The New Man: Adam Smasher Si

by Crossposted

Crosspost of Seat Admiral’s fanfiction on SpaceBattles, all credits go to the original author.

2. Upload 02

Lucy was grateful for everything that Adam Smasher did for her, did for David, did for Rebecca. That did nothing to alleviate her fear of him. Their first impression would ensure that, even if he never harmed them, she would have nightmares for years to come.

A behemoth of metal, standing taller than even David while he was entombed in the Cyberskeleton, moving just as fast, and far far stronger. A relentless force that approached them with dread inevitability, every titanic leap away by David only temporary relief from his ever present assault. Then, that same relentless titan falling from the sky like a falling star, shattering the very ground beneath them and sending them all to the underworld.

Tearing apart her friends so systematically, avoiding David's attacks like he knew they would come far in advance, even when she desperately tried to disable something, anything in the body she thought for certainly was almost all cybernetic…

A demonic visage, grinning in dread symmetry to the violence it inflicted. A man of golden-white fire smiling within. A casual clawed gauntlet physically grasping her assault of pure signal and crushing it.

…The back of her head exploded in pain, and she collapsed. Later she would learn that his firewalls detected the assault and made a scripted counter-assault to short-circuit her implants. At the time, all she knew was that the monster in front of her almost rendered her unconscious with a glance. Through a haze of pain, she tried to pay attention, they were going to die and it was her fault. She at least owed it to everyone to make sure she remembered it before her end.

Then, the demon stopped killing the only person she couldn't live without, leaving him a mere torso in a pile of wreckage. Then the demon started talking. Then the demon offered them a chance they couldn't refuse.

It has been like a dream since then. They were rushed to a private medical facility, their wounds were treated, and their street-level chrome was replaced with corporate standard. Falco was fine, Rebecca was fine.

Adam Smasher even did the impossible, and dragged David back from the deep throes of cyberpsychosis. He wasn't cured, he probably would never be, but she wouldn't let him get that bad again, she couldn't lose him again. She couldn't. The demon even swore to free them in a year, if they wished for it.

Then he brought them back to Arasaka tower, and she thought for sure that the dream would end. They were going to be experiments, and she couldn't do anything about it so long as the demon was there. The demon brought them back to his empty lair, and told them to make it theirs.

The demon started teaching David, then got others to teach her, then got arms and armor and chrome for Rebecca. The demon kept his promise, Arasaka didn't touch them, David wasn't losing himself, all their needs were met.

Lucy had been struggling to survive for years now, they all were, and suddenly they weren't anymore. She… She was very thankful for all of this, she couldn't possibly repay him at this point.

That didn't change how frightened she was of him. She was just getting better at ignoring it. She had seen the recordings of David's training, she had seen how he was able to move and kill, she knew that at any point the demon could kill them all. She would be powerless to stop him, just like she was last time.

Still, the dream had yet to end. Rebecca was overjoyed to find someone who understood her references and to have an animal in the home. She herself was learning to cook, and discovered that David liked her new apron and was very eager to show her that…

David was probably the happiest he had been in months, Adam was, for all of his fearsome exterior, someone who David looked up too quite a bit at this point. He had known Adam for almost as long as he had known Maine at this point, and his experience with Adam was probably more positive overall.

Maine only spent time with David on jobs and for a few hours at a time during after-job celebrations, and David all but idolized the man. Adam spent many hours a day, not focused on a job, but focused directly on David and teaching him. David grew up without a father, was it really any wonder that he grew so attached so fast?

To her surprise, the Butcher of Arasaka was performing that role impressively well, probably completely without awareness of it too. He was dutiful, made sure all their needs were met, made sure they didn't do anything that could harm them in the long term. He was gruff and mostly humorless, he was threatening and callous, he growled everytime the cat rubbed against his leg. But he was there, and he was supporting David's growth in ways no one had ever done before.

David reiterated his promise to take her to the moon recently, and she buried her face in his chest. Silly boy, you're going to break your heart like that. She didn't care about the moon more than she cared about you. You were her moon.

"It's the only way I can keep you safe from this damn city."

It came to her one day, after she had thought that, after she recalled the line he gave to David as he stood over his torso so long ago (but only a month, not long at all really).

"That's the difference between you and me, kid. You have things to lose. I never had anything to lose in the first place."

That really was the only difference, wasn't it? David was born into the world with a loving mother, found friends, found a crew, found a foolish cowardly girl to love, and even found a father in the form of a fiery man entombed in an iron demon.

Adam Smasher was born on the streets with nothing and no one, and was bound by a body of chrome before he could find anyone. Leashed to the iron grip of Arasaka, forced to kill over and over again for decades until he was emptied out of everything except the burning rage. An empty home, containing weapons and old bodies and a single bench to sit upon.

David was the Moon. Gentle, sweet, calming. He accepted her weakness, her cowardice, her wretched perversions. He embraced her in the night, and loved her beyond all measure. His light was not hardened by the world.

Adam was the Sun. Burning, harsh, furious. He refused to accept dishonesty, hiding, and lies. He forced her to be better, because he knew she could be. His was the light that burned away that which could threaten her. She hated Arasaka a little bit more.

Both were light, in the end. No wonder they could handle so much more chrome than anyone else. No wonder Adam was so well suited as a role model to her output. She wanted to cry, like the coward she was. The thought of her David ever becoming like Adam was heart-wrenching, so she wouldn't let it happen. So long as he would have her, David would have at least one thing to lose, at least one thing to come back to.

So she had to survive, one battle at a time. She had to help them survive, even as weak as she was, one battle at a time.

"Beta, flying armor, three o'clock."

"Gotcha!"

A thunderous boom in the distance as a Valgus containing another squad of men fell from the sky.

"Alpha, six units ahead, nine o'clock!

"Got it!"

Six dots highlighted on her smart scanner screen suddenly winked out of existence.

"Sigma, heavy armor, six o'clock!"

"Affirmative."

The seismograph suddenly registered a heavy vibration and then nothing. A few moments later she felt the vibration rumble through the earth herself.

She was in a defensible location, a large number of sensors and screens that connected to a small drone fleet set up around the battlefield in out of the way locations.

She didn't know why this particular job had provoked such a huge response. They were just supposed to be guarding an economic negotiation, weren't they? Why was there an entire military division here attacking them?!

She clamped down on the desire to run away again. She was a coward at heart. But she feared living in a world without David more than she feared dying. So she stayed.

She stayed and called out enemies as they came in waves at their location. The corpos of both Petrochem and Arasaka were behind cover to her side, each one holding a gun they probably only ever used at a practice range, if that. She didn't care if any of them survived, if David got into trouble, she'd direct Adam to go get him before running out herself. She wasn't going to lose him again.

This had started about an hour after they had all arrived, and had been going on for nearly an hour more by this point. Arasaka and Petrochem military forces were on their way in priority transports to extract them. All they had to do was endure this onslaught.

She saw a footprint appear in the soft ground in front of her, in her peripheral vision. She was already pointing her submachine gun and firing until the soldier fell out of stealth and onto the ground, cloak failing now that he was a corpse. The new corpse joined the other two. She didn't stop calling out targets all this time.

She had to keep them alive, all of them.

"Beta, flying armor, four o'clock!"

"Gotcha!"

Another Valgus fell out of the sky.

"Sigma, heavy armor, seven o'clock!"

"Affirmative."

Another rumble on the seismograph.

"Alpha, infantry squad, eight o'clock!"

"Got it!"

Another few dots blinked out of existence.

And so on it went. She had to keep them alive. Until they could go home together. So she kept calling out targets, and strangled the urge to run away until it stopped speaking up.

Eventually, it was over. Corporate forces arrived en masse and surrounded the bunker they were in, forming a perimeter and relieving them. Now they were to wait until anything that could potentially shoot down a helicopter taking off was cleared out of the area, and head home. It had taken an hour and twelve minutes for their relief forces to arrive.

She felt exhausted, tired in a way she never had before. It wasn't really a physical exhaustion, but a mental one caused by having to focus so much for so long. A tremendous headache curled up and resting right behind her eyebrows.

So when David got back, banged up but otherwise unharmed, the first thing she did was force him to sit down and then cuddled into his side. Normally she'd be far too embarrassed to do this openly, but she was entirely too tired to care at this point. She just buried her face into his side and stayed there until they were going to leave. David just chuckled and started running his fingers through her hair, she loves this boy more than anything else in the world.

She heard Rebecca stomp around the corner in her new ACPA, before probably stopping to look at them. "Bleh, I didn't need to see that."

Heh, too bad Rebecca. She didn't know why, but this one chose her, and she was never letting go of him. She buried her face deeper into his jacket interior and made a noise that sounded like "mhn nhm."

Did he always smell this good? Was he always this warm? She wasn't sure, but she wanted to stay here forever.

A step of footsteps came up, even heavier than Rebecca's was. Lucy tilted her head just enough and opened a single eye.

The demon was glaring down at them, black frame covered in ash and blood, hair matted with much of the same. He was frowning, then again that was always true. He looked at the both of them, before looking over to the corpos behind their cover.

"Area secured, we're leaving." He growled out.

…On second thought, cuddling with David back home (when had she started thinking of it as home?) sounded much more appealing.

—

The trip back was much less stressful than the trip there, she found. The bulk of the danger was over, and they were going back to the safety of Arasaka tower (what a disgusting sentence, she should have never thought it). She was leaning against David, and inspecting his mother's jacket.

There is a house in Night City

There was a tear in it, probably from a stray bullet or similar. That was unacceptable, so she resolved to ask Adam to buy her a data-packet on how to repair fabric. She would learn how to keep one of his four treasures in top condition.

They call the rising sun

In the room that she and David shared, there was a shelf to the side. On the shelf were three items. A vase of his mothers ashes, the cybernetic arm of Maine, and a relatively new mono-katana. She didn't particularly understand the idea of keeping things that remind one of painful memories, but David put value into them, as well as value into his jacket, so she would too.

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

They were in the transport back, and listening to one of Adam's songs again. Adam certainly didn't seem like the kind of guy to make music, but then again the music he made was… old. It sounded like music that was popular seventy years ago or more. Which made sense she supposed, that was probably the last time Adam actively listened to music from her impression of him. Before he was bound in his steel body.

And god I know I'm one

David spoke up after a while on the transport. "What was with that entire job?"

My mother was a tailor

Adam grunted in response, so David elaborated. "Why was a financial negotiation held in a bunker in the relative middle of nowhere?"

She sewed my new blue jeans

Rebecca spoke up at that, chiming in with a "Yeah, that was kinda weird, wasn't it big guy?" Lucy envied her ability to be so casual with the demon they shared a home with.

My father was a gambling man

"It was." Adam confirmed their suspicions. "There was either a delivery we weren't informed of, or the job was to draw attention from elsewhere."

Way down in Night City

That was just like the fucking corpos, to try and use their hired labor as a diversion. To try and use her David as a diversion. She hated them a little bit more. The Finances rep pointedly didn't look at any of them.

Now the only thing a gambler needs

The PR rep, Douglas Brown, spoke up at that. "There is a third reason, actually."

Is a suitcase and a gun

Adam paused at that, and turned to the PR rep with a look that demanded immediate explanation lest he begins turning them into street-food and selling them at competitive market prices.

And the only time he'll be satisfied

It was a very complex look.

Is when he's on the run

Douglas Brown quickly spoke at that, explaining. "It was ordered from above the PR department, someone with an executive level signature. The location was chosen to lure a nearby Militech division with a notice that a few representatives from Arasaka and Petrochem would be meeting near to them with only four bodyguards."

Oh mother, tell your children

"Apparently it was supposed to be something of a test as well as a final hurrah to gather marketing material. I was told to explain it after it was over. I'm just the messenger here."

Not to do as I have done

The demon growled audibly at that, leaning back in the seat. The seat groaned in pain as it bore the weight that it was really not designed for.

Spend your lives in sin and misery

Lucy was hoping that the executive who ordered this was mid-level or lower, Adam has proven both willing and unafraid of threatening them numerous times before in the past. From their reactions, she was almost certain that he could back up the threat of violence as well.

In the House of the Rising Sun

She wasn't sure why he was allowed to kill nearly everyone who pissed him off in the company. She was certain that Arasaka wouldn't allow one of their mercenaries to be so cavalier with inflicting harm upon their employees like this. Perhaps it was because he didn't threaten high level employees? She hasn't seen him get angry at the few of those she's seen him interact with thus far.

Well I got one foot on the platform

Perhaps it was a natural filter method they employed. Those stupid enough to make the Butcher mad enough for murder were clearly unfit for continued work at Arasaka, and if he killed them then they didn't have to file as many forms out for their dismissal.

The other foot on the train

The idea of Arasaka using Adam's murderous rage as a screening process was an amusing one, she made a mental note to tell David later.

I'm going back to Night City

Speaking of which…

To make another bloodstain

She buried her face into his shoulder. She had missed enough time around him murdering the Arasaka agents sent after him from before, she didn't intend to ever miss another moment if she could.

Well there is a house in Night City

She felt Rebecca's pout. It wasn't as severe as it used to be. Living together for a month even after life changing circumstances had caused the shorter girl to slowly give up hope at being with her David. Lucy felt bad for her in some ways, but she didn't intend to let go.

They call the Rising Sun

She didn't want to lose him again.

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

So she held a little tighter.

And god I know I'm one

—

She couldn't believe the sum of money they got when they got back and Adam transferred the money over. One million, one-hundred and twenty-five thousand eddies.

That was more than she had ever had in her life, and it was the result of a single job and a mere portion of the payout. No wonder Adam had never seemed concerned with money, he used to do jobs like these alone.

Literal decades of earning money like this, and not needing to spend it on much of anything. Adam Smasher might be the single richest mercenary in the world.

Although, she wasn't quite sure. The best mercenaries in the world are often the ones you never hear about. Adam was the exception in that regard, everyone who was informed in the mercenary world knew that Adam Smasher was a real individual, and that fighting him head on was bad business sense. It was best to treat him like a hurricane, from what she had heard, do your best to get out of the way, and leave whatever suckers in the warpath behind.

She was still frightened of Adam Smasher, but she was getting better at hiding it.

Of course, David had fought him head on and ended up getting them all a life they couldn't dream of before, so maybe conventional wisdom was only true until a Legend showed up. She knew David was a legend already among the NC underworld, and with Adam teaching him directly, he would be a legend the world round before he finally died.

Lucy was going to make sure he died many many years from now, possibly never if she could manage it. Each and every day medical science lengthened the lives of the wealthy beyond human norms, and if these paychecks were any indication they were going to become wealthy before their youth expired.

An eternity with David… That sounds very good, she wanted it. Now, how much did a rejuvenation treatment cost again?

"Holy shit big guy, no wonder you were so chilled with the mill you handed us for furniture. Your account must be fucking cosmic." Rebecca called out, seeing the number. She was propped up on the table, hands on the face of it as she all but stood out of her seat to try and look at Adam on eye level.

She wasn't quite successful.

Adam reached over and pushed her by the head back down into her seat. It was big enough to fully cover the top half of her skull and a bit of the sides. "Don't get on the table."

He kept his hand there to make sure that she didn't get up again. When he saw that she wasn't making a move to get up, he removed his hand and put it back at his side. Lucy saw that Rebecca's face was a bit red from the interaction…

I'm cheering for you Rebecca! You can do it! Go for it!

David then spoke up. "With this many eddies, I could probably buy basically anything I want, huh?" He was still a little bit shell shocked. This was probably the most money he's ever had at one point, even as the leader of the crew a month prior.

Adam replied. "And buy what?"

"Well I could buy… uh… huh. I guess I don't really have anything to spend this on." That was true, Adam was still paying for basically everything, and David couldn't buy new chrome due to his agreement with Adam. All the eddies in the world, and nothing to really spend it on.

"The first million makes you rich, the second million is irrelevant."

At this point, Adam stopped suddenly. He started reading a message that only he could see, and his frown got slightly worse. Rebecca and David noticed the sudden change in mood, and got a little nervous. They were polite enough to wait for him to finish reading though.

Adam growled slowly, his brows furrowing just a tad as he leaned back in his seat. He looked considering in the most gruff manner possible. Suddenly he stood and gestured for them to follow.

"We're getting you three Japanese lang-chips and fitted kimonos."

That was incredibly random, what was this about? Rebecca voiced the question on all three of their minds. Adam spoke perhaps the most terrifying words she had ever heard.

"Saburo Arasaka has invited me to tea, he told me to bring you all with me."

It was not often that Adam received any sort of message from his contract holder. Most of the time the Emperor relied on proxies to deliver his commandments, and most of the time he didn't even command Adam at all. Adam did the jobs that Arasaka provided to him, of course, but it was on behalf of Saburo, not Arasaka.

If Saburo wanted to, he could command Adam to murder everyone in Arasaka corporation and Adam would have to comply. It was written into his Long-Term Contract. A series of codes and priorities written into the interface that connects his frame to his brain. Adam didn't have a kill switch, but this was a far more binding thing regardless.

Three orders in descending priority, four sub-clauses to clarify those orders. That was the Long-Term Contract that Adam operated under for the majority of his life.

Obey the orders of the Contract Holder to the best of your abilities.

-Verify the orders come from the Contract Holder to the best of your abilities before following them.

-Resolve potentially conflicting orders to the best of your abilities.

Protect the Contract Holder to the best of your abilities.

-Protection is defined as prevention of physical harm.

Inform the Contract Holder of potential threats to the best of your abilities.

-Potential threats are defined as sources of physical harm.

This was the iron leash that Adam was shackled with in exchange for living after being reduced to a pile of weak, gibbering, meat in a backpack. It was well worth it, in his mind, because it was very rare that Saburo Arasaka ever actually called on him to do anything. It was rarer still for the Emperor to call upon him for something he hated doing.

The last time Adam received an order from the Contract Holder (a new order that is, he has several prior orders that he has to obey, one example of which being 'protect employees while on duty') was years (decades?) ago, when he was first deployed and stationed in Night City. He has occasionally spoken with the Emperor, and occasionally received a job from him, but hasn't gotten a new order since.

This was not an Order, but it was an order. He was to bring his three recruits along with him to visit the Emperor in his Tokyo home for afternoon tea tomorrow. He was told to 'make them presentable'. So that's what he did, getting them fitted for proper kimonos at the in-house Arasaka traditional Japanese outfitter, purchasing three new lang-chips for Japanese and making them insert them, then going over every step of a proper Tea Ceremony while on the flight over and the etiquette for speaking with Saburo Arasaka.

They did this literally every moment of the plane ride over, Adam was not about to have his investments wasted because they accidentally called Saburo Arasaka 'choom'. That would be fucking embarrasing.

Adam didn't need to do this. He already knew japanese and tea ceremonies specifically because Saburo ordered him to learn them, and had a kimono that fit his 8 foot bulk already in storage. He had Uriel put it on via his Gemini body, then put the Gemini body into a steel coffin with a handle installed at the bottom-middle, so he could carry it over his shoulder like an oversized backpack. The coffin he had gotten ordered when he got the Gemini, specifically so he could more conveniently carry it around like this.

This would allow him his full combat effectiveness and the ability to drink the tea, which one was more important in this circumstance was debatable. Adam put his eddies on the second, himself.

They drew stares as they exited the Arasaka private plane in the nearest airport to Saburo's estate. Three clear gaijin in custom kimonos and an 8 foot tall mass-murderer made of chrome and fusion power carrying a steel coffin on his back. The locals of Tokyo were likely to be terrified.

Tokyo was the shining jewel of Arasaka influence. 57 million inhabitants on average each day, most of those come from the wider metropolis and travel into the city for work, on trains that had an average capacity fill rate of 250%. All levels of government in Tokyo were controlled by Saburo Arasaka at this point, directly or indirectly. The police are some of the most well-equipped and well-trained in the world, illegal activity is brutally suppressed whenever it is found, and the most minor crimes have uncoorespondingly harsh sentences.

Even the crime that did still exist operated at the behest of Saburo Arasaka, each and every yakuza gang in this side of Japan directly or indirectly following his orders, and most of them on the other side doing so as well. Often this crime was used as yet another lever to force Tokyo as a whole to operate more efficiently, striking at targets that are disorganized, dirty, or otherwise a blemish on Saburo's vision of Japan.

Then, when these targets are destroyed sufficiently, corporate influence moves into the area and transforms it into a slightly more efficient cog in the engine that is modern Tokyo. Almost every citizen in the metropolis is an employee of Arasaka, directly or indirectly. Almost every business or industry or public facility, owed by or paid for by Arasaka.

And yet, for all of this corporate influence, Saburo's overwhelming love for his country shone through. The streets were clean of any and all pollutants, the air was fresh and unimaginably clean, the waters around the entirety of Japan, but especially around Tokyo itself, are clean and full of all manner of aquatic life. The citizens can live their lives practically free of crime and filth, most of them could afford all their basic necessities and couples are given stipends to raise children with.

The public broadcasting was by and large part family-friendly, with a few channels dedicated to more raunchy material. The schools were efficient and some of the highest rated in the world. Almost all crime outside of activity controlled by Arasaka themselves was eliminated, and public trust in government officials was some of the highest in the world.

The historical and cultural sections did not fade either, Saburo being the staunch traditionalist he was. Each and every countryside farm or facility or factory was carefully considered and placed by city planners decades ago to maximize both aesthetics and efficacy. Each and every component of the city interior was given similar treatment, and regularly renovated to ensure that everything was both up to date and as beautiful as they could make it.

There were active theaters in every district containing many actors for all manner of traditional Japanese play or artform. There were large tournaments of martial prowess held on a year-round basis, such as kendo, kyudo, sumo, and more. There were massive sprawling libraries containing actual paper scrolls detailing the entirety of Japan's history and as many curated selections of historical papers and books as could fit. Japan was one of the few countries that still knew its entire history after the Netcrash, and it was due to these physical backups that Saburo had commissioned and then copied in vast quantities.

