2 weeks after my session with the ripperdoc, I've finally arrived home again; sat on the couch for about half an hour, scrolling my OS before I receive a call from Kendrick.
"Hey Kendrick. Need somethin'? I ask neutrally before he speaks.
"So… you were right." He states vaguely after a loud, miserable sigh
"About?" I ask in confusion due to his sudden solemn tone before he speaks again.
"Arasaka… they- they fired me. They stripped me of my cyberware and kicked me to the curb. Essentially, I thought about what you told me and began questioning them and they said I was "asking too many questions" and just… got rid of me. Lost my Scholarship AND my job. They seized my bank and told me to never come back." He answers, finally explaining what he means which is that I was right in my prediction that they were gonna fire him.
"Oh so it finally happened eh? Told you those corpo bastards don't care." I respond with a chuckle, sipping my wine glass and closing the tabs on my OS to give him my full attention.
"Yeah, I get it. No need to rub salt on the wound. Listen I- I need help." He replies apprehensively and reluctantly, not wanting to have to ask a merc such as me.
"With what? Getting you into Merc jobs? You can just go to Militech or Biotechnica or wherever'll take you i'm sure. Hell you got a scholarship from Arasaka." I ask with confusion, not seeing what he'd need me for.
"Yeah. A scholarship they took away from me and fired from an internship. That doesn't look good on your personal record I can promise you." He states with conviction and irritation. It made sense after all; he lost a Scholarship to the most prestigious academy in the world. That can't look good.
"You're really that committed to this huh..? Fine. Swing by my apartment, I'll talk to you when you arrive." I answer before hanging up whilst I hear a simultaneous knock with a familiar female voice calling out.
"Chelsea, wanna talk to you!" I hear calling out to me; muffled behind my front door.
Upon walking and opening the front soor, I see Kiera in a white hoodie and sweatpants, holding a present.
"Hey Chels. For you." She offers the present, pushing her hands forward in insistence. "C'mon! Open it!" She says in encouragement.
"O-kay..?" i mutter, switching my glads for my gun in my right hand against the stand near the door, opening the present with my free hand and seeing a completely new Cyberdeck.
"Huh. How'd you figure I needed a new one?" I question, raising an eyebrow and looking pleasantly surprised by her gift.
"I knew your deck was shit and you mentioned it yourself and I wanted to apologise for causing trouble by offering you it." She smiles a bit wider.
"Well thanks. I'll be sure to get it implanted tonight." I respond before scanning the piece of Cyberware for viruses or Malware but it's clean. Just a fresh, clean Cyberdeck.
"How come you gave it to me? I was pretty harsh to you a couple weeks back." I ask curiously, pocketing the new piece of hardware and facing her again, puffing my vape.
"Well we've always been friends and like I said, I wanted to apologise for being shitty so I got you a new one. You've helped me out when I need so I'll help you. To show you i'm still your friend, ya know?" She answers, saying the same thing she said again.
"…I suppose. Well thanks again. Is that all you needed or..?" I respond, awaiting her next words.
"Well I did need your help with a teeny tiny thing. I need a Netrunner. I didn't wanna ask theose useless assholes around here and you know what the VDBs are like so I came to you. I'll split the pay with you, I just need you to hack into a database for me." I notice a hopeful and pleading tone from her as if she has no other options because reality says she probably doesn't.
"Sure. I haven't had a job for a while because I nearly fried my brain the other week." I agree and accidentally expose that I almost died a couple weeks ago.
"Holy shit what? What happened? How? You're like… hell you're YOU." She widens her eyes in shock that I could even be wounded, let alone nearly killed.
"Calm down. I had a job and was dealing with Maelstrom and I accidentally overclocked my Cyberdeck too much. Nothing crazy." I downplay my nearly fatal flaw, shrugging it off and not wanting to expose any layer of vulnerability.
"Bullshit It's nothing crazy; you overclocked a TIER 1 CYBERDECK. You lost your fucking mind or you 'borg all that up TOO?" She knocks on my head to prove a point, causing me to swat away her hand and scowl at her rather insulting mannerism.
"Obviously not. I was just cornered and had no choice." I reply nonchalantly, blowing smoke in her face as she coughs and crosses her arms like a Tsundere anime Character.
"You idiot, I CARE about you ya know. Gonna get yourself fuckin' killed someday, you know that?" She asks in annoyance, blushing ever so slightly.
"Don't get all sappy on me now K. If you wanna be a Merc then you gotta have the stones to be one." I sigh, shaking my head and puffing my vape again.
"I don't think you see the point i'm making Chel-" She continues to argue disapprovingly as she's cut off by a call. "Ugh… shit. 2 parasecs." She mutters, her eyes red as sue answers the call and leans against the railing, following her and also leaning against te railing ad she speaks to someone over her OS.
"Hey Mark… yeah… Yeah I know… listen, don't worry, okay..? What do you not have faith in me or..? Right, so then why don't you believe me when I say I have it handled..? Yeah, I know; I'm not a fuckin' idiot okay? I just- ugh… Chelsea's helping me… Okay, thank you. Goodbye." She sounds even more agitated by her brother's call.
"What's he want?" I question as she pushes herself off the railing again.
"He's afraid that the job that we're doing is dangerous." She answers in a monotone, neutral voice; sounding more tired of him than anything.
"Is it?" I ask, puffy my vape deeply and blowing out smoke as she sighs.
"Well, kinda..? But what Merc job ain't?" She shrugs whilst I raise an eyebrow.
"Sure he ain't mean more dangerous than usual? I mean he's a decent Merc himself is he not?" I blow out smoke as I speak, crossing my arms.
"I dunno. I don't really care. Wish he'd just get wasted in Lizzie's bar and go watch the XBDs like he usually does instead of bothering ME." She irritatedly comments, rolling her eyes.
"It's 10:26 in the morning." I snicker quietly, rolling my eyes as she continues to rant about her brother. "You should be more greatful for him you know. Having someone truly care for 'n all that. Having family is a luxury here. Never know when you can lose 'em." I speak from experience, knowing it's a case of tough love.
"I know- I just…. I know. It's just hard to when he pisses me off all the time." She replies
"I wish I had someone like that. Someone I could love." I add with a sigh, looking away as she looks to me with an amused smirk
"And you tell me I'M bein' sappy." Kiera chuckles beside me in reference to my previous comment.