Welcome back everyone to another thrilling chapter of Cyberpunk: Transformers! As always I'm your host The Ghost of The Drive-In and here come the reviews:

Epic insanity666: spoilers for now, keep reading to find out!

SounBr3aker1235: Go right ahead man, just make sure to share with the rest of us when you finish drawing.

Non: I took you advice and wrote the longest chapter in my career, here's hoping you enjoy it.

Please don't 1: human sized, think of the replicants from Bladerunner and you're not too far off.

With that out of the way, let's get this show on the road.

Chapter 3: Product of The Working Class

For as long as he could remember, Maine had enjoyed running.

He loved feeling the breeze cool the sweat of his body as he moved in a steady rhythm, the pounding of his blood in his ears as his heart sped up to keep his body filled with the chemical every human being needed in order to survive. Running allowed him to tune out all of the madness of the city he had made his home and focus on the problems and tasks that actually mattered. Perhaps best of all, running allowed Maine to forget about the mistakes that haunted him, the missed opportunities and the bridges he burned in pursuit of the goal he sought. It didn't really matter to Maine that his cybernetic legs did not convey the same burning feeling his flesh and blood did after a good hour or two of running around the city, that the parts of his body covered in synth-skin didn't actually produce sweat, or that lately he was actually becoming just a bit slower then his best 'ganic time when completing a mile, and that more often than not he felt like a passenger in his own body….so long as he had a goal in mind and he could still feel the blood pumping in his veins, that was all that mattered to the edgerunner.

Which was why he was really pissed off that his right leg from his knee to his foot was unresponsive due to getting shot by some random Scav with a Satara. A Scav, who by all rights should've been deader than disco thanks to the only person on his team's roster who carried more firepower than him. Fortunately for the Scav, it seemed that despite emptying at least four magazines of ammo at the guy, Becca had managed to miss his heart and lungs, leaving it to Maine to finish the job properly.

The only problem was that Becca never misses. She spent enough time at the shooting range that the Sixth Street Gang triple scanned her before she entered a contest to make sure she didn't have any aim assist software in her Kiroshis. Normally Maine would've just brushed it off, hell everyone had off days, and Pilar said he could get the leg fixed without going to a Ripperdoc (and thank God for that, Dorio might've made him go for a complete checkup), but she was supposed to have Lucy's back for what supposed to be a routine mission and He wouldn't lose anyone el-

Maine stabbed the immuno-supressants directly into his arm and depressed the plunger, sighing as he felt the chill course through his veins. Maybe he should go see a Ripper after all, if for nothing else then for some stronger meds. He was getting too close to the edge and it wouldn't do anyone any good if he fell off it right now.

"Pilar, You sure my chrome is just dented?" Maine internally winced at how his voice sounded in his ears, loud and full of frustration. He couldn't show the others how he felt, a squad leader always has to look and seem like he's in control.

The lanky techie ran his cybernetically lengthened fingers through his mohawk. "Yeah boss, it seems like the blast just knocked some wires loose internally and that's why you're not able to move it, but it's an easy fix." Then Maine saw the grin growing on his techie's face and he knows that he's probably gonna deck the idiot. "Honestly? It was a good idea to splurge on the projectile launchers instead of new legs, since at this rate it looks like you'll be looking for a good deal on a -" Pilar was lucky he decided to back away before he finished that sentence, as Maine threw a haymaker in his direction, "-Before your legs give out!" he cackled as he fell on his ass into a puddle.

"Cheeky bastard's lucky he's good with tech." Maine muttered as rubbed the bridge of his nose in concentration and then looked up at his crew. "Everybody alright?" Maine's optics blurred with static for a moment (another thing to get looked at, hopefully nothing a decent ripper couldn't fix) as he scanned each of the members of his crew for physical and cybernetic damage. When he saw that no one was injured beyond anything a Bounceback could fix he let out a sigh he didn't know he was holding in, before popping his signature shades back on in spite of the fact that the sun was already setting in order to hide the fact that his right eye was twitching.

"Alright, Falco? Take Dorio, Kiwi, and Lucy in your car and head over to Turbos and get the party started," No sense in breaking with routine, after all the mission was an overall success, "Pilar and Becca will ride with me to the doc and we'll join you later."

