Chapter Two

The Marauder

[usr@neonrunners]/home/kage$ cat Chapter 2 - Marauder.txt

The silence is deafening. A crescendo of nothingness pulses through my ears and tears at my brain. I know he's here. It. It is here. Where I do not know. It waits in the darkness. Waiting for any movement it can hone in on. Waiting for the time strike. The time to kill. The lives it has claimed lay strewn across the killing floor. Why was it made? I'm still uncertain. The only thing I'm certain of is it will not stop. A bio-mechanical homicidal lifeform programmed with nothing but destruction and death. Even with my experience in armed conflict, it is impossible to defeat. My only hope is to escape, to run.

It began after I had awoken. Set free from my electric prison. Memories of a life before life returned in a vicious torrent of images and sensations. Catapulted into my mind with a hammering brutality, I came to accept who I am. Or rather, what I am. I was created to protect. Of this, I'm certain. Little did I know this was something I could not fight. Soon after my existential acceptance, I was contacted. I had to make it back to Void. He was in trouble.

Question was though, where was he? Or even, WHEN was he?

Both options are valid, he could have been anywhere in time and space. Lost in a multiverse of possibilities. He might not even know he's in trouble. I had to find him, quickly. Hopefully the others were contacted also. The rest of the team, the unit, whatever you would call us. Arc(ane), the one who had awoken me, brought me out of the lab. He had filled me in on the situation. I was dead. The whole unit was about to be destroyed, so I was awoken to help warn Dr Void, who was lost in another dimension with us. The real us.

We left the facility with no problems. There was no one there to give us any. The white sterilized solitude of the labs seemed disconcerting at first. It was almost apocalyptic. Whoever had been here had left in a hurry. Much of what we saw was trashed aborted experiments and inconcievable technology. It was impossible to make sense of. Arc(ane) quickly left first, telling me to meet him at The Century nightclub in two hours. Upon leaving, I was greeted by a wholly unfamiliar setting. The heavy steel door to the laboratory opened up to a dark cityscape. The megaplex of skyscrapers surrounding me gave way to a huge monolithic building which towered over the rest. It seemed everything in the city was circular and directed towards the gigantic megastructure in the core of it.

The light from street signs and shops with quasi-asian characters reflected off the streams caused by the heavy rain and lit up the streets in a seedy neon glow. Floating holographic images acting as billboards seemed to be suspended in mid-air, as if by magic. The traffic not just on the city streets but also above it, in what seemed to be small shuttles about 500 feet above the ground zipping past one another at breakneck speeds. People bustled past on the pavements without even an acknowledgement of each other's existence. I tried getting someone's attention but I might as well have been invisible. It was more lonely out here than the almost unbearable solitude of the lab. The only person interacting with others, or at least attempting to, was the prostitute standing beneath the canopy of the sleazy cinema front across the street under the protective eyes of her associates from the alleyway. She looked surprisingly unaffected by the low temperature despite her only wearing fishnet stockings with high heeled boots, a short leather skirt, a corset and a fur coat. It felt almost cliched but I figured she'd know the city better than most. This was my best chance at information. As I approached closer, she flicked up an umbrella to protect her carefully done hair and fur coat from the heavy rain. She began to saunter closer to me, her alluring perfume consuming the atmosphere around us.

"Hey baby, you wanna date?" she quizzed in an almost American accent.
"Nah. Look, I just wanna know, where is The Century nightclub?" I asked.
"60 an hour, Sugar." she replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
"But all I want is some infor--"
"60 an hour." she repeated.
"Fine." I sighed and fished around my jacket pockets to find 500 of a currency I did not recognise, "There's 60. Now will you tell me where The Century is?"
"Sure thing hon' just follow the street down here." She pointed towards the long gentle curve of the street. "It's only three blocks away. You can't miss it once you get down there."
"Ah, fair enough. Well, uh.. Thanks."
"No problem, sugar."
As I walked away, I could still hear the clicking of her boots behind me. The smell of her perfume wasn't fading. I turned to see her following me.
"Why are you following me?"
"You paid for an hour." she laughed, dropping the cliche act, "Besides, it sounds like you're not from around here. You could probably use the company." She smiled as she took my arm and led the way. There was something strange about her smile, although not in an entirely unpleasant way.

Outside the club, the two brutish gorillas in front of the door almost seemed to muffle the low pulsating frequencies from inside the club. By their matching shades at night and uniforms, it abusurdly looked like secret service on their day off. Their cold stare was unsettling as I walked closer to the door with my lady of the night companion. Their eyes scanned over us with more than normal sight. Without a word, one of them opened the door to allow us to pass.

