"Yes, Chaotis," Chrome replied.  There was a series of thumps as Chrome deposited several large things on the floor.  Puzzled, the Hacker Anarch turned to see the eight-foot cyborg standing in front of a pile of unconscious bodies.  One was a large Irish wolfhound, one was a fairly attractive F'Val woman, and the third was none other than Nathan Justice.

"Ah!" Chaotis said, rubbing his hands together.  "Well done!  This is even better than killing them, Chrome!  Now I can have the pleasure of disposing of them myself!"  He got up and looked at them.  "Put the mutt and the woman in one of the holding cells.  I have particular plans for Mr. Justice.  Just make sure he won't wake up any time soon."

Chrome nodded and looked down at his wrist.  A portion seemed to melt away under his gaze, and then a small alpha-wave emitter emerged.  Chrome took this and placed it on Justice's temple.  Once he was finished, Chrome stood back up, and the open portion flowed back together.

Chaotis watched this.  "Fascinating use of those nanites of yours, Chrome."  Certain that Justice wouldn't wake up until he needed him so, Chaotis let Chrome drag off the F'Val and dog.  The masked hacker went over to a trunk and opened it.  He rummaged inside for a minute, then pulled out a pair of hypercuffs.  Bringing these back over to the unconscious mercenary, Chaotis managed to put them on him, then magnetically cabled them to a metal pillar several feet away.

Once this was all done, Chaotis plucked the alpha-wave emitter off of Justice's head.  The hacker stepped back quickly as Justice blinked his fierce black eyes, then smiled beneath his mask.  "Mr. Nathan Justice, I presume?" he asked.

Justice cleared his vision by blinking a few more times, then glowered.  "You."

"I am Chaotis, Hacker Anarch," he replied by way of introduction.  "You're the one who killed Ünres."

"And Soovas.  And Ytter."  Justice moved toward him, but the magnetic "cable" that pinned him to the pillar yanked him back.  Justice looked at it, then at the hypercuffs on his wrists.  He clenched his fists and tried to move them apart, but the 'cuffs delivered a powerful shock into his arms, causing him to cry out in pain.  He grit his teeth, then glowered again.

"So who killed Seize and Vice then?" Chaotis inquired.

"My colleagues," Justice said curtly.

"One of them would be that lovely F'Val, I take it?"  Chaotis leered beneath his mask.

Justice lunged toward him, and received a nasty shock for his troubles.  As soon as he was able to speak again, Justice growled, "Sil doesn't go for freaks like you."

Chaotis' fist snapped out and lashed across Justice's jaw.  Justice blinked once, then looked back.  "Is that all you've got?" he asked.  "Because I've taken a lot worse -- especially from your pet virus and cyborg."

"Chrome?  Oh, he's not mine.  I've only hired him."  Chaotis smiled beneath his mask.  "And he's a good worker.  Very efficient.  And you're in luck!  I'm about to do another test of Caliban, and you can be a front-row witness!"

"How James Bond of you," Justice grated.

Chaotis laughed.  "So I'm cliché.  Sue me.  Besides, I'm planning on killing you immediately after I'm done this test, anyway."  He turned his back on the mercenary and seated himself at his console.  Caliban's computer-generated face leered out from a screen as Chaotis scrolled through a list of the systems he'd affected with the bug.  "Let's see...as much as I want to, I think I'll forego using the Resonate for this test.  Been used too often, anyway.  Let's see...can't get definitive results with DHNL... so let's give Dekka-Nor another little wake-up, shall we?"

Chaotis tapped controls and gleefully watched as thunderheads formed over Dekka-Nor again.  Lightning flashed and rain started to pour down.  Chaotis clapped his hands and squealed with laughter.  Behind him, Justice asked, "You'll excuse my asking, but how exactly does asking for money fit in with anarchy?"

"It costs money to wage my sort of campaign," Chaotis replied matter-of-factly.  "You know -- purchasing scrambling software, renting buildings to set up shop in...the usual upkeep sort of thing, you understand?"

"Perfectly," Justice's voice said from directly behind him.  Chaotis sat upright and got an arm around his throat for his trouble.  Justice yanked the hacker out of his chair and clapped a hand to the back of his head as he applied a sleeper hold.  Chaotis choked and wheezed.  "Wondering how I got out of those cuffs?"  Chaotis nodded.  "I learned how to do that sort of thing years ago.  'Sides, I've also taken a lot worse shocks than the ones those pieces of crap put out."

Chaotis gasped for breath, feeling himself start to pass out.  "Now," Justice went on, "start talking, or I knock you out and call the Guardians.  What is the cipher code for Caliban?"

