Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
I ran to the building Rebecca had pointed out. She walked straight through the front door without any hesitation. Within seconds, the gunfire and Rebecca's unhinged laughter began. I chuckled, looked up at one of the windows, and jumped through with little effort.
My eyes immediately adjusted to the interior, and I saw four Maelstroms with their backs to me. I approached them and decapitated two with one movement; the remaining two reacted slowly.
I approached the first one, hit him with my fist that was still holding my sword, and threw a Petrificus Totalus at him. The Maelstrom's arms and legs joined together, and it fell stiffly against the ground. I had to throw it close enough so that the magic couldn't be seen.
I couldn't be sure at any point whether anyone was watching me or not, so it was better to be cautious. I threw Kanshou at the last one, slamming it into his head.
With a slight bend from Bakuya, Kanshou came back to me. I grabbed her and ran out of one of the doors. I ran down the hallway to another room. This time, I couldn't catch anyone off guard. My new four targets all started screaming and shooting at the same time.
My swords intercepted all the projectiles with extreme ease, deflecting them all as I quickly ran in their direction. Finally, I reached the first Maelstrom, sliced through its arm like butter, ignored GLaDOS's scream in my head about destroying her test subjects, and cut off its head.
With a swift motion, I swung both swords, spinning towards two of the other Maelstroms, and moved to the last of them. I moved, dodging all the projectiles, and jumped in its direction. I grabbed the Maelstrom's face with my hand and cast another full-body binding curse, causing him to freeze in place.
I saw Kanshou and Bakuya pinned to the wall and floor, their heads severed by the Maelstroms. I grabbed the hilt of the second pair of swords and used its ability. It caused the pinned Kanshou and Bakuya to come at me once more. I caught them in midair and ran away once more.
The Maelstroms, or the humans in general of this world, were… disappointing. Weak. I knew I didn't have to wait long, since, although with cybernetic enhancements, they were still human, maybe a little stronger, so all their attack power was based on their weapons.
But for someone who could react and move faster than projectiles, yes, it was a piece of cake. Just as easily, I killed six more Maelstroms and captured three more. That resulted in 17 kills for me: 12 deaths, and five captures.
Finally, I made my way down to the lower floors, where I could still hear the gunfire and Rebecca's laughter. Downstairs, I found carnage. There were about a dozen Maelstroms dead, and another dozen firing. Rebecca laughed as she fired her weapons until they ran out of ammunition.
I took advantage of the Maelstrom's distraction and began killing them, which caught the attention of half of them. This caused them to loosen their attention on Rebecca a little, which she took advantage of and began to advance with more frenzy.
In no time, all the Maelstroms were dead.
"Hahaha! That was so nova!" Rebecca laughed happily as her body was covered in blood and oil. I could see a deep blush on her cheeks as she caught her breath. "I had 19 of them! It's my victory! " Rebecca said with a huge, broad smile.
"I had 24." I said playfully, Rebecca looked at me incredulously.
"What the fuck?! When did that happen?" Rebecca asked incredulously, and I laughed lightly.
"I went through the window to an upper floor." I said playfully, Rebecca snorted while pouting.
"You can't use your ninja skills," Rebecca growled.
"Ninja?" I asked playfully, and Rebecca rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, Ninja, you're one of those cyber ninja from Arasaka, right? I mean, it's the only thing that would explain your crazy assassination skills and everything. I mean, you don't even have a drop of blood! Not a hair out of place!" Rebecca exclaimed, seemingly unconcerned.
I snorted and looked at myself slightly. Apparently, I was unconsciously using magic to prevent the blood from splashing on me; on the other hand, I didn't want to have their blood on me, so I didn't care much.
"I'm not a ninja." I said, amusedly, Rebecca rolled her eyes.
"It's okay, you're no ninja," Rebecca said, giving me an exaggerated wink. "That's why I can't even register you online. You must have a hell of an ICE," Rebecca said playfully. I snorted and rolled my eyes.
"I'm not even connected to the local network. The thought of connecting to Night City's network disgusts me." I mocked her, and Rebecca just rolled her eyes.
"Sure, and you magically hacked the previous gonks," Rebecca said dryly. I laughed lightly.
"Come on, let's get out of here," I said with a smile as I changed the subject.
"Wait, don't you have to call your Mainline? Or do we have to take the stuff to them? I have someone who could bring a van over in 15 minutes," Rebecca said quickly.
"No need, I already told her." I said simply. "Someone will come to collect everything in a few minutes; it's better if we're not here when that happens." It was true; I had created a portal a few floors above me, and I could see through GLaDOS as she bounced with happiness while grabbing pieces of Maelstrom and taking them through the portal.
It would be adorable if she weren't cradling a Maelstrom's head like a pet while laughing happily.
Rebecca simply raised an eyebrow.
"And things like that tell me you're a cyber ninja Corpo." Rebecca pointed her gun at me. I rolled my eyes. "On the other hand, you wouldn't be very good at it, but I can easily tell." Rebecca hummed or shrugged.
