Chapter 2: Allie

"Kassix." As the voice said this seemingly meaningless word, Kassix's stomach dropped and it felt as if something in his head clicked. That was his name.

"How do you know my name?" Kassix gulped and asked, He felt as if he traded one danger for another.

"I'm here to help." The voice responded with a matter of fact tone.

"... How do you know my name." Kassix felt that something was amiss and he should press the subject.

"Listen, I can tell you the full story but we are not really in a position where we have that luxury. I'm here to help, and you will be better off just hearing me out first." She said this, and Kassix felt she was right. Even if he wanted answers, there's no telling what Sten had planned for him. There was the thought that it had been a misunderstanding, and this person was the real danger, but the uncertainty about Sten and the fact that he had indeed lied about where he brought him made Kassix brush it aside for now.

"Okay, you say you want to help me, Let me just ask why?" Kassix had no clue what was going on, he had nothing on his person except a ratty jacket, and no money to his name so they couldn't have wanted payment right?

"Short and simple: I want you to help me in return." She responded quickly as to not waste any time.

"With what?" He knew there had to be a catch.

"Help me work against the same people who would kill you if they caught you." She got straight to the point, not one to beat around the bush it seems.

Kassix gulped at the latter part, and asked, "Why would they want to kill me?"

"Okay, if we keep going at this pace you are not going to run out of questions. You do not have any identification, and you are also completely unmodified. In the viewpoint of many government agencies you would be viewed as a member of a terrorist organization who stands against modifying the human race. If you are caught, then you would be asking them to kill you by the time they are done." She stated all of this quickly, and seemingly without having to stop to take a breath. It seems she was really in a hurry to get this conversation over.

"Alright, I got it. Do I have any choice in this matter?" He asked, expecting them to state that they didn't.

To his surprise she said, "Of course you have a choice, but as of right now you need to accept a little of my help, even if you decide to not help me. First off the machine in front of you is a console that can be found all around the city. They have many functions but one of their most complex is simple material fabrication. This normally costs an extreme amount of money to use this function, but I've been able to get it to activate to fix your identification problem. Stick your arm in there." As she finished a slot opened on the console, just big enough for him to insert his arm. The slot didn't look like it was there beforehand, so the console must have reconfigured to allow this to happen.

"This, seems like a horrible idea" Kassix thought to himself, but if what she said were true he had to get an identification somehow. He rolled the jacket sleeve up to his bicep and carefully stuck his arm in. After a moment he felt a metal clamp grab around his wrist to hold it in place, which sent a spike of mild panic through him, and he attempted to pull his arm out. However, as soon as he tried to move his arm back another one clamped around right in front of his elbow, and he could no longer move his arm at all.

"Stop struggling please, this will hurt but it wont cause any lasting damage." She said coldly, as what felt like a needle began to puncture his skin. He clenched his teeth hard as just *hurting* was not enough to describe as more and more needles punctured his arm. It was a process that gave him something similar to a tattoo in under 30 seconds. Once the needles retracted his arm was released and he quickly pulled it out.

There was a bar code and numbers printed on his arm, he remembered seeing something similar on Sten's arm. "What is this?" he asked bluntly, but he already knew from the last conversation.

"This can be scanned, or the numbers can be looked up to find out who you are. This, however is merely camouflage for you right now." She decided to only elaborate this far, which prompted him to ask what she meant by that. At this point he was getting tired of asking that question.

"If someone scans, or looks up your number, they wont find anything. I can't fix that with where I am right now, but we should be able to fix it in the future, and you won't have an issues then." She paused for a moment, then continued "Now, You have an identification and won't be arrested on sight - hopefully - and there is one last thing. Where you woke up, go back there and you should be able to find a small metal box. It is engraved with a chimera, the head of an lizard, with bat wings, and human like eyes. It should fit in the palm of your hand. If you intend on working with me take that box to this address and we can get started. If not then let the rain destroy it. Any questions?" As she finished saying this a small ticket printed out with an address.

He sighed, and thought "Well if I don't want to work with them at least they are being upfront about it." then he said "Yeah, Two, The first is, why can't I just sell it? The second is, Do you have a name or something I should refer to you as?"

"Sell it and the government will be able to track it back to you before long, and you can call me Allie. If that's it I'll see you soon." She sounded confident about that as the screen went black and the console seemed to turn off.

