Icarus - Reborn

Explosions rang through the hallways and a young male man was quickly running through them with a cyber-katana in his right hand.

The clothing the man wore was ripped in many places and blood from various wounds dyed it red.

Especially the gnarly shredded shoulderblade on the left side left a trail of blood on the hallway floor.

Tylor was in a bad position. His human body was slowly dying.

Warning alerts were spammed on the right side of his vision through the eye implants. And they insisted on telling him to take measures to visit a medical facility.

Not that those eyes were new tech or anything.

The woman was rather stingy with money for that matter and only got him readjustments for his already existing implants. It was a necessity with his still-growing body and all that.

Her reasoning being it would destroy his value...

He had already to fight with various glitches and discomfort from his body rejecting the cybernetics like anyone else. Drugs only making it less painful.

It was no big deal in his opinion at first since only some of his neural cortex, a small part of the brain, and his eyes were cybernetically enhanced. One for seeing again and getting rid of his blindness and the other for various stuff that was necessary for this age.

Everything else was still 100% biological. From his lung, heart, and every single limb he had. His body trained to near perfection to keep up with the stress levels it had to endure in his profession.

But right now those alerts sure as hell showed him his life is at risk. And it was the very first major fuck up he made in his short new life.

And it didn't even take 18 full years to happen. All it took was a damn power-hungry lunatic of a boss to order him around to take a big mission that was just rigged from the start.

While his thoughts raced through some possible solutions to escape the complex, he didn't stay idle.

When an enemy came from around a corner that Tylor wanted to run into he used his blade and sliced through the head of the corporate security officer wearing an exoskeleton. Just quick enough before he pointed the submachine gun at him.

Using that man's corpse as a shield for some bullets that came from the front, just behind the guy, he saw that he was not alone.

Not having any other way out and noticing that there were also other guys approaching from the side where he came from he looked back.

He only found a window. Not having another option he threw his katana to break it. Why he did that was simply to keep the rest of his body as healthy as it still could be. If he used his body he probably could have injured himself even more.

Running and jumping through the window there was still a construction construct that was still being used to add more space to the corporate building.

A way to finally escape.

Taking his feet into his hands he ran along with the shakey construct and used any ladder or stairway to get to lower floors. Just trying to reach ground level was all Tylor was thinking right now.

But just when he reached a floor where an upper-level highway was running along his luck seemed to run out.

An armored flying vehicle with a label from Militech hovered right in front of him and started spraying him from its miniguns.

Not knowing what to do Tylor just grit his teeth and jumped down another few hundred meters below the highway. Hiding from the bullets but also effectively killing himself nonetheless.

It was basically suicide at that moment because he could see the searching lights from the hovering vehicle follow his descend, but at the same time, the vehicle stopped and only became smaller and smaller.

With a hard thud and excruciating pain, Tylor saw only darkness again.

---

It was just the same as before.

He was once again in this fucking situation that he thought he would not run into.

But what do they say? Everyone's luck runs out at some point.

"Yes, everyone's luck does run out at some point. That is true."

Hearing those words Tylor opened his eyes again and take a painful amount of air into his lungs that let him cough out blood.

The fit of coughing took a while and the pain made it not any better. But soon he could look at the smirking person in front of him.

Suddenly rage overcame him and he pushed his pain-aching body and tried to grab the person's collar to punch him.

But he only grasped air.

"Oh, why so mad? Here I was giving you a second chance at life and that is how you show me gratitude? You mortals really don't appreciate life at all." The person made a ridiculing expression by shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head.

"You bastard...Do you think letting me wake up as a blind homeless kid was merciful? That I should be grateful!?" A coughing fit overcame him and more blood flowed out from his mouth tainting the white space around them red.

"Hey, now. I just cleaned up, you know?" The person only scolded Tylor for making such a mess. "And regarding your whining. No one ever says life is a cakewalk."

"..."

Tylor felt tired and even fell to his knees now.

"Then end it already...I tried, even with your damn handicap. And only ended up dying like some damn lapdog from a psychotic woman." Tylor spits more blood on the floor just to spite the being in front of him.

That in return only got him a wide grin. Like the Cheshire cat from Alice in wonderland. It was creepy and so unnatural that a shudder ran through his spine looking at it.

