MEGATOWER H9/CITY CENTRE/0500 03/09/78

My batteries were at a hundred percent. My optics powered up and Jade was fast asleep. She was an easy target. Eight hours were unnecessary for me. I reached under her pillow, taking my weapon back, Her eyes jolted open reaching for the gun and pulling the trigger, blocked by the safety.
"Relax." I snatched the weapon from her and tried to fire again, failing. "Safety was off. I'm leaving anyway." Night city was never silent, but there were times when it was quieter, when the only thing left on the street were corpses and corpo's. If the night had been particularly exciting the Venn diagram was a circle. I was at the door, hearing a cough. I aimed my barrel at the origin, Jade. Involuntarily spreading her diseases' everywhere. My shadow loomed over her body. She had only slept for less than a night and already there were signs of her D.N.A dirtying my bed, strands of auburn hair, little flecks of skin. The worse was her drooling on the pillow. The only thing she had was a doll chip and a few civilian internal improvements. I poked Jade and watched her twitch. A harder press into her stomach woke her up. She was a mess of movements the body not having the speed to instantly tell what was going on. Still in the vulnerable period where she grabbed her heel's and held them up as a weapon.
"You were shedding."
"People don't shed." She looked to the hair and rolled her eyes. "It's a little bit of hair loss, normal."
"Shedding, and you're saliva."
"In a bed you don't use." She rubbed her eyes that still had dark sacks under them. "Why'd you wake me up anyway?"
"This deal. How'd we split it." Jade's bare feet degraded the floor with little flecks of dead skin, the bottom of her feet were brown.
"Fifty-fifty."
"I'm risking my life." I watched her step into the bathroom, searching for toothpaste, opening the mirror to see that it was full of hypostims. She didn't seem too phased by it, they were all medical, if my doctor was to be believed.
"Are you?"
"Probably not."
"I need some money for a damn toothbrush." The door shut and locked as I heard the sound of running water and a squeal, probably a cold shower made people wake up, the fact I didn't pay for hot water made it so that Jade had no choice to wake up. "And I need to get out of this fetish wear." She came out, still in her maid outfit. I walked into the wardrobe, with the chair, where a duffel bag was. I opened it up to reveal weapons I had won. They lacked ammo, as even that was expensive. It was worth two hundred Eurodollars at most. The weapons were mostly budget arms, won from gangers. The odd S.M.G from when I had some fun, a few still had red stains on them.
"Sell this, find us a job, call me."
"I don't have a phone."
"Buy yourself a phone. My number is 047638-."
"I'm not going to remember that." The brain was soft, it was meant to absorb information. She snapped her fingers. "Got a pen and paper?" Archaic. I didn't have a pen or paper. Jade searched through my coat, she tore off a piece of her dress, I made sure she was with me until the base of H9, the landlord was a box next to where my mail was kept. My authorisation code meant I could add Jade to my residents. She was the only one to use the scanner. There was a pen that had been dangling on a chain for those rare occurrence's it was delivered to the wrong address for her to write down the number. I could trust her to at least remember where my room was so she could go back to dirtying my bed.

She's given me a call and if not. I knew where she lived. I needed a few words with Tanaka before I carried on. He'd still be awake. Arasaka tower was always awake. I arrived met by the march of the night shift clocking off, those in the morning shift were arriving. It was a warm of people, at least insects were organised in their swarm. I had to force my way through. Security had become military grade, before my time. Mid 77, after Adam Smasher was scrapped. I was brought into the company two months later. Though 'brought in' was a generous way of putting it. Security guards with M-179 achilles tech rifles, Millitech were made with algorithm and machines that new the position of each screw to the millimetre. My weapon, the burya was slapped together in a factory and held together by dreams. The achilles was the weapon used to drill a hole in a psycho and the tank they drove in on. The worst part was they weren't my biggest worry. The heavy machineguns armed on the bipedal security mechs were. In a world of rail canons and smart guns the heavy machine gun showed how effective the bullet was. All it needed to do was make a human fist sized hole in your body, followed up by the other 9 rounds in the very same second. A man on the exit of the building had their scanner flash red, a shutter slammed in front of them. Any claims of innocence were ignored, while the man couldn't even put his feet on the floor, the guards on each arm. I didn't hear a gunshot, which was at least positive as he was thrown into the elevator. The suits were all making their way to the moving metal cages to take them to the floor's they were permitted to access. My artificial voice box made the sound of a whistle without expelling recycled air at the receptionist's desk, leaning on it. They were gorgeous. Arasaka hired people for konpeki plaza occasionally doing shifts at the main building. A gold-plated shell that accentuated every curve. It was primal, I knew it. Wide hips and muscles. I couldn't look away, Synth hair never fell out, and those blue eyes were unfaded by the age, that I had no idea what it was. The lips pouted.
