Chapter 6
"I hate this place!" the girl cries. "This place is horrible! That-- That wasn't even PIZZA!"
"It was STYROFOAM with cheese curds and wet tissue PAINTED to look like meat!" you sob, punching the steering wheel. "They didn't even have pepperoni! Not even shrimp or chicken--!!"
"LOCUSTS! They had LOCUSTS!" Peni thrashes in her seat. "Who thought putting BUGS on pizza was a good idea?!"
"FUCK THIS CITY!!" you roar, ripping your seatbelt out. "Screw this, I'm going to work on this car!"
"I'll help you!" Peni kicks open the door. "I'll get the tools from your room!"
Working on the MaiMai proves very helpful in getting your frustrations out, the work bleeding out the excess energy until you're calm again.
With Peni assisting, work becomes smoother. Not easier, you still have the unenviable task of taking everything apart and putting it back together, but at least you have a second pair of arms to make tool location and switching easier.
You manage to do three separate upgrades before your wrath is all gone-- the engine, the suspension, and the external body work.
Turns out, there's a market in NC for car upgrades and a decent selection of parts for various tune ups. You've pre-ordered a few, and assembling them is easy enough to do once you and Peni get enough materials to build an ad-hoc engine gantry crane.
The engine you give a thorough checking for any outstanding damages and such before you give it a tune up-- newer and stronger parts for a higher top speed and lesser fuel usage per mile. It even comes with a nitrous oxide booster for that additional 'oomph'.
Then you get to work on the suspension, removing the regular economy-grade stuff for something more durable and reliable; racing-grade suspensions and off-road tires.
This will allow you to do the crazier car maneuvers like drifting or off-ramp jumping without worrying about damage to the car's underside. Which means you'll have to read up about car stunts and do some hands-on training just to be safe.
And finally, the body work. Economy class cars like the MaiMai have thin bodies, meaning they're break too easily-- which fits. They're meant to be cheap and affordable, and those traits don't scream 'quality'.
So you strip off the external covering and put armor plating in the spaces between the external covering and the internal one for added toughness. Even the windows you swap for bullet resistant glass, and you add extra reinforcements to the frame plus a roll cage into the interior of the MaiMai.
All these upgrades have the unintentional consequence of bulking up the MaiMai itself, turning it into something that's decidedly not an economy-class vehicle anymore. In fact, it looks more like a damn 4x4.
All in all, the entire process takes up the entire night. Both you and Peni stand side by side as the sun rises over Santo Domingo, beholding the MaiMai under the morning light.
"It looks really nice." Peni hums, pleased. "Could use some additional tech on the inside, though."
"Yeah. I'm thinking an onboard computer and deployable Wi-Fi antenna. Maybe some concealed guns on the hood and trunk, low-caliber or rockets." you consider. "Ooh, maybe swap out the tires for bullet-proof ones. What do you think?"
She pouts at you. You chuckle and pat her head.
"For self defense, Peni! Self-defense!" you tell her. "Do you think I'd just randomly open fire on some poor passerbys?"
"Yes." she grouses. "You shot four people when we first met."
"It was three, the fourth one was shot by his dying friend." you correct her. "And it was necessary. NC is a horrible place-- just look at Buck-A-Slice!"
Both of you shudder.
"…fair. I-I still don't approve of you gunning people down, though." she huffs. "Well, whatever. I'm gonna go take a shower and get some sleep."
"You do that. I'll be here with my car." you sigh, pleased. "Hey."
"What?" Peni glances at you.
"Thanks for the help. Would've taken longer without you lending a hand." you smile. "Think you could help me name this thing?"
"Uh… I dunno, I'm not good at names." Peni hedges. "Just… give it something fitting I guess?"
"Something fitting…" you hum, thinking. "I think I got it."
"Buggy? Really?" Peni says over the shower. "That's a horrible name!"
"And it's also my car, so I get to name it how I please." you snort. "And it's not THAT bad of a name, is it? Buggy is a perfectly acceptable name for a car and nothing about it is wrong."
"It's too simple! It's a like naming your cat 'dog' or something!" the shower cuts out and Peni steps out. "Ugh, whatever. I'm getting some sleep!"
"I'll warm up some kibble for you!" you laugh.
"Ass!" she shoots as she closes the door. You laugh again and settle into your sofa. Ahh, the life with a roommate. Ain't that something?
Regardless, you pull up your dataslate and have Thread run through a search of available properties in NC; with priorities given to sites that are a little out of the way and/or hidden with lots of potential for in-built defenses.
You let Thread get to work as you lay down on the sofa and let sleep take you. Your V.I program is smart enough to figure things out on its own without your input. Besides, you were tired after ANOTHER consecutive all-nighter-- your sleep schedule needed fixing stat.
…or you could get chrome or a biomod that'd let you sleep less or something like that. That wouldn't be a bad thing to consider. Ooh, proper internal communication chrome that'd let you do calls without your--
No, no, bad Pete. Sleep now, thoughts later. You needed rest, like it or not.
You wake up four hours or so later feeling a little refreshed and very groggy. In that time, Thread has managed to make a few good finds that fit your criteria but there's plenty of… issues.
It's not price-- most of the locations offered can either be rented or outright bought for anywhere between 2000 to 20000 eddies; and you've got eddies to spare. Hell, some of them are even free.
It's not location, either-- you have two cars to travel with plus your own mediocre driving skills, so distance and ease-of-access isn't a problem. Once you find a place, getting stuff there and setting it up would only take a few days if even that.
No, the main issues are safety, security, and current occupants.
The areas Thread found for your potential automated production center location is either in near-total disrepair, only barely fits your idea of defensible, or is occupied by either a rival gang or suspected to be a Scav den. And it's not just a single flaw either-- there's multiple issues per location.
An old two storey building might be defensible, but there's gonna be a ton of effort needed to reconnect it to the power grid and there's some illegal occupants present. A house from the 2060s might have electricity and water and is vacant, but there's too many metaphorical defensive holes for you to plug up. And that unused sewage maintenance room might have power and only two entrances/exits, but Strommers are squatting in it.
Either way, there's gonna be a ton of work to be done to make one of these places yours.
"Tricky, tricky…" you murmur. "Alright, lets start sifting through these places."
You think long and hard before you make a choice.
Though risky and very dangerous, having an automated production facility on wheels really is the best option. You can periodically move it so at to avoid it being captured and any defenses you build on it would be brought along wherever it goes.
There's still the risk of someone hijacking it, but that's what the defenses are for-- to prevent exactly that from happening. You could even modify whatever car you attach it to into a self-driving car which eliminates the need for a human driver and thus the risk of a betrayal.
…you'd have to update your ICE and Black ICE to keep Netrunners from hacking into your shit, but that's par for the course.
Regardless, you pull up pictures of the target and commit it to memory so you can find it easier in the future plus plan ahead for any modifications; defensive or otherwise.
Wow, it's also huge-- 15 meters long by 3 meters wide by 3 meters tall!
You'd have enough space to set up a production facility inside and still have room leftover to walk in. You could probably even set up a base in there too; with a bed and kitchen plus a small equipment cache!
The main issue here is to… get it. From the middle of an active gang war, where it's likely to be a target itself for 6th Street and the Valentinos; the two gangs fighting in it.
…
"Yeah, I can't do it by myself." you grunt to yourself. "I'm either gonna need to hire some Edgerunners for support or to do it for me outright."
To do that, you're gonna need to get in touch with people…
(unlocked Automated Production phase 3, cannot proceed with Automated Production phase 3 without fulfilling prerequisite actions, unlocked new Personal Actions)
A few days later while you're in the middle of making some random stuff and Peni is napping on the couch, you get a knock on the door. You and Peni exchange looks and you head to investigate.
