The forge doth welcome Blacksuns778 to its glorious ranks.
May their toils bring the cult to greater heights.
------------
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
"You home, bro?" Rebecca called out as the doors to her apartment shunted open.
The blaring music inside dimmed just barely and the distinct sound of a wheeled chair being shoved while still under the full weight of a person caught in my Audioreceptors.
Just a moment before a still seated man rolled out from a nearby room, lazily spinning on the chair and answering "Yeah, I am here. You get shot again?"
"Fuck you, I did fine." She growled at him and naturally flipped him off "I am having a choom over, so keep your shit quiet."
"Ha! Knew it." He laughed, and I found the sound annoying at best "You know you don't have to call it 'Scav hunting' when we both know what you are really do... ing..."
His words trailed off as he finished turning just as I leaned under the doorway and made my way inside.
Rebecca's brother Pilar was gangly in the extreme, dressed only in a open synthleather vest and a pair of jeans, his eyes were either replaced or covered by a thin red Monovisor and he wore a scraggly full beard and a messy mohawk atop his head, one that had not seen a barber in a month at least.
What drew most of my attention however were his arms, as they were even more disproportionately long than my own, especially when it came to the forearm and fingers, making him look quite... ridiculous if I was being perfectly honest.
Longer limbs were useful but there came a point when there is too much of anything.
My own impression seemed far less disappointing on the other hand, as the man tried and failed to hide a low gulp and quickly hopped onto his feet, walking across the room and getting into my face with a large smirk on his own.
"You 'Becca's new choom, eh?" One of his eyebrows went up, wiggling as it did, and he made a show of looking me up and down "How the fuck did that happen?"
"Shot up a few Tygers together, saved some Moxes, it was fun." I shrugged.
"Just ignore this gonkass." Rebecca rolled her eyes, trying to sound nonchalant, but I could hear her growing irritation.
She went completely ignored by him.
"She make you say that?" He grinned, his expression implying the way in which she might have 'persuaded' me to do it.
Without waiting for me to answer he went on "Name's Pilar." He pointed at Rebecca with his thumb "This crazy bitch's brother."
Rebecca reached for her sidearm, murder in her eyes.
"So you her new input or something?" He cupped his chin, getting into my face again, and then grinning like a degenerate "Well, every girl in Night City's gotta satisfy her Smasher fantasy someho-"
That was as far as he got before my patience ran out and my metal knee found its way to his groin, hitting home with a satisfying crunch as Pilar doubled over and curled up on the ground, wheezing out a pained "God, why?"
"Name's Mike." I said with false cheer, as if the previous few seconds didn't just happen "Don't wear it out."
Rebecca didn't bother hiding her grin at seeing her brother get exactly what he deserved, and lowered her gun (even if I did notice her being tempted to shoot him while he was down just for good measure.)
"Wanna go somewhere else?" I asked her, side-eyeing the still curled up man.
"Nah, don't worry about it." She waved it off "I'll just shoot his ass if he tries being annoying again."
"Alright." I shrugged, walking inside and promptly deciding to ignore the weird family dynamic as I heard Rebecca practically skipping after me.
She really didn't like her brother's shittalking, huh?
Their apartment was smaller than my own but not enough so to feel cramped, and while their living room was pretty damn messy, it wasn't to the point of being filthy and I quickly found my way to a cozy looking couch, one that thankfully didn't groan under my weight.
Much.
"Want me to order something over?" I asked as she started digging through a plastic box full of chips.
She looked up "You down for pizza?"
"What kind of a stupid question is that?" I deadpanned.
She grinned and wired me the info on a place she liked and got back to rummaging.
Around a minute later she finally found what she was looking for and tossed me the chip.
I caught it and gave it a look, finding it had a small label reading "Star Wars, the Prequel Trilogy?" I asked, looking up at her with a curious glint in my eyes.
"Hey, it's a classic!" She grinned.
"Oh no, don't get me wrong." I grinned back "I'm just surprised you have some actual taste."
"Oi, those are fighting words!" She pointed at me accusingly.
"Would you look at that." I suddenly sat up "The pizza is here."
She snorted and quickly failed to contain her laughter.
-----
Halfway through the movie, Rebecca looked up at me "Hey, Mike?"
"Yeah?" I asked, still focused on the ongoing scene of a shitty pixelated pod race.
It was art.
"Why'd you borg out?" Rebecca asked, simple and genuine curiosity plain to hear "You don't seem like the corpo type."
"Maybe I am an elite merc on the run, trying a new lease on life?" I posed with a smirk "Or maybe I am just that good at acting."
