It's About Saving Yourself Ch 33
Good afternoon y'all!
Once I got a bit of a hurdle, the rest of the chapter just wrote itself!
Also...I will say...sorry.
You'll see what I mean.
SOOOOO EXCITE!
Lemme know your thoughts in a comment! I always really like hearing from y'all!
And now, chapter 33!
=][=
I stood at the Night City International and Translunar Spaceport.
I had been surprised when I was informed that it doubled as an airport. Because that makes sense somehow.
Some people were giving me wide berths, probably because I was very visibly heavily armed. Or it may have been Apex’s drone stuck to my back like a large metallic spidery limpet.
So…not like a limpet at all.
Before limpets went extinct anyway.
‘You sure you won’t stay here with Lucy?’ I mentally asked for the umpteenth time.
‘Daaaaaaad.’ Apex whined in my head. ‘Mom promised to keep a low profile and stay out of the net! If anyone is going to need backup, it’s you!’
I grumbled and bemoaned my inability to refute her logic.
I finally found the asshat from Europe I was supposed to meet. He was dressed in a pink jacket and pants with so much glitter he could find work as a disco ball, and he was being lazy, sitting down and holding a plastic board with ‘Redeye’ written on it in permanent marker.
Wasteful.
I loomed over him, and when he didn’t look up from his Agent, I snatched the plastic board off his hand and smacked him on top of his bald head with it.
Necessary? None at all, but dammit that made me feel slightly better.
“Hey! What the fuck!?” He screamed, jumping to his feet and failing to loom.
“I tried getting your attention several times and got no response.” I lied. “Now that I finally got your attention. Let’s go.”
He was pale skinned, square jawed, blue eyed and muscular, and an inch taller than me. But he didn’t have the cyber-ware to be a threat to me. And hacking his Agent showed an extensive medical history of body sculpting.
He didn’t seem to buy my excuse, but I was able to see the moment he reached the very important realization, that only one of us was armed with a quad-barrel shotgun and had a reputation for drawing and firing all four barrels with pinpoint accuracy in under a fifth of a second.
“Follow me.” He ordered gruffly, turning around and not offering to help with my luggage. Thus landing himself firmly in my shit-list for the near future.
Was it petty and unfair of me to take out my frustrations at being separated from my Lucy for several months so I could more effectively hide the fact that I was going to get a literal magic ride out of this dying world on this early-onset midlife-crisis kitsch-gargling fuckwad?
Yes, yes it was.
The fact that his legs fell asleep and he faceplanted, spilling a sickening amount of pink glitter on the floor, was proof that this fact would not stop me.
As I boarded the very private very expensive looking extremely fancy flying coffin that made too much noise for my liking, I cast one last look at the glowing neon skyscrapers of the City of Dreams.
“Fucking nightmare shithole.” I murmured and got in the plane.
=][=
Time is an irregular concept.
[Hello, my name is Arif Iqbal, and you’re watching WNS news. The stock prices of Millitech and Zetatech continue to plummet as more information on this latest scandal surfaces. The intimate, thorough, and most important of all, indisputably documented information leaks detailing breaches of numerous contracts, breaking international law, and embezzlement in the tens of billions of Eurodollars, deal blow after blow to these Corporations, will they be able to recover? We will keep you updated.]
Sometimes each and every second is an individual eternity, their cruel crawl punctuated by the pitiless and sterile white light in a hospital’s waiting room.
[Goooooood morning Night City! Is that a mirage? A hologram? A sick joke? No! That’s another crucified Animal at the edge of Heywood! As you well know, the Animals have not been having a good time! Their personal Grim Reaper who made a fantastic guest appearance in the most watched episode of Watson Whore, may have left town, but that doesn’t stop every other gang smelling blood in the water, does it!?]
Other times, one could have sworn that the doctor said ‘you have eight months to live’ just yesterday.
[Alright listen up people, Maximum Mike here with a public service announcement. I know we all had a big party when the Animals were finally ran off the Street. But that just opened up space, and you know what they say; Nature abhors a vacuum. If you’ve been hearing rumors of people in white makeup, big red noses, wild red hair and long shoes? Those were not shoes. You are also among the few lucky ones to have gotten away mostly unscathed. The Bozos are back in town, and while many of you will be too young to remember them, those wiser among us are not so lucky. If you see a clown, or worse, a group of clowns. Run, just run. Do not stop to talk, do not watch their skit, fight only if you must. And if one of them has a teddy-bear, for the love of all that is holy, do not make fun of it.]
The only aspect of time that has any regularity, is the ruthless, uncaring fact that no matter the circumstance of your birth, the hard work you put in, or how lucky you are, you have a finite amount of it.
