A/N: Hey guys, I did say that everything would slow down but here you go.

Just a quick statement to the people mindlessly insulting the story with no valid criticism I just want to say I think you may have lost the sauce with the setting of the source material. My guy is a suit so he is seen as fair game to kill, that is number one. Number two; yes the edgerunner crew are in fact murderers for money. They are mercenaries after all. If you care not when they mow down people in gangs without due process then you are a hypocrite as that is in itself - murder.

I can't improve with no meaningful feedback after all so please point out specific issues such as pacing or grammar. Feel free to give suggestions on how I can improve my writing.

Other than that I hope you guys enjoy this none the less.

Special thanks to; Maksell for the extensive review. I am going to include a lot of aspects in this story so worry not.


"So, kid?" Maine asked again, crossing his arms. "What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Having already taken a seat I felt an automatic shift in my posture as my back straightened to the defacto leader of the unit of mercenaries I was only more recently introduced to. This was the big chance that I had been waiting for; planning for months. Now the opportunity for it had at last come to sit before me. Conducting my thoughts as I knew this was the most crucial point of my time spent in this hellscape of a world. Flubbing the chance to gain entry means that my chance to enact a real start to my goal was for naught.

"I wanted to set a proposal out on the table." I offered it up succinctly. There was no need for going into high flung details as the brevity gave way to sincerity. Longer proposals made room for doubt the further you took it. To explain it plainly is that a lengthy offer bred ground for sneaking in embellishments.

Maine scrunched his brow. Unfolding his large arms and laying them to his sides the old timer leaned forward with a slight hunch over from his back. His eye belayed the fact he was taken perhaps just a little aback by the ever short response to his question and posturing. "That's it?" He asked me and I nodded. "Shit. Alright then, what you got cached away in that corpo brain of yours, kid?"

Knowing better than to allow the insult to land and hit its marks I ignored it. "It's a rather simple offer really. More of a ask, actually." Seeing Maine remain silent I knew that he was more the type to be more to the point than wasting time with back and forth. Just like his attitude with jobs he takes on he wanted in and out with as few as possible hiccups and blunders. Taking the sign to continue I did just so. "Let me in on the crew."

If the air surrounding us could get any tenser then we may have well suffocated. The still face of Maine managed to maintain as plausible neutrality to it. However the look on his visage was much clearer an emotion to read. Placing on hand to his lap and a visible hostile suspicion in his eyes, Maine was clearly weighing options in his mind. One may very well have been to kill me then and there as the arm moved to rest higher up was in fact the one with his projectile system launcher. The second option was to listen more to the one across from him.

Surmising that may have been off base to the real reason his shoulders heaved with intention to swing at a moments notice may have been off kilter in itself. Being the greatest unknown the experienced fighter and leader of the crew has come across this far it was hard to truly judge his lack to answer as well as the inability to act were he to have been wrong initially. Staying his hand for what looked to be for now Maine dropped his hand back down to the side.

Grateful to see that I had planted enough doubt for him to make a split second decision I watched as he scratched at the back of his head in loss. Without the immediate threat of escalation at the table Maine sorted his posture back to a more relaxed position. Leaning back to the wall off to his side and fetching a small pack of cigarettes he flicked out a lighter, igniting the end of the slim stick. Tossing the lighter as well as the pack to the corner of the room, Maine took in a large puff of air as he then held it in for the next few seconds.

"You are aware that we know your background, are you not?" The question came out at the same time the smoke bellowed out into the room. I waved at the smoke a little as it dared to come close to me. "An Arasaka suit decides that out of the goodness of his heart that he has had enough?" Tapping the butt of the cigarette and watching the ash fall to the floor he maintained his pace. "Especially," A pause to allow for effect as he primed the next sentence. "When you happen to be inducted into the corp before rising up the ranks and getting to be the head of a brand new experimental division?"

Another puff of the old fashion death stick as he gave a mocking chuckle. "Not very likely for a cover story that."

