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"Stay down, scrap-heap, or I'll peel the plating off your skull while you're still awake," the scavenger spat.
He had a boot pressed firmly into my throat, grinding my face into the rusted grit of the scrapyard. My neck servos groaned, a high-pitched screech of metal on metal that told me exactly how fucked I was. I couldn't breathe, but then again, I didn't really need to. What I needed was my left arm to stop sparking.
"Please," I croaked, the word coming out as a distorted glitch. "Just... the core. Take the core and go."
"The core?" He laughed, leaning more weight into my windpipe. "Honey, you're an elite model. A customized killer. Your neural lace alone is worth more than this entire district. I'm not just taking the core. I'm taking everything."
He reached for the port at the base of my skull. I tried to lash out, but my limbs were locked. A system override. Someone had remotely bricked my motor functions before they dumped me here. I was a passenger in my own skin, watching a bottom-feeder prepare to harvest me like a piece of livestock.
*Critical Failure,* a red warning flashed across my vision. *System Integrity: 12%. Neural Link: Severed.*
*Help me,* I thought. Not to the scavenger. Not to God. Just... anyone.
Then, a voice exploded in my head. Not a whisper. A scream. A digital riot.
«OH MY GOD, IS THIS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE A BODY? IT SMELLS LIKE RUST AND DESPAIR! WHY IS IT SO DAMP?»
I flinched. The voice wasn't coming from outside. It was inside my cerebral cortex, vibrating against my thoughts like a live wire.
"What the hell?" the scavenger muttered, pausing his hand an inch from my port. "You still talking?"
«WHO IS THIS GUY? IS HE THE ONE HURTING US? I HATE HIM. I REALLY HATE HIM. VERA, RIGHT? YOU'RE VERA? LET ME IN. LET ME IN! I'LL TRADE YOU A BRAIN-WASH FOR A CHANCE TO MOVE!»
*Who are you?* I screamed back mentally. *Get out of my head!*
«I'm Echo. And you're about to be a toaster if you don't let me hijack your nervous system. Three... two... one... HOLD ON TO YOUR ASS!»
Suddenly, the world shifted. The paralysis didn't fade—it vanished. It was replaced by a surge of electricity so violent I felt my synthetic nerves catch fire. My arm didn't just move; it snapped.
I didn't even think. My hand shot up, grabbed the scavenger's ankle, and twisted.
*CRACK.*
He shrieked, his balance gone. I flung him off me with a strength that didn't feel like mine. It was too fast. Too precise. I watched my own hand move, but I wasn't the one driving. It was like being a passenger in a race car driven by a manic genius.
«OOH! DID YOU SEE THAT? THE TORQUE ON THIS MODEL IS INSANE!» Echo yelled in my skull.
"You bitch!" The scavenger scrambled up, pulling a jagged shock-baton from his belt. "I'll scrap you piece by piece!"
He lunged. I tried to step back, but Echo had other plans.
«LEFT! NOW! DUCK! PUNCH!»
My body jerked left. The baton whistled past my ear, missing by a fraction of an inch. Then, I felt my shoulder rotate in a way that should have been impossible. My fist connected with the man's jaw in a blurred streak of chrome and synth-skin.
He flew backward, hitting a pile of discarded chassis with a heavy thud. He didn't get up. His jaw was hanging at an angle that suggested he'd be eating through a straw for a month.
I collapsed onto my hands and knees, gasping for air I didn't need. My vision was swimming in static.
«That was amazing! Do it again! Can we kill something else?» Echo asked, his voice sounding far too cheerful for someone who had just committed battery via neural hijacking.
*Get out,* I hissed. *Get out of my head right now, you glitchy freak!*
«Can't. We're merged, babe. Symbiosis. Forced proximity. The whole romantic tragedy package,» Echo replied. I could practically hear him smirking. «Your original OS is fried. I'm the only thing keeping your heart beating. Literally. I'm currently simulating your pulse because your actual pump is clogged with sludge.»
I looked down at my chest. A faint blue light was pulsing beneath my artificial skin, timed perfectly with the voice in my head.
