Lost Rain
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Outrun - Chapter 285
🕑 Added 2025-08-04 22:04:01 +0000 UTCSaint and I just hung out in the boss’s office and waited for the raid. Several times someone tried to break into the room and help the boss. Several times they were warded off by the reporter. It was usually some bullshit excuse or persuasion, though at the end he mentioned he was locked in with a psychopathic Crusader with a bomb vest.
As for me? I just sat back and tried to relax. My entire chest hurt. That guy didn’t just hit me with any revolver shot. It was a bullet specifically designed to punch through chrome and subdermal armor. It was a good thing I had the Crusade vest on. If I had my normal ballistic vest? Hundred percent would’ve gone right through me.
With my sheer force of will—and liberal use of Cold-Blooded—I got up and headed to the guy’s terminal. It was fingerprint and facial locked. Not an issue with the owner himself hanging out on the floor.
I scrolled through the terminal, not a hundred percent sure what I was looking for. A headache was seriously starting to pound at the back of my head too, so I slid out of the chair. “Saint.”
”Um-hmm?” Saint glanced over his shoulder to me from the barricaded door. He hadn’t left it since this whole thing started.
I pointed to the terminal. ”Come check this. Grab anything to do with Yellow Inc and Visceral Cybernetics. Um- and the other Savant Labs.”
“Oh. Right.” Saint moved over and slid into the chair. He stabbed a chip into the terminal and got to work typing away. In the short few seconds I watched him, he scrolled through file after file quicker then I could even read them.
I, in my infinite bravery, laid out on the couch and closed my eyes for a little nap. Sleep never came. It hadn’t been coming lately. When did I last sleep? Should I just use Lethargic Presence? That always did the trick… It’d also affect Saint though. I couldn’t have that. I shook my head and closed my eyes.
Half an hour passed like that. In the distance, I could hear constant gunshots and fighting. The Crusade raid must’ve started. Took them long enough. I was beginning to think I got stabbed in the back given the massive delay.
It slowly closed the gap, hemming in toward us bit by bloody bit. Eventually, a heavy impact hit the door. “Crusade! Open up!”
”Squire Zuku!” I shouted back through the door. The rough exhale of air pulled weirdly at something in my chest. I stood up and moved some stuff out of the way, allowing the door to be opened a crack. “‘Bout time you guys showed up!”
A Knight peeked through the gap in the door, bloody longsword in hand. He paused when his eyes fell on my BC ballistic vest. “Are you injured, Squire?”
I absentmindedly rubbed at the growing bruise across my chest. ”A bit… Inquisitor Shilling here?”
“In the basement…” The Knight shuddered. Must’ve really been bad down there to get a Knight of the Crusade to react in such a way. “I’ll tell him you’re up here. He’ll be glad for an excuse to leave.”
”Chek.” I should’ve gone down there. Just in case. “Oh! And I bagged the boss.”
”Roger.” The Knight cast one last look at me then backed away to call in the Inquisitor. I casually shut the door and resettled on the couch.
Saint waited for the door to close before talking in a far quieter voice than normal. “What’s the plan?”
“Plan?” We already did the plan. Get here. Get boss. Get info. Get out? It was a pretty easy plan to follow as far as some of my schemes went. Just four steps in total.
Saint looked at me like I was being the weird one. ”Yeah? How are we going to get out of this, Shiro?”
“I’ll just call you a CI and make them release you? It’ll be fine.” The Crusade was the Crusade. A word here and there, and we’d be free in a couple hours. Saint might even get a little reward.
”It’s not that simple…” Saint sighed and rubbed at his head and went back to work scrolling through the terminal.
A few hours later, it was just that simple. The Crusade did Crusade things and we were both hand waved after a short questioning period. I dunno how Saint’s questioning went, but most of my stuff was ‘did you kill this guy, this guy, and this guy?’ Pretty basic.
I spoke to Inquisitor Shilling a bit too. I made absolutely sure that the Red Veil boss wouldn’t end up mysteriously hanging from his cell after the cameras mysteriously shut off. At least for a couple days. That’d throw a wrench in my plans. I really didn’t need Visceral Cybernetics to get the jump and cleanse the lab before I got closer.
I also got his word that they’d try and keep quiet about the whole raid to not run my other ‘investigation’. The Crusade had a bunch of groups to track through Red Veil’s documents anyway, so it wasn’t much of an issue. All sorts of scumbags were popping out of of nowhere as of late.
