CyberZoo: Nighthowler Runners
(For MrShooter)
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The moonlight rippled on the waves as the dropship raced over the ocean, dropping low, letting the wake of its air smother the natural motions out of the water and instead write down its own. The moon still glowed in it, reflected on the forced flatness or caught in the spray, mixing in with what few dull violets, pinks and oranges that the night cast cityscape could spare.
"Hey Callum," one of the rhinos inside the cabin said, cutting across the howl of the wind and deep roar of the engines. "Want to catch the ferris wheel when we're done?"
The wolf to the top right gave him a short look, sniggering, before peering forward. Out through the glass cockpit, the small marmot pilot tucket away in her own mini-seat. There, caught in the moonlight and illuminated by his own night vision he saw the structures of the old promenade loom out of the blackness as they circled in closer, charging towards the shore. "Sure thing Mack," he snorted, "as long as it can hold your weight."
"-If you'd quit ya yapping," the third member of the team said, the wolverine busy running a pre-flight test on her modifications. In many ways, she'd been the one the most under the ripperdoc's knife compared to anyone else here, yet instead of full replacements she'd sought out complementary augments for her existing body, no matter how much more expensive it was compared to just pure amputation and upgrading. On the side of her legs ran long exo-struts, bracing around her torso and up her back. Combined with those running down her arms, it meant that she could just about lift the entire dropship off the ground. In many ways though, they were just the foundation for allowing her most prized augment, the large bulky contraption fused over the small of her back and shoulders, to be used to its full potential.
More tests, making sure everything was functioning, even if it had done so five times before on just this flight.
The other heavily augmented mammal onboard was silent, stoic, sitting there as she was, the once a tigress focussing on calm breaths, her robotic eyes providing no hint of emotion.
"Contact in thirty seconds," came a call from the pilot as the sea underneath them gave way to the beach, the engines roaring up and the occupants feeling themselves get pushed down into their seats as they sailed up, over the first set of buildings and then weaving through the mix of abandoned and half completed structures and towers. The odd orange light of an occupied room would fly past like a firefly as, with a sudden pitch to the side, the dropship began sidestepping through the air, buffeting against the wind as it killed its speed.
"Ten seconds."
The wolf turned his glasses augment on, two small blast protecting screens sliding in in front of his eyes. "Ready boss."
The fifth member, looking on at all four, stood up, similar glasses sliding down in front of his eyes and with a quick thought changing the worlds into the blues, oranges and reds of thermal vision. "Huwl, with me," you said, pointing at the wolf, all as the tiger and rhino got into position on the other side.
A warning siren blared, the doors opened, rappel lines were released and out they went, grabbing on and sliding down fast, the air blasting down around them only for the sound to get cancelled out thanks to the ear-mods. Instead, it was the voices that spoke out the clearest as you and the wolf landed down on the roof. "Contact," you spoke, turning to your lupine companion and then back, spotting Callum and Mel sail down fast to the balcony three floors down.
"Contact," came their dual responses, clear and crystal.
"Overwatch spots activity floor T-minus two," came a bark from the wolverine as she flew overhead, her thruster pack sailing her around the top like a destroying angel, scanning and waiting.
Already though, the mammals marched on, Huwl taking the lead as he reached up to a nearby access door and, placing a quick explosive charge, blasted it open.
You raced past them, blistering down the stairs, through the corridors, turning and turning to get to the correct level. Yellow and black paw on the railing, spinning yourself around, you let your augmented feet smash through the nearest door as you carried yourself through in a combat roll, picking yourself up and in an instant assessing the situation.
Break room.
Two targets, both formerly asleep.
An auto-cannon pulled up out of your left paw, neural circuits letting it fire off at the two smallish mammals in an instant, tranqing them before they could even tear the covers off. "One weasel, one bunny, tranq'd. Any sign off the fox?"
"Making our way up," came Callum's response, "We…" He was cut off, swearing, as the sound of gunfire from below rang out.
"-Sir," the wolf said from behind, coming in.
"We clear the room," you said. "Seraphin?"
"Want me to assist Cal?" The wolverine asked.
"Affirmative," you said, looking out to see her swoop down, feet first, into the building a few floors below you. There was a dull rumble of the walls below as she ploughed straight through a solid wall, her augments proving their worth.
You and the wolf just finished scanning the apartment you were in, looking for signs of heat or scents of life. Instead, all you found was food, wires, jumbles of equipment and other electrics.
