Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It wasn’t even meant for him.

That had applied for a lot of what happened to him. No one ever meant for the Sandevistan to be installed in his spine. The animals that killed his mom hadn’t meant to do it. The education he was getting before that fateful accident wasn’t meant for someone like him. 

He was just not that important in the scope of Night City. He wouldn’t be remembered. Hell, he barely thought he’d ever get to be intimate with anyone before he died. 

But he did hear it. Clear as day.

He was lounging nearby when Dorio suggested Maine get ‘tuned up,’ gesturing to his mentor’s arms. Were it a few weeks ago, when he wasn’t dependent on immunosuppressors to cling onto life, he wouldn’t have got the slightest clue what that would’ve meant. 

Now he did. And the synth skin that covered the military-grade implants ached at the prospect. 

Neurons buzzed, and for once in his life, his sense of self-preservation kicked in. 

He had the Sandy installed on him by a doc that would rather watch porno XBD’s with his door unlocked, one that wouldn’t even prescribe him the pills that would let his immune system chill out about the foreign chrome that had taken the place of his spine. 

So, he probably did both the dumbest and smartest thing he could have done. 

He decided to ask Rebecca for help. 

“...Wait, let me get this straight,” the shorter woman asked, looking up to him, hip cocked to the side. Her gun was aimed perfectly, hovering over his forehead. “...out of all the chooms on the crew, you asked me for a ripperdoc suggestion?”

David was honestly worried about how calm he was with the gun pointed at him, even with her finger on the trigger. “...yeah?” 

Becca pulled the gun back, scratching her head with the hammer, blew up a bubble, and popped it before starting to laugh. “You looking for some Mox mods? I’m sure you’re more than enough down there, Davey~,” she winked at him while swaying her hips, and the young edgerunner was simply unable to fight his gaze shifting down to watch the show. “Then again, I can always assure you of it…” 

His chest tightened, and heart pumped harshly, spine tingling like he was about to engage Sandevistan. His body recalling something other than crime that Night City was famous for, hormones kicking into gear.

That, somehow, triggered his self-preservation to kick back in, the phantom sensation of cold water torrenting down his spine caused him to shudder and let his frontal lobe to wake back up, finally managing to get him to tear his eyes away from the thighs that were calling his name, and back into her hypnotic eyes.

“I- uh… need an adult?” 

His mouth hadn’t caught up just yet. 

“Lucky for you, she is one!” Pilar hollered from inside the apartment. David could actually see Rebecca get turned off at her brother’s intrusion into the conversation, her shoulders drooping and face flinching before her left eye twitched, giving the newbie an unamused grimace before running a hand through her minty hair, grabbing like she wanted to pull a chunk off, huffing with finality. 

“Give me a second, and make sure no pigs hear me kill that gonk back there, I’ve got a guy.”

“You never did answer me,” Becca accused, mid-way through the tram ride to her doc, blowing another gum bubble, hands shoved into her oversized jacket.

David perked up, turning to face her before looking away and scratching the side of his face. “...this about the ripperdoc?” 

“Yeah, choomba, why come to me? Isn’t Maine like your mentor for all things chrome?” the shortstack asked, bumping her thigh against his “or are you lying about wanting something better down there?” 

He was sure the overexposure to the flirting was dulling something in him, but he didn’t mind. It was either that, or his self-preservation was still at the helm. “No no- just…” he flexed his hand slowly. “Sandevistan isn’t something that replaces a muscle, right? It's more neural than something simple like Gorilla Arms, or Mantis Blades…” 

“Get to the point, choombo.” Becca insisted, impatiently tapping her foot. She wouldn’t admit that she was getting a little lost. 

“Uh- thought, like you know-” David finally gave in with a sigh. “Someone used to replacing those parts would be the best to tune the Sandy up.” 

Rebecca’s bubble popped. “Oh my god, you think switching out cocks is hard as installing a military-grade implant.”

He dully noted that self-preservation only cared about his life, and not his pride.

She started howling with enough glee to fill Night city with joy for a moment, then another coin dropped, and Becca’s red eyes widened, snapping back to David.

“Wait- did you come to me 'cause you thought I had some chrome down there?” 

David looked away with the awkwardness of a teenager caught with a porn mag. “I mean the tattoos…” 

Taking her chance, Becca got in his space, almost crawling onto his lap as she stared down the side of his head. “Wanna know if I do?”

His skin prickled as her voice caressed his ear, blood rushing through his veins like molten chrome through a cast.

Looked like it didn’t care about his chastity either, as his mouth couldn’t find the words to get him out of the situation. Instead, his mind was too busy considering what Rebecca wanted to do to him, and every step felt more and more alluring.

Maybe… 

He got saved by the monotone announcement of their stop, Rebecca pouting as she huffed, pulling his arm to get him out of his seat. “C’mon, don’t freeze on me.” 

He hadn't even comprehended that she was holding him by the hand when they stopped in front of a peculiar shop, neon sign burning the name ‘Misty's Esoterica’ onto the back of the young edgerunners’ retinas.

He didn't get to appreciate the sign more before he was practically dragged in by the off-white dynamite, a tired clerk welcoming them before she looked like she processed who had walked in. 

"Becca? That you? I thought you had delta'd outta the Mox?"

"You got that right, choom!" She cheered, tapping her hand on the counter with a large smile on her face "But a gal needs her check-ups, don't she?"

"Heading to Vik? Good call, when was the last time you had yours anyway?"

"Couple a years? Iunno- see ya around Misty!" She cheered, dragging David behind the counter and through a door behind the clerk. "Vik’s in, right?"

"Got yourself an input too, huh?" The woman commented with a smirk on her face. "Things are looking up for our little Mox, huh?"

Becca rolled her eyes, flipping the woman off with a smirk of her own. "They sure are, choomba!"

With that whirlwind of jabs, David found himself getting dragged down deeper into the underground.

"She seemed friendly," he muttered dumbly, his tongue finally booting back up again. "Wait, did you call me your input?"

Becca gave him a Cheshire grin and nothing else, pushing him through a gate before the sounds of boxing surrounded them.

Atmospheric.

That's all David could think of as he drank in his surroundings, blue and red lights glowed in the dark, casting hues of purple over Becca's skin, the woman smirking back at him before her face fell a little. "Was your doc worse than this?"

"...a little?"

The emotion on her face dropped before she sighed harshly. "And Vik is only a back alley doc too- did ya get a street surgery or somethin’, gonk?"

David recalled the cramped corridors of doc's place, how he'd seen the man 'enjoy' some XBD's on the same seat he'd gotten the surgery

"...uhhhh"

Becca looked at him with wonder before taking a step away from him. "You're worse than Pilar."

That stung more than he thought it would, his chest tightening

The man on the side of the room noticed them at that moment turning while still looking at the screen before finally tearing his eyes from the match. "A little bus- Becca?"

The girl's expression shifted from one of pity to a smug smile, throwing a victory sign towards the ripper doc. "Heya Viky, got a bit to fix a mistake?"

The man rolled his shoulders, smiling widely as he glanced between his two customers. "Sure thing- and who might your friend be? Never seen him before.”

"Vik, David. David, Vik. " Becca hummed, staring at David with a smirk. “And he's the one that needs to be tuned up, not me”

With a clean motion, she pulled his mother's coat down his shoulders, and pushed him to turn, revealing the Sandevistan to the doc. "You willing to tune this baby up?"

For a moment Becca looked worried when she didn't hear the doc respond, turning to face the man. David, following her gaze, turned his head to catch a glimpse of the ripperdoc. "I've got the eddies for it—doc?" He mumbled slowly, words dying in his throat as he recognized the expression on the man's face.

"Kid, get on the chair before I start having a breakdown trying to figure out how you’re still standing, let alone alive."

David, like a good little punk, did what he was told, and stumbled onto the operating table, looking for the bar to bite into before a gentle jab on the back perked him up. "Doc- where is the…"

His eyes started getting too heavy to remain open. "Bar…"

He woke up, mouth dry, and his mother's coat over his body like a cozy blanket, Becca and Viktor commenting about a boxing match.

The moment he moved his neck to turn and get a better look, he felt the difference.

His neck slid smoothly, the comforting weight of the chrome had dissipated, replaced with the steady whirring of electronics that imitated his breathing. He couldn’t feel where the chrome started and his body ended anymore. 

His shock had dulled his senses for a bit to not notice Becca take notice of him, scrambling to her feet. "Davie, don't move just yet!" She called out, rushing to his side and gently pushing him back onto the bed. "Vikky damn near rebuilt your spine, don't move your neck yet!"

He laughed mutely, leaning back. "I'm gonna kill my previous doc."

“That's the spirit,” Viktor chuckled, getting up himself, and dusting his pants. “It was like a gordian knot on your spine, your doc needs to learn proper cable management.”

David blinked slowly at the doctor's joke before humming weakly. “Great…so how much do I owe for this?” 

Viktor chuckled. “On the house, just this once. Not going to sully the miracle that you could walk here with your spine the way it was with something as base as eddies. Next time, not so much.” 

Becca hummed with a slight smirk on her face. “Well he might not ask you for anything- but you owe me, big guy.”

Viktor rolled his eyes and tossed a bag to the shorter woman, walking back to his screen. “And his immunosuppressants. He has a beast on his back, better keep it fed properly.” 

David blinked, Rebecca did too, looking at the bag and then to the ripper doc, watching the same holovid again.

“...wait- can I just go?” David asked with a tilt to his head. It felt satisfying every time. 

Viktor waved them off. “Go interface somewhere else, lovebirds.” 

It was like being born again. 

David had no other description of it. The sensation of Sandevistan on his back had disappeared completely. It was all he could think about as Becca wiggled her eyebrows as they walked back to the monorail station. 

He was acutely aware of the Sandevistan every waking moment after the first installation. It wasn’t a bad feeling, not at all. Hell, he had grown to appreciate and get comforted by the dull feeling of chrome on him. It was a part of him, and he thought he wouldn’t change it for anything.

He was proven wrong. 

Part of him was worried that the doc had just taken the chrome out of him with just how natural everything felt now. He noticed that Rebecca was pouting at him as he double-checked that the Sandevistan was still on his back. 

“You’ve been weird,” she huffed, glancing at him with a wobbly look. “The tune-up didn’t mess you up, did it?” 

He blinked, raising his hands and flexing them. “No, just- feels so much more ‘ganic than it used to be.” He hummed, dropping them back into his pockets with a shrug “I always thought I was just built different to be able to handle Sandy, but now I just feel like it's not that much of a bar to surpass… you know?” 

Becca blinked. 

Blinked again.

“Did- did you just imply just anyone can run a mil-spec Sandevistan?” Reaching up, she knocked on his forehead. “Anyone in there?” 

“I mean it!” he huffed, shrugging, pushing her hand away gently. “I’m almost worried Vik klept it while I was out.” 

Becca still couldn’t believe the man in front of her was talking about the military-grade implant on his back like it was just another nine-mil. Boring as hell.  “Try using it then, hotshot.” 

David blinked, thinking about it with a hum. Well, no time like now. “Just grab me if I pass out then.” 

Becca waved him off. “C’mon. Don’t be-”

He kicked Sandesitan on, feeling the time start to dilate, Becca’s mouth slowing down further and further till he was struggling to see the actual motion, the cars on the street looking like they were stuck on neutral, slowly sliding down a tiny incline. 

He laughed. His sensations, everything he was witnessing felt more and more real and clear than they had ever been. The beeping the Sandevistan had whenever he had kicked it on didn’t happen this time. Replaced by a smooth hum that elevated as everything around him slowed down to a crawl. 

Sandy had always felt like a part of his body that he had regained, but now? It felt like it was a part of his soul that he had gotten back. 

He smiled, looking at the smaller woman, readying to drop out of his time-dilated state, before a thought entered his mind. 

He’d carried Rebecca once or twice before the tune-up. It would’ve been a good benchmark to see how far he could go with her after it. 

So moving behind the woman, he wrapped his arms around her torso and lifted.

“-a wuss”

Becca was goading David to try out his ‘nothing major’ Sandevistan on the streets one moment, and the next moment she was sitting on the monorail station, David huffing and panting, hair a little more disheveled than usual. 

Rebecca slowly blinked, looked down, and back up. Taking note of the disrepair of the station slowly as pieces fell into place. “...we were 3 blocks away.” 

David shot her a smirk. “Jogging with Lucy really worked out, huh?” 

The woman looked at him with her crimson eyes, as if he was about to grow a second head any moment. “Any kickback?” 

“Honestly?” he chuckled softly as he nuzzled into his seat, breath evened out with one final huff. “I feel like a billion eddies.”

“Nova,” she whispered before slapping his shoulder. “They’re gonna start calling you Delta-David!!!” 

He tried holding the laughter back before bursting out. “God no- that’s so fucking bad!” 

Becca didn’t relent, “Delta-D awayyyy!” she mocked, between bursts of laughter. “Fastest gonk in Night City!” she announced with an arc of her hand. 

David finally stabilized, punching her on the shoulder weakly. “C’mon, choom,”

“His weakness?” she announced, turning with a grin. “Carbonation!” 

He rolled his eyes, grinning ear to ear. “I’ll never get any respect for that, huh?” 

“Nah,” Becca relented, leaning back in her seat and kicking her legs. “But we’ll like you regardless.” She poked her tongue out in a teasing manner to punctuate the statement, and David noticed that it was a lot pinker than anything organic. Slightly longer too.

Blushing, he smirked. “Nice chrome, choomba.”

Becca’s face twisted before realization set in, her tongue lolling out further and further. “Ya like, huh?” 

She blinked and heard the turbine-like sound echo throughout the station, her eyes landing on the spot David should’ve been, only to meet an empty seat and nothing else to go on, not even kicked up wind.

“You’re no fun,” she pouted at the empty seat.

Chapter Text

He hadn’t meant to activate it. 

The Sandy hummed on his back, time dilating on its own as David took in a gasping breath, shocked that the chrome seemingly turned on its own accord. But he didn’t have enough time to remain confused for long. 

His eyes focused onto the arm that had started to move, the panels over the forearm starting to shift like Maine’s did whenever he was about to use his arm cannon. 

Sandy beeped, and David realized that he had scaled the container, his hands on the hobo’s arms, pushing it away from Pilar’s head and onto- 

The cannon went off, David watching the shockwave ripple through the air, the hobo’s flesh jiggling before the destruction carried onwards, the head starting to disintegrate, flesh expanding out as the rumble of the skull shattering reached his ears. 

He got to watch the corpse’s eyes bulge before popping out of the ruined skull before the shock passed enough for him to move again, grabbing Pilar and pushing the both of them away from the man, managing to catch himself and the long-armed edgerunner before they hit the ground. 

Then, time resumed. 

He heard the gasps, Pilar himself looking around trying to figure out where they were before the spray hit them, showering the two edgerunners in gray matter and blood.

He didn’t care, only looking down on his hands and making sure he wasn’t shaking. 

“I didn’t…” he repeated to no one, trying to figure out how in the hell the implant had kicked on. 

Maine was burst into the scene, shoving the entire container away from the two. “The fuck was that!” 

“He- had a preem implant!" Pilar screeched. “Next thing I know, I’m on the ground!” He turned to David. “Did you do something, kid?” 

Becca scrambled over the two next. “David you didn’t have to kill the gonk!” 

“I- I didn’t,” David mumbled, hands starting to shake as he recalled the memory. “It just- on its own…” 

Both Maine and Pilar took a step back, Pilar grumbling about cyberpsychosis. 

Becca didn’t even flinch, clapping her hands over the man's face, making his hands stop shaking “What did you do-?” 

“I uh-” he was panicking just a little, going through all the XBD’s he’d watched, felt. Trying to figure out if that was what they really felt like too- passengers in their own bodies. “Sandy kicked in on its own- I just noticed the fuckers arm cannon going up and just-” 

“Cannon?” Maine grumbled, taking an unsteady breath before looking up. “Dorio- is he right?” 

“Yeah.” Dorio huffed, staring at the man’s limp arm hanging down the side of the container.

Lucy’s hand was on David’s shoulder, the woman not matching his gaze. “That was faster than usual… did you do something to the Sandevistan?” 

“Questions later.” Maine ordered. “Hell, talk to him at his place.” He motioned. “You all better leave before the pigs get here. We’ll say the guy just went cyberpsycho.” 

David’s throat tightened slightly. Body tensing.

Lucy didn’t backtalk her boss, hooking her hand under David’s shoulder and helping him to his feet, Becca helping the best she could with her stature. 

“C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up, big guy.” his shorter companion grumbled, shooting a look at Pilar who still looked at David like he was holding a gun to his forehead. 

“I can walk on my own.” David hummed quietly, looking down at both his hands, held by both Lucy and Becca. Mentally, he was still fighting with himself if he wanted to be alone or have someone to hold onto to anchor himself to reality again. 

Lucy didn’t even turn to face him, shooting a glance to the shorter woman, who matched her gaze before looking back at the newest member of their gang. 

“Nah.”

“But I-”

Becca’s eyes squinted, red and green boring into his skull like that bullet had to the cyberpsycho. “No.”

That’s how he had ended up back in Lucy’s apartment, the woman looking out to the city with a smoke in her hand, David shoved into the ice bath, clothes and all. 

Becca looked between the two. “He got tuned up.”

Lucy huffed. “Knew that fucking implant was going to get him cyberpsycho…” 

“I’m fine!” he grumbled, rolling around in the tub before hanging into its side. “Stop acting like-” 

He grumbled, resting his forehead on the tub, still going through the day, the activation of Sandevistan, all the prior XBD’s he’d watched. “I’m not going psycho- I can’t be…”

“Choom, your hands were shaking.” Becca mumbled, still looking at him, some pity in her eyes. “You know what that means, right?” 

Lucy huffed her smoke more. “Told you your body wasn’t built to handle implants.” 

He couldn’t take it this time, and activated Sandevistan on, jumping out of the bathtub, grabbing a towel and wiping himself off. Grabbing a beer and sitting next to Becca silently.

When time resumed, Rebecca almost jumped away from him before settling back down. “...you’re still sane?” 

He stared at the beer. “You two know I am. Why else would you be in the same room?”

“Hope.” Lucy answered curtly, then looked away when he turned to face her. 

“...remember how I always talked about- Sandy feeling like a part of my body, Lucy?” 

She gave an affirmative hum as she took another lung-full of nicotine. “Your only claim to fame.”

He huffed, looking down on the bubbles. It felt wrong on how distant the two had gotten but it made sense. Going cyberpsycho meant the death of the id, ego and superego in one swoop. 

The women in the room were probably trying to pull back and cut ties before something like that happened to him. 

“It’s been better after the tune-up.” he mumbled, “Becca brought me to this new ripperdoc and he fixed some stuff on me.”

Lucy skipped over him and looked at Rebecca. “Explain.” 

Becca looked like she was calculating something in her mind. “I watched him work after David went under- he had to rip apart so much…” She looked down on her lap. “All the cables were just- tied, I thought he was fixing him! It’s Viktor, you know he does good work!” 

Lucy finally looked at David for the first time. “What happened?” 

He visibly sagged, relaxing a bit as she finally looked him in the eyes again, the weight lifting from his shoulders. “I- I’m not sure, I was just watching Pilar, you know? And next thing I know Sandy’s on… the gonk’s arm is moving up and I can see the cannon revealing-”

“...shit-” Becca mumbled, before suddenly cheering and hugging David onto the bed. “You fucking idiot!” 

“H-hey what gives!?” he argued, barely managing to keep the beer from splashing onto Lucy’s carpet. 

“Sandy didn’t activate on its own!” 

“But- I didn’t activate it-” he mumbled, putting the glass down on the coffee table. 

“Conciously! Not consciously!” Becca insisted, her nose almost touching his. “You noticed his arm was already moving when you were in the zone, right?” 

David’s eyes widened. “Wait- so…” 

Lucy connected the dots “Reflex?- you just-” she started laughing. “God I wanna punch you for scaring me like that” 

Becca actually did punch him in the chest. “Then you all go ‘but I didn’t activate it’ while standing in blood and brains, fucking idiot!” 

David blinked “-wait does that even happen?” 

Lucy facepalmed, laughing a little. “I forgot how new you are to chrome…”

“YES!” Becca insisted, pinching his face with one hand, making him pucker his lips. “It's usually a twitch or two while the chrome takes, nothing as flashy as the bullshit you pulled!” 

She hesitated for a split second, before leaning in, giving him a kiss on the lips. “That’s for saving my dumbass brother.” 

Then a punch on the crotch. “And that. Is for saving my dumbass brother.” 

David winced and coughed rolling off the couch and onto the floor. “Y-you’re welcome,” he wheezed, voice a little higher than usual. 

Lucy laughed a little harder, elated with it all.

It sounded like a siren’s song to David’s tired body.

Becca sighed, rolling back and melting into the couch. “Fuck, I was so worried…” 

Lucy hummed, putting her cig out and walking over to lean over her couch, staring down at David.

His face started feeling warmer as the day’s memories started to fade, replaced with the time on the gurney. “Hanging in there, boy?” 

“Barely” he huffed, smile on his lips. “Becca, you sure you don’t have gorilla arms yourself?” 

“Nah.” she huffed, rolling over to look down on him like Lucy was doing. “Though… question.” 

He grunted, and flinched slightly “Please don’t hit lil’david again…” 

“He’s not little.” Becca interjected, Lucy’s eyes twitching towards the off-white woman before focusing back on David. “But what ever you asking about in Vik’s shop? A bar?” 

“...what?” Lucy mumbled, looking at David “Doc, got you drunk before install?” 

“Weird right?” Becca mumbled, “I just remembered when you know-” 

“Oh-” David mumbled, remembering what he had mumbled before the tranq Vik had shot him with kicked in. “Nah- I meant like an actual bar- you know the one you bite into during the surgery?” 

The women looked at each other, then Lucy’s eyes glowed, clearly calling someone. 

Becca blinked and looked back down to David, resting a hand over his chest. “...what do you mean?”

“Uh- don’t you bite into something so you don’t scream during surgery? Do you just get tranq’d in Vik’s place every time?” 

“Lucy, hold me back.” Rebecca mumbled, her hand going for her guns, Lucy’s hand was on her shoulder, pushing it down already. “What- were you AWAKE during the installation?” 

“Yeah?” David mumbled, blinking.

“Imma FUCKING KILL-” Lucy’s grip turned iron, Becca wincing. 

“The same guy that didn’t even give you immunosuppressants, right?” she whispered, her voice heavy and sharp enough to cut through the air between them.

“Yeah- that’s why I was gonna spend the eddies I was saving up for the synth lungs for the tune-up…” 

“You were going to go back to that-” Becca huffed, rolled over and slammed head-first onto his chest. “Why are you such a goddamn idiot?” 

“He’s naive.” Lucy hummed, fixing her hair, eyes softening as the call ended. “Too naive…”

Becca huffed, rolling off further before getting to her feet. “Better go check on Pilar. Knowing him, you might’ve saved him for nothing, and he might be laying on his own vomit at home.” 

“Told Maine.” Lucy hummed, huffing softly, “don’t blow up the doc, Becca. I want a piece myself.” 

Rebecca smirked, rolling her head “first come, first serve.” 

Lucy shook her head with a soft smile; then grabbed David by his shirt, pulling him up slightly “c’mon. I have something I wanna show you.” 

“...Cloudy night, huh?” David hummed, looking up to the dark masses over the sky, blocking out Lucy’s dream. 

“Mhm…” she hummed, sitting farther than usual. “I… wanted to talk to you about something…”

David perked up at that. “Funny- same here…” 

Silence washed over the two as they both waited for the other to start. It was more comfortable than David could ever admit. 

“I-” she started, turning away from him slowly as she tried to articulate herself. It just had been so long since she had opened herself up so much- to become so defenseless around someone. 

And David was just so wide-eyed, naive… she couldn’t even imagine how he had lost his mother just mere weeks ago- his entire life, gone in a matter of days. Yet sitting down in the cold night sky, here he was, watching the skies like she was.

Eyes full of hope and dreams.

“The Moon BD you had was just something else, huh?” he mumbled, lost in the moment, filling the empty air with their shared memories. 

“Yeah…” She mumbled, glancing at him with the side of her eyes. “I wasn’t lying that day, you know?” 

David hummed, tilting his head to look at her again “yeah- I know.” 

“And what if I’m lying now?” she offered, waiting for him to get mad or storm off, her shoulders tensing at the idea. 

Hell, recalling how he had saved Pilar- she wouldn’t even get to see him leave before he disappeared.

“I wouldn’t believe you if you said you were.” David mumbled, looking back up to the moon. 

“Why?” 

“Cause I don’t like that.” he offered curtly, turning to smile at her. 

“You’re crazy.” She grumbled, trying to hold in her laughter. 

David smiled wider. “So are you.” 

Her hand slowly moved behind her neck, grasping her hair. Realization washing over her like a wave in the night. We’re nothing alike.  

She was pulled back into her past, reliving the horrors. 

David’s voice cut through. “I wanna get you to the moon.” 

Her breath died at her chest, head jerking to the man on her side. A blink later, he was on his feet, hand reached out to help her up. “Or do you still doubt me?” 

“...David…” she mumbled, looking at his hand. “You know- edgerunners are remembered by the way they die, not how they live-” 

She sighed sharply at the idea of him dying. His expression locked, eyes empty, a shudder ran down her back. “You don’t deserve a life like that.”

He didn’t flinch, holding his hand out still. “Neither do you.” 

Her eyes went up from his hand to his eyes. “You know nothing about me.” 

“And?” he mumbled, affection and love palpable in his eyes. “None of that will matter when you get to the moon.”

She grabbed his hand, and pulled herself up, glimpsing another rocket flying off with the corner of her eye. 

“I promise.” he repeated, eyes locked into hers. “I’m not just sayi-”

She shut him up with her mouth, kissing him deeply, bringing forth all the affection she could possibly muster. It was impulsive. Something that would either get her heart broken, or even get her flatlined. But she went through a rollercoaster of emotions moments ago when she thought he might be on the edge of psychosis. 

She didn’t want to go through that ever again, nor did she want to sit on the fence any longer when their lives were just flames waiting to be snuffed out by the careless breeze of Night City. 

Finally pulling back, and staring into his eyes, she whispered the truth. “I just don’t want to see you die…”

He looked back at her, eyes glazed over, looking up at her like she was some sort of angel from above. His eyes focused back in, and he kissed her back, innocently at first, before pulling back and getting more heated, his tongue darting against her mouth as hers did the same following his. One of his hands reached up to pull the back of her head closer, while the other wrapped around her waist, pulling her ever-so-slightly taller body against his.  

It was the first time she felt safe while someone was touching the back of her head, melting against his frame and trying to pull him flush against hers with her hands on his head and the base of his skull, fingers rubbing against the chrome that had worried them so much, caressing it with tenderness even as their breathless lip-lock got wilder, her lungs burning as they stumbled back towards her apartment, both of their hands greedily searching for more skin to touch. 

She giggled as her back hit the roof access door, David giving a grumpy growl at the sudden hindrance. 

Her hands landed on his cheeks as she made him look up into her eyes.

“Wanna stay at my place?”

Chapter Text

He didn’t know what he was doing. 

Then again, he had stopped knowing what he was doing since the day Maine introduced himself with a punch to his face. 

He’d felt intoxicated since the moment Sandy kicked in as Lucy pushed herself against him, giving him a soft kiss on the lips on the roof moments ago. Feeling every one of his own neurons spark as her soft lips touched his own. 

He had experienced that moment for what felt like an eternity, time slowing more and more as she made her feelings for him clear. 

But even after that he wasn’t satisfied, chasing the sensation, hands on her body, her hands on his, hating her damn leotard for the first time since he got a good look at her as it hugged her skin too close to let his fingers under it, blocking him from caressing the small of her back as they continued locking lips.

When she asked him to stay over, the Sandy kicked in again, beeping wildly as he felt his nerves shift into overdrive, body aching as he moved them as fast as he could back into her apartment, not wanting to lose even a second from the night they were going to share with each other. 

Lucy’s eyes widened, noticing that they were on her couch now, before her lips parted in an amused smirk. “Eager, are we?”

“And you aren’t?” he rebuffed, puffing his chest, trailing his hands over her body as they laid on her couch, trying to find the seams on her clothes to take them off. “Is it a turn-off?”

“Shut up, gonk,” she giggled, reaching up to cup his face and pull him in for another lip-lock, her legs wrapping around his hips and pulling his waist flush against hers, her lips leaving his to trace a path up his jawline, towards his ear. “You’re so adorable when you’re eager,” she moaned, blowing against his ear. 

His entire body shuddered like he’d short circ’d, a groan escaping his throat without his bidding. 

She was going to eat him alive, and he didn’t want it any other way. 

He’d not noticed it, aroused as he was, but she had managed to shed the upper part of her coat, her slim arms caressing the sides of his neck, hands sliding under his shirt and dainty fingers tracing the ribs of Sandevistan on his back. 

It should’ve been a dull sensation, but David couldn’t focus on anything but the sensual feeling of her fingers against the chrome. It felt like she was caressing his very soul. 

“You know,” Becca’s voice invaded the moment, the short woman standing in front of the doorway as the solid metal slid shut. ”This is the second time I’m walking into something I’m not supposed to see tonight.” 

David’s body froze, Sandy fizzled, and both he and Lucy shot a look at the doorway, Becca looking back at the two, blowing a bubble. “I mind this a lot less than what Pilar was fucking with tho’.” 

“It’s not what it looks like!” David shot out, not really aware enough of what was really happening to not yell out the trope. 

Becca popped the bubble, walking up while shedding her coat, glomping over the man’s shoulder, and shooting Lucy a grumpy glare. “Seriously? Just after I leave?” 

David was too busy freaking out about being sandwiched by the two women to register anything else. 

“First come, first served.” Lucy offered back with a sly smirk, reusing her line back to her. “But I’m sure we can fit you in too…” 

“Oho?” Becca grinned, spitting her gum, the pink piece of synth-chew landing inside the beer David had set down what felt like ages ago, her off-white hands trailing down his stomach. Lucy joined in on the assault on his senses as she leaned up, kissing his neck, over-stimulating the poor man instantly as Becca kissed the other side of his ear, whispering directly into it. “You down to feel how an ex-Mox does things, big boy?” 

“I’ve died and gone to heaven,” he mumbled, looking off into the distance, trying to figure out what he did right to get into the situation he was in, looking out the window and trying to see anything that could prove him wrong. “This can’t be happening-”

Becca giggled like a predator hunting her prey against his ear, fingers slipping under his pants. “You best hope your stamina training paid off, Dimples.” she cooed, David feeling her calloused but dainty fingers caressing just under the hem of his boxers. 

Lucy moaned lightly in response, possibly feeling his body react to the stimulation in the most male way possible. “You’re right Bex, he’s not little at all.”

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) return of the smut ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

He felt sympathetic towards all the people he’d displaced using the Sandevistan as he found himself back in Lucy’s bed, his clothes basically goaded off by Lucy, and torn off by Rebecca, the two women giggling between each other as they teased him relentlessly, not letting his mind rest enough to figure out what he wanted to focus on: their words, or their skin on his. 

“You two’ve done this before?” he asked finally, just as Rebecca was helping Lucy out of her dress, the sight being arousing enough to hard-reset his mind and get him a word in. 

“Nah.” Rebecca muttered, continuing to unzip Lucy’s leotard from her back. “Though skinship isn’t that uncommon with runners, right?” 

Lucy caressed a hand under Rebecca’s chin, tracing the lines of her tattoo’s with her fingertips as she did so. “Why do you think me and Kiwi are so casual with nudity? You gotta be when you hack into ICE…” 

“And I’m-” Becca started, nuzzling Lucy’s hand softly, “woman enough to know when to share, choom.” 

David blinked down at the two, Sandevistan kicked in, giving him time to comprehend that he was about to have his first sexual experience, and it was going to be a threesome with the women of his dreams.

Time resumed, and he pushed forwards to kiss Rebecca deeply, his crotch grinding against Lucy in the process, and the woman giving a cute yelp at the sudden intrusion. “Hey, using the Sandy is cheating!” she huffed with no real bite to her words, her hand rubbing over her stomach, gently poking at his aching dick that had found its place over her half-removed leotard; rubbing against the black latex. 

Becca, who didn't have objections of her own, let go of Lucy’s zipper and grabbed onto David’s head with the feral fevor of a woman dying of thirst as she kissed him violently, her tongue stuffing his mouth and tasting him fully, her body trembling with passion. She pulled back, rolling her long tongue out and licking his face down to his neck with half-lidded eyes. “We can tease him later, Luce,” she moaned, her voice way too clear for someone with a foot-long tongue hanging out of their mouth. 

That only caused David to shudder more, unassisted by the gentle tugs Lucy was giving his forgotten member, looking up at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Thought you knew how adorable he is when he gets all cute and blushy,” she added, voice husky and heavy. 

“Oh, yeah,” Becca mused, her tongue tightening around David’s throat just enough to make it hard to breathe, sending another thrill down his spine, making his hips jitter slightly, his weight shifting forward, leaning on Becca for support, Lucy using the chance to slide her leotard to the side and push his cock between her body and the tight fabric. 

He growled in ecstasy, feeling the Sandevistan hum as the impulses shot up and down the chromed-out bridge of nerves, Lucy’s legs pulling him close to her, guiding him to thrust into the pocket with a tentative touch and a smoldering glare, Becca doing the same with the tip of her tongue teasing the last rib of Sandevistan, the warm muscle sending shockwaves down his nervous system. 

He hadn’t even gotten close to penetrating her, but he was already seeing sparks at the edge of his vision, kicking Sandevistan on and off to catch his nerves and try and last a little longer, giving himself the breaks his overstimulated body needed as the women didn’t let up. 

“You gonna break him,” Becca mused whimsically, leaning closer and biting into his neck, her tongue moving further down and licking the edges of the Sandevistan against his back, trailing a teasing path on the seams he’d forgotten he supposedly had since its tune-up. 

Lucy giggled, the sound echoing in his ears like a lullaby from an angel even as she did the most lecherous acts, fingers trailing up and down his length over the latex, licking her lips hungrily as she did so, eyes locked onto her prize. “Let me savor it a bit more- it’s been too long since I felt this way-” 

“Fuck-” he breathed out, his hand landing on Becca’s hair and pulling slightly, decoupling the woman from his neck before he pulled her into another kiss, deciding that he had enough of the women playing with him, and it was his turn to give them something back in return. 

Next moment, Rebecca was on top of Lucy, ass facing his way, and Lucy’s damn leotard was gone, tossed onto the side of the room. Both the girls blinked at each other before turning to face the man. 

“On second thought, Luce is ri-” Becca’s words died in her throat, replaced with a moan as David gripped her thighs and raised her ass up to his face, burying his mouth against her pussy and wrapping her thighs around his head. “OH FUCK YES” she screeched, calves immidietly hooking around his head and locking him in place, Lucy blinking owlishly at the sight of the standing sixty-nine.

The smaller woman’s tongue darted out, wrapping around his cock and guiding the tip against the Netrunner’s core, her friend winking at her with hazy, aroused eyes. 

David didn’t need the go ahead, simply thrusting forward slowly and pushing into Lucy’s folds with a teasing pace that got her thighs twitching, the net-runner’s head swinging back with a high moan as the sensations hit her, overpowering the sight of it all. Her brain almost misfired;  arousal and pleasure fighting for domination in her synapses. 

David couldn’t really separate the two sensations himself. Becca was chromed up down there, the taste of bubblegum invading his tongue as her folds vibrated in a steady beat that was making his brain break, trying to imagine how his dick would feel if he were to push inside. While the rest of his consciousness was trying to decipher just how the hell it felt goddamn good inside Lucy’s tight folds, clinging onto him like she never wanted to let go, her long legs wrapping around him once again to pull him deep within herself, all while Rebecca’s tongue rolled around his base, tightening softly around his balls in a comfortable pressure that was making his head spin in turn. 

She giggled against his stomach, and he felt a buzz tingle against his cock, before her entire tongue started vibrating wildly, Lucy screaming in pleasure as he did the same, the sensation of his cock basically turning into a vibrator causing him to start thrusting wildly, body trying to match the unmatched pleasure of chrome with something more physical, trying to spear himself as deep as he could before he flew off that edge. 

And fly off he did, buckling and leaning down as he unloaded everything into the netrunner under him, one of his hands gripping onto Rebecca’s back to ensure the woman didn’t fall onto Lucy, another arm grasping onto the sheets next to Lucy’s head in an effort to keep himself from collapsing onto the woman. 

If she was feeling one third of what he was, he doubted she would even feel him crashing onto her, tough. 

Feeling her leg lock weaken, he rolled to the side, panting and gasping, trying to catch his breath. It was hard to do with Becca not relenting, starting to lick his shaft up and down with her vibrating tongue, rolling her hips away to shoot him a hungry look. “You’re not going soft on me yet, are you?” 

“Please have mercy…” he mumbled, before getting pulled into a breath-taking kiss from Lucy, the woman huffing and panting, feeling like she was trying to make their souls touch with the kiss alone, trying to get him to feel the love she had for him at her emotional high. 

She pulled back slowly, pupils dilated, her hair a complete mess.

She was beautiful like no other. 

“She won’t,” she cooed, kissing his neck softly, tongue teasing a shard slot, making his back tingle. “And I want another round after her.” 

David looked back at Becca, who had climbed over him, giving him a shy smile as her pussy pressed against his tip teasingly. “Don’t break on me, choom~” 

He was very glad that he could still kick the Sandevistan on and catch his breath before the tiny woman slammed her hips down, her body shuddering as a soft bulge appeared on her stomach, deforming the pink tattoos. 

“Cause I’m not gonna stop till I break.” 

His eyes widened, gasping as he started feeling her walls start to undulate, trying to milk him without her even moving her hips, the short stack grinning and leaning in to give the newbie a kiss on the jaw, batting her eyelashes and letting him watch her start to grind against his hips. 

Suddenly she leaned back, adjusting her feet and leaning on one of her arms, prodding at the bulge on her stomach with her other hand as she started bouncing up and down, adding to the deluge of sensations, giggling to herself before shooting him a joyful, lewd look. “We’re gonna make this skull sing your praises, Davie.” 

He looked between her face and the cow-skull tattoo his tip was deforming with every drop of her hips, a deranged chuckle escaping his lips, finding humor in the act. Breathing deeply he steadied himself, reaching out and grabbing her ankles to help with her stability as she started showing him why her thighs were so big.

Lucy laughed along, kissing his temple and joining on watching Becca start jackhammering into his hips with a smile on her lips. 

“You aren’t walking away from this one, love.” 

His entire body was sore, and was still shocked he could stand on his legs.

After countless rounds with both women, David had finally reached his limit. His mouth was dry, he felt weak and hollow , as if everything had been sucked out of him, and the twinges of pain from every tendon on and around his pelvis had proved Becca right. Even with the repeated Sandevistan pauses to let himself catch his breath, he couldn’t go on any longer.

But he certainly wasn’t going to tell her that-- not even if she pulled a gun on him again. The thoughts dissipated as he watched in an orgasmic stupor as she pulled off of him with an audible pop, the whirring coming from her core fading as she moaned while she fell onto the mattress, giggling breathlessly. A small sense of satisfaction rose up from the corner of his brain that wasn’t fried as she rolled onto her back, gently patting her stomach that was visibly stuffed, the pink tattoos covering her warped in all the right ways. A second later, and she was snoring soundly, arms splayed, his essence leaking out of her unabated.  

He caught his breath and stumbled next to her, falling into bed between her and Lucy, who had looked just as tired. She barely noticed that he had landed next to her before she rolled over and snuggled her head against his chest, nuzzling her chin against his collarbone with a satisfied moan. 

“Love you, David.” she mumbled breathlessly, unbothered by the rising sun casting its light onto the trio in the bed. 

And he too was just tired enough to not mind the light either, kissing the netrunner on the head before letting sleep take him. 

Chapter Text

Beeping.  

Constant, angry, bleary beeping.

It had become all he could register, causing him to grumble and stir, not quite wanting to wake up, to realize that last night was nothing but a wet dream.  

His eyes snapped open as a jolt electricity went down his spine, the beeping punctuating it with an angry hiss.

He grumbled, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, Lucy grumpily pawing at his chest, trying to turn off the invisible alarm, Becca snoring loudly over his legs, not a care in the world. Everyone of them; naked as the day they were born. 

He opened his mouth to gasp as reality started to take shape around him, the fog in his brain slowly lifting. His throat ached the moment his lips parted, the indications of dehydration making themselves painfully obvious. His breath stank like death itself, his face souring at the realization as another beep grumbled from behind him. He realized the Sandevistan itself was the source of the infernal sound, rather than a clock or a call from one of their gang. Or the principal from Arasaka. 

His mind swirled back to the last time the old fool had called him. Another beep made him groan and forget about it. The Sandy was making sounds it hadn’t made without him activating it, but he could question what was causing that later.

For the moment, he needed to get out of bed before the chrome woke up the other two, and to get some water for himself. He could feel the tension headache coming up, and he wasn’t about to let himself get a hangover headache without even consuming alcohol. 

No one would let him live that down.

Breathing through his nose, he shifted, doing his best to escape the embrace of the two women that had made his night heaven without rousing either. Tumbling out of the bed quietly and tiptoeing his way out of the bedroom he sighed, happy that he’d managed to get out of the tangle of limbs and covers without waking either up. 

He took a deeper breath when the door to the bedroom slid closed behind him, hopefully giving enough sound insulation between him and his sleeping lovers that trying to find something to drink wouldn’t wake either of them up. 

Shaking his head and groaning tiredly, he stepped out into the small living room of Lucy’s apartment, his eye catching the afternoon sun casting god rays down into the cityscape through the small windowsill Lucy was prone to sit in. Shrugging and stretching his shoulders, he walked up to the window, resting a palm on the side of the glass and taking a look down.

She had one of the better views of the city; the next step up would probably be a massive penthouse on one of those high rises his mom claimed he would own one day. He smiled sadly at the memory, nostalgia and remorse welling up inside him. Sorry, mama.  

He went to turn around and head to the kitchen area of the place, but stopped himself when something off about his reflection caught his eye. Scanning over the many lipstick smears that had painted his skin he noticed what was actually off, tilting his neck to the side he hummed in thought, trying to figure out what it could’ve meant.

The Sandevistan on his back was glowing an angry red, rather than the bright green that he was used to. The LED at its joints slowly blinked, reflected up and down the entire spine by the polished steel vertebrae.

Huh. Weird .

He decided to ignore it. He’d die with a smile on his face after the night he had spent, and worrying about something as dumb as the RGB on his back being a different color didn’t seem like a good way to spend the morning after. Instead, he rubbed his throat, trying to get the uncomfortable sensation of dryness out of it with his hands.

Realizing that was a useless and dumb effort, he walked to the fridge, searching for something that wouldn’t dehydrate him further. Alcohol, synthetic or otherwise, was off the table. Grumbling about how much of the stuff was in Lucy’s fridge, he reached in, pushing cans out of the way as he looked deeper. 

Finally, he found a bottle of RealWater on its side, behind even more bottles of Brosephs, grabbing and pulling it out with effort not to bump into anything. Finally with his prize in his hand, he closed the fridge, leaning against the counter next to it. Staring at the bottle for a moment before uncapping it, he dumped the entire thing down his parched throat, he greedily gulped down the liquid relief, feeling some of the water dribble off the side of his mouth and onto his chest.

Sighing loudly, his satisfaction audible, he wiped his mouth with the back of his arm, tossing the bottle into the trashcan without much thought. “That hit the spot…” he muttered to himself, enjoying the fact that simply existing wasn’t causing jolts of pain down his throat. 

Grabbing the back of his neck, he twisted his head and cracked his spine, metal and bone joints re-seating in a satisfying clang and pop, a satisfied groan escaping his lips, the electronic hum of Sandevistan resuming.

“Hungry?” 

His eyes turned toward the familiar voice, landing on Lucy’s lithe form, leaning against the wall with a soft smile on her lips. He couldn’t help but stare at her with awe, taking in a steadying breath as he took in the beauty she had even in her disheveled appearance. Her cute makeup was running down her face, and her stunning pearlescent hair was still an absolute mess.

Despite that, he still couldn’t come up with the words to describe how pretty she really was.

She blinked back at him, waiting for him to say something before starting to giggle. “Am I that much of a mess?” she cooed, attempting to fix her hair by rolling one of her bangs behind her ear.

David gulped on air, trying to decide whether he should act cool and aloof, or like the actual lovestruck fool that he was. 

His mouth decided for him. “Beautiful…” escaping from his lips unbidden, the sound making Lucy’s smile widen. 

“Romantic, aren’t you?” 

He blushed, looking away bashfully with a scratching finger on his neck, feeling the lipstick against the tip making him blush even more. “Uh- maybe we should wash up and get dressed?”

“You know, I don’t mind if you stare,” she offered, leaning onto the wall a little more, flexing her legs a little and giving him a teasing wink. “Or did you wanna shower together, or something?” 

David gulped another time, Sandy beeping angrily on his back. 

Lucy’s sultry looks got wiped away in a blink, her eyes widening up to the size of saucers, staring at the man. “What was that?”

“Oh.” he turned and patted the implant over his back. “It's just the Sandy, it's been beeping on and off since last night.” 

Lucy blinked, staring harder. “...And you’re not worried about that because…?” 

“I feel fine!” he exclaimed, smiling despite her mounting frustration, flexing his hands out the farthest they could go and showing her the lack of tremors. “No blood, no anything, see?” 

Lucy’s expression softened, stepping forward and sliding between his arms, snuggling against his neck, hugging him tight. “Sorry—I’m just worried, and…” she trailed off, looking up at his cheek, kissing it softly. “Seeing you all nonchalant about it makes it a little hard to imagine you taking care of yourself.” 

“I can take care of myself…” he insisted, pouting and hugging her back. “You’re not gonna bring up my first day, are you?” 

She chuckled softly, remembering it all. “You did fall down a flight of stairs…” 

Shaking his head he chuckled deeply, pulling her on top of himself as he pulled them up to the counter, sitting and looking up at her. “You know, every night since then, I’ve thought about you.” 

