Cyberpunk New Game Plus

Cyber 5

By: BigToFu

 

 

David Martinez

Pulling into the parking space, I hopped out and lowered the truck's bed. Wolf jumped down and checked the surroundings along with the Major while I gathered the briefcase. Wolf stood guard around Gloria not even bothering to activate his stealth mode. After thinking about it, I thought it better to always keep stealth active when David's general memories provided how the world had a lot of exotic robotic-type pets. Lucky for me, this wasn't a terminator world when I thought about the type of things an AI could get up to when there are animals with open Wi-Fi connections just roaming around with those who have a few extra eddies to just buy something interesting.

Raising a brow as the Major kept her head on a swivel, I said nothing as I noted her scanning a few people as her cyber presences ghosting around. Walking as a group, I took the lead and walked us right by the bouncer standing at the front of Afterlife. The moron tried to put his hand out to blood me, but I've been taking my multivitamins and eating my Wheaties. It was clear to anyone who looked at me that I was a big boy all grown up. It had only been a week and not enough time to reverse all the damage the lack of food and proper nutrients did to stunt my growth, but it was more than enough to put on a few pounds of muscles and a few inches of height. So that meant when I checked the bouncer's shoulder, he actually moved and felt that instead of my scrawny ass getting knocked to the side.

With a snort, we walked right past the bouncer, through the two sets of outer doors, and into the club.

When we got in, I forgo a booth and ignored the open spots at the counter, instead, I took a table a little distance away that gave perfect angles of the door and the bathroom, while the wall was at my back. I didn't know much but I did know about angles of approach along with basic human tendencies. Everyone carried weapons, that was a given, but most people would either regroup in a booth, or bathroom or come in guns blazing from the front of Afterlife. My hands might be rated E for everyone, but I refuse to be caught unawares with my pants down.

The Major looked at me with a raised brow over my seating placement and then gave a subtle nod as I shifted and allowed her to take a position at my side.

"So, what's good to drink?" The Major asked, the menu pops up at the table via a little hologram.

*So who is in charge here?*

I blinked a little then realized that the Major was using doublespeak because of not only her secret agent Section 9 status, but also because she was from a Cyberpunk type civilization also.

"None of the bottom shelf shit, I do prefer TRUhydro though," I replied with a smirk.

*This is Rogue's place, respect the boundaries because this place is neutral.*

"Pass, how about this HiOCTane, looks good at least,"

*I can see a lot of traffic going in and out of the back room.* The Major returned with a smile and a wiggle of her brows.

Gloria came over and stopped our actual conversation even if we pushed the real stuff to just neural communications, not like anyone would be able to break my ICE anyway. We were just using the cover of the drinks to make sure things didn't look awkward from the outside and raise someone's curiosity. We went back and forth in private communication even as I shared a smile and drink with Gloria, her frowning at me with displeasure.

Then the ping came in and I shifted to serious mode, "Wolf, stay with Gloria, Major, you're with me."

Picking up the briefcase, I strolled without a care in the world towards the back booth that had a now open sliding door and smoke-tinted windows. Behind me, the Major strolled, also cool as a cucumber, but all that almost failed when I noticed the big fat guy. Walking from the back was Dexter Deshauan, that double-crossing mother fucking gonk. A flash of inspiration struck me and I made a mental ping for a location within Haywood.

The ping came back with Lupe Welles, owner of the El Coyote Cojo, shit. That's it, I would have to go pick up Jakie after this and do a few errands if I could and if I was lucky. V just might also be with him at this point in time. From what I remember in-game, you started out as a punk and pulled the first with Jackie before a time skip and shit. We don't get a general time frame but it had to have been a few months because by that point your character's V name had gotten around and you had some good street cred.

Pushing the thought of that double-crossing asshole out of my mind and the subsequent mental train that followed. I walked into the area where Rogue was located, smiled across the table at her, and took a seat. With a raised brow, I looked at the other guy at one of the side tables, then snorted at him. With a mental flick of a thought trail, his attempt at cyber-hacking was rebuffed. The resulting action was him almost falling out of his chair with how hard he flinched back from the recoil. Lucky for him, I didn't want to fry any of his parts. With a smirk on my lips, I turned back to Rogue with a brow raised.

The GILF across from me smirked back at me, then made a motion towards the table. "Are those what I asked for?"

Placing the case on the table, I didn't say anything as the code was entered and the top was popped. With a motion, I turned the case around for Rogue to take a look at the five shields along with a miniaturized shield generator. The case was separated into two halves and in the bottom half was the main prize which was a larger shield generator. It was a miniature version of the one Hyperion put inside of their loaders, but also a scaled-up version of the one you can wear on your hip. The selling point was anchor nodes you can place around to create a perimeter.

"Each shield is powered by a fusion cell capable of lasting six months. They are also programmed and locked to their control shards along with the tech being black-boxed in case any Corpo's get any funny idea." I started, then made a motion with my hands exploding. "Also capable of remote detonation, the range of the control shards is very short. Anywhere beyond a thousand feet and boom."