"A cover story really?" I was indescribably not amused by what that entailed. "I fell out of a building to keep that small ball of energy of yours alive." I brought my hand up to the bridge of my nose and pinched at it. This was beyond what I had been expecting from Maine. His hatred for the large corporations was so great that it made even the delirious idea of jumping out of a building nothing but a ruse. "How does that line of thought even translate, Maine?"

A quirk of his brow in an upwards motion as he regaled the events from days past. "Now, let's say that you get hired by a shady contact claiming information on a man that does not exist in any database other than Arasaka." Stamping out the cigarette in an old pan filled with the remains of others of the same type, Maine then tossed the pan to the side. "Then to make things even stranger is that this supposed target is marked to be kidnapped from the start as they are the head of a brand new development inside of Arasaka's inner workings. So much so that it causes any ops with said individual involved to be an uncontested victory."

Uncontested was a strong word to be tossed around. Though he was right within a technicality they were far from the landslides he was making them out to be. Completion rates for missions carried out with my support did tend to succeed but I only asked of the drones the bare minimum of what was required. All that were caught trying to interfere in operations of Arasaka interest were apprehended and placed under questioning. Knowing that Arasaka was inconsiderate of their charges living through interrogation practices I often made effort to set ways for the lone mercenaries to escape. Sleeper was keen in the area of sabotage and espionage which made it ideal for escapes and leaks of information that caused Arasaka to lose ground almost as soon as they gained it.

Obviously a workaround for being a likely suspect was the nature of my work. Working within Arasaka meant that you were always being watched not that it was any different in other corporations but Arasaka had the largest pull of resource and market power. Thus whenever a breach come about my alibi was my presence within the lab working on physical security robots and mechs. None of the agents were able to pick up on the artificial intelligence lurking within their systems. Far fetched as it seemed the outside nature that my best working partners possessed was a blessing in disguise. Speculation fell in the direction that it was the rivals of the mega corporation such as Militech and their netrunners launching attacks and allowing the escape of their pawns so as to deny the proof of Militech conspiring to attack Arasaka.

Convenient and effective, at least I had thought so. Now here was a man whom was incredibly jaded by the corporation so much so that my rise to fame seemed planned. No denying the fact that it was planned of my accord but Maine appears to have interpreted it as a plan by Arasaka to draw attention for any would be dissidents.

I scoffed as I waved my hand to direct the allegations elsewhere. "I never killed anybody." I quite simply stated. "Not even indirectly, Maine. Not once had I been the cause of one life being taken even on accident."

"Hard to draw in people without others to tell the story." Maine countered as he pressed on with accusing me. "Look here, Glow, I distrust you. Again, if not for Rebecca trying to vouch so hard for you then..." His body bolted upright on the spot as his forearm opened to spring out the devastating cannon mounted within the limb. "I would have loved to get rid of another corperate suit in this messed up city." The bed creaked in strain as he sat back down, putting the offensive chrome back away. "In fact I would have by now but Sasha has blocked my ability to do so." His large shoulders sagged as his chest heaved out a large amount of air.

I felt my eye twitch at the blatant threat to kill me even after they had chosen to save me. Perhaps that was just coincidence as Rebecca placed a veto to allow me to live. Regardless, it was only now for the first time in what felt like ages my patience was beginning to crumble. "I am offering my help to you, Maine."

He laughed at that. "I think you mean to help us get zeroed."

Scratching at the front of my head in a tick of frustration I flung my arms out to my side. "I will repeat myself then – Why did I bother to save Rebecca then?" I was full on straining my throat as I yelled at Maine. "Why would I gesture to, Sasha, my room and building number to track me back down?" I ramped up my efforts as I listed all the reasons for my innocence and provisional affiliation to the Arasaka mega-corporation. "How about this one then? My turret system back at my building had no lethal rounds fired! What the fuck are you not understanding at this point?"

My tirade was cut short as Maine slammed his fist into the wall just adjacent to him. The slam left a large break in the wall with cracks webbing out from the epicentre. "I am understanding it all fine, kid!" He rumbled out as he withdrew his arm from the wall. "I understand that you must have an agenda for doing what you are doing, right? No rat comes out from their hole just to help others." Shoving the bed out from under his frame, Maine waltzed right up to me. "I have a responsibility to this crew not to you. I have no intention to let a suit join up with us just to tear us up from the inside."

