The Procyons decided to limit their camp outside the city that night and get up early. They decided it would be better to try and sneak in under the cover of darkness. There were security bots monitoring all entrances and exits to the city, checking identification and collecting taxes. These were things that the brothers wanted to avoid and figured their chances of sneaking in during the daylight hours would be less. Rocky had argued against it, being tired from all the walking, he mentioned the fact that the bots could see in the infrared spectrum and would spot them no matter the time of day. Ricky resolved that they would just have to make sure they did not get spotted. Besides, he had argued, the bots were not the only eyes and ears of the Zenith Corporation.

When they finally found a draining pipe that they could fit through and made it into the city, all but Wolton were amazed by the city that stretched out before them.

“Wouldya get a load of that Roc?” Rocky said while gazing up at the numerous skyscrapers that disappeared far away into the clouds. They looked like massive weapons waging war against the sky itself and were dizzying to look at.

“Fancy that!” Rocco replied.

“First time to Kallerish?” Wolton asked, noting their amazed faces as they gazed up at the buildings and sights.

“There’s so much going on at once.” Rocco scratched his head, the tone in his voice leaving ambiguous whether he thought this good or bad.

“Yeah, it’s amazing.” Rocky on the other hand, seemed enthralled.

The city was mostly broken up into sectors, and within each sector stood huge megastructures known as AstroBlocs. The AstroBlocs were titanic structures between a hundred to two hundred stories tall. They were strato-scraper arcologies, each one housing a whole community complete with mega-malls, restaurant food courts, stores and some even with parks. Many residents would live their whole lives within a single AstroBloc, never once venturing outside their walls.

Outside of these mammoth towers were a distracting cacophony of multi-level screens and neon signs and pop up holo-displays floating in the air. Some of these were adverts, some showed propaganda for the Zenith Corporation and the various Mega-Corporations on Titan and some displayed newscasters. Most of them were spamming for attention within the brothers’ Net-Comm units, asking if they wanted to press here and listen with sound. These were all in physical space, out in the open, hundreds more appeared in the virtual space of their HUD displays, which were quickly shut off for the time being.

All manner of commerce flowed throughout the city, transports of all sizes and variety of locomotion had been lined up to either arrive or depart at the city gates, which were a massive multi-story tall neon advertisement in themselves. On the ground was a constant flow of both wheeled and hover cars and in the air were hordes of flying taxis, consumer and commercial vehicles, moving from place to place. The AstroBlocs were most of them connected as well, with high speed walkways between them, and a multilevel mag train that went above the entire city and below.

The brothers made their way down a lesser traveled street, realizing armed and dressed as they were, they did not quite fit in. On the main street, drones flitted in and out of the throngs of Titans above their heads, looking for those disloyal to the corporate empire.

Along this side street they found a seedy side of town. A gaudy mixture of Neon and Holographic signs lit the street in the shadow of the mega buildings that allowed no sun to shine between. They began sizing up everyone they saw, for they realized quickly in this city that the cockroaches seemed to hide in the cracks. There were all sorts of pimps and mercenaries along the walkway, alongside thieves, cutthroats and pickpockets too.

“Where are we going?” Ricky turned towards Wolton, who had been letting Ricky and Rocco lead the way, while Rocky trailed behind taking in all the sights.

“Towerview Center.” He said in a hushed tone even though there was enough noise going on around them that it was hard to hear standing right next to him.

Rocco made a noise that drew the others’ attention. They immediately saw a group of armed Zenith Battle Units coming down the walkway towards them. Rocky found an open door and motioned the others to follow him through. The last thing they needed was to get in a fight and draw that type of attention to themselves.

Inside was a dimly lit pub. Shady characters clung to the shadows in the corners of the place and those in the open did not seem much better. A droning dance beat played over speakers somewhere, though few people were dancing. It was the perfect kind of place where people came in to be away from prying eyes for a while. Since the corners were occupied, they found a table near the wall and sat down.

“Give me a few minutes, I’ll figure out a good route.” Rocky clicked the power button on the side of his Virtual Network Headset to bring up his holographic HUD. He first swiped away a few adverts that, judging by the look on his face were less than tasteful, then went to work researching the city. “Towerview, Towerview. Right, I found where we are, I think…” He continued to mumble to himself.

A pretty young Rodentia girl sauntered over to the table holding a holopad.

“You boys are new.” She said with neither distaste nor interest. “You drinkin’ or something else?”

“What else?” Rocco began to say but Ricky quickly cut him off.

“Bring us a round of house specials.” He spoke quickly, then, from the side of his mouth to Rocco. “You don’t ask what else is available in a place like this.”

“Right.” Rocco shrugged, seemingly convinced by the wisdom in those words as he looked around the room.

