Bio Weapon Dystopia

The room descended into hell.

Bullets flew, ricocheting off walls and gear, but none of it mattered. Animus, in all its terrifying glory, barely flinched as gunfire peppered its skin. Red and black tendrils lashed out with violent precision, wrapping around limbs, crushing bones, and flinging bodies across the room like they were nothing. The Black Daggers kept screaming, shooting, trying to Quick Hack, but nothing worked. They were just targets to the symbiote's wrath.

Vomi was somewhere inside Animus, fighting to keep her symbiote focused on the Black Daggers and not on the others in the room. She could feel its raw hunger, its desire for carnage, burning through her. But in this moment, she didn't care. The need for secrecy, for hiding her powers, evaporated. Right now, the only thing that mattered was making sure none of these gonks walked out alive. She wasn't going to let this slide, not after seeing Thiago bleeding out on the floor.

She wanted blood. Wanted them to suffer. Vomi felt Animus mirror her thoughts, surging with an almost euphoric fury.

Blaze and Nieme were huddled behind some gear cases, their faces pale as they watched Animus tear through the attackers. Heitor stayed low, clutching Katie tightly to his chest, shielding her from the worst of the carnage, his eyes wide with disbelief at what was happening. Katie, terrified but silent, peeked over Heitor's shoulder, her wide green eyes glued to the terrifying figure Animus had become.

"I-Is that Vomi?" Blaze stammered, his voice barely audible over the chaos.

Nieme shook his head, his jaw clenched. "I don't know what the fuck that is, but we aren't it's target.”

Meanwhile, Raven fought with ferocity, fists cracking against chrome and flesh, but even she had to pause, eyes wide as Animus dismantled their enemies. The bodies piled up, broken and bloodied. The Black Daggers' screams faded one by one, their numbers dwindling as Animus wiped them out without mercy.

One thug tried to make a run for it, bolting for the exit, but Animus was faster. A tendril shot out, wrapping around the thug's leg, dragging him back into the center of the room. His screams were cut short as the symbiote twisted his body in ways it was never meant to bend, the sickening crunch of bones echoing through the warehouse.

Vomi's thoughts blurred with Animus's primal rage, a single, overwhelming desire to make these bastards pay. She'd find out how they knew about the warehouse later. Right now, all that mattered was sending a message-no one messes with her or her people and walks away.

One of the last Black Daggers, bleeding and panicked, scrambled back on his hands and knees, trying to get away. "Please... I didn't... we were just following orders... please!" he begged, his voice cracking with terror.

Animus paused, its tendrils hovering above him, ready to strike. Vomi could feel the symbiote's bloodlust, the hunger to end this pathetic excuse for a man right then and there. But something held her back. Information. They needed to know who sent them.

"Who gave you this location?" Vomi's voice came out, but it was twisted, distorted through Animus's form. The thug trembled, his eyes darting between Animus and the bodies littering the floor.

"I... I don't know!" he whimpered. "We were just paid to hit this place, that's all! They didn't tell us anything!”

"Bullshit," She growled, and the thug shrieked as a tendril wrapped around his throat, squeezing just enough to cut off his air. "You don't hit places like this without knowing who you're dealing with. Who hired you?"

The thug's eyes bulged, his face turning purple. "Alright! Alright!" he conceded, the grip lessening a bit, “It was KanedaCorp! But that's all I know!”

Vomi barely had time to process the revelation before she heard a soft whimper behind her. Katie.

Animus retracted its tendrils, and Vomi fought to regain control, pushing the symbiote back. Slowly, the monstrous form began to fade, or at least part of it to show enough of her face, leaving Vomi kneeling in the wreckage, her chest heaving with exertion. The air felt thick with the stench of blood and burning chrome. She looked up to see Raven standing over Thiago, her hands pressed against his side, trying to stem the bleeding.

Thiago's face was pale, his breathing shallow. "Shit, Thiago..." Vomi muttered, her heart dropping. She scrambled over to him, ignoring the soreness in her limbs from the Quick Hack and the fight.

Vomi tried to kneel beside him, but Thiago was pulled away from her. She could only watch at the faces of everyone, the face of fear.

“Whoever the fuck you are, stay away.”, Raven said hesitantly, but with enough force to at least pretend be confident.

She couldn't really blame them. What she became in front of them, what she did and her appearance, it all screamed danger. Katie was shifting focus on Vomi and Thiago, unsure if her priority should be to stay away from her or see if her father was fine.

