Chapter 1 - A night in a corner of London

The weather's quite gloomy, light rain showers upon cold, dark high-rise buildings, a bright neon board displays '21:32 19°C'. The streets of London gleams with countless skyscrapers, while endless billboards floods the sidewalk with neon advertisements. Natalya, her black blazer flutters lightly, particularly the left sleeve, where an arm and elbow would be, while red ash cracks from the cigarette between her rugged, but contoured lips.

She enters a particular apartment to escape the rain and is greeted with CCTV in every corner of the hallway. The hallway resembles of that found in 3 star hotels, with several paintings hanging from the egg-white wall, with the bottom part of the wall partitioned and covered in plastic wallpaper, the pattern resembles that of optical illusions. She proceeds to the elevator and after arriving to floor 6, unlocks a door with the room numbering  610 and a mailbox embedded to the wall with the name 'Natalya Nevinnaya Z' etched on it.

Inside the flat, a Royal Army ceremonial uniform can be found neatly displayed within an oak frame, a gun display holstering Accuracy International AX50 chambering .50 Browning Machine Gun, next to another display holding a well-polished Russian shashka, with the blade unsheathed, near the displays, on the ground there are several green metal ammo boxes piled on tidily, on the far end of the wall a rugged Union Jack flag hangs proudly upon a light blue wall covering the living room, and a single photograph displayed inside a metal frame, hanging near the Jack. The photograph portrays 6 people lined up, all smiling, in white camouflaged uniform upon a cozy landmark in a town somewhere in Norway.  She proceeds to the kitchen, taking a single vodka bottle from the alcohol ridden fridge, the label on the bottle reads Русский Стандарт, or Russian Standard in English, and pours its content to a large shot glass. She then drops her large stature upon the couch in the living room, a heavy thump resounds, she puts away the glass and does some hand gestures in the air, and a television emerges from within the heavily decorated section of the wall. The television turns on as she does more gestures, flicking to the left as channels in the TV slides quickly, the channels stop sliding at a news channel, a terrorist attack had blown a mall in Nottingham, she can be seen visibly recoils, her only hand forms a very tight fist. Her phone rang, a familiar voice speaks

"Sup Nat, ya free tonight?"

"Uh huh"

"Great! I'll meet ya at the usual, ok?"

"Right"

The rain had stopped, light breeze replaced the cold water. After 10 minute walk, Natalya arrived at a pub, the sign read 'King Chester's', the building looks fairly old, with a vintage touch. She enters the automatic oak door, light jazz reverberates around, there is a large 25 inch TV hanging at the end of the bar, it is showing a football match between Manchester United and Liverpool, she is greeted with 2 people on a large round sofa, in front of them a table with a few bottles and several shot glasses, a deep male voice calls "Over here lass!". She proceeds to slowly sit on an empty side of the sofa, takes a black-colored pack of cigarettes, it reads 'Johnny Valentine Special', and light it with a worn Zippo lighter. The voice talks

"Ya look quite nice"

"..."

"How's the arm doin?"

"Fucking hurts somehow, the former parts, that is"

"Ooh, I've heard 'bout it, phantom limb pains"

He continues "Bummer for them though, quite unlucky event I tell ya"

Natalya replies "Yeah, nothing I could do about, at least at the time"

He replied "Aye, am sorry"

"Anyways" Natalya sighed, as she tries to contain her emotions and keep her cool "So how you two been up to?"

"Aye, I'm been trying ta get me on some hotties, I'm looking at it now"

Natalya combats "Stick it up your arse Grant"

"Seriously though, my shop's been doing very well, many clients , many repairs, we even got us some more arc welders and several new toys! You know the newest buzzsaw machine? It cuts limbs so fast the patient don't feel any pain! Shit's bloody brilliant!" Grant exclaims

"Holy shit, that's quite impressive, speaking of new toys, have you got the latest DARPA arm model? Shit's bloody awesome"

"Nah lass, shit's under license and heavy regulations, we mere mechanics don't got access to that level of bloody good shits"

"Bollocks" Natalya questions "Oh right, how about you Ryan?"

Another man, occupied with his phone but still sort of listened, joined in "Me? Still doing the same goddamn job after we left college together, bloody sucks mate"

Grant replies "So the Ryan we knew hasn't changed a bit! Good ta know "

Ryan retorts "Oy mate, I'm callin it quit next week, and I'll finally open my own pub from my savings! Like, I waited so long to fit lotta this piggy bank"

Natalya scoffs "Chk, are you certain it'll work?"

Ryan responds "Course it goddamn will"

"Have you forgotten about your college startup? That one that worked so well, so bloody well it dragged me into it? " said Natalya sarcastically

Ryan retaliates "Oy, That was bullshit, you know that right?"

"What? It's not like you lost an arm because of it, isn't it....?" Natalya retorts sardonically while maniacally grinning

"Yer one cynical cunt ye are" Grant added "Cool off lass, ye keep this up ye ain't gonna get a boyfriend nor a girlfriend"

"..." "I apologize...." "I just feel like killing someone tonight"

"As expected from the dogs of war, I think ye might actually enjoy it that time, yeah? That fucked up mission?"

"You're taking the piss? You have a death wish пиздец?" Natalya's hand forms a tight fist, her blazer gets even tauter than before as her muscles bulges, ready to release the internal tension.

Ryan readies his balisong in response to her readying herself, he assumes close combat quarters stance, the blade's edge shines sharply.

"I SAID COOL OFF YE CUNTS!" shouted Grant as he pummeled the table with both of his large arms, huge thump echoes the bar as crinkled vodka bottles and shot glasses fell sideways, onlookers inside the pub paid no heed, almost as if it is common event.

"Whot in her majesty's name is wrong with ye both tonight? I called ye two to take your minds off the pisser, not another civil war"

"Fine" Natalya then puts her hand up and called a waiter "Bacardi 151, one bottle"

Ryan sits silently, but gazes sharply at Natalya, as the while Grant chugs from one of the shot glass filled with colorless liquor. Ryan checks his phone again, the rectangular device, approximately 3 mm thick, unrolls from a bracelet on his wrist, it is surprisingly rigid and solid when unrolled, various oblong square apps filled the home screen, he taps one of that resembling an ancient camera, several people in video rewound a few times occupies the opaque screen.

"Here's your liquor miss"  Natalya unscrews the cap, and quenches a quarter of the fiery liquid, Grant comments "Whoa careful mate, alcohol poisoning is a painful way to pass"

"I'm not that suicidal" responded Natalya as she took a second cigarette, again, white smoke exits her mouth. Then just like Ryan, she also unrolls her phone and opened up a few unsafe imagery. Thus the night continues monotonously, while Grant and Ryan spews occasional grunts and/or cheers while watching football on the TV and Natalya's deadpan gaze unto her phone, and infrequent looks to the TV.

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