Chapter VII: Aches of the Past

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Start of the Arcology Arc. Trying to make it a bit spooky, heavily inspired by SOMA and Narcosis. And of course, the obvious inspiration for the little locust-beasties. Enjoy.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

The Renraku Arcology, or I suppose the 'Arcology Commercial and Housing Enclave' now, was as large and sprawling as you'd expect an Arcology to be. When you had everything a person needed to live in one mega-complex, it added up. Just being outside it was an exercise in understanding the impossibility of large scale comprehension. It was also a perfect example of why I chose to live in a small, low-populated town - back when I'd had the means to make choices like that, anyway.

Though somewhat counterintuitively, that size made it very, very easy to find the front door. The letters over it were equally sprawling in size, probably 50ft or more tall. If it weren't for the giant covering over it, I imagine the investment would be shattered almost daily. Neon glass hadn't advanced in decades. It was all… oddly tidy for such a nightmarish place. Though I supposed that the worst places often hid in plain sight. As a reporter, I'd learned that well.

"Anythin' we need to know about this place?" Chloe chimed in.

Nathan flickered in, hiding in the shadows and out of sight of the street, and sighed. "I told you, I don't remember. That's the whole point of being here." He flickered out again.

Chloe scowled. "Not you." For once, the 'asshole' was left implied. Progress. "Her." She nodded at me. "You ran newsvids about the crash, right?"

I shrugged. "Yes, but if you saw them, you know everything I know. There wasn't any reason to hold anything back, so it was all there." I took a deep breath, shook some of the tension out of my shoulders. "We're in for a real drekstorm."

Chloe snorted. "Last chance to bounce." She drawled teasingly. At my scowl, she waggled her eyebrows and grinned, wide and toothy.

I rolled my eyes and pushed past her, leading our little group into the entry mall.

—

The Mall was equally as oversized. Even the restaurants, commissaries, stores, and offices were oversized. In the entryway, a giant crystalline lattice hung from the roof, glittering in the light. It too was oversized.

Five upper balconies twisted above us and went off in five directions like the fingers of a hand, with more corridors above and below - a three floor open atrium mall. Chloe also noticed this similarity immediately, and insisted we walk along the middle finger. As it didn't actually matter for how we got up to where we needed to be, we went with it. She was delighted.

As we headed along, literally everyone we passed eyeballed us warily. We were a motley crew, and I imagine they didn't get many shadowrunners around here these days.

Out the corner of my eye, I watched a family walk by. A dwarf and elf parent, with a couple of tiny children. They looked normal. For all the nightmares above in the locked down levels, the people down here just… lived.

God. Something about that just hit me on a primal level. Imagine it. Living without all that pressure, all those dependencies. Don't misunderstand me, I know they still have responsibilities. I'm not that much of a rich, oblivious moron. All detached from 'the little people'.

But something small. One or two people. A proper partner, a child. That might be nice. Being a CEO, it was always so much. So many people depending on me, all the time. I had 25000 employees at my height. That's a lot of stress. A lot of responsibility.

I'd've liked one or two. Maybe three.

But then again, I tried one and look how that turned out. I sighed, muttered many, many curse words about that whole mess.

"Ice!" Chloe called back, "Hurry up."

I hurried up.

We strolled over to the final elevator on the line, ducking under the locked holo-tape and stepping in. Nobody stopped us. I nodded to Chloe and she pulled off the elevator button panel. I stepped forward and plugged in my deck - no Matrix needed here, this was old tech. In a second, the doors were closing and we were going up. Up into Hell.

Fuck.

—

The elevator doors screeched open with a discordant chime and the scent of deep rust, and we stepped out into a dark corridor. We were at the end, and it stretched off to the left, then turned right sharply. I could barely see it. The only light came from the elevator, and it spread oddly. Like carlight into a murk.

Nathan flickered into being and peered around. "Frakk, that ain't creepy at all." He shuddered.

Max sighed. "One minute." She pulled a ball out of somewhere and tossed it into the air, something activating and transforming it into a small, fist-sized dragonfly. The buzz of its wings was almost irritating, something about it making my nose itch. Max tapped a key on her rig and the fly lit up with a bright blue glow. "That should help."

We shared a look. "Well, there's only one way to go."

Off we went. Along the corridor and to the right, finding ourselves in another long corridor - several doors stood at intermittent points, all locked and sealed. I could probably have hacked them, but something told me it wasn't worth it. That the real prize was ahead.

Walking through, the only sounds were our footsteps and breathing. It was… terrifyingly quiet.

Have you ever walked through a graveyard? Or a place that once held people, but hasn't been lived in for a very, very long time? This place had the feel of that. Death, and loneliness, and stillness.

We exited out into a small marketplace atrium, all the doors and storefronts still locked up tight. Except for one. We found a crack in the shutter over the front of one of the free-standing shacks in the middle of the space - and before we could stop her, Chloe reached down and pulled it open. It screeched and resisted, flecks of rust scattering everywhere, but the girl was strong. We waited a moment, listening, but still silent.

We looked inside.

"Fuck."

The small space was filled with this black, brackish goo, like old ink, which was dotted with these blue glowing bubbles contained with cybernetics. We should've closed the door and left it be. I shouldn't have looked closer. But I did. Floating in the bubble was a small thing, kind of like Max's dragonfly.

And then it lit up and the silence was broken by a deep, bassy thrum.

The egg, for that's what I now knew it was, popped. Some sort of skin covering flew off, revealing a flower-like thing beneath, a mix of colours and lights. The thing unfurled, and it was oddly beautiful to see, like that flower had bloomed. And then I looked closer, and I saw. Someone had sewn a locust and a spider together, then added cybernetics on top. One of Deus' foul experiments. It had to be.

A light switched on in the thing's back and it launched itself at me, legs grasping at my face and the long tail wrapping around my neck. I swore, just before it sealed itself to my face. I could feel metal things scraping against my skin, and the tail slowly working its way up my side to- my datajack! I quickly covered it with my hand, and the things scraping my skin started to dig-in.

If my mouth wasn't sealed shut, I'd've screamed.

I could hear dull shouts, like they were in the long distance, and more pops as more of these things came out around me. The tail was still striking at my hand, trying to find a way through.

I stumbled backwards, somehow, luck of luck, managing to find my way out of the stall and out into the open space. A hand grabbed mine - familiar, clawed. Chloe.

As it did, the creature finally broke through and plugged into my datajack. There was a loud, alien sound I couldn't find the words to describe, and then an even louder laugh. A voice, familiar, taunting, shouted "GET OUT" and the creature just withered. Dead fruit on the vine. The tail went limp and I pulled it out, peeling the creature from my itching, pained face. I threw it hard against the wall, and it hit with a thud too loud for its size.

Nathan flickered into my eyeline, looking smug. Bastard. "You're welcome."

I nodded at him, still too frazzled to speak.

And then the door back slammed shut, leaving us illuminated only by Max's dragonfly and whatever lights existed on our consoles.

"Well, fuck."

Something in the darkness screamed.