Night of Monsters
"Rum and coke order, ready to go!" Johnny Five handed Robin his drink.
"Thanks, Johnny, you're a man among machines." Robin took a sip of his drink.
"Ah shucks, thanks Robin. It's the least I can do for a new customer." Johnny Five's eyebrows moved as though he were smiling. "But if you could do me the favor of asking Becca to tell his brother that if he keeps bothering the customers, he'll be cut off for the rest of the week."
"I will." Robin paid Johnny Five before walking away from the bar.
The Afterlife wasn't the usual spot that Robin would go to hang out. It was by the city center and was constantly filled with Edgerunners and Cyberpunks of all shapes and sizes. Each and every single one armed to the teeth with chrome and guns. It was a good place to get some intelligence with his ants, but he had to play it safe among some of these maniacs. Like a lamb amongst the wolves, he had to keep his head down and move with care. He stepped over a pair of friends having an argument before they pulled out their guns. Excused himself before moving around an older woman enjoying her drink. And finally he spotted the reason why he'd become close to a regular at the joint.
"Woo hoo! Look at me, chooms!" Pilar cackled as he rolled empty beer bottles from one hand to the other, going over his hands and shoulders before going back down. "Come on, send some more my way! I can handle ten-no twenty of these bad boys easily!" Pilar propped the five bottles, spinning on the tips of his fingers.
"Yeah, right, bro. And the other five broken bottles were just practice?" Rebecca smirked, pointing at the broken bottles next to Pilar's feet.
"Oh, screw you, Becca!" Pilar dropped the bottles.
"And that's probably the drop that will make Johnny cut you off for a week, Pilar." Robin walked past the broken bottles.
"Fuck off, monkey wrench!" Pilar flipped Robin off as he sat down. "Johnny would never-"
Robin pointed to Johnny at the bar, who glared at Pilar with disappointment. Pilar looked at Robin in shock before receiving a message from Johnny Five. He was now officially cut off from drinking for a week. He fell to his knees in tears. He couldn't imagine himself staying sober for a whole week, especially not when the crew was planning something big. He quickly ran up to the bar, and started begging Johnny Five to give him another chance.
"Man, my bro is really a wimp when alcohol is involved." Rebecca laughed, wrapping her arm around Robin.
"I think he's just sad he won't be able to make more of his tricks without booze in his system." Robin replied. "So, what are you guys celebrating?"
"Not so much a celebration as just a decompression." Falco took a whiff of his cigarette. "But you are welcome to join regardless."
Robin smiled as he looked around at the rest of the crew, including some new faces he'd yet to meet in person. Maine and Dorio were making out in a dark corner after taking down a couple of shots down their throats. He guessed that those two had a very physical relationship where they didn't pull any punches. And on the other side of the table were the other two women in the crew. Those two were the ones that caught his attention the most.
They were both women, and they each had distant glances that looked at him like he was a poorly edited add on to the picture. They were looking at him while trying to figure him out. Their eyes glowed a bit, either talking to each other or most likely trying to hack him to see what his deal was. Robin couldn't blame them for having doubts about him. He was an unknown that had approached their circle. Even if Maine, Rebecca and Falco spoke for him, they wanted to be sure.
The first woman was older than the other one, with a blonde bob-cut and short bangs, pale skin with a purple hue, red eyes with yellow sclera. She reminded Robin of his old neighbor back in Chicago who always looked at him with mean eyes and little love or care. The lower part of her face was covered by a purple mouth guard chrome piece. Apparently she had decided to remove that part, something that Robin never understood the appeal of. She dressed in a long sleeved, tall collared red coat with a black harness over her chest and a black belt around her waist. Her pants were light pink pants that clung to her like a second layer of skin and closed everything off with red thigh-high boots made of leather. If anything, her look made her stand out as the net-runner of the group or at least the one that took point.
The second woman was a couple years younger than Robin, probably an apprentice or a rookie. She had short platinum hair with light green highlights with her left bangs being longer than the rest of her hair. She had fair skin and gray eyes with small traces of red makeup and lipstick. She dressed in a more provocative fashion with a black one piece suit that resembled a school girl's swimsuit uniform covering most of her body, white booty shorts, an open white jacket that draped around her shoulders, gray leggings and black boots that reached all the way up to her knees. She showed off her hips, sides and shoulders, making her seem more approachable than the other runner. But Robin couldn't shake the fact that she was just if not more dangerous of the two.
"Hey, Kiwi, Lucy, enough with the glares!" Rebecca snapped. "Robin here is my friend and has done wonders for our rides, cut him some slack."
"Um, thanks, Rebecca, but, um, it's okay. I don't wanna cause a scene," Robin said.
"Wow, even with all meat you don't have that much guts, huh?" The older woman asked.
"Easy, Kiwi. He may not look like much, but Robin here is a survivor." Falco said.
"You gotta give him props for actually sticking around with no chrome in him." The younger woman sipped her drink. "Even if some would find that suspicious."
"Nothing suspicious here, um, Lucy, right?" Robin asked, getting a nod from the young girl. "I'm just a guy trying to make a living. I'm not here to cause any waves or get into fights with anyone here." Robin held up his hands as he made sure their eyes were set on him.
As the two women looked at him with mild annoyance, Robin instructed his ants to look around and gather information on some of the words that were being exchanged between them. Bars like the Afterlife were goldmines for information about the movement of gangs, crews, deals between corporations and middlemen, and more than one or two underground illegal actions. His ants had already spotted a few edgerunners that were working a deal with Arasaka and a couple making a deal with Alchemax and Militech. But the Arasaka deals were the ones he paid attention to the most. He'd made note of who they were and where their deals were going to take place. Maybe going out wasn't such a bad idea to begin with.
"So, what's the deal with the rookie?" Kiwi asked, snapping Robin from his thoughts.
"Um, sorry?" Robin asked. "I haven't joined anything."
