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kenpaisworkshop · 8 years ago

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Cyber-Sin: “Pawns”

Subject: @sinquest AU “Cyber-Sin.”

Characters: Cyber!Ken’pai ( @rumongray ), Cyber!Warlock ( @tomis-jb )

A follow up to “Ruins”.

A single light bulb burned its light against Ken'pai's scales, their sensitivity heightened as a side-effect of the sedative that was now wearing off. A chill cascading over his body with every breath.

Left shirtless, his arms wrapped around the wide back of a chair, bound together with handcuffs. The chair's width was such that the cuffs were stretched to their limit, putting the lizard-man in a much more uneasy state of discomfort. His muscles were stretched just enough to cause pain, and not allow him to relax as much as he would've liked.

His eyes started to clear, their focus sharpening on the door in front of him, with a red light over the top. Locked. Of course, he wasn't in any position to even attempt to open it anyway...all he had left was to wait it out. He wiggled his legs a bit, coming to the realization that they were of course, empty. No phone, no credit chit...his captors weren't stupid.

In fact...they were still here.

Light drifted back into his eyes, catching onto a pair of armed men in the far corners next to the door, wearing combat gear that didn't match SecuWatch, that much was certain. Still, it looked rather factory-new, right out of the assembly line, which made sense. Mercenary units were often better equipped for the most part.

A third man stood off to Ken's right, looking away and hunching over a small table. He wore a black t-shirt that clung tightly over his large upper body. Lower down, he was still wearing similar armor to his cohorts, but it was clear that he was in charge. A large holster sat on his left hip, his right hip had an electrical baton hanging down the side. Short, professionally cut hair adorned a light-skinned head, atop a thick neck with a deep scar on the back that ran under his shirt, presumably into the center of his back. On the table were all of Ken'pai's belongings that he had been missing.

“Finally awake?”

His voice was deep, gravely, experienced. Ken'pai had only heard one other person with that level of worldliness to the way they spoke, and that was Tomis. He was definitely in charge.

Perfect.

He had to hold back his smirk.

The man turned around and clasped a thick hand onto the lizard-man's shoulder. “I'm not going to mince words or play up the theatrics. You know why you're here, and so do I. My client knows that you saw something that they didn't want you to see, and they want to make you an offer.”

Ken'pai cleared his throat, smacking his lips and tongue after being dried out from the drugs.

“An offer? From BIOSERV? Can't wait to hear it. How much?”

“How much? You keep quiet, and you don't get to lose teeth. Or implants. Or arms. Or legs. Or maybe...”

A thick, metallic boot stomped down hard on Ken's tail, the reptile yelping in pain.

“Hmm...that was an interesting noise. I wonder if you actually like this...”

Ken'pai growled. “Not...from you...”

The man let out a hearty laugh, walking on Ken's tail with the same foot and putting all his weight on it before stepping off. His merriment wore off quickly, as circled the chair and grabbed Ken's snout like a dog's, forcing their eyes to meet.

“You see...the fact that you know it's BIOSERV is actually a problem...I was hoping that you'd be a little more forgetful than that.”

Ken'pai struggled to speak before the man forcefully released his snout. “It's hard to forget something like that. Industrial sabotage on that scale looks to make BIOSERV a pretty penny whey they have the solution. I'm guessing they're kicking you a little off the top to keep little guys like me quiet.”

The man's eyes widened. He forced a heavy blink in effort to hide his surprise. “To keep criminals quiet, yes.”

“Criminals. Right. Interesting talk from a mercenary.”

“You're quite smug for being tied to a...”

He was stopped short from a noise coming from the nearby table. A deep, rumbling hum, followed by a delightful beeping ring-tone coming from the phone that lay there among Ken's other possessions. He scooped it up and swiped the screen, seeing the words “Incoming call” and a number he didn't recognize. He scoffed.

“You...gonna answer that?” Ken'pai asked.

The man casually lobbed the phone onto the ground, forcing a chuckle as he stomped it, sending bits and pieces of electronics splintering into the air.

“Hey--!”

Ken was silenced by a powerful backhand to the side of his face. He grunted in pain, the sudden impact causing his teeth to slice open his lip slightly. He spat the resulting blood onto the ground, keeping his head hanging there just in case.