The girl tapped a few buttons on her holopad, sending the order back and then walked away. The others watched the room for several minutes until she came back with a floating mag-lift, filled with drinks. Rocco grabbed two greedily and downed them. Ricky and Rocky both waived them away and seeing this smiling, Wolton took one for himself.

“Thanks guys, that’s mighty generous of you.” He said.

Ricky glanced up at him.

“Don’t thank us, you’re paying, mate.”

“Me? I didn’t say anything about paying for drinks.”

“And food.” Rocco nodded at the waitress to get her attention.

“What?” Wolton exclaimed.

“Don’t look at us.” Ricky shrugged. “We don’t have any creds.”

Rocco ordered up some food before they were able to get a response from the scientist about the situation. As it turned out, an indebted scientist working for Marshall Industries did not exactly have much of a nest egg in which to splurge for drinks and food. After some anguished posturing though, he told them that he would make do. He did after all, owe them something for getting him safely to Kallerish.

“Right.” Ricky replied. “Don’t thank us just yet. You haven’t arrived alive yet.”

This caused the scientist’s tiny furry face to scrunch up in confusion.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you planning on abandoning me in this neighborhood?”

“No. Just means we aren’t there yet. Plenty of opportunity to get into some kind of trouble.”

Rocco smiled wide in reply to the statement.

“You see? That one there lights up at the very idea of trouble. He’s a thoroughly dangerous sort.”

“It’s true.” Rocco laughed while reaching out for the food that was being delivered. “I’m always ready for some danger to happen.”

“It’s not like you usually wait for it to happen.” Rocky frowned sideways at him. “It happens to us. To you, you make it happen. Anyway, I found a route through to the Towerview Center. Uploading GPS route now.”

A moment later Rocco and Ricky heard a ding inside their Net-Comm units to alert them the upload was complete and ready to be retrieved. They stayed for a little while and when they had their fill of food and in Rocco’s case, several beverages, paid the bill and made to leave. It was at that moment when a large Felid in battle armor entered the pub.

The Felid sported a headpiece unit with the wraparound eye display much like the ones that the three of them used, only a slightly newer model. He was obviously using it to scan the room, found what he was looking for and strode across the room. Someone on the other side of the room noticed him moments before he arrived at the table and shrieked.

“No! Get away, you can’t!” The Yellowish-brown Titan Marten stood up from his table and began scanning the area for a way to escape.

The Felid was upon him quickly, and it was evident there was no escaping him. Felids were known for great agility, so juking him was out of the question. So was overpowering or outrunning him for the smaller Marten. The Felid’s hand shot out and grabbed him around the collar before the other Titan could flee.

“Please! I’ll give you whatever you want! You can’t do this!”

“You know it’s nothing personal.” The Felid said, a moment before plunging a hand through the Marten’s chest. He emerged clutching a heart in his hand, produced an Expando container and dropped it inside. He then produced a las-cutter tool and began cutting off the now dead Titan’s leg.

“Oh, that’s foul innit?” Rocky turned away from the gruesome scene.

Rocco however, stood up and roared. Before any of the rest of them could tell the big Titan to mind his own business, he was charging across the floor. The Felid noticed him a moment too late, and Rocco crashed into him, they both went headlong over the table the Marten had been previously sitting at, shattering it to bits under their combined weight.

“Damn.” Ricky breathed while reaching for the handle of his energy knife. Rocky was right behind him, grasping the handle to his expanding pole.

They searched for the Felids’ inevitable friends, employers, co-workers, other gang-members or whoever would turn this from a simple fight into an all-out brawl. The strangest thing happened then as they searched the room. Nobody else was making a move to join in. It seemed a large Felid coming into a bar and tearing out another Titan’s heart in the middle of the day did not have any friends to back him up. That and the fact that none of the other patrons seemed to be panicking or calling for help seemed to imply this was not an entirely uncommon event either.

Rocco was the first to his feet, and landed a few punishing shots to the other, who was about the same size now that they were both standing once again. It was rare for a Procyon to be as large as one of the mid-sized Felids, something that seemed to not escape his attention.

The Felid caught the third punch that was thrown at him, as though it were thrown by a kit. He twisted Rocco’s arm and the big Titan twisted with the motion to get back inside his guard and grappled him. The Felid’s coat that was draped over his armor ripped and it was at that point where Ricky and Rocky both saw the danger. The Felid did not need backup, he was a cyborg.

The Felid grappled back, they jockeyed for position a few moments before he got the upper hand. Ricky was not even sure that his brother was aware of the danger yet. Maybe he did and was just too berserk to care. Either way, Rocco eventually came flying across the room back their direction. A moment later, so did the Felid, extremely angrily.

Ricky pushed the button on the handle he gripped, and the energy glowed to life, rimming the blade noticeably in the darkened pub. Rocky at the same time twisted his handle, both ends extending to nearly his own body length. The Felid did not seem overly worried as he approached, his eyes still on Rocco as he regained his footing.

