Anti-antithesis

And this chapter is a mix of Aster_Vulpes and Lividiea's character's PoV! At this point, if you haven't read either of their works, this is a threat now. Read them, they are very good.

The Rat Race has changed in recent years. Not in concept, but in how far people are willing to go to advance, to get as much wealth between them and the poverty line as possible. Assassinations, blackmail, kidnappings, and other, previously distasteful acts are the norm, often used to cover up the more problematic methods, such as drugs, trafficking, and fraud, methods that more often than not attract the attention of not regulating bodies, but Samurai. You can bribe the former, but the latter? Nah, you are better off fleeing to another country, or better yet, space!

-NotACorp Pirate Radio broadcast, 2052

CW: Arachnaphobia

Shinobu

[Hey, Nonon. How goes things in the garage?]

[:SnowballGlare: I want to blow everything up. These idiots left the keys for their entirefleet in a lock box that opens with a single, physical key! For a Multinational, Multi-Billion dollar company, you would think they would put more attention on basic security!]

I snickered at my sister's frustrations, but I also understood it. After Mom sent us a map and camera feed, I was growing more and more disillusioned towards the monoliths that were Multinationals.

Doors required a single RFID key card to open, munitions depots were fully automated with unoptimized code and no guards. Hells, the mess hall I walked past had better security on their payment processors than the self propelled missile launch vehicles. I didn't know why their in house mess hall had a payment processor, but greed is greed, I guess.

It had been three hours since we arrived and started fucking with Bestlé, and in that short time, we had: Placed copious amounts of explosives on the perimeter defenses, cut the power cables to dozens of EMC generators, located and marked pretty much every high ranking military person and scrambled their RFID badges, and we had just gotten started on sabotaging their vehicle bays.

Since this place was going to become Mum's soon, we decided against doing anything permanently damaging to the vehicles, which Nonon decided meant scrambling their keys! Thankfully, each key was tied to a vehicle, and every vehicle required its key fob to be in the vehicle to run. So, after a quick patch update, each key now worked on different vehicles. Nonon could unscramble the whole mess later, of course, but that didn't stop her from cursing out the Chief Security Officer, Oleg, and his incompetence towards basic security protocols.

While she was having fun with a fleet of deadly, armored hover-cars, I was on my way towards the executive living area to check on what kind of escape options they had, and maybe neutralise them ahead of time.

It was very obvious I had entered “rich people town” a few minutes later, considering the sharp decline in building density, an increase in automated security and cameras, and the shift from concrete, brutalist architecture to some art deco-esque shit that was closer to cognitohazards than livable homes.

I did have to move slower than normal as those cameras were leagues above the stuff in the rest of the corporate city. It had gotten to a point that I decided to wait for Nonon to catch up with me before I infiltrated one of these McMansions.

[Hey, Mom. How are things looking on your end?]

[Dull. It is taking every ounce of self control Crow has to not say screw it and start early. Based on what I can see, we are basically 70% done with the sabotage, with a remaining 10% being human forces.]

[Well, we are about to start smacking executives around if you want to join us? Then maybe we could head underground? Found a few entrances that lead that way.]

[Eh, fuck it. More bonding time is never a bad thing.]

I felt the air shift next to me as Mother popped into existence wearing their usual purple hoodie and mask, with Nonon and her spider army crawling over quickly.

I smirked as I gave Mom a hug, allowing the spiders to crawl up the both of us.

“Shinobu! You little shit!” Mother whined jokingly as Nonon and I laughed.

She pushed us off, then rubbed our head hard. “Save the spider play for the subhuman in these… fuggly ass houses. I disconnected this section from the main network when I saw you walk over, but I couldn't shut off the local security.”

I nodded. “Yeah, each manor has its own security circuit, from what I could see.”

Nonon spoke up through a local voice call. “Not to mention the numerous hidden passages forming a stupid complex network beneath us. I have a few drones scouting, and the map is huge.”

“Mmhmm. Look at all those boats they have.” Mother said, highlighting a few areas in the tunnel map we had.

I sighed in annoyance. “Why must these rich assholes be so paranoid? Twelve different waterways, eight vehicle bays, four runways, not to mention any rocket bunkers like the one those idiots in Arizona tried to use a while back.”

Mother just snorted a laugh. “When one does evil shit like Bestlé does, they tend to know they need to have a few escape holes to flee through.” They snapped their fingers suddenly, then shook their head. “No, while karmicly justified, that's too fucked to do to my kids.” they whispered.

I raised an eyebrow as Nonon split from me, both of us hanging off Mother. “You dare deny us the chance to be Karmic retribution against corpo asshats?” We said in sync.

Mother rubbed their chin dramatically. “Yes, well, if it was just me, I would, but setting these execs loose in their own tunnels to be hunted like the rats they are sounds a bit much to do as an activity to do with my kids.”

We leaned into Mother, giving them a hug. “Yeah,” I said, “that would be a bit much.”

“That is,” Nonon added with mischief in her tone, “If we were killing them. Non lethal takedowns are an option.”

Mother laughed heartily at us, giving us a big hug. “You girls are crazy. Wonder who you get that from?”