Everything about Tokyo was clean and refined and beautiful, all it took was absolute submission to Saburo Arasaka and his will. Let it not be said that the Emperor does not love his country, for there is little he loves more. His love was so great that he was willing to trample and destroy everything that stood in his way to complete domination of it. Small business no longer exists in Tokyo, Saburo did not allow it to.

There was only one blemish that was allowed to exist in Tokyo. Tokyo Bay Crossway. A 5 kilometer bridge and 10 kilometers of underwater tunnels that government officials lost control over back in 2018. The reason why it was allowed to exist was that the central AI that operated it's automated defense systems went rogue, targeting all military personnel as well as anyone who steps within 200 meters of the control room as enemy targets and firing upon them with the bristling host of heavy automatic turrets that line every wall in the area. The auto-factories under the AI's control continued to fabricate materials and ammunition to ensure its dominance of the area.

Adam might be able to take the Bridge and clear it out, had he had a Dai-Oni on, a platoon of Dragoons to lead, and an entire Arasaka military division at his back. The firepower of the central AI within being that ridiculous.

Ultimately it was decided that the area was both too expensive to clear out, and too convenient to keep around to contain all the undesirables of Tokyo in one place, leaving it alone to be filled with homeless, criminals, independent yakuza, and similar. Much to the utter and seething fury of Saburo, who has on more than one occasion sworn to eliminate each and every thing in the area the moment he could afford to. The one black mark on his shining jewel of a city, and his rival corporations keep him busy enough to prevent its polishing.

Indeed a city of Saburo's lifetime of work, Adam Smasher was expecting to be looked at with fear and timid scurrying on the thirty-minute walk to Arasaka estate. He was the chief murderer of Arasaka, the borg sent to a place to murder everything in the area before moving on. A walking natural disaster that has stacked enough corpses to fill a second catacomb in France.

He did not expect for the Public Relations and Marketing departments to have been so efficient or efficacious at their jobs. The moment he and the kids stepped out of the plane, Uriel burst out into laughter and didn't stop for the last five minutes of walking. It was starting to get annoying, you bastard. Uriel gave an insincere apology and started laughing again.

All around him, on many of the projectors built into the sides of the megabuildings of Tokyo, were advertisements.

— KABUTO ONI : ADAM SMASHER —

Clips of him from the past month and two days on repeat, each and every one of them either an edited shot from the kid's camera or a CGI recreation that used his own camera to put together. The most popular clips they seemed to use were the clips of him using panzerfaust to scrap the few cyberpsychos that showed up during the kid's training, the times he used a knife over the handgun…

And of course, the fucking clips of him cutting railgun rounds in half with that fucking custom Kendachi-MonoThree. Almost all of these set to one of the fucking songs Uriel had synthesized, something licensed from another corporation or some studio, or a remix of any of the above. Every time he took a step forwards, what should have been an intimidated civvie was instead a civvie that gawked and took pictures as he walked by.

The kids were not ignored in all of this, but they were certainly not as recognized as him as he walked by. They couldn't restrain their own laughter at his expense, giggling every time he growled at a passerby or picture being taken. Tokyo was home to 57 million people, and the streets were incredibly densely packed.

Needless to say, he started growling when they got off the plane and hasn't stopped since.

Goddamn it, he was never going to forgive the Japanese.

—

The Arasaka compound (that was the word, he was calling an estate this whole time) was just as incredibly functional and beautiful as the rest of Tokyo.

Adam didn't feel like paying attention to fucking any of it, so he ignored it all and growled at Uriel when he started thinking about it. He just wanted to get inside and talk to the bossman already, and get away from all these fuckers who kept trying to send him messages outside.

Although he did save the contacts of the girls that looked up-to-par, that might be useful if he gets free time later. That and he appreciated the attached files they sent to him as he walked by. That experience wasn't a total waste afterall.

The guards stepped in front of him and the kids as they approached, their eyes giving him a questioning look and a glance at the coffin on his back. Adam grunted "Gemini." and they nodded and let them pass.

This level of trust would be unprecedented for anyone else, but he was Adam Smasher. He was one of the very few things in the world that couldn't willingly harm their lord. His Long-Term Contract prevented it.

A woman greeted them, looking to be a perfect match for the ideal Japanese beauty. A veritable Yamato Nadeshiko, long black hair, black eyes and the slightest smile on her face. Her face was beautiful enough that the addition of make-up would probably ruin it unless applied by a master of their craft. She was dressed as a shrine maiden, white and red robes and all, and stood about as tall as the gremlin did.

She looked at him without fear or hesitation, and smiled just a little bit wider. She spoke in a voice that was probably as close to ideal as people could get. "Arasaka-sama is expecting you, please follow me, I will guide you to him."

Adam and Uriel were suspicious of this one already. He had seen many meatbags in his time, and none of them were this perfect without extreme modification. Hell, considering the trends in fashion in the modern age, they usually weren't perfect even then. But she had no outwardly visible signs of chrome, and it didn't matter regardless. Adam wasn't here to investigate anyways.

He followed, and the kids followed behind him. Good, they were following the proper decorum protocols for being in Saburo's house. They were led to a room that he recognized as one of the many chambers that were utterly impervious to the outside, no cameras, utterly sound and vibration proofed, fully visually obscured. Bossman wanted to talk to him privately then.

In front of the door, in his own traditional attire, was Goro Takemura, the personal bodyguard of Saburo. Goro was chosen for his absolute loyalty to Saburo, and given some of the best chrome and training in the world. He was not even close to Adam's equal in a fight, but he was far closer than the vast majority of meatbags in the world, far closer. At his waist was a Mono-Katana.

"Smasher Adam." Goro properly bowed in greeting which Adam returned with a "Takemura Goro."

Goro opened the massive door, and stepped aside for them to enter, which Adam did and the kids followed nervously. Goro did not acknowledge them, he didn't need to.

Inside was a table and two mats. Ah, Saburo was planning on letting the kids go after he gets a look at them it seemed. This conversation was not for their ears.

Sitting on the far mat was a man who looked to be more corpse than alive. He looked to them with a stoic expression, and then looked to the kids who each tensed nervously even as they tried to stay completely still. Slowly, the Emperor stood from his mat, grabbing a cane and using it to raise himself.

The Emperor stood to his full height, and Adam bowed low which the kids immediately followed with a bow of their own. They held that pose for several long seconds before the Emperor spoke.

"Welcome to my home, Yojimbo."

"Thank you for having me, Arasaka-sama."

It had been decades since Adam had heard his own name come from the Emperor's mouth, all that he ever called him was that and he used to not know why. Uriel knew why though. The old fucker was making a reference the whole fucking time. Old bastard, you could at least let him in on the joke too.

"These are your new wards?"

"Yes, Arasaka-sama."

The Emperor slowly walked from his side of the table and in front of his kids. He looked at them without making a word, even as they sweated under his gaze.

He looked to the kid, and spoke

"Introduce yourself."

The kid startled a bit, and replied. "Martinez David, Arasaka-sama."

The Emperor gazed at him, and slowly blinked. He examined the kid fully before talking once more. "I have read your file, it is a sad day for a child to bury their parents."

The fucking kid was an absolute dumbass meatbag, and corrected the fucking Emperor. Adam was certain he was going to have to get a new apprentice because of this. "Cremated actually, I, uh, couldn't afford a burial."

The Emperor stared at the kid, and fortunately didn't order Adam to execute him right there. He merely turned his gaze to the girl and spoke again.

"Introduce yourself."

The girl swallowed, and replied. "Kushinada Lucyna, Arasaka-sama."

The Emperor gazed for another long moment. He hummed, which was never a good sign in front of other people. He spoke. "The project manager has since been dismissed. Their project was ill-intentioned and unacceptable."

The girl blinked slowly at that, mouth opening the slightest bit in shock. The Emperor turned to the gremlin, and proceeded to do the same thing as the last two times.

"Introduce yourself."

The gremlin had a nervous smile on as she replied. "Rebecca, Arasaka-sama."

The Emperor considered her for a small while, no doubt noticing her lack of last name, before speaking "I have been told your testing performance is up to par, that is good."

The gremlin blinked, and her smile widened a bit more. "Thank you, Arasaka-sama."

The Emperor called out towards the door. "Takemura."

The door slid open and Goro was there, waiting to receive the order to come. "Yes, Arasaka-sama?"

"Escort these three on a tour, show them the public areas of the compound. I must speak to Yojimbo privately."

Takemura bowed and responded with a "Yes Arasaka-sama." He then stood back from the door and waited for the kids to follow, which they did after a glance in his direction. Adam was then alone with the Emperor and the same shrine-girl from earlier.

The Emperor walked over to his mat, sat down, and raised a brow at Adam. Adam lowered the coffin to the floor, opened it up, and took a kneeling stance. The gemini body within stood as Adam swapped mental places with Uriel. Uriel manually dimmed the eyes of the main body to make it seem like it was in a resting state as Adam stood before the Emperor, performed the proper bow, and then sat down at the gesture.

A long few minutes of silence proceeded as the Emperor and Adam waited for the shrine girl to finish pouring them the steaming hot tea, and move to the side a bit more.

The Emperor raised his cup, took a slow sip, and then spoke with his eyes closed. "You may drop the outward formalities, Yojimbo."

Adam looked at the shrine maiden, and the Emperor nodded at his inquisitive glance even though his eyes were closed. Adam nodded himself before speaking.

"When were you going to tell me that nickname was a reference, old man?"

Saburo chuckled like a fox who just pulled off a particularly good trick.

"Until you figured it out. Come, enjoy your tea before we begin."

Adam Smasher was bound by the Long-Term Contract to stay loyal to Saburo Arasaka. Therefore, he was one of the few people in the entire world that Saburo could completely drop his guard around. Adam sat down and took a long slow sip of the offered tea. Adam Smasher hadn't tasted anything in decades now, and wasn't much of a tea person anyways.

The tea was delicious, as to be expected of the perfectionist drinking with him.

"It's good."

"I know."

A long moment passed as two old men enjoyed tea together. Saburo spoke up. "Your forging is complete."

Adam didn't know what the hell he was talking about. He grunted in confusion. Saburo continued.

"Years ago, I stole a child from the Giant, an Oni. I forged him in iron, I tempered him in blood, I left him to cool in duty. Now I have a Samurai without compare. Then, once his forging was complete, he sought a tribe of his own like all Oni do, a tribe of Oni to forge into more Samurai."

Saburo opened his eyes, revealing pure triumph. "No, Not merely Samurai. Oni-Samurai, all the strength of the Oni, all the discipline of the Samurai, loyal warriors without equal."

"You were a grand experiment of mine, to see if I can make an Oni into a Samurai. I have seen the footage of your training the boy. You are disciplined now, you are focused, just as much rage and violence sharped to a razor edge by your iron will."

"You were a grand investment, even despite all the troubles I had in your forging."

"A microcosm of what I shall do to the other children of the Giant. I shall forge the Oni as Samurai, and be left with an army without peer.

"Your forging is complete, Yojimbo. It is time for your training."

Adam stared at the grinning man, and took a long, slow, and loud sip of the tea. Saburo grunted in reply, smiling dropping from his face.

"Impudent brat, this is the part where you ask what your training will be."

"The tea is good."

"V3, please smack Yojimbo on the arm, slightly reproachfully."

Adam felt a light hit on his upper arm, and looked to his right to see the shrine girl with furrowed eyebrows and pouting lips. It was a dangerous look, so he looked back to see Saburo nodding approvingly.

"So it works on you still, good."

Adam grunted questioningly, taking another sip of tea. Saburo continued.

"Oni are creatures of lust and rage, it would defeat the purpose of forging one as a Samurai if they lost their violent passions."

"...You were testing to see if I got distracted."

"Yes, granted it was unfair to begin with here." Adam grunted again.

"Jorogumo-V3, bare yourself for Yojimbo." His eyes widened a bit at that, looking over to see the shrine girl disrobing.

Soon she was completely nude (just as beautiful underneath as on the surface, and curvy in just the right ways) and standing still. A moment passed, but right before Adam could ask what the fuck Saburo was pulling here she began to unfold.

Sharp, glittering blades began to sprout from everywhere in her body, revealing absolutely invisible seams that expanded to demonstrate a fully mechanical body chocked full of razor sharp curved blades. Her face even had a set of blades sprout from it. Her face was turned to the side, and slightly blushing as he observed her. He scanned her quickly and her face flushed deeper red.

Ninety-four percent.

"A full conversion?"

"No, a full gynoid with a wetware nervous system."

"Utterly indistinguishable from a borg then."

"A perfect assassin for lustful types, wouldn't you agree? Jorogumo-V3, you may cover yourself once more."

Soon enough she was dressed and indistinguishable from a normal human once more, not even his microscopic view could make out the seams on her flesh. Adam narrowed her eyes, she was blushing and refused to meet his gaze. That would be dangerous for meatbags in the future then.

"What happened to the earlier models?"

"V1 was scrapped, V2 was stolen. Why?"

"I think I saw V2 in NC."

"Good, retrieve it for me when you get the chance." Adam nodded. He took a sip of tea. V3 refilled it for him, still doing her best to not look at him. He leaned back.

"You said something about training, old man?"

"Impudent brat. You have already begun this process, guided by instinct after your forging was complete. A Samurai must be a poet as well as a warrior. You have begun to produce music, even influenced as it is by your Oni-nature. You are to continue with this."

Adam fucking Smasher growled even as he knew he couldn't refuse. Saburo looked unrepentant. "Yes, you are embarrassed of it now. Still you must be cultured to be a proper Samurai. That reminds me, your sword, why did you cease to use it?"

"Not good enough against metal."

"Can you not compensate with Panzerfaust?" The old man pronounced the foreign word perfectly.

"Can, would break any blade after six hits or less."

The old man frowned and hummed at this. He tapped a holographic button that appeared in the air next to him.

"Sakura, send a message to Masamune Shirow. He is to develop an unbreakable Wakizashi, Katana, and Odachi. His budget for this research is five-hundred million." The old man dedicated an amount of wealth that would cripple many businesses solely to a project so that Adam Smasher would have a sword. Saburo looked at him with a glint in his eye and a small smile on his face.

"I will not let little things like current technology keep my Samurai from his sword."

Adam grunted and sipped his tea. He admitted that he was rather excited to see if that was possible. He wanted to use a sword again. The two old men went back to enjoying their tea in comfortable silence, before Saburo spoke up.

"I will be transferring your Long-Term Contract to Yorinobu, soon."

Adam grunted. "The boy hates you." Going unsaid was the implication that he might order Adam to kill Saburo.

"All boys are quarrelsome, I was with my father. He'll come to see wisdom soon enough just as I did."

"If he does not?"

Saburo gave a long sigh, looking like every one of his hundred and fifty years at that moment.

"I was given a prophecy the day I inherited my father's company. That I would never have a successor. If he kills me, then my engram will activate and know what has happened. It will know that my fate cannot be overturned, and that I must lead this company for eternity."

His shoulders slumped, and he looked at his tea with a miserable expression. "I will know that I was always destined to fail as a father. My engram will know that it must kill my own boy to prevent him from destroying everything I have worked for."

"I desperately wish that he does not."

Adam was quiet for a long moment, before he lightened the mood with a crude joke.

"There will also go your hopes of retirement."

Saburo chuckled and took another sip of the very nice tea.

"Yes, those will be gone too."

They sat in silence for a while, drinking tea and contemplating. Adam found himself slightly hoping that Yorinobu didn't decide to kill his father. Eventually, once the tea had run dry, Saburo spoke up again.

"The boy said his mother was cremated in Night City."

"I'm sorry about the brat, he needs to learn to shut up sometimes."

"Worry not, it'll come to him with age. Besides, it is fortunate he told me."

Adam grunted inquisitively.

"Fresh corpses are invaluable research material, they are bought from crematoriums and cryonically preserved by Arasaka. It is possible that the researchers have not gotten to his mother's body by now."

Saburo looked Adam dead in the eye, voice low and serious.

"We have thinned the glass between life and death to a very narrow plane. If her body is in good enough condition, it should be possible to revive her. A single corpse for the undying loyalty of a second Oni-Samurai is a good trade, wouldn't you say?"

Arasaka and Petrochem successfully renegotiate fuel sales!

Earlier this week representatives from both corporations (Arasaka and Petrochem) met in an undisclosed location to discuss terms for the sale of fuel from Petrochem facilities to Arasaka factories. Financial representative Alex Moors had this to say on the transaction :

"We were able to reach an agreement that was very satisfactory for both parties involved. I feel like everyone was able to walk away from that meeting satisfied, and the team that was there for our protection was very professional and respectful. I don't think I have a single thing to complain about the outcome there.

Tearaway underground radio broadcast : Another scheme by the corporations to keep us down!

"...So get this, 'Saka and Petro meet up in the middle of nowhere, in the backyard of a Militech garrison, and apparently it's to 'discuss the price of fuel sales'. Nah, I'm not buying it, that's gonkshit. They're trying to play us for fools here, and I'm not having it. I got an insider source that told me that, get this, the squad assigned to them apparently had Adam-fucking-Smasher on it. I've seen drone footage of the area too, certainly fucking looked like the guy was there. 'Saka doesn't send the Smasher to a mundane sales deal, there's something else here at play. I'm not going to let those fucking corpos get away from truth."

Adam Smasher captures mercenaries! Arasaka is silent on the matter!

Earlier this month a top-secret military project was stolen from Arasaka by a Militech division with the help of a small squad of mercenaries. Then, unexpectedly, one of the mercenaries takes it for a joyride from the outskirts of Night City right to the top of Arasaka Tower. Adam Smasher was deployed to handle the situation, and then calls in Trauma Team to haul off everyone left in the area of his rampage back for medical treatment. We haven't seen either since. They've been locked up in Arasaka Tower, and no one matching their description has been seen leaving the tower since.

Arasaka super soldiers rampage in Night City slums!

Throughout the month, after the ruckus at the start of it, there have been two individuals that have been leaving Arasaka Tower with top of the line cyberware and weaponry. They, for eight hours a day, have been walking about the slums of Night City and killing everyone they come across.

We haven't been able to identify the larger of the two, but the younger male has been identified to be one David Martinez, a drop out of Arasaka Academy. Young Martinez formerly held the position of top of his class, but after the unfortunate death of his mother he seemingly snapped, dropping out and beginning a life of crime and violence.

It seems that he was the mercenary who took the Arasaka military project for the joyride earlier this month, which means that he was one of the group of injured that was spared by Adam Smasher in the struggle. But everyone has to wonder, if this is Martinez, why was he left alive? Send us your theories, we'll read off the best ones in the next update!

City block destroyed in corporate warring!

Earlier this month an assassin in an experimental ACPA carrying a missile launcher attacked Arasaka agents in the lower-income sections of the city. The struggle was short but destructive, and leveled a total of 8 buildings in the area. In the devastation, no less than thirty-four bystanders were killed when the buildings collapsed. The identity of the assassin and their allegiance is still unknown, but experts are working around the clock to solve the mystery.

No families of the victims have stepped forwards to discuss their presence in the area.

Adam Smasher - The Rockerboy?!

Earlier in the week, a new album was released. Notable for its distinctly aged styles and wide variety without consistent themes, but otherwise mostly unremarkable. Except, this album was released directly by Arasaka corporation itself, which would be a notably strange thing already. One would expect themes of positive corporatism and such to be present, but there is an undercurrent of the exact opposite if anything. The songs are almost all techno-free, and are heavy in vocal and storytelling components throughout. Very little chorus is repeated in these, at least compared to modern pop music.

Then one reads the description. Arasaka corporation is proud to release this album on behalf of veteran employee Adam Smasher.

That's right, these songs supposedly made by the boogeyman himself, and looking at them again from that angle sheds new light on the underlying theme. The music is positively drenched in violent imagery, angry vocals, and constant references to death. The presence of larger societal structures, such as cities, "bossman", gangs, and similar are almost always in a negative light, being responsible for the singer's misfortune. The presence of unlikely heroes defeating gang leaders appears in at least two of the songs.

Throughout the whole of the work the singer is constantly comparing themselves to metal, or machinery. Outright references along these lines appear in at least half of the songs. The vocals rarely express an emotion other than angry, tired, or prideful, and this stays consistent throughout.

Notably, the description states "released on behalf of…" Is it possible that these songs were made by Adam Smasher for his own consumption? Music made from his own personal thoughts, then grabbed by corporate overlords he dislikes and released for monetization? It certainly seems like that to this reviewer.

When looked at through this lens, the songs begin to tell a distinctly tragic story of a man who, while very skilled in battle, was forced to serve oligarchs that don't understand the plight of working men, and forced to kill on their behalf. Are these the honest thoughts of the boogeyman of Arasaka? This reporter knows that she'll be keeping a careful eye on the Tower in Night City for future updates, for this album has her intrigued.

Interview with Kerry Eurodyne

…

"...It's a strange thing, you know, seeing the soul of a monster. I used to play alongside Johnny (Silverhand) back in the early part of the century, and Adam was the one to flatline him. I'm still pretty torn up about that, so take my opinion on the guy with a grain here, I'm biased.

"After I left the band back in those days, I went to my Guru, he helped me work through my issues. After a few years of getting myself back together I came back to the musical scene and started doing my own music. Look at me now, getting deals left and right and Night City is my eternal muse."

"That's what I'm thinking happened here. Smasher wasn't put back together by a guru, by someone who knew how to help the soul heal. Smasher was put back together by a corpo for the express purpose of being a better killer."