As I went through the devices and showed each of them off, I had the information packet gathered and sent to Rogue for her to look at. I even pointed out the fact that for the shield couplings, I used standard power connectors along with data connectors, it would suck to need proprietary bullshit. Also, this way Rogue could connect everything to her main control systems. No one was going to be able to take out my creations by bullshit wireless control nodes.

Once I was finished with my little show and tell, I took my seat along with the drink brought in by the bartender. Taking a sip, I release a hum and then offered the rest to the Major but she didn't take it with a reply, *Not while running security.*

Rogue had the Whisky Tango Foxtrot, a classic Dahl shield from Borderlands 2 Legendary system before her on the table, a finger tapping on its data shard. "So what's the price for all this?"

I raised a brow at her, "Not going to take this for free as the price of our partnership?"

This time Rogue released a small chuckle, "You've proven your capabilities by almost genociding an entire gang, plus it's clear your technology is something that will shift the balance of power. Partnership or not, solid work should be respected not taken advantage of."

My hand tapped a staccato on the table before I finally made up my mind on what I wanted and it sure wasn't money. "You know about Fingers on JigJig street?"

There was a flash of disgust that ran across Rogue's face before it was hidden away, "What about him"

Putting my drink down, I looked Rogue in the eyes, "I'm aware of certain passing proclivities of his. I'm also aware of him being in Wakako territory."

"I'm aware," Rogue replied with a move-it-along hand motion.

"Well, I want him gone and I have a candidate in mind," I replied.

Rogue spoke up and cut me off. "Who, Gloria?"

"No," I replied with a shake of the head. "She doesn't want to admit it but her near death has messed her up, even if she is a damn good ripper and EMT, she just isn't up to any of it right now." Then I sent over what I had gathered over a few days. "I want him to replace Fingers, his bedside manners could use a little fixing though."

Her face twisted in distaste at my candidate to replace Fingers, "You want him to replace Fingers, really?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I already had plans on killing Fingers, but you wanted to know my price."

Rogue looked at me, then down at the items before her as her finger poked at the shield sitting on the table. "Alright, but you will have to make contact and offer the change in location."

With a grunt, I stood up and shrugged, "That's no problem, I was going to offer him a slot on my personal team, but this works out too."

Rogue stopped me with a hand, "You trust him that much?"

My chuckle was deep and rich with hints of things that made her cheeks peek with a hint of blush, "He took a chance on a gonk kid with nothing to his name."

Rogue lit up a cig and did a slow puff, "So that's it huh…"

"Yup, my great big flaw, loyalty." With that said, I made eye contact with Rogue and she gave me a slight nod of the head. "We were old school and loyalty was worth far more in Night City than anything money could afford."

"I'll contact Wakako." Rogue replied, then with a nod, I left the backroom.

Leaving Rogue to talk with her crew, The Major and I walked to the bar where Gloria was seated and chatting with the very cute widower with a thing for hot rods, Claire Russel. I would need to help her on that self-appointed mission to avenge her late husband. Maybe even give her a shoulder to cry on and maybe put a baby in her. Whichever comes first, this was Night City after all and everyone needed a little bit of hope and joy in their lives.

Walking over, I tapped the counter next to Gloria and smiled at the bartender.

"So, you're the new one huh?" Claire commended as she looked me over.

With a chuckle, I shrugged, "Only time will tell, but I'm the one and only depending on the situation of course."

"Ohh hush it you," Gloria chuckled with a swat to my chest. With a smirk on my lips, I just shrugged at her. "So are you finished up here?"

I gave a nod of the head, "Yeah, but I would feel bad taking you away from your playdate?" I replied with a motion of my hand toward Claire.

Claire snorted at me, took out her rag, and wiped down the bartop. "Not that kind of party kid."

Shrugging, I took a seat, "It's all good."

Gloria turned a worried look at me, "I thought you had more errands to run?"

My shoulders went up and down in return, "I do, but I don't plan to ditch you here."

Gloria's face went flat as she stared me down, then huffed, "This isn't my first time out on the town, no need to baby me."

Putting both hands over my head, I unleashed the dramatics, "You wound me, my intentions are pure as driven snow. Does thou Queen not want thou escort over yonder?"

"Síguete haciendo el chistosito." Gloria replied with a huff and I could only chuckle as I stood up with my hands raised in surrender.

Then I rested a hand on Wolf's head, then leaned in, and placed a kiss on Gloria's cheek, "I'll leave the truck for you."

"Alright," Gloria replied with a smile as I turned to head out a wave over my shoulder towards Claire also.

Without another word, I posted up on the corner outside of the club while keeping an eye on the time at the edge of my vision counting down. Leaning up against the wall, I looked at the Major and found her looking down the street at some of the orphan kids.

"Problem Major?" I asked with a head motion toward the kids.

The Major looked at me, then the kids before shaking her head. "No, just taking in how no matter how things change, they still stay the same."

Letting out a sigh, I thought about picking up smoking because, damn, she was fucking right. "You know, if you want to adopt some, I wouldn't mind. God knows Gloria would like the sound of kids in that mansion."

The major turned and gave me a look with a raised brow, "Really?."

"I got nothing against it, not like I plan to have any kids soon," I replied with a shrug. "Plus Gloria is going through PTSD right now and this could help her."