You peer through the eye hole and brighten up, quickly opening the door to welcome the woman standing outside.
"Misty! Hey!" you laugh. "Come in, come in! What brought this visit along, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Worry and some curiosity, mainly." the young woman smiles, shrugging as she steps in. "Partly I was a little concerned over the fact that a girl and a boy are living together."
"Wow, what faith." you snark. "You realize I stayed with Kiwi for a while before moving out, right?"
"And you clearly got close with her in that time." Misty squints at you. "You can say that I don't trust you around Peni yet."
"…well, at least you're upfront and honest about your reasoning." you sigh. "She's on the couch napping by the way. So, what're you doing here besides making sure I'm keeping my paws off of Peni?"
"Cooking." Misty holds up a plastic back with several prepaks. "I figured you'd like some homemade dinner for once rather than having it just heated up in a plastic bag and eaten straight out of it."
"…wait, you can cook with prepak?" you blink.
"Yeah, you can." Misty beams. "Let me teach you."
You follow her eagerly to the kitchen where she gets to work, and you watch with wide, awed eyes as she cuts open the prepak and sets all the ingredients out onto plates.
They're all freeze dried stuff, meant to last a long time eaten on the go. They're cheap too, so it's only marginally better tasting than kibble. Out of the plastic bag, you see immediately that it's not dissimilar to how an MRE's interior looks like; with a water-activated heating element in place.
That Misty gets rid of easily and starts work on the freeze-dried stuff-- cutting them into smaller pieces for quicker and easier cooking. These she wets under the sink and puts them in the pan before placing that over the electrical stove to cook.
"If you can make something edible I will make you Spiderbot Bodyguards for your shop." you tell her, completely serious. Misty laughs. "I'm serious, Misty."
"Is food really that important to you, Pete?" she grins. "I would've thought you would be okay with the stuff you usually have."
"I'm only okay with it because it's literally the only kind of food I can have access to." you pout. "If I could eat something better, like actual food, I would in a heartbeat. No ifs or buts about it."
"You're such a gonk sometimes, Pete." Misty giggles. "I really hope Peni doesn't wind up like you-- she's too cute for that."
"Just for that, I'm going to corrupt her into being a mini-me. Just you wait." you promise her. Misty just giggles harder.
Soon, you smell it-- the scent of properly cooked food. Delicious and true, filing the confines of your apartment with ease. Your mouth waters, memories of a better life coming to the forefront of your thoughts.
Over on the couch, Peni gasps and sits up.
"I smell food!" she cries. "Where?!"
"Over here!" Misty calls, walking over and serving the dish. "It's nothing special-- just stir fired chicken and potatoes."
"…is it actual chicken and potatoes or--"
"Prepak." you tell her.
"Oh thank god, at least it's not kibble." the girl runs over and takes a seat next to you. "Gimme!"
It is… delicious. Better than anything you've taste so far in NC. The addition of heat, some water, cooking oil, and a little extra salt turns a bland meal into something worthwhile.
You actually cry a little, while Peni has tears streaming down her face-- such is he joy. Misty is… caught off guard with your show of graciousness.
"Are-- are you two okay? Is my cooking bad, or--"
"No! No, it's great!" you tell her. "It's the best I've had since I got to NC."
"It's so good…!" Peni sobs. "It's so good…!"
"I… Really?" Misty blinks. "Crying over food is a little extreme though, isn't it? It's just food, you know?"
"We're from New York, food isn't just something to scoff at." you tell her. "I remember corner stand hotdogs, breakfast sandwiches, gyros, tacos, actual pizzas and not that bullshit Buck-A-Slice makes…!"
"Please live with us." Peni turns to you. "Can she live with us, Pete? Please let her live with us!"
"H-Hey, calm down!" Misty cuts in with a laugh. "Geez, you guys really know how to make a girl feel good. And this isn't even sex!"
Peni chokes and coughs. You laugh and pat her back.
"H-How could you--?!" Peni chokes out. "You're talking to minors!"
"Oh c'mon, it's not that big a deal." Misty laughs. "You just haven't gotten used to NC yet. Give it time and soon enough you're gonna love it."
'You won't.' you mouth at her. 'It sucks.'
"I…" Peni sighs. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom right quick."
You wait until she's gone before you turn back to Misty with a smile.
"I wasn't too harsh, was I?" she wonders.
"Nah, she just needs time. You're fine." you tell her. "So, random question, but do you know any Edgerunners?"
Misty stares at you.
"Coincidentally, can you read my fortune? I might be doing something very stupid soon." you add.
Misty has you explain everything, and when you finish up she heaves a heavy sigh and pulls you into a hug.
"You are the biggest gonk I know, Pete." Misty tells you. "Only you would think going into a warzone to get a place to set up a base in is a good idea. Even if you hire runners for it, it's still hella dangerous."
"But it's a big military-grade container! It's perfect to make a base with!" you protest into her stomach."
"It is, sure. But don't you think the other gangs would think the same thing too?" Misty asks.
"Yes, which is why I'll likely hire a team to get it for me instead of getting it myself." you argue. "It keeps me safe and out of the picture. What's wrong with that?"
"Pete, Pete, Pete…" Misty pats your head twice before pulling away. "Please don't lose that spunk of yours. It's so much fun to be around." she walks back around the counter to where she originally was. "For your first question, no-- I don't know any Edgerunners. That should be a question for your Netrunner friends, Kiwi and Sasha. Or you could go to a Fixer and ask them to hook you up with some runners."
"Yeah, I thought so." you sigh, making a note to talk to Kiwi and Sasha about it. "I'll call the two and ask later."
"Good." Misty nods. "As for your second question… sure. I brought my tarot cards anyway."
She shuffles the deck in a way that has you nervous. Then she starts drawing them, with you waiting with budding anticipation.
The first card that comes out is labelled #20 - Judgement.
"Judgement. It means to review and choose." Misty tells you. "This means your past and future are coming together at a critical point, and that you must look back at what you've done to see where you will ultimately go." she pauses. "It also means that it's not too late to make a different choice."
She draws the second card, labelled #15 - The Devil.
"The Devil. It represents restraint and powerlessness. It being drawn after Judgement means that you'll either be confronted by a problem or issue in the middle of choice or you're forced to choose between two different decisions." Misty hums. "It being drawn as the 'obstacle' in the reading means you're gonna be face with some tough choices, Pete."
"Isn't that daunting…" you murmur. "Wait, 'obstacle'?"
"Tarot reading is usually done with 3 cards. The first is opportunity, the second is obstacle, and the third…" Misty draws the final card. "Is the resolution to it."
#16 - The Tower.
"The tower represents destruction. It is the collapse of something, and there is nothing you can do to stop it." Misty looks up at you, meeting your gaze. "It being drawn in the 'resolution' part means this must be done by your own hands, a choice you have to make-- likely with many factors to think about and consider."
You stare at her, then at the spread of cards on the kitchen counter.
"That's…" you swallow. "Pretty ominous."
"It is. But there's nothing concrete about this, you know. It's all just chance and luck read differently depending on the cards drawn." Misty shrugs, putting away the drawn cards. "For all we know, nothing might come out of it."
You keep staring at the counter, where the Tower card was laying. A choice you have to make with tons of factors to consider…
"I hope so…" you murmur. "I really, really hope so…"
The week starts with you noticing how Peni's wearing your shirts around your apartment, the girl burying her nose in one of your many spare dataslates as she learns about the world.
It's not a bad fit, far from it really, but it does remind you that the poor girl doesn't have much in the way of clothes besides the ones that she dropped in with. They've been fixed since, but girls are clean creatures-- they're not keen on wearing a single set of clothes for long if they could help it.