*******************************************

Claire

I was wrapping up an experiment when Evelyn called me about the raid happening later today. My first thought was who fucked up enough to piss of my bundle of crazy enough to mobilize the entirety of PsyCo. My second thought was to calculate my travel speed from my lab to home and see if I had enough time to document things properly, or if I had to rely on my new assistant to do it.As usual, Evelyn was light on details, so I went to call Cierra. Not that I minded, since after years of this triangle we put ourselves in, this was the norm we had fallen into.

Mercifully, Cierra had already sent me a recap of the situation, one that made me raise my eyebrow in respect as I entered my car. She was hired by an American Samurai, one that had a healthy fear of Evelyn, apparently. No way he anticipated her teleporting into his home like that, which was a nice power play on her part, unintentional as it was.

“Trymegistus, can you get my gear ready for me to grab once I get home? Set for human non-lethal, please.”

Of course, Claire. As a point of fact, Yun Min has focused on equipping the troops with non-lethals, as well.

“Huh? Wait, why? She's all for the death of corporate lackies.”

In this case, it is a slightly more complicated situation. As Cierra wrote, once this raid is complete, she will own a considerable chunk of the international scene, and in that scene are the soldiers that Beslté owns and controls. And Cierra will need that manpower to simply hold onto this new territory.

I sighed. Yeah, that made sense. Sure, those corporate PMCs probably deserved-

Now, that is the official reason given in the internal documents Cierra had typed up. The actual reason is that she intends to hold a Nuremberg style court for each and every employee through Mesh time dilation to determine their sins and punish them accordingly.

Ah, there it is. Cierra may be practical, but she had better morals than the entirety of her old family combined. And had adopted Evelyn's vindictive attitude towards idiots.

“That said, with Evelyn, Maniac, Crow, Shinobu, and Shinon there, some idiots will die regardless.” I said while rubbing my forehead. Later me problems.

For the rest of the drive home, I went over a few of my experiment observations, marking places where further testing should be done and ordering additional lab time for my assistant. They were brilliant, but they were also extremely by the book with their thinking.

Sure, that is helpful for safety, something I will always put as first, second, and third, but science requires boldness and crazy testing within those safe bounds! I wonder if I should have them experiment with Bromine to push them a bit…

Entering the garage a few minutes later, I made my way to the changing room we had set up for the Samurai in PsyCo. I did a basic check of my gear, making sure the hoses were stable and the mixing chamber in the pack was properly stocked.

I made my way to where Yun Min was, hearing her well before I saw her, yelling expletives at her troops to hurry up and do things right.

She hadn't changed much physically in the years since Evelyn and I rescued her from that human trafficking ring, but her presence? Damn, was she a scary lady when she wanted to be.

I caught her eye as she was yelling about checking both sets of gear, causing her to smile sharply, briefly. As I strode up to her, I handed her some water. “Always good to see you work, Yun Min. But are you sure they deserve the abuse?”

She snorted at me after draining the cup. “Some of them, sure. We do drills bi-weekly for this situation, meaning we should be loaded up already. As it stands, we will be moving out in twenty more minutes. I have had Lyssa keep track of who keeps fucking up for extra training later.” She gave me a once over, raising her eyebrow at me. “I am surprised you are here for this, however. Don't get me wrong, your assistance is greatly appreciated, I am simply wondering why you choose to join up in something so… violent.”

I smiled wryly at her, chuckling softly. “Because Evelyn decided that this was something they had to participate in personally, and that means it's important enough for me. I'm just glad they told me they were doing this beforehand, instead of me finding out as they were doing it.”

“Ah. I had almost forgotten how attached to the hip you lot are.” Yun Min teased, causing me to roll my eyes hard.

The troops finished their prep work soon after, and as I hopped into the command vehicle, I waved at Jason and Nana. “Hey guys! Good to have you on board!” I gave Jason a quick hug as I sat down, then looked at Nana with confusion. “And I am interested in why you are here. You don't strike me as someone who enjoys fighting humans, no matter the context.”

Nana fidgeted under my gaze. “Uh, yeah. Well, Nonon and Boo and there and I, um…”

I smirked at her as I shook my head. I couldn't say shit, as my reason was the same. “Do they know you are on your way?” I asked, rubbing her feathery head softly.

“Yes! I, uh, sent them a text about an hour ago. They, um, didn't respond to it, but I am sure they know. Cindyr knows, at least.”

Jason and I chuckled at her as we felt the vehicle take off. “Well, at least you did your part.” Jason said while shaking his head. “My husband shooed me out of the house, making me promise to bring home something from the Bestlé Executive kitchens, preferably chicken.”

Nana looked at Jason with a puzzled expression. “Isn't he worried about you? Worried that you…” she didn't finish her question, but the implications were obvious.

Jason just smiled and shook his head once more. “Nah. Well, he might be worried I will get injured, sure, but killed? Darling, my name is Deatnite, which has its roots in a warrior that doesn't die fighting. He has trust in my stubbornness, as do I.”

The rest of the trip to Sweden was uneventful, and as we went over the defensive briefing Lyssa sent over, I distracted myself by reading up on the reinforcements War Games would be sending over. Two small Platoons of heavy tanks and two heavy gunships, which would follow Yun Min's commands to focus on non-human combatants and defenses.

With all the planning we were doing and the info Evelyn, Maniac, Shinon, and Shinobu had gathered, I was praying on a simple siege. In and out in under four hours. That way, I could enjoy dinner instead of relying on a nutrient injection.

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