The absence of knowledge

"Welcome to another unique world!"

The last syllable of my sentence hung in the air, a jarring contrast to the sudden, piercing shriek of klaxons that erupted throughout the lab. 

The sterile white walls seemed to vibrate with the sound, the air thickening with a palpable tension. 

Massive steel doors slammed shut around us, sealing us within the chamber, their heavy thud echoing through the sterile space. 

Metal shutters, descending from the ceiling, slammed shut in front of and behind us, cutting off any possible escape route.

The klaxons abruptly ceased, plunging the lab into an unsettling silence. Then, one of the wall-mounted TVs flickered to life, its screen displaying the image of a man whose face seemed to ooze arrogance. His suit, a monstrosity of shimmering fabric and ostentatious embellishments, screamed wealth and bad taste in equal measure.

"That suit," Ram muttered under her breath, her eyes narrowed in disapproval, "is made of pure platinum thread. What a waste of perfectly good metal. That suit is the definition of gaudy garbage."

I choked back a laugh, her blunt assessment a welcome distraction from the growing sense of unease that permeated the room.

The man on the screen cleared his throat, his voice smooth, oily, laced with an arrogance that grated on my nerves. "Silence!" he commanded, his gaze fixed on us with a chilling intensity. "You are trespassing on Arasaka Corporation property. You will be detained and interrogated. Based on your prior statement, you will also most likely become an experiment of Arasaka. Resistance is futile."

I couldn't help but laugh, the sound echoing through the sterile chamber, a jarring counterpoint to his pompous declaration.

"Sure, sure," I said, my voice dripping with mock compliance. "Tell us all about it. We're leaving as soon as you're done."

The man's eyebrows shot up, his carefully crafted composure cracking. "Leaving? I'm afraid you misunderstand. You will be staying. You have no choice."

My laughter intensified, a genuine, unrestrained burst of amusement. This guy was serious? Did he really think he could intimidate us?

Us, who had faced down a city-destroying ice monster, a bloodthirsty knight who could smash city streets into dust along with several other distasters, I could fuck reality itself into a pretzel and create a portal every 6 months, the very fabric of reality itself is my bitch, and he thought he could scare me?

I strode towards the metal shutters that blocked our exit, my enhanced senses registering their thickness, the intricate locking mechanisms, the faint hum of electricity that powered their defenses.

"I do what I want." I murmured, my voice barely audible above the pounding of my heart.

I didn't slow down. I didn't try to force the shutters open. I simply walked into them.

The metal shrieked, a sound like a thousand fingernails scraping across a chalkboard, as it yielded beneath my body's slow movement, parting like butter before a hot knife. 

The edges of the metal, twisted and deformed, spoke of the immense force I was exerting, the raw power that now coursed through my veins.

The klaxons blared to life again, the sound even more piercing, more urgent than before. The hallway beyond the shattered shutters was suddenly alive with activity, a blur of motion as armed guards, their faces grim, their weapons raised, charged towards us.

Gunfire erupted, a staccato symphony of explosions that echoed through the corridor. Bullets, their trajectories distorted by my enhanced perception, seemed to move in slow motion, I noticed how slow they were.

They weren't a threat.

I let them hit me, bouncing harmlessly off my skin, leaving not even a scratch.

More guards came as the guards I ignored kept firing.

These guards attacked me in melee, hyper-heated swords and cybernetically enhanced limbs whirred and snapped, blades gleaming, but their attacks were clumsy, easily deflected by Rem's Morningstar and Ram's whirling knives.

We left men with robotic limbs crippled but alive and kept moving.

We were a whirlwind of motion, a storm of unleashed power, our enhanced abilities turning the guards' desperate assault into a macabre dance of pointless attacks that ended in cybernetic replacements needing replacing. 

Their bullets, their blades, their cybernetic enhancements, were meaningless against the forces we now wielded.

The Arasaka Corporation, it seemed, had underestimated its guests.

—

The Arasaka Corporation's security forces were relentless, wave after wave of armored guards and cybernetically enhanced thugs pouring into the corridors, their weapons blazing, their faces contorted with a mixture of fear and aggression.

We fought back with a controlled fury, our movements a blur of enhanced speed and honed precision. I focused on disabling their weapons, twisting limbs, dislocating joints, sending bodies flying with well-placed kicks and telekinetic shoves.

