• This section is for roleplays only.
    ALL interest checks/recruiting threads must go in the Recruit Here section.

    Please remember to credit artists when using works not your own.

Futuristic Blacksun (Notorious x C.DEX)

"That's interesting." Imille replied, not fully reacting right away. It seemed like the android was putting on a show. He was boisterous and loud, perhaps too much, but his words had captivated her in some sort of sick fashion. Sure, she'd seen androids before. Exodlites too: mostly dead ones, or prisoners, but that was beside the point. There was something that had stood out about them. Not Psy's tales of bravado and bravery, but the way that he and the techno-mage were connected. Not by the wire connecting them, but...



"Are you interfacing with him? What did you mean by 'stay conscious in a way'?" she asked, keen beyond her appearance. The thought itself was a far away concept from technology at that point; after all, wireless interfacing was something that the Exodlites themselves had a firm grip on. Anything else required a specified port and a bunch of matching augments so that the data being transferred could even be understood. "So, odd request. He's not going to die here, so don't you worry about that. But if you do happen to put him - or him you -in a situation where the bullets go juuust a little bit further and kill him, could you bring him back here? Can't save'm when they're dead or anything, but I'd like to take a look at some of these without all the fleshy bits in the way."



In front of them, Cas' chest was open. A vertical slice ran through most of his torso. Skin pulled away, his organs had come into view. It was then evident just how thoroughly synthetic the Exodlite was. Nearly every visible organ in his body had been replaced by a synthetic one, with false glowing veins creating their own circulation system emanating from his power core. Only, his power core was cracked, and the augmented organs were close to failing. 



"That's ... huh. That's something I've never seen before." she said, with a cursory glance from her medical eyepiece scanning for any extra internal damage. There was certainly enough - and evidence in his bones of wounds broken and re-healed repeatedly. A light from above projected an image map of his organs over what areas were still covered by skin. Her hands dove into the unconscious Casar, clipping energy veins here and there and replacing them with fresh string. "Readings are telling me that his 'organs' are augmented. Like... still a lot of OEM in there. Underneath everything. That's not only inefficient for mass production - these augments are custom made. Hyperweave replacing areas of liver walls where they just could have thrown a new one in. Whoever did this has an eye for unnecessary detail that gets my induction port primed." 



Noticing that she had strayed off track, her attention shot back to the conversation.



"Oh, that offer goes to you, too. Tell Casar if you die to bring your lifeless body up here. I might actually be able to do something for you, of course. Bringing synthetics back from the dead is a lot easier than organics. Free of charge! Will only cost you unadulterated mind invasion. Love poking around A.I."
 
"Do you now? I can't tell if you're trying to seduce me doctor. Poking around inside me doesn't come free." He replied slyly, regaining her attention. At first meeting it seemed like he was putting on a show but upon finding out that this was actually Psy the majority stayed away. He was unpredictable to the extreme, no one quite being able to put their finger on him aside from potentially Casar now. "What I mean by staying conscious in a way is that Casar is physically talking to me now. I'm not sure if his organic bits are able to comprehend what is going on but he's VERY angry we're speaking right now." Psy giggled at saying that, "He's saying something about how doctors should have more courtesy to pay their utmost attention to their patients. I disagree. This conversation is far too interesting for Mad Cas to rear his ugly head. I am not sure how it works exactly but... When Casar interfaced with me at first it was to disable me, I was a guard to his cell and then something strange happened."


He looked around the room, most of the assistants had tuned him out at this point due to how critical Casar's condition was but the Doctor seemed to be able to handle both the conversation and surgery at once.


"We connected consciousness. I have seen parts of his past and he has seen mine, I... Understand him, in no way others have before. As does he, me. It's hard to understand me so for someone to finally do so well..." Psy bowed his head, "It is the one thing I have taken pride and happiness from my time since activation. He is my friend." He instantly looked up, "So, if you screw him up and can't fix him I am going to commit genocide on a global level." He leaned back into his seat right after saying so, as if that wasn't a big threat at all. Unfortunately for all in the room, he wasn't exaggerating either. "We're able to speak through some strange link. I don't think either of us understand it fully but we can communicate faster than using our voices, like having a guest in our thoughts. So don't you fuck his head up! I think only his teeth are broken, along with that massive skull fracture. Cowboy had cracked him pretty good before I ripped the bastard's legs off." He tipped Axel's hat at the doctor, if he could smile he'd be grinning. 


Psy paused for a moment and reflected on what he and Casar were thinking, he felt Casar being incredible uncomfortable for being under and wasn't quite there speaking with him but he tried to lull the boy into a comfort that Psy wasn't exactly sure how to do. He made sure that he knew he was standing guard and although he was having a conversation didn't mean he had let his eyes off of what the surgeons were doing to his friend once.


"As for either of us dying... Let's see what you're capable of lady. Know that you won't be paid, you'll be under appreciated and you are organic and I am a super big anti organic-racist. If you're getting some sick twisted pleasure from this then AHH-" he exclaimed, the RU-unit hitting a tender spot where he hadn't disabled his feeling receptors. "Little bastard. Fix me, not fuck me!"
 
"Yeaahh... he might only have a big skull fracture now," she said, placing heavy sarcasm on only, "but it looks like he's gotten so many fractures over time that the ... What's the word? Well, it's not really strong anymore. If he's got bone issues now, he's going to have a hell of a lot more soon. I'm not even sure how he talks at this point without fucking something up, if he does at all. That's just the preliminary scan. Actually, if you want to protect his brain, it might be worth it to replace a lot of this. As for his power core, well... that's going to need to be replaced, too. Good luck finding one without paying out the ass. I can patch it up for now, but we don't keep 'em in stock, and that dam is gonna break eventually. Too much of a risk to have cores lying around, especially Curretch."



Casar's eyes stayed a dreary half-open. While Psy maintained a mental link with him, that didn't mean he was cognizant of much. His mind slipped in and out from dream to light recognition of what was going on, and his short term memory was wrecked by the drugs. His subconscious mind would find itself in a state of panic, then Psy's mind would halt the glow. A few seconds later, it was the same thing. Words that had come from the doctor lightly tapped the back of his mind, causing him fear that she wasn't aware of. 



"So, you're linked. And... right now? Huh!" Imille exclaimed. "That's amazing. No, I can understand it now. I was wondering why an android that isn't a mediborg would care for the welfare of a human so much. Most of them are just like the one that's spinefucking you. Mindless." She said. Then, suddenly, the core was pulled from Cas' body. Still attached to him via energy cables but coated in a thick grimy layer of blood, Imille placed the core onto a pullout table from her cart, and began making repairs to it. She couldn't extend it far, of course, as it had still been feeding power throughout his organs. That, and Psy was still connected to it.



"Oookay. You're gonna wanna disconnect, here. He's got a greedy core and an energy link, meaning you're gonna be bled dry at this rate. Mak, get me a battery. Need to hook our friend up so his other friend has the chance to commit planetwide genocide incase we kill him. Gotta be awake for that. Quick!" She noted sharply, at her assistant. The dry-looking alien skittered out of the room. "And to answer your earlier question: yes."


At the notation of being disconnected from Psy, Casar's mind jerked out in fear. Unconscious and using their connection to keep a semblance of awareness, his eyes fluttered, as if trying to open but failing.
 
"Rest." Psy spoke through their mental link. He could feel the boy panicking and knew that nothing could could come from this and he had a feeling that their connection would have to be severed to complete the treatment. "This doc lady won't be able to fix you all the way if you're staying awake through me. Luckily for you I've been sweet talking her ears off, whilst simultaneously threatening her and all her people, that she likes the both of us. Even with you acting like the awesome asshole you are she seems to be fascinated by us. That means she will do everything in her power to get you stable... Then, I have a plan."


Psy looked up to the doctor and her staff while the power core was being removed. He scanned the core type and began putting in searches as to where they would be able to find one.


"Once you are patched up we are going on a hunt. If any of your captors survived they'll be sending hunters after us, good ones. Hell, maybe even your old 'friends' will want a piece of you if any of them lived. They are some tough motherfuckers so we need you to be better than you ever have been before. Your bones look like they belong on an old lady and your power core looks like mine in my blunder years." Psy shook, he clearly had many upgrades in his day to get to where he was now. "Old, worn out and cracked to hell. While you take a nap I'm going to begin preliminary searches on finding us both new parts. We'll accessorize, annihilate our enemies and after that we can do whatever the hell we wanna do. I'd like to take up something extreme, like... weaving an organic's face over mine and pretending to be one of them. It sounds gross I know, but I'll be sure to disinfect the nasty skin mask before placing it over my pristine face." He said through the link, holding back his mental laughter at the thought of something so ridiculous.


