Chapter 5

Your week starts off with, as usual, a five-digit cash injection into your account-- bringing your supply of eddies back to the six digit range.

You grin at all the money your hard work had earned. This much money would've been a dream come true back home; it might've been enough for you to go and buy a nice car or pay for your college education. In NC, it… would probably be the yearly income for someone working in a corpo. Which is amazing in itself, but opens up a lot of risks.

Mainly because all that money is stored in one chip. If someone stole it, you'd be back to square one financially.

So you get the idea to split up your finances and store them in multiple separate chips and hidden on some Spiderbots and stowed away in various places in your apartment.

You could access them at any time, of course. But for the time being, you'll be limited in carrying capacity; making you a less attractive mugging target and thus much safer while you're out.

You briefly consider hiding one Eddie-laden chip in that beat up MaiMai you bought not too long ago, but decide against it for many reasons.

Mainly because it's located out in the street and is really beat up. So beat up that you wouldn't be surprised if some junkie or two ransacked it while you weren't looking only to find nothing.

…hmm. You know, maybe you should do something about that.

Yes, it's a shitbox MaiMai and you only bought it to learn how to drive. But it's still yours and you don't want anything of yours to be less than the best you can make it out to be. So you look up ideas on the net, run the numbers in your head, draft up plans…

You pause.

"Am I really gonna turn a shitbox MaiMai into an actual respectable car?" you ask yourself, half-expecting an answer. You sigh. "I am, aren't I?"

You bring your bag of tools to the shitbox and get to work-- taking it apart and looking into the internals to see what needs to be fixed and/or replaced. You keep a display of various car parts on your smart glasses, and have Thread browse for you while you work.

Several discoveries are made regarding the MaiMai, most prominent among them being the distinct damage to the engine (more specifically the catalytic converter), the gearbox, and some areas on the car's suspension.

Ordering replacement parts through the net is simple enough, and installing them even moreso after you watch a video of it. Before long, you have a properly functioning MaiMai once more, ready and able to drive all over NC at your command. You're a little giddy for that, actually.

The more you work, the more you find yourself growing attached to this shitbox. It's small and affordable sure, but its yours.

Is this what Uncle Ben meant when he said you'd get attached to things you buy with your own money? Huh. Learn something important every day.

Either way, you see plenty of improvements possible for your shitbox MaiMai now that it's been brought back to normal operation capacity.

It would be a tight fit, but you think you could put some of your Fangs on it to give it the capability to fight back. There's also the opportunity to up armor and install bulletproof glass and-- ooh! Maybe even some launchers! And then you could make the wheels bigger and the suspension stronger for smoother rides, or even set up the internals as a mobile operations center where you could deploy and control Spiderbot swarms! You could even--!

You stop yourself; taking a deep breath, holding it, then exhaling. Easy Pete, you're getting too far ahead of yourself. Do it one thing at a time, little by little. Incremental growth, not all at once.

But even as you tell that to yourself, you're already ordering more materials online for such ambitious plans.

(shitbox MaiMai upgraded to normal MaiMai, unlocked Pimp My Ride phase 2, unlocked new Personal Actions)

A few days later, you get a call from Vik asking about the Spiderware cyberlimbs. You slap yourself on the head and tell him you almost forgot in the midst of all the building and moving in and all.

Instead of a scathing remark, he just chuckles.

"Yeah, I thought that was the case. Figured you'd need a little prod to get things going." he says. "Speakin' of, how's things?"

"Oh, it's been great! Been branching out to do work for other people and the apartment building I live at." you happily regale him. "Got to help my landlady with some stuff and she's waived my rent for the next few months. It's pretty nice all told."

"…next few months? Waived?" Vik asks. "Are you sure that's what she said?"

"Yeah, 8 months waived rent. Which is… not too bad. Could do with outright no rent for a month or 3, but that's just me." you grin. Vik laughs. "So, how's things?"

"Good, good. Your Spyderdecks are selling like hotcakes by the way, and I've got people asking when's Fix-It Pete gonna make another reappearance at my shop." he tells you. "I've given 'em assurances that the next shipment of Spiderware is coming, but I've been tight-lipped 'bout who gets your contact info for… various reasons."

"Yeah, that's fair." you nod. "But that's good, right? I'm actually well-known now!"

"It's a double-edged sword, Pete. You bein' well-known would attract custom, sure, but it'll also drag in unsavories." Vik tells you. "Rivals that want you gone, gangs that want you chained up and working for them specifically, or Corpos that want you for their own or disappeared so you don't hurt their bottom line. NC's not nice to stand-outs, y'know."

"Yeesh, take the wind outta my sails why don'tcha?" you harrumph. "Moving away from the depressing stuff, how's Misty?"

Misty is well, at least according to Vik. Her business has gotten some custom in the past month, though the ripperdoc does note that it usually wouldn't last.

The thought of this good cheer being fleeting makes you sad, so you ask for a way to cheer her up. Vik notes that she was little interested in your spiderbot trinket that you made for him a while back, and he often lets her bring it up to her shop to pass the time with. You get an idea and tell him that you'll make it and get to work on that new chrome delivery for him ASAP.

It was supposed to be a quick little side-thing for Misty, to make for her a dedicated spiderbot that she could play around with. But, as usual for a tinker, things eventually spiral past that.

You bring up your spiderbot designs and make a Weaver-type. But then you get ideas, and make both a Tarantula-type and Peacock-type test them out.

This escalates into you making dozens more Spiderbots, each one with a new idea latched on-- dedicated combat Spiderbots with guns and blade-mounted limbs, healer bots with MaxDoc and Health Booster packets that scuttle to victims and tend to their injuries, scouting and spy spiderbots that come equipped with rudimentary stealth systems to sneak into hardpoints, and more refined models of your Turret Spiders-- with higher caliber guns and different sizes.

All this you make sure to copy and set aside for future research, knowing full well that the current iteration of the Spiderbot was simply not advanced enough to be developed into any of those specialist designs.

But when has that ever stopped you?

You burn the midnight oil and put your talents to work bringing your designs to life.

They're not as good as they could be due to the design limitations of an MK.2 Spiderbot imposing limits on a lot of your ideas. They're just not advanced enough to fit with your vision of what these specialist Spiderbots should be capable of.

The Combat Spiders are meant to fire sniper rifle caliber munitions as well as explosives rather than just AR and handguns.

The Medic Spiders are supposed to have enough medical supplies on them to last through a whole mission, not a third of one.

And the Recon Spiders are meant to have sound dampening and ultra-low heat emission in addition to cloaking, instead of 'just' cloaking'.

Moreover, there's also the many drawbacks of the MK.2 Spiderbot to contend with. A relatively short battery life made shorter to power the additional features on specialist Spiderbots, lessened overall durability that makes all of but the Combat Spiders susceptible to destruction by a single bullet, while the Combat Spiders themselves can only take a handful of bullets rather than 2 to 3 magazines worth than you initially wanted them to. There's size issues too; limiting Combat and Medic Spiders to Tarantula-type size and Recon Spiders to just Weaver-type sized.

But even so, despite the many many drawbacks, there's no denying that your work is nonetheless impressive.

You put your hands on your waist as you behold them; the initial prototypes of your new specialist Spiderbot line. Shining in the light of the distant sun as a new day dawns on Night City.

…

"…wait, shit, I was supposed to be making Spiderware for Vik." you curse, facepalming so hard it hurt. "Aw man. I'm gonna have to tell him that there won't be Spiderware for a while."

You glance at the Spiderbots and a metaphorical lightbulb goes off in your head.

"Well. Waste not want not." you shrug, getting to work making more Spiderbot. "It's not like Vik would dislike having more stuff to sell."

(created MK.0 Combat Spider, creates MK.0 Medic Spider, created MK0. Recon Spider, unlocked new Science Actions gated behind Making Better Bots, unlocked new Personal Actions, increased revenue potential)

As you pack up the Spiderbots you've made, you're struck with the amount of work you have to do every time you need to make stuff to sell.

Assembling and putting together a piece of chrome takes you roughly 20 to 40 minutes depending on the chrome in question, and you make whole batches of them over 12 hours-- way too much time and effort expended for a single person. You need to do something, and you need to do it now.

The solution comes to you immediately; automation. All the more fitting in the new world, where technology and automation is a facet of daily life more than ever. But setting up automated production machines isn't something you could do in a single day.

You need to plan for it, write the codes and programming, purchase the materials and equipment needed to set it all up, then build the thing.

So you sleep off the all-nighter you pulled in making the Spiderbots and get to work planning for the automated production line you want o build.

It's split up into 3 phases-- material acquisition and code writing, location, and then building. You'll start with the easiest option in the lot; getting the materials and writing the code.

You have the knowledge and schematics. And while it would be easier to get a program on the Net, you don't want to risk any of the Corpos finding you. Which means you're gonna have to make your own.

"…I really need a day off." you sigh as you get to work.

You spend most of a day getting everything ready for Phase 1; gathering the resources.

You make some calls to various companies in NC, inquiring about the various bits and pieces of orders for materials and machinery. You consult Vik and even Misty, who point you at the right people who helped them get their own place up; legitimate and real so as to avoid getting scammed.

