It's About Saving Yourself 27

Sorry for posting so late. Took on a project that took essentially the whole weekend.

Thankfully, I was able to write most of the chapter during the week, and used yesterday night and this evening for finishing up and editing.

Initially, this chapter was going to be very different. It was going to open with a joke I've been trying to work in. There would be hijinks, and laughs, and good times for all.

And then the chapter happened.

Honestly? I really enjoy how it came about.

Here is the chapter. Please lemme know in a comment if you liked it.

=][=

The music was an unholy amalgamation of Techno and Us Cracks. There was multicolored smoke pumped into the room, and various lasers scythed through the smoke in a psychedelic display. There were plenty of sweaty bodies writhing against each other in the low light.

I stood still and reviewed every life choice I made that resulted in my being in my current situation.

For one, there was being born, not entirely my choice, I’ll give myself a pass for that one. And skip to the more relevant ones.

There’s becoming an Edgerunner…Yeah, there were some regrets there, but if given the choice to go back in time and make the choice again, I’d make the exact same choice in a heartbeat. I might change some of the initial choices I made, perhaps be more efficient with the way I tackled the situation that began my ‘career.’

Maine…

I’d probably try getting with Lucy earlier. Sure, my digital daughter playing the unintentional match maker was funny, but being with Lucy was awesome and spending more time with her would be a net positive.

Perhaps get a Crusher, or a shotgun with a tube magazine like the M2038 Tactician at least. Not get stuck with a Testera as my ‘signature’ weapon.

Maybe struggle with a DA8 Umbra or a D5 Copperhead. Really make it obvious the guns are temporary. Rather than have people assume that I use a break action as a statement of skill and disdain for my opponents.

I’d added the two barrels to mitigate the issue of how many times I could shoot before breaking the thing open to reload. Everyone seemed to think I’d done it to look cool.

Wait, if I handled Maine better, I would not have changed the scope on the Apex project. I’d still be trying to use Soulkiller without it, well, killing me.

If I had handled Maine better…would I still have my digital daughter?

“Yo Red-man, why you so serious choom? You’re bringing the whole Feng Shui down.” Said one of the waste of space sycophants who tried to crowd around my client for the evening.

I turned my eyes to the vapid, white-haired, svelte, feminine man-child wearing a lime-green wifebeater shirt, too much make-up with runny mascara, high heel stripper boots, and a Mr. Studd Ogre Edition making an obscene bulge in his tiny, tight, cyan-blue short-shorts. The scanner in my eye informing me he still didn’t have any weapons on his person.

I sighed and turned away from him, not wanting to engage with him at all.

“Ooh, is the big boy shy?” He leered.

The Metal Hand twitched.

“No need to be afraid choom. You’re among friends!” He purred, slithering closer to me. The Hand balled into a fist as he ran a finger over Its metal bicep, the smell of his perfume assaulting my nose and informing me it was time to change out the filters on my mask.

“I am not your friend. Do not speak to me.” I said absently as I stepped away from him, I squinted at one of the women I could see, she had a bulge in her pants that could be a knife.

She drew a ten-inch neon pink dildo out of her pants and started waving it around. I didn’t relax my vigil but moved on with my search.

The BD Influencer shook himself and puffed up indignantly. “Who the hell do you think you’re talking t—urk!”

He didn’t get far before The Metal Hand shot out viper quick, wrapped around his neck, and lifted him a foot off the floor, his legs kicking at the air. The Hand didn’t crush his neck into paste, but it was a near thing. It let him hang, his body trying to cough and wheeze, but The Hand didn’t allow it. His arms punched feebly at Its Metal Arm, his face at first red, then turning white as a sheet, then blue as he continued not to be allowed oxygen.

I noticed increased scrutiny, the young men and women attending the event sneaking looks at the scary Edgerunner. I felt like I was in a zoo exhibit from the wrong side of the damn glass.

The influencer’s shorts turned dark as he began to seize, and a sizeable amount of warm, yellowish liquid ran down his thighs to the floor.

“Yo, Red.”

I blinked and turned to Rebecca, she was patting my meat arm, looking bored, but I could see the concern in her eyes.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I getcha, Red, but if you zero that dumbass, the cleaning fee will come out of our pay.” She patted my hand lightly. “So let him down, eh?”

I processed her words as the smell of shit joined the piss coming out of the influencer. I blinked in surprise at him. I figured he’d left.

