Chapter 24: Sewer Gators
Within a few days, Rebecca and Cortez are talking with V and Panam about their current plans. "Well, we are getting too close to our goal of resupply for our trip, we are going to be leaving in a while," Panam said.
"We are leaving San Francisco behind," Rebecca sounds sad about this.
"Well, we need to keep moving and heading for the location. A valley within Montana in the Rocky Mountains. That is where we will set up shop, turning it into a trading post," Panam said.
"That is far away," Rebecca said.
"Yes, we must go through the Free States to head there. We need to avoid Utah which is now under NUSA control, and they kill us on sight if we go through there," V said.
"How long are we staying here?' Cortez asked.
"A few more weeks and then we move out. We go along the coast and head deeper to the north until we hit Nevada which has this city as the next pit stop, Nexus the oasis in the middle of the desert," V said.
"Yeah, hear about that. Sounds cool, I hope we get there before Christmas," Rebecca said as it's in the middle of September 2077.
"We would be able to get there in two months via the route we are going," Panam said.
"Well, you two are dismissed," V said as the two exited the tent to see Lucy sitting on a chair looking at the sky.
"Gee, I hope I am seeing things," Lucy said being worried and feeling a deep pain within her chest.
"Hey there Lucy, you look pale," Rebecca looked worried about the pained expression on her face.
"Oh, it's nothing, I was just thinking about the past again. You want to hang out, you two?" she asked.
"Why not, oh we will be leaving the area within a few weeks. Just to let you know, going to Nexus," Coretez said.
"Oh Nexus, in the middle of that desert. Lots of entertainment there," Lucy said.
"I wanted to go there in time for Christmas. Going on a Christmas Eve would be so wonderful," Rebecca said with hearts in her cyber eyes as Christmas Eve in certain cultures is a romantic time for couples.
"Christmas Eve huh, never did that with David. Shame," Lucy said looking a bit down but she hides it with a smile. "Come on, let's watch a movie at your place," Lucy said.
"Preem, sounds cool to me," Rebecca said as they headed over to their trailer. "Where is Stella?' Rebecca asked.
"With Yuri, taking out bandits," Lucy said.
"They are hitting it off," Cortez said.
"Seems like it, after her husband dying. She wanted something to cling to. I can relate," Lucy said.
"I wonder, did you date anyone on the moon?" Rebecca asked.
"I wanted to move on but it wasn't the right time. Still isn't the right time," Lucy said feeling unable to not completely let go of the past.
"You need to keep moving forward. Clinging to the past would make someone go mad," Cortez said.
"Yeah, I know but I need time. I am feeling better with Rebecca, Stella, and the others here," Lucy said as Rebecca playfully punched her on the arm.
"Us Chooms got to stick together. We will give you the hook-up in no time when you are ready," Rebecca said wanting to be Lucy's wingwoman.
"Sure," Lucy said coolly going into the trailer to see Klunk hovering in the air to look over the computer screen.
"Hello there Lucy, I hope those two are not too much trouble," Klunk said.
"What are you our mother Tin Can?' Cortez asked.
"I kid," he said as they sat on the couch with Cortex going to get popcorn to put in the microwave. "You all watching a movie?" he asked.
'Yep, we are going to watch an old 20th-century movie called Alien. A classic science fiction movie. Bro used to have a huge collection of old-school flat movies. Says new movies today are too crap and bog standard," Rebecca said.
"Pillar has standards, I am surprised. No offends," Lucy said.
"None taken, he can be an asshole but he can cool when he wants to be," Rebecca said as she wirelessly connects to the TV screen to set up both Alien and Aliens to be watched. "Hey, you know there is a weapon that Militech made that is based on the Pulse Rifle?" Rebecca asked.
"Seriously?" Lucy asked as Rebecca nodded her head to send an image on in her eyes.
"Yep, it is called M31A5 AICW which is the latest model of the thing. It's a bullpup assault rifle/grenade launcher combo weapon. With a 150-round top-loading magazine and an underslung pump action grenade launcher with 4 mini grenades in the tube. I always wanted one of these if I can find one," she said feeling disappointed she couldn't find one on sale at a gun shop.
"Gee Pusle Rifle at home indeed," Cortez joked to grab a bowl of buttered popcorn to hit with the ladies.
"These movies are quite classic; can I watch them as well?" Klunk asked.
"Sure, tin head. The more the merrier," Rebecca said sounding excited.
"Better settle in," Lucy said as they prepared to sit down to watch over 4 hours of pure goodness on the flat screen.
The hours flew by as the four were very pleased with the movie session. "Damn, they don't make them like that anymore," Cortez said.
"They are good movies but most of them are just noise. I do like dumb action movies with just blood, violence, explosions, and sex as well," Rebecca said. "Yeah, that sounds fitting for you," Lucy said.