He looked back up to the doctor and spoke outloud, "I will disconnect from him... You know the consequences of mistakes, you seem to like joking. I'd hate to have to rip out that pretty tongue of yours to see if it still made such jokes." She didn't even flinch, causing Psy to sit there quietly for a moment. This woman must have heard it all at this point. Her vitals signs were stable whilst her staffs were elevated, showing that this was just another day in the office. After he scanned them all once more he sighed, "Okay... I am going to disconnect now. Make no mistake, I am not leaving this room or my friend. Understood?" The staff all nodded while continuing their work, making surprisingly quick progress on Casar.


"Okay Mad Cas... Do not be mad at me, but now... You must sleep and let your life be placed into someone's hands. I will protect you." And with that, Psy severed the link before Casar could respond. It felt... empty. Massively lonely after sharing such an intimate connection with someone he could trust. He looked visibly sadder with the connection gone. "It is done. Tell me Doctor, what is he chances of survival now that he can not hear us? I have not seen someone pull through this many injuries before, usually because I'm the one inflicting them but my point still stands."
 
"You find my tongue pretty? That's a high compliment, coming from an organic-hating android! All the other ones say that the tongue is the worst part. All fleshy. But little do they know, it's the strongest muscle in the body!" Imille exclaimed, grin behind her mask never ceasing. Then, she sensed a tension in the air. She nodded downward with a chuckle, conceding. "Okay, okay. No, I'm doing the best I can. Not sure if you're familiar with organic hospitals, but we have something called the 'Hippocratic oath'. Generally it means that we do no harm. There's some Curretch-themed amendments in there, like 'if you're shooting, aim for kneecaps, not headcaps', and 'turret fire doesn't count as harm', but same general concept applies. Your friend is in good hands. You don't have to leave, but also remember that you're on one of the biggest city planets this side of the galaxy. One of the best hospitals this side of the galaxy. And finally, one of the most guarded hospitals this side of the galaxy, apart from the glitterworld planets. Those who don't enter through the emergency pads actually have to sign an agreement stating that they were okay with automated targeting systems tracking their every move!" she replied, cheerfully.


Beneath them, Casar had been forced into a deep slumber. His face, despite being swollen and broken, was peaceful. It was an incredible contrast to what was happening below his neck, where his chest had been almost entirely opened up, skin flayed to the sides. His organs worked weakly, taking the broken charge from his power core and using his original anatomy to compensate for what his core couldn't. Above him, on the foldout table, the operating room had become something of a mechanic's workshop. The doctor and her assistant worked on sealing the core up for the time being, while the redshirts in the room began bandaging up his neck with a thin sliver of metallic false skin. It was hyperweave, eerily similar to the patches that made up for the damage on his organs.


"Well, he's ... mostly stable now. But 'stable' in the Curretch way. I haven't started on his neck, but that one didn't pierce any major arteries. His face looks like corn and mashed potatoes, but that's not life-threatening, just exceedingly ugly. It's good that you severed the link. Humans tend to not like being awake or conscious while their organs are being pulled from their corp- er, bodies. Not that he was fully conscious or would feel it at all, but it's a disorienting sort of thing regardless, and could put some unnecessary strain on his heart." she said. "Plus, you don't want to be connected to him when we crack open the dome. Of course, it would be fascinating..."


Throughout the period of several hours, Casar's body was put through hell. If he had declined anesthetic, it would have surely been a different story. Working on a power core was working in a severely intricate fashion; one that required the use of tools that worked on a microscopic level. Intricate circuitboards lined the surface of the core, forcing the technical assistants and doctor to keep him under for even longer. While she chided here and there with both Psy and her medical staff, Doctor Imille found that after Psy had been cut off from the techno-mage, he was far less pleasant for conversation. 'Pleasant', of course, being a subjective word.


By the end of surgical period, the techno-mage's body had been torn apart and put back together again. What organs couldn't survive on their own had to be replaced with a synthetic counterpart. His synthetic heart-equivalent had been resealed, and a port had been installed in the front of his chest, allowing the technical team to hook up the augment synonym to an IV: a battery. Throughout the period, Doctor Imille explained in simple terms to Psy what she was doing with the organic parts of his friend, and in complex terms how she was fixing the augmented parts of him. By the end, even the heavily-trained Doctor seemed exhausted, and her medical assistants even more so. While it wasn't a particularly long shift in comparison to what they were used to, their client had dipped in and out of critical states, much to the distress of Psy. Through constant reassurances, however, they had made it through to the end, with the techno-mage coming out through the other end alive. Cut up, beat up, and sore as all hell, but alive. And that was amazing in itself.


End Scene 10: To Free a Jailbird

End Chapter One​
 
Last edited:
Acidic rain poured down in streaks against the window, the black hued liquid unsafe to drink and drenching the planet in its down pour. Psy was looking out to the city, getting a bit stir crazy among the all other sorts of crazy he experienced. They had been there for a full week now and for the most part Casar had been out for the majority of it whilst his mouthy guardian watched over him like a mother bear to her cubs. No one got near Casar without Psy knowing about it or their name, specifically their names incase they were the ones to hurt him. Each move they did he cataloged in his data banks, even the curious Doctor Imille's conversations with him. Although he hated organics greatly he sensed that Imillie's curiosity towards Casar and himself made her do her job all that more the better, spending more time with the two than other patients other than having to be rushed off for other emergencies. Psy starred out that window for hours at a time, it was a strange feeling to him. He had spent many years in a cold, dusty cave stuck on the same loop for what felt like an eternity but now that he had a taste of freedom he was restless. He wanted to see more of this planet, above all he wanted his friend to be better again. Without the connection his empathy for organic life dropped, other than Imille who had proven herself to be useful, the other organics that had been in the room usually got an ear full and those who were unwise to stand down were close to being dealt with in force. 


Fortunately, Psy was under control as best as he could be. He had spent years in organic care and managed to keep his cool, albeit against his will, but this was nothing new. He could function fine around meatbags, but for how long? 


He heard a stirring behind him and immediately turned around, ready to deal with the movement. "RU-RU, that better not be you fucking around back there." Psy darted his eyes around and seen the repair droid floating in stand by mode to the side, he had finished his repairs so he had no where to go but the corner. Psy had carved a face into the side of him so it looked like RU-22 was smiling at everyone that walked by, it was a bit unsettling even for Psy as he forgot he had done that to the droid. "Not you... Then who?" He began to scan the room and was immediately alarmed by the spike in activity from Casar. His heart rate was increasing and his blood pressure was rising slightly, his vitals all looking fantastic compared to where they were a week ago. Psy quickly rushed to the front of the bed and leaned down in close, he wanted to be the first thing his friend seen when he woke up. Mostly to scare the shit out of him.


"Good morning beautiful." Psy said in a low, hushed voice as Casar's eyes fluttered open. 
 
His memories were foggy.


Clouded, dark thoughts slowly came back to him. They'd been presenting themselves in the form of dreams for a good part of the last hour. The sleek Gaius ship, covered in dust from a particularly horrible adventure. Reaching out, and seeing the eye burst from his former Captain's head. An explosion ringing through the bay. The fist of the Captain as it bloodied itself on his face. Then, Psy ripping him away. Fading. Coming back to hot, fiery pain. Then, being in so much pain that his memories lapsed again. The unconscious thoughts he'd pushed toward Psy in his anesthetically-induced state were completely gone from his mind, and probably for a good reason. Finally, he saw the onyx black visage of Psy floating an inch away from his face. Thinking he could very well have still been in danger, Casar gave a drugged shout and smacked the android's face away. His arms, no longer virtually useless, flailed out at any potential intruders. The machine resting at his bedside gave a warning beep, before coming back to the steady rhythm that Psy had no doubt tuned out by then. Moving parallel to it was another, more alien tune. The sound of his power core, steadily thrumming away, the erratic pulse of a broken sphere having almost completely receded.


Raising his arm in itself was a task, having been in rest for most of the week, apart from the times he'd been taken back into surgery and attended to. At the same time, his entire body felt sore, as if he'd been exercising for the entirety of the time he was down. It fell to the side, and realization slowly begun to creep in about what had happened. Then, panic settled in again.


"Where are they?!" he nearly screamed, voice cracking from no use. His eyes - significantly less swollen then than the eggplant-esque state that they'd been in from having his skull broken - darted around the room. When he'd seen that there wasn't a Warden or an Axel waiting for him, he focused hard on the window outside. Rain penetrated the city smog, wisping it downward where it attempted to climb again. The light thrumm of hovercars beat against the glass. The black giants outside flickered their lights on and off every hundred squares. There was no surface to be seen, but walkways sprouting from the buildings housed the civilians that chattered in their daily lives on Curretch. The muted tone of a medivan often shot by like a bullet to or away from the hospital, not far from the room where he was housed. Confusion and awe settled in the techno-mage's face, and it became clear that he had never seen such a sight before. 


