Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
The familiar feedback-spike of my Mechadendrite backpack reconnecting jolted me fully awake as I hastily tossed my clothes on, the whirring of the trio of cybernetics feeling like I had just regained a lost limb.
Even if I had to admit to myself that I did sleep slightly lighter without them.
The noise of megabuilding 'outside' my window made it a fact I had definitely overslept today, which meant I was late.
"Probably shouldn't have kept tinkering until 4AM." I grumbled to myself and left for the kitchen, even if I didn't regret working on my next cyberdeck one bit.
It wouldn't be ready for tomorrow, but that wasn't important. I doubted the Maelstrom had any truly competent netrunners anyway.
When I rushed into the dining room/kitchen I found two pairs of mildly annoyed eyes waiting for me.
"Sorry, sorry." I preempted their complaints by rising my hands placatingly "Time ran away from me, won't happen again I promise."
Rebecca just huffed, more annoyed that I woke her up when I left last night than anything to do with sleeping in. Glass houses and all that.
Mom on the other hand used a secret weapon, directing me with that frustrating look of concern I just couldn't ignore no matter how hard I tried "Mikey, you know you shouldn't stay up so late."
"I'm nineteen." I huffed in a futile attempt to resist "I can stay up as late as I want."
Naturally, that only made Rebecca snort.
"Not while you are living under my roof." Mom was having none of it of course.
Ever so briefly, I was tempted to point out it was in fact my roof we were living under, but her look promised all manner of pain and suffering if I did and so I chose the path of life.
"Good." She nodded in righteous victory, and ate the last of the pizza in front of me.
I raised a finger to complain but seeing the mirth in her eyes I pretended to grumble while reaching for the fridge and quickly downing a SCOP burger, packaging and all.
"Misty not coming?" I asked.
"She doesn't live here, you know." Mom gave me an amused look.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." I waved her off, gulping down the last of the literal slop before clapping my hands and ignoring their looks of disgust "Let's get going then. Lily should have my order by now."
Before long we were walking across the busy floor 16, thankfully not having to push our way through at the most crowded junctions as the meat was smart enough to move out of the way without having to be moved.
Our destination, the Second Amendment store was unchanged, not quite unkempt but only just, its sole proprietress actually paying attention to her surroundings for once as we entered.
"Hey 'Lana." She waved at mom, her shoulders slightly tensing.
"Lily." Mom waved back, and paused as a series of muffled shots echoed from the nearby room "Busy day?"
"Eh." Lily Adams shrugged "Just a bunch of kids fresh out of primary school learning to shoot, I give them a month tops before they flatline themselves."
Rebecca whistled "You taking bets?"
"No, but I probably should start." Lily laughed before looking Rebecca over curiously "Haven't seen you here before. How'd a Mox end up around these two?"
"Hi!" The little gremlin chriped "I'm 'Becca." She pointed at me "This big lump's output!"
Lily froze, blinking a few times "Okaaay..." She looked at me and then at Rebecca before very quietly muttering "I'm not even going to try unpacking that one..."
"Probably for the best." I said, making her still completely like a deer caught in headlights "Is my order here yet?"
"Yup!" She nodded quickly and bolted up "They are in the back, I'll get them for you right now!" And promptly ran off, outright slamming the doors behind her.
Mom shook her head, smiling lightly.
"You threaten her or something?" Rebecca asked "Poor bitch looks terrified."
I shared a quick look with mom and we both spoke at the same time ""No idea what you are talking about.""
'Becca just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
That was just about when Lily returned with a small box and placed it on the counter "Took some time looking up the exact style you wanted but I got my hands on them in the end."
She sounded downright proud as she opened the box, revealing four firearm grips of differing sizes and designs.
Without a word I picked one of them up between two fingers, tossing it into the air before snatching it within the same second, wriggling my fingers around it and quickly finding it far more comfortable than what I was used to.
The shotgun grip reached just a bit beyond the bottom of my hand now, and the horizontal length was increased to accommodate for my elongated fingers, allowing me to grab it perfectly without having to pull my digits back awkwardly.
And the specialized grooves were just icing on the proverbial cake. Recoil would be even less of a problem now, which meant an even tighter aim in high intensity combat.
