Every last thing that could have gone wrong flashed through my head in an instant. Amelia, bleeding out thanks to some random asshole with a shiv. Mela, bullets tearing through her. Amelia's father, surrounded by a whole bunch of muscle, gloating over us.

So, to say I was both relieved and unamused to see a small group of people our age boxing in the alley entrance was an understatement.

"What's going on here?" I snapped, hurrying up with the two bags slung over my left shoulder and gun in my right hand.

The group of strangers backed off a step or two at the sight of my weapon, but they didn't look in a hurry to leave.

"Oy, another huh? Ha! Ye really fuckin think ya can just stroll on in here? Huh?! And tell us what to do?! Do we look like the Kittens ta ya? No? Because we ain't. Ain't stupid enough to die to some nonsense, ain't stupid enough to let assholes like you disrespect our turf," the little shit mouthed off, a smug grin on his lips.

I knew exactly what would happen next. Even before Mela's face twisted into a rictus of hate, and definitely before she could raise her gun. That's why I engaged every bit of improvement my body had gone through, and especially my arms, to land a hand on Mela's wrist before she could blow the smug little shit's face off.

"Da fuck are ya doing?!" she snarled. "Let me go! I'm gonna —!"

"Mela, calm down. Do you really want to do this here? Right now?" I hissed.

The guy's smug smile widened, making my left eye twitch..

"Yeah, toy." The fucker leered at Mela to the laughter of his friends. "Listen to ya handler." He glanced at me. "Want ta make a quick buck off her while we're here?"

I don't think I ever thought faster in my life.

My eyes swept over the group, cataloguing. They were surprisingly well armed for a bunch of idiots. Nine bodies. Three guns. Lots of intimidating knives. None of them showed signs of recent starvation, though their bodies definitely tended to the same trend as my own used to: obvious malnutrition, stunted growth, very little muscle.

My eyes also caught onto the symbol they were wearing. One I recognized immediately, and which would have explained Mela's aggression all on its own.

Zerx.

The gang was a blast from the past, though hopefully not literally.

They were the ones who had tried to edge into the Kittens' territory from the very start of trouble in the slums. Apparently, now that the Kittens were gone, they'd taken over. Started recruiting too, if the young, stupid thugs in front of me were any indication.

If they were more experienced gangers, they'd probably have been more careful. You know, on account of the fact that they were harassing three obvious mercs.

I'm so fucking stupid. I should have brought at least some of the drones with us. Didn't want to attract attention, but… fuck!

Frustration with myself aside, I couldn't pretend like my insides weren't boiling. They hadn't gone after Amelia, since she had smartly kept herself behind Mela, but going after my sister-in-all-but-blood wasn't exactly much better.

I blame what I did next entirely on that boiling rage.

Clairvoyance engaged, the future spread before me, and my arms twitched to follow the ideal progression of events. I saw my gun come up and point straight at the face of the ganger directly to their blowhard leader's right. He had a hand on his gun, and looked ready to use it. Judging by the surprise and horror on his face, however, he didn't expect me to suddenly escalate from playing peacemaker.

A single retort, and a good bit of his head exploded into blood and gore. My hand was moving long before he could ever hit the ground, this time aiming for the guy on the leader's left. He'd started to fumble for his gun too, but… Well. Stalker cybernetics didn't play fair.

Another shot, another ruined face, and my gun finally lined up with the terrified eyes of the guy who'd started the whole thing. One more pull of the trigger. One more bang.

The world suddenly snapped into regular speed as my back gave a horrendous twinge that pulled at my artificial muscles. Pain spasmed through me. Nothing gave way and nothing broke down, though, so I counted that as a win. Doubly so when reality caught up to my actions and three deaths occurred in what seemed like a single blink of the eye.

Sometimes, I really, really loved my cybernetics. Say, like when they let me act at downright unnatural speed.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Nothing they could do about the blood and viscera, though. Those unfortunately splashed right into me, Mela, and some of my victims' friends.

A couple of those friends screamed. One went straight for an overly large knife, but I put a stop to that nonsense immediately.

"Don't move. Don't fucking move. Not a muscle. The first idiot who does gets put down immediately. Trust me, I've got enough bullets for all of you. Now, who can fucking tell me why you fuckers thought it was a smart idea to go after three mercenaries, hmmm? You, the fugly one. Answer."

I sighed when they exchanged nervous glances, clearly unsure who the wonderful designation was meant for. I motioned at one who had a particularly bad case of missing teeth and torn lips, probably from getting repeatedly pummeled in the mouth.

"B-Bosh shaid to keep an eye out on any merc and shimilar. Shaid they're shtealing our profitsh and potential recruitsh."

He fumbled certain sounds so atrociously that I immediately regretted picking him just because of his distinct injuries.

"What do you mean, profits? You knew what's happening with the people of the slums? The trafficking? You answer," I pointed at a different ganger, not wanting to deal with the lispy anymore.