Tylor already saw many fucked up cybernetics that made people grotesque monsters but this guy just topped it all without them.

"Oh, but we are not finished yet? It all has only started now. I have promised you to let you live a full and exciting life, did I not? Who would I be, if I would go back on my promise?"

Yes, this very being in front of him was the one that catapulted him into another world. And its sadistic nature was now proven well enough to tell it was not a kind being at all.

"Since your body seems a little bit damaged, we need to take care of that. Take it as a little bit of a happy coming of age gift from me, alright?"

Suddenly Tylor was flung into the air and spun around. In the next blink of an eye, he found himself on an operating table with the lights above him nearly blinding him.

There were gags around his mouth and when he tried to struggle free he couldn't because his body was bound by other belts on the table.

"Oh, I nearly forgot to tell this. But I don't seem to have any anesthetics left. So you will have to do with biting into that leatherbelt...You would probably wish to end your pain but you would not die, no matter what. So try to think about happy thoughts, alright?"

Suddenly many robotic arms appeared around the entity and made shadows in the light. Only foreboding the vilest of pain incoming.

"First we should get rid of your pesky immuno reaction against your improvements. You had some leeway in tolerance but that won't cut it."

Suddenly a syribge with a blue liquid materialized in the entities hand. "Yep, I think this should do just fine." The grinning bastard then inserted the syringe into Tylor's neck vain and let the fluid flow inside.

Suddenly there was a feeling of heating up and Tylor's body even started convulsing strongly with his vains all bulging everywhere. Of course with the pain included he could only croak out in a muffled scream.

But what was shortly to follow was just the devil's work.

No matter where the robotic arms worked, he did not lose consciousness. Each cut and tug and grind that was performed went through his whole body.

All the pain was ingrained inside his mind over the time as if it was etched with a needle bit for bit. Into the very depths of his soul.

In the background, the Chesire bastard ha the audacity to stay and watch He even laughed sometimes and enjoyed every little bit of the show that unfolded.

That is until the very comforting feeling of darkness finally swallowed Tylor again.

---

When Tylor came back to his senses, the first thing he saw was a very old and destroyed ceiling of some long-gone manufacturing place of some sort. At least it looked rather large and spacious.

He did not do anything at first and just enjoyed every bit of painless moment he felt right now.

Then he slowly raised an arm and saw a black cybernetic replica replacing what once was only flesh.

His breathing became heavier and fast-paced.

In agitation, he clenched his hand into a fist and swung it around only to hit a supporting concrete pillar which he smashed into tiny bits without any damage to his new arm.

[Hello, Tylor Jensen. Thank you for subscribing to Sarif Industrie's Premium Content. Would you like to get a tutorial of all applications?]

That sudden message popping into existence in front of his probably cybernetic eyes stopped him from raging further. It even calmed him down somewhat and Tylor nocked his head sideways in confusion trying to see through this message.

Suddenly an idea came over him and he looked around. Finding exactly what he was searching for, an old and still intact mirror, he stood up from the operating table he was lying on and went ahead looking into that mirror.

And just like he thought, he still may look like himself, but this time around at least 80% of his body seemed to be cybernetics.

Especially the tinted glasses that activated and covered his eyes when he frowned a little made it clear enough.

He had Deus Ex implants all over his body. They just looked more human in design than in the game. But it, sure enough, was easily recognizable.

Especially that tactical vest for his upper body and otherwise stylish outfit that even included the mantle that were lying around not far away from the mirror.

At least his lower body was already clothed...

"Fuck...what exactly are you trying to do, you piece of madness?" Placing a hand to his head and rustling through his shaggy black hair let him sink a little bit into thought.

Tylor could only grimace while trying to figure out the entity's plans.

Searching a little inside his brain he figured out that he now also had all the knowledge of Sarif Industries cybernetics and all the theoretical and practical knowledge about how to operate on people and how to invent new stuff.

And looking at the blueprints they were also compatible with the current tech from his second life as well.

Looking at his hands Tylor closed his eyes and just thought if all the pain was really worth it? What did he pay in order to get this?

And just how much time passed since he died? Did he even die?

At least now he could just stop being a lapdog. He had enough. It was time to take back what was his by right. That woman would either pay up or die.

Maybe he could even use his death in a smart way if that really was what happened.