…at least, that's what Gwen told you. You've since learned that she's not entirely correct.
"So." you walk up to her and lean on the couch. "I'm thinking about going out to get you something to wear so you stop stealing my shirts."
"Finally!" she cries. "I thought I was gonna have to wind up walking around naked one of these days!"
"Sure you were." you snort. "Let me ring up a friend and we can go."
"Which one? The goth or the cat?" Peni blinks.
"Sasha, the cat." you laugh. "And be nice, she's a good person. She bought you the prepak you ate on the day you got here."
"She's still a cat though. You can't tell me you can't see the whiskers and cat ears on her." Peni pouts. "She even has a tail!"
"She does?" you blink, wracking your mind for memories of Sasha's butt for any sign of an extra appendage.
"…no, but her butt moves as though there is one." Peni blushes. "You'd think she'd get some given how big of a cat motif she has on her."
"Is that… jealousy I'm hearing?" you grin. Peni huffs and looks away. "D'aww, it's okay Peni-- I'm sure Sasha would be happy enough to let you share her cat theme."
"S-Shut up!" she cries, tossing a pillow. "And don't tell her anything! Peter, I'm serious! Pete!"
You tell Sasha everything, and the girl is all catty smiles and silent laughter when you and Peni meet up with her at Japantown, Westbrook. She had insisted that you meet up with her there as that's where all the good stuff is, and she knows where to get them all for cheap too.
"You hack the prices to make them lower, don't you?" you messaged her.
"Psshhaw~! Petey, c'mon, who do you take me for~?" she messages with a winking cat emoji. "I'm a perfectly reasonable law-abiding NC citizen, you know~?"
You couldn't roll your eyes hard enough. At least she meant well.
"Mmmph!" goes Peni as she flails under Sasha's hug. "Mm-mmgh!"
"Oh, you are so CUTE!" Sasha transmits openly, meaning only you can hear her. "I'm gonna dress you up in so many dresses and outfits that you're gonna be spoiled for choices! It's gonna be so much fun!"
"Pfffbbtt!" Peni flails at you. "Pfffbt, hhffffpp!"
"Alright, I think she's got the idea Sasha. Let her go before you suffocate her or something." you laugh, walking over and tugging Peni out of the netrunner's arms. You look at the younger girl, who pants hard. "You okay?"
"N-No…" she shakes her head. "I never thought a girl could suffocate people with her body like that."
"Are you calling me fat?" Sasha pouts, hands on her hips.
"Sasha, you know Peni can't hear you." you remind the netrunner. "Hold on. Peni, here."
You hand her your smart-glasses. She blinks at it, then looks up at you.
"C-Can you still see without them?" she asks. "I don't wanna cause anything if I can't help it…"
"Yes, I can see just fine." you snort, Sasha giggling. "These are more to help me talk with Sasha and keep an eye on things without my slate. Besides, I got spares."
"You do?" Peni blinks again as you produce another pair of smart-glasses from your jacket. "Mou, why didn't you tell me!"
"To tease you." you grin, donning the glasses. "You can blame Sasha for that."
"Hehe~ I'm the best corrupter~!" the netrunner giggles, and Peni gawks at her. "Hmm? What's the matter, Peni? Cat got your tongue?"
"Whoa…!" she breathes. "You-- you can talk without actually talking?"
"It's called an Agent, baby girl. Most people use it to call and stay in touch with others in NC." Sasha smiles. "I'll tell you aaaaaaaaaallllll about it while we shop! C'mon!"
You are then subjected to an experience you had almost forgotten about in the months you've spent in Night City-- becoming a prisoner to the whims of others as they peruse through various odds and ends for seemingly no other reason than to hold and see them.
Shopping.
You sigh as you settle on the helpfully prepare plush chair, watching the girls browse through various clothes and making their picks
At least Peni is trying to make this quick so you can all go home. Sasha is… she's a nice woman and is earnestly doing this out of the goodness of her heart, but she's such a meticulous shopper!
She has to get the colors and styles to match perfectly! This shirt with those pants, or those pants with that pursue, or these leggings with these specific pair of shoes-- it's nuts! She's worse than Gwen when she dragged you and Harry out to shop! Ugh, women!
…at least she's doing a good job in getting Peni good clothes. You can complain about her methodical shopping all you want, but she's got great taste. Even Peni is impressed, when she's not pouting.
Then you see the netrunner waving at you, and you rise with a sigh-- knowing full well this was gonna be something to remember.
"Pete, quick." she holds up two different pairs of women's underwear. "Black or red?"
"Sasha!" Peni squeals, red-faced.
"Whoa, hey, easy there Sasha." you tell the netrunner, taking her arms and gently lowering them. "This is not something I should get involved with."
"C'mon! You're the deciding factor here!" she pouts. "Peni's all shy about it, while I'm at my wits end! This is the last thing she needs to complete her wardrobe-- underwear!"
"Why are we involving Peter in this?!" Peni hisses, embarrassed. "I-It's not like I'm gonna show it to him!"
"Yeah Sasha, this is too much." you sigh.
"Ugh, prudes. I'm surrounded by prudes." Sasha rolls her eyes. "Fine, for me then. Which would you prefer more?"
"Wha--?!" Peni chokes.
…
"Do I get to see?" you ask.
"Peter--?!" Peni chokes out again.
"Depends if the moment comes up." Sasha smirks at you. "So? Red or black?"
You think about it for a long moment, your mind's eye bringing you an imaginary image of Sasha standing naked in a dark room. Your mind switches visages of her in various colored underwear of various kinds, from normal to downright scandalous.
You don't take long to make up your mind.
"Black and red." you answer her.
Sasha's smirk widens, and her eyes glitter with equal parts amusement and a tiny amount of lust.
"Ooh, good choice." she purrs. "What type?"
"Lace." you pause. "And garter belt if possible."
"P-Peter!" Peni baps you.
"What? She asked." you defend yourself, just barely managing to keep the smirk off your face. "It'd be rude if I didn't say anything. Right Sasha?"
"That's absolutely, 100% correct." she nods. "Really Peni, you should learn a little bit from Peter. He's the perfect example of a proper responsive gentleman giving good feedback." Sasha pats your chest approvingly and walks away with an extra sashay in her step. "C'mon Peni, let's get you to a changing room and try out these clothes."
You and Peni watch her go, and the girl turns to you with a look before huffing and stomping after Sasha. You chuckle.
This must've been why Gwen and Harry made fun of you so often. It's great.
…you wonder how they're doing back home. They must be studying for exams or getting ready for a presentation. God, remembering all that stuff takes you back to better times.
They've probably moved on from you by now. Wouldn't do them good to be bogged down by the past.
The rest of the shopping spree passes without much incident and you return home laden with various sets of clothes and a… marginally happy Peni. Who still huffs and pouts at you for the whole thing with Sasha in the store.
"You gotta admit, it was pretty funny to see you all flustered and spluttering." you chuckle.
"It wasn't to me." she huffs. "Did you not worry about what other people would think with you talk so-- so openly with Sasha about underwear?! Even suggesting some so…!"
"Peni, you're in Night City. Moreover, if you haven't noticed, it's 2071." you shrug. "People are pretty much desensitized to dirty talk in public when worse stuff is around. Hell, there's these things call 'brain-dances' or BDs, that are basically other people's experiences in surround-sound full-immersion format. You need chrome for the best experience, but it basically lets you see and experience what they see and experience."
Peni gawks at you, face reddening.
"Yes, it includes porn." you grin. "And…" you grin fades. "Worse."
"W-Worse?" Peni blinks. "How--"
"Snuff films. Murders and military operations. Someone's last moments. Child pornography." you shake your head. "Like I said; worse."
