Lost Rain
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Outrun - Chapter 225
🕑 Added 2025-03-18 17:39:00 +0000 UTC“Thank you,” I called out to the taxi driver as I stepped out near the Blue Crusade’s building. My bike was still at the apartment’s parking garage, and I didn’t want to risk going back there. Especially now that I lost my feature scrubber alongside my eye. No telling if they were still camped out waiting on me. It was taxi life for me... unless I requested one of the Crusade's vehicles, I guess.
I stared at the building in front of me. As the glowing blue neon flashed in the rain said, this place wasn’t the HQ, but the BC Gym. To be fair, while it is called a gym the place was closer to a Blue Crusade megacomplex than anything. Way bigger than the precinct, though the precinct had several sublevels for its panopticon.
Reporting back to the Crusade hadn’t been fun in the slightest. At least I got a few good things out of it, though. My equipment had been reissued, giving me another trench coat, badge, brand-new plate carrier, and all the other goodies back. Oh, and Inquisitor Ligh temporarily set me up with an apartment in the BC megacomplex, hence why I was here.
The Blue Crusade certainly had its benefits. I just had to be willing to make some sacrifices to accommodate them. And now I was actually getting paid, so it really wasn’t that bad of a job. The benefits were even quite good. I mean, free housing as a benefit was pretty damn solid in this city. Especially considering I got my own apartment without having to share a communal living space.
I shook my hood as I approached the door, letting the rain drizzle off. Unlike the last time I was here, I went through the right entrance with a flash of my newly issued badge and headed for the elevator on the far side.
I checked my newly issued phone and hit the button for the sixty-eighth floor. Room six-eight fifty-three. Maybe it’d have a window? At least I wouldn’t have to worry about security, considering almost the entire complex was full of Crusaders. The Inquisitor had even put the room under someone else’s name to avoid internal moles tracking me down again.
A yawn nearly split my jaw. So sleepy. I woke up in Fox’s Shrine and then spent most of the day talking and filling out incident reports at the precinct. I also had to fill out paperwork claiming to be a Kinetic with limited regeneration to avoid too deep of an inquiry. A message to my shoemaker in the Crusade made that all passed without too many issues.
The elevator dinged as I arrived at my floor. I wandered around for a bit before finding my door. With a flash of my badge and a scan of my fingerprint, the door popped open, revealing a fairly sized studio apartment. It came fully furnished already with built-in furniture.
Around the top of the room, strips of holograms flowed with headlines and internal messages from the Blue Crusade. On the far side, a radio announced the news. “The Mayoral Elections are coming up, y’all. As you may remember, it was delayed by a series of assassinations. The new Mayor Candidates are raring to go once more, though, willing to fight for the future of Aythryn City! Mayor Tom Dollup has this to say-”
I turned off the radio first, stripping off my coat and tossing it onto the sunken sofa. In the kitchen, a large holographic banner flashed with advertisements for the child corporations of the Blue Crusade.
The place had a window, one looking out over the city. In the distance, I spotted the Ryu Container Yard through the cracks of shining buildings and flashing holographic displays. It looked like a valley of relative darkness amid the city, even from here.
Something didn't make sense, though. How could this place have a window? It should be in the middle of the floor. I raised my hand to the window, activating Technical Expertise-
Yeah, as I thought. It was a screen projecting the view from a window, not an actual window. Still, it was better than nothing. Unfortunately, that meant the main door was the only way in and out of this apartment. I'd have to be much more careful this time around.
I moved to the bed, collapsing onto it. In a cubby of the wall, a panel was slid down, revealing the room's settings. It took just a second to dim the lights and set the holographic banners to ultra-low. Couldn’t shut them off, unfortunately. Cost of living in a corporate apartment. Still, the place was nice. The bed was super comfy too, far better than my shitty little one back at the apartment. Ah, I'm going to miss that place.
As I got comfy, I finally allowed the flashing interface to pop up into my remaining eye.
「Stealth - 11>12」
「Melee Weapons - 5>6」
「Intimidation - 4>5」
「Evasion - 6>7」
「Explosives - 2>3」
「Brawling - 4>5」
Finally hit level twelve on something. Stealth ended up taking the lead, huh? Funny, I thought there was a good chance I could get Tech to twelve first. Guess some things never change. Stealth was still my highest and best Skill.