"Yes?"
"Is Tanaka still in today?" Her fingers reached out, dextrously pressing into the screen, without the delays of flesh with each tap releasing some serotonin into my brain.
"He's in his office. Anything else?"
"When do you get off?"
"I'm sorry Sir I've just clocked in. Shall I tell him you're coming up?"
"Sure, he's not got any meetings right?" The labs below but due to the nature of me and the others that survived. It was close to counter intelligence, up top where the A.V's could get to it. Floor 33. I didn't know the old boss, but the fact that people preferred Okada of all people running this floor, the boss before must've been worse, somehow.

The receptionist desk was marble, and the floor was an attempt at art deco. At least I think it was. It was black with white lines winding across, it was random. I'd seen the aesthetic a few times in people's apartments, I had about a few seconds before they started shooting, my experience was a glance. Tiny tree's were in back windowsills that Okada had implemented, each one showed a different place, an ocean or bright fields. A close exception and you could see the pixels, not that anyone did. The people were already yelling. I'd never been on the stock market floor but after being told that it was somehow more chaotic. It was hard to believe watching interns deliver coffee, to office's quick scans revealed them as Arasaka academy alumni. The academy couldn't prepare them for the floor shaking. N.C didn't suffer earthquakes. I could see through a glass wall the coffee on the table vibrating, edging closer to the table's step with every bang. I looked up to see a samson.
"Careful, might crick your neck." No suit would fit Four, he was 8,5 feet with the two excavator's on the side of his torso as wide as my head, with one hand able to shatter bone. I punched his stomach, he didn't even budge, while he sent me flying into a wall. I laughed and leapt to my feet clapping my hand.
"New Record?"
"What's that make us? I stopped counting after I knew you'd never win." An Intern had spilled his coffee dodging the projectile that was me.
"Came to see the Doc?"
"Called me." It was impossible to read Four's expression. He lacked the features of a human like eyebrows, lips, hair or skin. It was looking at a filled in skull with the jaw of an action hero from last century. His voice as well was that of a machine. Four remembered that he was he
though. "Apparently last night he got a little shell shocked."
"He tell you about it?"
"Not enough. It's a personality chip, y'know how a doll can act a certain way? Except it's hard coded in."
"Only works on dolls, not our problem."
"Or someone chromed up enough." Four ruffled my hair. "I'm meant to go looking."
"Quit doing that because I'm smaller."
"And younger." It was hard to tell Four's age, but I knew that the body he currently inhabited was older. He would be in his office, it was Tanaka I needed to talk too, throwing the door open to see him hunched over his desk, fingers moving too slow, face lacking any reaction, aside from groaning a greeting.
"You alright?"
"No." Tanaka rubbed his temples. "I removed your recordings, but that girl. A year of her life gone?"
"And? She was a doll. It's not like she was a doctor or rocket scientist."
"She is a person, Six. I ruined her life. I designed that chip." Tanaka pressed his head on the table. The Bonsai plant could offer all the Feng shui it would. Tanaka was Japanese though, even if the person who bought the tree didn't know. I'd seen him like this today. "Secure your soul, that's what we were told. I was replaced with the relic." Tanaka pulled his head up. Tanaka pressed a button on his computer, red lines filled my vision with my head having needles poked inside of it. I dropped to a knee, repressing a scream in pain, chewing the inside of my cheek. "You wanted to see me?"
"That chip, Four. I want answers."
"It was meant to have a personality construct. After the prototype relic went missing last year and the uprising in clouds. Arasaka told me to change my direction. It doesn't explain how it got leaked though."
"That's what Four's on?"
"Yes."
"This is trouble doc."
"I've worked here long enough to know that. They say every year served here is a log added to your cremation pile."
"You're deciding to skip straight to the Gasoline? Want me to add to the fire."
"Keep Jade safe." I shared a room, a weapon to sell. I could visit Four in between. I shook my head. I brought it up with Tanaka, but He was at his desk. It would be a lot more exciting to find out overrode the doll in the first place. I went over it in my head, a way to make Jade Safe would be to find out how this happened so it wouldn't again. I just had to see Four.

Four's office wasn't like mine. His was larger, to accommodate for his figure, the bench had structural support. The keyboard was extra-large to accommodate for his giant fingers. He was watching footage from a year ago, the man's office when there was a C.C.T.V glitch in the centre. The timer jumped forward a minute. That was One and a half humans exterminated, showing up dead in Night City. The statistics didn't factor in missing swine.