"He's been in a cage for decades now, killing left and right, on and on, only being left out when Arasaka needs another crowd of civvies butchered. I think he's been making music like this the whole time. It's nostalgic, it reminds me of the stuff that used to come out before the Netcrash, and I bet you the reason why that is is because that's the last time Smasher listened to anything."

"Music is the way a man expresses his soul, you know, and this album is probably just that. Smasher hates what he does even as proud as he is about how good at it he is. He hates the people who have him on a leash, and he hates everyone who looks at him wrong at this point. A bundle of canned rage at the world and everyone in it, even himself."

"Then, they open his cage, show his heart to the world, all so they can make more eddies off of his pain. I'm angry at what he did to Johnny back in the day, and for all the people I know that he's killed on the corpo's behalf, even then I feel bad for him.

"That's what good music does, I suppose. Makes you feel sympathy for a monster."

Marketing Today : Arasaka Corporation reveals new look for famous bodyguard and mercenary Adam Smasher

Two days ago, Arasaka corporation unveiled a massive marketing campaign, the subject of which might surprise you. The new "Kabuto Oni : Adam Smasher" campaign released to massive success overseas in Japan and related markets, moderate success overseas in Europe and the related markets there, and mixed success in the North American area. It is especially controversial in the area in which the man in question is located, here in Night City.

The popularity of which seems to be divided generationally, with the older the viewer is in question the more likely they are to respond negatively to the campaign. This is a trend that we can observe across all locations except Japan itself, which shows high approval rates across the board.

The younger generation seems to think that the presented clips are 'preem' and show Mr. Smasher to be 'chilled as ice'. The clip of Smasher using a Kendachi-MonoThree eastern-style blade to cut railgun rounds aimed at him is especially popular, and the vid of that particular conflict has reached an upwards of 750 million views within the first two days of it's public broadcasting.

The new look for Smasher is also exceedingly popular. While his old appearance didn't have much data recorded on it, it was almost always described as 'monstrous' or 'nightmarish'. The new look has been met with acclaim from most groups, although it has its fair share of critics as well. The approval ratings for the new look have seen startling popularity among feminine audiences, who describe it as 'tortured' and 'mature'. Many nicknames by fans of the design have been made and all but coined, such as "Hachiman Reborn", "Shuten Doji Jr.", and "Grand Mazinkaiser".

In addition to this, it seems that Arasaka corporation has assembled a team of trainees for their new flagship symbol. Digging into publicly available records reveals that the three individuals now living at Arasaka Tower are former edgerunners of Night City fame, and were part of the conflict that took place between Arasaka and Militech earlier in the month. All three of the trainees proved to be rather popular universally, unburdened by the extensive career that Adam Smasher is.

The first of these trainees, David "Kabuto Kaminari" Martinez, proved the most popular among the older female audience and the general youth. The vids that demonstrate his personality, his quick and stylish movements, and his endearing behavior are contrasted with his fast-paced and efficient reaction in combat.

The second of these trainees, Lucyna "Kabuto Sakura" Kushinada, proved the most popular among the younger female audience and older male audiences. The vids demonstrate her rapid callouts, quick scanning and predictions, and surprisingly cute behavior underneath a passive and monotone expression.

The third of these trainees, Rebecca "Kabuto Tomoe" (no last name) proved to be the most popular among children and elderly audiences. The vids demonstrate her almost maniacal cheer and she shoots heavily armored units from a great distance using her utterly inconceivable railgun, the size of which truly baffles the mind.

Moving forwards, it seems that Arasaka is planning on leveraging their new mascots to produce several new lines of products, primarily toys. At least one cartoon in the pre-datacrash style is being considered for production, although talks on that matter are still in their early stages.

Us Cracks Interview

…

BM : And it's like, really old stuff. I'd never heard anything like it before it came out, and I looked to see if I could find anything like it. Apparently a lot of old people say that it was really common back like, a hundred years ago, but there's nothing else left nowadays. I only found like three songs like it.

PF : Yeah, I couldn't find anything either, but I think it's good in a really weird way, yanno? It's feels really angry, but it's really sad underneath all of that.

BM : It sounds the way an grumpy old dog feels, you'know?

PF : Yu-huh! Oi, Red Menace, you've been like, super quiet. What do you think huh?

RM : …I think he's really hot now.

PF and BM : Red!

RM : He's like, really hot looking, like a total daddy. And his song are really sad, but their prideful too yanno? He feels like someone who needs a hug, but he's also like, the most dangerous guy in the world.

PF : …I can see it.

(brief pause)

BM : Bet you want to do more than just hug him, huh?

(BM performs an inappropriate gesture)

RM : Blue Moon!

…

PF : Like, it would be totally preem to do a collab.

BM and RM : Ye-huh

PF : But I don't think he's gonna be up for it. He seems pretty private outside of all this marketing stuff, y'know?

…

Data War Underground Radio : The Modren Man

…

"...and that's what these damn demons want to do with all of us! They want to strap us down to hospital gurney tables and cut out our brains! Put us in robot bodies forced to kill for their extraterrestrial masters!

"There's a man underneath all that metal! He's got a big heart made of fire, and it pumps! Hot Blood! He's angry and he's killing people and it's their damn fault!"

"I'm gonna stab your daughter at the mall, and shoot your father and son! And the news media under their control will say that this is the future!"

"We're meant to be in nature, to be natural, and they're trying to keep us out of it with their machines! And cyborgs!

"Beep beep boop boop, going to exterminate you for my alien masters! That's what they're trying to fucking do to us! I've been saying this for years and no one is listening to me!"

"A world under their absolute control! They're opposing GOD! They're trying to make themselves immortal, you know! They got these chips that run on baby blood, that can store a person inside so they can inject it into someone and take them over!

"Assuming direct control!"

"I've seen them in their private parties! They're not human! They got! Green skin! And they stink like fucking sulfur! Extraterrestrial demons that drink baby blood! All of them!"

"There's a fucking man under all that chrome, and he's screaming! He's screaming and they're selling it to earn eddies and people are buying it! Wake Up! This is what they want for you! He's trying to warn you and none of you are listening!"

"They don't even have the decency to be hot! They're ugly alien demons! At least try you monsters!"

"They're making new people of their own, you know. Trying to engineer things that look just like people, but are under their control. They're trying to take over the world, one borg or bot at a fucking time."

"And they got the reaper's keys on hand, they can bring back the fucking dead! They can bring back the dead and they use it for party favors!"

"The world is full of evil, and we need to stop it!"

—

Gloria Martinez remembered the crash, but it was foggy now. She was driving her boy home, he had gotten into a bit of trouble at school. She hoped that he would get through fine, and she knew he could, but a mother worries. Then the crash happened and the last thing she remembered thinking is "Is David safe?".

Next thing she knew, she was waking up with the worst headache. Everything was spinning, everything was foggy. She groaned in pain, trying to alert someone to her current state. She heard footsteps that sounded like gunshots come over, and a gentle set of hands pushing her back onto the surprisingly comfortable bed.

They were saying something, but she couldn't focus on what that was. She was too delirious.

She fell asleep again, the pain like a heavy blanket over her.

When she awoke again, the pain was significantly reduced. She tried her best to open her eyes, and after seemingly an eternity she managed it. The light was dimmed, so it didn't sting as badly as it could have. She was thankful for that.

The room she was in was unfamiliar, there was a logo on the wall (it was important, but she couldn't remember why) but she didn't recognize it. She saw the standard feature button to alert a nurse of her waking up. She pressed it, she was desperately thirsty and wanted answers as to what happened. Where was her boy? Was David okay?

A nurse came in a short while later, and Gloria tensed at seeing the Arasaka logo in bright red stitching on her uniform. The symbol on the wall was Arasaka, how had she forgotten that? How was she in here? How had David afforded this? Was he in debt now? Was he okay?

"M-my son, David, is he okay?"

The nurse paused at this, before smiling reassuringly. "David Martinez, correct?" at Gloria's nod she continued. "He's doing well from what I hear now, it's thanks to his position at Arasaka that we were able to revive you."

Gloria froze at this, and took in the information. Okay, you got this girl, prioritize the data. David was okay, that was very good news. David had a job at Arasaka that could pay for her treatment, that was excellent news and she felt incredibly proud of her boy, she knew he could do it. Revive her…

"I-I was dead…?" weakly she spoke out. How long was she medically dead? One day? One Week?

"For about a year and a month now, sweetie."

Gloria felt her world collapse. She had been dead for a year? Was it possible to bring people back from that? She knew that medical science had advanced a great deal, but how had David afforded the cyronics…

Oh no, David… She had left her baby alone to fend for himself for more than a year. She had abandoned him and forced him to pick up the slack to bring her back. She wanted to drown in her guilt.

No, her feelings don't matter, all that matters is getting to her boy, and helping him as best as she could. She buried her heart, it was only going to slow her down.

"May I see my son?"

"Of course sweetie, you were kept under so that you could heal, but otherwise you have a clean bill of health now. I'll get you a wheelchair and call for him, alright?"

"Alright." Gloria forced herself to relax. She forced herself to not think about what had happened to her, all that mattered was going forwards. She needed to help David with whatever situation he was in. He was undoubtedly in one year to earn a position in Arasaka high enough to afford to bring her back from death after a year? Something went wrong and she wasn't there to help him.

She noticed the surgical scars across her entire body, faint lines on every part in the manner that would normally be reserved for full skeletal sheathing.

Eventually the door opened again, and it was her boy wearing her old jacket (and two girls? They seemed familiar but she couldn't recall ever meeting them)! He was safe! He was uninjured and he was…

Covered in the seams that indicate cyberware. Covered head to toe with them…

"...M-mom?" He boy sounded hesitant, nervous, and that way he got whenever he was scared but too macho to admit it. She had to comfort him. Gloria raised her arms (weakly, much too weak, she needed to get back into shape ASAP) and smiled.

"Mama's here David, come on, give me a hug." Gloria said the words that she knew would get him to shake and scoff, he was much too grown up for hugs now. Hopefully this focused him up a tad for her to question him.

To her shock (and building horror) her boy walked over and gently gave her a hug. He was treating her like fragile glass, about to shatter at any moment. Gloria's heart broke.

She deepened the hug with her son, and buried her head in his shoulder. He was much taller and stronger now, even after only a year of her not being there for him. Eventually, after many, many minutes of the hug, she pulled back just a bit to look at his face.

Her boy had been suffering, and it was her fault. She put her hand on his cheek and looked him top-to-bottom. Optics, Audios, Arms, Lower Torso, Legs.

…She was a terrible mother.

"What happened, David?" she asked gently.

To her grief, her boy started tearing up, and buried his face in her shoulder. He started weeping in the way that men do, stifling it as best they could but too overwhelmed to halt it completely. She embraced him fully and started rocking just a bit. She noticed a Sandevistan on his spine. She felt just a little bit worse.

Eventually, it stopped, and her boy spoke again.

"A lot, mom. A lot happened."

A heavy stomp at the doorway caused her to tense up and look up. A figure was at the door, shadowed over by the light of the hallway and the relative dimness of the room she was in.

"Are you done, kid?" He growled at them in the room, her, her son, and the two girls. Gloria went on a warpath.

"Can you give me a minute with my son, Sir?" She growled back, entirely too drained already to deal with this asshat. Her son snorted into her shoulder, and started chuckling. The girls to the side started chuckling. The one with (Optics, Dermals, Arms) spoke up at this, voice taking a mocking lit. She recognized the voice, she knew it, but where?

"Hey now big guy, watch out, she might hurt ya." The man in the doorway growled lowly, before grunting. Her son pushed himself up from the hug and wiped his tears away, before replying.

"Yeah Smasher, I'm done." Her son smiled at her. "Let's go, mom. We got a new home now."

A new home? And what's with the familiarity with this 'Smasher'...

Smasher. That was important, she didn't know why.

Arasaka. Smasher and Arasaka, they were related. Why?

"David… Who is that."

Her son blinked, before shaking his head the same way he always did when he forgot something.

"Oh, that's Adam Smasher, I'm his apprentice now."

Adam Smasher, the Butcher of Arasaka.

Mentor to her son?

…

What.

The art of reviving a one year, one month old corpse that had been cryonically preserved approximately twenty-seven minutes after medical death was a delicate one. The Arasaka preservationists responsible for this initial process are quite skilled at this point, and can very quickly inject the appropriate fluids while making the destructive scans of the brain required to make an accurate Engram.

From there, the body is put into deep storage until the researchers responsible for the various immortality projects that Arasaka funds require another test subject. The preserved meat is incredibly useful in this regard. Afterall, the best way to determine if a process to revive the dead would work is to test it on the dead.

The preservation of the meat is the easiest part, simply inject the appropriate chemicals and store in cryonics until you need it again. The brain is a trickier thing to keep in one piece, even slight damage potentially causing major alterations in behavior or mood. This is where the immediate destructive scanning Engram comes in. The brain is, for as much mysticism is placed upon it, ultimately just meat. Memories form from the repetitions of neural signals between synapses, more repetitions forming stronger connections between correlating synapses.

The things that make a person's personhood is ultimately a mass of electrically-charged scar tissue, and scar tissue is a physical thing that can be recorded. This is how the destructive scanning engrams function, by fully recording the physical brain and constructing a digital copy from the scanned material. The original meat is destroyed by this process, but the scan remains. The scan can then be copied and placed into a new receptacle, for a sort of immortality via legacy copies of the self.

The meat is easy enough to manually re-constitute, the medical sciences of the corporations being more than sufficient enough to perform that act. The body was taken out of cryonics, and the meat was thawed and then restored via artificially inducing life in the body. The brain was removed and the nervous system connected to a computer with a program designed to mimic the basic automatic signals that cause the body to function. Then for several days the brainless body was restored to livable condition by a combination of natural healing and cloned replacements.

Then, a wetwork nervous system (complete with new brain cloned in the same pattern as the scanned original) was installed, with an engram insert located underneath the skull and then sealed up. Then, whatever parts of the brain and 'self' that were not properly recorded were manually filled in (by re-creating appropriate synapse connections via guided electrical signals) based on recorded footage of the individual that NC has in their databases.

Thus a (mostly) complete person is reborn from the grave more than a year after their death. Granted it was technically a copy of the original, and was a mandatory partial cyborg due to the new wetware and the engram insert that the process required, and it wasn't a perfect copy either. But for everyone involved after the operation was over, it was close enough to be acceptable. All minor inconsistencies written off as post-surgery damages or similar, after all resurrection is sure to leave marks, right?

That was correct, but probably not in the way most were thinking. Thus, the revived Gloria Martinez walked the world once more, and most people were happy with it. Adam wasn't particularly happy with it, not because she was alive again or because the kid had his mom back, he didn't care either way about those things.

No, Adam was mad because the revival process made Gloria Martinez the legal property of Arasaka, and the old man Saburo decided to hand that legal ownership over to him. What the fuck was he going to do with this? She was completely fucking useless in a fight as she was, the kid definitely would oppose her getting into a fight anyways, and if either of them ever learned this he would have to deal with their bullshit grumbling about it forever. All he could do is shut up about it and tolerate a fucking freeloader in his home.

The meatbeast rubbed against his leg, Adam snarled. Correction, a second freeloader in his home, fucking ball of fur and meat and shit. Stomping it would be merciful at this point.

When he told the kid that they both had his mother's body and were currently reviving her, he went simultaneously ballistic and incredibly happy. They went out together to kill scavs and destroy the jar of fake ashes to vent his emotions, which lasted about twelve hours. It was fun, they should do that every now and again, although the scav population was beginning to get quite low. Maybe another gang of meatbags?

The kid raved about how the crematorium made him pay for fake ashes, but he was much more forgiving than Adam ever was. When Adam asked him if he wanted to go and kill the whole lot of them, the kid quieted down and thought about it for a bit before deciding otherwise. Personally, Adam would have butchered them all if they ripped him off, but it wasn't his wrong to avenge here.

Then, when the doctors told 'em that the woman was up at the end of the week, the kid all but demanded to go see her immediately. They finished up their job and went back for the kids to have their tearful little reunion. Heh, at least the woman had the guts to tell him to fuck off. Most folks don't try to argue with Adam Smasher nowadays. It seems the girls were pretty tore up about the woman not remembering them, but Adam told them to just make new memories, it was better than her being dead, wasn't it?

They stopped whining about it soon after that.

Part of getting the woman settled into his home was the kids explaining what had happened in the past year and month to her. There were tears, there was anger, there was a whole lot of melodramatic bullshit that Adam immediately didn't care about. They were all alive, weren't they? Why the fuck were they complaining? He walked off to his bench and balcony room, and indulged in his favorite hobby.

Sitting and reviewing old fights he was in. It was a good hobby, he highly recommended it. Unfortunately, only six hours into his reviewing session, he was interrupted by the new freeloader in his home.

"Uh-um, Mr. Smasher?"

He grunted and turned to look at the woman in the hospital garb at the door. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, her hair was disheveled, and she looked emotionally worn out.

"What?"

She hesitated, before speaking. "I am thankful for everything you've done thus far. I-I would like to shower, but I don't have another change of clothes and the girls don't have anything that fits me… can you please… purchase some for me…?" She flinched out of nowhere, Adam didn't know why. She didn't have extra clothes, she was asking for some, it was required for meatbags to cover up. This all made sense.

He didn't have any clothes for women in storage, maybe she could use something of his in there? Eh, he'll go check.

He stood from his bench and began walking over, she cowered for a bit before realizing he was walking past her. Heh, she was a timid little thing too, huh? Unfortunately the boy would probably be upset if Adam went after his mother, so he made a note to visit Chiri again tomorrow.

"Follow." He commanded, she listened.

He walked to his storage room and went to the section that had his old gemini clothes. He grabbed a plain white t-shirt (did they even make these anymore?) and one of his belts. He hasn't worn any of these in more than thirty years, so it didn't matter if she used them or not. He was tall and broad enough that this would be a dress on her, it would have to do.

He tossed them at her and started walking back to his bench. She caught them somewhat clumsily, and he spoke.

"Old clothes, use 'em like a dress."

It would be a while before the sun rose again, he could get some more clips in in the meantime. Which one would he review next? He was feeling the time he beat a man to death with his own arms.

—

Saburo had really wanted Adam to keep using a katana (or really an odachi that happens to be conveniently katana-sized proportional to his eight-foot frame) but it would be months (or however long it took, Adam didn't know how long R for a 'indestructible sword' took) before he would get something that wouldn't break with usage.

Saburo's solution was simple, he put the Kendachi-MonoThree series of blades on permanent re-stock order for Adam using the same budget they used for his new chrome, and told Adam to carry five of them around at a time. Five blades would give him thirty panzerfaust-enhanced uses total, which would be enough for most all fights he was in. He would have time to restock after each encounter and Arasaka would be paying for the new swords.

Like a gun with five shots per magazine, and each bullet costing close to a thousand eddies. Saburo really wanted him to match the aesthetic. Adam was fine with this, he didn't have to pay for any of it, so he didn't mind breaking swords like this.

Now, all he had to do was refine his Panzerfaust to be most effective with blades, and figure out a way to carry the damn things around in a convenient manner. His solution eventually ended up being another shoulder-mounted bit of tech ordered from the techies that Arasaka employs. A revolving set of sheathes that hang parallel to his body, connected to a mechanism on his shoulder that rotated and pushed another one out for him on mental command. Like a six shooter revolver but instead it shot swords and it only had five bullets. And it was on his shoulder…

So not like a revolver at all, really. Uriel thought the comparison was clever, at least.

It was a robust, cheap, and easy solution to the whole thing. He'd let the PR department figure out how to make it look good later, right now it worked and that's all he really cared about. The upjumped techies called it "The Samurai Bandolier" so that's what its name was now he supposed. It took them all of a single afternoon to work it out too, it's not like it was a complex bit of engineering afterall.

Adam was… excited to be using a sword again. He couldn't deny it, slicing meat was entirely too much fun, and using an implement custom-built for the express purpose of cutting meat was simply divine. They were given another job by the higher ups.

Arasaka wanted to move into the low-value property that the scavs previously occupied. The permits to those areas of the city were easy enough to purchase, now the matter was simply one of clearing out the meatbags that were squatting in the area. Normally this would be entirely too expensive and not worth it at all.

But he and the kid had been walking around and thinning the herd for a solid month now, the scavs were at the lowest points they had probably ever been after their foundation. If Arasaka struck while the iron was hot, they stood a good chance of breaking their hold over the area entirely and rendering them a near-non factor in gang politics in the future.

That was fine by him. He was finally getting another massacre mission, those were some of his favorites. Hours upon hours of hunting down and cutting meat, what more can a honest, hard-working, warmonger like himself ask for? He was in such a good mood, that he decided to warn Rogue down in Afterlife about it, telling her that she should probably pull out all her operations in the area lest they get caught in the crossfire.

Of course, he also told her that if she let the scavs find out about the hell he was about to unleash upon them he'd go down there and butcher her everything. She promptly responded with a 'thanks for warning me' and 'fuck off asshole' and a third message of 'I'll try to keep them penned in for you'. What a considerate woman, he should let the kids visit her again.

What he wished he didn't have to deal with was the woman who wouldn't fucking stop with the bullshit worrywart act.

"You have your armor on?"

"Yes mom."

"What about all your spare ammo? Do you have all of that?"

"Yes mom."

"Are you-"

"Fucking hell woman, stop babying the boy!" Adam eventually shouted from his place at the door. He was already tired of this shit, and she was delaying his murder. "He'll be fine!"

She flinched at the first part, and then wrung her hands at the second. The kids were glaring at him but Adam found that he really didn't care. She spoke to him about that.

"You'll keep hi-them all safe, right?" What a useless question, as if he'd let his investments go to waste.