Ordering from them does bring up the issue of storage-- where are you going to put all the stuff you just bought after all? Thankfully, Vik has you covered.

"I've got a storage unit that I use to put in extra stuff I get from the market-- the particularly hot stuff that need time to cool off." the ripperdoc tells you. "There's plenty of space in them that you can put your stuff in until you need it. Not like there's anything worthwhile in it anyways."

"You sure?" you blink. "I could pay rent while I'm occupying the space."

"Pete, you supply some really nice chrome-- I'll consider that rent." Vik chuckles. "Though, uh, do I wanna know what you're buying stuff for?"

"Automated production." you tell him.

"…"

"What? Surprised?" you blink. "Vik, I'm just going to make some machines that'll put my chrome together without me being there. Like an assembly line for cars, but with chrome instead."

"…Pete, that's the kind of thing corpos would hunt down and blow up." the man warns you. "They don't take lightly to competition."

"Then I'll have to be extra quiet about it and set things up somewhere quiet and out of the way." you shrug. "There should be lots of places for that. Abandoned buildings, the ghost towns in the Badlands-- hell, clearing out a Scav den would net me a decent place."

"Damn Pete, where'd this confidence come from?" Vik whistles. "You're talking about clearing a Scav den so nonchalantly that I'm having a hard time equating it to the kid who spent hours working at my shop."

"It's well-earned confidence, though!" you grin. "Besides, I'm allowed to strut my stuff every now and then, right?"

You find Misty waiting there, who looks at your small car pulling up with wide eyes. You step out and walk over, curious.

"What're you doing here, Misty?" you ask. "Thought you had a shop to run."

"I do. But I figured I could help Vik with something and pay him back a little." she shrugs. "He told you to use his storage unit, didn't he?"

"Yeah. You know about it?" you blink.

"I use it too, actually." she smirks at you. "Most of my shop's stock is stored in there."

"Ah. Shit, is there space for my stuff too?" you ask.

"Oh, there's plenty of space; I only occupy a corner of it." she nods. "Vik doesn't even use this unit often, only when there's hot chrome he needs to hide." she looks at your car. "That's a nice Makigai. You bought it?"

"Yeah, I did." you nod. "Bought it for cheap after the gonk driving it got caught in the middle of a gang fight. Spent good eddies and material fixing it up."

"Huh. You're a mechanic too?" Misty asks.

"Eh, tech is tech." you shrug. "Can't be that different."

Misty stares at you.

"I'm serious." you nod. "The tech that makes up a car isn't that different from the tech in chrome."

She keeps staring. You start to fidget.

"S-So, how's work?" you ask, trying to change the subject. "Any good custom recently?"

"Oh, yeah. Not a lot, but some income is better than nothing." she nods.

The two of you settle side by side, waiting for the delivery truck to arrive so you can show the workers where to put the stuff you bought.

…it's taking longer than you expected it to.

"Sooooo..." you fidget. "How's the, uh, spirit of the cards treating you?"

Misty giggles, and you feel your face heat up from embarrassment. Damn it, you were never good at this social thing-- that's why you left it to Gwen or Harry. Those two gonks had a better grasp of interactions with people than you ever did.

"The spirit of the cards, huh?" she grins at you. "I guess that's one way to call it. Though, I personally prefer to call it spiritualism."

"Right, spiritualism. Now spirit cards. Got it." you nod. Misty giggles again. "God, I'm so bad at this."

"It's okay, Pete; everyone's bad at talking when they start. You'll get the hang of it eventually." she tells you. "I wasn't that good at it either when I started. You just need time and experience."

"I'm 15. 16 in a few days." you tell her. "That should've been long enough to get the experience, don't you think?"

"Nope, not even close." she shakes her head. "I'm 19 and I'm not good in talking with other people either."

"Wait, what? Really?" you gawk. "You're running a shop at 19?"

"Yeah. It was pretty easy once I got to know Vik. I had the Eddies and the stuff for it so I figured why not, right?" she tells you. "And I'm making some profit out of it, so… the spirit of the cards must be leading my on to something."

You groan, knowing full well this was gonna be something you'd be teased about to hell and back.

"Yeah, yeah…" you sigh. "So, would you be against me upgrading the security around the storage unit? I want to be able to keep my stuff safe."

"…why are you asking me that?" she blinks. "This is Vik's storage unit."

"Yeah, but you're using it and so am I." you shrug. "I'll talk to him about it later, and since you're the only one present at the moment I figured your opinion should matter too."

"That's really considerate of you, Pete." she smiles. You smile back. "But honestly? It depends on what stuff you're bringing into the storage unit."

"Raw materials and electronics." you tell her.

"Ahh. Yeah, then you should probably get some extra security features installed." she pauses. "What do you have in mind?"

"Oh, I've got plenty in mind." you grin. "But before anything else, I'll have to get a feel for the area and check the surroundings before I can plan anything." you pause. "But there's gonna be gun spiders."

"…gun spiders?" Misty blinks.

"Spiderbots with guns. You'll see." you nod. "They're as deadly as I said. Perfect for home defense."

"I… see?" she makes a face. "Well, as long as it works I guess."

"Oh, it'll work. Don't worry about that." you laugh. "So... Got any ideas for making the chrome jive? A line with the mystical stuff you do to help more people?"

"Jive?"

"It means to be in agreement. Basically, I'm asking if you have any ideas to make chrome that can better… 'link' with the person using them." you ask. "You know-- not make them go psycho."

"That's possible?" she asks.

"Sure it is. Did you know that different chrome brands use different code, and the issues that come with conflicting codes can cause strain on the user?" you say, some enthusiasm and eagerness slipping into your voice. "And that's not accounting for the issues that come up with shit code interacting with neural pathways in a person."

"Hm. Didn't know that was a thing, honestly." she shrugs. "But Pete, remember-- I'm no techie. The only chrome I got is an in-built Agent to call people with. I wouldn't have a clue on how chrome works. I deal with the spiritual side of things, emotions and what not."

"I know, but still!" you posit. "Having someone who knows how emotions work could help make some advancements in things!"

"I… okay." Misty sighs. "I'll try. So, what is cyberpsychosis?"

"It's the event where an individual with extensive cybernetic augmentation decides to kill everyone in a certain range and/or radius." you nod. "A psychotic rampage, more or less."

"Right. So what causes such a rampage?" Misty asks.

"Uh… a build-up of stress?" you try. "The strain cause by the coding of the chrome messing with a person's neuro-chemistry?"

"Possibly the latter, but in such a case, you'd think people would avoid chrome all together if that's the end-result." Misty tells you. "Moreover, if it was caused by something messing with a person's bodily functions, there'd be meds for it right?"

You stop and think. There… should've actually been medicine developed for something like that, wouldn't there? Corpos would love to sell an anti-cyberpsycho drug and charge it through the nose.

So… why wasn't there one?

"Hmm." Misty nods, reading your expression easily. "I'm no scientist or a techie-- I wouldn't know how chrome works, or the science behind it. But I will say this. People, when possessed of power and undergoing severe stress, will often vent such stress through physical action. And if the stress is severe enough… and their emotions or thoughts are dark enough…"

"…they'd kill people to find that relief." you surmise.

"Night City is a cruel place. People rarely have the means or access to ways that let them properly vent or relax." Misty tells you. "Maybe the issue isn't the chrome or the strain it puts on people. Maybe it's the environment."

…

"How do we prove that, though?" you ask. Misty shrugs, and both you notice a delivery truck rolling in.

"Do you need to? I'm sure things aren't exactly peachy keen on your end either." she says. "You can make the best possible chrome in the world, but the people wearing it are a little off in the head then isn't it still a cyberpsycho?"

"The cause might not be the same, but if the results are…" you trail off. Misty pats your arm.

"C'mon, you can mull over that later. We've got stuff to store." she tells you.

(unlocked Automated Production phase 2, unlocked new Personal Actions, unlocked new Science Actions)

It turns out that Vik's storage unit is big, and there's enough space in it for you to squeeze in all your newly-bought stuff without any issue right next to the unlabeled boxes full of chrome and Misty's own stuff of spiritual knick knacks. After that, you and Misty part ways without any issue.

However, her words stick with you; regarding the issues of cyberpsychosis and how the environment also plays a role in one's descent into it.

You've been working yourself hard lately, and with seemingly little to no relief. It was necessary, yes, but it wasn't healthy; not for the long term. If left alone and without a way to release that stress, you could potentially wind up hurting yourself or others around you.

Which mean some rectifying was in order.

Thankfully, you had the right excuse for that in the coming days.

You give each of your contacts a call and tell them the big news-- your birthday was coming up. You had the Eddies to spare for a night of fun and entertainment, and you would rather not spend it alone.

Everyone is overjoyed, and while Misty and Vik promise to come and celebrate, Kiwi and Sasha were a little… apprehensive.

Not because they didn't want to-- god no. You were paying for this night out and nobody in NC would turn down free drinks and an all-expenses-paid night of merriment and fun. Instead, they're just… surprised.

