"An Ugly World" - Reboot.exe - S1 Chapter 10.

## An Ugly World

Jenn

"An Ugly World" is the tenth chapter of season 1 of Reboot.exe. It was released on 27 February 2021 and is narrated by Dave.

## Synopsis

Ugly strides up to Songbird, kneeling down to her eye level as she tearfully explains what had happened, out of earshot from the party. After Ugly gets the information he desires, Xiang, comes in, gathers Songbird in her arms, and carries her off to one of the backrooms. Ugly walks up to the group with fire in his eyes, and explains that there is a new job for them, and that he is going to call in his owed favor.

The crew and Ugly head out of the bar with firearms at their side, bustling down the street. Ugly begins to explain that Songbird is a lookout for the gang, he pays her for fusion, and that he believes she is incredibly lucky to have this job.

Bernie interrupts the group in a flurry of trying to get some money. Ugly quickly silences him by throwing a fist into his nose, and effortlessly throwing him into a lean to before rushing down the street. Eve offers him a medical grade wipe / handkerchief before continuing with the rest of the party.

The party continues and crosses a threshold into another's gang territory, with spray painted symbols over other gang symbols, which Ugly describes as the "Bomber gang." Walking up to an old apartment building, they are met with a man who they have a hard time deciphering who is spouting religious talk in a mangled way. Eve approaches him, and tell him to move aside. He eventually does get out of the way, but not without asking the humans if they are going to let his robot speak for them, and telling them to not worship false idols such as machines.

Ugly pushes his way to the front of the building and leads the way into a first floor room where the door is already ajar. The one bedroom apartment holds the body of an 11 year old boy with a cybernetic arm who has been murdered via a fatal slash across his torso - which can be assumed was done with a large edged weapon. Blood is cascading down the walls, highlighting the message "We silenced your Songbird, Ugly." Ugly is still unaware of the gang that is associated with the yellow cog on the wall.

Taking the rage and assumption he's gathered, Ugly pressures the group to go upstairs and investigate the screaming coming from upstairs to see if these are the people who murdered Amir. Grabbing a citizen of the apartment by the throat, Ugly gains the information that the people who did this are indeed still in the building, and are further upstairs.

Getting up to the third floor, there is an adult person lying in a pool of their own blood in the middle of a doorway, with obvious cybernetics. Further down the hall, there is another corpse of a person with a cybernetic leg and multiple bludgeoning injuries, and a blood trail following them as evidence they had crawled down to this point in the hallway for before finally dying.

Getting closer to the noise, they are able to decipher that the noise is shrieking laughter, and demands that to not worship any false idols, and that they are an affront to God's image followed by bludgeoning and screaming. Both Seb and Pr0 try unsuccessfully to knock down an unlocked door, Pr0 injuring himself in the process, while Ugly simply bursts in, and begins shooting at anything that moves.

The door bursts open, Eve runs in, and finds a wall to immediately hide behind. Seb runs in, pretending to not have any idea of what's going on, and acting panicked on the floor, covering his head. Pr0s loss of control and being highly distracted from his foot injury, accidently pulls the trigger of his fun, firing three times around, one going out the window, one shooting up into the ceiling as he falls onto his back. Two of the people that were already in this room, lock on to Seb and Eve, and initiate combat. During the scuffle, Pr0 gains three minor injuries, and one medium injury that immediately knocks him out. They successfully disarm the two assailants. Eve begins tending to Pr0, while Seb goes into the other room after hearing another gun shot.

Ugly has killed all of the assailants in the room, besides one who he continues torturing, shooting into his legs and enjoying the process of his suffering. Gaining a bit of his composure - Ugly decides to not thumb this man's eyeballs out - and instead shoots him square in the head. Ugly follows Seb into the other room, looks at unconscious Pr0, and begins dragging the alive man into the other room, on top the pile of corpses - telling Eve to wake Pr0 up. Ugly tests the group to see if they are really going to assist in, and become essential members of his group.

