Lost Rain
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Outrun - Chapter 327
🕑 Added 2025-11-07 23:04:01 +0000 UTC“What do we do with them?” Mira stared down at the collapsed mercs. Her eyes flashed with concern, though she shoved that emotion down just as quickly as I noticed it.
“L-leave them. We s-still need to find my b-brother.” It wasn't much of a surprise that Luna wanted to ditch the mercs and refocus on the mission. Even with two down, she was still in a rush. To be fair though, the last one was her family.
“If we leave them, their chances aren't very high to get out… not as they are.” Saint, ever the voice of compassion, sighed deeply.
”It’s not our problem, though.” I stared at the group. Only three of them were still in a sobbing mess. The rest had fallen silent and just sat there like broken dolls.
“Still—“
“What about my bounty—“ Mira stopped and idly messed with the slide of her rifle. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to cut you off.”
“You’re good. I’m working on claiming it.” Although he was trying to move past it, I could still hear the concern in his voice. They were even more blindsided by the plan than I was.
”It’s up to you, Shiro.” Mira didn’t offer her opinion. At least not vocally. Her Cues suggested she was thinking the same as Saint.
I stared down at the mercs. To be honest, I leaned closer to Luna’s opinion. We—Mira saved them from being controlled. That was more than enough. And yet my mind couldn’t help but go to the past. Back to the first gig I did for Carone. It felt like so long ago, and I couldn’t quite remember why I made the decision I did back then. Even though it was dangerous, I stopped to help the victims.
Was this even the same situation, or was I making mountains out of molehills? This time around, it wouldn’t be me alone who faced danger. That made the whole situation all the more complicated. It wasn’t just my life. Every second we stalled was another potential second Kaynis could be flatlined. If he wasn’t already.
Still… stalling for just a minute wouldn’t be the end of the world. Especially considering two of the group wanted to at least help a bit. Besides, we had other things we needed to do. “Mira, go watch the perimeter. Make sure we’re safe.”
”Roger.” She hefted her rifle and backed away, ‘accidently’ stepping on Mind Freak's still warm corpse.
With her temporarily going on patrol, that just left me and the seven broken marionettes. The air still seemed to hum with tension even though they’d been freed from the power controlling them. The silence thickened for a moment as I tried to figure out what I wanted to do. How was I supposed to approach this mess?
Get a good look first, I guess. Try to figure out their condition. No telling what’s going through their brains. I mean, eight of them outright killed themselves as soon as the control broke. No telling what state the last seven of the woman’s inner circle were in.
There was only one guy still crying now, though his tears were slowly drying up as he stared at his hands like he was seeing them for the first time. It beat out the hollow and empty eyes of the others, so he was where I started from first.
”Hey. Look at me.” I crouched down in front of the young man collapsed onto his knees. His eyes, glassy and dilated like he’d just come off of a high, blankly looked up at me. “You’re free. It’s over. You need to move though, understand? This place isn’t safe.”
I put on a calm and honest smile, trying to appear as far from Mind Freak as I possibly could. I slowly reached out a hand to check his pulse—
“Ugh!” The man flinched back like my very touch might burn him. It was the first major reaction from any of the group since Mind Freak died. His gaze flicked to me full of uncertainty. It was like he was looking at the sun after far too long stuck underground.
Then, just as quickly as he reacted, he was back to being a broken doll. Mira approached from behind me. “We’re clear for now… any luck?”
”It’s like nobody's home.” I waved a hand in front of a different man. He didn’t even react to me.
“Dissociation… No telling how long they were under that bitch.” Mira kicked at the already mangled corpse once more. “Probably just a short-term shock. It might take hours for them to normalize.”
”They don’t have hours.” I could try to shove them into the bunker, but leaving them in there wasn’t a great idea. “We don’t have hours to stay with them either.”
”Give me some time with them?” Mira looked around the area and then nodded her head. “Go get Iris out. She won’t last forever in the Aether, right?”
The sooner I got her out of there, the better. “And leave you behind?”
Mira waved her hand at me with a light smile. The Packheart Ring on her finger caught the green glow of the chem lights. “I’ll call you if I need you. Saint, can you get some Dragonflies around here to keep watch?”
“Sure. Just give me a minute.”
“W-what about Kaynis?” Luna asked, uneaseiness eating at her voice like acid. Even with two of her team found, her brother was still missing. No clue if they were blood-related or not. Didn’t really matter either at the end of the day. Sometimes found family was greater than blood family.
“We’ve got two transponders now, right?” Mira asked me. After a moment, I fished out the transponder Iris had on her. “Leave one with me, take the other to the edge of the heights. Luna, can you triangulate his position using the two?”
“Y-yeah. They’re not very precise… i-if there’s enough distance it should be better though.” The runner’s voice sounded a lot calmer with a goal in sight. There was still an edge of tension to it though.
”Then we do that—that is, if you’re okay with it, gold leader.” Mira popped a cheerful salute to me. “We’ll take care of three birds with one stone.”
”At ease, private.” I tossed her one of the transponders. “And we are not calling me that. What makes me the leader in the first place? I’ve got zero leadership skills.”
”Considering all of us are only grouped up because of you, it's only natural.” Saint coughed lightly. “No offense, but I doubt I ever would’ve even met either of you two. We run in different circles.”