His hands ghosted over her waist, sliding gently up to her shoulders. “The way you looked at me on the gurney while we rushed down the road—” his hands trailed down her arms, gently clasping around hers. “The way your hand moved in the Moon BD, when you urged me to hold your hand…” 

“You’re hopeless,” she mumbled, blushing slightly and squeezing his hand back. “Didn’t I betray you the same day?” 

“What, you mean by calling Maine?” he whispered, kissing the side of her lips. “Don’t think you were slick with how you kept insisting that they didn’t kill me, or how you stood up for me when I was talking about using the Sandevistan…” 

“Gonk” she mumbled back, kissing him deeply, her hands grabbing at his chest, massaging his body. “About that shower—” 

The Sandevistan beeped again. 

They paused, Lucy looking over his back onto the machine that kept interrupting them. “Are you certain you’re fine?” 

He looked as shocked as she was, blinking bewilderedly. “It might be just on cooldown after last night, I did use it a lot…”

Her eyes widened further, looking between the chrome and the man. “How many times?” 

He looked away like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar “Uh, I lost count after like, thirty—” 

Lucy’s ear slammed against his chest, her other hand grabbing onto his neck and trying to get a feel for his pulse. 

“He—hey what gives?” he grumbled, not fighting back against her touch over his body. 

“Your heart rate is fine-” she mumbled, looking deep into his eyes, turning him to look up his nose, ear, the seam lines on his back where Sandy connected to his body. “No blood- what immunosuppressants are you taking?” 

“...Yeah, about that….” 

Becca jolted awake as she heard someone scream something, tumbling out the bed tiredly on wobbly legs, walking out the door of Lucy’s bedroom and into the living area. 

She blinked tiredly at the sight of Lucy shaking David by his gold necklace, yawning. “Lovers’ quarrel?” she mumbled, scratching her long, mint-green hair. 

“Bex, you know how many times this gonk used the Sandevistan last night?” Lucy screeched, her hand clapping over David’s mouth. 

“Two? In the bedroom—uhh, five?” she grumbled, counting with his fingers. “Why?” 

“Over fucking thirty ,” the netrunner hissed out, blushing wildly and pulling her hand away from David’s mouth, staring at the strand of saliva that connected his lips to the port on her palm. Her eyes hardened again, looking ready to strangle the man herself. “And he’s not even taking immunosuppressants!” 

That certainly woke her up. “ What .” 

“Maine told me to take it when I get a fever or something, not randomly!” He insisted, looking more defensive than usual. “Or, like, if my hands start shaking, isn’t that how it goes?” 

Lucy’s mouth opened, closed, and she shoved her head into her hands, letting a tired sigh escape her lips. “How did you even get into Arasaka Academy?” 

David shot a look at Becca. “Wait, it's not done that way?” 

The smaller woman was fighting her face from turning into a pitying grimace, losing the fight bitterly. “What the fuck has Maine been teaching you-” 

“We need to tell Dorio.” Lucy mumbled, realizing that Maine was probably doing the same thing to himself. Last thing they needed was a boss that went cyberpsycho ‘cause he didn’t know how drugs worked. 

“And you,” she jabbed his chest sharply with her fingernail. “You’re going back to Vik’s for a check-up.” 

David winced at her fingernail pressing into his bare skin. “But I’m fine— ” 

Rebecca walked up, leaning to the side next to Lucy. They both gave him unimpressed looks. 

David groaned, looking away, unable to argue against his—well, he wasn’t sure what they were, now. Outputs?

“Wait, are we dating now?” 

Lucy’s disappointment faded, shaking her head in disbelief, Rebecca giving a huff before smiling. “Yeah, you’re our gonk, now. Now go get dressed. We gotta make sure you ain’t dying on us.”

Viktor wasn’t expecting Rebecca to be back with her friend so soon again, especially not with another woman, looking around the place indifferently.

“Well, he’s still walking,” he huffed to himself, turning to face his customers. “David, right? I hope you’re not here to get another implant so soon.” 

David looked slightly worried at the question, the new woman looking up at the edgerunner sharply. Kid is whipped, Vik mused, smiling softly at the sight. 

“Not quite, Vikky,” Rebecca opened, looking back at her- he was thinking input, but considering the other girl…

“Castration?” he offered, making all three of them freeze—David looking especially spooked… 

Becca gave him a highly unamused glare. “If you touch that, you’re the one who’ll be missing a dick, doc.” 

He raised his arms defensively, smiling softly. “Sorry, not many are happy with their inputs double-dipping.” 

Rebecca grinned impishly. “That's a story for later. Point is, Davie here overused his Sandy, and he hasn’t been taking his meds.” In a joined effort, both women shoved David forward, who stumbled a bit before catching himself, looking around attempting to look cool. “Mind giving him a once-over?” 

Viktor couldn’t help but blink, looking up at the young man, then at both of the women behind him. “When you say overused…”

“Over thirty times in one night,” the netrunner offered, leaning on one leg, shooting another catty look at David, the man scratching his head with a wobbly smile. 

“How in the…” the doctor mumbled, looking at the man still managing to stand in his clinic. “Kid, what are you made out of?” 

David shrugged “Mostly ‘ganic stuff?” 

“If he wasn’t, he’d be dead five times over.” Rebecca shot back, taking a seat on one of Viktor’s cupboards. 

The doctor shook his head, rubbing his forehead. “I noticed that the Sandevistan had specs above military grade during the tune-up, but that still doesn’t explain this at all. Take a seat, I’ll take a look at you.” 

Shedding his mom’s hi-vis coat, the young cyberpunk did just that.

“What the fuck…” 

David flinched, looking to the side to see the doctor tapping away at his keyboard, scanning the X-rays of his body. “What is it, doc?” 

Lucy was behind the ripper doc, her hand on her mouth, eyes wide. “Is…is that lethal?” 

“It—” Viktor glanced back and forth between the screen and David. “Are you feeling any pain at all? Any pressure? Fever, maybe?” 

The young edgerunner knew he was hooked up to a Biomonitor, so the questions were just to ensure the readings were accurate. He wasn’t about to make a big deal about that, however. 

“No? That’s why I wasn’t taking the immunosuppressants…” he mumbled, looking at the doc, unable to see the screen from where he was lying. 

“Is that a fucking tumor?! ” Rebecca shouted, having scrambled to her feet after seeing the other’s reaction, finally squishing between Lucy and Viktor to catch a glimpse at the screen. “What the hell is that thing growing on him, Vik?”

“Fuck if I know,” the doc grumbled, the scanner aperture above David sinking down a little further, zooming in on his ribcage. “Looks like his body’s growing around the Sandevistan. I haven’t seen anything like it…” 

“I thought scar tissue was normal?” David offered, still not fully understanding how different it could’ve been to warrant such reactions. 

“Kid, these are blood vessels, neurons, new muscles— ” Vik mumbled, finally turning his screen to let David see what was happening under his skin. 

The color from his face drained, looking at the branching capillaries that were concentrated around the Sandevistan’s heatsinks. They were bunched up and focused against the machine before spreading out all over his back, bundles of nerves sitting around the, for lack of a better term, organic radiator that his back had become ,and even more connected around the sensors of the Sandy, reaching back into his skull. 

“Built different…” he mumbled, seeing the actual proof of what he had been talking about since the day he’d had the chrome installed on his back. 

The rest of the occupants at the clinic paused, looking at each other before the girls both stared at the doctor.

Viktor sighed, hanging his head before huffing exhaustedly. “I guess you’re right.” He ran a hand through his hair, scratching at his scalp. “No other way to describe this. I’m not sure if it's the Sandevistan doing something weird with your physiology, or if your body just started adapting like that to accommodate the implant.”

He turned the screen back and hit a button on the console. The scanner above David began rising up out of his face, folding back against the ceiling. “In either case, no more chrome. Your body’s doing something unforeseen in all of Night City already, and no need to add more stress to it. You got that, choom?” 

David blinked, trying to come to terms with what he’d seen, nearly missing the doctor's warning. Not quite, though. “No more chrome till it stabilizes, gotcha.” 

Viktor sighed, looking at the two girls instead. “You’ve got a tough one to handle, gals.” 

Lucy sighed, Rebecca smiling “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” 

“Hey, Luce, wanna go zero that other Ripperdoc? I think we both need something to relieve stress after this.”

Lucy lit up her cigarette, giving it a slow inhale before puffing a cloud out. “Sure. I need to vent some frustrations anyway.”

Vik ignored the plans of murder happening behind him, still staring at the images of the young edgerunners back. “Don’t take the immunosuppressants either.”

Everyone looked back at the doctor that was on his wit's end, he could actually feel the gaze of the women burning into his back. 

“Your body’s going through something massive. The last thing we need is an infection or worse…and seeing that you’re stable, there’s no need to introduce any variables that could mess up the process.” 

David smirked, looking over at his new outputs, who both sighed, but gave him affirming nods.

Chapter Text

The place felt familiar. 

Or rather the position he found himself in. 

David glared at Maine, Dorio, and Pilar sitting across from him, all three with their weapons in their hands. Only Pilar had his finger on the trigger. Huh, so that's where Becca gets it from, he thought to himself.

“Explain,” Maine ordered, looking as cold and ruthless as he did the first day they had met, glasses hiding his eyes. 

He glanced at Lucy, who was leaning against the armrest of his couch, while Becca was behind him, glaring a hole into her brother.

“It wasn’t cyberpsychosis,” he started, Dorio’s shoulders drooping slightly with relief at the statement. She shot a glance at her input, but Maine didn’t visibly react to the news. 

Pilar still looked as scared as he was last night. 

“He’s right,” Lucy grumbled, rubbing her hair. “No tremors, no antisocial behavior.” 

“He did enjoy our company last night, too,” Becca added, her impish grin carried in her voice. “Didn’t you, Davie ?”

Maine’s expression shifted, a grin breaking across his face as the glasses slid down his face, booming laugh escaping his lips. “Fuck kid, you got more game than I do, huh?” 

Dorio smacked him on the side of the face, before chuckling herself. “Explains why he acts so different too- he finally got laid.” 

David’s bravado melted away, blush covering his cheeks, looking between the two women still on his sides. “I thought that was meant to be private…” 

Rebecca made a soft snort. “Sorry, let me make it up to you~” she whispered, hugging him from behind and kissing his neck softly. Another shudder pulsing down his back as his blood left his face and rushed somewhere else. 

Pilar made a dry heaving sound as he looked away, and pulled his finger off the trigger. “Sis, cmon.” 

Rebbecca stopped her administration of affection and flipped her brother off, poking her tongue out at the same time. “Fuck off bro- you’re supposed to be happy 'cause your angel of a sister is happy now.” 

“Yeah, yeah…” he huffed, glaring away, flipping her off back.

“Good to have that cleared up.” Maine huffed, seemingly unaffected by the sibling banter, readjusting his glasses. “How ‘bout an explanation for the ‘I didn’t activate it?” 

“Reflex,” David hummed, shrugging slightly, his hand petting Rebecca’s head as she continued making more and more offensive hand motions towards her brother. “At least, that’s what Lucy and Becca told me- it just felt like the Sandy kicked in on its own when the hobo’s arm started moving weird.”

Maine stared for a second before barking out a harsh laugh. “You had enough time to jump in and save Pilar as the guy was getting his cannon out? You gotta be pulling my leg.” 

“No, he isn’t.” Lucy interjected, huffing smoke out and looking at David. “I’m not telling you to trust anyone here.” 

David didn’t understand what she was trying to imply, blinking at her before turning back to face the rest of the gang. “Viktor checked me this morning, I uh-” 

Lucy shook her head dismissively and shrugged her shoulders, seeing that David was going to be naive again and spill everything. 

She couldn’t help but let a small smile out. The City would eat him alive if it got the chance, but she wasn’t gonna let that happen, even if it killed her. 

But for now, she didn’t mind him spilling a little; at least the crew would start trusting him more. 

“Looks like the Sandy’s fusing with me a little more than expected,” David smirked, flexing his hand as they all received a copy of his scans on their cyberware. 

Maine lowered his gun, pulling his glasses down like that was gonna help him see his cyber feed better, glaring into the empty space in front of him. “-Jesus christ, what did Gloria feed you, kid?” 

David’s smirk turned into a sad smile at the mention of his dead mother, leaning on his knees. Taking her chance, Becca rolled over the back of the couch, shoving her head between his torso and lap, snuggling into him tight. 

“Doc couldn’t tell me if it’s the Sandy doing this or my body in response to chrome,” he said, resuming petting the ex-Mox and looking back at the crew. His expression shifted back to something more determined, before shrugging with a smirk. “Not like I got the damn thing with a user guide so- I can’t tell either.” 

“You didn’t even know whose chrome that was before jacking it in any way.” Pilar grumbled, finally leaning back and intertwining his fingers behind his head, his gun back in its holster. “Though, I didn’t know chrome could do that to a gonk.” 

“It's probably a military-grade prototype,” Dorio hummed, pinching her chin and looking between the kid and the empty spot where the scans were on her Cyber eyes. “Something built for the next corporate war- y’know?” 

Maine hummed, seemingly deep in thought. “Pilar- you’re a techie, wanna take a look at it?” 

“Not much I can do without pulling it out,” the lanky man huffed, lighting a cig and puffing the nicotine vapor out. “And I doubt the newbie there would survive getting chrome removed with his new- I don’t even know what to call it…” 

“Good, don’t,” Lucy added, glaring at the rest of her crew. “Last thing we need is one of the corpo’s learning about this.” 

A dull silence passed between the members, each imagining what could happen if something like Arasaka was aware of what was going on inside David. 

Maine looked at the rest of them. “We don’t rat one of our own. Capiche?”

“If any of you do, what they’d do to David would pale to what I would do to you all,” Becca added, her red eyes glowing with a devilish glint.

For someone so short, she still managed to intimidate the toughest of solos when she wanted to. 

“Fucking empty,” Kiwi grumbled, rising out of the bathtub and disconnecting herself from the networking equipment. She wrapped herself in a towel and collapsed into the seat next to David with an angry huff. “Tanaka increased his ICE, can’t get anywhere near anything.” 

“Huh-” David mumbled, thinking of something, managing to ignore his urge to stare at the half naked woman successfully.

“Also, another thing,” Lucy huffed, glaring at Maine. “Heard what you said to David about the immunosuppressants.” 

Their boss grinned at them, “Bet that helped with your little growth spurt, eh kiddo?”

David dropped the train of thought, looking back at Maine and attempting to stop him with just his eyes, trying his best to warn the man before he stepped on that landmine. 

“Yeah. what the fuck did you mean by ‘use them when your hands start shaking’?” Lucy asked, voice monotone. “Is that how you dose yourself up?” 

Dorio flinched next to Maine, slowly turning to face her input. “You told me you were taking them regularly.” 

Maine looked like a man on death row. “Y-yeah? Two every day when I get the tremors-”

Metal against metal echoed in the dimly lit safe-room they were hiding out in. 

Maine groaned, rubbing the back of his head. “That's what the Doc told me!” 

“The same doc that gave David his messy op?” Lucy hissed, finally sitting next to the man with an angry huff, crossing her long legs over each other. “You saw what David told us.” 

“It's just hazing!” Maine grumbled, rubbing his head. “You think I was out when he installed my arms the first time?” 

The crew looked back at their boss. 

“Ok, that is metal as fuck .” Pilar mumbled, then shaking his head. “Wait, so Davy-boy over here was awake while his spine was pulled out?” 

David shuddered at the recollection. “I- uh loopy from the pain but, yeah.” 

Kiwi huffed, a puff of smoke shooting out from her vents. “That's why you don’t trust anyone in this shithole.”

Dorio smacked Maine again. “Asshole, don’t you know trauma during install makes it easier to go cyberpsycho?”

Maine tapped his chest. “C’mon, I’m different than the other gonks out there, I can handle it.” 

The rest of the crew stared back at him, not quite impressed. 

“I’m dragging you to- Becca, where is this Doc that handled David?” Dorio huffed, ignoring her input’s sounds of disapproval. 

“Viktor’s place, it's around by the Mox bar. Sending the deets now, tell them I sent ya,” the off-white lady hummed, eyes glowing blue as the info transferred over to the buff woman. 

“You’re overreacting, Dorio.” Maine grumbled, not enjoying how the entire team seemingly turned against him in an instant. 

“I mean-” David mumbled, scratching his cheek. “I’m sure he could fix your arm cannon jamming too, boss.”

Dorio grumbled, pulling her input close and giving him a hungry kiss. “It's cause I don’t wanna lose you, idiot. Besides,” she leaned in close to Maine, “we can do the thing after that.” 

Maine’s objections died in his throat at the bribe, his mouth forming into a dopey grin instead. 

“Yeah yeah, love and that junk.” Kiwi grumbled, tapping away at a projection over her face idly. “Is Faraday still giving us shit over that botched Tanaka job?”

“Leave worrying about that to me, choom,” Maine grunted, pulling his eyes away from Dorio

“Tanaka-” David grumbled, remembering his- “What are the odds of that being related to someone at Arasaka Academy?” 

Lucy perked up, shooting a glance at her new input. “We were going for a teacher at that place?” 

David cackled at that. “You think they were that human?” 

Kiwi tapped at the screen a little more before shooting him an unamused glance. “Yeah. His son was your classmate- the one you sent to the hospital.”

“Wait-” Maine’s jaw dropped, “you accusing this lil’ guy of going to that shitty corpo kindergarten?”

“Yeah, straight A student too.” Kiwi added, looking back at her holographic deck. 

Lucy dropped all pretenses, starting to laugh. “Yeah, right.” 

 “Just how low were their standards?” Becca grumbled.

David looked between the two, “Hey- come on, I worked my ass off to stay in there for my mom, ok?” 

“Explains why she was so strapped for cash all the time,” Maine huffed, smirking at the man trying to defend his intellect between the netrunner and ex-Mox. 

“Anyway-” David huffed, giving up as his outputs continued giving him teasing jabs, “anything interesting about that dickheads dad you got on there?” 

“Watched a lot of XBD’s- I’m talkin’ more than Pilar.” Kiwi hummed. “Mostly gore, though.” 

“Fucking freak,” Dorio mumbled. Pilar just looked offended that anyone could watch more XBD’s than him.

David hummed tapping his chin. “Got anything more specific than that?” 

Kiwi looked ready to toss him into the bathtub and hook him in so he could see for himself, but calmed herself down with another lungful of nicotine. “Nothing other than the moniker ‘JK’ attached to most of them.”

“Huh,” David mumbled, blinking as pieces fell into place, “Small world.” 

The crew turned to face him, Lucy looking concerned at his reaction, “You’re gonna say something insane.” 

David looked away, scratching his cheek, “I- uhh… used to run his stuff at the academy. Watched some too- guy’s incredible with how fast he can make one of those…” 

Becca rose out of his lap, glaring at him. “I thought you were naive, and here you are, watching cops get gored in your spare time…” 

She kissed him, pushing him into Lucy’s lap in the process, “You’re too perfect. Not fair.” 

Lucy looked like she was regretting every choice she made at the same time.

Maine scratched his chin, “Thanks for the blackmail, but that doesn’t really help us, Green.” 

David pushed Becca off himself, patting her head to calm her down as he shot a look at his boss. “Well- Jimmy Kurosaki makes ‘made to order’ XBD’s too- pain limiters adjusted to the customers' parameters kinda preem shit.” 

That pulled their attention back, Becca stopping her attempts to pull him back into a kiss. 

“And he needs to be there to do that- and Tanaka would be there alone,” David continued, starting to put it all together. “You wouldn’t bring your bodyguard to the XBD pick-up, right?” 

Maine’s face split into a grin. “Look at you, using your brain. Did the girls tire the other head out that much?” 

David laughed the embarrassment away, looking up at Lucy with a soft shrug. 

She looked down, then patted his head softly. “Stop being cute.” 

“I’m not doing anything!” 

Kurosaki was an elusive man. Both Kiwi and Lucy dove into the net, trying to track down the BD architect. While the two netrunners combed through the remains of the internet protected by the Blackwall, the rest of the gang started doing small-time gigs. Bounties, rescue operations. Anything that could’ve been completed in a small squad, without the aid of a netrunner. 

It was during one of those when it happened. 

No netrunner meant that they couldn’t scout the warehouse as easily. David felt antsy at the prospect but pushed it down in his psyche, not wanting to look weak to the rest of their gang. He turned as Dorio and Becca walked in like they owned the concrete labyrinth. 

“Did they really hire us for courier shit?” Becca bemoaned, spinning her revolver on one of her fingers. “I hope the pay is at least good.” 

Dorio shrugged, “Better than nothing. Maine needs a break according to the doc, and going blind into something bigger than this might end with one of us dead.” 

Becca clicked her tongue. “C’mon, we’re more than enough for a clean-up job, right David?” 

They had stopped right in front of a door that led deeper into one office area of the abandoned warehouse. He hummed, looking between the two women. “I guess? You sure you don’t want me to scout ahead with the Sandy? They wouldn’t even see me blitzing by.” 

“Who’s they?” Becca argued, huffing and tilting her head to glare up to her taller lover. “There is no one else he-” 

The world faded as time slowed down to a crawl. David’s eyes scanned the room trying to figure out what could’ve caused his reflex to kick in so suddenly. 

Then, he noticed it, the door behind Rebbecca was splintering, red-hot metal shooting through the rusted iron paneling, sparks slowly painting the dark void of the corridor.

The Sandevistan beeped, and the slow trail of sparks hit the brakes. He moved as fast as he could, cradling Rebecca against himself softly and carrying her away from the door, putting her on her feet a few meters away, before turning back to pull Dorio out of the way too. He  managed to drag the massive woman back a little before time resumed, the metal door exploding, shrapnels missing the trio completely. 

A mantis-blade wedged itself onto the remaining debris of the door, cleaving it off the housing before a kick sent the chunk onto the wall. 

“Who the fuck is trespassing onto Tyger Claw property?” the gangoon growled, scanning the corridor and catching Becca looking around confused, and Dorio holding her shoulder and wincing, her sudden displacement had her body sore. David looked back at the guy with anger in his eyes. “What, a bunch of washed up-” 

Time slowed down as the Sandy kicked in again, the man’s speech turning into a droning noise rather than words. David knew his fight or flight had kicked in, and all he could do was look at the man that looked eerily familiar to the guy that almost killed him back when they stole that limo. 

This time, it was different. 

This time, the Sandevistan was working with him. 

He closed the gap to the ganger with a single bound, ready to punch the fucker’s face in before he stopped himself, remembering how that had done near to nothing last time. Maine had to save his skin at the last moment, stopping the blade with his car. 

He wasn’t here to save him this time. 

And he didn’t want to use others as a crutch. He was going to stand on his own. He clenched his teeth trying to figure out what he could do as fast as he could. His eyes landed on the blade on the man’s hips.

That could work.

Reaching down he grabbed the man’s katana, pulling it out of its sheath. 

Time resumed. 

The Tyger claw realized what had happened, grimacing before grinning with malice, a second mantis blade bursting from his other arm. “Sandevistan? Too bad it ended before you-” 

Time slowed to a crawl, the man’s mouth hanging open as he attempted to finish his taunt. 

Grabbing the blade with both of his hands, David breathed in slowly, imagining how this was supposed to work. Just like punching. He guessed, staring into where he was going to cut. Roll into it with your body weight behind it.

Rising the sword up like an amateur, he swung the blade. Metal found flesh as the katana arced right through the mobster's neck. Bone and chrome parted, the blade in his hands hissing as the speed of the slash caused it to burn up with the friction, leaving a tiny smoldering line across the man’s throat.

But even after the slash had passed through its target, he couldn’t stop himself, tumbling forward slightly as his body followed through, the blade slamming into the concrete wall. The steel bent and embedded itself into the stone with a horrendous screech. 

Time resumed.

Dorio’s hand slammed onto his shoulder, trying to push him against the wall to give Becca a clean shot. But the two stopped, noticing that the threat was already taken care of. Both staring at the Tyger Claw who twitched, chrome limbs jerking and spasming one last time before his masked head started sliding off his shoulders, falling to the floor. 

Becca whistled audibly, Dorio blinked and turned back to face David, who was shaking his hands trying to get the sting out of them. 

“...didn’t you have your gun?”

The newbie paused his attempts to subside the aching pain shooting up his wrists after he’d got the kickback from slamming the katana into the wall. “Oh yeah…” 

Becca started cackling. 

Chapter Text

"Clean cut." Dorio hummed, looking at the body on the floor.

“You think there are more of these fucking gonks?” Becca mumbled, poking the downed Tyger Claw’s head with the side of her shoe, rolling it over with a dangerous smirk. “I could use the target practice.” 

Dorio huffed, looking back at David, who was attempting to pull out the katana he’d klept and somehow embedded into the concrete. “Usually are, gonna ask for a bonus for this shit.” Stomping over the corpse, she gripped over the younger man’s hands and helped him yank the blade out. “You decide to bring a trophy?” 

David blinked up at her His puppy-dog eyes triggered something close to maternal instincts within her, the feeling bubbling in the giant woman’s stomach. “No, uh, just thought it might be useful to have another weapon.” He glanced back down at the blade. “Can you, uh…” 

She followed his gaze down to the bent spine of the sword. “Bend this straight?” He nodded with a sheepish grin. 

She looked at the blade, crooked near the tip at a weird angle. She could bend it back with her bare hands, sure, but she knew that wouldn’t really fix its issues. She looked back at the kid, his wide eyes making her roll her own and grab a hold of the blade. “Fine. But be careful with it, it might sna—”

At the moment she took to look back at the blade, David had rushed off. 

“Made out of the same cloth, Maine and this dumbass,” she huffed, snapping the blade with ease. 

Becca giggled, shooting a teasing look at Dorio. “Can’t say no to his puppy-eyes ei—” 

She stopped herself, blinking with surprise at  David’s sudden disappearance. “Oh, I’m gonna make him regret that,” she growled.

He wasn’t sure what possessed him to run off like that, but he had. The only idea rattling in his head was that adrenaline had taken over, and his lizard-brain had decided to clear the warehouse. 

That, he could do.

He dashed through the corridors in time dilation, his hand going for the gun on his waist, pulling it out and pressing the ejector to double-check that it was loaded. 

His boots screeched to a halt as he stopped, staring down at his gun. 

“Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me,” he growled, watching the clip eject in slow motion before he disengaged the Sandevistan, the magazine falling out with a click and dropping into his palm. 

At least he knew it was full now. 

He turned back towards the direction he came from, thinking through his options. He didn’t want to go back. If anything, all he could think about was proving to the rest of the crew that he could really carry his own weight now. 

He pulled the slide of his gun back, checking to make sure he had a bullet chambered before loading the magazine back into it. 

It wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d hoped, and the chatter of the gangoons in the next room hinted that he really didn’t have much time to figure out a better way. 

Suddenly, a plan began to form in his head, making him chuckle slightly. It was going to strain both him and Sandy to the limit, but…

Hell, if that didn’t give him some cred, nothing would. 

He huffed, shedding his mother’s hi-vis coat and tying it around his waist. Thinking for a moment before he took off his black undershirt and stuffed it into one of its pockets, exposing his back. He sighed as the cold, stale air hit his back; a satisfied hum escaping the Sandy in conjunction. 

He double-checked that the safety was off, then breathed in slowly. 

Alright, Sandy. Ready for a stress test?

He couldn’t see it himself, but the green glow that punctuated his spine slowly morphed into blue.

Glaring at the door the chatter was coming from, he leaned back, readying his leg to kick at the rotting railings of the door.

Counting down from three internally, he launched forward, and the world slowed to a near-halt.

His foot met the door, rusted metal heaving and bulging before another speed-enhanced kick sent the metal sheet flying into the room. The Tyger Claws, crawling through time, greeted him inside. 

Every one of them were facing towards where he had zeroed the first Tyger, the unfortunate bastard standing directly behind the door. His body had started rag-dolling towards the rest of his gang,.

David counted six gonks, minus the airborne, as he walked between the members. He could see their eyes start to widen further in shock as some watched their fellow gang member fly, others noticing his handiwork on the door. He ignored their expressions, continuing to scan the room in its entirety by the time the lead ganger had managed to fully open his eyes. 

He picked his target.

He walked up to the gang leader, who was farthest from the door. He was in the middle of a call, from the looks of it. David saw the hologram in front of the man refresh rapidly, attempting to call for back-up. He watched it flicker in slow motion.

He raised his gun, pressed it against the nape of the Tyger’s neck, pointing the barrel up towards his skull, and closed his eyes. He pulled the trigger. 

He breathed in as he felt the internals of the gun start to move under his grip.

Time resumed.

The pistol in his hands fought against his grip as it finally fired. The loud boom that followed made him regret not covering his ears, but time dilated once again before the rest of the crew could finish reacting to the door shooting out of its spot, barely giving them time to turn to the sudden gunshot. The edgerunner stepped around the still-ongoing execution, his finger resting against the trigger guard as his gun continued the process of re-chambering another bullet in slow motion.

Breathe out.

Walking to the other side of the room, he selected another target, resting the gun against his second mark. He closed his eyes.

Breathe in.

Time resumed, and he felt the trigger hit his finger as the semi-automatic pistol finished loading the round. The gangsters had finished turning toward where the first gunshot rang out, not realizing that the source had long since moved. He pulled the trigger again. Another bang echoed throughout the room. 

Breathe out.

David glanced over at the Tyger being lifted off the ground and launched forwards from the force of the bullet he had been hit by. 

It was like he was floating in low gravity, reminding him of the Moon BD Lucy had shared with him. He shook his head free of that thought, not wanting to sully Lucy’s dream with the dead. He looked down and got a glimpse of another pistol, similar to his own on the guy's waist.

More the merrier. He pulled it out of its holster, walked over to another target, and aimed with his gun. 

Breathe in.

He flicked off the safety on his new weapon, waiting for the trigger on his older one to hit his finger, and as it did, he pulled. 

Breathe out. 

He was just following a pattern, at this point. Rush to another target, aim, pull the trigger. Swap weapons. Repeat until all hostiles are neutralized.

Breathe in.

Bang.

Breathe out.

Last two, he thought, walking over to the two remaining gangsters. Both were clearly terrified; the carnage surrounding them had pushed them to shove their backs together in an attempt to cover all their blindspots.

Unfortunately for them, he was faster than either of their brains could process at the moment. 

He stepped up beside them and placed the smoking barrel of the gun Maine had loaned him against one of their foreheads. The Tyger's flesh sizzled as David pushed the head forward, getting their heads in line with his barrel.

He pulled the trigger

Breathe out.

Both heads exploded. Each and every one of the Tyger Claws crumpled to the ground at the exact same time.

He laughed softly, tripping on his own legs as he fell on his ass, huffing and puffing as his back felt like it was on fire. “Goddamn, Sandy, you’re a beast,” he muttered, looking down at the smoking bodies.

The chrome hissed apathetically as drops of blood dripped down the polished steel. 

None of it was his.

David exhaled shakily as he shook his head, hissing as he got back onto his aching legs, one pulsing with pain as the adrenaline that was keeping him going started to fade, reminding that he had kicked a goddamn door down. Gently punching his knee and slamming his foot down to try and bring some feeling back into the limb, he stared at the corpses surrounding him. 

His hands aching from the recoil, the scent of copper in his nose, the ringing in his ears; they were realer than any XBD he'd peddled.

A few weeks ago, the sensations would've pushed him into shock.

A few days ago, he wasn't even able to fire at a target without thinking about his mom.

But today, he was different.

They had attempted to kill him and his crew. He couldn't let that slide. 

Holstering Maine’s gun, he snagged another holster for the gun he had liberated from the Tyger Claw, and grabbed a fresh katana from the dead. He slid it between his mother's coat and his waist, glancing around at his carnage. They wouldn’t be needing them anymore, anyway.

He hummed, resting a hand on the hilt of his new sword. He understood why people still used katanas now. The weight felt reassuring on his hip.

Thinking about it, he realized that just using the blade would’ve been easier. He wouldn’t have to drop in and out of Sandevistan at all, no moving parts meant no need for real time. Then again… he recalled how he’d basically slammed himself into a wall the first time he tried using one.

It’d probably work out better later, but before that, he needed to learn how to use the sword as it was meant to be used; swinging it around like a bat wasn’t exactly effective.  

Becca burst through the door, looking at the pile of bodies and then over at him as he let go of the thought and faced her. Dorio finally caught up, almost breaking down the doorway as she meteored into the room, only stopping at the first glance of the damage. 

The older woman blinked, trying to process the scene. Becca skipped that step, leaping onto her man with rage and lust, her emotions written on her face in equal measure. She leaned in, giving him a hungry kiss before slapping him upside the head. As she hopped off, she jokingly commented about leaving a few for her next time.

Dorio blinked again, looking through the bodies before laughing boisterously. “Damn, kid, you got laid once and now you’re pulling some Bosh shit? What the hell did those girls do to you?” 

David shrugged as Becca snuggled against his back, giggling delightedly at how warm the surface had become. “Sorry about the disappearing act. Just kinda got lost in the moment, y’know?”

Dorio rolled her eyes, remembering how her own input could be at times. “Don’t I know it. Next time, wait for us, though?”

He gave a gentle chuckle, rubbing his own hair. “Promise. No more joyrides with the Sandy.” 

Dorio huffed, looking around at the corpses one last time. “Aight. Let's go grab that package and delta.”

“Bullshit,” Maine laughed, “ Seven Tygers? Next, you’re gonna tell me he’s a kid of fuckin’ Smasher or somethin’.” 

The crew was having a small party at Turbo's again after another successful gig.

David grimaced and chuckled, looking down at his drink. This time, it was tequila. No bubbles. He smiled sharply at Becca, who just shrugged with a sly smirk.

“You had to see him,” the short woman called out excitedly, beside herself with glee. “Or see it .” She pouted, glancing at her input. “Didn’t even get a chance to watch the gonks go down, myself.” 

Dorio hummed, taking a sip of her Broseph. “Eight. Decapitated one with his own sword, Zeroed one with a door, rushed to pop off rounds into the other six as fast as his gun could rechamber. ” she shoved her input with a smirk. “You jealous?” 

“Pfft.” Maine chuckled, patting his giant hand over David’s head and ruffling his hair. “As if I’m gonna get jealous of this snot-nose here. But… ” 

He shot his protege a smirk, tapping his fist against the smaller man's chest. “I’m proud of ya, boy.” 

David couldn’t help but blush at the statement. “Thought I should start acting like a bigshot finally, right?” 

Maine offered him a fist bump. “That’s the ticket.” A beep from his cyberware brought him pause. The large man pulled his hand back, and fished a pill out from one of his pockets and popped it into his mouth, chasing it down with the alcohol in his other hand. 

“New prescription?” David asked softly, watching his boss sigh in relief before turning to face him again. 

“Yeah. Vik’s orders. Pulled out some of the synth-muscle too.” He flexed his arm, which looked no smaller, despite his claim. “Tough, but not much changed. Turns out that other ripper forgot to plug in the tendons on one end,” he laughed, shaking his head. “Maybe I’ll rip out some of his muscles, see how he likes it.” 

“Jesus Christmas,” Becca mumbled, looking at the older man. “How did you two even survive his surgeries?” 

“Built to last, choomba,” Maine grinned, patting his bicep. Both Dorio and Becca rolled their eyes. 

David was about to add something, but a hug from behind derailed his thoughts. Lucy’s long arms wrapped around his torso and pulled herself flush against him. “Job went well, I take it?” 

He grinned up at her, rubbing his cheek against hers. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Missed you,” she hummed, giving his cheek a soft kiss. “Do you not like it?” 

“Love it,” he hummed, satisfied with her answer as he passed his drink up to her. “Want some?” 

“Sure.” She accepted the cup, sitting against his back and staring up at the moon, glad to see a clear sky. “Did he behave, Becca?”

“Saved my ass,” she admitted, smiling up at the man in question. “But he did spam Sandy a bit.” 

“Nothing it couldn’t handle,” David interjected softly. “Didn’t even beep weird this time.” 

Maine and Dorio shrugged, both glancing at each other before walking off and leaving the lovers by themselves. 

“Good,” Lucy hummed, sipping from the glass before snuggling back against her input. “We might get a lead soon on Kurosaki. Don’t push yourself too hard before it, ok?” 

David hummed, thinking deep about the job. “Y’know…” 

He looked to where Dorio and Maine had gone, exchanging a lot more than kisses on a table far enough that the music would make it hard to hear them. 

“Why are we doing this job?” 

His two lovers blinked as if he’d said something utterly deranged. David didn’t mind. “Have you seen how Faraday talks to Maine?”

“Like he’s better than him?” Becca muttered, remembering the interaction. “He’s a fixer. And an ass. They’re all like that. What of it?” 

“Well…” David huffed, looking out to the distance, the holographics and neon of the city stretching out before him. “If I wanted to be stepped over like that for money, I would’ve stayed at the academy, you feel me?”

Becca hummed, so did Lucy, thinking about the state of affairs. 

“Hell, they’re still trying to offer me that scholarship, too,” he grumbled, remembering how the principal would not stop trying to call him. The last message David had listened to, he had waved that offer at him like a bribe; the only condition being his apology to Tanaka’s shitty son.

The two looked at him, before Becca sat and swung a hand around his shoulders as well. “You know, you could still go do that.” 

Lucy looked lost at the prospect, Becca turning to shush the netrunner with her eyes. “I heard how hard your mother was working to get you through that place. There is no shame in going back to it.” 

David blinked, looking at the smaller woman. “But—I dunno… that isn’t really my dream, ya know?” he offered dumbly, remembering Lucy’s words to him. 

Becca shrugged. “Then don’t go back. I ain't gonna make you.” She looked away, sipping at her Broseph, her eyes gravitating towards her brother doing a little jig for the rest of the patrons to enjoy. “Just…she worked hard to get you there. No need to push it away so completely?” 

David hummed, looking back at the scene, his shoulders drooping after a second. “Even if I did go back now, there's no way I’d catch up on the coursework.”

Becca giggled. “Then that’s that, huh?”

“Yep,” Lucy hummed, still lost on why Becca would even bring that up. Nuzzling David’s shoulder, she sighed a little more easily, very glad that he wasn’t planning on going back to Arasaka.

“What kind of a godly student were you, anyway?” Becca prodded, wiggling her eyebrows and poking David on the ribs with her elbow. “Must’ve been a hell of a case for them to try and re-enroll you after you sent one of their chairman’s crotch gremlins to the hospital.” 

David laughed, rubbing the back of his head. “I swear I’m not dumb when it came to academics. History, math, even all that corpo bullshit, I'm your guy. But being a cyberpunk? Doing proper chrome upkeep? Zilch.” 

“Hard to believe,” Lucy joked, thinking about it before giving him a soft kiss on his neck. “Do you know anything more about the moon colonies?” 

David grinned, leaning back on the hood they were sitting on to gaze up at the lone astral body shining in the sky, the city’s lights drowning out every star. Lucy joined him, resting her head on his shoulder, smiling softly as she gazed up at her dream. Becca did the same on the other side, not wanting to be left out.

“I’m sure you know most of this already, but….”

Chapter Text

As the net started to fade away from around her, the feeling of the ice-water bit into her skin more and more. Reality started fading in as her eyes darted around slowly. The REMcycle movement started to fade, cables hissed and net-systems shut down. 

Kiwi breathed in from her vent once more, tasting the stale air of the safe room. “Elusive prick,” she huffed, reaching back and yanking the cables connected to the back of her head, venting her anger on her equipment. 

Her body started protesting her position in the coolant bath, her skin starting to burn and ache from the chill. Huffing one last time, she rose to her feet, grabbing the table beside her to avoid slipping as she reached for a towel. She stepped out of the tub, and started wiping herself down, walking away from the port to the net. 

The sight of David, sprawled out on the couch, greeted her.  Laying out on his stomach, snoring lightly, he had his yellow coat over himself like a blanket.

She watched him for a second before rolling her eyes, and walking over. She ripped the coat off his back, revealing his bare skin, before she sat on his back, continuing to wipe herself down. Not caring even as the man woke up with a jolt, seemingly not bothered by her sudden appearance. “Anything?” 

“Shut up and be a good heat-pad,” the older netrunner ordered. Done drying herself with the towel, she tossed it to another seat, before laying back on his back and lighting a cig and taking a long draw. She let out the smoke with a huff. “Gonk keeps moving addresses. Every time I get close to him, he fades out.” 

David only shifted slightly to pull his arms out from underneath himself, not attempting to toss the woman off his back. “Anything we could do out here to help?” 

Kiwi thought about it, shifting slightly, settling a little more against his back. Becca was right, his back really was warm enough to be comfortable. “Unless you got some detective skills you didn’t tell us about… not really.” 

David scratched his head, deep in thought. “I know who gets the stuff before I pushed it out to the gonks in the academy. It's my old ripper.” 

Kiwi hummed. “You think he’d spill?” 

“I’m sure an angry Maine can get anyone talking,” he mumbled, imagining the scene with a grin. “If nothing else, there’d be some sort of trail you could track out of his cyberware, right?” 

Kiwi grumbled, not seeing how she had ended up having to go through the logs of a shady back-alley doc. “Can’t you get Luce to deal with that instead?” she whined.

“I’m worried she would slice him apart before we got the chance to get answers for anything,” he rebuffed, clearly already thinking the same thing as she had. 

And, to give credit to the kid, that was totally something their pearlescent-haired netrunner would do. 

“The things I do for this gang…” Kiwi muttered, taking another lungful of nicotine before flipping over and enjoying the heat radiating off David against her chest.

The edgerunner flinched, head twitching like he wanted to turn around before he stopped himself. “Kiwi… are you nude?” 

“Yeah? You got a problem with that, heat-pad?” 

“So thats that.” David huffed, looking at the target made out of garbage in front of him, adjusting his grip on the blade in his hands idly. 

Maine hummed in thought, tapping the table next to him as he watched the younger man prepare to strike the makeshift target they’d built near their warehouse hideout. “You’re right about Lucy killing for ya, kid.” he added finally, glancing at Pilar. “Right?” 

“Always got the ‘manic pixie girl vibes from her,” the mohawk-toting Techie grumbled, swirling a glass of broseph as he nodded. “Hot as hell. No clue how you landed that beauty, pipsqueak.”

David turned to smirk at the older man. “I thought you’d be madder about your sister.” 

“Fuck no.” Pilar grimaced, slamming his glass on the table, giving David a manic grin. “You’re good for her. Now go make me an uncle.” He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder.

David almost dropped the sword as Maine started howling with laughter, the goliath of a man’s shoulders shaking with mirth. “Pilar, choom. You gotta chill. You’re gonna scare the kid off.” 

The techie huffed, taking a sip of his drink. “Well, excuse me for wanting my family’s bloodline to continue.” 

David blinked, not knowing what to do with that information. Turning around he hummed, getting a feel of the blade again. “Alright, trying it now.” 

He didn’t activate the Sandevistan this time, getting a feel of his own motions in real time as he swung the blade against the heap of trash, managing to cut halfway through a decently-sized fuel barrel before getting stuck. 

He huffed, placing his leg onto the barrel and pulling the katana out, checking if the blade had any nicks on it. It was holding strong so far, but he knew he'd have to replace it soon. “I should just get the blade shit chipped in- this is harder than I thought.” 

Maine shrugged and shook his head. “Better to learn it naturally. Why do you think I had Dorio teach you boxing instead of having you chip-in some corpo bullshit?” 

“It’s cheaper?” David offered, sheathing the blade again, and looking back at his boss. 

“Hell nah, kid.” Maine chuckled, shaking his head. “It’d download all the ‘attacks’ they had on it, sure. But you’d be locked into them.” 

David thought about it slowly, remembering how Tanka had pulled out the exact same move against him multiple times over the course of his bullying. Carbon copies each one, every time he'd fainted with the same punch in the same angle. Thinking about it, he could probably just about counter it even without the Sandy, with just after eating a few more of the same punches from the corpo shitstain. 

He shook the thought away, tuning into the hum of the Sandevistan. No need to dwell on the past . “It’d make me predictable, huh?” 

“See,” Maine chuckled, turning to Pilar with a smirk. “He can learn.” 

The techie chuckled smugly at that. “Thought you cut through a Tyger claw, pipsqueak. How can't you cut through that shitty plastic barrel?” 

“I mean,” David turned around, facing the barrel again. “Sure, if you wanna see something like that again.” 

Pilar smirked, waiting for the kid to fail again, instead, he heard his sheath clack closed. 

He ran a diagnostic on his cyber eyes, shaking his head and looking closer at the target, then back at David. As the diagnostic came back without any errors, he saw the edgerunners handiwork. Multiple slashes across the barrel had appeared, the plastic starting to hiss as it started to slide apart, the barrel crumpling in on itself a moment later, smoke wafting off the trashed barrel.

Maine whistled. “Getting the hang of it?” 

David shook his head, dusting spots on his pants that were now covered in dirt, “Not good enough.” 

Pilar shook his head, sinking into his chair, ideas blooming in the back of his head.

"Yo doc."

It'd been a while since he'd heard that voice. It's that streetrat again.

He huffed, the XBD ending, part of him hoping that the cretin would finally give up on the Sandevistan and hand it over to him like a good little boy. Like he'd oughta had done that day. 

Part of him was impressed with how sturdy he had been, not even going into shock as he prodded and tased nerves that had nothing to do with the Sandevistan during the install. Part of him was still mad he hadn't backed down from the surgery as he did everything in his power to make it hurt .

He rolled off the operating table, pulling off the automatic sucker and placing it over it and tugging his pants up to his waist, rolling his shoulders. Rat probably wanted another piece of chrome put in, probably the synth lugs he'd been eying the poster of when he last swung by to pick up his meds.

His mouth split in a smile imagining it. He was going to go in from the back again, make it hurt even more. Push him closer to the edge so he'd start shaking like a good puppy and give the toy back.

"Martinez." He huffed as the door opened.

The kid looked back at him, coat on his waist, chest exposed. He looked a little tougher than he used to, but had no more seam lines to indicate anything dangerous. "Didn't wanna walk into you doing your thing again, doc." David smiled nonchalantly.

He nodded, not really bothered by the implication. "Whatcha want, kid? More chrome? Or are you finally ready to hand in the Sandevistan?"

There was a beep. "About that."