"You celebrate birthdays?" Kiwi asks. "Huh. I thought they were just there."

"…are you telling me you never celebrated birthdays before?" you ask, not quite gawking. "What life have you been living?"

"Hey, you lived with me for a few months-- that was your lifestyle too!" she harrumphs. "Move out and already you're saying you're better than me?"

"I'm asking how you managed to keep positive when you never celebrated the day you came into this world!" you protest. "Are you telling me you never had cake and ate good food on your birthday?"

"Cake? In this economy?" she snorts. "I only ever got prepak."

…

"Okay. That's it." you tell her. "You're joining my birthday and we're gonna have fun together. All of us."

"I kinda have something to do…"

"That's right, you do; attending my birthday party."

"Pete."

"Yes Kiwi, you're going." you say. She sighs over the line and you beam. "See you then!"

You don't have much in the way of nice clothes, but you don't need any when the objective is to go out and have fun. So you change into something nice and head out into Westbrook-- the main party scene of NC.

The lights are bright, the sights are nice, and the sounds are loud. Everywhere, you can see a neon sign advertising a club or bar. Anywhere, you see a bunch of people walking around in various states of inebriation or good cheer-- almost always surrounded by pretty hanger-ons and chromed-up bodyguards. You almost snort at how similar things here are to your old life.

Your car pulls up into a spare parking lot and you step into the club that Sasha recommended, immediately being bombarded by music and flashing lights. You drink up the sight as you step inside.

Dozens of people dancing and drinking. Men gathered around the stage as girls dance to the beat of the song currently playing. Women too, throwing money out for pretty boys and handsome men doing the same.

"Goddamn, Night City is wild." you can't help by say. Beside you, the muscled bouncer chuckles.

"First time here, kid?" he asks.

"Uh, yeah. Looking for some people, actually." you tell him. "Girl about this high with a bob cut? Reminds of you a cat?"

"Over there at the bar." he tilts his head to the side, where you spot her talking to Vik and Misty. "Enjoy your night."

"Thanks man." you flick him a modest tip and walk over to the group. "Hey guys!"

"Pete! Hey!" Misty laughs.

"There's the birthday boy!" Vik raises his shotglass in a toast. "Was expecting you to be a little better dressed for the occasion."

"Bah, my fashion sense in trash anyways." you snort.

"Damn right it is-- you could've called me for help!" Sasha pouts. "I'd jet over and help you pick out an outfit in no-time!"

"Eh, what's done is done. Nothing to it." you shrug, looking around. "Uh, you guys saw a woman in a red with a blonde hair anywhere?"

"Like that one?" Misty points past you, to Kiwi as she walks into the club.

"Kiwi! Hey!" you wave at her. "Over here! C'mon, you're just in time!"

"He moves out and already he turns into total gonk." Kiwi grumbles good-naturedly as she approaches. "You're lucky it's your birthday today, Pete."

"You grumble like I was never a gonk." you laugh. "Anyways-- barkeep! Give my party a round of the good stuff! On me!"

Everyone cheers, hands patting your back and shoulders or ruffling your hair. Laughter rises up, and for a moment it's enough to drown out the music and lights. The drinks come in and Vik makes a toast.

"To Peter!" he says. "Happy birthday!"

You learn quickly that your metabolism is a little hardier than most people, allowing you to hold your liquor as the party goes on.

Drinks and food are bought, all on your dime. Laughs are shared between yourself and your circle of friends as minutes turn to hours and the alcohol sets in-- your friends losing their normally laidback selves and indulging.

There's tons of merriment and some playful physicality that you only vaguely remember in the morning after. There was Misty dragging you to the dance floor, Vik egging you into beating him in a shot-drink contest, and then a lap dance from Sasha, Kiwi, then both at once.

"It'sh fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnneeeeeeeee~" says Kiwi with a knowing glint in her eye. "It'sh your beffday afteralll~ I think you earned dis~"

"Yeah, Petey, sit back and relax." messages Sasha, who sidles up with Kiwi in a way that has both their breasts pressing together. "Let us give you your birthday present-- a really nice show."

And hoo boy what a show it is, two hot women moving together to the beat of the music while you're seated and buzzed; their showing off their seductive dancing skills just for you.

The sexiness is intentionally dialed up to 11, and the pair tease a sort of closeness that you've only seen in porn and hentai. It's better than any XBD you've seen so far, and you allow your hands to wander on their bodies-- much to their shared amusement.

If there's any reason for you to appreciate being flung into this world, it will be this. Like, gaht-dayum, look at them go-- this is gonna be good stress relief fuel for lonely nights and boring days.

You wish you had a camera installed or something, visual aids would've been useful.

From there, things get a little… muddy. You don't pass out-- god that would've been embarrassing.

You remember leaving the club after having ingest a lot of drinks as one big group and stumbling down the sidewalk singing something or other; Kiwi and Sasha on your flanks while Vik took up Kiwi's other side and Misty took Sasha's. Together, ventured into Night City and…

…

Crap.

You roll off your couch and stumble over Vik's snoring bulk. In the kitchen, you hear and smell misty cooking something nice with your prepaks as you shamble past with a murmured hello.

Your bedroom door opens to the sight of Kiwi and Sasha tangled together in the sheets, half naked as they both snored into each other's faces. You snort and open the windows, the two women recoiling under the sheets.

"What happened after we got out of the club." you ask, flopping down between them. "I don't remember much."

"Mrrr." goes Sasha, legs rubbing against you sleepily.

"Ugh… was something bad?" Kiwi murmurs, burying her face into Sasha's chest. "Dunno."

"Bleghm." You roll over Kiwi and shamble back to the kitchen where Misty sets down a plate of freshly reheated prepak. "What happened after the club?" you squint at her. "'An why aren't you all grumbly or hungover?"

"I wonder." she grins at you conspiratorially. "Well, if you don't remember…"

=X=X=X=X=X=

Valencia Rodrigo yawns.

Guard duty was pretty boring, moreso for a safehouse in a 'hood as quiet at this. But she supposes things could be worse-- she could be with the others planning for that big fight with those gringos in 6th Street.

So she sighs and continues standing, leaning against the fence. It could be worse, so she doesn't complain overly much. At least in Heywood, nobody would risk doing anything bad and disturb the peace so to speak.

Then something clatters to the ground and Valencia blinks. No way that was just a rat-- no rat was that big.

She moves to check, leaving her post and rounding a corner to an alley. There, she finds two people stacked on top of each other.

"Stop wobblin'! Stools dun' wobble!" the guy on top, a kid, yells. "Almost gottit…!"

"This ish sho shtupid it'sh funny." the guy on the bottom giggles, drunk. He looks away, presumably to talk to someone. "Dun'chu think dis' funny?"

"Woo! Go Pete!" comes a woman's voice, and Valencia sees a woman in a red coat stumble past the two-man stack. "Get that find!"

"Got it! Haha!" the kid whoops. "Aight, onto da' next wun! Go, shtool!"

"Aight, I got dis…" the guy on the botom steps backwards from the wall and turns, walking forward to Valencia. "Huh? Whossat?"

"Sum girl?" the woman in red blinks. "Hey, who is you?"

"I'm the bitch looking after the building you drunks are fucking with." Valencia snorts. "Stop messing around and leave before somebody gets hurt."

The two men blink at her, then look at each other, then back to her.

"No, I dun think we will." the kid grins. "Ackshually, you'ze from that place over dere, yeah? Whatchu doin'?"

"I-It's none of your business what the fuck I'm doing!" Valencia hisses. "Fuck outta here before I fuck you up!"

"Oi! No threatenin' da beffday boy!" the woman is red shambles up to her.

"Yeah? And what's you gonna do if i don't stop?" Valencia snorts.

Warning screens pop up in her vision and her chrome freezes as they're manually locked. Another girl saunters up to the woman in red, grinning.

"Well, my fwend 'ere woulda done that." the woman laughs. "Aight, I got a sharpie! Let's go empty da safehouse that gonk's guardin'!"

=X=X=X=X=X=

You have your face in your hands as Misty's retelling jogged up your memories, foggy as they were from the alcohol and your own impulsiveness.

"The guard was dealt with easily, and the safehouses was filled with mostly useless junk anyways." Misty shrugs. "Gold paint, ammo, some junk guns-- nothing worth stealing. There were some chrome that you took though, piled them high over there."

You follow Misty's arm and spot the small pile of cyberlimbs dumped carelessly in the corner over there. Outdated models you could convert to Spyderware or outright stripped for parts.

You sigh, a little relieved. At least you didn't cause that big of a mess.

"Oh, and there's also the car you took." Misty grins. "Had to file off the license plate and strip the paint off, but it's not like anyone could stop you."

…

"I made off with some gang lieutenant's ride?" you murmur, horrified.

"Seems like it." Misty giggles, flicking you something. "It's a nice ride, too."

You open your inbox and see what it is Misty sent you. An image, taken from the safehouse you robbed-- featuring the car you took as well as yourself and your friends posing around it.

"Aw no…!" you lament. "Aw, nooooo!"