“You bloody twit he’s a cyborg.” Rocky spat at his brother who was dazed.

Ricky dove at the Felid with his knife, and the Felid swatted him away with great dexterity. The simple gesture felt like being hit with a car, and before he knew what was happening, he was flying through the air where he crashed into the wall and got stuck partway inside of it.

“Ah, that explains why he didn’t go down.” Rocco looked past Rocky at his approaching opponent.

“You just got us into a fight with something that can crush steel with his hands and throw cars like toys.” Rocky shouted back angrily as he leaped forward, using the reach of his weapon against the ‘borg.

“Good. That just means I won’t have to feel guilty about not holding back.” Rocco stretched his neck and pulled out his two batons.

Rocky was a practiced fighter with his staff, no professional, but far from an amateur. He smashed the cyborg several times about the body and head, all the while he was moving, twirling and staying out of reach. Between his metal cybernetic limbs and the armor he wore, he did not seem to notice. Eventually, a supernaturally fast hand shot out and grabbed the end of the staff, and he then flung the much smaller Procyon across the room.

With a cry of rage, Rocco surged forward, his twin batons spinning and twirling and striking in multiple directions. The Felid kept up and began blocking the attacks and absorbing them with his armor, looking for a break in the other’s defense. With a crooked grin, Rocco turned the tables, flipping the switch to ignite the electro-mag ends.

When the Felid blocked the next strike with a bared forearm by instinct, he realized his folly too late to change it. There was a pulse of bluish energy that temporarily disrupted his electrical parts. The ‘borg screamed and twirled around, smashing his fists through a pillar by the dancefloor, pieces of pulverized plascrete showered the room.

Ricky was back now and kicked out at the side of the cyborg’s knee. His cybernetic joints were too strong for him to do any real damage, but it threw the Felid off just enough for Rocco to smash another baton into his face. Rocco hit him over and over, finally realizing that blunt trauma alone would not be enough to do more than temporarily incapacitate this monstrous specimen. The Felid was already regaining the use of his limbs and beginning to mount an offense by the time Rocco snatched Ricky’s glowing energy dagger and plunged it into the Felid’s unarmored neck.

The cyborg fell to his knees, his eyes opened wide in disbelief that he had been beaten by this trio of ordinary Titans. His hands clutched his throat, trying to stop the flow of blood that was leaking out all over the dance floor. With a snarl, Rocco grabbed the hilt of the dagger and drew it across with all his strength before pulling it free and shutting the blade off. Nearly decapitated, the Felid fell lifeless as his neck spurted a massive fount of blood onto the floor.

The other patrons of the seedy pub stared in disbelief for a long moment. Then, many began to cheer. Several left their seats and came running over to cheer Rocco.

“Hoop! Hoopla!” Cried more than one.

Some tried to take Rocco’s bloodied hands and dance with him, other jumped up and down. Still others began offering drinks and other prizes for the big Titan. Ricky looked around confused, trying to make sense out of the situation, his eyes finally rested on the little Procyon scientist, now on his feet joining the celebration.

“That was a Reaper!” He cried. “By the stars! You chaps just killed a Reaper!”

“A who? He was a murderer, that one!” Ricky replied.

“And got what he bloody deserved!” Rocco played to the crowd who cheered for him as he gave the dead ‘borg a thumbs down.

“A Reaper!” Wolton repeated. “A re-possessor agent. They’re employed by Bio-Dynamics to repossess parts when their users fall behind on the payments.”

“What? That’s heinous!” Ricky returned. “They can do that? While the Titan is still using it?”

“The heart too. It was probably a replacement that they cloned or grew in a lab. Organ repossessions can be very lucrative.”

Ricky turned his nose, searching for words to describe this new level of horror he was feeling.

“Lucrative you say?” Rocky leaned over and interjected just then. “How much we talking?”

“Rocky! I can’t believe you!” Ricky scolded. “That was a Titan-being back there. He’s dead!”

“The heart is one of the most expensive transplants. I’d venture that’s probably a good twenty-thousand credits. The cybernetic leg is another fifteen.”

“The fuck you say?” Ricky blinked. “Thirty-five thousand credits are lying right there on the floor?”

“Probably. Give or take.”

“Rocco!” Ricky called above the others cheering his brother. “Grab the Felid’s stuff.” He looked down at the corpse, lost in thought for a long moment. “Scratch that, hand that here. You get the Reaper.” He turned back to Wolton as he accepted the leg being handed to him, and then the Expando container. “I figure if the leg’s worth fifteen, this ‘ol sumbitch’s gotta be worth at least a hundred!”

Ricky began to make his way through the crowd that seemed to be expanding as word traveled outside and down the grimy streets. He thrust Wolton in front of him forcefully, partially to protect him and partially because he needed directions.

“C’mon boys, we need to make a detour.”