"Not you, meat." Kiwi glared at him. "Maine, what's this about a rookie? Stop sucking face and explain."
Maine groaned in annoyance, pulling his lips off of Dorio's.
"Turns out the kid is the son of an old friend of ours," Maine explained. "I owe her and so, we're taking him for a spin to pay back some money he unknowingly stole from us. And if he plays his cards right, he'll be part of the crew."
Robin wasn't sure if he should be hearing this conversation. But so far, he hadn't heard anything illegal or some dangerous job the crew was doing. Best he could hope for was that Maine didn't think it was worth shooting him over. But logic and hoping were two things that often were screwed over in Night City. He focused more on Rebecca and their conversation, hoping to sell that his attention was elsewhere.
"So, Rebecca, what's going on on your side of the fence?" Robin asked.
"Not much, a bunch of easy jobs here and there. Shaking a few scrubs, beating up some others, running circles around the Tiger Claws, who have become super boring as of late. Nothing like the detective work we did for that picnic of yours." Rebecca glared at him.
"You'll never forgive me for that, will you?" Robin asked.
"Not until you get a high paying job and we go 50/50." Rebecca glared at him before shrugging off. "But yeah, it is pretty quiet on our side. Though there are some rumors going on. What about you? Work working out alright?"
"Um, yeah, mostly just fixing up cars, a few machines, with the heatwave I've been looking to fix air conditioners, stuff like that." Robin shrugged. "But, um, what are these rumors about? It's not that Arasaka is suddenly going to donate money to an orphanage?"
Lucy laughed at the idea.
"Wouldn't that be something. No, Becca is probably talking about the graverobber incidents." Lucy reached for the back of her head.
"'Graverobber incidents'?" Robin asked, turning back to Rebecca.
"Well, according to some gonks here and there, the hospital morgues have had some bodies go missing. Some claim that they just got up and walked out through the door like nothing ever happened. One of them claimed that they saw a body walking out of the morgue with glowing eyes and half their face burnt to a crisp." Rebecca gulped her drink with a sigh. "But that sounds like a lot of BS. My guess is that a new gang of rippers are trying to score some chrome before anyone else can sell them."
"That's just disrespectful." Falco let out a puff of his cigarette.
Robin agreed with Falco. A lot of people saw death as the best way to stop the suffering and the pain that they felt in life. And to have someone stealing and ripping apart their bodies was just sick. The last thing he wanted was to imagine someone being stripped for parts without getting the proper respect. But if there was someone out there stealing whole bodies, then there had to be a reason for that.
"I wouldn't look too much into it. Some people just want the chrome others have," Lucy finished her drink. "And they don't care if they have to steal bodies to do so. Best stay away from whoever is doing this. And any dark corners if you don't have a piece with you." She looked at Robin, almost warning him that he didn't belong in that world of edgerunners.
"He may not be packing chrome, but his guy is one tough son of a bitch, Lucy!" Rebecca flipped off the netrunner. "You better hope you don't try to pick any wallets near him." She smirked.
Robin wondered why that would be important. His eyes looked at Lucy as she turned away. Then it clicked for him like a match. He'd seen her snatching wallet chips back when he had been searching for Pepe. Huh, small world. But he wouldn't prod or ask her about it. Everyone had their hustles. His hustle just got involved in looking into the rumor of these graverobbers.
It wasn't that he felt compelled to stop them. But if someone was taking chrome and using it for something unethical, there was a chance that Arasaka was involved. Better to be safe than sorry this time. The last thing he wanted was something else popping out in the dead of night or some chrome domed edgerunner running around with dangerous and untested chrome created by Arasaka after being stolen by someone else. The dangers in the dark corners of the city were almost always ready to sprung out, so he had to be ready for whatever may be happening or preparing to go bump in the night.
"Damn it." Pilar slumped down on the couch next to Robin, moping like a scolded child. "Johnny won't give me any booze until next week! Why couldn't this have happened on a Friday or Sunday?!"
"He did warn you," Robin said.
Pilar hugged Robin, crying his eyes out, much to the cringe of the all organic man.
"Pull yourself together, bro." Rebecca kicked Pilar off of Robin. "Geez, you can get drunk at the apartment later. So, what plans do you have this week, Rob?"
"Oh, I'm looking to buy some parts that I'm running low on and maybe fix a problem that one of my customers keeps having." Robin scratched his head. "I might be free on Friday though."
"Nova! I have a few ideas of where we can go and hang out!" Rebecca jumped on top of Robin, pressing herself against him.
"Wow, knowing the guy for a little over a month and you already wanna bang him?" Kiwi asked with sarcasm littering her voice. "Must be a new record for you." Rebecca growled at Kiwi, glaring daggers at her that could kill if she had laser eyes.
"Why don't you worry about your own dating life you old ha-!" Rebecca's eyes went white as sparks shot out of her neck in a short circuit.
"Rebecca!" Robin picked her up as she slumped down. "What the hell?! What was that for?!" He glared at Kiwi as her eyes glowed from the quick hacking and short circuit.
"It's the only way she'll shut up and stop annoying me." Kiwi shrugged before taking a sip of her drink.
"Still, could've done so with a little more tact, Kiwi." Falco chastised the netrunner.
Robin helped Rebecca back to her seat, looking her over. He might not be an expert on chrome or how to deal with short circuits from netrunners, but he had to at least make sure that she was fine. She was still breathing and her pulse was normal, that was a relief. At the very least, this whole thing was no different than being knocked out unconscious from a hurtful blow. She should be fine in a few hours at the most. That was a relief for sure. Though, Robin couldn't shake the feeling that the whole thing was more a threat to him than to shut Rebecca up.
He could tell that his whole existence vexed Kiwi. Netrunners found the edge by hacking and figuring everything out from a distance. Getting in and out of computers in people's brains and systems was their bread and butter. And he didn't have one. Which made him both invisible and unknowable to netrunners. His biggest edge against them if he ever got into a fight with them.
