Even with a decent disguise secured, I didn't push onwards immediately. I had Mela on the way, for one thing. For another, I actually didn't know where to go.

The web of cameras I'd tapped into was relatively comprehensive for their low numbers, but I still couldn't track down the security hub. It had been in Mort's lair when the Kittens were still around, but I didn't… know…

I narrowed my eyes, carefully matching up the cameras to my memories. I then felt utterly silly when I realized that none of them were located in the large room that used to belong to Mort. In fact, my Ping failed to make its way there at all. Either the room had been entirely ruined by whatever had happened to the building, rendering it useless, or it was being used to house something.

Like, say, the central hub of security and communications for the Zerx.

"Oi. Ya wanted me here?"

Mela's voice shocked me out of my introspection. I glanced at the camera feed to see a sheepish Amelia sitting next to a somewhat tense Mela. The hungry, angry look on the redhead's face as she practically devoured the view through my eyes told me plenty about how she was feeling.

"Yeah, sorry…" I sighed as I got moving properly, heading for the elevator that would take me to the upper levels. I hit the button to summon it, then paused and cursed when it failed to light up. "Okay. Seriously, what happened to this building? It's like everything's fried!"

Grumbling, I turned and headed for the stairs instead, scanning the cams as I went to see who I might come across. Unfortunately, there was an annoying number of Zerx stalking the Cattery. They reeked of drugs and sweat and worse, so strongly that I smelled them long before I saw them. Their chatter was mostly useless to me, though I tried to keep listening for snatches of something I could use.

"Fried? That… makes sense, really," Mela muttered, a distant look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I really am, but I'm gonna need a little more than that. Why is everything down?"

"Do you really think we had no defenses, Adrian? You remember when we fought this filth currently infesting the HQ?" Mela snarled, her eyes practically spitting sparks. "We had defenses. They were solid. That day, though… all the light in the building flickered, and then most of them shut off. Our comms and defenses went down, too. I thought it was because of a runner at first, then I thought Mak shut 'em all down on us, but…"

"But there's a chance they used something else? Like an EMP of some kind?" I had no idea how those worked, but I was getting a little desperate for answers.

"Maybe. Why's this matter, anyway? What's done is done. What's lost is lost."

"I… um…"

I floundered. Honestly? She had a point.

But there was both something niggling at the back of my mind. And, I was just… upset. I didn't personally know all the Kittens that well, but there were a few people I'd genuinely enjoyed spending time with.

I wanted to know what happened to them. I wanted to know how they were killed. There was also the mysterious runner out there who'd brought me down, and I strongly doubted it was Mak.

I latched onto that somewhat fiercely.

"Was Mak a runner? A good one?"

"What?" Mela looked incredulous. "Fuck no. He sucked at most anything that didn't rely on him just crushing, slicing, or shooting things."

"Well, when he attacked, he was accompanied by a runner. I know, 'cause he crushed me in seconds flat when I tried to connect to the systems here… Which reminds me, the systems were still standing when I did that, so they probably weren't fried right away."

"Hrm. I guess. I mean, the lights were working while Mak handed us all our asses, so…"

"So, they decided to burn everything to the ground after they, urm…"

"Slaughtered all our friends."

"Yeah, that." I focused on keeping my expression still and my manner unaffected.

Thus far, none of the Zerx had really paid me much mind. Some glanced my way, and I saw a few actually check me out appreciatively, which made me feel all sorts of gross, but they didn't actually make a move to stop or question me.

It made sense, I supposed. There were probably enough minor gangs and random individuals pressed into the Zerx that it would be impossible to remember everyone's faces.

In spite of my best attempts and the cameras helping me, I failed to avoid people on the first few floors. The higher I climbed, though, the number of Zerx milling about became lower. Just about Mort's former floor, people were sparse enough that I could actually use the cameras to my advantage.

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Actually, from what I could tell, the former runner's floor was entirely empty. Imagine my surprise, then, when I walked up the final flight of stairs and came face to face with two startled guards.

"What de fuck ya doing here?" one snapped, his eyes scanning me suspiciously. "Dontcha know yer not allowed up 'ere?" His hand tightened on the gun he carried by his side. His partner snorted like some much larger and deadlier animal, hoisting a pipe of some sort.

I almost wanted to laugh. Support, funding, a standing in a massive gang… and the dumb gorilla in front of me still carried around a pipe. It was almost beautiful in its tragedy. Instead, I kept my expression empty and bland, my mental stats firing off to keep them from overreacting in the moment.

"Uhhhhh…" I drawled, angling my jaw just right so it looked like I was about to start drooling.

The trigger-happy idiot actually removed his hand from his gun as he cursed up a storm. "Fucking druggies, every fucking day, what the fuck are we even keeping you around for?! Seriously, what the fuck are the higher-ups thinking? Oi, shit for brains, ya aren't allowed on this fucking floor!"