What’s next then? The Interface Upgrade, right? After a few moments, as if giving me time to prepare myself, the interface started flashing and a few new things popped up.
「Name: Shiro Tsukuyomi
UPGRADE: 3%
Traits: Fox’s Grace, Quick Healing, Insight
Free Perk Points: 1
Tracking - 8
Panther’s Sight
Stalk
Tech - 11
Eidetic Schematic
Corvid
Stealth - 12
Fox’s Paw
Cold-Blooded
1 Perk Point
Sleight of Hand - 9
Hidden Hands
Ambidextrous
Perception - 10
Aetherial Perception
Technical Expertise
Net - 3
Melee Weapons - 6
Throwing Weapon Master
Intimidation - 5
Fear the Reaper
Firearms - 9
Dexterity
Aether Imbuement
First Aid - 5
Calming
Explosives - 3
Evasion - 7
Burst Step
Driving - 7
Land Vehicles
Deception - 8
Honest Face
Master of Disguise
Criminology - 7
Cues
Concealment - 8
Lethargic Presence
Hidden Weapon
Cleaning - 4
Squeaky Clean
Brawling - 5
Swipe
Art - 1
Accounting - 1
Request Board」
The upgrade wasn’t instantaneous… Nice to know. I flicked on Aetherial Perception, noticing a faint stirring of the Aether around me. It was slowly sinking towards me as if my body was absorbing it. Maybe it was powering up for the upgrade?
On a brighter note, I could finally get my first level twelve Perk! If it went along like the rest of the system’s Perks, it should be on a whole other level than the first two tiers. With just a thought, I allowed myself to sink back into the pavilion.
My drowsiness temporarily faded away as I stared at Stealth’s shelf of scrolls. I already kind of knew what I wanted. I picked it out on one of the first times I came into the pavilion. Still, I didn’t let it distract me from checking out the rest of the Perks. There were some impressive ones, though I settled for what I originally had my eye on.
「Illusive - At will, become like a shadow.」
I took the scroll, moving it to the easel. It unrolled automatically, the edges of the painting seeming to flow like a shadow. The painting was quite frankly beautiful, depicting the shadow of a fox illuminated by the moon. Its form was lost in the darkness, barely distinguishable from the background.
The shadows seemed to stretch, taking over my vision until I stared into nothing but darkness. I blinked, waking up on the bed of my new apartment. It was absolutely silent outside of the rain pounding on the 'window'.
Was something supposed-
I barely suppressed a scream as what felt like hot nails pierced my skin, digging around underneath. The sensation spread throughout my body, thankfully not going any deeper than my skin, as I felt my body undergo rapid mutation.
It was a pain I thought I'd never have to feel again after Fox's Paw. It awakened memories of suffering, causing my breaths to become shorter and shorter as I started to hyperventilate. And yet, I could do nothing but wiggle around and try to endure.
Minutes passed. The sensation slowly eased up, the piercing sensation felt like the nails were slowly pulled out one by one, starting from my scalp. Finally, I let out a deep breath as the pain faded and my entire body went limp.
I swiped sweat off my brow and looked down, catching sight of my skin. Dark shadow wisps occasionally flicked out, floating around before fading away. Just like the rest of my perks, I got an intuitive feeling on how to toggle it.
My skin faded, turning into a shadow mass. It flowed over my clothes, and in mere seconds my body turned Ilusive like a shadow. My form sunk, fading into the darkness of the room. Faint wisps faded into the surrounding shadows, merging my form with them. Cool.
I tapped on my arm, feeling my skin underneath. It was still there, just covered in shadows. I still had a physical body. It was closer to an illusion than anything, though it was definitely a mutation. Interesting... I’d have to test it, but the Perk looked like it'd be helpful going forward.
But those were tests I'd have to do another time. I took a quick shower, washed off the cold sweat all over my body, and then finally went to bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.
– – –
The next morning, after a quick meal of Jack’s Sun Kicker, I went down to the Crusade store. They had a little bit of everything for sale here. Might be worth coming by for a proper look around sometime, though for now I just bought what I needed. A holomask, an oversized black hoodie, and jeans. Notably, they were normal clothes lacking the Crusade's symbol everywhere.
It’d been a long time since I used a holomask last, though now that my feature scrubber was gone, I needed it once more. It covered the lower half of my face in a simple black hologram. I took it up to my apartment and changed into my new clothes. With a bit of modification, I also got the mask to project up a shadow fox mask instead. It was thematic, at least.