I studied his blue face…yes, that was indeed my hand closing his airway tightly enough that no air could go in or out.

When did that happen?

“Red?” Rebecca reminded me, patting my lower back gently.

Oh right. I opened my hand and the influencer crumpled to the floor in the puddle of his own piss, coughing, choking, wheezing and gagging.

“Right.” I said, The Metal Hand opening and closing restlessly. “Don’t want that.”

“You good, choom?” Rebecca asked.

“Y-Yeah. I’m good.” I said, rolling my metal wrist, feeling the vibrations of the internals working to allow the motion. “He uhh…He didn’t know when no meant no.”

Rebecca blew a raspberry. “Yeah, I know the type. Aight, I’mma keep making the rounds. Don’t kill anyone what doesn’t have it coming.”

“Right.” I said, my eyes focusing on one of the svelte men, but what he pulled out of his pants was a booster, black lace or rat poison, judging by the discoloration of his skin.

I saw the influencer that accosted me earlier. He’d managed to get up, and was currently doing an ‘I shit my pants’ walk out of the building, leaving brown footprints on the floor.

The Hand took hold of the grip of Its pistol.

I stopped myself from drawing iron and forced myself to release the weapon. He wasn’t a threat. He was leaving.

The Sandevistan twitched, my hacking interface had already broken through his ICE, my Synapse Burnout daemon ready to be uploaded.

I suppressed the former and deactivated the latter, tramping down on the feeling that I was making a mistake by letting an enemy live.

He wasn’t an enemy, just a dumbass influencer.

Rebecca was in danger.

I whirled, someone was looming over Rebecca, he had a hand on her ass, she barely came up to his xiphoid process, I wouldn’t risk Rebecca, fail her, not again. I tore through his ICE.

Rebecca delivered a hook to his chin, the man crumpled to the floor. She then kicked him in the nuts and continued her awkward dancing walk through the venue.

I deepened my breaths, attempting to slow my racing heart. The shadows around me were writhing. Enemies were too close, I had to exfiltrate. Get Rebecca, shoot my way out.

I forced myself to remain still, fighting The Hand’s demands I draw iron.

What was this? I wasn’t in danger, these symptoms wouldn’t just appear, I haven’t made any changes to my cyber-ware beyond regular maintenance. There were several stages of symptoms I would have seen before things got to this point.

Could I have been hacked?

A thorough diagnosis showed everything working as intended, even installing a shard that ran an independent diagnosis showed nothing out of the ordinary with my cyber-ware.

This wasn’t an attack.

Should I go?

But I couldn’t, I took this gig with Rebecca. I needed the money to stockpile more meds, I needed as large a cushion as possible, give myself time to make mistakes and have a gentle learning curve for producing my own, once we left.

I couldn’t afford the hit to my reputation of abandoning a gig.

What the hell was happening?

It was three agonizing hours before I could call it quits; I left Rebecca to collect from the client.

I power walked to my car, sending several people to the floor when they didn’t get out of my way fast enough.

I needed Vik.

I drove to the clinic, and found myself in front of Lucy’s apartment door, my finger on the intercom.

I looked at The Metal Hand.

It had betrayed me.

Why did It bring me here?

With effort, I was able to remember the drive. I remember driving to Vik, I also remembered driving here, but try as I might, I couldn’t recall changing my mind to come here instead.

“Al? What a pleasant surprise.”

Lucy was here, she is beautiful. The Hand twitched. It wanted to touch her. But It couldn’t, Lucy is mine, not The Hand’s, The Hand could only hurt, It wanted to hurt my Lucy.

“Al?”

I have to leave. I have to leave and keep her safe.

I kept Lucy safe by killing whatever threatened her.

Could I kill The Hand?

“Al?” She said, worried. “Al, what’s going on?”

Why was I in her apartment? I can’t be in her apartment, The Hand spasmed, It wanted Its iron.

I couldn’t breathe. It took too much effort to suppress The Hand.

“Alex! Alex look at me!”

It was going to hurt my Lucy. I wasn’t strong enough. The Hand didn’t know how to hold Lucy. The Hand could only destroy. It would destroy what we loved, because It couldn’t do anything else.

I tore at the connection in my shoulder, I couldn’t work the panel to undo the latch. The Hand didn’t want me to.

