It was raining in the city It wasn t raining here in a strict sense of the word More like dripping I live in the burbs and here the rain doesn t really fall it just sort of clings to the walls and manages to pool on the ground in sheets The rain didn t used to be this way A long time ago I hear the rain didn t make your hair turn color or damage the paint on your car Now it does though so everyone who has a car has to keep it inside My name is Jona and I have lived here all of my life I don t know why I m still here except that I am I work in a assembly plant putting together micro robots they use for toxic clean up jobs Since they re used around acid and other stuff like that they have to be sealed really tight so much that they actually pressurize them inside to make sure that nothing can get in One time a guy was working on a defective one and it exploded or imploded or whatever happens when they crack and depressurize all of a sudden It tore his arm right off and killed the guy next to him The company didn t want us to see that so they marched in some guys with yellow radvac suits on to pick up the pieces I think his name was Johnny I m not really sure You re not allowed to talk to each other in the plant They say that s what causes the accidents I don t like my job but then again it s all that I can really get It s all anyone who works here can really get If they don t like you or if you do something wrong they throw you out into the street and don t pay you anything They don t pay us very much at all here but we get lunch from the cafeteria and that s ok All of my money seems to go to rent I live in public housing and the council voted another rent increase last March I don t know how they can do that I guess it s because they live in gated communities that have their own fucking army to protect them We don t even have a security guard at my complex Actually I was thinking about something the other day as I was on the assembly line The burbs aren t really the burbs anymore They re just like the city used to be huge buildings made out of metal instead of high-pressure ceramics like they all are in downtown now No arcologies just tenaments and torn-up sidewalks I read that a long time ago people moved to the burbs to get away from the city I can t imagine anyone wanting to do that I was actually thinking about that when our company changed hands last week It all happened so quickly that I still have a hard time remembering it I remember reading in the news last week that TXTech (the company I used to work for) was being bought out by Toyo-Hyundai which is pretty strange when you think about it Why would an automaker want a chemical cleanup company It didn t make a whole lot of sense at the time I was sitting at my bench last week and someone whispered to me that the buyout didn t happen They couldn t get enough shares to have a majority I shrugged and went back to calibrating one of the gyros on the robot I was working on I should have realized at the time that since the buyout didn t work they d be attempting a hostile takeover instead And it was very hostile It was when I was using a hand lens to try and fit some of the servo pins to the controller board that it all started happening The steel doors at the end of the workspace in our building were blown open with a tremendous force The people closest to them were actually thrown from their seats onto the floor from the blast The assembly line stopped and the smoke began to clear It was at that point that my blood ran cold About twelve men all dressed in black body armor swept into the room Two of them covered the corners and the rest started taking retina scans of everyone in the room with their scanners The red light danced from one person to the next and I winced when it flashed into my eye One man stepped to the front and began to speak This building and all of it s occupants are now property of TH Incorporated Your previous employers have been persuaded to drop all claims to ownership of any property or employees From this point forward you will be working for TH Incorporated and all non-disclosure agreements from your previous employer are still valid I have been instructed to inform you of these changes and your continued presence on the premises indicate your consent will all practices of TH Incorporated At that point a guy near the front bolted for the side doors They were timelocked but he still struggled momentarily before a beam of red centered on the back of his neck and covered the door with his blood I saw the beam through the smoke it came from one of the windows near the roof I could see a reflection on the goggles that covered the snipers eyes Even if it was pitch black he could still eliminate every single person in the room in under thirty seconds It was then that I knew these guys weren t just some corp team they were yakuza A corp team wouldn t have a sniper just to cover a room If anything went wrong they d just blow the place their team be damned The yakuza apparantly knew the value of their team members in a twisted sort of way they were more humane than any corporation I knew After that guy got blown everyone just sat there After a short pause the man at the front spoke again I take your continued presence to indicate conset with the policies of TH Incorporated That is all He started to turn around but suddenly fell to the floor Like he was being crushed by something All of the other guys turned to look and all the saw was a pool of crimson start to spread from his neck The sniper was getting nervous the red beam swept over the entire room Why didn t he just use his infrared to find out what was going on At that point something came into focus next to the corpse on floor I rubbed my eyes as the light seemed to bend and warp and suddenly a man was there crouched naked on the floor He had his head shaved and it was hard to make out if he had anything in his hands That s when everyone started to panic All of the armored guys at front started aiming at him with their bullpups which swivled on the stock attached to their shoulder pads And then he was gone again One of the guys closest to where he was jumped Or at least that s what it looked like He jumped again and then was thrown about twenty feet across the factory floor and landed on top of toolbox After that everything is sort of a blur One guy s head snapped back and he didn t move after that Another was thrown against a wall and his face was covered in blood The sniper was going crazy and just started shooting People were dropping left and right and suddenly the naked guy appeard again jumping onto the wall below the sniper Somehow he managed to climb the crumbling cement and then the sniper was on the floor his helmet caved in on itself Then there was silence The naked guy was just standing there bleeding He d been shot in the chest twice but it didn t seem to bother him too much He said something in Cantonese I think and then left The funny thing was is that the alarm hadn t gone off while any of this was happening and then it was on and there were the guys in the toxic suits again coming in Some of them started picking up weapons and bodies and stuff and one guy with a bullhorn just started yelling something Then everybody came out of their trance and just rushed the back doors The timelocks were off and everyone poured out into the street I ran I ran as fast as I could to the El station so I could get onto the train and get home I as probably as scared at that point as ever I had been I looked up to the roof of the building and I saw three figures standing there outlined by the gray clouds above them After I got home I just sat on the foam of my bed and breathed in stale air After awhile I fell asleep The next day the only thing in the news about TXtech was that the buyout had been unsuccessful I didn t go to work that day and neither did anyone I know I just sort of sat around trying to figure out what to do I was thinking about the guy the naked guy and who he was and who he worked for He was some kind of secret operative I mean he had some crazy shit He just disappeared When you tried to look at him your eyes just went out of focus That kind of stuff must cost some serious money And how did he cave that guys helmet in Magic I asked my friend Frank who was near the front and heard what the guy said before he left and what it meant It was in Cantonese and it was sort of weird What do you mean Well he just said I am the Saviour And then he was gone NINJAS KUNG FU FIGHTING AND SWEATSHOP FOR BLENDER all ansi by necrolyte and all literature by skrubby of rile