"Well, time to call it a night." Maine and Dorio got up from their seats. "Remember we got a job to do tomorrow. Rob, I'd appreciate it if you could drop off Becca and Pilar back at their place."
"Um, yeah, sure." Robin turned to Pilar. "Come on, Pilar, time to go to bed. Or whatever you sleep on." Robin picked up Rebecca, getting her on his back.
Pilar followed behind him with his head down and tears streaming down his face. Clearly the prohibition of the bar's booze took a larger toll on him than what Robin had expected. Just what Robin had always wanted, being the babysitter to two kids armed to the teeth.
As Robin and the siblings left the bar, saying goodbye to Johnny Five, Lucy turned to Kiwi with a curious look on her face.
"So, you got it out of your system?" Lucy asked.
"Nope," Kiwi replied. "That little meat bag knows how to play his cards close to his chest. Either that or he is too good of an actor for my taste. No one that's as organic as him would be in Night CIty if they don't pack a lot of heat. But, at least that little stunt got him to see we play for keeps."
"Well maybe he does too." Falco added his two cents on the subject.
"Whatever," Kiwi said. "Just remember, you can't trust anyone in Night City. And this guy has too many red flags not to be considered a hazard to deal with."
Robin walked down the street with Pilar moping behind him as Rebecca clung to his back like a baby koala. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it came with two issues. The guy that knew where the siblings lived was barely muttering directions despite being conscious. And the other had to do with Rebecca pressing herself against his back, reminding him that despite her short stack height, she was all grown in the best aspects. Thankfully the black night and the lights kept his blushing from being spotted. It had been years since he'd been with a woman so yeah, he was glad to feel a few things again.
"Okay, Pilar, where to now?" Robin asked.
"Huh? Oh, just up ahead, then turn a right and it's the third floor apartment." Pilar waved his hand like it didn't matter. "Don't worry, I'll open the door. What I wouldn't give to open a bottle right now." He grumbled.
"There, there, I'm sure the week will pass by faster than you can think of." Robin patted Pilar's back.
"Fuck you, meat sack!" Pilar shot up, flipping Robin off. "Just because my sis wants to bang you, that doesn't mean that I have to like you!"
Just as Robin was about to answer Pilar's words, a moan echoed behind them.
"Gaaa…"
Robin and Pilar turned around to see a flickering street lamp and nothing else.
"You heard that?" Pilar asked.
"I did." Robin nodded. "Let's pick up the pace."
"You ain't the boss of me, shit stain!" Pilar snapped.
"Gaaa…"
They turned to the source of the noise once more, only to hear it getting closer.
"Gaaa…"
It was like a raspy breathing that came from someone that had just taken a big gulp of air after almost drowning. It was wet and humid, coming from the throat. And whoever was taking those breaths was trying to say something from the bottom of their soul.
Robin took out one of his metal sticks as Pilar jumped behind him like a scaredy cat.
"Are you serious?" Robin asked.
"It's probably nothing. Let's just go," Pilar said with a cold sweat coating the back of his neck. "It's probably some drunk that just needs to be told off."
"Then why are you hiding behind me?" Robin asked.
"Because, if it was something big and scary, I was going to kick you at it, grab Becca and high tail it out of here." Pilar revealed with no shame. "Come on, you're all meat. For all I know, you're made for sacrificing."
"Gaaa…"
"Then why don't you just call out the 'drunk'?" Robin butted heads with Pilar.
"Gaaa…"
"You want me to do the heavy lifting? Fine!" Pilar stomped towards the flickering light. "HEY YOU ASSHOLE! GET LOST! I AM WAY TOO SOBER FOR THIS SHIT AND I AM IN NO MOOD FOR THIS YOU GONK! SO GO FUCK YOURSELF ON YOUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD!" Pilar flipped off the darkness like he was doing it to some jerk that had cut him off in traffic.
The moaning and breathing stopped.
Pilar turned back to look at Robin with a smug smile on his face.
The light went out behind them only to come back on. …With a figure standing below the light. Robin and Pilar looked at the figure behind them.
It was a pale figure with long auburn hair that covered the figure's face, one twitching golden arm, a torn dress and bare feet. The figure didn't say or do anything for a few seconds. It then took a deep breath in before letting it out.
"Um, ma'am, sir…?" Robin started. "Are you-?"
The figure's head snapped back up with a loud, horrid roar. Her face was now revealed to them. The once womanly and beautiful face of the woman looked rotten, her lips were missing, a knife was sticking out of her right eye, shards of glass stuck out of her chest and her one good eye glowed with a bright sickly green.
Robin and Pilar both screamed in shock at the sight.
The woman rushed at them like a rabid dog, jumping up to take a bite.
Pilar pulled out his gun and fired at the woman's body. But it didn't stop her. She tried to bite him only for Robin to hit her away with his metal stick, knocking off her teeth. But it didn't seem to affect her in the slightest. Her head bounced back, chomping at Pilar's face only to get kicked in the face by Robin. Pilar took this chance to toss her back into the street lamp.
"Fuck you, bitch!" Pilar shot the woman in the head twice, finally getting her to stop moving.
Robin and Pilar panted as they looked at the downed cyberpsycho, waiting to see if it would get back up again. But she didn't.
"Holy shit! Of all the crazy bitches it had to be a cyberpsycho!" Pilar groaned.
"This doesn't make any sense. She didn't even have that much chrome." Robin pointed out. "It-It almost looked like she had a virus inside her." He spotted a chip down next to his foot.
"A virus? What kind of virus is that?" Pilar asked and Robin picked up the chip. "I think she's just a cyberpsycho bitch that just couldn't handle her chrome-and where is she?"