"What about Faraday?" Dorio questioned, concern written in her eyes as she watched him limp to his car.

"I'll let our four-eyed "friend" know that the job was done." Maine grumbled as he began to limp to his ride, it looked like he was gonna have to let Pilar of all people drive (Becca sure as hell couldn't reach the gas pedal). "You guys just enjoy another job well done."

Dorio gave him a look that told him they'd be talking about this later, but nodded her head and started directing everyone to the Edgerunner, a few seconds later Falco sent him a message telling him to go easy on Rebecca (not daring to say that aloud to avoid pissing off the gun-toting gremlin), and that he hoped Pilar wasn't wrong and that Maine's leg could be easily fixed.

The ride was completely silent save for Maine giving Pilar directions and the background noises of life in Night City. Maine spent the vast majority of the ride gazing out at the neon lights of Night City as he tried to get in contact with the cutthroat he had in mind, eyes darting between the various overly sexual advertisements that dominated the streets alongside the gangland graffiti and camps of those who had nowhere else to go. He had lived in Night City for nearly two decades at this point, coming to the city as a young man freshly discharged from Militech after a failed mission in the Golden Triangle with nothing but the clothes on his back and the scars from the chrome that was ripped out of him. Honestly, some days when he woke up and looked at his face in the mirror he was surprised to see that he had managed to live to the point where his hair was going from bleached blond to the silver-gray of his father without him really noticing until Sasha made a joke about him and Falco matching…..

Maine's face twisted into a grimace as the face of the young girl who's smile lit up whatever room she entered merged with the small, self satisfied grin on the same face as her eyes closed for possibly the last time. He should've seen that Sasha was too invested in that mission, should've seen the fire in her eyes. He took the job from Faraday, which meant that no matter what the others said it was ultimately his fault that Sasha became just another dreamer in a city full of them. 'No one else would fall off the edge on my watch.' he thought to himself as they came up to a building he hadn't visited in a few years.

With that thought he turned around in his seat to look at the third passenger in his car and the reason they were in this mess tonight. Rebecca had pulled her legs into her oversized jacket, and save for the exposed tattoo of a skull on her neck looked every bit the young girl people often assumed she was due to her height. Maine decided to give her an out before he used the double edged sword that was his secret weapon. "You wanna tell me why you didn't drop that idiot that had a shot on you and Lucyna?"

Rebecca flinched, though whether or not that was from being reminded of her screw up or from him using Lucy's full name he didn't know. "I didn't miss. The guy was so full of lead you could poison a reservoir with his corpse." She snipped at him.

Maine had to remind himself that his father taught him not to hit women unless they were in a boxing ring or shooting at him."Alright. If he was so full of bullets, then how the hell did he get back up?"

She had the gall to shrug before answering, "Good subdermal plating and a second heart."

Pilar was starting to look back and forth between the two of them, clearly fighting the urge to jump to his sisters defense/make a bad joke.

Maine grunted as the car came to a stop, if she wanted to play the petulant child card, then he'll treat her like one. "Arlight, you two come with me, the doc's gonna be pissed at me for showing up unannounced and if I gotta suffer so do you two." With that said he opened the car door and limped his way over to the stars that lead to the entrance of Mega Building H-4. He was soon joined by the two siblings, though he noted that Rebecca was hanging back a bit behind him and Pilar.

"Maine, I hate to be that guy and all….. But what kinda doc has an office in a Mega Building in Arroyo?" Pilar needled him as they got into the elevator.

"The kind that's relatively cheap and won't ask why we're still covered in blood and oil." Maine replied while keeping his doubts to himself. "Last chance to tell me why you missed Becca."

Pink and yellow eyes narrowed as the solo tilted her head back to look him in the eyes. "And why the hell is that?"

"Because the doc we're going to see has made it very clear that she wants to keep her private and professional life separate." Maine explained as he limped down the hall, "And if I'm gonna get yelled at tonight for something outside of my control, then I'm gonna make like a corpo-rat and pass the blame onto someone else." Plus odds were that she'd be able to force Rebecca's secrets out of her better than Maine could ever dream.

"Damn. That's cold boss." Pilar muttered as Maine stopped and turned to glare at him, then continued to walk down the hall until. 'No," Maine thought, 'I'm not being cold. Cold is the metal slab they put your corpse on before they cremate you. Cold is the void you leave behind once you flatline.' He wasn't being cold, if anything he was being as warm as the situation allowed.