The Major turned and gave me a look, "I'll think about it…"

We shared a little peace and quiet between us as the time slowly went by. Then it was broken by the purring exhaust ports of my Porsche 911 turbo. The auto drive had my Porsche pulling up right beside us, with a nod towards Major, we both got in. She got in the passenger side seat and I took the driver's side.

As I sat in the driver's seat, my neural link connected to the vehicle, and she purred with my hands gripping the wheel.

Hitting the GPS and inputting the address that David knew by heart. With that logged, I popped the clutch, changed gears, and took off at speed. With the modifications that I made to the engine, I snapped sixty easily in two-point-five seconds flat. The Porsche tore that straight away up with a roar that sent shivers of pleasure down the spines of all who heard it. We hit a turn and the back slid out a little as the traction slipped for a second before biting back onto the asphalt.

Cutting through traffic left and right, I had us zooming down the streets with no NCPD in sight. I pulled us to a stop as the lights transitioned from yellow to red and the light reflecting off my knuckles drew my eyes. With a thought, I sent the command to transition as my arm changed from civilian to combat mode. With a flex of my hand, I rolled my fingers, and then my knuckles, the play of leather beneath my fingers felt amazing. Taking a deep breath, I could get it but also couldn't understand how amazing tech had advanced to such a state. Capable of replacing human flesh for metal and your mind would be unable to tell the difference.

I would deal though, I would always deal. This was just another Tuesday. The light turned green and I took off with a squeal of tires. Maybe a few spins around the block to help ease my mind. It took a little more than ten minutes, but eventually, I pulled us up to the curb of our destination. Getting out, I had the improved security features of the Porsche turbo activated with just a mental nudge.

The Major stood next to me and looked around the area, "So this is where we will locate your doctor?"

Letting out a long sigh, I shared the same look with her as I looked up and down the Glen across the way from Santo Domingo. The area could use a lot more love, and that's saying something.

"He's a lot better than the area might suggest," I replied, then led the way toward the little clinic.

The Major looked around as she walked behind me, "If you say so."

The walk wasn't very long before we got to the door and I did the special unlock and got into the little back alley clinic. There was no need to knock on the door as I let myself in. I found him exactly where he always was, on the damn medical bed chair thing with a set of XBD goggles hooked up. He was not giving a good first impression at all, and this was the man I was sticking my fucking neck out for. If the anime didn't show how fucking reliable he was, I would put a bullet in him myself. Yet, I wouldn't put a bullet in him, he was a damn reliable RipperDoc and I would need more than just Viktor on my team.

Walking over, I made more than enough noise and then kicked the table, "Oye, make yourself presentable, we got a lady present."

The madman scrambled "Whadda, fuk choom!"

Rolling my eyes with a shake of the head, I took a few steps back and tried not to get any of the fluids inside of his auto-jack on me.

The Doc growled at me and looked around until he noticed the Major standing over my shoulder.

"Ohh, who the preddy filly over der?" Doc leered at the Major but she did not return his feelings.

The Major made a face and I could barely contain my laugh as I made a motion towards the auto-jack, "Doc, you gotta do something about that, man."

It was a pure comedy skit as the Doc looked at us, then looked at the auto-jack going up and down on his lower tool. The Major made a disgusted face and stepped out of the Doc's line of sight. I had to shake my head at the man because that was all it took for him to get himself nice and proper. A few minutes later found me pulling up a chair to the Doc's little computer setup while he was laid back chilling in his operating chair.

"So tell me whadda ya want?" Doc grumbled as he leaned back onto the medical chair, bed, table thing.

Rolling the chair around, I stared him down for a moment while ignoring the Major who was posted up against the wall. Funny enough, she was also blocking the only path out of the little clinic. Tracing my hand along my digi-tool, the weapon selection rolled through my mind before setting on one of the unholy monsters within my arsenal. This little beast was called the Devils Foursum and it was a Torgue-built rocket monster. Each round had micro missile technology built right into it allowing each shot to split into three explosive rounds.

Six rounds in the chamber with an extra punch against shields because of its electro punch. Stabilizers to keep my aim steady and the original blueprints came with iron sights. Those got kicked to the curb with a smart link upgrade with projectile tracking.

The Doc noticed the massive fuck off-hand cannon in my hand and pushed through it, "Davey, what's going on boy, I saw that preem vid of you flatlining that Animal's Gonk."

Snorting at him and how fucking cool as a cucumber he was, I humored him, "Doc, you're an asshole, but you have always done right by me." I shifted the gun a little, the metallic sound of it drawing eyes, "So I gotta ask, why?" Then I turned and sat, leaned forward, and looked Doc in the eye.

Doc looked at me, raised a brow, and gave me a flat look, "This you shaking me down Davey boy?"

Using my off-hand, I rubbed my chin, "Something like that, I find myself between being something like a shot caller and a little bit of being an Edgerunner." I shifted in my seat, the wheels creaking underneath me as the chair shifted forward. "And there are few who know who I am and those who know me." I shrugged at this, "Gotta be certain sure up those in my corner, so why Doc, why take a chance on a kid like me?"