She rolled her eyes "You told me Lizzie's was your first gig celebration."
"I could have lied." I replied simply.
"Nope." She instantly denied.
Which I must admit, caught me a bit off guard and made me briefly pause my viewing to give her a sideways glance "If you say so."
The scene on the movie went on for awhile longer before I finally said "It's for life support."
Rebecca paused halfway through her bite of pizza, expression flashing through panic and then to regret "Shit, sorry."
"Nah, don't worry about it." I waved her off "It doesn't bother me whatsoever."
She offered a slow nod, and then smirked "If it doesn't bother you, how about you give me more details than 'life support'?"
With an utter deadpan I turned away from the screen and said "Tragic backstories are second date material at minimum."
Her face went through several colors at that, only to turn thunderous as Pilar's voice rang out from the nearby room.
"Oh will you two shut the fuck up and just fuck already?!"
Faster than I'd ever seen her move, Rebecca had her handgun aimed at the source of the voice and was unloading the entire magazine into the thin walls between us.
Somehow she managed to miss every shot, but the annoying gonk was deathly silent from then on.
-----
"The remake fights are better." Rebecca blurted as we watched the fight between the Jedi and Darth Maul.
"You take that back, right now!" I glared at her with utmost indignation.
She crossed her arms and met my eyes "The choreography was better with implants." She shrugged.
"They added foreshadowing for Palpatine!" I declared my denial "It was disgusting!"
"The fights make it worth it." She said "Search your feelings, you know it to be true!"
"That's impossible!" I pretended to clutch at my heart.
We stared at each other for a moment, and then laughed our asses off.
-----
"Man, pre-krash movies are something else." I sighed as the credits rolled after the Phantom Menace.
Busy with the last slice of pizza, all Rebecca did was nod rapidly.
"Too bad we can't marathon the whole thing." I complained as I prepared to get up "But such is life."
"We can always finish it another time." She forced the bite down practically without chewing said just a bit too quickly.
I took a long sip of the syrupy NiCola that came with the pizza and smacked my lips "It's a deal."
She grinned widely and then looked away "You know you don't have to go right now." She leaned over, a slightly forced sultry look on her face as she looked up again "Bro wasn't wrong about the Smasher fantasies."
I stared at her for a moment and then shook my head and chuckled "You get all flustered about the idea of a date but then just go for it like it is nothing?"
"Hey, I was with the Mox for years! I'm not good with this emotional shit." She pointed at me accusingly, though that was only to hide her embarrassment "Also who the hell uses 'flustered' unironically?"
"I do." I deadpanned and finally got up.
"Oh well." She sighed in defeat "I shot my shot."
Unable to help a snort I shook my head and looked down at her "I do like you Rebecca, but I barely know you." The 'And I am barely used to my own skin' went unsaid.
I crossed my arms and offered my most hopefully charming smile "Give it some time, yeah?"
Dejection partially gone, she nodded happily and gave me a thumbs up "Sure thing!"
We chatted about unimportant stuff a while longer and then I was back in my van, driving towards H11.
But then, I was struck by a wave of primal terror so great it nearly made me veer off course.
I needed an alibi, and I needed it yesterday!
Before I even finished the thought I was already dialing Regina Jones, looking for any quick job she could find to cover my tracks.
Mom must never know.
Rebecca
She both sighed and smiled at the same time as the shitty brown Mahir Supron made a left turn and disappeared from view, leaving her to just stand there and stare for a long minute.
"Well, you said you wanted someone genuine." She said mockingly to herself "Guess you should have expected this." She kicked the concrete and muttered "Fuckin' clamjammer."
Another sigh left her and she walked back up to the apartment, feeling both dejected and happy. She did enjoy the evening, it just didn't go as far as she hoped... Or was it expected?
She'd just have to make sure next time was even better. But what to do... Go on a ride? Food? Meet with the crew?
Any such thoughts died the moment she walked back into their home and saw Pilar's annoying mocking grin waiting for her "So, sis. You input didn't put out?"
"I swear to God Pilar I will Fuck. You. Up!" She growled.
"At least you'll get some fuck then." He giggled like the degenerate he was.
And then screeched like a little girl as the wall behind him was riddled with bullets.
Their landlord was not happy the next morning.
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
"The hell is someone like you doing delivery work?" The client whose face was hidden behind a face mask asked.
"Killing time." I shrugged and looked around at the five other 'medicine' dealers, all of whom had their hands around their weapons in one way or another "Satisfied?" I asked the ringleader.