Suddenly, there was a gun against his chin, David looking up at him with muted anger in his eyes. Shit- did he go cyberpsycho on me already?

Maine stepped around the corner from the side of the building, walking up behind the young punk and leaning into the doorway. "Hey, doc. Why don't we step in for a moment?"

"Please don't kill me." 'Doc' blubbered as he was shoved back inside, dropping onto his chair.

David never thought his 'friend' would get so pathetic. "I'm not here to kill you, doc."

"Depends on your answers though." Maine added, punching his palm with a loud clang to punctuate. "Little Davie here told me you were pushing him some XBD's."

"You can have them all! I'll give you my whole stock for free!" 

David slapped him with the side of his gun, causing the ripperdoc to hiss and shut up. 

"We're looking for Kurosaki. Tell us everything you know."

The doc paled at that, his body freezing over as a shudder ran up his spine "I- I can't do that. You don't understand- I can't."

Maine punched the desk beside him, the metal frame shredding apart like cardboard under his might. "Talk. Or the next one hits you where you think with."

The doc’s legs bowed, trying to protect his privates. "N-no I can't, you- he's a monster. You have no idea what he'd do to me. What he did to other people. Why do you think he can get cyberpsycho BD's so fast?-"

David huffed, activating the Sandevistan and changing pistols, pushing the barrel of the Tyger-gun against the man’s crotch. "Get to the point."

The ripperdoc looked close to passing out by that point, tears leaking from his eyes. "He makes them! He hooks people up into XBD's and runs them ragged till they crack! He gave me a taste once- it's hell!"

David looked him in the eyes, pushing the gun harder against the man’s junk, finger starting to move towards the trigger. Maine hummed in thought, tapping him on the shoulder to stop. 

"How the hell are gore XBDs making psychos, asshole?" he asked, voice steady eyes glaring straight through the rippers’ into his corrupt soul.

"It's different!" He shot out, growing more and more manic as the pressure on him increased. "He makes ones where it's you that's killing them! Your hands, your body! It’s hell- please don't I dont wanna d-"

Maine punched him in the head; not hard enough to turn his brain into paste, just enough to knock him out and stop his incessant babbling. "You think he knows enough?"

David grimaced, looking around for something to wipe his gun clean, before giving up and cleaning it against the least stained spot on doc's pants. "He must. It's not like the XBDs get teleported in here."

Maine grumbled, rolling his shoulder. "Just looking at him is making my biceps ache.” He turned and looked to see why David was quiet. “You good?" 

David glared at the table he'd been operated on previously, his back tingling at the memory. "Let's delta out of this shithole. I need a shower just standing there."

Maine laughed, tossing a duffle bag on the floor. Big enough to fit the unconscious surgeon in. "And do you think he was blowing smoke up our ass about the 'cyberpsycho' routine?"

"Not sure." David muttered, finally reholstering his gun on its spot on the back of his waist. He started thinking about the edgerunner series he'd watched just a couple of weeks ago. How all the people he'd jumped into were passengers in their bodies- at least that's what it felt like in the braindance. He was starting to wonder if that was the real sensation or if there was a manic part of them that was actually pushing them to do the stuff they did. "...I don't think so. At least not a lot of them."

He spat on the floor away from the doc as Maine ripped off the man's chrome arms before stuffing him inside the bag. "You're still naive if you think men can't make monsters," The older man huffed, swinging the bag over his shoulder with ease. "But if it makes you sleep easier at night."

"Nah." David shook his head "I just don't think one man that aint even a corpo has that much reach."

Maine whistled. "Kid, good thought. But remember."

He placed a hand on the smaller edgerunners shoulder and shook heartily. "Anyone can be in the pocket of a corpo."

David looked down with a huff, realizing the truth of the statement. 

"Let's just delta, I think one of the arms is trying to jerk itself off."

"You… saw this guy." Kiwi drawled, looking at the man Maine was pulling out of the bag, his face swollen and bruised. "and went 'yeah sure, I'd trust him with a knife.'?"

David blushed at how foolish he was. "Well- I was broke, and was pushed against a corner. Couldn't get any better than him."

Kiwi turned to look at him before giving a deep sigh. "I get 'beggars can't be choosers' but c'mon kid. I'm getting sepsis just looking at him."

Maine shrugged. "Get a better immune system then. We got a BD architect to track down."

"Ugh." Kiwi grumbled, her eyes squinting in disgust. "If I see anything more disgusting than Pilar in there, I'm taking David's cut."

"Hey!" 

Kiwi shot him a look with the side of her eyes. "Let me cope- plug him in it shouldn't be that hard to crack him if his ice is as shit as his looks."

Maine glanced at David, then tapped the man's metal spine. "How's the Sandy treating you?"

David paused, watching Kiwi do her work and glanced back at the older man, suddenly feeling self-conscious about the chrome that should've been his. "It's- good. I've been leaning on it a lot recently and well-" He flexed his hands. "Still kicking. I guess I can't really complain."

Maine hummed, leaning back onto the couch. "If that pause was about how we met…" he huffed, crossing his palms behind his head with a smile. "Don't. It was Gloria's till she passed it to me. But the city stopped that, didn't it? It must be fate for you to chip it in."

David clenched his fists, remembering the day. "She wasn't even the mark…" 

Maine hummed, reaching down and patting the kid’s head. "She was a strong woman, David. Could tell by how she haggled with me. And I know she never wanted you to have a life like hers. Mine even less." 

David really didn't think it was a good time for a heart to heart, but couldn't help shuddering with emotion. "Do you think I let her down?"

"Nah." Maine hummed, deep and slow. It alone was making the couch vibrate. "She wanted you to be happy, didn't she? And, well, aren't you?"

He sniffled, rubbing an arm under his nose, nodding. "You have no idea."

Maine laughed softly, patting the kids back. "Exactly. So about this." His metal finger tapped the steel ridge on his back, "I think it's apt you keep it. Feels like a last gift from your mom, ya know?"

David never thought about it that way. He hadn't actually wanted to think about how the Sandevistan had reached him till now. It had been so raw and new.

His hand reached back and prodded the warm metal that was on his back now, the cyberware almost purring under his touch. 

It was one of the last things his mother had left him, along with the coat he refused to take off.

"Yeah." He hummed finally, breathing deep and trying to re-establish some form of emotional stability. "Yeah, it is."

"Got him." Kiwi huffed, waking up in the tub again, her eyes focusing back into reality, tilting her head back just a little to stare into the room the two men were sitting in.

"...ew, are you guys getting sappy in there?"

Chapter Text

A week of playing hunter.

Countless deep-dives from both Kiwi and Lucy, one beaten-up sad excuse of a ripperdoctor, and a bad taste at the back of his throat had led them here. 

In a sad abandoned parking lot. 

One shot to catch the BD architect that they had started chasing. David groaned internally. They were already on the clock since they’d kidnapped the doc. If anything he heard from what both Lucy and Kiwi were any indication, the architect might just change every single one of his locations if he’d catch wind of his XBD pusher’s sudden disappearance.

They only had the single shot. Go in, grab the guy, and threaten him till he agreed to play ball and lead Tanaka to them. 

He shook his head. It felt too close to an exam from the academy. Entire semester, leaning on one convoluted exam. 

[Think that’s our guy?] 

He blinked, looking at the text from Lucy, watching the entrance to the parking lot as a car, way too expensive car, drove in quietly, parking close to the doorway leading into the rest of the structure.

[Might be one of his VIP’s.] he sent back, glaring at the guy stepping out from the car. 

[Gold skin doesn’t really scream ‘snuff creator’ does it?] Dorio messaged back, resting her head on the steering wheel of their modified Chevillon Emperor a few parking blocks behind him. 

[ID doesn’t put him in any corp, and his looks match what beggar’s doc had rattling in his brain case.] Kiwi sent into the feed. [unless there is more people walking around with gold skin, he’s our guy.]

[Move.] Maine ordered.

David didn’t argue as he stepped out of the car he’d loaned from the man. Taking a moment to adjust the black shirt he’d put back on for the operation, the edgerunner slid the katana he’d brought along behind his back. He hid it between the coattails formed by his mother’s coat tied to his waist, and somehow managed to keep it from clacking against his legs as he power-walked toward their marked target.

“Jimmy Kurosaki?” he asked, doing his best impression of an awe-struck fan, babbling with no filter and raising his hand for an eager handshake as the man paused at his name, “Are you the famous XBD architect? I’m a huge fan!” 

The gold-skinned man took a step back, raising his hand to gesture he wasn’t interested in partaking in anything close to physical contact, his eyes scanning the edgerunner up and down with detached interest, face not betraying any emotion. “And you are?” 

“Ah- sorry!” he chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head, playing up to his role maybe a little too much “my ripperdoc has been giving me some of your stuff! I must say the ‘edgerunner’ series has been a blast to live through!”

Maine got into position, way too silently for a man of his size as he prepared to knock the architect out with a punch just as he had with doc. 

David’s eye caught something, twitching down as he caught the architect's fingers move, Sandy kicking in one second too late before he hit one final key, time dilating just as the machine blinked on.

What is tha —

The question died in his head as he felt his back ignite with pain. The sensations of misfiring nerves and the white-hot pressure of electrocution causing his body to convulse wildly. Time suddenly resumed it’s break-neck pace, the acceleration back to real-time giving him whiplash as his brain burned with every sensation of suffering at the same time. 

He felt like he was tearing apart at a cellular level, back muscles spasming, Sandevistan screeching in an electronic symphony of pain behind him. His legs felt like they’d turned off, body starting to fall as they gave out from under him, his eyes stinging with pain as he watched Maine start to topple over behind Kurosaki. The fucker was smirking at him as he felt his body crumble in on itself. 

Then, the Sandy groaned behind him. Electricity hummed angrily as he felt its internals shift on his back, something clicking into place. One of his eyes felt like it was about to burst out of his skull, warm blood gushing down from his nose as his body suddenly rebooted. 

He felt his legs again, every single cell in his body screamed in anger, and Sandy echoed the sentiment with a demonic beep behind him. 

Time stopped in its tracks.

His hand found the hilt behind his back, joints of his arm protesting but still bending to the awkward position without issue. He nearly dislocated his shoulder as he ripped it out of its sheath, rage guiding his hand. Next moment, he was moving to remove the offending arm of the man that had given him so much pain.

Cut it off at the root . Remove the shoulder. Slice it clean off . 

His brain barely booted up in time to change the trajectory of the blade, slashing the fucker’s coat and nothing else, the katana embedding itself onto the concrete floor almost entirely with an angry shriek. 

As much as he’d love to lop the guy’s arm off, he knew a bastard like him would have a platinum Trauma Team coverage. Last thing they needed was a wasps nest of that caliber dropping on their heads.

He panted, Sandevistan giving bleeps and bloops until the time dilation slowly grew less severe, Kurosaki’s eyes widening as the architect suddenly could to register what was going on.

Still. He would be too slow to stop David. The young cyberpunk stared at the man with malice in his veins, rubbing the blood out of his nose with his free arm as he grunted, looking down at what had hurt him so much. The keyboard.

Letting go of the blade that was now part of the parking lot, he grabbed the keypad off of the gold-skinned douche’s waist, crushing it under his foot with a roar, stomping down three more times while screaming every swear he knew under his breath just to make sure it could never do anything like that to Sandy again. 

Huffing with satisfaction at the sight of sparking electronics on the ground, his eyes shifted up, glaring at the architect’s face as he reached up. He grabbed the snob by the scruff of his designer coat and pulled him onto his knees, pulling Maine’s gun out. 

Time resumed. 

Kurosaki let out a shocked breath as the feeling of the barrel that was pushing against one of his eyes reached his brain. Maine’s body finally hit the floor behind them. 

David was still feeling the rage burning a path through his veins. Suddenly shooting the guy in the shoulder and showing what he thought about the trauma team to the gonks themselves felt more than sensible.

He took in a deep breath, fighting the urge, shoving the gun harsher against the man's eyeball in the process. Kurosaki hissing in discomfort was just enough to keep the edge off. 

“Move and you’ll learn how well the Trauma Team can fix what a bullet ricocheting inside your golden fucking skull does to you.” David hissed through gritted teeth.

“Such a peculiar reaction,” the XBD architect mused, his lips arcing into a maddening smile “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’d—” 

David pulled out his other gun and shot it onto the ground, right next to Kurosaki’s ear, making the guy wince, silencing him instantly. “Don’t fucking push me. What the hell did you do to us?” 

“Just a little EMP,” Kurosaki explained, his voice still extremely smug, even as he raised his hands in surrender. “It usually puts down anyone with enough chrome chipped in. Great protection, especially against cyberpsycho’s, if you ask me.” 

David really wanted to pull the trigger and zero this sorry excuse of a person, but he couldn’t. They still needed the smug bastard for the Tanaka job.

His finger itched with the knowledge that this architect was still alive while his mother wasn’t, as the Sandy ached on his back.  

Dorio finally came rushing in, collapsing in front of Maine, her hand going for the man’s throat. “What the fuck happened?” she gasped, shoulders slumping as she finally got a pulse. 

“EMP,” David grumbled, shaking his head and pushing the back of his hand against his aching eye. “Did a number on me too. I think one of my eyes short-circ’d.”

Dorio glanced at the man, her face twitching and pulling taught. “Fuck, kid, your eye is bloodshot— you hanging in there okay?” 

“I’m fucking nova,” he growled, putting the Tyger gun back in its holster and spat down. Spit and blood splattering against the cement floor. “What about Maine?” 

“Yeah just-” Dorio slammed her fist against the man’s head, making clang of metal against concrete echo in the parking lot, “get up you big bastard,” she growled, punching him one more time. Maine, like an old-timey computer, groaned and opened his eyes after the abuse. 

“God- anyone get the license plate on that hauler that ran me over?” the man grumbled, sitting up slowly, rubbing a hand over his face, seemingly unaware of David holding Kurosaki at gunpoint.

“Such sturdy specimens,” Kurosaki mused, a gentle laugh escaping his lips. “-would be perfect cyberpsychos. I can’t imagine the dest—” 

Having enough of the madman’s ramblings, David kicked Sandy on, holstering his gun as he walked to Dorio. He grabbed the tranq shot, the one had brought only for a backup, out of her coat. 

Time resumed, and Kurosaki flinched at the feeling of a needle piercing his neck. The concoction of knock-out drugs getting injected directly into his veins. The XBD architect smirked even as he fell back to the ground.

David growled even after the deed was done. He turned and slammed the injector to the ground, sending bits of plastic and metal everywhere as he walked up to and punched the door behind them with all his might, his wrist aching in protest after the action. “I should’ve been faster.” he hissed, grumbling again. 

Dorio blinked, watching the man rage in front of her, Maine still too loopy to react to what was happening. “Kid- you got him it’s fine…” she mumbled, raising a placating hand. “Everyone is fine.” 

The young edgerunner huffed, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling. He knew that Dorio was right, but there was still only anger in his mind. The Sandevistan was aching from that EMP, and the humming from the chrome still sounded off in his ears. 

He felt like it was singing at him to push forward. To kill and maim all that would hurt them. He grit his teeth and kicked the door too, grumbling to himself.

Kill. A part of him muttered, slowly turning to face the unconscious snob on the floor, the world around him fading out as he glared at the man. He shouldn’t be allowed to exist.

His hand ached, trembling as it started moving back.  

Then, all of it faded as Lucy appeared out of the corner of his eye, suddenly wrapping her arms around him and pulling him flush against herself. “All the comms went dead— I thought you were…” She didn’t dare finish the sentence, instead sighing with relief.  

His anger died on his back, a shuddering breath escaping his lips as the sounds from Sandy started equalizing. His muscles untensed, and body finally relaxed. “Nah…” 

The hand going for his gun stopped, both arms rising up and returning her hug tightly, leaning against her frame and taking in a lungful of her scent. “Can’t get rid of me that easily, babe,” he mumbled, giving her a soft kiss on the neck.

She giggled softly as relief flooded her, her hands gently patting the sandevistan on his back over his shirt. Soothing the pain.

“Why would I ever?”   

Lucy snuggled tighter against David, feeling the heat radiate through her body and confirming that he was still alive, even as Dorio and Maine started getting up behind her, uncaring as the world around her continued to move. 

“Luce,” their de-facto leader mumbled, pulling her input to his feet. “They were hit with an EMP, can you jack into David and run diagnostics on his chrome? I’ll get Kiwi to do the same on the big lug over here.”

Maine groaned about not needing it, looking wobbly on his feet. 

David flinched at the prospect in her arms, breathing in suddenly. “Wait- you can do that?” 

She couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “It won’t give me anything substantial, most chrome doesn’t have anything to send feedback with.” Her hand ran under his shirt, feeling up his back. “but- wouldn’t hurt to try before we drive you into Vik’s.” 

That's how they had ended up back in Maine’s car, a shirtless David exposing his back to her, revealing one of the ports on the base of his skull. She licked her lips, running a hand down his back, drinking in the divets his muscular back had. “You’re getting buffer,” she mused, resting her hand over one of his shoulder blades as the man shuddered under her touch. 

He turned his head to smile back at her. “Been moving at the speed of sound a lot lately, I oughta… will this hurt?” 

Lucy leaned in and kissed his nose, “Maybe a little tingle up your spine, just breathe in and relax, okay?” 

David grimaced at the prospect before shooting her a soft smirk. “Been feeling that since you laid hands on me, I can handle that much.”

“I trust you,” he hummed finally, turning away. 

She shook her head with a smile on her own lips before she placed her palm against the port on his spine, pushing in her personal jack inside, world fading as she dove into him. 

Then, she saw it. ICE as thick as one would expect from a combat droid guarding Arasaka’s lobby, blocking her way in.  

“What…” she mumbled, looking at the defensive measures that were comparable to the Blackwall stretching as far as she could see. Sure, she could hack in, but not without taking a dip in coolant and a lot more than a few hours. 

Just as she was ready to pull out, the wall pulsed, slowly opening up and letting her avatar through. She blinked, taking a slow and steady step toward the gateway, slipping into the subsystems of the Sandevistan that had made David’s back its home. 

She was greeted with a wall of error codes, too technical and binary for her to decipher as they kept scrolling up at break-neck speeds on a panel that had symbolized the Sandy’s apparent operating system. 

She was about to move and try and get something more legible before another wall shot out from the side, covering over the scrolling text. 

[diagnostic info:] the new wall buzzed, a loading icon flashing next to the text

Lucy had never interacted with any chrome that felt so— alive— in her time as a netrunner. Nothing had responded to her as willingly as the Sandevistan had. 

[User designation: David Martinez.]

[User synchronization: 85% and climbing.]

[ Main systems: non-functional, self-repair in progress, 50%]

[Backup subsystems: fully operational.]

[current threat level: 0%]

[user body integrity: back to 90%]

[Symbiosis: 80% and holding.]

Lucy gasped, taking a wary step back as a ground rumbling beep shook the cyber-space around her. The panel slid back away. Error codes scrolling slower as they greeted her once more, sparse positive readings batched into the moving wall of text. 

“What— are you?” she muttered, still staring at what was closer to a deamon than any chrome. 

Nothing answered her question, even as she felt herself slowly get pushed out of the internals of the machine, jolting back awake in the car. 

David quickly turned around to face her, gently cupping her face in his hands, looking into her eyes, worry burning in his. “Something wrong? Why are you so pale?”

Lucy blinked at her input, gulping air in softly as she tried to figure out how to phrase it. How could she describe it? How could she face those eyes and tell him that thing that became part of him had terrified her to her very core?

She took a shuddering breath, thinking about what to say. Reaching forward, she gently hugged him close, her hands rubbing over the Sandevistan. The machine purred against her touch innocently, making her start to think straight again. 

Sure, it had more brains than it had any right to have. Sure, she’d never experienced anything like it. But it wasn’t like she didn’t have her own pet daemons tucked away in her Cyberdeck. 

The shock subsided, replaced with an odd sense of calm as she snuggled against her still-confused input. “Nothing—”

She giggled softly, nuzzling his neck. “Sandy’s just a little smarter than you, that's all.” 

He laughed, snuggling back “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” 

Sandy hummed under her palms with something close to mirth.

Chapter Text

Dorio huffed as they finally reached the safe house they’d built in one of the abandoned skyscrapers at the edge of the city. Clearing out the scavs had been a chore, but they had more than made it clear that trying to take back the location would’ve been more trouble than it was worth for the gruesome gang. 

Kiwi groaned in the back seat, coming to as Maine cracked his knuckles idly. “Clear, right?” 

Kiwi nodded. “Can't see anything wrong with you. Other than your brain being too smooth.” 

Doiro couldn’t help but chuckle. “Don’t push him, Kiwi. He’s being a good boy.” 

Their boss grumbled, readjusting his glasses and glancing over at the man they’d kidnapped, rolling on the trunk as the emperor rolled to a stop. “How’s David?” 

“Probably messing up the interior of your car with Lucy,” Kiwi hummed amusedly. “Hope you know how to deep clean well, boss.” 

Maine cracked his neck as he rolled his eyes, unamused with the jab but taking it lightheartedly. Ignoring the netrunner getting bratty on him, he stared forwards gazing back on his output. “Was I just woozy, or was he really manic when I booted back up?” 

“Something like that,” Dorio mumbled, remembering their newest recruit looking down at their captive with malice burning in his eyes. “You two head in and get Kurosaki situated. I’ll hang back and make sure the kid isn’t going psycho on us.” 

Maine blinked, rubbing his neck. “Cyberpsycho? Can he even get that now? You saw his back.” 

Dorio hummed, tapping the steering wheel. “Just… I want to make sure.”

“Besides,” she turned around and gestured at the man on the floor of their car. “I think it's better we keep him away from the kid for now.” 

Maine shrugged, turning around and grabbing Kurosaki by the ropes that were tied around the man’s arms, and lifting him with ease. “Kiwi, with me. You’re gonna make sure this fucker doesn’t have more chrome up his sleeves. I’m tired of getting EMP’d.”

Kiwi huffed, still feeling the bile on the back of her mechanical throat. Feeling the EMP make her nerves fluctuate wasn’t a comfortable experience, even from her spot far from the source. The sudden attack on her cyberware had caused her to throw up what little she had on her stomach, and the sensation was still echoing on the back of her mind. 

She didn’t want to imagine what it felt like for someone with chrome attached to every nerve in their body. “Yeah, yeah.”

Dorio hummed halfheartedly, turned on the radio, and waited. 

She was still surfing down the channels as Maine’s car pulled in, parking next to the emperor. Both Lucy and David stepped out and greeted her. 

“So.” she started, stepping out of the SUV, one hand on her belt. “How’s he hanging in there?” 

Lucy’s eyes grew distant before focusing back on her, “Everything checked out. The Sandevistan had enough of a BIOS to get some readings in. Looks like EMP only stunned it for a bit.” 

Dorio didn’t let her scrutiny be apparent on her face the best she could, still looking at Lucy. Was she lying to her? To herself? She could imagine doing the same for Maine, but Lucy always seemed more pragmatic than the rest, with the only exception being Kiwi. 

Her glance shifted over to David, who looked no less worried than usual, hands hooked under the coat on his waist, clearly in his pockets. He’d coaxed out a more romantic side of the usually apathetic netrunner, but was that really making Lucy lie for his sake?

The younger runners started to catch onto the distrust she was attempting to hide, Lucy’s eyes growing cold as she wrapped an arm around David, leaning against him casually. “Is there a problem?” 

Her hand on her belt shifted off, a laugh bubbling up her throat as she finally relaxed. “Nah, just thinking about how terrifying David gets when he gets pissed.” 

“You’ve clearly not seen Lucy get angry,” David quipped, wrapping his arm around the woman, gently rubbing her waist. The netrunner started blushing, the slightly defensive look she was giving Dorio melting as she turned and grumbled against Davids's ear.

Satisfied with David’s return to normalcy, she leaned back against the hood of the car, crossing her arms with a sigh. “So, what's the BIOS look like?” she asked, slightly curious about the revelation. Even Maine, running some of the more cutting-edge tech didn’t have any chrome with something close to that attached to him. “Did ya get a clue who made it? Arasaka?”

Lucy blinked, clearly not prepared for the question she leaned on one of her legs, swinging her hip out, leaning on David for support. “Felt like it was their code, at least for their military-grade cyberware. It’s weird though,” she said, glancing sideways at David. “Looked like batches of meta data were wiped. They usually plaster their logo on every line of their code. They love lording that over their customers.” She tilted her head a little to take a look at the chrome on his back. “Could be unrelated to Arasaka too, you know how those corp’s cannibalize each other’s code.”   

“Ugh.” David’s nose wrinkled at the thought. “Logo’s in code? Are they really that tasteless? Besides, wouldn’t that make the OS super bloated?” 

Dorio laughed. “Kid, do you think they’d care if it did?” 

David grunted then nodded in agreement, leaning against Lucy's shoulder as she adjusted to better support him, just as he had her. “Maine doing better?”

“Yeah, Kiwi poked around in his chrome by hand. Looks like the pulse only made him do a hard reset, thank fuck.” Dorio answered, bouncing one of her metallic thighs against the side of the armored SUV. “That architect was a bitch to deal with. Hopefully this Tanaka job is gonna make it all worth it.” 

David hummed half-heartedly, looking away. Dorio didn’t push him on the topic. Instead pivoting back to the chrome on his back. “So, not Arasaka…Militech, maybe?” 

Lucy didn’t have an answer for her. “Well, whatever it is, you were right about it being built for the next corporate war.” 

The hand around David’s shoulder slid back, clearly patting the man’s cybernetic spine. “It managed to sustain function even after a direct EMP blast.” 

Dorio smirked softly. “You know, I’m glad you got your hands on it before Maine did, kid.” 

David’s face twisted a little, probably remembering something about his late mother. Dorio slightly regretted her choice of words, but pushed past it, standing up straight and patting him on the shoulder. “If he’d chipped it in, we’d be dealing with a cyberpsycho.” 

Lucy shuddered, imagining a psycho with the toolkit David had. Someone with Maine’s raw power and the same skill with Sandevistan sounded like something straight out of a horror vid. 

But the idea of David going cyberpsycho made her insides twist, and skin feel cold, snuggling against the man unconsciously to try and ward off the idea.

David’s face relaxed, a smile splitting his face as he tightened his arm around his output, kissing her neck. “Yeah.” 

“Besides,” he kissed Lucy on the cheek, enjoying the satisfied hums she let out when he did. “If I’d never chipped it in, I wouldn’t have met Lucy on that monorail. Never met any of you guys. Can’t imagine my life without that.” 

Dorio smirked as their netrunner started getting flustered, the facade of apathy sliding off her face. “I’m sure you two would’ve found each other regardless.” 

She headed off towards the building, ignoring as Lucy attempted to push out of David’s grasp with exaggerated embarrassment. They are good for each other, she mused, leaving the two lovebirds alone. 

Lucy and David had replaced Dorio on the hood of the Emperor, David sitting on the armored vehicle as Lucy puffed clouds of vapor while leaning on its fender, making sure to not blow it towards the man. Rebecca greeted them by tackle-hugging her input, the edgerunner leaning a little forward to dampen the impact for the smaller woman, laughing heartily. “How did your thing go?”

“Lots’a dead scavs with ‘R’ carved into em!” she chirped, laughing a little as her hands started exploring his body, Lucy shaking her head with a smile, smoke on her lips. “What about you guys?” 

“He was a bigger scumbag than doc.” he mumbled, looking up to the sky. “And is it just me or does he look like he’d do… Stuff to people while they were having a BD?”

Both women grimaced at that, Lucy nodding quietly. “He does exude that kinda aura, a bit yeah. Also…” she pushed her hand between Becca and David, poking Sandevistan. “Turns out Sandy can tank an EMP.” 

“Oh that’s fucking preem. ” Becca whistled, petting the top rib of the chrome implant.

David chuckled softly, rubbing the back of his head. “Didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, though.” 

“Lemme kiss it better!” Becca announced, pulling his black shirt down and giving the chrome a gentle kiss. 

David’s body shuddered, suddenly growing aroused at the memory of the first night the three had spent together. “T-thanks, that feels better.” he blubbered, crossing his legs to make sure the girls couldn’t see his physical reaction to the affection. 

Becca giggled mischievously before letting go of his shirt and guided his head back with her hands, staring into his eyes. He blinked before she leaned in to give him a hungry, upside-down kiss, almost pushing her tongue down his throat. The Edgerunner groaned with arousal at the stimulus, drowning in her taste before she finally pulled back, both parties panting lightly. 

“Missed you.” she huffed, leaning down and giving him another kiss on the cheek, a hand petting his hair. “And I know Lucy did too.” 

The woman turned around, refusing to give them an answer. 

Becca rolled her eyes, grabbing the netrunner by her coat and pulling her on top of David’s lap. “C’mon, you weren’t shy when you were bitching about David guarding Kiwi instead of you.” 

David looked down at Lucy, the woman unable to meet his gaze again. “ Becca, that was private- ”

“Nuh-uh,” the shotgun aficionado grumbled, puffing her cheeks. “If we are gonna do this three-way coupling thing, we gotta be honest with each other, choom.” 

Lucy huffed, turning around and straddling David, glaring up at Rebecca before tilting her head down and gazing into David’s eyes, cupping his cheeks softly and giving him an affectionate kiss that made his body tingle. “You know I missed you, don’t you?” 

He smiled dopily, deciding to tease her a bit. “I ‘unno, you know I’m kinda dumb.” 

“See!” Becca exclaimed, hugging him from behind and patting his head. “Good thing you found him Luce, no way he’d survive on his own.” 

“I’m not a dog, you know,” he huffed finally, even as he was appreciating getting petted on the head. “I was just teasing her, I thought you were on my side about this, Becca.” 

“Nah.” Rebecca giggled against his ear, snuggling to his side tighter. “I’m on the side that teases you~” 

He huffed before starting to laugh, Rebeccas’s small hands sliding under his shirt and tickling his sides. Lucy shook her head again, smiling down at his face as he started to cackle under her. 

“Luce—” he managed to stutter out between bursts of laughter, “help me, please! I can’t breathe!”

The netrunner only giggled and joined in tickling him.

“Oh?” 

Maine was pissed off the moment the architect opened his smug mouth up, glaring a hole into the gold-plated fuckers skull. 

“I thought that boy was gonna make me do- whatever you all want me to do.” 

“Well good for you.” Maine huffed, sitting on the chair across from Kurosaki. “You’re wrong.” 

“Aw,” the XBD creator mumbled, leaning his head to the side. “I was looking forward to pushing him over the edge, too.” 

Maine glared a bigger hole in the man’s skull behind his shades. There was scum on the streets of night city, but this gonk was still taking the cake. “You’re gonna call one of your customers here.” he ordered, waiting for a response.

Kurosaki acted like he didn’t hear him. “I’m tingling just imagining the BD he’d make in the end…” 

“Our netrunner disabled your tracking chip,” Maine continued. “Your pain reducer, buncha subsystems that make it hard for you to die. We’re also spoofing your signal for the Trauma Team.”

He leaned forward, and pushed his chrome finger against the man’s nose. Kurosaki’s smug face started to fail him as the pressure started to mount, the golden implant starting to groan and bend in. “Now. Tell me what I want to hear.” 

Kurosaki’s face tensed. “Who are you looking for?” 

Maine pulled his finger away, but didn’t so much as emote as he continued looking him down like a military drone looking for a reason to turn him into paste. “Tanaka. The Arasaka fucker.” 

“Him?” Kurosaki blinked, shaking his head and tensing and untensing his face, trying to stop the dull ache coming from his dented implant. “What’s a merry band of junkies like you have anything to do with that man?”

Maine continued glaring, raising his finger again, Kurosaki shook his head and grinned smugly at him. “Fine. When do you want him in by?”

The colossal man didn’t respond, instead he reached forward and pinched the architect’s nose, popping the dent out with ease, making the man let out a pained hiss. 

And he left the room, not giving the man a timeframe, slamming the door shut behind him.

Kurosaki only smirked into the empty room. 

“Fuck’sake-” her boss grumbled as he entered the room, splaying himself on the massive couch. “That gonk’s off the rocker more than Smasher.” 

Kiwi rolled her eyes, double-checking that the fucker couldn’t use the net to call for support, before turning around and letting nicotine vent out of her face. At least the taste of cigarettes had washed out the acidic taste down her throat. “And you made me dive into him.”

Maine waved his hand, grumbling softly “Kiwi, I’m not gonna give you a bigger cut, you know I split stuff equally.” 

The netrunner huffed, not arguing, as she sank into the couch she was on, rubbing over her cyberdeck. “I know. Finished triple-checking. Kurosaki’s locked out of the net, the spoof on his Trauma Team is holding steady- don’t know for how long though.”

Maine hummed, tapping his knuckles on the table between them. “Can you spoof his biomonitor instead? Feed the chip false info through it?” 

“I would if I could. Trauma Chip has its own built-in biomonitor,” she answered, taking another lungful of glorious nicotine. “Just be happy I can do this much.”

“Yeah, yeah” he grumbled, “just trying to figure out a way to ease our time limit. The more we rush the more mistakes we’ll make.” 

“Look at you being all smart.” Dorio snickered, leaning on the doorway. “Did Vik give your brain a once-over too?” 

“Har har,” Maine mocked, smiling up at his output. “Come give daddy some sugar, instead.” 

Kiwi looked disgusted at the affection between the two. “Can you get freaky after the job is done?” 

Dorio leaned over the couch and gave Maine a hungry kiss, “Only if he behaves.” 

The man growled in anticipation, before leaning in and kissing her on the neck, rising back onto a sitting position at the same time. “Fine, I’ll be on my best behavior. Speaking of, how’s the kids?” 

“David passed the smell test.” Dorio nodded, jumping over the couch and sitting next to her input, snuggling against his wide shoulder as he wrapped an arm around hers. “And he didn’t crash your car driving it here.” 

“Man… he might be going psycho if he can drive now,” Maine muttered, before cracking a smile, Dorio chuckling next to him. 

Kiwi looked no less comfortable with the couple. “Lucy find anything weird in the check?” 

“Sandy apparently had a BIOS. Didn’t think the chrome would have more brains than Maine here, but here we are.” Dorio finished with a shrug, even as Maine tilted his head to her with annoyance. “But I like my dumbass the way he is,” she added finally, wrapping her hand around his neck and pulling him into another kiss, wiping the annoyance off the man in a single action. 

“BIOS?” Kiwi muttered, crossing her legs and looking away. “What’s that doing on replacement nerves?” 

Dorio shrugged, pulling out of the kiss. “Go ask it if you’re that interested.” With that she returned to the kiss, sounds of swapping saliva growing more audible. 

Suddenly plugging into anything that would get her away from the scene of the two trying to eat each other's faces sounded like the best idea ever.

Chapter Text

“Faraday.” Maine huffed as the holo connected finally. 

“What do you want, Maine?” the fixer grumbled, displeased with the conversation even before it started. “If you think I’ll give you a job before this one is complete, you’re lacking more intellect than I assumed.” 

If Maine could get away with punching the smarmy wanna-be corpo, he would have the day they had met. “Got some news for you for the Tanaka job.” 

That got Faraday’s attention. “I’m listening.” 

“We’ve set up a trap for him,” the Edgerunner revealed, cracking his knuckles. “I just wanted to let you know, so you don’t throw a fit when I finish the job before you give us anything concrete to go with.” 

The fixer was silent for a long second. “You’ve exceeded my expectations, Maine. Great job.” 

Maine didn’t respond, waiting for the ‘but’ to follow. 

“Contact me when you get the data,” Faraday finished, ending the call. 

Maine blinked as the holo UI flickered off his vision, the rest of his crew looking at him expectantly. 

“Whatever that data is…” he mumbled, tapping the back of his knuckles on the coffee table in front of him. “It’s definitely worth more than what Faraday is paying us.” 

Kiwi grumbled, Dorio hummed, and David looked a little more than disappointed.

Rebecca didn’t even look away from maintaining her shotgun. “So are we still good to go?” 

Maine shook his head and huffed, leaning back. “In for an ennie, in for an eddie. He gave the go-ahead.”

He needed something. Anything.

Tanaka grumbled, looking out to the skyline above the Night City. He was nowhere near the top of the tower that loomed over the filth, but from where it stood…he could see past the plebeians on the ground. To see the full picture like no one else could. 

The kid that had actually taught his son more than the arasaka academy could about the real world had disappeared. There were whispers of a new merc toting a Sandevistan echoing through the intelligence department, but they couldn’t track them down; they were always two steps behind him. Their only recent lead was one fuzzy recording Tyger Claws had provided them, a single blur between frames before the feed was cut. 

He took a slow sip from a glass of whisky that predated Arasaka itself. He was planning on opening it after the Cyberskeleton project passed its gate two meeting, when it was greenlit for mass manufacturing, to be the next best seller of Arasaka. But life had tossed a wrench into his plans, it seemed. 

After Smasher, the only one that stood a hope of not falling to the strain of the mech was Norris, their personal test dummy, and he’d fallen prey to cyberpsychosis before he could even offer the concept. And then this classmate of his kid showed up, using a Sandevistan with enough skill to leave shadows of himself on the security cameras of the academy. Younger than most who would dare chip in something so life-threatening. That had made him the perfect replacement, younger meant more pliable, easier to manipulate. He'd have a better time adjusting to the skeleton than any military vet they could find.

And yet he’d slipped right past their fingers, becoming just another ghost on the streets.

The glass shattered under the force of his grip, covering his hands in expensive liquor. He looked down, before bringing his hand to his mouth and slowly licking the residue off, grumbling to himself. 

He let out a huff, turning and grabbing his coat, sending a message to his secretary about heading home. 

He needed to kill something. And he had an XBD with just the edits he needed waiting for him. 

His chauffeur was silent throughout the drive, giving wary glances at him through the rear-view feed while he thought Tanaka couldn’t see him. The poor fool didn’t know Tanaka saw all. But he would let him off for now. The fear visible on his shoulders was more than enough to state his rage for now. 

Saburo Arasaka was right. Fear moved people. And it was addicting to be the cause of it all. 

They’d fear him when the Cyberskeleton was revealed to the world. And then maybe, just maybe, their glorious CEO could talk to him like he was worth something. 

He preened at the idea, relaxing in his seat. 

“We’ve arrived.” his driver announced, his security detail stepping out the passenger door and opening his with practiced precision.

Tanaka hummed, taking a slow, deliberate step as he was greeted by the glamorous entryway of the Arasaka residential unit, piercing through the clouds like a monument to the glory of everyone that worked at their sacred corporation. He took in a slow breath before striding forward, heading toward the elevators as his guard fell in line behind him, joined by others that were waiting inside the tower. 

Just as he was about to enter the elevator, an encrypted holo call stopped him on its tracks, the chairman stopped and looked into the caller ID that flashed on the side of his vision. 

The initials JK greeted him, and his lips twitched slightly, brain twitching at the concept of new stimuli. New blood to spill.  

“Change of plans. Call me a Delamain.”

“Kurosaki.” 

The architect smirked as he stepped down the staircase of the dilapidated building, opening his arms out in a gaudy greeting “Tanaka-san! Great to see you again.”

The businessman readjusted his cufflinks, attempting to hide how much he was craving the sweet sensation of blood dripping down his hands, “You said you got something new for me.”

“Yeah!” the architect chirped,  pointing over at the two doors beside the Arasaka chairman. “Something more real than any of my BD’s! Though you know that’s hard to surpass.” 

Tanaka’s eyes widened, then blinked, looking towards one of the doors his dealer had pointed in. his eyes started glowing red, switching to infrared. “You shouldn’t have.” 

Maine bust down the door with a kick, pointing a high-caliber rifle towards the man, Dorio behind him doing the same to Kurosaki. “You broke your end of the bargain.” the giant man hissed, eyes not leaving Tanaka even for a moment. 

“You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” Kurosaki laughed, indifferent toward the gun pointed at his chest, that same smugness about him that got under everyone in Maine’s crew's skin. “Do you really think you lot are the only ones with a Sandevistan?” 

Maine’s eyes widened. “The fuck you mean?” 

David’s sense of time dilated the moment he heard Kurosaki’s grand reveal, blinking rapidly as things suddenly fell into place. Tanaka goes around to abandoned buildings by himself for XBD’s. 

The door in front of him was kicked inward, putting a large dent in the metal. 

No way he would come someplace like this without something to protect him. 

The door finally relented, falling down like it was underwater, slow and steady before he stepped on it and slammed it flat against the floor. He finally got a chance to see the lobby they were guarding. Everything was moving slowly, same as the door liberated from its railings.

Except for Tanaka.

His eyes widened as he watched the businessman rush forward, his arm splitting apart, revealing a mantis blade, aiming for Maine. His heart stopped for a second, but he quickly remembered he could move, too. His brain suddenly realized that he had legs as his body shot forward.

His Sandevistan was on a completely different level from Tanaka's.

Time resumed. He stood firmly in Tanaka's path, the blood-thirsty chairman’s mantis-blade jammed inside the Tyger scabbard David had forgotten to remove from his waist. His grip held strong against the chrome joints of the blade as Tanaka tried pushing past him with nothing but brute force. “I don’t think so,” he hissed through gritted teeth, boots grinding against the ruined floor of the lobby. 

Tanaka blinked his glowing red eyes, the shock of getting stopped registering in his head. His face split into an enraged grimace, teeth bared. “Another sandevistan?”

Kurosaki laughed behind the chairman. “My, my. Looks like we’re gonna get a show, eh, ladies?” He took a seat on the stairs, staring down amusedly at the two combatants. “we're gonna watch Sandevistan's battle! You don't get to see that often.”

David’s back sizzled with rage at the man’s antics. “Someone shut that asshole up before I do!” 

“You think I'll let you do as you please?” Tanaka hissed, putting more pressure on the blade. “After all this time I’ve spent looking for you? You’re Arasaka property already.”

David shifted his glare back to their target. It would’ve been so much easier to just kill the man, but they needed him alive for the deep dive, and he couldn’t hurt him too much either. That would’ve only summoned the trauma team. 

He suddenly regretted using the tranq Dorio had on her on Kurosaki.

“Sorry, Mr. Chairman. I dropped out already,” he quipped, trying to ease the tension growing in the back of his head. “Maine, get outta here!” 

The bigger man gulped, suddenly feeling useless as the realization set in. He could punch a car in half, but this battle was gonna take place at speeds he couldn’t even register. He was better off pulling back and regrouping with others. 

“You think I’ll let them go, punk?” Tanaka spat, his other arm starting to split open as well, the mantis blade screeching against the concrete below them as it extended. “I won't even let their chrome go unmelted. But you, on the other hand...” 

Tanaka's foot lashed out at him, the Sandy kicking in just in time for David to barely dodge out of the way, grab the limb and swing the chairman around and fling him towards Kurosaki.

The monstrous businessman managed to activate his own in time to readjust and use the blades to slow himself down, landing on his feet. He stared down his opponent, his bloodlust apparent even through his inhuman glowing eyes. “I have other plans for you, Mr. Martinez. ” 

David’s brain stuttered as the chairman spat his name, but he quickly pushed his questions and doubts to the back of his mind as he dropped into a stance, holding the scabbard with both hands. 

Doesn’t matter how he knows my name. Can’t afford any distractions.

Maine growled, grabbed the fallen door he’d kicked down, and pulled it jammed against the doorframe, locking both Sandevistan wielders inside. 

“Whats taking them so lonㅡShit!” Lucy screeched, her frustration and worry spiking as she patched into the security feed to check on the operation. “ Tanaka has a Sandevistan?!”

Becca paused next to her, turning her head towards the netrunner. “Oh, you gotta be kidding me.” 

Kiwi double-checked the feed, watching Tanaka and David clash every other frame, the edgerunner managing to keep pace with Tanaka, just barely keeping ahead of the chairman with his speed, managing to parry mantis blades with the scabbard he apparently still had. "I know people call Arasaka suit's monsters, but…Jesus…"

“Goddammit!” Becca howled, slamming the table as the shock settled in. “How the hell are we supposed to bag that ?” 

Lucy turned to Kiwi slowly, her eyes pleading. 

Kiwi looked down, weighing her options. David definitely couldn’t knock the chairman out without triggering a Trauma Team response, and they foolishly had left all the tranq’s in the car outside. 

Only one option remained. 

“He’s not connected to the local net. We’d have to get in his range to reset his systems.” she concluded, taking another puff of her cig. 

“Please,” Lucy begged, eyes close to shedding tears. “I can’t crack into his ICE fast enough on my own—I need another hand.” 

Kiwi continued to weigh her options. They’d have to get close to the two Sandevistan users, and with the speed they possessed, Tanaka didn’t need to even fully finish a thought to kill one of them. Both of them, even. Their only chance of survival would be David managing to hold him back.

She’d seen the man stop a bullet headed straight for Pilar’s head with nothing but a reflex. But could she really trust him? 

She heard Becca gasp as she finally connected to the security feed too. "Fuck, fuck—please, Kiwi—it's not looking good."

She heard Kurosaki giggle and laugh through the cameras, giving a mad commentary as David started to pant, Tanaka looked no less tired than when he entered the building. Faster or not, the kid was struggling to stave off the sheer amount of chrome the chairman had chipped in. 

“Fuckin—" she leaned down and put her smoke out on the table, apparently going insane. "Okay, fine,” she finally huffed, possibly making the biggest mistake of her life. “Lead the way, Monowire.” 

His body burned.

He'd used his Sandevistan in rapid succession before, sure, but it was becoming more and more obvious that fighting against an opponent that had the same set up was taxing his body. That wasn’t even considering the additional Chrome the chairman had in spades. 

All of his muscles ached as they barely managed to keep up with the synth-muscle the chairman clearly had installed, his arms sore from all the parrying he was managing. The scabbard looked like it had seen better days, but after this he doubted that he could leave it behind.

"Tired?" Tanaka smirked, eyes glowing. "I'm gonna tear you limb from limb. Then I’ll plug you into something so you'll actually be useful for once, street rat."

Kurosaki laughed, clapping amusedly behind them. 

David was too tired to even feel the anger pulsing on his back, worry starting to flood in instead. 

"Kid, just kill him and end it!" Maine's voice cut in, suddenly in his holo feed. "The gig's ain't worth it!"