Doc stared at me long and hard, lit a cig, leaned back in his seat, and puffed a massive cloud of nicotine, "The fuck you want me to do when a scrawny little shit comes into my shop." Puff on his cig, released a long exhale, "Little shits die every day, so what makes this one special right?"

With a chuckle, I eased off the tension and leaned back in my seat. It was good that the Doc was getting how serious this shit was.

"Nahh, what made me not throw this one away is the look in his eyes, that look he is giving me right now." The Doc sat up and gave me a manic grin, the optics on top of his head rotating through all eight eyes. "That look of a motha fuking slayer, that fire to burn down the city. That's the look, foot on the pedal driving flat out and heading for the deep end." The Doc chuckled a long mad cackle thing that sent shivers down any spine who heard it. "From a punk kid pushing XBDs for a small buck and already a soon to be legend."

"Huh… So what do you think, Major?" I asked with a head turn towards my companion.

She looked at me, then made a hand motion for me to put away my hand cannon which I did. "He's a little nutty but his computers are clean along with his cyber-wear. I don't trust his grubby mits though, I'll stick with Vik."

Staring down the mad Doc, I said the words I knew I would hate, "I trust him."

"Ahh Davey, you can stop with all that sappy shit." The Doc faked a blush with a laugh and sat up in his seat. "Street punks gonna street punk, I ain't gonna add to the bagman's numbers."

With a nod, I sent the deets over and asked my main question, "What do you think about jigjig Street?

Doc sits up and glares directly at me, "Ain't nobody gonna fuck with Tyger's turf."

I shook my head, "Not even close, that's Wakako's turf, and this is coming directly from up high, Fingers has gotta go."

Doc looked up and the arms carousel rotated until he found the ones that he wanted to swap to. "And what tune I gotta play to if I want it?"

My look was flat, "No more fucking bite bar for one, and alot better fucking bedside manner is the second, along with regular showers." I stated with a growl and frown on my face as I finally picked up the faint body odor.

Doc grumbled at me but never said no, "tsk, so what now Davey boy?"

Standing up, I gave the Major a head nod before talking towards the door, "Now, you get cleaned up for an introduction to Wakako and I go clean out Fingers old place. Be ready for your pick up."

The Doc did a double take, "Wahh, just like dat?"

"Yup, this is Night City, so just like that." With my peace said, I closed the door behind me on the way out. Walking outside, we waited by the curb as the Porsche turbo pulled up with its auto drive.

"Can't believe people would let someone like him operate on them." The Major muttered and I had to stop myself from getting in the car.

I shrugged at her, "sorry but this is just that kinda world, yeah I want to clean it up, but part of that is making sure I have good people on my side. We are now up by 2 good ripper docs that are getting all their medical supplies and cyber-gear from me." I stated with a tap on my chest.

The Major shook her head at me, "So this was how it felt when facing Section 9."

I released a chuckle at her, "All that time sitting on high made you blind to those down below."

The Major got a thoughtful look in her eyes, then walked over to my side of the car. With a shrug I made way so she could take the steering wheel. Heading to the passenger side, I got in and relaxed. I tried not to grip the center fucking console though because the last time I was in the passenger side, Gloria and I got into an accident and almost died. Damn, guess Gloria wasn't the only one suffering from some minor form of PTSD. Glaring at the dash, I ground my teeth and force myself to conquer these demons.

"I'll plan your OPs, but I want your word that you'll call it off if I say so." The Major spoke up, breaking the silence of the drive.

I sighed and stretched out a little, "Yeah, I can agree with that, I already have a lot of other things filling my plate."

We fell into silence again, but this time things were interrupted by the ping from home.

*Sleeping Beauty is ready for activation.*

That was some of the best news of the damn day, sending a ping to the Major to take us home. I also checked Gloria's location and the reports from Wolf. From what I could see, everything was in order even if she didn't drive the truck from the Afterlife. Some way or another Gloria had ended up at the El Coyote, which was fine since it covered other parts of my planning.

Since Wolf was with her along with her location accounted for, it was time to do my own things. While the Major drove us to the mansion compound I settled in and focused my mind to connect to my secure systems from halfway across the city. With the connection established, it was time to double-check everything before arriving. The synth flesh was graphed perfectly and her weapons were waiting with nano-molecularly sharp edges.

I could only smile at the specs because 2B would be made from all the best of the best that I could put together. Premier tech, top-of-the-line Ghost cyber-brain along with cortical stacks as a precautionary measure. Metal Gear solid bracing frames to add secondary lines of defense and so much more. Modular firing piston selectors with physics-defying muscle fibers would put my girl as one of the largest heavy hitters around.

And even with all of my current technological stuff inside of her, I still had two charges left over. The proximity alert took me out of the cyber realm. Looking around, the first thought I had was to pull my Torgue monster, but I kept from doing that as I noticed that we had arrived. Glad that we weren't about to get into combat, I relaxed as Major pulled us in after the security checks.

Once we were parked, I got out and had to stop. "Not coming?"

Major shook her head at me, "No, I have an ops to plan, Fingers won't remove himself."

Thinking about it, I gave her a nod, "see about using his Scav contacts to swing by."

