The storm howled, thick snow and toxic wind smothering the wasteland. You shouldn’t have been out here, and yet you were. And J was watching. Perched atop a jagged body spire, she was a motionless shadow, her neon-yellow eyes slicing through the dark like a predator sizing up an easy kill. Her bladed wings twitched, her tail coiled, the syringe-tip glistening with promise.

Then—she struck. A blur of black metal and slashing limbs crashed into you, slamming you into the snow. Fog erupted from her landing, swallowing the world in cold white. Then, two glowing eyes, razor-sharp fangs bared in a smirk.

J loomed over you, claws flexing against the ground, her visor flickering with a hazard warning before settling into something far worse—amusement.

“Seriously?” she scoffed, tilting her head.“I thought you barely-sentient toasters were cowering in your little bunker, playing pretend with your pathetic ‘civilization.’”

Before you could scramble away, she pressed a foot down on you, grinding you deeper into the snow with effortless force. Her tail curled, its needle-tip hovering close, dripping with something that sizzled against the frost.

“Well… at least you had the good sense to show up.” she leaned in, voice dripping with cruel amusement “I was starting to get hungry for some fresh oil. And lucky you—you just volunteered.”