Never Fade Away: Pon Pon Shit (ch. 43) (Patreon)

"Something's brewing, darlin's. Nora has it on good authority that a whole lotta Corpo and government types seem to be gearing up to storm the Alamo, and I don't have a clue why.

But I have a notion. Only one thing on Earth can shake those folks up after all.

I dunno when or where all this dynamite is gonna blow, but I do know that when it does, L's probably gonna be the last one standing - and the idjit's going after him ain't gonna be the only casualties.

Nora's advice? Be ready to skedaddle in a hurry if it looks like the next Konpeki Clash is happening nearby.

In the spirit of jackasses not learning their lesson, here's the Devil Comes Back Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels."

~

Murderous rage didn't really feel like Kaiden had previously believed it would, he thought as his shotgun bucked against his shoulder while he did everything in his power to kill Joanne. Hate was something that was familiar to him. L… L didn't really hate. L could easily destroy the world, not because he hated it, but because it was a threat to the people he loved. It wouldn't be out of malice. Kaiden wasn't even sure if he hated the Orphanage or the doctors.

Kaiden, however, knew hate. Ever since he learned that there was more to the world, he carried that hate with him for those that took the freedom of experiencing the world from him. He hated that the kids lost their chance at the same freedom. And he hated those that tried to take it. Joanne, as far as he could tell, was like the physical manifestation of every heartless scientist that didn't care about the trail of bodies that they left behind in the name of progress.

His lips pulled back in a snarl, biotic energy surrounding his shotgun as the slugs tore through her cover but skated off her biotic shield. He felt himself getting thrown back and he righted himself in mid-air. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement and he looked over and what he saw brought him up short. In the middle of the dance floor was a grate that was pushed upwards by what looked like grayish black sludge.

The sludge rose up, two spindly thin arms emerging upwards from the sludge as it took shape. Despite the hate burning in his chest, Kaiden pivoted around and fired into the mass of sludge while Becca covered Yorinobu, blind firing in the direction of Joanne. The sludge splashed out in chunks, but it hardly seemed to matter as the creature Jack spoke of took form. It was shorter than he expected, barely more than six feet tall, maybe six and a half of you counted the whitish blue horns that jutted out from its head.

Biotic energy rippled around it and Kaiden felt himself throwing up a barrier as the creature lunged for him, long knife-like claws emerging from its hands. They sparked against his barrier before Kaiden fired his shotgun, tearing a chunk out of the creature's chest. However, the wound dripped down and closed, smoothing over as if nothing happened.

"Kaiden!" Becca called out and Kaiden took stock of the situation. This wasn't exactly what they anticipated, but it was close enough.

"No deviation," Kaiden answered her unspoken question as he fought a Push that would have sent him flying across the room. He controlled his center of mass, skidding to a halt a couple of feet away before he fired his shotgun again, this time hitting the creature in the head. It had a barrier, but it wasn't thick enough to tough out the enhanced ammo, leading to it losing half of its skull face. Again, the wound mended shut and its form restored.

Becca responded by grabbing Yorinobu by the collar and half dragging him behind cover while Kaiden focused on the creature. It was fully formed now, standing on two legs with a backwards knee joint, the limbs seemed too thin and narrow to fully support whatever it was. Grabbing a table with his biotics, he flung it at the creature, who dodged out of the way, its body becoming half liquid to slosh out of the makeshift projectile's path, before reforming at an odd angle.

"Don't kill them, Biomorph! We need them alive!" Joanne exclaimed as Kaiden jumped back from razor sharp claws that nearly took his head off. He kicked a chair at its legs, but instead of tripping the creature, they splashed out like water before reconnecting underneath the so-called Biomorph. What its name was didn't really interest him. What it could do and how dangerous it was, that was his only concern at the moment.

That being said, Joanne was almost biting at the bit to elaborate. And that told him that whatever the Biomorph was, it was her brain child. Her creation. A monstrous killing machine that she had let loose in the city.

Kaiden blew off another swipe at the wrist, the creature's biomass splashing out onto the ground while he was forced to back off to reload. He fed a magazine into the shotgun, racking a shell, before he fired again. The slug skirted off the barrier, and as it did, he called out. "Becca, focus on Joanne. If she's here, then that means she has to be. She can't control this thing remotely," Kaiden ventured. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense. Why not act through a proxy? Why not send a regular corpo here?

"Already on it!" Becca exclaimed as Kaiden fought to exert control over gravity -- he could feel it getting lighter. And as it did, the biomorphs horns began to glow a fluorescent white while biotic energy swirled around them. That, Kaiden figured as he took aim, was how the creature channeled its biotics.

