23.7

March 1, 2070, at 0739

Watson, Outside Arasaka Waterfront, Totentanz, Parking Lot #3

An armored RV was parked unassumingly in the Totentanz customer parking lot. A certain cyber-chicken Netrunner had already sliced into the security, paying the parking fee from the club’s slush fund.

It didn’t help the beleaguered hen being dressed down by her vampiric owner. “You are bad with money,” Crystal said bluntly, staring down at Fluffyfeathers as she stood above the normal-sized hen. “How can we go from having half a billion eddies to fourteen and change?”

“..expenses,” Fluffyfeathers mumbled.

“Expenses? Oh? Tell me more.” Crystal said, staring down with her crimson-red eyes. “What expenses could require such sums?”

“Software updates?” Fluffyfeathers said, looking up hopefully.

“Software updates?” Crystal and Rabbit exclaimed simultaneously as the RV’s AI entered the conversation.

“I give up,” Crystal said, slumping into a chair that moved to catch her. Rabbit, the RV’s AI, made a holographic avatar to sit on a bench at the table Fluffyfeathers was nesting on.

“Do you know how close we are to being forced to get a real job to make ends meet?” Crystal said as she covered her eyes with a forearm. “This close!” Two pinched fingers demonstrated the issue in a single image. “Arasaka security is insane now at all their slush fund locations. Word on the street is they plan to make chickens illegal!”

“The only expense we have now is food,” Fluffyfeathers said consolingly.

Crystal peeked out from underneath her forearm and said, “Are you trying to blame for food expenses on me, Stir Fry with Sauce?”

“Blood is expensive!” Fluffyfeathers huffed in reply. “We only visited one Asian-themed stall, and you immediately take that suspicious owner’s nickname for me to heart! Too cruel!”

“What do you think, Rabbit?” Crystal asks, dropping her arm to stare at the AI’s hologram.

“Nuc-” Rabbit managed to get out before both chicken and human said, “No!”

“We are not nuking Noir City, and that’s final.” Fluffyfeathers said as her feathers bristled. “I still don’t know where this obsession with energy bombs came from. There’s nothing in your code that indicates anything like it.”

“I blame the Net,” Crystal said succinctly. “It’s a corrupting influence.”

Fluffyfeathers eyed her and said, “You’re not preparing that as an excuse for doing something drastic later, right?”

“N-No, of course, I’m not,” Crystal said with a suspiciously guilty look.

“What about leaving town for a bit?” Rabbit said as their hologram flickered.

“To where? There are clans of Metal Mud riders everywhere!” Crystal grumbled. In response, Rabbit pulled up a screen demonstrating a map. The image of Seattle flashed before expanding.

“What the hell is that?” Fluffyfeather asked, her eyes widening in confusion. She instantly dove into the Net, searching for answers.

Crystal sat up and stared at the disturbing image of a massive black marble engulfing Seattle. “Someone let a genie out of the bottle, that’s for sure.”

“There are energy readings that correspond with you,” Fluffyfeathers said after a quick tour in the Net for information. “They claim the incident is due to research at Arasaka’s Endpoint facility.”

Crystal’s eyes flowed over the display, seeing more than mere data. “It’s a gate. Someone or something sent a signal to another slice of reality and got an unfriendly answer.”

Runners. A world darkened by magic and corporate greed.

All three glanced at each other as a voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. “It looks like my Patron is talking in her sleep.” Crystal sighed.

“With everyone hibernating, there aren’t easy answers anymore.” Fluffyfeathers grumped. “Nota would know what this was, without a doubt. It’s as eldritch as that AI ever was.”

“The Corpos are offering large sums of money for mercenaries willing to sign up, no questions asked.” Rabbit said with an evil grin.

The air hung thick with the tension of uncertainty as the three of them digested the reality of the situation. Once a thriving metropolis of technological advancements and neon lights, Seattle had become a shadow of its former self, swallowed up by the dark energy emanating from another dimension. Once vibrant and full of life, the city's inhabitants were lost or worse.

The imposing structure of Arasaka's Endpoint facility loomed in imagery, its top disappearing into the black clouds that had gathered over the city. Fluffyfeathers' feathers bristled even more at the sight of it. Everyone knew Arasaka was notorious for their unethical experiments and disregard for the sanctity of life. The fact that they were involved in the current crisis was no surprise to anyone of note.

"We need to find out what's happening at that facility," Crystal declared, her mind working at lightning speed. "There must be a way to profit from a gate like that. If the area has rising mana levels, it would link to a world where the resource is plentiful."

"I agree," Fluffyfeathers nodded, her beak clicking together in determination. "But we can’t just sign up at the drop of a hat. We need a fixer to negotiate our payday, and it can’t be Padre."

A flicker of an idea crossed Crystal's mind, and she smiled, her crimson-red eyes gleaming with excitement. "There's someone we can ask for help. A nice old lady I used to work with back in the day. She goes by the name of the lady of Westbrook estate."

Fluffyfeather’s eyes flickered before she said, "You know the Dragon Fixer? How?"

“I used to do homework for a few of her kids as a side gig before all this,” Crystal said, waving at her vampire body. Ignoring the chicken’s grumbling about fate, destiny, and other esoteric bullshit, the vampire called the elderly fixer.

The holo-screen Rabbit projected for the call flickered to life, revealing the stately visage of the Lady of Westbrook Estate. A vision of elegance and refinement, she sat in a high-backed chair, her night-dark hair pulled back into a neat bun, and her eyes, a sharp and piercing black, regarded Crystal with a mix of amusement and curiosity.

