Others 2.0

I hope people enjoy the chapters.

Before Joseph's entrance.

Minerva (Alice) Narrates:

Hearing the noise, seeing Salvatore fly along with LoneWolf, I didn't expect it and I was withdrawn from what was happening as a complete novice, it wasn't until I heard my dad orders leaving Salvatore to me that I came back to myself.

It seemed that time started to move again and there I saw him crying on the floor crawling as he could, he can't articulate a word but his eyes, shit ... his eyes say everything pleading and with that brightness refusing to disappear.

I don't think he deserves to be saved but dad taught me that not everything is black or white, that the current reality is much more nuanced, and I must do what I think is the right, this isn't the time to doubt, I cannot just let die a person affecting to his life so hard...

- You are the one who doesn't deserve to be saved, you are unworthy of the blessing of mana and still, you will live.- The mana answers my call, a little essence becomes visible for a few moments swirling in my hands, colorless at first it takes on the green hues of my soul, I place my hands on Salvatore's wound that was already unconscious to only pronounce the spell.

- Restoration!

With this done I have stopped bleeding and now he can breathe without much difficulty, the wound is still there but it is out of the claws of death, I need another spell to heal the wound but two mercenaries have exploded shooting everyone, with Hermit in the virtual space is ​​more than an easy target, I'll need more help if I want to protect all.

- listen and listen well, come to me, answer my call Great Spirit Sophia! Mana flows again but this time from my pendant of two open wings bathed in platinum, it flutters around me, and little by little it takes the form of a great owl, white and cold as the snow that perches on my right shoulder, despite its size, it's light and ticklish.

- Thank you for coming to my aid, I have a favor to ask you. Take care of them in my place Sophia.

- .... .... ....

- I will reward you.- I respond with a smile.

Being that Sophia is shy and doesn't like to be detected by mortals when she took flight she disappeared like a slight breeze of the cold wind. She took care of the bullets losing strength or deflecting using small and translucent physical barriers, in the meantime I'll finish healing Salvatore.

Shortly after the guys finish off the bad guys dad arrives and gives the whole gang the scare of his orc life, it was pretty fun, but even my hairs stand on when he uses mana like that.

Dad gave me the signal to perform the spell and feeling Sophia fly close by, it would make things easier, I concentrated the mana in my hands, I moved them as if it were part of a dance, letters of the language of the spirits shone with my characteristic color it made Salvatore's body suspended in midair by warm gusts of wind.

- We have chosen to save you, it is up to you that this second chance is worth it.

[Transcendental Skill]

- Superior Heal.- I pronounced bones, nerves, muscles, and skin began to regenerate, green threads were woven both in his back and in his chest, the spell over, and there was no wound or scar on him.

The wind brains and slowly the body settled on the floor, Sophia had departed towards the Astral plane, an uncomfortable silence was present between us and Salvatore's men but right at that moment, a hiss of surprise is heard throughout the room followed by footsteps that sweep away pieces of glass and shell casings.

- fiuuuuuu, what did I miss?.- Hermit wake up with a smile on his face...

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Before the Attack.

Donovan Narrates:

And here I am ready to fight for strangers, I don't know how to explain it but I have to do something in retribution. My life in the herd was not the best. I was an outcast even with my own for thinking differently, while I was pro-integration with the world the Alpha man was conservative and traditionalist, we always argued about what our pack should do, I challenged him several times to become the leader but without much success, and because of my frustration and bad temper I ended up causing more problems than I solved.

I have spent time locked up in that laboratory and I have contemplated that perhaps I deserved it, now with time I want to meet them again and apologize, I do not want to live with sorrows and regrets or leave loose ends.

However, we are on our way to the depths of the Puyallup district, the good aspect and security are losing as we move away from the entrance to Auburn, a district mostly of factories, inside everything was silent sometimes you heard a siren sound and the vehicles came and went they were not lacking but not much more than that and when you leave the avenue it does not take long to feel that the nightlife begins to wake up, the clubs and discos open their doors, see prostitutes on the sidewalks, drug addicts in the alleys and many others homeless people looking at you with the face of few friends was normal.

Goliath drives quietly humming a song from the radio, everyone looks carefree, chatting about what they have done today, the visit to the mall, the chat with Sarah and Ian, Rex showed us photos of my mannequin dressed in women's clothes, they all laughed like a real family and I liked that but it also made me more nervous and understand the situation less.

I worry about screwing up and even more with them, they who have not said a word about my condition, who have accepted me into their pack, who have forgiven my stupid savagery, they who saved me... they even gave me a Linker and they promised me an identification so that I could move freely around the city, that means a lot to an animal like me.

I have to make a good impression, it is decided I will do my best but can I even stop shaking? and absorbed in my thoughts I had not realized that we had already arrived.

Joseph Narrates:

We parked a couple of blocks from the entrance to avoid attracting attention, this building had three floors with small balconies on the upper windows, it was a rustic color and mostly brick, and with some remodeling that the other nearby buildings.

I tap Donovan's shoulder and ask him to calm down and give the signal to Minerva, she immediately notices my intentions and seeing that no moors on the coast, proceeded to make us all invisible, using an arcane stash and some gestures with her hands.