"A minute, localised." R&D didn't go on lockdown, there was nothing from Netwatch."
"And?"
"It came from inside. Security, you coming with?"
"They love me down there." They didn't love me down there. A few too many times in the shooting range, in my free time testing the firing range and wasting the ammo on targets I knew would be drilled between the eyes. It didn't help that I invalidated their job. Stories of 77 the security team was replaced after a psycho stormed Mikoshi. Counter intel was for the knife in your back. Security for the bullet to the head. The cage's had assault rifles behind them, the quartermaster looked up to me, her eyes never left me. Security slid open revealing a panopticon of cameras. A net runner was sat in a chair in the centre. Overwatch. The interface was rubber coated tendrils hanging from the ceiling, plugged into various ports of Overwatch's skull. Their mouth lay slack, Eyes constantly focussed faster than I could keep up with. Their eyes that represented a file, tiny hexagons where pupils should be, each one an image on the computer. Her body twitched, the tight net runner suit had flaps open for more plugs, attaching the woman to the chair. This was only one of the panopticons, there were others for every thirty floors.
"So." I leaned against the chair, staring at the screens. "Think she can help?" unaware of our presence. I poked her cheek, the hexagon's focussed on me.
"What."
"We got some missing footage from last year. Need you to look through it. R&D a Mr Simmons cubicle Noon." The eyes went blank for a second.
"No, there is no data there."
"Did we find out why?"
"No."
"Outside?"
"Corrupted."
"The elevator."
"A blurred face."
"Send the footage to me." I kicked the door.
"So we got nothing." Four's eyes glowed blue when receiving the information, the file to be stored inside his hard drive.
"We got a puzzle. Just need to piece it together. Need a netrunner is all. Arasaka can't crack it, so we go outside. That's where you come in."
"You think Jade can help?" I shook my head and Four must have loved it, slapping my back as I heard his laugh.
"If you think anyone in N.C's going to talk to the bogey men of Arasaka no less, give it a go. It'll be fun to watch you be humbled." All our cyberware, if it wasn't Arasaka made, it had the brand on it. It was important to ne sneaky, but to send a message people needed to know who was wielding the sword.

Jade wasn't at my apartment. My plan offered very little ways for me to contact her. I didn't think I'd need to, that was my mistake. When Arasaka wanted to find someone, they did, It made it easier when they knew where they were staying. Megatower apartments had one door in and out, Jade had no reason to believe she was being tracked. Four had manged to follow the trail, to a second amendment on the same floor as me. The weapon I gave her on sale. Her movements were to a clothes store then Joe's diner. The chain's looked the same but the one in the city centre had the luxury of being the first. It was sandwiched between two skyscrapers, while Joe's still maintained it's antique aesthetic. A silver oval, with steps leading up. It tried to appear as a diner from over a century go when Soda was pop. Four had to open the door, the small bell dinged as I was met with the smell of burned ersatz coffee that was constantly on the pot. Coffee was Coffee, The best way to hide the lower quality ingredients to burn them. The amount of people in the diner made very little sense. The waiting staff looked between each other chrome wasn't uncommon, I could spot fashion ware. Metal faceplate's and someone even had a tail. They all appeared human though. Four's face lacked certain features, like a nose and ears. I was tired of waiting. I could see Jade on the coffee table, still in my coat. The navy jeans and combat boots were at least more practical than that fetish ware from before. The stools next to her free.
"Need your help." She was shoving her mouth full of pancakes, making the mulched I didn't even want to know what they were really made of in her mouth. It was soon out of her mouth, speaking with her mouthful.
"I'm eating"
"I know."
"Let her finish." Four sat down next to her and offered the woman a hand. "Sam." Jade nearly choked, I patted her back, her death wouldn't benefit anyone.
"Sam?"
"Yeah, Samson model. People like names." Four gave a toothless smile, but that only made Jade tremble. They weren't a predator, but even in the presence of a tiger, meerkats had to be careful. All the rodents around, heads peeked up towards the metal tiger, just in case he decided to hunt. Jade managed to clear her throat, clearing it with coffee.
"Sam? I'm not really interested."
"We'll pay."
"I'm interested."
"We need a net runner a good one."
"Search the Afterlife."
"Six An I ain't looking to die soon."
"It's a bar, but they ain't exactly kind to corpos."
