The machine god

" What the hell are we looking at " An i

Investigator crossed his arms as he glared squarly at the display before them .

" One alejandro ' Growler ' perez reciting his final words like they're some kind of biblical scripture with a warning of some kind of deity , Before blowing himself up with enough fire-power to tear down a bunker " Another responded as he approached , The two of them staring unflinchingly as they watched the man combust before their very eyes.

" Before that though , You'll find this " The recording rewound to show a group of seven seemingly firing at nothing but thin air , Before they were cut down by seemingly nothing but thin air.

" What the hell " The first detective , One Michaelo Ruiz squinted as he watched one separate in half at the waist " That's not the work of monowire "

" No it is not ... but watch this " The camera began ti show an infra-red reading , Causing Michael's eyes to narrow at what they saw.

" There's another person there ... behind them " He growled as indeed, The camera feed shon to show the culprit cutting the men down from behind , Despite the fallen men seemingly all going mad at once and firing apon a phantom illusion.

" We can't get a solid look of this guy , Any data pertaining to his face is simply corrupted when we try to go through it. Hell we only have this infra-red scan because he doesn't even show up on the regular feeds " A desk jockey growled as he shifted through several different displays , All of which thr man was simply missing from completely " We don't even have audio of this guy , We can hear everything else .. but as soon as he speaks its as if our hardware simply glitches , White noise until he stops speaking "

" I can assume it was him that made Growler go out in a blaze of glory " Michael watched the feed as the man simply departed the scene , Leaving Growler to perform his last actions.

" Get me the feed of the front of the garage " Michael ordered as the feed switched to show the man leaving the building before walking across the road and turning back to watch the scene .

" This guys no amateur " He hissed as he stated at the red signature, Before the feed was disrupted thanks to the explosion courtesy of Growler detonating himself.

" What do you think we should do " His co-worker asked as Michael simply stated ahead .

" For now ... we keep an eye out for similar activities , It seems to me like someone's going around cleaning up those scavs and gangs ... I'm not too interested in stopping them before they put down a couple more " He stood up and wiped his hand smiling slightly " Do keep any eye out though "

" If anything changes ... I want to be the first to know "

...

" Here kid ... some stuff for you to pawn " He smiled as he tossed another sack of parts at tekeyoshi , The kid easily accepting the gifts as he went to go put them out back to deliver then later.

Sebastian himself walked out into the garage , Past his bike as it gave a low hum in acknowledgement of his arrival.

" Yes ... one Growler is down " He opened his laptop on the workbench within the garage , Showing several files along with photos of societies less than reputable individuals.

' One down ' He smirked as he crossed off Growler's file ... opening up a sub link to show several other people connected to the harvesting and selling of the less than fortunate ' Who's next ... the delivery boy ... Constantine Santiago... today isn't your lucky day '

' Let's see where you are currently ' Sebstaisn optics lit up as he connected to the subnet , Then proceeded to break into several others as he broke into night cities camera grid.

' There you are ' He spotted the man at a set of traffic lights ... Sebastian's eyes squinting as he looked at the man , Tattoos on his forehead and arms whilst he drove a non descript white van.

" Oh this is going to be easy " He turned away from the workbench to face his bike , He could feel the lenses of the bike settle on him as a red light shone within , An intelligence a bike shouldn't have.

" How would you like to go hunt something for me " The bike gave a low drone grunt of affirmation , As he smirked and sent the target details to thr vehicle , Allowing it to immediately depart as the garage door opened .

The bikes tires gave a haunting screech as it tore out of the garage, Running across the gravel outside before turning around the corner and vanishing onto the adjacent road , Where it immediately picked up speed and raged towards Watson.

...

He went through his usual day of surgeries , Fixing a joytoys broken jawplate . Removing bulkets and installing new wares into new clients. Hell he even had to remake someone's face for a hundred k eddies , He didn't particularly ask why for that one but decided to keep an eye on the guy after he left.

But like every work day , It all comes to an end , And that happened when the doors to the clinic closed , His last custermoer bidding him well as she left the establishment with new subdermal armour .

" Tekeyoshi, Take the afternoon off , feel free to do what you want " He didn't turn to the kid as he walked through the back of the surgery out to the garage , The bike having just returned from following Constantine to where he made a fresh delivery of parts .