Robin and Pilar looked at the spot where the body was supposed to be, only to find it empty. The lamp light flickered again, only to have the woman appear again with the sickly green glow coming from the rest of her body. And she wasn't alone. Three more figures appeared by her side, staring blankly at the two guys.
Robin didn't know what he was looking at, but it wasn't good. He and Pilar slowly backed away from the figures as their sickly green glowing eyes stared blankly at them. He tried to command any of the nearby ants to get a read on the cyber-psychos, but he was freaking out too much to get a proper thought out aside from the one he managed to word out.
"Whatever you do, don't make any sudden moves." Robin whispered.
"THAT GONKING HAG, KIWI! I'M GONNA SHOOT HER IN THE ASS ONE OF THESE DAYS!" Rebecca sprung back to consciousness, screaming at the top of her lungs. "Um, what did I miss?" She looked at the figures looking at them.
"GRAAAA!"
The cyber-psychos roared at the three of them, rushing after them like a pack of wild animals.
Robin, Rebecca and Pilar ran for their lives as the horde of psychos ran after them. They could feel the beasts growling and chomping at them as they ran for their lives. The sound of their mangled bodies scraping and edging closer to them by the minute made them go faster.
"Gah! What the hell are those things?!" Rebecca snapped.
"The hell if I know, sis!" Pilar jumped over one of the cyber-psychos that were chasing them. "It started with a creepy half-dead bitch that tried to eat me! And not in the hot way! Then she came out with her friends!" Pilar ducked as Rebecca kicked another one of the cyber-psychos away.
"Okay, Robin, less messy edition?!" Rebecca pulled out her pistol and fired it at the psychos.
"They might be cyber-psychos, but I've never heard of multiple psychos in one place let alone working together." Robin swung his metal stick against an incoming psycho, breaking their jaw. "They all are glowing with a bright green goo! So it could be that they were hacked."
"I fucking hate netrunners sometimes!" Rebecca fired at the psychos, shooting one of them in the head and another in the leg. "Take the right turn now!"
Robin and Pilar turned right, running over the bags of trash and dumped trash cans as they escaped the horde behind them.
"Take a left in the alley!" Rebecca pointed.
They did only to see a dead end.
"It's a dead end!" Robin called out.
"No it ain't, choom!" Pilar climbed up on a fire escape ladder followed by Rebecca and Robin.
They climbed quickly all the way to the top just as the cyber-psychos tried to claw at them with their hungry eyes and glowing green circuitry being exposed. Rebecca and Pilar were ready to shoot at them when the sound of a whistle caught their attention. It was almost like the whistle of an attack dog that was being called back to its master but it was still hearable to their ears. The cyber-psychos turned in the direction of the sound before running away after it, leaving Robin, Rebecca and Pilar panting and wondering what they had just seen. Well, at least the first two were wondering that.
"Oh yeah, eat it you pussies!" Pilar flipped them off. "You gonk scrubs are lucky I wasn't packing my grenades! You bitches would've been splattered all over the street floor!"
Robin and Rebecca only stared at Pilar as he went on a rant of what he would've done if the cyber-psychos had even gotten close to them.
"Well, that was quite the rude awakening." Rebecca sighed. "What the hell were those creeps?"
"I don't know. They acted way too much like zombies or attack dogs," Robin said. "Maybe there's more to the grave robber rumor than I thought."
"Man, and here I thought I thought this city could not get any weirder." Rebecca sighed. "Well if there was a case or a mystery to check out, this would be it. Damn it, just my luck, a bunch of gonks try something funny and half asleep most of the time!" Rebecca looked at Robin with a blush. "Thanks, by the way. For giving me a ride on your back and all."
Robin looked at Rebecca, noticing how shy she was acting. He looked away, trying to keep his cool.
"Don't worry, what are friends for?" Robin coughed.
"Oh, so we're the type of friends that just give each other rides, huh~?" Rebecca smirked. "I really lucked out that you didn't think of copping a feel while you were at it~. Though, if you keep playing your cards right, you just might~." Rebecca kissed Robin on the cheek, making him lose his balance.
Robin looked at Rebecca, smiling on top of him like a lioness ready to pounce. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, but her flirting sounded far too sincere to be just normal flirting with just about anyone. Robin blushed with embarrassment, realizing that Rebecca was indeed developing something for him. And maybe he was having some feelings of his own for the small wasp.
After returning to his home on the outskirts of the city, Robin began examining all the things he'd seen earlier that night. He had gone back to the street where the cyber-psychos had been shot by Becca and Pilar, only to find no traces of the bodies. All he found was a green substance that resembled what looked like the immunoblockers that all Edgerunners with lots of chrome injected themselves with. He put a sample of it under the microscope and began to analyze it and see what it was all about.
At first the suppressor didn't do much before he added a little bit of his blood to it. However, as soon as the chemical started interacting with that small sample of his blood, it started to multiply and increase in activity. The blood looked like it had an adrenaline spike coursing through it.
"What are you?" Robin asked as he looked at the sample. "The suppressors are meant to keep the body from rejecting new organs or chrome pieces that are too much for the body to handle. But the ones I saw didn't have that much chrome in their system. Could this have been a bad batch of immunoblockers? On so many people? No, there's something more to this." He pulled out the chip he'd picked up from the street.
He plugged it into his computer and started looking at all the files the chip had. It included an ID, money and a couple credit cards of the woman that had owned it. There was a decent amount of eddies in the wallet, but nothing too substantial. He was, however, more interested in the information about the woman herself.
According to her ID and the information in it, her name was Manuella Cortez and had recently had surgery after an accident took her right arm and was under a regular dose of suppressors to keep her new arm due to her low resistance to the chemicals her new chrome required. But if the blockers/suppressors were over-the-shelf stuff then there was no need for them to have such a reaction. There was also the look of the girl, and the knife and glass shards on her. Something had happened to her, and the only place he'd get the answers looked to be the police.
