Chapter 46: School Days
Two people were looking through the town's cameras to see some troublemakers appearing within the city. "Seems like we got rats here," the woman said.
"They are not from here. The spread of the virus should have wiped everyone out unless they were naturally immune to it," the man said.
"We need to correct this Mr. Fade. Being the mayor, you should have been more careful about deploying the virus in mist form into the city," the woman said.
"Director Mimi Seung, this was needed to cover up what happened here. We need to secure our data and get out of here," Mr. Fade said.
"No, I need to push my research. I am not done yet, our robotic forces are maintaining control over important company complexes," Mimi said.
"Hopefully the hordes will wipe them out," Fade said as they continued to monitor the situation.
Elsewhere Rebecca is in her bed with Cortez embracing her while sleeping. "That felt nice," she said as she got out of bed to kiss him on the lips.
"That's adorable you know," Rebecka said to watch by the door.
"So, got a problem with that?" Rebecca asked as Rebecka laughed at this.
"Come on big sis, I am just fucking with you," Rebecka said as she was only in a white sports bra and sky-blue boy shorts fitting her pear-shaped petite body.
"Looking good there," Rebecca said playfully patting her butt as Rebecka giggles at this.
"Hey, right back you big sis. I got my big butt from you," Rebecka said as Rebecca is wearing a black strapless bra and black panties fitting her curves.
"Damn straight little choom," she said as she felt Rebecka pat her butt to make her jump.
"Oh, you still think I look nice with these all over me?" Rebecka asked as Rebecca could see her burn scars were all over the right side of her body. From her face to her feet, they look quite nasty compared to her smooth skin elsewhere.
"Oh boy but still. You are pretty, regardless," Rebecca praises her as Rebecka's heart is singing from this.
"Really?" she asked, being happy to hear that from Rebecca.
"Yep, I bet some guy would love your scars. Adds character," Rebecca said as Rebecka nodded her head.
"Of course. This was the result of a choice I made despite going against my orders by the RGI. Saving recovered data but they told me not to save the people in the burning building. I did it anyway and got these burns as a result," Rebecka said.
"Regret it?" Rebecca asked.
"Nope, not at all. I wear it like a badge of honor to show I am who I am. Then afterward. I escaped the RGI here and went out to seek you out. My real family," Rebecka said.
"Like a real cyberpunk just like your big sister," Rebecca said.
"I guess so," she said.
"So how is your chrome?" Rebecca asked.
"I have all your Bioware and cyberware except a few options. Dragon Silk Skin weave, Second Heart, pain editor, shock absorber legs, boost jumping, bionic joints, and enhanced lungs along with enhanced antibodies and Adrenaline Rush Mod. I have new stuff like thermal Mantis Blades, Warp Dancer Sandevistan, and Optical Camo," Rebecka shows off her mantis blades with the blades being red hot.
"Cool as hell," Rebecca said with stars in her eyes.
"Thanks," Rebecka said as she made herself go invisible along with her heated blades.
"Preem work," she said as Rebecka had a goofy grin.
"I did a good work, putting this together. I love using this Sandy, it's very unique," Rebecka activates it to give her increased speed and reflexes. Rebecca watches this to see this Warp Dancer is much weaker than David's Apogee Sandy.
"The Warp Dancer is much slower but it offers good defenses. It's a Sandy/Berserk hybrid," Rebecca said.
"Very smart, you get a gold star," Rebecka said.
"Can I get extra credit?" Rebecca asked lightly.
"Why yes you can get them at the end of the class," Rebecka said as they were bonding with Cortez, Stella, and Klunk were looking from afar.
"That is so cute," Stella said.
"Rebecca is even happier than before," Cortez said.
"Being a big sister did give her a different outlook on life," Klunk said.
"A big sister," Stella wanders a bit. "Sasha," she said sadly remembering the good times they had in the past.
"Something wrong?' Cortez asked.
"Oh, it's nothing, just thinking about Sasha. Now Rebecca has to be a big sister and hopefully she doesn't feel the despair of losing a younger sister," Stella said sounding a bit sad.
"We should let them be. I need to get my stuff set up,' Cortez said as he and Klunk headed back into their room.
