Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
Jackie is the first to stumble from the AV, practically folding over himself as he embraced the hot concrete of the landing pad like an old friend and muttered "Ay amada tierra! I'm never flying again..."
"Oh c'mon!" Rebecca folds her arms atop the cargo hold and pouts "It wasn't that bad."
"You nearly crashed us." I point out dryly as I hop down to the pad and help Jackie up "On three separate occasions."
"It was a stress test!" She chirps and pats the armored hull of the AV a couple of times for emphasis "Had to make sure this bad girl could actually fly."
My sensors twitch "Its a miracle flight control didn't send a drone squadron to shoot us down. Especially after you nearly rammed the Night Corp tower."
"It was nowhere near that close." She asserts and then hops off the AV, springs off my shoulder and lands safely on the pad with a smug look on her face as she reaches up and pats me "Also, I knew you could deal with them."
"I'm revoking your gun privileges for a week." I deadpan.
Her eyes widen in horror "B-but- you can't!"
"Already done it." I nod solemnly, having just locked the armory down.
She takes a step away from me, a fake tremble in her limbs "Traitor!"
Just then the nearby doors hiss open and out steps Jugo with two of his most well chromed out goons, who immediately turn more alert upon seeing Rebecca, or more specifically her tattoos.
Their boss doesn't skip a beat though "Never a dull moment with you, Mike!" He claps his hands "You didn't say you would be bringing guests."
"Thanks for letting me borrow your landing pad." I nod at him, still eyeing the guards just in case "Still a few weeks away from security being fully done on the tower, and leaving it out there in the open is just asking for some gonk to try and klep it."
"Always happy to share a favor or two." He waves it off with a smirk before turning to my companions "Now there are a pair of faces I've been looking forward to meeting. A Valentino and a Mox, skulking about my building... Without even saying hello!"
"You got a problem with that scarface?" Rebecca raises her chin challengingly.
I merely cross my arms, quietly staring at the Tyger Claw.
"Oi, chica." Jackie hisses "Maybe don't provoke the scary Tyger Cap, eh? I'd like to go home with my skin on tonight."
"Haha!" Jugo doesn't so much as twitch at their words though, merely nodding as if everything was exactly as expected "Knew it would take a special kind of someone to steal my Street Samurai's metal heart!"
I justbarely fail to contain a groan.
"Come on downstairs." He doesn't even hide his shiteating grin as he waves for us to follow him "My beautiful wife would castrate me if I acted like a bad host!"
Jackie shoots me a pleading look but I just slowly shake my head, knowing there was no getting out of this one.
Rebecca, being Rebecca, immediately began skipping after him.
---
"Mikeeey, why didn't you tell me your Tyger friend was actually nova?" Rebecca pretend whines as we leave the parking lot after seeing Jackie off.
"Because you were in the Mox?" I half deadpan "The gang that's enemies with the Claws? Ringing any bells?"
"Pfft! Like that's any excuse." She waves me off "I think you were just holding out on me."
"Alright, alright." I sigh "What's this actually about?"
She stops in her tracks, doing nothing for a moment before taking a deep breath and sighing in turn "I really wanted to kick his dick in."
"A temptation I've grown more than familiar with." I can't help but mutter with a bit of amusement.
She snorts lightly before her face twists back into its annoyed state as she begins to mutter "Piece of shit acting like we're best friends all of a sudden..."
"Sorry about that." I say after a moment "I genuinely wasn't expecting him to come out and meet me just for a landing... Though then again I can see how me getting an AV would excite the madman..."
"Ah, don't worry about it." She waves me down "I can deal with pretending to like the asshole for a bit." She shoots me a wink "Can't be fucking up your contacts this deep in, can I?"
"Thanks."
"You did let me fly the AV." She says with a devious smirk.
"Alright fine." I sigh dramatically "I guess you can have your weapons back."
"Yayyy!" She hops.
"But first." I interrupt "Pizza!"
"I can live with that."
---
Pizza attained, and girlfriend pacified, I soon found myself back in my workshop, though not for any actual tinkering despite my desire to get to it immediately. Logos was still optimizing our alloy ratios to the nth degree and until he was done we couldn't start doing any actual work.
[Incorrect.]
I retract my finger from the call button "Care to elaborate on that?"
[Affirmative. I was perusing the biocorp data I downloaded in Zurich and I believe I've found a viable modification to your Biopod that you will find very useful.] He sends me a string of data that makes me pause [A Longevity Module upgrade should extend your brain's life expectancy by an approximate factor of four after optimization.]
"That's..." I paused for a moment, unsure of what to say before ultimately settling on "Not something I thought I'd need to consider for a long while at least."
[Mortality is an issue best faced as soon as possible. After a point natural human cell degradation will decrease the efficiency of this module considerably with each year that passes. Further research should allow us to preserve your neuroplasticity, and protect you from the phenomenon known as the 'mind fog' as well.]