When they finally arrived at the apartment, Maine stopped for a moment, finger combed his hair, gathered up his courage, and with a confidence he didn't feel knocked on the door.

…. And no one answered….

Two minutes later Maine tried again, this time a little bit louder and a whole lot harder. When that failed he sighed and decided to reveal his hand, "Gloria? It's Maine, You got a minute?" He then rapped out the first part of 'shave and a haircut' on the door.

Pilar started coughing while Rebecca was pulling at his vest in anger, "You didn't tell me that the 'doc' we were going to was Gloria!"

Maine ignored the younger runner and decided that maybe he should've gone with the beat from her favorite song when he heard footsteps approaching from the other side. "You didn't ask."

Becca's retort was cut off as the door opened and a pissed off teenager with shaggy brown hair in a black longsleeve and kitsch pants glared at the three of them, golden chain with a cross hanging from his neck.

As Maine stared at the young man, the only thought that went through his head was 'Gloria never told me she had a kid.'

The four of them just stood in the doorway for a few seconds, before the kid decided to open his mouth and break the proverbial ICE, "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

That threw Maine for another loop, "What?"

The boy narrowed his sleep deprived eyes at Maine, seemingly not caring about the fact that Maine could probably throw his scrawny frame the length of two football fields with ease. "I said, do you have any idea what time it is?"

Pilar decided to look at his watch before answering the rhetorical question, "around 1:45 AM, why?"

"Cause that means my mom has only been home from work for about two hours, half an hour of which was spent trying not to fall asleep while eating leftover locust-pepperoni Buck-a-Slice." The boy stated, "And now that she's asleep some random gangoons are hammering at our apartment door in the middle of the night trying to wake her up."

Well when he put it like that, Maine felt like a jackass. "Shit, no wonder she wasn't answering her phone earlier," he muttered under his breath before turning to the kid, "Look…"

"David." The kid supplied after a moment.

"Look David," Maine began "Sorry about the noise. We're fresh off of a gig and didn't realize just how late it had gotten. I took a few hits that messed with the chrome in my leg and was hoping your mom could take a look at it before I go dragging my big frame into a ripperdoc's chair." He then gestured to Pilar and Becca "I brought these two along because one's a good techie who could probably help your mom with some of the more cybernetic side of things, and the other hasn't been acting like herself and won't explain why. And since she won't talk to me-"

"You wanted my mom to glare at her until she tells you what's going on?" The anger was gone from David's face, now replaced with a curious gleam in his eyes as he gave Maine and the others a quick once over. "Corp and model?"

"Millitech Astro-Strides," Maine answered without missing a beat, "Why?"

With that David sighed and motioned for the three of them to come inside, "Mom keeps the repair and maintenance manuals for the major cyberware brands next to her diagnostic computer, so long as you guys keep it down and stay off the couch, I can probably patch up your leg."

"And why aren't we allowed on the couch, dimples?" Rebecca asked, already kicking off her shoes as she made her way into Gloria's apartment.

David shot her a confused look before responding to her question "... because Mom fell asleep on the couch, and the whole point of me doing this is to avoid waking her up."

…. That was a very good point, and sure enough once Maine was inside the apartment he saw the familiar shape of one Gloria Martinez laying on her side on an old couch, her features illuminated by the pale light of the television, wearing the clothes she probably wore to work with her EMT jacket acting as a makeshift blanket. She looked…. Smaller than when she was awake, near constantly shifting in place as she tried to make her impromptu bed comfortable, and Maine swore that he was going to do his best to not add to whatever daemons were messing with the red-haired woman…. A plan that immediately went out the window as Pilar started noisily rummaging through the small fridge and cabinets for something to it.

"Hey! Keep it down!" David whisper-yelled at the lanky idiot who nearly kept on slamming the cabinet doors as he rummaged through them, "I'm not supposed to let people in the apartment and if you wake her up my mom's gonna be pissed."

"Oh, I'm afraid that train has already left the station, Mijo." a new voice answered as the woman of the hour stood up from her improvised bed, eyes as red as her hair with a glare that could finish off the rest of the polar ice caps.