"Yeah, you earn this, Rebecca. Enjoy it," Stella said to walk back to her room to leave the sisters to talk.
"So, you are nomad now?" Rebecka asked.
'Yep. After DreadZone I became a nomad. You will be too when we get back. I will be happy to show you off to the others," Rebecca said.
"Nomads are much more friendly than the RGI ever was. Going on the open road and having the wind in my hair. That feels like freedom to me," Rebecka said.
"That it is. I wonder what it was like when you were an AI?" she asked.
"It's weird. I was born from your neural pathways. Your very memories, give birth to me. I blinked into existence and it's like a ghost looking into the physical world," Rebecka said.
"That is a unique way of seeing it," Rebecca said.
"Yeah, but it is a baseline for me. I have a lot of your traits but I developed my personality even if it's heavily based on yours. All my experiences in these past several months helped me sort out who I am and aided me in forging my soul,' Rebecka said.
"That is good, it would be boring to talk to just me," she said.
"Yeah, that would be annoying," Rebecka said.
"So, you know everything about my past?" Rebecca asked.
"Yep. I know our brother, former crush David, Lucy as well, and your time as an Edgerunner. I am the only one who has deep knowledge of your past besides your lover Cortez," Rebecka said.
"I have changed since those times," Rebecca said.
"I heard about your deeds in Northern California. You are a great fighter and a good woman," she said.
"I wouldn't call myself a good woman but I am trying. My life has been harsh and so many things taken away from me. Now I want to make better choices and become a better woman for my friends, my clan, my love, and now you," Rebecca said feeling very passionate about this.
"You will big sis. One step at a time. Anyway, enough small talk. Time to talk about the situation here. Your friend Stella wants to find out the truth about Biotechnia. You need to seek out the hidden lab deep underground within this island. The hidden lab entrance is within the university here," Rebecka said as she put on her combat bodysuit.
"Good, we can go there after breakfast," Rebecca said.
"Also, Militech was here. They had their airship but it got blown out of the sky by Biotechnia air defenses. Nice way to brighten up this dead city," Rebecka said.
"Seriously, so fast after the pirate stuff," Rebecca said.
"There, they landed here but most of their forces got wiped out by the hordes. They are held in the mega building in the middle of the city. The workers used to live there but the horde got them," Rebecka said.
"I see, well we should be cooking some food for the others," she said as she put on an apron to go to the kitchen to see if she got a stock of food. "You are loaded here," she said.
"Well, this place was stocked before I got here. Then I went off to take food stocks from warehouses. Like they need it anymore," Rebecka said as Cortez and Stella came in with clothing on to greet them.
"Morning guys," Rebecca said.
"Morning, you getting along?" Stella asked.
"Yes, we were having a good time talking with each other. Thankfully we got some good breakfast stuff here. I will cook some rice bowls with cheese, eggs, and maple syrup," Rebecca said.
"Sounds very ghetto," Cortez teased as Rebecca showed a pout.
"Well, I was poor as hell. I had to make do with what I had," Rebecca said as Cortez goes up to up to hug her from behind.
"You are so cute like that," Cortez pressing against her back and putting his hand on her skinny waist.
"Gee, what am I going to do with you," Rebecca looks up at him to playfully poke his nose.
"You make me act up. You look sexy in that apron," he said to slap her ass to make her yelp with pleasure and her ass bouncing in her panties.
"Damn baby, calm down. We can blow off steam later," she gives him a sexy wink.
"Okay, so what is the plan?" Cortez asked to kiss her on the neck.
"We are going to the university. That is where the hidden lab entrance is, all the data you can ask for," Rebecka said.
"Good, I want to find out because this is all a nightmare," Stella said feeling determined to find out the truth of this disaster.
"Preem, once we are done eating our big sis's yummy food. We can get going. I will lead the way. We need to avoid the hordes as much as possible," Rebecka said.
They finished their meal with them grabbing their weapons as Rebecka took her loadout, which is a suppressed Nue pistol, Quasar tech revolver with a red dot sight, and Senkoh LX tech SMG. "Come on, let's get going to the university," she said to lead them into the elevator to get to ground level.
