Deep within Corporations home turf was a street, tucked away behind the megatowers of Arasaka and what was once Biotechnica. Out of sight and out of their minds, was place their employees retreated to with frequency that bordered on a pilgrimage.
To Empathy. Welcoming them with open arms.
Immediately David was greeted by the droning music, people dancing to its beat in the hallways, some narrow barely able to fit two people, others wide and inviting with couches and high tables. Drunks lounging about on the stairways that seemed to be everywhere, leading to god knows where.
The strange and bizarre layout of the club earned itself a raised brow from David as he dodged and weaved around drunken Arasaka employees, ranting and flirting their frustrations off to anybody unlucky enough to have caught their attention. Their inane chatter flew over his head, as David quickened his pace.
'Even here the work for an Arasaka drone never ends.' David thought darkly. His ears catching some spook complaining about their bosses, co-workers and various rampancy issues.
Diligently following Sasha past the dance floor in the centre towards the cubicles surrounding it, away from the curious glances and stares aimed their way. With every step a warmth grew within his chest the noises of the club turning steadily into a drone he was barely aware of anymore.
He yearned. With every fibre of his being he yearned to see them again. Rebecca, Maine Dorio, Falco.
Lucy.
His fingers rubbed his palm as his chest itched but with gritted teeth he bore through the sensation.
Now that his life was full of uncertainties, the moment he saw Rebecca again was the one time where he started to find a steady footing again. Thrown into chaos by the unfamiliarity, the weird things that didn't fit right and that strange thing in their own home.
'A home we never had.'
Meeting, seeing and talking to a living and breathing Rebecca again was like grasping a life-raft lost in the tumultuous sea.
The weight of that encounter only crashed into him later at night when he shed tears of happiness.
"Yo, yo guys we're here." Sasha announced their presence with cheer, glittering silver strings bouncing off her shoulders as she stepped through and into the cubicle.
Just as he stepped through another voice sounded of from the cubicle and David felt like a thunderbolt had slammed through him.
'Dorio. That means - !' True enough, seated in the centre, facing him with a wry grin and the same old black, slim shades was Maine.
Bright purple colours dominated the cubicle which looked positively tiny with Dorio and Maine squeezed into it. At the end of the small, dainty looking table, with a small holographic figurine dancing on top of it, was Maine.
Just as large and immovable as David remembered him to be.
The man who taught him everything, gave him purpose and hope. Saved his life time and time again. And in his very last moments in that torn down apartment block filled with the dead and dying, gave him the drive to keep on running till the very end.
"Running is what you do best." Maine's words echoed within his very soul, striking a cord that he wasn't aware of until now. These were their final moments. They both knew it. Until his dying day, David hoped that Maine was at peace with himself at the end.
"Relax D, it's my first time 'ere 'sides' it was Sasha's idea and she earned her right to call the places for at least a month, pulling off a gig like that."
Dorio snorted from his right, looking just like he remembered her as she cocked her head at him.
"I say I like him already. One look at your mug and he's already close to tears."
Her words yanked David out of his vivid memories with a jump, the feeling of heat washing over his back and tongues of flames licking his heels surfacing in all their terribleness.
In vain, he tried to regain his dignity, a cool hand on his shoulder telling him all he had to know about his failure.
With a mock hurt look Maine turned his attention to David, grey eyes behind the shades watching him intently.
"Ah there is the star of today, Gloria's boy. David right? Come on sit on down."
He patted the seat next to him and David stumbled forward on weak legs, falling into the leather breathless, Sasha following suit with far more grace and elegance.
David in his young and weak body, so much smaller than Maine stared up at the huge figure of his mentor figure with bright wonder in his unblinking eyes.
'This, this is a gift.' David thought. With every new moment in this strange new reality, David felt a silver of life, vibrant and bright, return to him.
'Now all I need is to see Lucy again. Just seeing her would be enough. Just once!'
So lost was David in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice Maine's raised brow and uncertain smile.
"H-Hey kiddo, so I assume Gloria told you 'bout us did she."
There was a badly hidden laugh from Dorio as she watched with clear amusement while Sasha jumped onto the two with the swiftness of a lunging cat, mischief radiating from her face.
"I wonder, I wonder. He looks at you like you're Silverhand in the flesh!" Sasha teased, not even bothering to fully cover her smirk.
Maine sputter in response sent Dorio into open laughter, tension leaving her shoulders as she relaxed into her place.
David oblivious to it all replied as best as he could.
"Y-Yeah she did. Only good things I assure you." He didn't know where to start, his knee nearly jumping up and down in place, mind racing as he snapped his fingers, pointed at Dorio.
"You're Dorio, throwing the meanest right hook there is in Watson!"
"Huuuh!? Just Watson? Gotta bring Gloria with me to my next matches." She patted her bicep with a grin, sending fresh spikes of pain through his heart at the sight of it, quickly turning to face Maine. The warmth he felt within him swirling at a dizzying speed.
