Maniac’s Mayhem

"What do you mean? if you fly to close to the sun my wings will melt. there made of titanium if i am that close to sun i die from like seven other things."

-Fly By

(Crow)

I look at the screen that was no longer showing the feed of our apartment and was just wondering one thing. Why did Maniac not buy a gun? The hologram should be more than strong enough to pull a trigger. In the worst-case scenario, the projection would shatter because of recoil, but reconstructing it wouldn't be that bad when you did the damage already.

“Who the hell was that?” Karen asks, her shouting echoing through the empty room.

“Evelin Vance.” I answer, still looking at the screen.

“Okay, and who is she? And why did no one tell me there was another Samurai?” She shouts at me, her face turning red.

“I only know of her because she is Cierra's contracted girlfriend, according to my file. She died in the Zürich collapse due to a ploy of New Hope,” I explain.

“Do you think she initialised in Zürich?” Midnight Ranger asks.

“Most likely, it also would explain why Cierra joined PsyCo around the same time.” I say, trying to move the dates around a bit.

“I have one question.” Anna-Marie jumps in. “What did you mean by contracted girlfriend?”

I give my boss a small nod of acknowledgement “According to my logs, Evelin was an indentured servant for New Hope, working on hacking Samurai tech and as a ‘stress relief’ for their princess.”

“You think she is still contracted to Cierra?” Joline asks.

I shrug. “I can’t say for sure, but I think it is unlikely if Evelin is a Samurai and not just someone who has access to Samurai tech. There is no way for Cierra to enforce the contract.”

“So what you’re saying is that they are in love,” Lisa says with a big grin.

I give a small nod. “Unless there is another reason for her to be there, yeah.”

Lissa lets out a giggle. “From master and slave to lovers, just like in the new Samuwar comic.”

“Anyway what was that skill” Anna- Marie asks.

“Probably some application of hard light projection.” Joline informs them.

“Low-grade power with probably some kind of cognitive-enhancing gear to keep up multiple copies,” I add as I walk back to my desk and grab some of my stuff.

“What are you doing?” Anna-Marie asks.

“I am taking this opportunity to work from home,” I say as I stuff the company's tablet into my bag.

“Why?” the manager asks.

“Because I don’t want to be here when the neurotic wolf gets here.” I say as I start walking to the door.

Once downstairs, I quickly head out of the building and head to the company's dormitory. As I lie down on the bed, I feel Maniac take over my body to mete out some long overdue justice.

(Natalie Blaire)

As I slowly wake up, I feel my heart pound in my head like a jackhammer. I groan as I open my eyes and try to blink away my blurry vision. I was sitting on the ground of my usual office space; the light dimmed way down, only allowing me to see the bare minimum.

I try to figure out what is going on; I did not go to sleep here. At least I was pretty sure of that. I try to stand up only to find out that my hands were bound to something behind me, making it even more unlikely that this was the place I went to sleep in.

I try my best not to panic, as I do my best to figure a way out of this situation. At least I am still at the Nachtächternetzwerk so as long as I can stay safe for a bit longer, help should arrive soon. On a second inspection of my surroundings, I spot more people in the room, most of them still unconscious or in a dazed state.

Then, as if a shot has been fired, a canister clinks down in the middle of the floor and, with a hiss, releases some kind of light blue smoke into the air. I try my best to not inhale the stuff, but eventually I am forced to gasp for air.

As soon as I breathe in the smoke, I feel a lot better. The fog in my brain almost immediately disappears. The rest of the people also seem to come too, as I start hearing a lot more curses. I recognise some of the voices of the strike team barking insults at whoever has tied everyone down.

“You all are making me regret waking you all up,” an unnaturally high-pitched voice says. “You know there are people trying to sleep at this time,”

I look in the direction of the voice only to see a figure that makes my blood run cold sitting on top of one of the cubical walls. The figure is wearing a purple hoodie and a white mask, as she swings her legs back and forward almost as if she is a bored kid sitting on a railing.

I quickly look away, trying to make myself as small as possible. If the mad Samurai were here, there was no telling what would happen next. Some of the employees seem to think the same thing, as it immediately gets a lot quieter except for one voice.

“Do you really think you can get away with this?” Karen, the manager of the group, almost snarls at the psychopath.

“No,” comes the answer, a hint of amusement in her tone. “You see, I don’t care if they put all the blame on me.”

“You're insane,” Karen spits out.