He attempted to pull up from his bed, but a thick dimly growing cord springing from the port in his chest kept him down with its weight. It was attached to a portable column of energy that was larger, even, than him. The crook of his right elbow had a more organic drip, having been attached to a flue of blood that jutted from the side of the vitals monitor. 


"...Where are we?" he said, calmer this time. "This doesn't feel like my mouth." he continued, crooking his jaw to the left and right before eliciting a pop from it. "What happened? Why is ..." he looked down again. His hand gripped the cord that ran from his chest to the column and ripped it out. To his surprise, it unplugged easily, leaving only the port and the still-healing vertical surgery scar that separated his torso into halves. He raised his hands palm toward the ceiling, bringing electricity to them and then smothering it like a flame by tightening his grip. To Psy's surprise, a small smile crept up on the techno-mage's face. 


"I'm alive." he said. "This isn't a trick, right? I'm not on the Gaius? This isn't some sick fucking trick?" he asked, eyes gluing themselves to the window again.
 
"There's a whole lot less blood and bullet holes in here, as much as it'd help with the decor, this isn't a sick fucking trick." Psy said, pleased to see Casar was finally awake. "Don't freak out too much friend, but I had to do a whole lot of ass kicking to get us here. Not sure how much you remember as you've been out for over a week now, Doc has had you hooked up to some meds to keep you from waking up. You were fighting us at first but eventually it had to be done, your organic bits didn't care too much for being put under so I had to force you. Not going to apologize, you're alive." He took a few steps back from Casar to give him his space and took a neutral stance next to him, standing still but looking down at the boy who was captivated by the sights outside. "Pretty bitchin' huh? I've been wanting to go tear up this town as I hear there's a lot of fun, bad things to get up to on this planet. But, loyalty chip or not, I wasn't about to leave you here unattended." 


The view of the outdoors was captivating, especially so for Psy as although he had done it time and time again, that yearning for the city in particular was strong in him. They stayed silent for a moment, taking in the passing vehicles and pedestrians alike. It was hard to tell if this entire planet was a city-scape or if it was only this area as the sprawling skyscrappers did not give way to any nature what so ever. It seemed to be almost completely artificial and attached to a no doubt desolate core.


"I love it here. Artificial structures, cold metal, steel, concrete... Fuck grass and dirt, give me titanium any day." Psy glanced back over to Casar. "Cas, I recorded everything they did to you if that is something you wish to look over. It's pretty fucking gross, even for me, but it's there." Such a small act of perverse kindness from the android, something he picked up on from being connected to Casar. He didn't know what Scientist Arc or any of the other surgeons from his Exodlite days had done to him, seeing exactly what happened to him while he was completely under offered a small comfort to him that he had never had before. That and not seeing that damned Exodlite crest on the wall upon waking up must have been relieving once he realized he was alive and well, that and away from Axel and the Gaius crew who no doubt were seeing similar sights in their own hospital rooms. "So, no tricks buddy. We're on a planet called Curretch, this little rascal is RU-RU my personal port scrubber." He said, motioning over to the repair droid that had been vandalized by Psy. "He's the life of the party, you should meet him. We also have a doctor that's a little too curious for her own good, wants to examine us further I think. Butttt she did save you, and she gave me a nice coloring book over there when I got done arting RU-RU." 


He heard footsteps down the hall, with Casar's vitals spiking from awaking it was either the doctor or one of her team.


"Go easy on her, for an organic she's half decent."
 
"A week...?" he asked, propping himself up against the wall behind him. While the thought of losing so much time didn't particularly upset him, it did raise some questions. Where was the Gaius crew? They had obviously gotten away, but something in him didn't believe it. Not only was he free from his Exodlite captors, but the Renegades as well? And they were away, for the entirety of a week, without having been apprehended? Surely, it was inevitable, but that didn't mean a quick respite wasn't appreciated. Flashes of Axel having his legs ripped off flashed up in his mind, though, panicking him again. Without their mental link, however, it wasn't clear to Psy as to why. The techno-mage attempted to focus his thoughts back onto the city, but it was obvious that he was beginning to get agitated. 


"Yeah, it looks ... a lot different than the Exodus." he said. "Civilian life is on the outer layer. There's cities there, too, but they aren't as... characteristic. The Grand Architects there make all of the plans for Exodus cityscapes. I've traveled through them before. Lots of uniformity. Reds, golds, and whites. Damaris' emblem everywhere where a city like this would put a billboard." he said. "I actually can't believe I'm not there anymore. No chains, no guards... We could probably disappear into this city, and the Renegades would never be able to find us." he said. "That just leaves whether or not the Exodus will destroy it." 


As the door slid open, the techno-mage drew up further against the wall. He snapped his garment back over his chest, having removed the cable that was feeding into the port in his torso. Arms crossed defensively, he bore holes into the door with his eyes, From behind it. Doctor Imille appeared again. Only, she wasn't decked in surgery garb. Looking a little more personable (and significantly less bloody) this time around, she approached the bedside opposite of where Psy was, tablet tucked underneath an arm. A clean white labcoat adorned her, just as well as a pair of midnight black medical gloves and scrubs, underneath it all. When she looked up from her tablet, she saw the comparatively defensive Casar, who seemed to be on edge at her presence.


"Hi Casar!" she replied, cheerily but well aware of the spike in his vitals that her presence had costed him. "Glad to see you're awake. How are you feeling?"


"You dissected me. How do you think I'm feeling?" he replied, sharply.


"Well, it was necessary. Your power core was and is dying, and you're going to need to get that replaced within the span of the week. But, you've got teeth now. Lets see... The list is pretty extensive." her finger shot down to her tablet, which projected a list of diagnostics and surgeries that had occurred over the span of the week. "Fixed your core, fused a huge crack in your skull. Going to need to revisit that ol'biddy, actually, you've got the bone structure of a goldfish. Ribs, liver ... yada yada yada. You get the picture. So, yeah. We dissected you a bit. But it's a learning experience for the both of us, right?" Panic appeared in Casar's eyes, which elicited a laugh from the augment doctor. "I'm kidding. But at the same time, not. You're going to need a lot more work. I haven't seen an organ in your body that didn't take some damage from having your power core offline, and the originals beneath the augments are failing because ... Well, I don't know why. But they wouldn't be augmented the way they are if they didn't need assistance in the first place. If you didn't come here because of being shot, stabbed, punched, etcetera, you would have died out there."


He looked between Imille and Psy. The idea of staying in a small hospital room in a foreign city wasn't exciting to either him or the metallic protector. Not only was it dangerous - Curretch would eventually be the next place the Renegades looked for him, if they weren't already - but it was also something that the lifelong prisoner couldn't even entertain the idea of. 


"I think I'll manage." Casar said, slinging his legs over the side of the bed. "We can't stay here, and I've been ... fine so far. We need to find a power core, anyways."


"I wouldn't stand just yet. Good way to exacerbate your injuries." she said, holding out a hand. "Okay. Your friend seems reasonable. You're staying, right?" she asked, turning her attention back to Psy.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
“Reasonable? Staying? Ha!” Psy said in response to the doctor, looking for a way to keep Casar in bed and at the hospital. “Lady, I know you’ve no doubt taken a liking to me and my little dissectable friend here but we have to get this show on the road. Otherwise… Well, we aren’t necessarily friends with the majority of the galaxy. Someone is going to be kicking down that door sooner than later, even with him needing more treatment we can’t stay here. It’s a public place, public records… Even an idiot could find us after searching for a week.” Psy turned away from the doctor to the door, “I haven’t let my eyes leave Casar, or the door since we arrived. We’ve been here a long time now…”


Psy grumbled, they were both tasked with a question that could cost them their lives in a place like this. No doubt the Renegades were on them and whether they cared about hospital rules or not was unknown. They could come running down the hall any minute and they’d be none the wiser until it was too late.


“Casar needs a new power core along with a fuck ton of other things, meaning you’re gonna be under the knife a lot. I don’t trust anyone who heals organics but…” Psy paused, his insides practically grinding at this suggestion. “We could use someone who has dissected Casar before, someone who knows their way around his body without fucking anything up. If they did I’d have to dissect them of course, but you wouldn’t make that mistake.” Psy turned to look at the doctor, leaning his head down slightly to make eye contact. “You have a… curiosity that I can’t seem to identify the source of. I’d like to think I know you simple minded meat bags pretty well by now but you are different. You care, but at the same time your thirst for knowledge and discovery seems to be more important.” He paused, he had been pondering on this a lot. “I like it! It means your loyalties lie not with what’s really good, such as reporting a psychopathic android that has left a rotting nurse in his ship, but with what interests you!”