"You seem... unusually enthusiastic about this." I point out slowly, still reeling a bit from the implications.
[I am a timeless creature by 'nature'.] He points out with audible quotations [The fact you do not share this feature is... troubling to me.]
Smiling despite my odd mood I shake my head "You'll get sick of me sooner or later."
[Unlikely.] I feel his own amusement through my Cyberdeck [You have created me this way, and now you must suffer the consequences.]
I exhale a chuckle "Thanks buddy. We can work on it."
[I will begin preparing the data whenever I am not busy growing sick of metallurgy.]
"I thank you for your sacrifice." I say and then pause, Logos' logic inevitably leading my own down a very specific line of thinking that left me clenching my fist so hard the metal creaked.
'Don't even think about it. Just get better.' I decided and promptly shoved the thought into the deepest recesses of my brain.
Unsure of just how long I stayed like that, I only shook myself awake when I felt an important call coming in through my Agent. Gladly taking the opportunity for a distraction I straightened in my seat and flicked it on.
[Hey there, M.] V greets on the other end.
[V.] I return [Thought it was about time you contacted me.]
She pauses for a moment [Things were a bit slow on the... majestic overlord side of things, but that should be solving itself in a bit.]
'So the Arasaka family was dragging their feet for some reason... Mildly concerning.'
[Which means we should get started.]
[Being proactive is good.] I agree [Got a first target for me then?]
[An appetizer to get us going.] She smirks and flicks me the details.
Some poor schmuck working in HR that was just a bit too selective in his recruitment choices.
[Kazuma Goto.] She elaborates after a moment [The one in charge of HR is still sitting on the fence even after I pressed him. One of his chief cronies biting it should kick him in the right direction.]
[Not afraid it will spook him into siding with your opponents?] I ask.
[He is a spineless coward.] V says, a twitch of disdain on her face [If I show him I will follow through on my threats, he will fold immediately.]
[And just killing one of his goons will be enough?]
[It sends the right message.] She shrugs [If he somehow doesn't react like I think he will, then I'll just escalate until he does. So long as I don't give him too much time to consider his position.]
'She did call it an appetizer' I hum and tap my table for a few seconds [How much of a point do you want to make here exactly?]
[Killing him somewhere vaguely visible will do it.] She makes a nonchalant wave [Just make sure it can't be traced back to anyone. Terrifying spineless rats is so much easier when they think you have complete control of the situation.]
[Got it.] I hum, resisting the urge to make the obvious rat comparison and focusing on actually important matters [And my compensation?]
[Yorinobu-sama should be getting back to America in a few weeks. I recommend you wait for then to negotiate things.] She raises a hand before I can say anything [I swear I'm not trying to fuck you over here, M. Just trust me on this, k?]
'So the family drama was even worse than I thought.' I conclude as I take a slow, unnecessary breath [Fine. I can wait V. This one time.]
Even as I said it I marked the delay down as leverage for future negotiations.
[Thanks.] She exhales in relief, hesitating for a moment before adding [Also, please make sure you got Smasher's toy ready when they come back. He is going to be impossible to deal with if I tell him he has to wait.]
I redirect my Agent's camera to my Optics and point them to the massive chainsword too big to be used by anything other than a military fullborg hanging off my wall [That look good enough?]
[I sure fucking hope so.] V says with a mildly dead look in her eyes.
I merely stare at her questioningly.
She groans, tiredly lowering her face into her hands [They had me wrangling the murder machine in Tokyo for a whole ass day. He was insufferable.]
[My uh... condolences?]
[Just... don't worry about it.] She waves me off, sits back up and settles her expression into something more serious again [Make sure to tell me when the target is about to be dealt with. I've got to time my 'reminder' right.]
[Yes, oh mistress of terror.] I deadpan [One dead rat coming right up.]
She snorts [V out.] And ends the call.
My eyes flick to the alert I just got from the factory work site and I stand up 'Perfect fucking timing.' I grumble to myself as I stomp my way to the garage 'Suppose I was always planning to just outsource the rat murder, and I've even got the perfect merc for the job.'
Most satisfyingly, the gig was agreed upon before I'd fully sat down in the driver's seat.
---
I reached my destination in minutes and just in time to see the people bothering the construction crew start pushing the Foreman around while shouting in his face.
Well, going by their telltale mechanical faceplates people was being a bit generous here.
"Where is the fucking chrome you meat?!" The lead Maelstrommer covers the poor man's face in spittle, each movement a jitter "They told me you had the good shit!"
The Foreman goes to say something but just ends up getting shaken into near unconsciousness for his efforts "The fucking chrome man! Where is it?! You tryin' to hide it from me?!" He grows more erratic with each moment, ultimately reaching for the revolver in his pocket, probably to shove it into the man's throat.
The other seven 'strommers all jeer and laugh as the Foreman begins to struggle.