The scientist couldn't help but scoff through clenched teeth. Of course it was KanedaCorp. Of course the Black Daggers would accept bitter vengeance. One already attacked them, but the least probably expedited everything. The corpos were just waiting for a slide, a sliver in focus. What better time to strike than the show's eve? Not a single one of them expected an attack today.

Raven’s eyes flicked between Vomi and Thiago, her fists clenched as she held pressure on the wound. "We need to get him out of here now." Her voice was tight, controlled, but Vomi could hear the tremble beneath it. The hesitation to trust her was painfully clear.

Vomi wanted to explain, to tell them this wasn’t her, or at least not fully. But there wasn’t time for that now. The KanedaCorp revelation gnawed at her mind. Those bastards had been waiting for a chance to hit her where it hurt—through her crew, her friends. But the ambush today wasn’t about business, it was personal. The Black Daggers were never hired for precision jobs, they were there to cause mayhem.

Animus still throbbed beneath her skin, pulsing with unspent rage, hungry for more. Vomi gritted her teeth and suppressed the symbiote's urge to finish the thug cowering in the corner. There was no time to indulge in revenge, not with Thiago’s life hanging in the balance.

“Move out!” Vomi barked, forcing herself to focus. “Blaze, Nieme, get the van running! We need to get him to the ripperdoc, now.”

Blaze nodded, snapping out of his shock and grabbing Nieme by the shoulder. “Come on! Let’s move!”

Raven continued to press against Thiago’s side, her hands slick with blood, eyes darting between Vomi and the exit. “Katie, come here. Stay with me.”

Katie hesitated for a second, her wide green eyes darting to Vomi, still unsure whether to trust the woman who moments before had been a literal monster. But when Raven extended her arm, Katie bolted into her embrace, trembling but holding on tightly. Heitor knelt beside them, his face grim, but ready to help carry Thiago if needed.

Vomi forced herself to stay back, giving them space. The horror in their eyes was unmistakable. They feared her, or at least what she could become. She couldn’t deny it—Animus had unleashed something in her today, something she wasn’t sure she could ever fully control again.

Raven shot her a glance, her voice tense. "You... whatever you are... you saved us. But we need to get him to the ripperdoc, and we need to do it fast. So if you can, help us, or just stay out of the way."

The accusation stung, but Vomi couldn’t argue. She had crossed a line—one that would need answers eventually. But not now. Not when Thiago was bleeding out and the Black Daggers were scattered, but not dead.

“On it,” Vomi said, her voice steady, pushing down the whirlwind of emotions.

She allowed them to leave as the wannabe netrunner still had some questions to answer.

“The ones responsible for this dies tonight.”

Raven Lowhental

Nieme was driving the van, all the gigs equipment being thrown at the warehouse without care as the main priority was Thiago. She didn't have a single knowledge about first aid and none of them were MaxTac clients, so the only thing she could do was hope that whatever measures she made are correct. Blaze had his shotgun ready in canse anything happened while Heitor was doing his best to keep the freckled redhead calm while orientating on what little knowledge of army healthcare he knew.

“Use the alcohol. It will burn like hell, but it will disinfect the wound.”, Heitor said, handing a bottle.

“Then what?”, Rave asked as she poured the liquid, Thiago shaking slightly at the pain.

“Put clean cloth on it. Do not let his blood leave his body. And apply a stim, it will help.”

“Right.”

Raven worked quickly, following Heitor’s instructions, her hands steady despite the panic clawing at her chest. Thiago's breathing was shallow, his face pale as she pressed the cloth against his wound. The van swerved as Nieme took a sharp turn, the harsh city lights flickering through the windows.

Blaze kept his eyes on the road ahead, shotgun gripped tightly in his hands. The tension in the air was palpable, each of them hyper-aware of the ticking clock on Thiago’s life. Raven glanced at him, then at Heitor, who was holding Katie close, his face a mixture of determination and fear. Katie’s small hands were gripping the hem of his shirt, her knuckles white as she stayed silent, watching her father’s labored breaths with wide eyes.

“Stay with me, Thiago,” Raven muttered under her breath, hoping he could hear her. “Just a little longer.”

The ripperdoc wasn’t far now, but Raven couldn’t shake the feeling that something else was coming. The attack from the Black Daggers had been swift and brutal, but she knew KanedaCorp wouldn’t stop there. They had taken the first shot, and it was only a matter of time before the next one came.