=][=
“You are being rescued, DO NOT RESIST!”
David cringed back as the Enlightened needlessly tore the door off the crashed car, then roughly got the stunned people out of the vehicle and to another Enlightened, who used a medical kit to see to their injuries.
+Why are you crying!? I didn’t cry when I tore off my meat and replaced it with Superior Steel!+
Their bedside manner could do with a lot of improvement though.
He was so busy watching the spectacle of the ‘former’ Maelstromer goons attempting to treat wounded that he didn’t watch where he was going, and bumped into someone, his head rebounding off their back with a ‘thunk.’
“WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING!” David glanced up at the aggressive shout coming from above his head, his blood running cold, how had he missed the nine-foot tall Maelstromer? “YOU COULD HAVE HURT YOURSELF! AND THAT WOULD MAKE ME UNKIND!”
The enormous borg leaned down, putting his drone faceplate an inch away from David’s face.
“You wouldn’t want to make me unkind!” He shouted slightly more quietly.
“N-No. That was my bad. It won’t happen again.” David said, his hands up, palms forward.
“GOOD! BE KIND!” The Enlightened said, giving David a ‘soft’ push that sent him stumbling forward several feet.
He sighed and continued on his way to his gig, the first job he’d been able to get in months. He probably could have scheduled it better, but if everything went well, he should be able to do the job and still make it to school on time. He’d have to remember to check in his gun at the door.
The lump of metal and plastic still weighed heavy in his pant’s pocket, he’d gotten the Lexington when Muamar said that he wouldn’t give David any more gigs until he was armed. He hadn’t even shot it yet.
It had come with two magazines, both of them full of ammo, the guy at the 2nd Amendment had said something about tissue damage and velocity, and acceptable armor penetration, most of it had flown over David’s head. What he’d gotten out of it is that it would kill most gonks that didn’t have really heavy armor, so he was being pretty careful with it.
He turned from the street that he normally took to get to the metro and went into the building Muamar had specified in his text. The place was run down and looked abandoned, there were a few skezzed out hobos taking up space, but he didn’t bother with them as he walked in. The CitiNet-PS tracker embedded on the package he was there to klep leading him to what looked like an apartment on the fifth floor.
He tried the door, found it unlocked, and walked in slowly. The place smelled worse than was normal for Night City, the linoleum on the floor was fucked and full of holes, and the paint on the walls was peeling, still, he made his way to the nav-point in his HUD, turned a corner and nearly shat his pants when he almost walked face-first into a corpse crudely crucified on a mannequin stand.
It was missing its belly, and most of everything that would go inside a belly, David could see its spine and the stringy muscles of its back, from the front.
“This gonk is fucked up.” David muttered, moving more slowly and quietly. He wanted to run away, but he couldn’t just not finish the gig, his Rep depended on it!
He’d already had to turn down too many jobs because of fucking school. Yeah, now that Alex hadn’t been around, he’d been able to move about more freely, but he still had to be careful. Still, just to be safe, he drew his gun and put his finger on the trigger.
There were more dead bodies, some of them on a tarp, most not. A lot of them covered in flies and roaches.
David had never before been in a Scav den, and he didn’t want to be in one again. The whole thing was fucked.
A shadow moved ahead of him, he heard a buzz and felt a sting on his cheek, then a series of loud roars that made him twitch as well as a punch to his gut that slammed the air out of his lungs. His ears were ringing, he heard clicks and cursing that his HUD translated as ‘Bitch!’
He clenched the fingers of his hand, his gun roared and bucked in his hand, he flinched, shot several rounds into the walls and ceiling, then walked the sparks to the man who had shot at him who was fumbling with a pistol. He started to dance, blood spurting out of his chest and shoulders until David’s gun stopped shooting.
David stood there, trembling, he felt sick and his ears were ringing.
The man stood there, the holo-mask he wore hiding his face, instead of eyes the holo mask had an ‘X’ and an ‘O’ where the eyes would be. His green hoodie turning a darker red with every second that passed.
“Cука блять.” He said, David’s HUD translating that to ‘Fucking bitch.’ He then toppled forward, stiff as a board, and fell face first on the floor.
David stared as the linoleum beneath the man he’d just killed turned red in an expanding pool of his blood.
He bent over, puked up his breakfast, then gave the vomit and the fresh corpse a wide berth, grabbed the fanny pack marked by this HUD, and ran. He didn’t stop until he was at the drop-off point for the package, after he dropped it off and was on his way to school, Muamar gave him a call.
[Not gonna lie rookie, I wasn’t sure you had it in you! This is one of those few times I’m glad to be proven wrong! Eddies on their way, gig closed.]
