Western Fringe, Canyon Hub.
In this minor city of the Freegrid Collective, on the 15th floor of a major Intelligence Building in the city, in a clean office, one of the desktops hidden in the corner with an encrypted network suddenly lit up.
The desktop quickly projected an HUD screen in mid-air, and on it was the contents of an encrypted message.
One of the Freegrid agents working inside the office quickly approached it.
He poked a few holo-numbers in the HUD screen, inputting the password to open the encrypted message. And then, this agent read through the contents of the message.
As soon as he read the contents, his face quickly turned solemn.
He turned and looked at his companions. "Where is the Director? Talia has finally sent a message".
…
Somewhere in a corner of the Wastes in between the Western Fringe, the Southern Biome, and the Western Coast, there was a small isolated inn.
This inn was located pretty far away from the community in the Wastes.
It was mostly a hub for travelers who traveled the routes leading through the Southern Biome, the Western Fringe, and the Western Coast.
Unknown to most people though, this inn was owned by the Zmer gang, and it was one of the secret entrances to Parasite's underground empire.
At this moment, a short man who was barely 5.1 feet tall rushed into the inn. He was wearing a black coat that covered his full body to his feet, and a hood that covered and hid his face.
His rushed entrance into the inn attracted pointed glances from the travelers in the open bar, but he didn't pay attention to them as he rushed to the room where the owner of the inn stayed in the first floor.
To most people, he was the owner of the inn. Nobody knew that he was a secret member of the Zmer gang.
The two Geneform bouncers standing in front of the door leading to the room didn't stop the short man as he entered the room.
Inside, there were three people playing a card game. Two of them were Synths, while the last one was the owner of the inn, Swain, a middle-aged Geneform with a rough and stony face filled with scars.
Despite his face, he was dressed like a young man in his prime in black combat shorts that exposed his tattooed legs, a colorful sleeved shirt that he didn't bother to button, exposing his thick abs, and stylish white sneakers.
As soon as he saw the short man barge into the room, Swain frowned.
The short man ignored him as he charged towards a corner of the room, but then Swain harrumphed. "Not so fast".
He left his chair and moved so fast that he left afterimages behind.
Bam!
He slammed the short man against the wall.
"The boss! I need to meet the boss!" The short man was out of breath as he shouted in a muffled voice.
Swain snorted and grabbed the short man by the shoulder, lifting him up to face level as he looked him in the eyes. "Nerdy bastard, what happened?"
Hearing that, the short man was stunned. Only then did he realize that he was being held up on his shoulder and that his legs were dangling freely in the air.
His face changed as he instantly turned angry, but then remembering what happened, he quickly calmed down.
"Swain, I need to see the boss now! Something happened!" He spat through gritted teeth.
Seeing the sincerity in his eyes and his panicked expression, Swain finally let go of him. "You can go".
He returned to playing his card game like nothing happened.
The short man glared at him from beneath his hood. 'F*cking bitch! I swear one day I'm going to kill you!' He swore in his mind before quickly approaching the corner of the room where he bent down.
Hidden there was a handle.
He grabbed the handle and pulled up, and a secret door that led underground opened. The short man entered and nimbly climbed down.
He passed through a long corridor where gangsters of the Zmer gang greeted him in fear.
"Boss Brad".
Originally, Brad would have snorted and raised his chin proudly, taking the praise of the peasants, but not today. He was too tensed to care about them as he rushed deeper into the underground base.
He passed through twisting metallic corridors, and after about 3 minutes, he finally arrived in front of a thick metal door.
He knocked.
"Come in". A deep voice reverberated.
Brad cautiously pushed the door open and entered the large room. The room had three sofa chairs on the corners, a big glass table in the middle with 4 wooden chairs around it. At the end of this large room was the bedroom partition.
There was a large king-sized bed on top a wooden bedframe, with a half-closed curtain separating this partition from the rest parts of the large room.
There was a man on top of the bed, and three beautiful naked ladies were around him on top the bed. Two of them were Caucasians with beautiful fair skin, while the last was a beautiful ebony.
Seeing that Parasite was with women, Brad instinctively heaved a sigh of relief as his anxiety made him blurt out. "Boss! Boss something happened…!"
Bang!
His words were cut short by a sharp whistling sound.
Brad suddenly felt a sharp pang of pain from his right ear as he froze. His right hand instinctively rose up to touch his ear, and felt the hot sensation of blood spurting out.
"…" His brain went blank.
Behind him, a dagger was embedded on the metallic wall of this room, the same dagger that just cleanly sliced through his right ear!
Brad hissed as his eyes widened in horror even as he grabbed the bleeding hole where his ear once was.
Then, he heard a familiar deep voice ask. "Boss?"
Brad finally understood and he felt like banging his head against a wall. 'F*ck! F*ck! F*ck! I saw naked girls around him and automatically thought he was in a good mood! That is not enough for me to make such a big mistake, but I was anxious due to what happened!'
He felt instant regret as without showing any ounce of anger on his face, he bowed respectfully, perfectly hiding the rage simmering underneath.
"Lord Parasite, it was an oversight on my part".
