Rebecca
"Bye Lily!" She waved cheerfully as the gun store owner slumped against her counter and held down a cackle, rushing after her choom before she was left behind.
"Sooo." She trailed and looked up at the heavily cyberized woman "How'd you get tricked into holding shooting lessons anyway?"
Svetlana looked like she had aged back a decade or three overnight, her expression far more relaxed, her usually simple and utilitarian clothing replaced with more alive merc fashion, and her previously short grey hair now reaching all the way to her shoulder blades.
When she asked her why keep it grey when she could go for literally anything else her response was the most self assured "Why would I hide how far I'm willing to go for my child?"
Rebecca most definitely didn't start gushing in amazement, no matter what anyone said!
The Sobronovs were metal as fuck and she loved every second of it.
"Tricked?" Svetlana's amused response dragged her back from memory lane "I was bored Rebecca, and those kids needed someone to teach them how not to shoot their own heads off. I offered to teach them again after the first lesson and everything else just kind of clicked together."
"And Lily just let you?" She asked.
"Mikey and I are her biggest customers, she knows better than to risk losing that." Svetlana explained before smirking and leaning down conspiratorially "Also she is scared shitless of saying no."
Rebecca giggled "One day you two are going to give her a heart attack."
"Mikey will just give her a new one." The woman declared without missing a beat.
Her giggling quickly turned to laughter.
"But that's enough about me." She said suddenly "Why'd you look for me?"
"Eh, Mike locked himself in the workshop again." Rebecca waved, pretending to be annoyed "Didn't want to interrupt his tinkering."
"That son of mine..." Svetlana sighed "You should have just dragged him out anyway. Ignoring his girlfriend like that..." She began grumbling under her breath.
Rebecca blinked before smiling wryly "Who even uses 'girlfriend' anymore?"
"Calling me old, Rebecca?" Svetlana smirked and shook her head "Also, I do. I don't like how the whole input output thing makes relations sound cheaper, but that's just me being old fashioned."
"Huh..." Rebecca rubbed her chin "Never thought about it like that."
She perked up and pointed up at the woman "Well if Cyber Mom says so then I'm using it from now on!"
"Cyber Mom?" Svetlana raised an amused eyebrow.
Rebecca mentally cursed at her nickname slipping out.
Svetlana laughed and ruffled her hair, making her look away and grumble just in time to hide her relieved smile.
Soon enough they were back at the apartment, but instead of letting her follow her up, Svetlana gently shoved her towards the clinic "Go drag my son out, he's been in there for two days already."
Rebecca whistled, nodding and making her way into the clinic before approaching the armored workshop doors.
Feeling oddly giddy, she placed her hand on the scanner, and felt a flash hit her retinas as the hidden camera scanned her through her optics, and then just like that the door shunted open without a sound, revealing...
A complete and utter mess.
"The fuck exploded in here?" She called out, cautiously walking inside.
"Nothing." Came the slightly muffled voice from further in "I just made a tiny bit of a mess."
"Just a bit, eh?" Rebecca smirked before looking the pile of metal bits over for the first time, her eyes widening as she realized she was looking at a small hill of melee weapons.
Her eyes immediately landed onto a chainsaw axe "Holy shit." She whispered and immediately picked the thing up. Everything about it was too big for her, from the weight to the grip, but she just couldn't stop herself from testing it out.
And so with all the inevitability of an avalanche, she flicked the switch on.
And immediately regretted it.
The motor snapped into full throttle instantly, vibrating the whole weapon violently and due to the sheer weight of it, the person holding it.
Not even a second passed before Rebecca let out a panicked squeak and nearly dropped the roaring chain axe, only for a metal hand to suddenly yank it out of her grip, leaving her to fall on her ass.
"Damn."
"Did you have to grab the most dangerous prototype first?" Mike said in exasperation, flicking the weapon off and looking down at her expectantly.
"How the heck was I supposed to know that?" Rebecca throw her hands up, a pout forming on her face "It was just sitting there, looking nova as fuck."
