Chapter #3Sasha Abioye, The Vulture Queen of Cybernetics by: hedkrakka   "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Someone has been rather naughty." The figure before her choked on a bit of its own blood, or rather its blood-like substance, before spitting a blob towards her. It failed to make it very far, and Vulture let out an exaggerated sigh. "Tony?"
A loud crack and a scream echoed through the abandoned apartment block, amplified by the half crumbled concrete walls. Tony pulled back his bat, leaning casually on it, waiting for the next command. Two of his right-hand goons, one Robot and one Aug-Human, held down the captured enemy soldier. He'd been born human, but had been augmented so thoroughly that he was scarcely recognizable as such. This actually had made the initial interrogation rather difficult, though since the Doc had reactivated his pain receptors, it had been progressing much more smoothly.
Sasha Abioye, or Vulture as she was commonly known, crossed her legs and waited for the cries of pain to drop down to subdued sobs. "Are we feeling cooperative now, or does Tony need to encourage you some more? So, I'll ask again, and if I have to ask a third time, I'll be speaking to a eunuch. Who do you work for?"
Cough, sputter. "He... he'll kill me."
"Tony?"
More screams.
*** *** ***
"More of Tracer's lot. Fuck's sake." Sasha took a long drag on her specialty cigarette, exhaling neon green and blue smoke which smelt of bubblegum. "How many does that make?"
"Three in the last two months. Total of seven this quarter." Tony was using a pocket handkerchief, wiping the Effi-Blood ("92.7% more efficient then natural blood!") from his aviators. "He's definitely making a move."
"No fucking shit," Vulture snarled, causing Tony to start. It was very, very rare that Sasha would lose her temper at her own men, and Tony knew firsthand just how nasty her anger could be. Sasha was looking out the window, twirling her dart in her long fingers. She never turned towards Tony, but held out her cigarette packet as a token of forgiveness. As Tony took one (red coloured, of course), she asked, "What about the Toecutter?"
Tony hesitated, as this was anything but good news. "His guys torched the whole south quadrant. Crucified the lot of 'em."
"Figuratively?"
"Literally. Along with their families. Flayed them alive for everyone to see. They say that fat fuck Paulie screamed for hours before he died." Tony took a long and slow drag off his cigarette, exhaling the smoke out his nose. "The Malone's have pulled out of 4m-City. We want any hardware from there, we're gonna have to go through 'cutter."
Tony added, as if it would make dealing with that psycho any better, "He's offered us better prices then Moll's ever did, if that's any consolation."
"Not much of one, but it'll have to be. And fucking Blue Shield..." Sasha rubbed her eyes.
Times were pretty good for her and her crew, she knew. "If you need some augs, Vulture is who you ask," that's what they said. And with the corpo's expanding their operations, demand had never been higher for cheap cybernetics. Oh, sure, the Mega's had their models available for employee lease, and you certainly needed them to do the work, but everyone knew that was a gateway to indentured servitude. And so, people like Vulture were a generally preferable option. If it kept you from being driven into an eternal cycle of debt and labour, who cared if the serial numbers had been filed off your new arms?
Business had been so good that Sasha had been able to bring in another couple doctors and a whole lot more muscle, which had proven to be a wise investment. Tracer was the latest threat to her hard-won crown, and probably the nastiest one. He had the backing of The Five Families, though how the former hive ganger had managed to pull that off was anyone's guess. Still, it gave him a shit-ton of money, pretty much unlimited manpower, and he'd been pushing on her operation on all fronts. He'd proven to be a slippery little eel as well; three times, her wetworkers had him in their sights, and three times, the weasel had managed to get away.
Toecutter was an entirely different, and far more terrifying, animal. The former nomad didn't have the resources or manpower that Tracer and the Five Families did, but his reputation alone made people want to turn around and run. He was a monster, pure and simple. Torture, terror tactics, disproportionate responses, start with their kids...
"If he pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of your boys to the hospital, you send one of his boys to the morgue. That's the Toecutter."
So far, the Beast in Black hadn't shown any interest in expanding his control into 0b-City. And if he was offering better prices then the Malone's, that'd improve their profit margins, which was never a bad thing. Big problem with the corps expanding their ops was the increased presence of their private police force, the Blue Shield. This made it harder for her guys to find any goods that "fell off a truck," so dealing with Toecutter was a necessary evil. But if he decided dealing with Tracer was better then dealing with the Vulture...
Sasha the Vulture was arguably better off now then she'd ever been, but her dominance of 0b-City cyber was fragile, at best. Blood was in the water, and the sharks were starting to circle. "Of course, the sharks are now extinct for a very good reason."
"Ma'am?"
Sasha started a little, blushing slightly as she realized she'd been mumbling again. "N-never mind. For now, let's get back to the new HQ. And increase patrols on all roads into 0b-City. Any of 'cutter's guys even breathe within a hundred miles of us, I want to know about it."
*** *** ***
So, what is Sasha's base of operations?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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