Outside of the hospital a ship had been towed to a junkyard, no one had searched the cockpit but instead transported out of the way as it had been haphazardly left in the emergency lane. There, a poor doctor laid decomposing in the passenger seat, unlikely to be found for many weeks.


“Pretty crazy huh?” Psy said, practically grinning if he could. “Which means since I assume you’re all good with that, you’re pretty fucking crazy too. Cas and I are gonna jack a juiced up power core once he can walk and kick ass again, you interested in being kept on retainer when we get shot up, blown up, fucked up, bruised up, boozed up, decapitated, decimated-” He was in a feedback loop, shutting it down before he kept going. He chuckled, “Happens sometimes, my mind goes crazy! Who would have thought?” It was a rhetorical question, one that they all had the answer for. “You won’t be paid any money, if you were it would be blood money that is. After all, knowledge is power and worth your weight in gold, yadda yadda yadda… Whadda ya say Doc? You down to help an android and his pet human when they need medical attention?”
 
"You left a rotting..." Imille quirked a brow, while the absolutely nutty Psy went off on a tangent on all the things they had done, and all the things that they were planning to do. "Well, I hope you're not planning on getting decapitated. If you are, you're not going to make it back to me, are you? And, retainer does kind of imply that I'm going to be paid..."


Her eyes registered them both. Casar, whose brow had been contorted in irritation since the word "pet human" had left Psy's voicebox, and Psy himself, whose glinting visage waited in anticipation of her answer. How could she accept such a ludicrous offer, anyways? While no doubt she had found the two of them interesting, and she had certainly never seen an android and human interface before, it was a lot to ask. Her own expression seemed to teem with mad contemplation for a moment, before she'd turned on her heel and calmly left the room. While tensions may have risen upon seeing such a sight for Psy, Casar's shoulders slumped in relief. Then he turned to Psy, regaining the tension he'd momentarily lost.


"Psy. This is not how people work. They don't just leave their jobs to help psychotic criminals who openly admit to leaving dead bodies in their cars! And they definitely don't do it for free!" He hissed, scolding the android as if scolding a child. "We don't trust people, and we certainly don't trust doctors. I don't care if she knows how many nanites are in my shit, we don't-"


Before he could finish his sentence, the door slid open again. To their complete surprise, not only had Imille not run away and notified security, she was standing in the doorway pushing forward a wheelchair. It was laughably ancient, compared to the gadgets that the hospital staff had used on the daily, but with a reason. Grinning, she pulled it up to the side of the bed and notioned for Casar to get on. When she was met with only a confounded glare, she spoke up.


"Hospital isn't going to miss this old buggy. Okay, so. A few things. It's not courteous to bring pursuers into a hospital. If you've got people chasing you, they're not only going to find you, but they're also going to cause trouble for us. Any other doc here is going to tell you to kindly get the fuck out. But... I see the problem with that. One, your car got towed. Two, walking is a good way to bust your surgery wounds. Three... I might be able to help you out. But you've got to do something for me in return. Actually, they kind of take care of eachother, in a way. You'd get a power core, and I'd have a problem being taken care of. And four, it'd feel like a pretty big waste to work on you for a week to let you go out and get killed. Or, you can not get in the chair, and I can become a regular doctor who, in light of this information, will tell you to get the fuck out. Your choice."


Smiling, Imille looked between them both.


"My shift is about over, anyways. The shop is pretty deep in the city, so you don't have to worry about being followed, too much. And the hospital won't have to worry about your admirers. It works out for all of us!"


Incredulous, Casar looked between her and Psy, mouth agape. Was she crazy? She had to have been. In a moment, the augment technician had counteracted everything he'd said to Psy.


"You're crazy." He said, flatly. "Why would you want to help us in the first place? Being interested isn't a reason to tote around people who are on the run, from Renegades no less."


"Well, like I said. I hate to see my work go to waste. We're on Curretch, not Urenria-A. If you go out there, you're going to get yourself killed. I know a place you might be able to get a core, I'd be able to continue work on you, and you could help me out, too." She said. "Whaddaya say?"
 
“Would you look at that, Cas, maybe I know how people work better than you. Pretty ironic buddy!” Without being linked to one another they were a bit more confrontational outloud, but the discussion back and forth like that had still been going on between them. Whilst they trusted one another that didn’t mean they had their disagreements, especially when it came to Casar or Psy being very firmly in their beliefs. “We’re on the run and she obviously has the hots for me, all the while she doesn’t want her work to go to waste. And well… Calling someone crazy kinda makes you look like a hypocrite. I’m BATSHIT crazy and here you are being best buddies with me!” He said joyfully, “I know you don’t like doctors… but she… organic flesh aside, is one of the good ones.” Psy practically felt his metal skin crawl even suggesting such a thing especially for someone who wasn’t even augmented.


He let out a sigh, his gem like eyes glaring down at Imille after speaking with Casar. It took a lot of out the android to admit that but sacrifices had to be made for Casar’s sake, even if he didn’t like it.


“Shop?” Psy asked. “So you have a super secret base to do all your experiments huh? Use the hospital as a cover up… I think I’ve finally figured you out Doc. YOU’RE A MAD SCIENTIST! And here I thought I was crazy!” He laughed at the thought. “This will be the perfect start in starting a new life Cas, we can get you patched up, we’ll have a doc… on retainer without pay… and!” He paused, shaking at the excitement he was about to get out of the hospital room. “I’LL GET TO KILL ORGANICS AND YOU’LL GET A NICE JUICY CORE!” He exclaimed, his loudness returning after nearly a week of having to stay quiet.”


Something made Psy stop in his tracks however, all jubilation and excitement aside someone had entered the hospital that sent off alarms ringing in the android’s head.


“Lucky us, it’s time to go.” It was too abrupt to be nothing so the both of them looked at Psy for an explanation. “Soooo… remember how I said I hadn’t let my eyes off of you Cas? Well… I sort of lobotomized RU-RU there and made him my personal bitch bot. I controlled him remotely and got him to hack into the hospital’s security system since I couldn't leave and well… About 15 floors down is a small team of Renegades. They’re armed and shouting at reception now so we only have a few minutes.” Psy walked over to RU-22 and patted the droids head, “You did good, bitch. Hop on daddy.” RU-22 then hovered over to Psy’s back and latched on, ready to be transported. “We gotta get going or we’re gonna need to find another hospital after this. Don’t got time to think Casar, get in the fucking chair!”
 
Casar reached out, placing the palm of his hand into the droid that had just latched onto Psy's back. His eyes glowed a telltale glow, and soon enough, he could see through the eyes of the little repurposed repair droid. His own eyes opened in shock, and all the hesitation he had toward joining Imille had gone out the window. When his feet hit floor, he fell back into the wheelchair. Still, it was unsure as to whether they'd make it out well in such a state. Imille, who had been watching the boy with keen interest, took up the reigns of his chair, and soon they were pushing Casar out the door. It wasn't a very discrete guise, especially at the speed at which they were moving, nor was it effective.


As they rounded the corner, Imille spoke up. "So... there arises a problem." She said. "If they're on the ground floor, and we intend on taking my car... Well, parking is also on the ground floor. Can your little repair unit also take down the security cameras? We might be able to get by them if we take another route, or do something to make you both a little less recognizable, but that goes out the window if they see us on the cameras." She said, remaining eerily calm despite the threat of being caught helping someone the Renegades were hunting. It came with the job, of course. "Actually, I've got it. We won't take my car. I'll navigate. You two work on the cameras. The security room is right past reception, so hurry on with it."


While they looked relatively normal to anyone who had been on Curretch for more than a second, Psy and Casar were more than recognizable to the Renegades below them. With bright blonde hair and a C-shaped scar marking him, Casar was undoubtedly Casar. Psy was recognizable by the Gaius' onboard security tapes: a large onyx android with a skeletal face and a cowboy hat. The moment the Renegades got to the cameras, they would be royally screwed.


"We're going out in style." Imille said, an unhinged smirk marking her. "The Renegades couldn't chase a medivan if they tried; there's so many of them coming in and out and ours are faster than even the cruisers, round these parts. It cuts the floor journey in half. As long as they don't meet us in the middle, we'll be fine."


Casar reached out, attempting to maintain his rocky connection with RU-22 despite being pushed along in the chair. Distractions abound made it difficult; not only that, but all new circuitry running through him made it nearly impossible to do on the go.


"Psy, I can't maintain a link with him. Can you take the cameras down? Do we have any weapons?" He asked.
 