Far too eager to just leave it for later, I unholstered my Crusher and laid it out across the counter, my Terebrus Mechadendrite whipping out from behind me while switching to its screwdriver option, and allowing me to rapidly remove the old grip before exchanging it for the new one.
Ignoring Lily's wide, terrified eyes, I picked the freshly modified weapon up and began moving it about, rapidly testing my favorite stances before nodding in satisfaction.
"Oh yes." I whispered to myself, absently caressing the weapon "You will do."
My eyes snapped up to Lily, making her jump and yelp, and I gave her a thumbs up "Good job."
"Th-" She cleared her throat and took a deep breath before repeating "Thanks?"
"We'll take three hours in the range." I said, ignoring her nervousness, and paid her the agreed upon price, while also tossing her a small tip.
"Sure thing." She gulped, and quickly gave us access.
Only now did I look to the others and found both mom and Rebecca looking at me with amusement.
'Ah.' I paused 'I did it again.'
-----
16 Pack
The pistol slammed into his hand with each shot, the improperly held weapon very nearly twisting out of his grip if not his excitement making him barely even notice the effort as he emptied his entire magazine into the target.
Or... well as damn near the target as he could anyway.
"Damn, Iggy." One of his chooms slowly clapped her hands "My grandma shoots better than that."
"Fuck you, Hong!" He flipped her off "I'm just getting used to it, that's all."
"Really, bro?" Miguel snorted, leaning against the wall with his sunglasses still over his eyes "Could have bought a pack of cigs for all those clips you just wasted."
"They are mags." Igor snapped, realizing only then that he was getting baited "Man, fuck you both."
"Gimme that." Chu Hong yanked the Unity from his hand before he could pull it back "I'll show you how to flatline a gonk."
Grumbling loudly, Igor took a step away just in case.
And lucky that he did because the moment the diminutive girl pulled the trigger, the gun went flying from her hand, falling onto the floor and going off on its own, hitting the exact spot Igor was standing in moments ago.
"Fuck!" Hong cursed, clutching at her suddenly very red wrist.
"Pinche puta madre!" Miguel agreed, running over to the two of them and immediately looking Igor over "You intact, choom?"
Still shaking from the experience, Igor slowly looked down and damn near pissed himself in relief when he realized he wasn't bleeding anywhere "Yeah." He nodded shakily "I'm good."
"Wheew." Miguel exhaled in relief "Imagine getting flatlined like that." He snapped his fingers "Just fucking about and suddenly... poof."
Igor's entire upper body twitched "Don't even say that!"
"Right, sorry." Miguel raised his hands, still smirking "Think that is enough for today. Hong?"
The girl, still clutching at her wrist and glaring hatefully at the smoking pistol, nodded.
And just as they were all starting to relax again, a downright cacophonous salvo of shotgun fire from nearby made them all scream out in a panic, even if the noise was simply drowned out by the gunfire.
It took them only a few moments longer to realize they should probably get down as well.
But for whatever reason, the salvo just didn't seem to stop, no matter how long they waited.
Igor was the first to recover, and once his mind stopped going all fight or flight on him, he quickly realized someone else probably entered the range while they were distracted with their new toys, and he cautiously stood up to see what was happening.
What he found made him equally terrified and excited.
On the other end of the shooting range, he saw the local fucking Legend unloading a preem ass Crusher like it owed him money, while two others watched.
Whenever his magazine clicked empty, something flashed on his left that made him reload so quickly it seemed like he didn't reload at all, simply continuing to fire while grinning a terrifying, toothy grin.
And hooo boy, that was a lot of fucking teeth right there.
"Preem as fuck." Igor muttered.
"Hooly fuck." Miguel whispered next to him, almost making him jump.
Hong looked far less impressed though "Ah."
"Whaddaya mean, ah?" Miguel shook her shoulder "Don't you know who that is?"
"Duh." She looked at him like he was an idiot "We are neighbors."
The salvo of shotgun fire stopped suddenly "That is correct, Ms. Chu." The echoing synthetic voice could belong to only one person "And it just so happens that your grandmother kindly asked me to keep an eye on you."
Hong gulped.
Igor wasn't sure what to think right now, and Miguel was too busy whispering "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit..." To add anything smart.
"If I wasn't clear enough." The cyborg went on, sounding a bit annoyed this time "That means get over here, now."