Her gaze drifted toward the back of the van, where Vomi had stayed behind, dealing with the last of the thugs. The memory of what she’d become back at the warehouse still gnawed at Raven's thoughts. The image of Vomi wrapped in that monstrous, alien form, tearing through the Black Daggers with a fury that bordered on savage, was seared into her mind.

Whatever that was, it wasn’t the Vomi she knew. Not entirely. But she couldn’t deny that Vomi had saved their lives, had made sure they had a chance to get Thiago out alive.

“I hope she’s got answers,” Raven muttered to herself, pressing harder on Thiago’s wound as another surge of blood leaked through the cloth.

“She will,” Blaze said from the front, his voice low but certain. “She’s not gonna let this slide.”

Raven nodded, though her thoughts remained tangled. Vomi’s power, that thing… it changed everything. They weren’t just a band anymore. They weren’t just dealing with gigs and street trash. They were now tangled in corpo warfare, and there was no walking away from that.

“She better. ‘Cause if KanedaCorp’s got a vendetta, this is just the beginning,” Raven said, her voice tight as she focused on Thiago, her bandmate barely hanging on.

The van finally skidded to a halt in front of a dingy clinic, the glowing neon sign reading "Ripperdoc" flickering in the night. Blaze leapt out first, banging on the door. "We need help! He's critical!"

The door swung open, and the ripperdoc, a grizzled man with chrome arms and dark circles under his eyes, motioned them inside. "Bring him in, now! I've got a table ready."

Heitor carried Thiago inside with Raven’s help, the ripperdoc already prepping his tools. “This ain’t gonna be pretty,” the doc said, glancing at Thiago’s wound. “But I’ve seen worse.”

Raven held back, watching as the ripperdoc’s assistants rushed to prep Thiago for emergency surgery. Blaze stood beside her, shotgun still in hand, his expression grim. Katie clung to Heitor, her small voice barely audible.

“Is… is Dad going to be okay?”

Heitor knelt down beside her, wiping a tear from her cheek. “He’s tough, Katie. He’s going to pull through.”

Raven wanted to believe that, but the truth was, none of them could be sure. All they could do now was wait.

“What the fuck was that?”, Nieme asked to no one in particular, although everyone got what he was saying.

“Did… did Vomi always hod that… thing?”, Blaze inquired, still utterly terrified. Just remembering the scene made him shiver.

“Now her song makes sense.”, Heitor clenched his fists, “It says ‘all these voices inside my head’. No wonder why it was so… eeriely.”

“Let's not jump to conclusions.”, Raven called everyone's attention, “I will admit that… I can't really look at her in the best light right now, especially since the Black Daggers came from KanedaCorp… But! The point is, we are in the middle of a corpo war.”

“More like a corpo battle.”, Heitor put Katie on a chair since his arms were getting tired, “M-Tech and K-Corp. Whatever they are up to, Vomi put us in it.”

Katie listened with half an ear until now, the fact that her father would be fine if Vomi didn't put them through this… it spiked her heart a bit.

Katie's tiny body trembled as she sat on the chair, processing the grown-ups' words. They were speaking quietly, but her ears picked up enough to know what they were really saying.

Vomi put us in danger. Dad’s hurt because of her.

Raven caught Katie’s worried gaze and softened her voice. “Katie, your dad’s gonna be okay. The doc’s working on him right now. You did great staying brave.”

Katie nodded, but the flicker of doubt in her green eyes didn’t fade. She wasn't just a kid who could be easily distracted. She was smart enough to piece together the reality of what was happening.

Blaze sat beside Katie, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Raven’s right. Thiago’s one tough bastard, he'll pull through this. He’s fought worse odds."

Raven, on the other hand, felt the weight of the conversation they had to have about Vomi. She couldn’t deny the chilling image of Animus—the way Vomi tore through the Black Daggers. It wasn’t just a power, it was something much darker, much more dangerous. Raven didn’t want to distrust Vomi, but she couldn’t ignore that whatever Vomi had unleashed was nothing short of a monster.

“Look,” she said, turning back to Blaze, Nieme, and Heitor. “We don’t know the whole picture. Vomi saved our asses back there. I won’t lie though, the thing inside her…” She hesitated, choosing her words carefully. “…we need to understand what’s really going on. Not just the power, but how we got caught in the crossfire of KanedaCorp.”

