Ghost in the City

When I opened my eyes I was recording. Staring straight over the edge to the Scavs home. Not that the people watching this in the future would know that yet.

I could feel my breath coming out icy cold, but it wasn’t enough to stop the excitement I could feel pulsing up.

I pulled the shard out of my pocket. Flashed it in front of my eyes.

Looked at the name of the song etched into the plastic.

The Only Thing They Fear Is You.

I slotted it into my neck. A little less than seven minutes.

That’s how long I had to murder all of the Scavs.

Because a moment later the music started. The sound mirroring an ancient, at least by this years reckoning, musician.

I mean if people considered Samurai to be oldies, then The DOOM Eternal Soundtrack would be considered the same.

Before the song could get going without me I leapt. My feet hit the ground on the floor below just as the first drop hit and I rolled forward to bleed off speed before jumping up to my feet, and then I was moving. I didn’t care about cameras.

I didn’t care about noise.

I was the Boss Monster. They would learn to fear me.

I blew the door open with my Carnage, not bothering with the lock, as I let all my hatred for Scavs fill me.

Cold Blood was all about control. I had only used it in one way up until now. Used it to suppress everything so nothing could interfere with the cold calculus of combat.

But I wasn’t here for cold blooded murder.

Instead, I flipped the script, I brought out all my rage, my hatred, my disgust for these people.

That feeling of horror mixed with certainty that I had to kill them.

That murder was the only option.

I saw my first Scav as I burst into the first room. The details were unimportant, but I noted them anyway. A former apartment now taken over as a recreation room for the Scavs to relax in, alcohol and drugs strewn across the table sitting under the holo TV.

As he saw me, I let that rage fill me.

As he tried to leap out of the chair at my entrance, it was time. Weapon Glitch slammed into his system, bouncing again and again as my entire Cyberdecks RAM was used in repeat.

I had figured out the best way to make sure no one could shoot me, was by simply hacking them over and over and over again.

It was a loop Quickhack. Every time my Cyberdeck would get enough RAM to run the program again it would do so throughout the system without my direct attention. As long as the network didn’t alter its security it would be an endless disruption of weapons.

I was already in their security.

Their weapons were now useless.

The first Scav didn’t even get a chance to pull the trigger to find out how fucked he was.

I leapt a snarl on my face as I cleared the distance.

From the entrance to the Scav standing in the indented recreation area, was more than twenty feet across.

I slammed my Carnage into the fuckers face like a club at the end of my leap. His scream of pain went ignored as I didn’t end there. I rolled past him to bleed off momentum and then I was on him again fist raised and slammed into his already broken and bleeding face.

Again and again. I hammered him. Even grabbing his head and smashing it into the table until I was sure he was dead.

Breathing deeply, but not heavily. Adrenaline surged through me. The music was still going, and so was I.

I moved. Leaping and practically bouncing off the walls, moving more like an animal than man as I surged into the next room. Leaping through the broken wall connecting the apartments. The Scavs were reacting, shouting for help at the sounds of my gunshot, alarm that something was attacking them. The flipping of their normal predator and prey dynamics as always making them fearful. Their bleating calls were just noise telling me where they were.

The next room was a ripper room. The stink of blood and dead bodies filled it, but I barely hesitated leaping right over a ripper chair that had an elderly man laying across it, body ripped open the face of one of the Scav ripper docs moving away obviously realizing he was in danger.

He screamed as my fist slammed into his face with all my weight and force behind it.

I loved my new ankles. Superman punching a monster in the face was the best.

He went down, but he wasn’t alone.

Carnage flipped up and his buddy who had an Ajax roared as he tried to open fire on me only for his gun to beep and not fire.

Mine did.

He went down in a torrent of blood as the carnage turned him into a newly painted wall. That done I flipped the carnage barrel up to the ceiling and slammed it right into the face of the ripper doc, ignoring his crying pleading for mercy as I continued to hammer his skull into the floor until the metal stock of my shotgun hit concrete.

