The lack of schedule was the hardest thing to get used to. For the last seventeen years of her life, she had been in a non-stop labor. Go to work, take all the overtime she was allowed to, come home to make sure D has everything he needs, do everything she can on the side to earn a bit more eddies, and sleep about four hours. Sometimes go a day without sleep, sometimes go a week by just napping whenever she could instead of ever actually getting to her bed again.
A schedule that didn't allow her time to think, just work towards a persistent goal, just barely keep up. All for her son, something she was more than happy to do. All she ever wanted was for him to be successful, to not have to worry about starving the next day, to not have to worry about what she had growing up. She wasn't a greedy woman, that was enough for her.
She hadn't really been expecting to not have to worry about it herself either.
She was brought back from the grave into what seemed to be a dream. A dream in which nothing goes wrong. Sure little things went wrong all the time, but they were happy, they were mostly safe, and they didn't have to worry about things like food or rent anymore. D had a mainline input (albeit one who smoked, something Gloria had to tell her off for), he had chooms in the crass and short girl and the worrywort but polite boy, and even had a mentor.
Although, his mentor was quite a bit more violent than she would like.
Violent, and blunt, and dismissive, and egocentric, and apathetic.
And perhaps the man with the single highest personal kill count on the planet. A mass murderer who did his job happily.
But, oh well, such was life. He took care of D's needs, and the needs of his input and chooms, and was by all accounts a good, stable influence on them. Which was incredibly bizarre, that a man who delighted in genocide would be a good influence on anything, but he got them to start thinking about actually staying alive rather than going out in a blaze of glory. D's mentor even (broughtherbackfromdeath) took her in as well, allowing her to do her best to keep supporting her son.
She didn't do enough before, but she could at least do something. It was all that she could ask for or need in a mentor for her son.
"Nothing else?"
It seemed for a while that the hardships of the world didn't really apply to them anymore. They were finally past it, they could be happy and at peace (relative peace and happiness that is).
Then Blackbeard came, and tore her son apart. His limbs shattered, his body pulped, his face torn in half.
It was then that Gloria realized that you couldn't escape the violence. The butchery on the streets and in the badlands. It could reach up this high to, all the way to the top. It came very close to killing her son. That incident shook off her dream. She was awake again now.
So she marched right up to the eight foot tall, five hundred pound mass murderer, and DEMANDED that he give her the tools she needs to help her son!
…oh god, she could have died. She took a long drink of her coffee to help quell the sudden unease and familiar spike of fear. It wouldn't help her at all, all she could do was move forwards. She needed to make sure that her son had what he needed first, her needs could come later.
Adam Smasher was terrifying to be around, even if she never showed it. He was, even ignoring his personal strength, fantastically wealthy and immensely influential. He could have openly tortured them and no one would be able to stop him. He could take anything he wanted from any of them, and nothing they could do would be able to even delay him, let alone stop him.
Every moment spent talking to Adam Smasher was nerve-wracking. Any wrong word could get her killed, she felt. Her feelings didn't matter though.
Because Adam Smasher had not taken anything from them, not her and not her son. He gave them everything they could ask for, and barely asked anything except their attention when he was teaching something. Listen to him and clean up after yourself, that was all he had ever demanded of them. That was a pitiful price, that was a bargain for everything he gave back. Her son had a stable career and immense long-term prospects, in exchange for something that small?
She had tugged her son's ear to make sure he would do just that. She wasn't going to let him sabotage himself here. Adam Smasher was terrifying to be around, but her emotions didn't matter when compared with the facts of the situation. So she buried her fear and cheerfully went on, she wasn't going to hold her son back. She interacted with the butcher without a flinch, or a trip, or a moment of hesitation. It was all she could do.
She was really good at hiding what she felt, she had years of practice.
Adam Smasher was not good at hiding what he felt, she had quickly learned. His mood was a very stable one, usually best summarized as 'universal disdain'. He hated interacting with people outside of violent situations, and only tolerated it when he felt he had to. He was willing to interact with them, but he was rarely ever happy to, preferring to sit and be silent instead. She had known people like that growing up, the veterans of wars who were long tired of putting up with the intricacies of social interaction.
His bad moods were only slightly worse than his normal moods. It was part of why he was so frightening. He'd be a bit more growly, a bit more short and clipped, and a bit more insulting. It was almost like things as normal with him. He was always in a bad mood afterall.
His good moods were better, even if they came at the cost of… well… genocidal rampages. He came back in, the furrowed brow all but vanished, and covered in a layer of gore as thick as a fingernail. She buried her fear again, and got to washing. As she washed the gore away, her fear disappeared a little bit more, going with it down the drain.
It was hard to be scared of a man who acted like a dog enjoying a bath. He had silently stood in place, relaxed his arms, and simply let the powerwasher go over him. It was almost like he was enjoying the warm water, ignoring the fact that the powerwasher did not have warm water. So she let herself fall into the rhythm of washing him off, it was meditative. It was like she was washing chrome off to sell again, but no one had to die for it.
Just get the red off of the metal. Scrub until clean.
