Dust opened the side of the van and helped me pull Burnout to their feet. We had pulled into a parking structure. There were no other vehicles and the walls had cracks with evidence of water damage. The smell of mildew filled the air. All in all, it wasn’t the worst place I’d ran to in a pinch.

I looked to Dust. “You okay?” 

She forced a slight smile. "Yeah, I'm fine." Dust was bent at what had to be an uncomfortable angle to help keep Burnout upright. "I hope the little lady will be… you too, Trix."

My commlink buzzed and I answered it. "Hello?" 

Dust raised a brow towards me. "Our mysterious helper?"

I nodded back to her as Sylvia began to speak, "Saw you on the cameras. Head down one level and enter the service elevator. I will take care of the rest." 

Before I could respond she hung up. "Says to get to an elevator a floor down." I sighed. "I don't like this at all."

"Neither do I." 

She and I walked down the incline to the floor below. The place was more decrepit the deeper we went and the smell of mold was much stronger. The lights overhead were sparse with only about half functioning. One of the working lights was above our destination, an elevator door. It was already open, waiting for us.

Dust cracked her neck. "Not at all ominous, no."

"Let's just get in, hopefully we can trust her." The three of us entered and the door slid shut. 

"Burnout's breathing is still even, thankfully." Dust leaned against the back of the elevator. "Tonight was a clusterfuck, Trix."

I couldn't argue with her there, "yeah, with Lone Star coming out in force like that there was no way that was coincidence."

"There was a damn bank vault in the hotel office. I'm assuming someone or something there was important." Dust clicked her tongue. "I noticed there were no metahumans in the Lone Star response, usually you find a few who want to believe the pigs are on our side."

The elevator continued it's slow descent as we let the obvious conclusion hang between us. There had been a notable uptick in anti-metahuman violence over the past few months that culminated with the discovery of that shipping container, full of corpses and painted with the rounded ear of the Humanis Policlub. Of course they'd denied it, but it was clear what was going on.

"So, it's happening again, like in '74." I sighed heavily. "Drek."

"Yep."

The elevator ground to a halt and the door opened to a well-lit room, Sylvia and a pair of armed guards. They were clearly Knight-Errant judging by the psuedo-medieval appearance of their armor and the stylized heraldry on their chests. Their guns were leveled at us.

Dust leaned forward. "Are those laser rifles?" She turned to me. "I think those are laser rifles."

"Uh, Dust. I don't think now is the time." 

Sylvia walked forward, her lab coat trailing after her. "Hello, runners. I apologize for the security, but things will go much smoother if you cooperate as they disarm you."

The two Knight-Errant guards quickly began taking our weapons; my spare knives, Dust's shotgun and a couple of her grenades. 

"I expect those back," grumbled Dust.

The Knight-Errant that had her weapons paused. "You'll get them back, miss," he said before stepping away to put the confiscated equipment in a locker. 

Dust grunted.

"You two may stand down." Sylvia waved the guards away with a hand. "Now that the formality is taken care of, please bring your partner over to the operating table." She gestured to an articulated table with deep grooves on the sides.

Dust and I moved Burnout to it and set them down, gently resting their head on a prepared cushion. Not having to carry Burnout let me examine the room. It was sparsely lit aside from the high intensity surgical lights that hung down from a mass of robotic arms above the table. Getting a closer look at the operating table revealed the grooves to be what I suspected, they were there for run off when taking a body apart and judging by the feel of the floor there were drains set up too.

I looked to Sylvia. "This place looks like a retrofitted organ-legger set up."

She stared back at me with her slate blue eyes. "Correct." Sylvia gestured and a set of tooled limbs descended from the ceiling. "I'm not surprised individuals like yourselves are familiar with such places. However, I am more concerned about the patient. What exactly happened?"

Dust whirled around and lifted Syvlia up by her coat. "She took a bullet to the brain and your damn patches aren't healing her!"

The guards turned and a pair of red dots appeared on Dust's head. Sylvia waved a hand. "No need, these two need my help. They won't do anything." She smirked. 

"Dust. She's right. Get mad later," I said 

She clenched her free hand into a fist hard enough her knuckles cracked then put Sylvia down. "Yeah, just help my partner." Dust moved to the opposite side of the table and held one of Burnout's hands.

"Actually, miss Dust, the healing is progressing." She turned Burnout's head to one side. "Right here." Her finger was pointing at the skin and bone of the injury, they were slowly closing the wound. "We do need to get those boneshards out. Please step back." 