"Let's go, Rebecka," Cortez said as she nodded her head to wield her pistol.
"I will show you where the school is," Rebecka said as Rebecca was beside her younger clone twin. She leads the way with Cortez peeking at Rebecca's backside to have a smirk.
"Lead the way," Cortez said as they went through the streets to see the carnage the Fury Virus or the F Virus is having on the once beautiful seaside city.
"Man, this place used to be nice when company towns are concerned," Rebecka said as she had a frown on her face.
"Yeah, it was. They turn everyone's homes turned into a graveyard," Stella said.
"I hope this doesn't become a trend," Cortez said as his ears picked up something to point his weapon into an alley to check it.
"You see something there?" Rebecka asked.
"I thought I did but you can't be too careful," Cortez said with the sun high in the sky with them going through the empty city only filled with mutants and monsters.
"Yeah, I saw some crazy shit here, Runners and big lizards with teeth and sharp claws aka Dragons. One of Biotechnia's bioweapons." Rebecka said as they saw a bunch of Runners coming down the streets. "Hide," Rebecka said to grab her hand to go into the alley to be behind a dumpster for a crowd of Runners to go by.
"Good thinking," Klunk said as Cortez felt Rebecca's small chest pressing into his arm, she was holding him tight for comfort as he enjoyed the softness of her breasts.
"Damn, not a good time but they feel so good," Cortez thought as he is glowing in the face.
"Something wrong Baby?" she asked looking worried.
"Oh, it's nothing, you are too close," he said as she had a bright smile at this suggestive comment.
"Oh, big boy, you should focus on the task at hand. You can marvel at them later," Rebecca flirted in a teasing tone to give him a sexy little wink to see him uttering a smile which made Rebecca think he is so cute like that.
"Right, okay they are gone. Let's go," Rebecka said as the duo went through the alleyways getting closer to the school. Soon enough they see a bunch of Runners in their way as they are blocking their path.
"Well, it looks like we got no choice," Stella said pointing her gun.
"Yep," Rebecka said. "Remember to aim for the head, better chance to take them down," he said.
"Of course," Stella said as there were ten Runners with her taking shots to score a few hits until a few more shots went through its head putting it down.
One Runner leaps at Rebecka as she ducks under the lunge to let out a few more shots until it's down. She uses her Nue pistol to put powerful .45 Super rounds into their heads to put them down. She pulls out her heated mantis blade to slide up a few Runners in half leaving behind burning corpses.
Cortez is cleanly putting shots into the heads of the monsters with him operating his burst rifle with cutting precision. He avoids a swing from a Runner to put a bullet in its head.
Rebecca is finishing off the last Runner on her end and aiming her Guts at the last Runner to take it down.
"You got some good moves there, little sis," Rebecka said as she looked quite graceful in combat.
"Thanks, I have been training with RGI. They were dumb to dump this training on me," Rebecka said as they saw the path to the school was blocked off by debris.
"Time to move this out of the way," Rebecca said to use her Gorilla Arms to push these heavy objects out of the way. They go into the dark tunnel to turn on their night vision to see a bunch of corpses lying against the walls and blood marking the tunnels.
"What did this?" Stella asked to see claw marks on the walls.
"Monsters," Cortez said to hold on to his VST-37 pistol grip more tightly for them to continue down the tunnels. The four go down the hallways to see vents on the side of the walls with them hearing groaning within the area. They can hear moaning behind the door as they get ready to go inside. "Ready girls?" he asked.
"Yes, I am ready," Rebecca said for them to slip in to see several Runners moving towards them to blast them with bullets putting them down.
One came out of a corner to get the jump on Rebecca to knock her down ready to bite her. "Rebecca," Cortez said aiming his Metel but he tried to aim right so he didn't hit her as well. The explosive round tore into the body to scatter it into bloody pieces.
Rebecka uses her Quasar to put in rapid rounds into the heads and chests of the Runners to see them drop onto the floor.
Stella put swift smart rounds into the heads of the Runners to clear them out. "Gee, they are relentless," she said.
"Very annoying but you will get used to them," Rebecka said as they entered a larger area to see a creature eating a dead animal as it shrieked to leap onto the ceiling jumping around to avoid their shots.