When Adam Smasher had come back from Arasaka Tower, he was in a very bad mood. He didn't stomp around angrily, he didn't shout and rant. He walked over to his bench, sat down, and glared dead ahead for the next half hour. His optics were wide open and furious the whole time. It was in many ways, much worse than if he was loud and destructive.
Her fear came back, she could barely push it down.
He didn't answer any of them when they asked what was wrong. He just sat and glared, still as a statue.
There was a knock at the door, and she went to open it. It was Kagekaze, Adam's old friend from work.
"Ah, Martinez-san, it is nice to see you again. I came to speak with my old student, he is inside I presume?" There was a brief spike of melancholy at that name, but she nodded and let him inside. The pitch-black skeleton walked inside without any sound, practically a ghost, and walked into the main room. He sat on the opposite side of Adam and Adam finally made a movement.
He looked up at Kagekaze, and their optics glowed simultaneously for a while. They were having some sort of private conversation while the rest of them were in the room. Lucy had already started on getting some tea ready, and it was ready by the time they were done talking.
Kagekaze nodded in thanks, and took his own cup. Adam left his well alone. Lucy smacked the top of her head lightly, having forgotten that Adam doesn't drink in that body.
The black skeleton leaned back a tad, and hummed aloud. "I see, you have it recorded I assume?"
Adam nodded and took a chip out of his neck, afterwhich an armored panel slid over the socket again. He handed it off to Kagekaze, who inserted it and watched the record. She was assuming that he was doing that, at least. After another tense minute or so of waiting, he nodded again and took the chip out, and stored it in one of his arms. An armored panel opened up, and the chip was carefully placed inside before the panel closed again.
"Yes, I think I agree with your conclusion. Unfortunately, we need more conclusive evidence to present. I can take it from here."
Adam growled at that, finally speaking. "Don't fucking dwaddle, I don't want to wait too long to kill him."
Kagekaze raised a finger in chastisement. "I will work as well as I always do, you will have to be patient." Adam practically snarled, but didn't argue. At this, her son spoke up.
"Hey… you going to tell us what's going on Smasher?"
Adam's eyes shot over to David, and he frowned beyond glancing back at Kagekaze. He closed his eyes and grimaced deeper. Finally, he opened them again.
"The president of Arasaka NC has ordered me to remain within Pacifica indefinitely, due to my stress-relief two nights ago. He has also ordered me to relinquish my non-personal armory, and shackle 'my AI'."
Gloria immediately understood why Adam Smasher would be so furious about all of that. Rebecca spoke up with the obvious question in everyone's mind.
"Right… why don't you just flatline the guy, big guy? The big man in Japan likes you, right? You killed execs before no issue."
At this, Kagekaze looked over to Adam and stared a bit. Adam returned the stare after a second of not looking.
"You have not told them?"
Adam growled.
Kagekaze kept staring and leaned back. He was leaving the decision up to Adam, it seemed. After much in the way of silent glaring, he started talking.
"...My brain is kept in a thing called a biopod. It connects to whatever body I'm in through a pseudo-spine. Inside this pseudo-spine is all the cybernetics required to move and translate information from my body to my brain. Inside these cybernetics is a chip. That chip contains my long-term contract."
She was starting to feel uneasy.
"My long-term contract uses my own mind to analyze my intentions. It then prevents me from telling my body to do anything that would violate the long-term contract, according to my understanding of it. I cannot get around rules set by the long-term contract, because I know that I'm trying to get around those rules and so it stops me."
The unease continued to build.
"The rules are not too long and complex, because they don't need to be if I understand the intentions behind those rules. Every fullborg under Arasaka employ has one of these chips, and most of them are directly keyed to Saburo Arasaka as the contract holder. The contract holder can stipulate others to be treated like the contract holder, but one or more stages lower in order priority."
She understood now. She felt sick.
"One of the rules is that I must obey orders given to me by the contract holder, another is that I must do my best to protect the contract holder from harm, another is that I must resolve conflicting orders as best I can. Jugemu Jun, weasely little shit that he is, is a third-stage contract holder. I cannot go against his orders, letter or spirit, and I cannot harm him."
Adam Smasher was a slave.
Her son and Rebecca looked furious, Lucy looked horrified and distant. She didn't know what her own expression was. David angrily spoke up. "Alright, so get this fucking guy off your contract. Call up your boss and tell him what he's doing."
Kagekaze sharply replied. "No, Arasaka-sama already knows of the situation. If he feels the need to intervene, he shall. It is not our place to demand anything." He locked eyes with her son, who shortly scratched his head frustratedly.
"Alright, then what do we do about this?"
Adam grumbled at this. "I am not about to go whining to the bossman every time some upjumped shit overreaches. One of the contract benefits on my side is that the contract breaks if I spend a year on standby with no new missions. So long as no one reminds the fucker of that, the bossman will intervene before it breaks. He won't let some bullshit like this fuck him over."
"Indeed, Jugemu Jun has already earned an execution. It is likely that the Emperor is waiting to see how this plays out, if he needs to intervene or not."