"I'm not about to let them die to worthless meatbags."

The woman nodded at this and finally let them go with a final hug to each (even as she had to reach her arms wide around to hug the gremlin in her ACPA). "Alright, you all be safe, alright. That includes you, Mr. Smasher."

Fucking woman, insulting him like that.

"They have nothing that can scratch my paint."

They finally got the elevator moving, and proceeding downwards. Despite the initial difficulties, Adam was excited for the upcoming job. It was sure to prove entertaining. He let himself grin at the thought.

—

Twelve hours, all of their bullets, and all of his swords later they finally entered his home again.

Bailando sola está (bailando sola está)

It was spotless, the normal fine layer of cat hair everywhere was cleaned up, the cushions fluffed and reoriented, the small amount of mud and blood at the doorway was scrubbed away. There was music playing from the kitchen, some sort of Spanish song. There was a metal bin in front of the elevator and a heavy-duty mat that said 'wipe your feet' on it.

No sabe a que se va a enfrentar la pobre (la pobre)

"Put your stuff in the bin, and make sure to wipe your feet!" came the call of the woman from the kitchen. "I'm almost done with dinner!" She sounded cheery for a woman that just moved all the stuff in his home around. Adam was a little bit irritated before he remembered all the furniture was for the kids anyway, so he didn't really care. Carefully he wiped the grime off the bottom of his chrome boots and dropped his emptied guns in the massive bin.

Sera un choque tan mortal (ah-ah-ah)

Soon enough the kids followed his example, but while they went off to the storage room to remove their equipment and change, he was his equipment and therefore only had to clean up. He grabbed his scrub wirebrush that he left next to the door to do just that…

Que jamás podrá olvidarme a mí

Where was it? That fucking woman.

El señor de la noche

"Woman! Where is my wirebrush?!" He shouted out.

Soy mitad hombre, mitad animal

She shouted back. "Did you check next to the bin?"

El señor de la noche

Adam looked and saw the brush on the right side, he grunted before beginning his self-cleaning process. This always took a while on account of those harder to reach and more stubborn stains.

Mejor escapa o te va a matar

The woman walked in with a spray bottle of some sort of solution, she put it next to him and walked back to the kitchen. "Cleaner." She said as an explanation. Adam grunted, the woman was finally being helpful it seems, this was something he could actually use. He grabbed the spray bottle and went back to scrubbing himself down.

El señor de la noche

His olfactory sensors returned that the spray was lemon scented, he disliked lemon a great deal.

Con tu corazón no deberías jugar

"Woman! Buy orange-scented next time!" He shouted. He wasn't about to buy something he didn't need, and he had a perfectly usable cleaner. It was just personally unpleasant to him.

A mí, a mí

"Can do!" She shouted back. Good, he wasn't going to have to smell like fucking lemons for too long then. He went back to scrubbing, the cleaner was doing it's job so it didn't take as long as normal. Why the fuck had he never bought any before?

Ah, right. Saving time didn't matter when you didn't have much to do with it.

—

Adam was sitting on his bench again. It was his favorite possession, stable, sturdy, reliable. He had bought it fifty years ago and it was still just as good as the day he got it. It was a good investment, and a better bench. His most reliable friend (and only friend, come to think of it), this bench was.

Unfortunately, his time with his best friend was interrupted by the woman coming into the room. It was late at night again, so the woman was in the shirt and belt he had tossed her yesterday. Hadn't she ordered new clothes yet? Was she just using that as night-wear? Eh, he approved, waste not want not afterall.

She came over and silently sat next to him on the bench. Hey woman, that's his friend you're sitting on, show some respect.

She was quiet for a long moment, so Adam went back to watching the ants crawl around outside his window. It was hardly his favorite way to pass time, but maintenance had been finished already and he had just rewatched all his vids last night. It would be another few months before watching them again became worth it.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Everything. You spared my son, you took him in, you got him treatment… You've helped him in ways I never could before you came along. So thank you. Whatever you need from me, you can have it, you've done more than enough for that."

Fucking woman, he wanted you to shut up and leave him to his ant-watching. Uriel said that was called brooding, so Adam tagged out with him. Uriel could talk to this fucking woman, he didn't want to.

"Do as you will. The boy wants you around, so you're around now."

She looked a bit startled at that.

"You… brought me back from the dead for David?"

Eh, technically correct, except completely wrong. Buzz, no points, try again.

"No, Arasaka brought you back, I didn't even know your corpse was still around."

She looked down at that, and fidgeted slightly.

"Still, you let me into your home, you've given my boy a good life. Even if it's more violent than I would like, he gets paid well enough to have a family and retire one day. It's all I really wanted for him, and you gave it to him."

Fucking woman, don't go saying he was giving shit away for free, that'll get more loafers like you around. He didn't need anymore meatbags to have to feed.

"I didn't give jack shit, boy's my apprentice, all of that's payment and he's earned it."

"He told me you wouldn't let him get new chrome… that you kept him from losing himself again…" The woman on his bench started crying. Goddamnit, he was going to have to deal with this before the boy walked in and got mad at him. Adam put one of his massive hands on her shoulder (and neck, she was small compared to him).

"Oi, don't go crying on me. You're alive, he's sane, stop with the waterworks."

She nodded and started wiping her tears away in a practiced motion. The fucking woman had the audacity to lean against him on his fucking bench. Oi, stop touching me, the kid'll get mad if I fuck you.

Adam growled and went back to ant-watching. The woman slowly fell asleep. Wasn't that uncomfortable, meatbag? Find somewhere else to sleep.

'All for the plan, Adam.' Uriel reminded.

'All for the plan.' Adam agreed begrudgingly.

The meatbeast came up and flopped against his foot. Adam suppressed his murderous intention as best he could.

Those fucking kids better talk to these freeloaders, he didn't need them thinking that he wanted them around. They were here because the kids were here. The kids were here because the meatfucker coming after him in a few months. As soon as they were a smear, all of these fuckers in his home are going.

He reminded himself that he still needed to pick up the V2 or whatever sometime for the bossman. He still had her contact, so he'll try to see if he can just order back first. He preferred otherwise, fighting her sounded more fun.

"Alright David, let's go. All the way to the top."

Rebecca was prepared to die ever since saying those words. Live fast, die young, leave a good story behind. That's the way one has to be in a fucked up city like Night City. When she saw David lose himself in the Cyberskeleton, she was prepared to die with him. She probably could have ran and lived, but that's not the way she operates. She made her choice to stick with Davey, so she was going to stick with it till their eventual death.

One does not break into the highest points of Arasaka tower and expect to stay alive long afterwards. Her life wasn't the best, sure, but it was good enough for her to be satisfied with it. She had friends, she had guns, she flatlined no small number of gonkheads who thought they could take those away from her. For the most part, it was about as good as she could expect in Night City.

Rebecca was prepared to die, she wasn't really prepared to live. When she saw the big guy come down from up above, when she felt both of her arms explode, when the world collapsed and her legs broke. She was fully expecting to die right then and there, butchered like so many others. She was kinda glad for it, in a way, she wouldn't have to deal with any of her unfinished business anymore soon enough. Sure, she never ended up getting with her crush, but she could die satisfied staying by his side at least.

Then the big guy started talking, then got them all treated, then he moved them into his place. Then he got Arasaka to back off, he got David some training and helped him with his brain-stuff, he got Lucy some training, got Rebecca some sweet guns and even a fucking ACPA. For a while she didn't really know how to react or feel, she didn't think she'd be needing to after they broke into Arasaka Tower to get Lucy back. So she just… ignored it. She was alive, time to move on and do her best to ignore what had just happened.

The big guy's home was… really sad. No furniture, no creature comforts, a bathroom and kitchen that had never been used before. Just a storage room, an armory (which was really just another storage room, thinking about it), and a room with a window and a bench. Even at her most broke-ass state, Rebecca had some amount of decoration or at least furniture to use. The big guy was richer than half of NC combined and he didn't have anything. To be honest, she was expecting him to kill or at least get rid of the cat she picked up. He just grumbled and told her to keep it clean.

She heard him once, growling at the cat and calling it "meatbeast", so that's what she named it. Lady Meatbeast was a very beautiful little woman, yes she was, very elegant and refined as she was. Er, where was she?

Right, so she asked him for furniture money, expecting to be told to fuck off. Instead the guy forked over a million like it was pocket change. He gave her some rules about what to buy (although she had never heard of a 'live, laugh, love' sign before, and couldn't find it when looking it up), so she followed them as best as she could. Heavy industrial-rating furniture and triple weave, extra strength hemp cushions, the kinda stuff that you could park a truck on and it'll be fine. Barely put a dent in that million, the account was still mostly full a month later.

Big guy didn't even have a bed of his own, he just slept on his bench. Wait, was he actually sleeping or just sitting down for a couple hours? Did he need to sleep at all?

He came back once with one of his arms gone. She knew first hand how much getting her arms shot through hurt, she couldn't imagine how much getting one blown off must hurt…

The big guy didn't even recognize it, just giving her a 'I'll get a new one later' or something like that. She figured he must have had pain editors like most fancy cylons do, when she asked he told her those were tactically disadvantageous so he got them removed. What the hell big guy? Why are you letting yourself feel that shit?!

Big guy… he wasn't a nice guy. His favorite pastime was killing people, and he had been doing it for nearly his whole life. He had never tried to hide this part of himself, never tried to lie about it. Maybe that was why she felt more comfortable around the guy? He never once lied to her, to any of them, as far as she could tell. He was an almost heartless completely unabashed mass murderer… and he gave them basically everything they could ever want.

For what? So he could have some backup on his missions? He didn't need that, big guy was a one-man army, he could probably clear out half of NC by himself if you gave him enough guns. He would miss the other half because they would have done the smart thing and ran long before he arrived.

Near as she could tell, the big guy lived alone for decades, and he had finally gotten tired of it. Maybe he saw something of himself in Davey, a kid with more chrome than most veterans running through entire divisions of corpo gonks like a monosword through a scav. But he let them into his home, let them change everything around, and let Lady Meatbeast rub up on him even though he clearly didn't like her.

They went on jobs together, and big guy gave them an equal share of the pay (one point twenty five million, fucking fuck that was a lot of eddies), and it was all good. It felt like old times with the crew except the toys were nicer, the chrome was smoother, the pay was better, and the targets more exciting. It was nostalgic, in a way.

The big guy even understood her old-ass references! He was cultured! She wasn't alone in a city of pagans any longer! Only Pilar got her references before and that's because he was her brother…

Then they went to Japan to meet with the big guy's boss. The guy that could probably order all of them to die in a very painful way if they breathed funny. So she did her best to listen to what the big guy told them to prepare for it. She wasn't prepared to live, but that didn't mean she'd lay down and die. Then the guy told them to fuck off while he talked to big guy almost immediately. It was a bit of an anticlimax, if she was being honest. The tour was nice, the ninja-dude was nice if a bit stuck up, and the birds were pretty.

Then they left Japan, images of what PR was doing with the big guy and his reactions kept them laughing the whole way back. The big guy grumbled the entire time, but he always does that. Then they got back…

Then the big guy told them that 'Saka kept Gloria on ice for experimentation, and that they were trying to revive her to ensure Davey's loyalty.

She felt… conflicted about that. On one hand, she was pissed off that corpo was pulling more corpo bullshit with the corpse of her friend (well, more like acquaintance, but same difference) and especially because it was Davey's mom. On the other hand… Gloria would be back, and Davey would get his mom back. It was… How the hell was a girl supposed to feel about that?!

They went out to kill a bunch of low-lifes, fucking scavs and their bullshit corpse-robbing and all manner of other horrible things she was sure. Sure, something something the human condition or whatever, no one in Night City liked the fuckers for good reason, they were worse than the corpos at times. The corpos would leave you alone if they couldn't make a profit off your corpse, the scavs would tear you apart because they could most of the time, thats if they didn't rape you first (or after, knowing the fuckers).

Then the big guy offered to help Davey kill the gonks who sold him fake ash. It was… a nice gesture from him. Davey turned him down, the big bleeding hearted puppy that he was. She knew that if she was in his place she go burn that place to the fucking ground. Then they got the news that Gloria was back and went right over after their job was done…

She didn't recognize them, her or Lucy.

Heh, guess even if you put something back together, it won't be the same as before it broke. Little cracks all over mimicking Gloria's new full-body scarwork.

She was pretty torn up about it… but then the big guy spoke to them, her and Lucy, about it.

"You're all alive, aren't you? Make new memories."

He was a real compassionate fellow wasn't he? But he was right in the end, there was nothing to be done except become friends all over again. Besides, this was better than her being dead still. Big guy was good at stuff like that, cutting through the Gordian wire-tangle right to the heart of the matter.

They had gone out to do a big job for 'Saka the other day, it was nothing but going around and killing a buncha scavs. It was awesome, nothing but hours of gunning down scumbags and getting paid the big bucks by a corpo to do it. They didn't touch any other gang, and they didn't touch any civvies as far as she could tell, just scavs and the few psychos that were hanging around in the area.

Then they came back, and Gloria was wearing one of the big guy's shirts and cooking. Her and the big guy were shouting at each other like a set of mainlines…

Rebecca didn't like that.

She was just starting to get over Davey (although she probably never would, she bitterly reminded herself), and the big guy had been doing so much for them. Was it any wonder that she was starting to catch feelings for the growly chromehead?! He was even really hot now! It wasn't fair! Gloria was a beautiful gal, and was taking care of pretty much everything while they were away like a professional maid or something.

How the hell was she supposed to compete! Her tiny boobs and big stupid forehead. She knew he was sleeping with the PR lady, he didn't really make it a secret. Although she knew he didn't really like her so much as tolerate her, Rebecca still had a chance at that point! But now?!

…Was it the chemskin? Was it the tats? Was it the shitty references to shit that no one remembers nowadays (although Adam did, her heart reminded her)? Was it because she was a short, violent, foul-mouthed gutter rat who guys would never go for? She wanted to curl up and cry sometimes, it wasn't fair. Maybe she should just give up, maybe she was never meant to find a mainline, it certainly fucking started to feel like it.

Rebecca was prepared to die when they went to Arasaka tower, she wasn't really prepared to keep living with the aftermath. Especially not with all these gonked up feelings.

—

"You all remember Vee?" The big guy randomly said the next day.

She had met the borg a time or two, she was a bit loopy and air-headed, but pretty nice overall. She met them at Afterlife a time or two to gush over how romantic Davey and Lucy were together (bleh). She was apparently a Joytoy, but that wasn't particularly a mark against her, Rebecca had a bunch of friends who were Joytoys. She said 'had' because they probably were dead or disgusted with her now, what with Rebecca technically being a corpo merc now.

She was just wondering why the big guy was bringing her up. They all nodded.

"She is an experimental assassin-gynoid that was stolen from Arasaka some time ago. Our next job is to retrieve her."

…that was a lot to drop on a girl all at once, ya know?! Have more subtlety than a brick next time you gonkhead!

Alright, so their not-quite-friend was actually a robot, not a borg. She was kidnapped or something, and we have to get her back for Arasaka…

"Hey, big guy… what are they going to do with her when we get her back."

"I was not told."

Ah… Probably horrible experiments then. She felt a horrible gnawing at her heart. Vee wasn't some scav or corpo dog, she was a nice girl. And their next job was to bring her back to a corpo, and basically hand her off to be tortured. It… It didn't feel good.

Still, she knew what she was getting into when she stuck by Davey's side. She could have bailed like Falco did, and she didn't blame him for that either. But that's not the way she operates, hell or high water, she was going to stick with her friends, her crew, her family. Fuck the rest of the world, this shit was hers.

She just wished it didn't feel so slimy.

"Get your gear on, You all will be on perimeter, I can handle her alone if she's not willing."

Well, at least she wouldn't have to put a bullet in the girl herself. Adam Smasher was going to do that. It felt a whole lot like running away from the dirty work, but she didn't have it in herself to care this time. She went over to the armory to put her stuff on.

The gun was her favorite thing ever. It was twice as long as she was, and shot bullets the size of her foot. The kick was fucking ridiculous, the weight was ridiculous, the firepower was ridiculous. It was an utterly ridiculous weapon and it was hers and she loved it. She wouldn't be able to use the thing unless she had as much chrome as the big guy did, and she knew she couldn't handle something like that. Davey probably could though, given time, he was special like that.

To her eternal appreciation, the big guy got his techie to make her a custom ACPA so that she could use new best friend. It was seven feet tall, five hundred pounds, and it had the cutest bunny ears ever for her helmet. She wanted to paint her styles on it, but she hasn't gotten around to it yet. Plus, she thinks that PR might get mad at her if she does… eh, she'll ask them later about it.

She pressed the buttons on her arms that caused them to fall off with her brain. A little mental switch to make 'em both fall off on command. It was a bit disorienting, but it was easy enough to get used to. She used the stool to get up and slide herself into the open back of the ACPA, once fully inside the suit automatically closed itself around her, and the connectors for her arms twisted themselves into place in her empty arm sockets. It was a bit uncomfortable when that happened, sort of like someone putting their finger in your ear.

The interface turned on, and she stood. Her arms were really long compared to her normal body in this, it reminded her of Pilar…

She shook the thought off and grabbed her best friend and her best friend's groupies. Best friend even had a cute name, Yumi. They really went all out when making her, she made a mental note to go thank the guy who made her.

Stuff ready, she looked over to see that Davey and Lucy were geared up too. Jealousy, she let her eyes linger on Lucy's hips. It wasn't fucking fair how curvy they were. Rebecca knew that she was cute, but she wasn't sexy or mature looking. She debated getting chrome before to fix this, but Pilar made her promise not to.

It's your fault that she can't get an output bro! All yours! Fuck you, you bastard! You're gonking up her life even beyond the grave! That shouldn't be allowed!

She grunted unhappily and stomped out to group up with the big guy, who was standing by the elevator and grumbling at Gloria's questions.

"...be fine, woman. They'll be on perimeter while I do the actual work."

"You'll be safe too, right?"

The big guy growled at that, his pride was probably hurt at the implication that anyone could hurt him. The big guy only really seemed to have three emotions, anger, pride, and lust. Although she hadn't seen too much of that last one, she had a pretty good guess that it existed. She felt a little bit more jealous.

"I'm Adam fucking Smasher." Was all he said by way of explanation. It was probably as good as anything else he could have said in response.

Gloria nodded at that, and said goodbye to each of them as they got into the elevator. It was clear she didn't really remember her or Lucy… but that was fine. She just had to become friends with her again. Let it be said that Rebecca was a determined gal at heart.

Soon enough, they were in the city proper and Adam had sent a message to Vee saying that he wanted to speak to her. Although he probably worded it like "Come here." with an address attached. He wasn't the best when it came to talking, although occasionally he was one of the most persuasive guys she had ever met.

They were on Perimeter, which means making sure no one on the outside tried to interfere, and no one inside tried to get away. She was on a nearby balcony, Davey was on the streets, and Lucy was in a house monitoring everything electronic within a city block. The girl was ridiculous like that sometimes.

Eventually, Vee showed up, still just as bubbly as ever. She skipped (literally skipped) over to where Adam was sitting on a stone bench-thing. It was just a block of concrete on the side of the road, why the hell was it there?

Her suit's sensors were good enough to listen in on their conversation, they were close enough for that.

"Like, I totally wasn't expecting my knight in shining chrome to call me up. You wanna like, fuck me?" Vee was… blunt to say the least.

"You are Jorogumo Version Two, correct?"

"Wow, like, how'd you know that, handsome?"

"I'm abducting you."

Rebecca wanted to slam her face into the fucking wall. Big guy you fucking idiot, what the fuck?! Who the hell just says that?! Now she's gonna ru-

"That sounds like, really hot? You gonna carry me off and have your way with me? That's like, old school romance right there!"

…Thus spake the gynoid who thinks with her midnight lady. Welp, this was going to be easier than any of them thought.

"Saburo Arasaka wants you back."

"Blech, I'm like, having lots of fun out of the house though. Tell gramps to buzz off please. Please do it while you dom me."

"He is my boss, so I have to bring you back."

"Like, totes lame. Can't you please not?"

"I cannot. Would you prefer I rip you apart and bring you back that way?"

…This conversation has taken a turn, big guy what the fuck was that, we still might have been able to convince her to come back peacefully!

…Big guy wanted to fight her, didn't he? Fucking violent fucker, now she's gonna ru-

"Fuck yeah! Don't be gentle please! I won't either!"

Rebecca was going to stop thinking, she clearly didn't understand these maniacs. She watched as they got into position at either ends of the abandoned street they were on. Vee was practically vibrating from how excited she looked to be…

Wait a minute. Rebecca let her optics zoom in to look at her closer.

Vibrating in place, flushed face, heavy breathing, soaked pant…

She was getting off on this like nothing else, holy shit. Were all borgs like this? Violent maniacs who loved fighting each other? Well, no, Vee wasn't technically a borg, was she? She was a gynoid or something.

…Did violent tendencies directly correspond to how much chrome you had? She wanted to say otherwise but everything she's seen in her life thus far seems to indicate that. Even Davey, she thought sadly

At some unseen signal, they began. It… wasn't even a fight really, although it was certainly a fucking spectacle.

Before Rebecca knew what was happening, Vee had fucking shifted into a writhing mass of blades and shot forwards at Adam, who had shifted his foot back and got into a stance. She recognized it as the same stance he was teaching Davey, all wound up and stuff.

Vee looked like a tornado made of swords, with the vaguest impression of a girl in the middle, suspended like something in a hurricane's depressurized center. She traveled by slicing up the road beneath her hovering form, gouges in the concrete appearing in the hundreds as she shot forwards like a rocket.

