Yo peps- I have updated the first chapter as well, just to fix some issues that I saw when reviewing some reviews.
I'll be working on the next chapter within the week.
x
Mathew
Qubi
Chapter 3
Cat meets Fox
Naruto never really liked the hospital.
The soft white walls were like bleach to his eyes, and the clean chemical smells burned his nostrils whenever he took so much as a snift.
So, it was within reason that as soon as he was conscious and could escape without notice, he would.
Well, Naruto was anything but predictable- if anything, he'd always been one to cause mischief; it was in his nature. So when he found himself stuck inside of a hospital room with no means to relieve boredom other than scrolling through the net, something that got really, really, boring real quick.
It was a struggle to keep his very nature from boiling to the surface.
Although lucky to still be alive, Naruto could no longer stand remaining confined within its walls for too long.
Naruto searched the room in hopes of anything to help him escape, eventually discovering a nearby control panel that he assumed was linked to the door. "Child's play," Using years of experience dealing with accessing control panels he should, the young adult swiftly hacked into the system's mainframe and downloaded the passwords associated with it.
"Password: BRAVO123"
Smiling at his success, the blonde quickly capitalised on the opportunity to leave without notice- that is, after patiently waiting until all the nurses had made their rounds.
After waiting several minutes to make sure no'one was checking in on him, Naruto swung his feet around from the operation table and took a look around. "Where is my jacket?" Seeing none of his belonging, Naruto sighed as he stood, the cold tile flooring making him aware that the piece of clothing he had on was his trousers, his chest barely covered by a string of tightly bound cloth.
"This sucks," Walking over to the door and slightly opening it as quietly as he could; Naruto looked around. Seeing an emtpy hall wall full of open windows that showed the night sky, the blonde smirked to himself in joy before walking out into it and closing the door behind him.
"Where to next?" Searching up, the blonde quickly keep eyes quickly identified a panel that was big enough for him to squeeze into at the top right corner of the wall, not doubt a ventilation shaft. "Time to get out of here," Taking a running start, Naruto used his carried momentum to himself onto the wall and up to the vent. "Addie up." Grunting, Naruto pulled himself up.
"Can you believe Suzie slept with Marcus, I can't wait to see how his wife is going to react."
And not a moment to soon, as just as he get up,two nurses to passed by
"I know right?! I heard she's a Mox, Anna something, a real hard ass."
"Hehe, I always knew Marcus was into butch girls, I wonder if he takes…"
Naruto sighed in relief as the two rounded the corner, turning towards the vent door and pushing it aside. Slipping through it easily, he found a downwards vent that went down several levels, roughly 100 feet, with the nearest vent door being 20 down, one that was clearly not used in a really long time if the dust in the air was any indication.
Deciding he was happy to descend, Naruto made the short journey down, his bare skin making the trip little trouble, an exemplary demonstration that all those climbing classes he took on the weekends paid off.
As soon as he was within five feet of the next vent door, Naruto swung himself drop, kicking open the vent, and hooping down onto the solid ground- cringing internally as soon as he heard the vent door slap against the wall. "Please, gods above, I may have never believed in you before, but please, don't let any of the nurses hear that."
A tense couple of seconds filled the air as Naruto awaited his faint, his breath held tight as he tried to listen for any sounds. "Thank you, none-existence being in the sky." No longer in danger of being caught, Naruto decided to look around the room where he had landed him.
"Oh wow, what a surprise, an empty room." Remarking the blonde blandly as he looked around, the room was rarely visited by nurses, if the lack of their chatting was anything to go by.
That and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust.
In the centre of the room was a single bed in the centre, and that was about it. Truly, Naurto didn't know what he expected to find, of course there was going to be nothing in an abandoned part of the hospital. His eyes slowly glanced around as he walked, only to stop when he saw a couple of capsule bottles. "What this?" Brushing a thumb across the dusty label, the blonde found the bottle was of 12-year-old out of date medication, one for a "Miss Yakovleva". "Securicine?"
Upon reading the label, the room flashed red for Naruto, his mind temporarily snatched away from reality as a list of information merged with his consciousness, gifted him an understanding of the product.
Even if said information was definitely not public.
Securicine, BioTechinca owned.
Properties; painkiller used for all types of pain relief, but is used medically to relieve pain, related to infections and bone-related deterioration, effectiveness 38.329%.
Public Side Effects: sickness and mental fog.
Restricted Side Effects: Gradual neurodegeneration with prolonged usage.
Grunting in surprise, Naruto blinked away the red as he frantically looked around. "What the crap?" In his panic, the blonde activated his internal scanners to make sure someone hadn't breached his network.
"Well, that's…. new."
Finding nothing, the revived blonde chose to get out of the area over finding the mystery voice- confident that the hospital staff would no doubt find him if he stayed still, even if he was in an abandoned part of their workplace.
Silently opening the door, Naruto glanced through the crack. Finding an empty hallway with an equally dusty floor, the blonde made his decision. Dashing through the door, he quickly made his way, silently opening the doors of each room, and finding the same thing repeatedly.
