Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 457: Make Him Chill.

As if to drive the point home, Jaguar went and chomped on the heads of the remaining captives. Unbeknownst to him, a small lens had been recording everything from a short distance away, hidden in the shadows between the stacked crates.

Once the bloody affair was over, the boy had cables plugged into the back of his head, and the headgear was forced on him once more. The gang boss said a few things to the people there, then left with his subordinates. The cleaning crew came after, disposing of the corpses and cleaning away the blood.

Hours passed. The guards changed, and so did the doctor looking after the boy. As the new one took his place, he checked the machines, then sat down staring at empty air. It was more than likely that he was watching something on his OAM, though it had to be downloaded first, since the underground warehouse was completely cut from the outside world.

As the guards distracted themselves to fight the boredom, they failed to notice the little something that had crawled up one of the walls. It was a small creature with six legs, two pincers, and a long tail with a sharp end. Its shell had a pale yellow color, giving it the appearance of a small scorpion.

A closer look would reveal that it was far from being a scorpion, however. It was a machine—a robot that could fit in one’s palm, with parts so thin they looked as if they could be snapped with a single touch. It was a Scorpio-bot, but one that was several steps ahead of the previous models.

It moved stealthily, remaining in the shadows and the guard’s blind spots, slowly making its way behind the machines covered with large sheets. Eventually, it arrived under the one nearest to the chair where the boy sat and found the port panel where the cables all the cables connected to his head went. Finding an entry port that hadn’t been plugged, the Scorpio-bot positioned itself above it, then stuck its tail inside.

Something plunged into the data ocean contained within the large machine’s core. It was a yellow octopus, one with large eyes and a very cartoonish appearance. It looked left and right, then down before flipping over and launching itself deeper into the localized data ocean.

Before long, it arrived at what appears to be a giant metallic cube. There was something that resembled a gate on one of its sides. The octopus went straight through it then continued deeper, avoiding ant turns. Soon after, it passed another large gate, then another. A fourth gate appeared in its path, but this one seemed to be closed shut.

Though things had been silent so far, the faint sounds of battle began to get louder the closer the octopus got to the gate. At its bottom, the octopus caught sight of a large swarm swimming around at an incredible speed. They seemed to be a peculiar type of fish with quite the sharp teeth, which was nothing but bad news for the one they were chasing.

Seeing who it was, the yellow octopus burst forth. As the distance vanished between them, its tentacles shot forward, their length drastically increasing. Each tentacle caught one of the sharp-toothed sea beasts, wrapping around them several times. The tentacles tightened a moment later, instantly crushing the sea beasts, then retracting before the others caught them.

The yellow octopus repeated the attack a moment later, and this time, its tentacles seemed to triple. In just a few seconds, the swarm was eradicated.

"Jake!!?"

The call drew his attention to the one who was being chased this entire time. He appeared to be a mix between a human and a dolphin, with a mostly humanoid body in addition to a large dorsal fin, a dolphin’s tail, and smooth blue skin. His head resembled that of a dolphin as well, but he had one large fin on top. In one of his hands, he was holding a long trident.

"Hey Finn." Said the yellow octopus. "How are you doing?"

"Wha- How did you even get here!? Where are you, divi- hold on, are you in the warehouse!!?"

"Yeah, I snuck in when Metal Face came by earlier. I’m Diving from the same ports as you!"

"Okay, okay! Did you call Dante?"

"Dante? Pfft! Why would I call that Tomato Head? We don’t need him."

Finn stared at him for a moment, then a look of utter relief took over his fishy face.

"Great." He said. "I really don’t want to hear another one of his rants right now."

"Yeah, that was a major screw up we made..."

With weeks having passed since the restaurant incident, he had thought that it was safe to go out by himself. He only wanted to drop by the Bowl of Fortune to have a nice bowl of noodles, but soon after he got off the train, he was grabbed by Jaguar’s goons.

"Where have you been anyway?" He asked. "They didn’t mess with your internals, right?"

"I think they forgot about me," Jake replied. "I’ve been in the trunk of that car for hours before I escaped."

With his capabilities, Jake could have easily dealt with the kidnappers. That was the reason they gave him that body, after all. The only reason he didn’t act was a direct order from Finn. The boy had a feeling that he should let things play out before having his Level 4 android obliterate the kidnappers. He was quick to figure out that they worked for the Daggers, and having an idea of what would happen once they got him back, he wanted to see if things would end up the way he thought they would.

And that was exactly what ended up happening, except for the part where he got separated from his AI friend.

"So this is it, huh?" Said Jake. "Looks like you’re almost done here."

"Yeah, once I open this, there will be only one gate left."

"It still took you three days. Guess you have lost your touch."

"This isn’t Haloware NIMs, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, just admit you need my help." Said Jake.

"If you are gonna be like that, go help me get the other one." Finn turned to the gate. He held his free hand up to is, and a moment later, the water around them began to move, forming a series of unnatural currents.

"What? There is another one?"

"Yeah, looks like they only managed to overwrite one other suit in the two years I was gone."

"Hah! They really suck at this." Jake turned his octopus-shaped avatar around and was about to return to the surface. "By the way, weren’t we supposed to call Tomato Head when we found the suits? What are we opening them for?"

"Well, we kinda messed up when we disappeared for three whole days." Said Finn. "Buuut, if we come back with two secret Black Shield power suits, he might not be as angry at us!"

"Ooooh!"

"Right? We’re gonna need to bring something really good when we get back." The smile faded from Finn’s face. "He’s still gonna be pissed right now."

When Jaguar showed him that video earlier, Finn realized that he was even more screwed than before. He didn’t believe for one second that the Daggers were actually keeping Tomato Head captive. In all likelihood, he allowed himself to be captured so he could get information out of them, and since he was forced to do that because of him, there was no avoiding the beating that would come from it.

That was the real reason Finn went pale when he saw the video. Not even the grotesque display that followed shook him as much.

"Maybe we should just kill Metal Face the next time he shows up." Said Jake. "That ought to make him chill."

"No," Finn shook his head. "Let’s not rush it."

"You sure?"

"Well..." Pursing his lips, Finn contemplated the matter some more. "Maybe we should set things up... just in case the chance showed itself."

~[ ]~

White. Many use it to signify the absence of color, and for that reason, many tend to forget that it was a color just like the others. White also signifies purity. As he stared at the endless expanse of nothing but white, Dante felt his mind relax.

"Here again..."

Faced with the never-ending snow fields, Dante quickly realized that he was inside a dream. The last one he had was far from pleasant, so he was happy to find himself in the only place unrelated to a nightmare.

Turning around, he was met with a tall gray wall reaching twenty meters into the sky. Its surface was covered in small patches of ice, but it was undoubtedly made entirely from concrete.

"I wonder if Larry already started the operation..."

Since he had an SRE now and could block the pain, Dante thought that he could watch while the operation was taking place. His doctor refused, saying he would be a distraction, and that’s how he ended up drugged into sleep while his new implants were being installed.