The Talk

What's good y'all?

Back again with another chapter.

Adjusted the uploaded schedule again. 7:00am for PST USA and 10pm for China.

Enjoy!

-+=[BoG]=+-

As he moved to a different train car, his thoughts ventured back to Lucy.

'Maybe I can call her up on the holo for some training in netrunning?' That sounded like a good idea, but first, he'd have to try and milk the training shard for all that it's worth. At least up to level 5 would be good.

After Lucy got off at Congress & MLK, his stop was now next, Wollesen Street. It's about as close to his own metro as it is to Gloria's Megabuilding.

The NCART stopped as he made his way out.

Arroyo, Santo Domingo. He took the elevator down and the megabuilding was right there.

He knew from his memory exactly where it was. He took a final drag and flicked it on the ground.

As he walked, he thought about his first kill in either life, and he wasn't bothered by it. Should that be worrying? Probably, but this is a different world with far lower moral standards if they even exist in the first place. Best to change with the times and not think about it. He doesn't feel anything from it? Great! Move on.

That's his view about it anyway.

John makes his way up to the building and rides the elevator checking the time.

12:20 pm. Noticing it's been about an hour he took the last two puffs before stashing it in his inventory.

To be honest, waiting for the metro took longer than actually riding it. It was about 15 minutes of waiting for both Line E and Line A, plus the walking...the public transportation is quite quick.

The problem was that he was too early.

What could he do in the meantime?

His train of thought ended as the elevator stopped and opened.

The man wanted to laugh at what he saw.

2nd Amendment.

'What are the chances.' John shook his head before going inside.

He smiled as he looked to his left.

There was a gun range but the problem was that he was going to have to start spending money for practice ammo. 

That was going to suck, but as he imagined getting +100s instead of +50s his resolve hardened.

Gotta spend money to make money as they say.

The vendor saw him. "What can I get you?" The man asked.

"How much for using the gun range?" John asked.

"25 eddies an hour." He responded.

"Got it." The straw hat-wearing man sent over the money and headed back into the range.

This will technically be the second time he shot a gun in real life. The mugger being his first which is pretty hilarious to think about. His first outing into the city of dreams and he already had to kill someone.

There was a slot open and he dropped his bag in front of him and opened it, pretending to pull out a gun while taking the Saratoga out of his inventory. Never know where there are cameras.

He can see much more precisely thanks to his cyberoptics, but he suddenly got an idea.

'Turn on peripheral visual notifications.'

Confirmed

Now he can see his XP going up without the noise and not in his direct line of sight.

With the gun already loaded, he started firing.

It had been about five minutes before he got one.

Submachine Guns +100

Damn, that was nice, but that caused him to be introspective.

'This kind of training in the shard doesn't work anymore, so how'd I get XP that fast and with a simple target?' He had some suspicions as while the training shard simulated pain, soreness, and the like, but not truly. Now, though? His body was feeling the impact for the first time and all his knowledge and muscle memory put to actual use.

He also never felt actual soreness or aftereffects except for mental fatigue.

'I doubt it will last.' John would naturally take advantage. He had already used 100 rounds, so that's 100 eddies down the drain.

The Saratoga was a full-auto and he only had five mags. It took him a few minutes to put bullets back into the mag.

He started shooting again.

After another hundred rounds, he started feeling more and more comfortable. He felt the soreness in his shoulder and arms, but it felt nice.

He went back to the vendor and bought another 200 rounds packing them up in his duffel bag.

Going back to shoot once more, he took a few minutes to load everything up and fired some more.

Once again, he used up everything and called it quits especially since he got another notification.

Submachine Guns +100

Buying 200 rounds once again, he stashed everything and left.

It was now 12:55 so he went over to Gloria's.

Unlike the makeshift gym area, there were more vendors and one caught his eye.

He made his way over.

"How much for these?" John pointed at an item.

"50 eddies." She answered.

He sent over the money and took it.

Now he had some red aviator glasses and put them on.

Walking for a bit, he followed his memory and kept going straight before turning right up the stairs.