"See you soon, what makes you think I'm actually going to show up?" Kassix thought to himself as he rolled his sleeve back down after examining his new ID. "Either way, I need to learn more about what is going on, and that is what I am going to focus on first."

Almost immediately after thinking that to himself however, his stomach began to rumble. "Food-tubes was it? I recall them being cheap from the ads, but that doesn't really matter if I don't have any money." He said to himself as he began walking in a different direction from the way he came. He looked at the ticket with the address and closed his eyes to make sure he could remember it, and found he could recall it fairly easily. He crumpled the ticket up and tossed it into a nearby bin while rejoining the crowds.

*******

"What do you mean you couldn't find anyone matching that description?!" Sten's eyes almost bulged out of his head while staring at a stern looking man in a rather decorated uniform. This was a Peacekeeper captain, and was the highest person at these checkpoints.

"You stated a man, with no clothes, with exception to the jacket you gave him, was this deep in the city. Without an trace of an ID, or any modification. These accusations are extremely serious, and the Peacekeepers make it a rule to always respond to situations of this nature." The captain let out a long sigh after saying this. "And you have, not only wasted the time of my men, but by making a scene desiring payment at the checkpoint you are now wasting mine."

"Now, Now, Captain." A slim man wearing what seemed to be a heavily modified Peacekeeper suit leaned against the door to the interrogation room that they were currently in. "You shouldn't just believe the words of any ol' rat that scurries into our checkpoints. Just skip all these processes and find out for sure." He wore a sinister smile while finishing that statement.

Sten looked between the two men and jumped up for a second and put his hands on the table and said hurriedly "If you can find out for sure, then do it! I'll get payed then right?!" Sten looked like a starving dog that finally found a bone to chew on and did not want to let this opportunity go.

At that the captain merely raised an eyebrow and leaned back into his chair, "Well, if hes volunteering, I see no reason for it to weigh too heavily on my conscious. Go get the mods then, Rain."

Rain's wicked grin only grew at that as he replied, "Right away sir." He turned and walked deeper into the checkpoint. Sten sat back down, now excited at the prospect that he would finally be getting paid and patiently waited in silence. The captain did not say anything either, he merely lit a cigar and began smoking while leaning back in his chair, watching Sten.

Rain returned after fifteen minutes, with a rather large apparatus that looked like a VR helmet that had been heavily modified, with different modifications, and about twice the bulk. The biggest difference was the presence of two needles where the temples would be when worn. When seeing this, Sten began to sweat feverishly. The helmet was connected to a mobile terminal on wheels that also looked modified for its purpose. "What, er, do these things do... sirs?" He was eyeing the needles in particular with all excitement gone.

The captain, with the cigar in his mouth only replied with a chilling line, "Don't worry, if you were telling the truth, you'll get paid. If you survive." He stood up at that and went to leave, but stopped at the door and looked to Rain, "I'll let you take care of this, you get far more enjoyment than I do out of this."

Rain merely nodded to him while approaching Sten, a terrifying glint in his eye that prompted Sten to move his chair back slightly while trying to stand up. A Firm grip from rain stopped him with ease and held him back down in the chair as he slowly lowered the helmet onto his head. The captain watched this happen and just shook his head while leaving. Screams could be heard as the door swung closed behind the him.

Several hours later the Captain was at his desk when he received a video. He opened it while leaning forward onto his desk for a better look and it started to play fragmented memories from Sten's memory. He could only get a glimpse of Kassix through the fragments, but through those glimpses he was able to piece together enough of an image that did indeed show the lack of an ID. The face, however was not as complete. Sten did not have a habit of looking people in the eye it seemed, and this showed from the video ripped from his brain.

The captain pressed a button on his desk and leaned towards a mic, "Rain, Did he survive?" A simple and cold question. He leaned back and waited for a response, which after a few moments came.

"Aha, Yeah Captain, he did. With the chances of survival with this thing, this guy must be lucky. He survived, and his mind is....mostly intact. Should I get rid of him?" Rain was talking into a radio while fingering a slightly bloodied Nano-Knife.

"No, If his mind is still there, then give him his payment, and let him go. I'd like to see where this Stennik frequents." The captain let out a puff of smoke while staring at the monitor with the fragmented Kassix.

"Yes sir~" Rain was obviously disappointed, but knew better than to defy a direct order from the captain. So he gave Stennik his payment and let him loose back into the city.