Naturally, Becca decided to make things worse.

"Eh, What's up doc?"

30 Minutes Later

"How many times have Dorio and I both told you to upgrade your legs?" Gloria asked as she unplugged the Maine's Interface Cable from a portable computer with a Red Cross on the front, her job complete. "Or at the very least take better care of them?"

"Enough times for me to know that you're asking a rhetorical question." Maine countered as he looked around the small apartment, wondering why Gloria was still apparently taking on such a monstrous workload that her kid (she had a kid, when did she have a kid?) had the balls to yell at heavily armed strangers in order for her to get some sleep when he spent a good deal of money buying drugs, scavenged cyberware, and the occasional off the books medical procedures from her. The answer came in the form of a small stack of bonafide paper textbooks (who the hell still made those?) on the small table where Gloria had forced him to sit down while she worked. Maine grabbed one at random and read the title out loud, "Advanced Cyberware Integration and Development…You thinking of going back to school?"

Gloria scoffed, and for a minute the grumpy overworked mom was overshadowed with the remnant of the young Valentino who patched him up after he got stabbed helping stop a bar brawl at the Coyote Cojo. "That would require time and money I haven't had in seventeen years. That's one of David's textbooks."

Maine looked at the textbook in his hands, which was so thick that he could probably bash someone's skull in with it without Gorilla Arms, then at the kid currently watching a Bushido movie with Rebecca and Pilar, and then at the stack of similar textbooks on the table with disbelief. "What kinda school makes a seventeen year old read this scop?"

"Arasaka Academy's 3rd Year Advanced Research and Development program." Gloria answered, pride filling her voice, "David has midterms coming up, and then finals after that."

Maine was once again floored at another piece of new info about his oldest friend/acquaintance in Night City's personal life. The fact that she had a kid? Shocking, the kid apparently being smart? Not so shocking (Gloria was one of the smartest people He knew besides Pilar, Lucy, and his sister's husband). That the kid (David, gotta remember that) apparently was apparently smart enough to get into Arasaka Academy? As a non-legacy or corp-affliated student? That was a shock to his systems so powerful that Maine didn't know what to say beyond "Congratulations." At least now he knew where the Eddies Gloria charged were going, especially when he saw the price tag of the textbook in his hand. "Bet your boy is top of his class."

Gloria shook her head, "Definitely up there, but the other kids in his class apparently have access to datashards that implant the answers for tests directly into their heads, plus he tends to slack off on subjects he doesn't like… His lowest grade is an 80.5% in History."

" A B-Minus in history?!" He asked out loud, before turning towards the young man sitting on the couch, "Hey David? How the hell do you get a B-Minus in history? It's literally all about reading and memorization!"

The boy at least had the sense of decency to be embarrassed at having his grades be exposed to complete strangers, especially once Pilar and Rebecca started giggling at him being singled out. "I…. guess I just don't see the point in memorizing some of it? I mean I'm in the Research and Development track for Cyberware, why should I know how Mehmed Ali conquered Constantinople?"

"Cause if you paid attention in history you'd know that Mehmed Ali was the founder of Modern Egypt, and that Mehmed II, otherwise known as Mehmed The Conqueror, took over Constantinople by employing a brand new form of cannon to take out its walls." Maine countered, waving his finger in the air like his dad used to when he was lecturing him, "It was a pretty big deal, considering how it led to the end of the Eastern Roman Empire as a political power." He then turned towards the other problem child in the room, "And I don't know why you're laughing Becca, considering how the only reason we're even here right now is cause you haven't had your head in the game lately."

Gloria frowned at this news and turned towards the young solo, "Are you still focused on that conspiracy theory Kiwi spun? Becca you know that odds are she's just messing with you and the only thing you should be worried about is how you nearly shot an innocent man."

"An innocent man driving a brand new car in Pacifica, after Maxtac called in a lockdown, who just so happens to offer a complete stranger a ride?" Becca countered, confusing the three men in the room, "If anything I'm not being paranoid enough!"

Gloria rolled her eyes "Becca, I'm pretty sure that if this "Bumblebee" character was actually a corporate drone, then there's no way that he'd have a messed up voice box like you told me and the others."

"Or he purposefully leaves it messed up in order to sell his story!"