We were on the clock to find Yellow Inc’s lab now, though. It was only a matter of time till something happened to the goon or word got out about a massive Blue Crusade operation on the outskirts of Downtown. Although the Blue Crusade could pressure the media, some enterprising reporter would do something without a care sooner rather then later. A few days to a week were all we had at most.
“So it's a good thing you got something from the terminal, right?”
“What are you even talking about?” Saint paused mid bite of his ramen. His eyes swirled around like I was some strange creature he just couldn’t figure out.
I waved a hand in front of my face to make sure he was paying attention this time. ”The terminal? Red Veil?”
“Yeah, yeah I got that.” Saint swirled his noodles in thought and looked off down the street.
We sat at a ramen street stall in Portside. Visceral Cybernetics was just north of us. I figured we’d need to drop by, and I had some plans involving the wicked corporation. No one took my mikata and got away with it.
“And?” I prompted the handsome reporter once more.
”Nothing good.” Saint shook his head. “Yellow Inc took care of transport. There was literally nothing on them except for receipts.”
That… didn’t throw as much of a wrench in my plans as it probably should’ve. I expected as much, which was why we were here. The plan was quite simple this time around too. I was just too tired to come up with anything more complicated, and simple answers were usually the correct ones. “You following?”
”Not in the slightest. You- uh- you okay?” The reporter asked. “You keep asking questions with no context.”
”Just sleepy…. Did I not explain the plan?” Weird. I definitely thought I went over it with him already. We’d use the receipts and then find the Savant Lab. Elementary, I might even say.
“What plan? I thought we were just coming out to eat?” Saint ran a hand through his hair. He looked a little downcast. “Is that not what we’re doing?”
”Oh…” Maybe I could use a nap… after I find Mira. I subtly summoned the canteen and drank even more energy drink. “We’re breaking into Visceral. It’s up the road.”
Follow the money trail. It was a pretty basic strategy to find anything that tried to hide. The Savant Lab had to have money somehow, and I guarantee enough searching through Visceral’s finances would reveal its location. Numbers were making my eyes spin right now, though, so Saint would have to do all of that. I had a much more important objective. “It’s time to plant a nuke.”
Saint froze entirely, jaw dropping in surprise at my sheer planning prowess. “How the hell did you get from B&E to nuking them?!”
”Shoot. Did I do it again?” I summoned the canteen. Must not have taken enough go-juice. More would solve that. More was already better. More. M. Mira- right! “Charge!”
The reporter grabbed me just before I could make my move and picked me up off the ground. He was much taller than me and surprisingly strong. It didn’t look like he even struggled under my weight and the weight of all my gear. Not like my gear was all that light either.
Saint smiled apologetically to the noodle chef who owned the street stall. “Sorry about her. She’s a little-“
“Don’ call me little, bastard.” I punched into his stomach. A jolt passed through him from my shock gauntlets, and he dropped me to the ground. Hey, would you look at that? We’d have matching bruises now.
Saint winced, rubbing at his stomach. His face flushed in irritation for a moment, though it faded under genuine amusement. What was so funny? “When’d you get so feisty? Where’d my suave Shiro go?”
”I’m always feisty.” I bared my teeth at him and put on my best feral look. With my eyes warped by Panther’s Sight, it was a relatively easy thing to pull off. Or, at least, it was a safe assumption given his flinch. “And suave. Super suave. The suavest, even.”
The reporter wiped away tears. Genuine tears. Could he cry on demand? That wasn't fair. “They grow up so fast. Already in your rebellious phase.”
“Ugh- let’s just go. We’re runnin’ out of time.” I pulled on his hand and marched off to Visceral.
Saint pulled me back to the food cart. “Other way.”
Oh… chek. How’d my mental map get turned around? I needed some more caffeine. Maybe I should stop by the Crusade and klep some mil-grade stimulants? That should keep me awake and active. “Thanks.”
”Yeah yeah… go over the plan with me one more time?” Saint scratched at his head again. “I’m still insanely confused.”
Right, right… wouldn’t be good to go in blind now, would it? Pay attention this time, damnit! I passed Saint my bag full of Raijin trackers. I’d taken about half my collection for this. They were isolated within the bag, but as soon as it opened? “Okay, so we start…”
After discussing the plan, Saint ended up convincing me to take a nap. I was heavily resistant to it, but when he pointed out that going in as I was might endanger Mira further, I couldn’t exactly ignore him. Especially when he threw me getting my directions wrong back in my face. That never happened.
I relented, following his demand to sleep. I laid down on my hoverbike for thirty minutes and not a moment more. It wasn't the most comfortable sleeping position, but Lethargic Presence took care of that. I was out like a light.