Peni's face pales, and her expression turns into one of fear. But then it passes, and she dons a steely look.
"Hasn't the police done anything about it? Vigilantes?" she presses. "Someone has to have done something about this! People can't be so desensitized that they'd just let this happen!"
"I saved you from a quintet of yonos who were about to have their way with you." you remind her. "If that doesn't show you what NC's like, then I'm genuinely impressed at your optimism."
"It's not optimism! People can do good things!" she tells you. "Everyone has it in them the ability to do good! The heartless monsters and scum are outliers!"
You pin her with a look. Peni swallows her apprehension but holds her ground.
"You can't tell me that this city doesn't have in it some good! There's gotta be people here who choose to do the right thing!" she protests.
You want to argue. You want to tell her about the Scav Dens and how the corpos pull the strings in the shadows, how NCPD is basically being bank-rolled by the corpos and that they're giving priority to corpo holdings over the average joe.
You want to show her the fortified holdouts from the unification war still being cleared out in areas around NC, at least according to the news. There's a lot of bad things here that you want to say.
But there's something in her, the glint her eye and the firmness of her stance, that makes you reconsider. Not because you want to 'spare her innocence' or some shit, but because…
You get the feeling that if you do tell about NC's dark sides, she'll run herself ragged trying to fix things-- because she can.
That mech suit she dropped in with and the spider inside it; you get this weird feeling that she uses either in the same capacity as Tony Stark or Reed Richards. To try and fix things, by way of non-lethal violence and proper application of force to evildoers. And it would work in NC, where violence was the universal conversation stopper and status-quo changer.
At least, until one of the gangs brought out their own mechsuits with heavy weapons and anti-armor munitions…
"Maybe there are." you acknowledge, choosing to allow Peni to hold on that belief of her for now. "But even if there are people who have that kind of mindset, how're they gonna change things without getting flatlined?"
Peni opens her mouth, then reconsiders as she realizes the kind of obstacles standing in the way of that change. Then she meets your gaze with a steely one, determination burning.
"I'll pave the way, a little bit at a time." she tells you. "Once I get my suit, I'll take down all the gangs and clear the streets. Then things will change."
You almost laugh.
"But first, you'll need that mech suit." you tell her, ruffling her hair.
"Yeah, I do." she grins. "So, when are you gonna start working on it? You promised, didn't you?"
"I…" you blink. "I did?"
Peni pouts at you and crosses her arms. You sigh.
"Right. Right, I did." you sigh.
Before you get to work on Peni's mech suit, the SP//dr, you first take a look at the internals that were salvaged.
There's a sizeable amount of data to parse through; environmental readings, damage reports, partially corrupted operation recordings, and even comm logs between Peni and mission control.
Those you hand to Peni. You don't want to pry on anything like the last words passed between her and her handlers. She's grateful for the consideration, and gladly lets you go through the SP//dr's operational data. Here, you have Thread help parse through the small mountain of numbers and words until either one of you find a collection of info you could use.
Damage and operation reports for various parts of the mech-- sections of arms and legs, the locomotion systems moving them, torso and pelvis, shoulders and back and head and sensors. With this, you're able to reconstruct a rough blueprint of the suit itself over the course of several days.
Like a crime scene detective putting together clues to recreate a murder, you take the readings from various parts of the mechsuit and piece them bit by bit until you have the what looks like a full on blueprint of the SP//dr.
You show it to Peni as a full sized holographic projection, and she's speechless as she beholds the fruits of your labors.
"…whoa." Peni breathes. "You did all this in just a few days?"
"Told you I'm good with tech." you grin at her. "But there's an issue here. Having a visual representation of what the suit should look like does not equate to knowing how well it should perform."
"But there's operational readings, right?" Peni says. "Couldn't you use that to make a baseline?"
"I could." you nod. "But their readings are all over the place. Plus there's these things here, here, here, and here in the suit." you point at the head, the nape of the neck, the middle back, and the lower back; the places you point lighting up. "They're all connected with a small tunnel-like thing and… I don't know what they're for, but it's connected to the suit's basic functions."
"O-Oh. That." Peni fidgets.
"Yeah, it's odd. And then there's OS itself." you take a deep breath and sigh. "I'll admit, I have no idea how it can run. The components that make it up just aren't strong enough to operate the thing to the parameters shown in the readings." you turn back to the suit itself. "It's as though there's some… other part in here that I'm missing or not seeing. Or worse, that we couldn't salvage."
"…right. That." Peni takes a deep breath. "Pete… remember when I was prying open the back panel of the SP//dr? W-When you first met me?"
"Yeah, you were…" you pause, and slowly turn to her. "You got a spider out of it."
She nods and brings up her hand. That same spider hops out of her hair and raises its right forelimb at you, as though it's greeting you. You wave back, a little uncertain.
"This is SP//dr." she greets. "It's… my partner."
…
"You're… gonna have to explain things." you ask.
Peni gives you a brief rundown on what SP//dr is and how she got it.
Her story is equal parts sad and inspiring, a daughter taking up her father's mantle as protector to New York City battling all manner of monsters and villains-- akin to a superhero from back home.
She does it through her connection with SP//dr, the spider that usually inhabits the mechsuit. Through a spider bite, she's undergone developed a psychic bond-link to the little guy-- allowing her to pilot the suit. It's also given her some nifty super powers; like heightened reflexes, limited precognition, and some physical enhancement.
"Oof!" you grunt as she punches you. "Yeah, you definitely hit harder than a girl your age should." you rub where she punched with a grin. "But not that hard, though."
"I'm still growing! Gimme a few years and I'll be able knock out a guy with one hit!" she promises you.
"Right, sure." you snort. "Still, better be safe than sorry-- try not to get into any trouble if you're going out and about in NC."
"I'm not a--" she pauses. "Okay, I am kid but I'm not totally defenseless!" she throws a few quick jabs at empty air. "I got self defense lessons, y'know!"
"And the average gonk in NC has cyberlimbs that let them punch thrice as hard as full ganic like you and me." you snort. She laughs. "I'm serious Peni, they're nothing to sneeze at even if they're small time."
"Fiiiiiiiiiiiine, I'll behave." she groans. "Geez, you're such a dad, Pete. And you don't even look that old! You're practically old enough to be my brother!"
"I'm 16, actually." you grin. Peni gawks. "Anyway, your little friend tells me that your suit uses it--"
"Him."
"--Him, sorry, as a sort of… co-pilot, right? Or at least some kind of support system for your suit's operation time?"
"Yeah, that's more or less it." she nods. "SP//dr's my partner and he helps run the suit while I pilot it. N-Normally, I'd have my Aunt May and Uncle Ben as mission support, but…"
"…Aunt May and Uncle Ben?" you blink.
"Yeah. They took me in after my father died." she nods. "Why?"
…
"Nah, it's probably nothing." you shake your head, walking to your workshop. "I have an Aunt May and Uncle Ben too, actually. They weren't mechsuit mission control though-- just retirees in Queens."
"…huh. That's… weird." Peni makes a face. "Your mom and dad?"
"I… never knew 'em. They died when I was still a kid." you shake your head. "Uncle Ben and Aunt May took me in. They're the closest thing to parents I have." you laugh, a little sad. "Man, I hope they're doing okay…"
A hand settles on your arm. You turn to Peni, look sympathetic and mutually sad. You give her a smile and pat her head.
"No more of this sad talk. C'mon, time to make your mech suit."
With the rudimentary schematics you've made, work on the mechsuit proceeds almost immediately-- with you driving to the storage unit you share with Vik and Misty to retrieve the needed materials.