"Are you fucking kidding me, Maine!" Nearly yelling in his face I pushed off of his body sending him back one step. His body visibly tensed to the physical touch. "Are you chromed out of your mind!? Is that it? HUH? Going psycho already you fucking chrome junkie!" I pushed him back further as I saw him inch forward with his upper body. "The hell do you think you are going? Sit the fuck down and actually listen to what I am saying for once. I. Am. Here. To. Help. You."

"Do you think I got in with Arasaka's lot if I had no other choice? I needed to do that in order to live because if I didn't I would most certainly be dead." I fumed at the man as I began to pace the width of the room back and forth. Just needed something to do and keep the body occupied. I knew I held my anger and frustration back well most of the time but should I stop walking right now – No – Not the time for this. If a diplomatic position refused to work then I knew that displaying sheer passion and genuine anger was the only other option.

The train of thought got soon after derailed by a knock at the door. About to answer the sound at the door by calling out it flung open as the tall figure of Dorio stood in the frame of the door. Rebecca also present just behind the edgerunner gang leader's romantic partner. Rebecca gave a saucy two fingered salute as the bouncily walked into the room, hopping onto the table for herself. Deflating ever so slightly I decided it best to hold my position within the room and braced up on the wall closest to myself.

Making her way over to Maine, Dorio pushed him back to the edge of the bed as she gently pushed him back down by the arm to lead him back to being seated. Having corralled the ever building anger inside of Maine to this point due to his own abstinence of reason regarding the perceived agent in the midst she sat down herself, taking a position on Maine's immediate left. Placing an arm on his shoulder as she leaned onto Maine she pried her attention away and directed it back to me.

"Sorry about Maine, Glow." Dorio began as she apologized. "Maine really is being rational at least within that thick chrome dome of his." She explained as she gave Maine a light tap on the back of the head. Looks as though she was a little bit upset perhaps. "He was a soldier in the last corporate war under Militech and Arasaka sent an infiltrator in at one point that pulled a similar stunt to get in with the group. Next thing he knew many of the members of his squad were killed by a Saka ninja, the very same new addition that squirmed his way into their squad."

Maine grunted in annoyance at his input as he briskly knocked her arm off of himself. "Shit, Dorio." He mumbled with his gravel like coarse voice. "The hell are you doing blowing out my story to this suit for." He was met with yet another light smack on the back of his head. "Hell was that for?"

"That, is for being a brick wall." Dorio began to rationalize her view. "Glow, has had you against the wall the entire time, you just never chose to believe what he has been trying to say despite the large backing of evidence."

"What evidence?" Maine blurted out. He flared one hand out to me. "This kid has brought no evidence and has nothing more than words. Suits are only good at two things; smooth talking and fucking everyone else over." He finished off as he glared me down from his side of the room.

Mimicking the same attitude I narrowed my eyes at him with a furrowing of my own brow line. Taking it as a type of challenge Maine chuffed and leapt up from the bed. Being his scrappy other half, Dorio instantly recognized the movement Maine made as she quickly made to make him sit back down. Being so expediently handled for the second time in a row Maine finally decided to relax his shoulders since the start of the talk I have had with him. Disastrous as it may have been looking it was far better than the alternative of getting shot.

Given that the group with the exception of Maine had seemingly come around the the proposition I was wishing to make it may just turn out to be a matter of waiting out remaining skepticism of Maine. After all, Maine was extremely loyal to the ones he was actively involved with and often made concessions to accommodate his friends as he valued them more than his own ego. With enough vouching from the others within the crew I may be able to obtain a jumping point to build trust. Perhaps that was to difficult for Maine, given his point of view it may be easier to cause doubt within the other aspects surrounding his hiring for the seizure of my person turning into an assassination contract.