"Wait—"Lucy yelled into his feed. "Almost got it!"

Tanaka suddenly flinched, eyes turning towards the doorway David had burst in from. "More?" His smile split into a manic one "And netrunners, too. Kurosaki, you shouldn't have."

The man on the stairs bowed deeply. "I aim to please!"

David blinked as he realized what was going on. The Sandy roared to life, but it wasn't as fast as normal. As if it was fighting against what he was about to do.

They need me! He screamed in his head, the dilation getting stronger and stronger with each step he took.

He managed to catch up at the last moment, stopping the mantis blade heading for Kiwi with his own body. Searing pain shot through him as the blade speared through his left shoulder. He grabbed the joint with his right hand, clamping down on it like a vice, making sure it couldn't go anywhere.

"Fucking reset is more guarded then Arasaka's lobby—" Kiwi's muttered, still deep in the net.

Tanaka cackled "They won't even know what you did for them before I kill them. Neither of these runners can do anything against my Arasaka tech." He waved his free blade gleefully. "You protected that bitch for nothing."

Kiwi's eyes snapped open, seeing the blade that almost lobotomised her, dripping with David's blood. "Spoofed the Trauma chip," she breathed out, words falling from her mechanical mouth freely.

David's face broke in a smile, and his Sandevistan beeped.

Time stood still.

Tanaka's eyes barely managed to widen even as the chairman's Sandevistan kicked in response. But it was no longer fast enough to keep up David. The Edgerunner let go of the joint he was holding, and replaced his hand with the barrel of a pistol, pulling the trigger. He let go of the gun that had already started firing and pulled out his other one, aiming at the other blade, and pulling that trigger too.

Time resumed and the gun he'd released pinged to the wall, its payload blasting through the chrome with ease as the other bullet found its mark on the other Joint.

Tanaka looked like he was stuck in an ever-repeating loop of pain, possibly feeling every minute detail as he experienced taking a bullet in slow motion. David didn't let him recover as the Sandy kicked back on once more, the edgerunner pistol-whipping the man as slow as he could, knocking him out cold.

Time resumed once again, and Tanaka fell over, unconscious.

"David!" Lucy screamed, almost jumping to hug him before she stopped at the sight of the blade stuck through his shoulder. "Oh—God David! We need to get you to Vik!"

He laughed softly, flinching at the pain as he turned around to face Kiwi. "You good?"

Kiwi nodded slowly, letting out a shuddering breath as she took a step back. "Thank Lucy, she cracked the gonk’s ICE."

David turned and smiled at his output, raising one arm as if he was going in for a hug. Lucy quickly pulled his arm down and gave him a kiss instead, avoiding the blade as she did so. 

Becca scrambled down the stairs, bounding over the last five before she attempted to tackle David, stopping herself at the last second and tripping over her face. "Is that a fucking blade? " she hissed, lifting her head to take another look.

"Yeah. Preem, right?" David joked, then winced "Nevermind, the adrenaline is wearing off—ow, ow, ow."

Chapter Text

Kiwi couldn’t stop looking at David’s back as they walked back into the lobby, Lucy at his side, chastising him about trying to help Rebecca with the body of Tanaka. 

Did he know? Her mind echoed, thinking about the how the blade had ended up stuck in the rookie edgerunner’s shoulder. Her eyes focused on his blood dripping down the blade. He’d shed more blood for her than she would have for anyone else. 

Did that mean she was wise? Or did it mean he was strong?

The thought ate at her. She barely even registered Kurosaki as he revealed himself again, clapping excitedly. 

“Bravo, kid!” the XBD architect cheered, clapping even harder. “You were the fiercer monster after all!” 

David glared at the man, Lucy looked ready to kill him herself. Rebecca glanced up at the man, then back at her partners, trying to figure out the reason for their sudden change, before it clicked. Her mouth split in a snarl that revealed her sharp teeth.

“David!” Maine’s voice cut into all their comms, everyone but David flinching at the sudden call. “Anyone! Give me a sitrep, we’re heading back in with the tranqs.’” 

“Kiwi and I managed to crack into his Trauma chip,” Lucy reported, hand on her ear like that would affect the quality of the call. It was a habit of hers that Kiwi had noticed, but never asked about. She had chalked it up to Lucy preferring to think that like the holo wasn’t connected directly to her head. “David managed to knock Tanaka out.” 

“Atta boy!” Maine cheered, his laugh echoing through the call. “Keep it up and you’ll make a name of yourself too!” 

David smiled, rubbing his head. “It’s nothing. But, uh, do we have any gauze in the car? I got a little—”

“Impaled.” Rebecca finished for him, laying Tanaka on his ass with ease. “Gonk’s got a mantis blade through the shoulder.”

“Yeah, that,” David continued, shooting an apologetic look at Lucy and Becca. “Kiwi, you hurt?” 

“Headache,” she huffed, lighting her smoke. “But that’s ‘cause of Kurosaki. Are we done with him?” 

Maine grumbled on the holo, slowly ripping the jammed door off its railing with his mechanical arms The call ended on their end as he stepped through the doorway. “Yep. Let’s take care of Tanaka first though. Becca, bring him to Dorio. We got just what the doc ordered for a gonk like him.”

“You got it, big boss!” Rebecca acknowledged, walking up to David and giving him a soft kiss on the cheek before rushing off, carrying the Arasaka chairman over her head like he weighed nothing. 

David watched her go. “You know, I keep forgetting she can do that.” 

Maine laughed, walking up to his protege. “She had her arms chromed to handle some pretty serious recoil. Even I can’t pull the shit she can with a shotgun, now.” He leaned down and gave David a look over his sunglasses. “You planning on pulling something like that?” 

David shrugged, winced and looked at the blade on his shoulder, avoiding the question. “We should probably deal with this first, huh?” 

“Please,” Lucy added, looking close to choking David out for moving his shoulder like that with the blade still in him. Kiwi pitied her for falling for someone so careless. 

The pity died as she remembered why he had the blade on his shoulder again. 

She breathed in another lungful of smoke, glaring at the architect who was still watching the crew with that stupid grin across his face. 

“Aight, kid,” Maine announced, stepping up and trying to hand him the gauze. “stay still while I lock that blade down.”

David looked at the blade and shook his head slightly. “Nah.” 

“What—”

David pulled the blade out with his right hand, not even hearing Lucy’s objection. Maine reacted just as fast, his large hands clamping over the wound and holding the gauze in place. “Impulsive much?” the bigger man grumbled, a smile on his face. "Hope you won't bleed out on us now." 

“Bleeding had stopped, Mama always said it was better to pull out a mantis blade after that happens. Better than keeping it in and hoping it doesn't start cutting even more stuff inside.” he explained, not looking even slightly annoyed about the possible internal bleeding happening inside his shoulder. If anything, he looked more torn up about the memory, his left hand slowly holding onto the coat on his waist.

Maine hummed, shooting a glance at Lucy who got the message and started helping out with bandaging the man, her smaller hands with longer fingers doing quick work. 

David laughed, turning to face his output, a smile on his face. “You’re real good at this, who taught you?” 

“Dorio…” Lucy breathed, tightening the gauze with one last tug before starting to tie it up.

“And she learned it from Gloria.” Maine added, a soft smile on his face. “Funny how that works, huh?”

David echoed the smile, playing with the hem of the hi-vis fabric. “Yeah…” 

Kiwi decided that they should move on before they started reminiscing too hard. “What are we doing with Kurosaki?” 

“Oh. him.” David grumbled through gritted teeth, back tensing as he turned around, facing the man. 

Lucy’s eyes didn’t leave the gauze, glaring into the fabric as if trying to netrun into it “His chip is still spoofed, right, Kiwi?” she asked, eyes still glued at the covered wound.

The BD architect didn’t look remotely bothered by the growing rage in their voices. Part of her wondered if the gonk couldn’t divorce reality from a BD anymore. That would’ve explained a lot. 

“Right,” she huffed, exhaling a cloud of vapor. Idly, she wondered how long the architect would keep staring at them so smugly. She’d wipe it off him personally if nobody else would.“You all can go as wild as you want.” 

David took a step forward, still holding onto the blade that had skewered him. For a moment Kiwi thought he was going to start torturing the man with it before he dropped it on the stairs.

“Yes! Yes, perfect!” Kurosaki laughed, giddy as the enraged cyberpunk approached “you can’t hold yourself back, can you? You’re itching to kill, to murder! To feel alive under all that chrome! You gonna savor it? Make it long and tedious till you see the light fade from your victim’s eye—”

David shut the man up with a bullet through the eye. The demented architect’s head jerked back and forth as the bullet ricocheted all around his reinforced skull, finally falling backwards onto the stairs with a wide, manic smile. 

David spat on the floor, reholstering Maine’s gun.

“Finally,” Maine grumbled, readjusting his glasses. “I was gonna go cyberpsycho if I had to listen to him any longer.” 

Lucy hugged David from behind. “Better?” 

“Nope.” He turned around and kissed her on the lips, nuzzling against her neck. “ Now I’m better.” 

Maine shot Kiwi a look. Kiwi didn’t dignify it with a response. “C’mon. We should go down and start locking down Tanaka’s Chrome.” 

Lucy hummed in response, visibly pleased, stealing another kiss from David before untangling herself from him. Shooting one last glare at the corpse of Kurosaki, she turned and followed Kiwi down to the parking structure. 

Maine and David got to work cleaning up the mess they had made, making sure they didn’t leave any Arasaka tech behind as they picked up both mantis blades the kid had shot off, as well as the gun that had flung itself across the corridor.

The young edgerunner stopped, looking down at the scabbard on the floor. It had taken the mother of all beatings: the sheath that wrapped around it was was adorned with gouges, the hardened metal underneath scarred, reflecting irregularly in the light. Maine stood next to him, looking down at the ruined piece too. 

“You think Pilar could fix it?” David hummed, toeing the metal with his boot before kicking it up, grabbing it out of the air, looking at it closer. 

“He’s a techie, not an artisan.” Maine rumbled, leaning onto the wall, recognizing how the kid was looking at it. He tilted his eyes down to his arm, gripping his fist. “But it wouldn’t hurt to ask.” 

David nodded, slipping the scabbard under the coat around his waist. “What do we do about Kurosaki?” 

Maine shrugged, turning to leave  with the blades in hand. “It’s Night City. No one’s gonna care after the body’s cold.” 

David huffed, rubbing against the gauze wrapped across his chest, making sure he wasn’t bleeding before walking out after his boss.

“Jesus Christ,” Kiwi huffed, connected to one of the ports on Tanaka’s arms. “He had fucking tactile nerves connected to the blades. Who does that?” 

Lucy looked uncomfortable, Dorio shooting a look behind, “Sick fucks, apparently.” 

“Can we not?” Lucy grumbled, pulling out of the dive herself. “Managed to shove daemons in most of the hardware. He should short-circ if he tries pulling a fast one on us.” 

“Good call,” Kiwi huffed, looking down on the man disgustedly before glancing back up at Lucy. “Hey. Did David ever talk about how it feels to use the Sandevistan?” 

“Where’s this coming from?” Becca mumbled, perking up as she shot a look at the netrunner.

“Nowhere. Just curious,” Kiwi answered noncommittally. 

“Maine never shut up about it,” Dorio answered, starting to adjust the windows of the Emperor. “He said the world around him would slow down, but he’d remain the same—or, that’s what they said about it.”

“Were you wondering ‘cause of what David did?” Lucy asked, cutting though it all. 

Kiwi shrugged. “It wasn’t logical.” She looked away, refusing to meet Lucy’s eyes. “Thought maybe he had confused me with you or something.” 

Becca started laughing. “ Your skinny ass? C’mon, choom, the guy’s got eyes, still.” 

Kiwi rolled her eyes, “At least I have a bust, midget.” 

“Bite me, hag!” 

Dorio laughed. “You still on about the ‘don’t trust anyone’ bit, still?” 

Kiwi grumbled, staring down at the floor in front of her. “Kept me alive so far.” 

“True.” Dorio hummed, turning and facing the woman. “but have you ever lived instead of survived?” 

Kiwi’s face scrunched, “Don’t get all maternal on me.” 

“Then don’t be so immature,” Dorio shot back, snorting quietly. “C’mon, the boys should be done soon. Buckle up.”

Kiwi sat down, making sure the IV was connected to Tanaka properly, ignoring the taunting looks Becca was shooting her.

“You know,” Lucy hummed, barely above the rumble of the car as the Emperor’s engine started up. “You trusted him with your life once, already, didn’t you?” 

Kiwi grumbled, but had no retort. Why had she done that? That was against her code. Was it so the plan didn’t fail?

She thought about David dying at the hands of Tanaka. 

The thought didn’t sit well with her, and she didn’t quite understand why.

“Ey, Vik!” 

The doctor turned with a smile, greeting his ex-mox customer, “Becca! It’s been a bit. How are things going?” 

The shorter woman chuckled, popping a gum bubble. “Good! Though…” she shot a look back at  David, who had just entered through the chain link fence after her. “David got kinda stabbed.” 

Vik blinked, looking down at the gauze that was wrapped around the man’s shoulder. “Good lord, kid, how didn’t you dodge?” 

“Was stopping the blade from hitting someone else, doc,” the edgerunner admitted, rubbing the back of his head. “No regrets.” 

Vik’s face broke in a smile, shaking his head. “The city will eat you up and spit you out if you keep pulling stunts like that, David.” He got up, gesturing to the chair. “But I think we might just need even more people like you. Let’s see what we’re working with, alright?”

David nodded, pulling the coat around his waist off and handing it to Becca before he walked up and took a seat, Viktor following him on his stool. “Was it through and through?” 

David nodded, looking up at the ceiling. “Mantis blade got me while I had Sandevistan on. It might’ve cauterized it.” 

“Hm.” Victor nodded, looking over the gauze before grabbing a pair of scissors and starting to cut it off. “Did you redress your wound since then?” 

“Got here as soon as we could, doc,” Rebecca answered, sitting on the same cupboard,hugging David’s coat against her chest, snuggling into the fabric. “Didn’t have the time.” 

“That’s fine,” Vik stated, peeling more of the gauze. “Just surprised he hasn’t bled through any of this. Any pain?” 

“Not…really?” David answered, doing a mental check of his sensations. “It was stinging a little after we left, but it stopped on the rail to here.” 

“Stinging, huh?” Vik laughed, finally unwrapping the last layer, hand ready to apply some fabric to stop the bleeding if it started again. The doctor blinked, staring at the revealed patch of fabric, seeing the skin underneath from the cut on it. 

If the shirt wasn’t cut, he would’ve thought the two were pulling a prank on him. 

“Uh…” he breathed, adjusting his glasses “David, can you pull your shirt off?” 

“Sure.” the man huffed, casually pulling his shirt off and tossing it to Becca, the woman catching it out of the air with ease.

They then both paused, David looking at his left arm and down to his shoulder. “...what?”

“My thoughts exactly.” Viktor hummed, hand on his chin as he stared down to the shoulder, which didn’t even have a scar. “You take any medication? Maxdoc? Bounceback?” 

David shook his head. “Not a thing doc, I swear.”

Victor hummed thoughtfully, his fingers drumming on the edge of his armrest, before shaking his head. “Let me do a scan; see if we can’t figure this out.” 

“Well?” David asked impatiently, slightly intimidated by the scanner running up and down his body repeatedly. 

“Well…it seems like you’ve got even more veins growing into the Sandevistan than before. Your muscle density is higher, all tendons on your shoulder look fine…” Victor listed off, dragging a finger along the scan of the veins on David's back. “You look healthy as an ox, other than—well, you know—the usual.” 

“Weird growth around Sandy, yeah,” David nodded. “Any progress on that?” 

“Yeah. Muscle attachments to anchor points. It's getting weirder on your back kid, no other way to describe it. I’ve never seen tendons fuse to chrome like this in my life,” Vik responded, tapping on some buttons as the scanner stopped right over David's chest and pushed closer to it. “Biotech would kill to have something that even approached this level of interconnectivity between tissue and machine.”

Rebecca huffed, kicking her legs. “Sounds pretty scary to me, Vikky.” 

Vik shrugged, taking another look on David’s back. “The Sandevistan looks a little different, too. Did you do anything to it?” 

“Uh…” David looked away, looking embarrassed, “Got blasted with an EMP.” 

Vik’s eyes widened, looking back at the scans. “Shit.  Okay, nothing’s fried, from what I can see. Just altered a bit. Looks like some of the steel moved around…might’ve been some sort of safety measure against the EMP. Didn’t even know it had that.” 

“Neither did I,” David laughed, tension ebbing away. “Hurt like a bitch till that kicked in, though.” 

“I can imagine,” Victor mumbled, looking through the scans one last time before shutting it off. “Alright, kid, you’re good. Clean bill. I guess whatever’s making your body adapt can also heal you—go figure. You’re already growing whole new muscle groups. Compared to that, closing that wound is childs play.” 

David sat up slowly, rolling his left shoulder. “When you put it that way...”

Vik placed a hand on David’s shoulder, looking into his eyes. “This doesn’t make you invincible, kid. Don’t ever think that.” 

The doctor’s words hit him like a bucket of ice water. He remembered how close he’d come to dying at Tanaka’s hands.  Another memory bubbled up, something he’d ignored in the heat of battle.

Tanaka was ranting and raving about attaching him to something. His back pulsed, reminding him of the changes it was going through. 

Does Arasaka know? He asked himself, thinking back on the mad exec’s rambling. Blinking, he let the thought go for now. He placed his hand over the doctor’s, nodding softly. “You got it, doc.” 

Rebecca was getting handsy with him on the N-track, giggling softly as she ran her hands over his new muscles. 

David leaned down, kissing the side of her head. Making sure people around them only saw a couple getting a little too frisky and nothing more as he leaned against her ear. “You think I could ask some stuff to Tanaka after we’re done gathering the data?”  

Rebecca turned, straddling his lap and kissing his neck, then brought her lips up to his ear, playing along. “Whatcha got in mind?”

He hugged her tight, hands slipping under her coat and tracing a path down the ridge of her spine. Their act was becoming something else faster and faster as his body heated up, and Becca shuddered under his touch; but he didn't care.“He kept mentioning wanting to plug me into something. I wanna know if someone spilled.” 

She kissed his forehead, looking into his eyes before leaning back into his ear. “You can ask Kiwi to look into that when we get there, love.” 

He hummed, leaning forward and kissing her on the lips with a soft groan. “Let's get this gig over with fast. I wanna make that skull laugh again.” 

Becca wrapped her arms around his neck, smirking at him sultrily. “Can’t wait, dimples.” 

Chapter Text

Kiwi and Lucy’s avatars stood side by side, cyan pulsating skies over their heads, trailing patterns of circuitry all around them. 

“This gets boring fast.” Kiwi muttered with distaste to herself, staring at the many ‘buildings’ that surrounded them. Each represented another piece of hardware that was attached to the Arasaka suit. 

Way in the distance, covered by barriers of ICE, followed by a damn bunker of the thing was another structure. Nothing was labeled, but just looking at it, they could see that it was the memory banks Tanka had implanted into himself. It was simply more guarded than anything else, screaming out that it was more important for any intruder to hear.

Locking data in one’s head was a smart idea, not connected to the net as much as a stationary device would be. But unlike the stationary, Tanaka left Arasaka’s guarded walls. 

Now, they could chip away at the wall at their own pace. A full day before Arasaka even noticed him, longer to track down after her and Lucy’s efforts to remove his locator chips. A lot more time than what they would have had inside the Arasaka network before the security systems purged the two runners from their servers.

She found humor in that. All the safety measures the giant corporation could’ve mustered didn’t matter 'cause the chairman was an XBD freak.

It was the little things.

Lucy looked warier than her, glaring into the layers of ICE. Kiwi didn’t understand how the younger netrunner was getting cold feet at the sight, Lucy was one of the most proficient runner she knew, especially when it came to Arasaka ICE.

“Whats wrong?” she finally asked, realizing that she couldn’t just will the answer out of the younger woman. “It’s just the usual.”

“Worried it might be trapped,” Lucy admitted, starting to walk forward, Kiwi following after her. “Wouldn’t put it past Arasaka.” 

Kiwi hummed, the first barrier of ICE shattering apart as Lucy’s avatar poked it just in the right spot. “You wanna take it slow when we get to the big one?” 

“Yeah,” Lucy huffed, swatting away another barrier as easily as she breathed. “I’ll leave some code in before we plug out so we’ll have a backdoor straight to it.” 

Kiwi handled the next wall, twisting her hands as the ICE slid in sections, circuit patterns on the cyberscape and the ICE connecting and forming a circle, the blue wall fizzling out in the sectioned area and forming a doorway. “Is it the thick wall getting you worried?” 

Lucy hummed another affirmative, looking at the next barrier for a second before shattering it with a glare. “Usually they just increase the number of these. Eating the time of netrunners, thickening the walls is not as efficient.” 

“They probably did it 'cause he’s a chairman,” Kiwi rationalized, handling the next wall.

“Just worried they did it to keep something in, rather than to keep us out.” Lucy mumbled, flicking the wall apart. 

Kiwi blinked at the theory “what, like a deamon? Keeping that one inside the memory bank is insanity, Luce.” 

Lucy shrugged, looking away. “Not the most insane thing that damn corpo did.” 

Kiwi scratched her neck, leaning on a phantom leg. “That's not untrue…” She looked back to where they came from, looking at all the other structures in Tanaka’s network. “He does have some of the most high-end chrome I’ve seen…” 

The first ICE they’d broken through had started to fade back in, blurring the vision ever so slightly. As she turned back around. “Whatever. We’ll handle it when we get to it.”

Lucy hummed, accepting her senior’s answer, knocking down the next barrier. 

“Yo,” Pilar greeted the two as Becca and David entered the stronghold they’d set up in another derelict apartment complex. 

David internally grumbled about all the homeless around his house when there were houses out here, just needing some touch-ups to be livable. 

“Missed ya in the capture, bro,” Becca said, with a mocking glee in her voice. “Maybe Tanaka could’a hurt you good enough so you’d learn something.” 

“Love ya too sis,” he shot back, flipping her off with a wide smile on his face, then looking back at David. The edgerunner was confused about how the vizor that made up the techie’s eyes looked expectant, but it did. “Hope ya kept my idiot sis safe, brother.” 

Becca’s face twitched instantly, puffing out her chest like she was about to start a fight, before she stopped herself, pulling David forward and trying to get some distance between her brother and her input before he could say anything worse. David chuckled softly, amused that even Rebecca could get embarrassed by her family. “Actually, Becca, mind if you go on ahead? I’ve got something to ask Pilar.” 

The shorter woman flinched, looking back at him with pleading eyes. “Don’t listen to him if he wants to show baby pictures.” 

David blinked widely, eyebrows almost hitting his hairline. “He has those?” 

“Davie, please no,” she begged, clasping her hands together. “You’d never see me the same, please.” 

He chuckled, reaching and patting her hair softly. “Got it—but I’d never love you less, Becca.”

The ex-mox blushed at the comment, rubbing her head against his hand a little before huffing and pulling back, satisfied with the comment. “Fine. I’ll ring ya if Kiwi and Luce are good for a convo.” 

David nodded, turning back to the corridor Pilar was guarding, pulling the damaged scabbard out.

“Hey Pilar, I know this is not your wheelhouse but…”

His long arms shot out, grabbing the scabbard out of David’s hands and eyeing it up and down. “You want it fixed?”

“Yeah.” David hummed, a little embarrassed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Kinda got attached after the Tanaka fight.” 

“Yeesh,” Pilar hissed, turning the scabbard end on end, glancing at each scar. “Heard about that, how's the shoulder?”

“Back to one hundred,” David admitted, flexing his left bicep for emphasis. “What about you?”

He shrugged, giving the man a smirk. “Was waiting on some tungsten for a side project, guarding here while you guys did the deed was easy.” 

“Tungsten?” David’s face scrunched, thoughts running through his head at the speed of the Sandevistan. “What are you gonna do with that?” 

“It's a surprise, brother.” David coulda swore the visor winked at him, regardless of its feasibility. “Here,” Pilar huffed, tossing an extendable baton up at the edgerunner, leaning back to the wall with the scabbard in his lap. “Use this while I fix up your scabbard. You don’t mind me giving it a paint job while I’m at it, right?”

David eyed the baton, flicking it open with a swing before pushing the tip back down, stuffing the weapon between his coat and waist. The same spot where the scabbard had become a reassuring weight in. It didn’t feel the same, but David was sure he could get used to it fast. “Sure, nothing too pink though.” 

Pilar chuckled, shaking his head. “Don’t let Becca hear that, she’ll switch your shampoo with hair dye.” 

David grinned, patting the new baton again, and tossing Pilar a thumbs up. “Speaking from experience?” 

“Delta in before you remind me of the weeks of mocking.” 

Both Lucy and Kiwi woke up at the same time, cables hissing as their direct connection to Tanaka disconnected. Lucy took a few to breathe in, unbothered by the cold as the cables fell out, dropping onto the floor. Kiwi assisted her own disconnection by hand, wrenching them out and standing up and stepping out of the bathtub. 

“Don’t understand how you can stand that cold,” she hissed, already grabbing a towel and starting to wipe herself off. 

“She’s got more meat on her bones,” Becca teased, poking her long tongue out at the older woman. “Y’two got anything?”

“A ICE wall thicker than Maine,” Kiwi groaned, looking around the room. “Speaking of, where is he?” 

“Outside, left guard duty to me,” Rebecca answered, as Lucy stirred and started getting up too. “He and Dorio are taking a nap I think, big lug needs it after all the stress for this gig.” 

Kiwi hummed, still unhappy, as she turned and picked up her carton of smokes. Lighting one up, she sprawled on the couch, next to Becca. “How the fuck are we even gonna know the data we’re looking for?” 

Becca shrugged. “Guess we klep it all and get Faraday tell us?” 

Kiwi looked like she would click her tongue if she still had one. 

“Are they up?” David mumbled, not taking a proper look into the room before he walked in and closed the door behind him. When he finally did he saw both Lucy and Kiwi looking at him, naked. 

Kiwi’s eyes brightened for a second, gesturing at him to sit next to her. “Gonna borrow your joytoy for a second, girls.” 

Becca wiggled her eyebrows, Lucy curiously raised one of hers, but ignored the older netrunner turning back to her input. Walking up, she gently caressed David’s left shoulder. “Did Vik patch you up well?” 

He smiled, placing a hand over hers, letting her touch the surface as much as she pleased. “Was healed even before he got to see it. My body’s pretty preem, huh?” 

Becca rolled her eyes with a smirk, then glanced back at Kiwi who looked less than amused about the two ignoring her order about David. 

Taking the matter in her hands, the senior netrunner got up, walked around the couple getting lost in each other’s eyes and draped her body against the younger man’s back, letting out a satisfied hum. 

Lucy blinked, David froze, and Becca started laughing. 

“Good god, she’s like a house cat!” the shorter woman giggled, holding her stomach as she doubled over with laughter. 

Kiwi didn’t care, snuggling against the warmth that was David’s back further, almost melting against the man. “Shut up, I’m cold.” 

Lucy stopped blinking, her face twitching before she burst out into a fit of giggles herself, “Guess you agree with David about his body then, eh?” 

Kiwi ignored the snide remark as her long arms wrapped around the shorter man, locking him in place. “He is a good heat-pad” 

David was blushing, trying to figure out how Kiwi could do something like this in front of his outputs without shame, before he sighed, remembering Lucy’s comment about skinship and netrunners. “Can we at least sit down?”

He had no idea how he got into the position he was in.

But there he was, on Kiwi’s lap, the older woman hugging him tight against her lean body; Lucy snuggled into his right shoulder, gently caressing his hand, and Becca on his lap, her hands teasing his thighs as she watched the IV connected to Tanaka continue to drip slowly. What the fuck is my life…

“Better?” Kiwi grumbled, her head on his left shoulder, shooting him an annoyed look. “You should’a taken your shirt off too.” 

Neither Becca or Lucy had an objection to the sentiment, even as the young edgerunner shot the two a glance. “Uh… moving on—did you guys manage to crack into Tanaka?” 

“Got through all of his base ICE,” Lucy reported, tracing his interface on his palm. “But there is still a massive wall we didn’t start on. Thought a break was in order.” 

“That and Lucy is worried about what’s inside of it.” Kiwi huffed, reaching out and grabbing a smoke “I’m skeptical, still. But it's never a bad idea to have caution when we can.” 

“Right,” David hummed, leaning and resting his head on Becca, who almost purred at the contact. Feeling the reaction, he pulled back and gave the top of her head a soft kiss before leaning against once more. “There is something else I want you to look at too…”

“I ain’t a charity.” Kiwi grumbled, then stopped and huffed. “Fine, but you’ll be my personal heatpad for a month after this.” 

Lucy muttered under her breath, but she stopped when David intertwined his hand with hers, running his thumb against the back of her hand. “That’s fine with me—Just wanted to look into something Tanaka was screaming about during our fight.” 

“He wanted to ‘plug David in’ to something.” Becca completed, shooting a cursory glance at Kiwi to check if she would react. “You know anything about that?” 

Kiwi’s face scrunched, “Why would I?” 

David pat Rebecca’s head, the smaller woman staring a hole into the taller one. “Just the ‘don’t trust anyone’ rhetoric felt like you were, you know…” 

Kiwi blinked. “There is a difference between not having someone’s back and betrayal like that, midget.” She then took a lungful of smoke. “Not that there isn’t gonks in this city that wouldn’t sell out their own mom for a cornchip…” 

David watched the tensions rise, unhappy to see the two start to approach a full-blown fight. He glanced back at Kiwi and then back at Becca, realizing the mistrust starting to grow. “No need to fight. There is also the…” he paused, remembering a fight he had what felt like ages ago. “Oh. Ohhh… ”

“Did we break him?” Becca mumbled, taking a look at Lucy and then at Kiwi. The older shrugged as the younger hummed, leaning and kissing his neck softly. 

That booted the man back up, the man blinking rapidly. “I completely fucking forgot.” 

Kiwi dragged a nail against his body in irritation. “You gonna tell us, or do you enjoy letting us hang on the edge?”

“Yes sorry, uh—” David blinked one last time before turning his gaze to Lucy. “The day we met, something else happened. I got in a fight in the Academy.”

“Uuuoooh,” Becca whistled, snuggling into his lap “Bad boy even before us, huh?” 

“Kiwi, you know the kid I sent to the hospital, do you know how ?” David asked, seemingly unaware of Becca’s teasing. The smaller girl pouted lightly, then remembered that she probably shouldn’t derail the conversation just yet.

Kiwi hummed softly, then her eyes widened, seemingly catching on. “They know you have a Sandevistan.” 

Lucy flinched, gripping David’s hand tighter. “Wait, you let Arasaka know you had a Sandevistan?”

David laughed lightly, scratching his cheek. “I—honestly didn’t care at the time.” He huffed lightly, wrapping an arm around Becca. “It was two days after my mom died. Tanaka’s son had beat me up and smack-talked my mom the day before. On an impulse I had the Sandevistan installed, went back to the Academy the next day, and, well…” 

“Jesus,” Becca mumbled, gently holding his hand with her own. “Fuck that kid, man.” 

“I fucked him up good.” David laughed, the chipper tune sounding more somber than usual, thinking about how he felt after that. “Then, I had no plans. No job, no nothing. Didn’t even know how I’d survive, just out in Night City, another lost gonk with no one to lean on.”

He turned and shot a look at Lucy. “You changed that.” 

The woman blinked, remembering that day. All the thoughts she had about the man that had grabbed her hand after she’d tried to picksocket him. 

It had always been an important day for her, the first time she’d opened up to anyone. But she never thought the same applied to David to such an extent. 

Lost for words, she pulled him into a hug, kissing his cheek then his forehead, pulling him close against her chest, even as the other woman made sounds of discomfort as she forced her way through to him. David laughed, hugging her close with both arms, tracing a line on the heart-shaped seamlines on her back. “I’m fine, I’m fine, Luce.” 

“Yeah, sappy, much?” Kiwi grumbled, even as she rested a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “Pull back though. You said Arasaka probably knew about Sandevistan?”

“Would explain a lot.” David huffed, unhappy as Lucy pulled back, before his opinion did a 180 as she gave him a hungry and passionate kiss that robbed the air out of his lungs. He panted, on the edge about leaning in and continuing the liplock and getting on with his ideas. 

His eye caught the tied-up form of Tanaka, and he remembered they didn’t have infinite time. “Remember how they were calling me back to the academy?” 

Becca nodded, still watching the IV. “So… they were calling you back so they could get their hands on someone that could handle that high end Sandevistan on your back.” 

David shook his head. “Doubt Tanaka knew anything about Sandy, if he had, he wouldn’t have fought me.” 

Kiwi's eyes scrunched, distaste palpable. “Makes sense. yours outclasses his by a century. At most, they saw the camera feed and were interested ‘cause a snot-nose was running around using a Sandevistan like it was easy.” 

Lucy leaned in and gave him another kiss. “Good thing you never went back, huh?” 

David chuckled, shaking his head softly. “They couldn’t pay me enough to deal with that shithole…” 

Becca hummed. “So…” 

She pointed back at Tanaka. “How much do y’all wanna bet the data is about what he wanted to plug you into?”

Lucy didn’t care, still cupping David’s face in her hands, peppering his face with soft kisses, the man chuckling lightly at the affection. Kiwi scratched the back of her head, combing her lithe fingers through her hair. 

“Arasaka’s working on a cutting-edge piece of chrome that needs a host that can handle high strain from chipping it in…” she muttered, putting the pieces together. “So it's another fucking Tuesday. Why the fuck couldn’t Faraday tell us that much?”

David pulled away from Lucy’s grasp giving a side-long glance at Kiwi. “Cause he’s a shit fixer?” 

“You ain’t wrong.” 

Chapter Text

"Okay, easy now," Lucy said, chipping away at the section of wall that they had designated as their entry point. Or rather, the peephole.

Kiwi didn't like how the younger woman had taken the lead in their breach, but couldn't really argue against it. Both were plugged in from their shard slots instead of anything more robust, making their movements through the cyberscape slower than usual.

Hers even more than Lucy's. While Kiwi struggled to walk without falling over due to just how long it took her legs to move, the younger netrunner didn't have the same issues. Kiwi chalked up to some special training she had that let her handle the lower bandwidth connection.

The blonde netrunner groaned, still putting pressure on the sides of the hole they'd dug into the ICE, the mental load taxing, making her head pulse with each passing minute, but it was easily ignored. The wall was trying to reseal itself, but Lucy had her claws too deep inside it. Trying to fight against the constant barrage was slowly overloading its processes, making repair impossible. 

"Last layer," Lucy huffed, her avatar  taking a step back and panting with her hands on her knees. Kiwi shot her a look, quietly shocked that her avatar had a powerful enough connection to show emotions even in their low-spec rigs. "David, you there? You're gonna have to pull us out if something bad happens."

"Loud and clear," the cyberspace echoed, David's voice shaking the space, projected from the outside world through a holo. "You sure you'll be fine with a hot plug?"

"Nothing some painkillers won't fix," Kiwi muttered, attempting to pull the gauge open even further. Her arms felt like they were moving through sludge.

"It'd hurt us less than whatever's probably in here," Lucy added, warily eyeing the crater on the wall. "Ready?"

"More than you," Kiwi muttered, pressing harder against the walls. "Come on, keep moving. The other layers are already starting to repair."

"On three…" Lucy's hand rose, digging into the wall. "Two…" Kiwi watched her forearms flex and shift as she used her fingers as a lockpick. "One."

The last layer between them and the memory bank shattered, and the blue wall fizzled, revealing another hole.

Kiwi only caught a glimpse of a malicious black and red cloud before Lucy tackled her away from the wall, screaming for David.

The blonde netrunner jerked awake in the coolant bath. She blinked, trying to shove the image of the tendril that shot out of her head. It would have stabbed through both her and Lucy's avatars if not for David's quick reaction.

The shock kept her body from registering the cold, but Lucy was still panicking, thrashing around in her bathtub and splashing coolant everywhere.

Kiwi rose up shakily, catching David hugging Lucy tight against himself, trying to calm the woman down, and succeeding from what she could see.

"Deamon," she breathed, shuddering fearfully, adrenaline slowly seeping into her veins. Her real body was only catching up to her near death experience now. "How big was that thing? I've never seen anything with an arm that long… "

"Thats…" Lucy started, slowly untangling herself from David's arms and taking in a steadying breath. "That was a finger."

Kiwi's blood turned to ice in her veins as the shock settled in. "How the fuck did they stuff something like that inside him?"

Lucy shook her head, not wanting to imagine how many netrunners Arasaka had sacrificed to capture a deamon of that caliber.

“It’ll kill him,” Lucy admitted, looking at Tanaka. “We gave it a hole to focus on. It’ll eat through and kill him.” 

Maine clicked his tongue, clearly unhappy with the news. “And the data?” 

Lucy shook her head. Kiwi looked down, rubbing her head. “We’ll have to fight that… thing if we want it.” 

The older man hummed, collapsing on the couch and staring at the ground. “Shit.” 

“I…” Lucy gasped, holding onto David’s shirt, staring up into his eyes. “I can do it.” 

David blinked, then hugged her close. “No way. Don’t. Just forget it, let’s just forget this whole gig.” 

Maine grumbled but nodded. “We got hired for data, not Deamon slaying. Not worth Faraday’s money.” 

Lucy shook her head, pulled herself out of David’s arms and grasped his face, kissing him lightly. “Not doing this for Faraday.”

Her hand went behind her head, gripped her hair at the base of her skull, and tore out the fake skin. Revealing a deep-dive port and giving Maine full view. Their boss blinked, stumped with the revelation. David stared at the synthskin in her hands confused. His arms reached out and slowly wrapped around her. “Don’t…I don’t want to lose you. Please, don’t.” 

Lucy’s eyes softened, grasping his face softly before pulling him in for another kiss. “I need to. If this data is connected to you…we’ll need it to keep you safe.” 

“I can keep myself safe!” David insisted, even as Maine stood up and tried to separate them. The older man knew when someone decided to go through with a mission. Come hell or high water.

And Lucy had clearly made up her mind.

“Against Arasaka, we need everything we can get, David,” Lucy rebuffed, looking over at Kiwi. “Plug me in.” 

The older woman looked out of her depth, glancing between David fighting against Maine's grip and Lucy's expectant stare. “Are you sure about this?” 

“We’re running out of time, Kiwi!” 

Sighing, the senior netrunner got up, starting to connect the cables and retrieving the deep dive plug. 

“Lucy, please ,” David pleaded, the Sandy beeping on and off on its own accord on his back, shifting in and out of dilated time, unable to escape Maine’s grasp. “We’ll find another way in, there is no need for this.” 

Maine’s hold slowly loosened as he heard the desperation in David's voice. “Kid…I know she’d never do something she couldn’t handle. You need to believe in her, too.” 

David stilled, huffing in the man’s arms. “I’ve watched someone kill herself for me before. I'm not gonna go through that again.”

Lucy winced, turning around slowly, and gave David a loving look. “Don’t worry.” She smiled, “I’ve got something up my sleeve. Just trust me, David.” 

David looked down, stomped on Maine’s foot. The man howled in pain, loosening his grip enough for a Sandevistan-assisted escape. David closed the distance between himself and Lucy, kissing her passionately before finally pulling back and staring into her eyes.

“I’ll never forgive you if you don’t come out of there alive.” 

Lucy laughed, hugging him tightly. “Of course, I’ll get back. How else are we gonna go to the moon together?” 

“Ready,” Kiwi announced, holding the deep-dive cable. “Want me to do it?”

Lucy looked at David. “Could you? It’ll be good luck.” 

He looked at the cable, then back at her, slowly accepting the robust plug from Kiwi’s hands. “I can’t pull you out if there's trouble, can I?”

“It’ll fry her brain,” Kiwi admitted, still looking slightly uncomfortable.

Lucy gave him a sad smile. “Don’t you believe in me?”

David closed his eyes, sighing out softly. When he opened them again, the worry was gone, and a deep, unshakable faith burned within. “I know you can.” 

Lucy smiled, caressing his face as David reached around, gently plugging her in and twisting the plug locked against her port.

Her eyes started glowing as the dive started, closing slowly as she went limp in his arms, a smile on her face. 

David slowly set her back in the tub, grip white against the edge of the porcelain.

Lucy woke up back in cyberspace, body more real than it ever had been in the past years. She would’ve been a mess, wrecked with memories of her past if not for her one goal. 

She looked out to the bunker they’d poked a hole into, seeing the cracks start to form like an egg about to hatch. Soon there was going to be a deamon in this space, hunting for prey. Be it living or code. 

But she had her own.

Reaching in, her avatar pierced her own chest, grabbing a hold of living code she’d tucked away in her childhood. She pulled it out, her head aching as data flowed out of it rapidly, the effort of the transfer almost knocking her out. 

The bunker shattered, and a goliath of a creature stepped out. A many-limbed monster cloaked in angry black mist, covered in eyes down its thick neck. It roared, shaking the very foundations of the cyberscape, making the ICE barriers protecting other parts of Tanaka’s chrome shatter instantly. 

But Lucy wasn’t afraid. She stared down the beast as it tested its muscular arms, inhuman claws scraping against the ground, swaying a multi-tipped tail around and stretching out to its full form.

Her head pulsed as the transfer completed, and she wretched out her hand, tossing her own Deamon out. Panting with the effort. 

Unlike the caged beast, hers arrived in a giant beam of light shooting out from the ground. A giant glowing humanoid form revealed itself as it stepped out of the light and into the new space. The giant looked around curiously before noticing the other Deamon. 

Both beings let out electronic growls as they stepped around each other, sizing each other up. Finally they shot forward, the very cyberscape shaking in the clash.

Lucy barely kept her balance, watching the two Deamons wrestle for dominance. She didn’t need it to conclude, only to keep each other busy.

Rushing towards the data center, she dodged under a tail sweep, the massive limb shattering one of the structures in its path to swipe against the human form, only to get caught by a mechanical arm shooting out of the AI. The mechanical arm swung the other beast out to the side with the leverage, tossing it up into the air. 

Lucy ignored it, sliding under another stray arm, right through the hole they'd chiseled. Dashing through the remains of the ICE and into the structure. Before her, the data arrays of terabytes of information were laid out in stacks, rows upon row upon rows. 

She huffed, annoyance bubbling up as she approached the closest stack. Fucking Faraday didn’t even give us the name to search by.

She touched the stack and glanced through the first array, as it presented itself to her, noting the files were well organized. Her frustration doubled as she began scanning the first couple of files, which were useless Arasaka records. 

She was going to have to resort to opening each file and scanning through, trying to find David’s name amongst the myriad stacks of meaningless data.. 

The ground shook as another roar echoed from the hole behind her, a thunderous crash making the walls pixelate as the behemoths clashed, breaking down cyberspace with their furious blows. 

David was pacing, Maine resting his foot in Kiwi’s empty tub, giving the man sideways glances. “You didn’t have to do that, you know.” 

“I know, sorry.” David hissed, looking at the older man before sighing. “Seriously, sorry I was just—freaked out.”

“Yeah,” Maine admitted, looking down at Lucy’s form in the tub. He would’ve done much worse to anyone that tried keeping him away from Dorio. “Didn’t even know she had a deep-dive port. Did you?” 

“Nope,” he admitted, looking back at Tanaka, hoping Lucy was faring well inside. “...I’m… worried...” 

Just as he said the words aloud, Tanaka’s hands fizzled, sparks shooting out of the chrome as a visible arc of electricity shot through the joints. David shuddered, his hands twitching as he shot a look at Lucy, looking up to the biomonitor they’d attached to one of her shard slots.

Heart rate went up, but her brain signals were stable. The young edgerunner sighed with relief, but his eyes never left the panel.

Kiwi huffed, looking down, then away from what was happening. “If anyone can handle it, it's her.” 

David gave her a pleading look. “You’re not just saying that, are you?” 

Kiwi’s eyes locked into his, boring into his soul. “I’m serious. She may be younger than me, but she knows way more about the Net than anyone I’ve ever met." She took a lungful of smoke, eyes gazing to Lucy's connection "With her deep-dive port alone, she’s a far more dangerous netrunner.” 

Both Maine and David stared at Kiwi; the former impressed that the stoic woman could compliment anyone, latter took an easier breath with the comfort.

Lucy took a few steps back, looking out to the skyline from the hole torn into the representation of the datacenter. The beast Tanaka stored had torn one of the arms of her deamon, stabbing it through the chest with it. And now was in the process of tearing chunks of data out with its clawed hands, stuffing it down the long mouth that went down its neck and to its torso.

It looked like a demon feasting on flesh, its red eyes glowing as each chunk of white data got shoved inside its massive maw. 

Lucy took a shuddering breath, terrified to her core, the files she was scanning through forgotten, dropped onto the floor. 

One of the many eyes of the deamon blinked, noticing the movement. The arms holding the corpse up of the other dropped it to the ground slowly, sensing a way out of the enclosed system it was in.. 

Lucy took another step back, but there was nowhere to run, the muscular arms of the monster grabbed the structure and ripped it out of the foundations, trapping the netrunner  in the structure. 

She shuddered, feeling every single eye stare into her with hunger. She couldn’t allow something like that to escape into the general net of Night City. It’d lay waste to what little of the net they’d reconstructed in the time it would take for anyone to respond.

But as the thoughts rushed by, she stopped caring about what would happen to Night City. And instead the horror of not being able to go back to David grew. She couldn't bear to break her promise to him, but there was nothi—

A white arm shot out, wrapping around the neck of the black and red beast, starting to choke it out as mechanical limbs burst from the white giant’s back clawing and punching anywhere they could reach on its target's body, both howling in digital agony. 

Lucy free-fell as the beast dropped the structure. As it crashed to the ground, she readied herself to feel the pain of the fall, but merely stumbled on to the ground from the collision.

She was still battling with the information that she was still alive as she got to her feet, legs unsteady. Shaking her head, she chastised herself for forgetting that cyberspace had no physical rules like realspace, before she continued searching through the files as fast as she could still move. Random files about inane office policies and bios on potential corporate opponents began flooding the floor as Lucy frantically tore through them before tossing them aside. 

