The Vivacious Deadlock: S3G6: Round Three: The Sable Masque

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

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The first one down had short spiky black hair, a face full of stubble, half of which had been replaced with dull grey metal. His left eye was a perfectly circular red light, a robotic eye. He wore a filthy green jacket and sneered at the Empress in the half-light. The two behind him were different yes, but they all had the same style to them, metal body parts, untidy hair, dirty clothing. All three held their weapons with a casual confidence suggesting that this kind of thing was pretty commonplace and that they would not hesitate to shoot.
“What are you supposed to be?” The one in front asked. “You’re dressed like a Regency Dame, but the eyepatch says one of Roger’s Jolly Boys.” Phere did not hurry with her response. She thought about using her magic to disable and kill these three, but that would likely lead down a path of mindless confrontation. Plus it had been a while since she had used her magic, and at gunpoint was not the optimal time to try her luck. Instead she opted for a diplomatic approach.
“I am Empress Phere.” She responded. “I am not affiliated with any gang in this city. I wish to join yours.”
“You want to be a Cyber Punk?” The first cyborg laughed. “You hear that guys. The ‘Empress’ here thinks she’s one of us?!” Empress Phere, calmly reached up and removed her eyepatch, revealing the smooth black surface of the Hollow.
“I’d wager my ‘implant’ is more effective than yours.” Phere grinned smugly. The laughter stopped abruptly as they viewed the Empress’s shining black eye. “Tell me what you want and I can tell you where it is.”
“This is a wind-up right?” The lead cyborg asked. “Nice eye, obviously, that’s some pretty cool tech you have there, but you can’t just pluck information out of thin air.”
“Try me.” Phere strolled confidently towards the cyborgs, they had as a response to Phere unveiling her Hollow let their guards down. As she approached the back pair guns raised their guns threateningly. “There’s really no need for that.” Phere assured them. “I’m like you guys, a little better dressed but that’s neither here nor there. Even if I wanted to hurt you, I’m unarmed, see.” Phere held her hands out as if to ask where exactly in this dress would she have a weapon?
“Okay.” The first cyborg says. “The Stolen Tome, where is it?” Phere looked, and the cyborgs looked on as purple images ran across her Hollow, faster and smaller than they could follow.
“In a castle, in a laboratory.” Phere said. “Doctor Matic has it.” The first cyborg scowled uncertainly, in retrospect this had not been a very good question for assessing credibility.
“I guess it could be possible…” He said uncertainly. He hesitated for a moment and then grinned. “Okay if you want me to believe you, tell me where the detective and science fiction bookmarks are.” A slight pause, as Phere looked. They were locked securely in a safe on the floor above. The room they were in was huge and partially filled with crates; most surfaces were lined with tools, or surgical implements, though one table, large enough to lay someone on, was empty. Another part of the room was lined with banks of computers illuminating the room with a low green light. A man who was more machine than man, sat behind them scrutinising the data presented upon them and occasionally a rapid staccato battering of keys as he saw something that needed to be corrected.
“They’re upstairs,” Phere said, “in the safe, in the workshop.” Through her hollow Phere saw a cyborg running into the workshop and reporting to the man behind the computers that Byte had heard movement in the basement and taken Tek and Abys down to check it out. Phere’s expression changed and she proceeded to walk straight past the clearly stunned cyborg that had long since abandoned the pretext of holding her at gunpoint.
“How did you know?” He asked. “Nobody apart from us Punks know that. We’ve got the rest of the town convinced The Screaming Eagles have got them.”
“My tech is just that good, Byte.” Phere said. “Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go and talk to Mr Zaibotsu about joining the gang. I wish you had told me that you weren’t in charge sooner, you could have saved us both some effort.”

Phere made her way through the warehouse as though she had lived there all her life, with the three cyborgs following her like her personal vanguard. Arriving in the workshop she offered a demonstration of her abilities to a very intrigued Zaibotsu, whose misgivings had been calmed when Byte and the others had assured him that she was the real deal. Reluctantly Zaibotsu offered Phere a deal, that he would let her join the gang if she would help them claim the Stolen Tome from Dr Matic’s Group of Scientiflic Inclined Professionals. Phere asked whether the others would mind stepping out of the room while she had a negotiation with Mr. Zaibotsu. They did so, leaving Phere stood on one side of the surgical table, Zaibotsu on the other.
“I must say Miss Phere-”
“Empress Phere.” The Empress interrupted.
“Sorry, Empress Phere,” Zaibotsu continued. “I must say that you will not find a better offer than what is on the table. The streets of this city can be hard and there’s not many gangs that would take the time to listen to you. I don’t believe that a person of your obvious breeding would last five minutes in this cesspool of a city. This is a good offer and you should take it.”
“Mr Zaibotsu.” Phere responded. “I’m going to make you an offer. You do exactly as I say and I let you live, and I even let you stay in charge of the gang. It’s a figurehead position with no actual decision making responsibilities but it is better than being dead I would imagine.” Zaibotsu scowled, slamming his mechanical hands down upon the table, with a resounding clank of metal hitting metal.
“Perhaps you do not believe how serious I am.” Zaibotsu replied. “I will have the information from you whether you like it or not. You can either be part of the gang or I will have you subdued and extract the information from you by force. It is your choice ‘Empress’, do not be stupid about this.”
“I’m sorry that it had to come down to this.” Phere said regretfully. Suddenly electricity flowed through her hands, and into the table upon which they rested. Zaibotsu was thrown back as the electricity flowed into him, sending him crashing into the unmarked crates. Phere walked around the surgical table to where Zaibotsu had come to rest. She reached down and grabbed his arms, his eyes slowly opened just long enough to see her frown in concentration. Electricity flowed into him, her grip was strong and he was unable to pull away, he had nowhere to go. Within seconds his circuitry was fried and the systems that kept him alive were crashing. He died. Phere straighted up and turned around to see a group of cyborgs pouring into the room, Byte at the forefront of them. They stopped in their tracks when they saw their leader dead at the hands of this woman.
“What happened?” Byte asked.
“Management dispute.” Phere explained. “You work for me now. Does anyone have a problem with that?”
It turned out nobody had a problem with that.