Still relaxing against the wall I closed my eyes as a trickle of pain rolled down my back. Thinking to what has already been given freely by Maine's outbursts to me they were hired by a rather strange client. This strangeness made him believe that my induction to the largest corporation in Night City was merely a tactic launched by the security board to apprehend a ground of edgerunners that had been causing them much setbacks in recent time. Not the most faulty line of reasoning to have and when paired with Maine having been apart of the fourth corporate war it made for a strong bias not in favour of the common employ of Arasaka.

Backhanded methods were a favourite by the higher ups to obtain advantage over the competitors as well as any upstart citizenry going against the large conglomerate they held power in. For traps to be laid down as Maine made it out to be was certainly in the abilities of Arasaka and its capabilities along with large stockpiles of resources. Details surrounding the client made less sense the longer I thought on it though. Why hire a runner crew to do a run a grab and then decide to switch over to a kill order in the midst of an operation? Had no one picked up this small detail if it was a plot to lure them out into the opening just to do away with them?

Clearly the client must have held a reasonably high office within the company to even have access to enough details to start off a hit job. My presence had not grown to nearly the large enough level of influence to warrant the notoriety I had been inching towards over the months. Now clearly I was more or less just a boogeyman inside the company as only vague whisperings escaped to the outer world. A member of Arasaka that had recently rose up the rank ladder to take the lead on an experimental division for autonomous security systems and mechs.

Who could it have been? The list of those in the company that knew of who I was and were envious of my new position over them was relatively large after all. Narrowing down the possibilities was the most logical move going forward with extrapolating the culprit. Security officers were off the list by default as my prior attempted rescues were all received and responded to with sufficient force to assume safely that the saboteur was likely in another sect. Thinking of the next likely division to house my quarry was the biological or the cybernetics division. Both were at odds with the other as they were vying for attention from the top members of the board for more funding with their own projects in security.

Top of my list of suspicions was the leading developer for a new spinal implant to drastically increase reaction times as well as overall increases to motor function fluidity and precision with an added benefit of integrated immune boosters to increase the bodies resistance to damage and lessening stress of high performance cybernetic augmentations effects on the human body. Goes by the name of Jill Fuller if memory was serving me correctly. The board had been leaning towards her proposal until I came along and demonstrated my ability with remote control of drones and security droids. Seeing as how the route of increase mechanization performance was cheaper than outfitting agents with the spine implant, combined with the fact that only a certain amount would be able to obtain the new chrome within a span of time it lead to the proposal from my superior.

The board took to my boss's deliberation and straight forward reasoning for the improvement of their mech and drone technologies as it kept more important higher ranking members of Arasaka behind a imagine wall of guns and steel. Not to mention the new operating system that would make digital attacks launched on them much harder to pull off. There was even the mention of an automated feedback protocol upon the time a netrunner were to be capable of launching a victorious cyber attack wherein a large amount of daemons would be released en mass like a return to sender program. A hyper lethal instance DDOS of sorts to simplify the idea. The attack would bog down nervous system hardware to interfere with the brain and causing such a high load that the cybernetics would overheat inside the body.

Floored with the ideas the board shafted a large sum of funding to the other two aforementioned divisions and gave the go ahead. The other leader in the biological section, Grafton Hayes, was at the time proposing a genetic cocktail of sorts to enhance the natural human body. While angry at being overtaken so evidently by the proposal my superior made for me he was far too loyal to the company outwardly to be all that capable of killing other Arasaka agents just to get ahead. While possible it just that Grafton was the least likely of the two. Therefore, Jill Fuller, was to be the most plausible for the hiring of my own personal hit squad.

Perhaps I should feel even a little bit honoured to be targeted by those from within my own workplace, my head space bemused to itself.

Not having realized that I had kept my eyes closed for the duration of my thought experiment I slowly opened them back up to stare down to my now abused shoes. Shifting my feet and watching them move I idly thought to how I was to ask on any information that they obtained on who the client was. Perhaps what they were able to obtain information wise was not worth the mention or even that they simply wished not to divulge.

"Hey." I felt a tug at my sleeve. "You alive in there?" Another tug on my sleeve, this time a tad more forceful than the last.

