“So what can you do, Pontikos?”

  “Principally I control your autonomic systems, respiration, cardiac, and certain glandular functions. In addition I manage persona modifications as well as skill package installations. I provide tactical as well as strategic advice during emergencies, I can run limited combat profiles intended to escape danger. I also have access to full suite combat protocols. Naturally, I also provide control over your Augmented Reality functions and perform some support roles as well.”

  “Damn. Do all Executive Assistants do that?”

  “They do not.”

  “So I can mess with my Persona remotely with your help?”

  “Of course.”

  “Let me see it.”

  A list of Persona Attributes appeared in her view. She focused on her Assertiveness and Suggestibility. The former was higher now that she had adjusted it and the latter much lower than Steve set it.

  The thought of the man’s intrusive violation left her feeling cold and angry.

  “I should warn you mistress…”

  “Stop.”

  “Yes?”

  “Make these changes… and give me the shortest route to Steven Clark’s apartment.”

  Althea walked the way there, admiring her shiny new Persona. Forget the large balance in her stipend. Forget her job. These new attribute classes cost more than her family had ever made, more than she and all of them had ever been worth.

  Graffiti lined the walls of the city in this area. High above, the silver-metal walls of apartments and cheap office complexes reflected back oily lights from the streets.

  Steve scrimped on his rent. Althea wondered why; she made decent money and Steve had to make more as a supervisor.

  A few unmanned autocars flew over head, vying with each other for slices of the sky. The area was not as dark as she expected. Most of the lights glowed as night arrived; only a few of them flickered or failed to light.

  But the smell lived up to expectations. Althea could scent human waste, sweat from dozens of people, blood and despair. The latter had a piquant flavor, like fear rolled in self-loathing. Fear smelled sweet, self loathing like urine and peat moss, oddly enough.

  Sounds rolled in on the night. Shouting, mechanical droning, and the occasional scream gave her surroundings the dark atmosphere the lights held at bay.

  Althea had set her fear response to minimal levels. She could still feel caution and would avoid danger, but where this place would have shocked her to inaction an hour before, now it just made her eyes flick back and forth and her nostrils flare as she tried to detect threats before they turned active.

  Steve’s apartment arrived ahead like a promised castle. Not the one where the damsel lay trapped and hiding, but rather where the evil king cowered in hiding. Althea could imagine the wicked schemes a more intelligent and creative evil king Steve might concoct. If he weren’t a mind raping asshole.

  Althea’s fist opened and closed as her SLIDE let her move through the building unnoticed. With Steve’s apartment number in hand, Althea waited in the jerky elevator as it rose to the eleventh floor.

  The doors opened and the bell announced her vengeance as she strode down the hallway to Steve’s apartment. Pontikos confirmed he had returned home shortly before the normal time today, probably related to Althea’s little accident.

  Crouching at the door, she listened to the sounds within. Something fried on a stove top, the smell too faint for her to pick out. A muffled television played a local cartoon Althea watched during her free time. It was a standard mysterious child-hero saves the day monster of the week style. She loved it.

  And she hated the fact that she shared interests with Steve.

  Satisfied that he was home alone, Althea bypassed the locked and opened the door. Steve did not even hear her enter. He stood over a frying pan cooking breaded fish wearing a cartoon apron as he hummed the theme to the cartoon playing in the distance.

  Althea balled her fist and loosened her injured shoulder as she crept around to Steve’s back. Ducking down on the other side of his counter, she duck walked so she could watch him on the move. When he turned away from the stove leaving his weapon behind, she struck.

  Hitting him twice in the solar plexus, she kicked his feet out from under him. Based on her brief investigations, he had no combat implants to speak of. And his reactions confirmed it. Without so much as a scream, Steve slammed against the floor with Althea on his back. She grabbed his mouth to keep him from shouting and with a low voice said,

  “Do you know who I am, you motherfucker?

