I woke up some time later. My eyes were turned off and I couldn’t move my body. This wasn’t anything particularly new, happened every time I had to go under for new augments or some extensive maintenance. There was also a big clue. Music was playing and I could hear that Rigoberto was mumbling along.
“Ah! You are awake, I see.” He clapped his hands together. “What did you get into this time?”
I tried to respond, nope, body was non-responsive so all that came out was a soft “Hhhh”
“See, I forgot. One moment.” He stepped away. “Eh, you can stay still while I finish up, right?”
I made another sound, trying as best I could to make it sound like I was saying yes.
“Good, good. Okay and…” I heard several switches click and my sight and sensation returned. “There we are, chummer.”
I winced. “Hey, doc. Guess I was pretty messed up?”
“With your pain dampeners on you probably didn’t notice all the bullets riddling your body.” He lightly poked at my torso. “You even damaged that shoulder joint we replaced last time!”
I laughed and immediately regretted it. “Hurts to laugh. Maybe turn the dampeners back on?”
Rigoberto leaned over and looked me in the eyes. “Haha, no can do. We’re going to reattach some delicate parts, I need you feeling.”
“Please?” I tried to look as convincing as I could.
He scowled, his worry worn face twisting under the surgical mask he had on. “No, you want the synth muscle to react correctly or rip itself- and you apart? Your choice.”
“Fine, no dampeners then.” I grit my teeth after he placed a thick strip of faux leather in my mouth.
The street doc reconnected my nerve endings to my artificial musculature sending fresh, hot agony straight into my brain. Luckily, my motor control was still limited so I wasn’t able to act on it aside from bite down and emit a small muffled scream.
“You know, Burnout.” Rigoberto sighed. “There’s going to come a point that I can’t put you back together.” He pushed the new shoulder joint together, I winced. “I’ve come to like you, you pay on time. That keeps food in my family’s bellies.”
“A little heavy on the bedside manner there, Doc. I’ll be fine, always have been.” I tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace.
“You know that’s not true.” He went to close up my shoulder. “Remember when Trix found you on those BTLs? It’s a miracle your brain even works half as well as it does.”
Better Than Life chips, slot them into a datajack and live in a world that doesn’t suck. Sounds great until it fries your brain, but at least you get to die happy. That is, if you can keep yourself with a supply to slot. I’d been a lot younger, I wasn’t always without a System Identification Number and I’d gotten hooked on the things. Did a lot of stuff I regret trying to get more and eventually became a runner when Trix got me off them.
“That, that was a long time ago.” I sighed. “I’m fine.”
He finished stitching me up and stepped away. “Don’t move. I need to get something.”
“Got ya.”
I heard something open. “It’s Bliss this month, Burnout?”
“Yea, if I keep cycling them and I’ll be okay. No issue.” I frowned.
“And what’s the new stuff?” He returned holding a patch of the Banshee in front of my face.
“Just uh, some stuff that fell off the back of an Evo Corp truck. Was gonna try it tonight.” I smiled awkwardly
He sighed. “At least you aren’t going to get back on the BTLs.” He removed my restraints and tilted the surgery table up. “Just be safe, Burnout and don’t worry about payment, Dust covered you for this one.”
I stepped off the table and turned to him. “You know me, I’ll be just fine.” I placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Burnout, please. I am being serious.” Rigoberto pulled my hand off his shoulder. “Be careful, for once in your life, kid.” He pulled me into a hug.
I hugged him back. I’d forgotten that he’d had a kid who’d be about my age if it wasn’t for... BTLs. Hell, I might have known him if I wasn’t… elsewhere at the time.
“Rigoberto, I’ll try to be. The job is dangerous, but I’ll try to stay safe.” I broke off the hug. “I should get going, did Dust say she’d be back at the garage?”
“Yea, good luck out there, Burnout.” He handed me back my container of Banshee.
I waved back to him as I stepped out into downtown Seattle. I walked through the rain slick streets trying to get to Dust’s garage as fast as possible. It didn’t take too long since the rain kept a lot of the tourists and consumers off the street. The garage was down a side alley and relatively non-descript aside from the celtic knot Dust had spray painted on the door. However, at the moment the garage was open and Dust was halfway underneath the van working while decades old pop filled the alleyway..