" A scav den huh ... you did good " He told the bike as it grunted in affirmation , Whilst he brought up the recorded feed of the bike during its travels , Having discreetly followed the van for close to an hour before he pulled into some abandoned two story old manufacturing warehouse.

" At 10:29 , neutralise Constantine with lethal force ... go " Sebastian spoke solemnly as he opened a crate , Pulling out his helmet and and sword and a couple grenades , Followed by his robes and a couple firearms.

The bike in the meantime relocked onto its designated target , Peeling away once more as sebastian pulled his robes onto his body, Face contorted in a deep frown as he steeled himself to deal with whatever he would find.

....

10:15

...

The night sky hung overhead , With smog clinging low to the ground , leaving a stench in its wake as several civilians tried not to choke in the smog .

Sebastian knelt down atop a nearby building , Sniper in hand as he looked through the scope towards the two storey warehouse.

' Four guards scouring the top , More within .... I'll need to breach their comms ' He thought as he continued to looked through the scope , Looking towards the front entrance.

' Three vans distributing the wares ... looks like I came in time to stop an auction ' He frowned as several gang members entered the warehouse.

' This might be more difficult than I thought ' He growled before Shouldering the rifle ' entry point acquired '

He then made his way down the rooftop ladder , Sliding down before his feet crunched on the gravel below.

' Boost leg muscle retractions to eighty percent ' Sebastian instructed the red key before rushing the buildings fence , Running full tilt before crouching and launching himself into the air over the fence and into the back of the warehouse.

' Let's get this right ' Sebastian winced as he landed , legs seizing momentarily as the muscles contractions reverted to their natural state.

Quietly , He walked towards the back of the building, Making sure to avoid surveillance cameras and the goons standing on the roof as they scanned the dirt around the building.

' Ten seconds window before he sweeps this side again GO ' He rushed the buildings side, Fingers digging into a window frame that he quietly opened , Hoisting himself up and intonthe back room of the warehouse .

' Luckily they didn't have any intrusion protection otherwise this would've been alot harder , He mused as he slid the window shut, Just in time as the gaze of the goons above passed where he had just been .

Looking around , he realised he was inside some kind if small storage cupboard , Dimly lit witb barely any light inside , Obviously hadn't been used in quite some time.

' Better for me I guess , Just hope it isn't locked ' He discreetly made his way to the door , Holding his breath as he checked the lock .

His shoulders slumped in relief as it opened without resistance, Yet he refrained from opening it entirely, Knowing the building was absolutely crawling with scavs and maelstrom.

' Alright ... first off ' He broke into the buildings camera systems with laughable ease , Finding his face marred with a frown at the amount of gang members meeting in some kind of basement below .

' Whoever said life was easy obviously never tried to achieve anything ' He found himself Smirking as he disconnected , Preparing to tear open the door to the room he was in and drag in one of the maelstrom members about to walk by .

' Three. ... two .... one ' He tore the door open , Arms blitzing forward before the man could react as he muffled the man's surprised gasp , Using all the muscle he could to twist his hand around and snap the man's neck in one sweep .

The surprise on the man's face was evident even as his head was reversed in orientation , A chocking gasp of blood escaping the man's lips as he fell to his knees before being silently dragged into the supply closet.

' Alright .. four grenades ... seven mags of shotgun ammo aaand ... a useless shotgun ' He sighed , Rolling his eyes before propping the body against the wall ' And now I'm on a time limit , They're gonna notice him missing pretty soon ... I'd say at most five minutes '

' Alright ' He pulled out a sleek looking pistol , remake of the Maxim 9 with new internals and far more powerful bullets than ever before.

The bullets of this maxim were highly compressed with the highest grade gunpowder one could produce , Leaving for a far more explosive force propelling the bullet far quicker than one would usually find , Capable of ripping through metal and flesh alike.

' Alright ' He raised the pistol , Connecting to the cameras once more as he used them as a guide to sneak through the buildings corridors.

He remained low , Stalking the halls as he turned left towards an elevator and stairway , But to go down he would have to pass three open rooms with no more than twelve maelstrom stalking within , two in the first with four in the second and finally six before the stairwell down to the basement .

' Alright ' The first room was easy enough to deal with , With the maelstrom both standing over a computer they were trying to log into .