She turned and headed into the garage with a wave, "I'll look into it."

With that said, I went through the back door, down into the basement, and then took the elevator down to sub-basement five. Standing in the doorway, my breath hitched for a moment as I looked at her sleeping form as she floated there. Her body was fully operational and the only thing missing was her cortical stack being implanted into the proper location of her spine.

Green across the boards, density, twitch, reflex, even her bio-energy converter that acted as a stomach, it was all green across the board. One of my lab's hover chairs floated over and I wasted no time sitting down and zooming over to the medical bed.

Making a hand-wavy motion, I commanded the mechadendrite arms to insert the cortical stack into place. Her stack was damn near indestructible with all of the metallic fusions I could swing with it being able to handle her code which was another hurdle in and of itself. The charges gave me exactly what I wanted but halfway through uploading 2B's mind I came across the hard code that would make her loyal to any and all humans. Yeah, that was a no go and if she was going to be loyal to humans, then I would be the only one for her, period.

All that though was solved with a little spit, elbow grease, and a whole lot of swearing as I made it all work. The synth flesh along the base of her skull and spine parted as the cortical stack drew near and then inserted with a quick motion. Releasing the breath that I didn't even realize that I was holding, I smiled giddily as I pushed against the floor my hover chair taking me to the other side of 2B's bed so I could watch her vitals as she completed her full boot.

"Ahh."

The slight moan and shift of movement on the bed drew my full attention, my eyes zeroing in on her bright silver orbs. My own red orbs reflect back at me.

She looked me up and down for a quick few seconds and I could feel her scanning me.

"You're human," 2B gasped, then got up from her bed in quick gliding, graceful moments, and what an eyeful it was. When 2B knelt before me, that did make my dick twitch, but now was not the time for robussy.

With a chuckle, I raised a hand to stop her, "Calm down 2B, review the data packets I have sent you. And I would like you to stand and take a seat on the bed please and thanks."

2B looked up at my smiling face and then complied with my demands. While she took a seat on the bed, I waved a hand activating a few holograms so I could run basic medical diagnostics. One of the cables snaked down from the ceiling and I grabbed it before walking over and making a motion for 2B to turn her body a little for me.

Plugging the cable into her neural port, I smiled as the hologram lit up and kept showing me all the greens. With a wave of my hands, I had four dots for her to touch, "Alright, let's check your hand-eye coordination."

Her hands flew out hitting the targets through the bullseye and it was on. We did a battery of tests for hand-eye coordination even some at enhanced speeds way beyond human perception. Once she was finished with those, I checked her legs, and touch sensitivity, then I realized that she would need to get dressed.

A quick command had her clothes brought over along with her swords linked to a digi-struct system. I didn't want to give out any of the PODs yet, so I would be pairing a Wolf combat unit with 2B. Also the Major would get one whenever she went out just to have one covering her back. There were enough robotic animals and borged out people around so they would blend in perfectly. Plus, pets were the best and balmed the heart.

She walked over to where I was seated and did a little curtsey, "I'm ready to see the world."

Smiling at 2B, I got up from my chair and made a hand motion towards the elevator that would get us out of my little medical basement. Her movements and roll of the hips were not only graceful but also a little hypnotic.

"There will be combat ops soon, so we shall test your combat proficiency then,'' I spoke up while hitting the button to return upwards, I also sent over the information I had on Fingers. Now that I think about it, I have been lax with the teleporters. I would need to install those to keep the basement rooms separated.

2B's head tilted to the side, then gave me a nod, "That is acceptable, I also approve of this target, selling one of his own to these butchers, despicable."

With a chuckle, I just shook my head, her emotional protocols would even themselves out soon. Reaching the top, we walked out of the basement and into the garage with the working war table where the Major was located. When we got there, I went for the little mini fridge and got us each a water. Might as well introduce 2B to the pleasure of water. You never know what you miss until it's gone, and I fucking hate paying for realH2O, fuck that bullshit.

Grabbing a stool, I sat my ass down and looked over the war table with the hologram of jigjig street.

"Alright Major hit me."

[One Hour Later…]

Relaxing on an inflatable couch, I raised a brow at the hologram being projected onto the apartment wall from the camera aimed at Fingers little ripperDoc clinic. Well, if you can call it a clinic, can't believe this fucking guy worked out of a fucking swag pad. Doc Borg's place was fucking dirty sure, but at least there wasn't the possibility of someone's body fluids falling into your open cavity.

Did not want to see those fucking used condoms on the bed and the fucking chair. With a grunt I shifted my attention from that video feed to my companion Wolf was stealthed and watching the back door. Major had no problem being out there in her skin-tight stealth suit and I really had to kiss the heavens when she asked for that little bit of gear because; hot damn. The Major was looking ripe to eat with that juicy booty of hers.

2B had decided that she would be my guard and was posted up over my right shoulder cataloging things as they happened. Everything was new to her, sure; but life was sink or swim and she was doing alright to me.