"And the fact that he let you hold a gun to his head?"

Hold on a second, "What's this about a guy named Bumblebee?" Maine asked, desperately trying to piece together what the hell was going on.

A few minutes later, once Gloria finished telling the tale of the unofficial girls only breakfast and the story that was told there, things were starting to somewhat make sense in the old runner's mind. "So… because you nearly shot a random good samaritan in the head, and because he was driving a nice looking Quadra in the worst part of town, you latch onto miss "never trust a soul in Night City" Kiwi's absolutely ridiculous idea of him being a sinister corpo-rat (He ignored how David flinched at his use of the slang term for corporate workers) and have been distracted with a mixture of embarrassment, paranoia, and good old Catholic Guilt?" This was why he got shot? Some petty gossip and boy drama? If it wasn't for the fact that Gloria was glaring at him, he might've started laughing at how Fucking Stupid this Situation Wa- He reached for an immuno-supressant, only for a 'ganic hand to stop him.

"You need to cut back on those, or you'll build up a tolerance and wreck your liver." Gloria's tone brooked no arguments and he complied immediately.

The awkward silence that followed was broken when David decided to throw in his two-bits. "If it helps, the idea that he's affiliated with a megacorporation isn't that far-fetched."

Goddamnit kid, now's not the time to try and help the damsel in distress, especially when she has more guns then some spec-op teams. "Why's that kid?"

"Well… Becca you said that he's been to Detroit and Chicago before coming here?" David questioned the young runner.

Becca nodded her head, "Yeah, alongside Las Vegas, why?"

"Chicago still hasn't recovered from the virus bombs Arasaka dropped on it during the Fourth-Corporate War, so barring diehards, criminals, and corporations making use of its extensive railways, airports, and shipping routes, no one really visits the Windy City anymore." David began, glad that he paid attention during this part of history (though admittedly because it was a part of his supply chain management course). "Meanwhile, Detroit's nickname is "The Motor City," and we learned in class that it's history as the home for a bunch of old Pre-Crash Automobile companies made it so that there's a pretty strong gear-head culture built into the populace, with older models being worth more to some people then high quality chrome."

"Quadra's brand is built on the themes of old-school American automobiles, so it would make sense that a corpo from Detroit would drive a nice Quadra, despite it being considered a "middle class" car-brand." David finished his speech, noticed that he had stood up and began to pace around the room like one of the engrams in a lecture BD, and sheepishly sat down again. "As for why he's in the city, Sumdac Systems is one of Detroit's biggest companies, and they're currently in the process of opening a factory as part of a joint venture with Arasaka…. And I looked into it mom, they're offering summer internships to students in the R&D course who score in the top ten percent of the finals."

Maine looked at Gloria, who wore a shocked expression similar to the one he probably had on his face, and then both of them turned towards Rebecca who was glaring at them, and then back at David.

"Damnit kid, why did you have to go and make sense of Becca's bullshit?"

El Coyote Cojo

Jackie Wells felt on top of the world.

It was a saturday night, he had completed a boatload of jobs for Padré Ibarra and he was currently flushed with eddies, his mamá was in good health, and most importantly his best friend in the entire city apparently had the night off, so they made plans to drink a few cervezas and some tequila (on Jackie, of course), order an actually fresh pizza with real ingredients (courtesy of his choom), and watch a bunch of horror movies like they used to when they were kids and his friend's parents were outta town. There wasn't a single thing that could make this night any better…. So naturally when his friend finally walked into the bar, he had to look like someone had just killed his dog in front of him.

It was always easy to tell Vincent "V" Du Marais apart from the usual crowd of the Cojo on any given night. After all, he was the only man in the entire bar wearing a three piece suit in the red and black of Night City's most infamous Megacorp. Black Kiroshi's with pale white pupils scanned the bar for threats, and once they found none their owner quickly made his way over to his and Jackie's preferred booth, saying hi to Pepe and a few of the other regulars while loosening the black tie around his neck and undoing the buttons of his shirt to reveal the intricate tattoo around his neck (Jackie was still proud of the fact that he had won that bet).

Jackie stood up and intercepted the man halfway and gave him the mother of all bear hugs. "V! I'd tell you I missed you Choomba, but then I'd be lying."