  She turned his head to meet her eyes and his widened as he shouted into her hand. Althea nodded, letting her anger and hatred get the better of her.

  “I know what you did, Steve. Messing with my Persona, lowering my assertiveness and raising… other things. Well, I showed up tonight, didn’t I? Here I am.”

  He squirmed against her as she stepped away. Althea wanted more from her vengeance. Surprising Steve and bashing his skull in might feel good now, but beating him when he stood face to face with her would feel better. If nothing else, it would preserve her sense of honor.

  Pontikos appeared in her vision as a cloud,

  “This is ill-advised, Mistress. I see no reason to give an adversary a potential advantage.”

  Steve coughed as he stood on all fours. Pontikos and her rage tempted her to kick him now, while he was doubled over still catching his breath. But a knight demanded a fair battle, no sneak attack and dagger in the back for her.

  Steve must not have gotten that memo.

  Althea heard his breathing pattern change as he shot up to a kneeling position, grabbed the pan of hot oil and threw the contents at her. Dodging out of the way came naturally and easy, as the boiling oil moved along a simple and high-lit path in her AR.

  Steve wasted no time checking to see if his attack hit or missed, he rose and stumbled toward the back rooms of this apartment. Rather than let him find weapons or backup Althea gave chase. She had not considered the fact that the TV on the next room meant another occupant until it opened.

  Both adults froze as a little boy wearing cartoon pajamas matching the same hero as Steve’s. Although she had lowered her compassion for this fight, she had not eliminated it.

  “Dad? What’s going on?”

  Steve looked back at Althea with a flat expression. His eyes looked pleading, but his mouth made a line parallel to his matted polyester carpet.

  Althea shrugged at him, but she stayed where she was.

  Turning away from Althea, Steve said,

  “Hey buddy. I thought you weren’t feeling well?”

  He might have been as old as seven, or as young as five. Althea understood kids in a strictly theoretical sense. Her window to thrash the ever loving bejesus out of Steve would close soon.

  “Dad, who is this?”

  “This is my friend from work,” Steve paused as he spoke and a corner of her interface flashed as he said, “Althea Thompson.”

  Pontikos centered herself and said,

  “I have detected outgoing communications.”

  She whispered, “Why weren’t you on ECM?”

  Pontikos looked huffy.

  “My task is following orders, Mistress. Not anticipating them. Perhaps we should discuss theoretical scenarios requiring specific support concerns later?”

  Althea wanted to quibble, but now a real timer had started.

  She looked between the generations of Clarks and knew she would not hurt Steve today.

  “You should set a better example for your son, Steve.” Internally she said, “Fire up whatever we need to get out of here, Pontikos. Be excessive.”

  Althea could feel the scorn and devil-may-care attitude seeping in from her Persona. But, as per the adjustments, she did not care.

  Adrenaline lit her up chest as she turned on the ball of her foot and sprinted from the room. A secondary timer from Pontikos estimated the time of contact with whatever force Steve had alerted. Althea had used thirty-seven seconds so far.

  The implant trance came over her naturally, like pulling on a comfy sweater or better yet, her AR armor. She prowled from Steve’s castle cleaving to the shadows and, feeling a mixture of victory and defeat.

  As a knight, mercy is its own victory.

  The words felt true in her heart, in the part of her mind segregated from her implants and the changes they wrought in her mind. They eased the discomfort of sneaking from the apartments and onto the street like a thief rather than a hero.

  A sound in the distance made her tense. Althea looked around her for cover. No alley, open doorway or escape other than straight up offered themselves. Pontikos surged a moment as Althea felt a grasp of gymnastics flow through her. She kipped up the wall, instinctively avoiding her shoulder as she did.

  An autocar turned down the street as she rolled over a flowerbed and into a shadow in a stranger’s balcony. When it landed, the autocar turned silent and Althea could hear someone speaking below.

  “The contact said she visited him.”

  She peeked over the petunias and stared down below her. A man with a bald patch and dark brown hair emerged from the car. The suspension shifted and whined as it compensated for his mass.

