บท 276: Captive Audience
"What do you mean 'everyone is gone'!?" Ori scowls after the duo explains recent events.
Arasaka had someone located their base and performed a coordinated assault, someone had sabotaged their security systems and given the fuckers a tour guide on the place.
They barrelled through after breaching the entrance, blasting David with an EMP before putting him down with tasers. Rebecca fought back with a holdout pistol but she went down next too. Sasha, Kiwi, and Falco had been close by the security room during this, allowing them to see it all on the cams.
David, Leo, Rebecca, Lucy, and Kiwi were gone, kidnapped. And if Ori hadn't come back when he did, Falco and Sasha would've been next.
"What else is there to say, those suits ran off with them!" Falco sighs, lifting his hat and rubbing the back of his head, only to awkwardly pull away at the red staining his fingers. Hopefully, that wasn't his blood...
"We need to leave, Arasaka will send more men here soon, and we already know where our friends are..." Sasha adds.
...
"We'll take the AV, I'll drop you off at the Aldecaldos and move into the city, Rogue probably knows something, even if it isn't immediately useful."
"Sounds like a plan, first we need to stash what we can in it though, no point getting the short-stack back if she guts us for forgetting her guns." Falco shrugs.
----------------------
David's eyes flutter open as he lets out a groan, he instinctively tugs his arm but pauses at the sound of jangling chains hit him, along with his inability to move. "W-wait, what...?"
He looks down at the chair he was restrained in, arms held down to the armrests, along with the heavy collar around his neck that occasionally beeped, like a depleted fire alarm.
"Another collar...?" he grumbles as he glances around, spotting Kiwi, Lucy, and a gagged Rebecca nearby in similarly dire straits. The short-stack was the only was awake, struggling against her bonds with a furious glare.
"L-Lucy! Kiwi!" he exclaims, trying to wake them up.
"I'm afraid there will be out of sorts for some time still, Runners can be a pain to hold, so we extracted their Neuralware..." David turns to the speaker and pales as he sees her, Hanako Arasaka, with Adam Smasher and another highly modded ninja. "We would have done the same for you, if the sandevistan in your possession wasn't the only thing keeping you alive."
"What...?"
"Did you think all sandevistans required full removal of the spine?" Hanako disdainfully shakes her head, "Any attempt to remove or replace it now would leave you a paralysed husk. Not that this option is yet off the table."
David's eyes trail to Lucy, specifically the deep-dive port that was usually covered by synth skin. There was scar tissue around her temples, a quick hack-job at removing her implants without caution for aftercare. Kiwi was similar, except they'd removed her entire lower jaw too, leaving her tongue dangling morosely from the hole in her face.
"W-what did you do to the others?" he grouses, wondering where Sasha, Falco, and Leo were.
"Some of your associates managed to escape, that is fine. I am counting on your comradery."
"MMmffpph!!" Rebecca's angry muffled shouts drew attention, resulting in Smasher stomping over to her.
"Quiet, meat." he growls, gripping a ponytail and pulling on it hard enough to topple her over.
"'Smasher!', bet your feeling real fucking manly after the boss almost took your head off. Figures you'd come after us when you're scared shitless-"
*Thud!*
David's teeth crack and his jaw breaks as he's backhanded into a nearby wall, the chair restraining him shattering and allowing the chains to drop to the floor. He rolls to the side ignoring the sharp pains in his face, then sprints straight for Hanako... Only to stop when the ninja draws a glowing red mantis blade from his wrist and rests it on his neck.
"Cease your foolishness. Hanako-sama still wishes to negotiate... Oni, cease your belligerence."
"Fuck off spandex." the borg growls in response before stomping out of the room, hands twitching, grasping and releasing habitually.
Hanako looks to David and gestures at the spare chair in the corner, "Please, sit, we have much to discuss."
The merc continues to glare at her, stubbornness overriding instinctual fear of the heated blade near his throat. After a couple seconds, he relents, reluctantly stepping away and leaning against the chair in a ready stance. "Get your threats over with."
She quirks an unamused brow at him, stepping her gold-covered fingers, "If it is threats you want, it is threats you'll have." she drops a finger in his friend's direction, "Obey, or they will all die... Or worse."
"And how'm I 'spose to know you won't do that anyway? Arasaka don't have the best rep around..." he retorts, tone spiteful.
"You will have my word as heiress and CEO of Arasaka. I will even have legally binding contracts written if you wish, just know that any agreement we make here today may not be changed afterwards."
...
She lets out a sigh, "I see I will have to convince you then. I will start with the biggest objection you are sure to have. I Want you to kill Zombie, Orville Quadrano."
"Go fuck yourself." he spits before he's even aware of his mouth moving... He doesn't take his words back however, his response would've been the same, if more 'polite' given the situation.
She nods and lets out a tired breath, "Take a hand." she states simply.
David blinks as blood splashes, Lucy's left-hand flies as the ninja's blade cuts through it. His input doesn't even react, whatever surgery they performed on her was keeping her knocked out... It didn't stop her wound from bleeding profusely however. "Y-You..."
"Let us try again. You will obey me, and your friends may leave with only one limb missing." Hanako repeats.
"You think we'll fucking obey you after that!?"
"Anot-"
"WAIT! Wait..." he grinds his teeth, "Stop her bleeding, we can talk..."
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