The SP//dr comes together in three parts; the legs and lower torso, the arms and upper torso, and then the head. You construct all three gradually, putting them together bit by bit, little by little, until the whole thing comes together into a full mini-mecha.
…can you call it a mecha even though it's so small? 9 feet tall is comparable to some full borg conversions, which would make it more like a powered armor suit than anything mecha-ish…
Eh, whatever. A mechsuit's a mechsuit, no more no less.
Drawing from your experience of making spiderbots and taking apart cyberlimbs and modifying them appropriately to fit with the schematics you've made, the SP//dr takes shape over the course of several days.
First the support frame, then the various systems inside to detect damage. On top of that, you build the locomotion system needed to actually move the mechsuit-- a blend of synth-muscles and pseudo hydraulics similar to contemporary ACPAs in this world. This would make the suit faster and hit just as hard as well while protecting the wearer.
The hardest thing you find is building the parts of the suit controlled by the SP//dr itself, as in Peni's little eight-legged partner. You have no idea how it would work here, so you look up some additional bits of tech on the Net that could help. You find it from the start up page of commercial augment shops.
A civilian-accessible device for non-invasive installations, usually on amputees-- using a sensor that finds and connects with a cluster of nerves through projected electro-magnetic signals toned down to the point of indistinguishable similarity to a 'ganic body's bioelectric impulses. Getting it is easily the most expensive thing in the whole endeavor, and it takes some fiddling to make it safe for arachnids.
"Ugh, I was never the best as explaining stuff." you groan to Peni as she beholds the rebuilt SP//dr mechsuit. "Uh… okay, so, you know how humans have a network of biological 'wires' in them, right?"
"Neural cells, yeah." she nods, letting SP//dr scurry to the mechsuit and slipping inside. "All living things have it, right?"
"Right. The device I bought and modded acts as a… wireless connection, so to speak, between it and whatever it's connected to-- in this case it's your SP//dr." you say. "There's no injecting anything, no harm or pain at all. It just puts its body into the spider-shaped slot I made and it can transmit its thoughts through to the mech."
"…wireless neural transmissions?" Peni asks.
"Yes, it's real. Yes, it's hard to believe. But it's an actual thing, and it took me a TON of eddies to get." you sigh. "And the suit isn't even finished."
You turn to the mechsuit, suspended in your apartment workshop through a makeshift pulley system of cables and high-tolerance ropes.
It looks… kind of macabre. Like a person without skin, only robotic. Even the head looks eerily horrifying, like skull without skin but roboticized. There's wires and support struts and masses of false muscles over pseudo-hydraulics that look like tendons, and cameras for 'eyes'.
Peni looks at it with smile, and you almost forget how this thing used to be piloted by her father. No doubt she feeling happy about the opportunity to continue her work in NC.
"How long until it's finished?" she asks.
"It should be ready for testing at the end of the month, provided my attention isn't taken up by something more important." you tell her. "All that's left is to armor it up and put on some weapons and equipment."
"Weapons? Pshh-- Pete, the SP//dr is the weapon." Peni grins up at you. "Just install the webshooters and leave the rest to me."
"…you're not gonna use that thing to fight in hand-to-hand are you?" you gawk. "Peni, what the hell?"
"Hey, it worked just fine in my old world." she shrugs. "Why wouldn't it work here?"
"You're gonna be up against gonks and yonos with automatic weapons and explosives!"
"Faced worse in my homeworld."
"They're gonna have augs that hit harder than normal people!"
"I'll just knock them out before they can hit me."
"What if they bring out their own ACPAs with the big guns?" you say, almost panicking. "Like AT rockets or MGs with armor-piercing rounds?! Hell, what if you run into a cyberpsycho?!"
"I'll figure something out. Don't worry so much, Pete." she laughs. "This isn't my first rodeo. I've dealt with waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse back home. I came out of it just fine, didn't I?"
"I--" you facepalm. "Why would a 14 year old take an ACPA and got crime-fighting with it?"
"Because no-one else would." Peni says, her voice taking on a different tone. Older, more mature. "Because if I don't, then someone would get hurt and bad people will be able to run amok without anyone to stop them. I can't just let that happen, not when I can stop it."
"You're putting yourself in danger." you tell her.
"It's worth it." she says. "Believe me, Pete. It's worth it."
…
You heave a heavy sigh and feel your shoulders slump.
"You're not going anywhere without me keeping an eye on you." you tell her. "And I'm putting something on that suit for emergencies. No ifs or buts about it."
"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. Not like it'd get any use." Peni groans playfully. Then she giggles. "So is this you volunteering to be my mission control?"
"Might as well be." you grumble. "Someone has to keep an eye on you."
(SP//dr dissection complete, gained SP//dr suit schematics, unlocked new Science Actions, unlocked new Personal Actions)
(unlocked Mech-Maker phase 2, unlocked new Science Actions, unlocked new Personal Actions)
Keeping in line with your efforts to rebuild the SP//dr suit, you take with you the arm-mounted weapons and put them on the table.
You stare at them, these mysterious things that shoot gooey white fluid onto people that stick like nothing else.
…
Oh god, Peni's gonna be the butt of so many cum jokes when she debuts…
Well, nothing to it. She wants this, so she'll live with the consequences. It'll be up to you to make sure nothing bad happens to her while she's taking all those cum jokes from all directions.
…
Okay, you're just gonna shut up now.
"Right." you clap your hands, looking at the web shooters. "Now lets see what makes you tick, hm?"
You learn quickly that the web shooter and the web fluid are quite unique.
The shooter itself is more or less a high-tech water gun modified to shoot out semi-liquids instead of full liquids, with an internal construction that's surprisingly more complex than it looks.
It has something to do with neutralizing the stickiness of the fluid, or at least not letting it stick while it's inside the shooter. It's stored in a pressurized container with a positive electrical charge-- low enough to keep it from disrupting the internals of the mech while still doing its job. It shooting out is a matter of depressurizing the container and hacking out the sticky stuff.
Now the web fluid itself… Now that's fascinating.
A mix of common ingredients, so common that you could've made it back home in your high-school lab.
Liquid in a vacuum or in a no-nitrogen environment and turning semi-solid when exposed to the air, it possesses non-toxic adhesive properties so strong that less an amount as little as 0.2 mili-litres could theoretically keep two cars together. It's stretchable too, with high strength retention allowing it to hold up immense weight… or launch something at high speed.
More amazingly is that the bond strength increases the more of substance is used. It's also fire-resistant and waterproof. It's almost like spidersilk, in that it's strong while being ultra lightweight and sticky enough to hold a lot of things together.
You glance at the SP//dr suit, guessimating it's rough weight and calculating the amount of this web fluid Peni would need to traverse a city as big and NC based off of its strength-to-weight ratio. Then you run the number again. Twice.
It's… surprisingly little. Huh. Okay, you can see how Peni can move around and play superhero in that mechsuit of hers. This stuff is pretty great!
And it's gotten you curious. The design of the web shooters are meant for installation into mechsuits and ACPAs, sure, but… it could stand to be improved. Shrinking it into something less conspicuous, like a onto a watch.
A great emergency net or safety rope, or a quick way to immobilize hostiles or make a quick escape from being chased by gonks and solos.
Or perhaps for an ACPA-less vigilante to--
"Aww, what're you thinking Pete." you groan to yourself. "You? A superhero? C'mon, you're better off as a techie."
…
…
…right?
(unlocked Web Fluid chem, no worry of running out of web fluid, unlocked new Science Actions, unlocked new Personal Actions)
Riding off of your high from figuring out how the web shooters work as well as the web fluid, you bring your attention to your spiderware cyberlimbs.