Okay. Now I was breathing a bit heavy.

It felt fantastic. I pushed the cold blooded control even higher. Rage and hate flowed and it was all I felt.

I glanced up to see another Scav peeking into the room. The moment he saw me, he made an attempt to shoot me only for his gun to fail. This guy leapt back into the room once he realized it, which is the only thing that saved his life as I brought my Carnage down and blasted where he had been.

I charged, leaping into the room he had just escaped into and came out into a roll.

Four soon to be dead Scavs faced me.

Excellent.

I had all the time I needed to aim my shotgun at them and fire. I didn’t hit any of them as they fled into cover, but it did make them scramble around. Which is why the gonk that had just tried to shoot me suddenly had an intimate meeting with Carnage-chan! As I slammed her into his face like a baseball bat.

I love this shotgun. Doesn’t matter if you literally beat someone to death with it, it’ll still fire!

But before I could kill him he kicked out, his much longer legs slamming me away and forcing me off my feet for a moment, as I rolled and then came out of it with my Carnage raised.

“No! Wa-!” His pleadings ended with Carnage sounding off followed by the heavy cycle as I cocked the next round.

“Kill her!” One of the Scavs screamed out trying to do just that.

They would fail. These pathetic mewling creatures would not kill me.

One guy obviously pissed at what he saw charged me, a knife drawn and ready.

He didn’t expect me to charge him back. He knew how to use a knife. I would even say he was pretty good.

I didn’t care.

I wasn’t fighting. I was raging. I slammed into him, ignoring how he nicked my side with the knife, the blade skittering off my leotard or subdermal, wasn’t sure which as I slammed into him.

He screamed as I used one hand to literally slam my thumb into his eye socket so I could grip his face were musical, flowing perfectly into the song pounding in my head as I proceeded to try and beat him to death with the carnage in my right hand.

I ignored his attempts to at first stab me, and then just try to desperately get me away.

Neither stopped me.

His death came regardless, as my thumb wormed its way through to his end.

Then there were three, before I could even rise up though. There were once again four.

“Cyka!” A voice roared out, and this time I was caught off guard.

They had realized their weapons weren’t working against me, but it turns out it didn’t matter.

Big fuckin’ Scav decided to remind me I wasn’t invincible.

He blurred, a Sandy activated and suddenly I was the one being punched across the room. Out through a hole in the wall and into the ripper room I had just come from.

I coughed, blood flowed.

It hurt, but I would live. I pulled a MaxDoc and huffed it. Letting the adrenaline flow.

I could hear russian. Scared russian, and a firm confident voice.

Ah. The fucker had taken my Carnage. I added it into the next round of Weapon Glitch. Then, as the music once more peaked in my head.

I rose up slow and steady.

They had knocked me into a mess off medical equipment and storage the ripper room had, so as I stood metal clattered and glass shattered off me.

The firm russian voice from before wasn’t so firm anymore.

They were looking at me.

I cracked my neck, and spit the blood out of my mouth.

Big borg fucker had my Carnage. He aimed it, and like a good girl she just clicked, already disabled. Eh she only had one round left anyways.

I bared my teeth, a rumbling snarl leaving my throat in time with the roar of the guitar in my head. Then I moved.

My speed surprised Sandevistan Scav, but he activated his implant again probably a fearful reflex, as he suddenly shifted from where he was when I leapt to right in front of me. My leap was aborted, he slammed into me.

All too many pounds of him hitting me like a truck and this time he followed me back into the room pounding me into the concrete wall in a clatter of equipment.

He knocked the air out of me. He hit me hard, hard enough to rattle my head. He had me pinned against the wall as he was already starting to beat on me.

Too bad, he hadn’t managed to actually kill me.

I threw a fist back, and his Sandy speed kept him from getting slugged, but that was fine.

I had fought people with Sandevistan. The Dojo had taught me a lot about how they work. Their strengths and weaknesses.