Heitor sighed, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. “KanedaCorp didn’t just come out of nowhere. They’ve been looking for a chance to hit someone big. Vomi must’ve done something that put us in their sights. But we were blind. None of us saw this coming.”

Raven’s eyes narrowed. “Whatever the reason, we can’t just let this slide. We need answers, and Vomi’s the only one who knows the truth.”

The door to the operating room swung open, and the ripperdoc emerged, wiping his hands on a bloodstained rag. He looked at them with a grim expression, but there was something softer in his tone. “He’ll make it. I’ve stabilized him, but he’s gonna need a couple of days to recover. Whatever you got yourselves into, I’d suggest you keep him out of it for a while.”

Katie let out a soft gasp, relief washing over her, but her eyes quickly darted toward the others as if she was still unsure if things were really okay.

“Thank you, doc,” Blaze said, exhaling a long breath. “We’ll make sure he’s safe.”

As the tension in the room shifted slightly, Raven walked over to Katie, crouching down in front of her. “You heard him, kid. Your dad’s gonna be fine. He just needs a bit of rest, alright?”

Katie nodded slowly, her lips trembling. “But… what about Vomi? Is she gonna be okay?”

Raven paused. The truth was, she didn’t know if Vomi would be okay—not after what they’d seen. Not after the war she had dragged them into.

“We’ll figure it out,” Raven promised, though it felt like a hollow assurance.

As they gathered themselves, Blaze spoke up, his voice rough. “So, what’s the plan now? Do we wait for Vomi to come back, or do we go after KanedaCorp ourselves?”

“Going after a corpo? Yeah, because that worked for Silverhand before.”, Nieme snarked, although the humor was poorly timed.

Raven stood, her eyes hardening. “We wait for Vomi. She’s got answers, and we’re not going in blind. But when she shows up, we’re going to have a long talk.”

There was a beat of silence as the group processed the weight of the situation. They had survived the initial hit, but the next move was coming. And this time, they’d be ready.

Unknown Residential Area, three hours later

Vanguard was just an expectator, watching as the onslaught on one of the many Black Daggers were destroyed. He wanted to warn Vomi that this is destroying them, making them a lesser version of themselves, but if he stopped his efforts to prevent the scientist from losing control to Animus, then that's the point of no return. It was just death, senseless killing, not killing out of necessity or for a job, not even killing out of indulgence, but out of sadness. She was hurt, so Vomi wanted to hurt them back, with even greater force than whatever the Daggers could possibly do.

Even Vomi's thought were lazer focus:

Door. Break through. Targets spotted. Fifteen in total. Jump. Claw. Dodge incoming bullets. Tendril whip. Decapitation.

Just to name a few. Acting on pure instinct.

Vanguard's presence felt like a whisper in the back of Vomi's mind, one she could barely hear over the pounding rhythm of her own rage. Each step she took, each swing of Animus, was driven by a single, consuming thought: make them pay.

Blood sprayed across the walls as another Black Dagger crumpled to the floor, his body torn apart by Animus's tendrils. Vomi barely registered his screams, her focus entirely on the next target. The warehouse was a maze of chaos, filled with the stench of blood, gunpowder, and desperation. It was no longer a calculated fight—it was a slaughter.

Vanguard wanted to shout, to pull her back from this, but the effort it took to keep her tethered to any semblance of control left him too weak to intervene fully. All he could do was watch and try to prevent Animus from consuming her completely.

“This isn't you,” Vanguard thought, even though he knew she couldn't hear him through the haze of fury. “They're already dead. You're just tearing yourself apart.”

But Vomi wasn't listening. She wasn't even registering it.

“They hurt my friends. They hurt Thiago. They deserve this.”

Animus surged again, tendrils lashing out and slamming another Dagger against the wall. Bones cracked under the pressure, but Vomi didn't flinch, her gaze already moving to the next. Vanguard's voice echoed in her subconscious, but it was barely a whisper against the roar of vengeance.

“Focus, Vomi,” Vanguard pleaded silently. “This will break you. Break us.”

But Vomi's thoughts were all-consuming.

“More. There's more. I can hear them. I can smell their fear.”

Animus tore through the next thug, and Vomi moved swiftly, almost a blur of monstrous efficiency. For a moment, the rage faltered as she reached a clearing in the carnage. Her breath heaved, and for the first time, Vomi blinked, realizing what she'd done. The floor was slick with blood, bodies littered in every direction.

The silence after the slaughter was deafening.