"Room clear," you barked, turning and carrying on down.
"About time!" Callum shouted. "Mel had to bust a ton of auto turrets to get through…"
"-No netrunners?" You asked.
"None," Seraphin added. "Bust they've tried holding this place firmer than the blackwall, I…"
She faded out, static filling the air for a second or two until Huwl broke it. "-Sera…"
"-I'M STILL HERE," she yelled, so hard the sound dampers in their ears muted most of it. "Just like this giant bank vault."
The colours of the thermal camera went off as you turned to look at your wolf subordinate, who spoke back. "Think he's…"
"He's got to be," you said, racing down to that level. The three there were already at work, chipping away at the archaic features of the vault, readying to break it open. You looked over it, ordered your mammals into position and held yourself, poised, weapons ready, waiting.
They jolted as the shockwaves of the explosion hit them, their ear augments doing their best but helpless to stop some ringing coming out from inside. Seraphin and Callum raced forward to haul the gate open using their augmented and natural strength to open the path in.
One, after a quick scan, you took, Mel on your left, Huwl on your right, as you called out. "It's over Wilde, we know you're…"
"You're…"
"You're…"
"You're…"
.
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With a frustrated huff, Chief Bogo of the Zoo City Police Department pulled the Braindance Wreath off his head and sighed, groaning as he massaged his temple. A scowl etched on his face, he looked like he could stew over it for hours. Instead he was only granted seconds as a short laugh cut him off. He looked up at the cheetah sitting across from him, bandages around his eyes almost like spectacles, even as the pupils looked on in their even present orange warmth. He sat cross legged, relaxed, even as the deep blue of his police dress blazer classed with the hospital gown that it had been draped over. His paws, one a black carbon fibre augment reaching up to and above its elbow, the other the same that he was born with, were folded. Relaxed. Opening up casually. "I said I'd do my best to smooth out the disruption. Still, if I…" He leant over to the keyboard terminal, claws of keratin and diamond tapping away. "If you'd now…"
Bogo nodded, closing his eyes and beginning to shake a little as the mind weave carried on playing, The cheetah just waiting, eyes closed, slowly recounting what he remembered. "Three, two, one…"
With a jolt, Bogo was shaken awake from the replay, trembling hooves coming up and slipping the headgear off himself. Gently lowering it to the tabletop, he flicked it away before resting his head down into his paws, cradling his temple. "Shit."
"It always does have more impact when you see it from my eyes, doesn't it?" the cheetah said, wincing a little as something caught along the scar lines around his eyes.
The Chief just looked up, his expression blank. "How many?"
"Most, if not all," the cheetah said. "Seraphin's augments have been unclipped, so we think she'll be safe after treatment. The rest…"
"I was talking about ALL of Maxtac, Onyx" Bogo growled.
"As was I," he said, pausing and smiling a little. "First name basis already. Only been, what? Fifteen…"
"And that was too soon McCalliston," Bogo cut in, standing up. "Your sacrifices aside, I still don't like you. And…"
"-Because I was finally proven right?" the big cat asked, eyebrows rising a little.
The chief just glared at him, hoof coming up to hold his badge. "This used to mean something," he said. "It still does, to a lot of us, no matter what changes come in and violate it…"
"And you're living in the past, 'Chief'," the cheetah cut in. "Old outdated notions that haven't existed for years, that led you to what I…"
"-And your paymasters…"
"-WARNED you was a dangerous threat," he carried on, frizzed tail picking up behind him. "And now, in the ruins of your failure, you're turning on those of us who are…"
"Insubordinate?" Bogo asked, cutting in. "You should remember who is in charge here."
Onyx nodded. "So should you. So should you. After all, this is not going to look good on the quarterly report, is it? Mass costs for reinstalling augments of…" He whistled a little. "I don't know how many mammals."
The buffalo just glared at him. "If you have any suggestions?"
"I do," he said, pausing as he turned to the keyboard terminal and began typing in. "Given Wilde's agenda, it makes sense he was looking for useful mammals to integrate in before he was found out. In fact, there's one particular mammal he headhunted out of particular interest to me." He turned the screen around to face Bogo, the Chief at first withdrawing, confused, before finally sighing and looking at his 'subordinate.' "I suppose you'll be wanting to take this matter into your own paws."
He smiled, standing up. "Seems I have an appointment to keep. I'll keep you updated, when I find the time. Chief."
.