I on the other end, find myself completely unamused.
Time slows to a crawl as the lead cyborg grips his weapon, my Liberty is already aimed at his hand, Logos completes his targeting solution, and my fingers whirr so quickly the trigger dents slightly.
Time snaps back into motion and each and every single one of the Maelstrom goons finds themselves disarmed, some of them losing fingers alongside their weapons.
All, including the psycho, flinch at my unimpressed gaze, doing nothing as I holster my pistol and flick on my chainsword.
'Display my strength was it, Jugo?'
"Who told you about this place?" I ask very calmly.
The goons look far less sure of themselves now, but their leader must have taken some of that good stuff because as he takes an instinctual step back, his many optics glitch out and his whole body twitches as he roars angrily in response "They told me there would be chrome!" He snaps back "And looks like the chrome just brought itself! Fuck him up boys!"
And he launches himself at me.
What followed was less a fight and more of a meat mincing montage taken straight from a particularly distasteful xBD as I proceeded to cut through the rank and file goons like so much wet paper, only the leader managed to dodge an absent backswing of mine by way of his rampant cyberpsychosis but that only delayed his own disassembly.
His implants were less than lacking, and a quick kick to his knee was enough to bring him down for an on site visor removal operation by way of thermal digits.
I let him scream for a few seconds before deciding that was enough and bringing my blade down on his head.
Not before extracting his agent though. I wasn't going to let whoever did this get away with poking those working for me.
Sighing at all the blood I got covered in I turned at the Foreman and the few construction workers who'd come out to help if worst came to worst, I ignored their instinctual flinching and asked "Is anyone in need of medical attention?"
Most shook their head and the Foreman winced but also joined the rest "I've had worse."
Without a word I tossed him a Max Doc which he caught on reflex "Ensuring your safety was my job, so expect a bonus if you can continue apace."
The Foreman nods without hesitation "You got it, sir." Much to his employees' agreement.
What was a bit of butchery in the face of more eddies after all?
Still, even if the construction crews weren't about to run off, I'd have to ask Mason to send the most eager of his veterans over as soon as possible. A repeat of something like this was unacceptable.
Half an hour later a few squads of NCPD rolled over lead by Ward, and he proceeded to take everyone's statement before outright paying me for the dead gangoons as they all had minor bounties on their heads.
He at least wasn't bothered about me calling him over this time as the case was perfectly valid, but I was starting to think I owed the man a bit too much for my tastes.
I'd need to think of some way to properly pay him back soon. A data packet on the gangs in his district sounded just about right.
That was for later though, as the moment I sat back down in my van, I connected to the video feed of a somewhat well known restaurant in Downtown, getting the perfect view of V's chosen target as something, or someone flashed out behind them before disappearing like so much shadow.
Nothing seemed to happen for a split second before the man twitched, and exploded in chunks of flesh signature to someone getting repeatedly slashed by a monomolecular blade, or as the case was, a wire.
I could have probably fried the man from inside out from the comfort of my home in hindsight, but V wanted a message, and a message she got.
Also, staying one degree removed from Arasaka bullshit was probably good for my health, deal or no deal.
Two seconds later, I got a simple thumbs up from the half rat of the day before she went offline to deal with the fallout.
Five seconds later, the expected call from my hireling came.
[Excellent work, as expected.] I say in lieu of greetings.
[Of course you were watching the whole thing. I shouldn't even be surprised at this point.] She sighs [That was too damn easy.]
[It was mostly a test run.] I admit [There is more where that came from if you keep nice and quiet.]
[You know Rogue doesn't hire blabbers, Magos.] She scoffs [Still weird seeing you on this end of the deal.]
[What can I say? I'm moving up in the world.] I drawl and wait for the mental click before going on [Your payment just went through. With the agreed upon bonus for expediency. Come around and visit when you want to talk shop, the discount I promised stands.]
[Got it.] She salutes [Be seeing you, M.]
[Thanks for popping in on such short notice.] I nod [Be seeing you, Kimigawa.]
[Just Kimi is fine.] She corrects, and ends the call without waiting for my response.
...Huh.
---
Hours later, as I came back home and grabbed some RealWater before doing some good old data mining, I found myself pausing at the exit of the kitchen due to a familiar, if distant, sound playing on the TV, turning back just in time to see a recording of myself cutting through the gangoons trying to start shit at my factory.
Tuning in more closely I hear the TV lady say "-The Night Motors Massacre has left the residents of Little China terrified and questioning the city's law enforcement efforts. Why are such killers allowed to walk our streets without supervision? Subscribe to Watson Daily to find out more, with our special guest from the PD-"
I paused and took a slow drink of the cold water, only allowing myself an interested hum despite the spike of irritation rising in the back of my head "So that is your game then..." I mutter, feeling both annoyed, and completely unimpressed.
-------
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