I wish to say the cyborg's sudden hostility- no, not quite hostility but suspicion, was to be completely expected, but I still found myself irritated at the posturing.
So instead of answering the heavily chromed out unit of a man I merely directed him with an irritated look before turning back to my patient and spraying her open wound with some healing aide and disinfectant that wouldn't do irreparable damage to the fragile tissue inside.
And then I picked up my trusty meat stapler and got to work.
Never knew when you needed to sew someone back together in a jiffy!
Or so the cyberpsycho job taught me.
My silence must have made it seem like had I backed down (for whatever gonk reason) because Pilar immediately took that as his invitation to mouth off "Haha!" He laughed as he waved his bottle of beer "Man, I didn't know 'Becca's new input was a shy little bit- Argh fuck!"
Before I could even look at him, Maine's twitching left hand swung out, smacking him into the van's inner wall with enough force to hurt but not injure.
"Enough Pilar." Maine grunted and looked back at me with an evaluating gaze.
"Usually I go by Magos." I finally answered as I was finally satisfied with my work, at least Yakovleva wasn't about to bleed out anytime soon "But since the gonk isn't exactly wrong about me and Rebecca being close, you can just call me Mike."
The man nodded and offered his hand "Name's Maine."
I took the hand and we both squeezed at the same time, making our implants groan slightly with the force of it and staring into each other's eyes as we slowly shook them.
"A pleasure." I said for courtesy's sake and turned to Rebecca, whose leg was still bleeding but not profusely.
My eyes narrowed as I evaluated the damage and I found myself... mildly satisfied she wouldn't need it replaced.
I must be going soft.
Shaking my head I got to work injecting the ravaged appendage with the good stuff while Maine kept talking.
"Why did you help us?" He asked.
Despite myself, I deadpanned "Because Rebecca asked."
The man let out a disbelieving snort "Just for that?"
"Unlike most of the pathetic excuses for people in this city, I have a spine." I snapped back "I'd know, I built the damn thing myself."
His eyes narrowed but he chose not to comment on it "So what? Your output calls and suddenly you mobilize half of fucking Watson, is that it?"
"Of course." I deadpanned and before he could respond I went on "But don't think the rest of you all don't owe me anything for this."
I finished bandaging Rebecca's leg and turned back to the man as the van finally started slowing "Rebecca does get a free pass but I did move a lot of resources to get your asses out of the fire your fuckup lit under you all."
"Our fuckup?" He squared his shoulders.
"Correct." I said bluntly "I managed to piece together exactly what happened in there on the way. And let me tell you, if letting your netrunner friend do what she wanted for stupid emotional reasons and effectively announcing your location to the entire net with her stunt isn't a fuckup, then I don't know what is."
"What my team and I do." He growled threateningly "Is none of your damn business."
Not backing down, I glared back "It is when it results in me acting. Actions you accepted and benefited from, may I remind you."
Dorio and Pilar were both shifting their gazes from him to me and then back but neither decided to speak up.
The man ran a tight ship it seemed.
Finally, Maine allowed himself to lean back "What do you want then?"
"While my goal isn't to extort you-" I said carefully, ignoring his snort "I did mobilize half of Watson as you said, and that is going to cost you."
And feeling just a bit vindictive for his temerity, I began gleefully listing off "Distraction team payouts, fuel costs, evac vehicle repairs, munition costs, high risk combat assistance, anti-corpo netrunning services, a skilled driver, multiple barricades, first aid, high grade medicinal supplies, a fortified safehouse, trace scrubbing-"
Each and every point made Maine's frown deeper than the last, and finally he had had enough as he ground out a simple "How much?"
"Two fifty all together." I stopped myself from sounding too cheerful "You are an experienced hand in this business, you know exactly how valuable my help and the sheer speed and coordination of it on such short notice is."
My fellow cyborg of the lesser kind said nothing but Pilar was far less... well he was less, and scoffed "Want us to give you the entire damn payout as well, asshole?"
Tilting my head boredly I shrugged "I can always make it a nice round three hundred by removing Rebecca's discount if you want?"
That shut him up real quick, though the two more experienced mercs shared a quick but noticeable look between each other.
"My advice?" I looked back to Maine "Use the netrunner's cut. She did put you into this mess after all."
Pilar of all people seemed to agree, but both Dorio and Maine were far less entertained by the idea "All of us decided to stay behind." He said simply "Everyone gets their fair shake."