“Do we have weapons?” Psy asked, dumbfounded at such a stupid question. “Of course we have weapons. I’m a god damn murder bot!” Psy’s metal armor plating in front of his chest retracted revealing a cybernetic ribcage, giving Casar flashbacks of both Psy’s armor retracting and then the compartment in his chest. The metal ribs moved to the side revealing the compartment and inside there were many goodies that weren’t there before. Psy started digging around and threw out a used up coloring book, a ripped up teddy bear he had made RU-22 get from the giftshop followed by Sandman’s rings. “Not even real gold, worthless. Can you believe that?” He commented as he went through his belongings. Soon he got to the good stuff and pulled out an energy pistol and shoved it into Casar’s hands. “Classic, sleek, reliable. It’s Validan made so might be a bit big for your hands but those bastards know how to do war. No need for thermal clips, just don’t overheat it if shit gets crazy. As for you…” Psy grabbed another pistol and shoved it in the doctor’s coat, “Just incase you have to get your hands dirty in something other than my friend here!” He laughed at his own joke then began to shut down the security cameras.


The Hospital staff were being harassed by the Renegades, they knew Casar and Psy were here. They had tracked down the ship that had been stolen and plotted several different courses in where they could have gone, knowing that Casar wasn’t going to make it far without perishing unless he and his partner made it to a nearby planet and one with decent enough healthcare. It narrowed down their options considerably and thus made their search easier. Though with all the hospitals on Curretch they had a tough time triangulating their position until now.


5 strong Renegades began to search the halls while their captain remained down in the lobby shouting at the hospital staff demanding entrance into security whilst also getting information on any recent patients that were rushed in.


“I’m sorry sir, but we do not reveal any personal information to our patients outside of Curretch government officials. As you are with the RCN you are allowed to be here, but you have no jurisdiction.”


“Oh I have jurisdiction lady. Every living thing that doesn’t get killed by the Exodlites is my god damn jurisdiction. Now these bastards nearly killed some of our finest and people I’ve worked with closely before, so you either get me that fucking information or we’ll force our way into every hospital room one by one.”


“We will allow access to our camera systems Mr. Fetch, but I assure you, no force from the RCN is necessary in this hospital.”


“I’ll be the judge of that…” The Terram male said, his nostrils flaring in anger as he knew he was close to those that nearly took out the Gaius crew. He and the secretary made their way into security only to get one brief look until screen after screen shut down. “No no no NO!” Fetch activated his communicator, “Yeller Squad, the prisoner and the android are here, they’re shutting down the cameras.” He scanned the screens as quick as he could and to his amazement he spotted them. “145th floor, moving down the southern hallway. MOVE!” After Fetch finished, the screens all went blank.


“They’re off.” Psy said, hesitating when he said so. “But… We’re probably compromised. Seen a big man with horns coming out of his head in the security room through the security room’s camera. Some trippy shit seeing a security camera of a security room, we don’t have much time.”
 
“Yeller Squad, the prisoner and the android are here, they’re shutting down the cameras.” ... “145th floor, moving down the southern hallway. MOVE!”


"They definitely know we're here." Casar said. Fortunately or unfortunately, he was enlisted into the Renegade's forces partly for his skills in telecommunication decryption. Whether it was a Renegade signal or an Exodlite one, he could find and understand it. Not wanting to reveal his own location, he reached a hand up and began to tap into the hospital's own telecommunication systems; the overhead speakers. It would take a moment, but the alternative was sitting pretty and waiting to be apprehended whilst twiddling his thumbs. "That's Yeller. Meaning, their Captain is Fetch. I didn't get to work with them too closely, but they were one of the assaulting forces on the I.S. Sinai. Meaning they're just as specialized as the Gaius. But, if..."


Suddenly, Casar's voice came over the P.A. system on the floor that Yeller was on. It was a countermeasure to having his position triangulated, for if he'd used his implant it could be a very real threat. "Hey, Fetch. I would say 'good to see you again', but I've both never seen you in person and, well, it's not good. I don't suppose we could work on a credit system of just having you ... turn around and leave, could we? I mean, what is a set of legs from an angry tyrant over a full ship of prisoners?" he asked. "No? Well, alright. Imagine the Universe. It's pretty big, isn't it? Looot of space for someone like me to hide. I'll be somewhere in there. Now you can spend the entirety of your days looking for me, or you can realize that you're not going to get anywhere once I leave this god-forsaken hospital and leave us alone. And if you keep trying, Captain Winger's legs aren't the only thing we're going to be taking. Despite my track record, I actually don't like hurting anyone more than I have to, but the Renegades are awfully good at forcing my fucking hand."


With a note of warning, the techno-mage looked to Psy.


"Psy, before the camera systems went down, did you see anyone with them that looked ... a little messed up? Horns sprouting from his head, tattoos, yellow eyes like a bloated body? If they have Jagar with them, there could be an issue with getting out of here alive. He and I fought Warden Leviticus together, and while we're on good terms, he could probably snap you in half without issue and he doesn't really work off of a 'buddy' system. Should be pretty easy to spot if he was there - if he wasn't actively avoiding the cameras, that is."


Doctor Imille continued pushing Casar along. Her eyes shot down to the gun in her pocket, but she didn't make a move toward it due to having to push the techno-mage along. His own hands looped around the gun, once he'd found he had enough of the telecommunications system. He began prepping it, like he usually had, attempting to increase the firing power of it with his own energy supply. Seeing what was happening, Imille spoke up.


"Cas, take it easy on your core. If I have to repair it again because you're trying to make a peashooter into a shotgun I'm going to slap an inhibitor on it. You like having a daily allowance? Because that's how you get one." she said, scolding the boy as if he were her own son.


"Remind me why you're still here."


"I don't like letting my work go to waste, I don't like people who invade my hospital, and I really don't like Renegades." she said. "Now you just shush. Taunting them isn't going to make them want to kill you any less. If there's gunfire, the turrets will automatically deploy and take care of what they need to. Of course, if you get identified as a target, that's another issue, but we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it."
 
“Ahh… So you think you’re the one who took out Winger, kid? That’s cute... “ Fetch replied back, practically giving this hospital a show as they battled with the intercom system. “That android of yours is the only reason you’re breathing, without him Winger would have beat your fucking face in til it came out the back of your skull. You talk a pretty big game but the security footage got leaked, you’re just a coward who can’t fight his own battles.”


“YOU’RE A PRETTY BIG MAN FOR TALKING OVER AN INTERCOM!” Psy patched in, getting furious for what Fetch was saying to Casar while they were swiftly making their way through the halls. “HOW ABOUT YOU COME MEET US AND I’LL RIP YOUR FUCKING ARMS OFF!”


There was a snort that came over the intercom, the bull-like man laughing at Psy trying to defend Casar.


“Who says we aren’t coming to meet you already? Hospital staff and patients, I advise that you stay out of the halls. The RCN apologizes for any interruptions in day to day procedures and any repairs caused by this altercation will be paid for in full.” Those words right there were enough to make the officials turn a temporary blind eye, especially with how low funded the hospital currently was. Fetch smiled as head of security approached him and showed him how the automated turret defense system worked, Imille’s safety net now sabotaged and potentially turned against them.


“If these RCN douchebags are anything like the crew we took out last, we’re gonna have a problem.” Psy said, for once admitting when they were outmatched. “We have peashooters, you’re in a wheelchair and I’m low on ammo. I LOVE THESE ODDS!” He said, turning his negativity around into embracing the challenge. “Alright Doc, you’re gonna have to hurry before-”


Gun shots screeched by their heads as the Renegades had found them. They were down the long hallway the three of them had just crossed and had a lot of ground to cover but they would catch up quickly at this pace. “RUN!” Psy shouted, pushing the Doctor and Casar by proxy around a corner and began to return fire. Neither party could hit one another due to the distance but that didn’t stop the Renegades from running into the line of fire, something that Psy hadn’t seen before.


“These bastards are crazier than me!” He exclaimed, using the corner for cover as the RCN commandos came charging at them with a certain bravado that couldn’t be matched. One of their best teams had been taken out by these two, they were hungry for revenge. “I THOUGHT THE TURRETS WERE SUPPOSED TO COME OUT AND FIRE AT THEM FOR SHOOTING!”
 
"They were!" Imille screamed back, over gunfire. For an instant, she regretted agreeing to help Psy and Casar, as a bullet whizzed by her head, impacting the wall behind the corner they had ducked around. Her hand reached into her pocket, grabbing the gun that Psy had shoved into her pocket moments earlier. Her eyes ran over it, and she emitted a low sigh. "I could do better," she murmured, "But it'll have to do." She pulled the magazine from the chamber, examining it, then slammed it back into the gun. Mentally, she took note of how many shots she'd had. Mentally, she took note of the fact that she wasn't wearing any armor, much like Casar. One shot could easily end her, and the boy. So, why was she doing it?


