“What do these even do?” Cora asked, picking up the last Adrenobyte left on the counter before Jonah could secret it away wherever he was putting these things. “And why do half the dickheads we kill have them.”
“Mmm, it is curious, isn’t it?” Jonah said, getting a little closer than Cora liked, to stare beside her at the tiny piece of tech. “Ostensibly a low-level combat implant, increasing aggression and energy at the cost of later exhaustion, it is nonetheless the single most popular implant in the city. I… well, I suppose I’ve never really questioned why! I’m just happy for the business!”
Hawk barked out a laugh; “Really?” She asked, “no idea? C’mon, doc, you know those things are like having a full syringe of the good stuff on you at all times. Just have somebody punch you in the face and you’re on cloud nine, so long as it’s not my big ass doing the punchin’.”
“I…. Truly?” Jonah asked, “these are being used, what, recreationally?”
Cora half expected his grin to finally fall at being told he’d been handing out drugs to addicts, but if anything, it just got wider and brighter.
“How marvelously creative!” He exclaimed, beaming at each of them, “I do so love ingenuity. Are you certain you wouldn’t like to keep them? Easy implant, small fee, and it does sound like a rip-roaring good time!”
“I’m, uh, I’m good,” Cora demurred. She was all for a good time, but if her guess as to how that thing worked was right, she didn’t want a hit of meth every time she got scared. The one time she’d tried that shit at a party she’s ended up on the Enquirer’s front page looking like a cryptid sighting.
The others also declined. Cora realized there was some ethical conundrum to be had here, given that these essentially represented drug contraband they were now presenting for resale to the general public. However, until this morning, Cora had been a highly medicated, both legally and illegally, member of the drug-using public, so it didn’t even occur to her to judge.
In the end, they’d reached a deal with Jonah to trade this new haul, what turned out to be an aptly named Regenerator Gland included, for the Receiver Arrays and installation. Kyra had taken some fucking convincing on that front. She’d only acquiesced to getting one implanted when Hawk reminded her how much fun it would be for her to rip the Party Array out of Cora’s skull if she made them regret it.
Even with that, Cora doubted Kyra would have gone along with it without Jonah’s assurances that the implantation procedure for the Receiver Arrays was minimally invasive. What he described was similar to how Cora understood implanted hearing aids to work back home. Not pleasant, but compared to having your lid popped like Cora was going to have to do, it sounded like a Caribbean vacation.
She was still surprised at herself for being cool with this. Sure, she was artificially being made tougher both physically and mentally, but this was insane. Yet, she still refused to examine the urge to do this too deeply. Cora was terrified she’d find a death-wish buried at its core, and that was something she could ill afford.
Plus, it really would be useful. [BIG SYS] had outright said she’d need upgrades to see other people’s stats, and she needed to know what she was working with in terms of this team. She also was praying it would allow her to impart some of [BIG SYS]’ benefits to them. Her erstwhile team were all uniquely dangerous people, with uniquely dangerous pasts, but there was too much going on in this world for Cora to believe that would be enough.
The levels. Things like the Oblates. The bounty on her head. The two attempts on her life today.
The fact that she had seen other beings besides herself with levels, i.e. the Oblates, implied there were more. The inhuman durability Cora was already displaying with her own levels and abilities made her think that they’d been crazy lucky thus far, not running into anyone with levels, or worse, titles of their own.
GOD FORBID CLASSES!
Yeah? One more thing for me to worry about?
NOOOOOOOO
WELL KIND OF
YOU’LL LOVE IT WHEN YOU GET YOURS AT LEVEL FIVE!
BUT IF YOU MEET ONE OF THE MALCONTENTS WHO’VE BEEN HACKING MY NODES AND ALREADY HAVE ONE, IT WILL BE LESS FUN FOR YOU
Right. Great.
To be honest, Cora had needed a little extra motivation anyway. With a sigh, she followed Jonah back into the depths of the office.
She heard the IN SURGERY sign click on behind her.
Immediately behind that door, Cora began to have regrets.
While the lobby had looked like a slightly old-timey doctor’s waiting room, the second you passed its threshold, you entered an area that would have been at home in the maintenance tunnels of a Star Destroyer.