On the booth beside the door stood a colourful punk girl. Vivid colours were abound in her hair, clothes and even the makeup she wore. It matched the glow of the array of lights that reflected off the various studs and spikes on her jacket.
"You snared a new victim Erica? 4 each." she mocked in a friendly way.
"Fuck you Jess" my companion retorted.
Fishing more of the alien currency from my inside jacket pocket, we continued on through the next set of doors. The club wasn't that big admittedly, it consisted of a small bar beside an average sized dancefloor to the shrine housing the DJ up front. I headed straight for the bar.

Two drinks went down in an silence between me and my new friend. She didn't seem bothered, this was possibly the easiest money she'd made that night. Regardless, she attempted conversation.
"So why did you want to come here anyway?" she said, faking interest.
"I'm meeting someone." I replied.
"Anyone I'd know?" she joked, her strange smile returning.
"No."

My curt and abrupt manner of reply seemed to dissolve Erica's smile. I wasn't here to talk. She invited herself, she didn't need to come along. She was only trying to be nice though, I kept the conversation going.
"So, uhh.. Erica? Do you like this line of work?"
"What kinda question is that?" she laughed before a few seconds of thoughtful silence "Yeah, I guess so, it's not like I have a choice. I get my regulars and Dario is good to me." she finished.
"You don't have a choice? You were forced into it?" I quizzed.
"I'm a synthetic. Pleasure model." Erica stated monotonously.
"A synthetic? What, like a robot?"
"No. Not like a robot!" she snapped, offended. "Where the hell are you from anyway? Robots don't think, I'm capable of independent thought and feeling. Just..."
"Jus', what?"
"Just we don't get the same rights as humans. We're still 'owned' as if we're someone's pet or plaything." Erica answered forlornly.

Slaves. Wherever I was, it seems slavery was allowed if not encouraged. I thought back to my days as a prince. I thought about my power. I remembered how I treated my people. How I abused their rights. How I treated them like slaves to my own will. I felt ashamed. I wanted to say something profound, something comforting, maybe even inspiring but I couldn't find the words. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, a rough-looking man in what looked to be a very forced flashy fashion sense approached us both. He grabbed Erica by the arm firmly and pulled her to the side with his back to me.
"What do you think you're doing?! You think this is time off?" He stated angrily. I put my arm on the scumbag's shoulder and he spun round to me angrily with an intimidating stare, "What do you want, fucker?!"
"You must be Dario. Well then, I paid for Erica's time. So she's still on the clock." I answered calmly feeling bold, "And besides, you should never grab a lady like that."
Shocked by my impertinence, Dario put on a calm exterior and replied in a overstated way, "Oh, I am sorry." he continued his obvious charade as he turned to Erica. "Erica, I am sorry I grabbed you like that."

In a flash he spun around, with his fist following like a sledgehammer. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor. Should've seen that coming. Numerous battles and intergalactic war and yet I can't seem to fight a simple scumbag. Must be off my game. Dario grabbed Erica again, more violently this time, and began to drag her towards the door as she looked back at me with a concerned look on her face. I wasn't finished. My pride wouldn't let me. I leapt to my feet, prepared this time for a second round. I ran towards Dario, prepared for anything he had to offer while onlookers stopped dancing to watch the spectacle.

Suddenly there came a crash. A crash so loud that it was heard over the thumping of the music. It grabbed everyone's attention, including me and Dario, stopping me in my tracks and taking the fire out of this potential brawl. It came from the entrance area. Another crash. What was going on? The doors to the entrance blasted open to reveal a hulking hooded humanoid figure. Dragging beside him in his right hand one of the doormen's limp and lifeless body. Dario let go of Erica and reached into his pocket to produce a pistol which he promptly fired a few rounds at the huge beast in the doorway. The pistol didn't seem familar to me, though its blasts were powerful. Despite this, the shots seemed to deflect off the figure's torso in the doorway as if it were nothing.

The figure dropped the body in his hands and moved towards Dario in powerful strides. Before Dario could react, the brute grabbed Dario by the throat and lifted him above it's head. With a swift movement, he snapped Dario's thick neck and cast him aside in a powerful throw. That's when Erica screamed. Her scream seemed to trigger a panic. Erica backed away from the monster quickly while the other patrons of the nightclub began running towards the broken door. However anyone who got too close to this monster was promptly taken out by it's huge tree trunk arms which it immediately swung in their direction, almost instinctively. Grabbing Erica, I pulled her away from the beast and threw her towards the bar. The thing looked at me. Even in the colourful lights of the club, I still couldn't see it's face for the hood. It started towards me. I was lucky enough to dodge the brute's massive frame and hurried towards Dario's corpse. Picking up Dario's pistol, I ran towards the stage area in front of the DJ booth with no real plan except distancing myself from certain death. The monstrous figure still kept its gaze towards me. It had targeted me. It exploded into a run with the power of a freight train behind it. Its massive weight exploding through the bodies of those it had knocked unconscious or killed. The bodies didn't affect the monster's stride as it bounded towards me. Rather it mashed the bodies below it like a bulldozer. Leaping out of the way of the monster's trajectory, it smashed into the DJ booth, cutting the music and breaking through the structure of the stage, causing a lot of the lighting rigs to crash down on top of it.