"Relax, it's fine! Sasha and Kiwi already scrubbed it for any trackers and they got a shoemaker to craft a history or you getting it." Misty laughs. "You're fine. Nothing to worry about!"

"I took a ganger's ride-- I'm gonna be fucking shot!" you sob.

"Not if they don't find you." Misty pats your head. "C'mon, you're fine! And you can even fix it a little more if you're that worried. Give a personal touch, hm?"

You make a mournful sound instead.

Once everyone more or less sobers up, you head to the parking lot to behold your new ride.

It's… pretty nice. Much bigger than the MaiMai you're working on and far better tuned. The lack of paint gives it an odd air-- like you're looking at a naked person rather than a car, which doesn't make sense.

As Misty said all, identification markers have been stripped off; from the gold plating to the paint to the license plates. Even parts of the rims are gone, rending the car as just another Thorton Colby CST40 without a proper paint job and shit rims.

"It's a damn sight better than a MaiMai, I'll give it that." Vik grunts. "You can drive it, right Pete?"

"I can, yeah." you nod. "Got some practice in with the MaiMai-- a Thorton can't be that different, right?"

"I like your optimism." Sasha giggles soundlessly, hopping onto the hood of the car and sitting down. "So, was the birthday party fun?"

"Very." you grin. "For all the scruples and craziness, it was a blast. Definitely gonna have to do it again in future birthdays. Hell, maybe outside of it too."

"Just remember to invite us too." Kiwi tells you, pulling you into a one-armed hug. "Wouldn't want you causing trouble you can't fix."

"And wouldn't want anyone else to give him a lapdance, right?" Misty grins. Kiwi splutters, while Sasha shrugs.

"It was his birthday-- a lapdance was the least I could give him." Sasha hops off and walks over to you, walking her fingers up your chest. "Besides, it was fun. Maybe I'll even do it again sometime for free~"

"Wait… I paid for a lapdance from you?" you blink.

"From both of us, I think." Kiwi pauses, eyes lighting up as she checks something in her chrome. "Yeah, both of us."

"It was a gift that you insisted on paying for." Sasha grins at you. "So, thanks for the Eddies, Petey~"

"Would that even count as a gift at that point?" Vik snorts. "Well, what's done is done so there's that."

"…I guess I can live with some monetary loss." you shrug, smiling. "That was a good 16th birthday, if nothing else."

(+600 Material, +1 Thorton Colby 'Vaquero', the Valentinos are scratching their heads at the robbery, -3271 Money, Stress reset to 0)

Your weeks starts with another payment to 6th Street's protection racket. Greg, the cowboy hat-wearing ganger tips his hat at you before walking off with his posse, and you shake your head at the blatant show of force.

You work on some spare projects before heading out to go get some groceries for the week. Nothing too fancy-- just some kibble and prepak.

…that thought actually has you stopping and exhaling, amazed at how low your taste for food has gone since you arrived in NC. Months ago, you would've thrown up at the mere idea of eating anything that tasted like dog food, but here you are planning on buy actual dog food as a staple meal.

"I'm gonna need to invent some artificial meat soon, goddamnit." you grumble, mood soured. "This is no way to live-- Aunt May would be disgusted."

And sad at the fact that you have to subsist off of it. Her cooking was always the best aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now you're sad.

Kicking a pebble, you resume your walk to the grocery store when you feel it.

A change in the air, so subtle that you could've missed it. The distinct scent of ozone and your goosbumps rising. You look around instinctively, beckoned so by an old memory.

You see it to the south, a section of sky rippling subtly-- unnoticeable to the everyday gonk. Lighting quick as it started, it ends.

You swing your MaiMai around and drive over.

You reach the outskirts of Santo Domingo near Heywood, arriving at a cluster of buildings and head out on foot. Memories come to you; of that fateful day in your old life and the Space-Connector malfunctioning, bringing you here.

It's odd, and beyond your understanding. Of all the things that could be happening, why did that stick out to you the most?

Hell, you didn't even know what this is. Maybe it was another corpo experiment, so some gonk tampered with something they shouldn't have. You had no stake in this, no reason to get involved beyond the usual bit of token curiosity that everyone has. This had nothing to do with you.

But still you move. Perhaps out of some small inkling of hope-- of an escape out of this terrible place and a return to the blissful ignorance of your old life. A surprising and very quick ending to a misadventure-gone-bad that's gone on for too long. Or so you hope.

But then you round a corner and see a bunch of yonos crowding around a girl-- not even fully grown yet, still young and wearing a school uniform straight out of a Japanese anime.

You draw your iron and step in.

In the dark alley, reeking with the scent of NC's refuse and things best forgotten, you find a group of yonos at the far end-- laughing and joking as they crowd around something. Not too far from them, you see what looks like a mech sparking on the ground.

It's damaged-- missing both legs and an arm. Tears and dents adorn its red armor plating, as though it came fresh from tough battle.

You squint and notice the splotches of blood here and there.

"Hey chooms!" you greet as you walk. The group turns to you-- a posergang, 5 men strong. "Couldn't help but overhear the ruckus from way yonder. You gonks are a little loud over here."

"Yeah? And what biz is it of yours?" one gonk, the leader judging from his chrome, jerks his head at you. "Fuck off, fodder."

You glance past them and see a girl on the ground, curled up into a trembling ball while bruised and bleeding with her clothes torn. Your grip on your iron tightens just a bit.

"Yeah, not gonna happen." you smile tightly. "I'm gonna need you boys to step away from the girl."

"And if we don't?" another yono makes a stupid face that you think was supposed to be scary. "What'chu gon' do 'about it, choom?"

The 'eyes' of the mech behind the group light up and with an electric whine, it pulls itself forward with its remaining limb. The noise has the yonos turning around in surprise.

A chance.

Your shotgun comes up as the mech reaches out with its remaining limb. A trigger pull blows one gonk's arm clean off and punches a hole through another. The dying gonk's weapon goes off and nails a third in the head.

You throw yourself into cover and the remaining gonks draw their guns-- a shotgun and an SMG. Both aimed at the mech.

The mech's arm unfolds and what looks like a gun comes into view. But instead of a gunshot, there's a hiss of white fluids shooting out and semi-solidifying all over the gonk.

But… it's not just any white fluid. The moment it leaves the nozzle, it forms a net-- no, a web. It lands on the gonk in such a way that it presses his gun against his body and ties him up.

"What the fuck--!?" screams the shotgunner before the mech yanks the webbing and smashes him into the wall. He slumps to the ground, unconscious.

The last gonk shoots, his SMG peppering the mech with small-caliber rounds. They bounce off in a shower of sparks, but one lucky hit knocks the arm to the side. He's still shooting when you pop out of cover and blast his head into red mist.

The body flops to the ground, twitching and spasming in its death. You do a quick sweep of the alley to make sure there's no enemies left before you move to the girl.

She's still curled up on the ground, but her hands are covering her ears. She's shaking, trembling like a leaf on the wind, terrified.

You're about to move to her when the mech moves, dragging itself across the ground with surprising speed and interposes itself between you and the girl. You slip back into cover as more webbing is shot out, missing you but covering the dumpster you're cowering behind.

"Easy, easy!" you call out. "Not gonna hurt you! Promise!"

"N-Not gonna hurt…?" the girl says, voice wavering. "You-- you killed them!"

"If I didn't, they would've done us both in! Do you have any idea where we are?" you ask, not daring to peek out. "This is the third most dangerous city in NUSA, right behind Detroit!"

"Detroit was always a shithole!" the girl argues.

"Of course it is, and this place is worse in some respects!" you reply. "And the gunshot are not gonna make things easier when the gangs come to look!"

The girl is quiet, and you hear her mech whining and whirring-- likely trying to move. Over it, you hear the girl doing something in a hurry; maybe trying to fix it or something.

"It's not gonna work. You don't have the spare parts for it, or the tools." you call out. "You're better off leaving it behind and going on your own way."

"No! I'm not leaving SP//dr!" she cries. "He's-- y-you wouldn't understand!"

You risk peeking out from behind the dumpster and watch as the girl works furiously to try and open a section of armor plating, muttering something under her breath that you can't quite hear-- Japanese?

"Just--!" she sobs. "Just don't move! S-Stay there! O-Or else!"

You pull out your slate, type a message, and send it plus a location ping to your contacts-- at least the ones you can trust to help you in this situation.

'SOS, have a delicate situation on my hands. Some cover/overwatch would be appreciated.'

You get replies in moments.

'Damn it Pete, I'm on a job right now so I can't help.' comes Kiwi's reply. 'Bug out and run, don't take any risks.'

'I've got an old revolver and a shotgun, I'm on my way.' Vik answers. 'Do you need anything Pete? Meds? Bombs?'

'I was about to go with Vik, but he told me to watch his shop. What kind of trouble are you getting in to, Pete?' Misty messages. 'Please stay safe.'

'You're lucky I'm free. What do you need?' Sasha texts back, with a picture of her laying down on a rooftop ledge.

'Get to my ping ASAP and head up on a roof. Take an overwatch position and warn me if anyone unsavory comes by.' you text Sasha.