The man grasped the top of Ken's head. “Mister Haggard, I don't think you understand how much trouble you're in.”

Not as much as you think, considering you don’t know my real name.

“I know that...” he sputtered, spitting out another load of blood-drenched saliva, “...that even if I do agree, you're still not going to just let me go. Gotta...get your kicks in...right?”

The man huffed and smiled. “Just need to make sure the lesson sticks, that's all.”

“That's...fine...” Ken smirked. “...I had...other plans anyway...”

The red light above the door blinked from red to green, the telltale beep of it unlocking put all three men on high alert, readying their weapons and aiming them toward the door.

Tomis.

The black-cloaked figure darted into the room, wearing a metal mask with lit, purple-tinged eyes under a dark hood. Immediately he thrust a heavy kick to one of the guards, slamming him against the wall and using the momentum to propel him toward the other guard, wrapping his arms around his neck. As the other guard started to stand up, long nanotech-powered metallic tentacles slithered from under the man's black coat, darting across the room and constricting the far guard's throat. They twisted sharply, causing a satisfying snapping sound...almost as satisfying as the one he'd made on the other guard with his own arms.

The two fell the floor, lifeless, as the mercenary leader grabbed a huge pistol and held it against Ken'pai's temple.

“One more step...”

“Do it,” Ken'pai ordered.

Tomis chuckled. “Yeah, do it.”

Growling, the man pressed the barrel in harder.

Tomis took a step forward.

He pulled the trigger, the room echoing its hollow “clink” sound, followed by three warning beeps, and a red LED light on the back of the gun blinked.

“...What the fuck--”

Before he could inspect his gun, he found that Tomis had a machine pistol aimed right at his face, the light on the back blinking green. Ready to fire.

“Now, you're going to put that gun down, and you're going to release my friend here.”

The man slowly, delicately lay his gun on the ground, raising his hands up when he was done. He moved behind Ken'pai, pulling out a small key and unlocking the handcuffs. When finished, Ken'pai darted out of the chair and behind Tomis, rubbing his wrists and rotating his shoulders.

“Sit,” Tomis ordered.

The man kept his arms up, and sat down in the chair. Tomis scooped up the cuffs and attached them to the man's wrists and forced them behind the chair, the captor becoming the captive. Satisfied, Tomis put his gun back into his coat, handing Ken a small device.

“Here's your phone.”

“Thanks man,” Ken said, unlocking the screen and pulling up a few windows within seconds. He moved toward the nearby table and began to pick up the rest of his stuff, shoving it into his pockets.

“Sorry it took so long.”

“Long? Man you were maybe like...a couple seconds later than I thought, that's all.”

“I don't understand!” The bound leader shouted. “How did you get in here?! How did you slip past my men, and the cameras?!”

“Cameras?” Tomis asked playfully. “There were cameras?”

“Oh right,” Ken'pai nodded. “Those cameras.” The lizard-man leered close to his new captive. “See...those cameras haven't been recording anything for the last six hours...they've just been playing an hour-long video loop over and over again.”

Before he backed off, the reptile spat one last round of blood onto the man's face.

“Now mister...Mehnkov, was it? Dmitri Mehnkov?” Ken asked.

The man grumbled. “Filthy criminals...”

Tomis gasped melodramatically. “Criminals?! Man, he called us criminals! That's awful!”

“I know! Especially since SecuWatch has a warrant out for one Dmitri Mehnkov for the kidnapping of a SecuWatch operative!”

“...What...?!”

Ken flicked through his phone, bringing up a screen with Dmitri's face on it, showing his full name, home address, phone number, and ID number. The charges on the warrant matched what Ken'pai had described, showing another status on the bottom. “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”

“I...what is this?! Who are you two?!”

“Just a couple criminals.” Tomis shrugged.

Ken snorted a little, the joke still hilarious in his head. “Sorry about the gun, by the way, but you really should try to distance yourself from the ID-tag system. It's pretty easy to do...well it's easy for ME anyway...and almost undetectable. Plus, you don't run into the issue of having the ID-tag signals jammed from a single cell phone. Mostly why my partner here didn't have to worry much about the guards here.”