Just as she reached Adam, he was suddenly behind her, hand extended forwards like he just made a karate chop, groves in the concrete at his feet trailing his path. A dozen blades flew off the maelstrom that spawned them and embedded themselves into the buildings around them. The storm continued moving until it crashed into the barrier Adam used to be sitting on. It pulled itself together just a tad to reveal the girl in the center was missing an arm now.

"Ahh, fuck~!" That same girl moaned out, very loudly at that, loud enough to be heard over the blades ripping her immediate vicinity to shreds of stone. "More~!"

The tornado shot forwards again, and Adam did a spinning kick that sent it flying towards the wall of the building towards his left. Another dozen blades exploded out from the impact. His leg was scratched up pretty severely by it, but nothing more than superficial. The tornado stabilized there again. The girl was now missing a leg as well.

"Ahhh, so good~!" She wouldn't stop moaning either. Rebecca was beginning to feel uncomfortable watching this. Was this how war-borgs… did it? Was she supposed to be watching this?

This time Adam went on the offensive, he disappeared from where he was and reappeared next to the swirling mass of blades, chopping down again and severing another arm and its few dozen knives with it. Then, before the storm could react, he grabbed it by the leg and neck.

Raising it above his head, he pulled and tore the last leg off even as the storm of knives cut at his arms. He was showered in what looked like coolant and oil, dying his upper body black. Vee fucking screamed at this, although it certainly wasn't a scream of pain.

Holding her out by the neck, Adam stood there for a moment.

"...Hah, ha, holy shit, holy shit you're so fucking good~ I like, totally love you~..."

Adam glared at the torso that was shuddering in aftershocks in his grip. He turned his head and called out to them over the comms.

"Jobs done, pick up her pieces and let's go back."

…Rebecca kinda didn't want to touch those now, she wasn't going to lie. Judging from the lack of response by Davey and Lucy, they weren't very enthused by the prospect either.

"Now."

Alright big guy, we're going.

"You wanna do this again sometimes? I'll get gramps to let you visit~." Vee said, somewhat breathlessly.

Well, at least someone was enjoying herself here.

They were going down to Afterlife, in part because the kids wanted to take the woman to their favorite bar, and in part so that he could thank Rogue for keeping the scavs in one place (more or less) for that first crusade. It would take quite a few purging raids of similar scale to actually wipe them out completely, they were large and decentralized afterall, but what they did yesterday was a good start.

They were free today, Arasaka wanted to consolidate their reclaimed territory a bit more and allow them time to either scatter on their own or rally. Either would be beneficial here, either they scatter and he has an easier time butchering the remaining meat, or they consolidate and he has a more fun time butchering the remaining meat. Everything was coming up aces for Adam, and the team was getting a lot of good experience.

If they kept it up, the meatfucker would be butchered in no time.

He was in his gemini this time, he told Rogue to expect them. If she betrayed them then he and the kids were still more than enough for a couple of up-jumped gangers. If she didn't then the kids wouldn't have to find a new bar to go to. Should he make the interior decorating joke again? Nah, that one was getting old, he'd put it on the mental shelf for a rainy day.

The reason he was in his gemini? To be less obvious allegedly. His body looked perfectly human like this, but it still had the same face that his actual body did, so that was a bit of a moot point. He was also still eight feet tall and nearly four-hundred pounds (two hundred less than the dragoon frame, click here for weight loss tips) of pure metal interior.

His gemini wasn't one of those that stuck to human baseline in combat prowess either though. It just looked human from the outside, inside it was packed with just about everything that Arasaka could fit to make him more deadly without compromising the aesthetic. Thickened Myomer Strand muscle across his entire body was just the fucking start. He was still strong enough to scrap most everything that came his way, and the things he couldn't scrap the kids could pick up the slack on.

They carried their irons openly, no need to hide them when the Queen of the Afterlife both knows that you're visiting and knows you're not going to start shit (although he absolutely was going to finish it if it came to it). Kid had his shotgun on his back (he really liked that thing), the girl had her submachine gun in her jacket, and the gremlin had her pistols on her hips. They even got a gun for the woman, who was somewhat uncomfortably carrying a pistol of her own at her waist.

He was carrying his Militech 590A1, pistol, and knife. Shotgun on back, pistol on hip, knife on the other hip. He liked the 590A1 for a reason. It was simple, held a total of 9 shots, and was durable enough he could use it like a club. Barely even needed maintenance, and it didn't even have any of that extraneous bullshit that finds its way on most guns nowadays. He wanted to bring his chain-shotgun, but the kids talked him down from that. Fucking brats, you know how little he gets to take that thing out of storage, it was awesome.

Him getting a new gemini to use a while back forced him to order clothes for it. It was a pain in the ass to find anything fucking respectable, most of the stuff on the market nowadays was garbage. Steel-toed boots, black jeans and belt, white button up long sleeve shirt (sleeves rolled up to elbows), a black double-breasted vest, black tie, black leather duster over top. Completing the look was a dark red scarf with a white Arasaka logo, on Uriel's suggestion.

If you were going to dress up, you better do it fucking properly, otherwise you're just wasting everyone's time. It was a classic look for a reason, and you couldn't beat the classics. He was an old man now, and old men knew a thing or two about dressing up, they just didn't usually bother. He briefly thought about getting a pack of cigarettes to smoke to complete the image, but that was pointless. He didn't even really have lungs in this body (or any body, he supposed).

The streets of NC were buzzing with the recent activity, and they certainly drew stares as they walked. Again, that was probably because he was a solid two feet on the average person and he was wearing something that looked actually fucking good. Or maybe they thought he was a nomad, that might be it too, thinking about it. Eh, at least they still knew how to fucking dress (sometimes, mostly not though).

Regardless, they went un accosted as they walked to Afterlife, and eventually they were greeted by the bouncer with chrome sideburns (why? What did those even do? Fucking meatbags.). The bouncer looked to the only 8 foot giant among them and spoke up.

"Smasher, right? Rogue's in the back."

Adam grunted, and spoke to the rest of this little outing. "I'll be in the back."

He started making his way to the same back table that he talked to the woman last time. Judging from the guns aimed at him from no less than three distant locations, he felt fairly assured that she knew he was here and this was the right way to go. Much to his resigned fury, they were playing one of Uriel's songs as he approached.

Clean shirt, new shoes

He put the song out of his mind and finally got to the point where he could see the Queen of the Afterlife. He stopped and stared for a bit. Rogue smirked at him, smug and vindicated from the reaction she got.

"Told ya."

She clearly got the rejuvenation treatments, because she looked like a mother instead of a grandmother. She had also grown out the sides of her hair to the same length as everything else, leaving it wavy. She was in a properly attractive but mature outfit, white sweater that hugged her frame, black skirt that showed just enough of her thighs to be tantalizing, and a blood red trench coat left open. Gloves and stockings covered her limbs. She now looked like a woman who could order someone's death instead of an out-of-touch grandmother trying too hard.

And I don't know where I am goin' to

'She pulls the 'please step on me, mommy' look off well, doesn't she?' Uriel joked.

'I am the one who steps.' Adam joked back.

She was clearly waiting on a response, and was beginning to fidget under his stare. Adam figured he should probably appease her with some proper critique before she kicks the kids out.

Silk suit, black tie (black tie)

"Still too friendly. Overall good improvement, eight out of ten."

She grumbled a bit at that, looking back at her drink. "Fucker, I'm a ten and you know it."

Since he was significantly lighter now, he could actually slide into the booth with her and sit. She jumped a bit at that before calming and scooting over to let him into view of the kids. They were laughing about something with the woman, and seemingly unstressed. Good, seems like Rogue wasn't going to be ripped in half tonight. He always did hate betrayals, they got so messy.

I don't need a reason why

"How would you improve it, then? If you're so good at this?" She growled at him from behind her drink. Adam wasn't really sure why she was asking, she already looked better than ninety percent of the meat bags that wander around nowadays. Still, he was an old man, and old men knew how to dress.

"Replace the sweater with a vest, no shirt underneath." It was a combo that would increase both her professionality and sex appeal while maintaining all the effectiveness of her current look. Uriel recommended it and Adam agreed after thinking it over for a moment.

She didn't reply, so he glanced over to her. She seemed lost in thought, looking at her drink. Huh, well when she feels like speaking up the conversation can happen, he'll just go back to watching the kids.

They come runnin' just as fast as they can

Ah wait, he had to say something first.

"The kids told me to thank you." For the scav clearing thus far, went unsaid where others might hear.

"You make it sound like you wouldn't have without them saying so." She snipped.

'Cause every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man

"I wouldn't have." He agreed. They both knew that she benefited just as much in the short term from the elimination of the scavs. Even if the job wasn't over yet, there was a whole lot of profit and potential future profit to make off their deaths. It helped him that she did, but it helped her just as much.

"You're just a regular bleeding heart, huh?" She growled at him and leaned back to stretch. It accentuated her curves nicely, he stared unashamedly. "Oi, my eyes are up here, psycho."

"I'm looking at your tits, not your eyes." Adam growled back. She let loose a sharp bark of laughter at that.

Gold watch, diamond ring

"No shame at all?"

"I didn't need it."

"Sounds about right, all you needed was more murder. Even with your lovely singing voice." She mocked him, the bitch. You better be happy the kids like you, otherwise you'd be dead right now. She probably knew it too, abusing the fact that he needs his investments to like him.

I ain't missin' not a single thing

"Watch it." He growled out.

"What, the big bad butcher is embarrassed of a little music?" She didn't let up, leaning forwards and rubbing her finger on the rim of her glass. He glared before going back to watching the kids. Hurry the fuck up woman, you clearly have business to tell him otherwise the meat outside wouldn't have pointed him back here.

She clearly didn't want to let it go though. "You let it be released, didn't you? Why be so torn up about it?"

Cufflinks, stick pin

Adam snarled, before letting out a long aggravated sigh. He didn't want to deal with her bullshit, so might as well tell her the truth.

"Someone on PR got the files and released it. I wasn't going to." Will that get you to fucking stop woman?

"You kill them?"

When I step out I'm gonna do you in

"If I ever find out who it was."

She hummed, before finally fucking stoping. Fucking information brokers, always digging for meaningless shit like this. Goddamn he wanted to reach over and strangle her right now.

'We need the kids to like us, Adam.' Uriel reminded, and Adam grunted.

They come runnin' just as fast as they can

She finally got around to talking business, and Adam was glad for it. "The scavs are starting to consolidate, and someone is shipping them supplies. Weapons and fuel mostly."

"Consolidate under who? Who is supporting them? What kind of fuel?" These were all important questions to ask. Gang leaders could be a target to break a group, support was something to consider for likely weapons, and fuel would tell him if the supplier buys from Sovoil or Petrochem primarily.

"For the first, all I have is a name, someone named Armstrong" He grunted, not the best but it was something. A title? Maybe someone with cyberarms worth a damn then.

'Cause every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man

"For support, that's a tricky question, I'll get back to it." Ah, sneaky shit was at play then, fucking great.

"The fuel is primarily CHOOH2, and in Petrochem barrels." Which means either Petrochem was doing something, or it was someone who buys from Petrochem.

"Now here's the thing about their supplier, all the weapons they're getting are Militech." So it must be Militech…

Top coat, top hat

That wasn't right, Uriel reminded him.

"All of them?" He asked

"All of them." she repeated.

And I don't worry 'cause my wallet's fat

Godamnit, Militech isn't stupid, they wouldn't do something so fucking obvious. Which means it was another corpo using Militech as a scapegoat to cover their own tracks. Or it was Militech using the audacity as a way to double-bluff the involvement of another corpo…

Fucking hell, he hated sneaky shit like this.

"Best guess?"

Black shades, white gloves

"No idea, I can come up with a reason that every big corpo in the world would be doing this. None of them want Arasaka to get more Night City land, and a few crates of fuel and weapons are peanuts to help prevent that."

Adam growled. Oh well, guess he would just have to butcher all the fucking meat they send his way like usual. It's not like anything they could discreetly ship could actually hurt him. They sat in silence for a bit, someone came over with a drink for the both of them. Adam went ahead and took a sip. It was entirely too fruity, he preferred something harder and hotter.

Eventually, Rogue spoke up again. Her voice was somewhat suspicious sounding.

Lookin' sharp, lookin' for love

"Hey… who's over there with the kids?"

Adam looked at her, her eyes slightly narrowed and hand grabbing the glass just a bit too hard. She was staring at where the kids and the woman were chatting with the bartender about some nonsense.

"The red-haired freeloader? She's the kid's mother." That was the only new person here, so he figured she must have been talking about her

They come runnin' just as fast as they can

"...She lives with you all?" At his nod she continued. "I think I should introduce myself then." She got up and started walking over to where they were. Hey, weren't you a crime lord or something? Shouldn't you be demanding people walk up to you to ask for favors?

Eh, none of his business. Adam finished his drink, and made the guy bring him back something else. Time to wait for the kids to get bored, he supposed.

He took a sip, fucking hell this one was fruity too.

'Cause every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man

—

Adam was waiting, an activity he was well used to. He was in a dumpster in a scav alleyway, an activity he was not used to. He wasn't doing something stupid like peeking through a cracked lid, that would be amateur. Uriel had tapped into the camera on the kid's helmet instead, and the kid was overlooking the area farther away than Adam was. He was going to be a second-line assault to come in and finish off targets that Adam hadn't gotten to in time.

The kid ended up deciding on a Smasher-tier ICE as his first bit of chrome. It was a smart fucking move in Adam's opinion. Good Netrunners can shut someone with as much chrome as they had down completely, get that covered first and you completely remove a potential way to counter you. It also didn't have an active or even noticeable effect, so the strain on the kids brain was almost nil. It was about the best first bit of chrome he could have gotten, showing that the kid was learning.

The cougar eventually told him where the next supply drop was likely to occur, before they left. This was good shit, and it was partly why he didn't kill her when she annoyed him. The investigators on Arasaka dime might be able to figure out the sneaky shit for him if they got their hands on a complete supply drop like this. He put it in as a job request and his handler approved it pretty much immediately, thanking him for putting in his own initiative. Condescending bitch.

So here he was, crouching in a scav dumpster for a few hours while he waited for something to fucking happen. Goddamnit, couldn't they have dumped the bodies in here somewhere else? This was going to be hell to scrub off when he got back.

Ugh, he was probably going to have to use the bathroom to rinse all this shit down the floor-drains. The jobs that needed him to go in there were never pleasant.

The girl was overwatch again, the gremlin was sniper support, the boy was second-line attack, and he was mainline attack. So he had to be the closest to the potential site, which means he was in this FUCKING DUMPSTER. He suppressed the urge to snarl again. It had been four hours since he got in here. He hated sneaky shit so much.

If this turned out to be nothing, he was going to let the Cougar fucking know it.

[Movement, truck coming in from east road.] The girl messaged them. Good, something was finally happening.

Sure enough a truck with a covered bed rumbled in with a barely scratched-off militech logo on the side. Two scavs in their signature jumpsuits and twelve meatbags with guns came out from the far side alleyway doors to greet them. Six men with automatic rifles came out of the truck to say hello. Twenty targets in all huh?

[Begin.] The girl messaged, signaling that she disabled everything in the vicinity that she could without alerting them, and was about to start with their stuff now. Adam activated his Sandevistan and time slowed to a crawl. He jumped out of the fucking dumpster with his chain-shotgun in his hands.

A beautiful work of German engineering, a minor company that eventually fled overseas during the fourth corporate war and got integrated into Militech in the aftermath. The Stroheim CSG11 was the lovechild of a helicopter-mounted chain gun and a shotgun, and he loved it. More than one-hundred pounds of gun and ammo, the Stroheim shot standard .72 caliber slugs, at assault rifle speeds, for about a minute of continuous fire before reload. The ammo belt was enormous, and took up a massive portion of the gun. You needed to be a borg or in an ACPA to even handle the thing.

The kick was probably enough to break the arms of a fleshy weakling, and the destructive potential was absolutely incredible.

Time still slowed, Adam started firing. Bullets tore out of his second-favorite gun like a showerhead. To his right and over his shoulder, a railgun slug came down to turn the engine of the vehicle into scrap and rubble. The explosion began in slow motion before his Sandevistan ran out of time.

Meatbags started to turn into colored rain in front of him, barely a second after his assault started. Goddamn, he loved his job.

They started shouting something, but he wasn't caring to listen. The kid came out from their flank just as they started firing in his direction, his Sandevistan activated and the six he hadn't gotten to yet suddenly had holes opened in their backs and sides. They dropped to the ground and pretty quickly died from shock.

Everything in the area was dead, the radios out were silenced, the vehicle needed major repairs before anyone could use it, the cargo drop was completely intact, and barely three seconds had passed from the start of the engagement to the end.

Adam grinned openly. These kids were starting to get good. That was professional level right there. This was barely five weeks into their training too. Meatfucker wouldn't know what hit them.

He drew his knife and the kid did the same, time to stab everything once. You're never sure if someone is trying to pull a fast one on you unless you check for certain.

After the ritual stabbing was complete, they called in the second dispatchers to haul the loot off. Time to wait for them to arrive, he supposed.

Ah wait, he should say something to the kids, Uriel reminded.

"Good work."

Judging from how they perked up at that, it was a good suggestion.

'Good idea Uriel.'

'Anytime Adam.'

—

"You, bathroom, now." The woman had the audacity to think she could order him around. Adam growled at her. She was lucky he agreed with her, he smelled like every impurity that the scavs could produce. Fucking scavs, worsening his day after a slaughter like that, they were being spiteful.

The kids refused to get on the elevator with him, that fucking dumpster stunk that badly.

He dropped his equipment off by the door, and stomped on the pre-prepared long sheet of plastic wrap that prevented the floor from getting dirty all the way to the bathroom. Where was his pressure washer?

Ah, there it was. He went to grab it but the woman came in with a clip on her nose and waterproof boots on. Other than that she had her standard nightwear of his old shirt and belt.

"What?"

She didn't reply, woman you need to answer when he spoke to you. She just walked over to the pressure washer, turned it on, and pointed it at him. He grunted, fair enough, this was something the freeloader could do.

Soon enough he was being sprayed off by something that could shave paint off concrete. It was almost nice in a way, although he would have to sit next to the vents to dry off afterwards.

Soon enough a river of mud and shit and blood was pouring off of him, carried by the water of the pressure washer, and down the industrial-grade drain in the center of his bathroom. This was the only reason he had this room, but it was worth every fucking penny.

The woman was good at this, she had clearly cleaned off chrome with a pressure washer before.

He let his eyes close and simply let her finish. It was faster than if he was doing it alone, that was for sure.

Sure enough, only about ten minutes later she was done, and the pressure washer was turned off. He moved to go stand by the vent in the main room, but the woman pointed at him as she took the boots and nosepin off.

"Stay, I'll be back."

"Why?" He growled out.

"I'm getting a towel, you're not dripping everywhere."

Adam grumbled but waited. Fucking woman.

Soon enough she was back, and was toweling off the majority of the lingering water on his body. He'd still have to sit next to the vent to make sure no lingering moisture was in the cracks where it might fuck with his internals, but this would get most of it, cutting down his time by the warm air by another large chunk.

The door to the bathroom opened. It was the kid.

"Hey Smasher you done with the…?" He stopped and stared at them.

Adam was standing in the middle of the room facing the doorway, one arm raised to let the woman get the towel at his side. The woman was holding a towel against him, and was partially turned around to look at the kid.

"Right, nevermind." The kid very quickly shut the door and left. What was with that reaction kid? Never seen a borg get shit washed off him before?

The woman thunked her head against his chest-plate, facing the floor.

"Dios mio."

It would be some time before the Lab came back with any more information on the supply run they just looted the other day, but that didn't mean they didn't already have some promising leads. The chiefest of which was that the dumbass scavs had a fucking planner.

A detailed list of locations that they would be using for the next week and the leaders that would be present at each. Why the fuck they had this Adam would never know, fucking scavs were some of the stupidest fucking meatbags he had ever seen. It's basic OPSPEC to NOT HAVE A DETAILED LIST OF THIS SHIT.

More and more it was beginning to look like this 'wipe out the scavs' operation was going to be basic, boring work all the way throughout. Especially if they kept leaving important info like this lying around. There were two meetings going on tonight apparently, one between a number of nameless randos and one between a group of enforcers called 'The hammer brothers'. They were a couple blocks from one another, so the initial plan was to split up here. The kids would take care of the nameless meats, and Adam would slaughter the construction crew, simple enough.

Arasaka military agents were going to surround the perimeter so that nothing escaped, and they had their regular complement of techies and medics as usual. They were only here to pick up the slack meat anyways, so Adam didn't really care about them.

The kids were in their standard equipment for the raid, and Adam was in his with one change. This time he replaced his assault rifle with his 590A1 and attached a one-time underbarrel grenade launcher for a bit of extra kick if he really needed it. He still has his integrated missiles of course, sixteen micro-rockets in all, and his revolving holster of Mono-kantanas, but really if he needed all of this against a group called 'the hammer brothers' then he should just give up.

Still better to be prepared than dead, and Adam Smasher wasn't about to die to fucking anyone.

He memorized where the kids were going to be for their own butchering session, and then waved them away. He proceeded on his own towards the abandoned plumber's shop that they were apparently holed up in. Fucking scav territory, everything they were around was old and decaying. He looked at the graffiti on the walls to see it was all painted in russian. Made sense, the scavs were technically a branch gang of Bratva, the slavic equivalent of the mafia.

He paused for a moment. Was that why they all wore tracksuits if they could get away with it? That was so obvious it almost looped back to being subtle again. He growled and kept walking. No real need for stealth here, they were all meat and he was certain they weren't packing any ACPAs or Vehicle weapons.

