As of the 17th of December 2023, I have updated my story, sorry for my old readers it's changed a few things, quite CH 1/2 are practically the same-ish it's only CH-3 where there's diversion from the original idea.

ARROYO/SANTODOMINGO NIGHT CITY/1200 3/9/78

I remembered what a concussion felt like, unpleasant. My body lay on the floor, unable to even twitch, my optics stared forwards to a woman with a blurred face. She broke through the toughest security that Arasaka could have installed, I'd have hoped that I would have lasted a little longer. She was in a dark netrunner bodysuit, with white pants and a jacket over them, that was all I could tell. I tried to use my cyberware, but my scanners were inactive, Arasaka's connection interrupted. I passed out? I couldn't pass out. I rebooted at Arroyo, but didn't know where, my location pinged multiple places across the city.
"Thought I was done with you Saka scum." I felt movement return to my mouth.
"Rogue sent me."
"Shit, she knows where I live."
"The others?"
"Not my problem, you are though. Why is Arasaka as my doorstep?"
""I need you to track something, I'm on my own."
"Where there's one corpo rat, there's more." Her eyes flashed blue, and my system ignited. The feeling of pain came to me, my back arched, my screams distorting becoming more mechanical. My body writhed the crackling jolt of electricity gathering. I clenched a fist. My arm blade ejected; I could see it swipe but didn't know if I hit anything with sparking vision. I lunged forwards and swiped at the Net runner, a second of clarity before landing on my knees in front. I chewed down on my lip. I was slow disgusting human. As I watched the woman back up. There was nowhere to go at least not for her. The building was barren, only a net runner chair surrounded by screens with an Ice bath in the corner, but with no natural light. I had the advantage.
"How'd you do that?"
"Could say I'm special." The body froze now, both mine and hers. The crackle of pain wasn't all The net runner, I felt my chest, clawing at it, my fingers only able to glide along the sleek metal as it warmed up. I fell into the wall for support. My bodies systems crashing, as the batteries were draining twice as fast. I was burning up. My brain tried to search for a way to save me, but my body was too heavy without power. It lacked My vision slowly turning red.
"Ice bath now." Her orders were clear as I stood up, my mind's clarity fighting my body, stumbling as if I could get drunk, it was like this. My breaths laboured, as inside the grill, it became harder to think as the heat risked cooking my brain inside its life support compartment.
"You two, Help!" Axle grabbed my arm and Jade hissed in pain.
"Burned my hand." My body twitched harder to grab.
"His clothes." The body cried out dragged against the floor, my head went numb. I had a mouth and couldn't yell as more and more systems began to shut down. The three groaned when I was lifted up too heavy for two of them. I was thrown into the ice bath sinking to the bottom. My functions were returning to normal, as the freezing bowl of water had become lukewarm. I pulled myself out of the tub, not a single cube of ice floated on the water. I tightened my grip on the bath and managed to lift my body up out the water, which meant it was heavier. I was staying. The blurred woman blew out a plume of smoke, Jade's eyes on me. I was weak, humanly so. I tilted my head back in the metal tub. I needed their help. I smacked the side of the tub, lacking the power to make a bang against the metal bowl.
"David?"
"Names Six. You don't want me dead now?"
"Depends, you gonna tell Arasaka about me?"
"No. I just want a chip decrypted." I revealed the little piece of plastic and metal. "Might need drying off." The runner stepped closer, I felt pressure in my head, nearly dying wasn't enough. I saw a symbol of a bomb in the centre of my vision.
"I left a little gift in your system when you were out cold. Think about ratting me out, I blow your brains." Axle leaned back in the net runner chair.
"What's the name of the lady that tried to kill us only to make us sit on the naughty step."
"Lucy." She wiped the device on her coat and kicked Axle off the chair, slotting the information in. "I have a request, you high up in Arasaka?"
"Not very."
"How much do you know about Mikoshi?"
"Not enough."
"It's gone now, but there might still be a few copies, engrams that were transferred, copied into other storage drives before the crash. I'm worried. I need two things, If David Martinez has his mind soul, then you bring it to me. My second is Adam Smasher, any signs that the bastard has a construct, destroy it."
"Sure, fine whatever." Lucy's eyes darted between imaginary screens; I still couldn't move yet. It was Jade who sat next to me, on the edge of the tub.
"This the Mad Martinez? Stormed Arasaka before going loco. Smasher put him down."
"Tanaka might help. When I can stand." I tried to get out, but Jade placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Take it easy."
"I don't need to, bodies fine."
"And your brain? You nearly flatlined."
"Not dead yet." I didn't have a heart to flatline. Axle was already readying the truck while I called Tanaka. He could get me into Mikoshi, or what was left of it at least. I didn't want to leave these two with the blur known as Lucy. "I need to do this Jade."
"You helped me, let me pay you back the favour." I climbed out the bath and fell down again. My system still rebooting. It was Axle that had to stop me from crushing Jade, his arms able to take my weight without snapping a wrist. It was a gentle descent, he was still struggling
"Your lucky you're not in flames choom, hot as my engine."
"Choom?"
"When an engine overheats, you stop." I understood, but I had to move. My body didn't listen, falling back into the bath. Lucy plucked the recording and stepped closer to me.
