Cold winds spread throughout night city, as the city of glits and glimmer did what it did the best, and that was Shine.
But tonight was a night to experience and get lost in the circus lights and millions of choices to have fun.
Tonight the only thing that shined too Maelstrom was the moon and its pale splendor.
As This Night marks change in Santo Domingo.
Royce's and Patricia's teams cut off any escapes possible as they were locked and loaded with silencers to keep the crickets undisturbed and 6th Street without a clue.
Right now currently Dum Dum and his crew were all in the action at the moment setting up Micro Closed Net Antennas.
On every house in Santo Domingo.
Good for Dum Dum his team was the second biggest the first being Royce and his team then Patricia and her team and the lastly just Him.
Right now Rich was in a van being cold AF in a fridge full of water, ice, and Wires.
He had one other person with him and that was the Friend of Marcus, Shane Lynn.
Surprisingly to Rich he saw no anger or any show of desire to fuck shit up.
"You cool, shane"
"I should be out there killing those sons of bitches"
"Did you know about Marcus's situation"
"I dated his sister when we were in Highschool together, the only reason we broke up was that she wanted to focuse on college"
"Marcus was a brother to me"
"Apologies"
"No, it's not your fault, we chose this life, we knew the risks, but that doesn't mean I'll forgive what those fuckers did to him"
Holo blimped for Rich as he answerd the call as the only thing heard was.
"Your Turn" as Rich recognized the voice as the man that taught him how to Netrun in the first place.
"Codefreak I didn't know you would be dragged into this shit"
"To see 6th Street go down before my own eyes and to see how far you've come to see how far the chick flew from the nest"
Fuck
"So this is going to be like your first day with me, I'm going to help you and bare more the weight, just fill your part and call it for tonight"
With that Codefreak cut the line.
"It's Show Time" spoke Rich as he activated his Frontal Cortex Cyberware.
As he flipped the switch activating the main receiver that would travel to the rest of Santo Domingo.
He layed back into the water and submerged himself deep as he would find himself in the dark hellish void that was Cyberspace.
And he got to work as he traveled in the matter of seconds connecting to each and every Antenna and through those Antennas it gave him visual of the thousands of ICE protected software and personal links as he hacked over 100 different people at once.
Pushing his Memory Boost to 50%,
His Meachatronic Core to 50%
He was beyond his usual pace of 100%
As he knew how much farther he could go as he cranked up his RAM Upgrade at 50%
Self-Ice at 50%
He was idling at 200% power.
He didn't want to go further then this because then he would actually be close to his max and he didn't want to go cyberpsycho and fuck it up for everyone.
As the difficulty with this particular task wasn't the enemies themselves it was the mass and just how many of them he had to deal with at once.
He was cutting through they're personal ice like butter as he knew what he needed to do, the issue was not using the Deamon.
But keeping its effect for longer then it's usual run time.
To do such would require a strong power input.
So the output of the deamon could be more effective this is where his Stephenson MK.4 Cyberdeck came in handy as this Cyberdeck allowed more freedom then the usual Militech or Arasoka Cyberdeck.
Stephenson Tech were a company of Quality despite how overpriced they made they're product.
He continued to cut through code and break them down without tripping a single alarm.
He had made it too half his goal as he now had full control and access over 150 members of 6th Street.
As he now had to make these 2 quick hacks work in sequence with each other and put in about 100% power each so he can have controll over how long they last.
The issue now was that he was way beyond 300% power as he was reaching close to 400% and he was feeling it, as his mind was fazing in and out, the code surrounding him began to blink and fade moving at rapid speeds until those bars of numbers and code turned into solid red lines.
He was losing it.
Shane watched as the ice water was turning crimson right before his eyes.
His immediate action was to go and help Rich but he didn't know if that would get in the way of the mission at hand as he made a holo to royce.
Royce picked up and Shane explained everything that was going on at the Van but after hearing that the water was turning crimson that just got Royces goose geesen.