Going down a hallway, he saw the door at the end and was standing right out of it.

'So how should I play this?' He pondered about putting the Kyubi away in his back that was currently slung over his shoulder but decided against it.

Gotta show her he means business and is prepared for life on the edge, but any idea can carry a gun. Look at the mugger who tried to rob him.

There is also something that he has to prepare for.

The last time they saw each other, he had much shorter hair and no beard along with being a foot and a quarter shorter(38.1cm). Now this should be interesting. He had an idea.

He banged on the door before turning around. 

-+=[BoG]=+-

"C'mon, Glo'! Can't you tell us a little more about him? Is he cute?" Rebecca was hanging off her pleading.

Maine grabbed her off him.

"Chill, Becca. We're only here to set things straight 'bout our line of work." Main chastised.

"Tch. You're no fun." She sat back down on the couch.

"You'll find out about the little guy soon, Becca." Pilar laughed. He thought it'd be some wimpy guy. No disrespect to Gloria, but he didn't think his nephew, who only really worked at a restaurant was cut out for the life.

"I don't need you to tell me that!" Becca felt the urge of violence but calmed down realizing where she was.

Gloria was seriously questioning her own choices. Maybe she should've handled this herself.

Sasha and Dorio were conversing amongst themselves before they heard pounding at the door.

It was dead silent.

"That must be him." Gloria smiled and headed to the door to open it.

She opened the door and saw the back of a huge man with a duffel bag.

Stepping back in confusion, "Who are you?"

The whole room pulled out iron aiming at the door.

-+=[BoG]=+-

"Hey, auntie." He turned around and removed his glasses tucking them into his shirt.

She recognized the voice.

"John?!" Gloria gasped.

"Yeah," He was surprised to see Maine's crew sitting on the sofa and his lip twitched in amusement. "You tryin' to set me up or something?"

He saw Maine, Rebecca, Dorio, Pilar, and...is that Sasha? The cat girl. Interesting.

Her face reddened in embarrassment.

"No! I just...they're...my chooms. I called them to talk to you about your...decision." She didn't like admitting she had ties to mercs, but she did what she had to in order to pay the bills.

It was now that she noticed the assault rifle hanging from his stomach.

¡Mierda, John!/Fuck, John! When'd you get that?!" Gloria was appalled.

The others couldn't see his face but didn't interrupt.

He laughed, "I can explain out here or inside."

"Oh right, come in." Gloria collected herself standing aside.

John ducked down to enter and the rest saw him.

Pilar's face scrunched up as he recalled his previous words and luckily Rebecca had stars in her eyes to make fun of him for it.

Maine lowered his glasses with confusion. This was not how Gloria described him. Dorio and Sasha were also feeling the same way.

Rebecca?

She practically dashed right at him with surprising agility.

"Glo'! You didn't mention your nephew was a tall dark and handsome hunk. Is that a Kyubi?! Those are expensive! You got an output?" She nudged his stomach as she rambled off questions.

John was amused as she only went up to the top of his stomach, and that was the top of her head too, mind you.

Maine groaned and Pilar groaned at her antics while the other two just laughed.

Gloria looked mortified.

John turned towards his relative with a look that promised more suffering.

"Auntie, you already know how I feel about your matchmaking, but I have to say, I quite like this one." He grinned and it was the truth. Rebecca is a true ride-or-die. A friend everyone wanted by their side. Also, from his memories, Gloria constantly tried setting him up with his coworkers so he could have someone. It was a nice gesture that the previous him didn't want anything to do with. 

She would've done it to David too if the corpo babies didn't hate his guts for being a street rat.

After hearing that, Gloria wanted to crawl into a hole and die at being exposed as the crew laughed apart from Rebecca whose grin widened further.

Gloria waved her hands frantically to explain herself and Rebecca's behavior.

"N-No I–" She was interrupted.

"That's right! So? Interested? This all-natural?" Rebecca rubbed his stomach with a flirty smile.