Rem and Ram, their weapons a symphony of steel, moved with a grace and lethality that bordered on artistry, their attacks leaving a trail of unconscious bodies and deactivated cybernetics in their wake.

It was a chaotic, brutal ballet, a dance of violence conducted with a strange, unsettling restraint. We didn't kill. Not yet, anyway.

After an hour of this relentless onslaught, we finally breached the basement level, emerging into a vast, opulent lobby. It was eerily silent, deserted except for a few overturned chairs and shattered glass displays, remnants of a panicked evacuation.

Through the massive windows that lined one wall, we could see the street outside, teeming with heavily armed figures clad in black armor emblazoned with the letters "NCPD." We didn't know what NC meant, but I knew they were some kind of police department.

"Looks like we've got company," I muttered, my gaze sweeping over the assembled forces, my senses already picking up the hum of their weapons, the tension in their postures, the faint scent of fear that permeated the air.

We exited the building, stepping onto the wide plaza, I opened my mouth to speak, but they just started shooting instead of doing any sort of investigation.

They opened fire, a torrent of bullets that ricocheted harmlessly off our enhanced bodies, sparking against the cobblestones, shattering the remaining windows of the Arasaka building.

"They're not interested in talking," Ram observed dryly, her twin knives flashing as she deflected a volley of bullets with a flick of her wrist.

"So be it," Rem said, her voice calm, her gaze fixed on the approaching officers. "We will defend ourselves."

The battle was brief, brutal, and utterly one-sided. 

We moved through the ranks of the NCPD like wolves amongst sheep, our enhanced strength and speed turning their coordinated assault into a chaotic rout.

One officer, his helmet askew, his face contorted with a mixture of fear and manic glee, caught my eye. 

He smirked, a chillingly empty expression, and tossed a grenade towards his own comrades. The explosion rocked the plaza, sending bodies flying, screams echoing through the air.

The officer then grabbed a nearby radio, his voice crackling through the static.

"We can't handle them!" he shouted, his voice laced with a manic energy. "We need MAXTAC!"

A voice, calm and professional, responded. "Confirmed. Subjects are confirmed cyberpsychos with experimental full-borg cyberware! MAXTAC inbound!"

Before we could even process his words, before we could grab the lunatic and demand an explanation for his suicidal actions or what any of those terms meant, the air above us shimmered, and a sleek, black hovercar, its engine whining, descended onto the plaza.

Six figures, clad in heavy, futuristic armor, emerged from the vehicle, their weapons glowing with a menacing blue light. 

The aforementioned MAXTAC, apparently.

They opened fire, a barrage of energy blasts that slammed into us, the force of the impacts staggering, the air around us shimmering with heat. 

These weapons were different, more powerful than anything we'd encountered before. Weapons that would have ripped us apart in our previous, unenhanced states. 

Weapons that would turn a normal person to paste.

But we weren't normal anymore.

The blasts barely stung, leaving behind a tingling sensation, a faint warmth that quickly faded.

But they didn't penetrate our enhanced flesh, didn't even slow us down.

The MAXTAC operatives fought with a cold efficiency that chilled me to the bone.

They moved with a precision honed by years of training and cybernetic enhancements, their weapons a symphony of deadly force. 

But they were still outmatched, their every attack anticipated, their every strategy countered by our enhanced speed, strength, and durability.

We were a whirlwind of motion, a storm of unleashed power, leaving a trail of broken bodies and shattered armor in our wake.

But the enemy was relentless, their numbers seemingly endless. 

Every downed MAXTAC operative was replaced by two more, each wave more heavily armed, more determined to bring us down.

Frustration gnawed at me. 

This wasn't a battle, it was a massacre. 

A pointless, repetitive exercise in violence that was getting us nowhere.

"This is getting us nowhere," I growled, my voice laced with irritation of swatting flies that surprised even myself. "They just keep coming. When does it end?"

Ram, her movements a blur of pink and silver as she danced through a hail of energy blasts, her twin knives flashing, her face a mask of cold fury, paused, her gaze sweeping over the carnage.

"Maybe if we take out enough of their elites, actually killing them I mean," she said, her voice a low growl, "they'll finally get the message."

"You think?" I countered, skepticism lacing my voice. "These guys seem pretty determined to turn us into Swiss cheese."

