Club Aurora

The street outside Club Aurora was filled with a horde of people racing to get in. The club itself lay on the outskirts of the Lower Quarter, far away from prying eyes. A large red neon sign bore its name, acting as a beacon of light guiding partygoers and drug dealers to its doors. The building itself was two storeys high, with an upper and lower floor. Miyuki sat perched atop the fast food restaurant opposite, overlooking the crowds of people desperate to party their troubles away and wash their sins down with cheap liquor and drugs that cost more than what they were worth.

‘Hanan. Come in. It’s Miyuki. I’m in front of the club. Hanan, are you there?’

‘Lady Miyuki. Excellent. I was worried you didn’t arrive on schedule. Shall I give you the run down for this mission?’

‘No need Hanan. All I need to do is find Tisephone and get her to talk. Do you know where her office is? ‘

‘It should be on the top floor of the club. Call me when it’s finished. I’m standing nearby for extraction. ‘

The earpiece in Miyuki’s ear clicked and went silent. Her stilettos made a thud as she gracefully dropped to the ground, her jet black dress catching the moonlight above. The door to the club was blocked by two bouncers, dressed in tuxedos.

‘Hey man, I paid for my ticket! Why the hell can’t I get in?!’

‘I’m sorry sir but you’ll have to wait. Boss Lady only lets whoever’s on the list. ‘

‘What? This is bullshit! Y-you k-know wha-t? Suck on these apples you ass-‘

Miyuki looked at the man in front of the queue arguing with one of the bouncers. The man clearly had too much to drink and was slurring his speech. As he got more and more agitated, the man raised his fists in an attempt to strike one of the bouncers in the face, who avoided the punch with ease before proceeding to grab the man by his face and slam him into the ground with such force that broke the drunkard’s neck instantly. The crowd began to back up in fear as they looked at the crippled mess that used to be the drunkard, before the bouncer tossed his body to one side and addressed the crowd directly:

‘Anyone who doesn’t comply with our rules will get what he just got. Understand?’

A sea of heads all nodded in unison. Nobody was foolish enough to take on these bouncers, even Miyuki understood she’d die in seconds in a fight against these men.

Minutes turned into hours as Miyuki finally approached the bouncers.

‘Good evening miss. Can I check your ticket?. Hmm..’

‘Is there a problem?’

‘No miss. Here you go. Enjoy your time at Club Aurora.’

The doors to the club opened and within seconds Miyuki was blasted by EDM and Techno. The club consisted of one huge dance floor on the lower floor, which was flanked by pulsating lights on all sides as well as more blood red neon lighting. Next to the dance floor was a bar, where people were already getting drunk and losing their minds. On the upper floor, lay the club main office, where Miyuki guessed Tisephone would be residing in. On the dance floor, people were going crazy dancing to the ear drum destroying Techno music, and in the corner of the room people were talking, laughing amongst themselves and taking drugs as they watched the other club patrons losing themselves to the music.

Miyuki decided to head to the bar first, as she needed something strong to keep her awake. The bar was already full, with several patrons passed out in their seats from drinking too much. The bartender was nowhere to be seen, a fact Miyuki took advantage of as she reached over the counter and claimed a shot glass and a half empty bottle of liquor. Guild Assassins weren’t allowed alcohol of any kind, but since she wasn’t a part of it anymore, why not take the opportunity to experience Mother’s Ruin firsthand. The liquid itself was a bright green colour as it flowed into the glass. Miyuki downed the first shot, then two more shots afterwards. Her vision began to blur somewhat as the liquid took effect just as she slid off her seat and walked towards the dance floor. The funk Techno and EDM gradually chipped away at her brain, allowing her to forget, at least for a brief period, what had happened over the last few weeks. As the song changed, more patrons hobbled to the dance floor, clearly drunk as they could barely stand upright. The entire club seemed to be in a trance like state, captivated by the music and soon the dance floor was a flood of sloppily dressed people either drunk, on drugs or both. After an hour had passed, Miyuki felt the effects of her drink wear off and began heading upstairs via the metal staircase that sat connected to the right corner of the dance floor leading to the upper floor. As she left the dance floor, suddenly the lights all turned on her, a brilliant flash of green and red flooded her eyes blinding her.

‘Attention! Can I have everyone’s attention for a moment?’

The loudspeaker turned on. One of the patrons standing opposite Miyuki nudged his partner in the ribs as he pointed at the staircase with the enthusiasm of a child visiting a theme park for the first time.

‘Oh my God, it’s Lady Tisephone!’

Her presence captivated the entire dance floor as she watched from above and spoke into the loudspeaker again.

‘We seem to have a party crasher in our midst! And we can’t have no narcs spoiling the party now can we?’

‘No Lady Tisephone!’

Screamed the entire crowd in unison.

‘The first person to bring me the head of that person under careful supervision from the lights gets a Club Aurora lifetime VIP Pass! Good hunting.’

Miyuki watched as the entire dance floor all dropped their glasses and began to stare at her with such hatred in their eyes, the glasses previously used for drinking had been turned into crude shivs.

‘You should never have come here now you’re gonna pay!’