Before him was the old building, a worn steel door and a scratched logo of a turtle on the side of the building. It was another all concrete affair, and was likely built back in the fourth corpo war judging from the aging on it. It was a squat, sad thing, and Adam would be doing the city a favour if he blew it up.

Still, he had to confirm the death of the enforcers before he could start unleashing collateral damage, so he walked up to the steel door and kicked. The door kept itself in mostly one piece, the hinges that connected it to the concrete did not, and flew inwards. It crashed with a loud boom on the interior, which was completely dark and filled with piles of rubble and trash around the edges of an open center. He switched to night vision and still saw nothing inside.

Heh, the cheeky meatbags were trying to ambush him, might as well spring the trap.

He stomped forwards menacingly, into the center of the room. Once there, he stopped and pantomimed rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. He was mocking their little trap, and they knew it.

The sound of movement to his right, and his Sandevistan activated. He clashed an arm against the handle of a truly enormous reinforced sledge hammer about to crash against him. It was moving rather fast too, so these meatbags had at least one with a Sandevistan. Good, thats the fucking basics for high level combat, let see if they actually impress him here.

He was expecting the second hammer to come down on him from the left, raising another casual arm to block it the same way. They were called the hammer brothers afterall, that means there had to be at least two of them. From the speed of the attack, he could tell this one had a Sandevistan as well, good, they're two for two here so far. He got a bit more detail out of this one. Tall men with heavy brows and massive cyberarms in tracksuits.

He was prepared for the third hammer to come down from behind him. Shifting his body to slide out of the way of the first hammer and crashing his arm against the third hammer, again hitting it at its peak to stop it with minimal energy investment required. You block by raising your shield to meet the blow, you don't let it build up energy on the way to you. Judging by this one's movements, he had another Sandevistan as well. Alright, three meatbags with basic shit he could handle just fine, this might actually be a warm up now.

He wasn't prepared for the fourth hammer, but he could still react to it in time. Snapping out with a kick this time to smash its angle of attack away from him. It was fast too, a fourth Sandevistan. Looks like these boys were some true-blue scav elite, to be packing both the chrome arms and the Sandevistans. His own sandevistan wore out at about this time, time resuming normal flow.

He wasn't able to react to the fifth hammer in time, crashing into his side and sending him flying into the side of a bunch of scrap metal, away from the doorway. His six-hundred pounds of weight turned the old truck into crushed steel and aluminum. Just about this time the lights flicked on, revealing a balcony lining the walls above with about twenty fuckers in track suits carrying assault rifles.

…Huh. Five fuckers with reinforced sledges, cyberarms, and sandevistans backed up by twenty meats with assault rifles. Not bad at all, he was actually kinda impressed that the scavs could pull something like this out of their ass.

The bullets began to fall like rain on his position. Hundreds of bullets crashing against his chrome, individually nothing but potentially dangerous if he let himself stay still. Suddenly one of the hammer brothers was next to him, swinging a hammer down. He re-activated his sandevisatan and rolled away, snapping off a shotgun blast at the man. The bullets began to float down like leaves off a tree instead.

Before it hit, another hammer brother moved in between and absorbed the shots on his reinforced arms locked together. The fuckers were cycling their Sandevistan time, and Adam could only keep his active for the duration of four of them, not five. This was actually good shit, they were impressing him more and more as time went on here. Of course, now that he knew that they were cycling like this…

He aimed his shotgun-holding arm out to the side and fired a micro missile at where he knew a brother was approaching him. It struck him square on his raised chrome arms and began to slowly explode as Adam slightly shifted his aim and shot the grenade at the fourth coming for his position. His sandevistan began to wear off, so he rolled again just as a hammer suddenly appeared where he was. The falling leaves turned into rain once more and the old truck was turned into chunks of bullet-riddled rubble. They began to shift to target him again, so he would have to endure another second or so of gunfire before he could safely activate his sandevistan again.

Alright kids, what do you do if you're outnumbered like this? The answer is simple, begin disabling the most dangerous targets first. The hail of bullets was simply an annoyance unless he decided to be an idiot and stay still, but the hammer brother might be able to keep him in one place with this tactic.

That in mind, one needs to start overkilling targets. A hammer brother appeared before him again, hammer filling his vision. Adam activated his sandevistan and jumped back, firing a micro-missile from both arms and his shoulder mount as he did so. This time he aimed slightly more to the ground. The second hammer brother appeared before the first again, but his boxing stance meant that while his head and upper torso were well guarded, his lower torso was almost completely open.

Three micro-missiles hit his abdomen, and one of the five brothers was turned into two and many chunks, splattering his friends in gore. One down, he could now maintain Sandevistan time long enough to react to all of them. Adam grinned, this was actually fucking fun, why couldn't the scavs pull this shit off more often?

The third hammer brother approached him, and Adam countered with a rotating panzerfaust kick. His hammer turned into fucking scrap under the blow, as the fourth hammer brother approached to swing, which Adam counted by continuing his rotation into an uppercut on it. The second hammer exploded. Two weapons down, but he would be forced to endure the third one here, he didn't have the stance required to dodge this time, all he could do is mitigate the damage by rolling with it.

A hammer hit his side again, and Adam flung himself in the same direction to crash against an old toolbox. It still hurt, but the actual damage was far less than it could have been. The bullets became rain once more as his sandesvistan had deactivated, and they proceeded to aggravate him.

They did the same fucking tactic, so Adam had some options this time-

A sudden explosion from a distant location took him out of the battle briefly. He reflexively checked the girl's vital monitors. The boy was fine, the gremlin was fine…

The girl was critical.

He had to get there, he wasn't about to let his investment be scrapped by fucking scavs of all things. The hammer was coming down on him, he activated his sandevistan and exploded upwards. He grabbed the meat by the arm and threw it at the other fuckers approaching him. The meat shot like a canon as he crashed into the other meat. They crashed against each other hard enough to turn into chunks, he was quite done having fun here, he needed to go back to business.

'Uriel.' Adam commanded and he ran for the door under the slowed time of the sandevistan.

'With pleasure.' Uriel responded.

He got to the doors as his sandevistan began to wear off. The slowed bullets doing their best to drag themselves along behind him. The hammer meatbags attempting to run after him. He was nowhere near the girl or the trauma team. That wouldn't do.

Sandevistans were dangerous tech that increased the wearer's speed and perception of time. They built up heat the more movement the wearer did during this time. All of them had built-in safeties to automatically shut down if the user kept them on to prevent the wearer from cooking their nervous system and spine. Adam's nervous system was mostly wetware anyways, he could get it replaced afterwards. His actual brain was far more insulated and wasn't at risk here at all.

He manually disabled the automatic shutdown of his sandevistan, and kept running. His chrome feet tearing grooves into the roadwork as he approached the girl's listed location. At this speed, it would take him nearly thirty seconds to grab the girl and maybe thirty more to get her to the Trauma team that Arasaka had on hand for this.

Behind him, Uriel got to work. Adam still had a job to complete, afterall.

They had figured out fairly early on that Uriel could prove to be a rather effective hacker (netrunner, Adam corrected). Uriel didn't have to look at the lines of codes for his hacking, his hack was, perhaps due to his nature, entirely intuitive on his part. The disembodied fire that dwelt with Adam stepped out and into the frame of one of the hammer-meatbags.

He looked at him, his chrome and software, he stepped around the comparatively basic firewalls that tried to stop him. He considered him carefully, took in all the craftsmanship of his hardware. Then, after fully understanding what he was looking at, he reached in, overclocked all of his cyberware, and deleted the code that let him alter its electrical output.

For a moment, the hammer meatbag was fine, better than fine in fact. His sandevistan wasn't deactivating on him, and his arms felt stronger than ever. Even his neural links that allowed him to communicate with his fellow scavs seemed to be operating better.

Then, his cyberware began to heat up, and the software couldn't communicate with it to tell it to lower its output. The meat connected to the hardware began to sizzle as the meatbag began to cook. The hammer meatbag started to burn to death, his own chrome killing him.

Then, Uriel stepped out of the first meatbag, and then into the second, and repeated the process. Then he did it again, and again, and again, until everyone in the building with even a basic implant began to fry themselves to death. Burdened by the output of their own enhancements growing too much for their meat-components.

This tactic wouldn't work against a fully meat target, and it wouldn't be nearly as immediately effective against a full borged target, but for everyone else in between it was perfectly usable. If they had higher-tier ICE's then this would be much harder to do, but they had basic at best, most of them had nothing at all. Fuckers, go big or go home next time.

Adam ran from a building faster than some bullets, and everyone inside burned from a fire that was within themselves in his wake.

Uriel ran ahead after making sure everything in that building would die, and caught up to where the kids were. The building they were supposed to be in, as well as the adjacent buildings, were now exploding rubble. The kid was running with the girl in his arms, the gremlin was sliding down an adjacent building.

There were no scavs inside or outside, both buildings were traps of a different kind. If the kids had gone to the other location then the hammer meatbags would have turned them into salsa, and Adam had gone to this location he would have been buried under rubble for hours at least. Fucking scavs had planned this out, the entire planner they got was a fucking dangling hook and they fell for the bait immediately.

Adam hated sneaky shit.

The girl was in bad condition, her entire right side was tenderized and both her right arm and leg was completely fucking gone. Uriel estimated the time to bleed out at about fourty five seconds. He then estimated the time for brain damage to set in after death at about four minutes. So a little less than five minutes for him to grab the girl and get her to the trauma team. How far away were they?

One minute at sandevistan speeds, five or so at normal speeds. Treatment would take them at least ten seconds to stabilize, and maybe a minute to ready for off-site transportation to a medical facility. Unacceptable then, he kept the sandevistan locked on.

He sent a message to the kid, who couldn't keep the sandevistan locked on like he could. The kid was clearly fucking panicking, that wouldn't do.

[On approach, ETA twenty seconds, I'll get her to medics].

The kid startled at that in slow motion. Before replying.

[You got her?]

[Yes.]

Adam approached the position, Uriel turned every lingering thing that might be a scav in the area into ash. Adam was beginning to heat up himself.

His chrome boots shattered the stone beneath him as he passed. He sent a message to the trauma team and the guards.

[On route, critical wounded, ETA one minute, ten seconds.]

He was getting close to the kid now. He could see him on the other end of the street.

[Extract Rebecca.] He ordered as he took the girl from the kid's hands.

[Affirmative.] the kid replied as he went back to guard the gremlin on retreat. She should be fine, her ACPA protected her better than either of the other two.

The girl was going to die on approach, no question about that. But the trauma teams were good at their fucking jobs, and so long as he get her to them within the next…

He checked the mental timer Uriel set up.

…two-ish minutes, she should be fine. She'll need either chrome or cloned limbs to replace the ones she lost, but that's easy enough to get. How far away is the trauma team? Fifteen seconds now. His body was beginning to heat up dangerously, he'd need to get his wetware looked at after this.

Really, for the fact that they all walked right into traps like this, this was a pretty good outcome overall. His wetware was returning pain to his mind, yes he knows that he's cooking himself here, no need to tell him twice.

He was within sight of the trauma team and the guards around, who were trying to react in slow motion. Adam braced his frame, widened his stance, and stomped the road.

He slid for a hundred feet, chrome boots leaving a trail of broken roadwork behind him. He stopped right before a readied trauma team, and dropped the girl off on the readied platform. He let his sandevistan deactivate as he stepped back.

The world resumed its normal flow, and Adam's systems went into emergency shutdown as his heatsinks desperately tried to deal with the excess heat. He slumped into a kneel on the grow as everything that could turn off without compromising his vitals did. His optics dimmed and Uriel was forced back into his code.

The trauma team was already getting to work, he could tell. Most meatbags were completely worthless, but they actually pull their fucking weight most of the time. So there he knelt, all sensors blinded to the world around him as his wetware screamed at him. Fucker, I know you're toasty right now, get a better hobby than yelling why don't you?

It would be quite some time before his systems turned on again. He had built up a fuck ton of heat doing that. If the meatbags around him wanted to be helpful they spray him down with coolant foam, but he somehow doubted they would.

All that was left was to wait until he could move again. Then it would be time to get his wetware looked at.

Then he'd be coming back with a fucking vengeance and slaughtering all these animals. He'd bring out the big guns this time, and shoot first. Business and play need to be kept separate after all.

—

"The CHOOH2 is Sovoil grade, not Petrochem. It has too many impurities to be Petrochem grade." His handler spoke to him as he got his wetware looked at by a team of Arasaka medical staff. Good, she was actually being professional here. Still had trashy hair though.

"That pointed us in the right direction, we found more info on this 'Armstong'." She sent him an image.

A beautiful, statuesque, curvy woman perhaps six feet tall. Her legs were toned and powerful, her torso was as well, her face was almost unnaturally beautiful. Golden blonde hair that flowed down to her waist kept swept back and dark blue eyes. Her arms were all chrome, disproportionally large and stylized to look like a marble statue with bronze joints and servos.

And some of the most proportionally well developed breasts he had ever seen. Goddamn those were fucking nice. Full fucking props to whoever installed those. Wait, he didn't see any seams in that area. Were those natural? Maybe there was a god after all.

"Victoria Armstrong, of the Armstrong family, currently a subordinate agent of Valentin Domanevka for the Sovoil secret police. She was dispatched here to help rally the scavs into something that could oppose Arasaka influence back when you and the kid started butchering them en masse a couple weeks ago."

Huh, so this was his fault then. Oh well. He grunted for his handler to continue.

"The Armstrong family used to serve the Nazis with distinction back in world war two, which one of their then-current members became obsessed with eugenics from. Arnold Armstrong became obsessed with the idea of the perfect soldier, genetically and cybernetically, and made his family's life work to produce such."

"At first using basic selective breeding on his own line, he had them seek out and marry the fittest warriors he could. He eventually died in the battle of Stalingrad, but his son continued his work. He found an olympic athlete to marry, they produced at least one son and so on and so forth. When gene-editing came out, they adopted it immediately to start selectively removing traits they thought would hold them back."

"The Armstrong family signed up with Sovoil a bit before the fourth corporate war, and they've been supported by them since. Victoria herself is the product of six generations of selective breeding, three of which were backed by European gene editing. She became a world champion boxer for a time, got the best cyberarms Sovoil could get her, and has been doing their dirty work for the last twenty years."

"You and your team are to retrieve her, alive. Arasaka is interested both in her genetic structure and the potential possibility of recruiting her. If she is uncooperative, then we can simply kill her and take what we want from her body afterwards."

"You'll move out once we have a solid lead on her location, and you're patched up. Any questions?"

Adam considered the situation before him, and ignored the twinges of pain as they operated on his wetware.

"None."

"Think you'll have fun this time, Adam?" The handler asked him with a bit of a smirk. Adam gave a malicious grin back, and delighted in her brief flinch.

"Yes."

Saburo was taking one of the few breaks of his day. A short, thirty minute period in which he could perform a non-work related task and drink tea. One of two such breaks he would experience throughout his twelve-hour workday. He personally felt it somewhat indulgent, but his daughter had insisted upon it some years ago so he obliged her. He was in his personal office, and watching the recordings of Yojimbo's exploits. Beside him was Jorogumo V3, who was performing the proper serving of tea and other secretarial functions. She was doing good thus far, he had only noticed sixteen errors this time, one less than last time.

Once her algorithms had fully mastered each and every task a woman should know, they would be copied and used as the blueprint for future automatons of her type. Her model series was never meant for mass production, but an entire clan of kunoichi according to her specifications had quite a number of uses. A shame what had happened to V2, but his daughter was cleaning her code, she'd be restored to full functionality soon. Hmm, perhaps a second line of Kunoichi of her personality matrix would be good, not for seduction or infiltration but for direct assassination? It was something to consider, he noted it for future considerations.

He raised a finger to rewind the clip back to the beginning. His arrogant young Yojimbo strode into a clear ambush and mocked those within, it was good to see some life return to him after the years. It was clear his newest adoptees were re-igniting his fires, like fresh firewood thrown on hot coals…

Ho-hum…

Saburo paused briefly, and gestured for his brush and a woodblock. Jorogumo V3 handed them to him within two seconds, and with mostly proper form, her bow was three degrees off. Taking them in his hands, he took ink up from the pre-prepared inkstone and began to write a new haiku. He was feeling english this time, as a gesture towards the young man who inspired it.

Young men and old men

Fresh firewood thrown on hot coals

Fueling life's passions

Hum… Not the best, but fairly good for something he just came up with. He noticed that his brushwork on the last word was a quarter millimeter off, he was getting old. He chuckled, he had been old for a while now. Speaking of young men…

He turned back to the video, handing the woodblock and brush to Jorogumo V3. Better now, her bow was only two and a half degrees off. She would perfect these things in time. Yojimbo was enjoying himself, fighting against the ones using hammers… Mochi-men, he decided to label them, that was a fun name. They were attempting to hold Yojimbo in place long enough for their subordinates to rain bullets upon him, to little success. Yojimbo was much too fast and too well armored for such a strategy to be effective.

Hmm, what guns were they using? Judging from the rate of fire and the amount of damage on that… 2002 Toyota Corolla… Militech Mark IV Assault rifles he thinks. Their aim was entirely too accurate across the board for it to be much else. My, those are expensive, Sovoil certainly was spending entirely too much spare change on this little operation.

Then, the camera shakes a tad and Yojimbo pauses, what he sees is brought up on the screen. He's checking the vitals of his adoptees, and he notices that one is critically injured. Saburo sharpened his gaze, alright now Yojimbo, let's see what you did again.

Yojimbo locks his Sandevistan-SX on, which is where the nervous system damage he experienced came from. He then runs until he meets with the young Martinez-san, takes the girl from him, and rushes her to the medicinal staff on the perimeter. All of that was perfectly clear.

Saburo stopped focusing on his sight, and opened his sight. His left eye tapped into the recording of the area from the perspective of the mushi, the spirits of code that dwelt within the net. He saw Yojimbo for what he was since his samurai spirit had fully ignited. A man of golden fire clad in charred oni-kabuto, but the man was the armor and the armor was the man, they were the one in the same.

The fire lept from Yojimbo, and entered into the frame of a Mochi-man. Then, the cybernetics of the Mochi-man began to overclock, and the man began to burn. Then the golden fire leapt to another Mochi-man, and repeated the process. Then again, then again, then again.

The fire leapt forwards to observe the young Martinez-san, trailing along wires and hopping between cameras. Then the fire spread and it engulfed the area, and all those that might have been wicked it vanquished. Yojimbo delivered the girl to the medical staff, and was forced dormant, and the fire was drawn within him again.

Saburo grinned, his Yojimbo had picked up quite a few tricks since his samurai spirit awoke. He had cast his data-self into the net, burned those that opposed him, and then sought to confirm the state of his wards. All the while he ran to meet up with them with his body, ignoring the pain of his Sandevistan burning him.

How absolutely marvelous, how wonderful, he was learning to utilize his Reiki at an incredible pace. He had long mastered the physical ways known to the Oni, he was now walking the path of the Spiritual ways known to the Samurai. He would be a legend long before he died, if indeed a warrior was ever born that could kill him.

Were only he one of his sons, then Saburo would not worry so much for the future…

Ho-hum… His Hanako was unmarried still, was she not? Perhaps a branch-clan to manage Imperial affairs in the Giant's lands would be in order? Ah wait, she didn't care for him, did she? Much too brutal and violent is what she told him once.

Well, Yojimbo was finally walking the path of the Samurai, he would need to ask her opinion again that he was refining himself.

—

Yorinobu was performing one of his only self-appointed tasks, plotting the destruction of Arasaka and everything his father had ever worked for. The tyrannical grasp that his father's empire had over the world… It was unacceptable. The souls of so many billions crushed under the weight of a hungry dragon's coils, like chains weighing them down.

The world was suffering, the people within the world were suffering, and it was his father's fault. He had to atone for this inherited sin the only way he could. The destruction of Arasaka would not prevent his own damnation, but it was all he could do regardless. Every day he woke, another thousand sins upon his back, a weight that was almost unbearable.

But bear it he must, for the people of the world deserved no less.

He was reviewing the profile on his father's chiefest war-hound, Adam Smasher. Even now he was baffled at the sudden change in behavior. For decades the butcher had been nothing more than a blunt instrument, going to a location and following orders in the most brutal way he could. Smasher may sneer at the Dragoons, but he was just as much of an unthinking tool as they.

Until he wasn't, until he found a boy who by all means he should have destroyed outright. He took them in, gave them everything they could ask for, and the explanation he gave was that he wanted an apprentice? A complete and utter falsehood. Yorinobu knew Adam Smasher, he was a monster that loved violence, and had a heart only big enough for pride, wrath, or lust.

Or, at least, he thought that he knew him. For in the last month and a half the supposed monster had gone above and beyond his norm for these children. He took them in, he saved their lives on no less than three occasions, even most recently at cost to himself. Why? What was special about these three?

He had checked their files, an orphaned boy, and two orphaned girls. There was nothing particularly special about them. The boy was a combat prodigy, sure, but those were not uncommon. The girl was an Arasaka escapee, but those were not uncommon (much to his quiet and repressed fury). The other girl was a former gang member, but those were not uncommon.

Nothing about them was special enough to warrant such a change from Adam Smasher.

…He had never known Smasher to deceive intentionally. Perhaps he should take this at face value? Adam Smasher had gotten up that morning and decided he didn't care for how he was living before.

…

He could believe it.

He himself went through such a change in his youth afterall. Adam had been killing since he was a boy (hell, he had killed his first man when he was eight, right before Yorinobu was even born), he had never known a life that was not filled with violence. Growing tired of such, day over day, and simply trying something new? Such stories were frequent, the only notable thing here is that it happened to the Butcher of Arasaka.