Long have they been allowed to gather dust in the metaphorical corner of your mind, waiting for the day where you would come to give them a long-awaited upgrade. Well, they need not wait any longer!
Much have you learned since those initial days of bot building, bolstered further by your creation of the SP//dr suit! With knowledge gained and experience gathered, the time has come for you to put it all to work for the betterment of Night City…'s chrome scene!
…what? You're not stupid enough to think you can do anything about how NC is like as you are now. Small steps! One thing at a time!
So you pull up your spiderware cyberlimb designs and take them apart, looking for things you can fix or change. With the knowledge of there being synth muscles and pseudo-hydraulics, you can replace the contemporary pistons with them instead-- drastically lightening the weight and opening up more space without sacrificing strength.
The external covering you take apart and re-design, giving the outer plating better movement ergonomics and more pleasing aesthetics while sacrificing as little protective coverage as possible. It sadly still looks like an obvious mechanical arm, but it's… less uglier now if you had to describe it. Tidier, in a sense.
Your efforts to redesign your work also bring to your attention the possibility of sensors, mainly the eye. You've seen all sorts of stuff on gonks in the city, but optical chrome is a little bit on the rare side for… various reasons.
Mainly because it's expensive, and partly because installing it into someone is trickier than run-of-the-mill cyberlimbs. You turn to the non-invasive neural 'Wi-Fi' you installed on the SP//dr suit and a lightbulb goes off in your head.
The 'neural Wi-Fi' tech is… not at all simple to reverse engineer and shrink. You lack the tools and equipment for it in your current workspace-- something you should fix once you get the right contacts.
But the concept behind it is easy enough to imagine-- transferring bio-electrical impulses from cells to a machine via electro-magnetic frequencies tuned to mimic those inside neural cells. Making one yourself just takes some the principles of a Wi-Fi router and toning it down a whole lot while making it way more accurate.
You don't manage to make a working prototype, but instead make a 2005 TV-sized machine that… more or less works?
Anyway, your idea is simple. Part of the reason why optical chrome is so expensive is the installation process into the person. So, why not make the installation process as simple as pushing the eye into the empty eye socket?
Thus the SpiderEye MK.0-- a false eye that uses the 'neural Wi-Fi' tech to non-invasively connect itself with the neural cells in the skull, thus giving the user a new eye without the whole surgical kit and kaboodle.
It can work. You know it can work. You have the tech for it, but not the tools to make that tech small enough to work. Imagine it-- optical cybernetics that just need to be put inside an empty eye socket and it self connects! How cool is that?!
All you need is the equipment for it, and then… well, you'll have to make the thing and test it out, but it's possible!
Ooh, you can't wait!
(created ParkerTech Spiderware MK.1, all cyberlimbs converted to current iteration, created SpiderEye MK.0, cannot proceed to SpiderEye MK.1 without complete workspace, unlocked new Personal Actions, unlocked new Science Actions)
Half-way through the second week, you give Kiwi and Sasha separate calls to inquire as to the status of their contacts-- wanting to see if you could get in on that action.
…n-not to participate in any Street-related business personally, of course. You're nowhere near ready for anything like that yet. You think.
"Pete." Kiwi sighs. "This is serious. Getting in contact with people in the underworld is not simple, even if it's just to look for people to do a job." she pauses. "What job are you doing, by the way?"
"Well, there's me wanting to get something that I can use to make a mobile production facility. Y'know, for all my stuff that I sell?" you say. "It's basically a big military-grade transport trailer in the area between Arroyo and Vista del Ray."
"Oh, I know that thing! It's in the same area where the Valentinos and 6th Street are waging a turf war!" Sasha says. Then she pauses. "Pete, really?"
"Yes, really." you sigh.
"Of all the places you could've set up shop in, why did have to be in the middle of a turf war?" Kiwi groans. "Why couldn't you just get a building or some abandoned little nook out in NC somewhere?"
"Hey, I looked! I found tons of other places!" you argue. "It's just that one was in Pacifica, another was out in the Badlands, and the rest were either too shady or in gang-infested territory!"
"…Fair enough." Kiwi sighs. "So you just want to find some Edgerunners to do this job and not do it yourself, right?"
"Right." you nod.
"Well, I've got a few contacts…" Sasha hums. "Most of them are small-time fixers, though. Not a lot of them would want to deal with the kind of job you're offering, since it's not gonna attract a lot of runners."
"Operating in the middle of a turf war is not attractive, no." Kiwi agrees. "You're probably only gonna get the really stupid or really good runners."
"Lemme guess-- the former is cheap and the latter is pricey?" you wince.
"Really pricey." Kiwi hums, amused. "Alright, how do you want to play this?"
"Meaning?" you blink.
"Do you want it done cheap or expensive, she means." Sasha teases. "You can be such a cute gonk, Pete."
"Bah!" you scoff, face red. "Well…"
You make it know that you have the Eddies to spare for a high-risk, high-paying job. Kiwi and Sasha both hum and ask for a rough number.
"…40 to 80 thousand Eddies as the base payout, amendable to more depending on any complications and such." you tell her. "Highest I'll go is 100k."
"…for the whole thing?!" Sasha gawks.
"That is a big payout, Pete." Kiwi murmurs. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, I'm sure." you nod. "Not like I'm hurting for cash anyways-- I can afford to burn a five figure check if it means getting what I need. Besides, if this job goes well, I stand to gain even more money at the end of it."
"Goddamn…" Sasha whistles. "Dropping 80k on the first job-- you don't play around, do you Pete?"
"Hey, I got the Eddies. I'm gonna spend it." you grin, proud despite yourself. "So? What do you think? Kiwi, Sasha?"
"I think you've got a good idea." Kiwi hums, proud. "I'll run it through to a good contact I know. He'll give you a call sometime today or tomorrow, and we'll see from there."
"Thanks Kiwi. You too, Sasha." you sigh.
So you settle into your apartment, recounting the Eddies you have and going over the job you have-- doing surface-level information gathering regarding the area and the target itself, as well as what you'd need to do to get things done.
Then, at roughly 3pm, you get a message from Kiwi about your request for a Fixer going through and telling you to wait a little longer for the Fixer to get in touch with you. His handle is 'Padre', an ex-Valentinos member.
You brace yourself and wait.
Two hours later, you call from an unknown number and answer it.
"Hello, John Doe speaking." you say.
"…John Doe? Really, menino?" an older man chuckles. "Quite the boring handle, eh?"
"It's my first time offering a job, cut me some slack." you grump, totally not pouting. The older man chuckles again. "I'm guessing you're Padre?"
"The one and only. Sorry for the suspense-- when Miss Webb came to me with word about a job, I thought I'd run some checks on you." he pauses. "You're… surprisingly hard to find."
"That you found me anyway makes me surprised." you blink. Padre chuckles.
"Menino, you've been making splashes with your chrome. Hand-made, almost as good as corpo stuff too-- you're destined for great things." he tells you. "I'll be keeping an eye on you."
"Sure thing, Padre. Sure thing." you smile. "So, about the job…"
"Ah, right." he clears his throat. "You're looking for a crew to do a smash-and-grab in the middle of a turf war between 6th Street and the Valentinos, eh?"
"Yeah." you nod. "The target is a mil-grade transport trailer just… laying around."
"Oh, that thing." Padre laughs. "Yeah, nobody knows how it got there. People say it was from a strike group that got lost in NC during the Unification War or something like that."
"Figures." you grump. "Well, it doesn't matter now. I want it, and I'm willing to pay top Eddies for a good crew to bring it to me."
"Then you've come to the right man." Padre hums. "I've got a crew that can do the job just fine. 5 people; a Unification War vet, a decent netrunner, and three good solos. I'll even throw in the truck needed to get that trailer out… assuming you don't have one?"