"Damned if I tell you," Chaotis rasped.

"Damned if you don't tell me," Justice snarled, tightening his squeeze.  "Talk!"

"Go screw yourself," Chaotis said.  "I won't tell you anything."

Justice hurled Chaotis away and drew his pistol from his shirt.  As the Hacker Anarch stumbled and tried to get upright, Justice fired a shot into his thigh.  Chaotis screamed and fell to the floor, clutching his wound.  Justice walked forward, aiming the pistol, and noting that Chaotis' blood was almost invisible against his red-and-black outfit...meaning that Chaotis was a red-blooded human underneath that getup.

"Talk, or I shoot your other leg," Justice said, "with the cutter."

Chaotis snarled at him, then pulled out his own laser pistol, aiming a shot for Justice's legs.  The mercenary jerked away, then rolled to the side, aiming back at Chaotis.  He fired, but Chaotis lunged aside and ducked behind the metal pillar as Justice took cover behind the trunk containing Chaotis' various tools and equipment.  Justice checked his pistol's charge, then put it back in to fire a pulse at Chaotis.  With that, Justice slid out the empty clip and snapped in a fresh one.  He waited until Chaotis' return fire ceased, and then Justice popped out from behind the trunk to fire several pulses toward Chaotis.

He ran toward the pillar, angling away from the lefthand side, as he saw Chaotis lean out to fire toward the trunk.  Justice slid to a halt behind Chaotis and aimed his pistol.  He kicked Chaotis in the wounded leg, getting a scream.  As the Hacker Anarch turned to aim at him, Justice kicked away his gun.  "Talk," Justice repeated.

"Well, here's a word for you," Chaotis sneered.  "Chrome!"

Justice sensed movement behind him and turned just in time to catch a jaw-dislocating blow to the face.  He spun around and landed face-first against the pillar, then stumbled back into Chrome's grip.  The cyborg plucked the pistol out of his grip and threw it to Chaotis, who caught it and set it aside.  Groaning a bit, the hacker pulled himself to his feet.  "Chrome, take Mr. Justice up to the roof and tie him to the spire.  I'll deal with him in a bit."

Chrome nodded once and slung the semi-conscious mercenary over his shoulder and plodded off.

What Chrome and Chaotis probably hadn't realized was that Sil was more than a little athletic.  Gymnastics had been her forte before she trained for mercenary life, and she still remembered her old forum.  Sil backed against a wall, then ran toward the opposite one, leaping at the halfway point.  As her feet touched the wall, she pushed off and turned in midair to face the opposite wall.  There, she touched-sprang off again, going higher.  Sil did this several times until she was able to grab the ledge to flat floor space.  Gripping this, Sil pushed off the wall and swung up into the air, landing in a bit of a stumble as she got free.  Righting herself, Sil smirked.  "Guess I need a bit more practice."

She looked around and saw her utility belt in the corner.  Picking it up, Sil noted that she was still missing her sword -- which Chrome had tossed away back in the alley.  She'd have to get it back then.  Sil plucked her disc off the floor and snapped it back into place on the back of her armor.  Thus assured, she gave a soft whistle.  "Sentry?" she said in a quiet voice.

There was a soft whining sound from out in the hall.  The F'Val ventured out to find her dog lying in a heap in a cell with an electric barrier.  Sil crouched beside the field.  "Sentry!" she said.

The dog raised his head, saw Sil, then barked happily, loping over to the field.  Wisely, the hound stopped short of the electric barrier, and whined at her.  "I know, Sentry, I'll find a way to get you out of there."

"YeS!" an electronic voice squawked.

Sil looked up as the familiar cloud-like form of the Bit swept into the room, then orbited Sil happily.  It blipped a few times quietly.  "Bit!" Sil said with a grin.

"yEs!"

"Bit, have you seen Nat?"

"No!"

"What about Chaotis?"

"YeS!"

"Chrome?"

"nO!"

"Okay..."  Sil thought for a moment, then looked at Sentry, whose head was cocked as he looked at the Bit.  "Bit, can you open Sentry's cell?"

"yEs!"

"Do it."

The Bit bobbed in the air, then flitted over to the controls for the cell's field.  The Bit's cloud flickered a bit in a specific pattern, and then the buttons on the panel flickered in the same pattern.  With a muted beep, the field deactivated, and Sentry nearly knocked Sil over with glee.  Sil scratched his head and let him lick her face, then said, "Okay, Sentry, let's find Nat!"

