Never Fade Away: Hole In The Sun (ch. 39) (Patreon)

"Got myself a rarity, darlin's. Don't ask how, but I'm now the proud owner of a lizard the size of a rooster called… an iguana.

I'm gonna name him Rango. Sure, he ain't a chameleon, but once I get a little cowboy hat for him he'll be close enough. Gotta say, it's nice to have a partner - and I'm not just thinkin' about Rango when I say that.

Here's Somethin' Bad by Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood.

~

Jack didn't know what she was looking at. She didn't know how to describe it either, beyond the word monster. It stood at about eight feet tall, but its body was far too thin to possibly support its weight. Its arms were as thin as a broom handle and were about as long as two. Its legs had a backwards knee and it probably could reach ten feet tall if it stood all the way up. The torso was narrow at the hips but broader at the shoulders in a way that struck her as distinctly inhuman.

The entire thing was clad in bone white skin that looked chemically bleached. All except for the head that was encased in a bone mask with a long snout, and antler-like horns jutting out from the back of its head, and a black tattoo on a shoulder that read Gen-03. At the tip of its hands were long claws that slashed through a Scav along with the concrete pillar that he stood behind, cutting it and him into even pieces. A handful of Scavs were blind firing at the creature, the bullets either missing or bouncing off with purple sparks. That, at least, was familiar.

"I can't fucking see!" Becca winced beside her, smacking a palm against her temple to get her optics to work. "What the fuck?!" The thing was scrambling video feeds. That's why the Scavs were stuck blind firing.

"Just pull the trigger!" Jack shouted, using Pull to put Becca's gun in place before her own shotgun bucked against her shoulder. The metal slug impacted the creature's bone covered head, only for purple sparks to erupt from the hit. That was a biotic barrier. The creature unleashed a hellish screech, the blood red horned antlers glowing for a moment before the creature began to move. And it was fast. Far faster than it had any right to be. Jack lost sight of it in the initial burst of speed, its legs acting like springs, but she found it again when it landed on the railing they stood on.

Becca pulled the trigger and Jack had to pivot her so she was shooting at the creature. Purple sparks flew up as they collided with the barrier, the bullets bouncing and ricocheting away, but the creature was quick to back off. It was smart enough to dip behind one of the buckets that the foundry used to move molten metal. But, not a second later, Jack felt a shift under her feet and she knew the whole walkway was being pulled out of the wall. "Where is this guy-!?"

"Hold on!" Jack shouted, grabbing Becca and using her biotics to jump. They sailed clear across the room, and as they went by, Jack didn't see where the creature was hiding. It had moved. Landing by a door, she managed to catch a glimpse of it darting out low to the floor, snatching up another Scav and cutting him to pieces just before the walkway collapsed, cutting them off from a simple escape.

"Who are we fighting?!" Becca demanded and Jack made a decision.

"You go-" she started, only for a hand to grab Jack's wrist before Becca started pulling her down the hallway. Could she see again?

"Gig comes first, gonk," Becca chided her. "I can see again. Whatever he's doing, it doesn't work through walls. You cover our rear," Becca swiftly took charge, marching down through the hallway and Jack had to bite her tongue. She wanted to fight it. Whatever that thing was, she wanted to fight it. It was a primal urge. Not much different than an ape beating at their chest when another ape stepped up to the plate.

Jack had seen the pinnacle of what someone could do with biotics. Adam Smasher. On her best day, times ten, she couldn't have managed what he did. She wasn't jealous or angry -- L killed him after all. All he did was give her something to prove, but there hadn't been many chances since that day.

"Fuck," Jack cursed, swallowing it down to follow behind Becca. Even if it would cause problems, she hoped the monster would rip through the aluminum doors and give chase. A hope that might come true since she heard the gunfire from the foundry come to an abrupt stop.

"T-Bug. Where are Jackie and Evelyn?" Becca demanded to know as more gunshots echoed down the rubbish filled halls. The lights were all out, and the hallway was only illuminated by barrels that were stuffed with cardboard set on fire. The flickering flames made the shadows dance around them and Jack took the moment to reload her shotgun. Dragonbreath rounds.

"Take a left, right, and go down the stairs. I don't have eyes on whoever is attacking the base- you'll have contact around the corner!" T-bug gave a warning a few seconds before Jack heard a door opening. Becca responded, firing through the corner. Her muzzle flashed brightly, the bullets twarring through the wall and whoever was trying to run in their direction. However, as they rounded the corner, Jack saw that the creature had already been this way. The half dozen bodies that were cut to pieces was a good indication.

"Tyger Claw?" Becca ventured, and Jack could only shake her head before she nearly tripped over a grate that had been pushed off of the hole it had been covering.

