Here they were face to face.
Maelstrom to Maelstrom.
Leader to Ripper.
"Expanding my reputore" spoke Rich as he went to put down the components he bought.
As he then took a seat on his working chair.
Getting his laptop and turning it on and let it run its normals Diagnostics of himself before he could do royce.
"Usual?"
"Usual"
"Alright I'll get my tools ready"
"First I'm going to run some Tests on you, check your vitals, Diagnostics, see if everything's functioning properly in synch"
"My vitals are all jacked right now might as well slap some coolant before anything" said royce as he wasn't being a raging asshole at the moment.
He jacked some coolant into Royces neck as he watched his vitals go down.
Rich had been using his Kiroshi Optics enhanced by the Techgogs to get a real detailed look of everything going on in Royces body.
His stress levels were very high at the start but they were now leveling out.
"You went to Bjorn before you got here"
"Had to get ready"
"For a check up?"
"For a massacre"
"6 of our people were found dead this morning spiked to a wall, in Northside"
"Tell me, what you see"
As a file was sent to Rich over holo.
He looked at the picture and he recognized 1 out of the 6.
Marcus Carvill.
If there was emotion on Rich's face you wouldn't be able to see it.
"If I remember the job was over an Arasoka Convoy"
"The job was a success, they were able to get the Convoy.
What they didn't expect was to get targeted and taken out by 6th Street"
"The fuck wouldn't have pegged
those Morons to be smart enough to jack another gangs score"
"No doubt they were tipped off"
"Anyone in consideration"
"No Fucking Clue"
"Too many names"
"Actually the opposite, too little names to pick from"
"Call me Suprised"
"I wouldn't expect you to not be suprised"
"What do you want"
"What I want is to get back which was stolen from us and in the mean time make a statement to all the others shit heads in NC, getting involved in Maelstrom Biz is a death sentence"
"I repeat this in specefic, what do you want from Me"
"Someone who can send that statement"
"Then give the order"
"No, I want you to do it because you want too"
"I know how that fucked up mind of yours functions, you take orders because no matter what you do, you can always slide the blame on the person who gave the orders, I Want You To Want To Kill Them"
"Think of the poor kids that got slaughterd just because a gang wanted what we wanted, think of they're families and friends and how heartbroken they're going to be.
You can give them justice.
You can give them peace of mind,
You can be the good guy"
Suddenly Royce stopped talking as all his joints were locked.
"Your Diagnostics were picking up again, so I decided to Cripple your movements and shut off your Cyberware"
"This time I'll be installing the last 3 Cyberware on your list.
"Bioplastic Blood Vessels
Feedback Circuit
And an Inductor"
"This is the last set of Cybernetics I will be implanting on you so any time you come to me for now on it will be over simple Check Ups"
Rich then took his Anethesia gun and fired 2 shots into royce putting the fucker to sleep as he then began carving away.
He was still adjusting to what Royce told him and that pissed him off and pushed his belief of exactly why Royce was an asshole.
He always needs to fuck with someone, specially when they don't want to do certain things he specifically does what he can to push people into doing the things they don't want to do.
As Rich carved into royce the blood got everywhere getting all over his floor and even other parts that hung in the room even his laptop as Rich was very hands on with the Ripping process. he noticed on his back his sigil.
Fenrir, the wolf that would kill Odin during Ragnarok.
All the upper levels in Maelstrom had a tattoo of sorts.
Dum Dum had one.
Patricia had one.
Rich had one.
Brick had one.
And many others
The sigils were a sign of the Survivors of Rituals and Experimentation.
The combining of the Occult and Cybernetics.
It was a sign to show that we dared cross the line between possible and impossible.
The thin line from Sanity to Insanity.
The Risk of becoming a Cyberpsycho.
And The Risk of becoming a Cyber God.
These were the signs of the choices we made to becoming something more.
To do this task Royce wanted him to do, he would need to visit Bjorn again and go further into the abyss.
As well as see his own Ripperdoc and reimplant his old Cybernetics.
And he couldn't go back to his his old Ripper, he wouldn't give the old man the satisfaction.
If he was going to go and do something crazy, he would need to further advance his ability to put more power beyond his capable limits.
Despite how much of a prick Marcus was to his own friends, he still had they're backs, his intentions were good, and now he's snuffed out.
If what Royce is telling him is true, Then Reprisal was in order.
This would basically say to all Night City that he was back in the game, but at the moment he didn't care for what would come.
He would do what he always had done.
And that's taking care of business when it comes time too.
It had been more then 4 hours as the drugs wore off and Royce became active again.
"This will be the last of are business"
"In 3 days we'll be moving on Santo Domingo, you have until then to give me an answer" spoke Royce as he took off.
The blood stained the room as the person most bothered was Rich.
He was Reverting to who he was and there was nothing he could do to deny it.
He stood up from his chair and went to the back of the room stepped over the loose metal floor boards.
And under the floor board was a black box. And within the black box was the schematics for a weapon with the Title simply known as.
"Headless"
This was his weapon of choice, a past he wishes to keep under the floor boards.
To Be Continued.