Jackie could feel V rolling his eyes before he responded "Can't say the feeling isn't mutual Jackie." With that done they made their way to the booth, where Jackie had already ordered a couple of Abydos Classics (he only drank them when V was around) and got a proper look at his friend. "Alright Choom, what's bothering you?"

V took a long swig of his beer, practically emptying the bottle with one chug, before he answered the question. "You don't wanna know Jackie. I'm serious, if I had the chance not to know about it I wouldn't take it." He singled Pepe for another round and then turned back to Jackie "Besides, it's the first Saturday Night I've had off in….. Fuck, I can't remember the last time I had a Saturday Night off. Why ruin it with bullshit from work?"

"Cause you and I both know that you're gonna be focused on whatever bullshit Jenkins dropped on you at the last minute the entirety of the night unless you tell someone, preferably me or el Padré." Jackie countered, "Or do I need to get Mamá Welles on your case as well?" Jackie didn't want to bring his mother into this, but if there was anyone who could knock sense into his choom, then it was her.

V winced at the low blow, "I definitely don't want your mother to know about what's going on at my job." he sighed before turning to look around to see if anyone was listening in on their conversation. "Okay…. You know how a few days ago a Kiji was sighted over at Embers?"

That….. That wasn't what Jackie was expecting at all. Jackie had known V for years, to the point where he knew a bit about the internal power struggles that dominated the vast majority of his choom's professional life. 'Kiji' was the Japanese term for the green pheasant, but when talking about Arasaka, it referred to only one person. "Yeah, I heard about that on the news, quite a rare sight these days."
V nodded his head, "The Kiji supposedly met with a tailor's daughter, who was an old friend of the Kiji, and wanted to make sure the daughter was doing well." Okay… Now Jackie was confused, and somehwat grateful that V was slipping him a datashard underneath the damp napkin he used to wipe off the condensation of the table. "Once the meeting was done, the Kiji flew back to her palace for the night, and ordered a raven towatch over the tailor's daughter." V then sighed as he seemed to deflate a bit, "The raven decided that the task was too dangerous for her to complete, and ordered a vain peacock to do it in her place."

"And the peacock decided that instead of doing his job, he pass it onto someone else?" Jackie guessed as he grabbed the shard and inserted it into his neck. "Particularly a rather nasty alligator with a habit of taking suicide missions?" Once the shard began to expand upon V's cryptic bullshit and half-assed metaphors, Jackie began to regret asking his old friend what the hell was going on.

Jenkins had apparently been ordered by his old rival Abernathy (who was in turn ordered by Hanako Arasaka herself) to watch over Sari Sumdac, the daughter of Isaac Sumdac and the heiress of Sumdac Systems while she was overseeing her company's newest business venture in Night City. This was in spite of the fact that the girl had two highly visible bodyguards with her(and probably more hidden throughout the city). Naturally he decided to pass on the job to V (and on his day off no less), who already had six other major operations to run for the pendejo, such as investigating the mysterious cyber attacks on corps throughout the city by a group using code no one had ever seen before or the ramp up of Barghest activity in Dogtown.

Jackie took a few moments to process this information, then turned and looked at his friend in a new light, "V? Be honest with me Choom, how bad would it be if any of these jobs went sideways?"

"On a scale of one to ten?" V asked as he downed another Abydos with the desperation of a man drowning, "Do you remember that time in Sinaloa?"

Jackie nodded his head slowly before he responded, "alright, what do you need me to do?"

"Absolutely nothing." V stated with a voice like thunder, "Jackie, if this was any other gig I'd call you and pay whatever random fee and favors you could name in a heartbeat. But this job? This job goes wrong the best case scenario is honorable suicide or that they fry my brain and kick me out into the street. Worse case? I get to find out what they did to Johnny Silverhand from a first person point of view."

Jackie nodded his head, "Which is exactly why you're gonna let me outsource two or three of your less important jobs to Padré and the Valentinos. This way you can focus on saving the corpo-princess, appease your boss, your boss's boss, and the Emperor's Daughter, and then we both get to become legends in Night City." Now he took a long swig from his own crappy beer, "But tonight? Tonight we're gonna get shitfaced, blow our diets by ordering at least two of those fancy pizzas and some of Mamá's synth-beef empanadas, watch a couple of ancient horror movies with special effects so dated they're funny, and then go to church the next day and beg God, La Santa Muerte, and Baron Samedi for fortune and forgiveness." With that said Jackie extended his right arm across the booth in a fist bump, "What do you say V? Another adventure for Los Dos Cruzados Herejes?"