"It's not human. It's some kind of animal, I think. It's a biotic," Jack offered, quickly righting herself as they followed T-Bugs instructions. The sound of gunshots were getting louder and Jack threw up a barrier in preparation when they reached the stairs. Becca glanced over her shoulder, her expression one of disbelief, but she fell behind the barrier all the same. "I saw Gen zero-three on it. I think it's someone's lab rat."

Becca didn't even seem surprised anymore, blowing out a sigh, "Can't I get one normal gig?" Jack just smirked before they reached the bottom of the stairs. There, they saw Jackie. He was pinned between a rock and a hard place -- down the hall were a bunch of goons that had set up a kill zone, while to the side were more Scavs that had an angle on him, forcing him to duck behind a bunch of steel girders.

Jackie didn't look surprised to see them. He was in contact with T-Bug as well. Curious that T-Bug didn't share that connection instead of having two separate calls. "Hola, chicas," Jackie greeted them, bullets sparking off his cover before they started to strike Jack's barrier. "My knights in shining armor, eh?"

The charming act didn't appeal to Jack and she instead focused on pressing the attack. The faster they got this deadweight bitch out of the way, the faster she could throw down with that creature. Her shotgun bucked against her shoulder, flames leaping out of the barrel as the dragonbreath rounds worked their magic. They tore through a man, setting him alight inside and out, brightening the dark hallway. The others wisened up, one tossing a grenade their way, but Jack returned it with a push. When they were forced to abandon their cover, Jack splattered one's brain matter over the wall.

The others decided to stay in their cover as the grenade went off, and explosion rocking the air in the hallway. Bits and pieces of concrete acted as shrapnel, some of it bouncing off of her barrier. That didn't matter. Her shotgun was a power type -- people who gave a shit about aim could ricochet their slugs with the right know how. Jack, on the other hand, did something else entirely.

She got the idea from the railguns some of the Arasaka goons were using. They used electricity to generate a gravitational push that would fling the slug at high speeds. She could do the same, just without needing electricity. She fired her shotgun and this time the dragonbreath shot tore through the concrete, smashing through it, and even if the actual bullet was destroyed upon contact, the ruined concrete tore through the men. Jack laughed as she pulled the trigger again.

"Fuck this!" One shouted, going to flee, only to get shot in the back. Each shell was soent and by the time she reached the end of the hallway, the Scavs were all dead, filling the corridor with the stench of burning rubber and flesh. Looking back, she saw Jackie looking at her with wide eyes.

"So, it's not just L in his crew that's terrifying," Jackie made mild remark and Jack was all smiles.

"God damn right," Jack nodded, pleased with herself. It wasn't the raw power that Smasher had, but utility had its own use. She'd get there eventually -- all of Smasher's raw power and all of the fine control.

Becca just rolled her eyes, "You got any 'ganic eyes?" Becca questioned, taking the rear while Jack looked around for where they were supposed to go. Jackie, who she realized stood a head and shoulder taller than her when he passed by to take point, seemed to know where he was going.

"I got one. You saw whoever it was, then?" He questioned, peeking around a corner until Jack rounded it with her barrier up.

"Jack?" Becca prompted, and just as she asked the question, there was suddenly silence. No more gunshots or people screaming echoing in the distance. Either they were all dead… or that creature was on the prowl.

"I'll take the rear and make sure you point your gun in the right direction," Jack promised, letting Becca step past her while Jack changed the shape of the barrier into a dome. "And it's not a who - whatever that thing is, it ain't human."

She couldn't see his face, but she heard the nerves in his voice when Jackie spoke up, "Wait -- what do you mean by not human? Telling me a dog did something like that? I've walked past its handy work." He was holding it together, but her impression was a bundle of nerves.

"Don't know what a dog looks like, so maybe," Jack shrugged. "Just let me handle it. You're not a biotic. You'll get yourself dead and I'll get yelled at."

"I don't think it's a dog, Jack," Becca remarked, sounding amused as they headed lower into the base level. A pain in the ass. Important buildings like these went down as much as they did up. Well, as important as you could be while also being abandoned for at least a decade.

"Biotics. Nifty piece of bioware," Javkie said, going around a corner. Jack caught the scent of rotting meat and when she turned the corner she saw a dumpster full of corpses. Scraps. The pieces of flesh that the Scavs didn't want after picking them clean of chrome. Jackie hissed at the sight, muttering a curse under his breath, but he continued on. Content to ignore the thirty odd people rotting in the dumpster. "I wasn't much of a bioware kind of guy, but then I got a front row seat to Smasher and L throwing down. I'm a believer now. First thing I'm going to do is chip it in. Hella expensive, though."

He was rambling but he said something that caught her interest. "Wait, you telling me that people are selling biotic bioware now?"

Jackie didn't seem to anticipate getting addressed, so he nearly tripped over his own two feet. "Er- Biotechnica is. Selling, that is. On the down low, of course -- but you hear about it on the streets. The top shelf stuff comes with an insane price tag, but I've heard about weaker versions that cost less. Probably can't do as much with them, but, well… being able to do less is better than nada." When the fuck did that happen? "They announced it when L and Smasher fought. One hell of a commercial, but I guess it got drowned out by everything else if you were… er, close to it."

