Chapter 13: Rebirth

Hawk was alive.

He stood up and was greeted with every bone in his body creaking and cracking, but the pain from his body searing was faded, disappearing even.

"I'll kill him." He had made up his mind that the man who had caused him so much pain had to die. There wasn't any way around it.

He stood up and walked toward his exit and looked around outside his hovel, not knowing how much time had passed. Out of anger, he slammed his hand against the door-frame and heard a loud crack. He looked first to his hand, and seeing it unhurt turned to look at the metal wall that now had a large crack running through it.

Hawk scooped up one of his makeshift knives and made his way towards the gate, hoping that the first human he'd seen in a long time was still here. He made his way through the Underbelly, people both shocked to see him alive, and terrified that they were in his vicinity, but he ignored all of them. He set his eyes on a different target and was heading directly to the only place that this Sky could have meant when he said the 'Gate'. The entrance, where people get tossed into this paradise for the lawless.

As he entered the opening, Sky was still there, waiting just leaning against a wall seemingly just staring off in the distance.

Hawk approached Sky normally, an excitement was building in him that he hadn't felt since he'd been thrown down here. A human, who has more in his eye than just survival, someone who could fight and kill for more than just themselves.

"It took you long enough, did you have fun?"

A flash of anger showed on Hawk's face for only a moment, "What do you mean, 'Did I have fun?' You were trying to kill me! What did you even give me?!" Hawk had intended on being level-headed and just ending the idiot that dared to try to kill him, but the remark was too absurd to ignore.

Sky merely smiled at that, "Of course, I gave you the pure origin of TFLA-10 or, would you prefer the street name 'Dreamer's Juice'?"

"F*ck You! Dreamer's Juice doesn't work the same on me as everyone else! So there's no way just having a purer version could do that!"

"Hah..." Sky smiled at that, and just slid his rifle off his shoulder and laid it against the wall. "Well, you're not going to listen, and you've been down here long enough to lose all manners, so I'll make you a deal. If you can even put a scratch on me with that toy you brought to take my life with, then I'll tell you exactly what it is and answer any questions you have, but if I knock you out before you can scratch me, then you come with me and hold your questions for later."

"And you expect me to agree to that deal with a war machine like yourself? You're practically still armed to the teeth even if you toss your rifle away!"

"Hmm...Fair, how about this then? Same rules for everything I said, but I'm not allowed to lay a single finger on you."

'Not lay a single finger on me? This guy has more arrogance than he has augments!' Hawk felt like he could put a scratch on him easily, he didn't have to get a lethal blow after all. A single scratch on his clothes could even be argued as success. "You've got yourself a deal." 'Heh, Fool.'

Hawk immediately threw his dagger at Sky's center of mass.

The next second the dagger hit a wall of wind and was buffeted back past Hawk's head.

"Wha-?"

A second gust of wind slammed into Hawk's front and knocked him to the ground hard enough that his head bounced off the steel.

"Well, that's that it seems." Sky walked over and nudged the limp Hawk with his foot, "for such a tough guy, a little gust of wind sure knocked him over quick." He held out his hand and his odd Cyber-gauntlets seemed to intake air suddenly and sucked Hawk up off the ground and into his grip. "Well, let's get you out of this cesspool."

******

Kassix had his new outfit, and it was time to wring some answers out of his could be saviors. He made his way through Floor 2, enjoying both the people who tried to heckle him, and those that were performing on the street. The colors, the flashing lights, and the people who seemed to be enjoying every aspect of their life surrounded him. It was infectious and he couldn't help but wear a smile while making his way through and down the elevator.

'Back to the doom and gloom of Floor 1, I guess. Hopefully people won't look at me weirdly now that I'm not just wearing threads.' He pulled at his jacket slightly while thinking this, still happy with his purchase.

Once he had left Floor 2 the atmosphere shifted from that of the nightlife back to the crowded streets full of ads and people going to and from work. It had been a while since he had heard the address that Allie gave to him, but he could still remember it easily. The only issue was actually finding the where the address was, which was remedied by using the PDA gifted to him to give him step by step directions.

Kassix followed the directions as he went, and was glad to see that he was no longer on the receiving end of glares and looks of disgust. 'Well, at least I'm not being treated like a piece of garbage daring to walk through the streets anymore.'

He was making his way, following the directions given to the PDA, it seemed like the area wasn't very far from where he woke up at, meaning he was still relatively close by. Out of curiosity, Kassix decided he wanted to see the size of the city, so he began swiping to the side to find the edge. He kept swiping and swiping and after not reaching an edge after a minute of swiping started to zoom out, and continued to until a giant circle of a city was on his screen, currently showing the first floor that he was currently on.

'200 Kilometers? And I'm nearly in the center!' If he wanted to get to the edge he'd have to travel through the city a distance of 93 kilometers if he were to walk in a straight line. He wasn't quite in the center, but he wasn't far off. Putting his surprise aside, he took a look at the actual edges and discovered that there didn't seem to be any roads leaving the city at all.