"Well, if it isn't the little homework helper.” Crystal nodded as Rabbit generated a false image of her sitting in the RV. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?" Wakako Okada said, her voice like the indifferent words of an uncaring grandmother.

Crystal took a deep breath, steadying herself before speaking. "I’m in a bit of a situation. I need a good excuse to leave the city for some time."

The Lady's eyebrows rose in surprise, but she remained silent, allowing Crystal to continue. "In Seattle, something is happening at Arasaka's Endpoint facility. They've unleashed a dark energy that smells like money to me."

The Lady's eyes narrowed at the mention of Arasaka, a name that had crossed her path more than once.

"And what do you expect me to do about it?" she asked, her voice taking on a harder edge.

"I need a favor. A patron to vouch for me and smooth the road."

The Lady was silent momentarily, her sharp eyes studying Crystal's face as if searching for any sign of deception. Finally, she sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"Very well. How can I miss the chance to clear a debt for so little investment?” The Dragon Fixer ended the call with a nod, leaving Crystal rolling her eyes at the blank screen.

"Well, that went better than expected," Fluffyfeathers said, her feathers settling back into place. “She didn’t even charge us for the information.”

Crystal nodded a determined glint in her eye. "Tell me the credentials are good."

“The credentials are platinum. Congratulations, instead of years of slavery and toil, you’ve leaped to the top of the mercenary heap in one comm call. Talk about rapid promotion.” Fluffyfeathers said with a snicker.

The sleek, adaptive RV whispered to life as Rabbit initiated the ignition sequence, its engine humming before finally settling into a steady purr. The vehicle, a shining example of human engineering, looked fresh off the factory.

With a few taps on the holographic display, Rabbit’s AI holo-avatar charted a course to Seattle. The GPS coordinates lit up in bright green. With a slight hum, the RV began to move, its tires crunching on the gravel of the parking lot before going silent as the gravel gave way to superhighway substance.

As the RV rolled onto the superhighway, the full scale of the destruction became evident. Buildings lay in ruins, their facades crumbling and glass shattered. Images from the news agencies on the scene were graphic. Cars were abandoned on the side of the road, their owners having long since fled. It was as if the world had ended, and the survivors vanished into thin air. Nothing could transmit out of the dark marble, but if the appearance of the edges was any indication, the inside was devastated

But despite the devastation around the city of Seattle, there was a glimmer of hope. The Corpos, heartless as they were, were already hopping mad at the loss of profit. Whatever was on the other side of the Seattle gate had managed to do something shocking.

It had united the Corporations and the NUSA government in a single stroke.

Crystal stared at the false sky of the RV ceiling as miles rolled by, and soon, the skyline of Seattle came into view, its once-tall buildings now shrouded in darkness. The black marble that had engulfed the city seemed to pulsate with energy, almost like a gravity anomaly.

But Rabbit was undeterred. The AI had calculated the safest route through the energy field and followed it to the letter. With a few more keystrokes, Rabbit activated the RV's thin mana-shield generator, a barely visible blue field of energy surrounding the vehicle, protecting it from the dark mana emissions.

Rabbit's holographic avatar flickered on the display, the blue light casting an eerie glow over the RV's interior. "We're approaching the mana anomaly gate now. I’ve sent our purloined credentials and gained accepted access as the mercenary team, Dark Phantoms. You might want to brace yourselves. The energy readings are off the charts."

Crystal gripped the armrests of her chair, her crimson eyes narrowing in concentration. The RV had been modified to handle all terrain, but this was uncharted territory. No one had ever entered a mana anomaly gate before; most of the world didn’t even know it existed, and there was no telling what they would find on the other side.

The only guarantee was there would be mana in the other world.

The world outside the RV's windows warped and twisted, and the fabric of reality seemed to fold in on itself. The black marble that had engulfed Seattle was now a swirling mass of energy, its dark tendrils reaching out toward them.

And then, with a final lurch, the RV passed through the gate, and the world changed.

The darkness lifted, and they found themselves in a lush, vibrant forest, the trees towering above them, their leaves a bright green that seemed to glow in the light. The air was fresh and clean, and the sound of birdsong filled the air.

Crystal stared in amazement at the scene before her. It was as if they had entered another world untouched by the ravages of time and technology.

"This is incredible," she breathed, her eyes wide with wonder.

Fluffyfeathers clucked in agreement, her eyes taking in the beauty of their surroundings. "It's like something out of a fairy tale."

Rabbit's avatar flickered again and then stabilized. "According to the sensors, we are now in a parallel dimension created by the mana anomaly gate. The energy readings are normal, and no signs of any hostile entities exist. The jungle around us is barely half a mile in diameter."

Crystal's mind sharpened instantly, “What’s outside the jungle?”

“Wasteland.” Rabbit said, glancing at her.

“It’s a trap!” Fluffyfeathers said with assurance.

“That is the most predictable outcome.” Rabbit said in agreement.

“I’m reading hundreds of small child-sized lifeforms and approximately twenty adult humanoid forms.” Rabbit said, displaying the spread of enemies.

“Strange that no one else has exited when we’ve been stationary,” Crystal said with a raised eyebrow.

“The most likely outcome is multiple exit points and accompanying traps.” Fluffyfeathers said as she ruffled her feathers.

Crystal’s clothing shifted into a skin-tight leather battle suit as her longsword appeared gripped in her right hand. “Let’s go spring the trap then, shall we? I need higher quality souls to ascend!"