"I remember, me, Pillar and David were watching the whole Star Wars series from episodes 1-6 back-to-back from Pillar's collection. It was one hell of an experience," Rebecca said.
"Wait was there an episode 7 to 9?" Lucy asked.
"They don't exist. There are only 6 episodes, nothing more," Rebecca said as she thought the story ended perfectly and didn't need anymore. "David looked up to Luke and wanted to make a difference just like him. But that never happened and he is not special like Luke Skywalker was," Rebecca said sadly.
"Yeah," Lucy said as she was distracted by something. "Yeah, the fact he hasn't got to his head," Lucy said.
"I got to be admitted. Built Different is such a huge cope if I ever saw one," Cortez said.
"He loses a lot but that made him keep going but after Adam Smasher uses his own Sandevistan against him, it shakes his world apart," Lucy said.
"You never fought other people who use Sandys?" Klunk asked.
"Not really, we are not like V back then. Just normal Edgerunners trying to make a living. V's life shows like a blockbuster movie," Rebecca said as after she came back to DreadZone she truly became vastly stronger than she was in the past. She had to adapt or die within that underground fight club.
"Well, thanks for the movies. It was nice, I will see you soon," Lucy said as she departed out of the trailer to get back to her tent.
"This reminds me of when Pillar comforted me when I was kicked out of school and my normal days were over," Rebecca said as she was thinking about it.
"Willing to share?' Cortez asked.
'Of course," she said to explain what happened.
-Flashback Begins-
Rebecca is inside her room to read a manga book to hear her brother come back from work. "Little sis, how was school?" he asked.
"I got trouble," Rebecca said as Pillar groaned at this.
"Again, that temper of yours gets you into trouble," Pillar said as she tossed a book at his face.
"Gee, I wonder where I got it from," Rebecca feeling angry for her temper got her into this mess.
"Okay, okay. What did you do?" Pillar asked.
"Some dumb girls were pushing my buttons and I screamed at them. Then my pervy teacher called me out and wanted me to stay at his class after school for a few weeks now," Rebecca said.
"Well, get those this, and this will go back to normal Choomba. You will work toward your dream," Pillar trying to comfort her.
"Thanks, I need to be ready for bed. Good night," Rebecca said.
"Good night little sis," Pillar is about to close the door.
"Yo, thanks for the plush. I wanted that," Rebecca said acting tough but Pillar could see through it to smile at her.
"No problem. Good night," Pillar closes the door as Rebecca goes to bed to be ready for her time in detention with the teacher.
In the morning, Rebeca gets into her uniform to see Pillar go early for his job to grab some quick breakfast. She chews onto her egg and cheese sandwich to begin walking to school not liking she will be in the same room as teacher Mr. Smith.
The school days go as usual, with the set of high school girls bullying Rebecca. "Oh, it seems like the shortie is going to be the plaything for Mr. Smith. So terrible," the head girl said.
"Fuck off Esther, I got enough trouble as it is," Rebecca said.
"You were always a troublemaker with that nasty temper of yours, due to your fucks up you would be someone's fuck toy someday," Esther said as Rebecca is not tolerating this.
"Bite me, Esther, I am going," Rebecca said.
"Bye Rebecca, don't let the door hit you in the ass but that would be hard to miss due to how fat it is," the girls laugh at her.
Rebecca wants to hurt them so badly but she is going to dig a bigger hole and not try to be kicked out of school denying her dream. She walks away with the girls still teasing her as she goes to her classes.
The end of the school has come with Rebecca staying in Mr. Smith's classroom to be in detention to do her homework. She feels the eyes of the creepy teacher as he is looking at his computer screen.
"What a lovely sight," he said as Rebecca was feeling uneasy by his wording.
"Okay sir, I finished my stuff," Rebecca approaches his desk.
"Hey Rebecca, I want you to see something," Mr. Smith said as she turned the screen. Rebecca is sickened by this.
"The fuck teacher," she said as there is a screen of a hidden camera under her desk pointing to the inside of her skirt.
"You know green is such a good color on you little cutie," Mr. Smith commented on her panties this made Rebecca's skin crawl.
"You sick fuck," she said.
"Watch your tongue young lady, your future is on the line right now. You have good stuff but your temper is getting in the way," Mr. Smith grabs her on the waist and begins to grip her rear. "So plump and soft down here," he said to lick her neck.
"Screw you, I don't want this," Rebecca tries to get away but the big man holds her against the wall to pin her there.
"At this rate, you are going, you are not going to go near your dream unless you have a good sponsor. I have some deep connections, I can get you a good word in if you become my little joy toy for a while," Mr. Smith said placing his hand on her thigh to reach up her skirt wanting to touch her private area.
