"So…" I hesitated, watching Mela squirm and blush in a manner decidedly unlike her. "Planning the death and destruction of an entire gang. How do?"

"Uhhhh… Destabilize the slums, provoke old rivalries, be there to profit from the chaos?"

I squinted at her. "Isn't that exactly what your —"

"Don't say it!"

"Then don't make it easy to draw parallels, Mela."

She grumbled, but ducked her head, very pointedly not looking at me.

"Right, sorry," I was forced to say when Amelia poked me hard in the ribs. I swear she used her eldritch ability to make her fingers extra sharp and pointy. "I'm going to be honest, even if you two aren't going to like it… I should go to the slums on my own."

Already, I could spot the thunderous looks forming on both their faces.

"Wait! Let me finish!" I rushed on before they could start voicing objections. "We can't send in the mercs. They're just going to cause another fight if the Zerx decide to retaliate. We don't want that. Not yet, at least. We need information, and we need it now. We can't plan things properly when we barely have an idea of what's going on out there. It's not like news sites are going to cover the slums."

"And the solution is for you to go alone?" Amelia demanded, arms crossed angrily under her chest.

"Yes. I have the Shadow Runner and Unseen Stalker packages. You saw what my Stealth can do now! Sure, if you know I'm there and look directly at me when I go invisible, it's pretty obvious. You're hit by a headache, and you can still spot a blurry figure blending into the surroundings. But when it's dark? When you don't know I'm there? Let's not forget it makes me invisible to cameras, too."

Honestly, it was odd. Stalker Stealth trumped almost all 'dead' forms of surveillance. Only living things could spot the blurry nonsense, and only when I got close enough to them.

Wasn't going to complain, though.

"That still doesn't mean —"

"Amelia, I grew up in the slums. I'm familiar with them, and I'm going to be well-equipped, with a bunch of weird abilities added on top of that. If I get hurt, I'll willingly let you strap me down to a bed and keep me there however long you want."

We stared at each other, both refusing to give in and look away, until Mela lost the battle against her laughter and started cackling. Then Amelia looked down, flushing at how my comment could be misinterpreted, and I cracked a grin of victory.

"Stop laughing! He's not going to let you tag along with him either!" Amelia snapped, making Mela finally sober up.

Interestingly, the ex-ganger just looked sheepish. "Well… I'm full up on being an idiot, yeah? If ya want to go on yer own, I ain't gonna risk fucking things up this time."

I winced a little at the guilt and shame radiating off of the redhead, but I didn't say anything to contradict her. I wanted to go on my own. As horrible a friend as it made me, I wasn't putting that at risk.

Mela was well-known enough that there was a real chance of someone recognizing her, after all. Me? I'd been in the Kittens for a relatively short amount of time, and didn't really accomplish anything of note during said time. Plus, I'd like to say I'd changed a whole lot since then.

I'd buffed up, for one thing. Grown, for another! Plus, there were my cybernetics, which I could show off normally now. Also my much better clothes and grooming in general, courtesy of Amelia's insistence on making sure I 'stopped looking like a mess.' My hair had grown out considerably in the time I'd spent with Amelia, too, now being tied back in a short tail. I kept meaning to have it cut, but then Amelia would grumble about how she liked it, and I would drop the subject.

That was to say nothing about the changes my skills had caused. Grace alone redefined the way I moved, acted, and even held myself. The awkward stillness my Shadow bits had instilled in me still looked intense and discomforting, but at least it seemed purposeful now, instead of like I was a brainless eldritch monster checking out from the world.

All in all, I looked a whole lot better than I used to. There were few, if any, who could look at me and connect the dots to the person I used to be. There were my eyes, of course, but creepy red eyes were hardly the most defining of characteristics. Not when every tough in the slums who had cybernetics wanted to look intimidating.

I could reasonably expect to pass through the slums, completely unrecognized.

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My adorable ripper, though, was not convinced.

"Amelia…" I sighed. "I get it, I really do, but you can literally watch through my eyes if you want to. You'll see everything I'm doing out there. If something goes wrong, and it won't, you can mount a rescue mission immediately. I promise I'll be extra careful."

She glared at nothing, refusing to meet my eyes, until she finally let out a long breath. Her shoulders slumped. "Fine! But you won't cut off the video feed, no matter what happens. And at the first sign of trouble, you're ditching the whole spy thing and coming right back here!"

"I can do that," I promised, finally giving into the urge to wrap my arms around her and squeeze her tight. Even with how upset she was, she melted into my embrace, her eyes meeting mine, and —

"Awwww, yer so cute together!" Mela cooed.

We broke apart with flushed cheeks and indignant glares.

She really had no sense of timing!

—

I flexed my fingers inside the gloves, not fully used to the sensation of the cold neuroreactive gel they were immersed in as the bike growled under me, swallowing up the road at a truly delicious pace.