The trio stood up with baffling synchronicity and in their awe, proceeded to almost mechanically walk over to the cyborg's side of the range.
While they did so, the shorter woman with Magos was doing her best to hold down a laugh, while the taller grey-haired one that looked half as borged out as the borg himself, was looking over the kids with mild concern.
"Right then." Magos said as the three gonks reached him, finally turning to look at them as the pupils in his left eye whirred and changed sizes "No actual wounds, but you did strain your arms quite a bit which is going to suck in the morning. You have more luck than you have brains."
Miguel began muttering again, and Igor found he agreed with him. He was actually paying attention to them!
Hong on the other hand, had more pressing concerns "Please don't tell my granny about this!"
"Why wouldn't I?" The cyborg titled his head "That poor woman does nothing but worry about you, and I'm supposed to lie to her?"
"We'll get better I swear!" The girl waved her hands frantically "Just don't tell her please, I can't listen to anymore nagging!"
"Oi!" Miguel suddenly snapped at her "Don't talk shit about your abuela, that woman is a saint."
Hong stuck her tongue out at him.
Feeling emboldened by the relative easing of the atmosphere, Igor looked up to the cyborg and decided to shoot his shot "Why not show us how to do it then? So we don't fuck it up again?"
The range turned silent again, save for the quiet snort of the short woman, and the only answer Igor got for his bold proposal was a slow, deliberate, blink.
"I uhh..." Suddenly feeling very awkward, the boy began shuffling on his feet.
But before Magos could tell him to fuck right off, the heavily cyberized grey haired woman spoke up "I guess I can show you kids how not to kill yourselves." She turned to her... chooms? "Have fun you two."
Magos gave a brief look before shrugging "Sure. Have fun."
"Oh, I will." The grey-haired woman smirked "Don't worry kids, when I am done with you you won't misfire ever. again."
For some reason, that smirk suddenly looked incredibly ominous.
-----
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
Strolling through floor 10 for my meeting with Senko and her fellow goons while decked out in my freshly modified weapons, I couldn't help but add a bit of swagger to my step... Which also helped with the crowd that was even worse than the one on my own floor.
In fact, whenever I left my home base, I had to pay special attention to all of my things as despite the fact I was a literal walking death machine, some gonks were just living life on hard mode and trying to speedrun the Darwin award by trying to swipe me.
And I couldn't just break them in half because the NCPD was real nosy whenever a mess happened inside a megabuilding.
I supposed some light viruses would have to suffice.
Winner number three winced and clutched at his head as Ponpon Shit started blasting directly into his brain on max volume, his groans quickly turning into panicked screams.
A cruel fate, but a deserved one.
Finally free of the massive crowd as I left the main hallway, I found myself briefly distracted by a shop display showing off a selection of machineguns.
Only to then hear a slightly slurred from my right "Hey there sugah. Looking for some fun?"
My head twitched in the voice's direction only for my tension to disappear instantly as I saw what was obviously a thoroughly washed up joytoy trying to ply her trade, dressed in what could generously be called skimpy clothing, and with her eyes unfocused to the point she was obviously under the influence of something.
Or multiple somethings, if I was being honest.
Before she could open her mouth again I cut her off "Not interested."
She scowled, and that would have been that if not for a sudden jolt in my memory.
See, when I decided to suck my complaints up and just do my job for Jugo over a month ago, I made sure to download all the information I could about the joytoy deal I was foolish enough to end up watching over.
And having looked it over, I knew the faces of every single 'toy' involved.
And this just happened to be one of them.
My entire body stilled as I looked the battered and bruised woman over.
"Change your mind, sugah?" She asked.
"No." I shook my head, and shot her a 'tip' anyway "Have a good day."
She blinked, before shrugging and lighting up a cigarette, probably already having forgotten I was even there.
Not even ten seconds after I left her behind, I flicked my Agent on and selected a contact.
[Regina Jones: Magos.] The Fixer greeted with a nod only three seconds later [You've been quiet.]
[Magos: Apologies, Ms. Jones. But I have no time for idle chatter.] I said coldly [I am in need of your services.]
An interested gleam appeared in her sole eye [I'm listening.]
Scanning through my files again, I made the decision [I need someone removed.]
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Its rock o clock. Again!
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