Chapter Text
"I know it hurts. But it doesn't have to. Are you in?"
...
"Take some time to think about it."
Zero wakes up with a jolt from the inertia of a vehicle stopping. A bus to be precise. He looks out the window and sees that he's no longer in a desert, but in front of the border to Night City.
An armored officer is walking through the bus asking people for papers. Zero's heart beats just slightly faster.
"For all your foresight, you can't even predict something as simple as a border check? Man, that Chronos has really rot your brain. He he he." Says the voice of a shaky man sitting next to him wearing a golden mask of comedy and a white lab coat.
You think I didn't think of that?
Zero pulls out a government card that he attained from his dead psychiatrist. He couldn't use it to get into the government lab that contained the chronos necessary to keep him alive, but he feels grateful that he didn't throw it away, because he had no identification on him otherwise.
The border officer comes to his seat and takes a questioning look at Zero, completely ignoring the man in the golden mask. Rude.
"Papers please uhhh.... Sir."
Zero hands over the government ID with an annoyed look. Maybe his attire was strange, but compared to everyone else, he should look boring, so why is the officer treating him differently? Even if they ignored the strange man in the golden mask next to him, there were plenty of other strange faces on the bus.
"Sorry sir, I can't take this." The patrol officer says while walking away. This annoys Zero. Sure, the name on the ID was redacted, and all the information was classified, and he might look nothing like his psychiatrist, but the officer wouldn't have known all that because he barely looked at the card. If he actually bothered to look, he'd probably come up with a good excuse like "Witness protection."
And the fact that they're walking in the direction to get off the bus instead of checking the papers of those behind him is also ringing alarm bells in Zero's head.
The officer quietly speaks into a radio, but not quietly enough, as Zero hears him.
"Hey, wasn't there a manhunt in a different city for a criminal with a ponytail and bathrobe called "The dragon"?"
The man in the golden mask starts cackling like a maniac. Or rather, like his normal self.
"He he he he. You can't even escape who you are by moving to a different city. Even with your ability to cheat yourself out of death, you'll never be able to cheat yourself out of consequences. Was your life really worth more than that little gir- "
The masked man loses the ability to speak as Zero wraps his hands around his neck. But his actions are causing a commotion. Between Zero's violent outburst and the fact that the masked man is using what little oxygen he has to laugh, People are looking at him, including the border patrol officer. After some deliberation, Zero sighs and unwraps his fingers, allowing the man to breathe.
He had chosen to not entertain this madman's rambling for way too long and he let himself snap. But now... Now he needed to focus. Eyes were on him and he needs to get out of this situation the only way he knows how. He gets up from his seat and readies up his music player. He plants the headphones from his playback device into his ears and grabs his sheathed katana from below his seat and begins to formulate a plan of attack.
The officer will turn around and approach me due to me getting up.
"Sir! You must remain seated during the inspec-"
The patrol officer's words will get cut off just as his head will.
Two extra officers will board the bus. They seem to be some sort of back up for the first guy who will die. They will shoot me and the bullets will tear through my skull-
No... that won't work...
...The patrol officer's words will get cut off just as his head will and I will launch the result of the decapitation towards the front of the bus with my foot, as if his head were a soccer ball. What would've been two extra officers boarding the bus winds up being two extra officers scared out of their minds and falling over each other trying to get off the bus after seeing their comrade's dismembered head flying towards them like a bloodied soccer ball. Instead of getting shot like in my last plan, I can utilize this chaos to impale them both with a single thrust as they run away.
Yes, that should work.
Zero executes his new plan flawlessly. But now for the tricky part. The outside of the bus is very open and very exposed to gunfire. Trying to get through that would be possible, but very annoying. He'd rather avoid it entirely. As he brainstorms, he looks towards the bus driver who looks back with an appropriate level of fear. Time for a new plan.
"Start driving." I will command.
The bus driver will look terrified out of his mind, but seems to be more scared of me than he is of any issues with legality or collateral damage. It makes sense. He was also a witness to the flying head tactic. That was not accounted for, but a welcome development. Regardless, he will floor the gas pedal immediately.
We immediately crash-
No... That won't work...
...Regardless, He will floor the gas pedal immediately, but I will put a hand on the steering wheel and help guide him. We'll weave through the assortment of cars, trucks, bikes, and all the other vehicles turning the road into a danger zone.
