Chapter 18

*750 XP Gained.*

I nodded as I turned away from the corpse. I slipped into the Quadra Type-66. The “Reaver” Variant. It was a design that altered practically everything to make it a vehicle that can survive in the desert.

But then again. It was still basically a muscle car. It looked… well the base model was awesome, but this one looked a little worn.

I shrugged still a car. Still cool.

I quickly took control and reversed it back towards the gas station that had the underground basement. What kind of gas station had a basement? I had been looking for twenty minutes for Scorpion, only to find out there was a basement when the gonk I just flatlined had come up probably looking for a snack or something. I was lucky I had been able to jump behind a cabinet as my danger sense alerted me to him coming up.

Then of course he had subdermal armor which made my Unity nothing but a pea shooter against him.

Ugh. I was really getting tired of dealing with people in armor.

My wrist hurt. It wasn’t broken, not this time at least. I could actually fire the Burya without breaking my arm thanks to Recoil Reduction giving me some serious tips on saving my bones. But it still hurt!

I shook my irritation away. Pulling up to the building I jumped out and rushed downstairs. My limp was starting up again now that I wasn’t in combat and the adrenaline and Coolness flowed away.

I was going home, taking a shower, and taking a nap. Right after I rescued Scorpion. I walked down the steps into the little basement section I hadn’t known existed.

I winced as I saw him. Scorpion looked bad. Hanging from the ceiling by his wrists, and it looked like they had worked him over bad. His face was a mess.

“Fuck Scorpion. They really took you apart.” I told him as I approached looking for the controls to drop him down.

“Whazt?” He jerked awake a bit looking up through only one eye that wasn’t swollen shut and I saw as he realized who was there, could see the shock in his eyes.

“Mot’ko?”

“Nice to see you survived as well Choom. C’mon let’s get you out of here. I don’t suppose you know where the Aldecaldos are camped? You are gonna need some medical attention.” I told him as I finally found the release for the chains and grunted as I did my best to slowly lower him but it wasn’t easy. He weighed a lot more than I did.

Finally he was on the ground and he was looking at me like he had seen a ghost. “C’mon now Scorpion no time for naps. Here huff this.” I pushed a Maxdoc I had found in the camp into his mouth and after that at least he seemed more alert even if it was obvious I was now on a time limit. He was bleeding bad. “Let’s get you moving.” I told him as I did my best to heft an arm over my shoulder.

Only to wince as he brushed against the gun shot wound.

Yep, that was still there.

“You g’ shot.”

“Just a flesh wound.” I assured him as I hauled him up and started dragging his weakly working legs.

It was a struggle up the stairs but I got him in the passenger seat and settled in myself.

“Now Scorpion, where do I take you?”

A few moments later his eyes shifted yellow, and I got a text.

Coordinates I could use in my GPS.

Cool.

And with a nice purr that I could get used to my new car rumbled to life and I hit the gas.

Seriously, Scorpion needed a doctor. He looked like shit.

—-

He passed out on me during the drive even as he moaned in his sleep at the rough terrain.

Nothing I could do about that. The roads out here were more suggestions than anything.

Still having a GPS meant I could zone out and focus on everything that had happened.

I had killed a lot of wraiths in that camp.

Eight men had died without any alarm being sent. Eight men that I had murdered as quickly and completely as I could. My knife had seen a lot of work, but so had anything I could get my hands on.

I was kinda proud, in a horrible way, of the screwdriver kill. That had been a tricky set of movements that I only barely managed to get through without anyone screaming.

I looked through the stack of alerts and sighed.

*Street Brawler skill level up!*

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

I guess the improvised weapon counted as brawling, and now I was at Street Brawling 5.

*Reflex Leveled up!*

This must have happened early, because now that Reflex was at 5, my Reflex skills got room to advance.

*Blades skill level up!*

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

Blades had maxed out at 5 as well. I guess it made sense considering how many throats I had slit.

But killing had repercussions.

I had gained 4750XP for killing everyone in the compound.

*Level up achieved!*

*One Stat Point Gained.*

*One Skill Point Gained.*

And now I was level 5. I shivered a bit as I thought about what that meant, but also how awesome it felt. Gamer brain loved leveling.

Motoko loved leveling too.

I sighed.

I liked Murder.

It was fun. Challenging. Thrilling. I pushed away the stat menu to focus on the road.

Fine. I liked Murder. I liked killing.

But I liked killing bad people. That was the part that I could accept. I wasn’t killing innocent people, and I wouldn’t. I killed the worst sorts. The ones that prey on others.

