Cyberpunk: XYZ

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Chapter 26: Blood On Metal II

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X forgot to sleep, eat, or anything else for that matter, solely focused on the task beforehand, a task he has yet to complete, 'Now, we have the metal... We just need blood.'

The Northside Industrial District, or simply Northside, is one of the sub-districts of Watson.

It was once Watson's prosperous factory sub-district. Nowadays it's desolate and neglected.

Its factories are mostly non-functional and abandoned due to odd earthquake damage and a lack of investments by Japanese corporations that originally financed this area.

The center of the NID is divided by a row of towering apartment buildings, purposely constructed to shield the wealthy from a pretty depressing view.

They're occupied by mid-ranking workers that are still employed by the last remaining industries operating in the NID.

With few prospects to cling to, these workers' only hope is that they don't close down, because outside of the NID, there's no future for them.

As they say, "You move to northside, you'll die in northside."

Often that's just interpreted to mean you'll catch a stray bullet from one of the ubiquitous Maelstroms.

Indeed, The Maelstrom claim this area as their territory.

They use its abandoned buildings as hideouts, illegal braindance studios, and warehouses for the loot they steal from the corporate transports.

Therefore, it was very common to find a few of the Maelstroms in the corners of Northside, just fucking around in the subdistrict's dark alleyways.

By one of the said alleyways were a few Maelstroms, just four. One of them was carelessly dragging a disfigured body alongside him.

He was seemingly preparing to throw it into the trash, to the mountains of the trash by the side.

Northside is truly one of the worst places X has ever set foot in, with garbage and waste everywhere, only beaten by the smell of death.

Death seemed so common that the four Maelstroms seemed unbothered by what they were doing, chitchatting, laughing, and having a good time.

You can never really mistake a Maelstrom for anyone else, not with their disfigured faces, the goggles implanted into their face, making them look like robots.

They also allow them to see a lot more than the average person. As the Maelstrom threw the body into the garbage, he noticed from the corner of his eyes a figure in the dark.

He quickly switched to night vision, allowing him to clearly see a figure at the end of the alley crouched beside the garbage doing something.

"Hey! Look there!" He warned his fellow Maelstroms.

It isn't strange to see homeless people here and there in this part of the city.

What is abnormal is what this specific stranger is wearing, clean clothes unbecoming of those of the homeless, along with a mask.

"Oi! The fuck are you?" Another Maelstrom shouted.

"Ya heard us, bitch ass!?"

"Think it's some dumbass corpo that drunk his way here?"

"Think so, fuckin' retards can not think for themselves... Need their bullshit nannies to babysit them,"

"Hey, we outta be thankful for their lack of brains,"

They chatted without care as they walked up to who they perceived to be a Corpo, already debating what to do with him, how to suck him dry of all he has, no pun intended.

"Lost your way here, huh? Hehah, man do not fucking worry, we'll take care of ya,"

"Real shit, we're very welcoming here, hahahahaha,"

"Preem welcoming parties I tell ya,"

Their kind promises must've moved the man as he finally stood up and looked at them, directly at their chromed-up faces, then at the guns in their hands.

They are arrogant, but they are so because of the metal not only in their hands, but in their face, arm, and entire body for that matter.

"Yo, you deaf or what? Speak dammit," The Maelstrom got even closer to the man, too close for his comfort, causing him to step back in what seemed to be fear.

The man's apparent trepidation caused the four maelstrom to in turn approach closer, like lions playing with their prey.

The man seemingly in fear was naturally none other than X who has done a lot to mask his appearance.

For what? It's exactly because of who is in front of him... Because of the graffiti on the wall beside him.

X turned his attention to the graffiti, one of the symbols of the Maelstroms, the one they love the most, spreading it everywhere.

For one, it's a skull/spider/mech all in one. The legs are clearly arachnid, but the body is a human skull, and the legs themselves are made of cybernetics.

Moreover, the human skull has the Maelstroms' most famous cyberfashion, five red cyber eyes with the central one being much bigger than the rest.

He looked at the graffiti, so they did as well, and the moment he caught that from the corner of his eyes was the moment he took action.

It all felt like slow motion to him as he turned his face to look directly at him, observing every detail about them.

For one, the Maelstroms aren't known for wearing anything but pants, showing their chromed-up upper bodies which they perceive to be art.

The Maelstrom wearing the most clothes before him had just a light jacket on him, while another only wore shoulder straps.

That allowed X to take a closer look at their bodies, eyeing every detail for each one matters.

Whether it was the red disfigured parts of their flesh or the clearly metallic chests and even stomachs.

And their arms, likely all chrome, some of them having fingers like claws while others having spears for legs... It was twisted, and difficult to deal with.

X needed all the help he could get, thus why two other versions of him had already manifested the moment he stood up, observing the group for a while now.

The two manifested versions appeared to be walking around the Maelstroms and scrutinizing them.

[This one doesn't have many implants on his face, just his eyes]

[This one doesn't have a mouth... How does he eat?]

[His whole neck is an implant]

[Huh, I wonder how that works... Is that why the Maelstroms do not live long?]

[This one likely has Gorrila Arms, and this one has Claw Arms... They had knives and holstered guns]

[Neither of them seem to have an Operation System]

[By the looks of the implants on their chest, I'd say they have blood pumps installed]

[By that logic, they should also have Heuristic Biomonitors. The combination will keep them from bleeding out and close their wounds]

[Indeed, make sure to completely obliterate them without giving them a chance]

[We can not really observe much more than this nor can we determine which internal implants they have]

[We need cyber optics for more in-depth scans. However, this is enough for now]

[This one first] [This one second] [Third here] [And last one here]

Y and Z, one looked for clues while the other processed them before giving guidance.

Time started moving again, slowly but surely; as X reached with his left hand for the AR of the Maelstrom closest to him.

The right hand, on the other hand, was going for his own gun belt from which he took a knife and a gun.

He barely held onto the gun with two fingers, most of the grip of his right hand holding onto the knife and moving it toward the throat of the Maelstrom before him.

The said Maelstrom was the one who had little to no implants on his face, allowing X's knife to dive right through his skull.

X's left hand had already grasped the said Maelstrom's weapon, and when the knife went through him, the latter released his grasp on the weapon, allowing X to take full control of it.

At that same moment, X let go of the knife lodged deep in the Maelstrom's skull, allowing him to finally grip his revolver rightly.

[X, change of plans. This Maelstrom reacted too fast. He must have a Reflex Tuner. We have to get him first!!]

That voice sounded in his mind, the help he very much needed.

It's not like Y and Z have eyes of their own that aren't X's. They see what X sees, pictures reach them, the blur in the background which they analyze, things X can not really see.

That's how X fights. He is not alone. He sees more than most. He hears more than most. He reacts faster than most... Is that truly enough in this world where implants allow humans to achieve to become superhuman?