— — —
I stretched out and lightly rubbed at my chest. The bruising wasn’t fully healed within just thirty minutes, but it felt significantly less painful. Some of the swelling went down. I pulled off the Crusade vest and tossed it into one of the hover bikes saddlebags. It was time for stealth, and the shininess would only give me away.
”Saint?” I called into our comms.
”Yo.” Saint’s voice came through the line. “Sleeping beauty awakens…”
”Where’d you go?” There was no one up here on the roof with me. He was supposed to wait, and then we’d make our move, no?
“Ah, yes sir. I’m from the auditing team. Love what you’ve done with the place… First I need to take a look at your finances?” Saint’s voice dipped lower as he spoke to someone else. “Ah, and I’ve been briefed on our… outsourcing project.”
I rubbed my eyes and tried to banish the rest of my sleepiness. Who was he talking- “Are you in Visceral?!”
”Thank you, sir.” The reporter laughed good-naturely. “What’d you ask, S?”
“S? No- what are you doing?!” This so wasn’t part of the plan! I was supposed to go in through the roof, get through the security without a hitch, and then break into their archives to have a look around. Not- not this!
”Chill, chum. I’m already here. How do I turn on your Dragonfly thingies?” He asked casually. It was like he wasn’t even worried in the slightest about being knee-deep in a corporation known for rotten methods.
I checked my Dragonflies. I was missing three. The bastard must’ve pick-pocketed me while I was asleep! I took a calming breath, though it didn’t help much. “There’s a small button on the head.”
A moment later, my HUD lit up with the three Dragonflies’ perspectives. I pulled out my deck and sent them buzzing around to get a better view. Saint was in a room filled with server banks. He looked the same as last time I saw him, though now he had a badge pinned to his chest with ‘Audit Team’ imprinted onto it.
”What’s going on?” My head throbbed. I summoned out the canteen and gulped down a bunch of XtraEnergy Quantum. The headache cleared up slightly, though it sent my leg bouncing into overdrive. Electricity sparked off of me every dozen or so bounces.
Saint motioned to one of the Dragonflies. I flew it over and landed on his shoulder. ”Well… I liked your plan. I really did. It’s just that, you know, it kinda sucked? How were you planning on getting access to the servers once you got in?”
“I’d figure something out.” I always managed to work it out once I got in. This time would’ve been no different.
“Did you know Visceral has three Netrunners on staff?” Saint scanned the Audit Team ID at the terminal. It popped up, letting him have full access to the server banks just like that. “They would’ve raised the alarm the moment you touched the terminal.”
”So? I’d zero the runners first.” I thought through the map of Visceral. They didn’t have a room that screamed Netrunner, so it probably would’ve been quite the search to figure out where they were. That was fine, though.
Saint pulled up a bunch of files and steadily went through them. “Right. You could’ve. But look at this? I’m already in, have access, and no one is suspicious in the slightest.”
I bit back a remark and tried to think about this objectively. Pulsations of ice throughout my boiling body helped keep my head cool and calm. As much as I hated to admit it, he might be right on this one. It hurt to admit, but stealth- stealth wasn’t—argh—the answer to everything.
I sat back, unwillingly I might add, and watched Saint work. The electrical generation of my Kinetic ability picked up with each moment I sat around doing nothing. Trusting someone else to help at such a pivotal moment felt deeply, deeplyalien.
Comments
UnderwhelmingBird
Shiro's got a history of things going terribly wrong and not being able to affect any amount of change, so now that she has a way to influence events found comfort in compensating hard by having a direct hand in course-correction when related to things that matter to her. Saint's a swell guy though and can see that she's way too deep to see this rationally, and would absolutely fuck things up if he didn't bait her into sleeping so he could do His Thing. Forgiveness versus permission and all that stuff. If he wasn't a grown fella, and without serious ties to Shiro, I'd be a little miffed ngl. But as it stands he's still just a guy she's worked with a couple times rather than someone like Hope or some of the gang members she actually cares about. That makes it a 'nice gesture' imo instead of "you're deliberately putting yourself into danger and Shiro's going to freak out when she realizes she's not in control and cannot influence whatever fate has in store for you"
W Maxwell Cassity-Guilliom
Saint is good people
Lost Rain
Yeah. I did retcon it to be a bit more present in the story as a sleeping aid when doing edits, but it affecting her had been a day one thing.
Gardor
"Should I just use Lethargic Presence? That always did the trick…" Since when, and how, does Lethargic Presence also effect her? Every time she's used it to make guards sleepy and sloppy, its also made her sleepy?