"Y-Ye, we, uh, I mean… boss said we worked with some of them, in the past. Lots of interested parties just want to pick up goods and leave, ya know? They don't want to hunt 'em down themselves. Then all the crap happened, you know, the last few months, and, uh, they all decided to do their own thing cause we couldn't help them after we nearly got wiped out. I mean, that's what boss said! I wasn't signed on at the time!"

"Boss? Which boss? What's their name? Who's leading the Zerx?" Mela snapped, leg bouncing erratically as she raked her eyes over them. She was still pissed off, that much I could tell easily, but there was something else there.

"Uh… Dunno his name, ya know?" The ganger gave a nervous little laugh. "We just called him boss cause he's in charge of our group here. No idea who's leading the whole gang. Never met 'em. We're all recruited by the local leaders and trained from there, ya know?"

This time, when Mela whipped her gun up, I didn't try to stop her. It barked out shot after shot as the Zerx tried to run. She didn't so much as flinch while she gunned them down.

"Come on. We gotta get out of here, fast," she snapped, still fuming at the corpses.

I didn't protest. We needed to be as far away from the scene as quickly as possible. I just grabbed Amelia's hand and started hauling ass after Mela, who was swiftly marching away.

"Wait! Wait!" my lover squeaked out, eyes flipping between Mela and me.

"What? Want ta say I shouldn't have done that? I couldn't let them go, they —"

"Couldn't care less, Mela," Amelia jumped in sharply. "They would've called it in or tried something, or whatever. I get that. I just want to know if you're hurt so we can take care of it before something else goes wrong."

"Oh. Errr… nah, am good." Mela shot me a look as we all continued running. "Is she always so…?"

"Pragmatic? Smart?" Amelia demanded, rolling her eyes. "I've had to keep myself and then me and this idiot here alive. I'm not some sheltered corpo princess. Anyway, didn't that asshat hit you before Adrian came back? He opened up by waving that knife around, too. Would rather take care of any wounds from that as soon as possible. You don't know where he's been."

"I'm fine, don't worry about it. He didn't actually cut me. He didn't expect me to deck him, either." Mela snickered, some of the tension finally flooding out of her frame. "I can't believe trash like that's got control of this area now, though."

"You asked him about their boss," I said. "What was that about? Just curious, or…?"

She looked like she'd bitten into something foul. "We never figured out who actually led the Zerx. They were a fucking pain in our asses, and we couldn't even pin them down. Every time we cleared them all out, they'd just pop up again. Like this time. Remember how many of them we killed? Look at 'em now. They've already taken over our old territory. Who the fuck knows how much more of the slums they have right now, too."

I mulled that over, but there was something else that was bothering me much, much more. "And the stuff they said about human trafficking? The Kittens… they had nothing to do with that, right? No sketchy deals?"

Mela actually stopped to whirl on me, eyes blazing. "The fuck's that supposed to mean?!"

"I just asked, okay! I have no idea what I'm supposed to know or think!"

"No. Just… no," she ground out, resuming her fast-paced retreat. "We ain't never messed with that shit. We put it down wherever we found it. I mean, we knew it was happening. Hard not to. But we mostly kept our streets clean and safe. You remember!"

"Yeah, yeah I do," I admitted with a sigh. The implications of what the lowlife was saying had gotten to me a little, but it didn't take me long to figure out that was nonsense.

The Kittens were one of the best gangs in the slums, for a certain definition of the term. Sure, they were still a gang. Sure, they still did a ton of sketchy shit. However, they were also known as honest, honorable, and unlikely to catch and sell you for parts.

"Sorry," I muttered. "Just… I'm a little on edge when it comes to that shit."

She scoffed. "You and me both. What my brother did… Never mind. I don't want to think about him. We can just — Did you hear that?"

I frowned and strained my ears. I was about to say no when I caught the sound. It was distant, but it was also pretty unmistakable. Gunfire, screaming, and maybe even the noise of vehicles?

I cursed when I realized it was coming straight from the direction we were headed. "Zerx, do you think?"

I snuck a worried glance at Amelia. Once more, I was almost definitely leading her into danger.

She shot me a glare that pretty much screamed her meaning. If I tried to say she should stay behind while we went ahead, she would not be amused. Honestly? I wasn't in a hurry to leave her alone in the slums, anyway.

"Fucking probably," Mela spat. "Ya heard 'em. They were ordered to be on the lookout for the mercs."

"They got pushed out of the business and now they're looking for a way back in?"

"Most likely."

I wanted to cry in pure frustration. The mercenaries were supposed to be a useful cover to protect us, not draw even more heat to us. Fragments of an old Terran proverb about fate and trying to avoid it echoed in my head, but I didn't bother trying to recall it fully.

I just sighed, letting go of Amelia's hand just long enough to replace my empty magazine.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.