"I really don't want to deal with them." Robin suited up before shrinking down to the size of his ants. "But they are bound to know what happened to her and to what hospital she was sent to. If someone turned her and others into that, then we have a much bigger problem than a small pack of crazed cyber-psychos." Robin rode off on top of one of his ants. "The question now is: why?"
Deep below the surface of Night City, there was the dank, toxic and extremely dangerous maze that was the sewers. Paths of dark sewage kept the city clean for all its inhabitants, but there were dangers that no one would even consider to look for in there. Ever since the era of chrome began and the mega corporations took hold of the city, the sewers evolved and changed with the times, but nothing was ever changed or replaced. They went deeper and deeper into the ground, expanding and growing like the roots of a tree digging into the soil. Like a realm built in the visage of Frankenstien's Monster, the deeper it went the more ancient and macabre it all was. One thing was certain, no one would ever venture so deep willingly.
At least, not without a good reason.
"The subjects are still showing signs of improvement. Their cognitive capabilities are lacking, but their obedience is on par with most highly trained beasts. The new suppressor formula is strong, but I will need much stronger test subjects."
The figure draped in a white doctor's coat looked upon an operating table with a large body laying on top of it. The body laid cut open with chrome parts of his new organs and limbs spread out. It was no better than a dissection table for whoever the figure wanted to cut open. The figure's hands picked up one of the cybernetic organs to examine them. Its glowing green eyes examined the organ with avid fascination.
"This poor fellow's stomach was changed by a much stronger one, meant to dissolve strong foods with heavy protein." The figure picked up the liver, analyzing the organ. "And this liver is meant to purify the blood and alcohol to a large degree. You were quite the glutton in life, weren't you my friend. But it seems your body couldn't keep up with all the stuff you were eating."
The figure picked up a scalpel from the table, cutting the organs out of the body. He placed them on metal plates before walking off to another operating table. As the figure walked towards it, it passed several cages filled with the cyber-psychos that had run through the streets that night. The figure reached the other operating table, and on top of it laid a larger more muscular creature that resembled a man. It's body was covered with stitches, tubes and pieces of chrome covering the large man head to toe. Only a few bits of his body was actually meat and sadly, that was all the figure needed to fulfill his purpose.
"Now, my prometheus, you will soon come back online." The figure caressed the metal skull face the man had. "If only I had the perfect organic neural system instead of the one I had to put together."
The figure walked back to the cages where all the other subjects awaited. In their eyes, the figure could see himself reflected both in a literal and figurative sense. They were all he had seen and all that he wanted to unleash upon the world. The clarity of mind that could only be attained by breaking out of the constraints of society and all the power of the combined might of man and machine. Yet, that power was dangerous and only those that were special or had the right conditioning could obtain the state of enlightenment. But soon that would change.
"Do not worry, my children. Soon, your brother will be amongst you. A living, breathing, truth that no one will deny my work or the effects it could have." The figure caressed Manuella's face. "I really wish that I could've cured you of your ailments sooner. But I needed you all in your worst conditions before giving you my serum. We'll just need to hunt tomorrow night for more subjects."
The cyber-psychos all growled in anticipation like good hunting dogs that wanted to please their master. Whatever was left of the humans they once were was gone, now they were beasts, ghouls that hunted the dark corners of the city at the beck and call of their master. They gazed upon him to see him in his full glory.
"Now, get some rest, tomorrow you will have a few new brothers and sisters and I have work to do." The figure walked away, leaving trays of food for his subjects to feast upon. "Note to self, look into the corpses of edgerunners and active edgerunners to start more active experimentation. It is difficult being a revolutionary genius and working part-time at the same time."
The Night City Police Department was no different than any armed gang territory base or military stronghold. It was heavily fortified with thick concrete walls, thick metal doors, lots of cameras on every corner and iron bars on every single window it had. In a city where the average street punk could be carrying a rocket launcher in one of his or her extremities, it was paramount to have lots of protection. And guns. Every single officer from beat cop to detective and higher up was authorized to carry big guns of their own. Except they weren't allowed to have dangerous chrome. It seemed that unless they were part of the special forces unit MaxTech, the officers of the law were no better than cannon fodder for the gangs and crews of Night City.
Robin honestly felt bad for them as he crawled through the vents of the department in search of the logs that revolved around crimes. Each hop and jump he took sounded like it was just the metal settling, not that anyone was paying attention to the vents. Spotting an opening, he looked down through one of the grates, getting a picture of what the life of the average Night City cop was like. Most of them were writing reports or talking about their day, nothing out of the ordinary.
"So you remember to hack your camera?"
"Yeah, we need to keep it when we head out to bust the next drug lab. Early pension here we come."
"Hey, what happened to that prostitute you arrested?"
"Heard he got a pair of black eyes for coming up short."
"Ha! What a dumb bastard that guy."
…Then again, there were plenty of rotten cops and officers that deserved a butt kicking. If Robin ever ran into any of these guys, he would make sure to punch them extra hard. It was the wrong thing to do but the morally correct thing as well.
After making sure to set some of those officers on fire or beat them up, whatever came first, Robin went back on his way towards the archives. He hopped down to the lower levels of the department. He peeked down to see an officer swiping her ID before the door opened up. Jumping down through the opening, Robin landed on top of the officer's helmet. The officer felt his landing, touching her hat to see if something had fallen on her. Robin rolled out of the way, avoiding her large fingers as she shrugged. He looked ahead as he watched all the memory banks of information and paper that had been stored here since the early days of the city.
The officer put in her information before swiping her ID once more. The console turned green as she started putting the paperwork back in its proper place. As she did that, Robin commanded his ants to crawl into the room, blocking the camera that was on the corner of the ceiling. Last thing he wanted was to be caught on camera while stealing and or snooping into police files without any clearance. She turned to leave as Robin jumped down, growing back to his size behind the police officer. And in a fluid motion, he snatched the ID from her pocket before shrinking down quickly. Down on the ground, he watched the police officer walk out, shrugging whatever she had felt or heard as just her imagination. He watched the door close up before growing back to his normal size, scanning the ID and putting in the information.