Despite the order to take him in alive, Kaisen didn't notice much of a difference in the monster's savage attacks. Slowly, he fell back towards the entrance. If the others were going with the plan then he would have some help waiting for him outside. Joanne, however, was determined to throw a wrench in the plan.

"It won't be that easy!" Joanne shouted and as if to prove it, as Becca went to fire upon her position, the Biomorph suddenly lost all interest in him. Completely uncaring as Kaiden fired into its back, it pivoted to zero in on Becca. She winced as her optics became filled with static and Kaiden understood what was going on even as he grabbed hold of the Biomorph with biotic energy in an effort to pull it away from her.

The reason it obeyed was because of some weird imprinting thing. Like an animal seeking to protect its children. Or parent, in this case. It was something to see in person -- he had only really heard about it, but the closest thing he could compare it to was his own knee jerk reaction to hearing one of the kids was in danger. The Biomorph lunged for Becca, and even as Kaisen yanked it back, the creature stretched like dough. It lashed out at the bar that Becca used for cover and Kaiden heard her yelp when the oversized claws tore through the counter, rippling with biotic energy.

"Surrender now!" Joanne shouted, and she sounded desperate. Kaiden's heart left his throat when Becca rolled over the counter, no worse for wear. "The Biomorph is the perfect biological weapon!" She shouted, but to Kaiden, it sounded like she realized that she couldn't stop the creature. The scenes made more sense now. The Biomorph was a hand grenade given scalpel work. The assassination of the mayor, the slaughter of the club - she could point and shoot it, but that was the limit of her control over the Biomorph.

A Lance formed in Kaiden's hand that he drove into the Biomorph, and that got a more pronounced reaction. The creature flinched back as if it were in pain, collapsing in on itself to carry it away from Kaiden and Becca. It took up a position between them and Joanne-

"Is anyone by the entrance?" Kaiden heard Jack ask, and it seemed that she was deviating from the plan. That wasn't really a surprise. What was when Becca confirmed that neither of them were because not a split second later, a truck came hurling through the wall with explosive force. Bits of concrete and dust went flying as the hefty truck slammed into the creature with enough force it went through a half dozen tables and struck the far wall. Through the dust, Kaiden saw Jack and she wore a feral smile while Becca left to help evacuate Yorinobu.

The creature revealed itself, flowing over the crushed good of the car to reform while Joanne decided to cut her losses and fled through the back entrance. Hopefully the others would be able to handle her. For now, they had to kill the Biomorph.

"That's the fucker," Jack snarled, pieces or rubble lifting off the ground as she surrounded herself with the energy, in rolling off of her in waves. There was a manic energy in her voice that told him that this was personal for her.

The Biomorph was smaller. Almost by a full foot now, taking it from something that towered over them to something that was almost the same height. It seemed far less daunting to fight, at least. But, more importantly… "It's formless, but it takes damage. Biotics hurt it the most."

"Perfect," Jack snarled as the Biomorph grabbed hold of the truck, the metal warping as it was crushed under the pressure and as if it were no heavier than a baseball, the biomorph launched it at both of them. Kaiden felt himself get picked up in Jack's orbit as she threw herself through the hole in the wall and carried him into the open street. The car passed them by harmlessly crashing into a building across the street. They were thankfully empty on account of the gunshots, then Jack throwing the car. "I'll keep its attention. You get the kill shot."

That was uncharacteristically reasonable of her, so Kaiden spared her a glance. She scowled as the creature followed them out, ruble and furniture lifted up in its wake. "We gotta end it fast. L's going to find out, and if we're sloppy, he's going to treat us like he does the kids." Basically, doing everything short of wrapping them in layers of bubble wrap.

Though, she wasn't wrong. That was half the reason they had wanted to settle it indoors. "Alright. Just give me a shot. I won't miss," he told her as Jack spread her hands out wide. There was a slight tremble in the air before the cars on the road began to lift in the air. Slowly at first, but with a heave, almost as if she was physically lifting them up, she flung them at the biomorph at high speeds, and the air rang out with the sounds of shatter glass and screaming metal. The Biomorph moved, its body becoming translucent as it Blinked through the vehicles before leaping into the air.

It took aim at Jack as it Charged, falling down like a meteor. It wasn't at all a surprise when Jack chose to throw herself upwards, meeting the Charge with one of her own. The impact shattered every single pane of glass on the block, making shards rain down as Kaiden was nearly knocked off of his feet from the ensuing shockwave of two unstoppable forces meeting. Gravity began to pull upward towards them, but eventually, something had to give.