I knocked on the side of the van. “Yo, Dust. Back from the doc's.”
She pushed herself out from under the van and stood up. “Don't you ever worry me like that again or I'll kill you myself.” She hugged me tightly.
I hugged back. “My face is in your chest, Dust.”
She squeezed hard enough that my joints creaked. “Don't care.”
“H-hey, lighten up a bit, you're gonna open my stitches.”
She loosened, but didn't let go. “I'm serious, I'm glad we didn't lose you.” She let me go. “Now. I gotta finish making sure our brakes work and you gotta talk to Trix.”
I smiled at her as best I could. “For sure, Dust. Thanks for the assist.”
Dust was already getting back under the van and stuck out a thumbs up. She loved that damn van and to be honest it had grown on me, even the airbrushed nude wizard on a giant white tiger. The armor and mounted gun turret also helped. I opened the door to the rest of the apartment. It was a mess, as usual. Trix was on the couch, hunched over her deck and her eyes fixed on a screen.
Trix looked up and waved. “Hey, Burnout! Glad to see you're walking around so quickly.” She placed her work aside on the couch. “Got you some fried rice with real egg.”
With the world as it was, real products were rarer and more expensive. Hell, getting a cup of actual coffee and not soykaf could run you as much as four or five times the price.
I blinked at her. “Where the hell did you find real egg?”
She grabbed the styrofoam box and pressed it into my hands. “Little China, know a guy who knows a guy. The usual.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You don't know people, Trix.”
She pulled out her commlink and shoved it in my face. “Yea I know people, see?!”
The list of contacts was almost entirely dominated by names of people from an MMO she played.
I rolled my eyes and popped open the box. “I'll be damned, that is either real egg or an imitation so good it might cost just as much.”
“Yea, turns out Klot is related to this old lady that has actual live chickens. Only reason she isn't raking in the cash is the health and safety board. They gave her a C! Can you believe that?”
“I can, but there's worse ways to die and this smells great. Thanks, Trix.” I shut the box.
She flopped back down on the couch. “Backdoor is running great, by the way.”
I headed towards the stairs. “And your access?”
She waved a hand at me. “Yea, got a route for myself piggybacked onto it and I can even see whatever they're looking at, too.” Her fingers danced across her cyberdeck. “They're looking into experiment 108, 113 and 112… anyway, go eat, Burnout and don't worry about not picking me up anything from the run, this info is way more than enough.”
I waved to her as I took the stairs up to the bedrooms, mine was the last on the left. I opened the door and stepped inside before closing it. The interior was messy, but organized. Clothes went in two piles; clean and dirty. Trash was kept neatly adjacent to the trash can and my mattress was in a state that I fondly referred to as sleepable.
I kicked off my shoes, took my shirt off and placed the container of Banshee on the floor before settling in to eat. It was amazing. Most folks only ever get soy stand ins with vat grown meat, this was neither of those. This was real egg with the vegetables and rice, it was truly heavenly. I'd need to thank Trix properly later.
Time passed as the hour grew long. I was, to put it lightly, jonesing. However, when I went to check my stash of Bliss, it was missing with a note saying Dust had sold it for my doc visit.
I closed the drawer with a hiss. “Okay, was going to try the new stuff anyway.”
I opened the container and took out a patch. It was thicker than even the kamikaze I used to take and had small needles on the underside.
I regarded it for a moment. “Eh, screw it.” I slapped it onto my upper arm. “Ooh, fuuuck... that burns.”
It felt like fire running through my veins. I fell back onto the bed and thrashed as the burning spread and then subsided. I was suddenly very cold and hyper aware of the feel of my mattress and the scattered blankets on my body. My skin turned to gooseflesh and I began shivering.
“T-this might have been a, a mistake.”
My teeth chattered and I pulled myself up into a ball trying to get warm. I stayed like that for a moment and then the pain and the cold faded leaving me with nothing, save my own exhaustion. My eyes fluttered and consciousness left me.