With that, he hung up, and David received five thousand eddies. Which would have seemed like a lot last year. But it wouldn’t even pay for a month’s rent for their apartment at the Glenn.
David shook himself and went to school, eventually remembering to put away his gun, though he couldn’t figure out how to make it not be locked open, but it didn’t have any bullets in it, so it wouldn’t hurt anyone anyways.
The trip to school was a complete blur, it wasn’t until he was checking his gun in with the guard at the gate, that David realized that his cheek was bleeding from a graze.
When he wasn’t able to answer questions satisfactorily, more guards showed up and he was escorted to a detention room. Which was bullshit, he hadn’t done anything to get detention over. But he couldn’t really find it in himself to care, the holo-mask was still staring at him.
He’d never killed anyone before.
He didn’t even know the face of the man he’d killed, and somehow that made it feel worse, like, like he’d been disrespectful or some shit. Like he should know the face of the man he’d killed.
Is this what Alex had felt like?
Thinking of his brother hardened David’s resolve. Alex had never seemed to give a rat’s ass about the people he killed, he hadn’t even noticed when he’d killed Flaco. David could be just as strong as Alex, and he’d prove it!
He’d killed some gonk Scav, Night City was better off without that fucker in it anyways.
The door to the room opened, and an old Asian man walked in, he had cyber-ware lines etched into his face and was built like a brick, he scowled through a pair of thin square-rimmed glasses.
“Mister Martinez.” He said, his voice slightly accented. “You are bleeding onto your uniform.”
David blinked, looked down, and saw that his uniform was, indeed, quite thoroughly stained.
The old suit handed him a gauze pad. “Press that against the injury.”
“R-Right.” David said, taking it and doing as he was told.
The old man sat across from David. “You have an interesting list of cyber-ware.” He said, his eyes glowing blue. “Syn-lungs, skin-weave, skill softs, reinforced phalanges, mil-spec heart. But tell me, Mister Martinez, do you understand what all of this hardware has in common?”
That it was what he was able to put together from Doc’s stock? Instead he answered. “No.”
“It is that it is unobtrusive.” The man said. “This shows an unusual level of prudence, from a boy your age.”
“Yeah well, it seemed like a good idea.” David scoffed. Otherwise his brother would have caught him.
“Arasaka Academy truly does not care how you make your money, Mister Martinez.” The man continued. “We only care about results. I am certain that you are wondering why you are here.”
“Yeah, no shit.” David scoffed.
The man continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “Suffice it to say, we are looking into a sensitive matter, and are only doing our due diligence, I apologize for the inconvenience. I will ensure you are given a pass for today’s classes. That said, I have checked your file, and we went through your things. Our investigation will go on for a while longer, and I do not wish for you to miss out on your scheduled medication. Is there somewhere in particular that you have hidden them?”
David blinked. “What medication?”
The man scowled at him. “Your medication, Mister Martinez.”
“What medication?” David repeated.
The man’s scowl deepened. “What do you mean, ‘what medication’?”
“Exactly what it sounds like?” David said, trying not to get pissed off. “I ain’t sick, why would I need meds?”
The man’s scowl softened. “You are telling me…that you are not taking any medication whatsoever?”
“No. Why would I? I ain’t fuckin’ sick.” David stated.
The man steepled his fingers. “Most interesting. Mister Martinez, I have an opportunity that you might find yourself interested in.”
As he began to explain in the usual droning corpo-speak, the man flicked David a file that showed some of the most awesome chrome David had ever seen.
And reading quickly through it, all he’d need to do to have it, was sign.
This was the moment he’d been waiting for, the proof that he really was special.
Not really listening, David signed the contract.
=][=
Needing a break from doing her laundry, Lucy walked ponderously to her chair and sat, she was wearing a very unflattering combo of sweatpants and a sports bra, but none of her usual clothes exactly fit. She’d been surprised by how quickly she’d ended up looking like she’d really let herself go.
She sighed. She missed her output. Yeah, the Mr. Studd she’d modified to have his size, shape, and length helped when she was really feeling the itch, but that gonk also did all the cheesy chick-flick shit that Lucy hadn’t realized how much she appreciated until she didn’t have it for four fucking months.
She still called bullshit. Before Alex left she’d been almost two months pregnant and she’d still fit into that fetish-wear he’d called a ‘dress’ enough to drive him stupid, now she didn’t fit into any of her usual clothes!
And he wasn’t here for her to bitch him out for doing this to her!
Admittedly, it was her cyber-ware that failed, he had insisted on using condoms, but Lucy had been the one to tell him to just do it raw because she had it handled. So logically, that was on her, but logic could go fuck itself beca-
She felt the little parasite in her belly move and kick the inside of her stomach. Which, on the one hand, it was a fairly feeble kick, it didn’t really hurt, on the other, she wished Alex was here.