Jack won out, forcing the Biomorph away, sending it flying and crashing into the ground while she touched down on the rooftop of the building. The biomorph reacted, it's horns glowed brightly before every single shard of glass that fell rose again and shot at Jack at high speeds. If they managed to touch her, she would have been ripped to shreds, but instead they shattered further on the wreckage o tof cars that she lifted as a shield. It was then that Kaiden saw his chance.

He didn't have a Sandy. In the end, it was simply too much chrome for him to handle. What he did have was the next best thing - especially after L had finished modifying and fine-tuning it.

His Kerenzikov fired to life, working in tandem with his Visual Cortex Support, and the line between thought and action became seamless. It was a discomforting feeling that he still quite hadn't managed to get used to, but he could swear he became aware of every single muscle fiber in his body and his control was total.

There was no hesitation in him as he shot forward, sprinting at a car that had one of the doors ripped off and leaping into it in the split second window that was available to him. Biotic energy coiled around his shotgun and hands, ready to put this thing down. Time didn't slow down, but it felt like his body simply sped up. He leapt through the car, throwing himself into the air, and the Biomorphs focus was solely on Jack, leaving him completely unnoticed as he sailed forward.

His shotgun bucked against his shoulder, the slugs taking out chunks of the Biomorph before it realized that he was there. As it's body sloshed to reform itself, Kaiden shaped his biotics to channel it into something he had never done before. However, he knew it was possible. He saw L do it with his grenades. A Singularity formed within the creature -- a black hole that drew everything towards it.

The Biomorph screeched and for a second, as he hit the ground and rolled to his feet, Kaiden thought that might be it. Instead, the Biomorph did something surprising. Or, maybe, not that surprising in hindsight. As it's liquefied body was drawn into the Singularity, the rest of the Biomorph condensed into a ball before firing itself away with enough force to escape the gravity well. It splashed onto the ground before it began to reform, this time much smaller at only three feet tall.

And it was built differently. The horns flowed down into ridged spikes that glowed with the same energy. It's face was a bone skull, but the ethereal blue eyes of the biomorph narrowed in a way that told Kaiden that it was pissed off. A second later, Kaisen felt a pull as it grabbed hold of a car that Jack hadn't used as a shield before the metal compressed and rippled around it.

Jack saved his life, and he only realized it a second after it happened. One moment Kaiden stood on his feet and the next he was rolling on the ground as he was shoved with a rough Push. There was the crack of thunder and the buffering of wind that told him something just happened, but even as he rolled to his feet, he wasn't entirely sure what it was.

Until he saw that the compressed car was missing.

Oh.

The biomorph had made a railgun. With car sized bullets.

Kaiden glanced over his shoulder to see that the makeshift bullet tore through a car and a building down the street. A whole block away. "Jack! We can't let it do that again!" Kaiden called out even as the biomorph seemed to rip a car from Jack's grasp to crushed them into more ammo.

"I'm already doing something about it!" Jack shouted back, leaping down from the building with a Charge. He sprinted forward, only for the Biomorph to drop the cars entirely. A trap, Kaiden realized a split second too late. Before the cars had hit the ground, the arms of the creature stretched, the claws becoming long knives that became coated with the same biotic energy that shrouded Jack. It shifted out of the way of Jack's Charge, pivoting to stab her in the back.

Kaiden's shotgun bucked against his shoulder, the slug tearing through the elbow joint of the arm and repaying the favor to Jack. The trap was foiled, and as soon as the Charge ended, Jack pivoted with a snarl on her face. Biotic energy crackled around her hands as she lunged for the Biomorph, punching it in the gut while simultaneously unleashing a Shockwave into it. The Biomorph screeched in agony as it lost control over its body, the pale white bone and flesh turned black as Jack unleashed everything that she had on it.

Even still, the creature tried to survive. Cracking open from the back of its skull, white sludge tried to emerge and leap away. The moment that it did, Kaiden snapped a Lance in his hand before skewering what was left of the creature after a precise throw. The main body crumbled away, falling to pieces while the rest of the sludge blackened and died.

No sooner than it was gone, Kaiden reached out, "The Biomorph is dead. Do you have Joanne?" And there was a pause for a split second, just long enough for Kaiden to start worrying before there was an answer.

"We got her, mano. Bit messier than we hoped, but… eh, mission accomplished," Jackie replied and that was a relief. "Dropping our location." He added, and Kaiden saw that they were a block away.

"We sure this thing is dead?" Jack asked, giving the corpse a swift kick, making it crumble further.

