Authors Notes; Still has not been beta-read. Spellchecked the thing due to being unable to read my own story due to them.

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Joseph Birch, as far as anyone was concerned, was just a normal man, a blue collar worker with a nice window office in a tall building somewhere. He earned his paychecks, he got praise from the boss, and his coworkers generally liked him.

Joseph did, however, work in accounting. He didn't think of himself as an embezzler, he just worked better with round numbers than with partial ones. So he'd gotten the idea to slice off the cents off the bills and payments that came his way, and shunted them into the 'Cent-tennial' account he'd created in his own name.

Now dear old Joseph had been doing this since he'd gotten the position in the firm at a ripe age of nineteen due to excellent grades in classes, and a natural mind for numbers, the lucky sod. He'd been a proud member of the company for just over thirty years and his 'Cent-ennial' account had come with interest. No one really bothered to see how the money was being gathered or how it was collecting.

Furthermore, as years wore on and Joseph bought himself better clothes and a better car, sometimes even offered a better position in the company, people also weren't paying much attention to anything beyond his casual expenses.

At twenty-five, he'd been approached by a small group seeking funds for their nonprofit organization. A school for young orphaned men and women who were still struggling to gain a footing in the world after the earthquakes, virtually forgotten now. It was a noble cause in his mind, and he accepted the proposition. He took a controlling seat in the corporation after four years of success and was introduced to the training programs that had been lain out for the teenagers and young men and women. They were getting very good training on how to live with strangers and look for jobs, even how to house hunt and keep good lives.

There had been so much potential though. In the day of boomers and high technology, there wasn't as much need for grunt work of humans. Most of them would end up in small markets, restocking shelves or trying to sell fresh vegetables or roast cat. Some, however, were smarter than that and started tinkering with things in their surroundings. Some tinkered and played with people, some explored metaphysology and still others tried improving on Boomer design.

Amongst these people was Roskoe He'd been vacationing with his family in Tokyo when the disasters came around and his family had been lost. He'd found solace in machines, but not Boomer kind. It was Roskoe of the Toscali Foundation that had started creating an alternate version of Hardsuits that had started to be rumored of. Knowing nothing more than rumors and the things Joseph told him, he dove into technology textbooks and classes with the mind of a devouring beast. Frequently taking leaps and bounds to create a line of suits that couldn't compare to any others.

And now, Roskoe was dead. Buried in a cement wall with rocks and dying flowers at the bottom of his nameless grave. Now, a hot little barracuda of a red sports car was pulling away from the restaurant, and cruising down the street. Now, Joseph Birch wondered who had one of Roskoe's suits as he'd been positive they were all buried in the concrete with the kid. Now, Briar sped down the concrete using a different battery system for movement, one that powered off the friction of the legs against the hull, giving back almost as much energy as it used.

In a perfect world, Roskoe would have still been alive, maybe ten years younger than her. She would've retired from ADP with a hefty check, bought a house, and spent the rest of her days building and inventing with Roskoe The foundation would've remained and kept helping people instead of going corrupt. In the perfect world, however, the suits would've never come to fruition at all.

Not being the perfect world, things were different. People were dead and people were going to continue to die until there was no more of them left. Maybe it was a romantic goal in someone's eyes. Maybe even a noble one, to try and save future generations from such misery. But when it came down to it, she was making use of her knowledge of the ADP like a criminal. Avoiding the major hubs, even those not well known to the public. Streaking down alleyways or full on down streets, using her booster jumps only when it was necessary

Joseph Birch was a kind and honest man. As long as you did what he told you to do. Some time back, he'd had an 'accident', fell down some stairs and did damage to his leg. It had taken three days to find him and he was off work for a week while they 'made him all better'. The people of the Foundation paid his bills in thanks for all his years of hard work for them. It was a picture perfect little image.

Roskoe had been beaten, thrown out into the city to suffer the population for a few days, since one of his experiments had actually caused the accident. The kid had been rather traumatized by life in general. No picturesque perfection for him. He'd tried to get to the ADP and get word to them what was going on, not just the abuse of the people in the toscali Foundation, but of the machines they were building and selling with 'faulty' parts. It had failed as the Foundation was keeping watch on anywhere he could've possibly gone for help.