"You want a closer look?" John naturally matched her freak. She was about to actually lift his shirt to find out.

"OKAY!" Gloria's face resembled a tomato and clapped loudly. "Maine, help?" She pleaded in a defeated voice.

Maine reigned himself in from the amusing scene before getting serious.

"Becca, you can bump uglies with the baby edgerunner on your own time." Maine raised his eyebrow at her and she pouted.

"FINE." She bemoaned before sitting back down next to her brother.

"Did you really have to do that in front of me, sis?" Pilar looked pained.

"Who asked you to watch?!" Becca snapped as he held his hands up in surrender.

Gloria grabbed John by the hand and sat down with him across from the edgerunners. He set the bag in front of his legs.

"Can you explain why you're so tall?" Gloria had an accusatory look on her face. When they last got together for David's acceptance celebration, he was only a few inches taller than her, and she was 5'9"(175.26cm).

John shrugged his shoulders. "Growth spurt, I guess." He guessed that she was accusing him of excessive implanting.

Maine didn't look convinced. He wasn't told much but he and his crew were told about the gathering a few years ago. "Sasha?"

Her eyes glowed as she checked his systems. "His only implants are Kiroshis and...oh and a Tetratronic Rippler Mk. 3. Quite extravagant for a restaurant worker." However, what she saw next caused her eyebrows to raise in surprise.

"What, Sasha?" Dorio asked as the rest of the crew focused on her.

"He has Lucy's contact." Sasha didn't know what to make of it. She knew Lucy's temperament very well. The netrunner wasn't on the crew, but she saw her with Kiwi and knew she was her protege. Even met a couple of times.

The rest of the crew knew that as well. Hell, even Gloria did as they all looked at him.

"Well?" Maine expected an answer.

John shrugged his shoulders.

"Met her on the metro sat next to me, kept giving me weird looks, and killed a dude. Asked who I was and then gave me her contact. What of it?"

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Gloria shouted as he cleaned out his ear with his pinky.

"Rando tried robbing me, what was I supposed to do?" He responded as Gloria deflated and sighed.

The crew didn't flinch at the admission. Night City was like that. They just wanted clarification on the weird coincidence and since it was explained, they moved on. It's not like they can't call and find out from Lucy herself.

"My turn! What's in the bag?" Rebecca looked excited. They were also curious since it seemed to be full of stuff and to the experienced edgerunners, weapons were the most likely answer from the sound. Gloria was also anxious as she suspected it too.

John leaned over and unzipped the bag. Gloria gasped in horror as only she could see it from their side of the table.

He also wanted to flex a little even if it meant nothing to the crew. Secretly depositing the guns from his inventory, he started pulling out the weapons.

Maine's crew all raised their eyebrows at the arsenal from the newbie, apart from Rebecca of course.

She had a giddy expression as she jumped off the couch to look closer.

"An Ajax, Crusher, and Saratoga! We gotta shoot some of these sometime. It'll be a date!" Rebecca smiled at him hoping he'd accept.

Before John could respond, Maine picked her up like a cat and set her back on the couch.

"Did you forget what we came here to do?" Maine sternly reminded her as he looked at Gloria who looked like she was on the verge of tears. Rebecca seeing this stopped herself from retorting. "That's quite the collection. What do you plan on doing with it?"

John knew what he really meant. Just because you have a lot of guns, what can you do with them? Everyone had guns.

"Practice shooting and whatnot. These are just different options. Haven't shown my pride and joy yet." John smiled.

Maine raised an eyebrow, but could at least respect that he wasn't going to be an idiot and think he could take on the city just because he had some iron.

They all looked curious and that's when he pulled out the last gun.

His Malorian. Their eyes all widen. The prices for a Malorian are even more steep than the Kyubi. Gloria, despite not liking what she saw, couldn't help but be taken aback by the sight.

Rebecca practically launched herself at John as she landed in his lap. "A Malorian, choom! You have to let me shoot it! Please please please!" 

Even John couldn't expect this extreme reaction. She looked like she was genuinely in pain and desperate to fire it.