His eyes shone with a bright green and we vanished into the air. While she concentrates his mana on us he cannot use other types of magic and invisibility is quite limited, this means that activating any type of weapon would work as a dissipator of the mana that affects us of course, there are more powerful versions but the cost is higher or limits the number of people they can affect, this is also the limit of the magicians and their ability to manipulate mana, it's believed that the best users of magic are the Dragons.

We started by getting closer, they had the music at full volume and it did nothing but help us to go unnoticed, everyone knows the plan, we have to find a terminal for Rex's tablet and thus be able to hack all the information they have or find the leader and kindly ask him to give us his Linker and proceed with the same, we need to know who hired Los Lobos to harm Ian, it should be easy but when are the things going smoothly?

Once inside, I could only feel sorry for the people immersed in the devices of Sin-sense a total immersion in virtual reality, this gang profits mainly from the sale of SDC those chips from Sin-sense the multimedia technology that is capable of reproducing the experience of a person and the sensory information of a certain situation derived from the virtual reality and although it was a great invention, organized crime soon saw how it could benefit from it, taking the TIVR of full immersion as an opportunity, they added a self-destruct mechanism after use and removed the legal standards of sensory experience leaving a powerful addictive product.

The black market is very varied, for example, there are pornographic one-shots, heroic fantasies, recorded murders. There are also the "emotional" a variant of SDC that affect the mood and have the RAS Reticular-Annulation System deactivated, this is responsible for suppressing natural sensory signals so sin-sense users do not receive real-world stimulation and neurological functions do not cause the user's body to move while in virtual reality. The most popular are euphoria, aggressiveness, joy, or sexual desire, and of course, prolonged use leads to permanent brain damage or hormonal dysfunctions. This new variant of being able to be "awake" gave rise to more uses and darker perversions such as the chip-persona-fix or the zombie-chip, the first can change an aspect of the personality making polemical for what makes us be? it is mostly used in special brothels where they pay prostitutes who embody the personality of some famous, also in spies and moles to improve their performance and the second is directly mind control.

Well, insight is the evident decadence of the "high tech low life" era, Direwolf wasn't happy at all, he controls only for respect to me, I understand it, he has his only blood brother in a residence for the "damaged" and that is what remains of his family.

We went unnoticed between two guards and two other technicians who take care and supervise that everything works, surprisingly it was quite clean, on the second floor they were dancing with alcohol and other simple drugs, they also had orcs security, I think it sounds electronic, I like it.

Only remain look on the third floor, we not only found the three orcs from the shopping center but they were also talking with the one who had entrusted them, we found a well-arranged room with open doors, the three orcs were standing in front of a very business desk with a laptop, notebooks, scattered sheets, photos in frames and a cup of coffee on it and on the other side was a human dressed elegantly but somewhat casual with a scar across his face from side to side vertically demanding explanations from these three.

- Brothers I expected better news, and not only they're alive I lost the expensive explosive.

I'm very disappointed, now, tell me who those bastards are? and without excuses!.

- n-no, we don't know.

- they seemed to be close but...

- Salvatore they say the truth, it's the first time we have seen them since we began to monitor them, I swear!

There is no doubt that they are afraid of what might happen to them, we settled into the room as if it were our house, hehehe Dalion was more lost than Nemo, so I slowly closed a door to warn them, while the orcs gave it little importance and attributed it to the wind from the open windows their boss didn't, in his eyes the retina seemed to turn on itself and the contour to glow in fluorescent orange, I was making a sign of peace.

-... go, I'll see what to do with you later.

- but boss...

- get out!!

They left and I finished closing the other door.

- Very well, what do I owe your unpleasant visit to Empty-Throne.

Immediately Minerva undid her spell.

-Salvatore friend. Why so cold? - I said.

- Is it because every time you appear I lose out?

- maybe that is true and I feel sorry with all my heart.

- You lie with all your teeth, but tell me what did you come for? It's weird, I've done all the shit you asked me to do, you forced and my clientele has dropped a lot lately.

- Don't complain, you've only lost the most stupid people!.- Direwolf interrupted, losing patience.

- The matter is the attack on two friends of mine, you will understand that I am very, very, very angry with that.

- oh... I didn't know they were your acquaintances. So the two from before?.- Salvatore asked with fear in his eyes.

- Hahahaha if those bastards as you said, it was us.- Hermit responds laughing but snapping his fingers.

- Don't worry, nothing has happened, you had no way of knowing and I understand it, we are both businessmen... that's why I want the one who hired you.- I said with a more serious voice.

- hmmm I don't know if I can help you much with that. You will see now that we have failed and the attack has been in the news, the client isn't happy at all and does nothing he has sent me an email sending me basically to hell.

Hermit takes out some fiber optic cables, plug the laptop into the tablet and a second to his neck.

- He is clever to use programs to remain anonymous but if there is any clue or trace I will find it in the virtual space.- the elf said and fell "asleep" on the couch.

The moment Hermit closes his eyes I feel the danger, the thirst for blood, the face of a murder, I see that Direwolf also reacts to the same thing but cannot discern where the threat comes from.

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------------to be continued...