Pipes, wires and tubes, some steaming, others pulsing with arcane light, covered every inch of the hallway walls, all racing from the door to the next chamber, their motion causing an almost physical current.
“No need for distress, Cora, my dear–”
“You just called me Cora!” Cora exclaimed, feeling… well, she wasn’t sure what. She’d begun to question whether Cora had ever actually been her name.
“Indeed! I thought it was odd, the rest of them, but really, you do so look like Linnea Light, and have her implants and what not. Were it not for your [SYSTEM IDENT] I’d be questioning my eyes as well! A shame, truly, that functionality has been taken from the general public. There must be such confusion outside!”
YEAH, WELL, THE GENERAL PUBLIC WAS USING IT TO MARK EVERYONE AS A SLAVE, SO I TOOK THE TOYS AWAY
Quiet, I’m learning.
“Wait, so you can see my name!? Can you tell the others??? They don’t believe I’m not Linnea!” Cora begged, ready to drag the Techgraft back into the lobby if needs must.
“Not to worry, dear girl!” Jonah chided like a patient parent, “what we are doing here will be better! Once you all have that Party Array installed, there will be no denying your name. Now, whether or not that will convince them of the impossible? I can say neither here nor there. But it will do more for you than old Jonah simply saying it is so,” The Techgraft explained, ushering Cora through the portal at the end of the hallway.
There was no door, the cables, pipes and accoutrements all just flowed into the next room, exploding outwards to cover it completely with esoteric technology. In here, it even covered the floor, save for a small path leading to an upright operating table.
If it weren’t for the setting, the table wouldn’t look that bad. It was nicely padded, had a place to rest your feet. The restraint bars at the wrists and ankles were concerning, but Cora had more or less expected them. However, in this weird buzzing room of wires and tubes, the only actual light in the place shining directly down onto it like a spotlight, that table looked downright sinister.
“Ah, ah, ah, no fear, my dear, remember?” Jonah chided comfortingly, placing a hand on Cora’s lower back to usher her forward.
“Uh, uh, you can see my stats, right?” Cora said, traitorous feet moving forward despite her mind’s protests, “I just remembered I have a 38 in [End]! Too bad, your tools probably won’t work on me, huh?”
“Ooooo, I had forgotten,” Jonah exclaimed excitedly. They’d reached the table, and Cora was horrified to find herself climbing into it. Jonah activated the straps, locking her in place as he continued. “I’ve been using the baseline tools for ages now, it will be fun to break out the big saws!”
Cora gulped, then tried to nod, but a restraint she hadn’t noticed at the top of the table snapped tight around her forehead.
She felt a stabilizing hand on her shoulder, gripping tight from behind. Which was impossible.
‘You’ve got this, Cora,’ Cadey whispered, ‘I’m not going to tell you this isn’t scary, it is, but fear means nothing. Conquer it.’
Easier said than done, but a familiar presence, a part of herself other than… herself telling her things would be okay was oddly buoying.
The table lurched, whirring as it laid back, then rotated to align with the light above. Cora winced into the light, reflexively trying to raise a hand to shield her eyes. It was stuck tight.
Next to her, there was a metallic kind of slithering sound, and Jonah began to rise in her periphery. And rise, and rise, and rise …
He seemed to float over her, held aloft on a mass of wires that had apparently replaced his lower body. Oddly enough, that didn’t really phase Cora. She hadn’t expected it, per se, but she definitely hadn’t expected this to be like going in for a tonsilectomy.
Jonah’s monocle whirred, then glowed red, a scanning bar of light washing slowly over Cora’s face.
“Yes… yes, Miss Casanova, I think this will go just fine indeed!” He said. He reached out to either side of himself, gloves falling away to reveal hands that were themselves masses of metal and wiring. The walls of the room reached out to meet them, covering Jonah until he was indistinguishable from the walls.
“Right, Miss Casanova,” his voice said from every direction, as the ceiling began to rearrange into myriad sinister, sharp shapes. A hissing sound from behind Cora’s head filled her ears, and her vision immediately went fuzzy. “Say goodnight now, you’ll be back and better than ever very soon.”
The last thought that entered Cora’s mind was the concerning realization they’d never seen whoever that first scream belonged to leave.