Edge of Cryses 3 - (Cyberpunk x Crysis)

It was late at night and Maine knew that he should be in bed by now.

It wasn't just Dorio's constant prodding with messages that reminded him that, but the fact he felt his own brain close to shutting down with the kind of shit he was dabbling about. Digital documents can be tedious to tackle, especially when it was about potential partnerships with those that could give his crew a steady source of missions to go through.

Money was money, yes, but there were too many backstabbers in Night City for the big man to just pick the most lucrative offer and ignore the many catches of each contract. The worst ones were actually those from legit corpos. 'Saka and Militech were by far the least trustworthy considering their 'no loose ends policy' that they tended to respect to the letter.

Maine had lived through the system long enough to not trust anyone he cared for into it. Hell, he would probably spare Pilar that sort of shit too despite how mad of a gonk the guy was.

Still, there was a reason he was struggling with this seemingly unwanted situation: they got a new member in the team. And Sasha had vouched for her entry.

Lucyna 'Lucy' Kushinada was, by all means, a good deckhead. Fancy quality of service, cheap price, and a pretty gal. Maine had given her a test and... she didn't disappoint in ruining the day of some Arasaka's enforcers in town. They didn't even manage to track them down as the girl had promised.

She was a little gold goose as far as the guy could tell, but she was still a pricey investment and... his gang hardly produced the kind of eddies needed to sustain that new addition. The deals available, those of the safe kind, were not enough to keep things afloat. They needed to munch more work to get the greens needed.

And as he was losing his patience over how many hours he wasted there when he could be busy fucking his girlfriend, Maine's still-bio brain picked up something that made sense to him: put Sasha to work for it.

Since the silly brat had decided to play hard ball for Lucy's entry, it made fucking sense she was the one to work to fix this mess. And, without wasting time, he opened a call with the girl.

Maine: Sasha.

Sasha: ...Yeah? Busy~.

Maine: Sleeping or fickling the bean?

Sasha: *Gasp* That's rude, boss and... I plead the Fifth.

Maine: Shit was dropped decades ago. Still, I have a task for you. You have to find a way for us to pay Lucy.

Sasha: Isn't that your job?

Maine: It was also *my* job to pick who gets in the group, but you made the mess. Fix it now.

Sasha: *Groan* That's so duuuuumb. But... I guess I will work on it. Tomorrow~.

Maine: Sasha, if you don't get that done, I will just send the transcripts of this call to your boy-toy and-

Sasha: Fine, fine! I'll do it. No need to be a bastard about it and... boss?

Maine: Yes?

Sasha: Dorio sent me a private message. She says to tell you she is readying the strap-on and... Boss! I didn't know you were into that-

Maine cut the call there, stiffly standing up and muttering 'shit shit shit' as he bolted to bed. Luckily for him, he got there in time before his girl finished putting on that hellish tool, and he was glad that he wasn't getting pegged for 'skipping on good sex'.

The last thing he needed was to get hassled with some chore he didn't ask for and be pegged for it.

Luckily for him, Dorio wanted to be the one pounded, leaving his ass safe for another day.

Alcatraz woke up at 4 and did a bit of training from 5 to 6.

It was around the time he was done showering and walking out of the bathroom that David stumbled forward, getting his turn cleaning up as he had school today. Gloria was already mostly ready, having patched a small breakfast for him. She had offered to make it better since they got more 'eddies' to use, but the former US marine was fine eating just enough for his metabolism.

Mother and son soon left the flat for them to get to work and school respectively, while Alcatraz lingered for another hour in the flat. He got his mind ready for another workfull day, and then was off for Afterlife. The walk was the same as usual, lengthy and sometimes tedious.

Crime-sighting was rather common in Night City, but he was glad that 'intervening' was something allowed by the law and gave him the chance to make the streets less unruly. It was a curious way to distract himself and to get his mind geared more for another hitjob or two.

As he got to his destination, Alcatraz took to seat by one of the tables, glad that Sasha was not around to nag him at this time of the day, and he started to check for jobs. Most around were low-tier ones. Nothing that truly caught his fancy, but he wasn't too picky.

He got two or three of those and-

"Jimmy~!"

Well, so much for hoping.

"Sasha."

The girl beamed at the greeting, but Alcatraz spotted someone else with her. And he really hoped whatever cyber-god existed that she wasn't a new fan of his.

"So, I need to introduce you to this wonderful deckhead. Jimmy, that's Lucy. Lucy, this is-"

"The guy that has one of the fanciest suit around," Lucy interrupted, appearing intrigued by the nanosuit. "Still, nice to meet you... sir?"

"Call me James."

"Or Jimmy," Sasha quipped, giggling at the flat look she got from Alcatraz. "Still, I have a little big favor to ask."

...That didn't sound great.

"That is?"