She seemed to be quite knowledgeable so he decided to have some fun with it. A hot shorty was in his lap, who could blame him? 

He leaned forward a bit.

"Not just any Malorian, but a Malorian Arms from the 3516 series." John clarified.

Her face blanked at the information and then stared at him with hunger.

"Fuck, John. You know how to get a girl's pussy wet." Rebecca started grinding on him. It was a great feeling.

"REBECCA!" Gloria has had enough and tried yanking her off. Both Sasha and Pilar were also trying but she has an iron grip digging into John's back. She had to try the Malorian from that legendary series or she'd die with regret.

"I'm not just big in stature, Becca. I'll ruin you." John smiled before cupping her cheek and running a thumb down her face.

Her whole body felt on fire at those words as her heart fluttered and before she could respond, Maine yanked her off with an annoyed expression.

"Do that again and you can go home." Maine glared at her.

"Yes, boss." Rebecca giggled as she held the same cheek and sent her contact info to John.

Pilar looked like he wanted to throw up and was audibly gagging. Gloria wasn't far behind him and just glared at her nephew.

The accused just looked at her with a 'what did I do?' expression.

"Enough games. Kid, do you even understand what life you're gettin' into? There's no goin' back." He looked right in his eyes testing his resolve.

John just smiled.

"Naturally, a stray bullet could kill me anyway if I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'd much rather carve out my own path. To be remembered." John looked right back at him.

"You would be leavin' your family behind for glory if you die. Most don't make it and end up as another body on the street." Maine countered.

"And any one of you could as well. That's the nature of the biz. Want me to forget about it and try for a happy ending? Sorry, wrong city, wrong people." His ambition would be nearly impossible, but go big or go home. Or in this case, go big or die. That was the reality of his situation.

Gloria was audibly crying now and Maine could tell that he would not back off.

John pulled her in for a hug.

"Sorry, Auntie, but this is something that I have to do." John softly smiled.

She didn't fight it anymore and knew he made his mind up.

"And what is it that you want to do?" Dorio asked leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.

John had a maniacal grin on his face as he held onto his hat.

"To destroy every megacorp in this world." He calmly stated as if what he said wasn't a big deal.

Maine's eyes sharpened while Dorio sneered before leaning back thinking he was a lunatic along with Pilar. Even Becca wasn't immune and while she thought it was crazy, she blushed for the first time.

The only one who smiled was Sasha, while she wanted to destroy a certain megacorp, she knew it was impossible and settled on exposing them instead.

"You're fucking crazy, choomba." Pilar scratched his hair.

"Why?! It's not enough that you want to be an edgerunner, but you also want to tear down the corps?! What the fuck, John?!" Gloria was seething with rage.

"It is because of them that the world is like this. What other reason do I need?" John wasn't bothered by her disapproval. He had expected it. Even if he went in-depth into the suffering they cause, would that change anything? Doubtful.

Gloria just blanked as her heart was torn apart.

"Just go, John, and don't come back." She was holding back tears as her eyes were red with strain, but she couldn't let his insane delusions affect David. She would die before his chances of having a better life were ruined by association.

John wished he had a cigarette as he exhaled deeply. He should've known Gloria's tolerance wasn't infinite especially when it affects David.

Memories poured in from before David was accepted into Arasaka Academy. They came over every once in a while while he played with his cousin in their youth. Gloria's always fretting and mothering him like he was her own child. Of her trying to teach him Spanish and comforting him when he'd ask about his parents when the caretaker wouldn't say. She was the mother his previous self never had.

He packed his things up quietly forgetting to put certain guns in his inventory and stood up. None of the crew met his eyes, not even Rebecca.

As he was walking back, he felt compelled by his memories tugging at him. 

John looked back as he was at the door, "Goodbye, Mamá. See you in the next life." With that, he walked out as the door shut behind him.

Gloria wept.

The edgerunners moved to sit with her in silence.

-+=[BoG]=+-

And with that, a bridge burned.

I'm fucking depressed after writing that.

See you in the next one.