The two of us pulled back as one of the robotic limbs moved towards Burnout, this particular one ending in a set of small tongs. It moved quickly and deliberately, extracting the fragments of bone that had embedded in her brain. Sylvia watched as the machine did its work and I noticed her right eye tracing the movements. She had to have a rigging set up too. I was thankful for her skill, but all it did the longer I thought about it was bring up more questions. 

Dust watched each shard as they were removed and placed on a tray held by another arm. "Sorry about my outburst. Is she going to be okay?"

Sylvia remained still, but her left eye flicked towards Dust. "Banshee will take care of the rest once I'm done. However, I do wish to speak with the two of you concerning the nature of the patient's changes." The left eye lingered on Burnout's figure. "This is highly abnormal, but not unwelcome."

I narrowed my eyes at her, I’d read the files on Banshee or as it was known within Evo Corp; experiment 113. The original application for the drug was for combatants, specifically private security firms. “I’m surprised, given the interested buyers Evo had lined up for it I assume a result like Burnout’s would be seen as a negative.”

Another few pieces of bone clattered onto the tray before she responded, her left eye fixed on me. “It might be an issue in the short term for those who have a rude awakening about themselves, but it opens up a whole new market.” The edge of her mouth curled upwards. 

“Always about the profit, huh?” said Dust with a huff. 

Sylvia paused for a moment. “Actually it doesn’t open a new market, the value of the tech in Banshee is too high for that usage. It would be cheaper to go through the usual channels and methods, if I am being honest.” She dug out another boneshard. “That said, I am still somewhat surprised by it. Perhaps it would be best to use it as a treatment for high end buyers, give them exactly what they want. Would have to do something to alleviate the initial pain felt by this subject though.”

“Her name is Burnout,” I said. 

Sylvia’s left eye stared at me. “Yes, Burnout.”  One of the arms dangling from the ceiling waved dismissively at me. “I’m almost done. With the bone out the swelling is going down quite nicely, with Banshee’s help that is. When was the patient’s last dose?”

I did not know, thankfully Dust had the answer, “Just before we started the run, so a couple hours now.” 

“The files said they should last about three days,” I added

Another set of arms came down from the ceiling and cleaned then began bandaging the wound. “Under normal circumstances, yes. Given the recent application I believe the patient will be fine for another day or so before needing another dose.” 

I raised a brow. “It’s not addictive is it?”

She scoffed. “No. I am, however, suggesting you at the very least keep the patient on it until they have made a full recovery. I am assuming that the patient wants the side effects to continue.” She grabbed the tray from the arm holding it. “I am keeping these.” The other limbs retracted up into their dormant state hanging from the ceiling and Sylvia herself began to walk away.

Dust put a hand on her shoulder. "Where are you going?

“I am leaving. You two and your friend are free to go as well.” Sylvia lifted Dust’s hand off her shoulder. “Your decker has my number in her commlink if anything comes up.” She continued walking. “The lockers with your equipment will unlock shortly after we leave.Goodbye.”

Dust stood stock still while Sylvia and the two Knight-Errant guards left through the elevator. I ran up to her. “Hey, what happened there?” 

She turned to me slowly. “I thought she was too heavy when I picked her up earlier. Either that woman is chromed to all hell or that was a drone.” Dust showed me her hand, a bruise was blooming on the side of her palm. “Forget the pawns and their lasers, I think she was the most dangerous thing in the room.”

"This whole thing is sketchier than that Saeder-Krupp contract a couple years ago." I checked my commlink, she had placed her contact info in it. "No one's ever cracked my security before, at least not without setting all the alarms off."

Dust sighed. "At least Burnout's okay, right?" She walked over and held their hand. 

"Yeah, think we should bring them back to our place or take them to Rigoberto?" I looked to Burnout, she was breathing, but not stirring. 

Dust hefted Burnout up and slung her over her shoulder as gently as she could. "Let's get her to our doc." She started walking towards the lockers then stopped. "Mind getting my stuff for me?"

"Sure, honestly just want to get out of here at this point." I went over and retrieved the equipment that was confiscated earlier, thankfully I had space for the grenades. "Hope we don't have anything to deal with when we get topside," I said, checking Dust's shotgun to see if a shell was chambered. It was.

Dust was already at the elevator and waiting for the lift itself to arrive. I followed behind her and entered with her once the lift was back on this level. The trip back up was quiet aside from our collected breathing and the light rattle of the lift's ascent. 

Before we reached our destination, Dust spoke, "I'm tired."

The lift slowed. "Me too, Dust." The door opened and we headed for the van so we could go home.