"Makes sense." They started to talk, planning a way in. They'd tell me when they needed to. I couldn't distract myself from the eyes on Sam, and me. The normal Gemini borg was indistinguishable from human to the naked eye, I wasn't the regular model. My head was the appearance of being organic, but everything else was metallic. A few people got up and left at the sight of Four and I together. The man behind the bar leaned over, wearing a white shirt with the same-coloured apron, blood was a pain to get out of white, from experience. These were the wrong colours to wear in N.C.
"Are you two going to eat?"
"No, we don't eat."
"Then get lost. This is a restaurant, and you're scaring my customers?"
"I'd like to think I'm not as ugly as you." I stood up. We'd need to get a bar. That meant hailing a cab. Tanaka already sent a message; A truck was on the way. Four followed outside and shook his head.
"Ugly, really?"
"I'm not good at insults. His fault."
"Ful body conversions aren't just expensive. Lucky you got the Gemini, don't have to crouch under every door."
"You could swap out chassis, you're close to making bank right?"
"Nah. I already traded one body. Would I still be Sam if I got another?" My hand tapped Sam's head.
"So long as you still got that."
"I'm just a brain in a jar." Four managed a smile, or the closest thing he could to it.
"My favourite brain in a jar. Four, or Sam. You decided that. Your brain." Four wrapped his arm around my neck and scrubbed his knuckles on my hair. I tried to slip out but had to stay there until he decided to free me. I had to straighten my hair.
"Thanks. If it helps, Fives is a dick." Four tilted his head, eyes sparked blue as he received information. "You check out Afterlife Mate. Tanaka called me back." Four smacked my chest, enough to cause me to stumble, a way of saying goodbye. He was fast enough to run through the city centre. Axle's truck was quick to respond. Jade had to sit between us, only three seats in the front.

The truck was cramped, Jade made a fuss about her seatbelt. A collision at 70 M.P.H would have added something to the crawl. Morro Rock radio was playing in the background as we crawled forwards. Axle leaned out the window, able to see the bridge connecting Watson to Westbrook, that was full. I struggled to compute under the noise. It was a block of traffic where the grey tarmac had vanished under a sea of multi-coloured cars. A gunshot rang out a few cars infront, the people in close proximity screamed, running out their vehicles. The others stayed in their car. I was hoping the corpse wasn't in our lane. Axle tuned the radio to night city radio when US cracks came on.
"Lazpop scop."
"Put it back on." I turned the dial back to Night city Radio he changed it to morro rock. I swapped it to Night City. Morro, Night, Morro,Night. Jade banged her head against the radio.
"Right. I choose!" She switched to royal blue. The rest of the trip was Jazz. The van inched forwards. Axle exhaled, staring out the window.
"Eye spy with my little eye, something beginning with W."
"Really?" Jade raised a brow?"
"Water." I was bored.
"No."
"Wheel."
"Yep, your turn Six." I smirked. My optics were far superior to the human eye. I zoomed in and searched through the city, looking for something that no one would be able to guess.
"Eye spy with my little eye, something beginning with L."
"Light."
"How'd you know?" Axle was the first to get it. Jade was forced to listen to us go back and forth. It was a distraction, better than waiting until we managed to park near the Afterlife, next to a Quadra-type 66 Mistral. Custom and expensive. It was the only clue. Watson was mostly concrete concealed under waves of graffiti. Afterlife didn't have a line. It was early and Jade was first down the steps.
"Just be cool, alright?"
"As a cucumber." Axle spoke up. The entrance to the Afterlife was that of a morgue. It did used to be one going through the history quickly, while the bouncer let Jade and Axle through. The man was a lug, a skin version of Four. Emmerick Bronson by the scans. He held a handout.
"No Arasaka."
"That obvious."
"Beat it kid." My trigger finger twitched. The bouncer shoved me. The vision began to spark, as I reached for my medication. The Dog was barking, A Jade had to do was find the netrunner. I shook my head, the afterlife A spark flashed in my vision. I'd been here before. I think. I turned around and stared up at Bronson.
"How much do I have to pay you to get in?"
"Can't be bought. Afterlife is for mercs, old and new, not some suit looking to hire." I looked past Bronson and watched the door's slide open, for a man to head out. I jerked one way and quickly turned to the other, Bronson was fast though, grabbing onto my shirts sleeve. "Don't." It was happening faster than I saw it, my movement missed a few frames. I raised my foot, pushing the animal through the door, tearing off my shirt. I had access into the Afterlife, empty at this time of night except for a few drunks that didn't get the hint to go home and the odd fixer. Bronson maybe punched me. It stopped in an instant when all guns in the room pointed to me. Bronson was bleeding. I was, damaged.