I knew cyber-ware though; I knew The Hand better than It knew Itself.

I gripped the cyber-ware at my shoulder and wrenched just right.

The connection to the modular shoulder joint warped, bent, crackled, and eventually shattered, The Hand falling lifeless to the ground.

Was Lucy safe? I was too dangerous.

I dropped my shotgun and knives. My pistols and grenades.

The Sandevistan thundered on. Lucy’s scared face centered me long enough to send her a message with the passwords to get through my ICE.

I couldn’t make her safe, but I could arm her. She could kill me if she needed to. That was the safest I could make her.

I was choking something. It had been behind Lucy, it was a threat. The entertainment station smoked and sputtered and died.

My hand was bleeding, I’d cut it while gutting her bed. It had made a noise and I’d ended the threat.

I blinked and shuddered, my vision dark, but I felt warmth and softness. I had my arm wrapped around Lucy’s soft and firm form. Slowly, I took stock of my situation.

I was sitting on Lucy’s couch, she was sitting on my lap, straddling me, her arms around my head, I could feel her hand gently stroking the back of my head. She was making shushing noises. The softness and warmth were her breasts, she was pressing my face gently but firmly into her cleavage.

“Then he…he screamed, ranting and raving. About how he was so close, how he would keep me safe from…from the hand? How he would do anything necessary so we could go to a better world.” She said, holding me more tightly as I tired to lift my head. “He kept reacting, it’s how the bed, entertainment system, radio, and microwave all got destroyed. One time he threw me to the floor and covered my body with his because he thought he heard a grenade. He didn’t calm down until I managed to blind him and cover his ears. Vik, what’s wrong with him? Has he been hiding his symptoms?”

I heard Vik heave a heavy sigh. “It’s possible, but I think unlikely…still, he should be coming around any moment now.”

I gently tapped Lucy’s back three times. She tensed.

“Kid, if you can finally understand me. Tap her back twice, then three times, then twice again.”

I followed the pattern, then three more before Vik was satisfied, and Lucy finally let me lift my face from her cleavage.

I blinked at the too-bright light. Just how long had Lucy held me like that?

“What…” I rasped, trying to work moisture back into my mouth. “What happened?”

“Cyberpsychosis.” Vik stated grimly. “A bad episode.”

I felt the bottom fall out of my stomach. I tried to shout but barely managed to whisper. “H-How? I…I listened. I was careful. How…How am I cognizant again?”

Vik sighed. “I reset your system to how it was two months ago. After that, Lucy kept you calm, and it was just a matter of waiting.”

As he scratched his temple, I spotted a suspiciously fist-sized bruise on his arm.

“I’m…I’m sorry.” I whispered.

“None of that, kid. Not your fault.” Vik said, opening up a RealWater bottle and held it out to me. I tried to reach out with my right arm, but there was nothing attached to the modular shoulder joint.

Lucy took the bottle and held it gingerly to my lips, forcing me to take small sips instead of chugging the thing like I wanted. Which, in all honesty, was probably for the best.

“What…What the fuck happened? How did it happen?” I asked, my voice stronger after the drink.

Vik sighed. “It was your hearts.”

I scowled. “What about them?”

“The Milspec heart is from Militech. The Second Heart is from Zetatech.”

I nodded. Nothing I didn’t know, but he wouldn’t harp on about shit I already knew if he weren’t making a point.

“Their chrome is made not to work well with competitor’s cyber-ware.” Vik said.

I shook my head as Lucy tightened her hold around my neck and shoulders. “I went over every line of code. I got rid of those subroutines.”

“Did you do it after your last firmware update?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Well. You missed a spot.” Vik said in a deadpan.

“But…But I kept track of my symptoms! I would have known!” I insisted.

Vik took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Have you had chills? Loss of appetite? Dry mouth or dizziness?”

I nodded. “Nothing I’d consider out of the ordinary with the cyber-ware meds I take.”

Vik rubbed at his eyes. “Those were the most likely symptoms that would have warned you your cyber-ware were sabotaging each other.”

An icy fist took hold of my stomach, Lucy grunted as I involuntarily tightened my hold on her, rather than rebuke me, she buried her face in my neck.

“Fuck.” I whispered.

“Yeah.” Vik sighed again. “Yeah.”

“I…what…should I…my meds?” I was having trouble formulating my thoughts into words, luckily, Vik had known me long enough to understand what I wanted to ask.