And now she was feeling the itch, and she’d just sat down, so no, she was not going to get her Mr. Studd because fuck that.
And she missed her Alex so much! She ached for him! She even missed his stupid, overly dramatic, evil mastermind laugh! Seriously! Laughing like a cartoon villain isn’t supposed to be adorable!
She wiped the tears off her cheeks and decided to very logically blame Alex for the mood swings too. It was very logical, because it was Alex’s fault. And the fact that it was Alex’s fault made her feel better, which is what truly mattered.
She sighed and leaned back and felt the baby kick again.
“Oi, stop that.” She said, pointing at her stomach. “If you don’t, I’ll tell on you to your father.”
As if it could understand her, the baby stilled.
Lucy sighed. She couldn’t wait for the whole mess to be over. Gloria had said that Lucy would know when the baby was coming, because a sudden feeling of dread, like she was about to die, would overtake her.
Seriously, what the fuck? Maybe she should have tried to buy an iron womb, just, delegate the whole mess.
Except that had been really goddamn expensive, and Gloria had talked up the wonders of pregnancy so much that Lucy had felt curious about the experience. And now it was way too late to do the damn thing.
There was also the high failure rate to worry about, so she most likely wouldn’t have done it, but still, it was nice to fucking fantasize about it.
Lucy sighed and levered herself to her feet, time to finish that damn laundry. She couldn’t wait for Alex to arrive. At least starting tomorrow she could foist all the chores on him.
Sure, she could also have taken Gloria up on her offer and lived with her in Alex’s apartment, but then it would have been really awkward to…relieve herself whenever that itch came about.
Speaking of that itch, maybe her laundry could wait…
A blast all but blew the door of her apartment off its hinges, Lucy deployed her monowire and swung it, stumbling as her body tried to dive, but the extra weight on her midriff made her stumble instead.
The monowire bit, a severed hand fell to the floor with a splat.
It was holding a flash-bang.
She almost reacted in time to close her eyes. Lucy swung the monowire blindly, she felt it bite twice, but it wasn’t long before a steel grip clamped onto her wrists with surprising gentleness and she was immobilized.
Her cyber-ware finally recalibrated and she was no longer deaf and blind, but when she saw what held her, she wished she was. She was surrounded by a full squad of corpo mercs, one of them was missing his right hand, another the left arm at the shoulder, the helmet of one of them had been shorn through and she could see gleaming yellow bone where the cut had happened, but worst of all, holding her wrists was a nine foot tall ‘borg, a monster of steel and plastic, its steel head a dome without human features.
It had the Arasaka logo on its chest.
“Fuck.” She tried to shout, but it came out as a whimper.
++My wayward daughter. It is good to see you, at long last.++ It said in a voice that was horrifying for being almost human, and unfortunately, nostalgically familiar.
“Father? Is that you?” She asked, looking up at the featureless faceplace. “What…What happened to you?”
The ‘borg, Takeshi Kushinada, remained quiet for a long moment before speaking. ++I internalized the painful lesson your mother and you bestowed upon me. Nothing more.++ He moved her wrists together so he could hold them with a single hand, the way Alex sometimes did, only unlike when her output did it, she very much did not like it. ++You have wasted enough time, daughter, you will return with me, and you will atone for your neglect and rebellion.++
Lucy’s blood turned to ice, she began pulling back as the borg turned around and dragged her without effort. “No. No you can’t do this. I won’t!”
The borg crouched to get through the doorframe, the squad of Arasaka mooks moving ahead and securing the building as he pulled her. ++While I had hoped for your understanding, your compliance is not a requirement. Worry not my daughter, I will be far more gentle than I had at first intended. I thank you for this boon.++
Lucy blinked. “What?”
Takeshi turned his blank faceplate to face her. ++I will cherish this opportunity you have chosen to bestow upon me. I will take this child growing in your belly and raise it. This time, I shall not make the same mistakes I committed with you.++
Lucy redoubled her efforts, her heart slamming against her ribs, her breath hitching as she pulled harder against Takeshi’s inexorable strength. “You can’t!”
He seemingly did not notice, he resumed walking. ++As before, my dear daughter, your compliance is not a requirement. Now stop struggling, it would be a shame if you were to damage my grandchild with your foolish resistance.++
Lucy dove into the net, several Arasaka netrunners had been ready, and pounced on her, in desperation she launched a data packet, a panicked plea for Kiwi to tell Alex what was happening.
And before her despairing eyes, she saw that data packet be intercepted, and deleted.
Lucy screamed.
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