'Ok, I think I've figured you out.'
David sat on a bench in a quiet corner of the crew's hideout as he reached his hand towards his hip, imaging the Overture that Becca had bought him appearing in his hand, and grinned as he whipped his hand out, and the Overture came with it.
"Yes!"
He couldn't help himself from doing a small dance of excitement as he succeeded but jumped in shock as he heard a snort of laughter from his right. His head whipped around to see Lucy leaning on a support beam. "What's got you all excited?"
He straightened up, his grin growing wider. "Ah, Lucy! Here, let me show you this shit. The Sandevistan apparently had some secrets hidden away in its systems, watch this!"
She moved over to a chair across from the bench, flopped down into it, and put her feet up on the table that was between them. When she was settled, David took his mum's EMT jacket off so that it wouldn't get in the way of her seeing what was happening, and put the Overture near his hip.
As he willed it to disappear or to be stored away, or whatever the fuck the Sandevistan was doing to it, he could feel the weight on the gun vanish from his hand. Turning back to Lucy, he smiled, suppressing a laugh at the shocked look in her eyes.
"Yea! That was how I reacted the first time it happened. Sandevistan ate the fucking Lexington that Maine gave me pretty much right after I caught it. Thank god he didn't notice."
Lucy didn't respond to that, instead, she stood up and practically hopped the table, landing on the couch next to David, poking and prodding at his hip area, where the Overture had disappeared. While she did that, David froze completely, his face burning red.
About a minute into her investigation, she pulled back, the shock still prevalent in her eyes as she leaned back, shaking her head. "That's not just a cloaking, is it? I couldn't feel the gun at all."
Davids's face was still red when he responded, but he was glad that he at least kept his voice modulated. "Uh, yea, it ain't just cloaking. At least I don't think so. Its weight fully disappears too, so it kinda feels like it just completely vanished."
Lucy was quiet for a moment before she stood up quickly. Her hand were on her hips, and after a moment, she turned back around to David. "This is… this is crazy, David. Can you even imagine the level of tech that Sandevistan must register as?"
It was then that she froze as if an idea had suddenly struck her. "Oh shit. Of course, it makes total sense now. Arasaka is after the Sandevistan. That's why they're on high alert. That's why our target was called back in. They're searching for something, and that something is likely your Sandevistan."
David frowned at that, before realising something himself. "Ah shit, and they probably know that it's me that has it, too. Pretty much right before I met you on that NCART, I had kinda walked back into Arasaka Academy and used the Sandevistan to punch my ex-bully into a wall."
Lucy flipped open a small container on her hip, bringing a cigarette to her lips and lighting it, taking a deep puff, before releasing it skyward. "David, I think that at the very least, you should tell Maine, and probably Dorio as well, about the Sandevistan and its… extra features."
He felt a small spark of panic shoot down his back at that and stood up. "Wait, why? Couldn't we just tell him that the Sandevistan is what they're after, without telling them about all the other stuff it seems to be doing?"
Lucy shook her head. "Look, you want to be a preem Edgerunner, right? Well, if you keep going, eventually someone is likely to figure out that you're doing stuff that you shouldn't be able to, and then they're gonna ask questions you don't want."
Rolling her shoulders, she sighed. "And look, I know you've been worried about telling other people about this, but at the very least, you should tell the leader of your crew everything you're capable of. Especially if you want bigger and better jobs."
David didn't know what to say. He trusted Lucy. Maybe not fully just yet, but enough to tell her about his Sandevistan's bullshit. Did he trust her on this, too? Even though he'd only really known these people for the last few days, he did want to trust them.
And after they sorted out the whole 'zero him and take the Sandevistan back' thing, Maine had been pretty good to him so far…
Taking a deep breath, David closed his eyes and nodded sharply. Opening them, he met Lucy's eyes, and put on the best smile he could, pushing his worry down for the moment.
"Alright. Lead the way, Lucy."
Maine's 'office' was the old warehouse repurposed security room.
It was a little cleaner than David was expecting, compared to the rest of the warehouse, but if he had to guess, that was because this was usually a space for Maine and Dorio only, so there was less mess left around by the others.
Maine sat across from him, his sunglasses off in the fairly dark room, with Dorio lying on the couch next to him, her legs hooked over his as she lay lengthwise. Leaning back into the couch, Maine hummed.
"So, Lucy said you had something to tell me. Well, spill."
Gulping, David stood up, taking off his mum's EMT jacket again, moving slowly to make sure Maine didn't mistake anything he did as an attack. "Ok, so you know how the Sandevistan I chipped… is a little weird?"
Maine's eyebrow rose, and he glanced behind David, looking towards Lucy, who was leaning up against the wall next to the door of the 'office'. "Yea, kid. Thing is weird as fuck, but then so are you, for being able to use it so much."
David nodded, sighing. "Well, basically, it turns out that it's even weirder than you think it is. This is gonna sound a little unbelievable, but I promise you it's the truth. I can prove it after I'm done explaining if you don't believe me."
As Maine leaned forward, David could tell that he got his attention, as well as Dorio's, when she pulled her legs back and sat up properly. And even though he could feel a little bit of sweat dripping down his forehead from how much their intense stares worried him, he started to explain, doing his best to keep it simple.
He told them about the attribute system and the way that the Sandevistan had explained them, as well as the perks that were associated with them, as well as the fact that he currently had 4 'perk points' waiting for him to spend. Told them about the fact that he was currently 'Level 2', and how he had gotten experience points and extra eddies from the courier job he'd done.
And he told them about the odd storage space bullshit that the Sandevistan had pulled on him, and for some reason that caused Maine to laugh. "Shit, I'll be honest. I saw the Lexington vanish, I just thought you'd use the Sandevistan to shove it into a pocket or some shit."
Maine then looked over to Lucy again, his eyebrow raised. "And just making sure, you 100% believe him on all of this stuff? I'm still gonna need proof either way, but you don't seem the type to play make-believe like this, Lucy."
Lucy just shrugged, a small smile appearing around her cigarette. "Whole reason you're learning about it is that I've seen the proof, and thought that it was best you knew as well. David, show him the pistol thing, get rid of his doubts."
David just nodded, taking a step closer to Maine and Dorio. "Alright, before I do anything, I just want you to both check for yourselves that I don't have anything on my hips, ok?"
Dorio and Maine shared a glance, before shrugging, and David shuddered slightly as Maine's cold metal hand quickly pat him down, followed by Dorio giving him a once over as well.
"Alright kid. You're unarmed. Now, be a good magician and pull that rabbit outta your hat."
David couldn't help laughing at that while he reached down to his hip with both hands, imaging the Overture and the Lexington appearing in his left and right hand, respectively. And just like he wanted them to, as he brought his hands away from his hip, the pistols appeared out of thin air.
He didn't point them at anything, he just placed them down on the desk beside them, motioning for Maine and Dorio, whose eyes were wide, to reach for them. As they picked them up, David could hear Maine start to chuckle.
"Ha… hahaha! This is some whacked-out bullshit, kid! Man, the Sandy must fucking love you if it's willing to break physics for your Gonk ass."
Dorio was just shaking her head as she held the Lexington, tapping away at it as a smile appeared on her face. "This is incredible. Have you been able to… I guess the word would be 'store' anything other than guns?"
David matched her smile, his chest feeling a little lighter at the positive reception he'd gotten from all of this.
"You know what? I haven't tried anything else. What were you thinking?"
