Battered, bruised and beaten, you spent the rest of the night healing. You hoped there wouldn't be any permanent scarring.
Sanctuaries were few and far between for renegades such as yourself. Lately, you had been staying in a homeless shelter under the guise of a struggling factory worker, recently laid off. There were so many others who wished they could pretend otherwise. Reality was not so kind for them. Nevertheless, you returned to the homeless shelter to recuperate and take advantage of their kindness, reasoning that what you did was for their benefit.
Now, the morning came to you, lit the room on fire and called you to duty. Getting up from the bed you opened the window and looked outside, watched the cars passing by on the narrow street. A police siren wailed in the distance. You let the blinds fall. Dressing made you aware of the few bruises that still ached your body but for the most part you were functioning. After breakfast you made small talk with the other residents and left to change into your Black Zeus outfit elsewhere.
Away from the prying eyes of scrutiny you settled back into the shadow of your place above the city buildings, on top of the skyscrapers. Down below in the bustling streets were the microscopic signs of human activity. Jumping across the towering structures you turned your mind to business. The informant from last night had relayed to you various, classified shipments from major tech companies to obscure ones across the city. Greater inquiry into those drop off locations showed no signs of activity in the buildings, in fact, they were almost derelict. The shipment probably went through a hired middle-man before they made it to Slade but there was no telling when the next transaction would take place.
Your informant also gave you the rundown on several smuggling jobs, thefts at the same tech companies, that left them devoid of their more rare and expensive pieces of technical equipment. That would figure. Buy in bulk, steal the rest. SDD gave you a document that drew a pattern between the heists. Not the kind of patterns that evil villains expect you to find, just the kind that they don't count on being found. Seems like Vinny and his watch group were more resourceful than you knew.
Studying everything over has gave you an idea of where to go. You released some false information into the underground. Overnight it spread like wild fire through the criminal syndicates and black spots of the internet. Thieves of all kinds would be discussing the experimental chip for Multi-Level AI processing. Equipped with multiple fiber channel strips for information distribution it would, so you said, allow for "The integration of several high level, simulated thought processes and equip the "Brain," with a redundant channels linked to sub-processors to calculate numerous ideas." Technology like this had a lot of appeal to any thief with a desire to make a quick fortune, but few had the luck, and even less had the means to steal such an item. After all, you chose the Tech Company, Exi Gen Dynamics, the only one on the list that had yet to be robed, due to its substantial investment in advanced security. If this new information wasn't tempting enough to convince Slade to play his hand, you would have to figure something else out.
A week had passed since you released the information. With the help of a Theoretical Software Programmer you were able to release more detailed information to the syndicates, false though it was. None of the groups seemed capable of determining where and how Exi Gen Dynamics was carrying out this research, but most looked to the main facility in the heart of the city. On the 7th day exactly, luck found its way to you.
Lucky for you, but for Exi Gen Dynamics, not so much. Minor explosive charges placed against the walls of the building on the many storied facility opened the door to a flood of robot invaders. You watched from a distance as they entered. Outside the building, several spot lights came on, waving back and forth in the air. The security system had been activated and Police wound no doubt be responding soon. Still, the security guards inside were better equipped than the police to handle the intruders.
Inside the building, you came across the bodies of several guards, decked out in ceramic body armor with specialized helmets. Broken L-RAD (Long-Range Acoustic Device) equipment lay in pieces. The company they were expecting wouldn't have lasted long under fire from a high frequency sound cannon. If only...
Cameras had also been destroyed, ensuring the safety of your identity and exclusion from this crisis. All that was left was to find the person in charge of the operation or secure one of the robot to backtrack its product makeup. That would be the tough part. For now, it was easy enough to break through floor after floor in search of the ringleader. Finally, near the top of the building you found a long haired blonde. She was immediately alerted to your presence though and attempted to engage in some close combat fighting. Blocking her moves was a matter of child's play. A few robots tried to attack you from, wound up speared by blasts of lightning.
The first kick that the girl threw at you landed in your hands. At that moment you could have ended it, but for some reason you couldn't do it. You looked at her foot and imagined how it looked inside of the boot. Whether she wore any polish. Honestly, you couldn't take your eyes off of it. That's when she knocked you upside the head and you slipped into unconsciousness.
---------------------------------------------------
This curse is beginning to get problematic! But oh no, what will become of Exi Gen Dynamics? Who is the mysterious, vaguely detailed blonde haired girl? As if you didn't know.
Join us in the next installment of this gut wrenching thriller!
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