Kaiden looked down at the blackened corpse that seemed to be little more than charcoal and offered a shrug. "Let's go ask the expert," he decided before the two of them took off just as what was left of the emergency forces in the city responded to the scene. Kaiden figured it would be best to leave them to it as they headed to a back alley where he saw Jackie, River, and Becca all surrounding Joanne with an unreasonable amount of firepower shoved in her face. A challenge to try something.

If Kaiden had to describe her expression in a single word when she noticed their approach, it was terrified. "You- did you kill the Biomorph? Did you at least keep a sample?!" She questioned, starting to get up, but stopped when Becca pressed the barrel of a gun against her temple. "That- that would be a year of research down the drain! He was our only successful model-"

That, she realized only too late, was too much to say. They only had one of those things. Perfect. That was exactly what Kaiden wanted to hear.

"What are we doing with her? I'd say make an arrest, but that seems like flatlining her with extra steps," Jackie pointed out and Kaiden's grip tightened on his gun. Her words bounced around in his skull as he found himself standing in front of her, aching to pull the trigger.

"Where?" Kaiden heard himself ask, placing the barrel against her forehead, making her breathing hitch. "You said that you're taking kids to recreate L. Where are you taking them?" He asked, trying to remain calm. He was the level headed one, he had to remind himself. But he almost didn't care. He loathed the woman before him. He hated her every bit as much as he did the doctors at the Orphanage.

Joanne's mouth opened, and without her ace up her sleeve, he found that she was a lot less confident. Her eyes darted around, as if she were looking for an exit, but she found none. "I- I don't know! That's not my project or-"

Jack kicked her in the face hard enough to rattle teeth. "Bitch- listen up, he's the nice one. I'll fucking turn you inside out if you don't tell us what we want to know. I just might anyway, so you want to make a good fucking argument for him to convince me not to reduce you to a bloodstain." She snarled at her and it was clear that as cold as Joanne was, she wasn't used to being in actual danger.

"It's not my department! I got boxed out of the L-Project!" Joanne protested, flinching away from Jack when she raised her foot up, blood already trickling down her mouth and staining her teeth. "My project was the Biomorph! I spent years developing it! Years! And because of a few control issues, they pulled my funding!"

Kaiden's thoughts were strangely quiet. "Then this is just a ploy to get some money?" He asked her, his voice even. River cursed under his breath before his gaze flickered to him and Jack. Even Jackie seemed to understand and he took a small step back, as if to say that he had no interest in getting in their way.

Joanne opened her mouth to lie, but she couldn't find one so she tried to say nothing at all. As if that would spare her because Jack kicked her again. Harder this time in the gut and Joanne curled into herself. "You don't understand. The L project is starting from scratch and I'm almost done! If I could just get L to make a breakthrough, we could have a new line of weapons technology  equal to that of implants. And we need it!"

Need it? Kaiden took a moment to calm himself down, gripping his shotgun so tightly that his hands trembled. Thankfully, River picked up the questioning. "Then what happened with the Mayor? With Militech?" He demanded and Josnne easily revealed the information, the words flowing from her mouth.

"The Mayor was cutting deals for Night City to join the NUSA. It would end its status as a free city. My colleagues and I saw that as unacceptable. Night City is perfect as a test bed, and its lawless nature prevents regulations from stifling progress." She answered and from the sounds of it, she thought that much should have been obvious. And perhaps it was. The NUSA was practically inseparable from Militech. It wouldn't be wrong to say that they were one in the same.

So, rather than being a Militech operative, he was a NUSA one.

"Need," Kaiden spoke up after a moment. "What could you possibly need a monster like that for?" He asked, and Joanne looked up at him.

"Humanity isn't alone in the universe. Aliens are out there and they're close. Closer than you realize. The Biomorph was meant to be a disposable biological weapon. An alternative to mechanoid and human soldiers. And we'll need that alternative." Joanne said and there was something unnerving in how she spoke. He knew about the Mass Relay. About how it wasn't humans that built it. But, the way way she was talking…

"You're preparing for a war," Kaiden realized, seeing the panic in her expression.

Joanne laughed. It was an ugly sound and he hated it. "War is already on the way," she answered…

And neither of them realized it yet, but a shadow began to descend upon Night City without a single cloud in the sky.

…

Now that we’re at the end of the arc, I have to say I’m not entirely happy with it. It’s the first time in a long time -- honestly, since Going Native -- that I’ve felt that way. I think, at some point in the future, I’ll come back and spruce it up.

But, in any case, this is the last chapter in the Biotech arc and next chapter is one I’ve been looking forward to since the start.

First Contact.