One of the crowd members began to shout before running at Miyuki with her shiv. The crude weapon was no match for Miyuki’s speed as she dodged the woman’s strikes with ease before disarming her and shoving the shiv into the woman’s eyeball. The crowd began to shriek with excitement before they all rushed directly into Miyuki, who was still holding the dead woman’s shiv as she darted behind the bar. A long silver object caught her eye as it glowed in the light. Inspecting the item more closely, it seemed the bartender was fully stocked in more ways than one as he kept a double barrel shotgun behind the counter, along with a stack of shotgun shells. The gun split open and accepted the shells with ease, before being used to shoot down the first rack of lights, immobilising most of the first row of bloodthirsty crowd members. Subsequent shells shot down the second and third racks, and within minutes most of the second row had been taken care of, however a large amount of the crowd still remained. Miyuki wasn’t able to load the shotgun fast enough as the crowd stormed her position. Two men leapt over the counter as Miyuki used the shotgun as a bludgeon, cracking the skulls of her assailants. More crowd members continued to run towards her like zombies, until 30 people began to rush the bar at once. Miyuki doused the bar in liquor before igniting one of the shotgun shells and throwing it onto the pool of liquor, creating a wall of fire between her and the crowd, then vaulted over the counter and ran towards the staircase as the smell of burning flesh seeped into her nostrils. As she ran towards the staircase, she looked behind her to see more people storming the bar and burning to death, before one of the people below noticed Miyuki running and began to inform the crowd. Dozens of people swarmed the staircase, as Miyuki kept blasting them to pieces with whatever ammunition she had left. As soon as Miyuki reached the top of the staircase, she blasted open the door to the upper floor and lodged the empty shotgun into the door handle, blocking it. The upper floor itself was very small, with only a single office and a back entrance to the DJ area and the music player. The door to Tisephone’s office lay straight ahead, and was left ajar. Below on the lower floor, people still continued to rush upstairs in an attempt to breach the door and claim the VIP pass for themselves. Miyuki held the door knob and silently opened the door, which was met by a punch to the face.

‘So, little pig, you managed to survive? I was sure one of those peasants was to kill you.’

Tisephone stood over Miyuki as she grabbed her by the throat and flung her into the wall, then again into her desk. Wood flew everywhere as the desk split open.

‘See these little pig? These cybernetic legs are a result of our last encounter. I’m one of them now thanks to you. Well? Have you nothing to say?’

Tisephone grabbed the dazed Miyuki by the head and began to punch her in the stomach repeatedly, before again throwing her against the wall.

‘Once I kill you, maybe Mikael won’t be so dissatisfied with me, and get me out of this place.’

The word Mikael awakened Miyuki from her stupor as she rose to her feet, sucker punching Tisephone in the stomach, before using the shiv she had acquired earlier to cut the wiring on Tisephone’s left leg, disabling it, then punching her in the face repeatedly until Tisephone’s face resembled a tomato. Miyuki continued to slam her fists into Tisephone’s face until cutting the wiring on her right leg, then tore both legs off and kept beating Tisephone over the head with them. The legs made a metallic thud as they clattered to the floor. Miyuki grabbed Tisephone by the head.

‘The Cybernetics For All program. Why is Mikael interested in it?’ A breathless Miyuki asked.

‘Go to hell little pig, you may as well kill me. I’ll die before I give you anything. ‘

Miyuki picked up one of the metallic legs before slamming it into Tisephone’s head.

‘OK, OK. What did you want?’

‘The Cybernetics For All program! Tell me why Mikael’s interested in it!’

‘Hahahaha. Don’t you see? Mikael wants to have total power over this cesspool of a city. He’s using The Guild to achieve his goal. And this program helps with that. The cybernetics have a chip in them that makes them his slaves. But something’s wrong. ‘

Miyuki looked at her with confusion.

‘What? What went wrong?’

‘Don’t you see? Mikael’s in a gang war against Chaudary and his gang. Even with the resources of a massive corporation like Cyntech, it’s no use. They been resisting the cybernetics and have encouraged most of Paralya to do the same. So now he’s trying to crush them before they can stop him. ‘

‘Where can I find Chaudary? ‘

‘Last I heard, he has a base south of Devil’s Park, in a place called The Outeryard. But nobody’s ever seen him in person. Not even Mikael has. The ones that do usually end up dead. If you let me go, I’ll take you to him. I promise. ‘

Miyuki glanced at the cybernetic legs on the floor, then back at Tisephone.

‘That’s all right, I don’t need your promises.’

‘No, wait!’

Flesh met steel as Miyuki slammed the legs into Tisephone’s skull until nothing but a flesh paste was left as her skull was smashed to pieces. Miyuki raised a finger to her earpiece.

‘Hanan? Are you there? I just had a chat with our dear friend Tisephone.’

‘I see, Lady Miyuki. And how was that?’

‘She told me about the Cybernetics For All program. Mikael’s going to use it to seize control of the city. ‘

‘Good Lord. Why would he do something like that?’

‘To prove that The Guild is a massive organisation willing to crush anything in its way. She also told me something else. Someone called Chaudary is fighting in a gang war against him. Even with Cyntech’s resources, Mikael can’t seem to punch through. We have no idea how many people have been infected by his malware.’

‘Chaudary?’

‘Yes. He runs his gang in a place called The Outeryard, apparently he’s turned most of Paralya on his side. ‘

‘I see Lady Miyuki. So what’s next? I’m hoping you’re not planning to give this Chaudary a visit.’

‘That’s exactly what I’m going to do Hanan.’

‘Lady Miyuki, are you sure this is the best course of action?’

‘What else is there Hanan? We don’t have any other leads at our disposal. I have to investigate this Chaudary. ‘

‘Understood Lady Miyuki. Your Nighthawk is standing by on Club Aurora’s roof. You can get there via the fire escape.

‘Thanks Hanan.’

‘Oh and Lady Miyuki? Be careful in there. ‘

‘Copy that. Is my gear onboard the Nighthawk as well?’

‘Yes. Molenda even packed in extra equipment should you need it. ‘

Understood. I’ll contact you once I’ve located him.’

Downstairs, the crowd had slowly began to dissipate and calm down, and were soon back to losing themselves to the dance floor, barely taking notice of Miyuki as she escaped the confines of Club Aurora.