Turns out that getting your back cut open and having tech jammed in by a shitty Ripperdoc with no anesthesia hurt more than enough to knock someone out just from the pain.
David's eyes opened slowly as he returned to consciousness on his Ripperdocs operating table. He could hear the clicking of the Ripper's mechanical hands beside him and turned his head that way, finally getting his eyes open.
"Good morning there, choom. Thought ya up an' died on me for a moment. Shame ya didn't, was looking forward to the eddies I woulda got from dat Sandy dere."
David moved his fingers and toes, then his arms and his legs, making sure that the Ripper hadn't fucked him up at all, and once he made sure he was still fully functional, just shook his head at the Ripper's words, a snarl appearing on his face. "Sorry to disappoint ya, doc. Am I good to delta outta here?"
The ripper just shrugged. "You're awake quicker than I thought you'd be, so if you can move then yea, get de fuck outta my shop. I look forward to taking dat Sandy outta ya in a day or two when it starts frying ya brain, haha!"
Glaring at the Ripper, David attempted to push himself off the operating table and struggled incredibly to stand up, his back and shoulders feeling like he'd just been mauled by a cyberpsycho. And to be honest, he kinda had, actually, because he was sure beyond a doubt that the ripperdoc was definitely not 100% sane.
"So, doc, how is it looking, will I be able to use it?"
The Ripperdoc just gave him a look as if he was the stupidest person alive. "Choom, you're a fucking gonk if you think someone your size is gonna get it ta work without a hitch, but yea, ya should be able to fire it up. There is something else though…"
David's eyebrow rose as he rolled his shoulders, using a very large amount of his willpower to stop himself from passing out from the feelings coming from his back. "What is it? I don't gotta pay extra do I?"
The ripper actually laughed at that, waving at him. "If I knew what da fuck was going on, then maybe. Got some code in its bank ready to go, I think da Sandy's gonna be running a program for the next couple a' hours or so."
David couldn't stop himself from glancing at the mirror the ripperdoc had set up, eyes going up and down the sleek metal casing of the Sandevistan attached to his back. It was fairly warm to him, and he could see green lights shining from it, which he assumed meant it was ok.
"Any clue what the program will do?"
The ripperdoc had turned away from him by now and was blatantly watching porn on the computer in the surgery, and he just shrugged at David's question. "No fucken clue, aye. Could give it anotha look if ya want, but it'll cost ya."
Seeing as the installation fee was already about to leave him absolutely, well and truly, flat broke, David just waved him off, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his mother's old EMT jacket as he sent over the payment for installing the Sandevistan to the Ripperdoc. He stormed out right after, a destination in mind.
David hopped onto an NCART that was headed towards a station near Arasaka Academy. Getting off the NCART at the station left him with a fairly short walk to Arasaka Academy, one that he had done time and time again, but now… it felt slow.
There was a part of him that seemed to make him constantly aware that the Sandevistan wasn't activated, but could be if he wanted it to. And there was another big part of him that really wanted to try it out.
But he had a very petty plan for his first use of the Sandevistan.
He didn't really get a chance to focus too much on the "program" that the Sandevistan was supposed to be running, because the next few hours of his life were some of the most action-packed he'd ever had.
The thrill of fighting Katsuo, if you could even call it a fight after the Sandevistan let him practically one hit KO the honk, had pushed an almost feral laugh out of David's mouth as he left Arawak's Academy for the last time.
That would have been the highlight of his day already if he hadn't met Lucy, a picksocket he was able to stop from klepping one of his chips thanks to the Sandevistan.
Being pushed up against the wall of the NCART and having what seemed to be his whole life thrown up on holographic screens for Lucy had been an… experience, and so had the next hour, where he teamed up to klepp a bunch of Arasaka goon's chips.
He was too distracted to notice a red bar appear in the top left of his eyesight, with the number [80] appearing underneath it while they took everything not nailed down.
The only downer to their spree was the ending, where the Sandevistan finally made some of its side effects known, causing David to become overwhelmingly nauseous and unable to stand, to the point where Lucy called him an ambulance as he blacked out for a short while, only to wake up to Lucy kicking the two of them out of an ambulance, possibly killing the paramedic in the process, and joyriding backwards down the highway.
It was terrifying, but looking at her face while it happened… It was also one of the coolest things he had ever done.
After they'd drifted to a stop, Lucy with one foot on the ground to slow them down, she'd untied David from the stretcher and taken him to her apartment, and David felt like his higher functions shut down for a bit as Lucy strapped the two of them into a brain dance of the moon.
He did notice a small list of options in the bottom right of his vision, a bunch of things that looked like… editing options? Stuff that he usually didn't see in BDs when he checked them for Doc.
But he put them out of his mind. Lucy was a netrunner, she probably just had some BD editing skills as well.
He was actually really enjoying himself. His day had been going the best it possibly could have been at that point. That should have been what ticked him off that something was wrong.
Unfortunately, he was more focused on the beautiful girl dragging him through the low gravity of the moon, and the blossoming warmth in his chest to think about it too hard.
"You fell over the edge, kid."
Alongside the sudden interruption, the Moon braindance kicked him out of the program without a warning, and the hasty exit made David feel like he was about to throw up as the giant of a man in front of him threw him at the couch.
As he hit the cushions, his eyes adjusted enough to let him see the 3 people that had suddenly appeared in Lucy's apartment, and just by looking at them, David could tell that he was in big trouble.
These were proper Cyberpunks. Edgerunners.
The man in front of him was like, almost 3 times his size, and David could see that he was chromed up. So were the other two, a guy with some whacked-looking custom arms, and a woman who looked like she could fight old-world bears bare-handed.
The Sandevistan felt heavy on his back under the gaze of these Edgerunners, but it also felt like it was getting warmer, a feeling of anticipation growing in his chest. Was that program his ripper mentioned close to finishing?
The guy at the front, presumably the group's boss, looked at David over the top of his sunglasses, closing his giant hand into a fist. "Tough break, kid, but that implant you chipped? It's mine. And I'm gonna be taking it back now."
David gulped at the obvious threat before he realised something. These guys had broken into Lucy's apartment! He looked around frantically and spotted her after a second.
'Lucy! Is she oka- what?'
His worry for her sputtered out as he saw her lounging on her windowsill, smoking calmly as she stared off into space. Fuck! She'd set him up! Shot, should he use the Sande- "GAH!"
His thoughts were interrupted as his whole world suddenly flared white with pain, and he tumbled to the ground. He didn't notice it, but the [80] in the top right of his vision ticked down to [63].
As he stared up at the trio who was now looking down at him, he groaned internally, pushing himself up into a sitting position, when all of a sudden the pain dulled down to almost nothing, letting his brain focus on the shitstorm he was currently in.
'Shit… how the fuck am I gonna talk my way outta this?'