"Thank you lots of time and effort in memorizing and learning things quickly." Robin typed away in search of Manuella and the cause of her death.
He quickly found the police file. He scanned it completely, making sure to learn everything he needed. Which was not much. According to the file, Manuella had been killed three days ago due to a breaking and entering from an unknown assailant and died after being crashed through a glass door and having a knife stabbed through her right eye. The file detailed that a safe had been ransacked and emptied of any jewelry and Eddies Manuella had, but also any and all immunoblockers. It looked like a robbery gone wrong, but the pictures told Robin something different. The pictures told him that she was the target all along. The safe was in another room and the blockers were kept in the fridge, nowhere near the bedroom. This was a homicide made to look like a burglary gone wrong.
If Robin had broken in to rob the place, he would've waited until Manuella was fast asleep. Going in through the unarmed skylight, dropping down to cut the alarm and take his time with stealing everything. Simple and easy, but it would be way too little for so much risk. It often scared Robin how easily he could think of committing a crime when he was investigating one. He plugged himself into the computer and downloaded a copy of the file as he read where the body had been taken.
"Our Angel of Eternal Rest Hospital. That's my first stop." Robin logged out before jumping back onto the back of one of his ants.
Finding the hospital wasn't as hard as sneaking into the police department, one simple ride down to the morgue in his shrunken size and he would get his answers. He rode down the elevator as a young man walked into the elevator with a body along with another doctor. The doctor looked like the type that saw everything beneath him, like one of those strict teachers that didn't care what they taught. His hair was combed back and dressed in a suit with a doctor's coat. Probably slept with it too. The young man looked more timid, with his hair covering his face with bangs with dark tanned skin matching his blue scrubs. It wouldn't be surprising if he had glassed under those bangs.
"Another attack, doctor." The young man sighed at the black bag. "Such a pity."
"You want pity, go work with the nurses, Pumpkin." The doctor scoffed. "We need to do a job and the job will be done, pity is for the living."
"R-R-Right, doctor." The young man brushed his black bangs from his face as the doctor stretched his coat. "I was just hoping that these people find some modicum of decency in death."
Robin couldn't help but nod in agreement with the young man. It was nice seeing someone that wasn't a total ass in this city for a change.
"Well, if you want decency, then I suggest finding out why bodies are disappearing from our morgue." The doctor stomped out of the elevator as they arrived at their destination.
Robin flew out of the elevator as they rolled the body into one of the slabs to prepare the autopsy.
"Get the body prepared for operation, Hemingway." The doctor prepared himself as the young man put the body on the metal slab.
"It's Doctor Hemingway, actually." He muttered.
"Not until you finish your residency here," the doctor said with a tone more fit for a dead tongue.
"I understand. But, I believe I could make some-" Hemingway was cut off.
"For the last time, no. We're not playing mad doctor, young man." The doctor put on his mask. "Dead is dead and there is no cure for cyber-psychosis other than a bullet to the head. One would think that you'd learn that by now. Let's finish this."
Robin watched the two medical professionals work on the body with efficiency. Thankfully, he wasn't squeamish at the sight of blood and guts. They cut the man open, checking for the cause of death and taking into account all the wounds the body had. Though, it seemed like one of the doctors was clearly more skilled than the other as he handled the organs. After an hour of hard work, the lead doctor was finished with the body.
"Cause of death, a bullet to the heart." The doctor took off his bloody gloves and mask. "Stitch him up and close up." He walked away, leaving Hemingway on his own.
"Yes, doctor." Hemingway started stitching up the body, watching the doctor leave over his shoulder.
As soon as the elevator closed up, Hemingway stood up to his full height, almost like he'd shed all the shyness and fear he'd once had. He turned back to the body and stitched it up at surprising speeds. But it wasn't just the superficial stitching that was fast, no, all the organs were put in their right order with such fine detail that you'd think there hadn't been an autopsy. Hemingway looked down at the body with pity.
"I apologize for his rudeness. He's seen so much carnage from gang fights that I believe he's numb to human suffering." Hemingway patted the man's shoulder. "I for one have something to keep this from happening. I'm truly sorry you had to die, but thanks to you, now I know my children are getting better dexterity." Hemingway pulled out a whistle from his scrubs.
Robin narrowed his eyes as he looked at the man blow on it. He heard something scurrying down beneath the floor before he heard one of the body lockers opening up. His eyes widened at the sight of one of the cyber-psychos that he'd seen the other night. In the light of the morgue, he could see it better. It wasn't a cyber-psycho, that creature looked more like a zombie reanimated to life by the mad doctor he had just found.
The zombie dragged the corpse under the instructions of Hemingway as he made sure to clean up.
"Take him with the others, I need to finish the paperwork and say that someone claimed the body for burial. Not that anyone in this city would notice or care." Hemingway cleaned himself up thoroughly.
Robin watched the doctor leave the morgue as the reanimated corpse took the body into the locker. He commanded his ants to follow the zombie deep into the locker, wondering what could be the secret behind this scheme be about.
Following the zombie deep underground was not something on Robin's bucket list. The dark humid tunnels made him gag more than once as he made his way deeper into the maze that was the way down. The walls of the corridor were moist with sewage remains and gunk that could capture anyone dumb enough to touch it. There was very little light, enhancing the type of horrors that were hidden in the darkness of the sewers. The smell was somehow worse than anything he had ever smelled before. One would think that after years of living in an anthill colony Robin would be used to going down tunnels with unknowables all around him. But this was somehow more disgusting than anything the ants could have done. The miles stretched as the zombie groaned, dragging the body picking up speed after an hour's worth of crawling. Robin landed on the corpse, keeping himself and his ants hidden from sight.