The reactivity of the motorcycle was insane. My part Shadow nature let me interface with it even better than a normal rider could. It felt more like the Thundergod Mk. XVI was an extension of my body, rather than a vehicle I was using to make my way rapidly to the slums.

Best of all, seeing me roll up on a bike that fancy, the guards didn't even make a fuss at the district crossings. They just took my claim that I was 'going out to have some fun' as an easy truth. It was kind of intoxicating, both the speed and the stiff deference.

Not that Amelia let me get a big head.

"Okay, I know you're posing for those security guards, even if I can't see you. You know that, right?" Her giggles threatened to turn into cackles. "Did you want to go looking for information, or were you looking to show off?"

"Oh, hush! You know I couldn't use Rafe's bike before we took over the mercs. We had to keep it hidden inside the clinic. Besides, I wasn't fully confident I could hack it on my own before… everything that happened recently."

The admission kind of hurt, but it was the truth. I would have had to rely on Shadow Buddy just to bypass all the protections on the bike, not to mention shifting the registration from Rafe to myself. And seeing as Shadow Buddy was trapped inside his scroll for the foreseeable future, for fear of triggering another district cleansing, that wasn't really an option.

At least the little guy was happy as could be. With full access to the net through the scroll he was possessing, he hadn't stopped absorbing new information and data.

Honestly? I feared the day Shadow Buddy was finally unleashed upon the world. He always seemed glad to see me, and was remarkably happy-go-lucky on the whole, but with how much info he had absorbed? I was pretty sure he was one of the best adjusted Shadows in existence, other than whatever nightmares had infested the old Terran space.

"Yes, yes, boys and their toys… On another note, we still haven't received a reply."

I could hear the worry and frustration in Amelia's voice.

"Really? He's not answering at all? I thought your father had a good working relationship with Patch. He was definitely getting a whole fucking lot of test subjects through him."

"Nope. Nothing. I had Patch reach out several times now, and even leave a bunch of messages, but he hasn't replied to any of them. It's like he's just… disappeared. I don't like this, Adrian."

"Yeah, well… He did lose his secret creepy murder lab, and the entire district it was in got obliterated of all life. I wouldn't be surprised if he's decided to go to ground for a little while. With any luck, maybe whoever did the investigation of the place linked him to it and decided to off him?"

Amelia's answer was an amused snort. "Hardly. Say what you will about my father, but he's always been extremely careful when it comes to keeping his own ass safe. If he'd been at the lab when we tried to escape, we would have failed, if only because of the security detail he insisted on dragging around. Now that I know about Mak, well…"

"Yeah? What's up?"

"I'm pretty sure those guys he kept around were ex-military. Definitely tougher and scarier than Mak, too. They had heavy-duty hardware even when my father initially hired them, and he's been upgrading their cybernetics and gear over the years."

That… didn't sound good, if I was being honest.

"Um, Amelia? If they're that good, how are we supposed to, you know, murder your daddy dearest?"

"That's why I've been saying from the start that the plan is to lure him out! On his turf? Yeah, we don't really stand a chance. But if we can prep, set a trap, and everything? Well… it's not impossible, that's for sure."

"Right. 'Not impossible.'"

I sighed, resisting the urge to cough as I finally crossed over into the outer city district with its noticeably lower air quality. I was starting to regret my decision not to bring along a specialized rebreather. It could regulate air quality in whatever environment. The bulky mask-type thing I had on was eye-catching, but so was the bike I was riding, and at least I wouldn't have had to deal with the dust.

"Why do I get the feeling we're going to have to go fully nuclear if we want to get rid of your father?" Another sigh slipped out as I imagined the reaction of the city if we unleashed a ton of Shadows.

Again.

"If it gets to that, we'll handle it!" she assured me. "Seriously, though, between you, me and Mela, plus all the mercs… I think we've got a solid shot if we do manage to get him into a proper meeting on our turf. And it's not like he has a reason to doubt the mercs. He'd been doing business with Patch for long enough."

"The same Patch he's now ignoring."

"Right…" She trailed off, faltering for just a moment before rallying. "We'll figure it out."

"That we will."

We fell silent, just enjoying each other's presence through the digital tether binding us together as my bike ate up the distance to the slums.

All too quickly, I was approaching a familiar passage between the two districts. Then, with a wave of heat and dust, I was in the slumps proper. I ignored the startled looks of fear and envy my ride attracted. Relying on somewhat faded memories, I navigated to one of the more reputable underground paid parking spaces, where I paid far too much for the privilege of leaving my bike behind.

I grimaced behind the cloth mask covering the lower half of my face, which was really not doing a good job of stopping dirt from caking the inside of my lungs. Then I ventured out of the parking space, confident and ready to tackle whatever the slums decided to throw my way.

Probably.

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