He simply crouched low and approached , Before rising behind the two of them and quickly emptying a bullet into the back of the heads of the two.

The two simply slumped like their strings had been cut , The one that had been standing falling to the ground with an off gargling noise as his eyes tried to look for the source of his sudden death.

The second simply leaned forward onto the desk , Blood pooling over the laptop .

' Simple ' Sebastian shrugged as he turned the computer , Not caring for the blood on its surface as he quickly logged into the device .

' Alright ... definitely an exchange going on here ' He access the messages and emails between what he presumed to he so e higher up in the maelstrom gang , And the leader of the operation in this building.

Leaving the room , Sebastian came up to the doorway leading to the second room between himself and his goal .

' There's no need to keep wasting time ' His optics began to glow as he turned his gaze to the four within the room.

' Die ' He thought as a low ringing escaped the four maelstrom , Before simultaneously their cyberware all exploded into vicious sparks that shocked their organic bodies , Stopping their hearts and frying their veins as they collapsed to the ground.

Slinking into the room , Sebastian finally noticed the drums and crates that were sealed and ready for transport .

A frown came to his face as he thought on what to do , Cringing as he made up his mind.

' I have to ... I have to see what happened ' He closed his eyes and reached for the first barrel , Fingers prying open the sealed lid of the barrel .

Cracking open his eye lids , His eyes snapped open to stare within .

' How many 'He pulled out a sealed bag of hands , No larger than a small male child's hands . He dropped it and reached for the next, Pulling out a kerenzikov still splattered with blood .

' How many have these fiends butchered to get these ' He felt bile rise in the back of his throat as he found a pair of optics staring at him from within the pile.

He didn't look any deeper , He couldn't. As he lowered himself to the ground , The world spinning below him as he leant hus back against the barrel.

He simply stared at the ground for several minutes , Eyes pinned on a particularly interesting spec of dirt smudged into the cold concrete floor he stared down at .

He heard the clocking of a gun as a grunt had come into the room and no doubt seen his comrades .

" And who the fuck are you " The grunt asked as sebastian slowly rose his head to stare up into the glowing lenses of the man.

" Was it worth it ... killing so many children ... so many innocents simply for their cyberware " He asked , Looking up at the man whom seemed to grin wider.

" Oh a bleeding heart here have we , well you should know... our boys had our fun with em as we collected them. Even took a few of the hopefuls from that barely illegal club we got going on in the north Haha " The man didn't say anything else as his brain fried , Liquid brain matter running out his hears to pool at the ground beside the man .

" Noone leaves this building alive " Sebastian frowned , Fresh tear tracks running down his face as he slowly rose from the ground , dropping a small node into the barrels before accessing the cameras before zeroing every goon on the floor with a suicide hack.

' No more sneaking ... no more playing nice . Nobody is leaving this place ' He heard the bodies collapse in the adjacent room , Gurgling and the sound of sparking electricity sounding through the corridors .

' I've wasted enough time because of my hubris ... trying to play for my own amusement... what was I doing while people are suffering ' He growled as he simply exited the room , Turning right towards the elevator and stairway well .

Pushing the button for the elevator , Sebastian steeled his features, Eyes glaring ahead as they glowed orange in the dim light of the elevator.

With a chime , He stepped in , turning around before selecting the basement as the destination .

Growling , He pulled out his blade , the blade singing as he pulled it out and fallowed the blade to point downwards, Swapping his gun into his left hand and sword in his right.

With another chime , the elevator opened with a loud groan , Alerting the two maelstrom standing guard.

" Greetings " His voice came out low and dead , Devoid of life as he simply raised his gun and blasted the face of the goon to the left whilst simply swiping his blade across the neck of the one to his right, the man's head rolling onto the ground with a wet thud.

Directly infront of him was a long walkway leading into a main chamber where the majority of the gang members were currently under talks with their scav mates .

Adjusting his helmet , He made sure it was smugly in place whilst pulling his robe closed.

The base of the robe fluttered behind him as he marched forward , The red glow of the eyes of his helmet reflecting off of the dark walls .

' Unlock muscle contractiosn to 80 percent ' The red key did as asked without issue , Whilst Sebastian came to a halt behind a pair of dangling pastic curtains , Listening to the talks going on within.