Vik shook his head. “No, no we shouldn’t up your meds. That would only make sense if you were planning to get a whole lot more chrome. Which I don’t recommend.”

“Fuck.” I said again.

“You’ll be fine kid. Just don’t make that mistake again.” He said, standing up. “Get a lot of fluids. Rest up. Relax a little.” He snorted and rolled his shoulders. “Next time we step into the ring, I’ll get you back for worrying me so much.”

I chuckled. “Alright old man, as a favor to you, I’ll only fight you with one arm.”

Vik popped his knuckles. “Don’t make me smack you, boy.”

He waved goodbye and left, leaving me with Lucy.

I deflated, resting my cheek on her shoulder. “Can I put my face in your boobs again? That was really comfy.”

Lucy chuckled. “Maybe if you’re a good boy.”

“Sorry I broke your stuff.”

“You thought it was trying to stab me, so I’ll forgive you this time.”

+Dad? Are you okay now?+

My heart shriveled up at Apex’s hesitant tone.

I unwrapped my arm from around Lucy and held my hand out on the couch. Immediately, the whirr of servos and click clack of spidery metal feet skittering over the floor quickly led to Apex resting one of her forelimbs on my hand, letting me close my hand around it.

I felt her pressing against my ICE in her typical way, asking for permission to enter my head, and I absently granted it. Soon, I could feel her rummaging around the software that ran my cyber-ware. I got a message that I was downloading the latest approved drivers and firmware.

+Found it.+ Apex murmured. +I found the code that hurt you, Dad.+

I caught a glimpse of the code line before she purged it, patching it out and rewriting the software to run more efficiently.

I snorted. “Yeah, I fucked up. Apex just fixed it so it won’t happen again.”

“We have the best daughter.” Lucy said absently. My heart soaring at her use of ‘we.’

I kissed her neck, prompting her to lean back and tenderly press her lips against mine.

It wasn’t a passionate kiss, downright chaste. But I could feel her relief and her fear as we took comfort in each other.

She then pulled my face down and pressed it against her cleavage.

Fuck, I loved this woman.

“I’m…I’m glad you’re not like Maine.” She whispered quietly. “I’m glad that the first thing you did, when you realized something was wrong, was come to me for help.”

I chuckled. “I was trying to go to Vik’s but ended up coming here and putting you in danger…and breaking your stuff.” I said against her boobs.

“Meh, the only thing that really hurts is the bed, I didn’t really use the other things…and fuck the entertainment system, never liked the automatic ads.”

“I love you.”

Lucy chuckled, rubbing gentle circles on the back of my head. “Love you too, Al.”

I felt something poking at my right shoulder and extricated myself from the wonderful valley between my input’s tits to look. I saw Apex had dragged my metal arm and was currently using her manipulators to fix the wiring and bent attachment system, doing the same to my modular shoulder joint.

“I didn’t know you were learning how to be a Ripper.” I said. Though I shouldn’t be surprised, Apex was a sponge for information, even if sometimes she reached…interesting conclusions with that data.

+Eh, it’s just a machine, made of plastic and metal.+ She said, expertly realigning and spot welding where needed. +And you’re a machine, made of carbon and meat. Machines are easy enough to fix. The tricky part is making sure both machines work well together.+

I turned her words over in my head…part of me felt I should say she was wrong, but I couldn’t find much fault in her logic. So I didn’t worry about it and let her work.

In a much shorter time than it would have taken me, especially doing the whole thing left-handed, Apex finished, and I could move my cyber-ware limb without issue. I suppressed a shudder as I remembered The Hand. My metal hand remained thankfully still, following the orders I gave it.

Before I could thank her, her drone body tensed, then folded into itself. +I gotta take care of something. I need to go.+

“Apex wai—And her drone is empty.” I sighed and settled myself more comfortably against Lucy. “Do you mind if we stay like this for a bit?”

Lucy chuckled. “Don’t get used to it.”

I allowed myself to fully relax, enjoying my input’s softness and warmth, glad to not only be alive, but cognizant.

But life long ago decided I couldn’t have anything nice. Kiwi’s icon appeared on my AR display as my Neuroport rang and informed me I had a call.

I sighed and buried my face fully in Lucy’s cleavage. “Why!?”

Lucy didn’t bother answering me, she answered Kiwi, and that’s when I realized it was a group call.

