Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Twenty-Five - Sneaky Ghillie Lemon Squeezy

Chapter Twenty-Five - Sneaky Ghillie Lemon Squeezy

Chapter Twenty-Five - Sneaky Ghillie Lemon Squeezy

The pornography industry is nearly always at the forefront of technological changes. Video playback, online streaming, VR, augmented reality [...] its not surprising that when new tech became available, alien technology at that, it was immediately put to carnal uses.

Also, alien porn was an interesting development for the industry.

--Excerpt from an article on , 2023

***

I knew I didnt need to move stealthily in order to not make any noise. My armours boots were silent, and it wasnt like I was wearing some of those cheap nylon clothes that make swishing sounds when they rub together.

Still, it would be wrong to casually walk in while stealthed.

I kept low, eyes and ears peeled for any trouble, and it didnt take much for me to find some.

There was, as Myalis had warned, a guard in the room. He was sitting behind a desk, head bent back, looking towards the ceiling. I could have imagined that he was taking a nap if it werent for Myalis telling me what he was watching at that moment. The jerky movement of his forearms didnt help any.

Weirdo, I muttered.

At least hes all alone, Rac said.

Close your eyes, you, I said. Didnt need her seeing any of this. Myalis, can we just shut off all of his augs?

Not being able to see anything might calm the idiot down a notch.

Certainly, but shutting down all of them would terminate him. He has respiratory augmentations, and some that assist with blood circulation, likely because of the way his arms and legs were disconnected.

Can you be selective? I asked. I navigated through the menus of my cyberwarfare suite, and found a way to connect to his augs. Then I saw a flash of what he was looking at before I shut it off in a hurry. Wow, I muttered.

People living in sewers were pretty dirty.

That should be easy enough to do. Shutting down all nonessential augmentations in three... two...

My new pal jerked on his chair, then looked around. It was pretty clear that he couldnt see anything, though, judging by the way he moved his arm around as if searching for stuff. He bounced to his feet, did up his zipper, then stumbled towards the door at the back. John! John, my eyes have fucked up again! he shouted.

I followed him.

According to the map I had, the next area over was a wide passageway that overlooked another corridor one floor down.

I kept close to my blind masturbator buddy as he moved in. There was a catwalk that ran all along the corridor, with some passages leading off of it to the left. A rail kept people safe on the right, and below that I could see down to another corridor with crates and boxes. There were some tables with games, a few TVs on the wall, even a bed tucked in a corner. It was a living space.

Davie, you stupid fuck, close the fucking door! someone shouted from below. Youre letting the good air out.

Davie stumbled backwards, swearing under his breath the entire time. My arms are all screwed up, he said as he tried to find the handle. My fingers are numb, I cant feel my joints, and my eyes are off.

What were you doing?

The dude talking walked out of one of the side rooms. He was a tall guy, with a good chunk of his face from cheekbones up missing and replaced with a set of embedded augmentations. His arms and legs were prosthetic as well, the sort Id seen on plenty of Sewer Dragons, though maybe a notch nicer.

Cmon, John, you know I was just checking my media feeds, Davie said.

Uh huh. What kind of porn were you watching? John asked.

I stepped to the side so that I was next to the wall and out of the way.

I wasnt watching anything like thatdont be disgusting. Now fix my eyes, I cant see shit!

I snuck around John while he grabbed a hold of his pals head, then continued on deeper down the corridor. It was strange, being entirely invisible to people. Myalis, hows the air in here?

There continues to be trace elements and small quantities of various chemicals. Long term exposure is more harmful than would be advised, but the air is otherwise close to standard.

Great, I said. I tapped on my thigh and opened the holster that held my Trench Maker. It would be in easy reach, if I needed it.

The room that John had been in looked like a combination office and bedroom. So this entire area had to be some sort of living space. Or at least an area where this lot spent a good deal of time. I passed by the entrance to a short corridor with the stairs in it so that I could check out the other rooms on this level, but for the most part, they werent much more than storage and what looked like a small barracks with two people sleeping in it.

It was... I glanced at a clock on my HUD. Nearly eight in the morning. Weve been down here forever, I muttered. If I wanted to get to the hotel and take six showers before Lucy woke up, then Id have to wrap things up in... Lucy and Id had a busy night, so I probably had until noon before she woke up.

I refocused. The top section didnt seem to have anything too out of the ordinary. Certainly no room full of kidnapped people.

Making my way downstairs, I resisted the urge to hum; that was, until Rac started to make commentary. Its a nice place, she said.

This place? I asked.

The decor was a bit industrial for my liking. Too much rust and flaking paint and signage that dated all the way back to the 30s hanging on the walls.

Yeah. Its safe, got some air, probably water. Bet they can sneak out from a bunch of places too. And its safe.

You said that twice, Franny said.

Yeah, cause its important, Rac said. Really sucks to have your house blown up, or mowed away by some corp. Or just... taken, you know? You arrive home and you find out some gang needed a place for a lab, so now you need to move out. Snot fun.

Hey, youll be fine from now on, you know, I said.

Rac was silent for a long while. Thanks, she said at last. But, uh, I dont need charity. I can look out for myself.

Sure, I said. But I look out for my friends, so youll have to deal.

She chuckled, and I figured Id have a hard time convincing her to be anything like one of the kittens.

The bottom floor wasnt all that weird. Cement walls made more cramped by boxes and crates and stacks of those plastic pallets used to carry stuff around. Some enterprising people had stacked them in such a way as to create little cubby-holes where they could sleep, but otherwise, there really wasnt much worth poking at.

One guy was sitting at a desk, an IV tube poking out of his jacket and connected to a syringe that he was slowly, ever so slowly, plunging down.

Judging by the way he was twitching every few seconds, whatever he was juicing himself with wasnt healthy. I left him to it.

There were plenty more Sewer Dragons in the rooms here and there, most of them sleeping, but a few were gesturing in the air as though working through media feeds. They could have been any number of people Id seen waiting on the sides of stores and streetsbackground people minding their own business. Except these were in some fucky underground pit, and none of them had much of their original bodies left.

At the end of the corridor was a large door. It had a wheel in its middle, and, strangely enough, a bunch of wires running across it. Is that a trap? I asked.

Its not live, Gomorrah said. Look, bottom left: theres nothing at the end of the wire.

Huh, I said as I knelt down and stared. The wires were bare in some spots, but still in their plastic sheaths in others. What is it?

I suspect that its a rudimentary faraday cage, Myalis said.

The things that make it hard to connect to the internet? I asked. A few stores had them. You needed to use the local wifi or nothing at all. That way they could datamine you while you shopped.

Makes sense, Franny said, if thats where theyre keeping the people they kidnapped.

Well then, I said. I gripped the wheel and spun. If anyone heard, I had plenty of ammo to tell them to calm down.

***