Follow this truck, and I’ll find another link in this whole thing!

I’d just... have to do it stealthily. Through a potentially very large amount of the city. I could certainly try that...

But I might have another option.

I felt for the possibility, and the answer pleased me.

And between the two, if this one worked, it’d be a much better choice.

I dove back through the skylight, closing it behind me before dropping to the ground. Quickly, I made way over to the door, pushing it open before needling through. I pushed it closed, slowing right at the last second, just as the larger garage door began to open, and let the louder noise of that cover the sound entirely.

From there, I wasted no time in getting into the storage room. A quick check through the room showed exactly what I remembered, and I moved to pick up a flattened cardboard box that had, at one point, probably been meant for a washing machine.

I picked the cardboard up, and then quickly rebuilt it into a full box. I flipped it sideways, and then flicked it up in the air.

I almost took a breath, but the smell here was strong enough that I resisted the urge. Instead, I reached for the levers inside of my being.

Pulsing blue light surged from under my skin, and I followed the instincts that I now possessed, curling myself up even as my talons dissolved, then my fingers, then my hands. The light burst up my body, pulsing through me, and in its wake, flesh fell apart, dissolving into the raw energies of life. My clothing did the same, swallowed by the light, drawn into the core of my essence, transformed utterly.

A small amount was allocated to form the containing vessel, and I hit the ground with a slight thump.

The cardboard box landed over me a moment later, while I was still stuck marvelling at that entire process. This did little to stop my awareness of the room, which, despite no longer having eyes, I could now perceive in its entirety.

Wow, this is completely ridiculous.

For a little bit, I simply existed there, wondering at this state that I now existed in, simply... experiencing things. I did not have the words to describe how strange it was, nor the words to describe why it wasn’t unpleasant.

Then the door pushed open, and I was abruptly reminded why I’d done this in the first place.

The three Scavs walked in, looking around the room. I noted their eyes glowing, optics scanning. One of them walked over to a container, before opening it and checking inside.

“The ‘Ware’s still here.” He said. “But there’s nobody to be found.”

“Someone was here, though.” Another pointed out. “Cameras were off, and they had no records.”

“It does put a pin in the ‘they ran away’ thing.” The first said. “Who runs without taking nothin’ of value?”

The seconds shrugged. The third grunted.

And then the third’s eyes found my box.

He frowned, before walking over. With a single, simple motion, he took hold of the box, and lifted it up.

They blinked.

“What the hell is that thing?” The second asked.

“Well...” The first said, slowly. “It looks like a ball.”

Indeed. A Morph Ball, to be exact.

Now, to see if my plan actually works.