David was still having a small crisis when Maine practically kicked open the door to his crew's home base.

"Alright, everyone eyes up for a sec! I got the kid here with me!"

David just kinda shuffled awkwardly behind Maine as he followed the large man into the warehouse, taking note of the few figures around.

Maine waved at a couch that had clearly seen better days and grunted. "Take a seat, kid."

David nodded, and flopped down onto the couch, watching as the figures all gathered around as well, dropping into the various other chairs nearby.

"Ooo, Maine! Is this the one that klepped your Sandy? Thought you were gonna Zero him for sure, to be honest."

David glanced over to the voice and raised an eyebrow at the short, green-skinned and haired girl sitting on a chair to his left with her feet up on the table. Her tattoos felt a little familiar as well, but he couldn't quite place them.

The couch David was on let out a dangerous creak as Maine dropped into it, his arms shooting outwards on top of the backrest. "Ha! Yea, this is the kid. Turns out he's Gloria Martinez's brat. And he's honestly kinda impressed me, so we're gonna be giving him a shot at joining the crew."

Another voice spoke up, this time from a blonde woman in a red trench coat who seemed determined to stay in the shadows of a support beam, but was staring at him from above her mask.

"Are you sure that's wise?"

Maine just nodded. "Kid might be a little green, but he's worth a shot at least."

The woman just shrugged and went back to smoking. As she did, Maine turned to David. "Alright. Introductions."

Maine first pointed his thumb over at the one person David had been trying to ignore for the moment, a smirk on his face. "You already know Lucy, so we'll skip her for now."

Lucy gave him a nod, and David returned a shaky smile. He was still a little cut up about her selling him out, even if it had ended well, and he felt a little awkward, especially since his chest ached a little thinking about her.

Maine continued on, either not noticing or ignoring his internal struggle, and pointed to the woman in the trench coat. "That's Kiwi, she's another Netrunner, one of the best in NC."

Kiwi glanced his way and gave a small, one-handed wave, but nothing else, before turning back to the holographic screens projected out in front of her.

Maine moved over to the lanky dude with the super long arms next, who was smirking at David. "That there is Pilar, he's our-"

"I'm the fucking Techie! And the de facto medic since I got the stablest hands and all of the good painkillers!"

David glanced up at Maine, who just nodded wearily, looking like he very much wanted to disagree but couldn't. "That's right, got any tech issues you go to him first unless it's about your iron, in which case you'll go to-"

"-Me!"

The small woman to his left yelled out at that, jumping on top of the table with her hands on her hips, and Maine grunted, apparently not happy to be interrupted again.

"The name's Rebecca, but you can just call me Becca! My gonk brother might know more about boring techie shit but I'm the reigning queen of firearms around here!"

She winked at him, the smuggest smirk he'd ever seen on a person appearing on her face. Maine just shook his head, and continued, pointing his thumb to the giant woman on his right. "And this here is Dorio."

Dorio nodded following Maine's words, her head snapping up for a moment. "Good to see you still alive. Sandevistan not giving you issues?"

David shook his head. "Not exactly issues, but it might take me a while to fully figure everything out."

Dorio nodded in acknowledgment, leaning back into the couch. David just smiled, doing his best to memorize all of their names. Or at least, he would have, if his Sandevistan didn't beep at him and interrupt his thoughts.

[Allied crew registered]

Maine's Crew

David blinked in surprise, and as he did, he noticed that their names had appeared over their heads in subtle blue writing. As he looked around, Maine seemed to notice.

"Hmm, more weird shit with the Sandevistan?"

David just nodded, gulping. "Yea… I think it's trying to help me memorize your names, it's got them floating above your heads."

His words caused more than one of the crew to look up at the roof for a second before Pilar let out a snort. "You gotta let me give that baby a once over at some point, kid. Shits wack, even for Military tech standards!"

David just nodded, glancing at the names, and narrowed his eyes slightly as he noticed that they faded out completely unless he actually looked at the person. 'Probably for the best, could get distracting if they were permanent.'

As David looked around, Maine spoke up. "Alright, so as you all know we were supposed to be going ahead with the job from Faraday, but there seems to be a bit of a snag with that. Kiwi, fill everyone in for me."

The woman nodded, her eyes flashing blue, and screens appeared in front of everyone in the room as they got sent a file. David opened it and frowned, looking at the contents.

"We were going to hit one of the Arasaka goons, one Maxim Kuznetsov, car for the info we needed but our plan to get access doesn't look like it's gonna work. The guy we planned on using has been called into work, so we can't use his drinking time to get close."

David heard Rebecca click her tongue. "What the shit? The plan was preem just yesterday, what changed?"

Kiwi shrugged. "ICE on these reports is tighter than I could crack in a day by myself without deep diving, so I can't say for sure, but whatever it is, they've got all hands on deck."

Maine swore, his Gorilla Arms letting out grinding noises. "Shit, and looking at this, we'll probably have a week or two before they've calmed down enough to get our guy again."

He glanced over to David, who had finished reading the report, but since he lacked a lot of context about the 'mission' a lot of it had flown over his head. "Was planning on using this to give you your big test, kid, but it looks like we'll have to find something else for you."

David just nodded, rolling his shoulders as a thoughtful look landed on Maine's face. After a minute or two, Maine grunted, slapping his knees before standing up.

"Alright, we won't be able to hit the target today, and I don't have much else for the rest of ya, so you're free. Lucy, could you check in with Wakako and see if she's got some absolute baby-tier jobs we can send David out on."

David saw Lucy glance at him before nodding to Maine, a hand coming up to her ear as her eyes glowed blue for a second.

"Oh, and Lucy."

Pausing her call, Lucy looked back up at Maine, who grinned at her. "Since he's your stray, whipping him into shape is your job. He's a bit scrawny, so how about you take him running with ya or something."

David gulped at that, a part of him excited to potentially spend more time with her, and another part mortified that she was being ordered to 'whip him into shape.'

Lucy, however, didn't seem to have an issue with it, glancing over his way. "Sure. I'm gonna send you the coordinates for my running spot, be there every night at 7 pm, alright?"

David nodded and blinked as the customary beeps of a text message ran through his head. He opened the message and saved the new contact as [Lucy]. "I'll make sure to be on time."

A soft smile appeared on Lucy's face. "Straight A Corpo school kid like yourself? Wouldn't be surprised if you showed up 15 minutes early."

David froze for a moment, before coughing into his hand. "Well, I mean, that's just good form…"

Lucy let out a small laugh at that, forcing a smile back on David's face. Shaking her head, she turned away from him. "Oh, and since Maine will probably want you to get more training than just running, I might see if j can drag the others into giving you the basics for stuff like shooting and fighting, that alright with you? My wheelhouse is pretty much exclusively Netrunning."

David didn't have an issue with learning from more people than just Lucy. One of the only good things about Arasaka Academy was that they knew how to teach shit, and David knew that multiple teachers with differing expertise were the best way to bring a newbie up to speed.

"Yea, no worries at all."

Lucy nodded once, before walking out of the warehouse, her eyes glowing blue again as she started calling whoever this 'Wakako' was again.

David watched her leave with a smile on his face. Pretty soon, he would probably be doing his first job as an edgerunner! Even if it was small fry shit it was something, and he wasn't gonna fuck it up.

And if he wanted to fuck things up the least, he needed to be as strong as possible. Which led him to sit back down on the dirty couch.

'Alright Sandevistan, time to use these "points" you've given me.'