So we have a plan to kill Pierce, and I mean kill-kill
him. Disrupt him in a way that means he can’t recompile or bring himself back
or the other things that Crazy Digital Murder Gods do in order to keep
themselves from dying. And it needs to be done, While we’ve disrupted his
operations, cost him his allies, killed his crazy bug cultists and ruined their
ritual and all that, he’s still active and functional and out there, and he’s
still a threat. Killing him is the only way to stop him from coming back and
trying some other insane stunt in the name of Dr Okabe’s mutli-stage beyond the
grave revenge plan.
The theory is simple. We know where his ‘safe haven’ is,
where the device is that he’s designated as a place to fall back to if he’s
ever disrupted and needs to recompile. The idea is that we disrupt him on the
Matrix and damage him enough that he has to fall back to it, and then once he
has we bust in there and destroy everything so he can’t come back at all.
That’s it, end of story, no more Crazy Digital Murder God out to get us all or
blow up the city or whatever else.
Of course, actually doing it is going to be the hard
part. The first stage needs Neon to find him on the Matrix and then draw him
into a fight. That’s not going to be easy, given how wily and evasive he is to
begin with. And even then, once she has him, she’s going to be essentially
fighting him on his home soil. I mean, she’s a great hacker and all, but she’s
still a Metahuman jacked into the Matrix. For him, that’s his native ground, where
he lives and breathes and is at his most powerful. He’s going to have her hands
full dealing with him, and there’s no guarantee that she can actually take him
down or, for that matter, even come back alive.
And then there’s the physical stage. Pierce’s safe haven
device is inside an abandoned robotics factory that he’s been using for all
sorts of crazy stuff. We have to assume that everything in there is hostile and
out to kill us. We’re going to be fighting the whole damned facility; turrets,
drones, whatever lockdown procedures it has, whatever other forces he can pull
in and all sorts of other things that we might not even know about. I wouldn’t
be surprised if the whole place is some massive deathtrap, and we’re going to
be walking straight into it. I mean, we can be as stealthy as we want, but
sooner or later, we’re going to have to start shorting, and I know it’s going
to get bloody when we do.
And I’m not going to lie. I’m actually a little bit
afraid.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve danced through bullets, run
rings around opponents and geeked entire teams before they even knew I was
there. It’s not like I’m lacking in confidence or the like. But at the same
time, I’ve had a couple of close calls that can’t help but make me feel a
little nervous. That last battle I almost got chowed down upon by a bug mutant,
and that left me in a whole world of hurt. Or when I was nearly impaled buy one
of Pierce’s killer cyborg agents when she tried to kill Wraith. Coming close to
dying is not fun.
And you can prep as much as you can, but even someone as
crazy about planning as Wraith can’t plan for everything. I’m sure that he’ll
have something in there, some last line of defense or the like that he’ll pull
on us when we’re already worn down or in a tight spot or whatever else, and
we’ll be in for the fight of our lives. I don’t expect Pierce to roll over and
let us kill him by any means, and I know that if he thinks he’s beaten, he’s
going to do his best to take everything down with him.
After all, his creator used their own death as the
catalyst for their revenge plan. That’s the sort of thinking we’re up against.
How do you deal with that?
Yeah, deep stuff. I got a lot of things I need to do
before then. I should tell Alphonso how I really feel. I should thank Neon for
what she’s done for us and what she’s going to do, and not just in a teasing
‘she’s such a kid’ way. I should speak to Slicer and give him one last thanks
for getting me here.
Maybe I should let them know about… or are they better
off not knowing? It’s a hard call.
Hell, now I’m looking at a lot of the things I wanted to
do and haven’t gotten around to yet. See Earth from space. Enter a building by
jumping out of a helicopter into the rooftop pool. Wear either of my new summer
swimsuits to the beach (Because Seattle has such great bikini weather). Made
love on a beach (see above). Tell Heiro just how much of an unlikable creep he
was because I no longer have to work with him and pretend we get along. Fight a
Dragon. Use a flamethrower. Tear things up behind the wheel of a Hypercar. Get
glowing neon tats that I can turn off so I don't stick out when on a run. Burn
down the Vendor Mammoth where I used to work. Stuff like that.
Geez, I sound morbid. Who the hell wrote that last
paragraph?
Okay. I’ve compiled a list and I'm sticking it here. In
the off-chance that I don’t come back, it goes out to certain people to tell
them certain things and the like. And if I do, I can simply kill it and make
sure it’s never seen by anyone ever, and yes, Neon, I know that includes you.
You’re sneaky, but you’re also predictable sometimes
No regrets, Crimson. Now get out there and kill a Digital
God.
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CRIMSONDAWN.DOCU//
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