"Good," the deep voice echoed in a teasing tone. "I like subordinates that admit mistakes and know when they're wrong".
"Speak, what happened?"
Before talking, Brad could not help but throw another glance at this man, the leader of the Zmer gang, the E Rank Gene Augur with a narcissistic tendency of forcing people, clients, and his subordinates to call him Lord.
Brad was a handsome Geneform who seemed like he was in his 30s.
He was huge at a towering 7.1 feet. His hair was long brown dreads, and he had a neatly cut black beard. He was shirtless with only a pair of short black boxer shorts covering his underbody.
His eyes are blood-red, and the black eyeball is small and vertical like a snake's.
He had exaggerated tattoes covering his whole body from his legs to his neck, and he wore a chain with a blood-red pendant. There was a brutal scar cutting across his forehead, but it didn't affect his charm, it only accentuated his masculinity.
He had a thick cigar on his lips. With every puff that he took, smoke filled the air in the room.
He leaned his body on one side of the bed, resting his left hand on the bed while his right hand held a dagger and was playing with it.
He moved his head from side to side, making his long ornamental earrings make clicking sounds even as he stared coldly at Brad.
Feeling his glare, this NetRunner shuddered.
Brad finally mustered the courage to open his mouth to speak but then this powerful Geneform stopped him with a gesture of his hand.
Brad dared not speak.
Flicking his head to the side, he looked at one of the three beautiful women on his body, then he flicked the dagger and slightly nicked the exposed breast of one of them. She hissed as blood flowed like nectar.
Seeing the blood, Parasite revealed a nasty smile but then he shook his head. "Leave," he said. "Tell them to bring younger girls, I want them less than 15".
"Y-yes Lord Parasite". They shuddered in fear and left.
Throughout, Brad never said a word. He waited patiently.
Shortly after the mature girls left, 2 gangsters soon opened the thick metallic door and entered the room. They dragged 3 frightened petite girls that clearly looked underage into the room. They were naked with only a light transparent white gown covering their body.
Seeing them, Parasite flashed a lewd smile. "Just what I like!" He took a deep puff of his cigar, then gestured to the bed.
"Come baby girls, there's no need to be afraid".
The gangsters dragged the three girls to the bed before forcing them on top. They shuddered in fear, but none of them dared leave the bed.
They've heard of other girls like them who were stubborn and head-strong and ended up being beheaded by the Lord.
"Obedient, nice". Parasite nodded in satisfaction.
The 2 gangsters left, and Parasite finally nodded at Brad, indicating for him to speak. The F Rank NetRunner heaved a sigh of relief and finally spoke, revealing everything that happened at the cell tower base.
As soon as he was done reporting, Brad held his breath as he feared for his life. He was beginning to regret coming to report it himself.
'But if I didn't come, he would have seen it as disrespect and would have killed me directly!' He shook in fear, suddenly regretting his life under this monster.
As soon as he heard the report, Parasite's eyes narrowed as an oppressive aura enveloped the room like a Python just bared its fangs.
His tongue flicked out like a true snake's, tasting the air ravenously.
His aura was so oppressive that Brad instinctively bowed his head lower, while one of the girls messed up herself on the bed in fear.
SMACK!
Parasite smacked her with the back of his left hand, sending two teeth flying as the girl fell from the bed and began bleeding.
She quickly got up and covered her mouth, preventing herself from crying out loud as she sobbed in silence.
Parasite didn't even look at her as his eyes were dark.
"It's that b*tch!" He spat suddenly. "It's that rebel b*tch!"
"I gave her a chance to leave but she's too stubborn for her own good!" His eyes flashed with malice. "Good, good, I'll use her as an example, I'll teach her to never cross Lord Parasite!"
He waved his hand at Brad. "Go back, act like nothing happened. No matter how she searches, she'll never find my underground empire," he sneered. "All she'll do is find the warehouses".
"But they're empty!" He laughed in a loud and unrestrained manner like a magician who successfully fooled his audience with a magic trick.
"Yes Lord Parasite". Brad bowed low before turning to leave.
"Wait," Parasite called and Brad stopped as he felt his heart skip a beat. "Tell Cell to enter as you leave".
"Yes, Lord Parasite". Brad bowed again.
He finally left the room, and once he was outside, he heaved a sigh of relief as he rested against the metallic wall only to discover that his back was soaked with sweat.
He touched his chest and discovered that his heart was beating extremely fast. 'F*ck!' He cursed.
'I'm not coming here again!' He vowed to himself and left.
…
2 minutes after Brad left, the thick metallic door opened again and a Geneform silently entered.
This Geneform's build was lean and powerful, sleek, silent, and built for explosive movement like an assassin. He was on all black- black coat, black boots, black gloves, black durag, and black glasses.
He had two swords that were attached to a special scabbard on his back.
This was Cell, Parasite's right hand, a Gene Augur just like him.
"Lord, you summoned me". He went down on one knee.
Parasite looked at him with his menacing red eyes. "I have a new mission for you. Hunt Talia and her crew, she's back in our community".
"Yes, Lord Parasite".
After that, this Geneform turned into a shadow that slithered through the ground. The shadow went underneath the door and then disappeared.