Eventually, after some heart stopping close calls, we'll finally reach the highway where the bus can reach full speed with minimal risk.
Yes, that should work.
With the efforts of Zero's precognition and the bus driver's skill in driving a bus, Zero has finally reached the highway where the bus can reach full speed. What he didn't consider in his vision however, was how slow the bus would be. He ended the vision as soon as he got to safety and didn't realize that how fast the bus was going then would be how fast the bus would be going all the time. He feels a tinge of envy watching the faster cars dart by in his peripheral vision. But that envy turns into an idea, and Zero goes back to planning.
"Open the door." I will say." And the bus driver will comply once more.
Now here is where I jump from the bus and splatter on the ground-
No... That won't work...
...jump from the bus and splatter on the ground-
No... That won't work...
...jump from the bus and LAND on top of a passing car.
Yes, that should work.
Zero's daring escape plan continues and he winds up on top of a black car. He stabs his sword into the roof of the car to keep a grip in spite of the velocity threatening to pull him off.
The car cruises by at a fast pace, up until Zero's only fear for this getaway comes to fruition. Traffic jam.
The car he rides slows to a halt as the cars in front of him stop moving. Perhaps a vehicular getaway isn't possible.
Can I get away from the police on foot?
Zero turns around. The bus he was initially in is long gone, but unfortunately, it seems that trouble is following him in the new form of two vibrantly colored maniacs (Not police though, so that's somewhat good.) rapidly approaching with weapons. Zero starts to plan ahead again.
I will stay on top of the car and wait for the pursuers to approach, and when they do, that's when I'll- Wait why is the car moving now? Where are we going?
The car in my prediction goes from a standstill to getting launched over the barrier meant to separate the roads and actively drives against the flow of traffic. I will almost get knocked off, but not fully. I'll have to take extra care to keep a tight grip on my katana when this stuff actually happens. However, the driver won't make anything easier. In a moment, they will somehow turn the car sideways vertically and I will fall off and splatter across the pavement-
No... That won't work...
...
...what just happened...?
...
...Okay, the shock has passed, back to planning...
...They will somehow turn the car sideways vertically and I will be ready and hang off the far side of the car that goes up into the air. As the car comes down, I will almost get thrown off, but with my prior knowledge, I'll manage to stay on, although with great difficulty. The driver will swerve all over the road in their attempt to avoid cars, similar to what I did earlier with the bus driver. This must be how he felt. We will narrowly swerve by a large truck and the noise that follows will be a crunching mixed with screaming. Perhaps our pursuers will die. I will look back and notice that there's no one following us but in that one moment of distraction, the car will turn sideways again and I will fall off and-
No... That won't work...
...No distractions this time... But our pursuers are gone... And I will hang on instead of confirming their death...
Eventually, the car will drive back to the barrier and launch itself back over to the proper side of the road. I will be temporarily launched into the air when this happens, but I will keep my hold on the katana embedded in the car roof. After this, the car's movements will calm down and I will have an easier time cruising on top of the car of this maniac.
Yes, that should work.
Zero follows the plan that he concocted exactly as he imagined it, but that didn't stop the situation from being nerve wracking. He pretty much put all of his focus and strength into not dying. Seeing the world slower doesn't mean a thing when your survival hinges on body strength rather than reaction time.
The car slows down as it pulls into what appears to be a cargo station and Zero's heart calms down. He jumps off the back of the car as it stops. As he sheathes his katana, the passengers of the car exit. A young brown haired teen in a large yellow and white jacket with a large collar that's blue on the inside and with a gold cross around his neck that clashes against the darkness of his black shirt, and a pale woman with short pastel colored hair with a rainbow gradient and a short white jacket and shorts, and some sort of robotic leotard that goes over the woman's shorts rather than underneath? Well, Zero can't judge the attire of others, considering he's wearing what is essentially a glorified bathrobe as a samurai cosplay. However, what Zero should be judging is how dangerous these people are to him. So Zero clears his mind again and looks to see what they're going to do.