" I'll give it all to you for eighty k eddies ... another shipment ready next month " A bald man with face Tattoos and a robotic arm spoke to the maelstrom leader , The large nearly entirely cybernetic man laughing out loud as he clapped the scav on the shoulder.

" This is why we like working with ya mate , You know your place " The large man laughed as he turned to his boys.

" Get ready for transport boys ... " The man paused as he made to send a message to his men upstairs , Yet a frown came to his features as he slowly turned to the plastic flaps where Sebastian was standing.

" You know , I'm not entirely fond of people zeroing my boys you gonk pussy " The man growled as he pulled out a shotgun and aimed at Sebastian's position .

" Now why don't you come out and say hi " The man all but ordered as sebastian complied and stepped through the flaps , His blade carving a trench where he walked by as sparks flew , Casting his black appearance in a sinister light before the twenty something maelstrom and twelve scavs within .

" How amusing , One gonk dropping my guys up there, We'll have to get those ware we gave em eh boys " He laughed as the other maelstrom hopped down from the crates and barrels they had slung themselves over , Pulling out their weapons and aiming at sebastian .

" You won't get the chance " Sebstaisn pupils dilated as his arm rose quicker than they could react.

He emptied the clip of his gun within a second , Causing twelve of the goons to explode into bloody smears as he got all twelve accurate headshots , blowing their heads apart from right to left.

However when he aimed at the seeming boss , The gun clicked on empty , Causing his eyes to narrow .

' Shit ... what the hell was I thinking ' He shook his head as the haze of rage he had been under seemd to alleviate for a moment , As he found himself staring at the barrel of the bosses shotgun.

Just in time too , As he managed to move and turn his body slightly in time as he was peppered with the guns load , As he dropped to the ground , Pain flaring across his body as he hid behind one of the barrels.

' What in the bloody hell fuck was I thinking coming down here like this ... this isn't me ... 'He grit his teeth as he pulled open his robe , Finding several bullet holes in his robes with blood beginning to run from his wounds.

' And here I thought I was above such basic things . Something such as myself controlled by my emotions... what a joke ' He thought as he moved his hand to his wounds , Fingers digging into his armour and flesh as he grit his teeth , Pulling out one of the slugs that had penetrated his body.

Breathing in , He closed his eyes , Pain running down the entire left side of his body before letting out another breath .

" Ha ...HAHA " He began as a bullet pinged off the back of his helmet , Gunfire Erupting off of the set of creates he was leaning against " HAHAHAHAHAHA "

His head hung back as he took inball the pain , The beating of his head as he felt his blood in his ears .

" LOOK AT THIS BOYS , KIDS GONE NUTS " The leader laughed as he racked another set of shells and unloaded into Sebastian's cover .

' Five cracked most likely broken ribs , Punctured lung and ruptured muscle fibres , My entire left side is fucked ' He laughed to himself as he tasted the distinct taste of iron in his mouth , No doubt his own blood .

" COME OUT LITTLE MAN " The leader bellowed as he took several steps forward .

' I can't risk this again ... Red key ... momentarily lower the output of my amygdala 'He mentally ordered and immediately felt his emotions lowering to near negligible portions .

Rage , Fear ... hatred and anger all became muted as his face became slack .

' I don't like this ' As his senses became muted , But he digressed , Simply reaching into his robes and reloading his pistol before raising it overhead , Unloading over his cover into four more goons .

He heard then scream and collapse on the ground .

" YOU FUCKING PUSSY " The boss hissed as his right arm had exploded from the elbow down thanks to one of his bullets.

He didn't risk rising from his cover yet , Knowing there was still a minimum of eight maelstrom within z No doubt the scavs had most likely already escaped through the second entrance to the basement.

" Fuck " He frowned , Connecting with the cameras upstairs as he watched the scavs loading the wares they were selling into the maelstrom vans , Before ultimately dipping and leaving with the maelstrom drivers .

' This entire ops been fucked ... WHY in the ever living fuck did I do that ' He shook his head as he pulled out another mag , The last he had on him .

' No worries ... Don't worry about it ' He thought to himself as he leant his head onto the barrel of his gun , Before once more raising the weapon overhead, Rising slightly as he stared over the barrels.

His head rocked back slightly as several rounds quickly pounded his helmet , But he simply stared back as bullets dropped from the unmarred helmet , Completely undamaged .