  Pontikos overlaid the man’s cybernetic upgrades for Althea’s benefit. And horror. Parts of him were certainly organic. But only a small minority. The way he scanned his surroundings made her hold her breath and pull her head away from the ledge.

  “She’s been here. Recently. Find the room she was in and kill everyone there.”

  Althea closed her eyes and swore.

  Pontikos appeared in her vision and said, “Based on my observations, you are prepared to go fight. I should warn you the chances of your survival are extremely low. Low enough that I recommend a cautious retreat.”

  Althea tried to silently address the assistant, “Can you hear me?”

  The cloud nodded, “Of course. You’re doing this anyway.”

  “Yes. Now give me everything you think we’ll need to save those people. Be quick about it.”

  The same three previous load outs appeared as she received her first fight.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “I know SLIDE. And CQC-1, that’s close quarters combat, right?”

  “Yes, mistress.”

  “Is there a better one, like CQC-0?”

  “It’s called CC-0 and,”the AI paused and sighed with a little poof of smoke coming from its mouth, “I am not sure you would appreciate learning this later. CC-0 is a primal survival implant. If you activate it, you need to have a termination timer and you need to accept the fact that your mind will select the best immediate, short, and long-term survival options it can without regard to the safety of others.”

  “So?”

  “You might hold a child hostage or arrange for a bus to ram a hospital. The commitment to survival is near-sociopathic.”

  “Oh. We’ll only use that in an emergency. Check.”

  “Any other suggestions?”

  “Not as such mistress. Though I suspect you will find weapons in the car down below.”

  “Nice point, Pontikos! I knew there was a reason I kept you around!”

  Rather than dive from the building and further aggravate her shoulder, Althea slid down the wall along an exterior pipe mooring. She opened the car’s trunk with a nearby piece of scrap metal and ignored the ensuing alarm.

  Grabbing a shotgun and a submachine gun, Althea raced up the stairs knowing the two hunters had a lead on her. During her run up those flights, Pontikos installed skill packages for the weapons. The guy with the implants would be a serious problem.

  She addressed Pontikos,

  “Activate ECM on contact. We’re going in guns blazing. Any other suggestions?”

  “Yes, I have already alerted emergency services, but perhaps something more direct is in order?”

  Althea nodded, eying the automated fire response systems in the ceiling. Guns blazing would have to include that.

  When she stepped into the hallway, she could see the door to the Clark home standing open. Armor clanking in her head, she advanced forward, charging as if from a horse. She cradled the shotgun as she bladed her body along the wall and fired into the suppression system overhead.

  Alarms and flashing lights followed as the remaining systems sprayed suppressant foam in the area. Althea ignored the system and waited for someone to open the door. She held her gun at the ready as the junior Clark stepped into the hallway. His eyes widened as he spotted Althea, but she moved her shotgun off target from the boy and put her left finger to her lips.

  The boy shook his head and Althea read his lips, “I don’t see anything. There’s too much foam.”

  Clever kid.

  Althea lightly padded over to the side of the wall where the foam gathered. The thug pushed the boy into the hallway and Althea tightened her grip on her gun, careful with her trigger finger. If he shot the boy, she was going to kill him, but she really needed to stop him before it came to that.

  Thank the gods the guard peeked out of the room, turning his gun to face where he looked. Very professional. Very easy to hit for someone with Althea’s class of upgrades.

  The sliver of face the man revealed disappeared following Althea’s shotgun blast. Before he finished falling, she had already broken into a run. Whatever advantage she had over the room’s second occupant she had already lost.

  Pontikos appeared in her vision as Althea grabbed the Clark boy and whispered, “Run downstairs, run now. Do you understand me?”

  Pontikos said, “That is excellent advice for you as well.”

  The boy nodded, looking back into the room.

  Althea said, “I’ll get him, okay?”

  The boy nodded back to her and ran as Pontikos sighed again. “Then we will both likely die. Too bad.”