Ram shrugged, a predatory gleam in her eyes. "Worth a try, isn't it?"

With a roar that shook the plaza, she unleashed her full power. A whirlwind of wind, a vortex of pure force, erupted around her, ripping through the ranks of the MAXTAC operatives, shredding their armor, tossing their bodies like rag dolls.

The air crackled with energy, the ground trembled, the very buildings around us seemed to shrink back from the raw power she now wielded.

But the victory was short-lived.

More MAXTAC operatives arrived, their armor even heavier, their weapons even more powerful.

We tore through them too. 

Then, the tanks rolled in, their massive cannons spitting fire, hovering no obstacle to being crushed into the shattered cobblestones and pavement.

Then, silence.

There was literally no one left to fight us.

The surroundings were smashed.

The gunfire ceased, the tanks fell silent, the only sound the faint whine of cooling engines and the distant wail of sirens.

A voice, crackling with static, echoed from one of the undamaged radios from the utterly smashed tanks.

"Dai-Oni inbound. I repeat! Dai-Oni inbound! Evacuate the area! Any surviving units, retreat! Adam Smasher incoming!"

The plaza, already a wasteland of shattered concrete and twisted metal, shuddered as a monstrous, twenty-foot-tall war machine fell from the sky and slammed into view.

Its armor, a patchwork of steel plates and exposed hydraulics, bristled with weaponry- miniguns, rocket launchers, and a massive cannon that seemed capable of leveling a small building.

This, apparently, was Adam Smasher. 

But even this behemoth, this walking arsenal, fared no better than the mangled tanks and scattered bodies that littered the plaza. 

Its weapons roared, spitting fire and fury, but its attacks were sluggish, its targeting systems struggling to keep up with our enhanced speed and unpredictable movements.

I was done.

Done with the endless waves of attackers, the pointless violence, the overwhelming sense of futility.

"FUCK! They called me for MEAT?! Bio-enhanced MEAT?! I was expecting someone who at least had some decent cyberware but what are you three morons? Some biotechnica garbage?!

I ignored its ranting, my anger a cold, focused point, my enhanced strength surging through my veins.

With a roar that echoed through the shattered plaza, I tore into the war machine, my hands ripping through steel and composite armor as if it were paper. Hydraulic fluid sprayed, sparks showered, metal shrieked in protest.

I reached the cockpit, tore it open, and pulled the pilot, its body a nightmarish tapestry of metal aping humanity.

"WHAT IS THIS?! There's no way BIOWARE- FUCKING MEAT! COULD EVER-"

A shuddering clunking noise occurred and the audio cut out as I tore a cord connected to him from the console, and then tore it out of his metal body.

I didn't understand its words, its obsession with metal and flesh, its disdain for what it called "meat." But its arrogance, its blind faith in its own twisted ideology, fueled my rage.

I slammed it against the ground, the impact sending tremors through the plaza, and began to hit it.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Each blow was a thunderclap, a release of pent-up frustration, a primal scream against the absurdity of this endless cycle of violence.

The creature, its cybernetic enhancements sparking, its metal limbs twisting, its voice a gurgling rasp, continued to rant even as its body crumpled beneath my fists.

"You- cannot fight- the- corps. You- cc-c-anot"

I smashed this smasher again this time with all of my force, as his body creaked and fell apart.

Then he exploded into a fireball which washed over me and did nothing.

Then, silence.

The echo of its final words hung in the air, a chilling reminder of a world obsessed with power, with control, with a twisted vision of progress that left no room for humanity.

A wave of emptiness washed over me, a hollow ache that had nothing to do with physical exhaustion and everything to do with the sheer futility of it all.

I walked back to Rem and Ram, their faces pale, their eyes reflecting the horror of what they'd just witnessed.

"I'm going to reset," I said, my voice flat, devoid of its usual energy.

Ram sighed, her shoulders slumping. "We won, I don't know why." she murmured, her gaze fixed on the mangled remains of Adam Smasher.

Rem nodded, her expression full of resignation.

This time, as I swallowed the poison potion, I didn't just focus on time. I focused on space. On the alleyway behind the massive Arasaka building.

—

We arrived as the portal spat us out- but this time we arrived not in front of the portal- but in an alleyway next to the giant stupid tower where the fight took place.

We needed info.

We probably needed A LOT of info.