"Come on, Shortstack, you still owe me one; I won our competition." I said mockingly as I bumped her with my hip.
"I told you not to call me that! And there's no proof of your victory! " Rebecca complained as she quickened her pace to join me.
"You can go check the bodies; they're mostly whole. Much better than yours, you can't really count how many people were there in the first place," I said dryly as I looked at the Maelstrom parts completely scattered everywhere.
"It's not much of a fault the Maelstroms are so exploitable," Rebecca shrugged. I snorted in amusement.
"Well, we have some places to go, let's get going." I said playfully.
"You got it, choom! What's our next target!? " Rebecca asked excitedly.
"Don't get excited, it's nothing special. I need you to take me to different places in Night City. It'll be good to be able to find my way around in the future." I said, cutting off all of Rebecca's excitement. She just pouted.
"Fine, fine, you're the one in charge," Rebecca said wearily. I chuckled.
"Fiiine. I need to head over to Coastview in Pacifica, no specific location, just a tour, we can mess with some Scavvers or Animals if we find some." I said playfully, Rebecca's eyes sparkled, and she smiled widely.
"Nova! That sounds much better! Let's go! " Rebecca said as she grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards her Maimai. I happily jump towards her, throw our weapons in the back of her Maimai, and jump onto the seat. "All right! To Pacifica! " Rebecca said, putting her vehicle into high gear.
Once again, we had to cross the entire city. We were in Northside, and going to Pacifica was literally crossing the whole city; we didn't even complain, especially since we had previously been in Santo Domingo, which was practically next to Pacifica.
Still, we arrived in almost twenty minutes, ignoring the traffic and most of the lights—traffic laws were optional here, really.
During that time, Rebecca talked about everything, and I easily followed along while watching what GLaDOS did with the new parts.
Luckily, I keep most of the things in the Pocket Space since there wasn't that much space in our penthouse in the H8 mega building. Meanwhile, she had grabbed the few Maelstroms that were still alive, and she was now operating on them with a massive smile on her face.
She had on her Glorious Hands of God: Perfector gloves, her hands moving almost blurrily over the Maelstrom's body, placed on one of Ripperdoc's stretchers that she had created with alchemy.
She had the plans in her head, so it was easy for her to generate the necessary circle in a matter of seconds, then use magic to imprint the alchemical circles onto the base materials, and that was it.
GLaDOS was humming happily as she continued to gut the Maelstroms, which were completely frozen with my Curse, not even bothering to anesthetize them or put them to sleep in any way.
She had so many pieces of cyberware belonging to the Maelstrom that she was simply taking cyberware from one organ to the living bodies, and then putting others in them, running some programs to verify everything, before switching organs or limbs. Before repeating. Over and over again.
Perfector made her hands operate efficiently and extremely fast, just a few minutes to exchange cyberware. I shrugged and simply let GLaDOS have her fun. I couldn't care less about the Maelstroms.
Once we arrived at Coastview, Rebecca parked almost immediately and insisted we go on foot. She reloaded and readied all her weapons, then reequipped them. We began walking around Coastview, looking for any problems.
I almost thought we'd find absolutely nothing, but... we got caught up in a damn gang skirmish. Some Scavvangers were attacking some Animals near the Grand Imperial Mall, and Rebecca clearly jumped into the fray.
One thing led to another, and it turns out that yes, the Grand Imperial Mall was packed with members of the Animals. I thought that, since it was still 2075 and the Animals weren't working for NetWatch, they hadn't yet occupied the enormous mall.
I made a mistake.
They swarmed out like cockroaches when they heard the gunshots and came charging straight at us. Rebecca was beyond euphoric about the situation. Still, after we killed about the thirtieth Animal, and dozens more, we had to escape.
Well, I grabbed Rebecca and ran in the opposite direction when she ran out of bullets. Even so, she didn't even look like she was going to give up. She grabbed the nearest gun from a dead Animal and kept firing. Even when I tucked her under my arm, she kept firing at the gang members while laughing madly.
Once we got far enough away and I managed to lose them, Rebecca laughed happily as we continued walking along Coastview.
I got a really good look at the church where the VoodooBoys were supposed to be, but we quickly moved away.
I also got a good look at the Dogtown wall, which was another spot I had to visit. The stuff inside was something GLaDOS was very interested in, with various blueprints and important information, including that damn nightmare-inducing Cerberus robot.
" Phew! That was fun! We have to do it again! " Rebecca said cheerfully. I rolled my eyes. "Okay, now where do we go?" Rebecca asked as she started the Maimai up once more.
"None, it's already getting dark, so that would be it." I said simply as I looked at the sun that was beginning to set.
" Aaww, but nighttime is when everything gets better." Rebecca complained, and I snorted.
"I think there's been enough fun for today," I said dryly. "Also, could you stop by Corpo Plaza? I want to check it out, too," I said simply. By now, I'd been able to see most of the necessary locations.