  Althea watched him disappear into the stairwell. Then a voice spoke from within the room, “Now just who is out there? Are you from a rival corp or is this someone else?”

  He sounded so normal, like a presenter at a boring industry conference.

  Althea closed her eyes and used his voice to estimate his location.

  He spoke again, having moved. “Now, now. I am not going to wait here all day. I have people to chase. Come on in and let’s see who has the better toys.”

  A small black object spun through the open door and out into the hallway. Pontikos tracked it and slapped a red DANGER tag on it as it hit the opposite wall. Althea ran low and rolled into the room, favoring her bad shoulder and ruining her shot.

  Behind her, the hallway exploded with a flash. Inside the room, Steve knelt with his head bowed and a figure standing over him. The man slapped his knee as Althea stood up from behind a low partition.

  “I was worried you activated the full implant. But if you had, you would not be here, would you?”

  The bald man pointed his gun at Steve and said,

  “What did he do? Feel you up during an upgrade? Flip your Persona so you made out with the girl in Receiving while he watched?”

  It hit a nerve as Pontikos highlit various physical indicators in the man. All four limbs contained modern military-grade cyberware, his spine was artificial and his bones would be laced with a carbon compound. But the rest of the information looked promising.

  Althea said, “He messed with my Persona, tried to get me to go out with him.”

  “What? That’s all? He slipped you a Girl Next Door and this is your reaction? Come on, excessive, much?”

  “I wasn’t going to hurt him.”

  The thug laughed at her, “Sure, sure, you just stopped by to,” he adopted a nasal tone and said, “discuss the matter and vent your outrage. Right?”

  The way his hand twitched as he held the gun combined with how he shifted his gaze from Althea to Steve both suggested the man had been using recently. Based on his speech patterns, it was likely a stimulant. Pontikos displayed a short list of possible intoxicants as Althea had an idea.

  “Fine, you’re right. I was here to beat his fucking ass. The question is, are you going to get in my way?”

  “I don’t know. Boss said I had to kill anyone involved, right?”

  “Fine, but let me beat him good and proper first. Then we can both go get the kid. What do you think?”

  Deception like this was perfectly acceptable to save a life. Althea assured herself of her pure intentions. Knights owed no honor to such men.

  The tweaker raised his gun and said, “Okay, I guess so, but you are going to have to…”

  Althea did not let him finish. She shot him in the chest with her shotgun the moment he took his barrel off of Steve. She put two more rounds of shot into him before she grabbed Steve and tried to help him up.

  Pontikos flashed an alert, “That is not enough to…”

  A gunshot interrupted her too. Althea held him as Steve’s feet gave out. At first she could not see what was wrong with him, then she saw a small hole on the side of his face. She let him slide to the ground as the laughing tweaker raised his wobbling hand to fire again.

  Althea shot him a fourth time, most of the shot ricocheted off of his arms as he fired. The bullet missed, but the tweaker stood.

  “You really should not have done that to me. I’ll have to get my chest fixed!”

  He lunged after her, jumping from his prone position as he abandoned his gun. Part of his arm shifted, but Althea ignored the details while her implant took over. Ducking under him, she felt something graze her back as she rolled away.

  Pontikos reported a minor injury as her target spun to face her, left arm now a wicked looking scythe with a spike on the end. He nodded at her as he advanced. This time, Althea ran instead of trying to dodge the man’s attacks. But his own augments let him take the advantage as he started to catch up to her.

  “Fuck it. Activate CC-0, thirty seconds. Go!”

  Time slowed as Pontikos pulsed. The enhanced thug behind her had almost closed on her. A quick glance let her confirm he raised his scythe to gore her, so Althea slammed her foot into the ground, feeling a few tendons complain and others give up as she spun to face him, now deep inside of his reach. The man’s scythe sailed up and over her as she grabbed one of the explosive grenades on his belt. With a flick of her fingers and a snaking of her wrist, she stuffed the primed grenade down his pants and stood with her shoulder tucked under his injured chest.