Noticing the black shoes standing by me for the first time. Following the figure of the unseen person I walked my eyes up naked pale white legs. A large tattoo stating dick in very bold font halted my trace of the new figure. When had Rebecca even come up to me? Flicking eyes up to meet the small mercenary's own her eyes bore into me with just about a hundred questions. "Ah, ya, I'm still here. Just got rather lost in my own head there for a while." Then I noticed the gun in her hand as she scratched at the side of her head with it. "What's that for?"

"This?" Rebecca asked me as she waved it up to me before stashing it away in her large coat's pocket. "Been trying to get your attention for like..." She held her tongue as her eyes flickered. "Two minutes or so. Was going to fire a round off right next to your head to wake you up."

"There are nicer ways to get someones attention, you know?"

"Like what?"

"Don't you start with me."

"Start what?" She batted her eyes for effect. "What's a better way to get your attention"

"Fucking using your mouth for starters?" I half shouted at her. Quickly noticing my misstep I made to course correct. "Using your mouth to speak." She grinned at me widely as she attempted to hold back her own wits. "Actually take that mouth of yours and keep it shut."

"You know that's actually a shame." Eyes refusing to let go of their line of contact with each other, she took one small step closer. "Cause my mouth is really good at a lot of things."

"Cease."

"Cease?" She pouted as she came another small step closer. "But nothing has even happened yet. You want to shut down a good time before it even has the chance to happen?" Leaning forward with her top half of her body she canted her head up to me. I avoided my incidental gaze very pointedly to not fall for her trap. Rebecca hummed as she stood back up proper yet refused to take back her two steps. "Such a shame." Her cheshire grin spoke volumes of her own thoughts to her play.

"Alright, Becca. That's more than enough." Dorio interrupted the antics from her side of the room. Both her and Maine looked much more relaxed together now. "Glow, is still recovering so take it easy on him, will ya? Don't need to have gone through all that trouble to stop him from dying just for you to pop open his freshly closed wounds."

Hopping her heels to face back at the couple sat upon the couch, Rebecca, pouted lightly at her fun being stolen away from her. "He's not that brittle a guy." She began to complain. "Fucker jumped out of a building with me in tow if you remember." Rebecca looked backwards to me for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and leaping back onto the small table. It groaned in protest at the prospectively lethal action to its own structural integrity. "I suppose I can let off of him for now."

Dorio chuffed in what was most likely a spot of mirth from her companion's intractability with strangers. "Thank you. Now, Glow, since my output here is such a brick wall how about I do the talking for a bit? Seeing as how you were about to get laid out when it was just the two of you." Taking the offer in silent approval I moved back closer in to the rest of the group. "Awesome." Dorio let out a pleased explication. "Now how about we get you to laying out your role at Arasaka?"

I clicked my tongue. "Why do you need me to do that? You guys seem to know plenty enough already after it was leaked out to you via the one that hired you."

"Leaked you say?" Dorio paused as she looked over to Maine who gave a small shrug and then whispered something out to her. "I see." She replied to Maine. "Leaked is a very specific word to use. Do you have anything to back that up."

This time it was my turn to give a shrug of my own. "Not really, no. Just something I have come to an early conclusion on based off of some history while I was working. Already have an idea on who hired your crew for the job." Finishing the sentence Maine's head perked back up.

"Who?" The question spoke all that it need to in one simple word.

"Jill Fuller."

Speaking the name was enough to hasten any space it was spoken to utter quiet. The woman had grown a large reputation from rumours among the streets talking of her kidnapping many people to fill in for test subjects for a variety of projects. Thus, Jill was another dirty secret within Arasaka's fold that they kept well out of reach of the public. Keeping her out of reach was not of the researcher's safety but more for distancing her acts from the brand of the company. Unfortunately with no one seeing her in public at press conferences for new launches of cybernetics it made it become an open secret. That and the fact that people still disappeared and said disappearances were merely blamed on the Scavs that plagued the city. Everything was easy to explain away in the city with the use of gangs as the scapegoat. This was by design as it gave plausible deniability to any corp that wished to do the populace harm or use them to their own ends.