Now I could easily Apparate anywhere, especially to the church where the Voodoo Boys were. But it would be nice to see Arasaka Tower up close. If I could somehow get GLaDOS to keep an eye on Arasaka Academy, then—
I suppressed the loud moan that wanted to escape my throat. That wasn't going to happen now. David only got in trouble for the illegal and poorly executed upgrade he'd gotten from Doc. Since he'd already killed Doc, well... that went down the drain.
Ugh, I didn't really care for David. Honestly, I could muster very little sympathy for him. Most of his problems were entirely his own doing. Yes, he was a good person, he cared about his own, and he was literally a little traumatized by the succession of important people's deaths that followed.
But even so, it was his decisions that had resulted in most of the bad things that had happened to him.
But leaving that aside, I would now have to find another way to find out how to obtain the experimental Sandevistan. Hmm, I could ask Rebecca. She already knew I was looking for cyberware and things for GLaDOS to experiment with and practice on. It wouldn't be strange if she asked if I knew anyone who could get more implants.
"And here we are! Corpo Plaza!" Rebecca said, snapping me out of my thoughts. It had gotten dark enough to see that everything was covered in lights and neon. It really was a totally different view.
"Just take a turn near Arasaka Tower and the Militech offices." I said simply, Rebecca just nodded as she drove.
"What the fuck, why are there so many cops?" Rebecca growled. Cops? I looked around before my eyes widened when I saw a muscular man standing next to an NCPD car, a blond man with a beard who looked familiar.
"Fuck-" My words were cut short when James Norris shot and killed an NCPD officer directly. All the other officers reacted immediately and started shooting at him, but his skin was obviously armored.
Really? What kind of fucking luck am I having today?! First, I met Rebecca, and now I meet James Norris? It's like they're all falling on me somehow.
" Cyberpsycho! Fuck! " Rebecca growled in a strained voice. She began to spin the Maimai violently. I got out of the still-moving vehicle. "What!? Damn gonk!? What are you doing?! Get back here!! " I ignored Rebecca's screams and charged at James Norris with my swords drawn.
I was about to drive my sword back into his head when I saw James accelerate explosively, at least a dozen times, as he obviously activated the Sandevistan. James Norris moved, slid along the ground, and positioned himself behind the officers as they shot at him.
I increased my speed faster than he could move, and intercepted all the bullets he fired, saving the lives of everyone in the NCPD. James Norris finally saw me and reacted, starting to fire at me. I easily cut through and deflected all the bullets.
I approached him, saw a mantis blade emerge from his arm, and I generated more force and aimed right at the joint. The mantis blade was quickly severed and rendered useless.
That barely fazed James; he just kept attacking with whatever he could find. It was a few long minutes of high-speed fighting, still using his Sandevistan to keep up, until James finally stopped. He finally had to exit Sandevistan.
I seized my opportunity, appeared behind Norris, dropped my swords, clapped lightly, and struck the back of James's head. Instantly, most of his back crumbled away with ease as I carefully ripped out the Sandevistan. The shape of his back looked like the cyberware had been carelessly ripped out, precisely as I had intended.
Trace On. I grabbed all the Sandevistan blueprints and threw them to GLaDOS, before putting the Sandevistan itself back into my inventory, clapping once more, discreetly taking out a small piece of metal, and still with the blueprints in my mind, I grabbed the piece of metal in my hand and created a perfect copy of the Sandevistan before crushing it beneath my hands, completely shattering it and letting it fall to the ground.
I grabbed my swords again and then beheaded James Norris.
I finally stopped.
"Stop! Stop! " said one of the police officers. I raised an eyebrow at him as I raised my hands slightly. "Back away from the body!" I did as I was told before turning invisible and disappearing. "Wait! Stop!! " I ignored the police officer's screams and appeared near Rebecca's Maimai.
I made myself visible and got in. Rebecca was staring tensely, her arms tightly gripped on the steering wheel as she looked worriedly back to where she'd been a short while ago. She jumped sharply when I swung open the door.
"Drive, fast." I said immediately. Rebecca growled.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Damn Gonk-head!" Rebecca growled but still slammed the accelerator in the opposite direction. Just in time to see MaxTac's AV approach.
"Well, that was a good exercise," I said playfully.
"Good exercise?! Damn, Gonk! You're an idiot! Rot you fucking bastard! " Rebecca growled as she began to pummel me with her fist. "Go fight a cyberpsycho alone?! He had a fucking Sandevistan! If you didn't have a better one than his, you would have been rubble on the floor! Damn Gonk!" Rebecca kept hitting me.
"I'm glad you're concerned," I said playfully as I withstood all of Rebecca's blows.
"Who's worried about you, gonk?" Rebecca growled, finally stopping. She drove on stiffly before taking a deep breath. A few seconds passed in silence before she stared at me, her eyes almost dilated. "You're a fucking gonk, but that was the sexiest thing I've ever seen, and I couldn't even see anything you were moving at ridiculous speeds! I'm so wet... do you want to have sex? " Rebecca growled, desire dripping from her voice.
I blinked a couple of times in her direction. How did she go from hitting me and scolding me to wanting to have sex?!
"No," I said curtly, massaging my temple in anticipation of an impending headache.