"Keep your feet further apart." Mom barked at me impatiently "Anyone with even a bit of skill can make you fall over like this."
I felt a flash of annoyance but did as she asked "It feels off." I said for the umpteenth time, most definitely not whining "Like I am rooting myself into the floor, I can't move around like that."
"Which is exactly the point." She huffed and took a sudden step forward, passing through my flailing attempt to keep her back and shoving me backwards.
Except of course, the widened stance gave me just enough time to keep myself standing and not falling on my ass.
"Point taken." I grumbled "Still doesn't solve the movement issue."
She did roll her eyes this time "This isn't one of your videogames, Mikey." A small chuckle left her at that "You don't need to keep one stance at all times, just switch your posture as needed."
"Right." I nodded, hiding my embarrassment.
Getting thrown on my ass a few dozen times was quite distracting.
"Look." She said suddenly "I get you don't strictly need to learn this, since most people can barely push you, but-"
"All it takes is one skilled enemy with the right implants." I finished for her with a raised hand "Yeah, I get it."
"Good." She smiled "Which means you won't mind showing me what you learned?" And raised her arms in a stance I still couldn't quite place.
Not that I was some kind of martial arts afficionado to know at a glance but I still understood enough to know it was unusual.
Mentally preparing myself for another ass whooping I did as asked and prepared myself.
Feeling a flash of defiant mischief I also moved my left leg slightly backwards, and just as she went to say 'start' I used my Reinforced Joint to shove myself forward.
I flashed across the abandoned storehouse we had taken over a few hours prior, moving far faster than I ever demonstrated to her and going in for a simple shove instead of an actual punch.
My triumphant grin didn't even have time to form before the leg I landed on was promptly kicked out from under me, and I was practically folded in the air, ending up on my ass a few meters away.
"Ow." I voiced, staring into the ceiling with the distinct urge to rethink all of my life decisions up to this point.
My view was quickly broken by the amused face of my mother "I did say not to be obvious." She said, eyes glinting with mischief of her own "Too bad you ended up against someone who knows how to fight cyborgs." Her lips twitched upwards "Even those that cheat."
"Yeah, yeah." I grumbled and got up "I really thought that would work for a moment."
"It would have on most people." She nodded along, leading me back to the center of the warehouse "Too bad for you I am used to fighting idiots with Sandys. Reinforced Joints are basically nothing compared to that."
"Tell me about it." I sighed, unpleasant memory flashing in my mind.
"When did you add those?" She asked.
"Last night." I shrugged "They made the most sense."
She nodded in agreement "The best choice if you aren't stupid enough to try a Sandevistan. Even if it takes much more time to master them."
"How do you even compare the two?" I asked.
"Its all about speed." She explained simply "A Sandy might give the impression of making someone ridiculously fast but that is just a full body overclock. Its the reflex boost that is the real useful part."
"Except it almost inevitably burns your brain out." I point out.
"Which is why I call them stupid." She smirked before her expression twists into something a bit more disgusted "But thousands of idiots all over the world will happily become husks for a few years of power."
"That can be staved off." I noted, having already considered it at length "The 'Saka's boogey man would have long since burned out if that wasn't the case."
"They probably have some way of doing it." She shrugged and then her eyes narrowed "Just promise me you aren't about to try making one without being sure about the consequences."
"Have no fear." I said, hands raised placatingly "I'm not going to kill myself over a momentary powerboost." Chuckling I added "'Sides, you are the one who decided to lecture the ripper about cyberware drawbacks."
"I never know what passes through that head of yours." She smirked unrepentantly "Wouldn't be the first time you cornered yourself with backwards logic, today."
"Hey!" I pointed at her accusingly "We said we wouldn't talk about that."
I mean, I wasn't even fully awake at the time! So what if I asked if we could just practice fighting back in our apartment.
The look she gave me then...
"No, you said that." She said with a triumphant smile "And I got more teasing material."
I stared at her for a long moment before sighing in defeat "Can you please get back to punching me in the face now?"
