I turned to the frail boy. Then the sound of the metal wall getting crushed accelerated my heart. The cop had made enough space for him to fit his arm.
I didn't even have time to think. Bolting towards a pile of storage boxes under the staircase, I jumped using them as support to boost me up. As my feet left the metal crates, I heard a shot perforate it.
In the next second, I used the opposite wall as my last base. With a large impulse from my legs, I leaped and finally hit the stairs.
That's when the next bullet hit the wall that I had just stepped on.
I got over faster than I imagined and bolted up. On the ground, the kid ducked down and took cover behind a wall. With every step I took, one bullet was right behind me, which motivated me to go a little faster each time even though my lungs were ready to explode.
"Stop, you miserable punk!"
The pig's voice was filled with anger and frustration as I jumped over the balcony after running up the two flights of stairs. Inside my head, the sound of old metal banging in the rhythm of my footsteps was maddening.
I was safe with my back glued to the wall behind me, watching bullets fly over my head.
I couldn't help but smirk. Once again, they got fooled by a lowlife cyberpunk.
"Well, at least I won't go back empty handed."
What came next was the agonizing noise of the metal corner being bent to make way for him to pass. I didn't dare to look because I knew what was happening.
The kid was still down there.
"Here he is…" said the cop in a mischievous way.
Rough footsteps followed. The boy was trying to get away.
"Guh-!"
"Where do you think you're going…" said the Force agent, after taking down the street kid no older than thirteen.
"I didn't do anything!" said the kid under groans.
"Then why were you running?"
There was no way of knowing if the Force agent was a man or a woman, but it didn't matter. They all acted the same.
Another sonorous grunt hit my ears, forcing me to close my eyes. He was probably kicked in the stomach. The bald-headed boy couldn't even scream as the air was interrupted in his lungs. I knew too well how heavy those boots were. Made of tungsten, they were solid but very light to wear.
"Huh?!" the agent shouted, silencing my thoughts. "I guess street rats like to run when the Police walks in… right?!"
I didn't move.
With each new hit, the kid screamed less and less but that didn't seem to discourage the cop.
"You people are all the same." He made a pause to catch a breath.
I stood still trying to hear any sound coming from the kid, but to no hope. Carefully, I raised my backpack to check if he was watching me. As no shots were fired, I slowly peeked over the balcony.
Unnecessarily, with the defenceless, malnourished kid curled up in a ball, the fucking pig kicked him again.
Using my smart analysis, I checked if the boy was still breathing. He wasn't moving at all, but he was still alive. On his wrist, I caught the tag UN99299 and for a moment my mind drifted away.
"Team I got one. I'm going back to the station."
I came back to my senses while the boy was being picked from the ground.
"Time to go back to the cage, little labrat."
Disgusting pigs, I thought as I pulled out the reason I couldn't be searched—a nanobot. Those 1cm mosquito-shaped spybots were illegal for civilians. They were undetectable and had the processing power of a last-generation computer, all remotely guided. I acquired them from the Trinity, and when I said them it is because I got fifty of those bots but I only needed one to put that motherfucker down.
Out of his sight, I tossed the thing at him. The bot attached itself to his armour.
He was walking towards the opening he made when I, using my cuff, activated destruction mode. My mosquito entered the armour and found the neurolink. It plugged itself and, using a virus, it took over control of the cop's system and therefore his body, since the armour was directly connected to his brain and spine.
Grabbing the kid by his clothes as if he was taking out the trash, the cop was fine in one second but in the next he got discharged with an electric shock that made him drop the kid and fall to his knee.
It felt good to see him taste his own medicine.
I stood up, heading down to the unconscious boy laying next to the cop.
Another discharge and he began to twitch in the most humiliating way possible.
"Pig!" I spat on him, before getting down to pick up the immobilized boy.
After only two discharges, the cop passed out which was sad cause it was a short diversion.
I recalled my petbot and it flew back to my pocket.
With the boy in my arms, he flinched as my hand touched his ribs. He had probably broken them but at least he was still alive. Gazing at the corner of my field of vision, the clock said I was running late.
"You get what you deserve."
Gazing down at the pig that had begun to wake up, I kicked him in the guts with all the strength I had. He choked and hugged his torso.
[Where's the nearest doctor?]
I asked my system as I went back to the alley using the passage the Force pig made. The flow of people was constant but less dense. Even so, some occasionally bumped into us, making the kid frown in pain.
[Two buildings down, on the 11th floor]
"Fuck me."
The path highlighted in front of me. I had a boat to catch but I couldn't let the kid there. They would take him back.
Carrying the boy as carefully as I could, I dived into the side alley.