"Understandable." Mike nodded sagely "But still, don't just touch dangerous shit like that 'Becca. It was a completed version now but it could have had an unstable engine or something equally bad for your health."
"You wouldn't leave shit like that on the floor." She pointed out, still pouting.
"True." He nodded again before catching himself with a sigh "I just don't want to end up scraping half of you off the floor for something completely avoidable."
'Yeah, that's fair.' She hid a wince.
But she wasn't about to admit that as she pointed up at him "Ah but admit it, you'd love for an excuse to fix me!"
"You don't need fixing." He smirked "But I'll admit I would feel much better if you were bullet proof."
Her shoulders slumped "You can't just say cutesy shit like that with a straight face and move on."
"Yes, yes I can." He fired back without missing a beat.
"Yeah, yeah." She grumbled as she got up "Come here."
She gave him a quick hug, and mentally thanked him as he didn't mention the relieved shiver that passed through her back.
That fucking chainsaw was too close to just swinging down to her legs. Didn't matter if she was literally next to the best ripper ever, that shit was terrifying.
Still.
"You are making me one!" She declared after she stepped back.
"Oh?" He blinked "And why would I do that exactly? You probably couldn't even swing the thing."
"Because it is nova as fuck Mike, come on." She crossed her arms and grumbled "Just think about all the dead Scavs!"
"That is a pleasant image." He nodded along "But you are too small for it to be useful."
"Didn't you say you fixed the whole height problem?" She blinked. She was pretty sure she was still growing by a tiny bit.
"Well yeah." He nodded a bit too smugly "You are still just naturally short though."
"Awww." Her shoulders slumped before she suddenly perked up "Wait, can't you just change that anyway?"
"Yeeesss..?" He trailed off "Should be pretty simple actually."
"Then why-" She cut herself off 'Because you didn't ask, gonk.'
The flash of amusement in Mike's eyes made it clear he knew exactly what was going through her head "So?"
"I'll..." She caught herself "Think about it."
"Don't push yourself into anything." He said supportively before reaching over to a work table and grabbing what looked to be one of those funny spiked bats some Tygers liked using when they weren't swinging their sword-shaped razors around "Don't think I forgot about you in my little fugue though, I made you this."
He offered it to her hilt first.
She took the weapon and immediately found it was way lighter than it looked, and after some fun swishing she realized it had a god damn EMP field!
"Thanks!" She looked up with a big grin "But the axe is still cooler."
"Of course it is." Mike snorted "Come on, let's get out of here, I'll clean it up later."
He brought an enclosed six foot box with him but no matter how much she pestered him about it all he'd tell her was it was a 'gift' for a katana obsessed old fart, and wouldn't budge after that.
She accepted her defeat, for now.
Like usual, they ended up in Mike's room after that, binging yet another movie series and criticizing the thing all the way through while chatting away about random stuff between the interesting bits.
Well it was mostly Rebecca complaining about Pilar being a dick, and Mike complaining about his messy schedule, but at least they got it off their shoulders!
Sadly, before she could get properly comfortable, Rebecca saw a message in her crew's group chat and both perked up and frowned at the same time "Awwww." She voiced "Gotta go, we have a gig."
"Well that's bothersome." Mike groused from his seat under her "Maine usually does unplanned shit like this?"
She hopped out of her input's, or was it boyfriend's now? lap with a small grin "He's been taking low stake gigs to train up the new girls. He doesn't do spontaneous on the big stuff."
Mike stared for a while before nodding slightly "Alright. What about the new girls then? They trustworthy so far?"
"Eh." She shrugged, picturing the pair of netrunners "Kiwi keeps to herself but she's fine mostly. Lucy is a bit of a bitch but sometimes." She shrugged "But I get she is paranoid about something, so I just ignore it."
"Kiwi and Lucy, hm?" Mike's eyes shone "Small world."
"You know them?" Rebecca perked up.
"Customers actually." He shrugged "Only repairs though."
She exhaled "Whoooh, thought they had some of your bullshit chrome for a second there."