"Happily!" She grinned.
And soon enough I had another small dent on my head.
Should have just kept my mouth shut.
-----
The plastic cover over my van's headlight clicked back into place, finally making the vehicle look pristine if not quite factory new.
I tossed its cracked predecessor into the large box next to me, filled to the brim with all the bits and bobs I had replaced today, and smiled in satisfaction.
It was a day after my impromptu pummeling lesson with mom, and I had spent a good chunk of the morning simply browsing the net for ideas on how to modify my Mahir Supron into something people wouldn't be complete dicks about.
Most advice on the net usually consisted of: Just get a new ride choom.
But I got too attached to the bucket of rust so unless I needed to show off that was a no-no.
The closest I got to an actual answer that would still be useful to me was straight up just making it a literal tank.
It would take replacing a lot of the internals, up to a much more advanced engine, and all the outer bits and windshield with properly armored versions of themselves for me to make it work but it would net me a great escape vehicle in the end.
Both because one did not expect to have to pick out one of thousands of vans in Night City and because you could make the rustbucket run pretty fast if you knew what you were doing.
It would guzzle CHOOH2* like crazy when pushed that far but having the option was the point, not blitzing through the streets at all times like a maniac.
NCPD usually didn't give a shit about speeding if you weren't in the 'civilized' districts of the city, but they'd still pay attention to unusual stuff, and a Mahir Supron turning into a blur was pretty damn attention grabbing.
Maybe I'd even add an autocannon or two...
Shaking my head, I kicked the box of trash closed and pushed it against the nearby wall.
The parts and tools I ordered to start the conversion wouldn't arrive for a few days more, so no point in overthinking it now.
And just as I was about to start overthinking about something else, as one does, I heard a familiar set of footsteps behind me.
Looking back was enough to confirm my guess and there stood my Tyger Claw 'liaison'.
I will admit, I almost snorted at the idea of a gang playing at being anything else by calling her that but I already stressed the poor woman out enough, and mom didn't find it nearly as funny as I did when I retold her of it.
"Magos-san." She inclined her head.
"Gangoon-chan!" Sorry mom, I just couldn't help myself "What do you need?"
Her right eye twitched and I heard her take in a sharp breath "What?" She blurted.
Clearing my throat I 'repeated' "How can I help you, miss?"
She looked like she wanted to demand answers but thought better of it, even if she failed to contain her stressed sigh "Jugo-sama has a job for you, Magos-san." The words came out of her nearly robotically.
I almost felt bad, but she was a Tyger Claw so who gave a fuck?
"Alright, shoot." I said, preparing myself for anything that madman could want me to do.
---
'I was not fucking prepared for that.' I mentally groaned to myself.
I was currently leaning against a ledge of one of the unfinished overpasses in Kabuki, my eyes focused on scanning a specific building about half a block eastwards, my van parked behind me and hidden next to a large storage crate used in the abandoned construction project.
The... mission I had been given was an unusual one to say the least.
The madman wanted to humiliate his rival, the same one who by now wanted me quite dead incidentally, and he wanted me to be the one to give him the tools to do it.
Except he also gave me the option of rejecting his 'test'.
Yes, the fucker actually worded it like that.
Of course in the immediate next line he offered me 25 thousand eurodollars for the job, and another 25 if I did it without raising a single alarm or harming a single Tyger Claw.
The mission? Steal a thermal katana from one of Shobo's lieutenants.
From inside his dojo.
I was almost tempted to tell the man to rightly go fuck his own posterior with said big knife but 50k was 50k and way beyond what I'd get from Regina for just straight up murdering all the Tygers at someone else's request, so the choice was not really a choice.
Something I should have expected from a ganger, but such was my naivite.
Speaking of the Fixer, he did go through Regina... technically but in the end it was literally just lip service with him sending her the info only when I voiced my acceptance, which just made me feel like I was wasting my time with all the back and forth.
Another thing he no doubt did on purpose, the annoying little-
Shaking my useless annoyance away, I focused back on my current task.