In response he raised his weapon and fired off the remaining bullets in quick succession , killing the last eight maelstrom in twos seconds whilst the gun in the bosses hand exploded thanks two a lucky bullet hitting its chamber.

" AH FUCK " The man growled out as the gun exploded in his hands , Splinters of steel peircing his hands as he dropped the now destroyed gun .

" Fuck it " The man yelled out as he reached down and simply shoved the barrels to the side with his one remaining arm , leaving sebastian without cover as he raised his hand and threw a downward punch towards Sebastian's chest .

Raising his blade , Sebastian barely had time to bring up the flay of his blade to block , Skidding back as the man's knuckles collided with the blade .

The two sat in their positions for several seconds as the sound of rining metal rung throughout the basement .

" You'll die here gonk " The man tried to press his knuckles against the blade , Attempting to simply bend the blade , Yet to the man's surprise the blade simply held firm .

Tilting the blade , Sebastian diverted the man's force overhead , Grabbing the hilt of his blade by both hands as he ducked under the man's girth to slash at the back of the man's calf .

" AHH YOU FUCKER " The man whirled around far faster than sebastian thought he could have .

'Sandevistan ' Sebastian's eyes widened as am open fist collided with his helmet , Sending him flying from the force as he collided with the far wall of the basement .

His head wrung as he stared at the man who was looking at his open calf , Sparks coming from his leg .

' Nows my chance ' Sebastian growled as he tried to zero the guy with a hack .

' No ' He felt a small trail of blood run down his nose ' DAMAGES NOW '

[ Spinal trauma sustained.

Dislodged spinal column .

Destroyed cervical column , Damage to brain sustained, Cyberdeck currently unavailable until damage to brainstem healed ... time to heal ... three minutes ] The red key gave him the information via display over his optics , And hit grit his teeth as he could indeed feel the issue with his spine, No doubt the nanites running interference to keep his body even moving at this point .

' Looks like I'm getting a new spine then 'He growled as he slowly rose to his feet , The maelstrom boss limping over to him .

" Whats your name " Sebastian growled as he felt his spine click as he tried to stand up , Yet he couldn't even raise his head without his vision darkening.

" Rory ... but you can call me hammer " The man slammed his hand into the barrel he had previously tossed to the side , Caving in its surface with ease .

" I can see that ... well... let's get this over with shall we " Sebastian leant forward as Rory smirked and nodded the two rushing at eachother.

The man's fist rose and blitzed towards Sebastian's rib cage , Smirking in victory as his knuckles collided with Sebastian's rib cage , Obluterating it in one go .

Blood erupted from Sebastian's mouth , Feeling the splinters of bone puncture several organs and vital functions , Yet he held himself on his feet , Despite being out of breath with each breath being shallow and hard to draw .

" Nice knowing ya Rory " Sebastian slowly smirked despite the blood rushing from his lips , Rory's face going into shock as blood sprayed from his chest , Erupting all over Sebastian's body as his torso split in half horizontally , His top half falling away from his bottom half .

With Rory down, Sebastian dropped to one knee , The pain overwhelming him as he began to profusely vomit up copious amounts of blood onto the ground below.

He didn't have a chance to do anything else as everything promptly went black , Leaving him unconscious in the basement of the scav den next to the body of Rory.

....

18 HOURS LATER

...

" Ah... " He groaned , Violently twitching as he felt a prickling cold assault his body .

" BOSS" He opened his optics to find tekeyoshi standing beside him with fingers looking at him with a raised eyebrow .

" What ... what happened " Sebastian asked as he found himself laying almost nude in his own surgery chair, He would have been nude save for a pair of black boxers around his waist.

" You tell me my friend ... That creepy cyberware you've got in that had of yours all but forced me to come and get you from that disgusting place . I didn't even have control of my own body , Felt terrifying being in the back seat " Fingers explained as tekeyoshi looked unsure , Refusing to meet his eyes .

" I tried to stop it Boss , I really did " Sebastian looked upwards to find several arasaka robots standing idly next to the surgery chair , Several tools in their hands leading him to come to the conclusion that they had performed a surgery on him .