"That was stupid." The voice growled as I turned towards a grey-haired woman, her yellow shirt had the one rule for life inscribed on it. Survive. Her mid riff showed of her cyberware and leather pants hit the rest, were it not for her grey hair, and weathered face. She'd appear in her mid-thirties. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't zero you." I shoved my hand through her chest, I lifted her into the air, staring into her eyes. That face, why was I? The static began to consume my vision, starting at the edges. No. I had to stop it. Colour began to fade in, feeing the hypo stim stab into the port in my arm. I stared down the rifling the Survivor thinned her eyes at me. "Got no idea who you just barged in on do you?"
"No. My friends and I are looking for a Net runner, work. I wasn't going to let a lug like him stop me."
"How are you not dead."
"You tell me." I shouldn't be grinning, but if she pulled the trigger, I'd be dead, or it might be a lot of fun. This was danger, real danger. Trained mercs surrounding me. My Career could be over in an instant or thrown to new heights.
"Names Rogue, learn it. Claire put him on the board." She holstered her pistol. "Next time you talk to Bronson, Listen."
"Ma'am he's a corpo." Bronson cricked his neck and stared at me.
"Did they pay you out?"
"Tried to."
"And when you said, they found another way in. I know corps, they'd have offered more. What's your name merc?"
"Six."
"Claire, put them on the board." Claire nodded and climbed up, to the blackboard above the bar, names sketched in. VI drawn at the bottom. Axle was the bar ordering a drink, He wrapped his arm around me, trying to pull me close, but all he did was step into me.
"Look at that, On the merc board."
"Merc board?"
"It's where we put new solo's with potential. After V, well Rogue had it put in, see if any young blood could be legends, if they get to the top, they get a drink."
"I don't drink."
"It's for everyone else!" Axle sighed and banged his head on the counter, nearly spilling his luminescent liquid. He licked the droplets off the side of the glass, sipping on the front. "Tell you what, a placeholder. Overproof Rum, Hot sauce from hell, Chilli flakes, Lime juice, and vodka."
"Sounds gross."
"It is." I had to push Axle out the way.
"We need a net runner, where can we find one?" Claire reached out and plucked Axle's glass from his hand before he hit the floor. Scans didn't show a drop of cyberware, but medical records revealed Clare was not always Clare. I hadn't always been Six. It wasn't worth digging into. The speed she moved, with her fingers dextrous, despite them being worse for the job, polishing glass.
"My shifts almost up, but Rogue maybe?" I already wasted time, while Axle had made and brought a drink. Jade tapped her finger on the counter, I could hear the tap speed up as I approached Rogue in her booth. The muscle stepped in front, taller than me but sized rarely mattered when his stomach was so soft.
"Weyland, don't bother. I don't want to put them down."
"Try it, I'm not a dog." Weyland smiled, Their eyes replaced by a strip of metal inserted into their meat, carbon fibre arms, with orange wires crawling up the back of his neck, stabbing into the back of his neck. His smile was golden, from the teeth and nothing else. It was Jade who stepped to my side.
"We're here for Rogue choom." Weyland laughed and stepped to the side. Rogue was smoking, not caring that it was illegal still to smoke inside, removing laws from old America were harder than ignoring them.
"Going too have trouble making friends."
"Don't need them." Rogue's smile was wide, stubbing the ash out. "I know a net runner, well ex, out the business. Ex-Arasaka, though she's got a problem with them. This info ain't for free as well, I'll be asking a favour." I nodded my head Rogue's eyes glowed blue, somewhere on the edge of the city, Arroyo.

It wasn't a region I was familiar with. It seemed every few blocks there were construction equipment and bulldozers, the old was replaced with the new, houses were shadowed by massive apartment blocks, The fringes of N.C made the city centre look like its own country. The little island sparkling with advertisements, and structures that pierced the sky acting as borders. There was nowhere you could stand and see all of NC, unless you were looking from space, It was down here that I had not seen from my megatowers, concrete roads that made the truck shake, 6th street, with assault rifle's on their back patrolling the street, watching the children play on the giant tubes for power, snaking around buildings. People left prefab houses that risked tetanus if they weren't careful. It was at the end of the road with a giant pothole that the directions lead us to a redbrick house in the shadows of a titanic pylon. It's windows bricked up, but I could see the C.C.T.V camera flash red as it followed me. I didn't waste any time kicking the door down. It was as far as I got. My head burst. Concussion, stress. All parts of the brain affected by ache had a short circuit, power flashing on and off, All neurons, heading up and blown as they very act of thinking became difficult. I was left numb, falling forwards.