"What is this thing?" Rebecca asked as the creature bounced off the walls trying to slash at them. She dodges its strike but the monster shoots its tongue out to grab Rebecca by the throat trying to choke her out. Rebecka slices off the tongue with a thermal Mantis Blade letting Rebecca go.
"Are you alright, big sis?" she asked.
"Yes, I am fine," Rebecca said as the creature leaped at them for Cortez rolled out of the way to blast its head off to flop onto the ground lifeless. "What the hell is this thing?" Rebecca asked.
"They are Leapers, they are evolved variants of the Runners. When they live long enough, they begin to mutate into other forms. They lose their skin and have exposed muscles. They have long claws which can easily slice through chromed soldiers, have long tongues which can grab or stab and they can cling to walls," Rebecka said.
"That is crazy," Stella said as Klunk was detecting more nearby.
"More inbound," Klunk said for them to turn around to see a bunch of Leapers stalking them in the darkness.
They duck to avoid their leaping attacks as they run away to see more Leapers coming out of the vents. Rebecka turns her Senkoh LX to start shooting the increasing group of Leapers to knock off the monsters from the walls and ceilings.
"So many of them," Rebecca said to shoot back with her Love handgun to nail some Leapers but not kill them.
They rush towards the exit with the groups of mutants leaping and slashing against the walls. "Door," Rebecka said as she held back the monsters with automatic fire for Stella unlocking the door to open it with the others following her.
They both close the heavy metal door tight for the Leapers to slam into the door not able to break through. "Thank goodness, we didn't turn into dog food," Rebecca said with her heart racing like crazy.
"Yeah, let's not be that. This is the gym?" Cortez asked to see if they were within the service room filled with various-sized balls and other equipment for the students.
"Yes, we are inside the gym complex. We need to get to the library. That is where the hidden entrance is," Rebecka said as they went outside to be within a huge gym area.
"So eerie here," Stella said.
"Yeah, this place is a breeding ground for new workers for the company. Raising the next generation of young minds to aid in Biotechnia's labs," Rebecka said as they went to the doors to head for the main building. "Now all the students are turned into monsters," she said sadly.
"Damn shame," Cortez said.
"Nothing but pawns in the end. A horrible way to die," Stella said to see more Runners rush at them. They fire their weapons with Stella seeing a golf cart to hack it and make it mow down the mutants to scatter their broken bodies onto the floor.
"Nice move Stella," Rebecka said.
"I know a thing or two about moving the battlefield to my advantage. I can't hack them but I can at least use the environment against them," Stella said.
"Good to know," Rebecka said as she pulled out her Senkoh LX to go into the hallway for a Leaper leaps at her. She uses her Sandy to dodge the swift attack and slash the Leaper in half with her blade arm. She fires rapid three-round bursts to take out a few Leapers via headshots.
They go into the lobby area of the university to head for the terminal to see where the library is located. "Let's see," Stella goes up to the machine to see if it's a bit glitchy. "Well, I need to hack into this. Give me a moment," Stella said as Cortez could see two turrets hanging on the ceiling to be offline.
He connects with the turrets to turn them on and put them on their side. "Just in case," Cortez said as they heard screams nearby.
"Here they come," Rebecka said pulling out her Senkoh LX SMG to see the doors bust up to see a bunch of Runners getting torn in by the gun turrets.
Cortez triggered a power box nearby to make it explode, taking out a group of enemies. Rebecca uses her guts to blast them apart with buckshots. Rebecka scores headshots with burst fire from her tech SMG.
Cortez blasts them with his PLS with the mini rocket blowing a chunk of enemies with the explosion. Rebecca wields her Blood Bonds to land a ton of body shots and headshots to put them down. She lobs a flame mini grenade to set the mutants on fire to fall onto the floor.
Rebecka fires onto full auto to shred into the enemies. She jumps on top of a pillar to get out of range of their attacks to unload her SMG to mow down more Runners. The turrets click empty and are now unable to fire anymore.
"Well time to clean them up," Cortez fires his auto shotgun to tear into the rest of the enemies to clear out the room.
"Got it, we should go to the second floor and it will be there," Stella recovers the location of the library.