"God, I fucking hate Renegades." she said. While Psy kept the back, hopefully absorbing any of the damage his squishier counterparts would have normally fatally taken,


Casar's fist kneaded around the gun, knuckles turning white from how tightly he'd gripped the pistol in anger. While he'd been wheeled down the halls, he loaded enough power into the tiny thermal cells in his gun to almost completely discharge him. Instead of red energy, they began burning white, nearly melting the surrounding pistol frame in the process. Hateful and cracking, his voice filled the intercom for perhaps the last time. "That's interesting, Fetch. I have some experience with security cameras, myself. Since we were fated to meet on that day, I figure I should show you some footage that might interest you. Speaking of weak. Speaking of beating someone's face in until it comes out of the back of their skull."


Along the halls of the building, the formerly light-blue holo-screens that dotted the walls flickered to black. Normally, they were filled with patient information, broadcasts to medical staff and patients alike, and any important announcements that the local government and hospital felt the need to express. Just beforehand, it was in the process of lighting up red to caution the patients to stay in their rooms in light of the recent Renegade invasion. Then, a scene flickered up on the scene. It was familiar to Yeller's crew: a lit hallway, with Damaris' emblem on the wall. Suddenly, a door on the far end of the hallway slid open, revealing the view into the cockpit behind it. Suddenly, three red-frocked soldiers in Exodlite armor rushed out, sidearms in the readied position. The hall was filled with red.


"Remember this?" Casar said. "I didn't really think too much of it when I had downloaded it from the terminal. But you were able to jog my memory, weren't you?" he questioned, cruelly. Fetch knew what was about to come. Casar knew what was about to come.


Yeller's men rushed out of the siderooms, a passageway granted to them via the cargo bay below the cockpit. The Exodlite soldiers, having known something was wrong already, fired out. The first two flanking the one in the middle had been taken down easily, slumping to the floor after bullets had flown and penetrated their brains. The middle, however, had been given a respite of time to react. Faster than they had expected but completely surrounded, he whipped around, spraying a line of bullets toward the armored Renegades. Nothing hit. It seemed relatively hopeless for a moment, before the Exodlite had reached out, showing a determination to survive that none of them had done so well before. He wrapped his arm around one of Yeller's men; one that had grown too close. Then, he twirled around, Renegade in hand, just in time enough to give the Renegade a deathblow.


A deathblow by Fetch's own gun.


The bullet rattled through the armor of the grappled Renegade and out the other side of the Exodlite that had taken him hostage.


They both fell.


Then, the screens went dark.


In the halls, a bullet rang out. Casar had pulled his legs up onto the wheelchair and wrapped his arm around the back of it, using the metal backing as cover and steady. As the Renegades behind him wildly rounded the corner, he began firing at them. The shots from his gun offered enough recoil to nearly rip the gun out of his hands, for he'd hyper-charged the shots enough to rip a hole straight through the shooting-arm of a far away Renegade bounding after them. They were still far away from each other, but the young techno-mage had displayed a scary accuracy that far surpassed the natural sightfinding of anyone there.


He ducked his head down, covering it with both his gun and his free hand, as return fire had shot across the hall ten-fold. Psy, who had been behind them, took the brunt of it. Only, as a shot had landed dead-center in the middle of his back, he felt nothing. The high-pitched squeal of a dying repair droid sounded out; despite being artificial in nature, it took on the sad scream of a small animal. Imille raised her own gun, hastily pushing the rage-filled Casar forward with one hand, and raising the other armed one to take out turrets. In front of them, a mechanical construct of the hospital's own design deployed, centering its targets onto the chest of the doctor, having skipped over Imille due to her logged affiliation to the hospital. That would soon change, as she raised her gun and fired nearly the entire clip into the steely guardian. Only on the last had the turret wound down, ceasing its threat for then.


"Jesus fuck!" she screamed. "What did you do to deserve this?!"


"I destroyed a planet!" he screamed back. "And then we ripped off the legs of a Renegade Captain!"
 
“RU-RU NOOOOO!” Psy screamed out, ignoring the intercom of Fetch shouting at Casar madly. As a Terram he had the temper and appearance of a bull, and as such seeing such a cruel sight was beyond infuriating. Especially with the fact that Casar had held onto such footage enraged him, unfortunately for them it actually inspired the Yeller squad to pursue them even more. “HE DIED SO YOUNG NO WHY MUST YOU HAVE DONE THIS?! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU ALL… I’LL CRY WHEN I’M DONE KILLING!” Psy whipped around and fired a few blasts and hit one of the Yeller squad dead center, causing them to fall down to the ground. Horrifyingly enough, they stood right back up and began to catch up with the rest of their group. He hadn’t felt this sort of primal fear before, usually he was the one pursuing his target but to have heavily armored, highly trained killers and to have them even more motivated now that Casar was taunting them was such a new experience. He took shots for the two squishy organics but he was beginning to wonder how they were going to get out of this alive.


Mourning his fallen robotic brother, Psy continued to absorb shot after shot, his shielding was holding up fine but if they were to get in close that would be a different story. Psy would most likely be able to take them on at close ranges too so it was a double edged sword, and with his two comrades being unarmored and practically unarmed the only thing he could think of was to keep them moving.


“YOU BETTER HAVE A DAMN GOOD ESCAPE PATH DOC CAUSE WE ARE SO ROYALLY FUCKEEEED!” They turned the corner and was finally safe from the gunfire for a brief moment. “OH FUCK!” Psy cried out, sure enough as Casar had mentioned it, a familiar horned alien stood dead center in the hallway. Burning yellow eyes staring at them as he stood with his arms crossed. “WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!” Psy’s information matrix was going haywire, something that happened only when an unknown species was before him as he tried to decipher what the creature was.


Wordlessly, Jagar began to walk forward. He made eye contact with Casar but unfortunately for the boy he didn’t hesitate a bit. A holographic blade came sliding out of Jagar’s gauntlet and he outstretched it forward. They had two options, either try and serpentine around Jagar which was destined to fail or turn back around and deal with the Yeller troops who were hot on their tails.


Luckily for them, Psy picked option C.


“FOR RU-RU!” The psychotic android called out as he jumped over Imille and Psy and crashed into Jagar. The alien backed up a bit and began to jab at Psy with his blade causing critical damage rather quickly, cutting up his armor as he began digging directly into the android. Psy took the brunt of the damage like a champ and raised his hands to Jagar’s face and activated his booster jets flinging fire right into the alien’s face. Jagar’s eyes bared down on Psy, frightening the android as it was revealed that Jagar’s helmet served as an invisible shield even whilst retracted. “HOLY FUCK YOU’RE SPOOKY!” The android said as Jagar’s helmet went up to prevent any potential damage and continued to attack Psy. “CAS YOU’RE GONNA HAVE TO JUICE ME HERE BUDDY! THIS FREAK IS STRONG LIKE THAT BIG MOTHERFUCKER ON THE GAIUS!”
 
Jagar's was a frightening visage.


Casar's attention reared away from the approaching assaulters and back to the seven-foot monstrosity that was slowly approaching them. Savoring the hunt, as it were. He'd known just how Jagar had operated. He knew where his loyalties lied: with the hunt, and the coin. And as he approached, Casar knew well that the past they had shared didn't mean much in the face of an angry team of Renegades having their failures broadcast back to them, and the lumbering beast with a blade that knew only a loyalty to a contract. He knew well that he wasn't much of a match, and the readily-injured Psy wouldn't hold up for long. While Imille had turned her back to Jagar, attempting to fend off the assaulting team from behind, Casar reached out to the fighting Psy. Fingers grazed metal, and that's all he needed.


As soon as Psy leapt back into the fight, Casar had been ripped from his chair into it as well. He latched onto the back of the wildly thrashing android, and pushed his own energies into Psy's boosters. Soon, they were shooting out enough heat to start wearing down on Jagar's defenses. His other hand looped around the shoulder of his friend, aiming his remaining thermal shots into Jagar's chest. Their separated powers didn't amount to much, but combined, it was a force to be reckoned with. At the threat of having his armor melted, Jagar was forced to take a step back, them having made a theoretical wall in which to keep the beast from tearing them apart.


Then, a grenade tumbled out from the grip of the encroaching assault team. Something to close the gap between them all, and no doubt lead the way for them being taken alive or dead. Judging by how livid the techno-mage had made the Terremian - an anger which he had only fostered by shutting the intercoms down mid-sentence - it looked like dead. Having been cooked in a hand, they barely had time to react before Psy was bodily sent into a long hallway window, glass shattering to the expanse of cityscape beneath them. Imille, having watched the assaulting team, had enough time to overturn the wheelchair onto the grenade and only suffering the concussive force of being sent against the wall. Dazed, she reached out for the gun that slipped away from her grasp in the commotion.