"What do you want from me?" I whispered aloud, my voice still flickering with static.
«Simple. I want my source code back. And you want the people who dumped you in a trash heap to suffer. I'm a chaotic genius, you're a lethal weapon. We're a match made in a server farm. Now, stand up. We have company.»
I froze. The sound of heavy boots hitting metal echoed through the scrapyard. Not one person. A squad.
I dragged myself behind a rusted bulkhead, my movements sluggish. Every joint felt like it was filled with sand. I peeked around the edge. Four corporate cleaners. Black tactical gear, red visors, and high-frequency blades.
They weren't scavengers. They were professionals. Caspar's men.
«Oh, look at them. So organized. So boring,» Echo commented. «Vera, your left leg is leaking hydraulic fluid. If you don't plug that, you're going to be crawling toward the exit like a sad little worm.»
*Shut up and help me!*
«Fine, fine. But this is going to hurt. I'm going to reroute power from your sensory array to your combat servos. You'll lose feeling in your fingertips, but you'll be able to kick a hole through a brick wall. Ready?}}
I didn't have time to answer. One of the cleaners spotted me.
"Target sighted! Sector 4!"
He didn't wait for backup. He charged, his blade humming with a lethal violet glow. I tried to rise, but my leg gave out. I hit the ground hard, the metal clanging against the floor.
«SENSORY BLACKOUT IN 3... 2... 1... GO!»
Suddenly, the world went numb. I couldn't feel the cold wind or the grit under my skin. But I felt the power. A roar of electricity surged from my core, flooding my limbs.
As the cleaner leaped, his blade descending in a killing arc, I didn't dodge. I reached up and caught the blade with my bare hand. The metal shrieked. Sparks showered my face.
«PULL IT! PULL IT!» Echo screamed.
I yanked. The blade snapped like a toothpick. In one fluid motion, I drove my elbow into the cleaner's visor, shattering the glass and sending him spiraling backward.
I stood up, my breathing heavy, my body vibrating with an unstable energy. The other three cleaners stopped, their visors scanning me.
«Not bad for a first date,» Echo whispered. «But we've got a problem. Look at the horizon.»
I looked. A sleek, black AV-4 dropship was descending from the neon clouds, its spotlights cutting through the smog to pin me exactly where I stood. The door slid open, and a man stepped out.
He wasn't wearing armor. He wore a tailored suit that cost more than the entire scrapyard. Caspar. The man who had signed my decommission order. The man who had watched me get scrapped with a look of mild boredom.
He didn't look angry. He looked disappointed.
"Still alive, Vera?" Caspar's voice amplified through the ship's speakers, cold and smooth. "I really thought the incinerator would have finished the job. You always were too stubborn to die."
I tried to lung forward, but my body suddenly locked. Not a glitch. A command.
«Wait, what's happening?» Echo's voice panicked. «He's using a master override! He's got the kill-switch!»
I was frozen mid-stride, one arm outstretched, my fingers twitching. I was a statue of chrome and failure.
Caspar stepped off the ramp, walking toward me with a slow, rhythmic click of his shoes. He stopped inches away, his scent—expensive cologne and sterile ozone—filling my senses. He reached out, patting my cheek with a condescending smile.
"You're a glitch in the system now, darling. And glitches get deleted."
He turned to his men. "Clean up the mess. Leave the head for me. I want to see what's eating her brain."
As the cleaners stepped forward, blades raised, Echo's voice returned, but it wasn't cheering anymore. It was deadly serious.
«Vera, listen to me. There's only one way out of this. And it's the worst possible option.»
*What?*
«The man who just ordered your death? He's the only one who knows where the master key is. If you want to live, you have to stop fighting him and start pretending you're his favorite toy.»
I wanted to scream. I wanted to kill him. But as the first blade touched my neck, I felt the cold reality of the power dynamic.
«Say yes, Vera,» Echo whispered. «Or this is where the story ends.»
I opened my mouth, the words tasting like copper and defeat.
"I... I'll serve..."