" An interesting thing happened last night , Apartently a while crew of arasaka tech went haywire , Broke out of a arasaka workshop and dissapeared into the city ... imagine my surprise to find them here when I all but dropped you at their feet . Could only watch as they ripped you apart and took out your bones " Fingers explained as sebastian looked at the bloodied fingers and tools of the machines.

' Was it you ' Sebastian asked sceptically , The red key giving an Affirmative several long seconds after complete silence.

' Show systems '

[ Brain :

Red key ... performance 100%

Red cyberdeck ... efficiency 100%

Kill switch ... 100%]

[ Torso :

Red genesis spine efficiency : 87%

Red genesis ribcage : 100% integrity

Nanites at 60% efficiency , Currently healing internal damage ]

Showing a digital display of his current make-up, An Gray of his body showed an entirely black mechanical spine running down in place of his previous spine, With the black metal ribs more durable than the last covered his damaged organs ( [ https://pin.it/6u6A1dWa0 ] for reference )

" How long have I been out " Sebastian asked as the red key removed the restraints on his amygdala,the previously muted sensations like fear and rage coming back at full force as his gaze darkened several times over .

" I picked you up ah ... eighteen hours ago now ... you went into surgery for four and have been completely unresponsive for fourteen since then ... " Fingers replied slowly, Eyes squinting as he couldn't properly gauge Sebastian, Being incredibly weary if not terrified of the cyberware he knew to be in Sebastian's head.

" I'll be going now , Got a new appreciation for being in control of myself " Fingers bid himself farewell , Waving over his shoulders as he exited the clinic .

Staring ahead , Sebastian was lost in his own thoughts for a minute of silence as tekeyoshi shuffled uncomfortably.

" Boss ... what's wrong " Tekeyoshi asked as he looked at Sebastian's eyes , His hero simply glaring at the far wall of the clinic .

" I'm going back into surgery " The arasaka robots around the clinic started back up, Turning to face Sebastian as the man gave tekeyoshi a small sad smile .

" In the meantime I need you to go onto my computer , There's a node currently tracking a shipment I need you to find , being recording its locations ... the next thing I need you to do, Is go to my apartment block and find either pillar or Rebecca... get them to contact Maine "

...

3 HOURS LATER

...

He stood alone infront of his apartments mirror , Squaring his chest as he looked at the bullets wounds in his chest .

Under his skin , If one looked closely enough you could see eight small red lights coming from hus newly implemented ribcage . They were hard enough to spot .

The mainly noticible thing however was when he turned his back , The base of his neck was completely different. The spinal column around his neck was reinforced , Blinking a red light as the plates shifted with every twitch of his arms. The rotors moving and shifting as the skin folded around a triangular patch around his back , Whilst a black spine like column ran down his back. This wasn't his actual spine , Rather another attachment placed atop the new spine he had , Hense why it jutted out his back .

Six small nobs of unknown purpose as between his shoulder blades , Connecting to his spine and the attachment.

From these nobs , six long cylindrical cores of glowing red energy hissed as they slowly rose from their chambers .

They gave off a slow sinister hum as they glowed an eery red light , His eyes checked them over for several seconds before the red cylinders sunk back into his spine .

' Everything seems to be in order ' It felt weird , Getting used to his new spine was difficult as any movement he did could have devastating effects on everything around him and himself if he wasn't careful.

His knuckles had been replaced by metallic counterparts , Shifting and changing with each movement of one of his fingers .

Reaching over , Sebastian pulled a white shirt onto his body , His shoulders a good ten centimetres larger than they had been thanks to the newly implemented wares .

[ Internal organs currently at 78% efficiency, Under repair..][Tuner is running at 70% efficiency , Rising ]

Walking over to the door to his apartment , Sebastian opened the door to find Maine standing before him , Arms crossed with a rather unfriendly look on his face .

" What do you want " Maine asked as he peered down at sebastian .

" Cut the attitude ... I only need two things from you . All you have to do is serve as backup in a op I'll be undertaking in fourty hours ... and if anything happens you pull me out ... that's it .. the two things I need you to do " Sebastian asked as he felt a rotor in his spine move slightly as he adjusted his stance.

" What do we get from it " Maine asked as he leant against the wall , Looking through his glasses directly into Sebastian's orange optics , Watching thr young man reach into his pockets to pull out his near pitch black shades .