Ugly reaches for the gun Pr0 dropped on the ground, puts it back into his hand, and tells Pr0 that this person is his to kill. Pr0 raises his gun, and intentionally fires the shot wide. Ugly holsters his own gun, stands closely behind Pr0, and lifts his arms with the both of his hands, and pulls his aim inward to this guy's chest, steadying his hands. Seb walks up to the both of them, pointing the gun down, saying that Ugly should do his own dirty work. Noticing Pr0's anxiety and apprehension, Ugly whispers "Weren't your lot more about sending people to hell, then granting mercy?" and then steps away, leaving the gun aimed. Ugly goes on to explain to Seb that there is no way to walk through the filth of the slums, and come up with your shoes clean. There is no justice other than death down here, and thinking you're above it proves how out of touch he is with this world. Seeing that Pr0 is taking Seb's side, Ugly quickly flips the gun around to Eve.

Eve takes the gun, aims, and fires a single shot right between this man's eyes. Eve has gained Ugly's trust, and in turn killed a minor part of Pr0's soul. Eve calls Ugly cruel for making Pr0, a child, doing that. Ugly dismisses them all to "let out some stress" by destroying things in the room. Pr0 and Seb head back to the soup kitchen, and Eve returns to Ugly's. Ugly is more than pleased to see Eve, and greets her with a big kiss on her head, saying how proud he is of her, and her ability to stand by his side and protect him. Ugly then explains that he wants to help Pr0 with his vision, but he is worried that he simply won't be able to do it, due to the fact that he couldn't even kill one person that wasn't directly attacking them in that moment. He gives Eve a gun, and sends her on her way back to the soup kitchen.

Eve goes out, taking a walk to a kebab shop to grab food for Pr0 and Seb. Neither accept. Eve sits with Pr0, and starts discussing about how Ugly is right, and that there really is no hope for humanity in the slums, no matter how hard he wanted to see it from the altercation. They end the night in separate rooms, and Eve powering down for the night.

-YHTris

## TL;DR

* Ugly listens to Songbird's recantation of what happened between Amir and the people who killed him out of ear shot of the party, Xiang swoops in, and carries her off to a back room.
* Ugly comes up to the party, and asks to turn in the favor he's owed. He begins gathering guns from behind the bar, and produces two for Seb and Pr0.
* Upon getting to an apartment building, they come across a preacher standing outside, shouting the word of false idols and pure hate and disgust for drones and cybernetics. They push past him, and enter the apartment.
* Making their way to the third floor, there are several corpses littering the hallway, all people who have had cybernetics. Ugly motions for Seb, Eve and Pr0 to take the left side, while he goes right.
* Ugly bursts through the door, and begins firing, while Pr0 and Seb try to unsuccessfully break down an unlocked door, before realizing its unlocked - Pr0 gaining a minor injury in the process
* After dealing with the two religious people in the second room, and Pr0 falling unconscious during, Ugly gathers all of the murderers into a pile, and tells Pr0 to shoot at one of them, after Eve wakes him up. Ugly goes so far as to stand behind him, slide his hands up and aim the gun for him. Pr0 refuses, and Seb tells Ugly to do his own dirty work.
* Ugly steps off Pr0, telling the both of them that change is not going to be possible down here without violence. Ugly instead hands the gun to Eve, who takes it, and fires a single shot between the man's eyes. Pr0 and Seb leave, and head back towards the soup kitchen, Eve instead goes back to Ugly's bar.
* Ugly has since calmed down, and speaks more rationally to Eve, understanding why she wants to protect these people, but also that they're going to get themselves killed if they refuse to do anything physical.
* Eve returns to the soup kitchen with kebabs for the crew, none of them partaking - but Pr0 instead takes the time to talk to Eve about how he believes Ugly is right, even though it was in the way he never wanted to be a part of. He can't expect to see humanity down somewhere, where the is no law beyond gangs.

-YHT