V looked at the proffered arm, and then at Jackie, and then back at the arm again, before finally settling on Jackie. The ex-valentino liked to think that when V looked at him, he still saw the wannabe street samurai with a busted up nose and a dull machete he pretended was a katana, cause right now all Jackie saw was the goofy Corpo-brat with braces who thought rebellion was using the money his folks gave him for lunch to buy old movies and Samurai memorabilia. Then, V grinned and bumped Jackie's arm with his own right fist, "Alright Jackie, once again the Heretic Crusaders march to war."

Jackie let out a gloriously loud laugh, "That's what I'm talking about Choom! Hey Pepe?! Tonight's a celebration! this round and the next two are on me! And the next two are V!" Tonight was gonna go down in history.

Outskirts of Night City/The Badlands

"Why is it that every time we end up on this rock, you're always the first bot to reveal our existence to the humans?"

Bee sighed as he turned to look at the red cybertronian people somehow confused him with (serious, they didn't even look alike anymore. How did it keep happening?). +I haven't exposed us to anyone Cliffjumper.+

"Not yet anyways," The red bot countered as he finished installing the auto-turret they had brought with them on the top of a small cliff face. "All I'm saying is that nine times out of ten, it's your goofy skid-plate who gets exposed to the humans first…. Typically to one of their younglings."

+Hate to say it Bee, but Cliffjumper's got a point,+ A new voice added on their secure frequency as an army green Mituzani Coyote drove past them, the turret on top of it's roof tracking any movement in the desert. As it slowed down the car began to change, metal parts shifting and expanding until a humanoid robot walked in place of the off-road vehicle. "The sensor tower is up and running, just need to finish up installing that turret and we can get back to base in time to stream the races from back-home."

"What's the rush? We all know that Blur's leave any Colony N.A.I.L. that dares challenge him on the track he's race his entire life before the war in the dust." Cliffjumper muttered as he fine-tuned the targeting scope of the turret and connected the fuel lines to its energon reserve. The red bot then stopped as his optics caught sight of an increasingly familiar group of vehicles. "Oh…. Now I understand what's got you grinding your gears." Cliffjumper then motioned for Bee to zoom in on the convoy of vehicles, before both turned to Autobot Ranger with looks of disbelief on their faces.

+... The Aldecaldos are still trying to recruit you?+ Bumblebee asked as he made out the burning horse painted on some of the vehicles. +I thought you told them you were raffen shiv?+

"Probably didn't believe him cause he was too nice to them or something." Cliffjumper added

"Let's just roll out before they see us in bot-mode." Hound replied as he transformed back into the Coyote, and was shiftly joined by a red Thorton Colby with an impressive set of metallic longhorns mounted on it's hood, and a black and yellow Quadra zooming through the night back to the City named after it.

The trio followed the maglev lines back to the city, the series of turrets they had hidden throughout the desert tracking them as they burned rubber. In theory the turrets would act as a deterrent for any foolish warband of rogue nomads or corporate rivals from damaging the cargo that the future factory for Sumdac Systems would need in order to pump out brand new automobiles and robots that would be used in the R&D for their deal with Arasaka. It also helped calm the paranoid part of most of the cybertronians active in the city to know that hey had a security system beyond basic patrols up and running.

Sari didn't like the fact that they were doing this, acting as if the war hadn't ended and that the Decepticons were gonna show up one day and slaughter them all. But Sari was young, she used to be human, and as long as Bee and the others were alive she would never know what it was like to flee from a place she thought was a safe haven. Besides, it wasn't the Decepticons that had them worried nowadays.

When they had last left earth in order to rejoin the main war effort in 2005, the planet was a completely different place. National governments had given way to corporate control and warlordism as the gangs began to overrun the police in most cities as various crises piled up on top of each other. Most of their old allies had gone silent in the decades they left, either lost to time or forced to go underground in order to save themselves or their families, while their enemies were able to move into the public light under false names and the applause of the masses who did not know of the horrors they committed behind closed doors.

