"Crypto…"

Wattson called his name softly in the dark, quiet room. When he didn't respond, she gripped his shoulder and spoke louder.

"Crypto!"

The hacker flung his blanket away and sat upright in a sudden motion, arms raised defensively. She quickly backed away at his reaction- then, when he lowered his hands and looked around the room in confusion, she slid closer and put her arms around him.

"You were crying out in your sleep," she said.

"I was…?"

He let out a sigh as he brought his hands to his face and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. As best he could, the programmer tried not to disturb Wattson as he reached toward the bedside table for his laptop. "Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"Oh- no, no, don't worry about it," the engineer replied. She squinted at the sudden bright light as his computer screen came to life. "I- just wanted to be sure you're okay."

"I'm fine," Crypto muttered absently as he entered his password. One hand ran through his hair, as if to brush it away from his eyes- an unnecessary gesture, now that he'd cut it short. He brought up the floor plans of the Syndicate prison on the laptop. Might as well get back to work now that he was awake…

Wattson curled up next to him while he stared intently at the screen. Her head rested on her hands, a tense expression on her face. With the technology that allowed the corporate network to bring competitors back to life as though nothing had happened, she'd never seen - that she could remember - the effect that the combat and suffering had on people. When the Games ended, all of the Legends woke up comfortable in their beds at the lodging complex provided to them- a huge building with a number of luxuries, thanks to their celebrity status and the wealth of the Syndicate. The Games, with all of their violence and brutality, changed nothing… She and the others would head downstairs for breakfast like any other day, and check their scores from the previous day on the leaderboards.

It bothered her to see Crypto like this: jumpy, hypervigilant, having nightmares. He'd always been on edge - now Wattson finally understood why - but he'd never been this bad, that she could remember. She craned her neck to glance up at his face- he was intently focused on the computer screen, but that look in his eyes… It was as if he was staring past the screen, at something so distant as to be in another universe.

"You should rest."

She spoke in a quiet, gentle tone.

The hacker didn't acknowledge her. Wattson pushed herself into a more upright position, leaning on one elbow, so that she could look directly at his face. Her eyes were fixated on his forehead, so that from Crypto's perspective, it would appear as if she were making eye contact- something that she disliked doing, as it felt to her like an act of aggression. Why the majority of people saw it as a polite social behavior, she would never understand.

"Crypto," the engineer said insistently. "You need to rest."

"I need a mouse," he muttered in response. Panning and rotating a 3D model using a touchpad was beginning to annoy him.

He'd used the floor plans of the Syndicate prison to create a virtual walkthrough of the building, which he was studying and analyzing to determine the best way to break in undetected. It wouldn't be an easy feat by any means- the entire building was heavily reinforced. Walls, doors, hinges… Entering by force would require so much raw power that there was no chance of pulling it off undetected.

That meant overriding the codes to unlock a door- which was Crypto's preferred method. However, the security system of this building - from what he'd been able to find out, which still left bits and pieces of information missing - was more advanced than anything he'd worked with so far. Typically with numbered pads, he'd use his drone to transmit a signal that would bypass the keypad and trick the microprocessors into "thinking" that the right code had been entered, without the need to enter anything at all. This one, however, was shielded from such interference. The Syndicate had invested much more into protecting this building than they had into any of the places he'd sneaked into so far- and according to the intel that Revenant had provided, for whatever that was worth, the slightest mistake would see him killed by an automated turret.

"What if you do something wrong because you're too tired to concentrate tomorrow?"

Wattson regarded the hacker with wide, attentive eyes. When he didn't react fast enough for her liking, she sat fully upright so that her face and shoulders were above his computer screen. Crypto's eyebrows pulled together in annoyance at the distraction- didn't she understand how important this was…?

With a heavy sigh, he suppressed the reaction. The hacker had too many enemies as it was- he couldn't afford to lose his temper with friends who were looking after his well-being. He shifted the laptop to the side, head lowered slightly, and focused his attention on her for the moment.

"Thanks for watching out for me," he said with a quick nod. "It means more than I can tell you- but I can't afford to pause now. I'm too close- I'm so close to finding my sister, and if the corporation…"

His voice trailed off.

Wattson understood- if the corporation caught him now, they'd kill him. They might bring him back, but even if they did, he wouldn't remember how far he'd gotten, or any of the information he'd learned about the Syndicate… It would be right back to square one, with Crypto having no idea where to find his missing sister.

"What can I do to help?"

