Outrun - Chapter 312

I checked the location and nodded to Mira. “Looks like this is it.”

We were pulled into a hover over a warehouse in Portside. It looked abandoned and decrepit, with half of it collapsed under the onslaught of storms that plagued Aythryn City. It didn’t look like much, but I knew firsthand how easy it was to have a hidden bunker underneath something mundane looking.

That, and I knew for a fact there was a basement underneath the warehouse. It was on the circle’s maps, so it’d been here for a while too. It wouldn’t surprise me if the merc team had retrofitted it into a safe house or something. 

“Are you sure about this?” Mira looked over her shoulder. The halo cast a soft glow on her face, making her worry all the more apparent.

”It’ll be fine.” I patted her shoulder and then stood up on the hover bike. “Just park and be ready to help if something goes wrong.”

”Right…” Mira took a deep breath and shook her head. Her grip on the bike’s handlebars tightened to the point her knuckles turned white. Something gave the feeling she didn’t quite like my plan.

”It will be fine. I’ve done this hundreds of times. If I could get into a Savant Lab, this little safe house won’t be an issue.” I offered her a cheerful smile and handed her a spectral crow. Then I stepped off the bike into the twilight sky.

I plummeted far, far down to the half-collapsed roof of the warehouse. I landed in the light snow, and shifted my poncho to better fit for camouflage. Blinder and my Perks activated on instinct, letting me blend into the deep shadows cast by the setting sun. I slunk up to a rusty AC unit and used it as cover while I deployed my Dragonflies.

A wave of the little guys lifted off, scattering throughout the warehouse while I controlled them on my deck. The warehouse had long been picked clean, and was full of dust, pools of grimy water, and collapsed racks. Snow was piled up everywhere with no signs of being touched recently. Even for the most desperate scav, there wasn’t anything really worth the effort of snagging.

My opinion of the group, Polar Moon I think, lifted significantly. They had my favorite kind of security down perfectly. No one would dig around this place without foreknowledge. Hell, I would've just passed it by without Iris saying something. Sure there was a basement, but that was hardly a unique feature that would draw my attention.

I dipped my head several times while I looked around for the entrance into the basement. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what I was expecting, but I didn’t find it. For all intents and purposes, the warehouse looked entirely seamless with not even a hint of a sub-level. 

I tried a bit more and then scattered my dragonflies to go keep watch. I wasn’t going to find it with those. I stood up and stretched out with my hands crossed above my head. It looked like it was back to good old legwork. I moved over to a collapsed section and dropped down into the warehouse proper.

Moving around the warehouse in a search pattern, I tapped my foot against the concrete and sent down pulses of Technical Expertise. While I was doing that, Mira and I idly chatted and she got posted up on a nearby water tower. I needed to make her a gun soon.

“So? What do you think about the whole Troubleshooter Act?” Mira asked. I glanced up through the collapsed section of the warehouse to see her kicking her legs while resting against the water tower. I could feel her location perfectly thanks to the Packheart Rings, but she was actually in a pretty well hidden spot.

”Sounds like it’ll be a pain.” That was the one where the new mayor was trying to bring mercs out of their grey one.

“I don’t know- it could be fun?” Mira’s voice hitched, a sign of two different thought processes going against each other. Although the halo was mostly fixed, she still had an issue on occasion. “And it’ll let normal people have access to stuff that only those in the know could access.” 

“For better or worse.” There’d probably be a massive uptick in stupid gigs with poor pay soon.

”We should sign up! Mira and Co has a nice ring to it.”

“I don’t know… I’m already busy enough as is.” I still had the whole Cold Moon situation to take care of, and there was no telling how long that would take me.

The telepathic communication went silent for a minute while I poked around. “If I opened a Troubleshooter Agency, would you help me out?” 

“‘Course. If you even need anything, just ask.” Even if it was for me to participate in a stupid gig to find a cat or something, I’d help.

”I’ll hold you to-“

”Found it.” I cut her off when a pulse of Technical Expertise finally had some feedback. Down below the concrete, deep enough I barely caught it, there was a heavy mechanism. I had to tap around the entire area, but eventually I figured out what it was. 

The entire section of concrete right here would drop down when the mechanism activated like some weird elevator. There wasn’t an activation switch. Not one I could find, anyway. Was there some kind of transceiver set up? I wouldn’t be able to get access without it… at least, not without quite a bit of effort.

I tapped the concrete with my foot and sent a jolt of electricity down through it. Unfortunately, my control through materials wasn’t as good as my control through the air. It dispersed almost immediately, vanishing into the concrete well before it touched the mechanism.

“So? Did you find it or not? You’re just dancing around down there.” Mira’s voice whispered  into my mind.

”I did find it… just having trouble accessing it.” I could always use explosives. I had some det-cord in my bike’s saddlebag, but I didn’t really want to blow up Polar Moon’s property. We were… not quite allies, but it wouldn’t feel right.

”Have you tried knocking?” I could practically hear the smirk in Mira’s voice. “She should know we’re coming for her, right? I imagine your contact didn’t just call us.”

I wouldn’t put it past Iris to only call me. Everytime I interacted with her, she seemed to be purely a muscle head. She’d be great in the Crusade, actually. Still, knocking might work? There was a chance there was a sensor down there somewhere tied to the entrance.

I moved around the top of the mechanism, knocking on several parts. To my surprise, the mechanisms far below actually started to react. After a few moments, the seamless concrete cracked down the middle and sunk into the earth. It was then pulled to the sides to reveal a metal staircase down into the depths. “Um- it worked?”