For the longest time, he believed there to be nothing to the butcher, merely an unrestrained capacity for bloodshed. Michiko once told him that there was the heart of a man within the demon, but he never trusted that. She was young and Smasher was a powerful man, he thought her just in the throws of spring-love.

Their love did die in autumn, and he put it out of his mind at the time.

But the possibility remained, that perhaps his neice was telling the truth so many years ago. That there was a man buried under that chrome.

Regardless, he had a dilemma. One Adam Smasher would be difficult enough to maneuver around when the time for his father's death came, but an Adam Smasher and a team of his protegees would be near impossible.

He would have to give them a mission away from Arasaka influence when he made his move, far away, and hope that they would get killed when supply lines stopped flowing.

It was truly a shame that his father was holding Adam Smasher's contract, and that it was doubtful that he'd ever consider relinquishing it to his least favorite child, himself. If Adam Smasher truly was finally turning from a path of violence, then his hard earned skills in the area would be invaluable for the salvation of the world.

To free the world from tyranny, Arasaka must die, all of it. Including himself. He felt the sins on his shoulders writhe at the thought.

So Yorinobu kept planning, planning for the day to come in which Saburo Arasaka must fall.

He tried not to think of what his sister and niece would think if they ever learned of his grand betrayal, they would surely be devastated, as filial as they were.

—

Hanako was working on her daughter, well, project technically. Looking through the code that had run rampant during her brief stint on the streets of NC, and doing her best to correct it as her daughter excitedly rambled at her about her grand 'adventure'.

"...then like, she said that she didn't want to have to clean the stuff again, and showed me how to use the powerwasher. It was really cool, like, all the water spraying out? It cleaned all the stuff like, really good and then doc said she could sell it for more afterwards…"

Jorogumo V2, or 'Vee' now that she liked to call herself, was on the table in front of her, braincase opened and hooked into cords that led to a computer that she was currently working on.

Hanako supposed that this was the equivalent to performing brain surgery on a person who was awake. As she looked through the code that had built up from the learning algorithm that made up Vee's protocols. More than a third of it had to be scrapped outright, no you're not supposed to feel the pleasure center light up in response to getting torn in half, that's supposed to invoke the pain response.

In a way, she was glad for many of these errors, because it had helped Vee survive alone in the world for nearly a year. The streets of NC… they were not a kind place to lonesome girls. Yes Vee was a girl, no Vee, you're not supposed to switch out your genitals like that, that wasn't intended.

On one hand, there were quite a number of code lines that had built up that Hanako was hesitant to delete, as they affected what was now Vee's core personality. Her bubbly yet airheaded rambling was… it was quite cute. Her girl was quite cute indeed.

Unfortunately, her cute daughter was also in love with a monster.

"...and like there I was, surrounded by like a hundred grody dudes who were about to dom me, and then their heads were explodated. And my knight in shining chrome came over and picked up his sword, and it was like as big as I hope his coc…"

"Vee." She cut off, not wanting to hear her surrogate daughter talk about Adam Smashers theoretical… penis…

She was a woman grown, yes, but there are simply some things that a lady should not mention so openly. A bit of despair washed over her at the thought. A woman grown and still unmarried, the daughter of Saburo Arasaka was a laughing stock for certain. They bandied polite words to her face, but while behind closed doors they surely mocked her.

"...but he like, totally saved me there, just like in those old vids gramps showed me, and it was totes romantic. I…" Vee trailed off, which was a strange thing to witness. Hanako was a bit concerned about this.

"Vee?" She questioned.

A moment passed, and Vee flopped her head over towards Hanako, wires bouncing at the movement.

"Can I marry him?" She asked, and Hanako took a moment to process the question.

"No." She replied, perhaps a bit more forcibly than what a proper lady should speak with.

"Why?"

Hanako hesitated, it was clear that Vee idolized the… man… quite a bit, from his actions while around her. She didn't want to spoil her daughter's fantasy.

"He is too old for you." She eventually decided upon.

Vee groaned at this. Before complaining in her typical loud and open way.

"But he's like a total hunky daddy! And he pounded me so good~!"

Hanako blushed at the implication, this wasn't… she knew what Vee referred to, but why did she have to word it that way? From the corner of her eye she caught the line of code that prompted that decision scrolling past. Ah, survival mechanism to lower the guard of gangers in NC. Hanako felt sad again.

"Even still." she absentmindedly replied. Debating to herself to keep or delete that specific line.

"...Could you marry him?" Hanako froze, shaking her head and looking over at Vee again. Vee was looking at her in that way she did, with absolute and open curiosity. There wasn't a hidden thing in her expression.

"Why?" Hanako responded, wanting to hear what prompted her change in desire.

"...Well you're like, a christmas cake, so he's not too old for you."

…

Hanako wanted to strangle this brat. She glowered over her and contemplated deleting all of her code and just starting over.

"Care to repeat that, brat?" Her voice was not kind.

"Yeah, like, then you could fuck like bunnies and I'd have a bunch of little siblings."

Just as Hanako Arasaka was about to inflict righteous retribution upon this little upjumped toaster, she received a message.

A message from her father. She ignored whatever Jorogumo V2 was saying.

Face blank, she pulled up the recording on screen, the text attached said 'review this'. Father needed her expertise as a netrunner, then.

She watched the vid.

Then she watched the vid again.

Then she watched it again.

Then she pulled up the specifications of the modified Dragoon frame that Adam Smasher used. It had no quick-hacking capabilities installed. She checked the vid again.

Everything she knew about netrunning told her that that should have been basically impossible. How had he done that? How had he done that to some many different targets while his nervous system burned itself out? How had he…

She watched what was happening in the vid again.

A warrior was severely harming himself to rescue a girl he had taken into his household. He was going above and beyond his normal limits to defeat the bandits that had harmed her. He was rushing her to safety as fast as he could.

No matter what happened to her, no matter what the world threw at her, there was always a small part of Hanako that was still a little girl in her family's compound. A little girl who spent her days daydreaming about the romances of the past that her father used to read to her.

Hanako went back to working on Vee's code, but that clip played out in her mind over and over again as she did.

All the while, Vee rambled on about marriage.

—

John had recently received a promotion, and he was glad for it.

He all but whistled as he went about his job. Their task this time was to pull the rubble out and reveal all the scav bodies that Adam nuked on his way out.

No one was quite sure how the Smashman did it this time, near as anyone could tell he simply got mad that one of his trainees got hurt and scavs started melting in their own chrome.

He had to say though, the smell was pretty bad. It was about as bad as the time the Smashman went to town on a supply run with a couple of flamethrowers in hand. At least the clean up that time wasn't as hard, mostly corpses and scrapped vehicles.

This stuff was all concrete and rebar and the occasional scrap pile. He stepped in something that made a distinctly wet sound. Ah, and the occasional scav corpse. He moved the rubble off the corpse, grabbed a chunk of the stuff, and flagged the location for the vultures.

The boys in the crew called the folks who came for the corpses 'vultures', based on their job of picking the bodies and stripping them of anything useful. Information, chrome, equipment. Everything that could be salvaged that might be useful was taken and stored for future processing.

The vultures loved this name, and took to wearing gas-masks stylized to look like the birds in question. The creepy fuckers, but they were a polite bunch who were always down to gamble in their free time. They were good at it too, John had lost more than his fair share of hands against them.

They had some of the best fucking coffee though, the second most preem shit he had ever drank. The first most was that time a Trauma Team member made him a cup of their own brew for him as thanks for moving a particularly heavy bit of rubble for them. John wondered how that guy was doing nowadays. Where was he? Oh right, the vulture brew was amazing and they were perfectly willing to offer a cup during their game nights.

The next one was coming up, and he was going to have to miss it. Lily was going to be graduating soon and going into some fancy corpo job, so he and his output were going to attend.

John grinned like the bastard he was.

He intended on making her wear a little something under her dress when they went too. A three hour graduation ceremony, the entire time he was going to play with her from a seat over? That was more than worth the cost of losing another hand to the vultures and missing out on the coffee.

Although it was a close thing, their coffee was really fucking nice.

This time the Smashman made their job pretty easy, thinking about it. The higher ups were talking about demolishing the area anyways and an entire city block turning into rubble was pretty good for getting a head start on that.

He had reached the heavy-duty dump truck they brought in to haul off the rubble, and got into the line of his fellow workers. Each and every one of them carried a chunk of rubble the size of a grown man over their heads. They slowly climbed their way up a heavier-duty staircase up to overlook the Tailgate container. When a worker got to the top, they tossed the rubble in, it crashed with a heavy boom, and the man in question walked down the otherside of the staircase.

A veritable chain of rough and tumble men picking up chunks of rock as big as their torsos away from a demolished building, and occasionally calling for a creepy fella in a vulture mask to come over and haul off a corpse.

It was simple, honest work, and John liked it. Especially with his recent raise for good performance.

A whole extra eddie an hour, holy shit. That's twelve more eddies per shift, one-hundred and sixty eight more eddies per paycheck.

Sure these came in every now and again, but they were always welcome.

For certain, John liked his job. His input liked his big strong arms, He liked his input's big fat tits. Things were certainly good for him.

He walked over again to his assigned section, and saw that a vulture was already there. He recognized this one, it was the fucker with the strange hissing laugh. He was damn good at poker too.

"Howdy-do, Vulture!" John called out as he moved to pick up another chunk of rubble.

"Howdy-do, Workhorse." The vulture called back in his scratchy, hoarse voice. This sounded intimidating, but John had been around them long enough to know that that was the tone they had when they were jolly. Must have been a good corpse then, glad to know.

"Doing fine today?" John hefted the next chunk over his head and set it on his shoulder, pausing briefly to hear the reply.

"Fine as can be, yourself?"

"Living the dream!" John had heard that phrase be used sarcastically before, but he didn't mean it like that.

After all, things were good for John "Workhorse" Shepard, and it seemed like things would continue to be.

David Martinez had been on an emotional rollercoaster for a while now.

Firstly, he had bought fake ashes. That pissed him off, those fuckers ripped him off and they did all smiles and like. Those gonkfuckers, he was going to put dirt in their eyes if he ever saw them again.

Next, the rumors that Arasaka buys corpses up for experimentation was proven true. That was sorta nice to confirm, that for every benefit he got from working for them (well, working for Smasher really) they were still pretty fucked up. It was nice to confirm that he wasn't just told lies his entire life.

Then… The fuckers had his mothers body, that pissed him right off. They were going to revive it, that made him so desperately hopeful. It was a complicated set of emotions to feel about the whole situation. He sort of envied Smasher in that moment, because this was just everyday stuff for him. Arasaka brings someone who's been dead for more than a year back to life, ah, clearly I should go kill some gangers. It worked, of course, but David wasn't sure how the concepts correlated.

His mother was back! Her memories were a bit spotty, she had a faint line work of scars across her body, but she was back!

…and he was fairly certain that she had a thing for Smasher, with how acted around him. He… didn't know how to feel about that, so he decided to ignore it. If his mom got with Smasher, oh well, if they didn't then oh well, he was not going to be looking at that if he could help it.

Then on what seemed to be a routine job, he had led Lucy and Becca straight into a fucking landmine (well, less a landmine and more a few tons of C4 in a two-block radius, but same concept) and Lucy…

He clenched his fist and ground his teeth.

…Lucy had died and gotten maimed. She'd be fine, they told him, TT got to her almost immediately and fixing up someone who died literally seconds ago was nothing to those guys. That didn't change the fact that he had let her die. He had to get better, he had to get stronger. He had two choices for chrome upgrades saved up still, he intended on using them. He wasn't sure what he was going to get yet, but he had no time for it. They could be called out to get the gonkfuckers who tricked them so thoroughly at any point, he could get an upgrade after.

"Hey Martinez." A voice called to him. He turned to the source, it was Katsuo with a six pack of drinks in hand, the other hand in his pocket casually.

"Sup Tanaka." He replied, raising one hand.

Tatsuo sat down on the concrete stairs next to him and offered a drink. David didn't like soda, but Smasher told him that it was polite to accept a drink when offered, so he took it anyway. Tatsuo got one of his own and they started drinking.

He and Tatuso were not friends, not really. But they were the only guys of similar age that they knew of. Smasher was too old, and they didn't know anyone else. So the only way he could get 'guy time' was with the guy who used to pick on him. If Tatuso was the same as before he would have punched his teeth in, but he was way more mellow now that he had a job stressing him out.

"You on break?" David asked between drinks. It was cherry flavored, at least, he liked himself a good cherry flavored drink.

"Yeah, mom gave me a fifteen and a pack of drinks and told me to find you. She wants us to be friends because she's friends with your mom now."

"Is she?"

"Yeah, they apparently go to karaoke with some other people from PR."

"Huh, good to hear I suppose."

Then came their ritual conversation. Guy talk. Tatuso had a surprisingly in-depth knowledge of weapons, military compositions, and other war-things. David didn't have as much technical-know how as he did, but he made up for it in experience at this point. So they partook in their main meet-up hobby, hypothetical battles.

"Alright, so thirteen dudes with moderate to little chrome are in a pre-fourth corporate war-era militech concrete bunker, assuming they don't have to worry about supplies, how long could they last against an army of Sovoil soldiers from the same era with little to middling chrome?"

David hummed at that.

"How big is each wave of Sovoil soldiers? That would be the primary factor here I think, if they didn't have to worry about ammo. It would also depend on their loadouts, if they could put enough fire down range in the time required."

"Let's say that the waves are at least double their number in enemy soldiers, let's also say they have a standard compliment for militech soldiers of that era…"

—

"...have a lead on Armstrong. She's apparently holed up in a subway tunnel down in south NC, think you and your kids can go pick her up for us, Smasher?" Came the voice of Kate from near the elevator entrance. David started getting up and going to gear up, he wanted to go punch her in the nose already. Rebecca was soon to follow him, pausing the vid she was watching and leaving his mother at the table eating a sandwich.

Lucy was getting her new limbs put on today, apparently there wouldn't even be a scar left afterwards, but it still ticked him off something fierce. He kept playing that moment over and over in his head, and kept trying to come up with a solution to it. In the end, it came down to Smasher pulling off more preem bullshit to keep her alive.

Dude got angry and every scav in the area that Arasaka soldiers surrounded fucking melted in their own chrome. If he could pull shit like that off, why did he even bother fighting most people? Well, no, David knew exactly why he didn't do that all the time. Firstly he was teaching David, Lucy, and Becca how to actually fight, and none of them could do stuff like that. Secondly, Smasher liked fighting and killing things, it was his favorite hobby, if he just melted everyone then he would never get a fight in.

"We can. Load up kids!" Adam snarled out to them, unaware that they were already slipping into their fancy gear. Adam always sounded like he was furious at whatever he was talking to, but he wasn't far as David could tell. That's just how the dude sounded, no wonder everyone was scared of him all the time. Well, sometimes he sounded tired or egotistical, but those weren't as common as angry.

David was already halfway through getting everything on. The Arasaka light tactical jacket fitted over him snugly, the helmet he had to stuff his hair into, the boots and pants were already on from when he woke up this morning. The underlayer of this stuff was surprisingly comfy, he had taken to just wearing it around the flat. It was protection that didn't slow him down any, so he didn't mind wearing it.

He grabbed his shotgun, he loved this thing. Something about running around, flanking targets, and blasting people with chunky meatshots appealed to him on a fundamental level. He had to restrain himself from mocking them as they died, he wasn't quite sure why. He grabbed his pistol and knife as backup weapons, but he wasn't sure if he needed them for a…

This was technically a kidnapping mission, huh? He didn't feel guilty about it, but the realization that he was about to kidnap someone on Arasaka orders was a strange one. He didn't know how to feel about it, so he ignored it. That has been working for him so far, so he trusted the decision.

Becca wasn't using her big railgun this time, they wouldn't have time to set up a sniper situation for her in this mission. Well, they would, but it would be better to have some more guns and armor on the frontlines as opposed to firing support. This was a hit and run rain, not a search and destroy, they'd be going in and trying to get out as fast as possible here.

She was using… some sort of technical, a vehicle mounted weapon that they just pulled off a truck and gave to her. It looked like the bullets were anti-armor .50 caliber or something in that range. Still an anti-armor weapon, just far faster but less damaging than her 'Yumi-chan'. It would be more useful for a raid like this.

They finished loading up within a minute, and made their way to the door. His mom was there and was scolding Smasher for something.

"...be more polite, Adam, I'm sure she works very hard to help you."

"I will not be polite to a meatbag with such a garbage hairstyle."

Kate recoiled at this, and a hand went up to her hair. David had to agree with Smasher on this one, it wasn't looking very good, and her optics didn't really help her out here.

"...garbage hairstyle…?"

Adam ignored her, and gestured for them to follow him into the elevator. The last sight they got of Kate was mom putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. That was kinda mean Smasher. Completely harmless in a technical sense, sure, but still kinda mean.

Soon enough they were out in the streets, and approaching the entrance to the tunnels that Armstrong was holed up in. Every entrance was surrounded by Arasaka guns, they didn't want this one slipping away, but a strike force might just get mulched uselessly inside. It was far more efficient to just send Smasher down to deal with everyone inside in most cases.

It was strange to think of just how many scavs he's killed and buildings he's inadvertently gotten destroyed on behalf of Arasaka already. His scav killcount was solidly over a hundred at this point, and at least two buildings have collapsed while he was in the area. It… He had heard of agents doing stuff like this on the streets and being called monsters, but it was just another job to him at this point. He didn't know how to feel about it, so he pulled out ol'reliable and ignored it.

They were moving through the tunnels, Smasher in front to tank anything that came their way, himself in the middle to act as support for either end, and Becca in the back to act as fire support and backline protection in her ACPA. They probably knew that they were here, and soon enough they were gunning down scavs who tried to slow their approach.

~One, two, three, four. How many scavs will die before. I get bored.~

Huh, this music making stuff was pretty fun after all.

They were entering into a larger cistern area, a wide open room filled with columns and a solid pool of ankle-height water. This was solidly a bad place to be in, so they moved along the edges, every now and again there would be some electronic in front of them that burst into flames and then got doused by the water. Was Smasher 'running all the traps that the scavs set up along their path? That was convenient.

There wasn't any guns in the area pointed at them. It was slightly concerning.

In fact, the whole area was completely silent outside of their own footsteps…

David paused briefly, and heard something in the distance that would have corresponded with his next step. He glanced down quickly as Smasher and Becca also stopped, looking at the ripples in the water.

A solid second of waiting.

Then two.

Then a ripple came from deeper into the cistern to gently crash against his foot.

Then a scream of metal crashing into metal rang out as Smasher was between him and a chrome foot with pistons on the sides. Smasher threw the foot back, deeper into the cistern, and a robotic figure touched down in front of them.

It didn't make a sound, even its landing only revealed itself via the ripple of its feet touching the water, smoothing touching the ground and lowering itself to bleed off the impact without any noise at all.

The figure raised itself to its fullest height, either a robot or a full borg, standing about six feet in old looking chrome. Its face was stylized to look like those buddha statues he sometimes saw on the streets. It wasn't wearing any gear on its body.

The figure spoke in a calm, male, and utterly robotic voice.

"You have successfully foiled my ambush, congratulations."

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am The Remnant of Chandra-Gupta 42, Grandmaster of the Ordo Panzer, bearer of the word Void."

Smasher rose to his own full height, towering over the borg that came for them. A moment of silence before he spoke.

"You two are to continue, finish the mission."

"What are you talking about, Smasher? let's scrap this borg and move on."

"This one will butcher you both. We have a mission to complete, I will catch up."

David glared at Smasher a bit before he looked at the sword in his hands. It took about six good hits before one of his five swords broke on him using panzerfaust normally. He recoiled a bit, the sword looked like it was already almost halfway broken in just that one strike.

The borg spoke up at that. Head tilted inquisitively.

"Are you so confident that you can defeat me, Adam Smasher?"

Smasher growled out at that.

"I'm Adam fucking Smasher."

Becca scoffed a bit, before firing a burst at the borg. David activated his sandy. The borg didn't dodge. Its hands blurred faster than even his enhanced speed could detect, and stood completely still outside of its rapidly moving arms.

Then the moment was over, Becca stopped her burst of fire. The borg slowly opened its hands to let all six bullets fall out and drop into the still water at its feet. Becca gave out a quiet 'what the fuck.'

"I'd advise you to listen to your teacher. This battle is beyond you both."

"I'm gonna be pissed if you die to some borg in the sewers, Smasher." David said before he started moving on, Becca shortly stomped behind him. They had a job to do, capture this Armstrong lady. Heh, the bitch was already bagged, she just didn't know it yet.

—

They were entering into another open area, this time it looked to be some sort of attached office/repair area. It was well lit, mostly clean and furbished, and the smell didn't get here as badly.

They just had to shoot their way through another few dozen scavs to even get here, they were running low on ammo already. He had one full reload of shotgun bullets, and Becca was almost down to her sub-weapons, two normal sized machineguns.

Armstrong was in a chair in the center of the room, face leaning on one of her oversized chrome arms, utterly relaxed as she saw them enter and point guns at her. The bitch had the audacity to look bored when she saw it was only the two of them. David tried his best to look at her face, but the fact that she was only wearing a struggling sports-bra was making that difficult.

"...where's Adam Smasher?" She eventually. Her voice was smooth like velvet but hard like steel. It was downright entracing to listen to, or it would be if David wasn't pissed at the implication that they couldn't handle a single non-borg without any guns.

"Scrapping your 'borg friend, he'll catch up in time to see us stomp you flat." David challengingly replied, this was the pre-fight banter, and it was crucial to make a good scene. At least, that's what Mrs. Tanaka told him.