"You'll honour your part of the deal?" I nodded my head and Lucy pulled up the recording on the screen. It had to be tampered with, it made no sense. Tanaka's face as he placed the device on a desk and left, only to be picked up by Adrian later that day.
"We're heading back." I had to to stay inside while my body began its reboot.
"Our deal?" Lucy folded her arms.
"Tanaka can get me to Mikoshi, I need him first."
"Get going then. I'll be watching you though." Lucy pressed the air, a button in her augmented reality of a netrunner. My systems were given the green light, as they returned withing a fraction of a second, it was the same as being half asleep to an infusion of ten cans of Nicola replacing my blood. I stepped outside when my notifications began to ring, a backlog of forty-five in the past hour had gone through. Okada's voice screamed at me, there was no option to hang up.
'Where have you been?'
'Recharging, I like to be at a hundred percent.'
'Well are you done? Tanaka has severed Four's connection, they've gone rogue.'
"Is that a joke? Tanaka's Arasaka and Four has a kill switch."
'Their Cyberware is out of our control, we're sending their last known location. Bring Four in alive. We don't want a repeat of subject zero.'
"Tanaka?"
'His contract has been terminated.' She hung up before I could ask how. I inhaled and smacked my head against the wall. There was only one option, I didn't want to hide in a garage forever. Four was going to need to be hunted, Five was hunted by Four, now it was his turn. The difference being, I would bring him in. I stepped back inside; it was kinder to me this time. It was the machine equivalent to nausea. My parts refused to listen to my central processing unit, up was down, left foot forward was instead my right arm. I had restored control to enter a room Lucy stared at me with folded arms.
"My plan?"
"On hold, Tanaka's missing."
"Still owes me." Axle swore and dusted his hands. "Where is he?"
"I don't know. I was hoping Lucy could help us track him down, while our goals align."
"I can tell you That the messages of Arasaka all give a location to the motel on the highway outside N.C." Her data came to me thirty seconds before Arasaka, a mass email, they must have sent others to the motel. Axle was the first towards his truck as I continued. It was Jade that held onto my arm, all it did was drag her along the floor.
"You're just heading straight out?"
"Yes."
"After nearly being cooked by your own system?"
"Yes."
"I'm coming with."
"Why?"
"Make sure you don't burn out." I couldn't argue with her, it would be a waste of energy as she was already in the vehicle. The food truck shook with Axle slid across the bonnet, learned from an old action movie. I could hear them already start to argue but compared to a Delamain or any other taxi for that matter, Axle was far less expensive than either. Lucy chuckled making her way out, her pale skin had ignored the sun for quite some time.
"A crew's something to look after."
"I don't have a crew."
"They seemed eager to drive you."
"While our goals align."
"That's how it works. Keep them safe. A good crew takes years to make, and seconds to-." I didn't listen, as I climbed the front, hearing Jade groan, squeezed between the two of us. Her stomach growled, a sign she was hungry.
"Don't suppose you got actual food?" Jade asked Axle shaking his head. Axle was hungry too, which meant I had to waste time in a drive through, while unable to dry myself with Axle's semi functiona air-con. The Drink'n Drive was the chain that was closest. I could have robbed the place, taken all the fries and burgers. That would have been a thrill, if a little pointless. It would have saved me the time of listening to them decide the burger they wanted, the types of fries and drink. I pressed my head against the dashboard if I turned myself off for a minute. A second? I tried to take away the pain that was only elongated by if they wanted the meal deal for only a few more Eurodollars. Yes, Yes just say yes het she had to think, count out the useless plastic notes, then put them through the machine, it pushed them out, she had to flatten them. In, out the machine wasn't taking any of it. Finally, when it did, we drove round, plastic bags containing the bare minimum to be called a burger they could eat and stop their bodies from complaining. Hearing the wet smack of lips, mulching the food item even more, rotating in their mouth, siding down a slimy fleshy muscle, making thousands of buds register the disgrace that was going down their meat hole. Axle was enjoying it a bit too much. He had to swerve out the way of another car. I felt something damp touch my pants I had managed to slightly dry. I looked down to see the brown sludge that was once between two pieces of bread. The ketchup turned into blood, as the meat began to move. An eye pushed out the amalgamation of synth-meat, turning red as the ketchup/blood ran over it. I swiped it off, but the pant leg still had blood/stain on it. The two were arguing as I heard it again. Their words began to fade as I heard a low grow, it wasn't their bodies, The colour started to drain from the world. I reached for my pocket, I only had one hypo-stim, the rest in my office or at home. I pressed it into my arm, slotting it into the port and pressing it down. The plastic veins able to take it to my brain. The gasp was a reflex, was I asthmatic in my old body? Sound and colour returned. I tried the best I could to hide the hypo from the others. Jade was concentrating on my pants and Axle on the road, they probably saw.
"Sorry choom, I'll get your pants cleaned are they dry clean?"
"No idea." I had to keep it together. The Badlands were ahead, just a strip of road with desert either side and occasionally a motel.