“‘Course it did. Pa always did teach me to be polite. Want me to come down there?”

“No. Hold your overlook just in case. You still have that spectral crow?” I slunk down closer and stared down the stairs. Bright white lights illuminated the stairs, leaving no shadows to hide in.

”Got it. Call me if you need me.” 

“Chek.” Hopefully this would just be an in and out without too much of an issue. I went quiet and slowly moved down the stairs. The bottom of them emptied out into a large server room full of Netrunner gear. Right- Iris did say Luna was a-

TZZT!

Lightning surged across the stairs as I activated a trap. My legs fell out from underneath me, and I collapsed into a spray of limbs at the base of the metal stairs. I tried to pull on the Spectral Flock connection, but the warm surges of electric euphoria through my body completely destroyed any focus I might have.

It was like I was fading into a dream. Everything turned slightly hazy while the current rushed along my limbs. All tension faded away, and I became the most relaxed I’d been in a really, really long time. A broken laugh left my barely functioning brain.

Light footsteps came from the room and a figure pushed toward me. Just before I could focus on them, all of my chrome malfunctioned and dumped even more brain churning warmth throughout my body. “Don’t… stop…”

Even I wasn’t sure if that was Don’t. Stop. Or don’t stop. Not that it mattered. Nothing mattered really. My mind drifted away, lulled by the comforting warmth surging through me. It was like I was wrapped on one, relaxing hug.

The buzzing in my ears covered up almost every other noise. I did catch a weak sounding voice though. “Damnit, they even got someone like you against us?!”

The trap surged with even more power, causing me to twitch erratically on the floor. Each and every jolt made my worries disappear, like the world was just an illusion. “Uggh- t-t-that- against-“

I’d intentionally kept away from absorbing electricity since I got my Kinetic ability. Now though- now I could feel an addiction starting to set in. Oddly, outside of the initial jolts, the electricity didn’t make me tense up at all. It just made me relax like I was about to fall asleep.

“The hell? H-how are you even still awake?” The voice came back like a mosquito underneath the buzz of electricity. The voltage increased multiplicatively once more. Everything started to fade away under the waves of electricity.

”I-Iris- s-s-sent mmmeeeee-“ A voice came out high-pitched and derpy. Oh- was that my voice?

The electricity continued for half a minute before it abruptly shut off. “Oh- oh, sh-shit! S-sorry!”

Pulses of Cold-Blooded helped me remember why I was here and what was happening. I collapsed back against the wall and shoved my head between my knees. I- I should never do drugs. That was dangerous. So very dangerous. My entire body was still trembling with aftershocks.

”A-are you alright?” The frail girl who’d just been ruthlessly shocking me did a complete one-eighty and approached me like a lamb moving to the slaughterhouse.

I lifted my head with muscles that felt like lead. My entire body felt weak and unsteady thanks to the unexpected electro-shock therapy. “L-Luna?”

”T-that’s me?” The girl’s head tilted shyly to the side. Long locks of silver-white hair flowed from her scalp, framing her cute face. She looked extremely young- like even younger than me. She was even shorter than I was, and looked like even a stray breeze might blow her over. 

To be honest, she looked like a bolt of moonlight. She was incredibly pale and wearing an oversized light grey hoodie. When I say oversized, I meant it. From the black fur sticking off of it- did it come from that massive wolf man? What was his name? Kahn? Kayne… Kaynis?

”Iris sent me.” I leaned back, propping my head against the concrete wall to catch my breath. I quietly muttered. “Found her, Mira.”

”Nova. Everything still looks clear up here.” Her voice came whispering back.

“Those b-bastards- they left me h-here! I-I swear, when I get my hands around them-“ Her words were at complete odds with her rather fragile appearance. Her pale blue eyes pulled tightly in a cold glare.

”She asked me to get you out of here.” I looked around the room once more. There was some seriously high-level tech scattered around the basement.

“Right… th-this place must’ve been burned too.” Luna darted back into the room and approached me with a deck and a briefcase tucked under her arm. “Let’s go.”

”You- you trust me? Just like that?” I stared at the silver-haired kid. Was she dropped on her head as a child? Who has that level of trust in this stupid city? Aside from maybe Saint, that is.

”I already hacked your phone records.” Luna moved to my side and helped me to my feet. Right, Netrunner. “That- that b-bitch better be ready for what’s coming to her!”

Definitely talking about Iris. I tossed my poncho to her when she started shivering. She looked like she might catch a cold if she went out as is, and I’d rather not have to answer to Iris for that. I had a couple spare ones in my bike’s saddlebags anyway. Thankfully, I’d already modified all my tech to deal with electricity, so it wasn’t broken. “Take this.”

“Thanks.” Her complexion turned rosy when she threw the poncho on. “S-sorry about earlier. I thought you were like everyone else.”

Everyone else? Why did I get the feeling I just stepped into a much deeper hole then I realized? ”How’d you even know I was here?”

“I saw your little drones.” She waved a hand and easily took control of my Dragonflies. One of them buzzed over and landed on her shoulder. Netrunners were always terrifying.

”Wait, Shiro. There’s suspicious movement near the front of the warehouse. Two blacked out SUVs just parked.” Mira called across our connection through the Packheart Rings.

I immediately pushed the frail girl behind a pile of snow and broken racks to hide her. Thankfully, she got the memo and didn’t make a scene. The chances of someone just happening to pass by at this exact moment were not exactly high.

I pulled my coil-pistol and slunk into the shadows.