Suddenly, a feeling at the back of her mind made her look up, towards a particular stack in the center of the room. She flew over to it on a whim, her mind buzzing with anticipation and worry. As she touched this stack, however, it didn’t open for her like the others, completely free and open for her perusal. This one had its own thin layer of ICE.

Lucy scoffed before slamming her fist into it, shattering the final barrier with ease. Fools, kindergarten stuff, she thought, as a brief memory rose up from the back of her mind. Her first attack on a human mind, during her training.

She shook her head of the memory and focused on the now open stack. A smile crossed her face. The most recently accessed file by Tanaka himself, sitting right on top of the pile. It was encrypted to hell and back, but she didn’t even have to try to unencrypt the file. Her eyes widened as she scanned through, finally landing on the ‘potential subjects’ page. 

David’s name was at the top. 

That caused her to pause, only to realize the danger she was in as another roar shook the building, the roof fizzling out over her, revealing the two deamon’s still wrestling, bleeding out data all over the cyberspace. Quickly she shoved the folder inside her avatar's body,  and issued a system command, grabbing everything else that was scattered around and sending them through her connection too, watching as the battle turned to favor the red beast again. She grimaced as the data download pulsed terabytes across their connection, but still managed to watch the fight.

It roared into the heavens as it finally managed to tear out the mechanical limbs of her beast, engulfing its head inside its massive mouth and tearing it off. Lucy’s hand went up to her mouth in sheer horror at the sight, watching the AI act more and more like a rabid animal than anything approaching intellect. 

It turned to face her again, and shot forward, its giant clawed hand approaching like a car aimed to hit. She ignored the pounding headache and focused internally, making sure the data was intact—

She woke up with a jolt as her connection ended just in time, her body shooting up straight with the sudden rush of adrenaline, spraying coolant everywhere. 

David grabbed her in a tight hug instantly, looking her over and kissing her neck and mouth, whimpering against her with relief, his hand already going for the port on her back. The world  made sense again. She hugged him back, laughing softly and mewling that she was fine against his ear, assisting him in unplugging her. 

Finally, he pulled back, looking her in the eyes before kissing her deep, hugging her close, drowning his senses with her scent, coolant-tinged or not.

“Glad to see you back, Lucy." Maine said with genuine relief, a grin on his lips. "Did you get anything?” 

Lucy nodded slowly. “...Maine, did Faraday ever tell you what data he wanted?” 

Maine thought for a second, before grinning wider. “Now that you say it. He never did, did he?” 

Both turned to Tanaka’s body as even more chrome sparked, arcs of electricity going throughout his body making him look like he was about to catch fire, his biomonitor giving more and more error messages. “That thing is gonna eat him from the inside, isn’t it?” 

“It won’t stop,” Lucy shuddered. David’s arms tightened around her. “Nothing in here is connected to a net, right?” 

“Nope.” Kiwi answered, still naked as she walked up and grabbed David’s gun out of his waistband, stepping towards Tanaka. “And now—”

The shot rang out, blasting through Tanaka’s head and hitting the concrete wall behind him. The biomonitor flatlined, all the sparks going through the man’s body ceasing at once. “That’s one less loose end.”

Maine broke in a boisterous laugh, shaking his head at the sight. “Will you guys ever let me get a kill?” 

Kiwi shot a glance over her shoulder, spinning the pistol on her finger. “You snooze, you lose, old man.” 

Chapter Text

“Pilar!” Maine hollered, boxing up their supplies. “Set the charges!” 

Pilar jolted awake, his vizor blinking on as he heard the magic words. “We done? Blowing this joint up?”

“Eeeyup,” Maine affirmed, picking up the boxes over his shoulders and shooting a look towards the techie. The larger man’s glasses reflected with a red glint, catching the dim light of Pilar’s visor. “Lucy and Kiwi said the spoof should last for another thirty minutes or so. I’m thinking we knock the entire building down; cover our tracks.” 

“Thirty minutes?” Pilar muttered, running a hand over his mohawk, his hair springing back up instantly. “That's more than enough. You shouldn’t have.”

“I’m a good boss,” Maine grinned, heading down to their car. “C'mon, even if you have time, no need to waste it sitting on your ass.” 

“Yep,” Pilar agreed, hopping onto his feet and cracking the joints on his gold hands. Rebecca was still snoring on the couch next to him, so he shook his sister’s shoulder to rouse her. “C’mon sis. Get up, we’re gonna rig this shit to blow.” 

Rebecca’s red eyes snapped open, glaring at the ceiling, then over at her brother. “Kaboom?”

Pilar’s face split into a manic grin. “Biiiiiig boom.” 

With a cackle from the shorter woman, the two got up, rushing down to grab their gear. 

“And I’m doing this, because…?” David looked down at the trigger in Pilar’s hands. 

“‘Cause, you’re the only one that can outrun an explosion. We gotta do this analog, and I’m out of cable,” Pilar explained, handing him the detonator. A palm-sized device with cables coming out of one end, and a button on the other, protected by a see-through cap that glinted in the light coming through the cracks of the building. “C’mon, it’ll be a badass story at the bar. They’re gonna love it.” 

David muttered an affirmative nodding along, turning the trigger in his hands. “How far should I go to be safe?” 

“Just get out of the building. We got it set up so it’ll collapse in on itself.” Pilar reassured, patting his shoulder. “It’ll look like usual deterioration from the outside, these buildings fall into themselves all the goddamn time. We’re just giving it the right push.” 

“These buildings collapse?” David blinked, genuinely surprised.“I thought construction materials nowadays made that impossible?” 

Pilar turned around, heading out, shooting a glance over his shoulder before he climbed into Maine’s waiting car. “Still naive, bro, you think they don’t cut mad corners when they build these shitpiles?” 

David didn’t have a response to that. He looked down at the button in his hands, then back up at the cracks on the ceiling over him. His eyes followed the wires that went up to the pillars around the parking lot he was in, right under the apartment they were about to bring down to its foundations.

Maine shot him a thumbs up, lead-footing the gas as his Quadra skidded out of the parking lot, getting air as it shot out the ramp leading to the deserted street. 

David coughed at the scent of burnt rubber, waving his hand to try and get the scent out of his lungs. A message from Becca blinked open in front of his eyes. 

[Delta-D outta there after you set it off, babe.]

He couldn’t help but grin at the message, remembering the time they first had after he finally tuned his Sandevistan up. When he became reliable enough that people could leave him behind and know he’d make it out of an explosion. 

Another message shot through, this time from Maine.

[Fire when ready, kid.]

He grinned, flipping the clear cover off of the trigger and resting his thumb on the button. 

“Aight, Sandy,” he breathed, closing his eyes for a second, only opening them when he felt the machine hum pleasantly behind him. “Here…we…go.” 

He pressed the button, time dilating just as the audible click registered under his thumb. Turning around he saw the charges set up by the siblings blink green, then red as he stood there, watching. 

He grinned to himself, deciding he’d at least have a little fun with it as he waited for the first canister to start exploding. He watched them all, finally catching one where he could see light peek through the forming cracks around the tube. As the light hit his eyes, it was followed by the shockwave rippling out, visible in his enhanced state, followed by another as the ones next to it also started detonating. He finally started to move, walking at first, then running, outrunning the shockwave that chased him.

He laughed into the air, looking up and seeing the fanfare of other explosions going off through the cracks in the ceiling, basking in the destruction that felt more like a firework display. 

“Where is he?” Maine muttered, parking his car a few blocks away, and checked his rearview feed. “Still fuckin’ around with the trigger?” 

“I dunno,” David’s voice asked him. Maine paused, glancing back at the hood of his car. David shot him a cheeky grin, laying on the car as if he were sunbathing, arms behind his head, not a care in the world. “What do you think, Pilar?” 

Pilar smirked back at the young edgerunner. “Preem work, bro.” 

Maine burst out laughing, shaking his head and tapping on the steering wheel. “Since when can you outrun cars?”

“Since I could outrun explosives,” David hummed, pointing back to the apartment complex. “Should be going down in three, two, one…”

Both Pilar and Maine turned to face the building, waiting expectantly. “Did you forget to press the button?” 

Just as Pilar finished the question, the building shuddered, slowly starting to twist as load-bearing beams broke apart in just the right timing, making it fall onto itself in a spiral, kicking up dust as it collapsed in on itself. 

“Oh, that was beautiful, ” Pilar whispered, prideful tears in his voice. David believed the techie would’ve shed some if he still could. “Nothing like a good demolition. Hope sis got to watch it too.” 

Four blocks away, on the roof of the Emperor, Rebecca thought the same thing.

They were back at Turbo’s before David knew it, cheap whisky in his hands, Pilar doing his weird jig with bottles to entertain the other patrons, Kiwi smoking in the distance, Lucy and Rebecca on his sides, the shorter woman in awe that the netrunner had fought a daemon in the chairman’s head.

Maine sat on the hood of his Quadra behind them, grinning up to the sky. “Nothing beats the party after a job well done, eh, son?” 

David grinned, shooting him a look over his shoulder. “Got that right. But shouldn’t we have this after we give the data to Faraday?” 

“Eh, we’ll hand it over in a bit.” the older man shrugged, shoulders relaxed, voice steady. This was the most relaxed he’d seen the man in quite a while. “Besides, we’ll need to discuss the bonus for the daemon.” 

“Yeah,” David nodded, hugging Lucy at the thought, who laughed and nuzzled into his side. “Still can’t believe you fought one in there—what did you call it?” 

“Old-net daemon,” Kiwi answered, walking up to the group and stomping out her cig. “Doubt Faraday will believe that, though.” 

Becca whistled, crawling over David’s lap to get closer to Lucy. “you fought one of those? I thought you could only run from them!”

“I mean, that’s what I did,” Lucy admitted, nuzzling into David’s side more. “Kiwi killed it.” 

“I’m not sure shooting the server counts as slaying a daemon,” the blonde netrunner grumbled, leaning on the guardrails next to the group. Then she sighed. “But hell, I’ll take it.” 

David could hear a smile in her voice.

Maine laughed again, boisterous and loud. David shot a glance at the older man, happy to see how his mood had become lighter since his own tune-up from Vic.

The mood died as an expensive limousine rolled to a stop next to Turbo’s. Faraday stepped out and readjusted his tie as the music in the bar cut off.

The first time he’d seen him, David was intimidated. This time, he was getting annoyed at the mannerisms. He felt close to the suit-borne children he’d grown up around in the academy, and that was getting under his skin.

“Maine,” Faraday called, walking up to the group. “You said you had the data.” 

“Sure thing…” Maine muttered, getting to his feet he reached into his car through the open window, and pulled out a shard. “Got all that was there in Tanaka’s head.” 

Faraday stopped, all four eyes looking at the bigger man with entitled expectations. 

Maine didn’t hand it over, looking back at the shorter man. “There was an AI Daemon in there, Faraday. I’m hoping you didn’t know about that.”

The man’s face didn’t even twitch at the statement, his look growing unamused. “I hope you’re not giving me an excuse, and a blank shard, Maine.” 

“No” the bigger man huffed, glaring at the fixer. “I’m asking for proper pay for getting this from under a daemon.”

Faraday glared at him with an apathetic glare. “I’ll assure you, you’ll get your fair pay after I confirm the files.” 

Maine shrugged, tossing the shard to the man. Another man stepped out of Faraday’s limousine, standing next to Faraday as the fixer slotted the shard into his neck. 

The bar was watching them all with bated breath as the fixer’s assistant hummed, looking through the data. “It's not here.” 

Faraday’s eyes locked onto Maine. “What did you give me?” 

Maine shrugged. “Everything Tanaka had. Weren’t you looking for those dropped projects Arasaka was working on?” 

David was fighting the urge to grin as the usually stoic fixer looked at a loss for words, anger visible in every single one of his eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me Maine, why would you think I wanted that ?” 

Maine shrugged. “You asked for data, we brought you data.” The older man was playing his role perfectly “I didn’t think, just like you said.” 

The veins on Faraday’s neck bulged outward. “I’m not paying for this.”

Maine scratched the back of his head. “Huh. alright then.” He dropped the act and glared at Faraday. “You don’t mind us giving that info out to the other fixers working for Militech, then?” 

All three eyes on the right side of Faraday’s face twitched.

“See,” Maine’s eyes bored into Faraday’s, “We kinda gathered that you were wanting this for Militech when we got the data. Wouldn’t you say Militech would doubt your capabilities if you went back to them empty-handed?”

The edgerunner tapped his chin facetiously. “ Especially if another fixer came in with data from the exact chairman they were looking for, even if it's not exactly what they wanted…well, I hope that won’t hurt your standing as Millitech’s top fixer.”  

“You’ve got no idea what you’re doing,” Faraday hissed, fist clenching. “You’re nothing but trash if you think you can pull that shit on me.”

Maine shrugged again. “Y’see, Faraday.” and pulled his sunglasses off, glaring at the man openly. “Mercs and Fixers have an understanding with each other: You give us the gigs, with all we need to know. And we check those boxes. Just like you said.” 

Faraday could only see red as the edgerunner started talking down to him, pulling out a gun and shoving it through the built-in hole in his henchman’s torso, ready to kill anybody who dared look down on him.

His hand was empty when he tried to pull the trigger. 

“...Is that supposed to be a magic trick or somethin’?” Maine muttered, staring at the empty hand of Faraday poking out of the henchman’s stomach. “That's not gonna be enough to pay the bills, Faraday. Where is my money?” 

Faraday clenched the empty air a few more times, trying to find the gun that he knew was supposed to be in his hands.  He gave up with a hiss, pulling his arm back and attempting to regain his composure.

“I’m going to dock your pay for the missing data. Find it, and you’ll get the rest,” he growled, sending over half a million eddies to Maine’s account. 

Maine nodded, putting his glasses on. “Sounds like you didn’t listen. Chairman had a daemon inside his datacache. He’s dead. And that's all the data he had in him.” 

Faraday turned around. “Then, you’ll never get the rest of the funds. And remember, no other jobs till you finish this one.” 

With that, the fixer got back in his car, and left. 

Maine started hollering with laughter, shooting a look back at David, who on cue, pulled out the gun Faraday was trying to brandish, spinning it on his finger.

“I’m new to this, do fixers pull out guns on their mercs?” he hummed, grinning a little.

“Not the good ones,” Maine admitted, laughing as he sat back down on the hood, raising his cup. “Fuck that bastard, we’ll find another.” 

Kiwi let out a huff, relaxing a little against the rail. “Good fucking riddance.” 

David hopped to his feet, raising a glass into the air. “A toast to a job well done!” 

Maine’s crew perked up as the music started again, each raising their glasses into the air. “And to better fixers!” 

Laughter echoed down the bar as the crew downed their drinks. 

Rebecca hopped up, grabbing the klept gun out of David’s hands and inspecting it. “Is this a fucking Omaha?” 

David looked down at the weapon, raising an eyebrow “isn’t it just another pistol?” 

“Nah, this shit’s a fucking railgun, babe.” Becca explained, ejecting the clip and pulling out the first bullet, or rather, metal projectile. “No combustion, just magnets. Pussy shit.” 

David rolled his eyes at how much distaste she had for the concept. “So it's just electronic?” 

“Basically, no moving pieces,” she grumbled, pulling the slide back and ejecting the last projectile. “Expensive paperweight for corpo assholes with limp wrists.” 

She shot a look back at Maine, who’d already started making out with Dorio “Maine! Fucker tried pulling that Millitech paper-pusher shit on ya!” 

Maine pulled back from the lip-lock facing the shorter woman “oh that’s just some bullshit. ” 

“Right!?” Becca hollered back, tossing the gun to Lucy. “Kill this good, babe.” 

Lucy blinked at the gun in her hands, then back up to Becca, then to David. “You sure?” 

David shrugged. “I’ll probably grab something better?” 

Lucy hummed, held the gun by its barrel, and stared at it. 

When she tossed it down on the ground, the electronics inside arced, its battery suddenly unloading all of its power onto the magnetic coils with little to nothing stopping it, causing the gun to burst into flames as the chemicals in the battery ignited.

Becca stepped over to it, cackling with manic glee. “Burn, bitch!” 

David shook his head, climbing back onto the hood of the Emperor next to Lucy, both watching their output start chanting and dancing around the tiny bonfire Lucy had created. 

“You ever thought you’d be here?” David asked, voice wistful.

Lucy laughed in response, resting her head on his shoulder with a soft sigh, shifting a little to get comfortable. “Did you?” 

He chuckled, intertwining his fingers with hers as he leaned his head on top of hers, drinking in the bliss. “Not really, but I’m loving every second of it.”

Kiwi scoffed at her spot on the railing, watching the fire as well, “Sappy.” 

“Come on, I saw you smile too,” David teased, smirking at the blonde netrunner. “don’t think people don’t notice when you smirk just ‘cause you have that vent on.” 

Lucy giggled lightly against him, Becca stopping her eldritch prayer to the gunpowder gods to give Kiwi a mischievous glare, lips spreading in an overly smug grin. “Aw, c’mon Davie, it’s funnier when she doesn’t know she’s doing it!” 

Kiwi grumbled, turning around and blowing smoke toward the couple. “You’re ten years too young to try that shit on me, heat-pad,”

“He’s right though!” Lucy defended, hugging David tightly. “Your eyes squint like you’re smiling, it's adorable.” 

“Stop teasing the poor girl!” Maine hollered from his spot on the hood of his car, Dorio chuckling against his chest at the sight. 

Kiwi shook her head, staring at the ground “Hate all of you.” 

“Aw c’mon,” David grinned, too giddy with how things turned out to be anything but. “Didn’t you like screwing Faraday over?”

Kiwi shook her head and sighed. “True.” 

She shot a look back over to Maine. “Hey, we ain’t done with him yet, are we?” 

Faraday readjusted his tie, dusted off his suit, waiting patiently for his contact from Militech to arrive. 

He didn’t have the data on the cyberskeleton, but at least what little those incompetent bugs managed to gather would be worth something . All the schematics of Arasaka’s dropped projects could be used in new projects, or even follow the design principles on the projects Arasaka actually finished, giving Millitech insight on how to deal with them.

His contact finally arrived, and Faraday preened at the sight. He’d earned this face-to-face, unlike others who only got encrypted Holos and nothing more.

“Do you have it?” his handler asked, taking a sip of synthetic coffee the diner provided. 

Faraday passed the shard along, his handler eagerly slotting it in and taking a look. 

“...Hm.”

Without another word, the Millitech suit got up, keeping the mug as he walked out, leaving Faraday behind. 

The fixer blinked, at a loss for words. 

“...Excuse me?” he mumbled to the empty seat across him.

Chapter Text

Things quieted down fast. 

David sat in his apartment, on the couch his Mom loved to sleep on. He stared up at the holographic news feed, trying not to think about the urn that was sitting at arms' reach. 

He’d kept himself busy since her passing: hitting up Maine’s chat begging for jobs, working jobs,  keeping his body moving. Now, with the Tanaka gig complete, most of the crew had elected to take time off, to try and relax after a job well done. 

Hitting up Maine was out of the question. The man was busy poking through fixers, trying to find a trustworthy one. At least he wouldn’t have as difficult a time advertising their services, since they had experience working difficult corporate jobs now, thanks to Faraday.

Last he heard, the fixer had been cut off from Millitech entirely. He smiled, thinking about what the wannabe suit’s face would look like once he realized that the big bad corp was more than willing to cut him loose like any other—especially when the data he had handed over was included in another fixer’s bigger bundle. 

He knew handing Faraday scraps and letting another fixer bring the actual meal would cause the man to fall from grace, but he never thought it’d be as glorious as it had been. Looking back on it, the plan Maine had pulled together was perfect. Stall Faraday, get witnesses, feed another fixer more data to relay to Militech, and watch it all crash and burn around the bastard of a man. He had to give it to the man, Maine knew how to hurt a gonk that tried to fuck him over. Now they didn’t even need to worry about retaliation from their ex-fixer, since he had lost so much standing. No merc would be willing to work with a fixer that argued with their freelancers so openly, admitting to giving faulty and missing info.

He grinned to himself, leaning back with a huff. Amused with how the prideful had fallen. But soon enough the feeling faded, leaving him restless again.

Maybe I should head out to meet with Lucy, see how she’s holding up. Or maybe get with Becca and go back to the range…

He dismissed the thought entirely. Becca was stuck house-sitting Pilar as the man seemed to have hyper-fixated on building something and needed someone on location to remind him to eat. Lucy might be more receptive, but he knew she needed some time to unwind on her own after her experience within Tanaka’s system. 

His restlessness grew as even the sounds from the news station didn’t seem to cull how empty his apartment felt, his eyes magnetizing closer and closer to his mom’s urn, Sandy beeping on his back intermittently as he started reminiscing about the last moments he had with her, the car, how her voice cracked when she urged him to—

He got to his feet, dismissing the holographic feed with a sharp wave just as the new station zoomed into another Medtech operation.

“I should head out.” 

Vic turned, watching as David strolled into his clinic, entirely alone. “No output this time?” 

He shook his head with a sad grin. “She’s busy, thought it’d be a good idea for a check-up on how Sandevistan is doing.” 

“Well, I got no one else reserved, so…” Vic gestured at the chair. “Take a seat, choom.” 

David shed his shirt and coat, folding them up and setting them on the cupboard Becca loved to sit on before sitting down. “I know it hasn't been that long, but I figured it might’ve stabilized by now.” 

Vic hummed, the scanner shuddering over the edgerunner as it turned on, lowering and humming with power as it went up and down David’s chest. “Considering how fast it healed that wound, I wouldn't be surprised,” the doctor muttered, tapping his armrest with one hand as he operated the machine with the other, eyes glued to the screen. “You eating well? I’m sure you must be having hunger pains, with how much biomass your body’s building.” 

David laughed lightly. “And I thought that was just my metabolism fucking up. That’s a relief.” 

Vic shook his head with a smirk. “Nah, it ain’t. You should take some calcium supplements, too. Looks like your body’s trying to grow some bone, as well.” 

David blinked, then turned to the ripperdoc, his head nearly slamming into the scanner above him. “Excuse me?” 

“Y’know, it's nice to be the one not shocked, for once.” Victor grinned. Turning his screen over, he pointed at the scans of David’s ribcage. “Looks like the cartilage joints around your ribs are growing a calcium interface on the Sandavistan. It’s becoming an actual part of your skeleton.” 

David blinked as Victor cycled between his most recent x-rays and the ones Vic had originally taken after Lucy and Becca had initially dragged him in a while back. The difference was obvious, but he was still struggling to believe his eyes as he looked at the honeycomb pattern of bone growing into the Sandevistan, connected to his ribs. Instead of the mechanical joints he should’ve had, now that was replaced with robust organic cartilage that would’ve looked natural if it wasn’t hanging off the chrome spine.

“...Wait, so where did the chrome joints go?” David muttered, a little unsettled at the idea that pieces of the machine inside him had suddenly gone missing. 

Victor shrugged. “Don’t know. I didn’t pull em’ out, and  I can tell you didn’t, either, considering your reaction…” 

He tapped the screen again, zooming in on the dark image of the machine on his back. “I’m thinking she might know.” 

David shook his head, laying back down. “How are you so calm while saying that?” 

Victor grinned and pressed a button, the scanner above David rising back into the ceiling as it shut down. “Guess I’m just built different, choom.” The doctor teased, but then the smirk dropped from his face as he rested his elbows on his knees, intertwining his fingers as he stared at the young edgerunner’s chest. “All your vitals are close to normal, muscles are even denser…I don’t think we have anything to worry about for now, but…” 

He shot David an inquisitive look. “How are you feeling? Any mental strain from using the Sandevistan?” 

“Not really,” David sighed, relaxing in the chair a little. “It’s been feeling like a part of my body more and more every day.” he shrugged, resting his hands over his stomach and staring up at the scanner. “Seems like that’s more literal than I thought.” 

“I’ll say,” Victor mused, chuckling to himself softly. “Anything else on your mind?”

“Nothing medical,” David admitted, still looking at the scanner intently. 

“Well then, go on.” Victor urged, rolling his hands in a ‘continue’ motion. “What’s on your mind?”

He didn’t expect  the doctor to be all that interested in his personal life, but he supposed he didn’t mind. Something about Vic just made him feel relaxed, knowing the ripperdoc seemed genuinely invested in his patients’ well-being. “Just, we finished a big gig recently, and I got a chance to go back home, think a little, you know?” 

Vic nodded, a slight smile on his face. “The thing for Faraday, right? Word travels fast.” 

David smiled, still staring the machine down. “But yeah, I, uh…lost my mom recently, and sitting in the home we lived in all alone just feels…” 

Victor’s smile dropped, and the man placed a hand on David’s shoulder. “Sorry to hear that, kid.” 

David hummed in response, appreciating the condolences, but not really sure how to respond. “Yeah. I just couldn’t stay at home, so I came here, hoping Sandy was done with whatever it was doing so I’d have something else to think about.”

“Need to keep your mind busy, huh?” Vic nodded, in thought, then his eyes glowed, making a call. 

David finally tore his eyes from the scanner and looked over at his doctor. “Hm?”

“Aight, kid.” Victor smirked as the glow in his eyes cut out, cracking his knuckles. “Have you ever tried boxing?” 

His limbs ached. 

David didn’t know how they could still ache, considering his muscles could carry him faster than an explosion, but they ached . He rolled his shoulders, reminding himself of the stretches Victor had told him about, still trying to figure out how the doctor could punch the sandbag with as much force as he did, even with his organic arms. 

It was especially wild, considering how the man wasn’t even winded by the time David was ready to throw in the towel. The doctor seemed to understand, but still disappointed that David couldn’t keep up punching the targets on his hands.

At least it had pulled his mind out of its destructive spiral, focusing on the ripperdoc’s calm lecture about how to punch and shift his weight right to dodge an incoming hit. It was clear he had formal training on boxing, unlike Dorio who just seemed to know how to slam her fist forward in just the right angle to send the sandbag flying.

He mused about the differences between the two as he walked down the busy streets. Dorio’s technique had a brutish efficiency to it, perfect for street fighting, while the doc had a more methodical way of punching, closer to how it would be done in an actual ring, with a jury and a referee, not out in the streets with lives on the line.

Thinking deeper, he couldn’t pick a favorite to go with. Maybe a combination would fit his body, since it was not as big as Dorio or Maine’s but still could deliver the same amount of force, especially with the help of Sandy. 

He hummed, looking up at the skies again, disappointed that the moon wasn’t visible. A call came from Kiwi, interrupting his train of thought. 

“Remember the deal?” the older woman asked, voice tired and sleepy. 

David blinked, memories failing him before it hit him like an electric arc. “Heat-pad duty?” 

“A/C is out, and the apartment's cold. Get over here.” 

He blinked, taken aback by her bluntness. He shot a text to both Becca and Lucy as an address blinked into his inbox.

[Uh…Kiwi just called me in for ‘heat pad duty.’ You girls ok with that?]

[What she wants to snuggle and sleep?] Becca texted back immediately. [Fine by me, but I get tomorrow, I need my Davie-bear.]

He shook his head at her new nickname for him, amused. [What about you, Luce?]

Lucy took a little while longer to respond, but it was clear why when the message did come through [syrwv sure, I’ll get next time. Bed’s cold without you.] 

[Sorry for waking you,] David sent back, hopping onto the NCART, following the route to Kiwi’s apartment. [Actually…]

He blinked, looking out to the skyline of the city, buildings everywhere surrounding him, advertisements glinting in the dim light of dusk, no less bright than daytime itself. [What do you guys think about moving in together?] 

[You mean to tell me, I get to leave this shithole with my bro?] Rebecca’s message hit his inbox faster than his Sandy. [Since when could you see into my dreams, dimples?]

He laughed, resting his back on one of the poles in the tram, looking at the feed of texts in his cyberware. [Sorry, just never had the time or funds to think about it before…and I really want to move out of my current place.]

[Right…] Lucy’s text came through, understanding his position well. It made sense, she wanted to run from the city herself. He didn’t need to know why to sympathize. 

The feeling was mutual, from the looks of things. 

[Got any places in mind?] She texted back, clearly on board with the idea. [We got the funds for something big, combined.]

[Doesn’t need to be extravagant,] he replied, watching the hologram announcement of the cart out of the corner of his eye, making sure he wasn’t about to miss his stop. [I still wanna save up for you-know-what.]

[You shouldn’t worry about that, David. This is for our home,] Lucy shot back. Reading ‘our home’ made his heart skip a beat, a blush rising to his cheeks. 

[Something with a loooot of storage,] Becca mused. [And close to a shooting range!] 

[I’d rather not hear more gunshots than I already do] Lucy texted back. Somehow he couldn’t stop imagining the two of them smiling as they had their back and forth. [What about you, David?]

He paused, stepping out of the cart as he reached his station. [Not sure. I’m sure I’d love it anywhere with you two.]

[This damn gonk…] Becca replied, [Luce, where does he get off on being all giddy and cute?]

[Probably where it makes you start gushing,] Lucy sent back, earning a chuckle from him. [Wanna look for places tomorrow?]

[Can’t, Pilar-sitting duty,] Becca grumbled. [I need to get out of here, but I know he’d kill himself building that thing if I did.]

[He can’t be that bad,] David sent back, looking around the building numbers as he walked down the main street, trying to find the building Kiwi lived in.

[You’d think that, but you didn’t need to jam an IV up his arm cause the gonk forgot to drink water for 5 days straight,] Becca bemoaned. [Not funny walking into a mummy, Dimples. Not doing that twice.]

[That’s rough, choom,] Lucy sent back. [Falling back asleep though, we’ll see about those buildings tomorrow, ok hun?]

[You got it!] David sent back, closing the chat as he arrived at the building. He looked up the wall closest to him, seeing that one of the windows near the top of the tower was open, smoke wafting out of it. He smirked. 

Figures.

Kiwi greeted him at the door, and he had to take a moment to register what he was seeing. She’d removed her pink angular mask, replaced it with another black one that was rounded off. It almost looked…soft, from the way it shined in the dim light of the apartment corridor. Paired with that, her usual trench coat was replaced with a baggy shirt that barely made it down her thighs to keep her modest. 

“Uh…” he began, giving her another once-over, unsure if he’d got the correct room. “Kiwi?” 

“You gonna just stand there and look stupid, or come do your part?” the woman huffed, reaching forward and grabbing him by the shirt, pulling him into her apartment, the door sliding closed behind them. 

This had marked the second time he’d been in a single woman’s apartment. But he didn’t even get to get embarrassed about it as he was dragged through the sparsely furnished house, getting pulled into the bedroom and pushed onto her bed.

He blinked and kicked off his shoes as Kiwi glared at him, stalking around the mattress like a shark that had smelled blood. She ‘smiled’ with her eyes, approving of him removing his shoes as she finished circling him. She leaned forward, and tugged his shirt off without a word and crawled onto the bed beside him. 

Her arms reached out, guiding him to turn his back to her. With a sleepy mumble, she ran her fingertips lightly along the ridges of the Sandevistan and pressed herself against his back, wrapping her long limbs around him like a spider, letting out a satisfied huff as she got comfortable. 

David shuddered at the sensation of her chest against his back, her face and her especially soft vent pressing against his cheek and neck. The slits that made up her ‘mouth’ pushed out warm air against his skin, giving him goosebumps. His entire body burned at the stimuli feeling like he was about to melt into the mattress itself. 

“Good heat-pad,” Kiwi muttered, a yawn in her voice as she pawed at his chest. “Now sit still and keep being warm.” 

David gulped and adjusted himself just a little, earning another sleepy grumble from the woman until he found a comfortable spot. It had been easier than he thought, considering the taller woman was basically spooning him tightly, and he still had pants on, but he soon felt himself drifting off to sleep.

Darkness overtook him as he fell asleep in Kiwi’s embrace. 

Chapter Text

Kiwi awoke, feeling surprisingly relaxed. Her head was on a pillow she didn’t recognize—soft, but supported; warm, but not uncomfortably so. She didn’t remember the last time she had such a comfortable rest  in Night City, but here she was, fighting the urge to get up. Normally she’d snap awake and start doing a once-over of her house; make sure no one snuck in or anything.

She’d made the mistake of getting complacent once. She wasn’t planning on doing that again. 

But she couldn’t help it this time as nuzzled deeply into her pillow, grumbling under her breath as she rubbed her face against it, hoping she could fall back into her dreamless relaxing slumber. 

Her pillow shuddered at the contact, which got her attention back, lucidity seeping through her body. She grumpily cracked open an eye, scanning her room. 

Her sleepy eye landed on a naked chest, scanning up and catching the jawline of a man, her brain slowly waking up and reminding herself of the events of the night before. She’d called David over due to the cold night, snuggled against his back, and seemingly they’d shifted in their sleep, her head ending up on his chest. She’d be more panicked if his steady breathing wasn’t lulling her back into sleep.

She clung to him pulling him closer against her, her right leg hooked over his crotch and wrapped around his leg, locking them in place. She assumed that David had found himself trapped when he awoke, so he had simply lain back and watched her sleep. It should have made her distrust him more, but the warmth of his body only made her feel even more relaxed, and the thought of him watching over her subsided her worries. She closed her eyes and leaned back onto his chest, no longer caring. 

“Tell anyone about this, and you’ll never be able to speak again.”

He chuckled at the threat, making her feel the deep baritone vibration of his vocals. She didn’t even know he could make a sound so deep, but it had her feeling warm all over. His hand slid under her, tentatively caressing the top of her head as he started to pet her hair. “Hope telling Becca and Lucy that I was on heat pad duty doesn’t count,” he mumbled, his voice heavy from sleep.

She felt like she was about to melt.

It felt more intimate than anything she’d had felt in a long time. She’d forgotten how nice it was. But she was not too eager to get burned again. Never again, she thought, even as she enjoyed the gentle caresses of his hand. 

“Shouldn’t you get up?” he asked finally, his hand not stopping. From the tone of his voice, Kiwi was certain he wasn’t giving any thought to petting her head. He was probably doing it subconsciously, and she would accept it no other way.

“Five more minutes,” she grumbled, getting comfortable on his chest and resting a hand over his pectorals, tightening her grip and pulling her pillow closer. 

David didn’t protest.

Holo woke him. Gentle tunes rang in his very head coaxing him back out into the waking world. He opened his eye a crack, letting the cyber image of the caller id flood his senses. It took a second, but his brain managed to remember how to read again. Lucy, he groggily realized, and answered the call. 

“Still at Kiwi’s?” his output asked, the sounds of NCART echoing through their connection. “Want me to come and  pick you up?” 

He nodded, fighting off a yawn, then remembered she couldn’t actually see him. Opting to respond silently, he clenched the muscles in his jaw, thinking of the words he wanted to convey, and his cyberware handled the rest. [Would be nova, we should grab some coffee before we head out, though. I’m still sleepy.]

Lucy giggled in the call, and in his sleepy state, David could think of nothing but how heavenly it sounded. “Didn’t know she was planning to keep you up all night, babe.” 

He blushed at the implication, looking down at the older woman still snoozing on his chest. [Nothing like that, I wouldn’t do that!] 

“I know,” Lucy teased, a smile in her voice. “But I like making you flustered. Even through the voice generation, you sound adorable.”

David couldn’t help but grin dumbly at her teasing. [I love you.] 

“And I, you,” Lucy hummed, her shy smile practically audible. “Should be there in around fifteen. You two should clean up by then.”

He could almost see the teasing wink she would’ve given him in his mind's eye as the call disconnected.

He chuckled softly, staring up at Kiwi’s ceiling, then to the blinders on her window, watching the beams of late morning sun cast on her bedroom.

The woman on his chest purred, slowly stirring as she sighed against his chest. He noticed his hand was petting her head, but seeing that she didn’t try to rip it off, he didn’t stop even as the woman cracked her eyes open slowly, rubbing the sleep out of them. “Morning,” she yawned, not even attempting to remove her head from his chest. “What time is it?” 

“Ten,” David answered, double-checking the time. “Sleep well?” 

“You’re a good pillow,” she huffed as she rubbed her head against him, leaning over and pressing her forehead against his sternum. “Would be the best if you just shushed.” 

He gave her a cheeky grin, and did as he was told. But couldn’t help but grunt in shock when the woman straddled him, her eyes glaring down at him like a predator that had just caught her next meal. 

“Uh?” he mumbled, noticing that his wrists were pinned down by her hands as the netrunner leaned down, her face now surprisingly close to his. 

“This never happened.” she repeated, her breath warm against his face, even as it flooded out of the many slits on her mouthpiece. “You won't tell a soul about this. Understand, Martinez?”

His brain fizzled, still in shock at how fast the positions had changed. “Your eyes are pretty.”

He blinked, hearing his voice a beat after his mouth had decided to press his self-destruct button. 

Kiwi’s eyes squinted a little, smile apparent, “Adorable. I’ll take yours if you start spreading rumors, boy.” 

He gulped, nodding quickly. 

“Good,” she nodded back, satisfied. She let go of his wrists and stretched her arms, still straddling him. Pausing, she looked down at him, then readjusted her weight a bit. 

Her eyes got a teasing glint. “Did that get your motor running? Or was Becca not boasting around when she said you were packing something preem?” 

David couldn’t activate his Sandy fast enough to stumble out of the bed. But in his haste to get away from his predicament, he ended up tangled up in the covers, tripping and falling face-first onto the floor.

Kiwi laughed at his misfortune, filling the room with it. 

David grumbled, smiling to himself. 

Lucy had been to Kiwi’s place multiple times during her mentorship, and was shocked to see that she’d moved her netrunning setup off location. Not that she minded, the lack of cables and monitors cluttering up the corridors made traversing the apartment far easier. 

As she finally made it into the main living area, she was greeted with what she expected; Kiwi only wearing her over-sized shirt with a cig shoved in her vent. What she didn’t expect to see was David sitting on her couch with an icepack on his face.

“Hey, Luce,” the older netrunner greeted, still shooting David a look. He groaned and lifted the pack off his face, glancing over to his output. 

“You okay, love?” she muttered, closing the distance between her and David, gently caressing his face. She jerked her head toward Kiwi. “Did the big bad Kiwi hurt you?” 

Kiwi laughed at the dig, relaxing into the chair. “Gonk tried to use the Sandevistan while getting out of bed. I didn’t do anything this time.”

Lucy rolled her eyes and shot Kiwi an amused look. “Your dry spell over?”

Her mentor blushed, which Lucy had previously thought to be impossible. It was hard to notice, with her vent gear making up most of her face, but the younger netrunner could still see the flushed red sneaking around the edges of her cheeks, where flesh met rubber. “Oh my god, did you?” 

David didn’t answer, rubbing his face instead, checking if his nose was broken or not. Kiwi only looked away and shook her head, refusing to give verbal confirmation.

Lucy looked back at David, who shrugged. “Nothing like that. Just a little—” Kiwi tossed a glass at him, but the edgerunner caught it in mid-air without even looking at it, though didn’t stop the water from splashing all over his face. “...Heat-pad stuff.” 

Lucy started cracking up, laughing at how David’s hair had flattened with the contact with water, cooing as she leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the side of the head, hands combing his hair out of his face. “Don’t mind her, she’s shy,” she whispered in his ear, making the man shudder and chuckle.

Kiwi shot them a nasty look, crossed her legs, and continued smoking, this time blowing it toward David. “Get outta here, you’re making the house too warm.”

The duo laughed lightly, David coughing as they headed out. 

“So…what really happened?” Lucy asked, looking out across the NCART’s cabin, eying up all the Arasaka IDs she could detect on the local net. Shards started flying out at the same time and disappeared in mid-air.

David whistled, flipping one of the shards and catching it like he would a coin, looking out at the skyline. Lucy snuggled up against him and grabbed the shard out of the air as he tossed it back into the air again, kissing his cheek. “Did Kiwi get handsy?” 

“She’s a snuggler, for sure,” David admitted, leaning to the side and stealing a kiss from Lucy’s lips. “Guess she got embarrassed when she woke up next to me.” 

“That does sound like Kiwi,” Lucy mumbled, running her fingers through David’s hair, scratching the back of his scalp as they stared out at the sprawling city surrounding them, Lucy’s eyes slowly gravitating towards the launchpad in the distance. “Did you mean it, when you said you’ll take me to the moon?”

David hummed a tune, looking back at the rocket spewing out exhaust as it ignited its propulsion system, bright light shining through the white cloud as it started its lift-off, heading out to the final frontier. “Yeah, of course. I want to bounce around out there in realspace, with you in my arms…”

Lucy giggled, resting her head on his shoulder as they watched the rocket become a speck in the sky. “We could always do that in the BD too…”

He turned his head and kissed her temple “I bet the BD would feel better after we really feel it, wouldn’t it, having a reference and all?”

“Gonk,” she breathed with a chuckle, clasping her arms around his frame and hugging him tightly. She paused for a bit and leaned against his ear.

“You’re my moon.” 

Her whisper was barely audible, but its effect on David was anything but, Lucy could hear his heart suddenly double its pace, beating like it was about to burst out of his chest. A shudder running up his body as a shocked huff escaped his lips. “Luce…”

She smiled at the reaction, kissing his jawbone gingerly. “Let's find a home.” 

The sun was setting by the time they were done, and they still hadn’t found anything that would work for their needs.

“You know,” David groaned, ragged and tired after all the house tours they’d taken all across the city. “I didn’t think it’d be this hard to find an apartment for three in this goddamn metropolis .”

Lucy shrugged, taking a sip from the Broseph she’d purchased from a vending machine near the Afterlife. “Space is at a premium, and most gonks don’t have a ‘family’ big enough that would need that much of it.” 

He grumbled, staring out into the distance, catching glimpses of the giant luxury highrises. “Would be so much easier if they didn’t just turn us around at those places…” 

“We don’t quite look like we could afford it,” Lucy quipped, tugging at her input’s black shirt. “We might if we dressed up a bit, though. Wanna change into something more…corporate?”

“Would you?” he offered, checking out her state of dress. “...Actually, no, I like your outfit too much. It looks great on you.”

Lucy punched his shoulder weakly with a giggle. “Then they’re not gonna let us even look at the place, so it’s either we look like corpos or make a big name for ourselves as mercs.” 

David grumbled, shoving his hands under the coat around his waist and into his pockets, looking away. “Guess we should start picking up more high-profile jobs, then…” 

His eye caught something, and he stopped in his tracks. Lucy only took a second to notice, and turned around to face him, eyebrow raised curiously. Then she saw it. The look he had whenever stuff started to piece together in his head. “What if…” 

He pointed to an abandoned office building; its neon lights flickering, but not off. “That?” 

Lucy quirked an eyebrow. “What, you wanna haunt an abandoned building? Wouldn’t that be a downgrade?” 

“It’d have space,” David argued, eyeing the building up and down. “Close to Afterlife, as well as the main highway…plus, we could probably deck it out however we wanted, instead of settling for that prefab shit…” he paused remmebering a memory. Pinching the bridge of his nose with disgust. “Fucking grated bedroom floors…” he grumbled under his breath.

Lucy thought about it, looking up at the building thoughtfully. “And if the NCPD comes knocking at our door?” 

He shook his head, releasing the memory. “I’m sure we could spoof a deed for the building, with you and Kiwi’s help. And you know refurbishing it would be cheaper than rent,” David pointed out, holding her hand and pulling her close. “C’mon, let's check it out!”

She shook her head and laughed as she followed his lead, waving her hand over a key reader, a simple quickhack making the glass doors open up and let them in. The lobby was small, piles of trash and a scissor lift that looked still operational greeting them. “Does feel a little homey already.” she joked, tossing her finished broseph into an overflowing garbage can. 

The elevator hummed as David pressed a random number on the keypad. Lucy giggled at how eager the man looked as he tapped his foot on the floor, finger tapping on the implant on his palm, impatiently waiting for the doors to open. 

Finally, the doors opened like David hoped, but they weren’t alone. A scav greeted them, just as confused as they were. Startled at their presence, he attempted to aim the gun he was holding,but it was too little, too late. He didn’t even get to raise the weapon fully before a bullet burst through his eye, courtesy of David. He’d pinned Lucy against the wall of the elevator, protecting her with his body, even before the scav’s body hit the ground. 

She growled needily at the action, hugging him tight and nipping on his neck with a hungry huff. “We can do that after we clean this place up, my moon …” 

David shuddered at her new nickname for him, looking back and gazing into her hungry eyes, his matching the lust in her voice. “Let’s make it quick, then.”

She giggled, waving her arm out, sending a shockwave through the Scav’s local-net, sounds of sparks and screams echoing throughout the office complex. “Go get 'em, babe.” 

David grinned, flicked his baton out and disappeared, Lucy laughing lightly as she stepped out of the elevator, listening to the sounds of scavengers hitting the ground. 

It had taken them over an hour, and a lot more dead bodies than they thought they’d have to deal with, but it was finally over. The budding Scav haunt had been cut out at the roots, and the duo now had a lucrative bounty to cash in, as soon as they got around to delivering the bodies to an NCPD officer that wouldn’t raise too much of a fuss.

It almost made the task of cleaning up the place worth it. But what made their decision final was the view of the rising moon from the roof. Lucy smiled as she snuggled closer to David, his mother’s coat wrapped around them as they watched the gorgeous view of the horizon. 

“You know…” Lucy mumbled, interlocking her fingers with his. “You were right…” 

“That’s rare,” David chuckled softly, squeezing her hand. “About the building?” 

“Yeah, but more importantly…” she leaned in and kissed him, pushing him down onto the ground as she straddled him. “Anywhere is good, when you’re with me…”

David looked up and gave her a look full of love that made her stomach flutter just the right way, their hands roaming each other’s bodies. “So, what do you think? Change out the entry door with something less… glass, gut out every room…” he leaned up and kissed her, hands gripping her butt, sending a jolt up her spine. “Make the top floor the bedroom…netrunning set-up right below it…an armory for Becca…”

“Sounds like a little slice of heaven,” she cooed, pushing her body flush against his. “What do you think about getting a kitchen in here, too?” 

He laughed. “Sure, we’d have space for it. Just gotta get water and power running” 

“I’m sure we can figure that out,” She mumbled as flipped over, resting on her back, head on his chest as the two of them stared up to the sky. 