“Might want to hire a few more people for patrols too. Without having to worry about the cameras, your security is nothing but holes.”

Dmitri growled and strained against the cuffs, but even his frame wasn't powerful enough to budge them. “So what do you want?!”

“Well, we were thinking we might need your help in taking down BIOSERV. See...we need to make sure that when we do go after them, that we don't get interrupted, so we could use some extra manpower,” Tomis explained.

“And why would I help you do that?”

“Well,” Ken shrugged his shoulders, “other than being tied up here, I could make this nasty warrant go away, because I'm the SecuWatch Operative that you'd kidnapped. It'd be pretty easy for me. But...if you want more incentive, how about this...we pay you what BIOSERV was going to pay you, courtesy of the MegaCorp themselves?”

“What? Why would I ever...”

“Let's see...”

Ken'pai swiped through the phone faster and faster. “They were going to pay you...25000 right? Well here's the thing...somebody working for BIOSERV actually fried quite a lot of valuable, sensitive electronic equipment of mine, so I hope you don't mind, but I had to take that for myself. Reimbursement, you understand.”

“You lousy reptile!”

“Oh, oh don't worry, I didn't take that out of your paycheck, Dmitri. I took that from BIOSERV themselves. What's interesting though, is that your paycheck is never going to arrive.”

“What?!”

“Aww, he doesn't know!” Tomis smiled.

“Know what?!”

“That BIOSERV was never planning on paying you,” Tomis chuckled. “Mercenary units in this city are wise to the MegaCorps' method of hiring by this point, but you...you guys are new here. As evidenced by the traditional, by-the-book methods, the factory-sealed, new equipment, your reliance on ID-tagged gear...it was all your undoing, and BIOSERV knew they could play you for saps.”

“That's...”

Ken'pai shook his head. “It's okay partner, he's not gonna believe us. But maybe he will when I send him copies of the company's emails. They were going to pay you through a dummy account, one that's been designed to look like it had a specific amount in it--namely 25000 credits--but as soon as the transaction was going to be completed, 'oops, the account was hacked! We'll get back to you on your payment!'”

“I...”

“Yeah, I know. They played you in order to get to us. But here's the thing...that 25000 I skimmed off the top? I can do that again, it's actually pretty easy, but this time I'll do it for you instead. Sound good?”

Dmitri growled again and stared at the floor. It was obvious that he knew he didn't have much time to make the decision. Neurons fired as his eyes darted around the room, so many revelations hitting him at once. He didn't like being played for a fool by these guys, but he hated getting the exact same treatment from the MegaCorp that hired him in the first place. All of this as his business was just getting off the ground...

The man looked toward Tomis and Ken'pai, and slowly nodded his head.

“Good!” Ken affirmed, moving behind Dmitri and undoing the handcuffs. Before the man stood up, he found the machine-pistol aimed at his face again. “Stay,” came the command. Like a dog.

Ken'pai moved toward the door, which slid open in a satisfying hiss. Tomis backed toward the door himself, staying between the two and making sure Mr. Mehnkov remained seated. Ken flicked through his phone again, waiting for a process to finish before nodding.

“There. The emails should be in your phone now, this might be a good time to look through them, because this door's lock isn't going to open again for another 45 minutes. I'll contact you in exactly 72 hours. Be ready to respond. I'll use Haggard as my call sign.”

“I...understand...” Dmitri replied, pulling out his phone.

“Sorry about having to do this by the way,” Ken conceded, “it was really the only way to get your attention on the matter without you getting so...hostile.”

“Take care,” Tomis said, waving while holding the gun.

The door hissed shut, leaving Dmitri alone with his device. The first thing he did was run a search on any warrants for his arrest, which he was relieved to find were non-existent...the lizard kept his word. Soon, he opened his emails and found that once again, Ken'pai was correct. They corroborated what he'd said almost down to the letter, even the part about blaming the dummy account being hacked.

A single light bulb burned its light against his skin.

But not nearly as hot as his inner rage at being played as nothing more than a pawn.

#Short Form #Series #CyberSin #Sinquest #Cyberpunk #Cyber!Ken'pai #Cyber!Tomis #SFW #Fun to write #I really have to do more cyberpunk #Thanks for reading #My Work #Writing

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