The hound whuffed, ran out into the corridor, then sniffed the ground.  Turning in a certain direction, Sentry looked back at Sil and then heaved his head in that direction.  Sil ran up, scratched his head, then started down that way, dog leading, and Bit following.

Chrome stood at the edge of the building, gazing out over the system.  The cyborg didn't seem troubled by the approaching storm, of by the fact that due to his sheer height, he was as much of a target for the lightning as the tower.  Justice tugged at his bonds, and smirked (but didn't smile) to himself as he realized that he could easily slip out of them.  Only problem is, he thought, I don't have a weapon.  Lightning crashed down out of the sky to strike a building a few blocks away.  And there's that.

But he was able to take down Ünres -- who admittedly was shorter than Chrome and not all metal -- without his gun, so he was confident that he could take Chrome long enough to get away somehow.

Of course, Justice would have been defeated by Ünres if it hadn't been for Dirk and Sil...and neither of them were here right now.

Ah, well, might as will give it the old college try.

"Hey, Smiley!" Justice called.  Chrome turned to gaze back at him.  "Yeah, you, motor-oil breath.  What's the matter, think you can't take me?  S'that why you've got me tied up to this thing?"

"Actually," the cyborg replied in his grating voice, "I didn't think you were worth the effort."

Hmm, not exactly good for the ego...

"Well, why not cut me down and have a go, then?  If I'm not worth the effort, you can just crush my spine."  Justice glanced at his bonds, noting that he'd loosened them enough that he could pull his hands free whenever he needed.

Chrome tilted his head, considering.  "All right," he said, then plodded toward him.

As soon as he got within range, Justice swung both feet up in a vicious kick to the cyborg's jaw.  As Chrome stumbled back, Justice used his momentum from the kick to swing upwards, pulling his hands free and then gripped the struts of the tower, looking down at Chrome.  As the cyborg gripped the tower himself to climb up, getting about half-way to Justice's position, Justice jumped off and over Chrome, landing in a tuck-and-roll, coming to a stop several feet away from the tower.  He stood and made a very rude gesture at Chrome.

The cyborg started to turn toward him, but with classic timing, the sky spat a thick bolt of lightning down at the tower.  Thunder roared over the two, and Chrome wailed in metallic agony, his form sparking wildly, then finally fell over and landed face down on the rooftop.

Justice winced and rubbed his ears and then his eyes.  "Hmph.  Fairly easy fight."  He started toward the door back downstairs when Sil, Sentry, and the Bit ran out.

"Nat!  You're alive!" Sil said.

"YeS!" the Bit added.

"I'll second that, Bit," Justice said.  "I wish I could say the same for Chrome.  He was just a guy doing his job."

Sil looked at him, then sighed.  "All right.  Well, let's go.  We have to get that cipher code from Chaotis.  Sentry, Bit, you go find him.  Bit, when Sentry finds him, you come back to find us."

"yEs!"

Sil looked at Justice, then surprisingly stepped closer and hugged him.  Justice hugged her back, then pushed her away.  "Sil, please don't do that.  I know we've been working together, but you know I don't have feelings for you in that way."

"I know," she sighed.  "Plus there's the fact of who I'm related to."

"There is that," Justice said.  "And I also know you have feelings for Cen il'Ensar."  Sil looked up with a surprised look.  "What?  I'm not blind.  I may not show much emotions -- but that doesn't mean I don't notice them in other people."

Sil shook her head.  "Right, sorry.  I just had to get that off my chest.  Let's go find Bit and Sentry."

They started toward the door when two hot metal hands gripped their necks and pulled them off their feet.  They both gasped as their windpipes were squeezed, and then they were turned to see Chrome standing over them.  The metal on the cyborg's body was a bit blackened, but otherwise intact.

"I don't die that easily," Chrome grated angrily, "but in case you're wondering, that hurt like hell!"

He started to swing them together to bludgeon them again, but this time Sil was ready.  She plucked out her throwing star, flicked out its points, then jabbed the star into Chrome's lens-covered eye.  The lens shattered and the point stuck.  Chrome dropped them both to scream in fresh pain, one hand pulling the star free and hurling it into the ground.

While this was going on, Justice quickly checked himself for anything he could use as a weapon.  He felt his multitool, then got an idea.  As Sil smash-rolled into Chrome's knee with her disc, Justice started to circle around in front.  Chrome got up from his knee and backhanded Sil, knocking her down.

Justice charged, and Chrome effortlessly caught him by the throat and raised him up.  "Oh, yes," the cyborg said, "I forgot..."  He bashed his skull into Justice's, nearly driving him unconscious again.  "Don't call me Smiley."  He started to squeeze.