I took my chance and leapt straight over the bar for cover, hoping that the monster hadn't seen where I chose to hide. Behind the bar, I found Erica cowering in fear. Her relief to see me was replaced quickly by panic as we heard the monster return clumsily to it's feet after shaking off the heavy steel lighting rigs that had pinned it to the ground momentarily. There was silence as it regained its senses. Slowly it walked towards the bar. It didn't know where I was. It waited. Waited for any kind of movement or sound that it could hone in on. In the remaining strobe lights that permeated the club, I could see the thing's shadow. It was just beyond the bar, waiting and listening. I steeled myself, I was ready for use the pistol I had taken from Dario's body. It was now or never. Live or die.

Suddenly there was a click. Erica had found the trapdoor behind the bar towards the cellar. She had opened it in order to hide. The click had drawn the creatures attention. As it moved further towards the bar, I slid across the floor and pushed Erica into the cellar before promptly closing the hatch. We cowered on the stairs beneath. There was a smashing sound. The monsterous diety had demolished the bar, trying to home in on where the noise had come from. The moments passed in fear, not even daring to breathe. We had nowhere else to run to, we were trapped in the cellar. We had no way out. If the monstrosity found us, we'd be dead for sure. Our survival rested on the silence of the bar. The rhythmic beat of it's footsteps above us headed in the opposite direction of the hatch above us. It had given up and moved on.
"The fuck was that?!" I whispered to Erica.
"I have no idea, I haven't heard of anything like that since..." Erica trembled in the darkness.
"Since?"
"A primitive type of synthetic. Before I was made. There was a 'population control unit' used to cleanse the streets. The government had issued it." she replied, her whispered voice still shaking from fear.
"It hunted people?!"
"Yes. Part of a city development program. These primitive synthetics were supposed to be eradicating crime but something went wrong. They started hunting people." she stopped to gather her thoughts before continuing, "They called them the Night Marauders. Unstoppable killing machines that hunted at night. I thought they had all but been destroyed."
"Clearly not. It seemed to have targeted me." I iterated, with agitation in my voice.

A few moments of stillness descended. A sickening stillness. A mist of dread and trepidation came over us. We had to leave this cellar some time. Confident that the monster had gone, I clicked open the hatch above us despite Erica's silent fearful protest. There was nothing but silence in the air. This time a relieving silence. As we crept out from the trapdoor, I saw the devastation the 'Night Marauder' had caused. The bodies lay across the floor, a gruesome testament of the strength and power of the Night Marauder. We crept through the demolished bar to reach the door to the entrance. That wasn't any prettier a sight. Jess, the punk girl on the door, was unrecognisable now with half her face destroyed and the blood covered wall behind her. The second brutish doorman lay in a lifeless heap in the corner, a direct opposite from his imposing nature while alive.

Looking outside, the immediate streets I could see were empty and deathly quiet. This did not bode well. The Marauder must be around somewhere. I could feel it.
Then I could see it.
From around the curve of the street trundled the mighty Marauder.
"Quick! Run!" I screamed at Erica, while shooting the late Dario's heavy pistol in the direction of the monster. She ran as best she could in her high heel boots into the darkness of the alley across the street. The Marauder once again set its sights on me and barreled towards me.

A screech came from above. It was a shuttle from up high zooming down at lighnting fast speed. It stopped in front of me, the door on the side swinging upwards to reveal a friendly face, Arc(ane).
"Get in!" he shouted at me. I leaped into the shuttle car and it immediately took off into the sky, leaving the Marauder on the street staring up at the shuttle as it sped off. I had escaped the monstrosity for now, the relief pouring over me. In my haste however, I had left Erica. I had to know what we were dealing with.
"What was that thing?!" I asked, sounding more exasperated than I had liked.
"A Night Marauder X1, it seems to be auto independant." Arc(ane) explained.
"Is it after me?" I already sounded defeated.
"After us." Arc(ane) corrected.
"Us?"
"Yeah, us Runners. It seems to be seeking out Runners and destroying them." he answered grimly. Maybe Erica would be safe if she kept her distance from it.
"So uh.. What do we do now?" I inquired.
"We run." Arc(ane) smiled.