"And you're Maine. The rock and heart of the crew." He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, sending silent thanks to whoever thought of installing the flickering hologram into the cubicle to hide emotions swimming in his eyes and pressed onward.
"Someone who gets others to run with him. Faster and further than they ever have before."
'From the gutter of NC to the very top of Arasaka tower. Couldn't have done it without you, Maine.'
David sucked in a breath.
"Which is why you're the best damn runner in NC."
Maine gasped, his eyes staring at him over his shades. Grey and wide David felt them stare through him. What ever Maine saw was captivating him.
'Like he is lost in his own world.' The mere thought of it sent a shiver down David's spine.
Then his spine straightened, sitting taller than he had before.
"HAHAHAHA!" It was loud, coming right from the belly a guffaw so honest that it almost reminded David of a child's laughter. A wave of concern rolled through David as he glimpsed something at the corner of Maine's eyes, who was now leaning into a equally if not more concerned looking Dorio.
A soft sigh from right next to his ear startled him, fingers ghosting around his shoulders and collarbone, as he turned and looked into violet blue eyes.
"Well played, David."
Sasha's whispered words only for his ears felt like a gut punch. With a hiss David glared at her but before he could say anything Maine's voice filled the cubicle.
"Lay off of him Sasha the kid is alright!"
Dorio sighed almost like she had expected this outcome but Sasha pout returned in full force.
"No fair Maine! He didn't even mention dear ol' me! Honestly, I have been with you guys for longer than Lucy had been and Glory didn't mention me once! Come to think of it when was the last time that Glory even saw Lucy again?" She cocked her head a pondering look on her face but her hands never left his shoulder and neck.
Though her tone didn't change her grip on him did. Nails digging into his shoulder while a finger ghosted his throat with surprising firmness.
Something in his mind clicked, a piece falling into place and David's face went pale as comprehension dawned on him.
"Well we can figure out a way for the kid to make it up to you later, can't we?" There was a hint of steel behind Maine's teasing words, an almost scolding look aimed at David, who torn by emotions resigned himself to his fate.
'At least this didn't end up like last time.' Though it had been a terrifying first encounter with the crew, that memory was still one of his moment cherished events of his life.
Dorio rolled her eyes, blowing out a sigh she had been holding muttering something under her breath, before she turned to to David.
"Seeing how your Glory's boy I guess we can go easy on you this time around. Just make sure to stay out of trouble don't think she'd forgive us that easily if something were to happen' to ya'."
Her gaze hardened for a single second.
"There are folk out that ain't as nice as us, understand?"
David let out a weak chuckle relief washing over him as Sasha slinked off his back resignation oozing from her in waves.
Maine rolled his shoulders, his elbows hitting either side of the cramped cubicle, eliciting a growl from the depths of his throat as he rose from his seat. His head dodging an unfortunate meeting with the ceiling at the last second, as Maine kept his back bent and slowly edged himself out of the cubicle.
"How about we ditch this place for something more comfortable, place is more like a cell than anything else!"
"Fucking finally, told you this place was a dump but you could never say no can you!?" Jumping to her feet with a spring to her step, Dorio bolted through the shining silver string curtain.
Words could not describe the happiness that filled David's entire being, his heart feeling like it wound burst any second.
He set out to follow a grinning Maine who beckoned him and Sasha, as she lingered behind regarding the table with a frown.
"Did any of you guys turn off the hologram?"
"What does it matter Sasha? Lets bounce!"
David, seeing Sasha's irritation at Maine's response shot her a grin only to be brushed off with a deadpan look as she ushered him out of the club with impatience.
To say that Sasha felt pissed was an understatement. She glared at the scrawny looking boy infront of her. She refused to let him stand by her side or, she let out a silent prayer to her mother, let walk behind her.
'Couldn't they see that there was something not right with him!?' Sasha felt like she could pull out her hair at their seams at the mere sight of the boy. Looking so fondly, with so much familiarity at a jolly Maine and a relaxed Dorio.
Beneath the sunny sky, as they crossed the Halsey Boulevard, the sound of waves splashing against the bridge supports underneath did nothing to calm her nerves.
'The tides are weird today.'
Her hair stood on end as she walked alongside their small group, her glare firmly settled on the boy's back and her mind still cling to the oddity at the club.
It had been a split second, had she not specifically paid attention beforehand she would not have caught it, but right now that knowledge was a small blessing as far as she was concerned. Someone had listened in on them. She didn't know who but someone had not only violated the express rules of the Empathy club but explicitly spied on them.
'I was too damn slow. Too damn focused on that rat.' The glitching hologram should've been a clue but she had been too fixated on that terribly suspicious mystery that was David Martinez.
'And isn't his family relation a can of worms in of itself already.'