That there was always a time limit, and not every Sandy was the crazy shit that David had.

I raised my arms up in a guard as he punched back Sandy speed punches slamming me back into the wall, and my shoulder ached from the stress of trying to keep my chrome fists from slamming into my own face.

It was a moderate success.

He hit me again, and then again, and suddenly he was moving at a normal speed..

Something I had been told. When a Sandy turns off and you go from super speed to normal? In that moment you felt like you were suddenly moving in slow mo. You felt the shift as time changed.

I had spoken with a few people that used the sandy and they all said the same thing if you could get them to admit it.

The moment the Sandy turned off was their weakest moment.

Quickdrawing my Burya, I slammed it right into his mouth before pulling the trigger.

His head separated in two from the force.

I hurt. My vision was a little woozy, but that was just a concussion, and the BD would still be recording fine. I was definitely bleeding internally. Easily fixable once this was over. Lungs were struggling to breathe. He had knocked the wind out of me twice.

But I was in control. I forced my body to breathe. I forced myself to stay on my feet. Because the rage wasn’t gone.

The Scav fell backwards as I pushed him away, letting his bulk fall and revealing the three Scavs from before.

Ah, no it was six now. There was a moment of silence. Or maybe that was just my ears ringing. Close range Burya shots do tend to deafen me for a moment, but as I watched.

I smiled.

Fear. I could smell it. I took a step forward.

“Fuck this!” One of them screamed and tried to run.

I shot him, just to prove a point.

Then I holstered Burya and rushed them. The first guy had been smart enough to try and grab a melee weapon. A hunk of wood from a chair I think. I took the blow on my forearms, not even feeling it compared to the Sand Scavs hits, and the wood broke apart. So did he when I reached up and grabbed him by his jaw and started slamming my chrome fists into his face.

His attempts to bite down on my chrome fingers were pointless, he fell backwards, and as he fell I jerked his head to slam him into the side of a table.

That either killed him or knocked him senseless because he didn’t resist as I raised up his head and battered him into the table a few more times.

His buddy slammed into me. Grappling me as he tried to body me down. I slammed my forehead into his nose despite how it made my head spin and started punching.

He started punching.

Me punching in his throat did more than him punching my face. He gasped as he fell to his knees.

I rose up and kicked him across the face before leaving him to die with his broken esophagus.

Three more to go.

They had all grabbed weapons. One had grabbed a knife from the guy that tried that earlier, the other two had metal rebar.

I smiled out another snarl as I grabbed another MaxDoc in the stillness of the fight and huffed it down. The surge of adrenaline should mask the sudden lowering of pain.

I stalked forward but not towards them, I stopped at where Carnage had been left behind and kicked her up into my arms.

The music peaked.

I moved. Like she was a baseball bat I weighed in, blocking the first gonks swing with the rebar only to leap up and drop a kick right into his nose. I could feel it break on my boots as I flipped back and the other two surged forward.

I blocked and parried the rebar and knife, keeping the weapons away from me even as my breath came out in a desperate wheeze.

Even as I was pushed back and back.

They could have had me. They were good. Working together to keep me from ripping either one of them apart.

But they had done something stupid. They backed me into a corner.

So I leapt. Backwards. My boots slammed into the concrete wall and then I kicked off, my ankles more than making up my bodies weight launching me up and over their heads.

And towards their buddy whose nose I had broken.

He didn’t have time to react, too busy trying to see through his busted face.

Carnage fell onto the back of his head, and something snapped.

I hit him again just to make sure.

Then turned towards the two.

Carnage shifted to one hand, as I reached to my hip and drew my own knife.

“Fuck this.” The one with the rebar said sounding panicked as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a fucking frag grenade.

He yelled out something in Russian, that I was just going to assume was fuck you, and threw it at me.

I dropped my knife. I grabbed my Carnage in two hands and knocked the grenade to the side.