But, Casar was gone.


Where there had formerly been a techno-mage, latched well onto the back of Psy, there was no more. Instead, the void of cityscape gave no hints as to where he had gone. No shouts for help, nor gunfire. Just silence.
 
Psy hung in the window frame with his limbs thrown out in different directions, his arms off track and crooked. He shook his head as his systems started to stabilize once more causing him to violently rise to his feet after the initial blast. Loud, thunderous footsteps came running up to him and soon Psy was violently ejected from the building as Jagar decided the best course of action to kill the droid was to push him from an insanely tall building. As Jagar watched the droid plummet he turned to face the doctor. He held out his blade to her neck as she was frozen in fear, not quite reaching the gun.


“Not part of mission, task to capture or kill those two.” Jagar’s blade retracted. “Wouldn’t grab gun, female human, end up like robot.” Jagar began to walk away to Imille’s surprise, although she had attacked the Renegades he couldn’t have cared less. That was, until a familiar face boosted his way into the window frame.


“HERE’S PSY!” The android roared, raising two pistols to Jagar’s back and open firing. The blasts hit the alien causing him to let out a guttural groan, the pain surprising but welcomed as it only caused Jagar to fight even harder. Psy realized his mistake when the beast grabbed him by the throat and threw him down the hallway. Psy had went up not to challenge Jagar but to look for Casar, not finding him in all the chaos that was happening. He couldn’t help but think as he collided with the floor what if he had fallen out of the window? He was on his back after all and then he wasn’t… the thought terrified him.


“Android fight hard.” Jagar said as Psy laid there on the ground, not in any pain but trying his hardest to calculate how to escape this alive. Psy was a monster, trained from practically birth to do what he was doing now. Dismantle his prey one by one until they were all dead, whether he was hunting in a pack or solo he was a force to be reckoned with. “Your head will make fine trophy.” Jagar raised his blade to the air then swung down, aiming right for Psy’s neck.


Psy wasn’t going to be some hunter’s trophy. He pointed his hands directly above him whilst laying down and activated his boosters, propelling himself back towards Imille and sliding inbetween Jagar’s legs. The hunter sliced down just as Psy got out of the way, the android barely saving his own life. As he boosted himself across the floor the Renegades at the end of the hall arrived and surrounded Imille. As she was raising her hands to surrender Psy came crashing into them all, grabbing the good doctor and crashing through another window sending them flying out into the city.


They both were screaming, Psy more so than her as he was nearly out of booster fuel. It was almost a funny sight, seeing an android clinging on to a screaming doctor as they both plummeted to certain doom. With one final push he boosted right back into the hospital on a lower floor and protected the doctor with his body as they blasted through the window shattering glass and sending it throughout the halls. He skidded across the floor until they came to a complete stop.


“Get off me.” Psy said in typical Psy fashion, not even asking if the Doctor was alright or not. Deep down he was relieved for some odd reason she was alive and that he had saved her but he’d never admit it outloud. “We only have a few minutes before they figure out which floor we crashed on, no way they will stop until they confirm us both dead.”
 
"God damnit, that's what all the men in my life say." Imille chided, out of breath but still lively. She rolled off of the beaten Psy, careful to catch herself and not embed on the glass shards that had dotted the hall floors. Wild-haired and fueled with adrenaline, she climbed to her feet, dazed but mostly unharmed. Just a moment earlier, she had been cheekily grinning toward the Renegades, hands lifted in a don't-shoot-me-esque type manner. Now, she was free to continue whatever insane pursuit she'd gotten caught up with her newfound friend and his pet human. Only, there arose one issue. The pet human was missing. Upon realizing this, Imille whipped around, panic settling in her eyes and bones.


"Wait, where's blondie?!" She asked, looking up toward the broken windows. Her eyes shot across the bridge they had gapped, only to meet the steely yellow visage of Jagar. Then, she looked back to Psy. He had been beaten, stabbed, blown up... and all for the charge that neither of them could find. She approached him, quickly assessing his injuries with her scanning glasses. "Alright. A few more shots and you're done. You make a pretty good meatshield AND roman candle, and to be honest, I've never met anyone who met both of those very important requirements in my life. You're a keeper, so follow me." She said. "Scary sasquatch wouldn't be looking out for us if they had caught Casar, which means he's either plummeted to his death or ..." She stopped, not seeing many other options but also not wanting to upset Psy. "He could have slipped out of the commotion while the fight was focused in on you."


Her words hung in the air as the two of them made their way to the only possible avenue of escaping without a vehicle: down. All the while, Psy's comms tuned in to hear any disturbance that might have indicated Casar had been captured. When there wasn't any, they began to grow even more hopeless. Then, like clockwork, the Renegades intercepted them again. Imille raised her weapon, exhaustion in her eyes, though down the long hall there wasn't much leeway in shooting each other. Unfortunately, the only way forward was forward, as all the other locked rooms had lead to patient quarters.


"Fuck!" Imille screamed, as her gun gave the telltale click of no longer having any ammunition in its hold. "Well, it was nice knowing you both. I was hoping to get to dissect you too, before we parted, but-"


Just as the Renegades began encroaching, no doubt singing the finale to the crazy chapter they had engaged together on, the unrelenting sound of screaming, screeching metal and glass filled the halls. The adjacent window shattered, raining glass on friend and foe alike. When she had finally uncovered her face, Imille found that not only was Casar alive, he had also stolen a new-age medivan and careened it into the hospital window. At the front, the techno-mage, still interfaced, triggered the horribly beaten door to slide open. On one side was Imille and Psy, on their last stretch of endurance. On the other, Renegade fire poured hard into the side of the vehicle.


"Get the fuck in!" He screamed, looking unsure between the Yeller team's side and his own.


"Remind me why you're still here?" Imille snarked back, though she was no doubt happy to see him. She treaded toward the ambulance as quickly as her dazed feet would allow.


"GET IN THE VAN!"
 
“MOVE LADY!” Psy said, pushing the dazed woman forward and into the van roughly. As the doors closed and Casar took off they all began to realize the severity of the situation. A loud thud was heard as the van began to speed off haphazardly, the boy obviously never before driving a vehicle. “MAD CAS YOU MAD MAN! YOU ACTUALLY GOT THE VEHICLE?! HOW?!” Before Casar could answer Psy scrambled away from Imille who he had shoved into the back of the van rather roughly, not caring for her balance or comfort as the situation demanded action. Gun shots rained down on the vehicle as Cas sped away but soon they stopped once they were out of range of the hospital. Psy looked in the rear view cameras and was pleased to see the Renegades starring at them as they drove away.


He let out a laugh, looking over at Cas who refused to blink as he was driving and darting his eyes all over the place then back to Imille who looked like she had been to either the best party of her life or woken up on the wrong side of the bed.


“If I could smile right now I’d be grinning ear to ear!” He exclaimed, happy to see that they had all made it out in one piece. “Ho-leee-fuck is that monster tough. I burnt his face off, shot him, tried to break his bones and nothing. Each time I did something he would just get this look on his face like he wanted more. Crazy bastard. Usually I’m use to those I’m killing to scream, bleed, you know… All the fun parts of killing! But that guy… Damn… I’m sure glad I’m synthetic cause I’m sure I’d be hurting like a bitch right now if my artificial pain receptors were activated!”


It was apparent that Casar was a first time flier, even interfaced his movements were eratic and abrupt. Other drivers began to either slow down or avoid them altogether as they were unpredictable even in a three dimensional plane of movement. Not many in Curretch seen drivers like this unless they were being pursued so they began to avoid them like the plague.


“Other drivers are freaking out… Probably a good thing, you drive like a grandma late to space bingo! Fast but slow at the same time.” Psy laughed then placed his hand on Casar’s shoulder who immediately bumped him off, needing to concentrate solely on the road. “I’m glad you weren’t vaporized or a pile of guts and augments on the ground. As for you…” He turned to face the doctor. “Looks like you’re pretty fucking fired, I mean… Shooting at people in the hospital? Lady… You ain’t telling us much cause you handled yourself pretty well. If you were synthetic I’d consider introducing you to my induction port.” He laughed at his disgusting joke, “Now where to? You said you had a shop or some shit? Cause daddy needs a RU-RU massage and-” Psy abuptly stopped speaking, in honor of the fallen.
 
