Stray Cat Strut Chapter Thirty-Eight - Boo-Boos and Body Bags

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Boo-Boos and Body Bags

"It's easy for the average person to forget that the idea of a dedicated ergency-response force is actually relatively new.

Firefighters have been around for millenia. Policing forces for almost as long. But paradics and ergency services only fully modernised with the 1966 White Papers to push them along.

Current EMT training is less than a hundred years old. It's a developing system that's far from perfect, and still had much room to improve.

Which is why the Toronto Paradic Services is now instituting obligatory firearms training into its basic paradics training courses."

--TPS Newsletter, 2028

***

The first thing I noticed was that my ch now had a scattering of scuffs all across its armour.

The small-arms fire hadn't penetrated anything. At least, I didn't think it did. There were so parts, especially on the side that wasn't finished being repaired, that lacked the sensors that would let know if anything was damaged.

While plugged into the ch, that entire side read as a stream of errors and unresolved issues. A few more holes poked into it would get lost with all of the other warnings.

I ran my tal hand over the surface of the ch's ribs. A few bits of lted bullet clinked off the surface. That was going to need so looking at. I was pretty sure the stealth stuff would be mostly unaffected, but this might also an a few tiny black spots that weren't camouflaged when I moved.

"For fuck's sake, I just fixed this thing," I muttered.

Add about twenty-six hours to the repair ti

"Just for these scuffs?" I asked.

And because of the damage to the not-fully-repaired leg. So of the warnings you chose to ignore were highlighting issues within.

I cursed under my breath, but... yeah, that was par for the course. In an ideal world I would have finished everything, then ran the ch through so light testing before going back in and fixing anything that needed touch-ups. Then I'd be able to call it properly done. This was... not entirely ideal.

I turned away from the ch and took in the scene on the street. It was, in a word, bad.

When I arrived I'd initially been more focused on finding Rac and making sure she was alive. I discovered her firing blindly at a warch designed to take on heavy riot protection duties. It had a cannon that would turn her into a sar and it was rolling right at her.

So I'd taken it out, and the other two light cha. Ripping apart the gun emplacents on the APCs and technicals parked around here was quick and easy too, and that left nothing but so security drones and guys with small arms.

I'd made a bit of a ss cleaning up the chs, but the place was already far past being just ssy. I took in a few bodies. More injured.

A few rcs had crawled out of cover and were helping their pals. I had a lot of them giving looks, but as long as I wasn't aggressive, I was pretty sure they wouldn't run just yet.

"Myalis, why aren't ergency services here yet?" I asked.

Because there was a battle that took place which featured several large chanised assault vehicles?

That... probably made sense, yeah. The average paradic probably didn't want to fuck with this entire situation, and I really couldn't bla them. "Send them the all-clear. Let them know that there are two samurai on the scene keeping things clean."

Sent.

"Hey!" I called out, and more than one head rose to look my way. It helped that Myalis had caught on to what I was doing and my voice was projected from the ch. "Called in paradics. Try to keep the injured alive until they arrive. Soone check up on the dead, line them up over to the side there. And soone start clearing out the middle of the damned road. We don't need to slow down the ambulances when they do arrive."

There was a pause, none of the rcs moving quite yet.

"Well, get to it!" I snapped.

That actually had them jumping into action. It looked like there were maybe half a dozen rc outfits here, maybe more. So looked like one-car teams. Just buddies that loaded up into a single van and rushed over. A few others looked like more professional outfits.

What the hell were they all here for? Fights broke out all the ti. This was New Montreal, the police didn't give a shit, and neither did anyone else. But usually that was between gangs, not rcs.

I turned towards the other side. The PMC guys were doing the sa as the rcs. Moving their injured to one side. It looked like they had at least one dic in their bunch, and he was probably earning his pay right now with the number of injuries to tend to.

"This is a bit of a ss," Gomorrah said as she ca up behind . I could feel her approaching.

My gear might have been fireproof, on account of how often I worked with her, but I still had a bit of exposed skin in this loadout, and I could feel the heat wafting off of Gomorrah's gun still. The end was glowing, and there was a faint waver in the air above it.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Think you can do a favour?"

"That would depend," she said evenly.

"Keep an eye on this whole bunch for ? I'm going to go check on Rac. Myalis, can you set the ch to auto-pilot and, uh, patch Atyacus in?"

Certainly. I'm certain he'll appreciate the permission.

I wasn't sure what she ant by that, but I figured that Gomorrah's AI wasn't likely to try and fuck over. Worst case, I'd co back to find the thagomizer on my tail replaced by a flathrower or sothing.

Or there would be religious iconography all over the ch. "Don't give my ch one of those golden rapper chains with the crosses," I said before I took off.

"Huh?" Gomorrah said after a mont's pause.

I was already heading over to Rac, though. The girl was standing off to the side with her friends. Coco, the big woman with the cyber arms, was leaning onto that Garter guy. She was also grinning creepily.

Rac looked like shit. All of her friends did, actually, and I didn't miss how Coco was injured, even if it didn't look all that bad, considering.

"Hey," I said as I ca over.

"You're Rac's friend!" Coco said. "From last ti. You're a samurai!"

"Uh, yes, and yeah," I agreed.

"Coco... likes Samurai," Rac explained.

"Hell yeah, I do," Coco said. "Sign my tits!"

I blinked. "Do you have a pen?"

Coco's face fell. I don't think I'd ever seen soone look so sad so quickly before.

"Ah, I'm sure we can find a marker," I said. Coco's grin ca back, a little more reserved, and a little more pained. "Myalis, got sothing cheap for... little boo-boo wounds?"

Yes. I have boo-boo treatnts, Catherine.

I caught a little box out of the air, then read the package before rolling my eyes. Boo-boo treatnt: 1x Dose. I tossed it to Coco and noted that it had just cost a whole point. It looked like it was mostly just a bandage and maybe so antiseptic powder. "Put that on your leg before you bleed out," I said. "The paradics will be too busy once they get here to look at you."

"Thanks," Coco said. "So, last ti... why didn't you tell us you were a samurai? Rac, why didn't you tell us you knew a samurai?"

"I have my reasons," Rac said. She sounded perfectly petulant about it and wasn't eting her team's gazes.

I noticed that Rac was looking a little pale, and her hands were shaking, just a little. I wouldn't trust her with a gun right now. It looked like she was crashing from the adrenaline. I sent Myalis a quick text, and felt sothing settle in the pocket of my coat. I pulled it out, and handed the can to Rac bottom-first. "Drink," I said. "You need so sugar in you, and sothing cool."

Rac hesitated, but took the can. It didn't take a genius to know that it wasn't normal-grade shit, not with the ani-style cats on the can, but she took it anyway and drank up.

Food would do her good. At least, that's what I'd do for a kitten if they were distressed. Food was a good way to rember that things weren't that desperate. "So, I never really expected to get a call from you. Happy you did, because this looks like a clusterfuck and a half, but, uh, what happened here?"

"We were on a job," Garter said. He was standing a lot taller now, trying to look more professional than the relaxed cool guy mood he was in last ti.

"A job?" I asked.

"We were getting your prosthetics," Rac said.

Everyone looked at her.

I slowly turned and took in the carnage. "What? All this shit for so prosthetics?"

"And your pay," Rac said. There was a bit of accusation there.

I tossed my arms up. How was I supposed to know that a bunch of people would go nuts over twenty points? The goal was to get info more than anything, not start a small war. "Man, people are stupid," I said.

***