305 Far Future Ch. 15 – And Dops eat your Brains all Day... (1/2)

She gaped at me, and the head that was turning into a horror. She looked down at her Band at my glare, swiped down for the read on his Band, and got the table. ”Table 4-C, party of six, five here!”

I looked at the layout of the place, and Skated away faster than the alarm was shouted. People were already trying to upload the news and stuff, chatchatchatchat, but the Boole was locked down and nothing could be sent out, dropping into a void of non-transferral. In addition, I noted My Queen was faking an active signal from the dead dop's Band, so if anyone was looking, they wouldn't see it disappear if something happened. Tracker apps were very common, after all, and dops alerted one another if they were found out, and could literally disappear in no time at all, adopting a fake face and then heading for a new victim identified previously for just such situations.

I Skated away casually, Chalice stowed inside my arm but ready. Architecture had cut off her previous scans, but now that she knew the direction, she could concentrate on them.

Four people at a round table, two men, two women, looking like couples from various walks of life, just here to meet up and chat. Three were not-human, and one had a minor Ward on that was blocking any result, but tripping her Detect Psi by its existence.

I looked past them as I glided up, feeling the surface scan of ESP coming out and past me, very subtly, wondering what I was focused on, them reading each other's minds and with proper paranoia wondering what had happened down there in the direction their friend had visited. They didn't look like it, but they were all ready to bolt and shift instantly.

Prep and strike.

Chalice came out with a prepared action. I dumped a Sun Strike that blew banefire, Nimbus, and Corona down into the Warded man's torso... oh, yeah, he wasn't human, and that Amulet was just there to make sure a Psi couldn't tell.

Dead. Cleave. Prepared action to focus Nimbus. Strike the woman across from him. Double Sun Strike, head off her shoulders, the shock ravaging down into her torso.

Move action, refocus Nimbus. Slide onto the table, scattering drinks. The second man was starting to lean away, chest elongating and neck starting to twist unnaturally as I carved down into him and turned his chest into puree with the third Sun Strike.

Grim pulsed, and my Nimbus reformed as the one he kept in reserve for me was put into play, and my Cleave ripped down into the last woman's neck as she started to writhe and try to move. The fourth Sun Strike sent her convulsing in death throes, jolting from her chair, her face already half-changed into someone else's, and then sloughing off as her mutated cells relaxed to their basic, nigh-faceless form.

I waved my Band over all their arms, ID's dumped down into mine, and My Queen took hold of them. ”There's a sixth one coming. Where?” I asked calmly, while the people around were all frozen with shock at a bladebelle waving a golden mindblade around and slaughtering four people, just like that!

”Just outside.” My Queen was zinging through their contact files for talk about the reservation there. ”She's texting.”

Dops had issues with cybering, as they couldn't morph implants, and the implants wouldn't adjust easily to changed body states. So, texting was a known thing they did.

She'd probably pscanned some alarm from the customers coming out and was calling to see if everything was okay.

I skated very quickly towards the main door, watching the window. There she was, about thirty yards from the door, stopping against the railing... and her blonde hair was already starting to turn brown, her green and brown ensemble heading towards black as I came out the doors, looking left and then turning right as her head snapped to watch me glide and turn away while still moving in her direction... and then Chalice snapped on, Flared, and I detached the blade like a meter-long throwing light-knife to impale the dop right through the chest. The Sun Strike released, her abdomen flared with light as the nice blouse turning into a tattered t-shirt began to revert, and she convulsed and died as people screamed around me.

”Well, I'm done eating,” I mused to no one in particular. I glided over to the dead dop, which was attracting a lot of attention and photos, all of which couldn't be uploaded right now because they might alarm more dop connections. The Dop Squad had to work very quick, or they would simply lose their potential targets... and they couldn't even know if they were a dop without getting in close or having a Psi to verify it, which they most definitely would have along for a job like this.

”How did you know they were a dop.” My Queen was as monotonous as always.

”My Sword Focus has a function where it detects what it is Bane to. It happens to be both Psi-bane and Human Bane, and he didn't detect as Human.”

But now I'd blooded her, and Chalice could add Shapechanger to that list, which could get pretty interesting come Renewal when it finalized. I'd already proc'd Vermin to the list, although the spideroids hadn't really been important.

I hadn't expected such excitement coming up here to eat too many burgers. But Nulls kind of mess up the plans of greater powers that way, butting in where they aren't visible.

A couple Mall Cops ran up, their guns out and pointed at me, swearing as the crowd cleared and the grey-white featureless corpse of the dop became visible. ”Holy shit!” one of them called out as they got closer, attention shifting from me standing over it, to what I was standing over. Still didn't put their guns away. ”What the hell is that?”

I eyed them as they moved closer. ”A doppelganger, of course.” I almost sniffed. ”You do know Midmall Security carries the Grolhom Disruptor II-A, not a Penson Industries Mark 49 Laser, right?”

They both blinked at me, and I slid past them. Slash, Flare, Cleave, Flare, Double Sun Strike, shearing through the fake body armor and not-flesh below, detonating the Sun Strikes and giving them a really bad day.

The crowd screamed and retreated as I shook my head, Chalice back out and scanning, and I overlaid what she was telling me with those around me.

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”The fuck!” I slashed back without looking. The golden blade detached, blazing with energy, spun over an office worker's shoulder, and buried itself in the throat of a florid, portly fellow behind him looking on in interest, Flaring and taking him down as it tore out important neural connections. The clerk gawked at the singed hairs on his cheap suitcoat, but his shoulder was fine. ”What is this, a dop convention?”

-You are definitely exciting to be around,- Chalice /mused, still looking. I was 100% sure that somewhere among the people walking away was at least one more dop, because that would only be fair. They'd probably catch them on camera on review, tracking a facechanger, but keeping track of them would be somewhat harder. Overlay of her Detect and my vision matched up for the immediate area.

I really needed to up her range...