Royce hung up and then gave out the signal to Patricia.
The Raid had finally began.
As Patricia and her team stormed the Santo Domingo area.
Slaughtering and Maraudering.
Street by Street, building by building, no mercy was shown.
As men, women, teenagers were sprayed with bullets as anyone that was an active members was wiped with bullet holes through every cavity in they're body.
In the matter of 6 hours, 6th Street was no more and Santo Domingo was in control of Maelstrom.
Rich was seeing nothing but dark Crimson as he was surrounded by nothing but red light.
He could not move, he could not scream, he could not speak, only accept as his mind was being cracked and split by the weight of all the power he released inside Cyberspace.
He was dying.
But slowly it was as if stuck in a motion of slow agonizing death, to the point that he was begging to be finished off.
His mind was begging for release, it had felt like eternity.
An eternity of agony and horror.
Scratching at his mind unraveling him piece by piece as he was brought back to the memories of his youth.
In a yellow apartment.
A women with bright Red Hair.
She smiled at him as she waved him to go play outside.
And he did so as waiting outside was his best friend.
"Rich let's hit the court before those assholes hog it all up again"
He had a basketball in hand and Rich followed.
It felt like a day he remembered so fondly yet, he never thought he had such a memory stored away.
He didn't remember this shit at all, he started to think all this is just his implants fucking with him.
Was he going Cyberpsycho right now.
He didn't know or understand what was happening right now.
As this was not like with Bjorn, usually he would just black out and by then Bjorn would pull him out.
But currently he and his friend were running on the side walk as fast as possible to get to the Basketball court at the playground down the block.
And as they were moving and got to see the empty court he saw his friend make it there first but he felt a ridiculously crazy solid hit his side as suddenly he was floating in the air.
He didn't know what was going on but at first it was pain and then it was all air.
And then he hit the pavement.
And that flashed back to reality as suddenly a burst of Adrenaline hit him as all the crimson code devolved back to numbers as he was back to his spot and he immediately shut off his implants and signed off.
His vision went black and when his optics turned on all he saw was red he felt a pair of arms pull him out of the water.
Fresh cold air hit his body as he felt a freezing effect fall on him as it chilled him as he was hyperventilating.
"Fuck, Fuck, fuck, shit" spoke Shane as was freaking the fuck out as he was for fucking sure that rich was dead.
"Yo, stay cool, stay cool, we gotcha" spoke Dum Dum as he was trying to calm Rich down.
But then Rich puked out even more blood and most likely his lunch into the blood drenched ice water bath.
As the Hyperventilating only escalated further no signs of stopping.
"What do we do"
"Here hold him"
As Dum Dum relinquished the weight he was carrying to Shane.
And the Dum Dum punched the fuck out of Rich's gut as he laid in heavy body shots as each body shot caused Rich to barf out more blood everytime.
Until the point Rich Knocked out due to the pain.
And right when Rich Knocked out.
Dum Dum pulled out an air Hypo stim and jabbed that right in rich as Rich's unconscious body released air and more blood.
"We need to get him to a Ripper Doc, stat"
"I know one near by under a bridge, guy owes me a favor, you make sure He don't kick the bucket before we get there"
"Got it"
As Dumb Dumb got in the driver seat and kicked that son bitch in overdrive.
When Rich woke up he was under a bright light and he was watching as he was being operated on.
"They said you might wake up, sorry for not injecting any anesthesia"
"How much"
"Honestly, not too bad, had to replace your Cyberdeck completely and your liver was destroyed"
"But depending on how bad it should have been, because when you came in it was nasty, blood all over the floor and everything"
"You walked away with only your cyberdeck being fried to your head which should have been much more then what you got, going off what you did that is"
"Seriously shutting down everything for a solid 6 hours it's insanity"
"But I guess what you guys did makes up for it"
"It's done?"