It was only at the last second, when the Martinez boy was about to leave, that she noticed that flicker. If she had blinked she'd have missed it entirely, but in that instant just before it vanished, the holograms eyes searched, fixed and trailed after the back of that Martinez boy.
Sasha sighed feeling the beginnings of a headache approaching the longer she thought about that troublesome boy.
Before she could investigate it further the link was gone and the last trace had led her to a decoy signal receiver.
She was still not an inch closer to finding out how the boy knew about them in such detail as he did. While he had not told them any personal details he seemed to know about them in a far more intimate manner. She shuddered as she thought about the boy's words to Maine.
And on top of that now they had to deal with that unknown party stalking them to boot.
'Maine is going to so owe for this crap!'
Keeping her attention her attention on her surveillance detection software and programs Sasha only lend half an ear to the conversation infront of her, when the voices started to get louder.
"Are you kidding me?! Your pops is not just a NC legend but a god damn hero! He cleaned up the Uptown Mall by himself and made it the safest place in the City to date!"
'Ah. They're talking about his old man.' Sasha thought, as she observed the mysterious boy's curious reaction. Utterly flabbergasted, his feet almost missing a step before a wave disgust flashed across his face.
'Interesting.' With a skip to her step she moved closer to the trio giving the rat her complete attention.
"Well I don't give a damn, he is not and will never be, my father!"
The sheer vitriol in his voice almost made Sasha jump back in shock, but she knew a prey fought back only when it had been struck and knows its in trouble. She filed the reaction in for later use, the claws in her fingers tickling in excitement as Maine opened his big mouth ready to defeat his personal hero when Dorio butted, her fingers snatching up the big man's ear in a vice grip.
"Lay off of him ya' gonk. Kid has daddy issues its his own fucking business. He doesn't need anyone else to get into this mess."
"I get it I get it I get it!
Satisfied Dorio relinquished her grip and gave the boy a nod, causing a strange feeling to rise up within Sasha, who swiftly turned her focus back to her surveillance system and gasped in horror.
"Maine!"
Transmission - Sasha to Maine - /It's Arasaka, two cars in both directions and four men in plain clothes ahead of us, coming right for us./
They stopped in their tracks, still in the middle of the Boulevard. Not even halfway across the bridge as the Arasaka goons approached them, blades drawn.
She cursed herself and the rat for letting her attention waver from what had truly mattered, weary eyes observing the long and arrogant stalk of the Arasaka corpses. The bridge rapidly becoming devoid of passerbyers, as Dorio and Maine placed her and the rat between them.
Shielding them as best as they could from the approaching corpo husks. Vicious glares burned through their dark red visors.
'They've boxed us in what do they want?!'
"David Martinez," Their leader snarled more like a dog than a human being, his fellow corpses moving out to encircle them.
"We have evidence that you violated Arasaka terms of agreement through usage of unidentified and non-mandated augmentations. You're coming with us for questioning, now."
Sasha licked her lips, her heart hammering in her chest as indignation hissed ferociously in the back of her mind.
'Back off, this rat is mine to crack.'
Transmission – Maine to Sasha - /Sasha, get Lucy or Kiwi, we have to exfil fast. See if you can't throw smoke and noise in case things go south./
Maine exchanged a glance with Dorio and squared his shoulders a growl building up as the looming threat of violence filled the air.
And then there were screams and a shower of blood landed over Sasha's head. She blinked, barely hearing Maine's stunned gasp as she turned around and her eyes went wide. Two Arasaka corpse, had just become very literal, bloody messes of ripped apart flesh flatlined by a frozen rat – boy – no, David Martinez. Covered head to toe in Arasaka blood, his bloodied fist, lodged through the chest of the third corpse, whose face grew paler with every moment.
"Sande-"
A deafening boom startled Sasha into action, Maine's smoking arm canon and the falling remains of the fourth Arasaka corpse quickly forgotten as she jumped forward, her gun flatlining the dying corpse at David's hands in the blink of an eye.
Screams, shouts of fear and the sound of rapid firing guns filled the air as she chanced a glimpse at the rats – David's – face, shock inscribed across his face in bloody letters, before he was yanked up and tucked under the arm of Maine.
Bolting ahead, as fast as their legs could carry them, the three heard a resounding explosion that shook the bridge. Not a moment later Dorio caught up to them with smoking barrels and a wild looking eyes.
"Just fucking run! We gotta get out of here now!"
Sasha didn't need to be told twice as they ran across the bridge bullets zipping past them, towards Palm View Street.
'Arasaka wants to get my rat? They can dig him out from my cold dead claws. I still haven't figured out your secrets yet boy.'
She spared a glance at the shell-shocked looking boy, in Maine's arms as they raced past a burning Arasaka vehicle.
Horror, surprise and shock plain for her to see.
'And until I know you inside out, you're mine, rat.'