Jack was forced to swallow a reply because they hit a door. Jackie looked back at them before pushing it open, the hinges squeaking. The sound bounced off the walls like a death sentence. Jack could feel it in her gut in the heavy silence that followed.

They were being hunted. She had no evidence beyond her gut feeling, but she'd trust it over facts any day of the week.

"Put a pin in that," T-Bug remarked, her voice echoing in Jack's ear. "The target is in the next room." She informed and T-Bug proved right on the money with that. Jackie pushed the door open to reveal a bound woman with a badly broken nose sitting limp in a chair with her hands behind her back. The room was filled with clutter, and it struck Jack as a room they shoved Evelyn into in a hurry. Less a holding cell and more a supply closet.

Jackie immediately went around behind her, picking the locks on the cuffsaround her hands-

Then Jack got a call. An unknown number. And, based on the surprised expressions, everyone else did too. Jack looked to Becca, who was frowning. She made the call and picked up, and Jack saw that the call was coming from Evelyn. Who was currently knocked out in a chair. All the same, a woman's voice with a distinct accent that Jack only managed to place because she had experienced the culture of Pacifica. Haitian. "If you don't want Evelyn's brains fried, then you will do exactly as I say with no deviations."

Oh. Threats? Right out the gate? Great. No, really, that was great. Jack did wonderfully with threats. Usually be killing whoever threatened her. Never failed to work like a charm either.

"You will upload the Skeleton Key into Evelyn's system," the voice continued, using Evelyn as a relay, more or less. They apparently had fingers in her system, enough to copy and paste anything that was uploaded into her. And this whole gig started to seem real fishy now -- Evelyn got kidnapped for the sake of drawing out L, or someone close to him since L went on record saying that he liked the Mox. Making Judy reach out to someone for help. And, odds were that she would send one of the kids on account of them all having biotics and access to the Skeleton Key.

"Or," Jack spoke up, a grin in her voice, "We head over to Pacifica and put a bullet in all your heads, Voodoo Boys."

There was a brief pause in the room, the tension skyrocketing as Jackie wore an expression that said he wanted to smack the shit out of her. Becca was quick to speak up, "You kill her, and we sic L on you." Jack could tell it was not the route she wanted to go with, but she was backing Jack's play.

"How about I send him a text right now? I push a button, he pushes one, and we'll see whose brain fries," Jack continued, confidence dripping from her voice. It wasn't a bluff. The Voodoo Boys had sniffed around the kids too much back in Pacifica for L to not have a red button ready to kill them all. After all, L didn't do things by halves. It's one of the things that she liked about him -- no half measures.

"You are not in a position to negotiate," the voice on the other end continued.

"You're not in a position to make threats," Jack shouted back. There was a part of her that relished in it -- L cultivated such a terrifying reputation that the mere threat of him could scare anyone into compliance. Shame he didn't use it more.

Another small pause and silence filled the room while Becca pulled out the cord in her wrist and got ready to jack it into Evelyn. "I see. Then I will simply take it off of your corpse," the woman responded and before she was even done, Becca moved. She smoothly jacked in the cord, using the Skeleton Key to do whatever the hell it did. A tense moment passed and based on the lack of Evelyn shitting herself, she didn't seem to be dead.

"Are we good?" Jackie asked, sounding nervous. Becca frowned, hesitating, before jacking out.

"I think we're good," Becca said after a minute.

"You don't sound fine, chica," Jackie remarked, picking Evelyn up bridal style. They had the package. Awesome. Now they could get the fuck out of here while Jack had some fun. She was practically shaking from anticipation, desperately wanting to tell them to get lost so she could cut lose. No restraint, no need to care about bystanders -- just pure power flowing through her hands and obeying her will.

"Do you really think the Voodoo Boys would do something this dumb?" Becca questioned, and Jack opened her mouth to answer, only to be cut off by the sound of screeching metal. Her shotgun went to the door meetings, ready to pull the trigger, only to see that's not where the sound was coming from. It was coming from beyond it. Following the screech of metal, Jack felt a rumble through the floor.

This… fucker.

"Get close to me!" Jack shouted, realizing what was happening. It pissed her off. It pissed her off so much that she could taste blood. It was a simple trick, at the end of the day.

Buildings were fragile if you knew where to push or pull. Fold the support beams and the entire thing would crumble like a house of cards. It was her trick. She discovered it years ago when she first got her biotics.

And, a second later, she felt the full force of the building collapsing onto her as the ceiling crumbled. Her biotic barrier flared to life, catching the rubble to create a small dome in the supply closet.

It wasn't at all how Jack envisioned it, but it would seem she would get her chance to lift a building all on her own after all.