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"You are a beautiful specimen," the horse doctor spoke, the bunny sitting on the bed squirming a bit as their hooves came over. Whatever had once been at the end of their limbs had been replaced, metal versions put in place. They looked almost normal, when they weren't using them.
But when they were though…
Judy couldn't help but feel a chill as the metal tentacles spooled out of the end and traced their way up and around her hip and left leg. Each one a cool metal spot, circling around and feeling in the space just below her ZCPA bodysuit, even so gently touching and probing the swollen area.
Their head tilted a little, two robotic ears, both different shapes, sizes, colours, twerked in odd directions as they leant in. "I will say that that should heal with him. But this?" They looked down at her right foot paw, especially swollen after she'd twisted it when landing hard. The equid let her feelers move over to it, taking their time to walk down the doe bunny's leg like a centipede on the prowl. The bunny would have squirmed if it hadn't been so ticklish.
The ripperdoc paused at the reaction, almost purring a little, before carrying on, the bunny now unable not to squirm until the pricks of discomfort of her bad paw being felt and probed rippled up to her.
"Such a weak, delicate thing," they commented, feelers lingering a little bit before scrabbling down to her sole. Judy winced and shivered, biting her lip as a few of the metallic tentacles wrapped themselves just above the swelling to hold the limb in place. Those on the other hoof meanwhile just carried on, slowly, carefully, systematically prowling over the sole of her foot and then working up to her toes, feeling them, testing them, stretching them until little squeaks of discomfort came from her patient.
"With compression and patience this shall heel too," they said, before sweeping in. "But I wouldn't bother. We have to all start somewhere, you might as well."
"M-might as well what?" Judy asked, sitting up, her nose twitching.
"Oh bunny," they cooed. "Cut it off and put in place something better."
"-I, excuse me?" Judy coughed up. "I…"
"Aw, what's the matter, afraid? It's quite delightful, liberating…"
"And I'd rather not," Judy said, voice cutting in.
"Tchhh, there's no fighting the inevitable little virgin."
"-EXCUSE ME!"
The horse lifted themselves away from her, feeling tentacles fulling back inside her augmented hooves as they rolled their eyes. "You won't make anywhere good in the ZCPD without improving on that weak, baby body of yours."
"It's not…" Judy said, pulling herself up even as she winced a little from the pain. "I'm doing perfectly fine in the academy, without any augments, and…"
"Little virgin prude is gonna have to grow up one day," the ripperdoc sighed, a single feeler tentacle reaching up and pulling down at an eyelid, the cherry on the top of her pouty face.
There was a knock on the door and she shook it off, returning to a level of at least some composure. "I am with a patient."
"A patient I want to see," an unknown voice from the other side said.
The horse began to voice an objection only to freeze, a happy grin growing on her face. "Is that you Oryx?"
"The one and only," he said, letting himself in. Judy watched on as the cheetah stranger entered, dressed in full professional clothes, the horse recoiling in shock at the sight.
"Oh Oryx," she whinnied, rushing forwards, tentacles out and feeling all around a set of broken scars around his eyes. "Your body. Your beautiful, beautiful body, what monster did…"
"Clemo," he said calmy. "I'm quite alright."
"But your eyes," they cried. "You're beautiful, iridescent, high performance…"
"Will be fixed, given time," he said, pushing them off. "Now I need to talk to your patient." They held themself there for a second before standing up, bottom lip folding down in a pantomimed pout.
"You big philistine," they said, stomping their foot. And with that, they marched out, slamming the door behind them.
The cheetah watched them go before turning down to Judy, straightening his time. "I do apologise for them…"
"No," Judy squeaked a little. "It's quite alright, I…"
"Oh no, I insist," he said, sitting down. "Oryx McCalliston," he said, smiling as he waved an artificial omni-paw at himself. "The one who head hunted them for the ZPD."
"I…" Judy began, waving him off before freezing him. "Wait? You're the reason they hired that?"
He let out a short laugh. "An appropriate description, given the tentacles."
"I mean…" Judy blinked, paws out as she backtracked.
"Trust me, I understand the discomfort with someone like… Well, someone like that," he laughed. "Honestly, if they were less…" He paused, waving a paw in front of him as he judged the correct word.
"Intense?"
"Intense, pawsy… -Tentacly," he said, "they wouldn't be working in a place like this, not by a longshot. They were one of the best private ripperdocs you could find, but no sooner had they got themselves a private client, than they'd get themselves fired for crossing a line. Or a dozen."