'If you have a box truck, bring it as close to the ping as you can.' you text Vik. 'There might be some heavy stuff to haul out.'

You don't bother looking at the replies and instead refocus on the girl.

"Look, my name is Peter Parker." you start. "I have friends who can help transport your mech or bring supplies. If you let me, we can get it out of sight until they arrive."

The girl is quiet for a long moment. Then you a loud thump, like someone is punching something hard.

"Fucking…!" you hear the girl hiss. "How can I trust you? You just killed four people, you could kill me!"

"They would've killed you if I didn't!" you argue. "Damn it-- I can help!"

"Bullshit, you'd just kill me too!" she protests.

Frustrated, you toss your shotgun out to the side. Then your Unity.

"There," you say. "Do you trust me a little more now?"

There's a long moment of silence. Then, the girl speaks again-- this time with a more subdued voice.

"Raise your hands out from behind the dumpster." she orders. "And come out slowly, no sudden moves!"

You comply easily, moving as slowly as you can and praying you don't get webbed up. You step out into view and watch as the girl glares at you from behind the bulk of her mech. When it's clear you're not planning anything nor do you have any spare weapons on you, the mech's arm lowers and she leans a little more out from behind her mech.

She would have looked cute if she were cleaner and less bruised. Her school uniform (at least you think it's one, Japan is weird like that) is torn in some places and burned in others, evidencing a hard-fought battle. Her eyes glimmer with unshed tears.

You swallow your apprehension and step closer, within arm's reach of the mech. The girl watches you with a mix of caution and fear, with no small amount of apprehension. You don't blame her.

"…k-konnichiwa." she greets. "I-I'm Peni. Peni Parker."

You blink at her once, then twice.

"…Parker?" you echo.

"Y-Yeah." she nods, swallowing. "And… and you're a Parker too, huh? Small world."

"I'd say that, but given how you arrived…" you trail off. "Well, we can talk about that later. Do you need a hand?"

"Sure, but unless you know how to work with a mech suit and have spare mech limbs, I don't think you'll be much help." she snorts.

"Hold on." you fiddle with your smart glasses and take a picture of the mech. You send it to Vik, with a message asking if he can get replacement limbs. "I've got a few friends on their way to help. They're not techies, but they should be able to keep us covered. What about the interior?"

"I've been trying to get to it, but this stupid armor panel's stuck." Peni huffs. "Stupid VEN#m suit… it dented the panel and broke the manual release. I can't open it."

"Hold on." you move to one of the dead bodies with chrome and fiddle with an arm. "Lemme…"

"W-What're you doing?!" Peni hisses. "Are you-- are you looting the bodies?!"

"Everyone does here." you shrug. "But no, I'm checking to see if this gonk's got a melee mod installed. Just need to…"

You find a latch and the cyberlimb unfolds, opening a compartment from which a metal blade slides out in a flash. You nod and detach the limb from the body, moving to Peni who gawks at you all the while.

"Yeah, this place is not a good one. Most of the police are corrupt, the city is ruled by megacorps, crime is rampant, and gangs are everywhere." you tell her as you jimmy the armor panel. "I was mugged on my first day here, just like you.

"I-I wasn't mugged! They were bullies that thought it was fun to beat up a kid!" she pouts.

"…so mugged." you grin, and the armor panel gives. "Alright, it's open. What do you need to do?"

"SP//dr? You in there?" she asks, pushing you aside. "C'mon, we need to go. It's no safe here anymore."

"…are you talking to the suit?" you blink. "What's-- oh!"

You see a spider scurry out from the midst of the electronics and jumps onto Peni's hand. It scurries up along her arm and settles on her head, burying itself in her hair.

"You're okay…!" Peni gasps, and you know she's talking about the spider. "Thank goodness… I wouldn't know what to do if…"

She takes a deep breath and sighs, turning to you.

"You said you had friends on the way, right?" she asks. "Do you think any of them can lift a 300+ kilogram mech suit?"

"…uh…" you blink, looking at Vik's reply. "No, sorry."

"Yeah, I thought so." she sighs, but the disappointment's minimal. "Alright, help me take apart the important bits here and then we can go."

Thankfully, there's not a lot of important bits to take-- the internal hardware are all put together in easily detachable sections with minimal wiring. The most important bits go into Peni's bag, while the less important (but still important!) pieces are carried.

"We should probably get the webshooter too. Can't be too careful." Peni says, scooting over to it. "You wouldn't happen to have a toolbox on you, to you Peter?"

"Call me Pete. And I'll do you one better." you grin and produce a multi-tool. "Here, an all-in-one pocket tool. Put the gooey part onto whatever you need open and it'll open it for you."

"Whoa…" she gasps, taking it from you. "This would've been really handy back home."

You laugh, as you go over the mech suit one more time in case you missed anything. Yeah, it definitely would have-- in hers and yours.

Oh, speaking of…

"So, Peni." you start. "How'd you get here?"

"Oh, I--" she pauses, looking at you. "Uh… y-you wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Was it, say," you trail it. "A portal in a lab experiment gone wrong?"

Her head snaps to you so quickly you're surprised she doesn't get whiplash. There's laser focus in her eyes, shock and hope mixed into one painful package-- as though you had the answer to her problems.

"Yeah, that's how I got here too." you smile, a little sad. "I was on a field trip to a superhero team's home base when the leader's mad science experiment fucked up. Got sucked into a portal and wound up here."

"I-I was in the middle of fighting a supervillain that was trying to summon an army of inter-dimensional invaders and had help with several of my arch nemeses." she tells you, eager. "I beat them all up, but then the portal destabilized and I…"

"You wound up here." you nod. "Hmm. Say, did you happen to meet a guy with a slug head on your way here?"

"No…? Oh! Wait, was he carrying an oversized pencil?"

"Yeah, him! He hit you on the head with it too?"

"Yeah! What a dick!"

"Right?"

In minutes, you finish the last bits of scavenging and haul everything usable you can from the robot's wreck. There's not much-- just some internal hardware that you can carry in one arm.

Peni looks at it with an expression of sadness as she grabs something from inside the mech. Her arm jerks back and she pulls away.

On her finger is a grenade pin.

You hear hissing from inside the mech, and its back starts rapidly heating up-- developing a glowing red spot that turns into white and melts. It spreads all over the mech, turning most of it into molten slag over the course of a few seconds; likely the work of a network of interconnected thermite charges.

Yet, despite the brightness and heat, Peni doesn't look away. She watches as the mech suit is melted into a puddle of molten metal, her look of sadness not changing.

Then the heat dies down, and all that's left of the mech is a puddle. You reach over and pat her shoulder.

"It must've meant a lot to you if you look this torn up over it being slagged." you say. Peni nods mutely. "Well, don't worry-- we've got the important bits. We can make a new one eventually."

"Make a new one…" she murmurs. "You say that like it's easy."

"Mechs are just supersized robots. And I know how to make robots-- trust me, it's easier than it looks." you grin. "Now c'mon, let's get out of here. Sasha, you around?"

You get a call through your smart-glasses and open it as you pick up movement from the roof.

"Up here." she tells you. "Look out below!"

In a show of impressive dexterity, you watch as the netrunner descends-- hopping using pipes and wiring to slow her movements down until she lands in a crouch before you and Peni, cat-like in her agility.

Peni tenses and moves behind you, a little scared. Sasha notices and grins, equally catlike.

"No, bad Sasha." you tell her off. "She's still a little rattled, no need to make things worse."

"Aww, but she looks so cute!" Sasha pouts at you. "Look at her! I wanna hug her and rub my cheek against hers so much!"

"No means no." you firmly tell her. "Pick up my guns and we can go."

"Okay, okay. Killjoy." Sasha rolls her eyes. "Oh, wait, one of these yonos are still alive."

"Yeah, he--" she draws her gun. "Sasha, no!"

The netrunner flinches, turning to you with shock.

"Can you not traumatize the--" you pause, turning to Peni. "How old are you?"

"14." she answers.

"Can you not traumatize the 14 year old with the usual NC shit?" you bark at Sasha. "She's been through enough of a shit day, she doesn't need to see a live murder on top of that!"

"Wha-- but you killed all the others!" Sasha pouts.

"That's different, they could and were in the middle of fighting back!" you retort. "That one's all webbed up and helpless!"

"If he gets free, he's gonna go and tell all his friends about this! Then we're gonna be in a lot more trouble!" Sasha pouts at you. "When did you get so soft, Pete? I thought you were used to NC by now!"

"I'm used to NC." you put a hand on Peni's head. "She isn't."

Sasha blinks at you, then turns to the girl half-hiding behind you. She sighs.

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnneeeeee." she whines, holstering her gun.

"Thank you." you sigh. "I'll treat you to some prepak later. C'mon, Vik's waiting."

Peni sighs and goes with you while Sasha picks up your guns. Lightning quick and without Peni watching, you send a message to Sasha through your smart-glasses.

'Do it when she's not looking.' you tell her. 'And do it quietly.'

You get a thumb's up emoji as a reply.

