A loud screech echoed through the Hannya Boys’ comms system. I couldn’t hear, obviously, but I could see. The mist waft from their lips poured out as if the inside was hot and someone toss a bucket of water down their throat hoping to cool them

So much for scare tactics.

Nova had tuned me out. I’d never want to know how it felt to experience that screech. The closest I came to was watching their cybernetic faces wail in agony as they flailed to the ground.

That was my cue.

Groggy, winded and most frustrated, I pushed myself through my captors and raced down to the 13th floor, metallic case gripped tightly as I slid down the escalator railing.

The urge to shoot all of them was there, but I was already halfway down the escalator. That was good. I didn’t need another complication.

The rumours of Mangol’s wrath was something I’d never heard of anywhere else, which meant one thing which was frightening as hell. If I could help it, it must be avoided, at all cost.

I went right, scampering through a crowd of men with the scent of haze frothing from the mouth, pleasant and narcotic at the same time. I looked back whilst running ensuring they weren’t following. Of course, they weren’t. Their ears were probably still ringing.

I passed another set of stalls, making my way to the 12th Floor. I looked back, still nothing. I did a bit of backtracking and circling, ensuring that no one followed, I made my way to the prosthetic vendor. I bought an arm and magically found a use for it. So much for goodwill, I thought.

The kid vendor had a bedazzled expression painted on his face upon seeing me. He probably wanted to know “What in the Imbibe was going on?” I said, confused.

“Arm!” I shouted. I would’ve told him but he didn’t need to know that his shop would soon be flooded with a low-level gang with full cybernetic faces based on a jealous Japanese female demon.

“I’m not done yet,” he pleaded.

“Kid…I’ll throw in another 300 creds if you finish in thirty seconds.”

The kid's eyes ogled at the thought of the extra credits and began braiding the wires as fast as he could. Every ten seconds he checked the first module, ensuring the braiding didn’t affect the response time.

He finished in forty-five seconds. Good enough for me. I swiped my creditstrip and caught the arm. I quickly wrapped the dangling wires around my chest and gave him a wink before darting off.

“Ping!” I snarled to Nova.

The red dots reappeared in my cybernetic eye with seven dots charging towards me from all directions. On the west side, where the escalator was a group of red dots in the form of swirling ink rocked back and forth. They’re close.

Still, I felt agitated knowing they recovered so fast, but that’s to be expected with cybernetics. It nulls the pain, especially with the biochip installed.

I ducked between a blacksmith’s stall and an old accessory stall. My eye met the muted colours of charred smoke and ash, which trickled into my mouth, making the stale air taste sour. The kaleidoscope of colours from the accessory stall sparkled with a rainbow hue from the glare of the old CDS scattered across the table inside.

The first step I made into the alley was met with an old crusted styrofoam container filled with rotted food and rat bones from the looks of it. The scent of the food-filled my tongue with a sourness that far surpassed the stale air within the Underwent. “That’s disgusting,” I groaned, thinking of my shoes doused in muck and grime. I swallowed deeply and continued down the alleyway, scaling, dodging and missing the garbage as best as I could.

“Nova, pinpoint an exit for me. I used my credit strip.” A red light pulsed its way into my cybernetic eye, towards the end of the alleyway and I hurried down the cramped corridor, feeling the galvanise scraping against my perfectly white jacket, which I suspected was now brown.

I finally exited the suffocating alleyway and peered left following the red line. The people around the fruit stall eyed me, with disgust, more than likely from my clothes, “Did he just walk through there?”

Yes. Yes. I did. The stench from my attire, and the aggression painted on my face. Surely it didn't help.

“There he is!”A stranger shouted.

I leapt into the air, barely dodging a Hannya Boy. I weaved all three of them like a hot knife through butter, losing punches and kicks across their chest, sides and back.

I left one of them mangled on top of the orange crate. I scanned my credit strip across the datapad and picked up an orange, “THANKS!”

I spit out the orange instantly, feeling the sourness of it run down my throat momentarily. I had selected one from the sour batch. Serves me right.

“HE GOT JIVIN!” Another shouted.

“Nova, what’s going on? I thought we had a floor between us.”

“It would seem that more Hannya Boys are within our current vicinity Sir!,” Nova said.

“No shit!”

I banked right, trudging through the droves of people who scampered when they saw me.

I turned the corner and felt something round drilling burrowing into my side, again. I turned my head, noting the steel ball user’s grin. He yanked it back and whipped it around the corner, but luckily I ducked, feeling the vibration of it striking my cybernetic arm.

I dropped my case, spun, grabbed the wire mid-flight, yanked it forth, feeling the burn of steel wire shred my palm. As hard as I pulled, the bastard didn’t budge.

That didn’t last long.

I stimulated my SMB to increase processing power in my cybernetic, once the vents flapped open, steam flooded through and my cybernetic arm kicked into overdrive. I yanked the steel wire with vigour, feeling my back muscles almost rip as I tugged. Still having natural muscles always had its drawbacks.

The Steelball-Hannya Boy fell to the ground and slid a meter towards me from the pull. I yanked the steel wire-free and tossed it on a nearby roof, before picking up the metallic case and sauntering off once again.

“I should really use this,” I said, cushioning the metallic case. It would’ve been less hassle, but probably more chaos than I needed right now, so I buried that thought quickly.

Regardless of my situation, I was amazed that none of The Mangol’s security forces tried charging in to stop this brawl of a chase, but when I thought back to the rules. It was understandable.

A wild punch loosed across my face, grazing my nose. What the hell? I peered right, noticing the fool who tried to sucker punch me. I turned, catching the aggression in my attacker's eyes, and used my left hand to alleviate myself from the second punch he noosed at my head.

I dodged the third and fourth, barely escaping the explosive burst of punches that followed after. It was as if the longer they chased me, the more violent they got. Nevertheless, they were amateurish.

I dodged one final heave, and stepped in, sinking my cybernetic arm into his face. The hiss of steam flared within my arm sleeve and I slammed the bastard into the ground, sending a shockwave throughout the floor.

That didn’t stop him, though.

The bastard tilted to the side, aiming his left arm, which now held a knife. Where the fuck did he get that from? I hissed. I turned right, after feinting left, feeling the knife graze my left cybernetic arm. I eyed it quickly noting it didn’t penetrate my stained ‘brown’ jacket.

I backed up, feeling a table behind me and watched him chase after me. The second step he made, I pounced on him, sliding beneath him, spinning and slapping the metallic case at the back of the head.

The bastard sagged the ground, knife jingling as it fell.

“This isn’t working…Nova, bring the car.” I huffed, feeling my lungs burn within.

“Sir?”

“Bring the car to me!”

“But sir.”

“Just do it! I’ll pay the reckless driving fee.”

“Understood.”

“How many of these ‘Hannya Boys’ do you calculate are chasing after me?”

“I don’t have enough data, sir. It seems they’ve abandoned the comms network they were using”

“Abandoned? They can’t get one up so fast.”

“In theory, it is possible sir.”

“Damn it. Fine. Calculate a scenario of fifty men and where my best exit would be. Outline in the GPS for me.”

The GPS line appeared, but it was green this time and the estimated distance to my destination. 400M.