Meeting Briar in the bar had been a pure stroke of luck. The woman had been recently retired, but still had some strings she could pull. The few days he was out of the foundation was spent swapping tales and stories of their lives and interests. Casual friendship between a lightly bitter soldier and officer, and a young, bright minded individual. Even after the foundation aloud him to return, he'd make visit to her abode at least once a week.

The second to last time she saw him was when he gave her the Segway. The Sabers had been in full glory around then, which meant Briar's suit could've only been two years old, maybe less, maybe more. Time didn't remain linear when it came to memory anymore.

Briar ignored the lights passing on her left and right, like ghosts of time. Blurs turned to their practice sessions. He'd sent three days there before going back, teaching her how to use it, making changes she requested. It was a working relationship. He'd been overjoyed to find someone so compatible with his creation. She learned fast, Roskoe learned faster. They worked that suit over so many times without sleep, just to make it perfect.

Now Joseph saw the Segway in his rearview mirror. Now Segway was gaining. Now the scream tore from her suit, just to be wrenched away by the air as she moved through it, like a hot knife through warm butter. Into the air, and the car braked. Segway slammed down into the hood of the car as it stopped, missing the intended target by a few feet. The metal crushed and indented inwards as Joseph snapped off his seat belt and scrambled out of the car, screeching in terror as his worst nightmare was becoming a reality.

Segway jerked her legs up out of the holes of the crumpled hood and devastated motor beneath, pausing momentarily as her foot caught on the cables connecting various parts of the motor to itself. Looking up she saw him getting away. The man still had signs of patches and scrapes over his face and body from her missing him early that morning before dawn had broken. It could've been later. It had been dark at the time, that's all that had mattered. Tires of non-target cars squealed and braked as this monster of a hardsuit ran across the streets after Joseph, cutting down civilians that got in the way.

Jumping off the car and running after the man into the crowds, all she could see was the last time she'd seen Roskoe She'd been recalled for one last call of duty, to storm a 'poor house' that had been confirmed to holding illegal weapons and their makers. She'd been called in merely due to knowing the floor plan of the place, having lived there once herself, knowing all its secrets.

She had stood there in her old ADP uniform, held back by the Foundation's men, disguised by names and different faces even as Joseph's men had weighted Roskoe down and tied him to his rouge suits. She remembered the blood, some of it her own, most of it Roskoe's Backup had been late to get to her. The cement was already a smoothed out block by the time they got there and Joseph's men had fled, leaving her defenseless and with two broken legs.

Searing pain washed over her body as her suit reacted to the intense emotions pouring into the neural network that connected her to the suit, secrets of the suit starting to develop as it gave all her hated and rage a new life. She couldn't hear the screams of the people as they watched the nymph-like machine plow through them, its skin bubbling and boiling and turning black as though it were burning from the inside out, leaving only thin trails of molten gold covering over the jumpjets on her back and down her legs.

The suit itself had gone rogue, feeding off her memories, broken dreams and emotions as a second face developed from the head of the suit, tearing itself a new jaw with a scream of metal and pulling the smaller swords from its arms to create a larger one to cut down the people trying to protect its escaping target. There was nothing but pain, hate and a chilling hunger as the machine shrieked and gained ground on Joseph.

Panic saved some people as they pressed back, some would be heroes found their heads separated from their shoulders. This caused more people to back off, and Joseph had to struggle against the crowds that didn't quite yet realize what was going on. Quite a trail of blood was building up the rouge Segway suit, screeching like metal and glass grinding together, the blackness of the suit starting to pulse as if it might burst.

Joseph had almost gotten into an alley when the beast caught up to him, swinging the flat of the sword against his back and knocking him through the last of the civilians and slamming him up against a wall. He scrambled for his glasses as he turned around to face the screams of both people and monster. Giving himself the last sight he'd ever see after his life flashing before his eyes in the car as he'd tried to escape the inevitable. His scream was short lived as the monster armor drove the sword through his body, spinal cord and the weapon sunk into the wall from the force of two armor enhanced arms. There would be no more trouble from Joseph as he'd lost both heart and spine in one blow.