" You'll get to keep anything within the establishment , Plus forty k eddies for essentially babysitting me . I've got some new wares I want to ensure doesn't backfire or go wrong ... I don't want to be zeroed because of something I can control . It's a one off gig ... we got a deal " Sebastian responded as he raised his chase to look up at the seven foot tall Maine .

" Upfront payment ... details on location " Maine responded as sebastian immediately paid the man before giving the man the location the scavenged cyberware was shipped to .

" Fuck ... add an extra twenty " Maine brokered no arguments as he took in what exactly Sebastian was about to essentially force his team into .

He could have denied the gig of course , But as far as he saw it . He was both getting in the good books of some terrifying man , A damn good ripperdoc from what pillar had shown off , It was better to remain in the man's good books than not.

The best part was they were gonna get paid for it, And the raid would be dangerous even for a seasoned team , And If they could save the man when he'd no doubt need it , then that was even better for their future ventures .

" We'll pick you up then , Go to Rebecca when you're ready " Maine turned and walked away into the apartment complex before turning and descending the stairs .

' I should probably get some training before going round two with those scavs ' Sebastian mused as he too exited the building towards his clinic .

....

CRAAACK

His hand collided with the concrete rubble nearby the clinic , Turning stone to dust under his knuckles as he raised his foot and slammed it down .

The ground in turn shook and shuddered under his reinforced feet and tendons , Cratering the ground around his foot as shrapnel flew away from his body.

He stood top less in his black boxers , Squaring his feet , Spreading them away as every muscle in his torso contorted and twisted , The rotors in his back spinning as they hummed.

' Spring lock ... ' He reared his arm back , lpwered his legs to leap forward , Ready to punch forward despite the target wall being over ten metres away ' Release '

He blitzed forward faster than the eye could perceive as his hand tore through the concrete wall he had intended to punch through .

He winced however as his momentum didn't stop , Throwing him clean through the wall and the next before he skidded to a stop on the opposite side of the abandoned warehouse he had been training in.

" That ... " His arm kind of hurt as his torso was bruised slightly " Limit snap back to forty percent "

The snap back was one of the upgrades he had given his new spine , able to reinforce and contract his body before sending a surge through his muscles , Casuing his body to shoot forward in one rapid burst of speed in any direction he wanted .

Ontop of that ... he now had a redisigned militech version sandevistan installed into his spineal column, Now dubbed red mk 1 genesis sandevistan much like all of his products. It mixed with his neural ware and cyberdeck , Was far more powerful to the point it seemed time simply stopped around him for twenty seconds .

But that wasn't what made it so good , It had next to nonrefharge time , A single second to recharge .

The downsides however was the effects

of using it continuously would have on his neuralware , It would eventually melt his cyberware and brain thanks to the sheer amount of feedback his optics would have to continuously be fed , So unless he wanted to burn his brain away , He'd have at most five continuous uses before sensory overload began to have negative effects .

Ontop of that , if he was to mix that with the redesigned sandevistan he had implemented into his actual spine , So if the attachment to his spine was removed he'd still he able to use his sandevistan to massive boosted effects . But if he was to stack the boosts of the snap back with his sandy, well it was fast enough to cause skin to tear and combust , Bones to crack and blood vessels to simply explode , So he wouldn't be mixing the two unless absolute necessary for a quick escape.

If anything could keep up with him during a snap back- Sandy burst. Than he had no business fighting them to begin with. And he wasn't ignorant enough of believe he was untouchable , sure he could quick Jack whilst using the sandevistan , But that be a glaring red neck sign about his cyberware .

So he wouldn't be using his sandevistan for anything in the near future , He'd rather keep his cards hidden until absolutely necessary, The snap back boost was at best a final move against opponents he couldn't fight normally .

The cores in his spine however , the ones hidden just above his spine , would never be revealed no matter what happens .

Their purpose was to he known to nobody but himself. An absolute last resort , Never to be used until on his deathbed .

Usually these cores would keep his cyberware functioning virtually forever if maintained with the functioning bioelecticity produced by his body , however the isotope used could also be overloaded , leading to massive leaks in radiation before finally going up in an explosion capable of destroying a city block at the very least , One last fuck you if need be .

' Let's just hope it never comes to that ' He grunted as he pulled his white shirt , Now dirty , Over his body.

" Its time for a rematch "