'I guess that means everything the city needs is probably taken care of inside the city, because none of this out here seems to even be mapped.' He had scrolled out into the Wilderness and found that it was seemingly endless, but the real case was the fact that it wasn't mapped.

Kassix took a deep breath and slowly exhaled while just moving the map back to where he was getting directions from. 'You'd think for such an impressive city, everything outside would have been at least mapped.'

After walking for fifteen minutes, Kassix stopped in front of an old workshop, it was weathered, but seemed to be maintained regularly. The windows blocked, but rather than being blocked intentionally there seemed to be piles of mechanical parts and metal piled up inside.

'Well, this seems like a sketchy enough place.' He went up to the door and gave it a pull and only felt a little give. After giving it a test push to see if he guessed which way the door opened wrong but found that the door wouldn't move at all, so he put both hands on the door and pulled with all his strength. The door inched open inch by inch until it was open enough to slip inside.

After slipping through the door he took a look around and found a button on the inside of the door that requested that whoever entered would push the button. Naturally, Kassix pressed it and waited a moment, expecting someone to greet him with the button press, but instead the door closed slowly behind him.

"More convenient than pulling it closed, I suppose." Turning back away from the door, he scanned the room again and made his way through the piles of mechanical parts and junk up to a counter he could spot in the back.

As he approached the counter, he looked around for some sort of bell or something to alert whoever worked here to his presence, but after spotting nothing of the sort decided to head behind the counter towards the door to the backrooms.

"Are ye a thief, or a customer?" A gruff voice asked from about a meter away from Kassix as he reached the end of the counter to go around it. He turned to see an extremely short man with a weathered face and equally weathered hands clutching what looked like a double-barreled shotgun that was pointed right at Kassix.

There was a nametag on his faded blue shirt that read Criss.

Kassix threw his hands up in the air to show he had nothing in them, not recognizing the weapon but immediately realizing that it was a weapon to threaten him. "I'm- Something like a customer! I was told to come here."

"And who'd tell ya that? I don't remember tellin folks to spread my business name around."

"I have something in my pocket that I was told to show you when I got here, can I take it out without getting hurt?"

"Perhaps." Criss waved his weapon down towards Kassix's pocket, telling him to take whatever it was out.

Kassix slowly obliged by slowly taking the Chimera Box out of his pocket and tilting it to show the symbol to Criss, Immediately after seeing the symbol, his grip on the weapon laxed and he slowly lowered it, and a dark look appeared on his face. "It's finally that time then?" Using the weapon as a cane to push himself up out of sitting position he began to walk towards the backroom.

"What do you mean finally that time? Do I follow you? What's so special about this box?"

"Mmhm." He just waved his head slightly towards the door he was walking towards, indicating Kassix to follow him. Slumping his shoulders and letting out a slight sigh, Kassix did follow him without another question.

After going through the door, they entered the actual workshop area of the shop, and it looked much more well managed than the previous room. In the center, there was an augmentation table used to give people implants, on the side of the room was a table with tools lined up neatly and evenly spaced, and on the opposite side of the room was a line of computers, the biggest of which is hooked up to the augmentation table in the center.

Criss held out one of his hands towards Kassix expectantly, "Hand it over and let's get this over with, I'd like nothing else to do with you or your buddies."

"Alright, but first, I'd like you to tell me what exactly this is." He took out the Chimera Box and held it just above Criss's hand, not intending to hand it over till he got his answers.

"... If you refuse to hand it ov-" Criss just sighed and cut himself off before finishing, "That's not going to fly, listen, I was told to install the augment for whoever shows up with that symbol." He pointed at the box to emphasize the symbol, and then held his hand open for it again. "I'd love to refuse, but whoever it was hacked into my entire system just to threaten me to keep it secret and go through with it. Despite the threats, they still payed me though, so give it." At this he gave a little hop to try to snatch it out of Kassix's hand, who decided to just drop it at that.

"What kind of augment is it?"

"That's not something they inclined to share with me, but you're little lockerbox here should have it. I'd imagine a small one." He held up the box in his palm as he called it small, then took it over to the largest computer and placed it on the interface. The computer immediately flickered and the symbol of the Chimera popped up on the monitor, as the lockbox had a blue line flicker across its center. After a moment, the box opened, splitting the symbol in half and unfolding to show the contents inside.

They both watched the box open, and once it opened, Criss's expectant face dropped. "This looks like I should have expected. For a request- actually demand- that I'd gotten over 10 years ago, this fits the bill of the brain interfaces from back then. You sure you want this in your head?"

"I'd assume there's some reason for it, even if you don't have the answers."

"Alright, then, if you have no complaints, onto the table let's get this done with. Want me to put a skull hatch for easy access to the noggin?"

"Uh- I'll pass on that, thanks." He climbed up onto the table after looking at it for a second. 'If I back out of this now, I'll be back to square one. I highly doubt they'd do this elaborate plan just to kill me, so let's see how they plan to use me.'

***

"That's right. He survived a full dose of TFLA-10."

"No, I don't care if you wanted him for your squad, having your eye on him doesn't give you 'dibs'"

"Whatever, send him into the augmentation, give him the T-S model body suit they recently finished, his body should be able to handle it."