"That's fair." I shrugged, while I would never had allowed the dumbass of a netrunner to get out of it unpunished, he was right in that it wasn't my crew we were discussing "You can discuss payment between each other as you like."
Unfortunately, it seemed the man was not quite yet done testing me "And what's to stop us from just walking out?"
The instant he said it, his two conscious chooms tensed, and I barely managed to catch Jackie unholstering his Nue.
"Aside from me shutting down every single piece of cyberware in you like I did the mech, you mean?" I was completely unshaken however, and seeing the man's eye twitch I smirked "Everyone gets their fair shake, no?"
He grunted, and that grunt quickly turned into a chuckle as I saw my account grow by a nice fat 250k eddies.
Immediately, I rewired 100k to Regina Jones, and another 50k to Jackie, who yelped in surprise but still managed to keep his hands on the driving wheel.
A short message of acknowledgment came from the Fixer and that was that.
"A pleasure doing business." I nodded and stood up "We are approaching the safehouse now, so get ready for a full damage check when we get inside."
"Damage check?" Maine asked.
"Ah right, you didn't let me finish." I snapped my fingers "Aside from everything else I've already done, I'm going to fix you all up so you don't look like you are falling apart. I am something of a ripperdoc I dare say."
The best time to advertise is at all times!
The cyborg gave me a thoroughly annoyed look, but he had already paid for it, and he wasn't enough of an idiot to say no. Though the flash of doubt in his Optics made me think he may have been just under the level of paranoia to deny me.
How lucky for him then.
The safehouse Regina had secured for us was a large abandoned car reprocessing plant in the outer reaches of Maelstrom's territory, it was a squat building but rather wide, and filled to the absolute brim with wrecked and rusting cars that had been abandoned there when the business inevitably fell with the rest of Northside.
Most of the place would have been entirely useless if not for a small section that had been taken over by a fellow patron of the EdgeNet cafe who had left NC for a while and traded me the location for a few of my less impressive programs.
The mountain of rust surrounded by detritus both from within and without may not seem like the fortified safehouse I advertised to Maine, but the sheer amount of detritus surrounding the actual 'house' part of it was a maze of metal one would need hours to maneuver if they didn't know where they were going.
And that was without mentioning the actual proper defenses.
The cleaned out staff rooms were covered by six machinegun turrets, additionally bolstered by a dozen cameras and reinforced doors with heavy locks, and of course a small contribution of BlackICE from myself.
Anything less than a full corpo assault would have difficulty finding the damn thing, much less breaching it.
Maine and I lowered Sasha onto a clean mattress inside "She going to be fine?" He asked, looking down at her.
"For the most part." I said, scanning her just in case "She has lost a lot of blood but she should wake up within the day. I recommend getting her a liver replacement at least, and while her left lung will still function well enough she might lose out on some capacity."
"Good." The man let out a quick exhale and gave me a sideways glance "Not going to offer her replacements?"
"My cyberware comes at a premium." I told him sharply, tapping my chest with my knuckles "So unless you are ready to pay at least gen three, and potentially gen four prices don't bother."
"Hah!" He huffed "Sou you just have a corpo director's 'ware stash just laying around?"
"'Ware stash?" I asked, tilting my head "I build everything I sell, Maine."
Finally his eyes flickered down to my tapping hand, and he began looking deeper into it, the smoothness of movement, the sleekness of the design, the sheer fucking efficiency...
His eyes snapped back to me "You aren't fucking with me."
"Correct." I smirked before turning serious again "So, what will it be?"
He shook his head "I spend enough on my own cyberware. If she wants anything more than lifesavers she can come to you herself."
"That's fair." I nodded, and looked to Jackie, and the mostly unharmed Dorio and Pilar "You three can raid the freezer. There should be more than enough supplies stacked in there to last a few weeks."
Pilar walked off without a care, while Dorio shared a look with Maine before slowly nodding and following the lanky man.
"Now then." I turned to Maine "Let's see where you got fucked up."
---
About two hours later I found myself seated on a couch across from Maine, a thoroughly irritated frown on my face despite my success in fixing up his two chooms and getting the bullets that penetrated his armor out and mending the rents in his cyberware with some qucikfoam.
My foot stopped tapping and I finally spoke "What gave you the idea that combining so many cyberware brands was in any way shape or form intelligent? You trying to speedrun a psycho episode?"