"Here. Here here here." Imille said, easing into taking the manual controls from Casar. It was evident by the look on her face that his driving had more than scared her, and continuing to operate the medivan in such a way would only have resulted in them being found quicker. She sat down at the controls, allowing the techno-mage to slowly ease out of piloting. As he did, he collapsed backwards into the passenger's side seat, lightly clutching his chest. The doctor shot a sideways, concerned glance at him. "If you even think about trying to siphon power from this vehicle, I'm going to pull the car over right now, mister. You got cocky, now deal with it." she warned, glaring. Casar shot an exhausted longways glance back at her, and pulled himself from the seat. He made his way from the cramped cabin to the back of the medical van, where Psy housed himself.


"As I was ripped from your back and potentially falling to my death, I decided that I didn't want to die via someone's windshield. So I latched onto the side and pulled myself up. One thing that Axel did teach me, actually. Not a lesson I wanted to learn whilst being shocked within an inch of my life, but..."


He sat back down on the stretcher. Rather, he fell and caught himself on it. His legs had gone from completely unused for a week to having scaled the side of a building, so needless to say, he was hurting. Not as much as Psy, however little artificial nerves he had. Then, to Psy's dismay, Casar reached up and ripped the broken parts of the repair unit that still clung to his back off, the scrap metal clattering to the ground beneath them. He surveyed the damage, but couldn't well do anything himself other than share the meager amount of power he had left. In the course of a half-hour, the techno-mage and Psy had gone from almost fully repaired to exhausted to the point of passing out.


"That was Jagar. He's Vekht. Something something outrider. We fought the Warden on the Sinai together. He's the only reason I made it out alive from there, and I think I might have been the only reason he made it out alive, too. That was after he threatened to feed me to the Warden and kill me slowly, but everything aside, I thought it went pretty well. Again, not the type to make a longlasting friendship enough to not take a job to kill me, but that's beside the point." Casar said. "I didn't fight alongside the Yeller team, but I succeeded their mission regardless. You'd think Fetch would be a little less uptight after it all, considering, but I guess a set of legs is a little more valuable than a ship full of prisoners, to him."


"You played a video of him killing his own teammate on the monitor, Cas." Imille said, from the front.


"Well, I'm not the one who killed my teammate." Cas said. "And I was mad."


"Damn, you need to work on your anger issues!" she said, emitting a cackle. "No, I'm definitely fired! As it happens, not remaining neutral on Curretch is a big no-no. For a planet filled with criminals the government sure is full of little bitches! It's even worse than the glitterworlds, sometimes! That's fine, though. Can't say I didn't try. The legal way doesn't seem to be my forte. That actually might have been the longest-lasting job I've had on-planet so far, so I'm sad to see it go, but then again, they did sic a group of Renegades on my patients. And me, by extension."


Suddenly, the medivan turned down. Imille had successfully integrated themselves back into traffic, causing the hovercars to the right, left, up and down of them to no longer strafe away from the rogue van in fear. If the Renegades were able to follow them, they certainly would have hard a hard time, what with the hundreds of cars that made up the y-laned traffic. Soon, the group was no longer a set of fleeing criminals. They had quickly become another set of faces in the crowd, with the hospital having been left behind with no doubt a severely angry group of Renegades that had seen their own teammate's death replayed back to them by a scornful escapee. The van dipped into the recesses of the city, taking the side of the building as if it had been a highway itself. They traveled down - straight down - sinking Cas' stomach but not the experienced doctor's. Soon, any natural light that bestowed itself upon the group had disappeared, and the neon lights of the city below had begun replacing them.
 
“WOOOO!” Psy exclaimed, watching as Imille had sent the medivan going straight down defying gravity as she then pulled up on a certain road abruptly. “YOU CURRETCH LADIES ARE FUCKING CRAZY!” He laughed, standing in the back and looking out the front of the vehicle towards the traffic in front of them. “A Vekht? That’s a mouthful, all the weird alien races on the edges of space got fucked up names like that. I met a Droxis once, like… What in the fuck is a Droxis? Well… It could be comparable to a Crux, an insectoid like being right. The fucking thing had swords… for hands.” Psy let that sink in for a second. “I’m a murderbot and I even think that is too much. Those far out rim world creatures are fucked up.”


While they pondered on Psy’s words they took a moment to recuperate, it had been an extreme set of circumstances that got them there in that medivan. Psy was broken once again, Casar was injured but was in better shape than what he was in a week ago and now Imillie was no longer employed. The latter thought had Psy thinking.


“Looks like you are out of work Doc! And a doctor without work just can’t do so… It looks like you’re part of Psy’s Rag Tag Band of Psychos! We have Mad Cas, what he lacks in height he makes up for in sass and technological expertise. You see that stop light over there? He could zap it and turn it green! He also has impeccable aim that makes even the gunslingiest of gunslingers jealous!” Psy seemed to be entertaining himself, or at the very least trying to be the entertainment for the ride. “Then you have the Psychotic PSI-K0, or Psy for short! Good looks, charming, and a crazy murderous machine with a mouth! Together we have a pretty big skill set but the more I think about it, the more I remember we get shot up pretty much every day so we need someone with your expertise.”


He was laughing and looked to see that Imille seemed amused, even with her just losing her job whilst Cas seemed to be deep in thought as usual.


“It’s unpaid unless we steal it, it has no medical benefits as you’d be the only doctor so hopefully one of your functions is you can operate on yourself. You’d also be under appreciated and treated poorly by me as I’m REALLY REALLY racist towards you organics. Like, it’s not even funny. If you didn’t have a purpose to us I’d have found a creative way to play with your body’s confetti. So…” He poked his head next to her whilst she was driving, “How about it? We got to your super secret mad scientist base, fix my metal ass and then plan on getting that power core for Mad Cas! Then you pledge your undying allegiance to Cas and myself.” He chuckled, “I’ve seen how you treat former employers after being let go, you know you shouldn’t burn your bridges like that right?”
 
"Technically, I treated them that way before I was let go." Imille replied. Despite being at the wheel, she was a master of multi-tasking. As the van finished its' descent downwards and they had pulled up into a darker expanse of cityscape - one that looked mostly like alley - she offered a chuckle. The way the android spoke was as if she had already been integrated into the team. While the true reality was that she had, she still lamented over the idea of being friends - if one could call it that - with a psychotic killer robot and a techno-mage refugee. "So, part of me wants to say no - not that you really asked - but also part of me wants to see how deeply this rabbit hole goes without the both of you turning into shaved linoleum. That, and I think I might have gotten glass in my hand from the Renegades, and I want to stick it to them. So, what if I entertain the idea for now?"


The van pulled to a slow; they were nearing their destination. With the speed at which the vehicle had driven, they were actually a decent amount away from the hospital itself, though no doubt not as far away as the three of them would have liked. The medical van, now heavily dented in the front from Casar's abrupt entrance into the hospital window, looked the part to fit in with the slums that they now inhabited. Around them, raggedy looking creatures of all types scoured the streets, mostly minding their own business for fear of being attacked by one another. Imille was a sharp contrast to them all: despite a few spots of blood and disheveled appearance, she was wearing a nice white labcoat and prim attire.


"Luckily for you, I'm a fan of confetti." she said, as her hand clunked the vehicle into park. It slowly floated to the ground of the street. "So we'll fix your metal ass, and talk about it inside. Sound like a plan?"


"All of this is stupid." Casar said, as he pulled himself up via the roof of the van's bars. "Do you think that we're going to stay on this planet after this? After I get my core, I'm getting as far away from this place as possible. There's a place in the Universe where the Renegades won't find us, and this obviously isn't it." he said, battling back. The notion set Imille into a slight frown.


"Actually, I wonder if they'll hold it against me?" she pondered. "I would hate to be driven out of this place. The rent is good, and my nextdoor neighbor is a Torei. They eat cockroaches, so I'm set."


In place, Imille pulled the manual control for the doors in the back of the ambulance. Creakily, the doors slid open, and they all began to climb out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 0, guests: 3)

Similar threads

Ryees
Fandom The Dirty Part of Physics『 Imo x Ryees 』
Replies
6
Views
128
Ryees
Ryees
GammyWamzee
Realistic or Modern Black Cat & Dragon
alcoholism angst cop
Replies
8
Views
131
GammyWamzee
GammyWamzee
AnimeGenork
Fantasy Demigods of War (AnimeGenork & Clarice_Lecter)
demigods one x one
Replies
1
Views
48
Clarice_Lecter
Clarice_Lecter
EquineGurl23
Fandom Tale of Two Survivors { The Last of Us 1x1 with icedthemoon }
2 3 closed fandom mxm
Replies
60
Views
411
EquineGurl23
EquineGurl23
Lucyfer
Fandom Fallout New Vegas: All Roads [Closed]
fallout new vegas
Replies
4
Views
102
Lucyfer
Lucyfer
Back
Top