Vik doesn't have a box truck-- the best he could do was a single cabin pickup truck with a tarp to throw over anything you put inside. The older man sees you and Sasha escorting a little girl and pulls out a cigarette.

"Fuckin' Night City…" he grunts as you open the door and usher Peni inside. "What happened?"

"Buncha yonos were ganging up on her. Stepped in before anything bad happened." you tell him. "She's a bennie and a little rattled."

"What's a bennie?" Peni asks. Vik stares at her for a moment, then shakes his head. "Is-- is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all, sweetheart. It just means you're from out of town." Vik tells her. "You picked a bad city to come to, miss. You're lucky Pete was there to help, or else you would've been--" he sees your glare and clears his throat. "In some big trouble."

"I'll say." Sasha grins, hopping into the back of the truck. "No way she could've taken a 5-man-band all on her own, not with a mechsuit that badly damaged."

"A mechsuit? She was piloting an ACPA?" Vik gawks.

"I'll explain later." you tell him. "Take her to your place, I'll meet you there after I get my MaiMai."

"W-Where are they taking me?" Peni asks you. "A-Are they--"

"They're good people. Maybe even the best in Night City." you tell her. "They won't hurt you, promise. They'll answer the general questions you might have, and I'll explain things when I get there."

"Oh. O-Okay." Peni nods, hugging her bag to her chest. "Man, today's getting weirder and weirder…"

"You get used to it." you pat her head. "Alright, see you in a bit Vik. Sasha."

The netrunner tosses you your irons as the truck pulls away, and you watch them go quietly. You heave a sigh then turn around and walk back to where you parked your MaiMai.

Looks like your day just got occupied.

Reaching Vik's shop, you head inside to find Misty patching up Peni's minimal injuries as the older man explains some things to her-- mainly about NC and various bits of slang being thrown around.

She listens and nods attentively, then blinks at your entrance. Her expression doesn't quite brighten, but she is a little pleased to see you again.

Her expression actually brightens as you set her mechsuit internals down on a table. You grin, equal parts pleased to have gotten that out of her and chagrined that she likes the parts you brought in rather than just yourself. Thankfully, you've got experience in that via your sidehustles as a techie.

"Pete." Vik nods.

"Peter. You're okay." Misty says. "Thank goodness."

"I'm made of stern stuff, yeah." you grin back. "Where's Sasha?"

"She went to get Peni some prepak. Said you'd pay her back." Vik tells you. You sigh and nod. "Heh. Really should've kept your mouth shut, Pete. Women are like that."

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight." Misty rolls her eyes. Peni giggles. "So. You gonna fill us up on what's going on?"

"Yeah, I'm more interested in how a girl like her was piloting an ACPA if what you said was true." Vik looks Peni over. "She doesn't have any chrome in her from what I and my scanners can see. She's a full 'ganic."

"Is-- is that a bad thing?" Peni hedges. "Do you need augs to pilot a mechsuit?"

"You do if you want the best possible results. Sardines usually have some chrome in them to help with the piloting and lessen the stresses while in combat." Vik nods. "And more importantly, they need to be at a certain age before they can wear a suit so their bodies can actually fit in it. You're just 14-- I don't know any ACPA small enough to fit a body your size."

Peni gawks at him, then at Misty who nods. She turns to you, asking for help.

You sigh as you run through the cover story you thought up on the way here.

=X=X=X=X=X=

"She's like me." Peter starts, and Peni gasps at how upfront he is.

Do-- do these people know?! Had he told them about his origins being from outside this universe?! Whoa, he's breaking so many story tropes-- does this mean he's got a super strong support structure for all kinds of issues?!

The older man, Vik, and the woman, Misty, blink twice at him, then start doing double takes. Peni fidgets, uncomfortable under the attention.

"Wait, so, you mean…" Vik murmurs. "Peni's… she's a--"

"A corpo project?" Misty continues.

Peni blinks, then turns to look at Peter. He looks back with a look that she's only seen on her friends and family when they're talking about something important-- and need her to play along.

Oh. Okay, so it's like that; let their own assumptions fill in the blanks. Smart, and she supposes that it's better than way; not like she could say she was isekai'd and people would believe her. Or Peter, for that matter, if what he said about being portal'd here was true.

She doesn't think he was lying about that. The way he talked was genuine, with the kind of subtle heartache that had Peni fearful.

It was the heartache of someone who couldn't go home.

"Damn it, so Kiwi was right?" Vik curses. Peter blinks.

"About what?" the young man asks.

"You being a corpo project. No way someone smart enough to make new cyberdecks, chrome, and robot spiders out of junk wouldn't know about NC could be anything less than a test tube baby." the older man says. "You were like a newborn when Kiwi found you, and Peni is…"

"Just like you. No idea how NC works, but really talented." Misty nods. "Only, where you could make stuff, hers is… ACPA piloting."

Peni meets Peter's gaze and thinks 'are we really letting this story stick?' at him.

Peter's look of resignation has her sighing.

=X=X=X=X=X=

You get the particulars out of the way and Peni is quick-thinking enough to corroborate her story with yours-- or at least words things vaguely enough to let Vik and Misty come to their own conclusions.

Sasha returns not too long after that, handing Peni the bought prepak and listening to the abridged version of what you and Peni told Vik and Misty.

"Damn. So you're a test tube baby?" Sasha blinks from her perch on the operating bed. "I didn't get that impression the first time we met."

"In my defense, by then I was already accustomed to NC." you say.

"You didn't even have an Agent with you." Sasha argues.

"I talked to you just fine with a slate." you argue back. "And I handled those scavs easily enough, didn't I?"

"U-Umm," Peni hedges. "Peter, how are you and Sasha talking?"

"Oh, Sasha's mute so she communicates via Agents-- communication programs in specialty chrome." Vik answers. "Pete has them in his smart glasses. You'll want some too if you want to do long-range communication that doesn't involve you typing something out on a slate."

"Ah, can I use a phone instead?" Peni pulls out an old flip phone.

"Whoa, where'd you get that?" Misty breathes. "That's ancient tech by today's standards!"

"It still works!" Peni pouts. "Don't talk bad about my Somy Aldricksson!"

"Alright, everyone chill-- we're getting off track." you cut in. "Now that we've established the particulars, it's time to bring out the big question." you turn to Peni. "Where Peni's gonna stay."

Everyone blinks at you.

"What?" you blink back at all of them. "What did I say?"

"You don't wanna take her in?" Vik asks. "I mean, I get why, but I thought corpo projects stuck together-- safety in numbers and all that."

"That implies they're willing to lose some to keep the majority alive." Misty chides. "But yeah Pete, we thought you'd take Peni to live with you. Not that you have to, I've got space if she wants to bunk in."

"And I've got a spare mattress in my shop if she wants to stay here." Vik adds. "But it's not the comfiest… or the safest."

"Ah, right, Ripperdoc shop…" you wince. "Yeah, probably not the best place to live in. Sasha?"

"Nope, no can do." Sasha shakes her head. Peni's phone beeps. "You're cute and all Peni, but I don't have the space for another person long-term."

"Y-Yeah, no problem." the girl nods, awed. "So it's just Peter then?"

"I mean…" you pause. "There's also Kiwi and her apartment. She took care of me when I first got here, so she's got the experience."

"Yeah, but she's also a rising star now in the Street." Vik says. "Miss Webb got an invite to Afterlife not too long ago, y'know? That's where all the big leagues go to, with all the dangers that implies."

"Meaning she's a little too hot to put anyone with, even if she's willing to take Peni in." Misty explains. "I don't think she'd turn her away, but it would be a little… dangerous. Meanwhile, you're in Santo Domingo-- arguably one of the safer districts in NC. Your apartment has defenses, and you pay a protection racket to 6th Street."

"That's not something to be proud of, though." you protest lightly.

"It still means you're better protected than Kiwi, with the added benefit of anonymity to boot." Vik adds. "You're literally perfect."

You take a deep breath and turn to Peni, who looks around askance at everyone. Then she locks gazes with you and swallows her apprehension.

"I…" she starts. "I'd be okay living with Pete."

…

"…alright then." you sigh. "Finish up your prepak and I'll take you home."

Peni finishes her food quick before you head out-- bringing her mech's internals with you along the way.

The ride back is silent as you think about the future; living arrangements, budget changes, and the like. You can't renovate the lab back into a spare room, which mean she'll have to take your bed and you'll have to get a couch-bed to better sleep in…

You chuckle. Barely a month and a half of living alone and you're already banished to the living room. Again. At least this time it won't be futon like back in Kiwi's place.

"…so…" Peni starts. "Are we gonna talk about the whole… other world thing, or…?"

"When you've gotten used to the place a little bit and gotten time to calm down." you promise her. "I made the mistake of looking into things before I got a chance to get used to things, and I was… mopey for a while. Don't want that to happen to you too."

"I guess that's a valid reason." Peni nods. "Have you thought about trying to go back to your home world?"

"A few times. But I'm not smart enough to make something like it, and it's not like this world has the tech or power for it." you pause. "Or… nah, not the corpos either-- that'd be something they'll kill people to protect."

Peni shudders. You wince.

"Sorry, was I--?"