She smirked at them, before laughing a bit. It was strangely non-mocking, just genuine amusement. She stopped after a moment and smiled at the two of them as she stood. She rolled her shoulders and bounced a bit to warm up her leg muscles. It did very distracting things to her chest.

"I suppose I can play with you two while Adam Smasher deals with that bucket of scrap. We'll have our fight after he breaks him."

This was a bit strange to him, so he asked about it. "You don't think your friend can win?"

Armstrong scoffed. "He would not be Adam Smasher if any random borg could do him in. The scrapbucket is delusional if he thinks he can actually succeed there. He isn't my friend either, just some relic that approached me with a request to help me organize the scavs."

"Regardless, he will win and then I will be able to test myself against him. It will be fun no matter who wins."

David paused, he wanted to ask more but… he had a job to do. He activated his sandy and blurred forwards to land a shot at her legs. He needed to disable her.

To his slight astonishment, she had a sandy too. She sidestepped his shot and punched at him. He was able to dodge, but the blow still buffeted him with the air pressure. If that hit him, he was losing something for certain.

Their sandies wore out as he jumped back. Landing on his feet, crouched and one hand holding his shotgun, he watched her practically twirl around Becca's burst of bullets before grabbing the heavy chair she was sitting on and spin-hurling it to crash into Becca and send the five-hundred pound ACPA crashing against the far wall.

That wasn't enough to hurt Becca, he knew, she was too well armored for a thrown chair of all things to actually hurt her. But the fact that Armstrong was able to do what she had just done was still… It was a bit daunting. A pause came over the battle.

"Why are you surprised boy? A sandevistan is a rudimentary implant, every high-level combatant who is serious about battle has one."

"I'm beginning to realize that." He replied. They both ignored Becca's cursing as she shoved the chair's broken form off of her and stood up. He sent Becca a message and a plan was formed for their next attack.

Becca opened with a burst of fire to get Armstrong moving. David activated his sandy and moved forwards with a meatshot this time. Armstrong activated her own sandy, used her oversized chrome arms to block the bullets coming from her side, and moved to punch him as he approached.

David let his legs give out completely as he dropped to the floor, now under her extended arms. A single meatshot on her abdomen caused her to flinch (she should be way more hurt than that, this is bullshit) before she kicked him.

His vision went blurry as he crashed against his own far wall. Holy shit that hurt. He looked up to see that she was right there, and his instincts told him to dodge.

David flung himself to the side as her fist shattered the wall he was just leaned up against. That blow might have killed him outright if he took it.

He got up and looked at the damage he inflicted with his well-placed shot. Armstrong was bleeding slightly, and the area around where the shot hit was beginning to turn into an ugly bruise. She was smiling at him.

"Excellent you two! That was a good plan!"

David was confused at this, why was she happy? Becca spoke up at that.

"Why so cheery? Davey just put a shot into you? Doesn't that hurt?"

"It hurts a great deal, in truth. That pain tells me that this fight is good. Drink fine wine, eat good food, fuck handsome men, fight powerful warriors, this is the life I enjoy most of all."

"Well then, no hard feelings when we knock you out, huh?"

"Not at all!"

David activated his sandy, and Armstrong did the same. He moved like he was going to do the same trick again, but instead of dropping he leapt upwards above her. She tracked his movement like a hawk.

She didn't punch him, she stepped forwards out of the way of his shot, grabbed his leg, and David knew he was in trouble.

She slammed him, back first, directly onto the concrete floor. David heard something crack and he wasn't sure if it was the floor or his bones as his vision went white. She then lifted him and he was sent sailing through the air. His sandy deactivated as he crashed into Becca.

They didn't get a chance to react, because Armstrong was there again. Becca threw him off of her as the fist crashed into one of her arms. Becca's right arm all but snapped under the force of the blow, weakened already by the heavy-chair from earlier.

But of course, Becca came in clutch and grabbed Armstrong with her other arm. David took the chance to shoot her with another meatshot, this time to the back. Armstrong gave a distinctly feminine grunt as she grabbed Becca, ACPA and all, and bent backwards in a perfectly executed german suplex.

Becca crashed onto the ground and didn't move again. David could tell that she was still alive from the vital monitor, but she didn't seem conscious anymore. The situation was getting distinctly bad for them.

"You both did very well, but I am Victoria Armstrong." She boasted in a very familiar way.

David wasn't about to lose, it was only a question of how the hell he was going to win at this point…

Her right arm was heavily damaged. Between Becca's AP shots from earlier and punching a completely stone wall, it wasn't looking good.

David let out a slow breath, relaxed a tad, and got into a familiar stance. He waited for her to approach him. She grinned at that challenge, and activated her sandy to punch him full on.

David activated his own sandy. The punch came for him, he twisted around it, did a full rotation, vibrated his leg, and kicked. Not her, but her arm.

Her chrome arm broke from the kick, rendered non-functional as it slumped to her side, now a useless weight holding her down.

Her other arm was coming at him now, now was his chance to finish it. He stepped into the blow, using his left arm to deflect it over his shoulder and to his side. His left arm shattered under the blow, but it worked, he was in her guard now. Her sandevistan wore off.

David dropped a tad, and rose in a panzerfaust-uppercut directly to her chin. Adam taught him this one. The chin acted as a rudimentary lever that amplified concussions, forcing the brain to essentially reboot if struck hard enough from below. As superhuman as she was, Armstrong was still human.

She collapsed with a tremendous boom from the weight of her arms hitting the stone floor.

David stood, one arm raised, the other arm completely reduced to scrap.

Goddamn this hurt a whole fucking bunch. He crouched and grabbed at the socket before he remembered he could turn the pain off in a limb. Fuck, that's much better.

Mission complete, let's see if he can tie her up with a single arm. That, and see if Smasher was doing well, he certainly hoped so.

Adam and the Panzermaster were completely still as the footsteps of his strays moved further into the sewers. Eventually, there was no sound at all once more. They didn't need to breathe, or blink, or perform any of those small automatic movements that organics needed to. Adam simply stared at the Panzermaster as he reviewed all the information that he had gleaned from their encounter already.

This was not an opponent he could afford to take for granted. Adam looked down at his sword again, it would be good for two more strikes like that before it broke, half of the mileage he normally got out of them. Judging from the damage it did to the blade, he himself was actually at risk of taking damage from a blow. Even a glancing blow would damage him, and another jump-kick like that would cripple him entirely if he let it hit directly.

One good hit from the enemy in front of him, and Adam Smasher would be scrap. That was an unacceptable outcome.

Looking at the frame, Adam realized he couldn't recognize its model. The borg's frame was a custom job all the way through, just as nimble as his own, just a little less powerful. The power it made up for by being a grandmaster of panzerfaust, as his almost broken sword attested to. Judging from the speed at which the panzermaster caught the rifle rounds fired at it…

A sandevistan and a kerenzikov, both of them. Those used to be incompatible chrome, not anymore. The borg he was facing was faster than him by a solid margin. That and he clearly was better at panzerfaust than Adam, that trick with the bullets proved it.

A counter-vibration in the palms to cancel the impact of the bullets and render them harmless? That took precision and practice that Adam simply didn't have. He might be able to replicate the trick in time, now that he knows about it, but it would take a while. He probably didn't have time for it in the fight.

The panzermaster was faster than him, hit harder than him, and was immune to standard bullets. Adam was underground, so he couldn't use explosives without risking a few thousand pounds of stone collapsing on them both. One of his heaviest-hitting tools and he couldn't use it because of the environment he ambushed them in.

That and the movement, there should have been something other than ripples to alert them. Some sort of miniscule sound, but there wasn't. Adam realized why when he reviewed the scene again, the borg was using that counter-vibration trick again to somehow cancel the energy of his landing and prevent sound from escaping. That was one of the most absurd feats he had ever seen in his life.

And of course, the reason he sent the boy and the gremlin ahead anyways…

Adam looked to the scanner in the top-right corner of his vision. The one that told him what percentage of the target was chrome. It was currently linked to the completely still borg in front of him in the shadowy, pillared room.

One-hundred percent.

The thing in front of him wasn't a borg, it had no limitations of flesh. It was a full machine. An AI piloting a frame that was faster, hit harder, and was more skilled than him. It could probably keep that sandevistan on for longer than him. This thing could probably kill him if he made a single fucking mistake here. Of course, Adam wasn't about to make a mistake if he could avoid it.

Alright, look at your advantages Smasher. Firstly, he was better armored. He had way more armor than the bot in front of him, almost twice as much as far as he could tell. He could survive glancing blows and would die to a direct strike, the same was true the other way around here.

Secondly, his reach. His frame was way taller than the bot's, and his arms and legs were proportionally much longer as well. That is in addition to his swords, which gave him another three feet to work with. Reach was a massive factor in fights in knifing-distance, and he had it in spades here.

Thirdly… Uriel

'Can do.' Uriel replied as he stepped out of Adam's frame. Adam didn't get as old as he did without being cautious, he wasn't about to risk a fight against a panzerfaust grandmaster AI in a custom frame if he could avoid it. Doing shit like that was why so many cyberpunks became corpses.

Uriel viewed the world through cyberspace, and looked to the bot before them. There was no change in its appearance from the real world to the cyberworld, they were identical in each.

No… There was something around the bot… something that looked like static. All around it, flowing like electrical current.

"I would advise against that, Adam Smasher." The bot spoke before Uriel could move forwards, stunning the both of them. They stared at him in no small amount of surprise, although in Adam's case it was more like glared. "Your anima, while impressive, is fledgling. It would not survive my Void."

Adam Smasher didn't get to be as old as he was by taking risks like this, Uriel retreated to his frame and laser focused on the fight. Neither of them had any fucking clue what the bot was talking about, but if it could see Uriel then it could probably fuck him up something fierce.

The bot continued. "Although, I am surprised. To think your anima would take the form of the Deva Surya, it was not what I expected of the Red Sun Asura. Still, a sun nevertheless, so I suppose it is fitting. The cosmos rhymes in funny ways, don't you think?"

What was this bot rambling on about? Mystical bullshit that Adam didn't care about.

With Uriel as an advantage taken out outside of a last resort (he wasn't about to risk such a huge advantage unless he needed to) Adam was down to two things, Armor and Reach to win this fight. Let's not give him a fucking challenge now, huh?

Adam transferred the damaged blade to his left hand, and drew a second blade. He'd need to cripple the thing before it could get a lucky hit on him. There wasn't a safer option here than an absolute attack. He'd need… four swings before he could get a hit in. He better make it count.

The bot noticed his aggressive stance, and kept talking. "I am honor-bound to prevent any knowledge of the hidden art from spreading beyond the order. You were left alone because you seemed disinclined to teach another. That has changed, and now we come into conflict."

"I believe in attempting diplomacy first, however. Tell me Adam Smasher, will you lay down your arms and accept destruction?"

Adam growled at this.

"I'm not going to die to some scrap in a sewer, I'm not going to die to anyone."

The buddha-masked head tilted.

"A shame, I will try to make your death swift."

A drop of water started falling. They activated their sandevistans simultaneously. Adam rushed forwards to meet the bot doing the same. The bot got within cutting range of Adam, and Adam swung.

The bot stopped the sword with two vibrating fingers, and moved to close the distance. Adam didn't let it, shifting his body to pull the first sword back and swing down with the second vibrating blade. This time the bot raised both hands to grab the sword between its vibrating palms. Adam thrust the first sword again, crashing it against both hands and sending them upwards.

Its guard was open, Adam kicked it as hard as he could. It brought its hands down to meet his foot, being just a tad faster than he was. It blocked, barely, but the force of the kick sent it flying back to crash against a pillar. It twisted midair, and caught itself on the pillar by its fingers, spinning around and down to bleed off all the energy of the blow before its feet hit the water, again making no sound.

Their sandevistans deactivated. The water drop finished falling. Adam's swords crumbled. The chamber echoed with the sudden crash of disturbed water from Adam's movements. He looked at his swords, both of them shattered to the point of uselessness. He dropped their hilts and drew two more swords. He really was hoping that he could get three hits in with them each, but apparently he could only get two sometimes, how wonderful.

He looked at the damage he inflicted on the panzermaster.

Slightly damaged arms. Their plating was bent a bit and their servos made a small amount of noise with its movements.

For the low cost of two of his five swords, the only real advantage he had in this fight. He liked himself a good scrap, but dying was unacceptable here. This was a distinctly poor situation for him. He shifted his stance and his sensors in his foot returned pain.

He checked his vitals, his foot was at half structural integrity. From a fucking block.

Correction, two swords and a half-broken foot.

Goddamn this was a bad situation.

"I am most impressed with you, Adam Smasher. Not a single teacher to guide your path, and already you have reached such competence with the basic techniques, and discovered an advanced technique on your own. You are not as proficient with it as Grandmaster Recited Song of Roland 66 is, but the fact that you can even manage such is to be commended."

Adam grunted, this was already old. They were trying to kill each other here, talking is for fights you don't take seriously.

"Will you shut up?"

The bot tilted its head.

"No."

Fucker, he'd make you shut up then.

Another drop of water started falling. Both activated their sandevistans again. The bot used the pillar it was against to jump forwards in a flying kick. Adam brought a sword down to clash against it mid-air, the sword shattered, but the blow was stopped. Adam swung the other sword at its leg, crashing against its inner-calf area. The bot twisted in the middle of the air, moving with the force of the blow to spin itself like a top.

A spin kick came for his head, Adam brought back his sword to defend against it. It broke through the sword and crashed against his neck-armor. Adam was sent hurtling, rolling through the water until he was stopped by another pillar. His impact cracked the stone straight through.

Their sandevistans deactivated. The drop of water finished falling. The cistern echoed with another explosion of water where Adam was standing. Adam slowly got up.

He was down two more swords, and his neck armor was almost completely shattered. His sensors in his entire upper-torso returned servo damage throughout. He looked at the bot. It had landed without a sound yet again, the only indication of its fall being a slightly unsmooth ripple on the water's surface. Good progress.

The right leg was slightly damaged. It was putting less weight on it now than before, the servos were making small amounts of noise with their movements. Alright, down two more swords and all the protection on his neck, but he had gotten the equivalent of a bad bruise or maybe bone fracture on the bot. Baby steps Adam, baby steps.

He drew his last sword. He wasn't going to be able to preserve it for another strike, so he had to make this next one fucking count. He put both hands on the sword this time.

"Marvelous, simple marvelous. But, you are running out of swords, Adam Smasher, why not surrender?"

"Fuck you."

"What a civilized response."

"We're murderers."

"Does that mean we have to be vulgar?"

"It means I don't care what you say."

The bot's head tilted again. It chuckled at him.

"You remind me of Grandmistress Incarnating Avatar of Kali 13. Savage in mind and body both."

Adam didn't bother responding, he simply waited for the next drop of water. He was glad that the bot did the same.

A drop of water fell. They activated their sandevistans. Adam rushed forwards in a stabbing motion. The bot caught the sword between two palms again, like a dumbass, and the sword started to shatter. The moment the sword was fully stopped, Adam had already let go of it. His micro-missiles on his arm and shoulder were armed on the way over.

He didn't have to worry about bringing the roof down if he hit, and he can't miss a target right in front of him. All three micromissiles fired and Uriel manually detonated them before they actually hit the bot's vibrating arms. Block that, scrapfucker.

The explosion engulfed them both. Their sandevistans deactivated, and both were flung away to crash against their respective pillars again. The drop of water finished falling.

This time, Adam's pillar broke and fell in great chunks. One of Adam's main advantages was his better armor. It might not do jack shit to help him against panzerfaust blows, but it sure as shit protected him from his own missiles. He checked his vitals. Fifteen or so percent across his entire frame, not bad but could be better.

He got up slowly, servos screaming in protest, sensors returning pain across his form. You know for mostly superficial damage this sure as shit didn't feel like it. He put his hand on the broken pillar to help himself get up.

He looked to see where the bot was. He didn't see anything. His instincts screamed at him to block, he raised his left hand to guard his frame. An impression of static came from that direction.

The bot came from his side faster than he could see, the fucker had already activated his sandevistan. Didn't even wait for a water drop this time. Cheating bastard. Adam activated his own sandevistan.

His leg crashed against Adam's arm. Adam's arm disintegrated under the blow, his sensors screamed at him. The leg was getting close to his face…

The bot slowed, its sandevistan timed out. It was in bad shape, one leg nearly useless, both arms torn off, the entire frame suffering damage. This was likely it's last chance to take Adam out.

Adam grinned, stepped back, and lifted the pillar section his still functional arm was on. He started vibrating his arm and with it the pillar. He always did love using a good blunt weapon, it reminded him of his youth, before the nuke. He smashed the pillar down on the bot still suspended in the air, who did not have any way to block this time.

Adam's sandevistan timed out as the pillar turned the bot into fucking scrap on the ground. It shattered and broke with a scream of tortured metal, the pillar shattered as it crashed down.

Another drop of water fell.

Adam slumped to his knees for a brief moment, arm letting go of the concrete and rebar to catch himself. Ah, his leg servos were still a bit jammed up from the explosion, the pillar put a few hundred extra pounds of weight on them for a moment.

He looked at his vitals. He was all fucked up, orange or red in every location. He hoped the kid was able to take care of the meatbag, because he wouldn't be much help if it was still a serious threat. He pushed himself back up onto his feet, and drew his own shotgun with his remaining hand. He could always shoot whatever was still moving he supposed, and he had a few missiles left.

Hardly the worst state he's ever been in.

Uriel, check on the kids.

Ah, nice, they're fine then.

Mission complete once they get back.

Absentmindedly, he and Uriel started drafting up a schematic for a nice club. It would probably hold up better than the swords he had been using so far.

—

The kids looked worried as they carried the busty one back. They panicked a bit when they saw him, he wasn't sure why. All hostiles in the area had been cleared out and they had more than enough supporting guns to escort them once they left. He was in no danger now.

Besides, that bot gave him some new ideas, and they completed the mission without any casualties. Overall, this was a tremendous success, and Adam was feeling pretty good about it. They strode out of the sewers, target tied up to the back of the ACPA.

There was a lot of pointing at them, and lots of whispers that Adam didn't care about hearing. The kids fidgeted slightly as they handed off the target to the escort, and told the second responders what was down there.

Then on the way back to the tower, Adam put in a report for the damages the team sustained. It looked like they could get their new chrome to replace their broken stuff when they got back, they had spares for a reason after all.

He decided they should drop their gear off first, it wouldn't do to carry around a bunch of useless stuff around with how much damage his servos sustained. It was already looking like it would be more efficient to just swap to a fresh body at this point.

They entered his floor, and began to drop off their weapons in the bin. Well, only his shotgun, pistol, and knife for him. Everything else he had was scrap at this point.

The woman walked in, and jolted when she saw them. She all but dashed over.

"Y-your arms!" She gestured for the both of them. Adam looked at the boy again. Huh, the arm that the kid was missing was his left arm too. Funny coincidence. He looked back at the woman, and the kid spoke up.

"Mom, it's fine, you can disable the pain in a cyberlimb, remember?"

The mother started calming down at that. She looked at them again, licked her lips nervously.

"Ah, that's right huh… I suppose you two aren't feeling any of that are you?" She asked. The gremlin started waving her arms in a 'stop now' gesture. Adam replied.

"I got the pain adjusters removed." Both the woman and the kid snapped their heads to him in disbelief. Fucking meatbags, stop acting like a little pain is a bad thing. The gremlin put her face in her hands.

"Fucking why Smasher?!" The kid asked him.

"Dangerous to go numb in a fight, that's how you push too hard and kill yourself." Adam calmly explained. The kid stared at him for another solid second before letting out an explosive sigh. The woman spoke, hesitantly.

"Y-you can still feel everything?"

"Of course I can."

She stared, before her gaze hardened. My, what a scary expression woman, he might just run away in fear.

"Go get repairs." She tried to command him. Woman, how dare you try to order him to do anything.

"Was already going to, just dropping off the weapons." He growled. She growled back.

"You should have gone immediately."

"And carry all this extra weight on my servos?"

She didn't have a response to that. She just took his weapons out of his hand and from his holsters, then started shoving him towards the elevator door. Fucking woman, he was going, stop being dramatic.

Uriel was chuckling the whole time.

—

His new frame was exactly the same as his last, it was the spare they kept in the tower exactly for rapid repairs like this. They moved his biopod to the second frame, and then took the old one off for repairs. He'll have another backup in about a week or so, until then he would have to play it carefully. So he returned to his home to find a happy celebration being held between the kids.

They were watching one of his old vids, and eating some sort of pasta or something. He didn't know, he wasn't a cook. They were on standby for the rest of the week, as a 'reward' for taking out scav leadership and so many of their high-level enforcers. Arasaka military agents were already moving in and clearing everything else in the area out. The mayor was calling it 'a war on criminal activity and gangs in Night City'. Soon enough, the scavs as a faction would be completely gone in NC.

Ah, that's right, he had to congratulate the kids.

"Congratulations." He said from behind them on the couches. They jumped a bit and turned to him, perking up at the word.

"You have completed your first genocide without casualties."

They froze a bit at that. The woman also paused what she was doing, fiddling with some sort of chrome maybe?

"...That was a genocide?" The kid spoke up.

"You were key instruments in the complete eradication of a particular group within a region. That's the textual definition of Genocide. Don't let yourself forget that."

"...but they were scavs…" The gremlin spoke up.

"Indeed. They were still a group that you helped to eradicate."

"...it feels a lot less rewarding when you put it like that." The kid replied, hugging the girl tighter.

Adam snorted, kids would learn in time. They were killers from their first time putting some meatbag down. The only difference now is how good at it they were. He walked over to his bench in the other room, and sat down. He had a fight to review in detail with Uriel.