So this kind of got out of hand, but I wanted to practice writing more fight scenes and experiment with writing them to music. So if things seem a little strange or quick it's because of that. Also I couldn't get this song out of my head after watching Metallic Rouge so I decided to try and use it to help write a scene.

There is no escape from fighting.

You would not believe the work I had gone through to create a 'shuffle' button.

Sure someone, somewhere had obviously already done so in this world. It was 2076 after all, but the lure of a few extra xp points had kept me from looking too thoroughly into that option and instead coding one from scratch into my agent.

Not to mention if I was going to slot a program into what was basically my brain, I was going to make damn sure I knew everything that program could do.

Feature creep had ensued.

I had of course at first simply created a list of tracks and a 'random' number generator to pick from all of the songs I had recreated.

After the fourth repetition of 'the only thing they fear is you' I had realized that my random number generator wasn't quite working like I had intended. That was the thing about random number generators. They were really just a complex math problem that spat out a number, it wasn't at all random, the number that went in affected the number that comes out. If you knew the initial number you could always predict the latter.

It was however a simple bug to fix and I found it quickly, an error in my initial number picker that consistently had it choose the number five. I moved to fix it, rewriting the code in my head before I paused.

This thing would be plugged into my brain, and while these days that was more metal than meat there was nothing more random than the human mind. So I reworked the picker to take cues from my visual feed, taking the aggregate color codes my Kiroshi's sent to my brain before simplifying it and using that as my initial input.

Was it needlessly complex? Of course. Was it really cool to think about how every time I spun the program up it was influenced by whatever was in front of me? Yeah it was. Sure it was geeky, but this was really more of a fun project then anything else, and yeah I'm a geek.

Not a nerd, nerds don't have chooms after all.

At that point I had thought it complete, was ready to compile and fire it up again for a test drive before once again hesitating.

Feature creep then ensued...Again.

This program would be plugged into my brain.

My brain which currently had every piece of music I could remember ever hearing perfectly stored away on it. If I could find a way for it to access that 'library.' I wouldn't need to recreate the track physically before hearing it again. If I could access that 'file' and it was a file because what else could it be in this brain case of mine? Then I could potentially have access to any music I wanted to hear at any time.

Or well that was the theory anyway.

It's not like there was a folder full of mp3 files stored away on my brain somewhere, or well there was something like that, but it wasn't clearly labeled. It turned out that my 'optic number generator' was the key to finding it. I had created roughly a thousand blank tracks for the system as an experiment and along with, a basic search algorithm made to seek out tracks for it.

To my wonder after much trial and error it actually worked.

I did get a frankly disturbing number of catchy commercial jingles from time to time, but that was a small price to pay to listen to some music that I had almost forgotten about entirely! And if I did get a jingle I'd just quickly 'press' shuffle once again while looking to the side for a new song.

I giddily created sparks as I rubbed my chrome hands together from the inside of my Quadra, getting ready for one final 'field test' of my new program. Neon red light illuminated the darkened interior of my car, the color being taken in from exterior cameras and recreated in a much dimmer now somewhat metallic red that bathed both the seats and center console.

Reaching over I grabbed my copperhead from its place of honor, (buckled into my passenger seat because I didn't want it to go flying if I had to make a sudden stop) and breathed deep, letting just a little bit of cold blooded out to calm my nerves as I mentally ticked on my BD recorder and pressed 'shuffle' on my song picker.

The moment has arrived for fighting-

I almost paused, had I heard this song before? I had definitely heard more than a few I'd nearly forgotten even with my encyclopedic memory of music, but honestly couldn't remember if I'd heard this before? Maybe I'd only heard it once before at some point?

Either way it didn't matter, the recorder was running and I had a 'gig' to complete. If this song turned out to be a lame one I'd move onto the next group of Scav's I could find and start again.

Either I get a cool song and preem BD for Judy to tune, or I get to go out again and get more XP.

It was a win-win.

There is no escape or hiding-

The driver door of my Quadra swung open as I smoothly stepped out of it, the nearby camera I had already hacked suddenly sending ping requests to everything on the network. With a leap I was quickly bouncing up to the side of a building and backflipping off of it and onto an air conditioner.

I could see one of the yellow lines suddenly move closer to me, the sound of a two hundred and something pound teenager coming down on a metallic object not at all quiet, but that suited me just fine. The music was getting to me and I wasn't in a mood to be quiet.

My rifle pointed down as I leapt up from my perch and onto the building across from me. A quick three round burst propelled from the chamber as I dove into a roll onto the roofs above the open air market these Scavs had decided to raid. I could see a white van haphazardly parked on a stairwell, bodies being stacked inside.

150 Experience gained.

Almost as one the Scavs turned in my direction, the likely familiar sound of a rifle going off clueing them in to something happening in my direction.

Unfortunately for them I'd already posted myself on the corner of the roof above them, rifle raised and firing upon the two of them that weren't currently busy carrying a body.

300 Experience gained.

Even as they fell I was already making a dive from my vantage point, coming into a roll as I hit the ground and after quickly straightening myself out firing another burst at a scav that was drawing his lexington.

150 Experience gained.

-Huh, this song kind of reminded me of kung fu fighting, it had that similar kind of cadence even if it was in something like half the time of the former.-

…I still couldn't remember the name of it or where I had heard it before, but I could appreciate a good tune to murder gonks to.

The rest of the scav's had dropped their various victims and were reaching for iron themselves as I sent out a weapon's glitch across their local network.

Immediate danger taken care of I once again began to send lead at those closest to me, I noticed one reach for a sledgehammer of all things lying next to him even as his buddies were quickly panicking at the fact that their guns wouldn't shoot.

"Shit she's a netrunner we've got to run-"

150 Experience gained.

I took a few steps back and fired at the man speaking sense, even as Mr. Sledge started to rush towards me, one hundred pound slab of iron first. I took a quick step to the right hoping he would live up to his bullish behavior, but at the last second he turned just enough that the piece of construction equipment was heading towards me again.

I could see sparks of electricity rising from his spine as he turned, a sandevistan.

Just barely I managed to duck the blow, bending backwards so that the hammer harmlessly flew over my head. Suddenly it once again began to move downwards and I was forced to somewhat awkwardly drop to the ground and roll sideways away from it.

As I once again faced upwards I could see the Scav now dangerously close to me. Unfortunately for him, reflexes really can't beat bullets no matter the speedware. I quickly toggled my rifle to full auto and began spraying both him and the area around him just in case he had another charge for his sandy.

250 Experience gained.

The man fell, sledgehammer hitting the ground with a solid thunk as it slid across the ground, momentum carrying his now limp body with it still attached in a death grip, skidding across the concrete.

His buddies turned and ran as they saw him fall, all of them making for the van. With a sigh I triggered the burst fire on my copperhead again and gunned the last three down as they fled.

450 Experience gained.

I closed my eyes and turned off the recording, listening to a few more loops of the song as I checked over the area for anyone I'd missed.

A couple minutes later I was back on the road in my Qaudra humming the tune, this had been fun, and now I even had a new song to recreate!

This had turned out to be a win-win-win!

So that's that, if you're at all curious about what Metallic Rouge is? Well so am I, it appears to be a sort of cyberpunk/sci-fi/sentai rangers mix anime. You might give it a watch if you want, though I'd personally wait for more episodes to be out before going in... It seems interesting.