Die A Fucking Legend: Neon Raven

Chapter 10: Meeting

Martin approaches a jar. On the edges of the glass, the residue of leftover blood can be seen. In the center is a pale forearm, with holes where the knuckles are supposed to be. Martin looks back at the stump left behind by Dante's shot with disdain. With his remaining hand, he shatters the glass and grabs the arm.

Without any hesitation, he jams the lump of flesh onto his stump. Almost immediately, threads of muscle from the arm and him reach out towards one another. Blood vessels fuse, muscles are stitched up and tendons are tied together. Soon, he can feel new bits of bone forming between him and his new graft.

Soon, he can feel new sensations in the arm as the nerves are created. Slowly, the arm reacts to his thoughts and impulses. Before long, he's moving it around as if he had this arm for his entire life.

To test out his new arm, he punches towards one of the walls. Even though the wall is a good ten meters away from him, he punches a hole into it. Smoke billows from the holes in the knuckles. "Not bad." Martin smirks at his latest upgrade.

"What the fuck was that sound!" A voice is heard, followed by the pattering of footsteps rushing down the stairs. Lyn stares in disbelief over the scene before her. "I leave you alone for two minutes and you punch a hole in the wall!" She shouts.

"What? Just testing out the new grafts."

"You can test them somewhere fucking else, no?" She sighs, exasperated.

"Martie's at it again?" Calib saunters in. Even with his expressionless gun-face, it's obvious he's smirking.

"I told you not to call me that."

Calib walks past Martin to the table of jars. Two more can be seen next to the recently opened one. Each have the same contents. Bloody residue on the glass, and a brand-new graft in the middle. Calib reaches for his own jar.

Inside is a piece of metal. When he takes it out, it immediately blows up in his hands like a balloon, taking the shape of a pair of greaves. He places them on his shins and they click in place. Mechanical whirring can be heard as it affixes itself firmly to his legs.

Lyn joins in as well. Her graft resembles a bundle of pincers, almost identical to the two on her body now. She counts them out to six additional appendages, and grafts them onto her back along with her previous pair.

"How come your new grafts is just more of the same old?" Calib lightly jabs at her.

"That's just how it works out. I don't mind though. I don't need much else after all."

One week later, May can be seen leaning against a wall, anxiously waiting for someone to show up. He remembers this place well, too well. Officially known as Lakeview, what was supposed to be a fancy suburban area of New Hel's Edge is instead a downtrodden ghetto nicknamed "Devil's Playground".

Most of the buildings are either crumbling, or poorly maintained. Villas composed of scrap metal are set up all over the place, making the place look more like an abandoned junkyard rather than a city. Swarms of rats congregate in the sewers or dark alleyways. Hell, the lake this place is supposed to be named after has been repurposed into a sewage runoff basin. He remembers hearing about how the city wished to install waste water treatment there, but the local gangs stop any official from stepping foot on their turf. The city is completely abandoned and taken over by crime lords.

The only decent looking places in this dump are the bars or the "headquarters" of the gangs. There's also the red-light district... May shakes the thought from his head immediately.

If May had a choice, he would never come back to this place, but he came here for business. After talking to Julie and Ilia, they immediately volunteered to help May and Sekhmet track down the terrorists. Sekhmet's sources told her they may be using this place as a hideout. When she told the group, Ilia surprised everyone by saying he could set up a meeting with a local gang. May had a bad feeling about coming back here, but he's stronger now. I can do this. He thinks to himself. Nothing will go wrong.