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Static Rain <7>

  Passing back through the route back to the elevator, Jacks mind was elsewhere.

  While the world might have been all conflict and gunshots on the lowest floors, barely any of it made it up this far. Personally Jack thought it was a bit too quite all things considered. There were no alarms blaring up here, though he could here the tail end of whatever system set up on the ground floor. Also noticing a distinct lack of armed forces flooding his position, Jack decided the way down would be safe enough to cool down, LAG had taken quite a large toll on his cyberdeck from such consistent over usage.

  Light shattered off of polished details, vibrant glows on decorated walls from the few windows feeding light back to the shadowed hallways.

  He passed expensive looking trinkets lining the walls, attempting to hide the sterile feel of brutal corporate efficiency from any of the ‘privileged’ roaming the higher floors. Not even they could escape the cold modern architecture marking this city as a corporate haven. It reminded Jack of what he always though his room would look like when it had been first built and furnished for whatever governor had wanted to market their appearance to ‘those less fortunate’ before an election.

  He stepped past the fallen forms of the guards from earlier, unsteady steps trying to not slip on the vibrant fluids spilling out from wounded skulls. His eyes flickered between all the fallen foes for a moment as he made way to the open elevator doors.

  Some part of him was calling out at what they saw.

  Four identical faces lay open to the world, symmetry in death, a bullet through the side of the head. It almost felt like his heart rate spiked as their faces struck Jack as unnervingly familiar, his mind running a mile a minute to create a connection.

  ‘It’s way to warm in here’

  The door slid close behind him as his paranoia spiked.

  There was no reason for it, something had just set him on edge.

  Jack waited as the floor refused to change, all the while feeling like he was in free fall, when the terminal screens flicked and the lift dropped, speed increasing with every moment. Already on ea hairs trigger, Jack slammed in his direct connection cord to force an override into the lifts system.

  He was by no means an experienced Netrunner, but it seemed neither was his assailant as he fought to lower acceleration to levels that would leave his legs intact when the lift finally reached the ground floor with a jolt.

  There wasn’t meant to be a Netrunner. All that came to mind was some guard tried their hand to get some of the systems back up alone, perhaps fearing the premises was more compromised than they could easily gun through.

  ‘Their eyes were following me.’

  The doors had been damaged by the drop, failing to fulfil their only function, barely a sliver gap opening preventing any further action.

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  Something promptly blew its way through the lower doors with just enough force for Jack to slip back out to the ground floor. Even with a large chunk of the security down, there were one or two bullets flying by, although they never made their mark. If any guard had been stocked with smart guns everyone on the job would have been picked off rather quickly.

  Outside the building parked and waiting was a lightly armoured van with a row of seats in the back. Tadano jumped into the drivers seat, while everyone else rushed back closing the heavy armoured doors while it accelerated down the roads. Only a couple hits landed from following guards before they got out onto the highway and lost themselves in a rush of traffic heading back into Heywood.

  Tensions were at an all time high.

  ‘Hadn’t they been wearing helmets?’

  With a mind full of an angry haze, Jack jittered in his seat, a twitching leg annoying nobody as the seat to his side was distinctly empty.

  Someone was missing...

  One of the brothers.

  The van quickly stopped barely a minute later in some random car park as everyone bolted out to bend back into the crowds, covering their trails to escape any immediate retaliation. They’d receive their creds from a secure line later, for now surviving was the priority.

  And so Jack was left to walk his way home under the cover of night, moving from alleyway to alleyway.

  He was terrified, a lilac smelling heat inside his skull, whisky chill invading his bones as the static fell harsher and harsher as he wove through the street-ways. He felt red eyes trail after him as he moved turning corner to an older abandoned backroad.

  A lone shadow stood blocking the far end.

  Jacks breath hitched as a shattered light cracked across the figures face.

  A perfect mirror stared back, of the four loose soul crippled along a corridor costing more than their entire bloodline, dead eyes marked with red twisted through the dark.

  ‘DAIGO’

  Everything happened at a buffering crawl.

  LAG spun up full force, jumping to overclock in a instant, Jacks shaking eyes dilated wide as he tracked Daigo's smallest movements through a failing screen connection.

  Shadows chasing his form, static shards falling, a chromatic bleed.

  LAG whirred, Daigos face contorted as a fist shattered the oppressive shadows to light as a familiar Iron was raised to level.

  Everything happened all at once.

  “I FUCKING WARNED YOU!”

  BANG

  *BEEP*

  The gun dropped from a hand that couldn’t remember drawing it, as another fell without any Iron of his own, a fractured kaleidoscope followed the path, shaking off the heavy darkness that had flooded the alley.

  Williams corpse splashed against water and concrete.

  Jack crackled.

  LAG screamed.

  He wasn't so sure which was which.

  He was full sprint before the body hit the floor.

  As storm rain sizzled against his skin, taunting faces reflected in each drop.

  He ran as tarmac would spasm around him, fearing the shadowed walls and chasing sins within.

  *BEEP*

  Something knocked LAG offline, a fail-safe or a fractured chip.

  Something knocked LAG offline, a failed mind or a fractured will.

  and as Jack fell into puddles,

  and pushed past civilians,

  and as cars screamed past and the lights turned.

  greenredblue

  There had come a point where it all ended.

  *BEEP*

  I kinda wanted to show how psychosis creeps up on people, and had a couple references to the glitchy, coulor split state we see in the meida.

  Wanted to show the obvious problems with running a hack till your brain fries while under emtional distress from just killing people.

  Any later times will be a lot more obvious now that teh mc knows the symptoms and can identify when things start slipping.

  I know it's rather common in other stories to say the mc is immune for whatever reason.

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