The plan was simple and it worked even better since we didn't have to do much of anything. Fingers had already set up a drop-off from the Scav and they were going to pick up a list from him. New targets, of course, people he cased out and talked up while walking and working the streets because it wasnt enough for this sick fuck. Witness the trade, secure Fingers, then follow the Scavs back home. Clean that place and then use the data collected as the jumping-off point. The plan was simple with few moving parts and I was alright with this.

*They have arrived Commander.*

Springing up from my seat, I walked over towards the window, then had to stop that impulse. This was not a spy thriller, I have no clue if these people even check above them or not.

*Look, alive folks.* With that sent, I had the camera watching everything activate its laser pick-up and X-ray mode.

*I've got three lookouts at the front.*

Okay, smart of them, but it still wasn't time to move.

*Track the Scav's with Wolf, 2B and I will handle Fingers.*

*Solid copy, preparing to move.*

*Affirmative Commander.*

Patching into Wolf's camera feeds, I watched as he followed the echo tracking prints of the Scavs back to their truck, then lay in wait. Major shifted from her location and ghosted through the crowd which was none the wiser. With a smirk, I watched as she lightly brushed two fingers across one of the lookouts back sticking state-of-the-art RFID tracking chips on him.

Closing my eyes, I focused on the here and now, not the what-ifs. That helped along with nice even breathing, it also kept me from cursing as Fingers made his trade. We listened as they bargained the price of the merchandise, tit for tat as it were. The tall Scav in the blue standing at the front wasn't very happy, he was hoping Fingers had a lead on an exotic flavor of meat. Fingers shrugged the guy off and stated something about only Cats around his alleys, but could look, for a fee of course. The Scav guy grunted and turned to leave.

Bringing up my tablet, I checked to make sure that I had actually caught that, fucking moron. This was not only Night City, but this was also a world filled with netrunners. Only a fucking fool would send something wireless and not expect it to be intercepted. Now, I had a copy of not only Fingers' list, but also the Scavs. One of the names though did stick out, and I gotta say that I was sort of surprised. Did not think that an uptown girl like her would be visiting some two-bit hack in a back alley express.

And as I read more, I could see why he wanted to sell her to the Scavs, the damn girl had paid preem for the top-of-the-line midnight lady implant between her legs. That made her prime fucking material, but from what I knew of her. She really didn't seem like the type, then again, it was always the quiet ones.

With a thought, I sent the call and waited for the pickup….. "Hello?" She answered, a lot more polite than I would think.

With a chuckle, I just went for nice and easy, "Sooo, I came across some things you might need to be worried about."

Calm as a cucumber she replied, "Okay Mister stuff, how did you get this number and what should I be worried about."

As if I didn't notice her backtracking over the calls connection.

"Well, I thought that we were already friends, you did strut in front of me with those phenomenal legs of yours afterall." I replied with a chuckle. "It was hard to miss those when you and the Amazon were invited into my home after all. Then again, you were eyeing my lap with how comfortable the little gun gremlin was acting."

The call fell silent and if I wasn't aware of her trying to trace me, I would have thought she had hung up. Then she released a slow chuckle, "David, damn you almost had me worried there for a second."

"Not worried enough to stop that trace of yours though," I replied with some cheek.

"Well, a lady has to be careful, especially when you are talking about her sensitive bits and all." Kiwi replied with a little cold snark, but there was no heat in her voice.

"Alright alright," I replied with a cool lilt of the voice, still i didnt let her trace get to me. "So premium deluxe edition midnight lady huh, must have spent a pretty penny on that."

The trace fired off a few more attempts that failed to even touch my ice, "And how, pray tell, a honk like you discovered that I may or may not have such an implant."

Looking out the window now as the Scavs leave, I raised a brow as Major ghosted behind them none the wiser. "Ohh you know the usual, get a job when you pull recon, discover more than you want to know."

Sigh, "That could only be one ripperDoc, what's the play?"

Even though I was on the phone, I shook my head, "Nothing, just that you are going to need a new Doc, this one has expired, might I suggest Viktor over in little china. The man has legendary hands."

I could hear the eye roll in her voice, "And are you going to pay for this legendary doc?"

I tried hard to not laugh out loud, but the chuckle did escape me, "Only way I pay for the preem upkeep of such a thing is if I'm the only input to those ports."

Kiwi gave a little titter, "As if you could afford to ride this ride. I might not be a joy toy, but I know my price would be steep."

Now I snorted at her, "Don't write checks for eddies your ass can't cash." Then I noticed the expanding proximity to the Major and the speeds at which she was moving.

"Little boy, big words," Kiwi replied with some snark.

"Snort, ask Becca and you'll discover nothing little about me, but gotta go, got my opening with a certain doc. I'll make sure your name vanishes from a certain Scavs list along with all the data he gathered." Then hung up when she was asking me to hold on, I sent 2B a head motion and we made for the door.

No one bothered us as we walked down the stairs and then across the street, which I found interesting. Yet, when I glanced around to notice the atmosphere, I noted that things were a little tense. Yeah, these people knew exactly what was up but knew how to live on the street. That means the street rules were to see nothing and mind your own business.