I could clearly see by the look on all of their faces that they were well enough acquainted with the type of person Jill Fuller was. Dorio sat uncomfortably as she unwrapped her arm from around Maine's large frame and gripped at her thighs with enough force I could see the legs straining. The pint sized maniac to my right looked as though she was holding in any amount of slurs to blurt out as she bit her own lips down. Observing Maine, he looked as though his head would burst into a hellish fire. Considering the amount of chrome the veteran possessed it was in fact possible. Swinging an arm out to the side he punched the very spot from earlier causing the wall to splinter as it burst open to the other side.

"Calm down you idiot!" Dorio shouted as she ripped Maine away from what remained of the wall. Fighting with him as he struggled to remove himself from her grasp his burly girlfriend yanked him to the other side of herself. "The hell are you thinking? We still need to use this place as a hideaway so don't go destroying it."

"We were played, Dorio!" Doing the wrenching away himself this time, Maine, broke out from the hold of his partner. Instead of assaulting the walls more the man continued to sit in place as his posture sagged an entire head height. "That damn butchering bitch. Of all the people in Arasaka – it had to be her." He gave a mighty exhale as his look became that of a downtrodden pensive type. "How did we manage to even miss that?"

Both Dorio and Rebecca looked as though, they too, were lost on the matter of how they had failed to recognize the intents and affiliation of the client. Especially so, given the fact that they had been so easily taken for fools left an undoubtedly bad taste in their mouths. In fact, Rebecca had withheld her own verbal outburst for so long she merely jumped off from the table and extricated herself from the room, giving a mumble of a goodbye and that she was going to get some fresh air. I could only blink at the rapid shift in the room. Sure I was aware of Jill's reputation outside the walls of the tower at city central but this was very much unanticipated by even myself.

Having been in the know of the bulk of the main line for the story of both the show and the game back in my own world this went well beyond my base. Jill Fuller was never a character that had been minutely alluded to nor had she been referenced in passing. Despite the newfound knowledge of her practices behind the scenes and the attitude of those outside her field made me know that many would despise the woman. I was off the mark, clearly. Jill held a reputation that readily surpassed my own internal investigations into her. Perhaps the extent to her crimes sprawled out farther back than the company would let on. She may have been a butcher to many but in the eyes of the mega corp she was a brilliant and talented woman that brought about many innovations in the field of augmentations in side of a few years.

Casting the blind eye and making some alterations of official records were not outside of the range of possibility. Arasaka were even encouraged to bury the evidence of misdoings of company agents if it meant for an advantage over the competition. Even if her personality was little to be desired and lead to many a cover up it was an easy enough price to pay for her consistent work. A price for measured insanity if you will. As long as it involved the improvement of products and wiping out the opposition then it was just as easily permissible as it was advised to them.

Taking the seat I had lost with Rebecca's entry earlier I was sat back on the misused table. Adjusting it as I still sat down on it I hopped it over to more evenly face off against Maine. Bringing my hand up to gain the couple's attention I moved to speak. However, this was when the door for the room, for the umpteenth time today, slid open to allow entry for yet another person. Tilting my head back I was greeted to a face full of pink and black. Moderately spooked by Sasha's rapid entry I felt my head twitch backwards in recoil. The feeling was soon overcome with relief as the netrunner looked to have come baring news of sorts if the tablet in her hands was anything to go by.

"Here." She fired off the word as she launched the tablet over to Maine. Unready for the pass it smacked into his forehead corner first with a tick like sound. None the less Maine managed to catch the tablet as it fell straight down. Giving it a quick once over he flicked at the screen with a hand a couple of times then brought his head back up. "I looked into the method that we were contacted by this mystery employer of ours and noticed a lot of suspicious back end manipulation." Sasha fixed her look to me. "This person really wanted you dead, you know? So much effort to cover their tracks that it is actually impressive. Fake everything basically, right down to the voice and identity."

"I'm very aware." I replied to the nimble runner. Fixing my gaze back to Maine as he was still churning through the information I decided to ask a question. "Does this type of fake hiring happen very often?"

"Mmmm." He grumbled as he still looked at the screen. "Rarely ever. The type of prep work that is needed for this is often way more work than you often need. Aside from that it is insanely hard to pull off. With how the Holo is made it works off of your bio metrics to form an identification unique to the person calling. They altered everything there is to alter." Maine placed the tablet down beside him. "Shit."