I called a cab as I got down to street level. At the moment, there was one thing I needed more than anything else. An eye. I wanted to try something a little different than normal, though. “Slab Co. Bricktown.”
“I know the place,” The cab driver said.
I got in, and then we were off through the city. The cab reeked of smoke, so much so that I discreetly rooted through my bag and put on my respirator.
The streets were quiet, far quieter than I would’ve liked. Most people these days kept inside where they could, especially with the Crusade cracking down hard across the city. No point in drawing the police's attention, especially considering the Blue Crusade was known for not caring about 'overly-restrictive' laws.
Squires with Jaegers were set up strategically, stopping pedestrians as the hounds alerted on them. We drove by an active shootout, with several Crusade APCs set up blocking off the street. The asphalt ran with blood, washed into drains by light rain. Up above, Crusade flyers and Medevacs constantly passed by at five times their normal rates, their sirens wailing against the storm.
“Crazy state the city is in, huh?” The driver, a large man with half a chrome face smoking a cigarette, commented. One of the Neo-Jokers' cigarettes hung from his lips. Must’ve been one of the last people to buy some before the gang fell off the face of the planet.
“Sure is.” Much crazier than this guy probably knew.
We were silent the rest of the trip to Slab Co. He turned on the radio, switching to some new popstar. I paid the guy, then went into Slab Co’s building. Unlike a lot of buildings across the city, it was only a single story. Above ground, that is. Underground, it stretched far down according to the city's map.
I made my way into a lobby, entering a short queue to get to the receptionist counter. Slab Co. had an interesting design. It was very clinical in appearance, though not like a doctor's office. More like a massive morgue.
While I waited, I caught up on the News. Specifically, the deteriorating safety levels throughout the city. Gang violence was spiking across the city as new gangs seemed to constantly pop up, fully armed and loaded. There was even a case of a small gang in Oldtown having a military-grade spider tank--a Sentinel Arach-N3.
A guy manned the counter, smiling a corporate grin as I approached and put my phone away. “Hi! Welcome to Slab Co! You stab 'em, we slab 'em! What can we do for you?”
“Um- I need a new eye.” I motioned to my eye patch. Quite the catchphrase there. Must be a remnant from when Slab Co was a body dump before they pushed out into the clone flesh and bio-repair scene.
“Certainly! Are you a new or returning customer?” The man started tapping on a terminal.
“New.”
“Just a few minutes as I fill out a form for you. Then we’ll get you an appointment with one of the doctors to get you set up. Would you like a same-day installation?” The corpo asked politely.
Same-day installation… wow, he somehow managed to make it sound like it wasn’t a surgical procedure. Like I was getting some kind of appliance instead of a new eye. “Chek.”
What followed was a long process of waiting, filling out forms, and signing release paperwork. Eventually, I was moved to one of Slab Co’s doctors to get my blood drawn for DNA, x-rays of my eye socket, and a dozen other checks and scans. And then I was sent out to a waiting room for several hours as Slab Co's lab started the process of cloning a new eye.
I thought about going out into the city while I waited, then barely managed to change my mind as I remembered where I was. Bricktown wasn’t the best of places before the Neo-Jokers left. With the main power gone, a power vacuum still active, and the city in chaos?
I stayed inside and instead went to their in-house cafe, the Mourning Brew. It was alright. The names of their drinks and snacks were wild though. All of them death themed, which made me feel real safe considering I was about to get surgery done here.
A few hours later, I was called into a surgical room. The wall was lined with small fridges, reminiscent of where they keep the bodies in a morgue. A doctor and several nurses stood around, looking over some paperwork.
As I stepped in, the doctor noticed me. “Shiro Tsukuyomi. New eye, correct?”
“That's me.” I shook out my arms, feeling my nerves fade slightly. It was just surgery. I’d had it done on my eye socket several times before. This time it wasn’t Nael, but it’d still be fine. Probably.
“Take a seat.” The doctor motioned to the surgical table in the center. “Unit 223, Jessica.” One of the nurses split off, heading to the refrigeration units. “You nervous?”
“A little bit,” I answered honestly as I sat down on the surgical table.
“Don’t be. You’ll go under, and by the time it's over, you'll be as good as new! I've been doing Slab Co's speed surgeries for decades with a ninety-eight percent success rate, so you can trust me. Now then, the paperwork says there was a small issue with your DNA? It caused some minor mutations in the cloned organs.”