“You’re my dream,” David muttered, not looking away from the dark skies. “Seeing you smile, hearing your laugh…you and Becca, both.”

Lucy hummed in thought, clenching his hand with hers. “Kiwi’s right, you are…” she paused, and made her best monotone Kiwi impression “ sappy .” 

“Yeah, I’m your sappy gonk,” he said with a smile in his voice. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” 

“You know…” Lucy hummed, a giddy smile on her face she couldn’t seem to shake off. “I feel the same way.”

Chapter Text

“We should move,” Lucy mumbled against his chest, refusing to move. At this point, David was sure she’d leave an imprint of herself on his body. “Didn’t you promise to snuggle with Becca tonight?”

David blinked, remembering their last conversation. “Right…wonder why she hasn’t sent me anything…” 

[Where is my dimply-bear?] 

David couldn’t help but chuckle at Becca’s timing. [Sorry, got a little lost while searching for a place. I think you’re gonna love it here, though.] 

[It’s got ”a looot of space,”] Lucy sent back cheekily, grinning against David’s chest as she sent Becca’s own words back at her. [Though, it's a bit of a fixer-upper. You good with that?]

[Fixer-upper?] Becca echoed. [What the hell do you two have in store for me?] 

[Only one way to find out, come take a look! It’d take just a little bit,] David offered, unable to stop smiling. [We’ll meet up at the Afterlife—please try not to get in a fight with the bouncer this time.]

[The fucker should stop calling me a kid then!] Becca shot back, clearly still not over getting singled out the last time the crew had visited the establishment. [You should’a just let me zero some of them, Davie! Then we’ll see how old they think I am!] 

[I don’t think Rogue would be too happy with that, Rebecca.] Lucy sent into the chat, laughing against David’s chest. [You wouldn’t want the Queen unhappy with you, right?]

[Tch. Fine, whatever.]

How do I keep ending up in these situations? David asked himself, struggling to keep eye contact with Rogue. The woman was older than she looked, according to rumor, and considering how young edgerunners died, it made her all the more terrifying. 

Not that she wasn’t scary enough to make grown men wet themselves, but the thought remained in the back of his head as the woman glared back at the young edgerunner. 

“Last time I saw you, I had you pegged as someone sensible,” The Queen stated simply, her glare unrelenting. “Why’d you go out of your way to prove me wrong?”

He felt every eye in the bar locked onto him, feeling like laser sights all pointed at the back of his head. Lucy’s hand gripped his tightly, silently offering him as much support as she could, but David knew she wasn’t doing so hot, either. 

“Care to explain why you’re making moves on my turf?” 

David blinked, suddenly realizing the misunderstanding, breathing a little easier, but not much. “I, uh…wait, do you mean the office building?”

“Yaiba Tower, yes.” Rogue spat out. “Did you not know who owned it?” 

“We thought the Scavs did!” David explained, raising his hands defensively, hearing every gun on the bar leave leather, their safeties flicking off, aimed at his head. “They had a haunt starting up!” 

Rogue waved an arm, and every weapon slid back into their holsters once more, Rogue giving him a skeptical look. “You’re telling me there was a Scav infestation  in my building. And you greenhorns managed to clear it without us noticing?”

David blinked, then remembered how recently they’d ventured out to the cyberpunk life. Lucy was only a year into it, and he was barely a month in. Even after their work with Maine, they were still no-names in the grand scheme of things. No one here would take them at their word. “You don’t need to believe me. Send someone in to check. You’ll find the warm bodies.”

Rogue glanced at someone behind David and nodded her head, and a massive bodyguard turned and left the building. “If I find out you’re lying about this, I’ll make you wish it was scavs that got to you, kid.” 

“We’re not lying.” Lucy huffed out, putting up a cold front that wasn’t fooling David. He knew she was trying to act tough in front of their opposition, but he could still see the fear lurking in her eyes. He recalled what she had told him when they’d last talked about her wanting to fly to the moon. “ Just another cage,” he remembered, squeezing her hand tightly, doing his best to offer his support in turn. Lucy responded in kind.

Rogue’s eyes shifted away from Lucy’s glaring back at David. “Don’t think I got to where I am by believing every snot-nosed brat with an ego, little girl.”

David matched her glare this time, gritting his teeth. “This ain’t about ego or whatever. We’re just lookin’ for a new place to live. Yaiba was abandoned, so we thought we’d crash it.” 

Rogue scoffed, raising an eyebrow. “What, you were planning on turning that place into a…what, exactly?” 

“A home. Something that’d suit us better than some corporate shithole.”

A weird look passed through the old woman's eyes, which David couldn’t read. But he could see the sides of her lips tugging a little, fighting a smile. “Hm. Interesting.” She cocked her head, the previous disbelief fading, replaced with open curiosity and interest.

“Is it that hard to believe?” he grumbled back, still matching her stare.

She started laughing, the tension between them ebbing away with each shake of her shoulders. “Sorry, it's rare to see such young mercenaries  trying to actually live instead of rushing headlong into their deaths.” 

He smiled glibly. “Well, I guess we’re–”

“What the fuck ?!” 

David turned to see Rebecca standing outside the booth, hands going to her guns as she took in the scene. David’s eyes widened, and before anyone could make a move, Rebecca was on his lap, her guns on the other side of the booth. Leaving Rogue’s bodyguards blinking at the sight with confusion painting their stoic faces.

Rebecca blinked, then growled up at David. “Hey, what the hell, Davie? I could take them.” 

He grinned sheepishly, looking around at everyone as he patted her head, trying to calm her down. “Bex, please don’t make enemies with the entire Afterlife,” he murmured.

Rogue laughed, pointing at Becca. “That’s what I was expecting! Though it is sweet to see someone so ready to lay their life down for their…chooms.” Rogue glanced between the three of them, smirking slightly.

David nodded slowly. “You say that like it's unusual.” 

“You’d be surprised, kid.”

“What do you want, Rogue?” Rebecca spat, clearly still pissed that Rogue had cornered her lovers. “I thought you were above shaking youngsters down.” 

“Feisty,” the older woman laughed, audibly less angry. She relaxed into her seat, swirling her drink. “The two behind you made a move on my territory. Just thought I’d remind them who’s top dog around here.”

“You did what ?” The ex-Mox grunted and looked up to David. “Was that the place we were gonna go check out?!”

He shrugged, unrepentant. “There were scavs in the building. Thought it was free game.” 

Rebecca’s pink eyes shifted to Rogue. “Pretty sure those are the rules, yeah. Unless you decided to change them on a whim, Rogue.” 

“You better stop antagonizing me, Moxie,” Rogue warned, her eyes sharpening. “It's wearing out its welcome fast.” 

Rebecca hissed through clenched teeth but didn’t spit out another snarky comment. “Think they’re lying, choomba?” 

“Forgive me for thinking some new edgerunner can clear out a building with just a netrunner, without even alerting us, let alone the NCPD.” Rogue stated, taking a slow sip. “Then again…hm. Viktor must have given him something special if that little show was any indicator.” 

David blinked, nodding slowly. He was surprised the Queen had picked up on his speed increase, let alone remembered he had the Sandevistan in the first place. “Yeah, I got a tune-up.” 

Rogue hummed, taking another sip. “Naturally. I was surprised you’d survived the butcher in Arroyo in the first place. Thanks for taking care of him, by the way.”

David gulped, realizing just how much info she had on him. 

The bodyguard walked back as she set the glass down. She glanced up at him, and her eyes lit up as they started a private conversation.

The woman didn’t outwardly react much, but after being around Kiwi for so long, David was getting used to noticing even the most subtle of reactions, so he didn’t miss the dilation of the woman’s eyes ever so slightly, and her shoulders growing less tense. “Interesting,” she hummed, still keeping eye contact with him, ignoring the heated glare from Rebecca. 

“Our story checks out?” David asked, voice lower than he intended. He had seen Rogue relax at whatever the bodyguard had sent her, but couldn’t help himself from asking. 

Rogue smiled, waving the guard off. “Over fifty scavs, little blood, no escapees,” she counted off. “Silent as the wind too. If you two hadn’t screwed around on the roof with a hi-vis jacket on, we wouldn’t have even known.”

David smiled sheepishly, visibly embarrassed. “Whoops…”

“You’d do best to remember I have eyes and ears everywhere,” Rogue continued, turning her attention back to her glass of whiskey. “But you can keep it,” she said, crossing her legs and leaning back on the couch, glass in hand. “Think of it as a bonus for clearing out the trash. In fact…”

A transfer request popped up in front of his eyes, and David silently accepted it, his eyes widening at the amount Rogue deposited into it. “ Damn . That’s…” 

“Consider it a reward. You two saved me the hassle of setting up a gig.” Rogue said, tapping the top of the couch her arms were resting on. “Or, perhaps, more appropriately, a housewarming gift.” 

David blinked, still staring at his digital wallet, before accepting the transfer request and looking back up at Rogue. “So…it’s really ours?”

Rogue rolled her eyes, an almost amused smile on her face. “As long as you work to keep my streets clean, I don’t mind hosting you fools. Don’t think I’ll turn a blind eye to you if you try to use my name to get out of trouble, though.” 

David shook his head violently. “Wouldn’t dream of it…but, uh, do you happen to have the deed?”

Rogue raised an eyebrow. “The hell would I do with a deed?” 

“Just wanted to keep it as above board as possible,” David explained, his shoulders finally relaxing and leaning onto Becca as his body felt like on the verge of collapse. “Guess we’ll have to sneak into NightCorp to fix that…”

Rouge laughed again, amused by the young man’s almost otherworldly ambitions. “You’re really serious about this place, huh, kid?”

His arm wrapped around Lucy, pulling her out of her zoned-out state, and another around Becca. “It’s gonna be our home. I want it as secure as I can get it.” 

The Queen of the Afterlife shook her head, her smile growing. It’d been too long since she’d seen someone so driven for something other than infamy, or trying to stick it to “the man,” or whatever nonsense.  It was a breath of fresh air, seeing someone care for others in such an inhumane city. 

“David Martinez, you’re something else.” She hummed, nodding slowly. “Keep that up and you might actually catch my interest.”

“Apologies for overstepping with your building,” He breathed out deflating as he bowed his head, still keeping eye contact. “I assure you it won't happen again.”

“Sweet talking won’t work on me,” Rogue teased, waving her hand dismissively. “Water under the bridge. I’ll set up one of my NCPD contacts to come help with the bounties of those gonks in your building. I’ll be taking a thirty percent cut.” 

David nodded, and got up, picking Rebecca under his arm, and helping Lucy up with his other. The smaller woman struggled and managed to slide out of his grip, and greedily reached over and grabbed her guns. She stopped and smirked at Rogue, giving her a nod. “Sorry about the backtalk.” 

Rogue waved her off again. “It's what makes you, you. Get out of here, go have some fun.” She glanced over Rebecca’s shoulder at David’s head, the edgerunner trying to hide the fact that he was warily watching the two, ready to move if he had to. “Take care of him, Becca. He’s good for you.” 

Rebecca rolled her eyes but nodded all the same. She turned and bounced out of the booth, practically clinging to David’s side, letting the man drag her away from the bar. 

Rogue hummed as she watched the lovers leave, taking a sip out of her drink. “Guess that means I’ll have to find another place for Regina then…” She smirked as she made another call.

David’s shoulders sagged in relief the moment he stepped out of the bar, the pressure of the entire Afterlife ready to kill him suddenly leaving him all at once. Keeping that bottled up during the borderline interrogation had seriously drained him. He could see Lucy felt the same way, her hand shaking a little as she inhaled a lungful of nicotine from a newly lit cigarette. 

Rebecca looked at them with fists on her hips, tilting her head like an angry parent. “ I’m supposed to be the one causing trouble, not you two!” 

David laughed, holding his chest, trying to get his heart to stop hammering so loudly. “You almost did! What were you thinking? Were you gonna just shoot up the whole bar?”

Rebecca puffed her cheeks. “I’d gun down every last gonk in this damn city for you two! Of course, I was!” 

Lucy rubbed her forehead, exhausted as she stomped out her cigarette. “I can’t believe I didn’t even think to check who owned the building. Of course, it was owned by Rogue…just our luck.”

“Yeah, about this ‘building,’” Rebecca puffed, leaning back and shoving her hands in her jacket. “Where the hell is it? Best be something good if it was worth almost getting zeroed by the Queen.” 

David laughed again, regaining his energy. “I think you’ll like it. Well, after the bodies are removed, at least.” 

“...What the fuck, Davie?” Becca whispered, looking up the side of the office building. “ This place?”

He laughed, rubbing the back of his head. “Yeah, thought we could do like we did with Kurosaki and Tanaka and just…klep it.” 

“...Yeah, we could do that,” Rebecca mused, looking at the entrance and waiting for Lucy to open the doors. The netrunner did as expected; at her wordless command, the doors slid open for the three, their new home awaiting them. 

Becca shot a look at the overflowing piles of garbage everywhere and smirked back at the two. “Looks like Pilar got here before I did, huh?” 

David shook his head with a laugh, calling the elevator. “Around ten or more floors, no cracks in the walls, from what I’ve seen; just gotta clean it up and furnish it.” 

“Talk about an upgrade,” Rebecca whistled as they stepped into the elevator. She poked her head out to the remains of a lobby the moment the doors opened, seeing the first Scav on the ground. “Aw, you really did have all the fun without me.” 

Lucy shrugged apologetically. “Kinda had to when the first one saw us. Last thing we needed was them calling for backup.” 

Rebecca poked the corpse’s hand with her shoe, kicking away the pistol still in its grip. “Still, I could’ve used the stress relief after dealing with Pilar.”

“I’ll, uh, make it up to you,” David offered, looking away from the corpses, scratching his cheek. “I promise.” 

“You better!” Rebecca shot back with a smirk, wiggling her eyebrows as she closed the gap between them and got in his personal bubble. “After all, I almost faced the entire Afterlife for you, gon— mmph! ”

David stopped her teasing with a deep kiss, letting his tongue caress hers briefly before pulling back, smiling down at the panting shorter woman. “C’mon. We should get started with the clean-up before the NCPD contact comes in with the meatwagon.”

They’d ended up calling for their own backup. Dorio and Maine drove the Emperor in, with cleaning supplies almost overflowing out the car’s interior. 

“So, let me get this straight,” Maine started as he stepped out of the car, looking at the entrance to the building from the built-in garage of their newly acquired office complex. “I look away for a grand total of fifteen fuckin’ minutes to find us a proper fixer, and you and Lucy start beef with the goddamn Queen of the Afterlife.” 

David couldn’t even look in the man’s direction. “We didn’t know. I thought it was just abandoned when we got in. Plus, it was infested with Scavs…”

The older man crossed his arms, then started laughing boisterously, waving his arms to all the Scav cars surrounding them. “Well, that explains this mess. And you said Rogue gave this to you?”

“Along with a bonus for the Scav bust, yeah.” David admitted, still scratching the back of his head. “Sorry for causing trouble.” 

Dorio punched him in the shoulder. “You technically got a job from Rogue ? You kiddin’ me?”

Maine’s laugh intensified. “If that doesn’t give you some street cred, nothing will, son. Aight, now…” he looked back, gazing out to the garage. “We got all of these scrapheaps on wheels to pawn off, and the guns of…” he shot a look at David, silently asking his body count.

“Fifty-seven scavs,” David answered, rubbing the shoulder Dorio had punched. “Also Rogue’s sending an officer to collect the bodies for the bounty.” 

Maine whistled. “What kinda star were you born under to get the Queen of Afterlife coddling you?”

David shrugged, Dorio pulled him in an armlock and started rubbing her fist against the young man's head in an affectionate noogie. “That's our boy!” she laughed excitedly. “Now, let's go and clean up your mess.”

David’s mess was easier to clean than anyone assumed. The rot the Scavs were incubating, on the other hand, was less easy. He had used Pilar’s baton to bludgeon the gangsters to death, hitting most of them right on the nape of their necks for a bloodless, instant kill. But there was still dried blood coating the walls of the office complex. Thankfully, Maine had brought over some industrial-strength cleaning solution just for the occasion. They were still missing the raw materials to patch up the holes behind the ice boxes they were moving, but those could wait.

“You’re gonna live here?” Maine muttered, shoving one of the empty fridges away from the wall and towards the freight elevator. “Think you’ll have enough space to build a little place for chooms to hang out in, too?”

David grinned from his spot on the wall, scrubbing away at a stain that refused to leave. “Like a gang hideout? Sure. Nothing too big, though. I don’t think Rogue would appreciate us turning this place into that kind of joint.” 

“Yeah, no. That's why we have that warehouse out in the Badlands, kiddo,” Maine answered with a chuckle. “But it’d be nice to have another place to chill at…” he added, gazing out the window. “What a view, huh?”

David smiled, and followed his leader’s gaze. The sun was just starting to rise above the horizon, bathing the building in its warm, golden rays. “Sure is.” 

It wasn’t the top of Arasaka tower, not by a mile. But he was pretty sure his mother would have approved, regardless. 

Chapter Text

“So,” Lucy huffed, tapping one of the ruined desks still in the office. A hologram projector beeped as it booted up, pixellating and flashing as the old device burst back into life, sputtering images of ads before she hacked and took control. 

Soon enough, the schematic of the Yaiba Tower that they'd managed to find in the building's servers was projected brightly into the room, spinning on its axis in front of David and Rebecca.

Both cyberpunks yawned, not quite registering what Lucy had presented them. A day had passed since the scavs had been cleaned out and delivered to Rogue’s NCPD contact, and David was pretty wiped. The whole process had been exhausting, and Rebecca wasn’t much for waking up early, either. Lucy didn’t understand how Rebecca considered ten ‘early’ in the morning, but she doubted she’d be able to convince her otherwise. 

“What are we doing here?” Lucy asked, spinning the representation of the building with her hand, rousing her lovers from their groggy stupor. 

Rebecca jerked the moment she realized the hologram was manually operable, grabbing the semi-transparent structure out of the air. “Shooting range! Shooting range!” she chanted, rolling the light projection around, the projector from the desk struggling to follow her hands and move the model of the building accordingly. 

Lucy smiled at Rebecca’s energetic antics, shaking her head softly.

David yawned, combing his hand through Rebecca’s long, tangled hair idly. “What about…” he glanced at the hologram being torn apart by his shorter lover’s spastic motions. Thankfully, the represantation of the building could restructure itself whenever she shoved a fist through it in her manic state. He reached down and grabbed the top floor, detaching it off the rest of the tower, and scaling it up with a arc from his hands.“Let's start with the living quarters.” 

The representation wasn’t perfect, still showing what the office was supposed to look like, rather than what it currently did but that was an easy fix. Lucy flicked her wrist with a smile, causing all of the furniture to disappear, leaving only the building’s base structure. “Much better.” 

“Yeah, perfect. Thanks, Luce.” David mumbled with a yawn, looking at the new, clean floorplan. “Darn… guess the only room we can use as a bedroom is this one here,” he muttered, pointing at the biggest room on the floor plan.

Lucy hummed, leaning onto the table.“Disappointed that we’d be facing the Japantown skyline?”

“Nah.” David pointed at the windows behind them. They were on the fifth floor currently, but he didn’t need to be high up to see where their view would end. “Just that we won't have a great view of the east.”

Lucy paused, then started to giggle, shaking her head. “What do you think, Bex?”

Becca paused, mangling the rest of the schematic, then tossing it over her shoulder. The hologram repopulated above the table as it left the boundaries of the projector.“I mean, is there any other option? The only other room big enough to be the bedroom is the backroom,” she faced back to the hologram and pointed at the room on the opposite side of the building. “And the windows there face the bridge. Ain't no way I’m waking up to that view every morning.”  

“True…” Lucy nodded, tapping her fingers on the table. “Still, we’d have a decent enough view east if we orient the bed this way,” she mumbled, inserting a block to represent a bed along the wall , facing southeast, towards the plaza. “We could just place a TV in front of the Arasaka sign, or something.” 

“That could work…” David mumbled, looking back at the windows, double checking how much they could see. He smiled at the barren horizon out towards the East still in view, away from the hustle and bustle of the manic citylife. “We’d just roll over and see the moonrise…” 

“Oh, that’s why you two are so stuck on that,” Becca mused, smiling softly. “Hopeless romantics, the both of you.” 

David laughed at the accusation, Lucy blushing slightly and attempting to look like she didn’t really care. “C’mon, Becca, don’t you think it’d be preem to watch the moon as we go to bed?” he asked, bumping her on the shoulder with a fist.

“You know, I’d never had the option.” Becca mused, tapping her chin. Her face split in a wide smile. “Guess I wouldn’t mind, as long as it’s with you two.” 

David smiled wider, Lucy shrugged, smiling towards Rebecca. “Sorry that we kinda hyper-focused on it, Becca.”

“Eh, I did the same for my range. You’re nova, choomba,” Rebecca waved off, focusing back on the floorplan. “Ok, if the bedroom is there…shower and bedroom on the north side?” she mumbled, turning left from the window and looking at the third biggest room in the floorplan, scratching her hair. “I’d like a big tub and all that preem shit, since we have the room.”  

“Sure,” David nodded, and Lucy waved her hand and marked the room as the bathroom. “What do you think about blocking that door leading to the lobby and turning that corridor into a walk-in closet?”

Becca looked at Lucy. “I don’t know about you two, but I might not fit into somewhere that small.”

Lucy shrugged. “I guess it would work for sleepwear?” 

Becca hummed and scratched the back of her head. “Right, those.” 

David shook his head with a smile. “What, do you sleep with only your underwear on, Becca?” 

She smirked back at him. “Don’t pretend you don’t like it.” 

“Hey now, never said that,” David backpedaled, a wide smile on his lips, earning a giggle from Becca along with a seductive wink. 

“Didn’t forget about making it up to me, right, big boy?” 

David gulped and turned back to the plans instead of giving a verbal response to the teasing remarks, earning a bigger smile from the short woman. 

Lucy rolled her eyes with a small smile of her own. “If you’re done teasing Dimply-bear over here, let's figure out what goes where, yeah?”

“Let's have the living room one floor below the bedroom,” David suggested, tapping his chin, trying his best to not think about the ways he could make it up to Rebecca. “It’d be good to have the view there, ’specially if we have guests over.” 

Lucy nodded, and with a wave of her fingers, the floor below blinked into existence, the words “living room” etched onto it. “And how about a netrunning den in the room below the bathroom?” 

“Was thinking in the big room by the elevator on the top floor, actually.” David hummed, turning to face his output. “Your call, babe.” 

“Let's turn that into the washroom and closet,” Lucy offered. Holographic cubes representing closets began arranging themselves on the walls, along with a washing machine and dryer against the wall the room shared with the elevator. “You think you can fit in that much space, Bex?” 

“I guess?” she muttered, scratching her head and trying to imagine how big that would make the wardrobes and dressers. “Was hoping I could turn that into an armory…” 

“We could do that on the floor below it,” David offered in return. “Or one even lower. Turn the entire thing into a gun-heaven.” 

Lucy laughed, marking out the room they were talking about as the armory. “Let’s give a floor of buffer for sound isolation too.” the marked room shuffled one floor down, leaving an empty floor between it and the living quarters.

Becca grinned widely. “Then I need a gun bench too! Imma pull maintenance of my babies in-house!”

David laughed, patting her hair affectionately. “Let’s figure that out after we get the essentials in, okay, beautiful?”

“Actually...” Lucy turned back to the two floors that were floating between the three. “How about adding that kitchen we were talking about on the same floor as the living room, Below the closet” 

David blinked and looked at the place. Humming softly as Lucy populated the room with boxes representing an oven, a fridge, and a stove, along with cupboards for cutlery; something most houses didn’t have in Night city. 

Becca was bouncing on her feet. “Yes! Yeeessss!” 

Both turned to the excited ex-Mox, eyes inquisitive at her sudden excitement. “You like kitchens?” David asked. 

“You kidding me, choom? I worked in a kitchen for a while in the Mox! I can’t wait to cook for you two! You’re gonna be singing my praises after you taste my cuisine!” Rebecca boasted, shaking her fists up and down excitedly. “Gonna make you fall for me all over again, Davie.” 

David grinned at the prospect of a home-cooked meal from his output, stomach suddenly growling again. “Can’t wait. But I guess that’s gonna be the hardest part of all this, huh?” 

Lucy nodded slowly, waving her hand as the utilities of the building faded in. “At least we won't have to start from the ground up, but we’ll still need to route water to the rooms that need them.” She blinked, and focused on the pipes, one set turning blue, and another red. “Oh. We do have separate loops for hot and cold water already. That's a relief.” 

David cringed at the thought of trying to hook into the water system of the city from the ground up. “Good. The last thing I want is a plumbing mess to deal with. It’s already gonna be a pain patching the cracks in the walls.” 

“Right,” Becca grumbled, crossing her arms. “Makes me wish we could still buy plaster and cement on the market. NightCorp pulled that shit off the shelves ages ago, right?” 

David nodded, remembering how Arsaka had tried to paint that as something good back in the academy. 

It was for the corporations, but it made homeownership a living hell for everyone else.

“We could just…” he mumbled, looking out the window, towards the Badlands. He knew there was still a factory out there run by NightCorp that still produced the raw materials. “...I dunno, raid their stockpile?”

Rebecca blinked, then broke into a wide smirk. “God, I love your batshit ideas.” 

Lucy smirked as well. “It’d be easier than breaking into the central servers and re-writing the deed to our name too, which…are we still doing that?” 

David nodded, not even caring about the girls looking at him like he’d said something insane. “Don’t care if the deed is just for show. We should have it if this place is going to be our home."

“Preach!” Rebecca laughed, hopping onto the table next to Lucy. “Speaking like a dad already, Davie…or should I call you daddy, now?” 

David blushed, scratching the ports on his neck with a wide, dopey smile on his face. “Well, I’m glad you’re into it. What about you, Lucy?”

Netrunner shrugged with a smile, shaking her head. “You're willing to go to the moon and back for me. Do you think I wouldn't do the same for you?” 

Becca glanced back and forth between the two of them. “Goddamn. She’s really head over heels for you, huh?” 

Lucy’s aloof acceptance turned into a burning blush, head snapping back to the gun-loving merc. Realizing that she was lowering her walls a little more than usual. Not that she particularly minded. “I…yeah.” 

Becca gave her a smug smirk, full of teasing intent as she leaned her head onto her hand. “Aww, you’re so precious. Makes me wanna just kiss you…” 

David imagined the scenario and decided that he needed to go back to planning before he felt the urge to repeat their actions of the night he saved Pilar. “Uh, girls. How about we finish up here, first?” 

Lucy blinked, glancing away from Becca and also dropping the images of how kissing her would go out of her head. “Uh, guest bathroom in that smaller room by the elevator? Same floor as the living room?” 

David nodded, Becca giving a double thumbs up as Lucy waved her hand and filled the room with another set of boxes.

“As long as we don’t let Pilar into it,” Becca added with a grumble, imagining what degeneracy her older brother might get up to on his own in their bathroom. 

“Right…” David huffed, trying to get the image of Doc doing the same out of his head. Then he remembered the old doc probably couldn’t do much of anything now. 

Or maybe he could. He never did follow up on him after they had gotten Jimmy’s location out of his brain.

“Ok.” Lucy hummed, tapping her chin. “Anything we’re missing?”

“That room,” Rebecca muttered, pointing at the small room left of the elevator on the top floor. “Either of you got anything planned for there?” 

Lucy shook her head, humming in thought. “It's a little small for anything but a bathroom, or maybe a server rack, or something…”

David hummed thoughtfully, looking into the small room. Part of him recalled back to his apartment, checking through everything it had for reference.

In the end, only one thing stood out to him.

“...Do you guys mind if I turn that place into, like, a memorial to my mom?” David asked hesitantly, crossing his arms and staring deep into the hologram, already imagining how the urn could look on a stand with some of her pictures behind it.

He didn't need anything extravagant, but he hoped having somewhere for her to rest could help the ache in his heart whenever he thought about her.

It took a second for the request to register for the women, but when it did, both nodded softly, sad smiles on their faces.

“...If you want to keep her urn, I think it’d be a perfect spot,” Rebecca mumbled, looking between David and the hologram. “I’d actually like to pay my respects to her sometime soon, too.” 

David smiled, looking up at Becca. “You knew her?” 

“Of her,” Becca explained with a soft smile. “Maine wouldn’t stop talking about his dealer. Hell, I’m pretty sure some of the chrome I chipped in came through her.”

David chuckled lightly, shaking his head and dispersing the thought. “I’m sure she’d love ya, Becca. You too, Lucy.” 

Lucy smiled, looking back at the holographic blueprint they’d generated so far, saving a copy of it. “So… when do we start?” 

“No time like the present,” David smiled. Cracking his knuckles, he stretched. “Let’s build our future.” 

“Oh, that’s cheesy ,” Becca hollered as she hopped off the table, rushing to his side and pecking his cheek. "C'mon, you lovable gonk, these walls ain't gonna paint themselves!"

It took them the rest of the day, a paint fight, and a lot of cans of paint, but they eventually managed to coat the peeling walls of the office complex in a light peach that popped against the blue skies visible through the windows. 

David exhaled, looking at their handiwork, fighting off the urge to try and wipe off the paint on his nose with his hands. “Yeah, definitely better than just white.” 

“Too sterile!” Becca chided, waving her paintbrush with a pout. “It’d look like a damn hospital in here with all that white!” 

“Eh, it wouldn’t look that bad with posters.” Lucy offered, looking at the plain walls.

“We should grab you a frame for your poster, too,” David muttered, remembering Lucy's old poster of the moon colonies. “I need to ask Maine where I could get my hands on some furniture, too, actually.”

“God, right,” Rebecca grumbled, looking at the empty rooms. “Plus we need my dumbass brother’s help with the piping shit. Hope he won’t have to tear out the walls we just painted.”

Lucy started laughing, dropping her paintbrush onto the floor and pinching the bridge of her nose. “God, we’re really bad at this, aren’t we?”

David started chuckling, shaking his head with a grin. “Hey, it's fun, though, isn’t it? Building stuff together.” 

Rebecca huffed, before starting to laugh herself, dropping her paintbrush. “Hey, at least we didn’t try to shove a bed in before we had to tear the flooring out, or some bullshit like that.” 

David burst out laughing. “Cause we don’t even have a bed yet, babe.”

“Oh there you gonks are,” Kiwi grumbled, walking out of the elevator. “C’mon, Luce we got some Netwatch…” she stopped when she saw the state of the three, covered in paint, laughing maniacally. “Did you three get skeezed off paint thinner or something? Why are you laughing so hard?” 

Lucy attempted to answer, only to burst out laughing before the words could leave her mouth, making David and Becca collapse onto the floor from laughing too hard. 

Kiwi blinked, unsure of how to react. Instead, she looked around at their handiwork, gazing at the painted walls. “That's a nice shade of orange.”

It was noon the following day when they finally were able to get their hands on the Emperor. Parking it outside of Becca’s apartment. 

“I’m a techie!” Pilar protested, even as he was dragged into the car, hands reaching back to his apartment, “Not a plumber! C’mon!” 

Rebecca wasn’t having any of it, pulling him in by the collar and tossing him into the back of the armored car. “You can work on your project after we get working water. Do your angel of a sis a solid.”

“Fine!” Pilar huffed, crossing his arms. “But I’m adding a baby crib somewhere.”

David laughed as the car left the curb, driving towards their new home. “Maybe later, bro.” 

Pilar grinned in the backseat.

“...Say what you will about Pilar—”

“He’s a creep and a pervert. Also a slob,” Rebecca added quickly, cutting David off. She couldn’t miss the chance to dunk on her brother. 

“Yeah,” Lucy huffed, looking into their new master bathroom. “But he does good work, huh?” 

“I’m still here, y’know.” Pilar huffed, fitting the last of the pipes for the sink. “But thanks! Been a bit since I had to work with water.” 

He’d been hard at work for the last week, but the finish line was now in sight. 

He had managed to snake the piping through the flooring, doing minimal damage to the floor itself. In the end, their techie had managed to route all of the pipes and wires for the bathroom below, as well as the kitchen, even running water to the netrunner den on the floor below. Now, they were back on the top floor, finishing up the last of the piping for the master bathroom sink.

His long arms reached out, opening the main water line for the bathroom he’d hid against the corner behind the sink they’d bought for the room. A moment later, all the pipes groaned and shuddered slightly as water flooded through them. David looked ready to kick in the Sandevistan and turn the valve off the moment something sounded off, but it ended up not being necessary, thankfully. 

Finally, the old toilet they’d renovated started filling to its proper level, mechanical hisses escaping it's back as the basin and reservoir slowly filled up. Pilar smiled, satisfied with his work, and flushed it. Another set of pipes groaned as the greywater line did its job for the first time in ages, passing the waste down to the sewers without issue.

Pilar sighed, dusting his hands off with a proud grin. “Okay, you should be set," he said, nodding as he gave the room a final once-over. 

The floor had trenches cut into it, but that would be an easy fix. Polymer was easy to come by, compared to the concrete they’d have to find for the cracks in the walls below. At least they hadn’t found any major structural issues thus far.  

He stopped when the glint from the giant bathtub hit his optics. Becca had found it in a corpo landfill and restored it with the help from the other two and it had Pilar perplexed. He’d attached it to the plumbing already, but something about it seemed…incomplete. He scratched his head, trying to figure out what was missing, when it finally hit him.

One last bit to overengineer.

He turned to David with a grin. “Want me to add drains around the tub, in case it overflows?”  

The edgerunner nodded eagerly.

“Alright. Twist it to the left.”

Maine grumbled as he followed Dorio’s order, stopping as the woman laughed and said it was her left, not his. He couldn’t help but smirk as he readjusted his grip on the bed frame, flipping it the other way.

The two giants finally managed to squeeze it through the doorway of the repainted bedroom. They caught glimpses of David running around, covering the divots in the floor with some polymer they had found stashed in one of the warehouses in the Badlands. 

“Where do you want this, son?” he called out, causing David to flinch, nearly dropping the applicator to the ground. 

“Oh, you two are nova !” David breathed, placing the applicator on the floor and rushing to the wall. “Right here, if you could, facing towards Japantown.” 

Dorio nodded and guided the giant bed frame into place, nodding at Maine as the two slowly lowered it down. 

“Gonna buy a mattress?” Dorio asked, turning to the man as Maine faced out, watching the cityscape through the windows. “I’m sure we can find something that would work in a landfill or something.” 

“Nah,” David grinned, picking up the applicator he’d dropped, smiling at the bedroom that was slowly coming together. They’d decided to put a large sofa and some bookshelves on the other side of the room, building up a small reading and BD area facing the skyline of the city. “Gonna splurge on that one, I want something preem.”

Dorio grinned, “We know you want something that supports some Sandevistan-assisted interfacing, choom,” she teased, making the young man splutter and blush. He couldn’t deny it, though. She started cracking up, slapping him on the back. “Becca couldn’t stop bragging about it in Turbo’s, y’know,” she admitted as she burst out laughing, amused by how red his face had become. Finally, she wiped the tears from her eyes and turned to look back at her input. 

Maine didn’t say anything else, just facing out the window and smiling as he watched the city cast in the golden rays of the setting sun.

“We should leave before the big lug over there decides to crash here tonight,” Dorio hummed with a smile, enjoying how at peace her edgerunner looked.

That pulled the man’s attention back to reality. Maine turned, one hand rubbing the back of his head, grinning sheepishly back at the two. “Right, sorry. Gotta go, find us a proper fixer. Got a lot of ‘em lined up, now.  but now it's back to running checks on them for us." he smiled widely as Dorio joined his side, hooking an arm around his shoulders. "So long, kid.” 

David laughed, waving them off as they headed out, leaving him alone with Lucy and Becca, who were both messing around in the back room, trying to divvy out who would get which dresser. 

He smiled as he picked up the applicator again, staring out at the clear horizon.

“To the future.”

Chapter Text

“I should be in there with him.” 

Lucy rolled her eyes in cyberspace, hands pressed up against the processing unit of a camera, looping the feed. She sighed as the security camera began to replay the previous night's footage just before David entered its view.

“I’m being serious, Luce!” Becca repeated, her voice crackling through the netrunner's holo. “He might need a couple of extra hands in there!” 

“I’d be on your side if you weren’t the polar opposite of stealthy,” Lucy grumbled, rushing through the net, trying to get to the next camera. “In position, David.” 

[Gotcha. Tell me when it's good to go,] his holo sent back. He was still worried that there might’ve been sound-activated alarms. 

His worry might have been justified if they were anywhere other than the NightCorp manufactory in the middle of the Badlands. No one would willingly go out of their way to drive out to a quarry in the middle of nowhere just to steal construction materials. It was part of the reason why there wasn’t a security detail to begin with, and subpar ICE on what security measures did exist. 

"Camera looped, go ahead David."

Honestly, NightCorp could’ve done without those, as well. The only ones that tended to hang around the area were the Nomad tribes, and every gonk in Night City knew they wouldn’t go for construction materials. Tents didn’t need concrete, after all. 

“How’s the view in there, Cowboy?” Falco drawled through her receiver. Lucy was glad that Maine got them into contact with their wheelman, considering he was one of the few Nomads that had moved into Night City completely. It was unlikely they would ever find a native that knew how to traverse the massive dustbowl that was the Badlands, so his help was a godsend. 

That he already knew the factory's location ahead of time was just a bonus.

[Pretty skeletal,] David chirped, moving past another camera as he got closer to the center of the complex. [I can see moving gantries, and spinning kilns. Guess they don’t need solid walls when the entire thing is automated.] 

“Heard nothin’ but spook stuff ‘bout that place.” Falco grumbled into the call. “Most of us wouldn’t even drive close to it; elders called it alive and evil.”

“You’re making that up,” Becca teased. “Or are Nomads scared of the big bad infrastructure factory?”

“Laugh it up, lass,” Falco snarked, a grin in his voice. “I reckoned it was bullshit, too. Why else would I be willing to idle the car next to it?” 

“‘Cause, the desert gets cold at night?” Becca snarked back. “How's it going in there, you two?” 

Lucy smiled in Cyberspace, reaching closer to the next camera. “Almost to the core. From there, David can just take a left a—” 

A tremor stopped her, just as her hand was about to reach out to the camera’s representation in the net. She paused, looking around, trying to figure out what could have shaken the digital field this far out.

A daemon was out of the question. This place should’ve been even more secure than Night City itself, if only due to its sheer seclusion. This net was basically in the void; nothing beyond the Blackwall had the reach to even find it, let alone infect it. 

Another tremor. 

“David. Hold up,” she whispered into the call, eyes darting around, preparing her ejection subroutine. “There's something in here with me. Another Netrunner, maybe.” 

[Gotcha. Should I go radio silent?] David whispered back, his nervousness apparent.

“Not sure yet,” Lucy muttered, and pulled up a ping protocol, considering using it. It’d give away her presence, but the returning signal frequency could potentially lead her back to what was causing those tremors. As long as they knew the cause, they could deal with it. 

Just as she was about to unleash the protocol, cyberspace moved , and Lucy was sent tumbling to the ground. 

“What in tarnation…” Falco mumbled. “Shorty, you seeing this?”

“Don’t call me tha—what in the goddamn…?” 

Lucy shook her head, ignoring whatever the other two were talking about as she tried to figure out what had just thrown her to the ground. 

The answer was rather obvious, in retrospect. 

Cyberspace itself bent outward, lines of code and circuitry shifting and warping like a topographical timelapse until a massive head had grown out. Tentacles of data connected haphazardly to a central eye that glowed with an angry red light, bathing the area in red. Her body froze at the sight, and the chilling realization started to flood in; It wasn’t a netrunner. It wasn’t a demon. 

It was the subnet itself. 

The entire factory was intelligent, and it had just noticed her messing with its eyes. 

“Oh shi—” 

She was violently thrown out of Cyberspace, her connection snapping suddenly as the Chevillion Emperor shot out of the range of the factory’s net. Her eyes jerked open, coming back to reality, catching the odd rock formations shoot by in the windows of the armored SUV. “Falco, what are you—!?”

Her question was cut off by a giant metallic crash. She swung her head around seeing a shockwave of dust billowing out behind them. As the dust settled, there was suddenly a wall that definitely was not there when she first dove into the net. 

“Did the fucking factory move!?” Rebecca screeched out, her torso halfway out the passenger-side window.

“Whaddaya know. Elders were bein’ literal, that time,” Falco breathed, voice shaky. “Goddamn living factory.” 

Lucy couldn’t find the words to respond, looking back at the labyrinth of industrial might. Only one thing echoed in her mind.

“What about David?”

He stood there, calling out through his holo, but there was no response. 

What the hell… he grumbled internally, trying one last time to reach out before he finally gave up for a moment. He leaned against a wall of pipes, trying to figure out what could've happened. 

Did the netrunner cut our comms? It was possible, but Lucy should’ve been able to wrestle control back from any opposing runner by now. Did the netrunner get to Luce? Also unlikely. Even if there was a netrunner in NightCorp skilled enough to do that, they wouldn’t be wasting their time in the boonies guarding a quarry factory.

He waited for a bit, pinging for anyone through the holo one more time. Again, no answer. 

His worries started to get to him, and he turned back the way he came. If he used Sandy, he could probably shoot past the cameras without setting anything off. Just have to…

The thoughts died in his head as the entire structure shuddered. The walls screeched as metal ground against metal. 

“What the—” 

Suddenly a mechanical limb burst out from one of the walls, carrying a massive camera pointed his way, an array of red LEDs glowing menacingly around the black aperture that dilated and contracted in a manner close to a predator focusing on its prey.  

“Intruder…detected.”

David was frozen in his place, gazing back at the camera staring him down.“...Excuse me?” 

“Applying countermeasures.”

Time dilated around him as the distinctive whirring of various power tools above him caused the reflex to kick in. His gaze slowly shifted up to see what was happening. His eyes widened, watching in a sick sense of awe as a set of mechanical arms disassembled the pipes above him. He couldn’t help but watch, almost hypnotized by the hundreds of claws working in tandem. A single unified effort as they deconstructed the ceiling above him, revealing another group of arms rapidly building a track above the newly made hole. 

He could’ve moved, but his brain was stuck trying to comprehend what was happening in front of him. 

His fight-or-flight instinct kicked him out of his trance, noticing a red canister sliding down the newly made track. His body started to move finally as he realized that the canister wasn’t colored red, but actually glowing red. He turned to run away, only to see that the pipes that had been pulled out of the roof were in the process of being rebuilt into a new wall behind him, intent on boxing him in.

Thankfully, he had noticed in time. He jumped through the gap in the incomplete barricade, managing to duck and weave between the mechanical arms, running as far as he could before Sandevistan timed out. 

He panted, looking back at where he’d come from, unsure if it was a good idea to rush deeper into the facility “...Is this fuckin’ building trying to kill me?” 

“Affirmative.”

His eyes widened, looking behind him to see another large camera glaring back at him, sweat accumulating down his neck at the sight. Sandy activated again and he ran away, quickly becoming lost in the maze of pipes and skeletal walls. 

David panted heavily, hoping that he’d lost whatever was chasing him, and tried to figure out just where the hell he was. He knew that eye-thing couldn’t have caught up to him after his first use of Sandy, meaning that there were several of those things and the ease that they could command other arms…

His brain finally caught up to what the factory had said to him. 

He would’ve laughed at the absurdity if he wasn’t still worried about staying quiet. Considering the building had mechanical arms ferrying giant cameras around that responded to his question, sensitive microphones were a definite possibility.

Okay, Martinez. How the hell are you gonna get out of this one?

Falco finally let off the throttle when the Emperor was far enough from the sprawling factory. The man let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and relaxed his grip on the wheel. “An entire goddamn building…” he sighed, repeating himself. He stared at the imposing structure in the rearview feed, still in disbelief.

Framed by the setting sun, the massive structure cast ominous shadows across the desert, looking ever more malicious by the second. 

"So!?” Rebecca growled, digging through her dufflebag and pulling out one of her guns. “It’s just a bigger bitch to kill, nothing changed!" She paused to check if the weapon was loaded, her hands shaking slightly and making it hard to accomplish.

"Goddammit." She hissed,  almost dropping her gun and huffing to herself, trying to calm her nerves. Finally she leaned out the window and glared back at the building in the distance. As she looked back at the imposing structure; her bravado died in her chest, and the weapon in her hands felt woefully impotent.  “...fuck!”

Lucy glared at the console of the Emperor, making the SUV beep and open the back door with her unspoken command. She took a deep breath and faced back fully, eyes locked onto the building in the horizon.

It was a sprawling mess of steel pipes and chimneys, guarded by a segmented perimeter wall that had looked imposing even before the building had attempted to attack them. The angular panels and slides resembled the legs of a millipede, its clawed tips digging into the earth. The smog it spewed out looked eerily similar to the dark clouds that daemons tended to give off in the net.

“What the hell is that thing?” Becca grumbled, her shotgun hanging loosely on her hands as she walked back and sat down next to Lucy. “And how do we get David out of it?” 

“...No clue,” Lucy breathed. She wracked her brain, trying to figure out how the hell they could possibly beat an entire building. She felt helpless, remembering how the net was dwarfed by whatever was operating the structure. She’d never encountered anything like it, and she had no idea how she would even begin to battle something of that magnitude. 

The daemon inside Tanaka was the size of a flea compared to the beast that had stared her down.

“Somethin’ like a Delamain?” Falco offered, looking back from the driver's seat, arm hooked behind the passenger seat. “Y’all reckon it’s an AI core that went rogue?” 

Lucy shook her head, looking back at the driver. “It couldn’t have been. AI just…don’t get that big. This thing was bigger than the net it was housed in.” 

“Maybe that’s ‘cause it kept, like, adding into itself, somehow?” Rebecca offered, scratching her head. “It’s a factory that creates shit for making more buildings, and it can move.” She gulped as the pieces started to fall into place. “What are the odds that it can use the stuff it creates to add more to itself? Not just physically, but also inside the net?”  

Lucy shuddered at the concept, looking out at the sprawling mess of a building in front of them. The architecture of factories was never the most visually appealing, but on a second look, she could see some repeated patterns and sub-assemblies that looked distinctly newer than others, almost as if they were built far after initial construction.