"Piss off," Rebecca delivers a powerful kick to hit him in the balls to make him knell onto the floor. "I am going," she said, deeply angry at this.
"You little bitch, you shouldn't have done that. I am going to ruin your life and leave a black mark on your record. I will make sure you will not work a good job in this city again," Mr. Smith said as Rebecca gave him a middle finger to open the door.
"Fuck that, I am leaving. This isn't worth it," she said as she ran out of the school to never come back.
She is in her room crying her eyes out as that was a terrible experience. Pillar comes back home to see his sister is looking bad. "Hey kiddo, on your period or something?" he asked.
"Screw you numb nuts, I got kicked out of school," Rebecca said as Pillar sighs at this.
"I knew this was going to happen," Pillar said.
"You are not helping. That creep Mr. Smith was putting the moves on me and wanted me to be a joy toy for him. I kicked him in the balls and left. This is my letter from the school saying I am let go due to my aggressive behavior," she said.
"Gee sis, that is rough," Pillar said.
"What am I going to do? My record is ruined because of that bastard. I need a job but I doubt they would take me," Rebecca felt beyond defeated at this point. Pillar sits down with his little sister to comfort her.
"Well Choom, just sit back, relax, and gather yourself. I will help you out," Pillar said as Rebecca gave him a big hug.
"Thanks, big bro," Rebecca said to return it.
"Yeah, yeah. Come on, let's watch some movies. I found these old movies called the Terminator Duology," Pillar said as Rebecca felt a bit happier about this.
"That would be nice," she said as they enjoyed the rest of the evening with Rebecca trying to figure out what to do next.
-Flashback Ends-
Rebecca reveals what happened as Cortez was just listening to her speak. "Wow, that is rough, Spitfire," Cortez said as Rebecca nodded her head.
"Yeah, but I am here now. It was all worth it in the end since I met you and the others," Rebecca said to lay her head onto his shoulder.
"Then after that you went to Mox, willing to take that story?' he asked being more interested in her past.
"Sure, when we have time," Rebecca said as Klunk was busy taking a call from V.
"Oh guys, V has a mission for us. We are going to go to the sewers to wipe out the base of the Zookeepers. Mayor Ren got the intel and it's time to wipe them out for good," Cortez said.
"Would that open a power vacuum?" Rebecca asked.
"I heard that Ren will be dealing with the Bozos soon, Grace will have the last laugh," Klunk said.
"Good, Grace gives me a creep," Cortez said as they began to get ready for the mission. Rebecca grabs her guns to grab Klunk to head for the trunk.
"Meet you at the truck," Rebecca said as Cortez got his gear on while collecting weapons to grab a Metel revolver, HA-4 Grit machine pistol, and M2038 Tactician shotgun. He goes to the truck to begin driving to the outskirts of the city to be near the pipes that lead to the sewer systems.
"We will get the drop on them," Cortez said as he wielded his pump action to move inside first with Rebecca holding her shotgun to follow suit.
"Hate this place, are those Creepers still here?" Rebecca asked.
"Most of them were wiped out but they still linger here," Cortez said as they went out of the pipe to be within a large room hearing running water nearby.
"Those Exotic Gangoons are insane especially that Rhino Man," Rebecca said as they went through a door to check to see if no one was there.
"They got some crazy cyberware like razor-sharp claws that can cut through reinforced skin or fangs that can tear off chunks of flesh," Cortez said as he heard something beyond the door. He cracks it open to roll a recon grenade to ping all the enemies in the area.
Cortez transfers the data into Rebecca's eyes to see 10 guys on the other side. "Gee, a bunch of Zookeepers there," she said as they moved in with Cortez tossing a flashbang to catch them by surprise. They use their shotguns to blast them apart with Rebecca's 4-gauge shotgun doing way more damage than Cortez's 12-gauge shotgun.
"More dog and cat Exotics here," Rebecca said as she closed in with a dash to split the Exotic in half with her shotgun.
"Invaders, get them. Claw them out," a cat Exotic is using her claws to slash at Cortez to use his knife to parry and block her strikes. Cortez uses a parry to knock her off balance and deliver a powerful kick that twists her neck killing her instantly.
"Oh, nice counterattack," Rebecca tackles a Zookeeper to knock him off balance. She grabs his head with her gorilla arms to use her super strength to crush his head into red mash leaving him headless. She dodges a swing from the Zookeeper's blade and lands a strong punch breaking her neck on the spot.
"It's nothing," Cortez said using his HA-4 Grit tech sidearm to begin peppering the gangsters with charged rapid shots leaving little holes in their bodies.
Rebecca grabs a dying Exotic to lift them above her head to toss them into a crowd of Zookeepers to crush them on impact. She lines up her scoped revolver to place headshots leaving their corpses headless.