The hacker smiled in response to Wattson's offer- he was grateful that she didn't continue to press the issue of resting. She was right, and he knew it; he'd been pushing himself to the breaking point since he dropped into the arena. His body was making it known, too- his limbs were heavy and awkward from exhaustion. Despite that, he couldn't imagine that it was possible to feel less like sleeping… Mila needed him, and he needed an activity to concentrate on; something to draw his mind away from the fear he felt.

Even though he felt a great deal of gratitude toward her, the programmer found it difficult to answer Wattson, and didn't speak for several seconds. Doing things on his own came naturally to him- himself and Mila against the world, a world that had shut him out and abandoned him… but he'd managed to build a good life for himself, until he'd inadvertently become an enemy of the Syndicate. Letting someone else in - even someone he genuinely cared for - wasn't so easy.

When he took a breath and opened his mouth to answer, the engineer was looking down at her lap. She fiddled with the edge of the blanket underneath her.

"You miss your inventions still," he guessed. "Is that it?"

"They're more than just objects," she replied morosely. "They're… connected to me. Most people don't understand."

"I can't say I fully understand," said Crypto as he placed his hand on her upper back in a comforting gesture, "but I respect it."

In a way, he did understand. Not Wattson's belief about a unifying quantum field of energy that linked humans, machines, and anything else through which an electrical current flowed; that was a bit beyond him. He had found, though, that every piece of code he worked on, every computer, every security system had its own little quirks and oddities. The machines could be the exact same model number. They'd still have tiny differences- things that the average user would never pick up on; things that an experienced hacker like him could notice and use to make their job go just a little faster. He was curious if that tied into her unique way of seeing the world around her.

"We're going to get back everything the Syndicate took from us," the hacker affirmed with more confidence than he felt. "Including your inventions."

"You must think I'm awful," replied the engineer. "Worrying about machines while your sister is still missing… but-"

"But sometimes machines are more than what we give them credit for," Crypto cut in. "Yeah. I may not be an engineer, or a quantum physicist, but I've definitely seen a bit of that for myself. And, Natalie- I don't think you're awful. Not for a second."

He turned the laptop so that Wattson could see the screen.

"Here is what I'm trying to figure out how to do," the hacker began. "Maybe you'll come up with the solution before I can…"

"That ain't no Hammond Robotics shipping crate, frè."

Augustin frowned at the heavily fortified container, which was surrounded by a fleet of armed guards- at least twenty, and they did not have the business-casual look of Hammond's manual laborers. This was far more security than a shipment of standard parts demanded.

The corporal turned his head so that his skeptical gaze fell on Cade. "You got some bad intel."

"Mauser," growled the enforcer. "I'll be sure to wring his scrawny little neck when we get back to the command center."

"Hey, now- you're in charge here," Augustin replied. "As a leader, it's your job to take care of your people. If Mauser screws up- man, that's on you."

Cade rolled his eyes. "We're anarchists, genius… We don't have leaders."

"That so? Kamarade, you sure acted like you were in charge when you came after me in the gym about letting a simulacrum wander around HQ. That's all I'm saying, man."

Augustin held his hands up as if in a gesture of surrender, eyebrows raised. Cade gave him a playful shove.

Several feet away, Revenant was crouched on top of a stack of shipping containers, watching the Syndicate guards. He deliberately kept some distance between himself and the two skinbags, though he was never so far away as to be useless in their joint venture. His positioning relative to them denied them a tactical advantage if they decided to turn against him.

"We're here," he growled. "Might as well kill something."

The assassin dropped down from the stacked crates and crept silently toward the guards. Augustin and Cade exchanged glances. This was supposed to be a simple operation- incapacitate a couple of low-level employees, grab the contents of the container. Both men were ready to kill if it became necessary, but their objective had never been to take a head-on confrontation with the Syndicate.

Rather than go on the offensive, Cade would have preferred that they hold their position and wait- see if they could find out what the corporate network had going on out here. Augustin would have had them return to the safety of their command center, and come back to this new situation with an entirely new plan. Revenant had no interest in a cautious approach. This was a chance for him to carry out his directive- not to mention an opportunity for revenge.

"Hold up," Augustin commanded in a harsh whisper. The assassin obediently froze in place. He still had a tactical advantage in his current position- he and the others stood on elevated ground relative to the guards, and near the cover of K-rails and stacked metal containers.

"You really want to take a solo fight against a couple dozen armed mercenaries? Not to mention whatever is in that crate- clearly not just a shipment of parts! We need a better strategy than 'kill something,' my guy."