  Physics on her side, the man toppled over, catching her right arm by the tip of his scythe as he did. Althea felt the blade open her arm from armpit to elbow, but she couldn’t focus on the injury, only survival. The shotgun fell from her hand as she rolled out of the room and into the hallway.

  Using her second pistol, Althea shot three times into the floor and ceiling both as she ran for a distant window. Shots from her gun took out the window.

  Althea hit it and tumbled into an adjacent building, sliding down the side to break her fall. Seconds after she hit the ground, the floor above exploded, the gas lines she shot igniting when the cyborg’s pants exploded.

  She looked up and down the street and chose the path that smelled like Steven Clark’s young son, name unknown. Given her circumstances, a child hostage would make a perfect shield.

  Althea had almost reached the boy when her CC-0 protocol timer expired. Her persona spiked to normal as she threw up on the ground next the sidewalk. She had never meant to involve innocent people. And Pontikos had warned her about using the protocol.

  She spat the taste from her mouth and turned to find Steve’s son standing next to her.

  “He got my dad, huh?”

  Althea raised her head to meet the young boy’s eyes. She saw something there she had not expected, something she only noticed because she looked at the boy from her normal persona. Whatever had happened to him before tonight, it was much worse.

  “I am sorry kid. What’s your name anyway?”

  “Billy. I mean William. But call me Billy. You aren’t really a friend of my dad’s from work, are you?”

  Althea blinked at him and said,“Honest to goodness, Billy. I am a friend of your dad’s. Technically he was my supervisor.”

  “So not really a friend, a subordinate.”

  Althea grimaced, but tried to keep her tone light, “That’s right. You seem real clever, Billy. Do you have a place to stay tonight?”

  “Nope, but I am not sure it’s gonna matter a whole bunch.”

  Althea sighed, not sure if she heard the boy correctly over the ringing in her ears, “What? Why?”

  He raised his hand and pointed, “Because of him.”

  Althea looked back to see the blazing form of her tweaking cyborg walking down the street like a flaming skeleton out of a VR sim.

  “Run now, Billy. Don’t stop running until you find someone to help. Okay?”

  Billy turned and started running before Althea reached, “okay.”

  Strange kid. I wonder what’s happened to him?

  Althea knew she would not have much time to find out, especially since she could not beat this guy with her best combat augment running. And by killing just a host of other people in the process.

  Guilt over that can come later.

  “Pontikos, fire up my SLIDE and help me get out of here.”

  All the bad feelings washed away as her persona adjusted and her implant activated her combat abilities. Despite initial appearances, she had damaged Tweaker. That was his name now as far as Althea was concerned.

  He still moved as fast as he did before, but now he had to wait for a gap in the autocar traffic to reach her. Rather than make a good target, Althea raced forward, dizziness made her task more difficult than necessary.

  “What the hell is going on, Pontikos?”

  “You’ve lost a good deal of blood, Mistress. What automated healing I could effect has staunched it for now, but you need water, food and rest.”

  She climbed the hill as traffic whizzed by an idea blossoming in her mind.

  “Give me a trajectory for those passing autocars.”

  Scaffolding supported lights over the causeways and directed near-ground traffic through the city. Althea managed to climb her way to the top of the ladder when the whole structure rattled beneath her.

  Tweaker shook the scaffolding with his hands and then scrambled up the ladder like a spider monkey. Althea focused on an oncoming freighter truck and timed her jump with Pontikos assisting. As she leapt for the truck’s hauler, Tweaker grabbed her right wrist, the one attached to her bad shoulder.

  Pain surged and then Pontikos suppressed it as Tweaker grinned at her. The top of the truck hit her feet, swinging her back up toward the scaffolding. Using her momentum and the fact that he was connected to her, Althea kicked as she connected to his torso.