"Time to move," Rebecka said as they kept going to find the stairs but it was destroyed.
"Can't go up there," Rebecca said as Rebecka used a boost jump to use her blades to begin climbing up to the higher level. "Hey Becka," she said.
"Don't worry, I will find something to let you guys climb up. Give me a moment," Rebecka said as she used her suppressed pistol to activate her cloaking to disappear. She sees a few Leapers nearby to land quiet hits on their skulls to take them out without being detected.
She finds a final Leaper to pull out her heated Mantis Blades to use a sneak attack which slices the Leaper in half leaving behind a burning corpse. Switches to her automatic revolver to decloak to find some rope nearby.
"Perfect," she said as a few Runners found her to started rushing at her. "Shit," she charges her revolver to let it rip into their bodies and leave holes behind. She swiftly backs away and uses her blades to slice up the mutant. "Okay, I got rope you can use to climb up here," Rebecka said on the radio bringing it to the broken stairs to toss it down to tie it up.
"Preem work," Cortez said as they got up to reach the second level.
"The library is not too far from here," Rebecka said as they went into the library which is quite large.
"This place used to be a place of learning and now it's a broken area of death and greed," Stella said.
"Look around for a weird book. It's key to reaching the lift that goes to the secret lab," Rebecka said as they looked around for a bit.
"So many books here, I wonder if they got anything good here," Rebecca said.
"Like to read big sis?" Rebecca asked.
"Of course. Sci-fi novels from Phil K Dick are some of my favorites," Rebecca said.
"Oh, that tattoo on your thigh makes sense. Quite interesting, I can recommend you some books," Rebecka said.
"Oh, there is this action-comedy novel series called The Squirrel Girl and the Sword Warriors," Rebecca said as Rebecka laughed at that.
"Oh, that one is funny as hell. You got good taste," she said as she heard a whistling noise nearby. "Oh, a hidden passage is nearby," she said as she found the weird book to pull to see the bookcase slide down onto the floor.
"Perfect," Stella said as they went down a fleet of stairs to be within a room protected by robot troopers and auto-turrets.
"Warning, invaders detected. Kill at once," the robots open fire but Rebecka activates her Sandy to use her Mantis Blades to dodge and deflect bullets. She swiftly slices the robots into burning pieces while she uses her Quasar tech revolver full auto at the turrets.
She appears on the other side of the room as all the defenses are destroyed. "Damn this takes me back," Rebecca said with her remembering David used to do these types of things but Rebecka is way more skilled in this.
"Well, I had gotten all your battle prowess from your muscle memory and my field training as an RGI agent. Let's check this out," she said to go up to the gate which is shut tight.
Stella looks over to the robot troopers for these were the same types that killed her younger sister in the raid of the Biotechnia HQ building in Night City. Stella uses her Kappa to put a few smart rounds into its head.
"Something wrong?" Klunk asked to detect she has stress levels getting higher.
"It's nothing," Stella said as they saw the panel to the gate can't be hacked. There are five slots in the panel.
"Seems like we need master keycards to unlock this. This is the back entrance," Rebecka said.
"Oh, look at this," a strong female voice said on the speaker. "Hello, rats. I am Director Mimi Seung and leader of the research team here," Mimi said.
"Are you responsible for this?" Stella asked.
"Well yes of course. People got to close and I had the mayor of the town drop F Virus into the air in mist form. It infected almost everyone who does not have built-in immunity and let the Runners do the rest," Mimi said with such disregard for human life.
"You are going to pay for this," Stella said as Mimi looked at her through the camera to notice something.
"Oh, you have the same face as that young woman who hacked into our HQ building in Night City. You will share her fate when you fuck with us. As you can see you need five master keycards to unlock this back door to the hidden lab complex under here. I will be watching from here, I have various bioweapons who would love to meet you," Mimi said to cut off the line.
"Damn it, we are going to collect keys again," Rebecca said.
"These are needed to get down into the labs," Rebecka said to grab a piece of paper on the panel to see five locations within Haze where the keycards are being held. "Let's go back to base and rest up. We got a lot of work to do," Rebecka said as they headed out of there to regroup on Becka's hideout for the real mission is about to begin.