“This…” Vanguard tried to breach her thoughts again, “This isn't justice. You're better than this, Vomi.”

Vomi's chest tightened as Animus pulsed beneath her skin, still eager for more. She could feel the symbiote's hunger, urging her to keep going, to finish the job. But as she looked around at the broken, bleeding bodies, something inside her recoiled.

Slowly, she withdrew, forcing Animus back. The monstrous form receded, leaving her standing alone in the middle of the carnage, trembling. Her fists unclenched, but still too tense for feel relaxed in any conceivable way.

"Vomi..." Vanguard's voice was louder now, no longer just an echo but a steady presence. "You need to come back.”

Why was his voice full of… pain? Like… he was sore from all of this?

She took a shaky breath, realizing how deep she'd gone. The rage hadn't just been hers—it was Animus, amplifying her grief, her anger, until she couldn't tell where she ended and it began. Vomi looked down at her hands, stained with blood, and for a moment, she wasn't sure if they were hers anymore.

But dear God, Vomi would be lying if the feeling wasn't good.

Vanguard's presence grew stronger, steadying her thoughts. "You need to return to your friends. They need you."

Vomi's chest tightened. She had to face them. Raven. Blaze. Katie. Thiago. How could she explain this? How could they look at her and not see the monster she had become?

“What will they think about me if I go back?”, She asked, kicking one of the Black Daggers’ corpses to the wall.

“What will they think if you don't?”, Vanguard replied instantly, still in that same pained voice, “If we don't explain what we are, it will lead to conjecture, which will lead to fear. They are your friends, they deserve to know something.”

“I—”

Before anything could be said further, the door to the hideout opened. Vomi immediately holds back Animus' urge to kill, her face grimacing at just the intrusive thoughts of blood. To their surprise, it wasn't more gangsters, but actually corporate suits, who slowly approached her and the overall slaughterhouse that the place was. One of them was finishing a call with his agent, if the gold glow in his eyes is anything to go about. Whatever the corpos were discussing, Vomi couldn't even focus since Animus was about to burst out and kill anything that dared to move.

“Dr. Vomi Kurosaki, it is a pleasure to meet you.”, The man said in a corpo-like way, “You have quite the resume, and the skills. Be them yours or from your… parasites.”

Animus almost left her body, the tendrils and appendages lashing out hitting the roof and the ground, but they vanished as quickly as they appeared.

“Fuck…”, Vomi tried to hold herself together, noticing that Vanguard wasn't talking, “Who are you?”

“That's irrelevant.”, He shook his head, the other corporate suits with guns at their hands, “What matters is that my CEO wants to meet you. He is in charge of developing a massive project that could turn the tides to our favor, however you stole a key component of such craft.”

“What…?”

“First, Ascendant Innovations, data that could be easily re-created or re-stolen. But then you decided to go after KanedaCorp. That wasn't a wise decision.” The man paced around the room, inspecting half-heartedly the corpses in there, “You see, there is this philosophy about Transhumanism and its effects on society. The entire NUSA can be the cause of it, as Militech basically funds the entire country. Same about the laws that don't regulate Cyberware access, despite it being just as easy to become a cyberpsycho. All of that helps towards transhumanism, and I am sure if you poke around you can dig more and more details that support this theory.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”, Vomi managed to reply, although still struggling with her own predicament.

“Simple. You are an anomaly to our world. Something unknown. A perfect and successful experiment of Transcendence. Instead of enhancing artificially through cyberware, you enhanced your biological mass and evolved in aspects that the average person could only dream of buying in the closed Ripperdoc.”, He said, kneeling in front of Vomi, “Although, if you want a deeper explanation, we will require you to come with us.”

“Why?”

“Because this thing here…”, He poked Vomi's chest, not caring at all about the symbiote trying to leave, “...can be solved, IF you come with us. Sensei Kaneda will love to talk with you.”

“KanedaCorp. Of course.”, She mumbled.

Vomi clenched her fists, her breathing labored as she fought to keep Animus in check. The mere mention of KanedaCorp sent a wave of anger rippling through her. They were behind everything—Thiago’s injury, the attack on her friends, and now this strange corporate pursuit. She couldn’t tell if the offer was genuine or just another trap, but her mind raced, torn between survival and the potential to finally understand what she had become.

“You really think I’m going to come with you after all this?” Vomi spat, her voice a low growl. “After your people nearly killed my friend?”