It reminded some of them of the situation in The Five Cities before the when the various gladiator guilds and work-gangs that would become the core of the nascent Decepticon movement began to push the old guard out of their cities street by street, district by district, before Megatron reined them back in an effort to consolidate their strength before Sentinel Prime unleashed the Guardians on Cyberton's soil for the first time in living memory. Functionalism was declining and the data-clerk still known as Orion Pax was gathering support for political reform and the right of self-determination, and most cybertronians thought that war was jusr something the organic races did because they didn't have the knowledge that they all were ultimately one being.

Bumblebee disguised his sigh with a flaring of his engine as he pushed ahead of Cliffjumper and Hound, hitting triple digits in an effort to drown out thoughts of what once was and what could have been. He had done his duty in both the war and the Reconstruction effort, and now he was free to decide what he wanted to devote his circuitry to achieving. They all were, and that was a glorious thing that was worth protecting.

He slowed down right before the cop car that was waiting for him at the entrance of the road that lead to the Silver Pixel Cloud Theater, internally groaning as he saw the incoming transmission. +What do you want Barricade?+

+Just to remind you, B-127, and your band of turbo-revving punks that just because the war is over doesn't mean that the Tyrest Accords aren't still in effect.+ The Decepticon enforcer retorted as he fell in behind Bumblee.

+Those turrets are equipped with a self-destruct code and are built with parts brought from home.+ Bumblebee countered, not rising to the bait being dangled in front of him, +Plus we aren't actively sharing cybertronian technology or secrets with any major governmental body.+

+And the Teletraan drones I saw floating in the city's airspace?+ Barricade questioned when they stopped at a red light.

+In case you hadn't noticed, the humans destroyed their interconnected data-cache.+ Bee retorted as he sped up at the green light, +The only way to secure a connection to Cybertron-and by extension Cybertron's government- without it noticed by any N.A.I.L. organization or rogue A.I. was by establishing our own network.+ An APB went out on the NCPD's channel calling for help with a cyberpscho somehow engaged in a car chase interrupted their conversation. +Better get going officer, wouldn't want your chooms on the force to suspect you of derelection of duty.+ The patrol car's lights bathed the area as Hound and Cliffjumper finally caught up with them, +Anything else to add, B-127?+

"Fuck the police!" chanted the voices of NWA as Bee and the others sped off into the night, +We'll let you know who wins tonights race!+

"I know we shouldn't antagonize him, but by the Thirteen he makes it too easy." Cliffjumper was laughing as they entered the walls of the theater and shifted back into their bot-modes, grabbing a container filled with CHOOH2 and took a sip of the fuel that had replaced gasoline. "Seriously Bee, what did you do to that guy during the war to make him hate you so much?"

Bee shook his head as he noticed Bulkhead and Trailbreaker entering the parking lot, the small form that could only be Sari sitting in the backseats of the former, +Nothing…. Though before the war I gave him scrap by speeding past him once I passed through the checkpoint to Kaon when I had to deliver a package.+

"Did you guys run into Barricade without me?" Sar asked as she exited Bulkhead as he transformed, "You promised you wouldn't piss him off without me!"

"Sorry Sari," Cliffjumper teased as he sat down on the concrete, "It was a spur of the moment kind of deal." Bumblebee and Hound nodded their heads and offered their own platitudes to the mix, at the same time Mirage and Hoist entered the theater, informing them of how their day went and that Trashmaster and Medix wouldn't be joining them for the races. The former was combing through the junkyards and landfills for anything he thought was interesting, while the latter was driving around trying to save the lives of those the city's populace didn't give a damn about. Bumblebee offered Sari his hand, which she effortly jumped onto in order to get the best seat in the house, a message alert flashed through his HUD. A message he silenced for now, cause tonight all he wanted to do was watch one of the first races on Cybertron's surface in over four million years, and pretend that the war never happened.

This chapter wasn't going to be nearly as long, but Maine decided to be somewhat philosophical and that takes up time and space in a chapter. Now if it wasn't already perfectly clear, this is an AU of both Cyberpunk and Transformers as a whole, and while I do plan to incorporate parts of Canon into the story, don't expect it to be a one for one comparison. With that said tune in next time for more exciting developments…. Or go play Phantom Liberty, I won't blame you…