“Um… is that bad? It won’t, like, mess me up, will it?” Mutated sounded bad. Really bad. I wish I knew more about all of this. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come here. Was my DNA even in a proper state to clone, thanks to all the interface's mutations?
The doctor laughed lightly, putting the paperwork down. “Not at all. It's just a minor aesthetic issue. The eye color is a bit… off. The rest of it is perfectly fine, though. The lab rats scanned it all.”
“If it's just the eye color, I guess it isn’t that bad…” I went silent as Jessica, one of the nurses, returned with a jar full of some kind of liquid. Four eyes floated gently in the liquid. The irises of all of them were a bright pink instead of my naturally dull grey eyes. Minor cosmetic changes indeed.
The doctor handed me a clipboard. “Alright then, sign here. Oh, and would you like to keep your DNA in cold storage? It’ll drastically speed up the cloning process if you ever need something in the future. It's just a hundred Rayn a month.”
Hmm… I doubt I’ll need to come here all that frequently. And this might be a one-off situation. “No?”
"Here you go, miss. You can just put it on over your clothes." A nurse handed me a surgical gown. I threw it on, protecting my new clothes.
The doctor smiled. “That's perfectly fine. It is a large commitment. Slab Co. recommends replacing cloned organs every year. Following city law, I am obligated to inform you that clone flesh begins to deteriorate within five years. It is highly, highly recommended that you have it replaced or removed by the fourth year. If you understand this, sign the next page too.”
We went through a breakdown of a few other documents and warnings I had to sign off on before the surgery finally started. The doctor strapped a breathing mask to my face, and I faded into unconsciousness immediately.
-- -- --
AN: Heyo! It's about that time of the month again that I flaunt my Patreon. If you want to read ahead or otherwise support me, my Patreon is now up to eighteen chapters ahead! Patreon.com/lostrain
Also, I found Outrun on an aggregate site. Wild to think it's become big enough for people to start taking it without asking my permission. If you're reading this anywhere else except for Royal Road or Scribble Hub, its stolen. Unfortunately, I can't really do anything about it other than leave a warning every once in a while.
Comments
Jesse Shepard
There was even a case of a small gang in Oldtown having a military-grade spirder tank--a Sentinel Arach-N3. Spirder -> Spider?
Scholar of Endless Knowledge
Got to love mutations! Tftc!
Blacktide Bakersmith
Minor issue. She went from 6 to 7 evasion after being chased like that? I would have thought a double bump given her successful evasion Just saying.
Lost Rain
Thank you! It’s corrected
foo-jin
peircing -> piercing
Lost Rain
Thank you! It’s fixed.
Lost Rain
Chek. It was just for effect
Alexander Belousov
"entering a short cue" --> "queue", presumably?
Gardor
Then why is her body leaking the shadow wisps at that moment, before she toggled it on? Just a holdover from the...implantation? (That's me making up a plausible excuse, thats not really indicated anywhere)
Lost Rain
The eye change will happen after it’s implanted. And no, the shadow leakage won’t happen if she doesn’t have it active.
Gardor
"Dark shadow wisps occasionally flicked out, floating around before fading away. Just like the rest of my perks, I got an intuitive feeling on how to toggle it. My skin faded, turning into a shadow mass." ->does this mean that her skin is constantly leaking shadow wisps, before she toggled the Perk on? "I know the palace" ->place, maybe "The irises of all of them were a bright pink instead of my naturally dull grey eyes" ->didn't panther sight change her eyes to yellow/amber? Could be making that up. That's what I was assuming the reaction came from. Bright pink was a surprise. I was curious how the panther sight was gonna interact with a fresh eyeball.
Lost Rain
Gotta have some downside. Every five years at most. Saying every year is just Slab Co wanting more money. It’s cheaper then chrome though, so most people wouldn’t care too much about having to replace it.
Mr. Bigglesworth
Bit o' a tinkle sprinkle atm
Dominic French
We'll the cloned flesh think ain't to bad it pushes our MC to eventually get a real upgrade
Blah64
Oh wtf. Gotta replace the cloned flesh every year?
gedas
Another chapter so soon? Looks like Lost Rain is making it rayn... Y I'm sorry.
Findell
Oh thats fun. I knew there had to be wacky downsides to cloned flesh.