"My chrome is not bullshit." He groused but there was no heat to it "Also you know I'd give you an optimized build the moment you asked for it. I already have it ready in fact."
"Awww." She grinned, giving him another hug and a kiss on his cold metal cheek "You are too cute sometimes, you know that?"
He just grumbled.
And seeing him look away her mirth disappeared, he just wanted to keep her safe, which made her feel warm all over "Tell you what." She said and he instantly perked up "Send me the list and I'll think about it."
It was already uploaded by the time she finished the sentence.
This was definitely too much for her poor little heart.
She narrowed her eyes "You better be awake when I'm done." And quickly hopped outside, pointedly ignoring Cyber Mom's amused look as she rushed down the stairs.
-----
"Alright." Maine spoke up as all of them except Pilar and Dorio (as both were busy with something else) stepped out of Falco's car "We are trying to start this as quiet as possible, so Sasha you are on camera duty."
Rebecca's choom offered a quick mock salute and got to hacking from the safety of a nearby bench.
"Lucy you got distractions." Maine went on.
"Got it." Kushinada agreed tersely.
"And Kiwi I'm keeping you as the backup." Maine finished "Anyone notice me approach and tries shit, you fry them."
She just nodded silently.
"Holdup Maine." Rebecca called out suddenly, hopping up and down and waving at the big man despite the weight of her armored vest and jacket, and her new bat, dragging her down "Aren't you going to get noticed like immediately?"
"Its a big party in there." He shrugged and didn't look too annoyed at the question "Its mostly exos and mercs wasting time, our target's trying to set himself up as the fancy new Afterlife, dumbass straight up challenged Rogue about it, they're waiting to watch the fireworks."
'What kind of a dumbass do you need to be to try that in the same district?' Rebecca felt her eyebrow rise on its own.
"And how's that going for him?" Kiwi asked blandly.
"Heh." Maine snorted "Rogue let it go on for a few days just so people could get their free drinks. Gonk's running out though so that's his countdown over. And we are the lucky gonks who got the milk run."
"Poor bastard." Falco huffed from his seat in the car.
"Well not like anyone's going to miss him." Rebecca shrugged "What am I doing?"
"Rogue's schematics show there's a well hidden rear entrance." Maine told her and she quickly found it on the info shard in her port "I need you to make sure no one gets out."
"Sure thing boss man." She mock saluted "I'll shoot all of the fuckers trying to run away from their shitty job!"
"You do that kid." Maine snorted, knowing she was just fucking with him "Alright team, enough fucking about, let's get this party started!"
The rest of them turned just as serious and everyone moved to their respective positions.
----
"Come... on!" She grit her teeth as she pulled the dumpster, the expression twisting into a grin as she finally managed to block most of the entrance with it.
"Heh." She smirked, remembering the image of the target showing him to be wider than she was tall "Try to get through that you fat fuck."
She leaned back against the dumpster, listening to the echoing gunshots coming in from inside.
'So much for trying to go quiet.' She snorted 'Didn't last five seconds once Maine got in.'
Too bad the gonks protecting... whatever his name was, had nothing on Maine. They were dead already, they just haven't caught up to the fact yet.
[Rebecca.] Sasha's voice jolted her from her thoughts [Target and two guards are getting away, they are going in your direction.]
'Shit.' She cursed and rolled into a prone position, her SMG pointed at the door [Ping them for me?]
[Can't from this distance.] Sasha answered.
Only for something to buzz against her link and for a trio of blue outlines to appear in her vision.
[Got them.] Kiwi's cold voice rang out across the connection.
[Thanks.] Rebecca sent back with an annoyed pout, knowing she'd have to deal with a pouting Sasha later.
She squashed any further thoughts as the outlines came closer and closer, the rusted back door getting kicked open by the first bodyguards as the second rushed after him.
Rebecca gently pulled her trigger.
Immediately the two mercs began screaming as the incendiary ammo she got on Mike's recommendation shredded through their subdermals, dragging their deaths out and making them flail around desperately as their fatass of a boss shoved himself past them, tripping on one of them and ending up falling face first into the concrete.