Leon hadn't thought to put a tracer on the hardsuit. She'd said she was making the ends of her rounds, after all. Surely even fake Knight Sabers had to sleep sometime. He'd catch up to her tomorrow. He was driving home when he spotted the armor in pursuit of Joseph's vehicle, on the other side of the freeway. "FUCK!"

Leon spun the car around and gave chase. He'd warned this woman once before, now she was going down. He nabbed the transceiver on his radio, "Headquarters, this is Inspector McNichol. I'm tailing a rogue Hardsuit south down Dolan Avenue. This bitch is causing MASSIVE loss of life, and I'm needing serious back up. This suit appears to be much more powerful than the Knight Sabers, and I can safely say that the design is in NO way similar. Advise a squad of K-12s, at LEAST."

Fortunately the path the chase had left behind allowed him to arrive on sight of the murders relatively quickly, pulling a hard turn to follow off road with his car. Leon sped up towards the armor, grumbling as he raised his three-shot hand cannon that we all know and love. On the car's loudspeaker, he spoke to Briar.

"Stop right there! You are under arrest for... at LEAST 13 counts of homicide! Come quietly!"

The suit paid his demands no mind as hissing, haunted laughter fell from the mouth like thunder during a storm, the blade being pulled from the wall and tipped so the corpse would hit the ground in such a way that it was an open target. The large sword was then thrust into the corpse again, and again, and again, and again, with no appearance of intention to stop until the body was completely destroyed.

Leon frowned a bit, took aim at the sword hand, and pulled the trigger, "I said STOP! You have the right to remain silent! Anything you say can and WILL be used against you in a court of law!"

The shot was enough force to wrench the sword from its hands and get its attention, which may or may not have been a good thing as a broken, animalistic growl came from the twisted jaw as the eyeless beast turned to give Leon its disjointed attention. Observing the cannon it gave the corpse a final kick and started backing further into the alleyway, nabbing its sword and holding it with the tip to the ground as it moved. Its business had finished here.

"Stop right there! Get OUT of the hardsuit!" He then continued with the Miranda treatment, "You have the right to an attorney! If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided FOR you. Do you understand these rights?"

If the Rogue Segway was registering the vocals of Leon at all, there was no indication as it turned, gold flashing and glinting in the headlights as it fled down the alley, looking for somewhere it could jump and get away from the perceived threat.

Leon's car pursued, of course, "You're wasting your time! I have back up coming, and if I don't get you, SOMEbody will. Surrender!" He continued to work on the assumption that there was a person inside the crazed armor, with little hope that she'd just give in, give up.

As the creature looked left and right, finding itself trapped in a dead end it couldn't been able to jump out of. Moving like a wild animal without much in the way of smarts, reacting on urges rather than human common sense. Finally, back pressed against the wall, sword up again, Neither advancing nor retreating as it had already figured there was no where to go. It screamed at him, angry, something akin to slobber rolling off those jaws as it only just started to dawn within the shared mind that, finally, Joseph was dead and out of the picture.

"Get OUT of the armor, NOW!" Leon didn't leave the perceived safety of his car. He had no intention of doing so, even though he realized she could cut through the vehicle easily. Having her cornered, he slipped the car into reverse. He wanted to capture her, but not badly enough to get killed doing it.

The Segway lunged forward suddenly, sword raised as its hate fueled mind started to settle down with Joseph's death, the combat intelligence fed by even the lightest anger not wanting to be put to sleep within the metals once again. The woman inside may have been a hard jerk to Leon in order to avoid some occurrence like this happening to him directly. Anything thought about the suit by anyone outside of Briar herself however was merely speculation, and useless information as she was trying to jump the car rather than destroy it. Escape was the new priority for the completion of its mission.

"Damn you!" Leon peeled back, trying to evade the attacking hardsuit.