"Floor?" I repeated, nailing that brain-dead tone just right. I'd heard it more than enough times growing up in the slums, after all. Somewhere right between 'dreamy' and 'dumb as bricks.'

"Ya, floor, ye dumbass! Listen, fuck off or Imma fill ya up with bullets, got it?"

I went to nod, then 'accidentally' staggered to the right, slumping against the wall and almost toppling. Gorilla snorted out a laugh, thumping the pipe against his palm one more time and moving forward aggressively.

"No use shoutin' at these pricks, lemme show him why he ain't suppose' ta be here."

He lifted his pipe right as I staggered forward. Using his bulk to conceal myself from the view of the second guard, I pushed my hand right up through his jaw, claws first. His entire body gave a small jerk, but I figured it would pass for disgust to have a drugged up idiot suddenly fall into his embrace. Clairvoyance running at full tilt helped me sell the charade a lot more easily, too!

"Quit giving 'im a hug and do something al-" The other guard's words got lost in a startled shout when I pushed his friend at him and then launched myself in his direction from the side, claws slicked with blood and face now twisted in a scowl of hatred.

Apparently, his gun skills weren't quite sufficient to enable him to draw the weapon fast enough to shoot me. My left hand tore through his wrist as my right sank into his throat.

His gurgling collapse left me grimacing at the sight of blood coating my arms once again. Really, it was unnatural how little I cared about that, but it also thoroughly invalidated my change of outfit. I was going to have to get creative about how I made my way back down.

Mela, of course, shared none of my worry. She was hollering at the top of her lungs to celebrate the death of the Zerx. Amelia joined in, though I could tell it was more because she was amused by the redhead than anything else.

I, meanwhile, felt like cursing.

"Honestly shouldn't cheer, I messed up!" I complained. Now that I knew they'd posted guards in blind spots, I quickly looped the floor's cameras and started using Clairvoyance to peek past corners. "The asshole with the gun seemed semi-intelligent. He might have known something."

"Why'dcha off him, then? Good riddance, really, Zerx should just get wiped out! I can't tell ya how many times we thought we'd put them down for good just for them to come back," Mela grumbled.

I narrowed my eyes at the familiar refrain. She'd made much the same observation multiple times in the past, hadn't she? Including after we'd finished fighting them before.

"You think their leadership isn't in the slums at all?" I asked, thinking aloud as I moved. "It would make sense, right? I mean, if they were just manipulating shit here and arranging stuff, then no matter how many of their members you killed, they'd still come back."

"Fuck… I… never thought of that," Mela admitted, briefly stunned out of her rager against all things Zerx. "It would make sense, I guess. But why? Sure, there's all the slavery and kidnappings and shit, but is that really worth investing so much into the slums again and again?"

"Dunno. Could be off by a mile, anyway."

I held back curses as I almost came across guards twice more, these being roving patrols that still somehow kept out of view of the cameras. Even when they directly passed through the view of one.

"Hrm. They either have a runner here… or they set up some kind of a system that lets them stay off their own cameras," I groused. "Great. Fun. I can deal with this."

Amelia and Mela were chattering and swapping theories, but I focused on creeping ever onwards. Relying on Stealth and doubling back a few times, I managed to avoid detection. Finally, frustratingly close to where the elevator would have dropped me if it had been operational, I finally found the room I was looking for.

Except, instead of wires stretching out of it, it was surrounded by scorch marks and guarded by a hefty pair of metal doors designed to slide away into wall recesses. I wanted to groan and slump against the wall, but I rushed forward instead.

It took me three Pings before I finally detected a very weak signal. I patted the area of wall it came from, only to hear a somewhat hollow sound ring out.

A panel of some sort, then, I thought. Easy enough.

Instead of trying to open it, I just let my claws slide out, filled them with Essence, and started carving. An access port revealed itself, and I quickly connected to it.

There were defenses, access code requests, and some kind of an identification lock. I felt a twinge of annoyance at how easily I tore through it all using my Shadow-tainted mind. It felt like cheating. Like I'd been handed runner skills on a platter when most people spent decades earning them.

And it was utterly ridiculous that I felt that way. Corpos got so much by virtue of their birth alone. I was just… making up for my disadvantages.

That firmly in mind, I squashed what I was feeling and ordered the door open.

Compared to what it used to be, the room somehow felt so much smaller. It was cramped, admittedly, on account of all the server racks and equipment stuffed inside it, but still. In the middle of that mess lay a runner, connected to the chair they were sprawled out in.

A wide smirk stretched across my lips as pure malice filled me at the sight. I crept closer, intending to end them quickly.

Then I almost dropped right on my face as shock twinged through my system, because I realized the runner was familiar.

There, lying in all his sloppy glory, was Mort.

Very much alive.

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