章 179: Completely Unfair!

Ori steps over the fresh corpse he'd just created and growls under his breath after reaching for some more slugs, finding his pouch empty. He'd wiped out a smaller gang of 'almost-psychos' who'd thought it was funny to take potshots at him from the building, and they hadn't wanted to go quietly.

They didn't really have anything worth stealing, and he hadn't bothered going higher up the building since the larger gangs would probably be waiting for him there. Sighing under his breath, he steps back onto the street, only to pause at the faint sound of humming...

It was unfamiliar, not a sound he'd actually heard before, the only thing similar was a cartoon on TV... The protagonist road a hoverboard that sounded similar he recalled...

Squinting suspiciously, he scans his surroundings for something, half expecting some more ninjas to appear outta the blue. "Show yourself!"

...

Maybe it's just the wind?

He curses almost immediately after that thought however, it was already too late though. He'd jinxed himself. Sighing, he glances around, then up at the sky, his pupils shrinking to the size of a pin-tip as he spots something.

"You're fucking kidding m-" he utters, barely throwing himself behind some rubble as the missile slams into the ground next to him.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!*

The explosion rocks the entire street, almost causing nearby buildings to collapse under its sheer force. Even a heavily armoured chrome jock would be unable to survive a ballistic missile. Ori gets knocked out immediately as pain rocks his body.

---------------------------

"Uuughhh..." Ori groans in a rictus of pain, blinking his eyes-, or eye as the nanites struggle to reform his body. Judging by the fact he could see his arm and leg meters away from him, he'd been completely mangled by the precision strike of whoever fired that fucking missile.

Worst of all, his fucking Monowire was that arm! He flops onto his side, ignoring the large crater he now found himself in and starts crawling towards his limbs, his single remaining arm and stump leg allowing him some degree of movement.

"C-CAN SOMEONE STOP THAT FUCKING HUMMING!" he angrily shouts through the pain, the humming now louder than ever.

[HOst iN Cri-ITical Co-n-on-ondition, woRKINg rePAirs:@"$%Esh AdMIns"$@]

God, even the fucking nanites got their asses kicked!

He lets out a tired yet relieved breath from his single working lung as he finally reaches his arm, placing it against his stump and hoping it'd connect... Thankfully, small tendrils of blood vessels and cartilage branch out to bring it back into the whole.

Ori lays back as the nanites work, idly reaching for his holsters and breathing another long sigh as he feels Six's Revolver still there, if damaged and likely unusable for now.

"I said FUCK OFF!" he shouts, throwing a rock across the crater towards where he'd narrowed down the humming. Unexpectedly, he actually hits something, the rock hitting something metallic and causing sparks to flicker as a camouflage cloak falls.

There, he's greeted by some sort of unmarked drone, one with a very obvious camera recording him for some reason. Well, he could guess the reason... Arasaka wants their tech back.

The drone flies away of course, delivering whatever information it'd garnered to its masters... Shit.

[LEft aRM FuNcTiON ResTorED: FleSH "*%$oR]

He flexes his arm and nods to himself, with that done he starts making his way to his leg... Only to pause when he spots some figures standing around the crater, looking down at him. He speeds up his crawl, reaching his leg and shoving it into what remained of his trousers so the nanites could work their magic. Then, he flops backwards and acts like he'd passed out.

His ears twitch as the people around him immediately begin moving, "Chto nam delat-with this guy?" his software which thankfully was still working immediately begins translating the Russian.

"Grab him, scrap him, sell him. What else?" another sniffs at the question.

"Whatever, just grab-" one starts, only for Ori to finally act. Throwing his Monowire out and cutting their legs from the knee down completely off. They all scream of course, but Ori continues flailing his Monowire around until all that's left are piles of dismembered bodies.

[LEft LEg RestOred... Left Leg Function Restored: F-F-F-Flesh Administrator-or-or]

He works his knee a couple times before finally standing, grimacing as the shattered pieces of his spine flow around like floaters in an eye. The nanites taut the muscles and pulls them back in however, using a thin layer of cartilage to keep everything working for now.

He swipes one of the dead gang member's Nokota Copperhead rifles after being unable to find where Bore had gone... Rebecca was gonna be pissed.

After clambering out of the crater, away from the gathering eyes to see what the missile was for, he dips into an alleyway and almost collapses against a wall. His eyes shoot open however as the humming makes itself known once more, this time however the drone unveils itself and floats in front of him...

Just as he'd about to shoot it, a holoscreen appears before it, displaying a shadowed figure with a modulated voice. "Zombie. I am an acquaintance that sees value in you, which is more than I can say for my friends, you may have already guessed that Arasaka has taken note of you... I managed to slip this drone into the fleet they sent to spy on you."

"So you're just another Arasaka-"

"This is a prerecorded message, so hopefully it will reach you before they complete their plan. They will send a missile to test how far your regenerative abilities extend, which is folly on their part as you will undoubtedly perish." the man remarks with finality.

"Jokes on you..." Ori chuckles to himself...

"To show that my aid is not a mere trick, have this." the drone shits out a little device, some kind of area monitor? "It will take you to your target, Leopold Hepner... Also, take this, I believe you will find some utility in it?"

Ori glances at the next object dropped, only to blink as he stares at it in shock. The familiar knife that'd started all this shit...

[Neural Management Nanites Injector detected, permission to Interface?: Flesh Administrator] the nanites ask, almost sounding eager to his ears.