The sunset motel unfortunately one of them. A tumbleweed blew across the faded concrete, I could make out the barely white lines meant to denote where to park. Axle ignored them, when parking, making sure the car was locked when we got out.
"What are we looking for?"
"Tanaka, I imagine he used a room as a rendezvous point. I'll ask, you stay here." The rendezvous point wasn't hard to find, there was a broken piece of door on the top floor and a pile of bodies being thrown into the back of a truck. I stomped forwards but Axle was in front.
"Whoa there. Remember last time you talked to Jade? A silver tongue isn't one of your implants."
"I can threaten them."
"And then we make an enemy. Lemme talk." I nodded. If I needed to find Four, then it was better someone that could persuade meat did it. The woman was throwing bodies into the truck, Arasaka judging by their chrome and the way they were dressed.
"A few bodies, you catch what happened?"
"Whose business is it?" The man stopped for a second taking a break from trying to lift the bodies that were too heavy for him.
"Just curious."
"Curiosity doesn't get me paid." I reached for the corpse on the floor and held it up by the flak jacket. A Masamune lay in the truck. Arasaka's weapon of choice, it didn't stop the body from losing its head. I threw the corpse into the truck.
"Well." Axle gestured to me. "My friend can do the lifting, I just wanna know what happened, was a Japanese corpo involved.
"Alright, yeah him and some cybered up psycho."
"Psycho?" I spoke up. "Cyberpsychosis?"
"Nah, he was keeping the Jap safe. Scrap brains froth at their mouths, ain't even able to speak. This one was speaking. Angry."
"About what?" I stepped forwards my mouth moved faster than my thoughts. "Tell me, tell me now." Axle reached out to my chest and looked back at me. I stepped back, returning to moving the bodies, all Arasaka. Axle pulled out a cigarette, offering it to the worker, lighting it for him. "My friend wishes to know. The jap was a friend of his."
"Why should I help a corpo?"
"You're not choom, you're helping me. See this Saka." Axle turned back to be and wrapped an arm around the worker, stepping forwards, his whispers quiet, but able to be picked up by audio receptors.
"See he owes me some cash, a lot of it too out of the bank of Arasaka itself. I could offer a small sum, but a mighty amount if you're so inclined to tell us were."
"Money first." Axle grumbled, watching as he forked over a cred chip to the man.
"I'll be watching the freeway, in case you plan on heading back to N.C without paying me. I heard yelling, about a farm." Axle patted the man on the back as he slipped it into the back of his pocket. Jade tapped her foot on the floor.
"Any news?"
"Yeah." Axle folded his arm. "For all that cash we learned they might be at a farm." Jade nodded and swayed past us heading towards the worker who finished lugging the bodies into his truck, busy calling a helping hand to dump the bodies while Jade snuck up.
'Searching for Farms in the Badlands, records haven't shown they've left the city. L'
'This encrypted?'
'Arasaka has no idea.'
'Sure?'
'I have experience. I've done this before. You're not the only piece of Arasaka property I've had to hide.' The map on my H.U.D came up with the farms close by along with the C.C.T.V footage of the vehicle they were driving a black van, it wasn't Arasaka. Could it be another corporation? It would have been an A.V. Jade had the wallet in her hand and passed Axle his cred chip, lifting her jacket to reveal that the pistol I gave her was still holstered. It was wise to leave.
"We're looking for a farm with a black van, sound good?"
"We just check all farms?"
"Correct. Hope we can find a black van." Jade hid the wallet she stole. I rolled my shoulders; the worker had given us information and their knowledge were a detriment to us. I had to leave before the driver realised that under all the Arasaka bodies was his boss. It bought us more time when we'd come back, as for now it was checking the farms one by one.

So I was writing This chapter and It turned out to be a long one. I need to get in the habit of letting the story tell itself and not being so silly with "this chapter must have X amount of words. That being said I still want a good chunk for others to read, I am after all just having fun with this.

hope you enjoy, hope you all had a merry Christmas, happy Hannukah or in the even you don't celebrate either a good time. I hope to see you in the next year, thank you for bearing with me through each edit, but I do hope each one brings improvement, as This story at least in my head seems a little more focussed.