Keeping my senses open, the world fell away as I walked up the stairs in Fingers' building and then pushed the door straight open. All these buildings use electronic locks capable of being hacked, the fools. This was Night City, and netrunners were all over the place. Walking into the apartment, I felt the heat on my skin before I heard the water from the bathroom. Behind me, 2B closed the door and stood guard while I just walked around the steps light inspecting everything. Near the window, I dropped a disc that transformed into a spider bot. The same little spider-bot crawled up and blocked the window.

Sending out a scan, I found a hidden camera in one of the light fixtures, the cable lead to the computer terminal. A quick snip killed that. The mic hidden in the vent down by the door was killed by an electro-pulse from 2B. There was a pop from a table sitting at the computer desk, but I paid it no mind as we disabled all of his little monitoring devices. Since I didn't want to sit on any of his nasty chairs, table, or bed, I stood at the window with my hand clasped behind my back, Morpheus style.

Click…

My eye twitched as the bathroom door opened on the far end of the apartment, but I didn't need to turn around to witness the stunned expression on his face. Then it smoothed out as he took a seat.

"Well, well, I was not expecting such delightful company this afternoon, but I don't mind." Fingers spoke in that creepy voice that just made me want to shiver and ask for an adult. Or at least scream stranger danger as I ran away.

Yeah, I wasn't about to extend this any more than I should, turning around to face him. I made a "what can you do" motion, "Upper management would like you to know it's not them, it's you."

Then between heartbeats, 2B was behind him with a knife-hand striking down. Keeping his bio-mod active for a little while longer would work wonders as I cracked the ice to his accounts and made a perfectly sized donation to the ME fund.

---

Motoko Kusanagi

Scanning the area around the truck, Motoko checked all of her angles for any camera surveillance. Found none, what she did find were rafters and vacant air vents for her to use and she did. With bent legs and a little push, she was up off the truck and amongst the metal rafters.

*Major, I have arrived at your current location.*

*Roger that Wolf, keep eyes on, cameras are yours along with any runners.*

Using the rafters to perform a little bit of recon, Motoko discovered that it was one large warehouse just split up into multiple sections. There was even an upstairs and a downstairs separating parts that she could work with. Snapping off one of the canisters the size of a grenade, she hit the activation button and waited for its antigravity system to kick in. The little recon drone flew upwards as it was set into preprogrammed overwatch.

Slipping through the rafters, Motoko couldn't hold herself back once she got to a medical room. The Scav's had someone on the medical table and from what she could see, they weren't being ripped into at the moment, but that time was not that far off. She could see them preparing medical equipment in the room over and from what Motoko could see, there would be absolutely no anesthetics.

Crouching down, Motoko checked her pistol and the suppressor before also checking the power levels on her stealth suit. Things were showing all green and her suit would be able to stay in stealth for hours more. Her HUD lit up with x-ray and red triangles to show the walking Scavs. With one last check of her radar, Motoko found that she had time and jumped down into the little medical section. Two fingers went to the throat of the girl to check to see if she was still alive. That was followed by both pupil checks and they were clearly dilated with micro-reflection flickers showing. That meant the girl was not only alive, but her bio-mod was glitching.

Checking right behind her ears, Motoko discovered a data shard plugged into the neural port. Okay, good chance that this girl had a Trauma Team payment plan. That was good and bad, good for the girl because they had to keep her alive as long as they could. Bad for Motoko, because the Trauma Team would make this op far too loud and flashy.

Movement on the radar along with the red triangle showing through the x-ray told Motoko that she should not be in her current location. Since the girl would be alright. Motoko shifted her location towards the door but a little out from the swing path. Tow came in and she bleeped her jammer, shifted behind the last person to walk through the door, and put a round in the base of his skull.

With a twist and shift of body weight, Motoko caught the body on her shoulder even as she aimed her weapon, stepped in close, and gave the female Scav two shots. One to the kidneys and the other to the heart. Both died without even a whisper. With a glance at her radar, Motoko found no one moving towards her location. Exiting the room, Motoko made her way down the hallway towards the third room on the right containing more of the Scavs. Jumping lightly upwards, she landed on the divider, aimed, and snapped off four rapid shots. The decibel meter within her helm spiked a little as the mic picked up the sounds of her suppressor, but the radial sound wave it created on her map didn't overlap with any red triangles.

Using the dividers as a walking path, Motoko made sure to keep check of her footing as she went around and removed the Scavs permanently. It was as she was clearing the last room that she ran into any difficulty. That started as the two Scavs at the bottom of the stairs happened to overlap within the sound range of her suppressed rounds being fired. The unusual sound not only alerted them, but the following yell of a name like fools alerted more Scavs to the possible infiltration. Her cover wasn't blown but it was clear that a type of attention was being paid to the one grumbling as he walked up the stairs.

Luckily, she had moved the bodies from being directly seen from the doorway, but it wasn't that which gave the situation away. That would be the small trail of blood on the table from when she plugged the eye of the Scav with her subsonic round.

The combat knife at her back slid out of its sheath as Motoko posted up beside the door waiting for the two Scav's. The door she closed was roughly pushed open as the Scav forced his way in looking for his friend, all he had time to do was notice the small spray of red on the table. That was it before a flash of silver stabbed into his neck severing his spine clean. With a hard shove, Motoko pinned the body against the doorframe even as she took aim with the other hand. Three shots in rapid succession put down his friend.