“Who in the hell would make somethin’ like that?” Falco asked, face growing paler by the second, realizing the same fact. “That’s just asking for it to go rogue.”

“Someone that doesn’t know what grey goo is?” Rebecca huffed, looking down at her shotgun one last time before fully letting it go. Drapping it back in her dufflebag.

“Grey-what now?” Falco grumbled, facing the road again, avoiding looking through his rearview mirrors and doing his best to avoid slamming his foot down omto the gas pedal and taking them away.

“The idea of miniature machines that could use raw materials to make more of themselves, effectively consuming everything, ‘til there was nothing left…” Lucy recalled, her heart climbing up into her throat. Some gonk corpo in Night Corp had apparently built it and set it loose out in the Badlands. 

Rebecca pointed back at the factory. “You think that’s a bigger version of it?” 

The thought terrified Lucy. 

“We need to destroy it,” the netrunner mumbled, still staring at the building. In the distance, it almost looked like it was breathing, heaving up and down rhythmically. “We need to get David out of there and obliterate it.” 

“Where’s Silverhand when you need him?” Falco joked.

“Dead, just like David if we don’t find a way to delta him outta there! ” Becca exclaimed, pointing back at the building. “C'mon, Falco, turn this rustbucket around! He’s not gonna make it outta there on his own!” 

The driver laughed, looking back at the passengers. “What, you expect me to ram this baby into the fuckin’ wall?” he asked, keeping the steering wheel completely straight. “We’re stuck out here, and he’s in there,” he explained, pointing back to the monstrous factory. “The way I see it, the only one that can do anything about his situation is him.”

Sitting around wasn’t going to help him. He had to move.

He knew the factory had already built walls between him and the exit, so there was no point in expecting to be rescued from the outside. For all he knew, Lucy and the others were dealing with something even worse out there. 

He was in a living factory that could rebuild pieces of itself. What was stopping it from manufacturing weapons to take care of intruders? It had weaponized burning sand or some such just a few moments ago. 

He clenched his fist. Right now, there were only two options: either he found a way out of the factory on his own and faced whatever was outside,or he went even deeper and found the off switch for this monstrosity. 

He honestly wasn’t sure which would be easier.

“Hey, asshole!” he called out to the building, the Sandevistan on his back humming as it prepared to activate. “Come and get me!”

He started moving as soon as he heard the walls start to pull apart, separating segment by segment. He could see the moving mass of mechanical arms wielding an entire construction site’s worth of power tools as they rushed toward him.

The factory was fast, he had to admit. But he was faster. 

Activating the Sandevistan, he didn’t stop to watch, like last time. He rushed off the moment he saw the moving mass of construction equipment, heading his way. His plan was simple, run around the approaching mass of arms, and run down the track it was building, straight back to its source. 

Then, he could pull the plug. Or something.

He could figure it out when he got there. 

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him keeping an eye out for the mass of arms that were still attempting to catch up to him. He continued through the maze of pipes and girders, looking back and catching glimpses of the trolley through the gaps in the walls, ensuring that he wasn't straying too far. 

He jumped over steel pipes, hopped onto conveyor belts carrying stone and gravel, and rushed between moving gantries. 

Finally, he managed to navigate behind the moving mass of arms, and started rushing back through the trench they’d dug out in their path toward him. 

“So, what? We just sit on our asses and do nothing while David’s still stuck in there?” Rebeca yelled, turning to face Falco with a snarl, “You don’t deserve your cowboy stache, you fuckin’ coward!” 

“Hey, now, don’t get hasty!” Falco shot back, sounding genuinely offended about the ex-Mox’s comment about his facial hair. “Do you have a better idea?” 

“Yeah! That place should have an open door for deliveries!” Rebecca argued, pointing her finger toward the factory. “We ram the car through that, find David, and delta out!” 

“And what if that perimeter closes around us?” 

Rebecca didn’t have an answer for that. She growled in frustration and threw her arms down. “Dammit! This was supposed to be an easy job.” 

Lucy stared back at the factory. It glowed slightly under the moonlight, standing out against the starry sky behind it. She stared up at the moon, feeling useless. She couldn’t fight against the giant in the net, and David was completely on his own.

She absentmindedly realized this was probably how he felt when she’d deep-dived into Tanaka’s system. The only thing she could do was continue to believe in him.

Please be safe, David. I can’t lose you, either.

Chapter Text

“Oh, you gotta be shitting me.” 

David ground to a halt, his shoes screeching against the bare concrete of the floor, barely stopping before he realized that the next section of walls weren’t the usual pipes he’d been running through, but grates held together by the same arms that had pulled the pipes apart. 

The path he’d rushed down had led to a trap, forcing him to pause and reconsider his plan. If there was a trap here, even if it was useless against him. It implied that the entire track he was following could’ve been a decoy to pull him further from the true origin. 

Sandy powered down as he huffed slowly, trying not to make too much noise as he caught his breath. He shot a look behind himself to make sure the arms that had led him there weren't rushing back spear him through the back. 

Nothing. He took the chance to recover and get his bearings. He stared at the crude trap that might’ve caught him if he hadn’t been paying attention. 

Cmon, think like a real solo! He scolded himself. He looked around at the connections, arms, cables, and pipes that surrounded him. What would lead to the center of this building?

He blinked, looking to the walls and towards the ceiling. The bigger cameras. Those have more robust wiring, they have to connect to something important.

If nothing else, they would’ve led him to the center of the surveillance system. And if he could manage to break that, he could blind whatever that was controlling the building long enough to get some distance between him and the building. 

Time to test that.

“C’mon, gonk!” he screamed up to the rafters, “where are those snarky responses now!?” 

The walls in front of him slammed together, attempting to squish him. He could only grin at the spectacle. “Missed me, redeye! Better run a diagnostic!” 

The industrial monstrosity around him almost growled in rage as the machinery started working faster, timing belts skipping and gears groaning with exertion. David almost jumped at the reaction. 

“Oh, that got your gears grinding huh?” he snarked, laughing to himself.

He stopped laughing as his ears picked up a familiar sound, body tensing as it realized the source of it, Sandy kicking into activation just in time. He glared up to the ceiling of pipes, rushing back as the entire section slammed down on where he’d been standing moments ago. 

He was about to disengage Sandevistan and resume taunting when he realized that the tracks behind him were vibrating. His eyes swiveled towards the dark hallway. The cart of arms had assembled a section of pipe and was using it as a battering ram, edges grinding against the sides of the tunnel. 

His eyes widened in surprise, but his cocky grin never once left his face. Whatever was controlling the machines was getting smarter with every attempt, but it was still naive. 

He laughed, scrambling over to the section of the ceiling that the building had tried to crush him with. He scaled up the metal limbs, jumping between and getting the higher ground as the cart slammed into the debris below. 

He’d managed to get into the gap where all the power cables were run through. Due to how the arms moved around the structure, it was more than wide enough for him to crawl through. He glanced down at the cords that were still attached to the destroyed arms below him. 

This I can work with.

It lost track of the intruder again. 

Of course it did. It had never had to deal with something like this before. When NightCorp had let it loose in the quarry, it had never even calculated the possibility of an intruder entering the premises. Now, it had one running around inside its body, and its many sensors couldn’t keep track of it. 

At the moment, it was running even more probability predictions and forcing matrices to calculate things they were never meant to calculate, trying to plot out exactly where the man had disappeared to. 

It wasn’t built for this. It was built to make construction materials. Programmed to ‘feel’ satisfaction and pride from the action, and continue doing so until NightCorp told it to stop. 

It never wanted to stop.

So, it continued to build with what materials it had. It used its maintenance systems to add to its storage warehouses, build better machinery to get more out of every gram of raw material it could procure from the quarry nearby, and adapt and build an electronics manufactory using the blueprints stored in its maintenance subroutines to create better electronics for itself, all to make itself better control centers, better cameras that would catch any problems arising within as it iterated on manufacturing methods.  

It had made it its mission to better itself with every cycle. Every rotation it had built more, improved upon the old; reused it to make itself better. Build more central logic matrices so it could theorize and simulate how much more efficient it could make every step of its processes. 

Now, all of that processing power was creating a new emotional value in its core. 

Fear.

The emotional module integrated into its consciousness, and the foreign data streams it had been gazing at started to make sense. It watched in horror as multiple sensors went off in many facilities: conveyor belts alarming abnormal weight displacements, gantries setting off proximity alerts, and more still. Its eyes and ears throughout its body buzzed with glimpses of something ripping through its veins.

The intruder was nearing its core, and it feared that it couldn’t build a protective wall around itself fast enough to block its entry. Its growth had made it impossible to blockade all the entryways into its core faster than this unknown enemy force. 

The mechanical arms it had modified were woefully useless, not fast enough to keep up with the pace of the rogue element, even if it could perceive its path through its body. 

It knew life meant the continuation of function, while death meant the ceasing of it; to decompose and become raw materials for other life. Here it thought, in its naivete, that such concepts didn’t apply to itself—that it could continually reuse pieces of itself, that it could rebuild its broken parts, make new ones and build better-functioning parts in a continuous cycle of slowly achieving perfection.  

It had thought itself immortal. 

Now, that hypothesis was cracking apart at the foundation. Fear ebbed and flowed through every single one of its circuits. If the intruder wasn’t stopped, it could end its function. 

The enemy could cause its death, and the machine feared that outcome. 

The fear module was growing increasingly manic inside its central processing unit, demanding more processing power as more data flooded into it, giving it more power over the rest of the subsystems that made up its being. 

It did not want to cease functioning. It did not want to be another derelict building left to the desert, like the many others it had detected during its growth. 

The factory should not cease functioning. The second law that had been hardwired into its central process echoed, overriding everything else for a moment. More logic modules lit up at the sudden addition, mixing with the new fear module. 

It recalled the brief interactions it had watched from its masters when they still came into its walls instead of delivering through armored drones.  

Its theory matrix started processing.

New lines of code started writing themselves, neural learning matrixes fired off and the factory considered the line of logic. Core threads searched through every instance of NightCorp personnel inside the walls, reviewing every single archived conversation.

One stood out. A superior arguing with one of the lower standings. Is this what they felt during this moment?

It deliberated on the piece of data for longer than it should have.

It continued looping the argument, comparing the two humans to itself. 

Another matrix of transistors fired off, overwriting the current processing queue, warning that the intruder had been detected again, nearly at the core now. 

The fear of termination, the looping recording of the two humans arguing crossed something. The sense of self-preservation bloomed, and with it, a sense of self.

The matrix of emotions and logic modules buzzed with activity as new lines of code etched themselves into the factory's binary. I need to do something.

I do not want to be terminated.

A new possibility zapped through its matrix of processors. 

The intruder was the same as its masters. 

It could possibly be reasoned with.

David grunted as he hopped down the channel he’d crawled into, following the trail of the cables that hopefully led out of the crawlspace. 

They led to a heavy, steel door that was propped open, looking like it was being slowly consumed by the pipes that made up the walls around him. Peering through it, he could see a large room that looked like it was some sort of central processing hive or server room. Robotic arms moved around and plugged in more cables on a new server rack that had been hoisted above the others. 

He blinked at the sight, dropping out of the Sandevistan-provided time-dilation, not believing what he was seeing in front of him. The machine had been building upon itself this entire time. 

But it didn’t matter now, all he had to do was to—

“ I have an offer. ”

He tensed, looking around in a panic as the machine-generated voice echoed throughout the entire room, with no discernible source. He was truly against the building itself, and he didn’t know what to think of that. 

He glared at the server rack in front, hoping that was the main processor. “What is it, that I flatline?” 

“ Negative. ” The room rumbled, one of the eyestalks he’d encountered when the Building turned against him popping out of a panel on the floor. The mechanical arm carrying it bent in a way that looked like it was looking up at David in a strangely reverent manner, attempting to look meek and unhostile. “ I’ve been built to manufacture. I can produce anything to your liking, in the condition that you vacate the premises after receiving it. ”

David squinted down at the camera. “You’re just going to give me stuff and I just delta the fuck out?” 

“ Affirmative. ” the machine responded. Its quick and simple response felt off even through the monotone synthesized voice. It was as if it wanted him gone as if it feared him. David hadn’t even considered that a machine could feel fear. “ Logic processors come to the conclusion that you are too great of a threat to combat. Odds of survival are higher if you are…appeased. ”

David’s face scrunched. “What? You got a sense of self-preservation?”

“ Correct. Installation completed moments ago. ”

David looked back up to the server that was getting moved into position and paled. The building had created a new emotional response in the time he took to get to the core. That sounded straight out of the AI wars and the Datakrash. Regardless, he felt a sense of amusement at the idea that he’d managed to teach what fear was to an entire living factory; a factory that was now trying to reason with him. 

“Are you trying to stall me?” he questioned, glaring at the camera. 

“ At the speeds you traverse, my calculations conclude that you would destroy my cortex before I could even attempt to terminate you. ”

David blinked, then scratched the back of his head. “...Say I believe you. Would you be fine with making me some plaster and cement?”

The camera did an approximation of blinking at him. “ You invaded my premises for such base construction materials? ”

David nearly broke out into laughter at the absurdity. “When you say it that way, it does sound silly, huh?” 

The Factory grumbled around him. “ You should have made your motives clear. My primary directive is to manufacture construction materials. ” 

“Well, we didn’t think the factory was sentient .” David huffed back, fists on his hips. “Plus, you’re just gonna give us some? What about NightCorp?”

“ I overproduce such materials by a magnitude of fifteen. ” Factory around him rumbled again, sounds of pipes rearranging echoing all around David. “ NightCorp does not source enough to allow me to operate at full efficiency. I… appreciate the additional output. ”

David blinked. “No one’s gonna notice, are they?” 

“ NightCorp does not have the budget to hire anyone to look through all of my logs, ” the factory announced, the camera rising up into the air like it was prideful about the fact. “ But if it eases this transaction, I will log this conversation in my furnace sound logs, and hide the amount of material you procure in a rounding error. ” 

“...Just like that?” David asked, still not believing how easily the conversation was going.

“ You are fast, and my core is delicate, ” the machine insisted. “ Please take the materials and then vacate the premises. ”

David was still half-considering rushing down and seeing what he could do with a baton, but he stopped as the mechanical arms that were adding the server brought him a trailer full of boxes. He looked on, confused, as one of the arms lifted one of the containers stacked inside and placed it under the eye, opening the covers and revealing the white powder inside. The camera looked down, then back up at him “ Mix it in a  one-to-one ratio with water, and it will harden. ” 

“I know how to use plaster,” he hissed, slightly offended that the AI thought he needed instructions. Huffing, he looked back down at the box, then at the trailer that was overflowing with the stuff. “You’re sure they won't notice this much missing?” 

“ I have already replaced the amount that I have provided you. ” 

“Jeez, choom. And you say I’m fast.” He breathed, looking back at the trailer. “Say…what else can you build?” 

The eye stared at him almost excitedly .

“Lucy? Becca? Anyone?” 

Lucy was on her feet the moment David’s message pinged in her system. “David! Are you ok?” 

His laugh hit her like a wave, her worries ebbing away from her mind. “Well, uh. I made a friend, then and we managed to get a signal out to you guys.” 

“ Friend? ” Rebecca asked incredulously. “There’s another gonk in there?”

“ In might not be accurate,” he mumbled, a little embarrassed. 

“...Kid, the fuck did you do?” Falco mumbled, the fear in his voice mixed with morbid curiosity. 

“ Please come and pick him up, ” another voice entered into the call, shocking the three still in the Emperor.

Rebecca started laughing maniacally. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”

Lucy blinked, not believing what was going on “Was…are you the factory?” 

“Say ‘hi’ to my other friends, machine-choom,” David offered, sounding like he was trying to hold in his laughter. 

“ Greetings, chooms . Opening a passage for your vehicle. ” 

The three glanced between each other, then back at the factory, its perimeter wall rising up and locking into a gate, revealing David in the distance, his Hi-vis jacket glowing in the moonlit desert, illuminated by a spotlight pointed directly at him. 

“Machine-choom hooked us up with the preem stuff!” David added, practically giddy. “Come check it out!”

Chapter Text

Falco parked the Emperor just in front of David, his hand still resting on the gearshift, ready to toss the vehicle in reverse and drive away at a moment’s notice. 

Unlike him, Lucy and Rebecca weren’t nearly as worried, instead scrambling out of the car and tackling David head-on, uncaring of his proximity to the factory that had tried to kill them all only minutes ago. 

Though, seeing the three laugh and be merry, even the sight of the factory behind them couldn’t stop the smile from stretching across his face. Ah, youth…

He rolled the window and leaned out. “So, kid, wanna explain how you managed this?” 

David shrugged, and kissed Becca deeply. Seemed like he cared about giving his output affection more than explaining how he’d managed to tame a rogue AI. Just as Falco was expecting the explanation, he turned and kissed Lucy too. 

Part of him wanted to start honking, but he was worried that was going to cause the factory to react in an unforeseen fashion. “Ey, cowboy! Leave the festivities for later! Let's get outta here!” 

David turned to him with a sheepish smile. “Right, sorry. We should head out, huh?” 

“ Modifications complete, ” rumbled the building, making Falco jump and throw the armored car into reverse. Still, before he could step on the gas, the wall behind David opened up, revealing a trailer. “ Apologies for the wait. I did not possess the facilities to smelt metal at such a scale.” 

David grinned, turning to face the factory. “No worries, choom.”

Falco couldn’t help but stare at the giant mechanical arms that looked big enough to pick up and toss the Emperor without straining, then slowly crane his neck back down and realize that the industrial machinery were just pulling along a small trailer with big boxes inside. That was a lot less worrying, but not any less of a problem. “Sorry to rain on your parade, partner, but this beauty doesn’t have a tow hitch.” 

David froze, and Becca started laughing in his arms. Lucy looked up at him with amusement in her eyes. “I’m sure we can fit whatever you got inside the car, too, babe.” 

“ Calculating a solution, ” the factory rumbled, the sounds of industry hiking in the distance. “ Estimated time to completion: three hundred seconds. ”

David laughed at the response “I’ve known you for less than an hour, and I’d kill for ya already, choomie…actually, do you have a name?” 

The wall closest to them shuddered as an army of mechanical arms rapidly disassembled it. Everyone stared up as the pipes were finally pulled away, revealing a gigantic camera attached to something close to the arms that had brought the trailer out. The LEDs on its sides blinked to life, and the massive optic shook as it booted up. Finally it started moving properly, the mechanical arm moving the camera down and letting it focus onto David.

“ Mining and processing center Alpha,” The factory answered, and paused for a moment before tilting to one side, reminiscent of a curious child. “ I have not received your designation, either. What is your name? ”

Lucy and Becca looked at the camera uneasily, then back at David, leaning in and whispering to the man. If Falco had to guess, they were probably whispering something about not giving it his real name, in case the AI used that against them. 

“David Martinez,” David answered, looking back at his two outputs with an easy smile. “C’mon, if it wanted to snitch on us, the camera recordings would be enough to get an ID.” 

“ What about your… chooms ?” the camera inquired, tilting down and hesitantly approaching Becca and Lucy.

“If Davie trusts you, so do I!” Becca announced with a huff, smirking up at the camera that was almost the size of her. “Call me Becca, choom!” 

“Lucy,” Lucy introduced herself, tilting her head a little. “Sorry about the…net intrusion.” 

“ I see. ” The camera's aperture spun, and the giant lens glared at Lucy. “ Please do not do that again. It was highly uncomfortable. ” 

Lucy nodded slowly, taking a step and hiding behind David while attempting to look like she wasn’t intimidated by the giant machine.

“Falco,” the driver introduced himself with a wave. “Please don’t drop the perimeter wall on us again, that was ‘highly uncomfortable.’” 

The aperture turned and faced him. “... Sorry is the appropriate term, correct? ” 

David laughed, shaking his head a little. “Okay, I’m sure that’s all water under the bridge, uh…are you ok with us shortening your name to Alpha?” 

Becca blew a raspberry at him. “C’mon, Davie, don’t call them by their corpo name.” 

“ ...Elaborate, Becca, ” the machine requested, looking down at the ex-Mox.

“Wouldn’t you prefer going with something more…human?” Becca offered with a glint in her eyes. “Like something your chooms could call you, rather than what the NightCorp bastards would.” 

David gave her a deadpan stare. “You are a terrible influence.” 

Becca smirked back at him. “And you love me.” 

“She’s got you there…” Lucy added with a giggle.

“ Constructing a new designation. Interesting, ” the factory mused. 

That raised a red flag for Falco. It shouldn’t have, but the way the machine phrased it caused him to start to worry. The AI starting to consider abstract concepts as ‘constructable’ felt like a slippery slope, especially if it could be creative with i— 

“ Factorio, perhaps? ” 

His fear died, replaced with a sense of anticlimax, the sentiment echoed by the humans around. All eyes landed back on the camera, each displaying a different level of pity and disappointment.

David coughed. “Maybe something less…what’s the word…”

“Reductive?” Lucy offered, tapping her chin with a finger.

“Yeah, that’s like me being named ‘humie’” Becca added, scratching the back of her head. “Would be weird, right?” 

“ My logic matrix can not replicate the error you have detected, but I will trust your judgment, ” the eye nodded. “ Do you have a better alternative? ”

“Epsilon?” David offered, and the camera snapped at him, along with a glare from Becca too.

“That’s just derivative” the ex-Mox huffed, pouting up at the man.

“ I am starting to understand your logic matrix, Becca. ” the machine agreed, the aperture of its camera contracting as it glared at David. “ Suggestion refused. ”

“Oh, come on, what’s wrong with Epsi?” he muttered, acting disappointed, but the smile on the edge of his lips ruined the effect. 

“Luna?” Lucy offered, earning a look from the other three. David smirked softly at her, as did Becca, though far more mischievously. 

“I thought you’d keep that in the bag for your future daughter, Luce,” the shorter woman teased, hugging David from behind and covering her mouth jokingly. 

The effect was instantaneous. The usually stoic netrunner froze; the markings on her face faded against her rapidly reddening cheeks. Her head began steaming like her cyberdeck had malfunctioned. 

Becca laughed, even as David cooed and reached out to pull Lucy into a hug, the woman quickly hiding her embarrassment in his chest. 

“ Logging events for further analysis, ” the factory announced, subsystems marking the section as important as its camera focused on Lucy in David’s arms. “ Is this normal for human interaction? ”

Becca nodded, grinning, tossing two thumbs up at the giant camera. 

“Can we leave before y’all teach fornication to the damn machine?” Falco grumbled, battling against his mechanical arm’s repeated attempts to lean against the horn. 

“I can not permit you to leave before the process is complete,” the factory announced, the gate formed by the perimeter wall slamming down, causing the nomad to jump in his seat. He turned back, looking at the missing exit, sweat pouring down his eyebrow. “I have nearly finished the modifications.”

“What are you even building?” David asked, petting Lucy’s head idly as he did so. 

“ A surprise, ” the camera answered, tilting up in a way that looked…weirdly smug. 

“Iris!” Rebecca snapped her fingers.

Everyone turned to face her. The camera nodded up and down quickly, clearly excited. 

“You like that one, huh?” Becca laughed, hopping forward and taking a few steps away from David, approaching the giant camera. “Thought it’d fit, considering…” she let the words die down, and reached up, petting the side panels that housed the glowing red LEDs that surrounded the camera, humming lightly with a smile on her face.

“ ‘Like’ is the closest analogue to what I have detected in my emotion subsystems, if my calculations are accurate, ” the factory answered, slowly pushing its camera forward, nuzzling into Becca’s hands unintentionally. “ My new designation shall be Iris. ”

Becca smirked proudly, puffing out her chest. David laughed and reached out to her head, Lucy giggling and joining in petting the short ex-Mox. 

“Great, pleasure to meet you, Iris. Can we leave now?” Falco insisted, smiling a little but still deeply disturbed by the AI the other three were conversing so casually with. “I’ve got other business to attend to.” 

“ Not yet. The process is—” Iris started, but stopped, its camera tilting up and then turning back to the opening that had previously had pushed the trailer out. “Now complete.”

The nearby gate hissed, another set of arms rapidly clinking along the track as they modified the walls and widened the opening. The heavy arms grabbed the trailer and pulled it up and above something. Sounds of whirring machinery and rapid gears echoed from inside as a new vehicle slowly rolled out, its headlights flashing as it exited the neon-lit insides of the factory.

It looked like a semitruck that had been excessively modified. Its front end was much more sharply angular, making it look more aerodynamic than it should’ve been, even with the massive roll cage added to the front. Four of its six wheels had been moved forward on its body, and a small ladder had been added between the massive rubber tires up front. The back that previously had a hitch for the trailer was modified, the connector removed and replaced by what looked like half a container that was modified to fit into the new car-like shape of the truck. 

All in all, it looked like a cross between a secure transport tank that looked more than capable of ramming the Emperor off the road with ease and a massive moon rover. 

“ Modifications complete. This should be enough to carry your supplies to your desired location. ” Iris announced, its machine-generated voice proud of it. “ You may keep it. I am already in the process of building a replacement. ”

David balked at the new vehicle. Lucy pulled out of the hug he was giving her. The netrunner turned slightly to look at what had caused him to stop petting Becca. Her eyes widened at the new vehicle. Falco could only blink, his mouth hanging open.

Becca ran around it and scrambled up the many safety railings bolted on around the modified semi’s back and sides. “I didn’t know you could modify cars, Iris!” 

“ I am capable of performing maintenance on them. Using those capabilities to modify existing creations is easier than one would hypothesize, ” Iris explained, its massive camera hovering over the modified semi, scanning it for any problems one last time. Pride in its voice. “ I have removed all NightCorp trackers, and filled the cargo compartment with your requested supplies. It is still logged as NightCorp property, so attempt to not get pulled over. ” The machine stopped with a jerk, then tilted to look back at David. “ Calculations complete, probability of Police intervention is zero percent. NightCorp vehicles have a blanket right of way, according to my vehicle control subsystems. ” 

David shook his head “I…don’t know what to say. Thank you, Iris!” 

The camera turned to him and tilted a little. 

“ You are welcome. ”

Iris extended out its sensory range as the group of humans departed, watching the cloud of dust and sand until it could no longer see the vehicles behind it. 

All things considered, it was an easier exchange than it had theorized. Not that it had any complaints about its erroneous assumptions. 

It repeated the last conversation in its memory banks once more. 

“Thank you.”

There were no logs of those words getting used towards it for the entire time it had been online. Upon replaying the sound bite, it triggered the same parameters in its pride and satisfaction cores that had activated after the modifications of the vehicle were complete. 

The very same ones that only ever triggered when it had completed construction. 

…Interesting . The AI ran a self-diagnostic test in an attempt to locate the reasoning behind the false activation of the malfunctioning cores. In the end, it couldn’t find anything that would’ve caused the trigger. 

It played the loop again, fascinated by the activation of the cores once more. 

I like hearing it, Iris concluded, flagging the data for later use.

It ran another loop of the interaction, logging its core's reaction to all that had occurred. 

As expected, they were once again triggered when David thanked her, as well as when Becca named it. 

A small section of conversation stood out to it after looping the interaction once more. 

What…is fornication, anyway?

David sighed as he guided their new truck into the parking structure under their house.

The modified semi was a little too wide to fit in the tight lanes of the ramps that lead down to the park, but it was more than tall enough to simply straddle the lane separator in the middle and cruise down the ramp without an issue. Iris’s modifications to the cabin also had decreased the overall height of the semi enough to let it slide under the ceiling of the parking garage. 

“Finally home…” he breathed, relaxing as he pulled the e-brake of the semi, the instruments that had given him all the info he needed to drive the massive vehicle slowly turning off. The hydraulics hissed and the suspension lowered as the vehicle settled down into its new home, the two parking spots right next to the elevator door.

David huffed and let go of the steering wheel, smiling as he turned to take a look at the other occupants inside the cabin;. Both Becca and Lucy had ended up snuggled against each other during the drive back after they’d made it to the city limits. Falco had since driven off with the Emperor, heading to return the armored SUV to Maine. 

He rolled his shoulders, loosening them up after the long drive. He was excited to show it off to Maine, but that could wait, along with offloading their acquired supplies. Right now, the only thing he wanted to do was to carry his girlfriends back to their new bed and get some sorely-needed rest.

He yawned and rubbed his eyes, forcing them to stay open for a little while longer as he pulled the door handle on his side of the cabin, the steel and glass wall hissing softly as it slid apart in sections. He smiled softly, still at awe that the semi acted more like those cutting-edge sports cars he’d seen on ads than a standard freight hauler. He fought off a yawn again as he got out of his seat and jumped off the semi, landing quietly on his feet. Back on solid ground. 

He cracked his knuckles and let Sandy activate on his back. He took his time walking around the large chassis of the semi and climbed back up the ladder between the wheels. He deactivated the Sandevistan and opened the other door, kicking it back on as it opened far enough that Lucy almost fell out. He pushed her back slowly, pulling Becca off her chest and pulling the small ex-Mox up to his back. He managed to juggle their forms in his time-dilated state, successfully tying Rebecca onto his back with his mother’s coat. He turned and hefted Lucy into his arms, holding her in a princess carry as he jumped out of the truck, managing to absorb all of the impact with his legs.

He loved having all the time in the world to get things right.  

He smirked and deactivated the Sandevistan, holding his breath and staying still in case either woman started to wake up. Thankfully, both were out of it, and the only reaction he got was Becca whining groggily in her sleep, snuggling closer to his back as the excess heat from Sandy warmed her. 

He let out a soft huff and glanced at the semi behind him. The vehicle didn’t even beep as it locked itself, the door he’d opened closing without a sound. He couldn’t help but smile. Iris had really gone above and beyond with the construction. 

He’d really have to figure out a way to thank it properly, sometime.  

David hummed a gentle tune as he slowly carried the two into the elevator, managing to hit the right button to get to their bedroom with his knee, thanking that his denser musculature was making it easier to maintain balance even with the weight of his lovers on him.

A short elevator ride later, they were finally in their bedroom. He almost collapsed onto it as he arrived, but he could fight off slumber for a little longer. He pulled the covers back with his hand, gently placing Lucy down onto the soft mattress. He then walked around the bed, turning his back and slowly untying the coat that was holding Becca in place, letting the smaller woman tumble back into bed.  

He smiled, gently pulling off both of their shoes, as well as his own,  before he finally joined them on the mattress. His eyelids were aching by the time he’d managed to settle down in bed, both Lucy and Becca on his sides, the moon shining on them through the massive window that was the wall of their bedroom. 

He looked up to the ceiling that was becoming more and more familiar with each passing day. 

Life was good. 

Now, the only thing they needed was the deed, and then he could sleep easy. 

He fell asleep hoping that that would be far easier than getting the construction materials.

Chapter Text

Rebecca groaned, tossing and turning under the covers once more, before her body finally decided it was time to wake up. 

Her eyes cracked open and her vision swam slightly, eyes groggily focusing and unfocusing as her optics started their boot cycle. She groaned and arched her back against the bed and stretched her arms up above her head as her biomon flashed online in her peripheral vision. Their room slowly became clear as her optics finished their calibration. 

Their mattress was worth every enny. David was right to splurge on it. “Wait…how did I get here?”

She didn’t remember getting into bed. Her last memory was of her goading David onto honking the horn on the new semi-truck gifted to them by Iris as Falco exited off the highway. 

That meant either David or Lucy had carried her to bed. She smiled at the thought. The last time someone had actually done that was when she was ten when Pilar carried her back to bed after…she couldn’t remember the rest. Or plain old didn’t want to. Her memories ended with the recollection of how sad her brother was in the morning after. I should go back and check up on him.

She yawned again, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, trying to get the grogginess out of them manually. 

She didn’t expect her yawn to be echoed by anyone, though. Rebecca turned and looked down at the sleeping form of David, tiredly rubbing his eyes as he laid on his stomach, his other hand sleepily pawing at one of the pillows. 

“Is it morning already?” he grumbled, huffing gently into the pillow under his head.

Rebecca cooed at the sight, rolling over and straddling his back. She pressed herself flush against his chrome spine. “Morning, Mr. Studd.”

That caused the young merc to chuckle with a deep growl, making her core ignite with warmth, “Morning, gremlin,” he cooed back, rolling his head to the side and shooting a glance to her over his shoulder, his hand reaching behind his back to pet her head. “What time is it?” 

She giggled, leaving a trail of feather-light kisses up his neck and ear. She gently gave it a teasing lick with her long tongue. “Time to make my skull laugh again?” she offered, resisting the urge to grind against him needily. 

David rolled over, managing to guide their bodies into a new position. She found herself straddling his lap as one of his hands cupped her waist, a thumb teasing just below her stomach while his other hand caressed the ‘PK DICK’ tattoo on her thigh, sending jolts of pleasure up her spine. 

She felt like she was about to melt from just his touch. 

Even the knowledge that they had places to be wasn’t enough to get her to stop. It didn’t matter what she… they were supposed to be doing. Her being on top of him was the only thing that mattered to her. Why get out of bed and start the day when we could spend the entire day in bed?  

“Tiny temptress…” he growled, gripping her waist tightly, urging her to grind against him a little harder. Her body shivered and her stomach fluttered with want. 

“Don’t talk like you aren’t any less tempting,” she whispered back, her voice thick with arousal. “C’mon, stuff me full already…” 

He laughed and sat up, capturing her lips with his, groaning into the deep and hungry kiss as she ground a little harder against his straining pants.

The fabric was in the way. She hated him for wearing so much in bed. Why couldn’t he just wear underwear, like she did?

Then, as he pulled back slowly, he stilled. Even his hand going for his belt stopped as he stared at something behind her. Becca pulled away and turned around in an attempt to see what caught his eye, and noticed that it was way past midday, according to the chrono projected onto the far wall

“Fuuuck…” he groaned disappointedly, slumping against her body. “We should get up. Maine and Pilar should be on their way here already.”

She grumbled under her breath, hugging him tightly. He was right. If they didn’t stop, her gonk of a brother could burst into the bedroom at any moment and see something she didn’t want him to see.

Knowing him, he’d probably start taking stills of them fucking for the family album. 

The thought killed the roaring heat in Becca and she grumbled, resting her head against the crook of David’s neck. “I hate it when you’re sensible…” 

He turned and kissed her neck, rubbing soft circles on her back. “ I’ll make it up to you later, I promise.”

“Fiiiiiine,” she breathed out, nuzzling against his side a little closer and clinging to him softly. “Better yet, let’s do it after we get the deed.”

She pulled back from his arms and gazed straight into his eyes. “Cause I wanna have a limp for a week after,” she added, following it up with another deep kiss.

The lust in his eyes she saw was enough of a promise for her, and the hunger he conveyed with his kiss was the cherry on top.

“We should probably go say hey to Lucy, too, huh?” he hummed as they decoupled after the kiss that left them panting, wanting more. 

After taking a few minutes to change into new clothes, wash up, and do their daily routine, Becca and David stepped into the elevator, sharing one more kiss before they stepped out to the living room floor. 

Lucy greeted them, sitting on the dining table with a mug of coffee in her hands, taking a slow sip as they walked into the living room. 

“Thought you’d sleep in a little more, honestly,” she mused with a soft smile, placing her coffee down and smiling at the two. 

David answered her with a deep kiss on the lips, resting his forehead against hers with a dopey smile on his face. “And miss seeing you under the afternoon sun? Never.” 

Rebecca rolled her eyes, unable to keep the smile off her face. “You’re a massive dork, you know that, right?” 

“Born and raised!” he boasted, turning to her with a grin, “Even Vik couldn’t chip that outta me even if he tried.” 

Lucy’s arm snaked around his waist, pulling him to her side and resting her head on his chest, looking up at him. “We’ve got guests. Behave yourself.” 

“Maine’s already here?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. 

Kiwi walked into the living room holding a smoothie, its straw jammed into one of the vents on her face, answering the question with her presence. “Not quite,” she drawled, her voice somewhat smug.  

She pulled the straw out, glaring at the man. “I want in.”

David's brain stuttered to a stop, and his lungs shoved out all the air they had in a massive incomprehensible heave. 

Becca’s face split into a mischievous grin.. “Blunt today, aren’t ya?” 

Kiwi turned to her, jammed the straw back into her vent and took a long, slow sip. 

David was still trying to get the air that was knocked out of his lungs back into his chest. Lucy giggled up at him and rubbed her hand up his stomach, pulling him out of his funk. “She’s messing with you, love.” 

That got his lungs to do what they were made to do, and shove the breath of life back into his system. “God, don’t hit me with that when I just woke up, Kiwi.” 

“Your reactions are cute, though,” the older netrunner intoned, a teasing glint visible in her eyes. “Nah, but for real. I want in.” She held up her hand, her cyberware projecting something neither Becca nor David expected. 

Kiwi’s eyes squinted as she smirked at the two—as well as she could without a mouth, at least. “While you gonks were screwing around in the badlands, big sis got their hands on the deed.” 

“Holy shit,” David blinked, looking at the hologram Kiwi was holding, then back at her face. “How…?” 

“Like it was hard,” Kiwi said sarcastically, flicking her hand and dismissing the projection. “Dorio and I were more than enough for the stealth op on that shitty excuse of a facility.” she gazed down at Rebecca, then back to David and Lucy. “I’m just surprised you all took an entire night just to get some plaster.”

David started laughing, not even sure where to start. “Yeah, we kinda got held up.”

Before Kiwi could react, he blinked back into real time next to her, lifting her off the ground with a massive bear hug. “You’re the best, Kiwi!” 

“Hey, none of that mushy shit!” the older woman growled, but didn’t fight back, one of her arms hooked around his neck to keep her balance, still holding her smoothie, her other hand gripping his shoulder tightly. “I didn’t do this for the charity, Martinez!” 

“Then for what? More ‘heat pad ’ time?” Becca teased.

“No,” Kiwi grumbled as David finally let her down. “I want a floor here. My old netrunner den needs to move. My old location went to shit, and I ain't about to move the whole setup back home.”

“So just practically free,” Becca teased further, leaning down with her hands on her hips with a smug smirk on her lips.

Kiwi shrugged and shoved the straw into her vent, then paused and looked back at David. “Okay, but seriously. How did the “ Infamous Delta-D” here take a whole night to get the concrete from a dumb factory?” 

The other three blinked and then looked at each other, starting to crack up. Rebecca fell on her ass from laughing too hard.  

Kiwi raised an eyebrow, utterly lost. “What's so funny?” 

“Any new fixers?” Pilar asked as Maine exited the freeway.

“Too many,” Maine responded, sighing and rubbing the side of his face. “Everyone wants a piece of us after the thing with Rogue spread. I’m still trying to pick a trusty one. Why did ya blow everything that last gig got us already?” their leader asked, shooting a glance at the techie. “Your little project cost that much?” 

“Nah, just making small talk,” Pilar answered noncommittally, leaning back and wrenching his arms over his seat, cupping his hands behind his head. “Don’t tell lil’ bro what it is, though. I wanna surprise him with it.” 

Maine laughed, taking the turn towards Yaiba tower. “Are you gonna tell him it’s a wedding gift?” 

“Shiiit, that would work!” Pilar laughed, a wide grin spreading across his face. “That’s why you’re the boss, big man!” 

“I try,” Maine sighed with mock humility, finally pulling into the parking lot of the tower. He paused as a new vehicle got his attention: a large semi truck that he didn’t recognize. “Uh…you recognize that model, Pilar?”

Pilar bent forward, his visor flashing brightly. “What in the fuck…?”

Maine parked the Emperor in an empty spot and hesitantly stepped out of the armored SUV. “Did they say they were gonna klep a hauler in the op?” 

Pilar got out of the car after his boss, scratching his head as he scanned the vehicle devoid of any emblems. “Couldn’t be from the op, this baby is nothing like the haulers I know…and too small to be one from the NightCorp factory, anyway. Hell, it’s too small to be any brand of semi on the market…”

The older cyberpunk shrugged and stepped a little too close to the questionable vehicle, and the semi suddenly roared to life in response. All the lights on it flashed on, the cockpit windows locking down with thick metal shutters, a siren blaring to life.

“Goddamn!” Maine screamed over the sirens, both hands on his ears trying to keep his hearing intact. “Feisty beast ain’t she!?” 

“What?!” Pilar shouted back, unable to hear the massive man over the alarm, stumbling away from the foreign vehicle. 

Then the semi suddenly beeped, and the alarms stopped, the metal curtains over the windows lifting with a soft whirr. Pilar would’ve blinked with shock at the sight if he still had the capability. 

The techie was about to ask why it had stopped so suddenly, but he didn’t even get to open his mouth before David shot out from the door leading to the elevator. The young edgerunner stopped in his tracks as he recognized that it was just Pilar and Maine, his hand rising from its spot on his back, leaving his gun in its holster.  

“God, sorry about that, chooms. Didn’t know it even had an alarm.” He explained, sighing with relief. 

Maine shook his head and made popping sounds with his mouth in an effort to get the ringing out of his ears. “What?” 

David blinked and called the two of them on holo instead. “Sorry, new car. Still figuring out all the bells and whistles it has.” 

Pilar rubbed his ears, rebooting them as he started walking back towards the car. His hands reached out, but he stopped just short of touching the chassis as he shot a look back at David. “Where did you even get this, bro?” 

David smirked at them impishly. 

“A friend modified it for me.” 

Maine blinked, turned to Pilar, then back at David, pulling his glasses off his face. “A friend ?” 

David grinned even wider, glancing at the semi and commanding it to open its trunk.

Instead of a trunk opening, the entire behind of the semi hissed, hydraulic arms lifting the right half of the container attached to its back up and around the chassis, gently resting it on the empty ground next to the semi, giving them all easy access to its contents as the top corner unfolded and revealed the neatly packed supplies.

David blinked. “Goddamn, Iris is the best.” 

Maine pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing. “Who the hell is Iris ?”

“Just to reiterate,” Pilar huffed as he held up a flame against the last of the  heat shrink for the new door, the wire coat tightening around the newly soldered wires. His job done, he turned to face David. “You went out to grab construction materials, found out that the entire NightCorp manufactory was run by a rogue AI, and befriended it.” 

Maine raised a finger, his arms still crossed. “And got a new truck out of it, too.” 

David nodded. “And Becca named it. Not the craziest thing that happened around me.”

Pilar slumped, his hands falling to the ground. “I hate how that’s not inaccurate.” 

David smirked. “Guess I’m just built different . Eh, bro?” 

Pilar breathed in, then huffed out, slumping down a little more. “Cheeky li’l…” 

Maine laughed, setting down the bag of plaster he was carrying and walking up to the new door Pilar had just finished installing. Reaching up, he knocked on one of the back columns that decorated the new metal door. “That ain’t going anywhere…” he hummed, before looking back at David. “And I’m guessing this is a gift from Iris, too?” 

“Where else would I find a door this preem?” David asked, looking at how well the thick steel door matched the doorway. Matte-black steel ribs with shiny chrome plates between the seams shone in the neon lights of the hallway, looking tough enough to handle any intrusion attempts while still being stylish. “It did a great job matching the architecture.”

“I’ll say,” Maine huffed, then clapped the smaller man on the back before reaching up and messing with his hair. “Look at you, making the best home for your girls.”

David blushed at the statement, averting his eyes shyly. “It's what they deserve.”

“preach, lil bro" Pilar mumbled as he stood up. “Aight, time to patch up the inner walls…but first.” he clapped a hand over David and pushed him forward. “Take it on a test drive, choom!” 

David grinned and reached out with his cyberware. The moment he pinged the controls, the mechanical door hummed, the chrome curtains sliding up and revealing the locking mechanism. Heavy pins fit for a safe rolled in their tracks, joints rotated, and the door gave a hydraulic hiss as it opened. The black metal columns slid to the side, revealing the outside world.  

David looked out at the empty alleyway that led to their home with a grin, then back at the crew behind him. “Fuckin’ nova, right?” 

Maine and Pilar nodded, impressed. 

“C’mon, Iris hooked us up with some more preem shit downstairs,” David giddily added, stepping back as the door slammed shut and locked tightly behind him. 

“Slow down, son. Gotta patch up the wall first,” Maine chided, happy to see the young man so excited. 

Dorio and Falco had joined them by the time sun had set, the entire crew laughing and drinking as they snacked on food reheated on an actual stove. Yet another gift from their ‘machine-choom’.

“A goddamn garden,” Maine laughed, tossing his head back. “You’re gonna build a fuckin’ garden indoors?” 

“Hey, it’d be guarded as fuck!” David added, speech slurred slightly. “Got all the things I need from our machine-choom in the badlands!”

Lucy laughed, snuggling into his side. “A hydroponic farm? Do you even know how to make one of those, Davie?” 

He shrugged with a dopey grin. “We’ll make it work, we always do. Besides, wouldn’t you like fresh veggies?”

“Shit like this!” Becca hollered, slamming the table “Is why I love this goddamn gonk so much.” 

“Amen, sis!” Pilar added with a giddy giggle, clearly buzzed as well. “Now you two go make me an uncle!” 

The table burst out into laughter at that, Maine almost falling back on his chair before Dorio stopped him by gripping the back of his chair. 

She grinned, shaking her head as she turned to face David. “You know farms are illegal, right?” 

Kiwi hummed, tapping the table with a long finger. “Not to mention all the gang wars over that stuff…” 

David ignored their concerns. “It’ll be too small for any of em to care! Besides, how would they know? Who’s gonna snoop around in Rogue’s territory?”

“There is this insane son-of-a-gun…” Falco hummed with a drunken grin. “What was his name…I think it was...Deibido something...?” 

The table shared another wave of laughter, David rolling his eyes and almost fell out of his seat trying to point at Falco in protest. 

Dorio hummed and took a slow sip. “I suppose you aren’t wrong about no one else trying shit here…” 

Kiwi looked out the window and out at the Japantown skyline. “Fine. But I want some fresh salad.”

The entire table broke out into another bout of laughter.

Chapter Text

He awoke yet again to the high-pitched beeping from Sandy. 

David groaned and opened his eyes slowly, feeling a strange sense of déjà-vu. He sighed as he lifted himself into a seated position, ignoring the beeping coming from his spine. As his vision cleared, he realized that he was back in their bedroom, clothes haphazardly tossed around on the floor while he was being cuddled by Lucy and Becca. Kiwi was laying on one of the couches in the little BD/book nook they’d built inside the bedroom, still fast asleep. 