"Keep going, zombie man. Keep going." Robin muttered as he held back the need to gag.
It was a disgusting trek down the sewers, but soon they came upon a makeshift lab with lights and pieces of equipment scattered around. Though, to Robin, it looked more like a medieval dungeon. He saw cages filled with the missing bodies, some looking fresher than the others, torches lighting up the dungeon with warmth and light. Three operating tables stood lined up before a large chemistry set straight out of a mad scientist laboratory. He flew his ant away from the zombie as it placed the new body on one of the operating tables. He looked at the tables, noting the large figure laying down with a large white sheet over it.
He silently waited for the zombie to leave the room before he could look at the strange chemicals. Once the zombie walked out of the room and back into its cage, Robin grew back to his normal size for a better look at what the mad scientist had been working on. He pulled out his blaster, checking the room to be empty and that he was the only thing living. He picked up the paper and logs on the table and quickly began scanning them.
"Let's see what you've been working on, Hemingway." Robin flipped through the pages.
The notes detailed medical records and causes of cyber-psychosis on the subjects. He turned around to see the zombies inside the cages, noting that many of them had suffered from the condition at some point before their deaths or were more likely to become affected by the condition due to their lower resistance to chrome and some of the chemicals that affected their bodies. Not a very good sign. But it showed Robin that the doctor was obsessed with cyber-psychosis. He looked at some of the chemicals and wondered what Hemingway was planning to do with these zombies and how he'd brought them back from the dead. Or if he had actually managed to do that.
The notes talked about how the blockers weren't helpful in the long run and how he needed stronger bodies to find the truth.
"What truth?" Robin muttered.
He turned on the electronic logs, playing the first recording.
"Hello, my name is Hemingway, and I am about to start what could be the most influential and beneficial endeavor for humanity." Hemingway's recording spoke. "Despite humanity's great efforts and advancements in technology, we have yet to fully dominate the effects of how this new environment will affect our minds and bodies. Yes, I speak of evolution. Millions of years ago, species had to adapt to their changing environment to better survive. But humans have changed that. We've changed the environment to suit our needs. But we've brought upon a different environment that we will soon be unable to face."
Robin listened carefully as Hemingway explained himself.
"Log #1: Diseases, violence and contamination are forcing humans to change our bodies with chrome, something foreign that our bodies either can't support or will eventually push out. Cyber-psychosis is what people have called it. But I call it the next evolutionary boundary." Hemingway explained. "Some humans have a higher tolerance to chrome than others, this is the natural world helping us. But what if we sped things up? And what if my investigation will be the key to breaking through this new frontier? Imagine a drug that would help your mortal body adapt to any piece of chrome. This is what I'll do. End of log."
Robin quickly played the next log.
"Log #2: I've set up my lab in the only place I could store the chemicals and the bodies for my work. Each of the people I've chosen range from all levels of tolerance towards chrome, I need to establish a basis to start the experiments." Hemingway explained. "From there, I will adjust the variables so that they can work on any manner of humans. This way, I will open the new way that humanity will be able to survive the next evolutionary cataclysm. The serum will aid in the fusion of flesh and chrome and cut off any sense of cyber-psychosis."
"What?" Robin was shocked by the sheer audacity of this experiment.
He quickly played another log to get the answers. If Hemingway was speaking clearly, then that would mean the creation of a whole different race. A race of human cyborgs at best and a chrome zombie hive mind at worst.
"Log #15: My serum has had an unexpected side effect: it can bring back people from the dead. The chemicals reanimated not only the organic parts of the brain, but have also triggered the chrome parts back online. I have called it the Reanimator Serum. I will need more test subjects to have it perfected. This will bring humanity to the next step of evolution."
"Log #35: I have found that one in every twenty test subjects have developed stronger resistance to chrome and are different down to some key genetics. I fear that nature is trying to get rid of chrome all together and cheat us from our next evolutionary state. I will save the human race. But perhaps, I can use this as another source for my research. I, Hemingway, will lead humanity to a brighter future. After all, we have enough sentience to choose when we end our legacy."
Robin was stunned at the words of this mad man. He believed himself to be some kind of shepherd, a prophet that was helping lost souls. It made him sick to think someone like that actually could be so delusional. The idea of a serum that could help prevent or stop cyber-psychosis would've saved countless lives, but this… His methods were so messed up that it took all of Robin's will not to burn everything. It was so wrong. He almost didn't hear his ants warning him that someone was in the room with him.
He spun around, aiming his blaster at the mad doctor himself, now dressed to look the part.
Hemingway now wore a long white doctor's coat on top of a yellow hazmat suit, metal gloves over his hands, a breathing apparatus hanging from his neck, green-lensed goggles and black boots with rubber soles. He looked ready to operate with dangerous chemicals in a nuclear plant after cutting up a patient for the mere curiosity of it.
"I apologize for the mess, I had no time to tidy up the place." Hemingway held up his hands. "Please, lower your gun, sir. A lot of these chemicals are very volatile."
"Keep your politeness to yourself and your monsters, Hemingway." Robin narrowed his eyes. "I've seen your handiwork. How many people have you experimented on to create these living puppets? How many have you killed for your sick curiosity?" He was tempted to pull the trigger, but the growling of the zombies kept him from doing so.
The last thing he wanted was to be caught in a zombie movie cliche.
"I regret to admit that the number is substantial. And I did set out to find the best candidates for my work through unorthodox means, but you cannot deny the results." Hemingway gestured to his zombies. "Thanks to them, I have refined my Reanimator Serum to great degree. I've seen the death that comes from not being able to bond with chrome properly. I lost my family to it, never again. I will soon be moving on to live subjects for the final touches." Hemingway tried to move to the cages, but Robin kept him in place.