The front of the dojo was guarded at all times by at least four Tygers and while I could disable all of them quite easily that would almost definitely forfeit my bonus.
So I'd need to actually sneak in.
An utter impossibility for me a mere three days earlier, which would mean he either wanted or expected me to just kill all of his rivals' men, or he knew I had gotten an upgrade recently.
But that line of thinking was insultingly stupid.
If he knew I'd gotten the upgrade and what it was then that meant I was inept enough to be utterly useless to him, and he'd have tried to have me killed for the disrespect I offered him earlier.
Which meant his test was quite literally that.
Either I slaughter my way through and he gets to brag about the power of his connections, or I stealth my way through and he gets a much more subtle reputation of being able to reach anyone anywhere.
It was a win-win for him no matter what.
Well, unless I died of course but that was not worth considering.
"Enough delaying." I growled at myself, slapping the sides of my face.
Coincidentally that was exactly the moment when my newest program finished compiling, and my Cyberdeck hit me with a loud satisfying *Ding* [HoppAsist.exe ready]
Immediately a large led line appeared in my line of sight, one that shifted with my posture and the tension in my new Cyberlegs.
With an anticipatory grin on my face, I allowed the line to extend to where I wanted, and leapt off the overpass.
It felt as if time had slowed down, my heart beating like mad and my Optics dilating without my input, and in a blink I was landing atop one of the nearby buildings, small gashes and cracks spreading in the concrete as I began running to bleed off some of the momentum.
There was no time to consider further though, as my new limbs carried me forward to the edge of the building in mere seconds and I was once more sailing through the air.
Despite myself, once I landed atop the third roof I couldn't stop the joyful laughter from leaving me, my voice echoing across the street and inevitably reaching the Tyger Claws.
Having pinged them before I saw their outlines begin stirring, and I almost panicked at the stupid mistake, except in my slightly adrenaline drunk state I found I didn't truly care.
My Cyberdeck whirred and in less than ten seconds I had the entire blueprint of the dojo I was meant to infiltrate in my possession, and just as a pair of the Tygers went to check what was going on I leapt across the narrow street below and onto the dojo itself.
The duo stationed on the roof heard nothing as my Lynx Paw absorbed the noise, and with confidence I did not truly feel, I powerwalked into the center of the building, pulling at one of the glass roof windows and slipping inside just as one of them turned around and said something to his buddy.
The room I had landed in looked to be the gangoons' lockers were held and while I was sorely tempted to scrounge through it and rob these cunts for all they were worth, I would have to move quickly if I didn't want to end up discovered.
Thankfully, the blueprint revealed a line of vents that passed through most of the building and after grabbing a few shirts and tying them around my hands and feet, I scrambled into the nearest opening.
A mere ten seconds before some of the Claws entered the locker.
But I had no time to pat myself on the back about 'defeating my greed' or something equally asinine, and I began scrambling through the ventspace as quickly as I could without making any noise.
Thankfully I wasn't nearly as wide as I was tall, and while mildly suffocating the vents were large enough I didn't end up feeling claustrophobic as I pushed myself through like some kind of a nightmare snail.
I did end up pausing as I passed through one of the walls that had a view on the dojo proper, and got to witness three pairs of augmented Tyger Claws wailing at each other with blunted katanas.
Despite my mild disdain for their obsession with the weapon, I could easily tell they were quite skilled at using it, and promptly recorded it all for later perusal.
Never knew when something like that could come in handy, right?
Alright, alright... It looked preem as fuck, I'll admit it.
Childish curiosity thus satisfied, I kept dragging myself through the building for what felt like hours but I knew to be just twelve more minutes.
Just when I was about to reach the lieutenant's permanent room, I heard a commotion in the space just before it, and stopped to watch.
Five Tyger Claws were staring down at one of their own, a younger man with only a few tattoos but many, many more bruises on his skin.
One of the five was the man I was meant to rob and he began to speak "Ken." He said, voice severe "Sensei tells me you still flinch in practice... One of my soldiers fearing pain? UNNACCEPTABLE!"