“Clearly. What circle do you run in? Broke?” I had no rebuttal for that, so I settled with a mocking tone. And although I said that, technically we all ran in that circle at the moment.
“S-so?” The poorest one of us all spoke up. At least we still had assets—all of hers were frozen by BosSpace itself. “The plan?”
“We go with Mira’s suggestion.” It was close to what I was thinking of anyway. It’d be safer and quicker for me to move through the heights by myself. I could dodge fights and play it all much safer while solo. Mira didn’t have a lick of stealthing skill in her, but without her holding me back, I could be in and out in the time it took me to run to the edge of the heights.
Unfortunately, I needed to head to the very edge of the heights. With the surface to air missile turrets set up around the sub-district, calling down my hover-bike anywhere else would be incredibly dangerous and costly. Once out on the edge, though, I could hand over Iris onto my bike and have Luna fly it to Nael like an autopilot.
I glanced at Mira one last time as she crouched down and started to talk to one of the men in soft, calming tones. Then I stepped out of the building and let myself fade into the shadows.
——
“It’s so creepy how she does that.” Saint watched Shiro simply disappear from the edge of the building. The only reason he still knew her location was thanks to the Dragonfly strapped to her shoulder.
“I heard that.” Shiro’s voice came across the Packheart Ring. There wasn’t any true aggravation in it though. “Luna, can you pull the hoverbike around to meet me?”
On the other side of the room from Saint, the white-haired girl flinched as her name was called. Her hands rapidly flew across the keyboard at a typing speed that put even the seasoned reporter to shame. “Y-yeah. It’s on its way…”
Saint sensed she wanted to say more, though the girl let her words fade off into silence. He hesitated for the briefest of moments before closing a window and focusing in on the runner. “He’ll be fine. Iris is safe now too.”
”J-just because you say that—” As if a dam broke, the words rushed out of her mouth. She forced said dam closed once more. “I-I just—I should be doing more. I’ve n-never felt so useless.”
“You are not useless. If anyone’s useless in this situation, it’d be me.” Saint chuckled lightly and leaned back onto the bed of the hotel. “Action comes and goes like the wind. It’s just as important to be patient in between the gaps.”
”I-I can’t just be patient. There’s always something a Netrunner could be doing.” Luna huffed and turned around in her chair, fully facing him. Even as she looked away from the screens, code still flew across them.
“That doesn’t mean patience isn’t important.” He looked the girl over with a critical eye, noting how heavy her eyes looked. “If you constantly burn and burn without a moment of rest, your fire will snuff out with the next breeze.”
She went silent for a moment and then turned back around, hands resting on the keyboard. She didn’t start typing immediately though. “E-easy for you to say. You have nothing on the line.”
“My friends are risking their lives in the middle of a war zone.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Friends was a bit of a stretch, though there was no denying he didn’t have many close connections. The charming smile he’d kept faded slightly. “You haven’t eaten.”
Luna flinched and looked away. Her words came out sharp and defensive as her eyes flicked to a half-eaten pizza. “I’m not hungry. Not like I’m burning energy sitting here doing nothing.”
“You’re monitoring the situation and flying a bike. From halfway across the city at that.” His words held a note of how impressed he was by the feat. “You’ll burn yourself out at this rate.”
”A monkey could do all of that.” She huffed once more and leaned against her fist, watching one of the screens that showed the hover bike. It was smoothly gliding through the night sky on an interception route with Shiro.
”Yeah, but humans are much more pleasant.” He laughed. “And humans need to eat. Take a break and grab a slice. We’re just waiting for Shiro to arrive anyway.”
Luna struggled for a moment longer and then slowly pushed herself away from the bank of monitors and terminals. Her wrist was still jacked in, and the screens still showed she was working, but at least she was moving for food.
Saint shook his head and looked down at his stream. Seriously, was he working with a bunch of little kids? Why couldn’t they just see their own bodily needs and take care of them without him pointing it out? It was such a big contrast from how they looked from the outside.
Mira was a deadly crack-shot. He’d seen enough of the streams to know better than to get on her bad side. At least she could take care of herself. Then there was Shiro, magic thief extraordinaire. Honestly, he was a bit surprised she wasn’t chugging energy drinks by now. And now Luna, an extremely scary Netrunner who couldn’t even feed herself.
This so wasn’t how he thought he’d spend his night. He sighed and got back to work on the screamstreams. Although he was the most useless out of everyone when it came to tangible effect on what was going on, that didn’t mean his work was any less important. He’d been around long enough to know that not everything could be measured.
— — —
AN: Can’t remember if I said something last time, but the cut sections will be chapter 1-66.
Comments
Gardor
“doubt I ever would’ve even met either of you two. We run in different circles.” "Clearly. What circle do you run in? Broke?” I had no rebuttal for that, so I settled with a mocking tone." Who said the "broke circle" thing? Shiro? That is a rebuttal.
UnderwhelmingBird
Extreme dad energy there, Saint. Goodness. At the very least, uncle vibes. Self-flagellation w/ not eating, plus anxiety wrecking appetites And who's to say Shiro isnt swigging energy drinks when you arent looking? She's very sneaky...
SecondBlahm
Well she is chugging down energy drinks, as well as "all in one smoothies" for daily meals. Ain't nobody got time fo that !
kreiverin
Thanks
Jaksterzoo
Tyftc