"And you thought you'd hire them here?" she asked, sounding unconvinced.
"We've got a bottom line to think about," Oryx said. "And patient satisfaction is, sadly, something that can be cut into. As you probably just found out Cadet Hopps."
Judy nodded. "So, uh… Here to talk about anything or…"
"As a matter of fact, I am," he said, sitting down and holding one leg over the other. Both foot paws had been replaced with shock absorbing high traction replacements, the lines of mechanic booster muscles rippling up his limbs. He leant forward. "Tell me, why would a bunny with no augments, of any kind, or net experience other than old fashioned type and keyboard interfacing, be interesting in joining not just the ZCPD but our most elite, strongest, feared division?"
"I…" she began, before shrugging. "To make the world a better place."
She tensed up a little as if waiting for a laugh. Instead, Oryx gave her a shrug. "Understandable. But there's never been a bunny Max-Tac officer before…"
"Well I'll be the first then," she said, standing up straight.
There was a pause, the cheetah humming a little. "I mean, I've seen some bunnies do some incredible things. One of NetWatch's best officers for instance. But even he has augments to help him, a whole in-built cooling system." He chuckled. "The vents are actually designed like these stripes on his face and back. Unless you're looking closely, you'd never know. But you?" He looked closer. "There are so many who go without augments their whole life. But when looking into a career like this? It makes me think. Are you determined to prove a point, or just not thinking things through?"
Judy sighed, looking away. "I… I don't deny that my family really aren't fans of augments. They're old fashioned and everything. But, if I need one for the job, I'll get one for the job. That's been our philosophy, always. I've got a few relatives who lost a limb, their vision, hearing, no problem with augmenting there. And for things like intense noise suppression and communication, sure," She looked up, giving a thumbs up. "When I need them, I will get them." She gave a little laugh. "As if after pushing myself so hard physically I wouldn't quit my dream out of something like that. It's just, you no, no need to go crazy over it all, bits here, there…"
"-What was his name?"
Judy was cut off as Oryx sat down next to her, reaching over with his natural paw to hold her shoulder. She shuffled away. "W-who's name? I don't…"
"The cyberpsycho," he said.
Judy tried to word a response only for it to die in her mouth. Instead she looked away, sighing, chewing on it for a few seconds before letting out a soft, quiet, sad reply. "Gideon Grey."
Oryx nodded.
"Poor family, schoolyard bully. He was a jerk," she said. "Then he got into cheap augments. It seemed like every time I saw him he had a new one. Bolted on, badly designed, I swear he got a few viruses from some, He…" She looked up at him. "I sure you don't need to be told what happened next. Only that, when he did start attacking, this old lackey of his, a ferret named Travis, jumped up to try and shake some sense into him. This was his only friend in the world, the closest mammal to him. They were so close, through thick and thin, all the time I'd known them. He got ripped clean in two by that cyborg."
"Cyborg. Not Gideon Grey?"
"I saw him, that fox, before and after," Judy said. "I'm pretty sure he was dead already. It was just how many he'd kill until MaxTac shut him down. They didn't know how to get them back then, did they? Not like they do now."
"We're only able to subdue one in ten," Oryx warned.
"Then I'll try and make it one in five. Then maybe one in two…"
He smiled. "I suppose you can. One of my best agents was one we brought back. Tigress, heavily augmented but the lions share came from a pair of faulty mantis claws that didn't interface. We got her in before the rampage hurt anyone, and she was one of our best officers."
Judy nodded only to freeze. "Was? -I… I'm so sorry," she began.
"She's alive," he cut in. "But… It's hard to explain." He stood up, walking over her. "Cadet Hopps. I'm here for a very specific reason. Your name was flagged up in the records of one of our best netrunners, I believe due to your lack of augments. However, he's gone rogue and potentially thrown the entire ZCPD and the safety of this entire city into jeopardy. But, you could be critical to us for the very same reason he was interested in you."
Judy blinked. "I… What?"
"-Understandable," he said. "Come. If you're interested in getting a direct training route into MaxTac, no more academy required, I can help you. Join my team, I'll brief you, show you what we're facing via a braindance, and then… Well, it's up to you."
.
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The bunny jolted, eyes going wide as she woke up. Heart beating fast, arms trembling, she looked up at Oryx. "Okay," she said, smiling. "First big braindance, and it's one of your raids."
He smiled. "Direct experience," he said, moving over to his screen. "Now, it always fritzes up there due to what happens next. The reason we need you." He looked up at her. "Are you ready?"