"N-No, no, I was just…" she fidgets. "You're pretty nonchalant about mentioning death and killing."

"I told you earlier that killing is normal in Night City, didn't I? And if I hadn't done in those yonos, they would've done us in instead and loot us for all out stuff." you remind her. "I've had months to make that realization. You will too."

"No, I won't!" Peni argues. "A life is precious, all lives are! Each one is important and irreplaceable! How can you even consider taking it in the first place?"

"Because they could take my precious, irreplaceable life." you tell her. "I'm not a supehero, Peni-- I can't dodge bullets or beat up goons to an inch of their lives. It's not that easy."

Peni glares at you, but at the same time the heat of her anger is blunted by the knowledge of you being just another normie-- even if you're smarter than average. She looks away with a huff and crosses her arms.

"Fine. Then I'll just have to clean things up myself." she tells you. "Take the gangs of this city to cleaners, alive, one fight at a time. It's doable-- I'll show you!"

You smile, a little hopeful yet sad. You suppose you'll have to see.

Peni settles down into your place easily enough, claiming your bedroom as hers while you bring what little clothes you have out into your workshop.

You let her get a feel for the place as you go to your work bench to get started on one of your earlier projects that went untouched due to a lack of space and equipment, as well as materials.

Biomods.

A concept you've only heard of in science fiction and the work of mad scientists back in your original world, biomods are the biological equivalent to Chrome-- safer and more reliable if not as diverse in functions. Basic stuff, really; strength enhancements, better endurance, stronger bones, faster metabolism, etc. Stuff you would've seen on metahumans back home.

It amazes you that this world has essentially made it possible to turn regular people into low-tier superhumans. Truly, they're far more advanced than most things back home.

Yet it's not without their downsides.

Availability-wise, there's little in the way of good biomods in the NUSA-- only low-quality stuff. The good stuff is in Europe, which costs quite a bit to go to and more to get access to the good stuff. And then there's the lack of diversity function-wise.

Biomods, as far as you can find, are limited to what a regular biological body can do. Sight and smell, touch and taste, hearing-- the regular five senses and only those. There's not thermal vision or adjustable zoom of optical chrome, no super-speed and slowed time perception of a sandy, no hidden limb-weapon of an arm-cannon or mantis blades. It's all biological stuff.

But that's the important part-- biomods don't induce cyberpsychosis. Meaning, in the long-term, they were the safer option. Moreover, it's only a matter of time before Europe figures out the biological equivalents of the stuff you just mentioned. Except maybe sandys; those are bullshit.

Regardless, you're curious and you're going to want to learn more about this biomod stuff. That means looking online and doing SCIENCE! The best part of your day, arguably!

Whoo! This is gonna be fun!

It's slow going at first-- you have to trawl the Net for forums and chat sites, and then you have to cast a line out into each one to see who has anything worth engaging for.

Things are slow at first. Few gonks online actually know much about biology, fewer still know how the inner workings operate. Hardly any know about genetics and chemistry, which you think has something to do with how organic matter is formed.

Then, you get something promising-- someone comes into one of your chats and starts talking shit about the gonks who have no idea what they're talking about, then starts disparaging you for trying to make fun of simpletons who are only marginally smarter than rocks; inviting you to a proper forum if you feel like your intellect is worth a damn.

Offended but happy you caught a decent lead, you take their bait and follow a link they give you to the forum in question.

It's protected under a rudimentary data-fortress that you get through by answering some scientific questions, and you're welcomed into the Nerd Node; an underground anonymous scientific discussion forum where nerds and savants go to talk, exchange ideas, and receive feedback.

There's all manner of discussion topics here-- from material sciences to mathematics to electronics to coding to even psychology. You easily find the thread for biology, and open up a discussion thread about biomods; more specifically how to manufacture them.

You get dozens of participants almost immediately, all of whom argue and debate about the best biomod and how to improve them or make variants that could simulate specialist chrome.

You manage to corral everyone, well mostly everyone, to give you a rundown on how to make biomods. It all starts with a crash course on Histology-- the study of organic tissues.

Well, it's more like the study of animal and plant tissues, but both are organic so that's just a semantic difference.

It starts by taking a sample of the subject, usually blood. From there, DNA is taken and put through this world's version of CRISPR (as far as you can tell) to see how much it can be altered to take which (if any) biomods.

From there, the DNA sample is used as a base to make whatever biomod the person wants installed in their bodies-- stronger muscles, tougher bones, better metabolism, etc. It all comes down to the use of their DNA as a base for all the biomods they use, which… makes sense.

Using foreign matter poses the risk of rejection, and would thus place the person in danger. Using their own DNA to make biomods specially tailored for them and them alone is the logical step in making biological enhancements as it minimizes the risk of any complications. Huh. No wonder it costs so much-- they're essentially making personalized stuff for the individual rather than taking raw material, sculpting it into a mass of stuff, and slapping it onto someone.

The human body is far more advanced than chrome, after all.

From there, you get into the swing of things-- debating and arguing about various methods or biomod making as well as how to diversify biomods. Many ideas come up, though explaining how they can be put to practice is hard even for the other participants of the thread.

But it was a start, and that was far better than your initial expectation of needing to find a supplier, getting bio-mass, and figuring things out on your own. Now you can make your own biomods!

Shitty biomods, but still! You could potentially circumvent the need for chrome entirely with this! Hell, you could biosculpt yourself to look like an athlete now, or a celebrity from your old life! This was-- this was groundbreaking!

…but you still needed to acquire the machines for it. Which is a can of worms in itself.

The only company that dabbles in anything biology related is Biotechnica and you hate them for what they've done to the food in NC. Acquiring anything from them makes your skin crawl. No way would you help them in any monetary way, such as legally acquiring the biomod-making equipment.

But then… you didn't have to, did you?

You cackle as the idea of a grand heist comes to mind.

(gain modest understanding on biomods, gain modest understanding on biomod-production, can now produce low quality biomods, unlocked new Science Actions, unlocked new Personal Actions)

Your success with biomods inspires you to go on the chemistry section of Nerd Node and look up various topics about chems.

There's a ton of things here for you to look up, and to your pleasant surprise there are already topics of various chemicals you wanted to research already posted and archived for your convenience. So you open them up and start reading, taking notes where you can.

It's all informative, with tons of explanations and even diagrams included-- showing chemical structures, reactions, measurements, and even temperatures as well as appropriate storage containers.

There's much here for you to use, and you will-- keeping the computer online for use as a guideline in your chemical brewing.

But before that, you hurriedly put on your safety equipment; gloves, mask, goggles, even a hairnet just in case. Then you close your workspace door, secure it, and open the vents as well as one of the windows for better circulation.

"Man, I haven't done this in months." you chuckle, rubbing your hands as you approach the apparati and chems you've brought out. "Now, time for SCIENCE!"

You spend hours mixing and measuring chemicals following the guidelines on Nerd Node's many chemistry-focused threads. From common chems bought off the market, you're able to synthesize the common drugs and other useful stuff that are usually only sold on the street.

There's tons of them that you can make, but a handful catch your eye. Practical drugs meant to increase combat performance as well as longevity.

Then you start getting ideas on how to improve them.

You take the combat drugs, ones that increase aggression and physical strength temporarily in exchange for addiction and a severe lack of self-preservation, and improve them by substituting the addictive chemicals for ones that induce endorphin release and promotes longer-lasting strength based on the levels of adrenaline in the body.

Side-effects aren't all that bad-- just an increase in body temperature and more blood moving to the user's skin due to elevated heart-rate, turning them red. You name it the Demon Drug for now.

Another chemical that draws your attention is a combat performance enhancer, meant to lengthen the time a user could spend in combat-- an endurance lengthener if you would. It fortifies their mental fortitude and gives them longer endurance/stamina at the cost of… addiction and dependency. Man, what is it with chem makers and them wanting to make people addicted to their stuff?

Oh. Wait. Return customers.

Anyway, this drug you improve by removing the addictive chemicals and replacing them with a compound that breaks down lactic acid and encourages healing. It also provides (slightly) better bodily durability in the process; allowing the user to keep moving and fighting just as long without any long-term health risks.

Side effects include a 'hangover' period of 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the doses taken, as well as being unable to sleep as long as the chem is active. This one you give it the placeholder name Dash Juice.

You pause and consider the two side-benefits of Dash juice, the healing and fortitude enhancements. They would be beneficial to medicinal chems, now that you thought about it. Hence, you pull up all the healing-focused chems you know and pore over their ingredients-- looking for ways to improve.

You find them, and get to work.

You find the 'recipes' for the contents of MaxDocs and Heal Boosters on the Nerd Node, though there's no mention of the amount-- likely for copyright protection. Like that would stop you.

It takes five (lightly) explosive failures and three near fires, but you eventually find the right measurements to make a MaxDoc heal-inhalant. It works just the same as a normal MaxDoc set, with all the usual side-effects. Then, with only half the amount of fuck ups, you make the Bounce Back-- another healing med like MaxDoc but an injector and not as effective.