"Yeah, don't have one." you sigh.
"Alright, I got it." Padre says. "They're relatively fresh, though-- less than a year on the Street and even less time spent Running. You okay with that?"
"If the Fixer says they're reliable, I'll take their word for it." you grunt. "So, what the price tag?"
"For the crew and my services, plus the vehicle…" Padre trails off. "How does 85,000 Eddies sound?"
=X=X=X=X=X=
"An 80k payout plus a 5 to 10k bonus if we do well?!"
Maine gawks at the Fixer, Padre, as he nods with all the severity of a man giving an important job. With how much money is on the line, it is.
"The client wants you to get a mil-grade transport trailer on the map in the area between Vista del Ray and Arroyo." the older man nods. "You're to bring it to the designated meet-up point with a truck I've got, where he'll pick it up. Once confirmation comes through, I'll wire the payment to your accounts."
"Holy mother of god, that's a ton of Eddies." Rico says, damn near salivating. "We're splittin' that 5 ways, right?"
"Right. No more, no less." Maine nods. "That's why yall work with me after all."
"Except that one." Kalrow snorts. "Where'd you pick her up?"
"She came recommended from me." Padre grins. "After much insistence that she come along, given how well she knows the area." he pauses, leveling a significant look her way. "Or claims to."
"I've been living in Heywood for years! I know the place as well as the back of my hand!" the girl, Sasha, pouts as she yaps through everyone's Agents. "Besides, I helped put this job to you in the first place! So you gotta be thanking me for it!"
"Sure you did." Padre rolls his eyes with a laugh. "Regardless, that's the job. Do it well, and you get decent pay out of it. Fail, and… well, you know the risks."
"Yeah, we know." Maine grunts. "So, where's this truck of yours Padre?"
=X=X=X=X=X=
You're given a call at 3am in the goddamn morning from Padre, who tells you that the job's done and that the trailers en-route to the drop-off point.
…
"Wha-- ALREADY?!" you choke, stumbling out of your bed-couch and running to your workspace. "I thought you needed time to plan things out and get it done?!"
"Ah, yeah, that's how it's usually done." Padre laughs, a little uneasy. "But the big payout is… really motivating, menino."
"You--!" you grit out, grabbing a spare Loaded Tarantula and quickly getting to work on modifying it. "Dangnamit Padre, could you have at least warned me? Jesus christ, it's three in the fucking morning!"
The Fixer on the other end just laughs.
"ETA on them arriving at the dropoff point?" you grunt.
"2 hours. They're taking the long route to avoid potential ambushes and shake off any pursuers." Padre tells you. "Surprisingly enough, the trailer wasn't well guarded. The 'Tinos and 6th Street must've been busy killing each other to keep an eye on it."
"The biggest stroke of luck, I'd imagine." you sigh as you work. "Alright, tell them to stay the course. I'll be on site to meet with them when they get there."
"…personally?" Padre asks, and you can see him blinking with your mind's eye.
"No, I've got a face for it. No need to worry about anything." you assure him. "I'll give the trailer a cursory check, and I'll wire the Eddies if I like what I see."
"Gotcha." Padre agrees. "Great doing business with you, menino."
"You too, Padre. You too." you nod, and hang up. "Sweet mother of holy mary-- money does bring the hardest workers out, huh? Fucking hell…"
You spend an hour modifying a Loaded Tarantula to have remote-control accessibility longer operational range. Then you make sure to put a few extra Spiderbots on it before sending it off-- scurrying through the window and scuttling through the darkened Santo Domingo streets to the meeting point.
Safe in your workspace and controlling the Spiderbot from long range, move the robot through dark alleys and along walls to avoid patrols until you arrive at the meeting point.
There, the Weaver-type Spiderbots dismount and scuttle away, providing you a full 360 degree view of the meeting point so you see everything. They're armed with Fangs and assassin blades on their forelimbs, allowing you to back up your bark with some considerable bit.
You (somewhat) trust Padre to provide good quality Edgerunners, but you don't quite trust the Edgerunners themselves. Who knows, they might try something.
The runners arrive 30 minutes later than estimated, rolling in with a truck that hauls a trailer on the back of it. From the truck and off the trailer's roof, five people dismount and look around.
You move the Loaded Tarantula into position, as quietly as possible.
"Hello? Anyone here?" one of the Runners yells. "We brought the-- ow!"
"Quiet, gonkass!" one of them hisses, tall and dark skinned with Gorilla Arms and a rifle slung across his back. "You wanna let the whole 'hood know we're doing shady shit?!"
"S-Sorry, Maine…" the runner mutters. "But did'ya hafta hit me with those things?"
"I'll hit you again if you don't shut up." he grumps, looking around. "Are we at the wrong place…?"
You crack your knuckles and move your Spiderbot out into the open, red eyes aglow. The runners all see you and draw their guns-- all except Sasha. She sees your spiderbot and just… grins. Cattily.
You send a quick message to her to shut up. On camera, Sasha does this.
Ugh, she's lucky you like her.
"Hey! You made it!" you greet through the Spiderbot, voice modulated. "I knew I could trust Padre with this! Man knows the best Runners in NC!"
"…what the fuck." one of the other Runners says. "A… bot?"
"A Spiderbot!" you exclaim, extending your robot's two front-most legs and doing a jig. "Sorry I couldn't come here personally-- people are normally asleep at oh-god-why o'clock."
"Right. Sure." the leader, Maine, says. "You the client?"
"That I am!" you move the Spiderbot to jump off the garbage can and scuttle into the light, and the runners lower their guns. "I'm--! Uh…"
An array of fake names flash through your mind-- WebWeaver, Webb-Head, Nunya, Trapdoor, and Spider Forger. But you eventually settle on one.
"A-Anansi! Yeah, that it!" you nod to yourself. "Pleasure to meet you guys."
"Anansis… that sounds like a Voodoo Boys handle." Maine squints at your bot. "You one of them?
You blink, thinking back on what you know about the Voodoo Boys and almost slapping yourself.
"No, but I can see the issues this handle brings up." you sigh. "And also the opportunities. It's… Very diverse."
"…right. Sure." one of the other runners nod. "So, we gettin' paid now?"
"Hold on, hold on. Quality inspection first." you scuttle past them. "I promise extra if you guys managed to bring this in intact, didn't I?"
"Shit, you really meant that?" Maine blinks. "Thought that was a play to get us all to work harder for no apparent reason."
"And potentially get a team of skilled solos pissed at me for no reason? Come on man, you need to consider that I'll be in this for the long-haul-- meaning you gotta have as many good people on your side as possible." you lecture. "And that means keeping them happy by not stiffing their pay."
"A client that actually keeps his word. Huh." one of the other runners blink, and some unseen tension leaves his shoulders. "Never thought my gonk ass would see the day."
You do a once over of the whole trailer and, to your satisfaction, find very little in the way of damage. Oh sure there's dents and such, but those were there before this crew got the trailer out.
And while many clients or fixers would use this as an excuse to cut the pay or outright stiff it, you're not one of them.
With a nod, you wire the funds to Padre, who in turn wires it to the runners. They stiffen at the sudden message and gawk at the empty air-- presumably watching their stack of eddies inflate with big numbers.
"Well done, team. This is in better shape than I expected." you congratulate. "Enjoy your pay and the bonus."
Suddenly, you see your spiderbot's perspective shift, tilting oddly to the side and rising up into the air. Before you panic, you get an external transmission that mollifies your worries and makes you snort from amusement instead.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Sasha squeals, all joy, as she spins around with your bot in a hug. "You're the best boss ever Anansi!"
"Hey, put me down!" you protest with a smile, moving your bot to struggle in her arms. The other runners laugh and chuckle. "Maine! Get your girl off of me!"