"Right now it's all clean up, the real wonder on my mind was how did you keep civilians out of the crossfire despite turning off they're power"
"I don't know probably Codefreak was able to pick them out so they stayed out of my way, I guess my mind was just focusing on all the 6th Street Identification"
"Well regardless, your all patched up now, here"
As the mystery Ripper handed him an Air Hypo.
Rich took 2 puffs.
And then stood up and immediately feel down to a knee.
"Watch it, baby steps"
Rich nodded to the Ripper.
As then came Shane that went to help Rich putting an arm around him and helping Rich get back up.
"Use me as a krutch"
"Sorry"
"Don't worry about it, this is the least I can do"
"Where's Dumb Dumb, he had to meet with royce told me to tell you to holo him when you got out"
"How long was I out"
"About an hour and a half at most, that ripper doc did quick work on you"
"How much did he charge"
"Nothing, he said he had some beef with 6th Street so the least he could do is save one of the guys that took care of his problem"
"I'll pay him back later"
As Rich holo'd Dum Dum.
"You kicking"
"Tell me where your at and find out"
"Deep down, Rancho Coronado, 6th Street base spot"
When they arrived they were greeted with a spectacle as they're was a load of Maelstrom bodies.
But none of them were Dum Dum, Royce, or Patricia.
So this could have just been a few losses.
They parked in the back street near by a garage.
And Shane helped him being his krutch as they climbed the stairs to the top of the building and that was when Rich realized how wrong he was as the first thing he saw was Royce and his group fire and kill Patricia and the rest of her followers.
The remaining defying group in Maelstrom was annihilated.
As Royce turned to Rich and simply smiled as he then walked off and got in a car and drove off.
While other Maelstrom members stayed for clean up.
Then he felt a hand on his back.
"Good to see your still tough as hell" said Dumb Dumb as he gave his friend a smile.
"Maelstrom own Santo Domingo and all its assets"
"And none of it would have been achievable without you almost dying and Codefreak giving a slight fuck" spoke a deeper octave voice as an older man in a brown leather coat, black shirt, dark pants and brown boots stood before them.
"Good to see you Bronze"
"So what's your plan for this dump Teach" said Dumb Dumb.
As the truth was that when Dumb Dumb and Rich were younglings they were under the tutelage of Bronze.
The new leader of the Santo Domingo Maelstrom branch claimed by Royce himself.
"The plan is simple, rebuild, replan, reestablish.
And hopefully build enough trust that we can begin our operations into glitter and sell it outwards towards Heywood and City Center"
"Cutting into Tyger business"
"They've been set back due to complications with they're partners so we've decided to step in and swoop they're partners into a deal"
"What's the cut"
"30% / 70%, not the best deal but it's a start to a healthy relationship"
"And the neighborhoods in Rancho and Arroyo"
"The goal is to make people see Maelstrom in a better light, they don't know what happend last night, all they see is a power shortage"
"So we're going to assist in fixing houses and hopefully fix up the power grid in Santo Domingo"
"So the goal is to bullshit civilians by making them believe we are good by help fixing shit"
"Damn right"
"Some shit never changes"
"In Maelstrom, never"
"But that's what makes it the best in NC"
"Can't deny that anymore"
As Dum Dum, Rich, and Shane turned to leave.
"Wait before you go Rich, I was able to convince Royce to give you a take for your efforts" as Bronze snapped his finger and one of the underlings brought a big black box and shoved it in Dum Dum's hands.
Rich simply nodded to his mentor as they headed off.
Dumb Dumb, loading it up in the van a Maelstrom graffited Galena.
As Shane got Rich in the passenger seat.
And Shane got in the driver seat they took off back to the All Foods plant.
When they arrived Rich developed full control in his legs again, as he got his box and went up to his office as he set it down underneath his Ripping chair and then laid down on his chair.
He was too weak to do anything else.
After everything that happened to night he can finally enjoy himself and properly rest.
And Closed His Eyes.
To Be Continued.