Trace felt lightheaded as he gradually came back to consciousness. Everything hurt, and it felt as though hundreds of pounds were pressing down on him. He was about to yell out when he suddenly remembered what had been going on when he passed out.

  Closing his mouth, Trace instead shifted his head, angling one of his ears to better hear the noise that had been muffled up to that point.

  His new position had the effect of highlighting the notifications in the corner of his vision. The nanites had been busy and eaten through the stock of material he tried to maintain for their use.

  The many holes he had taken from the attackers seemed to have been plugged at some point while he was out. The nanites had then further solidified each one of the plugs, cementing them in position. He hadn’t even known that was possible before now. Then again, he generally tended to use the plugs and started moving again fairly quickly afterward. According to the clock on his HUD, he had been unconscious for around thirty minutes.

  This was the last time he went anywhere without armor. Better yet, he needed to take a page from Monroe’s book and get some subdermal work done. Granted, it hadn’t helped the man this last time, but that was only because he had been shot on the wrong side of his chest. The big man had thought protecting his heart was more important than other areas. That battle in the bunker sure showed him.

  Unfortunately, the damage had been a fair bit more serious than he had expected. Just reading through the notifications had him biting his lip to keep from cursing.

  Dismissing them angrily, he focused on the noise he had been hearing and finally began to pick out some details of what was going on.

  “Ugh, why did it take so long for everyone to leave? At this point, we only have a couple of minutes before the cleaning crew comes to dispose of all these bodies.”

  “I can’t really blame them,” He heard one of them laugh. “They were all hoping the rest of us would leave first so they could loot the bodies. As it is, I saw a few of them snagging guns and taking open crypto-vaults.”

  “The cleaning crew isn’t going to be happy when they find a bunch of empty vaults. That’s one of the few perks of their job.” There was a grunt, followed by another, and then a thump as a body fell near him. “Whatever, not our problem. Help me shift these corpses, and then we’ll take Cerys’ guards to that freak on the eighty-fifth floor. He won’t say anything about them being there, and supposedly, his skills are pretty good.”

  “Whatever; let’s just hurry. With how long this has taken, my nerves are stretched as tight as can be. Having her owe us a favor is a good thing, but it’ll be useless if she ends up getting captured, or we do.”

  There was another round of grunts, followed by a few more bodies falling nearby, then silence.

  He waited a few more seconds and then risked pushing the bodies that had been stacked on top of him slightly to the side. Not a lot, just enough so that he could see what was going on. He was just in time to catch the flash of movement turning a stair corner a couple of floors above. It wasn’t much, but from his position, he was able to peek up the middle section at an angle.

  Without pushing the bodies out of the way more, there was no way of telling if there was anyone behind him, or in front of him either. It was simply a risk he was going to need to take.

  “Trace, are you awake?” Came a whispered question.

  “Is that you, Ko?” He returned just as softly.

  “Oh, good.” There was an audible sigh of relief. “I thought I saw those bodies I stuck you and my mom under move. It’s clear. They’re gone. You can come out now. We need to hurry to leave as well.”

  He pushed the rest of the bodies away and then used them to pull himself out of the depression she had stuck him in. “Yeah, about that. Those guys aren’t the only ones who need to visit this fellow on the eighty-fifth floor. Only one of my legs seems to be working at the moment.” He ground his teeth, annoyed with how everything had turned out. “If you can help me to the platform above this, I think I can hop to the next floor. But that will leave you carrying your mom again.”

  She nodded wearily. “I’ll help you up, and then you can help me lift her up. After that, let’s get a move on it. I’d rather not be here when those cleaners arrive either.”

  A minute later, all three of them were on the platform above. Both Trace and Ko quickly snagged a sword and sheath from the people Cerys’ guards had been fighting to use as walking canes. They also picked up the swords the women had dropped, though those obviously didn’t have sheathes to go with them.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Trace kept his left side to the railing, using it for balance as he limped and pulled himself up the stairs. His head ached from a loss of blood, and his balance suffered as his vision tilted and swam. He clutched tight to the top of the sheathed sword with his right hand as it clicked from one step to the next.

  Behind him Ko, grunted with each step they took, a sheathed sword of her own interchangeably acting as a cane or seat for her mother.

  “What- ugh, what happened to your leg? You don’t seem to be moving it at all.”

  “Bad luck is what happened,” He chuckled darkly. “Though, I suppose it could count as good luck depending on how you look at it. A bullet fragment hit one of the discs in my back and pinched the nerve. It went past a herniated disc and just pinched the nerve and fractured the disc at the same time. If it had been even a little bit off…”

  “Then your spinal column would have taken the fragment instead and you would have lost both legs,” Ko finished for him.