"They found our hideout. Stop them," the leader said on the radio as two heavies carried Defender machine guns to hold them down at their position.
"So annoying," Cortez said as Rebecca hardened her skin to dive into the action to have the rapid shots bouncing off her skin.
"Get out of our way," Rebecca knocks the machine gun away and punches the first heavy with enough force to send him flying into a wall. The impact breaks his back killing him instantly as Rebecca grabs a fallen machete and drives it into the second heavy's neck with blood pouring onto his chest dying on the spot.
"So useless, how dare you come into my domain," the leader said on the loudspeaker.
"Time to close this zoo for good," Cortez said as Rebecca grabbed the Defender machine gun to kick down the door to got hit with several bullets to shrug it off.
"Eat lead, furballs," she unleashes volleys of heavy rounds to tear up the hallway and gangsters to drop them into their pools of blood.
"I am detecting Hellhounds and Wyverns along with Minotaurs," Klunk said as several cyber dogs came in to dodge her bullets to tackle Rebecca. One of the cyberdogs bites into Rebecca's left arm doing some damage to it.
"Stupid dog," she grabs the head of a cyber-dog to snap it hard to pull her arm away to see the bite mark with blood bleeding from her cyber arm. She grabs her health booster to stick into her damaged arm to let the nanobots work their magic to repair it swiftly.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I am fine, nothing that booster can't fix," Rebecca said as her arm healed up to keep pressing forward. Cortez hacking the drones to make them explode as he fires his tech auto pistol to cut into the Hellhounds.
They duck to avoid incoming fireballs as Rebecca dumps the remaining bullets from the machine gun to kill off the dogs. She drops the empty gun and uses a Gash grenade with laser beams to slice up the dogs in no time flat. They go into a wide area to see two Minotaur drones unload their HMGs and AGLs onto them and destroy sections of the area. Rebecca double jumps onto a container to fire onto the Minotaur to knock down the AGL onto the floor. Rebecca tosses an EMP grenade to disable both.
Cortez fires a mini rocket from his PLS to strike the Minotaur to heavily damage it as Rebecca grabs the auto grenade launcher from the Minotaur to begin peppering the machines with explosive rounds to destroy them shortly after.
"Seems like you have reached my lair, time to give you a proper greeting," the leader of the Zookeepers said on the speakers to be within a large area filled with platforms and water.
"So where is their great leader?" Rebecca said as then the water erupted to see an alligator exotic grab onto Cortez to drag him into the water. "Cortez!" Rebecca said as she used her shotgun to begin shooting at him.
"I am Killer Ali and I will chew you up and spit you out," a low growl said as the cyberware-littered man was chromed beyond belief. His skin was dark and rough like reptile hide and his face morphed into a wide mouth monster.
"Get off of me," he drives his knife into the side of his torso not flinching from his attack. Rebecca lines up her shot to fire a DU shell to pierce his back to make him yelp in pain. Cortez gets out of his grip as the Killer Ali leaps out of the water to show off his long-muscled tail to slam it onto the floor to leave a small crack behind.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
'Yeah, good shot," he said as Killer Ali let out an angry bellow to charge at them.
"Here he comes," Klunk said as the lumbering giant was charging at them to fire their weapons. The animal-human hybrid is shaking off the damage to tackle them to knock them onto the floor.
"Gee, chromed as fuck," Rebecca said as she loads up slugs to punch through his subdermal armor to hear the beastly man yelp in pain.
"You little bitch," Killer Ali pounces at Rebecca but she rolls out of the way. She aims her shotgun to pump more slugs into his body to slow him down and see holes leaking lots of blood. "Knock it off," Killer Ali swings his tail as Rebecca jumps over it to slam down onto it with her fists.
"Time to put you in your place," Rebecca uses her super strength to grip his tail to swing him around to spin rapidly. Then she tosses the beastly man into the water as Cortez fires a shock mini rocket into the water to electrocute the Killer Ali killing him off.
"Good work," he said.
"Picked up that trick from an old video game," Rebecca said feeling proud of herself. They see the floating corpse of the Killer Ali to call in the kill.
"Good, we managed to wipe out the leadership of the Zookeepers. Let the cops do the rest," Cortez said as they exited out of the sewers to head back to the truck.
Rebecca collected all the guns and money shards to toss them in the back of the truck. "We are going to get a ton of extra money for all this," Rebecca said as she stole about 100,000 Eurodollars worth of guns and money shards.
"Good, maintenance didn't come cheap," Cortez said as they drove off.
"Another day's work, hey we should hang around San Francisco before we leave. Make more memories," Rebecca said.
"Good idea, we are not going to see another city for a while after this," Cortez said as Rebecca felt excited for this.
"It's a date," Rebecca said as she was thinking about something nice to wear as the day passed by.