His eyes flashed with annoyance but then he nodded "Yeah, I'll tell Jones you did your job."
"Pleasure doing business." I said flatly and left, only pulling my daemons back once I was out of weapon range.
It didn't take me longer than a moment to connect back to Jones.
[Ms. Jones. Package has been delivered.]
[Good.] She said, just a slight touch of satisfaction in her voice [Notice anything odd?]
What could be odd about a delivery job...
I went through the whole meeting and narrowed my eyes.
[They looked annoyed.] I said [Just guessing here but it wouldn't surprise me if their plan was to betray and rob whoever you sent if it wasn't literally asking to die by annoyed borg.]
[Just as I was afraid of then.] She said after a moment before I could say a thing she went on [I needed your honest impression and they were never going to scratch your paint, unless I turned senile overnight and a bunch of street peddlers somehow got their hands on heavy weapons.]
[Right.] I said, voice still a bit sharp.
[I suspected them for a while now but needed confirmation.] Jones' eye flashed with anger [Couldn't send my usual couriers so when you asked for something to kill time it was the perfect moment.]
[I get it.] I nodded [Still prefer to have all the information just in case.]
[I'll not make you take risks that can be avoided, you can be sure of that.] She nodded [And of course a small bonus for your... discretion.] She quickly added, wiring me 2.5k eurodollars instead of the agreed upon thousand.
[Always a pleasure to do honest business.] My tone changed immediately.
The one-eyed woman's eyebrows went up slightly and I could tell that if she was any less professional she'd be groaning in annoyance right about now [Of course.] Was all she said instead.
A moment passed and just as I thought she was going to end the call she said [I've got some bigger gigs coming up soon, no corpo stuff but more dangerous than you are used to. Your new friends in the Claws going to give you enough time to do some work?]
And of course she already knew about that...
Honestly I'd almost be disappointed if she didn't.
[My associates will be no problem.] I said, not visibly reacting.
[Good.] She nodded [Some jobs might need you to work in a team. You good with that?]
[As long as they aren't incompetent.] I shrugged [Or more interested in looking good than doing their jobs.]
Her sole reaction to my criteria was a mild hum as she noted something down and said [Be hearing you, M.]
As always, she didn't bother waiting for my return goodbye before ending the call.
Too bad for her I found her power moves, if they could even be called that, more amusing than anything else, or I might have started to grow annoyed by now.
She probably knew that, the damn manipulator...
Shaking the useless thoughts from my head I parked my van and took the elevator back home.
"Out so late?" Were mom's first words as I entered the apartment.
Trying to sound as nonchalant as possible I said "Had some quick work to do, no reason to say no to easy money."
She looked at me with narrowed eyes for a moment, instilling me with another instance of primal dread, before she slowly nodded and smiled "I made some burgers while you were away."
And just like that the dread was gone, drowned by contented happiness as I devoured enough food for five grown men.
Life was good.
-----
I felt a sharp buzz of pain run through my brain as the new set of Cyberlegs connected.
A moment later, my OS pinged me with the familiar notification.
[Pedes Mk2 'Venator' Cyberleg implants detected... installation complete:
Myomer Plastic Musculature active, Light Armor Plating active, Lynx Paws active, High Power Reinforced Joints active.]*
The pain subsided just as quickly as it came and I gave myself a full minute to get used to the new pulsing rhythm of the implants' connection to my brain.
It was odd, now that I had gotten used to my own cyberware, watching the new connection be overtaken by my Nanite Forge and OS, and promptly subsumed into the greater whole almost as if consumed and repurposed.
Intellectually I knew I prepared it exactly for that, and I felt great pride at yet another accomplishment that went beyond what the usual corpo scientist could do in years.
But it was still pleasant for my childish heart to ascribe mysticism to something I knew in and out.
Kept things nice and fun, I supposed.
I took a few experimental steps forwards and backwards, ironically feeling slower than before due to the reduction in muscle mass, but the moment I tried a hop instead I found myself flung a good four feet into the air, the ceiling saved only by my instinctive curling at the sudden explosive movement.
My feet touched the floor half a second later without making the slightest noise, and I felt that familiar grin of triumph spreading on my face.
I needed to find somewhere closed off and learn to sprint with my Reinforced Joints as quickly as possible.
Much to my consternation an opportunity quickly presented itself.
Though not one I would have preferred.
-----------
*For comparison:
[Pedes Mk1 Cyberlegs:
Dense Myomer Plastic Musculature, Medium Armor Plating]
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The forge demands more fuel!
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