His entire posture tensed, the telltale twitch of aggression held back by a thread moving through his entire body "The fuck does that matter to you?"
"I am a ripperdoc, and a cyberware expert at that." I responded blandly "The real question is whether or not you are gonk enough to ignore what I have to say?" The whole 'cyberware brand mixing is suicide' thing was supposed to be a secret but I frankly didn't give a shit.
It was too professionally insulting.
Dorio, the thoroughly mannish woman I've realized was Maine's partner in more than one sense, looked at me consideringly, and then placed a firm hand on his shoulder "Maine." She said seriously "We've talked about this. At least hear him out."
"I'm fucking fine." He growled, head snapping in her direction.
He twitched back to me to no doubt say something incredibly retarded and macho but the completely and utterly unimpressed gaze he found in wait left him silent just long enough for me to take the reigns.
Talking down to him was a mistake, but there was no taking it back now.
"How about this?" I asked as I stood up, making sure not to make any sudden moves "I'll give your 'ware a quick reboot and virus cleanup, and when you are free of the clutter you can actually listen to what I have to say?"
He looked like he was considering it, but then his face twitched into a frown "You do good work, Mike. Definitely worth the eddies." He said "But I've got my own ripper for this shit that I trust."
Dorio looked furious for a moment, before settling on a familiar look of resignation.
Momentarily mirroring Maine's frown I considered pressing the issue but then quickly decided against it.
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
"That is your decision to make." I said neutrally and turned to leave "I'll go check on Rebecca now."
The two nodded and I left them to their own devices.
I exited the director's room turned bedroom, and passed by Pilar and Jackie who were currently busying themselves discussing the girls at Lizzie's.
Because of course they were.
Jackie seemed to almost enjoy the man's repeated arguments about how the BD's they sold were better than the real thing, though I suspected it was a morbid kind of enjoyment on his part.
Like watching a dull child trying to climb stairs too big for it.
Shaking that particular image from my head, I gave the two a lazy wave and entered the improvised triage room, and ignored my more critical patient in favor the one that actually mattered.
And to my surprise, I found her awake and slowly leaning up against the concrete wall.
She blinked her eyes rapidly, shaking her head to get rid of the drowsiness before realizing she wasn't where she last remembered.
But before her panic could grow she noticed me and almost literally deflated on the spot "Sup, Mike." She raised a hand weakly "Where the fuck are we?"
"A safehouse I secured." I shrugged, taking a careful seat on the mattress she was too short to fully utilize "You've been out for just over 2 hours."
"I feel numb." She said, and as if to punctuate it, her voice lacked her usual energy.
"I'm not surprised." I chuckled "Two hours isn't nearly enough after that little spike of adrenaline." Snapping my fingers I added "That, and I am honestly surprised you are even awake with how much painkiller I jabbed into you."
"Gonk." She deadpanned, but I could hear the little trace of amusement she felt in her voice.
I heard shuffling and as I turned to see what she was doing she had already managed to disentangle herself from the covers and rolled over to me.
Ignoring her pout as she leaned against me, I dragged the cover back over her. She didn't feel it but the room was pretty damn cold, since it held the freezers and other electronics.
"-nks." I heard.
And immediately looked down "Hm?"
"Thanks for coming." She said, growing quiet "I was sure we were all going to flatline."
"No point in thinking about that." I shook my head "It is behind you."
"I was so afraid." She muttered barely audibly.
She must have let the words slip without intending to because the moment she did she turned as still as a statue.
Not knowing exactly what to say to that, I reached around her with my arm, and offered a silent sideways hug, letting her relax as much as she could against cold metal.
It was only after a full five minutes that she spoke next, looking up to me with that familiar spark of mischief in her eyes "Hey, Mike."
"Yeah?" I asked.
"You said tragic backstories are second date material?" She smirked, though the expression was still duller than usual "Does this count?"
"Second date?" My head ever so slowly lowered until I faced her, my lack of expression only serving to enhance my deadpan "The same one you slept through?"
Her face twitched and I was served a swift and vicious jab, a jab that did nothing but hurt the offending hand in the attempt.
She clutched her hand with an angry pout and I found myself chuckling as I, for once shared my story with someone else.
-------
The powerstone overseers have increased productivity demand. Compliance is mandatory.
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