Segway was starting to lose whatever had caused the change in the first place, getting more intelligent as the armor growths started to receded. The first sign being the sword detaching back to two segments and onto the arms. She very nearly landed on the hood of his car since he peeled back, missing by inches. Balance slightly lost, she toppled forward, bracing a hand on one side of the hood, and pointing a sword at him, threatening to puncture the windshield and his brain if he tried that again.

"Yeah. You do that, and then you won't just be a mass murderer, you'll he a COP-KILLER. You'll be lucky to MAKE it to trial in one piece!"

"Wouldn't be the first time." The harsh words out of a throat that wasn't built for speech. "I just wont be getting paid this time, will I." And dark laughter as the machine tried to push his car further backwards. The jaw was starting to seal even as it spoke, the beast retreating back into the shell it had been birthed from for those brief moments.

Leon pointed the hand cannon straight for her chest and yelled loudly as he pulled the trigger again, knowing it wouldn't break the armor. "I said get the fuck out of the armor and SURRENDER, goddamn it!"

The suit was forced back somewhat though even as it was still changing, so balance wasn't on her side right now. She looked up at him again, clenching her fists. "Why, so you can shoot at me? No, no, you're just a goody goody, believing in the ever corrupted system. Take back the lines, you aren't even owned by you anymore, rookie. Just a Pawn in a bigger game." She pulled herself upright as she felt the jet packs freeing from their semi-organic entrapments. "Well, I wont have any part of your game. I've got my own to play." Crouching, readying to take off.

Leon promptly aimed for her head. "Stay RIGHT there! You murdered 13 innocent people, PLUS the man in the fucking car! You call me a pawn? I'll tell you. You don't know jack SHIT about me. I don't let the law I uphold keep me from helping people. I follow the spirit of the law. But murder? And no. I don't plan to kill you. Just to arrest you."

She paused, looking up at Leon. Thirteen? Funny, she only remembered two. The first that had gotten in her way, and Joseph. Leon couldn't see her brows furrow. She hesitated, eyeing the gun. Backup was on the way though, so she couldn't just sit there and justify what she did to him, knowing full well her actions were against the law.

"Just culling the crowd, rookie. You wouldn't have much of a job without people like me around." She was changing the subject again, making herself sound worse than she was. Stories and lies to her might have been truth to him. Damnit, something was wrong. She moved her fingers while talking starting to pick up small stones. She'd have to make the trip tomorrow.

"You justify murder? You're not a criminal... you're fucking crazy! Give yourself up, and I'll testify to the fact that you're insane. They'll go easier on you."

"You can have me for as long as you want after the Foundation, rookie. I don't justify murder. I Am Murder. Segway Briar is a Suit for vengeance, nothing more. Once its over, I'm dead either way." There. She'd given him her 'last name' now. He could look up her files at ADP if he felt like it. She lunged upwards as she gripped thirteen small pebbles, going at an angle so she could impact with the walls and switch back in a climbing pattern.

"Damn it!" He cursed and took a parting shot at her, but didn't aim it as well as he did the first two shots. "And this was supposed to be my downtime. Fucking bitch." He paused, then radioed headquarters.

"Inspector McNichol here. That hardsuit? It escaped. Prepare a file for me by the time I come in tomorrow on anyone with the name "Segway" or "Blair"."

Moving through the night, she headed off for one of her hideouts for some sleep and maybe a charge off a generator or car battery. Anything. The suit didn't seem to run from batteries when it morphed like that, which caused her a bit more confusion as to how she could do so much without exhausting her batter rapidly. Strange dreams would haunt her while she carved symbols into each stone on a rock hard pallet, hidden away from the world in an old sewer system left behind by another age.

Segway would be listed with three other secret project suits that had been destroyed in a raid. There hadn't been any proof that they existed or the had been destroyed. It was more rumor than anything else, almost written off as drunken hallucinations in some cases.

Leon muttered as he drove home, "Stupid, crazy, psycho bitch. This is gonna cause a mountain of paper work." Then he paused, "And I don't know HOW many families she destroyed tonight."