"She's not my girl, boss. But sure." the big guy walks over and stops Sasha. "You heard him, put the bot down."
"Pooh. Fine." the netrunner pouts and lets you go. "Socially stunted much, Anansi?"
"No, that's called not wanting to risk getting your really expensive bot fucked up." you huff through the mic, moving your spiderboy up to the very top of the container. "Do you have any idea how expensive it is to get one of these? 2500 for the Naked version and 4000 for the Loaded one!"
"Aww c'mon Anansi, it was just a little love tap. You can't get mad over that." Sasha pouts.
"I can and I will. Just you watch." you huff. "Anyways, thanks again for the job well done team. You can take the truck and bring it back to Padre if you were told that."
"Nah, he'll have his guys handle it, I think." Maine shakes his head. "We'll be gettin' out of your head now, Anansi. Feel free to call us up if you need another job done or something."
"Will do!" you give him and his crew a wave as they walk away, and you watch him go as the sun dawns on a new day in NC. "Ahh, a mutually beneficial business transaction. How nice."
(prerequisites met; Automated Production action available, gained access to Fixers, -95,000 Money, unlocked new Science Actions, unlocked new Personal Actions)
You don't just head back to bed. As much as you wanted to, there was still work to be done to make sure your shit isn't up and stolen.
You rearrange the Spiderbots into a defensive formation, with some on the underside of the overpass to act as both security cameras and drop-down assassins in case anyone was stupid enough to try and steal your trailer.
It proved necessary when a bunch of gonks wandered in while you were in the process of rearranging your spiderbots. One of them saw the trailer and went in to check its internals, telling his buddies about how it would make for a nice hideout.
Their bodies would be brought to a body bank later that day.
All in all, it took only a few hours and you leave your workstation with the knowledge that your stuff would be safe from theft.
You reemerge from your little nook to find Peni the living room, sitting on your couch-bed with her nose in a data-slate. You snort and shamble over, sitting down on the floor.
"Off. I want to sleep." you grunt.
"The floor's carpeted. You can sleep there just fine." she tells you.
"Then at least gimme my pillow-- you're already hogging my bed."
"I would've been just fine with this thing here, y'know?" she turns to you and bounces once on the couch-bed. "You didn't have to give me your bed, this would've been just fine."
"I was raised to treat girls nicely." you pause. "Well, as long as they warranted the nice treatment. Otherwise, I was told to smack her and move along with my life."
"Y-You were taught to hit girls?!" Peni gawks.
"My Aunt May was a firecracker. Don't blame me for following her teachings." you shrug. "Now, pillow?"
Peni huffs and lobs the fluffy thing into your face. With a happy sound, you hug it close and flop to the floor.
You settle on your back while Peni rests her feet on your abdomen, neither of you finding it in you to do much else.
You were tired, and Peni… had nothing else to do right now besides browsing the dataslate and looking through various informational feeds on the 'Net. You don't blame her-- you spent the first three months with your nose in a 'slate, she's allowed to do the same.
By where you were looking up information and knowledge, Peni is…
..what is she doing, actually?
"So," you start. "Before we fuck around and find out with sending a spider mech onto the mean streets of NC, how much DO you know about this shithole? And everything about this Earth in general?"
"Well… I'm just looking up what I can find about this earth and Night City in general. There's a lot to process." Peni tells you. "But from what I understand, this is an alternate earth where things went wrong and got a little… messy."
"'Little' is an understatement." you snort. "New York got nuked, American fragmented, and only recently was there a war to reunite the various states-- and even then it didn't fully take."
"Oof. Yeah, that… that's not good." Peni winces. "You know, it's funny. With all the craziness going around, I thought there'd be at least some people who'd try and do the right thing."
"I'd assume there were, but then Corpo Death Squads and various gangs decided they didn't like that." you wince. "There used to be posergangs that looked like clowns and vigilantes, y'know? They… didn't last long."
"Damn…" Peni sighs. "Well… I guess that means someone has to step up to the plate, then."
"Are you seriously still going to go out and do your superhero stuff?" you ask. "Really, Peni?"
"I did it back home. I don't see how I can't do it here." she huffs. "If anything, I should be mad at you more! You have all this science and tech laying around-- you could've done something!"
"A 16 year old with a gun isn't going to last long in a city like NC." you snort. "And I am making a change. It's just slower to take effect."
"Right, sure." she snorts.
"It's not like mechsuits are readily available-- and even if they are it's not easy to stash away." you tell her. "Yours is marginally easier to hide since it's pretty maneuverable and hella flexible. Also, it's pretty quiet for a mechsuit."
"You're just compliment yourself since you built it!" Peni accuses you, looking mad and pouting cutely.
"Using schematics I pieced together through various system reports in the CPU we recovered. So technically, I built it following the specs I found-- so it's still your suit." you argue. "Ugh, we're getting off track. Like I said, I couldn't just go out and start beating up gonks and gangers-- that's dangerous and I don't have the mechsuit to do it properly."
"Well, you can make one can't you?" Peni asks. "You can start now."
"What is it with you and dragging people into potentially dangerous situations?" you sigh. "At least lemme… Oh, right! Have you seen these chems I've tested out?"
Peni puts down the 'slate and leans over the couch-bed, looking at you pointedly.
"…you made drugs." she says.
"They're combat stims, not drugs." you roll your eyes. "They enter the body and induce an effect-- in this case it's combat performance."
"…so drugs." Peni makes a face. "God, I'm living with a drug dealer now…"
"They're combat enhancers, not drugs!" you protest. "And they work great! I just need to field test them now!"
"Not it." she shakes her head. "Not in a million years, no. Aunt May would skin me alive if I even touch drugs, let alone use it."
"It's not-- drugs and combat enhancers are different!" you protest. "They don't have the feel-good chems in them or cause addiction! They literally just make your body stronger and that's it! I went through a lot of work to make sure they aren't addictive, y'know!"
"Still drugs." Peni shrugs. You groan. "Really Pete, your adoptive parents would be so disappointed if they know what you're doing now."
"…yeah, they probably would." you sigh. "My Uncle Ben would understand though-- he wouldn't like it, but it's not like I had much of a choice."
"Yeah, he… mind would probably ask for a sample to study and use." Peni giggles. "He's a big nerd like that. But he means well, and he wouldn't do anything bad with it if he could help it."
Both of you laugh at the image of your respective Uncle Bens finding out about your science experiments. It's funny how similar they are in some respects, yet different in others. Its as though they were the same person but tweaked just a little bit different to account for changes.
…
…
…
"Shot in the dark. But are we..." you sit up and look at Peni. "Are we each others' alternate universe selves?"
Peni blinks at you.
"Same last name is one thing-- Parker is a pretty common one eve here." you say. "But then there's the same initials, we both have an Aunt May and an Uncle Ben, AND a spider-theme going on, even though I'm not a hero like you... Just to check, when's your birthday?"
"O-October…" Peni swallows. "And… And I'm a Libra."
"…I don't know what my zodiac is, but my birthday's in October too." you nod. "And you're a New Yorker too?"
"Yeah. Queens." she nods, now looking a little… shocked. "Whoa… So, we're copies of each other?"
"With a few changes, apparently." you nod. "This is… quite something. Oh yeah, friends! Do you know anyone named Gwen, Harry, a bully named Flash?"
"I… I don't a lot of friends. Never saw the need to talk or socialize any more than I have to." Peni fidgets. "But I know a 'Brock', if that helps?"
"Brock…. nah, don't know anyone with that name." you shake your head. "So you're a little bit on the quiet side, then? Somewhat anti-social?"
She kicks you lightly.