Just because I enjoyed it… Doesn’t make me a bad person.

It didn’t.

—–

Pulling up to the Aldecaldos camp in a Raffen Shiv Wraith marked car might have been a bit… Well I could have done it better. I had just been in a rush.

But now I had an army of angry nomads all pointing rifles at my car as it came to a stop inside their camp.

Probably should have stopped outside.

But then again Scorpion looked really bad.

I turned off the engine letting the Nomads hear it die out as I popped open the door and slowly revealed my glove clad hands. Showing I didn’t have a weapon in them.

Not that it mattered. Quickdraw could handle that easily enough.

“Scorpion is in the passenger seat! He needs some medical attention.” I called out once I was out of the car and the nomads could see me.

It took a moment but someone came up behind me putting a gun against my back as they peeked into the car.

“Fuck! Get that door open! Scorpion needs help.” A gravely voice called out behind me and I just waited as a few Nomads rushed up and opened the door and quickly started hauling their family member out of the car.

“You gave us all a scare… girl.” The voice behind me said although not unkindely.

“Yeah sorry. Was in a bit of a rush. Scorpion passed out on the way over and it worried me.” I could feel the gun removed from my back then and most of the nomads lowered their weapons as well, although a few kept their guns aimed.

I turned around to see a cowboy.

Look he had an Overture and a cowboy hat. He was a cowboy.

“Motoko Kusanagi. Merc.” I introduced myself as I slowly lowered my arms.

“Cassidy Nomad. Thanks for bringing Scorpion in, what happened?” He asked in a drawl that I couldn’t help but pay attention too, he had a nice voice.

I sighed. “Long story. I’m a merc that Scorpion, well I’ll let him tell that part. We got noticed by some Raffen, and chased down. They caused us to crash, and well. I couldn’t kill all of them before they put a bullet in me.” I gestured to my shoulder which had the bandage bleed through a bit with all the work I had been doing.

“Need a Ripper, least we could do for bringing back our boy.” He asked but was already sort of trying to guide me over.

Guess looking like a kid did have some advantages.

“No. No thank you. I’ll head back to the city. I have my own doc I trust.” I countered instantly. I didn’t want to get into that rabbit hole. It would just be easier to heal after a nap. “Anyway they left me for dead and took Scorpion. I bet you would have heard from them sometime soon asking for a ransom.”

“Yep, likely.” He said simply although I could see he wanted to argue with me still, but I continued my story.

“Anyway I tracked them down, took them out, and pulled Scorpion out. He gave me the coords for your camp. Here we are.” I answered of course instantly glossing over everything that I had done. Which Cassidy obviously noted.

“Well thank you for pulling Scorpion out of a bad situation. We won’t forget it.” He said with a tip of his hat and I shrugged.

“I was hired and contracted to be his security. It was my failure that left him captured in the first place.” I waved off any appreciation for what I had done.

Fuckers deserved it. I noticed, but didn’t pay any attention to the mans raised eyebrow.

“Oh here.” I looked to him and felt my eyes go gold as I sent him a text. “That’s the camp I cleared. Might be useful to grab some stuff yourself. I know there were more vehicles parked in their garage, and I didn’t get a chance to loot much once I noticed that Scorpion was in bad shape.” I offered after the message went through.

“Mighty kind of ya.” Cassidy agreed, looking me over again. “You sure you don’t want to see our doc? We don’t have the best gear, but he is competent. It’s a long drive back to the city…”

“Nah. Other than the fleshwound I’m fine.” I told him, gesturing at the bloody hole in my shoulder. I could see that there were plenty of nomads listening in as we talked, and since I had passed on everything I felt like sharing I gave him a final nod.

“Well that’s my job done. I’m outta here.” I told Cassidy as I moved to slide back into my ride. Cassidy moved to stop me but didn’t quite finish the action.

“You’re an odd one, since you ain’t accepting any help, drive safely. The Aldacaldos will remember what you did for them today.” He offered as he bent down to talk to me as I belted myself into the drivers seat.

“Thanks Cassidy, but I just did a job. Nothing more.” I answered as my new car came alive in a rumble, Cassidy pulled back and gave me room as I pulled out of the Nomad camp.

Too bad I hadn’t seen Panam, she was cool.

And I hadn’t managed to loot the Raffen camp. I sighed, saving Scorpion was more important. And I was at least an hour away from the camp now. Might as well just drive home. Recover. Besides, I revved the engine a bit as I put my foot down.

I got a nice bit of loot.

—–

I drove fast on my way home. The long roads let me absolutely gun my new car.