"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.