“Honey, you are far from the first person to say that you should come up with a more creative insult.” The snap of some fingers runs through the room. “That is it. The person who comes up with the most creative insult for me gets to live.”

I feel my entire brain screech to a halt at that. I did not know how serious the girl's threat actually was. Maybe insulting her would only set her off. On the other hand, maybe she would make it quick. I try my best to rack my brain, trying to recall what information we had, even if it was just small details. Then something Crow had mentioned pops into my mind.

“At least the change from sugar slave to mask clown could not have been difficult,” I whisper to myself

I feel a sudden draft of air and find the purple problem incredibly close all of a sudden. “What do you mean by that?”

In an act which I would like to call total system collapse due to being in close proximity to the woman, I look straight at the mask and say. "I would explain it to you, but I have neither the time nor the crayons to do so."

Maniac sits herself down, resting her head on her hands as if she were looking at something interesting. “I see. What is your name?”

“Natalie Ma’am,” I say, feeling completely discombobulated by this entire interaction. I expected her to slap me or worse, not have a chat.

“Hmm, Natalie, Natalie, oh, there you are. You have not been here for long. Who did you piss off to get into this division?” the masked Samurai asks.

“How did you-?” I ask, feeling surprised.

“Oh, come on now, no one ends up here because they are well-liked,” the crazy person points out.

Someone lets out a grunt. “Talk for yourself.”

Almost faster than I can register, a small dagger appears in Maniac’s hand and is thrown, going straight to a wall. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

I try swallowing the dry lump in my throat at the sudden explosive display of violence. Maniac slowly stands up and stretches, bending her back at an unnatural angle.

“So do I even want to know why you idiots thought it was a good idea to provoke us,” Maniac looks around. “Like, do I look like I enjoy having to deal with you guys at this time of night?”

I blink back up at the girl, wondering what the woman might be doing in her downtime. Though, however much I tried, I could not picture the psychopath in any normal setting. Even having her sitting on a couch watching a show feels unnatural to my brain.

I quickly shake that thought out of my brain, as the mad woman keeps on talking. “I don’t even understand why they would keep most of you around.”

Maniac starts pacing back and forth. “Like I have seen children with better situational awareness than you lot.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Karen asks.

Maniac turns in the direction of the sound. “Well, sadly, and I need this to be clear, sadly for you, I now have to make an example out of you.”

The masked woman then turns back to me, kneeling down to be at eye level. One of her fingers opens up, reveling a giant needle inside.

“What is that?” I ask, trying to move back from the maniac, squeezing myself against the wall behind me.

“Oh, this don’t worry, just a little treat,” the crazy Samurai says as she stabs me with the needle.

As whatever drug she has just pumped into me starts travelling a painful path through my body, I feel my conclusions slowly fade away.

I slowly wake back up as someone is shaking me awake. I groggily blink at the bright light and when my eyes focus, I feel sick. All around me is red. Blood staining every surface from the carpet to the ceiling. I try to focus on the only thing that is not red in my vision, the middle-aged man who had shaken me awake. I recognise him as one of the more senior Samurai with the call sign of Lead Bolt.

“What happened?” he asks, concern showing on his face.

“I ugh agh.” I rub my head, trying to get rid of the headache. “Maniac was here” I get out after a bit.

The man sighs, looking around at the mess surrounding us. “I am sorry. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“It's fine, I think. I'm fine.” I say, rubbing my upper arms. “I want to go home.”

The old Samurai nods, reaching out a hand to help me up to my feet. He stays close as we walk through the carnage. As the elevator doors open a familiar face walks out. Crow, the new super analyst and the reason the infiltration team got into PsyCo in the first place.

“What do you think?” Lead Bolt asks Crow.

“I think we are lucky that the building is still standing,” Crow says in a nonchalant tone as if the entire situation just has no effect on her.

“You think PsyCo could have taken us out?” Lead Bolt asks, looking slightly surprised.

“We don’t even know how they got in here without us noticing, let alone move everyone in here. It stands to reason that placing a bomb would have been child's play.” Crow answers, scanning the room ahead.

Lead Bolt sighs. “So we have nothing?”

“Depends, you know the energy frequencies we associated with maniac’s teleportation? We detected none of those.” Crow explains.

“So what you are saying is that she got an upgrade to her teleportation system?” Lead Bolt confirms.

“That or she drove over here.” Crow says. “Also I was told to inform you that Foxfire is here to talk to all the other Samurai.”