Then I leapt at them.

The man screaming as I slammed into him, was a moment I was doubly glad I was recording.

We went down in a jumble of limbs as the grenade went off. Shrapnel pinging around the room, but I had a gonk between me and it. Unfortunately the pinging metal didn’t actually do any harm to the gonk I was using as a shield.

Fortunately I did. Both hands grabbing his face I plunged my thumbs into his eyes and with that had full control of his movement.

I slammed his skull into the floor using all the muscles I had at my disposal, even jumping putting all my weight into his skull.

I looked up expecting to have the guy with a knife trying to stick me, but he was nowhere to be seen.

No.

No one escapes.

I rushed to follow, jumping over garbage and the junk the frag grenade had strewn around as he raced away like a madman he leapt through what was once the front door to an apartment into the hallway splitting the Megabuildings apartments, then raced across the way and into another set.

I grinned as he had gathered even more Scavs for me to kill.

Idly I slowed and fixed my Carnage, reloading her as well, five shells in, before pumping her loudly, the noise echoing through the complex.

The next room was obviously another rest area. Far enough away the Scavs could take a nap without having to hear the ripping of bodies apart, or the screams of mercy.

Both of which I would make sure they heard soon enough.

I stepped into the opened door to see the group all readied for me.

Guns were aimed at me and triggers were pulled but other than clicks, or other bad noises nothing fired.

Seven.

I fired.

Six.

Madness. They charged me, or fled. The group was disorderly, despite some of them potentially being ex-soldiers, they were Scavs now. Some charged, some fled, all would die.

I fired again, and again.

Another Scav died, as they finally reached me. Swinging a Cut-o-Matic at me. I instantly fell in love.

A chainsaw sword? A chainsword that actually worked? For me!?

I wanted it.

I leapt straight up disappearing from the Scavs sight as I lined up a shot. Carnage fired and he turned into a puddle below me that I fell into. Blood coating me as I fired again clearing some room long enough for me to bend down and pick up my new chainsword.

I grinned ferally as I felt it buzz back up.

I leapt forward, dropping my Carnage as I slammed into the first Scav that was an instant too slow to avoid me.

Blood hot and messy coated me as I ripped into the monsters neck.

The Scavs started running.

I chased them. Leaping from filth to filth. Their attempts to resist were unable to stall me out as I battered down any defense.

I looked around as I grunted my Chainsword was stuck in the head of one of fuckers. Stupid chrome skull.

There was still one more. The same gonk that had fled from me in the first place I had purposefully left him for last, but he wasn’t in the room anymore.

He was back the other way?

Hah! The coward had tried to escape while I was distracted with his chooms! Unfortunately I still had him in my sight, his own agent was telling me exactly where he was. I raced back through the hallway, back into the Scavs work room.

The music was building up to the end.

And my own voice, demonic and angry roared in my ears.

‘Rip and TEAR. RIP AND TEAR!’

He had escaped back into the ripper doc room. Into another section that was covered in the plastic sheets to stop blood splatter. He was trying to hide.

He screamed as he saw me. As I ignored his attempts to hide from me.

I slammed into him like a wild cat. He screamed in terror. A true guttural horror note as I promptly began beating him to death.

I smashed my fist into his face over and over as he desperately tried to fend me off. Punches were slammed into my face and chest, that I ignored.

It hurt, but pain was passing.

Murder was forever.

Hands balled, I slammed both arms down into his face again until his struggling ceased.

Until bone bent.

“Rip and Tear.” I said, exhaling along with the songs only lyrics. “Until it’s done.” I whispered breath hoarse and heavy, I probably had a busted rib in there somewhere, but it was just… Cathartic.

Even if I really shouldn’t have enjoyed that as much as I just had.

“A-aha!” A voice weak and terrified squeaked from nearby.

I looked away from the broken body beneath me. Eyes focused and hand already reaching for my Burya.

Six red optics met my own.

Maelstrom.

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