As if to punctuate it, the younger man flinched at his boss' furious roar and I felt the air shift around the five. Some kind of judgement had been made.
My own mind raced, and knowing I had just been given a chance for a distraction I mentally apologized to the Claw who looked like he was of the same age as myself...
'Enough fucking moping, Michael.' I frowned 'He is a fucking ganger, he deserves it.'
Whatever hesitation I felt simmered down as I saw one of the other Tygers slap him onto the ground and go in for a kick, the other cheering and jeering at the impending beatdown.
My Cyberdeck whirred into action, and I pinged the young man [Berserk.exe uploaded]
The quickhack was very cyberware dependent, especially on cyberware near and around the brain and adrenal glands.
But even a Neural Link was enough for me to give him just the slightest nudge.
And in his panicked state, a nudge was all that was needed.
The young Tyger Claw grabbed his elder's leg before it could reach him, and with a viciousness that surprised even the boss he rolled onto it, making the older man fall onto the floor with a loud thump before beginning to wail on him with a scream that would have been impressive if not for the girlish voice break that followed.
"Finally." I heard the Tyger lieutenant mutter.
And that was all the attention I would give him as the commotion grew, just loud enough for me to keep scrambling with confidence I wouldn't be caught.
Thankfully, my hunch proved correct and I found myself into a rather nice mini-apartment within the dojo building, one filled to the brim with memorabilia of the Tyger Claws and even some racing paraphernalia.
And there in one of the corners was my target, a simple dark and beautiful blade mixing past and present with delightful artistry, its thermal components barely visible even to the trained and enhanced eye.
It was also placed atop a small Shintoist ancestral shrine that held multiple pictures and many sticks of freshly lit incense.
I frowned at the idea of ruining someone's memory like that but only for a brief moment.
I didn't truly care, just found the idea distasteful.
My Cyberdeck churned out once more, pinging every single piece of electronics in the room and finding only the most basic of alarm hardware.
Disabling it was quite literally child's play, and I quickly slunk out of the vents and into the room, not breaking my stride even for a moment I walked up to the shrine and with only the slightest hint of hesitation grabbed the sword.
It was surprisingly heavy for what it was intended for.
I saw the outline of the Tyger boss slap the outline of the recruit, and begin to walk away and towards his rooms.
I quickly scanned the space around me and finding no exit that would leave me unnoticed but one I quickly crawled back into the vent, making sure to stick it back properly so he didn't get the idea to have them searched even if he checked.
The roar of fury the man belched out when he noticed his heirloom missing made me shiver slightly, and promptly shove that fear into the back of my head.
Being afraid of some Tyger Claw shithead was unacceptable.
The ensuing search lasted for hours, even if no alarm had been raised.
Doubtlessly for the sake of pride.
It didn't help me at the moment though, as I was forced to crawl through the place inch by inch but with my ping and patience I inevitably found myself on the roof, and with all the stress I was under I almost walked into a Claw watchman despite knowing exactly where he was.
Thankfully, I was just about able to stop myself from succumbing to my impatience and managed to hide while the man walked a hair's breath away from me.
The instant he was gone from my line of sight I couldn't wait anymore, and I sprung from the roof in a rapid blur, disappearing from any potential sighting in less than a second and quickly hopping my way up the block like some kind of caffeinated spider monkey.
I think I almost gave some old woman a heart attack as I leapt past her balcony but she should have expected flying cyborgs in Night City.
The doors of my thankfully unstolen van slammed shut and I let out a long sigh of exhaustion, leaning back into my seat and closing my eyes for a good minute.
I side-eyed the sword I stole with annoyance but the mere thought of all the money it would get me stopped me from being truly pissed and just wanting the day to end, I started the engine.
Except, of course, Regina decided this was the perfect moment to hit me with an emergency.
-----
*Most widely used fuel compound in the world of Cyberpunk.
-------
Doth thou even powerstone?
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