I answered too but kept it to audio only. “Hey Kiwi, now’s not the best time…”

I glared hatefully at tiny-Kiwi on my AR display. I looked at Lucy, who shrugged and nodded. I sighed. “Alright, whatcha need?”

[Not over comms.] She said, holding up a pair of shards. [Come over to my place and bring your truck.]

Her piece said, Kiwi ended the call.

I sighed. “If she wants me to bring my truck, it’s probably important.”

Lucy chuckled, tilted my head back, and softly pressed her lips against mine. “I’ll give you a reward when we’re done with whatever she needs.”

I growled and pushed forward, but she leaned back, not letting me capture her lips. She tapped my nose with the tip of her finger and playfully said. “Nope. Business first, then pleasure.”

She squeaked as I grabbed two handfuls of her wonderfully toned ass and stood up, then laughed as I carried her out of her apartment in that thoroughly undignified position.

=][=

Faraday smiled as he watched the Thorton Mackinaw roll into the parking lot.

He’d had to dip significantly into his savings to pay Kiwi a ‘quarter’ up front, but he knew he could trust her greed if nothing else.

The truck was unskillfully and inelegantly parked, and Kiwi stepped out of it.

“Kiwi, a pleasure as always.” He said, silently ordering his (augmented to his exacting standards, of course) men to remain in the shadows and be ready for an ambush, just in case.

Trust but verify, after all.

“Faraday.” Kiwi said in lieu of a greeting.

“I take it they’re in the truck?” He asked.

She tilted her head at the bed of the truck, covered by a tarp. “See for yourself.”

He made his way to the bed, but as he reached out for the edge of the tarp, Kiwi obnoxiously cleared her throat.

“What? Cannot even give a man a chance to inspect the goods?” He asked, suppressing the offense he felt and feigning mocking sorrow.

“Just give me my money, I need to pack.” Kiwi said.

Faraday sighed and transferred the second quarter of what he’d promised her. “You will not receive the rest until we make the delivery.”

Kiwi grunted in response, not stopping him as he took the edge of the tarp and pulled it up.

Lying in the bed of the truck were Lucyna Kushinada and the infamous Redeye, her eyes and his right eye glowing blue with whatever program Kiwi had used to incapacitate them.

“Exemplary work as always, Kiwi.” Faraday said, his lips stretching into an almost painful grin. It shouldn’t be too difficult to get his money back from Kiwi, she was pragmatic enough to accept that these things happened. “A pleasure doing business, as always…What was that phrase you always like to use?”

He turned to her, sending his men the message to come in and secure her. But as he opened his mouth to repeat her droll little phrase back at her, a cold metal hand closed tightly around his throat, and he felt something jack into his Neuroport.

He tried to draw his pistol, but his arms wouldn’t move. He tried to push back with his legs, but they wouldn’t listen. In a flash, he lost all ability to move, all neural control of his cyber-ware. The only things he could move were his eyes.

One of his eyes was being used exclusively to directly see out of the parking lot’s cameras, which is why he got a very good view of all of his men pulling out their sidearms, sticking them in their mouths, and blowing the top of their skulls out.

Out of the bed of the truck rose a ghoul with a glowing-green rictus of rage and a cyclopean, glaring scarlet eye. His right arm twitched, and Faraday’s feet left the ground.

“Never trust a soul in Night City.” Kiwi said absently.

“Oh wow, you already killed them all.” Lucyna said, sitting up in the bed of the truck, her eyes still glowing blue. “I thought I told you I’d take care of those? Remember, you are supposed to take it easy, Red.”

“Sorry.” The Ghoul said robotically. “I got a little over-excited.”

“Meh.” Kiwi said, taking off her pink mask, revealing she now had a complete face, and spat to the side before putting the mask back on. “Less work for me.”

“You and me, are going to have a long conversation. Faraday.” The Ghoul growled.

Very well…it would be difficult, but surely Redeye was a businessman. With the right incentives and the right implied threats, Faraday was certain that he could walk out of this with his skin, though not his dignity, intact. Surely.

As he thought that, a photorealistic bar of soap with a pair of googly eyes attached appeared in his AR interface.

What?

+You tried to hurt my mom and dad, Mr. Faraday.+ The bar of soap said in a voice that was an electronic rendition of a little girl’s. +I did not like that.+

His death was excruciating.