I stare at the duo. The boy will seem more hostile, although tired. More quick to jump the gun. Ironic seeing as he doesn't even have a gun. Perhaps a good choice. The woman seems more patient. More calculating. But her hand will be on her hip. She has a gun. She will be suspicious of me which is natural. However, If I leave, they will let me go since they perceive me as a fellow criminal. They're criminals too. This car doesn't even belong to them. Why would the owner let a teenager as reckless as him drive the car? And he doesn't look rich enough to be the owner himself. The woman will start talking to the boy. Something I won't be able to hear. Their discussion and my analysis will be interrupted by the sound of an approaching motor. The sound reveals itself to be one of the maniacs from earlier that I assumed had both died, but it was the maniac that I never actually saw die. I should have kept better track of them. He will be driving fast and ram into me, causing my skull to crack against the ground as I-
No... That won't work...
...He will be driving fast and I will sidestep as I slash at him with my blade. His arm will fly off, but he won't even acknowledge the pain as he ignores me and slams into the yellow jacketed boy. Upon closer inspection, I will realize my mistake. He has a prosthetic arm. Upon missing the opportunity to ram into me, he will instead opt to jump off the bike and slam the boy into the ground. It won't appear to be fatal to him, so I can continue to see how this future plays out. The man will unsheathe a red katana from a green sheath with his mouth and hand (Sword in the hand, sheath in the mouth) and brace to kill the boy. The woman will vault over the car and some sort of glowing wire will quickly (not quickly from my perspective) extend from her wrist and she will launch it and wrap it around the attacker's sheath that's stuck in his mouth and tug on it, distracting the maniac from killing the boy. The attacker recognizes the pale woman as a threat and changes stabbing targets accordingly while opening his mouth to drop the sheath, causing the pale woman to drag it towards her. To my surprise, for just a moment, The boy will start moving as fast as a bullet and knock the man away from his stabbing position as well as himself. Both of them will start tumbling until the attacker gathers his balance and knocks the boy away into a disadvantageous position, prone on his back. The attacker will readjust his katana to brace to kill the boy again but it won't be a very strategic decision to focus on the boy as the woman will launch another wire that will wrap around his remaining sword arm and end up slicing the arm to pieces. However, the maniac will apparently also have a prosthetic leg with a blade inside it that will flip out and cut through the boy's skull-
No... That won't work...
...Wait, why do I care if the boy dies?
...
...It doesn't matter, until this maniac is dead, we're allies...
...the woman will launch another wire that will wrap around his remaining arm and end up slicing it to pieces and I will dash over immediately to slice off his leg so he can't use it as a weapon. The maniac falls over and even in this state will attempt to kill the boy as his final leg will also have a retractable blade that flips out. I will lop off his final limb and he'll thrash about powerless until the woman will finish his life by putting a bullet through his head.
Yes, That should work.
Zero turns away from the boy and woman staring at him and prepares his katana for battle. The attacker comes just as he expected and he begins his counter attack. He slashes at the moments he foresaw and his temporary allies are also commendable in their fighting efforts, and eventually the colorful attacker is reduced to being a quadriplegic corpse in a mere few minutes and Zero begins to take his leave... Which is interrupted by a purple car pulling up behind him. The door flies off the hinge and a towering man exits the car and aims a fist at Zero
Okay. One last time.
I will get into a fighting stance. The man's arm will open up like a machine and I'll notice some sort of rocket protruding from his arm. I will notice the rocket prepping to fire but then the girl will try to intervene.
"Maine, Wait! He's not-" But I won't hear what she will say because the rocket will launch itself towards my face, but I'll hit the rocket with my sword at just the right spot and moment and send it speeding back at the woman and man and witness them explode into a puff of smoke and guts.
...
...Do they have to die though?
...
No... That won't work...
... I won't hear what she'll have to say because I'll hit the rocket with my sword at just the right spot and moment and send it speeding past the woman and man and they'll witness a shipping crate behind them explode into a puff of smoke and scraps.
Yes, That should work.
The man called Maine fires a rocket at Zero and he deflects it and blows up the crates behind the man. An explosion deafens everyone, gracing them with the sound of their ears ringing. Despite the sunglasses on the man's face, there's unmistakably a look of shock. Further confirmed when he slowly takes his glasses off. Zero can't hear him, but he's pretty sure he's cursing under his breath. Zero did almost kill him. And with this conclusion to his violent introduction to Night City, Zero begins to take-
-Zero begins to take his leave.