Judy, despite a slight pit of worry, nodded. She had no idea what was going to happen next, other than she guessed it was going to be bad. Still, here she went…
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She was back, looking through Oryx's eyes, listening through his ears, as she stepped inside the secure chamber. Looking through the thermal imaging of the cheetah's retractable eyewear, she saw the world in dark blues, cut through with orange wires or the hot red glow of computer equipment.
She felt the weapons coming out of her artificial paw and the new gate from this different body, and so many other things that were alien to her yet, here, felt completely natural. Her… Or His, but now her, gaze turned to the wolf as he sniffed forward, catching a scent trail. Callum and Seriph quickly followed behind, all five operatives finding their way into a circle around a small locked room.
"I know you're in there Wilde," she spoke out with a different, male, voice.
"I know you're out there too," a mysterious voice said. "And four mammals who don't deserve this. No matter how painless I want it to be."
"Lis…" the rhino began before the world went mad. The visage in front of her flashed a brilliant white and then turned to pure static, all while her ears began to scream with a deafening roar. She flinched in pain and panicked, clutching her head, trying to speak and feeling her mouth move but not able to hear what was coming out.
Down she went to the floor, paws clutching at her face, finding the screens in front of her eyes and then tearing them clean off. Her face sliced open, her skin torn and twitching with the sparking of exposed wires, but she could see. See the others struggling on the ground clutching their ears, screens in front of their eyes blinding them too. Tab was yelling out, paws waving in front of her as she blindly struggled, bereft of her artificial eyes. Seraphin was struggling and yelling on the ground, her exoskeleton seized solid. And, in front of her, she saw the flash of a red fox stare down at her, drawing a gun, getting ready to…
A blind flying tackle from Huwl threw him off, the gun bouncing across the floor. Wilde made to get it, only for the struggling Callum, still wincing from the roar in his ears, to stumble forward and crush it under hoof. The threat gone, he raised his own weapon and Wilde ran. She/Oryx got up and began racing after him, only for him to pull out some kind of antique stun gun. It hit him/her in the chest as they fell to the sting of the electricity.
With that, off the fox ran.
With that, Judy blinked, back in the office, back in her own body, the cheetah sitting in front of her. "He…" She stumbled. "He infected their augs with a virus."
He nodded. "While he was working for us, yes. Most of mine were installed when I worked at MiliTech, so they escaped. Other than…" He fingered the scars around his eyes. "But most mammals at least had one service with the in-house ripdocs," he sighed. "We're ALL compromised. All at risk. And who knows if he got into the feed in, the other systems. That was just a kill code he used, who knows what else…"
He left it unsaid, Judy standing up. "I understand, Sir." She raised her paw in a salute. "And I will do what I can to help bring this mammal to justice."
Oryx smiled. "Am I glad to hear that," he said. "Am I glad."
.
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The underground den was hot with the heat of running electrics and black-market tinkerers, their noise and that of the mammals living there meaning there was no chance for peace and quiet.
Unless you were a fox in the corner, working away with his net interface. In his case, you could turn your hearing down. You just didn't dare.
Pulling out of the reports he'd been reading the fox sighed, paws wiping down his face. "Oryx you bastard," he said, slowly starting to pack things up. It was a fine balance between doing enough to lose anyone on your tail AND not pick up any more attention. A fine balancing act the vulpine had to hope he was striking. He'd only know he'd fallen off the wire when the ground came up to break him.
Out he went, slowly making his way on. Through the back alleys, through the little used ways, this way, that way, before finally reaching a place he could rest for the night. He set himself down, planning what to do next, only to pause.
His eyes lingered on the picture of a certain bunny he'd heard about before those higher up had found out that he knew too much. "I'm sorry for bringing his attention onto you," he said, fingers gripping his leg. "And I'm sorry if we ever meet." He almost cut himself off there before pausing, a news article popping up.
Another rampage by a cyberpschyo. Another one hitting a rich mammal in a rich neighbourhood. MaxTac was called, it was done. The fox's ears went down as he looked at his bag, reaching in and picking out a gold and alabaster covered artificial paw, little doodles still drawn over it from its past owner.
With a sigh he put it back, giving one last look at the bunny. "Please. Whatever you do, don't let that damn cat start wiring you up with his parts." And with that he shut the screen down and curled up, trying to get at least some sleep, no matter how heavy the pressure was crushing down on him.