Prescriptions to Securicine
A once mysterious scene quickly became apparent.
BioTechica was hiding the evidence of a massive scandal in plain sight.
Meaning they had complete deniability if a lawsuit was brought against them.
It sickened the blonde to his gut.
With all his excitement now gone, Naruto decided then and there that he would track down the families affected by this, let them know what he had found, and let BioTechica deal with the shitstorm that followed.
It would teach them to make a profit off those in need.
With his next move decided, the blonde started making his way back to his hospital room; it would do him good if the whole hospital went into shutdown should a nurse come to check up on him.
Slipping down the same vent door to the soft tile floor, Naruto glanced towards the doors in the hallway, finding an observation room right next to his. Though he knew he couldn't stay for too long - nurses would soon come looking for him – he was curious to see if anyone was inside. Pushing the door handle, Naruto found it surprisingly unlocked. Stepping inside and taking in its sights and sounds, Naruto found it all but empty, except for a single figure sleeping soundly, using several of the chairs as a makeshift bed.
Stepping closer to the figure, it became apparent that the "figure" was Jezz, her afro pushed to one side, making a funny-looking mohawk, her mouth open to let out soft breaths. Her calm features were peaceful, tranquil even, and before the blonde realised it, his hand came out to push away some loose hairs that had dropped down, rough hands accidentally brushing against her face.
Humming in pleasure, Jezz's sleeping body naturally moved into his touch; sleepy eyes fluttered gently as she slowly awoke.
"Hey, sleepy head," Whispering softly, Naruto smiled at Jezz, a warm feeling blossoming in his chest as her natural beauty was illuminated by the moon's glow.
"Naruto?" Half asleep, Jezz reached up, hands touching his tanned face as if he wasn't real. "Naruto!" Upon realising that he was indeed real, her body jerked awake, arms circling around the blonde to pull him down into a tight hug.
"I'm here," Hunched over awkwardly, Naruto smiled gently as he rubbed Jezz's back to comfort her. "Don't worry."
"Don't worry he says," Jezz snapped back, her sleep deprivation forgotten as she glared towards the healing blonde. "You're lucky I don't put your ass back in that hospital bed for the heart attack you gave me." Letting go of the blonde, Jezz glanced down at the bandage-wrapped chest, quick to release that the blonde had no shirt on. Thankfully he still had his trousers on; that was a sight she didn't want to see… at least not in this kind of situation. "If you ever, and I mean ever, scare me like that again, I'll make sure you're bound to a bed for the rest of your life."
An odd sense of dread washed over Naruto at the threat, he knew that the woman was not joking with him, and the serious look she sent his way just made it worse.
"R-right."
"Now, show me your head." Confused by the command, Naruto looked at the woman like she had grown a second head, her tone leaving no room for argument. "You took a bullet to your head; I want to make sure your plug didn't sustain too much damage."
"Jezz, you suck at tech; how would you know if-"
"Just shut up and let me look!" Jezz commanded with a blush, pushing against Naruto's shoulder to make him turn around. "Stupid blondes." Muttering under her breath, Jezz made an effort to centre herself, heat rising to her cheeks as she cupped the blonde's jaw and tilted his head back.
"Jezz?" Naruto questioned as he glanced at the upside-down girl in confusion. That was until, without warning, she leaned down and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, centimetres away from his mouth, before shoving his head back up, jerking his brain.
"Don't worry me like that in the future, Naruto."
Sitting in stunned silence, Naruto was bewildered, his unfocused eyes staring at the wall blankly as Jezz carefully removed his neck wrapping, humming softly as she moved the hair out of the way to see the neroplug hiding below.
Before she could check it thoroughly, the door to the room was harshly pushed open; the female doctor from before came rushing in, panic written on her face. "Have you seen… Mr Naruto!" Growling with fury, the blue-haired female stormed over to the stunned blonde, gripping his right ear and dragging him to his feet, who was a head taller than her. "Do you have any idea what panic you could have caused!" Snapping at the blonde, the redhead dragged the man out of the observation room as her eyes glowed green. "This is surgeon Avison; Mr Uzumaki has been found."
A tense silence filled the room as a woman stood still for a moment before nodding and continued to drag the blonde out of the room, ignoring his protests as she forced him into his room, shoving himself, "And stay there!" before locking the door behind him- putting a silent alarm on it should it open without a card.
移す
Net running was a space of limitless possibilities.
You wanted a cupcake the size of a house, you got it.
You want to visit the past in-depth, or even re-write it for your viewing pleasure, you got it.
Travoursing such lands of boundless possibility was both terrifying and extraordinary.
Some spent weeks at a time exploring.
Netrunners, they call 'em. All you needed was a good understanding of coding, a brain, and an ice bath or cyber chair to sustain the body.
For one user, going by the name fuego kedi, the net was an escape from life. A way to forget. A way to distance herself from the pain of loss. Traversing her own personal land of make-believe and code, the 19-year-old danced in a digitised field of memories- ones of a happier time.