Rebecca deadpanned.
And decided just shooting the gonk was no longer enough.
She let her SMG hang off her shoulder and grabbed her new bat, easily sliding between her impromptu barricade and the wall just as fatso started dragging himself up.
He managed to crouch onto his knees by the time she was in front of him.
She grinned, and pulled her new weapon back.
His eyes widened as he noticed her "What the fu-"
She slammed the activated bat into his groin, cringing as she realized the crunch she heard and felt was more metal than flesh, and she got to watch what an EMP burst did when it connected to a Mr. Studd implant.
It wasn't pretty.
"Jesus fucking Christ, 'Becca." She looked up to see the blood-spattered Maine looking down at the man with something approaching pity.
"Think Rogue's going to give me a little bonus for that one?" She grinned, unrepentant.
"Hah!" The cyborg laughed "You know what, she probably will."
She did.
----
They got back to their base quickly after confirming the kill.
Maine had the Afterlife invite but since Kiwi and Lucy didn't want to draw attention, he decided against dragging them there and instead settled on celebrating in their little bar, breaking the drinks out in the dinghy little building for the first time since the Biotechnica gig.
They all shared a cheer but soon enough everyone relaxed and separated into small groups.
Kiwi sat in the corner, sharing a quiet beer with Falco but not showing any particular interest towards whatever the man said from time to time.
Lucy was trying to make a drunk Pilar fuck off (because of fucking course he made himself home here already despite not doing jack shit).
...And Rebecca was stuck dealing with a paranoid Sasha, just like she expected.
"You know." She interrupted her choom "You can just get better with other stuff if you are going to spiral like this every time they do something."
"Like what?" Sasha blinked, voice still all sniffly.
"How should I know girl?" Rebecca threw her hands up "Go learn to snipe or some shit but you need to relax before you make me smack you!"
"Since when did you get so scary, 'Becca~." The netrunner pretend shivered.
Rebecca's eyes narrowed.
"Okaay, I'll stop thinking about it." Sasha crossed her arms and pouted "You are no fun."
"Stop being a gonk and I'll get fun again." She poked her in the rib much to her protest "I'll go see what Maine is up to, want some drinks?"
Sasha held down a yawn "I think I'm going to turn in early."
"Nighty, girl." Rebecca gave her a two finger salute and walked off.
Just in time to see a familiar figure hand Maine a plastic bag over in his corner booth.
"Yo Glori!" Rebecca waved, startling the red haired woman and drawing a grumble from the cyborg "Long time no see!"
"Hello Rebecca." Gloria's tired expression relaxed a bit more as she smiled.
"When did you get here?" She asked.
Gloria gave Maine a look to which he nodded "Managed to get my hands on a solid sensor implant. Maine was interested and wanted it before I sold it to anyone else." She finished with a slightly teasing lilt.
To which the cyborg just rolled his eyes.
"Preem!" Rebecca threw her a thumbs up "How's work anyway? You look half dead up there."
Maine decided to grab the bag and retreat to his own world as he realized the conversation had been hijacked.
"It pays the bills." Gloria answered with a tired smile "Hopefully they will finally give me that quarterly raise they keep promising."
"Shit, Gloria." Rebecca hissed "You still with those EMT punks?"
The older woman nodded "Just need to push my son through school."
"Still don't know why you made him go to Arasaka of all places." Rebecca shook hear head.
Gloria's response was the same it was the previous few times "Because I want him to have a future."
"Right." Rebecca's voice made her disbelief clear "If you say so."
She couldn't understand how Gloria could push herself so far just for a far off dream of her kid making it in the corpo- Actually scratch that, she was almost like Cyber Mom in that.
Moms were overpowered, apparently...
She wouldn't know.
'Hold on a second.' A random thought flashed through her head.
Didn't Mike say he was looking for a trustworthy assistant?
Rebecca's expression twisted into a smirk 'Oh yeah, its all coming together.'
-------
Time to pay those back taxes.
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