As unconsciousness flickered at Justice's periphery, the mercenary grabbed his multitool and flicked out a particular attachment.  Flipping a switch, there was a muffled pop and a blue flame speared out of the tip of the attachment.  Chrome started to turn his head in that direction, and Justice used the only moment he had to thrust the flame forward into Chrome's oil-slicked ropes of hair.

Instantly, the synthetic hair ignited, and Chrome start to shriek in terror.  He dropped Justice to bat at the flames on his head.  Justice rolled away, flipping the multitool shut and watching.  He had no doubt that Chrome had the ability to put out the flames easily, but he'd been going for terror, not damage.  He remembered what Burke had told him -- Chrome, prior to becoming a cyborg, had been badly burned in a fire.  He'd been counting on Chrome's mind to have connected a phobia with fire now, and he'd been right.

While the cyborg was busy screaming in fear at his burning hair, Justice grabbed Sil by the wrist and ran toward the door.  Sil scooped up her throwing star on the run and flicked it shut, putting it away as they ducked downstairs, leaving the wailing cyborg behind them.

There was a fierce growling sound from behind him, and the Hacker Anarch whirled around to see the big Irish wolfhound snarling at him.  Chaotis reached for his pistol in his holster, but a whirling blue disc spun into the room and snapped into his wrist, breaking it and sending a nasty jolt into him.  Chaotis screamed and clutched his wrist, then looked up to see a slightly battered Nathan Justice and a similarly battered F'Val woman walk into the room.  The disc spun back to the F'Val, who fluidly caught it and slipped it back into her armor.

Justice stalked forward, cornering Chaotis against his console.  Before the Hacker Anarch could move, Justice grabbed him by the throat and hurled him into Sil, who had her star back out and its point against his throat.  Chaotis gulped.  "Now," Justice said, "since you seem to be unwilling to be cooperative, I'm going to just have Sil cut your throat, and I'll get the cipher code another way."

"No!  Wait!" Chaotis said quickly.  As was the case with most anarchists, as attached as he was to his cause, he was not so attached as to let his body (which he was very much attached too) get killed.  "I'll tell you the cipher code."  Justice said nothing, merely waited.  Chaotis sighed (but carefully, because there was still a pointy object at his throat), "The code is Globe-23987."

Justice glanced at Sil, then turned his attention to the Bit, which hovered into view.  "Bit, do your thing, and find out if this bastard is telling the truth."

"YeS!" the Bit replied, then hovered down to the keyboard.  Once again, the cloud-form of the free bit flickered, and the screens flickered as well, and finally, after about five minutes, words appeared on the screen.  They read Stratford-48291.

Justice raised an eyebrow at this and turned back to Chaotis, who was visibly sweating under his mask.  "What code did you just tell us?" Sil inquired, twisting the blade's tip to emphasize her point.

"Th-the execute code..." Chaotis whispered furiously.

Justice nodded quietly as he picked up his own pistol from where it still lay on the floor.  He paced over to Chaotis, half-aiming at him, then pistol-whipped him.  Chaotis' head jerked to the side, but the hacker remained conscious.  "I think the Guardians will like putting you on trial.  I'll be there to act as an unofficial bailiff, by the way."

Chaotis just smiled beneath his mask.  "Not likely...Major."  At that, Chaotis drove both his elbows into Sil's stomach, knocking her back, then kicked Justice in the chin with a judo move.  As Justice looked back at him, Chaotis smiled and pulled something from the back of his belt.  He aimed it at the floor in front of him, then fired.  A tear blossomed, which then turned into a portal.  Chaotis jumped through it, and then the portal collapsed, leaving a scorch mark on the floor.

Sil came back over, as did Sentry, who sniffed the scorch mark and growled.  "What was that he had?" she asked Justice, then looked up at him and stopped as she saw the look of rage on his face.  She hadn't seen such a look on his face since the day they first decided to work together.

It frightened her.

"Never mind," Justice growled.  "Let's just find out what system we're in and put a call in to Burke."  He moved to the console with that in mind.

"All right," Sil said, "but what about Chrome?"

Justice checked the console, which had a tactical map of the building, and green text at the bottom read 'Signal: Chrome not found.'  "He's not a problem.  You go and get our stuff from the alley.  I'll stay here."

Sil watched him closely, then started to leave, looking at him with worry.  She knew he knew what that thing was Chaotis had used to escape, even if he wouldn't say.  And the truth was, he did know what it was.

It was a keytool.