However, her daydreams were rudely interrupted by a phone call, the loud echoing of a song destroyed her fields, a large picture of an old-anime-styled octopus replacing it.
Niban no kashitte itsumo komaru ~
ichiban de daitai no koto wo icchau kara ~
Groaning, the girl tried to ignore the call, but as the seconds turned to minutes, she couldn't take it anymore, the catchy song annoyed her enough to make her pant in frustration. Reaching out, the blue-haired net runner swiped at the picture with a wave, a very pale female with a young face, sporting black hair and green eyes replacing the octopus's place. "Sasshhhhha, why are you ignooooring me?!" The picture of the female's face zoomed out to show a short, 5 foot and some centimetres, female leaning against a leather chair, her feet kicked up and a bowl of what looked to be fried chicken on her lap. "You're hurting my feeelings, daarin."
"Oh hush, Rumi." Sasha snapped back at the shorter female as she moved the projection of the female to her left whilst opening her personal messages and the web on two separate screens, a techno chair appearing under her simultaneously. "Plus, we were up late last night making that tier list about worst foods, so I'm tired."
Blowing raspberries, the short net-runner used her impressive net-running skills to project an avatar in Sasha's space and leaned against the chair, her eyes glowing red as she opened a separate tab, which she shoved in front of Sasha's face a second later. "Here, check it."
Sasha gently pushed the screen back, blinking away some black spots as she tried to get a better look at what Rumi was trying to show her. "Is that our tier list?"
"You bet," Setting her butt down on Sasha's lap, much to said girl's grunting annoyance, Rumi hummed as she swiped at the statics. "Top this week, well, in regards to food." Taking pride in their accomplishment, she continued to gloat in happiness and bounced lightly on her new seats, ignorant to the fact that said female wasn't paying her mind; instead, she was clicking through her mail. "What that?" Breaking from her gloating, Rumi glanced upwards just as Sasha ran a scan on unopened untitled mail. "Anything?"
"Strangely, no." She replied with a frown. "The original ip is constantly bouncing, meaning it was probably a proxy." Judging the pros and cons of opening the email before settling for it. "If this fries my brain, I'm tracking down the idiot who sent it, and so haunting their ass."
To whom it may concern,
I've attached a file that you may find interesting,
A friendly nationhood fox.
File attachement: 16mb – Securicine
"What's Securicine?" Rumi remarked as she stood up, several files opening to show a medicine used by BioTechica. "Strange, what does this crap have anything to do with you?" Rumi asked as she glanced towards Sasha, only to see her blankly looking forward, no doubt already downloading the file. "Sasha?"
"My mum took Securicine before she died." Barely above a whisper, Sashs's voice echoed as her 'space' transmogrified into a field with hundreds of photos of a woman laying in a bed, taking a set of pills, each one at the same time, but on a different day. "How did they know?" Downloading the attachment, several screens displaying a BioTechica logo appeared around the two, red lights flashing ominously before fading away to show dozens of graphics. "What is this stuff?"
Also unsure of the nature of the graphics, Rumi dragged several of the files and transformed them into small screens. "Profit margins, prescriptions, production costs." Shocked by the very illegal nature of the files, she turned to her friend in wonder. "Sasha, this is super dangerous! If anyone found out we had this stuff…."
"We'd be iced," Sasha finished the sentence with a gulp, unsure if she should continue reading, her hand reaching for the close button, only to freeze when she saw two files that seemed to glow more than the others. "What the…" Modified blue eyes widened in shock as the file opened, showing a list of names. Frantically, the girl searched for a name she had hoped wouldn't appear.
However, much to her detriment, sitting in plain sight with bland white text was her mother's name.
Centre herself, Sasha shakily clicked the file- a frown on her face when two separate tabs appeared, one named public documentation and one called the official restricted document.
Going into the the public file, Sashsa found a portfolio of her mother, her date of birth, her weight, even, much to the daughter's horror, the mother's sexual activity at the time of death. However, what got her attention was the publicly documented cause of death. A lung infection caused by an old gunshot wound to the spine sustained in the last war, something she was not informed of.
Clicking out of the file, Sasha moved on to the other file, "The official restricted document." The same profile appeared with one distinctive change.
The cause of death: Neurodegeneration caused by overuse of Securicine.
"This… we need to reveal this!" Deep in shock for the past several minutes, as she processed the information, Sasha snapped out of her thoughts and turned to her gasping friend, her eyes looking down at the screen.
"As damning this evidence is, there is no way BioTechnica wouldn't cover them up before they hit the public."
"But the information needs to get out." Sasha stressed as she turned her focus from her mother's death, rage mixed with pain bubbling in her gut. "Rumi, this might sound irrational, but we need to get into a Biotechica office and upload this onto their website."
Rumi could only gap at her friend, who had only recently just turned 18, in shock. "I mean, we need experience first, and a team."
The two shared a nod,
And a new team was formed.