"You will do no such thing." Robin prepared to fire. "My condolences for your losses, but that cannot justify all of this." He stepped forward, causing the zombies to become agitated and angry.
"You've seen my logs, you know that my work could revolutionize the world we live in. I must make the next generation of humanity before they take over," Hemingway said. "If they take over, we'll all be brought to our extinction. The only way to survive is with the fusion of humanity and machines." Hemingway inched to a hidden lever.
"Who are they?" Robin asked.
"...Mutants." Hemingway pulled the lever, releasing the zombies.
The cyber-psycho zombies lunged at Robin like a tidal wave of death and rabid fury as Hemingway ran deeper into his lab. Robin quickly activated his particles, shrinking down and dodging the teeth and claws of the cyber-psycho zombies hungry for him. At the size he was, they looked even bigger and meaner than before. Rotting teeth, glowing green veins, skin that was falling off. It was a nightmarish look as far as he was concerned. But he had to keep going. Jumping forward with the speed of a grasshopper, he reeled back his right arm, tightening his fist. He punched one zombie away before dodging another. Hoping like a grasshopper from zombie to zombie, his fists collided with the faces of every one of his targets, sending them back as he made his way through them. Their flesh might've been rotten and only alive in autopilot, but they were still as resilient as any living gonk Robin had ever punched. The zombies roared in rage as he jumped over them. Their hunger and rage was nothing short of animalistic, but that was their biggest weakness.
Robin landed behind the horde of zombies, growing back to his normal size. He pulled out his blaster and short sword with a glare at the zombies. They roared as they scrambled back towards him. Bang. He fired a blast of red burning energy, cutting through the head of the first zombie. The second shot burnt a hole through another zombie's head and blasted through the face of another. Another zombie jumped at Robin, only to be met with the vibrating short sword cutting it in half. Robin swung his sword forward, cutting another zombie from the elbow to the stomach in a diagonal slice. Ducking under another zombie's teeth, he fired a shot through the top of the zombie's head before kicking him back. He spun around, cutting the head of another zombie and shooting another one. Three zombies jumped on top of him, forcing him to shrink down, jumping over them before growing back to his normal size. With a swift stomping kick, he pushed them back before shooting them all three times in a row. Another zombie jumped towards him, meeting another cut across the body. Robin's heart pounded on his chest as he pushed back against the horde when he heard a guttural roar coming from deeper in the sewers.
He looked past the remaining zombies, only to see a horde of sickly green eyes coming towards him. Their mouths dripped and drooled the same chemicals that Hemingway had filled their bodies with. But they were down to more animalistic creatures, no different than goblins from video games or fantasy movies. Their growls and groans were a good reminder that they were deadly and he had to leave the area quickly. Looking at the chemical set, an idea sprung to mind. Running to the room's exit, he gave the zombies a chance to get into the room, filling it. He aimed his blaster at the chemicals in the room, firing at it.
The explosion echoed in the room, spreading a chemical fire over the cyber-psycho zombies and the recently arrived monsters. Their chemicals lit them up like Christmas trees decorated with fireworks. He ran quickly through the tunnels in search of the mad doctor. He spotted another door ahead of him. Shooting the lock off, he kicked the door open. The room was empty.
Robin looked around but there was no sign of the man he'd been hunting. The only clue he saw were tracks on the floor and a tunnel heading deeper into the maze that was the sewers underneath the damn city. Hemingway was gone, and if he was half the doctor that Robin was a scientist then he had all the knowledge to start everything up again. If the cries of the burning zombies were anything to go by, then it would be a monstrous apocalypse.
"You're not getting away that easily." Robin called forth his ants as they surrounded him like a veil of hunger.
A day, a whole day. Robin searched the sewers for a whole day looking for Hemingway and his Reanimator Serum. But he hadn't found either the hide nor tail of the mad scientist. The sewers were a maze that would take weeks to scour and search top to bottom without a proper lay of the land or where Hemingway would be most likely to hide. The best he could do is keep an eye out for any missing bodies or missing people, though that could be just a simple case of the city being Night City. But there were two other things that bothered Robin about all this. No, three things.
The first thing that bothered him was what Hemingway was trying to do. Transforming the human race into half flesh half machine beings was insane in many ways. That could easily create a post-apocalypse filled with armed robots under a hive mind. Countless people under the control of some faceless master control sounded like a recipe for disaster, especially if the corporations tried to grab everything for themselves. Arasaka would have a field day with mindless half cyborg pawns to control and grind to dust when they were done.
The second thing was who Hemingway wanted to stop. From what he'd been able to salvage, it sounded like Hemingway was studying people that were more resistant or tolerant to chrome. Was there such a thing as nature adapting to the world and all the effects chrome has had? Robin wasn't the biggest fan of some chrome jobs or people that went 'all flesh was weak', but for there to be genetic alterations that made chrome obsolete sounded too far fetched to be true. Wasn't it?
And lastly, the thing that bothered Robin the most was how much Hemingway reminded him of himself. He'd also tried to help people with his scientific mind and his efforts with Doc. The Pym Particles were a game changer, just like the Reanimator Serum if it wasn't used to bring back people or make them rabid zombies. There was a chance that Robin could've ended like Hemingway if he hadn't met Dr. Albertson or Rebecca and everyone else. That only made him want to find Hemingway even more.
"Hey, Robin!" Rebecca snapped Robin from his thoughts. "I want to introduce you to somebody!"
"Coming." Robin walked up to Rebecca and a young man that stood next to her with a bright medical yellow jacket. "What's up?"
"Robin, this here is a new addition to the crew, his name is David." Rebecca patted David's back.
"Uh, hey," David said. "David Martinez."
"Hey. Robin Lee Brown." Robin shook David's hand. "A little young, ain't he?"
"Just you wait, choom, I'm special." David smirked definitely.
"Like I haven't heard that before, David," Robin said concerned.