Both of them have chems in them that promote the body's natural healing ability and force it to overdrive-- forcibly closing injuries in moments like Wolverine. The risks of addiction are surprisingly minimal, though prolonged use of either could lead to a shortening of lifespan or possible loss of weight.

A minor detail that has your eyes gawking before you stop and realize that both are essentially forcing the body to heal faster, which means they burn through the body's stores of fat and sugars sooner or outright force tissue cells to multiply more on demand.

That takes a toll on the body, and you seek to make something that can change that. Thus, you get to work-- trying to make something that the body can use in place of its natural fuel stores.

This you turn to back to biomods, and find a solution. Instead of relying on the body to provide the fuel to heal itself, why not provide it alongside the chemicals themselves?

A nutrient rich fluid, fast acting and easily digested, mixed in with the healing chems similar to MaxDoc and Bounce Back-- activated upon contact with stomach acids. It would function the same way as the two chems, but would remove the potential long-term harm to the body.

It's a little inefficient, though-- as the healing effect is spread throughout the body rather than that specific spot. A flaw to improve later, you suppose.

You yawn and check the time-- 3am. Jesus christ, you've been at this for 7 hours already? Man, you need some sleep… or a dose of Dash Juice…

Wait, no, bad Pete. No putting yourself in danger. Just sit down and--

Your elbow hits an empty beaker and it falls t the floor, shattering on impact. You wince and sigh, cursing yourself as you retrieve a broom to sweep up the mess. Man, if only you had the reflexes to catch it or the foreknowledge to know it was even there to begin with…

…

…

"…hold on…" you murmur, an idea coming to you.

You search Nerd Node for a thread about biological reflexes and find none-- the closest thing to it being a speculative thread on the speed of electrical impulses and how to make them faster.

It was filled with disparaging remarks from various forum members talking about how stupid the idea was, and how the speed limitation exists for a reason-- nerve cells are delicate and any damage to them would be irreversible despite the current advances in medicine. It would be like removing the brakes from a car or the speed dampeners from an orbital rail transport tram; the heat generated from the rapidly moving electrical impulse would damage the cells, and eventually kill the person at worst or permanently crippling them at best.

But he suggests a chemical workaround for that-- something that could help protect the nerve cell and quicken the transmission speed of an electrical impulse from source to brain to action. You don't necro the 6-year-old thread, but you do take notes out of it.

There's various chemical blends to try out, and making them is simple enough. Testing them though…

You have your Spiderbots go catch some rats scuttling around in the spaces between the walls, bringing them to you in all their squeaking, struggling glory.

One by one, you take micro-doses of the sample chems you made and inject them into the rats, then run tests on them; measuring their reaction time by how quickly they can dodge 'punches' from a Spiderbot.

You realize very quickly that rats already possess high reflexes and are thus able to dodge shit normally at a speed that already makes testing impractical. You have to adjust the readings to account for the baseline comparison before testing the drugged up rats.

When you do, half of the tester rats are dead from internal complications while the remainder are… fast.

They are stupidly, twitching and snap-reacting at speeds unnatural to even regular rats. You have to slow down the footage from your spiderbots to properly see what they're doing.

What you find is… extraordinary.

The change is small, but in rats it's readily apparent. They react with 50% higher speed, dodging swings from Spiderbot legs without much difficulty-- able to see it coming a mile away.

And then some… some are able to move out of the way before Spiderbot swings, and maneuver to the far side of the testing arena.

Figuring it has something to do with the chemicals they're injected with, you log the results and go back to the samples you injected them with to find what exactly you gave them.

You find the two drug samples easily enough.

The first is a chemical that, theoretically, hastens the transfer of an electrical impulses through the nerve cells, which are nominally made to possess better heat resistance and are thus able to tank damage from the excess heat of electrical impulses moving faster through the nerve cells.

From your calculations and guessimations on the enhanced speed of the rats tested, you come to the conclusion that this current iteration of Slo-Mo (as you've come to call it) hastens electrical impulse movement minimally.

The usual speed an electrical impulse travels through a mammalian nerve cell is between 70 to 120 meters per second. Slo-Mo quickens to 90 to 140 meters per second.

You postulate that someone taking Slo-Mo would have the sense of time slowed by a third, not quite bullet time but enough to see punches and dodge them 8 times out of ten. The formula could be tweaked though, and the reaction times made faster. Theoretically.

But more importantly, you find the second chemical mix, the one that gave the test rat its ability to dodge as though it had precognition. You give the contents of the mix a second and third review to figure out what it does.

Proprioception enhancement. It enhances one's sense of location, action, and location of body parts. In the case of the chemical mix, it doesn't quite enhance it as much as it expands its radius-- allowing one to sense the location, action, and location of not only your own body parts but of foreign items too.

This would allow the user to feel incoming attacks or objects and move to dodge them. Which… isn't precognition, but forewarning to an impending threat is the next best thing.

This sense expansion is… incredible. It might as well be low-tier precognition with how it allows someone to dodge blows that would otherwise hit-- provided they were from low-chrome or full 'ganics. It could be tweaked as well! Meaning you could theoretically make it so that this proprioception could extend to not only unaug'd actions but also superlative ones! Like blows from full borgs, or-- or even gunfire!

You slap yourself. No, what the fuck are you thinking? Proprioception couldn't possibly let someone sense incoming bullets and dodge them. How could they when even full borgs couldn't? Moreover, there was already chrome for it such a thing-- Sandevistans.

What you were doing was replicating chrome biologically, which… is cool, yeah, but not at all necessary. Besides, knowing how when to dodge is only good if your body has the reflexes to--

You glance at the Slo-Mo Recipe.

…a-and even then, it needed the stamina--

You glance at the Dash Juice sample.

…p-plus the physical strength t-to--

You glance at the Demon Drug sample.

…and then there was the recovery period to heal from all that exertion--

You glance at the healing chems you made, provisionally called Potions…

…

…

…

"…Jackpot…"

(unlocked Strength Chem, Stamina Chem, Healing Chem, Reflex Chem, and Precog Chem research lines, unlocked new Science Actions, unlocked new Personal Actions, all prerequisite science trees to Spider Serum unlocked)

You promptly pass out after laughing maniacally at 7am, waking up well past 2pm sprawled out on the floor of your workshop.

You groggily crawl out and find Peni on the couch, looking at stuff through a spare 'slate while sipping caffeine water.

"Hey." she greets you. "You sure sounded happy last night. And in the super early morning."

"Sorry, let my inner mad scientist out." you grin, crawling over to her. "You slept okay besides that?"

"It was alright. Been scrolling through the internet here, though." Peni nods. "Are… Are things this bad here in this world? Did America really fragment and--"

"And corpos have largely taken over most of the world. Yes." you sigh, pulling yourself up onto the chair. "Crime is a constant here in NC, and I wasn't lying when I said the police are corrupt to the core. I think Arasaka's working on buying out their employment contracts or something?"

"Wait, what?" she gawks. "But they just moved in, didn't they?"

"It's not like they're some new startup. Read up about the Fourth Corporate War." you shake your head. "This world is… messed up. Really messed up. It's worse than the one I came from."

"…mine too." Peni's shoulders slump. "Ugh, I'm getting sad thinking home again. Tell me something to get away from it."

"Well, have you tasted the local food yet?" you grin. She scrunches up her face.

"Yeah, and it sucks. I tried brewing coffee this morning and it tasted like caffeinated water." she makes gagging noises. "Please tell me that's just you being poor."

"Real coffee is only for the super rich and elite. People like you and me? We get the shit stuff." you chuckle. "You tried kibble yet?"

"I tried one. It tasted like dog food." Peni blows a raspberry.

"That's because it IS dog food." you laugh at Peni's look of horror. "You have no idea how distraught I was when I found out NC's food is shit. Could you believe that actual food is limited to the richest rich? The best we can afford is prepak, and that's just MREs."

"Oh god, please tell me there's at least a good pizza place here." she begs.

"I… hmm. There's this place called Buck-A-Slice, but I haven't tried it out yet." you hum. "Wanna go?"

"Yes please." Peni nods. "I'll get chan-- ah…"

"We'll stop for clothes along the way. No problem." you beam at her. "Or you can borrow one of my shirts. I don't mind."

"B-Borrow one of your shirts?!" Peni gasps. "That's--! P-Peter, that's too forward!"

"It's just a shirt, nothing to stammer over." you laugh. "Now c'mon, lets get ready and we'll be off."

It takes you and Peni less than half an hour to find and drive to the nearest Buck-A-Slice, and try out their pizzas. Both of you look through the menu, get one slice each, and eat in your car.

The two of you beeline it home after you first bite, but when the MaiMai stops parks in one of the parking spaces of the apartment complex neither of you step out. Both of you sit there staring off into the distance in the deafening quiet for a long moment, thinking over your life choices and trying to understand how they brought you here.

In Night City, and to the abomination to cooking known as Buck-A-Slice.

"Mnn…" Peni sobs, tears welling up in her eyes and her hands ball up into fists. "Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh--!!"

"Aaaaarrrrrrrrrrggghhh!!" you scream, a mix of frustration and sadness in your voice as you thrash in your seat. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!"