"You make lots of eddies, right?" The dark-haired smug girl 'inquired'. "So, I was thinking you could be a nice guy and kind of... mentor Lucy here for a while. Just so that my crew is ready to get her."

"I thought that it was a matter of space," Lucy pointed out and Sasha huffed.

"Space for money, girl. I guess that adding a new member can be quite tough for our finances just now. But! We're working on that."

Lucy didn't sound too convinced, but she wasn't the only one with grievances.

"Do you understand I have to pay people too between living in a flat and handling groceries?" Alcatraz pointed out, but Sasha shrugged.

"Don't you get more eddies with missions asking for two or more people as guarantee?"

Sasha was not completely wrong with this counter. It was true that those missions needing more people as a guarantee of success tended to pay more, but the individual payment was hardly above what others would get from solo missions.

Still, while it was fair for him to say no and spare himself the chances of this being a trap of sort, Alcatraz was aware through hours of research on the topic that reputation over handling 'crews' was something noteworthy just as much if not above eddies.

If you have the respect or the friendship of groups, it meant that you could ask for help when needed. And while he wasn't seeing any worry in the near future, Alcatraz was pragmatic enough to see the potential dangers of unpredictable surprises.

So, despite common sense asking him to say 'no', the man sighed.

"I will give it a try. If she or I find this deal unsatisfactory-"

"Then it's over," Lucy confirmed with a nod, agreeing with a tentative test.

Sasha beamed and proceeded to give him a tight neck-hug. After that awkward development and after Sasha left for her own chores, Lucy and Alcatraz spoke of shares.

Alcatraz would provide her with 45% of the money, while he would retain 55%. It was the 'safest bet' for Lucy considering that a 50-50 deal compelled a full trust between the two that didn't exist. Maybe she would have appreciated it earlier, but she was in agreement with the fair splitting of the money.

Still, the girl was surprised when Alcatraz picked five missions. Three solo ones for her to do as 'testing grounds' and two they were to do together.

The first solo mission was about getting some chips from former workers from a local pub nearby. The targets had been fired after being caught stealing money from the digital account, so it was safe to assume this was as legit as possible. A walk in the park for Lucy, but it wasn't the end of her busy workday.

Alcatraz's second mission was less optimal as it involved a cyber-psycho. No one too dangerous, but it was clear that netrunning wouldn't do as it would risk her own mind. Her Unity handgun was what she needed to get a clean kill off the cyberpsycho and cash in the eddies she was owed. Yet, Alcatraz didn't spare himself from a comment.

"You took too long to aim."

This wasn't an attempt to lessen her good efforts, but rather a genuine detail that Alcatraz picked up while watching her at work. Lucy frowned, but didn't think much of it as they moved on to the next mission. The third solo one was actually... lame.

Someone was paying them lots of Eddies to find a cat. And the worst part was that Lucy couldn't rely in either Netrunning or violence to get through this mission as quickly as she did with hte previous ones. It took her a solid hour to find the feline, and the thing was just perched somewhere by the alley it was reported lost into. Hidden away behind some boxes, almost smugly doing so to irritate her.

Alcatraz was quite aware his new partner was getting annoyed, so they moved to the 'real meat' of this day: the two duo missions. Both were pretty straightforward: cleaning two small teams from the Maelstrom and the Tyger Claws respectively.

Lucy was a bit baffled to see Alcatraz in action, stunned by the quiet ferocity as he took care of the Maelstrom squad, and she was a bit uneasy as she had to do most of the work with the other squad. It was a slugfest, but neither of the two got injured in those two instances.

"It was fun," Lucy admitted, more allured by the highly-paid tedious tasks than genuinely 'killing off people'. "But... what do you mean my aim is off?"

"You took to long to take that shot in the solo mission, and then you were taking too much time killing off your targets in the other jobs."

That was something Lucy regarded with a scowl. "The aiming software is not perfect-"

"Which is why you should be the one tending on that flaw. Stuff like softwares and boosts are tools to enhance yourself, not put your body and mind in a crutch or many."

The sharp advice had her rolling her eyes, but it was a constructive criticism she could get behind. Before splitting, the two agreed on what work hours to deal with, and Lucy smiled as she got a good deal through a morning-only routine.

Still, despite all nicety and positivity, Alcatraz' mind wandered off to one perplexing detail about Lucy. The girl looked incredibly intrigued by the nanosuit, a reaction far stronger compared to the average netrunner noticing it.

Maybe he was looking too much into it, but it almost felt like she had it... recognized or something like that.

Shrugging at the impossible thought as no one in the world had something similar to the nanosuit, Alcatraz walked back 'home' to get some good lunch made by Gloria.

AN

Alcatraz becomes... partner? Or maybe... nah, there's no pairing. But these two will have a tight bond together. One may say that it's going to create some hilarious scenes when David meets Lucy and ends up in a romantic situation with her.