"It can only be a suit that hired us then." Sasha said as she made to take a seat beside me. "Any idea who it is." Although Sasha was more or less addressing her teammates her expectant side glare implored me to respond.

"It's Jill Fuller, Sasha. It can only be her at this point." Maine interdicted before I got the response out. "Only that bitch herself has the methodology to pull off something like this. Not to mention the money and special resources she is in control of."

Sasha did a double take. "The butcher?" Maine just nodded. "Why would she of all people hire us to capture someone?"

"Never stayed a capture mission did it?" I bit back at them if only slightly. "Clearly she wanted me out of the way but not dead. Jill, must of had plans to use me for something to get her stolen position and promotion back."

"Then why change it to the kill order?"

I shrugged at Sasha's probing. "I really have no idea. Other than the fact that she saw too much risk if she had managed to kidnap me. I am Arasaka's leading mechanization operative after all. The only way I can lay it out is that she wanted to use my expertise as her own." Clasping my hands together in my lap I returned my focus back to Maine and Dorio. "I'm hoping that this clears up your suspicions around my prospect of joining your crew?"

Sasha bolted upright from her seat. "Maine, do it. Let him in."

"Relax, Sasha." Maine soothed her as he patted his hands down in the air. "I know you were vying to not have him killed, but, what is with the change in fervour?" His eyes followed Sasha's as both came to look back on me. I just sat still as I perked my brows up expectantly from the attention. "What brought about the change in outlook so fast."

"His drones."

"His drones?"

"Hang on, my drones?" My attention peaked at the highest its been in a long while.

"Yes, Maine, his drones." Sasha began as she ignored me for the second time today. "I tried to take a look around in that shielded one that helped us out of the mega building eight but I got slapped out instantly."

"Like those defence turrets inside of Glow's apartment?" Dorio butted the question in as she leaned in on the conversation more.

"No. I mean yes – but nothing like that at the same time."

"How do you mean then, Sasha?" Maine urged her on with the explanation. "What is it about these drones that make him have that much value.?"

"Back at his," A finger was flung in my direction. "Place, just like the turrets except better, Something tossed me out of my attempt to scan it. Then to really drive it home I was routed with a message stating the following." Her eyes glowed a blue hue as she brought up the supposed message to transcribe it to us. "None but the master may know." She finished it off by gesticulating some air bunnies.

"So they have an advanced security system with a quirk. Not the first time we've seen something of the sort in other jobs. Damn, kid, your making it out like Glow has real artificial intelligence inside of those machines."

"That's not what it sounds like, Maine, that is exactly what I am saying." Sasha stepped forward as she continued to make her case. "If it is true then Glow would be invaluable to the team going ahead."

Maine's brow creased in thought as he looked me over again. "What do you say then, Glow? Is anything Sasha saying really true?"

Unlacing my finger from in between each other I placed both hand on my legs as I used them to push myself up from the table we had all incorrectly used as a stool. "I will tell you but just not right now." I made sure as to state it as clear as possible. Knowing the state of the three drones was imperative as they remained my only current insurance policy. "For now, seeing as how you have brought them up, I would like to know where my drones are to make sure that they are undamaged."

"They are in the small workshop just out back. Should be easy enough to find as Rebecca switched out with me to look over the little garage back there."

"Thank you, Sasha." I began to walk to the door but stopped just inside of the frame of the door. "And, Maine," I called out to the old timer. Ripping his own attention back away from the details of the tablet he had apparently picked back up I saw his eyes lock on to me. "I will fill you guys in more on it all but just not right now." Maine gave a slow and sage like nod as he for the first time listened to what I was saying. "Oh and, Sasha?"

Her head tilted ever so slightly to the side on reflex to the sudden address. "What's up?"

"Can you make me some more of that questionable tea?" She simply gave a small smile in return to the prefix I had addressed the drink with. "Thanks." Stepping out of the room I made my way back out into the main room of the house as I made way for the back door.