"Alright, how about getting someone from stage two or whatever to rescind this guy's orders?"
"They're all in Japan, and none of them owe me any favors right now."
Kagekaze interjected at that, slowly and cautiously speaking. "...There is one in Night City that can rescind his orders."
Adam paused at that, and clearly had to think to remember who he was talking about. A brief moment later, his expression turned apocalyptic. He all but snarled out. "No. Not her."
Kagekaze met Adam's glare, and eventually backed down, returning to his tea.
…How did he sip without any lips?
It was quiet in the room for a bit, before Lucy spoke up. "So what do we do, if you're stuck here? That's not a huge issue, is it?"
Adam replied after a moment. "No, not really, more annoying than anything major. His order to stay in Pacifica has less priority than bossman's order to make Pacifica a functional fucking place again, so he can't restrict me any further than about that without directly calling down hell on his ass."
"But his orders to constantly be on standby means I can't focus on teaching any of you effectively for a while. Which means that I can't train any of you for a while, at most a year."
He paused, and locked eyes with Kagekaze.
"...pack your things, brats and woman, you're moving back to my rooms in Arasaka Tower."
David spoke up at that. "What, why?"
"Kagekaze is going to be teaching you until this shit resolves."
"...You could at least ask first."
"You going to say no, old man?"
"Troublesome brat."
—
Adam shortly left to patrol Pacifica in person, probably to vent off steam about the situation he was in. Kagekaze was still there, finishing the pot of tea off while they packed their things.
There was a moment of tension, before Gloria asked a question that had been hanging in her mind for a small while.
"...Mr. Kagekaze, may I ask a question."
He turned to her, and tilted his head. The fabric wrapped around his head combined to give the impression that he was smiling at her. It was a strange feeling to get from a pitch-black skeleton.
"By all means, Ms. Martinez, there is no sin in questioning."
"Earlier… You mentioned a contract holder in NC, and Adam… reacted poorly. W-who is 'she'?"
Kagekaze no longer gave off the impression he was smiling, and looked down to his tea cup. He inhaled and exhaled. Why did he have such a feature in a robotic body? Clouds of gas, maybe?
"...no, I suppose he wouldn't have told any of you about it. It isn't my place to speak on such matters, but better you learn from me instead of someone else. The information is public afterall"
He stopped, and called out.
"Students, please come to the main room, it's best you all hear this at once."
Eventually, they were all on the couch again, sitting on the opposite side of a rather tired looking skeleton. Shortly enough, he began to speak.
"Several decades ago, the scientists at Arasaka were looking to give Adam Smasher an upgraded base frame. The current best on the market was the IEC Dragoon, which had such an array of features and sensors that it inevitably drove the men and women who were put in them insane, requiring special drugs to keep their mind intact."
"Adam Smasher hates anything that alters his senses, his mind, drugs especially. Likely due to the rampant use and abuse of such during his childhood. He saw men and women destroy themselves for scraps of such, and that is the likely cause of such hatred. He refused to be inserted into the frame using any Mind-Shackles, and they refused to put him in without using any Mind-Shackles. The issue would be forced soon."
"During this time, he had a woman that he loved, and who loved him."
Gloria wasn't expecting that. She didn't know how to feel about the revelation.
"She was Arasaka Michiko, the daughter of Arasaka Kei, the granddaughter of Arasaka Saburo. It started simply as a way to spite her father, but in time bloomed into genuine affection on both sides. Adam Smasher was different then, he was calmer, he was happier. His rage was not so all-encompassing."
"They were young then, young and passionate, they quarreled often and forgave each other often. Once, the young princess was approached by a man who called himself a friend of Adam's, it was someone he grew up with and fought alongside, who wanted to reconnect with his old friend again.
"That was a lie, and when she brought him to Adam, the man attempted to kill them both. He came very close to succeeding. Adam, shaken by his old memories and the stress of nearly dying, started a verbal altercation with the young princess. She was as hot-blooded as he, and equally stressed by the event. The situation soon escalated from a verbal altercation to a physical one."
…Gloria didn't like how the story was going. She swallowed.
"Adam Smasher was incredibly durable. Arasaka Michiko was not. The altercation ended when he struck a blow. He was barely scratched, she was more seriously injured. He stopped at once and realized what he had done, and fled. Before she could catch up with him again, and before Kei-sama could demand his death, they found him."
"He had forced the technicians, under threat of death, to entomb him in the IEC Dragoon without the Mind-Shackles. They found him thrashing under the burden of the sensors, chained to the floor to prevent him from damaging anything. He did not break under the Dragoon, like so many before him. He remained sane."
"Soon after, he threw himself into whatever task of butchery that Arasaka had for him, and ceased all activities outside of that. He no longer spent any time outside of that frame, no longer spoke unless he had to, no longer did much of anything. Anything except butcher, not even during his battle with Morgan Blackhand, not for decades."
Kagekaze paused, and stared at them more deeply.
"Not until he fought a boy outside Arasaka Tower, and recruited him as his apprentice, that is."