[WARNING... This story is a bit... Extreme.]
[Put the kids to bed for this one.]
[There is some Cussing, Violence, and well, nasty stuff.]



3 AM.


Uptown.


It's a stormy night, but what other nights are there when the emotions are running high, and the adrenaline pumps like blood from an artery. Yes, that type of night. Where any assumption would get you killed. Tonight was that sort of night.


I don't mind it, because that's how I started. That's how I became who I am. I never take no for an answer, and usually I get back up from the ground when I get hit. The only night I can recall where that didn't happen was my eruption.


Well, the first of many.


I was checking out a recent missing person case outside St. Paul. I had been checking lost leads the police department was kind enough (in other words desperate enough) to give me. I checked with the family to find out further details. I had felt I was close to breaking the case. It was the other way around.


By the time I knew what happened 4 hollow-points were parked in my chest. It seems the local Triad, which was operating in the area at the time, caught wind of me.


I woke up on a cold slab at Hennepin County Medical Center. Actually, now that I think about it, it was the morgue to be exact. If I remember, the coroner was about to cut into me to start the autopsy when the node said "NO WAY! I am not going out like that!"


When I grabbed the guy's arm, as he was about to cut into me, I could tell he was about to shit in his hospital scrubs. He must have thought I was some sort of monster. But then again, aren't all novas sort of monstrous?


It took a couple of days to convince the doctors I was well. It was a bitch getting all the bullets out of me, and they thought I shouldn't even be walking around for several weeks. I was back in action in a few days. I would have followed the leads I had, but by then, they had grown cold, and Utopia was knocking at my door.


I looked over what they had, as well as DeVries's material. I preferred Utopia. They seemed to need someone with my skills. A certain someone like me, who could sniff out trouble. I like doing that. I guess I like being the good guy, the one to go to when the chips are down. In exchange for working for them, I could stay being a freelance PI. I like that deal even more.


Up until tonight... Now... When I wish I hadn't stayed in the business.


I had gotten back on that case that started this whole wild ride for me about a year ago. Now today, in this storm, I was going to get back my reputation. My honor. The one thing that matters most to me, finishing a job I started.


Everything went according to plan. I had found the hideout, and the girl. The 4 or 5 goons I could take easily. I came prepared for that. Some flash bang grenades and a few well-placed shots with my new .45 millimeters would equal the odds fast, if it came to that.


But, I decided to take a different approach, one with more class and with less needless bloodshed. I found an unguarded back door entrance. Well, not a back door, more like a window. I used a rope to pull the air-conditioner in the window out. Unto some cushions underneath to muffle the sound, and breaking it's fall. I climbed in, and assessed the situation.


This room was used, probably as a safe room for their friends. I didn't want to stick around for long. I moved to the stairway and walked down, as quiet as I could. The basement was all that I feared. These guys were making porn, and she was the unwilling victim in all this. She was bound to a post in the center of the room, a gag in her mouth so the screams couldn't be heard outside or in the house. I couldn't let her be like this, but hearing them head for the basement entrance changed that train of thought fast.


I disappeared quickly to the far corner, where there was no light. To observe what was going on. My entrance caused his agitated actions I could tell. It had to be the reason. He grabbed her hair and pulled her head back. I don't like that.


I rushed out, only to get into a hostage situation, and his goons were coming down slow. They thought they had the advantage. This wasn't going to be easy, but I thought I had the advantage.


The first few dropped to my 45. Two more were knocked out of the picture with a crisp right hook and a kick to the groin. When I trained my guns back on the other fellow, I knew I had fucked up. BAD.


He had already slashed the girl's throat.


That fucker wasn't going to get away with it.


I parked a few rounds into his direction, but I missed. I guess it must have been the rage.


The girl was gone, nothing I could do, but watch the last heart beat of her short, tortured life, flow from her sliced arteries.


He made his get-away. By the time the cops arrived, about all I could do, was cry. But I remember his face, and my recklessness. I told the police everything back at the precinct. By the time the questioning was over, it was 3 AM.


I decided to check this guy' usual party pad. A nightclub over near Lake Calhoun, it's usually where all the rich party, and some of the less desirable crowd make deals.


I watched as the rain streamed down my face. It didn't help to cool down my temper. When I saw that bastard step out of the club, I knew it was my only shot. I jumped at him, trying to beat him senseless. A couple bullets in my hide slowed me down.


I staggered back to my feet, and looked for the bodyguards, only to find it was the cops stopping me. They already had started cuffing the guy, and they tried ordering me to stop beating on him. Those shots were last resorts to stop a Nova like me I guess.


As they took that guy battered and bruised, away in their cars, and I was looked over by an EMT, I couldn't break my gaze from his. We knew we were enemies.


But, unlike him, I wasn't scared or afraid. It would take everything he could muster to get me. Which wouldn't be much, but I knew he would at the right opportunity.


As the EMT told me I need to go to the hospital, my healing kicked in, and the bullets popped out of the wounds as I healed, and I plainly told the EMT, "I don't need any damn doctors." A police officer stops me.


"Am I under arrest?"


"No, we just want you to go to the hospital."


"Sorry, I don't take requests."


I whip out a eufiber tendril from my trench coat and disappear from view, into the densely leafed trees. I hang out in the parks until morning, when I head home.


Now, if only I could get a good buzz so I could get her face out of my mind...