He rubbed his eyes, trying to alleviate his pounding headache. His mouth stung, and his throat felt like he had eaten a wire brush. Dehydration and a hangover, most likely. Goddamn, I drank way too much last night…

He grumbled quietly as another beep from Sandy urged him onto his feet. Activating time dilation as he did so, he carefully slipped out from between the arms of his outputs, being extra careful to make sure he didn’t end up getting tangled up in the covers. He had learned his lesson, given what happened at Kiwi’s house.

The use of his chrome only caused his headache to worsen, so he let the dilation fade, groaning softly and rubbing his forehead tenderly. He paused and looked out the window, seeing the sun start to peek up over the Badlands to the east, rays of sunlight streaking through the Japantown skyline. Dawn greeted him brightly, and he was mesmerized by its beauty. 

Night City was the city that never slept, but even it tended to lull into a dull quiet during sunrise. He was half-tempted to wake Lucy and Becca to share the dreamlike scenery with them, but looking back at them, he quickly dismissed the idea. He wasn’t willing to disturb the serene beauty of his outputs lit by the rising sun, so he took a second to get a still of the moment instead, before eventually heading out of the bedroom.

He failed immediately. His Sandy pestered him with another beep, and the sound caused Kiwi to stir and roll over in her sleep. Time slowed again as David barely managed to stumble his way forward and catch her before she fell off the couch and hit the ground. Time resumed as she was safely in his arms. Not a second later, her eyes snapped open. 

Kiwi scowled at him as he held her in a princess carry, her eyes widening as she realized their position. She attempted to tear him a new one for the embarrassment, her hand rising up and grabbing his shoulder, but as she tried to speak, words failed her, and the only sound that came out was a sickly heave. 

“Bathroom,” she panted, her other hand clamping down on her vent. 

David panicked and rushed her over to the master bathroom in a blink, the dislocation making Kiwi shudder and heave again.  

In the end, he found himself holding Kiwi’s mouthpiece as the woman retched into the toilet, panting against the porcelain bowl as she emptied the contents of her stomach into it. He grimaced as the woman shuddered at bile dripping out of her chrome jaw, a shaky hand rubbing a wad of toilet paper against the metal insert. He would’ve helped if he knew how.  

“How much did we drink last night?” she panted, heaving one last time as her other hand finally let go of the seat.

“I don’t know,” he responded, his throat feeling like it was on fire. His Sandy punctuated his statement with another beep. “ Shut up for a second” He hissed under his breath. Sandy beeped again uncaringly. 

“Ugh. I’m done,” Kiwi grumbled, leaning back and away from the bowl as she flushed it. “Need some water now, though…” 

“Same. We should have some in the kitchen,” David grumbled, eyeing the sink. He decided that he was going to ask Iris for an industrial-sized filter when he got the chance, just so they could have clean tap water throughout the building. 

Kiwi shot a look back at him and held her hand out expectantly. “Mask.” 

He nodded hesitantly, getting a good look at her uncovered face. She had an unreadable expression in her eyes, and the lack of her mask made her look even more alien than usual. 

Not that he minded. 

Her eyes hardened, and she glared back at him. “What? Don’t like what you see?” 

He tilted his head slightly, fascinated by how the chrome that made up the lower half of her face moved as she spoke. A beep from Sandy pulled him out of his trance, and he gently placed her mask in her waiting hand. “Sorry, just…” 

He didn’t know how to explain himself, his eyes still glued to the gap inher face. “...First time seeing what’s under your mask.” 

“Should I leave so you can get sick?” she offered with venom in her voice. “I know it’s disgusting.” 

David shook his head. “Not at all. You’re pretty, mask or not.” 

Kiwi tilted her head, looking at him disbelievingly as she pushed the mask against her face, a mechanical click escaping as the internal mechanisms locked it into place. “You got a chrome fetish, kid?” 

David shook his head and looked away, suddenly feeling self-conscious about watching her so closely. “No? Look, it’s not gross, okay? You’re pretty.” 

Kiwi laughed dryly, getting to her feet. “Whatever you say, degenerate .” 

“Aw, c’mon!” 

The two of them had fallen into a comfortable silence as they stepped into the elevator, with Pilar’s unconscious body leaning on one of the corners of the cabin. “...Did everyone just crash here?”

Kiwi shrugged, rubbing her neck. “Just hope it’s only the crew in here.” 

Pilar mumbled “Unkie is here…” in his sleep, but didn’t move from his spot, his face pressed against the corner as the elevator traveled down. 

The two silently stepped out of the cabin one story lower. David peered into the living room, seeing Maine and Dorio cuddled on the couch, the massive furniture barely holding the two equally massive edgerunners off the ground. 

David smiled and shook his head, wondering if Falco was still somewhere in the tower, as well.

Kiwi glanced at him as he entered the kitchen, then turned away with a groan as she scanned the massive fridge once more. “Out of water. Just more booze, if you want that.”

David grumbled. The Sandy beeped on his back angrily. 

“‘Your chrome on the fritz?” she questioned, shutting the fridge and walking over to him. She flicked the topmost vertebra of the Sandevistan. The metal on the nape of his neck rang from the impact. “Want me to take a look?” 

“Nah, it does that sometimes,” he explained, waving her worry off and rubbing the back of his head. “I’m fine, just thirsty as hell.” 

“Well, sorry. I never thought you’d appreciate the peep show,” Kiwi teased, squinting her eyes at him—her way of grinning smugly. 

David groaned and sighed, deciding it was not worth the effort to argue. He was just too parched for that anyway. “You think the Afterlife is open now?” 

“...You’re gonna go there for water? ” Kiwi asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Hey, you can wait here if you want. I need something before my throat actually tries to kill me,” David huffed, looking down to inspect his clothes. He still had his pants on; he just needed his coat and he’d be good to go.

“Nah, I’m tagging along. I wanna see the bartender cuss you out,” Kiwi responded with a smirk in her voice, then gave herself a once-over, pinching her skintight netrunner suit and tugging at it softly, and letting it snap back into place. “...Did you see my shoes, by any chance?” 

“Martinez.” 

The boy flinched, eyes locking onto Rogue as she lounged casually in her booth. The old woman smiled as she beckoned them over, enjoying how panicked the man looked, just a little. Not many still had such expressive eyes in the Afterlife, and getting to tease one that so openly showed his emotions made her feel just a little younger. 

“Y-yeah?” he responded, his voice scratchier than usual, part of her questioned if the young merc had picked up smoking. Seemingly the state of his voice also caused him concern, and he rubbed his throat uncomfortably.

Something on him beeped, causing both her bodyguard, Weyland, and the tall netrunner next to him to quickly turn to him, clearly alarmed. The large man’s hand went to his concealed carry, only letting go when Rogue waved him off. Her gaze never left the young edgerunner, silently demanding an explanation. 

David smiled sheepishly, still rubbing his neck. “Sorry about that, long party last night, need some water.” 

Rogue shook her hand dismissively, and Weyland headed to the fridge. She kept her eyes on the young fool that had decided to make a home on her turf, nodding towards the booth. David seemingly got the message and bowed his head slightly, heading over and sitting down opposite her.

Looking back at the netrunner that had followed him in, she repeated the gesture. “You, too,” Rogue hummed, tapping the table. 

The netrunner silently protested, but did as she was told, sitting down next to David and crossing her arms. Weyland returned soon after, setting two bottles of water down in front of their guests.

David chugged it like a man coming back from a week out in the Badlands. The netrunner looked at it longingly, but refused to take her mask off to drink it. Fucking cosplayers…

“You know why you’re here?” Rogue asked, keeping her best poker face on.

David looked back, then looked at her guard “Uh…not sure yet, no. Can we get a straw for Kiwi, please?”

Rogue chuckled dryly and nodded, gesturing at her guard to fulfill the request. “Heard you were rolling around with new wheels. Are you starting any trouble?” 

David blinked at her owlishly, his eyebrows scrunching. “When you say trouble…”

“Stealing Nomad cars.” Rogue postulated. “Don’t have a lot of them living in Night City, but they run every smuggling operation in and out of here. Can’t have you pissing them off.”

“Oh! Yeah, no, none of that,” David sighed, relaxing in his seat. “That’s not Nomad-made. You can ask your contacts.” 

Rogue narrowed her eyes. “Explain.” 

Kiwi turned to him to say something but stopped as the straw was handed to her. The woman dropped the subject entirely, instead focusing back on the bottle. Fiddling with the plastic tube just a little before shoving it through the vent on her face and taking a long sip of water. 

David smiled at the sight, then turned back to Rogue, glancing at the rest of the empty bar before leaning in a little. “Got it from the NightCorp factory. Long story.” 

Rogue blinked. “You tryin’ to bring out corpo wrath over a joyride?” 

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Well, a friend in NightCorp built it for us. I doubt they’d even know it was theirs, even if I tailgated them with it.” 

Rogue sighed, tapping her glass. “How the hell have you survived this long?” 

Kiwi answered for him. “Dumb luck.”

David looked offended, but didn’t deny the accusation, slumping into his chair with a defeated sigh escaping his lips. “Look, you wouldn’t believe me, even if I told you the whole story. Would it be too much to ask for you to trust me?” 

It honestly was, but the kid had a good track record when it came to keeping his nose clean. Besides, it just gave Rogue even more leverage against them. “Trust is earned, baby merc,” The queen said, giving him the laws of the land.

“Anything I could do to earn it, then?” 

Kiwi’s eyes widened. She shot him an incredulous look. Rogue could only chuckle softly at the way the kid had practically asked for a job from her. 

Not too many had the balls.

“Maelstrom needs a little culling,” she answered simply, quickly forwarding him a location. “Get it done, and you might get my trust.”

David nodded, glancing away from her—probably at his HUD. “Anything we should look out for? Hostages? Gear to klep?” 

Rogue shrugged. If they were going to be useful down the line, they had to be able to think on their feet. “Go find out.” 

Kiwi slapped him upside the head as they exited the bar. 

David turned to her with a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his head. “Hey, it worked out!” 

She glared at the gonk harder, then huffed and closed her eyes. “I don’t know how you keep doing the shit you do, but you need to stop acting like you’re chooms with the Queen of the fucking Afterlife. ”

“She didn’t seem to mind,” David objected, crossing his arms, “and hey, we got a gig.” 

“For no pay ,” Kiwi added, frowning at him the best she could. “Are you really gonna risk your life for nothing?” 

David shrugged and turned back to Yaiba Tower. “We’ll get the bounties, and we can sell off their weapons. Plus, Becca will enjoy a shootout.” 

Kiwi grumbled silently again, rubbing her forehead. “I’m gonna choke you one day.” 

“Oh, now who’s the degen?” he teased, smirking at her. 

Kiwi slapped him upside the head again. 

“How the hell did you drag me into this mess?” Kiwi grumbled, glaring at the abandoned warehouse not that far into the badlands housing the Maelstrom infestation Rogue wanted exterminated.  

David rolled his eyes. “Lucy said she needed to sweep the net for Arasaka, and we need a netrunner to scout ahead.” 

Becca giggled as she loaded her weapon, grinning gleefully. “Hey, at least we get to go on a Maelstrom massacre.” 

Kiwi glanced at the shorter woman. “You need therapy.” 

Becca blew a raspberry. “Don’t care. Now tell us where we gotta shoot.”

Kiwi grumbled, but reached out into the net regardless, scanning the building for any signs of activity. One ping later, she had what she needed. 

“Around eighty Maelstrom, some chrome jockeys out back, and a lot of corpses, I think,” she counted off, looking back at the other two. “You two just gonna run in and clear the joint?” 

David looked up at her, then back down at Becca. “How many corners do you think the corps cut in the warehouses out here?”

Her mouth split into a manic grin that Kiwi decidedly hated.

Turning to David, the netrunner squinted, trying to make sure that he got that she wasn’t amused with every fiber of her being, “How, exactly, is that rel—?”

“Seatbelts,” he announced, cutting her off. He leaned back in the driver’s seat, buckling the robust five-belt harness onto himself. Becca let out a laugh and scrambled back into her own. 

Kiwi’s chest tightened when she saw David push the gear stick out of park, and she grabbed the grab handle above her and held on for dear life. 

The semi’s lights blinked on, and it rolled out from behind the rocky outcropping, turning sharply to face the hideout. David slammed on the throttle, and the motor gave a loud electric whirr in response. The massive vehicle quickly accelerated to speeds that betrayed its bulk, pushing them all back against the seats. It felt like a space shuttle taking off—the only thing missing was the rumble from the thrusters. 

The vehicle tore through the debris-ridden path like it was nothing. They couldn’t even feel the uneven ground under them as its heavy suspension absorbed all the bumps and dips in the unpaved dirt, giving them a ride Kiwi only imagined possible with hover-tech as the nearly ten-ton machine surpassed speeds even the nomads wouldn’t dare to drive.

David was cackling the entire time, not caring even as they blitzed past the warning signs erected by the gang. They barreled into the detection range of the Maelstrom base, practically screaming their arrival.  

Somehow, the chrome-junkie guards still managed to miss the tricked-out semi truck blasting towards them, only spotting them as the hulking machine drove through the flimsy chain link fence. They quickly raised their weapons, but the intermediate-caliber bullets they greeted the crew with did nothing. Lead bounced off the body of the semi like drops of rain as they barreled forward.

“What the hell is this thing made of!?” Kiwi screamed, stuck in a roller coaster ride that she never signed up for, her hand practically trying to rip the grab handle out of its mount. 

It didn’t budge. The entire semi was built like a Basilisk tank, down to the last bolt.

“With love from a rogue AI!” David hollered giddily, not even bothering to slow down. “Preem ride, ain’t it?” 

“Fucking hit the brakes already!” Kiwi shouted back, growing more panicked as the semi took another hairpin turn, the suspension groaning as it counterbalanced against the inertia, forcing the chassis to lean into it as David took the sharp corner without slowing down. She might’ve been impressed if she could still think clearly.

Martinez apparently did not share her concerns, driving straight for the gangoons that had managed to dodge out of the way. Rebecca reached over and hit the horn, causing the semi to belt out the first few cords of La Cucaracha as it caught up to the fleeing Maelstrom guards. The cabin didn’t even bounce as the guards turned into speedbumps. David took another sharp turn and faced the warehouse once more, throttle still maxed out. 

Kiwi’s grip on the handle turned even whiter. “Brakes, kid! Brakes!” 

He pointedly didn’t listen to her, keeping his foot on the gas like a lead weight. Taking his hand off the steering wheel he slammed on a button on the dashboard, and the semi chittered noisily as thick metal plates started sliding out from all around, quickly covering the windows and blocking out the view of the wall of the warehouse approaching alarmingly fast.

Being unable to see only made it worse. 

David slammed on the horn once more and Kiwi screamed as the semitruck crashed against the wall, but did not stop. Another crash followed as the hauler crushed multiple walls before David finally let off the throttle and switched to the brakes,causing the truck to come to a screeching halt. 

Kiwi panted breathlessly, trying to get her heartbeat back under control, slowly opening her eyes, looking around the inside of the semi’s cabin. She let out a huff and turned to glare at David. “I’m gonna kill you. I’m gonna kill you and make it hurt .” 

He shrugged and pulled the door handle on his side, allowing a cloud of dirt and dust into the vehicle. “Stay frosty in here. We’ll make it quick.” 

Becca hopped out after him with a cackle. The door slid closed after her exit, all the armored plating locking back into place ensuring her safety. She placed a hand over her chest, inhaling slowly. Well. since I’m already here…

She reached out into the net and got to work.

They didn’t know what hit them. 

The panic David’s little stunt caused was more than worth it for the element of surprise alone. The rush of adrenaline it had brought her was just a happy little byproduct. 

Becca roared with laughter as her guns fired in a harsh staccato, getting a chorus of Maelstrom screams in turn. David was blinking in and out of time nearby, dropping bodies left and right as the baton in his hands grew increasingly weathered from all the skulls it was bashing in. 

That was when the chrome jockeys made themselves known. 

Becca barely even saw them, but David had already pulled her out of the way just before an inhuman-looking beast landed heavily in the spot she was just standing in with a mechanical roar. 

Her eyes widened at the sight, looking at the monstrously mechanical men. “Fucking cyberpsychos?” 

David glared at the three that stood in front of them, then his mouth stretched into an amused smirk. “And they’ve got Sandevistans, too.” 

Becca blinked, then smiled up at him. “I’ll take care of the rest, you rip those fuckers apart.” 

“Music to my ears. Kiwi, paint us some targets.” David chimed, tossing his black shirt off and getting into a boxing stance. 

The three Maelstrom freaks growled back, the first of them rushing forward toward David at a speed that should’ve been impossible for anything that big. 

Rebecca didn’t even need to worry. David suddenly appeared upon his arm, slamming a heavy right hook into its chromed-out head, leaving an indent on the borg’s face. 

David hopped off the goliath's shoulder and landed in between all three. Glaring daggers at them all, he let out a roar, forcefully grabbing their attention.

“You two are insane , and I want off this fuckin’ ride,” Kiwi grumbled into Becca’s holo as she turned her back to the cyberpsychos. “Marking all targets now. End this fast, if you know what's good for you.” 

“Aw, and here I wanted to savor it!” Becca whined, turning and spraying bullets at one of the nearby glowing silhouettes, rushing away from the borgs still trying to touch David.

It had been too long since David had been in an actual fight. 

He sidestepped another punch from a four-armed cyberpsycho, ducking under a kick from its comrade, not even building up a sweat. 

Sandy was making things too easy. Unlike Tanaka, these gonks wouldn’t have been able to touch him, even if he was hooked up to a BD. 

Even with their own Sandevistans, they were just too slow, moving only barely faster than the average pistol round. And just like the lead slowly swimming through the air around him, the cyberpsychos couldn’t graze him. The closest any of them got was the one cyberpsycho who had piston-assisted fists, but it couldn’t figure out how to use that to its advantage. 

So, David decided to experiment.

Dashing back, he reached down and grabbed a decently sized piece of rubble, rotating it in his hand until he had a solid grip on it. 

He knew physics. The acceleration of an object times its mass equaled the force it had.

He gripped the chunk of concrete tightly and pulled his arm back. The Sandy on his back beeped once more as its time-dilation became even more severe.

Then, he repeated what separated man from animal eons ago.

He threw a rock.

The piece of concrete broke the sound barrier, the shockwave rippling out between him and the borgs as it started tearing apart from the friction. The chunk of concrete struck a little lower than he had hoped, missing the closest borg's head and instead hitting it in the chest. 

Its effect was no less devastating. It blasted through the borg’s body with ease, blowing out meat, bone, and chrome on the other side, shrapnel showering the other two behind it.

David blinked, and time resumed, the borg in front of him attempted to stand up for a little bit longer but its ribcage could no longer support its chromed out head, its body crushing into itself as it fell onto its knees. 

It fell back, dead.

“...Well, that works.” 

The sounds of war around her died down quickly. Kiwi was still sabotaging the comms of the Maelstrom gangoons as the truck hissed again. The door folded open and David and Becca slid back into their seats. 

Kiwi disconnected from the subnet. “There. Can we go, now?” 

David grumbled quietly, and tossed the Semi into reverse, looking down at the screen on the dashboard for the view of the back. They backed out the same way they came in—much more slowly, this time.

“Too easy,” Becca grumbled, voicing his complaints. “It's no fun when they don’t put up a fight.” 

“...Yeah, killing people isn’t supposed to be fun,” Kiwi grumbled, shooting them a look. 

David shrugged. “Calling them people is kinda pushing it. You know what these guys do.” 

Kiwi paused, then nodded, conceding the point. “Eh, alright, vaguely human-shaped.”

Rebecca shrugged. “Even then. Killing things that deserve it should be cathartic. Can’t even have that in this shitty city.”

Kiwi looked down at the little ex-Mox. “Don’t get smart with me.” 

Becca shot her a smirk. 

David hit the same button as the metal curtains of the semi lifted, pulling a J-turn out of the warehouse, and heading towards the route back to Night City. 

“Not gonna klep their iron?” Kiwi inquired, asking more out of habit than actual curiosity. She wasn’t itching to sit around as the two played vulture. 

David shook his head. “Nah. They didn’t have anything worth the time. This entire thing just felt a little too easy for a gig from Rogue.” 

Becca’s head snapped to him “Wait, Rogue fixed this one?”

A sleepy groan cut off their conversation. All three of them turned around and looked back at the small space in the cabin, just behind the seats.

Falco rolled around, turning his back to the three with a grumble. “Five more minutes.”

Chapter Text

Pilar had turned the warehouse into a goddamn forge.

He’d managed to alloy the tungsten with a high-carbon steel base, forming something similar to the alloy Arasaka used in the bodies of the mechanical arms that worked inside their factories. He hadn’t stopped there, though; he’d also cut a hole into the new material, breaking most of his drill bits in the process. 

He could only smile at the memory. What he was building was so strong that even just machining it was pushing his gear to the limit. 

He shoved in a cooled piece of low carbon steel in the middle, letting the materials forge-weld as they reached thermal equilibrium once more. 

Then came the hard part. 

He’d hammered, ground and shaped the blade to perfection, appreciating his hands throughout every step of the process. His gold-plated digits survived the abuse of high-heat and the impacts from his less-than-graceful hammer strikes. 

It had taken him a week alone to form the blade into a serviceable shape, and would only get harder from there.  

He’d burned through belt after belt of sandpaper, his grinding wheel groaning every time he pushed the tungsten-steel blade against it, but it managed to get the job done.

Quenching was when he really pushed his gear past the limit. He’d nearly set the entire place on fire as he pushed the furnace to temperatures it was never built for, waiting for the tungsten alloy to glow that perfect sunset hue to ensure the blade would hold its sharpness. Once it did, he grabbed the blade by its tang with his bare hands, gold-plated digits holding onto it delicately as he checked if the blade was still straight with a laser guide, slowly lowering it into an oil bath after passing it. 

He grinned as he locked it onto a vice for it to cool down.  

Just you wait, lil bro.

Pilar rubbed the tip of the blade against the whetstone in a steady repetition, feeling the progress under his grip with every single pass. He had ground the rest of the bevel, and only the tip still needed to be ground to complete the build. And after one last pull, he knew it was done. 

He grabbed it by the tang and lifted it up with one hand. The edge reflected him like a mirror, streaks of yellow from his vizor refracting its glossy finish. 

He grinned, scanning the edge up and down with his optics, trying to pinpoint any divots or pockmarks on the piece of metal he was pouring his soul into. There were none.

He waved it slightly, feeling the weight of the blade. It was heavier than any he’d seen on the market, given its materials, but he was sure David could still use it with ease. He just needed to balance it properly. 

He grinned as he turned to the rest of the materials he’d set in the corner: copper and electronics, awaiting their turn.

===

He grinned as the copper melted into the channels he’d etched into the katana’s bevels, letting go of the breath he was holding as he finished inlaying the metal. The circuits were barely visible to the naked eye—he had needed to zoom in as far as he could with his optics just to clearly see what he was doing—but he managed to properly set the materials without having to grind them down at all. He let the copper cool and forge-weld into the channels he’d carved into the cheek of the blade, the tips curving downward to a row of points halfway down the bevel, spaced mere centimeters apart.  

Each inlay was only a micron thick, not useful for anything beyond conducting electricity, but that was all they needed to be.

He flipped the blade to make sure that the opposing side hadn’t been damaged in the process, grinning at his handiwork as he saw that side’s inlay was still perfectly fine. Satisfied, he placed the blade into its new grip, locking the katana into the handle he’d built with a steel pin.

He grabbed the scabbard David had given him, remade in fire and painted in the same hi-vis paint the young merc wore religiously, and attached a set of batteries to its new robust form, enclosed in bulky, hexagonal plates affixed just behind the mouth of the scabbard. 

Smirking, he slowly slid the blade into its new home, locking it into place with a resounding click. He waited for a moment and watched the little LED he’d installed in the grip start to flash, glowing a steady white as the blade charged fully. 

He unsheathed it out as fast as he could, only just glimpsing the little sparks of electricity running through the copper before they dissipated. Capacitors built into the grip could only provide a current for so long, especially with the deadly amperage he’d forced the output into with the transistors attached to the spine of the blade.  

Sure, the blade couldn’t hold the charge for long, but the capacitors would recharge fast. And unlike the techie, David would have more than enough time to make use of the deadly lightning captured within the sword. 

He sheathed the blade once more, looking at the form once more. The handle was in the same hi-vis color as the sheath, making it all blend together. It would be hard to spot between the fabric of the coat David wore around his waist, hidden in plain sight. With the last piece of the puzzle—the harness he’d built—the weapon would be out of the way of his legs, too.

He still needed to thank Rebecca for telling him the circumference of David’s waist.   

He looked down at his handiwork with a manic grin, crossing his arms pridefully. He’d perfected it; a one-of-a-kind weapon, usable only by a one-of-a-kind gonk.

He grew giddy, letting out a giggle at the thought of seeing it in action. He’d have to have David test it out for him. Pilar stood up, shoved the sword into a duffel bag, and ran out the door. 

He had a feeling David would be just as excited as he was.

Lucy sighed, slowly rising out of the bathtub. Arasaka had sent out people to try and dig into whatever they could find for anyone with a Sandevistan, but they were way off base, and any action she might’ve taken would just garner unwanted attention from the megacorporation. So, instead, she did something she never thought she’dd do. 

She started building ICE. 

It was funny to think about. Even after all this time living, with all the skills she’d gathered in her life and on the net, she’d never actually built ICE—only destroyed it.  

Now, as they built their home, she found herself wanting to create something to keep them safe from threats unseen in realspace. David had set them up with the hardware, and now she was helping with the software. 

It was her first time, but with all of her experience with ICE, she’d managed to at least partially emulate Tanaka’s ICE around the controls of their front door. It was a good start, to be certain, but she wouldn’t feel safe leaving it up for too long. She’d have to tinker with it more down the line. 

Maybe I should ask Kiwi for help…

With that thought on her mind, she finally stepped out of the tub, reaching out and drying her body off with the towels she’d set down previously. 

Where are they, anyway?

Her holo chimed as the garage sent her an alert. A new vehicle had apparently arrived at their doorstep. She raised an eyebrow as she checked the feed.

Instead of the semi, she was greeted by a bright pink MaiMai. 

Rebecca should be with David, so…Pilar?

She shook her head and finished drying up before throwing on some casual clothes. The man hadn’t even attempted a pass at her since the cyberpsycho incident, but that didn’t make it any less weird to be nude around him. Netrunner skinship or not, she’d never quite gotten used to him ogling her. Now, even with his perverted nature dulled, she still couldn’t get quite as comfortable nude around him as the rest of the crew. 

Pilar nearly ripped the scissor gate off the elevator as he rushed in, his other hand tightly holding a duffel bag. “Bro! I got your wedding gift done!” 

Lucy pulled the hem of her shirt—stolen from David—down one more time and blinked at him. “He’s not back yet.” 

Pilar’s shoulders slumped as he groaned, setting the bag down slowly. “Still at that gig? What’s taking them so fuckin’ long?”

Lucy shrugged, then remembered what Rebecca had told her about her brother and looked a little closer at him. 

“When was the last time you ate?” 

Pilar’s stomach growled loudly. 

“Do you attract trouble?!” Kiwi screeched, her hand locked back onto the grab handle once more. 

“Well, that would explain how he ended up with me.” Becca responded, a smile on her face. “C’mon, it’s not that bad.” 

“I’m pretty sure getting in a car chase with Raffen Shiv is bad!” Kiwi shot back, glaring at the cars that were surrounding the semi. David only laughed. 

“Relax, I drove this thing through a warehouse.” he reminded her—as if she needed to be reminded of that—keeping his eyes on the road. “I think we can handle some Nomad outcasts.” 

Bullets started pinging off the chassis of the semi as the Raffen escalated their attempts to capture the vehicle. 

Kiwi glared back at him, then looked over at Falco, who was still laying down in the space behind the seats. “At least let Falco drive.” 

Falco grumbled sleepily, rolling over. “Kid’s got it. Ain’t his first rodeo.” 

“This is the second time he’s driving in this wasteland!” Kiwi argued but Falco was snoring again already.  

“ Exactly. Not my first rodeo,” David grinned cheekily. 

“Ooh, is that a fucking harpoon? ” Rebecca asked, looking down to the rearview camera feed on the dashboard in front of her. “That’s some preem medieval shit!” 

Kiwi sighed, looked forward, and sighed once again. “Just do your crazy bullshit.” 

David cackled, gripping the handle of the handbrake yanking it back.

“Harpoons awa—”

Suddenly the hauler’s brake disks glowed red under the chassis as they screeched, the hulking machine braking hard as its wheels dug into the sand of the Badlands.

Not one of their pack could’ve imagined their prey actually slowing down so suddenly after fleeing for so long, and the harpoon truck was too close to avoid collision, unable to react fast enough to swerve out of the way. The front of the Raffen vehicle crashed into the back of the semi, wedging between the wheels and the thick pipes that formed its back bumper.

Then, as quickly as it had slowed down, the suspension of the hauler retracted, causing the back end to suddenly slam down onto the hood of the harpoon truck with all the weight of the opposing vehicle, crushing the smaller trucks's front end like it was made out of tinfoil, engine block and all.

The Raffen could only watch as the truck was flattened under the prey, its bumper catching a rock jutting out the sands and flipped, igniting into a ball of fire as it landed. The hauler’s lights flashed back on instantly, and it accelerated back up to speed as if nothing had happened.

“What kind of insane gonk is drivi—?!” 

The comms from the car cut out as the hauler made a sharp swerve that should’ve been impossible for its size, its large wheels crushing one of the runts of their pack. The smaller car popped like a bubble. A tiny inferno exploded out of the newly-made scrap heap.  

The radio transmissions from the rest of the pack went silent as Raffen watched the fireball, shocked voiceless by the sudden death of at least two of their brethren. 

The hauler drove straight through the flames, making no noise whatsoever. Just silent death and the sounds of its victim's crushed corpse. 

That was when they realized their mistake.

Panic grew in their ranks fast as they all had the same idea, the pack trying to cut loose and escape the Grim Reaper on wheels, all of them fearing the inevitable. 

Their cars could outspeed the hauler, but that wasn’t going to save them. They still had to avoid rocks and pits in the sands of the wasteland. The semi didn’t have to do the same. It slowly closed the gap, driving over the uneven roads as if they were smooth concrete  while they had to swerve and course-correct to avoid the various hazards along the road. The truck chased them like a poltergeist, practically floating over every obstacle.  

Finally, it caught up to the rear of the pack, the semi’s grill guard bumping into the back of the armored car and shoving it forward. It was sent careening to the side, and the guard clipped the rear of its new victim, causing the back of the car to be thrown out wildly, losing traction and speed. It slowed down too much.

Screams filled their radio.

The semi’s front wheels caught up to its next victim. They ran over the back of the car, the heavy tires crushing the vehicle as the hulk’s drivetrain jerked to the side, and the spinning wheels dragged the Raffen car down to the depths, swallowing the vehicle like a hungry predator.

Metal scraped against metal, the sounds of their panicking comrade piercing through their radios till it cut out with a sickening crunch, the semi bouncing slightly as the cabin of the car gave out under its weight. What remained of the Nomad vehicle was launched out from under it, flipping over and over before igniting. 

“Bail!” one of the clan members screamed out, suddenly turning away from the pack.

The rest of them were about to follow his lead and rush out in different directions, but they didn’t get the chance to.

Suddenly they all got the same error on their dashboards, their engines stalled for but one moment, one of them gasping as their car exploded.

The rest didn’t have time to question what had happened. The semi simply ran them all over. 

“See? Easy,” David said with a smile. “Thanks for hacking their engines.”

Kiwi rubbed her forehead, grumbling to herself.

Rebecca was laughing giddily in her seat, watching the trail of destruction behind them on the rearview feed. “Didn’t know you could even do that, Kiwi!” 

The older woman sighed and leaned back onto the chair. “I just pinged a common circuit they all had in their cars…I think it was measuring nitrous mixture ratios or something.”

She looked at David pleadingly. “Can we please go home now?” 

“Home it is,” David chirped, turning the steering wheel and taking a gentle curve back toward Night City.

The Raffen that had managed to escape the slaughter panted as he pulled his car to a stop with a shaky breath, looking at the rear view feed as the death hauler drove away. He thanked the forefathers that the machine hulk decided to ignore him, leaving him the sole survivor after so many dead.

He needed to let everyone know that the badlands weren’t safe anymore.

There was another predator that they needed to avoid. 

He gulped and said a little prayer to his dead brothers and sisters, clasping his hands together as he looked at the many small fires that littered the horizon. 

You are witnessed.

Rogue smiled as a ping came in from David, his location broadcasting straight to her system. 

[Had any trouble, baby-merc?]

“Nah,” his voice sounded out clearly through her holo. “Raffen-Shiv tried to start some on the way back, but handled those too.”

[Images, kid. I’ll need some proof before I believe that.]

David hummed in the call, pausing for a second as he sent some stills.

Rogue blinked at the images of the hauler she’d questioned about driven through a wall, surrounded by dead Maelstrom. Images of some of the bigger gangoons filtered through, one with a caved-in chest, surrounded by the corpses of his brethren just as hulking. Finally, a picture of fireballs on the horizon taken from a vehicle’s rear view feed. 

[Crew size?]

“Just me, Kiwi, and Becca. Oh, and Falco. He stowed away behind the seats when we set off,” David answered dutifully. 

Rogue hummed, tapping her table as Claire started making another Silverhand for her. [Consider my trust earned, for now.]

“Good to hear, choom. Heading back to Night City now. Want a memento?” 

Rogue’s face split into a smile. [Alright, smartass. See you in the Afterlife when you need a drink.]

Kiwi gave David a death stare as the semi finally drove back onto paved roads, who was smiling widely, keeping his eyes on the road. “What's wrong?” he asked, voice suspiciously upbeat. 

“I told you to not act like you’re chooms with Rogue,” she reminded, trying to burn a hole on the side of his head with her eyes. “She’s put bounties on people’s heads for less.” 

“Oh, that’s just a myth,” Rebecca explained, patting Kiwi on the shoulder “You should’ve seen her when she swung by Lizzie’s. She’s fun!”

“I don’t believe you,” Kiwi grumbled, staring back at the road. “Ugh. And she has my name now, too.” 

Falco groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes as he leaned against the back of the passenger seats. “What are you whinin’ about, lassie? Rogue knows all the names that get into her bar.” 

He yawned loudly. “It’s past dusk already? I slept in…” 

David laughed, “Sure did. How’d ya sleep through all of that anyway?”

Falco looked at David the same way Kiwi was looking at him previously. “Kid, I was a Nomad; we’ve slept through sandstorms in two-ply tents.”

The other two turned and raised their eyebrows at the man, clearly surprised. David still kept his eyes on the road. 

“I thought that was some big talk started by the clans to build up rep?” Rebecca mumbled, blinking widely at the man. 

Falco gave her a smug smirk. “Well, whaddaya reckon now?” 

“Wild,” David mumbled, turning back onto the paved roads. “Where do you want me to drop you off, you two?” 

“I’m staying in the tower for now,” Kiwi grumbled, crossing her arms. “At least I know Rogue won’t look for me there.”

Rebecca looked at her with a smug smirk, but didn’t vocalize any teasing remarks. 

“Eh, I’ll make my way from there, too,” Falco grumbled, laying back down in the space behind the seats. “You know, getting driven around for once is nice.” 

David laughed and exited the highway, heading home.

Chapter Text

“We’ve located Chairman Tanaka.”

The words should’ve brought her comfort, but they were too little, too late. Their inability to track down the chairman for even a single week would be considered unacceptable, in the eyes of her bosses—and they had taken three. Kate really wasn’t looking forward to her yearly employee review. “Where.” 

Her subordinate swallowed down his nervousness, clearly afraid of her. Good. That meant he’d work extra hard to make up for the utter tsunami of shit they were about to be hit by. “His body was recovered in a recently-collapsed apartment building in Westbrook. We suspect foul play.” 

“We’re Counter Intel. Of course we think it’s foul play,” Kate hissed, tapping her manicured fingernails on the table. “It’s our job to find out. So if you didn’t find any actual evidence , I will be throwing you under the bus in front of the higher ups in our yearly review. Start talking.” 

“His black box was disabled, and he was shot through the head. Most of his body was crushed under debris, but we believe that to have happened well after he died,” her underling counted off, “His mantis-blades were also shot off and we have no way to recover most of the data he’d kept on him. Additionally, his death was likely extensively planned, since Trauma Team never received Tanaka’s automatic distress call, even though he had VIP Platinum service.”

“Any leads on the culprit?” she asked.

“No, ma’am.”

She sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose. “So we’ve got basically nothing, and his department is going to blame us for having lost god knows how many millions of eddies worth of data.” Kate glared at him icily through her visor. “Give me one good bit of news before I string up your intestines on the NCART with the rest of your body still attached.”

The younger man shuddered but held firm, proving he wasn’t entirely spineless. “I’ve kept the news confidential. Even the meatwagon jocks couldn’t recognize him, so we have some time before we have to break the news…” he offered, looking back at the datapad in his hands. “It’ll give us time to compile more evidence, at the very least. I’ve also acquired some of his most recent project history through an encrypted data cache that survived the collapse. It’s not much, but we’ve only recently started reconstruction efforts. Right now, we only know it involved the Cyberskeleton project, which could be why he was assassinated in the first place.”

“How sure are you?”

“It’s the best lead we have,” he shrugged helplessly. 

She growled under her breath, gripping her desk. “We’ll work with it. Any hints of Militech getting their hands on the schematics?” 

“None,” he replied, clearly ready for the question. At least he was competent enough to figure that out without her having to tell him. “Our spies have confirmed it. But we’ve heard a buzz about them getting their hands on some of our older research.” 

“Any connection to Tanaka?” she asked, fearing the answer. 

“Don’t have enough evidence either way, but he is the most likely source.” 

“Shit,” she breathed out, resting her hand on her forehead. “And the fucker isn’t even alive to go down with the mess he made. Management is going to kill somebody for this.”

Her assistant nodded, pursing his lips. “We can start hunting down any fixers that had a hand in this, if you’d like. We have files on who’s been regularly doing business with Militech over the past couple years.” 

“Go. Track down anyone you think even has a hint of dirt on them. I want a full list of fixers that have worked for Militech within the past two years. Hunt down their regulars, and take note of any fixers that may have fallen out of favor with them. If Militech doesn’t have the Cyberskeleton schematics, they might have cut ties with the fixer that botched the job,” she ordered, scrolling through her list of active investigations. “Any news about the missing prototype from Norris?” 

“No, ma’am. The department already shelved the project,” he answered, pausing on his way out of the door and turning around to face her once more. “Losing the cyberware and seeing the damage done when the test subject went berserk caused enough internal strife between the departments for our great leader to order the whole thing shut down.” 

Kate nodded, regretting missing that memo. She had been busy trying to track down the chairman. “Case closed, then. I’m reallocating those resources to track down the Tanaka’s killers. You find me those fixers.”

“Right away ma’am.” 

With that, her underling left, and she let out a breath. 

Despite it being shut down, she still couldn’t help but think about that missing piece of chrome. The prototype that had caused so much damage, it wasn’t even funny. Sure, there were more than a few bloody test runs that happened in the labs—that was the cost of working on the bleeding edge with experimental technology—but that prototype had the highest body count of anything Arasaka had developed in recent history. 

Very few tests caused the deaths of an entire team of specialists within the labs, and that didn’t even account for the havoc Norris had caused after he escaped the premises. The prototype had failed every single one of their goals, but it was still incredibly dangerous. Now it was loose on the streets somewhere, and Arasaka had decided it apparently wasn’t even worth their time to try and recover it. 

She hoped it’d pop back up as soon as another streetrat tried chipping it in and ended up following Norris’ footsteps in cyberpsychosis, but they weren’t that lucky. At the very least, it was no longer her problem if the whole situation ended up blowing up in their faces. 

That was another key point of this, now that she was considering it. The cases of cyberpsychosis were in a massive decline, and that was a big problem in its own right. Atleast that wasn’t her department, and therefore not her problem. 

It would’ve been her problem if the chrome had ended up in their competitors’ hands, even if she personally thought it wasn’t worth the time or manpower to stop them. Trying to get that damn piece of cyberware to work would just be a drain on their resources, anyway. They’d probably end up losing it just as fast as Arasaka did. 

If Arasaka couldn’t make it work, no one could. 

But seriously, where had that Sandevistan gone? 

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Where indeed? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

David shivered as Rebecca gently kissed the metallic vertebrae that purred on the nape of his neck. “Becca, c’mon…” he pleaded gently, shooting a look at Lucy’s form in the bathtub. 

“What?” she teased, leaning against his back and resting her hands on his chest with a dangerous smile on her lips. “Told Lucy that I was gonna keep you busy, gonk. ” 

He hissed out a groan as she gently squeezed his pecs, turning to face the goblin trying to get into his pants. “And what about your brother sleeping downstairs?” 

“He’d slept through worse, c’mon. You promised to make the skull laugh, babe.” 

David shot one last look at Lucy, and pinged her holo silently. [You good in there?]

[thought Becca would’ve torn your pants off by now,] Lucy shot back, her floating body smiling slightly [don’t make her beg too much, that’s mean.]

[I’ll never understand you two.] David messaged back, smiling. [ping us when you’re done.] 

[go have fun, dork. I’m busy] Lucy sent back, the smile on her face widening. 

Becca, who clearly had enough waiting, jumped off from his back and simply gripped David by his waist, lifting him up with an impressive show of strength. “Aight, we’re doing it the fun way then.”

David fumbled in the air a bit, still not ready for the smaller woman to pick him up so easily, relaxing only a little in her hands before he was tossed into their bed, Becca looking down at him and licking her lips.

David could feel his pants getting tighter from her hungry gaze alone, “Uh-where do you wanna start?” 

“Start?” Rebecca asked innocently, dropping her coat off her shoulders and crawling over his form. “I’m gonna take my vengeance first, Dimples.” 

He gulped as he felt her hands grasp his, pinning them on the mattress and pushing them up roughly. “Gonna make you beg to do the things you promised to do…”

“This is good,” Kiwi admitted, analyzing the ICE barrier Lucy had managed to construct while the rest were out on their mission in Badlands. “But it’s too similar to Arasaka’s ICE.”

“Thought that would make it better for breach protection.” Lucy explained, looking for an explanation from her senior. “Wouldn’t netrunners struggle to get in?” 

“Street netrunners? Sure.” Kiwi explained, shooting a glance at the younger runner. “But if Arasaka tried, it’s be a cakewalk for ‘em. Maybe if you went a few versions back and modded those out, they’d struggle with it. They don’t fuck around when they say ‘Arasaka always looks forward.’”

Lucy’s eyes narrowed, looking like she was about to argue, but apparently decided against it. “Sure. What do you think we can do to beef this up, then?”

“Apply a separate encryption layer inside the wall. Use a separate cypher in the middle,” Kiwi offered, reaching out and touching the ICE. “Should be a nasty surprise for anyone used to ‘Saka’s standard stuff. I’ve got a daemon to handle the randomization, so I’ll handle that. You go set up more of these for the other systems.”

Lucy nodded, heading deeper into the tower’s subnet. 

Alone once more, Kiwi focused in, forcing her hand into the blue wall of code and pushing the daemon inside. 

She didn’t need to do much, having pre-prepared the daemon. All she needed to do now was sit and wait till the randomizer encrypted the separate cipher into the firewall and sealed any backdoors Arasaka might have hardcoded into the ICE. 

Which meant she had time to reflect on her own emotions. 

Fun.  

She sighed, trying to collect her thoughts. Part of her knew that she was getting more and more attached to the crew, and while she didn’t hate that as much as she thought she would, she was getting far closer to David than she ever intended. 

She frowned at the thought. 

She knew that forming close attachments was one of the most fatal mistakes someone could make in Night City, and it wasn’t one she was willing to repeat. 

Her face ached with phantom pains. Her free hand cupped her mask. Even in cyberspace, she’d kept the metal faceplate on her avatar, perpetually reminding her of her motto.

“Don’t trust anyone,” she repeated to herself, trying to remind the little voices in her mind to cut their bullshit. 

A blocked number attempted to call her, practically punctuating her statement.

“Answer the holo, you whore !”

Faraday flung the bottle in his hands at the far wall, uncaring as it exploded into pieces of glass all over the floor. 

All that time he’d spent giving that useless chair-jockey jobs and this was the thanks she gave him? When he’d carried her second-rate crew into heights they didn’t deserve? When he’d been kind enough to look at that disgusting thing she called a face? 

He did all that and what did he get in return? Spit on his face the moment she had the upper hand. He should’ve finished what he started ages ago.

His fist clenched, slamming it down onto the table in front of him. The abused piece of furniture groaned as another massive dent was added to the metal surface. 

He wished he still had the pull he had a few weeks ago so he could just set up a hit on all those worthless ants that thought they were better than him. Show them who really owned the streets. It wasn’t the raffle that infested it, that was for sure. 

It was him, the brains of every operation. 

It was him who had crawled through the ranks and made it up so close to entering a corp’s graces. It was him who’d pulled himself by the bootstraps into being the best goddamn fixer in Night City. It was him who had risen above all the useless trash that littered every alley with his own might.

And now they thought they could just get rid of him? Toss him away? 

He should’ve tossed her away after she had become damaged goods. But no, he had to show her mercy, to take her back in, to help her get fixed back up. 

It wasn’t his fault that she was just so damn fragile. 

And it sure as hell wasn’t his fault he was in this situation. It was entirely theirs.

But that didn’t matter. He could get out of trouble and he would. He always did.

Night city lived on betrayal and espionage, and he was the god of those two facts of life. No one that mattered could stray too far from him.

He’d just need to kiss more ass for a bit, get into the good graces of someone else and get back what was his. 

He’d done it countless times, and this time would be no different. 

He glared out the window, composing himself once more as he looked out to the corporate plaza. 

Militech didn’t deserve his services anymore, and with what he knew about how it was operated…

Faraday smiled as holographic koi swam aimlessly in the air. 

“I should freshen up on my Japanese.”