Revenant considered the corporal's words- something that he certainly wouldn't have had the patience to do before now. The conclusion he arrived at, though, was the same as ever: he was the best at his function, and would outmaneuver the enemy in close combat- no matter how severely outnumbered he was. If aggression failed him, there were no lasting consequences… He'd come back and do it again. The enemy would be weaker, and he would be unchanged.

"Stay here and think of one, if it makes you feel useful," he hissed at the humans behind him. Well- Cade may not have considered himself human, but as far as Revenant was concerned, the cyborg was just as purposeless. "I'm going to cut those guards into pieces."

That was the end of the discussion. The assassin turned and walked away from the others. He climbed to the top of a skeletal steel framework, used to mount hoists and powerful electromagnets to move cargo around the area- it allowed him to get directly above the group of guards undetected. He assessed the environment as he approached, taking note of where the enemies would run for cover and how they might try to escape.

Cade rolled his eyes as he readied his rifle. "I'll move up with him," said the enforcer. "You stay back here and lay down cover fire."

Augustin responded with a firm nod, followed by the click of the weapon. "Got it."

He raised the rifle and looked through the sight. Guards paced around the reinforced crate below him- those monitoring the perimeter appeared intently focused, while others stood in front of the container doors, immersed in conversation. Revenant dropped from the metal framework above them and landed behind the guard at the corner of the container nearest to Augustin. The unfortunate Syndicate employee's throat was cut before he had a chance to turn around.

Shouts of alarm - and then brisk, one-word commands - echoed. Boots made heavy thuds on the asphalt, weapons clicked, thunderous gunshots sounded. A bullet ricocheted off a metal crate as Revenant climbed its side- one of the guards cried out as the errant bullet lodged in the ground next to his foot.

Another body hit the ground with a wet crunch.

"It's a simulacrum," someone called out. "Switch to directed energy weapons!"

The assassin laughed as the still, silent form of a third worker collapsed on the concrete. They thought their high-tech guns would save them… The sort of directed energy weapons they were referring to had been developed by the military for use against modern simulacrums, and they targeted vulnerabilities that had found their way into the automatons' designs long after Revenant had been engineered. There was at least a modicum of truth to Wattson's belief that older machines had a tendency to be more durable than the newest- that held true even though Revenant had been designed to be replaceable.

A pulse of searing energy passed over him as he threw one of the guards to the ground, then dropped down to carve a jagged wound at the bottom of their rib cage. Their pained screams went silent as blood filled their lungs- Revenant had already moved away, onto the next target.

A guard took aim at the assassin from behind. From his position at the corner of a metal crate several feet away, Cade fired first. The bullet impacted the body armor that the guard wore and knocked him onto the pavement, disoriented- his weapon flew from his hands and skidded away. The enforcer backed up around the corner as another guard fired at him. From his position on the high ground, Augustin returned fire. The guard collapsed, unmoving. Cade darted around the corner and advanced on their position.

He felt a presence behind him. The enforcer turned, rifle at the ready- the enemy turned with him, and wrapped an arm around his neck. Hard metal dug into his skin, and he realized that the assailant was wearing some kind of powered exo-suit. He dropped the rifle, raised both hands to grip the arm at his throat, and pulled down as hard as he could- at the same time, he bent his legs and rolled forward. With his cybernetic augmentation - titanium alloy replacing bone in the limbs on the right side of his body; the function of the muscles performed by semiconductive fibers that contracted in response to an electrical current - he was strong enough to take them off-balance despite the exo-suit. Their grip on his neck released- he came up standing, grabbed the rifle, and looked around to find that they had vanished.

Whatever this person's function was within the Syndicate, it was clear that they had much more specialized training than the average guard.

Speaking of guards- as Cade looked around, rifle aimed and ready to kill, he noticed that the storage yard had gone quiet around them. There was a final soft thud as the body of a guard fell to the ground- Revenant stepped out from around the corner of the crate they'd been charged with protecting. Blood dripped from the simulacrum's metal frame.

"There's at least one more around here," Cade grunted. "Unless they ran away…"

"Wouldn't count on it," Revenant replied. As they looked around, however, they saw nothing. The air was still and serene, contrasting with the chaos of combat that had happened and the bodies that lay on the ground. Augustin's footsteps hit the asphalt hard as he came running to join the others.

Cade slung his rifle over his shoulder as he rounded the corner to the door of the crate.

"Let's see what the Syndicate was so determined to protect," he muttered to himself. He gripped the locking mechanism in his cybernetic hand and tore it away from the door. Augustin stepped forward- the door of the crate creaked open, and the two of them looked inside.