  Tweaker reached out for air with his free hand as he tumbled backwards. His weight snapped Althea’s wrist as she hit the floor of the scaffold wrapping her legs around a nearby riser.

  “I guess we’re both going out here, huh?”

  Althea shook her head and pulled the gun from her side. The pain came and went as she fired into her arm, cutting off the end with Tweaker, sending him tumbling into oncoming traffic.

  Standing had not been a good idea. Pontikos flashed at her as Althea tried to wrap her arm with part of her clothing. Neither arm felt like cooperating as she fell amidst traffic after Tweak.

  A metal clank informed her she hit something other than a car as she passed out.

  A trio of toughs approached the reeking body. It smelled of stale blood and organic fluids. She might have been lovely, even beautiful if not for the bruises and near-dead pallor. The tallest one, the leader of the group, rolled her over on her front and shoved her hair out of the way.

  When he exposed the implant at the base of her neck, the other two gave each other high fives and danced in celebration. The leader grunted and hit one of them in the chest, who nodded and proceeded to kneel at the body.

  Seconds after he touched the surface of the implant with the probe a voice spoke,

  “Attention would be thieves, you have activated a Gamma-level security device. If you attempt to tamper with or remove this implant or harm the host, I am authorized to employ countermeasures!”

  It repeated as all three scurried away from the body.

  “Safe retrieval of this host will result in an Alpha-level stipend reward.”

  All three froze and returned to the body with interest. The taller of the three bent down to lift her up. A puffing sound, like someone blowing lightly into their beverage straw sounded from the shadows.

  The third tough, the one who had been watching for this very thing, fell over without a word. Two more puffs and the remaining two thugs fell over, the larger of them covering the bloody body.

  A young woman stepped out of the shadows. She wore a dark blue uniform that resembled a mechanic more than anything else. But where her name tag should have been she wore a denim button with “Name” stitched in red.

  She looked up and down the alley, confirming that she was alone, and whistled.

  A pair of articulating robots skittered into the alley, scrabbling at the ground like puppies on the run. They settled in behind the girl and listened as she gave an order. They moved to the small pile of people, tossing the lead thug aside without concern. But they shifted and slowly lifted the woman from the ground.

  Probes made contact with the woman’s skin and the robot chirped at her.

  “Good. If she’s alive, then maybe we can make some money. Keep her stable and we’ll let Dot take a look at her.”

  Althea opened her eyes into bright lights that took some adjustment. A round steel face with a pair of circles drawn on it intended to resemble eyes appeared.

  “Greetings! I am Dot, the facility head here at Dot’s Organic Salvage and Enhancement! Did you know you have a severe infection in your right arm? Also, did you know you have a serious case of missing right hand?”

  Althea stared at the robot, not sure what to say to that. It’s head bobbed like it shrugged and it said,

  “Unusual, most people would generally know that they lost their hand, even if they did not know about the infection. My colleagues would be interested in a case study, may I enter your medical data into a non-personally identifiable study?”

  “My hand? What?”

  Althea tried to raise her arm, but something interfered. Pontikos appeared, almost belatedly and said,

  “They have you on strong sedatives and paralytics. You have indeed “lost” your hand, though it would be more accurate to say you shot it off.”

  “Thanks.”

  She spoke out loud and Dot the robot surgeon turned its head and said,

  “I am sorry, I cannot parse that response. Do you need me to restate my request?”

  “I just want treatment.”

  “Very well! Thank you for perusing Dot’s Organic Salvage and Enhancement! Would you care to donate your organic parts to the facility in the event of a failed operation?”

  “No, please just fix me.”

  “Naturally! Your account qualifies you for our Platinum limb replacement service, but we do not possess any life-like limbs at this time. Would you prefer to wait?”

  “Fucking Christ, just heal me!”

  Althea felt her muscles surge against the restraints as if from a distance.

  “Very well, beginning essential component replacement now. Thank you for shopping at Dot’s!”

  Althea fell unconscious as warmth surged through her veins.