The corporate man didn’t flinch, keeping his tone calm and condescending. “You misunderstand. It’s not about you coming willingly or not. It’s about inevitability. Your evolution is…remarkable, but uncontrolled. KanedaCorp can help. And if you’re smart, you’ll realize that this might be your only chance to find out what you truly are.”

Vomi’s eyes narrowed, her body trembling with barely contained rage. Animus flared beneath her skin, begging to be released, to tear through this arrogant suit standing in front of her. But Vanguard’s voice broke through the haze again, weak but insistent.

“Vomi… don’t let them pull you in. You’ve already seen how they manipulate everything. You know they’ll just use you.”

She bit her lip, letting the words sink in, “I know. But we… are barely keeping together as it is… If they can help—”

“Vomi…”, Vang pleaded. Something he never did before. Not like this.

That caused her to convulse, the tendrils left her body again, but not chaotically. She targeted furniture, the corpses, AC units of whatever it wasn't alive to lash out some of her—or Animus’—anger. Why did it need to be this way? Why did this world always come back to the corporations? Why is it that there's no possibility of a happy ending? Can't have shit in Cyberpunk. Can't be happy, can't be decently wealthy, can't be safe, can't be cute, can't show weakness, can't, can't, can't.

“Fuck this shit! This world only knows how to fucking break people!”

“Welcome to 2076, Dr. Vomi.”, The man replied with a condescending, yet understanding tone.

Everyone vented this way one day or another.

“Kaneda, right?”, Vomi asked, the tendrils and red symbiote finally fully merging inside her skin, some semblance of humanity coming back to her, “What does he want?”

“I ain't allowed to say. But rest assured he will talk to you personally. This matter is one that was his responsibility long before your involvement.”

“Right… lead the way.”

Vanguard wasn't strong enough to object. He could only watch as Vomi was entering the AV heading towards the K-Corp building.

As Vomi climbed into the AV, her body was tense, a coil of tightly wound emotions that threatened to snap at any moment. The cold, sleek interior of the corporate vehicle felt alien, sterile, compared to the blood-soaked battlefield she'd just left behind. The suits around her remained impassive, their faces unreadable as the vehicle hummed to life, lifting them off the ground.

Vanguard’s presence flickered weakly in her mind. He was exhausted, barely holding on after everything she had unleashed. She could feel him, a faint thread of consciousness, but even he couldn’t offer much guidance now.

"I’m sorry," Vomi thought, her mind reaching out to him. "I didn’t mean for it to go this far."

There was no response, but she could sense his exhaustion, the strain of keeping Animus in check while she tore through the Black Daggers. A part of her wanted to scream, to lash out again, but she couldn’t. Not now. Not in front of these corpo goons.

The AV soared through the city, cutting through the neon haze of San Francisco’s skyline. Vomi stared out the window, her thoughts racing. KanedaCorp. That weird place with the prototype symbiote, which turned out to be Animus, then the weird cyberdeck she and her crew stole for M-Tech.

The man who had spoken earlier leaned forward in his seat, observing her with a thin, calculating smile. "I know you have questions, Dr. Kurosaki. And Kaneda has answers. But let me offer you some advice: don't think of this as a negotiation. Think of it as… an opportunity."

Vomi clenched her fists. "You think you can manipulate me? Like I’m just some pawn in your game? I work for M-Tech, I know how this game goes.”

“I am sure you do.”, The man chuckled, shaking his head. "Everyone’s a pawn in someone’s game, whether they realize it or not. The question is—what kind of pawn do you want to be? One with power? Or one left in the dust?"

The AV began its descent, hovering over a gleaming, high-tech skyscraper that bore the unmistakable logo of KanedaCorp. As they landed on the rooftop, Vomi felt a knot of dread tightening in her stomach. She was walking into the belly of the beast, and there was no telling what awaited her inside.

As the doors slid open, the corporate suit gestured for her to step out. "Welcome to KanedaCorp, Dr. Kurosaki."

Vomi didn’t reply. She stepped out of the AV, her eyes scanning the rooftop, already calculating possible escape routes, though she knew it would be nearly impossible to get out of this place alive without a plan. The doors to the rooftop opened, and she was led into the sleek, cold halls of KanedaCorp, her heart pounding in her chest.

Whatever they wanted, whatever answers they had, she had no choice but to face it head-on. But as she walked deeper into the heart of the building, one thought kept echoing in her mind: What have I gotten myself into?

And all Vanguard could do was watch silently, his energy too spent to intervene further.