  “Yeah, I can’t imagine you would have a fun time hauling both your mother and me out of this place. This sucks, but at least I can still kind of move.” Trace focused on hopping up the stairs, a door to the closest floor only feet away. “Is this something that can be fixed, Ko, or will I have to have my spinal column replaced?” More vulnerability than he would have preferred crept into his voice as he asked the question.

  It had gradually become clear to Trace that despite his best hopes, he was not some cyberware genius with high adaptibility. While he wasn’t as bad as Hannah, his overall ability to handle new modifications to his body seemed somewhat low. He had finally gotten used to his arm, but it had taken a long time, and several upgrades from the G.H.O.S.T. System. Without the help he had gotten from the system, he would likely still be struggling with anger issues.

  “I can’t answer that, not without being able to inspect the damage that was done first. Sorry. It really depends on how bad it is. That said, I don’t think your case would require a full spinal replacement. You still have mobility in your other leg, and I’m assuming everything else down below is still working as well?” He could practically hear the wink in her voice.

  He let go of the rail and reached for his crotch, only to cough in embarrassment. “Uh, yeah. Things seem to work. What does that mean?”

  “It means that at best we could fix the damaged disc normally, at worst we could replace a couple of them. As for the nerve… That is where things get a little tricky. There are two ways of fixing it. Replacing it entirely with synth-nerves, the same stuff we use to connect cyberware to existing nerves. The other is far-less invasive, but I don’t know if it’s even been done before. With that one, we would just replace the bad section of your nerves with synth-nerve material and splice it in right between the two natural sections.”

  “Sounds complicated, and like, no matter which option I go with, the recovery time will be several weeks.” He said just as they reached the door. His hand dropped to the handle, and he was able to yank it open without difficulty.

  “Be grateful we have our little friends; without them and healing stimulants, it would take even longer.” Ko glanced around the area as they walked through the door. “It seems like this entire floor is undergoing renovation.”

  “As long as the elevators are still working, then it’s fine. Then again, that might be why those guards from before skipped this floor.” Trace hobbled farther into the floor, the door closing behind them. “There’s a cart over there. Let’s put your mother in it and then find some items to stack in front of the door. How is she doing, by the way?”

  “She’s still breathing. As far as I can tell, she’s just deeply asleep.” Ko carefully lowered her mother into the cart and quickly placed both of the swords belonging to the female guards on top of her.

  With that done, the two worked together to place different items in front of the door. Since there was no lock, this was the best they could do.

  The two collapsed against the pile of materials for a few minutes while they caught their breath.

  Trace checked his guns, reloading the revolver, but shaking his head at the state of the pistol. It was out of ammunition and completely soaked in blood and cyberware fluids. There was a chance it would still fire, but it needed a good cleaning when he got back to the warehouse. He still had his knife and the sword, along with a few rounds for the revolver. He also had several spare magazines for the SMG still, but at some point, it had gone missing.

  Trace pulled one of the magazines out of his pocket to check what ammo it used and then set it to the side with a shake of his head. It figured. The SMG used 10-millimeter ammunition. The same as his old pistol, whereas his new one used .357 magnum rounds.

  With a wry chuckle, he took the spare magazines from his pockets and placed them on the floor. There was no reason to keep carrying them if they no longer had the appropriate gun.

  “I don’t suppose those will fit that little pistol you carry?” He whispered.

  They could somewhat hear people stomping up and down the stairs right outside the door. The cleaners had arrived. Which meant they needed to be as quiet as possible, since they were only one floor away from them.

  She picked up a magazine, pushed a round out the end onto her hand, and slowly shook her head. “Right size, wrong round.”

  Trace cocked his head, glanced at what was in her hand, and understood. The SMG was using rifle rounds, which were longer than normal pistol rounds. He hadn’t noticed that the first time around, the lack of blood in his system and general lightheadedness must really be affecting him. They wouldn’t have worked for his old pistol anyway, or the SMG he usually carried, which used regular pistol rounds.

  “You didn’t by any chance find some blood-gels while you were finding these PlugDocs, did you?” He inquired softly.

  Ko shook her head. “Sorry, those guards weren’t very prepared for a battle of any sort.” She bit the corner of her lower lip. “Maybe there is something on this floor. They’re doing a lot of construction here. Perhaps we can find a first aid kit of some sort. If nothing else, we can hopefully find something to drink and possibly eat.”

  While the two looked around the floor for supplies, they talked about Ko’s new perk and her theories about how it all worked.

  Thank you to all the people who have taken the time to rate the story and to my latest Patrons! I have other stories up on my Patreon, including my current WIPs. Which are now Created G.H.O.S.T. System(My Cyberpunk story), WetWorks2, plus The Restaurateur and His Daughter and DungeonFall. :)

  https://joshuakernbooks.com/