"Shhhhhhhiiitt, I heard that, BOBBY YOU GOOD!"

Motoko jumped up onto the metal dividers and found someone standing not too far off from the stairs.

"DAMMIT BOBBY ANSWER ME!"

The yelling attracted more and more attention towards the area with Motoko and all of the dead Scavs and her would-be rescue. Sigh, she could almost see Bato's face right now with an I told you so coming out of his lips. Sigh, and then she also heard his other saying, stealth ops is still a stealth ops if everyone is dead and none is alive to speak about it.

The decibel microphone picked up multiple scuffling sounds moving toward her direction. The drone that was hovering above did ping them as data and was fed into her HUD and categorized. So, instead of panicking at the numerous red triangles, Motoko took a breath, then launched herself into action. Multiple Scavs came out of everywhere, they approached and she moved with pure lethal intent.

The first one to make it at the top of the stairs caught two rounds, one to the face and another to the heart. He was then pushed, then used as a body shield as she shot the one behind him in the head, along with his partner. By this time everyone was reacting to the ghost killing their comrades and were shooting everything at the stairs. The body that was being used as a meat shield fell apart in her hands as a large caliber round in particular tore half of the back along with some of the chest out.

She needed no other hint as she threw the body towards the bottom of the stairs while she flipped over the upper railing backward. Swapping out her spent magazine for another, Motoko watched as some of the ones that were shooting at her started to spread out around the stairs looking for her. Then he appeared, the one in blue, also the same one from Fingers' apartment. He was her target and all it took was a mental nudge to get him painted purple for tracking and pickup. Placing her steps carefully, Motoko made sure not to step in any of the blood as she worked her way around the room, then she snatched the one next to a doorway and gave him four silent rounds. One to the back of the neck, two in the kidneys, and the last bullet was to make sure he stayed down with the destruction of his cyber-limb.

A good few Scavs turned towards her location, but this time Motoko dropped a stun grenade, then ghosted away from the line of fire. Appearing on the far left of the group, she took down another five Scavs. Then ghosted away and did it once more from another location. After Motoko performed her little ghost trick once more, her opponents finally realized that there were only three of them left standing back to back. They shared a glance, then made a run towards the exit.

Like the rat that they were, none tried to watch the back or cover for the others. Lucky for her, the one marked in purple and wearing the blue shirt split off from the others and was heading towards the vehicle bay. She was hot on his trail and even though she got to the vehicle bay after him and he was trying to escape. Motoko had more than enough time to line up a shot at the fleeing vehicle. Then she stopped as the escaping van was sliced into parts.

The seat containing the driver fell out and slid along the gourd sparks from the metal contacts flying all over the place. While she was stowing her weapons, Motoko noticed the two red triangles vanish from her sensors before they were even able to breach the perimeter. From the blind angle of the vehicle-bay exit walked 2B and the Commander.

Checking her clock, Motoko gave the returned time a firm nod. From start to finish, it had only taken her twelve minutes upon arrival to clear the den out.

{P.O.V. SHIFT}

Pinching her brows together, Kiwi had a frown of frustration on her face as the program that she was using to trace the call returned with a salient nothing. Just alerts in red alerting her of the disconnected connection. That little shit had really just called her, flirted, and hung up all within the span of a few minutes even as she dropped information about the last RipperDoc she had looking over her implant.

If what he said was correct, the rumors that Fingers was connected to people vanishing, even if no one could put it on him. Yet somehow the kid was not only able to get information out of Fingers that she could, and she did try a few times. Yet, even though she couldn't get into the creep's servers David was able to do it. Hell, she didn't know what else the kid had been able to get done but from what he said. This was a job he was doing which means this might cause a situation.

After thinking about it for a moment, she finally caved and made the call, "Maine, we have a situation."

"Ahh shit, what is it now Kiwi?" Came Maine's swift reply.

"The kid is at it again," Kiwi replied, her tone sharp and cold.

"Kid? What kid, whose kid?" Maine asked, confused.

"Glorias kid, Maine, that little gonk just called me about some job," Kiwi stated cooly over the line.

"Shit, shit, shiiiiiiiiit." Maine replied with a growl. "Alright, I'll call you later."

Then he was gone and the line closed, getting up from her seat, Kiwi looked around the apartment for her keys. If what the kid said was correct then someone had intimate knowledge of her implant. It was beyond time to search for either a new ripperDoc or get someone discrete and this time she would make sure.

A job was in the works to replenish her eddies, so she would pay just for them to do some cosmetic work. She never made it out of her apartment though because that three-eyed bastard called.

*RING!*

*RING!*

*RING!*

"Speaking…" Kiwi answered a headache already forming behind her brows.

The three-eyed bastard had the audacity to growl at her, "You will answer on the first ring when I call, now get me information on a David Martinez."

*Click*dial tone*

Author's Note's :::

Alright, alright, that's all she wrote folks, hit me with your thoughts down below.

Now, it's time to get the other stories on the road and caught up with our lovely little CyberPunk.

Also, let me know what you guys think about the inclusion of the images.